#also was this an excuse to make a joke about the gay male flag and Sierra Leone flag being similar?

[jovialoddity]

Prof. Puzzles:

He would see someone holding up a lesbian flag, and just be like “huh, what is that? Wales?” /affectionate

LMAOOOOOO YOU’RE SO RIGHT 😭 the only pride flags he knows are the rainbow flag and maybe the trans flag and the rest he just thinks are some kind of obscure countries he’s never heard of

[violetsystems]

I don't really think it's safe for me to write long form for awhile. At least not longer than this. I woke up last morning at like five am and I caught the same CTA worker with bleach blond hair from the platform sweeping and staring out at my kitchen. Probably waiting for me to blog about them. It's become enough of a pattern to feel it is invasive and it happens on state and federal property. Nothing I can do about it because they think my kitchen is public space. Another neighbor was up early yesterday around the same time staring in. I've caught her boyfriend following me around trying to grief me for years. Then there's somebody I've never seen pacing back and forth with a cigarette at the property next door smiling maniacally. I walked out the morning of my interview and some ginger in a Sox hat I caught following me around lurking around the corner next door trying to be intimidating. You try to interact with them and they just stare back at you like it's some fair game scientology shit. I go to get my amazon packages at a drop box now and people follow me around and take my picture. People also try to flag me down politely only to blow weed in my face too. Somebody likes something I post about shaping the future and there's a man in black with a police flag shirt staring back at me in my window from the platform again. Real creepy shit. I paid my rent five days early again. There's no renovations to my apartment. Not like I dare ask. Nobody texts. Nobody calls other than my parents sometimes. Military, lawyers, and political science majors from London stalk my LinkedIn. No job offers. Just resume sent after endless resume. I just take all this as matter of fact really. But my life is going nowhere and at a dead end. People just want to be mean and try to hurt me. And they use this platform without any protection from the services this website provides which probably takes money from ads targeting me. I wouldn't know really I'm ad-free. But I was a target of the proud boys all the way back in 2015 in New Zealand when I visited somebody who worked for WETA digital. I was even detained illegally in Gold Coast Australia by some proud boy TSA during that trip. Don't ask me to trust anyone from the music community ever again including my old boss. I'm getting really sick of trying to outline that I'm a marginalized identity while my neighbors use my porch as some Diversity Equity and Inclusion experiment to microcuck a micro aggressive agenda of imposter syndrome. I still wish everybody happy Pride amongst my gay friends. But please be aware the Proud boys named themselves purposefully that to culturally appropriate your movements. They do it with club music all the time and act like it's a joke. I'm not proud of the world around me lately. The president is in town Wednesday. Maybe he'll cuck me from the train platform too. Karma is a mother fucker. He really had the nerve to invite a PM that killed muslims to the White House to do yoga the around the ending of the Hajj. Euphemistic communication indeed. No use arguing with them or participating in their podcast circle jerks. Just threat them like the white male terrorrists they are and stay away unless you are taking money from them. That is kind of morally fucked up using them as your bogeyman in that respect. Who enabled who? Acting like they turned nazis overnight is a convenient lie when you’ve known them long enough to get a career boost. Some people were abused into thinking they were good people. But some of you are just like them deep down and have no excuse. Arguing with them or making them your crusade is only going to make things worse.. I of all people should know. So I have to ask is that your point to all of this? Publicity shouldn’t have to cost you your soul. Or the lives of good people who are targets off stage. At least I have nothing to hide anymore #personally speaking.

[sunfish999]

iconic things abt the hollow s2

spoilers ahead!!!

- adam was gay but there was no love interest!!! he was gay simply to be gay! like normal gays! period!

- mira has 2 dads. the rep in this show damn

- main characters of multiple races and ethnicities? yes!!!!

- MAJOR character development from s1. adam and reeve Learn to be Decent Humans (to each other). vanessa just becomes a fucking ICON. mira was already cool but like. the feminism really jumped out. SKEET🥺. bruh KAI. my cousin was like ‘he didn’t change at all’ um he became a fucken motivational speaker?? bitch? he showed us that everyone deserves second chances!!

- death is Not the answer (saving skeet (before his actual death, that is) and deciding that even if they’re code, it’s worth being alive)

- mira’s “lets talk about the lack of vulnerable male role models in the media”

- when vanessa apologized and said ‘ik that’s not an excuse’ and kai was like “that’s kind of an excuse” 🥺😭

- trying to fight each other’s fears before realizing they had to overcome their own<3

- TEAMWORK. werk it guys gals n gays

- is it bad that i was weirdly attracted to weird guy this season? idk man he just hit DIFF the purple skin i— (yea im done) w/o the MF GLASSES bruh

- mira apologizing for kissing adam w/o consent and adam knowing she didn’t mean to and making a joke out of it by saying he was just ‘irresistable’ yes u r adam u queen.

