#I just do my film/queer theory for fun

[octopustoaster]

Told my mom that I applied to a fellowship to study lesbian vampire representation in modern media and she sighed and went “are you trying to become the world’s leading expert in lesbian vampires? Your room is filled with books on it, you’ve written a dozen papers, you’ve taught a class, and now you’re applying to a fellowship. If people ask me what my son does for a living am I going to have to say he studies lesbian vampires?” Like yes sorry that is what the answer will be <3 Don’t worry mom when I finish my fellowship and publish my book on lesbian vampires that 3 academics will buy you’ll have something to show for raising me.

[palukoo]

i love watching a semi obscure and often not very good old movie bc uh. woman. and then walking away with niche and in depth queer interpretations of the film and like having a mental conspiracy board and being like do you see it? do you see the vision? but like no. you haven’t even seen the movie lol

[alexanderwales]

Turning Off Your Brain and the Critical Lens

Alright, let's start with this: there is a thing called a critical lens. It is a way of looking at a piece of art, examining what it's saying to us about itself or its subject or themes or whatever.

There are many critical lenses. Because this is something that's mostly only taught at the college level, most of them are (in my opinion) mired in academic language and not actually all that interesting in and of themselves: I think if you read a dozen stories through a feminist lens, you really start to think "okay, yeah, I get it". Different readings of different texts through different lenses can be great fun though, and it's one of my favorite parts of media criticism, and something that I wish people were more explicit about.

I'm going to talk about the Barbie movie, because it's easy. The feminist lens is obvious and in my opinion intended: it's the thing that the movie is most trying to be about, and as a consequence, it's something that probably has the most critical meat. But you can also read the movie through other lenses, and ask what it has to say about capitalism, about race, about neurodivergence and queer theory and game theory and a bunch of other things.

Some of these readings are Unintended. The author (in this case, hundreds of people working together on the film) did not intend for you to look at the movie to see what it's saying about, say, American Imperialism. Probably.

I personally enjoy unintended readings. I like teasing apart a book to see what it's saying about different things, and how it's saying it, and what the assumptions it's operating under, and whether this creates anything interesting when I bring a different set of assumptions. I think the writers and actors of Winter Soldier were not trying to say anything in particular about masculinity, but fuck it, let's watch the movie and think about it.

Sometimes people will watch something and recommend that you turn your brain off. Sometimes they'll say this to you just as you're about to start in on some critical analysis of something that definitely was not made with that critical analysis in mind.

Here's how I think of "turning off your brain": it's a critical lens. It's not a critical lens in the sense that academics might use it, but you're looking at this piece of media from a specific viewpoint, and that viewpoint is "omg they're in love" or "fuck yeah" or "no, don't go into the basement!". There are certain pop genres that greatly benefit from being viewed this way, at least in terms of pure enjoyment.

When I sit down to watch a romcom, I can do it with male/female social dynamics in mind, or I can do it with "aw, I hope these kids get together" in mind. One is the intended reading, and I don't think that it should get all that much privilege for it, but I do think generally it can result in better enjoyment. I love media criticism and consider it to be one of my main hobbies, but if you fall in love with one particular way of viewing media and only use that single one, you're going to have a bad time.

I write and generally enjoy rational fiction, which comes with its own lens, which I guess we can call the rational lens. If you sit and view a work through the rational lens, sometimes you can have fun with it: you try to work through the systems as presented and the actions of the characters and think about how you could make everything make sense. The way to do this that's not very fun is to look at a work through the rational lens and conclude that the author is dumb, the characters are dumb, and the worldbuilding is shit. I guess this can be fun if you have a sense of smug superiority, but I personally do not.

One of the things that I love about media criticism is that you can sometimes extract weird and new things out of a work. One of the things that I love about fanfic is that you can take a deliberately strange reading of a work and then write as though that reading was true. You can look at Batman and say "what does this say about income inequality" and then start writing and say "this is about income inequality now". You can look at Winter Solider and find a reading where Cap and Bucky are gay and then write it out.

Where I think people fail in a way that's personally annoying to me is that they take their preferred reading and then loudly claim ("ironically" or not) that this is the One True Reading against which no other readings can stand. Sometimes "that is not The Point of [thing]". I think you get that a lot from the "shut off your brain" crowd, but I've seen it from other places too, and I would attribute it to people talking past each other, sometimes not even realizing what critical lens they're using.

If you're talking to me, you can just say "non-preferred lens" and I'll understand, or maybe I'll say "wat" because I might forget this blog post moments after I write it.

[siblingskissing]

Ronance headcanons?

Ronance Headcanons

I have had the BIGGEST brain rot about these two, you guys don't even know, so please excuse my rambling session in this post. As always- feel free to share your headcanons, opinions, thoughts ideas, just be kind <3

-Robin is the biggest simp to ever exist. Nancy mentions liking a color? Guess who's suddenly adding it all over their wardrobe! A favourite food? She's already learned how to cook it. Allergic to something? Robin will destroy it with her bare hands and make it go extinct to protect her girl.

-Likewise, Nancy would and will kill for Robin (come on Robin tell her to kill for you she wants to)

-Their favourite dates include them sitting in one of their rooms, a movie or music playing as they discuss conspiracy theories or whatever story Nancy is working on

"There's been a ton of missing items from farms in the areas. Animals, tools, bales of hay-"

"could it be aliens?"

"Alie- Robin it's not aliens!"

"What? Interdimensional monsters are real but aliens aren't?"

-Many people assume Nancy would get annoyed by Robins carefree joke centered attitude but actually she calms down whenever Robin tries making jokes.

-She doesn't like when people don't take things seriously, but she knows Robin is taking it serious, but using humour to make sure they don't spiral with the problem

-their relationship definitely started off rocky but with some time, understanding and surprisingly really deep conversations they learn to appreciate the little things about one another.

-Robin loves Nancy's drive and her leadership skills. She makes sure that everyone takes her seriously and if the kids complain about Nancy being a hard ass she brings them back to listen.

"Nancy's not our boss!"

"No, but she's the one keeping you dipshits safe- she knows what she's doing so listen up and quit complaining"

-They kids listen to Robin more and so when she follows Nancy with no complaints, the kids unconsciously follow suit.

-When Nancy gets stressed/aggravated Robin will be there to lend her a shoulder. They're very much leader/Right Hand man coded to me.

-Nancy doesn't know much about queer culture so when she does eventually come out Robin is happy to talk to her about it and share what she knows.

"So we use Blue violets because Sappho used to describe women wearing garlands of them,"

"Sappho?"

"... Do you have a spar 3 hours so I can explain Sappho and Greek poetry to you?"

-They take all kinds of cute little Polaroids that they keep at Robins place

(examples of said Polaroids)

-Robins family is more supportive so often Nancy goes over there to spend the night

-when college comes up in discussions Robin mentions that she enjoyed investigating with Nancy, the research was fun when they didn't have death looming over them.

"Yeah, learning Russian to break the code was awesome- the torture kind of ruined it though-"

"The WHAT?"

-Nancy asks Robin 1000X if Robin is sure she wants to go to the same college/same field and Robin promises her that she isn't only going because of her.

"I'd follow you anywhere, but this is also for me- if I have to do one more customer service job I might kill someone."

-They love movie nights, curled up under a blanket watching whatever film they can find. Robin always finds the oddest ones and sometimes some really deep indie films. Nancy also enjoys the foreign films she can find and let's her choose.

