#it's not a subversion

[magicalgirlmindcrank]

I'm 100% on board with you for your disdain for makoda

We are making out

[electroempathy]

One thing about old men, they do be napping.

[saintmelangell]

to be fully honest this new trend of remaking and sanitizing not only gothic fiction and its genres (hill house, dorian grey, turn of the screw) and horror movies more generally (carrie, the exorcist) point to much more serious cultural movement than the death of art or the death of horror as a genre in the mainstream. specifically it is gesturing to a sanitizing effect in which cultural authority has now deemed the subversive as worthy of living but only if it is a) commodified and b) divested of all its subversive elements. we can play-act at feminism, trans inclusion, and anti-racism as long as it serves a corporate interest and does not actually challenge cultural authorities. we can adopt its aesthetics as something to be sold without actually inhabiting it ideologically. it is the newest manifestation of cultural authorities anesthetizing effect on anything that threatens it and it is becoming more and more prevalent. anyway i want to beat mike flanagan with hammers

[chamerionwrites]

Honestly this gets at my chiefest complaint/frustration/discomfort with fandom as a whole. Which is: in their rush to defend the artistic merit of fanworks I think a ton of people have really valorized transformation and remixing and reinterpretation in and of themselves, when imo those are all quite neutral actions. When done well, they can expand and build upon and subvert meaning in really powerful and thought-provoking (and fun!) ways. When done poorly, they are just as likely to flatten and oversimplify and decontextualize and completely erase meaning. The simple act of changing something does not imbue the choice to do so with creative validity. It is entirely possible for a cover song to be bad (or just boring!). To exactly the same degree that it is possible to transform a pretty shallow and straightforward work into something deeper and more nuanced and subversive, is possible to transform a work into a vastly shallower and less interesting shadow of itself. As with nearly everything in art, it's all about the execution!

But the second you voice this position (which should honestly be a pretty uncontroversial one imo), you get people shrieking at you about being gatekeep-y and pretentious and betraying the sacred fandom etiquette of Don't-Like-Don't-Read.

And like...listen. I was not raised in a barn. I am 150% capable of quietly back-buttoning out of a fanfic I think is bad or boring - which is exactly what I do when I encounter them - and I am obviously not advocating for stupid ships wars or any kind of harassment or leaving hatemail in people's AO3 inboxes. (Which some people will also accuse you of the second you say anything less than lavishly positive about fandom, in true piss-on-the-poor fashion.) Literally all I am saying is that you can't have your cake and eat it too - that if fandom and fanworks (in the broadest sense) have artistic merit then fandom and fanworks (in the broadest sense) are fair game for artistic critique. Which means, in practice, that I can go on my own blog and make a post exactly like this one - critiquing broad trends, or stating that some interpretations are bad actually, or pointing out that subverting or talking back to or reading against the grain of canon is very different from simply ignoring it, or saying "fandom's culture of collage/remix/fuck-canon-I-do-what-I-want can lend itself to to really creative and interesting art but also to a lot of really bland homogenized cut-n-paste art, not to mention some pretty troubling decontextualization." And that if you feel this rains on your personal parade, you are then free to DLDR by back-buttoning out of my blog and/or blocking me so you never have to see my hot takes again, rather than clamoring in my notes about how I should let people enjoy things.

[1500sfemmefatalevamp]

Spirit Bag by La Lune Official ⚔️

[sonic-adventure-3]

it’s crazy that rouge straight up said this and people still see her as a mother figure lmaooo

[samanthalanetextiles]

'I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE' transgender cross stitch pattern 🏳️‍⚧️

Trans people have always been here and always will be. Our lives are just as important and valid as anyone else’s and we deserve the same equal rights as everyone else. Trans rights are human rights.

this pattern can be purchased from my etsy store here > (any purchases will go towards my transition fund. support a cute trans girl today!)

