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theparanormalperiodical · 4 years ago

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The Less-Than-Sweet TRUE Stories That Inspired Candyman (1992), And The Other 5 Scariest Urban Legends That Are Still Haunting The USA

In 1987, Ruthie Mae McCoy was found dead in her apartment.

As a mentally-unstable resident of the ABLA housing project - one of the most violent on the Chicago south side - her death is far from the only one to have taken place there. But her death is one of the most well documented.

So well documented, in fact, it’s legacy stretches back to the present day.

McCoy first reported strange occurrences taking place in her apartment when returning from the psychiatric unit at Mount Sinai Hospital. She claimed someone had threatened her life to a fellow passenger in the van next to her.

They urged her to seek help, but she chose to take shelter in her fear.

In April, the local police received a phone call from a frightened woman from the ABLA housing project who was claiming someone was trying to come through her bathroom cabinet. When the police finally entered the apartment, they discovered her on the floor of her bedroom with 4 gunshot wounds peppering her torso.

Her death would be just one of the threads that weaved the horror film icon, Candyman (1992).

Today we unpick the fabric, from the twisted history of the Jim Crow South, to America’s darkest urban legends.

Clive Barker never intended to create one of the most iconic Black horror films of all time.

In fact, Barker didn’t even create the feature length film that would change the face of cinema in 1992. What he did, however, was pen a short story about life on the breadline in Liverpool.

The Forbidden (1984) followed a graduate student in the UK who was studying graffiti. Among the garish curse words splashed on the walls of the run-down council estate she investigated, Helen discovered references to an urban legend that have been sprayed onto the concrete.

A legend called the Candyman.

As explained by the later films, Candyman is a pretty standard urban legend: you say his name into a mirror 5 times, and before you would appear a man sticky with sweet honey and with a hook for a hand.

Helen followed the trail back to reports and rumours mutilations and murders in the local area, failing to get any information out of the locals. She then became a victim of the Candyman himself.

Despite the short story closely mirroring the plotline of the film we know and love cower away from today, there is one crucial difference aside from the setting:

In the 1992 film, and in the upcoming 2021 reboot, the Candyman is African-american. Helen’s original encounter with the urban legend in Liverpool, however, was with a pale, waxy figure bearing all the traits of a dead white man.

When Clive Barker first conjured the Candyman from his imagination, he wanted to explore the theme of class in 1980s Britain. Bernard Rose, the director of the 1992 rendition of the tale, on the other hand, wanted to explore the theme of race in America, rewriting the characters on the other side of the pond and deepening the dark story Barker first put before horror fans.

Most importantly, he focused on developing the character of the Candyman.

Where he came from, what he did, and how he did it informed the entire plot, and would span 2 sequels shortly after.

The Candyman Of Cabrini-Green

Rose set the 1990 films in the Cabrini-Green public housing projects in Chicago’s North Side. Originally built in 1942 to home thousands of African-americans fleeing the Jim Crow South during the Great Migration, the housing project captured a snapshot of racial divides in America.

It doesn’t take a historian to understand that racism fuelled the neglect of the housing, and by the time the movie hit the theatres in the early 90s, only 9% living there were actually employed.

But Candyman didn’t just capture the poverty and racism inherent in American society; it pulled us through the mirror, and showed the viewers just one of the many origins fuelling the complex and corrupted history of the USA.

So Who Was The Candyman Based On?

Tony Todd was a pretty important part of the film.

Ok, aside from being one of the few black actors that managed to score a role in a horror movie that didn’t die in the opening credits, and yeah, as well as donning a prosthetic hook, he actually developed the character of the Candyman.

But most notably, he developed the backstory for the urban legend.

And the story starts in the 19th century.

Daniel Robitaille - an established painter - was commissioned to paint the portrait of a white woman. From there began an interracial relationship that was not accepted in this era.

When she fell pregnant, a lynch mob sought out Robitaille to make him pay for his alleged crime. They severed off his hand for touching a white woman, and covered him in honey, leaving him to die by being stung by bees.

What’s really striking of this tragic and terrifying image, however, is that this did happen.

Interracial relationships were scarce in the 19th and early 20th centuries in America and typically featured white men marrying black women (and consequently freeing them if they were slaves), and fed into deep-rooted racism that still haunts the country. One of the pillars of historic American racism and Western Imperial ideas of race was the ‘protection’ of white women from the ‘lustful’, ‘violent, and ‘savage’ black man.

In fact, marriage and politics were both considered the most important arguments supporting segregation, linking the freeing of slaves and interracial relations.

This fear became especially prevalent in the US after the Civil War; the influx of freed slaves would result in an increase in the forbidden relationships, bringing us back to the era Daniel Robitaille’s life was set in.

This timeline is made ever more accurate by the manner of his death: lynch mob activity peaked in the 1830s, 40s and 50s, proving that Robitaille’s story is unfortunately far too common. Although being stung to by bees and insects probably was used as a form of torture and murder, I can only trace a form of this execution method to Persia (approx. 6BC).

But what’s really quite striking is the transformation of Daniel Robitaille, an innocent and very much alive black man, to the Candyman, an urban legend who is seeking vengeance for his murder.

It’s the racial terrorism committed against Robitaille which make him so terrifying. The crimes committed against the innocent black man still tailor him into the image of a ‘scary black man’, the image that we are still haunted by today.

Urban legends are so petrifying because of the outlandish, outrageous monsters at the centre of the story that appear in ordinary places. And that’s exactly what we find here. But here’s the twist: the Candyman charted the original racism that founded the Cabrini-Green housing projects, and the racism still inherent in it.

In fact, that’s the sub-plot of the movie: Helen Lyle discovers more of the everyday realities of being African-american in the US throughout the movie, witnessing poverty and police brutality as well as the garish image of a hooked man smothered in honey.

We, the viewer, are given brief snapshots of black history and the black present, even if only through a bathroom mirror.

And it’s horrifying.

So Daniel Robitaille Was Based On History - But What Was The Candyman Legend Inspired By?

To summon the Candyman - if you dare - you simply need to say his name into a mirror 5 times. This less-than-innovative manner of conjuring the Candyman is obviously based on Bloody Mary and the act of saying her name into a bathroom mirror a certain amount of times that no one actually agrees on.

It is said she will then appear to either show you the face of your future hubby, scratch your face off, or kill you. You can find out more about this legend here.

But she isn’t the only legendary beast weaved into this horror hit.

His Hook Hand is obviously an aesthetic inspiration:

A couple were busy being horror-movie-villian-bait and making out in a car when the radio suddenly blared out an emergency broadcast.

A serial killer (*gasp*) had escaped from the local mental institution (*eye-roll*) and he had a hook for a hand.

One of them heard something scrape on the car so they drove off. Believing it to be merely a tree branch they take a look and discover a hook in the side of the car.

(Their insurance premiums! Oh the horror!)

The final urban legend explicitly linked to Candyman is La Llorona, possibly the second most famous urban legend after Bloody Mary herself.

This hispanic urban legend is tragic but fiercely popular: a woman had two sons and a loving husband. However, after being convinced her partner was cheating on her or loved her children more, she drowned them. She then drowned herself in grief.

It is said she still roams Latin America, looking for her deceased children and taking those who aren’t hers before drowning them when she realises they are not her sons.

To summon her (not sure why you’d want to) all you have to do is light some red candles in a room full of mirrors and yell out her name.

Candyman is thus clearly inspired by these classic american urban legends that have struck fear into gullible children and drunk teenagers for decades. But they aren’t the only stories that gave inspiration to such a film. And they certainly aren’t the scariest.

So What Are The Scariest American Urban Legends?

*clicks torch on*

#1 - The Alaska Triangle

Did you know this frosty American state is home to something scarier than Sarah Palin?

Also known as Alaska’s Bermuda Triangle, this is an area of untouched wilderness stretching from Anchorage and Juneau to Barrow. It’s earned such a reputation as this is where a lot of people go missing.

Okay, fine, an unknown area of woodland where people go missing - this isn’t a mystery, this is a tragedy. But the thing is, it's the sheer volume of people that go missing here which is so concerning.

It started in October 1972, when US House Majority Leader Hale Boggs, a congressman, and a political aide went missing while flying to Juneau. 90 aircrafts and dozens of boats scaled the area to no avail. No trace of the boat, no evidence of human life - or death. It was truly a mystery.

When more planes went missing, when more hikers didn’t return from their adventures, and when more tourists failed to return to their budget hotels, fears grew. Since 1988, 16,000 have disappeared. The rate of missing people here is more than twice the national average.

The disappearances have been traced back to a number of theories including aliens, energy vortexes, and a Tlingit Native American demon known as Kushtaka. The most popular case, however, is for the swirling vortexes of energy which can cause audio and visual hallucinations and health problems. And this isn’t the only location that allegedly homes them.

Search and rescue workers often report the physical feelings associated with vortexes with magnetic anomalies spiking in certain locations.

Could these missing people be lost in the ferocious wilderness of Alaska? Or is something else at play?

#2 - Turnbull Canyon

We now turn to a sunny California, and the 4 mile loop in the Puente Hills reserve. Aside from being known for the majestic views of the Hsi Lai temple and the Rose Hills Memorial Park, it’s been home to a number of paranormal forces.

But the most interesting thing about this location is that it's been considered an evil location for centuries. Local Native American tribes called it Hutukgna, ‘the dark place’. It was forbidden ground, and they didn’t set foot there. So, when Spanish missionaries came to convert them to Christianity, they did it here.

“Now we are without hope. Now we remain for as long as the sun rises and sets in the sky”

To this day locals and tourists report feeling as if they are being watched, and legend has it Native Americans that were killed there remain as spirits, waiting for the final sunset.

The urban legend amassed a new reputation during the Great Depression. Large groups of men and women in dark robes would partake in strange rituals at night which few witnesses have seen.

One witness claims they saw a young boy strapped to a cross. He was surrounded by a circle of people who danced and chanted in unknown languages. The robed group then flipped the cross until it was upside down, and proceeded to beat the child until he was close to death. He was then taken away. We don’t know what became of the child. But we do know a flurry of disappearances and kidnappings haunted the area throughout the early 20th century.

And then it gets even worse.

In the 1930s, an insane asylum was built there. It mysteriously burnt to the ground 10 years later.

Psychic mediums and visitors report feeling unbearable at the location, from reporting classic paranormal activity such as the feeling of being watched or seeing orbs, to feeling as if someone is rummaging about in your own brain.

#3 - Vampire Comte de Saint Germain

New Orleans already has a paranormal reputation. Jacques Saint Germain only blended seamlessly with this historic location. But the thing is, it is said he would have witnessed most of the history for himself.

Throughout history a man of similar stature and personality has been reported.

He was at a notable wedding in Cana where Jesus turned water into wine, he was an alchemist in the 1600s, and he was in high-society in 1742.

It was an encounter in 1760 with one Countess von Gregory which was really interesting: the Countess was convinced she knew him as the son of a man in 1710 - but he hadn’t aged a single day.

He joked, as he often did, that he was over 100 years old.

Fluent in 6 languages, his incredible abilities and knowledge made him an enviable man - and an impossible one, too.

