i think i’m not much of a hater as i am a dismayer. my gut reaction when disappointed isn’t always “oh what the fuck this SUCKS” but without fail it’s “oh why did they do that this concept could have been so GOOD”
After watching Cinderella (the original animated movie, which was my favorite as a child), it strikes me how it solves many common problems people have with this fairy tale. Like:
Why did they try to identify the mystery girl using her shoe size? Because the bullheaded king’s only clue to her identity was the shoe the Grand Duke picked up off the steps.
Why didn’t the prince recognize her by her face? Because his father wouldn’t involve him in the process at all, and wasn’t the one going around trying to find her.
Why did the prince want to marry a lady he only met that night? Because his father was going to force him to marry someone, and he genuinely liked this woman.
Why did Cinderella want to marry a man she only met that night? Because marriage was her best and most secure way to freedom. Fucked up, but you can’t say it’s unrealistic for the setting of a fairy tale. She also genuinely liked him.
If they’re using the slipper to find her, wouldn’t it be more sensible to search for the person with the other slipper? Yes. The King is purposefully nonsensical and the Duke is purposefully terrified enough of him to carry out his orders to the letter. Furthermore, they end up doing that in the end anyway, because the Duke’s glass slipper is shattered, and Cinderella brings out the one she has to prove her identity.
Why didn’t the stepmother and stepsisters recognize Cinderella at the ball? Because they were dancing too far away, and then left the party to dance in private, which was possible because the King wanted very badly for his son to hit it off with someone and tried to arrange the best conditions for that to happen.
Why didn’t Cinderella save herself? Because in real life, abuse victims should not have to shoulder that responsibility, and usually can’t. In real life, you need and deserve an external support system. Asking for help, in this kind of situation, is very important. She is saved by others because she is loved. Because she is not alone. Because she has friends who love her, and want her to be happy and safe and free. Because in real life, people who want to help someone who is suffering are like the mice. We can’t pull out miracle solutions, but we can provide companionship and if we’re in the right place at the right time, we can help the person find a better life.
Why didn’t the fairy godmother save Cinderella from her abusive household, or try to help her sooner? Because she’s magic, and magic can’t solve your problems. Quote: “Like all dreams, well, I’m afraid it can’t last forever.” This (and Cinderella’s dream of going to the ball) is a metaphor for pleasurable things in bad circumstances. An ice cream won’t get rid of your depression, but it will provide you with momentary happiness to bolster you, as well as the reminder that happiness in general is still possible for you. Cinderella doesn’t want to go to the ball so she can get away from her stepmother and stepsisters, or so she can meet someone to marry and leave with. She wants to go to the ball to remind herself that she can still have things she wants. That her desires matter. This is important because the movie does a very good job of illustrating Lady Tremaine’s subtle abuse tactics, all of which invisibly press the message that Cinderella doesn’t matter. While going to the ball and fulfilling her dreams may not be a victory in the material sense, it is still a victory against Lady Tremaine’s efforts.
Why is Cinderella’s choice to be kind and obedient framed as a good thing, when you are not obligated to be kind to your abuser? This one walks a very fine line, but I think the movie still makes it make sense. Lady Tremaine never acknowledges her cruelty. She always frames her punishments of Cinderella as Cinderella’s fault. Cinderella is interrupting, Cinderella is shirking her duties, Cinderella is playing vicious practical jokes. Cinderella is still a member of the family, of course she can go to the ball, provided she meet these impossible conditions. Lady Tremaine’s tactics are designed to make Cinderella feel like she must always be in the wrong and her stepmother must always be in the right. If Cinderella calls her stepmother out on her cruelty, or attempts to fight back, Lady Tremaine can frame that as Cinderella being ungrateful, cruel, broken, evil, etc. If Cinderella responds to her stepmother’s cruelty defiantly (in the way she’s justified to), she’s not taking control out of Lady Tremaine’s hands. Disobedience can be spun back into her stepmother’s control. She wants Cinderella to be angry and sad and show how much she’s hurting. So since Cinderella is adapting to her situation, she chooses to be kind. Not only because she naturally wants to be and it’s part of her personality, but because it is a form of defiance in its own way, and it allows her to keep a reminder of her agency and value. Her choice to be kind is her chance to keep her own narrative alive: she is not obeying because her stepmother wants her to and she has to do what her stepmother does, but because she wants to. It’s a small distinction, but one that makes all the difference in terms of keeping her hope and identity. (Fuck, I wrote a whole paragraph about how this doesn’t mean you can’t be angry at people who hurt you or that you need to be kind to deserve help, and then deleted it by accident. Uh. Try again.) Expressing anger and pain is an important part of regaining autonomy and healing. Although it is commendable to be kind while you are suffering, it is NOT required for you to get help or be worthy of help. If Cinderella’s recovery was explored beyond “happily ever after” she would need to let herself be angry and sad to heal. Cinderella is not only kind because it comes naturally to her, but because it’s her defense against the abuse she’s suffering. Everyone’s story and experiences are different, and one does not invalidate the other.
