#Media Backlash

[juliettejwnewinesa]

hii babe!! 💖 i had a spicy lil idea for a heeseung ff if ur taking requests hehe what if he gets caught in a celeb scandal bc he’s lowkey sleeping w his stylist 😭 like the media finds out, fans go feral, and it’s all messy + dramatic?? i feel like u’d eat that up fr 😩💅

omggg STOP 😭😭 that’s actually such a serve omg why did my brain immediately start plotting when i first saw this request 💅 the drama?? the forbidden vibes?? the press conferences and fan chaos??? i’m obsessed 😩 I like made it suoer quick cuz I had exams so def not my best work but here you go babe, hope you like it 💋

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Behind the curtains

You jolted awake to the sound of your phone buzzing on the nightstand. The room was dim, the soft light of the morning creeping through the curtains, but your mind was still foggy from sleep.

You reached for your phone, half-expecting it to be a spam message or an alarm. Instead, your eyes widened when you saw the notifications flooding in.

"Dispatch Exclusive: ENHYPEN’s Heeseung Spotted Leaving Hotel With Stylist — Are They Dating?"

Your thumb trembled as you opened the article.

"ENHYPEN's Heeseung caught in scandalous hotel sighting with his stylist, Y/N! Fans are divided—are the two secretly involved?"

Your heart skipped a beat as the blurry photos filled your screen. There you were. The image of you and Heeseung walking side by side through a hotel parking garage, your hand brushing against his.

No.

You couldn’t believe it. The one moment that had been meant for the two of you alone—the stolen kisses, the secret smiles—was now plastered all over the internet. You hadn’t even realized you were walking that close to him. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Your stomach churned as you skimmed through the angry comments flooding in.

"How could he do this?" "She's just his stylist! This is a PR disaster." "Why would he risk his career for a stylist? So disappointing."

The screen was a blur. Your mind was racing.

Then, your phone buzzed again. This time, it was a text from Heeseung.

Heeseung: We need to talk.

The message was simple. But the weight of it felt like a punch to your chest. You felt yourself freeze, eyes locked on the screen.

Heeseung. He knew. He had to know by now. Was this his way of owning up to it? Or was it something worse?

You texted back, heart pounding.

Y/N: What’s going on? This isn’t supposed to be out there.

Seconds later, his reply came.

Heeseung: I’m sorry. I didn’t want this. I should have protected you.

You didn’t remember getting dressed. You barely remembered the cab ride. But somehow, you were at Heeseung’s apartment, your knuckles white as you knocked on his door.

The silence in Heeseung’s apartment was deceptive—too soft, too still—like the calm before the storm. You sat on the edge of his bed, legs curled under you, your phone vibrating nonstop next to you.

Neither of you had said a word in a while.

Heeseung paced the room, one hand in his hair, the other gripping his own phone like it was mocking him. Missed calls. Dozens. Yours looked the same.

“Is this it?” you asked, voice small.

He stopped, turning to you.

Your eyes met, and suddenly you hated how different this felt from just hours ago. You’d been safe then. Now you were caught in a spotlight you never asked for.

His voice cracked. “They’ll make us end it.”

You swallowed hard, throat burning. “Would you?”

Heeseung walked over slowly, sitting beside you but not touching you. “No,” he said firmly. “But I don’t know how much damage control they’ll let me do. I’m not just a rookie anymore—I’m a brand now.”

You flinched at that word. Brand. You weren’t a brand. You were just a girl who fell in love with someone she wasn’t supposed to touch.

Then both your phones buzzed at once.

Your screen lit up with your manager’s name. His showed a company exec.

Neither of you answered.

Heeseung groaned, tossing his phone onto the bed with more force than necessary. “Fuck this.”

You just stared at yours, the guilt already forming a lump in your throat. “They’re going to blame me. They always blame the woman.”

His jaw clenched. “Not if I don’t let them.”

You shook your head. “It won’t matter. The comments are already brutal. My boss probably thinks I seduced you or something. They’ll call it unprofessional. They’ll say I ruined your image.”

He finally reached for you, pulling you into his lap so fast it startled you. His hands wrapped around your waist tightly, his forehead resting against your shoulder.

“You didn’t ruin anything,” he whispered. “You’re the only thing keeping me sane.”

You blinked back tears, hands fisting the fabric of his hoodie. “So what do we do?”

The phone buzzed again. And again. You ignored it.

Heeseung pulled back just enough to look at you, his expression raw. “We survive. Together.”

Then, without asking, he kissed you.

It wasn’t like before—not hungry or reckless—but slow and grounding. His lips moved with intent, like he needed to prove something to you, like he wanted to press this memory into your bones in case tomorrow everything went to hell.

When he pulled back, your breaths were shaky, mingling in the space between your faces.

“We’ll do our best,” he said softly. “Even if they try to tear us apart.”

You nodded, eyes stinging. “Okay.”

The world outside might be falling apart. But in this moment, on this bed, with the world buzzing angrily through your phones—you had Heeseung. And he had you.

[xtrablak674]

Charlie Pizzarello - GMHC's Young Hot & Safe '94 Photoshoot

I was a member of Gay Men's Health Crisis's - Young Adult Prevention Program for a few years and was amongst the team of young people who helped to develop this campaign. I also was a model at the photoshoot and had the good fortune to also end up in the final campaign that rode all over the MTA in the form of a subway poster that was posted all over the transit system in buses and subways.

This campaign was executed exactly thirty years ago, and I can recall how much fun I had at the photoshoot with folks I knew and a lot I didn't know, it felt like a plutonic orgy with all the mis-matching of couples to get as many varieties of pairings as possible for the final product.

