#jane is abortion because i support them so much

[orangelemonart]

Tired of seeing this meme with dudes

CHICK TIME.

[beethebisblog]

I had to watch the episode in short bursts, because people kept needing me for things.

I’m gonna ramble about everything that happened for each character but first I just want to say that I loved hearing more of Tricia’s singing voice this episode, she has been underutilized so far.

-Susan

At the beginning of the show, Susan was very quickly cast as the pretty but mean popular girl jealous that her ex-boyfriend moved on. Then slowly, they did this thing that I REALLY love, where they gave her more depth, more complexity, and more dimension. They have shown us perfect Susan who works hard to maintain the status quo and please her mother (who is encouraging unhealthy relationships with food and slutshaming her daughter, seriously Mrs. St Clair can suck a rock). And now they’ve shown us another level to Susan, acknowledging that rich white families will ALWAYS do whatever it takes to protect their reputations. Her mother holds this over her head, but it was clearly a very traumatic, very difficult thing for her to do in secret without the support of anyone. Sure her parents made it so that she could get the abortion, but based on how we’ve seen her mother treat her, we know Susan doesn’t get any real support and it makes her actions that much more heartbreaking. When she tries to stand up to her mother, and Olivia (who is neither right nor wrong in her reactions) doesn’t want to believe she’s changed, you can see that she accepts that. It isn’t until Olivia is a steps a little too over the line that she reveals the truth about what she witnessed. Susan is 16-17 and she’s hurt and she’s scared and she’s sad and I love her.

-Dot

I don’t have much to say on her, except that she really is a sweetheart who deserves better friends. Honestly, sometimes a pity date with the bad boy of the school is way better than sitting there alone while your friends all have dates. She’s so cute. Her poor nose and eye :(

-Hazel & Wally

Doing them together because they were together in all of their scenes. Hazel was giving Cinderella vibes. I appreciate the fact that while Wally doesn’t understand some of her Hazel-ness, he really seems genuinely interested in learning about her interests and getting her to at least attempt to enjoy his too. I loved their duet. I love that during the utter chaos that was the rest of the episode, they got to be in their little bubble where everyone pointed out that they are seemingly perfect for one another. I don’t normally trust media when it says stuff like that, but I actually really like them together.

-Nancy

I love her so so so much. It’s entirely relatable the way a crush can feel all consuming and irritating all at once. Her (and Cynthia’s) song was very much a highlight of the episode. I love that Nancy is just an all in type of person and she doesn’t really stop to hear a no for the answer. I do wish they would give her a little more depth. They’ve done a good job with Susan and Jane and Olivia and Richie and Buddy. All we really know about Nancy is that she is incredibly headstrong, a very talented seamstress/ designer, the daughter of the owners of the frosty palace who may or may not be an only child, a Buddhist who’s not a fan of reading, “scary” and although she hasn’t had much of a romantic life in the past, she has a big crush on Potato. Which is valid, because he‘s great. But still, I want to see a new dimension of Nancy with this new conflict within the Pink Ladies.

-Cynthia

She is in the “shit I am gay but no one can know, especially not the person who made me realize it’s true” phase where she fights it HARD. Compulsive heterosexuality hurts. She needs someone to talk to, before she implodes further. That moment with Lydia made me so so sad, but that’s just a real part of quiet culture for someone. Cynthia is hurting, and that doesn’t give her a free pass to hurt Shy Guy like she did, but I understand it. She’s gonna have to apologize bug time, when she comes around. Also, as always, I loved Ari’s part in the duet.

-Olivia

I’ve decided that if her and Richie are twins, she’s the older one for sure. The ages are so hazy, or at least their grade levels, and I’m kinda confused. So my head cannon is that she’s the older twin. Which would explain her protectiveness over the Pink Ladies, without factoring in the slightly homosexual overtures to hers and Jane’s friendship that is not present with the other PLs. Olivia hates Susan, and she does have reason for it. But that really doesn’t explain why she wouldn’t let Jane explain. Because people can change, and they can learn. But Olivia does NOT have forgive Susan, but she should’ve given her so-called best friend a chance to explain. No matter what Susan said, Olivia had NO right to do what she did. She knows what the school is like once they realize you are a “slut” and she knew that the consequences always land on the girl (does she not remember the extent of the conversation at Dot’s party??). Sorry that just made me so mad. And then to tell Richie what happened between Buddy and Jane :/Her moments with Gil were really sweet. But her going back to her abuser does not send a good message at all and I hope this is addressed before the season is over.

-Jane

She did the right thing not going with either guy to the dance. She was unsure of her feelings for either and did not want to lead them on or hurt them by choosing too soon, and that was a mature decision. Her budding friendship with Susan is interesting and kind of ironic. Her accidentally confirming Olivia and Mr. Daniels is unfortunate, but also something that would reasonably happen to me because I am bad at de-escalation techniques. Jane is very much people pleaser, even after everything, so it makes sense that she would sort of defend Susan. Her coming home to Olivia’s jacket already on her porch (which like, hello Flash because how did she get there before Jane) was almost the opposite of the scene where Olivia brings Jane’s jacket to her house. She did not even really register what Richie told her about Buddy and the election results (which like, how did he find out?)

-Richie

He is a good guy. He respects Jane’s space; he saw that Dot was devastated about her going dateless to the dance (which also sorta implies she’s never been if they previously had to have a date to register a ticket and she said her friends always had dates but not her). He was very kind to go with her, and go along with her quirks. Teenage jealously makes a person unsteady, and I am just glad someone told Jane the truth about Dick Aldridge.

-Buddy

I am still not his biggest fan, but man was he sad this episode. It seems like everyone is moving forward except him, which is expected when you realize most of your life is a lie. He needs a slap in the face and a hug.

-The others (Shy Guy, Potato, Mr. Daniels)

As for the rest: Potato remains one of my top guys; Shy Guy and Cynthia in the kitchen actually made me cringe because I know she feels nothing what he feels for her; and the predator needs to be imprisoned. I can’t believe he is trying to suck her back in :(

I need my girls back together. I need some proper communication to happen between Lydia and Cynthia.

Also episode 8 comes out the day before my birthday so I hope it’s a good one (they have not let me down so far).

[heartshapedcreaturefromcriptoon]

The Assistant Dom Mod of A Queer BDSM Gothic Fanfare Server who came on the scene with 8 dollars and a default Pusheen Icon asking how much money it would take to join our Book Club before climbing the ranks, talking to me after They Just Finished Talking About Being Horny 4 Fleabag Priest, and I Dare to post this during a conversation that was already relevant to my Fetish Wear : 

hi love hope the 48 hours into the new year r treating u well first let me say sorry bout the ppl wanting u to kys n we think ur wonderful n luv ya but we still reserve the rite 2 think the thing ppl have said u should be aborted and publicly told u to kill urself over is cringe n kills the vibe and we still just want to keep sounding exactly like the ppl who’ve said u should be dead even tho we know nothing about this dr4ma and don’t want to hear you out when u imply it’s triggering for you when some of us are men in our 40s and still so hostile about hating this series existing . Now do u mind being segregated w the losers who like this shit so we don’t have to look at it cuz it’s offending our eyes ? k thnx love ur passion don’t cry or try to say it’s unfair im just gonna feel attacked n ban u.

The kind of losers they’re trying to subject me to hanging out with and expecting me to NOT to be offended while knowing nothing about the Real Cringe Culture that I would have happily roasted with them if they just stopped acting/talking like the people who’ve told me I should be dead for supporting a bi-sexual Latina woman who made her start from the Furry Fandom because they keep lumping everyone who supports her in with the people who act like this (and still don’t deserve to die for that ether...) :

  [Moon Outta’ Spoons: So yeah guys if you ever read this, when I explained to some of you how I used Unofficial/Fanmade Plushies in my Spider Baby Jane Look because the Official ones you could access from the Vivziepop store were abominations that didn’t do the work justice .... Don’t say I didn’t know how to curate even my most childish of tastes lmao!!!]  

[beardedmrbean]

Sorry i hope u don't mind if I rant to u for a second and this isn't directed at you I just feel like you'd be very non-judgmental ab it

I'm just really tired of seeing shitty takes ab abortion coming from libertarians and ancaps n righties always like "u just wanna kill babies" when actually I just want the choice to not have my body be used for something I can't provide for!!! It's not fair for me to bring a kid into the world if I can properly care for them!!! I dont want strangers raising my kids either!!! Everyone acts like people don't care ab the potential life being inside them when most ppl who get abortions feel bad ab it!! Sometimes they grieve for the life they had to lose!!! I hate people who think like everyone just loves abortions! I hope they stun their toes every day for the rest of their lives!

I'm sorry and I hope ur having a good day!! Thank u for posting content that makes me smile a lot!

You're good on my end, may or may not have noticed I'm conspicuous staying out of most of it, publicly at least had some good private conversations don't say anything that locks in a position people could pin on me publicly always ends in a fight.

Both sides of the issue are deeply entrenched with their beliefs primary ones being

'that's a human child you're talking about murdering' and

'no it's not even if it's viable it's still only a fetus until it takes it's first breath, my body my choice'

tons of variations on those, riff on them however you like

Not really any wiggle room in either of those arguments either, good lord this would be so much easier if there was.

