TO add to the corset post

Women wore them daily, from a young age, they mould and fit to the body. So sick of tired of the ugly anti-corset propaganda making them sound dangerous, the reason so man specially man complain over corsets was being of the Anti Tight lacing movement (I argue one of the few things Victorian men did right)

Tight lacing was small fashion trend engaged in by middle class women, that resulted in most of the bad things associated with corsets, Faintness, abdominal organ compression, bone malformation, permeant spine damage, reduced breathing, Lung damage, liver damage.

Note you'd never see the local fishwife wearing a tight-laced corset, but an upper class, hat sporting, fancy skirt waring lady.

I could write formal Essay about the blatant "I can't breath" bullshit shoved down everyone's throats about corsets. No that woman from Pirates of the Caribbean, shouldn't have fainted, She'd not have been struggling to breath, in her everyday wear corset she'd have been used to wearing.

Also stop wearing underwear over your clothes and then bitching about not being able to style your wrongly worn underwear.

Right? Like I could really go on about this for ages, and I probably will one day, but for now I’m gonna a small pet peeve of mine when people shit on corsets: that doctors at the time consider them bad so they must’ve been bad!

Now, I’m not gonna deny that there were doctors at the time who were critical of corset, but almost definitely was, but what gets me about this argument is that we, with our wealth of modern day medical knowledge, know that 19th century doctors are far from a reliable source, we recognise that prescribing opium and cocaine for minor ailments is ridiculous and frankly more harmful than not, we recognise this and openly joke about and mock them

until we mention corsets

Because suddenly, these 19th century doctors— who, I’d like to mention, often believed that the womb was floating freely and therefore could fly out of a woman’s body if a train went fast enough, as well as believing that hysteria was an actual thing— are an undeniable source of fact, suddenly these crude drawings of the supposed effect of corset on a woman’s body, drawings like this from 1884 (which, side note, I seriously question the validity of because, and maybe I’m missing something, but how would a 19th century doctor know this?) are reputable sources in the argument as to why corsets are clearly a horrible torture device used to oppress women! 

Like, lets ignore the lack of evidence of women complaining about something as severe as pictured above, lets just blindly believe some 19th century doctors instead because clearly, the women were too oppressed to ever complain about something detrimental to their own health! 

It annoys me 

The term Machine Learning has probably been the hottest term in the field of computer science and Tech industry nowadays. Machine Learning had its impact on almost every industry from the last so many years. Today from the sophisticated equipment which is also used for medical purpose or the video streaming app in the smartphone all uses the principle of machine learning. Machine Learning or ML as it is abbreviated in short is actually a method of achieving Artificial Intelligence or AI in the machine with the help of a computer programme. It is startling to know that, nowadays the businesses which have started with a focus only on machine learning have already become a multibillion-dollar industry. All those predictions about machine learning in the year 2016 & 17 have turned out to be true and IT industry should look out for the new and rocking trends in the year 2018 and so. 1- Edge Computing Machine Learning programmes rely on its own capability to how quickly it can perform a complex set of the data analysis. Moreover, at the time of low-suspended application like in an unmanned aerial vehicle, they tend to fail because of the delay in analyzing the complex data in the cloud. Edge computing which actually mimics public cloud by supplying consistent services and endpoints which could also be used by the applications seems to arise as a solution in the above-mentioned cases where Machine Learning tends to fail. 2- Personalized tech experience will emerge Chatbots, which have already become a business force to reckon nowadays with, 2018 will be the year to watch out when technologies of machine learning which have become convenient and applicable for the end users as well. We should also see a boom in “Personal Virtual Assistant” application in many of the webs applications and apps. We all really know that these applications will have the ability to link a usage data saved across various databases of a user’s application. It will then identify patterns to create a much-personalized user experience. 3- ML decision making will be more transparent Machine Learning algorithms as of now are also increasingly impacting our everyday lives especially in the field of engineering, media, law, and healthcare. We are becoming more and more dependent on the verdicts were given by the models and algorithms of the machine-learned. Although this has become the reality of our lives, it is still difficult for most of us to understand how it works actually in the real world. There is an obvious need to increase machine learning algorithms in a much more comprehensible way for a human. Let’s hope that 2018 will be the when this is going to happen. Must: MakeMyTrip Rolls Out In-Destination Activity Suggestions 4- A race to produce the affordable cloud-based AI Artificial Intelligence powered by AI is already influencing our lives daily, it is still not an affordable technology for all businesses. Development of cloud-based AI could change just that. It could also enable small businesses to use the power of Artificial Intelligence. In fact, this could be the most sparkling trend of Machine Learning in the year 2018. 5- There will be a shift towards meta-learning Machine learning algorithms depend heavily on their extensive data and learning data which has been gathered from real-life exposure to enhance their logic. Meta-learning or in specific term Few-shot learning is nowadays much more focusing on enhancing machine learning algorithms in a way so that it can learn from a manageably smaller number of examples. This area is extremely interesting and people will keep a keen eye on its research and development. More: ‘Orange Is the New Black’ is Going to Ending After 7 Season

Walk The Walk with Trendy Women's Slippers in 2023

Just like any other year, 2023 has also been a big year for women’s fashion with many emerging fashion trends and launches. This includes the countless Barbie and Oppenheimer-inspired outfits in the shades of vibrant pink and the darkest shades of black, as well as many new fashion collections and launches that took place throughout the year.

It’s safe to say that it has been another successful year for women’s fashion, but it’s important to keep in mind the thing that’s always held it all together – stylish and comfortable footwear! We’ve all known that a perfect outfit is one that’s well-put together from head to toe, and hence, choosing the right footwear to go along with your outfit is crucial for a complete look.

One such footwear that is a must-have in your wardrobe are slippers – one of the most versatile, fashionable, and comfortable women’s footwear options that are available today. In this blog, we’ll look at how you can buy women’s slippers online in India for the maximum comfort and style that the wide collection of slippers can provide.

The Best Place to Buy Women’s Slippers Online in India

When it comes to women’s footwear options, there’s an endless list of options that are available. However, slippers remain the most popular choice amongst women for almost every occasion and outfit. This is because of the versatile and comfortable nature of women’s slippers. To make sure that you’re able to find the right fit for you, while maintaining the highest quality, comfort, and fashion standards – shopping for women’s slippers online is the best idea.

Without further ado, let’s look at the various ways in which women’s slippers can contribute to adding style, comfort, and convenience to your daily life.

Embrace Comfort with Home Slippers

As the times have evolved, so has fashion, and today there’s no compromise on comfort when it comes to women’s slippers. Moreover, what’s even better is the fact that comfort and style are easily blended today in a wide variety of footwear options, with women’s slippers being at the forefront thanks to their versatile nature.

Home slippers for ladies are one such option that provides the utmost comfort with their ergonomic design and comfort-inducing cushioning, making them the perfect fit for everyday wear at home. Moreover, you don’t have to compromise on fashion even at home! These home slippers come in a wide variety of amazing colours, textures, designs, and sizes.

Enjoy Versatility with Women’s Slippers for Various Occasions

Once you’ve maximized comfort at home with home slippers, it’s time to consider options for when you’re stepping out. Whether it’s a walk in the park, a day at the office, or a party – you can bet that there’s a pair of women’s slippers that’s going to be the perfect fit for it.

That’s right, these versatile footwear options have become so popular and convenient that today, you find a pair of women’s slippers to wear for almost any occasion – no matter how casual, formal, or fancy it might be.

Maximize your Fashion with Stylish Women’s Slippers

As mentioned, the versatile and comfortable nature of women’s slippers does not have to be boring! You can always find something that goes above and beyond your expectations and imagination with the wide collection of women’s slippers that are available online.

So, whenever you’re looking to add a new slipper to your collection, you can easily turn to the wide collection of slippers online and add a new pair of simplistic, casual, formal, fancy, ethnic or extraordinary slippers to your wardrobe!

Moreover, all these amazing qualities are enhanced by the quick and convinient nature of online shopping – with just a few clicks, you can order and receive your favourite pair of slippers and enjoy their fashion and comfort.

Buy Women’s Slippers Online in India for Maximum Comfort and Style!

With this wide collection of women’s slippers available online, and the countless benefits that it brings, it’s extremely easy to add fashion, comfort and quality to your footwear collection today. Take all your outfits to the next level and fulfil all your women’s footwear and slipper needs today by visiting the perfect destination for women’s slippers, Mavshack India!

Guidelines to Buy Laptops Via the internet

HP ZBook Studio

Laptops are the most in-demand gadgets these days and you will probably come across laptops by using almost everyone. A notebook is the most convenient machine for both enjoyment and work. This technology in mobile computing devices is changing day-to-day. With emerging fashion the technology much too has to keep tempo with the changing requirements.

HP ZBook Studio

The IT business is progressing speedily and so is the concept. We cannot can without a laptop at present. Be it a faculty or school individual, a school or simply college teacher as well as a professional everyone requires a laptop. They discover laptop convenient, relocating since life at this moment has become fast paced. It's actually a ideal means for meeting new people, recreation, entertainment, employment search, teaching in addition to learning giving giving presentations, keeping updated while using stock market etc . Mobile computing devices have become an integral part of much of our everyday lives. Quicker laptops were too expensive and only a choose lot could manage to pay for to buy it right now it has become very reasonably priced. Laptops are now tailor-made for personal opportunities. There is a laptop to adjust to everyone's taste regardless if different. Lot of organisations have started developing laptops and have tons to offer to the purchasers. However it is important to achieve the best deal along with where to get the best is often a million dollar query. You can buy a mobile computer online or immediately from the market.

Obtaining online is a more desirable choice since you can offer lots of options you could choose. Getting a laptop which can be upgradeable is the perfect choice so that you can keep on being abreast with the most advanced technology with changing intervals. There are a few points to get borne in mind despite the fact that choosing a laptop.

Your points mentioned less than and the ones that are mentioned above are tips to choose your best price. However buying a computer online is quite a good tricky business in addition to one cannot be thoroughly sure of what is to be had so you have to be incredibly deliberate is getting the decision. It is essential that a proper marketplace survey be done making sure that you do not end up being scammed.

One must go on a careful look at the criteria, configuration, type, type and the latest promote trends before looking for the laptop.

A monitor size is actually another criteria that can be considered. Besides the price of the laptop in case you buy it via the internet there are other will cost you like taxes together sales and cost, shipping etc . Organisations are now offering much better deals to trainees and professionals generally if the laptops are purchased inside bulk.

Always select a laptop which is created by a trusted brand. Really do not go in for companies one hasn't aware of. The most important part is normally reading the finer points carefully before generating the payment. At all times choose a laptop of which serves all your necessities and comes with a warranties period. A service contract period of one year can be extended by a large number of laptop houses. Always make sure the laptop comes with a bill with which has your name being the buyer to avoid rip-off in future.

