This is not a headcanon, and may be considered a controversial idea, but rather than looking at a piece of fictionalized media as a factual reference source, we as a fandom need to separate the source material (aka the strike) from the fictionalized media (the movie and stage production). If you would like to include more women in your fanfiction or productions, you do you, go right ahead, but don’t claim historic accuracy. If you are looking to romanticize the poverty and hardship the boys went through by reducing them all down to children, this blog is not going to give you the basis for that. 

When wanting women and girls to be included among the historic newsboy strike or among fandom spaces, we need to acknowledge that our labor laws we have today in the US were created based on the abuse and the deaths of millions of lower class, primarily immigrant women who worked in factories and sweatshops. Women were the ones to effect change in strikes, to hold the picket lines, to bring attention to the injustices that were faced. 

Just one example, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy, of the 146 deaths, 123 of those were women. They were literally locked inside a burning building, and forced to jump out of a 12-14 story building or be suffocated or burned to death. This history is horrifying. It makes my stomach hurt just to think about it, because at the end of the day, realistically, many of us on this website would have historically been there, working 14-18 hour days for pennies. 

As for divorcing the source material from the show or movie, the newsboys lost their strike. No matter what the musical may say.  They only got one of their demands, and at the end of the day, it took adults to make the changes. This is a much more depressive view of the events than the musical portrays. When studying history, it is important to keep in mind that even if you do not like how something turned out, you can not deny it. You can not change something just because it does not fit how you would like it. 

The newsboys should not be romanticized. Hundreds, close to a thousand, of CHILDREN, CHILDREN died each year as newsboys. And that is not counting those that fell sick or were injured in other jobs. Boys living in the lodging houses who passed were placed into blank pine boxes, without their names attached, without anyone there to mourn them and their small pine boxes were stacked in wagons just high enough to not tip on their way to mass burials.  Here is the source for those of you who want to read, unfortunately, it’s behind a paywall that I get access to through my work. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3790564?seq=1

This stuff is depressing as F&%#. And I’m sorry for this long post but it needed to be said. Though Newsies is a musical, it is not a Disney-perfect story. 

suzuki-violin-school:

Important Shit Masterlist

I decided to compile a bunch important/useful posts into one big list so it’s easy to find resources I may have posted or reblogged.

“Through a rapist’s eyes” - what rapists look for and how they attack, along with a list of ways to deter them and defend yourself

“Life skills” - ways to avoid kidnappers, rapists, or other attackers

“Pride month” - a reminder of the validity of bisexuality

“About that law in Tennessee…” - some stuff about a transphobic law that was passed in Tennesee

“Christianity: fear or faith?” - light debate about the nature of christianity and its teachings

“Fanfiction guidelines to help avoid discourse” - a list of what some would call the Unwritten Rules

“Safe sex” - the problem with sex ed classes

“Helpful tip” - quick tip on leaving toxic situations

“If you’re looking for a sign”

“Kent State” - school shooting tw

“Karen” - the problem with being/not being a Karen

“You’re brave” - ableism comic

“Stop Recording” - information about reporting/recording police brutality

“Red Flags” - tw: abusive relationships

“Reminders for anxious or depressed content creators”

“Safe sex” (again) - specifically about anal sex

“Mental illness is NOT”

“What happens when you die?” - tw; suicide

“Abortion info” - Aidaccess

“To anyone chatting online” - tips about internet friendships and meeting with someone for the first time

“Abortion is healthcare”

“When "terfs dni” is in your bio" - the deal with transmisogynists

“Attention content creators” - tag problems

“How to adult” - life advice about important things

“Tumblr tags iOS”

“Educate yourself” - life before google

“Tumblr tag problems” - true/false statements

“Banned tags” - the Listᵀᴹ

“Transandrophobia” - selfish transmisogyny

“do not interact (dni)” - internet safety

“exposing the losers .tumblr” - tumblr virus/hacking awareness

“Salvation Army” - this is not ‘salvation’

“Genres”- reminder that all genres are valid (yes, genre, not gender, but that too)

“Dangerous websites” - totally illegal post that definitely doesn’t contain valuable information

“Salvation Army 2” - really? homophobic shit on christmas?

