#the final girls support group. also annotation purposes ^^

[slashingdisneypasta]

And please tell me about them! Why do you have them? Are any special editions or did you really just love the book? Is it for display and/or annotation purposes? Do you wanna get rid of any?

[roscoe-me-and-this-fuckin-kid]

My Ryden Recs

not in any particular order

The Heart Rate of a Mouse Series (11/10)

~513k words

Ryan "Heterosexual" Ross and his incredibly popular prog rock band, The Followers, start their summer tour for their new hit album "Boneless" in June of 1974. However, Ryan begins to take a shine to their new roadie, the ever mysterious Brendon No-Last-Name-Given, who dodges questions about his past and flaunts his flamboyant homosexuality. After an assault by a member of the supporting act, Brendon and Ryan get their payback, and begin to bond. But much to Ryan's confusion and alarm, he starts to want something he can't let himself have, starts to feel something he can't let himself feel.

--Okay I kinda lied. This list is in no particular order EXCEPT for this one. This one is the best. Anna Green owns my ass. I'm not someone who's picky about first vs third person, but if you are, then just this once throw that out the window and read this utter masterpiece. Ryan's character development throughout is so touching, but my god he fucks up a lot. One of my friends who has gone through the process of buying the physical copies and annotating them says that Ryan majorly fucks up over 50 times. Emotional rollercoaster straight ahead!--

Freaks (7/10)

~45k words

Ryan's face was permanently disfigured when he was 12 years old, and since then, the only person who has ever stood by his side is his best friend Spencer. After earning the nickname "Freak" in high school, he finally accepts that nobody will ever want him, or ever treat him normally again. But after an accident that lands him temporarily in the hospital, he meets Brendon. They get along great, and Ryan begins to fall in love. One small problem though:

Brendon had been recently blinded. Neither of them know if it's permanent, and Ryan is sure that if Brendon knew about his face, he would leave him forever.

--I really liked this one. It makes you sit on edge and every single time you think that Ryan will finally confess and tell the truth, he blue balls you like an asshole. This story is so sad and so sweet, I definitely recommend. Also, there's some background Joncer, which is really cute. Definitely a worthy read if you're looking for some angsty fluff. Oh, and a little aside: the author, spazzyskittles on LJ, actually beta-ed a lot of Anna Green's Ryden fics, including THROAM! So do with that what you will ;)--

The Red Eyed Owl Series (10/10)

~403k words

As one of the best players of one of the best National Hockey League teams, the Chicago Hounds, Ryan Ross has everything he could ever want. Young, famous, and free to do whatever he damn well pleases, the world either wants him or wants to be him. But after a leg injury that could potentially ruin his career, Ryan begins to realise that perhaps he doesn't have everything. Perhaps some things can mean so much more than women throwing themselves at you every chance they get and receiving bottomless drinks at sports bars. Perhaps he could fall in love.

--This was actually recommended to me by @wandering-verses and it was 100% worth the read. I broke out crying in the middle of class during the second book, and I cried again at 3 am when I stayed up all night to finish it. It's one of those that fucks you up so bad that you can't read anything else for a little while after finishing. Now, both the authors are from Spain, so English isn't their native tongue, but it's so well written that I probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't read the notes at the very beginning. An all time Ryden fave.--

Missing In Action (10/10)

~204k words

In where the American Civil War goes differently, the nation once known as the United States of America is instead separated into two: DURA and Beauregia. The latter didn't change much in terms of their economy. Slavery is still legal, and the kingdom is ruled under a tight, Christian monarchy. Their king is Boyd Beauregard. His only son, crown Prince Brendon Beauregard, heir to the throne, resides in the highly respected Saint Francis' Academy. DURA on the other hand developed quickly, a democracy founded on new technology and equitable ideals.

