Can we talk about how the Deadpool movie, which the media has largely referred to (in so many words) as a fuckboy’s wetdream, not only gives a female sex worker an empathetic role, but treats her and her work more respectfully than about 99% of so called feminist media?
.
At no point does the movie imply that Vanessa is tainted because she is a sex worker. At no point does the movie imply that Vanessa is unworthy of love because she is a sex worker.
At no point is Vanessa portrayed as “broken.”
At no point does the movie imply that being a sex worker makes Vanessa a bad girlfriend. At no point does Deadpool ask or expect Vanessa to sacrifice her job for their relationship.
At no point is Vanessa slut-shamed for her job, by either protagonists or villains.
Think about that.
Denigrating sex workers is so taboo within the Deadpool movieverse that even the villains won’t do it.
We know that Vanessa experienced sexual abuse, and that it’s shaped the person she’s become and influenced the choices she’s made. The movie clearly acknowledges that sexual abuse is real, and that it is damaging, and that people who experience sexual abuse struggle to lead “normal” lives and get “normal” jobs.
But the movie never hands sexual abusers the mic.
There is no sexual abuse porn in this movie. There are no voyeuristic rape flashbacks. There are no misogynist monologues. The audience learns about Vanessa’s abusive past from Vanessa, on Vanessa’s terms, through Vanessa’s own words.
This seems like the bare minimum of dignity any female character should be granted, yet so much media fails to meet this extremely low bar.
The movie makes it very clear that Vanessa has a life outside of sex work. She does not live on a stripper pole. Sex work is something Vanessa does. Sex work is not who Vanessa is. She has an apartment. She wears pajamas. What other fictional universe can say the same? I can think of one tv show, but that’s about it, and that show’s viewership is nothing compared to Deadpool’s.
Now on the one hand, I’m not necessarily happy that Vanessa’s character arc revolves almost entirely around her romantic relationship with the lead male protagonist. But on the other hand, I find it very refreshing to see a sex worker in the media whose character arc does not revolve entirely around the fact that she is a sex worker. Hate to say it, but for sex workers in the media, being relegated to the role of love interest is actually a step up.
Most feminist media would rather pretend sex workers don’t exist than write storylines of any kind for them.
This.
And the people who call Deadpool a fuckboy’s wet dream sure as heck didn’t watch the same movie I did.
The movie has:
A very funny moment in which the joke is on those who assume that sex workers have abusive pasts, not on the sex worker. (The comparing abuse thing gets ridiculous enough that they’re both clearly lying).
The male lead repeatedly posed in female come-on positions. This one is my favorite:
He’s even on a bearskin rug in front of a fire. The humor in this pose is “Haha, isn’t it silly to pose a character like that.” It’s designed explicitly to make people think about how commonly female characters are shown in these kinds of ridiculous poses. Going to tell me that’s not a feminist visual joke?
An under-age female character who is never sexualized. Yeah, this girl
Look at that. A practical costume, her breasts are minimized rather than emphasized. We only see Negasonic Teenage Warhead as badass, not “cute.” And she’s treated like a teenager, not a child or an adult.
Oh, and Deadpool doesn’t rescue Vanessa in the end. He throws her a weapon so she can rescue herself. Which she does, because she’s badass.
I’d actually call Deadpool a feminist movie, and an important one. Why?
Because they probably tricked an entire bunch of fuckboys into watching a feminist movie ;).
So, why was it so feminist?
Two words: Ryan and Reynolds.
Ryan Reynolds wanted to do this movie. He wanted to do this movie for years. Reynolds is basically a Deadpool cosplayer who managed to convince a movie studio to pay him a lot of money to be a Deadpool cosplayer.
Guess what Ryan Reynolds also is?
A feminist. He says he’s going to push for even more badass ladies in the sequel. (I think we’re going to see Vanessa with superpowers. They had her long enough to expose her to the agent, if not to activate it).
I’d love to see Vanessa with superpowers, and I enjoyed the hell out of Deadpool.
I forgot one, and an important one.
When we are shown the strip club Vanessa works at, it is not filmed the way movies always film strip clubs.
It’s filmed as if we were going to an office. It’s just “this is where Vanessa happens to work.” No low shot angles to show off women’s bodies, no soft porn music.
Just very…matter of fact.
Can we also bring up that Deadpool does NOT shame Negasonic’s name choice? It screams OC but he’s still supportive of it.
Of course he’s not gonna shame it, it’s the best fucking thing he’s ever heard in his life and he’s pissed at himself that he didn’t think of it first.