We do know, however, that he came to New Orleans in 1902 from France and invited the elites for a special feast. He didn’t eat a single bite, but did drink dark, red ‘wine’. He then confirmed rumours of when he kidnapped a local woman, held her down, and bit into her neck.

When the police turned up to investigate, they found the room covered in blood stains. But Jacques was nowhere to be seen.

#4 - Nash Road

Like most titles of urban legends, the Three-Legged Lady gives away the story. But this tale fares just as tragic as the other legends that shape this list:

Just outside of Columbus, Mississippi is Nash Road.

Legend has it if you stop on the road, turn off the headlights, and honk the horn one, two, three times, she will appear. She will knock on the roof of your car to alert you of her presence, and race your car to the end of the road. She will slam her body - 3 legs n’ all - against the car the entire time.

There are many alleged origins of the three-legged lady. Some believe she killed a lover, severed off the leg and attached it to her body, whilst others believe she is holding what’s left of her daughter’s corpse. Alternate versions of the legend even claim she is the spirit of a human sacrifice of a nearby satanic cult.

#5 - The Watcher

The first letter was sent in the summer of 2015.

A family had just moved into a grand mansion in Westfield when they started receiving letters from a person who claimed to be watching over the house. They were eerie, they were menacing, and they were signed by someone only known as ‘The Watcher’.

Numerous former owners have all received other letters from the same person with the same sentiment.

“Who has the bedrooms facing the street?”

“Do you need to fill the house with the young blood I requested?”

“Did 657 Boulevard call to you with its force within?”

The Watcher often refers to the house as if it is an entity, even warning one unsuspecting family not to destroy the house when they brought in contractors.

There are many more details to this story, but what I find most intriguing is a paragraph from a letter welcoming a new family:

“657 Boulevard has been the subject of my family for decades now and as it approaches its 110th birthday, I have been put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming. My grandfather watched the house in the 1920s and my father watched in the 1960s. It is now my time. Do you know the history of the house? Do you know what lies within the walls of 657 Boulevard? Why are you here? I will find out.”

The stalking is still under investigation.

***

I’ve written about enough ghosts, ghouls, and long-forgotten legends for just over a year now to know what true fear is.

And real life is always scarier.

If you liked this post and want to hear more then go on and hit follow!

Can’t wait to hear more real ghost stories? Check out the Peoples’ Paranormal Archive, the online ghost story collection that is chock-ful of real evidence of the supernatural just waiting to traumatise you.

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oceanmonsters · 4 years ago

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is Crashing good, would you recommend it? Because I’ve added it to my list on channel 4 but have never got around to watching it. I heard it has gay desi rep in tho?

okay so this is a bit long so I’m adding a cut but tl;dr: it’s a comedy show that is funny but you have to accept that the characters are shitty people who do shitty things. and yeah there’s a brown gay character, Fred, who I absolutely love as a character but whether or not I would call it good rep is debatable and I don’t think their relationship is written in the best way. however at the same time it’s not a romance show, it’s a lighthearted comedy show and it IS funny and I do mostly enjoy it overall.

more detailed summary and Thots under the cut (if you prefer to watch shows not knowing anything about what’s gonna happen then don’t read this because I do talk about the overall plot but I don’t talk about the ending or spoil anything important):

so the show is about a group of friends who live in an abandoned hospital. there are like 3 main relationships/storylines: there’s melody and colin (Colin is a recently divorced depressed guy and Melody is an artist who projects her daddy issues onto him) and there’s the kate/anthony/lulu love triangle (bland shitty guy in a love triangle with his childhood best friend and and current fiancée who who are played by phoebe waller-bridge and louise ford (i.e. james acaster’s ex girlfriend who left him for rowan atkinson which isn’t relevant to this at all but it’s Important To Me That You Know That) respectively.

and THEN there are sam and fred who are imo the main reason for watching the show even though they’re kind of toxic and a little badly written. Sam is bi (although they refuse to ever use the word) but repressed and has a massive amount of internalised homophobia and also has issues because his dad died recently. anyway he starts having feelings for fred (who is gay) but because he has massive amounts of internalised homophobia he’s really shitty about it and whole thing is kind of toxic but also funny because of how much of a Sam is and the lengths he goes to try and convince himself he’s NOT gay while also spending most of the show obsessing about Fred. like it’s problematic but also very funny.

it’s v hard for me because on the one hand I DO think that both Sam and Fred are interesting characters and their relationship is compelling to me, but on the other hand Sam is a massive arsehole to Fred for most of the show and I cannot stand ppl going on about how cute they are and woobifying Sam when the whole point of his character is that he’s repressed and toxic and a shitty person. especially considering fred is brown it rly does not sit right with me how a lot of white fans talk abt their relationship, and I don’t think the show itself treats Fred the best either. I’ve said previously that I would like the show better if they made Sam like 30% less of a dick but actually they don’t even NEED to sanitise Sam’s character because that’s part of what makes him funny, what would actually make the show much better is if they actually gave Fred some fucking agency in the plot, at least at the end and taken some control over their relationship rather than just letting himself get dragged around by Sam and Will like he does for the rest of the show. I have actually rewritten my own version of The Hospital Scene and while it’s not perfect I think if it had gone like that it would have made the whole show much better. like just ONE scene of Fred taking control for once and having their relationship be on his terms would’ve been a much better ending. but anyway.

overall the show IS funny and I did enjoy it. maybe it's just because the gays of colour are fed literal crumbs but I do really love Fred as a character a lot and I think Amit Shah and Jonathon Bailey were both great and made their relationship very enjoyable to watch. but also it does frustrate me a lot because I think there are so many aspects that could’ve been done better wrt Fred.

anyway this was a very long ramble abt something most ppl here probably don’t care about but yeah those are my thoughts on phoebe waller-bridge’s crashing (2016) i.e. her practice run of writing gay interracial toxic romances which quite literally walked so that killing eve could run. I don’t know if I would say it’s a great show or worthy of all of the attention I give it but it is fun and it’s somehow rooted itself into my brain and I care a lot about it even if I won’t say that I love it.

#asks #crashing

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tvmoviechristmas · 4 years ago

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Deliver By Christmas (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, 2020)

Are you sure? A couple of days ago you thought his sister-in-law was his wife....

Starring: Alvina August, Eion Bailey, Jim Thorburn, Nadeen Lightbody

Plot Synopsis: Molly meets Josh, a widower who recently moved to town with his young son. At the same time she is charmed by a mysterious client of her bakery whom she's never met in person, and doesn't realize that they're one and the same. (x)

In My Humble Opinion: Deliver by Christmas is incredibly skilled in how it takes the usually delightful trope of a two-person love triangle and makes it into an absolutely insufferable movie to sit through. Here are my four main problems in reverse order of how difficult it made this movie to watch:

1. The Military Propaganda

It was unexpected but Deliver By Christmas spends a lot of time boosting the military. It even ends with a child doing like a taped PSA about services we can provide our troops (because they love us and are working hard for us!). It was always there lurking at the fringes... the reminder that even though Hallmark is going hard for diversity (notice the interracial couple central to this film!) at its heart it’s a conservative station. It’s one of those sad truths you just bear when watching the channel, but it was harder to ignore than usual when watching this movie.

2. The Precocious Child

I don’t have any scientific numbers on this but in my heart, I know, that the percentage of original Hallmark movies that feature single dads and moms has dwindled by a fair amount. I would like to think they did this because they knew that 90% of the children in these movies are insufferable, though it probably was more of a mix of wanting to appeal to single women while not wanting to work with child labor laws as much. I’m getting sidetracked. The child character in this is insufferable. He is a level of precocious that’s just like 3 notches below The Book of Henry territory. This kid is like counseling his dad through his emotional issues, and when he’s not dong that he’s giving us direct talking points about certain military charity organizations. Every time this child was on screen, I was just waiting for him to be offscreen again.

3. The Lead Dude’s Hair

No.

4. The Female Lead Is a Fucking Idiot

I get that miscommunication is a normal part of these movies. Have to extend the plot! I get that miscommunication is part of what makes the two-person love triangle trope work! I do. I do.

Deliver by Christmas doesn’t work with miscommunication though. Instead it works in willful ignorance. The female lead gets the wrong idea so many times about the male lead and immediately goes into catastrophizing mode instead of like talking to the guy about it? And this doesn’t happen just once, it happens multiple times. It happens so often that the film hangs a lampshade on it. They know what they are doing! They know they are making the female lead stupid just to drag things out!

But self-awareness didn’t stop me from nearly rolling my eyes out of my head. Self-awareness in fact made it harder to take. Was there no other way to reach your eighty minute runtime instead of replaying the same plot contrivance over? Did you half to kneecap your heroine’s believability like that? Certainly we could have spent another ten minutes just talking about cool things the military does. It would have sucked, but it would have sucked less than these plot shenanigans.��

At least the female lead got to look cute and wear cute outfits, while being stupid. A bright spot in this whole disappointing endeavor.

Watch If: You always make sure your Christmas tree has soft needles, if you are better at opening presents than wrapping them or if you think that “order a ribeye” is the best dating advice you can give.

Skip If: You don’t think it’s necessary to stay up all night baking just to have croissants in the morning, if you think a gingerbread house is fine without gumdrops or if you are not in need of a friend.

Final Rating: ★ (★) ☆ ☆ ☆

If you like this blog, please consider donating to my Kofi page! You can also donate money to [email protected] through either Venmo or CashApp. Thank you!

#1.5 stars #deliver by christmas #hallmark movies and mysteries #review

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whatiobsessabout · 7 years ago

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The Ultimate List of LGBT Kpop Songs/MVs

This has come about because whenever I come across queer kpop lists I am disappointed by how short and repetitive they are. My goal is to have THE MOST comphensive list of songs and music videos with any sort of lgbt themes.

Each song or mv listed will have a little (or not so little) description explaining how gay it is or why it is gay. This does mean I’ve let some more questionable songs and mvs on the list but from the description I shouldn’t be leading people astray or getting their hopes up. (I decided against including covers of songs eg. where the artist hasn’t changed the gender in the songs. bc I feel that would become too messy and complicated. Also there are artists and songs I dislike on this list, and some artists can be considered problematic however I felt that if I excluded anything based on personal opinions it would make the purpose of this list invalid).

Hopefully kpop fans can diversify their playlists and discover new bops, as well as giving comfort to lgbt+ kpop fans. I plan to update this list as new gay content is released :)

PLEASE GIVE ME MORE SUGGESTIONS FOR THIS LIST

Playlist of this List

UV & JYP - Itaewon Freedom Itaewon is the multicultural district in seoul, also one of the prominent “gay” areas in s.korea. this song is a gay anthem in korea.

