#recent queer history tbh

[theleakypen]

All right, friends, because I just reblogged another post reminding people about queer history, let me tell y'all a story.

When I was seventeen years old, I had the amazing opportunity to participate in a film class for queer youth and adults. I don't remember how I found out about this opportunity, but I'd just finished high school and had already decided to take a year off before going to college, and had just spent half a year immersing myself in poetry slams and slowly, slowly finding out about more and more queer community available to me in my city. I think I'd just started attending meetings at the polyamory org, too, hosted at the GLBT Center in the city. This was in the late aughts, btw. A little over a decade ago.

So I joined this class. The youngest member of the class was fourteen, the eldest was... I wanna say in their 40s? I never actually asked anybody their ages. And as I said, I was seventeen, fresh out of high school.

Our classroom was the computer lab in one of the recreation centers run by the city's Parks and Rec department.

For a month in the summer, we met at the picnic table outside this computer lab, unable to use the computers with the video editing software on them, because someone in the chain of command in the city had decided that it was inappropriate for adults and minors to be behind a closed door together.

(As an aside, the law that was passed in the St. Petersburg Oblast' the fall after I studied abroad there, was for "banning homosexual and pedophile propaganda". I'll let y'all draw your conclusions.)

Eventually, the organization behind the film class won and we were able to have a normal class. I learned so much! My film (and those of my classmates) got to be in a real actual film festival that people saw! (I am mildly embarrassed when I think about the film itself, because it's my old work and I have learned so much, about myself and about craft and politics and life, since then, but that's not important. What's important is that I had this opportunity.) The first nonbinary people I met who used "they" pronouns and neopronouns were in the class. I learned about the history and present of certain neighborhoods in my city because of my classmates and teachers. It took me years after that to grow better politics, tbh, but the seeds of so much of who I am now were planted that summer and fall.

And because someone decided that queer elders were a danger to us, it almost didn't happen.

So when I see young queer people on this site and others spitting on our history, spouting the same old lines about queer adults being predators, it makes me so mad I want to scream. We had to fight to be in the same room as our elders, those who lived. This is recent, this is now. Stop doing our oppressors' work for them.

#personal shit #long post #queer history #recent queer history tbh

[moonbreezes]

Letter form King James VI & I to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (1624?)

Alas, sweet heart, thy letter yesternight made my heart to bleed. For God's sake be as wary as thou can with drugs and physicians, for they are but for cases of necessity. I can take no pleasure in Theobalds Park till thou come, and yet the thistle is here. If thy health may permit thee to be here tomorrow night, it will be a great comfort unto me that thou and thy cunts may see me hunt the buck in the park upon Friday next. And if thou show me not all the devices in this park before I go from hence, I shall never have comfort in it. I have sent Conway to thee as thou desired. God ever bless thee and all thine, and send thee health and heart, to the comfort of thy dear dad.

JAMES R.

I have found another tale in the book of a calf, like that of the cow.

(King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire - David M. Bergeron)

Lately I’ve been thinking about this particular letter, and how aptly it portrays the relation between illness and James. And how he disliked the state of contemporary medicine, which is honestly valid.

#king james vi and i #george villiers #lgbtq #mary & george #love letters #queer history #british history #early Stuarts #I’ve been recently thinking about this particular letter #the discourse of illness in what jsmes wrote is quite interesting tbh

[the-kestrels-feather]

I know I'm SO late to the party, but In light of the hbomberguy video, I wanted to drop a list of some of my favorite video essayists on here who are all great. Some are well known, some of them not, but all deserve a lot of love thrown their way!

Any creators I know are Queer will have a * next to their names if that's what you're looking for! (Note some of them might not have a star that should, that's not me trying to invalidate anybody I just didn't know, please feel free to correct me!)

Dominic Noble- book content! Has a series called Lost in Adaptation that judges how faithful movie adaptations of books were to their original source material, but also does some reviews/summaries as well. Very publicly denounced JKR after she was revealed to be a TERF and stated he will no longer review anything by her on his channel. Also deleted ALL of his HP videos after finding out she was a TERF (which were his most popular videos), so I have a really deep respect for him tbh. Former Channel Awesome member who publicly denounced them on several occasions, and an all around swell guy.

*Overly Sarcastic Productions- channel run by 2 people who go by Red and Blue. History and Mythology/Literature content, as well as analysis of tropes and media! I've been told their History content can be a bit... Iffy, but I'm not a Historian so I don't know, however if they get something wrong they're good about correcting it for what that counts for. Very interesting to listen to, I've watched Red's Videos roughly 100 times each. Also has a podcast.

*Strange Aeons- fandom/Tumblr history mostly, as well as some history, and weird businesses too. Reads a LOT of cursed content for her channel.

*Lindsay Ellis- Media/film analysis. obviously not as unknown as some of the others on here, but I absolutely adore her content and will forever be sad that she isn't on YouTube anymore.

Cruel World Happy Mind- MLM/explanation of controversial figures. I'm not sure how best to explain her content, but she seems genuinely lovely and is interesting to listen to. Also a victim of Illuminaughtii's ire and deserves some love. The video she made on Blair is a bit outdated since she made it at the start of when this all came to light, but imo it's definitely worth a watch. Her talking about her interaction with Blair genuinely broke my heart.

*Night Mind- Analog horror/Unfiction/ARG content! Analyzes and explains various internet horror pieces, and also has a very nice voice to listen to.

*Lola Sebastian- Film/Media Analysis!

Li Speaks- Deep dives into various nostalgia, mainly flash games!

*Princess Weekes- Media/film/literary analysis!

abitfrank- summaries and analysis of various "darker" children's content such as Coraline (book and movie), Nightmare Before Christmas, and various dark fairy tales

Hello Future Me- writing advice and world building information!