-on nights Nancy chooses- she likes care free fun films. Nothing too heavy because she likes the simplicity

-Theyre a gross matching couple- but in a new fun way.

-Mat hing colors in their respective styles, using each other's clothes and making it go with their personal choices, matching patterns/designs.

-They also shared shoes sometimes

-On the 90s Nancy gets a more "Rachel from friends" style like this

-Robin eats it up like no one is watching and often has to hold back from just kissing her 24/7

(also I badly wanna do a look book of the characters so Please someone ask for that because I love fashion)

I definitely probably have more but here you are!!

[slimeandsadness]

Handedness in DanAndPhilCrafts - Slime

A documentation and analysis of the hands that Dan and Phil use in the new Crafts video. Obviously some of this stuff is just due to filming and seating angles, but as with so much else about this video, I think some really interesting things can be intuited from it. Sorry if anyone has already done this!

This whole idea came from a post @lesbaurinkos pointing out that Dan - who's left handed - uses his right hand to sacrifice Phil, and comparing it to this exchange from Glitter Faces:

Phil: If you're left handed, ask a friend. Dan: Why am I left handed? Phil: Everybody makes mistakes.

This implies that there is something wrong with Dan's left handedness, and I've seen some suggest that this is what leads him to do rituals with his right. Others still say that perhaps this shows a transition of some sort, so that he is not the same person. While these are valid and interesting readings, I'd like to put forward a different theory.

Traditionally, the left hand has been seen as sinister (literally the Latin word for left, while the right was 'dexter'), so one would think that Dan's left handedness would actually be a boon for a Satanic ritual. It's a mark of otherness, of queerness, that was historically punished by a Christian society who saw it as deviant and wicked.

Indeed, it isn't just Dan who uses a hand different from his dominant one for ritualistic practice. Although we don't see Phil make the cut on Dan's hand, when he holds the knife, he holds it in his left hand.

Likewise, once it cuts to the next shot, the knife is at an angle that suggests it having been put down from his left.

Dan's wound is on his right hand, and he uses this hand for many of the ritualistic elements to come, including - while still in Crafts mode - anointing himself and Phil in slime and holding the knife while telling us that He wants it 'straight from the source'.

This might be because his left hand is out of action due to all that blue slime on it. How did that blue slime get there? First, a word on the slime itself.

The two slimes serve different purposes. Dan's slime is intended to be a vessel and Phil's will be 'fun to touch'. Thus, while the red slime is only for Him, I would argue that the blue slime is for Them. After all, creativity is nothing without friendship.

That homoerotic hand grab with Phil - which squishes together the friendship slime, the same colour as Phil's eyes, as Dan points out - represents 'friendship' as the other force alongside Him. In this hand grab, Dan's dominant hand becomes covered in slime, leaving only his non-dominant hand for ritual purposes.

Interestingly, Phil is using his left hand here (his ritual hand), perhaps a sign of their differing priorities. I won't go into too much detail here, but I've seen others make interesting posts about Phil doing things for Him, and Dan doing them for Phil. This isn't too important here, as it's Dan's deliberate choices after this about which hand to use that become particularly interesting.

Indeed, after this, Dan draws the sigils on the walls with his right hand, and he also walks into the room to complete the sacrifice holding the knife in his right hand. If his right hand is his ritual hand, this makes sense.

However, and I haven't seen anyone mention this yet, he leaves the room with it in his left hand.

I think this is fascinating, since - as with the cut in Dan's hand - we don't see what happens between these two shots. We hear Phil scream and assume Dan has stabbed him as planned, but we don't get to see which hand he actually wields the knife with. Going with my above thesis, perhaps this is because it is muddy and unknowable to what extent Dan is doing this for Him (the right hand) and to what extent he's doing it for Phil (the left).

We can also view this in contrast with the hand cut from earlier, where the discarded knife indicates that Phil completed the whole thing with his left (ritual) hand.

Dan also has a bloody handprint on his shirt, presumably from Phil in his final moments, and it's a right hand print. This is Phil's 'friendship' hand. Despite Phil's ultimate devotion to Him, during the moment of his greatest sacrifice, it is the deep intimacy of this act between the two of them that is most important.

In the final ritual scene, Dan begins by holding the knife in his right hand (his ritual hand).

However, he then holds it in both hands, just as he holds Phil's heart in both hands a moment later. Both ritual and friendship are working together here, and he continues for the rest of the scene to use both hands to anoint them in Phil's heart's blood.

In the final shot, they are stood in their usual formation (Dan on stage right, Phil on stage left) and they each hold an item of ritualistic significance in their non-dominant, ritual hand. Dan holds Phil's heart in his right hand; Phil holds the knife in his left. What they each hold in their dominant hands is each other.

As a few others have pointed out, the rope of Baphomet behind them also evokes imagery of handfasting. That suggests that this is not just a summoning of Baphomet, but also a marriage ceremony of sorts. They are bound not just to Baphomet, but to each other.

A lot of this is, of course, because of their standard way round of sitting, so that their dominant hands are always between them, but it is fascinating that they made the choice to continue with this motif even once they were roaming free.

This is my final thesis, then, that throughout the video they both use their non-dominant hands for acts of ritualistic significance, while their dominant hands become important for their relationship. This is especially true for Dan, whose devotion often seems split between Him and Phil. Dan's left handedness could additionally act as a metaphor for queerness, so it's especially notable the way that this hand is reserved only for Phil.

Basically:

[grace-williams-xo]

There is much discussion on the internet about how many seasons of Bridgerton we’ll get, and how it will be approached. I have a wild theory, if you wanna TLDR and skip the ramblings then scroll down to the bold.

While 8 seems far fetched, a lot of people are thinking 6 but I increasingly don’t even think that will happen (or if it does, it won’t happen well).

Jonny has said he’s committed to Bridgerton, and making whatever he projects he gets work around it, and that he/kanthony will be at all the siblings weddings. His commitment to the show and increasing career is well displayed in s3. He’s only in the first of the four eps (tbd for the second half, let’s hope more!) but he filmed Fellow Travellers at the same time (watch it if you haven’t) and Wicked also at a similar time. I think we can count on him/kanthony making at minimum 1–2 appearances per season, regardless of how long it lasts.

Arguably the other biggest star of the show rn is Nicola, so will be interesting to see what she does in Bridgerton s4. There’s a trend of the lead actor/s taking a back seat in the season following their spotlight, so wouldn’t be surprising if it happened also with Polin/Nicola and Luke Newton.

Now, the core of the issue is the remaining stories. (Preface, I haven’t read any of the books but I know most of the general plots). Consensus is that Benedict will be s4; and (or maybe but) all the s3 Benedict press is talking about him going through changes, evolution and inching toward the marriage mart. One could say this is set up for s4, but that doesn’t feel entirely right to me. The only plot that needs the set up is Polin because of the friends to lovers arc, and we got that in s2. (If there’s more benophie set up that makes sense that I’m not aware of, let me know!)

While I know Francesca is popular with book readers, and her character steps up in s3, we can agree that the next most popular sibling is Eloise. Eloise’s story is also the most hotly debated about how authentic the show should be to the books. I know many book readers want Eloise’s story to stay mostly as it is, and while the more I read about it the more I come around to it, I think that a problem is posed by the fact that Marina’s character is much more significant and invested in the series than the books (so I hear).

