#Context: they’re talking about Larry | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

twopoppies · 2 years

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I usually don't comment on stuff like this, because I don't make a habit of pissing on people's parades, but some of the recent things people are using as "proof" (of bbg ending, of Larry communicating with us, etc) are really wild stretches.

And, I usually wouldn't let it bother me; I understand that people (especially newer larries) are just having fun. But, as someone who's been here for a long time and who was part of the fandom when "proof" really meant concrete, vetted, and consistent evidence, I think people are unaware of how creating, spreading, and encouraging these unsubstantiated stretches and theories only support the extremely damaging stereotype that larries are unhinged and that we can (and will) make a connection out of anything, if it suits our narrative. (Which is, literally, what hets and shippers do, so yeah, forgive me if I don't want to be lumped in with that crowd.)

When we talk about Larry signaling (through clothing, warnings, selfies, the bears, etc), I think it's really, really important to remember the context in which those things happened.

They were both banging on the glass closet and seemingly seeding a potential coming out. They were at the height of their 'enemies' narrative and banned from being seen interacting, even while they were living out of each other's pockets. They were restricted by extremely abusive public identities (homophobe and serial womanizer) and contract clauses. They were making music and money for oppressive management and labels, none of which was directly contributing to or even hinting at potential personal career growth outside One Direction. They were signaling not only because it's all they had in terms of connecting with their community, but as an act of extreme rebellion and as a means of winning over even an inch of personal freedom and self-expression. (Remember, Niall wasn't even allowed to keep his natural hair color.)

And, while yes, Harry and Louis are still heavily closeted and being made to participate in (especially in Louis' case) extremely vile and abusive stunts, the context, in terms of their need to be seen (whether it be as their own people, queer people, or as a couple), has actually changed. In terms of self-expression, they're both making music that resonates with their creative identities, that they have some level of control over, and that contribute to them, personally, as individual artists. This means they actually have a personal stake in whether or not their projects do well because its a direct indicator of whether they get to continue making music that they love. Taking that into consideration, its unlikely that they want to overshadow the soul of those projects by slipping in all these little clues about their relationship into their promo. They’ve also (thanks mostly to the fans) found other ways of connecting to the queer community (which is an entirely different objective from wanting people to know about their relationship, specifically.)

To be really honest, I think they’ve actually made a collective decision to work harder to protect the privacy of their relationship, even behind the scenes, for many reasons. (Harris Reed’s recent interview, where he mentioned not really knowing Harry all that well, but alluded to leaving space for his queerness is what swayed me the most.) Being older, and having a lot more at stake (personally and professionally), makes me think they’re now (maybe in the last four or so years) very, very selective about who they share this part of their life with, one, because they each have a lot more to lose now if they’re outed, but also because their relationship is their top priority, and as Harry has said (and no doubt learned), a relationship has never benefitted from being made public (and we have to remember that even “within the confines of the industry” is still very, very “public”).

But, I digress. My point is, they've been together for twelve years, they've written hundreds upon hundreds of love songs to each other, they have their love story tattooed all over their skin. I get if you, individually, need to read into every little clue to prove to yourself they're still together, but don’t confuse that with them needing us to know it.

Again, I'm not saying this to piss on anyone's parade. I love a Larry proof to death and god knows I believe in the real ones with my whole chest (Still the One still gives me chills, Princess Park is fucking perfection, ‘waiting to wrap your legs around me' and ‘tired eyes are the death of me’ are tattooed on my heart). What I'm saying is people need to take context into consideration to keep from devaluing and trivializing actual, solid, vetted Larry proof and signaling because the only people and reputations these stretches and theories are hurting are Larries’.

Anon, if I wasn’t already married, I would marry you. THANK YOU.

#fandom dynamics #for newbies #I was going to add some thoughts #but really you made such good points #I don’t even want to dilute it

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matan4il · 2 years

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Jewish Representation

I’ve been having a lot of thoughts about Jewish representation in film and on TV for a long while, and I guess I’m finally at the point where I want to write down some of them.

It wasn’t immediately obvious to me, but something that I’ve come to notice over the years is that Jewish representation in the US (and to whatever degree I got to see Jewish rep in film and TV from other countries, such as the UK) falls into one of two categories (when it even exists):

The “positive” Jewish rep: This is when a Jewish character is the one we’re rooting for, usually a protagonist or a part of the main cast. They’re generally likable. The most notable thing about this is that they are never too Jewish. They don’t use Jewish terms too often, Jewish tradition isn’t too present in their lives, they are not guided nor shaped by Jewish thought and values. The degree to which the audience is even aware the character is Jewish may vary: it can be more present or it can be something people aren’t aware of almost at all in canon. IMO Jake Peralta from Brooklyn 99 is on the “more present” end of this spectrum, while Rachel Green from Friends is someone that I learned just a couple of years ago was meant to be Jewish. From an interview with one of the Jewish show creators. You can argue that it’s implied on screen that she’s Jewish, but why is it never said? Why isn’t it present in any way? We meet her parents, we meet both of her sisters. We see her almost getting married in s1, getting drunk married in the s5 finale. We see her talking about her dream wedding to Ross (who’s also Jewish) and nothing in her description in any way relates to any Jewish traditions she’d like the ceremony to include. We also see her make the decision to have a child with Ross, and again there’s not a single word expressed related to possibly wanting to educate the kid as a Jew, wanting to pass on to Emma Jewish traditions, etc.

The “negative” Jewish rep: This is when either the character itself is Jewish and in some way repulsive or reprehensible, or the situation the character is in is repulsive or reprehensible. Unlike with the “positive” Jewish rep, you can’t miss the Jewish identity/context in the “negative” version. If we’re talking about the character itself being repulsive or reprehensible, the spectrum runs between being utterly annoying and nerdy (many times the annoyance and repulsion other characters feel towards this Jewish character is treated as a comic relief), to downright creepy or even worse. In these cases, the character will be very explicitly Jewish, for example they will use Jewish terms a lot, they will reference Jewish traditions quite often, and they will sometimes even have very explicitly Jewish names. More often than not, they will also be played by a Jewish actor (usually with a more stereotypical “Jewish look.” For example, on Glee, Diana Agron and Lea Michele are both Jewish, but it’s Lea who’s cast as Rachel, the explicitly Jewish character who starts out being incredibly annoying and overbearing, even immoral at times during s1, while Diana is cast as the WASP cheerleader Quinn. On the same theme, actors are more “known” to be Jewish when they play comedic characters than when they are romantic leads. Comedic actors like Andy Samberg, Larry David and David Schwimmer are more often known as being Jewish than people like Harrison Ford. And I can’t think of a single explicitly canonically Jewish character that Ford has played).