Curious Archive- deep dives into the various bestiaries of video games and the animals in real life that they're similar to, I love his Subnautica video!

In Praise of Shadows- Horror media analysis! Will often focus on specific franchises, but also covers things like horror comics and tropes as well.

Wait in the Wings- theatre! Deep dives into the back stories behind the production of various musicals! His video on Rogers the Musical that he did for April Fool's last year is comedy fucking gold

Weird Reads With Emily Louise- conspiracy theory/cult/weird thing analysis! Looks at things from an objective and skeptical view, and is very in depth. Recently served as a consulting producer on an HBO Max documentary on the Love has Won cult.

Ask a Mortician- death content! Covers various historical events and darker stories of death from the view of a Mortician.

*Izzzyzz- deep dives into fandoms, as well as well as different video games and kids' virtual worlds.

Disney Dan- Disney content! Covers the history of different mascot costumes at Disney and Disney-like parks! Has collaborated with Definctland in the past too!

Yesterworld- theme park content! Discusses history behind rides and parks, as well as some Disney movies. I think has also collaborated with Defunctland and Disney Dan?

Legal Eagle- legal content! Breaks down news about ongoing legal cases in a way that feels approachable. I like him because both my parents are paralegals and his videos have helped me understand what they mean when they're talking about work a little bit

Super Eye patch Wolf- media video essays! Mostly about anime/manga and video games, but also covers things like influencer scams and pro wrestling. His "what the internet did to Garfield" video is SO GOOD

*Jessie Gender- Media Analysis, loves Star Trek

*Laura Crone- Media Analysis video essays, her videos on the Swan Princess are fucking great I highly recommend!

*Lady Emily- Media Analysis, did a whole video on Spuder-Man turn off the dark that is SO good. Co writer for Sarah Z

Tale Foundry- covers different forms of fiction, their xenofiction video is great, as is their Angelarium one!

Defunctland- Theme Park ride and Children's TV History channel!

Jenny Nicholson- one of the sort of "big three" commentary channels with Lindsay Ellis and Sarah Z imo, covers all sorts of stuff but her most recent one is a 3 hour video on the theme park Evermore Park!

*Sarah Z- Fandom history and Media analysis! I really enjoy their content, the Johnlock Conspiracy and DashCon videos are my favorites!

Li Speaks- Flash games/virtual world analysis mostly! She has a very soothing voice to listen to, if you played like. Any MMOs or virtual worlds growing up I Highly recommend. I've watched her video on Horseland SO many times.

*Codex Entry- Video game coverage! Her videos on Pathologic are great if you're like me and wanted more after the Hbomberguy video!

Wendigoon- ARG/Spooky content! One of the early proponents of the Mandela Catalog and best known for his conspiracy theory iceberg, but has also covered things like various weird/unsolved crimes, Assassination conspiracies, and other things. His videos on Faith, Blood Meridian, The Mandela Catalog, and his Religion/Cult iceberg are some of my favorites

Dino Diego- Dinosaur fiction, like movies, video games, books, short stories, etc. his 2 videos on West of Eden and Winter in Eden are two of my favorites!

Haley Whipjack- I don't know how to describe her content really? She does a lot of deep dives (her Shrek one is my favorite), currently doing a recap of Once Upon a Time by season that is very fun. She's an elementary school teacher by day (that's not me dozing her she talks about it on her channel), and so she has fun unhinged teacher energy!

Other channels that are a sort of collection of different people talking about different things rather than 1 or 2:

TEDx

PBS

The Exploring Series

#james somerton #hbomberguy #i know this is late #i meant to post this a while ago but i had so many to catalog #video essays #video essayist

[shark-myths]

Sending My Love From the Other Side

Things we should discuss:

Pete’s sexy metal Viking princess unitard, he’s waiting to be rescued by a barbarian, I can only presume he is a bride-prize for the hero who can save him

The Folie-ness of it all, the ship at sea but not doomed, not this time; instead it is a vessel of hope

The mythology-of-the-band frame narrative

How the title references back to Sending Postcards from a Plane Crash

Stardust stardust stardust and Pete’s fear of space objects

What do Field of Dreams and The Princess Bride have in common?

For those expressing concern about Joe’s absence both on Sunday and in this video—he writes in his recent book, None of This Rocks, about emergency back problems during the latter end of this pandemic, compromising his ability to walk for a brief post-surgical time, exacerbated by overworking. He writes about learning boundaries, learning to rest, and asking his band for accommodations for his health. It seems likeliest that he’s recovering from a back-related issue, rather than conscientiously abstaining from participating in this record as he describes doing with MANIA.

General ranting about lyrics:

DISCLAIMER: It’s not me, okay, it’s the text, it’s Pete being incapable of writing anything that doesn’t sound like it’s about forbidden queer love, I could not make this shit up, I truly could not

“Model house meltdown”

Reminds me of walking through the house in your shoes, I’m supposed to love you; reminds me of I’m just playing house, no idea what I’m doing now. It’s a very dark Tim Burton-y sentiment from an outwardly happy man living a domestic fairy tale.

“We were a hammer to the Statue of David, we were a painting you could never frame, and you were the sunshine of my lifetime.”

THE PAST-TENSENESS HERE

Right from the start, this sets us up for something universally perceived as perfect and beloved being destroyed. This could be a reputation, a cultural relic, a profound piece of history, a narrative, a love. We were a hammer that destroyed it, that perceived thing… 

We were a painting too profane to be displayed in a museum, hidden and damned? Or we were larger than life, uncontent to be contained by a frame, always in motion, chimeric and twining, together apart, together apart, a tesselated image you can only see if you zoom out and unfocus your eyes.

