Also Loki fans, when Thor hurts Loki to defend himself or his freedom: But Thor should be better than Loki! He’s allegedly the hero!!!!
MMM do you see your own logic is faulty? Yes, Thor isn’t better than Loki EXACTLY because that if he’s a the perfect hero Thor should be above hurting him. Insulting him. Neglecting. But he’s not. He’s not perfect. Neither of them are. Both have flaws. Loki hurt Thor for selfish reasons. And Thor hurt Loki too. That’s exactly why their story is so complex and interesting.
I feel at that our opinions are pretty much the same - that they’re complex and each have flaws and their dynamic is interesting for that reason - but I’m afraid you’ve missed the point of my post.
Loki fans can’t wave their ‘Thor isn’t better than Loki’ banners for years but then suddenly argue that Thor isn’t allowed to hurt Loki because he’s meant to be better than that. That’s not a consistent argument.
If they’re equal then Thor can hurt Loki just as Loki can hurt Thor and nobody should be crying about how it’s out of character for Thororabusive or whatever else people are whinging about.
So wait, you’re judging people based on their appearance then?
Absolutely not.
Let me explain how I interpreted this:
I saw myself in this. I have gone to business conferences terrified of what people might think of me, and how I look, or what I weigh. It was dreadful.
I want to be able to get rid of that self-conscious, worried feeling. It would open me up to have conversations and get to know people.
It would be like this weight of self doubt was lifted off my shoulders, and I could go in and actually enjoy myself and make friends.
I hope that clarified my views a little better. :)
I got a really nice question about this, so I’ll clarify why this show is the most offensive way to present a Roma woman’s fantasy life, and why that matters in relation to Wanda Maximoff:
The “Magical Gypsy” Stereotype
Just to clarify: The word “gypsy” is a racial slur, and I’m using it to make a point about racial stereotypes. I’m not giving you permission to use it. If you aren’t Romani and/or Irish Traveller, that word is not for you.
If you’re familiar with the 1960s TV show Bewitched, you’ll have recognized that Wandavisionis dressed up like an homage to that show. What you probably don’t know is that Bewitchedwas conceived as thinly-veiled allegory to interracial marriage, a major hot-button issue at the time. Samantha and her family were a different race from Darrin (Samantha’s husband), in that witches were not humans, strictly speaking. That culture clash was most of the show’s storyline.
It seems as if Samantha and her mother, Endora, were meant to stand-in for Roma women. The popular stereotype at the time was that Romani and Travellers were “mystical,” even magical. The “Magical Gypsy” is our most prominent stereotype. Bewitched’s premise fed right into that narrative, and Wandavision makes it even clearer.
Samantha deceives Darrin into marrying her by lying about her heritage, and then they spend the rest of the series fighting over whether Samantha should act “normal.” Samantha’s parents have no permanent home. They have century-old customs that baffle (and even frighten) Darrin and other humans. They’re sneaky, and they lie a lot, and they often use their powers for personal gain, including theft. The witches and warlocks look white, of course, but they aren’t reallythe same as the “normal humans” of the series. That hit a lot of Romani people where it hurt, back then and in reruns.
One of the witches is even named “Esmeralda,” in a direct nod to Victor Hugo’s famous Roma character.
The Maximoff Twins, Adoption, and Romanipen
The Maximoff twins, like many superheroes, have complicated backstories which have not been consistent from universe to universe. In the earliest universes, they are the children of Whizzer and Miss America. Later, they’re revealed to be the children of Magneto, eventually placed into the adoptive care of a Romani couple. In 616, it is retconned that the High Evolutionary tricked them into believing Magneto was their father–in fact, they aren’t mutants at all. Their mother is actually Natalya Maximoff, the sister of their adoptive father and a Roma woman.
So, they might be Romani children (born to Natalya). They might be the adoptive children of Django and Marya Maximoff, without any blood relation. It may seem to outsiders that these distinctions are important, but actually…
Romani people do not determine family through bloodlines, but through a concept called “romanipen.” A person born to two Romani parents, but raised by outsiders, is notconsidered Romani. A person born of non-Romani (or “gadjo”) parents is considered Romani if they’re raised in the community. There’s no such thing as the “Romani race.” Romani people are a culture, and you must be taught the culture to be considered one of us.
The Maximoff twins are just as Romani, either way.
There’s a long, painful history of Romani children being removed from their families by the state “for their own safety.” It happens in the USA, it happens in the UK, it happens all over mainland Europe. It’s happening right now. These losses are horrifying, not only on a personal level but also to the Romani culture. These children–often placed into social services for years, even if they aren’t adopted–are not being raised as Romani. They are not considered Romani children anymore. The government has completely stripped them of their cultural identity. This has devastated Romani populations in some countries, leading to full cultural genocide in only a few generations.
Assimilate to Survive
Nobody understands “hiding in plain sight” better than a Romani. There might be peoples who have experienced something equivalent–Jews, the disabled, and the queer community come to mind–but no one has needed assimilation more, or mastered it more completely. We have assimilated into every country we’ve ever lived. We go to your churches. We speak your languages. We wear your clothes and eat your food and laugh at your racist jokes.
When Wanda and Pietro Maximoff lose their family to war in the MCU, the Roma in me knows that pain. When Wanda is pursued by the government, when they try to cage and control her “for everyone’s safety,” the Roma in me is in that cage with her. When she’s made country-less, forced into exile, the Roma in me has never related to her more.
The alternatives to assimilation aren’t just horrible. They are genocide.
If you have a Romani in your school or workplace, you’ll probably never know it. We don’t tell people we’re Romani. Even admitting it anonymously on the internet feels like playing Russian roulette.
