"I just want to make you smile"

“The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity.”  - Viola Davis

Lupita Nyong’o in Us (2019) dir. Jordan Peele

Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers (2019) dir. Lorene Scafaria

Awkwafina in The Farewell (2019) dir. Lulu Wang

“Here’s also a pronounced lack of female werewolves in popular culture. Their near absence in literature and film is explained away by various fancies: they’re sterile, an aberration, or—most galling of all—they don’t even exist.Their omission from popular culture does one thing very effectively: It prevents us, and men especially, from being confronted by hairy, ugly, uncontrollable women. Shapeshifting women in fantasy stories tend to transform into animals that we consider feminine, such as cats or birds, which are pretty and dainty, and occasionally slick and wicked serpents. But because the werewolf represents traits that are accepted as masculine—strength, large size, violence, and hirsutism—we tend to think of the werewolf as being naturally male. The female werewolf is disturbing because she entirely breaks the rules of femininity.”

Drawlloween 2017

Ok so like normally when I read/watch anything that is written by a white person and has mostly white characters I normally think to myself “xyz character would’ve been more interesting if they were black/poc” or “this needs to be more diverse etc” but not with Gillian Flynn….like don’t get me wrong I’d love if there were more poc in her writing (why I can’t WAIT for widows) but like…I didn’t read/watch gone girl and think Amy should’ve been black, same w/sharp objects and I always wondered why I never thought this. Then it dawned on me, she (more than any white female writer out there) writes about the dangers of white femininity in such a gruesome and familiar way. something that may not be familiar to the culture as a whole (a culture that puts ww on a pedastal and coddles them hell thats a big point being made in gone girl) but is familiar to poc (esp black ppl). White women using femininity/whiteness to kill/harm ppl on the fringes of society (the three girls Amma kills are 2 nongender conforming white girls and a little black girl and now think of how many ww got black ppl killed) white women using their whiteness/femininity/presumed innocence as a cover for there bad deeds etc. the cruelty of white housewives and little white girls. All recurring themes in her writing. All things unknown to white society but WELL known to and feared by black society. Idk if she does it on purpose but damn she does it well

1. You have an enormous black dog which must be walked for four hours daily or it puts its excess energy to use in lighting witch-fires in awkward places. One day you were feeling a little ill, so you asked the unreliable narrator to walk the dog instead. The unreliable narrator faithfully walked the dog for four hours. It is a complete mystery as to why everything is on fire.

2. You hid under the grand staircase to escape that thing that was knocking at your window in the height of the storm. Now there is a ‘delivery failed’ notice on the mat. You are going to have to pick up your artisan cheeses from the local depot twenty miles away.

3. The malign spirit possessing you has lapsed on its ghastly rent, and as a consequence you have been re-possessed by a bailiff. It is somewhat alarming to be in the possession of a supernatural bailiff. Your body spends more time in the high court of the dead that you would like.

4. You came to this graveyard on the cliff over the sea at the dead of night with the intent of digging up the grave of your long-lost love, which you believe to contain the silver dagger that alone can settle her unquiet ghost. It is a stressful situation. You were never very good at numbers when stressed. You believe you may have taken twenty rather than thirty paces from the old yew tree and may in consequence have dug up a badger.

5. A dread raven has settled over your door, from which it hourly proclaims your doom. You made a plan to get rid of the raven. The raven network appears to have got hold of this plan, because another smaller raven turned up to perch on the shoulder of the first and proclaim its doom. Now a third, even smaller one has turned up. You have recursive ravens. There is probably a lot of doom about to come down.

6. Lacking a cellar, you have walled up your rival beneath your floorboards. Unfortunately your rival is a mouse and seems to be enjoying it down there. Will the cheese board will never be safe?

7. Now that they the have closed the refinery across the bay, the mist no longer descends over the high moor at night and as a consequence gruesome deeds cannot be done unnoticed. You have a huge to-do list of gruesome deeds. The local undertaker has started to call you up regarding supply chain issues.

8. You have been staring into this abyss for some considerable time. It is not gazing back. In point of fact it is ignoring you completely. It looks like you will be going home alone tonight.

Armenian Mythology - Anahid

Bone Aesthetic ; requested by anon