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doctorhortonhearsawho:

coporolight:

pshelovesme:

scaffalipienidivita:

bringromanticismback:

booksandcatslover:

a-n-g-i:

nom-hiddleston:

I didn’t think I would want to comment on this sort of thinking, but I’m going to, just once.

There are those criticizing Tom as “playing poor.” They say the only way he would know how others feel is if he had lived that way his whole life, or if he straight up gave up all of his material possessions including heating/AC, nice clothes, and the roof over his head. Even then, they seem to think that there is no way someone who isn’t in the position of the poor could understand. This thinking is flawed in so, so many ways. If that were true, no one could ever empathize with another person who isn’t from the exact same background, socially or otherwise, which is so clearly not the case that I don’t even feel the need to explicate it.

As someone who has been fed on foodstamps, close to homeless numerous times and has many friends who have been both homeless and hungry, I personally doubt most severely underprivileged people really care how they get help. All they see is the aid. Does it really matter to them how it came? Who provided it or why? No. Someone actually in need would never say “some privileged celebrity helped feed me”; they would say “someone helped feed me and thanks to them I can live a little better than I would otherwise.”

True, it’s possible they could be bitter on some level that someone might have more than them, especially someone who is famous. They could very well think, on dark days, “if you care so much why don’t you give up your designer clothes” or something. Okay.

However. Tom Hiddleston is an actor. He acts for a living. It is how he earns money. An actor without the proper wardrobe to attend special events and the like, one who can’t dress for respective occasions or has a reputation for being unpleasant, is not very well-received in the acting world as a whole. How many times have you seen someone reamed for their clothing choices, and often just ignored? It’s up to Tom (and his stylists, and Luke, and whoever else) to present well, to basically wrap up in a nice bow with a tag that says “Hey! I’m a pretty swell guy, and I sure do clean up nicely! Don’t you want me in your next movie?” If he doesn’t have the look and the overall demeanor, he may not get the job. That’s just a fact. You wouldn’t berate a wealthy computer software programmer for having a really amazingly powerful machine at home. That’s expected for his career. In the same way, you shouldn’t hold Tom to the same standards as people without elevated status. (Especially since his home and personal wardrobe both seem relatively modest, and he seems to take public transportation regularly. This is not someone with a luxurious 20-room mansion, ten cars, and servants, people!)

People seem to want him to feel bad for doing well in life yet still caring. This is such non-logic that I really, truly wonder if these same people would tell that to Bill Gates, who gives significant amounts of his income to charity but is known for his technological advances instead of his acting talent/looks/whatever it is that’s making people feel such disdain for Tom. It’s like saying to them, “you don’t count because you’re famous.” What ludicrous nonsense.

EVERY PERSON COUNTS. IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT THEIR STANDING IN LIFE MAY BE, IT MATTERS WHAT THEY DO.

Thanks to Tom, people who might never even be aware of Unicef and the situations in Guinea or otherwise are actually taking action to make the world better. Hiddlestoners Have Heart alone has raised £31165 for charity. Isn’t that in itself an amazing thing?! Children will be fed! Teenaged Hiddlestoners are actually trying to understand their world a little better instead of taking everything for granted! That’s what this whole thing is about—appreciating what you have, and realizing other people don’t have that. Any step towards understanding, and ultimately bettering, the state of your fellow humankind is a good one, however minuscule.

And you know what? Guess what, everyone? Tom is not perfect. He is not some saint sent from a benevolent higher deity to meet the increasingly-higher standards set by his fans (or nosy faux social justice naysayers). He has his own belief system that may or may not clash with your own. Gasp! Personally, I don’t actually entirely agree with Unicef as an organization. In the past, they’ve pushed for certain things I found, in a word, stupid.

But I also can’t deny that they do good work when it comes to fending off hunger and raising awareness for areas that require aid. I can’t deny that they make a difference in a world where more people are concerned about buying the newest model of iPhone than caring about each other. I am no exception. I could give more to charity, but man I sure would like to keep my internet connection. But then, here’s someone who wants to use his celebrity to stand for what he believes in, who is willing (AND ABLE, YES, OKAY) to “play poor” and share his experience in order to bring light to a dark subject, to better connect with those he wants to help, and he’s being raked across the coals. How is this sensible?

Can we please remember who this is we’re talking about? Is there any previous evidence to support the idea that he’s doing it “just for attention” or that he honestly thinks this is the EXACT SAME as being poor? There is, in fact, only evidence to the contrary, and I wish people would stop underestimating his intelligence, humility and general kindness. He’s doing whatever he feels is right. He reserves the right to make his own decisions, and to stand up for what causes he thinks are worthwhile.

