Room 508, Sunday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy hadn't intended to spend the evening grumpy. She had intended to get a more studying in; her AP classes were a lot more grueling than anything Fandom could come up with and she didn't have any dedicated class time to work on them. But after two hours of staring at Calculus problems and Spanish vocab, Kathy had decided she needed a break. She took Minako out for a walk (and fortunately, she hadn't wanted to stay out in the chill any longer than Kathy had!), and stopped in a common room long enough to boil some water for tea, but when she got back to her room, she found herself pulling up Tumblr on her laptop rather than settling back with a text book.

It's okay, she rationalized to herself. I'll just spend a few minutes catching up on my dash and then I'll get back to work.

An hour later, Kathy was typing VERY ANGRILY at some ass over racist Halloween costumes and the sexual fetishization of young girls in general and young Asian girls in particular. "Don't you even tell me that it's 'just a preference', you neck-bearded, mouth-breathing, spunk-stain!" Kathy snapped aloud. "You've been culturally conditioned to believe that we're all docile, pretty, and doll-like, who want nothing more than to cater to your every puerile, colonial fantasy!"

Yeah, there wasn't going to be any more studying done tonight.

[For one, please!]

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

Aww yeah and Kathy had lovely nails just so she could scratch right. That was 100% why they were there. Just for scratching little kitty chins.

"That's part of the fantasy," she said dryly. "I don't know whether they don't care that the girl gets nothing or they think the girl doesn't expect anything or maybe they think that she's somehow fulfilled just by the privilege of dating them. But if they were thinking of her as a person in the first place, they wouldn't be so quick to diminish her to an ethnicity and a handful of outdated, bullshit stereotypes."

She gave Anders an apologetic smile. "You came in on Kathy's SJW Rant Hour. Sorry about that."

[not_every_mage]

".... hunh," Anders kept frowning as he processed that. "No, it's interesting, even though I can't imagine thinking like that. Some people at home get a bit funny about elves, but I'm not sure it's quite the same."

Though, given the number of city elves who ended up in brothels, it probably wasn't too far off.

"But what's an SJW?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Shorthand for Social Justice Warrior," Kathy said, blushing a bit. Someone still wasn't over the embarrassment of having used that name for a bit in her early heroing days. "Depending on who is using it, it means either someone who is really passionate about social justice issues, like race and feminism and stuff, or it's someone who pretends to care about that stuff, but only does it to be shallow and stupid and get more friends on Tumblr or something."

[not_every_mage]

"Well, warrior is good, isn't it?" Anders asked. (Cleverly avoiding the fact he had only the foggiest idea what feminism was.) "And Tumblr's ... a computer thing? You go and fight people on the computer to make friends, is that it?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I think it is," Kathy agreed with a slight lift to her chin. "I like knowing that I'm fighting for something I believe it, even if it's just words on the internet."

Which was why she'd adopted the moniker for a few days. It had been a poor life choice; she understood that now.

"As for Tumblr, it's probably easier to show you than explain," she said, pulling her laptop back over and opening up her dash (with her computer facing her at first because she had several tabs open and Anders didn't need to know everything she was looking at, cough cough). "At it's most basic, it's a collection of posts and images and videos that people find cool, or funny, or interesting. They reblog them to share with their friends, which people can respond to, and so create a dialogue. See?"

[not_every_mage]

"Sort of," Anders said, eyes flickering down the page. "Oh! That cat is wearing a necktie."

If anything involved pictures of cats, Anders was all-in.

"And people go on it and argue about racism to try to make friends." He sounded skeptical about that bit.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Anders, if you like silly pictures of cats, Tumblr is so your speed," Kathy laughed, clicking on her 'cats are cuter than humans' tag before handing her laptop over to him to scroll through. She had something like fifteen pages worth of images to share. "It's a toss-up whether the internet has more porn or cat macros."

Though, if pressed, Kathy would probably guess porn.

"But, according to people who think that feminism is stupid and racism is over and straight white guys are the most oppressed segment of the population out there--" Pardon Kathy while she rolled her eyes "--social justice warriors just hang out in one giant collective or something and the ones who yell the loudest win the most respect from the others. They think that being an SJW is stupid, so they assume that everyone's is doing it for selfish, small-minded reasons."

[not_every_mage]

Give Anders a moment. He was going to scroll through perhaps seven of those fifteen pages, make a few squeaky noises, and consider whether Lachlan would consent to dressing or being posed in several of the ways pictured before he answered Kathy properly.

Cat photos were so his speed.

"Why would anyone feel oppressed for being male?" he wondered, finally. "And that sounds -- frustrating. Immensely so. Like arguing with brick walls."