On the note of Gregory and Hyacinth, I also think that the viewers are too attached and invested to them as children to want to see them as serious romantic partners with anyone. This isn’t even touching on the fact s8 would be released in (crikey I just did the maths) probably 2030 or 2031 😭

In my head there are three possible options for the future of the show. (Four, three good options).

1. Six seasons: with Benedict, Eloise and Francesca all getting a season. (Approx 2025, 2027 and 2028 release) (I think this would be the best option if the got their act together and made/released the seasons faster, but as the actors get busier I don’t see that happening)

2. Five seasons: with Benedict and Eloise getting a season. (The best (realistic) option imo).

3. Four seasons: Benedict season four, no Eloise. (The worst option imo).

4. Four seasons: Benedict season three AND four, Eloise season four. This is kinda why I made this post. Stay with me, hear me out.

All the indications that Benedict is evolving and stepping into the marriage mart this season make me think that they could be doing a lot more set up/start of the story than necessary for a brother who isn’t the lead yet. Beneloise are such an iconic duo that I think them falling in love together would be so fun. If they followed the book, then Eloise’s love is kinda long distance anyway. If they did do something different with Eloise (contentious, ik, I’m in two minds) and made her queer and/or not get married then it could also work well.

I don’t think this is the best outcome, I just think it might be the best outcome if we only get four seasons. The actors are all increasingly busy, and many (Claudia and Nicola especially) are already playing characters far younger than their characters.

Please let me know your thoughts on this rambling, especially if you’ve read the books. Tell me what will or won’t work!

–GW xo

[respectthepetty]

I've been wondering for a while- how did you start getting into all the colour stuff?? I would love an origin story <3 what got you into your passion for deciphering colors and how did you figure out what they mean??

sorry ik it's a lot but ever since I started following you I see colors everywhere and I'm curious of where you started noticing them ((: it's so fun and intriguing to me! I'm usually more of a "foaming at the mouth for the lighting" girlie but it's been a heap of fun figuring out colors with the lights ^^

thanks for everything you do to show us your eye for color btw ♡♡ your blog is so fascinating and I love reading all your theories and notes

@overrgrown, never apologize for asking questions, but I've actually been asked this before by bengiyo. You can find my write up HERE, but the short version of that post is I've always seen colors; therefore, I've always attached meaning to them, even if the meaning was not valid.

TLWR: Appreciate the artists who work on these shows, not me.

In bengiyo's ask, I stated that when I was younger, I thought the colors were showing me what was good and what was bad. That's it. In my defense, I was a kid, so everything really was good or bad in my book with no in-between.

Even though I've always seen colors, and it comes very naturally to me, the meaning I attached to them when I was younger was very much based on who I was rather than what was being shown to me. Five-year old me thought if someone was dressed all in red that they were the devil. Adult me now knows that isn't always the case. Adult me also knows that red in American (United States) culture means something different than other cultures.

Not a flex, just a fact, but I have several degrees in languages, linguistics, and rhetoric. What they are in is not super important, but, in general, a formal education has greatly helped me infer meaning from what I'm visually seeing in the media I consume. My degrees are not in film or communications, yet I've taken undergrad and grad-level courses like Visual Media, Multimedia and Visual Communication, Language of Film, Digital Narratives, Cinematography and Lighting, Film Theory & Criticism, Queer Cinema History, Spanish Film & Feminism, and many more all because under this great big academic umbrella of rhetoric and composition lies storytelling.

And that's what this is really about - How do we tell a story? Regardless if that story is a simple flyer for a school bake sale, a 30-second commercial advertising cleaning wipes, or a 12-episode BL series, how do we get the message across? We can't just rely on ONE thing! We have to use as many things as possible! So when I'm watching a BL series, I'm just not paying attention to the words being spoken or the acting alone. No, I'm paying to the background noise. What do the clothes tell me about the character? What does his apartment tell me about him? And what do the colors mean?! All of it is important!

I've mentioned this before but I serve on a screening committee for a queer film festival. I actually got involved with the film festival as an undergrad because of one of the film courses. This has allowed me the opportunity to speak to several filmmakers about their process, and all of them have confirmed that the colors were intentional. People who deal with props and costume design have spoken to me about trying to find very specific items that reinforce the story being told. Oh, and theater is a whole different level. Because of the nature of the stage versus film, if it is on the stage, it must have a reason for being there.

Basically, people who work in visual media work really fucking hard, which you probably know since you love lighting. Most times, 12-hour days are the average, if not longer. This video does a good job of briefly covering the work that goes into costume design, and I timestamped it to begin at the part that covers colors.

I love seeing colors. I love deciphering them. I love the story they tell.

But they wouldn't be there if the hardworking people behind them didn't do their job, and those are the people who I appreciate.

So, as always, I'm thankful that you let me know I'm helping you see the beauty is in the details, but I'm really just here to admire the beauty with you.

[bengiyo]

Theory of Love Special Ep (Finale) Stray Thoughts

I am curious how I feel about this as the end of the Theory of Love run. I won't recap since we finished the show, but I went back into my own posts and I previously liked this despite having no memory of it.

Okay, as cheesy as it is, I do generally like when follow up outings acknowledge or tease their critics.

Oh that play with the names. I saw that. It's 2020 and we all verse now. (Side note. I do not remember associating this special with COVID lockdowns.)

It's kinda fun when the epilogue content happens before the actual ending. We know that they will get back together to form Hod Production and that they'll succeed.

Special Episode: Stand By Me

Oh, Third. You really had this man sleeping on the floor for multiple nights. Even as someone who wanted him to suffer, you aren't serious.

I'm not surprised Third and Khai ended up working together, and it's definitely good for Third's ego that Khai is being such a simp.

I was curious what hanging out for these guys would look like now that most of them are in committed relationships and Bone is healing from heartache.

Look at that, Khai. Growth. He was in a situation with some girls and made it clear he wasn't available. I will accept the incoming hijinks from this lipstick.

Yes, Khai, why did you lie?

I snorted at the camera guy having better communication with the director or cinematographer than Khai.

Did this girl suck on his neck? Why is he still hiding it? Just tell Third some drunk girl fell on you. Two saw it and Third trusts Two. Bone gets it.

I'm glad Third is aware that he's cute and actively maintaining it. Gun torments me regularly on IG.

I kinda like that Khai is being so ridiculous about this drunk girl situation. We know he's been at this for almost a year trying to prove his loyalty to Third.

This senior taking the graduation photo from them was one of the motorcycle guys in My Ride.

Aww, Bone. Do you think you're better off alone? Talk to me.

Any time someone points with their lips I laugh.

I love this confession in the car. Third is still testing Khai, but at least he knows Khai wasn't stepping out. I like that the resolution is one about how they're both trying to make this work despite the emotional baggage. I like the version of Khai that wants to honor Third.

These two made it four years and produced a movie together. I believe in their relationship if it's still going strong after making a highly successful film.

I am actually so into Khai doing multiple proposals to Third, elevating it each time.

Well, that was lovely.

Updated Verdict: 8.5, Recommended for Fans of Romance Cinema. I spent a lot of time over the last few days thinking about how I would recommend this series going forward. I think it is good on a lot of technical fronts, and there's a lot to like in the BTS: particularly Off using his own clothes to supplement Khai's wardrobe. Still, this show firmly sits right over the awkward line between BL and queerness that makes me uncomfortable with the genre sometimes.