Baek Ji Young - I Won't Love Again/Sarang Ahn Hae a beautiful lesbian romance

K.Will – Please Don't the ultimate plot twist mv and is THE gay kpop mv

Sistar – One More Day, I Like That, I Swear In One More Day shows when friends turn into lesbian lovers, but one is still in a relationship with an abusive man. The latter two mvs have fanservice based touching plus those gay vibes

ANDA – Touch a very lesbian mv

Baby Soul & Yoo Jia – She's a Flirt Feat. Jang Dongwoo a lesbian relationship but one of them is still with a man

After School – Because of You love triangle between 3 women

Red Velvet – Wish Tree a one-sided lesbian love. I will mention ‘Bad Boy’ for having some fanservice moments and the rainbow outfits in ‘Peek-a-Boo’ is peak gay culture

Holland – Neverland Holland is described by many news outlets as “The First Openly Gay Kpop Idol” make of that as you will (Because you can argue about being first and whether he is actually an idol, despite being a Korean person making pop or alternative pop music). Regardless he is openly gay and his song is most definitely gay and his mv is explicitly gay. Bless him

4L – Move in the aftermath of a massive breakup, the female character ends up having a lesbian one night stand which further confuses her while she deals with her heartbreak. This mv is more in the fanservice and objectifying females/lesbians category.

Loona – Chuu: Heart Attack, Yves: New light lesbian themes, up for interpretation

10cm – Help The male characters struggle with their relationship as they worry how society view them

DIA – Seoraksan In October light lesbian themes, up for interpretation

VIXX LR – Whisper light gay themes and touching, symbolic based and possibly just fanservice. Some consider their other hit ‘Beautiful Liar’ as gay, however, despite the homoeroticism in that mv, the plot is about struggling with your two inner selves rather than a male & male relationship.

Day6 – What Can I Do in a very messy love triangle (or octogon, who knows??) Wonpil has a one sided love for Sungjin, the plot is somewhat continued in their mvs ‘I Loved You’ and ‘When You Love Someone’.

Sweet Revenge – Cry to Your Heart's Content lesbians, lesbians, lesbians

INFINITE – The Eye some scenes of this could fall into the category of fanservice and skinship, even though it is very emotionally charged

Gugudan – Chococo Sejeong experiences a gay and chocolatey epiphany (a minor scene)

San.E – Story of someone I know Depicts an ex-girlfriend dumping him for a girl

Brown Eyed Girls – Abracadabra Queens of sexual freedom, there is an almost kiss at the end.

Girl's Day – Female President an almost kiss scene, in a feminist bop (a song made not too long after s.korea elected their very first female president, Park Geun Hye. Note: this was made well before she was exposed for being the worst™ and consequently impeached, which is a shame for the first and so far only female leader in s.korea to leave such a ignominious history.)

BTS – Blood Sweat and Tears, I need you, Run In Blood Sweat and Tears Jin kisses the male demon statue that seems to represent Taehyung. The other 2 mvs have light gay themes with skinship type moments

Imfact – Lollipop kissing on the cheeks and other skinship for fanservice

Wonder Girls – Why So Lonely a sort of but not really kiss scene

Crispi Crunch - Thumbs up a very questionable mv but does include a trans woman, or crossdresser, near the end. Also the teasers for this mv included the two dudes kissing, nowhere to be found in the actual mv though (or on the internet now.... ???)

Lim Chang Jung – Open the Door Includes a gay kiss

Glam – Party XXO a bi anthem, lyrics specify about not caring about gender when searching for love

N.O.M – A Guys, Nature of Man the group were less of a kpop group and more of a gay club act who then released 2 singles

Orange Caramel – Catallena more so in the lyrics than mv but not completely ignored in the mv, Catallena explores how women are supposed to compete with each other in society and how that becomes confusing when females look up and idolise other females, and even further complicates when you fall for a female. Additionally, the meaning can also be about how girl groups are pitted against each other but they also admire and love each other

Nell – The Day Before Deals with homosexuality and suicide

Harisu – History (with Turbo), Liar, Shopping Girl, Reaction, Foxy Lady, etc. A transgender model and actress who also had a pop career for a period of time

Mercury – Don’t Stop, Let’s Party a girl group which has one member, Hanbit, who is trans

SNSD – Dancing Queen, Divine (Story Version), All Night, Love & Girls, etc. Dancing queen has lowkey gay lyrics. Divine is one big lesbian drama. In All Night Sooyoung and Yuri have major gay vibes towards each other. Both All Night and Love & Girls include drag queens. GG’s discography is so large so there’s plenty more lowkey gay songs.

Lee Hyori – Miss Korea, Going Crazy Miss Korea critics beauty standards for women in korea, and includes drag queens. In Going Crazy Hyori crossdresses as a man and then sleazily flirts with tons of women

Mamamoo – Um Oh Ah Yeh plays with crossdressing and gender identity, and kinda gay. And they have a song called “Girl Crush” which is supposedly platonic by Korean pov but worth a mention

Monsta X – All In Hyungwon and Minhyuk are shown to be together, this is possibly why Hyungwon’s dad beats him

GFriend – Navillera Eunha and Yerin are confirmed to be depicting a couple throughout this mv. There are hints that the rest of the group are also coupled up but aren’t as far into their relationships yet.

Suran – Sad Pain two differently disabled women find comfort with each other

Triple H – 365 So Fresh heavily implied polyamorous relationship and threesome between 2 guys (Hui & e.dawn) and 1 girl (Hyuna)

Mad Clown – Love is a Dog from Hell Feat. Suran the story of a trans woman and her wife. Side note: interestingly enough Mad Clown asked his brother to play the trans woman, which brings up some questions about their personal lives – how close to this story are they?

Bestie – Excuse Me in this mv the girls have a magical pair of glasses that reveal the true intentions of men, the final group of men they come across are revealed to be gay

Maman – Obvious Story a lesbian song by a lesbian singer in a lesbian mv

Kriesha Chu – Like Paradise a lovely and trendy lesbian date

Song Jieun – Don’t Look at Me Like That depicts how gay people feel in conservative korea, feeling judged for their love

XIA – Tarantallegra, Even though I already know crossdressing and gender identity, plus gay vibes especially with the dancers

Heechul & Min Kyung Hoon – Sweet Dream a love triangle including Kyunghoon’s one-sided love for Heechul

Planet Shiver & Crush – Rainbow an anti-discrimination song

CoCoSoRi – Mi Amor the kiss at the end, otherwise pretty het

SVT JUN & THE8 – My I in the realms of fanservice, male duet song and performance

U-KISS – Quit Playing threesome scene including 2 men (Kiseop & Hoon) and 1 woman

Kangta (H.O.T) – Polaris deals with gender identity

Super Junior D&E – Still You, I Wanna Love You, etc. In Still You Donghae and Eunhyuk find each other, “bromance” or just plain gay vibes. I Wanna Love You could be a gay duet or not. Most releases from these guys are lowkey gay so.

Jo Kwon – Animal a gay diva delivering a gay bop

Beenzino – How Do I Look? has a couple scenes (not many) where gay men/couple are depicted

Bebop & Humming Urban Stereo – MAEM MAEM looks like they are on a date

WJSN – Secret some minor gay vibes, gay staring, hand holding etc.

9Muses A – Lip 2 Lip an almost kiss (in a pretty het mv)

9Muses – Wild, Sleepless Night Wild has fanservice based touching plus vibes. Meanwhile Sleepless Night has a scene which heavily implies lesbian sex

History – Psycho yet again fanservice based touching plus those gay vibes

Luizy – Baby Ride feat. Hyunsik of BTOB just two bros being bros on their bro date y’know

Uhm Jung Hwa – Dreamer, Watch Me Move, Ending Credit, House Mix Performance, etc. QUEEN OF THE GAYS

HA:TFELT (Yeeun of Wonder Girls) – Truth shows a lesbian couple

Jo Sung Mo – Immortal Love depicts a heartbreaking secret gay relationship

Z.Hera – D Island depicts a powerful interracial lesbian love story

Yuri & Raiden – Always Find You fight me this is lesbian af as long as you cut out the last 3 seconds

MISS $ – Just Let Me Live feat. Skull complex love triangles, and possessive love, with plenty of lesbian themes

Chaness – SeSeSe dark mv with lesbians doing what they can to be together

Lee Jung Hyun – Michyeo Lee Jung Hyun becomes crazed when she learns of her boyfriend’s affair with another man

Homme – Still Eating Well it’s a bit of a stretch but 2 dudes and 1 girl scenario, dedicated to more of the “bro” time than the hetero plot

Lady – Attention, Lady’s Night A girl group made up of transgender women (Sinae, Sahara, Binu and Yuna)

Shinhwa – This Love a massive stretch but voguing is gay culture so we can’t ignore that, plus the use male back up dancers is… interesting

Kim DongHee – I Feel Like I’m Dying Lesbian storyline

Seo In Young – Scream (19 Ver.) there’s some gayish scenes in there, nothing major

Aoora – Body Talk, grab or bite, heartfreak, etc. he tries to pretend his stuff isn’t gay but he isn’t that good at it tbh. it’s pretty transparent how gay everything is even if he does include shots of boobs. he could be bi???

May Doni - Molla Ing feat. 2AM has some gay scenes

Cheetah – My Number Includes a male dance team which are very femme, or are drag queens (?? If someone knows please tell me)

Yu Mei – Suddenly cute lesbian love

Risso – OMG cute lesbian couple

Luna – Free Somebody not necessarily gay but you can understand lyrically how this connected to the lgbt community in korea and how it is now one of their staples at pride

f(x) – Chu, Pink Tape Art Film In Chu Krystal wears a marriage equality shirt that says ‘Legalise Gay’. Pink Tape Art Film has light lesbian themes. Amber in general defies female gender roles in both western and eastern cultures.

진주 – 미로 Feat. 엄지원 & TBNY a lesbian storyline

Gangkiz – Honey Honey a girl gang run amuck being troublesome and having the times of their lives. Has possible lesbian themes.

UP10TION – Attention some gay fanservice choreography

Sweet Boy – I LUV HER feat. NUVO This falls into the category of men objectifying females and lesbians, an almost kiss

Stellarjet – Guiding Light the main character spies on her neighbour and falls for her

Brown Classics - Nostalgia Feat. Yozoh & Eric has a gay storyline

Rainbow Blaxx – Cha Cha minor lesbian themes with skinship and fanservice

Epitone Project – Hate a delicate lesbian love story

4Men – First Kiss The female character is devasted when the man she loves falls for another man

toheart (Key of SHINee and Woohyun of Infinite) – Delicious Key and Woohyun might think they are trying to win over the same gal but in reality they are winning each other over

Taemin – Move I was struggling whether to put him on the list as he is lowkey a gay icon eg. Move where he finally threw off the shackles of gender based choreography and fully embraced his androgyny. he has plenty of songs and performances that all exist in this realm of androgyny, and a lot of his discography, both Korean and Japanese, could be gay but it could also be straight, it’s very easy to interpret whichever way, which I do think is intentional. (please refer to Ten’s section further down where I share my conflicting feelings about referring to people like Taemin as a gay icon if you are interested)

Seeya – Shoes, Crazy Love Song heavy drama plot with lesbian themes, the mvs are connected

Park Jungmin (SS501) – Not Alone an anti-discrimination bop and includes a drag queen

Pentagon – Critical Beauty All the members are coupled up, and there’s a very questionable scene with e.dawn and a banana. A small mention of their mvs ‘Like This’ and ‘Runaway’ which has some very minor scenes of guys together but it’s very ambiguous and a major stretch to even label it as fanservice.

