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Sister of the Moon

@wolf-moon-spirit / wolf-moon-spirit.tumblr.com

I am woman, hear me roar
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The whole Reframing Britney Spears special and the subsequent conversations around it is reminding me how absolute vile early millennium celebrity gossip culture was, and how it completely dehumanized Spears and other women until it literally made them ill or even killed them. And how much that probably fucked with my-and other millennials’- heads and perceptions of fame and the world, and how women should be treated in the media.

Like, there’s two clips going viral right now about the whole thing that I think sum that whole time period up- the first is an interview Spears had with Diane Sawyer where Sawyer just tears into this obviously struggling woman like she’s a politician or a criminal or something. She’s a pop star, not a member of congress. And Sawyer’s doing shit like reaming her out for ‘breaking Justin Timberlake’s heart (which- that aged well, huh?)’ and justifying the then first lady of Maryland saying  “Really, if I had an opportunity to shoot Britney Spears, I think I would” at domestic violence prevention conference with “ “It’s because of the example for kids and how hard it is to be a parent.” Like, are you kidding me? 

(This is nothing to say of Sawyer’s other infamous celebrity interview around the same time-Whitney Houston- another woman who was clearly ill and needed treatment, not a tv piece with an interviewer who could barely restrain the contempt for her. “Oh well Houston was clearly lying about not doing drugs!” Yeah? Who gives a shit? That doesn’t mean Sawyer handles her with the same gloves she’d handle a member of the Bush Administration about it. At what point does a journalist decide the “newsworthiness” of an interview is less important than the mental wellbeing of its subject?)

And then there’s the clip of Craig Ferguson that’s also big right now where, three days after Spears shaved her head, he says ‘I’m not gonna make fun of this young woman who is clearly ill and neither should you, because we all helped make her sick through our consumption of her.’ In it he mentions the recent death of Anna Nicole Smith, and people in the audience laugh. They laugh at a woman dying and leaving behind a 4 month old. And Ferguson kind of catches it with a look, but keeps going on with his monologue, and it just made me so sad for all of those women that the only person in the media who openly took pity on them and supported them was a comedian who’s in recovery himself. That no one else extended any empathy or reflection about their role in making Britney Spears, Whitney Houston, or Anna Nicole Smith sick (Or any of the other women they chewed up and spit out- Lindsey Lohan and Mischa Barton come to mind.).

I know there’s a lot of hand wringing about social media and how vicious the internet is to women-both famous and not-but I actually think it’s better now than it was then. Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez are both bipolar, and Lovato’s also struggled with drugs. Can you imagine if they’d gone through that in 2005? Or if Taylor Swift had her anorexia and paralyzing chronic anxiety when US Weekly was the most powerful piece of PR? One of them would probably be the new Britney Spears or Lindsey Lohan. 

I don’t want to minimize the effect social media and celebrity culture has on young people, especially young women and girls, now. I think there is a danger in the fact that it’s always available on tap and that anyone can be famous so we should all try to look like famous women. But there just isn’t the same industry dedicated to rapturously following every move of, then shifting into judging, before finally absolutely destroying famous women for entertainment and then selling that destruction to regular women as both entertainment consumption and a morality warning. I’ve seen a lot of people in their late teens/early 20s tweet stuff like “How did Diane Sawyer get away with that interview???” or “Why didn’t those paparazzi get arrested for trespassing or being really dangerous??” and it’s like, babies. We cheered them on.  

Truly, the end of that era is one of the good things brought about by the internet. An absolutely wretched decade. 

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Just an FYI for those in the US with insurance issues

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teratomarty

Important information! Insurance coverage decisions are made by medically ignorant bean-counters. Until we can dismantle the whole shitty system, know how to scare them into submission.

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nerdgasrnz

This is like that procedure Mr. Incredible told that old lady

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In linguistics, a filler is a sound or word that is spoken in conversation by one participant to signal to others that he/she has paused to think but is not yet finished speaking.  These are not to be confused with placeholder names, such as thingamajig, which refer to objects or people whose names are temporarily forgotten, irrelevant, or unknown.

