Stuff

(๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و ✧

Weighing in on yet another round of “fan spaces are youth spaces” (aka “go home and knit, old lady” or “You’re old enough to be my/someone’s mom! gross!” )

Consider these thoughts:

There’s a whole set of interests and behaviors that you might become interested in as you grow from child to adolescent to young adult and take greater interest in the wider world.

You might like horses, or dolls.  Or building models.  You might play soccer, or follow baseball every summer and learn about  box scores.   You might follow the college football draft, or love a pop band.  You might deeply admire a rock band and learn to play the guitar.  You might love superheroes and see all their movies.  You might love space opera and collect paperback books.  Maybe you collect trading cards of your favorite team players – or movie moments.  You probably get t-shirts and posters of teams, or media outlets.  You might get deeply into a social or political cause.

Those are all expressions of interest in the world, all with associated social aspects, many with associated creative actions. 

And then you get older.  And here’s the thing about that list.  The things on that list that are “for boys?”   Are also “for men.”   But the things on that list that are “for girls” or “for nerds?” Are only “for children.”  

Adult men wear brightly colored team clothing and paint their faces without shame.   They join fantasy football leagues and hang out online.   They follow Phish (or continuously talk about how they did when that was a thing).  They spend vast sums on tickets to bowl games.   They get excited all over the internet about Geddy Lee’s greatest hits.  They spend long afternoons on the golf course, playing very bad golf.

No one tells them to grow up 

An adult woman who turns a childhood dollhouse into a beautiful scale model of a real Victorian home is “eccentric.”  An adult man who builds a vast HO train layout in his basement is a “train enthusiast.”   An adult woman who displays her favorite Bryer horses is “odd,” an adult man with a shelf of signed baseballs is “a collector” or even “an investor.” 

Adult women making fanart of attractive movie stars is “creepy,’ while adult men decorating their garages with calendar art of scantily-clad very-young women is “just what guys do.”

Interests and hobbies that were feminine and are taken up by men become acceptable.   When The Beatles were greeted with mobs of fainting teen girls, they were a “boy band.”  When young men discovered them, they became Serious Musicians.  

Over and over, across fields of interest, things that girls like are “toys and games and childish” and should be left behind by adults, while things that boys like are “hobbies and sports” that are lifetime pastimes.  And acceptable “hobbies” for adult women?   Most are things that could be coded as household chores, but generations of women have worked to turn into enjoyable pastimes:  knitting, sewing, quilting.  Home decor.  Baking.   Many adult women (myself included) enjoy doing those things in their free time and have elevated them to art forms.  But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re rooted in utility, while “men’s hobbies” are, by and large, rooted in leisure.

Secondly:

You can see how much smoother Al’s movements are, how he recovers much better from Izumi’s feints and counters–he’s staying relatively low to the ground, playing to his strengths, which makes him quicker to recover. The leg sweep he utilizes? Smooth as Sean Connery’s voice. Al even uses a kick and turn maneuver with both legs where the first kick is a feint and the second one is what lands. Or is supposed to land. Izumi just bats it aside with her hand because she’s much more experienced than they are, but it’s already clear that Al has a more solid foundation that he can then build off of to develop a fighting style.

Whereas Ed is just… all over the place. You can tell he’s using a lot of high attacks and jumping to attack, and he hasn’t quite figured out how to recover from those jump kicks–he’s wasting time in recovering and he keeps landing awkwardly. At least he’s quick to get back to his feet, which suggests he’s gotten used to falling–which is not necessarily a good thing.

Back to Al. Al is clearly less used to falling than Ed is. When he trips, he gets this expression of alarm, while Ed’s look of concentration never breaks, and at one point, Al lands face-first in the grass and has to get his butt out of the air before he can make a comeback.

Both of them clearly have a long way to go, but in different areas–Ed hasn’t really figured out that either a) he should learn how to make his jump kicks more effective and recover from them more quickly, or b) that he should stop using the jump kicks quite so much, because they clearly aren’t working for him like they should. On the other hand, Al needs to learn to take a fall confidently and without breaking stride. Al is clearly the better fighter and has good instincts, but because he’s used to winning, he isn’t nearly as good at taking a fall as Ed is.

At the same time, Ed and Al are synchronized enough that they’re occupying Izumi every second. She isn’t attacking back, just defending–she doesn’t attack until a second after this gif finishes, when she catches Al during another feint kick and spins him on his face–Ed is terrified when he sees Izumi deal with Al, who has probably been protecting him from schoolyard bullies and whatnot for years, so easily. They are clearly not ready to defend from Izumi’s attacks just yet, but what’s happening in this gif is meant to build their confidence.

Finally, Izumi’s movements (all defensive) in this gif follow a circle–she traces a circle in the steps she takes and she redirects their attacks rather than just blocking them. This is strikingly similar to the real-world martial art ba gua, which you’ll sometimes see colloquially referred to as “circle-walking”–an apt discipline for an alchemist.

thinkin bout…vessel mice….

this petition only has 310 signatures.

and here's another petition (with 5 signatures at the time of posting this) by a group of volunteers working with the Faith Action for Community Equity group that made the other petition:

if reading the above post bothered you, do something about it!

sign the petitions before August 2nd and share this post.

want to do more?

write an email to a member of the council urging them to support affordable housing for Kailua residents.

here's the contact information for the council members!

