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seeingteacupsindragons · 2 months

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Aro Week 2024: Let's Talk About the Limits of Representation

A lot of the discussion around writing marginalized identities comes down to one thing: representation. Representation in the books versus the authors, what the representation looks like, the variety of representation, what representation is present and allowed, what diversity is there and what isn’t.

For aro week, I want to talk about how limited that is for aro (and ace) people. Because the thing about representation is that to be exist beyond Word of God, it’s got to be discussed in the text. And that means romance (or sex, for ace people, but while I’m ace, and most of this is going to cross-apply, this post is for aro week so this is just a global note) has to be discussed in the text.

But a lot of time what I want as an aro person is to just not have to think about it. I think in general I’ve seen similar sentiments expressed across marginalized groups: we always have to think about our differences, and it’s a mental load and burden that other people don’t have to deal with. And as an aro writer and reader, a lot of the time what I want, and what most allows me to lay down that burden is to just not have romance in the damn thing. It’s hard to figure out how to write sometimes, it’s something I have to mentally keep in mind while I read.

While I go through life in general, I often just…forget it’s a thing. I forget when Valentine’s Day is often. I forget that people are normally dating. I forget people want to discuss with their romantic partners when making plans with friends. I forget they want to go everywhere as a group. I forget things look like dates. My life is one in which romance is rarely a factor unless imposed on it by outside forces. It’s not relevant.

But if I write that for characters, or for readers, a place where romance is not just imposed on their mind, the characters aren’t actually…aro. A story in which romance, romantic attraction, or interest in such things never comes up is one in which no character is canonically disinterested in or not in possession of such thing. It’s one which has no moments of obvious recognition of the aro experience or joyous bursts.

It’s a story in which, “Eh, they could or couldn’t be attracted. It never came up, so anything is valid because nothing is canon.”

The definition of being aro might lie in not experiencing romantic attraction. And sure, the character might not. But this is fiction. Not reality. And in reality, aro people’s experiences are more than the dictionary. People have relationships to romance and attraction and interactions with the concept are often recognizable and definitional. No real person can live without interacting with romance and attraction, and those relationships to it are as definitional and important to being aro or being gay or being straight or bi or whatever as the dictionary definition is.

Characters don’t have to interact with it. I’ve said romance isn’t relevant to my life as an aro person much of the time. If romance isn’t relevant to a character’s story—well, lots of things aren’t relevant to stories we assume are happening, like…most bathroom trips, or meals, or menstruation. A character isn’t representing an eating disorder because they’re never shown eating: it’s more complicated than that.

Being aro is more complicated than that.

A story in which character relationships wholly rely on and depend on something other than romance, a story where character relationships are undefinable and not attempted to be defined but only described and developed, a story in which characters and societies and people exist outside the omnipresent framework of romance inherently comes from a place of aroness and the aro experience. It speaks most to that place.

Most people who experience romantic attraction are often thinking about it. A story without such things is one which is lacking something they’re looking for and expecting, not a story where everything proceeds as usual without being interrupted by Oh, Yeah, That.

So, then, if alloromantic people will notice something is Different and aro people might seek it out, this way of writing around romance because it’s not relevant to the story the way it is not relevant to my life needs to be framed in the metatext so people, aro and alloro alike, know what to expect and what they’re getting into.

But when all talk about marginalized stories comes down to “What Types of Characters Are Here?” and “What Culture Is This World Based On?” there’s this empty space to explain stories like mine.

There’s so many things to the aro experience that don’t revolve around rejecting romance. But if you ever look for an aro story about something else, how can you even find it? It’s so difficult to talk about an aro story that isn’t Representative and exists in a way you don’t even have to think about it and there are no smooth bumps to remind you of yourself so you can immerse into it that…I think people forget stories like that can even exist.

#writing #aromantic #arotag #actually aromantic #aro #aromanticism #Aro Week #Aromantic Awareness Week #Aromantic Week #Aro week 2024

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txttletale · 4 months

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i hope this isn’t weird, but istg i’ve seen some of your posts (reposts?) about low empathy people / media with such representation, but i can’t find it anymore. as somebody with very little empathy and emotions in general, i really wanted to read more about people who may also experience this / understand what i mean, because a lot of times i feel like i’m borderline inhuman. do you maybe know any analysis / media about it? thanks in advance!

i dont really believe in like, 'good representation' in the sense it's usually used--i'm not that interested in media serving as an ambassador from a marginalized group to the world. some low-empathy characters i've talked about finding resonant with my own experiences include baru from the traitor baru cormorant, insul from serious weakness, vilanelle from killing eve, racter from shadowrun: hong kong, and like half the cast of worm but especially rachel.

in terms of analysis, i think this interview with a psychologist about how empathy isn't necessary for morality has been useful to me. more generally reading a lot of marxist political theory has helped me detach the necessity of a certain interiority for morality--as argued in many places beginning with the german ideology, morality is not absolute or ephemeral or rooted in 'humanity' or 'the human soul', but a product of material and social conditions. rejecting the idea of a 'universal, human' morality undergirded by a 'universal human experience' in favour of a marxist model of morality informed by culture and social relations has done a lot to help me untangle some of the internalized stigma

#ask

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matan4il · 4 months

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Daily update post:

Remember how I mentioned yesterday that Hezbollah had attacked the Northern Command base? It was announced that Ali Hussein, the commander of that aerial strike on the IDF base, has been eliminated.

Hey, remember how the anti-Israel crowd kept insisting that Israel has turned Gaza into a concentration camp, before this war? The IDF has arrived at the summer home (!) of Marwan Issa, the deputy military commander of Hamas in Gaza, and I am trying to remember a single Jewish slave laborer in Dachau, who had a summer home that looks like this, inside the camp...