- ADAM has a bad side. i feel like s1 he was just. an angel the whole time. everyone makes mistakes and everyone has bad traits. u gotta own it n work past it. w friends of course

- BRUH THE MF PLOT I— dude was ANYONE expecting them to be just digitized people? yea that was way unexpected i couldn’t’ve even come up w that on my own

- MEERKAT

- kai being rich and his butler just being the coolest ever

- the mf OUTFITS in the french guy’s chateau. jesus. adam and reeve in suits? mira’s dress? did vanessa have a suit or a dress on? i think it was a mix? why does everyone do kai dirty i just. he’s babey

- KAI BEING AFRAID OF A CHICKEN I—

- adam overcoming being bullied in middle school🥺

- THE PRIDE FLAG IN ADAMS ROOM WAS A PAID ACTOR. BITCH I LOVE

- the three little pigs in fairy tale forest. that was the cutest omg

- rumplestiltskin moment when they all laughed. genuine lil laughs. i just wanted 2 mention...

- THE SNAIL WHEN IT OPENED ITS EYES AFTER COMING OUT OF THE SPELL OMG. so cute

- the portal art/animation is genuinely the most beautiful thing i’ve ever seen i really just. wow

- LOL WHEN THE BODY GUARD HAD TO CALL HER EX THE FIRE CHIEF jdjdjdjjd

- adams mom makes me wanna make banana pancakes. also i love adams dog. the clean up trick? boi goddamn. goodest boy ever

- idk if it was just bc of her personality change but like. vanessa is so pretty. i may or may not have simped. i also am a major simp for mira god. she’s so hot. like. ugh

- im tired of making this list bc there’s just too much it was just too iconic but...

- THE FACT THAT THERE WAS NO LIVE ACTION SCENE AT THE END AND THATS ON PERIODT. no whitewashing of adam or ugly ass outfits irl. they only work on screen. now i challenge u all to come up w your own outfits that u would wear in the hollow. that’d b lit pls do it. call it hollowsonas.

[pass-the-bechdel]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine season one full review

How many episodes pass the Bechdel test?

59.09% (thirteen of twenty-two).

What is the average percentage per episode of female characters with names and lines?

31.6%

How many episodes have a cast that is at least 40% female?

Two (episode four ‘M.E. Time’ (40%), and episode twenty-two, ‘Charges and Specs’ (41.17%)).

How many episodes have a cast that is less than 20% female?

Three (episode eight ‘Old School’ (20%), episode nine ‘Sal’s Pizza’ (20%), and episode fifteen ‘Operation: Broken Feather’ (17.64%)).

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Sixteen. Four who appear in more than one episode, three who appear in at least half the episodes, and two who appear in every episode.

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Fifty-two. Thirteen who appear in more than one episode, six who appear in at least half the episodes, and four who appear in every episode.

Positive Content Status:

In a general sense, they score well, but they’re not strong on female characters and the single most prominent narrative thread of the season is bizarrely out-of-touch and repellent. They averaged out ok, but I was a lot more uncomfortable than I expected to be, and certainly uncomfortable more often than I was impressed (average rating of 3).

General Season Quality:

In a general sense, again, this is mostly lovely, the characters are mostly delightful, the whole thing is MOSTLY easy to watch and digest, mostly fun, mostly un-insulting. Mostly. If you’re not watching with a critical eye, it’s no doubt much easier to stomach, but, well...it’s my job to be critical. And I am. 

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) under the cut:

I know guys: it’s a comedy. The first thing people tend to say when you start trying to be critical of the content of comedies is ‘oh my God, lighten up! It’s not supposed to be serious!’, so let me just assure you all right now that I know Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a comedy. It hasn’t magically escaped my notice. But comedic intention does not somehow elevate the storytelling above reproach, into some fabled realm where everything goes so long as SOMEONE is laughing. In fact, being critical of WHAT we are laughing at (or what we are being expected to laugh at) is every bit as important as questioning why we are presented certain content in dramas or horrors or scifi adventures, it’s all still fair game on the narrative landscape, and refusing to interrogate humour is a gateway to forgiving all manner of sins, so long as they’re packaged as if they’re meant to be funny. ‘It’s a comedy’ is not a valid excuse for presenting or perpetuating bullshit, so let���s just get that idea out of the way. 