[anti-rop]

ah yes, because that's always what Narnia has needed..."a new take"...and that's always what Narnia has suffered from...a lack of "Rock 'N' Roll." tweet | deadline interview

[barbiediamondcastleofficial]

I love jmart. What do you mean the tragic hero is a hopeless romantic and the poet is a realist. Incredible im on the floor

[khattikeri]

another specific thing i love about mxtx's books is that they all have scenes that EASILY could've been romanticized rape if written by someone else, but she purposely avoids playing it straight.

we have the land of the tenders, a classic "aphrodisiac flowers" scenario. hua cheng (as hong'er) could've forced himself on xie lian in the name of "serving his prince." xie lian could've simply succumbed and forced himself on hong'er, or reluctantly asked him to "help." xie lian instead stabs himself and fights through the agonizing pain without touching hong'er at all, because hong'er was a teenage boy.

we have phoenix mountain, where wei wuxian is blindfolded and alone in a relatively deserted area, weakened unbeknownst to anyone else because he no longer has a golden core. and true enough, lan wangji pins wei wuxian down and forces a kiss on him. but lan wangji also immediately, viscerally regrets it. he runs away so furious with himself he starts punching trees. he never once does anything like it again until wei wuxian is resurrected and purposely, consensually provokes him into things like that.

finally, we have scum villain, and all its intricately twisted, overlapping power dynamics. i truly do mean the vast majority of the novel. there are SO many times where either shen qingqiu or luo binghe could've forced themselves on the other. and unlike mxtx's other books, scum villain does have a mutually nonconsensual sex scene where luo binghe is under the influence of dark, corrupt magic and shen qingqiu is unable to fight back because of system transmigration sci-fi shit.

however, unlike many other nonconsensual danmei sex scenes, this one is intentionally written to be extremely unsexy. the narration bluntly says it hurt for shen qingqiu. luo binghe, a fairly manipulative person, is sincerely distraught and in tears when he regains his senses. they both hated it equally and the story doesn't handwave that away. neither of them get horny over it. luo binghe especially loathes remembering it. after they get together, whenever shen qingqiu so much as furrows his brows during sex, luo binghe canonically stops.

the way mxtx plays around with and toes the line of consent tropes may not be comfortable for everyone to read, but i enjoyed her stories even more for it.

[teashopcrafts]

My stitched thoughts on the AI debate, lol.

If there's any interest in the pattern, let me know and I'll get on digitizing it.

Check out the shop: https://teashopcrafts.bigcartel.com/

[cottoncandycraze]

clay is interchangeable to me with the two concepts of wolf in sheep's clothing and sheep in wolf's clothing; he tries to present himself as an aggressively masculine authority figure, one that can be seen as intimidating to others, but behind closed doors he's pathetic and hurting. it's wildly present in censordoll's manipulation and his meltdown in Honor. I see many fans depict clay as a wolf, but the idea of prey hiding behind a scary face to compensate for their lack of confidence intrigues me.

bonus: chihuahua shapey and goat putty

[muchanmocha]

Where Wiege leaves us is so interesting because it actually manages to swap Mizi's and Luka's roles in the narrative.

Luka is the one left with Hyuna's legacy, not Mizi.

Hyuna's legacy is one passed down from Jacob, whose words and actions were instrumental to Hyuna's recovery and strength.

We see a scene where Hyuna is trying to console Mizi and we don't know what was said here but it's likely all things that had helped her when she was going through the same things Mizi is now.

But Mizi was unable to accept her words.

And where does Wiege end?

With ominous music as Mizi starts breaking down.

In-fking-credible.

[nowadayz]

You've got to pick up every stitch, oh no, must be the season of the witch.

THE CRAFT (1996) dir. Andrew Fleming THE WITCH: PART 1 - THE SUBVERSION (2018) dir. Park Soon Jung THE LOVE WITCH (2016) dir. Anna Biller TWITCHES (2005) dir. Stuart Gillard THE VVITCH (2015) dir. Robert Eggers HOCUS POCUS (1993) dir. Kenny Ortega PRACTICAL MAGIC (1998) dir. Griffin Dunne FEAR STREET PART THREE: 1666 (2021) dir. Leigh Janiak

[1500sfemmefatalevamp]