Reblogging this once more because my mom and I legitimately laughed to tears.
A CLASSIC
This gets better every time.
(Source: http://findmedownsouth.tumblr.com/)
Ian McKellen should be the voice of everything ever.
Probably the single most badass thing about this is that he doesn’t crack himself the fuck up. Not so much as a single traitorous, unbidden upturn in the corner of his mouth.
(Source: http://willowmansdaughter.tumblr.com/)
!! your tags via the zayn thing make me happy. because you’re exactly right. the original question is sort of phrased like “ha ha, teenage girls, amiright, so silly for being upset.” but the response seems less… on that level of condescension, and more of a wink and nod to the fanbase, you know? and that’s a super duper important thing, because teenage girls are a big contender for the title of “most written off subset of the population”
I helped run a coding workshop for sixth-grade girls a few years back, and that was actually the first time I ever heard of One Direction–we had the girls building CSS-based websites, and they were all incredibly shy about personalizing them in any way. I’d never seen so many generic “animals are kind of neat aren’t they” fansites. Eventually, though, one of the other volunteers started chatting with a couple girls about One Direction, and the excitement sort of spread across the room, and we wound up teaching them about embedding video so they could put their favorite songs in. They went from being pretty apathetic to actually wanting to learn extra stuff because we were able to tie it in to something they cared about.
There’ve been a whole lot of studies showing that a lot of young women can trace their dislike of science/math/etc. to around sixth or seventh grade–it’s a really critical time, when self-esteem issues and peer pressure just start barreling in out of nowhere in a huge way, and suddenly the kid who was perfectly content to play with her little toy telescope wants it packed away before her friends see it. There’s phenomenal social pressure to conform, and all it takes is one bad experience to turn someone off those fields for life.
We’re depriving ourselves of some seriously great scientists and mathematicians and leaders in the field by dismissing teenage girls outright. That dismissal hurts, and that hurt lingers. Nobody wants to break down a door when even adults–perfect strangers–make them feel like they won’t be welcome on the other side. I’m thinking of that scientist dude who did the press conference after a big astronomical event; he was wearing a shirt with a bunch of scantily clad, highly sexualized women on it. It’s like, what teenage girl wants to go into a field where the big names don’t even think twice before wearing something like that on national TV?
So it’s a big deal to see someone this recognizable in science saying something nice about teenage girls. Saying something nice to teenage girls. It’s the equivalent of sitting down on the Bus of Science and saying, “Hey, I saved you a seat if you want it.” It’s nice to see.
Torchwood Meme [3/5] Episodes – To The Last Man
“It seems like there’s always a war somewhere.”
