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devonpink · 29 days

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The Great Swap: Trevor (Written by themousefromfantasyland. Revamped by me)

It all started when Ivan Hills turned straight.

As with everything in life, it started slowly, gradually, then all at once. The billion-subscriber beauty guru started changing his content around the summer of 2017. All his videos on YouTube suddenly became about training, sports cars, and pranking his newfound bros. His clothes went from pink and glittery to dark and gray. His profile pic changed from a winking boy in full makeup to a furious young man with a sports cap turned upwards. Then, in April 2019, he announced his long-time fag hag was now his official girlfriend and that he identified as straight. Subsequently, the internet went into a frenzy. However, those who had followed the case since the beginning were unsurprised since the brutish frat bro of 2019 was a far cry from the soft and delicate boy from 2014.

But that was not the end of it. Around the second half of 2019, several big gay and queer influencers, actors, and even politicians came out as straight. From defiers of gender roles and social expectations, these people became the most avid defenders of heteronormativity and tradition.

Then, around the end of 2019, the opposite started occurring.

Gavin Taylor, a late twenty-something commentator on the "Right Voice," a popular YouTube far-right show, came out as gay after leaving the channel. His channel changed from videos about the importance of Christian values and the nuclear family to videos about queer history, Atheism, and dating. The rude, often short-tempered young man was now a friendly, happy ball of gay fun. In early 2020, he married his boyfriend, and they now share an apartment and a cat in San Francisco.

Several key figures in far-right culture woke up gay one morning as if they had broken away from a terrible spell.

Not as bi, bi-curious, or pansexual, but as flaming homosexuals with immense bravery and pride in their queerness.

People joked about the homophobes being closeted gays, but when hundreds of them started coming out from their closets with a completely inversed worldview, it perplexed everyone. At first, this phenomenon was called "The Great Swap" as a joke. Still, as each gay big name became straight, and each raging heterosexual bigot became a fierce homosexual, the joke became a weird social contagion that scholars tried to understand at all costs.

Trevor Spencer is a notable example.

Trevor hosted the Anti-Woke Legion, a YouTube channel about fighting the infestation of woke ideology in pop culture. His detractors called his channel an example of a Far-Right gateway to young boys, a statement that filled him with pride.

It was 11 at night when the change began…

"Fuckin queers," Trevor muttered to himself, scrolling through Gavin Taylor's channel.

Gavin Taylor was his friend. His best friend. He was the only person in the world that made Trevor laugh and feel less lonely. But that was years ago. The new "progressive" Taylor called out his sexism and homophobia every chance he got, and they hadn't shared a beer in years. His faithful friend had "died" years ago, and now he was all alone.

As a tall, fat, hairy dude, Trevor felt he was fated to be completely alone. A fire of anti-woman hate eternally burned inside him, assured that no woman would ever truly love him. Even worse, everyone online constantly poked fun at his weight and disheveled appearance, looking no different from stereotypical trailer park trash.

He was miserable, and he would give anything to change his image.

Then, as if by divine intervention, his wish was granted.

He felt a sudden sharp pain throughout his body, making him scream like a frightened animal. A burning sensation quickly spread, causing his body hair to shed. His gigantic fat belly instantly deflated and morphed into shredded abs. He couldn't believe what was happening, horrified yet elated, desperate for more. His chest tightened as two pieces of solid muscle swelled and became pecs, making his midsection look as if it was carved out of marble. All the fat of his arms morphed into pure muscle, making him now look like a jacked mother fucker. His legs swelled to muscle perfection, and his feet grew. Lastly, his long, shaggy hair receded to a clean military cut.

When the pain eased, Trevor rushed to the bathroom and stared at his new face—an innocent and manly face, carefully shaved, with a jawline that could cut glass.

"What the fuck!?" He now had the body and face of a god—full of strength and youth. He couldn't help but pose and fawn over himself, grinning from ear to ear like a cocky douche.

Instantly, he had a great idea: the night was still early, and he needed to celebrate. He grabbed his wallet and hopped into his beat-up truck, heading for the all-night clothing store. He got himself some new duds, the kind he always wished to fit into, and next drove in a horny frenzy to the first club he could find downtown.

The loud music reverberated on every wall as the insane crowd danced in electrifying horny lust. People didn't take long to start checking out Trevor, eyeing him like a delicious piece of meat. He was finally the center of attention, stiffening his cock in pride. His giant pecs were squeezed by dozens of horny ladies, some with bodies only found in porn, but something was off. Something was different. Then, a handsome stranger grouped Trevor, and sparks flew, startling him.

"You like what you see?" The handsome stranger lustfully asked Trevor, pulling up his tight, sweaty shirt to show off his shredded abs.

Trevor was horrified at how horny he suddenly got. That couldn't be happening. Not with him. Not with another man. He instantly fled out of fear, disappearing into the crowd and heading for the exit, but before he could escape, the handsome stranger pulled him into the Men's bathroom.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you! I just really wanted to dance with you, is all!" The blond, blue-eyed man explained with a half-grin, leaving Trevor thoroughly aroused.

"Take your hands off me, you're—" Trevor retorted, cut off by the handsome stranger's sudden laughter.

The handsome stranger backed up, heading for the exit. "Okay, okay! I know when I'm not wanted!"

But before leaving, Trevor stopped him; something new inside him made him do it. "Wait! It's not you! It's me… this is just… this is all just new to me…" His heart raced, getting lost in the man's beautiful eyes and kissable lips. He was getting hornier, in dire need of the handsome stranger's touch. "I used to think I was against this… but now…"

"You're from a conservative upbringing, aren't you?" the man asked, knowing the answer full well.

"Yeah," Trevor nervously responded, sweating profusely.

"I'm only here because my straight friend didn't want to go here alone," the handsome stranger explained, stepping closer to Trevor. "But some friends and I plan on going to a gay club after this… you want to come?" The handsome stranger stepped closer, inches from Trevor's quivering face. He arched his head and lustfully whispered in Trevor's trembling ear: "I'm positive you and I will have a lot of fun together."

Without hesitation, Trevor grabbed the handsome stranger's face and kissed him hard, taken fully by his lust. Trevor felt alive for the first time in his life as their tongues thrashed and their hands thoroughly explored each other's bodies. After French kissing for a good five minutes, they finally unlocked their horny lips and gently pressed their foreheads together, smiling. They returned to the crowd with their fingers intertwined like lovers, both feeling as if hit by the lightning bolt of pure love and lust. By that moment, Trevor felt free. Something had changed inside him, and he accepted it wholeheartedly. Trevor was dragged by gayness, engulfed by it, and soon, his Internet persona was going to be much more fabulous.

Three months have passed since Trevor's transformation, and his life has completely changed—for the better, he'd happily say. Will, the handsome stranger Trevor met at the club, was now his boyfriend, and the two couldn't be happier together. He had a completely new online presence, full of gay joy and pride, and an audience even bigger than the last. He finally knew what it was like to be happy, to love others, and most importantly, to love himself.

