BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY FIVE

[a_sporking_rat]

Let me tell you a story of Boo. Boo, short for Bubonic, was one half of a pair of my first rats, the other one being Fidget. Fidget was a pretty normal rat, though he had quirks and stories of his own which I shall also some day share, but Boo...Boo was something else.

To start with, Boo was BIG. I don't mean fat, i mean he was just plain HUGE, and all of it was muscle. When my dad and I first saw him in the pet store, he was sitting on his tail, so Dad couldn't see it was a naked rat tail, and Dad said, "Look, they sell skunks here!" He wasn't joking. He really thought Boo (a black and white rat, obviously, though he wasn't at all skunky-patterned) was a skunk because he was just that big! "No Dad," I said, "That's a rat, and that's the rat I want!" Dad said that I could have a rat, but I could not have THAT rat. But the next time I went to the store, I not only got that rat, I got his buddy too!

That's a story in itself, actually. See, I didn't know it at the time, but Dad was actually even more against letting me have rats than Mom was. Mom is still...not very thrilled about them...but Dad loves them now! Back then, though, he was ignorant of their wondrous ways, so in the pet store, when I told Mom we needed to get two or the one we got would be depressed, and she agreed that "If we have to have a rat, I don't want a depressed rat" my father reacted by shouting "WHAT THE HELL, MAUREEN, ARE YOU ON CRACK?!" in the middle of a pet store full of kids. It was terrific. And so we walked out of there with two rats, one of which being the one my dad said I couldn't have (FYI: I am my Daddy's princess, I won't lie. There's pretty much only *two* things I was never able to get out of him, and that's a horse and junk food. He's a health food nut, see. Other than that, though? Yeah, I get anything. It's awesome.)

Boo liked Fidget, and he liked people. Anything else had to WATCH THE FUCK OUT though. Especially dogs. He *hated* dogs. He would chase our dog Jessie (she was 70lbs, not a small dog at all!) and if he caught her, he would bite up her face, her ears, her nose, her paws...he did not like her. At first we thought he just had an issue with Jessie only, but then middle school had pet day and I brought them....Boo went after A LITTLE OF PUPPIES. And someone also though he *was* a puppy (I told you, he was big---I also had someone once look at a photo of him and ask "What's wrong with your cat's tail?") Meanwhile, Fidget was hardly well-behaved himself. He went up a teacher's pant leg and got into that same teacher's desk where he peed all over his papers. Needless to say I never brought them back into that building ever again. In fact, I can't totally remember, but I think I may have killed Pet Day permanently at that school, or at least as long as I was in attendance. I know I don't remember there ever being another, at least.

Now that the groundwork of just what badassery and 'tude this rat was packing has been laid down, I shall regale you with Boo's ultimate assault on our dog!

We were watching a movie. The Day After Tomorrow, to be specific. Boo was hiding in the couch cushions. Jessie came in, and decided she would try to be cute and act like a much smaller dog than she actually is and jump up on the couch. I waited for Boo to fly out and attack her. Oddly, he didn't. What he did was creepy slowly out of the cushions and sneak towards her. She did not spot him. When he reached her, he did not bite her, which puzzled me further. Instead, he went underneath her. Then, with a howl of pain, Jessie made an EPIC LEAP off the couch, and Boo was hanging by his teeth on her belly! She ran from the room, taking Bubonic with her.

Since then, Jessie was afraid of all rodents all her life.

BUBONIC THE RAT: More badass than Anita Blake could ever hope to be!


BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY FIVE

"The slip hadn't worked with the dress, so I wore it with just the nice black bra and panties under it." GEE, HOW ABOUT THAT. This is so transparently (no pun intended) contrived. I just cannot begin to express my hatred for "heroine gets to be sexiest girl at the party but oh it wasn't her intent!" I really can't. Close to half a page is devoted to her shoes (for someone who claims not to care about or like fancy lady clothes, Anita sure makes sure to think about them in detail) and honestly I wasn't able to make out anything except that they're close-toed black-and-silver three-inchers. SEE HOW DID THAT IN JUST SEVEN WORDS, LKH? And she has on thigh-highs too. The next paragraph is about how Cardinal did her makeup and how "the lipstick was a red so deep and rich that it was going to be distracting just to watch me talk. Of course, my breasts might distract any heterosexual man in the room from ever seeing my face. There was way too much yummy mounded goodness going on in front of me" Isn't this the woman who mopes about what a Plain Jane she is for being brunette? She's honestly pretty enamored with herself. Like, that's fine and all, I'm totally for ladies appreciating their own beauty rather than dismissing it, just Anita's pretensions of modesty when she's got this kind of inner monologue going about her own looks is pretty ridiculous, especially when you consider we're supposed to buy her as sincere in her Ugly Duckling Syndrome and not just being manipulative for compliments.

The dress being see-through makes all her vampire bites "very visible" and again I have to ask, what bites? I think she's referring to the ones from the orgy...oh wait there have been three orgies so far, I mean specifically the second orgy, the one after healing Noel. But that doesn't make sense for her bites or for Micah's. Micah is a wereanimal, and a powerful one at that, his should be healed by now, and as for Anita, she took all that healing energy from Jamil and Shang-Da, it should have patched her up too while she was using to to fix Nathaniel, Claudia, etc. Plus being a Human Servant and a panwere means she has enhanced healing too, last time I checked. She also mentions that her ass is bare because she's wearing a black lace thong. Okay, let's be frank here, even if they don't have a nudity taboo wereanimals still exist within human culture, which is pretty slut-shamey, and thus have probably picked up our own biases and judgements when it comes to what a woman wears---what exact image and idea do you think this outfit is going to give the visiting weretigers? Because I don't think it's the kind that they want for their new Master of Tigers. Meng Die is right, Anita needs to sell a look alright, but I don't think this look is it. I definitely don't agree with the sentiment that a woman can't be smart, strong, and capable while in a tiny see-through shadow of a dress, it doesn't automatically cancel out her brains and guts, but that's sadly NOT how most people think, and right now it would be a lot wiser to just play to their preconceptions instead of trying to prove them wrong, seeing as how urgent it is to get the tigers to trust you and fast. Some kind of classy sensible suit or at least something really regal-looking would almost surely be a better bet for getting the respect of (or at least avoiding pre-judgement by) the weretigers. Think of it as dressing for a job interview. Except for the part where you bone the interviewer into submission and take over the company, I mean.

Her weapons are divided among Wicked, Truth, and Nicky, who are to rotate around her and JC. Since JC "might have to pull out some serious vampire powers to help me tame the tigers" she's also not wearing her cross, but she does have on the anti-MOAD charm. So, the tigers just can't discuss and come to their own decision about whether they're okay with you becoming their Master as a species, they've got to be "tamed" like animals. That word showed up with Auggie at the beginning of this book, and it's been reoccurring like a bad case of herpes chapter by chapter ever since. Was it used like this in previous books? I don't recall it being so abused and over-used in Skin Trade or Flirt. I think she might have just thought of it and is like a kid who can't put down a new toy.

"The gold tigers and Jake himself" I don't understand the need for the 'himself' there "were going to stay out of sight until we'd done the tigers." I'd make a joke about the word choice, but I think she really does mean 'done' them like that "because we were pretty sure there'd be spies among them" and since, she explains, even the Harlequin never see the other Harlequin unmasked, at least not all of the others, no one Harlequin knows what all the others look like so that they can be "effective even to each other."

