#it’s not worth the corporate homophobia

[alphacrone]

I s2g chick-fil-a has a team of in-house witches secretly controlling the populace because that shit tastes like soggy microwaved rubber and I refuse to believe y’all have never tasted good chicken before in your lives

[emmedoesntdomath]

emme i am in need of assistance.

i need to be dragged kicking and screaming back into the newsies fandom, please and thank you

you know what? fine, sure, let’s do this. 

in this fun little drag-you-by-your-ears-and-force-you-to-listen-to-me, we’ll be talking about javey. 

obviously, javey is the lifeblood behind most of this lovely fandom. look at your own account. besides the synchronized dance numbers, it’s about the most the majority of us agree on (with a few exceptions, but we love them anyway <3333 /j)

but why is javey such a phenomenon to us? why is it that big of a deal? let’s explore that. 

javey is, in simple terms, something that can quickly become revolutionary. 

don’t understand what I mean? consider it-

most of us headcanon jack to be a person of color. whether he’s black, or of latinx descent, jack is not normally white. in a lot of cases, people don’t even believe english to be his first language. with these very intentional choices, you are already taking marginalized groups, and giving them a voice. groups, that for most of history, have been shunned, or outright ignored. and to see jack kelly, a character not defined by his parentage or skin color, simply *living*. making choices, mistakes, wrong decisions, without being turned into a performative political message by a major corporation. he’s just jack kelly. and his existence speaks louder than words ever could. 

and all of this can be said before we even mention what else he could represent, could mean to all of us. 

he’s a kid from the streets, or the more modernized foster care. he’s not the sad, lonely, discouraged orphan kid that needs saving. no, jack kelly is going to get off his ass, and do it himself. he’ll run away. earn a living. he is our defiance, he is our rebellion and independence. 

he has dreams, big ones. ones that we relate to. he wants to run to santa fe? well, guess fucking what? we do, too. wants to be given a little respect, a little worth? maybe we relate to that. 

he is the poster child of found family. and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re all pretty big on that in this fandom. 

so, let’s put it this way- jack is a lot of us. most of us, maybe. 

but so is davey. 

davey is a canonically (or maybe not, but I say it’s canon) jewish character. in a world that reeks of antisemitism, that is ridiculously important. he, too, represents more than just himself. there is a whole history of a people hated and brutally punished for simply existing. he is another character who isn’t restricted, forced to be but yet another stereotype or one-note idea, but who just exists. you don’t realize how huge that is. representation and the explicitness of modern media is great, and very much needed. but it is just as powerful, if not more so, to let a character be without making it a display. 

to compound this all, he is the epitome of religious struggles. our davey has internalized homophobia, self-hatred, and more crises in faith than he has time to count. and I would say at least half of the people that I have met in this fandom can identify with one or more of those things. that’s valuable. especially when you consider that a lot of those things are essentially taboo in a number of regards. 

he’s from a working class family. he’s not rich, not swimming in bills. he’s missing school every day to go to work so his family might eat the next week. and that’s a reality for a lot of people. 

putting them together, we have- a man, a person of color, who has seen the shit end of life that a lot of other people do, falling in love with another man, one burdened with mental struggles and a heritage that carries just as much weight as the heaviest, in a time period when it was literally illegal to do so. 

they are people. they are representations. they are silent messages to the world. they are love. they are queer. they are happy. they are a family. they are revolutionary. they aren’t wrong. they aren’t broken. they aren’t hate. 

javey thrives because they are us, and by letting them thrive, we are hoping we will, too. 

(newsies, with more layers and deeper meanings than one could have ever hoped for since 1234)

ta da. 

[ao3wincest]

Fortunate Son

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/luPXGQx by slutbee Dean doesn't understand why Sam is different, why he won't just do what Dad wants him to. If he did, then Dad wouldn't beat him all the time. Dean tries to help him conform, but everything changes when he finds Sam's journal, which lays out all his freaky desires. Words: 17617, Chapters: 2/2, Language: English Fandoms: Supernatural (TV 2005) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage Categories: M/M Characters: Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, John Winchester, Jessica Moore (Supernatural) Relationships: Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester Additional Tags: Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Period-Typical Homophobia, Cycle of Abuse, Sibling Rivalry, Voyeurism, Brother/Brother Incest, Weecest, Unrequited Love, Secret Crush, Sexual Assault, Forced Orgasm, Non-Consensual Bondage, Victim Blaming, Dean Winchester Being an Asshole, Abusive John Winchester, Substance Abuse, stress positions, Corporal Punishment, Parent/Child Incest, Cock Warming, Caring Sam Winchester, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Emotional Manipulation, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Marking, Anal Sex, Dean Winchester Has Self-Worth Issues, Sweet/Hot, sam makes sweet sweet (non consensual at first) love to dean, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Don't Like Don't Read, Discord: The Winchester Gospels: A Wincest Writing Discord (Supernatural) read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/luPXGQx

[hellyeahscarleteen]

Bevin says: "Every human has a body. That’s the deal. We only get one in this lifetime. There are systems of power and control that benefit from each of us individually feeling unsatisfied with our bodies. Literally the beauty industry is worth 570 billion dollars, and the weight loss industry is worth 142 billion. So many corporations profit off of self loathing and trying to “correct” the one and only human body you’re ever going to have. The concept of body liberation is that every person is liberated by the work of creating harmony with your own body. Fatphobia as a system affects people with fat bodies more than thin bodies, but people with thin bodies still experience harm from fatphobia. There are other -isms and phobias that intersect on the body as well that are all bound up in the experience of liberation: racism, ageism, ableism, classism, religious persecution, purity culture, transphobia, misogyny, homophobia, et cetera. The concept of fat acceptance is that every body is worthy of love and care. Everyone benefits from the work of fat acceptance, but of course folks who experience more marginalization because of inhabiting a fatter body would experience greater relief from the systemic oppression currently crushing them under fatphobia. I’m a big believer that no systemic change happens until individuals (that’s YOU and me!) create harmony with our own bodies. There is a soothing place inside you that exists and knows that you are worthy exactly as you are. The good news about the colonialist nightmare you were born into that lies to you about your body is that you can relieve yourself of thinking that way! The colonialist nightmare made your belonging hostage to your conformity to beauty standards that are literally all made up. Every time you think something bad about your body you are hallucinating in that colonialist nightmare. Since these beauty standards are made up, we can also unmake them. We didn’t come here to fix a broken world. We came here to build the world of our dreams. We cannot dream freely while we think there’s something “broken” we need to “fix” about our bodies or selves." Read more here!

[astranite]

Blue, Pink, White, Pink, Blue.

Trans Penelope! A little late for @thunder-pride, but here none the less!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/48267592

Happy Rest of Year Pride for the end of Pride Month!

Minor warning for mentioned transphobia and homophobia. ----

From a young age, Penelope had been very insistent about who she was and what she wanted. The petal pink for the decorations in her room, not the lilac. Real tea should be served in her toy tea set, complete with matching cups and saucers. She couldn't possibly go to sleep without at least one more story.

She was a girl and her name was Penelope Creighton-Ward.

Penelope grew up into a woman who still has strong opinions about decor and tea— English breakfast with one sugar and a dash of milk of course, and a number of other things powerful people would rather she didn't.

Neither wealth nor fame nor status made you more valuable than anybody else. Human beings always mattered more than money, or possessions or any form of material goods. There were some in the circles she dealt with who could stand to learn this.

People should be able to love who they pleased openly, without fear or shame or condemnation. Everyone should have the freedom to be their truest self without having to hide.

The world had come a long way by 2060, but there were still a few dinosaurs clinging to their bigotry.

Penelope was vocally defensive of LGBTQIA+ rights. The British nobility wasn't historically known for its progressiveness, but it was her duty to use her status and wealth, which she’d had the good fortune of being born into, to take action and show support. When she had a platform where her voice was heard, it was her duty to amplify other’s voices.

Penelope stood by her word and morals, because standing up what she believed in was more than worth any attacks that came her way. Suggestions her actions were for appearances rather than a genuine desire to help. Comments from opponents about the validity of her womanhood, taunting remarks about the fact she also loved women, using any ammunition to attempt to bring her down when they felt threatened. Those individuals were torn apart as that sort of speech wasn't tolerated in these times.

She never flinched in public, because all the world is a stage and everyone is always watching. Any private hurt was hers alone.

Back in their university days, Penelope remembered snide whispers calling John, her John who loved so quietly and fiercely, heartless because he didn't desire a romantic relationship with anyone. Certain individuals found themselves in some, shall we say, difficulties after that.

She’d learnt so many things over the years. As a spy, sometimes secret meant safe and there was no less honor in that. As a diplomat, how honeyed words held daggers and the worst, most hateful ideas were always presented as reasonable, justifiable and a ‘nice’ option.

There were people in the world who wanted to make you small, who didn't like how you had opinions, how your existence was inconvenient to them. The school yard bullies who had the status to become boardroom corporate billionaires exploiting their workers. She learnt to deal with them, to show others how to stand up, be loud, to take up space because its yours, you deserve it just as much as anyone else.

Penelope remembered a quote from an old movie, which captured her so completely as a young girl. “Compromise where you can. Where you can't, don't. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say 'No, you move'.” She did her best to live up to Peggy Carter’s example to this day.

Being queer, being trans, the past was a story of pain and triumph, blood and tears. Their victories in the fight to have rights, and the sorrowful fact they had to fight for them in the first place. Atrocities and hate left marks, but so do love and hope, survival and joy. Their shared history was a rebellion, the first Pride a riot, but they lived on because of community who built each other up, love that chose to endure and so many people who, even quietly, even alone, refused to give up.

She was out and proud for both herself and everyone who was watching. This was who she is, she wasn’t ashamed, she celebrated it.

Penelope wondered what her younger self would say if she could see her now. To see who she had become, through all her uncertainty which had lurked below the surface, not as to who she was but as to who she could be.

Now, she held her head high: she could be that person for other little girls like her. For any people who needed her, a role model and an example to stand before the world for who you could be, especially for those who were lost and unsure, not knowing that this was a way you could be and it wasn't wrong.

There were so many ways to be a woman and this was hers.

[unofficial-sean]

1940′s, the U.S.’s industrial capacity explodes, and with it, their empire expands across the globe from conquered territories. Talent from defeated axis powers were absolved of their atrocities and invited to participate in the technological advancement of the U.S.

1950-1990′s, the CIA is tasked with sabotaging multiple socialist revolutions in central and south America. But sure, there are no successful communist countries and capitalism rules; only if you have to force those countries into civil war and install puppet dictators. Sure sure.

1980′s, with larger and larger corporations forming from the economic boom brought on by WWII, neoliberalism takes hold and massive wave of deregulation ensues, leaving a dark scar on American politics to this day.

1950′s, the fossil fuel industry becomes aware of global warming and spends resources suppressing information and convincing the public that it’s nothing to worry about.

1970′s, leaded gasoline is banned after dacade’s worth of evidence links it to many health issues.

1970′s-1990′s, displaced, abused, and mistrustful Vietnam war veterans begin forming militias in what would soon become America’s persistent right-wing domestic terrorism issue.

1960′s, massive improvements in civil rights enfranchise millions of Americans, yet racism, sexism, and homophobia persist. The end of segregation now becomes a bandaid for racists to point to and say “what racism? We gave them rights!”

1970′s, the mass militarization of police begins with the creation of the very first SWAT teams.