  • In Afrikaans, ah, em, and eh are common fillers.
  • In Arabic, يعني yaʿni (“I mean”) and وﷲ wallāh(i) (“by God”) are common fillers.[2][3][4]
  • In American Sign Language, UM can be signed with open-8 held at chin, palm in, eyebrows down (similar to FAVORITE); or bilateral symmetric bent-V, palm out, repeated axial rotation of wrist (similar to QUOTE).
  • In Bengali, mane (“it means”) is a common filler.
  • In Catalan, eh /ə/, doncs (“so”), llavors (“therefore”), and o sigui (“it means”) are common fillers.
  • In Czech, tak or takže (“so”), prostě (“simply”), jako (“like”) are used as fillers. Čili (“or”) and že (“that”, a conjunction) might also be others. A person who says jako and prostě as fillers might sound a bit simple-minded to others.[5]
  • In Danish, øh is one of the most common fillers.
  • In Dutch, eh, ehm, and dus are some of the more common fillers.
  • In Esperanto, do (“therefore”) is the most common filler.
  • In Filipino, ah, eh, ay, and ano are the most common fillers.
  • In Finnish, niinku (“like”), tota, and öö are the most common fillers.
  • In French, euh /ø/ is most common; other words used as fillers include quoi (“what”), bah, ben (“well”), tu vois (“you see”), and eh bien (roughly “well”, as in “Well, I’m not sure”). Outside of France, other expressions are tu sais (“you know”), t’sais’veux dire? (“you know what I mean?”), or allez une fois (“go one time”). Additional filler words include genre (“kind”), comme (“like”), and style (“style”; “kind”)
  • In German, a more extensive series of filler words, called modal particles, exists, which actually do give the sentence some meaning. More traditional filler words are äh /ɛː/, hm, so /zoː/, tja, and eigentlich (“actually”)
  • In Hebrew, eh is the most common filler. Em is also quite common.
  • In Hindi, matlab (“it means”) and “Mah” are fillers.
  • In Hungarian, common filler words include hát (well…) and asszongya (a variant of azt mondja, which means “it says here…”).
  • In Icelandic, a common filler is hérna (“here”). Þúst, a contraction of þú veist (“you know”), is popular among younger speakers.
  • In Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), anu is one of the most common fillers.
  • In Italian, common fillers include “tipo” (“like”), “ecco” (“there”) and “cioè” (“actually”)
  • In Irish Gaelic, abair /ˈabˠəɾʲ/ (“say”), bhoil /wɛlʲ/ (“well”), and era /ˈɛɾˠə/ are common fillers, along with emm as in Hiberno-English.
  • In Japanese, common fillers include eetto, ano, sono, and ee.
  • In Kannada,Matte for also,Enappa andre for the matter is are the common fillers.
  • In Korean, eung, eo, ge, and eum are commonly used as fillers.
  • In Lithuanian, nu, am and žinai (“you know”) are common fillers.
  • IN Maltese and Maltese English, mela (“then”), or just la, is a common filler.
  • In Mandarin Chinese, speakers often say 这个 zhège/zhèige (“this”) or 那个 nàge/nèige (“that”). Another common filler is 就 jìu (“just/precisely”).
  • In Norwegian, common fillers are øh, altså, på en måte (“in a way”), ikke sant (literally “not true?”, “no kidding”, or “exactly”), vel (“well”), and liksom (“like”). In Bergen, sant (“true”) is often used instead of ikke sant. In the Trøndelag region, skjø’ (“see?” or “understand?”) is also a common filler.
  • In Persian, bebin (“you see”), چیز “chiz” (“thing”), and مثلا masalan (“for instance”) are commonly-used filler words. As well as in Arabic and Urdu, يعني yaʿni (“I mean”) is also used in Persian. Also, eh is a common filler in Persian.
  • In Portuguese, tipo (“like”) is the most common filler.
  • In Romanian, deci /detʃʲ/ (“therefore”) is common, especially in school, and ă /ə/ is also very common (can be lengthened according to the pause in speech, rendered in writing as ăăă), whereas păi /pəj/ is widely used by almost anyone.
  • In Russian, fillers are called слова-паразиты (“vermin words”); the most common are Э-э (“eh”), это (“this”), того (“that”), ну (“well”), значит (“it means”), так (“so”), как его (“what’s it [called]”), типа (“like”), and как бы (“[just] like”).
  • In Serbian, znači (“means”) and ovaj (“this”) are common fillers.
  • In Slovak, oné (“that”), tento (“this”), proste (“simply”), or akože are used as fillers. The Hungarian izé (or izí in its Slovak pronunciation) can also be heard, especially in parts of the country with a large Hungarian population. Ta is a filler typical of Eastern Slovak and one of the most parodied features.
  • In Slovene, pač (“but”, although it has lost that meaning in colloquial, and it is used as a means of explanation), a ne? (“right?”), and no (“well”) are some of the fillers common in central Slovenia, including Ljubljana.
  • In Spanish, fillers are called muletillas. Some of the most common in American Spanish are e /e/, este (“this”), and o sea (roughly means “I mean”).[6], in Spain the previous fillers are also used, but ¿Vale? (“right?”) and ¿no? are very common too.
  • In Swedish, fillers are called utfyllningsord; some of the most common are öhm, ja (“yes”), ba (comes from “bara”, which means “just”), asså or alltså (“therefore”, “thus”), va (comes from “vad”, which means “what”), and liksom and typ (both similar to the English “like”).
  • In Ukrainian, ой /ɔj/ is a common filler.
  • In Urdu, yani (“meaning…”), falan falan (“this and that”; “blah blah”), umm, and aaa are also common fillers.
  • In Telugu, ikkada entante (“Whats here is…”) and tarwatha (“then…”) are common and there are numerous like this.
  • In Tamil, paatheenga-na (“if you see…”) and apparam (“then…”) are common.
  • In Turkish, yani (“meaning…”), şey (“thing”), “işte” (“that is”), and falan (“as such”, “so on”) are common fillers.
  • In Welsh, de or ynde is used as a filler (loosely the equivalent of “You know?” or “Isn’t it?”). Ym… and Y… are used similarly to the English “um…”.
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kittylevin

