I have a looooooooong and complicated history with Harry Styles. Like I got into One Direction in late 2012 and he was always in my rotation as a top 2/3 member. I have hated him, I have considered a moment at a concert where he splashed water on me to be one of my favorite concert moments of all times, I have written and read essays on everything wrong and right with him... for a decade now.

And I think his biggest issue is he is loooves to have his cake and eat it too. He loves the benefits of being perceived as X thing without the risk of openly being X thing. Doesn’t matter if he actually is X or just pretending he is, he thrives in the ambiguity which just ultimately makes him be very insincere. And also makes the “real” him that accidentally seeps through seem so much sharper in contrast.

For example, the ambiguity around his sexuality. Real, non-celebrity closeted people cannot toe the line with their sexuality and profit from it. But he exploits the ambiguity, the “will he won’t he” come out thing to hold a captive audience. Gay/bi or not, it feels insincere and shitty. But it also makes unfiltered slip ups like “I’m making REAL gay cinema that matters, unlike that horny shit” feel razor sharp because like... either he’s a straight man sexualizing gay media and harping on harmful stereotypes or he really is a closeted man so disconnected from his community that he can shove us and our art down to stand on our shoulders without feeling bad about it. Two very different forms of shittiness with no real way to figure out which one applies, so either criticism ends up being attacked by whoever believes the opposing narrative.

But this applies to... everything. He wants to be perceived as deep and open but refuses to say anything that would ever actually step on toes, so he says a lot of kind of empty, general statements. He’ll unleash 4 different explanations of one song to avoid revealing personal but then sell the album on being his most personal yet. Treat people with kindness but also won’t reign in his rabid fanbase when they attack other people, including his girlfriends.

He wants the reward, not the risk.

And so his entire persona becomes a very, very thought out way of finding the perfect balance of “What can I say/do to garner attention and a very niche brand without alienating anyone,” which ironically becomes alienating the more it continues and often kind of corners him into saying dumb shit like “I want to be in this movie because it feels like a movie you would see at the movies.” Because anything he could actually say about this liberal feminist, controversial-behind-the-scenes film he’s in might piss people off. Or, ironically, might expose how insincere he is.

But the only alternative in that situation is saying something so stupid and empty... people still get pissed off.

And I just don’t think he’s caught on to the fact that this risk vs reward balance thing he’s doing isn’t working anymore. Especially when it leads to him saying shit like “I just haven’t found a social issue that speaks to me yet” during peak BLM  while slapping on rainbow and BLM stickers onto his tiny guitar that only fans will see.

You just reach a point where it doesn’t actually matter what his truth is. What he cares about. If he actually wants to fuck men or not. It just becomes more and more clear he’d rather use a NARRATIVE around it to manipulate a fanbase than ever reveal anything.

And he isn’t unique as a celebrity in that way but it does become more and more cloying because he’s often juxtaposed as unique or more real for things that ultimately just feel like PR tactics.

And it just feels like the ambiguity is just a shield now. Like you can’t criticize me because you can’t be sure what angle I’m really coming from nad it’s like... really? Well I’ll fucking criticize you anyways.

i know nothing about youtuber whatsoever. every time someone talks about a popular youtuber it feels like theyre conjuring a dude from thin air. hearing about youtuber drama is like seeing everyone spontaneously pull a guy out of their hat and start beating him to death with hammers

when we’re done with our overwhelming grief we’ll eat i guess

Jon he's really trying here cut him a break

(tumblr crunched the resolution of this comic a lot rip)

i cannot stress this enough: if your reasoning for clowning on the mcu is "they overwork their cg artists and animators" i 1000% guarantee that a show or movie you have been stanning for years also abused their artists and you just haven't heard about it because the production companies aren't in the spotlight like mcu productions are. that cartoon for kids? that incredibly animated movie? that non-marvel superhero movie? i've seen people declare their hatred for the way the mcu treats their workers and then turn around and gush about a show that i know for a fact was hell for the artists attached

and no this is NOT me saying "this means you should stop hating on the mcu uwu" it's me saying you gotta be aware that this shit is an INDUSTRY WIDE PROBLEM. you CANNOT "fix" it by refusing to watch mcu movies and feeling good about it. you have to be aware that it's EVERYWHERE. why do you think so many animation and vfx productions are sourced in canada? in india and the phillipines? we are not unionized.

i know it's hard to face the idea that your favourite show might have been made unethically especially when you've spent so much time hating the mcu for doing the same thing. you don't have to start hating your favourite show. just like...be aware. don't be smarmy about it. don't claim without research that a beautifully animated movie Must mean the animators were not working 16 hour days and weekends. i do think we can fix this 👍 but we can't fix it if 90% of us don't even realize what the problem really is

been replaying the Portal series I think this is where its heading

Yes, people do need to take accountability for the partners they choose to date, at least to some extent. And no, this doesn't apply to abusive relationships, that situation is entirely different.