1980′s, criminalization of many substances gives police new excuses to discriminate, imprison, and kill people of color in a “war on drugs.” Regan ignores the HIV epidemic spreading throughout the country’s LGBT people, stigmatizing the virus and giving evangelicals ammunition for hate speech. The first moral panics emerge.

2000′s, 9/11 sets off the chain of events that results in the Patriot Act, which increases the government’s power to surveil its own citizens. Neoliberal deregulation’s haunting echoes catch up and contribute to the greatest economic collapse since the 1930′s.

2010′s, right-wing reactionaries gain ground blaming America’s continued financial suffering on its first black president.

1990′s, Al Gore’s run for president turns climate change into a blue vs. red wedge issue, politicizing the issue for all days to come.

2020′s, America’s occupation of Afghanistan, the last shudders of the war on terror, fails. Right wing legislators roll back authority of the EPA, regress civil rights in a wave of reactionary politics erupting from the election of a failing billionaire in 2016. Hate crimes are on the rise, and social media allows propaganda and misinformation to spread like wildfire.

All this to say, and I’m sure I didn’t cover everything, that America’s decline into a capitalist hellscape giving up ground to hate movements and corporate interests is all the result of a few pivotal moments stemming from WWII. Eroding trust in the government after Vietnam leads to new reactionary groups forming, and sets the stage for Regan to take hold in the next decade (he was perceived positively as an anti-establishment candidate, after all, and Gen X ate him up).

We are in an obvious decline (well, this country has always been shit, lets be honest. there’s just so much blood on our hands. we werent saints before WWII, that’s for sure). And as the saying goes, “Rome as not built in a day, and so too did it not fall in a day.” Good riddance to the American empire, whenever it falls apart.

[korineedsanap]

I hate feeling like this I feel numb, but also like I need to scream and like I never want to feel better, but the only thing I want is to feel better  god, I have myself convinced  that we can get season three but Matt wouldn’t have to come to terms with Izzy‘s death  because as long as there was a season three it meant that  he wasn’t dead if there was a season, three it ment that maybe there was a place for me in the world  maybe I was worth being seen, because Stede was worth being seen  which is definitely something I need to bring up to my therapist when I see her next week because there’s no way that’s a healthy thought  because tying myself to this show  made me feel worthwhile  like by my simple virtue of trying to be good and being myself  meant that one day, someone would see I was worth being seen  and I would find my own crew to sail off into forever with  and I hate that I’m so upset because I was afraid of this before season to even finished filming because I had this terrible feeling in my gut please, dear God, I don’t get my hopes up and then Rhys had to go and say  but that was his last time playing Stede for now, and I knew what that meant. It scared the fuck out for me and I let myself get lost in it I let myself hope and I feel like such an idiot, even though I know that this isn’t about us because this is some stupid corporate green thing wrapped up in a homophobia and pride and late stage capitalism being the enemy of art, so why does it feel like my fault? Why do I feel guilty, I didn’t do anything. I did everything right we did everything right this isn’t our fault  right now I just stuck and not being ready for it to end not even just the show but the fanfiction the fanart is feeling like I’m part of some thing even though I’m too scared to really talk to anyone because I’m afraid of getting a shouted at cause I could be a part of it from a distance, and I was happy  I could live vicariously through Stede  and pretend I had the overconfidence to socialize with people in a way where people actually like me rather than hiding in my room because I’ve convinced myself that everyone secretly hates me and they’re just being too polite to say it to my face because let’s be honest, I’m annoying people think I ask stupid questions I’m too obsessive about the things that I like and they think the things that I like are stupid and that’s the stuff I like is not worth caring about  because my me and my interests are not worth respecting  but through stede there was hope  through him I could pretend that I didn’t have to hate my self in order for people to tolerate being around me  I could even pretend that someday someone would come in and let me sweep them off their feet with my artistic Riz  even though their way out of my league  but they’ll like that I care  and then the people around me or what they see that I’m a person worth liking 

Right now I guess I’m just afraid that if people stop caring about Stede  that I too am worth forgetting  again. I do know if this is an about me, but this isn’t about any of us, but God does it feel like it is. 

[midwest-emotional]

i'm tired of pretending like what i did needs to be forgiven, and also that you're sorry

draft of a story about dying, and the things we say or do around it (incomplete)

for the week of January 28th, prompts were "heaven, necklace, tree."

CW for slurs, homophobia, cancer, transphobia, mentions of drug use

----

Trees get smaller as you grow up. You used to think it was because you were small and the trees were very, very large. They used to span up over your head, into the air, into infinity, but when you look around the neighborhood now, forty years passing, it’s that the trees have definitely gotten smaller.

This is how I feel, at least. This town’s been growing, and as more people come in, more trees leave. They replant the trees, sure, but the ones put in are smaller and frailer. I think a lot about the copse I used to smoke weed with in the nineties, where the trees blocked out most of the sun but just enough got through the leaves that the patterns on the grass became mystifying with each puff. That copse is gone now, ripped out to make room for a strip mall. The trees there are spread far apart, each one barely fifteen feet tall, and they’re smaller.

I can see it from the side of my car as I stop for a smoke break. Coming home is a bitch. Everything always changes. I’m pretty sure the high school in this backwater is no longer a hick high, where being an open dyke makes you less of a target. It probably even has a Gay-Straight Alliance, given how trendy among Gen Z being queer is. But the rules are stricter now, aren’t they? Once something stops being counter-culture, it starts to form its own status quo. Think of how this town used to treat me, and now think of how this town celebrates June. On my sister’s Facebook, I’ve seen advertisements for the pride celebration. Probably exceedingly tame, and exceedingly corporate. Fuck.

I take a drag on my cigarette, looking out at those pathetic little trees. Coming home. I haven’t done this in years, but the sperm donor’s on his way out, and I’m a fucking idiot. I’m giving him one last chance to look me in the face and decide if this boy-girl creature that I’ve become is worth forgiving. Not that I think I need forgiveness, but there’s some bullshit saying about making peace with your enemies. And yeah, the Dad that slapped me for shaving my head when I was 15 is definitely one of those.

The only reason I know they’re still here is that I’m in contact with my younger sister. Even now, I’m texting her about the arrangements and when I can come by. Ellie’s a saint, as some would say, or just spineless. She can’t handle confrontation, and because of that, she’s been put in charge of the sperm donor through his chemo. The two older siblings, who don’t talk to me, are apparently too busy with their perfect families to lift a finger to help him, not when Ellie’s there to dump everything on.

Dumbass Ellie. Too subservient for her own good. That’s probably why she’s the only one that talks to me, too, because she’s scared of rejecting me at all. Her texts come through soft and mousey, each one a slight suggestion. “What time is good for you?” she’d say, and I’d say, “What about one?” and she’ll go, “No, I think Dad is sleeping at one. Do you have a better time?” Just tell me what time to come over, god fucking dammit. We’ve finally settled on four, and she’s asking me about dinner. “What do you want?”

I know it’s a trap. Ellie’s got something picked out, something in her heart, but she wants it to feel like it’s my idea because if she stands up for anything at all, she’s pushing people away. She wants me to feel like she’s making me feel welcome. I hate her so much, and yet I keep in contact with her, too. Because she’s family, and she’s technically all I fucking have. I have the in-laws, technically, but one of them’s going down the dementia hole and the other isn’t coping well, so it’s not like I can talk to them casually. But Ellie’s around, and it helps that I don’t see her often. We keep in touch with pokes on Facebook, texts occasionally sent on birthdays, and selfies seen through the only social we share. And in those moments, I almost miss her.

Until I’m talking to her again, cigarette in one hand and phone in the other, trying to play “guess the restaurant” and get the answer right. Family fucking sucks. Why do I bother, I think as I take a drag. I could leave, and spend the entire day curled up in my hotel, and fly home tomorrow like I planned on it. There’s no way in hell I’m staying longer than tonight. Ellie’s going to try to talk me out of it, but I can’t. Even if it goes well, I can’t.

In many ways, it would almost be worse, wouldn’t it?

“How about pizza?” I finally text, after three other suggestions are thrown out. Chinese food gives her the shits, apparently. Ordering sandwiches is a waste of money, or so she’s suggested with her passive redirection. And Dad’s not really in the mood for burgers. So, I’ve got it. Pizza. The bitch wants pizza.

A few seconds later, I get a, “Pizza is fine.” A few more seconds later, I’m swearing and stomping out my cigarette as the new guessing game shows up. “What kind of pizza?”

---

If you listened to my mother tell it, it was over a necklace. It wasn’t even a particularly expensive one, just a simple golden chain with a cross and a small lab-grown gem in the center. A birthday present, expensive for our middle class family, that I ungratefully spat back in their face. I was a bitch, couldn’t just accept being a good girl, and nothing was worth dealing with my disgusting dyke ass.

If you’ve ever had parents that would rather you kill yourself than be gay, you know it was a long list of various breaking points that led to me throwing the necklace across the room and screaming that I’d rather be anywhere but there. Another spit in the face, another birthday getting make-up and dresses and frilly clothing in an attempt to fix me. And I was seventeen and not particularly emotionally stable, so how could I have stopped myself?

The way Ellie put it is that my father is willing to forgive me, and I’m not sure if I’m going to throw it back in his face or take it gracefully. I’m not seventeen anymore, and this isn’t the nineties. And sure, I survived being homeless. I crashed on friends’ couches, dropped out of school, and started full-time at the Dairy Queen. Then I threw together as much money as I could and moved with my friend Desiree to the nearest city, where we quickly realized we hated living with each other and it wouldn’t last much longer than the lease.

Sometimes I think about Des. Last I checked, she’s gotten married to a man that looks extremely boring, nothing like the men she used to dream about back then. They’ve had kids. They’ve grown up. And while I have, too, it doesn’t look like Des. I live in a two-bedroom apartment with my spouse, Brooke, and roommate, and while it’s a good location in Los Angeles, it’s generally agreed that none of us are ever going to be able to have kids. We’re too old and too broke. We’d have to leave the city, probably move to a red state, and my spouse isn’t as resilient as I am. I could survive, maybe. He couldn’t. He’s lived in California all his life, and while I love him to death, there’s a softness to him that I don’t quite want to ruin.

That’s why he’s not with me. He had offered, but I’m not willing to explain his presence, and I don’t think my sperm donor deserves to know him. I’ve got a few texts from him on my phone, asking me about the flight and how well things are going, and I’m not sure I can deal with telling him that I am going to kill my sister and end up in prison for the rest of my life.

I drive down the road where I grew up, and it almost looks the same. This part of the town, at least, has been untouched by the development of new businesses. Most of the houses are well-kept. I wonder if they’ve started an HOA; it would be just like them to try to keep undesirables off the block. I personally can’t stand lawns, which is part of why I didn’t move back to the suburbs even when we had to take a roommate just to keep rent.

Pulling up to the house, I think it looks just as shitty as it did back then. I park in front, because I’m not comfortable being in the driveway. It feels too close, too oppressive. I sit out in the front for a while and wonder if I sit here long enough, the neighbors will call the cops on me. “Scary bald butch in your neighborhood. Might convince your daughters to cut off their tits.” It’s a thought, and that’s how they think it works, right? Then I catch something in the neighbor’s yard: one of those progress flag “everyone is welcome here” sign boards.

Is that how we’re doing things now?

I guess I don’t look quite as shocking. Bald head, piercings, but I’ve chosen a relatively muted outfit. A normal pair of shorts, a normal tank-top for the summer heat. I could have dressed worse. I glance up at the door to the house, its imposing oak wood telling me that this is my last chance to run.