You have all read my opinions about twenty years of Patrick = sunshine metaphors, which seem to be getting pretty FUCKING literal here at the end of days.

“Nowhere left for us to go but heaven, summer falling through our fingers again”

Among other things, this seems to be a VERY explicit reference to Heaven’s Gate.

I am feeling the hope of MANIA (you know my manic poly dream reading of that beautiful, purple beacon of hope) replaced by what the pandemic / apocalypse did to us all. So much for stardust, indeed.

Summer symbolizing touring, festival circuits, linking to the recent FOB instagram post that showed video from the Hella Mega Tour with the caption “take us back here.” The liminality and fleeting-ness of those spaces, those selves, that unmoored time of doing nothing, being everything. The way they want to be home when they’re on the road and the way they want to be on the road when they’re at home. Summer slipping through our fingers again, like the sand in the bottom half of the hourglass, gone past, gone past.

“What would you trade the pain for? I’m not sure”

Isn’t that a fucking question, my friends!!! The pain of longing, unsatisfied, love, unrequited or unconsummated, forbidden and forsaken? The pain of not-having, or of having-had? The pain it was to be together? Welcome to my glossary of suffering

And what would you trade it for? Is this a question of, what is it worth and I can’t imagine giving it up? Or is it a past-tense question—a way of saying, I traded that exquisite pain to get what I have now, and I’m not sure what it was for, I’m not sure if it was worth it.

“Every lover’s got a little dagger in their hand”

Tbh someone smarter than me will have more to say about this, I am sure. Tarot and betrayal and the way love has thorns and anything worth having always hurts, everyone you trust with love will hurt you and let you down at least a little bit, imperfections and prices paid. But it’s also a very classic, very catchy and poetically deep sounding chorus of the type FOB loves to use and do not always hold a deep reading. 

“I saw you in a bright clear field, hurricane heat in my head.”

More field-of-dreams invocation and playfulness! If there is not a stadium show at that field, I am going to light something on fire, it is the only pilgrimage I care about from this day forward.

“Inscribed like stone and faded by the rain: Give up what you love before it does you in”

LITERALLY what can I even SAY about this and the past tense and the DECISION, the question popped by MANIA that was answered only by global cataclysm and forced separation, the way they began work on this album in early 2021 (per Joe’s book). I can only hear this in conversation with the tracks on that record.

“The kind of pain you feel to get good in the end”

I was all prepared to do some read about morality and queerness and what you give up for the people you love, until @carbonbased000 said, “I love the pain line and I want to give it a kinky read so badly but we both know it’s about tennis”, and you know what. She’s right.

To summarize: there’s a lot to say, there’s a lot to feel, I love this song immensely and I hope you do too. I hope to explode more thoughts soon and uhhh maybe write another fairy tale. TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK, EVERYONE!

#tryst theory #peterick institute #so much for stardust #fob8 #fob #peterick #i do not remember my own tags for organizing lyrical analysis so let me get back to you on tht #fob deep lore analysis #sending my love from the other side #fall out boy

[lostboiking30]

I’m studying Film History right now and because I am deeply fascinated with queer history I have been trying to watch older films with queer subtext. We are currently studying the golden age of Hollywood and I am stunned by how many actresses were bisexual simply because it’s never mentioned. Once the Hays Code was adapted, queerness was all but erased from the screens so in addition to being heavily discriminated against in real life, there was also no positive queer representation in film and other media. Any time there was queer representation they were either the villains or heavily stereotyped or killed off. This went on throughout the 20th century and until recently has affected how media has been portrayed and adapted. So naturally because I am watching films from the 1910s-1930s I began to think about Legend of Korra, the probability of Korra and Asami being bisexual (I thought about Ginger and Wu too tbh) in that time frame and how “realistic” it would be. I also thought about how remnants of the Hays Code has prevented Korra and Asami from kissing on screen at the end like Aang and Katara. It always struck me as odd that it was okay to show two young heterosexual teenagers embracing their love for one another but how taboo it was for two consenting adult women to do the same (after showing in detail the enormous amount of trauma both women experienced—like I think about this all the time. Legend of Korra is a brutal show). All we could get were hints of Korra and Asami growing closer and a suggestive hand hold at the end of the series and the only people who noticed the subtext were queer people themselves or shippers who shipped Korrasami (whether queer or not). Because even in 2014—80 years after the Hays Code was set in place and 40 years after it was abandoned—we still were not able to have explicit positive representation because that actively challenged the notion of “family values” that was ingrained into our society and Nickelodeon wouldn’t have it. I guess this is why the Legend of Korra ending and subsequent comics are so important to me aside from the fact that I am genuinely in love with both characters (and the fanfiction I read just reinforces that—y’all are so talented 😭😭😭) Anyway I guess the point of this post was to say that Korra and Asami being bisexual and Kya being quiet about being a lesbian is both canonically accurate and IRL accurate.

#queer #film history #legend of korra #Korrasami #lgbtq #hays code #bisexual

[enbycrip]

ID: printed from a newspaper letters column:

“Don't Tell the Children about Peterloo

Teach them how Tommies defeated the Hun

The victorious glory of a war no one won

Despising the Kaiser

That prophet of Doom

Then get them reciting from Brooke

Not Sassoon.

Dish out paper poppies

But whatever you do

Don't tell the children about Peterloo.

Don't teach how landowners, soldiers and cops

Rode into Manchester

Our protests to stop.

Of Yeomanry charges on people unarmed

Of victims of violence inciting no harm

Legitimate grievances silenced by force

Battered by batons and trampled by horses

Where the Gates of Saint Peter let the Devil ride through, but

Don't tell the children

About Peterloo.

