Notre-Dame de Paris. Quasimodo et Esmeralda (2023)

Illustration for the Gothic novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” By Victor Hugo (1831)

what if Alicent decided to support Rhaenyra’s claim to the crown despite her father’s wishes, and found refuge on Dragonstone by her side..

I remember you

dragon riding! 🥁

the thing is that they're so fascinated by sex, they love sex, they can't imagine a world without sex - they need sex to sell things, they need sex to be part of their personality, they need sex to prove their power - but they hate sex. they are disgusted by it.

sex is the only thing that holds their attention, and it is also the thing that can never be discussed directly.

you can't tell a child the normal names for parts of their body, that's sexual in nature, because the body isn't a body, it's a vessel of sex. it doesn't matter that it's been proven in studies (over and over) that kids need to know the names of their genitals; that they internalize sexual shame at a very young age and know it's 'dirty' to have a body; that it overwhelmingly protects children for them to have the correct words to communicate with. what matters is that they're sexual organs. what matters is that it freaks them out to think about kids having body parts - which only exist in the context of sex.

it's gross to talk about a period or how to check for cancer in a testicle or breast. that is nasty, illicit. there will be no pain meds for harsh medical procedures, just because they feature a cervix.

but they will put out an ad of you scantily-clad. you will sell their cars for them, because you have abs, a body. you will drip sex. you will ooze it, like a goo. like you were put on this planet to secrete wealth into their open palms.

they will hit you with that same palm. it will be disgusting that you like leather or leashes, but they will put their movie characters in leather and latex. it will be wrong of you to want sexual freedom, but they will mark their success in the number of people they bed.

they will crow that it's inappropriate for children so there will be no lessons on how to properly apply a condom, even to teens. it's teaching them the wrong things. no lessons on the diversity of sexual organ growth, none on how to obtain consent properly, none on how to recognize when you feel unsafe in your body. if you are a teenager, you have probably already been sexualized at some point in your life. you will have seen someone also-your-age who is splashed across a tv screen or a magazine or married to someone three times your age. you will watch people pull their hair into pigtails so they look like you. so that they can be sexy because of youth. one of the most common pornography searches involves newly-18 young women. girls. the words "barely legal," a hiss of glass sand over your skin.

barely legal. there are bills in place that will not allow people to feel safe in their own bodies. there are people working so hard to punish any person for having sex in a way that isn't god-fearing and submissive. heteronormative. the sex has to be at their feet, on your knees, your eyes wet. when was the first time you saw another person crying in pornography and thought - okay but for real. she looks super unhappy. later, when you are unhappy, you will close your eyes and ignore the feeling and act the role you have been taught to keep playing. they will punish the sex workers, remove the places they can practice their trade safely. they will then make casual jokes about how they sexually harass their nanny.

and they love sex but they hate that you're having sex. you need to have their ornamental, perfunctory, dispassionate sex. so you can't kiss your girlfriend in the bible belt because it is gross to have sex with someone of the same gender. so you can't get your tubes tied in new england because you might change your mind. so you can't admit you were sexually assaulted because real men don't get hurt, you should be grateful. you cannot handle your own body, you cannot handle the risks involved, let other people decide that for you. you aren't ready yet.

but they need you to have sex because you need to have kids. at 15, you are old enough to parent. you are not old enough to hear the word fuck too many times on television.

they are horrified by sex and they never stop talking about it, thinking about it, making everything unnecessarily preverted. the saying - a thief thinks everyone steals. they stand up at their podiums and they look out at the crowd and they sign a bill into place that makes sexwork even more unsafe and they stand up and smile and sign a bill that makes gender-affirming care illegal and they get up and they shrug their shoulders and write don't say gay and they get up, and they make the world about sex, but this horrible, plastic vision of it that they have. this wretched, emotionless thing that holds so much weight it's staggering. they put their whole spine behind it and they push and they say it's normal!

this horrible world they live in. disgusted and also obsessed.

As a tribute to all enslaved people buried in cemeteries in unmarked graves, artist Craig Walsh illuminated trees with faces to honour their souls

This installation is called Monuments and is Charlotte NC https://twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1599045368544514049

I can't find the post but it said something like "biphobia will have bi women believe that society wants them to be lesbians, and lesbophobia will have lesbians believe that society wants them to be bi, but the truth is society doesn't want you to be bi or lesbian. they want you to be straight" or something like that. I saw it for the first time years ago and it's stuck with me because this mindset will genuinely resolve so much of queer infighting.

Allosexual queer people will believe that society wants them to be ace and aces will believe that society wants them to be allosexual queers, and the truth is society wants you to be allosexual but only sexually attracted to the right gender in the right way.

