16 Superlatives

The problem with Encanto headcanons

As a Colombian I LOVED Encanto, but I know people have headcannoned Isabela as lesbian and Mirabel as bisexual among other characters. The issue with that is..

There is no issue.

In 2020 this was such a prominent issue to people and even 4 years later I have no idea why so many people took issue with this. It was fine for people to headcanon Elsa as lesbian, it was fine for people to headcanon Merida as lesbian, but all of sudden it's "forcing representation" and "taking away from the main story" if Isabela gets headcannoned as lesbian?? NOBODY is saying this for Max Goof and Bradley Uppercrust III when the movie was trending. NOBODY was saying it was forced representation when people shipped Bill Cipher and Ford Pines (even though the fact its gay isn't the issue but the fact it was a very manipulative relationship was but many people ignored that). And it's not bad to headcanon any of these things for any of these characters. I just don't understand why it was such an issue when Isabela (who's whole arc is honestly very WLW coded) gets called a lesbian. And its the fact its coincidentally a Hispanic character (I'm not implying ANYTHING.)

Overall, as a Colombian while i dont speak for every Colombian it never was and still isn't offensive to headcanon any Encanto character as queer since many people figured it was. Both the story and the headcanon can coexist. Acting this way won't get you approval from homophobes and transphobes! They still hate us stinkabutt 🤞

TL;DR : there was nothing wrong with headcanoning an Encanto character as queer in 2020 and there still isn't anything wrong with it in 2024.

“she’s surviving thunderbolts!” me and the four other antonia dreykov fans scream as we are dragged away to the padded room

This post is very relevant today!

How to Criticize Israel Without Being Anti-Semitic

If you’ve spent any time discussing or reading about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I guarantee you’ve heard some variation of this statement:

OMG, Jews think any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic! 

In the interests of this post, I’m going to assume that the people who express such sentiments are acting in good faith and really don’t mean to cause pain to or problems for Diaspora Jewry.  For those good-faith people, I present some guidelines for staying on the good side of that admittedly murky line, along with the reasoning why the actions I list are problematic.  (And bad-faith people, you can no longer plead ignorance if you engage in any of these no-nos.  Consider yourselves warned.)  In no particular order:

Don’t use the terms “bloodthirsty,” “lust for Palestinian blood,” or similar.  Historically, Jews have been massacred in the belief that we use the blood of non-Jews (particularly of children) in our religious rituals.  This belief still persists in large portions of the Arab world (largely because white Europeans deliberately spread the belief among Arabs) and even in parts of the Western world.  Murderous, inhumane, cruel, vicious–fine.  But blood…just don’t go there.  Depicting Israel/Israelis/Israeli leaders eating children is also a no-no, for the same reason.

Don’t use crucifixion imagery. Another huge, driving motivation behind anti-Semitism historically has been the belief that the Jews, rather than the Romans, crucified Jesus.  As in #1, this belief still persists.  There are plenty of other ways to depict suffering that don’t call back to ancient libels.

Don’t demand that Jews publicly repudiate the actions of settlers and extremists.  People who make this demand are assuming that Jews are terrible people or undeserving of being heard out unless they “prove” themselves acceptable by non-Jews’ standards.  (It’s not okay to demand Palestinians publicly repudiate the actions of Hamas in order to be accepted/trusted, either.)

Don’t say “the Jews” when you mean Israel.  I think this should be pretty clear.  The people in power in Israel are Jews, but not all Jews are Israelis (let alone Israeli leaders).

Don’t say “Zionists” when you mean Israel. Zionism is no more a dirty word than feminism.  It is simply the belief that the Jews should have a country in part of their ancestral homeland where they can take refuge from the anti-Semitism and persecution they face everywhere else.  It does not mean a belief that Jews have a right to grab land from others, a belief that Jews are superior to non-Jews, or any other such tripe, any more than feminism means hating men.  Unless you believe that Israel should entirely cease to exist, you are yourself Zionist.  Furthermore, using “Zionists” in place of “Israelis” is inaccurate and harmful.  The word “Zionists” includes Diasporan Jews as well (most of whom support a two-state solution and pretty much none of whom have any influence on Israel’s policies) and is used to justify anti-Semitic attacks outside Israel (i.e., they brought it on themselves by being Zionists).  And many of the Jews IN Israel who are most violent against Palestinians are actually anti-Zionist–they believe that the modern state of Israel is an offense against God because it isn’t governed by halakha (traditional Jewish religious law).  Be careful with the labels you use.

Don’t call Jews you agree with “the good Jews.”  Imposing your values on another group is not okay.  Tokenizing is not okay.  Appointing yourself the judge of what other groups can or should believe is not okay.