[spin_kick_snap]

They would be coming up with an appropriate Tumblr username for Anders before the evening was out, weren't they? Especially once she introduced him to Tumblr like cat_shaming and emergency_kitten.

Bwahahaha, hers was an evil laugh.

"That's pretty much what it's like, yeah," she said with a sigh. "Only worse, because at least brick walls are quiet. They don't talk back and tell you to shut up, show them your boobs, and to get back into the kitchen. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother."

[not_every_mage]

"So why do you bother?" Anders asked, having turned his attention back to the cats. "Why not just look at these, or -- that handsome fellow in armor with the metal arm and the bandanna."

Re:

[spin_kick_snap]

"Mmmm, isn't he hot?" Kathy asked, because no one could look at those pictures and think otherwise. "But, well, I bother for a couple of reasons."

She had to lean back, away from the gif of the assassin doing incredibly sexy things with a knife so she could better focus to answer Anders' question.

"This stuff is really important to me," she started, trying to find words to fully explain this. "It all started because I was, well, always quiet in real life. Back before I came to Fandom, I didn't really have many friends. Okay, that's not true. Back before Fandom, I didn't have any friends, other than my little sister. I was the quiet, bookish girl in the corner who was always overlooked. And I kinda didn't know how to change that. But online, I had a voice. I didn't have to be me, I could be anybody. I wasn't hiding behind my username, I was literally using it to be someone else--someone who wasn't afraid to voice her thoughts or opinions, someone who thought they were actually worth something. Worth sharing. You know?"

She peeked up at him to see if he was following so far, even though she hadn't really even begun to answer his question.

[not_every_mage]

Not really. Not at first. But when he thought about it --

"A little, actually," he said. "Before the Templars took me away I was like any other brat in my village. I didn't like the deep woods or large animals or going to the privy at night without a torch. But once I'd been in the Circle a while, I stopped caring about any of that. Nobody else remembered who I'd been at home. Nobody was going to tattle to my father. I could be who I wanted to be."

Though one more point of difference remained.

"However," he added, "I'm sure you'll be stunned to hear I was never exactly quiet. I just didn't have as much of a purpose to my chatter before the Circle."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm boggled by this revelation," she said, trying for deadpan but unable to keep her lips from twitching. "I may end up falling down off the bed in shock."

She thought she was hilarious.

"But, yes, like that. Online, I could be something other than quiet, boring, Kathy." Much like her Banzai persona now, in fact. "I was someone with things to say who wasn't afraid to say them. And, well, people started listening. I got to learn fascinating things that spoke to me as honest and true but that I'd never heard said before and then I got to turn around them and share them with other people. People who were ignorant, but ready to learn. People who had never heard these things either, but needed to. Young girls who needed to hear that they didn't have to be thin and pretty and sexy and whatever else the media tells them that they have to be. And that's important, because it was the kind of stuff I needed to hear, too."

She had dropped her eyes again, nervously playing with her hair so she didn't have to see if Anders was looking at her like she were crazy.

"Like you said, it gives me a purpose for my chatter. Like...imagine you could tell all the little kid mages that they were okay for being angry at the Chantry for taking them away, that it was normal to feel hurt or scared or to question the teachings. Sure, maybe you'll never sway a Templar to thinking that you deserve to live your life free from the Circle, but you might be able to reach the mages who are watching your argument, staying silent, but listening to everything you have to say."

[not_every_mage]

"Oh, shut up," Anders said in response to Kathy's hilarity, with a snort that suggested he wasn't so offended at all.

He listened closely to the rest of what she said, barely sneaking a few glances at the cats on the computer screen. (So cute.) "That would be fantastic. We once got a letter from an Antivan Circle and it made its way from hand to hand until it fell to bits. If we could talk like that whenever we wanted? You couldn't keep us down."

"Also," he added earnestly, "I know this isn't the point but you are thin and pretty, and you could be sexy if you wanted to." Parents' weekend had proven that much, though he doubted Kathy wanted to be reminded.

[spin_kick_snap]

Probably for the best he didn't mention that. Kathy was already bright red by the time he was finished. "Thanks," she said, simultaneously trying to hide behind her hair and also trying not to hide behind her hair because she should be able to take a compliment without wanting to hide.

#TheStruggle

"I kind of want to go into this whole explanation of explaining why it's so hard for me to believe that, what with cultural messages and stuff--" ie she wasn't white with large breasts "--but I think I'm going to just stick with thanks and that I'm trying to make myself believe that?"

Blush blush blush.

Then, in a rush she added, "And I'm kinda trying to learn how to be sexy, but it's really hard to learn without feeling utterly stupid so that vote of confidence is appreciated."

