#i hate representation politics. i never make it a goal to represent anyone. but i am spiteful.
i don't think having marginalised characters necessarily has to mean anything and I certainly don't care about Representation but that aside the best thing i can do with my trans characters is to use them for srs propaganda
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A Cure for Insomnia CH 1.
This is a reader insert I originally started posting on AO3. I’m cross posting here because I know some of the fandom still lives here.
Quick Disclaimer:
This is a fic I'm writing for my own comfort.
I was inspired by RaeBees (you can check out their works over on Quotev and AO3), and how they characterize the "proxies". Having always seen the characters different than most of the fandom I've interacted with I never really shared my thoughts until now. This work is only placed in the Creepypasta tag so it reaches its demographic. However, I am fully aware of the fact that no main character is considered a Pasta.
It may also appear to lean more Toby X Protag in the beginning but end goal is protag with all three, and Brian and Tim already in a relationship. How I picture it now is a slowburn but Toby and Protag will be in a friends with benefits relationship before either has any feelings, so I think that counts. Some may be confused by the asexual protag tag but it'll be explained in story, as an Ace myself I get frustrated with media that only show one version and say it goes for us all. That being said I don't represent the whole Ace community but I hope to provide a bit more representation for some others out there.
Protag will be depicted as agender, and will have a few tics that stem from their Autism. Again I don't speak for any others with Autism but I hope to provide some representation for those in similar positions.
Tags will be updated as the story progresses. Canon-Typical violence and mental health issues are to be expected if you feel uncomfortable with those aspects I advise you to not engage. This story will also have a lot of NSFW themes and scenes so I highly discourage anyone under the age of 18 from viewing this work. You will get warnings on chapters with NSFW and I will make it skippable as well.
I'm also very nitpicky and gave the main characters birthdays just because it irritates me when it gets mentioned once and you have to do the math or imagine your own conversation when a birthday was too close to a character's.
Tim January 1st, home state Alabama
Toby April 28th, home state Virginia (saw this years ago no clue if it's accurate)
Protag May 13th, home state Virginia
Brian May 23rd, home state Alabama
Connor the service dog July 18th, home state Kentucky
I've referred to Protag as Protag here but in story they're referred to as YN.
Everything felt impossibly dull; your senses, the dark room you're currently in, the noise coming from the fan just to the left of the bed on which you laid. Turning to the window beside your head you stare out into that weird midnight summer sky. More of a gray than a true dark blue night, cast in an orange glow that made the night seem closer to day than it truly was. While the time was just half past twelve, you felt it may have been more accurate to say it was closer to four in the morning.
You're exhausted but that true sort of exhaustion where whatever energy you have left buzzes all around. It consumes your entire being, dances between being deafeningly loud in your ears to giving you twitches in your legs. You'd laid down hours ago thinking you'd be tired enough to sleep once your tics started to spasm in closer intervals, but to no avail were you able to rest. That buzzing preventing you from dreamland. Maybe the hum of your body was right, you didn't really need to sleep, you just wanted it to feel normal.
Knowing the battle had already been lost you push yourself off the bed and grab a pair of shorts off the floor. Slipping them on you contemplate your options for the night. Going into town was out since it was Sunday...well Monday now, but there would be nothing but bars open and you were never one for drinking. And as fun as a drive sounds right now, you feel the buzzing in your bones grow stronger, you need to move. A late night hike should keep you occupied, with it being so quiet and the middle of the night you wouldn't even have to take your headphones to cancel out the sounds of other people, you aren't likely to run into many people tonight.
Deciding on a hike you grab a mask and car keys and make your way to your yellow Kia Soul. A going away present from your parents that they gave you the moment you got your driver's license after your 24th birthday. Having anxiety throughout your life you'd never been in the head space to start driving till later on, and while you still don't enjoy driving you are pretty good at it even with your “late” start. Surfing through radio stations as you let the car warm up you find your latest obsession, it's a conspiracy theory podcast that someone in Kepler managed to blast through the limited air ways of the town. Impressive considering Kepler was in a radio quiet zone and even cell phones couldn't work in the small town, luckily you lived just outside of the zone so you could send texts and call your parents every weekend.
It seemed today's episode was a rerun, Mothman: Murderer, Man, or Myth. It was actually one of your favorites, the paranormal stories tended to be more entertaining than hearing about how a man could murder sixteen people while working as a cop ruining evidence to lead the others off his trail. Humans could be more vial and cruel than any little gray alien from the future or tall Fresno Nightcrawler could ever be. And they weren't as entertaining to hear about, nor were their exploits as impressive. You could always see patterns, either connecting clues first or finding connections no one else saw, it was never hard to tell where a certain case would lead so you'd always end up disappointed in humanity when they overlooked such obvious clues. Though that often led you down a path of deep diving for information to see just how obvious it was, more often than not you'd find that the most logical conclusion was shady public officers. After investigating so many cold cases you're sure if you're ever in trouble you'll never involve the police, in the end they'd probably just ignore you and rule your case closed if anything ever did happen to you.
'I'd haunt them if they did.' You decide and you shift gears and begin driving to the Monongahela National Forest, as the timeline of Mothman sightings and events play out before for your ears.
Instead of going through town and possibly loosing the signal of the show, you drive on the old dirt road that runs along the very edge of the town, partially covered in trees. This over grown road is the main reason Kepler doesn't see many visitors, the second someone makes their way onto it coming off the interstate they floor it until they see civilization. Over the few months you've been here you've nearly been run right off the road by spooked tourists, trying to escape whatever ghouls their wild imaginations created. The only real thing on this road was a mini mart gas station, and even though it was shady as hell the cashier didn't bug you too much when you came in in the dead of night. Plus they had a cat, how could you not stop in and say hi to little ole Magnolia?
Speaking of which you should probably get a drink for your hike, you could already feel your throat drying out. Turning into the parking lot you're happy to see no other cars around, putting your face mask on you make your way inside. As usual the store is dead at this time, and Ronnie is manning the desk. What's unusual is the man also behind the counter, he has dark brown hair that he's tied into a small and low ponytail, thick sideburns frame his face. You immediately take note of the slight imperfections of his face, most would see the slit in his eyebrow as following the current trend or even just a genetic thing, but you can see the slightly off color of a healed scar that starts just above his eyebrow and ends mid eyelid, he has a few smaller discolorations on his crooked nose, you'd guess he's had it broken at least twice.
Briefly taking a glance to his brown eyes before looking away, today is not an eye contact day. Nodding in their directions, the best acknowledgment you can give right now, you make your way to the freezers. From the freezer section you can hear Ronnie “explain” you.
“That's YN, a regular mainly at night though. A bit skittish and rarely ever says more than 'thanks have a nice day'” Even though she's whispering you can hear everything. Including the high octave her voice takes to mimic you, it feels more like mocking.
If being mocked hadn't already put you on edge the eyes boring into you have. The eyes may not be roaming over your body but the icky crawling of your skin sure makes it feel that way. The feeling of being put under a microscope has always made you sick, the stares, the leers and sneers, and the judgment just makes you want to implode on the spot. Cease existence, be swallowed into the abyss. You're about to set yourself into an anxiety attack with all these thoughts.
'Mask, mask, mask' you repeat over and over in your head, it's the only thing you can focus on. You are wearing a mask, there is one thing they can't perceive, the face is the most important for humans to perceive, your mask protects you.
Without looking you pull a water bottle from the cooler. You don't think you like this brand but the sports mouth makes up for it, and you can't focus enough to grab another. As the imaginary spiders crawl their way under your skin and your breath hitches you make your way over to the counter head down, never looking up at the employees beyond the counter. Your vision is blurring in time with the beating of your heart, you can't tell if it's due to nerves or from being up for five days in a row.
“Hey YN, how're you?” Ronnie asks, her tone is different from the past times you've been in. It's higher and has a lilt in it that you'd expect from a teasing friend. But Ronnie isn't a friend and has never spoken to you like this, you hate it. You nod to politely move on with the process, between the crawling of your skin and the buzzing underneath it you feel sick. And you're now very aware of the existence of your eyelids, you try to focus on ignoring that awareness. You need to move.
“Hmm, that's good. Anyway this is Tim! He's just started so go easy on him.” you hear the sound of a hand hitting fabric and assume she's patted Tim's shoulder as she introduced Tim to you. Why was she doing this, what purpose could introducing you two have? You nod again, was anyone going to ring you out?
“Hi, this all?” a deep voice asked, it isn't extremely deep more of a standard baritone that has a slight raspy quality, probably a reformed smoker. You don't smell cigarettes currently so he could've quit after years. Unfortunately despite your efforts to stave them off your blinking tics emerge. Making it difficult to keep your eyes open for longer than a nano second.
Startled and ticcing you look up and catch his eyes, you see pity in them, before casting your glance back to the counter. You can never tell what's worse people seeing you as weird or seeing you as something needing to be fixed. Nodding again, Tim tells you the total; a dollar fifty eight, and you hand him two dollars from your wallet.
Tim doesn't ask if you want the receipt or a bag, he prints out the receipt and hands you your change. The change goes immediately into the cat food fund for Magnolia. She got diagnosed with diabetes about a month ago and having worked in shelters and pet stores you know just how expensive her prescription food is. After folding the receipt into your wallet, Tim gently slides the water bottle over to you.
“Have a good night.” he says it so low and gentle, as if he thinks you'll shatter in front of him. As kind as the gesture seems, you aren't that fragile...or maybe you are if you have to keep repeating 'mask' over and over in your head to ground yourself. With a final nod you turn and make your way to the door, and just as you open it you hear Ronnie call out.
“Awwww, c'mon YN at least say 'Hi' to Tim.” You really don't like how she squeaked out 'hi'.
Taking a deep breath you prepare yourself, you'll show them both you can do this simple task. Even if you can't stop blinking long enough to see straight. Once you've steadied yourself you turn and look at Tim. He's sending you a look that says 'You don't have to' all that's missing is a slow head shake to complete his unease with this “peer pressure”.
But you can do this you can say 'Hi, Tim.' Two words super simple, nothing complex like 'Hi, Tim, nice to meet you.' and so much better than the option of your next meeting saying 'Hi, Tim. Sorry for spazzing out the other night.'. Yup you can do this just breathe, you open your mouth and...and you've forgotten what to say. Looking like a deer in headlights, well at least the tics stopped, you say the first thing that pops in.
“Mask.” You've said it loud and clear both cashiers heard you.
Tim stares with wide eyes and you see Ronnie failing to hide her laughter. Out of all the ways this could've gone this was probably the best outcome for her. The blinking has started up again, this time growing more frequent. You can't even hold your eyes open, to the two cashiers it must look like you're in pain or crying. And while you want to die of embarrassment, crying is a bit of an extreme for you.
So with red face and the inability to see you leave through the door, and try to make your way back to your car. Once in you lock the doors, switch the car on, and rest your head on the steering wheel. Out of every way this stop could've gone, being perceived by a new comer and Ronnie was not what you expected. While this hadn't been the worst five minutes or so of your life, it definitely would be another thing keeping you up at night for the next twenty years.
Calming down in the cool quiet dark of your car your slowly brought back to the world by the beginning of a new episode. This one talking about the Tailypo legend. A favorite story of yours from when you were a kid living on the coast of Virginia. So with yet another deep breath and the wave of nostalgia, you pull out of the parking lot and slowly coast down the old dirt road. Heading yet again for the Monongahela forest.
It's nearly two in the morning when you roll up to see an RV parked by the forgotten entrance of the park. It isn't surprising at all to find an RV out here since the Monongahela Forest is one of the most beautiful parks you've ever been to. You also don't think anything of them being parked by this unused entrance because you use it all the time since finding it accidentally. Figuring they just wanted to camp and be left to their own devices rather than use the RV sites and be bothered with other campers here for the summer.
Climbing out of your car you notice the RV isn't new by any means but it isn't a total rust bucket either, looks like it's been passed around throughout the years. There isn't anything to suggest it's been here a while, nothing left set up outside, must have just gotten into town then. You do happen to notice dog tracks around the sandy dirt you've parked in, good to know they have a dog before you slammed your car door. Closing the door gently behind you so you don't startle a pup and wake up it's owner or owners, you make your way through the woods. No real direction in mind, with no real thought in your head. Just the thought of moving and to keep on moving.
