#i like to think im more expressive but its only bc i only talk to close friends or through the internet where its a lot easier

[dreamspring]

#rbing again w ur commentary bc yes to all this like yes yes yes#and I wanted to add. antigone in her grief gets so wrapped up as you said#that she genuinely starts seeing anyone who opposes her as an ‘enemy’ in a way?#obviously this means creon for the most part but ismene too#and I think that a large part of ismene’s reluctance to act is not because she doesn’t necessarily agree with antigone etc#but because she’s aware of her and her sisters positions particularly as women#like not to bring gender into it (except im right)#but like. is ismene *just* a coward? or is there more to that.#and yes abolsutely on top of that and most importantly: ismene is the only one left at the end#she’s lost her whole family! and now shes in that position I wouldn’t be surprised if she wondered whether it was even worth anything#anyway also there’s the way that ismene represents duty to your state in a much more measured and subtle way than creon#like. the whole play is divine/gods vs man/state. creon ordains an order and antigone dies defying it because deference to the gods is#what she chooses instead. n remember that the whole point is that *neither* of them are completely wrong or completely correct!#like. Greek maxim n all that: nothing to excess.#they are both excessive in their respective devotions - gods or state#so ismene. idk it’s been a while since I read the play but she has always felt like the subtle middle ground#the compromise the negotiator. if antigone had been more receptive to being told to just hold on a moment#would the two sisters have been able to work out a deal of some sort with creon? who knows!#that isn’t really the point because the tragedy wouldn’t exist if it didn’t end this way#but. my point being. when taken in isolation#ismene is Antigone’s ‘mirror’ fulfilling the role of creon#but when taking creon and the context of the play into account#she’s more of the middle ground between them?#idk. sorry for the essay. im trying to avoid going to bed.

prev..... ur mind is humongous....... thank you for all these thoughts ur so so right. like EXACTLY i think ismene and antigone (but especially ismene) are both very aware of what will happen to them if they are caught breaking the law and its just that antigone is. suicidally and recklessly leaning into that whereas ismene simply does not want to die. like antigone being brave for doing what she does (which she is!) doesn't make ismene a coward it makes her nonsuidical. (i think!)

and ur point about gender... yeah exactly. and also (on an unrelated note! sorry for the tangent) it makes me think about how the way that antigone sort of transcends gender boundaries in the way she turns her expression of grief (the burial of her brother) into an act of protest... when the performance of ritualised mourning + of grief itself was women's work, antigone's performance of the practical ritual of burial (which is not something women were supposed to be involved in) arguably turns her personal act of grieving into a gender subversive protest against creon's attempt at controlling her/denying her ability to grieve. (which is also what her suicide at the end represents to me... idk. that was just a thought!)

AND YES.... that's something i hadn't even considered but ur SO RIGHT. the idea that ismene represents moderation or the middle ground between extremeties... nothing in excess!!! there's something about the way that both ismene and haemon try to talk antigone and creon respectively out of their brash decisions as the voices of reason but are both rebuked and shunned (ie. antigone dismissing ismene as not really loving her and being 'creon's champion', the same way creon accuses haemon of disloyalty and being a lovesick fool for antigone), ultimately leading to tragedy. tldr. these are all such good points thank you sooo much for sharing ur thoughts with me!! <3 <3 <3

ismene/antigone; on being left behind

all highlighted excerpts from sophocles’ antigone, trans. hugh-lloyd jones // other excerpts in order: louise glück - tango / jodi picoult - my sisters keeper / unknown / mine / halsey - graveyard / unknown / mine / seamus heaney - the burial at thebes / mine

[dennistakesamentalhealthday]

dennis is an angry character btw im sorry but he is full of rage but that rage is not exclusive his anger does not negate sadness and fragility and insecurities in fact they work together and dtamhd was one of the first times where his anger was not used as a joke via a surface level rage explosion from him but instead explored the fragility of his anger. the way he keeps reassuring the workers he encounters (and himself) that he's not mad. when he tells daisy he's not mad but he is a little bit upset. dennis is angry and that anger is what makes him so fragile. he was upset and it manifested as rage bc he doesnt know what to do with his own sadness

[liquidstar]

a friend who'd wait :)

[puhpandas]

you know the content drought is bad when you think about content from over a year ago and still get excited

[phagodyke]

the masculine urge to take a saucepan off thr draining board and bash myself repeatedly over the head with it until I pass out and no longer have to experience feeling Bad 😍

[the-eclectic-wonderer]

Dorothy being assaulted at 17 and then trapped in a marriage for the next 38 years really makes the queer subtext heartbreaking rather than funny. It also adds a whole lot to how barbed she gets when they discuss her sex life and how vanilla it is or how little sex she had, no wonder it would be a sore subject (and no wonder its consistent that she had very little sex with Stan in her marriage and said she didn't enjoy it when they did).

