- extract from a christine and the queens interview that I saved in my journal

Jeanette Winterson, from Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

boygenius interviewed by Mark Savage

facebook post by björk, december 2016

Reblog if you've ever cried over the death of a fictional character

There's a whole bunch of TikTok drama at the moment after someone posted a video asking "would you rather be alone in the woods with a bear or a strange man?"

And the men are *very upset* that nearly every woman replied with "....obviously a bear."

It's honestly wild (I think some of these guys think that bears are movie monsters, craving human flesh).

But it boils down to this- they want you to expect the worst from the bear and the best from the stranger, and they are deeply offended that this isn't the case. 🤷

I have several people interpret this question as "attacked by a bear or attacked by a man" but that isn't the question.

Yes, a bear can hurt or kill a human. Yes a human can hurt or kill (or commit other forms of harm on) another human.

The reasons a bear might get aggressive are pretty few and they are very clear about their intentions. The reasons a human might attack another human are much much more numerous and humans are both capable and likely to hide that motivation.

I don't think I could defeat an aggressive bear, but I DO think I'm more likely to have control over whether a run in with a bear becomes violent. If a man in the woods WANTS to become violent, there's nearly nothing I can do or say that would dissuade him.

Edit: and to clarify- this isn't to say, at all, that all men are worse than animals or that this is an inherent biological flaw in men. Of course most men don't have violent intentions towards strangers. All that is intended is to try to explain the wariness that many people feel about being isolated with a stranger, especially and statistically, a strange man. Because while the majority of strangers don't have ill intentions, no one can tell without mind reading. While bears aren't gonna lie to you.

I've got to say man. A random human being vs an extremely powerful wild animal? For context I live in a bearless country. How powerful and aggressive do you all think the average man is to you, a stranger?

I work with men with violent criminal records.

I'm telling you that dumped in the woods together both of you are going to be prioritising getting out of the woods.

I feel like I've already explained this.

The question isn't whether I'd rather be *attacked* by a bear or any man. The question isn't 'you've been stranded in the woods and need to escape, would you rather illicit help from a bear or from another lost stranger' and, to your tags, part of the thought experiment IS the lack of information. Knowing information about the man in question (or the bear in question), of course is going to influence your answer. "Starving Polar bear with cubs vs my husband" is a very different question than "chill black bear taking a little nap in the sun vs a drunk 25 year old frat bro with multiple SA allegations pending and a manifesto about being an alpha in his notes app" The lack of information, and how you perceive the possible risks within that ambiguity are *the point.*

I don't think that the *average* man is going to be violent. I don't think that the vast majority of men are going to be dangerous. I just know that they *could, maybe, possibly* be dangerous. Like a bear could, maybe, possibly, be dangerous.

But when a bear is going to be dangerous, I can tell ahead of time. When a bear is going to get aggressive, it's in response to something I have done or failed to do. When a bear is considering violence, you can tell and react accordingly. And 99.99% of the time, bears just want you to leave them alone.

Humans are not so transparent with their motives.

And again, this isn't some biological flaw in men. This isn't some bioessentialist, 'all men are wild animals' argument. It's acknowledging that, statistically, humans harm each other, especially men, far more often and for far more varied reasons, than bears do. And the acknowledgement that, without mind reading powers, it is much harder to know the intentions of another human. The main way humans stay safe from other humans is by being in groups- avoiding isolation- since other humans are also very very likely to step in and help if one human is trying to hurt another.

In many ways, humans are safest in groups and the least safe in pairs.

Like, I just think that folks who aren't picking the bear don't really understand bear behavior all that well? (They really arent movie monsters, I promise. And there are honestly PLENTY of animals that you could chose that would make me risk the stranger. Tigers. A big dog with rabies. But bears? Maybe a bear WITH RABIES, but like...bears just arent stalking humans through the woods, craving man meat.)

Either that, or think if we don't assume the BEST from the stranger in the woods, that if we show any amount of wariness or caution about being in an isolated place with a person of unknown intent...we must be paranoid man haters.

