every day I'm tumblin'

I went to dig panels up and I see what you mean! (TW for domestic abuse)

From Catwoman #81:

And then Harley recounts in Catwoman #89:

So back in the 1780′s when our country was still figuring crap out and ol’ George Washington was just elected president, G.W. decided to send a letter to Congress along the lines of ‘Looking forward to working with you all, this will be exciting!” Congress, not wanting to slight the president and also trying to express their own enthusiasm, sent back a letter along the lines of “Glad you’re excited, we are also looking forward to working with you!”

Then George sends another letter back saying something like “Cool cool bros, glad you’re just as excited as I am,” and Congress, again not wanting to be awkward or just ignore the PRESIDENT, sent back ANOTHER letter saying some dumb crap that was probably along the lines of “Glad you’re excited that we’re excited that you’re excited.”

Democracy at its finest.

And while this in itself is funny, that is not even the best part.

George Washington, while being powerful, was not extremely eloquent, and at this point was also aging, busy, and overall very stressed about his new position (which he did not want in the first place).  So he asked his old friend James Madison, who had a much better way with words, to write the first note to Congress.  Good old James Madison, wanting to oblige his friend, did just that and composed the note to Congress.  Now, J-Mads was himself a member of Congress, so when the note arrived, he was in session to hear “Washington’s” letter read.

Congress got nervous and worried about who could possibly compose a formal and acceptable letter back to Washington.  Who better than his old friend, James Madison?  So Jimmy, being obliging, wrote the response.  When Washington received the reply, he once again asked his friend to write the response.  

And who did Congress choose to write their final letter? That’s right….none other than Jimmy-James-Madison himself.

The Most Regal, Friendly and Fluffy Kitten In The World Is Named Aurora

Aurora is a unique and elegant cat with pristine snow white fur and sparkling blue eyes. 

so yesterday I find this TV adaptation of the Heartland book series, which I loved very very much when I was very very small but haven’t read in years. so I watch it. and I think it’s actually really well done overall? and I get why they made all of these changes.

but in the books, as well as I can remember, the main love interest is a fantastic example of alternate narratives of masculinity. he’s this sensitive guy who dropped out of high school to devote his life to natural training of horses who has a really awful relationship with his father because his father doesn’t think he’s enough of a man. and even though that sucks, he still stays true to who he is and whatnot.

and the scene from these books that I remember most vividly is this scene where Ty (said main love interest, the stable hand who is a man) and Joni (or is her name Jodi? or something completely differen? whatever, she’s the stable hand who is a woman) go to buy a new truck, and Ty’s all “well, I’ve got to go along, or she’ll just be like ‘ooh, pretty color’ and buy something completely useless.” so they go and buy a truck, and come back and are talking about it, and Jodi hears about this and is all “WELL, it’s a good thing I went, because he tried to get this other truck that had insufficient (important car thing), and (important car thing), and oh yeah (this other important car thing).” and they go to Ty and are like “dude, what’s your deal, was it at least a pretty color?” and he gets all embarrassed and goes “yeah, it was red.”

so the TV show takes Ty and introduces him as the new guy that no one has ever met who’s going to start working there to meet the terms of his probation, because he was in jail. which is different but fascinating, and (especially because his crime was not particularly performative of masculinity) doesn’t really go against who his character was in the books and is the kind of change I can get behind. 

but then his defining characteristics are being broody, beating people up when he’s mad at them, and knowing ALL THE THINGS about cars. and motorcycles. oh man, does he love motorcycles. there’s this scene where he rides a motorcycle with the protagonist’s arch nemesis and she gets jealous and sad, and he’s like “oh please, it’s a (some super awesome motorcycle. I don’t fucking know anything about motorcycles) riding it is like, my dream, how could I not?” (as I’m sniggering in the corner, because that thing was RED).

but what I mean with all this rambling is that I really like seeing men in fiction who are transgressive in regards to traditional narratives of masculinity. I don’t mind that things get changed in adaptations. but when I harp on specific things, I’m not really saying “how dare they change anything? everything needs to be exactly the way it was in the original.” that’s kind of bullshit. things have to change in adaptations. different forms of media require different kinds of scenes and storytelling. what I get upset over is something that I feel symbolizes something bigger that I care about. 

in this case, I’m upset that the TV producers felt the need to take a character defined by his lack of traditional masculine characteristics and redefine him with stereotypes of masculinity. changes exist for reasons. that’s why I like to try to defend them. but the reason for this change is that TPTB of the show thought Ty needed to be more masculine to be a compelling, rootable love interest. 

Mmbop is commonly understood in either of two ways: as a disciplinary field in philosophy, or as a movement in the history of philosophy.

"I like that I stick out. I was watching “Valentine’s Day” on the plane recently. I have a tiny part in that movie. I was watching all the women — Jessica Biel, and Emma Roberts, and Jennifer Garner and Julia Roberts. They are gorgeous women, and I don’t want to take anything away from them, but they all do have a very classical look, with a very thin nose. I’m watching this parade of these faces and then, boom, it was my face, and I was taken aback. I was like, “Oh, my nose is so big!” I have never in my life thought I had a big nose, but, well, there it was.