And like you said there's people that are just torn up inside because they got one, not something they wanted but they couldn't see any way out (be where those crisis pregnancy centers come into play, yes I know some of them are downright dishonest but you got ones like the one in portland that got trashed that's run by a left wing pro choice advocate who take in people that exercised their choice and that choice was to give birth, jane's revenge only will support you if you choose the choice they want you too.) - end tangent

I know a couple of then, one I imagine is just in tears with joy over roe being overturned, other I couldn't say.

You're going to get assholes on both sides of this, I'm sure you know this, tuning them out isn't easy either but the assholes are similar in scale to a lot of the different activist groups out there they don't represent the community at large.

Not likely to have a pro life person drive you to the clinic and sit and wait while the procedure is done, it does happen though, but you will find most of them if you're experiencing grief over your choice will gladly give you a shoulder to cry on.

Do the 180 on the odds of a pro choice person taking you to one of the pregnancy centers, I'd actually think that has a higher chance of happening than the other, and when it's all over and the kid is out you're likely to find the bulk of people will be happy babysit and such.

Same as everything else in the news media though, the people yelling the loudest get the most attention and they tend to be assholes too.

Stay away from social media and even news reporting about it, you'll start to notice there's a great big stretch between the people on either side that land on the news.

Hopefully this makes sense.

Good people outnumber the bad ones, by a very wide margin. They just come off as hard to find because by the very nature of being a good person they're not advertising themselves, so you've gotta kinds find them too

[johnrossbowie]

LEAVING TWITTER

I wrote this earlier in the fall, before the election, after dissolving my Twitter account. I wasn’t sure where to put it (“try up your ass!” – someone, I’m sure) and then I remembered I have a tumblr I never use. Anyway, here tis.

How do you shame someone who thinks Trumps’ half-baked policies and quarter-baked messaging put him in the pantheon of great Presidents? How do you shame someone so lacking in introspection that they will call Obama arrogant while praising Trump’s decisiveness and yet at the same time vehemently deny that they’re racist? How do you shame someone for whom that racism is endearing and maybe long overdue?

You don’t. It’s silly to think otherwise.

Twitter is an addiction of mine, and true to form, my dependence on it grew more serious after I quit drinking in 2010. At first it was a chance to mouth off, make jokes both stupid and erudite and occasionally stick my foot in my mouth (I owe New Yorker writer Tad Friend an apology. He knows why, or (God willing) he’s forgotten. Either way. Sorry.) I blew off steam, steam that was accumulating without booze to dampen the flames. Not always constructive venting, but I also met new friends, and connected with people whose work I’ve admired for literal decades and ended up seeing plays with Lin-Manuel Miranda and hanging backstage with Jane Wiedlin after a Go-Go’s show and exchanging sober thoughts with Mike Doughty. When my mom passed in 2018, a lot of people reached out to tell me they were thinking of me. This was nice. For a while, Twitter was a huge help when I needed it.

I used to hate going to parties and really hated dancing and mingling, but a couple of drinks would fix that. Point is, for a while, booze was a huge help, too.

But my engagement with Twitter changed, and I started calling people my ‘friends’ even though I’d never once met them or even heard their voices. These weren’t even penpals, these were people whose jokes or stances I enjoyed, so with Arthurian benevolence I clicked on a little heart icon, liked their tweet, and assumed therefore that we had signed some sort of blood oath.

We had not. I got glib, and cheap, and a little lazy. And then to make matters much worse, Trump came along and extended his reach with the medium.

There was a while there where I thought I could be a sort of voice for the voiceless, and I thought I was doing that. I tried very hard to only contribute things that I felt were not being said – It wasn’t accomplishing anything to notice “Haha Trump looks like he’s bullshitting his way through an oral report” – such things were self-evident. I tried to point out very specific inconsistencies in his policies, like the Muslim ban meant to curb terrorism that still favored the country that brought forth 13 of the 9/11 hijackers. Like his full-throated cries against media bias performed while he suckled at Roger Ailes’ wrinkly teat.  Like his fondness for evangelical votes that coincided with a scriptural knowledge that lagged far behind mine, even though I’m a lapsed Episcopalian, and there is no one less religiously observant than a lapsed Episcopalian. But that eventually gave way to unleashing ad hominem attacks against his higher profile supporters, who I felt weren’t being questioned enough, who I felt were in turn being fawned over by theirdim supporters. If you’re one of these guys, and you think I’m talking about you, you’re probably right, but don’t mistake this for an apology. You suck, and you support someone who sucks, and your idolatry is hurting our country and its standing in the world. Fuck you entirely, but that’s not the point. The point is that me screaming into the toilet of Twitter helps no one – it doesn’t help a family stuck at the border because they’re trying to secure a better life for their kids. It doesn’t help a poor teenager who can’t get an abortion because the party of ‘small government’ has squeezed their tiny jurisdiction into her uterus. It doesn’t help the coal miner who’s staking all his hopes on a dying industry and a President’s empty promises to resurrect it. I was born in New York City, and I currently live in Los Angeles. Those are the only two places I’ve ever lived, if you don’t count the 4 years I spent in Ithaca[1]. So, yes, I live in a liberal bubble, and while I’ve driven across the country a couple of times and did a few weeks in a touring band and am as crushed as any heartlander about the demise of Waffle House, you have me dead to rights if you call me a coastal elitist. And with that in mind, I offer few surprises. A guy who grew up in the theater district and was vehemently opposed to same-sex marriage or felt you should own an AR-15? THAT would be newsworthy. I am not newsworthy. I can preach to the choir, I can confirm people’s biases, but I will likely not sway anyone who is eager to dismiss a Native New Yorker who lives in Hollywood. I grew up in the New York of the 1970s, and that part of my identity did shape my politics. My mom’s boss was gay and the Son of Sam posed a realistic threat. As such, gays are job creators[2] and guns are used for homicide much more often than they are used for self-defense[3]. I have found this to be generally true over the years, and there’s even data to back it up.

“But Mr. Bowie,” you might say, though I insist you call me John - “those studies are conducted by elitist institutions and those institutions suck!” And again, I am not going to reason with people who will dismiss anything that doesn’t fit their limited world view as elitist or, God Help Us, fake news. But the studies above are peer-reviewed, convincing, and there are more where those came from.

“But John,” you might say, and I am soothed that we’re one a first name basis - “Can’t you just stay on Twitter for the jokes?” Ugh. A) apparently not and B) the jokes are few and far between, and I am 100% part of that problem.

I have stuff to offer, but Twitter is not the place from which to offer it.

After years of academically understanding that Twitter is not the real world, Super Tuesday 2020 made the abstract pretty fucking concrete. If you had looked at my feed on the Monday beforehand – my feed which is admittedly curated towards the left, but not monolithic (Hi, Rich Lowry!) – you’d have felt that a solid Bernie surge was imminent, but also that your candidate was going surprise her more vocal critics. When the Biden sweep swept, when Bernie was diminished and when Warren was defeated, I realized that Twitter is not only not the real world, it’s almost some sort of Phillip K. Dickian alternate timeline, untethered to anything we’re actually experiencing in our day to day life. This is both good news and bad news – one, we’re not heading towards a utopia of single payer health care and the eradication of American medical debt any time soon, but two, we’re also not being increasingly governed by diaper-clad jungen like Charlie Kirk. Clouds and their linings. Leaving Twitter may look like ceding ground to the assclowns but get this – the ground. Is not. There.

It’s just air.

There are tangible things I can do with my time - volunteer with a local organization called Food On Foot, who provide food and job training for people experiencing homelessness here in my adopted Los Angeles. I can give money to candidates and causes I support, and I can occasionally even drop by social media to boost a project or an issue and then vanish, like a sort of Caucasian Zorro who doesn’t read his mentions. I can also model good behavior for my kids (ages 10 and 13) who don’t need to see their father glued to his phone, arguing about Trumps incompetence with Constitutional scholars who have a misspelled Bible verse in their bio (three s’ in Ecclesiastes, folks).

So farewell Twitter. I’ll miss a lot of you. Perhaps not as badly as I miss Simon Maloy and Roger Ebert and Harris Wittels and others whose deaths created an unfillable void on the platform. But I won’t miss the yelling, and the lionization of poor grammar, and anonymous trolls telling my Jewish friends that they were gonna leave the country “via chimney.” I will not miss people who think Trump is a stable genius calling me a “fucktard.” I will not miss transphobia or cancelling but I will miss hashtag games, particularly my stellar work during #mypunkmusical (Probably should have quit after that surge, I was on fire that night, real blaze of glory stuff I mean, Christ, Sunday in the Park with the Germs? Husker Du I Hear A Waltz? Fiddler on the Roof (keeping an eye out for the cops)? These are Pulitzer contenders.). Twitter makes me feel lousy, even when I’m right, and I’m often right. There’s just no point in barking bumperstickers at each other, and there are people who are speaking truth to power and doing a cleaner job of it – Aaron Rupar, Steven Pasquale, Louise Mensch, Imani Gandy and Ijeoma Oluo to name five solid mostly politically based accounts (Yes, Pasquale is a Broadway tenor. He’s also a tenacious lefty with good points and research and a dreamy voice. You think you’re straight and then you hear him sing anything from Bridges of Madison County and you want him to spoon you.). You’re probably already following those mentioned, but on the off chance you’re not, get to it. You’ll thank me, but you won’t be able to unless you actually have my email.

