#youth in need

[compassionmattersmost]

A Bipartisan Approach to Compassionate Care for Unaccompanied Children

Our nation is home to tens of thousands of unaccompanied children—young lives that need stability, education, and compassionate care. This need transcends political divisions, calling for unity and a shared responsibility to care for the vulnerable. Why Bipartisan? When it comes to the well-being of these children, both parties share a commitment to providing safe, nurturing homes, free from…

[chloesimaginationthings]

FNAF movie Mike and Michael meet their younger selves..

[sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog]

I just want to keep my job even though I don't know how to make memes. Buy our coffee. We've got holiday gifts for the coffee lover in your life.

Awesome Coffee is different because 1. we source our beans directly from small farmers collectives, 2. it's better and fresher than grocery store coffee, and 3. ALL of our profit goes to fight maternal and child mortality in impoverished communities, whereas almost all other coffee makes rich people richer, which is the dumbest thing that can be done with coffee (or other forms of wealth).

[tshortik]

Mild rant from me about Hans Zimmer's involvement in Dragon Age:

I just think it's such sellout behavior to hire expensive movie composers (Zimmer is also known to be a transphobic asshole lol) known for their blockbuster soundtracks for your game when you already had the most iconic soundtrack ever for the previous installment, except the composer was lesser known.

Most people hear the swell of violins and immediately think it must be the best soundtrack ever, but if I am really honest, the DATV soundtrack so far sounds like the most generic slopfest with the laziest leitmotif I had the misfortune to hear in a long while.

Hiring people for their name alone is something I find incredibly shameful. Like I cannot even put into words how nasty it is in my eyes, because it actively takes away from lesser known creatives in the industry who could have made a name for themselves. And it doesn't matter to me if Zimmer only did the Main Theme or whatever, because in that case, it shouldn't be his name that is plastered everywhere but Balfe's! But everyone is talking about Zimmer anyway for exactly the reasons I already mentioned.

Even just the thought of how expensive this endeavor must have been... That money could have gone to other, more important places, easily. It makes the layoffs also that much more bitter in my eyes. Idk. I adore Dragon Age and I am still a huge fan and I will play it, but stuff like that make me angry. I don't need some Zimmer who has been sitting his ass on his laurels from 10 years ago in my franchise. I'd rather have a no name person, or Trevor Morris, to get a chance again.

[bruciemilf]

Don’t you just love it when toxic father figures.

Loved this Jacob & Bruce piece inspired by this post that I couldn’t resist posting it by itself <3

[turtleblogatlast]

I love Raph and haven’t said that enough so to be more specific I love that Raph is a soft boy who loves bear plushies, a gross boy who eats an assortment of things that are definitely better left alone, a smart boy who is more than capable of taking down villains through planning and fortitude alike, a strong boy who is dedicated to training his muscles and fighting prowess, a teenage boy who loves his brothers but is more than happy to tease and roughhouse with them, an angry boy who sometimes lets his anger take a hold of him to cover the fear, a gentle boy who is generous with hugs and affirmations to those he loves, a capable boy who takes on more than should ever be expected of a teenager, a good boy who just wants to be a hero and slowly comes to realize the cost of that duty, a good boy who has no reservations about putting himself in the way of harm coming to his family, a good boy who’s a great brother and son and person and deserves only the best the world has to offer.

[ladyloveandjustice]

oh god I'm seeing all these posts in the dandadan tag about how the sex jokes/fanservice/nudity is "meaningful and deep" and even calling it a successor to klk and please. we cannot go back to 2013 we can't go through this again in year of our lord 2024.

Please can we accept we're watching a shonen with a side of raunchy sex comedy, with occasional moments done pretty poorly, and not make it this subversive empowering deep meaningful thing. I do think some of the sex stuff in DandaDan is an expression/metaphor of wrestling with sexuality as a teen and the insecurites and fears and I think that's fun to analyze. But can we not pretend the fanservice and sexy comedy ISN'T there to be funny and sexy and often absurd?

It's okay to admit you like a show with sex jokes, fanservice and occasional skeevy moments that don't sit right (like what happened in episode 1 for me tbh). It's fine! You don't have to make it some huge "it deconstructs our preoccupation with of bodies and aesthetics and showcases strength and vulnerability in our society" when we see someone in their skivvies.

