#respect the queer resistance

[alidravana]

I am so confused right now...lots of BT critics are taking the cone comment as a sexual one (to indicate puppy play) and are somehow:

a. mad at 911 writers for 'lazy writing' and tying these kinks to mlm ships

b. but then somehow are also saying that 911 is kink-shaming

c. meanwhile they are the ones actually kink-shaming?

Honestly, y'all sound like teenagers learning about sex for the first time and calling it yucky. It's time to grow up.

Take the time to learn and do better. Talk to your local queer community supports to find resources about BDSM and kinky sex that are not 50 Shades or fanfiction.

Go to the library and take out some books on queer sex resistance and liberation. It wasn't that long ago (and is still true in many instances) where queer sex was considered deviant. Kink and queerness are intertwined for a reason.

And lastly, "your kink is not my kink, but your kink is ok”.

[genericpuff]

’had’ a boyfriend shut up do not disrespect Hyacinthus in this house

psh what are you implying

we pay him only the deepest respect here

[hobohobgoblim]

Me confronting transphobes and fascists:

[wild-at-mind]

Honestly really upset about the James Somerton thing.

[brasskingfisher]

Trans awareness week 13th-19th November

Since its trans awareness week, consider yourself aware of trans people.

🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️

[friend-lover-traitor-narrator]

I have to attend an overly posh family dinner tomorrow. Men are supposed to wear a suit. Women are supposed to wear a dress and heels.

Guess who'll be wearing neither a dress nor heels? Guess who'll be wearing sneakers and rainbow socks?

It's me, your closeted enby with a liking for silent resistance.

(It's not that I rule out wearing dresses completely, I'm just not going to wear one tomorrow and definitely not because these people tell me to do so.)

[drchucktingle]

One of my fav podcasts is doing an episode on you and I'm shaking my head because they're not real buckaroos and they don't understand that you write because love is real and everyone should have joy in their lives. They're just making jokes and I'm like "at least buckaroos embrace what makes us happy"

yes this is interesting thing that happens with my trot A LOT. i usually will repost a podcast or interview if someone does a nice talk on chuck, but there is STILL a large portion of folks who seem to have the irony poison pumping through their veins and cant come to terms with the fact that my work is sincere

you can pretty dang quickly tell if someone is laughing AT you or laughing WITH you. i have trotted onto interviews where i IMMEDIATELY know i am getting laughed at and honestly that is okay. i cant really blame them because i know the way the culture of irony swirls around us and swallows everything up, especially online. i also know that as i trot forward and break down walls of 'low brow' and 'high brow' art there will be resistance, ALL the good trots forward will face resistance.

HOWEVER it also has to be said that a lot of this is just plain old SUBCONSCIOUS BIAS (or maybe conscious bias sometimes) against queer people and neurodivergent people. if my work was straight and i followed the neurotypical template for art i would not be treated like this. honestly the most fascinating thing to me is that these otherwise kind, well-meaning or even politically left people are just publicly tearing apart someone for, if you really wanna get down too it, being bi and autistic. i think they would be HORRIFIED is someone pointed that out, and for some reason they cant see it

i think a lot of this has to do with people thinking i am not 'real'. it is much easier to treat a 'character' this way.

but it is fine. its the trot ive got, and if you think about it, even though these folks are resistant to take me seriously and with actual respect for my work, it is actually THEIR loss. a podcast episode where you make fun of my book titles for an hour is SO MUCH LESS INTERESTING than a podcast where you pull apart what im actually doing and the intention behind my work. any time a buckaroo dives into THAT part of it, their analysis resonates across this timeline. so really its the folks makin fun that are missing out

[genderqueerdykes]

i'm going to continue talking about what trans men experience and transandrophobia until we finally break the silence forced upon transmasculine people and trans men. we are no longer tolerating being invisible, pushed aside, mocked, abandoned, disrespected, questioned, harassed, and denied the right to be addressed correctly with respect and grace.

