#but having to accept that she cannot make that decision for her friend isabel has to be the one to decide her own fate

[hecksupremechips]

Also also I like to imagine the little messages like “there is still time” and “you are dying” are Tara on the other side trying to communicate with Owen/Isabel via the psychic plane. She probably tried so hard to be okay going back without Isabel but just couldn’t do it and stayed there waiting, trying and begging that Isabel will hear her and save herself

Fuckin. The reason Owen has asthma is literally because his real self is buried alive suffocating and his mom is the one who reminds him to bring his inhaler when he’s a kid and next time we see her she’s sick and then she’s dead and when Owen watches the finale he’s wheezing and projectile vomiting and his dad springs into action to drown him further and when it’s the final act his lips are severely chapped from overuse of the inhaler and he keeps trying to inhale from it but it’s not working and he just keeps wheezing loudly keeps trying to make this all work he knows why it isn’t he’s dying she’s DYING he ends the movie apologizing to everyone and still wheezing

[americangirlstar]

american girl contemporary dolls’ animal crossing islands

bc apparently covid is now canon to the agverse you know they all got new horizons

lindsey bergman: the first contemporary doll also has THE most chaotic island. she does what she wants and nobody can stop her. she only accepts the villagers with the wildest designs, made everyone’s catchphrase either uwu speak or smth like “gay rights,” only wears the most hideous outfit combinations, and buys everything from redd no matter how fake it is. one room of her house is filled with haunted artwork, another has nothing but snapping turtles. she’s figured out how to make memes into clothing patterns and now every pathway on her island is the pogchamp face. best friends with flick. honestly she’s an icon 

kailey hopkins: spends 90% of her time swimming or fishing. only 90% because she actually takes her role as island rep seriously and she has worked very hard to get it to five-star. she does abuse her power to make a million rivers and turn her island into basically a waterpark, but that just makes it cooler. died of joy when swimming was enabled and now has two of everything you can collect in the ocean decorating her house, every room of which resembles a beach house. also collects seashells and has very pretty shell arches decorating doorways

marisol luna: she went into the game with a list of who she will and will not allow on her island and is ruthless in kicking out villagers in order to get who she wants to move in. absolute QUEEN at catching tarantulas/scorpions, goes hunting for them on islands with the insane amount of nook miles she collects by doing random quests. loves collecting emotions for her character to do and then making funny videos out it. filled out the fossils in her museum FAST and now just digs up fossils to decorate the lawn with. each room of her house is a different dance studio. 

jess mcconnell: QUEEN of fishing and bug-catching but can’t dive for SHIT. she has about three of every fossil because she can’t stand the idea of selling them. is obsessed with gathering every possible DIY recipe even if she doesn’t plan on making anything with them, she just thinks they’re neat. has a shrine on her island for redd and celeste in attempts to get them to come more often. she’s been on her island religiously every day since she got the game, it’s a little scary. thinks murder should be legal on her island 

nicki fleming: cannot chose a mean dialogue option to save her life. she can barely stand to kick out villagers she dislikes either, only does it if they ask to leave and then prays to the nintendo gods that bunnie will come visit the island. the main room of her house is reflective of her actual room, the rest of it is absolutely gorgeously decorated, stuff made to look like meadows or snowy mountains. winter is her favorite, she makes a snowboy every day no matter how many times she crashes the snowballs. LIVES for cj and flick because she always hated the idea of her fish/bugs dying for a competition. saves all her new stuff for the museum for nighttime because she feels bad waking up blathers 

mia st clair: wants to hack the game so that it’s winter all the time. soon as the winter DIYs dropped she redecorated her entire island and house to be as icy as possible. she’s basically queen elsa at this point. she’s horrible at catching items so her museum is mostly fossils, but even then sometimes she sells fossils before identifying them if she’s short on bells. she visits sable every day in hopes of making her feel happy. she has pretty much every possible clothing wand so that she can carry around one to match each outfit. one time her brothers went on to try and fuck with her island and we don’t speak of what happened following that. fear her 

chrissa maxwell: shares an island with gwen and sonali. she’s the one in charge so she’s working very hard to make it a 5-star island so isabelle will stop bugging her about it. also very into DIY and likes to decorate the island with things she’s built. favorite seasonal event was the wedding anniversary one, she can’t get enough of redesigning and taking photos of those funky lil alpacas. plus, she got a lot of neat stuff out of it. goes to the able sisters every day to see what kinds of new outfits they have, and yet somehow cannot make a good fashion decision to save her life. obsessed with swimming and now leaves all other museum donations to her girlfriends so she can spend all her free time looking for crabs 

gwen thompson: somehow absolutely brutal. will send clashing-colored toilets in the mail to villagers she doesn’t like to fuck with their home design and hit them with butterfly nets. she’s tried to hit them with axes as well. shakes trees constantly in an effort to catch wasps and has not gotten stung once because she’s that quick with a net. her favorite character is celeste and chrissa and sonali have barely any star stuff because whenever celeste is on gwen is hogging the switch. changes her characters’ hairstyle, like, every five minutes. when she sends her friends gifts the letters will say something like “fuck u, love u <3″ it’s so wildly different than how she normally acts in public that it’s a little scary 

sonali matthews: even worse than gwen. has tried to murder villagers she dislikes before. sometimes fucks with parts of the island just to see how people react. would sell her soul to redd just to piss off tom nook. the only thing she takes seriously is gardening, she has a fenced-off area where she breeds flowers and woe befall anyone who messes it up. her house is a hoarder’s nightmare and chrissa and gwen have been begging her to let them redesign it but she refuses. screenshots the worst parts of their island and posts them on twitter with the dreamcode so people can see the graveyard she made to intimidate rodney 

lanie holland: still lives in a tent because she thinks it’s cool, refuses to pay up to nook so she doesn’t have to get a house. somehow has the cutest outfits of everyone. her island design is to die for, half the island is full of flowers arranged in rainbow-order and the other half looks like a faerie forest. has filled out her museum’s bug collection and has half the fossils but keeps forgetting to go fishing. her little sister emily joined her island and keeps trying to get lanie to upgrade to a house or expand other stores but lanie refuses, it’ll mess with the aesthetic. emily basically has a huge mansion in the corner of the island while everything else is practically a glorified campsite. leif is lanie’s favorite and she only collects bells in order to buy things from him 

kanani akina: the most beautiful island design you’ve ever seen. she also takes the best screencaps and posts them just so her friends know what she’s up to but becomes internet famous for how gorgeous everything is. the best designs, very diverse plants, all the houses are arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way. kanani’s house is on the beach so she can easily swim, fish and collect shells, but the inside is the best part. five of the six rooms are just as beautiful as you’d expect, with soft pastel aesthetics and quiet music playing. then her basement is referred to as the “special room” which holds nothing but several candles in a summoning circle and a single tarantula figure in the center. there’s a skeleton in the corner. whenever anyone asks about it she pretends she doesn’t know what they’re talking about. it’s the funniest thing 

mckenna brooks: disastrous. horrible at paying nook back and keeps getting angry letters from the happy home academy. her goal is to find any loopholes in the game and exploit them, no matter that the game is super simple and thus “cheats” aren’t very useful. she found out about island star ratings and now is trying in vain to get a five-star but she can’t get above a three. has been stung by wasps about a million times while shaking trees to try and find loose bells. one time she shook a tree and a toilet fell out and it now has a dedicated podium on her island, and whenever anyone asks she simply tells them that the toilet is the god of the island. hasn’t been able to keep a villager for longer than a few weeks, and also somehow got raymond on accident. still having the time of her life

saige copeland: spends far too much time designing customs and far too little removing weeds. wants to have flowers in rainbow order like lanie but keeps accidentally picking them. has absolutely no rush to do anything, lived in a tent for like three months because she forgot she could pay off loans. only accepts peppy or normal villagers so her island is pretty much all-girl and she refers to it as the amazon island; this is, however, because somehow no horses have shown up on her island yet even though she very much wants them to. likes to dream and go to random islands to get inspiration. she has a room in her house full of rainbow eels because she thinks they’re pretty 

isabelle palmer: will not stop buying things from the able sisters. she visits every day, pretty much buys one of everything, and then mixes and matches costumes instead of fixing her island. lives for the days when label visits because she takes her requests very seriously and comes back in outfits that slay™. almost exclusively gives clothing gifts to her villagers so that they have a better fashion sense. has a lot of flowers but can’t figure out how to get them to mix. the bug section of her museum has butterflies and nothing else simply because she only thinks to try and catch butterflies. hits rocks every day to try and find the daily Money Rock™. keeps trying to get raymond but her sister won’t let her pay anyone actual money for him 

grace thomas: when she visits the nook store she will solely speak to tommy. constantly checking the wiki to find out which DIYs sell well, and thus only collects shells in order to make shell arches to turn around and sell back. insanely good with bells and with figuring out how to make her island palatable, got a five-star fast. the main room of her house is decorated like a restaurant, with two different kitchen rooms and the upstairs decorated to look very french. she made everyone’s catchphrases french, too. is the only person in the world upset you can no longer eat the fish. goes swimming every day just so she can find a scallop and talk to pascal, she thinks he’s cool 

lea clark: there are a lot of plants here. just. far too many plants. of every color too! she’s very proud of it. she has a short attention span though so there’s like fifty different unfinished projects. she is best friends with like three villagers and forgets the names of the rest, but one time she accidentally hit a villager with a butterfly net and cried for an hour. only ever dresses in summer clothes and is awful at saving money so she only has like eight bells at a time. seasonal events are her absolute jam though, she can’t get enough of them. would die for leif. almost got blocked by the animal crossing twitter for constantly begging them to give her the froggy chair (thanks @lesbianleaclark!) 