“Oppressed being oppressors” - lateral aggression

“Nonbinary tips for young enbies” - or nonbinary people who only recently came out and could use a tip or two

“Tumblr tags” - a fourth one about tumblr tags? @staff get your shit together

“Age indicators”

“Autism awareness” - listen to what the people with autism say about autism, not what the neurotypical people say about autism

“Kink Shaming”

“Sex, gender, presentation”

“Don’t do any of this” - a bunch of things you totally should NOT do if adobe says what you’ve got is outdated and you should buy the newer worser version

“Opressive religion” - it’s not just christianity

“Vagina owners” - is it period cramps or appendicitis?

“The 19th century Jewish trans man from Ukraine”

“Fanfiction” - smut or no smut?

“New blogs” - tumblr newbies: how to not get blocked on sight based on pfp alone (because it happens)

“New blogs 2” - how tumblr works for dummies

“Give black women credit” - hhhhhh black girls are so pretty

“How to put out a fire”

“Age of consent”

“Billionaires” - the redacted bible

“Trans people!”

“Trans women” - the problem with passing

I definitely got teary listening to their apology conversation. Maybe I’m easy to please but I do believe them. I believe they genuinely want to do better. Katie in particular broke me because I just know in my heart she meant it when she said she was devastated. I appreciated Shane owning up to checking out. I appreciated Ryan taking responsibility as part of the company even when he wasn’t present. I believe Steven has more to learn but I believe he wants to try.

No media company is perfect so no media apology will be perfect but this at least feels very genuine to me. Like I said before I’m a very sensitive sapphic so maybe I’m too easy to forgive people but I do plan to hold them to their promise to grow and to expand their company. Idk man I just believe them.

retarded-faggot-xoxo:

mallekourse:

mallekourse:

hey everyone, on a serious note: please block and report pastelpannies. they post graphic sh/suicide bait to transmeds and in the transmed tags. this isn’t about discourse. 

hey yall their account got deleted but their new one is pastel-pannies. same deal as before, report them

Their pinned post is genuinely “Suicide is an answer”

I don’t care who’s side you’re on, encouraging a suicidal person to kill themselves is a CRIME. I’m not going to bother with if it’s moral, it is ILLEGAL. YOU would be responsible for any deaths that happen as a result.

generally don’t repost this kind of stuff, but yeah. this is important. their blog is disgusting and no matter what your opinion on the whole fucking debate, sending gore or shit like that to people who are often teenagers is extraordinarily fucked up. don’t let people get away with shit like that.

vulpixserpens:

skinny-capricorn:

my new roommate said that her last roommate had an eating disorder and then talked to me about her clean eating and weight loss goals and how she buys clothes that are a little snug to motivate her to lose more

and like honestly? i have anorexia but this is why i constantly talk about the dangers of the “health and fitness” industry and diet culture bc we have essentially normalized certain symptoms of disordered eating but it’s ok if it’s under the guise of health i guess???

like how is calling it “clean” eating NOT a way to moralize food

how is intermittent fasting NOT the same thing as skipping meals

how come when i buy clothes that don’t fit, it’s something i have to tell my therapist about because it means i am putting pressure on myself to fit into them, but if a “normal” person does it then it’s just motivation for them?

where is the fucking line???

and more importantly when are we going to start acknowledging that the entire world is pro-ana but that’s too harsh of a description so we slap some health buzzwords on it to make it palatable

when are we going to take responsibility for encouraging disordered behavior instead of labeling those of us with EDs as the crazy/imbalanced ones

your fucking Whole30 or keto or whatever “clean” diet you’re on is just as restrictive as the diets we create for ourselves due to our disorders. but we are the crazy ones, right

I’d like to hear the opinions of my followers (and anyone else who sees this).

I personally see what OP is saying…but I’m also currently in a kind of bitter place right now, so I’m ready to admit that I’m quite negative towards society’s views and actions regarding weight and beauty and whatnot.

Oh, I know this one!

There is a difference between mental illnesses and symptoms! Everyone gets anxious sometimes, but that doesn’t mean that everybody has anxiety. Many people feel unsatisfied with their bodies, many feel fat and decide to control their diets, but that does not mean that they have eating disorders.

The truth is that it is indeed incredibly important to eat healthy, and maintain an active lifestyle. This means eating from all the different food groups, getting exercise, but also getting sunlight, enough water, and all the important vitamins and nutrients your body needs!

