#soapbox post

This is just a text post, a little thank you now that this blog is really up and running. Costuming is high art, mixing theatre and fashion, fabric and color, beauty and design to create something that is memorable and will last for ages. A good costume can salvage a failing show or elevate a good show into greatness. The right costume can define a character for generations to come, and can even enter the cultural zeitgeist if it’s well-known enough.

But costume designers, as a group, are not a well-known bunch. Compared to movie or television costumers, people like Edith Head, theatre costumers often work in something close to anonymity. Their names maybe will get recognized at an awards show, but as we saw in 2017, the live Tony Awards telecast didn’t even carry the awards for Best Costume Design or Best Scenic Design. Some of these folks, who have won or been nominated for the highest award in theatre fashion, don’t even merit a page on Wikipedia, which has become something of a hallmark for being Famous in the Internet Age.

Who can forget the simple, classic look of Elphaba’s black dress and hat or Glinda’s powder blue dress? How can anyone ignore the amazing couture designs for Eva Peron or Norma Desmond? The ball gown of Anna Leonowens or the mask of Simba? These are parts of our culture, and we barely pay attention to the men and women behind the fabric and the scissors and glitz and the glamor.

So here’s to the costumers, the designers and the dressers and the drapers who make our favorite shows not only entertaining, but bring it to the level of high visual art. Here’s to the people who labor hours behind the scenes, bringing a few sketched lines and watercolor splotches to life in living color on the Broadway stage. Here’s to the unsung heroes who make Patti Lupone and Andy Karl and Laura Osnes and Gavin Creel and Denée Benton look their absolute best for eight shows a week.

So, it seems an actor and his wife are expecting and a particular set of shippers spawned from the blockbuster movie the actor starred in are going all out and saying that he should have had babies with the actress who portrayed the other half of their ship.

Or more specifically, one shipper who posted that somewhere in Tumblr. I had to Google translate what they said and it was...disturbing.

*le sigh*

Are you fucking kidding me?

I can't believe I'm seeing this level of toxicity again. I've seen it before in another fandom, where a certain set of fans couldn't separate their ship from the real lives of people who portrayed them. Saying that the Actor should be having a baby with the Actress because the Actor's wife isn't pretty enough or because Mrs. Actor =/= the Actress is fucking insane. Actors are their own people and lead their own lives and love who they love. They are not beholden to your shipping demands, especially to their real life.

I'm re-reading the post and I'm glad there were some people who commented that it was disturbing, but also cringed at those who agreed with the OP. Holy shit, calm down and step away from the internets.

so I keep seeing @/ebitenpura's posts about On Together and I was like okay it's cute but... why?? Will it really be useful??? but. I have come before ye today to declare...

yeah. it's useful. even better, I think I'd really enjoy using it with other people. You can pop on, hang out in the same server, sit next to each other and just. Read. Eat food. Write. Occasionally take breaks and chat about what you've been doing. It's like accountability and it makes the monotony of existance less sad. and it really is SO CUTE i mean look at this

Good is knights in shining armor, it's charities, it's just kings being magnanimous, explorers being bold, detectives breaking the law to bring criminals to justice, it's beautiful princesses and dutiful mothers and young straight white marriages in a church and harmony with everyone in their place.

Evil is demons and dragons and sex and theft and drinking someone's lifeblood and abnormality and revenge and the unnatural magic arts and blasphemy and rebellion and deformity and dirtiness.

On Tumblr, this is wrong, and we all know it. The Good doesn't live up to its own standards, and its standards are often themselves bad. Propaganda from the powerful devised to keep a harmony that is inherently oppressive. That labeled Evil, likewise, is not only often justified, but is sometimes core to what makes life worth living.

All of this to say, I am not blaming anyone for the current internet subculture where the aesthetic/vibes of Good are treated as signifiers of evil, and, even more, the vibes of Evil are signifiers of the good.

This is a natural reaction to The World Out There, and when it's a pattern that creates an escape hatch for those tied in their own minds inescapably to Evil, it's good to exist.

Because, okay there’s this linguistic concept where if swapping two sounds in a word doesn’t change the meaning and the sounds are similar enough you won’t noticed if they’re swapped.

Example

Spat and pat are two different p sounds.

Don’t believe me? Stick your hand in front of your face and say each word. One has a much stronger air puff than the other doesn’t it? But as far as your ears are concerned it’s the same p. Because your brain only has so much wiring and doesn’t need to be focused in on things that don’t matter.

Where the Zexion thing comes in is that his name ends with Ion.

There’s this thing in English called a Schwa (detonated with letter ə in the International Phonetic Alphabet or ipa for short). It’s an unstressed vowel sound. An uh sound like the first a in the word again or ə 'gɛn in ipa. It gets used a lot because it allows speakers of English to speak faster.

Schwa is a quick, relaxed, neutral vowel pronunciation very close to a 'short u' /ʌ/. The purpose of schwa is to allow unstressed syllables to be said more quickly so the main beats of spoken words are easier to place on the stressed syllables.

https://pronuncian.com/intro-to-schwa

Because of this there are a lot of words that are pronounced differently when said deliberately versus when said really fast.

Case in point ion

When said deliberately you get something like an en sound. Like million, experimentation, motion, comparison, confession, complexion etc

But put those words into an ipa convertor which looks at how people say things not what they think they’re saying and you get

A lot of upside down Es.

Because the sound swap doesn’t matter. The only difference is one makes you sound like a native speaker and the other doesn’t. And they didn’t go with the native speaker one for Zexion.

But since the sound swap doesn’t matter I have to play the Japanese pronouciation next to the English pronunciation and only then do people notice that something is off.

http://khfriendlyreminders.tumblr.com/post/156739303110/anguis-nocturne-said-wait-whats-wrong-with

Because the Japanese O in Zexion’s name is the same as the second one in Pokémon which English speakers more noticeably schwa. So when you play them together it shows that yes the two sounds are different. Which, as I implied before, will likely go unnoticed by native speakers because as far as their brains are concerned it’s the same sound.

I mean it’s not a schwa in Japanese but it gets my point across all the same.

Heck the only reason I notice is I went through a phrase where I watched the heck out of Zexion’s Japanese cutscenes in re:com. And now I get to cringe every time I hear it said in the dub and also know that people will not know what I’m talking about.

Or just not care. Which yeah that’s fair but at least I’m not talking out my butt here >_>.

By the by, this also applies to Xion’s name.

Also I just realized I put comparison in the word list despite it not being an ion word. Sorry about that but this took long enough to make so I don’t want to correct it. :p

Officially ready to state:

EVERY DAY IS APPRECIATE ALL LADIES DAY.

That especially means all my dash-babies. Because I love each and every one of you (even if I fail at fandom right now).

But also especially the babies that people like to tear down and hate. Or the ladies that don't know how to love themselves.

I'm really adamant about this right now - love each other and love yourselves. Because you fucking deserve it.