And I don't think it's actually true, at all, that "Karens" are women who are so privileged they've never experienced sexism and therefore don't know what suffering is like Quite the opposite -- it's really really fucking obvious that a lot of "Karens" are traumatized af
-
-
The webcomic Strong Female Protagonist goes into this early, with this really powerful and frightening rant from the titular SFP, who has Superman-style powers Having a talk with the supervillain in the prison where *she takes the initiative* to say they're Not So Different
Show this thread -
"All the people out there who think they have the right to judge make me SICK They think they're BETTER than us when they're just WEAKER They think they're MORAL when they're just SCARED They call themselves PACIFISTS when they're just AFRAID OF GOING TO JAIL"
Show this thread -
"How DARE YOU act like you're a good person because you've never killed someone You've never had the OPPORTUNITY to kill someone If you tried, it would be the hardest thing you ever did, and it would ruin your life afterwards"
Show this thread -
"I could kill a hundred thousand people right now, and it wouldn't even be hard, and they couldn't do a goddamn thing to stop or punish me I refuse to do it because I choose not to, because I ACTUALLY DO think it's wrong -- and it's SO. FUCKING. HARD"
Show this thread -
"EVERY DAY I don't fly through the country crushing the skull of every bigoted, selfish, abusive, bullying fuckface I see, they should give me a medal Every scumbag on this planet gets away with their petty little sins because they're NOT AFRAID OF ME, and THEY SHOULD BE"
Show this thread -
It's really harsh, but I mean, shit, it's true isn't it I saw a standup comedy bit along the same lines -- before the Louis CK revelations rocked the standup world, but honestly you didn't need to know about that to appreciate the topic
Show this thread -
"You know what? Yeah, I do think I deserve cookies for being good -- I do think that's something I should be rewarded for, because it's actually hard You have no idea, you read the tabloids and you make fun of celebrities for not being able to keep it in their pants"
Show this thread -
"Of course it's easy for you to be good, YOU HAVE NO CHOICE 'Oh, I've never cheated on my wife' -- cheated WITH WHO? Yeah I'm sure you're really beating 'em off with a stick as the assistant manager of Burger King"
Show this thread -
"You ever had someone just OFFER to give you a blowjob? Out of nowhere? For no reason except that they just think you're really cool and awesome for doing your job, that you already got paid big money to do? You ever had them LINE UP to offer to give you a blowjob?"
Show this thread -
"You ever had that happen OVER AND OVER AGAIN? And known you could get away with it, because you have a guy on speed dial you can call specifically to make sure you have an alibi to cover your ass if it gets out?"
Show this thread -
"Someone whose fucking JOB -- who gets PAID a hefty RETAINER -- to COVER UP THE BAD THINGS YOU DO, in case you ever do them And then you STILL CHOOSE NOT TO DO BAD THINGS? If you've ever experienced that then sure, you get an opinion over whether I deserve a cookie"
Show this thread -
It was very dark rant, and one that, you know, I hope he meant with a certain degree of irony for the sake of dark comedy But I mean, shit It's a pretty big fucking question, isn't it (This kind of thing is the heart of Nietzsche's whole deal with Herrenmoral and Sklavenmoral)
Show this thread -
And, like, WandaVision is this story about pushing that question to its limit This terrible mathematical equation where her power grows in proportion to her pain, which means it's always growing past her ability to rein in her desires
Show this thread -
She *tries* to be good, she *really really tries* -- when someone like Hayward deliberately pushes her to the very brink of what she can tolerate, makes her watch her husband's corpse being coldly dissected, in hopes of triggering a reaction, she still holds back
Show this thread -
But finally when she has nowhere else to go and nothing else to do and she just drives to that vacant lot where she wanted to bury Vision and finds the path there to be an emotional dead end it all comes pouring out It's a very visceral, real moment
Show this thread -
And it's like yeah Having seen it and felt it from her perspective, I can't *hate* her But it's... not okay This situation shouldn't happen It's wrong to put the responsibility for not hurting people on the shoulders of someone already so burdened
Show this thread -
I cannot actually sympathize with Roman Polanski for being so traumatized and sad he raped children I can, however, say that, trying to look at it from the POV of his own welfare -- it was a bad thing for him to carry the weight of so much loss *and* so much power at once
Show this thread -
To be lauded and celebrated as a filmmaker such that he made his living and affirmed his own worth based on how deeply he could dwell in his own pain To have immense amounts of money and fame and the ability to fly to another country to escape consequences
Show this thread -
It is obvious that not only would his victims be better off but also he would be better off if he hadn't had power (Even continuing to live a life of luxury and celebrity as he does, he wouldn't be racked with guilt and constantly looking over his shoulder as he obviously is)
Show this thread -
It's just, you know How do you go around judging people before they've actually done anything saying "Well it's not a good idea to let you have too much power" Who judges, who gets to take that power away, and how can we trust them not to keep it for themselves
Show this thread -
It's kaleidoscopic, right, like everyone right now is talking about how fucked up Sia's relationship with Maddie Ziegler is and how fucked it is that people let it go on for so long, but Sia herself says she's a survivor of abusive relationships and her art was her way of coping
Show this thread -
Before Sia shat the bed with her latest movie and made everyone double-take like "She's been doing this kind of shit with this girl since she was HOW old?", if you were the one standing in the way of her making her art with her muse everyone would call you the asshole
Show this thread -
All the other progressive academics circling around Avital Ronell saying that her unique way of working with her students was a form of queer feminist liberation, before her advisee gave a full accounting of how invasive and fucked up their relationship was
Show this thread -
Like I think this is a deep dark thing at the heart of how we look at art and creativity I did a thread before on how this is the message of the fucking Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie with Gene Wilder
Show this thread -
Charlie wins the game at the end because he understands that as abusive and unfair and tyrannical as Willy Wonka is, the Chocolate Factory is beautiful, it brings countless people joy, it's TOO IMPORTANT to let it be destroyed over his own grievance
Show this thread -
It's a choice people make all the fucking time Probably way more of the Great Artists and Great Works that make up our culture wouldn't exist than we're willing to admit, if everyone stood up for their rights
Show this thread -
It's a stereotypical way creative men leech off of women, but it's by no means a special power only men have And, like WandaVision is about it not being an easy question to answer
Show this thread -
The easy way out is to just say "Well fuck you, your pain isn't real, the very fact that you have power and privilege means this is just narcissistic wank and you can be dismissed" It's a very common response nowadays when a celebrity faces a "reckoning"
Show this thread -
But like WandaVision doesn't let you have that out The pain *is* real, and the suffering *is* real, and the power is *powered by the suffering* The citizens of Westview suffer precisely because her grief is so strong, because its echoing constant reality binds them to her
Show this thread -
And Westview *is* a beautiful thing, something that watchers like Darcy get "invested" in The twin boys and the false Vision are real within the Hex, and alive, and worthy of life in their own terms, and to give up the Hex is to sacrifice them
Show this thread - Show replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.