icarus-suraki:

thehopefulbluestocking broke my heart a little today:

I want a scene where we see the Vuvalini laying things out and telling the Sisters who the pieces used to belong to and giving them a little Vuvalini history lesson as they choose.

Now I can’t write fanfic (my brain works in words but it doesn’t work in narrative fiction) but, still, this is breaking my heart a little and I keep seeing it all. I want someone to write real fic, but until then… (A lot of these deal with fiber work because I love how fiber arts, a traditionally “feminine” set of skills, have been reclaimed by women in such a big way in recent years. Also I wanted really worldwide names, but I think I’m still running too shallow.)

They’re unpacking all these things that they’ve carried for so long–because they might be useful someday, one way or another. It’s called a “wasteland” but you can’t afford to waste anything.

“Here, come here. Bradamante sewed up these pouches this way–you see, each one fits .45 shells perfectly. Exactly six in a pocket, one pocket on a side. She could reload without even looking. You almost couldn’t see her hands. That was her way. Fits you just like it did her.“ 

“Back when we were still in the Green Place, we had the last of the sheep with us. Maeve would tend them, along with Rachel sometimes, and they’d shear the sheep each spring. Luna and her aunties were the real spinners–I think Luna did most of the spinning Hippolyta didn’t want to do. Now. Lyta, which is what we always called her, couldn’t abide either spinning or being cold, so she’d always find some way to get someone to spin for her. That would be Luna. She made her spinning wheel from an old bicycle, as I recall. But Lyta, she’d knit quick enough when she needed something. I think she made this entire scarf in one afternoon. And it was summer, so imagine her trying it on to see if it’s long enough when the sun’s just blazing down…”

“Brigid was a smith–probably the best. She learned from her mother too. Iron or silver, didn’t matter, she could shape anything to suit her. Anything out of her forge was beautiful, bladed or jeweled. Here. She made these too. Oh, I can’t wear them to well these days.”

“If you get any more sun you’re going to burn and then no one will be happy. Here, put this on. I stitched this up myself, but it was my mum who wove it. My auntie dyed it–her hands were a thousand colors. Now, stop that, don’t fuss. Your skin peels off if you burn and no one will be happy, least of all me.”

“Kahina did all the stitching on this. She slipped off and found a cache of thread–it was one night when we were all sleeping; no one was as quiet as she was, and none of us knows where she found the stuff–and carried it with her. We were on the move by then, though. When she got tired of driving, she’d ride pillion and work and never dropped a stitch. Your hair looks like it’s driving you mad with it all in your face like that. Here, this’ll fix that quick enough, keeps it right out of your eyes so you can see who’s coming up over that dune.” 

“Tarabai was the one kept these bones. She knew the names of the creatures. Or gave them names.” (A long silence.) “I went back for her bones. All her bones.”

“But then, wouldn’t you know it, Cuhtahlatah–” “You mean Colestah.” “No–are you sure? I thought it was Cuhtahlatah who–” “Oh yes, I was there, remember. You’re too young to remember. Don’t forget that.”

“It’s easy enough to weave up a bit like this. Here. We’ve still got some cord. You take that end and I’ll show you. I can’t tell you how because if I slow down I can’t do it. But you’ll see the pattern fast enough.”

It goes on, but it gets sadder as it goes. They start recounting deaths, not just what was done in life.

Reposted from http://ift.tt/1UCY2B1.

schwarmerei1:

hauntedjaeger:

Vuvalini Fanon Voting: Name the Unnamed (Nominations Phase)

So schwarmerei1 had a really fantastic idea: start a survey to find out what everyone in fandom calls the four unnamed Vuvalini in their headcanon, meta, and fanfic, and then vote on our favorites. 

(Obviously the vote doesn’t make anything ~official~ and everyone is free to keep calling them whatever they want. This is mostly for fun and partly because it would be neat to see each of these women have a consistently recognizable presence in our fanworks.) 

From now until August 20th, you can submit the names (or titles!) you’ve used for these ladies here: http://goo.gl/forms/ao2XIcSjXS You do not have to fill out fields for all of them. You can nominate more than one name for each of them (by taking the survey over again after you submit it). 

After 8/20, all the name nominations will be compiled in a new form and we’ll vote. The most popular submissions and runners-up will be announced shortly thereafter, possibly with fancy charts. 

Submit your fanon right here! 

Please go nominate…I want these women to have identities we recognize in fandom. I’ve really liked some of the suggestions I’ve met in fic already.

