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@sansonpark

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HAPPY PRIDE MONTH TO ALL RELIGIOUS LGBTQ+ FOLK
tumblr discourse has truly taken away the right to subjective opinions and its exhausting
like now instead of saying āi like this tv show because it is entertaining and engagingā you have to come up with totally ridiculous reasons as to why this random television show on like, the CW or something is Actually the paradigm of feminist media even when it isnt at all
instead of saying āthis celebrity is obnoxious and overrated and annoyingā you get people searching meticulously through their twitter or interviews in order to find something incriminating enough to end up on a yfip list, and now you can pretend that your reasons for disliking this celebrity arent entirely personal and have some kind of Righteous Cause backing it
you dont need to put politics into everything you love and you dont need to bend over backwards trying to explain why this Thing you love is Actually Totally Political. you are allowed to subjectively enjoy things. conversely you can hate looking at a celebrityās dumb face without acting like theres always some kind of social justice reason fueling it
renamonkalou:
The family home of architect Sami Angawi, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Holy shitā¦.
Real life solarpunk.
I just read the links, and omg this is even better.
So I looked at it and knew it was using the open courtyard and the pools and fountains to do a lot of the work of cooling the house, but itās also got drip irrigation for all of those plants (which adds more moisture to the air and also helps cool it in addition to being an effective and efficient way of watering the plants), itās got a roof garden and other eco-conscious stuff. It combines modern construction techniques with classic Arabic art and architecture.
And his home is a cultural center.
He holds lectures, concerts and salons in his home, with guests and speakers from around the world. Heās founded multiple institutions to preserve Islamic history and architecture. Heās an activist against the extremist factions he says are trying to hijack Islam.
His home is going to be part of an international institute offering degrees in Islamic history and science, as his legacy, housing a collection of over one hundred thousands of his photos, drawings and writings about Islam and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
This is serious real-life Islamic solarpunk for real.
Tumblr likes the idea of solarpunk, even if thereās not a real body of work about it yet. Well, weāre missing that people are already doing this for real, and have been for a long time.
I am not generally an architecture fan. Itās nice and all, but it doesnāt do a lot for me, especially modern American stuff. But I am totally bowled over by this and must now go look at everything heās ever designed.
@notyourexrotic
[rebloggable by request]
Well, first of all, WELCOME TO ONE OF MY PET PEEVES.
A female character does not have to be āstrongā (whatever your definition of that is) to be a good character.
Women can be strong, or wussy, or emotional, or stoic, or needy, or independent, and still be legitimate people and interesting characters.
In our totally understandable desire to see portrayals of strong women (in reaction to decades of damsels in distress and women as appendages), weāve somehow backed ourselves into this corner where the only acceptable portrayal of a woman in the media is a strong, kick-ass woman. Ā That is not doing women any favors. Ā It just leads to the attitude that you have to be ONE WAY ONLY to be legit as a woman. Ā You shouldnāt have to be Natasha Romanoff or Xena to be considered a good character. Ā Donāt get me wrong, I love a good Buffy as much as the next person, but that should not be the only acceptable portrayal. Ā It should be okay for a female character NOT to be strong, too. Ā Letās take Molly Hooper as an example. Ā She is not the stereotypical āstrongā woman. Ā But hell, she went through medical school, didnāt she? Ā Sheās smart, and sheās funny, and she serves a story function - she is not a major character, but she doesnāt have to be. Ā But her character gets criticized because she pines after Sherlock. Ā What, you never pined after somebody? Ā Did it make you invalid as a person? Ā You never got a bit silly over a crush? Ā I know I did. Ā And I still consider myself a strong woman. Ā It should be okay for Molly to have a crush on Sherlock without getting the āoh, sheās so pathetic, what a terrible example, what a horrible female characterā thing she so often gets. Ā Yes, because itās so terrible that a female character should reflect an experience that like 99% of us have had. Ā
Screw writing āstrongā women. Ā WriteĀ interestingĀ women. Ā Write well-rounded women. Ā Write complicated women. Ā Write a woman who kicks ass, write a woman who cowers in a corner. Ā Write a woman whoās desperate for a husband. Ā Write a woman who doesnāt need a man. Ā Write women who cry, women who rant, women who are shy, women who donāt take no shit, women who need validation and women who donāt care what anybody thinks. Ā THEY ARE ALL OKAY, and all those things could exist in THE SAME WOMAN. Ā Women shouldnāt be valued because we are strong, or kick-ass, but because we are people. Ā So donāt focus on writing characters who are strong. Ā Write characters who areĀ people.
