Tag: long thread

kiwianaroha:

smitethepatriarchy:

iron-sunrise:

brett-caton:

alaija:

thefloatingstone:

sapper-in-the-wire:

people today with access to more raw information than any other period: the earth is flat

german artilleryman in 1916, who barely washes his own ass: I need to account for the curvature and rotation of the earth when plotting my firing plans

Eratosthenes, an Egyptian, in 3750 BC when fucking mammoths hadn’t even gone extinct yet: Oh hey I can use these two obelisks to calculate the earth’s entire circumference based on
the length of their shadows

and the Earth’s curvature. Neat.

Erastothenes was born in 276 BCE.

The last mammoth died on in island off the northeast coast of Siberia in ~1650BCE.

And as I’ve pointed out previously, the Coriolis effect was known even earlier than that, although it may not have become important to gunnery.

I find it utterly bizarre that humans saw these megafauna.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/science/woolly-mammoth-extinct-genetics.html

“
In fact, the Wrangel mammoth’s genome carried so many detrimental
mutations that the population had suffered a “genomic meltdown,”
according to Rebekah Rogers and Montgomery Slatkin of the University of
California, Berkeley.

Analyzing the Swedish team’s mammoth data at the
gene level, they found that many genes had accumulated mutations that
would have halted synthesis of proteins before they were complete,
making the proteins useless, they report Thursday in PLOS Genetics.

“

That
“genomic meltdown”

is one of the reasons feminism is so potentially lethal, because they keep pushing for asexual reproduction, or trying to combine ovaries, when the most likely outcome is a population running about – unable to reproduce sexually since the whole “male genocide” bit – with incredibly damaged chromosomes.

Sex exists for a reason, and no, “because it’s fun” is not the answer,
sorry. It works better than reproduction otherwise. Which is why every
complex species uses it.

Intelligence requires a lot of things to be working correctly, and if you have an all female species that is over the tipping point of idiocy, then there won’t be enough people to maintain the technology to continue to reproduce. And humans will go the way of the
Wrangel

beasties.

Fortunately, feminists are horribly lazy bastards, so i doubt they’ll continue to get their way, but it does made for a decent plot for a dystopian fiction…

What …the fuck?

That went off the rails so suddenly like I thought I was just gonna learn something cool about mammoths and then WHOA.

I scrolled past this thinking “the earth is round, yes, something, something, mammoths…’ 

But the second time it came past I saw 

That “genomic meltdown” is one of the reasons feminism is so potentially lethal

And I think I got whiplash from that pivot. I also laughed so hard that I couldn’t breathe. 

Mammoths… went extinct… because they reproduced asexually by combining ova? Or smth??

onceuponaslayer:

lj-writes:

onceuponaslayer:

princess-of-the-worlds:

High-key sideeyeing Emma Stone said that that the Best Director nominees are four men and Greta Gerwig. When will white feminists learn that, just because they are not women, doesn’t mean that Jordan Peele and Guillermo Del Toro’s nominations are not as meaningful as Greta Gerwig’s?

And what was the first thing that Guillermo Del Toro said in his acceptance speech? He highlighted that he was an immigrant and a person of color.

I get the idea behind this post, and I understand why you feel this way, but these arguments don’t actually make sense, and I find this post really frustrating because it reeks of the “progressive” kind of misogyny you see on Tumblr all the time where people use the term ‘white feminist’ to bash any woman they dislike.

Don’t get me wrong–I also dislike Emma Stone, and it’s great that moc were nominated and that one of them won! But… they’re still men. What she said isn’t “white feminism” because feminism is about women. Being an “intersectional” feminist doesn’t mean that you should ignore issues that affect women because something positive happened to men of colour. A win for moc =/= a win for women. Marginalised or oppressed groups aren’t interchangeable. Racism and sexism are separate issues (that can intersect) and it’s incredibly detrimental to the feminist movement and to women as a whole to tell them they should stop complaining about their own oppression because another group either has it worse or had something good happen to them. (Because no matter what happens to other oppressed groups women are always told that they’re white feminists if they talk about misogyny.)

Besides, Emma Stone didn’t say Jordan Peele and Guillermo Del Toro’s nominations weren’t meaningful. She just pointed out the underrepresentation of women, which is an actual issue! Since 2012 there has been at least one moc nominated every year for best director at the Oscars, and five of them won. During that time, a single woman–Greta Gerwig–was nominated. In fact, the last time a woman won best director at the Oscars was in 2009. So like, I get that celebrating moc’s success is important, but can we also stop pretending that sexism doesn’t matter?…

A win for moc =/= a win for women.

This statement completely disregards the fact that WOCs do not have the luxury of disregarding race. This is precisely why intersectional feminism is necessary, and why white feminism–which is just a term for non-intersectional feminism that ignores the impact of race on WOCs–is necessary. This is the same line of thinking that has white women telling us that a win for white women is a win for all women, and it’s really really not. Not when WOCs are expected to stand at the back of the line and cheer everyone else on.

Do women need more representation and opportunities in the industry? Abso-fucking-lutely. Did it need to be said in a way that ignores and flattens the challenges that MOCs face? Hell no. Emma Stone isn’t being pilloried for the former but for the latter, and conflating the two is, guess what? Just another white feminist tactic.

This statement completely disregards the fact that WOCs do not have the luxury of disregarding race.

I didn’t say they did. What I meant is that men of colour and women (no matter their race/ethnicity) are still distinguished by their sex, so a win for moc doesn’t necessarily translate into a win for women because women of colour are still oppressed on the basis of their sex. Racism and sexism intersect for women of colour, but progress in terms of race/ethnicity (if I can phrase it this way) doesn’t mean the same progress is made against sexism, and it doesn’t even mean that the progress in terms of race that moc experience is also experienced by woc.

…and why white feminism–which is just a term for non-intersectional feminism that ignores the impact of race on WOCs…

That’s what it’s supposed to mean, but more often than not I see accusations of “white feminism” being made against women for reasons that have nothing to do with race. (Ex:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian feminist, was called a white feminist for saying that cis women and trans women don’t have the same experiences. Women who talk about reproductive issues, which affect woc even more severely than white women, are constantly called white feminists. A little girl at a Women’s march was mocked and had her picture captioned “white feminism” because her poster made a Harry Potter reference. Etc.) To me this post is just another example of this phenomenon because it suggests that not including men of colour in one’s feminism makes one a white feminist, which is absurd because men of colour are men, and feminism is about women.

If we want to be intersectional feminists, we have to talk about how race and sex intersect and how it affects women of colour. We can’t talk only about racism. (I mean, we can, but if we only talk about racism it isn’t feminism.)

Therefore, shouldn’t we criticize Emma Stone for not mentioning women of colour? Because the criticism she’s receiving right now isn’t about how she doesn’t understand the intersection of race and sex, and how it affects women of colour. People are saying that what Emma Stone said is white feminism because she disregarded the progress made by men of colour. They’re essentially calling her a white feminist for not including men of colour in her feminism, not for her poor understanding of the intersection of race and sex.

This is the same line of thinking that has white women telling us that a win for white women is a win for all women, and it’s really really not. 

This is not what I meant at all, and I agree with you that this mindset is completely misguided. But I’m glad that you mention it, because I feel like OP’s arguments follow a similar reasoning, but applied to racism. A win for moc isn’t a win for all people of colour, and progress for moc doesn’t necessarily mean progress for woc. A lot of people also seem to believe that a win for any marginalised or oppressed group = a win for any other marginalised or oppressed group, which is just as misguided.