They are in "the big dining room" and Anita gives us a pretty interesting background for it, that it was originally a speakeasy during Prohibition and it's a "huge natural cavern with gas lamps in the walls" but then goes overboard talking about the candles on the table and how everything is cast in light and shadow. I am simultaneously amused and baffled about how "it was a cocktail party, with everyone standing around sipping drinks, eating hors d'oevres, and chatting." OKAY, CLEARLY *THIS* IS WHY TIGERS ARE SO RARE, THEY'RE IDIOTS WHO ALL DIED OUT BECAUSE THEIR RESPONSE TO A THREAT IS TO HAVE A MIXER. MOAD is on the move, we've got to band together with this necromancer to save ourselves and the world from her? Let's do drinks and tapas! This is just so suicidally stupid I can't even process it. Like, stupid to the point of bizarre. Also, when the hell was there time to call up a caterer for the hors d'oevres? Anita claims that she hates the "small talk" of parties and that she's terrible at it anyway (she's so blunt and real and serious and non-frivolous, guys!) which I find hard to believe---after all, this woman goes on for pages about outfits and spent the beginning of Skin Trade espousing what was basically catty insult gossip about others even as there was A HEAD IN A BOX ON HER DESK, she should be the queen of frivolous obnoxious mean-girl gossip.

She claims that JC, Micah, Nathaniel, Asher, and Jason are all really good at it though so she just lets them do it, but that Damian is almost as bad as she is so he keeps Cardinal on his arm for the same reason...cuz it couldn't be that he enjoys her company or anything, no, he just needs her for her yapper. God, Anita. Anyway, she and JC meet Victor, the white tiger prince from Skin Trade, son of Bibiana and Max the Master of Las Vegas. We are reminded he is "tall, broad-shouldered, and handsome" with short white hair in a really stylish cut, an expensive tailored suit, and rich deep blue eyes. She takes a very long paragraph to tell us all this. I did it in about twenty words and I'm betting you got the same picture in your head for it. She notes that she likes Victor's eyes and that "my white tiger liked everything about him." He takes her offered hand and this causes his power to "breathed along my skin in a warm wash" that makes it hard for to breath in a moment and Victori starts breathing "in a shaky line" and "it took a visible effort for him to stop touching me." Now you see where I got the idea for that with poor Armel in the SUE VS SUE mixer scene. Seriously, this happens so often to her I think she should really just invest in a pair of elegant black opera gloves.

Victor compliments her for how "captivating" she is, Anita's white tiger wants to touch him, she steps forward without realizing it, and, to my huge amusement, Victor backs up a step. EW DON'T GET CLOSE ANITA YOU HAVE COOTIES. At that moment a woman comes over and asks Victor if he isn't going to introduce her. She leans against Victor in "a possessive way that some girlfriends have." Unlike Anita, who just binds their minds and lives to her. So much easier than keeping an eye on them, just make it so you control their free will and they'll literally die with you! Not like those possessive leaning girls! "My white tiger didn't like it" Oh, it's not Anita who's jealous, it's her tiger! Really! "and I had a moment to fight the instinct to mark him as sort of territory." In my head that means she had to fight not to pee on him. Plus since when are tigers possessive about sex partners? They're not mated pairs like wolves, as far as I know the male tiger just leaves after they fuck, no marking him involved. "I'd met him twice, and slept with him twice, and had sex only one of those times. I had no right to mark him as mine" So you say you have no right to do something after listing what sounds suspiciously like 'justifications' for doing just that. Also, she may say she knows she has no right to do so, but that's still pretty much what LKH has her do, just wait "but wasn't I supposed to do exactly that?" No. "Shit, I didn't know." THE ANSWER IS NO, YOU ARE NOT, NOT BY HUMAN OR TIGER STANDARDS.

Ugh, I've seen this attitude before with real people (well, one real person) sadly enough. It's where they're not just possessive of their own partner(s), they're actively jealous over and feel competitive with the partners of people they just happen to know and/or find attractive, even if they never intend to actually get involved with the person they're jealous over. They just can't stand the thought of someone ELSE getting them. That's what's going on here. Anita's fucked Victor, being he's handsome and in an important position as the white tiger prince, but he's not a regular sweetie since he has short hair and a spine. She probably hasn't thought of him since Skin Trade. Yet let another woman get within sight of him and suddenly she sees him as HERS HERS HERS. Seriously, that's what she just said---territory, remember? He's not a partner, but he's still definitely something she owns in her mind. Come to think of it, she seems to be that way towards the wives and girlfriends of men she's not even attracted to; the aforementioned insults and hostility towards the wives of Manny and Larry that she brought up in Skin Trade, remember? I wonder, is she pissed at them for 'taking' men that she happens to know, or is that just her usual in-general misogyny? And god how horrible is it that this is even a question I have reason to ask? Because I just really wouldn't be surprised if on some level she sees herself as the only woman any man she knows should look at, even if he's not a guy she's into at all, and that LKH shares her opinion but knows she can't directly put that in the book.

We then get a paragraph and a half about what this lady looks like. She has "long pale curls, mostly white, but with edges of pale golden brown here and there" Oooh, she's pretty! Her and Envy need to pose together, like, constantly! "I knew that meant her white tiger would have stripes the color of her darker curls." Not gonna lie, that's pretty neat. I wonder why the other white tigers, like Crispin, don't have black streaks in their hair though, then? Maybe some do and some don't. Ha, what if that's all Domino's black curls really were and he was totally lying about being a hybrid in order to get Anita's sympathy! "She had the same lush curves as Bibiana, but on a body that was nearly a foot taller." So again, like Envy, and like my Lucille too. These babes totally need to hang out and do posters together. She has "large, uptilted eyes" that are "a blue so pale they were gray" So, uh, you mean she has gray eyes, maybe pale bue-grey? "with a line of black around the iris" How would you even tell that, since the iris itself is black too? And she has on silver stilettos and a silver dress too, if you care, since LKH obviously thinks we do. (Okay, I admit, I kind of do...I told you, I have a weakness for clothes porn, and also for descriptions of unusual-looking supernatural sorts, especially the pretty ladies...though I still agree she could sure as hell stand to do them a lot more economically).

Victor says "Julia, this is Anita Blake, Jean-Claude's lady" and Julia holds on a hand that is "perfectly manicured" with French-tip nails. Naturally this causes Anita to note to the reader how Cardinal declared Anita's own nails "hopeless" but of course "I didn't really care about nails." Right, Anita, you're such a Not Girly Girl, you totally don't care about nails, that's why you noticed what kind that Julia has and then compared your own to them, which got its own paragraph. Anita actually is the stereotypical shallow girl who notices and judges the nails, makeup, clothes, etc. of other girls all the time, she just judges hers as better than theirs because hers are worse versus better because they're actually better.