Throughout years of history lessons in a Salford school nobody ever mentioned Peterloo, a hugely significant social and politi- cal event in the struggle for democracy and representation. This poem examines the motives of those who would steer clear of it in the classrooms of Greater Manchester - TONY KINSELLA”.

This is so depressingly true.

And, tbh, why I want to go into history as a career. I doubt I’ll ever be well enough to teach children, though I might manage part-time lecturing. But I want to write history about queer, trans, disabled, poor, BIPOC. I want to write about class warfare and marginalisation and how our society actually operates, ideally where people can read it.

Link to the Wikipedia entry on the Peterloo Massacre for context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterloo_Massacre.

I was listening to a podcast about it in the car with my OH recently and it struck me that, if the occasional names of politicians in specific posts had been left out, I wouldn’t have been that surprised to hear the same basic details in a contemporary news report. Current criminalisation of protest by the UK Tory government has reached very similar levels as it had at this time, and they appear to have about the same level of scruples about violence towards protestors to break up peaceful, determined protest.

#peterloo #peterloo massacre #working class history #historiography #class warfare #criminalisation of protest #uk politics #teaching history #uk history #teaching the humanities #erasure of marginalised history #fuck the tories

[talentforlying]

PEOPLE I'D LIKE TO GET TO KNOW BETTER!

alias / name: oxly!

birthday:  may 1st.

zodiac sign: taurus.

height: 5'4" / 162 cm i think??

hobbies: writing, singing, painting, media ethnography, osteology, learning to speak russian, D&D + star wars TTRPGs.

favorite color: black, a darker shade of cyan, or lavender!

favorite book: tie between inkheart by cornelia funke (i've read the cover clean off my poor copy, it never gets any less beautiful to me) and annihilation by jeff vandermeer (the southern reach trilogy singlehandedly rebuilt the neural pathways in my brain into cosmic horror highways, i swear to GOD).

last song: someone gets hurt - mean girls obc.

last film / show: X - ti west / true detective: night country.

recent reads: fabulosa!: the story of polari, britain's secret gay language by paul baker.

inspiration: tbh other than hellblazer and ethnographic films about the queer community in '70s england, i have a massive list of horror + sci-fi films, books, and punk + orchestral music that i've spreadsheeted alongside which aspects of constantine's personality/history they remind me of, so i can refer back to whatever matches the specific mood i'm trying to touch on in my writing. the cornetto trilogy, disco elysium, and the ritual are common inspirations. also, the mean girls + falsettos + jagged little pill obc recordings have been giving me writing inspo lately??? god knows why.

story behind url: one of my favorite quotes from hellblazer that's always highlighted the real body of constantine's skillset for me: "my talent's for lying. for sticking the knife in when people least expect it. then walking away with a smile and a wave before they even realize they're bleeding."

fun fact about me: i'm trained in broadsword stage combat and shakespearean textual analysis (which i primarily use in combination to defend my many queer opinions on shakespeare lol)

tagged by: @l1sten thank you!! tagging: @4ger, @devilmass, @untilthcyrot, @walkeddeath, @carbondated, @ohsunshine, anyone who wants to!!

#( personal. ) THE GHOST IN THE CHAINSMOKING MACHINE. #my constantine inspiration spreadsheet represents almost a decade of hyperfixation and will Only get more intense #i'm constantly watching/reading/listening to shit that reminds me of him lmao there is no escaping the inspiration

[dangerliesbeforeyou]

tag game~

tagged by the amazing @coquelicoq to list 5 topics i can talk on for an hour without preparing any material! thanksss <3 <3

this is honestly a really difficult one for me cos as much as i love to ramble, the prospect of having to do a talk for an hour about anything would a) make me INCREDIBLY anxious and 2) i would promptly forget everything i know about said subject literally the second i have to do the talk pfft.... wait... the prompt doesnt say i have to do the talk in front of people so hmm... maybe i'd be ok lol

anyway topics time lol (these aren't really in any order btw just writing them as i think of them)!

art history ofc... i could equally talk as much about art i love as much as art i HATE lol (duchamp's goddamn toilet fountain you're going fucking DOWN bitch)... can't promise my hour speech won't just be a list of fun art-y facts lol (like uh in medieval paintings that used gold leaf, artists would put down this red gesso/glue like mixture (called something like boll?) because the red gave the gold a warmer glow than just sticking it onto the plain wooden panel lol) or that it won't be me massively misremembering parts of my degree pfft...

history of the british monarchy lol! ok so i may not currently like the monarchy, but i am a MASSIVE fan of the history of the royals lol... especially the tudor era! a lot of my talk would be me trying to remember the order of the monarchs from william the conqueror until now (which would mean me singing the horrible histories monarchy song lol sorry not sorry)... i would also spend the time being like 'yeh so this one had allegations of being gay, as did this one, and THIS one had several male favourites who he was definitely in relationships with' lol

kpop lol... not really sure what i would talk about? maybe specific groups (exo would be in contention for sure, they have a very interesting history tbh), or just the wider cultural phenomenon and history of kpop? or just like talk about niche kpop groups that basically no one remembers pfft (like that group that jackie chan made lol! already mentioned it on my kpop haveyouheard blog but people in the notes were like 'wait jackie chan did WHAT???' lol...) like i definitely don't know a lot of stuff, but i know more than the average joe so like... it might be fun idk??

queer films lol... i'd also say films in general, but i definitely feel like i have more niche and interesting knowledge specifically of queer films so.... i DEFINITELY could talk for well over an hour about that lol! this would also definitely include me complaining about films like call me by your name and blue is the warmest colour lol... (i actually was speaking to myself the other day about both films and how perceptions of both have changed SO much over the years since they came out lol...) but i'd mainly want to talk about the amazing queer films i've watched over the years!!... i'd also throw in some talk of asian queer media here since i've been watching it for literally 6 or so years at this point lol...