Did it need to be said in a way that ignores and flattens the challenges that MOCs face? Hell no. Emma Stone isn’t being pilloried for the former but for the latter

Then why aren’t people just calling her racist or ignorant if it was really just about her ignoring the challenges that moc face? (Because I agree that she did.) They’re calling her a white feminist and saying that she wasn’t intersectional. Intersectional feminism is about the intersection of sex, race, and class, and how this affects women who are marginalized or oppressed for other reasons than their sex. Why are people calling her a white feminist if the problem is that she disregarded issues face by moc? The terms and labels used to criticise her don’t make sense with their arguments.

Just say you don’t care about progress for WOC unless it helps white women, it saves time. News flash, Your Terfness, my precious womynly labia are as yellow as the rest of me. What helps alleviate racism is ABSOLUTELY a win for me, just like what alleviates sexism is a win for me, because I can’t parcel out racism and sexism separately. And if you don’t speak for WOCs that would be great too.

Just because some people misuse a term doesn’t mean it is automatically useless. It’s like terf that way. Also I’m a cis woman who does nothing but talk about reproductive issues on another blog which has gotten full support from trans people and harassment from terfs, so your attempt to paint trans people–actually trans women, who are we kidding–and their allies as enemies of reproductive rights falls kinda flat on me.

And no, you can’t erase the effect of race on MOC without doing the same to WOC, sorry. You don’t get to backdoor it like that.

shadowmaat:

lj-writes:

shadowmaat:

nerdsagainstfandomracism:

diversehighfantasy:

thesocialcorty:

elandrialore:

thesocialcorty:

lj-writes:

Carrying the fandom load

It does get tiring at times staying conscious of bigoted tropes in fandom, deciding not to support racist art, wondering if a quote is appropriative of Jewish experiences, discarding a homophobic fanwork idea, and more.

So as a Fandom Old I can see why some fans long for the “good old days.” Back then anything went! Total creative freedom! We were wild and unfettered! None of these long-winded discussions, we just went and did it and did not give a single fuck!

Except freedom wasn’t for everyone, was it? You only had that total freedom if you were unaffected by fandom’s racism, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, ableism, and a host of other bigotries that are a reflection of the world we live in.

Fandom was never the carefree, escapist enterprise some of us like to think it was. It’s just that minority fans were bearing the load of others’ freedom in silence. Too often, fans who were marginalized in real life could not escape to fandom because fandom would uncritically celebrate their oppression and trauma. And if they dared to speak about it they were bullied and shouted down into silence, into leaving.

I speak in the past tense but this is still ongoing, obviously. Fans of marginalized identities are a little more vocal now, but are facing a sustained and vicious backlash that accuses them of being “bullies” and starting “discourse” and “drama” and of “virtue signalling.”

It’s not about discourse or virtue, though. It’s about fans being told that they are not welcome unless they bite their tongues, grin, and go along with a thousand stings and slaps in the very spaces they go to have fun. It’s about fans having to watch characters who look like them be constantly erased and demonized. It’s about fans having to spend endless amounts of time and energy educating other fans about their oppression when all they’d like to do is unwind after a long day made longer by those very issues.

It’s not about virtue. It’s about people.

The thing is, fans who criticize minority fans and their allies for “discourse” aren’t angry about the fact that fandom puts these psychological burdens on minority fans. They’re mad about having to share a tiny little part of the burden minority fans, most visibly Black women, have been carrying for too long. In the minds of these “discourse”-critical fans the burden of considering the impact of fandom and fanworks is not theirs to bear. It is the lot of fans who are not them, “others,” to pay the cost for the majority’s creative freedom. The very suggestion that the load exists, and worse, that all of fandom should share in it so marginalized fans don’t carry it so disproportionately, is enough to make a lot of fans uncomfortable. I know, because I feel that discomfort at times, too.

The thing is, the load of thinking about marginalization in fandom spaces was always mine to bear. It’s every fan’s responsibility to be conscious of how they create and consume fanwork so that they don’t hurt other fans, so fandom can be inclusive and fun for everyone.

No, it’s not pleasant. It’s not fun to always watch yourself and second guess your choices, to fall short anyway and be called out and confront the fact that you have so many unconscious biases and have hurt others. I get it. I do. I want to think of myself as a good person. I don’t like admitting to wrongdoing. I hate challenging myself. I don’t want to think about this hard stuff. I just want to have fun!

But think about how much LESS fun it is when it’s your own humanity on the line. Many marginalized fans don’t have the luxury of just letting go and having fun, not when they always have to brace themselves for the next psychological assault.

These fans have been carrying this fandom burden and are punished for saying it’s too heavy. If you’re feeling a little less feather light in fannish activities than you used to, that’s a good sign! It means you’re starting to carry, in a very small measure, the fandom load of consciousness. It’s something you should be carrying as part of a community, and chances are it’s still not nearly as heavy a load as many marginalized fans are still made to bear.

A community joins together, watches out for its members, shares in the good and the bad. If some members are asked to bear the costs of others’ fun and either stay silent about it or leave, then the promise of community rings pretty hollow, doesn’t it? Sometimes discomfort is a good thing, and if my small discomfort means I am sharing in a tiny measure of my rightful load in fandom spaces, then it is a very good thing indeed.

Then there’s the part where it intersects with people using problematic tropes to cope tho

a) coping methods are not above criticism, especially if they’re harmful to others.

b) coping methods aren’t inherently good or moral or healthy. there are many, many, many examples proving just the opposite.

c) cope shipping, specifically romanticizing abuse/rape/pedophelia, can be not only regressive a coping method, but can be retraumitizing as well. as such, they should be brought up in a therapy setting, not on tumblr.

d) most of these marginalized folks have their own traumas or things to cope with, but all y’all seem to forget about that when you want to justify your racism or transphobia or antisemitism.

1. I’m unable to articulate why but I really feel like I’m being talked down to here as if you were kinda done talking before even replying so it feels like you’re just trying to get me to shut up. But I won’t, because I tend to get told I overthink things so I don’t want to assume…plus it’d be pointless to stop before I come to an understanding other than “wow this person is intimidating” on a social media site, talking about social issues. Like that’d just be some cruel irony

2. Therapy is expensive, exhausting, and really requires a lot of maturity and self-reflection that most people aren’t ready to face at any old point in time. Coping mechanisms aren’t a means of healing, they’re a sort of bandaid to keep yourself from doing more serious self-harm…so it’s inappropriate to compare it to therapy as if you can switch one for the other on a dime

3. I understand no one solution is workable for everyone, even the concept of some people’s coping mechanisms worsens my mental health just being aware that they exist. But then what about tag filtering? Readmores? Content warnings? Heck, even a disclaimer.

4. I know that positive representation for minorities are actively oppressed… But does the answer to that really have to be forcing all the independent creators who rarely are paid fairly for their work, if at all, to take like several online courses in social issues and different cultures before being allowed to create anything?

I guess you’ve heard all this shit before. I been on here trying to learn for 4 years and this stuff still confuses and upsets me so much. I’m just…not good at reading and absorbing this kinda stuff properly, so I apologise for that

You’re derailing the conversation. Every time someone speaks up about marginalization in fandom, someone jumps in with “people use it to cope tho.”

