Another issue I have with Les Mis adaptations is how the horror of prostitution is always made the Central Focus of Fantine’s story, instead of the horror of poverty. Idk when you’re used to the musical it’s almost a bit surprising when you read the brick and find out that most of Fantine’s chapters are about ......the mundane horror of living paycheck to paycheck, and giving up everything that makes you happy in order to make ends meet.

Even when book!Fantine does become a prostitute, the horror of it is more like “because of her job the police are Not on her side, she is stigmatized/considered inherently illegal, and so she has no legal way to defend herself when she’s attacked.”

Most of Fantine’s chapters center on her slowly descending deeper into poverty over the course of years, learning to live on less and less and less, and gradually being forced to give up control over every little thing that gives her any joy. She’s initially living an austere but somewhat stable life— and then she unexpectedly loses her job at Valjean’s factory. She’s forced to return all her rented furniture piece by piece because she can’t afford it, she can’t keep a rosebush in her window because she doesn’t have the time to water it; in order to pay rent she has to sew all day and into the night, using the candlelight from a neighbor’s garret. The only thing that brings her joy is brushing her hair; and then she's forced to sell her hair, and then forced to sell her teeth.....

The tragedy of Fantine's plotline in the book isn't that she became a sex worker, it's that poverty ripped away her autonomy in the same way it ripped away Valjean's. And I think that tragedy really deserves more focus in adaptations, because it's such an important part of the book.

“MY ARROGANCE KNOWS NO BOUNDS AND I WILL MAKE NO PEACE TODAY, AND YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY TO FIND A WOMAN LIKE ME” | Jenny Holzer, “Projections”

Important note : this is a projection by artist Jenny Holzer, but the text comes from a poem by Arab American writer Mohja Kahf, ’Ishtar Awakens in Chicago’. Holzer used Kahf’s work with her full agreement, I believe they’ve collaborated several times, but please check out the full context of the poem below.

this is definitely me only smaller and more osha-compliant

THIS IS THE CUTEST SHIT IVE EVER SEENNNN

this poem is so very special to me...

i can't believe i have to fucking say it because i'm an educator so like how is it possible nobody else has said this.

unless a person is actively making materials/etc for children, they do not need to worry about your kid.

your child gets respect as a human. that's it. nobody's private life/artistic endeavors/unrelated interests must be controlled for the sake of your kid.

educators and athletes and artists do not have to live in chastity because your kid might see us on our days off. we do not owe it to your kid to only write poems about bunnies and only sing songs about tying your shoes. i do not care how much a person has given to children, if they are acting as an adult in adult spheres, they are allowed to. they are adults. it is your job as a caregiver to raise your kid and keep them out of adult spheres, not our job to keep ourselves out of those spheres just in case.

guess what! adult role models are going to bars and hooking up and dancing and being adults! this is so they have the mental energy to do all the child-centric things.

"it makes me feel weird to picture them like that!" i don't know how to tell you this but actors aren't actually their roles. the customer-service personality your waitress has is probably not her actual personality. the way teachers interact with students is not the way that they interact with their private lives, and it shouldn't be.

"this tells kids this kind of behavior is okay!" actually it's showing kids a normal and natural progression of a person's life, boundaries, and bodily autonomy. it's showing kids that adults are dynamic human beings. kids already know this. they know there's places they're not allowed and things they don't understand yet. it's just that you have icky feelings because you were raised in a society with black-and-white morality.

celebrities don't owe your children perfection, modesty, sobriety. and you know something? it's way healthier when they don't. "this is a person, who gets up every morning and does their job - but also has adult interests, which you'll learn about later" is way healthier as a role model than "you should be perfect like the curated image of this person and if you're not perfect you should be deeply ashamed."

anyway. idk why "think of the children!!!!" is making a comeback as a popular stance. but to be clear? it's a way of saying "this makes me feel uncomfortable, but i don't know why, and i don't feel like untangling it, so i'll blame you for it and hope you feel guilty about my children."

hi, op here. do not make this about "fandom drama." don't do it.