(screenshots from a vid in Hebrew here, discussing Marwan Issa, his home, and the way Hamas leaders built their wealth)

This is vital: UN Watch have published a report about the Telegram group of UNRWA teachers, who celebrated the massacre of Oct 7, and prided themselves that this was thanks to the education that the terrorists got...

In the US, Jewish stars have signed a letter addressed to the Academy for Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences, protesting the fact that Jews are not on the list for includion, as one of the marginalized groups that suffer from underrepresentation. I've written way before the war about Jewish representation, and how it has never been good enough. But more than that, Most people are incredibly ignorant about Jews, Judaism, Jewish identity, Jewish history, and even some very basic related facts, such as Jews being native to Israel, or that Jews aren't just white people with a less popular religion. Jews have suffered the longest streak of persecution in human history, the most extreme genocide, and yet we're not even recognized as marginalized and discriminated, which means we're discriminated against even among marginalized groups. It's unfathomable, and it has to change, if the west wants to fight antisemitism, and it has to change NOW.

Idan Amedi's condition, which I posted about in my update post yesterday, is said to have improved, he's regained consciousness, can breathe on his own, and even talked a bit to his family.

This is 62 years old Aviva Siegel.

She's one of the hostages that were released. Yesterday, she went to the Knesset (Israel's parliament), and I got to hear her testimony about the sexual abuse and torture of the young women in captivity in Gaza, which she had witnessed firsthand. Aviva recounted that one young hostage asked to go to the bathroom. When she returned, Aviva could tell something was off. The young woman confirmed to her that the terrorist molested her. Aviva went to comfort the girl, but the Hamas terrorist rapist stopped her with gun threats. "He wouldn't even let me hug her after he raped her," Aviva said. She also shared that there was another young woman who was physically tortured based on the suspicion that she was an IDF officer. Aviva's husband is still held in captivity, for 96 days now.

This is Ronen Engel, with his daughters Mika and Yuval.

On Oct 7, Ronen was murdered, his body is still held hostage in Gaza. Yuval and Mika were kidnapped together with their mother Karina, and the three were released during the hostage deal. Two days ago, during the tragedy with the explosives truck in Gaza in which many soldiers were killed and injured 2 days ago, the Engel's family adopted son, 25 years old Amit Shachar, was killed.

May Ronen and Amit's memories be a blessing.

This was just SO sweet, I had to share. Since the fighting in Gaza started, and some soldiers have been away for months at a time, when they do get to come home, people have shared vids of the reunion joy, and this has to be my personal fave so far:

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

#israel #antisemitism #israeli #israel news #israel under attack #israel under fire #israelunderattack #terrorism #anti terrorism #hamas #antisemitic #antisemites #jews #jew #judaism #jumblr #frumblr #jewish

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pehmokoira · 3 months

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I think we could all use a morale booster after 2 weeks in the gravy basket, so I decided to write a few reasons why I believe Our Flag Means Death can still be saved!

Please note that I know literally nothing about how the industry actually works, I'm just clowning and these are opinions based on articles I've read etc. 🤡

Arrested Development was saved by Netflix after Fox cancelled it because of low ratings and viewership. Now, we can't know the numbers for OFMD for certain, but the ratings and reviews have been preeetty good, and season 2 even has a higher Tomatometer score than season 1. (96% vs. 93%) So in that sense, the chances are good. Everything was pointing towards renewal until January 9th!

Which gets me to my next point. If the cancellation really was one person's decision (DZ better watch his fucking step), then that means the show was as good as renewed and it HAD the numbers and the viewership and everything it needed to continue.

Each cancellation case is unique. It's kind of pointless to compare OFMD with any other cancelled show, because the chances of any show getting picked up after cancellation depend on so many things. Production costs, show quality, the potential of the show, viewership, probably also connections/relationships in the industry, etc. But it all boils down to money in the end.

Max is covering up the real reason for the cancellation by lying, which means they've completely fucked up by cancelling this show. Max is the one that looks bad right now, not OFMD. This is bad PR for Max.

David Jenkins has not told us to stop with our renewal efforts, which means there's hope. He knows more than we do. In Jenkins I trust. I won't give up until he tells us it's over.

It's only been 2 weeks and 1 day. It would've been something of a miracle if the show had been picked up in that short a time. Lucifer was saved by Netflix a month after the cancellation.

And lastly, the pros for OFMD:

The show hasn't been on a widely available international streaming service so far. Big potential for new audiences on a different platform.

The marketing for the show has been abysmal, but it's become a flagship series for Max despite that.

The fanbase is loud and passionate, and we've shouted about wanting to buy merch on X. We won't shut up about the show and that's a beautiful and important thing.

Max's lies about the cancellation are so transparent almost anyone can see through them. The people in the industry have probably noticed Max's pattern of cancelling shows about marginalized groups.

The representation in the show is something you don't find in any other show, and while that could be its downfall, it's also the greatest strength of the show. Bigger streaming services aren't as scared of queers as Max is.

The story that the show tells is quite unique.

These are just a few things that came to mind right now. Feel free to reblog and list more reasons if you can think of any!

Edit: I wrote another post about this too! That one's about ✨the numbers✨!

