tafkarfanfic

[tafkarfanfic]

So what I’ve learned from the past couple months of being really loud about being a bi woman on Tumblr is: A lot of young/new LGBT+ people on this site do not understand that some of the stuff they’re saying comes across to other LGBT+ people as offensive, aggressive, or threatening. And when they actually find out the history and context, a lot of them go, “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I never meant to say that.”

Like, “queer is a slur”: I get the impression that people saying this are like… oh, how I might react if I heard someone refer to all gay men as “f*gs”. Like, “Oh wow, that’s a super loaded word with a bunch of negative freight behind it, are you really sure you want to put that word on people who are still very raw and would be alarmed, upset, or offended if they heard you call them it, no matter what you intended?”

So they’re really surprised when self-described queers respond with a LOT of hostility to what feels like a well-intentioned reminder that some people might not like it. 

That’s because there’s a history of “political lesbians”, like Sheila Jeffreys, who believe that no matter their sexual orientation, women should cut off all social contact with men, who are fundamentally evil, and only date the “correct” sex, which is other women. Political lesbians claim that relationships between women, especially ones that don’t contain lust, are fundamentally pure, good, and  unproblematic. They therefore regard most of the LGBT community with deep suspicion, because its members are either way too into sex, into the wrong kind of sex, into sex with men, are men themselves, or somehow challenge the very definitions of sex and gender. 

When “queer theory” arrived in the 1980s and 1990s as an organized attempt by many diverse LGBT+ people in academia to sit down and talk about the social oppressions they face, political lesbians like Jeffreys attacked it harshly, publishing articles like “The Queer Disappearance of Lesbians”, arguing that because queer theory said it was okay to be a man or stop being a man or want to have sex with a man, it was fundamentally evil and destructive. And this attitude has echoed through the years; many LGBT+ people have experience being harshly criticized by radical feminists because being anything but a cis “gold star lesbian” (another phrase that gives me war flashbacks) was considered patriarchal, oppressive, and basically evil.

And when those arguments happened, “queer” was a good umbrella to shelter under, even when people didn’t know the intricacies of academic queer theory; people who identified as “queer” were more likely to be accepting and understanding, and “queer” was often the only label or community bisexual and nonbinary people didn’t get chased out of. If someone didn’t disagree that people got to call themselves queer, but didn’t want to be called queer themselves, they could just say “I don’t like being called queer” and that was that. Being “queer” was to being LGBT as being a “feminist” was to being a woman; it was opt-in.

But this history isn’t evident when these interactions happen. We don’t sit down and say, “Okay, so forty years ago there was this woman named Sheila, and…” Instead we queers go POP! like pufferfish, instantly on the defensive, a red haze descending over our vision, and bellow, “DO NOT TELL ME WHAT WORDS I CANNOT USE,” because we cannot find a way to say, “This word is so vital and precious to me, I wouldn’t be alive in the same way if I lost it.” And then the people who just pointed out that this word has a history, JEEZ, way to overreact, go away very confused and off-put, because they were just trying to say.

But I’ve found that once this is explained, a lot of people go, “Oh wow, okay, I did NOT mean to insinuate that, I didn’t realize that I was also saying something with a lot of painful freight to it.”

And that? That gives me hope for the future.

[tafkarfanfic]

Blatant “tonic” erasure in this map. (Most of New England called it “tonic” into the 80s.)

Use of “Pop” vs “Coke vs “Soda” to Refer to Sweet Carbonated Beverage in US Over the Years     

via u/ColorfulImaginati0n

[tafkarfanfic]

I cannot make speeches, Emma…If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am. You hear nothing but truth from me. I have blamed you, and lectured you, and you have borne it as no other woman in England would have borne it.

#emma 2009 #emma #emma woodhouse #george knightley

[tafkarfanfic]

Am I BAWLING my eyes out? Because all Jack Rackham wanted to do was leave a mark on history? And be remembered?? And despite years of attempting to emulate the physical toughness and swashbuckling bravery of his fellow pirate captains of legend, it was in fact his pedantic little obsession with getting the right flag art, an action so wholly and undeniably HIM, that ensured his mark on history in the end??? That it's HIS jolly Roger that has endured through time and history as the very symbol of piracy itself????????

If anyone needs me, I will be marooning MYSELF on skeleton island!!!!!!

#black sails #jack rackham

[tafkarfanfic]

I'm curious. Reblog this if you know how to cook

I don’t even care if it’s macaroni, ramen or those little bowls you stick in the microwave. Please, I need reassurance that most of the population on tumblr WOULDN’T STARVE TO DEATH if their parents couldn’t fix them food or they couldn’t go out to eat. 

[tafkarfanfic]

Captain James Flint + Text Post (Part IV)

Bonus:

#black sails #james flint #james mcgraw

[tafkarfanfic]

RECRUITMENT ↪ iron man (2008) ↪ the marvels (2023)

#marvel #mcu #the marvels #kamala khan #nick fury #kate bishop

[tafkarfanfic]

The Marvels (2023), dir. Nia DaCosta

#the marvels #prince yan #monica rambeau #carol danvers #kamala khan

[tafkarfanfic]

THE MARVELS (2023) dir. Nia DaCosta IGN Exclusive Deleted Scene

#the marvels #tessa thompson #kamala khan

[tafkarfanfic]

[tafkarfanfic]

Everything is like “QUEER history” and “List of QUEER young adult books” or “Top 10 QUEER movies” and queer this and queer that and for the love of god please just say LGBT.

[tafkarfanfic]

While trying to find Chekov Bones stops to do some awesome doctoring 

#star trek #leonard mccoy #deforest kelley

[tafkarfanfic]

The Marvels was messy and had some serious continuity errors. AND YET it was maybe the most fun Marvel film since the first Ant Man. I would definitely see it again and I wish I’d seen it in theaters. (Yay, libraries with Blu-Ray copies!)

#the marvels

[tafkarfanfic]

from “For the Love of Spock” (George Takei talking about the time when they wanted to cut him and Nichols/Uhura out of Star Trek and Nimoy was having none of it)

#star trek #george takei #leonard nimoy

[tafkarfanfic]

It’s a really old meme but “You fucked up a perfectly good [noun] is what you did. Look at it. It has anxiety.” Is still like a golden phrase to me

[tafkarfanfic]

I don’t know where this came from but I NEEDED it

[tafkarfanfic]

A small victory to celebrate for today