gabriela mcbride: her island is more important than her social life. she is very serious about making it a functioning island, and is obsessed mainly with filling out her museum. every time she catches a sea bass instead of something new she lets out a series of swears not appropriate for a child audience. she is best friends with all of her villagers and cries whenever one of them thinks about leaving. her favorite kk slider song changes by day and she’ll switch the music around everywhere whenever she feels like it. visits other islands in order to gather materials to sell in order to make her house bigger; she’s got a dance room, a poetry corner, a student council room, and the main room looks like the liberty arts center. whenever anyone (who’s not redd) visits her island she cries and tries to figure out how to give them things for free because she loves them so much. whenever redd comes by without genuine art she tries to hack into the game in order to skin him alive

tenney grant: obsessed with getting every kk slider song. every time he shows up to the island she pulls up the list of available songs and picks one she doesn’t have yet to request. she wants to get a different song playing in every area of the island and every room of every house. shares an island with logan, jaya and holliday but she’s in charge, which sucks because holliday is way better at doing island management. she’ll text holliday with what isabelle wants her to do and then go DIY a guitar. she set up a stage area near the beach so they can give concerts for the villagers and honestly it looks gorgeous. she named her island “nashville” but makes no attempt to actually make it look like tennessee. she released her dream code on her twitter and because she’s technically a celebrity people keep coming by and asking her why everything on the island looks good except logan’s house and she’s like “ask logan idk” 

logan everett: speaking of which, yeah, logan’s house is a disaster. he cares naught for decorating his place and fills it with random things he thinks are “cool.” likes to run through flowers until they explode. the best diver on the island, though, and is responsible for that area of the museum, while tenney gets fishing, jaya gets bugs, and holliday gets fossils. they all work together to buy everything from redd whether it’s real or not because they think the art is pretty, they find out whether or not it’s real after taking it to blathers. he will place random toilets in the middle of the island and wait for someone else to find it, they have no idea he’s the one doing it and it’s driving them crazy. it’s also the funniest thing he’s ever done and he’s very proud of it. whenever kk shows up he requests a song tenney doesn’t have yet and leaves it outside her door. she didn’t ask him to do this he’s just like that 

z yang: the god of all things video games. she’s a streamer now and while she mostly streams mario, zelda or sonic games, on holidays she’ll stream her island and take suggestions for what she should do to it. due to this, her island can be a mess at times, but she somehow keeps getting good ratings. every time there’s an update she loads up a report of what’s new so she can be one of the first to try it out. she named her island something like “zworld” and refuses to change it. every room of her house is a different movie set, and she put cameras everywhere on the island “so the villagers don’t get any ideas.” somehow keeps getting rare villagers on the first try and won’t let them leave 

luciana vega: would die for celeste. her island is incredibly space-themed and well cared-for, because this game soothes her anxiety so she’s on it 24/7. her town flag is an incredibly accurate constellation. she fills out her museum specifically cause it’s run by celeste’s brother and she’d do anything for that owl; her parents got her a celeste plush for her birthday and now she won’t let go of it. she schedules her life around animal crossing updates. her favorite thing to do is go swimming at night and just look at the animation on the waves under the stars. also wisp’s best friend. won’t accept a villager unless they look like they could potentially be an alien, which means she has the coolest villager collection of everyone 

blaire wilson: due to her family’s experience running an inn she knows exactly how to run a village. her island’s almost boring in how well it’s designed and run, but she always has something extra to keep interest, like an island in the middle that’s filled with exotic flowers. went to the wedding picture event every day in order to get every piece of furniture she could and now has a “wedding area” of her island that nobody uses but is great for photos. isabelle is her favorite character and she will do anything for her. somehow able to make the funniest animal crossing memes in the world. once caught a coelacanth without expecting it and screamed and dropped her switch 

joss kendrick: the BEST fisher. has never lost a fish once, nobody knows how she does it. best friends with cj and takes his seasports challenges way too seriously. wishes they were able to surf but swimming is good, too, though sometimes she’ll spend upwards of ten minutes chasing a particularly stubborn crab. she is incredibly patient at terraforming and uses this skill for evil, as every time her cheer squad comes to visit her island she has completely changed it around and then has them all play hide-and-seek. nobody knows how to find anything. the only consistent thing is that the beach will be the coolest-looking beach in the whole game. she named her island “lesbos” and accepts villagers that “pass the gay vibe check.” nobody is sure what the gay vibe check is 

kira bailey: is horrible at saving bells or getting a good rating on her island but she doesn’t care because her main focus is DIYing her own decor to make her island look like her aunts’ conservatory. as such, will only accept animals that could potentially live there, such as koalas or kangaroos. she’s bad at figuring out where to put houses and buildings so her island’s a mess to navigate, however she knows the routes like the back of her hand and gets confused when people ask her how the hell she finds anything. for some reason absolutely terrified of wisp and refuses to wander her island at night in case they show up 

[sulkybbarnes]

“I can’t help but think we just didn’t do right by you somehow. You won’t tell me who you are. Did we teach you shame? Did I teach you that? Cause it would break my heart if I had. Can’t you see what a good job God did here. Can’t you see how beautiful he made you?”  -Big Eden (2000)

Read on AO3

Eddie sits in his car for a long time, head bowed and his hands gripping at the steering wheel. If it weren’t for the tense shoulders and the white knuckled grip he might look as if he was praying. Maybe part of him is praying. For courage, for acceptance, for a lighter heart. Between him and all of that stands an ocean of turmoil and whirling thoughts.

Eddie isn’t exactly panicking, but he might be a few breaths away from it. For him, panic isn’t quickened breaths and swimming vision. It’s rigidity and a weight that sits heavily in his stomach. It’s fire spreading through his chest and into his limps, rendering him motionless, even when his brain races at the speed of light. Part of him wants to turn back, drive home, make dinner for his son, maybe call Buck to see if he’d join them. However, since Buck is part of the problem, that course of action might not be the wisest. 

Eddie sucks in a deep breath then let it out slowly. He isn’t afraid of his feelings for Buck any more than he was afraid to acknowledge his attraction to men. In his later years of life, after having a kid and a twice failed marriage, Eddie has become a pragmatic and introspective creature. Things just are to him. He takes them, examines them with care, then places them in place when he’s done looking at them. Sure, the process isn’t quite as clean or clinical as he makes it sound, but the end result of it is the same, no matter how long he dwells on an issue. 

So, yes, Eddie isn’t afraid of being attracted to men, part of him had always known that. Examined it, folded it neatly, and placed it on a shelf in his mind that he didn’t dust often. He isn’t afraid of his feelings for Buck. These are a steady, comforting thing that Eddie has grown accustomed to in the months since he first allowed himself to look at them. Something so good and true can’t be frightening, Eddie has decided a while ago and left it at that. 

What does frighten Eddie however is two things, and these two things seem to be intertwined together beyond any hope of Eddie untangling the mess of them. However he looks at them, Eddie cannot separate the two. Eddie needs to talk to Buck about his feelings for him, and he needs to tell his family about how he feels.. in general. About how he loves. About the way his heart beats. It isn’t a requirement, and he knows deep in his bones that he doesn’t owe any of them a declaration of his sexuality or who he is. But. This is a conversation over a decade in the making, and Eddie who is a father, a firefighter, and a goddamn adult refuses to cower for another month or year. 

And so, Eddie needs to tell Buck how he feels about him, and for him to do that, Eddie needs to tell his family that he’s bisexual. To have at least one person from his family to back him up when things inevitably go south with his parents after both revelations. Two things he needs to do, and they are tightly knotted in his mind. He could have told Buck first. Could have had whatever outcome that yielded to decide the next steps for him, but that’s not what this is about. Whether Buck takes or rejects him, Eddie needs to do this for himself. 

One person, Eddie repeats like a mantra. Just one person, Diaz.

Eddie lets out a final shuddering breath, releases his death grip on the steering wheel, and makes the short walk to his abuela’s house. 

He sends a silent prayer to the universe before he knocks.

----

No matter how old he is, the smell of his abuela’s house stays comforting. Eddie’s relationship with his parents was tumultuous at times as he grew up, his parents approval ebbing and flowing depending on what standards he failed to meet. They were never bad parents, but they weren’t big on comfort either. Theirs was a house of discipline throughout Eddie’s life, and so his grandmother’s house was a haven in comparison. One filled with his abuela’s warmth and her never ending quest to stuff him with comfort food.

Eddie could have gone to his sisters for this. He knows that would have made far more sense, with his sisters being younger and generally more open minded. He could have gone to his aunt too, who wielded a non-nonsense attitude and a keen eye for details and who probably already had an inkling about Eddie’s feelings for his best friend. Beyond his parents, his abuela might very well be the second hardest option, but possibly the most important one. Which is why he decided to start here. He curses his own decision making skills not for the first time today.

Whatever the outcome of this conversation is, he tells himself, it will be a hurdle he has cleared. One part of the knot unwinded. 

“Are you going to tell me what’s troubling you, Edmundo?” His grandmother sighs from where she sits on the couch across from him. “You’ve been too far inside your own head since you arrived. Tell me what’s wrong.”

To his horror, the gentle tone makes Eddie’s eyes sting. He taps against his knee twice and sits a steaming mug down, trying to figure out where to start.

“You’re right,” Eddie begins, “There’s something I want to talk to you about.” He looks at her for a long moment, waiting for her encouraging nod before he goes on. “I’ve been keeping something from you and everyone else for a long time. I thought it didn’t matter much. That it won’t hurt anyone if it stays hidden and I don’t act on it. But it’s hurting me, abuela. It’s been hurting me for a long time now, more than I ever thought possible.” 