#ofmd #our flag means death #renew as a crew #save ofmd

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rollercoasterwords · 2 years

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hey guys btw there is actually never a good reason to loudly and publicly talk about how much u dislike a fanfic!! Like. let's break this down for a sec:

i don't like it

ok, understandable. i've dnf'd lots of fics because i didn't like them. but the people writing fanfiction are doing it for free and for fun, and you don't know anything about their lives. they could be a young writer just starting out! they could be an older writer getting back into writing after years of being unable to! they could be someone going through a rough patch whose only source of joy right now is writing their silly little stories! talking about how much you dislike a fanfic literally does nothing except hurt the person writing it. that's it. it is not productive, it is not necessary. even strangers on the internet deserve basic human empathy.

ok but i really don't like it

babe, i feel u! i'm a hater too. rant about it privately. shit on it in private messages or group chats with friends. u can dislike something without dragging its creator into the town square to throw tomatoes at them, yknow?

ok but i really don't like it AND it's popular

ok? shouting about that on the internet doesn't make you cool or special or unique. it just makes you kind of mean and, honestly, bitter. like i said before, this is fanfiction. nobody is paying for it. nobody is profiting. there is no standard that these writers are obligated to meet. clearly, other people like the work. why not let them enjoy it in peace?

no u don't understand it doesn't deserve to be popular there are better fics that deserve it more!!!

talk about those fics then!! post about how much u love them!! uplift those writers!! ur tweet or tiktok or tumblr post is not going to suddenly make a popular fic lose all popularity, no matter how undeserving u perceive it to be. if this is actually coming from a place of frustration because you feel like there are other fics that deserve more attention, then just give those fics attention.

no but it's problematic

mmm ok. let's sit with this one for a second. i want you to ask yourself--is it really, really problematic? is it perpetuating harm against a marginalized group? remember, this is fanfic; it is outside the consumer economy, and the stories it tells will almost never make it to a mainstream audience. so is the story actually hurting people, or is the author just exploring something that you're uncomfortable with? because if you're just uncomfortable, then assuming the work is tagged properly, the best course of action is to just click away. as uncomfortable as it may be, people are allowed to write stories that you might find upsetting or gross or weird, and those stories existing is not inherently harmful in and of itself.

it is actively reinforcing harmful stereotypes/rhetoric/etc

okay! ok. if you are deeply concerned because you feel that this fic is genuinely harmful, then go to the writer. leave a comment. send them a message on tumblr or twitter or tiktok or wherever. explain your situation and see what they say! nine times out of ten, i'd bet that an ao3 writer means no harm and would be willing to listen and address your concerns. in fact, they might even be grateful to you for being kind enough to make them aware of a problem and educate them on it. every ao3 writer i've ever spoken to is an incredibly kind and thoughtful person; you don't need to immediately go on the attack

the writer is unreachable/nonresponsive/not willing to address or change the problematic thing

alright. if you truly feel that this fanfiction is actively harmful and can't reach any kind of conclusion with the writer, and you want to warn others who might read the fic, then do that. do that. make a post that says hey guys btw, x thing in this fic is not a good representation/perpetuates a harmful stereotype/whatever the problem is. and leave it at that! you don't need to go further and insult the writing or the person who wrote it. that is helpful to exactly no one, and if your goal is actually to make the world a better place, then you should learn how to draw attention to an issue in a way that encourages actual dialogue instead of dog-piling and personal attacks.

anyway the next time you feel the desire to post about how bad you think a fic is, feel free to use this as a guide before u do! xoxo

#like i genuinely don't understand u guys sometimes #why do i keep seeing posts w hundreds or sometimes even thousands of likes #that are literally saying nothing except #i think this fic is bad and i don't like it #if someone was making cookies and handing them out for free and u didn't like them #would u go stand next to that person and shout about how shitty their baking skills are??#or would u just move tf on!!#bc they are doing something nice for free!!#and if u don't want to eat it u don't have to!!#like if u post abt disliking fics u are literally just mean #im sorry but u are just mean #and not even in a fun way #i love talking shit i love hating on things!!#i do it in PRIVATE #in PRIVATE!!!#where it's fun for me but i know it won't hurt anyone's feelings unnecessarily!!#some of u guys treat fanfiction like a product to consume and it's NOT #it's a gift!#it's a piece of art that someone is giving u!#so for the love of god stop thinking like a fucking little capitalist consumer for a moment and think like a human being w empathy!!#ranting and raving #txt

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qqueenofhades · 11 months

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What are some of your other favourite medieval misconceptions? Everyone only ever wore shades of brown?

Other "favorite" medieval misconceptions, "favorite" here having the meaning of "cause my eye to start twitching uncontrollably and a red haze to descend" include:

Everyone in the Middle Ages was always dirty, miserable, and sad

Peasants worked all the time and were constantly on the verge of starving to death (bonus points if "all medieval people were peasants")

Everything was violent, bloody, and "barbaric"

People could expect to get gruesomely dismembered at all times and for any reason

Politics was exactly like Game of Thrones/Game of Thrones is an Accurate Representation of the Medieval World/pretty much anything whatsoever citing Game of Thrones as historical text

Everyone in medieval Europe was white, straight, cisgender, and Christian

Disabled people were ignored/destroyed/"put into asylums" (because the medieval era is exactly like Victorian England!) and/or had no recognition in their community and/or were just left to die

Queer people did not exist/were always persecuted/had no opportunities or framework to live/identify like "modern" people

"Medieval history" only refers to Europe and/or Europeans

Pretty much anything to do with the Vikings, whether in far right/white supremacy or Oooh The Vikings Were So Liberal

The all-powerful Catholic church completely controlled everyone's minds and everyone blindly obeyed them in all things until suddenly, one day the Renaissance happened! Yay!

The Renaissance suddenly gave women rights!

The Enlightenment suddenly gave women rights!

[Fill in the blank] suddenly gave women rights!

Evil historians are hiding the real truth of [insert marginalized group here] from you

The only thing medieval people cared about was religion and they were all religious zealots

Conversely: people were always desperately trying to break free from the church but they were constantly stopped from doing so because the church was, again, all-powerful

Women were silent, illiterate, uneducated, oppressed, and only ever expected to serve their husband/have endless babies/keep the house clean (which somehow coexists in their minds with "everything was dirty all the time")

Women always died in childbirth

Women did not have jobs, education, or any recognition in society

Women could never be rulers, warriors, or any other "male" job

Women could constantly expect to be raped and this was a normal and natural part of medieval society (bonus points if invoked to defend some modern "medieval" media as "historically accurate")

Women were constantly viewed as witches in the premodern era

Anything a woman did that was "unusual" would get her accused (and often killed) for witchcraft

There were no cosmetics, beauty standards, personal hygiene, etc., so people never combed their hair, dressed nicely, used makeup, washed, etc etc

Medieval people/society had no use for artists/art, literature, books, classics, or other high culture, because that was all instantly forgotten when Rome fell and nobody found it again until the Renaissance

Medieval people all died when they were thirty

Medieval people never traveled more than 10 miles from home

Medieval people never questioned their society/their place in the world/anything else; they just accepted their lot in life without complaint

Things have been a perfect straight line of progress ever since and modernity is "better"

Do I have some things to get off my chest here?