#gay to straight #straight to gay #transformation #male transformation #male tf story #tf story

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absolutebl · 5 months

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Best Angsty BLs with Family Drama & Bad Home Lives, or Past Trauma

That still end happily. Requested by the incomparable @winterswhumpblr (Warning these all have tiggers in them mostly suicide, rape, and/or child abuse.)

Until We Meet Again

Thai 2019 YouTube

UWMA is, without question, a work of narrative genius with a powerful and cohesive romantic backbone driven by family drauma and betrayal and stellar performances. It is (to date) the only Thai BL that I’ve rated a 10/10 predominantly on the basis of story structure. That said it is also very well cast (and it’s a BIG cast), with solid production values, and enduring pair branding. Discussion here.

Spin off, Between Us, also satisfies this criteria.

Blueming

Korea 2022 iQIYI

Hwang Da Seul directing this angsty BL that's a tiny bit dark and a tiny bit bittersweet, almost too honest to a university experience and first love. But if you want your mind ever-so-slightly messed with and your intimacy hellishly sweet, this BL will do it for you in a coldly distant manner, while bitch slapping you with self worth issues. I wasn’t into it at first, but the leads are solid and by ep 5 it got really good, becoming a narrative about self discovery meets understanding and accepting others people’s flaws without hurting them. Ultimately we witnessed two characters maturing because of each other and their mutual affection, without that affection becoming the conflict point. Instead, tension was built around other aspects of identity, popularity, and childhood trauma.

Tokyo in April is AKA Shigatsu no Tokyo wa

Japan 2023 Viki

Two young men with a shared tragic past reunite and fall in love all over again, but the past will not stop hunting them. Based on a manga, this office set reunion romance is GREAT… damn it. It’s Japan in full on soft focus which means it gets emo, abusive, and chewy. These two characters are giving parts of their souls away in a desperate attempt to shape themselves to the expectations they have of each other.

The Eighth Sense

Korea 2023 Viki

This feels more atmospheric gay coming of age romance than strictly BL. It’s got a bit of an age gap, country boy/city boy, stellar acting, complex characters, and leads with great chemistry and tension. It’s a bit chewy and sticky and less perfect than most KBLs (do I detect a touch of Taiwan?) This one deployed BL tropes (messy eater, shoulder sleep, protective seme, there’s even some hyung-slinging) but front loaded them with painful backstory and tons angst drives the 2nd half. This isn’t in the KBL bubble, there’s sharp edges and lots of triggers. For a BL the darkness of the content left me feeling unsettled (which is the only reason it didn't get a perfect score) but it does have a glorious ending and that counts for a lot.

Bad Buddy

Thai 2022 YouTube

This was GMMTV’s flagship BL and it started 2022 on a BANG (okay no actual banging but you know what I mean), starring heavy hitters Ohm & Nanon in a pitch perfect university Romeo & Romeo masterpiece that will give you domesticity meets pain whiplash throughout and jet lag at the end. Some of the friendship and family dynamics are overworked, but it has great production values, killer acting, and some conscious effort to correct for half a decade of Thai BL’s anti-queer mistakes. The whole set up is build on family drama so, yeah.

Bed Friend

Thai 2023 YouTube

Office frienamies transition a flaming hot one night stand into a f-buddy relationship that is built on a puppy/cat dynamic (and kinks into it at one point). Our puppy is loyal, smitten, and protective with endlessly longing eyes, while our cat is snarky, prickly, and deeply damaged. NetJames give lovely high-heat with excellent chemistry and tuned-in performances of surprising depth, could have been spectacular but was the story is overworked, especially at the end. Still if high heat is your thing, this one will not let you down.

Lovely Writer

Thai 2021 YouTube

What Lovely Writer does, at heart, is reexamine Thai BL has done to queerness, but in a very gentle way that has more to do with Thai BL growing up than any actual queer authenticity. It’s not parody or pastiche, but it is self reflective and trying to correct for some chronic mistakes. Whether it is ultimately successful in this matter is going to depend on the watcher’s relationship to BL and queer identity. But that’s what makes this show beautiful, interesting, and thought provoking. And I, for one, applaud the effort even if I didn’t personally connect to the characters. There is both family trauma and dram and childhood stuff.

Happy Merry Ending

Korea 2023 Viki

Stars Lee Dong Won (KNK) as an ex-idol turned wedding singer with an abusive ex and a panic disorder + the sunshine pianist who falls in love with him. Timid tsundere & sweetheart gay is an interesting match. They’re gentle together, almost kindly, and there is a calm ache to their pairing. However, it lost its way as a BL, being more about the main character’s struggle than the romance. It had a strong finish but ultimately the premise & characters meant this was never going to be one of my favorites. But if you like angst, well...

Given

Japan 2021 grey

Boy joins band, falls in love with other boy. The singing is terrible, fast forward through that but with the possible exception of the hair styles, this BL could have been made in 2015 and no one would be surprised. As such, it wasn’t ground breaking, but it didn’t disappoint either. Very much a tortured past for our singer. (More here.)

The Eclipse

Thai 2022 YouTube

GMMTV does gay Blacklist with a good boy/bad boy pairing. This is a good show but the cast is excellent and the leads are absolutely flawless, which elevates it beyond just good. We got a nuanced and multifaceted burgeoning relationship: philosophical (and socio-political) conflict contrasted to moments of empathy; flirtation contrasted to moments of genuine affection, plus plenty of angst. This narrative is less about love than it is about courage and tenderness. However, near the end the pacing was off and the plot frustrating. Still, this is an enjoyable watch, with a finale that features verbal consent and a fun blooper reel.

Love Class 2

Korea 2023 Viki

3 couples form within a semester of university: 1. a hyung romance reunion of exes, one of whom has a dangerous past, 2. a friends to lovers romance, and 3. a one night stand between a mature student and a TA (many aspects of which had me laughing). I enjoyed the characters and dialogue of this show immensely. It was a little bit more breezy and friendly than I was expecting after the first installment, Love Class (to which this bears little resemblance and no connection). I’m not entirely sure Korea can handle multiple couples like this because it definitely felt disjointed, especially with the 3rd more mature couple (also my favorite) who probably should’ve had their own series. But I enjoyed something different from Korea.

About Youth

Taiwan 2022 Gaga

A truly lovely little coming of age high school BL with a classic YA low drama but high angst and an earnest depth. I didn’t even mind the singing, and that’s saying a lot. A weak seme/uke dynamic but tons of BL tropes (both rare in a high school setting but common for Taiwan) makes this one feel both sweet and colored by an almost real world authenticity and grit. More here.

Restart After Come Back Home AKA Risutato wa tadaima no ato de

Japan 2020 Gaga?

Atmospheric study in rural Japan meets complex family dynamics built on a romance framework of city boy meets country boy, grumpy/sunshine. It’s beautiful and icy sweet. Slow moving in places but ultimately worth the patience, low heat, low angst, and stunning.

DNA Says Love You

Taiwan 2022 Gaga

DNA deserves extra marks for an upbeat approach to a queer story arc that other shows have systemically mishandled with sadness (in the guise of realism). There is a twist, which I found predictable, but knowing what would happen didn't spoil this show. The leads are luminous and engaging, and it’s full of queer found family representation and an unexpected amount of domesticity, plus it’s Taiwan, so the kisses are great. The first few eps are rough going but have patiences, it's worth it as the last ones really are special and life/love affirming - and the end is big-grin charming.