When Julia takes Anita's hand, she "sent a flash of power into me" that causes Anita's white tiger to rise and "spill around me like some white phantom." Julia tries to take her hand back, but Anita holds on to it (dude, wtf?!) and "my tiger spilled over and through her" stop that, you creep! "I tasted her tiger" Uninvited! "saw it in its pale stripes, and knew she was no queen." She never said she was! She just shook your hand and there was power, just like with Victor! You didn't do this to him! Leave her alone! This is clearly upsetting Julia, quite possibly even hurting her, because "she tried to slap me, like a girl, but my other arm was there blocking hers." Firstly, she IS a girl, it's not an insult dammit. Secondly, plenty of men slap. Thirdly, she is a fucking weretiger with super-strength, a slap could probably take your head off. Fourthly, you should be glad a slap is ALL she's doing, given that she is a fucking weretiger and showing more restraint than you have in your whole life!

Julia tells her to let go and she sounds afraid. Anita thinks that "Fear meant food. Fear meant weak." No, fear doesn't mean weak. No, not even to an animal like a tiger. It's a natural response that helps animals survive, including tigers, who, by the way, do NOT see other tigers as food. I wish I could twist this so that it was basically Anita's tiger just being pissy that another tiger is anywhere near it, since that actually makes sense for a real tiger, but there's just no way I can, given these lines about fear and food and how she didn't react to the other tigers like this, not even fellow female Envy (since Envy was a good little girl who didn't challenge Anita in any way and just existed to get Anita's rocks off in her own live-action porno). Anita says that "I started to let go, honest" but I don't believe her. Jean-Claude, however, tells her that "She began this, ma petite. You must finish it. She challenged you. Answer it." Victor, whom Anita of course is sure to note has moved so that he isn't touching icky-poo Julia, adds that "You must answer her challenge, Anita. Either you are queen, or you are not."

WHAT CHALLENGE? Anita shook Victor's hand and she felt his power like this too, remember? Yes, it says that Julia "sent" her power into Anita while I guess Victor's just did that naturally, but there's nothing mentioned about how Anita knows that Julia deliberately sent said power. Not to mention that I think the challenge has obviously been dropped by Julia, given that she's struggling to get away from Anita, aka retreat. Honestly, that's actually how most animal battles, no matter what the species, go in the wild--it's all show, and real fighting is a point that is rarely reached before one party backs down, as Julia seems to be. I think that JC is just egging Anita on with made-up bullshit that she 'has' to do this because *he* wants to make an example of Julia to the tigers of what Anita can do if they resist him. As for why Victor would contribute...well, Julia seems to be Victor's girlfriend, and we know that Bibiana wants Victor to be with Anita, maybe he was told by his mother to pit the two women against each other and if Julia can hold out for however long (since of course she can't BEAT Anita) then Bibi will let her keep dating him?

Leaving poor Julia, of course, to get bullied and then assaulted in front of a whole room of people, including her own clan, who do nothing to help her.

Anita decides that "we were supposed to play to win" and so she responds with "Make me" when Julia tells her again to let go. She tells us that "even though human words were coming out of my mouth, the attitude wasn't human" IT'S NOT ANIMAL EITHER YOU BULLY "Julia was about to learn she'd made a mistake." Yeah, never get close to any guy Anita has so much as looked at UNLESS you're only offering to perform sexually with him for HER viewing pleasure. Victor and JC back away, and the other white tigers gather in a circle around them to watch. This is bad for Julia because "the white tigers were what I wanted, needed" right now, since she's fighting one. How that makes sense, I'm not quite clear.

Julia tries to use her supernatural strength "to pull me off my feet, but my sport of choice was judo, and that was all about leverage and balance" so when Julia pulls, Anita just goes with it "so that I was suddenly up against her, her hand still in mine, and my leg went behind hers at the same time that I pushed on her with my other hand, and down she went. She didn't know how to fall" SHE'S A WERECAT "so she hit hard." Anita gets on top of her, straddles her waist, and says that even though can't hold Julia down with "strength alone, but there are other ways to make someone stay on a floor." I DO NOT LIKE THE SOUND OF THIS.

Anita leans her face over Julia's and Julia screams as Anita and her white tiger "thrust that white, hot energy into Julia. We plunged it between those beautiful eyes and we brought her tiger" THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT THIS THAT IS NOT LIKE A RAPE. SERIOUSLY OH GOD WHY LKH WTF. It is made even worse by the fact that now as Julia, now forced into hybrid form, "she lay under me, still in the silver dress" she looks up at Anita, Anita puts her forehead to hers, still holding her hands, Anita rubs her cheek against hers, and then Julia "rubbed back and that deep thundering purr began." Someone really needs to tell LKH what a calendar won't: BIG CATS DON'T PURR! Okay, well, they sort of do...
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504784_162-57371214-10391705/do-big-cats-purr/

So basically this was a stereotypical rape. I say 'stereotypical' because there are many ways that rape happens, but this is way that I think is the most common in peoples' minds: A masculine entity (Anita is constantly emphasized as masculine, especially when contrasted against feminine women like Julia) who hates women/femininity, and so when a woman or feminine person does something she doesn't like, she attacks her, first just physically and then sexually (the plunging and thrusting of power, the straddling, the 'bringing' of her beast possibly like forcing an orgasm) too, not because she sexually desires Julia at all but in order to dominate her, to take her control (bringing her beast) away, to put her in her place. And even squickier, there's the rapist fantasy (that is, the fantasy that kind of rapist would probably have) of Julia adoring her afterwards now that she's learned to bow and behave. AM I READING WERECATS OF GOR?!

And just when you think that this couldn't get any worse, remember all the white weretigers who were watching this? They're not outraged in the slightest. No, they "crowded around us and rubbed their human faces against me and Julia." Presumably they do this while kneeling, because Anita specifies that Victor doesn't kneel when he does it but instead "picked me up in his arms while the white tigers rolled around his legs." While in human form. That must look so incredibly stupid, especially given they're dressed for a cocktail party. Anita can somehow see his beast, which is a stripeless white tiger (those actually do exist, they're called snow tigers) and it "rolled through me" and her beast goes to meet it and oh isn't that special her white tiger is a snow tiger too GEE HOW ABOUT THAT and "it was as if he and I were the center of some warm, wonderful fire, and every tiger at our feet was fuel for it." So basically they have to sacrifice themselves in order for you to consume them with their own prince? Actually, that's probably exactly what's happening. It certainly was the case with poor Julia. He puts his arms around her, she gushes about how strong he is and how their energy gets "thicker, richer, deeper, more, until his mouth touched mine and then we thrust our power into each other" and their beasts "intermingled and became one" and then "I could feel every tiger around us, and it was all fuel, all energy, all mine."

So basically because Victor dared have a girlfriend after having had sex with Anita one damn time, Anita rapes the girlfriend in a public spectacle until the girl loves her, then has sex with Victor in public too (which means in front of Julia) and gains control over an entire people through it.

LKH is a sick lady.

Comments

[duamuteffe.livejournal.com]

...That's amazingly fucked up. Amazingly.

There was way too much yummy mounded goodness going on in front of me

She's sitting in front of a bowl of pudding, isn't she? Seriously wth is up with the food metaphors?

Ugh, I've seen this attitude before with real people (well, one real person) sadly enough. It's where they're not just possessive of their own partner(s), they're actively jealous over and feel competitive with the partners of people they just happen to know and/or find attractive, even if they never intend to actually get involved with the person they're jealous over.