Maybe

You can't prove it

Shh

#tobsjpalfrey #ask #history #medieval history

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agendercrisisx · 4 months

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I return with more Denki brainrot

Denki gets super fixated on media like anime and stuff, and his favorite thing is the way his partner will just sit there and listen or even get fixated on the same media as him. You get super heated about something in the media he introduced you to? Immediately kissing you, no thoughts required. He softly says how much he loves you and then fucks you so gently and lovingly, making sure you know how much you mean to him and muttering everything he loves about you through kisses. I LOVE HIM OKAY

Ranting With Your Boyfriend

I don't know how I missed this in my inbox, it's so perfect. And our perfect Denki needs more attention.

Also, I looked for like 15 minutes, to find some info about his favorite animes or media, and I couldn't find shit. So I'm just gonna make something up, I love Brooklyn 99 and Marvel so I'm gonna write that he likes some of that. (The only thing I could find he likes was Pokemon, but that felt a bit on the nose. And it wasn't an official site, it was fans answering questions about him, and after Pokemon had been the answer 8 times, I kind of gave up.)

Also, I'm obsessed with both franchises, so what Denki says about the shows is my own opinion, so this is my excuse to rant about them. So spoilers for season 8 of B99. It's not important to the story, so you can just skip it.

Denki Kaminari x gn!reader

Warnings: sex, semi-public sex (someone can definitely hear them),

Word count: 2079

Denki's lips are moving faster than any of the others in the rooms can even try to understand, but you're right by his side clinging to his every word. Your eyes locked on his face, his so beautiful face. How his blonde hair falls perfectly around his face, and his soft lips, talking about his favorite show. You watched every episode of Brooklyn 99 with him, he may have watched it 17.000 times before you, but he watched it with you. He explained everything to you, every detail, everything about the actors, he made you notice things you never would have on your own.

"The only problem is the last season. It feels forced. Mac is amazing and it shows how much Jake has grown, but Terry has almost had no character growth, and the fact that Raymond and Kevin separate is just so weird, cause they always talked about stuff, and the fact that Kevin can't feel the pressure Holt is under is just weird. But of course, the kiss they share at the end of the season i so perfect, it makes me wanna cry every time. Also, there are so many plot holes, all seasons through. Jake at some point talks about how Blockbuster is gone, and then a season or so later, he asks the others what happened to Blockbuster. The same with stuff they just make up at some point, they say one thing and make a character some way, and then a season later, or just an episode later, they go against what they had made up about the character."

His ramble is the cute thing about him, the smile on your lips as he just talks and talks about the problems with his favorite show. You know that he'll in just a second start explaining what's so good about it. And like a cue, he continues.

"But at the same time, it's so comforting. It's funny, it's not offensive and it doesn't make fun of marginalized groups. There's all kinds of representation, and... Oh yeah, did you know that the actors for Amy Santiago, Melissa Fumero, and Rosa Diaz, Stephanie Beatriz, never thought they'd both get the role? Cause they're both Latina, and when one of them got the role, the other one thought it was lost, but they both got it and they were both so happy. And they play the characters amazingly. Did you also know, that Stephanie often breaks character and smiles or laughs in scenes, you just need to look for it. It's amazing that..."

Before he gets to finish his sentence, your lips are on his, and a small sound leaves his lips. But with the others in the room, he tries his best to stay quiet.

"Get A Room!" Bakugous voice is sharp, and you quickly break apart.

"Oh let them be." Mina interrupts, smiling at you and hitting Bakugou in the back of his head. He doesn't say anything and falls further back on the couch. Mina continues,

"But if you need some peace and quiet, we can leave." She gestures at the boys on the couch, Kirishima and Sero are playing cards and look up at Mina, nodding. Bakugou just scowls, keeping his mouth shut. Denki looks at you, trying to figure out what you want.

"You don't have to, but..." Before you get to finish your sentence, Mina interrupts.

"That's our queue, let's go boys." She hurries them out of the sofa, while you and Denki are still sitting on the ottoman. Sero winks at you before Kirshima pushes him out the door. Mina following right after pushing Bakugou.

"Just us," Denki whispers and pushes a lock of your hair, out of your face.

"Yeah just us," you smile and he returns it even wider.

"Do you remember the last two heist episodes?" He nods, and you continue. "It's a sweet ending, but at the same time, it just feels rushed, like they couldn't figure out a good ending and they just quickly came up with something. It's also kinda sad that we never really see Arlo, we see him in like one episode, I miss my pretty golden labrador..."

Denki grabs the back of your head pulling you into a heated kiss. It's slow at first, letting you taste the chocolate on his lips, as he sweeps his tongue against your bottom lip. You smile into the kiss and he pulls you harder against him, taking control of it. Leading you how he wants you, softly laying you down on the ottoman, so he can pull your head back and kiss your neck.

You let out a groan as he bites the tender spot on your neck, that he knows gets you weak in the knees. He nibbles at your earlobe, slowly letting out a strained moan.