The only bad female character, if you ask me (and you did), is one whoās flat. Ā One who isnāt realistic. Ā One who has no agency of her own, who only exists to define other characters (usually men). Ā Write each woman you write as if she has her own life story, her own motivations, her own fears and strengths, and even if sheās only in the story for one page, she will be a real person, and THAT is what we need. Ā Not a phalanx of women who can karate-chop your head off, but REAL women, who are people, with all the complexity and strong and not-strong that goes with it.
This is why I disagree with the ādamsel in distressā criticism of Irene in the last scene of Scandal. Ā Hereās the thing about being a damsel in distressā¦itās only bad if thatās all she is. Ā If the characterās defining characteristic is being a damsel in distress, thatās bad. Ā But if an otherwise complex character with lots of other agency and actions happens to be in distress, thenā¦thatās all it is. Ā She is in distress. Ā That happens. Ā Characters are often in distress, or there would be no plots. Ā Should a female character never be allowed to be in distress, at ALL, to be valid? Ā No.
A strong female character is one who is defined by her own characteristics, history and personality, and not solely by the actions or needs of other characters. Ā She is aĀ personĀ in the story, not a prop. Ā That is the best definition I can come up with. Ā Note that my definition did not involve martial arts.Ā
That was probably longer than you were anticipating! Ā Iāve had that percolating for a long time.

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Happy Pride Month!Ā š
Edit: an anon said thatĀ āGame Faceā is actually about Fallon Fox, a transgender woman.
Reina's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuJ09HN4JO4 Logan's videos in Japan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCsVKbha2EU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
I think itās important to hear about the Logan Paul situation from a Japanese national.Ā
Yuta is a smart guy who makes a lot of great content (his channel is really worth a watch if you want to learn more about Japan as an English speaker) and probably has the best perspective on this disgusting situation.
āDepression turns you into a series of nouns, without the adjectives and without the verbs. You donāt remember where you misplaced your descriptions, your actions ⦠You become: bed, shower, socks, coffee, keys, obligations.āā A Series of Nouns
Still inking. Quick face sketch. writing took a while. Big paper long message. Drown. ... The ears are not sisters or twins. I said it was quick

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Crane.Sunday November 12. 2017. Sansonpark. Did I only post one inktober drawing? Yes. Whoops Will I be using ink only for the rest of the year? Possibly.
r/sketchdaily Sunday. October 1. 2017. INKTOBER, āswift.ā Back at it with another unrecognizable portrait. First INKTOBER, excited to showcase a lack of skill. Did it twice because the brush pen one looked nothing like Taylor. Second one is slightly better.
I love the fact that the USA hasnāt said a word about hurricane Maria, that turned into a catastrophic category five in less than 4 hours. But since itās not hitting Florida or the mainlands apparently nobody gives a fuck. Go figure, America.
If youāre not hearing/seeing coverage on Maria that sounds like a you problem. Itās all over the news here. ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ

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āIĀ lovedĀ you, always.ā
going to comment a little on this game: the overseeing voice talks as if it owns you, and defies your free will. if you follow its orders, you are praised, and the worldview becomes sharper and more detailed. if you donāt, you are chastised, and the world becomes more vague and difficult to navigate, but also more colourful and loud. itās odd, and sort of eerie, but definitely interesting. take it as you will.
This game really unsettles me. It unsttles me that my first choice to obey, and when I played again and disobeyed, I got really emotional really fast. Failure hurt me more the more I disobeyed. It was⦠interesting to experience.
iāve always said we are trained to obey more than to think.
holy shit. i reblogged this the first time without playing. then i played in and it is terrifying.Ā i very much like this, but it will give you intense feelings.Ā
Whatās the game??
you obey everything the game tells you too, even jumping into barbs and basically killing yourself. if you dont youre chastised and even the scolding is terrifying
So, essentially, itās a game that illustrates what itās like to be in an abusive parents or an abusive relationship - and how it affects you emotionally. That is horrific and ingenious - the next time someone negates the affects of emotional abuse, Iāll take them to this game and let them come to their own conclusions.
This game absolutely gets it. The most solid and reliable degradation is a gendered insult. The more you obey and co-operate, the better understanding you seem to have of your word, and things seem easier. But what really gets me is the contradiction. You are not allowed to have the correct answer. Are you a boy or a girl? The answer is no, I will give you the answer. even towards the end, your āpraiseā is āno, I will give you the answer. You earned this answer, but it is given to you by me.ā Disobeying makes the world frightening and confusing and difficult, but beautiful in a world devoid of flavour.
great that itās made by a fellow australian too
Reblogging this for later.