Marginalized fans immerse themselves in fandom to cope too. The very common suggestion that we have to curb ourselves because of “coping” is saying that the pain of a fan who writes slavefic to cope is more important than the pain of the fan who experiences systemic discrimination because they are a descendent of slavery. Fandom worries more if fans who enjoy the woobification of Nazi metaphors feel bad because of “discourse” than if the popularity of the cuddly fascist makes fans feel unsafe.

If coping gives a fan the right to do or say whatever they want regardless of the feelings of others, why do the feelings of others suddenly matter so much when people talk about tropes that are harmful to them, fetishization, and racial marginalization?

And literally no one is saying fan creators have to take courses in cultural issues before creating content. But listening to criticism from otherized people goes a long way. It’s often more educational than an online course.

Yep. Every single time someone talks about fandom racism and racist bias in fandom someone always feels the need to jump in with their whitesplaining (and yeah, one doesn’t necessarily need to be white to whitesplain) to derail and shut down the conversation about fandom racism. 

I’m tired of “it’s a coping mechanism” being used as a blanket excuse to cover every ill. You can’t say “it’s a coping mechanism” and then pretend that means you’re above all criticism and that no one is allowed to question it or pick it apart. You can’t use it as a shield and then fire back at people for “attacking” you when they do point out the flaws in your thinking. And as stated above, you don’t have some kind of moral high ground when your “coping mechanism” causes additional trauma to others. 

I get that having your trauma ignored, marginalized, or unrecognized can be damaging and yes, of course you have the right to try and deal with what was done to you in a way that works for you… as long as it doesn’t hurt others at the same time. And TBH if you know what it’s like to have your own ordeals ignored I would hope that would make you more understanding/accepting of the ordeals of others rather than flat-out telling them that your trauma is more important than theirs.

Also, since this post is focusing on the ingrained racism in fandom, I’m a little bemused at the idea that overt racism in fics, the uncritical stereotyping of characters of color, and the vilification of nonwhite heroic characters in order to make white villains look good is somehow meant to be acceptable and unquestionable because “coping mechanism.” That… that isn’t how it works. That isn’t how ANY of this works. Especially when you’re white and you’re actively demonizing or otherwise degrading characters of color. No “coping method” is above critical examination and if people are telling you that what you’re doing to cope is hurting them then one of the people engaging in that critical examination should be YOU. Instead of getting offended or making excuses or accusing others of hurting you, maybe you should take a good hard look at what you’re doing and ask yourself WHY? And then figure out if there are less damaging ways to accomplish what you need to do. I’m all for a bit of “sometimes my needs should come first” thinking, but you don’t exist in a vacuum and your needs shouldn’t actively hurt others. Racism as a “coping method” is a very slippery slope, especially if what you’re doing is enforcing it rather than taking it apart and trying to find ways to improve yourself/recover from it. And again if you’re a white person claiming that racism is a big traumatic issue for you it’s something you should be giving a lot of thought to before going on the offensive against people for whom racism is a daily fact of existence.

Some people?? Are racist?? To cope???

Yeah, kinda horrifying that people honestly believe that, huh? I call it a “slippery slope” but it’s a slope greased in bullshit and leads straight into the spike pit of “you’re a fucking racist and can’t even admit it.” 

I like the analogy of “it’s a coping method” being the equivalent of “it’s just a joke” because yeah, that’s exactly how it gets used. It’s a way of deflecting responsibility and critical thought and it speaks of rank amounts of privilege. Not everyone who claims to have a coping method is misusing the term, but when it comes to making excuses for racism? Yeah, that doesn’t cut it. 

Exactly! And like I was mumbling in the tags, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the “coping” line smacks so much of the way white female fragility is weaponized elsewhere. Mental health gets brought up all the time as a derailment and deflection to fandom racism discussions, from anxiety to coping to even suicidal ideation. (Yup, in case you haven’t seen it, white fans and writers have said that accusations of racism make them suicidal.)

Because evidently, mental health is the sole preserve of white fans and fans that agree with them. Because evidently, racism can’t cause or worsen mental illness, or make people suicidal. Hey, it’s not like being exposed to racism has been associated with cardiovascular conditions, which may be one reason for lifespan disparities between racial groups! It’s funny how health is such a one-way street in these discussions and some people’s health seems to matter more than others’.

seasons-of-stories:

thequeenbarbie:

nyxira:

puraiuddo:

landmerbabe:

appropriately-inappropriate:

project-radfem:

bluestockingt:

naamahdarling:

skyfiery:

floranna2:

appropriately-inappropriate:

antilla-dean:

I spend a fair amount of time teaching women to kick men in the balls, and I’ve learned that this activity tends to generate controversy. Here, according to actual adults who have actually said these things to me, are some reasons you should not kick a guy in the balls:

1. It will make him angry.

I should hope so. I’m not sending him a friend request. If I kick him hard enough, there’s a good chance I’ll render him unable to act upon his anger. That’s my goal. His feelings are his problem.

2. It will make him hurt you worse.

Statistics say otherwise. And anyway, he’s already demonstrated his desire to hurt me. Why should I give him carte blanche to decide how much he’s going to hurt me? I’d rather be an active participant in that decision-making process.

3. Groin kicks aren’t really that devastating; I’ve seen lots of guys get hit in the balls and it hardly fazed them.

This response (almost universally from men) is so common I’ve come to think of it as “groinsplaining”—you can see it many of the YouTube comments in the videos linked above. These people rarely volunteer to demonstrate their own iron balls in a real kicking situation, but they confidently assert that men in general can shrug off all kinds of damage to the groin. All I can say is, I’ve seen two-year-olds take down grown men via the groin, and toddlers don’t even have any training. I do. I like my odds.

4. We shouldn’t be teaching people how to kick men in the balls; we should be teaching men not to do anything that would make us have to kick them in the balls.

Hey, that’s a great idea! Do you have a detailed, research-based plan for teaching all men everywhere to behave themselves all the time? And do you have funding for your efforts, and buy-in from politicians and community leaders, and a network of trained, experienced instructors who can effect this change? If not, better get started on your grant proposal. In the meantime, I’ll just be over here teaching people how to kick guys in the balls. That’s what I do.

5. Telling people they should kick an assailant in the balls is the same as telling victims who didn’t kick their assailant in the balls that they did something wrong.

No, it isn’t. It’s a practical way to reduce the number of future victims by giving them more viable options to disrupt and survive an assault.

Fact: We have the power to damage the bodies of men who try to hurt us. You’re saying we shouldn’t let people use that power. I’m offering people more choices; you’re trying to take them away.

6. Kicking a guy in the balls just makes the world a more violent place.

Maybe, in the short term. But if it stops him from killing someone, or putting them in the hospital, isn’t that a net win for non-violence? The Dalai Lama thinks so.

One in four women will have good reason to kick a guy in the balls at some point in her life. Luckily, it’s not rocket science. Anyone can do it! And ball-kicking’s efficacy is beyond dispute, as the men of MMA so nobly helped us illustrate here. Gentlemen, if any of you are reading this, and conscious: Cheers, and get well soon (the non-wife-beaters among you, anyway).

AIA REPORTING FOR DUTY

okay, so!

There is a trick to it. You do NOT want to soccer kick the dude because that’s a little projectile aiming at a littler target.

It’ll do in a pinch, and it’ll hurt, but it won’t incapacitate, which is what you want. You don’t want “ouch!” Or even “FUCK!”

