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#stop demonising rats
akookminsupporter · 1 year
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I am sure you may have already gotten this ask so feel free to provide a generic response. Jungkook deleting his IG is such a powerful move because in this time of high social media interactions, he doesn’t give a rats ass about the most superficial of platforms. And he has every right to choose to step away from it.
But you will always have conspiracy theorists and detractors who would want to read more into the actions of the members despite them clarifying. Jungkook’s IG account deletion is being labelled as either his rebellion against the company for restricting him or a deletion by the company it’s self for not abiding by policies or going on unsupervised and unauthorised lives. Despite him being a grown man with agency.
What’s your take on this?
Ha! this is the ask that was above yours.
People are saying Hybe make JK delete his IG and that JK did not delete because he doesn’t use it much. They say it’s because of all the unauthorized wlives he did. I just wanna know your thoughts on this
Obviously many will think all that. This fandom likes their theories no matter how absurd or stupid they are.
This fandom has many problems, but 4 of the main ones are the hero complex, the need to pigeonhole the members as victims, the demonisation of HYBE/BIGHIT and ignoring what the members say. We could talk about these four problems separately, but we can really boil them down to one complex - the fandom thinks it knows best. The fandom thinks it knows what bts members need, what's going on with them, what they want and what bothers them. they know all that better than the members themselves. The fandom, or many in it, have taken this weird parasocial relationship with bts to extremes and like everything that is taken to extremes, it is no good.
This hero complex is with all members, whether individually or as a group, but I have noticed since coming into the fandom, that it is particularly strong with the Maknae Line.
For many, the Maknae Line is being oppressed and exploited by the big bad HYBE/BIGHIT. The whole group, really, they are being taken advantage of! And that's why the maknae Line likes to "rebel" against them. I've always read how the agency and the company don't treat them well, make them do this or that and I'm just dumbfounded by so much… stupidity.
When you become a fan of a K-pop group I think it's almost impossible not to learn a little bit about the industry itself - although sometimes, a lot of times you learn that information from the wrong media. I think many of us know about the inhumane treatment many agencies have with their idols, the stupid behavioural clauses, forcing them to do things they don't want to do etc., that's unfortunately still relatively common in that industry, but I think it's also obvious that HYBE/BIGHIT isn't like that or at least not to the extremes that other companies go to and definitely not with BTS. Or not anymore.
BTS is HYBE/BIGHIT's golden goose. They started it all, they gave the company the opportunity to grow the way it has. Many argue about whether bts paved the way for the K-pop industry or not, but they did pave the way, at least financially, for the groups under HYBE. The report a few weeks ago that HYBE presented showed that bts still brings in the most economic income to the company, more than all other artists combined, despite having stopped activities as a group since June 2022, basically. And you still think that the company would deliberately do something to harm them?
I'm not a corporate apologist by any stretch of the imagination, but to pretend that bts members don't benefit from HYBE/BIGHIT as well, is stupid. Many seem to forget when it suits them that bts also own shares in that company.
But the worst part of this narrative is that these people don't realise how insulting it is to the artists they swear to love and claim to want to protect. To believe that the company is exploiting them, forcing them to do something they don't want to do and deliberately harming them in some way is also to believe that the members are useless, pusillanimous people who don't know how to stand up for themselves. It is believed that bts does not apply what they preach so much in their songs, in their campaigns, or in their concerts. It is to believe that the members of bts do not apply what many in this fandom brag about them preaching. They stand for. And that obviously doesn't make sense.
In this particular case, Jungkook is without a doubt one of the most important artists in the company. He generates a lot of income as part of the group and individually. The interest in him is out of this world. In business terms, Jungkook is a precious asset to the company and yet you think the company could force him to do or not do something?
In one of his last Wlives, Jungkook talked about how the company doesn't allow them to do Wlives without notice and I don't know what else but he still did it. In the Wlive where Tae joined for a few moments, they talked about how "the company would scold them" but they still didn't care, Tae even said that he would take responsibility. And in the next Wlive that Jungkook did, someone asked him if he was scolded and Jungkook basically said 'do they really think they could forbid me to do something?' which brings us to the problem of this fandom forgetting what the members say when it doesn't fit their narrative.
If what these people say were true, it would make more sense for HYBE/BIGHIT to ban Jungkook from doing Wlives unsupervised, in the middle of the night than to order him to delete an account on a social media platform he hadn't used for a long time. But no, this fandom HATES to believe in the most logical explanations regarding anything bts related because then they wouldn't be able to "activate" their hero complex.
Jungkook is different. He walks to the beat of his own drum and is also somewhat impulsive. I don't doubt for a minute that he deleted/deactivated his Instagram account because he didn't see any benefit or use for it and because I felt that the novelty of the app had worn off for him for a while now. When Jungkook deleted all his posts and edited his feed in a more "professional" manner I remember thinking that he was getting bored of the app and like most of what Jungkook gets bored of, he would put it aside. And so it happened. Although it took him a while to do it.
I also think that the sasaengs' obsession with stalking him and so on also made him fed up, maybe it was something he saw in his account and he got tired of it. Getting away from toxicity is always necessary.