trans men and mascs are going to exist no matter how hard you try to deny our identities, or abuse us out of them. there will always be transmascs and men no matter how hard you try to prevent us from talking about it, publicly sharing our identities, or finding community. no matter what, trans men and mascs will always be here and it's best to just let us carve out spaces for each other because trying to silence us permanently isn't working.

we are trans. we are queer. our masculinity and manhood is not a threat to you. we are not inherently dangerous. we are not "ruining our bodies with testosterone". we're not confused. we're not stepping on trans women's and transfemme's toes when we create spaces for ourselves and talk about our issues. we're not taking resources away from other queer people.

we need resources, too. just because someone is a man or masc does not mean they will have an easy time making a lot of money. it's still hard for transmascs in transition to find well paying, stable jobs. workplace discrimination still exists- "female" deadnames and F markers are still going to get in the way- especially now that they know you are trans. intersex trans men struggle to have our identities addressed correctly. workplaces can still fire trans people for them being trans, especially in states where at-will employment is in place. they can claim they fired you for one reason, but it was really because you are trans.

policing the verbiage and identities of transmascs and men is not going to make us stop identifying with them. trans men are allowed to call ourselves trannies- we are trannies. we're allowed to call ourselves dykes and butches and lesbians. we're allowed to have multiple genders, including being women, without that invalidating our masculinity and/or manhood. we're allowed to be and dress femme. we are allowed to choose whether or not HRT and surgery is right for us.

regardless of how much someone hates these things- they're still going to happen. you can tell us that we can't be "real men" or that we can't be wholly or partially women, genderfluid, closeted, detrans, non binary, genderqueer, butches, femmes, dykes, lesbians, or sapphic- but we're still going to be those things anyway.

resistance won't make us go away- it just makes us angrier, and it makes us fight harder for our rights, and the rights of our brothers, siblings, partners, husbands, fathers, relatives, and every transmasc and man out there.

[i-have-ink-for-blood]

something i wrote last may:

Why is it THEM or us?

i cringe everytime i call them a she

the proper pronouns at the base of my throat

i'm proud to be trusted with their secret

but i hate the fact that i have to at all

it makes me want to scream

THEY take their name from them

their rights to their own self

and for what??

to put them back in their acceptable box

and THEY disgust me with THEIR hate

like we disgust THEM with our existence.

[antifainternational]

Kirkcaldy reportback!

On Saturday the 18th of May 2024 a group of antifascist members of the community disrupted an event organised by Women Won't Wheesht in Kirkcaldy.

These people were workers, locals and members of the public. They were transgender, cisgender, gay and straight. They were unaffiliated with any organisation, group or political party. Their actions were their own and were organised on their own initiative. They acted to protect their community from an intolerant group who aim to plant a seed of cruelty, a seed of hate that would grow and overshadow everything around it, which would poison the earth and kill off wildflower and bramble and thistle alike.

"A community is made up of many different types of people," one member of the group said, "and what makes a community strong is celebrating the diversity of its members and standing in solidarity with those who need it most. Trans people are one of the most marginalised groups of people in society, and yet groups like Women Won't Wheesht seek to sow division in our local communities by painting trans people as a danger. Trans people are part of the fabric of our communities and groups like Women Won't Wheesht have no place in inclusive and safe communities. We all need to stand up against hate speech and protect our neighbours and friends."

Women Won't Wheesht is a hate group which peddles anti-transgender bigotry. Their events, veiled under vague 'concerns about women' have historically been attended by anti-abortion anti-feminist groups such as the Scottish Family Party, homophobes such as the Destiny Church, and members of the fascist Scottish Defence League. Their members also attended rallies organised by the neo-nazi Kelly Jay Keen.

Women Won't Wheesht's rhetoric calls for the elimination of drag queens, transgender and nonbinary people from public life. It is the same rhetoric which was used to murder members of the gay community during the AIDS epidemic. It advocates both social murder (murder by inaction from the state) and violence against transgender people. To achieve this, they bully and harass transgender people in society and online. They publicly share people's addresses and names. They accuse all transgender people of being sexual predators, thereby toxifying and dehumanising them so they are seen as less-than-human. They lobby politicians to spread their hate and appear legitimate.