The thing about comedy is, it works on an in-group/out-group mentality. Humans are pack animals, and whether we like it or not, we are constantly processing and evaluating information to determine who is ‘one of us’ and who is not. The people who find a joke funny are the in-group, the ones who don’t are the out-group. This is why, say, a racist joke is not just a matter of whether or not you’re ‘too sensitive’ or ‘too PC’ to get it, and it’s why hiding behind the line ‘I’m just joking’ is such a weak excuse; the out-group are not just sensitive and/or politically correct, they’re the people who recognise how that ‘joke’ reinforces negative stereotypes and thereby contributes to maintaining hostile mindsets about the subjects, the people who are ‘the butt of the joke’ (in-group/out-group is how comedy works; it’s also literally how discrimination works). The in-group are the people who don’t care: they’re the racists. When you laugh at the joke, you position yourself in the in-group, shoulder to shoulder with those racists, whether you personally consider yourself racist or not. Every time you ‘just’ make a joke, or ‘just’ laugh at one, you’re identifying yourself for those around you as belonging to a certain pack, a certain mindset, a certain outlook on life and the world. The concept of in-group/out-group mentality is actually integral to the thing which impressed me most about Brooklyn Nine-Nine in this first season: the handling of Holt and his sexuality. Bad representation in this case would be the kind that treats Holt and Kevin and - by extension - the entire queer community of the show, the audience, and the world, as if they are the out-group, with the assumption that straight people are the in-group, ‘the norm’. Even seemingly positive-toned representation can be framed as out-grouping if it approaches queer characters as ‘other’ and presumes that the viewer sees them as such (this is the kind of representation I flag as ‘just doing it for the brownie points’). Brooklyn Nine-Nine not only treats Holt as part of the in-group; the audience and the rest of the characters are treated as in-group, regardless of sexuality: it’s not about Holt’s team being good straight allies looking out for their gay Captain, it’s about the team being decent people looking out for one of their own. 

So, what does this have to do with my season-long rage against Charles Boyle? Quite simply, we the audience are in-grouped with him. Charles occupies the standard archetype of a bumbling everyman, good-natured but hapless, and the expectation is that we laugh at his misfortunes while also hoping he’ll muddle his way to success. Personally, this irks me outright, because under most circumstances I’m not much into schadenfreude and I don’t find destruction or pain very funny (an exception would be Terry crushing things in his hands, because the comedy derives from him being ludicrously strong rather than from the idea that destruction of property is inherently comedic). Laughing at Charles being inept already rubs me the wrong way, but the way he is framed by the narrative - as part of the in-group with the audience by virtue of being one of our good-guy leads - encourages that laughter to be sympathetic. Yeah, we’re laughing at Charles’ expense, but it’s not supposed to be mean-spirited laughter at an out-group subject, it’s the chuckle you have at your friend who just fell on their ass, a chuckle expressed at the same time as you head over and make sure they’re ok. Now, the problem here is not that I want to laugh at Charles’ misfortunes in a mean-spirited way (as noted, schadenfreude isn’t my style), the problem is that sympathetic in-group framing, and how it extends to the framing of all of Charles behaviour. Because the show doesn’t seem to have realised that Charles is, in fact, a dick.

The big problem is his creepy obsession with Rosa, which the characters all identify as having lasted a full year, and which I have previously identified as workplace harassment. Charles’ relationship with Rosa - such as it is - is the largest narrative thread of the entire season, with a presence in more than half the episodes, and the show does a bafflingly awful job of challenging Charles shitty behaviour, to the point of repeatedly undercutting Rosa in order to have her reaffirm Charles’ sense of self worth at the expense of defending her own right to basic respect. The fact that Charles is presented to the audience as a sympathetic character we should root for is a big part of the problem; the fact that he is much more prominent than Rosa exacerbates this. Until the latter end of the season, any Charles/Rosa plots are pretty exclusively presented from Charles’ perspective, rendering Rosa an object in his story rather than an agent in her own, and since she is given far less screen time or personal stories or subplots that are NOT related to Charles, we as an audience are given very few invitations to view Rosa outside of Charles’ lens. This is already problematic in itself, but it’s even more so when factoring in the schizophrenic way that the show frames Rosa’s reactions to Charles: sometimes rejecting him soundly, sometimes casually palling around with him and accepting his invitations to movies, dinner, etc. TO BE CLEAR: there is nothing wrong with Rosa’s behaviour, she treats Charles as a friend/co-worker/equal, and she also regularly makes it clear to him that she’s not interested in him romantically. BUT the way the show approaches her from Charles’ perspective encourages the audience to feel sorry for him being rejected, rather than understanding Rosa’s difficulty in being harassed no matter how much she tells him no, and then when she isn’t openly hostile at all times we’re encouraged to see how Charles perceives this as an opportunity for him to win her over as if he’s getting past her defenses, instead of recognising overtures of basic human decency. The in-group we are expected to happily occupy is that of a harasser, rather than sympathising with the harassed. 