If anyone was looking for the name itās called Loved
Todrick Hall speaks out about Taylor Swift video backlash
Yahoo Music: So when some people saw you dancing in āLook What You Made Me Do,ā they were not pleased, to put it mildly. What exactly happened?
Todrick Hall: They saw a clip, just a few seconds, that featured Taylor Swift standing in a line of dancers, and they started forming all types of conclusions. I was just very confused by that, because I knew that there was nothing āFormationā-esque or Lemonade-esque about the video. Artistically, I didnāt feel that was the case. Iām a humongous BeyoncĆ© fan. Iāve worked with BeyoncĆ©. Iāve choreographed for BeyoncĆ©. And I would never intentionally be a part of art that I felt was ripping off my favorite artist of all time. But I felt like these were two completely different lanes.
āSelloutā was one of the common names you were called.
Yes, one of the main things that people said was, āHe wanted to make his money. Well, good for him, he got paid. And I guess payment is enough for you to sell out your family, your people, your community.ā But this had nothing to do with money. I didnāt do this Taylor Swift video for money. I did it because sheās my friend, and she was very excited about it. And she wanted people to be there who she could trust, because it was a very big undertaking. I was proud to be there, but money was not a factor for me. I donāt do things for money.
But there are people online who have a problem with the fact in general that you and Taylor are friends?
Yes, I have gotten comments from people who are upset and have literally said the fact that I am friends with a white person is a problem, because white people donāt possess the ability to love or ever truly care about black people. And I find that very disheartening. Iāve grown up in a neighborhood where I went to church with and lived with and went to school with beautiful black people; when I look at them, I see myself. But then I was also in a peculiar situation, because I danced in a dance group where I was the only black person in the dance studio. In some cases, I was the only black cheerleader in my school. I did theater where I was the only black person, the ātoken black person.ā And working at Disney, oftentimes I was the only black person in the show at Disney World or Disneyland on any given day. And I also did tours where I was the only black singer; I did a cruise ship where I was the only black person in the cast. So Iāve been used to being in situations where Iāve had to find friendships and find love and find similarities. My whole brand, everything that I stand for and everything Iāve always stood for, is equality and love. So itās just really difficult for me to understand why it is an issue for people, a legitimate issue, that I have white friends, and that Taylor Swift happens to be one of my many white friends.
Apparently thereās a thing called the ācookout,ā which is like your invitation to be a part of the black community. Some people have, like, deemed themselves the Woke Police, and they decide to strip you online of your invitation to attend the ācookout.ā It boggles my mind that people are deciding whether or not Iām down enough, black enough, or woke enough to be āinvited.ā If I have to hate people and judge people based on their race, sexual orientation, or religion, then sorry, but Iād rather order pizza.
What is Taylor really like? Describe your bond.
What people are mostly forgetting is that Taylor Swift really is my friend. Sometimes because she is a celebrity of such a huge status, inarguably one of the biggest stars of our generation, people forget that there is a human side to her, that she has real friends that she calls and talks to about her real problems. And I call her, and I have cried on her shoulder about my own relationship issues and family issues and career issues. We are friends, and so when she asked me to do this video, I said absolutely. It wasnāt a question for me. I trust her, and I had no problem doing the video. And I just think that itās really sad and shocking that me doing four eight-counts of choreography is enough to make people feel the need to question my āblacknessā or āwokeness.ā
Taylor came to see me in Kinky Boots and she stayed after the show for two hours and met every single person in that cast ā took pictures, signed stuff, met every usher, every custodian, every orchestra member, every producer and their kids. And then she went outside and met fans outside the theater afterwards, stayed there for over two and a half hours after the show and wouldnāt leave until every single person had been met. There are just very few celebrities in the world who would do something like that. She didnāt have to do that. She couldāve come to the show, said hi to me, and left. Thatās just what type of person she is, and what type of person sheās always been. Her parents raised her so well, and when youāre in the room with them, you can feel that energy.
It just is shocking to me that people will see an image of her and hear stories online about her, or arguments with other celebrities who she did not ask to be involved with, who recorded her against her will without her knowing and then decided to release six-second clips of a conversation that happened to paint her to be this evil person that I donāt believe that she is. Come on, weāve watched millions of episodes of Law & Order or seen Judge Judy a million times; how are they not able to conclude that there is something missing from this? If you feel the need to record someone on video with people there, the intentions may not have been the most pure.
Some of the criticism Taylor has received recently has to do with the fact that she has not been politically outspoken in past years, like some of her peers Katy Perry or Lady Gaga.