it is about the policing of black bodies, of minority communities, of queer expression, and of women in the workforce.

it is about real people in the real world. the notes are full of people who express the same thing: teachers who cannot buy wine with their dinner, social workers who have to cover up perfectly appropriate tattoos, queer folk who worry about bringing up their partner in the workplace. there are real-life, horrific, and ongoing consequences for this. real people get fired because they were in a picture holding a single beer, or they were seen wearing a too-saucy costume at halloween, or they kissed their partner in public on their day off. women have been fired for being the victim of revenge porn; their illegally distributed image instead just being seen as evidence against their character. there are queer artists that are actively being silenced because of this rhetoric. trans people fear using the fucking bathroom because of this rhetoric.

this is about the return of white nationalist slogans to a public stage. this is about how we are even seriously debating the phrase "think of the children". the children are not thought of during discussions of climate change, gun control, educational spending, free health care, student debt, access to childcare, access to food, or just getting the fucking vaccine and wearing a mask.

they do not care about the children. they want to protect their own bigotry by manipulating your empathy towards kids. that's what this post is about.

please acknowledge the systemic, ongoing process of erasing identity and freedom. it is not just some "internet discussion". it is a legitimate, scary, and powerful force that is hugely detrimental to the lives of those around you.

Sorry this is literally the funniest thing ever

The Outbursts of Everett True was a comic strip that ran in papers from 1905 to 1927, wherein the aforementioned Everett True regularly beat the everliving shit out of rude people as a warning to anyone else who might consider being rude. Men have not only been taking up too much room on public transport for about as long as public transport has existed, but the people around them have been irritated about it for at least a hundred years. The next time someone tries to claim that manspreading is a false phenomenon, please direct them to this strip so that Everett True can correct their misconceptions with an umbrella upside the head.

I have never before heard of Everett True, but if he “regularly beat the everliving shit out of rude people as a warning to anyone else who might consider being rude,” I have a strong spiritual connection with him.

I fucking love him

i can imagine this guy’s voice very clearly in my head but i couldn’t put a name to it 

He also jabs racists in the eye!

I love the justice grandpa of fists

I’m very lucky to own a book that’s a collection of most of these comics (sadly not all of them) and would highly recommend hunting these down if you can. Sorry for the lack of a scanner but phone photos will just have to do.

He was a enjoyable cuss who didn’t care for war mongering.

Especially profitable war mongering and excuses for it!

He certainly didn’t like selfish husbands and fathers!

Politicians who turned on their words once they got theirs weren’t safe.

He said fuck the police!

He absolutely didn’t like people ruining little things for kids.

He stood up for foreigners. Especially those doing their best to communicate with limited second language knowledge.

He was not having any tomfoolery when it came to gun safety and laws. Especially with youth involved.

You had better not abuse a animal with him nearby. He’d right that wrong real quick!

And best of all him and his wife were both prickly cusses together. Relationship goals.

I have a new role model

“justice grandpa of fists”

It’s nice to see a fat dude in a political cartoon that’s NOT being used as shorthand for greed and corruption.

Hes like the personification of motherfucker unlimited

Reblogging this newer version of this thread with so many more strips I haven’t seen…why did this character ever disappear. Where did you go, Everett.

we need him more than ever…

Grandpa Fuck Around & Find Out. Love him.

so can we start hunting down white liberals now or what

The full picture is even more heart breaking after you open the uncropped version. Just a heads-up, it's rough

Nah let’s post it. Let’s feel it. Don’t look away.

🎵 hello darkness my old friend

Welcome back, everyone. It's been a while.

Over the past week I've had two unfortunate events: my hours at work have been cut, and I've been given two months notice on my current living arrangements. It isn't dire - I'm not at risk of homelessness, and I won't insult anyone's intelligence by pretending that I am. It is important to me to live away from home, though, for a number of reasons, so I'm sure you can understand why I'm anxious to get a deposit for a new place together as quickly as is humanly possible.