BUT WAIT, it gets worse. First, Charles takes a couple of bullets for Rosa in the line of duty, prompting Rosa to feel conflicted because she’s still not into him but she also feels bad about turning down the guy who saved her life. When Charles later apologises for pursuing Rosa so obsessively, the apology itself - and the idea that Charles was in the wrong - is quickly buried by Rosa complimenting him. When Charles gets engaged and doesn’t invite Rosa to his wedding, she is upset since she has made a concerted effort to be his friend despite his garbage behaviour, and Charles throws his fiancee Vivian under the bus by claiming that SHE had a problem with Rosa coming to the wedding. Rosa later finds out about this, and follows up with...nothing? She sacrifices her and Gina’s secret sanctuary to give Charles a place to call Vivian in private (Charles repays this by immediately spilling the secret to Scully and Hitchcock, because he sucks), and then after Vivian breaks off the engagement, Rosa spearheads the effort to comfort Charles, culminating in her affirming to him yet again that he’s a good guy. The escalation of the whole Rosa/Charles subplot centres firmly around Rosa taking pains to make sure that Charles knows that he’s ~so great~ even though she’s not interested in him, taking it upon herself to comfort his widdle man feelings, as if that’s the most important thing we should be concerned about in this narrative: Charles feelings. By the time the story starts framing any of this from Rosa’s perspective instead of Charles’, Rosa is inexplicably fixating on looking out for him instead of getting any catharsis on her own experience. Rosa is denied her very real right to be angry and upset about the way Charles has treated her - and considering she’s already an angry person, it seems especially egregious that she is denied this feeling with him and instead exhibits the most softness and compassion we’ve seen from her so far - as ever, the narrative reinforces the idea that Charles deserves our sympathy in this scenario and that while Rosa does have the right to refuse his attention, she also owes it to him somehow to coddle his emotions and make efforts for him despite how he has totally disregarded her emotions for the past year. At no point do they imply that Charles is accountable for his actions, or that he has done anything worse than just having a cute unrequited crush. Poor Charles, so hapless, but don’t we all identify with that? From me personally, it’s a resounding NO.

After the season finale, I noted that Jake Peralta’s mature confession of his feelings for Amy creates a great counterpoint to Charles’ behaviour, and I’m gonna wrap this up by explicating that claim. The thing about Jake is that, sure, he’s immature - it’s one of his primary character traits as set out in the Pilot episode - and his immaturity does affect others in his life negatively at times, but mostly it’s self-contained, impacting the way that Jake lives but not adversely affecting others, and when he DOES adversely impact others, he tends to recognise that, apologise, and make it up to them. Jake doesn’t like to be reminded of his shortcomings or forced to focus or dwell on them, but he also takes responsibility for his own behaviour when it threatens the harmony of other people’s lives. Charles is presented to us as a much more mature adult character, and yet he is completely absent Jake’s self-awareness and willingness to shoulder his own emotional labour (or at least not dump it on others instead); he seemingly does not care in the slightest about the impact his behaviour has on others, and he’s happy to take advantage of the compassion of his friends. We see this obviously in the entire Rosa fiasco and the way the show has her pick up his slack, but she only gets the worst of it; see also, the entire squad avoiding Charles after his shooting because of his exhausting exploitation of their gratitude (never presented as malicious exploitation, but lacking any recognition from Charles that he is overwhelming others’ good will), and of course his ridiculous depression-spiral after Vivian breaks up with him, which is entirely attention-seeking rather than mirroring personal unhappiness; his actions are specifically designed to get in everyone else’s faces about how they should be sympathetic to him. He also throws people under the bus rather than dealing with his problems, as he does with Rosa’s wedding invitation as noted above, and again with Jake after he asks Jake to help him talk to Vivian about not wanting to move to Canada. And we’re supposed to sympathise with this guy? We’re supposed to laugh at how poor Charles just isn’t very good at handling confrontation or being basically responsible for his own actions? Compared to Charles, Jake’s immaturity is hardly worth mentioning, because at least Jake has mastered common decency. Charles is a whiny man-baby foisting his emotional labour off onto others and expecting to be coddled in return, a guy who harasses his coworker and then acts blithely ignorant to the meaning of plain words when she tells him she’s not interested (repeatedly), a guy who never had a personal problem that he didn’t try to make someone else handle for him. This show is MOSTLY delightful, but Charles Boyle is not. Charles Boyle is a small nightmare, and not a funny one, and it makes me concerned about the mindset of the creators of the show that they apparently think Charles is a good joke. They’re gonna have to make some really strong changes to the way they handle Charles and Rosa (independently and in interaction) in the future, or I am gonna be an angry out-grouper.