"God you're perfect, my perfect angel. You make me so fucking hard, you know that? With those eyes of yours, looking like you want to get fucked all the time. Those puppy eyes, begging me to take control and fuck you senseless. Oh, how I can't wait to bury myself inside you, feeling you clench around me as I fuck you so slowly." He pulls away from your ear, looking down at the lust in your eyes. He knows you so well, he knows everything about you. And you him.

"Let us get this thing out of the way," he pulls at your shirt, and you're quick to help him get it off. He looks down at your chest, with eyes that make you melt. He loves you so much, everything about you, not even caring what others think. You mean everything to him, and no one can change the fact that he's planning to marry you.

"Your turn," you utter, and he almost rips it in half trying to get it off. His chest is defined, nipples you wanna put in your mouth, abs you wanna ride. Everything about him is just so perfect. So damn perfect.

"My eyes are up here angel." He laughs and you join in, he makes the dumbest jokes, at the dumbest time.

You reach out for him, and he stays still as your fingers slowly run along his abs. His toned muscle feels hard under your fingers, and as your finger travels lower, he lets out a trembling breath.

"Be nice... please." His words are shaky and you smirk. You let your hand wander and glide it along the sexy v muscle at the bottom of his torso. He exhales unsteadily, and you can see how weak this makes him.

"Let's make a deal, you fuck me nice and good, and I'll behave. I promise." He doesn't see the crossed fingers behind your back and quickly bends down above you to catch your lips in a kiss. You moan into it as he strokes your tongue with his own, he softly caresses your cheek. He puts his knee down between your legs, pushing you backwards.

"I'll take good care of you angel, but you gotta promise to keep quiet. We're still in the living room after all." You nod, already too eager for what's about to happen.

He places a soft kiss just behind your ear, and a shiver runs down your spine. He slowly moves further down, letting soft kisses follow his path. He stops at your nipple, softly licking around it, and taking it in his mouth to suck. You let out a strained moan, and he immediately lets go.

"What?! No. No. No. please continue." You whimper, a smirk playing on his lips.

"We need to make a deal if you're loud..." He pauses for a second, "Then I'll stop. Well end out fun, so you gotta stay quiet, angel."

"How is that fair?! You know that's not realistic." You mutter, staring at Denki.

"Okay, we can just stop here and watch a movie?" You stare at him with the most evil glare you can obtain.

"Fine." You pout, walk over, and sit down on the couch. Denki is right behind you, sitting down next to you. He places a hand on the backrest and around you. You say nothing and just hand him the remote. He finds a show, and you're too riled up to even care what's playing.

Denki pulls a blanket down and swoops it around you, cowering you completely. For a few minutes, you are just watching the movie. Annoyed by the fact that he left you hanging, but nothing to do about it now.

His hand on the backrest slowly moves down, moving around you to find your desperate hole. You whimper as he puts soft pressure where you need him the most.

"Let's help you out. Shall we?" He whispers, slowly moving your clothes out of the way with his hand, so his finger can steadily sink into you. You whimper, doing your best to keep quiet. Not knowing if his demands are still the same.

His pace is torturingly slow, pumping in and out of you. His eyes are still on the show, not even offering you a glance as he fucks you with his fingers. You whimper as he hits a certain spot in you, biting your lip to try and keep the noise contained.

He smirks, but his gaze is still on the screen. He pulls his digits out and a desperate noise escapes your mouth.

"That was beyond mean." You state, and his eyes finally move to you, studying you, like he is trying to remember every detail. His hand finds your cheek and he pulls you into a kiss, it's slow at first, letting you savor the feel of him. He pulls you onto his lap, and he swiftly takes control of the kiss and makes you grind your hips onto his hard cock. You moan, and he bites your lips to keep you quiet.

"Let's get these clothes off you, so I can get inside... soon. I need you." His voice is so filled with lust, you can feel yourself clench around air. God you want him inside you, as quickly as possible. You need him more than air.

He rips your pants and underwear off you in one swift motion, leaving your bottom bare. He pulls himself out of his pants, not caring about anything, but you right now. He grips your hips and pulls you onto him. He moans, and a scream rips from your throat.

"Fuck you feel good, angel. Damn... I..." He's breathing heavily, trying to catch his breath. As the feeling of you around him surrounds him. You feel so damn good.

He lifts you up slowly and lets you drop down again. You moan into his neck and he does it again. Slowly setting the pace, taking care of you. Moving you, right as he wants you.

His rough hands on your waist are the only thing that keeps you grounded. He feels so heavenly in you, you can already feel the tension building in you. The feeling building and building. He keeps the pace of you on him, your head in his neck moaning softly as he moves you.

"Oh angel, you already close? Want my help?" You moan softly into the crook of his neck, and thats his cue. His hips snap up into you, making you cry out. He does it again, fucking up into you, so much faster than the pace was before.

"Cum for me angel! I need you to cum!" The strain in his voice, tells you he is close too. But you don't have to be told twice. The tension snaps and your whole body falls into a little piece of heaven. Your whole body is tingling, and your sight goes white for a second, as you slowly come back down to earth.

His hips are still snapping up into you, and you know he is so close.

"Please baby, please cum for me, please, please, please, I want your cum." You whisper in his ear, and that's the last thing he needs. He cums in you, painting your walls white. The feeling of his cum in you makes you whimper. Everything about him feels so good.

"I love you so much, angel." His breathing is heavy and he lets his head rest on your shoulder. " You did such a good job for me. I'm so proud of you baby." He mumbles into your shoulder, kissing the skin softly.

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fordtato · 10 months

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So, I’ve been watching some of your Gravity Falls videos—-and by the way, they’re absolutely fantastic, and I love that you included complex and under-discussed topics through the lenses of aspecs and of masculinity—though one of the things that’s been most surprising that you’ve mentioned in passing a few times is the idea that Stan and Ford were specifically Jewish immigrants.