It swings open, and I’m so tired of running. Sighing, I unbuckle my seatbelt and get out of the rental. I slam the door shut behind me. Ellie is there, thin as a wire, walking down the steps and waving me over.

It’s too late now. She’s spotted me, and so I must stride, headlong, into the jaws of the beast. I exit the rental car, praying for no hugs as I head up the walkway. She calls my deadname and reaches for me, but I stare her down in such a way that she drops her arms.

“I told Dad you were coming,” she says.

“Any reason why you wouldn’t?”

She hesitates. “Well, I didn’t think you’d actually come, much less stay for dinner.” I didn’t promise that. I hope she remembers that I said maybe to dinner. “He really does want to spend time with you,” she adds.

I clench my jaw so hard that I think my teeth are going to crack. I remember my mom crying and begging me to reconsider my lifestyle, that I wouldn’t go to heaven if I kept this up. I remember the necklace. I remember his hand in the hair I was forced to keep, yanking hard. Why am I here? “I bet he does,” I say instead, as neutral as I can.

We stand on the porch for a few minutes, stewing in the awkwardness of the moment, and I wonder if I made a mistake not cutting off Ellie like the rest. She wants peace, but does she care about what’s best for me? I don’t even know if I know what’s best for me. She twiddles her fingers, picking at her cuticles and the chipped paint on her nails. Then she clears her throat. “You should come inside.”

[wangxianficfinder]

I’m in the Mood for a Fic Where…

~*~

1. Good morning Mods!! For the next in the mood for, can you please rec some of your favorite Modern AUs??

🧡 Mud and Canvas by StormsBreadth (M, 109k, WangXian, Modern AU, LARPing AU, Fluff, Light angst, Role-playing, Camping)

🧡 boyfriend material by ricken (M, 41k, WangXian, Background ChengSang, College AU, Modern AU, Bad pick-up lines, Fluff, Humor, Mutual pining, Happy with a happy ending)

🧡 some life yet unspent by Fahye (E, 28k, WangXian, Background XiYao, Spy AU, Modern AU, 007 LWJ, Q WWX, Fluff and angst, Mutual pining, Injuries, Canon typical violence)

🧡 A Study in Fluff by WeaverOfTheNight (T, 29k, WangXian, Modern AU, Ghost bunnies, Vet LWJ, Architect WWX, Kid LSZ, Domestic fluff, Modern with Magic)

leave all your love and your longing behind by scarlettstorm  (E, 142k, wangxian, modern, meet-ugly, panic attacks, hurt/comfort, autistic lwj, neurodivergent wwx, pining, minor angst, happy ending)  

💖Life as a House by Terri Botta (Isilwath) (T, 55k, WangXian, Modern AU Corporate Espionage, Post-Divorce, Father-Son Relationship, Reconciliation, Angst with a Happy Ending)

These Things Stay the Same by notevenyou (E, 29k, WangXian, Modern AU, Kid Fic, Canon-Typical Violence, Minor Character Death, Injury, Natural Disasters, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hospitalization, Accidents)

💖homeward by sasamelons (T, 41k, wangxian, modern w/ cultivation, roadtrips, dysfunctional family, getting together, verbal abuse, friends to lovers)

💖oceans, drowned in starfire by stiltonbasket (T, 30k, wangxian, LXC/NMJ, mermaids)

💖All Old Things are New Again by The Feels Whale (miscellea) (M, 51k, WangXian, Reincarnation, Modern AU, canon still happened, Sugar Daddy LWJ, Kink Negotiation, gentle dom!LWJ, canonical levels of consent play, Modern Cultivators, cultivators can recognize important people from previous lives, vaguely, this started out as a cute sugar fantasy and got just incredibly horny very fast, blame LWJ)

💖Pentimento. by orange_crushed (E, 73k, wangxian, modern, art conservation, angst w/ happy ending) no, I definitely did not spend an hour crying about this one, nope ~Mod L

💖WWWWXD (What would Wei Wuxian Do?) series by deliciousblizzardshark (T, 55k, wangxian, modern, grief/mourning, angst w/ happy ending, hurt/comfort, autistic LWJ, fluff, panic attacks, LWJ has friends, trans characters, found family)

💖To school or not to school series by Scrippio (T, 67k, wangxian, modern, college/university au, hurt/comfort, fluff)

💖you've ruined my life (by not being mine) by cicer (E, 132k, wangxian, modern, developing relationship, awkward flirting, teenage romance, slow burn, happy ending)

Tempo Rubato by Spodumene (E, 107k, Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, persuasion au, Mutual Pining, Angst, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Eventual Smut, Jane Austen Fusion)

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2. Hi! I'm in the mood for some MDZS from Lan Wangji's perspective. I just want to see what he was thinking and feeling during the book/series.

The Price of Old Wishes by SoManyJacks (E, 67k, WangXian, Minor canon divergence, Angst, POV LWJ, Depression, Suicidal Thoughts, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Smut, Slow Burn, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, semi-verbal!LWJ, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Mojo's Post )

Song of Clarity by vicchan (T, 59k, wangxian, LWJ pov, major character death, slow burn, canon retelling, missing scenes, pining, WIP, maybe abandoned?)

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3. For the next “mood for” could you recommend any really nice domestic fluff? I’m in the mood to get lost in some long soft wangxian works. Modern setting is better and I prefer completed works but if a wip is super worth it, I’d take that too. (Demon Ink by Jade_Valentine is a great example) Thank you!

Zero by @theladyofravenclaw (G, 19k, WangXian, Modern AU, Soulmates, Musicians, Friends to Lovers, Past lives) for #3 I just finished writing a modern au that's pretty fluffy if you dont mind the self rec

you're the only thing i think i got right by sandustorms (lucianclouds) (M, 48k, WangXian, Modern AU, Arranged marriage, strangers to lovers, Slow Burn, angst with a happy ending, Fluff) Also for #3 "You're the only thing I think I got right" by sandustorms (lucianclouds) is very good!

my little love by mellowflicker (T, 54k, wangxian, modern, single parent WWX, kindergarten teacher LWJ, kid fic, hurt/comfort, domestic fluff, pining)

💖sudden nature series by everbrighter (M, 97k, wangxian, modern w/ magic, 5+1, family feels, parenthood, teenage rebellion, past character death, resurrection, pining, domestic fluff, angst, happy ending) 

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4. Hi 👋. I was looking for any wangxian fics in which: A) wwx gets jealous due to someone else trying to get lwj attention. Preferably lengthy fics. And B) modern fics where lwj takes care of wwx after the jiangs mistreated him. Thanks

4A)

Four Parts Honey and One Part Vinegar by masked (T, 13k, wangxian, post-canon, 5+1, Mojo’s post)

Hanguang-jun's Husband by lilacevergarden (T, 6k, Time Travel, post-canon wangxian being disgustingly in love, wwx bullying teenage wangxian, Yeah that's it, Jealous WWX)

4B)

Step by step by apathyinreverie (T, 12k, wangxian, modern, not Jiang friendly, def not JFM & YZY friendly, guilt, fluff, past angst, flashbacks, hurt/comfort, protective LWJ)

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5. Do you got anything for villain redemption/villain happy endings? I recently read the Surrender Sweetly series by jeejaschocolate which is... rated E for good reason, and it got me in the mood for redemption arcs. But I can't find any!! 😭😭 @untdoc

❤️Love made visible by Moominmammashandbag (M, 31k, zhuli (jiang yanli/wen zhuliu), wangxian, canon divergence, fix-it, major character injury, amputation, hurt wei wuxian, angst, JYL is a ROCK, and she cultivates with food, Hurt/comfort, Mojo’s Post)

Book Club series by Anonyma (T, 49k, WWX & WC & LQY, wangxian, LQY/WQ, canon divergence, learning to read, friendship, fluff, family bonding)

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6. this blog is great, thank you for all your hard work! for 'in the mood for a fic' i was wondering if anyone knew of any fics where xxc and wwx meet and bond but with canon ages. preferably book canon where xxc is younger, but i'll also take untamed canon where xxc is same age or only slightly older. i've read tons where xxc is the kind uncle to wwx with an expected age gap to boot, which i do love, but i'd also love to see how their dynamic would be with canon ages. thank you! :)

Songxiao - Canon? What canon? Series by MonchingBamboo (Varied, 241k, WIP, SongXiao, WangXian, Fluff, Getting Together, First kiss, Pre-Yi City, Humor, Smut, Hurt/Comfort) the focus is mostly solely on songxiao but a couple fics within the series have them interact with wangxian and the ages line up with the request :)

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7. Hi 🙂 I want to ask.. I know there are lots of DragonJi & FoxXian fic, but do you happen to know one with plot/AU like Three Lives Three Life - Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms? Has anyone ever write it? The similar the plot the better.. Thank you in advance 🙂🙏🏻 @yellowridge

Ten miles of Lotus Flowers by Yukirin_Snow (M, 273k, WangXian, XiCheng, A/B/O, Slow Burn, Angst with a happy ending, Hurt/comfort, Eventual Smut) For #7 "Ten Miles of Lotus Flowers" by Yukirin_Snow is one of my favorite fics of all time

Keep Me on Your Pillow by catbrainedschemes (E, 41k, WangXian, Pillow Book AU, high immortal!LWJ, red fox!wwx, Pining, Angst, Fluff, Eventual Smut, Slow Burn, Feelings, First Meetings, Misunderstandings, Happy Ending) is this exact plot. And also great.

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8. Is there any fanfics about bodyswap between WangXian and YiZhan? Like they get confused the first time but after get used to it they quite enjoy their daily lives. Like Yibo get used to flying with a sword, and LWJ trying to learn how to skateboard lol or yea any story line is fine tho. Thanks✨

These have been moved to YiZhan Compilation

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9. Hi! Do you know of any fics set in canon or as close to it as possible, where they use modern objects? Like cell phones or clothes, things like that

🧡Song of Suibian and Bichen: Or, the Greatest (And Only) Furby Master of Demonic Cultivation by moonwaif (T, 64k, WangXian, Suibian/Bichen, Fix-It of Sorts, Canon adjacent, The spiritual weapons are furbies, Angst with a Happy Ending, Mutual Pining, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-Typical Behavior, Taking my favorite parts of every adaptation and smashing them together) (Do Furbies count as something Modern? Because if they do, I'd definitely rec this fic ~ Mod C)

my life's journey is far from over by thelastdboy (E, 147k, WangXian, Modern AU but not too modern, Canon Divergence, Everyone loves/Nobody dies, Angst, Case fic, Hurt/comfort) It's a weird kinda canon-modern + has some heavy themes, but I loved it 🥰

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10. Hey .. this is my first time trying a request on Tumblr so please excuse me if I .. do it wrong or something idk (You're doing it just fine ^^ ~Mod C) . Also, you guys are awesome, you do god's work. I found some real gems through your blog. Thankyou so much. Wanted to ask if there's any fic with romcom-ish good boy lwj/bad boy wwx theme. Any au is fine, I like all. I read one called "detour of the year" (Let me know if this is the wrong fic~Mod C) with drug dealer/college boy au and I just can't get  over it. :(

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11. well, since some people seems to ask yizhan fics here, i might as well. i hope its not too much of a bother. i have a very hard time looking for fics that is like is as close to reality, where they are still actors. perhaps like behind the cams, who they are to each other. i have only read one like that, others are au. in other words, its like yizhan fics where they are still actors, same people same stuffs. like canon divergent, or behind the scenes if they are in books or so. hope u get it