Eddie wills his voice to stay steady but it must give him away, because his abuela moves to sit beside him. She reaches out and puts her hand on top of his, squeezing once.

“What is hurting you, Eddie? I never want anything to hurt you. Tell me.”

“There’s someone I have feelings for, someone I might be in love with,” The words tumbling out of order, without his permission. His abuela’s face clears, she smiles, and begins to speak but Eddie desperately shakes his head at her, so she keeps listening instead. “It’s not just that. It’s a man. The person I have feelings for is a man. That’s what I- it’s what I wanted to tell you.”

Eddie waits for a reprimand. He waits for shock or disgust or anger. It doesn’t come. 

Instead, several agonizing moments later, Isabel Diaz makes a wounded noise, followed by a deep sigh. She raises her hand to cup Eddie’s face and gently tugs until he’s looking at her. Eddie is ashamed to admit he almost flinches at the gesture.

“I see,” She says, her eyes watering. “It’s us who have been hurting you. Did we teach you shame? Is that what we did?” She questions.

Eddie doesn’t answer her. Where his eyes stung before, now there are tears gathering and spilling down his cheeks. Eddie doesn’t move to wipe them off. They have earned their release.

“You’re not angry?” Eddie asks instead.

“At you? No, never. At the rest of us? yes. I won’t lie, Eddie, I never expected this, but that’s on me not on you.” She sighs again, “I’m an old woman, heaven knows how much I’ve known and seen. Maybe.. maybe years ago I would have been less generous, and I don’t claim to understand it fully now, but I never want you to be ashamed of who you are. I never want you to hurt because of us.” 

Eddie feels his shoulders sagging with relief, a breath leaves him and it sounds wrenched and ragged despite his efforts at quelling. His grandmother pulls him down until his head rests against her shoulder, she wipes at the back of his head and murmurs comforting words in both English and Spanish. They set like that for long moments, Eddie feeling as if he can fully exhale for the first time in years, and his grandmother speaking softly with her arms wrapped around him.

“How long have you known? Does anyone else know?” She asks after a while.

Eddie pulls back and wipes at his face, smiling when he’s instantly offered some tissues and a now-cooling cup of coffee. 

“I’ve always known, I think, that I like both men and women. Since I was a kid. And, no, no one else knows. You’re the first person I’m telling,” He answers truthfully. He hadn’t even told Shannon about this. “I know they won’t be happy when it comes out. I just can’t hold it anymore.”

The “they” in question don’t need to be named. His abuela is as familiar with his parents’ set of beliefs as he is.

“Maybe not at first, but they’ll come around. People change with time, and your parents have good hearts.” His grandmother says with such conviction that he almost believes her. “And until then, you know your sisters will be on your side. Your Aunt Josephine too, and me.” 

“Thanks, abuela,” Eddie smiles at her gratefully and kisses her cheek. He feels dizzy with relief. Nothing that comes after this will be as difficult. 

“Now, tell me about that man of yours. Who is he?” His grandmother’s serious gaze lands on him, but her lips twitch with a smile. Eddie feels heat rushing to his face as if he’s twelve again and caught trying to sneak chocolates from the chocolate box.

“He’s not mine,” Eddie mumbles, and his abuela gives him a look that says and whose fault is that?. “We really don’t have to talk about this.” 

When that suggestion is met with a steely stare, Eddie falters then breaks, “His name is Buck? It’s Buck. From work. You’ve met Buck.”

Now his grandmother smiles, her eyes laughing at him. “Yes, I know who Buck is. I’ve only heard Chris rave about him and met him every other month for the past two years, Edmundo.”

Eddie brings a hand to rub at his eyes, now smiling too. 

“Why haven’t you told him then?” And before Eddie can answer, she adds, “Is that our doing too? That you’re afraid?”

“No, no, that’s not because of any of this,” Eddie answers, which is only half a lie. “We’re very close friends, abuela. You know how close, you just said it yourself. He’s so involved with Chris and our lives. I’m worried about what will happen if I tell him and it doesn’t work out between us. It’s why I haven’t told him yet.”

“You think he feels the same?”

“I think he does. I’m pretty sure of it,” Eddie confides, even though he has never said any of this aloud before, he has thought about it for months on end, “I’m not ashamed of how I feel, but I thought leaving it alone would be best. To protect what we already have.”

“Making that decision for him is cruel, and you are not a cruel man, Edmundo.” Abuela chastises, “You said you’re close? Then you should respect him enough to give him the choice.”

Eddie nods, eyes watering again. This conversation is so far out of the realm of what he expected that he feels the need to lie down, or cry, or both.

“I will,” Eddie promises, “I’ve been planning on it for a while. I just.. I needed to do this first.”

Oh, my heart, his grandmother murmurs as she cups his face again with gentle hands and draws him into a hug. Against her shoulder, Eddie lets out a breath of pure relief. 

------

Making that decision for him is cruel, and you are not a cruel man.

The words ring in Eddie’s ears for days after coming out to his abuela. He catches himself several times in the process of taking them out and looking at them. He never thought of his waiting as cruel to anyone but himself. His grandmother’s words sit heavy in his chest, making him vow to speak to Buck as soon as possible. 

Between their busy shifts and both of them having various family obligations, the chance to speak to Buck alone doesn’t present itself until nearly a week after Eddie’s conversation with his grandmother. 

They’re at Eddie’s house for the evening, having ended work a few hours ago. Chris fell asleep between them after dinner, about half an hour ago, and so Eddie carries him to his bedroom, kisses his forehead, and silently asks Chris to wish him luck as he heads back to the living room.

On the couch, Buck looks up at Eddie’s arrival and smiles. 

“You’re not kicking me out now that Chris is sleeping, are you?” Buck jokes, “Because I was really hoping for a beer.”

Buck gestures towards the table, where two beers sit waiting for them. It strikes Eddie then, just how comfortable Buck is in Eddie’s space, and how much Eddie likes it that way. He smiles and moves to sit next to Buck.

Eddie’s mind is swirling with ways to start the conversation he wants to have, when Buck beats him to it. 

“Will you tell me what’s bothering you?” Buck asks, his fingers toying with the neck of his bottle. “You’ve been off all week. Did something happen?”

Eddie looks at Buck for a couple of heartbeats. There’s no denying how beautiful he is, or how attractive Eddie finds him, but what catches his attention now is the ever present kindness in Buck’s eyes. Eddie has always envied Buck his openness and vulnerability. It was a kind of bravery that Eddie is only now starting to learn. Where Eddie is thoughtful and private with his emotions, Buck wears each one of his for the entire world to see. Eddie can’t help the bang of longing spreading through his chest, even as he sets out for his second scary conversation of the week.

“Yeah, something pretty important happened,” Eddie starts, placing the bottle back on the table and turning to look at Buck, who mirrors Eddie’s movement. “I told my abuela that there’s someone I have feelings for, and that this someone is a man.”

Buck blinks at Eddie in rapid succession, seemingly processing the information. His mouth hangs open for a moment before he frowns. “Shit, Eddie, why didn’t you say anything? That’s huge. How did it go? Are you okay?”

“I just came out to you,” Eddie states, because he needs to make sure that that part registered.

“Yeah, no, I noticed, but you also came out to your grandmother which sounds scarier,” Buck shoots back, his eyes filled with pure concern. Eddie badly wants to reach out and rub at the crease between his brows.

“Definitely scarier,” Eddie agrees and then grins, “But it went surprisingly well. Way better than expected. We even talked a bit about the guy.”

Buck’s expression clears into a bright smile, looking for all the world like sunshine in human form. His eyes are shimmering and he wipes at them with a laugh.

“Eddie, that’s great,” Buck punches his shoulder lightly, as if they’re still kids in highschool, and Eddie grins at the gesture, “That’s amazing, man. I’m really happy for you!”

“Thanks, Buck.” Eddie feels light as he says it, the combination of Buck’s blinding smile and him coming out to his best friend feeling heady and intoxicating. 

“And you’re alright?” Buck asks again, his hand nudging at Eddie’s knee then retreating. Eddie fights the urge to take Buck’s hand and place it back there, where his warmth seeped into Eddie’s skin.

“I’m all good. Just needed some time to process all of it. But I’m good now.” Eddie nods, “Feels like one of the hardest parts is over. My parents will be a different story, but I’m leaving that for later.”

“Yeah, I get that. Thank you for trusting me with this. Seriously.” Buck says gently, his tone gone soft. He’s obviously sincere with his words, but something flashes in his eyes akin to hurt. It catches Eddie by surprise as he tries to pinpoint what caused the expression. 

Buck chews on his lip for several seconds, painfully obvious in his distress, and then replaces the expression with a smile that is a mere flicker of the one he wore before. 

“So, do I get to meet this mystery man of yours?” Buck jokes, “Get him the best friend stamp of approval?”

And, oh. Right. Eddie came out to Buck, but he hasn’t told him how he feels about him yet. That Buck is the man in question. That Eddie’s heart has been his now for an embarrassingly long time. Long enough for the idea of Eddie loving anyone other than Buck to be laughable. Eddie’s heart aches with love for him so much, he feels his breath catching with it.

“Well, you’ll need to approve of it for sure,” Eddie says thoughtfully, “Just not in the way you’re thinking.”

Buck’s expression turns puzzled, but he still looks hurt, and Eddie could say more, he probably should say more, but instead he spares them both a long winded explanation and reaches for Buck instead. One of his hands rests against the back of Buck’s head, fingers brushing against his hair, while the other rests against Buck’s cheek. Eddie sees the exact moment realization dawns across Buck’s face, and in any other situation, he would laugh or tease Buck about it. Right now, his focus is solely on Buck’s parted lips. 

