Feminist Geek at large

Turkish protesters dancing tango in the streets last night.

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:55:00 +0100

Turkish protesters dancing tango in the streets last night.

Feminist Frequency: Twitter vs Female Protagonists in Video Games

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:25:13 +0100

Feminist Frequency: Twitter vs Female Protagonists in Video Games:

Thanks #XboxOne #E3 press conference for revealing to us exactly zero games featuring a female protagonist for the next generation.

— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq)

June 10, 2013

Above is a tweet I made this afternoon in reaction to the fact that none of the games presented at…

This is precious. ONE HUNDRED times people tried to say that nobody cares about what Anita is talking about… if that was so… why are they commenting? Why are they jumping trough the roof how female characters and women players don’t matter if that was the case?

What is extra infuriating are those who fail to see the irony in their claims that there are not enough women gamers but treat with hostility any girl/female/woman gamer who dares to make an appearance.

copiousely: nodaybuttodaytodefygravity: brttny32194: d0nt-p4n1...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 12:21:33 +0100

copiousely:

nodaybuttodaytodefygravity:

brttny32194:

d0nt-p4n1c:

iwasateenagehorcrux:

holiclover:

Deleted scene - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

WHY WAS THIS DELETED

THIS IS VERY SIGNIFICANT CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

WHY THE FLYING FUCK WOULD YOU DELETE THIS

oh my fucking god this makes me really mad.

okay i never read the books, but i have seen the movies like fifty hundred times. and if we only go by the movies, i can tell you right now that even if this scene had been in the films, IT WOULD STILL NOT REDEEM THIS CHARACTER.

let me put this clearly, in plain words, because obviously the last time i did this no one really gave a shit and ignored what i commented.

— Aunt Petunia was given the purpose of caring for her infant nephew, after both his mother and father were murdered. She inherited a life, a little boy, that witnessed his parents death.

—Aunt Petunia then raised this boy in the same way she treated her sister (from all the movies you can infer that Petunia was very cruel toward Lily as they grew up. examples are the flashbacks).

—Petunia treated her nephew like he was worthless, and a lesser being than herself. Because this is how she treats all magic users, and all magic anything — Harry obviously would not have been treated with anything other than disdain and contempt.

— Petunia DID NOT care for her sister, in any obvious way in any of these movies. She shames her in every way, anytime she can. and while she may have cared for her — it was only out of familial obligation.

— Petunia LOCKED THIS LITTLE BOY IN A CUPBOARD UNDER THE STAIRS. She abuses him, verbally and emotionally AND ENCOURAGES HER HUSBAND AND SON TO DO THE SAME.

— Petunia only does this because of how much she despises magic.

— Petunia forces him into becoming little more than a slave — preparing food, cleaning. She blames everything on him.

— another obvious thing is that Harry never ever has clothes that fit him properly — most likely because any clothes he may have are probably Dudley’s old, ruined hand-me-downs, and the clothes that he protested against wearing.

PETUNIA IS A CHILD ABUSER. THIS SCENE WOULD NOT MAKE HER ANY LESS OF A VILE PARENT, THE ONLY THING THAT WOULD REDEEM PETUNIA IS IF SHE ADMITTED TO HARRY HOW HORRIBLE AND CRUEL SHE WAS, AND APOLOGIZED. BUT THAT WOULD STILL ONLY BE THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG.

Now please think about this before you say this is character development.

Because Petunia doesn’t even like Lily, nor does she like Harry, there could be no way this is character development. Petunia is looking for sympathy just because she wants people to feel bad for her — to manipulate them into liking her. Petunia is a manipulative and cruel woman that looks for ways to gain control over people.

Petunia knows she is losing Harry as the timid little boy that does what he’s told — she is talking to someone right now to put them back into her pocket. Petunia wants to be the most adored — wants to be idolized like Lily was. Petunia is a jealous woman, and knows that the way to control people — to gain their favor — is to use their emotions against them.

This is not character development. This is just another method of control and child abuse.

Wow. I could have just let this rant go by, but not this time. Not after you tore into something that you obviously do not fully understand. And before you argue with me on that point, I’ll note that you literally said that you’ve never read the books. You should have just stopped right there and quit while you were ahead.