My Tooth Your Love

Taiwan 2023 Viki

Earnest dentist hottie with sad eyes who worries too much is smitten by an adorable sunshine neurotic bar owner with serious anxiety issues. They fall madly in love while courting each other with food, plushies, and naps. Then, shocker, talk about their feelings and try to actually sort out their problems so they can have an adult relationship. Bonus crumbs = 18 year old poor little rich kid in mad crush with a much older man. I really enjoyed this show, it had a unique premise, killer dialogue, there was a solid lead pair with charming chemistry, soft flirtation, delightful smiling kisses, and stinkingly cute domesticity.

Where Your Eyes Linger

Korea 2020 Viki

Ostensibly high school set about a poor kid whose been raised in a mafia kid’s family specifically to protect him (whipping boy trope, attack dog variant). Themes of codependency and survival with pretty classic Korean style romance ending.

TharnType

Thai 2019 Viki

This Thai BL has everything: university setting, great acting and complex characters, interesting friendship groups, enemies to lovers, angsty coming out, high production values, AMAZING chemistry, and multiple BL side couples with all the issues. But when I said everything I meant it because there's also: damaging queer rep, strong seme/uke and husband/wife language, classic tropes and lots of them, child abuse, bullying, mental illness, rough play, dub-con, non-con, and statutory rape (by the seme/gay character).

and its spin off: Don't Say No also qualifies for this post.

In fact most Mame stuff will involved trauma & drama, specifically.

Love By Chance 2

Love in the Air (Part 2)

Wedding Plan

Some others but I'm getting tired:

I Told Sunset About You et al

You Are Mine

Dear Doctor, I'm Coming for Your Soul

Ghost Host Ghost House

But frankly there are a ton more depending on how you look at it. I mean, what about Why R U? FIghter's dad is the issues with him coming out, but it's not really in the plot until late so ?

Lakorn BL drama llama soaps & similar

Moonlight Chicken - review here

Laws of Attraction

To Sir, With Love - review here

Sirs not appearing on this list

Our Dining Table is driven by childhood trauma but not angsty, similar to Oxygen. Not Me is angsty and dramatic and family stuff, but that's not really the driver of the plot. Life Love On the Line is all angst but he brought it on himself.

(source)

Updated Nov 19, 2023, no intention of adding to this so if you want more, look at the comments. Someone is bound to get annoyed their favorite isn't on the list.

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lesserafim-eden · 5 months

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╰► ⌕ 𓆩 𓆪 ʾ ִֶָ%˓ ᵎ ҂ ࣪˖﹫𓂃⌁. ࣪˖ EDEN NOELIA LEE (LE SSERAFIM) Profile

Eden Noelia Lee (LE SSERAFIM) Profile and Facts:

EDEN NOELIA LEE ( Hangul; 에덴 노엘리아 자오, Mandarin; 赵伊登 born November 11, 2001 ) better known by the mononym EDEN is a Chinese/Korean English model, singer, rapper, Global ambassador, and dancer is a current member of South Korean girl group LE SSERAFIM under HYBE and Source Music. She is a former member of the South Korean-Japanese girl group IZ*ONE.

⌕ ‣ BASIC INFO ׁ⠀ ࣭ ⠀⠀⊹

𖥻★! ︿︿STAGE NAME: Eden

𖥻★! ︿︿BIRTH NAME: Eden Noelia Lee

𖥻★! ︿︿KOREAN NAME: Lee Binna

𖥻★! ︿︿CHINESE NAME: Zhao Meixing

𖥻★! ︿︿BIRTHDAY: August 1, 2003

𖥻★! ︿︿AGE: 21 years old ( Korean age ) 20 years old (int.)

𖥻★! ︿︿ZODIAC SIGN: Leo

𖥻★! ︿︿BIRTHPLACE: London, Uk

𖥻★! ︿︿NATIONALITY: English

𖥻★! ︿︿ETHNICITY: Chinese/Korean

𖥻★! ︿︿HEIGHT: 5'8" (173 cm)

𖥻★! ︿︿WEIGHT: 49kg (100lbs)

𖥻★! ︿︿BLOOD TYPE: AB

𖥻★! ︿︿REPRESENTATIVE EMOJI: 🐨 ( koala )

𖥻★! ︿︿ REPRESENTATIVE GEMSTONE: Amblygonite

𖥻★! ︿︿ REPRESENTATIVE COLOR: Purple

⌕ ‣ EDEN FACTS...!?

https://Eden-Facts.Com: She was born in London, Uk so her British accent is so strong. Her family includes four grandparents, mom, dad, four older brothers. She was raised in Los Angeles, California, United States.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: She's the global ambassador of vivienne westwood, Alexander Wang, Chanel, HARRY WINSTON, l'Oreal, Fay, CoverGirl U.S, Maybelline, Mikimoto, Panerai, Revlon, Lancôme international, Versace, Puma, Miu Miu, Liu Jo, Prada, Maxim Mooncakes, Comme des Garçons, Clarins, CHOPARD, VAN CLEEF & ARPELS, BUCCELLATI, & GRAFF.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: Eden is often called "Man-heart's destroyer" or "Boy crush" as many male idols and actors have a crush on her or have said that she's their ideal type

https://Eden-Facts.Com: Eden is currently in college and majoring in Business (Management ) and minoring literature at Seoul National University online.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: She writes all of her parts. She also produced and wrote a number of songs including WayV 'Love talk', TxT 'cat & dog', 'Anti-Romantic', 'loser=Lover', 'OX1=LOVESONG' Stray Kids 'Back door', Pristin V 'Get it', Twice 'Cry for me', Weekly 'After school' Enhypen 'Drunk-Dazed', 'Polaroid love' Aespa 'Next Level', 'Girls' 'Illusion' IVE 'LOVE DIVE' StayC 'SO BAD', 'ASAP' Itzy 'WANNABE','LOCO', '#Twenty', 'SWIPE' Chungha 'Gotta Go', 'Bicycle' Red Velvet 'Feel My Rhythm' Jeon Somi 'XOXO' BLACKPINK 'Typa Girl' & more. Eden has solidified herself as a genius musician with 155 KOMCA credits.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: She is extremely loved by the public which is why she earned the titles of princess of K-pop, SM/HYBE's Ace, Idol's idol, The Nation's Treasure, The Genius Composer, and The It girl of Asia.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: She is a former IZ*ONE member.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: She trained for 3 years in SM Entertainment before joining Produce 48.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: In Gallup Korea's annual music poll for 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 Eden was voted the most popular idol in South Korea, making her the highest-ranked individual in that poll.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: Eden is know for endorsements, various photo-shoots, and covers as they sell out in a minute.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: In 2020, She was featured in Harper Bazaar's 'Go To Bed With Me' and went rival for her nighttime skincare routine. It was mostly because of how simply yet in depth it was.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: Eden is really good at math as once she did over 20 fans math problems for fun during her Vlive in 2021.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: In January 2022, Eden purchased a building in Gangnam district's affluent Samseong-dong area, otherwise known as the Samsung neighbourhood. Purchased for approximately US$6.3 million, the mixed-use building has both residential and commercial spaces and spans a total of seven floors. Eden reportedly makes US$830,4000 monthly from rent.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: In 2014, she performed as one of the upcoming members of SM Entertainment's pre-debut training group SM Rookies on SM Town Live World Tour IV.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: She is a big food lover. She can eat most types of food but likes spicy foods the most.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: Her way of relaxing: A can of pringles and either Netflix, or watching Law & Order: SVU on Hulu.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: She thinks she's pretty talkative especially if the vibes between her and another person match up (Instagram Q&A 2022.08.10).

https://Eden-Facts.Com: When she was younger, Eden frequently performed and sang for house guests and eventually began taking acting/singing classes.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: Her airport fashions always goes viral on Twitter, and fans say that the airport is her runaway.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: Eden once said if she wasn't an singer, she would have been a vet because she really loves working with animals.

https://Eden-Facts.Com: In November 2018, she revealed that she has three citizenships: Chinese, British, and South Korean.