If it’s the situation that’s repulsive or reprehensible, we’re usually talking about one of two scenarios: either we’re following a character in the ultra-orthodox community where being Jewish is depicted as being oppressed by one’s own people, or we’re watching a story from the Holocaust, when being Jewish proved to be exceptionally dangerous.

I wanna make it clear, none of these is problematic in itself. Jews are just like everyone else, no better and no worse, so some Jews will be less connected to their Jewish identity. Some Jews will be annoying, or even creepy. Some Jews will very much suffer within their ultra-orthodox communities and will feel oppressed by them. And representing the Holocaust is absolutely vital. It’s the fact that there’s nothing else, nothing between being hardly-Jewish and being very-Jewish-but-it’s-bad-news, that’s the problem. Where are the characters who are proudly Jewish and who find it important to be, who actively engage in being Jewish, who are enriched by being Jewish, and we still cheer for them? The ones whose weddings are held under a Hupa? The ones for whom their Jewish values matter and shape their decisions? The ones who enjoy Jewish food and Jewish culture? Who love celebrating Jewish holidays and find pleasure in getting to know Jewish history? The ones for whom being Jewish isn’t just a throwaway joke about embarrassing stuff that happened at their bar/bat mitzvah? Where are the Jews who talk about it being important to them (not to their “outdated / narrow-minded” parents) to pass on their Jewish heritage to their kids? Without becoming a caricature or the target for mockery? (and not just in one episode out of 235 over the course of ten seasons...) There’s so many Jews like that in real life. People who occupy this huge spectrum of Jewish existence and experience. Why do they hardly exist on our screens?

And maybe this will sound a bit self-contradicting, but... why do we almost never hear about antisemitism outside of the Holocaust and Nazis? I know, I know, this would seem to easily fit into the “negative” Jewish representation, and yet I’m bringing it out because it seems like such a glaring omission to me that I have to wonder about it. If we don’t represent this, it makes it seem as if antisemitism had died at the end of WWII. It didn’t. By erasing current antisemitism in its many different forms, there’s an implication that unlike other minorities, Jews aren’t that impacted by bias against them. But antisemitism is on the rise globally. This trend isn’t even new. That does impact Jews. But you wouldn’t know it from watching Jews on screen. Which also deprives us from seeing Jews being empowered by fighting back against current antisemitism, who look this hatred straight in the eyes and choose their Jewish identity. Narratives about the Holocaust are often stripped of that because the magnitude of destruction was so great, that simply staying alive is the triumph. We hardly see the triumph over anti-Jewish hate that comes from lovingly embracing one’s own identity, history, community and values. Think about the sense of triumph delivered by telling the story of a girl overcoming sexist obstacles and learning to be proud of who she is. We miss out on that with Jewish characters, in addition to missing out on telling the real stories of current Jewish lives and the hardships they face for being Jewish. When I guide Jewish families in our Holocaust museum, you have no idea how many stories about contemporary antisemitism I hear. For better and for worse, this is a significant part of the Jewish experience of many, it should be represented, and it isn’t.

Whether people (audiences and creators alike) realize it or not, I think the sum of all the parts that have been making up this Jewish representation for decades is, “It’s okay that you’re a Jew. Just don’t be too Jewish.” That’s not real acceptance. It’s equivalent to telling gay people it’s fine to be gay, as long as they’re not being gay in public. It’s the same as having people of Latin American descent in a movie or a show, without giving any real presence or meaning to their culture (other than making quinceañera jokes). And when it comes to this issue with Jewish rep, it goes unnoticed. I think that’s unintentionally harmful. And because it’s so unnoticed, it also goes unchecked. Which is a part of the problem, we can’t make something better when we’re not even aware it is currently wrong.

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louisisalarrie · 27 days

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i guess he’ll have to stop singing “i love him, i hate it” then. who else would it be about? simon cowell? like please.

This whole thing is weird, everything about it.

yep! Such an obviously timed denial that it’s basically transparent. I will reiterate my points here again, because this has frustrated me dearly as someone who is actively in the industry and has seen successful pr stunts and coverups. His team can’t crack the larries tho.

1. Timing - pre recorded denial dropped for promo as he left LATAM to go MIA before going back to tour in a few weeks + everyone will cool off by then

2. Urgency - there are no current media publications or any GP chats suggesting Louis and Harry are together, and there hasn’t been for a long time now, so there’s no damage control to be done (unless something hasn’t come out yet and it’s in preparation for said thing, BUA perhaps)

3. Content - drops the “my son Freddie” during it as well, boosting that stunt because it’s been pretty quiet since AOTV and a couple of tweets ages ago. again, no explicit denial and poor body language

4. Blacklisted Topic - we saw the other interviewer shut down the F thing, and he’s had many interviews where Larry and F aren’t brought up at all. It’s a topic put in there when it’s useful

5. Relevancy - not relevant to tour or current media presence whatsoever

6. Consistency - all interviews we have gotten recently have been strictly about his career, his festival, tour, inspirations etc., and we have one very personal and touchy topic randomly brought in with no context whatsoever

But I think what is making people stressed about this particular denial is because there was nothing calling for it. No media stir, no mentions of their names together or directly tied in media, no scandal or damage control (unless something breaks), so it seems more genuine and not just like he’s trying to clean up a mess like so many times before. But it’s also very obvious promo. Dropped as soon as he leaves LATAM? And everyone will cool off by the time he’s back. Absolutely standard and poorly done PR.

I don’t think managers know what they’re getting into when they start handling a 1d boy, frankly because our fandom is truly one of a kind. But, as much as I hate to say it, the Azoff’s have done what louis’ team should have done too. Stay silent about it, it’s not necessary to comment unless something big happens and it needs damage control. you’re only attacking your fans here, bud.

so, anyway… the patterns of every other denial have led to a BUA, a scandal, or their names being tied together and Larry being of public interest. Or have come from those things prior. However, this denial will probably pick up in the media, and tie louis’ name to Harry’s once more, to boost him a bit to sell some tickets.

everything was going so well, it was great to see him not talk about his personal life. so, it’s foreshadowing and a poor promo move, or just a poor promo move.

