Anyone who doesn’t meet the European beauty standards represented by Sydney Sweeney isn’t “beautiful,” and if YOU identify as a woman but don’t look like this particular thin young blonde white woman, then you are not beautiful. That is the argument of transphobes who happen to be (surprise) disproportionately white and who are, more often than not, conservative + racist + classist + misogynistic.
Leave it to bigoted white conservatives to completely bastardize the original meaning of wokeness into meaning something negative that represents a threat to whiteness. But then again, racism and transphobia tend to hang out at the same parties.
Decades ago, white people hated disco music largely because it was a Black music genre that was welcoming to Black people and the LGBTQ community. Similarly, reduced down to its most basic essence, being “anti-woke” is yet another iteration of transphobia, homophobia and anti-Blackness.
the prevalence of certain fandom attitudes towards the relationship between mace windu and anakin skywalker cannot be separated from the fact that mace windu is a darker skinned black man and anakin skywalker is a conventionally attractive white man with blue eyes and blond hair- *gunshots*
nor can it be separated from the fact that mace windu lives a lifestyle that is both asexual and aromantic (in violation of the framework of the the nuclear family) and is devoted to non-western forms of philosophy and community, while anakin skywalker embodies the archetype of the heterosexual, alloromantic, wife-and-two-kids ideal (achieving it is literally his only priority)- *additional gunshots*
if you say "this cosplayer is literally better than azula's actress in the live action!!" and then show me a white woman i will personally set fire to your house
Love this interview...
I have been semi-checking in on Zawe's journey since before certain stans were feeling some kinda way about her recent familial additions. I do for certain Black actors/creators especially, who seem to be moving in interesting ways in entertainment/film media...
-A remnant from a period when I used to go to screenings and blog about films (and was published a few times in a major national newspaper)...
So, I knew of Zawe through the grapevine of her mentorship, i.e. she is the reason why Rege Jean Page of Bridgerton fame got to work in U.S. markets, as she sponsored him. And she is known, as one of those "good eggs" who will be accessible and help/advise especially young actors of color.
...But, I have some other stuff to say. This isn't about proving that she's an amazing human being.
It's about a certain brand of misogynoir that some of these people far beneath her in self-knowledge, self-love, and just plain grown-ass-woman-personhood...keep letting fly in what they *think* are compliments, but actually are just trite microaggressions.
Saying things like "as long she makes [T-blank H-blank] happy then she's alright" as if he's the centered human and her attachment renders her worthy somehow. Babies, as long as SHE'S happy.
Yall.
He's marrying up.
WAY UP and the fact that he knows this? Actually elevates him.
She's been there.
She tells a story in the above interview that reminds me of Uzo Aduba's anecdote about her name , - of an incident when she was called to an early job (at 6!) and someone there said she wasn't pretty because of her gap and her Ugandan mother took her on past this person and into the room, ANYWAY.
... She learned a specific self-knowledge and self-love, that is necessary in very white western spaces that constantly pressures a narrow sense of worthiness and beauty, especially from Black women, something a lot of these small-minded stans don't even have a notion of seeing beyond.
Zawe is biracial, and her features, aside from her skin tone are very African. So while she benefits from colorism, featurism is something I've seen those bigoted stans, pick on as well.
She knows those features are what makes her beautiful and knew that, w/o and before her partner saw that too. And people who aren't blind narrow-minded ignoramuses can *also* see that.
This is why I assert the fact of featurism needing to be in the conversation of light/dark privilege conversations. Lips, nose, gap, and even the set of her eyes are ethnic beauty markers within quite a few spaces in the Black African diaspora... My mom was an absolute stunner because of her gap.
Even the old school white model Lauren Hutton got there because of her gap.
Uzo Aduba, who I have already mentioned has a deeper skintone and has similarly large round striking eyes, gap, and a non-pinched-nose *rightly* played Glinda in NBC's production of The Wiz a few years back, with Dorothy saying she's so beautiful *because* of those features, not despite them as a very narrow white-washed gaze would wrongly assert.
And while we're here that includes sizes and shapes too. I'm saying your boy is enjoying all that plush.
A lot of yall need to read or reread Maya Angelou's Phenomenal Woman, for comprehension.
Anyway... All this to say I know Zawe is and will be fine regardless.
P.S. Maya Angelou *also* had height, and gap and was very much known for her beauty/magnetism as a woman when she was alive. :
I feel like denying your whiteness is not only denying ur own I dentity which sucks, but also denying ur privileges? There’s no shame in having privileges bc of ur ethnicity bc it’s nothing you can control, what you can do is admit to it and be normal about it??? The whole “I’m not white I’m actually 2% norweigan” is not helping anyone
“hip dips, body fat, broad shoulders etc. are plenty beautiful to loads of people, capitalism has just made up things to hate about your body for profit” and “you shouldn’t feel like you have to constantly be performing beauty and attractiveness just to exist in this world” are two ideas that can and do coexist
please vote for the one you could see yourself using the most often, and that would cause the least confusion if you saw someone else using it -- even if this is not something that you ship.
if "other" wins the poll bracket, or if the tags overwhelmingly propose an option not on the bracket, we will re-run the poll.
feel free to reblog with propaganda for your favorite!
i think everyone on sunnytwt needs to be sat down so i can explain to them what basic human empathy is. and then maybe i put them in a blender until they agree to write meta about the characters instead of whether or not charlie day got facial reconstruction surgery.
I saw some posts about sister of sin art this morning and maybe it’s me being paranoid …cause I did just post some. t the SOS in the drawing is a friend from Mexico who asked for the drawing and it’s of her/what she looks like.
It always gets me when people try to frame plastic surgery as being empowering or body positive. "Oh you know, I just think a different nose would suit my face better," like.. ok. Why is it always the same things that everybody thinks would look "better" though? Why doesn't anybody get rhinoplasty to make their nose bigger? Are there not people who would be more "suited" to having a larger or wider nose? Like, get real