These have been moved to YiZhan Compilation

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12. Hi!! Do you have any good sugar daddy! lwj fics? thanks <3 (also welcome Mod C!! It’s nice to have you here 🧡) (Hi! It's good to be here ^^ ~Mod C)

Weak by wayward_wing (M, 27k, WangXian, misunderstandings, Sugar Daddy LWJ, Sugar Baby WWX, Idiots in Love, Fluff and angst, wwx wears what he wants, Meaning wwx wears dresses, Lwj wears heels, Jc wears a skirt, Fashion is fun, Lan Zhan has a hair pulling kink, Anal Fingering, Hand Jobs, Rough Sex)

The Fault in Our Stars by Vamillepudding (T, 17k, WangXian, Modern AU, Getting Together, Romantic Comedy, Comedy of Errors, Mistaken Identity, Misunderstandings)

All Old Things are New Again by The Feels Whale (miscellea) (M, 51k, WangXian, Reincarnation, Modern AU, canon still happened, Sugar Daddy LWJ, Kink Negotiation, gentle dom!LWJ, canonical levels of consent play, Modern Cultivators, cultivators can recognize important people from previous lives, vaguely, this started out as a cute sugar fantasy and got just incredibly horny very fast, blame LWJ)

how to be a heartbreaker by sweetlolixo (E, 105k, WangXian, Modern AU, Sugar Daddy LWJ, Sugar Baby WWX, Dark WWX, Dark LWJ, Pining LWJ, Possessive LWJ, Crossdressing WWX, Seductress WWX, Eventual Happy Ending, Dirty Talking LWJ, They Do Fall In Love and there’s Fluff, Dark!Wangxian, Power Couple, Off the Charts Sexual Tension, Size Kink, Daddy Kink, degradation kink)

A Sure Thing by vesna (mrsronweasley) (E, 95k, WangXian, Modern AU, Sugar Daddy LWJ, Sex Work, Light Dom/sub, Aftercare, Semi-Public Sex, Exhibitionism, Bondage, use of sex toys, boundary setting, Relationship Negotiation, many baths, Barebacking)

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13. can you find any male pregnant wei ying when wei ying and lan zhan lives at gusu.

ShuangXiu by panda_desu (M, 54k, wangxian, post-canon, unplanned mpreg, domestic fluff, Nirvana in fire crossover, pregnant sex, family feels)

Golden Spice by Torrinidae (E, 21k, wangxian, post-canon, ABO, omega WWX, alpha LWJ, mpreg, mating cycles/in heat, smut, hurt/comfort)

Many Lan babies series by luckymoonly (M, 388k, wangxian, so many babies one way or other)

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14. Hello! First of all: thank you all the Mods for managing this blog, I've found so many great fics this way! <3 Second, for the Mood for a fic: do you know any in which A) orphaned!wwx meets his parents via time-travel or by some other way? I'm looking for fics in which they were dead or assumed dead. B) most people don't know that mxy=wwx and later (post canon for example?) wwx has to deal with something related to mxy (idk for example he learns that mo manor now belongs to him). Thank You again @marudny-robot

14A)

The Return of Cangse Sanren by milesofheart (T, 27k, WIP, WangXian, CS/WCZ, Canon Divergence, CS and WCZ Live, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, BAMF CS, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, Canon-Typical Violence, Creative talisman use)

31 Steps to a Brand New Qishan Wen by starandrea (M, 37k, wangxian, 9th in series, shapeshifters, kid fic, burial mounds, time travel, CSSR & WCZ live, family reunions)

And We Came Back To You by SilverMoonlightInBrightNight (M, 10k, wangxian, CSSR/WCZ, CSSR & WWX & WCZ, family reunions, family feels, fix-it, fluff, angst w/ happy ending, war, blood & gore, WIP)

empty as the sky by incendir (T, 23k, wangxian, JYL & WWX, CSSR & WWX, be careful what you wish for)

14B)

A place of Gold by ThisIsWhereTheMagicHappens (T, 10k, WangXian, Post Canon, Junior's as Sect Leaders, Mistaken Identity)

focal, filler, and line by bosbie (T, 26k, wangxian, canon divergence, flower shop, falling in love, slice of life)

Our Small Steps by tokaku (T, 9k, WangXian, Post-Canon)

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15. hello! for the next "I'm in the mood for", do you know any fics where bingqiu adopt wwx?? i always see hualian adopting him but only one where it was them (they actually mentored him bc he had demon blood i think, he even called lbh shizun) thank you!!

Hello, Neighbor!!! By Dragon_Scribe (M, 69k, BingQiu, WangXian, Canon Divergence Demon WWX, Crossover, Found Family, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dimension Travel?, Mystery, Mind Control, Love Confessions, Self-Indulgent) For the record I think the one they're talking abt on 15 of today's iitmf is "Hello, Neighbor!!!" By Dragon_Scribe on ao3. I figured it would be good to know

[New Mission – Parenting] by Forgotten64 (M, 92k, bingqiu, wangxian, child WWX adopted by bingqiu, fluff, romance, angst, violence, DISCONTINUED! but still worth a read I think)

A Guide on Parenting a BL Novel Protag by BingQiu by anatheme (Not rated, 75k, bingqiu, wangxian, fluff & crack, WWX adopted by bingqiu, fix-it, pining, misunderstandings, family fluff, marriage proposal, WIP)

'Til the Sun Grows Cold by xnemone (M, 73k, bingqiu, wangxian, LXC/JGY, post SVSSS canon, pre MDZS, demonic cultivation, found family, fluff & smut, light angst, childhood trauma, slow burn, pining)

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If you didn’t get an answer to your ask here, don’t forget to make use of @mdzs-kinkmeme and MDZS KINK MEME on Dreamwidth. Authors actually do use them for ideas. You may get what you order!***Your prompt doesn’t have to be kink! Fluff, crack, whatever - it’s all good!***

[littlewetbeast]

you know... sometimes i think i've got jackles figured out, i think i've nailed down why he's so inconsistent about destiel, why he acts so weird about it sometimes and other times not. then some information is flung at me and it's back to square one. why is that man so insane. he just genuinely confuses me.

aw man. this shit is like catnip to my overactive, over-analytical brain.

okay. listen. i’m not gonna lie: the more i try to understand the goings-on behind spn with any degree of nuance, the more my head threatens to melt. HOWEVER. while i joke about jensen ackles being an enigma, i don’t... actually think he is.

[disclaimer: the following points include speculation. i don’t know these people and will never claim to. this is just my take on it. never bring this up to the actors in question.]

the quick and dirty: i believe jensen is likely queer himself. i believe that he strongly identifies with dean, that he feeds off of the environment around him, and that how he feels he can act around destiel and dean’s sexuality depends on 1) his support network, 2) the immediate social environment, and 3) his work environment, all of which have evolved throughout the years BUT can also vary day to day. increased confidence and securer social environment has helped him decrease the need to perform and lessens the likelihood of acting out from insecurity, but doesn’t completely eliminate it. point is: the environment matters. the more insecure you are, the more it will affect your behaviour.

that’s it. not trying to excuse any shitty behaviour, just saying that’s what it is. 

the NOT so quick and dirty: so - my point is, as a queer guy in this industry, he has obviously learned to put up a front to protect himself. (even misha does this to some extent!) it’s douchey, and it’s stupid, but i understand it. think of the drastic difference of how he behaves around misha vs j*red, or even in a large group setting. i’m not saying he’s not friends with j*red, but i DO immediately see the difference of ‘front switched on’ and ‘front switched off’.

firstly - just because jensen has matured a lot over the past 15 years and is far more relaxed about himself today than he was back then, doesn’t mean he can’t still have moments of uncertainty that can occasionally push him back to his old, bad habits. basically, for someone who has grown up in a toxic heteronormative environment (being taught by his dad that drinking through straws was gay) - and in an industry that is very unfriendly to queerness and queer narratives until VERY recently (and even now is still pretty toxic) - utilizing his stupid douchey dudebro front during moments of anxiety has probably been his go-to coping method for the majority of his life. 

secondly - we all know he’s insanely close to dean as a character. dean is a part of him. he slips in and out of character effortlessly. he cares about dean and dean’s happiness. but dean was never intended to be a queer character. jensen has played queer characters before, but that’s the difference - he is ‘playing’ a queer character. he wasn’t supposed to be ‘playing’ dean as a queer character. readings of dean as queer makes, well. readings of him as queer. that’s it. for someone who puts up such a front, i can imagine he’d be shitting himself at people picking this up from him when he’s NOT in a supportive environment for it. (yes the ‘jackles acting choices’ are a Thing, but they most likely happened within more supportive environments and during times of confidence - and, let’s face it, i think sometimes jacting choices just naturally bleed in because he’s a good actor who makes good intuitive acting choices. that was likely the primary reason for it, especially early on.) 

basically - queer readings of dean are taken as queer readings of him. therefore, his reaction to destiel has also varied depending on the environment and his work circumstances. think of there being like... a constantly shifting scale of how supportive his social environment and work environment are of queer readings of the character he plays. the further back we go, the less supportive all of these factors are; the closer to the present, the more supportive these factors are.

“but rosa! why hasn’t he just shrugged and said it’s up to audience interpretation what dean’s sexuality is, like he has recently?”

because of *points to all of the above*.

let’s illustrate what i mean. 

exhibit A) it’s fairly early days of “destiel”, maybe season 6 or so. an audience member brings up dean’s reaction to dr sexy and asks why he can react like this yet destiel is not possible. jensen says dismissively because “destiel doesn’t exist” and that dean is simply a fan of the show, to an audience that cheers.

(work environment (spn): not supportive. immediate environment (audience): not supportive. social environment (j*red): less supportive*.) *I am not claiming j*red is homophobic; however, jensen HAS felt the need to perform around him aside from the last 1-2 years.

exhibit B) it’s 2019. jensen gets straddled by misha on stage and gets a [redacted] which j*red notices and covertly jokes about in front of a large audience. he visibly becomes upset and is in a vulnerable state. misha points out a ‘destiel is real’ t-shirt (the very fact that misha did this suggests he’s far more used to a jensen who is relaxed and supportive). jensen gets defensive and asks ‘where is destiel real?’

(work environment (spn): uncertain. immediate environment (audience): uncertain. social environment (j*red and misha): mixed*.) *do i think jensen would have reacted 10x better if j*red had not been there? yes. yes, i do. do i think he would he have reacted better if he hadn’t had a [redacted] that j*red made fun of? yes. yes, i do.

exhibit C) it’s 2019. jensen and j*red are in front of an audience which, given today’s times, are likely more used to queer narratives. it’s highly possible the queer storyline for cas has been confirmed at this point. jensen is calm and in control, and is not feeling the need to act up his front. someone brings up ‘samstiel’ and j*red gags. jensen, unprompted, shows support for destiel.