Not that I am a person who attends reunions, it would be wonderful to have a reunion of the folks that participated in this campaign just to see who is still with us, and who isn't, and what they have all done with themselves since then. I am pictured with Timothy Fischetti above, who is no longer with us, I was so sad to hear he had departed because the last time we spoke he sounded so happy and content, an actualization of this campaign in my assessment. Modern society has always wanted to cast queers as sad and loathsome people. We were seeking to assert a more positive presentation of young queer folks, being beautiful and practicing safer sex.

This campaign was HIV/AIDS education with a sex positive harm reduction message targeted towards the sexually active and future active youth of New York City, being the early nineties there was media backlash to the campaign, I was pleased to stand with Councilman Tom Duane at the press conference for this campaign and give my own words about how important representation matters for young people in regards to AIDS education whether they be sexually active or not.

My father was an activist post-Vietnam until his death. There is a legacy of activism within my family and I was happy to spend over ten years focused on HIV/AIDS education in the queer communities. The messages have changed but activism is still necessary and hopefully the kids today are picking up the reigns and pushing the messages that need to be heard by the public and hopefully pushing the movement and conversation forward.

[Photos by Charlie Pizzarello]

[idolomantises]

Sometimes I get messages about certain dialogue in my comics about how a character is being passive aggressive when I'm just writing them as straight forward and blunt.

idk, as an autistic person who's dealt with genuine harassment several times (including a few months ago) because his straight forward and blunt demeanor was misinterpreted as being "rude", "ungrateful" and "bitchy", its just kind of interesting seeing people interpret dialogue in a more hostile way.

it's not a complaint, i prefer those fictional interpretations over terminally online twitter users who need to be coddled over everything but it is kind of fascinating seeing how people interpret certain dialogue.

[lynxalon]

i've seen a fair bit of... pessimism about dorym lately, esp with the ep107, for example wondering if dorian's opposing views on the gods making orym fall out of love, and i have to say. i very highly doubt it, ur fr talking about the man who has held on to will for so long, holding onto will's family and affectionately calling this *his* family too because that didn't stop when will died. i dont think falling out of love is an option or even a thought to orym.

that said, we know that orym has contingencies for if anyone in bells hells crosses the line into being a version of themselves they would despise, for anyone who jeopardizes their mission. his mission. i think, for the first time since knowing dorian, orym finally has a contingency for him. the longer dorian is back, the more orym sees how scarred he is by what's happened (understandable so) and knows that dorian is with bells hells all the way. but if he isn't...

[evermoredeluxe]

i feel like i was already passive in expressing my dislike for the way jason supported travis publicly (and he himself admitted finding it difficult to navigate it), and i still think some of the conversations had regarding certain dynamics hold weight, but hearing travis say that he felt supported in private did pacify me a bit

[mswyrr]

[source]

Ah, excellent. A guaranteed way to strangle diverse representation in the cradle AND drive away the general audience by putting out the most bland, soulless stories ever. And all of this because they refuse to stand up to bigots.

The studios really are the biggest fools.

[geeky92]

I used to be very anti-Brie Larson back in 2019, but now, I wish I could take back every single negative thing I said about her.

Sure, the hype for Captain Marvel was really annoying, and it didn’t help that the mainstream media had a field day pitting it against Alita: Battle Angel (a movie that I was absolutely obsessed with at the time), but seeing how Brie Larson’s no longer active on social media, I can’t help but wonder if all the backlash she received since then took a toll on her mental health. I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if that were case, since Rachel Zegler is currently going through a similar situation.

Now, movie wise, I don’t think that Captain Marvel and Snow White (2025) are very good at all, but with all the horrible things going on in the world right now, I’m pretty sure that there are worse people out there than Brie Larson or Rachel Zegler.

[champagnemoon]

It’s so wild that people get online like “unpopular opinion…being fat is bad 🤓🧐” like they’re freedom fighters or something lmaooooo

[hardcore-bradshaw]

Me tomorrow the whole day at work wondering what happened at Backlash:

[firstoccupier]

The Texas Nazi in Congress

Well, folks, here we are again, watching our elected officials trip over their tongues and grasp at the most disastrous of historical references as if they were pulling the best card from a stacked deck. This time, it’s Texas Republican Representative Keith Self, who recently decided to channel his inner schoolyard bully by quoting none other than Joseph Goebbels—the Nazi propaganda minister…

[emilarry]

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[successfulblackparenting]

Impact of A Black Mermaid On Black Children

The movie Black Panther proved that there is something about seeing Black people dominate the big screen that excites our community. “Before Halle Bailey became The Little Mermaid, Shameik Alti Moore (Miles Morales) became Spiderman in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, said Dr. Corey Emmanuel of Omnimedia.” In both instances, the original characters were depicted as white. These pivotal moments…

[donjuaninhell]

Andor is fucking infuriating because this is what Star Wars could be, this is what you get when you give the room to actual writers and directors who know what the fuck they're doing and you let them do interesting things.

[malicious-fisheeves]

I think everyone is wildly over estimating the influence and reach of these kinds of users esp in larger leftist spaces. Is there no influence? No obviously not. But somehow I don't think the relatively small niche of bad media criticism takes by random 15-20 yr olds online has contributed to anti intellectualism at large because they annoyed you personally and instead has much more to do with The Fucking Fascist Movements across the world.

[luneyverse]

clinical trial really hammered in the idea for me that it isn’t an issue that people identify with “bad” rep like i dont care for hazbin hotel and i have a distaste with how the creators handled it behind the scenes but if you like angel dust because you identify with that guy’s struggles as an SA victim i think that’s fine and you should be unbothered about it

[katyspersonal]