I know one of those too; I swear she is turning into Anita. I was at a bar with her, her two male significant others, and a mutual friend who was also male. She and her then-boyfriends were on one side of the table and myself and the mutual friend were on the other. After we ordered, the friend said to me how cool it was that I had ordered a Shirley Temple because it was an old-style thing and hardly anyone did that anymore. It was just a friendly statement, but before I could even say anything she started talking a mile a minute about how she did that all the time and had liked them forever and on and on - and despite having two people to pay attention to her every time the friend said something to me she would exit her conversation and leap into ours to make sure she was the center of attention at all times. It was confusing, to say the least.
Edited to add: holy crap I fail at spelling today.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

...That's amazingly fucked up. Amazingly.
SERIOUSLY JUST WHAT EVEN, LKH JUST WHAT EVEN

Also, wow, that sounds like an Anita alright. Also, I love Shirley Temples! =D

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

I had a "friend" who could not stand any other woman to have male attention when she was there. While if there were no other women there, she'd argue with men, if there was one other woman there, she'd immediately take his side in any argument against said woman. She once told a guy we were both having a conversation with that brown eyes (which I have) are ugly.

She wasn't as bad as Anita though, because no one is ever as bad as Anita.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

SO, SO CREEPY.

Hahaha, you're right! White hair everywhere! And, come to think of it, you're right too about how they must shed every-fucking-where all the time too. I wish little tidbits like that were addressed, it would go miles in terms of making everything seem more real.

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

So basically, Anita attacks a woman in the middle of a party and everyone's okay with it and egging her on.
This happens IRL sometimes. There're reasons everyone involved gets arrested.

the Circus in general must have a major hair problem with all those weres around
I'd LOVE this. And the annual Crazy Cat Lady convention!

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

Okay, welp, that was rape. And without any of the excuses LKH usually gives for it.

Rape fantasy is one thing (I have them and write them, though not for public consumption), but LKH's writing is another. She never acknowledges that she writes rape fantasy or that what Anita does is rape. In fact, Anita gets praised for what she does to people. Absolutely sickening.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if this was meant to be rape fantasy, and acknowledged/marketed as such a thing/for that market, I'd have no issue with it at all. But LKH, as you point out, doesn't acknowledge it at all, if she even realizes it, and that's what really makes it gross and scary to me.

[watersheerie.livejournal.com]

"The slip hadn't worked with the dress, so I wore it with just the nice black bra and panties under it."

This is just so fucking tacky. She's going to a special event and is supposed to be putting on a show proving how she can be a leader to other, very important and very old leaders...and everyone can see her underwear. This isn't sexy, sexy is not about showing off your thong or ass and tits every chance you get. Sexy is not about wearing the least amount of clothing. Sexy is about the allure, the attraction, the promise that you show but don't quite reveal. Showing everything up front ruins the promise and the mystery, instead you've just shown that you have the subtlety of a hammer with the sexual maturity to match. Not to mention, Anita doesn't even want to wear this dress, and this dress was meant to be worn with a slip, two things which are going to negatively impact Anita 'selling' this outfit...an outfit she mangled so that she could show off her underwear.

But I get the feeling that LKH meant to do this all along...and here's why.



I love Amanda Palmer, but I thought the dress would've worked better with a slip. I wasn't the only one, there were a lot of comments and critiques asking for the 'rest of the dress.' Wearing a sheer dress so that people can see your underwear makes people wonder if you simply forgot to wear a slip.

"the lipstick was a red so deep and rich that it was going to be distracting just to watch me talk.

I don't understand why LKH continues to insist that the best lipstick for very pale skinned women with dark hair is that super-red lipstick, and lots of it. Hey LKH, guess who else has really pale skin and red lips?



Mmmmmmmm...sexy......

Anita's pretensions of modesty when she's got this kind of inner monologue going about her own looks is pretty ridiculous, especially when you consider we're supposed to buy her as sincere in her Ugly Duckling Syndrome and not just being manipulative for compliments.

This, so much. I'm tired of these 'plain' heroines who are then praised as being so much more beautiful than other women, because their beauty is 'natural' and real unlike those fake blond bitches. Bella was the same way. We're supposed to believe that these girls are plain and totally unconcerned with looks, yet they obsess about beauty and every other creature in the story praises their looks constantly.

Anita's 'plainness' is so much more irritating, because she only fucks handsome men. Even Asher's scars have slowly begun to vanish as the books continued, so that Anita's lovers will be perfect. It's not just that she has the be the prettiest, but her men are also the prettiest as well. Anita will only fuck beautiful men, she won't even consider a plain man, she is that shallow.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, that is a really pretty dress Amanda has though! My issue with her there is less the lack of a slip, and more that she was Neil’s guest, the event wasn’t about her, so her attention-grabbing there (she did more than just not wear a slip, if I recall) was really inappropriate and…Anita-esque, actually.

I am a really pale brunette and I do not/cannot wear very bright or very dark lipstick unless I’m deliberately going for a high-contrast dramatic look with one of my Goth getups. Otherwise? Nothing, or some very nude or light-pink gloss. It’s honestly hard to find anything light enough, actually, but the looking is worth it because wearing something too strong when you have a delicate complexion looks like…well, you posted the appropriate image, yes.

Ugggh, yes. I really really hate the obsession with ‘natural’ beauty and villification of women who actually work to be beautiful. It’s like, beauty standards aren’t bad enough, now you have to be BORN AUTOMATICALLY HOT or else you’re a vain slut? The ‘plain but not actually’ heroines like Bella and Anita actually bug me more because they’re as impossible as Barbie, but less honest about it. And ditto, having preferences are fine, including if that preference is for conventionally attractive people. I’m sure Anita can’t help who she’s into anymore than I can help being into buff tough butch women, but having her consistently praised as this un-shallow perfect person who really loves them for them and not like other women who just like their looks or how she’s this sweet goddess for mixed-blood tiger men (who convienitly happen to be just her standard of hot) is just bullshit. She fucking likes handsome men, and only handsome men, and only handsome white cisgender men of a certain age (and while what I said about preferences still mostly stands, she really should examine WHY she isn’t attracted to men of color or trans men…assuming trans men even exist in this universe, where nothing with a vagina can ever hope to be as perfectly manly as Anita) and there’s no getting around that no matter how much the narrative and her harem tries to claim otherwise.

[duamuteffe.livejournal.com]

OMG I want that dress. And a slip. But it's amazing!

[watersheerie.livejournal.com]

Julia tries to take her hand back, but Anita holds on to it

Anita has no concept of personal boundaries and body space. Seriously, the only boundaries she respects (sort of) are her own, everyone else she just walks over.

"she tried to slap me, like a girl

In case you guys forget, this book is empowering to women and shows strong, female characters.

IT'S NOT ANIMAL EITHER YOU BULLY

Definitely not the attitude of a tiger. Solitary big cats aren't going to get in a lot of physical battles, they'll posture a lot, but they want to avoid a fight. A fight means risking potential injury that could prevent you from hunting, not a smart move if you want to survive.

She didn't know how to fall

Feminism means writing a book where the female weres are just there to look pretty and completely useless in a fight.

We plunged it between those beautiful eyes and we brought her tiger

It almost sounds like Anita is punishing this girl for daring to be beautiful. Anita mopes about how her dark hair and eyes are not beautiful, then she assaults this pale haired/pale eyed girl and there's this undercurrent of jealousy that's a bit disturbing. Then again, all of Anita's thoughts and interactions with other women in these books are always disturbing. You can almost choke on the misogyny.

all mine

And we're supposed to believe that Anita and JC are gathering power and people for purely altruistic purposes?