I’m curious if you could tell me more about that, especially because that possibility doesn’t sit well with me as a Jew, as if it’s true it would make Stan’s entire character an antisemitic stereotype (the greedy, deceptive Jew is one of the oldest antisemitic stereotypes out there) and would make the entire show harder to enjoy or even watch.

Sure, no problem (and thank you for watching my videos)! So, the Pines family is canonically Jewish (the series creator, Alex Hirsch, is himself Jewish and based them off his own family and has confirmed this, and we see a mezuzah at Stan and Ford’s childhood home). As far as them being immigrants, I don’t say that Stan and Ford themselves are immigrants, but that they are the children of immigrants, as it is implied in the supplemental material that their father (or at least their father’s family) migrated to the US, with a mention of a name-change on Ellis Island.

As far as the antisemitic stereotypes, that is an area that I feel less comfortable weighing in on (as I myself am not Jewish). It is notable that the characters were written/created by a Jewish man, and I feel it would be inappropriate for me to weigh in too deeply on how a Jewish person writes Jewish characters (and Stan, notably, is also based off of one of Hirsch’s relatives.) In all discussions of good or bad representation (regardless of which marginalized group I’m considering), I think a solid rule of thumb when considering a stereotypical depiction, is that it is important to see if that is the only depiction of that group present, or if there is diversity within the diversity, so to speak. The entire Pines family, including Dipper, Mabel and Ford, are all Jewish, and they have a wide breadth of traits and loveable qualities and flaws. If all of these characters had harmful stereotypes associated with their traits, or if the only depiction of a character from a given group is a stereotype, that is what usually sets off red flags for me. This does NOT mean that stereotypical depictions are immune to criticism, because they absolutely are not, but I do think criticism can be murky on a case-to-case basis, especially when those traits are written by a writer of that background.

That being said, I have seen it said by other Jewish fandom members that Stan Pines can be seen as a deconstruction of the stereotypical tropes you mention and I’ve always found that very interesting. What at first appears to be greed/money-obsession can actually be seen as a manifestation of his means of survival (leftover from when he was homeless as a teen), the trauma of being told as a young person that he would not be accepted without money, and also that he was working to pay off his brother’s mortgage while working to save him from the portal.

I hope this was helpful and that my answer here made sense.

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gayalienwilde · 6 months

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For this last day of celebration of Velvet Goldmine's 25th anniversary, I wanted to talk about why Velvet Goldmine is such an important movie to me. Nowadays shows and movies have gotten much better with their representation of marginalized groups, it's not always perfect, but it's definitely better than even just a decade ago. Growing up and seeing queer characters in mainstream media that, unless created to be a punchline or demonized, were sterilized and surrounded by a cast of cishet people with no connection to other queer people (maybe a partner but that's it), can give the wrong ideas to queer kids. Making it seem like queer people aren't a community but just a couple of random individuals in an otherwise heterosexual world, it's not only unrealistic but it creates a sense of isolation, forever the ugly duckling that never meets other swans. The lack of good representation is harmful to queer kids that might feel like they're never gonna find other people like them, this is the reason that token representation in media is not enough, it means nothing when a character's whole purpose is to show that queer people exist as a monolithic mass of sassy side-characters. For this reason, media about queer people made by queer people is extremely important because it shows different queer realities. In Velvet Goldmine's case, not only is the movie itself representation, but the story it tells is also about representation as seen from a young queer fan's perspective and how it affects him.

Seeing Brian and Curt be openly queer gives Arthur much more confidence in his own identity, this is shown when he imagines himself coming out to his parents through Brian's interview and when he goes out dressed like he wants and searches for the other glam kids. Even if both times he stops himself, in the first case because of his parents judgemental stares directed at Brian, and in the second case he's probably intimidated by the other kids that have been comfortable in their identities for much longer than him (which is kind of taken from Todd Haynes' own experience, in this interview he says that the older glitter girls were intimidating to him in middle school). This serves to show how representation can help the people that can't immediately be out and proud, because even if Arthur can't come out or make other queer friends he can find solace in Brian and Curt's music and general media presence, which is not only openly queer but sexual too. Later in the movie we will also see Arthur finally being able to be his true self and find his community in London, so it's not a surprise then seeing Arthur become a journalist when it was the interviews, magazines and newspapers that he'd read in his youth that helped him gain confidence in himself.

But for the viewer Arthur is he himself representation, his struggles and journey a mirror of the experiences of many young queer fans. For me personally the scene where Arthur tells his parents that he's going out and then sneakily takes off his jacket and goes out dressed like he wanted to be has always been the most relatable, him being happy walking in the crowd with his head held high reminds me of my first pride, even if I was too scared to approach anyone simply being surrounded by queer people and being able to be myself put me at ease, and later trying not to cry on the train back home while I took off anything that had rainbows on it and lying to my parents about where I had been, it's probably one of the biggest reasons I am so attached to Velvet Goldmine, I saw myself in it in a way I'd never seen in any other media before. Even 25 years after it's creation Velvet Goldmine's representation is still better than that of some recent media, because it doesn't shy away from showing the sad, the sexual and, most importantly, the happy parts of queer life. In the end, seeing Arthur go through a lot of different difficult situations both in his youth and in his adulthood and still manage to push through it all and find some connections with other queer people, first in London and then in the 80s when he's reunited with Curt, that gives me hope that no matter what we're all going through, we will keep making it, and most importantly it's a reminder that, to quote a Bowie song, you're not alone.

#velvet goldmine #VelvetGoldmine25th #25YearsOfVelvetGoldmine #happy bday Velvet Goldmine <3 #pointed epigram #movie analysis

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olderthannetfic · 2 years

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Now I'm at the point where I think if someone in the queer community is trying to tell women, femmes, afab people/whoever to stop enjoying BL, they also need to be consistent and tell all queer men to stop doing drag because they both engage with gender in the same way.