Eddie inches closer util their foreheads are nearly touching, but doesn’t close the space between them yet, needing a confirmation first. 

“Buck, can I kiss you?” Eddie asks, voice far steadier than he feels. Against his hands, Buck’s skin feels so warm and inviting. Buck’s blue eyes are fixed on Eddie’s and so Eddie sees the slow blink he does, accompanied by a genuine smile. The sun breaking through clouds.

“Yes,” Buck whispers, so close that his breath brushes against Eddie’s lips. “Yeah. Kiss me.”

And that is all the prompting Eddie needs before he leans in and finally -god, finally!- brushes his mouth against Buck’s.The first touch of their lips is chaste and innocent, a hello and oh there you are! of sorts, but then Eddie captures Buck’s lower lip and then they’re kissing for real. Eddie thinks distantly that he would never in all his life tire of this or take it for granted. His lips against Buck’s, his hand in Buck’s hair and stroking his cheek, being the one to hear the little noises Buck makes when the kiss deepens. Eddie takes all of it and holds it deep within his chest, letting it warm him from the inside out and settle him deeper into this newly found sense of comfort.

They pull back to catch their breath, and Eddie takes that for the opportunity of kissing the side of Buck’s mouth, then his cheek, and his mouth again where Buck is smiling again.

“So, I’ll take it you approve?” Eddie teases, startling a laugh out of Buck and earning himself another light bunch to the shoulder. 

“You’re a real jerk, you know that?” Buck’s voice is too fond to hold any heat, and he can’t seem to stop smiling. Eddie is suffering the same problem. “I don’t know how people can’t see it, but you’re such a jerk. You really had me worried there for a bit,” Buck tries to laugh it off, but the words are too honest for it to work. “Thought I’d lost you to some nameless guy coming in and sweeping you off your feet.”

“Nothing to worry about, bud,” Eddie’s heart aches again, this time for a different reason. If he needs to then Eddie will spend the rest of his life convincing Evan Buckley that he deserves to be loved, and that Eddie would never walk away from him. “No one else in here,” Eddie taps at his chest, “And I’m not going anywhere without you.” 

And that seems to be the exact right thing to say because Buck’s eyes shimmer even as he rolls them at Eddie with a put upon groan. “Okay, fine. Works for me, I guess.” 

Eddie laughs at that, relishing the answering grin it draws out of Buck. They’re about to start kissing again, lips a breath apart, when Buck jumps back with an expression of pure shock, his face beautifully flushed.

“Shit. Wait, wait,” Buck says with comically wide eyes, “You told your grandmother about me?” 

Eddie throws his head back and laughs until his sides hurt.

[lakambinimagph]

HerStory: Filipino Women through Times

Palaban!

           You might already heard this word colloquially used in describing a person who has a strong disposition and who always have the urge to fight back against things that are not in the right places, or perhaps your friends have already attributed you to this word when you tried doing things they can’t imagine you can do. With the unending struggle since the Philippines was colonized until the present times, Filipino women remain steadfast and unwavering. No doubt, Filipino women are ascribed to this word too—palaban!

          Tracing back the history of the Philippines, we can understand the story of the plight of Filipino women and how they have became, to borrow from popular millennial phrase, palaban as fuck.

The Genesis of a Filipina

          In the beginning, God created men AND women.

          One might think about the word “backwards” when talking about pre colonial Philippines. Surprisingly, this is not the case for our ancestors knew how to perceive beyond biological sexes since they, like in the eyes of God, treated men and women equally.

          Amidst this equality, women shined out and never failed to be palaban. Women became the Babaylans, a position designated for a woman who they regarded highly in the community as being the healers, priestesses and counselors. If men took the role of a Babaylan they had to dress up as a woman. In marriage, our ancestors viewed women as companions and never lower—but with the same power—as their husbands. Their decisions were never relegated, since men perceived them as co-equals. They were respected by men, had the same rights, decided for themselves, were known for their wisdom, and performed important duties in business and trade.

The Anomaly between Maria and Gabriela

          The lives of Filipina women was in eminent disposition until the Spaniards, who colonized the Philippines, turned the Babaylans into Maria Claras; the key roles women held in the community during the precolonial period were reduced to housekeeping and childbearing during the Spanish occupation.

          Maria Clara almost always remind us of the “ideal Filipina”—a meek, submissive woman who cannot even leave the house without the companionship of her Tiya Isabel. Meanwhile, there’s Gabriela Silang who was way ahead of her time. A real badass—in every sense of the word—who took in-charge in the revolutionary activities in Ilocos—when her husband, Diego, died in the battle. She swore vengeance in the name of her husband and her country. Both ladies revolutionized the essence of being a Filipina during Spanish era. Yet why are we so stuck with Maria Clara, when there’s Gabriela who literally kicked the asses of Spanish colonizers?

          Perhaps because Maria Clara paints the image of a blind follower. Someone who follows every word of a man. When a man instructs her to jump, expect her to jump too. Someone who cannot challenge the status quo... she cannot even leave the house alone for Pete’s sake. While Gabriela never relinquished her freedom neither for a man nor for a battalion of foreign soldiers. She truly is the “strong, independent woman” of her generation. Someone who took matters into her own hands by literally holding a bolo.

The Fall of Maria Clara and The Rise of Kumander Liwayway

          The Spaniards may have left the Philippines but the Maria Clara they have introduced remained. And this Maria Clara continued to struggle when the Japanese came to colonized the Philippines.

           These Maria Claras became comfort women or sexual slaves forcefully used by the Japanese military to satiate their sexual needs. Countless stories of women being raped, abused, and seen as sexual objects by Japanese soldiers were told. Some women had to make themselves dirty to not be noticed while some sacrificed themselves by accepting the exploitation to protect others. However, Filipino women, as palaban more than ever, never faltered. Gabriela Silang, who kicked the asses of Spanish colonizers may have died but a new version of her was born— Kumander Liwayway, the commander who wore red lipstick during war.

            Remedios Gomez-Paraiso, known as Kumander Liwayway, was a commander for Philippine military who fought against during the Japanese occupation until the end of war in 1945. Kumander Liwayway certainly knew how to set her priorities straight. Stories suggest that before each battle, she made sure to swipe lipstick on her lips, get her hair done, and paint her nails. A move familiar yet revolutionary for women, since she used makeup during crucial times not to make herself “pretty,” but to uplift the morale of her comrades.

           Comfort women’s chapter in our history books, however, continues until this day. Our lolas never let the atrocities committed upon them be turned into ashes, as they are still fighting to be recognized. Never mind the monetary reparations—they just want the world to shine light upon their narratives… nothing more, nothing less.

           Filipino women fought during (and after) the war and took a big role in putting the Japanese colonizers back to their place.

Maria Clara and Gabriela Version 2.0

         The agony of the Filipino women didn’t stop and they, too, didn’t stop proving their tenacity. After the Spanish came to the Philippines, Americans came and changed the way of the lives of the Filipinos including of the women. Maria Claras who were in-charge of housekeeping and childbearing were also became the slaves of capitalism.

         Numerous businesses especially in the manufacturing industry became highly dependent on the presence of female employees, because the Americans found that Filipino women possessed qualities like patience, adapting quickly, refusal to commit frauds, and other good work ethics. These first generation professional female workers created products that were exported and helped in the economic growth for the benefit of the colonizers. Imagine the double jeopardy Filipino women were facing during this time: they have to make sure that their homes were clean before they leave for work in the morning and have to cook dinner for the family after a grueling work they have went through for the day.

          Aside from revolutionizing Filipino women’s roles, the Americans also dressed up and did a horrible makeover to Maria Claras. Filipinas were made as the subject of objectification for American soldiers. Gone were the days when Maria Clara had to dress modestly, since during those times, her capacity to “entertain” G.I. aka American soldiers came into light. She suddenly became barely-clothed to adapt to G.I’s needs.

          Amidst these epic tragedy, Filipino women succeed in channeling out the palaban in them. When the Americans introduced the concept education, the Filipino women grab the chance and used it to their advantage. New versions of Gabriela Silang were already professionals—Josefa Llanes-Escoda and Fe del Mundo—the new game changers of Filipina women at this time.

          Although Josefa, who is fondly called as Pepa, never became engaged in the battlefield—she paved the way for multiple generations of Gabriela Silangs to breed when she established Girl’s Scouts of the Philippines (GSP). With the battlecry of serving God, the country, and the people in need, the american-educated Pepa did a great job in establishing GSP in her motherland.  

          Meanwhile, Doktora Fe placed women to a higher platform when she proved that we can also be professionals. We are not merely housekeepers, but we can also be licensed healers. Though she did not train another generation of warriors—like what Pepa did—nor did she became a warrior herself—like Gabriela—she used her compassion to improve the country’s healthcare system by establishing the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines.

         Doktora Fe, unmarried and without kids, dedicated her life to the service. Not only did she cure ailing kids, but she also served in far-flung barangays in the country. She, indeed, lived a life full of service and compassion.

         The second generations Maria Clara and Gabriela—like Pepa and Doktora Fe—deemed classrooms as new training zones before going to the battleground. Although they did not rip cedulas apart nor grasp bolos, they handled paper and pens and used their knowledge to help their kababayans back home.  

          History will agree with us when we say that women not only dodged bullets, but they also used their compassion throughout the years. However, now is the time to shine light upon HerStory—her sacrifices and trailblazing deeds just for women to be appreciated. Now, tell me that Filipinas are not palaban as fuck. 