Yep, that's part of the reason why I think that queer subtext is so insightful!

A queer reading of Dorothy is not necessary to understand the gravity of what happened to her, to be fair. Stan is very clearly depicted as a bad lover in general and an especially inattentive lover to her -- take eg what she says of him in S1E22 Job Hunting:

"It took three seconds. I wasn't sure that we had done anything, actually… until nine months later, when the baby came. Then I figured out that we had."

Which... doesn't seem like a great experience. Add onto it the fact that a) this is a recollection of her first time, b) she was coerced into performing the act either via emotional manipulation or alcohol/substances (as well detailed in this post by @eeblouissant), and c) her situation didn't improve at all during her marriage; if anything it got worse, since Stan was always out cheating on her -- no wonder she has a bad relationship with sex! Actually, I've said before that I think she has a remarkably open and healthy attitude towards sex, all things considered.

Thinking of Dorothy as queer (especially as a repressed lesbian) makes it all even more tragic, though. I think it's very likely, considering that she's a Catholic of Italian origin, that she hadn't even realized she liked women by the time she got involved with Stan -- I myself reached that conclusion in my early 20s! However, by that time Dorothy was already married and a mother; can you imagine how painful the mere idea would have been, for her? Of course she'd never even consider it while still married to Stan, and she'd have a hard time coming to terms with it after her divorce. It adds a thick layer of suppression and self-sacrifice to her whole story that I think is very thematically appropriate for her character (and that personally destroys me lmao. I cannot think about it for too long or I'll cry my heart out).

I think her whole experience with Stan also justifies her enthusiasm for some of her lovers in the show, even in a queer reading. I mean -- after all that, her standards must be on the floor! The bar is so low, she's dancing the lambada with the devil! Even a modicum of attention to her needs would blow her mind, I think -- even if it didn't come from her preferred gender, and especially if she wasn't ready to confront the truth about her sexuality yet. A lifetime of suppression isn't easy to get over -- she'd probably blame her bad experience with sex during her marriage on Stan alone (instead of considering that maybe she'd rather not be with a man at all).

Sorry, anon -- you probably weren't expecting a ramble in response, haha! But yeah, you make a great point; reading Dorothy as queer adds even more depth to her character and greatly enhances the tragedy of her story.

(Just for the record -- I've never thought the queer reading of Dorothy was funny! Maybe I'm reading this wrong, I just wanted to clarify.)

[pl4n]

from a while back

[oars]

i remember when my pe teacher did a magic trick on me and i looked at him like 😐.................. (i thought it was cool) and then i said sorry im not good with expressions and he went clearly 🙄 and years earlier idr what i said i was just talking but some kid was like WOW youre using emotion in your voice for once and i was so confused i didnt know i was that monotone all the time sorry

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[the-acid-pear]

today's prompts are spiders and self insert so i've been thinking of drawing nembone and a uh, bunger. but Im still thinking around the uh. ? i cant remember the word HELP the fucking COMPOSITION there.

[xaymak]

i think about asian link all the time. theyre asian to me like... "oh its not realistic theyre pale and blue eyed and blond" do u wanna know whats unrealistic. in the legend of zelda series thats fantasy/adventure. the way no ones just moved out of hyrule already just make a bridge and leave!!!! place keeps getting overrun!!! leave!!!!!!!!

[guayabaenjoyer3000]

ok i turned in one report and am now working on the other. octavio paz shut up challenge

[snekdood]

i worry a lot about some transfems and its not me trying to be like "im better than you" or some shit its bc some of them remind me of me when i was a kid and new into being considered a girl/woman and being really naive thinking people would treat me better than they would- like i knew people were gonna be shitty but i wasnt prepared for the sheer amount of dehumanization and being reduced to just a sex object... idk... I just want some of you out there to be careful...

[nomairuins]

my tags on that went on for so long i had to go back and edit them to fit tag limit and i still had to delete a bunch of them. Its the autism it literally is

[mx-paint]

.

[al-luviec]

cont...

still haven't moved on from zane in this episode (aka I hit tag limit again and am unhappy about it)