You seem to not understand the difference between justify and redeem. No one’s saying that this moment justifies anything Petunia had done to Harry in the past, but it does give her a bit of redemption and absolutely is character development. In the movies, she was a two dimensional bad character that was only associated with evil. The books actually gave us much more background than you are aware of, making her a real person and exploring her past to understand why she is the way she is. This scene would have been a very small step in that direction, but a step nonetheless.

DO NOT EVER SAY THAT PETUNIA EVANS DID NOT CARE FOR HER SISTER OR HER NEPHEW. READ THE BOOKS AND YOU WILL MAYBE BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND. FOR EXAMPLE:

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 2 A Peck of Owls, Vernon is trying to throw Harry out of the house and Petunia refuses to allow it. She stands up to goddamn Vernon Dursley after he’s made his mind up and though she would never explicitly state it and she explains it away in so many ways, she did it to protect him.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33 The Prince’s Tale. We get to see memories of little Lily and Petunia as children, playing and swinging. Petunia is highly protective over her little sister when Snape arrives, even going so far as to watch over her as the two talk.

As for why Petunia was the way she was, no. She wasn’t looking for sympathy or for people to feel bad for her and she certainly wasn’t manipulating anyone. She wasn’t trying to gain control over people. As a child, she and her sister were best friends but her sister had a gift. Petunia had to watch as that gift took the girl away to a fantasy world and left herself back at home as a Muggle. Something they didn’t mention in the movies: Little Petunia Evans sent a letter to Albus Dumbledore asking to be allowed to go to Hogwarts. When he had to unfortunately decline, it hurt her deeply. Pretending like she didn’t care was much easier than admitting the truth, which is what turned her cold.

When Harry was sent to her, she could have chucked him out right away, given him away and gotten him out of her life but she didn’t. She made sure he had a home. Vernon was the abusive one and I will agree that she hurt Harry just as much by not stopping her husband in his ways, but she physically never locked him anywhere. Yes, Harry’s clothes were always hand-me-downs from Dudley but families do that all the time.

This was by no means a healthy homelife for Harry, but your gross misinterpretation of Petunia infuriates me. This scene absolutely should have been in the movie so people like you can understand that the world is not split into good and evil. Petunia was not a hero, but she wasn’t a monster either.

HAHA YEAASH. Okay but seriously. I know I just posted this but now what I said is relevant:

Petunia is completely and totally justified in her fear of the magic world. She responds with hate, which is a weakness, but her desperately vigorous attempts to distance her family from the magic world are out of love. She “knows what these people are capable of” and she’s already lost a family member. She even understands death itself. Trust me, the biggest valid desire after a family member dies is to achieve normalcy. You know things will never be the same but you’re struggling with everything you are for what your life is to be comfortable again. For what you have to be your form of normal. When someone essential to your life dies that’s all you can hope for. Now throw in the fact that the way her sister died wasn’t normal in a literal and an emotional sense. Murder is horrifying in and of itself. Murder by a person you have no hope of defending yourself against is paralyzing. The fact that the murder wasn’t random and was in fact motivated by being related to Harry. How about how the murderer is an immensely powerful wizard who hates all human beings and has the power to eradicate them. So she hasn’t just been dealing with a family death her whole life. She is desperate to achieve normalcy and she just can’t, knowing what she knows. But she does everything in her power to provide that for her son and her husband. That’s why she cares so much about how she appears to her neighbors.

This is an even bigger thing for me:

She knows Harry’s family died because Voldemort wants him dead and she raises him in her home anyway.

Honestly, I admire Petunia more than a few other more obviously “amiable” characters.

To me it is a mixed bag.
On one side we have her hating what she can’t have. Hating, because you are excluded, because you are not special enough, hating what you don’t undertand combined with guilt… this I can understand, definitely. I can understand how it snowballs.

What I can’t understand is why she abuses Harry verbally and physically. Maybe because he is a symbol, maybe because she is simply a very shitty parent (ahem… Dudley???). But this scene should have been in the movie, because nobody is one dimensional and would have been less insulting to the viewer.

