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drawing and gaslighting
I need to get some new icons. All the ones I have here are for fandoms I haven't been part of in a long time. I think I might make some from my own drawings.
Ah yes, drawing! I am excited to say that I'm finally learning to draw. I've been telling my math students that they can't say they are bad at math. Instead they can say, "Math is a challenge." It's all about a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset. With a fixed mindset they can't do anything about their math abilities. In a growth mindset they realize it comes down to the work they put into the subject. I realized that if I am telling them this, I need to also do the same in the areas where I have a fixed mindset. How often have I said that I can't draw? Too often! And yet, it turns out I've just not worked much on drawing. I always found the idea overwhelming.
So the last two years I've set my mind to seeing what artists see and trying to make what I draw look like what I meant to draw. It's slowly working. I'm definitely not great and my learning curve is taking longer than average, but slowly I think I'm starting to figure this out. I'd say I've gone from preschool level to about 2nd grade level in those 2 years. It may be sad, but I am proud of my progress!
As for fan updates: Nothing I'm a fan of is really updating except My Little Pony so not much to update. I want my Steven Universe!
As for My Little Pony, I have another rant of a moral the show completely got wrong! Once again, the text below will assume you do not watch the show.
In last week's episode, Secrets and Pies, we find out that Rainbow Dash has been lying to Pinkie Pie (and thus everyone else). For several years, she's pretended to eat these pies that Pinkie Pie makes her with great enthusiasm, care, and love. In reality, she's usually giving them away and she's never once even tried her pies. In this episode she takes a pie Pinkie worked forever on and throws it in the garbage and Pinkie finds out. (The garbage is extra harsh, by the way. At least give it away!)
This is all played for laughs as Pinkie tries over and over to catch Rainbow Dash in the act of discarding her pies. I admit, I laughed a lot. It was funny.
However, it really left me unsettled. First, essentially the whole episode is Rainbow Dash gaslighting Pinkie into believing she doesn't see what she actually sees. Time and time again she keeps denying Pinkie's experience which is completely not cool. She doesn't even come clean when Pinkie is going completely insane over the whole thing. So when they make up in the end finding out that Rainbow Dash pretends to like her pies because she likes seeing Pinkie happy just like Pinkie bakes her pies because she likes seeing Rainbow Dash happy, I can't help but feel the show missed the entire point of why Pinkie should be so mad. It isn't just standard lying or feeling bad Rainbow didn't eat her pies. Gaslighting is so not okay and they both have good reasons for being angry at the other, but they never really address any of the reasons they are so angry. Usually the show does a good job of this but I can't help but feel they dropped the ball here.
Okay, but it's actually much worse than this. See, to hide the pies, Rainbow Dash has sometimes been sending them down a laundry chute in his room that goes straight into her turtle's food dish. At this point we've already established Rainbow's taken the turtle to the vet several times for stomach aches from eating pies. So why does she keep purposely poisoning her pet just to spare Pinkie's feelings? I think Rainbow needs to seriously reconsider her priorities here and possibly have her pet taken out of her care for a while.
A few parts I liked were when the ponies were talking it out (how come they can do that on this show but I never see it on my other shows when I want to!) When Rainbow says she did it because she didn't want to crush Pinkie Pie, Apple Jack points out that she did a good job doing that anyway. She also points out Rainbow has technically been lying to all of them and asks if there's anything else she's been lying to them about (clearly losing a little bit of trust in her friend).
I suppose I actually really enjoyed this episode and shouldn't overthink it, but as a parent I can't help but feel the show could have done so much more with this to show kids to believe in what they see and not let others gaslight you. That's a moral I can get behind!
On a side note, my kids are convinced Rainbow is a boy and it's really hard for me to remember she is a girl and her preferred pronoun is "she" and not "he". So every time I write this, I have to go back and change all my "he's" to "she's".
Ah yes, drawing! I am excited to say that I'm finally learning to draw. I've been telling my math students that they can't say they are bad at math. Instead they can say, "Math is a challenge." It's all about a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset. With a fixed mindset they can't do anything about their math abilities. In a growth mindset they realize it comes down to the work they put into the subject. I realized that if I am telling them this, I need to also do the same in the areas where I have a fixed mindset. How often have I said that I can't draw? Too often! And yet, it turns out I've just not worked much on drawing. I always found the idea overwhelming.
So the last two years I've set my mind to seeing what artists see and trying to make what I draw look like what I meant to draw. It's slowly working. I'm definitely not great and my learning curve is taking longer than average, but slowly I think I'm starting to figure this out. I'd say I've gone from preschool level to about 2nd grade level in those 2 years. It may be sad, but I am proud of my progress!
As for fan updates: Nothing I'm a fan of is really updating except My Little Pony so not much to update. I want my Steven Universe!
As for My Little Pony, I have another rant of a moral the show completely got wrong! Once again, the text below will assume you do not watch the show.
In last week's episode, Secrets and Pies, we find out that Rainbow Dash has been lying to Pinkie Pie (and thus everyone else). For several years, she's pretended to eat these pies that Pinkie Pie makes her with great enthusiasm, care, and love. In reality, she's usually giving them away and she's never once even tried her pies. In this episode she takes a pie Pinkie worked forever on and throws it in the garbage and Pinkie finds out. (The garbage is extra harsh, by the way. At least give it away!)
This is all played for laughs as Pinkie tries over and over to catch Rainbow Dash in the act of discarding her pies. I admit, I laughed a lot. It was funny.
However, it really left me unsettled. First, essentially the whole episode is Rainbow Dash gaslighting Pinkie into believing she doesn't see what she actually sees. Time and time again she keeps denying Pinkie's experience which is completely not cool. She doesn't even come clean when Pinkie is going completely insane over the whole thing. So when they make up in the end finding out that Rainbow Dash pretends to like her pies because she likes seeing Pinkie happy just like Pinkie bakes her pies because she likes seeing Rainbow Dash happy, I can't help but feel the show missed the entire point of why Pinkie should be so mad. It isn't just standard lying or feeling bad Rainbow didn't eat her pies. Gaslighting is so not okay and they both have good reasons for being angry at the other, but they never really address any of the reasons they are so angry. Usually the show does a good job of this but I can't help but feel they dropped the ball here.
Okay, but it's actually much worse than this. See, to hide the pies, Rainbow Dash has sometimes been sending them down a laundry chute in his room that goes straight into her turtle's food dish. At this point we've already established Rainbow's taken the turtle to the vet several times for stomach aches from eating pies. So why does she keep purposely poisoning her pet just to spare Pinkie's feelings? I think Rainbow needs to seriously reconsider her priorities here and possibly have her pet taken out of her care for a while.
A few parts I liked were when the ponies were talking it out (how come they can do that on this show but I never see it on my other shows when I want to!) When Rainbow says she did it because she didn't want to crush Pinkie Pie, Apple Jack points out that she did a good job doing that anyway. She also points out Rainbow has technically been lying to all of them and asks if there's anything else she's been lying to them about (clearly losing a little bit of trust in her friend).
I suppose I actually really enjoyed this episode and shouldn't overthink it, but as a parent I can't help but feel the show could have done so much more with this to show kids to believe in what they see and not let others gaslight you. That's a moral I can get behind!
On a side note, my kids are convinced Rainbow is a boy and it's really hard for me to remember she is a girl and her preferred pronoun is "she" and not "he". So every time I write this, I have to go back and change all my "he's" to "she's".