The anti-transgender reactionary movement in the UK has been called explicitly genocidal by the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention.

We, as proud members of our community, denounce all genocides and any who participate in them. We stand for a world where everyone has the right to speak their mind, where everyone has the right to be who they are. We stand for a world where gay, straight, brown, white, man, woman, and everything in between can live and love together. We cannot stand by and allow Women Won't Wheesht platform to spread hate and cruelty. We are fighting for a kinder, more caring world.

If the members of Women Won't Wheesht reach out to their local queer community, if they choose to talk, and listen, and learn, if they come with humility and gentleness, they will be greeted and welcomed with kindness and respect. We understand that many of those who come to join these movements have done so under a deception. They have been told that their alienation is not due to the United Kingdom's misogynist society and the social murder and violence of neoliberal capitalism, but due to transgender people existing. Many of us have been caught and deceived by such lies too. We have learned, and we have grown.

But if Women Won't Wheesht continue their campaign of violence, they will meet resistance. Their platform will be taken away, because it is by the grace of the people of Scotland that they have it in the first place, and the people of Scotland will not allow genocide of any kind.

At the action on Saturday, members of the public were overwhelmingly in support of transgender liberation.

One organiser said "People of all ages stopped to speak to the outreach team and expressed disgust at the transphobia from the Women Won't Wheesht incomers." Over one hundred trans flags were distributed to supportive people of Kirkaldy.

SOLIDARITY. LOVE AND KINDNESS.

ANTI-FASCISTS OF SCOTLAND.

[hobohobgoblim]

Transphobes Assault 3-Year-Old Toddlers in Public Park

[ladyimaginarium]

coining the term twospiritphobia / twospiritmisia.

Q: what is twospiritphobia / twospiritmisia?

A: the discrimination, hatred, exclusion & erasure of those who identify as two spirit and/or indigiqueer.

Q: why not just call it homophobia/transphobia against indigenous qipoc / queer indigenous poc?

A: because not every indigenous person identifies by western lgbtqia+ labels which are a predominantly western eurocentric concept that does not always align with indigenous turtle island concepts, not all queer natives identify with two spirit due to its heavy inherent historical, social, political, cultural, spiritual & ceremonial connotations & because we deserve to have our terms to describe our own experiences of discrimination that inherently includes our indigeneity & our own sacred two spirit nature.

Q: why did you(&) coin this term?

A: because i've noticed that in the past year & even before, the predominantly white queer community refuses to include us let alone see us & when they do, it's usually to tokenize us then throw us away when we're no longer convenient, erase us (see: nex benedict, when the mostly white queer community erased their indigenous two spirit identity to make them their trans/nonbinary martyr despite them being choctaw & completely ignoring mmeiwg2s+/mmeip issues which is never talked about in queer spaces unless natives talk about it), talk down to us when we don't conform to your western concepts of gender & orientation that do not inherently apply to us, speak over us & our issues & push us out of your fucking queer spaces without ever actually trying to work with us despite the fact that we the two spirit community who were revered as sacred have existed on turtle island for over 5000 years & were the first victims & survivors of racist imperialist homophobic & transphobic based war crimes & genocide & have been fighting & resisting for our liberation far before anyone else ever set foot on these lands, longer than any other queer community on turtle island, longer than stonewall & whenever queer history is brought up, two spirit people & the violence against us from the beginning of colonization of turtle island are never discussed & quite frankly i've had enough of native erasure both historically speaking & in the present day. there's a reason why there's a 2s in front of 2slgbtqia+ in "canada", because we were here first. we will not be erased. there can be no liberation without two spirits at the center of queer activism. by adding this to your vocabulary you acknowledge & honor two spirits as the first queer people of turtle island & we deserve your allyship, respect, protection & solidarity, respect the indigenous roots of the term two spirit, honor indigenous peoples' way of living, loving & learning & building communities across turtle island, emphasize the importance of indigenous perspectives & identities within the broader 2slgbtqia+ community & further acknowledging & recognizing the historical & ongoing contributions of indigenous peoples to discussions about gender & sexual diversity & highlights the need for visibility & inclusion of two spirits in these conversations & acknowledging, respecting & honoring indigenous peoples as the traditional stewards of the land & that indigenous peoples were the first to build communities that honored romantic, sexual, gender & sex diversity on the land of turtle island ever since time immemorial.