CS Numbers – Cry Out With My Heart two girls go on a road trip

Bumkey – Bad Girl The female character keeps on flirting with the male character but in the end it turns out he’s into guys

4minute – Whatcha Doin’ Today? Jihyun may have accidently made two guys go from fighting each other to kissing each other, not to mention Gayoon has some lesbian vibes throughout the mv

i11evn – Porn Star Feat. Suprema in the lyrics he talks about being bi (watch out for Suprema using, rather seemingly misusing the dreaded term “no homo”)

Gain (Brown Eyed Girls) – Two Women some interpret this song to have lesbian themes

Infinite Flow – Rainbow Feat. Kim Jong Wan of Nell the lyrics depict the depression and desperation of being gay in korea (sidenote: a personal favourite of mine that I discovered years and years ago and it still has a very emotional effect on me)

Dynamic Duo – Heartbreaker Feat. Kim Jong Wan of Nell the anger and sadness of struggling with homosexuality in korea in the lyrics, the mv’s plot ignores the song’s meaning

Epik High - AMOR FATI Feat. Kim Jong Wan of Nell In the very words of Tablo “I wrote 'Amor Fati' for people who are mistreated because they were born the way they are.”

IU – Peach, Red Queen, Everyone has Secrets feat. Gain of Brown Eyed Girls Peach was written in dedication to former f(x) member Sulli. Red Queen’s lyrics also romanticise a girl and it is said to yet again be about Sulli. The lyrics of Everyone has secrets can be very relatable to the lgbt community.

Nam Tae Hyun (Winner) – I’m Young a love song where the lyrics only mention a masculine pronoun

2YOON – Why Not these lyrics can be interpreted as gay

EXO – Playboy, They Never Know The lyrics of Playboy make more sense when you interpret as a secret gay relationship. The live performances of this is the opposite of heterosexuality. (note: Jonghyun wrote Playboy). In They Never Know the lyrics have moments like “Love is Blind” and discussion an unconventional love, it is widely accepted to have a strong gay theme. Also special mention to their 2017 winter album “Universe” for being completely 100% gender neutral

Oh My Girl – Knock Knock Girls singing about girls

Black Nut – Beenzino Black Nut takes his fanboying for Beenzino to the next level

Jonghyun – 02:34, Monodrama, Cocktail, most of these songs have light gay themes, and make more sense when interpreted as gay. You delve even deeper into his discography and interpret them in a gay light.

Gain & Minseo - Imi Oneun Sori (The Footsteps of My Dear Love) From the OST of the Korean film The Handmaiden, which itself has lesbian themes.

NCT’s Ten - Dream in a Dream This is a bit of a reach but the inclusion of Lucas in some of the scenes of this MV is an interesting choice. Also I would like to give a shout out to NCT U (Ten & Taeyong) - Baby Don’t Stop, for being a lowkey gay tune even if nothing about it can be pointed out as explicitly gay. He has released a song called New Heroes, which lyrically talks about standing up for what you believe in and working hard to get successful whilst facing adversary, which is a great message, but with Ten’s almost meme-like status of being a “confident gay” (despite not actually being out) this song has definitely made a lot of people claim it as gay anthem, make of it as you will (I feel conflicted about this; 1. he’s not standing up for the gays as a gay person if he isn’t out and people shouldn’t pressure him to do so, especially when he is a foreigner in s.korea; 2. it’s all well and good to quietly within the fanbase to joke about confident/panicked gays, or gay icons, but it can go too far, especially when it becomes their branding and only personality trait to both fans and the broader (western) kpop fanbase. these issues also apply to many like Sunmi and Taemin.)

Twice - What is Love? The girls take turns in depicting and parodying famous cinematic couples, so fanservice based crossdressing and gayness.

and hopefully plenty more to come ~

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acallipygianpygophile · 7 years ago

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“I grew up in the suburbs and so I was educated in mostly white spaces. Dating was such a complicated thing. I didn’t get asked to my senior prom. And growing up you don’t have a vocabulary for that – why it’s so complex and why it’s not as simple for you. But we’re all affected by it. If you don’t see interracial couples in the movies, it kind of trickles down to our little communities. And so if I was 13 and saw someone who looked like me playing Natasha in this love triangle in a corset, in this beautiful lighting, that would have meant everything to me. As someone who loved this industry so much, I rarely saw myself represented in these characters that I really connected to. So for Natasha I think it’s less about the fact that she’s Russian and more about the fact that she is a girl, and in this case she gets to be a black girl – so a black woman gets to represent grace and beauty and innocence and light.”

#denee benton #Black Girl Magic ✨

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thefaithfulwriter1 · 1 year ago

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𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐊𝐈 (𝟎𝟏. 𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒)

𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐊𝐈 | ❝ When you do something with soul, creativity or love; putting a piece of yourself into what you do. ❞

★★ 𝘐𝘯 𝘢 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺.★★

Summary - You're a young woman who's shy and tomboyish who unexpectedly has two soulmate names inked on your skin. You had found one soulmate while in high school named Roman who has been with you through many ups and downs. Roman was a unique man in his own way. Which made you love him more for who he is. The two of you are inseparable growing older and now have a job together on a YouTube channel with your group of friends. Though you had Roman at your side you have always wondered and questioned who your other soulmate was… Taehyung. One day your question is answered when you find your other soulmate Taehyung is part of a YouTube group called BTS. But all are shocked when they find out he happens to be the identical twin of Roman, who had no clue he had a twin much less an identical one. Which starts an interesting journey for the three of you. All you knew was that you were curious and stuck in a state of wonder. But you knew you would love the two men whose souls were tangled with yours.

Pairing - Twins!Taehyung x Fem!Reader or Taehyung x Fem!Reader x Male!Oc

Alternative Universe - Normal Life, YouTube, Soulmate

Warnings - Fluff, Angst, Semi Smut, Language, Bullying, Cyber Bullying, Fem!Boy/Flower Boy, Interracial Relationship, MxM, Poly. Relationship (this is a triangle Poly. relationship. Meaning Oc and Taehyung will not be together, but will both be in a relationship with MC.), Past Abuse, Mentions of Adoption, May Add If Needed

The feeling of fingers lightly brushing against your arm up to the curve of your shoulder was the first thing you woke up to in the morning. The feeling sent a shiver down your spine knowing who they belonged to. You then felt their fingers lightly travel down your arm again and making their way to your waist. They then firmly wrapped an arm around you. As your back was pulled into a firm chest you then felt a pair of lips meet the curve of your shoulder. The pair of lips soon traveled up your neck to kiss behind your ear once and then the owner of the lips spoke.

“I know you're up, love,” a male deep teasing voice filled the quiet room as he chuckled. Upon hearing his voice a giggle escaped your lips. Knowing you couldn’t pretend you were asleep any more. So with a sigh you turned around and faced the owner of the strong arms that were wrapped around you. The owner of the smooth lips that were on your skin, the one who owned the deep voice that you loved to hear so much. As you turned you were met with your smiling soulmate. The one soulmate who you knew since it felt like forever. The one who’s name was written above your left collar bone… Roman Knight.

You had met Roman when you were in highschool and he was as well. The two of you were in the same friend group but never had the chance to meet at first. But once your best friends Zia Jacobs and Philip Davidson also known as Phil found out about both of your soulmate names. The two instantly knew that Roman their friend was one of your soulmates. So the two had a little get together with all of their friends and soulmates and made you two meet.

The first thing that came to mind when you saw Roman was one thing: boy was he pretty. He had on a pastel pink jacket on top of a white shirt, light blue skinny jeans, with pink and white converse. His skin was littered with cute little colorful drawings. The one drawing that stuck out the most was the one on his cheek, a rainbow colored flower. His wavy hair that fell over his eyes was colored a pastel pink. And his face was decorated with light makeup. The first time you met him your breath was taken away. So much so you almost swooned.

The first time you met Roman, you knew he was different. From the first time speaking to him getting to know him, all you wanted to do was take Roman in your arms and never let go. You wanted to shield him from the world. But you knew he had you hooked. You knew that he had you wrapped around his finger. Especially when finding out his name… your soulmate. What you didn’t know was that Roman was thinking and feeling the same things you were but towards you. You didn’t know until later on once he spilled his feelings to you.

But from our first meeting, you two became the best of friends… inseparable. And once after a while the two of you started dating officially. You both have been together ever since and still going strong after many years together. You still had your trials and tribulations that you went through and still go through till this day. But the two of you go through them together.

Roman Knight was your first everything; first kiss, first date, first boyfriend. Both Roman and yourself cherish every moment more than ever. Though what most didn’t know was that you had two soulmates… but you only know one which was Roman. While Roman’s name was above your left collar bone, on your right was the cursive writing of the name Taehyung Kim.

Taehyung was your other soulmate who you have yet to meet. It was a huge bump in the road for Roman and yourself because you had two soulmates. While Roman only had one, you. Meaning two people had to share a soulmate. There were difficulties with the matter but after time there were agreements and you two became happy with the agreements. Both of you learnt over time to soak up all the time you have with each other before someone else came into the picture.

Smiling with a content sigh you had reached up and lightly brushed Roman's freshly dyed pink hair from his dark brown eyes. You then began tracing his features with the tips of your fingers. You were so taken by him that you didn’t hear Roman begin speaking to you. You were soon cut off from tracing his features when Roman gently took your wrist in his hand. Placing a kiss on your wrist Roman then spoke again now having your attention.

“... Are you listening, love?” Roman whispered with a smile.

“Umm no… I have no clue what you said Row,” you giggled. As you felt your face begin to heat up. Roman chuckled and then crawled over you. Placing himself on top of you he then began to place a kiss upon your lips before lying on top of you. Resting his arms on your chest he lies his head on his arms looking up at you. Smiling at him you reached and began to play with his pastel pink hair. That you always found yourself playing with. But you soon stopped when a thought came to my head.

Today was the day that Roman would reveal himself on your youtube channel that you shared with your friends. The channel was called The Diverse Crew and it was runned by yourself and Roman and your friends you knew from high school, Zia, Phil, Nate, and Bill. You all did a whole bunch of things on the channel dealing with dancing, singing, and art. It was a pretty big channel with different branches connected to it.

“Are you sure you wanna reveal yourself on our youtube channel,” you had questioned him. You knew how he was. Roman was an introvert and shy to a fault just like you but more so. It was one of the things you bonded over. But once you were both comfortable with people you could be all over the place.

That was why you were wondering if he really wanted to go onto the channel and reveal himself. Roman has been on your channel before but was always covered up to keep his identity a secret. You and my friends were fine with that, he felt comfortable that way. But you were also alright if he joined the crew with his identity revealed. You just wanted to make sure if that was what he really wanted to do, you didn’t want Roman to get overwhelmed. So recently you always ended up making sure it was what he wanted to do these past few days.

“Yeah I’m ready, But I also want to be known as your soulmate too,” Roman answered with a smirk as he traced his name on your skin with his fingertips. Which caused ashiver to run down your spine, As you felt the sparks that always came when he touched you. Hearing him caused you to smile though. But soon you felt his fingers begin to become ticklish so you ended up giggling. Leaning forward you soon kissed his cheek. Dropping your head back onto the pillow with a sigh you stared up at the ceiling and nodded.