"Fake geek girls" - the reality

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 13:50:35 +0100

The Geek Girl problem - Cosplaying

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 08:47:17 +0100

On one hand you like a show/comics/game/animation series quite a lot and you’d like to cosplay it.

On another, in most cases of games and comics, very few women look even remotely like that. Or you prefer to dress like a male character. So… welcome to “whatever you choose is the wrong choice”.

If you dress like a male character, you will be harassed for gender-bending the character. If you tried to make the gender-bending less obvious… the aggression is even stronger, because… well, it is obvious.

OK, so, you like a female character. If you don’t look like her (different race/age/body type), the negative backlash for ‘daring’ to show skin/race-bent the character will be… unpleasant. The regular micro-agression towards any woman/girl on such an occasion, I am not going to even delve into.

If you actually have a similar body-type/same race/age as the character… hello sexist attitudes. Most female characters in comics and games look quite relieved of their clothing and nobody bats an eye. When someone has an issue with it… well, all hell brakes loose. BUT if you, a human being, dare to dress like a character? OMG, the slut-shaming and the flaming and the aggressive attitudes, combined with people who don’t know to keep their hands for themselves.

So… lose-lose situation.

Yaaaay…. enjoy your cosplay…

What is happening in Turkey?

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 19:13:17 +0100

Source: CLICK

Taken from Occupy Gezi’s Facebook page.

To my friends who live outside of Turkey:

I am writing to let you know what is going on in Istanbul for the last five days. I personally have to write this because most of the media sources are shut down by the government and the word of mouth and the internet are the only ways left for us to explain ourselves and call for help and support.

Four days ago a group of people who did not belong to any specific organization or ideology got together in Istanbul’s Gezi Park. Among them there were many of my friends and students. Their reason was simple: To prevent and protest the upcoming demolishing of the park for the sake of building yet another shopping mall at very center of the city. There are numerous shopping malls in Istanbul, at least one in every neighborhood! The tearing down of the trees was supposed to begin early Thursday morning. People went to the park with their blankets, books and children. They put their tents down and spent the night under the trees. Early in the morning when the bulldozers started to pull the hundred-year-old trees out of the ground, they stood up against them to stop the operation.

They did nothing other than standing in front of the machines.

No newspaper, no television channel was there to report the protest. It was a complete media black out.

But the police arrived with water cannon vehicles and pepper spray. They chased the crowds out of the park.

In the evening the number of protesters multiplied. So did the number of police forces around the park. Meanwhile local government of Istanbul shut down all the ways leading up to Taksim square where the Gezi Park is located. The metro was shut down, ferries were cancelled, roads were blocked.

Yet more and more people made their way up to the center of the city by walking.

They came from all around Istanbul. They came from all different backgrounds, different ideologies, different religions. They all gathered to prevent the demolition of something bigger than the park:

The right to live as honorable citizens of this country.

They gathered and marched. Police chased them with pepper spray and tear gas and drove their tanks over people who offered the police food in return. Two young people were run over by the tanks and were killed. Another young woman, a friend of mine, was hit in the head by one of the incoming tear gas canisters. The police were shooting them straight into the crowd. After a three hour operation she is still in Intensive Care Unit and in very critical condition. As I write this we don’t know if she is going to make it. This blog is dedicated to her.

These people are my friends. They are my students, my relatives. They have no «hidden agenda» as the state likes to say. Their agenda is out there. It is very clear. The whole country is being sold to corporations by the government, for the construction of malls, luxury condominiums, freeways, dams and nuclear plants. The government is looking for (and creating when necessary) any excuse to attack Syria against its people’s will.

On top of all that, the government control over its people’s personal lives has become unbearable as of late. The state, under its conservative agenda passed many laws and regulations concerning abortion, cesarean birth, sale and use of alcohol and even the color of lipstick worn by the airline stewardesses.

People who are marching to the center of Istanbul are demanding their right to live freely and receive justice, protection and respect from the State. They demand to be involved in the decision-making processes about the city they live in.

What they have received instead is excessive force and enormous amounts of tear gas shot straight into their faces. Three people lost their eyes.

Yet they still march. Hundred of thousands join them. Couple of more thousand passed the Bosporus Bridge on foot to support the people of Taksim.