Everyday, bipartisanship seems farther away from grasp, and DURA, realising that cooperation is impossible, creates the DURA investigative bureau. Identifying the crown prince as the Royal Family's weakest link, they realise that he could become an infinitely invaluable asset to them. Agent Ross, under the pseudonym "Ryan Hastings", is chosen to go undercover, enroll in Saint Francis' boarding school, infiltrate the Prince's friend group, and gain his trust by any means necessary.

--I'm ashamed to admit that I let this one pass me by for a while. I read the words "American Civil War" and I automatically assumed that this would be a mid 1800's Civil War fic about closeted gay soilders, and I'm not against that, but the premise didn't really interest me. But once I finally caved and started reading, I quickly realised not only was the premise entirely different, but it was really fuckin' good. Read this!!!!--

Esoteric Contagion (8/10)

~18k words

He wakes up with a note stuck to his forehead that reads, “You traded your memory in a spell. It was worth it.” The note is signed George Ross. He wonders if that’s his name.

In which things are lost and gained and remembered and forgotten, in that order.

--Despite being the shortest on this list, I loved it to death. You will cry so hard, I promise. This story is so sad. The author can deal so many shocking blows in less than 20,000 words, and you will be completely invested. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's massively underrated, and it will fuck you up.--

Two Vatos Locos Series (7/10)

~311k words

When you have your first dream with your soulmate, everything changes. But after years and years of watching all his friends have their dreams and fall in love, Ryan started to wonder if he would ever has his dream. At twenty, Ryan started to get desperate. He went to doctors, therapists, even a fucking palm reader. No one could tell him what was wrong with him. There was only one explanation: his soulmate had to be dead.

Ryan spent endless hours laying in bed, staring at the ceiling, begging, wishing, praying to have his dream and meet his soulmate. One day, with blood gushing down his face and vomit coating his tongue, his prayers were finally answered.

And now, as he stares at this scared, helpless boy, with bloodied rope burns around his wrists and tears staining his cheeks, he wishes that they never were.

--The title "Dos Vatos Locos Lleno de Carnalismo y Inamorates" roughly translates to "Two Crazy Dudes Full of Carnality and Infatuation," which is definitely accurate. I did enjoy this fic; it was cute, sad, and very interesting, but if you are interested in reading, you will need to be patient at times. Some passages seem like filler and the writing in a few places is kinda dry or cringey. But it's still overall a good story though. WARNING: Brendon is underage for most of this fic, but nothing sexual happens until he is of age.--

The Way Home From Nowhere Series (9/10)

~158k words

After his parents find out about his relationship with another boy, Brendon Urie makes a snap decision to flee from his abusive home. After a quick makeover to hide his identity, he decides to thumb a ride. He starts living the life he never even dreamed he could. Talking openly about things like sex, condoms, and homosexuality- he's happier then he's ever been.

There's one problem though.

His new roommates, Ryan and Spencer, have no idea that he is the missing Mormon boy from the nearby town of Summerlin.

--Ladies and gents, welcome to my first ever Ryden fic! This will always be a favourite of mine. Both Brendon's arc and Ryan's are are so heartbreaking, and there were so many times that I wanted to reach into the story and give Dallon a hug. So many tragedies in this story, and not all of them solved. I don't have any empathy for Brendon's parents in this story, but I feel so hard for his siblings, and for Marc. I just wish they knew. This story is so heartbreaking and yet so happy. Will play with your emotions like they're a shiny new toy.--

Filthy Lucre (10/10)

~362k words

Ryan Ross is living the American wet dream. He’s rich, he’s good looking, he gets paid just to turn up at parties and he spends his days drinking, doing drugs and climbing into bed with eager and willing boys and girls. His parents and PA beg him to quit, and his brother turns up his noise at his destructive lifestyle, but Ryan is desperate to sink into the void, escape the memories of what his father's friend did to him when he was fifteen.

