Not Another MSTie

dresdencodak:

eschergirls:

With theaters — particularly larger theaters — chock full of men’s stories, where did the women go?

An interesting piece on NPR about this writer noting that the vast majority of movies out right now are about men or ensembles of men with women in a supporting role.

I also thought this was of note:

They put up Bridesmaids, we went. They put up Pitch Perfect, we went. They put up The Devil Wears Prada, which was in two-thousand-meryl-streeping-oh-six, and we went (and by “we,” I do not just mean women; I mean we, the humans), and all of it has led right here, right to this place. Right to the land of zippedy-doo-dah. You can apparently make an endless collection of high-priced action flops and everybody says “win some, lose some” and nobody decides that They Are Poison, but it feels like every “surprise success” about women is an anomaly and every failure is an abject lesson about how we really ought to just leave it all to The Rock.

Part of the problem with the “they’re just doing what sells” argument is the assumption that comics/movie/gaming industries are all made of purely objective beings of energy and thought rather than human beings who come with their own biases, and who can also tend to prefer the safe status quo that are affected by those biases.  If a Catwoman or Elektra flops, it’s chalked up to people not wanting to watch movies with women in them, but if a Jonah Hex or Green Lantern do poorly, that’s not assumed to be the fault of those movies having male leads.  As the piece says for men, a movie failing can be seen as the cost of doing business, rather than an indictment of the movie having a lead of a certain gender.  If the “common knowledge” in Hollywood is that movies with women don’t sell, it can lead to confirmation bias, where ones that do are flukes (or not about having a female lead), and ones that don’t are proof that people don’t want to see women in lead roles (and not about the promotion of the movie, or the writing, or the acting, or etc).

Anyway, I wanted to share this because I thought some people might find it of interest. :)

A couple years ago I was in talks to option a Dresden Codak film, and was politely told that “female leads are a hard sell,” and asked how married I was to the fact that my protagonist is a woman. Suffice it to say, I ended up not wanting to make a Dresden Codak film.

What bugs me about “women don’t sell” is that not only is demonstrably not true, even if it were true, that’s not a valid excuse! If filmmakers discovered that the best selling movie concept was just 90 minutes of a puppy being beaten, I’d hope they’d at least give a pause.

Once again, women are subjected to a double-standard. If a male-led film fails, it’s because the film is bad. If a female-led film fails, it’s because “women don’t sell.”

In short, screw you, Hollywood, my lady-hero comic is successful, and it’s hardly the only one!

motoroboto:

fivedollarpsychic:

Baby Max has been diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome at the 20 wk anatomy scan appointment. Please show your support…

Okay so I’ve never asked tumblr for money and I’m not sure about how to do this really so I’ll just say that my sister is pregnant, and he’s been diagnosed with HLHS. Basically, he’ll at least need three open heart surgeries (possibly a heart transplant) and, as you can imagine, things start to add up in the financial department. Any and all financial help (and/or signal boosts) would be greatly appreciated. Ideally, I’d like for my sister and brother-in-law to be free to just worry about little Max’s health, and not how, or if, they can afford to get him the help he needs.

Please consider helping this family out. They’re good people.

atchka:

las-fuentes:

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

The New York State Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would make it a felony to annoy a police officer.

The bill would make aggravated harassment of a police officer a crime punishable by up to four years in prison, and so far, the effort has won praise from law enforcement officials.

Just look at our police state grow…and who’s going to get fucked the most? That’s right, people of color. 

What could go wrong?

weian-fu:

fairbourne:

mitsurugireiji:

Ok so here’s the deal.

Last night our internet was cut off, simply because we can’t afford to keep paying for it, I’m currently writing this from a shitty internet cafe about a mile away from where I live.

The other donation page is still up, but has so little traffic I’m kind of only leaving it up as a reminder by this point.

I have kept back a few points that illustrate daily just how dire the situation my Mother and I are in, simply because it’s personal. but I think I really have to illustrate the point now.

My Mother and I shower once a month. We wash our hair once a fortnight. This is because, thanks to the situation the Government has put us in, we can barely afford water. It has been this way since November last year.

Also since November last year, we have not once used the Heating, regardless of the fact that this meant we had to go through the coldest Winter Britain has had in recorded history with no heating whatsoever.

We’re looking for places to move to, but nowhere in our price bracket will accept people on Benefits, they say this phrase: ‘No DDR’, which means they do not want people on Benefits.

I usually save aside £10 a month for luxuries, just so Mother and I can continue to feel Human rather than depressed grey blobs, we barely even have that anymore.

Work is non-existent for someone with my qualifications, and believe me when I say that, while I do not regret taking six years out of education to help care for my Grandmother, I begin to resent it a little when I’m told I’m under-qualified.

I don’t expect to raise the full amount I;m asking for, simply because it’s a lot. But it’s there to illustrate just how seriously we’re backed into a corner.

Mother is depressed, and her PTSD is acting up in reaction to the constant stress we are under. I, myself, am only kept on the straight and narrow due to the presence of my friends, and now with the internet cut off, I won’t even have that.

It isn’t hard to reblog this, please.

Tweet it, share it on Facebook, Reblog it, I don’t care, please just spread it around.

You’ll also see I have little reward things up, I still stand by the fact that I’m not good enough to charge for my work, but I can give it away. For examples, it’s best to check my SWTOR tag.

Please help her, guys. Ava is just the nicest person!

Boosting!!!!