_______

[1] And Jesus, that’s worse – Ithaca is such a lefty enclave that they had an actual socialist mayor FOR WHOM I VOTED while I was there. And not socialist the way some people think all Democrats are socialist – I mean Ben Nichols actually ran on the socialist ticket and was re-elected twice for a total of six years.

[2] The National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, “America’s LGBT Economy” Jan 20th, 2017

[3] The Violence Policy Institute, Firearm Justifiable Homicides and Non-Fatal Self Defense Gun Use, July 2019.

[salesna21ahsgov]

California Proposition Assessment

Proposition #4 : Waiting period and parental notification before termination of minor’s pregnancy (2008)

This proposition wouldn’t allow minors to have an abortion until 48 hours after their parents or guardian has been notified. There are exceptions if there’s a medical emergency or if the minor can appear in court and prove their maturity. The proposition also mandates reporting requirements and insures that abortion is done only with the minor’s consent. 

Fiscal Impact: There is an unknown net state cost but could cost several million dollars annually for health and social services programs, court administration, and state health agency administration combined.

Election Results: The election results voted no on the proposition. I was not surprised by the election results but surprised how close it was. 

Proposition Supporters: 

The Friends of Sarah, the Parental or Alternative Family Member Notification Act was the official ballot committee

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Dr. Joseph R. Zanga, M.D., FFAP, Past President American Academy of Pediatrics

Barbara Alby, Author, California's "Megan's Law" Child Protection Legislation

Mary L. Davenport, M.D., Fellow American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Thomas Murphy Goodwin, M.D., FAAP, FACOG, Professor Of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Pediatrics Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California

The Honorable Rod Pacheco, J.D., District Attorney, Riverside County

The Honorable Tony Rackauckas, J.D., District Attorney, Orange County

The Honorable Bob Brooks, Sheriff, Ventura County

The Honorable Dennis Downum, Sheriff, Calaveras County

Frank Lee, President, Organization for Justice & Equality

Dr. Kenneth Williams, School Board Member, Orange County

Donors:

James E. Holman (He is a publisher of the San Diego reader who also donated large sums of money supporting past propositions 85 and 73 which both failed to pass. He seems to be very dedicated to his cause but all three propositions have not passed.)

Don Sebastiani (He was one of the chief bankers for the proposition and worked alongside James Holman.)

Knihgts of Columbus (This is a Catholic fraternal service order and being Catholic, may have a biased opinion on abortion.) 

Mary Jane Creamer

Lenawee Trust 

Caster Family Trust

The supporters and donors don’t all have an abundance or similarities or are in one political group. Most of them come from various backgrounds, and many of the supporters in California are from Southern California while those who oppose the proposition are from Northern California which I found was interesting.

 Arguments for and against: 

PRO: When a minor gets an abortion without notifying their family there could be health issues that are dismissed and that may cause trouble after the abortion or if there are complications. Also, if the minor needed an abortion because of sexual abuse they may not notify anyone because if the parent knew it would be more likely to be reported. Without parental notification, abuse can be repeated and the victim may be less likely to get help. 

CON: No law should be able to mandate parental communication and those type of laws don’t work. The minor may not have a good relationship with their parents, and they may be suffering from home abuse and notification might cause them to get kicked out, beaten, etc. Also, minors may decide to perform at home abortions to avoid the parental notification which are dangerous. They may also consider suicide or delay medical care. 

How I would vote: I would have voted NO on this proposition because if I was a young girl living in a household without a solid parental relationship, or even a victim of abuse at home who needed an abortion, I couldn’t begin to imagine how much stress the parental notification would cause me. Not all parents are supportive of abortion even if it is their own child and the notification could possibly put her more at danger than if there were to be an abortion related medical issue. Especially today since so many young people struggle with mental illnesses and how much suicide rates have increased, this would just negatively affect that even more.

Fun Fact: One thing I found interesting from the ballot website was how Planned Parenthood had donated so much money against this proposition and how almost 3 times the amount of money was spent against it. 

[komatsunana]

My Ai Yazawa Reccomendation List

This is a list that I’ve actually been thinking about for a while now (like... years lmao). Basically just a few of my personal recommendations of series (only manga and webtoons this time around but I have a couple tv shows and anime that I also might rec in a second list if people like this one...) that people like me that are missing Yazawa’s work might enjoy.  The bulk of this list is for NANA, because that is her unfinished work, but I’ve got quite a few recs for her other series.

I don’t love all the series on this list (or even like tbh), but I can see where someone who likes a certain aspect of Yazawa’s work might enjoy the series more than me.   I didn’t include trigger warnings because it’s been a number of years since I read some of these series (and some I never finished) but feel free to ask me and I’ll do my best.

Obligatory recommendation that if you enjoy any of Yazawa’s series, you should give any of her series a try.  I think all of the series that  I’ve read by her are masterpieces in their own right and if you’re missing NANA (or any of her other works) you should definitely read the rest of her work because many of my own favorite aspects of Yazawa’s works are present in all of her work - like female friendship and continuous story lines (rather than episodic).

Feel free to add on with your owns recs... And tell me if you read any of these series!

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If you like the past/future mechanic of NANA with young adult characters and enjoy unveiling the mystery in Kagen no Tsuki  then give Piece by Ashihara Hinako a try.  The MC and her best friend have a good passing resemblance to Nana and Hachi, if Hachi were chubby but they have more than appearance in common with NANA’s leading ladies...  To say any more would be spoilers!  This series also marries some of the messy melodrama of RL with realism like NANA.

Summary: One day, Mizuho, a university student, receives news that her classmate in high school, Origuchi Haruka, passed away. Mizuho doesn't remember being best friends with Origuchi, but apparently, Origuchi told her mother that Mizuho was her best friend. And now, her mother wants Mizuho to help her find the boy Origuchi dated during high school. Mizuho told Origuchi's mother that Origuchi was a very plain girl, and she was never seen with a guy, but her mother told Mizuho that Origuchi got pregnant and had an abortion when she was in high school. Mizuho was shocked, but she still starts asking her other classmates in high school and following the traces Origuchi left behind.

Status: Complete

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If you liked Paradise Kiss for the portrayal of a bunch of odd-balls coming together to do something creative together and inspiring Yukari with their passion OR for Yukari’s struggle with her mother academic expectations then you might enjoy the webtoon Spirit Fingers by Han Kyoung Chal!

Summary:  What do you do if you're going on 18, totally awkward and lacking in self- confidence? You could just sit in your room all day and all night and study and wonder why you never get asked out…OR, if you’re Amy Song you could join up with the Spirit Fingers – the strangest, hippest, coolest (yet most welcoming) art club ever. But as Amy is about to learn, discovering your TRUE colors is about more than just painting.

Status: Complete, still being translated.  Best part is you can start reading the series completely LEGALLY here.  They changed the character’s first names to more western ones and it’s a bit behind the unofficial translations but I still recommend reading it legally.

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If you liked NANA because you liked how the Nanas had the same name and had all these other similarities, meeting under fateful circumstances but also wish they’d date then give Lonely Wolf, Lonely Sheep a try by Fuka Mizutani!

Summary:   Two women with the same name happens to meet each other when they're at the same hospital for the same injury. They want to become closer, but both must overcome their insecurities and self-loathing first.

Status: Complete

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If you like the past/future telling aspect of NANA with a large, fully-fleshed cast of characters who are all living their life check out Cheese in the Trap by Soonkki.  Sul is a very strong, no- nonsense MC but with plenty of charm with great friends.  Like NANA it’s easy to hate some of the more flawed characters but at the end of the day even the antagonists have complex reasons for being the way they are and aren’t just living to be an opposing force.

Summary:  Seol Hong is a hard-working student, who has returned to college after a long break. Jung Yu is a senior at the college known as Mr. Perfect. Seol feels like her life took a turn for the worse since she got involved with Jung. Is Jung intentionally turning Seol's life?

Status:  Ongoing... I think?  You can read the webtoon legally [here] and the translations are being posted weekly still at least.

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Do you like younger looking characters like Mikako and Miwako?  Do you like playboys like George as a male lead but wish he were a bit more earnest?  Did you like how Akira and Midori took their time getting to know and understand each other by the end of the series?  Do you just like how Yazawa emphasizes friendship in her work?  Here’s Lovely Everywhere by Ke Li for you.

Summary: Tong Danwei is a high school freshman with romantic dreams about the boy she is fated to meet. While on the way home from picking up groceries, she runs into a pretty boy, and that’s where our story begins. Will she find love in high school? And more importantly, will any boy be able to overlook the fact that although she is in high school, she still looks like an elementary student?? Follow along on Tong Danwei’s adventure of love and high school angst, with plenty of comedy thrown in to the mix.