Reposted from http://ift.tt/1LjLzjK.

redshoesnblueskies:

bonehandledknife:

redshoesnblueskies:

flamethrowing-hurdy-gurdy:

Going back to that conversation about what fandom focuses on, I don’t ‘forget’ about the Vuvalini. I just have less to say. Less cohesive thoughts. And as part of a community my behaviour can be interpreted as a symptom of misogyny (for example), but I’m an individual first and foremost, someone who is not obligated to give equal attention to characters from a work of fiction. Someone who has their own complex reasons for being more attracted to one part of a story than another (and please, I am not using ‘attracted’ in the sensual sense thanks very much).

It’s a hard issue, though. Why shouldn’t we be critical of a fandom? But then again, when are we missing the mark, when does criticism become policing and guilt-tripping? 

I prefer to listen to others talk about the Vuvalini because their input is more interesting than mine could be. Mostly because I don’t find them as inspiring. This is a personal, subjective feeling, and thus obviously flawed in its universal appeal, because it’s only supposed to make sense to ME.

 I’ve talked about the Wives plenty, and I’ve always been critical of the War Boys, since, you know, they are cruel and murderous assholes, and that’s not cute. Even if the movie did make the wild suicidal abandon and violence of the War Boys one of its selling points, and Nux was engineered to break hearts.

See, I’m already trying to explain myself, when, really, I shouldn’t have to. 

(either way it’s good this conversation is happening, even if it’s uncomfortable. I just kinda wanna come out on the other side with my head still on)

(er, gurdy this went off in an ice-cream driven direction of un-rant. if you’d like I’ll take it out and put it in its own post…but it seems relevant to leave it here if you’re okay with that :)

I’ll throw in my 2 cents here, since to throw them in elsewhere seems confrontational and I have no interest in that.  My sense of the Vuvulini is that they are complete in themselves.  They have a wholeness that is intrinsic to they way their story is told – both the women themselves and the culture.  They don’t need my help becoming complete.  They don’t need my help with backstory.  They don’t need my help with identity.  In my mind, they are a climax culture.  Coming from me this is a deep compliment, since I only fic stories that are, in my own perception, incomplete, flawed or psychologically inaccurate.

Incidentally, I don’t feel the need to fanfic Fury Road as a whole for the same reason.

As to the larger fandom tendency to wax both poetic and hilarious on the subject of the warboys, I think there are a bunch of reasons for that.  They are flawed, they are wounded, they represent an enormous potential for change and growth. All of these things make them fascinating subjects for further story telling.  They are young and sexy – this makes them fun to cap and gif and draw and fantasize about.  They are male, and lets face it most fandom running loose on tumblr is attracted to men.

And on a deeper level, I think a deep reason slash works so well is the novelty of exploring the seldom seen emotional side of men, vulnerable side of men, emotional range of men.  I think this is an issue beyond the problematic fact of so few women in media to play with in fic  I think slash fic is a consistent form of story telling because it’s a chance to represent the healing of men – a return of men, one way or another, to a more whole state of being by imbuing them with a range of emotion and intention and action that they never would receive in conventional story telling.

I believe slash is an enduring story telling form because it is the place where we imagine what men could be outside the influence of misogyny.  As a mother to sons, I can tell you for certain, imagining men free of the damage of misogyny is a feminist act.

Sure it also means we can imagine the objects of our interest in endlessly sexual escapades – but why are their escapades interesting?  Because they are much more fully realized as human acts rather than over-hyped acts of masculinity.  And that is a feminist point of view, too.

Is the erasure of women in representation the product of misogyny?  Abso-fucking-lutely.  Is the ongoing obsession of fans with writing m/m slash a product of misogyny?  It’s fucking not.  To levy that judgement on all the fans who love reading and writing m/m slashfic is toxic and unacceptable.

I do not accept it – not for myself and not for my fellow fans.

This is me, this is my perception, and this is not a judgement on the conversation as a whole.

But I mean, broken is what drama is. 

The space of art is in that space between the finger of God and Adam. It’s the spark of life, it’s creation, it’s choice. It’s a lack thereof.

You don’t story perfection, you don’t create dramas out of perfect relationships unless you’re pitting this relationship against an imperfect world and watching how that relationship survives against it. I’ve written about this elsewhere but I’m kinda too tired and heartsore to find the link, but I can’t create characters without a hook into how they fight/work out differences amongst their team. You don’t individualize as a child, as a teen, as a person until you define what makes you different from your family/peer group and I find it sad how the narrative didn’t take that extra step with the Vuvalini to make them people.

And I get why they didn’t, is the worst part. They almost can’t. They’re strapped in by the constraint of it being a non-misogynistic story because one of the worst parts of toxic masculinity is how it sets women against each other.