Q: what are some examples of twospiritphobia?

A: the erasure of two spirits both historically & in the present, assaulting/committing hatecrimes against individuals who are, or who are perceived or assumed to be two spirits, nonnatives — both white settlers & nonnative poc — culturally appropriating two spirit when it's an exclusive closed term from closed cultures for indigenous people of turtle island, if you are not first nations, métis, inuit, indigenous american, alaska native, indigenous mexican, indigenous central american, greenlandic inuit or otherwise not indigenous to turtle island and/or mixed with any of those groups, & you are not either reconnecting, semiconnected or connected to your culture, you cannot use the term, using antinative slurs against two spirits on any context or form that one cannot reclaim and/or using said antinative slurs casually/as insults, harassing/threatening/mocking/intimidating two spirit individuals while motivated by said individual's two spirit & indigenous identity whether online or face-to-face, treating two spirits differently than pericishetallo natives, even if one is native themselves, attempting to "correct" two spirits on their own identities, saying our two spirit identities are wrong, using religion and/or spirituality as an excuse to harm or exclude two spirit people, fetishizing/objectifying/sexualizing/romanticizing individuals based on their two spirit identities, opposing and/or dismissing the need for explicit two spirit representation & progress for two spirit rights & two spirit liberation, erasing two spirit issues as inherently gay/trans issues, not acknowledging twospiritphobic behavior in others, refusing to speak up for two spirit people, telling two spirits that they're unnatural or "attention seeking", speaking over two spirited people when they tell you you're being racist/being twospiritphobic, policing two spirits on who we can & can't be in relation to ourselves especially from nonnatives even more from white settlers, accusing two spirits of "oppression olympics" whenever we bring up our issues, not acknowledging two spirits as the first queer people who've existed for thousands of years on turtle island & denying indigeneity as the core element of being two spirit.

disclaimer: do not fucking remove credit from us& being the coiner of this term, while the experiences of twospiritphobia/twospiritmisia are nothing new, we& as an indigenous bodied system demand respect as the coiner of this term. please ask if you intend on using this term on your wikis/masterlists. do not use this term for yourself to describe your experiences if nonnative/2S. nonnatives do not fucking derail, especially yt folx.

[comrade-kimberly]

From Palestine To The World, October 2024 by Queers In Palestine.

Language: Unworded by colonial violence, resisting erasure

After a year of an ongoing genocide, ethnic cleansing, attempts of expansion by the Zionist settler-colonial project, and of our ongoing steadfast global revolt, we are delivering a message from Palestine, to the world, while words cannot convey the depths of our collective trauma or the radical resistance we embody. Words collapse as we bear witness to the destruction of bodies, lands, histories, and futures. Language can no longer hold the weight of our suffering, our rage, our endless grief. It cannot do justice to our feelings and experiences. While capitalism and colonialism’s forces of death and destruction are wounding the world, we are still determined to deliver our voice, we are still moved by the force of life, and will always move with and towards it.

Palestine and Lebanon: One land in grief and struggle

The Zionist colonial entity still exists because colonial and imperialist powers are supporting and funding it. These are the same powers that produced the Sykes-Picot colonial agreement that fragmented Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan and other Arab nations in 1916 by enforcing borders on our lands. We live with the implications of these systems. We deeply embody the knowledge of this violence, and have been trying to warn the world that these powers neither see our humanity nor respect our sovereignty. The world’s promises of justice and accountability through colonial international laws and institutions only reproduce violence and harm with no transformation. The very existence of these colonial powers is built on the (social) death and exploitation of others. The same tactics of annihilation that have been used in Gaza since last October are now also used in Lebanon. They are reaching us all––from surveillance tools of political repression, to weapons for direct killings. From corporations to other colonial structures, if we do not dismantle these systems, they will continue to consume us all.