Like please. it's okay. You don't have to feel bad for liking it. You don't have to twist yourself into knots. Unlike KLK, DandaDan ISN'T trying to claim it's anything other than what it is, so you don't need to do that for it. We do not need infographs about how the the fanservice is feminist and empowering like in the klk era. I refuse to go back.

People with common sense will not judge you for liking this! I personally enjoy some of the absurd comedy. I'm bleh about some things, but it's got great characters and good chemistry and great fights and I also understand it's trying to appeal to a horny teenage audience. I can also completely get those who don't want to watch it because of how Momo's near assault in ep 1 was handled, or some other fanservice thing that didn't sit right with them. Please please please accept what you're watching isn't as pure as driven snow. I can't do this again.

[three--rings]

What we need is a new social movement. Not a political one. An artistic one.

We need people to make rebellion cool again. To idealize free thinking, free loving, free choices about our bodies.

We need influencers on the opposite side from the Andrew Tates and Manosphere.

We need music and fashion and film glorifying freedoms that oppose right wing authoritarian ideals. That embrace feminism and queerness and being a freak.

And we need a unifying identity for all these things. We need an identity like hippies, punk rock. The right is so good at coming together and the left is far too good at fracturing.

Modern media and social media companies have divided us all up into smaller and smaller social circles. Micro-identities. "Youth" used to be a social group. "Voice of a generation" was a thing. Now everyone is expected to be the voice of like...30 people.

What I'm saying here is just what I keep thinking about. What is the alternative to the tradwives and the Alpha Male podcasters? A bunch of intellectual politics nerds? Yeah, I mean thanks and all, but we need excitement. We need art.

Things are going to get worse and worse. The right is going to be selling limitations and restrictions and we need to be selling the alternative.

So if you're an artist, a writer, a musician, a filmmaker, an internet personality...get together with everyone you know who is also creative. Start talking with each other about how you create rebellious art, and how you create community in that art.

There's so much emotion floating around, so much fear and dread and exhaustion and we need to channel all that into art. It's the only way we win. Art is always how we make progress. But if you're making it alone, it doesn't build steam, it doesn't become a movement. You have to gather together. You don't all have to make the same thing. But you do need to have the same spirit. One determined to uplift what is good and fight what is evil.

Make art, people. Create an identity from it. Welcome everyone who is lost and scared. Lonely, sad, scared people get sucked into right wing circles because there's no alternative. Be the alternative.

[chezlalune]

If you're not okay, you can always tell me.

OUR YOUTH 未成年 (2024) EPISODE 04

[mayopocket]

study buddies

[inchidentally]

“some great teamwork as well from Mr. Norris over here, keeping me in second” (bashful Lando smile)

x x

[calirph]

𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓 𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐇 as 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐄𝐍 & 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐘 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐓 as 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐉𝐀𝐂𝐀𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐒 𝐕𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐎𝐍

Daemon and Jace leading Rhaenyra's council. House of the Dragon 1x10. House of the Dragon 2x04.

[renshengs]

hmm i do think that danmei and dangai (censored danmei cdrama adaptations) being many non-chinese fandom people's first impression of chinese media has given them some misconceptions about mainstream chinese media, and it shows in a way that i find very frustrating when seeing discussions about cdramas on here. dangai dramas aside, even if government censorship didn't exist, the chances of your favorite cdrama gay ship becoming canon is about as high as the chances of any of those iconic homoerotic male friendships in a western TV show becoming canon. which is to say: extremely low.