You could walk the same path every time you came through and always find something different. In fact that's exactly what happens, you're almost positive that you've deepened the imprint of the path just from walking through several times a week. Following the same winding path you usually do, climbing over the fallen tree, and through a scattering of blueberry thicket's you find yourself on the edge of one of the forest's many streams. It's your favorite spot in the forest so far, and about as far as you've gotten considering these hikes of yours take place during the dead of night.
The wind picks up and sends a chill through you, taking that as a sign you slide down to sit by the stream. Vans placed to your side as you sink your feet into the cool water. It's peaceful out here, so cool, and quiet, save for the slight noises the stream makes, various bubbling and drips. You try to think on things like your recent move, your job, the embarrassing 'mask' incident, just life in general. But you can't seem to form a single thought, this happens a lot, you've recently been conscious of the fact that you've been running on auto pilot for the past two months, hell a lot longer than that. You think everyone must get like this from time to time, but you think you've always been this way. Keen to dissociating and slipping in and out of existence.
It's quite nice really, except for the times like right now where you'd love to figure out why the silence in your head is so painfully loud. The more you think on it the louder it gets and the stronger the buzzing under your skin feels. And right now the static in your mind has been getting louder and louder for the past few minutes. You feel your head jerk to the right of it's own accord, moving back in place it happens for a second time, and then a third, then jerks up, before jerking a forth time to the right effectively cracking you neck.
“There we go.” you mumble, you can relax a bit as the verbal tic indicates the end of this round of tics.
Sighing you look at the sky...that can't be right. The sky has been painted it's fresh baby blues for the day, but again that can't be right. You just got to the stream, that path is a thirty minute walk meaning it should be just about two thirty in the morning, but the sky suggests it's five or six at the latest. Reaching for your water bottle you find it empty next to you. You didn't fall asleep you know that much, perhaps you did dissociate tonight. Well this hike was disappointing if you knew you were going to dissociate you'd have saved yourself that embarrassment and stayed home. Maybe done some painting or tidied up.
Sighing you push yourself off the ground, collecting you vans you're about to put them on when you notice a figure off in the distance. You freeze out of shock and stare at the figure, it stares back. The figure is about ten yards away, god your near sighted ass should really remember to not leave your glasses in the car when hiking. The figure starts to make it's way to you and after a few steps you realize it hasn't moved from it's spot. Rolling your eyes you ignore the hallucination.
You'd really needed to get sleep last night, today is day six of no sleep and though you haven't had many episodes these past few days, you have a feeling they'll start to get more prominent today. Hopefully tonight you can manage to get some rest, the longer you go without sleep the more realistic the hallucinations become. But for today you're content with the knowledge that it's just shadow like beings that you'll be seeing.
After putting on your shoes you start the thirty minute hike back to your car. You're thankful for the weather in Kepler, nothing like back on the coast. Here you can go for a morning hike through the forest while a gentle breeze passes by and the sun starts to give the area a pleasant warmth. Back on the coast you couldn't run and grab the mail without getting drenched in moisture from either sweat, humidity, or a mixture of both. The coast sucks, hell Virginia sucks altogether, you're glad to be in Kepler.
“I want to go home, home.” you say out of nowhere.
Before you reach the entrance you hear barking, oh the RV campers must be up. Should you be careful not to scare them, or just walk normally and say 'Good morning' in passing, maybe just nod your head in greeting. Oh and you've stopped just beside the entrance as you got lost in your rambling. You didn't mean to come to a stop here, and as you try to move you notice how silent it's gotten. Did the dog go inside, maybe they've already passed...no it's too quiet for that. No the silence is oppressive like the one you deal with nightly, there's a reason for the silence. The situation's making you feel uneasy, but that could be the sleep deprivation talking.
You're about to brush it off and move when you hear a whispered, “Seriously man, I don't think anyone's out there. Let's get inside.”
There's a noise of agreement before you hear shuffling. Oh no, you zoned out and now you look like a weirdo stalker. Just perfect, maybe if you wait around a little more you'll seem more normal or at least feel normal. Not knowing how long to wait you walk along the tree line for a bit, looking at the ground as you do making sure you won't step on any snakes. In you quest to not step on any snakes you spot something suspiciously off white. It seems purposefully buried under a dead blueberry bush and some fallen branches.
Having listened to too many true crime shows, you know better than to implicate yourself in a murder. Grabbing a stick off the ground you gently brush the foliage away from the supposed corpse. No way, you can't believe your luck, it's an actual fucking skull. An intact skull of a deer! That is so cool, you've only seen taxidermists on TikTok getting so lucky and finding these dudes. Since the jaw bone is connected by tissue it of course isn't with the skull but maybe it's close by? Clearly this got planted or hidden by someone, maybe they were planning on pranking a friend by 'uncovering' a skull later. Oh well, finders keepers and all that, you have way better plans for this guy, hopefully you can find that jaw bone.
You set off searching through the foliage and near by bushes with the branch while holding the skull in your other arm. After searching about three feet around and finding no more bones you decide that this is the only part of the deer's skeleton in this area. A little disappointed but still thrilled with your find, you decide it must be a good time to go back to your car.
Surely you won't look weird now. You a little forager with their treasure in hand. Looks like you'll be busy cleaning, then bleaching, and cleaning these bones today. Is that the order to treat found bones? You aren't sure but you can look into that later. Placing the skull in the trunk so it doesn't roll about and get damaged you make sure it's secure before closing the trunk and getting into your car and locking the doors.
Not once did you notice the pairs of eyes that had been watching you. One watching as you found the deer skull, and the other set seeing you place bones into your car. They kept watching as you fiddled with the radio while the car was starting up. They watched as you pulled out of the sandy dirt lot and drove back down the old road a little faster than before now that you could clearly see.
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Power BFFs.
// masterlist //
Word Count: 2.1k
Category: Fluff best friend!harry, best friend!reader
Warning: None!
Summary: In which Harry’s best friend is a hijabi blogger and they’re everyone’s bffs’ goals.
Bonus: Instagram posts!
..
For as long as you lived, you have always been into fashion. You were the kid who chose to wear pink with orange long before Taylor Swift’s dress was the new cool, always one whom family went to for advice when it came to putting outfits together.
Hell, if someone could pay you for the times your mom was on the phone with your aunt or a friend and you heard her tell them “Y/N can help you with putting the clothes together! She studies fashion. Yeah, not a doctor but she’s doing a good job” you would be a billionaire.
You remember how shocked your parents were when you told them that you wanted to switch majors. How could they not when you told them that you decided to leave med school for fashion?
But you wouldn’t have taken the step if it weren’t for your longtime best friend – Harry.
You and Harry have been best friends for as long as you could remember, having had been your friend long before you even wore the hijab and you remember when you were 16 after deciding to wear it, having sat him down one day and explained to him what it meant.
He has always been supportive of you, and you, of him. You lost count of how many times you had helped him with his wardrobe choices, and every time he was more thankful that he had someone who was daring with fashion and saw it as he did; a form of expression.
You had a good relationship with his fans long before you decided to enter the fashion blogging world, and maybe fans liked you more because of how carefree and natural you were and how innocent and supportive your friendship with Harry looked. Hell, he talked about you whenever he mentioned his family and if that said anything, it would be that he saw you a Styles, a sister.
It was always fun whenever you styled Harry for an appearance, only so the both of you could sit back and watch their tweets and comments, always freaking out and gushing over how good he looked because of your fashion choices, adding memes along the way.
“How does that look?” You asked him, holding a dress on a hanger of you, looking down at the vibrant green color.
Harry, with 3 shopping bags in his hands and his eyeglasses on, shifted his weight on one leg before bringing his finger to his chin and he looked at the dress. “Think it makes your skin look a little dull, not pop.”
“You think so?” You mumbled as you moved to a mirror, nodding, “You’re right. God, I hate green.”
He chuckled, “No you don’t.”
“Olive green is nice, when we’re talking about trousers and skirts but tops and dresses? No, thanks. Looks good on you though, you lucky bastard.”
“Watch out, you’re looking a little green now, love.” Harry teased, a dimpled smile on his face.
“Oh, shut up, I’m not jealous of you.” You scoffed jokingly, fixing your headscarf to avoid looking at him, “Maybe a little.” You added, laughing quietly as Harry laughed.
“I think they have a beige one, hold on.” Harry’s eyebrows were furrowed in concentration as he looked around before walking towards a rack, searching through the colors of dresses for the one color he knew his best friend loved. “Ha!” Harry smiled in triumph as he reached the color, getting your size before holding it out for you.
You sighed in relief, “You are an angel. Sometimes.”
Harry rolled his eyes at you with a chuckle, handing you the dress before you both agreed to pay and head somewhere to have dessert for a treat.
You smiled at the cashier, watching as her eyes widened as she looked from Harry to you. “How are you?” You asked politely.
“Oh my God. Y-You’re-“ She looked at you before looking at Harry who smiled at her, too, “And you’re-“
“And you’re Sasha. Hi, Sasha.” You giggled, reading her name from her tag, “You know this goof?” You joked, pointing at Harry, “Was following me everywhere here,” you cupped a hand around your mouth, though still speaking at a tone louder than a whisper, “Think he’s a bit of a creep.”
“Hey!” Harry whined but laughed, “Don’t listen to her, love. She’s only doing that because I look better in green.”
It wasn’t unusual for you and Harry to tease each other, and it wasn’t new either that you did it in front of people. Perhaps it’s why people enjoyed being around the both of you together.
“You’re both adorable,” the girl laughed, finally calming from her moment, “I’m a huge fan of the both of you. And Y/N, congratulations on your new collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger. I think it’s amazing that you’re helping in representing more people in the industry.”
Your mischievous expression changed to a softer one, your hand going to your heart as your eyes twinkled.
“Right? Bloody talented that one is.” Harry smiled proudly as he glanced down at you, “Making history as she goes.”
“Aw, stop it, you two. I’m going to cry.” You cooed, “Thank you, Sasha. This means the world to me. Think this made my entire week.”
“It’s no problem,” she beamed, “I wouldn’t let you pay if I owned the store but…” she frowned.
“Hey, no. It’s your right. We all have bills to pay and as much as it would be nice, favors don’t really pay the rent.” You smiled with a shrug, handing her the money.
“Okay, true.” Sasha agreed, packing your dress before handing you the bag. “It was amazing meeting the both of you.”
“You think it’s okay if we get a picture together?” You asked before looking at Harry, “Can you take a picture of us?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Oh my God,” Sasha fanned herself before letting out a deep breath, shakily handing Harry her phone, “This is the best day I have ever lived in since I started working here.”
You giggled at that, watching her move from behind the cashier before she reached you. The both of you stood beside each other, you wrapping both arms around her as you smiled, her beaming as Harry took the picture – he took 3, just in case the girl didn’t like one of them – before you reached your hand out.
“Here, let me take your picture.” You said, taking the phone from Harry before exchanging places so you can snap a picture of him and the girl together.
As if to tease you, Harry made the same pose as yours, causing you to roll your eyes before you jokingly told him to “be original” to which he wrapped one arm around Sasha while the other was close to his face as he threw a peace sign – a classic Harry pose.
After hugging Sasha goodbye, you and Harry were on your way to his car to go somewhere else to have dessert and maybe spill the latest tea like you always did.
“I’m not so sure about working with them,” You said after taking a sip from your smoothie, resting your chin on your hand as you talked about a brand that had reached you for a collab, “Think they want it so they can look cool, you know? They don’t really care about the message or the representation of hijabi women and I just don’t want to get treated like the next cool trend and hey! Bonus for having a rockstar best friend. It’s ridiculous.”
Harry’s arms were crossed on the table, face showing concentration as he listened intently and nodded in understatement. “I get it. Sorry about that, love,” he sighed, “Wish I can do something about it. Feel helpless when I can’t seem to find any solution to offer.”
“Harry,” you rolled your eyes, “You’ve done enough for people. Besides, you’re growing and learning. This is the best solution.”
“Yeah?” He asked reluctantly, “Just sucks whenever I find the shit they write to you online. Don’t know how you do it.”
“What? Getting told that I’m oppressed even though it was my choice and the racist comments?” You chuckled a little, “Got bothered by it enough already. Just sick of justifying my choices. It’s like,” you thought before your eyebrows went up before pointing at him, “It’s like people with you and how you dress. The mean comments about your choices and the head-scratching comments about why you wear nail polish.”
