(Source: u-niquely-me)
seriously though
america, please give benedict cumberbatch back soon
sincerely,
uk.
never
Neither/Nor(a)
“This one is very serious, guys:
I came upon these two on the sidewalk. They were having a conversation. “Excuse me,” I said, addressing the girl: “I’m sorry to interrupt, but is there anyway I can take your photo?”
“Why would you want my photo?” she asked.
“Because you look beautiful,” I said. And she did. She was Sudanese. There is a very distinct beauty among people from the Sudan, and she was filled up with it. Suddenly the man cut in:
“I was just telling her she was beautiful,” he said.
Naively, I assumed I had just walked up on one stranger giving a compliment to another. I wanted to capture the moment. “Let me take your photograph together,” I said. The man seemed reluctant, he started smiling nervously and inching away. But the girl called him back.
“Come take a picture with me,” she said. Encouraged by her attention, he returned. She put her arm around him, and I took the photo.
As I examined the photos on my camera, the man started whispering to the girl. She answered him in a loud voice: “I told you! I’m not that kind of girl.” She seemed agitated now. Finally sensing that I had misread the situation, I stepped between them. The man began hurrying down the sidewalk.
When the man left, the girl’s demeanor changed completely. She seemed shaken. Her eyes were tearing up. “He just offered me five hundred dollars to go out with him,” she said. “And then when I said ‘no,’ he offered me one thousand. Why does this always happen to me?”
“It happens a lot?” I asked.
“All the time,” she said. “I’m sorry I’m getting emotional. I just can’t go out of my house without this kind of thing happening. I have a son. I’m a mother. I would never degrade myself like that. I just don’t understand why this keeps happening.”
“Do you mind if I tell this story?” I asked.
“Please,” she said. “Tell it.”
Let’s hope this man, and all men, realize the emotional damage they are inflicting on the women they try to buy. In the meantime, feel free to SHARE.*
Dear Tumblr, fuck you for trying to erase this.
(Source: lskywalkers)
(via)
Went to a Seder over Passover. Spent the whole evening wandering between the black lab and the tabby. Could not tell you the names of any of the people there.
(The dog was Brooklyn, and the cat was Kitty.)
View Larger Distinguished sociologist Erving Goffman noted that women in photographs are often portrayed in compromising or submissive situations such as having the head turned upwards to expose the neck or in a contorted stances often with light self-touching. Such poses invite the gaze of the viewer and make the subject of the photograph seem vulnerable and exposed to sexualization.
(Source: apocalypticdreamer)
Argh, one of my best friends refuses to accept that Austen is more than just “18th century romance novels”. He even went as far as to say that she’s the Regency era’s Stephenie Meyer. Help me win this argument, please?Asked by: thegirlwhodidntmakesense
1. OMG GET A NEW BEST FRIEND or TAKE THIS BITCH TO SCHOOL
2. Tell him to at least read a Jane Austen novel. Then tell him to read Twilight. I’m pretty sure he’s read neither.
3. His observations are sexist. Period. “Just” 18th century romance novels? Whatever you have to say about Austen or Meyer, you have to acknowledge that BOTH of them have made significant contributions to literature. Lumping all female writers into the bull shit ‘chick lit’ category makes their writing seem frivolous and inexperienced compared to supposedly solid, important, canonical male writing. No but you don’t get it, when Shakespeare wrote romances and comedies, they were like, so much better. If you’re going to delegitimize Austen for her ‘silly, girly’ romances, you might as well do it to Dickens, Fielding and the Brontes as well. Basically every writer ever actually. Well done!
4. His observation is more about the contemporary reception of Austen. The average 21st century dolt who has heard of that mad, scribblin’ Jayne Eyre Austin lady thinks she wrote about young ladies sitting at their windowsill, looking forlornly out the window upon the rainy English countryside, waiting for her Prince Charming/Mr. Darcy to show up. If you merely watch an Austen adaptation made in the last 20 years without thinking deeply about it, you might get this impression. From S&S 1995 to P&P 2005, there’s plenty of rain and dashing men on horseback to be had. But…
5. I’d say it’s a universal truth that people are fucking stupid and don’t understand irony. Austen is ironic about romance. Meyer is not. I’m not going to compare or add positive/negative value to their merits, because that goes against Austen’s “it’s only a novel” rant, in which she chides her fellow novelists for degrading each other and the medium itself. Not gonna do it. But it is extremely important to understand that Austen’s bread and butter was mocking the shit out of those ‘silly’ 18th century romance novels. As a reader, she loved them and memorized their form and content. As a writer, she satirized some of their bull shit notions about women, marriage and money. Marriage was (and to me, still can be) a business transaction and was (to proto-feminists of her day) comparable to the slave trade. There’s a lot more going on in Austen that just silly girly romance.
6. But you know what, even silly girly romance has meaning. Twilight is political as fuck. Sex can wait until straight, white, Christian heterosexual courtship. A woman’s worth is defined by her sexual activity. Not that this does not happen in Austen as well, but I think there’s a huge distinction to be made. Meyer’s novels say things SHOULD be this way. Austen’s novels say things ARE this way and ain’t it shitty. I have not read Twilight, but as far as I know, Meyer is not interested in being critical of normative societal expectations. Twilight seems like romance played straight. Pride and Prejudice is romance with a razor’s edge. Romance and marriage don’t save you. They lock you in and bind you. If you’re REALLY REALLY LUCKY you will find a equal partner to spend your life with. But how many Austen characters find that? 7 or 8 maybe? That’s including the 6 hero/heroine couples plus a couple of side character couples that depict an ideal marriage (the Crofts in Persuasion, the Gardiners in P&P). Everywhere else is difficulty and bitterness and, I hate to say it, reality.
7. So I guess tell him that he can’t have a valid opinion about the subject until he’s read novels written by both authors. Until he’s read Claudia L. Johnson. Until he compares and contrasts the form and content of Austen and Meyer novels while taking into account historical context. Tell him to remember that Austen uses IRONY. Please please please please remember that, everyone in the world. Tell him to take a closer look at why he delegitimizes the importance of female writers and readers. And if he refuses to do at least one of the above, tell to GTFO, like really.
PREACH.
My mom and I made this cake for her friend’s birthday! I’m actually rather proud of how it turned out, considering all the frosting was applied using a spatula.
Left: Freshly-frosted cake (white chocolate cake + strawberry buttercream frosting)
Middle: Cake with peach topping, just before serving.
Right: The inside.
Mitt Romney being Mitt Romney.
How are people even considering this man for president.
HOW.
