kristenique:

I will never be sorry when I get frustrated when another character is put forth/confirmed as straight when they could easily have been made queer.  If that frustration is off-putting to you that is your problem and you need to deal with it.  It is not like you don’t get exposed to multitudes of characters and relationships that are similar to you/yours at EVERY POINT OF YOUR LIFE.  You got to see relationships and people that looked like you when you were young in media that was meant for you. 

I didn’t realize I was queer until I was 15 and huge reason why I realized it then was because I got see stuff like Haruka and Michiru and Willow and Tara and have everything click that yes, my liking girls and not feeling attraction to boys was a thing that did exist in people outside of me.  It isn’t hard for me to hazard that a lot of the confusion that I felt leading up to that could have been saved had I seen representations of queer people in stuff like Disney and Don Bluth films that I watched when I grew up.   So just think about that.

If it really bothers you that people read characters (particularly young characters) as queer but not when people read characters as straight you should re-evaluate your thoughts and ask yourself just why that bothers you, and why you have to try and make queer people feel guilty for fully valid frustration with extent that heteronormativity is pushed in everything everywhere along with the complete dearth of representation of queer people in everything.

That is something you should feel uncomfortable about.

emphasis mine

(Source: old-korraconfessions)

meatandsarcasm:

korrathelastswagbender:

fartinginthebathtub:

korrathelastswagbender:

fartinginthebathtub:

offbeatorbit:

slaglady:

offbeatorbit:

inothernews:

SWORDS INTO BROOMSTICKS    Londoners walk with brooms en route to help clean up after rioting that took place the previous night outside Clapham Junction railway station in Battersea, London, Tuesday, Aug. 9.  (Photo: Matt Dunham / AP via MSNBC.com)

I hate to sound like a dick but while I think the cleanup is fantastic, I’m actually pretty unamused by the fact that there are only white people in the foreground of this photo when there were, from what I’ve heard and seen in other photos, a fair amount of people of color participating in the cleanup in this area as well.  Yes it’s a mostly white area but still, regardless of the intention (or lack of specific intention) behind the publication of this photo, it has certainly left me raising an eyebrow.  A few visible brown folks in the photo would have a least done a better job of putting across the message of “A unified London” than this.

Yes this.

Also, there is a picture going around of a white couple serving police officers tea, which also got an eyebrow raise out of me. Despite the intention of the photo to show that there are people out there who aren’t taking a part of the madness, it also suggests that white people are the only people capable of compassion and order.

There’s a lot to be said about what pictures in the media are choosing to show in heavy rotation. There are tons of photos and coverage of blacks/pocs are shown in the context of looting (a racialized term), whereas white people (who also partake in looting btw), not too many of those photos are being pumped out by the media. However if you do see a photo of a white person, i’m willing to bet it is of a white copper, or white people like that couple serving tea photo, or in the photo above… of white people “doing good.” The media surrounding the london riots just reinforces this white versus black, good versus bad dichotomy. That blacks are the face of chaos, and white people are the face of orderly conduct, and i think that’s a bit fucked up. 

Yep, I was talking about that photo of the couple giving that cop tea with Crystal.  My first thoughts were 1) That blonde woman looks like Rose Tyler and 2) Lol I’m waiting for a picture of people of color in a positive light.

does it really matter?

i’m sorry but i don’t think it does. 

there were white people in the looting

there are black people in the cleaning

so everyone should shut up.

I’m sorry, but your privilege is showing. :/ when we’re talking about a group of people who doesn’t get a lot of positive light from the media, it does matter. If we were in a perfect world where the playing field was level, perhaps you’d be right, but we’re not. 

Eh. Does anyone who isn’t coming from a position of privilege on this want to explain better…? I always feel really awkward trying to talk about this. 

Oh you mean because I’m white? Wow, awesome. 

I guess I just don’t care for skin colors, and I guess I just don’t see the big woop.

Yes, white privilege does, in fact, come from being white. Hence the name.

Try to understand that even though the color of a person has no bearing on who they are as a person, it does put people of color at a disadvantage because of the way society is. As white people, you and I cannot understand this disadvantage, but we can recognize our privilege, and recognize the harm that images like this one do. 

This mess in part is wrapped around race. The black youth who are participating in the riots are primarily seen as thugs and uncivilized, which goes into the age old stereotype that people from Africa are savages. These stereotypes aren’t as obvious in the media and society today as they used to be, but it’s still there.

Images like the one above and the white couple giving tea to the police officer, whether intentional or not, perpetuates this whole white people = civilized, peaceful, and helpful while the non-white people are the ones who are the dangerous people in society. The Others. The people white Euro-centric societies have to watch out for because those people are dangerous.

offbeatorbit:

slaglady:

offbeatorbit:

inothernews:

SWORDS INTO BROOMSTICKS    Londoners walk with brooms en route to help clean up after rioting that took place the previous night outside Clapham Junction railway station in Battersea, London, Tuesday, Aug. 9.  (Photo: Matt Dunham / AP via MSNBC.com)

I hate to sound like a dick but while I think the cleanup is fantastic, I’m actually pretty unamused by the fact that there are only white people in the foreground of this photo when there were, from what I’ve heard and seen in other photos, a fair amount of people of color participating in the cleanup in this area as well.  Yes it’s a mostly white area but still, regardless of the intention (or lack of specific intention) behind the publication of this photo, it has certainly left me raising an eyebrow.  A few visible brown folks in the photo would have a least done a better job of putting across the message of “A unified London” than this.

Yes this.

Also, there is a picture going around of a white couple serving police officers tea, which also got an eyebrow raise out of me. Despite the intention of the photo to show that there are people out there who aren’t taking a part of the madness, it also suggests that white people are the only people capable of compassion and order.

There’s a lot to be said about what pictures in the media are choosing to show in heavy rotation. There are tons of photos and coverage of blacks/pocs are shown in the context of looting (a racialized term), whereas white people (who also partake in looting btw), not too many of those photos are being pumped out by the media. However if you do see a photo of a white person, i’m willing to bet it is of a white copper, or white people like that couple serving tea photo, or in the photo above… of white people “doing good.” The media surrounding the london riots just reinforces this white versus black, good versus bad dichotomy. That blacks are the face of chaos, and white people are the face of orderly conduct, and i think that’s a bit fucked up. 

Yep, I was talking about that photo of the couple giving that cop tea with Crystal.  My first thoughts were 1) That blonde woman looks like Rose Tyler and 2) Lol I’m waiting for a picture of people of color in a positive light.