back to history, this time ancient egypt! returning to my childhood roots with this one lol i know a lot of random things about ancient egypt that i could potentially string into an hour long talk? actually recently went to an exhibition at the place where they film downton abbey (it's not called that btw lol) where it had a whole thing about the discovery of tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 which had a lot of interesting info tbh! dont come to this talk if u dont want to hear me talk about all the incest that went on in ancient egyptian royalty pfft... (like...historians believe that tut's mother was also his aunt, and his sister was also his wife, which kinda explain why none of their children survived... royals of all eras really were like 'we have to intermarry to keep the bloodline pure' and it's like (breaking bad bald guy meme) jesse NO that's what's KILLING you!!!!!!!!!!)

for most of these i'd basically say something and then immediately be like 'don't fact check me on that though' because chances are i remembered the thing wrong pfft...

tagging (no pressure to do it ofc!): @abnerkrill @asoftspotforangels @sylvasa @dollopheadsandclotpoles @zelvuska @micamicster & whoever else wants to do it!!

#tag game #realised none of these are fandom things (well... aside from kpop lol) #even though i definitely COULD talk a lot about various fandoms too lol #idrk why i immediately though this was like a nightmare scenario where i'd thrown on a stage &forced to do a speech in front of an audience #like that's literally not what the prompt says i was just adding an extra layer of challenge pfft

[anonymous-eggy]

i had been talking to a friend and we had an idea that had been stuck with me for a while😃

um. vampire au👀 mc can also be a vamp but VAMPIRE AU…Nicky with sharp teeth..hehe… and red glowing eyes…

apparently i lied when i said i wasnt very interested in Nicky anymore. i think its just seasonal. warm weather brings back the need to think ab him. time to go through my dusty old inbox and spout gibberish at the ghosts.

jealous of anon for having a friend to talk ab Nicky with fr. if only fictif didnt suck and get abandoned, I'd force my friends to play it.

AS HOT AS VAMPIRE NICKY WOULD BE...I HAVE TO TALK AB VAMP MC

poor Nicky trying to hide the fact that he, a catholic (or so he swears, despite not acting very catholic) sicilian mob boss, is in love with a chaotic arsonist (possibly queer as hell) vampire mc is so so funny.

Like. suddenly he's also completely nocturnal bc he wants to spend time around his love and Chris is like "dude you never wanna do meetings during the day anymore, why do i have to go to all your daytime meetings" and Nicky has to try to pass off an excuse.

----

Chris: whatcha got there?

Nicky, holding a parasol over his vampire lover while holding their drink: alcohol :D

----

also... him allowing mc to bite his neck and then practically begging for it next time you need blood bc surprise this 6 foot somethin' mafia boss found out he gets a lil hot, bothered, and submissive when you bite him and drink his blood. straddle his lap while doin it to feel the effects what who said that. anyway. uh. 👀

the absolute confusion this man would feel in terms of whats possible and his faith. can someone be catholic and horny for a vampire lover? surely he can bc he also finds it hot how "wrong" it is despite how good it feels. but yeah tbh he wouldnt think too much bc he canonically doesn't think too hard ab love he just goes with what he feels and doesnt question much further than that.

(side tangent: i adore him so much for being one of the only love interests I've ever seen that canonically uses no labels for his sexuality. no label representation. i adore that he doesnt wanna be put in a box. and its not just because he lives in the 1920s and doesnt have the word for his sexuality, he just truly doesnt vibe with labelling his sexuality. good for him. if you didnt know this, surprise! thats a fun fact from this dumbass who knows practically everything about his character bc i cant be chill about anything and must know everything)

anyway for example with my self insert(ish) mc: trans gay little vampire man who turns into a sgrunkly little bat and hangs from his chandelier in protest that Nicky had to go to a daytime meeting for once? Nicky comes out of the kitchen with a lil platter of fruits to lure him down for a cuddle by the fire place while sweetly apologizing bc god forbid he do his job and not suffer the wrath of a little clingy dustball squeaking at him.

OR NICKY TUCKING LITTLE BAT MC IN HIS COAT DURING THE DAY WHILE HE DOES HIS ROUNDS CHECKING ON HIS BUSINESSES?! he just reaches into his coat every now and then to give his love a little scritch on the head 😭 and everyone around him gets nervous that he's hiding something super valuable or dangerous that he doesnt wanna lose (which is true, but not in the way they think)

see also: Nicky getting into some trouble during the night and being all chill ab it and saying to the guys "oh im not the one you gotta be afraid of" and the guys laughing until guard dog Mc appears, absolutely pissed, hungry, and ready to hunt their fill for the night.

and mc just randomly one day being like "you realize im a good 200 years older than you, right." after Nicky says something that implies Mc is younger and Nicky immediately lights up and just begins asking baseball history questions, not even phased by Mc saying that. which is much to Mc's dread.

my brain worms have recently been obsessed with the concept of a mob boss falling in love with a vampire anyway, so this is prime thinks for me.

i shall continue rotating this in my mind.