Okay. I’m done. I hope this made sense. Sorry for the wall of text, but the kind of faux social justice type commentary people are tossing out just gets under my skin so much, and it’s been a long day.

This ^^

this post deserves a proper standing ovation.

Bless.

 thank you for that comment! I agree with that statement completely *applauding you* :)

this is for all you assholes who keep making fun of him

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We may yet.

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watchtheskytonight:

This man is our kind

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fairest-fairy:

piddlebucket:

iridessence:

ohsopathos:

fatbodypolitics:

lala-loki-licious:

fatbodypolitics:

The amount of rage I feel watching a rich white guy “starve” himself to learn about what it is like to live in poverty is making my head hurt. As someone who consistently worries about having enough money to pay for basic necessities I find it insulting that he thinks he is able to learn anything from “starving” for 5 days. This is fucking gross.

I need people to stop thinking that experiencing “food insecurity” for 5 days teaches them anything about the experiences of people who deal with it on a regular basis. I need people to stop thinking that they can understand what it is like when they get to go back to their normal lives after their little experiment is over and go on like nothing ever happened. 

Fucking stop.

So…ignorance is preferred?

This is my tumblr pet peeve. People can’t even fucking learn anything without OH MY GOD LET’S ATTACK THEM.

He is learning what it is like to live on $10 worth of food for a week not what it is like to live on $10 worth of food a week for your whole life. Not what it is like to have anxiety over food or any of the other experiences that come from living in poverty. Even doing this “experiment” he is still going to be ignorant of what really happens. He can never understand with the privileges he has right now.

So yeah I’m going to be critical of someone acting like they are having a life changing experience and ignoring the absurd amount of privilege they have.

Because, let’s face it….. at the end of that week, he can splurge on a huge meal and spa day to relax over the “torment” he just suffered. Most people don’t have this option, they don’t have that hope he does, that it will all be over in just a matter of days. Maybe he was hungry for a few days, but again, knowing that it’s not going to last long is a wonderful balm for his “suffering”.

Maybe this gives him a little more added interest in the issue and maybe he’ll contribute to some charities and be a spokesperson…. but he still has money in the bank at the end of it all and doesn’t truly understand the experience.

This is no different than that woman who wore a burka for a day, or that man who shaved to understand the plight of women. Where are they now?

what he should be doing instead of playing Pretend to Starve For a Week is listening to people that actually starve about their experiences, and contributing to charities or creating one or speaking out to help them.

welp sorry tom ur fuckin up

bold is mine

For Christ’s sake. Why does tumblr think every issue can be understood by ‘listening to people who (experience thing X)’? Yes, that’s an important way to understand something, but however temporary, actually experiencing a thing is also a damn good way of getting an inkling of understanding. 

This is not the same as ‘wearing a burka for a day’ or shaving to understand ‘the plight of women’. And it’s kind of stupid to suggest it is.

Can Tom splurge at the end of his little experiment and make it all better? Yes. So yes, he has that ‘hope’. But nonetheless, he is learning, to some degree, what it’s like, because he’s realizing that all that stuff he can look forward to eating/doing/having when he’s done? He can’t have it now. He’s figuring it out, figuring out all the things one can’t afford on that kind of budget. Is he going to understand as thoroughly as he would if he were really living it? No. Of course not. But frankly, sometimes an experience, however imprecise when compared to the real thing, is a much better teacher, a much better tool to open awareness, than just listening to people talk.

And as for the bitching above about how he should just donate money to charities and shit- how the fuck do you know he doesn’t already do that?


 This is what I fucking hate about this website. Try to understand something? YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG YOU PRIVILEGED BASTARD! Tumblr has a goddamned obsession with screeching about privilege at every opportunity, and really anyone they deem as ‘privileged’ in any way is fucked twelve ways from Tuesday because literally anything they do is wrong. If all Tom was doing was donating to charities, I have no doubt someone on this site would be ranting about how all he was doing is trying to throw money at some unpleasantness to get rid of it, instead of trying to actually help. If he was speaking out about poverty and such, they’d probably claim he’s ignorant of the issue and has no place to talk about it.

Seriously, there is no way of winning this fucked-up game users on this site play. 

(Source: torrilla)

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(Source: tomforpresident, via jarvis-deploy)