And that frustrates me as a writer to hell and back because I can’t get there. I don’t know what these women are like. I don’t know what their arguments are like. My own relationship with older female family is tense at best and toxic at the worst of times, which is sort of a massive sort of. Frustration? because it’s seriously giving me writer’s block on certain stalled fic. among other things.

Frankly. It’s easy for me to write joyful angry violent suicidal war boys. 

You write what you know.

#LIKE HOW DO I EVEN GET INTO THE HEADSPACE OF A MANY ‘MOTHER’ WHEN I WANT NO PART OF MOTHERHOOD?#I CAN’T EVEN STAND PETS#FACEPLANTS INTO PILLOW#HOW DO I GET A FUCKING ANGLE I JUST NEED A FUCKING ANGLE#MAD MAX FURY ROAD#FANDOM WANK#I GUESS?#FANDOM DISCUSSION#TMI I GUESS

Though they have long since resigned themselves to it, it’s clearly a sore spot that they have to kill every man they see out in the Wasteland.  For their own safety.  And yet they didn’t become ‘many mothers’ without enjoying the presence of men in their community, so they are not man-hating, yk?  They are women-celebrating, women-protecting.  As a possible point to grab onto them as people, that might be a place to start :)  How did a group of women devoted to life…come to decide they had to deal out death to all comers?  What did they have to go through, what parts of their souls did they have to crush?

Regarding their on-screen story, I guess they look natural to me in their quiet non-verbal settled-ness because I have known and had good relationships with older women and found them to be similar.  I’m sure that’s not always the case, but it was for me.  They didn’t talk about their struggles, how they worked hard to become the women they were, what the culture of their early lives were like. They weren’t becoming they were being – not nearly dynamic of a stage of life.  If you want to tell the story of women in their 60s-70s, you are going to have to tell a very differently paced story.  

What we know of the Vuvulini is quiet contemplation of the stars.  Soft occasional remarks on the past.  The piles of goods they leave Max.  The one or two word glee of competence in defending themselves and the future of these women, at the likely cost of their own lives, in one or two words (’One man, one bullet’  ‘Here we go girls!), and in scores of actions.  There story is there on screen – it’s just that it’s a largely told story.  It’s not a story in progress, it’s a story they are defending the furthering of.

I don’t see their story as under-told.  I see the essence of their story being not that of a younger age-range.  The fact that the stories of older people are almost not represented on screen at all, makes the very much on-screen visual story telling of the Vuvulini even harder to discern than the visual character -development of the wives.  We barely recognize their story because almost none of us in this discussion are involved with that culture of women.  But it is there.

Reposted from http://ift.tt/1gyA9Mi.

hauntedjaeger:

For your cosplay/fanart/fic/generally keeping track of them needs.

SPOILERS: THEY’RE ALL TOTALLY STILL ALIVE

You know Keeper and Maddie and Valkyrie… but do you recall
The least famous Vuvalini of alllllllllll
(NO YOU DON’T ‘CAUSE THEY DIDN’T BOTHER TO GIVE THEM NAMES AND COSTUMED THEM WITH ONLY SLIGHT VARIATIONS)

Left to right in this screencap, (casting as near as I can figure from BTS pictures and squinting a lot at headshots where they’re washed and wearing makeup):

V1 (Gillian Jones) – “There’s something in the eyes.” Dark grey hair always in braids, yellow hood and aviator style goggles. Survives to the end and drives Gigahorse back to the Citadel, LIKE A BOSS

V2 (Antoinette Kellermann) – “The men. Who are they?” Wavy white hair and round goggles. Third to “die” when the War Boys pull the roof off the Rig’s cab. LOOK, IT’S JUST A LITTLE CONCUSSION, SHE’S GONNA WALK IT OFF

V3 (Melita Jurisic) – “One man, one bullet”. Hair in braids in the first Vuvalini scene and then confusingly down afterward. Round goggles, splashes of red in her outfit. Takes a thunderstick in the back cab but BOUNCES BACK FUCK YEAH AND SHE OFFICIALLY DEFINITELY LIVES TO THE END

V4 (Joy Smithers) – “But if you came from the west…” Aviator style goggles and leather hood. Has to reload powder and lead shot every time she kills a man, which is a pretty good reason to only use one bullet per man. Thrown off the rig by Rictus BUT SHE’S NOT DEAD I REFUSE

V3 and V4 are v. married and I’m not going to budge on this. 

And as you already know, Valkyrie and Maddie (Christina Koch, probably, by process of elimination) aren’t dead either. 

Reposted from http://ift.tt/1HbQflm.

One man, one bullet.

Reposted from http://ift.tt/1CyABhO.