Zionism: Threat against humanity

Zionist settler colonialism has been perpetrated against the land of Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Palestine. But it does not stop there: Zionism is a global threat. While Palestine is used as the Zionist entity’s testing-ground to develop technologies of oppression (including cyber invasions and technological warfare) to control the people and suppress resistance worldwide, these Zionist inventions are exported and used for state violence to further colonial, imperial and capitalist expansion. The Zionist entity’s influence extends to geopolitics and resource extraction across Latin America and Africa––from mining projects in Namibia, to diamond extraction in Angola, and ‘Cop City’ in the USA–– and its aggression can only be contained through struggle and abolition.

The myth of individualism and separation

Individualism is an instrument of the systems of (neo)liberalism, racial capitalism and colonialism. It is designed to destroy our collectives and community practices through fragmentation and separation––from each other, the land, the planet and universe, and from ourselves. The illusion of separation denies our autonomy, our sovereignty over our bodies and land. We resist this colonial myth of individualism that serves oppressive systems. We are interdependent and our struggles are interconnected and intersectional––there is no such thing as individual liberation. No one is free, until we are all free.

On the path of abolition and transformation

Our reality, and our queer, feminist, radical truths, cannot be quantified. They cannot be reduced to data, to screens, to consumable images. The genocidal violence we face and resist everyday, is not an event to be documented. This deep rupture is a tearing apart of the fabric of life that demands something more than mere speech. It demands action and transformation. And it necessitates abolition. Abolition not just through the dismantling of prisons and the destruction of all carceral systems—but the refusal of all structures that seek to imprison and kill our bodies, our desires, our lands, our futures. Abolition is a direct confrontation with the forces that seek to erase us on the path towards life-affirming and systemic transformation, it is to radically imagine and build a different future from the present.

Hope as a radical practice

Our bodies ache with exhaustion, our spirits bruised by the relentless weight of oppression. In this land stolen from us, where we live the genocide in our every moment, hope is a radical practice. We are warriors, survivors, rebels. We will not be extinguished. The world’s indifference is a betrayal––we know that. We will not allow our disappointment to consume us. Fuelled by our collective rage and grief, we unite and empower us. Still amidst these difficult times, we channel our hope as a collective force of resistance to the very foundation of these unjust systems, in Palestine and everywhere. We will not only survive this genocide, we will thrive––reclaiming our stolen land and building a future free from the chains of patriarchy, colonialism, capitalism and zionism.

Constant transformative struggle towards collective liberation

One year later, we continue to call for the world to:

Be radical, feminist, queer, intersectional, decolonial, and abolitionist in our resistances: fuelled by rage, love and longing for justice, transformation and collective liberation.

Resist the hegemonic colonial narrative: do not stop talking about Palestine with your kin, queer siblings, friends and community. Challenge the colonial and Islamophobic framing of Palestinian and racialized voices as antisemitic.

Escalate all forms of disruption of the colonial and capitalist systems enabling this violence. Rage and strike against the use of your labor and tax money to fund, support, and endorse settler colonialism and genocide. Fight against governments and hold them accountable for their military, diplomatic, economic, and political relations with and support to Israel.

Rage and grieve as radical forces for change: together we channel our anger and grief towards a world free of Zionism and all other systems of oppression.

Radically imagine a different world and put this imagination into practice by organizing to fight current systems and build the future from the present.

Always re-membering: honoring those we have lost, and standing steadfast in resistance by all means possible.

[facioleeknow]

Stray Kids as Greek mythological figures

Which heroes/ creatures/ gods i think are similar to Stray Kids.

Wc: 470 Genre: AU

Tw: talk of mental health, not proofread

I was thinking of expanding these into full fics, let me know what you think

Bang Chan

Heracles, demigod, son of Zeus and Alcmene. The most famous hero of all Greece and the one most appreciated. His death was commemorated through an official festival. Very strong and brave, I think he suits Channie perfectly. Charismatic just like our leader and very respected and feared.