Brendon Urie is a man bordering on desperation. He whores himself out to millionaire bankers and CEOs to fund his boyfriend's heroin addiction and pay off his ungrateful father's medical bills. Things could be worse, though. He's lucky enough to have a roof over his head, to be living with the love of his life, to no longer have to hook on the street, but instead be privileged enough to turn tricks in the wealthy circles of Wall Street and Goldman Sachs.

Where a broken boy meets another broken boy, and falls in love.

--Normally, I would never recommend an unfinished fic, let alone fic that hasn't been updated in four years, unless it was it was so good and so engaging that it made me literally scream. Trust me when I say that you have not experienced true hatred until you read this fic. I have literally never hated a character more in my entire life, and I know who Dolores Umbridge is, for reference. The best thing about this fic, in my opinion, is that the characters, whether good guys or bad guys, do evil. And they do it on purpose. Because the characters feel and act as though they're real, and real people fucking suck.--

The Black Rose Season (8/10)

~158k words

Ryan Ross' life is essentially over when his scholarship is inexplicably cancelled and he will be forced to pay his way through school. As a young, broke college student, Ryan is desperate to find cash fast, but to no avail. Just when he thinks all hope is lost, a mysterious benefactor promises to pay his tuition in full, on one condition: Ryan is infiltrate Sigma Chi Beta, the most prestigious and cultish fraternity that Swan University has to offer. And if, by some miracle, Ryan succeeds, his mission is clear:

Befriend Brendon Urie, fellow Swan Sigma, and, more importantly, alleged leader of Sigma Chi Beta's secret society, which might not even exist. He is to document his findings, and send them to his benefactor. One small problem though: Brendon fucking hates his guts.

--Did I mention that Anna Green owns my ass? Because Anna Green owns my ass. This one is so fleshed out, and there are some moments where it really spikes you in the chest. Every time that Patrick comes onto the page, my interest piques, and I remember That One Scene™ that completely changed my perspective of him (You'll understand once you read). Besides... college AU? Secret societies? Betrayal? Enemies to lovers? Sexual tension? Need I say more?--

I have more fics to recommend if you guys like this list, so tell me if you want more fic recs

[transnationalfeminismwww]

Understanding Other Women and Impact of the Media: Final Reflection

I have chosen to focus my final reflection and blog post on transnational feminism. After trying to figure out what theme I wanted to base my final reflection on, I did a reread and watched all the videos that we were assigned during the time of this class and I found a common theme in what I wrote, the world around me and in the characters and people I was learning about. I looked online and found the definition of transnational feminism is that it is meant to give a perspective focus on the different experiences of women who live all over the world. After reading this definition, it made perfect sense to me that this is the topic I should reflect on. Not only did I see this in society today with different women’s movements, but I also saw the pattern in it through the videos of TED talks and the readings we annotated throughout the course. I have made it known in my annotations that I felt that we live in a not purposeful, selfish society. I think that many times in life, we are unaware of issues that occur for other people when it’s not taking place in their own personal bubble, until it affects us personally do, we take an interest in it. As an example, during the women’s movement #BringBackOur Girls that took place in Nigeria, it was a huge social media movement when it took place. It all started when a social media post went viral after revealing hundreds of innocents, young schoolgirls were taken hostage by a local terrorist group in Nigeria. With the overwhelming popularity of the campaign, there became an urgent response to help and save the girls. The government, with the aid of other nations, were able to luckily locate and save some of the girls from any other kind of potential harm, three years after they were kidnapped. That was over seven years ago, now we are able to see what happened in a new way with the coming out of a new documentary, that was released in 2018. This gives people insight into the terrorist group that harmed them, and you even hear from some of the girls that were kidnapped and are able to live to retell the horror that they experienced so many years ago. I watched the documentary, and there was a comment that was made by someone at the school over the intercom to the rest of the students and said, “Do not talk about that day in the forest,”. This really stuck with me because in one way I can understand why she said that because she wants to protect the rest of her students from having something like that to ever happen again, but on the other hand if they don’t speak about what happened to them, then they will never be able to heal since what happened to them was so public. I am recalling this example, because if this never got into the media and received as much attention as it did, then who knows if those girls would have ever been found.

