I Was A Lapis Lazuli Pigment Lump In A Past Life

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From Book V of Homer's Iliad. Upon being grievously wounded by the Achaean warrior Diomedes, the hero Aeneas is saved through divine intervention from his mother, the goddess Aphrodite. 

This is the most beautiful scientific diagram I've ever seen.

Filippo Palizzi (Italian painter 1818–1899)

Excavations in Pompeii, 1870

Oil on Canvas

119.5 × 86 cm.

"is this person being annoying to you or are you just feeling annoyed?"

sometimes people do go out of their way to annoy you and that requires a different response! but a lot of the time we attribute maliciousness or ignorance to someone when we are simply feeling annoyed as a response to something that has nothing to do with us. maybe they're just enjoying something in a way we don't personally like, or maybe they're having a bad day, or maybe they have habits or personality quirks that rub us the wrong way-- and they aren't thinking about how it impacts us at all! and in many situations, they shouldn't have to! it's not a person's job to make sure they never do anything that could be perceived as annoying to anyone else.

and learning to tolerate feeling annoyed is crucial. de-escalating your own sensation of annoyance and refusing to treat it as harm/discomfort is an important step in getting along with other people and guarding your perception of your own acceptance and belonging. many people on tumblr express social anxiety-- and i gotta tell you, if you keep legitimizing your own annoyance all the time as a serious problem (instead of a small thing to vent to a friend about/get over/ignore), then you are also going to end up fearing that you are frequently annoying to other people! that which you see CONSTANTLY as a problem in other people you will increasingly worry about in yourself.

This part. This is the part I’m talking about

This is not a woman falling to pieces because her father won’t let her marry a man she just met.

This is a woman born to a life she has very little say in. She has never had a genuine friend (besides a tiger). She is facing a marriage to a man she doesn’t know and doesn’t like but duty (and the law) demands it. So she took a risk, ran away, ran to a world she doesn’t know or understand and when she landed in trouble (serious, serious trouble) a stranger came to her aid. She finally (finally!) made a real connection with someone but they didn’t get much time together before the guards showed up and she had to reveal who she was.

This moment when she’s crying her heart out? It comes after she’s been told that the first person she ever connected with, the first person to be genuinely interested in her for who she is and not what she is, the first real friend she has ever made, was executed… because of her.

Crying is normal. Even if it's over something trivial. We all face a lot of struggles in their lives, whether we acknowledge it or not. Something minor might end up breaking the camel's back.

Anyway, here's one of my favorite scenes in Beauty and the Beast:

Really, none of the classic princesses deserve the misinterpretation.

Cinderella?

Again, this is not after someone told her “yOu CaN’t MaRrY a MaN yOu JuSt MeT”—this is after she went to great lengths to get ready for the ball, adhering to the intentionally difficult (meant to be impossible) stipulations set by her abusive step-mother for her to be allowed to attend (when really she was invited and had as much right as the others to attend). She made that dress (I can’t recall off the top of my head if the classic animated version was also her mother’s old dress she restyled or not but still, she put in a ton of work on top of all the extra house work) and what did her step-family do? They tore to shreds while she was wearing it. Of course she’s lost hope: it’s the final straw after years and years of doggedly remaining optimistic despite constant harsh treatment.

Let’s go to another favourite: Mulan.

Mulan’s just had the worst day.

She tried her hardest to live up to her family’s and her society’s expectations and vision of a perfect bride but she failed. Not only did it go wrong, but she was publicly humiliated by the Matchmaker—by extension, humiliating her family.

Granted, her family has been kind and sympathetic about the whole thing. Her father even goes to encourage her, assuring her of his unconditional love for her and his confidence that she’ll get it right next time.

She’s just beginning to smile when the drums pound and news of war reaches their village. Her father—her beloved father who’s already a veteran and lives with a disability—is expected as the only male in their family to suit up and head out in the morning.

Mulan can’t help. Nothing she says will be listened to and she can’t take his place (until, of course, she thinks of a way to do so which this moment of crying it out in the rain leads to—score one for having a good cry and clearing your head).

There’s of course more. Take any princess’ dramatic crying momentTM and review the context and I’ll bet you’ll see it’s never as trivial as some have framed it. And, yes, like prev pointed out, it’s this awful thing of people believing boys can’t cry and girls can but then they can never be taken seriously.