I'm talking about white people who date other white people who are openly racist. I'm talking about "allies" who date other people who are openly homophobic and transphobic. I'm talking about liberal women who date very conservative men. And seeing bigotry as nothing more than a "political issue."

Of course, it's different if your partner lies and actively hides their political views from you. But if your partner is openly voting for people like Trump, openly supporting conservative politicians, openly hating/harming minority groups, then you should leave them. And you should be held accountable if you to choose to stay with someone like that.

TW// Abuse implication

Thinking about possible Vox and Angel's interactions and how they'd go down. Theres such a unique mix of hatred to each other and common ground with their different experiences with Valentino, has me thinking.

Also just want to clarify I love Vox's character a LOT but ofc obv don't sympathise with him or think he is any way shape or form a decent individual, cant with stupid toxic dumbass x

AND IF YOU SEE ANY MISTAKES OR TYPOS NO YOU DONT- (i was so tired when drawing it forgive me TwT)

might delete ,, its been fucking ages since ive touched an art program so . it didnt come out as good and im not proud of how the face turned out so wonky 😭

its a quick messy doodle of a buffed out mark w a longer hairstyle <3 begging the showrunners 2 give him these side bangs .. please !! my baby would look so good w them. u could interpret this as an older ver of him,, tho hes still got that baby face

without the shine .. hehe .. he looks better like this .

shoutout to people who don't have a "before" the trauma.

shoutout to people who don't have any sweet or nostalgic childhood memories. to people who don't remember enough of their childhood to know what the before was like. to people who lost their innocence before they ever learned the word for it. to people whose pasts were too painful to keep around in any form. to people who only knew trauma, and don't have an idea of what life would be like without it. to people who can't long for "the better days" because there weren't any.

you deserve a good future. i hope it's there for you soon.

Please elaborate on your twst Pokémon headcannons I’m very interested

I had planned on drawing everyone for this (I made a LIST!) but it. hasn't been going well. 💀 soooo here's what I have so far!

Riddle - Roserade (I was going with 'no legendaries', otherwise I would've given him a Shaymin) (and I don't think Togedemaru is actually a hedgehog or I would've given him one of those too) (...they kind of do fit though. hmm.)

Trey - Alcremie (clover/mint cream + strawberry/ruby cream)

Cater - DITTO SQUAD! DITTO SQUAD! DITTO SQUAD!

Ace - Impidimp (I feel like there's probably a better one for him, but I can't think of it)

Deuce - Scraggy (meanwhile I KNOW deep in my heart that this is true)

Leona - Pyroar (but like. a nasty Pyroar. just a grizzly old Pyroar with the shittiest attitude imaginable. they pretend to hate each other but secretly they are a bonded pair, do not separate)

It's honestly frustrating that I've seen non-Russian queer people almost bragging about how they would be illegal in Russia, labeled an extremist or terrorist. Russian queers are in danger, their government has made it clear where it stands, and it's made this effort for the better part of a decade (even longer, perhaps). This will kill people, don't mistake this for a quirky little proclamation from a government, akin to somebody saying the sky is pink. Russian queer people were already expressing their fear, and the least we can do now is express our love for them, and advocate with them.

Russian queer people, I love you. I love you all so much. I am so sorry, I cannot begin to express the grief that I feel, and I hope that you are safe. Words cannot encapsulate how I feel as a non-Russian, and I cannot hope to comprehend how it feels to actually be in this situation.

Dungeon Meshi is so great bc it’s creator has an artistic sensibility that can only be described as “I love women the way lesbians do and men the way gay men do”. It’s both fairly chaste and the Most Deeply Homoerotic Thing I’ve Ever Read

Actually I think we should talk about how incredibly fucked up it is for sapphic women to say shit like "I'm no better than a straight man 😔" when attracted to a woman in a way that isn't 100% pure and wholesome, or act like men's attraction to women is inherently dirty, predatory, or objectifying.

soriku week day 3: DATASCAPE.

data sora: "dw bud, I downloaded like a bunch of medical stuff off the internet into my data, I KNOW how to be a doctor now." data riku: "Oh yeah? What did that "medical stuff" say about fixing computer viruses, Dr. Sora?" dr. sora: "...huh."

it’s fascinating how trans women on here are tokenized to signal people’s comraderie with trans (terfs dni in bio/trans women are loved here), while at the same time we’re also harshly ejected from communities and painted as predators for piecemeal grievances that are handwaved away when done by non trans women. you can say all kinds of nasty stuff about someone, and as long as she’s a trans woman, people will believe it! people love the ideal of a trans woman but haven’t worked on their biases enough to do anything but grow to despise actual trans women