Don’t use your Jewish friends or Jews who agree with you as shields.  (AKA, “I can’t be anti-Semitic, I have Jewish friends!” or “Well, Jew X agrees with me, so you’re wrong.”)  Again, this behavior is tokenizing and essentially amounts to you as a non-Jew appointing yourself arbiter over what Jews can/should feel or believe.  You don’t get to do that.

Don’t claim that Jews are ethnically European.  Jews come in many colors–white is only one.  Besides, the fact that many of us have some genetic mixing with the peoples who tried to force us to assimilate (be they German, Indian, Ethiopian, Italian…) doesn’t change the fact that all our common ancestral roots go back to Israel.

Don’t claim that Jews “aren’t the TRUE/REAL Jews.“  Enough said.

Don’t claim that Jews have no real historical connection to Israel/the Temple Mount.  Archaeology and the historical record both establish that this is false.

Don’t accuse Diasporan Jews of dual loyalties or treason.  This is another charge that historically has been used to justify persecution and murder of Jews.  Having a connection to our ancestral homeland is natural.  Having a connection to our co-religionists who live there is natural.  It is no more treasonous for a Jew to consider the well-being of Israel when casting a vote than for a Muslim to consider the well-being of Islamic countries when voting.  (Tangent: fuck drone strikes.  End tangent.)

Don’t claim that the Jews control the media/banks/country that isn’t Israel.  Yet another historical anti-Semitic claim is that Jews as a group intend to control the world and try to achieve this aim through shadowy, sinister channels.  There are many prominent Jews in the media and in the banking industry, yes, but they aren’t engaged in any kind of organized conspiracy to take over those industries, they simply work in those industries.  The phrase “the Jews control” should never be heard in a debate/discussion of Israel.

Don’t depict the Magen David (Star of David) as an equivalent to the Nazi swastika.  The Magen David represents all Jews–not just Israelis, not just people who are violent against Palestinians, ALL JEWS.  When you do this, you are painting all Jews as violent, genocidal racists.  DON’T.

Don’t use the Holocaust/Nazism/Hitler as a rhetorical prop.  The Jews who were murdered didn’t set foot in what was then Palestine, let alone take part in Israeli politics or policies.  It is wrong and appropriative to try to use their deaths to score political points.  Genocide, racism, occupation, murder, extermination–go ahead and use those terms, but leave the Holocaust out of it.

In visual depictions (i.e., political cartoons and such), don’t depict Israel/Israelis as Jewish stereotypes.  Don’t show them in Chassidic, black-hat garb.  Don’t show them with exaggerated noses or frizzled red hair or payus (earlocks).  Don’t show them with horns or depict them as the Devil.  Don’t show them cackling over/hoarding money.  Don’t show them drinking blood or eating children (see #1).  Don’t show them raping non-Jewish women.  The Nazis didn’t invent the tropes they used in their propaganda–all of these have been anti-Semitic tropes going back centuries.  (The red hair trope, for instance, goes back to early depictions of Judas Iscariot as a redhead, and the horns trope stems from the belief that Jews are the Devil’s children, sent to destroy the world as best we can for our “father.”)

Don’t use the phrase “the chosen people” to deride or as proof of Jewish racism.  When Jews say we are the chosen people, we don’t mean that we are biologically superior to others or that God loves us more than other groups.  Judaism in fact teaches that everyone is capable of being a righteous, Godly person, that Jews have obligations to be ethical and decent to “the stranger in our midst,” and that non-Jews don’t get sent to some kind of damnation for believing in another faith.  When we say we’re the chosen people, we mean that, according to our faith, God gave us extra responsibilities and codes of behavior that other groups aren’t burdened with, in the form of the Torah.  That’s all it means.

Don’t claim that anti-Semitism is eradicated or negligible.  It isn’t.  In fact, according to international watchdog groups, it’s sharply on the rise.  (Which sadly isn’t surprising–anti-Semitism historically surges during economic downturns, thanks to the belief that Jews control the banks.)  This sort of statement is extremely dismissive and accuses us of lying about our own experiences.

Don’t say that since Palestinians are Semites, Jews/Israelis are anti-Semitic, too.  You do not get to redefine the oppressions of others, nor do you get to police how they refer to that oppression.  This also often ties into #8.  Don’t do it.  Anti-Semitism has exclusively meant anti-Jewish bigotry for a good century plus now.  Coin your own word for anti-Palestinian oppression, or just call it what it is: racism mixed with Islamophobia.

Don’t blow off Jews telling you that what you’re saying is anti-Semitic with some variant of the statement at the top of this post.  Not all anti-Israel speech is anti-Semitic (a lot of it is valid, much-deserved criticism), but some certainly is.  Actually give the accusation your consideration and hear the accuser out.  If they fail to convince you, that’s fine.  But at least hear them out (without talking over them) before you decide that.

I’m sure this isn’t a comprehensive list, but it covers all the hard-and-fast rules I can think of.  (I welcome input for improving it.)

