awkwardsituationist:

cambridge university students were asked on campus why they needed feminism. here are 60 answers. click the link for over 600 more.

worddocs:

• Magic (and other skills—especially physical skills) must be practiced. Yes, your wizard could be the “chosen one,” but remember that even Harry Potter had to practice his patronus charm. In The Matrix, Neo had to learn how to get used to working within the system.
• Knowledge must be studied: Your character probably wasn’t born with world knowledge floating around in her brain. She might have a high IQ, but she still needs to study. Hermione Granger read Hogwarts: A History well before she attended it. NOTE: This also applies to knowledge about science fiction technology.
• Wisdom often comes from making mistakes earlier in life: My dad will often say he learned most of his knowledge about woodworking from “the school of hard knocks.” He usually follows that with a story about how he screwed something up. Your skilled characters probably have a lot of stories. Wisdom can also come from watching others make mistakes and choosing not to go down the same path.
• Wisdom also comes from experience: A legendary general will have seen many ways to fight a war. He knows what works and what doesn’t based on what he has seen.

-by M. B. Weston and continued at mbweston.com

cesaret:

“May I ask why you felt little Tiffany deserved to die?”

I’m pretty sure this is why Tumblr gave us photosets.

fuckyeahthehobbitmovie:

When The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hits theaters on Dec. 13, there will be a fresh face among the residents of Middle-earth: Tauriel, an elf warrior played by Evangeline Lilly of Lost fame. “She’s slightly reckless and totally ruthless and doesn’t hesitate to kill,” says Lilly. She’s also not found anywhere in J.R.R. Tolkien’s original fantasy novel, or in any of Tolkien’s other writings for that matter.

Director Peter Jackson and his co-writers on the Hobbit trilogy, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, invented the character to expand the world of the elves of Mirkwood Forest — and to bring some more female energy to the otherwise male-dominated Hobbit narrative. “Tauriel is the head of the Elven Guard,” Lilly explains. “She’s a Sylvan Elf, which means she’s of a much lower order than the elves we all became acquainted with in The Lord of the Rings. She doesn’t hold the same kind of status that Arwen or Galadriel or Elrond or Legolas do — she’s much more lowly. She sort of goes against the social order of the elves a little bit.”

Tauriel isn’t only a fierce warrior; she has a softer side, too. “She will definitely have a love story,” Lilly says. “I can’t give away too much about it. It’s not a huge focus but it is there and it is important and it does drive Tauriel and her story and her actions.” Will that romance involve Orlando Bloom’s Legolas, by any chance? Lilly won’t say definitively one way or the other, but she does offer this much: “Tauriel’s relationship with Legolas is significant. They’ve known each other since they were children, and Legolas’ dad, [Elven king] Thranduil, has a soft spot for Tauriel and sees something very special in her. So if you grow up side by side, and your dad has a very special spot in his heart for this young woman who’s a fantastic warrior, I think it’s hard not to notice her.” She laughs. “That’s probably as much as I can say.”

Lilly is well aware that some Tolkien purists will be skeptical about the introduction of a new character. “I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are going to be people who will totally hate Tauriel, think that she shouldn’t be in the movie, that it’s a betrayal of Tolkien, and no matter what I do it won’t be right,” she says. “There will be everything between that and people who adore her and think it’s such a fun thing to have added to the film. I kind of got prepped for that being on Lost, because we had avid fans who were really extreme in their feelings about the show and its characters. But I think if anyone knows how to respect Tolkien, it’s Peter, Fran and Phil. And Tauriel fits perfectly in that world.”

(via ‘The Hobbit’: Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel | Inside Movies | EW.com)

soft-sighs-and-rough-curses:

dddragoni:

Okay- I need to talk about a thing. On May 20th, a series of tornadoes struck Oklahoma. The largest, hitting the town of Moore, killed 25 people, 2 of them children, and seriously injured 377 more.

Normally, I wouldn’t bring this up, but a few hours later, the Westboro Baptist Church started tweeting about how “you brought His wrath Oklahoma! Oklahoma, you’ll pay,” and various other things claiming that the tornadoes were divine justice. They claimed that “fag-infested Oklahoma” had been cursed by God.