⌕ ‣ EDEN'S IDEAL TYPE: I really don't have an ideal type because if I like you, then I like you as simple as that."

⌕ ‣ Show more Aria fun facts

—HOW MUCH DO YOU LIKE EDEN?

𓋰 I LOVE HER, SHE'S MY ULTIMATE BIAS

𓋰 I LIKE HER, SHE'S OK

𓋰 SHE IS OVERRATED

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toasttt11 · 18 days

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introducing cameron

Cameron Taylor Crosby was born August 7, 2006. She was born on the same day as her father Sidney, Who was nineteen when his daughter was born.

Cameron’s mother, Jasmine Waters was dating Sidney for a few months when she found out she was pregnant, she wanted to her rid of the baby when she found out but Sidney wanted a kid and managed to convinced her and paid her to keep the baby and give the baby to him once they were born and she didn’t have to be involved in the life at all.

Since then it has always been Sidney and Cameron, the two were always happy together and Sidney couldn’t not be so proud of his only child.

Anyone that knew Sidney would see him in his daughter, she was a mini Sideny and was just as good if not better on the ice. Cameron has alot of Sidney’s personality and both are very anti social and very awkward.

Sidney being so young when he had his daughter and new to the team he grew close to the team as did Cameron and everyone on the Penguins helped him out more than he ever expected, The team is family to Sidney meaning they are all family to Cameron too.

For Cameron’s thirteen birthday all she wanted was her own cat and after months of pleading Sidney got her own cat, he was all white and very fluffy. Cameron takes him everywhere she has a little harness and leash and backpack for him for traveling. She named him Mack after Nate, Which Nate never lets Sidney forget.

In 2019 John joined the Penguins and immediately Cameron was attached to him. John had an apartment near the Crosby house so Cameron was always begging to have him come over and he usually had dinner every night with them. John is easily one of Cameron’s absolute favorite people and they still talk almost daily after the heartbreaking trade

Cameron and Connor met when she joined the WHL, She ended up staying with Connor and his Mother for the two seasons they played together. Cameron and Connor are both very similar in personality that they just fit so well and became great friends.

Cameron played two seasons with the Regina Pats before she was offered a trade to the Kamloops Blazers and she accepted it as she knew a lot of her friends on the Regina Pats were leaving and she might as well play for a new team and make some new friends. That’s where she met Fraser.

Cameron got a fracture in her hand a few days before she was set to leave for the 2024 WJC, so sadly she was unable to join her team but she got to spend almost eight weeks at home with her Dad so she couldn’t hate it that much.

Cameron was drafted for the 2024 NHL Draft and everyone knew already who was going first, Cameron Crosby but it was more who got the lucky first pick.

The lucky team was the Toronto Maple Leafs which was relieving to Sidney as it was one of the teams he wanted her to go to if she couldn’t got to the Penguins. He knew she would be taken care of in Toronto.

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jennyboom21 · 4 months

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In 2006, the year Taylor Swift released her first single, a closeted country singer named Chely Wright, then 35, held a 9-millimeter pistol to her mouth. Queer identity was still taboo enough in mainstream America that speaking about her love for another woman would have spelled the end of a country music career. But in suppressing her identity, Ms. Wright had risked her life.

In 2010, she came out to the public, releasing a confessional memoir, “Like Me,” in which she wrote that country music was characterized by culturally enforced closeting, where queer stars would be seen as unworthy of investment unless they lied about their lives. “Country music,” she wrote, “is like the military — don’t ask, don’t tell.”

The culture in which Ms. Wright picked up that gun — the same one in which Ms. Swift first became a star — was stunningly different from today’s. It’s dizzying to think about the strides that have been made in Americans’ acceptance of the L.G.B.T.Q. community over the past decade: marriage equality, queer themes dominating teen entertainment, anti-discrimination laws in housing and, for now, in the workplace. But in recent years, a steady drip of now-out stars — Cara Delevingne, Colton Haynes, Elliot Page, Kristen Stewart, Raven-Symoné and Sam Smith among them — have disclosed that they had been encouraged to suppress their queerness in order to market projects or remain bankable.

The culture of country music hasn’t changed so much that homophobia is gone. Just this past summer, Adam Mac, an openly gay country artist, was shamed out of playing at a festival in his hometown because of his sexual orientation. In September, the singer Maren Morris stepped away from country music; she said she did so in part because of the industry’s lingering anti-queerness. If country music hasn’t changed enough, what’s to say that the larger entertainment industry — and, by extension, our broader culture — has?

Periodically, I return to a video, recorded by a shaky hand more than a decade ago, of Ms. Wright answering questions at a Borders bookstore about her coming out. She likens closeted stardom to a blender, an “insane” and “inhumane” heteronormative machine in which queer artists are chewed to bits.

“It’s going to keep going,” Ms. Wright says, “until someone who has something to lose stands up and just says ‘I’m gay.’ Somebody big.” She continues: “We need our heroes.”

What if someone had already tried, at least once, to change the culture by becoming such a hero? What if, because our culture had yet to come to terms with homophobia, it wasn’t ready for her?

What if that hero’s name was Taylor Alison Swift?

In the world of Taylor Swift, the start of a new “era” means the release of new art (an album and the paratexts — music videos, promotional ephemera, narratives — that supplement it) and a wholesale remaking of the aesthetics that will accompany its promotion, release and memorializing. In recent years, Ms. Swift has dominated pop culture to such a degree that these transformations often end up altering American culture in the process.

In 2019, she was set to release a new album, “Lover,” the first since she left Big Machine Records, her old Nashville-based label, which she has since said limited her creative freedom. The aesthetic of what would be known as the “Lover Era” emerged as rainbows, butterflies and pastel shades of blue, purple and pink, colors that subtly evoke the bisexual pride flag.

On April 26, Lesbian Visibility Day, Ms. Swift released the album’s lead single, “ME!,” in which she sings about self-love and self-acceptance. She co-directed a campy music video to accompany it, which she would later describe as depicting “everything that makes me, me.” It features Ms. Swift dancing at a pride parade, dripping in rainbow paint and turning down a man’s marriage proposal in exchange for a … pussy cat.