And breathe.

[not_every_mage]

The bashfulness that attempted not to be bashfulness was oddly adorable.

"It's easier for boys, isn't it?" Anders asked, going back to a more general point -- many things about gender roles were different between Thedas and Fandom, but there were some constants. "You have to worry about fashion and hair and breasts. We just have to bathe every so often and wear decent clothes."

A beat. "Also, you're welcome."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Soooo much easier," Kathy agreed, grateful to be back to a topic that wouldn't make her blush--even if his comment about breasts had her looking down at hers with an unconscious moue of displeasure. It was tough when your little sister wore a larger bra, okay? "I still have yet to be able to put on mascara without poking myself in the eye and makeup only gets more complicated from there."

Blush? Eyeshadow? Swoopy eyeliner? HOW DID THEY WORK?!

"It makes sense, though, when you think about it," Kathy said. "In the cultural unconscious, we believe that guys are the ones that choose. So it's up to women to be ornamental, to better our odds of being chosen, where guys only have to worry about it inasmuch as they might have competition with another guy for the most attractive female." She pointed at him. "Actor." And then at herself. "Object."

[not_every_mage]

".... right," Anders said slowly.

That wasn't at all how things worked in his experience -- Fereldans were fairly equal-opportunity, when it came to objectification. At the same time, he didn't want to argue with Kathy about something she clearly cared about so much, especially when she knew her culture and he didn't.

He reached out to Lachlan instead. "I'm going to start a new plan," he said. "We only objectify cats."

[spin_kick_snap]

Abashed Kathy was abashed. "Sorry, sorry," she said, aware that she'd pushed too hard or gotten too strident or something. "I get like this sometimes--all lecture-y or whatever. It's one of the reasons I try to keep it all online. Less likely to go all schoolmarm on a friend."

She offered him an apologetic smile. "I like your idea of objectifying cats," she said. "But beware of taking it too far." And then she showed him a rather terrifying collection of images that had made the Tumblr rounds a few months ago.

Dogs in pantyhose. What even was the world sometimes.

"Let's stick to ties and cute hats, huh?"

[not_every_mage]

"Dear Maker, I thought people loved their dogs," Anders said incredulously. "How can you love an animal and do that to it?"

He leaned back a bit. "You didn't say anything wrong," he said hesitantly. "But at home, I promise men get objectified plenty. Maybe because so many of us aren't straight, I don't know."

He could say 'straight' and 'gay,' these days. He was still working on 'bisexual'; it sounded like a skin disease to him.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Welcome to the world of the internet, where people do crazy things just because they can. Or because someone, somewhere gets off on it. There's a rule about that and everything."

Not that Kathy was going to go into detail about Rule 34 and its various permutations. There was such a thing as too much information, after all, and she didn't want to scare Anders off of the internet already.

"Is there no societal bias against that?" she asked, fascinated. "Non-straight relationships, I mean? No one cares?"

[not_every_mage]

"Congratulations," Anders informed her. "You're the first person ever to make me think about people getting off to dogs wearing stockings."

He shrugged at the question."It depends, really. In the Circle no one cares. Probably because we're all so bloody bored we might as well kiss each other. Outside ... it's seen as about as interesting as putting tomato sauce on eggs. Some people might think it's strange, but no one's going to tell you you're a filthy person for doing it."

[spin_kick_snap]

"That's only because you're not on the internet much," Kathy retorted, tossing her hair a bit. Yeah, she was perversely proud of that, go figure. Probably because Anders always seemed so much more worldly than she did. "Let's sign up up for Tumblr and you can see that's barely the tip of the iceberg."

The internet was a terrifying place, Anders.

"I think that's really cool," she said quietly, once he finished explaining the delightful lack of homophobia in his world. Sure, it made up for that in a lot of other terrible ways, but still, the idea was refreshing. "That's...that's not something that can be said here. Not on Fandom, thank goodness, but in general." She bit her lip. "This world's pretty slow when it comes to acceptance."

[not_every_mage]

"We used all our energy for hating each other on enslaving elves and locking mages away," Anders explained bitterly. "It's refreshing, I suppose."

He eyed her. "Do you really want to let me lose on a site full of cat photos and people arguing about politics?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"We used ours on enslaving Africans and locking all sorts of people away," Kathy said, deciding that the prison industrial complex rant was one best saved for another time. "We just had room to spare for extra things to judge people about." She bumped his shoulder with hers. "I'm the last person who'd tell you that being accepting in one way somehow negates the bad that is being done at the same time."

"That being said, damn right I want to set you loose on Tumblr. I can't wait until you discover reaction gifs."