“Of course we can announce that you're my soulmate. I’ve been tired of the comments and what not. It can take people off my back about at least one of my soulmates,” you rambled on. You felt Roman nod to your ramble looking back at him. You see he had a small smile on his face. You knew one of the reasons he was happy to reveal himself was so that people knew he was your soulmate and you were his. People already knew you had two soulmates and knew you had met one. They knew him as Row on the channel, the one that covered himself up. Thinking about him being possessive though made you giggle a bit.

“What?” Roman asked, tilting his head with a smile.

“Nothing. Nothing at all. Do you think we should get ready?” You chuckled, as you shook your head changing the subject.

“Yes!!! I’m doing your hair and make up Y/n,” he exclaimed with a wide smile. Wrapping his arms around you he buried his face into your chest with a chuckle. Laughing you wrapped your arms around him pulling him close.

“Okay Row my goodness. Can you help me pick something out?” You asked him, knowing that Roman loved when he could help you get ready. He usually helped get you dressed for the channel. But other than that you were usually in sweatpants and a t - shirt. You were one to dress up like a tomboy but sometimes you’d let Roman dress you up to his liking.

“Most definitely love,” he cheered, raising his head up with a wide smile still on his face. Another giggle escaped you. As you placed a hand on his cheek. As soon as you did, Roman leaned into your hand soaking up the affection. Dragging your thumb over his cheek you smiled back at him. But the moment was short lived once you saw what time it was on the digital clock next to your bed.

“Okay my flower. Get up so we can get ready,” you softly ordered him. As you shuffled underneath him. Reaching over you took your phone from the bedside stand and looked over your texts.

“Alright!” Roman exclaimed as he jumped off you and ran to our closet.

Chuckling, you watched as he ran around getting your clothes ready for the day. You couldn’t help but think he was so cute. You adored him so much. It was no secret that Roman was different. You thought he was special. He just had a different way of looking at things and took interest in different things than most wouldn’t. These things made people judge him, but yourself and your friends were always there to shut them up. It was hard for Roman and you in high school because just like him you were different too. But you always stuck together and stayed close to your friend group who never judged you both.

Before you could think about those days you shook the thoughts from your head and looked back to your phone. You took the time to read over a few important texts from your friends dealing with the channel. Putting down the phone you got up and walked to the vanity in the room that you and Roman shared and started to brush out your long hair. A giggle would escape you here and there as you watched Roman run around through the mirror. After placing your clothes on the bed he was soon next to you plugging up a straighter and curling iron.

“What would you like me to do with your hair?” He asked, as he took the brush from your hands. He then gently pushed you to sit down in the stool that went with the vanity. Smiling to him in the mirror you shrugged your shoulders.

“I don’t know. Do whatever you want, Row. You know what I like and what not so go ahead and put something together.” you shrugged again clueless with a chuckle. Because you were clueless. You weren't one for all the hair and make up stuff. You usually depend on Roman or your friend Zia to guide you with that sort of stuff. You knew very little when it came to that stuff. You only liked eyeliner and mascara then you’d throw your hair in a ponytail or leave it out. You were good for those things.

Roman soon laughed but nodded and began to work on your hair and make up. Looking at him in the mirror you watched as he did your hair with a look of content and focus. I watched him with admiration and awe. You loved when he did your hair or anyones at the matter. You could tell he was in his element and he was doing what he loved. You were shaken from your thoughts though when your phone rang. You were about to get up to get it but Roman placed a hand on your shoulder stopping you. Clipping your hair in place he walked over and got your phone looking at who it was.

“It’s Zia,” he answered with a smile. He was always happy to hear from his friends. They were more so like family to him. Having helped him through so much. So with a wide smile he showed you the phone. Revealing a goofy picture of Zia on your phone.

“Can you answer it please,” you said, trying not to move your head. He nodded and answered the phone. Walking over he began doing your hair again. He unclipped the piece of hair and began straightening your hair.

“Hey Zia!” He answered, placing the phone between his shoulder and ear. But soon sucked his teeth and handed you the phone with a playful roll of his eyes. As he mumbled, “she wants to talk to you.”

Sighing you rolled your eyes as well with a chuckle. Taking the phone the first thing you heard was Zia shouting “HELLO Y/N!”

“Damn Zia! Calm down! What is it you want?” You laughed, as you finally placed the phone to your ear to listen to what she had to say. You soon heard a deep chuckle from behind you from Roman. You knew he heard her through the phone. Which caused you to smile at him through the mirror, which he returned as he continued your hair.

“I wanted to speak to you about today's live on the channel,” Zia informed you. Once she calmed down with a more serious tone. You knew she meant business when she got this way. So with a sigh you listened to what she had to say.

“Yeah, what about it?” You questioned her. You were confused as to what she wanted to talk about. We had gone over as a group on what would be said and what questions would be answered. You all also were going to make sure everyone in our group was there. That meant you, Zia, Nate, Bill, and Phil. It was so that you could all support Roman and could help if something happened during the live.

“Nothing much just wanted to go over the questions with you and what not since you are leading the show today,” Zia explained to you. You could hear papers and what not shuffle over the phone. So you gave her a minute to gather what she needed.

Looking into the mirror you watched as Roman did your hair. He was finishing up straightening your hair and seemed to be starting to style it. As he did so you talked to Zia over what was going to be done and talked about on the channel today. You also brought Roman into the conversation as well being that it was him revealing himself on the channel. You wanted to make sure he was comfortable with the questions and what not. Which he was okay with mostly all of them.

Soon you all were wrapping up everything on the conversation over the phone with Zia and you hung up the phone. As you did so Roman finished your hair. Which was in a half up and half down hairstyle. Which you loved. He then turned you around and began doing your makeup with light tones. Staying still you talked to him about the show.

“Are you excited?” You asked with your eyes closed. As he did your eyeshadow.

“Yeah I want to be more involved and what not. I know I can keep my identity a secret but I want to start making a name for myself. And I want to stop hiding who I am. I want to not be scared of what people will say about me. I want to be me. You know,” he revealed to you. Roman was officially tired of hiding who he was as a person. Yes, he was different than most. But that didn’t mean he should hide who he was. With your help over the years Roman had learned to love who he was. And he finally wanted to flaunt it. He wanted to flaunt who he was and be proud of himself. He also wanted to stand proudly by your side… as your soulmate.He wanted to get over his fear of being judged. As he thought of this you then noticed a tear slip from his eye which you caught. Wiping it away you nodded with a sincere smile.

“It’s okay Row I understand. And that's what we are going to do today,” you whispered. Leaning forward to press a kiss to his lips. He sighed into the kiss then broke away. Placing his head against mine.

Nodding he then leaned back and continued to do your makeup. After he was done you gave him another kiss and thanked him and went over to put on your clothes. It was a black long sleeve shirt with a light blue jean overall short dress over the shirt that went to your knees. When you were done dressing you turned to Roman and watched as he was doing his hair and make up. Waiting for him to get done you watched and played on your phone. When he was done he ran over to change into his outfit; a white button up shirt with small vertical pink stripes, a pair of light blue skinny jeans, with pink shoes, and topped it off with a pink leather jacket.

“You look so pretty, Row!” You flirted with a smirk. He soon started to blush but soon glided over to you wrapping his arms around you. Leaning down he kissed you with a chuckle.

“Thank you, Y/n, You look pretty too, my love,” he smirked at you. Blushing, you whispered a thank you. And then went over and grabbed your purses. Handing Roman his pink purse you put your own black purse on your shoulder. Roman was shaking with excitement and he soon grabbed your hand and began to drag you out of your apartment to our car.

#taehyung x reader #bts fanfic #bts imagines #bts scenarios #taehyung imagine #taehyung scenarios #taehyung x you #bts x reader

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themikewheelers · 7 years ago

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It’s funny how people had no problem shipping Max with every boy possible on the show (primarily Dustin) for like a YEAR but the second she canonically has feelings for the only main character of color on the show and forms a very under-represented interracial relationship (between teens in the 80s no less) suddenly everyone is totally completely on board with headcanoning her as a lesbian and continuing to pretend Lucas doesn’t exist !!! Hmm I wonder why when the idea of a Dustin/Max/Lucas love triangle came up, 95% of people wanted her to be with Dustin, and now that it’s canon that she doesn’t like Dustin but DOES like Lucas, now everybody’s jumping on board to hc her as a lesbian and then just “forget” Lucas exists when talking about the kids !!! Honestly if Max had ended up with Dustin (or any other white boy on the show) there’s no way in hell the headcanon of her being a lesbian would be NEARLY as popular as it is now that it gives yall a pass to ignore the character of color and the interracial relationship. It’s not everybody who’s headcanoning her that way, of course, but there’s a whole freaking lot you who are just doing it to hide your thinly-veiled racism

#stranger things #max #lucas sinclair

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coldtomyflash · 7 years ago

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So I've been following your tumblr for a while now, and I've seen everything you've had to say about the crossover. I should preface this by saying that I am white with no Jewish ancestry. So I suppose my place isn't the question, because this does not affect me directly. However: I do not understand how showing Nazis as villains is a bad thing. I am not questioning that it hurts people. I've seen that it clearly does. What I question is "Why?" I don't grasp why Nazi=villains is a bad thing.

I’m going to be bluntly honest here. I had to mentally dismiss about ten blithe responses to this that were on the order of that now-infamous tweet “I don’t know how to explain to you that you should care about other people.” I know that’s not what you’re saying, but I struggled, when I read this, to grasp how you could say that you see the harm (hurt) it is causing and yet don’t see that it’s wrong.

And how it could be true that you’ve actually read this post, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and some of the other stuff I’ve put in my tag for the crossover, and yet still be confused about this. And one of those posts, mind you, explicitly explains why it’s more than just “they made Nazis the villains of the crossover”.

And part of why I was tempted to answer blithely is because, given all that, I think it’s been explained time and again what the issue is here, and how it goes so far beyond the fact that them making Nazis the villains is the problem. The other part is because to re-explain it, to break it down to its elemental components? That takes time - hours from the time I started thinking about this to the time I’ll be done writing it - and energy - in terms of research and resources. I’m doing a lot of labour for you, emotionally and physically here. And part of me wants to shirk that labour, to put it on you to do it.

But… I can’t. Because I can answer your question, at least from my own perspective, and it is an important one to answer. Because before I understood just how much my own privilege impacted how I see the world and started to actively push back against it and expand my perception, I probably wouldn’t have fully understood either.

So I can’t explain this as eloquently or succinctly as some other people. And I can’t explain this from the perspective of someone who’s directly being harmed by this crossover (because I am also white and a gentile). And I’m sure many people people who are direct targets of Nazis would tell you that “isn’t it enough that it is harming me?” and they would be right, full stop. That would be an acceptable answer.

But I’m going to do my best to give you the understanding I genuinely think you’re looking for, allowing for the fact that others may have more to add or clarify, and allowing for the fact that my answer is inherently limited by my privilege.