Everything those folks tell afab people [they're 1) capitalizing on male queerness without any of the struggles that come along with it or 2) depicting x identity without authenticity or 3) it's not #ownvoices/representation or 4) it's using stereotypes of x group that have historically harmed them] also apply to queer men who do drag in terms of them exploiting women for entertainment. Women are a marginalized group in society; that's a fact. A cis queer man will never truly understand what it's like to be a woman. A cis drag queen will likely never have to know what it's like to be constantly told from infancy your body and sexuality just exist for men. Your interests in fashion or makeup or academics are just for men. [By this logic, a cis woman could reasonably find an issue with a cis man then taking this aspect of personal and societal struggle and bastardizing it for entertainment/humor when women every day are killed, harassed, and attacked for not performing femininity for men.] Cis drag queens also use stereotypes of femininity as punchlines or jokes in this escapism when the ones who have to deal with the fallout in society are women. Drag queens are no more "representation" for women than BL characters are for queer men. No one goes to a drag show if that's what they want, and drag queens shouldn't be expected to do that, just like afab BL creators shouldn't be forced to conform to what anyone thinks is "good representation" for queer men. No queer man has been hurt by BL, just like no cis woman has been hurt by drag. Let's be consistent.

Now, is it also true that there are a lot of nonbinary and trans women who do drag as a way to express their gender? Yes. Are they likely the majority of drag queens? No. So, how would we decide who can appropriate aspects of the female experience? We can't. The same goes for afab BL fans and creators. Yeah, lots are trans or nonbinary, but it's ridiculous to expect everyone to out themselves or write a biographical manifesto to justify their tastes in entertainment. Are there drag queens who are misogynistic? Yes, the most famous example is RuPaul. Does this apply to all? No. Just like BL fans and homophobia.

However, everyone knows that talk of getting rid of drag queens is a common talking point of conservatives. This talk around afab BL fans should be considered in the same way.

Huzzah!

I've pointed this out many times. Hell, I've seen a blog post from a BL type author who is leery of women writing BL that pointed out the same thing and came to a similar conclusion.

One of the more interesting commentaries on the cis gay male culture aspects of all this was in David Halperin's How to be Gay. Either I'm misremembering, or the kindle price has dropped from academic book horror levels to something more acceptable, at least to my US eye. ($14.16 currently) I highly recommend it.

He uses the word 'appropriation' to talk about what drag queens do, though he doesn't mean it in a "and that is obviously universally bad" way. He explicitly addresses the fact that some women will find drag misogynist, and that's okay. It's okay that they feel this way. It's okay that a subculture makes art for a particular audience that may be offputting or disturbing to other audiences.

The book is about a lot more than just drag. It goes into all of that cis gay male culture like loving The Golden Girls and venerating tragic women of classic Hollywood. I have sometimes, as a woman, felt almost like I was tresspassing on gay men's territory to love Joan Crawford and her ilk. Which, if you think about it, is fucking nuts.

Halperin doesn't talk about BL at all, at least not in that book, but his observations are like a mirror of fandom and inform a lot of how I look at #ownvoices.

The book is based on a class he taught with that same joke title. The point was that he did not find the performance of normative US cis gay male culture ("What a dump!", Golden Girls love, etc.) to be at all natural. He had to learn it. All his friends laughed about how he was the last guy to teach anyone "how to be gay".

Anyway, as he taught the class, he noticed something that shocked him: students were connecting with The Golden Girls and campy, queer-coded old Broadway plays much more than with the direct, literal representation, even when that representation was on Broadway in a similar tone and type of media.

The book is his exploration of why. To boil it down: gay men were seeking things that felt true internally, not externally. They were often identifying with situations and dynamics or with all of the characters. They didn't necessarily want to be told "Here's your self insert! Now relate!" It's full of the same kind of talk of critical distance that oldschool slash meta engages in.

I actually have a whole long meta piece about this: What I Want is To(o) Direct.

I got the idea after reading Halperin and bounced up to Francesca Coppa at a con to blather about it. She was like "Oh, I just wrote a book chapter on that." That chapter is: Slash/Drag: Appropriation and Visibility in the Age of Hamilton. You can find it in A Companion to Media Fandom and Fan Studies.

Drag is great, but I hate the misogynist attitude that men can borrow from women to express their oppression or their interior worlds metaphorically, but women cannot borrow from men for the same purpose.

The inevitable transphobia that comes with strict policing of either is just the cherry on an already towering shit sundae.

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antianakin · 4 days

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I was watching a scene from X-Men ‘97 the other day which reminds me of how the Jedi are treated in-universe and out-of-universe is eerily similar to how Mutants are treated in the Marvel Universe: feared and hated by an ungrateful population of civilians who don’t understand them or their way of life.

There definitely seem to be some similarities, and while I am not by any means an expert on the x-men, I feel like the purpose of this scapegoating is slightly different in the two narratives.

In Star Wars, the Jedi being destroyed and weakened is a comment on how society slowly letting themselves be consumed by greed and fear can overwhelm even the best of intentions until all that's left is darkness and hatred and pain. The Jedi represent the best of what people have to offer the world, but anyone's kindness can be overwhelmed if they aren't mindful enough. The Jedi get scapegoated as a representation of how people are more inclined to lie to themselves than face their own truths and how that can spread to cause pain and suffering beyond yourself.

To my understanding, the X-men represent marginalized groups in society who constantly have to fight for their right just to survive. The X-men get scapegoated because that's how marginalized people are treated in real life. They're not the best society has to offer necessarily, they're just different. They're normal people, with flaws and feelings like anybody else, and they want the freedom to be able to behave like anyone else without being ostracized for something a regular person wouldn't even get noticed for doing.

There's overlap in the theme of fear of the unknown leading to selfishness and hatred and how people will excuse evil deeds done to other people if they can convince themselves it was done "for the greater good." Star Wars I think wants you to look at yourself first, recognize your own fears and biases, while X-men seems to focus more on making a statement about society at large.