Bonus round for answers that aren’t part of the movie:
Why didn’t Cinderella run away? Where would she go? Genuinely, in hundreds-of-years-ago France, where would she go if she snuck out of the window with a change of clothes? With her step-family, she’s miserable and abused, but she’s fed, clothed, and in no danger of dying or being taken advantage of by anyone other than her stepmother and stepsisters. Even if she escapes and manages to find financial security, her stepmother might be able to find her and get her back.
Why didn’t Cinderella burn the house down with them inside it/slit their throats in the night/poison their food/etc.? Because that’s a revenge fantasy, and this story is a fantasy about being saved. There’s nothing wrong with making Cinderella into a revenge fantasy. That’s perfectly fine, as long as you acknowledge that the other type of fantasy is also a valid interpretation. (I mean, the original fairy tale features the stepsisters getting their feet mutilated and all three of them getting their eyes pecked out, so go for it.)
Why isn’t Cinderella more proactive in general? Because she’s a child who has been abused for the back half of her life, who has had to be focused on survival because. you know. she’s an abused kid.
How did she dance in glass slippers? Gotta agree with you there man, that’s weird.
EXACTLY
There’s nothing particularly original about the gory version with the foot-cutting, ftr; it was collected after Perrault collected the pumpkin coach version. (Which notably differs from the Disney in that the stepmother gets less attention, the sisters more, and there are three balls. Also no talking mice.)
It might be a bit less misleading to say the more German and less French version has more blood, but even that’s generalizing more than is really supported.
Nordic stories that the series could have references
the protection of the farmer son, the story where Loki is fully the hero
the abduction of Idunn, the story where Loki is forced to do a wrong but is able to fix it on his own
Thrymskvida, where Loki's guile and quick thinking are used to add Thor
or you know three statues that don't look like anything from actual mythology
Asked by Anonymous
Lol. Yeah. Those looked 100% like the Marvel variants… also so Marvel fans would recognize them easily.
LOVE the Lokatattur (the one with the farmer’s boy). It shows how Loki WAS indeed the Protector of children.
All those stories are really nice picks!
Alas… Mobius telling Loki that he often forgets he is “one of them” (one of the Norse gods) is litteraly the writers telling us “Yeah, forget about his origins, he’s just SOME GUY”… *frustrated cries*
Loki’s punishment is one of the most well-known and represented scenes from Loki’s story and Norse tales… You’d think that they would use it on the show, if only as an Easter egg.
However, if it is to erase Sigyn’s from the ONE scene she’s supposed to be in and let Loki endure the poison on his, with no Sigyn variant to help him, as the Marvel comics have done again and again in their latest issues… I guess it’s better to forget it ^^’
The funky guy pictured here is actually a goosefish! He shows up on the google image search for tasseled wobbegongs because someone misidentified him once in a popular post and it stuck.
Oh my god, food extract is not the same as an essential oil.
Food extract is the flavoring of something cooked down into a carrier oil or alcohol that is safe for human ingestion.
Essential oil is the pure extract of the plant refined down and distilled for concentrated medicinal purposes to a significantly higher strength than simply adding ground up mint leaves to your water. The two are not comparable in any way.
Cinnamon extract and cinnamon essential oil are not the same thing.
One is about 100 times the strength of the other and can also cause acute organ failure. I’ll give you a hint, it’s not the food extract.
Sweet gods I’m not trying to be mean, I want you to be aware and safe and stop putting yourselves and others at risk. Please.
Like maybe my tone is hard to read, maybe it just comes off as really angry but it’s not, it’s fear and worry. I read posts and clutch my head in alarm going “no! No! That’s how people die!” And then I get exasperated because a bunch of people not formally qualified chime in with “um actually this is a lie” and it’s not, it’s really, really not.
I’m not some big pharma advocate. I’m a crunchy witch hippy just like you with salt rock lamps and rose quartz all over my house. I just happen to have spent the last 15 years of my life studying the actual science of holistic medicines and I’m trying to help you not get hurt (or worse) becuase you trusted a sales person with no idea what the ever loving hell they were talking about beyond a sales pitch designed to maximize profit. Gah.
I see this so often in the Mommy world. There was a lady not long ago in one of the mom groups who was really worried about her toddler. He’d had a persistent cough for weeks and the doctor couldn’t figure out why. Someone asked, well what have to tried to treat it with, so far? She said she was using a humidifier, honey, and eucalyptus EO in the shower every night.
Yeah.
In case you were wondering, eucalyptus can cause respiratory distress in young children.
Sadly I don’t wonder. I have a friend whose daughter died from a home made menthol oil chest rub. She wasn’t even ten yet, but her mom– a qualified aromatherapist– thought she’d be old enough to handle it. She went into respitory distress and died seizing in her mother’s arms on route to the hospital. It was one of the most harrowing stories I had to listen to during my holistic training. She stood up there, on this podium next to a bunch of ponzy scheme essential oil sellers who looked like they wanted the floor to swallow them, and said “I killed my child with good intentions”.
I’ll never forget the look on her face.