I trust that you’ll read to the end, even though it’s long. And if at the end you still can’t understand, or you think I’m exaggerating, then I urge you to think on this, to sleep on it, and to read more and more about it. And even without understanding, to respect the voices of the Jewish (and gay, and Rroma) people who’ve spoken out about these problems time and again when things like this crop up. Amplify those voices, even if you can’t see the long-term ramifications of why this is ‘Bad’ yet.

First, the issue here cannot be reduced to “Nazis are the villains of the crossover.” Because that [.] at the end is actually a […]. It really goes like this: Nazis are the villains of the crossover…

… and the premise is based on the notion that Nazis won and have world domination.

… and that premise implies that Nazis are so powerful that with a bit of ‘bad luck’ in history, Nazis could have won.

… and that premise contributes to the mythic aggrandizing of Nazism that makes so many people Nazi sympathizers or apologists.

… and many heroes doppelgangers are Nazis.

… and Jewish-coded heroes’ doppels are Nazis.

… and a Jewish-coded hero who came to earth at age 12 and was raised on better principles than that still became a Nazi.

… and that notion spits on the original intent of the Jewish creators of these characters.

… and all of this implies that “good and heroic” people can still turn out to be Nazis, undermining the very message heroes should send. (Being a hero only when it’s easy is not being a hero at all. Doing the right thing when it’s against what society enforces is what makes them heroes.)

… and this turns the heroes that people (including Jewish people) look up to for hope and comfort into symbols of hatred and genocide.

… and the Nazis interrupt an interracial marriage between a Black woman and a Jewish-coded hero (who is canonically Jewish in parallel media like the DCEU) for the sake of drama.

… and the Nazi doppelganger outfits are designed to look ~*sexy*~ to an uncritical viewer.

… and the ~*sexy*~ doppel outfits include genuine Nazi symbols from WW2, which are pretty damn triggering to a lot of people. (But yet no sign of a swastika because that would most likely turn those uncritical viewers too far off).

… and they’re ~*sexy*~ enough that people already want to cosplay that Nazi and buy merchandise of that Nazi paraphernalia.

… and the promo photos show that a Jewish woman and a Black woman are going to be targeted specifically, thus capitalizing directly off threats and violence to actual historical victims of the Nazis.

… and the promo photos treat Wellsobard (many people’s fave villain) as an allusion to Dr. Mengele, one of the most infamously disgusting and reprehensible people to ever exist.

… and the promos show us images of a gay character and actor wearing a ‘Pink Triangle’ once again being used as a symbol of hate and shame.

… and there is a good chance that a Jewish character (Martin) is going to get killed off during this crossover.

…and the storyline is likely focused on the love story between a white gentile and a Jewish woman who gets targeted by his evil Nazi doppelganger.

… and the shows already have a history of antisemitism by putting a Jewish woman in a gas chamber (wtf Arrow), killing a Jewish one-off villain with radiation in a compressed chamber (Atom Smasher, wtf The Flash), erasing the Jewish identity of some characters (e.g., Ray Palmer) and failing to mention another’s (Martin’s) in three seasons (c’mon Legends), and no-doubt more.

… and … this list goes on. It really does. This is not exhaustive.

And you might be tempted to think “but if the Nazis are defeated, and shown unequivocally to be the bad guys, then isn’t it okay? Isn’t it historically accurate that the Nazis would target the Jewish and Black and LGBTQ characters and wear Nazi symbols anyway? Many of the main producers are Jewish or gay, they’re not trying to say anything good about Nazis.”

So this is where we have to talk about narrative framing, implicit associations, and sociological implications.

The concept of framing in psychology deals with how we can present the exact same information in different ways and get vastly different responses. How we present information, even paired down to simple basic statistics, massively impacts how people internalize and encode that information and therefore how they respond to it.

In narrative, we know that how we frame a character’s motives and background influence how they’ll be perceived by the audience. So many heroes in action movies kill and murder their way through a scene, but their crimes are justified by the narrative frame, whereas the villain’s won’t be. Or in order to humanize villains and make them sympathetic, the narrative may shift the viewer’s paradigm by re-framing the information: yes this villain is an asshole who hurt your favourite character, but they’re doing it because of [x].

So when we look at the crossover, we have to interrogate how it’s being framed. Are the Nazis villains? Yes? Good, check. … But the Nazis are also doppelgangers of our beloved heroes?… Okay, right off the bat, that’s bad.

That will make some people inherently sympathize with the Nazis doppels and like them. We have an emotional and automatic response to these faces, to these people, that is going to work faster and parallel to how our conscious brain responds to them, and many viewers (those who don’t have an automatic and massively negative knee-jerk response to the premise or the symbolism already built in) will have to be consciously and continuously inhibiting any decision to feel some positive sense toward those characters, and many viewers aren’t going to put in that conscious effort, especially not while the narrative is so distracting.

(For the record, if you consciously create this negative association it’ll become automatic. We aren’t born hating Nazi symbolism, we encode associations to it, and if you continuously encode negative ones, then you’ll hate other things associated with that symbolism too!)

So now in the crossover, by how our brain creates associations, if we have a positive association with that hero, there is an association now between that hero and their doppelganger, and that doppel and Nazi symbolism. That creates a link between positive feelings and Nazi symbolism. Say what? Look, our brains are simple in their associations and categorizations. There’s ways around this, but if we leave these associations unchecked, this can happen. Especially for viewers who won’t recognize and understand the symbolism like the ‘SS’ on Overgirl’s chest (i.e., younger viewers who are most impressionable and who the education system has seriously failed, and privileged viewers who weren’t taught to have strong negative associations to these less well known Nazi symbols).

And we already know this is happening. This is literally why we have articles on popular press outlets saying they want to buy merch of Overgirl (Supergirl’s Nazi doppel)’s outfit, which is literally emblazoned across the chest with Nazi symbols. People are saying they want to buy actual Nazi merch and the crossover hasn’t even aired yet. Just… let that sink in for a sec?

So.

That’s one reason why making heroes as Nazis is bad, and why making Nazis sexy is bad. Because of the automatic associations our brains make with those beloved characters, and even with attraction. If we find something attractive or beautiful, we tend to have automatic associations with that as ‘good’. Beautiful = moral is one of the stronger associations we have and it’s reinforced by media time and again. (Conversely to ugly = evil, or evil = queer. And female villains are often designed for sex appeal but it’s misogynistic anyway because it deals with a lot of bullshit about feminine purity and evil seductresses, and still conflates these associations our brains are going to make).

And look, it’s 2017. We have Richard Spencer the literal Neo Nazi on TV and articles about how this ‘alt-right’ leader is sexy and cool. We don’t need DCTV to jump on the bandwagon of making Nazis seem “cool”. Human beings experience approach motivations toward things we find attractive. The only option is to experience disgust and anger in response to people like Spencer and characters like Overgirl, or else we may fall prey to the implicit associations put forth by the media itself.

And that’s the problem: the media (the DCTV shows) are putting these associations there and forcing the viewers to work against them if we want to watch this and not come out of it as worse people for it. It’s designed to be entertaining and thrilling and they spent millions of dollars making it that way, and so much of that budget went to making the villains what they are.

So it’s not enough for them to say that Nazis are the villains or even to show them getting their asses kicked if they set the Nazis up to start as all-powerful world dominators. It’s not enough to have these characters say “I hate Nazis” when they show their doppels as Nazis and capable of those atrocities.

And if you’re starting to think “there’s an important message here. About how Nazis can look classically attractive but we shouldn’t be taken in by that, and about nature versus nurture and how we need to actively push back against evil within ourselves or else, in another dimension or if things had gone different, even we could be evil.”

That’s… tempting to argue. It’s an important message, to be sure. But given the stylized outfits and triggering imagery and the way they’ve set up the narrative, I don’t anticipate that’s the message we’re getting here. I mean, I think it’ll come up, most definitely, but I don’t think it’s what the viewer is ultimately going to take away from this. Not in the “I need to look within myself and push back against my own biases” sort of way. That’s not the way they’ve framed this.

And for a comparison point, if you want a narrative that says “White supremacists are all evil, don’t get taken in by one who seems ~reasonable~ and looks normal, and see what these modes of thought actually look like” then watch the movie Imperium (2016) and see how they handle it. (And then compare that to American History X, which apparently some Neo Nazis like, even though it’s inherently anti-Nazi, because it paints them as being powerful and is full of the visual symbolism they uphold).

Because the way they’re currently framing the CW crossover, it’s really just about amping up the drama? And they’ve capitalizing on intergenerational trauma of the Jewish community and the collective trauma of the Holocaust to the gay community. And I’ve said elsewhere that I have no doubt the intent was good, but good intentions aren’t enough.

If the producers don’t understand the damage they can cause by making ~*sexy*~ Nazis literally capable of world-domination (they’re not, they never were, they were superstitious and put genocide and hate over actual scientific advancements and their disgusting experiments on humans didn’t teach us near as much as people pretend they did), and re-writing heroes as Nazis (which, if anyone recalls, created a huge outcry when Marvel wrote Captain America as a Nazi) then regardless of their intent, they need to rethink their storytelling. Or if they really think that the right way to make a statement about the rise of Neo Nazism in the wake of the Trump election is to put the ‘SS’ symbol on Supergirl’s chest and make Eobard into Dr. Mengele, to recycle imagery of actual Nazis from WW2 and put a pink triangle on a gay man’s chest in 2017…. they don’t get it. Whatever their intent and regardless of where they’re coming from, they don’t fucking get it.

Sorry, I’m getting worked up. My point is that if they wanted to make a statement about things today, there were a million better ways to do it, and I could list at least 5 off the top of my head right now. But those would be more controversial, harder to pitch and sell, and not as stylized or easy to promote. So stylish Nazis is what we got. And that’s just… such a problem, including literally the ‘stylish’ part of that sentence.

Nazism and white supremacy are inherently performative. Nazis were all about the #aesthetic. They aligned themselves with famous designers for their uniforms. They had the villainous dramatic flair, and they used it to their advantage. Having that in the crossover might be historically accurate, but it falls right into what the Nazis themselves do: make themselves look good to amp up this notion that they are good.

And a problem with depicting them this way (instead of making them pathetic, vacuous, hate-filled to the point of self-defeat, self-important to the point of being ultimately silly and sad, punching down their notions of grandeur) is that actual Nazis like it. They like being portrayed as sexy, powerful, and cool. And depictions like that help them with their recruiting. “Look, isn’t Overgirl sexy? She’s like our mascot. They know that when we take back this country from foreigner invaders, this is how it’s gonna look.” Because they say when, not if, and they recruit by framing themselves as the victim in a struggle against invaders and usurpers. Make no mistake, white supremacy is a victim complex of untold proportions and having attractive, fan-favorited characters championing their cause helps spread their message.

But let’s get back to the crossover’s broader sociological message and stop talking about actual modern-day Nazis for a sec.

Nazis have been the villains in DCTV before. On Legends in 1942, and with Damien Darhk (again, actual literal Nazi, and again, the narrative has made him “entertaining” in the eyes of some viewers and keeps bringing him back over and over as a villain?). Nazis have also been the villain in pop culture for half a century. Indiana Jones. Star Wars comes to mind in particular. They’re not shy about the fact that their villains are explicitly based on Nazis and the Nazi regime. Which is working out so well considering how many people are mooning over Kylo Ren when he’s a genocidal fascist who murdered his own father (”but it’s okay because he’s just misunderstood, and by that I mean I find the actor attractive and I, too, have anger and angst so I identify with him, this Nazi”). At least in Star Wars it’s figurative, I guess?