Status: Complete  

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If you like the supernatural mystery aspect of Kagen no Tsuki starring younger characters with mysteriously dead-but-not-dead characters, then Route 225 might by a good series to try.  It’s by Shimura Takako & Fujino Chiya (Original Story).  You might know Shimura Takako from her other series like Wandering Son and Sweet Blue Flower, so you know she is great portraying emotional realism like Yazawa.

Summary: 14-year-old Eriko finds herself left in charge of her younger brother Daigo when their parents suddenly disappear one warm summer evening. Trapped in a world that is very much like their own save for the lack of their parents, Eriko and Daigo find themselves desperate for the return of the worrywart mother and apathetic father they never thought they'd miss so badly...

Status: Complete  

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If you liked NANA because you liked reading about a pair of women who are very different and yet are very good friends to the point where their friendship is more important to them than romantic relationships (even if they struggle to properly communicate this to each other) then try the short series Tomodachi no Hanashi by Kawahara Kazune (Story) and Yamakawa Aiji (Art).

Summary:  Eiko is something like a plain Jane and a doormat, while her best friend Moe is a head-turning beauty. Despite their differences, their friendship is as strong as ever.    Guys are always asking Moe out, but her answer is inevitable, "only if you promise to put Eiko before me."

Status: Complete 

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Did you like how Hachi from NANA kept losing her jobs?  And had no luck in love?  Do you prefer to read about young adult characters?  Even though we never talk about how funny Yazawa’s work is... was that something you really liked about her work? Dame na Watashi ni Koishite Kudasai by Nakahara Aya!  Hachi and Shibata aren’t exactly alike but they are both fun to read and get into the mindset of in a similar way.

Summary:   The unemployed Shibata Michiko is betting everything she has on her romance with a younger man—literally. In order to keep him happy, she deprives herself of the things she wants and buys him expensive clothing and accessories. Since she's flat out broke, she needs to find a job before she starves to death and loses her young love interest. However, Michiko discovers that the boy was never interested in her romantically. Depressed at being dumped and after a series of unsuccessful interviews, she bumps into Kurosawa—an intimidating former boss she used to dislike.

Status: Complete, with a spin-off

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If you’re interested in exploring Mikako’s feelings from Gokingo Monogatari when she dropped out of school then Cat Street might interest you.  Both MCs find themselves a group of friends and attend alternative high schools - though while Mikako’s is an art’s school, in Cat Street is more of a free school that seems to specialize in drop-outs and the like.

Summary:  The story centers around Keito Aoyama, a former famous child actress. Due to a childhood incident, she retired from her career early and withdrew from normal society. Now 16, she passes her days in boredom and without purpose. But one day she runs into a stranger who takes her to El Liston--a free school for high school students like herself, who don't have a place where they belong. Though hesitant at first, Keito decides to enter El Liston and subsequently, she begins a new stage in her life. With the help of her only remaining childhood friend, Taiyou, and her new classmates Rei, Momiji, and Kouichi, Keito slowly finds the courage to open up to others and to accept their support. Will Keito return to acting? Will she find true friends? Love?

Status: Complete

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If you want a series like NANA that is about adult women who are good friends and roommates as they balance their life with their career, love-lives, and friendship with each other try Tokyo Alice by Toriko Chiya.  Alternatively, if you were wondering what Hachi might look like if you reversed her obsession with love with her love of shopping... you’ve got Tokyo Alice’s MC (lol)

Summary:   Fu Arisugawa is a little worried there might be something wrong with her. She loves shopping above all else, using her money to buy designer and brand-name items to the exclusion of all else. But while her friends also enjoy shopping, they're all also on the hunt for love in one way or another – something that Fu finds she just isn't all that interested in. When her boss starts showing interest in her, will Fu figure it out? Or is she going to keep going in her shopping wonderland?

Status: Complete, also has a recent drama that you can watch with Prime TV!

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If what interested you most about NANA was it’s portrayal of the music industry of a new band and wanted more of that then try Beck by Sakuishi Harold.  Beck, like NANA, has an anime that while it doesn’t cover the entire series is worth watching or even having the soundtrack on as you read the series.

Summary:  Fourteen-year-old Yukio "Koyuki" Tanaka is a dispirited young boy with no goals in life. However, this all changes when Koyuki saves a strange-looking dog named Beck from being harassed by a group of local kids. The dog's owner, 16-year-old Ryuusuke "Ray" Minami, is an emerging guitarist and the former member of a popular rock band. After Koyuki meets Ray again in a diner, the older boy leads him to his former band's meeting place and dazzles Koyuki with his amazing guitar skills. Slowly becoming interested in the glamour of western rock culture, Koyuki decides to start playing the guitar while helping Ray achieve his dream of leading the ultimate rock band. Together with Ray's younger sister Maho and a few other members, the two boys launch their career into the world of rock by forming a band called BECK. Beck follows the group's struggles and successes as they spread their fame across Japan.

Status: Complete

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If you like how Yazawa writes her female “rival” characters as sympathetic and likable (even if not everything they do is likable) then you might enjoy Koda Momoko’s Heroine Shikkaku.  It’s about a girl who is shocked when she discovers she’s more like the bitchy villainess who bullies the sweet and pure heroine in shojo manga.

Summary:  This could be any girl. Imagine being a heroine of a love story. Hatori also believed that one day she would get married to her childhood friend, Rita. But that's not how the world works! This is a hilarious comedy that honestly paints a painful unrequited love story of this young girl!

Status: Complete

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If you want a short read like NANA, with two very different girls with the same name who tie their futures together then read the one-shot  Watashi to Watashi by Sahara Mizu.  Note that I’m only suggesting you read this specific one-shot, not any of the other one-shots contained in the collection this one is in... Actually I very much insist you don’t read the first one.  I highly recommend reading others’ of Sahara Mizu’s work if you enjoy this one because even if none of them are directly similar to any of Yazawa’s... the emotional complexity is.

Summary:   Two girls with the same name; one beautiful and athletic, the other awkward and shunned. But who’s the lucky one?

Status: Complete 

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If you like a series having 2 characters named Nana in NANA (even if their relationship with each other is... entirely different) and enjoy the format of Nana and Hachi continuing to address each other in inner monologues in the future where they haven’t seen each other for years or you just like messy, realistic relationships try We Were There by Obata Yuuki.

Summary:  The start of high school life. To the girls, that also meant the start of their love lives. For brand new first year student, Takahashi Nanami (Nana for short), it was no different... She happens to end up in the same class as the incredibly popular Yano Motoharu, who rumors say that two thirds of all the girls are guaranteed to fall in love with. But will that hold true for Nana, who says that if she had to choose between like or dislike, she'd say she dislikes him!?

Status: Complete

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What was your favorite thing about Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai?  Was it Akira struggling with his feelings for someone that married into his family?  Was it Midori and Mamirin’s friendship?  Try Omoi, Omoware, Furi, Furare by Sakisaka Io.  (Strobe Edge also by Sakisaka might also work for you).

Summary:  The story centers around Yuna and Akari who have two very different views of love: Yuna is someone who sees love as a dream and Akari is someone who is very realistic about her romance choices. Meanwhile, there are two boys, Kazuomi and Rio, who also have different views of love: Kazuomi's an airhead and doesn't understand the concept of love, while Rio grabs the opportunity when confessed to as long as the girl looks cute.

Status: Complete, being translated

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If you just like Yazawa’s work and want to read works by a close friend of hers...  Yoshizumi Wataru!  You might know her best from Marmalade Boy, but she also worked on quite a few josei works about young adults... Like Cappuccino (if you like moving on from a first serious relationship as we saw with Hachi and Shouji), but also Cherish and Spicy Pink.

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That’s all I got for now... But again... Let me know if you read any of these! Whether or not at my suggestion lol. And add on too! I’ve read or at least tried all of these myself so now I’m the one in need of recs lol.

[ourmrsreynolds]

ok i saw the greta gerwig movie and she really Did That huh. she really made amylaurie work, which is about the last thing i wanted or expected but honesty compels me to give her props for pulling it off.

i was wrong to worry about florence pugh’s casting, she KILLED it as amy--i found her 10x as compelling as i ever found book!amy, but at the expense, i think, of vast swathes of book!amy’s character? the way amy cuts off laurie’s abortive first proposal with “i’ve spent my whole life coming second to jo” is (1) ok she ain’t wrong jo is a bona fide supernova but (2) it reorients the frame of the whole story around amy being the outsider, amy feeling inadequate and not measuring up, which is ...not what little women is about. little women is the story of how jo march reconciles her sharp tongue, restless spirit, and keen desire for independence with existing as a proper lady in a feminine sphere where she’s not allowed to be any of these things. amy has many trials but she is not divided in the same way between self-actualization and social acceptance; amy is not being suffocated by gender roles; so to frame amy and jo’s not-fitting-in experiences as roughly equivalent is to me a suspect decision. i suppose that’s why they call it an adaptation. in that vein i found this professor bhaer much more bearable than book!bhaer because his selling point is he actually takes jo’s writing seriously?? whereas book!bhaer preached at her to eschew commercial considerations for moral ones and i was like fuck that

consider everything that was cut from this movie in order to retcon amy’s “i have been in love with you half my life.” because i’m shipper trash i made a list of all the shippiest jo/laurie moments in the first half of the book and i think greta gerwig kept maybe one of them?? (it was an amy-related one) meanwhile you have the addition of scenes like amy caterwauling outside the laurences’ window after the lime incident. i don’t mean that gerwig’s interpretation of amy isn’t compelling, i already said it was, give her the best supporting oscar already, i’m just saying there’s no support for this take in the text because amy doesn’t think about laurie that much (and he thinks about her even less). not until Paris does this change. whereas jo and laurie are thick as thieves, consistently acting as each other’s hype man, even when jo’s on the verge of accepting bhaer the narrator notes she’s “forgetting to compare him to Teddy, as she usually did strange men, to their great detriment.” To their great detriment: teddy is the yardstick by which she measures all men and finds them wanting.