#anon #answered #bbg

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mitochondriaandbunnies · 2 years

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You Should Watch Miami Vice:

A treatise on the most poorly-remembered show of the 80′s

If you’re like most people, when you hear Miami Vice outside the context of a bar, you picture the following: shoulder pads, speed boats, bikinis, and pink and teal pastel. You probably think about the worst excesses of the 1980′s, of a kind of cultural sinkhole where there was nothing cooler than Ray-Bans and masculine posturing.

However, much like Captain Kirk is (mis)remembered as a sleazy womanizer, and the first Rambo movie is (mis)remembered as a paean to how AWESOME KNIVES ARE, Miami Vice has been frozen in pop-culture memory as something it really isn’t. A funhouse mirror reflection of what it was actually all about. Because the thing is: Miami Vice is good. Like, really good.

At its core, it’s a show that is:

Well-written, with a coherent emotional and thematic arc across its seasons, despite being made before the era of arc-based TV

Incredibly beautiful, with cinematography, directing, and musical/sound editing choices that literally changed the way television was produced

Deeply, sometimes painfully human, with main characters who are often wrong and/or make bad decisions with real consequences, and who often ‘lose’

And on top of that, it’s not really copaganda (no, really), and it’s pretty damn queer (yes, really.) It’s also an old-school episodic show, which means the characters have a ton of space to breathe and grow and be multi-faceted, and the production has room to experiment, both with technical stuff and the writing. There are episodes that are so deadly serious your mouth feels dry as the credits roll; there are weird, silly, fun episodes where utterly bonkers things happen; there are episodes that feel like David Lynch was moonlighting as director. It’s neo-noir, it’s magical realism, it’s a workplace comedy, it’s a treatise on how there’s no reforming unjust systems, it’s a love story about two men who refuse to grapple with the idea that they’re the most important thing in each other’s lives.

You should watch it. But let me keep trying to convince you, anyway.

Vice was the brainchild of Michael Mann and Anthony Yerkovitch, and in 1984, it looked and sounded like nothing else on TV. There’s an auteur touch to the majority of episodes-- not just a unified look, but a willingness to try things that worked in the movies on the small screen. When you watch a lot of shows from the early to mid 80′s, they look the same as shows from the 70′s-- en episode of Spenser for Hire could’ve been shot on the same day as an episode of Starsky and Hutch. People talk about the legacy of shows that led to our modern era of “prestige TV--” there’d have been no Sopranos without The Wire, etc-- but in a lot of ways, with its artistic, film-like framing, melancholic New Wave aesthetics, and abnormally high production values, Miami Vice is the grandpappy of all of them.

The recurring cast is very small: for most of the show, it’s these seven characters. (No, I don’t know why this cast photo is posed like they’re at a wedding for someone they don’t seem to like very much. Literally all of the promo photos for this show look like terrible wedding or prom shoots.)

From the top left, we have Larry Zito (Hawaiian shirt) and Stan Switek (pink stripes); they’re initially the comic relief. They love Elvis and bicker like an old married couple, and as partners they get a lot of the surveillance jobs. They do not escape the show unscathed.

The two ladies are Gina Calabrese (blue belted dress) and Trudy Joplin (palm tree dress); I adore them and they are wonderful, and each of them gets a couple of solid episodes, but they aren’t always given the most spectacular scripts. Gina is both the sweetest, most naive member of the group and the one most likely to shoot first and ask questions later; Trudy is an expert researcher and cannot be arsed to do emotional labor for her dumb male colleagues.

The man in the black suit with the moustache is the squad’s lieutenant, Martin Castillo. Castillo doesn’t show up until episode six, and when he does the show’s whole tone kind of suddenly clicks into place. Castillo is weird. He speaks very little and blinks less; he makes eye contact with no one unless he is making so much eye contact it makes you want to bury yourself in the dirt. Also he’s maybe secretly a samurai?

Then we have the two assholes in front, our main characters: Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs. Sonny (white guy in spring green and lavendar, the kind of man who wears a sleeveless shirt under a blazer) is a career Miami cop with a history of unprocessed trauma, a conga line of dead friends and partners, a wife who is trying her best to divorce him, and a six year old son he has no idea how to parent but loves very deeply. Rico (Black guy in grey and white, the kind of man who wears a three piece suit in 98 degree weather with 100% humidity) is a New York transplant with a dead brother, an utterly bizarre sense of humor, the world’s worst taste in women, and a terminal need to fix every broken person he’s ever come across while also probably sleeping with them. Their relationship is the emotional core of the series. Neither of them is equipped to handle this.

Sonny is probably the worst-remembered part of the whole badly-remembered series. Pop culture positions him as a wise-cracking cowboy cop who drives too fast and lives even faster, when in reality mostly Sonny is just very depressed, very lonely, and almost certainly a self-hating closeted bisexual.

He is a sad, bitchy pretty boy who legitimately thinks the only thing he’s good for is waving a gun around, and he only drives his government-owned drug dealer Ferrari so fast because he’s trying to drive away from his feelings.

Vice is a five season show, and unfortunately, you’ll often see fans arguing about the seasons and whether or not you can or should skip any of them. Here’s the thing: it’s an episodic show from the 80′s. No matter how much Mann or any of the other showrunners tried to make it consistent across its runtime, that’s not really how TV works. 113 episodes does not a movie make. Because of this, each season does feel a bit different from prior seasons, and which season you prefer is going to depend a lot on your personal tastes. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t recommend skipping any of them-- when you do watch the show from the pilot to the finale, it really does feel like one coherent storyline.

Season 1: Many people’s favorite season. A good mixture of tragedy, comedy, mystery, etc. The first six episodes are still kind of “working things out” tonally, but the whole season is worth watching. My personal favorite S1 episode (Evan, the second to last of the season) isn’t available on all sources, but is an absolute must watch, especially in terms of providing context for understanding Sonny as a closeted queer man.