And the thing about these narratives, the problem with these narratives, is that they fictionalize Nazis. This isn’t necessarily a reason to vehemently boycott these media or rail against them, but just, as a general phenomenon that’s happened over time, many people - and by this I mostly mean privileged people and people who don’t feel particularly targeted by Nazism - tend to think of Nazis as this cinematic enemy. This prop, this simple narrative device. This way of commenting on the past more than the present, or alluding to something about the present as a mere metaphor, and that metaphor tends to go over the heads of half the viewers anyway because most people aren’t taught to critically evaluate media except in high school english classes that no one takes seriously.

And fictionalized Nazis don’t look like real Nazis in the 21st century. So when real Nazis do gather, many people don’t realize just how bad that is, just how violent their coming together is going to be, and just why need to fight back against such demonstrations and against letting Nazis have any space or voice in our society. It’s like that “this is fine” dog cartoon where he doesn’t see an issue until the house burns around him? Making Nazis into a fictional narrative device can make it harder for many people to actually see the flames burning around them, because they’ve been taught that “real” fires look different than the ones already starting to burn their house down.

Finally, I’ll just come back to point number 1: this is hurting people. In a way that going to 1942 and letting Mick Rory roast Nazis didn’t. And as privileged individuals, we have a responsibility to call out and call attention to the issues in this media and to amplify others’ voices. But as human beings more generally? We also owe a duty of compassion to others.

Sure, there are a lot of people who aren’t hurt by this, but there are a lot who are. Who are shaking and sick to their stomachs and afraid for what’s happening in 2017 and how the tides of the world are turning. Who worry that this crossover is just another example of how casual people are about Nazism and who worry about everything I’ve listed here in detail as the broader effects of media like this and its current framing, even if they don’t have the language to articulate it all in one place like this. People who feel these effects, and feel the target on their back.

We owe those people some compassion, yeah? So when they say it hurts, we don’t need to say: why? That can come later. Our first question should instead be: how can I help?

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sjw-hitgirl · 7 years ago

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I love how unoriginal you were in your reply- you just took my entire post about y'all getting a bit too obsessed with the idea of dark rey and therefore the movies focusing on a Nazi organization cause rey needs to be with kilo in the dark side and somehow put words in my mouth the entire time.

Im pretty sure you are the ones that cant read, considering you clearly saw a different version of Force Awakens, see different versions of the trailers for Last Jedi and basically probably read different novels for SW considering the amount of debunking of your crack ass abusive ship in those things.

Yes, I fucking hate Kilo- I can, why? Cause I don't like his character, I don't have too like his character, and I actually wanted to like him as a VILLAIN- something y'all wont let him be to the point I just turned to loving to HATE him like the GF fandom ruined the triangle demon for me- Wanna come at me for dislking your character? Fine, but get original arguments and acknowledge you just called your precious poor man 'Kilo'- something you hate us doing to him cause insert bullshit reasons.

Also, when the heck did I say be about SJWs? I was literally pointing out some of y'all want the movies to be about people who are Neo-Nazi's essentially and therefore, basically being shitty- I just don't think the movies should fucking encourage neo Nazi's being good people....like, Nazi should be a hint that the film shouldn't be about them as good people, so sorry- forgot hating the idea of facisim being the 'heroes' of the story is suddenly controversial to y'all.

Im pretty sure your logic went out the window ages ago- considering some of y'all nowadays and your arguments including how somehow Re//o is hinted on a poster when they not, how Reys shadow is Kilos somehow, how Finnrey is apparently dead and therefore your ship is somehow canon as a result, how y'all claim you hate crosstagging then encourage your own crosstaggers in the anti tag, how y'all stalk the tags and how y'all basically created a OC named Ben Solo that is white!Finn essentially cause apparently a interracial ship cant be canon and the white ship needs to be canon somehow.

Your logic alone is WTF- and you being original with arguments is less likely nowadays.

#anti-reylo #anti-kylo ren #I love shippers being unoirgnial #they were already unoriginal with ripping of Finns story and throwing it to Kilo #but they cant even make arguments now

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fannishcodex · 7 years ago

Conversation

REVISED: ok, so from what I gather from reading about new s3 svtfoe Nov. ep.'s, and not watching (1a)

some fandom: "After that episode where Eclipsa and Star meet, hopefully they'll have a real conversation about mewmans oppressing monsters, and other matters concerning Mewni's general fate."

me: "That should have been Toffee that Star was getting this conversation with first, Star should be getting that conversation with one of the monsters that are being oppressed /first/, before getting that conversation with a monster-sympathizer that was born on the side of mewman oppressors and likely was very privileged before--BUT THAT'S ANOTHER POST, SO MOVING ON."

the next episode with Eclipsa after she meets Star for the first time: *mainly talk about Marco with the huge implication of him being a love interest, mainly just talk about romance with boys*

me: "...Guys, did they just have Eclipsa and Star jump straight to talking about boys after the episode where they first met? Again overlook the matter of mewmans oppressing monsters and Mewni's general fate in favor of romance/love triangle?"

some fandom: "..."

me: "I don't care if this was meant to be a case of Eclipsa and Star innocuously bonding over something, WHY DID THAT HAVE TO BE OVER MARCO/ROMANCE, WE HAVE HAD TOO MUCH OF THE LOVE TRIANGLE, why not bond over something like their rebelliousness, something about them independently and NOT ROMANCE."

me: "The only romance I really am interested in at this point is Eclipsa's likely woes over mewmans' racist society making her love for a monster forbidden and reviled!"

me: "Y'know, tie romance into themes and plot of more significance a.k.a. mewmans oppressing monsters! I'm actually very interested in exploring that theme through /several/ aspects, including how it can affect interracial romance between monsters and mewmans!"

me: "And you know, please don't link Starco to Eclipsa/Monster Love, just don't. I doubt Starco can ever approach the thematic weight of Eclipsa and her Monster Love likely facing extreme societal aggression due to racism. Mewni doesn't seem to give that much of a shit about Earth. I don't think Mewni will ever be as aggressive against Starco as they would be against mewman/monster love. Even Star's freakin' racist parents seem totally fine with Starco. Almost would feel insulting if try to link Starco to Eclipsa/Monster Love."

me: "...AND YOU KNOW WHAT, WHY IS MARCO EVEN /THERE/, SERIOUSLY, HIS DESIRE TO BE A KNIGHT AND DITCHING LIFE ON EARTH SEEMS REALLY SUDDEN AND I DON'T GET IT, BUT THEN AGAIN, I'VE NEVER REALLY CARED ABOUT MARCO. BUT SINCE I'VE NEVER REALLY CARED ABOUT HIM, I FIND THIS ALL DOUBLY AGGRAVATING. BUT MARCO JUST CONTINUES TO MAKE LESS AND LESS SENSE. AND IT SEEMS LIKE THE THINGS THAT JUST GAVE ME A GUT DISLIKE ABOUT HIM ARE ACTUALLY BEING MAGNIFIED NOW AND I MAY BE GETTING A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF MY GUT DISLIKE FOR HIM. MARCO DIDN'T EVEN ASK STAR OR ANYONE ELSE ON MEWNI IF HE COULD COME WHAT THE SHIT, HE JUST ASSUMED WHAT THE SHIT, EVEN WHEN STAR WOUND UP WITH HIM ALL THE WAY BACK IN THE VERY FIRST EPISODE, IT SEEMS LIKE SOME ARRANGEMENT HAD BEEN MADE WITH MR. AND MRS. DIAZ BEFOREHAND BETWEEN STAR'S PARENTS AND ECHO CREEK ACADEMY. JUST--MARCO AND HIS EXCESSIVE SCREENTIME ANNOYS ME TO NO END, WHY DID HE HAVE TO BE MADE A BIG PART OF THE SHOW, WHY CAN'T STAR STAND ON HER OWN FOR THE MOST PART, WHY CAN'T STAR HAVE MORE FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS TAKING CENTER STAGE. I THINK I ACTUALLY WOULD HAVE TAKEN STAR AND PONYHEAD ADVENTURES OVER STAR AND MARCO ADVENTURES."

me: "...Right then, ending rant for now."

#svtfoe critical

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newyorktheater · 6 years ago

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“Daddy,” a play by Jeremy O. Harris, who made his Off-Broadway debut a few months ago with his controversial “Slave Play,” could be accurately described as a porn melodrama about a love/hate triangle. The triangle consists of Alan Cumming as Andre, an older white art collector; his young black lover Franklin, an artist (Ronald Peet); and Franklin’s religious mother, Zora (Charlayne Woodard), who disapproves of his son’s relationship.

But that description doesn’t completely capture this ambitious, intelligent, and in-your-face provocative play, rendered astonishing under the direction of Danya Taymor and the terrific performances of its cast. Among the delights of this joint production of The New Group and Vineyard Theater: a working swimming pool, used often, liberally spritzing the theatergoers in the first row; a gospel choir that the script describes as “Franklin’s forgotten heart and soul” ; larger than human-size dolls; a couple of erotic spanking sessions; frank and frequent nudity; a dissection of the modern art world; a vivisection of a gay relationship; a confession of black self-hatred; and a last inning surreal reveal that gives a deeper meaning to the title. We first meet Franklin and Andre on the night after they themselves have first met, at a nightclub, around the pool in Andre’s sleek modern house in Bel Air, a ritzy neighborhood in L.A. Matt Saunders’ set, appointed with recognizable works of modern art, looks like it’s lifted from a David Hockney painting (complete with the beautiful young man swimming in the pool.) Franklin gossips about famous artists. Andre rubs his face up and down Franklin’s legs. They are both high. They both get naked. The three-member gospel choir is in the background from that very first scene. Franklin soon moves in with Andre. We next meet Franklin’s best friends, Max and Bellamy, and his art dealer Alessia. It’s not until the second of three acts that his mother Zora pays a visit. Although “Daddy” is subtitled in the program “A Melodrama,” there is less of an over-the-top plot here than that genre designation generally implies. “Daddy” focuses more on an exploration of the characters. Harris even offers some of them up with an edge of satire. But the intelligence and relative subtlety of the direction and performances smoothes that edge into credible characters. As his friends, Tommy Dorfman as Max and Kahyun Kim as Bellamy are hilariously but believably self-centered and L.A.-millennial inarticulate. Bellamy considers them so close that the three of them have “Not friendship. Familyship.” But even as they luxuriate in Franklin’s new surroundings, they criticize him for rushing into this May-September relationship. Hari Nef is spot-on as Alessia, Franklin’s art agent, as she tries to cover up her surprise that, as she sees it, Franklin has become a kept man: “It’s the Medicis, the Guggenheims, the Rubells, the Getty’s, that are responsible for all the art we love. So don’t be ashamed.”