Plastic, the loathing and the recycling thereof

Introduction In recent years people are more and more into detesting plastic and moving away from it and this (in a big part) is due to the harmful effects plastic has on the environment. This abhorrent feeling is aimed at all kinds of plastic like bottles, food containers, Styrofoam, straws etc. The harm plastic cause is done to landfills, ultimately harming the environment by releasing toxins into the soil. Let’s look further at all this plastic and the hatred aimed towards it The good People have wizened-up to the fact that plastic is bad for the environment. This is due to the fact that plastic is not really bio-degradable which means that most pieces of plastic from the mid to late 1900’s are still around today! Unlike some other materials turning into compost and ultimately completing the ecological cycle, plastic doesn’t exactly do this and that’s in addition to taking up huge amounts of space! Burning plastic is not a good idea as it releases toxic gases, which in turn destroys the ozone layer and as a result we are more exposed to the harmful effects of the sun’s rays. This means more people developing all sorts of skin cancer raising the mortality rates across the world. So reducing and ultimately replacing plastic is definitely a move in the right direction, but let’s look at this a little deeper. The bad Plastic is in more things than we realise! Let’s break this down into more understandable terms. Firstly, poly forms part of the plastic molecular structure from which plastic is derived. What I mean by “plastic molecular structure” is that poly is short for polymer. From this polymer molecule it gets changed to form different types of plastic. (Please bear in mind this is a very simple, almost dumbed down explanation) This means polyurethane, polyethylene, polyvinyl, poly are all forms of different types of plastic. So the paint that you use: if it shows poly as one of the ingredients on the container it has a derivative of plastic. PVA wood glue is polyvinyl acetate — that’s right Poly! So there’s a derivative of plastic from the poly molecular structure. Those are just two examples of the not so obvious plastic content found in products. Keep in mind though that this expands to other products we use as well which might not be that obvious to be related to plastic. This excludes examples of obvious plastic products we use and are familiar with. For instance, the plastic water pipes used around houses to direct rain water away and potable water into the house are (most of the time) plastic! The containers we are left with after eating that healthy yogurt or drinking that anti-oxidant smoothie is (most likely) plastic or has some plastic element to it. Not to mention the straw you used to get the delicious tasting smoothie into your mouth. Now let’s look at the flip-side of this same coin! Realistically speaking plastic is in almost everything we use and see around us today! But is suddenly banning all things plastic really the way forward? Is getting rid of plastic all at once really a viable option, not to mention sustainable? If plastic is suddenly banned from everyday life and replaced with alternatives, will these alternatives be any better? For instance, way back it was discovered that CFC gas in fridges destroys the ozone layer when released. This was, consequently, replaced with alternatives called HFC and HCFC gases in order to reduce this damage from CFC gas. Great! All’s well that ends well –right? Hmmmm not exactly if you read these….. HFC refrigerants and climate change & HCFC and climate change So the question (if plastic is suddenly banned) is: How much time was put into research of the replacement product to ensure we don’t perpetuate the situation or (God forbid) start a new trend that is equal or more harmful to the environment? The second point of just outright banning plastic is that we are looking at a huge amount of money in everyday circulation which will suddenly be wiped out! It is estimated that the plastic industry is in the region of 1.1 trillion dollars in 2016 and is reported to grow in the years to come! “Yeah? And? So what?” You might be thinking. “It’s only money!” Good points, but let’s put that into perspective! If we suddenly ban all things plastic that means factories producing chemicals to make plastic will shut their doors. Manufacturers of plastic products will shut theirs and shops selling these plastic products will shut theirs (or hugely reduce their variation of products on sale) and so on and so on. That might not sound so bad, but it is. All these places suddenly shutting their doors will mean that there will be huge amounts of people out of work and as we already know that if you have no work you have no money. With no money in your pocket you will not be able to eat nor will you be able to feed any dependents. This equates to famine of Biblical proportions! That’s not even considering the trillions of dollars suddenly cut out of the world economy and the effects that will have on things like the housing market, the car industry, the farmers who produce crops for people to eat — to name but a few. Then we need to keep other products in mind! Composition C — is an explosive. More accurately, this is a family of related US-specified plastic explosives! That’s right- PLASTIC explosives. So suddenly not being able to have the construction industry blow holes into mountains for trains, cars & buses to travel, we’re left with flying & hiking only as it could be fatal to try and build a road along the sides of the mountains. Not to mention how long this process will take compared to using explosives. Next up on the list is rubber-based products. Car tyres, rubber sole shoes are only 2 products. The list of rubber products goes on, but you get the idea. The ugly Now that we have covered the hate and the financial impacts of trying to rid the world from plastic, let’s look at this in today’s day and age and what is happening. Let’s focus on recycling. Unfortunately not all is well in the land of recycling and as a result we seem to be fighting a losing battle!  Exposed: How Amazon destroys millions of new items it can’t sell with everything from TVs to kitchen equipment, books and nappies dumped in landfill sites Now before you redirect your hate towards Amazon, please keep reading…. There are companies who have been “caught” for not living up to their agreements. These are companies who are “claiming” to be helping in that they recycle waste, but it turned out not all of them live up to that motto: We asked 3 companies to recycle Canadian plastic and secretly tracked it. Fortunately, this is not exactly true for all of these companies named in the above linked article, but it’s still bad enough. Of course, it is easy to say these companies need to step up to the table by doing more, but is it really that simple? So, part of combating pollution and in trying to do their bit for nature, some grocery shops have started banning single use plastic bags. This resulted in a new phenomenon: Bag ban has unwanted result & Countdown shopping baskets ‘gone for a walk’ as people take them home. This shows that it’s not a simple, clear-cut one size fits all solution when it comes to banning plastic! In NZ there is an organisation called ACC. ACC is an abbreviation for Accident Compensation Corporation and (in short) they provide cover for injuries sustained. However it’s been discovered that they have some answers to provide based on their fossil fuel investments: questioned over billion-dollar fossil fuel investments As most people know, plastic is interlinked with fossil fuels (over 99%) in that fossil fuels are used to produce the very plastic we use which, in turn, results in the very same pollution crises we are facing. Now we need to look at the companies behind plastic manufacturers: How Fossil Fuel Companies Are Killing Plastic Recycling They are most certainly not helping much with what we are trying do, however (as said earlier) it’s not that simple to just tell them to stop producing fossil fuel for plastic manufacturing! Even if they do stop producing fossil fuel for plastic manufacturing, most of the existing plastic taking up space in landfills works out to cost a significant amount to be trucked from one landfill to another: 100 tonnes of recycling trucked out of district Even though people might question the trucking of this plastic waste between landfills, it is a big eye opener to look at the shipping cost involved in conveying plastic. All the above does not even include the electronics industry and the waste they produce when creating new electronic devices! And now for the first time, recycled plastic has become more expensive It’s easy to start lashing out at these companies to do better, however another thing to keep in mind is the ethics behind it all. This is not just recycling, but also creating new products to help make the planet a better place! The ethics of electric vehicle batteries All this is just one side of the equation. Then we haven’t even covered fridge gases released when recycling old fridges and not to mention building waste! Let alone the latest craze of “fast fashion” filling up landfills or enforcing greenhouse gas emission bills on the farming industry: Farmers’ greenhouse gas emissions bill will lead to higher food prices Technically these do not constitute towards plastic pollution, but it still exacerbates the problems we are facing. And more countries are refusing to accept plastic: China stopped accepting plastic & Indonesia vows to send back contaminated plastic waste to New Zealand Granted some readers might think that with China, one might convince them to accept the plastic, but it looks like this time around China is at least stepping up to the plate by sticking to their ban On top of all these mentioned issues, there’s yet another challenge — Recyclers face ‘mountains’ of abandoned bikes Even though it could be said that this is not so bad as most of the bike parts can be recycled, the problems are 1) the space these bicycles take up while waiting to be recycled. 2) the potential hazards it causes to nature while waiting to be stripped and recycled. 3) the consideration of how much new waste is created (like the paint stripped off the frames etc.)? Also keep in mind that there could be parts that might not be recyclable which begs the question: What will happen to these parts? I guess it’s safe to say that these bicycle recycling efforts should be commended, although there is also another glimmer of hope: McDonald’s to recycle used cups and turn them into cup holders. This is some good news, although this makes reference to McDonalds only and not other fast-food places. As also stated in the article, this is only a trial for now. Great idea and good on them for trying, as doing a little is better than doing nothing at all in our fight against plastic & pollution, but for how long will this last and what is the long term plan? In addition to McDonald’s efforts, Ireland has also stepped up to the plate with the first reverse vending machine that allows people to recycle plastic bottles in return for 10c vouchers This article raises a few questions though! Who pays for the 10c that people get back? This has to be levied somewhere which means that once again the people are paying extra for this. Then we need to look at how many bottles make it to the vending machine compared to how many bottles are thrown away? What ultimately happens to the vending machine bottles? At some point these bottles have to reach end of life from all the recycling (like everything else in this world) and this makes me wonder if there is a proper process in place to get rid of the old unusable plastic? I mean get rid of the old unusable plastic in an environmentally friendly manner. These questions are only asked around the plastic bottles. We also need to ask questions around the vending machines. For instance, how much waste is created when producing these machines and (more importantly) when the vending machine reaches end of life, how much of the parts are recyclable? And those parts that are not recyclable, how much damage do they cause to the environment? Last but most certainly not least, we have a knight in shining armour: 4Ocean These guys are doing tremendous work whereby they remove plastic waste (most of it from oceans)! It is definitely worth visiting their website and giving them huge amounts of support. They have removed tonnes of plastic waste from our beautiful oceans. This is not just cleaning up the oceans so we can enjoy swimming and surfing, but it in turn also helps the creatures who have to live in these polluted oceans. So many of these creatures are dying from getting plastic stuck in their mouths or stomachs which means that these situations takes us closer to watching more species becoming extinct! In conclusion From the looks of it, not only has the human race dug itself into a deep, “plastic” hole, it has done so in a catch-22 way. What do I mean by that? As I said above: to suddenly ban all things plastic will not be such a great idea due to the greater effects it will have on different industries and markets. To continue like we’ve done is not an option either! We will just hasten the harmful effects of plastic on the environment ultimately destroying our beautiful planet and in turn destroy ourselves! That’s the catch 22 part. The hole we’re in is that we’ve gone in this devastating direction for so long that to suddenly replace plastic with something similar yet more bio-degradable will require a significant amount of research and development to ensure we are 1) not creating a product more harmful to the planet 2) not taking too long with this R&D that by the time we have something going it is too late One suggestion to help save the planet is to cut ourselves off from all the things this world has to offer, in other words have a more vicarious existence. Now that might be a suggestion albeit not a good one, because this is going completely against the nature of humans. The point is that if there is a river, humans would want to cross it, if there is a mountain, humans would want to climb it i.e. conquer & overcome challenges. Another suggestion is investing millions into reducing plastic waste Who will ultimately fund this, I have no idea! So with all the above in mind I guess the lesson is to re-program our mindsets to be more aware of what we use and where/how we can re-use something to stop it from going to the landfill. In doing so, we can prolong the life of these items and keep them out of landfills for a longer period. Of course this is not a solution nor is it a long term solution, but at least this can be used as a first step towards becoming more aware of our usage, waste & our environment. Just to quickly clarify my point: Instead of chucking that plastic bottle or lolly wrapper out the car window just so you can feel good about driving in a clean car, think twice and try to hang on to that plastic waste until you can put it into a recycling bin if you’re not able to re-use it somewhere else. Throwing it out the window, you’re just soothing your mind by shifting your responsibility onto someone else. That someone else is not necessarily a local council’s cleaner who can pick that plastic up before it gets blown away by the wind and ends up in a stream or some open land. In short — think before you pollute! Read the full article

Trend And How That Has Influenced The particular Society

The world is now too very much conscious about vogue. Virtually every day a new new trend tends to make headlines and people soon start following it. There is very much influence of typically the western culture almost all over the planet from hairdressing to styling their foot. Another thing that offers grown could be the make use of of technology using fashion. Fashion Online Shop provides a larger palm in influencing the fashion. This is mainly because whatever one gowns up they get a photo of it and post them on their personal social media information. People that like them would surely emulate the look when these people get ready. Fashion has not just influenced the common people however it features inspired any office goers too. They also try out to maintain a popular look though in their formal wears. Yet , there are a couple of sorts of people within the society. 1 group would be the fans like we include mentioned earlier plus the other group would be the ones who possess little to carry out with fashion. That they follow their individual style and include a different deviation to the continuing fashion trends. Even that will sometimes becomes the trend which other folks intend to follow. What fashion genuinely means? Fashion is not related to hair or makeup. Neither it is usually about the cosmetics. This is the appearance the charm that certain adds to their or her character by wearing anything they like. Most that matters is the fact how one clubs up the accessories plus the footwear along with their dress. It does not possess to be the most costly clothes and equipment. A casual one particular can work amazing things if accessorized in the right method. What are the trends? Fashion styles keep changing every single season. They have also undergone an enormous transform from the earlier times. Earlier the particular English women applied to wear long gowns and lavish dresses with the hat on. At this point the trend has altered to jeans and even tops. Fashion utilized to be part of an actor's lifestyle but that features now become some sort of part of typically the everyday life. Fashion provides become a large source of making money. Most of the youth adults are making cash by becoming vogue experts and offering people advice. They can be making channels found in YouTube and web hosting shows on the particular television. If a person want to end up being a style diva you can stick to their tips plus dress up accordingly. Quickly people will commence acknowledging your impression of style and definitely will take advice from you for styling.

Saturday Morning Coffee

Om: ”Okay, I didn’t mean to be so dramatic. Or use a clickbait headline, but in reality, what used to be Instagram is now dead.”

It sounds like a lot of folks are really disappointed with Instagram today. But what should you expect from Facebook? All of their products are built to leverage you, the user, as a revenue generation machine. They inject ads into your stream hoping for that click, they bombard you with people they think you should follow, and they chase every new trendy application related to images or video.

Instagram has turned into the worlds biggest A/B test. A playground for trends.

I still have my account but I stopped posting to it. I started posting my pictures to my blog. I mean, why not? It’s public, I don’t need to worry about Instagram bugging me to follow others, and there are no ads.

Bottom line, own your content.

Alberto Betella: ”One of the reasons why Anchor, and later Spotify, flourished in the podcasting industry is the open nature of podcasts. RSS was key to the success of podcasting because it addressed a potentially complex challenge with a very simple solution. RSS empowered the podcasting industry so everyone could focus on what really mattered: creating great content and building the best user experience.”

All the more reason places like Spotify shouldn’t call their short form audio stuff podcasting. As far as I know you can only get their premium audio through their app. Part of the joy of open formats is being able to use any application you’d like to discover and play your favorite podcasts.

I reminded myself of Bloom this morning. Such a great iOS app. It comes from a time when the platform was new and was full of promise and potential. Sadly, looking back now, it’s clear that Apple has completely botched its longterm stewardship of iOS as a developer platform. https://t.co/wJV0NlXDLy

— Ken Kocienda (@kocienda) July 17, 2022

This is telling coming from one of the engineers on the original iOS development team. Heck, the man is responsible for the iOS keyboard I’m using to type this post.