“Took me long enough to feel comfortable in my skin.” Harry admitted, sighing with a shake of his head, “Wish people would just let people be.”
You shrugged, “Mean people are everywhere, it’s mostly about not letting yourself be one now. I actually feel like we’re at a time when people are unlearning most shit they blindly followed by older generations, the racism, the sexism, the double standards. This is generation is just,” you smiled, “It’s phenomenal, don’t you think?”
Harry joined in, giving you a smile and a nod, “It is. I’m where I am because of all these young people. Music legends are legends and are basically worshipped because of all the young women of their days. Sometimes I can’t even wrap my head around how societies belittle these people so much.”
“Right? They care more about shaping them than helping them unleash all this potential. It’s why they’re so angry sometimes, but so driven. Like, they had enough of silence and are now taking matters in their own hands.” You said, “But to be honest, it’s can be kind of sad sometimes.”
“How so?” Harry asked, sipping his smoothie.
“Like now you have people as young as 13 doing what world leaders should be doing. Really young people trying to teach older people why sexism is wrong and how they can help the Black Lives Matter movement and why they should. They shouldn’t be defending rights and protesting and dying, they should be worrying about their moms not cutting the crust off of their toasts or maybe some high school crushes. But it has to be done, you know? And if world leaders are staying silent, somebody needs to change that even if they’re only 13 for the love of God.”
That was the thing about yours and Harry’s friendship. While you both bickered like children all the time, you also always had heart-to-heart conversations that you couldn’t have with anyone and everyone. It was always comforting.
There were times when you didn’t agree with each other but it was never embarrassing or immature, you’d both state your point of views and find common grounds. It was never about winning an argument because you never could call it an “argument”, just a talk.
“How’s the tour rescheduling going?” You asked, the both of you drifting to another conversation.
//
harrystyles: Proud of you. Always.
..
fan0 CRYING
fan1 power bffs don’t @ me
fan2 are they dating? pls say yes
↳ fan3 when will people stop ruining friendships with shit like that?
yourinstagram are u sick?
↳ fan4 me when my family is nice to me
↳ fan5 me when my friends invite me to places
↳ harrystyles …
yourinstagram you know it all, H. you’re the best best friend anyone could ever wish for. cool photographer too. ❤❤❤
↳ fan7 HE TOOK THAT PICTURE HE’S SO TALENTED
↳ fan8 Hélène Pambrun who? We only know ✨Harry Styles✨
↳ yourinstagram don’t do my girl Hélène dirty like that
annetwist Looking beautiful! 😘
↳ fan8 I love this friendship sm
↳ yourinstagram says you! miss you loads xx
yourinstagram: harry out here looking like mr. pringles on a sour cream & onion can and i love it
..
fan0 HAHAH DEAD
fan1 ADHQWJDIEFIGHEFH HONTENT
fan2 y/n taking the piss at harry is my favorite thing
fan3 10 years of y/n giving us the hontent we need and deserve
↳ yourinstagram happy to provide
user aren’t muslims not allowed to drink wine?? why is harry holding one and why are YOU taking a picture of it? Lol
↳ fan4 leave her alone
↳ fan5 you know she’s free to do anything she wants, right?
↳ yourinstagram this is the amazing chef Massimo Bottura’s dark cherry balsamic vinegar but go off
↳ fan6 ENDED
fan7 This friendship makes me sleep better at night
harrystyles Is this because I look good in green?
↳ fan8 AJDGFKJWOI SHOW OFF
↳ fan9 I love them so much
↳ yourinstagram i dislike you sometimes
↳ fan10 ^ me because harry won’t release studio versions of medicine and anna
↳ harrystyles Love you, too.
yourinstagram: silky
..
fan0 LOOKS LIKE HARRY’S OUTFIT FROM TOUR IN NETHERLANDS
fan1 imagine looking like that
fan2 this is an au where harry is a hijabi woman
[harrystyles liked this comment.]
↳ fan3 OH MY GOD HE LIKED
↳ fan4 he: confirmed
harrystyles A look.
↳ fan5 I want to thank the queen y/n for teaching harry online lingo
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this was originally meant to be a response/follow-up to @i-did 's post about race in the aftg fandom (that you should read). i ran it by him first and asked permission to add, but then we decided it was too long so i should make it its own post
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i want to talk about fandom's take on the twins' race because it's rather glaring in the fandom that andrew (and then aaron by necessity) are often portrayed as the only white characters on the team and i have to question why?
there's nothing in the backstories that would mean writing them as POC would fling them headlong into offensive stereotypes that the fandom hasn't bypassed over to make another fox a POC.
they have a history of addiction? but it's okay for matt and seth to be addicts and be brown.
they're violent? but it's okay for renee to be non-white and a former gang member.
they're blond and 'pale'¹? but allison can be a WOC and bleach her hair without saying it explicitly? renee can have white rainbow hair no matter the AU? neil can be a blue-eyed redhead and still be drawn darker skinned half the time?
'pale' in and of itself is a very vague word that's only brought up in the context of comparison to notably dark skinned nicky. it's completely relative, and multi-racial families where people look wildly different from each other exist (pretty commonly). or if you're prescriptivist how about the multiple ways a POC can still be a natural blond including but not limited to pigmentation conditions or being mixed race? similarly, i think less than a quarter of the FCs i've seen for andrew over the years have been natural blonds themselves.
so if our holdups aren't about racial stereotyping and they aren't about the incredibly vague character descriptions, then why are the twins always white when it's approached as a good thing that no one else is? when i've seen multiple different posts lauding the fandom for adding diversity where nora didn't write it, except for here?
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to be completely, bluntly honest, it's because we as a majority-white fandom are uncomfortable when we are not the central characters. or maybe we are uncomfortable when people of color ARE the central characters. i don't think there's much of a difference.
we are comfortable writing and drawing nicky, the upperclassmen, then kevin (in that order) as poc because, simply, we use them as background characters. they are rarely the main characters of fics, or have their own storylines in them; it all revolves around andreil.
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additionally, while i've used neil up to now as an example of the fandom being OKAY with writing POC, let's also admit that it's an,, imperfect representation, as he will often be racially ambiguous with no explicit ethnicity, he will be the lightest skinned of the foxes of color, and he will still have eurocentric features. also it's genuinely a toss up as to whether he's drawn brown or not, there are still plenty of white neils, much more than there are white dans and matts and renees (not an attack on anyone who draws white neils, simply a statement) and FCs and edits of him still tend to be white people.
he's a bit of a schrödinger's person of color, not really any one thing or another, very few people being willing to take a hard stance on him and do the work of taking that decision under consideration when writing and drawing him.
(quick shout-out here to @hi-raethia for making content about an explicitly chinese interpretation of neil).
(additionally, to be as clear about my intended message as possible, this isn't a statement on the politics of passing or undermining the ethnicities of lightskinned poc, this is about a lack of detail being put into making a character a character of color in any thoughtful, meaningful, or significant way)
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so when i talk about the centralization of white people in fandom, neil gets to be included, perhaps with a footnote indicating that this is somewhat of a more complicated statement than it is with lily-white andrew minyard.
nevertheless, i feel comfortable saying that 75% of fandom content revolves around andrew and neil, major exceptions only being jerejean which are often stand-alone from the foxes, and the rising branch of kevaaron shippers. however both of those ships are actually subject to this exact same criticism, as ships between a a flat-out white character and a dubiously "non-white" character who can also be white sometimes. it varies.
conspicuously, content about the UPPERCLASSMEN tends to revolve around andrew and neil.
fics where the upperclassmen are the pov character are often outside-perspective fics on andreil.
HC posts about the upperclassmen, especially matt, will devote major portions to his time spent helping, hanging with, and thinking about andrew and/or neil.
secondary ships like danmatt or renison tend to be just that, secondary ships moving in the background of andreil-focused works. they get more of a,,, scenic shout-out than a storyline
it is only comfortable for us to write these characters as characters of color if they revolve entirely around white characters
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so after all that? what should we do, as a white-majority fandom? what should YOU, specifically, as a white person, do?
i hate to talk about a problem without also talking about solutions, and i try not to carp on something i don't want to be an active part of fixing. public criticism without an action plan only leads to hurt feelings and guilt, and that's never my intention when bringing this up. my goal is to address a general problem, not anyone specific's personal failings.
in all honesty leaning completely into all of the foxes being people of color, though i think neat and i certainly support, is not the best solution, and would be more of a hollow action than anything else without addressing the underlying problems that lead to the development of this dynamic.
i think the best thing to do would be to 1. do some research on writing poc, usually by following some writing-specific blogs like @writingwithcolor or @pocinmymedia . look up the 'black best friend' trope and really spend some time tjinking about it. spend an hour seeking out a random assortment of blogs that interest you that are also run by people of color. checking through tags like drawingwhileblack or blacktober may be good kickoff points.
tumblr is great because with an hour of active work to find these blogs, you can then go months passively seeing content from them. try not to interact, actually, simply watch and listen and become familiar with general trends and concerns in different communities. remember that every blog is run by an individual person, not an elected representative of their race, and always keep this in mind.
you are teaching YOURSELF that people of color are individuals, they have interests and inner lives that don't revolve around whiteness, that don't revolve around YOU
at the same time, 2. challenge yourself as a creator to make more content about the upperclassmen, specifically. make art about them doing stuff as a group separate from neil and andrew's group. find a compilation of 'draw the squad' memes and draw/tag the upperclassmen only. make jokes where they talk to each other. write some meta about their character motivations. write a fic where andreil isn't even mentioned, it can be super short, you can even use a prompt generator.
as a reader, reread their backstories in the extra content. reread son nefes. use ao3's filtering system to read some fics about JUST the upperclassmen, few and far apart though they may be.
if we've decided that the upperclassmen are people of color then lean into that, and learn to CARE about them on their own merit, because they are the most underutilized characters in the fandom. we need to make content centralized around them to combat the fact that fandom centralizes whiteness
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Yes!! Let's talk ab Phillippa! She used to be my favourite sorceress when i read the books for the 1st time (mostly bc my teenage self didn't know a lot of wlw rep oof). She obv suffers somewhat from written-by-a-cishet-dude syndrome, but i like her villainy the most from the saga. I like her contrast with Yen (they are both considered talented but bitchy cold-hearted etc but Yen cares about her family and that influences her and the way she achieves her goals while Phil is the end justifies the means type) and with Vilgefortz (they want same thing from Ciri but Phil thinks she wants it for less selfishness more greater good type of reasons (still not valid) while Vilgefortz is open about doing this for himself. Also she's the evil mastermind Vilgefortz wishes he was! He's just evil, sitting in his evil castle sending around goddamn Rince out of all people, getting results more by luck than judgment...). She's Magnificent Bastard and i really hope they wont ruin her in twn by shrinking down her role or by making her SuperEvil like they did Fringilla 😔 she's cunning and power-hungry enough on her own, no need to add extra layer of immorality bc someone could forget she's a villain here. 🦇 (sorry it's 3am here and i... also want more Philippa content that's something more than people calling her a c*nt)
this ask is SO blessed i started happy stimming gfgsdfksj
yes!!!!!!!!!!! philippa to me is a really interesting character (even though she suffers from being written by a man as all the female characters in the witcher do) but she as a villain is severely overlooked. and she’s only ever addressed by the fandom in the manner that she is either a neutral character or a protagonist, which annoys me a lot, perhaps more than i tend to show, because as you said she’s really the mastermind vilgefortz fucking wishes he was.
i love how competent the lodge seems to be, they hold meetings and discuss complicated lineage and have a whole plan marked out with spies (fringilla) and international participation. of course, things go haywire in the end, because philippa and the other sorceresses are unwilling to admit that sometimes there are things in life one is not able to exert control over, that nature is just too random to rule over, because to them, that would be a defeatist’s perspective... but they had a plan, at least, they were organized and led in a semi-democratic manner with of course philippa leading, but holding meetings in which everyone was allowed to voice their opinion and argue. it’s so much more fleshed out than vilgefortz, who was just evil for power but really vague about it and seemed to just be that kind of over-the-top tropey villain.
i think your comparison with her to yennefer is spot-on, they both are painted as power hungry and selfish... i love that philippa is hungry for power and ambitious in politics, and yennefer doesn’t really care about politics and has always just done her own thing. their contrast also comes in what you describe, why they feel that their goals are justified. the montecalvo scene grew on me a lot especially after i listened to the audiobook version of it, because it really portrays philippa and yennefer as opposing forces.
