hiddlestonss:

We’re not the same, dear, as we used to be. The seasons have changed, and so have we. 

(via okayophelia)

(via sekra)

icy-mischief:

wightofthenine:

kaminie:

Loki: An Allegory About Internalised Racism

All his life Loki believed he was Aesir by blood. For years he’s been fed negative messages about Frost Giants – probably that they’re backwards, barbaric and unattractive. For years he’s participated in the Othering of an entire race (species?) and hating them for just being who they are. As the victors of war, Asgard would paint themselves as the noble and courageous warriors in every story and the Frost Giants as untrustworthy, cowardly and sly. Frost Giants are the butt of every joke. It’s clear Loki views them as disposable as everyone else in Asgard when he lets them into Asgard to be killed, just so he can make a point about Thor’s inadequacies.So what does he do when he finds out he’s adopted and biologically Jotun? Naturally, he manipulates events just so that he can commit genocide on his own people.

Maybe this sounds like a long bow to draw for people who haven’t experienced internalised racism, but in my opinion his reaction is a realistic portrayal of what racism can do to people of colour. I’m not saying anyone is going to commit genocide but that’s a lot of hate that’s being directed to people who’ve done nothing to him personally. And because Loki is a Frost Giant that’s also a lot of hate directed inwards AT HIMSELF.

Realistically, those negative messages don’t melt away the instant Loki knows about his heritage. No, what he wants now is to be accepted as Aesir “in spite of” the fact he is Jotun. Because of that he has to be more Asgardian than anyone else in Asgard. He has to hate the Frost Giants more, he has to be tough (not “soft” like Thor at the end) and he has to do something that will prove beyond doubtthat he is Aesir at least at heart.

Imagine if Loki knew he was Jotun from the beginning. His friends and family in Asgard treat him well, but still make remarks about the Frost Giants and how they’re an ugly race of people. They’d try to watch what they said around Loki, but sometimes let a racist joke or remark slip. And they’ll glance at him guiltily and think they’re helping when they clarify: “No you’re good, you’re not like the otherJotun.” Loki will grow up thinking he’s loved as long as he’s a certain “type” of Jotun and one that acts like he’s Aesir and goddamn, why wasn’t he born Aesir?

After he finds out, Loki monitors his behaviour. He makes sure he does everything Aesir, divorces himself from any Jotun-esque traits he might hold. He denounces the Frost Giants more than anyone else, he hates them and their culture and everything they are more than anyone else. He makes derogatory jokes about them, maybe even encourages others to do the same.

I read much of Loki’s pain and loss through the film as an allegory for internalised racism because I experienced it for myself for many years. Internalised racism is growing up with the message that only white people can be complex and successful and happy. Non-white ethnicity and culture is, at best, regulated to a supporting role for the privileged; at worst, it is outright hated, mocked and derided. You want to be happy right? Your brain does a little irrational flip and tells you the only way to be complex, successful and happy is to emulate a privileged person, right down to the racism.

Of course you can never be as good as a white person but you can try**. You can try to be better, and you can try to out-act their privilege. You can proudly distinguish yourself as one of the exceptions to the rule, the “good” type of minority that “acts white”. The price is giving up your heritage, distancing yourself from native cultural practices, from languages, food and clothing.

The emotional toil of loathing yourself stays until you come to terms with your own oppression. But the sense of loss has never left me. When I think back to how I was operating under internalised racism, I remember the positive experiences and opportunities I refused to take because they were too “ethnic”. I remember the deep shame of being non-white, my embarrassment of being seen with other non-white people and especially those who couldn’t “act white” enough for me.

I think about the racist things I did and got away with because of my ethnicity and I’m really glad I’m not that person anymore.

When Loki announces he wants to “destroy that race of monsters” you know, on some level, he’s referring to himself as well. And then my heart breaks into tiny pieces because I remember exactly how it feels to hate who you are.

*I realise that Thor is pretty white-washed in terms of casting and there are only two characters of colour, but nevertheless I found this storyline compelling when analysing it from a racialised point of view.

**People of colour who are able to “pass” as white will have to be a subject of another post.

(( This was an amazing and well written piece on a very sensitive subject that affects so many people in society. You do a wonderful job of bringing this societal flaw into the forefront when stirring our Loki feels at the same time. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts in the subject. I am white so this is an aspect of my muse that I will never be able to fully understand and it breaks my heart to know that real people live with these feelings every day. You are all beautiful. Lets all hug ♥))

This. Is. Perfect. I salute you for posting this. Thank you so much for articulating what I constantly try to articulate, about this character and yes, about larger, real social crises.  

(via elementalsight)

You have made me very desperate…

(via sodii)

stereobone:

hattedhedgehog:

“You never finished the story,” he says.

