In a cupboard... under some stairs...
This is a place to record things as and when they appeal to me.
My name is Steph, but call me Rini ;D.
* * *
And pray that I can win."
This is a place to record things as and when they appeal to me.
My name is Steph, but call me Rini ;D.
* * *
Eep.
First of all can we stop calling it a ‘ship war’ when for most people what is happening is actually a really serious issue regarding queer representation and erasure. It’s not about shipping Enjolras with Eponine specifically, or Grantaire specifically. It’s about a certain level of disrespect that exists within certain areas of this fandom for the queer community… Enjonine just happens to be the most popular Enjolras/female ship so… that’s where most of the problematic behaviour is occurring.
Obviously, there are people who go too far, and there are people who see this whole debate as an excuse to be assholes… that’s always going to happen and I in no way agree with people who are attacking other shippers… Personally I think a lot of the problem is a genuine lack of understanding as to where it is the argument is coming from.
“they are fictional fucking characters okay for the love of god”
I want to start here because, yes, they are fictional characters, but that doesn’t make the issues unimportant. Fictional characters are a huge part of our life in this day and age filled with books and television and film and other media. We are introduced to fictional characters from a very early age, and they are important to us.
It’s very comforting to find yourself in a fictional character. It gives you a place to go to when you’re feeling down on yourself, and someone to look at and say “If they can survive this, so can I!” and it’s just generally nice to see representations of yourself, because it means you are not alone, someone thought of this character yes, but they must have taken inspiration from somewhere, so you know that others have felt the same as you, been where you are and that’s a really nice feeling.
So fictional characters hold a lot of weight, and there are a lot of people out there struggling to find a representation of themselves, because we live in a dreadfully heteronormative society, where characters are generally assumed to be straight because it was never explicitly stated that they are anything else… and this is where the problem comes in with Enjolras.
“enjolras’s sexuality is never disclosed so s t o p”
No. Don’t stop.
Just because Enjolras’ sexuality is not formally labelled does not mean that it’s okay for people to take that character and ignore the myriad of allusions to him not being straight. I don’t want to go into them all - you can find a short post on it here - but the general conclusion is that Enjolras is almost certainly queer. Now, we can debate where in the ‘queer’ spectrum he could be located, and there are good arguments to be had there, but I think we can generally rule out ANY sexual interest in women.
Enjolras is a queer character, in classic literature, who is defined not by his appearance or his sexuality, and his story does not revolve around those things at all. He is defined by his strength of character, and his story revolves around his fight for his beliefs and the lengths to which he will go for freedom and justice. That’s rare, even by today’s standards, for the queer community. So it is problematic to simply ‘turn him straight’ for shipping purposes.
Now some enjonine shippers I know keep him asexual, which works for me, though I don’t ship it… but really that’s the only realistic option if you want to stay true to the character. Now… shippers can do as they please I guess, I can’t stop anyone from liking the idea of Eponine and Enjolras together… but there has to be an acknowledgement of the problematic nature of that ship, and that is where a lot of the arguments start. Because people are asking for that and they’re getting “whatever I can ship what I like” in response.
Shipping Enjonine does not make you homophobic, but if you refuse to acknowledge the problems that others have with it then you are contributing to a group that generally views the issues of the queer community as unimportant or not worthy of consideration.
Just like there are elements of the exR and other exmale fandoms that need to acknowledge there IS a problem with purely fetishizing gay relationships. Again this is a problem within our society, and it’s very obvious at a shipping level… and we should be talking about it.
It’s not everyone in the fandom that participates actively (by writing extremely OOC fanfic or heckling the other side etc) in this, but every time someone boils this thing down to a ‘ship war’ or tells everyone to calm down, or says they can ship whatever they like because there are no rules in shipping, is only making things worse… because we should address issues like this, yes even within shipping, because these are issues that need to be tackled at every level. There are a lot of people who simply do not understand why what they’re doing is problematic… I speak as someone who has had to be educated on the matter.