Lee Know

Hades, god and king of the underworld. Eldest of three sons. just like Lee Know can seem quite cold and scary on the outside but is actually a good person. In myths Hades is never depicted negatively and always preferred to maintain balance. Technically entering the underworld was forbidden for mortals but there are many stories of heroes going back and forth and Hades did not raise a finger and let them be. A scary looking man with a good heart like Lee Know.

Changbin

Atlas, titan of endurance. Punished by Zeus and condemned to hold up the sky for eternity. Really strong and muscly and could probably throw people around like they weighed nothing. Changbin said he bench presses 150kg roughly, which makes him able to lift the average person and I think he could totally hold up the heavens.

Hyunjin

Adonis, human. The most beautiful man in the whole Greece and the blueprint of what a man should have looked like back then. Lover of Aphrodite, the literal goddess of beauty and love. Could pull men and women, which is perfect for Hyunjin because that man is so beautiful inside and out that nobody can resist him.

Han

Alchys, personification of sadness and desperation. I know what you’re thinking about, Han is a very generally bubbly person on the outside but we all know he struggles deeply with mental health and anxiety. As somebody with the same struggles I can say that this fits pretty well. ( I am not saying in any way that he is defined by his struggles)

Felix

Apollo, god of the sun, music, poetry and art. One of the younger gods, a little spicy and definitely queer. Was said to be so bright that looking at him was like looking into the sun. Couldn’t not think of our sunshine Lixie, our shiny baby who is definitely more than a little mischievous.

Seungmin

Thrasos, personification of courage and insolence. Like Seungmin and his sharp tongue, this deity is not afraid to speak even when they shouldn’t. Courageous in a reckless sense, which fits perfectly because I would never dare to back talk Bang Chan when he is mad but I have a hunch that Seungmin would.

Jeongin

Dionysus, god of wine, fruits, insanity and fertility. Very sensual and mischievous, like our maknae lately. Widely appreciated in the whole of Greece, his parties were very alluring and freeing in way. Able to “hypnotize” you with his charisma which explains why everybody loves Innie so much. 

[morganeactually]

Pet Shop Boys' Impact on Queer Culture

Pet Shop Boys, the synth pop pioneer duo consisting of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, have long been acclaimed for their contributions to queer culture through their music. They are considered icons within the queer community since their songs often contain subtle and clear references to LGBTQ+ themes.

As a big fan of Pet Shop Boys (indeed, my pseudonym is an allusion to one of my favorite albums of them named Actually), I would like to introduce you to them by tackling this fundamental aspect of their musical identity.

Let's start with "It's a sin" and "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show", two songs that address queerness and criticize the role of religion in perpetuating homophobia.

"It's a sin" is a critique of Neil Tennant's Catholic education. It tells a real-life story based on his personal experience of queerness in a Catholic family. So, the question of authenticity is beyond doubt. The song uses religious imagery, denouncing how the church's teachings made him feel guilty and ashamed of his desires. The lyrics mirror his internal conflict between faith and sexuality : respecting his religious beliefs means betraying one's true self. They also suggest that anything pleasurable, including queerness, is labelled as sinful. The stuttering effect in the chorus in "It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a sin" amplifies through the repetitive, almost hesitant delivery, the inner struggles faced by the victims of religious condemnation for their identity. This stylistic choice reinforces the impression of a speaker being trapped in a loop of guilt and confession imposed by societal norms. In the music video directed by Derek Jarman, the characters engaging in rebellious acts against religious constraints such as tearing pages of the Bible and smashing religious statues illustrate Neil Tennant's response to stay true to himself, no matter what the church's teachings say.

"Father, forgive me I tried not to do it Turned over a new leaf Then tore right through it Whatever You taught me I didn't believe it Father, You fought me 'Cause I didn't care And I still don't understand"

The bridge highlights the pressure to resist actions deemed sinful by religious beliefs. It epitomizes, through the apostrophe to God and the metaphor of “a new leaf”, the cycle of sin and repentance Neil Tennant and many queer people are subjected to. By asking God for forgiveness, Pet Shop Boys deliver a poignant commentary on how religious teachings can induce shame and remorse, even when all they do is trying to accept the parts of their true identity.