Words by Quimberlyn Ranchez and Chelsea Joy Serezo

Researched by Charlene Favis

Art by Charlene Favis

Image Source for Fe del Mundo, Liliosa Hilao, Kumander Liwayway, Lisa Macuja, Melchora Aquino, Josefa Llanes-Escoda, Aldaba Lim, Gabriela Silang, and Maria Clara. 

[d2kvirus]

Dickheads of the Month: March 2019

As it seems that there are people who say or do things that are remarkably dickheaded yet somehow people try to make excuses for them or pretend it never happened, here is a collection of some of the dickheaded actions we saw in the month of March 2019 to make sure that they are never forgotten.

Even though Queensland is noted for being in Australia and not New Zealand, that did not stop Fraser Anning from rushing to his keyboard in the wake of the Christchurch mosque shootings to issue a statement to mouth off like an ignorant twat about immigration, gun laws and how that damn dirty left-wingers will try and make a white nationalist shooting up a mosque about Islamophobia, deeply-ingrained racism and the fact psychopaths can get hold of guns without too much difficulty as they would be desperate to make some kind of political capital out of it - unlike Fraser Anning, who definitely wasn’t using anti-immigrant and Islamophobic rhetoric while slagging off the left to try and get his name into the public eye as he tries to get his own political party off the ground.  Luckily that’s the only shitehousery he was responsible for...oh wait, no, there's also the fact that when he got egged the day after making these comments, his response was to hit the kid responsible - the second time clearly a case of him getting in a jab when he realised the person who did it was much shorter than him, before letting his security team lock him in the sort of chokehold that gets security teams fired on the spot for being a walking lawsuit

At the end of a bizarre rant where Theresa May blamed everyone but herself for the last two years of fumbled Britait negotiations (that definitely weren’t kickstarted by her triggering Article 50...) she came to the conclusion that she is on the side of everyone who is on the fence of her twice thrice rejected Britait proposal...contrary to what her stint as Home Secretary, let alone Prime Minister, suggests

Isn’t it strange that Sajid Javid was so determined to be seen holding Facebook to account for streaming the Christchurch mosque shootings, yet didn’t have a single syllable to say about The Daily Mail and The Sun not only also posting that very same video but also slapping ads on it?  Now why would it be that he neglected to mention them or their monetising the footage?  Anyone?

Once again Theresa May tried to claim there is no link between the decrease in police numbers and the increase in knife crime which just so happen to coincide with one another, which of course cannot be linked to the fact that a Home Secretary by the name of Theresa May is the one who saw thousands of police officers laid off with the swish of her pen - although this time Cressida Dick was swift to say that, actually, combating crime is a lot more difficult with less officers, which indicates that Dick has qualified for her pension...although that doesn't excuse Cressida Dick for her bizarre comment that knife crime is the fault of the educated middle classes due to their coke habit

Soon afterwards Philip Hammond refused Sajid Javid’s request for additional funding to combat knife crime, meaning that in Hammond’s mind it’s better to have people stabbed than have to dip his hand into the money jar

According to Gisela Stuart the Vote Leave campaign can easily prove they did not break numerous electoral laws...well they could, but they happened to destroy every last scrap of data about the campaign which makes it a little difficult to prove it, but we can trust what they say...right?

When it was time for Theresa May’s deal to get a third go-round in parliament The Independent Group Ltd knew what was the most important thing to do - announce they were changing their name to Change UK...a name change that rapidly led to Change(dot)Org consulting with their lawyers about Chuka Umunna’s mob not just “borrowing” their name but pretty much aping their Twitter handle, and the fact that Anna Soubry called the group “Change Dot Org” in Commons did not help their defence

Even by his usual standards Chris Grayling had a bad start to the month, as on March 1st not only did the story break that his awarding a ferry service to Seaborne Freight in spite of their lack of ferries meant the government had to pay Eurotunnel £33m, but it also emerged that his changed to the probation service when he was Justice Secretary had cost the taxpayer at least £171m, with estimates suggesting the cost could creep up[ as far as £500m - but for this all he received from Theresa May was a pat on the head, because thanks to these two stories breaking within hours of one another there was no real coverage of the fact that the High Court had deemed the Hostile Environment legislation she passed when Home Secretary as unlawful, which makes Grayling her useful idiot

Once again Karen Bradley demonstrates her unsuitability to be Northern Ireland Secretary by invoking the Nuremberg defence when she suggested that it wasn’t a crime when Northern Irish civilians killed by the British Army during The Troubles because the soldiers were only following orders - a statement she happened to make during a government investigation into whether or not the soldiers responsible for Bloody Sunday should face prosecution

Waffling gargoyle Nigel Farage was determined to walk all the way from Sunderland to London as part of the Britait Betrayal March...right up until a mere 350 people showed up, to the point where there were more journalists than people marching at points on the first day, at which point he fucked off down the pub with the £50 everyone in attendance paid to cover a week’s food and lodgings while professional gaslighter Isabel Oakeshott was left trying to claim that only 200 people were supposed to turn up in spite of the fact Farage claimed a whole digit’s worth more would show up at the very least, meaning one of them was lying  

Also benefiting from Grayling’s useful idiocy was Martyn York and Dorinda Bailey and the Boris Johnson: Supporters’ Group on Facebook where Bailey posted all manner of Islamophobic comments, not least suggesting that mosques be bombed, but as this story also broke on the day of Grayling’s failings all that needed to be done was for Brandon Lewis to claim that Bailey wasn’t a member of the party - which is more than a little awkward considering Bailey was wearing a Tory rosette when running in the Newcastle-under-Lyme council elections in 2018

Shortly afterwards Boris Johnson himself demonstrated how the monkey only follows the organ grinder’s instructions by calling the money spent investigating cases of historic child abuse was “spaffing money up the wall” - which managed to be a comment that combined a slang term for male ejaculation when dismissing investigations into historic child abuse coupled with him thinking Londoners have forgotten how much money he pissed away creating numerous monuments to Boris Johnson in central London during his stint as Mayor

Spiteful child Rachel Riley thought she was being oh-so-clever when her response to somebody punching Jeremy Corbyn while holding an egg (and not, as The BBC et al suggested, throw an egg at Corbyn) by posting a screengrab of an Owen Jones tweet from when somebody threw an egg at BNP leader Nick Griffin saying, if you don’t want an egg throw at you, don’t be a Nazi - of course you shouldn’t dare come to the conclusion that she called Corbyn a Nazi, absolutely not...because she’ll sic Mark Lewis on you and claim libel 

Yet somehow that isn’t the worst thing Rachel Riley managed this month, considering she went on a crusade to cost The Canary their advertisers and was more than happy to outright lie in order to do so, getting on board with the Stop Funding Fake News mob to accuse the site of sexism and (of course) antisemitism which saw both eBay and the Macmillan Cancer Trust pull advertising from the site (albeit Macmillan soon reversed their decision when the reality of what Riley and friends were up to came to light), because if there’s on thing guaranteed to make you look like you’re on the right side of history it’s lying to a cancer charity in order to bully the left-wing press by costing them their source of funding while also painting them as an operation ran by angry bigots with no accountability when both The Canary and Evolve Politics are both covered by Impress Media - unlike the bilge her good friend David Collier vomits forth onto the internet in support of the voices inside Riley’s head...

Once again Roseanne Barr decided to beg for attention from the only people willing to give a crap about her, this time conversing with that well-known advocate of women’s rights Mike Tyson where she came to the conclusion that it’s perfectly acceptable to sexually harass or rape women if Roseanne can somehow twist that into a punchline of “Well, you ain’t nothing but a ho” - which she says while whoring herself out for attention from the far-right, before a day or so later once again trying to “clarify” her comments when she realised that the far-right already have their preferred voices and they’re not interested in having her speak for them

In possibly the worst example of equating two things that are not remotely related in some time we have both John McTernan and Siobhain McDonagh stating that, for somebody to be anti-capitalist means they also have to be anti semitic.  No, just...no

Continuing his crusade against nominative determinism was James Cleverley complaining that the second go-round of Theresa May’s inept deal was unfair because those voting didn’t know all the facts - this after the best part of three years telling people to stop moaning about the EU Referendum result even though those voting didn’t know the facts...

Also demonstrating a lack of self-awareness in Parliament was Ian Austin who stood up in Parliament to moan and complain about how it's completely unfair that he;s no longer allowed to take part in Foreign Select Committee meetings having voluntarily left the Labour party, at least I think that’s what he was saying as most of it was the usual “Corbyn Bad Man” gibberish - and to underline the childishness of this, it wasn’t long before both Joan Ryan and Mike Gapes stood up to chime in with their own “Corbyn Bad Man” gibberish while agreeing how completely unfair it is that somebody who voluntarily left the Labour party is not allowed to partake in Labour committee meetings, somehow failing to see the obvious point

In a genius piece of marketing Tim Martin blamed Wetherspoons’ 19% drop in profits over the last year entirely on Remain voters - because it’s definitely not related to Wetherspoons head honcho Tim Martin devoting an awful amount of his time since June 2016 telling Remain voters that they should stay out of his pubs because he doesn’t want them there...