Their flier for pickets of the dead children’s funeral contained this line- “THANK GOD FOR MORE DEAD CHILDREN IN OKLAHOMA.”

I have never hated anyone or anything more than I hated the Weatboro Baptist Church at that moment.

They then registered the domain www.godhatesoklahoma.com.

Soon after, the domain was hacked by someone calling himself th3j35t3r (the jester), who changed the site to the image above. It redirects to the Red Cross donation page.

Let’s applauded The Jester for this, and spread the word.

The Jester is a widely known hacker. Apparently he was one of the guts who took down the FBI pages during the great CISPA and SOPA scare of 2012. He can also make your life incredibly difficult if he wanted to. So let’s just say that those fuckers are now on the shit list of one of the worlds most dangerous men.

justin-john:

wtfhistory:

theshewomanboyhatersclub:

jesuisuneetoile:

THIS IS MARRIAGE!!

Thats right!

Permission to be a bad ass. Nod.

He looks back at the guy like, “SEE THAT? SHE SAID YES. YOU’RE SO FUCKED.”

Like, guys. Sparta was so kick ASS sometimes when it came to women. Spartan women were given these small knives so that if their husbands came home and tried to hit them or assault them, they had a weapon within reach. That weapon was for CUTTING THEIR HUSBANDS’ FUCKING FACES so that when he went out in public everyone would know he was an asshole, abusing jerkface and they would publicly shame him.

I DID NOT KNOW THAT THAT IS GREAT

LET’S JUST TALK ABOUT SPARTAN WOMEN FOR A SECOND.

In Sparta, women could own land and were considered citizens. THAT IS A HUGE BIG FUCKING DEAL. Why? Because that was RARE AS FUCK and there are lots of places TODAY where women don’t even get that much.

Divorce was totally fine, and a woman could expect to keep her own wealth and get custody of the kids because paternal lineage wasn’t very important. And it didn’t make her a pariah! She could totally remarry, no big deal at all.

Spartan women participated in some fuckin’ badass sporting events, too. And because they were expected to be as physically fit as the Spartan menfolk (who all had to serve compulsory military duties, btw, and couldn’t marry until they finished them at thirty) they didn’t have time for lots of swishy dresses. So they wore notoriously short skirts. According to some accounts, their thighs were visible at all times. HOLY SHIT. 

Also, In Sparta men only got their names on their graves if they died in battle. And women? Women only got their names on their graves if they died in childbirth. THE SPARTANS COMPARED CHILDBIRTH TO FUCKING BATTLE AND IT WAS VIEWED AS A GODDAMN BADASS AND HONORABLE WAY TO GO OUT.

FUCKING SPARTAN WOMEN. THIS DUDE HAD FUCKIN’ BETTER MAKE SURE SHE’S COOL WITH WHATEVER HE’S DOING, IF HE KNOWS WHAT’S FUCKIN’ GOOD FOR HIM.

^^ I throughly enjoyed the history lesson dashed with the colorful adjectives.

whitemana:

foervraengd:

Saying that people of color cannot show any visible blushing is a big fat myth that only proves how little people actually know about skin tones.

I have seen a lot of skin-tone palettes that includes dark skin, but it is very rarely put in use as examples. And many times I’ve found them to only appear monochrome, while darker skin tones are just as rich in tone variation as fair skin.

And just to be extra nice, I even added the basic colors I used in these two examples. A big protip is to start with the darkest tone as a base and then work to light tones. Use the highlights sparingly, they should not be large but more like small spots. Dark skin is more “reflective”, meaning small highlights pop out more than on lighter skin tones.

I made this set mainly for all the anime artists out there who probably would love to color more poc characters but don’t really know if it’d work out as kawaii as their usual stuff.

News flash: it’s drop-dead super kawaii in all skin tones<3

mementomoryo:

Just a friendly reminder that Anno and Co. originally intended for Rei Ayanami to creep the hell out of us.

Rei was, for all intents and purposes, a personified backlash against the hordes of 80s and early 90s fanboys who slobbered over female characters, and who figured that having a 2D girl that obeyed your every whim and had no voice as your own personal fuckdoll would be pretty damned sweet.

In other words, they wanted a placid, soulless little girl to wank over.

And Anno delivered. Oh, boy, did he deliver.