#star wars #jedi #pro jedi

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theneighborhoodwatch · 8 months

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personally we need more evil and morally grey autistics. i am sick of the notion that autistics are inherently pure or need to be inherently pure and good in order to be good representation.

people do that with representation marginalized groups in general, too. good representation means that they break out of stereotypes and portray the experience accurately, not that the character themself is morally perfect.

(context)

good representation means that they break out of stereotypes and portray the experience accurately, not that the character themself is morally perfect.

i could see why people would be wary if this were, say, a more corporate production headed by someone whose knowledge of living with autism/neurodivergence/disability/mental illness/etc. amounts to "i volunteered for autism speaks one summer when i was in high school" at most, and if wally was the only autistic character on top of that, but that is so far from what we're dealing with that i'm tempted to say that it isn't even worth bringing up as a hypothetical. in general, i also kind of dislike looking at this aspect of welcome home solely through the lens of Representation, as though it has an obligation to reflect Everyone's lived experiences, when the creator has quite plainly stated that it's him drawing on his own experiences more than anything else. it's kinda like how "bury your gays" as a criticism holds less weight when you apply it to, say, a lesbian writing a webnovel about dead lesbians - because then it's not someone enforcing a status quo that is inherently hostile towards queer people, it's just a queer person writing about a more tragic aspect of their own life. the story can still be criticized in other ways, of course, but that's besides the point.

and like, i don't even think wally's straight up evil - i've said as much many, Many times throughout my speculation posts on this blog. i resent the idea of a purely villainous wally just as much as i do the idea that he could never make a morally questionable decision. but nice, well-meaning people can fuck up their loved ones And themselves in some absolutely horrific ways, especially if they're convinced that it's in service of some greater good or if it's specifically for those loved ones' sakes, especially if they themselves are in a desperate situation, and i wouldn't be surprised if wally ends up being a prime example of that.

OKAY FINAL EDIT I PROMISE: i also want to point out that i specifically quoted the second half of the ask and not the first bc i don't necessarily think it's that we need more ~morally gray~ autistic characters (even though i definitely wouldn't complain if we had more of those) it's just that we need more representations of autistic people as people, like, period.

#ask #sylverscribs #wally darling #welcome home #soapboxing #edited to add onto the first paragraph

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gingerylangylang1979 · 7 months

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The representation debate.. yes, this is all over the place.

I don't even know if I'm the most intelligent person to start this discussion nor do I have answers. What I do know is there is a debate brewing surrounding Bottoms and queer representation that got me thinking about representation in entertainment in general. I'm not queer but I am a black woman, so that is my frame of reference. I will also preface by saying I haven't seen the film.

Apparently some people are mad that Rachel isn't a lesbian or Jewish but has played multiple characters with those identities. In a plot twist, Emma, a Jewish lesbian cast Rachel in Jewish lesbian roles twice, so she's unbothered. Ayo has played a few queer roles and has been consistently vague about her identity but one could assume from her interviews that she is possibly bi or pansexual. Anyways, it came out that Rachel has/had? a boyfriend and Ayo has/had (maybe they broke up?) a boyfriend and people have been up and arms. Like Ayo's dude/ex-dude? was getting harassed to the point a mutual friend stepped in. I think part of this is people just mad because these women maybe are taken and they can't date them but also mad because they feel the roles should have gone to women who are 100% lesbians. I've read some people mad that they think it's a cop out for the actresses to not be transparent because they are in possibly the biggest lesbian movie for this generation. So I guess the question is what do they owe that community, if anything? Not my community, so I dunno but fascinating to think about what this means culturally.

I get that a community can feel that actors who get roles representing them should be cast with people from that marginalized group being prioritized. It took years for things like black, brown, and yellow face to become taboo, for queer characters to even be a thing, and actors allowed to be out. So it does seem like that work should be graciously granted to people who fit those demographics. Like, all of this is still new and messy in Hollywood so I do feel like some reparations as far as opportunity are due. And Hollywood has failed hard even recently. We've just a few years ago had cases of white actors being greenlit to play Asian characters. And I don't care if the characters were bi-racial, most mixed race Asian people look identifiable as being of Asian ancestry and are viewed as non-white. Like, I don't want to see a white person play a bi-racial black woman. Nope. And don't even get me started on how colorist the industry still is. In 2023 black entertainers still feel the need to bleach their skin, only wear European looking hair, and get nose jobs to get ahead. And the sad thing is, it often works. Even Erykah Badu gave in. So we need more black women who look straight up black to not be sidelined... STILL.

So my next thought is people who would say, but, but POC are playing traditionally white characters. To me it doesn't make a difference if the OG character is white if their specific heritage had nothing to do with the character. And even then, exceptions can be made. British, doesn't have to mean white, for instance, etc., etc. And Hamilton subversively cast POC as American founding fathers.

But anyways, back to Bottoms. Again, I don't have a true dog in this fight except to say I'll just focus on Ayo, because she's a black woman. Honestly, I'm just happy to see her get good roles. I don't care if she is personally queer, if she personally isn't queer as long as she is representing an interesting black woman. I do have stakes in her being into men on The Bear because that's the romance I see brewing regardless of what people think representation wise. Her character could be bi or pan and I would be fine with that but sorry, I can't dismiss what I see as her into Carmy. Not to derail this with my shipper goggles but there is a strong contingent of people deeply invested in seeing Syd be a lesbian and I get it but I think if that's not what is written, it isn't what's written regardless of what representation people want to see.

I dunno, my opinions aren't coherent nor do I think I've figured anything out and am not trying to speak for other communities. I'm just sharing passing thoughts and wanted to get other people's opinions in hopefully a civil discussion.

#ayo edebiri #rachel sennott #emma seligman #bottoms movie 2023 #the bear #sydney adamu #carmy x sydney

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