At the end of June, the L.G.B.T.Q. community would celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. On June 14, Ms. Swift released the video for her attempt at a pride anthem, “You Need to Calm Down,” in which she and an army of queer celebrities from across generations — the “Queer Eye” hosts, Ellen DeGeneres, Billy Porter, Hayley Kiyoko, to name a few — resist homophobia by living openly. Ms. Swift sings that outrage against queer visibility is a waste of time and energy: “Why are you mad, when you could be GLAAD?”

The video ends with a plea: “Let’s show our pride by demanding that, on a national level, our laws truly treat all of our citizens equally.” Many, in the press and otherwise, saw the video as, at best, a misguided attempt at allyship and, at worst, a straight woman co-opting queer aesthetics and narratives to promote a commercial product.

Then, Ms. Swift performed “Shake It Off” as a surprise for patrons at the Stonewall Inn. Rumors — that were, perhaps, little more than fantasies — swirled in the queerer corners of her fandom, stoked by a suggestive post by the fashion designer Christian Siriano. Would Ms. Swift attend New York City’s WorldPride march on June 30? Would she wear a dress spun from a rainbow? Would she give a speech? If she did, what would she declare about herself?

The Sunday of the march, those fantasies stopped. She announced that the music executive Scooter Braun, who she described as an “incessant, manipulative” bully, had purchased her masters, the lucrative original recordings of her work.

Ms. Swift’s “Lover” was the first record that she created with nearly unchecked creative freedom. Lacking her old label’s constraints, she specifically chose to feature activism for and the aesthetics of the L.G.B.T.Q. community in her confessional, self-expressive art. Even before the sale of her masters, she appeared to be stepping into a new identity — not just an aesthetic — that was distinct from that associated with her past six albums.

When looking back on the artifacts of the months before that album’s release, any close reader of Ms. Swift has a choice. We can consider the album’s aesthetics and activism as performative allyship, as they were largely considered to be at the time. Or we can ask a question, knowing full well that we may never learn the answer: What if the “Lover Era” was merely Ms. Swift’s attempt to douse her work — and herself — in rainbows, as so many baby queers feel compelled to do as they come out to the world?

There’s no way of knowing what could have happened if Ms. Swift’s masters hadn’t been sold. All we know is what happened next. In early August, Ms. Swift posted a rainbow-glazed photo of a series of friendship bracelets, one of which says “PROUD” with beads in the color of the bisexual pride flag. Queer people recognize that this word, deployed this way, typically means that someone is proud of their own identity. But the public did not widely view this as Ms. Swift’s coming out.

Then, Vogue released an interview with Ms. Swift that had been conducted in early June. When discussing her motivations for releasing “You Need to Calm Down,” Ms. Swift said, “Rights are being stripped from basically everyone who isn’t a straight white cisgender male.” She continued: “I didn’t realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of.” That statement suggests that Ms. Swift did not, in early June, consider herself part of the L.G.B.T.Q. community; it does not illuminate whether that is because she was a straight, cis ally or because she was stuck in the shadowy, solitary recesses of the closet.

On Aug. 22, Ms. Swift publicly committed herself to the as-of-then-unproven project of rerecording and rereleasing her first six albums. The next day, she finally released “Lover,” which raises more questions than it answers. Why does she have to keep secrets just to keep her muse, as all her fans still sing-scream on “Cruel Summer”? About what are the “hundred thrown-out speeches I almost said to you,” in her chronicle of self-doubt, “The Archer,” if not her identity? And what could the album’s closing words, which come at the conclusion of “Daylight,” a song about stepping out of a 20-year darkness and choosing to “let it go,” possibly signal?

I want to be defined by the things that I love,

Not the things I hate,

Not the things that I’m afraid of, I’m afraid of,

Not the things that haunt me in the middle of the night,

I just think that,

You are what you love.

The first time I viewed “Lover” through the prism of queerness, I felt delirious, almost insane. I kept wondering whether what I was perceiving in her work was truly there or if it was merely a mirage, born of earnest projection.

My longtime reading of Ms. Swift’s celebrity — like that of a majority of her fan base — had been stuck in the lingering assumptions left by a period that began more than a decade and a half ago, when a girl with an overexaggerated twang, Shirley Temple curls and Georgia stars in her eyes became famous. Then, she presented as all that was to be expected of a young starlet: attractive yet virginal, knowing yet naïve, not talented enough to be formidable, not commanding enough to be threatening, confessional, eager to please. Her songs earnestly depicted the fantasies of a girl raised in a traditional culture: high school crushes and backwoods drives, princelings and wedding rings, declarations of love that climax only in a kiss — ideally in the pouring rain.

When Ms. Swift was trying to sell albums in that late-2000s media environment, her songwriting didn’t match the image of a sex object, the usual role reserved for female celebrities in our culture. Instead, the story the public told about her was that she laundered her affection to a litter of promising grown men, in exchange for songwriting inspiration. A young Ms. Swift contributed to this narrative by hiding easy-to-decode clues in liner notes that suggested a certain someone was her songs’ inspiration (“SAM SAM SAM SAM SAM SAM,” “ADAM,” “TAY”) or calling out an ex-boyfriend on the “Ellen” show and “Saturday Night Live.” Despite the expansive storytelling in Ms. Swift’s early records, her public image often cast a man’s interest as her greatest ambition.

As Ms. Swift’s career progressed, she began to remake that image: changing her style and presentation, leaving country music for pop and moving from Nashville to New York. By 2019, her celebrity no longer reflected traditional culture; it had instead become a girlboss-y mirror for another dominant culture — that of white, cosmopolitan, neoliberal America.

But in every incarnation, the public has largely seen those songs — especially those for which she doesn’t directly state her inspiration — as cantos about her most recent heterosexual love, whether that idea is substantiated by evidence or not. A large portion of her base still relishes debating what might have happened with the gentleman caller who supposedly inspired her latest album. Feverish discussions of her escapades with the latest yassified London Boy or mustachioed Mr. Americana fuel the tabloid press — and, embarrassingly, much of traditional media — that courts fan engagement by relentlessly, unquestioningly chronicling Ms. Swift’s love life.

Even in 2023, public discussion about the romantic entanglements of Ms. Swift, 34, presumes that the right man will “finally” mean the end of her persistent husbandlessness and childlessness. Whatever you make of Ms. Swift’s extracurricular activities involving a certain football star (romance for the ages? strategic brand partnership? performance art for entertainment’s sake?), the public’s obsession with the relationship has been attention-grabbing, if not lucrative, for all parties, while reinforcing a story that America has long loved to tell about Ms. Swift, and by extension, itself.

Because Ms. Swift hasn’t undeniably subverted our culture’s traditional expectations, she has managed, in an increasingly fractured cultural environment, to simultaneously capture two dominant cultures — traditional and cosmopolitan. To maintain the stranglehold she has on pop culture, Ms. Swift must continue to tell a story that those audiences expect to consume; she falls in love with a man or she gets revenge. As a result, her confessional songs languish in a place of presumed stasis; even as their meaning has grown deeper and their craft more intricate, a substantial portion of her audience’s understanding of them remains wedded to the same old narratives.