Yeah, many people have been tweeting me, āShe supports Trump! She probably voted for Trump!ā Theyāre making this huge assumption, when Taylor has never to my knowledge come out and said anything about her being pro-Trump. But people would still rather believe that she is the one who is pushing Trumpās agenda. That was one of the major things that was tweeted at me, and Iām like, āSo you are mad that you think she might support Donald Trump? But youāre not mad that Kanye has been very openly pro-Trump?ā I donāt understand that.
Look, Iām not Taylor Swift, so I canāt speak for her and why she does or does not choose to speak or not speak about any specific subject matter. All I know is that she has been nothing but a great person to me. Her family has welcomed me into their home and treated me like I was a member of the family. Theyāve welcomed every single person Iāve ever brought around them. Iāve never felt like there was ever a moment that I couldnāt be myself, and talk about the fact that Iām gay or whatever. At Thanksgiving, we all sat around and talked about it, and there was another one of her friends there who was African-American, and we all sat down and talked about racism and watched 13th on Netflix and talked about how important it was. It was one of the most beautiful conversations Iāve ever had, because sometimes as an African-American person I feel like I canāt voice my opinion about how difficult it is to be not just an African-American person in the entertainment industry, but how scary it is to be black in America, in even 2017.
When it comes to Taylor, all I know is that she has been a sweet, amazing human being to me. When she calls me, itās hardly ever to talk about her accomplishments or things that sheās going through. She calls me and says, āHowās your heart? Are you OK?ā Iāve been around her an awful lot, and if it were some type of crazy, fake faƧade, I think I would have figured it out by now. I feel like itās a genuine part of who she is, and sheās a human being. Has she made mistakes? Yes. Will she make mistakes again? Yes. But let the person in America who has not made mistakes raise their hand.
I think that Iām on my own journey; every artist is on their own journey. Maybe one day, Taylor will start being super-political, and using her voice to do thing that people think that she should be doing. But even then, she will probably be ridiculed for not being vocal enough, or not being on the right side. I donāt think that there is a way to win in this industry, so every person has to take their own journey at their own pace, at their own time, and do what they feel like is right. All I know is that Taylor has been nothing but sweet to me since day one, and if she asks me to do a video, Iām absolutely going be there.
Iām not apologizing for being a part of the video and doing four eight-counts of choreography in it. I thought it was a great piece of art. I thought it was awesome. Itās broken so many records and Iām proud to be a part of it. I donāt think Iāve sold out my race or my community ā the gay community, the black community. I think that I was just in a piece of art that my friend made. Iām not issuing a statement to people about it to explain myself, because thereās nothing to explain. Iām not sorry that I did it, and I donāt think that it was a mistake. If I had a do-over, I would absolutely be there for another eight hours, in heels, dancing with her.
Is Taylor aware of the heat youāve gotten for being in her video?
I have talked to her about it, and she has been very uplifting and given me a lot of information about how when youāre doing big things, there will always be people who have something to say about it. But I think that BeyoncĆ© gave me the best advice when I met her. She said, āDonāt scroll down. Donāt go down and look at comments, and when you do something as an artist, make a decision and stick to it. You donāt need to apologize for things that youāve done.ā I use that all the time.
You have gotten this sort of criticism before.
Yeah. In the beginning, it was because I did videos based on stereotypes of a particular group that put people in a negative light. And so I took those notes, because I consider myself to be a humble person, and I tried to apply them, and tried to do less work on my YouTube channel that stereotyped people, less work that stereotyped my race as being āghettoā or āratchet,ā because I did understand the argument. I think itās a really difficult thing when you toe the line with comedy, because there are certain things that some people are going to think is funny, but then some people are always going to be offended. The political climate has changed so much over the past months since Donald Trump became president, and it has just been a very scary place to create content online. So I tried to do whatever I can to create content that everyone can love and that is inclusive of everybody.
Itās just something that I deal with every day. I wrote an album about my life [Straight Outta Oz], about how I fell in love at 19 years old with a boy who was British and who just happened to be white. I wrote a song called āColor,ā and in the song I say the line, āYouāre my favorite hue.ā What I meant by that when I wrote the song was itās supposed to be a direct relation to the 1939 Wizard of Oz film, and then everything turns to color when Dorothy gets to Oz. I felt like my whole world was black and white before I met this person. But people took that as that white was my favorite color, and that was what I preferred. People have assumed that am the type of person that refuses to date people of my own race or associate with people of my own race. Which, I donāt feel the need to prove to them that I have in fact dated multiple black men and Puerto Rican, Latino men. Iām an equal opportunist when it comes to love. I think everyone is beautiful. You fall in love with a person, not the outer layer of skin.
