#it’s white culture not my gay tastes

[spookiat]

Had allos smugly assume a close silly friendship was romantic: 10,000 dead 900,000 injured, I am exploding them with my mind

[jedi-enthusiast]

@confusledqueer apologizes for not responding sooner, it’s been a busy couple days and—honestly—I forgot for a bit.

Moving on-

—————

Me equating some of the things that anti-Jedi people say to antisemitism and, sometimes, outright Nazi-esque rhetoric is not “wild” or “a stretch,” as you’re implying.

Justification of their genocide, denial that it actually was a genocide, a belief that the genocided party “caused” their own genocide, and a belief that they genocided party were wrong or “led astray” while one person was sent to make things right- (via either making them change their ways or outright destroying them/their culture) -are all things I’ve seen people say about the Jedi…

…but they’re also things that people have actually said about Jews.

Take the example I put in the post of someone denying that the Jedi Purge was actually a genocide, and how—by changing “Jedi” to “Judaism” and “Force-religions” to “Abrahamic Faiths”—it sounds verbatim to Holocaust denial.

Or, as another example, people claiming that the Jedi “kidnapped kids to brainwash them”…don’t you see how that sounds like Blood Libel?

So me pointing out that a lot of stuff anti-Jedi people say sounds like antisemitic rhetoric isn’t a stretch, not when a lot of it sounds verbatim to what people are saying with the rise of antisemitism and stuff they have said in the past.

—————

Now, I’m not Jewish, but it’s not just me, your neighborhood White Girl™️, who’s pointing this stuff out.

Actual Jewish people have pointed out the alarming similarities between anti-Jedi rhetoric and straight up antisemitism. So, if you wanna argue about- “you shouldn’t compare real world discrimination to fictional stuff” -then you should probably take that into account.

Go ahead and try telling Jewish Star Wars fans to stop calling out antisemitic rhetoric in the fandom, I’m sure that’ll go down real well.

I also find it hilarious that you’re telling me to be careful about the rhetoric I use in a thread about how I shouldn’t point out that some of the rhetoric other people spout is basically antisemitism rebranded.

And my point in that post wasn’t- “since this is based off of a real world culture/religion, you can’t criticize it.”

My point was- “since this is based off of a real world culture/religion then you need to be careful about how you criticize it, otherwise you might unconsciously be spouting bigoted beliefs and antisemitic rhetoric because you don’t recognize that that’s what it is because you’re saying it about a fictional culture.”

By all means, I get that some people just don’t like the Jedi, that’s their prerogative and we all have our own tastes.

Criticize them, if you feel like it, but don’t go around spouting rebranded antisemitism to do it. I’m sure you can come up with plenty of things to complain about them for without doing so.

—————

Now, I can understand why you might be worried about the slippery slope from this to shit like actual censorship—which, I think we can all agree, is a bad thing. Or how you might think criticizing this could lead to the whole “fandom purity” debate.

My thing is, it all comes down to does it actually harm people?

Perpetuating harmful stereotypes via saying stuff like the Jewish based characters “steal children,” or “lost their way,” or “they caused/deserved their genocide”—that does cause actual harm.

Think about why the “angry black man” stereotype or the “cheating bisexual” stereotype are bad and people- (rightly) -push back against them. It’s the same thing here.

Shipping a problematic ship, calling a fictional serial killer “babygirl,” writing about dark topics*, headcanoning characters as gay or trans…none of that is actively harming people.

(*obviously when writing about dark topics you should tag appropriately so people can avoid triggers, but that’s another topic for another day)

That’s the difference.

And, for the record, I think letting people spout bigotry just because they’re saying it about something fictional is the more dangerous mindset than calling it out.

[direwombat]

oc smash or pass

*showing up to this a year late with a starbucks* hey guys...

tagged by @socially-awkward-skeleton, @shallow-gravy, @strafethesesinners, @adelaidedrubman, @rhettsabbott, and @josephslittledeputy

and @carlosoliveiraa

Rules: pretty self explanatory. include physical descriptions or pics, and propaganda. the “other” label can be used for “sexuality misalignment” (ie: oc is femme and you’re gay, vice versa or you aren’t into smashing but a specific thing you wanna do with them like perhaps hug or study them under a microscope idc).

QUICK FACTS:

Height: 5’9"

Age: 35 (circa. 2018)

Gender: cis woman (but in the sense that she's just running on default settings and didn't bother to investigate other options.)

Pronouns: she/her

Sexuality: bisexual

propaganda under the cut

pros:

🐇 loyal. unwaveringly so. she will buckle down and stand with you through your lowest of lows and once you've weathered the storm, she will be there to lift you up and celebrate making it through.

🐇 bilingual! will teach you louisiana french to the best of her abilities if you're interested in learning. she starts with the swear words.

🐇 versatile and attentive in bed. she has her preferences, but is ultimately more interested in what brings her partner pleasure.

🐇 witty. she loves a good back-and-forth and banter is a good way to test your compatibility with her.

🐇 you'll never have to hire a handyman or mechanic ever again. she will take care of it for you (fix your plumbing, touch up the paint on your porch, change your oil/tires, etc). she's like a working dog and needs to feel useful. and that's on top of helping you do household chores.

🐇 while not necessarily spontaneous, she is down to go with the flow when it comes to a night out. all you gotta say is "hey, do you want to do/go to/see xyz?" and her response will almost always be "sure, lemme get my keys/jacket." get the right amount of booze in her too and you can convince her to engage in most shenanigans.

🐇 enjoys a good late night philosophical conversation or debate. preferably sitting outside under the stars in a white plastic chair and a beer in her hand.

cons:

💀 smokes like an industrial smokestack and reeks of tobacco. hope you like how nicotine tastes because that's all you're getting when you kiss her.

💀 infuriatingly stubborn and prone to self-destructive behavior. will work herself to the bone until she's passing out in order to keep herself distracted and will turn to the bottle when she starts to spiral.

💀 poor emotional communicator. refuses to be emotionally vulnerable and gets deeply uncomfortable when talking about her feelings (and her past).

