#but is this really an ask

[thatbanditqueen]

on the subject of elvis’s sexuality:

while i don’t think he was bisexual, i’m sure he felt at least some level of attraction to other men, even just as a “that’s a good-looking guy” type of thing. his comfortability with queer men (friendships with little richard, liberace, etc) indicates he was confident in his own sexuality, at least for the most part. apparently he did experience a bit of gay panic, though.

marlon brando and he had a sort-of pen pal relationship going on and apparently elvis wrote to him on more than one occasion panicking about his sexuality.

brando wrote about elvis to another at one time: “He's being churned up inside until he fears himself. I sometimes think he fears that he's a latent homosexual." (all of this is from the book brando on elvis: in his own words)

this all happened in 69, i believe, which is when elvis was feeling incredibly vulnerable and unhappy in a lot of his relationships (particularly with priscilla).

all of this is to say elvis experienced gay panic severe enough to write to his hero about it and brando is a huge gossip.

It is always so nice when a more experienced woman takes the time to tutor a novice like me in Elvis' sexuality ....

I absolutely agree that E would appreciate male beauty, some of the mafia make him out to have been homophobic, but Ii think they project some of their own anxieties there, because he had those friendships. He was always so aesthetically attuned, to himself, the women he dated, the customized fashion, jewelry, decor .... and he was confident enough to follow his own taste and instincts when it came to this which is so fucking hot....

I haven't read Brando's book, in fact, I didn't even know it existed. This story about hiis gay panic doesn't surprise me at all, I am just kind of surprised Guralnick doesn't talk about it because of how thoroughly he researched any mention of Elvis in the press, interviewed people, and read many of the other bios... or maybe I shouldn't be, as revered as that book set is, I do feel like a lot of the sexual stuff is tamped down or ignored... I'll add that there are more books that I haven't read than those I have, still very much a work in progress here.

From the books I have read, though, Elvis is sort of painted as not confiding or talk to male friends in-depth about personal stuff, and characterized as being discouraged from having relationships with other actors in Hollywood. But again, these are impressions I've gotten mainly based on accounts from the mafia so I guess thanks to the anon for helping facilitate my deeper education on Elvis' sexuality.

I absolutely love this story about Brando and now I want to read it because I am a long time Brando admirer, I went through a phase as a teen where I watched as many of his movies as I could...

OK, Elise, I want you to lay it on me.... what are some other books or interviews I should go stick my head into?

xoxox

[puppyeared]

filipina miku!! my mom helped me with her outfit ^_^

[great-and-small]

Turdus aficionados of Costa Rica please know I love your national bird but this is objectively hilarious

[beebfreeb]

[unapologeticallydorky]

idk if anyone else felt this way, but in the Shapeshifter ep of Dungeon Meshi, it's treated like a joke that all the copies of Laios are super obviously not him, but isn't it kind of fucked up that Laios's closest companions don't seem to view him as... whole?

None of his companions had an accurate view of him as a person! One of the copies was a stupid, drooling mess! And on top of this, they all believed that because Laios struggles with social cues he wouldn't be observant to them as people. They just... fundamentally don't understand him.

I think the really accurate copies of the rest of the party was drawn from Laios's mind. His powers of observation and analytics are his strength, but that's not the same as being good with social cues.

Anyway. It made me really sad. I know his party cares about him, but it's so isolating to know your friends don't know you.

[aropride]

[song-of-the-rune]

y'all are absolutely free to use tumblr however you please but I want redditors to know that they could, hypothetically, start a sideblog about a particular topic, add moderators to it, turn on submissions (and asks), make an "about" page laying out rules and such, and create a good tagging system. If you want it to be a bit more familiar.

[inkskinned]

because sometimes there are invisible tests and invisible rules and you're just supposed to ... know the rule. someone you thought of as a friend asks you for book recommendations, so you give her a list of like 30 books, each with a brief blurb and why you like it. later, you find out she screenshotted the list and send it out to a group chat with the note: what an absolute freak can you believe this. you saw the responses: emojis where people are rolling over laughing. too much and obsessive and actually kind of creepy in the comments. you thought you'd been doing the right thing. she'd asked, right? an invisible rule: this is what happens when you get too excited.

you aren't supposed to laugh at your own jokes, so you don't, but then you're too serious. you're not supposed to be too loud, but then people say you're too quiet. you aren't supposed to get passionate about things, but then you're shy, boring. you aren't supposed to talk too much, but then people are mad when you're not good at replying.

you fold yourself into a prettier paper crane. since you never know what is "selfish" and what is "charity," you give yourself over, fully. you'd rather be empty and over-generous - you'd rather eat your own boundaries than have even one person believe that you're mean. since you don't know what the thing is that will make them hate you, you simply scrub yourself clean of any form of roughness. if you are perfect and smiling and funny, they can love you. if you are always there for them and never admit what's happening and never mention your past and never make them uncomfortable - you can make up for it. you can earn it.