Season 2: My favorite season. The show has its footing and knows what it wants from its characters and its audience. I would argue that almost every episode of this season is a good one, and it’s thematically very consistent. (Also, I think, possibly the most “fun” season despite a lot of darkness?)

Season 3: Also a lot of people’s favorite season, although PERSONALLY I think of S3 as “the police brutality is good, actually” season. Dick Wolf (yes, that Dick Wolf) was the showrunner for this one, and he wanted it to be “grittier.” I think S3 is necessary for understanding Sonny and especially for understanding the relationship between Sonny and Rico, but it’s definitely the copaganda season.

Season 4: The season a lot of people feel you should skip, because it’s “too weird” or where the show jumped the shark. There are some... real strange episodes in this season, including one about aliens and another about cow semen. For real. I’ll be honest: I kind of love S4. It backpedals the grittiness and focuses more on the characters’ inner lives again, S4 also ends with a fantastic two part cliffhanger that is picked up at the beginning of S5.

Season 5: A truncated half-season with a couple of “lost” episodes that actually fit in before the finale. Season Five is sad. The fallout from the end of S4 is heavy, grim stuff, and S5 doesn’t shy away from showing how that has fucked everyone to hell and back. The finale of the show is thematically excellent and emotionally satisfying; while the show was cancelled, they wrapped it up successfully.

“Okay, fine,” you say, sipping the cafecito I handed you while I explained all of this, “so it’s not just about a cool guy in an Armani suit driving an Italian car really fast. But you mentioned it was gay? It still doesn’t sound very gay.”

Well. Let’s see.

There’s what should be a cringey “very special episode” about gay cops in 1984 that is instead one of the most heartfelt and upsetting episodes in the series. Never once does this episode no-homo the main characters, and in fact, men being able to touch each other is positioned as healing and necessary.

Sonny and Rico are the only people who think the other is funny. Their hands and eyes are on each other all the time. Rico used to watch Sonny’s college games on TV and remembers his number. They both repeatedly throw missions for each others’ sakes. They spend all of their time together. There’s an on-screen “I love you” (there’s a ‘man’ at the end but it rings like someone hedging his bets) and a few episodes later the character who received the I love you marries a random woman he literally met less than a week ago in what can only be described as the saddest and most desperate attempt to Not Be Gay Anymore ever caught on film. They cradle each others’ heads more than once. A song about “loving the boy with the pretty green eyes” plays in the background of a conversation they have about following each other to the end of the earth in the finale.

All.

these.

prom.

photo.

shoots.

and whatever the fuck this is.

You finish your third cafecito, shaking slightly from the caffeine, trying to prevent me from handing you a fourth. “Fine,” you admit. “But I still need more convincing. I can’t just watch something that’s good and thematically whole and about two sad men in love. It needs to also have... have some kind of, I don’t know, je ne sais quoi about it. A little extra spice.” Your hand rattles the demitasse against the saucer as you speak.

I pull off my food service uniform to reveal that underneath, I’m dressed as a carnival barker.

WELL. LET ME TELL YOU, FRIEND, WE’VE GOT:

An absolutely golden 80′s soundtrack that is atmospheric, consistently used at pitch-perfect moments, and which has been preserved in its entirety without any licensing issues

A guest cast list that includes a ton of super fucking cool genre actors, musicians, poets, and other assorted famous people playing weird, fun roles (James Hong! Earth Kitt! Pam Grier! Frank Zappa! James Brown! ...G. Gordon Liddy!?) AND many of the future stars of the 90′s before they were famous (Bruce Willis! Julia Roberts! Liam Neeson! Helena Bonham Carter!)

Sonny has an actual pet alligator named Elvis. He lives on his boat and sometimes Sonny has to take him to the vet

Jai Alai

Rico is a vegetarian, which feels like a difficult thing to be in Miami in the 80′s

Izzy. Just. Izzy. The most perfect, most ridiculous, rat-bastard con man and wannabe poet, Izzy.

Episodes directed by both Starsky and Hutch

Sonny’s pathological need to put things in his mouth

Whatever is happening here:

I watch your face carefully for signs of acquiescence, but all the frothing at the mouth I’ve been doing has made it a bit hard to see through the foam. I assume you are convinced and hand you a seventh cafecito. You have not drank the fifth or the sixth. I will drink them when you leave, that’s fine.

MY JOB HERE IS DONE, I announce.

You ask me to elaborate on the whole “not copaganda” thing, trying to grab me by the candy-striped suspenders.

I can’t totally elaborate on that without spoiling a bunch of the show, but suffice to say: ultimately, Vice is about how you can’t change corrupt systems from the inside, that the police serve the rich and powerful, the function of vice cops is basically to create the illusion of order while letting the government quietly destabilize the countries the drugs are originally coming from, and that anyone who tries to be a “good cop” ends up eaten by the system, corrupt, or dead.

There’s some backpedaling on this in the middle of the series with the whole Dick Wolf thing (that man loves his fucking cops), and not every episode is totally consistent with its messaging, but season five definitely doubles down on “this is actually a bad system that really can’t be fixed.”

The show isn’t perfect (I mean. it’s still a cop show from the 80′s)-- it’s a product of its time, for better or for worse. But Miami Vice is really damn good. It’ll make your heart hurt in the best way possible. You will want, desperately, for Sonny to figure out that he’s worth something more than his career as a police officer. You’ll come out of it with a lot of feelings about Phil Collins. I think anyone who likes a good story about people has the potential to really fall in love with Vice-- I’ll admit I literally started watching it as a joke, and realized pretty quickly that everything I thought I knew about the show was wrong.

Satisfied with my answers, you try to leave.

I hit you with a plate of cocaine.

#miami vice #tv recommendations #fandom #80's #retro tv

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gothicprep · 15 days

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I’m camping and this is a queued post.

I watched big joel’s “conservative comedy ruined my life” in bits and pieces last weekend. or the weekend before? I don’t remember. part of me just thinks I’m getting old and running out of patience for, like, elevated react content. another part of me is thinking, “no! it’s laziness you can’t stand!” i know joel is a capable guy – I think “twitter and empathy” is an excellent video essay. i more or less know how YouTube sponsors work in a way that disincentivizes being thorough – “get it out by may 10th, or you’re not getting $200”. all that. maybe this was best practiced as a labor of love rather than a professional career, but I won’t digress

I think what my issues with it are stem from two questions that weren’t engaged with at all:

what makes comedy work?

what is a conservative? it’s a regionally variant thing in how it presents, after all.