Your wife changes her hair color every season and her personality adjusts slightly. You’re secretly only in love with Autumn wife. She just came home sporting her Winter color.
it’s my fault. it’s just that when we met it was autumn; her red-orange hair and crackling laughter. there’s a little spooky in her, a lot of play. and what a better time for falling?
i didn’t realize it for the first few years - something shifting, something so subtle. the winter makes us all cold, the summer makes us all a little out of our minds. i just loved her, because she was incredible, and i was the luckiest person alive.
it’s just that i realized that spring came with sudden bursts of cold. it’s just that summer frequently raged in with fire sprouting from her lips. it’s just that winter was the worst of all, her eyes dead. it’s just that autumn loves me different; throws herself into it without the clingy sweat of summer. i used to love that summer girl, you know? i loved how wild she was, the way in summer she took every risk she could. but i carried her home drunk one too many times, cleaned up one too many of the messes she made for no reason than to enjoy the sensation of burning. and winter was worse; the shutdown, the isolation. how she became distant, a blizzard, caught up in her own head, unable to tell me what was wrong and unable to think i actually wanted to listen.
she comes home, her hair bleached white. a dark smile on her lips. the shadowy parts of her are back. they loom like icicles overhead. she kisses me with her body held at a distance, a peck on my cheek that feels like an iceberg. she makes polite conversation and we go to bed early, our bodies untouching.
it is a lonely season, i think on the ninth day of this. winter is cold. winter is known for the death of things. when i look at her, i see the girl i fell for, inhabited by an alien. she was the first women i loved so much i felt it would kill me. i can’t leave. when i wake her up with my crying, she tells me to shush and go back to sleep. she’s different like this, quiet, doesn’t eat.
three days later i stare at myself in the mirror. i wonder if it’s me. if the fat on my body or something in my face or the wrinkles and she doesn’t love me. i try prettier lingerie, lean cuisine, i try different hair, more makeup, try harder. it doesn’t work. she looks at me the same; that empty gaze that neither loves nor condemns my actions.
somewhere in februrary i lose it. we’re fighting again, from car to restaurant to car to home again. we fight about stupid things, small things; i tell her i feel she doesn’t love me, she says i’m not listening. the circle goes around and around, old pain peeling back, new pain unhealing. i sleep on the couch.
i wake up when i hear her crying, white hair around her all messed up. the kind of sobbing that only comes at two in the morning, heavy and thick and hurting. my winter girl. my heart is breaking. she looks up at me like i’m her anchor. “i’m sorry i’m like this,” she says. and i start saying, it’s okay i’m here we’re married, but she just shakes her head and says, “I know this isn’t the real me.”
i hold her cold hand. she stares at the blankets. “i am different in winter,” she whispers, “i know i am and i’m sorry.” she looks at me. “why do you think i dye my hair? cut it off? get rid of the old me?”
i tell her it’s okay. we’re together and it’s okay, and then she whispers, “i’m sorry you married four of me.”
we lay there like that, her head on my chest. she falls asleep. i stare at the ceiling, thinking of the way she sounded when she was crying. how i helped put her in that pain. how i promised in sickness and in health and everything in between.
the next day i spend at the library. there aren’t enough books on how to love someone with seasonal affective disorder so i make my own, notes and pages and little ideas on post-its. and i take a deep breath and make myself a promise.
she comes home to her favorite dinner and we kiss and she’s uneasy but that’s okay. the next day i bring home flowers and the next day she finds little love notes in her pockets. i love her quiet, the way winter demands, understand her sex drive is faltering; spend more time just cuddling. we drink wine and we kiss and some part of her starts relaxing.
the truth is there is no loving someone out of their mental illness. the truth is that you can love someone in despite of it; love them loud enough to give them an excuse to believe they can make their way out of it.
and i learn. i remember the rebirth of spring, when she starts thawing. we kiss and have picnics in pretty dresses. i remember her joy at little birds and her rain dancing. i fall in love with the flowers in her cheeks and the little bursts of cleaning. i fall in love with summer’s slow walks and milkshakes and shouting to music playing too loud on the speakers. i fall in love with her dancing, with the sunfire energy. and when winter comes; i am ready. i remember that snow used to look pretty. i fall in love with the hearth of her, with the holiday, with the slow smile that spreads across her face so shyly. i fall in love with how she looks in boots and mittens and every day i find another reason to love her the way she deserves - they way i always should have.
she comes home with her white hair and dark smile and a package in her hands. i ask to see what it is and that small shy grin comes creeping out. it’s a sunlamp packed in with medication. she looks at me with those wide eyes and that beautiful winter blush. “i’m trying to get better,” she whispers, “i promise.”
recovery doesn’t look immediate. sometimes it isn’t neat. i can’t say we never fight or that we’re suddenly complete. but each day, that tiny girl’s strength gives me another reason. i love her. i love her while she tames the roller coaster of spring; i love her for reigning in the summer storms; i love her for taking her winter and trying to be warm. it is hard, because everything worth it is hard. she spreads out her autumn leaves; mixes the best parts of her into everything. learns to take winter’s silence for a moment before yelling in summer. learns to take autumn’s spice and give it to spring. we are both learning.
