As I Please

huh...

well all of us now:

-Caroline Ouellette and Julie Chu (both former captains)

-Gillian Apps (former alternate captain) and Meghan Duggan (former captain)

-Jayna Hefford (former alternate captain) and Kathleen Kauth

Some people, however, are being fired for creating a hostile work environment, which is markedly different. Pedro Pascale’s sister, Lux, is trans model/actress. Jon Favreau (Writer) and Taika Waititi (Director/Actor) are both Jewish (and Taika is Māori, as well). If you constantly say transphobic and antisemitic shit all the time, that’s going to make your workplace pretty hostile to your trans and Jewish colleagues (or colleagues with trans or Jewish family members whose humanity you’re downplaying). Taika just released a Holocaust-related movie last year about tackling right-wing Nazi propaganda—do you really think he feels super comfortable working with somebody who says being asked not spew right-wing, Nazi-ish propaganda is the same as the Holocaust? FUCK NO. Do you think Pedro feels comfortable working with somebody who doesn’t believe his sister deserves full human rights? DOUBT IT. And this is just the stuff she’s said on social media. For all we know, she’s said much worse on set, and this is just the final straw. 

Nobody can fire you for exercising your right to vote, but if you tell your minority colleagues they’re not deserving of rights and use their traumas to victimise yourself, then that’s creating a hostile workspace and nobody has to put up with that shit. 

The movie is captivating, but the book is twenty kinds of terrifying, even now, ten years after I first read it. As disturbing as the movie may have been to some, the things Selick added really serve to cushion just how horrific the story really is.

First of all, the character of Wybie does not exist in the book. Coraline is facing all of this nearly alone, with her only help coming from the sly comments of the cat, a warning from the circus mice, and the stone given to her by her neighbor, presented with no comment but that it “makes the unseen seen.”

Second, the Other Parents are never quite as warm (and, dare I say, normal) as they are in the gifs above. They’re described as having paper-white skin and the Other Mother’s hair is said to move on its own, and her long, red, claw-like nails don’t ease any uncertainty that she is absolutely, positively up to no good. The first time Coraline meets them, they (and the rest of the Others) seem to be playing roles (for whatever reason, Coraline does not seem to pick up on this), like they all know what to say and what to do and are simply waiting for Coraline to make her move in their terrifying play world. This is shown to be partly true when the Other Parents tell her they know she’ll be back soon after she refuses the buttons - this time, to stay.

Third, the Other Mother commits atrocities that really should not have been in a book for anyone not fully grown up. She physically deforms the world around Coraline to slow her progress in their game beyond any mild traps the movie portrays, and, instead of turning the Other Father into the wandering pumpkin-thing seen in the film, she simply ceases to use him and throws his body away in the cellar, leaving him to rot with whatever bit of sentience he has left. She begins to lose her touch, as Coraline gains the upper hand. Her world doesn’t just become a nightmare - it falls apart completely. No creepy but oddly cool bug furniture here, just the house that now appears to be a child’s drawing. Whatever the Other Mother is (a beldame, but something tells me she’s much more ancient and powerful than that), she does not give half a hump about what she has to do to ensnare Coraline. Destroy the supporting characters of her twisted creation? Done. Allow herself to be dismembered to ruin Coraline’s life in the normal world? Not even gonna bat an eyelash.

On a final, personal note, imagine eight year-old me, ignored by my parents, absorbed in the story and identifying with Coraline from the start. Imagine me finishing this bloodcurdling book and immediately thinking of my basement, where there is still a locked door that my grandmother swears up and down is nothing more than a storage room, but has not once in my (or my mother’s) lifetime unlocked.

A decade later, at the Opening Night of the Coraline musical, I was sitting next to Morgan, Merilee’s youngest daughter, and told her how her not being scared had made the book happen. And she said “I was terrified. But I needed to find out what happened next. So nobody knew.”

Supercorp Big Bang 2020!!!

A scene from @justmickeyfornow ‘s hilarious fic “Remembrance,” starring an amnesiac Supergirl!

You can read it on AO3! When you click that, you’ll also see the artwork linked to it on AO3! :D Enjoy!!!

——

AND the series is smart and funny and very watchable for all ages—i tend to not really watch new shows aimed at a younger audience, but i watched all of season 1 in one day. it’s rated at 100% on rotten tomatoes right now, and that rating is well deserved.

real body shape, not unnecessary sexy elements to her outfit, murder strut, power stare. (not to mention there’s clearly many other women in the background behind her!)

Also, the way she’s holding the batons as opposed to the way she’s holding the guns. It looks like she’s about to drop the guns, her wrists are towards the camera, a more vulnerable position as well, while the batons look like actual weapons, gripped tightly, obviously intended for use, and her wrists are pointed inwards/backwards, a far less vulnerable and open position.

Like, this is “good” vs “bad” technique:

There is still some waviness to that green line.