Perhaps someday Apple will make sweeping changes to the App Store to cull out all the scammy apps and help real, bonafide, app developers flourish. You know, the indies, the folks that put so much care into the apps you love and use everyday.

htmx: _”REST must be the most broadly misused technical term in computer programming history.”_

This was an eye opening read. I always understood websites and HTML as the prime example of REST. What I didn’t understand is to be truly REST means the format has to be self describing. Most developers receive data from an API in the form of JSON which are usually not self describing. Applications have built in knowledge of the thing they expect to receive and have code that understands how to use and display the data.

But it doesn’t matter to me if everything I’ve built isn’t REST. It’s completely reasonable and pragmatic to have services that return data specific to their intended use and have apps purpose built to display and interact with that data.

If we went around writing self describing JSON from every service we use we’re just building another form of web browser and we already have those.

Pragmatism wins.

MYTH: We don't have a solution to nuclear's "waste problem" REALITY: Nuclear waste isn't a problem. In fact, it’s the best solution we have to meeting our energy needs while protecting the natural environment! Here's what you need to know:

— Madi Hilly (@MadiHilly) July 21, 2022

This is a really neat thread about how nuclear fuel is stored.

Hawaii Reporter: ”Spam is considered solely lower class food in almost every other state. Ask any Hawai‘i local if they like spam, and he will either 1) give you stink eye and assume you’re a tourist for asking the question, or 2) at some point in his answer mention how good the 7-11 spam musubis or Zip-pac are.”

One could say we didn’t exactly have a lot of money when I was kid. We had a lot of ground beef and Spam, and I honestly still love the stuff to this day. You can put it in or on anything and it works. I like it with eggs, in breakfast burritos, on a sandwich, and prepared as Spam musubi at my favorite Hawaiian food joint.

The stuff is delicious, I’m moving to Hawaii. 🤤

CNN: ”California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bill into law that allows private citizens to bring civil action against anyone who manufactures, distributes, transports or imports assault weapons or ghost guns, which are banned in the state.”

I guess if Texas can make terribly cruel laws around Womens health care California can do something similar (although not cruel) to help quell the gun violence we have in our nation.

Not to mention being a safe heaven for womens reproductive rights.

Governor Newsom for President. 🇺🇸

A Brief History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore 🧵

— Paul Fairie (@paulisci) July 19, 2022

Super funny thread of the same people are lazy commentary through the years.

Each generation seems to think their generation was tougher, harder working, than the next.

Gen X is definitely the toughest, hardest working, of them all. That’s just fact. 🧌

The Verge: ”Welcome to this week’s edition of This Week in Chancery Court! Delaware’s moment in the sun continues as the fight between Elon Musk and Twitter shifts from fiery tweets… to fiery legal filings.”

It really does seem that Mr. Musk will have to either pay $54.20 per share or will face some monster penalty somewhere between $1B and $20B, depending on the difference in stock price from today to his $54.20 offer.

Talk about screw around and find out. Ouch. 🤕

P.S. musk.social is waiting for you.

Fistpump McRunpants. https://t.co/I6AaVtbBXX

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) July 22, 2022

Rachel Maddow is a hero of mine. She also drops some pretty good Dad jokes on occasion.

Oh, yeah, Josh Hawley is a coward and a caca-doo-doo-head.

Enjoy your coffee and have a wonderful weekend.

Laid-back Women's Clothes : 5 Reasons I want Them

Boho dresses

I can't refute that high trend is amazing. It's a really form of art not surprisingly, and leafing via the copy of Style is highly striking. But when it comes to my own everyday life, that mad life that I head with a fully packed up schedule, taking care of your offspring and of the house even though working almost daily, I just can't visualize wearing anything besides casual women's gear.

Boho dresses

Still not confident? Here are my significant reasons for sticking with laid-back women's clothes:

one They are comfortable! As i value comfort previously mentioned almost anything else, together with although I don't believe one should necessarily lose style for convenience (we'll get to that style factor later), I am unwilling to help sacrifice comfort with regard to style. So when a piece of clothing is usually amazing and 100 % flattering, but is in addition restrictive in any way, I will not buy it.

two . Casual clothes are generally practical. I like to use clothes that can be cast in the washer (ideally in the dryer too) without giving the idea a second thought. Can be done that with the majority casual items, and not with tailored, sophisticated pieces that need to remain hand washed (like I have the time! ) or dry rinsed (as if I enjoy the budget).

3. I want clothes that can be exchanged easily. Let's are up against it: as a occupied mom, my clothing never last a long time. I play using my kids, My partner and i go with them to this playground, my small children spill things across me at least once every week. I just can't dress yourself in something so costly that I won't be capable to replace it when (when! ) that gets ruined. Typical items are inexpensive, which is a huge and for me. Even if a product or service gets ruined, I often easily replace the application with something else.

several. I need clothes that will not restrict my move. I'm busy! We run around considerably. I work, I actually run errands, As i play with this kids. My days to weeks are long and additionally there is absolutely no way I'm able to wear clothing that will make me come to feel restricted or distressing. As much as I think that will wool pencil dresses and high-heeled squeezes are fabulous, I just can't picture average joe wearing these items every single day for several hours on a daily basis! That would be way too less than enjoyable.

5. I believe that the woman can be sophisticated AND comfortable. "Casual" should NOT be confused by means of "frumpy! " Recreational fashions can be very lovely and in fact several casual items usually are well-fitting and look really fabulous, which is why I love to say that "casual is the new great. " The modern lovely women, the woman who activities an extremely demanding way of living and has to put on so many different hats every day, need not wear fashion that are uncomfortable and restrictive. She ought to be fill her cupboard with women's clothing that unite loveliness and style along with practicality and coziness.

So , do I do not ever wear anything except casual women's clothes? Of course I do. My partner and i own several customized, highly structured items which I wear by using high heels, mostly to look at go out at night. I’m a sucker for the way I try these items, but I have to confess: after a several hours wearing these, I can't wait to obtain back home, take him or her off and come back to my casual, fluffy, fabulous clothes.

Hmmmmmmmmm

What are your favourite fashion history facts? 👀

Oooh this is a fun question!! Thank you for asking! :D

Okay, so one of my favorite things is how undergarments worked, like since before Middle Ages. Till very late Victorian era lowest undergarment was chemise made out of linen, which is perfect material against the skin. It's durable and survives rough washing. It's antibacterial like wool and so won't even get very dirty, very easy to wash and doesn't smell mostly. It's extremely breathable so prevents sweating. Because of it's very nice qualities, it protected the outer clothing from the skin, so you wouldn't have to wash your outer clothes almost ever. Clothes lasted longer and you didn't need that many outer clothes. I don't get why did we stop?? They would even make wearing modern bras more comfortable. I'm in process of making myself several linen undershirts and chemises for everyday use!

Another thing, also underwear related, I find fascinating is that Regency dress is basically underwear. Like it's the same when sometimes it's fashionable to have like these tops that are basically like bras, but meant to be worn as outer garment? It developed from the biggest fashion moment in late 18th century, when Marie Antoinette wore the scandalous Chemise a la Reine (chemise of the queen). It looked and basically was a glorified under dress and went very much against the extremely rigid Rococo fashion of the day, which made it even more shocking. But Marie Antoinette absolutely rocked it and it became a huge hit. It wasn't flaunting wealth like robe a la francaises and other maximalist Rococo dresses, so in the 1780s political climate, where people were very angry at the ruling class for the extreme income differences, it was favorable for rich women to wear. After the French revolution last remnants of Rococo fashion where thrown out basically over night and chemise a la Reine took the place of the acceptable fashion and eventually morphed into Regency fashion. The sexy qualities of chemise a la Reine, which reminded of underwear, whiteness, soft flowyness and sheerness, remained as peak fashion during Regency era.

It's also kinda interesting that this underwear becoming outer wear thing has happened other times too. For example Edwardian lingerie dress (the name really tells it all again) is also very much a deliberately drawing association to lacy underwear.

Speaking of 18th century, the pockets were amazing, but my favorite was the trend of pannier pockets, the ultimate pockets of all time.

Really pocket is an understatement, it's basically luggage. This might be urban legend and not fact, but there was apparently case where some woman stole whole chickens from a party in her pannier pockets, which life goals.

I find Victorian mourning jewelry so interesting. They made all kinds of brooches, bracelets, earring etc. out of dead loved one's hair. It's so amazingly gothic. They were these extremely intricate designs.

This is hair. Victorians put a lot of importance in hair. Hair was almost seen as part of soul or representation of it. Sometimes they were made even more gothic macabre by adding these wonderfully creepy hands into them.

One last neat thing I'll mention is that during Renaissance there was no purple clothing. Or I should say bright purple, because they had scarlet, purplish red, lavender and very dark purplish blue. The bright purple associated with royalty was Tyrian purple, also called imperial purple and royal purple etc. The exact color varied from reddish to bluish purple, but all the shades were very bright and deep. Romans are well know for using it. It was pigment gotten from sea snails in Mediterranean in a very labour intensive, difficult and time consuming process. It was very bright and durable. Naturally it was highly desired and extremely expensive, and therefore became color associated with royalty and aristocracy.

After the Roman empire split it was only produced in the Eastern Rome, where there was still capability for it as the Western Rome fell into chaos. So during Medieval era royals and nobles got their expensive purple fabrics from Byzantium, however when Byzantium empire eventually also fell apart in the late Middle Ages, the knowledge and skill for making Tyrian purple was lost until it was replicated in late 17th century. So during Renaissance there wasn't a deep purple available.

hi!! i just found your blog and i may or may not have binged all the fics 😼😼 i was wondering if you could write a dabi or hawks x male reader where the reader is a rly gentle and kind barista and dabi/hawks is just wHIPPED for him? i think thatd be mad cute 👉👈

LMAOOO DABI + HAWKS TIME TURN IT UP-

——————

Headcannons - Dabi and Hawks whipped for their local barista

⚠️Warnings - kidnapping (dabi)

Pronouns - male, he/him

——————

Dabi:

Ok so like hear me out

At first

AT FIRST

you didn’t catch this mans eye

In fact, he didn’t go to the coffee shop you worked at much because yknow...villain...

But it was late at night one day yk

And mans was like “oh boy, i sure am thirsty after committing homcide and robbery”

N the first place he sees

Dun dun dun

Is the 24 hr coffee shop you worked at HAHAHA

So he goes in, preparing to like-idk, threaten ur life for a cup of coffee or smth mean n whatnot

The door bell rings, and you turn around and give him the KINDEST MOST GENTLE-EST SMILE HES EVER SEEN

As a villain, and just someone who looks out of the ordinary in general, he never got much of that

SO WHEN HE SEES THIS...MAN SMILING FUCKING SUN RAYS AT HIM

HE FREEZES

You ask him if he’s ok, and DAMN UR VOICE WAS SO SOFT IT WAS BARELY INAUDIBLE WHAGSHDHEH

Mans usually isn’t at a loss for words but HE IS NOW

Instead of threatening you for a cup of coffee, he actually orders like a normal person

He’s the only one in the cafe since it’s so late, and you had the late night shift lucky you

He sat in the corner with his coffee in silence, occasionally stealing glances at you sweeping the floor or counting the money in the register

what was this foreign feeling in his chest whavabwhshs

He didn’t notice when you walked up to him

mans almost roasted you alive

LMAO BUT HE DIDNT SO IT OK

“Are you doing okay? Do you want a refill?”

He wasn’t really thirsty anymore but he did get a refill because he wanted to stay and watch you work some more like a creep

Yeah, one refill turned to three and he ended up talking to you for the rest of the night AWW

He was honestly suprised you didn’t know he was a villain, with the dark coat and scars and stuff

He ended up buying more coffee to take back to the league with the money he stole HAHAHA

Toga, sipping on her third coffee: yo why u buy so much damn

Dabi: 🤠

He started coming over more and more in the dead of night, on the days you worked which he totally didn’t find out by sneaking into the back room of the cafe and checking the schedule

You, somehow, didn’t find it suspicious that he’d always visit whenever you worked

One day, on one of the numerous times he’s visited, you mentioned how you used to be a bartender before switching over to being a barista

Something just...clicked

He’s a villain, right? Why’s he going so far to appeal to you, when he could just kidnap you and convince you to join the league?

So he did just that

You woke up in their weird club bar room hideout, tied to a chair with dabi and a few unfamiliar faces

Dabi lowkey felt bad (even for him) because even though you were literally just kidnapped, you gave him one of those heartwarming smiles

Even if it was a bit scared and forced, and probably a coping mechanism out of fear

“Look I ain’t gonna hurt you, dude. You’re one of my favorite people, so I’m offering you a deal.”

“Siiiiiiimp.”

“Shut the fuck up, Toga.”

Dabi nudged the girls side.

A girl with blond hair and a school girls uniform pointed a knife at you. You flinched and dabi kept talking

“You said you used to be a bartender, right? I’m sure you can help this guy out behind the counter. Join us.”

