i’m excited for the barbie movie as much as the next person but it is weird to see people hype up and praise the film’s marketing. like gagging over brand tie-ins and collabs. and also doing free marketing for Oppenheimer?! like am i missing smth?
some of you are misunderstanding me (my fault for not being clear enough) so let me expand on my point: it’s strange to me that so many people are all of a sudden uncritical of the barbie brand; That no one finds it weird that mattel is (very successfully) reinstating Barbie’s “you go girl!” neolib feminism for a nostalgia poisoned adult millennial and gen Z audience without any pushback? I get that it’s fun to see the barbie doll aesthetic reimagined for grownups and admittedly it’s cool to see the barbie movie pr team is pulling out all the stops BUT why are we so happily playing into pink consumerism? why am i seeing viral tweets praising a barbiecore malibu mansion listed on airbnb, why are people praising the branded packaging of shoe and makeup brands doing tie-ins with barbie?? why are so many people doing free marketing for a movie that is essentially a commercial for a doll brand? I loved playing with barbie dolls and watching the animated movies and playing the games like i am not a barbie hater. even my art is inspired by barbie, this isn’t me being a contrarian and hating on something popular. I believe you can enjoy something and still be critical of it. I think it’s fine to wear all pink and be excited for a fun summer movie. BUT It’s not fun and cute to praise a multibillion dollar brand for how well it’s doing capitalism; it’s not fun and cute to act like there’s no deep implications for this behaviour and what it means for a society obsessed with commodities. I find that disturbing.
Charlie Squire wrote a really insightful essay on this exact point!! Linking it for anyone who might be interested:
that article is really interesting in light of the anti-consumerist critiques of French fashion dolls c. 1860-1900, which were accused of making little girls materialistic due to their many elaborate gowns and accessories. one critic in…I think the early 1870s? mentioned that a male fashion doll should come with a tiny pistol to blow his brains out when he saw how much his lady-doll paramour had spent at the dressmaker’s. at times reading this article, I had a cynical voice in my head asking if it was 2023 or 1873
some key differences, though, lie in the fact that most earlier criticism was aimed at the effects of such dolls on women’s Proper Roles as wives and mothers. I’ve read multiple magazine stories where a child is saved in the nick of time from the harmful influences of a “Paris doll” by some wise aunt’s gift of a baby doll to replace it. it was much more tied up in the then-popular idea about women as eternally self-sacrificing beings who should want nothing for ourselves. which is a far cry from current concerns about overproduction, overconsumption, waste, and the environment
of course, it’s gotten more extreme now. doll brand tie-ins with insurance companies were so far outside the 19th-century understanding of advertising as to be on the moon. so clearly the parallels fall apart. but it’s interesting to me that the discussion is raging on 100-150 years later. where does it cross the line from legitimate concern to fun-sucking? from policing self-expression, especially women’s self-expression, to expressing legitimate concerns about self-definition through consumption?
there’s not really a Right Answer, I think. it’s just fascinating
heyo just a psa: gc2b is not safe anymore. old binders from them are fine but new ones are way lower quality and will almost certainly mess up your ribs (think warping or breaks). don’t get binders from amazon because they also tend to be dangerous. underworks seems to have maintained their good ratings, so if you need a binder consider going with them, and remember to always do your own research :D
underworks has two collections of binders now: the original, which were meant for cis men with gynecomastia, and the newer one which was designed more with trans men’s needs/proportions in mind
this is like 100% petty all things considered but i just can’t wait until some of u learn that it is absolutely normal for people of any age to refer to their dads as “daddy” in many parts of the south like it isn’t a red flag there. 60 year old women in my family still refer to their dads as “daddy.” and btw i think anyone should be allowed to call their own fathers whatever they want without someone either making it nasty or being accusatory like don’t you get tired of making ppl uncomfortable for no reason
good morning to every person who calls their parents mommy or daddy or pápi or papa or mama or baba or any other “childish” name. and to everyone who is unnecessarily rude or condescending under this post please go back to sleep and get some good rest so you’re not as cranky and mean to strangers on the internet.