There are a couple of other examples of social media campaigns that have made a difference in the women’s equality movement, the biggest one being the #MeToo movement that occurred a couple of years ago that changed the game in Hollywood as we knew it. Harvey Weinstein was a successful and powerful producer in the movie industry, he was the producer that could make or break your career as an actor. He has produced so many iconic actors such as Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Lawrence and many more. Even though Weinstein may have been a successful producer with a ton of connections, he was also a predator. He used his power as abuse to young actresses starting out their careers and sexually abused and harassed, and even raped in some cases. Most of these cases took place in the 20th century. Until one actress, came out with her story of abuse at the hands of the producer, and that’s how it all started, with one social media post. It started a spark, and then more and more actresses were coming out with their own stories of abuse at the hands of Weinstein. This was grabbing everyone in the public’s attention. Then one morning on the Today Show morning news show, they announced someone came out with an allegation against their own Matt Lauer, prominent anchor of the show, about sexual abuse, and harassment in the workplace at his fault. This was a shock to everyone in the wake of everything else that was happening. This was also a revolutionary move during this movement. This proved that this was no longer about actresses that were abused by a producer, this was now a movement about every woman who was ever harassed or abused by any powerful man at the workplace, who thought they could use power and intimidation to make women feel less. For the next couple of months, more women kept coming out with their own stories, some were about Weinstein, and some were about other men that were either their bosses or people that were prominent in their career field. At the next academy awards, everyone showed their support for their movement by wearing black in support of the people that came out about their own stories of abuse or who have experienced it and still did not have the courage of sharing their story. Women were becoming more empowered and knew that it was time to use their voice to get the fair treatment that they deserved. The United States Women National Soccer Team has been making headlines in the last couple of years by winning back-to-back World Cups and bringing home gold Olympic medals in the last couple of years. Even with all the success they have received, they don’t get paid the same as the men’s team. And the men’s team have never won a world cup or Olympic medal. They made it to the Round of 16 and made more money than the women did for winning the entire tournament. They just released a new documentary about the women’s players and their ongoing fight for equal pay. All of these movements have come about through the #MeToo movement, and the courage of one woman to share a social media post.

Connecting back to all of the videos and readings that we did throughout this course, also showed me that women want the same end goal when it comes to the fight for feminism is the same for all women, however the hardships and obstacles they face throughout their lives are completely different. In one of the novels we read, the main character is on a journey of self-discovery while growing up in a traditional and religious country during the 1970s. After losing her father during a civil war, the main character of the story tries to live on without her father and ends up figuring out that she is gay. And while in a relationship with a girl, her mother tried to use the Bible to get her to think how she was feeling was wrong. In the last novel we read, it followed the story of three sisters, whose lives will forever be affected by their childhood. One of the sisters constantly put herself in a situation that are exactly ones that have traumatized her in the past, and they all have to do with her relationships. This story reminds the main character of how terrorist attacks have affected the course of the majority of her life. All they have done is cause pain and sadness and every time she hears or witnesses a terrorist attack, she reflects back to all of the painful times in her life that involved people that she would never forget. And through other passages and videos, I was introduced to all of these powerful women that share their stories as a sign of how courageous and confident to be so vulnerable with different audiences that were either in front of them or were people, they hoped would read their writing. With all of the readings, I found one common theme through all of them, they were all about women who share their stories in hopes that someone who is reading it will realize they are not alone, and they deserve more out of life. It is their life, and they deserve to know they deserve equality and someone else knows how hard it can be.

In conclusion, throughout this course I was able to comprehend fully about the idea of transnational feminism and how crucial it is to win the fight on feminism. I was not only able to find examples through monumental social media movements such as, #MeToo and #BringBackOurGirls, it is also important for other women to understand that to win the fight we have to remember there may be more of a fight for women that have more to fight for such as the ability to drive or vote.