💀 has night terrors and wakes up thrashing and screaming almost every night. assuming she sleeps at all. also she doesn't take any of her meds so it's going to keep happening.

💀 you will have to listen to her complain about food not being as good as it is in new orleans

💀 bootlicker (voluntarily joined the military and became a cop :/)

💀 claims to be non-religious but is undeniably culturally catholic.

taglist (opt in/out)

@g0dspeeed, @omen-speaker, @confidentandgood, @tommyarashikage, @cassietrn

@fourlittleseedlings, @purplehairsecretlair, @aceghosts, @finding-comfort-in-rain, @voidika,

@locustandwildhoney, @testyfestyenthusiast, @strangefable, @inafieldofdaisies, @alexxmason,

@deputyash, and anyone else wanting to do this!

[malebodyexhibit]

A Trinity Minus One (a free commission tale)

My best friend was the one who showed me the Grindr profile that day. He was single and stilled used that garbage app. Looking at him still doing hook up culture, made me glad I found my boyfriend of five years. I was so lucky to find a hunky Latino guy. I might be a gringo, but I loved that we were so diverse. Then my friend with trepidation showed me on his phone a profile that showed my boyfriend locking lips with his coworker.

They both worked as mechanics and I thought they were just good friends. I never had a suspicion that José was gay or that he and my boyfriend Germán were hooking up. Much less hooking up as a couple on Grindr. But reading their shared profile, I felt the past decade hollowing into a tangle of lies and deceit.

"Latino couple looking for a bull. NSA. Make me watch you satisfy my boyfriend. No gringos, gracias."

My friend tried to console me but I left and spent the day crying in my apartment. My boyfriend and I shared the place, but he always worked late. Through my tears I saw the red flags: he never came back by dinner, preferring to eat dinner at work; he left early to get extra hours; and always made sure he looked good when he left. I wondered why he would put up with me then.

I thought I was attractive. I was blond with muscle tone, but... no gringos. I guess I was just an apartment and a meal ticket.

I wanted to hate him. To hate them, but they looked so good together. After leaving my friend's place, I downloaded Grindr and stared at their profile. I had thought of messaging them, but... no gringos. I wondered who wrote that. My boyfriend or his? It didn't matter. I was nothing to them. And I actually wanted to be with them. I thought of José and he was hot and funny and charming. I could see why Germán would fall in love with him.

I just wished I could be someone they wanted.

I must have been dreaming because I felt the world around me shift and change. It seemed like the walls separated and fell away, the colors of nature lifted like watercolor and melted, and I felt myself lose the pain of the past hours. Then as swiftly as the world distorted, it returned to normal, except me.

I wished I could be someone they wanted. The loose definition of my body started to collect. It was a tightening of new and old memories. New smells and tastes of a childhood I never had. It was the new sounds of a language I only heard Germán speak. I wished... I stared at myself forming anew in the reflection of the mirror.

My natural blond hair became a shocking platinum dyed crew cut. My white skin became a glowing bronze. Tattoos snaked down my arm, displaying a history on my skin that my old body lacked. My eyes turned sharper, more mature, more determined. The soft upbringing of my white childhood morphed into a struggle in an English-dominated culture. I looked at the naked landscape of my muscular body and felt a rush of hormones, but I wouldn't jack off yet.

Like stars in the sky, I still remembered my old life and could pick out outlines of what happened, though the glow of my Hispanic life was like the sun. I remembered Germán and José. I grabbed my phone and reopened the Grinder app.

While I was still nude with the sweat from the transformation, I took photos and made a profile. My name was Gabriel, like the angel. A second after my profile was made, I got a message from Germán.

"Holy smokes, bro, you're so fucking hot! You dtf?" He texted along with photos of his shirtless body and another of his cock that I had sucked the past five years in my old body.

I didn't feel like talking. I took a picture of my massive, dark cock and sent it to him. "Beg for it, puta."

"Please, please, papí."

I laughed and wanted to torture him some more. Show him more of this body, and tease him, but I remembered the love I felt for him, and simple wrote, "okay, mi amor, don't let me down."

[punkeropercyjackson]

CW for incest mention incase you're uncomfy with it btw:

Hey I saw one of your reblogs from another blog on a post abt incest and the generalization/desensitisation of it online, looked through your blog on similar topics and I just wanted to say thank you thank you thank you because your posts+reblogs on the topic put into words what I've been feeling for a long time now.

I genuinely hate fandom spaces so much. One of my primary fandoms (not pjo) for an anime I like alot is just an actual nightmare to interact with every time because it's full of proshippers and I feel so helpless bc i want to post my art and media of it on my art account, I want to interact with others who like the show, I want to talk to ppl who like my fav character and hyperfixation!! But you can barely trust anyone in the fandom because it's so normal to ship or tolerate incest that people will genuinely get angry if you even express disdain towards a common incestuous pairing in the fandom, much less state that you don't want to be anywhere near proshippers. Even if I find someone who doesn't support that pairing, they still actively interact with and are mutuals with those who DO. I have like no actual friends and interaction in this fandom because i actively despise incest and proshippers and refuse to interact w people who do

This is actually the last straw for me bc one of my fav mutuals on there and like one of the few ppl I got close to when i started using Tumblr for that fandom, I went thru their blog today and turns out they're a fucking proshipper this whole time and I never knew, they reblogged posts that defend proshippers. I'm so done man, I want to expand my art blog and talk to people but it makes me sick that my art for this fandom could be consumed by people who look at actual incest and think fiction doesn't affect reality when they already dumbed down an incredibly abusive dynamic to uwu twincest. It feels so gross, like I end up feeling like I'm somehow supporting this by staying in the fandom and making art.

I genuinely wonder how you stay in Tumblr fandom spaces without going insane when majority of them on Tumblr (esp what I've experienced from the Pjo fandom too) are full of toxic disgusting people who don't know if they said anything they said online to a normal person irl they'd get decked so fast. /gen

So so sorry if this ask comes off as vent-like, i just ended up rambling since this whole situation is so exhausting. You don't have to respond to this at all if you don't want to, but it would be nice to hear your thoughts too. Ty again :)

Hey Venna!!!!Like i said in my ask to you while on post limit,don't dw,my inbox is always open for fandom vents and i'm so glad i could provide a safe space for you where you wouldn't feel bad for having a backbone and taste!!!