✨ Please reblog the polls to make them reach out to as many people as possible, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people listen to the music with an open mind 💖 Artists and titles will be revealed after the poll's conclusion, check the original post for an update! ✨

Lmao how is this real, "the ambient sounds of the world were wrong, sir"

Imagine paying Columbia-amounts of money to be taught by someone with kindergarten-level art literacy. Like, motherfucker, the wholeass point of 4’33” is to emphasize how every performance of live music is inextricably linked to the ambient sounds of the context in which it is performed!!!!!!! Paying attention to and thinking about the context of the performance is the point of the song!!!! If the point was to hear birds chirping and people walking, John Cage would have fucking recorded that instead. Insisting that art is only good when contains good things and makes you feel good things is baby-level art criticism. How the fuck is this dude a professor.

Actually I’m not done going off yet. This pisses me off so much. How can you teach the humanities and be so obstinately ignorant? Like bruh, if the chanting outside makes you feel uncomfortable and upset, maybe you should take about four and a half minutes to contemplate why you feel that way. During that time, you might consider things such as: why are there students chanting? What are they protesting? Why do they feel so strongly about this issue that they’re willing to disrupt their lives to bring attention to it? Should I also feel as strongly? Should I be protesting with them? Is my desire for silence more important than the students’ desire for justice? Why do I find the noise they’re making more upsetting than the genocide they’re protesting?

Being like “loud noise make me angy 😠” is so fundamentally incurious and baby-brained it’s honestly unbelievable

best thing tumblr ever did for me is the term "rotating it in my mind". it's really true that sometimes you think about something real hard but you can't tell what the thoughts are exactly. it's revolutionary stuff, i might even say

sometimes the subject of your thoughts is just in this thing

Ah, there it is!

The TUMBLER!

The tumblr blorbo in the blorbo tumbler.

;

Crochet beholder dice bag for a dear friend. ❤️

little german boy revisits the cave of blüntsmoken! Happy 4/20 ;)

“we need to teach media literacy in schools” guys was i really the only person paying attention in english class bffr

not to be controversial but respect trans women or die by my sword

and my bow

And my axe

I miss when most people in lefty queer feminist circles understood why "not all men" is stupid annoying and missing the point

"You can't hate men some of them are gay or black or something" criticism of men as a social class isn't about individual men being mean or not. Criticism of men as a social class also isn't the same thing as bioessentialism, the patriarchy isn't about hormones or chromosomes or whatever the fuck else. Do you get it. I know someone with the cool gay disabled black dad you're all citing for Why Men Are Good, Actually and she still has to live under the patriarchy. Do you understand? Yeah, sure, not ALL men, but 99% of the time it's men in positions of power fucking over everyone else !!! Please

Like... oh my god. It's absolutely worth talking about intersectionality and how white (and/or cishet, abled, whatever) women hold a certain level of power over other groups, but we can't be denying that the patriarchy... exists. Remember feminism? I miss feminism so much

#also i always get a strange feeling whenever online people's definition of intersectionality is 'which men are opressed by women'#like yes white women (especially middle/upper class cis abled etc.) can hold power over several groups of men#but did you know... that every single one of those opressed classes... also has women in it?#'do you think a homeless man can be misogynistic against a rich white woman'#believe it or not i'm actually a lot more concerned about the homeless women he's around#the framing of men of color as dangerous predators to white women is obviously white supremacy#but that doesn't those men aren't misogynistic. and their primary victims are overwhelmingly women of color in their own communities#idk it sure is something that these people's definition of intersectionality so blatantly ignores black women#who the term was grouped by and for!#misogyny#feminism

anyone who calls all individual actions like thrifting, going vegan or using public transport bad or useless, and instead encourages people to just wait for some kind of big revolution to happen before even considering making any change in their own lives is not actually that interested in things getting better

Brooch with hand forged fine silver lily of the valey flowers on a sterling stem. The leaf is a polished and sealed circuit board inlaid with opals.

The remake reboot prequel sequel industrial complex is killing me but the good thing is I don't have to watch any of that. I can just think "that sounds boring or otherwise doesn't interest me in any way" and do something other than watch it

"They're making a willy wonka origin story with timothee chalamet," you might say to me. "They're doing a live action the last airbender again, didn't you love avatar?" I don't find it necessary. This is nothing to me

#my ability to not watch something is unparalleled

practise disappearing