I love how on Tumblr, "media literacy" has become "Um, just because someone writes about this doesn't mean they're endorsing this. I hate all these media puritans ruining everything."
I'm sad to inform you that knowing when and whether an author is endorsing something, implying something, saying something, is also part of media literacy. Knowing when they are doing this and when they're not is part of media literacy. Assuming that no author has ever endorsed a bad thing is how you fall for proper gander. It's not media literacy to always assume that nobody ever has agreed with the morally reprehensible ideas in their work.
Sometimes, authors are endorsing something, and you need to be aware when that happens, and you also need to be aware when you're doing it as an author. All media isn't horny dubcon fanfic where you and the author know it's problematic IRL but you get off to it in the privacy of your brain. Sometimes very smart people can convince you of something that'll hurt others in the real world. Sometimes very dumb people will romanticize something without realizing they're doing it and you'll be caught up in it without realizing that you are.
Being aware of this is also media literacy. Being aware of the narrative tools used to affect your thinking is media literacy. Deciding on your own whether you agree with an author or not is media literacy. Enjoying characters doing bad things and allowing authors to create flawed or cruel characters for the sake of a story is perfectly fine, but it is not the same as being media literate. Being smug about how you never think an author has bad intentions tells me you're edgy, not that you're media literate. You can't use one rule to apply to all media. That's not how media literacy works. Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Aheem heem. Anyway.
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buck, tired and aching, after a- not bad, but long shift of back-to-back calls and wanting nothing more than to go home and cuddle his boyfriend, and fall asleep in his arms, but knowing that tommy started his own shift only a couple hours before, and resigning himself to a cold bed and a night of cuddling tommy's pillow, instead, hoping that it still smells like his boyfriend. it's been a rough few weeks of nothing but them being passing ships in the night, one of them flopping down into bed beside the other to soak up what little time they have together, or of quick hello's and quicker goodbyes and stolen kisses in between at the door, leaving them both a little more than grouchy and bruise eyed, because they've gotten so used to sleeping with the other that they struggle to sleep without them now, and honestly- buck's over it. he adores his job, and knows tommy loves his, too, knows neither of them would ever give them up unless forced to- would never want that, either, but. he does want more than five minutes of rushed affection with his boyfriend. wants to hold him, and be held in return, wants to fall asleep next to him and wake up next to him. wants soft, slow morning kisses, and sleep-warm morning cuddles. wants to make them both breakfast with tommy wrapped around his back, pressing kisses to his neck, and to his jaw, trying to distract him as he nicks pieces out of the pan. he just. wants his boyfriend.
he goes to tommy's house, because if he can't have his actual, living, breathing, hot, firefighter-pilot boyfriend, with his soft smiles and gentle touches and his cuddles, and care, and love for buck, then the house filled with all of the little pieces of him, of all the little reminders of him scattered around, seems like the next best thing. he kicks his shoes off at the door, slings his duffle bag to the side, and tells himself that he'll pick them both up in the morning. he doesn't bother to shower, doesn't have the energy, and makes his way straight into tommy's bedroom, intent on face planting into his boyfriend's pillow. he flicks on the lights and- stops dead in his tracks.
there's a stuffed bear; brown, and fuzzy, and wearing a little firefighter outfit sitting upright on top of what looks like one of tommy's folded, old hoodies, all placed neatly on top of buck's own pillow. his legs are moving before his brain even has the chance to command them to, and suddenly he's standing next to the bed, reaching out with gentle fingers to pick up the bear. the scent hits him before his fingers even have the chance to graze the soft fur, though, and the first thing he does is bring the teddy up to his face, breathing the familiar scent of tommy's aftershave in, before he clutches it to his chest, right over his heart, and then reaches out for the hoodie, too. it's soft, not in the just been washed, fresh out of the laundry way, but in the way clothes are only after they've been worn for a day or two, and when he brings it up to his face, it smells like tommy, too; not the strong, sharp smell of his aftershave, but the faint undertones of his natural scent, of everything that is uniquely tommy.
tears spring to his eyes, overwhelmed, because- tommy brought him a bear, and then sprayed it in his aftershave, and wore one his old, most cosy hoodies around all day, and probably slept in it, too, and then left them all on buck's pillow but at tommy's house because he somehow knew that buck would want to come here, even though he hadn't said that, and- he feels so loved, and cared for, and seen, in a way that he never has before, in a way that no one ever has for him before.
he puts the hoodie on, and climbs into bed. snuggles the teddy to his chest, taking a deep breath in, every now and then. he sleeps better than he has in weeks.
(he pretends not to notice his own missing hoodies from his laundry basket, or the way that tommy's side of the bed smells like his own aftershave whenever he's on an overnight shift after that. thinks he'll just have to get tommy his very own buck bear, too.)
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