And since you said you wanted to hear my thoughts,i completely agree with you and objectively you're right!!Being grossed out by incest is the behavior of a good person and the normalization of incest and the following pedophillia is a bi-product of terminally online gayness-Incest as a positively potrayed story element is a white supremacy thing as a reflection of it's irl status as also a white supremacy thing,both between white families and forced onto families of color by colonizers!When incest isn't a racist thing,it's either 1.Eugenics specifically('keeping it in the family' is a version of it),2.Ageism via 'punishing kids' or 3.A misogyny thing,see ancient greece since you mentioned Pjo!Pedestary only exists because ancient greek men were so misogynistic they'd rather be pedophiles than be with women,not out of any actual gay attraction,and Percy x gods shippers can look it up if you don't believe me.Note that 'purity culture' as they love to harp on actually means 'normalizing sa as a positive thing for palpability to men and forcing young girls to surpress their sexualities to make it easier for them' and by extension 'puritan' refers to 'highup self-righteous bigot who loves the fabled dark/questionable dynamics/content' so take that as you will,from an afropunk autistic trans person with bptsd

And the way i stay in fandoms is to be with my mutuals who also know this and have the same stances as me on this i.e insta-blocking with zero tolerance for proshitting.If you're interested and want a reason to stay,i can rec you their blogs and they can support your content to encourage your creativity as you deserve as all good people who're artists do and we're all tired of the Pjo proshitter gangs too as we roast them often and we do a lot of positive posting both in our Pjo writings/appreciation and other interests so who knows,you may even become friends with them too!!

[chilewithcarnage]

hi,

first off, you are awesome and i love following you. amazing taste and an absolute great person all around. want and hope better things for you and your family bc y'all deserve!

i think the past few weeks, but moreso lately, this site is just the blog version of a03 where it centers white gay (maybe lesbian?) fandom weirdos who are freaks for all the wrong reasons.

like i don't remember the circumstance of karp(?) leaving and who was the owner before the current trash rn, but at the very least even if this site was predominately white, i can still find corners of black or other poc blogger's content to enjoy and it's getting harder to do that!!

also bc i'm isolated, i'm obvs horny, but now nsfw blogs are being nuked even though there's an existing mature content filter so like what's the post (besides attacking trans women rmfe). like it feels like the acceptable freaky things are like fucking i*cest, i just want to see black women make out and twerk jfc

(also on larger scale there's an uptick of ~faux~ i*cest p0rn i.e step family shit and like whyyyyyy????) i just want hot women (of color) being all over each other is getting harder to find or filter through or isn't behind a paywall :((

i'm just a wall of anxiety and dread bc of everything going on w/ the genocides, covid denial, yt ppl in general, and this staff so idk where to turn with this anger and frustration

sorry to vent but i don't have anyone to talk to. ilu and wishing your sis a safe work trip and that she gets to have a couple days to enjoy herself at least

hey friend, starting off thank you so much for the kind words and well wishes my sis did manage to have safe trip she's been back for about a week now. now I get where you're coming from completely and I don't mind being a listening ear for you, I'm honestly sorry that took so long for me to respond to you. It is in fact frustrating the way that tides have turned in terms of the culture and populace of tumblr and how it's run and who's running it. I've been on here for 11 years and idk if I can say the current wave of things is the lower point this site has ever been at but it's pretty damn close. I was so confident that yahoo wouldn't have ended up bagging this place but look where we're at now, missing 75% of our original user base, 💖💙🤍💙💖♀️ getting deleted left and right. it's a shit show indeed. don't even get me started on the lack of black and brown oriented nsfw content and the rise of the proshit ppl.

[tealfruit]

the thing about Seinfeld is that so many of the plots revolve around either a) the characters trying to correctly behave within societal norms and social cues and either reacting to others' percieved failing of them OR failing themselves, b) men are from Mars women are from Venus type sexism, and c) These Characters Are Just Kinda Stupid Assholes Generally.

and like, it would be super wicked easy to update that to a modern setting. for a) we just update societal norms to the modern ones. for b) I don't think the men/women divide would be quite as acceptable, maybe just slighter divides along other lines encompassing gender, sexuality, generation, etc. that is less "we are basically different species" and more just "we have different experiences and maybe don't always understand each other fully". which is just kinda how it is. and c) doesn't really have to change at all, just be adjusted alongside a).

the character archetypes are easy too. Jerry is fairly aloof, generally polite out of social obligation, somewhat petty at times, unwilling to start hard conversations and weirdly picky about his romantic interests. George is a sad, self-centered, insecure little man who schemes and lies and performs to make people like him. Elaine has a strong moral compass in theory, but very little patience and a vindictive, petty side that causes her to lash out at people who don't fall in line with what she thinks is right. and Kramer has almost no filter, immediate understanding of social cues or trust in the government. none of these characters have to be stuck in the 90s.

and on top of all this—Seinfeld was not an especially regressive show! some of the episodes tackled some bigger topics in ways that weren't awful, though usually with less taste or dignity than they maybe deserved. everyone's seen this image:

this is from an episode where, due to a prank on an eavesdropper gone wrong, an article is published about Jerry and George's gay relationship. which they do not have, because they're both straight. so they continuously dispute the idea that they're gay, and every time they do, it involves the line "not that there's anything wrong with that!" there are of course a few tasteless jokes, but nothing heinous. another episode has Elaine dealing with not knowing whether her new boyfriend is black or not, the (all white) gang being uncomfortable discussing or questioning it, and my favorite punchline to a plot in the whole show—when they realize they're just a white couple (the boyfriend thought Elaine was Latina), Elaine says "wanna go to the Gap?"

Seinfeld was full of pop culture and current events references at the time it aired, too, so keeping that would keep the spirit of the original show alive while providing tons of modern material. like if you did a modern Seinfeld reboot, they'd all be discussing the days internet discourse or tiktok trends in mildly wacky scenarios. it would be so very easy. Jerome Seinfeld is just a bigot that lacks creativity or imagination or interest in what is considered funny today.