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

I completely believe Anita would want to punish a woman for being pretty (LKH does in the books all the time!), especially a pale-haired one.

lol altruism and Anita, there's a good one!

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

Good grief. Anita hits a new low.

What the eff is up with LKH's rape fetish?

Off-topic, but has anyone noticed LKH's... newest... Tweets?
My daughter & sister are both Aspies. Learning to recognize & use sarcasm is really hard for them. Tone deaf to it, yeah. @jayewells
They are very literal, but so am I. I was raised by an Aspie, so some social language things I don't get, because of nurture.
A) Why the *beep* does she spread diagnoses around so freely? Is it so hard just to say "I know some Aspies, and..."
B) I see the sister-of-choice terminology is still around...
C) Oh, so she's claiming her grandmother was an Aspie now, is she? Wonderful. Am I the only one counting down to when she makes a hideously offensive blog about Asperger's? Because, considering the way she talks about her grandmother at other times, I cannot see this posthumous-diagnosis going well.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

ugggh. Please don't don't DON'T ever tell me if she does. I have Asperger's Syndrome (diagnosed as a child back before anyone knew much about it, re-diagnosed as an adult as well) and it's a really, really sore point with me. I hate having it enough, I hate having to deal with it, I hate what it's cost me in life, I hate the help I have to get even now as an adult because of it, I hate even bringing it up to be honest and only do so here because it's relevant, and if she starts with some bullshit about it I think I'll just explode. Because I also fucking hate the rampant misunderstanding and over-simplification surrounding it and its symptoms that it has now thanks to it now being more strongly in the public eye/commonly known to people. I don't even know what I'd do if I were instead bi-polar, OCD, or schizophrenic, given how people misuse those terms and throw them around at the rate they do.

also I fucking hate the word Aspie and always have, though that's just me, I know some other AS folks like it.

[jessica collett (from livejournal.com)]

'Let me tell you about how awesome I am because I reject feminine things for being weak whilst being able to describe in perfect detail how this woman had her manicure done'.

Speaking as a former tomboy, Anita really fails at tomboyism (that is now a word, yes). If you don't want to fulfil gender stereotypes that's fine, but don't go on about how you hate girly things whilst still knowing about ostensibly girly things in great detail. I couldn't describe manicured nails other than being boxy or roundy, and I just know AB would decry me for being just a woman.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

For reals, I didn't even know what French tips were when I was a proper tomboy myself. I would see them and just assume that's just how those womens nails naturally were! When I thought about it/noticed at all, which, y'know, I really didn't, because unlike Anita, I didn't care. You cannot claim you don't care when you talk about it at length.

[jadziabryn.livejournal.com]

...the mental image of a rat going after a LITTER OF PUPPIES and HANGING OFF A 70lb DOG'S STOMACH. wtf Boo, wtf. Hahaha. He's lucky Jessie's fear never turned into fear biting, 'cause um. That would be bad. Please tell me you have pictures of this monster rat!?

I took my ratties to school as a kid a couple times but they never did anything quite that bad. ;) Well, one of them ran up a fellow student's pant leg, but he was also a rat owner so not much harm was done to the image of ratkind as a whole. Also watching him panic and try to keep her from reaching the crotch of his jeans is one of my favorite memories. :D

That and when I was walking through the playground with her on my head and a bunch of people came up and were all "She's sooo cute!" and so forth, until one of them called her a mouse and I said "Oh, no she's a rat!" the entire group recoiled in horror. People are silly. ;P

As for the book chapter... I can't. I am still in shocked horror. I just can't. RATS. RATS ARE GOOD. YES. RATS.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

I do indeed!
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y74/rodentfanatic/2004_1123Rats0104.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y74/rodentfanatic/2004_1123Rats0137.jpg

a bunch of people came up and were all "She's sooo cute!" and so forth, until one of them called her a mouse and I said "Oh, no she's a rat!" the entire group recoiled in horror. People are silly. ;P
Pfff! XDDD

Yeah it's...really better to pretend there's nothing in this post except a killer rat story.

[lady-fellshot.livejournal.com]

LOL ratties! ^_^

Where to start with this horrible salad of DO NOT WANT and FAIL... ick.


"The slip hadn't worked with the dress, so I wore it with just the nice black bra and panties under it."

Cardinal's, Meng Die's, and Damien's plan to make Anita look ridiculous worked to perfection! Of course Anita can't tell trashy from classy. :P


The next paragraph is about how Cardinal did her makeup and how "the lipstick was a red so deep and rich that it was going to be distracting just to watch me talk. Of course, my breasts might distract any heterosexual man in the room from ever seeing my face. There was way too much yummy mounded goodness going on in front of me" Isn't this the woman who mopes about what a Plain Jane she is for being brunette? She's honestly pretty enamored with herself.

In keeping with my head canon that Damien is hiding just how powerful he's gotten while struggling to keep himself at least partially from Anita, he gets to hear this inner monologue if he's too close to her. Because no ability should come without serious drawbacks.


I definitely don't agree with the sentiment that a woman can't be smart, strong, and capable while in a tiny see-through shadow of a dress, it doesn't automatically cancel out her brains and guts, but that's sadly NOT how most people think, and right now it would be a lot wiser to just play to their preconceptions instead of trying to prove them wrong, seeing as how urgent it is to get the tigers to trust you and fast.

You are presuming that Anita has brains and guts. She has not demonstrated any in a very, very long time. The tigers are looking for a baseball bat, not a stiletto.


When Julia takes Anita's hand, she "sent a flash of power into me" that causes Anita's white tiger to rise and "spill around me like some white phantom." Julia tries to take her hand back, but Anita holds on to it (dude, wtf?!) and "my tiger spilled over and through her" stop that, you creep!

Oh my god, poor Julia. It sounds like the metaphysical equivalent of a mild static discharge. Completely accidental and perhaps brought about by stress and worry (I would worry and stress if the boogieman was coming to eat me and my only hope of salvation is a violent abusive narcissist). Then Anita reacts in the most overblown manner possible because A) it's a woman B) who's sleeping with a man Anita thinks she owns C) has the ill genetic luck to be tall, blonde, and pretty and D) Anita is a butt smear.


I think that JC is just egging Anita on with made-up bullshit that she 'has' to do this because *he* wants to make an example of Julia to the tigers of what Anita can do if they resist him.

This. He's also using the moment to roll all the weretigers so that they become more pliant to his will as directed through Anita.


Someone really needs to tell LKH what a calendar won't: BIG CATS DON'T PURR!

*latches onto the factoid to remain sane* None of the Panthera cat family can purr. Their vocal cords aren't built for it and the family includes lions, tigers, jaguars, and leopards. I believe the "happy big cat noise" is called chuffing. Felidae can purr and that encompasses the cheetahs, snow leopards, clouded leopards, and pumas. I can personally attest to cheetahs purring exactly like a housecat.


So basically because Victor dared have a girlfriend after having had sex with Anita one damn time, Anita rapes the girlfriend in a public spectacle until the girl loves her, then has sex with Victor in public too (which means in front of Julia) and gains control over an entire people through it.

Meanwhile Damien is he didn't feed off fear (which I'll bet the room is thick with right now) and is contemplating murder/suicide for the umpteenth time.


I feel ill reading the cliffnotes version.

