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Blaruto

@blaruto / blaruto.tumblr.com

Still awkward. I'm tumbling, retwitting, instagraming, netflixing. Black + Naruto = Blaruto. They/Them Pronouns
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Reblogged

I still think Moana deserved an Oscar for this part

To me, the moral of Moana is that only women can help other women heal from male violence.ย 

The movie starts with the idea that the male god who wronged Te Fiti must be the one to heal her. This seems to make a certain sort of intuitive sense in that I think we all believe that if you do something wrong you should try to make it right. But how does he try to right it? Through more violence. Of courseย that failed.ย 

It was only when another woman, Moana, saw past theย โ€œdemon of earth and fireโ€ that the traumatized Te Fiti had become (what a good metaphor for trauma, right?) and met her with love instead of violence that she was able to heal. Note that they do the forehead press beforeย Moana restores the heart, while Te Fiti is still Te Kฤ. Moana doesnโ€™t wait for her beautiful island goddess to appear in all her green splendor before greeting and treating her as someone deserving of love.

Moana is only able to restore the heart because Te Kฤ reveals her vulnerability and allows Moana to touch her there. Maui and his male violence could only ever have resulted in more ruin.

This is a touching anaylisis but itโ€™s extremely racist as not only have you completely ignored the whole point of Mauiโ€™s character, but have managed to incriminate a man of color on a tumblr wide scale.

First of all, Mauiโ€™s character does not represent male violenceโ€”it represent human greed. Maui did not take the heart because he is a man, and Te-Fiti is a woman. He took it because the humans asked him to. The humans asked Maui to do everything for them, not caring how greedy or selfish their requests were and in the end it was Maui who suffered for it. Maui is supposed to show the flaw of humanity.

This has nothing to do with sexism, it has everything to do with the fact that Maui gave and gave to the humans who could never stop being greedy. Moana giving the heart back wasnโ€™t supposed to be her โ€œmaking upโ€ for the male violence that Maui represents. It was her making up for the greed she and her people represent. It was touching however because yes it was an important moment between two women, but you missed the point and youโ€™ve come off racist and very disrespectful to a culture at that.

Yes, Moana is an empowering movie for women, especially women of color. But the last thing this is about is Maui being an abuser/rapist or whatever. That is not the point of Mauiโ€™s character.

And to assume so is racist. You are a white woman completely dehumanizing a man of color and ruining his image because of how you see him. And other white girls here on tumblr have happily picked up that image and interpretation and rolled with it. Mauiโ€™s character is now seen as an abuser or as someone who is violently because of white girls here on tumblrโ€”which it doesnโ€™t surprise me. (an in a historical context this is even MORE racist because white women would always make Mauiโ€™s people out to be savages and abusers etc., simply because of the color of their skin and their culture so yea, this is bad).

You can see the morality of the movie however you want, but do not be disrespectful toward a character and in this case a culture.

@i-want-cheese Please donโ€™t write this off as another โ€œbutthurt commentโ€ or โ€œmale guiltโ€, because this is really messed up. I see how youโ€™re brushing off some other peopleโ€™s comments and I honestly hope that you donโ€™t see mine the same way because this is an issue I think you need to face/realize. You are being racist and brushing it off isnโ€™t going to change that. theย 

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geek-baits

@visibilityofcolor THANK YOU FOR THIS. As a Polynesian woman, reading that post and other replies painting Maui and even Tui as aggressive and violent men had me feeling some type of way, especially since White people have always regarded Polynesian men in such a manner.

Iโ€™ve thought about replying because Iโ€™m tired of seeing these kind of โ€œMoana is a feminist movieโ€ posts collect hundreds of notes despite the fact that these posts always conveniently fail to mention Pasifika people, but it always stressed me out, so thank you.

As an aside, Maui taking Te Fitiโ€™s heart and Moana restoring it was symbolic of environmental preservation. Because the people who inspired Moanaโ€“Pasifika people, not just Polynesianโ€“are always affected first when the environment is threatened. Our way of life is greatly influenced by the ocean and we believe that if you take care of the ocean, she will take care of you.

Youโ€™re very welcome.

This is insight for me as well (as I wasnโ€™t aware that the movie also came fro the culture of the Pasifika people), and does give a very important perspective. I do agree with you, this movie is about environmental restoration, not some white fem bullshit.