You want him puking on the floor, and this is how we do:

There’s two ranges where a groin kick works: close and mid-range.

Say someone grabs you face to face, or pins you to the wall, and your hands are blocked.
Now you’re close-range. What do you do?
You come in closer, as close as you can, and with every ounce of adrenaline and aggression in your body, you do a can-can kick.

You know the first step in the can-can, where you raise your knee up as high as it’ll go as strong as you can?

Do that, as hard as you can, repeatedly.

If that doesn’t work, here’s the alternative. You’re going to take your hand, grasp between the thighs underhand. Its going to feel like you’re “cradling” the testicles. Dig your fingertips into the fragile skin BEHIND the scrotum. Then, once you have a good grip, you turn your hand into a vise, with your fingers digging inwards to the material. If you do it right, you should feel the testes INSIDE the scrotum. You want, whenever possible, to hook your fingers under them.

Then, with your hands in a claw and your fingertips latched behind the testes, you turn your hand sharply, as though you were turning a doorknob. Simultaneously, haul your elbow back and up as hard as you can.

If done properly, this technique can tear the scrotal tissue, and done with enough force, can tear the testes out of your attacker’s body.

No matter HOW pissed he is, he’s gonna drop. I’ve tried this technique on guys wearing cups and even with protection, it is not a fun feeling.

If you’re mid-range and have enough room for a kick, the goal becomes to use your shin.
The shin is actually called the tibia, which ounce for ounce is one of the strongest bones in your body. So, here’s what you do, my little bloodthirsty beaus:

You aim, you scream “DO NOT COME CLOSER I SAID NO!” (legal purposes, because now you’re officially exercising your right to self-defence). Maintain a 360 degree awareness, just in case he has friends, and then, when he’s close enough, connect your shin full on soccer kick with the delicate squish of his testicles.

What you want is as much upwards force as possible in combination with as much momentum as you can manage. When he collapses, which he will, then stomp on his groin again, and then run.

The latter has less of a trick to it. It’s primarily about momentum and force.

Remember, if you’re close enough to put your hands on him, use your knee. If he’s coming at you, use your shin.

If you can smell the nachos he had for dinner, rip his fucking balls off.

It’s easy to do, they’re tiny little squishiness wrapped in a delicate flap of skin about as thin as a toenail.

Remember: if he’s coming at you, he’s ALREADY out to hurt you. Might as well give the fucker a reason to be pissed.

How to Kick a Guy in the Balls: An Illustrated Guide

Someone once told me that the way to train a proper knee in the groin (with appropriate aggression if you want to hurt him enough to let you go is to train and act as if you’re not aiming your knee at the groin, but aiming for somewhere much higher so that your mind knows to really ram your knee upward.

A male friend of a friend of the family once generously and kindly advised me that if anyone with nuts ever got up on me without me wanting him to do so, to “grab his balls as hard as you can, squeeze, and yank away from his body until they feel like marmalade. Then run.”

I have never forgotten this advice.

My self-defense trainer used to say: “Eyes are like grapes. Ears are like pull tabs. And if you’re going to grab some, girls – grab, pull, twist, and bring those balls home to mama.”

…I really need to embroider that on a cushion.

Reblogging for my women followers. Know how to protect yourself, okay?

Fun fact: we did a groin attack drill in krav recently, and one of the guys’ cup was secured improperly. When he got kneed he made a noise like someone dropped a bag of rotten tomatoes from a third floor balcony, and hit the ground retching.

A few of the guys snickered and called him a wimp, so our instructor decided EVERYONE was going to do the drill with no cup to see how little force it took to incapacitate an opponent.

I was paired with a friend of mine who looks like if the Rock and the Mountain Who Rides made a little Boulder Love Baby.
I apologized in advance, he said he was ready, and I flicked him in the nuts.

Flicked.

Not hit. Not tap. Not punched. Flicked. The same amount of force I’d use to maybe kill a mosquito, using the blade of my hand.

He went the colour of cement and nearly threw up on my shoulder.

It takes MINIMAL force to fuck a guy up. Now, if you’re grabbed from behind, snap your head back into his face and while he’s distracted you can either make a fist and strike back at the groin (arch your hips to the side for more room) or karate chop from the elbow.

He’s gonna be pissed–but he’s gonna be puking first, and that’s your opportunity to kick him in the kidney and run like the wind.

Mother Nature put mens balls on the outside as as a woman I will 100% use that to my advantage in a fight.

any guy who gets properly hit in the nuts and isn’t phased is an anomaly and as such they should not be used to make some type of new rule disregarding the 99% of guys you can take down via a groin shot

This

😊😊😊

You know you’re following the right people if a “How to Properly Kick a Man in the Balls” guide shows up on your dash.

lj-writes:

Some of the ways in which TLJ is a baldly, blatantly, aggressively Christian movie, in stark contrast to the very Jewish TFA:

  • Pain,
    suffering, abject failure and loss, including the deaths of many good
    people, are held up to be ultimately positive lessons. In Jewish thought, in contrast, while good can come of suffering pain is not good or holy in of itself. The point in Judaism is to lessen pain and improve life, not to join in suffering.
  • TLJ shows borderline obsession with “sin” and “sinners” as
    salacious and fascinating, hence the focus on Kylo Ren. (I use quote
    marks here because he is not just a “sinner,” he’s a criminal and
    abuser.) In Judaism, sin is not nearly as big a deal so far as I can tell. It is not a subject of fixation to the point of romanticization.
  • The doctrine that everyone is a sinner is simplified
    down to moral equivalence between good and evil people and
    organizations. Of course Luke also had darkness in him because he too is
    a sinner, etc.
  • Self-sacrifice is the ultimate virtue and
    washes away any mistakes one might have made, e.g. Luke and Holdo. It’s basically martyrdom in space. In Jewish thought, while martyrdom can be necessary, it is not something to be sought out and should be avoided if possible.
  • TLJ’s emphasis on forgiveness, redemption, and patience is also very Christian. Rey is suddenly and
    uncharacteristically devoted to the idea of saving Kylo Ren, Rose gives
    Finn the speech about not fighting what they hate, which doesn’t even
    make sense on its face in the midst of a struggle against a genocidal force. In contrast, anger against oppression is an important theme in Judaism and you can see this in Finn and Rey’s anger in TFA. This is one of the ways TLJ marks a sharp tonal departure from TFA.
  • On a related note, redemption for Kylo Ren as presented in this movie looks a lot like cheap grace, which German theologian and anti-Nazi dissident Dietrich Bonhoeffer described as “preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance.” Significantly, Bonhoeffer was resisting the Nazi influence on the German Lutheran church with his opposition to cheap grace. Cheap grace is an alien and repugnant concept to Judaism–forgiveness is not an obligation even if the wrongdoer has repented and made amends.
  • Yoda performs a classic smashing of the idols scene with a bait-and-switch book burning. By contrast I am told that book burning
    is unthinkable for Jewish people due to the great respect for scholarly
    traditions in Judaism. This is especially true for foundational texts like the ones Yoda pretended he was destroying: People have run into burning synagogues to save the Torah, which is a matter of not only scholarship but identity. The scene becomes all the more jarring when juxtaposed against the many purges and massacres the Jedi Order and their followers suffered, including in TFA.
  • Crait has a very distinct
    red-on-white look reminiscent of the Crusaders/Knights Templar. In Jewish imagery blue is the color of supreme importance, and it is even more strongly associated with the good guys in TFA than in the previous movies.
  • In TLJ lawful authority is
    not to be questioned, even if they are violent, seem untrustworthy, and look like they will lead to outright ruin. This is a rather un-Star Wars
    message, making it stick out all the more. On the other hand, unquestioning obedience to authority is anathema to Jewish people. They argue with everyone, including God. Especially God.
  • (via kyberfox) “Godspeed, Rebels.” First of all it’s the Resistance, but… excuse me, God?? What? God??!!? Also, Kylo Ren asks Luke if he came to save his soul, another blatant and aggressive insertion of Christian concepts into Star Wars.