i guess some might take issue with the fact that philippa is gay because she’s evil in the series, especially because her whole deal is that she is willing to sacrifice the life (freedom) of a child (ciri) for political stability, as opposed to yennefer, who wants to protect her child (and husband), so it might be seen as “lesbians want to destroy the sanctity of marriage and hate children!” ... but i don’t think this was the message, to me i don’t think representation mattered sort of at all to sapkowski, so i personally don’t think of philippa as representing lesbians as a whole, i think she is just gay and that’s a coincidence. she’s not meant to be good representation anyways so it’s not a big deal to me.
and on that note, philippa as a villain was a really nice statement to me ... i mean, because usually i feel that it is the guys being evil. and there are of course the male villains of vilgefortz, bonhart, rience, emhyr, the aen elle if elves have gender, etc. etc, but philippa is a special case because she’s competent and also as a character she isn’t bogged down by “feminine issues” in her evil ... such as that one might expect a woman to be more empathetic towards a child, etc. i think it was actually kind of humanizing because it demonstrates that anyone has the ability to commit evil actions.
but in the fandom the content i see for her is either just ship (nothing horribly wrong with it, just that it’s bland and doesn’t take her character and character motivations into account at all) or fluff which outright ignores her character traits and placement within the narrative and relationships to other characters. i suppose this is somewhat the fault of tw3 for declawing her so to speak, but it’s really annoying because it’s pretty much the only philippa content that exists. like, where is the appreciation of her as a villain, a really good and smart one at that?
and yeah, for twn, i don’t think they even casted her yet, even though they’re doing blood of elves, where she makes her character debut... yet they casted for fringilla and francesca, so i have no idea what’s going on. i think they might be replacing her with someone else (tissaia? or that new violet OC they have? or vanessa-marie OC? idk). so as always i have little faith in them but i’m sure they’ll find a way to butcher her character somehow ...
it’s just that philippa is such a specific and kind of nuanced character, she’s really not basic in any kind of way unlike the other villains of the series kind of are. and it’s interesting to me but no one ever seems to approach her with this intent to analyze her, they only care about her appearance, romantic potential, or the fact that she got her eyes cut out in tw2 or killed radovid in tw3.
like ok, but can we first talk about how she basically ruled redania by controlling the puppet king vizimir (even though she would never admit it and told tissaia she was lying when she called her out on it (iirc))? that’s kind of insane and demonstrates the political power mages can have in this fictional setting. and that statement tissaia makes to her in time of contempt, that she was once so proud of her as a student, but now she has nothing but contempt for her... i want to see that explored. philippa is kind of a takedown of the #girlboss trope as well and i like that
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Feminist Vampires: Don’t Invite Mainstream Audiences Inside! (Madi Mackey)
Bit, written and directed by Brad Michael Elmore, is the story of a young trans woman named Laurel who moves to Los Angeles and finds herself mixed up in a friend group of female vampires. She is quickly turned into a vampire herself and thrust into their world. Duke, the leader of the girl gang, implements some very strict rules for the group. The most important rule is to never turn a man into a vampire, stating that they can’t handle the power. The film follows the five young women as they navigate their lives as both vampires and members of a bustling Los Angeles night life. The drama comes to a peak when Laurel accidentally bites her brother and has to decide between saving his life and following Duke’s rules.
The film is an excellent example of modern day intersectional feminism. The core group of women is very diverse, representing African American, latina, butch, and transgender identities. They are all women-loving women in some sense, though their specific sexualities are never detailed. They are unflinchingly focused on retaining their power and their sisterhood by refusing to let a man into their groups and forbidding any usage of their mind-influencing powers on each other. However, the film is not perfect, and does not hold up to much scrutiny from a queer perspective. Duke, the previously mentioned leader, is also the only white girl in the group. Their hatred toward men could push the idea that all feminists hate men, further isolating the movement. Finally, the film does not mention class or any struggles associated with the marginalized communities the characters belong to, reducing the film to a post-gender, post-sexuality world. For these shortcomings, I argue that Bit is a great stride in the queer movie industry, but it misses the mark in many categories, and could therefore cause more damage to the trans, lesbian, and feminist communities than the positive impacts of such representation could outweigh, if it were to leave the arthouse and break into the mainstream.
One major theme in Bit is intersectional feminism. As mentioned before, the group of vampires is quite diverse, but this inclusion is only skin-deep. Their dynamic still enforces white, middle-class homonormativity. The girl with the most power is white and cisgender, and all of the girls are able-bodied and middle- to upper-class. Joyrich explains that television industries must continually portray homonormativity to maintain profits, and the same can be said for the film industry (2013, p. 5). Although this is a low-budget film that premiered at an independent film festival, the director, Elmore, stated in an interview that one of his main goals was for the movie to reach a larger audience of at-home viewers (Dunagan, 2019). His yearning for mass reception might have caused him to reproduce homonormativity for the film to be more palatable and, therefore, more profitable.
This is not the only flaw within the production practices for this film. Similar to criticisms regarding Pose and The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, Elmore is a cis white man who took it upon himself to tell a queer story. By doing so, he took production resources and material benefits from its popularity away from the trans, lesbian, and POC communities who live the stories that he is telling (Tourmaline, 2017). Elmore explains that he read multiple theoretical texts and memoirs regarding gender while writing the script, and then had a close, gender non-conforming friend of his approve it before he, “felt more comfortable to show it to people in and around that conversation and community that I wasn’t close to” (Dunagan, 2019). While he did a fair bit of research into the community before creating the film, this isn’t the same as being a member of the community. Cavalcante explains this difference as a split between identifying with and identifying as a character, with identifying as a character always hitting closer to home and being more personal (2017, p. 14). Although Cavalcante makes this distinction in regards to audience reception, I believe it can be applied to production as well, and how Elmore wrote characters he could identify with, whereas a trans or POC writer could have written more personal characters that they identify as. Because Elmore is not trans or a POC, he needed to enforce homonormativity in his film in order to create characters that he identified with, as he has never lived as someone on the margins.
(Brad Michael Elmore, writer and producer of Bit)
Still, the production methods and content of the movie themselves could absolutely be described as queer. Benshoff & Griffin describe new queer cinema as films that have low-budgets, usually remain in the arthouse, and show the inadequacy of labels, instead focusing on the social discourses surrounding gender, race, and class (2004, pp. 11-12). Bit checks all of these boxes, even offering some helpful insights into social discourses. When Laurel, the transgender protagonist, is turned into a vampire, Duke tells her that their number one rule is to absolutely never turn a man. Laurel looks worried and asks, “What about me?” to which Duke responds, “Never even crossed my mind” (Elmore, 2019). Her immediate acceptance of Laurel’s identity expresses a consistent mood throughout the entire movie. Laurel’s transition and identity are never remarked in more explicit terms, and the sexuality and ethnicity of the other women are all treated with the same unspoken acceptance. The only identities that are ever mentioned are class and sex; Laurel asks one of the girls how they afford to live in L.A., and anyone who identifies as a man is immediately treated with contempt.
(watch video until 42:50)
While these approaches to intersectional identity may function well within the underground audience of new queer cinema, they could cause problems if Bit were to hit the mainstream. As Tongson explains, media representations help to produce our material realities; we rely on media to understand identities that we don’t know in the real world (2017, p. 158)). By ignoring the struggles of marginalized communities in the film, Bit raises more questions than it answers for viewers who are unfamiliar with these communities. Their confusion could cause these people on the margins to become cultural interpreters and explain their communities to those who don’t understand. Some see this as an opportunity to share their life experiences and cross cultural bridges; for others, it can become a burden of representation and they may lose a feeling of privacy (Cavalcante, 2017, p. 11). Bit could be seen as a welcome break from tragic representations for people within the trans community. Conversely, Elmore’s silence on these issues could also lead mainstream audiences to believing that marginalized communities do not face any struggles in modern America, and therefore lose some empathy.
This mediated understanding of reality could also be greatly detrimental to the feminist movement if it were to hit the mainstream. While I loved the explicitly feminist tone of the film, other audiences could find it off-putting and apply Bit’s ideology to all real-life feminists. The group of women in this film are quite outspoken around their distrust and distaste toward men. This could be applied to feminists, who are already called “man haters” in the real world as an attempt to invalidate their arguments. Elmore could be adding fuel to this fire by depicting feminists as exactly what the mainstream fears them to be.
Simultaneously, this bold approach to intersectional feminism is exactly why I, and many other queer viewers, love this film. My own subject positionality influences my understanding of Bit, just as those of mainstream audiences would make them feel differently about the film. I am a college-educated, middle-class, white, bisexual woman. I am also an outspoken feminist and socialist. All of my converging identities influence my view on this film and the opinions I have on its themes. As a young person who spends a lot of time in feminist spaces online, I felt such a rush while watching this film and hearing them directly saying things like, “Men can’t handle power. They have it already, and look at what they have done with it” (Elmore, 2019). A lot of people online say things about hating men, and I know from my own personal experience that the argument is so nuanced that it is simply easier to say “kill all men” than it is to explain what feminism really stands for and how it is, in fact, not simply man-hating. I love that this film expects the viewer to have this same knowledge, and can therefore say things like this without needing to defend itself and explain all of the nuance behind such a statement.
My status as middle-class and a socialist also have a great impact on my subject positionality and interpretation of Bit. Coming from a middle-class family and city, everything in the movie seemed normal to me. I was able to identify with the characters’ struggles, as they didn’t have anything to do with money or family issues. However, I could see this posing an issue for people who are struggling financially or with their family dynamic. To make up for this, the film has a lot of discourse regarding the redistribution of power and resources. Downward redistribution is a key tenant of leftism, so this movie displays clear leftist ideologies from a socio-political perspective (Duggan, 2002, p.XVI). We can see this in lines like, “How would you like to hold the keys to the kingdom for a change?” when Duke is talking to Laurel about turning, and at the very end of the movie, when Laurel’s brother asks her what they should do next and she responds, “Maybe what everyone with power should do and never does: share it” (Elmore, 2019).
(watch video until 1:30:00)
Finally, watching this film from the subject positionality of a woman greatly influenced my interpretation and reaction. At first, I was appalled by the group of girls and how nonchalantly they killed people, especially men. Laurel was written to have the same feelings of shock and disgust. So, when Duke said, “Our role is secondary. Our bodies are suspect, alien, other. We’re made to be monstrous, so let’s be monsters,” (Elmore, 2019) that was enough of an explanation for Laurel, and for myself, to become sympathetic to their cause. I have been personally affected by the feelings of otherness and being secondary that Duke lists, so this was a perfect line to change my opinion on their actions. However, if a man were to watch this film, especially if he were not to be a feminist, he might not be so sympathetic because he does not have the same experiences and understanding of what it is like to live in this world.
(watch until 41:12)
Bit is a film that crosses many boundaries, while still upholding some homonormativity for the sake of profit and consumption. It was written with the expectation of an audience that is knowledgeable of marginalized communities and social issues, making it thoroughly enjoyable to watch from a queer perspective. However, if the film were to break into the mainstream spotlight, its lack of nuance could cause harmful backlash toward trans communities, people of color, woman-loving women, and feminist movements.
References
Benshoff, H. M. & Griffin, S. (2004). Queer cinema: The film reader. Psychology Press.
Cavalcante, A. (2017). Breaking into transgender life: Transgender audiences’ experiences with ‘first of its kind’ visibility in popular media. Communication, Culture & Critique, 10(3), 538-555. https://doi.org/10.1111/cccr.12165
Duggan, L. (2002). Introduction. In The twilight of equality? Neoliberalism, cultural politics, and the attack on democracy (pp. X-XXII). Beacon Press.
Dunagan, R. (2019, August 2). Interview: A talk with Brad Michael Elmore, Director of OUTFEST’s ‘Bit’. Flipscreen. https://flipscreened.com/2019/08/02/interview-a-talk-with-brad-michael-elmore-director-of-outfests-bit/
Elmore, B. M. (Director). (2019). Bit [Film]. Vertical Entertainment.
Joyrich, L. (2013). Queer television studies: Currents, flows, and (main)streams. Cinema Journal, 53(2), 133-139. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2014.0015
Tongson, K. (2017). Queer. In L. Ouellette & J. Gray (Eds.), Keywords for media studies (pp. 157-160). NYU Press.