This month’s remarkable self-own by Julia Hartley-Brewer was her trying to prove the petition to revoke Article 50 was a sham by her signing it and telling her followers to also sign it using her name and the provided e-mail address...meaning that not only did she show her opposition to the petition by signing the bloody thing while also bringing the petition to the attention of her followers, but also demonstrated she doesn't understand how petitions work and nobody else can sign it using the e-mail address she provided 

You have to hand it to Esther McVey for publicly umming and ahhing about whether or not she could bring herself to support Theresa May’s Britait deal before deciding that she could - and almost immediately making it clear why when she announced her constituency had received a £21m injection for infrastructure spending, not only making it obvious that she’d sold her vote for the cost of a garden village but also guaranteeing that anyone else publicly umming and ahhing about supporting May had a starting bid for their bribe from the magic money tree

Does it not occur to Suzanne Evans that it takes just a second to see how obvious it is that the Twitter accounts she’s retweeting as “proof” of...something are obvious sockpuppets?  Apparently not...

Emergency Boris Johnson Michael Fabricant had a brilliant take on Britait, suggesting everything will be fine because Greenland’s doing alright.  This is Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory with a population of 55,877 whose economy is entirely based on exporting seafood and 20% of the country’s population lives in one city, which is perfectly comparable with the United Kingdom with its population of 66,040,229 people scattered among numerous cities and an economy that’s far more intricate

The worst possible thing David Steel could have said about the accusations of then-Liberal MP Cyril Smith would be for him to claim it was nothing to do with him ...which is exactly what he did when he said that the allegations of him abusing children were nothing to do with him, even though as leader of the then-Liberal party the lack of due diligence into Smith before letting him into the party anyway

You would have thought that Valve would have responded to somebody selling some obvious troll bait called RAPE DAY on their platform by remembering how they responded when Active Shooter was last year’s obvious troll bait that existed in the hope it would make some quick and dirty money off the saddos who live to “trigger the libs” - but no, they forgot that they stated they would remove games that were obviously made by edgelords trying to piss people off to get some spite buys and instead gave some mealy-mouthed reasoning for pulling RAPE DAY from their service that only invited more condemnation from the usual REEEEEEEEEEdom of Speech mob while also managing to damage the company PR, and the fact they managed this when even the game’s developer Desk Plant said he shouldn’t be selling it via Steam

The increasingly deranged Michael Jackson fans had a genius idea for how to respond to Leaving Neverland: put up posters around the London Underground suggesting that all people claiming to be victims of child abuse are liars, because when it’s a choice between considering the possibility of Jackson being a paedophile and deciding all victims of child abuse must be lying there was only ever one choice available for them - which says it all, really it does...

Sniveling little weasel Mike Dean was hoping to pull the wool over people’s eyes with his one-sided report into the confrontation with Tottenham coach Mauricio Pochettino after SPurs’ game against Burnley in February, even though his report failed to match up with the televised footage and went out of its way to make no mention of what he said - but, of course, trust The FA to go along with it because referees should be respected at all times, even grossly incompetent ones who are blatantly lying...

The latest victim of Neesonitis was Amber Rudd when, in an attempt to defend the dogwhistler’s favourite target Diane Abbott from the volume of abuse she receives online in an interview with Radio 2, she described Abbott as “a coloured woman” so the conversation moved on to Rudd using outdated terms to describe people of colour -  although she didn’t help her casewhen she used the exact same excuses that Angela Smith did a couple of weeks before when she made her “funny tinge” comment to describe BAME members of the public

Embarassment to the Youtube platform PewDipShit PewDiePie howled at how unfair it is that T-Series was using celebrities to endorse their channel as it continued to threaten to knock him off his perch, conveniently forgetting how he tried to get numerous Youtubers to rally around him when it looked like T-Series was going to knock him off his perch

So have Arsenal fans worked out what the offside rule is yet, or are they still howling in indignation about how they’re the victims for conceding a perfectly legitimate penalty against Tottenham?  I’ll give you a hint: it’s going to be the latter for some time to come

It appears that Stuart Jeffries wasn’t actually watching Arcadia when writing his review for The Guardian, because somehow he’s the only person who watched it whose takeaway of footage of 1920s miners leaving the pit covered in coal dust was how in the 1920s people wore blackface to work

I do hope Vasco da Gama fans have to endure watching their team being humiliated on the pitch on a regular basis, because their spamming the ever loving shit out of any Twitter feed they can find with the name of their club was the most obnoxious display from Brazilian fans since the obnoxious sense of entitlement they showed during the 2014 World Cup - and also the reason the whole world was supporting Germany in the semi-final

And finally, having a strange inability to tweet about the suspected sex trafficking ring operating out of Mar A Lago is Donald Trump and his tantrums about how he wasn’t invited to John McCain’s funeral in August last year

[riusugoi]

Pilgrim Award Acceptance Comments- Donna Haraway, (July 7, 2011 actually in California, virtually in Lublin, Poland, at the SFRA meetings) - SF: Science Fiction, Speculative Fabulation, String Figures, So Far

I have tried to add my own rills to the flows of SF. I think of my craft as multispecies story telling in the feminist mode. Equipped with a PhD in molecular, developmental, and evolutionary biology, I have earned a living as a humanities scholar in science studies and feminist studies, with a kind of green card to reside under strict surveillance in biological and cultural anthropology. Art in the biological, ecological, and cyborg modes has only added to the SF mêlée that I call worlding. These knowledge-making and world-making fields inform a craft that for me is relentlessly replete with organic and inorganic critters and stories, in their thick material and narrative tissues. The tight coupling of writing and research— where both terms require the factual, fictional, and fabulated; where both terms are materialized in fiction and scholarship—seems to me to be built into SF’s techno-organic, polyglot, polymorphic wiring diagrams. My multispecies story telling is inflected through SF in all the fibers of the string figures that I try to pattern and to relay.

The British social anthropologist Marilyn Strathern, who wrote The Gender of the Gift based on her ethnographic work in highland Papua New Guinea (Mt. Hagen), taught me that “It matters what ideas we use to think other ideas (with).” [Reproducing the Future (Manchester UP, 1992), p. 10.] Marilyn embodies for me the practice of feminist speculative fabulation in the scholarly mode. It matters what matters we use to think other matters with; it matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with; it matters what knots knot knots, what thoughts think thoughts, what ties tie ties. It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories. Marilyn wrote about accepting the risk of relentless contingency; she thinks about anthropology as the knowledge practice that studies relations with relations, that puts relations at risk with other relations, from unexpected other worlds.

Isabelle insists we cannot denounce the world in the name of an ideal world. In the spirit of feminist communitarian anarchism and the idiom of Whitehead’s philosophy, she maintains that decisions must take place somehow in the presence of those who will bear their consequences.2: Isabelle Stengers on relay, via Guatarri, from “Relaying a War Machine”: “To try and take the relay, to try and become part of “an ambulant people of relayers, rather than a model city” [Guattari] produces a rather particular affect. …More precisely, com-menting, if it means thinking-with, that is becoming-with, is in itself a way of relaying... But knowing that what you take has been held out entails a particular thinking “between ”. It does not demand fidelity, still less fealty, rather a particular kind of loyalty, the answer to the trust of the held out hand. Even if this trust is not in “you” but in “creative uncertainty”, even if the consequences and meaning of what has been done, thought or written, do not belong to you anymore than they belonged to the one you take the relay from, one way or another the relay is now in your hands, together with the demand that you do not proceed with “mechanical confidence”.….. Haraway’s own word for the kind of help she needs and loves unsurprisingly belongs to the register of the homely and the ordinary – cat’s cradling, a child’s game, apparently, but also a game versions of which exist in cultures all over the world. Two pairs of hands are needed [me in relay: or at least many tentacles, however attached to individuals or not], and in each successive step, one is “passive”, offering the result of its previous operation, a string entanglement, for the other to operate, only to become active again at the next step, when the other presents the new entanglement. But it can also be said that each time the “passive” pair is the one that holds, and is held by the entanglement, only to “let it go” when the other one takes the relay. A complex dance indeed.....”

In 1980 the program was usually pronounced HisCon. Thus provoked to give an inaugural lecture called HerScam, I shamelessly 8 used Galileo’s conic sections to model 1) the tragic parabolic detumescence of HisCon’s fantasies of escape velocity from Terra through a disembodied, flighty thing called “theory” (or were those just my hyper-feminist paranoias?); 2) the brutal, perfectly circular, futile, targeting strategies of a late capitalist, faithfully Kantian cosmopolitics in a state of permanent global war; and 3) the hyperbolic, bodily saturated, limit-defined lusts of HerScam’s practice of feminist theory, aka the conic section I remain in love with. In this model-cylinder of the university ivory tower, we were left with the modest, historically pregnant, phenomena-saving ellipse, a shape with two foci that suggested co-promise.

Partners do not precede the relating; the world is a verb, or at least a gerund; worlding is the dynamics of intra-action (Karen Barad’s word from Meeting the Universe Halfway) and intra-patience, the giving and receiving of patterning, all the way down, with consequences for who lives and who dies and how.

My linguist and ancient civilizations scholar friends tell me that this guman is adama/adam, composted from all available genders and genres and competent to make a home world for Battlestar Galactica, in struggle certainly but no longer in a state of permanent war. This Terrapolis has kin-making, cat’s-cradle, string-figure, SF relations with Isabelle Stengers’s kind of fleshy cosmopolitics and SF writers’ practices of worlding. This Terrapolis recognizes the tunneling Makers of Dune as planet-forming companion species.

Terrapolis is a fictional integral equation, a speculative fabulation a “niche space” for multispecies becoming-with Terrapolis is open, worldly, indeterminate, and polytemporal a chimera of materials, languages, histories companion species — not “post-human” but “com-post” an equation for guman, for humus, for soil.