#*goes back to staring at ceiling for the next 100 years* #i rlly just spout my bullshit and hobble back to my cave #does anyone care or understand? probably not. i dont either its okay #fictif two against the world #fictif tatw #eggy answers #fictif nicky valentino #fictif nicky #nicky tatw

[girlboy-frankensteins-monster]

books i read this january:

1. 'station eleven' by emily st. john mandel

5/5 stars — literally so good, such a great start to the year. i loved the writing style and the story and the characters and i am forever grateful to the friend of a friend who kept telling me i should read this because he was totally right and it's so good. definitely recommend this if you like apocalyptic stuff that's more an exploration of humanity than action/thriller

2. 'ghosts: the button house archives' by mathew baynton, simon farnaby, martha howe-douglas, jim howick, laurence rickard and ben willbond

3/5 stars — everything i wanted from a ghosts book tbh, loved getting to hear more about the characters but i would've liked a bit more serious stuff about fanny (this isn't really a criticism just wish there had been because she's such a compelling character to me)

3. 'i am malala' by malala yousafzai

4/5 stars — really good for anyone unfamiliar with pakistani culture and politics to help explain recent history as well as being genuinely very interesting. definitely recommend

4. 'heartstopper: volume 5' by alice oseman

3/5 stars — cute and nice to read as a queer british teenager, i like alice oseman's art a lot and i liked how she approached the topics discussed in it. only 3 stars just because like it doesn't really speak to me personally not because it isn't good or anything

5. 'never let me go' by kazuo ishiguro

4/5 stars — i have a weird relationship with his writing i feel like with both the books i've read by him the endings have just been a bit lacking for me? but not for a reason i can actually define and i still really liked the rest of the book and i really like his writing style as well

6. 'yellowface' by rebecca f. kuang

4/5 stars — not my favourite work by her but i found it really interesting to read. idk it's been quite controversial and i don't think i know enough about the issues discussed in the book to have an opinion but it did make me think about a lot of things i'd never really considered before which was why i found it interesting

7. 'gideon the ninth' by tamsyn muir

5/5 stars — this book was right up my street; i absolutely love gideon and the way the book's written. gideon and harrowhark's relationship was really compelling and i love the concept. if you read this book (please do) i would recommend that you read the glossary before you start the book because i spent at least the first 50 pages with no idea what was going on but after that it was amazing

8. 'the seven husbands of evelyn hugo' by taylor jenkins reid

3/5 stars — kind of just not my thing, sorry to all my friends who love it (none of them are on tumblr lol). i thought it was interesting but it just wasn't really my taste

9. 'tsunami girl' by julian sedgwick and chie kutsuwada

4/5 stars — i definitely didn't expect to enjoy this as much as i did but i actually really liked it the whole way through. the characters were great and i found the romance subplot way more well-written and believable than i expected (this might just be me because i'm a bit weird about reading relationships as romantic in books so a lot of straight romance where they sort of just expect you to pick up on it as romantic purely because it's a boy and a girl comes across as really flat to me and i end up just deciding that they're only friends to me whereas in this book i actually did read their relationship as romantic and wanted them to go out)

10. 'nation' by terry pratchett

5/5 stars — i think this is the first terry pratchett i've read other than good omens and i really, really enjoyed it. it took me a while to get into but i liked the characters and also found the sort-of-romance in this believable which was cool. also just really interesting to be honest, i recommend this as well

#reading tag #<- just created this so i can do this once a month :) #can't wait until february is over because the book i finished on the 1st was so sooo good #idk if i should tag this or not because i don't really want to annoy other people trying to use the tags for the books #but also i want to be able to find this post within my own blog under the book titles #might leave it for now and then come back and tag them later like maybe when i make my february books #also if anyone did actually bother reading this and wants to discuss any of the books with me then please please please do #comment on the post or message me or drop me an ask or whatever mutuals or not #also if you see any typos please tell me <3 #mine #station eleven #bbc ghosts #heartstopper #never let me go #yellowface #tlt

[andtheywereroomies]

I saw you like Daisy Jones & the Six and sapphic stories and I've just gotta ask you: have you heard of Burn the House Down by Kenna Jenkins? It's an a fictional memoir/oral history (Ala Daisy Jones) abt the 1st woman president and her secret sapphic relationship/bearded marriage with her mlm best friend/narrative foil. It also has a subplot about arson at the White House, ft. An entirely queer main cast and really fleshed out characters, and a really satisfying ending!

I hadn't heard of Burn the House Down, so thank you for the rec!! :) It definitely sounds like something up my alley. Is Amazon the best place to get this or is there another place I'm missing? I didn't see it on Bookshop.

What else is everyone reading that we should add to the list? Don't be shy :)

My recent sapphic reads:

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo. Historical fiction set in 1950s San Francisco, mostly from the POV of a Chinese American girl discovering her sexuality. In short, if you loved the bar scenes from A League of Their Own series, you might like the vibes of this one. It also gets a little spicy. 🌶

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston. Ok truth be told I only just started this one, but my lil bi heart loved Red, White, and Royal Blue so I had to check out the author's other books. So far, so good!

Exhalted by Anna Dorn. Astrology meets Fleabag, this is one hot mess of a read (in a fun way).

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Okay okay no one needs me to list this, everyone knows already, but READ IT AGAIN OKAY?? :) Who are we fan casting??

Girls Can Kiss Now by Jill Gutowitz - validate your teenage experience and read this. The short essays make it a breeze and it's extremely relatable.

Greedy: Notes from a Bisexual Who Wants Too Much by Jen Winston. Okay tbh the title was really off-putting to me because I was feeling self-conscious about being bi and in a long term monogamous relationship (so many cheating stereotypes), but ultimately I picked up the book and then couldn't put it down. It captures so much of how I felt coming of age in the closet and why I constantly feel invalidated. Love you forever Jen Winston <3

I Might Regret This by Abbi Jacobson. She talks a bit about discovering her sexuality and it's beautiful <3

(me, an anxious): is this something people are interested in? Should we make this a regular thing? And they were Roomies Recs?

#book rec asks #sapphic books #lgbtq books #sapphic romance #book recommendations #burn the house down #seven husbands of evelyn hugo #casey mcquiston #last night at the telegraph club

[rotationalsymmetry]

Hey so that reminds me. I have this book — Abolition. Feminism. Now. By Angela Y Davis, Gina Dent, Erica R Meiners, and Beth E Richie, copyright 2022 so very recent — that I have yet to crack open and could use some gentle encouragement to actually read.