traditionally people argue amy/laurie makes sense because they have the most to learn from each other, and the counterargument is “bruh they have zero chemistry.” greta gerwig has put the latter objection to bed, but she had to do a lot of violence to the text to get there. i mean, where is the scene (in book 2, by which time alcott had already made up her mind to sink our ship) when Laurie “absently wound Jo’s apron tassel around his finger” and Jo’s all, “i thought you hated to be tied to a woman’s apron-string” and Laurie responds, “Ah, that depends on who wears the apron!” ...kills me every time

there is one argument against jo/laurie that i will accept, and that is this: there is no reconciling jo’s free spirit with the amount of self-effacement that marriage entails. for a woman in jo’s position marriage is tantamount to an abdication of the self--she can see firsthand that meg, for instance, has no ambitions outside the domestic sphere--and marrying laurie would upset the balance of power between them in a way that remaining “one of the lads” would not. recall what Marmee says about the prospects of a stormy jo/laurie marriage: “I fear you would both rebel if you were mated for life. You are too much alike, and too fond of freedom .... to get on happily together, in a relation which needs infinite patience and forbearance.” Anybody want to guess whose freedom is going to be severely curtailed by their role as a married person? Whose infinite patience will be most often called upon? Short of abolishing patriarchy or coming back blind and disabled like Mr. Rochester (that’s how he got Jane Eyre to marry him), there’s no way for Laurie to meet Jo on equal footing. which is the real reason she turns him down. i think we all know that given half a chance he woulda wheedled her into falling in love with him, but resisting Laurie’s overtures is Jo’s (and Alcott’s) only way of resisting The Patriarchy, and i cannot blame her for seizing it even as it breaks my heart.

if you’re wondering why she went on to marry dr. bhaer after turning down laurie, this article floats the incendiary thesis that she doesn’t?? that strong-willed and defiant Jo was metaphorically murdered and replaced by selfless Beth; that the surface-level courtship/marriage narrative of little women conceals a much more macabre horror story. basically, writing (jo’s primary form of self-assertion) seems to be fundamentally incompatible with a woman’s “proper” role, so alcott up and killed her heroine instead of acceding to the demands of 19th century femininity. this is ... not an invalid take.

i’m glad i watched the movie. greta gerwig is clearly mad talented and i enjoyed it for what it was, even if What It Was = Not For Me. there were moments when i coulda sworn Saorise Ronan was Winona Ryder, focusing on Meg & John’s post-married life instead of their courtship was the right call, and timothée chalomet’s laurie is the fuckboi to end all fuckbois. good job all around

[theculturedmarxist]

The New York Times is literally a propaganda outlet and Timothy Egan is a deceitful chode. His every word drips with the anxious desperation of the Democrats who know their goose is cooked.

Watching “Succession,” the HBO show about the most despicable plutocrats to seize the public imagination since the Trumps were forced on us, made me want to tax the ultrarich into a homeless shelter. And it almost made a Bernie Bro of me.

That’s the thing about class loathing: It feels good, a moral high with its own endorphins, but is ultimately self-defeating. A Bernie Sanders rally is a hit from the same pipe: Screw those greedy billionaire bastards!

Sanders has passion going for him. He has authenticity. He certainly has consistency: His bumper-sticker sloganeering hasn’t changed for half a century. He was, “even as a young man, an old man,” as Time magazine said.

But he cannot beat Donald Trump, for the same reason people do not translate their hatred of the odious rich into pitchfork brigades against walled estates.

Because powerful oligarchs that own their government murder them with impunity when they do.

>March 7 was a bitterly cold day in Detroit, and a crowd estimated at between 3,000 and 5,000 gathered near the Dearborn city limits, about a mile from the Ford plant. The Detroit Times called it "one of the coldest days of the winter, with a frigid gale whooping out of the northwest". Marchers carried banners reading "Give Us Work, "We Want Bread Not Crumbs", and "Tax the Rich and Feed the Poor". Albert Goetz gave a speech, asking that the marchers avoid violence. The march proceeded peacefully along the streets of Detroit until it reached the Dearborn city limits.

>There, the Dearborn police attempted to stop the march by firing tear gas into the crowd and began hitting marchers with clubs. One officer fired a gun at the marchers. The unarmed crowd scattered into a field covered with stones, picked them up, and began throwing stones at the police. The angry marchers regrouped and advanced nearly a mile toward the plant. There, two fire engines began spraying cold water onto the marchers from an overpass. The police were joined by Ford security guards and began shooting into the crowd. Marchers Joe York, Coleman Leny and Joe DeBlasio were killed, and at least 22 others were wounded by gunfire.

>The leaders decided to call off the march at that point and began an orderly retreat. Harry Bennett, head of Ford security, drove up in a car, opened a window, and fired a pistol into the crowd. Immediately, the car was pelted with rocks, and Bennett was injured. He got out of the car and continued firing at the retreating marchers. Dearborn police and Ford security men opened fire with machine guns on the retreating marchers. Joe Bussell, 16 years old, was killed, and dozens more men were wounded. Bennett was hospitalized for his injury.

> All of the seriously wounded marchers were arrested, and the police chained many to their hospital beds after they were admitted for treatment. A nationwide search was conducted for William Z. Foster, but he was not arrested. No law enforcement or Ford security officer was arrested, although all reliable reports showed that they had engaged in all the gunfire, resulting in deaths, injuries and property damage. The New York Times reported that "Dearborn streets were stained with blood, streets were littered with broken glass and the wreckage of bullet-riddled automobiles, and nearly every window in the Ford plant's employment building had been broken".

The United States has never been a socialist country, even when it most likely should have been one, during the robber baron tyranny of the Gilded Age or the desperation of the Great Depression, and it never will be. Which isn’t to say that American capitalism is working; it needs Teddy Roosevelt-style trustbusting and restructuring. We’re coming for you, Facebook.

Yeah, just look how well that’s worked out, you fucking idiot.

The next month presents the last chance for serious scrutiny of Sanders, who is leading in both Iowa and New Hampshire. After that, Republicans will rip the bark off him. When they’re done, you will not recognize the aging, mouth-frothing, business-destroying commie from Ben and Jerry’s dystopian dairy. Demagogy is what Republicans do best. And Sanders is ripe for caricature. 

The same Republicans that got their breakfast ate by the dottering windbag cheetoman? The same Republicans that are unpopular with over half the fucking country? The same Republicans which have shown majority support for Sanders’s policies in the past? Those are the Republicans you’re talking about, right, Timothy, you fucking asshole?

I’m not worried about the Russian stuff — Bernie’s self-described “very strange honeymoon” to the totalitarian hell of the Soviet Union in 1988, and his kind words for similar regimes. Compared with a president who is a willing stooge for the Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, a little vodka-induced dancing with the red bear is peanuts.

Nor am I worried about the legitimate questions concerning the candidate’s wife, Jane Sanders, who ran a Vermont college into the ground. Again, Trump’s family of grifters — from Ivanka securing her patents from China while Daddy made other promises to Beijing, to Don Jr.’s using the White House to leverage the family brand — give Democrats more than enough ammunition to return the fire.

This is fun. Due to a complete lack of incriminating conduct, little Timmy has to invent wrongdoing to libel Jane Sanders. I suppose he’s relying on his readers being too stupid to read the article that he himself links, another NYT hitpiece that desperately tries to paint Ms Sanders as a shady character without anything in the way of tangible proof.

>Federal prosecutors have not spoken publicly about their investigation, though late last year, Ms. Sanders’s lead lawyer said he had been told it had been closed. And while doubts remain about the contribution pledges claimed by the college, the lawyer has said that neither Ms. Sanders nor her husband was even questioned by investigators, indicating a lack of significant evidence of a crime.

>After Ms. Sanders’s ouster, the college’s troubles worsened. It abandoned a promising effort she had undertaken to sell some of its new land to improve its finances, interviews show. A few years later, when it did begin selling, it was to a consortium that secretly included at least one member of its board, raising conflict-of-interest questions.

>There is little question that the college’s 2016 demise can be traced to Ms. Sanders’s decision to champion an aggressive — critics say reckless — plan to buy the land. But with potential students put off by the lack of a campus, and with many such colleges struggling at the time, her move was the academic equivalent of a Hail Mary. Her allies said she never had a chance to fulfill her vision.

>“Jane made an audacious gambit to save the college,” said Genevieve Jacobs, a former faculty member. “It seemed to be a moment of ‘change or die.’”

