I’ve been thinking a lot about the character of the blonde popular bitch in teen movies. There are a lot of examples:
Regina George (Mean Girls), Sharpay Evans (High School Musical), Heather Chandler (Heathers), and Cher Horowitz (Clueless) just to make a few.
What is interesting is all of their characters are defined by three primary characteristics: being physically attractive, being ultra-feminine, and having ambition. Now what’s interesting is the first two characteristics are things that society likes in women, so in a typical story one would expect these characters to be treated as heros or at least love interests. But instead ¾ of these characters are either primary or secondary villains. Cher is the exception, being the protagonist of her movie, but many of her actions are vilified by the script so despite being the protagonist, it isn’t until the end that she is treated like a hero.
Why is this character type villainized?
The answer is that these characters are women who use the things that society likes in women (femininity, beauty) not for men, but for their own personal use. This goes back to the aforementioned ambition. These characters crave power, and are willing to work for it, more specifically, they are willing to use their ~feminine wiles~ to get it. By having this ultra masculine character trait, these characters are seen as villains when they perform simple acts like caring about their appearance, or being flirtatious. Traits like this, ambition, flirtation and even vanity are praised in male characters.
Many of the actions and personalities these women do/have are strikingly similar to many male anti heroes in action movies.
They are arrogant, clever, manipulative, self-aggrandizing, just like characters like Tony Stark, Loki, Han Solo and Deadpool. But whereas these anti heroes become lovable scoundrels with hearts of gold, these characters become the villains of their tales because they are teenage girls.
To me what this says is audiences and writers are fine with all the traits associated with ambition, they just aren’t fine when it’s associated with femininity. Because an ambitious clever man is a scoundrel, but an ambitious woman is a bitch.
As a little girl constantly seeing these characters portrayed as evil made me develop a really negative image of femininity. I wanted to think I was superior to other girls because I feel better presenting pretty masculine. I was really misogynistic to a lot of girls because of my preconceived notions about femininity equating to shallowness and bad intentions. I know there are a lot of gay/gnc girls that like me had similar misogynistic hang ups because of gender non conformity and that really sucks!
As such I think it’s really cool when movies subvert the blonde bitch trope. To some extent, Clueless did this, but I think a better example is Legally Blonde. Elle Woods is clearly ambitious and hard working, but she’s also a feminine pretty blonde woman. And she is absolutely the hero of her story, and she is able to succeed due to a combination of her femininity and her ambition without having to compromise either!
What, like it’s hard?
Allow women to be feminine and ambitious and written like heros!
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After everything that happened in Ragnarok, imagine Thor hearing about Steve and Tony’s fight and being like “Really?! Thats why you all stopped working together?! Just get over it! I did! I’m still friends with Loki and he’s betrayed me three times since breakfast! This petty mortal shit is nothing!”
Loki: “Can confirm, poisoning his mead right now.”
Thor: “Ha! I’ve built up an immunity.”
Now I feel I was cheated on Civil War
Steve: “Well, we disagreed about this big political thing, and I mean big – almost every country in the world was involved.”
Thor: *nodding* “Right.”
Steve: “So we started to fight, I mean really fight. We each had about half a dozen friends backing us up.”
Thor: *nodding* “Always best to bring your friends along”
Steve: “And by the end, it was just me and Tony, and we… we really pounded each other…. no holding back.”
I think a lot of these igrnorant trolls would be incredibly shocked to learn that topics like cultural appropriation, media representation, societal privilege, and most other things that fall under the real of social justice actually come from academia, not Tumblr.
These conversations started at universities and colleges, not on the internet. The reductionist version of these ideas that people are being fed online are quite far removed from their academic originators.
Not shockingly, a lot of the pseudo-intellectualism that has been spawned from these well supported sociological theories comes from self-proclaimed “allies” of various marginalized communities, and not community members, themselves. Some such individuals have become so entangled in their ally-ship that they have created false ethnic and racial identities, and lied about academic credentials in order to stand on a higher soapbox.
If trolls would spend half as much time simply researching the academic side of social justice as they do mocking the pseudo-intellectuals who shout, “check your privilege!” they would actually do far more to dismantle the thing they hate. But, that’s a naively optimistic sentiment considering most trolls are, too, egotistical pseudo-intellectuals.
Sweat is the worst. There’s things out there to make sweat season better, though. Without further ado, my “sweat sucks” checklist, in no particular order! All product names are links- mostly Amazon- but you can get many of these items in a lot of places.
0, the ur-anti-sweat task force item. A good anti-perspirant of your choice. If you’re sweaty and you hate it, you probably already know which one you like best.
1. Gold Bond powder spray. The powder itself is ok, but the spray is where it’s at. If you hate underboob sweat, this is the way to go. Start dry- don’t do this right after a shower, and towel off if you’ve already been sweating. Before putting on a bra or binding, lift one boob, spray underneath, and hold that boob up for a bit to let the spray dry. There’s other things that work for this, too- Fresh Balls, Monkey Butt, etc.- and I have tried all of them and this is the one I keep reaching for. Also, Fresh Balls and Monkey Butt are terrible names.
Just don’t use it on any mucus membranes. If you’ve got a sweaty groin area, be careful with it.
2. Slipshorts. Recently I stopped hating myself and wearing pants in the summer. It’s just too humid out. But a combo of chub rub and sweat means that I feel super uncomfortable if I’m not wearing something– which is where a nice pair of undershorts/bike shorts come in handy. Get cotton ones or wicking ones, and they help combat the sweat and the chafing. Jockey’s Skimmies are really good for this- the ones that wick away moisture. This is not shapewear, mind you- that would only make the sweat problem worse!
3. A fan. I’ve got a really goofy electric one that mists me with water, but it looks really, really goofy. It might look silly, but it let me survive my family’s ill-planned hike up Diamond Head in the middle of the day. That was worth looking silly. When I’m super hot and gross, I don’t care- but it’s not convenient everywhere, or you might have more dignity than me. (Most people probably do, really.) In that case, a folding fan is extremely useful. Pick one that you like- if you carry purses, maybe even get a few cheap ones and toss one in each purse.
4. Another kind of goofy thing that really does work is the Cooldanna, which is a bandanna that’s been sewn into a head band and stuffed with water crystals. You soak it in water, tie it around your head, and it keeps you cool for a very long time. If you were clever, you could make your own with some water polymer crystals and whatever fabric you liked- and this way you’d have more control over design and size and everything. You could even get creative about shape and placement!
5. Around April, I stop wearing closed shoes unless I absolutely have to- sandals all the way for me. I’m a Birkenstocks person, but honestly, any supportive sandal’s good. I’ve had the same pair of Milanos for well over a decade now, and they don’t stink and my feet feel pretty damn good in them.
6. A Ta-Ta Towel. It’s not fun to wear a bra all the time, but it’s equally unfun to be sitting at home and dealing with underboob sweat. You can get these other places, or make your own even, or if your boobs are shaped right, just stick a washcloth beneath them and call it a day- but nothing dries quite like a towel.
7. Bun formers. Getting the hair off the back of the neck is vital, and a bun works pretty much anywhere.
8. Cucumber wipes and a towel. Sometimes if I have to walk or take the bus somewhere in the summer, I’ll actually take face-washing stuff with me in my bag so that I can de-sweat when I get there. If not, cucumber wipes and a small towel work fine.
Sweaty friends: save a life. If you’ve got more things you like to use, please add to the list.
rip tumblr 