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chisatowo · 3 years
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Eyyy Lisa's dope tbh I lover her very much, it also helps that the bass line in Good 4 U is pretty prominent
Yeah yeah I adore Lisa, she's definitely one of my favorite bandori characters :]! I also very much like elaborating upon Lisa and Yukina's relationship struggles in my stories, since I feel like people tend to brush over the part of their backstory where things got bad enough between them at some point that Lisa quit the bass, which definitely shows to me that there was definitely a bit more tension between them then just having had grown a bit distant. Again I feel like I should specify that I don't think they're abusive or whatever, just that they have a bit more complicated relationship then most people give them credit for I think. I just find them to be very interesting, and I can also just relate to them both a lot
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Bbc Merlin? 💜
(anon asked the same 💙)
The first character I first fell in love with: merlin :') dragonlcrd videos my beloved :')) i was like wow this weird ass rat is kinda pretty and very sassy
The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: elyannnn i mean i liked him as soon as he appeared first time watching and shipped perelyan and i thinkkk perelyaine and i was so angry when he died just on principle i entirely stopped caring about what happened after but i didn't realise just how delightful he was til i went through and found all his scenes and watched them bc i wanted to do text posts for all the knights and didn't know if he (or leon, or percival) had enough canon personality (he did) (percival was a struggle as was leon kinda) ig percival too although he hasn't changed from the placeholder man i saw him as while first watching :')
character everyone else loves that I don’t: arthur except i don't hate him as much as i act, like i would commit several crimes for s1 him it's more how hypocritical, evil in his utter ignorance, and honestly pathetic he is by s5 and how he’s coddled by the fandom. Also... im gonna get killed on sight for saying this aren't i but Merlin?? i used to and i get why but idk i'm just kinda... he doesn't interest me so much any more? i feel like there's nothing i want to add to what everyone else is doing which is GREAT btw and idk there are a lot of characters i love more :)
The character I love that everyone else hates: eira :') i adopted her for camelove day... 6 i think? and wrote her perspective of dotd and i just... i know i KNOW her plotline is the worst but she was demonised by the writers as much as any other female character and that's no reason to ignore her existence. Also idk about hate but i am a vivian stan and violent defender of her right to be as bitchy as she likes :D (except if it’s to gwen );) also people who hate mordred... why buddy? why
The character I used to love but don’t any longer: again merlin ig but also morgana. She... she's just... no. People make her out to be some feminist icon who was only bad bc the narrative portrays her that way and if she was just fighting for her people's freedom i'd probably agree. but she slaughters innocents, allies herself with all sorts of REALLY awful people whose actions she condones as long as they're not against her, tortures abuses and controls people who've done absolutely nothing to deserve it (Gwen, Mithian), and certainly by the end only cares about getting power. i... she's a villain. There's nothing wrong with liking villains of course, and i will still never forgive merlin for poisoning her, but she's not just 'misunderstood'. i used to be really big on morgana redemption but now don’t usually bother or include her in my fics bc i can’t see past what she did to gwen.
The character I would totally smooch: smooch? uhh...... lance?? Maybe??? probably not tho :/ hug however? gwen 🥺 elyan, percy,10/10 would braid gwaine's hair 🥰
The character I’d want to be like: probably gwen... tbf i relate to her a lot already i’m just not that lovely or accomplished 🤣
The character I’d slap:
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[ID: A gif of goblin-possessed Gaius having a whale of a time slapping Uther’s bald head. End ID]
A pairing that I love: perelyan, perelyaine, elyaine, mergwencelot... etc etc etc  rarepairs my beloved :’)
A pairing that I despise: aside from the obvious icky stuff and shipping teenage characters with adults... there’s not many i full on Despise. If merthur wasn’t so fucking ubiquitous i wouldn’t hate it half as much but alas :’) i have a grudge against perwaine simply bc people i’ve seen actually ship it are all height difference! banter!! flirting!!! all three of which perelyan has more of in canon plus they’re more affectionate and lbr percival made it pretty clear in 4x13 who he prefers (poor gwaine sitting there mangled and percy zooming straight past him🤣) and it kinda feels like people like perwaine more for the same reason elyan gets excluded from everything else and also it gets gwaine out the way of merthur but people can ship what they want and i don’t mind perwaine objectively so ig i digress... i also don’t like morgwen set in canon era for the above reasons but i can be swayed by modern au them (@mumble-muse’s xmas morgwen fic you’re an angel and we’re thrilled you're here, everyone go read and comment 🥰)
ty for the ask! 💜
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tlatollotl · 4 years
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The goddess Mayahuel, depicted in the Codex Magliabechiano, 16th century © Bridgeman Images.
Everything you thought you knew about the Aztecs is wrong. Or, as Camilla Townsend more tactfully puts it at the start of her wonderful new book: ‘The Aztecs would never recognize themselves in the picture of their world that exists in the books and movies we have made.’
The picture to which Townsend refers is perhaps best symbolised for British readers by the image on the cover of the original Angry Aztecs volume in Terry Deary’s Horrible Histories series (1997): a cartoon depicts an Aztec warrior holding a fresh human heart, saying ‘His heart was in the right place’ (covers of other editions show variations on this theme, save for a 2014 edition depicting a rat in Aztec warrior garb). The joke works because the association of the Aztecs with the practice of human sacrifice runs deep and wide: most people who know only one thing about the Aztecs know that they are famous for sacrificing people to their gods; and those who are more familiar with the Aztecs – including those who, for example, teach in schools or universities – tend to think of Aztec culture as one in which bloodthirsty rituals and exotic superstitions played central roles.
In recent decades, a growing number of scholars have pointed out the many ways and reasons why and how that perception is distorted, if not plain wrong. The Aztecs, it turns out, were no more bloodthirsty or savage than anybody else in the world – including the early modern Europeans who systematically demonised them. Their culture was part of a civilisation (that of the Nahuas of central Mexico) that was as sophisticated and accomplished as that of those Europeans who sought to destroy it.