Yeah, I won’t pretend we don’t have corporations trying to sell us stuff at every possible opportunity, like fast food advertisements right beside the next big fad diet: the irony is obvious. But you need to keep in mind that these things on TV, in magazines, online articles, commercials, billboards, labels, are advertisements. Their main purpose is to sell you products, no matter how shit they are. But that’s besides the point.

There’s a big difference between average people trying to lose weight, or alter their lifestyle in any way to get healthy, and people with eating disorders. First of all, any mental illness is constant and consuming. They may vary in severity, but but the main thing that contrasts a healthy mind from a sick one is the obsession (in context of ED here). I’m going to compare two imaginary girls here: Sally and Ana, using a couple common symptoms and comparing them.

Sally:

• wants to lose her muffin top tummy, chubby cheeks, arm/thigh fat.
• looks forward to healthy meals
• snacks when hungry
• feels slightly guilty about having high-calorie meals like a burger or cake
• talks about weight loss and feels proud to show her progress to friends/family

Ana:

• wants her collarbones, rib cage, spine, and hipbones to show.
• skips meals, throws out some of her portions, sometimes purges
• chugs water and tea when hungry instead of eating
• can have panic attacks and cry over eating a slice of toast
• hides her weight loss because she knows that friends and family will be concerned

Obviously I didn’t go in depth here, but the difference is very clear. With an eating disorder, there is a very different mentality about food, weight loss, and body image. No, not everyone with anorexia will have ALL the symptoms of anorexia (there are so many more that aren’t listed here, I barely skimmed the surface). No, not everyone who is trying to lose weight in a healthy way will be perfectly healthy about it. Sometimes, people like Sally DO have unhealthy thoughts about food and their body, just as people like Ana have good, healthy thoughts about their body. If Sally starts showing some symptoms of anorexia, that is definitely a cause for concern. Sally’s friends and family may want to bring this up with her, and discuss her struggles. However, that doesn’t immediately mean that Sally is anorexic.  If you know somebody who is encouraging extreme and unhealthy weight loss, or pro-ana, they’re just a shitty/ignorant person!

We should all be encouraged to take care of our bodies, eat healthy, and exercise. Eating disorders aren’t healthy, anorexia is not a diet.

TLDR; anorexia = bad, taking care of your body = good.

85th:

the only thing i knew about sex at the age of nine was that

1) it was for mommies and daddies who were married;

2) it made me, my five year old sister, and my baby brother.

i learned everything i knew about sex from the internet while secretly browsing grownup sites on my 4th generation ipod touch i earned for doing so well at a piano recital. because of the nature of, you know, men and their internet porn, i learned that my sexual role as a woman was to be slapped and pissed on and tied up. i didn’t know what healthy sex was. i didn’t know it should be mutually consensual, or that it was okay to want sex with girls. i didn’t know that sex should be good for both people. i learned that sex would hurt, and that sex was about men and men only, and that i would be forced into sex whether i liked it or not, and that it was normal to have sex with big, burly, grown men as a teenager. i learned it was normal to cry during sex. i was scared of sex for so many years because of that, and the way i was exposed to sex at a young age led to the inappropriate and traumatic sexual encounters i had (occasionally with older people) later on in my teen years.

the day i got my first period, i was ten-and-a-half. i was swimming in the river with my best friend, and when i got out to go to the bathroom, i noticed brown blood on the inside of my mint-green tankini bottom. i knew what a period was, but i hid it from my mother in shame. she found out, eventually, of course. she told me, you have a woman’s body now, and if you have sex, you could have a baby. all i heard was, you have a woman’s body.

i started shaving my vulva when i was eleven, because i saw memes on memegenerator about how disgusting “hairy pussy” was. i wanted to be sexy. i was eleven years old, and all i wanted was to be sexy. it hurt, and it itched, and it made me uncomfortable, and i’d sometimes nick my labia with the razor, but i did it anyway, because i didn’t want to have a nasty, “hairy pussy.”

eleven was the age i first started getting pinched on the EL. i was an early bloomer: i had B-cup breasts already, and my menstrual cycle was regular enough that i could keep a calendar. i started wearing a full face of makeup to school and buying shorts that rode all the way up my skinny twelve-year-old thighs. i remember the day i stopped jumping off the swings the summer after fifth grade. skinned knees weren’t sexy. smooth, flawless legs were sexy, and i was a sexy girl. i was probably the sexiest little girl in the whole world. my parents hated it. they told me i was too young, but i knew the truth. my body was older, maybe 17 or 18, so my brain must be, too.