If you’d like to hear me ramble, it’s under the cut. if not, i hope everything goes well for you today, and we’ll leave it at that.

alright. now the true reader time has kicked in. im getting dirty.

a lot of the framework I think joel is using here is from this out of context george carlin clip that’s shared en-masse whenever a comedian is in hot water for a tasteless joke. but I honestly think he and most people are interpreting it wrong – it’s somewhat backhanded advice from one professional to another. even if andrew dice clay meant his diceman character as a parody, he’s risking an audience who may not get that, and probably won’t think particularly high of him when they find out his surname by birth is silverman.

the work people remember of carlin’s is anti-establishment and anti-consumerism, yes. but the shtick in that era of his career is mostly about being curmudgeonly. he wasn’t trying to establish an over-arching theory of comedy via one larry king interview. and I guess, while we’re thinking about carlin, we ought to remember that he was arrested for cursing in public at his shows, like, multiple times in the 70s. his attitude towards political correctness (& supposedly what we’d call “wokeness” now) is deeply informed by this. he’d probably call a lot of the posts you’ve endorsed newfangled yuppie shit. don’t invoke the dead unless you know what they were about.

sorry for that digression, but I do think it matters. specifically in the case of joel, who I think leaned into the out of context clip and… developed a nonsense theory of comedy because of that. he says something to the effect of “comedy enforces social norms” when he isn’t talking about comedians. he’s talking about bullies. bullies and their patchwork of social allies aren’t funny. everyone thinks they’re trying too hard in a meaningless and pathetic race.

comedy is often predicated on surprise. if you pay attention, you’ll be a more intelligent person for it. and a more surprising one. funny how that works. I don’t personally believe this neo-breadtube space is inhabited by smart people. I don’t care how many masters degrees they’ll try to break my nose with pointing this out.

okay, getting to the point – the daily wire is not anywhere near the go-to source of conservative bile. their traffic has taken a massive hit since facebook de-emphasized viral news. Imagine making something criticizing “conservative comedy” and not mentioning greg gutfeld at all. fox’s viewership dwarfs that of the daily wire, but the daily wire gets undue legitimacy by way of being terminally online. if I said “Ben Shapiro” to my parents, they’d assume this is the name of some guy that worked with me rather than a pundit.

he also does some idiot magic here where he calls matt stone and trey parker conservatives. they aren’t, they’re libertarians. these sorts of distinctions matter to people who care about gay shit like accuracy. he mostly looks at “team america: world police” as reference and says something to the effect of “they accepted the war on terror as it is”. like are you honestly kidding dude. have you seen the south park movie? they not only characterized the army as incompetent, but actively racist on top of that.

you have to wonder if he has a selective memory about the “team america” movie as well, because he frames it so strangely. because the version of the song where they’re shouting out the names of corporations as a joke is in the end credits only and…

oh. alright. you didn’t watch it. damn. that’s sad. couldn’t even ask you to sit for two hours without picking up your phone like a fidgety little rat.

and… like. as much as I do not like to pull the “I’m bipolar!! I find this gross!!” card, I’m doing it. at the end of this video, joel shows a video of a Roseanne Barr routine where she’s very blatantly wrote while having a manic episode. He calls it interesting, I personally don’t find this all that interesting. I’ve been there. It’s dumb. It’s needlessly scaremongering and dramatic. It isn’t interesting. It makes me feel uncomfortable while I watch it. I was never a conspiracy theorist type but the requisite nonsensical yapping is all too clear to me.

Uhh. That’s what I have to say. Don’t think I got my whole rant out, but this will do for now

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skepticalarrie · 2 years

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Hi Allie!

After all we've been through lately, I've been thinking about how loud, open and sharing Harry is/has been (outfits, rainbows, talks at shows, ...) unlike Louis.

I mean, I'm not questioning at all Louis' behaviour, but only exposing how different Harry and Louis are at dealing their 'situation'.

Well but you kind of are comparing them when you say that, which I think it's pretty unfair. They have completely different closets and now they have completely different careers as well, and most of it is not really how they deal with their "situation", it's just the way things happened for them. I think people sometimes see the way both of their concerts are now and completely forget that Louis said he was straight, he has a long-time girlfriend, a son. Everything that would connect him to anything but straight was severely oppressed. He lost his confidence completely on stage at some point. So I'm sorry but Louis will not be ~open~ like Harry anytime soon, or at least not while he's still stuck with these stunts and old obligations. Not sure if that's what he even wants, tbh. There's a lot of background and context to think about there... because it doesn’t mean they have essentially the same goals either, they’re separate individuals and artists.

And I don't think things were easier for Harry, either. While he's the "profitable one", a rockstar, so people love the idea of sexual (and gender) fluidity for him... he still lives with narratives that paint him as a womanizer, a fuck boy. Most people have a serious misconception of who he truly is. And brings a lot of shitty consequences. He doesn't have a close relationship with fans like Louis, he will never point to a larrie sign like Louis. If Louis said fuck it right now and came out as not straight, honestly.. I don’t think people would give a fuck, most of his fans would stay and support him, he would be even more loved. But Harry?! That would probably be career suicide for him. So again, you can’t compare both of their situations, don’t be that person.

#ask #harry’s closet #louis’ closet

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dearweirdme · 26 days

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so this larry situation has started a discussion. i am not a larrie btw but i know rain you used to be one. in my opinion larry is definitely an example of shipping taken too far.

louis's statement kinda scares me "there’s nothing I can say or do to dispel the believers of that conspiracy. they are so intertwined with what they believe to be the truth now that they won’t actually see the truth for what it is." even after this statement, i saw a few larries who still believe that his management is making him do all this. that gave me the shudders.

if louis and harry used to be a thing and this is how they turned out now, i would happily accept tae and jk to be just friends rather than their relationship turning into something disastrous like larry.

i think for me the only way i will continue to believe in taekook (assuming that they cannot come out officially as a couple) is if they both stay single for pretty much the rest of their life. so this is like a pretty long term theory lol but this will be my ultimate proof. because if they cannot get married or openly be together, its not like they can just tell us that, the only way we can spot it is if both of them are single. and ofc this theory only works out if only tae and jk out of all the members are single well into their age. if literally any other member is also single then this theory doesn't work.

anyways what do you think? what is your version of final proof?