(work environment (spn): given the timing, likely supportive. immediate environment (audience): likely supportive. social environment: (at home) supportive, j*red: supportive or mixed.)

we know that he has progressively felt less of a need to use his ‘front’ and has become more relaxed over the years, which i believe is likely hugely due to the positive influences of danneel and misha (and maybe others). i don’t think that has been the case for ONLY the last two years. i think jensen during exhibit B was miles away from jensen in exhibit A. jensen is not miles away between exhibit B and exhibit C. those two are differences of environments where he feels confident, in control, and is supported by the narrative he’s meant to play (C), vs an environment he felt less supported and less in control of (B).  i won’t get into it in depth here, but it’s worth noting that the past ten years have also seen huge changes in fandom culture, how actors and fandom interact, and how the film industry and corporations at large handle queer narrative and fans. that certainly affects this dynamic.

and that’s it, really. jensen is a sensitive person who feeds heavily off the people and environments he’s in. he’s matured a lot over the years and i truly don’t think it’s a stretch to say that, in environments that would have supported it, he likely has been very positive about queer narratives in spn. source: his stark difference around misha, his willingness to flirt and joke about dean and cas with him, his occasional calmer and balanced reactions to destiel in more private settings.

aaand that’s how i see it, really. even if you don’t subscribe to truthing - or even jensen being queer - all of these things apply just as strongly to men who feel the need to perform. what can i say, toxic masculinity and homophobia sucks a lot and i’m glad society is shifting slowly in the right direction, and that jensen feels safer and more secure than he once did. shame the cw is unwilling to get with the times. EDIT: for some additional, vital context, i refer you to these two additional posts, which cover his upbringing, how speculations about his sexuality has hounded him his whole career, and his first intro to shipping on supernatural being j2/wincest, which included some real ugly shit.

[peachy-panic]

Only Temporary: Sebastian Tate

Hello. I was completely blown away by the positive response I got on the first piece of Jaime’s story (title under construction). Thank you to everyone who had a kind word to say about it! You made me really happy I made the mildly frightening choice to post.

In the interest of acclimating to the no-rules, freedom-to-post-out-of-order structure of this community, I wanted to introduce a new piece of the puzzle this time, with a new character that will come into play later.

Also, this piece goes into a little bit of the details, but for frame of reference on the BBU-adjacent thing: this story takes place in a not-so-distant future of the BBU, where WRU has undergone some changes. I look forward to exploring this world building more as I go.

Anyway, I’m rambling again. Thanks for reading. Here it is:

WARNINGS: General BBU warnings, talk of institutionalized slavery, classism, and general terribleness of large corporations. Referenced past homophobia and rough parental relationships, briefly implied/referenced non-con.

When Sebastian reflects on the day he graduated from med school, a sort of emptiness is the memory that first bobs to the surface. Among the cheers and camera flashes in the crowd, white coats and proud smiles, what Sebastian recalls most vividly from that day is looking out into the sea of parents and families and people there to support their loved ones on one of the biggest days of their lives, and not seeing a single person that had come for him.

What should have been one of the happiest moments of his life had been quickly overshadowed by the sinking feeling that none of it mattered as much as it would have if he had someone to share it with. Like there was something so fundamentally wrong with his life, that even something as objectively good and right and decent as becoming a doctor could be dulled over into a feeling of nothingness.

Perhaps, he thinks in hindsight, that moment had been foreshadowing for the following months ahead of him.

Watching rejection after rejection pour in from his top residency programs had felt like nothing short of his own personalized nightmare. He had spent several nights in a row on the phone with Alex, his undergrad roommate and only friend, clamoring back from the edge of many a panic attack, spiraling into all-out existential dread about the future and the past and what all of it meant for him if he couldn’t land an internship, let alone a real job out of school. To his credit, Alex never gave up hope in his friend. Or at least, he did a decent job hiding it if he did. Which was probably exactly what Sebastian needed to get through that particularly dark time in his life, and a good reminder of what a solid friend he had. Even if it was a party of two.

Unfortunately, Sebastian did not have the same faith in himself.

He was able to keep up some facade of optimism as his top five were picked off one by one. Telling himself, despite his devastation, that they were a pretty far reach, anyway. Even with good academic standing, it was famously no walk in the park to land yourself at John Hopkins or Mayo as a first-year. He even maintained a brave face as his first few safety programs reached capacity and moved forward without his name on the roster.

It wasn’t until he received his final rejection letter from some internal medicine place in Bumfuck, Idaho that he felt himself slip into dangerous territory. Sebastian knew himself well enough to know his own depressive patterns by then, and he knew it was only exponential decay from there.

Rock bottom came, as it did, in the wee hours of the night, after a full bottle of wine. Alone in his small apartment, surrounded by half-packed boxes with no destination, Sebastian found himself sprawled out on the floor with his laptop hot against his thighs. He couldn’t have explained why he opted for a privacy browser, but something about it allowed him to justify the words that he typed into the search bar.

It was a new low, and one he had sworn to himself he would never stoop to. Yet there he was.

He gave himself a moment to reconsider, to back out of what was undoubtedly a morally-gray train wreck waiting to happen as his thumb hovered over the enter key. And then the alcohol decided to override his moral compass.

Facility Care is the open secret of the medical profession. It comes with its fair share of stigma, and rightfully so, but it is notoriously easy to break into and pays a decent wage.

There are two types of people who end up stooping to that kind of employment. More often than not, it consists of doctors and nurses who had their licenses revoked or suspended somewhere along the line and needed a way back in. As far as Sebastian understood, they aren’t terribly ridgid about the particulars of each circumstance. After all, in the eyes of the law, the patients they would be treating are a price tag away from being entirely expendable.

The other percentage of Facility Care workers, and the reason Sebastian found himself staring at his too-bright computer screen with a sinking feeling of dread that night, are young medical graduates who find themselves in a tough spot. It isn’t difficult to spell out the logic behind that one when you open the WRU CAREERS tab on the home page and see the bright white words printed across the top of the screen:

LOAN FORGIVENESS.

It is shamelessly predatory and aggressively capitalistic, but Sebastian supposes that particular exploitation is pretty far down on the list of transgressions for an institution of legalized slavery. A few broke and hopeless medical students were hardly going to keep the Powers That Be up at night when they were able to rest easy under the weight of hundreds of thousands of stolen lives.

The whole thing is part of the massive PR overhaul the company did a few years back. In a world that was slowly inching toward civil activism and with the accessibility of platforms like social media to hold them accountable, WRU had to adapt to survive. Adaptation, in this case, took the form of changing the barest of minimums in order to keep themselves above board — to the public eye, anyway. Anyone who dares to take a closer look at the policy changes can see that it’s bullshit.

Changing ownership conditions to a rent-by-contract basis isn’t the humanitarian move they try to paint it as. In the end, it probably just equals out to more money in the company’s pocket when they can get more return on their “investments,” and a larger chance of exploitation for the people being moved around.

Getting rid of the Romantic division is an entirely meaningless gesture when they are still loaning out human beings with no legal rights and the inability to say “no.”

And offering an open job market with good wages and healthcare options to lower class individuals is a pretty convenient way to mute the backlash.

Essentially, you can tie a system of slavery and abuse up in a bow and make it pretty on the outside, but at the end of the day, it’s still fucking slavery.

Not that he has any room to criticize now. Now that he’s one of them.

In the end, Seb tries to justify his decision a few different ways. He is, after all, more or less a young man alone in the world. The odds are stacked against him and have been for a while. With only his own two legs to stand on, the only force stronger than his internal ambition is his instinct for survival, and he’s been running on those fumes for longer than he can count.

He had lasted less than two months under his parents’ roof after he came out of the closet at eighteen. It wasn’t exactly a surprise for anyone involved; Sebastian’s parents had known about (and subsequently bottled) his… urges… since he was in high school. Probably before that, if he is being honest with himself. And Sebastian, for his part, had spent the better part of his teenage years mentally preparing for the inevitable. He can recall long, late nights he had spent crying into his pillow and the perfectly-scripted ‘coming out’ speeches he recited to his mirror when he was one-hundred percent sure his parents were asleep.

Of course, none of the preparation had been anywhere near adequate when he actually found himself wilting beneath the heat of his father’s glare, the weight of his mother’s grief.

But. He had recovered. That is the point he tries to remember when the memories sting fresh beneath his skin, even all these years later. He has more-than proven himself to be a survivor. He has worked harder than anyone he knows for every scholarship, every grant, every dollar to put himself through school. Sacrificed nights out and real relationships for night shifts at shitty diners and long weekends cramming for exams. It hadn’t been easy, but he considers it the price he had to pay for his independence. For freedom, to live the life as the person he is meant to be, despite his unfortunate odds. He spent years telling himself it would be worth it. That one day, his hard work would pay off.

He can’t stop now.

Sebastian doesn’t have the luxury of taking time off to reroute when his navigation has gone amiss. He is walking the precarious line of rapidly accruing interest and student loans and a dwindling savings account, and there is no safety net below him.

Beggars can’t be choosers, and as it turns out, beggars sometimes have to compromise their moral integrity in order to survive.

It’s only temporary.

That is the mantra that gets him through the (half-drunken) application process and the (disturbingly lax) interview process. It is a job. One job. In the medical field, though the details are up for debate, and it is real-life money for rent and food and a savings that will hopefully be sizable enough to get him where he really wanted to be. Which is… really, anywhere else.

He can do ‘temporary.’ And perhaps, some misguided part of him thinks he can do some genuine good from the inside, too. ‘Be the change you want to see’ and all that.

It is a far jump from the floor of his apartment, sloshed and exhausted and desperate, to the cold, sharp reality of walking into his place of employment on his first day of work. Ironically, it feels a lot like an echo of the emptiness from his graduation day.

‘Sterile’ doesn’t quite cover it. ‘Sterile’ is the expectation of any well-respected medical establishment, but the inside of the facility walls has been wiped clean of far more than bacteria and germs. It is completely devoid of humanity. The long corridors that connect the medical wing to the general ward are windowless and dimly lit by flickering fluorescent panels that had make his head pound for the entirety of his first week.

He is given an office, though it is a term he, himself, might use loosely, as it is more akin to what was probably a storage closet before the old prison had been converted into the state’s training headquarters. It leaves him just enough space for a small desk and two chairs. On his first day, he asks if it is okay to bring in some personal items to spruce the place up. The older, balding doctor who had been assigned to show him around merely shrugs, and Sebastian decides to take that as a yes.

The small, pink-framed photo of a six-year-old Sebastian Tate in his grandfather’s white coat and an old-school stethoscope around his neck is hardly enough to make the place cozy from the corner of his desk, but it’s a good enough reminder of why he has to make this work.

‘It’s only temporary.’

‘Be the change you want to see.’

He will do his best.

[rainbowsky]

what did you think of yibo saying his dad used to hit him?

[ CW/TW - talk of abuse, violence, racism and homophobia ]

Anon is talking about this DDU clip, where DD talks about having been hit with a bamboo stick as a child.

This is a complicated question for me to answer, because I had a couple different simultaneous reactions to it.

1] My reaction to it based on cultural relativism.

The fact is, corporal punishment is still very acceptable in many cultures. The discussion around this issue therefore needs to be handled with sensitivity and thoughtfulness. I often see a lot of racism, classism and cultural superiority laced through conversations about this issue.

A lot of people grew up being hit, and that’s just how things were handled. It was that way in the white-ass redneck culture I grew up in. Being hit was just part of growing up. Some stories of being hit are horror stories, sure, but some of them are funny and can even be retold as lighthearted memories.

I remember when I first found out that other kids had a different understanding of what a ‘spanking’ was than I did. It was a massive shock to me to hear that some kids just got a flat-handed whack on the bum, that barely even hurt. In my family a spanking was genuinely brutal.

Up until that point, whenever my friends said they’d been spanked I was horrified. Learning what they’d really been talking about (and that they’d never, in fact, had the same experiences I had) was a big eye-opener for me, and one of my earliest experiences of ‘paradigm shift’; one of the first times in my life that I fully grasped the idea that people can think they’re talking about the same thing but be saying completely different things. 

