(1/3) hi i'm muslim and i have a totally different perception of samirah. while i know and understand that samirah wasn't the best representation of a muslim american, i don't think she's bad at all. i remember reading the part where she says Allahu akbar and being SO delighted that magnus respectfully asks about it and lets her explain because it's also teaching the readers. and despite arranged marriages being a negative stereotype of muslims, it's a definitely a real thing. BUT it's not
(2/3) forced marriage like the stereotype depicts. also marriage between cousins is real in muslim countries. my grandparents are cousins. afaik the stigma around cousin marriage is a western idea- there was a study that stated it could cause birth defects but it was later disproved. i genuinely think rick did a good job of representing this. samirah and amir clearly like each other and if they didn’t their families wouldn’t force them to get married bc that’s not what arranged marriage is. I DO
(3/3) have a prob with how samirah is portrayed as an on/off hijabi. with all the research he did, rick could’ve checked the rules of hijab. i wish he had just made her a non-hijabi that has a scarf with her bc it’s magical and so she can pray when she needs to. he does say that the way she wears it is based on what he saw his students do, which is easy to believe because he taught middle school and i’ve seen it happen in my own school. i don’t really accept it as a valid explanation though.
okay, first things first: i loved samirah when i first read magnus chase. i was so happy to see a muslim character that isn’t just defined by their religion in a fantasy book. i was also 14 at the time and i was so overwhelmed by the fact that she’s muslim that i didn’t realize the flaws in her writing. i’m not gonna talk about the allahu akbar thing because i’m honestly conflicted. the way magnus says that “it’s never said in a positive way” was just… not good. but as you said, it’s a teaching moment so i guess i’ll let it slide.
my biggest problem is with her relationship with amir. i know that arranged marriage isn’t always forced. i know that marriage between cousins happen. i know this because i’m a muslim born and raised in a muslim country. i have my personal problems with arranged marriage as a whole but i acknowledge that it’s not always forced marriage. but the way it’s written in the magnus chase books makes me really uncomfortable. first and foremost it’s because she was 12 when they got “engaged”. now, as i said before, i live in a muslim country but arranged marriages here never start this young. you have to at least finish your education first before getting engaged. most people get engaged in their 20s. and the justification for it here? even worse.
“When [my mother] died … well, in the local community, I was damaged goods, a bastard child. My grandparents were lucky, very lucky, to get the Fadlans’ blessing for me to marry Amir. I won’t really bring anything to the marriage. I’m not rich or respectable or –” (Magnus Chase, Sword of Summer)
this line made me uncomfortable from the moment i read it because it’s samirah beating herself up for something that’s not her fault. her grandparents used her to make the image of their family better (and yes, i know this happens a LOT in muslim societies especially with women but it’s an awful thing that shouldn’t happen) and she’s tying her entire worth to her relationship with amir. yes, i know she had a crush on him since she was 12 but that’s not an excuse to get engaged! i know that some people say that arranged marriage is about choice, but a 12 year old girl can’t make a choice like this especially when she feels so insecure about herself. every time she talks about her grandparents/what they think of her it’s always something negative too. she didn’t agree to this engagement because she had a crush on amir, it’s because she feels guilty over something she had no control over (her mom’s relationship with loki and having her) and wants to fix it by making the family’s image better. again, yes, this happens in muslim communities but it’s not a positive thing and it shouldn’t be portrayed in a positive light by anyone, especially not by an american white guy who thinks he can write something like this just because he memorized a surah and some hadith.
i have no problems with other muslims finding representation in samirah al-abbas, i personally think she’s great. but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any flaws in her writing, especially considering all of RR’s characters of color, especially the girls, have problems like this too.
In order for disabled people to receive any sort of financial assistant for their housing, food, bills, medical supplies, etc., they cannot ever have more than $2,000 of resources to their name. Ever.
It doesn’t matter what it’s for.
You’re saving up for a new wheelchair?
For college?
To put a downpayment on a house?
Hell man, you just happen to budget for once in your life so that you can have some extra money in case something bad happens?
Your benefits immediately get cut off if you’re a cent over $2,000.
And, even worse, you usually end up having to pay back every dollar the government gave you that month.
So say you get $400. If they find out you’re twenty dollars over the resource limit, you have to give them all $400 back and you undergo an investigation of your funds to see if you will continue getting money.
“What if I spend the money that day?”
Doesn’t matter. In fact, from what I can tell, people who do this are actually put under investigation for fraud.
Remember when “Guardians of the Galaxy” came out? one of Rocket Racoon’s creators, Bill Mantlo, suffered an accident in 1992 and has irreparable brain damage.
before the movie came out, Marvel gave him an exclusive preview screening. SOme people were upset because they felt if Marvel was really wanted to thank mantlo, they should have donated money to Mantlo’s family.
Bill Mantlo’s brother had to come out and explain: If Marvel gave them monetary aid, Bill Mantlo would lose his financial assistance.
My brother has been on California State SSI for autism for the last 10 years, and he absolutely has to (no joke, HAS TO) spend all 720 bucks of his SSI every month, because if he puts it in the bank he risks losing his SSI altogether.
Sometimes, at the end of the month, he has no idea what to do with his money because the whole month went by and he still has 400-ish bucks in his account, and he fucking panics because he doesn’t want to get anywhere near 2,000.
And here’s the funnest part of the story!
One day he did a huge commission on Second Life and wound up earning 1500 bucks off of it, and he told the guy to donate it 500 bucks at a time over 3 months. The guy didn’t want to, and just donated all 1500, which put my brother at 2,036 bucks.
The state IMMEDIATELY (I’m talking less than an hour) called him up to tell him over the phone that they were canceling his SSI, because they noticed he had gone over the 2,000 buck threshold. He had to tell them that someone had made a charitable donation to him and that this was not a common occurrence in any way shape or form, and upon not believing him, my mother had to call to talk to them as his legal caretaker and say basically the same thing until they called off the cancellation of his SSI money.
He also had to cancel his renter’s assistance because it put him to 1,062 a month, so if he went 30 days without spending any money they’d cancel his SSI altogether. Like, none of us in the family have any fucking clue why that regulation is in place and it’s the stupidest shit in human history.
Please, legal side of Tumblr, tell me what positive reasoning this law has?
There’s something called an ABLE account that can help. If you are on SSI and were diagnosed as disabled before the age of 26 you can apply for an ABLE account that will allow you to save up to $99,000. More people need to know about this!
A masterpost of resources & posts on how to respectfully draw and represent Piper McLean as a Tsalagi/Cherokee character, and a few posts on the issues with her canon depiction. I am not Native, but a majority of the posts linked here are by Native people.
Note: if you are not Native, you do not get to decide what is or isn’t racist against Indigenous people, no matter how much research you do. Listen to Native voices on Native issues.
Note #2: please do not bombard the creators of these posts with questions unless they say they’re comfortable with it. They are not google. If you have questions, direct them at me or just googlethem.
Feel free to add on, especially Indigenous bloggers! I will edit as I find more. And also feel free to share this when asking people not to draw racist Piper.
I really try to challenge Canadian stereotypes at every opportunity but today I was walking down Young St. in Toronto and a firetruck honked very loudly and I clutched my chest and said “MY WORD” and as it drove past, a fireman leaned out of the window and apologized to me so I just don’t know
do i have any followers that are billionaires? children of billionaires? relatives or lovers of billionaires? how do i actually make this happen? i know you got the connects. inbox me
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