Remember that this stuff is really important for fluency of speech. I’ve encountered a bad attitude among language teachers before: “we don’t teach filler words, because that’s not “normative” vocabulary, and it encourages students to sound unsure.”  But that’s so, so wrong.  

All people use filler words in conversation and even in formal settings.  It’s a way to keep the flow of speech when the train of thought pauses; it holds the audience’s attention and actually helps maintain clarity of thought.  What’s more, these words are instrumental for language learners, who need to pause more often in their speech than native speakers.  Allowing them to pause without breaking into their language (saying a filler word in their language) or completely breaking the flow of their speech allows them to gain fluency faster.

My high school Japanese teacher did it right: “etto” and “anou” were in the second lesson.  Teach filler words, people!!  And if you’re studying a language and don’t know them, look at this list!!  It has a lot!

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langblrwhy

More portuguese fillers: “ahn” (uh), “é” (it’s), “aí” (then), “tipo” (like), “né?” (right?).

Important because now I can be a dumb bitch in more than one language. Thank you!

Quebec French additions: fak or fa’que (contraction of “ça fait que”, meaning so) and tsé (shortened, differently-pronounced version of the French “tu sais”, meaning you know).

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wariocompany

it is literally almost 2am and im sitting here being scared of the united states like what the fuck there are so many people there!!!!! and they're all just speaking with their american accent like hello??? how do you not just laugh all the time. americans wake up and go to their american jobs and american schools that's so fucking weird. i imagine it as a fake place because it's where everywhere on tv is.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN AMERICAN ACCENT?? HAVE YOU HEARD THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TEXANS AND OHIOANS???

do you think i know what ohio is

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Writing With Color – General Topics

A collection of WWC posts that deal with more general writing advice, character creation and diversity topics applicable to most marginalized people, particularly People of Color and some ethnic and religious groups.

Writing Characters of Color: The Generals

Useful Non-WWC Posts

Diversity/Representation Topics

Character Creation

Characters of Color & Culture

Fantasy & Coding

Writing Sensitive and Controversial Topics

Racism and Micro-Aggressions 

–WWC

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reblogged

Shadowhunters rewatch 2x19

Just gonna briefly talk about this seen cause look at the look at each other, they want each other so badly and I don’t know why Magnus is acting like he’s not repeatedly staring at Alec but go off I guess

This was really soft and hurt like hell😢🥰❤️

This was really soft and full of fluff🥰🥰🥰

Then there’s this seen which I love so goddamn much, theirs so much power and sexual tension at the same time, I love it. They basically had sex in this scene I’m not even joking 🙃

Also appreciate everyone right here, they all look stunningly attractive and once again the power. We love a squad🥰❤️

A bit of Alec appreciation because we love Alec using his bow and quiver🏹 🖤

Jace and Jonathan battling it out to see whose the better fighter as well as a better son is definitely very family-like💛❤️

And finally Izzy appreciation cause she does the most, talk about powerful women and great representation of powerful people. Go off on one Izzy🌹💗

#everyone was looking there best in this episode though

#magnus is a daddy #alec is a daddy #jace is a daddy #izzy is a daddy #clary is a daddy #everyone is sexual #they can all own me #if they all kill me #prosecute me not them #step on me #daddy material

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Charlotte Brontë: Here’s my novel about a young governess who falls in love with a charming asshole edgelord who keeps his wife in the attic
Emily Brontë: Here’s my novel about a tragic orphan and a young lady who torture each other and call it love
Anne Brontë: Here’s my novel about a woman who leaves an abusive marriage and nabs herself a hot young Yorkshire sheepfarmer who Treats Her Right
Me: Oh thank God, at least one of you is sensible.
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