[wanderingworlds.livejournal.com]

*latches onto the factoid to remain sane* None of the Panthera cat family can purr. Their vocal cords aren't built for it and the family includes lions, tigers, jaguars, and leopards. I believe the "happy big cat noise" is called chuffing. Felidae can purr and that encompasses the cheetahs, snow leopards, clouded leopards, and pumas. I can personally attest to cheetahs purring exactly like a housecat.

The more you know! Thanks for this. I love learning new stuff. I knew that SOME of the big cats could purr. But yeah, I knew that tigers made chuffing noises when they're happy. (That is what it's called, yes.)

[wanderingworlds.livejournal.com]

1. The slip didn't work with the see-through dress, so she's just going to wear the slip and... ugh. What the fuck?

2. Uh. Anita, darling, I have bigger tits than you. That doesn't make every man on the planet stare at me. So shut up about the mounds of fucking goodness.

3. OH she's wearing the dress. Okay well, how 'bout them apples. ALL THAT WHINING FOR NOTHING.

4. WHERE ARE ALL THESE FUCKING CAVERNS?! Unless they mean Meramec. Then... okay.

5. I like that Damian is shy and awkward. But isn't Damian the only nighthag? Wouldn't it make sense that his being a fear vampire make it more difficult to mingle socially unless he had all that underwraps? Which would get exhausting. I LOVE YOU DAMIAN.

6. *introduces Victor to Ghislaine, who he is even more struck by because she's like catnip to him* I'd laugh if that was Ghislaine right there. Because Ghislaine would rip her head off (her being Anita) if Anita did that kind of shit to Shane.

7. The fuck is this shit with Julia? She didn't do shit until you FORCED YOURSELF ON HER METAPHYSICALLY AGAIN. I just. THIS BOOK. FUCK YOU JC. AND I LIKED YOU VICTOR.

8. Uh... since when is Anita's sport judo? DOES SHE HAVE EVERY SPORT? LIKE I SWEAR TO GOD SHE DOES EVERYTHING AND IT'S FUCKING--oh right. Mary Sue. Forgot for a moment.

9. I'm really uncomfortable with this scene. She's raping Julia and I'm really uncomfortable.

10. ...... WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK DID I JUST READ?

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

1 &2 Yeah, she's wearing the dress. Just no slip. So everyone can see her undies but OMG SHE DIDN'T WANT TO TEEHEE

4. I have no idea if Mermec extends to under St. Louis or not...I've just always assumed they were unique to Anita's world, and didn't have any counterparts to ours. LKH claims everything is the same except the addition of supernaturals, but having an entire race of people who need to stay out of the sun and who, up until recently, had to hide from humans is going to result in a lot going literally underground because that's just logical, and people change geography to suit their needs. My headcanon is that some Earthmover-vamp cleared this place out for their Kiss waaaay before Prohibition.

5. Whether he's a nighthag depends on the book. LKH has written him as being from Belle's line before, but also as having been made personally by the Moroven too. I go with the nighthag version myself. And yeah, I imagine having a constant aura that makes people automatically dread you would put a damper on the social life!

6. WELL SOMEBODY SHOULD!

7. SRSLY I DO NOT UNDERSTAND. Like, from an authorial standpoint, LKH could have made Julia do a lot of things to justify an attack from Anita (though nothing justifies this rapey shit) but she doesn't. Julia just has some power that goes onto Anita, and Anita claims this is a challenge (even though Julia doesn't behave at all as if she wants to fight Anita or has any idea why Anita is attacking her) but Victor did the same damn thing and just...what? I can't help but wonder at times like these if LKH is trolling us and making Anita deliberately awful and stupid.

8. Anita has had a long-established history of knowing (and, of course, being super in) various martial arts, including judo...though of course I don't think we've ever seen her actually practice.

9. Honestly, you should be. I'd be worried if you weren't.

10. I WISH I COULD TELL YOU THE WORST IS OVER BUT IT ISN'T

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/just Anita's pretensions of modesty when she's got this kind of inner monologue going about her own looks is pretty ridiculous/

And hypocritical, considering how much she snipes at other women who dare to look beautiful and/or sexy.

/"a possessive way that some girlfriends have." Unlike Anita, who just binds their minds and lives to her./

And ENSLAVES them and LITERALLY REGARDS THEM AS POSSESSIONS. Oh, sure, that’s not possessive at all, right?

/Yet let another woman get within sight of him and suddenly she sees him as HERS HERS HERS. Seriously, that's what she just said---territory, remember? He's not a partner, but he's still definitely something she owns in her mind./

And Anita has the gall to call JULIA possessive?

/Firstly, she IS a girl, it's not an insult dammit. Secondly, plenty of men slap./

No, Anita meant a weak and halfhearted slap. You know, the type that you see stereotypically gay men and stereotypical damsels in distress do in movies. Because, you know, it’s not like women can slap hard or that Julia, who is a WERETIGER, could ever be forceful. It doesn’t matter that she can turn into one of Mother Nature’s most powerful predators, she’s still female and that automatically makes her weak.

/fear doesn't mean weak. No, not even to an animal like a tiger. It's a natural response that helps animals survive, including tigers,/

And furthermore, sometimes fear is the SMART thing to feel and act on. Unlike brainless Anita, who goes charging in and shoots her mouth off whenever she feels like it, most people and animals understand that sometimes it’s better and safer to back off in certain situations. Otherwise you’ll get yourself killed. The only reason that Anita the Idiot hasn’t been killed a dozen times already is because of authorial intervention.

/there's nothing mentioned about how Anita knows that Julia deliberately sent said power. Not to mention that I think the challenge has obviously been dropped by Julia, given that she's struggling to get away from Anita, aka retreat./

In other words: “she asked for it by just existing.”

Well done, Anita. *slow-clap* You have truly proved yourself to be an honorary man. And by that, I mean an honorary male chauvinist and rapist and rape apologist.

Yes, Ms. Hamilton, do you know who else acted like this? Who blamed a beautiful woman for being beautiful and justified his murderous and lascivious actions towards her as reactions that SHE caused and SHE inspired in him?

Claude Frollo from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

/she responds with "Make me" when Julia tells her again to let go./

Oh, my Lord. How old is this woman, five? She’s acting like a bratty, seven-year-old schoolyard bully. “No, I’m gonna do what I want, and you can’t make me!” Jeez, somebody stuff a pacifier into her mouth so that she’ll finally shut up.

/So basically because Victor dared have a girlfriend after having had sex with Anita one damn time, Anita rapes the girlfriend in a public spectacle until the girl loves her, then has sex with Victor in public too (which means in front of Julia) and gains control over an entire people through it./

This is disgusting. It truly is. Anita Blake is an entitled psychopath and monster, no question about it. If there was any justice at all, as soon as Anita attacked Julia (because that’s what it was: ANITA attacked HER), all of the weretigers would have shifted to tiger form and pounced on Anita and torn her to shreds.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

And Anita has the gall to call JULIA possessive?
Just another case of "it's bad if anyone but Anita does it" *eyeroll*

Claude Frollo from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."
...oh god Anita singing "Hellfire" from the Disney version pfffhahaha

And by that, I mean an honorary male chauvinist and rapist and rape apologist.
Yup. Anita doesn't want to be a man, she wants to be the worst possible kind of man on the planet. I could understand wanting to emulate male heroic archetypes/figures that have no female counterpart in our society/media, but why the fuck would you want to be A SEXIST RAPIST MAN INSTEAD?

all of the weretigers would have shifted to tiger form and pounced on Anita and torn her to shreds.
Or Julia torn her to shreds herself, because she damn well could of if not for, again, authorial intervention.