 “I want to know how it ends.”

His brother sobs.

“I don’t remember. Thor, I don’t—”

“It’s okay.”

They aren’t talking about the story anymore, at least, Thor doesn’t think they are. What he does know is that his hands are heavy and his body is heavy and this, it had to end somewhere, didn’t it?

 

Inspired by stereobone’s goregeous fic, Scheherazade: http://stereobone.tumblr.com/post/31562802908/fic-scheherazade-thor-loki

(Warning: it’s Thorki.)

Excuse me while I cut my heart out and then throw it at a wall (and then paint a picture with it).

No cape for Thor because it distracted from the blood.

Pose referenced here from :devSyccas-Stock: : http://syccas-stock.deviantart.com/art/Dead-Companion-9-290975626

(via garama)

everybodyilovedies:

daughter-of-water:

everybodyilovedies:

Can we talk about how awesome I desperately want this to be???

Jane is an astrophysicist. An astrophysicist who gets to go to another world. Oh my gosh. I want her to geek out. I want her to geek out so freaking hard.

When she steps off the bifrost I want her to be vaguely intimidated by Heimdell and be like “oookay” and Darcy to start hitting on him bc hellloooo Idris and then they’ll step outside and Jane will FREAK. OUT. Because STAR MAPS?! Different areas of space?! Calculating the age of the cosmos and if it’s the same universe or a different one and where exactly in the universe Asgard is situated and time dilation and ALL THIS SUPER CUTE GEEK STUFF?!?!?

And then I want the parents to stroll up. And her to still be geeking out over stars. And she’s trying to take pictures and stuff. But Frigga and Odin and hello they’re kind of gods? Or at least royalty? Oh and she’s totally banging their son so she should probably be polite. And Frigga is super sweet and IDK if Odin’ll be a dick or not but whatever?!

I just really want geek!Jane and I’m crazy excited for this and if the movie doesn’t do this I will be so fucking upset. Because you sent an astrophysicist to another world, and this needs to be addressed. And fulfill all our little space-geeks’ childhood fantasies.  

So many people seem to think that her relationship with Thor reduces her character’s ambitions as an astrophysicist and makes her little more than a token love interest but this post right here shows how much it actually enhances it. Thor has opened up the universe to her and through him she has learned how she was on the right track with her research all along.

YES THANK YOU.

Can you fucking IMAGINE, as an expert in your field that has been maligned by years for your peers, having a physical manifestation of the truth of your theories land in front of your car?! Can you even imagine that?! Maybe it’s because I’m in academia, but holy fuck, this would be the most amazing thing ever. And to have him sit there (looking like Chris Hemsworth, hello) and telling you that your life work is correct?? The fact that Jane didn’t break down crying as he explained the world tree to her is a testament to the strength of her character, because I would have. All that work, all that ridicule and fight and scraping, especially as a woman in a STEM field, would have been completely and utterly worth it, and overwhelming to have happen.

Think about being Jane. Really think about it. You’re a woman in an almost entirely male-dominated field. You probably don’t have another woman in your entire department (yes, this is a true thing that happens, welcome to the program I’m currently in). You have some out-there theories, that you KNOW are right. But you get mocked for them. Of course you do. Not only do you get mocked because they’re crazy, but you probably have guys sneering at you behind your back because you’re a woman and they automatically think you’re more prone to flights of fancy and irrational thinking and all that bullshit. Finding an advisor to work with would be near impossible. She got stupid lucky with Selvig, but even then they’re in the middle of podunk nowhere trying to get their research done. When you go out to meet new people or even with friends, i.e. people like Darcy, no one has any clue what you’re talking about. The people who do, think it’s stupid. Childish. Dumb.

And then you run over proof with your car. Do you know how vindicating that would be? How overwhelming? Relieving? 

And then that walking proof of your theory takes you to another planet to see it for yourself.

Holy. Fuck.

I would have collapsed in a corner crying for joy looongg before the end of Thor 1, and Thor 2 would just have me clutching Thor and sobbing and pointing at stars and shit and trying to explain why this was so important in between heaving sobs.

Jane is fucking amazing, and I don’t understand why more of the fandom doesn’t love her.

But maybe I’m biased, seeing as I’m stuck in my grad student office at 11:00 at night pulling an all-nighter so that I can defend my thesis barely over a month from now. In my department which has no other women in my program. Maybe that makes me incredibly biased towards Jane. And maybe you thought she wasn’t handled properly in the context of the movie, which is fine. But don’t go trashing her around me, because next to Peggy, Jane is my best girl in the MCU. \m/ \m/

(via okayophelia)

acaciajules:

a worthy brother . by *megatruh

(via stereobone)

(via jollyfosh)