But wait!  Why should I care about any of this?  I’m standing up for people who are suffering!

You should care because nonsense like the above makes Jews sympathetic to the Palestinian plight wary and afraid of joining your cause.  You should care because, unfortunately, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has correlated to an uptick in anti-Semitic attacks around the world, attacks on Jews who have no say in Israeli politics, and this kind of behavior merely aggravates that, whether you intend it to or not. 

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a real minefield in that it’s a clash between oppressed people of color and an ethnoreligious group that is dominant in Israel but marginalized and brutalized elsewhere (often nowadays on the exact grounds that they share ethnoreligious ties with the people of Israel), so it’s damned hard to toe the line of being socially aware and sensitive to both groups.  I get that.  But I think it is possible to toe that line, and I hope this post helps with that.  (And if a Palestinian makes a similar list of problematic arguments they hear targeted at them, I’d be happy to reblog it, too.)

So, TL;DR version:

Do go ahead and criticize Israel.

Don’t use anti-Semitic stereotypes or tropes.

Don’t use overly expansive language that covers Jews as a whole and not just Israel.

Don’t use lies to boost your claims.

Do engage Jews in conversation on the issues of Israel and of anti-Semitism, rather than simply shutting them down for disagreeing.

Do try to be sensitive to the fact that, fair or not, many people take verbal or violent revenge for the actions of Israelis on Diasporan Jews, and Diasporan Jews are understandably frightened and upset by this.

May there be peace in our days.

8,42 ans 43 for yelena !

8. Unpopular opinion about them

She is not mature. She's hyperindependent and great at masking, but she's NOT emotionally mature-her psychosocial development stalled out at 6.

42. 3 comfort items

This is a little niche and leans into Experiment!Yelena but Laura Barton makes her a crochet or knit throw blanket that Yelena ADORES. She also has a weighted plush, and a specific pair of earrings Kate gets her that she almost never takes out.

43. 3 favorite foods and 3 they despise

Favorites: Mac and cheese (duh, one of the only processed foods she'll eat), green grapes, crispy tofu.

Least favorites: cooked spinach, shrimp, okra

Introducing

Good evening! My name is Sammy. I am a pink and purple moth.

I mostly make content about gardening, but I sometimes make fan content for Disney(Descendants and Disney Princess Movies), Marvel(Black Widow), and South Park.

Lastly, I keep my socials very clean, so I do not do smut, pwp, or even swearing. Speaking of my socials, my Instagram and Tiktok ae both under the handle @sammyam1234.

Thank you for reading my intro! Happy writing.

Aunt!Yelena x niece!reader headcanons

masterlist

a/n: here’s the second one !! writing auntie Yelena has to be one of my favourite things ever :))

You do not have my permission to repost, copy or translate my work

 |——————————— ⴵ ———————————|

Auntie Yelena who was more than ecstatic to meet you when she first heard about you. She was totally overjoyed when she found out that Natasha was adopting a baby girl

Auntie Yelena who spoiled you with gifts ever since you were a baby. Natasha had once tried telling her to stop because her house simply couldn’t take much more stuff, but after she saw the joy it brought Yelena she had given up trying to stop her

Auntie Yelena who always stole you out of Natasha’s arms when she came over. She always wanted to hold you. After Natasha would put you down for a nap Yelena would sneak into your room and hold you while you slept. Natasha caught her once but decided not to say anything. She adored watching her sister love her daughter so much

Auntie Yelena who took you with her when she went to adopt a dog at the shelter. She valued your opinion more than anyone else's

Auntie Yelena who, when she came over, always brought you a gift from whatever place she had been to then. She was always travelling, and her favourite thing was bringing something with her for you

Auntie Yelena who ‘accidentally’ taught you multiple curse words, enjoying Natasha’s face when you blurted one out. Obviously you didn’t know what they meant. All you knew was that your auntie Yelena would laugh when you said ‘fuck,’ and you took great pride in being able to make your auntie ‘Lena laugh

Auntie Yelena who, when you got older, would take you on little road trips around the city. She would simply show up in front of the house and demand Natasha to lend you to her for a couple of hours 

Auntie Yelena who made the best hot chocolates for you when you felt down, and who would make the best mac and cheese when you were sad

Auntie Yelena who didn’t hesitate to drop anything and everything when you called her while upset, and who would fly or drive to you in a heartbeat if you needed her

Auntie Yelena who loved that you loved her so much. Ever since you were a baby you always wanted to sit in her lap and play with her, and when you grew up you still wanted to hang out with her whenever you could

Auntie Yelena who scolded Alexei when he made fun of you once, claiming he was fat and mean and had no right insulting you with whatever he insulted you with 