Dabi motioned at Kurogiri. He waved, LMAOO

“Join me...please”

As scared as you were, you couldn’t deny the fact you had a soft spot for this scarily intimating man who’d sit in the corner and sip coffee everyday at work

Hell, sometimes (all the time LNAJS) you joined him and you’d talk for hours

And hearing this guy say “please” for the first time?

You nodded slowly, and dabi smiled

It was a nice smile, even if it was a bit scary

How could you possibly refuse?

——————

Hawks:

Since he wasn’t yknow...fucking iilegal and a villain, he came by to your coffee shop during the day

He was workin, caught and turned in a villain yk the usual

And he was kinda far away from his house, n he was gettin kinda hungry

He was flying around the city, when he spotted your lil coffee shop

Well, it wasn’t really a coffee shop, more like a food stop that so happens to sell coffee n drinks aswell

And hEY

you just opened up too, it was a relatively new place

My mans hawks supporting new & local businesses <3

He goes in right

He sees yakitori on the menu and goes :D

So he goes to order

And sees this,,, BEAUTIFUL HANDSOME MAN BEHIND THE COUNTER

“Hi Mister! What can I do you for?”

YOUR VOICE WAS LIKE FUCKING ANGELS SINGING WHAGSHW

I think the main reason hawks was drawn to you was the fact you didn’t treat him like a celebrity and kissed his ass n whatnot, mainly bc you didn’t really keep up nor care about the trending hero’s and stuff (no offense to hawks and none taken)

He choked on his yakitori when you walked up to his lil table and asked for a picture for ur grandpa (who was a BIG fan, unlike you)

MANS REALLY HAD TO PUT ON HIS MOST CHARMING SMILE AND PEACE SIGN THIS SIMP IM HDHEIDIE

He kept going out of his way to visit ur shop frequently even though he lived preeeeetty far off

I mean mans has wings so it ain’t a problem but-

This simp-

He doesn’t show up in his hero outfit (unless he’s coming from patrol) so you didn’t really see him as “Hawks the hero”, more like “Keigo, the man who has stupid endeavor shorts and likes yakitori”

It’s really sweet he shows up in stupid graphic shirts and sweatpants he looks comfy-

He openly flirts with you, and at first you laughed and smiled because you didn’t wanna be rude (it still did things to Keigos heart)

but then

Ur laughs n smiles when he drops a stupid pickup line? They real

The way you offer to take over ur coworkers shifts just to see if Hawks stops by? It’s love just admit it

The totally unfair discount you gave him on yakitori, not mentioning the way you know how Keigo prefers it by heart? Just ask him out already DAMN

You two didn’t have any personal info on eachother, no numbers, emails, hell, Keigo didn’t know your first name (in Japan, you don’t really go by first names unless ur with fam or close friends yk?)

So when you nervously hand him his box of yakitori one day?

Hawks is like 🤠👍?

He opens it and sees:

“(Xxx)-xxx-xxxx -call me, and maybe we can, I don’t know, go out on a date and get to know each other more, yakitori-kun? ~(Y/n)

So ur first name was (Y/n), huh

HES WHIPPED

HES SIMPING

He looks over at you, hiding ur face and sneaking glances at him while ur coworkers stiffing snickers and nudging ur side

GOD TAKE HIM NOW

you bet ur ass hes calling u later and saving ur contact as “My yakitori man (Y/n) ✨❤️”

——————

Thank y’all for 700, by the way !! I love you all !!

BEING BESTIES W/ SOME JJK CHARACTERS; Yuuji, Megumi, Nobara, Gojou and Sukuna.

Notes: Look. I know we all simp terribly for our husbandos/waifus but I just wanted to write a simple hc about what it's like to be their besties

Warning(s): slight cursing. I indulged too much on Sukuna.

Includes: gn! reader, fluff, chaotic energy, mentions of romance (just light)

Itadori Yuji

He's friends with everyone, says hi to strangers and probably would be besties with every old lady he meets so it wasn't hard to be friends with him.

But the second he becomes besties with you, shit's gonna get borderline chaotic.

3AM and y'all can't sleep? McDonald's parking lot with an abandoned shopping car would sound damned fine. You both remember the moment as 'Chicken Nuggies and the Wind' since he t-posed on the moving cart whilst eating nuggies (you both almost scratched a Ferari).

If you weren't a jujutsu sorcerer in training, he'd still try to sneak you in his room to watch some movies. You with the snacks, leaving Yuji in charge of the movie picking (you can't decide to save your life)

Cuddles! Nothing wrong with besties cuddling. He's extremely respectful to your s/o (if you have one) and are probably good friends with them too!

Though the second you come to him crying, they were already being patched up in the hospital. Won't hit a woman, against his morals, but he will make sure she never speaks to you again.

Understanding, chaotic besties! An arm around your shoulder when someone's obviously making you uncomfortable, he's the one barking when he sees someone slip something into your drink.

The friend to help you find your way out of a frat house. Makes sure you're getting touched with your consent and sober. All you need to do is give him a sign that you're alright and he'll give you a thumbs up before leaving.

Definitely the friend you'd open up to (about anything) and not be treated differently after so.

You told him about your problems a few minutes prior. It was quiet, a bit too quiet. And you were worried he might leave you for it.

"Ey, Y/N. Wanna go to McDonald's again? I think they have that burger you like," He blurts, catching you off guard. You raise your eyebrows before smiling gratefully.

"Sounds great, Itadori."

You guys talk about women with butts all the time. Not out of thirst or anything, it would just be a random thought that comes up and one of you would contribute to the other. You once mentioned something about Jennifer Lawrence and he would not stop talkinf about her. It was hilarious how much he was drooling.

You wear his hoodies and he's fine with it. Thinks you look good in them. Sukuna teases you both about your relationship and Yuji slaps his mouth shut before he says anything more.

"You look great in them, Y/N," Itadori grins, rummaging through his closet to find more hoodies.

"Thank you. They're pretty comfy," You mention the fabric and the fluffiness. He listens to you intently before Sukuna pops out from his cheek.

"Ehhh? This is the one you think about everyday--," Itadori has never slapped his cheek so hard before in his life.

Megumi Fushiguro

Honestly, pretty chill dude.

He has a small group of people he trusts, and a smaller one to which he considers to be his good friends.

So to be his best friend, you must've gained a huge amount of respect from him; saved him, maybe even overheard something you shouldn't have and kept quiet about it on your own accord.

You would have a 'you aren't comfortable with it, so I'm not forcing anything' vibe to which he would be relieved to know. Though even so, you are the more hyper one in the platonic relationship.

Outings would consist of trips to libraries or quiet nights on the couch with your legs entangled together with lo-fi music playing in the background.

Not much talking, Megumi likes to keep to himself and you have no problem with the comfortable silence you both bring together.

Though sometimes it gets too quiet so you annoy the hell out of him to get his attention; cheek poking, soft arm punches, slight pushing.

Megumi ignores this, finding your actions a bit cute. If it gets too annoying, he will get up and leave, having you trail behind him, whining like a child wanting candy.

Yuji would join in. Definitely. Nobara too if she was bored enough.

"Megumi~ I want your attention~," You whine, running after the raven-haired man.

"Yeah! Yeah! Pay attention to Y/N!" Yuji supports you. You clap your hands together, only to be hit with a shoe by Megumi.

He would never do anything outside of your comfort zone. If you had an s/o, they both would be neutral with each other.

If you were to get hurt from said s/o, they would leave your house with a bloody knuckle. He wouldn't hit a girl, but he definitely will destroy whatever life she has outside of your relationship with her.

Parties are a no-go for him, unless his friends force him to. He's the designated driver with three other drunk children (Hint; Yuuji, Nobara and you). He wouldn't carry anyone else but you back to your room.

"Jeez, Y/N. You should know how to handle your alcohol," Megumi sighs, laying you on top of your bed gently and pulling the covers up.

"Nngh. Didn't know it was alcohol," You groaned. He smiles, patting your cheek before getting up to leave.

"I'll get you some painkillers in the morning, alright?"

You can wear his sweatshirts if you annoy him about it (he secretly likes how comfortable you are around him). He thinks you look charming in them, Yuji never shuts up about your friendship. It's the few times he's seen Megumi genuinely smile.

Nobara Kugisaki

Radiates bad bitch energy.

It isn't easy in the first stages since she has standards with friends but the second you both find something similar about each other, it's an immediate ride-or-die friendship.

You would need a major backbone, 'I'm too hot for this bs' kinda vibe (it's canon that the reader is a bad bitch, periodt). You would have arguments with her but it's pretty basic stuff like the perfect colour for nailpolish or whether Maki deserves the Earth or the universe (you both agree it's the universe).

Outings consists of shopping malls and popular cafes. You take selfies everytime you see something relatively new.

Talk about anything under the sun -- newest trends, new food to try out, Maki -- but her favourites are hearing you talk about your day. If you weren't a jujutsu sorcerer, she'd visit your apartment, give you a hug and sit on the couch to listen to you blabber away about something that isn't related to curses or death. She needs time to rewind and you never mention how vulnerable she looks when she's tired.

"Uh-huh and what happens next?" Nobara asked, carressing your hair as you lay on her lap.

"He wouldn't stop following us! It was so creepy! No means no right? Like why would you waste your energy following a group of friends who aren't interested?" You ranted on. Nobara simply nods in agreement, smiling at your annoyed face.

She doesn't mind your s/o, probably would just say hi before leaving you two alone. She doesn't have a problem about her friends having a relationship, she does, however, gets pissed that she isn't in one.

If you come to her crying about them, she would slither in some 'fuckin told you they were gonna do it' or 'I told you so'. Though it makes you upset, you know she's gonna trash their house the second you leave the room.

Your (now) ex would suddenly be cancelled beyond belief, you wouldn't know what happened to them.

Despite the bad bitch personality, you are the more patient one.

Parties is a yes. She comes in as a self-confident woman and will leave self-confident and drunk. She's the life of the party and pulls you into conversations to keep you company. Even if you don't contribute much to the conversation, she makes sure you aren't out of her sight. She's not the type to bring a friend to a party and leave them the second after. She cares about you even if her way of showing was a bit too pushy.

You share clothes with her and she'll give you comments about it.

"The shirt doesn't fit. No, no. The other one. Yeah, that one."

"Who cares if people say you aren't supposed to wear skirts? Your ass rocks better in those than mine. Just take them."

Personally likes dressing you up, doesn't like dressing you up for dates though. Still doesn't know why.

Gojou Satoru

God, the willpower you have to even tolerate this man is immense.

It's not hard to be his friend, all you have to do is do something that amuses him and he'll keep teasing you about it.

In this platonic relationship, you're the more calm one. People call you to take care of Gojou constantly, and you're the only one he allows to scold him.

He goes for missions half the time so it's rare to see you both go for outings. The most you've been together outside of Jujustu Tech and work hours was in a bar with Nanami (you both bond over the fact that Gojou is terrible to work with). He got too drunk and started slurring his words.

"Y/N~ stohp flirting with Nanamin and talk to meee," He whines, pinching your cheeks as you sigh.

"We are simply talking about your bad work habits, Satoru," Nanami answers whilst shaking his head, downing another drink before he gets up to leave. "I'll take him home, rest well Y/N."

"Noooo, I want Y/N!"

A needy best friend. Constantly asks for attention. If you ignored him, he would only make the situation slightly more annoying -- similar to Megumi's Y/N, the basic cheek poking and whining.

Your s/o would probably hate him, he's a bit too flirty and likes to hug you in public. People mistake you both for a couple rather than the s/o at hand. Don't be surprised if it's the main reason your relationships don't end well.

If you come to him upset because of them, he wouldn't waste a second to zoom to your shared apartment and 'deal' with the person. Would come back with a smile and some takoyaki. No blood on him since he used his infinity.

Parties are alright with him. He's the cool flirty dude everyone seems to fawn over. Would accompany you for half an hour, only to leave with another chick to a nearby bedroom. You never end up partying with him after opening the God forsaken door and he's never stopped trying to make it up to you.

Other than the traumatic event, he'd a bit of a douche but still tries to look for you in the crowd. He waves once he sees you and flashes a reassuring smile before continuing his talk with the others.

You don't share clothes with him simply because it's Gojou. Who knows when the last time he washed his clothes.

Though he's willing to share. You're just more reluctant, really. Finds it cute when his shirts are slightly bigger than you. If you're built bigger than he is, he would like how tight it looks on your body.

"Starting to think you look better in my clothes than I am. And that's a pretty good compliment." He grins.

Hates the fact you never take his compliments seriously. Says it from the bottom of his heart, he really thinks you're charming.

Ryomen Sukuna

God, was it hard trying to befriend this curse of a man. An asshole, he stuck his feet out to trip you over multiple times before cackling like a damned demon (which he is).

Though you're always genuine with him. You liked having conversations with him and listen to him boast about himself for hours. Guess that's when he saw you as a close acquaintance.