[lakesbian]

if worm was 2024 do you think Alec would dress/do his hair much differently?

thats a good question. i think his fashion taste would definitely be considered significantly less faggy today than it was in 2010 depending on what cultural context you're putting him in, but i also think that hypothetical-actually-written-as-gay-and-gnc-on-purpose alec is dressing & doing his hair that way because dressing that way specifically is comfortable for him and not because he intentionally wants to be feminine. like, chicken-or-egg situation where the answer is that he's most comfortable dressing that way & it incidentally happens to be feminine rather than being feminine being important to him on its own & him dressing like that to fulfill it. so i think he would obviously be influenced by modern fashion trends (although honestly i don't think much would change for him there because he's already textually wearing clothing that's non-specific enough to not really become abnormal in 14 years. black jeans and a plain white t-shirt are still 100% normal), but i don't think he would like. switch to dresses solely because wearing skinny jeans isn't enough to get you called gay anymore or anything. his hairstyle (nape-length mop of curly hair) is also something i still see pretty frequently so i'm not sure modern fashion trends would influence him there or anything, especially because he wants to do the lowest effort everything possible. i do think that it's possible that he could take a few cues from the social landscape and end up with, like, a little ear piercing or more frequently* painted nails or something else along those lines. but i don't think he would change much no.

*my vision of And Wgat If Regent Was Like For Real Gay includes him occasionally getting bored and painting his nails black or white with random nail polish that's laying around & then keeping it on until it starts flaking at which point he inevitably fidgets when bored by picking it off and flicking it onto the ground. like maybe a few months out of a year you'll catch him with nail polish on

[heyftinally]

I remember the summer You Need To Calm Down was so popular (my first year at pride! My swiftie friends blasted it half the 2hr drive there. Honestly just glad I agreed to let drivers pick the music so I could drive the second half and not have my ears bleed bc they heavily outnumbered me at the time) honestly that song feels so condescending. Like, genuinely I could see it being from the perspective of the bigots (also I feel like I remember there was drama around the music video with her not paying people or something but all I remember is a dumb article quote about her 'not wanting to work and just hang out and play with the drag queens on set' which. Ew)

The song honestly gives me perfect Taylor vibes - that is to say, performance allyship. It sounds like it's from the POV of some out of touch white dishes woman who just wants her Hot Girl Summer Kickoff to start with going to Pride with her GBF (gay best friend) because he's "sooo sweet, and has the BEST taste in fashion" -_- Like, saying homophobes "need to calm down" just fundamentally ignores and downplays the severity of the situation. LGBTQ+ people are MURDERED for existing. Trans healthcare access - read that again access to healthcare that keeps people healthy and alive - is being restricted. And Taylor's responss is "calm diwn" like bigots are just tantruming toddlers.

Not only that, the shoehorning of our slang - most often born from the black queer community - into her song feels incredibly cringey in the worst way. It's like when people start saying random Japanese words because they have a weird, idealized, anime-ified view of Japan. You're taking a culture and using just the popular bits you've seen on TV to masquerade as belonging to that culture. It's weird, and it feels really wrong. That's not her slang to co-opt. If she wanted it included, she should have partnered with an actually queer artist to sing those parts.

Also, the music video was nothing but a desperate marketing ploy, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if there were issues with people not getting paid and/or getting objectified. I honestly expect nothing more from Taylor.

[blood-mocha-latte]

~ miscellaneous tag game ~

tagged by the lovely @mutantmanifesto and @dontirrigateme <3

Favorite place in the world you’ve visited?

rough draw but munich! 'twas gorgeous and also where I got engaged

Something you’re proud of yourself for?

dragging my ass through college in two years and double majoring. nearly killed me but by god it's done

Favorite books?

the awakening by kate chopin - the woman in white by wilkie collins - all quiet on the western front by erich maria remarque - a tree grows in brooklyn by betty smith - letters from the 442nd by min masuda

Something that makes your heart happy when thinking about it?

mah wife (borat voice)

Favorite thing about your culture?

god what even is my culture. how unhinged would i sound if i said swamps and rigatoni

When did you join the HBO War fandom? What was the first show you watched?

joined about three years ago but not on tumblr, but watched the pacific first

Have you read any of Easy Company’s books? If so, which ones were your favorite?

no because i. have a reading list and they aren't up in the queue lmao

Favorite HBO War character and your favorite moment with them?

leckie. he’s like. webster if webster was a wet cat what’s not to love. favorite moment is all moments ever EXCEPT for the sex scenes because what kind of hallucinogen did i take to have to watch that

Do you make content for any fandoms, if so; what sort of content?

i write fic and am. a little consumed by it at all times. i also make edits but am going through a bit of a rut with that so for now only writing thank you

Favorite actor/actress and your favorite film of theirs?

eliza dushku for her wonderful performances in buffy the vampire slayer and angel (i'm gay. can you tell)

Favorite quote/s that you wish to share with others?

just this entire dick allen poem which is luztoye coded forever and ever

Random fact your mutuals/followers don’t know about you?

hm. idk. i once got bit by a raccoon in a bayou and had to get rabies shots for the next two weeks

If you’re a writer, do you need a beta reader (say yes so I can be your beta reader 🤭)?

i write everything by hand and then put in in the Computer which is like. a built in beta edit. and then mah wife (borat voice) betas for me because she's wonderful

Three things that make you smile?

mah wife (borat voice) (i'm predictable)

our air purifier (i’m old)

our vintage dog teapot

Any nicknames you like?

my name is three letters long like there's not a lot of leeway there. i went by adelasia for a while which is my middle name but like. that's it. does papera count

List some people you love to see around on tumblr!