(I am so deeply indebted to @kyberfox and @attackfish for this list that giving individual credit for the ideas would be distracting. Suffice it to say substantially all the perspectives on Judaism and many of the points on Christianity are theirs.)

Note: Below is a submission that I was asked to add anonymously to this post. TW for sexual assault, aphobia, gaslighting, abuse.

I was raised Catholic, and a small branch of my family is Jewish. I
probably know more than the average goy about Judaism, but not by a lot.
I am the survivor of a lot of sexual assault and harassment that took
place at Catholic school. I was 13, and the other kids wanted to know
who in the class I thought was hot, I said I didn’t think anyone was
(turns out I’m aroace, and yes, even the Catholics recognize that as not
being straight), and they took that as something that could be
corrected by force. They groped me, destroyed my possessions, scraped me
across a brick wall, and held me down to put makeup on me. In
hindsight, the worst part was that the teacher’s son would come over
from the high school on his lunch break, sit on my desk, and sexually
assault me during class while his mother taught and pretended nothing
was wrong. Then she would gaslight me about what he, and the other
students had done. The teachers knew what was happening, it happened in
front of them, and obviously the one I previously mentioned knew about
enough of it to gossip to her son so he would come join in. They didn’t
care because they knew I was queer before I knew I was queer, and this
is what happens to queer kids at bad Catholic schools. The teachers let
it happen, because they think it’ll turn you straight. And if not and
you kill yourself, no loss. You’re going to hell anyway.

They
would make me say that I forgave the boys who assaulted me. Because that
is a big part of being a good Christian, forgiveness.  It took me a
long time to realize that the only people who deserve forgiveness are
the ones who are actually sorry, and aren’t going to do it again. The
rest can piss off. That’s what TLJ missed, and what is so Christian
about it. Your abuser doesn’t deserve your sympathy. Turns out that the
teacher’s son who abused me was the product of rape himself, and other
adults in the community tell me that I should feel bad for her and him
because of that. I was supposed to feel sympathy for her, but she stood
by and did nothing while her son assaulted me. I am sorry that she was
raped and that’s why he exists, but that doesn’t absolve her of standing
by and watching him hurt me. She doesn’t deserve my forgiveness, and
neither does he. Kylo doesn’t deserve Rey’s forgiveness either. He has
done nothing but hurt her and the people she loves, and while he may be
feeling some regret, he would absolutely do it again (i.e. not wanting
to save the Resistance fleet), and therefore she owes him nothing. Not a
single bit of sympathy, and definitely not forgiveness. Sure, he has a
tragic past, but he’s still making choices as an adult to hurt people,
and be skeevy to a teenager a full decade younger than him. Rey has no
reason to feel like she owes him anything, unless she’s being subjected
to shitty Christianity. (I saw shitty Christianity because I know that
not all of Christianity is like this, but tbh a lot of it is shitty and
is exactly like this)

It took me years to realize this for myself,
and to realize that the only people responsible for my abuse were my
abusers and it wasn’t my fault. I’m seeing a therapist now, and was
diagnosed with PTSD, and things got better once I was able to talk about
it in a more reasonable setting than Catholic school. TLJ threw me for a
fucking loop though. Kylo is so much like the people who abused me. In
TFA it was empowering to see Rey interact with him because it was
obvious that there was this angry feral part of her that wanted to tear
out his throat. That anger was good. That anger was something I hadn’t
been allowed to have in Catholic school. I had to be meek and forgiving.
I had to be like Rey in TLJ where she says “Ben,” so quietly when she’s
trying to turn him to the light. What I loved about Rey in TFA was her
anger, and from what I read in the Old Testament and what I hear my
cousins talk about in the Torah, TFA Rey absolutely acts like a Jewish
girl from those stories. Her anger would have been a so much better
direction for the story line to pursue in TLJ, if her temptation to the
Dark Side was due to her (justifiable) anger at Kylo. But that’s not
what happened, because exactly as you said, the narrative took on a
distinctly Christian slant of forgiveness, even when that forgiveness
isn’t justified.

I am so glad that this movie didn’t come out
while I was still in Catholic school. Star Wars was my escape from that,
and if I’d seen a Star Wars movie where the heroine is forced into a
narrative of forgiveness towards her abuser, and Luke Skywalker is
depressed and hopeless and sacrifices himself in what really seems to me
like a suicide, I would not have gotten through those years because it
would have been the wrong message from one more source and I don’t think
I could have taken it.

Being able to pinpoint that there was a
Christian shift to TLJ helped me a lot in understanding why that movie
was so upsetting to me, so I’m sharing this in hopes that it helps other
survivors, and also maybe helps people who haven’t been through this
sort of abusive shit understand why the narrative of forgiveness in TLJ
is so nauseating.

thequeenbarbie:

nyxira:

puraiuddo:

landmerbabe:

appropriately-inappropriate:

project-radfem:

bluestockingt:

naamahdarling:

skyfiery:

floranna2:

appropriately-inappropriate:

antilla-dean:

I spend a fair amount of time teaching women to kick men in the balls, and I’ve learned that this activity tends to generate controversy. Here, according to actual adults who have actually said these things to me, are some reasons you should not kick a guy in the balls:

1. It will make him angry.

I should hope so. I’m not sending him a friend request. If I kick him hard enough, there’s a good chance I’ll render him unable to act upon his anger. That’s my goal. His feelings are his problem.

2. It will make him hurt you worse.

Statistics say otherwise. And anyway, he’s already demonstrated his desire to hurt me. Why should I give him carte blanche to decide how much he’s going to hurt me? I’d rather be an active participant in that decision-making process.

3. Groin kicks aren’t really that devastating; I’ve seen lots of guys get hit in the balls and it hardly fazed them.

This response (almost universally from men) is so common I’ve come to think of it as “groinsplaining”—you can see it many of the YouTube comments in the videos linked above. These people rarely volunteer to demonstrate their own iron balls in a real kicking situation, but they confidently assert that men in general can shrug off all kinds of damage to the groin. All I can say is, I’ve seen two-year-olds take down grown men via the groin, and toddlers don’t even have any training. I do. I like my odds.

4. We shouldn’t be teaching people how to kick men in the balls; we should be teaching men not to do anything that would make us have to kick them in the balls.

Hey, that’s a great idea! Do you have a detailed, research-based plan for teaching all men everywhere to behave themselves all the time? And do you have funding for your efforts, and buy-in from politicians and community leaders, and a network of trained, experienced instructors who can effect this change? If not, better get started on your grant proposal. In the meantime, I’ll just be over here teaching people how to kick guys in the balls. That’s what I do.

5. Telling people they should kick an assailant in the balls is the same as telling victims who didn’t kick their assailant in the balls that they did something wrong.

No, it isn’t. It’s a practical way to reduce the number of future victims by giving them more viable options to disrupt and survive an assault.