No newspaper or TV channel was there to report the events. They were busy with broadcasting news about Miss Turkey and “the strangest cat of the world”.

Police kept chasing people and spraying them with pepper spray to an extent that stray dogs and cats were poisoned and died by it.

Schools, hospitals and even 5 star hotels around Taksim Square opened their doors to the injured. Doctors filled the classrooms and hotel rooms to provide first aid. Some police officers refused to spray innocent people with tear gas and quit their jobs. Around the square they placed jammers to prevent internet connection and 3g networks were blocked. Residents and businesses in the area provided free wireless network for the people on the streets. Restaurants offered food and water for free.

People in Ankara and İzmir gathered on the streets to support the resistance in Istanbul.

Mainstream media kept showing Miss Turkey and “the strangest cat of the world”.

***

I am writing this letter so that you know what is going on in Istanbul. Mass media will not tell you any of this. Not in my country at least. Please post as many as articles as you see on the Internet and spread the word.

As I was posting articles that explained what is happening in Istanbul on my Facebook page last night someone asked me the following question:

«What are you hoping to gain by complaining about our country to foreigners?»

This blog is my answer to her.

By so called «complaining» about my country I am hoping to gain:

Freedom of expression and speech,

Respect for human rights,

Control over the decisions I make concerning my on my body,

The right to legally congregate in any part of the city without being considered a terrorist.

But most of all by spreading the word to you, my friends who live in other parts of the world, I am hoping to get your awareness, support and help!

Please spread the word and share this blog.

Thank you!

For futher info and things you can do for help please see Amnesty International’s Call for Urgent Help

‘cause he s the god damn batman.

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 16:37:40 +0100

‘cause he s the god damn batman.

sendermage: mistercoventry: “Oh, you’re straight? So is spaghetti until it gets hot. ;)” Are you...

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 12:46:21 +0100

sendermage:

mistercoventry:

“Oh, you’re straight? So is spaghetti until it gets hot. ;)”

Are you suggesting we boil heterosexuals

Bite me, alien boy!

Mon, 27 May 2013 12:11:22 +0100

Bite me, alien boy!

Role Models?!

Sun, 26 May 2013 15:55:08 +0100

Why people complain about certain celebrities not being good role models?

Most actors, singers and etc. kind of entertainers are not in occupations in which we expect them to be role models, we want them to hear them sing… or dance or act. Being able to do these things doesn’t make them good people or smart people nor it means they are such. It simply means that they have talents is singing, dancing and acting, nothing more.

What is more, I expect to see more criticism towards people who claim the sport light in situations in which extensive knowledge, wisdom, education and experience is required… but not from entertainers.

In our popular (western) culture most celebrities are young… what kind of a role model can a 20-something be who is still figuring stuff out for her/himself be?

It doesn’t mean that we should be critical… but we should know the difference also.

I want you guys to know that before there was Bella and Edward there was Jesse and Lestat.

Fri, 24 May 2013 22:38:11 +0100

a-slow-burn:

Just saying….she was definitely like nineteen or twenty in the books, a total fuckin nerd who happened to be fascinated with the occult/vampires, and he almost killed her, and then because he loved her he turned her. And I’m pretty sure in the books her reflection on it was that she was made to be a vampire.

What are you talking about? She is 35 when they meet? Also, she never ever claims she wants to be a vampire and learns that there are vampires at all AFTER she works for years for Talamasca. O.o

So now when you do Alt + Reblog, the reblog symbol turns green, "explodes" and then disappears.

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:20:59 +0100

theshelbylife:

incestuous-lesbianponies:

laurarw:

I THOUGHT THIS WAS KIDDING SOGMLASG

HOLY SHIT

On this week’s very special episode of Hannibal, we learn the...

Sun, 19 May 2013 23:40:00 +0100

On this week’s very special episode of Hannibal, we learn the value of respecting one’s elders.

I am starting to hate this show… a lot… and I am in awe by the fact such a big percent of tumblr is head of heels for a psychopathic serial killer who murders women and can even find him cute, endearing and so on.

I mean… cracking jokes about Hannibal killing a woman for being “rude” after a close friend of hers is accused to be a murderer? What is in the water around here?