But fighting negative stereotypes and replacing them with something less prejudicial, less sensationalist, more multifaceted and more accurate has proved to be an uphill battle. Franciscan friars in the 16th century, along with other Catholic priests and chroniclers, created a portrait of Aztec religion, politics and social practices that was designed to justify the often-violent imposition of Spanish colonisation and forced conversion to Christianity. That portrait took root and flourished for centuries. The era of the global triumph of European empires was fertile ground for derogatory views of ‘barbarian’ societies swept aside by civilisation’s progress. When new fields of study and new evidence on the Aztec past emerged – archaeological discoveries from beneath Mexico City, for example, or unpublished manuscripts written in Nahuatl in the early colonial period – they tended to be deployed to confirm, or at best modify, that deep-rooted stereotype, not upend it.
What has changed? As Townsend explains in an appendix to Fifth Sun, not until the 21st century was there a convergence of scholars with a profound grasp of colonial-era Nahuatl, a willingness to challenge the well-established portrait of the Aztecs on which generations of scholars had built their careers and a readily available body of sources written in the early colonial decades by the descendants of the Aztecs (mostly in Nahuatl). Townsend makes particular use of a genre of documentation called xiuhpohualli by its Nahua writers. Literally meaning ‘yearly account’, such sources were more like community histories. Townsend presented the xiuhpohualli in greater detail in an earlier book, Annals of Native America (2016), so here they stand as the largely invisible foundation to her reconstruction of Aztec history. But, significantly, they allow her to present the Aztec past through a skilful synthesis of Nahua memories and traditions. From start to finish – even after Spaniards appear on the scene – the perspective is Aztec-centric to an unprecedented degree.
The bulk of the book is devoted to the two centuries that straddled the Spanish invasion that began in 1519. Its narrative thus takes off in the 1420s, as the Mexica rulers forge the alliance of city-states that we call the Aztec Empire. The story’s basic elements are common to human history and are therefore broadly familiar: the leaders of a marginalised town turn the tables on the neighbours who have dominated them, generating a momentum of expansion that within a generation or so turns that town into the capital city of a diverse empire. Such a tale can be gripping and, in Townsend’s hands, it is certainly that.
Despite the dramatic changes that resulted from the Spanish invasion, Townsend is able to maintain an Aztec-centric (or, after the fall of the Aztec Empire, Nahua-centric) perspective into the 17th century. Considering that even her most important source documents – such as the xiuhpohualli – were written alphabetically by Christians, some with partial Spanish ancestry, that is no small accomplishment. The final 80 pages of Fifth Sun offer one of the best descriptions of the first century of Mexico’s colonial period I have ever read. In fact, this is the best book on the Aztecs yet written, full stop.
That is not just because of its focus on the Aztec perspective and not just because Nahua history is presented through Nahua sources and in terms that are sensitive and sensible to indigenous culture. Townsend has not set out to pen an Aztec apologia. She shies away from polemical defences of Aztec practices and from romanticising the individual Nahuas who play central roles in her telling of their history –although, to be fair, she comes close to an intellectual romance with Nahua women surviving the conquest wars (such as Moctezuma’s daughter, Tecuichpotzin, and Cortés’ interpreter, Malintzin) and with some of the xiuhpohualli authors.
Rather, the value of Fifth Sun lies in how it rescues Aztecs and Nahuas from centuries of colonialist caricature and renders them human again – fully human, with flaws, people capable of brutal violence but also of deep love, who also savoured ‘a good laugh, just as we do’. We are so ‘accustomed to being afraid of the Aztecs, even to being repulsed by them’, that it has never occurred to us that we might simply identify with them. With this book, that can change.
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darkskyatnight · 3 years
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Tony the Tiger and The Grinch
@biggest-gaudiest-patronuses
As requested by the mighty Gaud
Chapter 1
"And what? You're just gonna waltz on back to Happyland like nothing ever happened and leave me alone in Christmastown? It's Easter, our shared time of year and you're just going to leave like this?" Grinch demanded, his hands on his hips as he stared up at Tony daringly. "Yes, actually! You've been pissing me off for the longest time and how do I know you haven't been sneaking around with that Crazy Cookie guy? He's a buck toothed squirrel for God's sake!" Tony replied, pacing the floor.
Another night, yet another one of their arguments. "Figures! You always blame me for the stuff I've done, while you get off scot free and go back to filming your stupid ads while I'm demonised by this entire fucking town for being 'the mean nasty Grinch who steals presents from children! It's been five years and you would've thought they would forgive me, but ya know! And you, you just- just- the second it looks like I might be cheating you run away like the coward you've always been!"
Tony set his jaw, his pulse thrumming, shaking through his muscles as he gripped his suitcase. "Go fuck that rat if that's what you think." He spat, turning towards the door.
In seconds, he was gone, the door crashing behind him as the house trembled for a moment.
And as Grinch stared at the door, he refused to break, turning stoutly towards his room and marching as deftly as he dared towards his bedroom. His bedroom, not their bedroom.
"Stupid tiger, always thinks he can just accuse me of whatever he likes when he has such a clean record himself." Grinch murmured, his voice scratchy and a lump swelling in his throat sorely.
With a whimper, Max clambered onto his owner's bed, circling round until he met his owner's eyes, sensing his distress. Max didn't know much, but he knew his owner's mate had left. He nuzzled into his master's chest, huffing softly as he gazed upwards.
Grinch held his composure for a minimum of three seconds before fat, salty tears rolled down his face. "God, w-why? Why did I do that, Max? He was the best thing that happened to me and he's g-gone!" He wept, scrunching his fingers into his dog's fur, the fluffy pup only cuddling in heavier.
He chuckled wetly as Max pawed at him, whining softly. "You can feel it, huh?" Grinch scratched Max's head affectionately.
He found himself and Max less than an hour later outside his moms' house, sniffling.  Max bumped his leg knowingly, Grinch nodding. "Yeah, okay. I got it."