don't fuck up. they're all testing you, always. they're tolerating you. whatever secret club happened, over a summer somewhere - during some activity you didn't get to attend - everyone else just... figured it out. like they got some kind of award or examination that allowed them to know how-to-be-normal. how to fit. and for the rest of your life, you've been playing catch-up. you've been trying to prove that - haha! you get it! that the joke they're telling, the people they are, the manual they got- yeah, you've totally read it.

if you can just divide yourself in two - the lovable one, and the one that is you - you can do this. you can walk the line. they can laugh and accept you. if you are always-balanced, never burdensome, a delight to have in class, champagne and glittering and never gawky or florescent or god-forbid cringe: you can get away with it.

you stare at your therapist, whom you can make jokes with, and who laughs at your jokes, because you are so fucking good at people-pleasing. you smile at her, and she asks you how you're doing, and you automatically say i'm good, thanks, how are you? while the answer swims somewhere in your little lizard brain:

how long have you been doing this now? mastering the art of your body and mind like you're piloting a puppet. has it worked? what do you mean that all you feel is... just exhausted. pick yourself up, the tightrope has no net. after all, you're cheating, somehow, but nobody seems to know you actually flunked the test. it's working!

aren't you happy yet?

[yourangle-yuordevil]

That time in ancient Greece when Aziraphale needed a speedy horse and accidentally invented the pegasus

VS.

Whatever Crowley had going on in medieval times

[bastardlybonkers]

i feel like not enough ppl are factoring in the cultural clash between laios and shuro and the many micro agressions shuro faced while being in their group. literally the name 'shuro' in itself is one

his name is toshiro 😭 lets also not forget that he has his own communication issues, in the opposite way that laios does- thats literally a factor in their argument, that his envy for laios's ability to express himself sincerely manifested as part of his distaste for him.

ig all this to say like, was their fight heart wrenching, especially when reading laios as autistic? absolutely. anybody whos ever been in laios's position knows how much it hurts to realize someone you thought was your friend doesnt actually like having you around, especially when they didnt tell you and you had no way of knowing due to not understanding their cues. but im begging yall to step back and see the nuance of this situation cause im gonna be real a lot of you are kinda just brushing over it acting like everything is toshiros fault and that hes a terrible person when in reality hes an average guy who really, really clashed with laios and it led to a very long misunderstanding due to their supremely opposite methods of communication. even laios and toshiro, after letting everything out in their fight, were able to come to an understanding and start a foundation for an actual friendship built on better communication

ok yknow what Edit: i shouldve made it even more explicit at the end of this post, i hadnt thought i would need to since i started the post with this, but i think a few too many people are missing my point so i just wanna clarify. i shouldnt have said 'really clashed' and left it at that because yeah they did, but it wasnt just their opposite methods of communication, it is also very much that toshiro was experiencing microaggressions via laios. it may have been unintentional on laios's part, but it still happened and wore him down, made it harder for him to communicate on top of both the more subtle social cues that he was raised with and his own communication difficulties. i also want to say that the fandom reaction to toshiro and the complete ignorance of this point is also racist tbh or at the very least ignorant. i understand that the anime did not cover this panel, and neither did the manga, as this was an omake, but im gonna be real with you guys. there are enough context clues within the story to clue you into this. if you didnt pick up on it thats ok, but i think this is a good lesson in picking up subtext in the stories that youre watching and/or reading. kui shouldnt have to explicitly say 'by the way laios was racist to toshiro' for this point to be understood, and at the very least, when the author portrays a character in a sympathetic light (as kui clearly does) it should make you question Why they are doing so and what makes them sympathetic, rather than youre immediate and only reaction to be 'well i hated what this guy did/said so i hate them and they suck'. idk exactly how to finish this, just. idk. question your biases and gut reactions to things you see in media and stories, and think about whether or not theres subtext that youre missing.

[yournewcryptid]

Math is really tiring, im so glad i finally get to relax and do some knitting and crochet and i oh god oh my what the fuck

[liimonadas]

so i've been playing a game

[hinamie]

surprise it's yuri!!!in 2024

[chloesimaginationthings]

Michael is the cool FNAF older brother to Gregory

[kosmogrl]

it's august so remember to live for the hope it all

[samble-moved]

post itself

false flags

trans/adjacent tags

accessibility features

tumblr live post (thanks for the link, @problemnyatic)

flashing / strobing / lights

unblockable flashing ad

buying ad free

staff @/macmanx guilt trip

list of staff + more issues