Whacked in the Stacks

This is Tugboat the Pug. Which is pretty much the greatest pug name there ever was.

Tugboat can’t see, but is a very good girl. These are her adoption photos. 

Unfortunately Tugboat’s blindness meant she didn’t always know which way to look, but I think that adds to her charm. 

A very nice person saw this charm and adopted Tugboat. Thanks, nice person!

and they got the cast together again 

AND I’M NOT OKAY 

I JUST 

I have been from the very first episode. I could make a bullet point list of the reasons for that - and it would be a long list. I might get to it one day, but not tonight. At the heart of it, I’m protective of Betty because I see myself (as a teenager and an adult) in her character. I understand her unhealthy coping mechanisms. I understand the weight a parent’s expectation of you can have. I understand how she cares so much for everyone and everything, all the time. How that happens many times in detriment of her own mental health. I understand when she hurts the people she loves - sometimes out of an instinct to protect them, sometimes because she is simply blinded by her tunnel vision. I understand her anxiety. 

I also understand Betty is a flawed character and that she makes mistakes. It would not be a realistic portrayal of a teenager if she didn’t. So, even when I can’t picture myself making the same choices she does, I stand by her. 

I want Betty Cooper to be happy. I want Riverdale’s writers to do her justice. And tonight, they didn’t. 

Now, this is not about her relationship with Jughead. I ship it. I believe in it. I’m endlessly frustrated about them breaking up yet again - but I’m not talking about that. 

I’m talking about the writers’ choice to have Betty Cooper pole dance in a bar full of older men leering at her. 

I’ve seen people in my timeline comparing this scene with the one Blair had on Gossip Girl. I believe Riverdale’s version of it was worse. Because they had Betty stripping to her lingerie. Because, if I’m not mistaken, Betty is younger than Blair was, if not by much. Because of the song they picked for the soundtrack. Both scenes were, however, fundamentally wrong. Blair was underage when she danced for Chuck in that cabaret. Betty was underage in the scene depicted tonight. To the people at the CW: it’s bad enough that it happened once, why would you do this again? It’s not edgy.

It’s.

Not. 

Sexy.

And it’s also not about Jughead’s face of how he felt watching it. When Betty asks him if he is pushing her away because of her option to do the dance, I’m glad his answer is no. However, he still breaks them up because he “doesn’t want her to be a part of it” - and that is what the writers want us to focus on. The dance is just another prop, and it shouldn't have been. 

I was proud of Toni and her “misogyny dies hard” speech, but was the whole thing really necessary? Did Toni have to go though it too? If so, was she even younger? Even if she didn’t, even if this is something only non-member partners of  Serpents have to do, why does the ritual associated with women have to be sexualized in such a twisted way? And why couldn’t Betty and Toni have found a middle ground? 

They are fifteen years old. 

Riverdale did Betty Cooper a world of wrong tonight. This scene was not what we were teased or promised. It was not “Betty exploring her sexuality”. It was unhealthy and all around bad. And yet again a misplaced sexualization of “dark Betty” and her mental health issues. 

…

Alright. I’m done. I’m not even sure this made any sense, I just had to get this toxic frustration out of me. 

Here it is: Best stuff first

Extremely handy if you follow a lot of people and hate missing anything good. 

Best Stuff First moves the best stuff on your dashboard—mhm!—right up to the top. 

It’s rolling out this week on iOS and Android, and comes with this Help Center article.  

This bullshit is being rolled out this week and it’s going to be default!

• Wrote about female sexuality and how women should enjoy themselves in the 60’s and 70’s

• Hired female photographers when magazines like Vogue still didn’t

• Openly accepted gay sexuality even when he was young

• Helped Betty Page get the rights to her image in the 90’s when she was poor and elderly and people were making money off of her without her knowledge

• Had his ex wife and kids live next door so he could still see them a help raise them

• All playboy playmates were allowed to use the facilities at the Playboy Mansion for the rest of their lives, it wasn’t just a place for the newest young girls

• Didn’t use his fame and image to force girls to be with him or assault them. He would formally ask girls to live with him and be his girlfriend, and they were all over 18.

If you don’t like him that’s fine, but he wasn’t some sexual predator-he did what wanted openly and was honest about it.