With a few knocks on the door, Grinch saw the door creak open to his mothers' faces, who took one glance at his face and knew what had happened. "Oh honey, come in. Stay with us for the night." Grinch felt something in his heart clench as he stepped through the threshold, taken in to the warm arms of his parents.
"I just don't know why I did that!" Grinch cried as he cupped his hot chocolate, squeezed in between Max and his momma. She simply stroked his head lovingly. "You were angry, and rightfully so. That mean tiger riled you up to get you hot and bothered. If he's doing that, he's not worth your time." She comforted softly, as his mother followed along sympathetically.
"He just left! Am I not good enough for him?" Grinch asked, a question his mothers knew not to them, but to himself, his mother clasping her hands over his. "If he left just like that, after accusing you of being unfaithful, then yes." She squeezed his hands tightly. "You need time, love. If you can heal, you can move on to a new love."
"Who?" Grinch snorted derisively. "Who'd love a green freak like me?" He jumped at a harsh tap on his shoulder. "Stop with that! We love you, Max loves you and I better not hear you saying anything of the sort again!" His momma scolded. "Besides, if that green ogre in the swamplands can find love, you can too."
Less than a month later, Grinch found himself in his car, on the highway when the presenter's song finished. "And next up is a new release by Tony the Tiger himself. He calls it, 'You're a Mean One, Mr Grinch.'"
Grinch would've slammed on the brakes if not for the fact that he was on the freeway. As quick as he could, he pulled over, stopping abruptly. The song dragged him through every nasty act he'd committed, the fervour in Tony's voice surprised him, and Grinch could feel his knuckles going pale from the force clamping down on the wheel, squeezing his eyes closed as the song finished.
"You-you asshole!" Grinch wept, slamming his head down on the wheel, his shoulders rising and falling erratically as sobs wracked his body, and he didn't think he'd ever stop, not that he wanted to.
When he calmed down, he gazed around. There was a convenience store a bit to his left. His throat was on fire. "May as well grab a drink while I'm here."
Stepping into the store, he was picking a drink when it began playing again. Doing his best to ignore it, he headed to the counter, digging out his wallet, keeping eye contact to a minimum, glaring down at his shoes.
"Thank you." He mumbled before a hand on his shoulder stopped him. It felt tight. Looking over to a beefy man who was getting slowly more red-faced. "Ey, you're that, ah, Grinch guy, right?" Grinch stared back at him warily. "And what if I am?" He tried to make his voice steely, but it was failing him. He felt the grip getting tighter, a roaring pain stabbing through his shoulder. "You're trash who hurt that poor tiger, and I want you to get out!"
"Sir you're hurting me!" Grinch cried as the man threw him against the aisle, scrambling from the shop as quick as possible, clutching his drink and his wallet.
His heart took several minutes to calm, and even then, it didn't stop aching. "He's ruined me." Grinch whispered numbly.
Sitting back in his car, Grinch put his head against the head-rest, gazing up at the sky. "We can't stay here." Grinch sighed, clearing the mist that gathered in his eyes. On the ground, he glimpsed a brochure, torn and soaked, but the words clearer than ever. "Summerworld. That's it!"
Grinch set off with his head held high and a new life already in mind.
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hollenka99 · 4 years
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Winston and Oliver
Winston and Oliver have two pretty different upbringings. Winston is brought up by his mother and stepfather in Saint John, New Brunswick, not very well off financially. Meanwhile, Oliver grows up as the son of a successful actor in Los Angeles. It just happened that their fathers had once been best friends, leading to them being childhood friends too. Whenever Oliver's family visited his father's relatives in Canada, Oliver would try meet up with Winston. So, with the help of letters, they remain good buddies.
Still, they start growing up and all their school peers begin developing non-platonic feelings towards each other. Anthony would talk about girls he thought about asking out. Oliver... couldn't relate. Perhaps he wasn't quite old enough. Let's wait a couple years. Still nothing. Okay, God, he's ready to be into girls already. Any time now. Seriously, don't wait up.
Winston is attracted to girls, even has a girlfriend or two during the early 1930s. Yet he feels similarly towards men too. Hmm odd. He guesses it's possible to be interested in both men and women. Who knew?
They were both raised Catholic. However, Winston doesn't suffer internalised homophobia as badly as Oliver does. Over the course of their life, Winston helps him grow more confident with his identity.
Oliver visits his aunt in Saint John during the summer of 1934, preparing to move to New York for college after the holidays. While there, he comes out to Winston. He needs someone to know and he rationalises it in his mind that if Winston doesn't react positively, they can always go their separate ways and leave their friendship behind as a childhood thing. He doesn't want to lose Winston as friend though. Oliver knows he won't rat him out to the authorities either way. So you can imagine the overwhelming relief he feels when Winston smiles and admits he's gay too.
While at Julliard, Oliver befriends a girl name Mary. She falls in love with him and he doesn't have the guts to tell her he'll never feel the same. He loves her but only platonically. Still, he enjoys her company. And well... he's going to have to marry a girl one way or another. He'd rather it be Mary.
Everything about being her boyfriend feels wrong. He's deceiving her. And he's now planing to make that deception lifelong. He really shouldn't be doing this to her. And yet he does, for the sake of selfishly saving his own skin.
Sophia has always suspected her brother was attracted to men. She privately calls him out after he announces he's engaged. Oh and what do you know, she's attracted to 'all sorts of individuals'. Great, that would have been good to know as he came of age. Nevermind. He knows now.
Around the same time, Sophia and Winston start a relationship. After all, Oliver isn't the only Jackson sibling to enjoy hanging out with Winston when they were growing up. They're happy together and Oliver is happy for them. He trusts Winston to treat her well.