The worlds of SF are not containers; they are patternings, risky co-makings, speculative fabulations. It matters which ideas we think other ideas with; thinking or making cat’s cradle with string figures with na'atl'o' is not an innocent universal gesture, but a risky proposition in relentless historical relational contingency. Janet Evason refused to hear Jael’s claim that the wonderful world of Whileaway got its start from an act of biological warfare—genocide— that killed off all the human males. Like Joanna, we cannot afford that kind of forgetting. Anyone who recognizes the repeated acts of genocide that undergird that nonetheless precious thing called democracy surely knows this basic fact. How to be response-able is the consequential question in SF worlding

[spryfilm]

“Wonder” (2017)

Drama

Running Time: 113 minutes

Written by:  Steve Conrad, based on the novel of the same name by R.J. Palacio

Directed by: Stephen Chbosky

Featuring: Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, and Jacob Tremblay

Auggie Pullman: [voice over] “I know I’m not an ordinary kind of a kid, I’ve had twenty-seven surgeries. They help me to breathe, to see, to hear without a hearing aid, but none of them have me look ordinary.”

I have to say that I did enjoy this movie about a boy who is born with a genetic disorder that means over the first part of his life he has to undergo constant facial surgeries to allow him to live a normal life. These surgeries leave him with extreme facial scarring that has the side effect of ostracizing him from society. This is the story of how he has to brave the outside world, face his fears as well as others misunderstanding of his condition as well as attempt to make friends with children who can be cruel – something we are reminded of constantly throughout this movie.

As you would expect from a movie like this the main character of the story is the child, Auggie, who through many interactions does find acceptance as well as becoming the hero of his own story, something that is sign posted from the very beginning. This is no knock on the movie as I expect that the end product is exactly what everyone involved was working towards. This was based on a work of fiction that was driven out of a real event, as well as incorporating many other ideas which all seem to work well, teaching tolerance as well as the acceptance of others no matter how they look on the surface – however this is all told from the point of view of white rich New York elites that for me simplifies issues of race, economics as well as level of education.

“Wonder”(2017) revolves mainly around August “Auggie” Pullman (Jacob Tremblay) is a young boy born with a facial deformity who has been in and out of hospitals for years. With the help of his mother, Isabel (Julia Roberts), and his father, Nate (Owen Wilson), he tries to fit in at a new school, Beecher Prep, and to show everyone he is just an ordinary kid and that beauty is not just on the outside.

This movie is a slick piece of work with a plot that is certainly not original but does attempt to broaden its horizons as well as make a comment on the way children are raised, the sacrifices that are made in the process of raising children, what can go wrong in terms of health issues, roles parent play and many other pertinent aspects of raising children. These are all noble points, but the one thing that is missed or ignored, which can be an issue for many movies is that the families as well as all their friends are wealthy which means many problems are solved by just waiving money at them. At no time whatsoever does Auggie or his family have to worry about money for rent, food, tuition, toys, computers or anything. In fact the family live in a Brownstone in New York that go for at least US$2.5 million, Auggie’s room by itself is larger than many apartments, he has his own computer, television, huge mural and many other ‘toys’ most children would kill for.

The roles of the parents are unclear, they are obviously liberals, sending their son to a liberal school, where the curriculum that is taught is again enriched by money as well as of course pointing out how left thinking they are with a female science teacher as well as an African American teacher, peppering the class with other cultures – although there is the point made that the ‘baddies’ are nebbish white new money conservatives. These are almost all tropes that have been transported from any number of genres and other family movies. Back to the parents, the mother played by A-lister Julia Roberts is just as you would expect, the perfect mother who can put up with her husband, is able to give her son the best home school education, he is of course smarter than all the other children he goes to school with, makes perfect food – looking extremely healthy – and is able to not blink an eye when her daughter brings home someone non-white. The father, played with charm by Owen Wilson, is the funniest guy in the room, has a job that goes unexplained but rakes in the money to afford their lavish lifestyle. The only real chink in the armor of the family is the daughter, Via, played by Izabela Vidovic, who feels like she has been sidelined by Auggie’s issues, as well being ignored by a childhood friend – of course her issues are completely resolved by the end of the movie, much like everyone else’s – the typical Hollywood movie as well as a complete fantasy based on a fictional story.

The novel that this movie is based on is completely fiction, it was written by a woman that saw a child with a facial deformity in an ice cream shop with her own child. In thinking that her child would be upset and cause a scene she attempted to remove herself from that situation, in doing so she caused a huge scene. This is not necessarily a negative aspect but it does lead into the movie itself as it concentrates on one aspect of a story but really white washes any other issues the typical family might face – which this one really does not.

In saying all of this about “Wonder” and it may seem I am being overly negative but there is still a lot to like about the movie. For one it is a family movie that should appeal to almost any age, be they five or above. This movie speaks to so much about what it is like starting anything new, there is fear, trepidation about the unknown, and that is before taking into account the feeling that you are different to everyone else – this movie deals with that along with the knowledge that this will never change. It teaches us that acceptance is important as well as the idea that there will always be people that accept you for who you are, as well as those who never will. These are all positive messages that cannot be underestimated by viewers of this very well executed movie.

Stephen Chbosky who also directed “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (2012) here has almost everything a director could want, a compelling story, an excellent cast as well as a great location. He puts them all together to create a unique story centered around breakout star Jacob Tremblay who so impressed with “Room”(2015), here he almost carries the entire movie with what looks like ease. Of course there is a lot of work he must do which is easy to see once you compare his performance to some of the other child actors. The rest of the cast including superstar Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson do exactly what you expect which is to show their supercharged talents to bring more urgency as well as emotion that helps to highlight the issues that their son faces.

I can recommend this as a movie to see in cinemas as a family, it teaches without being too preachy as well as giving children the agency to make decisions that have a direct effect on not only their lives but others as well.

DVD review: “Wonder” (2017) “Wonder" (2017) Drama Running Time: 113 minutes Written by:  Steve Conrad, based on the novel of the same name by R.J.

[joyfullyimportantyouth-blog]

Tell me a story: Yoga Abroad

It had been a long day since the Argentinian had MIA-ed into the sunset, leaving me groping for serenity that very long Wednesday before yoga teacher training was to begin. "Allo!" The hostel owner who everyone called "Daddy" chimed as I shuffled from my porch to my moped. Damn. I wanted something herbed to counterbalance my lunch of nerves and tempeh and air. Ten more minutes till I was expected to be at the Shala for what would be either a savasana cocktail of celebrity rehab or an om orgasm with taut Nordic goddesses who probably moonlighted as amber-infused Bhagavagita sexologists. I was gonna take my gamble and go find out after shelling out the skrilla G's in a moment of BLANKKKKK upheaval one hungover morning in Bangkok just two weeks prior. Time to smatter my Traggae Surf hostel wall with Giselle Bunchden and "Touch Yourself, Ganesh Offspring" quotes.

I decided to walk and observe everything to get into the practice of being "authentically mindful." It took me 3 times of listening to Yo Gotti's "Act Right" before I reached the tranquil wood sign of "Yoga Searcher, Uluwatu, Bali." There was a happy Buddha emblazoned on the coinage that I had arrived to find myself. Skeptical, a little. Facetious, no… it just dawned on me and probably a million times before that I could be the anti-christ to these types of programs. I'd always simultaneously cringed and fawned over the "yoga gurl" pics insta kept on titillating rotation: yoga gurl stretching into some fantastical bridge position, her bronzed bod entwined with an inspirational quote of having "found inner peace" in Peru. "Yoga gurl" sipping out of a chlorophyll coconut like it was the most delicious double-shot of patron that she'd ever guzzled. "Yoga gurl" beaming at her dreaded washboard abs surfer boyfriend, congratulating her graduation with matching sun and moon tattoos and the coordinates of where they'd once met at a surfer ashram.

Why was I here? Did I want to be yoga gurl? Textbook guilty. It was time to reinvent after spending far too much time withdrawn into a shell of "the post-grad life." I could've just bought a $30 insurance covered therapy session a few times a week with a frumpily dressed yet moderately compassionate shrink but nooooo, no no no... I had to go to BALI to talk about problems and laugh with nonchalance when I realized that my hair salty and my toes so tanned meant the world was so fine now, so fine.  I could envision my previous selves clustering together to meet about this cosmic life transition, sharing kombucha while wondering where the wine and whiskey was hidden, rumpling a NYTimes paper to a Jay Z banger, reflecting then brushing off the meanderings with "oh, please, let's just say fuck it and do it. It'll be a great story." Indeed. I wandered up to the Shala, the grass seeming to emanate inner peace itself as it swayed by the infinity pool, inviting the gorgeous participants to "let that shit go." Beautiful women in flowing bohemian glory wandered up the steps, not breaking a sweat in the 90 degree sun, their smiles like sumptuous macca whirling in a sea of boison berries. "Welcome," one of our instructors, Amy, greeted us. I loved her immediately. Her hair was a fiery crown of auburn and she had a septum and her voice was as soothing as dark chocolate dashed in Jameson; when she said "gra" in her Irish lilt I wondered why Hozier hadn't married her already.

We all settled into our crimson pillows and were told to interview a partner so we could learn, embrace, introduce, get to know each other. My partner, Rebecca, was a holistic wunderkind platonic supermodel with a dash of sass who I assumed could do the splits with the conviction of the Dalai Lama's blessing. When it came time to go around the circle, she read my answers as I challenged myself to unravel from a painful expression of half-lotus that I could definitely not do: "Isabelle loves the color black, Bobby Shmurda club bangerz, painting, reading. She is currently traveling on her own for three months and has no expectations of what her experience will be here. She just wants to learn how to breathe and connect with parts of herself that she feels like she has lost." Goddamn, I wanted to cry for myself. Thank god everyone going around the circle wasn't set on this teacher track, they  just wanted some expensive therapy with prayer beads and Shiva and all that. There would undoubtedly be the Eat Pray Lover who had found her moksha in India and in her rose-smelling coitus, but om mani padmi om to her.