Third's reticence to Khai only makes sense to me in a world where The Knowing occurs, and yet this is mostly a show in the bubble. So much of what's wrong with Third is because he's let the fantasy of romance films cloud his ability to have a mutually beneficial relationship with someone he loves. I do love when romance interrogates itself, and yet it feels like a hugely missed opportunity to discuss how queer people cannot rely on the presumptions of heteronormativity when building relationships with each other.

Moreover, I struggle with Khai's change narrative because I am not entirely certain who it's for. It reminds me of the Mulan problem, where we have a character who defies norms and expectations and it almost feels like the character exists to point to them and say, "You're not them." I have been hurt by guys like Khai, and none of them changed in a way that ever led to reconciliation for me. It's something I struggle with as I watch this, and it makes me wonder what the outcome of presenting this will be or the femmes and the gays who watch this since the Khai's of the world aren't watching.

Still, I will say that this show has incredibly fun structure if you know the major beats of the films used as the title for each episode. I think Off plays a jerk you begrudgingly want to root for really well. I think Mike actually did a really good job in this show and I apologize to Bone for being so pissy three years ago. Gun is beautiful and so easy to empathize with, but I gotta say that Third is not my favorite character of his.

I am glad @lurkingshan burned her coupons to make me revisit this show, and I've enjoyed having @waitmyturtles and @neuroticbookworm to talk about how I was feeling about things along the way. I don't think I love this show the way you three do, but it is a well-executed narrative doing some interesting things with the romance genre. My lingering hangups, and why I can't take it to a 9, have to do with the mixed bag of queerness in this. Third feels like a repressed gay, and Khai has a legit bisexual awakening, but the other cultural context being missing means it never connects for me as a queer narrative.

This is something I'm thinking about a lot as we head into Cooking Crush, because OffGun always leaves me a bit shaky on that front. On paper it's gay, but it never exactly feels gay for me.

Also tagging @twig-tea by request.

[brybryby]

Hi hi! So I’ve been outlining a Video Essay to inspect Outlast’s portrayal of the relationship between US capitalism and queerness (along with immigration/xenophobia due to Trials coming up) and…

…I was initially going to keep it private within my IG circle, but after spending hours searching up academic articles and master’s theses discussing heteronormativity and social theory—as well as revisiting textbooks from the few philosophy and gender/racial studies courses I took from university—I’ve decided that I’d like to share here also!

It’s in the process, but I want to put a lot of care into it since JT Petty’s writing is incredibly interesting to me, while also dissecting the material from a brown, queer perspective and being someone who was born/raised in the US from a family of immigrants. (I’m not trying to push an “agenda”, but I think my background is a pretty good reflection of where my values lie lol). Another reason I’m putting a lot of care into this is because I understand that the franchise’s narratives and stories get into intensely heavy topics/themes, and it would pain me if I were to misinterpret and/or cast certain plots in such a way that is unfair, ignorant, harmful, and overall awful.

Because of this, I’d like to open up this post and my DMs to any constructive conversation surrounding these themes in the games/comics! I’ll be posting questions & argument points gradually so feel free to wait to discuss in the specifics in those.

A huge reason I’m doing this is because a lot of people who know me irl know I hyperfixate on this franchise, and I fear that their surface level interpretation of that would just be chalked up to me liking/endorsing f-ed up stuff (which I adamantly say is NOT the case—I think we all know that a dissection of horrors and traumatic events can be therapeutic and empowering). With the video essay, I want to explain that my hyperfixation is related to the nuanced themes in the narratives, especially regarding gender/queerness and social theory.

Plus it’s been a while since I’ve written something in an academic-style with citations, peer analysis, etc.! I forget how enriching it can be.

I’ll admit that I’m not a very opinionated person (and I think I tend to error on being critical of my own opinions). My ultimate goal here is to spread empathy and share a wide variety of perspectives from many backgrounds. Additionally, I respect JT Petty for being so daring to tackle heavy/“taboo” themes in film, cinema, etc. and I want to show my appreciation. I’m not necessarily endorsing anything—instead, I’d like to understand the stories as an art, understand it’s intentions, and inspect how it affects different communities.

Plus I think this video essay process will be fun! Idk, I hope this doesn’t come off as self-righteous or anything LOL—or maybe it does so please make fun of me, I need to be humbled.

Alrighty, thanks y’all. Hope you have a fantastic rest of your day/night!

[trans-luis-serra-navarro]

Introduction post!!

Kia Ora!!!!! My name is Eric! My main account is @wisecrackingeric-2 where I am most active and post art!!!!! You may also know me as the person who hosted Serennedy Pride Week 2024!!

[if you have the time, PLEASE pretty please check out all the amazing art and writing under the tag everyone is SO DAMN TALENTED]

This is a side account dedicated to all things Luis Serra Navarro- I’ll be posting my own analysis, theories, character explorations and other general goofy posts!! I’ll also be reblogging posts about Luis I find informative or insightful, and some art as well!!!

This blog is meant to be a space to share theories, headcannons, and general positivity around Luis Serra Navarro, but also serves as a bit of a place to house any popular analysis/headcannon posts!!! So if you’re looking for something in particular, you’ll probably find it here!! Otherwise if you have a post you really enjoy but haven’t seen here, please please please feel free to send it to me!!!! I’ll also be posting about the ship serennedy quite often, and I’ll post about trans-related stuff every now and then!!

I most likely won’t be responding to anything on here, so if you URGENTLY need me for something, go to my main account!!!!! I also do NOT give permission for my posts to be screenshotted and reposted on other sites such as twitter or TikTok!!!!!

Please don’t interact with my account if you are a t3rf/here to try and “disprove” headcannons or erase important information, super hardcore pr0sh!p/fandom discourse blog/ship discourse blog/anti queer/race discourse, if you consistently whitewash Luis in any way shape or form and/or ignore POC voices, call Luis a ‘predator’ or a creep, or if you’re just going to be racist/transphobic/bigoted in general or if you’re only here to try and ‘prove me wrong’ or start and argument!!! And most obviously, if you come here and try to spout negativity about Luis, I will simply block you!!! This isn’t a discourse/meta analysis blog, this is just for fun!!

Also please don’t follow me if you’re an 18+/NSFW blog!! I’m not comfortable with sexual jokes!

Tl;dr: I love Luis a lot and he is always on my mind, so I made a blog dedicated to posting silly stuff about him!!!! Please don’t take my stuff TOOOOOOO seriously!!!

Hashtags I use for navigation under cut!!

#serennedyprideweek: the tag I used to host the Pride-themed Serennedy ship week in June 2024!!

#othersposts: other peoples posts!

#luisposting: my own posts/text posts!

#sillyposting: posts that are lighthearted or aren’t meant to be taken seriously!

#ericsart: Art reblogged from my main account!

#othersart: Art from other people!

#reblog: exactly what it says on the tin!

#serennedy: all things Serennedy-related!

#trans: for trans related stuff specifically!

#asks: for posts answering asks!

#important: important posts!

#to do: stuff I plan on responding to!

#Don Quixote 1957: for things about the 1957 Soviet Russian film Don Quixote by Orson Wells!!

#otherstags: for tags other people have added!

And finally, if you’re looking for a good end-all analysis video on Luis, I can’t reccomended HeroFatBrett’s video ‘Luis Serra — How RE4Remake Transformed Him Into The Series’ Most Tragic Hero’ enough!!! Unfortunately it won’t let me add links but you can find it on both of their YouTube channels!!!!!

