take my revolution

Typing this from Graphene now, in fact. But, both of those take the Android Open Source Project, without all the bloatware--and largely de-Google the whole thing. They give you much more control over privacy and what the apps you choose to install can do and access on your phone.

I know Graphene sandboxes everything, including the optionally installed Google Play Services which a lot of apps unfortunately require to run. (Lineage uses an alternative to Play Services instead.) So, you can install what would normally be unacceptably intrusive apps and just lock them away from pulling any funny shit with your data, or phoning home. Including the couple of Google things I do still keep around.

I also prefer running much more transparent, privacy-respecting open source apps where possible. Besides the transparency, I'd rather avoid the shitty tech corps entirely where I can. There are pretty good alternatives available for a lot of the usual suspects.

An alternative app store:

In contrast, at Touga's birthday party-- where Nanami, Nanami's cronies, Anthy, and even Utena-- are all wearing formal gowns, Juri is only in her student council uniform. At Nanami's jewelry party, she does wear a necklace specifically to upstage the piece Nanami is celebrating-- but she wears much more jewelry, in a much more ostentatious style, when she's with Miki in the privacy of the student council hangout. If out-showing Nanami was her primary goal, surely it would make more sense for her to go all out at the party. Instead, she wears one necklace--she has an excuse, it's to show up Nanami, she's just the trademark High School Mean Girl Pulling a Stunt, she can get away with one tiny trinket she actually wants to wear without it attracting the attention of men. If she wears a shirt that basically looks like an even plainer version of her student council uniform. If she wears pants exactly like the ones she wears every day, just in a different color. Not gender conforming enough to read as an invitation, not GNC enough to reveal herself by mistake.

She indulges herself with a grand entrance and a new, sparkly necklace at Nanami's party, but she makes a beeline for Miki the second it's over. If any boy saw the brief moment where she allowed herself to show off feeling beautiful and decided it meant he should possess her, maybe he'll assume she's already Miki's property & leave her be.

Juri doesn't change out of her ridiculously feminine, over-the-top nightgown when she goes wandering at night. We see her out roaming the campus in it twice, in two separate locations. There's no reason for her to do that, instead of putting her uniform back on to take her walk.

The moments where we see Juri in the nightgown are all moments where somebody is seeing Juri as her most unguarded, most authentic self-- the audience, Utena, Ruka.

The first time we, the audience, the voyeur, start to pay attention to her, she's immediately sexually harassed by a grown man, even in her student council uniform, even while talking about the student council. Of course she doesn't feel safe wearing anything eye-catching, when she's not even safe wearing something literally uniform with a bunch of boys. Of course her main sport is one that hides her face and her body and everyone looks the same. Of course the way she rebels is not by rejecting traditional symbols of girlhood, but piling them on to perceived excess in defiance. Of course. I can't fucking believe a piece of media actually understands what the hell a high femme lesbian** is, and how it's completely different than conforming to traditional femininity, and that the media in question is an animated series from 1997. Holy fuck.

**if you "well actually, a high femme lesbian is one who only receives during sex," I will send Chuchu to replace every item in your room with a copy of Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg.

There's something in Nanami's sambar...

23.09.2023 🥀 today's anthy!