[redwood-boner]

New Year, More Gay

Summary: Everyone deserves a New Years kiss. Even gay prospects.

Pairing: Tig x Male OC

Words: 688

Warnings: swearing, gayness?

Author’s Note: this is for SAMPERV’s New Years Eve challenge. This is my first writing for SOA so go easy on me please. :) I also couldn’t think of a better title.

Playlist: musical inspiration for writing this fic & good songs for you to listen to while reading it ;)

Colors - Halsey

Like Real People Do - Hozier

Tags: @samperv ; @soamagicreality ; @daddyclegane

Prospecting was an entire world of shit-talking, ass-wiping, and sucking up to (hopefully) get that full patch in a year. Luca got humiliated enough as a prospect for the Sons of Anarchy California charter that he didn’t think running around with the rainbow flag flowing behind him would help. So, when he joined the club, he didn’t exactly tell anyone about his sexual preferences – he didn’t think it was any of their business anyway. It wasn’t like he was walking around with a boner all the time because of them. Until that very thing began to happen. Luca told himself when he joined this club that all the members were off limits. He promised himself he wouldn’t fall for any of them. He lied. Tig Trager got under his skin like no one else. Anytime that damn curly haired man started making sexual jokes, Luca could feel his body start to heat up. He often had to excuse himself to the bathroom just to relax himself.

Somehow, Luca had survived these past eleven months without jumping the man – though there were nights when that was hard to do. Nights like tonight. When everyone was drinking and having a grand time and anytime Luca walked near Tig he could feel the man’s hand touching some part of his body – usually his ass. He knew it was meant to be a joke, just part of the prospecting gig, just that brotherly love that the members felt for each other. Except what Luca felt for Tig was far from brotherly.

It was New Years Eve. The club was full of members and their family, celebrating the ending of one year and the beginning of another. Luca was walking around and collecting empty bottles when he saw that familiar face out of the corner of his eye. Though, this time that face wasn’t laughing or cracking some sick joke. That face was deep in some blonde croweater. It made his blood boil because as much as he would deny it, Luca was the jealous type. Luca didn’t even realize he was staring until he felt his fist clench around the beer bottle he was holding, breaking it in his hand and letting out a soft gasp as glass entered his skin. Luca looked around from the pair making out and down to his now bleeding hand, mentally cursing himself. He walked towards the bathroom, going in to clean his hand up.

He was drying his hands when he heard the door open behind him. Luca looked up into the mirror, his body tensing as he saw Tig standing by the door. He swallowed thickly before turning around and trying to act normal. “Did you get bored with that croweater?” he asked, a smirk on his face as met the man’s gaze. The silence that filled the air made Luca’s stomach clench – somehow it was even worse than the usual teasing. “Right…I should get back out there…” He said softly before moving to walk past Tig. He didn’t expect the man to grab his arm or the awkward sexual tension that filled the air for those few seconds they held eye contact. Luca pulled away and walked out of the bathroom quickly before he did something he regretted.

The rest of that night, the prospect basically hid behind the bar and avoided Tig at all costs. Until he heard the countdown begin. Luca’s gaze met Tig’s from across the room and he felt all his blood rush down his body. Pushing through the crowd, Luca walked towards Tig. Maybe he didn’t want to hide anymore. Maybe he thought they wouldn’t remember tomorrow. Either way, his body seemed to be making the decisions now. He took one last step to close the distance between their bodies and without a second though, Luca’s lips pressed firmly to Tig’s just as the rest of the room shouted out “HAPPY NEW YEAR!”. His hand fisted around the older man’s shirt, pulling him closer as Luca closed his eyes and lost himself in the kiss. In this moment, nothing else mattered. He could deal with the consequences later.

[indigo-ra]

