Follower Tumblr Tag

hiddeninplainsightranch:

For the rest of the day today, we’re playing Tumblr Tag with the accounts we follow. If you find you’ve been tagged in this post, reply with an answer to the following question:

What is your favorite fairy tale?

Susana is answering this because she has an answer that she thinks is actually interesting. 

My favorite fairy tale is East of the Sun, West of the Moon. There are many ways the story is told, but as a kid, I had an edition that was illustrated by Mercer Mayer with 

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these

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fucking

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beautiful

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pictures

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look

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at

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this

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shit.

Sadly, no one in my family can find our copy of it now, and it’s out of print. 

This version of East of the Son, West of the Moon is a bit of an amalgam of several fairy tales. It starts out exactly like The Frog Prince. Beautiful princess who refuses all suitors drops her gold ball in a well, and a talking frog offers to return it in exchange for a promise that she’ll marry him. Naturally, she promises in order to get her ball back, and then refuses to make good on it, because, duh, marrying a frog. The moment she reveals her intentions, the frog turns into a handsome prince and is whisked away by devils to a castle “east of the sun, west of the moon.” Turns out he was cursed by his his wicked stepmother, an ogre queen, and now he has to go live with her and marry one of her ogre daughters. 

The princess immediately realizes that she’s in the wrong here and she’s got to do something about it. So she abandons her pampered lifestyle and embarks on an epic, globe trotting quest where she confronts and is helped by all manner of terrifying, epic elemental beasts: salamanders, great white bears, giant fish, unicorns, asking each one if they know how to get “east of the sun, and west of the moon.” Each one of them points her to another creature that takes her a little farther on her journey and/or offers her aid in the form of items like one of the fish’s silvery scales. 

When she arrives at the castle, she is forced into bondage by the prince’s hideous stepmother and stepsisters, while she seeks to find a way to free him from an enchanted sleep within a glass prison. Eventually she winds up shooting one of the ogres in the heart, turning some of them to stone, etc., and she and her prince live happily ever after. 

At least, that’s how it goes to the best of my recollection. Like I said, nobody in my family can find our copy of it. Needless to say, between the male character who takes on characteristics of both Cinderella and Snow White; the female character who takes on the Hero’s Quest of personal growth, adventure, and restitution; and those illustrations; it really stuck in my head as a kid. 

~

Quasi unrelated, but one of my favorite lady comic artists, Marjane Satrapi, did a slightly more grown up version of this story framework called The Sigh, if you’d be interested in that sort of thing. 

And if you’re interested in another beautifully illustrated out of print fairy tale that has gender role subverting themes (and the additional, you’d-never-notice-it-as-a-kid-but-hey-wow-now-that-I’m-an-adult-yeah theme that worshiping women for their purity and damning them otherwise is bullshit), see if your library has Jane Yolen’s Dove Isabeau

I have a gift for you as well. Your life. And the lives of your wise masters. But I also want something in return. You will release every slave in Yunkai. Every man, woman, and child shall be given as much food, clothing, and property as they can carry as payment for their years of servitude.

(Source: stark-queen, via fuckyeahsuperheroines)

Come on, you know you want to sit down and watch an exclusive screening with The Mary Sue staff. We promise not to talk or text. Or tweet. Or try to update the site.

The Hound mentions Sansa which perks Arya’s ears but she is quickly distracted when she finds out where they’re headed. Not back to King’s Landing – “Fuck Joffrey, fuck the Queen,” says the Hound – he’s taking her to Riverrun to ransom her to her mother and brother. Finally, a family reunion!

birdstump:

Mother of Dragons, by Mahmud Asrar 

birdstump:

Mother of Dragons, by Mahmud Asrar 

It appeared as if Jenny died and I pursed my lips and thought “She better get brought back to life before the end of this episode or they’ll be able to hear me screaming about the Bury Your Gays trope from Los Angeles to Reykjavik.” Fortunately, she does.

The fact remains, it is a slap in the face to not only an audience seeking representation by having more persons of color inhabit the main cast, but to Gene Roddenberry’s central beliefs. In creating Star Trek, Roddenberry sought to show a future where people from all over the world (and beings from all over the galaxy) were brought together by a mission of exploration and diplomacy. And for those who wonder why a villain would be a preferable slot to fill with a non-white casting, we hasten to remind readers of all the attractive, intelligent, and memorable villains that have inhabited the screen. Either we love to hate them, or love to love them straight up, but villainy often gets its own fanclub. Additionally, the intelligent, charismatic villain whose cause the audience nearly sympathizes with is a facet of villainy rarely offered to actors of color.

fuckyeahspiderwife:


MJ: Actors are paid to walk and talk and be dramatic. Models are paid to sit still, shut up, and be distant. We’re talking here about two different skill sets. Maybe I don’t have it. Maybe I should just be what I am, do what I’ve done.
MAY: Would you like my opinion?
MJ: Yes. Please.
MAY: The film roles you’ve done so far…in one you were the beautiful girlfriend who was in jeopardy, in another you were the beautiful girl who tempts people to their death…in another you were the beautiful woman who inspires the hero… It seems to me they hire you because they need someone beautiful to fill a niche in the plot, not because they want someone who can act. You haven’t played a character, MJ, you’ve only played things that move the story ahead.
MJ: I know. Which makes me think maybe I’ve been expecting too much…maybe I’m shooting too high. Is that possible?
MAY: Yes, Mary Jane, it is. But it’s just as possible you haven’t shot high enough. I left that paper behind on purpose, incidentally.
[MJ picks up the paper, which May has left folded to the listings for theater auditions.]

Amazing Spider-Man #506, J. Michael Straczynski (writing) and John Romita, Jr (pencils).
Motherhood isn’t always about who you’re related to.

fuckyeahspiderwife:

MJ: Actors are paid to walk and talk and be dramatic. Models are paid to sit still, shut up, and be distant. We’re talking here about two different skill sets. Maybe I don’t have it. Maybe I should just be what I am, do what I’ve done.

MAY: Would you like my opinion?

MJ: Yes. Please.

MAY: The film roles you’ve done so far…in one you were the beautiful girlfriend who was in jeopardy, in another you were the beautiful girl who tempts people to their death…in another you were the beautiful woman who inspires the hero… It seems to me they hire you because they need someone beautiful to fill a niche in the plot, not because they want someone who can act. You haven’t played a character, MJ, you’ve only played things that move the story ahead.

MJ: I know. Which makes me think maybe I’ve been expecting too much…maybe I’m shooting too high. Is that possible?

MAY: Yes, Mary Jane, it is. But it’s just as possible you haven’t shot high enough. I left that paper behind on purpose, incidentally.

[MJ picks up the paper, which May has left folded to the listings for theater auditions.]

Amazing Spider-Man #506, J. Michael Straczynski (writing) and John Romita, Jr (pencils).

Motherhood isn’t always about who you’re related to.

(via fuckyeahsuperheroines)

The Pacific Rim website has launched a Jaeger Designer where you can make your very own giant, monster-killing mecha.
Feast your eyes on Mary Sue. Try and mansplain something to her. I dare you.

The Pacific Rim website has launched a Jaeger Designer where you can make your very own giant, monster-killing mecha.

Feast your eyes on Mary Sue. Try and mansplain something to her. I dare you.

magneticpie:

probably a bad idea

(via davoseaworth)

dorodraws:

Genderbend Aladdin
No one can understand my internal turmoil over whether male!Jasmine should have the earrings or not.

dorodraws:

Genderbend Aladdin

No one can understand my internal turmoil over whether male!Jasmine should have the earrings or not.

(via lielabell)

megmastersdemon asked: Hi! So I was wondering: how do you decide what shows should be recapped on The Mary Sue, or what shows to pay attention to?

Well, it’s kind of a mix of things. Here are some of them that I can toss off while being distracted by The Colbert Report playing in my parents’ living room. (I’m just home for the weekend ok gosh)

1. We’re a small staff of three editors and a smattering of contributors, most irregular. So part of this is what are our most regular writers already going to be watching, so none of us gets burned out having to spend too much of our nominal leisure time working. (For reference, I’m not sure how it goes with Jill and Rebecca, but I habitually spend at least three hours actually writing my recap on top of spending an hour watching the show.) 

2. Then there’s what’s going to actually interest our readers. To a certain extent, yeah, I enjoy posting things that I feel strongly about but that may not get a lot of attention, but if I’m spending at least four hours of my weekend working on a post, it sure as heck better get us some clicks, sheesh be something people are going to look at and be interested in. 

3. Scheduling. This year, Game of Thrones and Doctor Who premiered on the weekend of The Walking Dead finale. This actually turned out okay: Jill had been recapping TWD, so she took the finale, Rebecca volunteered to do the whole season of GoT, and I took the only one of those shows that I actually watch: Doctor Who. 

PS: It’s funny that you should ask this, because we’ve been pretty happy with the interest our recaps have been generating this spring, and have been talking about what other shows we can do. Priority number one is that it’s something you guys are interested in. So what would you guys want us to recap? Drop a note in our ask box. 

(But you should know that the next season of Teen Wolf is already, like, double covered.)

mingdoyle:

Development sketches and the final label for Heroine Chardonnay 2011, by Iconic Wine.