Auntie Yelena who broke your trust only once, and that was when she called Natasha while you were being bullied in school. Natasha had comforted you while Yelena went on a little house visit and nearly made the poor girl piss herself from fear

Auntie Yelena who was the sweetest person you had ever met, yet made people fear her with a simple glare 

Auntie Yelena who, despite your age, took you to build a bear when you turned 16. She helped you pick out a soft, adorable bear and when you got to the dressing bit she had basically forced you to give it a small black widow outfit

Auntie Yelena who always supported whatever hobby you started, making sure you had plenty of supplies in stock. If you ran out of something she would know before you did, making sure you were restocked before you started another project and missed something

Auntie Yelena who, in the end, loved you more than she loved herself

Permanent tags: @marvelnatasha12346 @lesbionion @nova-kyle @darkstar225 @saraaahsstuff @marvelwomenarehot0 @screechcat @iheartjohansson @tia-thesimp @swaqcenix @karmasgxrl @marvel-lous3000 @hor1zond1ar1es @lorsstar1st @superlegend216

here is your gentle reminder that there are dandelions growing through cracks in the sidewalk. there is a fence lizard on the porch who is growing a new tail. there are trees growing through an abandoned house, branches tearing through the ceiling, ferns carpeting the floor. there is life pushing forward, pushing through. 

So if Antonio annoys anyone, they can respond w/ "ok boomer"?

When u realise Antonio is literally a boomer

I knew the movie was gonna be a flop when I saw who the cast were. Colleen should’ve got upcoming small cast to play the characters and do justice with it. Serena didn’t. She made it all about herself, me me meeee. The whole thing was a pr mess and I look at Blake very differently now.

Yes! The casting pissed me off but then I was starting to like Justin as Ryle but Blake as Lilly. NO WAY! She took the press tour as an opportunity to boast about her style, she saw how much love Margot got and wanted that. I don’t think she realised though that the entire cast of barbie had so much love and respect for each other and they LOVED their director and would sing her praises all the time. Blake took something that meant sooo much to Justin and made it all about her self. And the fashion choices of the film which she can’t seem to shut her trap about are the worst parts of the film. Lilly’s wardrobe is HIDEOUS.

Elsabela: Perfect Song

CW: Drugs, Ice, Lana Del Rey, Plants

Good morning, afternoon, or evening to anyone reading my post! Thank you for taking the time out of your day or night to read my post.

While I was doing my homework, I was listening to Lana Del Rey. I would not consider myself a Lana stan, but I do enjoy quite a few of her songs, especially ones from her Ultraviolence album.

While I was listening to Lana Del Rey's 2014 song "Brooklyn Baby", I thought that it would be the perfect song for an Elsabela fanfiction. For textual evidence, I have quoted some lyrics below:

First, "They think I don't understand The freedom land of the seventies"

Both Elsa and Isabela wear costumes inspired by 1970s fashion movement, specifically punk and boho.

In addition, both of them crave freedom and self-expression.

Next, "I think I'm too cool to know ya You say I'm like the ice, I freeze"

Yes, I am stating the obvious.

Third, "They judge me like a picture book By the colors, like they forgot to read"

As they sing about in "Let it Go", "Show Yourself", and "What Else Can I Do", people have seen them solely as beautiful, perfect "proper ladies", when they are actually more than perfect princesses.

Fourth, "But I'm free, ooh-ooh I'm free"

Similar to my third point, both ladies crave freedom.

Fifth, "I'm talking about my generation Talking about that newer nation"

Both of them at least influence major social change in their respective hometowns.

Sixth, "And if you don't like it, you can beat it Beat it, baby You never liked the way I said it If you don't get it, then forget it 'Cause I don't have to f*ck*n' explain it"

While I don't think either of them would be that rude to someone, they both have dealt with people, especially parents/grandparents not understanding them or allowing them to express their true selves.

Second to last, "I've got [flowers] in my hair I get h*gh on hydroponic w**d"

After "What Else Can I Do", Isabela realizes that she can make more than decorative flowers, likely including "medicinal herbs". In addition, I am sure she is interested in learning new gardening techniques.

Last, "Yeah, my [girl]friend's pretty cool But [she]'s not as cool as me"(Lana Del Rey, Barrie-James O'Neill)

They are both cool ladies, especially in the eyes of their younger sisters.

Ironically, according to Matthew Jacobs for Huffington Post, Lana Del Rey's song "Brooklyn Baby" is a piece of satire about 2010s-era New York City hipsters and hipster culture. (Jacobs). To state the obvious, Isabela and Elsa are not 2010s-era NYC hipsters, at least in canon and the majority of fanfictions, as their stories are set in small towns in the 19th/20th century, and they are not pretentious or elitist about their personal tastes, which people think of hipsters being.

Overall, the song encapsulates their relationship and personal lives well.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day or night to read my post. Have a good day or night!