@lamialamia is the pillar of my entire person at all times and genuinely one of the nicest people i’ve ever met. linh wrote this wonderful fic for the secret santa exchange, which i am currently reading and fawning over

@staud is easily one of the talented people in the entire hbo war fandom and has the fucking VISION for gifs and videos. most recent of which i’ve watched (and panicked about) being an incredible eugene sledge video. erin is also just fucking funny bro idk what to tell you

@mutantmanifesto is someone that is like. genuinely a celebrity to me. every time i see lenora’s drawings anywhere i have flashbacks like i’m in the louvre. also just a wonderful person with incredible taste

@ep6bastogne is on a tumblr hiatus right now but always deserves a shoutout. she did incredible edits of skinny sisk, eugene roe, ron speirs, and david webster for the secret santa exchange that changed my brain chemistry forever and is one of the warmest people i’ve ever talked to

@ewipandora is someone that i’m ALWAYS holding hands with <3. both a genuinely funny and wonderful person and has incredible taste in reblogs. ewi is currently doing a band of brothers ship series that i plan to Consume as soon as possible because i have no doubt that they’re incredible

@dcyllom is an incredibly underrated and kind part of my Dashboard Experience™ and is also just wonderful and one of my favorite Tumblr People :)

@educationalporpoises is a genius and an INCREDIBLE writer. zee was my secret santa gifter and this luztoye fic knocked it all the way out of the park and into the cemetery, which is how hard it slayed. also wins for best mutual handle

@almost-a-class-act is ridiculously supportive and kind, and a backbone of the hbo war fandom forever and always. sam’s also one of the best fucking writers to ever grace this earth, with the most recent thing i’ve read being this top notch luztoye fic <3

What would you do during a zombie apocalypse?

die. girl i work in an er i'd be the first to go

Favorite movie?

ladri di biciclette for all time favorite movie ever. a perfect movie

Do you like horror movies?

it depends entirely on the level of homoerotism that can be found in those movies. and also if matthew lillard is in it

Tagging:

everyone mentioned above as well as anyone who wants to do it since i have no clue who’s been tagged :)

[vital-information]

"Much work in queer and transgender studies is governed by an epistemological framework that, as Robyn Wiegman has argued, “calls for scholars in identity studies to offer cogent and full accounts of identity’s inherent multiplicity in ways that can exact specificity about human experience without reproducing exclusion”. This version of an intersectional critical project faces an injunction to continually bifurcate the categories of identity it takes as its objects, driving toward a horizon beyond which the spider web of subaltern identity will be fully articulated and social justice (or at least its discursive possibility) will be achieved. The attempt to glimpse the other side of this horizon can lead to the fetishization of certain kinds of bodies—the contours of which change over time—as representing an Archimedean endpoint of radical otherness. Within queer theory and politics, rapid changes in the social location of gays and lesbians have forced these contours to shift quite rapidly. As a homonormative political vision has made its way to the center of liberal politics and concomitant rights have been granted to some—generally white, moneyed, and sexually respectable—gay and lesbian subjects, the L, G, and (more ambiguously) B in the bricolage of queer identity no longer appear to pose, in and of themselves, an existential challenge to social and political norms. A queer political discourse that remains beholden to the logic of identity has thus passed the buck along to the T, asking transgender subjects to hold down the fort of queer difference. The transgender subject—and particularly the figure of the trans woman of color—has come to figure within these coordinates as “a utensil to reference at will” when figuring the outer limits of political representability (Vidal-Ortiz). As Kate Millett once wrote of Jean Genet, trans women of color are seen within this discourse as having “achieved the lowest status in the world,” and through that “perfection of opprobrium” have “acquire[d] the pride of the utterly abject, a condition which turns out to be next door to saintliness”.

All of this has led to what we might call a politics of trans sincerity, in which the gender-nonconforming subject is celebrated as transgres-sive to the extent that her nonconformity can be read as serious —that is, to the extent that she rejects camp...

This new vision of transgender evokes David Halperin’s account of a contemporary homonormative sociality in which sex and desire have switched places with culture and sensibility as tokens of admission into gay male life. Whereas once, Halperin quips, gay men hid their porn collections in the closet and framed their Broadway playbills, now they hide their play-bills in the closet and frame their porn (). Yet this state of affairs—which, in the case of both transgender (particularly trans feminine) and gay male aesthetics, pivots on the status of camp—exists in tension with one that has been more often remarked upon: the self-conscious absorption of camp aesthetics into a wide swath of mainstream media productions, from Lady Gaga to RuPaul’s Drag Race, which in turn bear a complex and varied relationship to queer audiences. In Halperin’s account, such productions testify to the survival of gay culture, however disavowed, after several generations of denial that it still exists or still matters.

I would amend this argument to claim that, though camp performance is in fact ubiquitous, camp reading practices—techniques for interpreting a performance, cross-gendered or otherwise, as camp—have been pushed back into the closet. “What Camp taste responds to is ‘instant character,’ ” Sontag writes, “understood as a state of continual incandescence—a person being one, very intense thing”. You may not be the gender you were assigned at birth, but according to the ontology of camp, you are really something. (And most likely you are—as my grandmother would say, with the emphasis on both words—really something.) Camp taste’s response to such incandescence may take on a range of affective and epistemological guises. It can appear as an intimate act of aggression, as in the drag spectator’s “read,” her knowing look at a performance that shows its seams (Butler, Bodies). But it can manifest, too, as what Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick calls camp-recognition, in which the encounter with a tacky or overwrought object elicits a gesture of sympathetic identification from the viewer who, instead of distancing herself from the scene of aesthetic disaster, asks, “What if whoever made this was gay, too?". Either way, camp reading—forsaken or forgotten within much queer political discourse today—marks an attempt to grasp its object as a whole."

Marissa Brostoff, "Notes on Caitlyn, or Genre Trouble"

[justbrainrot]

It’s time for my Legendborn characters' sexuality headcanons to be out into the world:

(Disclaimer: yes some of these characters are underage. I know. Folks’ preferences don’t come in the mail with their voter registration though. Don’t come for me about these entirely fictional characters because I’ll just block you and that’s not gratifying for either of us, ‘kay?)

That being said there is a cut this is all gonna live under lol

Bree: Our girl’s motto is, “I’ll try anything once. Or twice! Maybe it’s an acquired taste.” I mean listen, she has almost no experience prior to meeting these dudes, but she does have her big big brain & Alice. So she’s well read iykwim. And has an inherently queer sensibility when she thinks about relationships, despite how things may look from the outside. She really enjoys the negotiation prior to a scene, which makes her a natural at this poly thing. Also, she’s a switch.

