Fasten Your Fuckin’ Seatbelt!

Notedly, the speech patterns and ryhtym of regional speak will be mimicked in sign language. In the case of Vincent, that slow Louisiana drawl he’s been around all his life, that would reflect in his sign. His speed would be slower, and his cadence/mannerisms like eye contact and physical expressionism would match a southern style. Because sign language isn’t just moving hands, the language involves almost the entire body while signing, and so Southern ways of carrying oneself (lazy slouches, head tipped back and high) affects the way he signs. It’s also been recognized that Southern sign users tend to touch their chest and face more than other dialects. This is the sign version of hospitality in a way, like showing sincerity in action.

As for word choice, Southern sign language would be slightly different based on regional speak. For example, in Louisiana, the pop vs soda debate is moot, because they tend to call all pop “Coke.” So Vincent would sign “Coke” instead of “soda.” Louisiana is also notably an area with rich cultural variation and Cajun/French adjacent languages. It’s common for Louisiana families to speak a little bit of French in their every day lives, sorta like how Texans tend to sprinkle in a bit of Spanish now and again. So if the family uses common Louisiana French expressions Vince would pick those up too. But he wouldn’t do FSL, it would still be a regional version of ASL.

Most importantly is how Vince learned sign language. If he had a tutor, read it in a book, or was taught by his parents. The accent and regional dialect of his sign teacher would affect his too. Southerners tend to exclude and slur words, but sign isn’t a literal word to word translation. His equivalent would be quicker motions among the slow drawl, and possibly personalized signs.

So the way sign language works is it has its own grammatical structures and vocabulary. Despite the ability to translate, it’s not a 1-1 match to English. ASL is it’s own separate language, the same way French is or Spanish is! The best way I can think to demonstrate that is a translation.

From French, let’s take a question sentence: “Est-ce que tu sculptes de la cire?” This translates, in English, literally do “Is it that you sculpt the wax?” But that’s not how we’d read it. We know what’s being communicated is “Do you sculpt with wax?” So in sign language, there is equivalent meanings in the same way, without being direct.

Here’s a sentence in ASL:

What these words mean is “Me sculpt paraffin wax.” But again, that very literal translation isn’t how we communicate. The meaning we take is “I sculpt in wax.”

These structures are determined by a series of -Subject- Verb- Object- like the example above. Filler words like “that” “is” “if” “so” and “to” are very rarely used in ASL. So the translations just aren’t the literal same.

As for contractions, these do exist but not in the traditional English sense. English says words like “do not” will be shortened to “don’t.” Sign Language contractions are more like when a person has a name sign. Rather than spelling out a name or a city every single time, a sign language “contraction” is when there’s a word to express or represent something that isn’t necessarily a part of the language, it’s chosen on a personal basis. There’s also signers who will use ‘sound-adjacent’ words, like when introducing himself as Sinclair, instead of spelling it, he could sign “Sink” And “Layer.”

Contractions will have their own words instead. Sign language won’t qualify with negatives like cannot = can + not. Instead can’t is it’s own word. There’s contractions in the southern language like “y’all” which takes the sign for all, and puts both hands in the finger spelling of y for the action. So it’s y + all = y’all. I’m not personally sure of other southernisms in sign language personally, but southern deaf communities would be able to answer that easily!

ASL also has its own idioms and things! Sign being used by deaf people most prominently, there’s an option for signing “In-Eye-Out-Eye” which is that something has gone “in one eye and out the other” instead of “one ear and out the other.” Since the language is visual instead of verbal!

Anne Rice about her BDSM books

Lowkey just using tumblr as a dumping ground for edits I wanna keep saved LOL

I had mixed feelings abt this movie but I only watched it once so I’m gonna give it another try

Doctor Who (Steven Moffat specifically)

Sherlock (Steven Moffat specifically)

Actually Steven Moffat is basically just this sentiment given human form.

A version of this happened with The Magicians, tbh. Though instead of expectation: men, reality: women it was expectation: smug nihilists, reality: mentally ill queer folks.

Arguably Game of Thrones.

If we broaden it outside of television…I think Star Wars falls into this, at least the sequel trilogy. Maybe the MCU as well. And I can’t help but think of every band that’s ever complained that their fanbase is mostly women. 5 Seconds of Summer comes immediately to mind.

In general, most white male creators seem to have this massively entitled mindset where they want–and think they deserve–the time, attention, and enthusiasm that creative fandom (i.e. the side of fandom more dominated by women) is known for.

They want our eyes for ratings, our word-of-mouth for free publicity, our metas for social media buzz, and our spending power for merch and cons. But they don’t want us. And they don’t really want the responsibility of telling a story to a thoughtful, engaged audience, regardless of that audience’s demographic makeup. They just want to be praised for whatever schlock they cough up.

Mind you it is perfectly possible to make the switch in marketing, but execs would rather throw it all out than have something that doesn’t perform well with male viewers. For example the Rey merch was not expected to be popular, for some reason, there had to be public outcry to get merch of one of the main 3 protagonists. A PROTAGONIST. The fact that she wasn’t a huge part of the 1st launch says a lot already.

And what happened when female fans got too invested in the Sequel Trilogy? The entire writers room didn’t necessarily lash out, but they sure forgot how to behave.

Young Justice

Paul Dini: Superhero cartoon execs don’t want largely female audiences

#WhereIsRey (initial)

#WhereIsRey (ongoing)

Simply, they’re trying to assert a particular worldview via fiction, and upon getting confronted with something else, begin foot stamping. It’s not just men wanting male attention and gatekeeping. It’s that the fiction in the first place was an attempt to curate dominance and whoopsie! they miscalculated.

I’d also love to hear your thoughts, as I literally wrote it for communities like ours to read, so, thanks.

Stay wild