Han and Leia: Cool, canon couple, fair enough.

Luke: Is there even another named female character in the movies? I think you're down to "Boba Fett pulls a Samus", or a random Twi'lek dancer.

Chewbacca: Funny mostly because it's inevitably going to be a Lady Wookie and they will have to make very sure you know she's a Lady Wookie and Chewbacca is straight through bizarre sexual dimorphism. Which is gonna get weird given that Chewbacca's costume is like one step up from Cookie Monster.

C-3PO: Unexplained gold robot but WITH TITS.

R2-D2: I'm just picturing a swarm of squealing trashcans about the size of soda cans and this is cracking me up.

If your chest is really big, you're only going to see yourself in gag characters. It stops being sexy and starts being a joke.

Especially if you're a guy, GNC, older than 30, fat, or otherwise don't fit into "hot girl" stereotypes.

Gag Boobs are a trope for a reason, after all.

Being sexualized against your will is also shitty, and this does not take away from other folks' frustration! That is also valid; there was a point in my life when I also got a lot of unwanted attention and it really sucked. It was a huge relief to cut my hair short and become potato-shaped, and stop being stalked.

But ngl, the only character I can think of who looks like me is Meat Loaf in Fight Club, and that character is 90% boob joke.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/05/what_state_prisoners_get_to_wo.html

This is officially public data now, so I can share the most fucked up thing I’ve seen in a year of government bureaucracy.

A lot of the folks fighting wildfires in California are convicts. It’s perfectly legal to coerce or force convicts to work in this state, so this backbreaking, dangerous, health-destroying work is… not being freely chosen.

(Here’s the failed constitutional amendment from 2024 which would have prohibited forced labor. https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_6,_Remove_Involuntary_Servitude_as_Punishment_for_Crime_Amendment_(2024) )

Last year, the legislature passed a bill which will increase these convicts’ pay - while actively fighting fires - from $1.00/hour to $7.25/hour.

This is such a crying, unexpected emergency that the Department of Corrections had to go to the legislature, hat in hand, to ask for money. Not to pay the wages - to pay for IT infrastructure, because no convict worker has ever made enough money for the IRS to bother taxing them.

No convict has ever made enough for the IRS to bother with. That agency famous for letting things slide. Obviously.

(Here’s the link to the PDF. It’s a PDF, fair warning. https://bcp.dof.ca.gov/2627/FY2627_ORG5225_BCP9101.pdf )

All our firefighters are underpaid and underprotected. But people are being forced into work that will give them cancer and destroy their lungs, for less than half of minimum wage - and less than half of minimum wage is such a drastic improvement that it’s breaking the bureaucracy.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/05/what_state_prisoners_get_to_wo.html

This is officially public data now, so I can share the most fucked up thing I've seen in a year of government bureaucracy.

A lot of the folks fighting wildfires in California are convicts. It's perfectly legal to coerce or force convicts to work in this state, so this backbreaking, dangerous, health-destroying work is... not being freely chosen.

(Here's the failed constitutional amendment from 2024 which would have prohibited forced labor. https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_6,_Remove_Involuntary_Servitude_as_Punishment_for_Crime_Amendment_(2024) )

Last year, the legislature passed a bill which will increase these convicts' pay - while actively fighting fires - from $1.00/hour to $7.25/hour.

This is such a crying, unexpected emergency that the Department of Corrections had to go to the legislature, hat in hand, to ask for money. Not to pay the wages - to pay for IT infrastructure, because no convict worker has ever made enough money for the IRS to bother taxing them.

No convict has ever made enough for the IRS to bother with. That agency famous for letting things slide. Obviously.

(Here's the link to the PDF. It's a PDF, fair warning. https://bcp.dof.ca.gov/2627/FY2627_ORG5225_BCP9101.pdf )

All our firefighters are underpaid and underprotected. But people are being forced into work that will give them cancer and destroy their lungs, for less than half of minimum wage - and less than half of minimum wage is such a drastic improvement that it's breaking the bureaucracy.

We literally do not have enough friendships. Our culture's obsession with romance over friendship is shockingly new (1850's on) and it is having a serious impact on our health across the board, specifically men. This problem has become sharply exacerbated in the last 20 years.

We need more friendships. We need more friendship in media. "But what if they kissed?" What if they didn't, and the love that was there mattered anyway??? Take my hand. Imagine this with me. A relationship unbound by law or expectation. People who choose one another again and again. To stay in each other's lives when there are no societal tethers holding them together.

What about gentle forehead kisses and cheek kisses.

What about courtly hand-kissing to say "we may have socially prescribed roles, but my affection for you is not simply a matter of duty; I would choose this no matter the social expectations."

What about smooching the top of your cat's head because they are just so cute and so beloved that it must be expressed through physical affection.

Because honestly like, I think the framing of all physical contact and affection as obviously romantic is also a reflection of how we prioritize romance over friendship, and it's kind of a microcosm that shows how true OP's point is.

People are social animals! Touch is a part of how we express our relationships! The fact that our society says you may only touch one person, and that must be specifically the person you're having sex with... That's fucked up.

That leads to a lot of lonely people, and I wish more friends and family felt able to be physically and emotionally close without censure or fear of being misunderstood. So often, society treats friendship as simply a prelude to romance, and anyone who wants non-romantic relationships is a slut or a fool or leading a man on.

That's just regular beauty standards. Most people would like to fit their society's beauty standards.

My cis bro was more than a little heartbroken that he grew up to be 6'5", stocky, and bald, rather than looking like a kpop star. Every cis dude I know who goes bald has some serious feelings about it.

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