And the safety briefing included the question “So if you’re pregnant, do you want to know or not?”

Turns out there had been a bit of an awkward situation once where the keepers had casually mentioned a woman’s pregnancy in a group, and she herself didn’t even know yet. Turns out the wolves are excellent at telling if you’re pregnant and the keepers can tell based on their body language.  They get all odd and careful around pregnancy. (Even wolves knows that you have to take care of pregnant people.)

So they definitely knew she was pregnant.

And if I remember my BBC documentaries right, a wolf will leave the pack to give birth and introduce the cubs to the pack once she feels ready for it. And maternity leave is flexible but often around 6 months so they’re going “YOU WERE GONE FOREVER! WE WERE SO WORRIED! WHERE ARE THE CUBS?? WE HAVE TO GREET THE CUBS!!“ 

 Ok, sure! Let’s go through this:

There’s a huge maturity gap between Pidge and Matt that we see right away. Pidge is very easily excited and eager to show everything off to Matt, and people joke that she’s trying to show off in front of her big brother. With Shiro and Keith, it’s clear they’re on the same level. They’re both paladins and leaders. Keith never acts like a younger sibling the way Pidge does in front of Matt. Because he’s not

Going off the clear distinction between these two dynamics, its important to look at the difference between Matt inspiring Pidge and Shiro training Keith. Matt does his best to lead by example–because he’s the older sibling, so he has to be a good role model for his little sister. Understandable. However, that’s not what happens when Shiro decides to train Keith as his successor. He doesn’t say This is how I became the Black Paladin, and if you work hard like me, you can reach my level. No. Instead, he tells Keith that he already has that potential and argues that he could take up Shiro’s mantle alone and be a great leader. Shiro’s not trying to set an example for Keith. He already sees that greatness in him and just wants Keith to realize it. Furthermore–when Matt tells Pidge to study hard, she immediately does. When Shiro tries explaining what Keith has to do to prepare being a leader, he outright cuts him off and refuses to acknowledge it 

Pidge and Matt do this back and forth, good-natured teasing thing a lot. Matt will claim he’s so cool and Pidge well be like, Uh, not really. Siblings  tease each other all the time, so it’s expected that they like to push each other’s buttons every now and again. But we never see this kind of behavior from Keith and Shiro. 

Matt and Pidge also often seem like they’re speaking their own other language, they have little nicknames, pet peeves, inside jokes, secret code, and can go on and on like they’re right back at home and nothing’s changed. It’s what you’d expect from people who grew up together 

With Keith and Shiro, it’s never so simple. They don’t have dorky nicknames or secret pass codes or look at one another and just go “stop that, you’re annoying me.” Their interactions are never so carefree and familiar. There’s a noticeable gravity and distance there, a sense that–while they’re closer to one another than anyone else, both are still holding back and tiptoeing around this…whatever it is they have. That’s not how characters with a brotherly, platonic relationship behave 

Going back to Matt and Pidge, their seamless familiarity does come with this notion they’re always on the same wavelength. To the point where Hunk groans and goes, “Oh yeah, you guys are definitely related.” Again, Shiro and Keith don’t have that kind of dynamic. Not at all. None of the paladins ever comment on them being like brothers or way too similar–let alone annoyingly so

There’s also the fact that there’s a level of intimacy you see between Shiro and Keith that is not at all like the familial love you see expressed through the Holts. Literally any of Shiro’s or Keith’ Longing Gazes would look immediately out of place if you tried to argue their dynamic was purely brotherly. Like, compare Matt being proud of Pidge and Shiro’s face when Keith tells him he’s going to make it. There’s a clear difference

Speaking of intimacy, let’s look at the first hug we see for sheith turns out and the way the first hug between Pidge and Matt goes. Again, one is framed and presented as distinctly romantic and intimately private, while the other is clearly familial:

And I’ve talked about this a lot before, so I won’t waste more time going into it here, but–the way Pidge reacts to losing Matt is distinctly different to how Keith grieves Shiro. The way Keith continually carries a torch for Shiro while everyone else tells him Shiro would want him to move on–it’s very characteristic of someone mourning a lost lover. No one tells Pidge Matt would want her to just give up and get going. Keith’s grief-stricken outbursts about how no one else cares about Shiro the way he does also supports this. Pidge isn’t in a position where she feels like she has to justify why her loss is so deeply personal the way Keith does, everyone just gets it. But Keith going out of his way to do so–and spiting everyone else in the process–sounds like a character who’s lost their lover. 

There’s also this sense of desire and desperation about Keith’s feelings for Shiro that are nowhere present with Matt and Pidge. Keith’s constant fear of losing Shiro and desperation to be with him are far more characteristic of unrequited love

We’ve gotten snippets of Pidge’s backstory since the beginning, but with Shiro and Keith, the writers are always holding back. As if there’s something more to their dynamic they’re trying to keep very secretive about. And given all the parallels between sheith and zaggar already, I wouldn’t be surprised if we got a prekerberos flashback about Keith falling for Shiro and mourning his disappearance