Fact: We have the power to damage the bodies of men who try to hurt us. You’re saying we shouldn’t let people use that power. I’m offering people more choices; you’re trying to take them away.

6. Kicking a guy in the balls just makes the world a more violent place.

Maybe, in the short term. But if it stops him from killing someone, or putting them in the hospital, isn’t that a net win for non-violence? The Dalai Lama thinks so.

One in four women will have good reason to kick a guy in the balls at some point in her life. Luckily, it’s not rocket science. Anyone can do it! And ball-kicking’s efficacy is beyond dispute, as the men of MMA so nobly helped us illustrate here. Gentlemen, if any of you are reading this, and conscious: Cheers, and get well soon (the non-wife-beaters among you, anyway).

AIA REPORTING FOR DUTY

okay, so!

There is a trick to it. You do NOT want to soccer kick the dude because that’s a little projectile aiming at a littler target.

It’ll do in a pinch, and it’ll hurt, but it won’t incapacitate, which is what you want. You don’t want “ouch!” Or even “FUCK!”

You want him puking on the floor, and this is how we do:

There’s two ranges where a groin kick works: close and mid-range.

Say someone grabs you face to face, or pins you to the wall, and your hands are blocked.
Now you’re close-range. What do you do?
You come in closer, as close as you can, and with every ounce of adrenaline and aggression in your body, you do a can-can kick.

You know the first step in the can-can, where you raise your knee up as high as it’ll go as strong as you can?

Do that, as hard as you can, repeatedly.

If that doesn’t work, here’s the alternative. You’re going to take your hand, grasp between the thighs underhand. Its going to feel like you’re “cradling” the testicles. Dig your fingertips into the fragile skin BEHIND the scrotum. Then, once you have a good grip, you turn your hand into a vise, with your fingers digging inwards to the material. If you do it right, you should feel the testes INSIDE the scrotum. You want, whenever possible, to hook your fingers under them.

Then, with your hands in a claw and your fingertips latched behind the testes, you turn your hand sharply, as though you were turning a doorknob. Simultaneously, haul your elbow back and up as hard as you can.

If done properly, this technique can tear the scrotal tissue, and done with enough force, can tear the testes out of your attacker’s body.

No matter HOW pissed he is, he’s gonna drop. I’ve tried this technique on guys wearing cups and even with protection, it is not a fun feeling.

If you’re mid-range and have enough room for a kick, the goal becomes to use your shin.
The shin is actually called the tibia, which ounce for ounce is one of the strongest bones in your body. So, here’s what you do, my little bloodthirsty beaus:

You aim, you scream “DO NOT COME CLOSER I SAID NO!” (legal purposes, because now you’re officially exercising your right to self-defence). Maintain a 360 degree awareness, just in case he has friends, and then, when he’s close enough, connect your shin full on soccer kick with the delicate squish of his testicles.

What you want is as much upwards force as possible in combination with as much momentum as you can manage. When he collapses, which he will, then stomp on his groin again, and then run.

The latter has less of a trick to it. It’s primarily about momentum and force.

Remember, if you’re close enough to put your hands on him, use your knee. If he’s coming at you, use your shin.

If you can smell the nachos he had for dinner, rip his fucking balls off.

It’s easy to do, they’re tiny little squishiness wrapped in a delicate flap of skin about as thin as a toenail.

Remember: if he’s coming at you, he’s ALREADY out to hurt you. Might as well give the fucker a reason to be pissed.

How to Kick a Guy in the Balls: An Illustrated Guide

Someone once told me that the way to train a proper knee in the groin (with appropriate aggression if you want to hurt him enough to let you go is to train and act as if you’re not aiming your knee at the groin, but aiming for somewhere much higher so that your mind knows to really ram your knee upward.

A male friend of a friend of the family once generously and kindly advised me that if anyone with nuts ever got up on me without me wanting him to do so, to “grab his balls as hard as you can, squeeze, and yank away from his body until they feel like marmalade. Then run.”

I have never forgotten this advice.

My self-defense trainer used to say: “Eyes are like grapes. Ears are like pull tabs. And if you’re going to grab some, girls – grab, pull, twist, and bring those balls home to mama.”

…I really need to embroider that on a cushion.

Reblogging for my women followers. Know how to protect yourself, okay?

Fun fact: we did a groin attack drill in krav recently, and one of the guys’ cup was secured improperly. When he got kneed he made a noise like someone dropped a bag of rotten tomatoes from a third floor balcony, and hit the ground retching.

A few of the guys snickered and called him a wimp, so our instructor decided EVERYONE was going to do the drill with no cup to see how little force it took to incapacitate an opponent.

I was paired with a friend of mine who looks like if the Rock and the Mountain Who Rides made a little Boulder Love Baby.
I apologized in advance, he said he was ready, and I flicked him in the nuts.

Flicked.

Not hit. Not tap. Not punched. Flicked. The same amount of force I’d use to maybe kill a mosquito, using the blade of my hand.

He went the colour of cement and nearly threw up on my shoulder.

It takes MINIMAL force to fuck a guy up. Now, if you’re grabbed from behind, snap your head back into his face and while he’s distracted you can either make a fist and strike back at the groin (arch your hips to the side for more room) or karate chop from the elbow.

He’s gonna be pissed–but he’s gonna be puking first, and that’s your opportunity to kick him in the kidney and run like the wind.

Mother Nature put mens balls on the outside as as a woman I will 100% use that to my advantage in a fight.

any guy who gets properly hit in the nuts and isn’t phased is an anomaly and as such they should not be used to make some type of new rule disregarding the 99% of guys you can take down via a groin shot

This

😊😊😊

devillikeme:

lj-writes:

kerra-holt:

lj-writes:

kerra-holt:

lj-writes:

kerra-holt:

lj-writes:

kerra-holt:

mythopoeticlicense:

kerra-holt:

mythopoeticlicense:

kerra-holt:

mythopoeticlicense:

Please enjoy this page from the most recent Poe Dameron Comic in which Leia explains the whole plan to Poe (even the bits he isn’t a part of!) in a flashback while he carries out her orders without a problem, which I am posting for no particular reason whatsoever right now.

Yeah, I like how Poe already earned Leia’s respect and trust, and had an integral part to play in the plan that gave his commanding officer any reason to tell him the plan.

I also like the way Poe already understands Leia’s form of both femininity and leadership and trusts her to make good calls, and follows her orders without assuming she must be crazy or a traitor.

These are things I say also for no particular reason whatsoever right now.

Yes, understanding your leader’s form of femininity is of key importance in military operations. 

Yeah, it helps you recognize them as a competent leader and strategist and not underestimate them or assume they must be traitors.

So does introducing your next in line in the chain of command to everybody before they’re actually forced into a position of command.

Yeah. Everyone needs to know absolutely everyone else in the militia, just in case, for example, all of your leadership gets killed at once and only one or two admirals are left, then everyone can already be on board. Letting anyone possibly not know anyone else is just bad planning, not a completely reasonable logistical scenario.

Failure to communicate is failure of leadership. If someone wants to be recognized as competent they need to act competently, which Holdo did not.

The plan was need-to-know. Poe did not need to know. Especially given that as soon as Poe knew the plan, he overcommunicated and the First Prder found out.

Holdo followed military protocol, had a good strategy, and made sound decisions about disseminating information regarding that strategy. Stop trying to paint her actions as incompetency.