Transgender Transgressions

So look, I sometimes maybe go on these tirades about how the transgender struggle is a made up problem. And I just want to clarify for anyone who actually reads these posts (absolutely nobody) that I’m not a hateful person. There are people out in the world making arguments against transgenderism just for the sake of winning a debate, but who really don’t give a shit. But I do. I’m going to hurt you with this tough love, but only because you need it. I might make generalizations, but if they don’t apply to you, then you don’t need to be offended. On the other hand, if they do apply to you, take great offense and change your behaviors so that they don’t apply to you.  I don’t hate trans people, but I do hate that they actively make a decision to endure a struggle and whine about it. A person doesn’t have a choice in being born into their race, and *most* of the time, they don’t choose to be gay or lesbian. HOWEVER, when you choose not to accept your outside truth because your id is shrieking for the instant gratification of being “who you are”, beyond the power of clothes and makeup, you’re on some spoiled bitch tantrum, and indulging that will not make you a better person. You will actively put yourself through horomone treatments, physical, mental, and spiritual illness, genital mutilation etc.. and still call for people to be empathetic to a struggle you CHOSE to endure. So you think everyone should be compassionate toward you for a choice you made to do things to yourself so that you could feel better about yourself, and when the outside forces disapprove, you’re back to saying you’re being discriminated against when it had nothing to do with gaining others approval in the first place.  It’s like going to college, choosing a major and then, in your senior year, picking an ELECTIVE class, that’s so fucking hard that it docks your GPA. Why do you opt to be treated like you’re fragile when you CHOSE the HARDEST CLASS? YOU CHOSE IT, but you’re weak, and fragile? I have no empathy for that mindset because it’s SELFISH. Nobody who ever decided they wanted to change genders ever did it with a selfless mindset and if they did, they knew exactly what would come and accepted that as a consequence of their actions. If you’ve recognized that you are selfish and you feel like you have the right to be selfish, then you also have the right to feel like an asshole when somebody calls you “sir” or “ma’am” not to your liking, because your biology was written before you DECIDED to “transition” and its not their fucking job to call you by your preferred pronouns just because you’re having an inner crisis that YOU CHOSE TO PUT ON OUTER DISPLAY. That’s not being insensitive. I’ve been called “sir” and I look nothing like a man, but I didn’t have a fucking meltdown about it because I’m secure in who I am. Changing your outside to match your INSECURE INSIDE won’t fix the innate issues that make a person INSECURE. Cosmetic changes won’t change the code of your DNA or your personality flaws. If you were a bitch before you transitioned, you’ll likely be a bitch after, because regardless of what YOU think, changing your gender and name doesn’t change the person you are, just the face you’re using. I know I’m going hard right now, but if you CHOOSE to live a hard life, you better toughen the fuck up. Women fight and struggle for equal rights and now there are men who are changing the topography of what it means to be a “woman” simply because they want to feel included. You don’t know what it’s like to have a fucking period, but for some reason since you’re allowed to compete against girls now, you feel like you stand for us??? Have several seats “SIR”. On the other hand, women turning into men are going to deal with man problems that will irk the fuck out of them, like when men make  sexist jokes about women or sexual assault-what we like to call “rape culture” but boys are just dumb and laugh at shit like that because that's in their stupid fucking Testosterone-humored nature, and you,  a “man with a vagina” WILL FEEL TRIGGERED AS A WOMAN.  So stop. Just stop. You wanna be trans, that’s fine, but you look like a freak to me. And that’s okay, Just accept that. Once you do, shit will get a lot easier. The gays did it, and their parades with their twinky glitter fairyboys can even make a hard-nosed, steak-and-potatoes, straight Texan man laugh, because they’re okay with letting their freak flags fly. But trying to say I’m transgender and I’m normal, I’m like anybody else, when you’re not and its because you CHOSE not to be, you can fuck right off with that. k? What kind of vanity changes from a male to a female and their sexual preference is females? That’s a head-scratcher for me, and I know that gender Identity and gender preference are not mutually exclusive before you start screaming from your little broken soapbox, but you only got 2 to fucking choose from and you still manage to alienate yourself from the best of both stock options. At the very least you should get out of the habit of being SO adamant about your pronouns to STRANGERS. To people who know you and love you and give a shit about your feelings, whatever. But if you bump into a person at the mall and they say “Oh excuse me sir” take that L, You look like a fucking dude. That’s not a reason to be sad or angry at anybody but yourself for thinking you could leave the house in that outfit without looking like that person you “swear” you are underneath your biology. Not anybody else’s problem, but yours. ALSO, when you reach the end of that magical rainbow you call “transitioning” just call yourself a man or a woman. Saying you’re a “trans-man” or a “trans-woman” invites scrutiny and judgment, and UNLESS YOU ACTUALLY LIKE DRAMA  you shouldn’t be saying that. I already know what you’re gonna say “But I’m proud of blahblah”  If you don’t want the first thing people to think about, when they meet you, is “What’s between your legs?”, you shouldn’t mention it in regular conversation. It’s a way of boasting your ego to slide trans in there by saying “Yeah I look good huh, can you believe I used to be a boy/girl?” See? I told you were an asshole. Check this out: Trans-formation Trans-ition Trans-migrate Trans-mission The prefix “trans” means to change. Whether it’s gears or genders, once it’s completed, the “trans” part is fucking OVER. Do you understand that? A butterfly doesn’t go around saying I’m trans-caterpillar. It was once a caterpillar and it TRANSFORMED into a butterfly. You’re just a woman or a man after. You’re not special, and that’s the real issue, you want special treatment, but you need to check that fucking ego. If you really feel like you’re a real woman or man who’s FINALLY been granted a second chance at life in the body you’ve always wanted, then leave that trans part out, unless you want to be bullied.  Love you. Grow up. Bye.