Watching Wanda Maximoff, a Roma superheroine, dream herself into perfect assimilation in time-after-time, place-after-place… That’s really fucking twisted. She dreams about being “normal.” She dreams about putting down roots. She’s constantly assaulted with the possibility that she might not be “normal” enough to live safely, or to have children. Assimilation is the story, here, and that is an integral part of what it means to be Romani.
But In the MCU, Wanda Maximoff Is Not Roma
We don’t have much representation in the media. The MCU strips Wanda of her cultural identity while maintaining all the bitter truths specific to our people. It’s an insult. This show is an insult.
The Romani have no voice on the international stage. We have no seats in congress (few politicians at all, outside Hungary). We have a handful of published writers, worldwide, and even fewer prominent actors onscreen. We are invisible, often by our own design. I have wrestled a lot with that as I’ve grown older. How much are we to blame for our own erasure?
I remember that to be Romani means to live with a constant fear of homelessness, of statelessness. To teach your children to be chameleons. To be an outsider in the country where your grandparents were born. We don’t deserve to be erased, and it wasn’t right for Marvel to whitewash our pain.
Our pain is red. Blood red. Scarlet, even.
I hope that’s clear enough.
This post is doing big numbers again, as it tends to do every four weeks or so. I always get the same few questions every time that happens. I’m tired of answering this one individually, over and over.
What do I mean when I say, “There’s no such thing as the ‘Romani race.’ Romani people are a culture, and you must be taught the culture to be considered one of us?”
I’ve already responded to criticism of my poor choice of wording re: race vs. culture vs. ethnicity.
I understand that the original post is still most likely to be shared, but I have addressed this several times. It’s in the notes of the original post.
Thank you, as always, for continuing to share and engage with this issue.WandaVisionrecentlywon the Harvey Award for “Best Adaptation from Comic Book/Graphic Novel,” which is… Wow. I guess it’s still a stellar adaptation when you whitewash your lead characters. Even in 2021.
Also too, I just wanted to clarify. The sleep deprivation at the beginning of this week was not something MLAM did to me. It was the result of decisions I made myself. I wrote that lost and had that hesitation about safewording while and because I was so sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation impaired my ability to play safely. I won’t be doing that again, except as something I plan and discuss with a partner.
I don’t normally have the slightest hesitation to safeword or state a limit if I feel I need to. That’s true with MLAM, even over the long distance, and even if I previously had (unwarranted) concerns about consequences that made it trickier, I still did it. This shit is supposed to be fun.
With MLAM, we have a discussed and agreed upon goal of pushing boundaries, so I push myself further than I would with other people, which makes deciding to red out a more difficult decision, just in terms of figuring out how far I can push myself without breaking. Additionally, the type of play we’re doing long distance is mental and emotional, and very rarely physical, which means I take longer to decide about stopping things because I can. And I often start out thinking I’m not willing to do something, and planning to tap out, only to find myself excited about doing it after thinking about it for a while.
I find safewording or declaring limits to be an incredibly simple decision with other people (not that I rush to do it, but it’s pretty easy to tell if I need to, and I don’t hesitate for any reason), and with pain or other physical play.
On November 18, 1928, Steamboat Willie premiered in Universal’s Colony Theater. Important for a number of reasons, Steamboat Willie was the first Disney animated cartoon to have fully synchronized pictures and sound. It was also the first premiered cartoon to feature the iconic Mickey Mouse. The popularity of this short-film would become the foundation of the legacy of Disney movies and the Walt Disney franchise that has become famous throughout the world.
And thus, a legend was born…
I thought the first short with Mickey was Plane Crazy? It was shown to a small audience May 15th, 1928. Wouldn’t that mean that Mickey actually turned 90 in May? (Not trying to argue with anyone just confused)
No worries! If I get something wrong, I want people to tell me about it! After all, my blog is all about education and the beauty of animation, so if I don’t take time to educate myself, wouldn’t that make me a hypocrite? I love questions! Don’t be afraid to ask them in the future.
Technically, you are correct. Plane Crazy is the first cartoon short to feature Mickey Mouse as it’s star and it “premiered” on May 15th, 1928. However, things get a little bit tricky when you look into it.
Plane Crazy premiered to a test audience in an unnamed theater in California. This small test audience failed produce any distributors and thus, Plane Crazy was placed on the back shelf for a while until Disney could get some company backing to disperse his cartoon in theaters across America. It wasn’t until Disney and his fellow colleagues managed to be able to sync up sounds and music to his cartoons— as in the case of Steamboat Willie— that he was able to get companies interested in showing his cartoons in Theaters. Once Steamboat Willie premiered in November 18, 1928 and gained a huge market success, Plane Crazy was revisited, sounded was added, and it was finally released to the general public on March 17, 1929— 5 months after the release of Steamboat Willie.
So, “technically”, yes. You are correct. Plane Crazy was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. It also “premiered” on May 15, 1928. But really, that’s splitting hairs when you look at it—- Does one small audience screening mean that it was actually released to the general public? I would argue that no, it doesn’t. Test screenings rarely produce the exact same product before and after the showing, and since sound was added to the cartoon afterwards, you could argue it’s a whole new product. So, while you could say that this screening means that a small number individuals outside of the company got to see a relatively finished product and thus it was technically released to the public, I maintain that Steamboat Willie is the origins of Mickey Mouse. And thus, I rest my case!
If you have any further questions or would like to debate this further, feel free to leave a message in my inbox and I’ll back to you as soon as I am available! This research/chat was rather enjoyable! And I love being able to flex my animation knowledge!
@thingsidowheniambored
Yes! Of course! I just thought since Mickey is the “Disney Icon,” it would be important to highlight that fact instead of including every single character that premiered in this cartoon!