And here you are, presumably on tumblr to be entertained, edified, and/or have your brain put through a blender for a few minutes. So let’s have a poll.

[Image descriptions:

Book cover (title and authors as above, abstract background in orange, reddish, and violet tones.)

Back cover. Purple background. Orange and white text reads: “An urgent, vital contribution to the indivisible projects of abolition and feminism, from leading scholar-activists Angela Y David, Gina Dent, Erica R Meiners, and Beth E Richie. As a politic and a practice, abolition increasingly shapes our political moment — halting the construction of new jails and propelling movements to divest from policing. Yet erased from this landscape are not only the central histories of feminist — usually queer, anti capitalist, grassroots, and women of color-led — organizing that continue to cultivate abolition but also a recognition of the stark reality: abolition is our best response to endemic forms of state and interpersonal gender and sexual violence. Amplifying the analysis and the theories of change generated from vibrant community-based organizing, Abolition. Feminism. Now. traces necessary historical genealogies, key internationalist leanings, and everyday practices to grow our collective and flourishing present and futures.

Table of contents. Includes: preface, introduction, part 1 abolition. Part 2 feminism. Part 3 now. Epilogue. Appendices: intimate partner violence and state violence power and control wheel. Incite!-critical resistance statement on gender violence and the prison industrial complex. Reformist reforms vs abolitionist steps to end imprisonment. Further resources. Notes. Image permissions. Index.

list of other books in the abolitionist papers series, edited by Naomi Murakawa, namely: Change Everything: Radical Capitalism and the Case for Abolition by Ruth Wilson Gilmore; Rehearsals for Living by Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson; and We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transformative Justice by Mariame Kaba

Replicated image in the book of a pamphlet cover created by Jeff George and distributed by Survived and Punished (an organization that advocated for incarcerated survivors of abuse.) There is a large line drawing of a scale out of balance with a man in a business suit, large stacks of money, and sky scrapers on the heavy end and a small group of protesters holding a sign saying “free all survivors” on the other end. Large handwritten text says “no good prosecutors now or ever” and smaller stencil-like text says “how the Manhattan district attorney hoards money, perpetuated abuse of survivors, and gags their advocates.”

End image descriptions.]

#It would be so much less effort to just read say 10 or 15 pages of this thing and yet #It’s not a large book it’s under 250 pages #I literally had not cracked open the book before starting the post so I didn’t realize there aren’t ‘chapters’ #So much as three main parts

[just-antithings]

So, a gacha game, Tale of Food had its global release recently and, since it is similar in many ways to another food gacha game, Food Fantasy, some fans of FF have been making up some wild and bizarre claims about why ToF is bad. And a lot of it comes off as thinly veiled anti-Asian sentiment tbh.

Some of my favorite of the wild claims include:

The game being anti-Muslim because too many of the characters (who are all based on Chinese cuisine) are based on pork dishes. Somehow people don't see how this is incredibly weird and infantalizing, especially considering the strong SEA portion of the fan base has plenty of Muslim players who are perfectly capable of thinking the pork dish based characters are cool or cute or whatever?

Also, the game is apparently misogynistic because the collectable characters are all male. All or primarily male (or even equal male-female) gacha is so rare outside of rhythm games and strict otome, but apparently all female gacha is fine but all male gacha with a fan base majority made up of women and assorted queer folks is bad.

(There are female characters in the game. Some of which are very significant for certain characters.)

The game is also apparently homophobic because it has "no gay people". You can play a male or female MC and have the same affection/romance content for the food souls with minor dialogue changes due to gender. You also get heavily flirted with in the opening of the game by one of the food souls who calls MC "Gorgeous" regardless of gender and calls the male!MC a "handsome gentleman". And says that gender doesn't really matter to him.

Another character you can dance with regardless of gender and then compliment him on his boyfriend qualities.

I've also seen people say it's bad because it doesn't deal with "mature topics" like FF does. Global is having the first event right now, which deals heavily with suicidal ideation, discrimination, grief, and fear of death.

And people are, of course, saying it's bad solely on the basis of it being a Chinese game trying to promote an interest in Chinese cuisine and history. >>

It's totally fine for people to not like the game. But people are being so bad faith and straight up lying about so much stuff to justify it and it's sad and funny.

.

#mod erin #ask #posted without comment #just asshole things #just anti things #food mention #suicide mention

[hxhhasmysoul]

Don't you think it's funny cause actual canon gay characters in BL manga will say "I love you" but only the shounen bromance can spew out some of the most romantic shit akin to a 19th century poet writing a letter expressing his surpressed love for his lover 😭.....

I find it more depressing than funny, tbh.

I haven't read/seen much BL recently so I'm not sure what the genre looks like but if I remember correctly, you could also find there slow, melodramatic romance.

But the strong gay vibes a lot of the shounen manga exhibit has a lot to do with patriarchy and censorship.

Popular shounen tends to be not that much about what all teen boys are interested in but what they should be interested in, what's acceptable for them to be interested in. It's societal gender expectations reinforced by peer pressure. Japan isn't great on the queer topics due to its history, especially when it comes to men. Not because they are more accepting of wlw, it's just women are societaly more invisible and their interests were/are? considered more frivolous. They can have homosexuality in their low brow media, because in a patriarchal society the media directed at women is by default kinda trashy.