Oliver marries Mary in 1940, with Winston becoming his brother-in-law the year after. Things are going well. The two men meet up every now and again. Mary just thinks her husband is spending time with an old friend. Sophia knows what's really going on and doesn't care too much, so long as Winston doesn't see anyone else behind her back.
When Oliver gets the news that two of his brothers have died, it changes how he wants to go about life. They had been 24 and 22. Oliver himself is still 28 by that point. He has some 50 or so years left, assuming he is going to die old. Does he really want to live a lie forever, just so everyone will approve of him? 50 years is a hell of a long time.
Mary unintentionally discovers the truth in 1951. She makes him pack his bags immediately. They divorce on the grounds of adultery. Fearing he'd 'corrupt' their two children (age ~9 and 5), she ensures he sees as little of them as possible.
Unsure of where to really go, he ends up at Sophia and Winston's doorstep. His reputation has been heavily damaged, his career as a composer with it. It feels as if the only things he has left are his sister and his best-friend-turned-lover.
Sophia understands the position she's in. Her husband prefers her brother's company. So she lets them go. She wants them both to be happy. Her only condition is that Winston remains an active part of their children's lives.
This new way of life works quite well for them. Winston moves to New York to live with Oliver. The three Wynton children grow up with their dad living with their uncle every other week being normalised. Their mom bringing 'friends' home every now and again isn't that out there either.
Life carries on, as it tends to do. More nieces and nephews come from Anthony, Harriet and Nora. Oliver definitely feels at home in Winston's company. Winston feels the same.
Still, the two of them have to remain secretive and anxious that they'll be discovered. I can't seem to find what the penalty in the state of New York was for sodomy. Whatever it was, they wanted to avoid it. Being disgraced as an unfaithful husband is one thing. Being in a same-sex relationship during the 50s is something else entirely.
In 1962, Illinois repeals its sodomy laws, essentially decriminalising homosexual relationships. 10 years later, Winston asks Oliver if he wants to move there. All of their children are adults themselves now. Come on, they could be free to be two men in love. Oliver is skeptical. He has built a life here in New York but... not hiding does sound nice. Okay then, let's try life in Illinois.
So they move to Chicago. They take some time to settle in, meeting other local members of the queer community while doing so. They're still not displaying their relationship in public. Decades of being cautious will do that. But then they're eating out with some friends and a couple hold hands. Very publically. And they're not getting any backlash for it. No-one's coming to their table to try get those two arrested.
Winston and Oliver risk holding hands where other people can clearly see them. No major consequences. A while later, they increase the risk by kissing while in public. Again, no legal repercussions.
Oh. Oh shit. They really can be out in public here. They get dirty looks sometimes. But it's not like those people could have them thrown in jail. They're in their late 50s now and finally, finally they can be visibly homosexual.
In 1975, they celebrate their respective 60th birthdays. Their first major birthdays as their true selves. They still can't believe it.
The two of them decide they want to help the younger generation. The queer kids who were coming of age in a time of more freedom. They both grew up in fear of being discovered. These kids need to know the community has their back. Laws changing doesn't immediately change attitudes, after all.
A music store is set up. If someone came saying their friend, Dorothy, sent them, they'd be sent to the back room. Word spread and more arrived claiming 'Dorothy' sent them.
Over the next few years, they watch these teenagers and young adults grow up. Some go to college or move away. Others keep hanging around where they know they'll be accepted.
Then one of the kids they'd said goodbye to returns. Oh wow, it's great to see you. How are things? You and Joshua still going strong? Wait, what do you mean he suddenly became very ill and died? Oh, that's- that's awful. He was such a good guy. We're so sorry. Give our condolences to his friends and family, if you're able.
It's not the last time they have members of their youth club become affected by this strange new disease. Not by a long shot. As the years carry on, they'll have one person coming to them saying their friend was diagnosed. Then they'll have another privately revealing they contracted the disease themselves a while later. Quite a few simply stress about the prospect of potentially getting infected.
Listen, they're just two gay men who are fast approaching their 70s. What the hell are they meant to do to protect these members who were practically children from something this overwhelming?
This disease obviously gets a name. When they hear about the New York Times referred to it as Gay-related immune deficiency or GRID, this ruffles more than a few feathers. Paired with other terms such as 'gay cancer' and 'gay plague', they are livid that the media has decided to target their marginalised group further.
This won't do. The two of them were born in the middle of a huge war where millions of young men died. Winston's father and Oliver's uncle were two of them. Oliver lost two of his brothers to the sequel of that war where even more people died in the millions. Too many young men and women have been needlessly lost this century. Even more are being lost right now but that's obviously not important because of who those people are.
People are dying. Some of them are only in their 20s or 30s. Stop using this as a chance to demonise a community that's already suffered enough, you bastards.
As soon as they learn it is spread through intercourse and infected blood, they promote protection. Boys, here's a condom. Girls, if any of you are planning to become involved with a guy, take one too. Don't expect him to necessarily carry one on him, though he should. And if any of you kids are doing drugs, please stop. You shouldn't be interacting with drugs in the first place but there's no better time to go cold turkey than right now. It would break our hearts to hear you got sick. Please stay safe out there, okay?
The 80s eventually turn into the 90s. While the members of their youth group may have seen them as gay uncle types back in the 70s, they're definitely more gay grandpas now. They keep going, maintaining the store and supporting younger members of the queer community in Chicago.
Oliver dies in 1999, with Winston joining him three years later. They are 83 and 86 respectively. But you know what? They've had a great go of it. Whether it was as childhood friends, brothers-in-law who maintained a secret relationship or long-term partners, they've been at each other's side. They count themselves lucky to have found someone so dear to them and been able to spend their life with them.