[sapphicbookclub]

Author Spotlight: Louisa Vidal

Starting out November strong with a guest post from Louisa Vidal, author of club read Trash Planet Confidential! Read on to see why Vidal appreciates genre fiction.

The Joys of Getting Goofy with Genre 

Genre fiction can be easily dismissed by those immune to its charms. But any fan knows that it’s often a method used to examine the biggest issues in the world and find a fresh angle on them. Science fiction itself has an impossibly rich canon of visionaries like Octavia Butler, Ursula K. le Guin, Anna Kavan, and Nicola Griffith, here to shock, educate, and inspire us. It can also be an excuse for intense silliness: make pretty girls green, stick a rubber mask on a dog and make it an alien, go for a joy ride in an asteroid shower. 

When I got the prompt from Space Fruit Press that their 2023 queer romance anthology was going to be sci-fi themed, I’d like to tell you I immediately sprung into researching astrophysics and extra-terrestrial biology. Being well-read in the sciences is hot, right? But while I don’t mind a dilly-dally with quantum theory now and then, I knew what I really wanted to write about: Space Lawyers. 

In the Venn diagram of my love of science fiction and legal dramas, the overlap is the procedural stuff. This is the backbone of Star Trek - the detail of people just doing their jobs, or trying to, while their colleagues drive them crazy by letting tribbles on board or ripping open a portal into another dimension. This is not a million light years away from the crime TV and film (I’m old enough to have lived through the John Grisham adaptation era), where the storyline may have involved murder, corruption, or the Mafia, - the core of the action is also workplace drama. 

For my story, Trash Planet Confidential, I made a stack of my favourite legal eagle tropes - class differences, enemies joining together for a noble cause, archive-digging - then stuck them on a rocket and propelled them into outer space. The world-building came easy once I knew I was writing about main characters from very different socio-economic backgrounds,  who were also both ambitious lawyers; that one of them was also bright green was a pleasing aesthetic addition, and making her politically powerful was a reclamation of the Sexy Green Alien Space Slave cliché. 

As a reader of queer romance, I glory in the subversive power of a happy ending. In science fiction, the world the creator shapes is only lightly bound by the laws of physics, and in the fantasy of legal dramas, lawyers can fight on the side of good and win. For all that quantum physics can provide solace, so too can lesbian sex scenes. Having the freedom to have fun is a part of romance that queer women and femmes deserve, too. 

- Louisa Vidal (Goodreads) Trash Planet Confidential

[anonil88]

I see the gays are going to loose their minds over Jasmin's public journey with queerness. And some of you are sounding a lil too much like Afterellen writers.

To yall and to anyone who feels the same as her might i suggest this interview:

Or any of these links / books. which i'm using good reads links so you can see the triggers or content warnings to not be blind sided.

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg (good reads link but you can find the book for free) tw assault, this is not a book for minors

Zami by Audre Lorde (good reads)

My Gender Workbook (good reads) and Gender Outlaws: both the original and the 2010 version by Kate Bornstein

This SLATE article from 2015 (slate article) (wayback in case that link breaks)

These reddit posts with a valley of insight in the comments from older much older queer, gay, and lesbian people: Thread 1 Thread 2

A study done in 2009

Bodies in Relation—Bodies in Transition (article here)

Youtube videos and maybe a documentary

Queer Theory 101- Part 1- An open discussion with Ben Bateman- 30 min and there are 2 parts (go to youtube)

Brief Lecture Introducing Concepts of Queer Theory with Professor Matt Alberhasky- 10 min (go to youtube)

Judith Butler explaining Gender Theory- 13 min (youtube) and their book Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (good reads): and i will quote them here "Stumbling is a part of learning and making an error is a part of learning." & "Many people who refuse to allow trans people to define themselves is that they feel their own self definition is destabilized."

The Aggressives (free tubi link but you can arrgh matey it if you try hard enough) , a 2005 documentary, directed by Eric Daniel Peddle. An insightful exposé on the subculture of masculine presenting POC and their "femme" counterparts. Filmed over five years in NYC, the featured subjects share their dreams, secrets and deepest fears. Some of the AGs in this video identify as trans men, non binary, or bi now but all of their experiences are valid.

And if you were wondering yes, yes i do love researching and having references. Its fun.

This might be shocking but there are older lesbians and i am talking the most butch blue collar trades dyke with silver strands who have done way more things that would make some of y'all squeem because its not within this very linear view of what some people view should be everyone's exact labeled experience should be. And yes they still fully identify as lesbians and are in very long term commited lesbian relationships their past has just been a lot. No two people are the same and many people will have a definition similar to you but an entirely different and layered experience. This also includes experiences and journeys with labels that you are going to feel uncomfortable with if they open up about the journey that it took them on to get to the same label you use. I tend to say that is for thee does not have to be for me. Sometimes the moments of others journey albeit will be cringey to you and others but they aren't directly harmful to you and your experience. No matter what we will all still be hit on by people and certain demographics that we do not want to be hit on, because they do not care. Tearing apart your communities in person and online over drivel and people just on their journey whilst learning does nothing for us when that is what those in opposition are banking on. Now unclench and breathe.

[wolves-against-the-world]

So fun thing, I'm writing about monstrosity and gender for my bachelor's thesis with a focus on werewolves.

It's absolutely WILD having grown up on the Internet with people who specifically make monstrous, hairy, queer, female werewolves because that is so not the norm and I didn't really think about it.

Monstrosity as a whole often is a stand-in for everything society tries to repress, queerness, class, race etc and the absolute majority of werewolves starting in literal antiquity to the middle ages to modern film are either killed or cured depending on their moral alignment.

I'm currently reading a fascinating master's thesis (by Elizabeth Clark) about female werewolves in film and she really hammers in how much lycanthropy stands in for the undesirable as a whole.

In many ways it's connected with sexuality and power to those outside - Clark argues that for male werewolves in western film it's the threat to white middle class masculinity. For women the werewolf is masculinity through the capability of violence as well as hairiness. Yes really.

She shows that female werewolves are split into good girls (who try to repress their nature and are willing damsels in distress) and bad girls (often connected to being seductive). The good girls are afraid of their power and grovel and are not shown to transform fully, just the eyes and teeth usually. (She actually used an episode from early Supernatural as example... I feel old.) The bad girls do transform and take on masculine traits as well as a sexual dimension (that's possibly racialized).

She also points out a tendency in film to show women as capable of violence or strength but not being allowed to look like it. They have to stay feminine and slim (think Buffy, any action heroine that's implausibly not muscular). She connects it to real-life aberrant gender expression like female bodybuilders and athletics in general, but also body hair. There was even a quote from an interview around Underworld in which the actors said nobody would want to see female werewolves "thuggish, hairy women". It's very much in line with Judith Butler's theories on gender enforcement and pretty much what any GNC but especially butch women have been saying for decades. I mean, shit, we're STILL not showing leg hair even in shaving commercials.

No bottom line, I'm just summarizing what I've read so far.

[lgbt-cishet-movie-tournament]

lol the main lead actors for each movie are father and son irl. well you know the drill

The loser is either too queer to be a cishet movie or too cishet to be queer…

How is it cishet media?