"The Sodom and Gomorrah Show" takes a more satirical approach to critique how society often demonize and sensationalize queer lives turning them into spectacles. Indeed, the introduction describes a fictional show whose promise of "Sun, sex, sin, divine intervention", "Death and destruction" is repeated throughout the song. Presenting the story as a show insists on the absurdity of such moral condemnation. The theatrical atmosphere is used to mock how religious institutions portray queerness. The title itself refers to the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah which are often mentioned in religious texts to condemn homosexuality. Hence, Pet Shop Boys defie traditional interpretations and utilize them to oppose homophobic attitudes. The lyrics underscore the importance of embracing one's true self, even if it goes against religious and societal norms, to live a fulfilling life. The message they convey is to embrace and celebrate queer identity.

Both songs challenge the negative perceptions and moral judgments on queer individuals and encourage defiance against oppressive religious narrative.

Moreover, Pet Shop Boys incorporate disco elements into their music like high-energy disco sounds, lush orchestration, celebratory lyrics, pulsing beat, and danceable, upbeat feel. Their songs "New York City Boy", "Domino Dancing" and "Always on My Mind/In My House" are perfect examples of that. The synth pop duo pays homage to disco which was historically associated with the LGBTQ+ community and alligns with its values : freedom, self-expression and rebellion against societal norms. Their use of disco music highlights their identity as artists who proudly advocate LGBTQ+ rights while making timeless pop music.

Pet Shop Boys' collaborations with queer artists show their commitment to support and celebrate them. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe teamed up with Dusty Springfield for the hit "What Have I Done to Deserve This?", produced Boy George's song "Crying Game" and have songs featuring Elton John ("Alone Again, Naturally", "Believe / Song for Guy" and "In Private"). In 1996, they also remixed David Bowie's track "Hallo Spaceboy" adding their own disco flair and additional lyrics. The result pleased Bowie a lot, so that he invited them to perform live with him at the BRIT Awards. In their lattest album Nonetheless, "Dancing Star" is even inspired by the queer ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev.

[flock-of-cassowaries]

So I’m not endorsing Fight Club - it’s a problematic book with a deeply toxic cultural legacy - but as a queer AFAB millennial who grew up in the sunken place of really wanting to identify with images of traditional masculinity… that shit rocked my world circa 2006.

And it just occurred to me how easily you could map Fight Club’s core plot conceit* onto NBC Hannibal (especially season 1); and that got me thinking about the parallels and differences between these two works.

Spoilers for a 28-year-old movie below the cut.

*the core plot conceit of Fight Club is that the two principal characters - the charismatic and dangerous Tyler Durden, and the story’s unnamed narrator - are in fact one person. The narrator is not aware of this until the final act.

(Also - I’ve added headings, because I know this is very long and rambly, and I feel an appropriate amount of shame about that. )

[How this idea originally occurred to me]

So what originally got me thinking about this is that in NBC Hannibal, Will is always tired, while Hannibal, mysteriously, seems to have at least 40 hours available for crafts and hobbies in every day.

This maps very neatly onto the way time seems to work for Tyler Durden, vs. how it works for the insomnia-plagued narrator.

[Main thesis]

But there’s a lot more similarities than that - most notably, the overall arc of the narrator-Tyler / Will-Hannibal relationship:

1. Both Hannibal Lecter and Tyler Durden breeze into our main character’s lives, and very quickly install themselves at the very centre of it.

2. Both become an object of unacknowledged homoerotic yearning for the main character, before finally being revealed to be extremely dangerous villains who were manipulating the main character all along, and who were instrumental in blowing up the main characters’ lives.

3. Ultimately, in both works, the main character ultimately rejects their “friend” by attempting suicide in a way that will kill both of them (and, in doing so, stops the “friend” from committing further harm).

[Bonus Round]

Other parallels include:

- that Hannibal and Tyler are both exceptionally ostentatious in their mode of dress, in contrast to our comparatively mousey main characters.

- that they both serve to invite the main character to embrace violence (something the narrator in Fight Club does easily, but which Will Graham, to his credit, resists).