They wouldn't have wanted to do it with anyone else.
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thisbrutalbelle · 5 years
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MESSAGE PT 2 || Self Para
     waiting for drew to be alone bellamy contemplates what to do with him, acting on this when he is finally alone.
mentions: @ianncardero
tw: violence, blood.
          Getting to the safe house took time but Bellamy didn’t stop until she was outside of it’s location. From the maps she had stolen it was hidden beneath a rundown motel on the outskirts of a small town just on the edge of Utah and Idaho. When she was finally there she didn’t move to go inside, smelling the air and looking to see if there were any indicators of Drew’s presence, along with that of his companion. Going in when both were present would be difficult, being that Bella wasn’t sure how well a magic based in pheromones creating illusions and emotions would work on a witch who did them herself.
          So Bella waited, hoping to see one or both of them leaving the place. It was slow but Bella lacked the same kind of time sensitivity that most others were bound by. Yes, she did need to be back at some point or her life would go to shambles as it had when she’d left for extended periods in the past, but she had long enough and money enough to build it up again. Sitting there for days would have only affected her need to feed.
        But her mind moved, regardless of time, and it lingered on what she would do to him when he emerged. Iann, while ready to overlook her desire to kill him, didn’t actually want her to do it, and as much as Bella felt validated in her desire to she wasn’t sure. Did it matter as much that he deserved to die as much as Iann not wanting her to do it did? Iann might not have wanted his wants to affect hers but they did, because she cared about him.
        Hands tight on the wheel, her phone off and ignored, and her radio station playing an awful onslaught of christian rock, she considered alternate options. What would actually get what she wanted accomplished? She would never be safe, no one ever would be in a world that demonised people for some of the smallest indiscretions, but to be vaguely closer to it than she presently felt was the goal. A deterrent to anyone who might think Valentin had merely missed an opportunity they could scoop up.
       Ideas rolling in her head she watched as she saw a woman leave the hotel through a room that had it’s lights completely off for the past fourteen hours. In the dark Bella could see it was the woman who had been on some of the security tapes from the previous location. She got in a car and headed out, locking the motel room in multiple fashions and seemingly casting some kind of strange illusion over it, hiding the doors presence. This did nothing since Bella already knew it was there.
      She waited a few minutes, making sure the woman would not turn back having forgotten something, before she left her car, heading straight for the hidden door. The illusion fortunately had not made it disappear and Bella’s hand wrapped around the handle, dropping the magic immediately, causing her to frown. It meant when the woman did return something would be up. Bella needed to be fast.
       Inside it was easy though, Bella could feel the man’s heartbeat beneath the floor, an overwhelming urge inside of her to grab his hair and throw him against the wall as he had her, step on his leg and break his fucking bones. He was alone, like she had been. He was fucking weak like her.
       Quiet as she walked Bella searched for the entrance, finding it when she lifted the beds mattress, casting it aside to the floor. No use being subtle if her presence would be known the moment the illusion witch pulled her car in. So Bella acted quickly, descending the small staircase and using the security code she had stolen to enter his hiding place, a rat beneath the floorboards.
       As large as he had ever been Bella shifted instantly, hair shifting to it’s darkest shade of brown, eyes swallowed up with darkness, false nails popping off as talons grew from her fingers and her skin became more like rice paper than cream, showing blackened veins runnings through her body. And though he stumbled, stepping back at her presence, he barely seemed to flinch at what she was.
       Bella had expected much of the work of this to be done by what she was but as she stepped forward, blackened blood dripping from the corners of her eyes he began to laugh. An unusual reaction to her and not one she had expected. It threw her for a moment, allowing him some advantage as he moved to grab a weapon, fingers almost touching it when Bella was upon him, vampires and their speed.
       Her velocity slammed him into a wall, the metal caving against the size of his back, as her hand was at his throat, high beneath his jaw to control the movements of his head. “We’re all immune to you now,” he chuckled out, coughing as he concluded his words.
        Arms longer than her own he shoved her off him, Bella’s back colliding with one of the chairs in the room, falling to the ground as he climbed on top of her. “We’re not idiots,” he insisted, grabbing her neck as she had his, high and controlling as he brought his wet dog scented mouth to her cheek, licking at the blackened blood that had been releasing from her eyes, pulling back to stare at her.
        A simple mistake, Bella’s own latching onto his with a firmness she had never held before. Compelling people required intent, and often Bella’s intent was weak as she was aware how much people loathed her doing this, but this was different. She had not come in to murder Drew, she had decided better of a fate for him that disappointed her truest family member, and left her with nothing but a stupid body as evidence she had strength. No, that was not going to do it.
        Blackened eyes took his own in there’s pushing her way through into his mind, his grip becoming weak as he lost control. He might have been immune to the black eyed creature somehow but he was an idiot, to stare a vampire n the eye. Drawing her hand to her mouth Bella bit down with extended fangs, cutting her palm open and force feeding the wolf, never releasing his gaze as her lapped up her blood like a Labrador.
        Bella drew each drop through him, pulling it to his mind and watching as he lost more and more of himself and when he seemed the most smitten with her gaze she reached up to the large man seated on her and snapped his neck quite simply. A small snap echoed in her ears and for a moment the werewolves eyes seemed to gloss over, a certain kind of death overtaking him, but not a literal one. Something worse, something far more useful to Bellamy, and far more insufferable to the brute.
       He was her thrall now, and she could feel the anger that grew in him as he woke to feel that.