Point being, what seems horrible and unthinkable to one person can be completely normal to another. To me, being brutalized was normal. I had no frame of reference for anything else. To my friends, being lightly smacked was normal. They couldn’t conceive of something ‘worse’.

Can we judge cultures based on how they discipline children? Should we? I don’t personally believe so. I think it’s always safest to deal with things on a case-by-case basis rather than paint with a broad brush across a huge range of people. Not all families from a particular culture hit their kids, and even when they do, how hard and how often they do varies wildly.

2] My reaction to it based on my own values.

It's sometimes difficult to speak critically of practices that others find acceptable (or even advocate for), but in the end I need to stand behind my own values. Not all practices are cultural, and not all cultural elements are worth preserving.

It is never OK to hit a child. It is never OK to hit a child. It is never OK to hit a child.

Corporal punishment is a human rights issue.

Here are some of the ways it is a violation of a child’s human rights:

It is cruel and degrading, and violates their physical integrity.

It violates their rights to equal protection under the law (in most countries hitting an adult is treated as illegal, but hitting children is allowed).

It violates their rights of personhood and equality and treats them as property of their parents.

Almost every country - including China - has signed onto the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The only UN member country that has not ratified the convention is the USA. Yes, you heard me right. The USA is the only UN member nation that has not yet ratified the UNCRC.

Here are some applicable articles in the UNCRC:

Article 2 (1): States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.

Article 2 (2): States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians, or family members.

Article 3 (1): In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.

Article 3 (2): States Parties undertake to ensure the child such protection and care as is necessary for his or her well-being, taking into account the rights and duties of his or her parents, legal guardians, or other individuals legally responsible for him or her, and, to this end, shall take all appropriate legislative and administrative measures.

Article 3 (3): States Parties shall ensure that the institutions, services and facilities responsible for the care or protection of children shall conform with the standards established by competent authorities, particularly in the areas of safety, health, in the number and suitability of their staff, as well as competent supervision.

Article 4: States Parties shall undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the present Convention. With regard to economic, social and cultural rights, States Parties shall undertake such measures to the maximum extent of their available resources and, where needed, within the framework of international co-operation.

Article 6 (1): States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life.

Article 6 (2): States Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child.

Article 19 (1): States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.

Article 28 (2): States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that school discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the child's human dignity and in conformity with the present Convention.

Article 37: States Parties shall ensure that: (a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age.

In addition, in 2006 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted specific measures against corporal punishment in “The right of the child to protection from corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading forms of punishment.”

It defines corporal punishment as:

“any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light. Most involves hitting (“smacking”, “slapping”, “spanking”) children, with the hand or with an implement – whip, stick, belt, shoe, wooden spoon, etc. But it can also involve, for example, kicking, shaking or throwing children, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair or boxing ears, forcing children to stay in uncomfortable positions, burning, scalding or forced ingestion (for example, washing children’s mouths out with soap or forcing them to swallow hot spices).

“In the view of the Committee, corporal punishment is invariably degrading. In addition, there are other nonphysical forms of punishment which are also cruel and degrading and thus incompatible with the Convention. These include, for example, punishment which belittles, humiliates, denigrates, scapegoats, threatens, scares or ridicules the child.”

If you have a specific interest in this topic I recommend reading the document, it’s interesting and informative. If it’s TL;DR for you, the document simply summarizes the ways in which corporal punishment is incompatible with (and a violation of) the UNCRC. It further states that:

The distinct nature of children, their initial dependent and developmental state, their unique human potential as well as their vulnerability, all demand the need for more, rather than less, legal and other protection from all forms of violence.

It also states explicitly that even ‘moderate’ forms of corporal punishment are a violation of the child’s human rights, and that “'appropriate' direction and guidance must be consistent with the whole Convention and leaves no room for justification of violent or other cruel or degrading forms of discipline.”

Justifications and Rationalizations

People often insist that spanking is the very best way to teach the concept of right and wrong to children who are not fully able to understand the nuances of such topics. I find that a very weak argument that doesn’t even pass the most casual reflection.

Just imagine any other scenario where you might want to instill standards of behavior into someone with limited capacities - such as elders with dementia or people with cognitive disabilities - and then ask yourself if hitting these people could ever be deemed acceptable.

Most people would be justifiably outraged at the idea of hitting an elder with dementia or someone with cognitive disabilities. These are vulnerable people for whom we have a heightened responsibility of care.

The internal revulsion we feel at the idea of hitting other vulnerable people really lays bare the ugly reality: people are OK with hitting children simply because they are children.

The human rights of women and children are always the last to be recognized and respected in any society or culture. Children usually come last on that list, and unfortunately it will take time for their human rights to be fully realized across the globe. However, make no mistake about it - every nation that has ratified the UNCRC is obligated under international law to uphold the rights of children not to be punished in this way.

Corporal punishment is ineffective and actually counter-productive

Everyone who is OK with hitting children has plenty of anecdata about how supposedly effective it is, but this is a heavily studied topic, and the facts are in. A 2016 review of more than 250 studies on the effects of corporal punishment could not find even one positive outcome of corporal punishment.

However, it found many negative outcomes. Here are just a few:

Direct physical harm

Poor moral internalization and increased antisocial behavior

Increased aggression in children

Mental harm

Damage to the parent-child relationship

Then why do people believe so strongly that it’s effective? Because that’s what they’ve been taught to believe.

We are all taught harmful and incorrect things growing up. Many people go on to uphold those views vehemently even in the face of mounting evidence proving them wrong. Just look at racism, look at homophobia, look at anti-vaxxers - look at any misguided belief.

How strongly you believe in something is no evidence of its correctness. All the rationalizations that you were taught, that help you believe in the rightness of your misguided ideas, are just the rationalizations keeping you within that blind spot.

"But I turned out OK"

Yeah, I get it, a lot of people who are hit as children turn out fine. That doesn't make it OK to hit children. I actually find the idea that one person’s resilience should be used as justification to visit the same harms on another person extremely obscene.

There are a lot of psychological reasons why the brain minimizes and downplays our experiences of having been hit or abused. It’s the brain’s way of protecting us from feeling traumatized, and of keeping our important relationships intact. It’s a self-protective instinct that ironically can sometimes lead to our being harmed more, or to unwittingly harming others. We don’t fully grasp how harmed we felt. Our brains prevent us from seeing it.

Even someone who was as severely abused as I was, when I was working through my healing process I had to actively work hard against my brain in order to fully grasp the abuse I endured. The brain doesn’t want you to know how bad it was, because it’s trying to protect you. It’s a huge part of why abused people keep going back to their abusers.

There’s also just the simple fact that different people have different levels of tolerance. They experience things differently, and there’s no way to predict who will experience something as trauma and be utterly destroyed by it, and who will take it in stride.

It’s simply safest - and most humane - to treat everyone with dignity and respect.

Punishment doesn't define parenthood

Having said all of that, I don't think the sum of one's parenthood can be determined based on whether someone ever raised their hand to their child. The more important question is, did they stand up for their child? Did they give that child a strong foundation in life? Did they teach their child to love themselves? Did they give their child unconditional love?

We don’t know how bad it was for DD. We likely never will. It would be irresponsible to judge his family or speak/think ill of them without more information about how his discipline was handled, and without more information on how the rest of his upbringing went. Without that information we need to err on the side of caution and give his family the benefit of the doubt.

At the same time, it’s totally understandable for fans to be upset that he was disciplined so harshly. I just urge everyone to be very careful about how we speak about it.

Words carelessly chosen can be hurtful. What we say can create an environment that’s hostile for people who feel targeted by our comments. It can create perceptions about DD’s family or upbringing that he might not approve of, or which could even be harmful to him and his family.

When in doubt, it’s safer to talk about our own experiences than to try to express hot takes about other people’s experiences.

As someone who was severely abused as a child, I often find the way people talk about my childhood and my family to be utterly tone-deaf, and even offensive at times. No matter how well-meaning you might be, it’s important to remember that someone’s family is still their family - their loved ones - regardless of how they might have been treated.

However you feel about DD being hit as a child - whether you found the story humorous or horrifying - I sincerely hope that you will research safe disciplinary practices and never, ever raise your hand to a child.

If you or someone you know is being abused or has been abused, please seek out resources in your area. I can say from firsthand experience - with therapy and support, an abused person can go on to live a happy, productive life.

Edit: Valuable insight from a reader on this topic.

More on managing our personal responses here.

[paradisetemporarilymisplaced]

Book recs: Similar to but less sad than TSOA

Hello everyone! @lordeteams requested some book recommendations that are not as sad as The Song of Achilles so here we go. I read a lot of books and since 2019 I've kept a running list of what I've read so honestly I'll take any excuse to subject people to my interests🤗 List is below the cut, not in any particular order (except from the first entry which is my current favorite), and includes NA, YA, and adult fiction. If you're curious about the distinction I'll refer you to this (sadly, now-deleted) tweet from Maggie Stiefvater:

One Last Stop (Casey McQuiston, NA): This one is brand new and instantly became a favorite. F/F romance in which August Landry, newly transplanted to Brooklyn, meets Jane Su on her morning commute. Turns out, Jane is stuck on the train and has been since the 70s, but has no memory of how it happened or of her old life. Part romance, part time-travel mystery, but entirely a love letter to queer communities everywhere. Found family trope abounds with August's roommates and coworkers, which include drag queens, people of every flavor of queer, and a real life psychic, all of whom are ready and willing to help solve the mystery of why Jane is on the train and how to fix it. In the process, August learns things about her own family, as well as events in American queer history that few people remember today. I really cannot express enough how much I love this book. Please read it.

Red, White, and Royal Blue (Casey McQuiston, NA): Odds are, if you've heard of Casey McQuiston, it was because of her first book (this one). M/M romance about Alex, son of the first female US President, and Henry, prince of England. Enemies to friends to lovers, featuring queer self-discovery, coming out, PR/corporate closeting (hello, larries!) and just a delight. This is a very different queer story from OLS - OLS is a romance, but more plot-heavy and the romance isn't the entire focus. In RWRB, the romance is the plot and it reads like fanfiction which is very fun.

The Raven Cycle (series, Maggie Stiefvater, YA): This series is a character-driven, coming-of-age, found family story about a bunch of weird-ass teenagers (affectionate), magic, prophecy, and Welsh kings. This is the rare story in which every single main character plays a critical role in the plot and grows and changes with the story. You will fall in love with all of them and their relationships with one another. Plus, the worldbuilding is incredible and has such an intricate mythology that you'll want to reread just to get the details. Followed by the Dreamer Trilogy, of which two books have been published, but I've only read the first one so far.

All for the Game (series, Nora Sakavic, YA): This is the series that got me back into reading for fun five years ago and as such it holds a special place in my heart. The plot is wacky and convoluted - college athletics, a made-up sport, a kid on the run from his mob boss father - but don't let that discourage you. Hella found family. (Are you seeing a pattern?) I will warn you, this deals with some pretty heavy stuff, including torture, abuse, addiction, sexual violence, and more. Here's a comprehensive list of trigger warnings, with detailed descriptions at the bottom. It's intense, but the friendships and romances make it worth the read imo.

Grishaverse (series, Leigh Bardugo, YA): This is actually three series: the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, and the King of Scars duology (which I haven't yet read). If you've seen Shadow and Bone, the S&B trilogy covers the Alina storyline, while SOC covers Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Nina, and Matthias. S&B is a chosen one/coming of age story, while SOC is found family committing heists. It's great.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Benjamin Alire Saenz, YA): Coming of age M/M romance. Set in the 1980s in El Paso, it describes the friends to lovers journey of Ari and Dante over several years, as well as Ari's journey of self-discovery. It is the most beautiful book and one of my comfort reads. There's some themes of homophobia and violence, but with a happy ending.