But if interpretations of Ms. Swift’s art often languish in stasis, so do the millions upon millions of people who love to play with the dollhouse she has constructed for them. Her dominance in pop culture and the success of her business have given her the rare ability to influence not only her industry but also the worldview of a substantial portion of America. How might her industry, our culture and we, ourselves, change if we made space for Ms. Swift to burn that dollhouse to the ground?

Anyone considering the whole of Ms. Swift’s artistry — the way that her brilliantly calculated celebrity mixes with her soul-baring art — can find discrepancies between the story that underpins her celebrity and the one captured by her songs. One such gap can be found in her “Lover” era. Others appear alongside “dropped hairpins,” or the covert ways someone can signal queer identity to those in the know while leaving others comfortable in their ignorance. Ms. Swift dropped hairpins before “Lover” and has continued to do so since.

Sometimes, Ms. Swift communicates through explicit sartorial choices — hair the colors of the bisexual pride flag or a recurring motif of rainbow dresses. She frequently depicts herself as trapped in glass closets or, well, in regular closets. She drops hairpins on tour as well, paying tribute to the Serpentine Dance of the lesbian artist Loie Fuller during the Reputation Tour or referencing “The Ladder,” one of the earliest lesbian publications in the United States, in her Eras Tour visuals.

Dropped hairpins also appear in Ms. Swift’s songwriting. Sometimes, the description of a muse — the subject of her song, or to whom she sings — seems to fit only a woman, as it does in “It’s Nice to Have a Friend,” “Maroon” or “Hits Different.” Sometimes she suggests a female muse through unfulfilled rhyme schemes, as she does in “The Very First Night,” when she sings “didn’t read the note on the Polaroid picture / they don’t know how much I miss you” (“her,” instead of that pesky little “you,” would rhyme). Her songwriting also noticeably alludes to poets whose muses the historical record incorrectly cast as men — Emily Dickinson chief among them — as if to suggest the same fate awaits her art. Stunningly, she even explicitly refers to dropping hairpins, not once, but twice, on two separate albums.

In isolation, a single dropped hairpin is perhaps meaningless or accidental, but considered together, they’re the unfurling of a ballerina bun after a long performance. Those dropped hairpins began to appear in Ms. Swift’s artistry long before queer identity was undeniably marketable to mainstream America. They suggest to queer people that she is one of us. They also suggest that her art may be far more complex than the eclipsing nature of her celebrity may allow, even now.

Since at least her “Lover” era, Ms. Swift has explicitly encouraged her fans to read into the coded messages (which she calls “Easter eggs”) she leaves in music videos, social media posts and interviews with traditional media outlets, but a majority of those fans largely ignore or discount the dropped hairpins that might hint at queer identity. For them, acknowledging even the possibility that Ms. Swift could be queer would irrevocably alter the way they connect with her celebrity, the true product they’re consuming.

There is such public devotion to the traditional narrative Ms. Swift embodies because American culture enshrines male power. In her sweeping essay, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” the lesbian feminist poet Adrienne Rich identified the way that male power cramps, hinders or devalues women’s creativity. All of the sexist undertones with which Ms. Swift’s work can be discussed (often, even, by fans) flow from compulsory heterosexuality, or the way patriarchy draws power from the presumption that women naturally desire men. She must write about men she surely loves or be unbankable; she must marry and bear children or remain a child herself; she must look like, in her words, a “sexy baby” or be undesirable, “a monster on the hill.”

A woman who loves women is most certainly a monster to a society that prizes male power. She can fulfill none of the functions that a traditional culture imagines — wife, mother, maid, mistress, whore — so she has few places in the historical record. The Sapphic possibility of her work is ignored, censored or lost to time. If there is queerness earnestly implied in Ms. Swift’s work, then it’s no wonder that it, like that of so many other artists before her, is so often rendered invisible in the public imagination.

While Ms. Swift’s songs, largely written from her own perspective, cannot always conform to the idea of a woman our culture expects, her celebrity can. That separation, between Swift the songwriter and Swift the star, allows Ms. Swift to press against the golden birdcage in which she has found herself. She can write about women’s complexity in her confessional songs, but if ever she chooses not to publicly comply with the dominant culture’s fantasy, she will remain uncategorizable, and therefore, unsellable.

Her star — as bright as it is now — would surely dim.

Whether she is conscious of it or not, Ms. Swift signals to queer people — in the language we use to communicate with one another — that she has some affinity for queer identity. There are some queer people who would say that through this sort of signaling, she has already come out, at least to us. But what about coming out in a language the rest of the public will understand?

The difference between any person coming out and a celebrity doing so is the difference between a toy mallet and a sledgehammer. It’s reasonable for celebrities to be reticent; by coming out, they potentially invite death threats, a dogged tabloid press that will track their lovers instead of their beards, the excavation of their past lives, a torrent of public criticism and the implosion of their careers. In a culture of compulsory heterosexuality, to stop lying — by omission or otherwise — is to risk everything.

American culture still expects that stars are cis and straight until they confess themselves guilty. So, when our culture imagines a celebrity’s coming out, it expects an Ellen-style announcement that will submerge the past life in phoenix fire and rebirth the celebrity in a new image. In an ideal culture, wearing a bracelet that says “PROUD,” waving a pride flag onstage, placing a rainbow in album artwork or suggestively answering fan questions on Instagram would be enough. But our current reality expects a supernova.

Because of that expectation, stars end up trapped behind glass, which is reinforced by the tabloid press’s subtle social control. That press shapes the public’s expectations of others’ identities, even when those identities are chasms away from reality. Celebrities who master this press environment — Ms. Swift included — can bolster their business, but in doing so, they reinforce a heteronormative culture that obsesses over pregnancy, women’s bodies and their relationships with men.

That environment is at odds with the American movement for L.G.B.T.Q. equality, which still has fights to win — most pressingly, enshrining trans rights and squashing nonsensical culture wars. But lately I’ve heard many of my young queer contemporaries — and the occasional star — wonder whether the movement has come far enough to dispense with the often messy, often uncomfortable process of coming out, over and over again.

That questioning speaks to an earnest conundrum that queer people confront regularly: Do we live in this world, or the world to which we ought to aspire?

Living in aspiration means ignoring the convention of coming out in favor of just … existing. This is easier for those who can pass as cis and straight if need be, those who are so wealthy or white that the burden of hiding falls to others and those who live in accepting urban enclaves. This is a queer life without friction; coming out in a way straight people can see is no longer a prerequisite for acceptance, fulfillment and equality.

This aspiration is tremendous, but in our current culture, it is available only to a privileged few. Should such an inequality of access to aspiration become the accepted state of affairs, it would leave those who can’t hide to face society’s cruelest actors without the backing of a vocal, activated community. So every queer person who takes issue with the idea that we must come out ought to ask a simple question — what do we owe one another?

If coming out is primarily supposed to be an act of self-actualization, to form our own identities, then we owe one another nothing. This posture recognizes that the act of coming out implicitly reinforces straight and cis identities as default, which is not worth the rewards of outness.

