Tag: lane has opinions

The Importance of The Unlikable Heroine

The Importance of The Unlikable Heroine

clairelegrand:

I’ve always had this tendency to apologize for everything—even things that aren’t my fault, things that actually hurt me or were wrongs against me.

It’s become automatic, a compulsion I am constantly fighting. Even more disturbingly, I’ve discovered in conversations with my female friends that…

[…]

Being liked would be the pinnacle of my personal achievement. I could accomplish things, sure—make good grades, go to a good school, have a stellar career. But would I be liked during all of this? That was the important thing.

It angers me that I still struggle with this. It angers me that even though I’m an intelligent, accomplished adult woman, I still experience automatic pangs of inadequacy and shame when I perceive myself to have somehow disappointed these unfair expectations. I can’t always seem to get my emotions under control, and yet I must—because sometimes those emotions are angry or unpleasant or, God forbid, unattractive, and therefore will inconvenience someone or make someone uncomfortable.

theash0:

overnight-shipping:

dorkly:

The Trouble With Wonder Woman

Marvel should just buy the rights Wonder Woman

go on. say it. 

its cause she’s a girl ain’t it?

and who would pay to see half-naked women have a go at each other for 90 minutes anyway? now, guys, yes pls…

Not that I disagree with Wonder Woman getting her own movie, but I find it more hilarious that the way this strip is written they end up insinuating that Marvel is doing better, except Marvel also refuses to make movies with their female superheroes. Right now they can’t seem to give Black Widow her own movie either even though she’s shown up in multiple of the other movies and thus is pretty clearly a major player with backstory they could explore.

The Four Faces of Introversion

The Four Faces of Introversion

onlinecounsellingcollege:

1. Shy-secure people: Don’t have a strong need to be around people, and don’t tend to worry about talking to new people. They can socialise if they need to, but they general prefer to be by themselves and to do things on their own.

2. Shy-withdrawn people: Suffer…

Are they the same thing? Maybe sorta. Cheek says that while some psychologists think the words are synonymous, others do not. “A lot of it is, do you want to call this thing a table or a chair?” he asks. Well, I don’t have the authority to declare it either table or chair, so we’ll set aside that debate for now and, like Cheek, call it shyness. But that label is far from one-size-fits-all.

What, no, why would you do that. It’s controversial to conflate the two, so let’s just do it anyway because it’s too hard to think about?

I’d be so much less annoyed if the article didn’t say ‘introversion’ and then decide to use ‘shy’ in the descriptions instead. It could have said it was about categories of shyness and then mentioned that this particular doctor doesn’t see a difference between shyness and introversion, which at least then it’s not implicitly drawing a conclusion that they are the same thing despite saying it’s trying to stay out of the debate.

kutsuwamushi:

lord-kitschener:

fourah:

siegythebutt:

pettankoprincess:

dailydoseofshade:

pettankoprincess:

dailydoseofshade:

msstealyouroppa:

madblackghoul:

blue-joi:

dailydoseofshade:

pettankoprincess:

Though all that shit about cultural appropriation made me think about my yukata. Would I really be called out for cultural appropriation by someone on Tumblr too dumb to realize the difference?

-___-

And the white dumbasses keep being racist without a care.

[HEAVIEST FUCKING SIGH]

Look in the background

THIS BITCH IS ACTUALLY IN JAPAN

SHE IS ACTUALLY WALKING WALKING AROUND JAPANESE CITIZENS IN THEIR TRADITIONAL ATTIRE

WHAT THE EVER LIVING FUCK IS WRONG WITH HER?

Ridiculous.

She acts like people only on TUMBLR will get offended.

No bitch.

Obviously were people offline. And they will still be offended.

Oh, I’m sorry. Since you so obviously know more about Asian culture than I do, then maybe you can tell me more about the Gion Matsuri, where it’s held, and why I shouldn’t be wearing what every other girl there was.

Oh and I’d also like to hear you name off the parts of my yukata, though I doubt you’d be able to name more than two.

What is this supposed to prove? Nothing my dear. Sure, it could be for a covention or whatever but outside of it its still considered cultural appropriation.

Naming parts of it? This isnt a trivial quiz, hows that relevant. Even if you do know parts of it so what? Its still may be offensive and inappropriate.

Oh, and yes weaboo, this is “asian culture” which you probably just cut off the rest of Asia in the small combination of “asian culture”

Im sure you mightve forgot that India, And the other Southern countries in Asia are apart if the so called “asian culture” you speak of.