Carry On (Rainbow Rowell, YA): This is basically Harry Potter fanfiction, but better because (a) it doesn't take itself too seriously and (b) the author is not a violent transphobe. Seriously, this book is so fun. It's a twist on the chosen one trope because Simon, said Chosen One, is just spectacularly bad at what he is supposedly destined to be. Plus you have an enemies to lovers storyline, which is my personal favorite trope. Followed by Wayward Son, which is literally a road trip AU, and Any Way the Wind Blows, which will be released next month.

The Queen's Thief (series, Megan Whalen Turner, YA): Fantasy series centered on Eugenides, who is very proud of being a great thief but also wants to be famous, two goals which are not really compatible. This series is interesting because every novel is told from a different character's point of view in an increasingly zoomed-out lens such that you're seeing how Eugenides' influence grows over time and space. The setting is vaguely based on the ancient Mediterranean region, but with a mythology all its own.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (Taylor Jenkins Reid, adult): This is a frame story in which aged Hollywood star Evelyn Hugo, famously tight-lipped about her personal life, hand selects a young journalist, Monique Grant, to finally tell her story. Evelyn tells Monique all about her life - how she became an actress in the mid-twentieth century, how she got involved (and uninvolved) with all seven of her former husbands, and who was the true love of her life. There are some sad moments for sure, as it's a retrospective on the very long and very full life of an actress at what she knows is the end of hers. But it's such a good story and worth the bittersweet tones.

This Is How You Lose the Time War (Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, adult): Sci-fi novel told by Red and Blue's letters to one another across time and space. They are on opposing sides of the Time War and as they perform their respective missions, they leave letters for the other to find. Their letters start out as "I'm coming for you, you better run" but then eventually turn to friendship and then love. Ultimate enemies to lovers. It's a short novel but you'll read it again and again to pick up more details. It's so good.

The House in the Cerulean Sea (TJ Klune, NA): This book feels like a warm hug. Linus Baker is essentially a child protective services worker, overseeing the orphanages housing magical children. He is then assigned to the most remote orphanage in the system, in which six dangerous children reside, to determine whether any or all of these children are capable of bringing about the end of the world. Once more, with feeling: FOUND FAMILY. Also nice because it's a metaphor for queerness that also features canon queer characters.

[bring-it-all-down]

Capitalism & Racism in Black Sails

In order to properly understand the individual and collective responses to England’s empire in Black Sails, it is necessary to understand capitalism and its relationship to racism. What follows are my thoughts on the relationship between capitalism and racism (focusing on the late 1600s/the development of capitalist England), and how those things relate to the show. It’s a long post, but by no means is it an exhaustive analysis of either capitalism or Black Sails, so I look forward to what others have to say on the subject!

First, what is meant by “capitalism”?

Capitalism describes an economic system in which private businesses own the means of production––the materials and tools used in the production of goods. This system creates distinct classes within society: the bourgeoisie who own the corporations and the proletariat who must work at these corporations and thereby become subservient to the bourgeoisie. 

Explained in Ellen Meiksins Wood’s The Origin of Capitalism, capitalism emerged most specifically in England as a result of the agrarian feudal creation of the landlord-tenant relationship, in which the landlord rented land to the tennant, who was incentivized to produce as many goods as possible. This system led to the complete privatization of land and the creation of wage-laborers who could not produce enough goods to themselves become part of the bourgeoisie. Over time, as these wage-laborers became more numerous, society shifted from being agrarian-centered to revolving around the creation of cities to facilitate the mass production of goods.

How is capitalism tied to racism?

The spread of early capitalism throughout Europe was facilitated by improvements in technology allowing for the mass production of goods from raw materials. Capitalist countries thus turned outward in search of raw goods to power their economies. As Marx explains in Capital:

The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the indigenous population of that continent, the beginnings of the conquest and plunder of India, and the conversion of Africa into a preserve for the commercial hunting of blackskins, are all things which characterise the dawn of the era of capitalist production. These idyllic proceedings are the chief momenta of primitive accumulation. On their heels treads the commercial war of the European nations, with the globe for a theatre (Chapter 31).

Capitalism thus rests on the idea of “primitive accumulation,” that being the initial expropriation of the individual from the land, achieved through feudalism domestically and chattel slavery internationally. Because capitalism demands the constant mass production of goods, it requires increasing volumes of raw goods––sugarcane, cotton, coffee beans, etc.––which are obtained through the extension of colonialist enterprises in order to keep parts of the world in a continuous state of underdevelopment. 

Although pre-capitalist societies had slaves, the advent of capitalism necessitated slavery on a mass scale, produced through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, in which indigenous populations were wiped out and replaced with slave laborers. This system resulted in complete alienation of labor as white laborers in the “New World” were replaced by the early 1700s with more ‘cost-effective’ enslaved Africans who had no ties to their owners or to the land they worked. As former Trinidadian Prime Minister Eric Williams put it: 

Here, then, is the origin of Negro slavery. The reason was economic, not racial; it had to do not with the color of the laborer, but the cheapness of the labor. [The planter] would have gone to the moon, if necessary, for labor. Africa was nearer than the moon, nearer too than the more populous countries of India and China. But their turn would soon come” (14).

Racism, then, is indistinguishable from the power structures of capitalism. The desire of the bourgeoisie to increase their capital led to the creation of the slave trade in order to accumulate mass volumes of raw goods so their proletariat workers could transform them into goods to then be sold back to the workers for profit. 

This system thus creates two types of exploitation: the exploitation of the enslaved people and colonized lands, as well as the exploitation of the domestic working class. The need to keep this system in place demanded capitalist societies craft the false belief in white supremacy in order to justify the enslavement of Africans, Indians, and various Indigenous peoples in Asia and Latin America.

So, how does piracy come into the picture?

In the mid-late 1600s, England began its industrial revolution, propelling the island to increase its Atlantic trade. This desire to trade created a new merchant class, expanded the number of laborers in American colonies, and launched England into various wars with competing European powers. In Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age, Marcus Rediker describes the social conditions of this era thusly:

By 1716, big planters drove armies of servants and slaves as they expanded their power from their own lands to colonial and finally national legislatures. Atlantic empires mobilized labor power on a new and unprecedented scale, largely through the strategic use of violence––the violence of land seizure, of expropriating agrarian workers, of the Middle Passage, of exploitation through labor discipline, and of punishment (often in the form of death) against those who dared resist the colonial order of things. By all accounts, by 1713, the Atlantic economy had reached a new stage of maturity, stability, and profitability. The growing riches of the few depended on the growing misery of the many.

Piracy emerged from this poverty in England and in its colonies, as poor people who knew how to sail figured they had little to lose and much to gain in turning to piracy. Moreover, piracy offered an alternative to the oppressive nature of living under England’s empire. Pirate ships “limited the authority of the captain, resisted many of the practices of capitalist merchant shipping industry, and maintained a multicultural, multiracial, and multinational social order.” On these ships, pirates learned “the importance of equality…[their] core values were collectivism, anti-authoritarianism, and egalitarianism, all of which were summarized in the sentence frequently uttered by rebellious sailors: “they were one & all resolved to stand by one another.” In Marxist terms, pirates retained control over the means of production and their labor, producing a more egalitarian division of profit in which all received the same share.

The Golden Age of Piracy, then, emerged in response to England’s adoption of capitalism. Despite the threat of death, exploited workers turned to piracy out of desperation and the quest for securing immediate wealth. Although piracy was often violent, it nonetheless embodied a system of labor in stark contrast to that of capitalism, based not on unequal acquisition of goods but on the fundamental equality of human beings.

How does this capitalist context enrich our understanding of Black Sails?

England’s capitalist-driven empire provides the system under which all of our characters struggle and thus informs their every decision. The characters’ backstories we are given all pertain to their desire to either escape from capitalism or assimilate with it. As this post is quite lengthy, I won’t go into detail about every single character, only the ones who most illustrate the manner in which capitalism operates.

First, James Flint’s backstory is not simply that of a man who experienced homophobia and wants revenge for it. We learn of him that his father was a carpenter and he was raised by his grandfather in Padstow, a working-class fishing town in north Cornwall. Because of this, he was barred from receiving a formal education and likely joined the navy because it offered him the opportunity for some sort of upward mobility, though it’s clear in his interactions with his peers that they will never see him as an equal due to his lower-class status. The manner in which James’s peers treat him very likely plays a role in his decision to support Thomas’s plan for Nassau. Despite the plan still being colonialist, it did seek to undermine a key component of capitalism: the dehumanization of the working force. This dehumanization is a fundamental element of capitalism (and this empire) because if laborers believe they have inherent worth, they are more likely to challenge the bourgeoisie. Thus, James’s exile from England was not because he was gay, but because he sought to undercut the foundations of England’s wealth, a choice driven by his love for Thomas and his own relationship to capitalism.

Connected to Flint’s backstory is Billy’s, as it also involves the navy. From the mid-1600s to the early 1800s, Britain relied on the practice of impressment––forcing people to serve in the navy––to advance its colonial aims. Billy’s parents were levellers, people who opposed impressment. As punishment for this, Billy was taken as a child and forced into “press gangs” and served in the Navy for three years as a bonded laborer (the naval equivalent of debtors’ prison) until his ship was captured by Flint and he was given the opportunity to join the crew after killing his captor. Like Flint, then, Billy became a pirate as a direct result of the violence done to him by capitalist-imperialist England.

Likewise, Jack became a pirate as a consequence of English capitalist industrialization. His family had for generations owned a tailoring business, but it was driven out of business by the creation of a massive textile mill. After his father died, Jack was forced to assume responsibility for his father’s debts, which he would work off as an indentured servant at the very textile mill responsible for the debt. Jack, then, turns to piracy to escape capitalism.

To understand the backstories of Flint, Billy, and Jack, you must understand the process by which England assumed a capitalist economy and how that shift from feudalism to capitalism affected both domestic and international practices in the early 1700s. The introduction of distinct classes based on relationships to labor mandated strict inequality and the valuation of mass production at the expense of individual lives.

How does Black Sails depict the relationship between racism and capitalism?

The most obvious answer here is the show’s involvement of Madi and the Maroons, who exist solely as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Because this is already a lengthy post, I would like to set Madi aside in order to talk about Max, who I think offers a less overt critique of what Cedric Robinson calls “racial capitalism.”

Max, rather than seeking to run from capitalism, wants to become a member of the bourgeoisie. Her enslavement is, of course, the result of French colonialism in the Caribbean, but rather than recoil from civilization, her enslavement propels her to want to join it. As she tells Anne:

“When I was very small, I would sneak out of the slave quarters at night to the main house. I would stand outside the window to the parlor. I would stand amongst the heat and the bugs and the filth on my toes to see inside. Inside that house was a little girl my age… With the most beautiful skin. I watched her dance while her father played music and her mother sewed. I watched her read and eat and sing and sleep, kept safe and warm and clean by her father. My father. The things it took to make that room possible, they were awful things. But inside that room was peace. That is what home is to me” (3.3).

She reiterates this understanding of society to Marion Guthrie when she states that “progress cannot begin and suffering will not end until someone has the courage to go out into the woods and drown the damned cat” (4.07). While she recognizes the evils of civilization, she also believes that it offers comforts for the select few, and she wants to be one among the few. 