See, it’s funny because women are regularly murdered on screen and it is presented as sexy or titillating or justified. It is even more funny, because the idea of being punished because you are NOT acting the way someone else thinks you should be acting, while being female? And it is even more funny when it is presented in a gracious and glorifying buddying up of a serial killer and his buddy, a serial killer in training. Because it is not dehumanising enough i guess. And, please, spare me the “you dont get it”. I like the books, I like the movies… but this show? Problematic on so many levels and I am quite over it. OK… the show and the whole fandom, because… HOW… how could the same people from the same place have huge issues with sexism and misogyny and problematic representation of violence against women to accept completely uncritically Hannibal?

FUCK IT.

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Sun, 19 May 2013 14:54:39 +0100

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Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries - books and tv show comments

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:20:58 +0100

I liked quite a lot the show. The setting is in Australia, in the 20ies of the 20th century after the First World War. Our main protagonist is Miss Phryne Fisher who is a lady detective. She is stylish, smart, awesome and kickass and quite a lot of fun. The supporting characters and interesting and the mysteries are quite enjoyable as well. The music, the costumes, the scenery… cute and nice and quite amusing. How NOT to like the show?

Then I read the books and quite a lot of things changed about how I view the show and the characters.

See, there are going to be lots of SPOILERS! so be warned.

In the books Phryne is smart, self-possessed, an excellent shot, a reckless driver, an aviator and knows very well how to take care of herself. She is not interested in marriage or children and frequently takes lovers of her choosing. Something very important… she is NEVER a damsel in distress. Even in the situations she is in peril, she manages to free herself and solve the case.

Given the time frame, she is sticking odd and I like that I am reading a time-piece in which sexism, racism, homophobia and etc. are NOT casually used under the guise of “realistic” (I am looking at you… almost all other shows).

She has quite a lot of female friends who are as extraordinary as she is, they are surgeons, writers, lawyers and etc. I am in awe with this, because it is a trope to have the main female protagonist be this uber special flower and a snowflake and constantly being reminded how different than all other women she is (May Anita Blake please stand up?)

From her relatives we meet her sister and in latter books she moves to Australia as well (her sister is gay and a socialist as well and is happily in a relationship with another lady).

Later in the books she adopts three children (all from different cases) and has a companion Dorothy, who is her maid and a good friend as well (again from a case).

Her main love interest, though there are guest stars, is Lin Chung and it is stated clearly that she has no intentions of marrying him, he later even marries himself, but they keep their relationship as they deeply care for each other.

She is a formidable force and nobody dares to poke his/her nose in her life and if they did, she makes them sorry that did that.

It is fun and entertaining and though all of the cases tie themselves a little too perfectly, I can live with that because… let’s face it… how often do we see such a character anywhere? (no, really… if you can recommend some other good books with kickass female heroines, please write to me!)

___________________________
The show is something else.
Little to no of her background is explained further than the fact that she is in Australia because the murderer of her sister should be released soon.

That is odd but… ok, let’s see further?
The biggest difference is that she is a damsel. In almost EVERY episode she is in peril of some sorts and she is rescued by the timely arrival of the intended love interest, detective Jack Robinson (in the books he is happily married and no interest between the two of them further than Phryne regularly helping in cases and solving them without taking the credit). This get tiring quite quickly, especially when she is turned from highly efficient detective in little more than enthusiastic amateur. Yes, she is a good detective, yes, she is observent… but she is quite… unthreatening. Compared with the books, she is a watered down version of herself.

I wonder why these changes were made with the change of the media. If I have to be honst… i’d love the show a lot more if they have kept the original construct of her character, because the fact that she was so good at what she does is what made her awesome and unique and so entertaining.

Still, the TV show is enjoyable and not bad but compared to the books is a bit disappointing. And bear in mind that I though it is quite awesome before I have read the books. So ;)

How do you know Sherlock Holmes likes you?

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:53:10 +0100

He names a new species of bee after you.

olenna-redwyne: Sad Cat Diaries (x) Those are cats for you....

