Marvel Mic Drop

How is "Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood' Video Is the Anti-Avengers"?

Listen, I enjoy Taylor swift, just about a bunch of truck tons. Now. She's adorable. But also, she has become strong in her Feminist Flag waving without looking TOO adorable. She has become an educated Feminist. One that has chosen to fight on a side that, ironically, is still struggling through the growing pains of being born after Second Wave Feminism. Honestly, I think we'll be on a fifth wave of feminism before we get all of that... BAD BLOOD (ahem, had to be done) resolved and/or buried.

Current Feminism is the lonely, confused Brand New Baby... meanwhile Second Wave is the petulant middle child still grumbling about arguments that really ought to be long forgotten so the family can move onto more pressing matters. Like the new family member (my generation, and the one coming up) in Feminism that is confusedly content to say, "I WOULDN'T CALL MYSELF A FEMINIST." Or, "No, I love men. I can't be a feminist." Or, "Oh...I think we're all equal now."

Sure, kid, if I were born into the family with a petulant middle child like Second Wave I would do my very best to let EVERYONE know that I'm NOT like the fitting and fussy sister that has actually given our family a intensely undeserved reputation. Good job Taylor. For having fun with your reclamation. Feminist. If we can get a few more baby birds to launch like that... The family Feminist might actually survive.

But that said-- are we still going on about Nat in The Avengers? Are Femi-brats still haranguing Joss about his choices as a writer?

The Black Widow does NOT get the Feminist Friendly/Buffy Summers Whedonverse Edit.
Nat is a Faith. She's all torn up and damaged, has made some decisions that in retrospect... has left blood in her ledger. She's a spy and she's broken her conditioning which means her life is pretty much helter skelter. Joining the Avengers is her balance in her bast. Not a place for any Famibrat to go about, without consent, penetrating what it is that Natasha Romanoff, as a character, "needs." A conditioned spy stays conditioned. Stays oblivious to emotion. Orders are followed. Commands are obeyed. Without conditioning Nat gets to... think about love. And miserably children.

Pro-choice card! Her CHOICE was taken away. It wasn't important at the time (because conditioning) but now that her brain is her own... it's something she can only think about. How can you, as a feminist, argue that her sterilization is anti-feminist? Shouldn't we champion and educate that compulsory sterilization still happens on this planet. To people that aren't spys! THAT SUCKS. Did YOU know that? Let's talk about that.

As a feminist I get to say, "I don't want children." And people are super sad hat for me. "You'll change your mind! Children are the best. Everyone needs to have one!!!" Pro-choice card, again, you're right, I might eventually decide that I do want children and Femibrats will get sad hat about that. You can't win.

Neither can Nat. And neither can Joss. He used Nat's spy instigated sterilization the same way in which Tracy Bond had to die to build a better 007. So yeah, women get the writing shake down of some pretty terrible stuff. Feminist card... men too! The writing manipulation happens, it just happens on a different frequency.

I've had abortions. Bad timing. But if I found out that I could no longer have children. That I no longer had the choice to change my mind? I... would... be... DEVASTATED. Nat's devastation isn't anti-feminist. It's pro-humanist.

Do you even Marvel, bruh?

And yea, Nat has Smurfette Syndrome... but what exactly is Joss supposed to do about that? There isn't an abundance of female, Marvel Heavy Hitters in the Avengers. The roll call for the Avengers is long and full... but not a lot of movie worthy characters to be had.
After the third time is a charm luck with The Hulk, Marvel can't roll our with She-Hulk. Too much Hulk. Smash. Same could be said about Spiderwoman. Sue Storm (v. 1, Jessica Alba I love you, but Sue Storm, you were not!) is getting a reboot (fingers crossed!!!) Can't roll out Wasp because Ant-man.

We did get Scarlet Witch. And she was dark and twisty too. Her brother had to see her on a razor edge of chaos to become the hero and she had to loose her hero brother to get off the razor and become a hero herself.

That's fucking good writing. Joss and his team did in a few scenes what took Marvel comics... as long as it's always taken them... issues... months... alternate universes... arcs... years.

Femibrats... um... "girls" have been excluded from the Boys Comic Book Club for decades. Could you not fit and fuss about it in a way in which it makes it harder for me and other women, our daughters and nieces, our friends to break the glass ceiling in our local comic shops? We have some serious footing right now and we're gonna get there. But we can't climb if you, by pushing, are try to "help." You're not helping.