Itās really frustrating because I donāt think that people realize that when I got to L.A., I lived in not a great neighborhood. A policeman drove up onto a sidewalk, got out of the car, pushed my face on the ground, put my hands on my back, pulled a gun out on me. I have never felt so scared in my entire life. I have witnessed so many things like that. Itās very difficult for me to go and spend time in a predominantly Caucasian neighborhood without the cops being called on me, because people donāt know why Iām there and they think I look suspicious. I have had a lot of issues and dealt with racism in the same capacity as a lot of other people. I have written so many songs, even on Straight Outta Oz, about the Black Lives Matter movement, because itās something that Iām very passionate about. Itās something that I definitely use my voice and my platform to speak out against. So itās frustrating that people who have never met me in person like to make huge, incorrect assumptions about me and go and scream them and yell them from the rooftops online.
I just strongly feel that if we canāt get along within our own race, and have to point fingers and yell at people who we think donāt have our back when we donāt know anything about them ā we havenāt listened to the facts, we havenāt seen the footage, there are no receipts to show that this person is not a proud African-American person who isnāt down to fight for equality for everyoneās sake ā if we fight with each other so much that weāre tearing down our own race and our own community, how does that make us any better than the people in Charlottesville, carrying the tiki torches? How are we any better than those people, and how are we ever going to meet in the middle and finally be able to say, āLetās be one unified group of peopleā? I just donāt understand how itās possible, and that what makes me so upset.
Online outrage is at an all-time high right now, for sure. Everyone is on edge.
I think that weāve got to figure out a way within our own community to stop tearing people down and stop making assumptions and looking for reasons to be mad. I donāt know what is happening in the world right now, but now is a scary time. People are looking for someone to blame and someone to point fingers at. I donāt think that Taylor Swift is the problem with America right now. People can try to make that be the issue, but there is a much bigger issue here in our country that we need to look at and recognize, and figure out what we can do to be a part of making the world a better place, to be nice and sweet and kind to each other, and to realize that racism is a huge horrible thing that has kept a lot of people down.
But I think itās going to take every race, every minority, every gay person, every trans person, every straight person, waking up and realizing that we canāt do this alone. We canāt divide into our own little sections and decide that weāre going to secretly hate each other and be mad if one person goes over and shakes the hand of somebody on the other team. We all need to be one team. We all have to go out and extend an olive branch to each other and try to help each other out and try to build one another up. Thatās the only way that we can be successful. Thatās the only way that we can make this world the beautiful place that God created it to be. Spread love, and love each other. Thatās what I try to do.
Did you engage with any of your online critics about this video?
I gave no negative tweets, didnāt argue with people on social media, had nothing to say to them. But I even went so far as to give somebody my phone number online so they could call me and said, āIf you feel Iāve done something thatās offended you, or if you could shed some light on as to how me being involved with this video or being friends with Taylor Swift ā other than the fact that she is white and you feel that she is the epitome of white privilege, the poster child for white privilege ⦠If thereās anything you can do to shed some light to me as to how I can be a better example for young African-American kids growing up, then I would love to talk to you on the phone.ā And I meant it. And I talked to them, and I felt like we came to a good place. Iām a humble person; Iām not opposed to taking constructive criticism.
There was a time two years ago where I wouldāve damn near gotten carpal tunnel because I wouldāve stayed up all night trying to argue back and forth [on Twitter], thinking, āWhat would Regina George do?ā Now Iām adopting the policy, āWhat would BeyoncĆ© do?ā So Iām going to kill all these people with kindness. Iām going to be nice to them, and Iām just going to prove to them, one by one when they meet me, what type of person I am. Support my friends, be nice to people, and do what I have to do to be a good human being and play my part in society and in this crazy political climate.
Obviously Iām not diminishing the horrible things that have happened to get us to this point, but at this point we have a choice to either band together and fight and talk about the real issues and the real problems, and Taylor Swift is not the problem. If we can all accept the fact that there is a bigger problem and start having dialogue and talking to each other ā not just with the people that itās comfortable for us to talk to, our own people and people who look like us, but to people who might not understand where weāre coming from or what weāve been through ā then we might get closer to making this world a unified place, the way that Michael Jackson sang about in his songs and in his music. While I know that is not the theme of āLook What You Made Me Do,ā I do believe that is the theme of Taylor Swiftās heart and the person that she truly is on a personal level.
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