And I'm talking here about women's media because BL and it's cousins are stereotypically female oriented categories, though it's not like men don't read/write it. There's manga that is by gay men for gay men, I forgot the name of it, but what I've seen it, it's more Tom of Finland in vibe than Yuri on Ice. (Though I've seen just a few titles and it's surely far more than just that)

That's why there will be plenty of homophobia in media directed at teen boys. Like there's a whole type of character in shounen that feeds into predatory homosexual stereotypes, like Hisoka from HxH, for example.

HxH is a very interesting example here because Togashi has hinted at times that he wanted to include a gay romance in HxH, and the phrasing he uses between Gon and Killua is quite openly romantic in nature @/https://www.tumblr.com/i-heart-hxh has a lot of meta about it, if you're interested.

In shounen historically two things converged, the homophobia and the ugh, romance is for girls, yuk! So we can't really have het romance in a normal way, because girls have cooties and romance is for girls, but we're also homophobic so we can't have gay characters.

But we also want drama and deep connections and cool lines, so like it all gets very homoerotic but the epilogue will make them straight.

It's getting better slowly, like gradually shounen will have female characters that do stuff, and there will be canon gay characters. Maybe there will even be romance in the major titles, though not in this "Big There", I'm afraid. And no I don't consider whatever the fuck predatory shit is happening in CSM as romance. JJK kinda has one relationship, Kirara and Hakari, but they aren't even officially confirmed despite everyone knowing what they are XD. There was also kinda Chousou/Yuki budding but well mum would not have it, apparently. Hell's Paradise has an established relationship with a bit of romantic flashbacks, but Kittymaru is kinda ace, so it's slightly too queer and not enough a non cringe het romance shounen so desperately needs (Hell's Paradise also has canon queer characters, Kaku took full advantage of Jump+ and it's to be commended).

#answering asks #hell's paradise spoilers #thank you for the ask #jjk spoilers

[the-dirt-eater]

maybe I make a pinned post. as a treat. this blog is a mess. it’s got everything i love in it, so it’s not specific to anything. welcome to the train wreck etc

call me dirt! she/her, genderqueer-ish lesbian. deemed autistic via peer review. (not diagnosed bc that shits mad expensive. but my therapist says that I am ‘very likely’ autistic so.) I’m a menace and I sometimes bully people as a love language. please please tell me if something I say is too far for you and I’ll try to be more careful <3

use my ask box for anything! but especially music recs and fun facts :D

I’m 21 so minors… be cautious? I’m not always gonna be pg. curate your internet experience to your needs.

TERFs, SWERFs, ace/aro exclusionists, pro-lifers, anti-palestine, anti- sex ed, anti- critical race theory, or any other flavor of bigot not allowed. i’ll stomp you into a paste :)

also I will block accounts that look like bots. if u follow me and don’t have any activity on ur acc imma block u. i’ll usually give people a day to like put a profile pic up but if you don’t you’re gone. <3

i’m not always good at tagging. my bad

more specific stuff about me past the cut :3

super into plants and bugs and mushrooms and music. can crochet and learning to knit. I rarely do art but I’m slowly learning to be better at that too.

specifically currently interested in:

• punk/rock/indie music

• tarantulas

• jumping spiders

• isopods

• cockroaches

• california native plants

• terrariums

• minecraft

• cats :3

• pet web games (horse isle 2, star stable, recently got into flight rising)

also interested in (but less knowledgeable about):

• internet culture and history

• queer culture and history

• freshwater aquariums, including

- fishkeeping (bettas, comet goldfish, koi, various small tropical fish)

- shrimpkeeping!!!!

- aquascaping/aquatic plants

- low maintenance systems (no filter etc)

• video games and streaming

I watch way more youtube than is probably healthy so there’s that too.

omg I nearly forgot fandoms!!

currently obsessed with fall out boy and twenty one pilots. also into:

• hannibal

• good omens

• our flag means death

• heartstopper

• young royals

• community

• doctor who

• some minecraft/gaming youtubers and streamers (ranboo, tommyinnit, nihachu, grian, technoblade. ik he’s gone but still)

• hermitcraft but i’m not up to date ever

• unus annus (rip)

• dan and phil

• watcher entertainment/buzzfeed unsolved

• wings of fire

• percy jackson

probs more that i’m forgetting

music I like is. a bunch of genres tbh. indie, folk, punk, rock, some pop, video game music, some classic 2000s-2010s emo bands. very specific flavors of country-adjacent stuff. some psychedelic rock. more that i can’t think of. I have some halfway decent spotify playlists :P and here's my last.fm page

some bands/artists i like:

fall out boy

twenty one pilots

paramore

the crane wives

hayley kiyoko

los campesinos

the oh hellos

chloe moriondo

chappell roan

STRFKR

miracle musical

wallows

jack stauber

sir chloe

hozier

girl in red

jackie hayes

yea that’s me :) enjoy your stay here. drink water etc. bye!

last edited 2/23/2024

#common tags: #dirt speaks #music #art #save for later #other tags: #about me #pinned post

[bonetrousledbones]

Could you please tag ur most recent post with like tw q word/slur or two qu//r? It's abit triggering.

i understand not everybody feels the same towards that word and i'm sorry to hear that you were effected by it, but i'm afraid this is something you might just have to unfollow me for tbh. Queer is how I identify and how i refer to the community, similarly to how our history is referred to as queer studies and stuff like that. I don't really think it's appropriate to tag it as a slur when I'm just using it as a descriptive word, specifically one that's in reference to non-specific not-cishet identities without reducing anything outside of the LGBT acronym to a plus symbol.

tl;dr normally i go ahead and trigger tag things when asked bc its not hard but in this case its important to me that i don't. sorry

#trousled rambles #i dont like being reduced to a plus lol #i suggest you use tumblr's filters for it- you can block terms and phrases outside of just tags too! #otherwise- yeah you might just wanna unfollow bc i'm really. not comfortable tagging it as a slur when its not