I had always loved yoga, but like with everything else, I tended to conceptualize the whole experience into a tangent web of intellectualized thoughts and associations. Or inappropriate metaphors. I loved the feeling of the actual exercise, but all of this head business made it so that it was an experience outside of me usually; the spirituality had not yet caught me, although that was why I was precisely in Bali at the golden temple shala at that very moment. I wanted a jolt and so I was going to throw caution to the wind with a degree of control based on the internet's blessing of great reviews of women who were trying to do the same thing as me at yoga retreats and teacher trainings abroad. I'd felt like I'd been unraveling for a bit already, so decluttering some of the mess seemed beyond essential and spiritual tourism was what I thought would be quite the graceful quick fix.

The next few weeks turned into an amalgamation of self-discovery and trying to do certain asana positions and also some penetrating flares of frustration but also laughter at the absurdity of some "unfoldings." Every morning started at 5:30 am in the shala, which meant rolling out of bed and spraying myself with delicious DEET at 5:10 AM before sauntering out the door to walk with my neighborhood bombshells, Greta (from Wisconsin) and Becks (from Norway). Thankfully, Becks and I would sprint back to "Daddy" come 7:30 AM to guzzle buttloads of delish Balinese coffee while commiserating about how our hips couldn't open and yet how we loved Dipa's lectures on the feminine and the masculine merged into perception within the concept of the 8 folds of yoga. After this ritual I would usually blare Schoolboy Q and practice twrking (always come prepared) for a solid 40 minutes before going back to the shala for some alignment where I prayed that we would have partner massage sessions that would make my celibate self feel some firing synapses.

I found some soul sistahs in my atypical American peers. Erin and I found each other at the next door warung when she explained how she wanted some body bounce and less namestes. She became #1 woe. She is the baddest bitch of them all, especially when we listened to E-40 by the pool and she claimed in-person basis with the bay's pride and glory. And she worked at Twitter and claimed a title in an Aussie wet t-shirt contest and has traveled the whole world and is an acclaimed blogger. And would do neck shots of tequila with me. We became each other's co-dependent trap queens at the local Single Fin club. Thank god I wasn't in love while I was incorporating into this yogini program. Instead I meditated on everything I was looking for and why I was alone and why I was so ecstatic to be single (until 10 pm). It was like a study abroad for starving yourself on green juice and breathing and all I had to do was make decisions for me. My agenda was to get everything out of my system, although that comes at a cost: because then you actually discover yourself. And that can be... hard. But necessary. I realized I was a whole person and so was everyone else no matter what point in life they were at. Basically, yoga teacher training is like a caftan clad sorority who hold a cave open for worshipping Jack Johnson and period moon goddess parties. The worst part was feeling simultaneously annoyed and a little crestfallen that I couldn't cry post-meditation while others sobbed about varying levels of tragedy and spontaneous emotion. It was as if a little Eagle perched on my soul and clawed at any inkling of a tear. I cried when the nutritionist talked about how her old friends who drank cheap wine and smoked cigs didn't accept her newfound love affair with kale and B12 shots. Figures.

On a lighter note, I would check my Tinder abroad after an arduous day of leg flexing. Here is what I found that led me to keep doing downward dog to soul search and not find men.

Not too savory. But I would often wash away the unsightlyness of it all with a good ol' gin and tonic with the American girls, especially after getting our yoga certificates in our crocheted crop tops. One interesting note: Americans cannot accept awards without looking like complete douche bags. We all joked about it afterwards that the four of us couldn't make heartfelt speeches like the fellow Europeans did. We just collect those trophies like candies, stating after the acceptance, "yeah, thanks guys, love you" as a token of our appreciation. Point of relation, apparently.

The whole yoga experience has made wonder what acceptance is other than just where you are right now. It's also made me curious as to how it is apart of the woman I hope to be or already am. I mostly feel humbled and grateful for the women I got to know for a solid month straight x 1000 hypothetical days of deep talks. And for the times that I wondered about who I was; well, that will continue, and so will the sideways splits of discovering bad-assness that yoga training taps you into. I was gonna write a blog on travel tips and then I ended up writing a blog on inappropriate metaphors. Because that's just me. 

[spryfilm]

“Wonder” (2017)

Drama

Running Time: 113 minutes

Written by:  Steve Conrad, based on the novel of the same name by R.J. Palacio

Directed by: Stephen Chbosky

Featuring: Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, and Jacob Tremblay

Auggie Pullman: [voice over] “I know I’m not an ordinary kind of a kid, I’ve had twenty-seven surgeries. They help me to breathe, to see, to hear without a hearing aid, but none of them have me look ordinary.”

I have to say that I did enjoy this movie about a boy who is born with a genetic disorder that means over the first part of his life he has to undergo constant facial surgeries to allow him to live a normal life. These surgeries leave him with extreme facial scarring that has the side effect of ostracizing him from society. This is the story of how he has to brave the outside world, face his fears as well as others misunderstanding of his condition as well as attempt to make friends with children who can be cruel – something we are reminded of constantly throughout this movie.

As you would expect from a movie like this the main character of the story is the child, Auggie, who through many interactions does find acceptance as well as becoming the hero of his own story, something that is sign posted from the very beginning. This is no knock on the movie as I expect that the end product is exactly what everyone involved was working towards. This was based on a work of fiction that was driven out of a real event, as well as incorporating many other ideas which all seem to work well, teaching tolerance as well as the acceptance of others no matter how they look on the surface – however this is all told from the point of view of white rich New York elites that for me simplifies issues of race, economics as well as level of education.

“Wonder”(2017) revolves mainly around August “Auggie” Pullman (Jacob Tremblay) is a young boy born with a facial deformity who has been in and out of hospitals for years. With the help of his mother, Isabel (Julia Roberts), and his father, Nate (Owen Wilson), he tries to fit in at a new school, Beecher Prep, and to show everyone he is just an ordinary kid and that beauty is not just on the outside.

This movie is a slick piece of work with a plot that is certainly not original but does attempt to broaden its horizons as well as make a comment on the way children are raised, the sacrifices that are made in the process of raising children, what can go wrong in terms of health issues, roles parent play and many other pertinent aspects of raising children. These are all noble points, but the one thing that is missed or ignored, which can be an issue for many movies is that the families as well as all their friends are wealthy which means many problems are solved by just waiving money at them. At no time whatsoever does Auggie or his family have to worry about money for rent, food, tuition, toys, computers or anything. In fact the family live in a Brownstone in New York that go for at least US$2.5 million, Auggie’s room by itself is larger than many apartments, he has his own computer, television, huge mural and many other ‘toys’ most children would kill for.

The roles of the parents are unclear, they are obviously liberals, sending their son to a liberal school, where the curriculum that is taught is again enriched by money as well as of course pointing out how left thinking they are with a female science teacher as well as an African American teacher, peppering the class with other cultures – although there is the point made that the ‘baddies’ are nebbish white new money conservatives. These are almost all tropes that have been transported from any number of genres and other family movies. Back to the parents, the mother played by A-lister Julia Roberts is just as you would expect, the perfect mother who can put up with her husband, is able to give her son the best home school education, he is of course smarter than all the other children he goes to school with, makes perfect food – looking extremely healthy – and is able to not blink an eye when her daughter brings home someone non-white. The father, played with charm by Owen Wilson, is the funniest guy in the room, has a job that goes unexplained but rakes in the money to afford their lavish lifestyle. The only real chink in the armor of the family is the daughter, Via, played by Izabela Vidovic, who feels like she has been sidelined by Auggie’s issues, as well being ignored by a childhood friend – of course her issues are completely resolved by the end of the movie, much like everyone else’s – the typical Hollywood movie as well as a complete fantasy based on a fictional story.

The novel that this movie is based on is completely fiction, it was written by a woman that saw a child with a facial deformity in an ice cream shop with her own child. In thinking that her child would be upset and cause a scene she attempted to remove herself from that situation, in doing so she caused a huge scene. This is not necessarily a negative aspect but it does lead into the movie itself as it concentrates on one aspect of a story but really white washes any other issues the typical family might face – which this one really does not.

In saying all of this about “Wonder” and it may seem I am being overly negative but there is still a lot to like about the movie. For one it is a family movie that should appeal to almost any age, be they five or above. This movie speaks to so much about what it is like starting anything new, there is fear, trepidation about the unknown, and that is before taking into account the feeling that you are different to everyone else – this movie deals with that along with the knowledge that this will never change. It teaches us that acceptance is important as well as the idea that there will always be people that accept you for who you are, as well as those who never will. These are all positive messages that cannot be underestimated by viewers of this very well executed movie.

Stephen Chbosky who also directed “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (2012) here has almost everything a director could want, a compelling story, an excellent cast as well as a great location. He puts them all together to create a unique story centered around breakout star Jacob Tremblay who so impressed with “Room”(2015), here he almost carries the entire movie with what looks like ease. Of course there is a lot of work he must do which is easy to see once you compare his performance to some of the other child actors. The rest of the cast including superstar Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson do exactly what you expect which is to show their supercharged talents to bring more urgency as well as emotion that helps to highlight the issues that their son faces.

I can recommend this as a movie to see in cinemas as a family, it teaches without being too preachy as well as giving children the agency to make decisions that have a direct effect on not only their lives but others as well.

“Wonder”is released on the 30th November in cinemas only.

  Film review: “Wonder” (2017) “Wonder" (2017) Drama Running Time: 113 minutes Written by:  Steve Conrad, based on the novel of the same name by R.J.