The conversation has been closed, theres nothing left to this. Im not here to spew hate and ridicule anyone but whats said was said and whats done was done. Acknowledge it atleast. Whats needed to been said has been said. If you still have something to say, inbox me.

I’m so sorry you’re so white-washed. That’s really the only thing I’m sorry for.

Tumblr, what the ever-living fuck?

Holy shit tumblr why.

Stop with this “cultural appropriation” bullshit. Like yo in Japan (and other Asian countries) its actually encouraged that foreigners participate in their culture. We Asians like conformity. In fact if you have no desire to learn about our culture while inside our homes or countries, its pretty offensive. I think this pretty much goes for any other culture out there.

”

you know the people who get to decide if it’s appropriation?

the people whose culture it is.

if you’re an outsider with privilege, it’s not your place to say it’s okay or to say that it’s not. it’s your place to listen to the people whose culture it is, and then back them up. you don’t get to decide. it’s tough, i know, but your opinion doesn’t really fucking matter.

as someone who travels — with a heck of lot of privilege in my backpack – to a place that has been exploited and abused for centuries by the white western world, still suffers from the after-effects of colonialism – this is a topic that i’ve done a lot of thinking on. when i was in this place, i was encouraged by the locals to use the language, wear the clothing, eat the food with my hands, and so on. i could never divest myself of my privilege or claim the place as my own, but i could show my respect by taking part. i have pictures of myself wearing a head covering, for example, which i wore that day because it made an old woman who was staying with us happy. wearing a headcovering in the u.s. is something i would never do because that context is gone, but there it was something i did because her opinions mattered.

i once told a woman i worked with that i felt uncomfortable wearing local clothes because i didn’t want to offend anyone, and her response more or less was, “why? we like it when you do.”

it wasn’t my place to decide what was appropriation and what was not. it wasn’t the place of outsiders to decide either. it was the locals who mattered.

different cultures have different concepts of what is appropriation and what is not. the cargo cult social justice that infects tumblr sometimes can just butt the fuck out. so can the people who kneejerk ‘but they don’t care and therefore no one should.’ it is always, always the people whose culture it is who matter.

The most important thing I learned, though, was that there is no such thing as “standard English” with a capital E. Instead there are many “englishes” with a lower case E. There is the english of the Caribbean and the english of the southern United States and the english of Oxbridge and the english rappers use in their music. Traditionally we’re taught that one of these is better than the rest, but in this class I learned that that’s an arbitrary distinction and not necessarily the case.

Why? Well, there are two schools of thought when it comes to how we should use language. One is “prescriptive” and it’s backed by grammar snobs and the kind of people who froth at the mouth over the decline of “the King’s English”. The other is “descriptive” and it’s more about accepting that how people use language is how language works. A prescriptivist believes in the idea of standard English and sees mistakes everywhere. A descriptivist sees many englishes, and none of them are standard.

[…] We’re all fluent in more than one english, for example the language of our peer group and the language of our parents’ generation. And then there are the two factors that have possibly the biggest impact on how we use language: education and socioeconomic status. When you judge people for what you consider to be poor grammar, you’re judging them for not being as good as you at something that might be a challenge because they didn’t have the advantages or experience you did. Maybe they haven’t had the luxury of worrying about their grammar. Maybe their use of language is right in line with their community. Maybe you’re just being a pedantic, prescriptivist jerk.

Why I Stopped Being a Grammar Snob — I.M.H.O. — Medium (via wildletters)

“It also made me realize how much people diminish and poo-poo the real power and strength of female friendship, especially between women, which is either supposed to descend into some kind of male lesbian love scene porn fantasy or be dismissed as meaningless or be re-written as a story of competition. Here’s the truth: friendships between women are often the deepest and most profound love stories, but they are often discussed as if they are ancillary, “bonus” relationships to the truly important ones. Women’s friendships outlast jobs, parents, husbands, boyfriends, lovers, and sometimes children….