Would never tell you you're his best friend. Never. Not once. Him simply acknowledging you was enough for everyone to know he favored one person.

Being friends with Sukuna meant being friends Yuji. Itadori always apologizes on his behalf and you would always laugh, telling him it's alright. Sukuna gets annoyed by this though.

"Stupid human. Who do you think you are being all mush with this useless vessel of mine?" He sneered the second he could pop out. You shrugged, taking some popcorn to feed him.

"He's a pretty good guy. You should cut him some slack," You answered, stuffing some popcorn to your face as well

Will constantly threaten to kill you but you never paid heed. You know you're his only friend. You don't agree with his actions but you find the curse interesting.

Literally the only person who's allowed to tease him. You get away with things most curses would get killed from. You once hand him super hot sauce for his pancakes and he glared at you for the remainder of his time being conscious in Yuji's body. You found the plate broken with a fork stabbed through it.

You aren't allowed to go on outings with Sukuna (obviously) so you both spend your time within Yuji's room. Not allowed to go out since everyone'll freak out seeing Yuji with tattoos resembling the King of Curses.

"Humans are so boring," Sukuna groaned, his head on the bedstand. "All they do is just sit around doing nothing but scroll through their stupid boxes." You smiled at him.

"Not my fault you commit mass genocide for fun. I'd say we're pretty passive."

He would literally never care about your love life. Still has the old man mentality that romance meant sex and that was about it. If they were to meet, the curse would just roll his eyes and turn the other way.

Getting hurt by your s/o results to hurtful teasing and bloodshed. No in-between, no nothing. He wouldn't know how to comfort you properly so he'd send Yuji in his place. Would sit at the back of Yuji's mind getting pissed that he was hugging and rubbing your back gently as if he couldn't have done it himself (literally sent Yuji only to judge him).

Not allowed to go out so parties is also a no-go BUT since this is just a headcanon, let's imagine it's college AU.

College AU Sukuna would love parties -- he throws them, orders his friends to invite hot girls and frat guys. And invites you himself. No one would know you were friends since he never mentions it but will literally choke anyone who looks at you like you're a piece of candy.

Gets way too drunk and probably have railed 3 people to cloud 9 in a matter of 2 hours but still go out just to check up on you. He doesn't necessarily care but he hates having the sick feeling that you were in possible danger somewhere he wouldn't be able to see you.

Stare at you for a good 3 seconds before leaving you alone. You'd never know he was there.

Clothes! His clothes are Yuji's and he barely even keeps his shirts in tact. Does he care whether you wear it or not? No.

Is he pissed? Slightly.

This took me two days, I'm not sure if it sounds canon anymore. Anyways, thank you for reading!

♡︎ literate-simp

Nostalgia sells - or does it? About BBC’s rehiring of a previous showrunner for Doctor Who as a marketing strategy

All, right, this is the one where I deal with my issues about RTD’s rehiring from the standpoint of BBC’s business strategy . Brace for passive agression, swearwords, brief history of british television and numbers. So, so many numbers.

Allright, so I already wrote a post about my problem with RTD’s (re)hire from the creative standpoint (it’s here in case you’re interested), but hey, I can bitch about it all I want, but we all know what caused the BBC to make this decision, right? You’ve heard about it for sure. The Dropping Ratings. You’ve read about it on so many posts, lots of them probably oh-so-gladly conflating this fact with their own opinion about the deteriorating quality of the show. (Don’t worry, we’ll get to that.) So Obviously the execs at the Big BBC Quarters needed to do something about it, and what better way to go than rehire a guy who’s run at Doctor Who is a warm childhood memory for so many in it’s fanbase? After all, it’s what we’re seeing nowadays: from Star Wars return to wave of 80′s nostalgia to every old blockbuster star doing a comeback, there is but a single conclusion - nostalgia sells.

Or does it?

Part One: Moving with the change; or very much refusing to.

Let’s start this off with some facts about the ratings for Doctor Who. (Well, I warned you there’s gonna be numbers, didn’t I. Stick with me, I’m going somewhere with this I promise.) In it’s beginnings, in the sixties and seventies , the series flown high, averaging a viewership from 8 up to 10 million viewers per season. Collin Baker’s series 17 brought in a record of 11.21 milion viewer asses in front of a good ol’ TV screen, real champagne opener here. But, as it happens, things were downhill from here. During the eighties, the rating started dropping steadily, reaching an all-time low of 4.15 milion couch-warming bottoms in 1989, the last season of the classic era. 

Years passed, 16 of those years to be exact, and here comes our saviour RTD. Under his wings, the revived series premiered, bringing in over 10 milion viewers to the premiere episode of season 1, Rose. A viewership this high did not last for long, but still, RTD’s seasons averaged between 7 and 8 milion viewers per season, which seemed pretty respectable. But then, as the story likes to repeat itself, not unlike the bbc execs just did, along came the decline again. Ever since 2010, the ratings began steadily dropping again, from 7.95 in 2010 to 5.46 in 2017. Then DW experienced an unexpected peak in 2018 with the premiere of Jodie Whittaker’s first season, which averaged 7.96 viewing asses, but then continued the dropping trend on the next season, averaging 5.40 viewing butts.

So what went wrong?

You see, part of the reason that Doctor Who was bringing in such great viewership numbers in the 60′s and 70′s, was that, to put it simply, BBC did not have much competition. Or, to be exact, only had one competitor. ITV was literally founded in order to break BBC’s monopoly over British television. But in the 80′s, with the launch of Channel 4 and Sky, the british viewers had more and more options to choose from. So logically speaking, they no longer had to watch BBC’s programming just because there was nothing else on. There was more and more new programes to boredom-watch. And here’s something y’all need to know about the tv industry: the boredom-watchers, the casuals? That’s the most important demographic. As hard as it might be to swallow, us hardcore fans, forum dwellers and Ao3 gremlins, we’re not as big of a group as we’d like to think. Loving fans are important to the tv execs as providers of word-of-mouth advertisment, but the real numbers come from the casual, everyday viewer who will just put on the next episode cause the other one was kinda fun I guess. Or more fun than the other options, anyway.

And this is why, by the way, when someone is conflating low viewership with the show Dissapointing The Fans, they’re full of shit. I’m sorry, but we’re really not that much of a force here, definitely not enough to make such a big impact on the numbers. Another factor, that some of you probably noticed already, is that the numbers I’m quoting are from british tv only, while the online fandom is very much international, so our opinions matter even less to the british execs, I’m sorry again, hard pill to swallow I know, but true nonetheless.

But I digress. So, to sum up the previous paragraph, Doctor Who’s viewership decline in the 80′s was the effect of the changing landscape of the TV industry, with which the BBC struggled to come to terms with.

Sound familiar?

Let’s move on to the 2010′s, shall we?

2010 was is actually a good marker of a year to choose, because it marks one important thing that begun a big change in the industry. This was the year in which Netflix expanded their services overseas, from being a DVD rental company to providing VOD services. Over the next decade streaming services grew in importance, from being an add-on to your cable TV that you didn’t really want but they were throwing it in for cheap, to very much self-sustainable media services you might very well buy instead of buying the cable. And if you look at the numbers for Doctor Who viewership declining over the last 10 years, that’s precisely what’s been happening. It’s not that people don’t want to watch Doctor Who on tv, they don’t want to watch tv in general. Do you know what was the most popular channel in Britain this year? Can you guess? Fucking Netflix that’s what. It’s just slowly-yet-steadily ceasing to be the way we use home entertainment anymore. Again, not much to do with the audience approval, because for that matter, let’s see about the specific episodes that saw the spikes in viewership. 

Rose, which i mentioned at the start of it, was for the longest time the unquestionable queen when it comes to viewership, at 10.81 milion. The next episode, The End of the World, pulled in 7.97 - almost 3 millions worth of lost viewer-butts in one week? Is it because it was so much worse than it’s predecessor? No, it simply did not have the smell of Newness, the Event You Must See, and as such brought forth less of the casual viewers who were simply curious about The New Thing. The next season followed the similar formula, peaking at the premiere, when the marketing was at it’s strongest, going down during the season, sometimes rising slightly for the finale, sometimes not. The most popular episodes are, of course, the specials - yet again, the vibe of The Event To Be Seen worked here, but one more thing working to their advantage is they often aired in spaces between seasons, serving as both a long-waited Crumbs of Content for the fans, and the basically stand-alones for the casuals. Do you know what the single most watched episode of revived DW is? No, it’s not Tennant’s goodbye with the role (yeah I know, I thought it had to be that as well). It was Voyage of the Damned, between seasons 3 and 4. The perfect standalone for the casual watcher. And last but not least, you know one more special feature that brought, maybe not as much, but definitely more than expected? The 1996 movie Doctor Who, with 9.08 million. Again, a perfect standalone.

But the standalones aren’t the only way to grab the viewership. The currently-highest viewing non-special episode of DW? The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Jodie Whittaker’s introduction. In 2018 no less, in the year when the streaming was the ruler supreme, this episode brought a whooping 10.96 million buts to the good ol’ TV again. Let me reiterate: this episode brought in more viewers than Rose did in 2005, while having WAY more competition and way less favorable circumstances of release that RTD’s debiut did. Not only that, it managed to bring on some numbers for the entire season as well, not as good of course as the premiere (because again, the Event vibes faded), but still brought a better average than the last six seasons did. (Again, let me reiterate: more than the last SIX seasons. More viewership than any series since 2010, since the Streaming Wars.) So clearly, this must be the way, right? Catering to this Weird New Trend, that saw directors notice there do in fact exist other actors than white men, that surely brought in some profit, even Marvel does it now, right? Out with the old, in with the new!

Part 2 The Deceitful Charm of Nostalgia

Well, it turns out the whole Doing New Things deal didn’t work out that well after all, now did it? The second season penned by Chibbnal averaged 5.40 milion, that’s 2.5 million drop from the previous one! It must mean it didn’t work, right? Well, yes and no. As much as the refreshment of the formula as simple as Let’s Put A Woman In It absolutely worked for one season, it very visibly did not hold up for longer. An Event-Episode is something that can still happen on TV, Event-Series? That’s pretty much reserved for streaming now, if you think about it, and it’s honestly kind of a miracle that Series 11 did as well as it had. Two consecutive Event-Series on network tv? Flat out impossible. 

So how to make those ratings great again? How to get those butts in seats of the Good Ol’? Well, the execs of the BBC have a plan for that. They brought in a devouring beast, and it’s name is: Nostalgia.

Without a doubt, there is a number of people who feel nostalgic about RTD’s era of Doctor Who. It’s a lot of people’s fond childhood memory, or the series they started with, and judging by the numbers, there should be quite a lot of them. So the new plan, as it appears, is to get to those who maybe lost interest in the show and lure them with the promise of the thing That Is Totally Like The Thing You Used To Love, Remember? (This is why I don’t actually think that RTD will be allowed to do anything new and interesting, that’s not what they hired him for. And that’s why I think this is bad from the creative standpoint.) So there are two questions here: One, will the people be lured? And two, for how long?

Nostalgia as a marketing strategy is something that you’re probably sick of seeing already (I know I am). But it has very much been effective on many levels, especially the eighties-baiting, Stranger Things style, can bring a new IP up to relevance. But what about old IP’s that want to have a comeback? 

It’s kind of dificult to find another TV show that I could compare to Doctor Who. Most series that have been running for that long are mostly soap operas, that operate on slightly different rules, and are also targeted to a different audience. So as much as the movie series is still not exactly the best comparison, when I think about a big IP, campy sci-fi, family-oriented (at least in theory) on its path back to relevance, I think about Star Wars, obviously. The Force Awakens gambled on that nostalgic feeling and won big, but the next two movies, while still financially successful, were nowhere near the astounding success of the first one. And that’s because - you guessed it - it created the Event You Must See again, The Great Comeback, but merely two years later, the comeback became old news. So what we can gain from that is that nostalgia can create an Event as well as a new trend, if not better. But the question remains: how long will that last?

That is, after all, the main difference between a movie franchise and a TV series in the traditional, network TV sense of the word: movie franchise must bring in the viewership every year or two, and TV series must bring in viewers every week for at least two months. Is RTD’s Nostalgia Vibes enough to provide for that?

I’ll say this: I’m absolutely certain that the 60th anniversary will be very popular. I still don’t think it will break any records because, as I’ve been trying to explain for this whole post, it is not 2007 anymore no matter how much the tv execs would like it to be. But ironically, the almost-certain success of the special is the very thing that could undermine the effect of bringing their precious Nostagia Boi back onboard. Remember, the first Event Episode is The Big Oof. That’s the one that gets asses to the Good Ol’, if anything ever does. After the first big event one, that’s the point when things start going down. They’re wasting their Special Event Boi for something that already would be an event, dear fucking gods, I hate your plan and I would still execute it better. Either have RTD be the Anniversary Guy and then hire someone new, use that hype and keep it going, OR have RTD come in after the anniversary, then at least you get the Event Effect for the premiere of his first return season. Fukin’ amateurs.