aka how to support libraries and get books and audiobooks for free without pirating them.
disclaimer: this is so easy. it is also really fun.
one: download the libby app. you’ll open it and it’ll ask you to add a library.
two: get a library card. don’t have one? good news, it’s really easy and i am saying this as the laziest person on earth. it varies what you need to have to get a card library to library but almost all libraries will let you get one online. i have a card for my home town and for the town i moved to. sometimes you only need an email address, sometimes you need an area code. to get mine it took me about 5 minutes of lying on the couch aimlessly tapping on my phone. follow your heart. you can get cards for places you don’t currently live. i will leave the ethics of that up to you but it’s probably better than pirating and either way you’re creating traffic for libraries which is what they need to exist.
three: add your card. you can add multiple cards for multiple libraries. you need the number. i have never had libby fail to recognize a valid account.
four: search for your book! some will be ready to borrow right away. others have an estimated delivery time. libby will always pick the one that’s the fastest from the options available at all the libraries you have cards at. you can borrow audiobooks and ebooks. libby will send you a notification when you’re book is ready to borrow. in my experience it’s a lot faster than the estimate. if you aren’t ready to read it, you can ask to be skipped over in line so you keep your place at the front but let someone else read it first.
five: read it!!! kindle is the most common way to do this. you can go to your loan and click read with kindle. it’ll download it to all your devices where you have kindle. as long as you have the loan, it’ll act like your book. when the loan ends, if the device is connected to the internet, it’ll automatically be returned. it will save all your notes and highlights. (if you disconnect your device from the internet, it won’t return the book. weewoo.)
anyway in case anyone else has been wondering about it, i really love it. is a nice surprise to see what i’m going to get and it’s cut my reading costs down big time! it’s also neat because i get to synch my books between devices unlike downloading books through cough cough other means. good luck!
Reblogging again to say that you do not need Kindle, the app or the device, to read ebooks on Libby!! You can read any book you borrow WITHIN the Libby app, and you can change the font and dark/light mode for accessibility too.
please be aware the libby app does NOT let you read or listen offline so the app itself is unusable for me for actual reading unfortunately! you guys who have access to the internet steadily can use it but be aware. you can’t use it on a plane, for example, but if you download to kindle you can.
You should actually be able to use libby app offline (for those allergic to kindle like I am lmao). You just have to change your download permissions in settings. The web browser version of libby is online only though.
Go to Settings > Change Download Rules > toggle to “Everything” (and recommended to “Download only on Wi-fi” if you are worried about your data)
Then Settings > Read Books With… > Libby, so that it downloads to the correct app. You should be able to change your preferences on the main page by clicking the cloud icon to see where you’ve downloaded it too.
Libby also has a feature called Notify Me–if you search for a book and Libby can find it in their database but it’s not available to borrow from your library, hit Notify Me. Not only will you be notified if the book becomes available, but your library will be notified that there is A Reader who is looking for this book, so that they can buy it if that’s possible for them–without you having to make a direct request!
You can also change your preferences so you only see results in the medium you want so you only see audiobooks if that is what you use Libby for (like me) or to exclude audio if you only want eBooks
audiobooks are SO expensive, and i listen to them almost every night. libby has saved me thousands of dollars by now, no joke. support your local library. if you’re not american, you can still try to apply for a library card at the brooklyn library!
Leftism teaches you that the most annoying people in the world can have the exact same opinions as you. And they’ll still get on your nerves
Other leftists will say some shit you fundamentally agree with but phrased in a way designed in a lab specifically to piss you off. Like you’re right but shut the fuck up
If you don’t feel interested in romance, don’t often have crushes, or dislike the idea of romance in general, I have news for you: Rare Sierra Nevada Red Fox Spotted In Southern Sierra Area For First Time In Nearly A Century