So yes, the demonising and the name calling and the general bitchiness/assholish behaviour needs to stop… it won’t sadly, it’s not something new to fandom in general, and people like that will always exist (and are better left ignored tbh)… however, unlike with actual “ship wars” the underlying problem here is actually way more serious than someone just disliking someone elses headcanons without reason. This isn’t just people disliking a ship choice for no good reason, there are real issues here.
Novelty Twitter Account of the Day: Feminist Taylor Swift
Check out @FeministTaylorSwift, the latest viral novelty Twitter account that parodies the songs lyrics of the pop idol singer with a feminist undertone. Since its launch by college senior and blogger Clara Beyer on June 12th, the feed has gained more than 78,000 followers after a plenty of blog and news media coverage over the weekend. For more info, check out the Know Your Meme entry.
Samantha Bee is a role model.
Michael Gove’s department is considering getting rid of teaching assistants in schools as a cost-cutting method. The Department for Education are considering getting rid of teaching assistants to save money, regardless of the effect this will have on my students, and students across the country. Dear Mr Gove As a teacher, my teaching assistants are the most valuable resource I have. They are unbelievably wonderful, and I couldn’t do my job without them. My school is SEN (Special Education Needs) and in my class there are 10 children with an ability split from P4 to NC2. Each term we plan a new topic. I have 4 TAs plus myself. At the start of each new term we brain storm our new topic together. We plan all our activities together so that everyone has ownership of the plans and can see the bigger picture and what we are trying to achieve. My TAs are very creative and provide far better ideas than I can think of to keep my behaviour challenged children on task. Each TA has been specially trained for a certain role according to their talents and interests. And it’s not just in my classroom that these excellent people work. Across the school we have TAs working in all areas. From the 20 TAs who deal with childrenâs bathroom requirements in a sensitive manner that makes sure no child is ever made to feel uncomfortable or embarrassed, to the very talented TA who, as a gymnast and swimming teacher in her own right was instrumental in helping one of our students to become a Paralympian last year. Hats off to her and her talent! Most TAs are actually paid very little money. Many earn around £7 an hour for all their work and their qualifications. Fair enough some earn the princely sum of £9 an hour but its hardly a vast fortune. I don’t know any in my area who earn £17,000 a year as reported in the Daily Mail this month. Therefore they do not do their job for the money. In my school they do it for the special children because they want to improve their lives for them. So there you have it Mr Gove. I urge you to think again before you embark on this mass removal of TAs.
“I believe that there’s evil in the world
and I’m gonna fight it and win.”
This pathetic thing you see before you is the price of cultivating a CI who likes Jägermeister and Dubstep.
Mike Warren
↳ Highs and Lows
ExR: James Bond AU
“This is a pen!”
“You have to…”
“No. Stop talking.” He held up a hand, and Q glared at him but didn’t make a sound, instead choosing to fold his arms across his chest and raise an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.
“You have given me a pen,” he said, matter-of-factly, “Now you are going to explain to me that it isn’t actually a pen, but rather used to inject a truth serum, or that it’s actually a small but high powered gun, or better yet that it transforms into a flying machine, and frankly it is far too early in the morning for you to be messing with my head like this,”
“It’s one in the afternoon,” replied Q with a sigh, snatching the ‘pen’ back from his hand, “Which you would know, if you weren’t still drunk off your ass from last night,”
“One in the afternoon is practically still morning in our line of work,” he said with an easy smile, “And I resent that. I took a very sobering swim in the Thames last night. I am in fact freshly drunk for today,”
—-
“So go on, amaze me.” he said, “What is it? What does it do?”
“It’s a bloody pen,” snapped Q, “You write with it. There are a couple release forms you need to sign before I can give you your new car;” he pushed a piece of paper across the table between them, smiling sarcastically “You know, so the next time you crash into a river to sober up. We’re all covered.”
it is a sign of how long it is since i last wrote any kind of story in the past tense, that now when I read it back i feel like it’s wrong…
I worked on that show for five years, and I wouldn’t change anything about it. […] I think it’s gonna be one of those shows that, years from now, people are gonna look back and say: “wow, that was actually a great show”. — Aaron Tveit
I’ve got 99 problems and 86 of them are completely made up scenarios in my head that I’m stressing about for absolutely no logical reason.