LB: evil gay vampires getting in the way of a cishet lovestory

The Exorcist: A movie (sort-of) beloved by the Catholic Church that promotes traditional family values. Has a lot of homophobic language, and it was released around Christmas. Only one gay character and they only tell you through a flamboyant gesture. Screen writer and book author was homophobic enough to make petitions to “un-catholic” the catholic school featured in this film (they were reaching out to gay students and having pride so he wrote an angry letter to the bishop) and it shows. The Vatican once invited the director to come over specifically because of the exorcist :(((

How is it lgbt?

LB: those vampires were gay and trans why else did they wear leather when it was so hot out. they got a single ear piercing which was the way back then to signal other gay people you were gay (they did it on the other ear not the gay ear but I know what was happening)

Exorcist: Regan is sooo off-putting and a bad daughter. This is just what being queer and having several diseases is like minus the exorcism. Her voice gets deep while she acts rebellious and her mom rejects her. Damien Karras (the younger priest) also reads as so repressedly gay and in the closet in the original book, but the movie squeezes in a bit of that with a scene where Fr. Dyer lays Karras to bed, and they hold hands until Karras eventually recoils with so much pathetic pain. I KNOW what you are. (https://afieldinengland.tumblr.com/post/657429236105248768/they-were-in-love-here) Karras and Dyer are even closer in the book, and Dyer is his stereotypically effeminate “ride or die” gay best friend. He told him to leave the priesthood with him since the gays are doing it, meanwhile all the other local priests were panicking about gay priests. The movie is extremely quotable too and I find that camp. Also found “Mother what’s wrong with me?” and “That thing upstairs is not my daughter” to be sooo personal. I know it’s homophobic but it helped me come out more somehow because I don’t want to DIE like that. Saw some fun Regan MacNeil dragqueens, trans posts and non-binary comics (with regan and karras) awhile ago as well. In the 90s, a reviewer said that the movie was actually a priest’s homoerotic wet dream (and that’s why they wanted to kill pazuzu the “female element”) and it so threw off the director to the point that his biography, an analytical book on the exorcist by kermode, AND some articles will bring it up as a bizarre theory or serious analysis. Well I say the reviewer had a point, but with the wrong priest. Dyer is the only confirmed gay character who gets censored a lot, but I know what those two had. Big closeted catholic energy. That’s why Regan was so homophobic. She read Karras’ mind.

[ghnosis]

Ghost dissertation bibliography as of 30 May 2024

hey! some of you were curious to read things I'm working on/my bib. my comprehensive exam is 18th June, so these aren't like, FINAL final (in terms of citation formatting), but they're pretty darn close.

I'll probably paste the contextual review document I've been writing for 2 years as well - it's awaiting final say-so from my supervisors right now.

ALDERSLADE, Merlin. 2019. 'How Ghost became the face of the new generation of heavy metal.’ Metal Hammer. May 29 [online] Available at: https://www.loudersound.com/features/how-ghost-became-the-face-of-the-new-generation-of-heavy-metal 

ANZALDÚA, Gloria. 2021. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza.  (The Critical Edition, edited by Ricard F. Vivancos-Pérez and Normal Elia Cantú) San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books. 

ANZALDÚA, Gloria. 1991. 'To(o) Queer the Writer – Loca, escritora y chicana.’ In WARLAND, Betsy (ed.). Inversions: Writing by Dykes, Queers, and Lesbians. Vancouver: Press Gang Publishers, 249-264. 

ARROW, V. 2013 ‘Real person(a) fiction’. In JAMIESON, A.(ed.). Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World. Dallas: Smart Pop, 323–32.  

BAKHTIN, Mikhail. 1984. Rabelais and His World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

BARNARD, Ian. 1997. ‘Gloria Anzaldúa’s Queer Mestisaje.’ MELUS. Spring 22(1), 35-53. 

BENNETT, J. 2013. 'Receive the Beast’. Decibel. Issue 100/February, 75-84. 

BENSHOFF, Harry M. 2015. 'The Monster and the Homosexual.' In GRANT, Barry Keith, The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. Austin: University of Texas Press, 16-41. 

BIELAK, Zbigniew M. ‘Prequelle.’ [album art] 

BUSSE, Kristina. 2006. ‘My life is a WIP on my LJ: Slashing the slasher and the reality of celebrity and Internet performances.’ In HELLEKSON, Karen and BUSSE, Kristina (eds.). Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, 207-224. 

BUSSE, Kristina. 2005. ‘Digital Get Down: Postmodern Boy Band Slash and the Queer Female Space.’ In MALCOLM, Cheryl Alexander and NYMAN, Jopi, eros.usa: essays on the culture and literature of desire. Gdańsk: Gdańsk University Press, 103-125. 

BUTLER, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge. 

CHANEY, Keidra and LIEBLER, Raizel. 2006. ‘Me, myself and I: Fan fiction and the art of self-insertion' Bitch. 31, 52-57. 

CHARMAZ, Kathy. 2006. Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. (2011 reprint) London: SAGE Publications. 

CIXOUS, Hélène. 1976. ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’. Signs. 1(4), 875-893.  

CLIFFORD-NAPOLEONE, Amanda. 2015. 'Living in the margins: Metal’s self-in-reflection.’ Metal Music Studies. 1(3), 379-384. 

CLIFFORD-NAPOLEONE, Amanda. 2015. Queerness in Heavy Metal Music: Metal Bent. New York: Routledge. 

COHEN, Cathy J. 1997. 'Punks, Bulldaggers and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?’ GLQ. 3, 437-465. 

DAWES, Laina. 2013. What Are You Doing Here? A Black Woman’s Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal. Brooklyn: Bazillion Points. 

DAWES Laina. 2015. ‘Challenging an "Imagined Community:” Discussions (or lack thereof) of black and queer experiences within heavy metal culture. Metal Music Studies. 1(3), 385-393. 

DERECHO, Abigail. 'Archontic Literature: A Definition, a History, and Several Theories of Fan Fiction’. In HELLEKSON, Karen and BUSSE, Kristina (eds.). Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, 61-78. 

DORAN, John. 2012. ‘Mass is in Session.’ Metal Hammer UK. April 2012, 38-47. 

DRISCOLL, Catherine. ‘One True Pairing: the Romance of Pornography and the Pornography of Romance.’ In HELLEKSON, Karen and BUSSE, Kristina (eds.). Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, 79-96. 

EHRENREICH, Barbara, HESS, Elizabeth, and JACOBS, Gloria. 1992. ‘Beatlemania: Girls Just Want to Have Fun.’ In LEWIS, Lisa A. (ed.). The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media. London: Routledge, 84-106. 

FABBRI, Franco. ‘A Theory of Musical Genres: Two Applications.’ 

FAST, Susan. 1999. ‘Rethinking Issues of Gender and Sexuality in Led Zeppelin: A Woman’s View of Pleasure and Power in Hard Rock’. American Music. Fall 1999, 17(3), 245-299. 

FAUSTO-STERLING, Anne. 1993. ‘The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female are Not Enough’. The Sciences. March/April 1993, 20-25. 

FAXNELD, Per. 2017. Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

FIESLER, Casey, MORRISON, Shannon, and BRUCKMAN, Amy S. 2016. ‘An Archive of Their Own: A Case Study of Feminist HCI and Values in Design.’ CHI ‘16 Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 

FIESLER, Casey. 2019. ‘Ethical Considerations for Research Involving (Speculative) Public Data’. Proc. ACM Hum-Comput. Interact. 3, GROUP, Article 249 (December 2019), 249-249:13. 