what i think is that internationally huge danmei fandoms like mdzs and tgcf and drama adaptations like cql and shl have really fucked with people's conceptualization of danmei, in that they're using it as this reference point when analyzing relationships in all other forms of cn media, including cdramas and chinese games, which then manifests into people making very bold, very dubious claims about "queercoding" because 2 characters from a random cdrama reminds them of the one or two danmeis they'd encountered that shaped their entire perception of chinese media. basically it's this meme:

many people here need to understand that cdramas and chinese films are obviously mainstream forms of fictional media in china, just like how the mcu or the doctor who franchise is mainstream in the US and UK, or like shonen is mainstream in japan. not to burst your bubble of happy ignorance, but homoromantic relationships such as qingming/boya from the ying yang master are—for lack of a better term—fujobait. they are fujobait. bromances, because those sell well and everyone knows it. popular ships like bakudeku were not actually made canon in mha because shonen is mainstream, and in most industries geared toward maximizing capital, having full-on gay people front and center is considered a monetarily risky move. which sucks, of course, but china is absolutely no different. i promise you that if the govt removed their censorship laws for TV broadcasts, your favorite gay ship from mysterious lotus casebook or the blood of youth or fangs of fortune still wouldn't be canon. they might be allowed a bit more intimacy due to the lack of restrictive filtering, but they are not going to be sucking face for the same reason that gojo and geto from jjk didn't suck face.

danmei is still widely considered niche and risky in china, and if you haven't seen the recent news, authors are still getting arrested for writing it. assuming that chinese fiction, mainstream chinese fiction in particular, operate like dangais where the two guys with the most gay tension would be made explicitly canon were the censors to be lifted, is frankly pretty ridiculous. dangai dramas are adapted from danmeis, which are stories centered on a gay romance and narratively depend on the two guys falling in love. non-dangai dramas are very much... not that, hence why people shouldn't watch them expecting a censored danmei and then forcing assumptions of "my ship would be canon if only it weren't for censorship" on them.

it's very clear when someone who knows absolutely nothing about the actual situation with danmei and queer existence and mainstream TV censorship in china is trying to push their, if i put it crudely, "boss baby meme" perspective onto cmedia. fandom is all about poking at interactions between your favorite characters and giggling and speculating, but i think lots of fandom people (many of them safe in the pockets of their more progressive areas) view govt censorship as this big abstract dam that, if broken, would result in the canonization of all their favorite ships, which is not only an incredibly naive belief but also one that shows how much they view TV censorship as more of a personal inconvenience that's preventing their favorite ships from kissing on screen instead of the looming, deep-rooted issue depriving mainland chinese people of creative freedom it actually is. with cmedia fandoms there's a specific widely popularized "they're so gay omg how did censorship not notice" gag when there's any perceived homoromantic undertones in a story that's both rather insensitive and also ignorant, and many dangai and cdrama fandoms in particular (donghua fans too, link click shippers i'm looking directly at you) could really use some more education and sensitivity regarding this.

i've been in danmei & cdrama fandom spaces for years and post-pandemic this kind of nonsense has definitely gotten worse, especially when you compare shipping discussions here to shipping discussions in cn fandoms. here every 2 seconds someone makes an off-color censorship joke about tgcf donghua and over on douyin they are straight up commenting under the nezha sequel announcement post if there's going to be an oubing kissing scene. granted i obviously cannot see or know everything going on in cn fandom spaces because they are incomprehensibly enormous, but in all the spaces i've been in i've never seen a single censorship joke from anyone. why do people here absolutely insist on making them?

anyway. fandom be normal about chinese media challenge!

[respectthepetty]

Minase's friend telling him how easily he could hate him shows how superficial all of Minase's relationships are.

It's a telling moment in the episode because no matter how good he is, if he messes up just once, everything could be gone.

And he is always aware of that.

He recovers quickly, but the truth lingers. If he was himself, his true self, he would be hated by everyone.

And his mother has ingrained that into him since the very beginning. She would hate him just like she hates his father.

So under the guise of casual conversation, he confesses that he actually doesn't have friends. All of these relationships are hallow and meaningless because if he can't be his real self, then he can't have real connections. Everything is fake, like him.

And that's why Hirukawa asking him what he wants is the catalyst to his downfall.

As everyone in his life keeps pointing out, Hirukawa, with all his substance and authenticity, could ruin his perfect hallow life.

And that's something Minase is slowly realizing he wants. He is only existing as the perfect kid for everybody else, but it means nothing to him. He has nothing. This perfect life is empty and meaningless.

So he wants Hirukawa to ruin his life.

Because it was never a life worth living in the first place.

[ryllen]

[teethburied]

Murmur of Youth '美麗在唱歌' (1997) dir. Lin Cheng-sheng