Hi anon!

The difficulty of Larry fandom is that after 1d went on hiatus.. there was close to no real interactions to be witnessed between Harry and Louis. Before hiatus, most Larries were still quite certain they were together and they got to actually watch them interact and look at how they reacted to each other. When that disappeared.. the fandom kinda had to go by clues and fill in the gaps. But that leaves so much room to be wrong. That is why I feel fairly certain that they were together during or for parts of 1d, but perhaps not much after hiatus. There’s so much that makes Larry fandom a tough and complicated place. They are dealing with a band that’s no longer active, two solo artists that are quite different, a lot if newer fans who don’t really understand 1d history.. etc. All stuff that makes for a complex situation. Not all Larries are as unhinged (same as how Tkkrs differ from each other), but if you base your opinion on twitter larries 😬.

I think unhinged theories emerge when fans think they have to speak and fight for their favorite artist. We can kinda see it here too, with some fans talking about members hating each other. To me that is unhinged as well. You are absolutely right in saying Larry fandom (as a whole) takes it too far. There’s a lot of unhinged theories going around. I don’t think Louis has to do this because of his management, I think he has a lot of control these days. The idea that he doesn’t is something that stems from their earlier days, when their label and management did seem to have a lot of control.

It is very important to take note of time passing and of situations changing and I feel that is lacking in Larry fandom. A lot of people hold on to what once was without leaving much room for new developments.

The same thing goes for Tkk. I just try to go with what Tae and Jk show us. I think they have continued to show us their closeness so at this moment I have little reason to doubt that they’re together. When that changes (and not to bring down the mood or something, but we do not know how enlistment and being apart will effect them) I will still go with what I see and accept if I feel they have broken up. If at any point one of them announces an engagement or marriage.. I’ll take that to mean they split up or that maybe we were wrong (depending on context).

You always have to do with the information you get. In this situation it’s always possible that at one point something comes to light that changes our perspective. For me Taennie wasn’t that, but for some it was. For me Tae and/or Jk denying Tkk probably will be, others might still carry on.

My ultimate proof of Tae and Jk being together will be when I see both of them come out in 10+ years or so. If they make it so far ofcourse.. otherwise I’ll probably forever wonder 😂. But it’s not that important for me to get ultimate proof of them together. In the end what I want is for them to be happy, whether it’s with each other romantically or platonically.

#this is the last lrry ask for now #taekook #fandom shenanigans

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izacore · 11 months

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Of course Anne and Gemma hugging and crying while hearing the song doesn’t mean it’s about Gemma, but added to everything else, it all adds up. And he also didn’t say that ESNY was about Robin, and he was asked about it. And we know it’s about Robin because he alluded to it being about “receiving bad news about a family member” in a secret show (not in an interview). I think he just wanted songs to be relatable to fans, even if they were specific for him. Like, I think SOTT is very obviously about Matt Irwin but Harry didn’t mention it, even though he did talk about Matt other times.

About the stuttering, he was asked if it was about Louis. I don’t personally believe in Larry but I’m neutral on it, I’m not an anti. Whether Larry is real or not, imagine he wrote the song about his sister and is promoting it. And he gets asked if it’s about either his secret boyfriend or an ex bandmate people think is his boyfriend. Of course he’s gonna be taken by surprise and confused. Clearly he wasn’t expecting the question. And he did say “if you hear the lyrics you can tell what it’s about and I would lean towards no.” So in a gentle way being like “this isn’t romantic” (which, again, he said in an interview with USA Today in 2017 as well).

You can obviously think it’s cringe. But to me, Harry writing a sweet song about his sister and her getting emotional over it and his mom loving it so much is super cute. It doesn’t take away anything from anywhere else to me. I think making incest jokes is disrespectful because the song isn’t romantic at all it’s not sexual. It’s just sweet.

Like, even if you do think it’s romantic (I truly don’t see it at all), imagine you’re wrong and despite being so sure of what you believe it turns out it was always about Gemma and you were making incest jokes about them. Won’t you feel kinda bad? How would you feel if someone misinterpreted something you did for a family member as romantic and blamed you for it and said you’re a weirdo and creepy and made incest jokes?

Sometimes this fandom can lack so much empathy. We forget that the boys aren’t our friends and they’re people with feelings and thought processes that are completely separate to ours.

Why do you guys insist that the song being romantic would mean it's sexual when one automatically doesn't warrant the other lmao you can be romantic without commiting a sexual act, so this reasoning doesn't speak to me at all.

For me taking everything into consideration adds up to it being about Louis so we could have this conversation forever. I just don't understand why you all aren't so hell-bent on making other songs that use similar lyricism about Gemma? Sunflower? Kids in the kitchen - obviously about them playing during their childhood. Canyon Moon? Going back to his family home, since Gemma brings him home. We can go on and on, but in my opinion context matters 💁🏼‍♀️ Nothing was stopping Harry from simply laughing it off when asked the question in the interview. Also no, I wouldn't feel bad cause like you said, those people are not my friends, I don't know them, will never meet or talk to them so I can laugh about a situation where everyone is denying reality to prove that Harry Styles did not write a love song for his sister.

#play the song to any non fandom person and ask them if it sounds like a love song lol #wasn't it even tagged as one on his youtube?#anyways we can go on and on and this fandom already acts like none of the songs H wrote are actually about louis #but consider some random colours the biggest proof or being unhinged or whatever #i'm tired #ask #anonymous

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cantquitu · 9 months

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Sorry, different anon but I find this discourse from the last few days in this side of the fandom so exhausting.

I have been a fan of Harry’s since 2011, and this is the first time in 13 years that he starts dating someone and 90% of Harries are cheering. I’ve never seen anything like it!

When they were first spotted together I thought it was a fluke, then it happened again, and I thought “well, when they see they’re actually dating they’ll switch,” and just kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. But it’s been 2 months and multiple spottings and the other shoe isn’t dropping. And this corner of the fandom that used to be my safe space when it came to defending his partners, relationships, and choices, is the one negative spot (aside from Larries), constantly talking about how it’s only a matter of time before everyone suddenly hates Taylor and turns on their relationship.