Identifies as: Queer

Sel: Baby boy is a service bottom. I mean if this isn’t obvious to you maybe we can’t be friends lol. He enjoys both lightly applied sensation & some pretty heavy pain on occasion. He will definitely top & top well when told to. Sensory deprivation is 100% his jam because it turns his brain off just a li’l bit.

Identifies as: Pansexual (this is canon btw, I didn’t make this part up)

Nick: Oh my darling! Nick is the most vanilla of our trio, but that’s not saying much because, well, have you met the other two lol. He is a natural dom but is also patently disgusted by all the trappings of dominant white cishet dudes in our culture. So he’s also a unicorn, bless ‘im. He is deeply in love with Bree, which is obvious to anyone with eyes, but his feelings for Sel have been clouded by the Kingsmage Oath for so long that when it’s removed, it takes him a minute to work out that he’s in love with Sel also.

Identifies as: Bisexual

Alice: First I need to say that Alice rocks a sick lesbian manicure seven days a week & if that isn’t the hottest way to flag I don’t know what is. She is solidly femme4femme, & knows how to top from below so smoothly you’ll have no idea it’s happening until you are wondering if you forgot to set your face because it’s dripping into your eyes all of a sudden.

Identifies as: Lesbian

William: This dude is a gentleman first & foremost; he ofc redefines making enthusiastic consent sexy as hell. He is uncomfortable having sexytimes when he has Gawain’s strength at noon & midnight, so he has deftly avoided it thusfar. Dating Lark might change that, though, I’m thinking. He’s not dated within the Order before, after all. Pretty vanilla guy, all things considered, but that does not mean boring!

Identifies as: Gay

Mariah: at first I didn't think I had a handle on Mariah, but now I'm thinking she is either ace or just isn't in a place where sexuality is all that important in her life atm and she's fine with it. She's def down to be a soundboard for her friends though, and is wicked smart, so for these reasons she knows the most about what's going on with everyone else but is the soul of discretion.

There will be a part two because this hellsite gets buggier the longer my posts get, apparently.

Edit: part two ✨here✨

[distant--shadow]

in my tank top and stonewashed jeans older men approach, say hi to me

they got shaved heads and tattoos and thick arms just like the mirror says, but that doesnt

make me feel desirable (like they do), make me feel so fucking manly

make me feel so

terrified

survival weighted on glancing eyes,

seasoned hands groping what's made of them - syntethetic between thighs

the boy with a leather bound sketchbook in the back pocket of his pants

and sorry, did I say pants? I meant jeans. pop culture gave me a vernacular outside of my genes.

gay as an insult, for object, feeling, and circumstance - something that is demeaned.

not the taste, the rush, the scent, the lip split like bread from the elbow thrown at my head.

the belts, the buckles, the leather, the harness, the mask you end the day in and the one you start it with

the salt of the sweat, saline of the tears

concious of time getting away, making up for lost years

where I should have been in a white tank and stone washed jeans

chest ruptured, harvested, and skin silvered into seams

older men approaching me

and I welcome their spittle

take what they give openly

[demi-shoggoth]

2023 Reading Log pt. 4

March was hard for me, both in terms of my personal life and in terms of my reading. I started a whole bunch of books that I haven't finished. Some of them I intend to come back to (two monster books, one for RPGs and one reference book). The ones I intentionally gave up on are listed here, as well as the whys of why I gave up on them.

16. Bestiarium Greenlandica, edited by Maria Bach Kreutzmann. Recommended to me a while ago by @abominationimperatrixx, but I have only been able to get a copy recently. This is the second edition, put out by Eye of Newt Press, which seems to specialize in publishing monster books with previously limited print runs (they also have an edition of Welsh Monsters and Mythical Beasts by C G J Ellis, for example). This book is an A-Z look at mythical creatures from Greenland, which entails a peek at traditional Thule culture. Anggakutt (the equivalent of shamans) use various monstrous spirits to guide them through the spiritual realm and work wonders for them, and these have to be negotiated with or even battled in order to recruit them. So there’s plenty of monsters, many of which are very obscure in English language sources, or confused with other creatures from other Inuit cultures. The book has illustrations for most of the monsters, some line drawings and some full color paintings. All of the art is great, and it doesn’t shy away from the sex and violence in the myths. So a trigger warning is at play if dead and decaying fetus monsters, ghouls with giant penises, or all manner of grotesque facial features are not your thing. But if you’re okay with those, this book is highly recommended.

17.  Bog Bodies Uncovered by Miranda Aldhouse-Green. This book looks at the various bodies that have been discovered in peat bogs throughout northern Europe, and is primarily concerned with why these people were killed and placed in the bog. After a discussion of the history of finding bog bodies, and about the nature of bogs and how the tannins contribute to preservation, the book is primarily a forensic investigation. Its ultimate thesis is that most of the bog bodies represent intentional human sacrifices by Celtic and Germanic people. The author does a good job of supporting that claim, although her extrapolations and speculations go a little far for my taste (especially when she conjectures that the Lindow Man was sacrificed because of a specific battle written about by the Romans). The book features a mix of black and white photos and illustrations with color plates, which is always appreciated for a book about physical artifacts.

17a. Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller. I gave up on this one around the halfway point—much longer than I typically go into a book I decide not to finish. That’s because I really wanted to like this one, but couldn’t. The subject is how queer history has often been sanitized and gay historical figures made saintly, when in reality there were plenty of unremarkable and some downright evil gay people as well. The book also wants to aim a giant fuck you at respectability politics, arguing for radical queer liberation and that the current state of gay representation is rooted in capitalism and patriarchy. It also also wants to make snarky quips about gay kings and military leaders—this is a very distant priority. I agree with the book’s politics in the broad sense, and there’s just enough quips and history to have kept me interested this long, but the overall feel of the book is very preachy, and not actually that interested in the lives of the individual subjects. There are ways to make a book both stridently anti-capitalist and an entertaining read, and this one fails.