[nic echo (from livejournal.com)]

So I decided to do a quick sketch at work to see how untacky I could make this dress. This is what I came up with. The slip worked in my design. The black dots are sequins, and the x's are spatterings of silver sparkles.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Not bad! Consider this version pretty de-tackiefied, if still quite lingerie-looking. Kind of gives me an RHS vibe actually =

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

I love Boo! He is hilariously, brilliantly awesome!

Also, it is entirely your fault that I'm thinking about writing rats and were-rats into my own stories, despite the fact that I have only once played with someone's pet rat.

The slip hadn't worked with the dress
The dress that LKH described was popular about ten years ago but it was considered knee-length, bare-legged, mall-trawling attire. You couldn't detach the slip from the dress as it was literally part of the dress. And the dress definitely didn't look good on anyone with a very full B-cup chest or more. They were cut to compliment the figures of those tall, slim, small-busted women that Anita/LKH hates on. And there were no sequins.

And, while bright red lipstick is definitely in, I can't help but think of it as LKH confusing herself with her heroine.

The way that she describes Anita's breasts is both awful and hilariously self-congratulatory. I think I'd enjoy this series more if Anita gave up her pretension of modesty.

Also, the were-tigers are supposed to be a super conservative society. And the vampires are literally from Ye Ancient Times. I have a hard time imagining that modern fashion sensibilities, much less a woman flaunting her underwear, are going to impress them. And I seriously doubt that they're going to take her or the things that she says seriously. But then, thinking back to Anita's so-called suits, they probably wouldn't have respected her any more if she'd worn a suit. Her suits were just as hideous and inappropriate as that dress.

(And, when you consider that JC comes from a time period when women were consider mega-sluts for baring their knees, it really says something about what he values Anita for when he insists on dressing her in so many leather straps or encourages Anita to prance around with her butt hanging out. I have a really hard time believing that he's 'okay' with Anita sleeping around since, during his formative years, it was acceptable for men to have lots of extra-marital affairs but women were supposed to keep themselves for their husbands.)

Her weapons are divided among Wicked, Truth, and Nicky What? Don't those three have their own preferred weaponry since body-guardin' is, like, their job.

MOAD is on the move, we've got to band together with this necromancer to save ourselves and the world from her?
...I'm still not that the world needs saving from her. Nevertheless, I'm toying with a crossover fic for Het Big Bang where Mr. Oliver intends to do just that but without the tapas, drinks, or mind-control. Because, according to me, that's how he rolls. (And, since he's had a better idea, he doesn't do that stupid Halloween showdown.)

I'm sure there's a personal assistant somewhere who handles things like persuading a caterer to provide last minute hors d'oevres for generous compensation.

Anita claims that she hates the "small talk" of parties I have no doubt that Anita sucks at small talk with strangers since she's so self-centered and abrasive.

Damian... needs [Cardinal] for her yapper. Anything else and Anita might not be his favorite!

Victor compliments her for how "captivating" she is
Interesting choice of words there, Victor. And Anita has a suspiciously hard time remembering what her actual objectives are when faced with something (because it's never someone) that she wants.

I LOVE that Victor isn't interested in touching Anita but lets his icky girlfriend lean all over him. (Of course, who *really* wants someone who roofied and then fucked them to paw at them? Or magically fuck them in front of their girlfriend and all of their minions?)

Did he have this girlfriend in Skin Trade? Or maybe Victor met the evil blonde later and they're simply close enough that he told her what Anita did to him. That leaning might be 'protective' rather than 'possessive'. Also, didn't Anita make out with Victor's father to put Victor's mother 'in her place' so to speak? Because raping the son (either before or after making out with his father in front of his mother), raping the son's girlfriend (twice! magically then physically), claiming the son as 'hers' and brain-washing him is beyond words.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Boo is a living legend in our family. We still talk about him as if he's not only alive, but on an eternal quest to eat countless pets and people. For instance, I'll tell dad about how we've got a ton of kittens at the shelter right now "but someone has put up an adoption hold on them all! A Mr. B. Bonic." or how if Dad sees a hawk or vulture circling, he'll say Boo is lying on his back, playing dead, waiting for the bird to get close enough. And how "Baby On Board" bumper stickers translate to "Target Acquired" for him.

Also, it is entirely your fault that I'm thinking about writing rats and were-rats into my own stories, despite the fact that I have only once played with someone's pet rat.
YES

They were cut to compliment the figures of those tall, slim, small-busted women that Anita/LKH hates on
I can actually totally imagine Anita constantly trying to wear things that were very obviously made for said women and claiming she looks as great as they do or better in them when they obviously do not work for her shape at all

And, while bright red lipstick is definitely in, I can't help but think of it as LKH confusing herself with her heroine.
Yup. All I can think of when she mentions it is the lipstick I see on LKH on the back cover of every book.

I think I'd enjoy this series more if Anita gave up her pretension of modesty.
Yeah, I'd honestly LIKE to read about it if she just really thought she was hot stuff and made no apologies or claims of modesty/plain-janess. I am fed up forever reading about pretty girls swearing to us they're not pretty even as they make sure we damn well know they are. Even if she was straight up head-over-heels Glory-level narcissistic instead of just self-confident and aware/happy she looks good, it would still at least be funny!

And, when you consider that JC comes from a time period when women were consider mega-sluts for baring their knees, it really says something about what he values Anita for when he insists on dressing her in so many leather straps or encourages Anita to prance around with her butt hanging out.
Oooh, good point. And considering his own background as having been treated as a sex object in the past, I could also most definitely see him wanting to turn around and "make someone else the whore" or something similar.

What? Don't those three have their own preferred weaponry since body-guardin' is, like, their job.
It was since she couldn't carry them all with that dress. Because god forbid she just put them down or something.

ANYTHING WITH MR. OLIVER IS A GOOD IDEA IN MY BOOK!

Did he have this girlfriend in Skin Trade?
Nope!

Also, didn't Anita make out with Victor's father to put Victor's mother 'in her place' so to speak?
Yup!

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

They just can't stand the thought of someone ELSE getting them.
It's that nasty dog-in-the-manger thing, real or perceived in the mind of the 'possessor' that seems to be so fashionable and "romantic" at the moment.

I think that Anita thinks that the men >owe her for allowing some other woman to take, and worse keep, them away from her. To Anita's thinking, she might otherwise have had those men, even if those women met those men before Anita did and even if those men didn't want Anita. (Remember 'weak' Joseph and his unreasonable wife?) I'd actually go a step further than you and say that it's an unstated fact in the series that Anita sees herself as the only woman any man should look at, even if he prefers men and she's not into him at all. (They should just chastely pine for her, dammit!) Because Anita is confident that she's everyone's type, she assumes at some level that all the men (gay or straight) are hers. They've got to let Anita squash them under foot and pay the (sexual) tithe or be raped - physically, mentally, and magically - and have their agency taken away.

Domino... was totally lying about being a hybrid in order to get Anita's sympathy! I WOULD LOVE THAT!