when i was twelve, i had a secret kik account that my parents didn’t know about. i used it to message strangers. i made all sorts of friends. i wasn’t stupid. i used a fake name. never showed my face. one of my friends asked me for a bra picture. i was a cool girl, right, i was sexy, so i sent him a picture of me in front of my bedroom mirror in my little white training bra with the blue butterflies.

sexy, he said.

that was all i wanted.

i’m not typing out all this bullshit because i think it’s something special. i’m typing it out because it’s not. i’m typing it out because i see the same thing happening to my little sister. i’m typing it out because i see the same thing happening to that little millie bobbie brown, sexiest actress at thirteen. i’m typing it out because i’m sixteen years old now, a girl in the eyes of the law and a woman in the eyes of men.

mothers, talk to your daughters. tell them to jump off the swingset and skin their knees. tell them to get dirt on their dresses. tell them that they’re a woman on their 18th birthday, not at ten-and-a-half on the first day of their menstrual cycle. the world is confused. the world is sick. if your daughters don’t hear about how to treat their bodies from you, they’ll hear it from the sick, sick world, and they’ll do the things i did.

let girls be girls.

don’t force womanhood on little girls.

silvertonguedslytherin1:

Let’s say you have to buy a parking permit for school. It’s about $50. All of the parking spaces are the same size. You have a standard-sized car and park without issue. The person next to you, however, has a large truck. He pulls in and takes up several inches of your parking space. Maybe he even hits your car squeezing into the space. Would you be upset, or would you say that’s fair because the truck is bigger, even though you both paid the same amount of money for the same amount of space? Tell me how that’s any different than a fat person spilling into half of another person’s seat?

There absolutely is a difference.

The difference is that cars are made that way, larger trucks are popular and it’s reasonable to ask that a parking space you paid for accommodates a perfectly average truck.

People, however, don’t just spawn in severely overweight. They get there through their own decisions, and it was their own choice to be that size. People are not meant to be, and should not be, that large. Most buildings and furniture are made to accommodate the average population, including larger doors and ramps for people with disabilities. If anybody is oppressed, it’s tall people that didnt choose to be tall, but struggle to fit under doorways, chandeliers, and into short showers (usually in older buildings, or in foreign countries)!!

new hot take: asexuality isnt a sexuality

yes offence but I dont fux w eastern muslims

they been makin me really upsetti

beloved-innit-moved-deactivated:

Guys, please, for yours and others safety, go block @/youra-c-u-t-iepie-y-o-u-r-s-e-lf , they’re extremely ableist and have been following random neurodivergent people just to harass them and to tell them to “ký$”. Please stay safe, and if they message you, delete the message andBLOCK THEM.

Tagging (sorry, this is really important)

@natsueyama@thetearoom@galaxyemp1r3@welcome-to-gaytown and anyone else who can boost this.

Tom

arotrannyfreak:

it’s spooky season, and i want to take a moment to talk to you about hispanic and latino people, and how you can better respect us!

non-hispanics/latinos heavily encouraged to take the time to read this

first, we’re going to define some vocabulary since *certain* people cough white people cough don’t take the time to check the definition of a word before using it!

latino refers to cultures, countries, or people from latin america! this includes most spanish-speaking countries. the most notable exclusion is spain. it is not included in the definition of latino because spain is located in europe, not latin america.

hispanic refers to cultures, countries, or people that speak spanish! this includes most latino countries. the most notable exclusion is brazil. it is excluded because spanish is not commonly spoken in brazil.

spanish can refer to 2 things:
1. the spanish language with latin roots, closely related to languages such as italian, portuguese, and french
2. the culture, country, or people of spain
do not call something spanish when you actually mean hispanic or i will hunt you down <3

how can i better respect hispanics/latinos?

great question!

first things first, make sure you know your terminology. if you don’t know something, ask a hispanic/latino person or google it (i’d advise asking an actual person before going to google).