Yet half the crew mutinied against her… because it looked to all hell like she was going to get them all killed… because off her off-putting and secretive leadership style, which is how the tlj visual dictionary describes her. It was a flaw and failure on her part, not some kind of brilliance. Do try to keep up.

It was four people.

Four people mutinied against her.

Do you think the crew was eight people?

Also, Poe leading a mutiny against someone and ruining their best strategy for survival, to the point that Leia was willing to stun him over it, is not an indicator of Holdo’s flaws. It is, in fact, a big indicator of Poe’s flaws, and was an intentional story beat as part of Poe’s overall arc where he learns, from Holdo, how to be a leader.

The best version of events, for the Resistance, would have been of Poe followed orders and trusted his commander. That he was unwilling to do so, because of his unchecked hero instinct, is not a strike against Holdo.

I love how you think the four people shown on screen are enough to effectively mutiny against a ship crewed by hundreds. There were officers among the mutineers and what do officers do? Lead people.

Lieutenant Connix, a member of the bridge crew who was level-headed and well-regarded enough to be overseeing the evacuations from D’Qar also joined Poe, so it wasn’t just Poe being a hothead.

Poe learned from Holdo how to be a leader–as in be so authoritarian and uncommunicative that he loses his grip on his own people? Sounds like a hell of an improvement.

I like how you think Poe’s having an arc is mutually exclusive with Holdo having flaws as a leader as well. Because female characters have to be perfect in every way in order to be valid, right? Boring.

I love how you think they mutinied effectively.

Buddy, they had to lock the bridge with only two people inside (save Threepio). The mutiny lasted all of five minutes on-screen, maybe an hour tops in-universe.

Holdo can have flaws as a character in the same way Leia can have flaws: namely that they exist, but they aren’t relevant to the plot because she’s not one of our heroes who is growing as a person.

And her flaws are not the things you’re pointing out because, guess what? Not telling the need-to-know plan to the hot-shot who just got demoted by your best friend because he prefers dramatic heroics and insubordination, where the Resistance sustains losses it cannot take, to protecting the light – the exact opposite of what the plan actually is – especially when he, again, does not need to know, is not a flaw.

Tell you what, you guys actually watch the movie – it’s good, I promise – and then get back to me about what happens in it, because so far it looks like none of you were actually paying attention.

So Poe was demoted. What was Holdo’s reason for not telling Connix and the others? Do you have reasons for that, or are you starting from the conclusion that Holdo can do no wrong and everyone who opposed her was automatically an asshole?

If you want to talk bad attitude, let’s talk about yours. There’s this thing called differing reactions to media. People are allowed to see flaws in a movie you yourself liked. Yet you found it fit to barge in on a post by someone who didn’t experience the movie the same way as you did to try and cram your opinion down their throat. No wonder you find Holdo’s leadership style–which canon material itself describes as flawed–so perfect if you think this is good communication, or needed or wanted in any way.

The dollop of condescension to top this all off is a nice touch, too. Oh of course anyone who has reservations about Holdo or TLJ must not have been paying attention. How’s that szechuan sauce?

Okay but you are aware that Poe actually couldn’t have given the plan to Finn and Rose because at the time they got captured Poe didn’t know the plan and then got stunned. He was still unconscious when DJ told the FO about the plan and woke up minutes before they started firing at the shuttles right? So how the fuck should have Poe told Finn the plan? Wait let me guess it’s force Skype right? RIGHT?

Poe’s “dramatic heroics” saved the entire resistance fleet because guess what, a Dreadnought that is able to bombard a planet FROM SPACE is also very likely to rip through three puny resistance ships without effort. Poe called it a “fleet killer” What do you think would have happened if that Dreadnought was still around by the time they jumped out of hyperspace?

And if Leia was so against the plan, she could have called the attack off any time she wanted to, because she is THE GENERAL. But she didn’t. Which paints her as incompetent leader who blames her mistakes on other people. (not to forget they lost 50 people, the FO 200.000) 

And while we’re at it, Poe got demoted yes, but he was still A CAPTAIN. That makes him a commanding officer and Holdo’s second or third in command. Which means if Holdo dies, Poe is the leader anyway. So not telling anyone the plan, when there is a off chance of death which would leave everyone helpless, is fucking stupid.

If Holdo doesn’t want Poe as her commanding officer, she should have said so and not let him on the bridge. She didn’t do that, which means she left him in a high commanding position and then refused to give him orders because she has no idea what she is doing and she has no place on or near the bridge.

kerra-holt:

lj-writes:

kerra-holt:

lj-writes:

kerra-holt:

lj-writes:

kerra-holt:

lj-writes:

kerra-holt:

mythopoeticlicense:

kerra-holt:

mythopoeticlicense:

kerra-holt:

mythopoeticlicense:

Please enjoy this page from the most recent Poe Dameron Comic in which Leia explains the whole plan to Poe (even the bits he isn’t a part of!) in a flashback while he carries out her orders without a problem, which I am posting for no particular reason whatsoever right now.

Yeah, I like how Poe already earned Leia’s respect and trust, and had an integral part to play in the plan that gave his commanding officer any reason to tell him the plan.

I also like the way Poe already understands Leia’s form of both femininity and leadership and trusts her to make good calls, and follows her orders without assuming she must be crazy or a traitor.

These are things I say also for no particular reason whatsoever right now.

Yes, understanding your leader’s form of femininity is of key importance in military operations. 

Yeah, it helps you recognize them as a competent leader and strategist and not underestimate them or assume they must be traitors.

So does introducing your next in line in the chain of command to everybody before they’re actually forced into a position of command.

Yeah. Everyone needs to know absolutely everyone else in the militia, just in case, for example, all of your leadership gets killed at once and only one or two admirals are left, then everyone can already be on board. Letting anyone possibly not know anyone else is just bad planning, not a completely reasonable logistical scenario.

Failure to communicate is failure of leadership. If someone wants to be recognized as competent they need to act competently, which Holdo did not.

The plan was need-to-know. Poe did not need to know. Especially given that as soon as Poe knew the plan, he overcommunicated and the First Prder found out.

Holdo followed military protocol, had a good strategy, and made sound decisions about disseminating information regarding that strategy. Stop trying to paint her actions as incompetency.

Yet half the crew mutinied against her… because it looked to all hell like she was going to get them all killed… because off her off-putting and secretive leadership style, which is how the tlj visual dictionary describes her. It was a flaw and failure on her part, not some kind of brilliance. Do try to keep up.

It was four people.

Four people mutinied against her.

Do you think the crew was eight people?

Also, Poe leading a mutiny against someone and ruining their best strategy for survival, to the point that Leia was willing to stun him over it, is not an indicator of Holdo’s flaws. It is, in fact, a big indicator of Poe’s flaws, and was an intentional story beat as part of Poe’s overall arc where he learns, from Holdo, how to be a leader.

The best version of events, for the Resistance, would have been of Poe followed orders and trusted his commander. That he was unwilling to do so, because of his unchecked hero instinct, is not a strike against Holdo.

I love how you think the four people shown on screen are enough to effectively mutiny against a ship crewed by hundreds. There were officers among the mutineers and what do officers do? Lead people.

Lieutenant Connix, a member of the bridge crew who was level-headed and well-regarded enough to be overseeing the evacuations from D’Qar also joined Poe, so it wasn’t just Poe being a hothead.