And she has on silver stilettos and a silver dress too, if you care,
I actually do care because I think that that was exactly the same outfit that Envy had on. (I remember the shoes at least.) And she fulfilled the exact same role in the narrative as Envy - an inferior woman for Anita to be compared and found superior to. I think clothes tell you a lot about a character - or they should, at any rate - and in this case, Envy & Julia's clothes tell me a LOT about LKH and their status as disposable, cardboard cutout women within the narrative.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Anita is THE dog in the manger, I swear. And yeah, I could totally see her as thinking the men owe her for that, especially given the bizarre line of logic that Darla claims "Miriam" had in The Diva Ate Her about how "gay men owe me"

I WOULD LOVE THAT!
She's never actually seen him shift! At least not on-screen by the point I'm at in Hit List. She *claims* he has a black and a white form like he told her in Skin Trade, but she never says she's seen either for herself. MAN IF I CAN WORK THIS INTO SUE VERSUS SUE I TOTALLY WILL, HAHAHA

Envy had on like...a cream thong under her dress that I think was said to match said dress, and maybe silver heels too?

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

Victor says "Julia, this is Anita Blake, Jean-Claude's lady"
This is a worldbuilding nitpick but, if Victor is the product of a matriarchal society and the prince of such a group of people, he wouldn't have thought about or phrased the JC/Anita relationship this way.

And it's complete crap (and utterly chilling) that pretty, blonde Julia "has to be" magically, physically, and mentally raped for doing the exact same thing that pretty, male Victor did not three minutes earlier. Julia isn't the one being super inappropriate or doing the overly familiar touching. Julia was trying to be polite and shake the terrifying woman's hand. She's being punished for having a romantic relationship with a man that Anita had casually banged twice. Joseph's never-seen wife was right to refuse to deal with Anita face-to-face.

Also, wasn't the point of this (stupid) meet-and-greet for the clans not to send their queens? Julia shouldn't be sneered at for lacking a standing that she was chosen and sent to St. Louis because she lacked it. Not that Anita would have respected Julia even if she had been a tiger queen.

But I totally think that Jean-Claude knows what he's doing, knows that Anita is the inappropriate one, and is making an example of the unfortunate Julia by playing on Anita's overblown ego and twisted machismo.

I'd like to point out that even though Anita thinks that this Master of Tigers thing will be forever, everyone else is thinking of it as a 'until the MOAD is defeated' thing. The golden tigers talk about the vampires that they're going to Animal-to-Call for. The other tiger clans kept their clan heads at home to keep their clans running and look after their day-today business affairs. It wouldn't surprise me if Victor is serious about Julia and Julia is trying to prove her worth to his mother so that she can ask for Victor's hand. It's currently politically advantageous for Victor to be near the throne and Anita is the perfect way to get his clan's wants/words to JC's ears. But there's going to be an After MOAD Is Defeated, which might be what Julia is playing for. Julia may not be as magically endowed as Victor but there are other ways to prove yourself a good leader and the tigers, unlike everyone else in that screwed up 'verse, may actually be practical enough to acknowledge that. (And, okay, I'm hoping that Julia is just pretending to love her rapist so that she can stay with Victor in the incubus's den and maybe eat Anita later since Anita isn't really a tiger.)

But the part where her group stands around and lets her be bullied and assaulted is chilling and awful and screwed up.

This is bad for Julia because "the white tigers were what I wanted, needed" right now, since she's fighting one. How that makes sense, I'm not quite clear.
From the (admittedly crappy) phrasing, I think that Anita is using her 'panwere' status to feed on the other white tigers to make herself physically and magically stronger. She isn't better, stronger, or "more tiger" than Julia. Anita is literally using Julia's kinsmen as batteries in her assault on Julia. That bit about using the other tigers as kindling for the fire that she 'shares' with Victor seems to support that interpretation. It can get more screwed up!

...maybe they aren't helping Julia because any flexing of their power would've given Anita more magic/tiger-ness to use against their clanswoman?

And, although I know nothing about judo, I have to assume that there's an upper limit to 'counteracting' that mere, human amounts of leverage and balance can do against sheer, magical strength... unless you're magically augmenting yourself, of course.

Too bad Julia didn't think to bite Anita's face off.

And yeah, the humans rolling around in a pile probably looks ridiculous. But I found a video on YouTube of a bunch of lionesses doing that with a human guy and it didn't look stupid at all. Possibly because they were real lionesses who could easily eat him? But they, and the lions, loved his ridiculous amounts. Like, to the point that the lionesses encouraged him to touch and pet their delicate newborn cubs when they wouldn't have even let another lioness near them.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

This is a worldbuilding nitpick but, if Victor is the product of a matriarchal society and the prince of such a group of people, he wouldn't have thought about or phrased the JC/Anita relationship this way.
ooooh, excellent point! And I do not consider it a nitpick at all, because it's little details (in my opinion) like that that really do the work of making a different world or culture seem real.

Also oooh, I like you After-MOAD theory.

But the part where her group stands around and lets her be bullied and assaulted is chilling and awful and screwed up.
Wasn't there an IRL case not so long ago where a girl was raped at a party or prom and people likewise just stood there and didn't do shit?

I think that Anita is using her 'panwere' status to feed on the other white tigers to make herself physically and magically stronger. She isn't better, stronger, or "more tiger" than Julia. Anita is literally using Julia's kinsmen as batteries in her assault on Julia.
Ah, that makes sense then. And I also like that it doesn't make her better in any way that Julia.

[mocha-latta.livejournal.com]

So we're not going to put any effort into explain why she can't wear the slip and is thereby forced to show off her creamy goodness to all of the boys?
Just checking.

I honestly try not to make assumptions about the writer based on the thoughts and acts of their main character. I understand that you sometimes need to write horrible, problematic things that you don't believe in because your character would think or act that way.
The problem here is in the presentation. Even making allowances for the first person p.o.v, and aside from the fact speculation that this is all escapist fantasy, the tone is all wrong. All of this is presented as okay, as right. Everything supports that pov, no one speaks out against there atrocities, going so far as verbally praising and reenforcing them (except for the odd cases where the victims act like victims, but are treated like whiners).
I'm not going to say LKH is a rapist, or would rape given the opportunity, but she does support, reenforce and propagate rape culture.
In conclusion:
....................../´¯/)
....................,/¯../
.................../..../
............./´¯/'...'/´¯¯`·¸
........../'/.../..../......./¨¯\
........('(...´...´.... ¯~/'...')
.........\.................'...../
..........''...\.......... _.·´
............\..............(
..............\.............\...

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

THAT IS AMAZING

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

... yeah. Yeah, I did just read that, didn't I?

This was a straight-up rape fantasy. This was Anita using her METAPHYYYYYYYSICAL penis substitute to fuck a woman she didn't like into submission. And then everyone gathered around her to cheer, pretty much.

I know that that describes a lot of what's been going on for like ten books now, but it's never been as overt as this. It doesn't pretend to be anything else.

I feel dirty now. And like I want LKH to... I don't know, get professional help or something. To have someone explain to her why This Is Not Okay.

[tarawyn.livejournal.com]

My headcanon is that the tigers aren't purring, they're growling. Anita has reached a critical level of stupidity and self-centeredness so that she must interpret it as pleasure rather than restrained rage and a show of force. *clings to headcanon*