17b. How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler. I stopped this one a few pages into the second chapter. I was looking for a book about marine life and fun facts, and this has that, but is interwoven with personal memoir and is much heavier on the memoir. The first chapter is about how goldfish are stunted in fishbowls, but can grow to enormous sizes in the wild and can act as an invasive species. And this is contrasted with the author feeling stifled by small town life and realizing that they’re queer upon growing up. That was fine, but the second chapter draws connections between how mother octopuses starve themselves watching over eggs, and the generational eating disorders that the author and their mother dealt with. My mood couldn’t handle that. Maybe I’ll come back to this book when I’m in a more secure mental place, but I didn’t feel like crying while reading again. Not for a while—I think my allotment is one sad book a year.

18. Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire. This feels like a companion volume to Mary Roach’s Fuzz. Both books are about how humans behave when animals get in their way, but Fuzz deals more with the humans and Pests deals more with the animals. There’s lots of evolution and ecology material here, including very recent research, like the possible link between the evolution of house mice and the contents of their gut flora, and a modern look at how Australia’s ecosystems are reacting to and coping with the introduction of cane toads. This book is much more the balance of science to personal experience that I was looking for right now, and I had a good time with this one.

19. Ancient Sea Reptiles by Darren Naish. I’ve been looking forward to this book since it was first announced, so I’m happy to report that it’s as good as I was hoping. The book discusses Mesozoic marine reptiles (with some guest appearances from Permian taxa, like mesosaurs). First, it goes through the history of their discovery and some overview of their anatomy, physiology and evolutionary relationships. Then, it goes through the clades. Ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, marine crocodiles and sea turtles get their own chapter, and all the other groups, from weird Triassic one-offs to sea snakes, are compiled into a single chapter. Naish is one of my favorite science writers, as he combines a phylogeny-centric approach for an appreciation of the novelties and weirdness of specific genera. I would love it if he wrote a similar book about another group for which books for educated laypeople are thin on the ground, like stem crocodiles or non-mammalian synapsids.

20. Effin’ Birds by Aaron Reynolds. This is the book form of a Twitter feed, which I appreciate from a historical perspective. The feed, and the book, have two main jokes. One, pictures of birds with profanity as captions. Two, faux descriptions of bird behavior and habitats that are jokes about common types of unpleasant people, or people who avoid unpleasant people. I got a few laughs out of it, but I’m glad that I got this book from a library and would not pay money for it. The funniest thing about this book to me is that that selfsame library put it with the books about bird biology and field guides, when there is zero informational content in this book, combined with the book itself making a joke about how you’d never find this book in a library.

[michaelgruberfan]

A first person story from Michael for the Broadway Buzz! about his experience with A Chorus Line! (X) Published Feb 19, 2008

Michael Gruber: My Twice-in-a-Lifetime Experience in A Chorus Line

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About the author: Through a combination of talent and timing, Michael Gruber is making theatrical history as the only actor who appeared in both the original Broadway company of A Chorus Line including the legendary final performance, no less! and in the current Broadway revival of the show. In a career spanning almost 20 years, Gruber has amassed a resume that includes yet another record-breaking Broadway show Cats, in which he played Munkustrap, plus Kiss Me, Kate, Swing, Miss Saigon, My Favorite Year, The Wizard of Oz and the Encores! production of Stairway to Paradise. His regional credits include starring roles in Singin' in the Rain, Easter Parade, White Christmas, Godspell and many more. A former all-American diver who trained for the Olympics, Gruber has also composed three musicals himself. He recently shared memories of his unique experience of appearing in A Chorus Line then…and now.

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A Chorus Line was my first Broadway show. I was only 24 years old when I got the role of Mike Costa, the cheerful young dancer who sings "I Can Do That," and I was so stagestruck about being in the show. It's the typical story: I had seen A Chorus Line in Cincinnati when I was a junior in high school and said, 'This is what I want to do.'"

What I remember most vividly about the final Broadway performance on April 28, 1990, is that it was out of control! It was a Saturday, so the matinee that day was really the last time we as a company felt we were doing the show itself. The final performance that night was more about the audience, which included a lot of original cast members and others who loved the show and had come back to say good-bye. I remember the wonderful neon sign that flew in to center stage with the number of performances—6,137—lit up.

For me, the most startling thing was having to stand there after my number for what seemed like a full minute. They just wouldn't stop applauding. I've never experienced anything like that, even when I was in Cats on the night it passed A Chorus Line as the longest-running Broadway show. I realize now that the applause was not really about me; it was about the show itself. It was the end of an era.

I met the original Mike, Wayne Cilento, at the closing night party, which was held at the old Mamma Leone's. He was charming, but the original cast didn't socialize with us much; they were all on one side of the room and we were on the other. It hurt our feelings at the time, but now that I'm over 40, working with kids in their 20s, I understand. They were all friends, and they had their own nostalgic bond.

Since then, I've auditioned for several companies of A Chorus Line, but I'd never done the show again until I was offered the opportunity to replace Michael Paternostro as Gregory Gardner in the Broadway revival. It's been such a fantastic gift to work with Baayork Lee, the original Connie, who was at the epicenter of the creation of the show and has restaged it all over the world. Director Michael Bennett had passed away by the time I joined the cast, but Baayork remembers everything: Anything you want to ask, even after all these years, she can tell you.

I was fascinated to hear about the original Greg, Michel Stuart, who reinvented himself as a cultured, artistic personality. Playing a Jew from the Bronx is far from me, a Midwestern Catholic, but I can understand someone who creates a character from his own life and aspires to taste and sophistication. The fact that Greg is gay should be somewhat of a surprise to the audience; the character has a superiority and a confidence because he's been around. Baayork and Michel were very good friends, so my character's relationship with Connie is strong, and also with Cassie because they're the older dancers. That's why Cassie stands between Sheila and Greg onstage. The audience may not get all that, but knowing the background of the show anchors and orients me.

