#and joy luck club

[pwippy]

i originally captioned this as "what do you mean no one really figures life out" but thats not really relevant anymore. i. uh. long rant ahead!

[yikesharringrove]

steve and billy teaching in the same school!! there's these teachers in my school and they work right across the hall from each other. they're always yelling into each others classrooms.

she teaches english lit 101 and he teaches gov 102

"Harrington!"

Some of the kids snickered quietly when Mr. Harrington jumped at the shout from across the hall.

He stared blankly at the last word he had written on the board, the black Expo mark wiggles from where he had jumped at the yell of his name.

He turned around, sighing exaggeratedly at Mr. Hargrove standing in the doorway.

"Kids, excuse my coworker here." He crossed his arms around his chest. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, you can Mr. H."

Steve rolled his eyes as his husband swaggered into his classroom, leading a line of ninth graders with him.

It's not the first time Billy's interrupted his class with a question about some inane bullshit that launched Steve into an over-excited rant for the rest of class.

Steve's tenth and eleventh graders were already closing their textbooks, knowing their teacher was just about to be insanely distracted for the rest of class.

"The birds n' I are reading The Crucible."

Fuck.

Steve's pretty sure Billy's kids pay him to bring them across the hall for these impromptu lectures.

"Witch hunts. I get it."

"Yeah, you know. Anyway, I'm giving some context to the publishing of the book. The Red Scare in the United States, well, the second Red Scare, as well as the rise of McCarthyism coincided with the publishing of the play."

Goddammit.

Steve's fucking master's thesis was on all about McCarthyism (more specifically, how the second Red Scare was directly linked to the Lavender Scare.) He cited the stupid play in his research.

Billy knows that. They were already engaged by the time Steve began his master's program.

Fuck this guy, for real.

Steve quietly closed his power point presentation on interest groups in America.

"Fine. Mr. Hargrove's class, find a seat. My class, your packet is still due Friday. I'll post the slides after class." He glared at Billy.

Billy grinned right back, his tongue poking out in that frustrating way it has since high school.

"1950s United States. What do you know?"

A few hands went up.

Even Billy raised his stupid hand. Steve ignored him.

-

"Which brings us to the end of the decade. With the early 1960s, we have the reformation in the Catholic Church, known as Vatican ll-"

The bell cut him off mid-sentence, and there was a mad scramble as the students all tried to pack up as quickly as possible, before Steve could keep going.

"My class," he nearly shouted over the scraping of chairs against linoleum. "Your packets are still due Friday! I don't care that Mr. Hargrove interrupted our time."

"And birds! The rubric is posted on the class page! I want outlines handed in on Tuesday."

The classroom door closed behind the final kid.

"You're a dick."

Billy laughed.

"Nah, you just teach that shit so much better than I do."

Steve rolled his eyes. He sat behind his desk, yanking over a stack of twelfth grade research assignments to begin grading. Billy perched on the other side of his desk.

"Y'know, you could just ask me to come in and lecture. You don't have to interrupt my own class."

"Yeah, but it's fun to wind you up and watch you go. And I think the birds like it when they see that you're passionate about something. Why do you think I always start with The Joy Luck Club?"

"Because you have mommy issues."

"No. Because Ying-ying's story makes me sob like a bitch, and the birds get to realize that I'm a real-life human."

Steve scrubbed his face with his hands, collecting himself before facing his dumbass husband again.

"Wait, you said they had an essay due. What's the essay?"

"Oh, comparing the Salem Witch Trials and the goings on of the U.S. government in the mid 1950s. You know."

"So, you created an assignment, knowing that I would infodump all that shit to your kids?"

"Yes."

"I want a divorce."

Billy laughed, leaning over Steve's desk to kiss his forehead.

"No, you don't."

"No, I don't. I love you. But also you suck."

The bell sounded to indicate the end of passing period.

Billy got off the desk, stretching with a groan.

"Would you be mad if I brought my senior class in?"

Steve glared at him in the doorway.

"What's the assignment?"

"They're presenting on the parallels between 1984 and the current political climate."

Goddammit.

"Bring 'em in."

[mad-girlslove-song]

[texaschainsawmascara]

Devil In Me - Halsey / Down In a Hole - Alice In Chains / R.I.P. 2 My Youth - The Neighbourhood / Guts Over Fear - Eminem, Sia / The Joy Luck Club / William Chapman / “Mama”, Home Is Not A Country - Sofia Elhillo / Let You Down - NF / Numb - Linkin Park / Now You Know - Will Paquin / Pig Charmer - Jerry Cantrell / To The Bone / Perfect - Simple Plan / Second Chance - Shinedown / Sanctified - Nine Inch Nails / 31/32 - Jerry Cantrell / When You Finish Saving The World / A Cut Rose In Tap Water - Mackenzie Nicole / Flying Dutchman - Tori Amos / please put me in a medically induced coma - carolesdaughter / Euphoria / Maia Baia / Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper / Geloy Conception / Crying For No Reason - Katy B / Grit: Poems, "Twenty" - Silas Denver Melvin / Survival - Adult Mom

[jaigeye]

[rainagainstthewindowatnight]

relationships between narcissistic mothers and daughters

midnight sun by stephenie meyer / white oleander (2002) / mermaids (1990) / the joy luck club (1993) / sharp objects (2018) / unknown / ladybird (2017) / white oleander by janet fitch / girl in progress (2012)

[colinfirth]

My mother died four months ago. I realized, for the first time, that they wanted me to take my mother's place. So I sat down on the East, where things begin, with my mother's best friends. THE JOY LUCK CLUB (1993) | dir. Wayne Wang

[goose168]

One thing about the 90s - 00s: they were gonna make a mother+daughter coming of age movie at least twice a year.

The “I hate my overbearing or eccentric & irresponsible mother” genre is slowing making a comeback and I couldn’t be happier

[litandlifequotes]

I was strong. I was pure. I had genuine thoughts inside that no one could see, that no one could ever take away from me. I was like the wind.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

[rolandab]

The pain of liking characters/fandoms with so little canon info AND fanon content. I’m starving with the minuscule amount of crumbs I get😔

[thaimedia]

The Believers (2024) dir. Jax Wattanapong Wongwan

[lettherightrobin]

[crybabyjellyfish]

Thinking about Nana Komatsu and Joy Luck Club, specifically the character Rose. "I was the one who taught you that my love was worth less."

Ouchies

[rainagainstthewindowatnight]

mother/daughter relationships portrayed in film :

white oleander ( 2002 ) / little women ( 1994 ) / ladybird ( 2017 ) / beyond the lights ( 2014 ) / the joy luck club ( 1993 ) / the parent trap ( 1998 ) / mermaids ( 1990 ) / love & basketball ( 2000 ) / divine secrets of the ya-ya sisterhood ( 2002 ) / mamma mia! ( 2008 )

[tisalonelydreamer]

if you told child-me that asians were in big, oscar-winning movies, and that they were the main characters, and they weren't ridiculed or sexualized or looked down on, i would be... well, a little confused because it sucks that this has to be a big deal in the first place, but overall really, really excited. my parents had jackie chan and the joy luck club, while i really only had mulan. but now we all have eeaao. aside from the deeper meanings and immigrant story we relate to, it was simply very cool for my parents to go, "is that the little boy from indiana jones? OMG THAT'S THE LITTLE ASIAN BOY FROM INDIANA JONES!"

it's great to have things come full circle :)