>In interviews and emails, Ms. Sanders expressed frustration at her dismissal and the college’s failure to continue her rescue plan.

>“They went a completely different direction in every way than what we had proposed and decided upon as a board — with the bank, with the diocese, the bonding agency,” she said. “They didn’t carry out any of the plan. It was very confusing and upsetting at the time.”

The TL;DR seems to be: Jane Sanders tried to save a struggling school with an audacious but risky plan that ended up being aborted when she was let go by by a board, some of the members of which may have had a stake in seeing it fail. At the very least, a much more complex situation than the aspersion of “running it into the ground.”

Trump bragged about sexual assault, paid off a porn star and ran a fraudulent university. He sucks up to dictators and tells a half-dozen lies before he puts his socks on in the morning. A weird column about a rape fantasy from 1972 is not going to sink Bernie when Trump has debased all public discourse.

No, what will get the Trump demagogue factory working at full throttle is the central message of the Sanders campaign: that the United States needs a political revolution. It may very well need one. But most people don’t think so, as Barack Obama has argued. And getting two million new progressive votes in the usual area codes is not going to change that.

“Ah jeez, ah fuck, he has no sexual indiscretions that I can dredge up and his Feminist polemic against pornography and the rape culture that it engenders is old news, and if I actually reported on it honestly people might actually read it and support his ideas. Oh, well, you see, despite the incredible groundswell of support for just such a thing, Barack Obama, the man that gave the banks trillions of dollars and then allowed the state apparatus to function as their gestapo-cum-storm troopers, says we don’t need one!”

Timothy Egan wants to dismiss “two million new progressive votes” after doing a little gaslighting. His Democrat masters don’t want people to remember that it was Obama’s promises of Hope and Change after 8 years of Republican tyranny that generated a record breaking voter turnout. They would also like you to forget that 2016 was a 20-year low in voter turnout. Do you think those things are related, Mr Egan? Do you think that there might be some connection between Obama taking advantage of the desperation of millions of people, betraying them, and then those people not fucking showing up next time, causing your party to lose to the dimwit that they themselves boosted to the position?

Give Sanders credit for moving public opinion along on a living wage, higher taxes on the rich and the need for immediate action to stem the immolation of the planet. Most great ideas start on the fringe and move to the middle.

But some of his other ideas are stillborn, or never get beyond the fringe. Socialism, despite its flavor-of-the-month appeal to young people, is not popular with the general public. Just 39 percent of Americans view socialism positively, a bare uptick from 2010, compared with 87 percent who have a positive view of free enterprise, Gallup found last fall.

“Just” 39 percent of Americans, up 4% from 2016. This is ignoring for the moment that due to Americans’ piss-poor education system they have no idea what “Socialism” means aside from “more government.” Looking at the breakdown of results, it seems as though they just asked people off the top of their head what they thought about X, no definition or elaboration given. Unsurprisingly, when you look at the actual numbers on specific issues, you can see exactly why Egan has to play this deceptive bullshit: of respondents 18-34, 52% have a favorable view of “Socialism,” as opposed to 47% supporting “Capitalism.” This is in sharp contrast to the 35-54 and 55+ cohorts. 65% of Democrats have a favorable view of “Socialism.” Those with a “Liberal” ideology are even more in favor at 74%, Timothy Egan, you massive shithead.

What’s more, American confidence in the economy is now at the highest level in nearly two decades. That’s hardly the best condition for overthrowing the system.

"The highest level in nearly two decades.” That’s faint fucking praise right there.

You can see the tremendous fucking crater caused by the crash in 2007/8, a reversal of a whopping -81 points from the previous year. With many economists forecasting recession beginning either this year or the next, we’ll see how long the confidence lasts. 

So-called Medicare for all, once people understand that it involves eliminating all private insurance, polls at barely above 40 percent in some surveys, versus the 70 percent who favor the option of Medicare for all who want it. Other polls show majority support. But cost is a huge concern. And even Sanders cannot give a price tag for nationalizing more than one-sixth of the economy.

A ban on fracking is a poison pill in a must-win state like Pennsylvania, which Democrats lost by just over 44,000 votes in 2016. Eliminating Immigration and Customs Enforcement, another Sanders plan, is hugely unpopular with the general public.

“Medicare for all is really unpopular, except when it isn’t.”

Hmm, you know? Hmmm.

As for fracking, from his own link:

>A November poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Cook Political Report found that only 39 percent of Pennsylvania swing voters saw a fracking ban as a good idea, even as nearly 7 in 10 of those same voters said they supported the idea of a “Green New Deal” for the environment.

Democrats are whinging on the jobs “lost” to a fracking ban as though it exists in isolation. 39% might support a fracking ban, but 70% support the GND, which could potentially offset the “job loss” with industry that has the potential not to leave their state as a fucking environmentally ruined horror show. I haven’t run the numbers on this, but not living in a cesspool of polluted air and water tends to be pretty popular, Timbo.

More shellgames from Mr Egan regarding abolishing ICE.

> Only 1 in 4 voters in the poll, 25 percent, believe the federal government should get rid of ICE. The majority, 54 percent, think the government should keep ICE. Twenty-one percent of voters are undecided. 

That sounds bad. Maybe it’s not such a good ide

>But a plurality of Democratic voters do support abolishing ICE, the poll shows. Among Democrats, 43 percent say the government should get rid of ICE, while only 34 percent say it should keep ICE.

Oh.

Sanders is a rigid man, and he projects grumpy-old-man rigidity, with his policy prescriptions frozen in failed Marxist pipe dreams. He’s unlikely to change. I sort of like that about his character, in the same way I like that he didn’t cave to the politically correct bullies who went after him for accepting the support of the influential podcaster Joe Rogan.

Democrats win with broad-vision optimists who still shake up the system — Franklin Roosevelt, of course, but also Obama. The D’s flipped 40 House seats in 2018 without using any of Sanders’s stringent medicine. If they stick to that elixir they’ll oust Trump, the goal of a majority of Americans.

Democrats lose with fire-and-brimstone fundamentalists. Three times, the party nominated William Jennings Bryan, the quirky progressive with great oratorical pipes, and three times they were trounced. Look him up, kids. Your grandchildren will do a similar search for Bernie Sanders when they wonder how Donald Trump won a second term.

“Failed Marxist pipe dreams.” Aaaaay lmao. You should also have an inkling something is wrong when you have to go all the way back to FDR to find someone that supports your point. Talk about “poison pills,” Obama proved himself to be as much of a snake as the rest, and the effects of that resonated in 2016 when the Dems ran on a platform of “that’s a nice country you have there, you wouldn’t want Trump to get elected, would you?” How did that work out? You ran one of the most unpopular politicians in the country—after very blatantly rigging the primaries against Sanders to do so—against one of the most unpopular capitalists in the country, and lost, dipshit!

Ironically, I think Timbob’s closing statement will prove true, though not in the way his clown ass intends. Shills like Egan are doing everything they can to try and poison public perception against Sanders and his policies, who only proves increasingly popular as time goes on, so much so in fact that the DNC is already biting its nails and muttering to itself about ways it can try and cheat his supporters again.

In conversations on the sidelines of a DNC executive committee meeting and in telephone calls and texts in recent days, about a half-dozen members have discussed the possibility of a policy reversal to ensure that so-called superdelegates can vote on the first ballot at the party’s national convention. Such a move would increase the influence of DNC members, members of Congress and other top party officials, who now must wait until the second ballot to have their say if the convention is contested.

They deny it in the article, claim that changing the rules would be “bad sportsmanship,” but one would be a fool to believe them. If anything, their ambivalence towards relying on Superdelegates would make me even more nervous at this stage. Politico wants it to seem like the DNC is bent on playing fair, but more likely than not they have no intention of changing the convention rules because they believe there’s no need. With Warren’s flagging support and the luke-warm response to Biden, I doubt they’re overcome with optimism of beating Sanders in an honest primary. With all the shenanigans from last time’s primaries in mind, it’s likely that the machinery to rig the results their way is already in place—the primary could already be over before it even begins.

[ambiguouslumberjack]

take a minute and listen up.

Sorry for taking over the Skam tag but I am trying to reach as many people as possible – and I have? Like? Twenty readers, so here I am. I won’t take much of your time anyway.

Skam and all of its remakes have been doing a wonderful, astonishing, almost unprecedented job in its true, demystified and realistic portrayal of European (and not – Skam Austin) youth and its struggles in the current society. I’m now addressing how crucial its representation of the LGBTQIA+ community is for all the Queer teenagers out there, who finally have a mirror of their reality to look up to: we are all more aware than ever that things do not always go well, but eventually we will be okay. We can find love and support, and we are not alone - dammit, maybe we will never be completely alone again!

To the international fans who might not be informed about this event, in a couple of weeks Verona will host the Thirteenth World Congress for Families. Some might optimistically believe that, spring of 2019, this event might as well hint the bare minimum of inclusivity, because things are concretely, finally getting better for our community. However, I am here to remind you that many relators who will take part to the event are OPENLY homophobic and won’t hesitate to spread hate and misconceptions concerning gay marriage and adoptions, not to mention medieval ideas about gender equality and abortion.

