i think one of my favorite things about emily henry’s writing (specifically in beach read and pwmov bc that’s what i’ve read so far) is the way she allows her characters to engage with and heal from their core childhood wounds, because it’s such a beautiful and deliberate way of saying that love heals without pushing that too far. love heals, but you have to be capable of and willing to change. love heals, but it’s not on any one person to fix you. it doesn’t make any of the problems you’re running from go away. if anything, it makes it harder to run, because the things you’re running away from are often the reasons you haven’t been able to give all of yourself to the person you want.
her characters have secrets they keep from themselves and others, and they miscommunicate out of fear and lack of understanding, which is everywhere in romcoms, but her writing is so grounded in reality. the stakes feel so high because they are to these characters. every setback feels so necessary and real because the conflict doesn’t just revolve around the will they/won’t they of it all, but rather what uncomfortable truths people are willing to face and overcome in order to be together. it’s about how far you’ll go to fix yourself for love that made you feel safe enough to consider that, at some point, healing became an option.
yeah hi good morning free the nipple as a movement is specifically about how cis men are allowed to show their nipples with no repercussions while everyone else is censored, reported, and often penalised for doing the same. janet jackson had her entire career blacklisted because a man forced her to show her nipple. breastfeeding mothers have their instagram accounts deactivated for feeding their children and daring to post a picture of it. a woman is raped every day because her nipples were showing and she was “asking for it.” free the nipple is not about white cis man harry fucking styles wearing an open jacket at the grammys. this is genuinely so insulting and mimimizing to an important movement and this is what people mean when they say everyone blows smoke up harry’s ass and acts like he’s breaking boundaries when he’s just not. co-opting an important movement for this cis white man is so fucking on brand for harry and his team it’s making me feel ill.