But even if they did that, here’s the thing: do you think that the people who departed from the show years ago actually want to watch another three to five seasons of The RTD Show? I mean, I’m sure the thought warmed some hearts, for sure. A number of people will definitely gladly watch the anniversary, probably the first few episodes of the first return to the basics, but after that? In the world when, due to streaming, they have an easy way to revisit the actual thing they’re nostalgic towards? I honestly don’t think so. And you’re not really gonna get many new people by going back, if that nostalgia factor isn’t there. And then there’s casual viewers, the backbone, as we established. And here’s the thing: lots of those people don’t even know who the current showrunner is, cause they’re not Terminally Online like we are, and the second thing? Lots of those people ARE JUST NOT WATCHING NETWORK TV, IM SORRY GARRY. They’re just. They’re just not. I don’t know how to spell it out better. Even my mum has netflix now. Your biggest base is in another castle mate, gotta get moving and gotta get moving quick, cause here’s another thing: all the nostalgia in the world will not do SHIT for you if your target, people who were kids/teens when the RTD era was airing, PROBABLY DON’T EVEN HAVE A FUCKING TV ANYMORE CAUSE THEY MOVED OUT OF THEIR PARENTS FLAT AND LOTS OF YOUNG PEOPLE JUST DON’T BOTHER. Just. I’m sorry but you’re trying to resuscitate a decade-deceased corpse there buddy. It just won’t work. The times have changed and you gotta swim or drown, and it’s just not gonna be 2005 again, no matter how hard you pretend it is. It’s not your content it’s your business model. Just push more marketing for your iplayer or whatever, focus on streaming as your primary not your secondary cause that’s just what it is now, and maybe don’t rely on the viewer-counting systems of the yesteryear to evaluate your business. Or else you’re gonna get stuck sacrificing the creative growth of your show for a marketing strategy that probably won’t even fucking WORK.

There, I got it of my chest. Feel free to reblog, and also: you somehow got to the end of this, congrats! I’ll make numbers nerds out of y’all yet.

how would haikyuu boys handle getting shipped with a friend on tiktok? feat. kuroo tetsuro

kuroo tetsuro has a crippling tiktok addiction and he’s in denial about it but everyone around him knows because all he does in his free time is get on that app

that’s canon i’m not arguing with anyone about this

he’s the kind of guy to fall asleep from scrolling through his fyp and the moment he wakes up he looks for his phone under his pillow to watch more lmaooo

so anyways

you share classes with him and he’s not really the kind of guy to have crushes especially on people he’s not close with

but then one day he’s on his fyp and he stumbles on one of your videos

and he’s just like ?? woah

he recognizes you obvi, he’s not one to talk to people out of his friend group but he’s not completely ignorant to everyone else

he immediately sees that you have indeed quite the following and have almost majority of your posts going viral

so yea you can say he’d notice you more in class now

at first it was subtle, looking at you more when he’s spacing out or paying close attention to you when you’re reciting

he doesn’t even notice how he includes you more in his thought process until the day kenma pointed it out to him how he’s been a bit more distracted lately

he brushed it off thinking it wasn’t really anything serious

but then boy Oh boy !!!

he started noticing the fact that you’ve got a really nice room in your vids and your fave led lights are the red ones since you almost always use them

he’s also really into the fact that you upload more on comedic videos than dancing ones

but HONEY when you posted your take on the dance trend of savage by megan thee stallion ,,, he was GONEEEE !!!

he sent that video to kenma like five times in a row with the caption “aha brb gonna LIVE for this woman 😗✌️”

kenma be like: simp city population - u

at this point he just accepts it, like flat out he took it within himself to UNDERSTAND how much he’s crushing on you and kenma asks him if he’s gonna do anything about it and he’s like ????

like he gets how awesome he is and stuff cause duh captain of the volleyball team and most probably the most beautiful man on campus but you’re also really good in class and very attractive

not to mention that you’ve never even looked his way before

he was hurt, man !!

only he could feel as rejected as someone who actually did get rejected

nevertheless, he got over that and just woke up one day telling himself that he was gonna shoot his shot anyway !!

so one day in class, right after the lunch bell rang, he took a deep breath and rummaged his insides for every drip of confidence he could muster

he walked to your seat and you were kinda surprised because this boy right here has never once talked to you before

his opening line was “can i sit here?”

you were still really confused but then he said something about wanting to be friends and your heart was just really warm cause !!!! that’s so NICE !!

and he mentioned how he knew you from tiktok since you practically lived on his fyp

you were really embarrassed and he got to see in action how your ears turn really red when you get shy

kuroo, internally: “that’s so FUCKEN CUTE !!!!!”

he had to reassure you that it was indeed really cool that you made bomb ass tiktoks

you were so grateful cause like one minute you were having a terrible day because of your stupid teacher then bam this 6’2 beauty of a man came swooping in telling you you were terrific

you two became friends after that and it made you really happy to have someone as cool as kuroo as your best friend

kuroo likes to sit with you at lunch except when you’re with other people then he gets a bit dejected so he’s just “well damn maybe tomorrow then”

it’s all good though cause he has invited you to numerous of his practices and that’s when you SEE how amazing this man is at volleyball

one day you’re like “hey wanna do a tiktok with me?”

and he’s like “the one where you kiss me?”

you, flushed: DIPSHIT WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT !!!!1!1!1!!

you guys do the one where you dance to supalonely by benee

it went OFF !!! 700k likes and a solid ass 2.7M views because apparently the viewers really like it when kuroo dances next to you in his varsity uniform and has sweat dripping on his forehead

your comments for the next two weeks are just like “bro post another one with kuroo please PLEASE”

kuroo: guess people just like me more :)

you: leave my mentions <3

sometimes you’d get people replying to your videos with “you and kuroo look really good together”

you see them but you most likely ignore it because even if you did know how much you liked kuroo, you didn’t wanna jeopardize the friendship, yk?

anyhow due to popular demand, you include him in your videos again and every time you do they always go viral !!!

it’s very cute especially when you do the ones where you snapchat him song lyrics and he answers even if he does know it’s a trend

“can they please just get together already, we all know they’re pining but they’re too coward to say it !!”

you: ok u know what user9728182829 since u’r so good at this why don’t u be the one to make tiktoks at a volleyball court and dodge all those stray balls 😤

you were so fed up with it that you actually tell kuroo about the entirety of tiktok shipping the two of you together

he was worried that you were upset because people liked you and him dating that he thought maybe you just weren’t into him

BUT THEN !!!

because of the corona virus all the schools shut down and people were forced to stay in their houses for quarantine

it was sad that everything got cancelled and you weren’t allowed to see your friends anymore

but that’s ok cause kuroo insisted to facetime everyday

you: why can’t we just text

kuroo: because what if you forget what i look like 🥺

you: hey i’m not that blessed ❤️

it was like the quarantine never happened since you still saw and talked to him everyday

sometimes he’d show up at your place but refuse to come inside cause social distancing

this mfer threw rocks on your glass window just to get your attention once

kuroo: i got you those edible cookie dough in pints !!

you: omfg 🥺👉👈

then he chucks it at you because he ain’t boutta break the law to get you food 😤

it’s ok though you have really good reflexes and it only hit your elbow the first 2 times !!

you got it all on camera and posted it on tiktok and everyone in the comments were LIVID at the fact that you captioned it with “best friends b like”

“i just know that kuroo is punching the air right now.”

“imagine risking the corona and still being friend zoned.”

“when you realize kuroo is actually the president of simp city.”

other times he’d snap you at 3 in the morning asking if you want anything from starbucks

no one:

your snapchat dms at 3:28 am: you really went to bed you SN A KE !!

and when you wake up the next morning you find out that this guy is still awake and that he’s been chilling in the starbucks parking lot all morning !!!

that’s ok though because other than the fact that his sleep schedule is completely wrecked he still got you your venti strawberry acai refresher

you: thank you sm 🥺 what do i owe you

kuroo: a kiss on the cheek

you: you can have the drink back ❤️

that’s when the new tiktok trend started and people were posting the hottest guys on campus or revealing their crushes since 1st grade

you, feeling brave because school is cancelled: aight bet 😎

you do a tiktok hopping on the trend and you captioned it with “now that we aren’t coming back to school here are the boys from campus that i’d date for real”

you stall for the first 30 second by vibing to the music and when the beat drop !!

you showed a picture of kuroo and you put in the text “kinda missing him too”

you were extremely regretting this but numerous people already saw it and the comments went on and on about how unsurprising this was

press f ma’am

so one afternoon while kuroo was scrolling through his tiktok, he was surprised by the amount of notifications he was getting

cause he doesn’t even post videos ??

he’s only there to watch funny stuff and leave insulting comments on your posts cause he’s a good friend

he checks and they’re all just tags of him in this one video and he was kinda worried cause what if it was a hate post ??

but then he saw that it was yours and he’s less nervous !!!

kuroo, texting you: if you diss me in this one i’m posting the screenshot of you falling asleep on facetime

so he watches it and ??????????????

bro he went 🥺

before he messages you he went straight for the comments and !!!!!

“who knew it was kuroo before watching the whole video?”

“don’t be shy put some more photos of him !!”

“if kuroo duets this i’m gonna make sure to never fall in love unless its like this.”

“y’all he did it boys!! he graduated from the best friend zone!!”

he’s still really surprised by this and he really hopes you’re not kidding cause bro you??? like him????

thanks to that comment he saw, he decides to duet your video by using the same sound and doing the same dance with the same caption “now that we aren’t coming back to school here are the ones from campus that i’d date for real”

and they’re all just pictures of you 🥺

it blows up but before you see it on your fyp he’s already asking to facetime and when you answer you swear he’s just got the biggest smile in the world i’m :(

kuroo: lol remember when you publicly told majority of the internet how much you liked me

you: lol remember when you weren’t talking ❤️

Anybody - N. Horan Imagine

NOTE: I sincerely appreciate everybody’s patience with me getting to requests. Sometimes its just nice to take a lil break and write a niall amnesia fic, ya know? anyways, here’s another requested imagine (i combined two because they were vv similar), enjoy!

“You’re telling us you’re still single?” The girl scoffs. “Yeah, right.”

It made your cheeks flame up incredibly and your stomach turn in guilt. Normally, this conversation would not have you so antsy or defensive if it had not been for Niall’s presence beside you. The idea to share lunch with the cast one day and have Niall tag along was entirely your idea, so there was nobody else to throw blame on. You were happy Niall agreed almost immediately to your proposal, despite knowing the repercussions if either of you somehow clued that you were together in front of your friends and especially in public.

Your lifestyles were definitely a commonality in your relationship. The constant interviews and public appearances were what led to the two of you introducing one another. You both had a disposition for complimenting people greatly, but had a difficult time taking them to heart. Your first meeting could be illustrated with the two of you gawking over each other’s work and red cheeks, with the subtle flirtatious remark thrown in. But it was the impetus for the exchanging of numbers, and a couple of dinners and intimate nights shared in the bedroom.

More importantly, it led you here at a restaurant surrounded by your costars for one of Niall’s favorite television shows and the man himself. He claimed it to be one of his favorites before he even met you, which you still doubt to be the truth, but you never pushed him for validity. The question from your costar, who could also be considered one of your closest friends, left both you and Niall stunned for a moment.

“Oh, come on. Why is that so hard to believe?”

“You’ve got guys crawling over you all the time.” Another chimes in. You could not argue his point; it happened every time you stumbled across a male fan of the show, over twitter direct messages or blatantly in response to something you posted online. Even during interviews some male hosts would flatter you in the objective to get in your pants, in spite of how clear you made your interests to be platonic.

“So, I can’t be independent and say ‘no’?” You raised your eyebrows, feeling inferior to your colleagues. Unlike them, having a public relationship was off of the table.

“You can. But admit it, you could literallu have anybody, Y/N.” Your friend looks around the table, earning many nods of agreement. You wish every day to wake up and just have the world know your secret. But it did not work like that.

Your publicist immediately refuted the idea of publicly dating when you mentioned your affair with the musician. She went ballistic, claiming you were insane to just post a picture of the two of you to your socials with the mindset of “whatever happens, happens”. It would lead to speculation, which will lead to a closer eye on the two of you and your every move, she argues. Her demands made you want to keep your mouth shut about your fear of being mobbed by cameras off of the red carpet before this conversation. She went on to say the longer you were “available” in the eye of the public, the more popular you would grow. Teenage boys would fawn over you, their girlfriends would google you to see what the hype about you was and hate-stalk you, which would result in a larger following.

Having that disappear all because you were off of the market would make your numbers plummet and lose grip of your male demographic. You were nearly tuning her voice out by this point, until she pointed out that Niall was probably in the same boat. Girl’s loved him; guys were fuming over him. Bigger album sales, followers for days, until the announcement that one of the world’s biggest heartthrobs is officially taken.

You informed Niall about the conversation later that day. And as much as he wanted to say it was bullshit, he could not. It was true. He had attempted many times to present the relationship reveal presentation to his manager and publicist, but both shut him down the moment he began to speak. As of now, both of you were bound by contract to keep your lips shut.