Tourmaline. (2017, October 11). Tourmaline on transgender storytelling, David France, and the Netflix Marsha P. Johnson Documentary. Teen Vogue. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/reina-gossett-marsha-p-johnson-op-ed
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I saw a post about how criticism of Hazbin Hotel was essentially good because it came from the groups most affected by it, and I don’t want to add discourse to it because it was a good point with a good post.
But I still have some issues with that idea.
As a queer latine man, I find many of the criticism Hazbin Hotel recieves to be either exaggerated by omitting key elements of the story and founded in also questionable principles. Not every criticism from minority groups comes from the same place and some of the reactions to it (not all, definitely not all) will inevitable include other members calling it out from their own perspective.
Like, if you dislike Vaggie for being an “angry latin woman” but actively ignores that everytime she gets made at something she has valid reason for it, then I gotta question, why she being angry at reasonable things is a bad thing? Are latine character not allowed to be angry anymore? And why should her creator, a latina woman no less, have to be responsible for estereotypes she didn’t created when making something that was meant to reflect a part of her own experience? This is especially ínteresting when many times this criticism doesn’t even come from other latines, who, as far I have seen, don’t have a problem with her or not for that reason at least.
Of course, this could be a “Speedy Gonzales” situation in which because the context is so far remove from them, given that they live on a entirely different country, that the implication are lost on some people. Latines in the USA would be perfectly aware of the estereotypes they have to live with and are seen through in the society they live in. Mexican who live in Mexico usually aren’t, so what is seemed like a tiring caricature for a mexican who has lived in the USA for years can be just a funny cartoon for a mexican who never set foot outside of his origin country. Neither of these people are wrong for feeling that way, they just have different contexts from which extract meaning.
This could potentially be what happens with Vaggie too, but, as a latino who at least has an idea of why the “Angry Violent WOC” estereotype is harmful, I feel like reducing her entire character to angry and violent is making a disservice for her too. She is those things, but she is also supportive, sweet, smart and cares about the cause of Charlie, so I must assume she believes too that there can be good on everyone, deep inside (except Alastor but, like, can you blame her?), which is something already impressive for someone that is a sinner.
Would people still assume that she is only violent and angry if she were just a gringa white woman? If Charlie was the latina one (which wouldn’t make much sense if she is a demon born out of centuries old demon but let’s imagine) and had the exact same personality, would people take her lashing out to Killjoy in the studio as proof that she is a Angry Violent estereotype too?
Those are the questions I find myself having when reading a lot of that criticism, and more so when I see the person in question is not latine or is just repeating what other have said without even had watched the pilot themselves. I don’t say that you need to watch the pilot if you don’t want to, but if you want to critic? You should, at least to have a strong foundation behind your arguments.
Same with the criticism used against Angel Dust. If someone said “I don’t like him because his oversexual nature makes me uncomfortable” then that could be fine, subjective experiences don’t need to be argued for, you can just feel whatever you like. But if you argue “he is a bad representation of gay man because he is overly sexual and an addict” or that is homophobic to have any gay male character as any of those things, then I gotta ask why. Why queer people being addicts and sexual is a bad thing, when in fact is extremely common in our communities. Why demonize addicts as something inherently bad that no one should ever see represented is considered an acceptable goal here? If the argument goes towards him being effeminate and indulge in drag as something inherently homophobic, then I will call bullshit on that. Femme men deserve to see themselves represented too, not be treated like a dirty little secret the straights cannot see. Same with addicts and overly sexual queer people.
Tumblr in particular is very sus about this, because while people argue for more representation of queer identities, there is this underlying demand for all queer characters to be “pure and wholesome” and the very explicit message that if something deviates from that standard, then it holds no value and anyone that tries to find value on it is wrong and/or hiding some internalized issues. The policing for the respectability politics is strong withing this site, so when I hear about a character that is unapolegitically queer being bashed, my first instinct is to distrust it until I know the full context, because a lot more often than not the criticism is borderline homophobic with it’s framming.
And the idea of letting all this pass because “criticism of media is good”, which is a general principle I agree with, I also think people have a right to criticize that criticism if they see it fit. People being allowed to voice what they like or don’t like about media also means other people are allowed to react to that voice with their own. Don’t just shut people down when they are trying to bring legitimate concerns, and this goes for both side as well.
Futheremore, a member of a marginalized group having an opinion doesn’t suddenly erase the opinion of every other marginalized member in that group. This “but gay men said so” is constantly being used on anti fujoshi rethoric in order to silence and erase other queer men, especially when they bring out other axis of oppression into question, like transphobia and racism, so it can’t be as simple as “well, this gay man said is homophobic and so that is it, end of discussion.”
I don’t say any of that to try to shut down people who didn’t liked Hazbin Hotel or even hated it. I actually do not care about either. Anyone will have their own preferences about the media they consume and their own reason for that preference, and that is okay. People who are merely voicing their opinion about a cartoon they watched have every right to do so... but also people can respond to it. Not shutting it down, not harassing, not saying bullshit like “wow, they dislike Vaggie so that means they must racist themselves”, because all that is asshole move, but talk about it. Have a calm and respectful conversation whenever possible should be encouraged too.
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"Lucidity Roses"
LUCIDITY ROSES
ルシディ・ローゼズ
Dedicated to:
This poem, project, and visual representation of mental growth & beauty is dedicated to someone I miss dearly and think about everyday. My best friend Jaedin A.
She helped me get through everything. From my first heartbreak, to my first day of suicide watch in the hospital. She was there. From crying over being abused in a relationship to crying over being locked in a hospital room. She was there.
As I write this dedication with tears falling down my face like that day let it be known that I would not be here today. Mentally, and physically if it weren’t for this person. It’s nothing simple like I got an injury and she stopped the bleeding therefore she “saved my life” shit. It’s more like I couldn’t find my own injury but she stopped it from hurting by just being there with me. No matter the situation. Whether it was when I was 1,500+ miles away or just inches away she helped me push through everything that would’ve broken me. Thank you so much for existing in my era. Xox
This piece is heavily inspired by Jenny Holzers ‘Truisms’ poem. Her diverse yet obvious stanzas created beauty by the things we see and hear everyday. Basic knowledge formed together to create a intricate puzzle like piece that allows the mind to gain an insightful view. Thank you Jenny.
Alongside being dedicated to my best friend Jaedin it is dedicated to those who did me wrong.
Sorry to kill your vibes but no one can bring me down no matter how long they try. With all love and no hate <3
-Julian
WARNING
This is art. This is real. This is raw. I speak my mind and express everything I see and understand. This ain’t some politics-free Facebook post. Not wanting to argument with family members shit. I’ve been blocked by family members for the things I’ve said. My aunt blocked me after posting pro-black lives matter messages on my Facebook. Apparently not wanting to see my half blood brother on the news is too offensive. Wanting justice for innocent people was “too much”. Putting bad cops in the system they avoid was “too excessive”. If you can’t respect my existence or my families and friends then fuck you. This country has been hypocritical since the day it was founded, but overtime new laws and such have been put into the system yet they still treat us like the cameras ain’t recording, like the wounds ain’t showing, like the pain ain’t growing.
So realize that this piece isn’t some school assembly script. This is raw and uncut like Trumps Twitter minus the fact that I’m not a damn idiot.
Also while reading this piece you have to be in touch with the other side. By that I mean you have to be relaxed and at peace. Plug in headphones, white noise machine, open the window, do what you gotta do to be ready to see instead of just read. It’s like a deep song with curse words in it. You can’t listen for the words, you have to listen for the meaning. If Van Gogh painted Starry Night in an art class no one would fully appreciate it for the way it was meant to be. Art is three dimensional and up. It can be seen from many sides. Although all of them can be justified, when the artist explains what his two dimensional view of the piece is you gotta just sit back in amazement. The whole time I was writing this I had that mindset. This my canvas mindset. Knowing that each stroke on the white surface has to be better than the last.
So here is my piece. My canvas. I hope you enjoy and understand.
Here is “Lucidity Roses”
—
america is the biggest terrorist threat not isis
all lives matter movement is a fictional movement
anatomy is important for love
astrology isn’t a science
arian advantages are my disadvantages
america escaped tyrannical governments only to become one
abortion isn’t murder
amendments have been broken
atheists are people not afraid of death
aberrant people are the future
able bodied people are the most lazy
abolish our current government
abrasive people are common
absolutism is always a bad idea
abstemious people are annoying
absorption of countries kills cultures
acquaintance is a rude way of saying relationship
adeptness is underrated
altruism is key for humanity
apathy controls our motivations
astronomy is observable and beautiful
amassing is dangerous
anonymity people keep the truth alive
aflame is the best way to describe America right now
aptitude lovers are real
aridity is rising
beautiful mornings happen everyday
borders don’t stop shit
branding runs capitalism
blue lives matter is equal to all lives matters
blue people don’t exist
bernie should’ve won
bravery comes in many forms
bruce becoming caitlin was important for this generation
baby boomers blame everything on anyone younger
bombs are never precise
boys don’t cry, men do tho
bitches aren’t women
bad bitch isn’t a compliment
babies show us life in it’s pure form
baptism doesn’t save every child of god
baptism didn’t keep me holy
bottles ease the pain
boredom is a first world problem
bacteria is everywhere germaphobes
being called something besides your name is great
blonde was album of the year
black lives matter
buying expensive things have repercussions
baffling is trumps best and only skill
burning the flag doesn’t help anything
basketball is the best sport
crying in the rain feels good
creativity is the key to a new world
conspiracy theories aren’t reality
cherry blossoms are natures physical form of love
condolences are appreciated
cancer can be stopped
censorship stops art
ceasefires never truly cease fire
cultures are not to be mocked
colors all have meaning
codes control our superficial social media
currently waiting for closure
classical mythologies were once religions
civilizations never disappear fully
cobain was murdered
ceasar once ruled the world
callisto needs to be explored
carbon dioxide emissions are real
cherokee are the toughest natives
christmas is definitely the most wonderful time
chickenpox in america wasn’t an accident
cold war was the scariest war
columbus didn’t find shit
captain avery was a genius
camo clothes are never out of fashion
crucifixion is over the top
dark nights only make brighter days
death penalty is overpriced
depression is real
denying science and facts gave us trump
don’t argue with science
devil dances to inner city anthems
death lurking in my thoughts lately
da vinci was the closest thing to perfection
drake runs our generation
dogs are impossible to hate
divinity is possible in our form
diamonds are perfection
doomsayers don’t enjoy their life
dormant volcanoes are relatable
dancing is art
dinosaurs exist
despite being held back we succeeded
desperate people are the most sick
different place this planet is nowadays
dying is overrated
dust shows authenticity
dyed my hair for this rebirth
defense is a form of offense
dreams mean something
doing thangs for myself
deities exist in us
“every night fucks everyday up”
emptiness is a curse
everyone is beautiful in their own way
exercise is a reliable stress reliever
eagles are sacred
earth deserves better
easter island disappeared
electromagnetism control our sense of direction
extinct species show how precious life is
endorphins are off in my mind
epicenter disasters happen in our minds too
egyptians had the smarts of unearthly creatures
einstein got sad over things he didn’t understand too
errors in our ways are to be fixed not ignored
effective ways to love vary on the person
elsewhere exist on our minds
equality is bullshitted in our world
eventually everything falls
endings are emotionally exhausting
efforts mean everything
egos are killed by assholes
education isn’t always important for a better world
eternal life happens when you love life
ethnic cleansing still happens today
ethics are not negotiable
eyes perceive more than the physical
fuck trump by the way
fires burn inside
flowers are unreal
football is a life damaging sport
“faults break into pieces”
freezing points are breaking points
futura is a great font
fonts are key pieces for expression
focusing isn’t something gained through pills
fallacies run our political system
futuristic ideas were once sci-fi ideas
finding love is very important
fire was once considered magic
freedom isn’t real in america
fresh fruits are being created as if they were artificial
for the last time the earth isn’t flat
fascism exist in our america
fuel exist in many forms
feminism is needed for this generation
fake love is true evil
false prophets are average humans
fables are more than just cute
fake news doesn’t exist only inaccurate news
faithfulness isn’t difficult when you aren’t an asshole
fanatics are just passionate, not crazy
feedback is appreciated
guys can be pretty too
generalization is the key to all problems
global warming is real
great barrier reef is almost gone
gothic art is the realist art
gambling is the currency form of lust
geniuses exist in many fields
generosity can go a long way
geometry is the simplest form of math
ghost exist
giggles are always nice
glaciers are separating
glaring is rude
girls glisten
glitter beauty is magical
goddesses are women
goals should always be pursued
go all out with anything you
get some time for yourself
gain respect towards those who hurt from things you can’t see
great wall didn’t stop the mongols
good people exist
gasoline isn’t worth killing people over
goodnight messages mean a lot
good morning messages mean more
gestures mean more than words
hells exist beyond our minds
health care should always be free
heavens exist in our minds
hesitation kills motivation
highly favorable people were once underrated
homophobia isn’t real, being an asshole is
homosexuality is just as natural as heterosexuality
hogs represent rich people
houses aren’t homes unless they’re made into one
home is where the love is
highlights of life are everything without a price
high beams on a dark road
how do some people live with themselves?