I will report here many of the terrible, gut-wrenching things I have read skimming (a.k.a. reading and rereading in a state of utter disbelief, if you will) some of the main Italian articles on the matter. I found many of the things these people said almost triggering, but I’d like to be thorough and honest as far as this event and its main subjects are concerned.

“The sexual act between two people of the same sex is an act of physical violence, also used as initiation ritual in satanic septs.” Silvana De Mari, fantasy novelist.

“Deviations of the natural sexual tendencies cannot really satisfy the human spirit.” Allan Carlson, founder of Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society.

Pastor Jim Garlow reportedly compared children who have parents of the same sex to the orphans of 9/11.

“I would rather put my own child in an orphanage than let homosexual people adopt him/her.” Zeljka Markic, founder of Croatian association “On behalf of the family / Per conto della famiglia”.

Brian Brown will also attend the event, and for what I know (not much, I must confess, this is what I’ve crammed up comparing multiple sites and articles) he has been quite active in the US in campaigns currently aiming at banning gay marriage in California and Transgender people from the Army.

“Homosexual lifestyle is not healthy: […] homosexual people are more likely to fall into mental diseases like depression or commit suicide, or drug abuse and their mortality rate is ten or twenty times higher.” Alexey Komonov, who also expressed is concern about gender theories and acceptance of homosexuality being new forms of western totalitarianism.

“We are currently distancing ourselves from them (the LGBT+ community) like we would distance ourselves from a plague: it is highly contagious.” Dmitri Smirnov.

CALL ME AN OVERREACTER, but:

ALL OF THIS IS to spread awareness in and OUTSIDE (reason why I’m writing in English, hewwo) of Italy about what is happening right now in my (our) country, which is still dangerously conservative and where many of us members of the LGBTQIA+ community still do not feel completely accepted and safe in their own households. I am here to say: you can be safe. Not all people are like that, and there are currently protest movements, demonstrations, rallies being organized in some other cities around the country. Get informed, spread the word, make sure members of the community close to you are aware that it might be a difficult handful of days, make sure to show support, be allies and companions. Look for inclusive spaces and events, take part – you DO NOT HAVE to be part of the community to give a hand. You can be straight, cis, whatever, and still show support and acceptance, look out for your peers who might live in conservative, traditionalist, homophobic households, make sure they are fine, take care of each other. This is a very BIG BIG BIG event and many people will take part. Here below I’ll put a list of hotlines and numbers you can call in case you need immediate help. Then, each region can provide its own service. Google is your best friend!

As far as protests and demonstrations are concerned, I cannot be of any help. I’ve looked up on the same sites I’ve been reading for the past two hours (Jane Austen exam can wait) and the most prominent event will take place (joke’s on them all) in Verona as well, were activists of the feminist movement “Non una di meno” have been setting up three days (29th -30th – 31st of March) of protest, assemblies, debates. I can’t find anything about other cities, but to give you an example, I knew that where I live, Trento, a rally against the congress is being organized. look for hashtags and instagram pages on the theme!

I will try to look into it deeper and I’ll post something else.

Hotlines and websites:

Gay Help Line 800 713 713

Telefono Azzurro (per adolescenti minorenni)

http://www.azzurro.it

Telefono Amico

·       http://www.telefonoamico.it

·       199 284 284

THIS is an English language article which thoroughly explains the whole matter. --> https://www.internazionale.it/reportage/annalisa-camilli/2018/12/13/far-right-against-abortion-verona

STAY SAFE, YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

[cliquestitsandicks]

Tracking Kat

Episode 1: Kat is mourning the end of her relationship with Adena. It has been 5 weeks since the breakup in Paris. She's still looking at old pictures of them and posted one. She still hasn't sent Adena's equipment to her, even though Adena has been texting her asking for it. By the end of the episode, she's admitted to (in order) Alex, Patrick, and Jane & Sutton that she is not okay. She is still sad about the end of her relationship. Alex tells her "you're so hard on yourself. You got your heart broken. There's no expiration date on heartbreak. You move on when you're ready to move on and when you *are* ready, you will find someone amazing. Someone who will never leave." Then Patrick is an entitled, invasive dick. She told her girls she wasn't ready for it to be real yet and that's why she hadn't told them... but she broke down in front of them. She'd finally accepted it was over. End of the episode, she makes an instagram post exposing her vulnerability to the world and packs up Adena's things for good.

Episode 2: Kat injects Jane for fertility treatment. She is very familiar with Jane's reproductive system at this point - best friends. She learns the Wild Susan, a club Adena took her to that became a safe space she frequents and which happens to be 1 of only TWO lesbian bars in the city, is closing. She learns the only reason it's happening is because developers want to gentrify the neighborhood. We learn Kat has a lawyer (not sure how that may come up later) that she met through the #BeReal campaign. Anyway, Kat throws a queer prom as a fundraiser to help save the Wild Susan. It ultimately fails because $42,000 in one night from poor people is a bit much. But it was a valiant effort and, as Kat learns, the gentrifiers were well aware of its impossibility. This episode is leading up to her political career. "I've been so into my feelings lately, it feels really good to challenge my energy into something that really matters". I am so proud of Kat. In Season 1, I would have worried she was avoiding her feelings, but the writers made a big deal of showing she's done the exact opposite of that in the prior episode.

Episode 3: Kat has been researching councilman Reynolds and he's a total piece of shit - helping gentrifiers, cutting funding to parks, and voting against paid maternity leave. She's fired up. Our girl is P A S S I O N A T E & informed! We meet the councilwoman for whom she plans to volunteer and her campaign manager, Tia. Tia's a tiny, bubbly boss with natural hair and a bright smile and we see Kat brighten up. We later learn she and Kat have more in common, both being NYU grads (actually overlapping while there) and both brilliant. Tia, however, is not from a wealthy and connected background. In their initial meeting, Kat tells Tia "I'm just looking for something to channel my rage and depression". Kat enlists her besties to help get the councilwoman to unseat problematic Reynolds. Sutton clearly sees something between Kat and Tia because she does a friend's background check (checking the social media) and tells Kat she looks very single to which Kat responds "it really doesn't matter because I'm still getting over Adena" and Jane seems skeptical of Kat's protestations with her silent smirk. We learn Kat has really soft lips. Kat is the voice of reason for Alex, being the first one to acknowledge the hypersexual "dangerous" Black man depiction that will likely be projected onto him if he admits he is the man in his friend's story. Then we see her naturally command the crowd at the rally. Again, I am so proud of Kat. She isn't holding back when she knows she should speak up. She's taking control of her narrative. She's fighting for what's right in a constructive manner. And now Tia, who has way more experience with this than Kat, is recommending she run for office.

Episode 4: We start the episode with Kat describing what would be her district and job description to her best friends. She's looking excited about the potential to do something that matters and really help people. In her conversation with the Toby (?. don't know, don't care), we get to see more of Tia being supportive of Kat and Kat being confronted with whether she's motivated to actually run or just wants someone to beat Reynolds. We learn Kat had an abortion in 2013 when she was 20 AS IS HER GOTDAMN RIGHT BECAUSE IT'S HER BODY, but it's something she's felt some sort of shame/concern over seeing as nobody close to her knew about it. Then, and this is so great, after telling her friends she has the conversation with Tia. Tia shares that she's had one as well and completely understands not wanting it to be public knowledge, but in sharing her experience educates Kat on yet another way vulnerable people are having their rights stripped, this time through manipulation and "crisis centers" that shouldn't exist. Tia remains supportive and doesn't pressure Kat at all with her decision. "I am by your side if they come for you, but you gotta do what's right for you". When we get that great speech from Jacqueline we see Kat being moved my the statement that you'll never know what you're capable of if you don't take a leap faith to face challenges that frighten you, then you'll never know what you're capable of. [i'd like to pause right now to say Jacqueline is fucking wonderful and i love her like my white auntie. also Sutton needed to hear that again just as much as Kat and i really appreciate this entire moment.] When Kat leaves Jacqueline's celebration, she passes by one of those "crisis centers" Tia told her about and decides to use her voice to help others. "I like to think of myself as a pretty strong, empowered, forward-thinking, open-minded woman. But, up until now, I haven't been able to talk about my abortion. If me putting myself out there helps even one woman to feel less alone, less ashamed, and less guilty then it's worth it." And just like us, dear Tia is blown away. She actually exhales a breath she didn't know she was holding and biiiiiiiitch (!!!! excitedly). and then they're dancing! This is the episode, upon rewatch, when i recognize how often Tia touches Kat unnecessarily.