Niall’s aura screamed its independence, so there was no speculation circling him lately about a possible affair. You however, were fresh meat. The new, hottest thing one of few top, trending shows. Everybody wanted to know your whereabouts and who you we’re hanging around with everyday, all day. And it never really seemed to stop.

The night your followers on various media platforms doubled, then tripled, then quadrupled in a matter of hours was when you needed to turn off all receiving notifications. Messages, mentions and questions were flooded to your phone at such a rapid rate that your phone froze. If a photo was even published online of you hugging a man, you would be interrogated about it for the next five interviews following that day.

Recently, the man in question has been your co-star in the series, Ryan. It was clear in the show that your and his character had major chemistry, but outside of the set, Ryan acted like more of a brother figure than anything. He would scare you whenever you turned random corners in the studio, ruffle your hair and bicker with you at any opportunity.

Many gossip news sources were asking both you and your co-star if the relationship between your characters was the same on-screen and off-screen. But it seemed the countless amounts of “no’s” you both delivered immediately after the question was asked was not enough. The other day, a video of him handing you a water bottle with a smile gained thousands of views overnight, as well as theories that you two were hiding a relationship from the public. It could not be further from the truth, but you and Ryan knew it was useless to comment otherwise.

In fact, everybody around you was discouraging the idea to cancel the rumors. All except one person, who always seemed to be cheering you on in your worst moments. And by the eighth week and hundredth photo of you and Ryan allegedly “confirming” your relationship, you had enough.

You stormed into Niall’s apartment with hot feet. You passed by him and paced his kitchen, while he sat up from the couch. Turning down the volume on the golf match playing on the television, he ventures after you and into the kitchen, finding you scavenging his fridge.

“Hang on.” You held up a finger, before retrieving a cold bottle of booze from the fridge. Niall eyes you carefully in your haste to grab the bottle opener already accessible off of his kitchen island and pop the bottle cap off the drink and down half of it. While you guzzle down the drink, Niall gulps, licking his lips.

Chugging a beer, as weird as it sounded, was one of the hottest things Niall had witnessed you do to date.

“Okay,” you slammed the near empty bottle down, taking a deep breath of preparation. “Go ahead.”

“What happened?” He already knew the answer, but it could not hurt to ask. He figured if it bothered you too much to speak about it, you would deny answering. But, considering he was the only person who allowed you to rant to him, you were not going to throw away the opportunity to do so.

“More shit about me and—” That’s the farthest you could let Niall peek at your day before a familiar ringing noise sounds in the kitchen. Niall releases a sigh as you collect your phone from your back pocket, seeing who was calling.

“It’s Ry—”

“Take it. It’s okay.” Niall assures, without you even having to ask. You nod, promising to be quick, though he knew it would be at least twenty minutes before your attentions could turn back to him. That is, if another article was not sent to you about the situation.

“Hey…yeah I saw…” you eye Niall strolling out of the kitchen, his bare back and tense muscles prominent from your view. “Uh huh…” you murmur, before you and Ryan are venting about your day to one another. All of the interrogations at interviews, the photos people had snuck while touring the set, and the trailer for the newest episode that was just dropped. The trailer went viral within two hours because your editors and marketing team decided to include the kissing scene your two character’s shared in that episode along with the montage of other points. By the time you had ended the call, you found Niall showered and lying on his bed. The television in the living room was black, a sign that the golf match ended much earlier.

“Hey…sorry about that.” You mumble, crawling into his bed beside him.

“It’s okay…I assume you don’t want to talk about your day?” He inquires, looking down as you wind an arm over his stomach.

“W-what makes you…”

“I mean, I don’t want you to waste your breath or anything. Judging by the earful you gave Ryan it must’ve been juicy.” Niall remarks through his teeth. 

“I was just—”

“Because why waste your time talking to me about it, right?”

“Niall! Stop!” You yell, allowing a heavy silence to fall in between you two. You take your arm away from his middle and sit up, brows scrunching. “Why are you acting like this?” You ask, tone quieter.

“I…don’t know. I’m sorry, I’m just…I’ve been in my head a lot lately. Thinkin’ about lots of things.” He huffs, turning his gaze down to his legs.

“Like?”

“Like…us.” He answers, face solid.

“What about us?” You hesitate with a trembling voice.

“Well, more like how there isn’t an us.” Niall mumbles, voice gravelly. “To everyone else, anyway.” He breathes, trying a smile but with no avail. The sight delivers a brutal sting to your heart.

“Niall…”

“I know we can’t tell anybody; I know.” He rushes out before you could remind him. “But shit, can we at least act like they do when you’re here?” Your lips part, but fail to generate the right words. “Because right now it kind of seems like I don’t exist when Ryan calls and—and when I ask about your day first but he interrupts, it seems like I can’t get a sound out of you after about it. And damnit, Y/N, I want to hear about it! All of it! And having to listen through the walls just to know you’re okay…”

“Yeah?” You whisper.

“I see what everybody else does. And I don’t like it. Not one bit.” You nod, biting your lip to hold back tears much like Niall was doing judging by his crackling voice. The only reason you really spilled your guts to Ryan was that he was in the same exact position you were in, so he would understand you the most. But that was not entirely true. Because right in front of you sat Niall, who was hiding just as much as you were for the same exact reasons.

“I’m…I didn’t know you felt that way.”

“Yeah,” Niall sniffs, “who could blame ya? Ya never have time to ask.”

“And that’s not right.” You shake your head, bringing your body up to straddle his lap. After swinging a bent leg over both of his, and situating yourself over his thighs, you stare into his eyes with a shameful gaze. “It should never be like that. I should tell you about my day, and ask you about yours and…I’m sorry, Niall. I’m so sorry I haven’t.”

“It’s okay—” He tilts his head down, but your hand grabs a hold of his chin scraggly with hair and lifts it back up.

“No, it’s not.” You decree. “To be honest, the reason I never really talk about it is because…I thought it wouldn’t matter to you?” At your admission, Niall’s eyes bulge. The feeling of his warm hands flying to your hips calms both of you to an extent.

“Why would ya think that, love?”

“Wouldn’t you be annoyed hearing me rant about some guy people think I’m dating?” Niall nods his head, understanding your point.

“I suppose…but I’d be angry with you. I’d be on your side.” Niall guarantees with a firm squeeze to your sides. It makes a giggle bubble up from your throat, and a smile crawl up to his lips at the sound of it resounding against his bedroom walls. After bringing his hands in yours and lacing your fingers together, you say, “I’m sure you would. You’d hold me…pleasure me…sing me to sleep.” You smirk, watching Niall grow flush beneath you at his noticeable methods of affection.

“Ryan can’t do any of that.” You bite your lip.

“Damn right he can’t! You’re mine.” Niall looks you up and down, pulling your chest closer to his.

“And I’ll start taking that into consideration more. Now, how about I pleasure you this time to start?” You raise your eyebrows.

“I like the sound of that.” His hand starts to reach up to comb through your hair, but the boisterous rings of your phone interfere once again. Niall heaves a breath and sits back, all while you roll your eyes and reach out for the phone.

“Hey, Ryan.” Niall looks up at you, expecting in less than a second to be off of his lap. But he is rather surprised at the feeling of your hand reaching up to tug the loose sweats down off his waist. “You mind if we talk tomorrow? My boyfriend and I are kind of in the middle of something.” You answer with a smirk, watching Niall’s eyes grow right before you. Ryan’s screams of puzzlement could be heard by Niall as you dragged the phone away from your ear and ended the call. And soon, your grip made its way back to Niall’s boxers with a devious smirk on your lips. 

“Now, where were we?”

DTeam Tumblr Demographics Survey Results (Part 2):

What does DTeamblr look like, what does it have to do with MCYT history, and why does it look like a rainbow?

I’ll make an educated guess here and say y'all enjoyed my last post (totally unrelated to the way I gained almost 50 followers overnight). Anyhow, thank you so much for the overwhelming support! I’m so glad a lot of you felt you could relate to my deep-dive into the leading personality type on DTeam Tumblr. It took me so many hours to write and research, and as a math major and honors student, it’s no easy feat, so I’m so grateful for the attention it got!

Today we’re discussing the general demographics of DTeam Tumblr and why they might look the way they do. Number 8 will blow your mind! So make sure to keep reading and hit that little grey heart and arrow at the bottom if you like it, so more people get to see it! Thanks for your support! Now, let’s jump straight into the post!

Your Daily Dose of Data

From the 449 responses we received, these are some pie charts displaying the gender, age, and sexuality of all respondents.

Image Description: Female (52.8%), Non-Binary (37.4%), Male (9.8%)

Image Description: 16-17 (37%), 13-15 (31.4%), 18 and over (29.4%), 12 and under (2.2%)

Image Description: Bisexual/Pansexual (54.1%), Homosexual (16%), Asexual (14.7%), Other (7.8%), Heterosexual (7.3%)

Mmhm, delicious! Y'all ready to dig into these stats? Because I don’t know about you, but they certainly don’t strike me as what the general population looks like!

Welcome to Tumblr, the Only Community Where Straight Men are the Minority

So these statistics certainly didn’t take me by surprise. Mostly because the DNF Shipper Survey I took some time ago revealed a similar trend. Not to mention, Tumblr is probably the QUEEREST internet community on the planet. 

Funny enough, the survey revealed a shocking number of ZERO heterosexual males respondents. I’ll say it louder for the people in the back. ZERO straight males were recorded out of 449 respondents for this survey!

Now, this isn’t surprising for the Tumblr community by itself, but I can say I’m somewhat surprised in terms of the MCYT Tumblr community. (Obviously, the survey specified DTeam Tumblr, but there is a big overlap between both communities, so I will be using them interchengably when it seems relevant.)

Let’s break this down. The survey reveals the largest age population is 16-17, though it’s not by a great margin in comparison to 13-15 and 18 and older, which doesn’t surprise me either. Some of the major critics of the DTeam Fandom and other MCYT Fandoms love to claim the fanbase’s majority age range lies with children and pre-teens. While it’s an undeniable fact children are drawn to Minecraft, it’s also a misconception to paint it as solely a community for younger viewers.

In the MCYT Tumblr and DTeam Tumblr communities, specifically, we see this is not the case. Only 1/3 of the respondents of this survey are under the age of 16 (you could attribute part of it to the fact younger people might be less inclined to participate in this survey, but it is still a notable difference). I can’t say these age ranges are similar in other parts of the community like DTeam Twitter, Tik Tok, or Reddit, but if I had to make a guess, I’d say Tumblr lies toward the older of the bunch, with Reddit being the oldest and Tik Tok being the youngest (I do hope to perform this survey on some of the other communities, so please stay until the end if you want to help with that).

One of the likely explanations to why the ages for DTeam Tumblr look this way is the fact a big chunk of the community has likely been watching MCYT for a long time (even with breaks in between). I, myself, used to watch channels like PopularMMOs, Aphmau, and PrestonPlayz as a kid, and I presume many of you are familiar with them as well. With the resurgence of MCYT in the past year, it likely drew a lot of the older viewers in addition to the new ones.

But enough about age. What I really want to highlight on this post is the attraction of queer individuals to DTeam Tumblr and MCYT as a whole.

Why is the current MCYT Fandom so queer in comparison to the previous generations?

This is a huge open-ended question and considering I can only capture so much of the DTeam and MCYT community, the rest of this post should be taken solely as a theoretical analysis as opposed to fact.

With that out of the way, let’s start by discussing the shift MCYT has undergone over the years (I promise this will circle back to the question of queerness in the MCYT fandom, but we need some background before we can come up with a decent theory).

When Minecraft was first released, it proved to be a monumental change in the gaming industry. This simple little indie game took the world by storm. It was so vastly different from what the general population generally viewed gaming as (first-person shooters, story-driven games, action games, etc.) Not to mention, it didn’t exactly solely appeal to only a small margin of gamers, those being white cis males.

The gaming industry has notoriously been known in the past for its heteronormative community and general prejudice toward minorities. Though it has gone through a significant change over the decades, we certainly can’t say it’s fully gone.

Yet for whatever reason, the recent MCYT has taken the interest of so many queer people in comparison to other gaming YouTube communities. Why? Why are queer people so drawn to this community? And, more precisely, why does it feel so different than the old MCYT? Lastly, how does this relate to the conclusion about the leading personalities of this fandom we made in the last post?

The Niche Communities of MCYT Over the Years

MCYT has always been a huge, over-saturated genre of YouTube with content appealing to a variety of audiences. It’s dominated gaming content for years, and I think we can all safely say it’s never been bigger than it is today.

So why is it that just now it feels like the queerness of the fandom is popping off? Why now as opposed to say five years ago when MCYT was at another one of it’s strongest stages?