If you don't know, I'm SecondStarOnTheLeft on AO3. I've written 270+ stories across 45+ fandoms in the last decade, and I've taken commissions off and on over the past five years. That's where you come in!

I'm opening up three slots per week, every week until the 31st of August, assuming no one requests a 25k+ fic. If you want to commission me and I'm booked up for that week, I will be keeping a list, so it may just be the case that you're looking at 2 weeks instead of 1 before you get your finished project.

If you're interested, I've included the basic details below the cut. My commissions page, which includes examples of my work by length so you can better understand pricing, can be found here. If you have any questions, feel free to DM me or send me an ask!

Looking forward to working with you :)

frankly I think a lot more people would be open to postmodern art if we all stopped pretending you had to be very smart to understand it and start acknowledging that the starting point for deriving meaning from it is frequently ‘this is stupid bullshit’

To clarify- it’s not just ‘this is stupid’ and then you’re done, finding the meaning in something that seems meaningless can usually be found by starting with that base feeling, ‘This sucks.’ Okay- why does it suck, specifically?

‘This is just a vaccuum cleaner, it doesn’t belong in a museum’. Okay, follow that thread- why is that weird? Is it the elevation of normal commercial products to be put on a pedestal? Does that sentiment remind you of anything? How does that make you feel?

“This is just splatters, anyone could do this.” Anyone could, couldn’t they? Anyone can create things, anyone can make these movements and gestures. Dancing does the same thing, doesn’t it? How do the splatters imply the artist’s movements? What does it say about them?

“This person made a mobile out of twine, flower pots, and pictures of cats. How is this art?” What mediums do you define as ‘art’? Paint? Marble sculpture? Photos? Why are you so sure that this is what art is? Doesn’t this remind you of the kind of crafts a child would make, or maybe a first-time DIYer? Is that intentional? Does the construction or material evoke any other emotions?

This isn’t an end-all be-all, of course- among many other things, there’s postmodern art that’s just for a show of mastery, there’s art that’s commenting on a very certain time in history or about something within the art community you may not be privy to, and there’s art that’s simply about creating and the creative process. It’s hard to approach a full narrative with just a single sentiment. This can’t cover every single topic, obviously.

That being said, it’s just as important to note that in many cases, there’s no wrong answers in art or interpretation. If your takeaway is completely different from the artist, as long as you don’t try to insist that the artist has no real say over their work’s meaning, that’s totally fine. A large part of non-representational art is reliant on emotions, and emotions are informed by your experience as a human being. Your interpretation is just as right as anyone else’s. And you don’t even have to LIKE everything- I hate Jeff Koons and his stupid balloon dogs! Cremaster makes me incredibly uncomfortable and even if that’s the point it’s still uncomfortable enough that it makes me not like it! You can just not like certain art, it’s not all-or-nothing it’s good or it’s not.

TL;DR- if you have a hard time ‘getting’ art, try listening to your base reaction to what you’re looking at, and then ask yourself why it makes you feel that way, and why it’s constructed the way it is.

CRT panic is completely fabricated and driven by rightwing propaganda to crack blue districts and drive up republican voter turnout — here’s one of the main architects, who works at the manhattan institute, bragging about it on twitter. to this you might ask: then why is it having such a reception? to which the answer is that there’s a conflation of many different ideas and associations, wrapped up in the general racism, anti-intellectualism, and anti-educationalism of white suburban parents who are enraged at the traction of discourse that confronts their status in america and the history that got them there. it’s not even that their kids are reading crenshaw, it’s that any discussion of race is being re-packaged as CRT

you’re telling me this onicle is bi?

what’s that? this former is trans too?

you're telling me this onicle is bi?

what's that? this former is trans too?

where's the director's cut

Ooooohhh. So THAT'S WHY he said that black guy was not black if he didn't vote for him, poor kids are just as bright as white kids, told an activist he should vote for Trump over criticism of Obama's deportations, told y'all not to vote for him if you believe Tara Reade's allegations against him and said the Latino community was diverse, unlike the African American community!

It was all because of a stutter!

And here I thought the guy was just old, racist and senile as fuck smh 😔