As I look at the show now, I'm struck by how contemporary it feels. It was ahead of its time back then; that's what made it revolutionary. Michael Bennett embraced the idea of presenting the real-life stories of ordinary people, knowing that audiences would be interested. It's a testament to Nicholas Dante and Ed Kleban, who wrote the book, that A Chorus Line doesn't feel dated. It's timeless because it's so truthful and not based in pop culture. The show is as perfect as it can be, which means that as an actor, I don't need to reinvent the wheel. When you muck about with it, it loses its crispness. My task is to take my ego out of it and serve the show so that its truthfulness comes through. Keep it simple. Keep it real.

I went into the revival last summer with nine other actors, and during rehearsals, we skipped the numbers that didn't involve the replacement cast. So it wasn't until our first performance that I had the great thrill of watching Jeffrey Schecter's brilliant performance of "I Can Do That." Feelings of nostalgia washed over me as the realization of how lucky I was to be standing on that white line again after all these years came vividly into focus. Later, Jeffrey and I shared another "full circle" moment: He remembered seeing a tape of "I Can Do That" on Nightline during a story about the original production just before it closed. "You were in that last company," he said to me. "Did you do a standing back somersault at the end of the number?" When I said yes, he replied, "I saw you on TV when I was 14. And I said to myself, 'I want to do that.'"

[eliott-emma]

My Small Analysis of Would've Could've Should've

Forward notes

I am not a native English user, neither am I cultured by western literture or religion. Yet, I've been learning English since a little kid, and have watched and read many stories in western themes. So I am confident with what I write about. But if I make a clear mistake, feel free to point me out anytime.

Futhermore, everything I write are just my opinion. I do not know Taylor, I do not know if she is queer. These are just my interpretation of her art and her music, no need to say anything rude about what I think. But discussion is welcomed in the comment section. ☺️

My First Thoughts

This song is gay as hell.

I can't believe there's only a few people who thinks of that (even the gaylor community didn't seem to see this song too much). This song is sooo LOUD. The theme of thinking love is a sin, of 'gone along with the righteous' if 'you never'd touched me', of thinking 'pain was heaven'? Oh my god, so gay. What kind of people will think their love is a sin? Queer people.

Thoughout history, sinned love happens because of society's disapproval. Like loving a sex worker, loving a woman who is married, or loving the same sex. If there are only parents who disapprove, it wouldn't make it such as a 'sinned' love. What is suspicious though, in Taylor's case, she was always seen dating men with nice appearances, white, famous and rich man. And if people are right, if they are really dating, why should you feel sinned dating these fine men? People may say that John Mayer is a bad boy, but no one would call dating a bad boy as a sin.

Besides the sinned theme, the other part I think was gay is during the bridge when she yells, "Give me back my GIRL... hood, it was mine first." I literally didn't hear the 'hood', I thought that was her coming out for a second. But then a looked up the lyrics and oh, no she said "girlhood". But still, I kept the thought that the original lyrics was "girl",

Song Lyrics Analysis

I'll try my best to explain myself since English is not my first language. It'll be difficult and I'll have to check the dictionary to make sure with some of the words. And I'll try my best doing line by line. Here we go!

If you would've blinked then I would've Looked away at the first glance

If you tasted poison, you could've Spit me out at the first chance

These two lines are simple. The lover is looking at Taylor intensely and Taylor tries hard not to fall for them (I'm using gender neutral pronouns here. Because why not?). Also, Taylor think of herslf as poison, I guess it could refer to "I once was poison ivy." In Don't Blame Me. And it also pointed out how sinned Taylor thinks herself was.

If I was some paint, did it splatter On a promising grown man? And if I was a child, did it matter If you got to wash your hands?

These are the lines I thought about quite frequently to figure out what it is all about. I guess, the paint is like something colorful, probably something like gayness. And it splatter on a grown man, who I guess is the elder lover, asking: did my gayness pass over to you as I splatter on you?

If I was a child, meaning if this is all childish and shouldn't be taken seriously, did you get to wash out the gayness we had?

Ooh, oh All I used to do was pray Would've, could've, should've If you'd never looked my way

Now Taylor hoping that this love never happened. And "praying" for it, as in a religious way, hoping the love intrest didn't lured her and took her away from what she was the first place.

I would've stayed on my knees And I damn sure never would've danced with the devil At nineteen And the God's honest truth is that the pain was heaven And now that I'm grown, I'm scared of ghosts Memories feel like weapons And now that I know, I wish you'd left me wondering

I think it's quite obvious here so I'm not gonna say much. Just vibe with it yall.

If you never touched me, I would've Gone along with the righteous If I never blushed, then they could've Never whispered about this

Touching me is sinned? GAY.

People whispered about our love? GAY.

And if you never saved me from boredom I could've gone on as I was But, Lord, you made me feel important And then you tried to erase us

So now we figured why Taylor's so sad, because her lover wants to erase thier love. I deeply doubted that this song is about Emily who had married in and probably "moved on" and erase everything they had. But I don't know anything, it's just speculations.

You're a crisis of my faith Would've, could've, should've If I'd only played it safe

I saw someone on Reddit talking about the feeling of this love made a crisis. I think the person interpreted it so well. You can go check it out by jsut searching "Would've Could've Should've Gaylor"😆

God rest my soul, I miss who I used to be The tomb won't close, stained glass windows in my mind I regret you all the time I can't let this go, I fight with you in my sleep The wound won't close, I keep on waiting for a sign I regret you all the time

So I guess this is Taylor sitting through her sleepless nights thinking about how she regrets doing it wrong then. Letting her past lover chase her down as a phantom in her dreams. Really scary isn't it.

If clarity's in death, then why won't this die? Years of tearing down our banners, you and I Living for the thrill of hitting you where it hurts Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first

The bridge is also a part that I have no idea about. "Clarity's in death" may be saying that their love is already secret and private and no one really know what happened, but even though this love is basically invisible, it still won't die. It still aches.

"Tearing down the banners"? Well I seriously can't think of anything. I might guess parading, but it doesn't seem so.

Last two lines? I'm so sorry. I can't get anything out😭

So. That was my first Taylor Swift line by line analysis. I think I could do better but I just really want to share my thoughts. Please comment if you have different ideas!!!