It seems like the community has made a tremendous shift in relation to breaking gender norms and LGBTQ+ subjects, not only in the fans but within the creators themselves. Was flirting and calling a pretty-boy streamer pet names as normal in the past as it is today? Were straight gamer guys putting on dresses and a full-face of make-up as supported back then? Were “marriages” and “pregnancies” within Minecraft boys an everyday occurrence like they are now? How is it that MCYT has dominated a Twitch dating show where flirting with the gay host and among straight contestants themselves is just another bit of entertainment? Where is this all coming from?

Recently, I watched a 2 hour documentary depicting all of the stages of Minecraft YouTube and how it has changed over the years. If you haven’t seen it and you have some time to spare, I HIGHLY recommend it! It’s very informative, and it honestly gave me such a strong sense of nostalgia that makes me choke up every time I think about it. I’ll link it below.

The documentary does a great job at exploring the different niche communities that dominated MCYT since it first took off. Some of such communities include the basic Let’s Players, the team-based Let’s Play channels like How2Minecraft, the roleplay story-centric ones like Aphmau and Samgladiator, the tutorial, building and technical side like Mumbo and Grian, the PVP-centric Bedwars or Hypixel channels, the Machinima community, the comedy side like ExplosiveTNT, the parody music videos, and so many more. All of the mentioned communities have dominated Minecraft at one point or another, many of them still having a rippling effect and/or a loyal community today. All of these communities have certain aspects that define them, some of which parallel the current overtaking content in the present.

How can we compare MyStreet to the Dream SMP?

Taking Aphmau as an example, her MyStreet series had a TREMENDOUS success a few years ago, racking in millions of views and bringing in a lot of money that eventually allowed her to hire voice actors and increase the production of mentioned episodes. The roleplay series was so successful it ran for six seasons!

Now, let’s compare that to the Dream SMP. It seems like a big comparison to be making considering they appear so different at first glance. For once, Aphmau is just one channel whose audience caters toward girls and younger people who enjoy romance. The series is set-up in an episodic-format that resembles more of a TV series than actual Minecraft videos.

Meanwhile, the Dream SMP is a collection of content creators with a mix of improvised storylines and the occasional regular video that resembles more of a Let’s Play series than a RP series.

You could say the only true comparisons to draw out of these two are the popularity they had/have and the profit they brought to their respective creators. 

However, there’s two other key similarities that you’ll find not only within these two specific examples, but many other channels and communities as well. Story and characters.

MyStreet’s story aspect is fairly obvious seeing as it’s a episodic series that focuses on a fictional story. The Dream SMP’s story aspect isn’t as clear, but it’s evident there is a story playing out in the foreground and background, whether intentional or unintentional, or improvised or not.

Character is where some of you might start to question me. It’s obvious MyStreet has characters. I mean, it is a fictional story, after all. But the Dream SMP? Light, they’re obviously people!

Well, my answer to that is yes and no--sort of. The Dream SMP’s story heavily relies on roleplay, bits as you might call them. Events that aren’t necessarily planned out as a fictional plot like the typical MyStreet episode is, but they aren’t exactly real. Schlatt is obviously not a villain in real life, he just likes to impersonate as one for the narrative. Wilbur isn’t crazy, but it’s a way to spice up the heroic story surrounding Tommy and him.

It’s video-game improv. Except the actors behind the content just so happen to be real people playing off the personalities and “brands” they have obtained. 

Brands. It all boils down to this. In the entertainment business, without a clear vision of your project and a clear way to brand what your consumer intakes, your project will likely not find a lot of success.

There’s a reason why Tommy plays off his loudness, using an overexaggerated laugh that although may not be completely fake, it is likely not the laugh he uses everyday. Or why BadBoyHalo is this supposed innocent muffin who doesn’t understand the crafting table meme and other references that are fairly easy to google and find the meaning of. Or why Sapnap is this chaotic being who loves starting pet wars and we love to paint as an arsonist in the Dream SMP. While all of these personality traits may be a part of their true selves, they’re played up for the camera--for the story. They act as the personas that define their characters in the narrative.

They have a clear brand and vision that appeals to the audience and makes them tune in on the daily to see how they all come together. It’s like roleplaying a more extreme version of yourself, one that brings home the money.

Story and characters run across every entertainment outlet. They define their brand. Aphmau has her characters and series. Hermitcraft has a set of memorable personalities and episodic videos that formulate its own story that is less like a narrative and more of a history of the server. ExplodingTNT has his recurring cast and comedic sketches. Most of these niche communities have a form of story and character defining them. It’s how they achieve a clear sense of branding and cater to a specific audience.

Queer Theory in MCYT

Having said all that, why does the MCYT of today draw in so many queer viewers?

Let’s think about this. In my last post, I ended by mentioning DTeam Tumblr is a sort of safe haven for INFP and INxx types who might be placed in the “other” category by society. INFPs, specially, are predisposed for escapism--one common form of it being fiction and entertainment. Not to mention, INFPs are feeling types who, as introverts, seek a personable connection. It’s why it’s so easy for them to obsess over book characters or fall in love with content creators.

Now, let’s imagine a whole community of LGBTQ+ INFP and INxx types. Actually, scratch that, we don’t even have to imagine it.

It’s what our community looks like today.

And why are so many so drawn to the DTeam and Dream SMP of all things? It’s a personable storyline that essentially forms a direct tie to the viewer. Unlike pre-recorded fictional TV series you tune into on your device, the Dream SMP is a whole load of chaos that blurs the lines between reality and fiction where fans can directly connect to creators and get to know them as people through a storyline that features sub-textual queer themes and non-conforming behaviors.

The MCYT content creator community of today is more non-conforming than ever before, and knowing this whole fact, knowing that many of them might place themselves in the “other” category or at the very least aren’t afraid to break the norms and be seen in that light, is a comfort in itself for LGBTQ+ INFP types. Once again, it’s a safe space that helps you escape from the troubles of real life, one you relate to.

Okay. So although this does answer why the fans look like they do, what about the creators themselves? Are we really supposed to believe this all came through naturally? That a bunch of straight guys suddenly decided wearing dresses was something they wanted to do?

I don’t mean to sound cynical here, and I’m in no way trying to insinuate creators have solely some sort of corrupt ulterior motive. Things are never as simple as they look. However, the truth is, a part of it lies on the attention it’s gotten.

I’ve talked a lot about DreamNotFound and the way Dream uses it as a marketing ploy. I stand by my point. However, he’s not the only one who does this in the MCYT community. Why did Finn suddenly go from wearing a dress to cross-dressing as a girl for a whole week? Why are so many creators suddenly deciding wearing dresses is fun? Why does every freaking straight MCYT actively want to flirt with George nowadays?

Let’s just let Techno’s favorite word answer this for us: clout.

It gets attention from one of the largest historically underserved minority community in the entertainment business. We might not be able to see gay flirting in every Netflix TV show or guys not minding dresses and getting fake marriages, but you are certainly going to get at least one of those in every Dream SMP stream and video you tune into. It gets attention. It brings home the money. And do I blame them? Not really.

Interestingly enough, there’s a lot of analytical posts on the MCYT Tumblr community that discuss the dangers of these tactics and why gay jokes and the way queer subtext is treated by MCYT creators is harmful. Despite this, it still attracts such a huge community of queers. So why exactly would queer people actively watch something that’s offensive or harmful to us?

I have a lot more to say about this topic and the morality behind Dream’s tactics, but I’m out of breath for today, so I’ll talk about it in my next post. What better way to start the conversation about the DNF and Karlnap questions of the survey than a good ol’ discussion on the morality of queerbaiting and the likes?

If you got this far, I’d appreciate it if you liked and reblogged this post if you enjoyed it and/or learned something new! Also, important news, I would really like to perform a similar study on the DTeam Twitter Community to measure the differences in demographics across platforms. I would REALLY appreciate it if you guys could go like, retweet and share the link I posted on my Twitter about it (tweet will be linked in the reblog below) so it reaches more of the DTeam Twitter community!

However, if you filled out the survey yourself here or you associate more with DTeam Tumblr than DTeam Twitter please DO NOT fill out the survey again! I’m trying to make sure it reaches the audience that mains on Twitter, but I need a little help with that since I don’t have as big of an influence on Twitter than on here for obvious reasons.

Anyhow, thank you so much for all your support! I really appreciate y’all and make sure to hit the follow if you want to lookout for the next demographics post! <3

(Pssst, I’m releasing a MCYT DNF superpower AU longfic next month... You should totally go check out the post on that if you’re interested in it...)

TOMORROW X TOGETHER: a new kind of K-pop for American teens

Let’s play a Google autocomplete game. If you type “why K-pop” into the search field, the first suggestion is “why K-pop is popular.” Two things are for certain: First, K-pop is popular; second, people are curious as to why. For some time, numerous articles, not in specialized K-pop or music journals but in the general media, have tried to answer this question. It often goes like this: The genre marries auditory and visual elements; it draws from almost every major Western musical genre to find catchy melodies; visually, its music videos are conceptual and focus on fashion, choreography, and storytelling; unique, talented artists go through a long training period, but their appeal also comes from presenting their everyday selves in addition to their artistic personas.

Every one of these observations is accurate. However, this is closer to a description of how K-pop has been introduced to the outside world. This is of course because the music excels in all of these categories, which in turn have allowed the genre to enjoy widespread interest and recognition internationally. International articles usually chronical the history of K-pop by starting with Seo Taiji and the Boys, then cover PSY and Girls’ Generation, and finally come to BTS. The continuous improvement in quality and the particular characteristics it has developed are key points in the history of K-pop. Naturally, K-pop groups who enter the US market emphasize concepts that capture the market’s trends along with the previously mentioned factors. But this is not a satisfactory answer to our question. Why is the world’s most popular boy band a K-pop group? And why do some new artists spontaneously become popular in North America despite having no special promotions targeting the region? Aside from being good, what sets them apart? To find answers, let’s look back on the extraordinary events of the past summer in the US when racial tensions had been ignited. In response to the music industry’s #BlackoutTuesday movement, which rallied against racism, hashtags like #WhiteoutWednesday and #AllLivesMatter emerged. These latter ideas are, of course, forms of discrimination. While this was going on, droves of K-pop fans posted videos, GIFs, and photos of their favorite K-pop artists in conjunction with the problematic hashtags to drown out the hate speech. To begin with, this shows the positive effect K-pop artists have. If we peel back a layer, we can see K-pop’s history of appealing to minorities in overseas markets from its very earliest days. More fundamentally, we see a topic that K-pop has traditionally dealt with—one familiar to Koreans but which is in fact not typically handled in popular culture. Comfort and introspection for younger generations conveys a message of loving yourself, and awareness of an absurd social structure leads to interest from the public. This unique situation has been the story of K-pop idols since as far back as H.O.T. This is a gap that has always existed in mainstream US culture—a vacuum between the dangers of the “parental advisory: explicit content” sticker and the safety of the Disney Channel. In the US, there are people dealing with that gap in numerous interesting ways, but they are not notable artists, nor can they be seen on prime time TV. On the contrary, it’s not unusual to see K-pop idols sing about school violence, homogenous education, broken dreams or hellish social inequality on weekend TV. With the most intensive education system in the world and a society that is, right from childhood, infamously competitive, it is perhaps not surprising but nonetheless fascinating for this phenomenon to have developed in Korea. Once combined with K-pop’s highly polished audiovisual splendor, this ironic circumstance that had come to fruition within the Korean idol industry over two decades was picked up by the younger generation of US listeners. The joke about parents singling out “Dynamite” during its competition with “WAP” for chart dominance because it’s a safe choice has some truth to it.

In November, TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s Minisode1: Blue Hour reached number 25 on the Billboard200. It is the best charting album for a K-pop artist in their second year after their debut—an impressive record, considering K-pop artists have been unable to perform in the US due to COVID-19. With widely recognized artists having an advantage on the charts before the pandemic to begin with, it’s clear how much this group’s fanbase has expanded since its debut ranked 140 on the Billboard200. Most of the songs on their debut Japanese album, Still Dreaming, are in Japanese, yet at the time of its release it was the most spotlighted K-pop album within the US. The lead single off the album, the Japanese version of “Blue Hour,” took off as the most important new song in the K-pop sections of Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal alike, and was pushed up on related playlists. It is unprecedented for a Japanese language track to receive such attention, even if it is sung by a popular K-pop artist. This phenomenon, in which a K-pop artist’s debut Japanese album draws the attention of US music consumers, is in some ways to be expected with TOMORROW X TOGETHER, who have from their inception made teenage emotions and relationships a focus of their work. They also deal with the impact of COVID-19 on teenagers’ school lives on their latest album with songs like “We Lost the Summer.” Idols are naturally drawn to themes of teenage excitement and anxiety, but such themes also represent an untapped demand that is not easily filled by love songs. K-pop reached new heights when PSY generated interest in a trend that transcends language. Now, it has expanded to take on emotions that are universal, regardless of language, but which are often brushed aside. This is why the K-pop of “tomorrow” isn’t about more lavish production, but more thoughtful observation and consideration. Teens are looking for songs that they feel help them see the world “together,” no matter where they are.