[lord-pigasus]

No Pride For The Police

(content warning: this essay contains conversations on police brutality, homophobia, transphobia, racism, mental illness, and rape that may be upsetting. it also uses reclaimed slurs)       Pride is our day to be out and be loud. To many, these events are the only face of the queer community. They're loud, colorful, and celebratory.  Seeing my people celebrate their queerness all over the country is inspiring. However, these marches often fail to focus on important political issues that affect more vulnerable queer populations.  Among these issues is the trend of increased police involvement.       Police are everywhere at pride parades, they escort the marchers, they block off the route, and they patrol the area. At the last pride march i attended, the police even paraded alongside the marchers in their cruisers, waving rainbow flags at the audience. Police love to play like they’re supporting the community. They smile, crack jokes, and pose for pictures. To them, pride is a way to build clout in the community. A way to get people to trust them and rely on them. Once pride is over however, they aren’t so friendly to the queers.       Mya Hall, a 27 year old black trans woman took a wrong turn off the highway and ended up headed towards the Baltimore NSA headquarters. Before she reached the gates of the facility, police open fired at her car. Kayden Clarke, a 24 year old trans man, called the police for help during an Aspergers-related meltdown. Instead of attempting to talk him down the police fired their weapons. Both of these people had their lives end at the hands of the police. Stories like these are shocking examples of how police interact with queer bodies. Police violence is a constant threat against us, felt most by trans people, people of color, and differently abled queers.       Black trans women especially are targeted. They are profiled as sex workers or drug addicts by the police who use the law as an excuse to harass, beat, sexually assault, and arrest these women with no repercussions.  According to the National Coalition of Anti Violence Programs, Transgender people of color are six times more likely to experience police violence that cis white people, and the Office of Justice Programs says that thirty two percent of black trans women report being sexually assaulted while in police custody or jail.       As a community, our number one priority should be to ensure the physical safety of our most threatened members. Any queer organization that supports or works with the cops does it in the face of every queer person targeted by them. If a group doesn’t fight for the protection of all queer people, especially trans women of color, then it is fucking useless.       When the modern gay rights movement began, police violence was one of the main points of action, and we would not have the rights that we have without our spiritual ancestors’ anti-police resistance. Unfortunately, that history of resistance has been lost or erased by the mainstream community.         In the 1960s, the queer community had to work underground to avoid police harassment. Raids on gay bars and restaurants were regular, and sometimes even scheduled.       Organizations such as the Daughters of Bilitis and the Mattachine Society worked to create public acceptance of homosexuality, but were very restrained and quiet in their tactics. They excluded trans people, demanded formal dress, and did their work from the closet using respectful and non confrontational tactics that were slow-working and ineffective.       In 1966, police attacked a group of trans people at Compton's cafeteria in San francisco's tenderloin district. Fighting soon broke out as queers smashed windows and threw plates, cups, and furniture at the police. this quickly became a battle between police and trans folk and spilled out into the street. Those riots showed the community that they had the power to fight against the police. It inspired queer militancy all over the country, and helped create a network of fags in San Francisco that would organize and fight for queer rights in the coming years.       More well known is the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. When the police attacked the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar popular with homeless queer people, they were met with bricks, fists, and shouts of "gay power!" In the aftermath of the battle, queer people began organizing into groups such as the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA). These groups borrowed tactics from black and anti-war activists, and advocated for queer people to come out and protest their unfair treatment.       On the first anniversary of the uprising, gay activists marched in the Christopher Street Liberation Day parade from Christopher Street to Central Park. Similar marches were organized in Chicago and Los Angeles. In the coming years, these marches had spread across the world and became the pride marches that we see today.       As we achieved more and more rights, the tone and politics of these marches changed. They became bigger, gained the support of city governments, corporate sponsors, and the police. The legacy of militant resistance was erased, and the participation of trans people, and queers of color was discouraged. Today's pride events hardly have any resemblance to the anti-police spirit that created the movement and gave us our collective power.       The only way to achieve queer liberation is to resist capitalism and the police that support it. Simply asking the system to give us rights can never ensure our safety, because the violence against us is a fundamental part of capitalism.       Gender and heterosexuality are constructs created by capitalism to assign labor roles on the personal level. Capitalism is strengthened when it can promote straight nuclear families that work for the benefit of the wealthy. If you were assigned male, you are pressured into doing wage labor for the wealthy so that you can support your family. If you were assigned female, you are pressured into unpaid labor in the home, supporting your husband in his wage labor and raising the next genderation of workers.  Gender is a life given to us at birth without our consent. Any deviation from those assigned roles is a threat to capitalism. As queer people, our bodies and sexualities are fundamentally opposed to the social order. We are the targets of violence because our very existence represents a loss of capitalism’s control over its workforce.       Police exist as the enforcement arm of the wealthy. They were created to protect the property of slave owners, and are the only group given permission to use violence. Their main goal is to protect the power of the wealthy under the guise of justice.  Because we’re a threat to capitalism’s control over the workforce, cops set out to terrorize and destroy vulnerable queer populations whenever possible. They don’t attack us because they’re homophobic, They attack us because it’s their job. No sensitivity training, policy change, or civil discussion can change their purpose. The police are fundamentally opposed to our existence and in order to achieve liberation, we must put an end to them and the capitalism that gives them power. Once we understand the nature of our oppression, it becomes our responsibility to resist capitalism and ensure that our community does the same.       In the 2016 Toronto pride parade, Black Lives Matter was asked to march as "honored guests". As they reached an intersection, the float stopped and the marchers sat down. As the entire parade came to a stop, the group demanded that the event's organizers agree to a list of demands calling for more inclusion of black and poc issues, and an end to police floats and booths. Within thirty minutes, the organizers agreed to these demands and police were not invited to have a float at the 2017 march. This tactic was effective because it was confrontational, direct, and gave power to the protestors. They spoke truth directly to the spectators, and obtained bargaining power that allowed their demands to be met.       We need to have open resistance against the police at pride events. Our tactics must be confrontational and dramatic. Pride is a stage that can be hijacked for a radical message. It’s easy to take the stage. even if you can't get permission to march you can jump in as a group and pretend to be a sponsored float. If you have banners and signs, none of the spectators will think twice about you being there.       At the risk of bad publicity, Police will be hesitant to use force at pride. Remember they're there to make friends and they're not trying to drag fags off the street. In a confrontational situation, there's nothing the cops can do to look good. They either do nothing and give us space to educate and agitate, or they react with clumsy aggression (the only way they know how) and end up looking like the gay-bashing fascists that they are.       There is no limit to the protest strategies that can be used at pride. You can set up booths, perform theater, hand out literature, and use your bodies to bring police outreach to a halt. You can chant, sing, dance, or speak. An organized group of twenty or thirty fags can easily turn a pride march into a radicalizing experience. In fact, it was a group of just a few fags dedicated fighting against the police that started the movement. Use your imagination, and don't forget what you're fighting for.       The mainstream movement has blood on its hands when it works alongside those who jail, rape, and murder our queer family. we have become obsessed with positive visibility and personal validation at the expense of ignoring the violence that continues to hurt us. Our liberation cannot come with rainbow flags and good intentions. Liberation can only come through action. -asher p. savio, 2017