Charlayne Woodard does wonders with Zora, who prays frequently, talks about the devil, quotes Scripture as a weapon, calls Andre Methuselah, and belittles Franklin in ways that make him regress to child-like behavior. But at the same time, she comes off as chic and no-nonsense, rather than fanatical and absurd. The first encounter between Andre and Zora is precious, showing the distance between A and Z. “And what do your people do?” Zora asks. “ Which people?” “Oh excuse me, I mean your parents, family. He answers “they do all sorts of things. None of it of much interest. Or with much interest.” Then he asks her the same. “We come from a factory town. Furniture folk. Lot of work with our hands. Before that we were tobacco folk. Again, work with our hands.” Franklin, she observes, has found a way to work with his hands, creating dolls such as those he played with as a child.

But of course it’s the performances of celebrated veteran Alan Cumming and relative newcomer Ronald Peet that form the center of “Daddy,” and they are bravely naked in more ways than one. The interaction between Andre and Franklin is sometimes strange, often bluntly erotic, but stimulating in other ways as well. In one fascinating, even-handed conversation that reveals an insight about art, and the perhaps unbridgeable gap between white and black in America, Franklin discusses the work of an unnamed black woman artist, and how Andre only sees the beauty in her work, not the pain that comes along with it.

I didn’t fully board the bandwagon for “Slave Play,” which, for all its intelligence and provocation, I found too derivative, diffuse, intellectualized, and too long. This second play is far longer, but it is also more focused, less airily cerebral (though just as intelligent), more original. Is it flawless? (Is anything?) Could Franklin’s behavior in Act III be made less weirdly melodramatic? (Well, we were warned.) Could the arc of Andre and Franklin’s relationship be spelled out more clearly? I could quibble. But my heart belongs to “Daddy.”

Daddy The New Group and Vineyard Theatre at Signature Center. Written by Jeremy O. Harris. Directed by Danya Taymor, Scenic Design by Matt Saunders. Costume Design by Montana Levi Blanco. Lighting Design by Isabella Byrd. Sound Design by Lee Kinney. Hair, Wig and Makeup Design by Cookie Jordan. Vocal Arrangements by Darius Smith. Original Music and Arrangements by Darius Smith and Lee Kinney. Intimacy and Fight Direction by Claire Warden. Movement Coordination by Darrell Moultrie. Doll Design by Tschabalala Self.

Cast: Carrie Compere (Gospel Choir), Alan Cumming (Andre), Tommy Dorfman (Max), Kahyun Kim (Bellamy), Denise Manning (Gospel Choir), Hari Nef (Alessia), Onyie Nwachukwu (Gospel Choir), Ronald Peet (Franklin) and Charlayne Woodard (Zora). Running time: Two hours and 45 minutes, including two intermissions. Theater tickets: $40 – $135 Daddy is scheduled through March 31, 2019. It is entirely sold out. I’d be surprised if it’s not extended.

Daddy Review: An Interracial Love/Hate Triangle Starring Alan Cumming, Charlayne Woodard “Daddy,” a play by Jeremy O. Harris, who made his Off-Broadway debut a few months ago with his controversial “

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folukeifejola · 6 years ago

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I am constantly looking for films set in colonial Africa. For some reason they are very rare. I wonder why? There is an old movie starring Pierce Brosnan (one time 007). Mister Johnson. And not many more. However, I found one recently on Netflix. ‘Palm Trees in the Snow‘ It is a lovely Spanish language historical romantic drama set on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea [not Guinea Conakry, and not Guinea Bissau, and definitely not Papua New Guinea].

It would be a good idea to watch it (if you have access) before reading this article. Let me call out Baba Spoilers.

Baba Spoilers, Announcer Extraordinaire

Spoilers O! tueh tueh

In other words, there will be massive movie spoilers in this article.

A little background information about Bioko Island: It used to be called Otcho by the Bubi people who have lived there since approximately the 7th century BC. In 1494 it was renamed Fernando Pó in honour of Portuguese navigator Fernão do Pó after he ‘claimed’ it as a Portuguese colony. The Portuguese developed the island for sugarcane crops among other things. Fast forward a few hundred years, during which the Dutch turn up briefly as well. In 1778, under the Treaty of El Pardo, Portugal ceded Bioko, Annobón, and the Guinea coast, Rio Muni, to Spain, together forming modern Equatorial Guinea, in exchange for territory on the American continent. Then the British also make an appearance. One tiny island, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, British. (Why only them???) But from 1843, the Spanish regained control of Bioko, using it as a dumping ground for undesirable Afro-Cubans and Spanish people they didn’t like. From this time till independence in 1968, Spain developed large cocoa plantations for which thousands of West African workers were imported as labourers. And here begins our story…

Map of Bioko Island; Equatorial Guinea

The historical scenes on Bioko in the film begin in 1953. It’s a film of a book. I am assuming you have watched the film and realise that it is a very moving story. Good acting and exceptionally beautiful visually. [I would watch it for the visuals only]. Also good music. Bisila’s song is very emotional. I really love the scene with the turtles on the beach and the accompanying metaphor spoken by Anton. ‘One never forgets where one was born.‘ As you can see from the map, Bioko is very close to Nigeria. And so, Nigerians turn up a lot in the story. When there is a party, the Nigerians are in charge of it. Naturally. So generally, I would recommend it. Please watch it and let me know what you think of it.

There a few things I have issues with though. (Obvs! I have written a nearly 2000 word article!) For a film set in Equatorial Guinea, we hear very little from actual Equatorial Guineans. All the scenes are focused on the foreigners. Despite this being a love story, even the poster does not centre the heroine. Erasure and gaze are deployed here. Where is the centre? Who is the story about? Who is it being told for?

It is worrying that the black men are largely depicted as aggressive, hypersexed and mute. Colourism also comes into play; the darker ones speak less and are more violent. Bisila’s husband, Mosi, is practically silent throughout the whole nearly 3-hour movie. As a key part of the central love triangle that seems a bit reductive. In contrast, did dastardly Jacobo really need that much screen time? Gustavo, who seems to be the resident African nationalist has barely any lines. We know that the Spaniards are fearful of the political change of independence, but what about the perspectives of the people of Bioko and Equatorial Guineans? Yes, it is a love story, but there was enough room and time to fill in the gaps in the political context especially as that political context has a profound effect on the story and the protagonists.

I would definitely have loved to hear more of Bisila’s thoughts. What does she see in Kilian? When the story gets to her bit of narration, there is a foregone conclusion that she has feelings for Kilian, with no foreshadowing of that in their prior interactions. Of which they had very few. He did not even know her name! Also the oversexualisation of interracial encounters in the movie was a bit problematic. Julia & Manuel for e.g. don’t get the same treatment. It felt like a metaphor for the exotification and fetishization of Africa.

There was some misogynoir going on there with the gaze on Bisila’s body. She was undressed for a large part of the movie. A hint of fetishization and exotification again seemed to be in play. So, this feels to me like a metaphor. Africa constantly being stripped and laid bare, open to a certain type of exploitation often couched as benevolent. In most of the movie Bisila lacked agency and this lack of agency was not really addressed.

I watched the movie with the English dub, if you do not understand Spanish, you can either do that or watch with subtitles. One thing that completely jarred, with the English dub, was the dubbed voices of the black people. Without exception they all spoke with African American accents. ALL OF THEM. It was so incongruous that I found it difficult to concentrate on what they were saying. Close your eyes you may be watching Atlanta… or something similar.

The movie used a very light hand on the nature of colonialism and the colonial plantations. This is basically the context of the action in the movie. And it was mostly shuffled off to the background, and the way in which the power dynamics of that context affected the protagonists and their choices I think was largely discounted. I wonder if this is the same in the book. If you know let me know. But it felt like a movie about a flood in which no mention is made of anyone got wet, or a setting based on a towering inferno where no mention is made of burning people burning or a movie set against the backdrop of a famine where access to food is not really addressed.

So a little bit of political context and some legal points (I look at everything through the eyes of the law, I am after all, a lawyer and a teacher #canthelpmyself. Sue me. If you dare). One thing people seem to forget, or are unaware of is the fact that White-owned plantations existed not only in the US, but in most of the Americas, as well as across Africa and Asia. When the slave trade was outlawed, these plantations did not cease to exist, and people who had engaged in slavery – slave and plantation owners – still needed cheap labour for these plantations. This was vital, not just to those individuals, but also the nations for which their produce provided a lot of revenue. To ensure that economies did not tank, colonial governments gave plantation owners low-cost land grants. They also forced the local population to work on the plantations. Monopolies were created by preventing the sale of crops grown by other farmers. These state-supported plantations often produced most of a colony’s exports. Similar in many respects to plantation slavery. These labour relationships were sometimes called indentured servitude – so, not slavery. That’s the ‘beautiful’ thing about the law. As the example by Sundiata illustrates:

‘the labourer found himself working for the period of the advance, three months, as unpaid labour’ [Sundiata, 1974: 104]

Planters detained labour but failed to pay their contracts, resulting in a situation of de facto slavery.

So it is interesting how the legal abolition of a thing (in this case slavery) often results in the evolution of the thing a step away from the legal definition of what it used to be, but in spirit, more or less the same thing. Such that legally the doers of the newly made thing cannot be convicted for doing the abolished thing, but by taking just one tiny step away from the old doing, the old results are kept alive. (Gregorio’s use of the whip is many shades of Kunta Kinte and Roots.) This also exposes the dangers of naming things. Once a named thing is legally defined and confined, to be the named thing, a thing must fit into all the boundaries of the definition. If it does not, then, it is not the abolished thing. It is a new thing for which new resistances must be mounted. And the cycle continues. Thus using indentured labour on African plantations was (legally) not the same as using enslaved Africans’ labour on plantations in the Americas. But in truth the power relations remained largely the same.

And this brings to the crux of my article. It is amazing how a narrative has developed suggesting that interracial relationships signify a move towards ending racism, when we know that heterosexual relationships do not signify less sexism. In many cases, they actually just signify misogyny. We must always talk about the power dynamics. Without discussing the context above, Kilian and Bisila’s relationship is not examined with any reference to the power dynamics between them. Even though some of the horrors of the system are shown, there is an attempt to cast Kilian as an innocent caught in a system beyond his control. But he is still complicit in the system and benefits from it. Gregorio ‘provokes’ Kilian to the point where Kilian violently whips an African. Innocent? When he sees Bisila for the first time, he is in the process of ‘falling in love’ with the sights, sounds and smells of the country and she appears as a physical embodiment of this desire for an exotic Africa.

And this is my question and observation on the true meaning of love; this has been examined in an article by Panashe Chigumadzi who articulated my feelings thus:

‘love without justice, without a reckoning with the history that has created our present realities, is not really love at all.’ Panashe Chigumadzi

Palm Trees in the Snow is a beautiful and romantic movie, in which the romance is so overwhelming that we may fail to note the absence of love. A love that does not acknowledge the history that created Bisila and Kilian’s realities. Love without justice.

Bibliography

Sundiata, Ibrahim K. “Prelude to Scandal: Liberia and Fernando Po, 1880–1930.” The Journal of African History 15, no. 1 (1974): 97-112.

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Palm Trees in the Snow: I am constantly looking for films set in colonial Africa. For some reason they are very rare.

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