“Crime has no sex and yet to-day
I wear the brand of shame;
Whilst he amid the gay and proud
Still bears an honored name.Can you blame me if I’ve learned to think
Your hate of vice a sham,
When you so coldly crushed me down
And then excused the man?”These lines, from the poem “A Double Standard” by Frances E.W. Harper, were published in 1855. It’s about a woman whose reputation is ruined after a sexual encounter with a man who suffers no ill effects.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this poem in the context of misogyny but also class and race in America. (Harper was an African American female born in 1825 in Maryland.) We have plenty of American narratives about what we now call slut-shaming, from The Scarlet Letter onward, but what usually goes unexplored in those stories is the ideological disconnect inherent to American misogyny. (I would argue The Scarlet Letter is more an anti-Puritanism novel than an anti-sexism novel.)
What the narrator of Harper’s poem wants is to be treated equally—not to go unpunished if she committed a crime* but to be treated the same as any other citizen. This is one of the fundamental ideas of America, but of course our rhetoric has always run up against entrenched power structures that do not actually wish for a world of equal opportunity for all people. Our hatred of vice has always been a sham, born not of a desire to protect the innocent but to allow the powerful to retain their power.
When America has moved forward as a nation, it has been when the oppressed have demanded the U.S. live up to its rhetoric. And that is why African American history is not at the periphery of American history but in fact at the center of it.
* Obviously to our sensibilities bonking outside of marriage is no crime, but this was 1855.
Hey guys, my mom has been smoking since she was a teenager. Well now, she’s in her 40’s with diabetes. Her doctor says if she doesn’t quit smoking, she could go blind or lose her legs. My mom has always told me to never smoke & that’s its bad. But she doesn’t know how bad it is for her. My mom is my everything. I know it may seem a lot of reblogs, but it would really mean the world to me if you guys share this and reblog it!!
An excellent initiative, everyone reblog!!
Well, first of all, I’m going to point out that I don’t use gender-specific classes when Classpecting, so if you want that, you might need to go somewhere else.
Ralph I’m going to say is probably a Prince. He’s got the inherently destructive nature and the tendency to backpedal. However, as for his Aspect, I would personally put him as a Prince of Hope. Consider that he continuously wants to move forward to brighter and better things, but is constantly shortsighted in his attempts to move forward. It’s when he begins to use his strength in order to open doors and work towards his goals using his strength and his destruction, as well as opening his ideas to all the myriad possibilities that he gets major character growth.
Felix, on the other hand, is a Knight of Blood. He relies on his friends and relations for everything, from food to eat to a place to stay. As soon as Ralph goes missing, he is absolutely determined to help him out. Also note that as soon as he loses these connections, he’s almost hopeless and has a nigh impossible time accomplishing his ends. He also only has his hammer as his main feature that he uses for almost problem, to the point that he can’t break anything because he’s gotten so used to using it.
Sully and Mike are twin sides of the same coin: An Heir of Heart and a Mage of Mind. If you’ve seen Monsters University (mild spoilers ahead) you’ll know why Mike is who he is: he excels at seeing who people are through their actions and then helping them arrange their actions and appearnce to bring out that side of them, while remaining unaware of his own trule self. (spoilers for Monster University end here) In Monsters Incorporated he is also very focused on glitz, glamour, and appearance, and takes careful actions to make sure that things go their way by predicting actions and paths of actions. Sulley, on the other hand, relies on who he is to his own detriment. He is also passionate and refuses to do anything that conflicts with his own moral code, and is quite capable of convincing people to change their tune when necessary.
As for Randall, I’m going to say Thief of Void. Not only does he use invisibility (or camouflage) as his primary gag, he also uses obscurity, secrets, and backroom deals to get what he wants, throwing into sharp relief Sulley’s own rather brutish tactics by removing the subtlety contained therein.
hetaliahomestuckandcrossovers:
EOOOOOO: hellstobetsy: EOOOOOO: The Batman Testinfinitywhale: So this is a…
So this is a theory I’ve been kicking around for a while, because I think it’s a good one.
The idea is that there needs to be a universal test of badassery, one single trial we can run a character through to determine just how…
Luffy vs. Batman? I wanna see that fight. I think Zoro would do pretty well too though.
Luffy versus Batman, on second thought, Batman would win by figuring out that Luffy has a weakness to water. Zoro would be much harder for Batman to win, because while Luffy’s attack don’t always instantly kill, the three-sword style would nearly impossible for Batman to deal with. Granted, given foreknowledge he would probably brush up on sword styles, defend as long as he could, and tase him somehow.
So this is a theory I’ve been kicking around for a while, because I think it’s a good one.
The idea is that there needs to be a universal test of badassery, one single trial we can run a character through to determine just how awesome they are.
The best solution I’ve come up with is the Batman…
There are actual DC Editorial rules for beating Batman in a fight.
1. Your character may defeat Batman in their own book (if they don’t have a book, tough shit)2. Once
3. If he’s caught off guard.
This just reinforces my point even more. Batman is a skilled, nigh-unbeatable character, but not invincible. There is a sanctioned method, it just involves a ludicrously power person.
Persons who might be able to beat Batman:
1. ) Wolverine.
2. ) Monkey D. Luffy
3. ) Dr. Manhattan
4. ) Others.
But in general, most people are going DOWN.
You’ve told me her disorders, but nothing of her personality? Vaguely interested doesn’t help much. Why do she do art? How does she express herself? How does she treat her friends? Why does she do the things she doe? What does she want and how does she work towards it? What does she fear and why?