Like, I understand where you’re coming from, trust me I do, but at the end of the day this is a completely new scenario we’d never seen before. Can we just… wait? Can we try to be positive? If we constantly talk about how “it’ll turn ugly any minute now” then it most likely will, we’re not speaking in a vacuum and it just seems like y’all are giving these people ideas. “They’ll make something up and all the Harries will eat it up.”

Sorry, nobody “made anything up” with Camille or Olivia. They turned things they actually said and took them out of context or exaggerated them. But they did say and did those things. Of course none of it was a valid excuse to treat them that way, but it wasn’t MADE UP.

By the looks of it, they would have to actually make something up for Taylor because she just isn’t online or famous enough and hasn’t been in show business enough to have a damning digital footprint.

Can’t we just… wait? Enjoy the positivity? Must we be declaring already how it’s going to be terrible soon, you just wait?

It’s your blog, you can do and post whatever you want and I fully respect that. It’s just frustrating because you used to be my safe space for these things and you’re quickly turning into a very negative one and I don’t think you realize it (or doing it on purpose)

Lol!! 🤣🤣

I'm so sorry that the three (3) asks I've answered and the one (1) post I reblogged this weekend are SO exhausting for you that they're ruining your safe space. Sounds stressful. Perhaps take a step back and, I dunno...get some perspective??!

As for, "Sorry, nobody "made anything up" with Camille and Olivia" ...? Be serious.

#i checked and before this weekend i had posted one two line tag post about taylor 3 weeks ago in answer to an ask #that's it

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salted-caramel-tea · 1 year

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alright my boyfriend and i FINALLY watched kahmunrah rises again and here’s our (my) final thoughts

spoilers under the cut

alright let me preface this by saying i KNOW this is a kids movie and is supposed to cater towards kids but i am a whore for night at the museum it was my favourite growing up and it’s my favourite now sono want to say as a viewer these were my honest thoughts being such a big fan of the og movies

CHARACTERS

only gonna talk about main and new characters tbh

nick

i was so lost tbh bc i’m not mad about joshua basset but the writing is what threw me . was t nick supposed to be going to college at the end of secret of the tomb ?? how is he back in high school in this movie ??? the summary says it takes place years after secret of the tomb so i’m a little lost about how old nick is supposed to be at this point

sacagawea

i love that they’re pushing her i to the foreground of this film i really wish she got more time in the first three movies and we learn so much more about where she comes from and shes such a bad ass in this film and the friendship with joan is great showing kids powerful women being friends with powerful women but . her vibe just felt so different. just different . a lot more casual a lot more modern american .

teddy

am i the only one that felt teddy was … dumbed down . like they tried to make him a himbo almost . he just wasn’t as likeable in this movie and it’s nothing to do with the actor it’s the writing just feels meh .

joan

i love joan of arc so i was excited to see her in this film but … they just kind of out her in with no context . i wouldn’t loved if they gave us some more background on her like when she was added as an exhibit or something just . it just launched us into her character and i wanted to know much more about her

miniatures

this is nothing against the actors talent im just . the vibe was not there at ALL. that being said they were simultaneously more and less fruity in this film.

but he sounded like an owen wilson impersonator . jack whitehall made octavius sound like his name is hugo. not a fan of their characterisation at all tbh WHY IS JED GINGER

seth

actually not mad at this character i see how it’s entertaining but it feels AWFULLY similar to napoleon in battle of the smithsonian .

the rest of the characters felt rather unremarkable tbh . i was gonna comment of kahmunrah but i literally have nothing to say

plot / continuity

it felt like they just kind of mashed all three films together if i’m honest . it just felt like a different version of battle of the smithsonian . the battle at the end in particular was VERY reminiscent of the fight between kahmunrah and larry . and the miniatures adventure feels like secret of the tomb again .

also in terms of continuity whats larry’s story wasnt be a teacher at the end of secret if the tomb ?? now he’s working in japan ?? also the tablet was supposed to train in london if the tablets there where’s ahk??? they were both in loan from the british museum as part of a touring exhibit at the end of secret if the tomb ??? also how does kahmunrah just pick and choose when things come to life in the first three films it was just evrything within a certain radius ???

also texas wasn’t part of teddy’s display but did appear randomly, and sacagawea had a horse but lewis and clarke were gone . and mcphee knows the secret of the tablet at the end of the trilogy so why did they revert and make it known that text cannot move in front of mcphee .

and girl this tablet can do anything . “ye olde ipad” <- my boyfriend

even the jokes in this one didn’t land as well . i’m fully aware the plot doesn’t exactly like up between the first three movies but this one just felt unoriginal and unnecessary as an instalment into what was a great movie trilogy .

the end of secret if the tomb was emotional and heartfelt even if larry made out with a fucking monkey, changing that just doesn’t feel right . i just didn’t feel like i was watching night at the museum .

#night at the museum #natm #kahmunrah rises again

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seasurfacefullofclouds1 · 2 years

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Remember the Davide Sorrenti t-shirt that Louis wore and how he actively did not want to use his family tragedy as a talking point in that bbc interview when he was promoting walls. I always felt that people who want him to be performative don’t understand him at all. Also, you are never going to force him to do something the way you want him to do it by blackballing him into it. I know because I am the same way. It’s just a personality trait.

Louis wore the Davide Sorrenti T-shirt on 13 December 2019 (and looked ethereal that day):

Sorrenti was a “wunderkind” photographer who popularized “heroin chic” in the fashion photography of the 1990’s. After his death, his mother Francesca started a campaign against the glamorization of drug use.

Louis is never one to be coerced into performative activism. His post at the London BLM march did not include himself because the protests were NOT ABOUT HIM.

Louis’ LGBT support has been steady and unequivocal from the very beginning.

Larries are hurt because Louis doesn’t validate their Larry theories, and what they’re doing to Louis is exactly what they do to everyone who disagrees with their theories.

Larries have always falsely equated the denial of Larry with homophobia. It’s their way of playing victim and giving themselves a false moral high ground when the facts are clearly against their beliefs.