FRITH, Simon. 1996. Performing Rites: on the Value of Popular Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

FRITH, Simon, and MCROBBIE, Angela. 1990. 'Rock and Sexuality’. In FRITH, Simon and GOODWIN, Andrew (eds.). On Record: Rock, Pop and the Written Word. London: Routledge, 317-332. 

GARLAND-THOMSON, Rosemarie. 2002. ‘Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory’. NWSA Journal. Fall 2002, 14(3), 1-32. 

GHOST. 2012. ‘Children! In the wait for some news from the ghoul front, devour some graphics that we applaud here within the ministry...’ October 30, 2012 [Facebook post]. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/thebandghost/posts/297668790339417 

GHOST. 2019. ‘Chapter Seven: New World Redro’. June 13 2019 [YouTube video] Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/ryuzatodraws-archive/672367379880312832/i-remembered-the-jesus-showing-off-his-top?source=share [accessed 30 May 2024] 

GHOST-BAND-AIDS. 2020. ‘Interview with GHOST and TRIBULATION.’ [Tumblr post] Translated from DELASTIK, Anja. 2020. ‘Schlagabtaush: Ghost vs. Tribulation.’ Metal Hammer Germany. March 2020. Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/ghost-band-aids/190811297796/interview-with-ghost-and-tribulation  https://www.metal-hammer.de/schlagabtausch-ghost-vs-tribulation-1424295/ 

GREEN, Shoshanna, JENKINS, Cynthia, and JENKINS, Henry. 1998. ‘Normal Female Interest in Men Bonking: Selections from The Terra Nostra Underground and Strange Bedfellows’. In HARRIS, Cheryl and ALEXANDER, Alison (eds.). Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subculture, and Identity. Cresskill: Hampton Press. 

HAGEN, Ross. 2015. 'Bandom Ate My Face: The Collapse of the Fourth Wall in Online Fan Fiction’. Popular Music and Society. 38(1), 44-58. 

HALBERSTAM, Judith. 2003. ‘Reflections on Queer Studies and Queer Pedagogy’. In YEP, Gust A, LOVAAS, Karen E., and ELIA, John P. (eds.). Queer Theory and Communication: From Disciplining Queers to Queering the Discipline(s). Binghamton: Harrington Park Press, 361-364. 

HALBERSTAM, Judith. 2005. In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York: New York University Press. 

HICKMAN, Langdon. 2023. ‘The Dialectical Satan’. In LUKES, Daniel and PANAYOTOV, Stanimir (eds.). Black Metal Rainbows. Oakland: PM Press, 335-350. 

HILL, Rosemary Lucy. 2016. ‘”Power has a penis”: Cost reduction, social exchange and sexism in metal – reviewing the work of Sonia Vasan’. Metal Music Studies. 2(3), 263-271. 

HILLS, Matt. 2002. Fan Cultures. London: Routledge. 

HINERMAN, Stephen. 1992. '”I’ll Be Here With You”: Fans, Fantasy and the Figure of Elvis’. In LEWIS, Lisa A. (ed.). The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media. London: Routledge, 107-134. 

HOAD, Catherine. 2017. 'Slashing through the boundaries: Heavy metal fandom, fan fiction and girl cultures’. Metal Music Studies. 3(1), 5-22. 

HOOKS, bell. 2015. Feminism: From Margin to Center. New York: Routledge. (third edition) 

HOPPER, Jessica. 2021. The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. First MCD x FSG Originals Edition. 

HUTCHERSON, Ben and HAENFLER, Ross. 2010. ‘Musical Genre as a Gendered Process: Authenticity in Extreme Metal’. Studies in Symbolic Interactions. Vol 35, 101-121. 

IRIGARAY, Luce. 1989. This Sex Which is Not One. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 

ISMMS 2023: ‘No Outsides’. (Conference June 3-6, 2023) 

JENKINS, Henry. 2013. Textual Poachers. New York: Routledge. The Classic Edition. 

JONAS, Hans. 1958. The Gnostic Religion. Boston: Beacon Press.  

JONES, Rhian E. and DAVIES, Eli (eds.). 2017. Under My Thumb: Songs That Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them. London: Repeater Books. 

KAPLAN, Deborah. 2006. ‘Construction of Fan Fiction Character Through Narrative.’ In HELLEKSON, Karen and BUSSE, Kristina (eds.). Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, 134-152. 

KROVATIN, Christopher. 2018. 'Ghost is the Most Try-Hard Satanic Rock Band on Earth’. Vice. 31 May [online]. Available at: https://www.vice.com/en/article/9k8qbe/ghost-is-the-most-try-hard-satanic-rock-band-on-earth [accessed 29 May 2024]. 

LATZKO-TOTH, Guillaume, BONNEAU, Claudine, and MILLETTE, Mélanie. 2017. ‘Small Data, Thick Data: Thickening Strategies for Trace-Based Social Media Research’. In SLOAN, Luke and QUAN-HAASE, Anabel (eds). The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Research Methods. London: SAGE Publications, 199-214. 

LUKES, Daniel and PANAYOTOV, Stanimir. 2023. Black Metal Rainbows. Oakland: PM Press. 

MCINTOSH, Peggy. 1990. ‘White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack’. 

Metal and Religion Conference 2022 

NAMASTE, Viviane. 2009. 'Undoing Theory: The “Transgender Question” and the Epistemic Violence of Anglo-American Feminist Theory.’ Hypatia. 24(3), 11-32. 

PAGELS, Elaine. 1989. The Gnostic Gospels. New York: Random House. (Vintage Books Edition, September 1989.) 

PARR, George. 2023. ‘Rape Culture’. In LUKES, Daniel and PANAYOTOV, Stanimir (eds.). Black Metal Rainbows. Oakland: PM Press, 353-361. 

PASCOE, C.J.. 2011. Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School. Berkeley: University of California Press.  

PETROCELLI, Heather Oriana. 2023. Queer for Fear: Horror Film and the Queer Spectator. University of Wales Press. 

REED-DANAHAY, Deborah. 1997. Auto/ethnography: rewriting the self and the social. New York: Berg. 

RICHES, Gabby. 2015. ‘Re-conceptualizing women’s marginalization in heavy metal: a feminist post-structuralist perspective’. Metal Music Studies. 1(2), 263-270. 

RICHES, Gabrielle, LASHUA, Brett, and SPRACKLEN, Karl. 2014. ‘Female, Mosher, Transgressor: A “Moshography” of Transgressive Practices within the Leeds Extreme Metal Scene’. IASPM Journal, 4(1), 87-100.  

ROACH, Emily E. 2018. ‘The homoerotics of the boyband, queerbaiting and RPF in pop music fandoms’, Journal of Fandom Studies. 6(2), 167-186.  

RYUZATODRAWS. 2022. ‘I remembered the “jesus showing off his top surgery scar to the homies" post so heres Trans Copia showing his off!’ [Tumblr post] Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/ryuzatodraws-archive/672367379880312832/i-remembered-the-jesus-showing-off-his-top?source=share 

S_G. 2022. ‘Ghost/Tobias Forge - Hård rock pä export, 2022, (English subtitles) [YouTube user-generated content]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPwiFdYJc20 [Accessed Jul. 31 2022] 

SAVIGNY, Heather and SLEIGHT, Sam. 2015. ‘Postfeminism and heavy metal in the United Kingdom: Sexy or sexist?’ Metal Music Studies. 1(3), 341-357. 

SHADRACK, Jasmine Hazel. 2021. Black Metal, Trauma, Subjectivity and Sound : Screaming the Abyss. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing. 