hidden in plain sight things are extraordinary
hello starts every conversation
height is superficial
hierarchy only worked for the pharaohs
hire the unfavored
heels shouldn’t be a beauty standard
heavens gate is no different from christianity
heavens gate is a religion
hashtag save our girls
happiness has me believing i made heaven
harassment is cruel to humanity
hardly anything is real anymore
help is never too far away
i feel like pablo making my own art
i’m just human
isis doesn’t represent islam
imperialism is the reason rome fell
imperialism is the reason we shall fall
immigrants made america
i’m sad as shit when i’m alone
i can also be happy as shit when i’m alone
i see race i just don’t care about it
internet is overrated and superficial
inferior things are not always the problem
invasion of foreign countries is never reasonable
ice cream is good for the soul
ignorance isn’t a bliss
illogical facts are “alternative facts”
illumination of the mind is inspiring
imagination is the only drug we need
islam has no relation to terrorism
impossible is only a word
infuriating people lead to a dumber generation
infallible beliefs are close minded
inhabiting foreign lands ruined cultures
informing is not insulting
innovation is suppressed in our world
instincts are always right
intelligence is uncommon
jim jones was the furthest thing from the messiah
jesus was brown
jean-michel basquait was our van gogh
just kidding isn’t an excuse for your assholeness
jealousy ruins more relationships than actual issues
jewels aren’t worth the killing
judges have sympathy
journalists can be bias
joy is a great feeling
justice is failing in america
judging others is natural
jungles need protection
jades are the perfect shade of green
jewelry is a classism statement
journey around the world if you can
jump into new things don’t be scared
jokes keep the sadness at bay
jumble things are sometimes more beautiful than neat things
jaunts are good for you
jigsaws relate to our lives
justifying racism is impossible
judaism is the most neglected religion
join the cause
jackson was killed by a doctor
jerichos’ horn is heard all around world
just wondering if i’ll make it in life
keep thinking positive things and they will happen
killing for peace is a hypocritical phenomenon
kings never end happily ever after
kind people are the most beautiful
keep your family close
knowing isn’t always understanding
kkk is a terrorist organization
kids bring the family together
kanye is a smart man
keep yourself your number one priority
kissing is just as addictive as drugs
kahlo is the best artist ever
karma will get you
kaitlin lives forever
keep the bullshit away
kaleidoscopes sparked my creativity
kd betrayed his team
keep it real
keep the faith
kepler telescope watches the heavens
kepler-452b is our last resort
kgb tactics are still in use
kick back and get dreamin
killing the innocent happens too often
killing by accident happens too
kidnapping is the worst crime against humanity
loving and sex are two different things
legends never live
life is a clusterfuck
love doesn’t have a gender
loneliness craves company
lying is an insult to ones morality
les brown motivates me
lucidity roses is my canvas
lucidity roses is life
lust for life
losing is better than not trying
living shouldn’t be bordered by rules
lying is an insult to yourself
leaving incompetent people isn’t wrong or bad
loving those who others don’t is perfect
let go every once and awhile
laws shouldn’t be bribed
lawyers shouldn’t defend sick people
lurking gets us hurt
lies formed history
last night stories are the best
lately i’ve been feeling sad
lyrics always have deeper meanings
last doesn’t always mean something bad
lines divide us like paper
layoffs are necessary for a new world
majorities blame their problems on minorities
mind over matter
meditation is a mental workout
mental injuries are worse than physical ones
make america united again
make your dreams a reality
men don’t understand motherhood
motherhood is a connection like no other
“my eyes had a gleam once”
my intentions are always good, my actions aren’t always tho
meddling in others relationships is disrespectful
mexico is a beautiful country manipulated by our politicians
managing friendships is tiring
morgues show us life after death
minerals are running low
mindsets vary on time sets
marrying just to cheat is unacceptable and wrong
mothers are responsible for our nurture vs nature thinking
missing people who hurt you is ass-backwards
“might've” has no meaning in the present
masculinization insults the free spirits
makaveli escaped to cuba
magna carta is the way of the people
mask show more than the person behind it
medications should be free
mcdonalds runs america
nothing happens for a reason
nights with the person you love is better than anything
nothing is as intimate as love
never have i or will i say “president trump”
narcissism got me through my depression
nihilism is the truest religion
‘no more parties in la’
nobody pray for me!
no means no
never think about the past
names always deserve a deeper meaning
narrow minded people are ruining our country
nikes is perfect
natural beauty is the perfect form of art
news stations are almost always biased
nirvana is close by..
nagging gets you nowhere
nowadays people aren’t living in the now
newcomers deserve respect
newcomers deserve recognition
nazism is still active in america
north is the main direction
never love someone you wouldn’t wanna wake up with
narcotics control the banks
nasa deserves better
never judge something you don’t understand
our system is corroded
ousting exposes jealousy
outfits describe our personalities
overnight love is the best
ocean needs protection
oceans display vibes
omitting happiness is brighter than any rays
omega is more dominant than alpha
order is tyrannical
orgasms vary
oracles saw illusions
odd problems can become the most dangerous
ones mental state is a number one priority
oak is the most refreshing wood
obligate yourself to everything you love
oblivion exist only if you open the portal to it
oblivious people are the loudest
only illegal humans are those who manipulate the public
our greatest internal struggle is wanting what we give
old white people should have no say on racial issues
obliterating countries doesn’t solve problems
obnoxious people are common
occasional personal days are necessary
off days are the worst days
offer yourself to the ones you love
old times are gone, forget them
past civilizations were more advanced than current ones
peoples temple was a suicide group
political corruption runs our system
police gotta stop killing us
pro-black isn’t anti-white
philosophies vary on mindsets
philosophers were once seen as irrelevant
picassos’ rose period is my life season
political parties are for small minded people
politics separated my family
permafrost love is gonna be a visual
perfect people only exist when you become in love with someone
pesticides are just as bad for humans than bugs
push through the tough shit
pulling someone closer is a form of intimacy
purple is a sexual color
purest forms of intimacy are decided by lovers
please love someone before you leave this planet
peaceful protest are always manipulated by fox news
party whenever you can for however long you can
pretty isn’t a girl only word
panama was split for financial reasons
peaks are the top of our lives
pastor keeps the followers with hope
paparazzi got no respect
please don’t stop living
quit slut shaming sexually active people
quit calling every female a bitch
quality over quantity all the time
questions without answers are possible
quiet people are a blessing
quotes were unappreciated at their time
qualm thoughts are stressful
quantum mechanics are the future
qualified people can still be stupid
queens don’t need kings
quickly doing things is sloppy
quicksand is the physical metaphor of depression
quilts are comfortable canvases
quixotic love is the best love
quizzing us on things we don’t know is irrational
quotation marks aren’t needed for the words you say
quran isn’t evil
quran is equal to the beautiful
quarantining sad people is cruel
quarantined orcas need to be freed #fuckseaworld
quite a few good things in life we don’t appreciate
quitting is never the answer
quit fucking with people who don’t care for you
queer isn’t an insult
question everything you don’t understand
quasars represent underdogs
reverse racism isn’t real
respect your elders those who respect you
roses show more beauty than we can comprehend
“respect existence or expect resistance”
rest in peace selena
respect for women shouldn’t be gained through knowing one
remember the good days every chance you get
real friends make time for you
release week was dope
reality is distorted
raw art is the truth we need
ranting proves you can think
random compliments are the best compliments
reading puts you in another world
reducing stress is impossible in our world
refusing facts isn’t always because ignorance
remember that you matter
runaway with the person you love
runaway is also a perfect song, thanx kanye
roses are red
roses aren’t dead
riding with your friends is peaceful
reintroducing people is lovely
radiation levels are unnatural
radical ideas are barbaric
rapist don’t deserve a casket
��special shoutout to the icon dynasty slip and slide records”
science is the forerunner of every subject
self control is a uncommon blessing
support planned parenthood
support stem cell research
sexism is at an all time high
sadness has me believing i belong in a sanitarium
sexual fantasies are normal
scientist don’t lie, politicians do
stop being scared
secrets are esoteric
seducing has to be wanted
school makes me feel stupid
sadness dissipates when we begin to live
smoking kills
shea made me sad
shan made me happy
strong people exist
satanist aren’t bad people
say no to *bad* drugs
seeing old friends is refreshing
sad and mad emotions ruin lives
safe sex is rare
saints were once sinners
sinners were once saints
see what i’m saying?
tranquility is achieved through our minds
the meaning of life is happiness
thank you for the inspiration frank o.
tupac is still alive for me
the world is ours
taste of lips is a drug
the only thing we need is love
tattoos tell stories that words can’t
“to die without leaving a corpse..”
thank the universe or your deity everyday
“torture is barbaric”
the day is as only as bright as you make it
tired is a real excuse for not doing things
trading your soul for something always ends bad
trendsetters aren’t original
treat everyone you meet with respect
trying to educate the ignorant is pointless
tattoos at a young age show defiance
tattoos don’t look gross when you get older
tips are small but meaningful
today is the beginning of a new life.
timid people are usually the brightest
tacky clothes are fun
tell people how special they are
tell your deepest secrets to no one
take it easy
uncles’ are usually pieces of shit..lookin at you lencho
using someone for sex is inhumane
ultimately what defines us is our actions, not words
u is the saddest song ever
umbrellas are cliché
understanding someone helps them get better
unfortunately we can’t stop time
under pressure we can sprout
unite the world together again
unlikely doesn’t mean impossible
unless you’re dead nothing can stop you
unusual organisms see us as unusual too
urges can be handled
uplift everyones spirits
unnamed sources are the realist sources
untruth the lies
using the system to beat it is smart
unnecessary comments don’t have to be necessary
upload your experiences
update your friends as much as possible
urgent care is a sad place
universe is in us
us is nice to say
uttering words isn’t always the best idea
urban legends are fun to read about
until we stop fighting we’ll never start loving
violins are the most beautiful instrument
vibrant things give me happiness
videotapes are ancient
versatile mindsets are necessary
very important people are not strangers with money
vikings found america
vivid dreams are future scenes
vaccines don’t cause autism
voice your opinion no matter where you live
volume never seems loud enough
version one is draft like
vintage art is overrated
verbal abuse is the worst
versions show both sides
view life differently
vote based off personality not political party
valleys are scary
versace is godlike
voices are deceiving
vaults are examples of paranoia
vice versa situations are just normal situations
very good people are always unheard of
veterans shouldn’t be veterans
venture into the wild
visit family as much as you can
versus the world
would trump let jesus in our country?
women deserve better
“wishing things away is not effective” quote jenny
we face the inner struggle of the penitent and impenitent thief
war on drugs is a waste of time and money
wes lang is the descendant of basquait
women can hurt men too
whiners can’t be choosers
winning is just as scary as losing
wearing all black is beautiful
wanting what you can’t have is cruel
would you like you?
wishing for the best holds back the best
watching people be themselves is interesting
why do they keep killing us?
when’s tranquility gonna reach us
welcome new people like family
weddings are a form of art
why questions will never be answered
why are we here?
why do we battle things we can’t see?
why do good things happen to bad people?
why do bad things happen to good people?
why is there a why if it can’t be answered?