…This was a snapshot of what my own deep friendships could lead to: transformation. I saw, on that afternoon, that it’s possible to transcend the limits of your skin in a friendship. That a friend can take you out of the boxes you’ve made for yourself and burn them up. This kind of friendship is not a frivolous connection, a supplementary relationship to the ones we’re taught and told are primary – spouses, children, parents. It is love.”

from Emily Rapp’s essay on the power of female friendship. Read the whole thing. Then (here’s the cheesiest thing I will say all week, but wtf) email/call/hug/thank your best friend. (via emilyisobsessed)

Clothes I’m forced to wear in the majority of MMORPGS

Clothes I’m forced to wear in the majority of MMORPGS

repair-her-armor:

[Please take note that the commentary is just for fun. Bunch of sarcasm. Don’t take it too seriously. I am getting tired of these outfits, though.]

image

1. The classic Bikini Armor. If you’re lucky you might get an actual shoulder-pad! If the designers even bother doing something more than…

Ahaha, this is perfect. I mean, I actually do appreciate that in GW2, at least, there actually are options for heavy armor that cover your entire body in metal. But it sometimes still makes me facepalm that I have to hunt for it, and that it’s even worse for medium and light armor professions in humanoid races. It shouldn’t have to be hard to find pants instead of a mini-skirt for casters.

Also I laugh whenever people try to say that any armor that leaves bare necks or midriffs is ‘practical’ because no? Boob plate armor is also impractical. Basically if my armor resembles a corset/bustier at all, that is not practical.

adriofthedead:

ghostgreen:

mixtapecomics:

After a discussion last week with several of my cartoonist peers (and at the behest of Steve Bissette): I want to talk about image theft and uncredited content on social media. I’m only going to speak from personal experience (and only about the one image posted above) but I hope that this example will show the disservice this causes to any artist whose artwork is edited and reposted without credit.

[Disclaimer: I post all my work online for free. I want people to read, enjoy, and share my work. I have no problem with people reposting my work if it’s credited and unaltered. (That way new readers can find their way to my site to read more.) My problem is when people edit out the URL and copyright information to repost the images as their own for fun or profit.]

Below, I’ve listed the sites where my comic was posted and how many times it was viewed on / shared from each of those sites. (The following list was composed from the first ten pages of Google.) Let’s take a look at the life of this comic over the last 11 months.
 

On January 23 (2013) I posted the comic on my journal comic website, Intentionally Left Blank, and on my corresponding art Tumblr (where it currently has 5,442 notes). The same day, it was posted (intact, with the original URL and copyright) to Reddit. (There, credited, it has received 50,535 views.)

The Reddit post alone was exciting but on January 24, someone posted an edited version of the image (with the URL and copyright removed) to 9GAG. That uncredited posting has been voted on 29,629 times and shared on Facebook 22,517 times. That uncredited image caught on and spread like wildfire:

January 25: LOLchamp (39 comments. Views unknown.)
January 26: WeHeartIt. (With the 9GAG ad at the bottom. Views unknown.)
January 26: Random Overload (2 Facebook likes. Views unknown).
January 26: CatMoji (41 reactions. Views unknown.)
January 26: The Meta Picture (1,800+ Facebook likes. 6,000+ Pintrest shares)

February 5: damnLOL. (929 Facebook shares. Views unknown.)
February 7: LOLhappens. (1,400+ Facebook shares.)
February ?: LOLmaze (121 shares)
February ?: LOLzbook (37 likes and 37 shares).

On March 25, I was lucky and this comic was featured in a Buzzfeed post “36 Illustrated Truths About Cats.” The comic was featured alongside work by a 35 other artists who I admire and aspire to be. (Exciting!)

Buzzfeed was able to trace the uncredited image back to me and listed a source link to my main website but still posted the uncredited version of the image. The post currently has 6,000+ Facebook shares, 14,000+ Facebook likes, and 727 Tweets. Ever the optimist, I’ll count those numbers in the “credited views” column.

The problem with Buzzfeed posting the uncredited image and only listing the source underneath was: people began to save their favourite comics from the article and repost them in their personal blogs without credit. (13, 3, and 60 Facebook likes, respectfully.) I’m mentioning this not to target Buzzfeed or the individuals reposting, but to show the importance of leaving the credits in the original image.

March 30: FunnyStuff247. (47,588 views.)
March 31: LOLcoaster. (1 Facebook like. Views unknown.) 

April 5: ROFLzone. (1,200+ Facebook shares. Views unknown.)
April 26: LOLwall. (70 Facebook likes. Views unknown.)

July 23: The uncredited image was chopped into four smaller pieces and posted on the Tumblr of TheAmericanKid, where he sourced it to FunnyStuff247. (124,786 notes and featured in #Animals on Tumblr.)

Aug 21: Eng-Jokes.com. (87,818 views and 41,400+ Facebook shares.)

Oct 2: MemeCenter. (284 Facebook likes. Views unknown.)
Oct 5: FunnyJunk. (3,327 views.)
Oct 10: LikeaLaugh. (1,486 views.)