So to reiterate, children under the age of ten should not be directly exposed to things like eucalyptus oil, peppermint or wintergreen. If you are using such things in your house and your child starts to complain of headaches, lethargy and general “feel worse”, don’t just assume it’s the cold/flu. Those are all signs of menthol sensitivity and they only get worse with increased exposure. Ventilate the room, take them outside if you can until the air clears. Do not apply again.
Rapid onset wheezing may be a sign of allergic reaction or possible asthma attack triggered by the menthol too. If they tell you their chest is warm or fuzzy when you use it, that’s another sign it’s not going down well with them. Again, ventilate the area or remove anything you applied to them. Administer inhalers if necessary. Watch for any more labored breathing or if they suddenly go limp or you can’t wake them up. If they do call 911.
This can also apply to people with allergies and asthma who are otherwise healthy.
One of the safest, natural ways to alleviate congestion is with just pure good old fashioned warm steam. Keep the air moist, drink plenty of warm fluids. Menthol can help relieve the feeling of congestion, but there’s limited evidence to suggest it actually clears the airways. And for the love of god don’t inhale mustard or horseradish (I’ve seen that suggestion on posts too, though how you’d get those oils I don’t know). That’s literally what tear gas is made of.
I apologize sincerely for bringing this long post back into your lives, fam, but I’m getting inundated with questions about what can the possible harm be if you dab a little neat peppermint oil on your child’s skin to help them with a little head cold, and this is the most succinct way I can put it.
The harm you may do, is in fact death. I am not telling you these things to be a kill joy, I’m telling you so you won’t accidentally kill yours.
I have almost no followers and so am probably screaming into the void here, but! An important addition to this:
Respiratory distress is the number one cause of cardiac arrest in children.
This isn’t the case with adults (I believe the main cause is arrhythmia? but don’t quote me) but kids? Absolutely. It’s not a terribly intuitive thing - I think we usually expect people to stop breathing because their heart has stopped, but in children it’s very much the other way around.
So this kind of thing is VITALLY IMPORTANT to remember when you’re using things like essential oils and cleaning products that a child could be sensitive to! Their little bodies are fragile, and they really, REALLY need to breathe. Keep an eye out for respiratory issues in children, especially if there’s something new that has been introduced into their environment.
This is also relevant to pet owners who may have some idea that essential oils have any role in “holistic pet health.” Just. DO. NOT. Cats, especially, have delicate little livers and lick their coats extensively, so tea tree oil and other terpenes can kill them if applied to their fur.
I am a massage therapist and I use essential oils in drop amounts per jar of lubricant or pot of hot water (for compresses) when I use them at all, and I keep them carefully isolated on a shelf and handle them as if they were caustic in undiluted form. Not all of them, obviously, are highly toxic or will burn your skin, but some will (cinnamon, oh boy), but it’s a good habit to form. Also, they are sold and stored in those cute little glass jars for a reason. Some can melt plastic. Don’t ask how I found out.
Humans are born with demon counterparts to protect them.The more innocent and pure a person is the more mean fierce and terrifying their demon becomes.Today you met an 82 year old woman with the kindest sweetest demon you’ve ever met.
You live in a very haunted house, but it’s not that bad. The voices in the basement remind you of your laundry and tell you to check the boiler, the rat size talking spider keeps the pests away and is a pretty good therapist, and the victorian ghost children are great friends with your kids.
It is with profound disappointment that we report the industry CEOs have walked away from the bargaining table after refusing to counter our latest offer. (1/11)
We have negotiated with them in good faith, despite the fact that last week they presented an offer that was, shockingly, worth less than they proposed before the strike began.
These companies refuse to protect performers from being replaced by AI, they refuse to increase your wages to keep up with inflation, and they refuse to share a tiny portion of the immense revenue YOUR work generates for them.
We have made big, meaningful counters on our end, including completely transforming our revenue share proposal, which would cost the companies less than 57¢ per subscriber each year. They have rejected our proposals and refused to counter.
Instead they use bully tactics. Just tonight, they intentionally misrepresented to the press the cost of the above proposal – overstating it by 60%.
They have done the same with A.I., claiming to protect performer consent, but continuing to demand “consent” on the first day of employment for use of a performer’s digital replica for an entire cinematic universe (or any franchise project).
The companies are using the same failed strategy they tried to inflict on the WGA – putting out misleading information in an attempt to fool our members into abandoning our solidarity and putting pressure on our negotiators.
But, just like the writers, our members are smarter than that and will not be fooled.
We feel the pain these companies have inflicted on our members, our strike captains, IATSE, Teamsters and Basic Crafts union members, and everyone in this industry. We have sacrificed too much to capitulate to their stonewalling and greed.
We stand united and ready to negotiate today, tomorrow, and every day.
Our resolve is unwavering. Join us on picket lines and at solidarity events around the country and let your voices be heard.
One day longer. One day stronger. As long as it takes.
I POST WHAT I WANT! Ok, now that's out of the way, I'm all about spreading kindness and laughter. There's too much hate in this world, so I try to only send positive messages. I don't condone the spreading of fandom drama/rumors (pictures and the like are abundant here though)...O yeah, I also write and draw on occasion (I'll post that when I can). Call me AK if you don't like storylover92 (which is an awesome screen name thank you very much!)