Trans men will believe that society wants them to be nonbinary, and nonbinary people will believe that society wants them to be binary trans, and the truth is society wants you to be cis.

And the thing is, there's some truth to "I would be more accepted if I was [this queer identity] instead of [that queer identity]," because there are groups of people who will want you to be a different queer identity. There are people who want their lesbian daughters to be bi because then they have a chance of marrying a man. There are allosexual gays who want to be ace because at least then they wouldn't be sexually attracted to their own gender, which is dirty and gross and wrong. There are people who want their trans male friends to be nonbinary because they think men are all evil.

Except there are also people who would rather bi women be lesbians because dating men makes them a traitor to the queer community, or aces who want to be allosexual and gay because if they can't be attracted to the opposite gender at least they'll be attracted to someone, and people who want their nonbinary friends to be binary trans because nonbinary people are made up and stealing resources.

Society at large doesn't want you to be any queer identity. They have a very narrow idea of what you should be, and so many ideas and rules telling you what you shouldn't be. And sometimes, people unlearn some of those rules but not others, depending on who they're around while forming these opinions. Some people will unlearn exorsexism but still drink the "men are evil" juice. Some people will unlearn homophobia but not amatonormativity.

So, sometimes queer people say things like "People would accept me more if I was [different queer identity]." And sure, some people would accept you more if you were that other identity. Except some people would accept you less. Maybe your parents would accept you more if you were bi instead of lesbian, but your friends would say being bi makes you a traitor.

And in the end, it doesn't matter, because there's way to win. "More accepted" is a very relative term. More accepted by some people, sure, but you won't be really be accepted unless you're not queer.

“A desert specialist and one of Africa’s rarest predators, the brown hyena. This ghost town is her home. Its ruins give her protection from the elements. She has been here for 15 years. She’s already reared nine generations of cubs.” David Attenborough | BBC Earth

I JUST FOUND A SAPPHIC RETELLING OF THE HUNCHBACK!

I bought it immediately and waiting for delivery while vibrating in autistic major!

I need Hunchback obsessed friends - books, movies, theatre, idc - so they understand my excited screeching and info dumping.

Love that time I brought up how "transvestite" used to be a term du jur (not the only term, but a well-known term) before it fell out of favor for transexual and then transgender and was immediately given the "um actually it's always been a bad word sweaty :)" routine when like

[Image Description: the Wikipedia page for Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries". The opening paragraph says "Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) was a gay gender non-conforming street activist organization founded in 1970 by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, subculturally famous New York City drag queens of color. STAR was a radical political collective that also..." the screencap cuts off the rest of the article. End ID]

To drive the point home, it later changed its name Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries to reflect the changing terminology preferences but Jesus fucking Christ learn your damn history

(This is also why terfs and other transphobes claiming that Marsha P. Johnson was "only" a transvestite in order to de-legitimize trans involvement in queer history, activism, and liberation is such bullshit because that was the fucking term back then and had Marsha not been murdered there's good chance she'd be calling herself transgender now. Or not, there are trans elders who still call themselves transvestite and proudly so.)

Anything can be a kink for somebody

And anything can be a trigger for somebody

“This triggers me so it’s disgusting that you’d like it” is an entirely unreasonable statement as is “but this is fun and makes me happy so it can’t trigger you”

A specific incident didn’t prompt this post, im just thinking about a lot of folks who get upset over some kinks, including ones I have, but themselves are, like, vocally enthusiastic to something that terrifies me for trauma reasons. Like, neither of us are actually hurting anyone but apparently one of us is a nasty freak and also needs therapy but the other one doesn’t and it’s usually me who gets branded as broken purely cause the other person fails to recognize that there’s no such thing as having the Right kinks and the Reasonable triggers. It’s an insufferable double standard that annoys me.

If you like the word “queer” reblog.

feeling Bad, I’m gonna go on petfinder and find the most bizarre cat names possible, will report back with any notable ones

As summer is approaching, I’d like to share this bird-friendly beach etiquette reminder. A lot of people let their dogs roam freely on the beach, but dogs that chase wildlife can have a detrimental effect on the animals that have no choice but to share the shoreline with us. Please enjoy the summer with your pets and make sure to give wild animals plenty of space!

All the Historical Mermay’s together!

I had a lot of fun with this mermay prompt list by chloe.z.arts and they turned into a pretty cool collection of illustrations!

Prompt list by chloe.z.arts on instagram.

I am the artist! Do not post without permission & credit! Thank you! Come visit me over on: instagram.com/ellenartistic or tiktok: @ellenartistic