Max, indeed, is successful in assimilating into capitalist society. She works her way out of sex work until she owns most of Nassau, not once but twice. This achievement initially seems like a massive success and proof in the viability of Max’s methods, but in subtle ways, the show demonstrates that assimilation is not liberation.

Because, as Ibram X. Kendi stated, “The life of racism cannot be separated from the life of capitalism,” Max’s attempts to assimilate come with the betrayal of the rest of the enslaved people. Although she herself refuses to use slave labor, her treaty with Mrs. Guthrie, Silver, and the Maroons requires the Maroons to return escaped Black people into slavery. Moreover, she has won herself power in a system that refuses to recognize her presence, forcing her to pretend that Featherstone is the real governor of Nassau. 

Further, her assimilation into the capitalist system alienates her from other Black people. The two characters with whom she is most closely associated with are Anne and Eleanor, white women whose whiteness affords them a certain level of protection not offered to Max. She never interacts with Madi or any of Madi’s people and she therefore cannot comprehend any other path but assimilation. 

For all of Max’s efforts to learn from Eleanor and do better than Eleanor in running Nassau, she ends up in virtually the same place as Eleanor, but even more hidden. The Guthrie family still holds financial control of Nassau, Woodes Rogers still looms in the distance, and though piracy exists, it is even less acceptable. Thus, while Max is often credited as the person who most “sees life as it is,” her alienation under capitalism prevents her from seeing life “as it should be.”

Conclusion

As capitalism emerged as the dominant economic and political system beginning in the early 1700s, it came to define all aspects of global society, down to the very relationships people had with each other. It is impossible, then, to truly understand the motivations of anyone in the show without discussing their relationship to capitalism. This is by no means an exhaustive account of Black Sails’ commentary on capitalism and racism (I didn’t even mention Vane’s conversation with the Spanish soldier), but it hopefully underscores the idea that knowledge of capitalism (and therefore imperialism) is essential for fully comprehending the show.

[femperials]

i hardly recognized you

dynasty was almost a sexy financial drama which i genuinely forget all the time until i rewatch it from the beginning of the series. i remember hearing about it pre-production because of being a liz gillies stan and i vaguely understood what the original dynasty soap opera was (but hadn’t watched it at that point) so when the first trailer was released / when i finally watched the first episode i was embarrassingly excited about it. not to be a ‘no show is improved by sex’ headass but i am still going to take a moment of silence for the business drama aspect that once was. i find myself rolling my eyes every time someone complains about how dynasty ‘used to be better’ because i still love it very much but rewatching it from the beginning is always wild because of just how different it is now. it’s touched on so many different genres and styles and moods over the last four-ish years that if you were to put, say, 1.01 and 4.22 beside one another you could probably convince me that i was watching two different shows (which makes the pilot title so much funnier).

one of my favorite things about rewatching season 1 is remembering how there was a time where the fandom was divided between shipping fallon with jeff or fallon with culhane - while i avoided shipping wars, i loved jeff. i haven’t gotten over incestgate. there were also a handful or so outliers that were like ‘i don’t know, maybe we should see what this liam guy is all about’ - by his second or third episode, that number had obviously multiplied itself over tenfold and he had already become the (majority) fan favorite. i was hardly interested in or impressed by liam and i will admit that i did not expect him to be sticking around. 

while the spy work with disguises and wigs that make appearances later in the show are fun, i love looking back on a time when fallon was actively able to hide in plain sight - and did, on purpose. the political message wasn’t nearly as subtle or clever or groundbreaking as people sometimes liked to pretend it was, but the reminder that women are underestimated and therefore effective for corporate espionage was perfect the way that it was. i sort of wish that we’d gotten a few more seasons worth of examples of that. fallon being able to stand in a room full of her business rivals and have all of them assume she can’t keep up is a superpower of hers that i wish they’d kept in the stable plot-wise. 

i miss steven so much on a daily basis if for no reason other than he and fallon are my favorite stereotypical gay son hoe daughter trope. their combined brand of bitchiness has always been so beyond, writing-wise, and there has never been a suitable replacement for steven’s half of that dynamic since. i also really love, as a sidenote, how much dynasty wanted to hammer home that since this show was more politically aware, steven would not be the victim of homophobia in his household - which ends up translating to him having a strained relationship with his father because he’s the mouthy liberal that starts an argument with grandpa at thanksgiving.

two of my favorite lines to look back on are in this episode, too:

“you’re not going to scare this one off, fallon” is such a great line from blake because it implies that there were women between alexis and cristal that we never got to see. obviously no other fiancees or wives but i would love to hear snippets about fallon terrorizing blake’s other girlfriends. 

“he pays me 200k a year, and i’m banging his daughter” is the FUNNIEST culhane line of all time, not to mention how fallon reacts to it. i still can’t believe this was the controversial sexism that i was hearing about when the episode finally aired. that line alone almost sold me on the ship over jeff.

i’ve mentioned before also that i think having one ‘good’ character in a show full of grey or bad characters does more harm than good. season one of dynasty did seem to understand that, so that is one thing i do really miss about it. characters that leaned-good without being perfect suited the world much better and also made their corruption less ‘character arc killing’ and more ‘understandable and dynamic’. cristal, steven, and even culhane were all really great examples of this. 

additionally i’m just now realizing that the matthew - cristal - claudia storyline stretched across the entire season without becoming too dull. i miss that style of plot, it would be cool to see something similar come from season five (for specifics, i mean a long running thread throughout the entire season with actual developmental focus). there was real dread and drama that had been slowly built up here; i definitely miss this show playing the long game. they have the audience, they have our focus. they don’t need to speed through 10 b-plots per season to keep us tuning in each week with something ‘fresh’. they also built up the relationship between fallon and cristal beautifully. i’ll cling to her offhandedly mentioning in season 2 that she also felt she had ‘lost cristal’ until i’m dead and buried. fallon’s mommy issues have so massively skewed her relationships with women - specifically in positions of authority - that watching that development slowburn was an absolute gift.

one of the big reasons i loved jeff and fallon so much, aside from how much i shipped them together, was that it gave us insight into fallon in high school. i loved all the little snippets of information about how she stuck up for and hung out with jeff and monica despite them being ‘low income’ was really interesting because it’s not that it shows that fallon wasn’t stuck up but it shows how smart she was. she was fine with being edgy and making bold choices (her chloë sevigny phase also comes to mind) because jeff was a genius, monica was her friend, and she didn’t care about anything else. she wanted to be an engineer, she dressed as rbg for halloween, rode horses, and hung out with the kids way below her tax bracket because she liked them. between that, then later going on to get a dui (1.02), apparently being an herb enjoyer (1.12), and also being a billionaire the entire time - that was an exceptionally dynamic character. also to tie back in to what i’d said earlier about enjoying the slow burn plots, jeff and fallon were so deeply slow burn that it set my teeth on edge in the best way. they’d interrupt their flirting to discuss business which i couldn’t even be mad about because i was also so interested in that side of the show that i couldn’t decide what i wanted more of any time they were on screen together. this first episode literally made me crazy.

this is literally the most explosive pilot of any show i’ve watched in the same genre / for this demographic. i’m obviously biased but i was really blown away the first time that i watched it, and while i don’t tend to rewatch as often as i used to, showing this show to people for the first time is one of my favorite things, and a large part of that is due to how quickly the pilot (and 1.02 as well) can suck someone in. i rarely have to even ask ‘do you want to watch the next episode?’ after showing someone the pilot before they’re rushing to hit the ‘next’ button. when i talk about the show changing so much over the years that is obviously in large part due to basic character development and plots moving along as they should, so it’s not necessarily out of a place of negativity. i do think it would be a little difficult to sell this show to people the same way if i were to show them an episode from a later season, even with a full understanding of the characters and plots ahead of time just because of how weirdly perfect 1.01 is overall. 

also before i abruptly end this post i want to say that my favorite tidbit from this episode is the bouquet toss at the end of blake and cristal’s wedding. it passes hands from cristal to fallon, who disgustedly throws it again, caught by steven; the exact order that these three characters get married in during this season. (here’s a really low quality gif from an illegal recording of said shot)

and also also, here’s a recap of 1.01 from ijusthateeverything who thought it was total dogshit. i really like their recaps even when we disagree so i want to pass it along.

[elliete-four]

LGBT+ Representation in League of Legends: Solving The Problem of Toxicity

When people think of League of Legends often times the first association that comes to mind is its toxic fanbase, a problem Riot has been working tirelessly to fix. Representation of various diverse groups is the single best strategy to combat this. Most of the people writing slurs in chat and displaying otherwise intolerant behavior often times have lived a life where they do not come in contact with these groups frequently. Think of the homophobic redneck stereotype, this is a person that lives in a small town and is surrounded by people with pretty similar opinions, so it is difficult for them to picture the actual damage their words are doing as they've never thought about the life of a gay teenager. In contrast, rates of homophobia tend to be lower in cities with higher rates of diversity where people on a daily basis are surrounded by gay nightclubs, gay classmates and coworkers, and various other aspects of gay culture. This directly applies to online video game communities such as League. League has has a player base of 180 million active monthly players, this can be thought of as a small country. The more league does to offer their player base a diverse gaming experience, the sillier someone would look writing homophobic slurs in the chat. Now obviously there are other realms of diversity: race, gender, culture, etc, but for the sake of being as brief as possible I want to focus on LGBT+ representation, as the other categories would have similar approaches but with several nuances worth diving into further in other pieces. To summarize, League can create through the content it puts out to its community, an experience in which their players are forced to interact with cultures and experiences they otherwise wouldn’t see in their day to day lives.

The Difference Between Surface Level and Actually Impactful Representation

When pride month rolls around, every company is sporting rainbows on everything, and this has come to be met with eye rolls and labeled disingenuous. Let’s talk about why. Representation to be effective has to have to main features: it needs to be permanent, and non optional. Yes pride month exists and has a very rich history and meaning behind it, the problem with corporations celebrating it though, is that they're only showing this diversity once a year. This essentially makes it optional for their customers to not participate in it. Imagine a homophobe refusing to purchase their favorite candy bar when it has rainbow packaging on it. If this is a month long run of rainbow packaging it just fuels the homophobia in the form of annoyance at being surrounded by the thing they hate for a month. The key to actual change is prolonged and meaningful exposure. The same problem goes for optional features. Any representation that's optional homophobes would just not use, and further more it singles out and puts the people that are using the optional feature in danger of being discriminated against. 

Now to tie this back into League, an example of an optional and seasonal piece of LGBT+ representation is the rainbow poro icons that leave a rainbow trail when you equip them. Now don’t get me wrong I love this feature I think it’s really cute, the thing is I'm not the one that needs the exposure. Homophobes will simply not equip the icon and even more so might make fun of people that do. Now I believe League extended these to no longer be seasonal, which good on them, but it is still optional, meaning no change will actually come of it.

So What has League Done That Has Been Actually Impactful?

 The representation has to be part of the game itself, it can’t be an optional event or something that homophobes will simply choose to not interact with. This means it has to be the champions themselves. A champion having queer representation is something people cannot simply shield their eyes from, even if they choose to not play the champion they will see the champion in their games and it will be something they are forced to interact with. Now League has started doing this, their latest champions have over all been getting much more diverse. Varus’s backstory was recently updated to confirm that he had a male lover. This is the first official gay character in League. Another example is one of Samira’s voice lines saying “guys, gals and other pals”, a wonderfully LGBT+ line. The more that portrayals in media stray away from nothing other than buff white men saving princesses the more exposed people will be to other ways of life.