So now they’ve given Louis a list of how to be a “good gay ally” instead of looking at the thousand ways he already has done so. But if he ever talks about the colorful flags for Only the Brave, for example, Larries will not acknowledge it as LGBT support, but interpret it as Larry proof, like they do with coincidences in clothing colors, light colors, lyrics taken out of context, choices of post-show songs, etc.

Larries put these expectations on an artist whom they consider closeted, and whom they harass by singing Harry Styles songs at Louis’ tourbus when he’s resting, with large AIMH and other Larry signs at Louis’ own concerts, with fetus Harry and Louis dolls at the barricades— trying to out Louis at every opportunity.

If they think they can force a reaction from Louis, then they really don’t know him.

#Larries #louis tomlinson

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twopoppies · 7 months

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I'm not a larrie so you can disagree I hope you don't mind.Tbh I think the song is about abortion but I don't think it has anything to do with him. I don't think he'd just go around and record the song especially knowing what kind of fan base he has. The song didn't make it to the album so no one knows the context I think it's probably like Matilda it's for someone else maybe. Some Harries were saying he said writing is like therapy for him so even if he wrote it do they really think he'd go to a studio sing it in front of people and record it and let others listen to it. Maybe it's for someone who he's close with and just wants them to know it's okay not everything has to be romantic. Here we are talking about a man who values his privacy so I don't think he'd go around letting others know such personal info. And saying he has changed a lot so probably this is the reason for it doesn't make sense at all this song was supposed to be on fineline he looked pretty fine during the promo tbh he didn't even look heartbroken at all like he claims he does sorry not sorry. The Pandemic did change a lot of people so I don't know why when it comes to harry people think the worst. I kinda liked pub anon but the moment she said hendall was real they were young stupid and in love I was like nah she's also a fan and she's the one who pointed out how fake ho was and then praised Kylie and timothee which is obvs pr. she also said Camille was real idk for me haylor , hendall , hamille and ho were obv pr. What he's doing now i don't even consider it as anything . I'm not some crazy harry who thinks all his relationships are fake/pr and living my fantasy . He's the only one who said what we see is work and he has never dated anyone public and maybe if his team didn't follow the textbook pr method then it would've been more believable.

Hi, love. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I actually agree with you. To me, that song doesn’t seem like it has anything to do with his and Louis’ relationship (however you see their relationship). I see it more along the lines of Matilda, in that he wrote it about someone else or from the POV of someone else.

I have no idea why people seem to, more often than not, be assuming the worst when Harry in involved in things. But they’re always right there ready to pounce and drag him. It’s bizarre to me.

I unfollowed Pub anon during holivia because she very clearly disliked Harry almost as much as Olivia. Plus, she worshipped Camille and believed that relationship was real which just says to me that you know nothing. And now you’re saying she thinks Kylie and Timothée are real? Please.

#stunts #hussell #high tides

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alltheselights · 1 year

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Am I remembering correctly that Louis expressed discomfort at being referred to as daddy during bty promo? I thought I remembered that but I can’t find the video or anything so maybe I am remembering wrong. Or was it instead about being referred to as a father? God, I wish I could find the video…do you remember at all?

This would probably make me prudish to a lot of people but I am not a fan of calling celebrities daddy or getting really sexual about a person. Especially not to their face. This includes Harry by the way. It can be harmless, sure, and that I don’t mind but then so many take it way too far and they add it to everything that person does, in a way which to me seems creepy. If you want to tweet it or message it to your friends, I would not care. It’s all more annoying with larries because they will criticise the ones who treat Harry like that but then double down and do it to Louis. And I hate to say it, but Harry’s recent actions have encouraged it. He read the signs before he said them out loud. He knew what he was interacting with. Do I think that person should have called it out at the movie promo event? Not at all. Larries were mad about it and I understand but it does make me sad because I just don’t trust they would have the same energy for Louis if something similar happened at a promo event. They very well could but the way some larries talk about Louis…they treat him exactly like the treatment they complain about from non-Larries towards Harry

Yeah, he was weirded out by it in an interview (it might’ve been a Buzzfeed thing), but I can’t remember if that was 2017 or 2019. Regardless, I totally agree with everything you mentioned. Harry’s chosen to acknowledge “daddy” signs on multiple occasions now and has liked a happy father’s day tweet, though that of course doesn’t give people the right to call it out to him at other events. It’s just basic human decency and respect. In contrast, Louis has never shown any desire to be a sex symbol so the fact that fans treat him that way is uncomfortable to watch. Even more so because it often is certain Larries who do it even though they’re furious when anybody treats Harry that way. They were even angry with HARRY for choosing to acknowledge daddy signs because they felt it was encouraging those fans who sexualize him - even though that was Harry’s own choice, but then they turn around and call Louis “daddy” every time he breathes. And they’ll defend their behavior endlessly.

There’s also just a general obsession with sexualizing Louis in this corner of the fandom that I find very disturbing, and even more so when you compare it to peoples’ treatment of Harry. Harry writes songs about sex and dominating someone and has acknowledged multiple albums as having songs about sex, and people ignore it or come up with excuses for what the lyrics mean. Louis hasn’t written a sex song (that we’ve heard, at least) since he was in One Direction over seven years ago, but you constantly see people talking about how they want sex songs from him. Most recently, there was even a viral tweet about how the true lyrics in WAOYF must have been “can we please get back to fucking” even though that doesn’t make sense in the context of the song. Harry enjoys showing off his body (as he should, considering how hard he works to be in incredible shape) and often wears shirtless outfits that show off his abs and pecs, but if you point that out, people act like you’re a het Harrie and get angry about it. Louis covers himself up as much as possible most of the time, yet you see people wanting him to go shirtless on stage and sexualizing the hell out of him when he’s just trying to go swimming, like we saw when he was in a bathing suit in Spain and Iceland earlier this year.

It’s a double standard that really bothers me and always has. Despite how much some Larries pretend to have a moral high ground, there is a group, and it’s often the most popular Larries (I could name names, but I’m sure you know who I’m referring to) who treat Louis the way that het Harries treat Harry. They treat Louis more as some kind of sex object and one half of their fantasies for Louis and Harry’s sexual relationship than a person who, in my opinion, has shown that he is not interested in being a sex object to his fans. He’s interested in making music and he seems to want a friend or sibling relationship with us, and he deserves for that to be respected by people who are his fans.

#asks

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