Nov 20: Quickmeme. (280,090 Facebook shares. Views unknown.)
Nov 20: JustMemes. (6 Facebook shares.)

There were 14 other sites which listed uncredited versions of the image within the first 10 pages of Google, but they were personal blogs so I’m not going to include them here.

One additional website I haven’t mentioned was Cheezburger, who originally posted the uncredited version of comic on January 23; but later modified it to the credited image after I contacted them. They didn’t contact me when they made the change but the image currently has 2,912 votes and 4,700 Facebook shares. Let’s be optimistic and count those as credited views and shares.
 

That brings us up to the current views and shares of the comic. Now let’s do some math.

I’ve removed the comments and reactions (because they could already be accounted for in views). I’ve left in votes, however, because some sites list votes instead of views.

Taking into consideration that Tumblr notes are made up of both likes and reblogs, let’s be conservative and say the Tumblr notes are twice as high as they should be. (That every single person that has viewed the image on Tumblr has liked the image and reblogged it.) Dividing the Tumblr notes in half, that leaves us with:

Posts using the credited image:
2,912 votes
2,721 Tumblr notes
50,535 views
727 Tweets
0 Pintrest shares
14,000 Facebook likes
10,700 Facebook shares

Posts using the uncredited image:
29,629 votes
62,393 Tumblr notes
140,219 views
0 Tweets
6,000 Pintrest shares
2,085 Facebook likes
347,984 Facebook shares

Adding those up and treating them all like views (assuming that every shared post was viewed once):

The original (unaltered, credited/sourced) version of the comic has been viewed 81,595 times.

The edited, uncredited/unsourced version of the comic has been viewed 588,310 times. (That’s over half a million views. Seven times more than the original, credited version.)

What does that mean for me as a creator? On the positive side, I created something that people found relatable and enjoyable. I succeeded at that thing I try to do. But, given the lack of credit, it also means that 88% of 669,905 people that read this comic had no chance of finding their way back to my website.

This was a successful comic. I want to be able to call this exposure a success. But those numbers are heartbreaking.

Morally, just the idea of taking someone’s work and removing the URL and copyright info to repost it is reprehensible. You are cutting the creator out of the creation. But worse yet, sites like 9GAG are profiting off the uncredited images that they’re posting.

9GAG is currently ranked #299 in the world according to Alexa rankings. As of April of this year, their estimated net worth was around $9.8 million, generating nearly $13,415 every day in ad revenue.

As a creator of content that they use on their site: I see none of that. And I have no chance of seeing any kind of revenue since readers can’t find their way back to my site from an uncredited image.
 

I don’t want to sound bitter. The money isn’t the point. But this is a thing that’s happening. This isn’t just happening to me. It’s actively happening to the greater art community as a whole. (Especially the comics community. Recent artists effected by altered artwork/theft off the top of my head: Liz Prince, Luke Healy, Nation of Amanda, Melanie Gillman, etc.) Our work is being stolen and profited off of. Right this second.

I do my best to see the positive in these events but the very least I can do as a creator is stand up in this small moment and say “This is mine. I made this.”

Something need to be done by the community as a whole: by the readers as well as the creators. We need to start crediting our content/sources and reporting those who don’t. Sites like 9GAG need to be held accountable for their theft of work. If you see something that’s stolen: say something to the original poster, report the post, or contact the creator of the artwork.

If you have an image you’d like to post but don’t know the source: reverse Google image search it. Figure out where it came from before you post. If you like it enough to share it, it means there’s probably more where that came from.

hey, shitheads who re-post artwork from Pixiv/DA/wherever, IT ACTUALLY EFFECTS ARTISTS IN NEGATIVE WAYS, STOP DOING IT

SOURCE YOUR SHIT

most people won’t read this long post, so i’ll quote, 

“If you have an image you’d like to post but don’t know the source: reverse Google image search it. Figure out where it came from before you post. If you like it enough to share it, it means there’s probably more where that came from.”

SOURCE YOUR SHIT

ARTISTS ARE NOT JUST ‘ART FACTORIES’ THAT MAKE YOUR BLOG PRETTY, HTH

as someone who’s also created something that’s gone viral in a short amount of time I can attest to how disheartening it is to continually see your work being appropriated without a proper source. even two years later i still see my stupid scribble comic being reposted (usually edited and jpeg artifacted to hell and back) by someone on Facebook who found it on 9gag or some such other crap website that rips off artists for ‘content’ and profits off of it. it’s bullshit and shouldn’t be the norm