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:39:00 +0100

olenna-redwyne:

Sad Cat Diaries (x)

Those are cats for you. ;)

Discuss.Talk about what is the goal and why. It very much...

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:08:31 +0100

Discuss.
Talk about what is the goal and why. It very much depends of the age but mainly, explain that just because somebody on the stage says it or does it, doesn’t make it true or cool and the best way to show it is to explain that nobody looks or acts like that in real life. Or… you can show her some cool musicians who DON’T act like that and make better music? ;) Good luck!

tardis-blue-boxes: larry-in-the-tardis: abhortion: I think I missed out on the “neat and cute...

Sun, 12 May 2013 13:56:15 +0100

tardis-blue-boxes:

larry-in-the-tardis:

abhortion:

I think I missed out on the “neat and cute handwriting” gene that every girl seems to have and this is unfair

Intelligent people have messier handwriting because they think fast. When you think and process things faster, you can also write quicker, but it’s going to be sloppy. People with neat writing are usually (no offense) not as smart. I embrace my shit writing.

^Bless this

Yes, everyone in the handwritten times before the internet were complete and utter morons and their thoughts were slow. It is not like good and neat hand writing was valued quite a lot and was prestigious to have a beautiful handwriting. Good call, it has nothing to do with changing times, styles of writing and even gendering handwritings and how important it is deemed. No… it is about the flow of the thought.

My handwriting is horrible and I am very quick thinker but I also realise that I have never EVER tried or even attempted to try to develop my handwriting, because I never cared about it and counter to popular belief, you can write quickly and neatly and be at the same speed as the people with more messy handwritings, because it is about practice. The same way as it is with any developed skill.

Even more importantly, it is widely assumed that girls have better and more pretty handwriting than boys, so they get a lot more scrutiny in school about that as well.

"What grinds me the most is that we’re sending kids out into the world who don’t know how to balance..."

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:19:00 +0100

“

What grinds me the most is that we’re sending kids out into the world who don’t know how to balance a checkbook, who don’t know how to apply for a loan, don’t even know how to properly fill out a job application, but because they know the quadratic formula we consider them prepared for the world?

With that said, I’ll admit even I can see how looking at the equation x – 3 = 19 and knowing x = 22 can be useful. I’ll even say knowing x = 7 and y = 8 in a problem like 9x – 6y = 15 can be helpful. But seriously, do we all need to know how to simplify (x – 3)(x – 3i)??

And the joke is, no one can continue their education unless they do. A student living in California cannot get into a four-year college unless they pass Algebra 2 in high school. A future psychologist can’t become a psychologist, a future lawyer can’t become a lawyer, and I can’t become a journalist unless each of us has a basic understanding of engineering.

Of course, engineers and scientists use this shit all the time, and I applaud them! But they don’t take years of theater arts appreciation courses, because a scientist or an engineer doesn’t need to know that The Phantom of the Opera was the longest-running Broadway musical of all time. Get my point?

The board of education should sit down with universities and high schools alike and create options for students. Let us take business classes that substitute all the same credits as algebra. I guarantee a semester of learning how to start a small business would benefit people much more than knowing: ax^2 + bx + c = 0

”

- Chris Colfer, Struck by Lightning: The Carson Phillips Journal (x)

Nobody’s ever going to give me back the time I spent desperately struggling to get a barely adequate grate in Maths in high school. Nobody’s ever going to give me back the money I spent on additional tutoring for something that I have now, two years after my graduation, almost completely forgotten.

Don’t fucking dare call it laziness. I wanted to do heaps of additional work in subjects that interested me; instead I spent hours and hours doing Trigonometry problems. I’m a writer. I study Philosophy. I’m never going to need this shit in all my life.

Basically, millions of talented students spends enormous amounts of time, money, and nerves, trying to learn highly complicated things they’re never going to need, just so they can get through the system and, you know, do things they are actually interested in and that they’re actually going to use in their professional lives.

~~The next time someone says how students are just lazy, I’m punching them in the face.~~

(via moranion)

Yes, clearly the solution is to educate people even less, because people right now are leaving the educational system knowing and understanding so much and clearly the solution of the described issue is to cut from education and not include an intelligent way to add it. Yes… indeed… brilliant idea. *sarcasm*