willpower is yours
winning is the only option
xenophobia is wrong not matter how trump puts it
xenophile is a lover for high class things
xerophytic people are the strong yet depressed humans
xanax are for those sad people
xeriscape was created for another dustbowl
xerothermic weather isn’t normal
xenobiotic compounds are even antihuman
xerophile organisms are relatable
xenogeny is the creation and start of life
xat have spiritual energies
xenocide is happening to our own species
xenoepist think you’re a xenoepist
xenomorphs exist
xeronisus happens when you don’t love that person
xickovit of this country
xox means a lot to me
x’ing out the bad people like tic-tac-toe
xanthippe was the opposite of socrates
xenial countries are declining
xenocracy founded america
xenophobia is runs our country right now
xenophobic is like homophobic, so it’s not real
xanax are bad for you
xenophiles need to know their boundaries
x marks the spot
xoxo
you don’t have to be in love to make love
yelling should only be for sports events
years pass like the seasons
year-round happiness is important
yikes at our country
yearbooks shouldn’t be the only time we appreciate each other
yearning is a sin but an understandable one
yearlong relationships are rare
yellow is the most vibrant color
y chromosome organisms have no right over double x organisms
y chromosome doesn’t excuse being disrespectful
yellowstone is gonna explode soon
yes is all you need to hear for consent
ying yang symbol is life in simple terms
yogism is the purest philosophy
you can’t expect the unexpected
your only priority is you
you’ll never know what someone else is going through
you are loved
you are noticed
you are always on someones mind
you deserve better
you can succeed
you can inspire
you will be happy
you are you
zenith empires eventually fell
zero was created by the mayans
zodiac signs are bullshit
zygotes show us how related we are
zeal mindsets are important for our generation
zelo was nikes brother
zeal mindsets can be dangerous
zero first world problems are important
zuckerberg made billions off our generation
zirconia isn’t diamond
zero hour is the best time of the day
zeta is an unearthly letter
zev (zero emission vehicles) were the future
zigzagging down a dark road
zika needs to be defeated.
zionism fucked over jerusalem
zodiac killer was found
zoos’ need to be more natural
zebra stripes are mesmerizing
zealous juries can free the criminals
zaddy turns no one on
zoning people out is risky
zombies is who our voting system was built for
zoetropes still amaze me
zero stars show in the daytime
zero people can talk shit about me now
—
Everything in this project has meaning. Everything. I would stay up til the early hours of the morning just thinking and trying to tell my story while correlating it with symbols and clues. Notice how there is every letter in the alphabet on here twenty six times? That was a tribute to Holzers style she had on “Truisms”. Notice how every letter is lowercased? Also a tribute to Holzer. The cover art, hand drawn by the way, the cover is a skull with three roses coming out of it. Those three roses represent the three loves of my life. From best to worst going left to right. The words above them show what they gave and introduced me to. Love, lust, and lorn. All of these things are apart of life. The three emotions we all are controlled by in life. The three things that can break us from ourselves. That’s why the skull is there. After all those things I had to endure I felt nothing but dead inside. On the outside it was visible too. From the days my mother would ask me what’s wrong to the days I would break down at school. It was visible. I seemed dead on the inside. They say nothing is as dry as the bone, but I found a way to push through. My rebirth allowed me to show the world I am still here. After my battles with love a rose grew, after my battles with lust a rose grew, and even after being beat down and almost held away from the light that helped me grow, a rose grew from lorn. I am still recovering from these three things. The roses vary in stages because of this. Lorn was the most impactful on me hence why the rose is the smallest of the three. It is taking time to heal from these things, but I am reborn. Three things that have claimed my last three years. From the day after middle school ended where I was in my room all day crying because I never took a chance at shit to the first day of suicide watch. These are my past lessons. This is my life. Thank you all for allowing me to fully expose this. I hope that this can inspire you to become the best you. I hope this can inspire you that no matter how crazy, lonely, and heartbroken you feel you’re never alone on this crazy ride we call life. Thank you very much. Xoxo
-Julian
P.S – Three is my lucky number
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gender-critically replied to your post“gender-critically replied to your post: TELL ME ALL ABOUT THE...”
cmon you asked
All right fine well basically 1st BioShock the whole game just serves as a counter-argument to Atlas Shrugged and it does address like the possible merits of a completely unregulated free-market society, but it, but it ultimately rejects it as horrible. Bill McDonagh, that dude who is literally one of the most interesting characters but his whole story is only put out through audio diary shit like he never appears in-game except as a corpse but anyway Bill McDonagh, especially his tape “Meeting Ryan” is basically what Rapture was meant to be, what it could be if everyone had honor and integrity and pride in their work. “I met Ryan the day me and the lads were installing the plumbing up in his posh Park Avenue digs. “Oi,” says he. “What’s with all the brass fittings? General contractor had me down for the tin.” I said “Well, I suppose it’s the general contractor who’ll be bailing out your loo once a fortnight, then. If it’s price you’re worried about, I’ll be picking up the brass, so not to worry squire.” “And why would you be doing that?” “Well,” I said, “profit or not, no man bails water out of privies built by Bill McDonagh.” The next day I find out I’m Ryan’s new general contractor!” And all that shit about how Rapture doesn’t always win and they have to let Fontaine’s businesses alone and whatnot. He represents the ideals of Rapture/Ayn Rand. But, speaking of Fontaine, he represents the reality of a me first hyper-capitalist free-market society. A shameless sociopath con artist. His only goal is to get as much money as possible, by any means necessary. He doesn’t care about anyone except himself, and his only interest in other people is how they can be useful to him. He does help people, particularly in spoilers for a game that came out 10 years ago particularly in his guise as Atlas. But he helps people just incidentally. He helps people, not out of the goodness of his heart, but to get them on his side so that he can use them. People are tools to him. It’s amusing Ryan and Fontaine hate each other so much, because Fontaine is literally the perfect end result of Ryan’s philosophy. Fontaine is the reality of the human condition. A society built with no government, with no restrictions, with a completely free market, is an amazing idea and would work if everyone had empathy and integrity and honor like Bill McDonagh. But most don’t. Most are only looking out for number one. They’re selfish, callous, and avaricious. So a society like Rapture is doomed to fail.
BioShock Infinite, on the other hand, now like i feel like this game kinda fails on the whole sociopolitical theme front. Because, now don’t get me wrong, they got everything historically just about right. The Founders are actually even a bit backwards for the time, like even by 1912 standards they’re racist and xenophobic, but it makes sense in context. And a blind man could see that the game’s taking the piss out of xenophobia and jingoism and religious fundamentalism. But first of all, it’s not really...there’s some shit in there about how the Prophet preaches mercy and forgiveness and humility Lady Comstock i think Lady Comstock is the closest to a Bill McDonagh type of character in Infinite, talking about how God forgives everything and she’s growing disillusioned with her husband’s bullshit, but it’s all kind of a strawman like the racists in this game are so cartoonishly racist that it would even offend racists which kinda takes the teeth out of the deconstruction, you need it to be more grounded in like what racists actually believe y’know like how Get Out was a potent satire because it deconstructed the kind of appropriative liberal racism that’s extremely common in society and that goes under the radar and that a lot of people don’t think is a bad thing. In this, the racists and fundamentalists are so removed from at least today’s reality that y’know there’s not much of a real social point being made on that front. And then there’s how the game treats the Vox Populi. Look, the Vox Populi were a fairly historically accurate representation of armed communist and/or anarchist revolutionaries at the turn of the century. The “Kill anyone who looks like they’d give us trouble. Anyone with a gun, anyone wearing glasses.” that is ripped straight out of the Khmer Rouge’s actual policy. Massacres and human rights violations and general atrocity are all part of revolution. Always. I didn’t mind that, or them turning on you. They had their reasons. They had good reasons, actually. If some random asshole showed up claiming to dead hero of your revolution, a man who had died in your arms, you might be a bit suspicious too. But what i hate is they seem to have been written off from the start. The game seemed to want you to have a really strained, enemy-of-my-enemy kinda relationship with the vox, so that when they turn on you it feels natural, but they don’t do anything to strain that relationship before that point. The Vox don’t really show any signs of being malicious until the massacres are underway like 2 minutes before they turn on you. The game didn’t make me naturally wary of them at all, i really liked them. I LOVED that brief part where you fight for them. When you take down the zeppelin and they’re chanting DE WITT! DE WITT! DE WITT! That was legit my favorite part of the game. So to hear Booker and Elizabeth casually just off-handedly without much evidence go “yeah Fitzroy’s just like Comstock” and have them suddenly be your enemies is super jarring and feels like a lazy hand-wave.
Ultimately, BioShock Infinite’s problem is that it falls prey to the golden mean fallacy, hard. It takes these cartoonish ultra-left-wing thugs and these cartoonish ultra-right-wing racists and pits them against each other with Booker’s cynical “yeah, whatever, everyone’s wrong, everyone sucks, i don’t give a shit about politics” at the center like it’s supposed to be the take-away message. It’s like Atlas’ bit from the first game “There was a time i cared about politics...but it’s just an excuse men use to kill each other.” BioShock Infinite seems to be whole-heartedly buying into that philosophy without consideration for people actually wanting to make the world a better place, which i find lazy and disappointing.
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I guess i wasnt very clear. Easy to seem angry over the internet unintentionally. I mean to say; rebs url (a small thing) represented something to us. Xe left and we all really miss xer. Xe mattered to us and was a special part of tjlc. 1/8
In many peoples eyes this is an aggressive act. Im sure that you can see at least a little how we would see it that way. 2/8
I wasnt implying that you are not queer or that i hate queers. i was saying that, this is the internet, im not going to always believe everything everyone tells me. 3/8
Most queers i know, try and stick together despite our differences. And the fact that you seem very angry (could be reading into it) at a group of people who are predominately queer tells me that you COULD be something other than queer. 4/8
As you yourself said this is just a tv show...but its more than that isnt it? Why you spend so much thought throwing shade at rebs or the tjlcers or whoever, tells me that theres something else going on and that it is important. 5/8
banding together with like-minded people is the solution to the political shitfest we are in. I'd like to think that we could work thru our differences to reach our common goals assuming, we have common goals. (if im wrong, please let me know) 6/8
I dont see myself as a victim, im only sad. not in a pitying way. Its hard to describe. You were probably the victim of an angry tjlcer on here or witnessed the chaos and theres really no excuse for hatefullness (im admonishing my own camp here). 7/8
debate, yes, but never being mean just to be mean. That doesnt get anyone anywhere. I hope this makes sense and im not trying to offend you. I just think life is too short to hate. And its sad that there has been much on here. 8/8
I’m actually not angry, I think it’s all kinda funny. Though I do try my best to respond seriously to serious messages. The “go fuck yourself”s will always be met with a “sounds good,” but when someone takes the time to send a message like this, I tend to pay attention. Anyways...
First you say you’re not going to always believe everything everyone tells you, then you turn around and say that the tj//lc group is predominantly queer. Who’s telling you that? Hard evidence? Demographics data? A census taken by a neutral third party to determine age range and sexuality, and what direction they believe the show should go? As I answered someone before: anecdotal evidence is inadmissible in science and court for a reason. Of course since you’re a lesbian (a factoid gleaned from your profile, but if this is inaccurate, please inform me. But I could easily say you’re not, but I don’t, because when someone tells me they’re queer, I believe them, who the hell wants to be in a [most places on the globe] hated minority? [by “hated,” I mean high risk of murder, bullying, and homelessness, and possibly being a criminal act depending on where you live]), your experience is going to be skewed towards finding other queer people. You think the group is predominantly queer people, but from the outside looking in, even as a queer person, I’ve mostly seen a bunch of straight women geeking over two middle aged white dudes possibly touching dicks, and using “representation” as a mask. I haven’t mingled with your community — I’ve got my own, who are and aren’t queer all the same.
And again, I say that with full knowledge that it is anecdotal evidence from my viewpoint and experience. I could be wrong. But that doesn’t mean you’re right either.
Moving on. Most queer people (I don’t like the term “queers” personally, but as a queer person, you can reclaim that word however you want) you know stick together despite the differences. Okay. But if our difference is that you don’t think I deserve rights, or that my life is somehow worth less than a straight person’s (voting Dump/Pence, specifically Mike Pence, who would rather a gay person go to a conversion camp — where the risk of suicide is nearly 70% — than be gay), then that’s not a “difference.” That’s almost a hate crime (and it actually is in some countries).