[grilledlobster]

Everything you’re saying makes perfect sense, but it’s on the basis that there isn’t an existing problem of men undervaluing friendship with women. We don’t live in a gender-equal society. The reasoning is very different for men and women about not having opposite sex friends. We have to take into account our safety in a way that men don’t. 

I’ve had lots of guys that I got along well with, had lots of things in common with, etc. but I know I have to be on my guard. Guys will often present themselves as “friends” when they’re really hoping to eventually get in your pants. Then when they don’t get what they want, they get angry and accuse you of “leading them on” during the entirety of your “friendship”. There’s also the risk of guys who will actually get violent with you. Wanting to protect yourself is a valid reason to prefer having female friends. Gay men also usually have more female friends for that reason. It’s just easier to stay safe with women. (Also, that’s why I don’t buy the “he’s gay” excuse. Gay men usually have at least some female friends if they don’t outright prefer their company? Finding guys that are not homophobic is difficult unless you’re only going to be friends with other gay men. And it would be even more difficult in Korea where the views towards homosexuality are still more conservative.) 

There are a lot of guys, mostly straight, who don’t see the point of having female friends because they hold stereotypical views of women and what hobbies we supposedly do and do not have and they feel like they can’t ~joke around~ and have fun with girls the way they do with guys. They usually think they’re better than us. I don’t think all of these guys necessarily feel angry at women, but it is sexism. It wouldn’t be unimaginable to me that Taeyong could be one of those guys. He specifically said “I can treat them like normal” about having guy friends, which I don’t know how else that kind of statement could be interpreted. I’m not trying to seriously imply anything though, it was just a drive-by comment on my personal blog. I can’t say with any accuracy that he does, only that that kind of thing CAN be a red flag for sexism. Taeyong is an icon worth stanning regardless. It wouldn’t be a big deal compared to all the other shit male celebs have been doing recently.

taeyong…bby….