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capseycartwright · 7 years
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rather than reply to every anon that’s tried to give me a reason as to why they’re justified in calling rebecca a slut or whore or ratbecca or whatever other gross nickname you’ve decided is the new fun way to refer to her (use her actual name thanks) I’m just going to @ u all and hope you read this
how would you honestly feel if someone started calling you a slut or a whore or a rat? because argue this show is fictional all you want, words have meaning and carry weight, and you referring to a female character who has a storyline that’s putting a spanner in the works of your fav mlm couple (whatever your opinion on the storyline itself) using sexist language is gross, it’s literally disgusting behaviour and there is absolutely no defence for it (despite the four anon messages trying to tell me there is) and it feeds into the disgusting fandom narrative that demonises ANY woman who dares get in the way of your gay ship.
hate her, fine, i literally don’t care at this point, but I’m not going to let something as gross as this fandoms constant use of sexist language towards a female character go unchecked because it’s literally unacceptable. so unless you’ve got something productive to add to this conversation, stop sending me gross anons trying to defend yourself for calling rebecca a cunt!
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univcrse · 7 years
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I know you shipped clexa but how do you feel about Clarke and Lexa as individual characters?
i have really complicated feelings towards them as a wlwoc
no wlw ship means more to me than them, they were the first ship that made me deal with my sexuality which i had been actively repressing since i was 7, their story is beautiful and moving and shattered my heart and was everything scared small 15 yo me needed to see
clarke was one of my faves until s3, i had no reason to dislike her. i thought she was pretty and cool and also i was super happy when she was revealed to be bi. i LOVED lexa when she first came in. she was just and fair and awesome. but when she betrayed them i stopped liking lexa/clexa
when s3 started i was older and more critical of stuff. i started liking lexa and clexa again. but i can now say i hate clarke because she’s the embodiment of white supremacism, and i cannot tolerate her hypocrisy or the way the show elevates her (at the expense of poc) pls go through my “anti clarke griffin” tag. i only care for her as bi rep bc it meant a lot that my once favourite show has a bi lead.
i do like lexa. i don’t hold any of her decisions against her and understand and love a lot about her. and she’s a wlw so i love her for that too.
but it’s hard for me as a desi girl to ignore that she’s in a white girl in brownface, the bindi, and ruling a race that believes in reincarnation. the 100 has a very fixed formula with its grounders and arkers: the whites of both are special and good and the poc are bad. it’s awful that lexa is called a visionary and different and indra is called a savage. it’s awful that lexa is superior to all grounders of color including anya, who is of desi descent and should have worn the bindi instead.
and lexa’s fandom is full of racists who hate asians, constantly defend her racist aspects, call her appropriation of my religion (dharmachakra shaped bindi) an obsolete nordic symbol it looks nothing like, and then demonise actual brown skinned southern asians; bellamy, jackson and dr singh for reasons as absurd and racist as “they’re sky people/mt weather so they’re rats” (ignoring how they’re actually likening BROWN PEOPLE to vermin just to prop up a white girl posing as us) or “bellamy/pike/monty/mrs green/dr singh killed grounders so they’re xenophobic n genocidal” when?? they’re poc??? defending themselves???? against a WHITE GIRL trying to wipe them out??? do the historical connotations of that not raise any red flags??
tldr i care for them as wlw but i have nothing but hated for their white supremacy/racist undertones and i hate the conflict of having to choose between my race and sexuality so i don’t blog or talk about it anymore.
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Politics- why it now sucks and why it has to change
Do you remember when politics used to be boring, when only the nerds like me wanted to watch Question time and enjoyed thinking about the nuances in policy between different parties? Those were the days. I used to watch Question time, and I used to enjoy it. I remember the first couple of times I watched it was when the MPs expenses scandal was kicking off and then when Nick Griffin was on and generally made a fool of himself. However I now struggle to watch question time. There a few reasons for this. Firstly, it is a bit boring, as most of the talk seems is about Brexit (more on that later on), which I know is important, but it would be nice to hear about something else for a change that people who are interested in politics in general  would like to hear. Secondly, politics in this country is now a joke, with the Conservatives essentially free to do what they want as ‘her majesty’s opposition’ is now lead by the four horseman of the apocalypse that are the combined forces of Corbyn, McDonnell, Abbott and Thornberry ( for the record, I quite like Jeremy Corbyn as a person, he appears to mean what he says and appears to care, but the fact that under his leadership the Labour party resembles a ship rapidly running out of rats, and I believe that him and this three pals will destroy that party). The only other party that seems to have any impact is the SNP who want to begin to rip the UK apart, but seem to ignore the fact that they haven’t exactly done a great job of looking after the bits of Scotland they have been in charge of. Thirdly and finally is the main point I want to talk about, politics is now extremely, completed and utterly toxic.
 Last year seemed to be the point at which people in the UK collectively finally sunk to the level of the incendiary toxic bile spat out by Nigel Farage and his cronies, and everyone knows it happened in the US as well. However, I refused to sink down to the level of only blaming one side as that is part of the problem. In fact, I think this is the cause of the problem. Yes the UK voted to leave the EU, I didn’t want to, I voted to remain and I was disappointed that we are leaving, but that’s what happened. What has disappointed me more is the aftermath. The amount of people who I saw both on the internet and on tv blaming the fact that we had are leaving the EU purely because of deeply held xenophobic tendencies in this country. Now as a guttural, immediate reaction I guess this is ok, I felt it in the immediate aftermath. There is little doubt that the demonization of the ‘swarms’ of immigrants from continental Europe that would lead to ‘breaking point’ in this country (I’m referencing both David Cameron and Farage hear, just to be fair) played a role in the referendum, even if it just helped to nicely poison the whole campaign on both sides. However, I refuse to blame that all of the 52% of all people who voted stooped to the level of the frankly xenophobic and isolationist UKIP rhetoric. I can perfectly understand why people would vote to leave, I know people, including in my family who did. At the beginning of the campaign I was willing to be swayed either way, but in the end I simply couldn’t align myself with the negative rhetoric of the leave campaign that I just described. However, I am sure the vast majority of the people who voted to leave did so not because they are racist, but because they thought life outside the EU might be better for the country, their families and our democracy (life outside the EU could be very exciting for Britain, we shall have to see).  Obviously a lot of people disagreed with this, but to blame the result on racism and racism alone is demonization. To remainers everywhere who typed this behind the safety of their keyboards: it is not fair, it is not right, it makes you sound bitter, and most of all, it makes you sound ridiculous. Doing these warps you into the very caricature of the ‘liberal elite remoaners’ the people you  revile see you as.