But if coming out is supposed to be a radical act of resistance that seeks to change the way our society imagines people to be, then undeniable visibility is essential to make space for those without power. In this posture, queer people who can live in aspiration owe those who cannot a real world in which our expansive views of love and gender aren’t merely tolerated but celebrated. We have no choice but to actively, vocally press against the world we’re in, until no one is stuck in it.

And so just for a little while longer, we need our heroes.

But if queer people spend all of our time holding out for a guiding light, we might forgo a more pressing question that if answered, just might inch all of us a bit closer to aspiration. The next time heroes appear, are we ready to receive them?

It takes neither a genius nor a radical to see queerness implied by Ms. Swift’s work. But figuring out how to talk about it before the star labels herself is another matter. Right now, those who do so must inject our perceptions with caveats and doubt or pretend we cannot see it (a lie!) — implicitly acquiescing to convention’s constraints in the name of solidarity.

Lying is familiar to queer people; we teach ourselves to do it from an early age, shrouding our identities from others, and ourselves. It’s not without good reason. To maintain the safety (and sometimes the comfort) of the closet, we lie to others, and, most crucially, we allow others to believe lies about us, seeing us as something other than ourselves. Lying is doubly familiar to those of us who are women. To reduce friction, so many of us still shrink life to its barest version in the name of honor or safety, rendering our lives incomplete, our minds lobotomized and our identities unexplored.

By maintaining a culture of lying about what we, uniquely, have the knowledge and experience to see, we commit ourselves to a vow of silence. That vow may protect someone’s safety, but when it is applied to works of culture, it stymies our ability to receive art that has the potential to change or disrupt us. As those with queer identity amass the power of commonplaceness, it’s worth questioning whether the purpose of one of the last great taboos that constrains us befits its cost.

In every case, is the best form of solidarity still silence?

I know that discussing the potential of a star’s queerness before a formal declaration of identity feels, to some, too salacious and gossip-fueled to be worthy of discussion. They might point to the viciousness of the discourse around “queerbaiting” (in which I have participated); to the harm caused by the tabloid press’s dalliances with outing; and, most crucially, to the real material sacrifices that queer stars make to come out, again and again, as reasons to stay silent.

I share many of these reservations. But the stories that dominate our collective imagination shape what our culture permits artists and their audiences to say and be. Every time an artist signals queerness and that transmission falls on deaf ears, that signal dies. Recognizing the possibility of queerness — while being conscious of the difference between possibility and certainty — keeps that signal alive.

So, whatever you make of Ms. Swift’s sexual orientation or gender identity (something that is knowable, perhaps, only to her) or the exact identity of her muses (something better left a mystery), choosing to acknowledge the Sapphic possibility of her work has the potential to cut an audience that is too often constrained by history, expectation and capital loose from the burdens of our culture.

To start, consider what Ms. Swift wrote in the liner notes of her 2017 album, “reputation”: “When this album comes out, gossip blogs will scour the lyrics for the men they can attribute to each song, as if the inspiration for music is as simple and basic as a paternity test.”

Listen to her. At the very least, resist the urge to assume that when Ms. Swift calls the object of her affection “you” in a song, she’s talking about a man with whom she’s been photographed. Just that simple choice opens up a world of Swiftian wordplay. She often plays with pronouns, trading “you” and “him” so that only someone looking for a distinction between two characters might find one. Turns of phrase often contain double or even triple meanings. Her work is a feast laid specifically for the close listener.

Choosing to read closely can also train the mind to resist the image of an unmarried woman that compulsory heterosexuality expects. And even if it is only her audience who points at rainbows, reading Ms. Swift’s work as queer is still worthwhile, for it undermines the assumption that queer identity impedes pop superstardom, paving the way for an out artist to have the success Ms. Swift has.

After all, would it truly be better to wait to talk about any of this for 50, 60, 70 years, until Ms. Swift whispers her life story to a biographer? Or for a century or more, when Ms. Swift’s grandniece donates her diaries to some academic library, for scholars to pore over? To ensure that mea culpas come only when Ms. Swift’s bones have turned to dust and fragments of her songs float away on memory’s summer breeze?

I think not. And so, I must say, as loudly as I can, “I can see you,” even if I risk foolishness for doing so.

I remember the first time I knew I had seen Taylor Alison Swift break free from the trap of stardom. I wasn’t sitting in a crowded stadium in the pouring rain or cuddled up in a movie theater with a bag of popcorn. I was watching a grainy, crackling livestream of the Eras Tour, captured on a fan’s phone.

It’s late at night, the beginning of her acoustic set of surprise songs, this time performed in a yellow dress. She begins playing “Hits Different.” It’s a new song, full of puns, double entendres and wordplay, that toys with the glittering identities in which Ms. Swift indulges.

She’s rushing, as if stopping, even for a second, will cause her to lose her nerve. She stumbles at the bridge, pauses and starts again; the queen of bridges will not mess this up, not tonight.

There it is, at the bridge’s end: “Bet I could still melt your world; argumentative, antithetical dream girl.” An undeniable declaration of love to a woman. As soon as those words leave her lips, she lets out a whoop, pacing around the stage with a grin that cannot be contained.

For a moment, Ms. Swift was out of the woods she had created for herself as a teenager, floating above the trees. The future was within reach; she would, and will, soon take back the rest of her words, her reputation, her name. Maybe the world would see her, maybe it wouldn’t.

But on that stage, she found herself. I was there. Through a fuzzy fancam, I saw it.

And somehow, that was everything.

#nyt x Gaylor swift #Gaylor swift x the msm #mainstream media x gaylor swift #gaylor fandom #Swiftgron #Taymily #tily #the New York Times article

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rfswitchart · 5 months

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Who would be the IRL Huntlow...?

Ok, so I think I figured out the kind of couple Huntlow are, both as a couple and individually as Hunter and Willow……….. ……Have you guys ever watched Critical Role? It’s a Twitch series where ‘a bunch of nerdy ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons and Dragons.’ Two of these dorky voice actors are Travis Willingham and Laura Bailey. For you Critical Role fans, you already know where this shit is going.

Hunter is more or less Travis. He’s a large man with training (Hunter is a former soldier, Travis is big on exercise and… I don’t think body building is the right word, but he’s pretty damn muscular.) Despite their outward appearance, Travis is absurdly good at mental math, he’s really smart (even if he does a lot of dumb things.) Travis is also a big scaredy cat, he’s not good with jumpscares and there is video of him going through a haunted house and being all scared. Overall Travis and Hunter are extremely similar.

Meanwhile, Willow is 100% Laura Bailey. Both are kind, caring, loving people………… Who will absolutely snap your spines if you piss them off hard enough. No magic, no powers. You’ll just get suplexed through a table. On top of that, Laura Bailey has the mentality of a 12-year-old boy. If she even hears the whiff of a dirty joke, she laughs and adds to it. She burps without so much as blinking. Hell, Laura has no problem casually threatening people or saying some surprisingly hardcore shit like it’s nothing. Sounds a lot like a certain Plant Witch, right? But it’s more than that. Travis and Laura are a couple who both fawn over each other, they’re silly together, they’re a mix of Morticia and Gomez and a pair of gremlins who just learned how to make mouth noises. They are two of the most chaotic people at the D&D table and have worked together on so many things. Like, seriously, this is from Gencon in 2019. That is Laura dressed up as a Gothic Lolita and Travis, this musclebound 6’3” man, falling head over heels for her in the background.

