Usagi is a great character. We watch her grow from a clumsy, lazy, self-centered teenager into a fearless goddess of justice who takes down the force of chaos itself. But the great thing is? She doesn’t stop being the girl we met back in chapter one. Sure, she’s indomitably powerful and her teardrops turn into the universe’s most potent energy source, but she also likes video games and donuts and napping and she gets crappy grades on tests because instead of studying, she was playing video games and eating donuts and napping. She whines about having to study for high school entrance exams, then stops a Texas-sized asteroid from slamming into Tokyo. Also, she was totally having sex with her star-crossed-reincarnated-prince of a boyfriend.
J.K. Rowling once made a really interesting point about the Narnia books (which I have not read): “There comes a point where Susan, who was the older girl, is lost to Narnia because she becomes interested in lipstick. She’s become irreligious basically because she found sex. I have a big problem with that.” Takeuchi avoided this in Sailor Moon with such deftness and grace that I’m only fully realizing it now, at 22. Usagi and Mamoru were totally boning—there are all kinds of dreamy, gauzy artbook pictures of them together in bed or discreetly covered in feathers, not to mention the penultimate scene of the manga, where they wake up in a (seriously awesome) bed together all naked and cuddly. Moreover, check out the illustrations of Usagi in lingerie and just straight up topless that Takeuchi busted out for her self-published artbook. Usagi is pure-hearted, but she isn’t “pure” in the archaic sense. She’s sexual. And I love that she can be both. She’s the amaranthine avatar of goodness and love and serenity in the universe—she is every cherished ideal we hold of what it means to be a “magical girl.” She stands for truth and freedom and hope. She wears floaty pastel clothes and enormous pigtails and her weapons are covered in hearts and stylized angel wings. She’s often drawn with angel wings herself! And she has sex. It doesn’t make her dirty, or suddenly inappropriate as entertainment for young girls. She doesn’t lose her power or her magic. She is a multifaceted young woman who loves sweets and comics and vanquishes the forces of evil and also has sex.
And the thing is, this kind of attitude in entertainment helps everyone. It’s not just very sexually active girls who need characters like Usagi, or even just girls in general. I was a prudish kid who didn’t have her first kiss until the age of 18 and this particular aspect of the manga has always stuck with me and informed my attitudes about sex. Whoever you are, however you handle your sexuality—it never makes you dirty. You can be queen of the mahou shoujo and have sex and wake up the next day to slaughter the wicked hordes with your bunny-bedecked Magic Rainbow Sparkle Sword. You can do both. You can be both. One does not invalidate the other.
I really love this analysis! It’s really beautiful!
I remember the first time I was in the Wall of Death. It was at Of Mice & Men’s set at Warped Tour ‘12 and at first, me and my friend had no clue what the fuck was going on. So Austin says “go!”, and everyone starts running, basically pushing me and my friend along. Me, being the clumsy and accident prone person I am, fell in the middle of the pit and like 6 people fell on top of me. I thought I was gonna fucking die (and I may or may not have starting crying.. shh). Eventually everyone got off of me and gave me a little room to get up, and two boys helped me back to my feet, forever proving that the metal fanbase is the most amazing fanbase ever c:
Okay that paragraph totally switched mentalities at the end.
Please ;____;
I once went to a concert with a friend (I don’t remember the band, she dragged me along) when I was 16. They were starting a wall of death and this guy who was flirting with me decides it would be funny to pull my top down, exposing my breasts, then throw me in the middle of this wall of death right as it’s about to meet. When I stumble in the middle and hit the wall someone screamed “STOP! EXPOSED GIRL!” and I thought they were all going to oggle at me. Instead, one guy quickly helped me cover up, three more helped me to my feet, and another asked who did that. When I pointed out the guy, two of them looked at him, me, each other, then nodded and punched the guy in the face before forcing him into the wall that was about to form again.
As you might know, NASA cannot advertise itself. This is due to a federal restriction that the government places on itself as a whole. It can reach out publicly to explain what it does for the public, but the advertising landscape for a federal agency is complex. So, as a result NASA cannot advertise itself in a traditional, commercial sense.
The AIA (Aerospace Industries Association) is so stoked about what NASA does, that they have decided to advertise on behalf of NASA. AND, they’ve decided to crowdsource this effort with Indiegogo.com. ANNNDDD they are planning on showing the ad with the new Star Trek Into Darkness movie that is coming out this year!
This comes at a crucial time when NASA’s own public outreach is threatened due to the Sequestion fight in Washington DC.
So, as it stands, the effort is a little bit over 50% funded. PLEASE spread the word about this and donate to this effort, because the more eyes that see this ad, the more potential supporters NASA will have in the coming months.