Poe learned from Holdo how to be a leader–as in be so authoritarian and uncommunicative that he loses his grip on his own people? Sounds like a hell of an improvement.

I like how you think Poe’s having an arc is mutually exclusive with Holdo having flaws as a leader as well. Because female characters have to be perfect in every way in order to be valid, right? Boring.

I love how you think they mutinied effectively.

Buddy, they had to lock the bridge with only two people inside (save Threepio). The mutiny lasted all of five minutes on-screen, maybe an hour tops in-universe.

Holdo can have flaws as a character in the same way Leia can have flaws: namely that they exist, but they aren’t relevant to the plot because she’s not one of our heroes who is growing as a person.

And her flaws are not the things you’re pointing out because, guess what? Not telling the need-to-know plan to the hot-shot who just got demoted by your best friend because he prefers dramatic heroics and insubordination, where the Resistance sustains losses it cannot take, to protecting the light – the exact opposite of what the plan actually is – especially when he, again, does not need to know, is not a flaw.

Tell you what, you guys actually watch the movie – it’s good, I promise – and then get back to me about what happens in it, because so far it looks like none of you were actually paying attention.

So Poe was demoted. What was Holdo’s reason for not telling Connix and the others? Do you have reasons for that, or are you starting from the conclusion that Holdo can do no wrong and everyone who opposed her was automatically an asshole?

If you want to talk bad attitude, let’s talk about yours. There’s this thing called differing reactions to media. People are allowed to see flaws in a movie you yourself liked. Yet you found it fit to barge in on a post by someone who didn’t experience the movie the same way as you did to try and cram your opinion down their throat. No wonder you find Holdo’s leadership style–which canon material itself describes as flawed–so perfect if you think this is good communication, or needed or wanted in any way.

The dollop of condescension to top this all off is a nice touch, too. Oh of course anyone who has reservations about Holdo or TLJ must not have been paying attention. How’s that szechuan sauce?

They did not need to know.

What part of this being a need-to-know plan do you not understand? The plan is not served by sharing it liberally. Doing so endangers it because it makes it more likely the First Order finds out about it. The people who need to know the plan are the people immediately involved in it. None if whom were involved in Poe’s mutiny.

And if you think that I was the first person on this post to be condescending, or even that I condescended to you before you did to me, then my judgement about your media comprehension was spot-on. The reason I’m convinced none of you paid attention to the movie isn’t that you didn’t like it, it’s that you keep asserting things that are directly contradicted by the movie.

Also, visual guides aren’t canon. They’ve been specifically stated not to be canon.

I can’t even be mad anymore, the way you straight-up make shit up and speculate, starting backward from the conclusion that Holdo was unquestionably right, is faintly disturbing. I hope you find some closure in whatever personal reasons that drove you to come onto this post and choose to argue this issue to the death.

I mean, Story Group member Pablo Hidalgo is on record referring fans to the TFA Visual Dictonary as the best window into canon, but obviously canon is whatever you say it is. Have a good day.

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Please enjoy this page from the most recent Poe Dameron Comic in which Leia explains the whole plan to Poe (even the bits he isn’t a part of!) in a flashback while he carries out her orders without a problem, which I am posting for no particular reason whatsoever right now.

Yeah, I like how Poe already earned Leia’s respect and trust, and had an integral part to play in the plan that gave his commanding officer any reason to tell him the plan.

I also like the way Poe already understands Leia’s form of both femininity and leadership and trusts her to make good calls, and follows her orders without assuming she must be crazy or a traitor.

These are things I say also for no particular reason whatsoever right now.

Yes, understanding your leader’s form of femininity is of key importance in military operations. 

Yeah, it helps you recognize them as a competent leader and strategist and not underestimate them or assume they must be traitors.

So does introducing your next in line in the chain of command to everybody before they’re actually forced into a position of command.

Yeah. Everyone needs to know absolutely everyone else in the militia, just in case, for example, all of your leadership gets killed at once and only one or two admirals are left, then everyone can already be on board. Letting anyone possibly not know anyone else is just bad planning, not a completely reasonable logistical scenario.

Failure to communicate is failure of leadership. If someone wants to be recognized as competent they need to act competently, which Holdo did not.

The plan was need-to-know. Poe did not need to know. Especially given that as soon as Poe knew the plan, he overcommunicated and the First Prder found out.

Holdo followed military protocol, had a good strategy, and made sound decisions about disseminating information regarding that strategy. Stop trying to paint her actions as incompetency.

Yet half the crew mutinied against her… because it looked to all hell like she was going to get them all killed… because off her off-putting and secretive leadership style, which is how the tlj visual dictionary describes her. It was a flaw and failure on her part, not some kind of brilliance. Do try to keep up.

It was four people.

Four people mutinied against her.

Do you think the crew was eight people?

Also, Poe leading a mutiny against someone and ruining their best strategy for survival, to the point that Leia was willing to stun him over it, is not an indicator of Holdo’s flaws. It is, in fact, a big indicator of Poe’s flaws, and was an intentional story beat as part of Poe’s overall arc where he learns, from Holdo, how to be a leader.

The best version of events, for the Resistance, would have been of Poe followed orders and trusted his commander. That he was unwilling to do so, because of his unchecked hero instinct, is not a strike against Holdo.

I love how you think the four people shown on screen are enough to effectively mutiny against a ship crewed by hundreds. There were officers among the mutineers and what do officers do? Lead people.

Lieutenant Connix, a member of the bridge crew who was level-headed and well-regarded enough to be overseeing the evacuations from D’Qar also joined Poe, so it wasn’t just Poe being a hothead.

Poe learned from Holdo how to be a leader–as in be so authoritarian and uncommunicative that he loses his grip on his own people? Sounds like a hell of an improvement.

I like how you think Poe’s having an arc is mutually exclusive with Holdo having flaws as a leader as well. Because female characters have to be perfect in every way in order to be valid, right? Boring.

I love how you think they mutinied effectively.

Buddy, they had to lock the bridge with only two people inside (save Threepio). The mutiny lasted all of five minutes on-screen, maybe an hour tops in-universe.

Holdo can have flaws as a character in the same way Leia can have flaws: namely that they exist, but they aren’t relevant to the plot because she’s not one of our heroes who is growing as a person.

And her flaws are not the things you’re pointing out because, guess what? Not telling the need-to-know plan to the hot-shot who just got demoted by your best friend because he prefers dramatic heroics and insubordination, where the Resistance sustains losses it cannot take, to protecting the light – the exact opposite of what the plan actually is – especially when he, again, does not need to know, is not a flaw.

Tell you what, you guys actually watch the movie – it’s good, I promise – and then get back to me about what happens in it, because so far it looks like none of you were actually paying attention.

So Poe was demoted. What was Holdo’s reason for not telling Connix and the others? Do you have reasons for that, or are you starting from the conclusion that Holdo can do no wrong and everyone who opposed her was automatically an asshole?

If you want to talk bad attitude, let’s talk about yours. There’s this thing called differing reactions to media. People are allowed to see flaws in a movie you yourself liked. Yet you found it fit to barge in on a post by someone who didn’t experience the movie the same way as you did to try and cram your opinion down their throat. No wonder you find Holdo’s leadership style–which canon material itself describes as flawed–so perfect if you think this is good communication, or needed or wanted in any way.

The dollop of condescension to top this all off is a nice touch, too. Oh of course anyone who has reservations about Holdo or TLJ must not have been paying attention. How’s that szechuan sauce?