 The larger point I am trying to make here is that politics now consists of everyone running to the extreme edges of the political room. When taken in a wider context this divides everyone up into sects, the socialists in one corner, the libertarians in another, the far-right in another, the eco-warriors in another etc. etc. The people in each corner only talk amongst themselves and all think they are right, because of this they bad-mouth and demonise everyone who happens to disagree with them on anything, and has the gall to speak up and say something that someone might disagree with, which makes everyone hate each other more. Sounds great doesn’t it? Well not to me. There are massive flaws with this idea. Firstly, and excuse my language here, chatting shit about everyone who disagrees with you and turning them into cartoon characters makes them feel the exact same way about you, and they will stop listening to you at all. The whole idea of personal politics is based on the fact you can change your views based on your experiences and the people you meet, and this involves debate, reflection and the evolution of ideas. This is how in general society works. Taking myself as an example, I consider myself fairly centrist, with libertarian probably being my closest ‘alignment’ if you will. I am socially liberally but err more on the side of conservatism financially, but I have nuance to my views. I think there should be more state spending on things such as sciences and arts than there currently is, and that savings can be made elsewhere. I believe that a small government is better government, but it still has a large role to play. I am not an ideologue, I am an individual. Going back to my argument very few people completely subscribe to one ideology completely, most people do not belong in the corners of the room, but pushing them into corner based on some of the views will make them stop from venturing into yours, probably because you are there and shouting and screaming.
 Not only is this seen in the UK, but America demonstrates this to tee. Before I properly say what I mean they will be a disclaimer, and here it is: I do not like Donald Trump, he is clearly paranoid and insecure, he is offensive and he is almost certainly a bigot, misogynist and xenophobe. I would NOT have voted for him (or Hilary Clinton for a matter, she is just as bad in many ways. For any of those who care I would have voted for Gary Johnson if I was American), and his recent actions exhibit quite clearly that he is not fit to be a president of the United States. However, the reason he is president is not by some hostile takeover or coup, but because he was democratically elected, with 63 million people voting for him. This is about 20% of the total population of the American people. Whilst the man they voted for is a thin-skinned, narcissistic, bigoted billionaire, I do not believe that all of these people are the same as Donald Trump. I am sure most of these people did not want to ban Muslims from entering the country or to build a wall on the Mexican border. I would be prepared to bet money that a large portion of the same people who voted for Trump also voted for Barack Obama, some of them twice (for example, Donald Trump won the state of Iowa, which Obama won in both of his elections).
 Rather than vote for the candidate himself, I am sure many of them voted for what he represents. For scrapping free trade agreements, for making companies stay in America, for reopening coal mines so people have jobs. These people feel let down by the way globalisation has affected communities, leading to many manual workers losing their jobs and the factories move overseas. There is an article that was on the website Cracked written by someone who group up in a small town, with all the jobs based around an oil refinery. He describes the hopelessness of people who are stuck in the small towns, too poor to move to the big cities to start a new career (This all sounds very similar to the steelworks shutting in Redcar in the Northeast, this could lead to a whole town being destroyed).People like this felt let down by the status quo. Then comes along Donald Trump saying that he will keep the mines and factories open, he will help you keep your job, just as Obama was talking about hope and change. They voted for Trump because they wanted things to change, and he represents a middle finger to the political establishment. These people probably don’t care about Mexican people or Muslims coming into the US, they just want a life and something different, they were fed up of being told what to think by the biased TV networks in the USA, that they just had to suck it up and take it. I have no idea what this is like, I grew up just outside one of the richest cities in the world, I went to private school, in about a year I will have two degrees from Russell group universities. All I can be is sympathetic for these people who voted for Donald Trump, just as I feel sorry for the people in the abandoned coastal towns who vote for UKIP. However I have seen people online (and in person) refer to Americans who voted for Trump as stupid, racist and misogynist. Just because you voted for someone doesn’t mean you agree with everything they say. Categorising people like this is the same as accusing people who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 being against gay marriage as he was.
 To summarise what I have been trying to be say, othering people who happen to disagree with you on political points, and shouting and screaming at them does nothing. True change only comes from compromise and discussion, and this is how society evolves. This is the political centre. This requires a large coalition of people to come together and stand for something. People call from all sorts of different backgrounds and have experienced different things, and this effects how they see the world and how they want it to change. Everyone sees the world through a different lens, and this effects what they believe. I am from the south, I went to private school, I have studied science and I am atheist, all things influence what I believe. My opinion is no more valuable than anyone else, and we all need to come together and converse in order for anything to get done. Shouting and screaming and any who does not fit your description of how people should think and feel does not help you, it only makes them refuse to listen to you. Be nice to people, try and understand them, and then maybe you will know how they feel one day. You never know, you might end up agreeing with them  one day!
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