I assume you and I have similar goals — stop the carney-handed mango. I assume all but the 14% of LGBT people who did vote for that cheeto in a wig, do. Hence why I make a point of saying I don’t hate Rebs as a person (although the fact that xer Patreon is still up, and xe’s still collecting money, despite the fact xe’s publicly declared xe has no intention on ever making videos again, and even taking the existing ones down, is a little less than the perfect angel everyone is insisting that xe is).
Tbh, maybe I tend to befriend more queer people irl, but you know what else is important? Straight allies. To me, being LGBT+ is a description of where I put my genitals/my gender identity, and I don’t exactly bond with people over that. A shared struggle, yes, and if I see a queer person being bullied, I will step in. I can support a gay man’s rights, even if that gay man is going out there campaigning for the orangutan in a suit (and some did). I’ll say he should be allowed to get married to whoever he wants, and when his Nazi buddies turn on his ass, I’ll be helping him find a visa out of here, but dear Ahura Mazda, I wouldn’t be caught dead having a beer with him. In fact, they most criticism I’ve ever gotten for being trans, is from other trans people. Yes, they should have rights, but fuck them as individuals, holy shit, don’t tell me how to transition. You can be trans (or any LGBT+) and still be a shitty person.
But like... about 10%-15% of people are queer. 10%-15% of people couldn’t have voted for our rights and won. Meaning we have a ton of straight people on our side. And that’s what we are: we’re people. I love Steven Universe and pizza. I’ll find people that love Steven Universe and pizza that didn’t vote for literally satan.
I’ve personally never been wronged by a hateful tj//lcer. But as you pointed out, there was a lot of hatefulness that was slung around. I watched as people attacked Mark Gatiss for not making their ship canon, or call him straight (they really care about representation, don’t they? /s), attacked other queer ships, tags, bullied some other queer shippers into self-harm, etc.
No, that wasn’t you doing any of that, and that wasn’t anything you participated in... This blog really isn’t about you, I don’t know why you’re so sad about it. This is about everyone’s actions that I’m starting to suspect we both found deplorable. Though I guess if you were a close follower of Rebs, you hated Mary from second one, which was really uncalled for (hate her for shooting Sherlock — I don’t, but it’s a reason — but that didn’t happen until we knew her for two whole episodes, half of a third, and she was just a lovely person until that exact moment).
The thing is, it IS just a show to me. I’m just responding to hate until I get bored with it. But tj//lc it became so much more to a bunch of people, and that’s why it got so toxic.
Again, THE PROBLEM is tj//lcers were demanding representation from a show, and writers, who were always honest that they weren’t going to give it. At least not in the way they wanted (and when it wasn’t in the way they wanted, they had tantrums, which is why I say: it was never about “representation” for some of them.). Rebs, even if it started as just a hobby, quickly became, and fed into this mass conspiracy that ultimately did end up hurting a lot of people. Possibly including xerself. That’s why I don’t feel bad taking your symbol: it is just a show, everyone had prior warning that jxhnlock wouldn’t happen, so the conspiracy was always just going to be fanfiction, and Rebs did some shitty things.
The way people are freaking out... they need to get over it. Or if not, okay, soak in grief forever over a fictional ship, but there’s probably better ways of dealing with all this besides sending me hate. Because honestly, what does anyone hope to accomplish by sending me hate? Me to delete? Sure, let’s say I did that. Jxhnlock isn’t going to be any more canon, and Rebs isn’t going to be any less wrong, and all of the hate xe encouraged is still going to be out there. Oh, and I’ll keep responding, which really just makes it worse.
Had people just ignored me — never sent any messages — there would be precisely one post on this blog, which was my original announcement that I had it.
Also — what have I said that’s “hateful?” Yeah, okay, I called rebs a “twat” for being a misogynist, I thought it was delightfully ironic, having a misogynistic slur juxtaposed next to that observation (like saying, “don’t fucking swear”), but no one got the joke, so I took it down. But otherwise? Saying John Watson is Straight is just a fact. Jxhnlock never happened, and since it didn’t, the insistence that he’s bisexual has no standing. He’s always said, “I’m not gay.” I never took that to mean he was saying, “I’m not gay, but I like men, I’m bisexual/pansexual.” Jeez, no, if he was part of the community at all, I imagine he’d let it pass, rather than get angry about the assumption (like Sherlock does, who is, said by the writers, to be neither gay nor straight. In fact, I’ve often heard that if you’re a good straight ally, it means not being upset if people assume you’re gay for standing up with them — so in some interpretation, he’s actually a bit homophobic). I’ve also pointed out that xe was wrong, which xe is. My banner is of Gatiss confirm jxhnlock wasn’t happening again — this is a thing that happened. Are facts “hateful” now?
Also... “life is too short to hate.” I mean... I think I’ve got enough life left in me to hate the sentient tire fire that uses too much fake tan cream, and the apparent resurgence of Nazis in America. Don’t you? Shouldn’t you?
tj//cers are definitely not on that level, but I don’t hate them, is the thing. I said this before: I hate no one in particular, just what the legacy produced.
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Facebook’s new policy Supreme Court could override Zuckerberg
A real check to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s control is finally coming in the form of an 11 to 40-member Oversight Board that will review appeals to its policy decisions, like content takedowns, and make recommendations for changes. Today Facebook released the charter establishing the theoretically independent Oversight Board, with Zuckerberg explaining that when it takes a stance, “The board’s decision will be binding, even if I or anyone at Facebook disagrees with it.”
Slated to be staffed with members this year, who will be paid by a Facebook-established trust (the biggest update to its January draft charter), the Oversight Board will begin judging cases in the first half of 2020. Given Zuckerberg’s overwhelming voting control of the company, and the fact that its board of directors contains many loyalists, like COO Sheryl Sandberg and investor Peter Thiel whom he’s made very rich, the Oversight Board could ensure the CEO doesn’t always have the final say in how Facebook works.
But in some ways, the committee could serve to shield Zuckerberg and Facebook from scrutiny and regulation, much to their advantage. The Oversight Board could remove total culpability for policy blunders around censorship or political bias from Facebook’s executives. It also might serve as a talking point toward the FTC and other regulators investigating it for potential antitrust violations and other malpractice, as the company could claim the Oversight Board means it’s not completely free to pursue profit over what’s fair for society.
One of the most important projects I've worked on over the past couple of years is establishing an independent Oversight…
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Finally, there remain serious concerns about how the Oversight Board is selected and the wiggle room the charter provides Facebook. Most glaringly, Facebook itself will choose the initial members and then work with them to select the rest of the board, and thereby could avoid adding overly incendiary figures. And it maintains that “Facebook will support the board to the extent that requests are technically and operationally feasible and consistent with a reasonable allocation of Facebook’s resources,” giving it the right to decide if it should apply the precedent of Oversight Board verdicts to similar cases or broadly implement its policy guidance.
How the Oversight Board works
When a user disagrees with how Facebook enforces its policies, and with the result of an appeal to Facebook’s internal moderation team, they can request an appeal to the Oversight Board. Examples of potential cases include someone disagreeing with Facebook’s refusal to deem a piece of content as unacceptable hate speech or bullying, its choice to designate a Page as promoting terrorism and remove it or the company’s decision to leave up problematic content, such as nudity, because it’s newsworthy. Facebook also can directly ask the Oversight Board to review policy decisions or specific cases, especially urgent ones with real-world consequences.
After Zuckerberg initially laid out a blueprint for the Oversight Board a year ago, Facebook assigned a 100-person team to build out the plan for the board. It held six workshops and 22 round-tables, plus case-review simulations with 650 people from 88 countries.
The board will include a minimum of 11 members, but Facebook is aiming for 40. They’ll serve three-year terms and a maximum of three terms each as a part-time job, with appointments staggered so there isn’t a full change-over at any time. Facebook is looking for members with a broad range of knowledge, competencies and expertise who lack conflicts of interest. They’re meant to be “experienced at deliberating thoughtfully and collegially,” “skilled at making and explaining decisions based on a set of policies,” “well-versed on matters relating to digital content and governance” and “independent and impartial.”
Facebook will appoint a set of trustees that will work with it to select initial co-chairs for the board, who will then assist with sourcing, vetting, interviewing and orienting new members. The goal is “broad diversity of geographic, gender, political, social and religious representation.” The trust, funded by Facebook with an as yet undecided amount of capital, will set members’ compensation rate in the near future and oversee term renewals.
Inevitable calls of biased board members
My biggest worry here is how Facebook will handle the fact that it’s trying to represent an extraordinarily vast set of global policy perspectives…broader than any one country’s laws. What’s taboo or even illegal in one nation may be common or lauded in another. Facebook may see endless challenges from different segments of the public regarding the previous public statements by board members.
What Facebook’s own staff in California might see as an uncontroversial viewpoint could trigger calls for removal from the board elsewhere. We’ve seen how common “cancelled” culture has become when the public digs up problematic content from celebrities or politicians, and that’s just based on what flies in the United States.
For example, Republican senators just bullied Facebook into removing a fact-check that found the statement “abortion is never medically necessary” to be false, allowing that viewpoint to spread uninhibited on the social network. I personally wouldn’t want someone with that viewpoint on the Oversight Board, but others might feel the opposite. And what happens when politicians start demanding more conservative representation on the Oversight Board the same way they’ve badgered Facebook for supposedly censoring them despite evidence to the contrary?
BARCELONA, SPAIN – FEBRUARY 21: Founder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg gives his speech during the presentation of the new Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 edge on February 21, 2016 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)
Which cases get reviewed?
The board will choose which cases to review based on their significance and difficulty. They’re looking for issues that are severe, large-scale and important for public discourse, while raising difficult questions about Facebook’s policy or enforcement that is disputed, uncertain or represents tension or trade-offs between Facebook’s recently codified values of authenticity, safety, privacy and dignity. The board will then create a sub-panel of five members to review a specific case.
The board will be able to question the request that Facebook provide information necessary to rule on the case with a mind to not violating user privacy. They’ll interpret Facebook’s Community Standards and policies and then decide whether Facebook should remove or restore a piece of content and whether it should change how that content was designated. Verdicts are meant to have consensus, but will be approved by majority when necessary.
How decisions get made
Once a panel makes a draft decision, it’s circulated to the full board, which can recommend a new panel review if a majority take issue with the verdict. Once they’ve gone through a privacy review to protect the identities of those involved with the case, the decisions will be made public within two weeks and affected users will be notified. Those decisions will be archived in a database, and are meant to act as precedent for future decisions. The idea is that the decisions of the board will be binding and implemented by Facebook as long as they don’t require it to violate the law.
But will Facebook really implement them?
The biggest concern with the charter is that it still provides Facebook some leeway about how to implement the board’s decisions. Critically, it only has to apply the decision to the specific case reviewed, and it’s at the company’s discretion to turn that into blanket policy:
In instances where Facebook identifies that identical content with parallel context — which the board has already decided upon — remains on Facebook, it will take action by analyzing whether it is technically and operationally feasible to apply the board’s decision to that content as well. When a decision includes policy guidance or a policy advisory opinion, Facebook will take further action by analyzing the operational procedures required to implement the guidance, considering it in the formal policy development process of Facebook . . . Facebook will support the board to the extent that requests are technically and operationally feasible and consistent with a reasonable allocation of Facebook’s resources.
Because of these sections I’ve bolded, Facebook has the ability to decide it would be operationally infeasible to do what the board decided in every situation, merely take the guidance into account for future policy-making and choose whether implementation is a reasonable allocation of capital and staff. This provides a sizable gray area.
If Facebook chooses that the board’s decision could materially reduce sharing even if it protected users, it might consider that operationally infeasible. If it would cost too much to moderate content in the way the board recommends, it could deem that unreasonable resource allocation. And if the policy guidance doesn’t mesh with its other objectives, it only has to “consider” the board’s wishes.
This section is where advocates and critics should focus. These exemptions to implementation need to be made less vague if the structure is truly going to hold Facebook accountable. If Facebook just declines to broadly change its policy to fit the board’s recommendation, all the board can do is make binding decisions on specific cases.
Facebook director of governance Brent Harris explained on a call with reporters that “If the board doesn’t feel like we’ve handled it right, they’ll keep taking cases and overturn us.” But again the board’s power is focused on a case-by-case basis. Facebook still controls the wide-reaching changes to policy.
If you want to learn more about solutions to Facebook’s concentration of power, check out my talk at SXSW 2020 with Facebook’s co-founder Chris Hughes, who has called for the company to be broken up.
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