SLAVGHOUL. 2019. ‘Tobias on being the sexy face of Satanism.’ Translated from CZARTORYSKI, Bartosz. 2019. ‘Seksowne oblicze satanizmu. Rozmawiamy z liderem zespołu Ghost.’ Available at: https://slavghoul.tumblr.com/post/189496141322/tobias-on-being-the-sexy-face-of-satanism [accessed 29 May 2024]. 

SLAVGHOUL. 2020. Into the Fog. Translated from LAGERGREN, Richard. 2010. ‘In i dimman’. Sweden Rock Magazine. 76. Available at: https://slavghoul.tumblr.com/post/619019726477213697/heres-an-interview-with-papa-from-2010-that-i [accessed 29 May 2024]. 

SLAVGHOUL. 2022. ‘Ghost MySpace, 2010’. [Tumblr post]. Available at: https://slavghoul.tumblr.com/post/695852845125238784/ghost-myspace-2010 [accessed 30 May 2024] 

SLOAN, Luke and QUAN-HAASE, Anabel. 2017. The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Research Methods. London: SAGE Publications. 

SMOKE-AND-SILVER. 2024. [Tumblr post] Available at: https://smoke-and-silver.tumblr.com/post/741475063435542528 

SPRACKLEN, Karl. 2020. ‘From The Wicker Man (1973) to Atlantean Kodex: Extreme music, alternative identities and the invention of paganism.’ Metal Music Studies. 6(1), 71-86. 

STASI, Mafalda. 2006. ‘The Toy Soldiers from Leeds: The Slash Palimpsest.’ In HELLEKSON, Karen and BUSSE, Kristina (eds.). Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, 115-133. 

SWIST, Jeremy J. 2019. ‘Satan’s Empire: Ancient Rome’s anti-Christian appeal in extreme metal.’ Metal Music Studies. 5(1), 35-51. 

TEDDLIE, Charles, and TASHAKKORI, Abbas. 2009. Foundations of mixed methods research: integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches in the social and behavioral sciences. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications. 

TIIDENBERG, Katrin, HENDRY, Natalie Ann, ABIDIN, Crystal. 2021. tumblr. Polity Press. 

TIIDENBERG, Katrin. 2018. ‘Research Ethics, Vulnerability, and Trust on the Internet.’ In HUNSINGER, J., ALLEN, Matthew M., and KLASTRUP, Lisbeth (eds). Second International Handbook of Internet Research, Springer. 569-585. 

THOMSON, Andrew. 2021. ‘Right hand up, left hand down: The New Satanists of Rock n’ Roll, Evil and the Underground War on the Abject.’ Metal Music Studies. 7(1), 43-60. 

TRANARCHYREIGNS. 2024 [tumblr post] ‘I made a diagram that represents myself perfectly.’ March 26th, 2024 Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/tranarchyreigns/746022566448316416/i-made-a-diagram-that-represents-myself-perfectly [accessed 30 May 2024] 

TRINH, T. Minh-Ha. 1989. Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

UNGER, Matthew P. 2019. ‘Ode to a dying God: Debasement of Christian symbols in extreme metal.’ Metal Music Studies. 5(2), 243-262. 

VASAN, Sonia. 2010. ‘”Den mothers and band whores”: Gender, sex, and power in the death metal scene’, in HILL, R.L. and SPRACKLEN, Karl (eds.), Heavy Fundamentalisms: Music, Metal and Politics. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 69-78. 

VASAN, Sonia. 2011. ‘The Price of Rebellion: Gender Boundaries in the Death Metal Scene,’ Journal for Cultural Research. 15(3). 333-349. 

WALSER, Robert. 1993. Running With the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music. London: Wesleyan University Press. 

WEINSTEIN, Deena. 2000. Heavy Metal: the Music and Its Culture. Da Capo Press. First Da Capo Press Edition 2000. 

WISE, Sue. 1990. ‘Sexing Elvis’. In FRITH, Simon and GOODWIN, Andrew (eds.). On Record: Rock, Pop and the Written Word. London: Routledge, 333-340. 

YOUNG, Iris Marion. 1990. Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.  

YOUNG, Iris Marion. 1990. Throwing Like a Girl and Other Essays in Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 

[xcaliburmoz]

ʟᴏᴏᴋɪɴɢ ғᴏʀ ᴍᴏᴏᴛɪᴇs !!!!

« so, ive not been on tumblr for YEARS and ive changed and need to refurbish my feed (too much spn u get me) »

✧🇬 🇪 🇹  🇹 🇴  🇰 🇳 🇴 🇼  🇲 🇪 ✧

a little about me:

⋆ im morgain, currently 19 and british (big pain) ⋆

⋆ i have 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦𝘴 and i might sometimes say kinda triggering things (girl needs to vent ok) ⋆

⋆ i dont feel the need to label myself for society's benefit but i am queer ⋆

⋆ my colours are forest green, blood red and navy blue ⋆

of the things i enjoy:

『 𝖆𝖗𝖙 』

✰ i like art, like, a lot. it gives me breath of life ✰

『 𝖇𝖔𝖔𝖐𝖘 』

✰ i like books. mostly fantasy and romance (ew ik) but i looove a good thriller (the magus anyone?). just finished reading captive prince by cs pacat and im mayorly hyperfixated now. i read obcene amounts of fanfiction too (ao3 only, i am after all an adult) ✰

『 𝖍𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞 』

✰ i have the hots for history. i am obsessed with the past and have a bad habit of romantisizing it, within reason ofc. thank u bbc merlin for my lovely obsession with the arthurian legends ✰

『 𝖕𝖔𝖊𝖙𝖗𝖞 』

✰ i live off of poetry. poems and poetic quotes (very un poetic way to say but u get me) give colour to my thoughts or something, im not the poet here ✰

『 𝖕𝖍𝖎𝖑𝖔𝖘𝖔𝖕𝖍𝖞 』

✰ i enjoy frying my brain with philisophical (and scientific) concepts beyond my intellectual capacities. also, conspiracy theories (in the fun kind of way) ✰

『 𝖇𝖆𝖐𝖎𝖓𝖌 』

✰ i bake, not well really but i do it anyway ✰

『 𝖜𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 』

✰ i write, not well but i do it anyway, ive dabbled in the fanfiction arts with varying results ✰

『 𝖒𝖚𝖘𝖎𝖈 』

✰ MUSIC. music is the strings that keep me annimated in life. there is nothing more bleak than a life without music. im big on indie rock and stuff, alternative, vaguely emo shit (not that much) my fav band is nothing but thieves, undefeated till the end i swear ✰

『 𝖓𝖆𝖙𝖚𝖙𝖊 』

✰ frogs are my spirit animal and i cry when people litter. i cry when i hear about biodiversity loss, i cry when people say shit like, this used to be a forest before we cut it down for timber, i cry i cant see the stars. i cry a lot. but i really love the forest ✰

my shows, books, films etc:

nbc hannibal

miraculous ladybug (judge me if u dare)

acotar the series

spn (in moderation)

fourth wing (ik its bad)

bbc merlin

how to train your dragon

mcu (just bucky really)

harry potter (i love a good drarry and/or dramione)

sam and colby (yes im one of those girlies)

six of crows

killing eve

scream (1996)

Things i dont like:

CAPITALISM

spiders

olives

〘 thats me, if u share my interests lets be moots? 〙

i can be funny i promise