another important thing is making sure that you are using respectful terminology. what do i mean by this? well first things first, don’t call us slurs. i think that one’s pretty obvious. but sometimes it’s less obvious. for example, i’m sure a few people reading this post are going “wHy iS iT sAyiNg LaTiNo aNd nOt LaTiNx?”. if you are that person, stop <3 i could rant for days about why i hate the term “latinx” but i’ll keep it short:
1. latino is already inclusive of people of all genders
2. “latinx” is literally impossible to pronounce in spanish
3. spanish is a gendered language, and by creating “gender neutral” vocabulary (even though we already have it) you are fucking up the whole language

also, since it’s spooky season i feel the need to bring this up:
for the love of god, stop dressing up as us, ESPECIALLY if you don’t know what you’re doing. it’s not funny. it’s not cool. it’s not fashionable. you are being a racist dickhead.

one more thing cause this post is getting long: don’t make racist jokes about us please. nobody laughs when you mock spanish accents or when you say “i dOn’T sPeAk bUrRiTo”. it’s not funny. stop.

have a great day and remember to respect hispanic and latino people. our culture is so diverse and amazing, and if you take the time to appreciate and respect it, i promise you will not regret it.

NON-HISPANICS/LATINOS HEAVILY ENCOURAGED TO REBLOG

biggest-gaudiest-patronuses:

it can be therapeutic to admit “actually my childhood was deeply fucking awful.” not “my parents tried” or “there were good times too” or “I was lucky in certain ways” but solely to acknowledge “I went though some fucking messed up shit what the fuck was that about ”

“my parents tried” other people’s intentions don’t excuse or erase your suffering. parents are expected to try, that’s the bare minimum of being a parent, and it doesn’t undo the consequences of failing to protect a tiny vulnerable human being. “there were good times too” children are profoundly capable of joy, every person’s childhood contains some measure of joy, childhood shouldbe joyful, and none of that erases the lasting trauma of the shit you went through. your childhood isn’t a math problem where the positives and negatives balance out towards some neutral zero, reality doesn’t work like that. “I was lucky in certain ways” and pretty fucking unlucky by the sound of it. ok so “things could have been worse” things could always be worse and they could always be better, that is a mundane and meaningless expression meant to make excuses for other people, and bitch it sure as thunder doesn’t erase the fact that you walked through hell.

You. Deserved. BETTER.

Warning for talk about guns and gun violence

Its the people who arent affected by gun violence who got the most to say about gun laws. I’ve been in three school shooter situations. 

One time someone actually got hurt, the other two times no. But what horrifies me is that I was a child. I was 11 years old and I  was so scared that I wasn’t going to make it out the first time it happened, that I took my teachers brownies and just ate them bc if it was my last day alive I wanted to remember it with me eating something I liked. 

I was eleven. 

 The next time it occurred was that same year. I moved to a new school and we were supposed to get out of school. Instead I was hiding under a desk texting my mom that I was scared and that I loved her. 

The third time it happened was the next fucking year. 

And that time I had walked to the bathroom when the shooter came onto the school property. I was crying quietly so afraid because I didn’t know what to expect. 

All of this before I hit the age of 15. 

Do you wanna know where I lived? Baltimore? LA? Chicago? 

Nah. 

I lived in fucking Utah. 

I lived in UTAH and before the age of fifteen, I had experienced fearing that I would die by a gun three fucking times. But beyond that, I was affected by this stuff all the time. I lost people. I’ve fallen asleep to gunshots before. 

I literally have an app on my phone now to alert me of stuff going on 

But sure. We don’t have a gun problem and gun control isn’t necessary. Fuck yall. You don’t care about the people being affected. You want us dead anyway.

Black and brown lives have never mattered and when we get shot up, when we lose people, when I am mourning friends who should have lived to graduate with me, it doesn’t fucking matter enough to even get your shitty little backhanded thoughts and prayers. We just get to eat shit and die.

You dont fucking care about us.

Because if you cared I’d have never seen the shit I saw as many times as I did.

I wouldn’t be burying my fucking cousin.

One of my brothers would still be alive.

But you don’t care about us.

You value a fucking chunk of metal more than us.

hot food take (don’t burn your tongue), but lying about what you put in food that you’re giving to someone is fucked up even if the only reason is that they just don’t like that particular ingredient

So my dad brought home covid and my mom and I are immunocompromised! He’s already better and going back to work, where he originally got it from most likely, and my mom and I are horribly sick, we’re all vaccinated thankfully but still super sick. My lungs, especially my right one, feels super heavy and hurts to laugh or cough, which I’m doing a ton of. And my dad’s pissy that we’re not getting better as fast cuz apparently we want to get waited on like I’m sorry we have it worse than you do you want that? Wtf? Anyway that’s how things are going rn