- Hannibal’s ritualized sadistic physical torture of Will (in Mizumono, and the again in Dolce / Digestivo) also mirrors the scene in Fight Club where Tyler burns the narrator’s hand.

- Hannibal and Tyler also both enter the main character’s lives at a time when they are struggling with insomnia based on guilt related to their jobs. (Jobs, btw, where both of them have bosses they cannot stand and do not respect.)

[Alana Bloom and Marla Singer]

I also think the Marla Singer / Alana Bloom parallel is interesting.

In both cases, these women are implied to be the only woman who might, possibly be a match for the main character - someone who could possibly understand them enough to form a possibly-healthy relationship.

Instead, however, Alana and Marla end up forming relationships with Hannibal and Tyler (respectively).

In both works, this makes the main character despair (even as it is implied that the woman would actually rather be with the main character than with Hannibal / Tyler).

[Bonus Round II - Electric Boogaloo]

Also, on a more superficial level, both Marla and Alana have stunningly pale skin and dark hair (much as both Tyler and Hannibal are sandy blondes who seem larger-than-life in comparison to our dark-haired, ruddy-complexioned protagonist).

I would also like to rapidly recognize:

- the aesthetic similarities in Randall Tier’s death and that of Jared Leto’s character in the film version of Fight Club

- the amusing parallel of both Tyler and Hannibal creatively repurposing dead human tissue, which they then gleefully give to rich people who do not know what they are consuming (Tyler, by making medical-waste human fat into bougie soap; Hannibal, by making murder victims into gourmet meals)

- the way that the “the line between us has begun to blur” theming in Season 3 of Hannibal echoes the “literally the same person” reveal in Fight Club

[Conclusion]

With all this in mind, I think it would be very possible (and potentially quite fun) to plot out a Fight Club AU of Hannibal, wherein there is no Hannibal Lecter. (Might explain why he has such a stupid fucking name. Yeah, I said it. It’s fucking dumb that his name rhymes with “cannibal”. Fight me, Thomas Harris.)

[Appendix - Contrasts]

That said, the differences are also quite notable:

1. Whereas Tyler Durden seduces the narrator in Fight Club with the promise of validation from a male social group, Hannibal Lecter’s pitch to Will is that he recognizes that Will is is unique and special, and appreciated him as such.

2. Tyler Durden is overtly political, positioning himself as outside the system, and explicitly anti-capitalist. Hannibal Lecter, on the other hand, is apolitical, and perfectly comfortable being a member of the ruling class. There is no anti-capitalist motive to his crimes against the rich.

3. In rejecting Tyler, the narrator in Fight Club (especially in the film version) symbolically reclaims his heterosexuality, and is implied to have formed a bond with Marla; whereas Will Graham (literally) embraces Hannibal even as he rejects him, and Alana has long since been clearly shown to have adopted a position of “To hell with these gay idiots”.

4. While imperfect, Will Graham is a lot more sympathetic than the narrator of Fight Club; both because of how vigorously he resists Hannibal (as alluded to above), and in terms of what we see of him before he falls under Hannibal’s spell:

— Will’s guilt stems from an action (shooting Gareth Jacob Hobbs) that most people would consider morally-correct. In Fight Club, on the other hand, the narrator’s guilt stems from condemning strangers to die in order to save his company money.

— The narrator in Fight Club is shown to have been driven by his insomnia to the point of engaging in vampiric support-group grief tourism (which - yikes). By contrast, Will is seen calling Jack Crawford out on the inherently exploitative nature of his “Evil Minds Museum”.

— Whereas the narrator in Fight Club lives a life of hollow consumerist grasping, Will is shown to live a materially-simple life, which he generously shares with a menagerie of abandoned dogs. It is easy to imagine that he would put his dogs’ needs ahead of his own, given that we see him putting time and energy into rescuing and washing Winston, even at the end of a long, exhausting workday.

[Postscript]

I literally typed this whole-ass essay out before I remembered that Edward Norton (who played the narrator in Fight Club) also once played Will Graham (in the 2002 film Red Dragon, which I have not seen, but which I remember Bryan Fuller having credited with giving him the idea to write NBC Hannibal).