Buffy Summers had an abortion, y'all.  If we can champion her choice, if Joss can set his balls on the block to give her that choice... then we can champion the softer side of Natasha, her want for children and Joss' recognition that Nat now wants more and can't have it. As of today, that's a #feminist struggle that we're still fighting for.

#avengersasemble

Just paid the deposit on Yoga Certification course at downtown desert yoga.

I've come up with a lot of ideas on what it is that I want to Be When I Grow up as Brain Boggled New Naomi. Some ideas washed out because I'm not the student/degree carrying person that I used to be. I tried at getting my Grant Writing Certification. On line course work was manageable once we were running the basics. But when fine-tuning details started, when I had a question and replies didn't come until a few days later, when personal family tragedy became too distracting... I washed out. I've learned how to forgive myself. I learned enough to set my own course on grant writing.  

Working to be mindful around the onslaught of anger that came with the discovery that I have changed as a student, that I need more attention... took some time... is still taking some time. I'm not going to say that I will, out of the gate, begin teaching yoga. I won't be playing that card. Refining my knowledge in this field is for me. To help me suss out the stuff that's still left undone.   Eventually, of course, I would like to teach yoga, very specifically to those with Traumatic Brain Injuries. Many yoga studios and instructors are doing fantastic work on helping our Veterans deal with their PTSD and TBI. I admire that.

But I also feel voiceless. Because my TBI is not attached to something socially/politically tangible... I feel a little left out. I kinda need yoga guidance too! It isn't often you see a class directed for those who have TBI. Just TBI. TBI and PTSD are often taglined-- TBI and PTSD associated with SERVICE. I'm just some kid, that was walking down the street and got smacked by a car. I'm not special. My TBI isn't special. "You look fine." Oh yeah, because my recovery is totally visible! The Invisible Injury stays Invisible sometimes. I am appreciative that service men and women with TBI are no longer AS Invisible (there is still a lot of work to do!) They served our country, served its citizens, served us and they should never be invisible.  

My injury is still invisible.

And let's be honest there truly is enough Feeling Left Out/Invisibility charged into TBI life. Yoga has become important to me because much of its benefits can dismiss that sensation. It's hard to feel left out when it's only you on that mat. It can be terrifying at first.

It is just you on this mat. You're not sure if you're doing this right. You're looking around, breath irregular, looking to see if your body is positioned like all the other people in the room, like the person on the video, like the book illustration says. Is this even working? Does this even matter? I'm wasting my time? Maybe I should be... anywhere but here. Maybe I should get up, get off this mat, and get back to bed, have another coffee, check my Facebook.   

But, babe, it is just YOU on this mat. And sometimes, breakthrough. In the form of an instructor witnessing your struggle and sitting next to you, assuring you that you are doing this right, that no you don't look like the person next to you, that you're a little new and eventually you're body will shape and bend in only the way your own body can and there isn't a rush to fold yourself in half and it's totally ok because not everyone can do that but in trying you find your platform of what you CAN do and what feels right. In the form of you watching that video and realizing that tension, in fact, is releasing from your calves and while you don't look like the person in the video you actually are starting to feel pretty good, right there in your bound up calves. In the form of looking at that book and reading the caption under the yoga position, Vrksasana, whatever that means, Tree Pose, oh... this is silly... oh, I can just start off with my foot above my ankle... oh, well that's ok, I can do that... and then eventually discovering that you can trust yourself to stand on one leg, with your arms over your head even with your eyes closed and NOT fall down.   

Because it is just YOU on this mat. No one can tell you what to do. No one can make you feel left out. Because it's just you. And for a little while it feels good to be just you.   

If you are brain boggled, or has a replaced hip, or a bruised tail bone, or ringing ears, or a big stupid headache that won't go away... if you is skinny, or old, or wide, or young... if you isn't worried bout that jelly roll at your belly, or if you has a day in which you ARE worried... it's your day, your mat and it's just you for twenty minutes, and hour, fell asleep in Corpse Pose, maybe two hours.   It stops being terrifying to be alone. You learn to step off that mat and feel less alone. Even when people are trying to leave you out... you're kinda just a two minute tree pose away from being Alone on your mat and ok with that because being Alone and Lonliness are two entirely different things.   

I have invisibility days. You know what I do with those? Banana or Crescent Moon Pose. When my sides are splitting with electric stretch it doesn't matter if no one else can see me. I can see myself.   

So, the immediate direction is not to become a teacher but to first teach myself and in that learn to share with others. I can't help anyone until I get Me done first.