Is this not Hunter and Willow IRL? Would Willow not collect a metric ton of shiny math rocks (Dice, it’s a thing) on a regular basis? Would Hunter not try to be anti-romance in a D&D game, only to be romanced by his girlfriend AT THE TABLE? Also, Travis is hella into werewolves, to a point where his current character is an old gnome man who turns into a salient werewolf. IS THAT NOT EXACTLY THE CHARACTER HUNTER WOULD PLAY IN D&D?! My point here is that, if you need any help understanding Hunter (well say Noceda for the sake of this conversation) and Willow Park as well as their relationship with each other…. Please, I beg you, go watch Critical Role, and vice versa if you are a Critter needing a good series to watch like Owl House. Travis and Laura are just real life Huntlow.

#the owl house #huntlow #hunter noceda #willow park #critical role #travis willingham #laura bailey #These four should not be allowed in the same room together

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ninja-muse · 2 months

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February was a pretty good month! I read some books I really loved (and a couple that were simply meh), I got in a father-daughter visit and had really good luck at Scrabble, the weather was mostly not awful, and even if inventory at work took longer than expected, I survived it without brain mush, which has happened before. I am still the fastest scanner! My title holds.

Regular readers will be unsurprised to learn that Eve by Cat Bohannon and Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse were my top reads of the month, or that What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher ranks third. My T. Kingfisher problem is at least a year old, after all. (Also I read a couple delightful picture books, so be sure to click through to find them!)

I'm personally more surprised by my lowest picks, because they both sounded so up my alley but fell flat for nearly completely different reasons. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store ended up feeling disjointed and like it was trying for a theme it couldn't quite grasp, and A Market of Dreams and Desires hit all kinds of tropes I love, right down to random Dickens references and weird steampunk machines, but tied everything together a little too neatly for me. Ah well.

And right in the middle of my list is my sole physical TBR read of the month: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. This managed to tick off "Canadian author" and "classic" at the same time, so I get triple points. (This might have had a hand in me picking it.) Duddy has aged surprisingly well, in that it's still pretty fast-paced and amusing and also in that Richler wrote it with the understanding that scam artistry, hypermaterialism, and misogyny were bad and y'know what? They still are. I would recommend if you're looking for a Canadian teen anti-hero, more than anything. Duddy is a trainwreck and you can't look away.

I managed to get through the month with only three books hauled. (We won't talk about ARCs but the book fairies were kind.) The Unfortunate Traveller and Under a Pendulum Sun were bought during the habitual father-daughter bookstore date, and both because I never thought I'd see them and figured I might never see them again. The Unfortunate Traveller is essays and travel writing by a guy who co-wrote with Shakespeare and I didn't know it even existed. Under the Pendulum Sun was recced to me somewhere (here? bookish website algorithms?) and since it's essentially a gothic novel with properly weird fairies, it's been on my list.

The third book was a total surprise. Apparently I helped crowdfund it in 2019 and they've only just managed to get it printed and also I said I wanted a physical copy? The things we learn. Anyway, it's essays on aromanticism, agender identity, and asexuality so that tracks.

And I know I said I wasn't going to talk about ARCs but I got some good ones this last month and also in January, and there's a lot of them that are out or soon to be out and I'm having that problem where I want to be reading all of them at once. March is going to be interesting and probably a little panic-inducing.

Click through to see everything I read this month, in the rough order of how glad I was to have read them.

Eve - Cat Bohannon

A history of human evolution, through the lens of the female body.

8.5/10

warning: touches on sexism, mental illness, suicide, miscarriage, and rape

reading copy

Mirrored Heavens - Rebecca Roanhorse

The fractures following the eclipse have deepened and no one can see a way back to peace that doesn’t involve bloodshed. Out in June

8/10

Indigenous cast, 🏳️‍🌈 POV characters (bisexual, third gender), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (third gender, sapphic), Black-Pueblo author

warning: war, torture, mentions of child abuse

reading copy

What Feasts At Night - T. Kingfisher

Alex Easton has returned to kar hunting lodge to relax. Unfortunately, the locals claim there's a monster on a property.

8/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (third gender), protagonist with PTSD

Library ebook

The Twilight Queen - Jeri Westerson

Will Somers, jester to Henry VIII, is caught up in another mystery, this time of a corpse in Queen Anne’s bedchamber.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 main character (bi), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (gay)

digital reading copy

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz - Mordechai Richler

A delinquent teen grows into a hustler, against the backdrop of mid-century Jewish Montreal.

7/10

largely Jewish cast, Jewish author, 🇨🇦

warning: racial slurs, misogyny

Off my TBR shelves

The Woman With No Name - Audrey Blake

Lonely and craving war work, Yvonne signs up to be the first female spy for the Allies in occupied France. Out in March

7/10

half a 🇨🇦 author

reading copy

The Frame-Up - Gwenda Bond

Ten years ago, Dani turned her art thief mom in to the Feds. Now her mom’s mentor has given Dani an offer she can’t refuse: use her magic to pull an impossible heist, get her life back.

6.5/10

Black secondary characters, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic)

reading copy

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store - James McBride

The Black and Jewish residents of a Pennsylvania neighbourhood are (mostly) in it together, not least of when the government decides to take a local Deaf kid to an asylum.

7/10

Jewish and Black cast, major character with chronic illness and a limp, secondary Deaf character, Black author

warning: ableist characters and institutions, racist and anti-Semitic characters, sexual assault and molestation, (largely) reclaimed slurs

library book

The Market of Dreams and Destiny - Trip Galey

Deri may have a chance to buy out his indenture early when he meets a princess looking to sell her destiny. But in the goblin’s Untermarkt, nothing’s ever easy.

6.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 main character (mlm), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (mlm, genderfluid), British Indian secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: child abuse, enslavement

borrowed from work

Picture Books

No Cats in the Library - Lauren Emmons

Cats aren’t allowed in the library but that’s where all the books are!

🏳️‍🌈 author

Read at work

Family is Family - Melissa Marr

Chick gets a note before kindergarten, telling him to have his mom or dad walk him to school. Except that Chick has two moms.

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters and themes

Read at work

Currently reading

Knife Skills for Beginners - Orlando Murrin

Paul Delamare is filling in at a cooking school when the resident celebrity chef has a, erm, "accident."

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), Black British secondary character

Reading copy

True North - Andrew J. Graff

The Brechts move to Wisconsin to restart a rafting business. They hope it’ll save their young family, but it might do the opposite.

library book

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin

A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character, occasional secondary Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 9 +2 Yearly total: 20 Queer books: 4 + 2 Authors of colour: 2 Books by women: 6 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 1.5 Classics: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 3 ARCs acquired: 6 ARCs unhauled: 4 DNFs: 0

January

#booklr #bookblr #book reviews #adult booklr #reading wrap-ups #read in 2024 #my photos #book stacks #stacks of books

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