I tried over and over again to explain to I-want-cheese about how she was being racist, but she responded by blocking me and other poc who called her out (even other polynesian people). People to this day are still trying to explain that she is being racist and culturally insensitive but she ignores us.

Iโ€™ve made a few posts about this, hoping that people realize how problematic it is to agree with i-want-cheese. ย Explaining to her racist white ass that this was problematic was like explaining to a bird. She wouldnโ€™t listen and neither would have of her racist friends.

Sorry youโ€™ve had to see this on your dash every so often, but Iโ€™m glad my portion of the post is starting to get around. (reblogged to the wrong blog at first lols)

dang reblogging this as a correction for the very first reblog. this why feminist analysis always needs to be intersectional

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xtrillzx

My heart just cried

the portrayal of Maui is super important here, the disney crew put a LOT of effort into getting him right because he IS a crucial figure to an entire culture- basically a cross between a central religious figure and superman so handling him poorly would be catastrophically disrespectful there are basically only two parts of Mauis legend that they flub- they only tell half of the story of when he was abandoned as a baby, and they skip over that stealing the heart of Te-Fiti so he could give it to humanity was the legend in which he dies yes, canonically Maui dies in his quest to give gifts to humanity, its an important element of why Maui is such a profound character, not just โ€˜man who hurt someoneโ€™ strawman it gets worse when you discover the OTHER legend they fudged, the story of his birth, reinforces this. Mauis mother had several (Hawaiians only say three, new zealand says five) sons, all named Maui, so when she had ANOTHER son she named him Maui as well, but then cast him into the sea for there was no way she could support another son. the gods did not save Maui, as Moana says, instead they return him to his mother and say she must give him a chance. to which his mother states that for her to take care of him this infant must remove the roof from her house by throwing spears at it. that is the story of Maui the skillful, abandoned as an infant and then immediately told that he must PROVE his worth, after which all he ever does is prove his worth

his brothers mocked him for being a poor fisherman, he crafts a fishook from a jawbone and proceeds to raise new islands from the sea the sky is so low the trees bend, maui raises it for everyone, then fills the new sky with wind

the sun flies so quickly there is not enough time in the day to do the labors for everyone, maui has to lay traps for each of the suns many feet, chase after it as it was slowed, and then threaten to chop its legs off if it would not slow down

he then due to the complaints of the now longer dark night creates the moon and is upset his creation will not please humanity for it does not make sufficient light, then shows it to the sun so that it may learn how to be bright maui was credited with having invented as gifts for humanity the outrigger canoe, stone tools, and seaworthy boats that had no mast or sails. he was credited with inventing tattoos as a gift to dogs, however humanity is still not content so maui descends to the land of the dead to ask the secret of creating fire from the grandmother, who kept it hidden in her fingernails. he dropped the fingernail in the water as he tried to return to the land of the living, came back for another, dropped it as well, and went through all ten fingers and toenails untill he had to then interrogate birds the grandmother had shared the secret with to tell him how

a monstrous eel tried to put the moves on his wife, and again maui had to prove his worth to reclaim her by breaking the monster eelโ€™s spine, shoving him into the ground to create the first coconut tree, the single most useful thing for polynesian life, as a gift to humanity yet again Maui, as a mythological figure, did nothing but give from the day he was born. he gave humans tools, land, fire, boats, light, the wind, everything except life itself and he even tried to give them that- and it killed him, he was bitten in two a crucial part of Maui as a legend is that he failed, its literally part of the point, also that he was driven to prove himself endlessly to the (during his life) ungrateful. do not try and drag Maui, its disrespectful on a level i cant express thank the man, you asshole Moana succeeded where he failed, for she saw that she did not have to prove herself. the whole movie up untill then she was trying to put on a brave face (there was literally a cut song โ€˜warrior faceโ€™ where maui teaches her Haka), shout her courage, announce to the world at large that she WILL do the thing and fix the world and be the hero, just like Maui

its easy to miss, she stopped trying to prove who she was to anyone, there was nobody she needed to prove herself TO she just WAS herself, and that brought her peace

Love this, thank you @brunhiddensmusings ๐Ÿ’•๐Ÿ’•๐Ÿ’•๐Ÿ’•

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Intersex/Non-binary in the description and a non-binary pride flag in the new short?? In conclusion we stan harder than ever before

Anonymous asked:

How does one date you? Because youโ€™re literally my dream partner. Just asking for a friend oh ya know :)

How can I be your dream partner because of Steven Universe, Naruto, something ? Help me :)

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