one day she comes home and her hair is different, but it’s a style i don’t know. i kiss it and tell her that she’s beautiful and the inside of me swells like a flood. i’m so glad that she’s mine. every part of her. the whole. i am the luckiest person on earth. and i always have been. but she’s hugging me and saying, “thank you for helping me,” and i can’t explain why i’m crying.
this is what love is; not always an emotion but rather your actions. the choices we make when we realize our lives would be empty if the other was absent. this is what love is: letting them grow, helping them find their way in out of the cold. this is what love is: sometimes it takes work to see how the thing you planted together actually grows.
this is what love looks like in an autumn girl: it is winter and she glows.
i want to run away…but like in ghibli movie. like i take a block of cheese a loaf of bread and some apples and wander through the flower-specked mountains wrapped up in a shawl and i happen to wander into a moving castle and fall in love with a cute wizard
me (deep in the woods, dragging dufflebag of Kraft Singles™
and hopelessly lost): where’s totoro
Since this is framed as something that could’ve happened in canon (Phichit took a photo of it, which means it needs to happen in a timeline, in a time and place when Phichit is there) and not just a random piece of art, I’ve been wondering for a while where it could fit in, and why Victor would do that in front of the camera like so very intentionally. For something that looks like it belongs in a canon timeline somewhere, it looks weirdly fanservicey and I’d been ‘??????’ at it for a couple of weeks.
And then it just hits me.
This is at the gala/closing ceremony after episode 7, isn’t it.
This is literally Victor’s ‘yes, I kissed Katsuki Yuuri on international television, and now I’m eating this taco off his hand what about it lol’ face.
Hi! I’m that person who wrote that post with the lost-in-translation innuendo from episode 6. After that, some people said they want to know about the rest of the ‘lost in translation stuff’ from the rest of the episodes……so, hey, I’m crazy, so I went and did it.
This post aims to collect and explain as many translation errors, emphasis changes and things that just can’t make it through the language barrier as possible from the Yuri on Ice official subs, through episodes 1-6.
I want to preface this by saying that I have the utmost respect for Crunchyroll translators. Theirs is a tough job : parsing everything by ear, running on tight deadlines, having no context for future episodes and needing to make sure everything sounds like a real conversation. It’s hard, and I don’t envy them their jobs.
But even the best translators could make mistakes.
Let’s get started, shall we? Episode 1’s going to be a little dry, but rest assured that there are some juicy, tasty stuff down the line in further episodes! This is also going to be very long, so please bear with me. A short count of issues :
Episode 1 - 17 issues Episode 2 - 15 issues Episode 3 - 9 issues Episode 4 - 23 issues Episode 5 - 26 issues (!!!!!)<– this one is important Episode 6 - 20 issues
(This is going for maximum accuracy, so there will be some splitting hair and some throwing conversational flow to the winds when it becomes necessary.)
Episode 1
The subs translated this line into present perfect tense, but it’s actually in the past perfect tense. Correct version : Ever since I first saw his skating, it had been an unending chain of surprises.
You know, in case we don’t have enough ‘describe Victor in the past tense’ things to freak out about!
The subs missed a word here, simplified the sentence and removed the tiny personal touch of the announcer to make it more like English language sports commentary. The announcer also described Victor’s skating, not just the state of his competition. The original line is 「いや、フリーも驚異な強さで圧倒しました！」(いや means ‘no’, but in cases like this it’s often used to show awe at something you half-expect anyway.) When you add the missing bits back in, the line would be like : I’ll be damned, he also crushed the FS with a miraculously strong performance!
'Seems to lay such rumors to rest’ is a rather mild way to put what the announcer is saying. He sounds quite excited in the Japanese commentary, but that’s not how English sports commentary works, so….anyway, the original line is 「そんな噂を吹き飛ばすかのような圧巻の滑りでした」, which would make the whole sentence ’Some speculated that he might retire this season, but that was a masterful performance to blow any such rumors out of the water!’
The actual meaning doesn’t change much, but the emphasis has been shifted quite a ways.
when i was very small i assumed this song was about some lady who literally kept a human face in a jar by the door and since father mckenzie buried her that meant that he also killed her and basically i thought eleanor rigby was about zombies until i was like 12 years old
YES!
If this isn’t the real story of the song, it ought to be.
I'm Frances. I am a writer, seamstress, fangirl. I make bad puns and my sense of humor can be a bit dark. 25, American, married, bisexual, liberal. Send me an ask if you'd like to chat.