Episode 5: Kat's entire recap includes Tia, ending with Sutton saying "she seems to be very single". Her very first scene, Tia is complimenting her walking out of some campaigning event we later learn was a Town Hall. Can we just talk about Kat's blazer for a second? First of all, i want it. Second, how did they find something so perfectly her? It's colorful but still semi-professional, fun, but still about her business. Heart-eye inducing. ok. So the next time we see Kat, she and Tia (whose last name they finally mention as Clayton) are reviewing campaign platform and doing debate prep at Kat's apartment. Tia's complimenting Kat almost continuously at this point. Clearly she's impressed, borderline gushing. and Kat tries to brush it off. Tia's not letting her. And there's this moment when Tia forces herself to break eye contact with her (around 5:40 of the episode). The show tells us Kat still hasn't dated since Adena, but Sutton brings up the "stupid smile" she gets whenever Tia's mentioned. She's making better decisions than Patrick and her being compared to Patrick is lowkey happening a lot. I'm starting to wonder if they're setting up Kat taking over digital if she doesn't win the campaign. Ok, the song choice as they pan to Kat and Tia... "I never normally check my phone 10 times in a minute. I'm not the girl to be kept on hold 10 miles from the finish." Again, Tia is very touchy with Kat, never anything inappropriate of course, but the hand is always on the back or the arm. and their interaction is just.. lovely. I squeal. it's so cute. they're so comfortable. Kat invites Tia to the dinner BEFORE (i got the timing on that mixed up before) Tia says she's "a boring straight girl" [the test determined that was a LIE... nah, my good sis Tia is dealing with some internalized homophobia which is no joking matter, but we don't learn that until the next episode]. Apparently, Kat can cook now? So she just liked Adena's food better i guess? idk... anyway. I get why some of the things Tia said can be taken as flirting, but i still believe that you accept what someone says is their sexuality until they say otherwise. yes, that's even when they're saying things like "when i see what i want, i go for it" and "Annndd she can cook. it's hot" and looking at you like that. Kat telling Jane to apologize because he's her boss and she got suuuper disrespectful and would absolutely deserve getting fired makes me proud. She's the mature friend now. She's the one with a level head on her shoulders. Kat finally makes her feelings known to Tia, but this is after Tia has already stated she's straight. Tia reiterates that this is a professional relationship and apologizes for Kat getting the wrong idea. I'm reminded of when Alex Danvers told Maggie Sawyer she was into her and she was rejected... but in that example i was floored and heartbroken for Alex because ugh, i just didn't see that coming. With this, however, it felt like Tia was clear in her words even if it shocked the hell out of me what the words were. So i didn't feel heartbroken for Kat. I thought... tbh... she brought it on herself for refusing to respect Tia's "no", however soft it was. But the writers did let us know it wasn't over with the music selection... Kat looking at "You and Tia make a great team :)" as "I'll go to war for you" plays.

Episode 6: All the emails have been released and Kat has no worries at all about that because she's a professional. And we get to see her be a boss addressing the entire group. Patrick isn't there this episode (YAY for our sanity!) and i think Kat being a boss so often when Patrick isn't around is intentional. When we see Tia, she says last night is forgotten but she thinks it's a bad idea to remain Kat's campaign manager... which is clearly a hard rejection. One can argue that it's too harsh for someone merely admitting they were into you. But it's just as easy to argue that it's appropriate after telling someone, very clearly, that you are not into them romantically and them ignoring that and saying that you were flirting with them on this date they never called a date before you were already there?? so i'm not mad at it. At the end of the episode, we find out that Tia was rejecting herself, not Kat. Turns out, Ms. Tia Clayton has known she's attracted to women since she was in high school, but she "didn't want to want it". Tia is so TINY AND ANXIOUS ABOUT HER SEXUALITY AND MANY OF US HAVE BEEN THERE. But... and i say this in jest... for someone who is really trying not to be out in the open with her gay, she sure was comfortable kissing Kat all outdoors for anyone to see. My good sis is smitten. I'm excited for the story. Again with the music during their scenes though... "I cannot fallll in love with youuuuu. I cannot feeeeel this way so soon, so soon." Also, my girlfriend and I have watched the gifset of the kiss over the phone and swooned (we live in different states for now). This episode, we also got the flashbacks (i missed Lauren so much). Kat's got red streaks in her hair, is a friend to strangers, has regrettable sex with men who taste like pickles, and is cute as a button. She also called Jacqueline "Mama Jackie" and that's it; that's her name now.

[tenpin-boleyn]

Boleyn x Parr Part 2

Hi yeah it’s me again. This is probably the worst thing I have ever written, but at this point in my life I’m too tired to care :) I mentally drained myself trying to put myself into Annes shoes oops and now I feel nothing 😂

So before I get attacked for anything in this piece, please know that most of the words aren’t exclusively mine. My friend actually ended up in this situation at age 14, and now she has the most adorable baby in the entire world I’m jealous af, and I asked for her help to try and see what Anne would think! So all of these thoughts Anne has are based on what my friend said, so this is as realistic as I could muster! Teen pregnancy isn’t a joke and is a real thing that happens, and it isn’t anybody’s right to discriminate or to judge and I just wanted to get this out of the way before I started! :)

Warnings: Teen Pregnancy, Abortion, Swearing. I think that’s it but please message or reply if there’s any you want added! :)

Also I gave up because I was so tired towards the end and decided to post this anyway. Oops please don’t hate me I’m tired :) I might continue this. I might not :)

—————————————

“Are you okay in there?” Cathy asked from outside the bathroom door. After taking Anne to bed, making sure she had her stuffed dog beside her, Parr had snuck away to the corner shop and bought a cheap pregnancy test for Anne; earning a rather dirty look from the old lady at the till. She was glad Anne wasn’t with her, if the lady had given that look to Anne, she wasn’t sure what she’d do. As soon as she returned Anne was waiting on the stairs, stuffed toy in hand, like a child who had just had a nightmare but was too scared to find their parents, and the look on her face showed Cathy that she knew exactly what was in her bag.

“Yeah. It’s just taking a long time-“ Anne whispered. She was torn between opening the door and letting Cathy see before her, and keeping it locked so she was free to climb out of the window if it turned out to be positive. Long after the test had shown its results, still unseen to Anne, she let Cathy in- thrusting the stick on her. Parr stole a look at Anne before glancing down at the piece of papery plastic that could and would change Anne’s life forever. “It’s positive.”

The thought had been playing on her mind for at least a week, but to hear it out loud set it in stone. She suddenly lost connection to the world, she didn’t feel her body slam to the floor, she couldn’t hear Cathy yelling her name, and she couldn’t hear herself sobbing into the towel she discarded that morning. The first time she fell pregnant she was over the moon, she had a child to share her love with- and if I made Henry love her then that was just an added bonus. The first time she felt Elizabeth in her arms she couldn’t help but feel her world being completed. Her big blue eyes staring at her, and the little tuffs of red hair made Anne instantly fall in love with her. But what Anne realised now, was that her baby killed her. She didn’t blame Elizabeth for anything, she would give her life for Lizzie in a heartbeat, but she knew that the baby killed her. And even in this life she knew the baby would kill her; there was no Henry, but there was the problem of her body and society and her education. Anne was barely 16, she still cursed the world with every cramp she felt each month- she couldn’t push a baby out of her. And god knows what she would say to everyone but she knew what they would think. “Poor pathetic Anne, ruining her life so early on. What a shame. She had so much potential.” She couldn’t do that to herself.

Catherine was in a panic, she was fearful that Anne had somehow got a concussion when she fell. And it didn’t help that she wasn’t responding to her voice or her touch. “Annie please say something!”

What Catherine didn’t expect was annes abrupt response. “Where the fuck is the gin” Catherine let out a sigh of relief, she wasn’t happy about Anne’s instant response to any problem in her life being alcohol, but at least she knew that Anne was herself. “Why? Remember the last time you got drunk?” Parr instantly regretted her words. Her girlfriend was pregnant with a baby she didn’t want, from a guy she didn’t want and she didn’t even remember it happening. How could she be so stupid?

“I read in a book that it gets rid of it...” the girl whispered, looking 5 years younger, sat against the bath still clenching the dog. It didn’t seem possible to the pair, but their hearts broke again, Cathy’s was broken from wishing with all of her might that she could take her pain away. And Anne’s for obvious reasons.

“Anne Millicent Boleyn you listen to me right now. We are going to go sit in your bed, I’m going to get you a glass of water and we are going to discuss every option there is. If you want to get rid of this baby, we’re going to do it safely, and if you want to keep it, then we will figure out a plan to tell the others and a plan of what we need to sort out okay?” At this Anne snapped awake, sulking and moving around wouldn’t solve her issues, she would have to deal with this at some point, and knowing her girlfriend it would be as soon as possible. And Catherine followed through on her word. She tucked Anne into the duvet, went to get her a glass of water and came back with her laptop.

“Right. Drink this whenever you feel like you are going to be sick or just feel unwell, because I’m not stopping until we’ve sorted this out okay?” Catherine’s wise eyes smiled down upon Anne, in the way that made Anne fall in love with her from the start and she couldn’t help but feel safe, tucked into bed with her- no matter the situation. “Okay.”

Anne watched as Catherine typed furiously into the laptop, as much as Anne hated emotions, she couldn’t help but feel so much love and she couldn’t believe that she was being so supportive of her... “okay so the NHS says that your options are:

* continuing with the pregnancy and keeping the baby

* having an abortion

* continuing with the pregnancy and having the baby adopted.

If you decide to continue your pregnancy, the next step is to start your antenatal care.”

“What the actual fuck does that mean.”

“Hold on. Oh it’s just the care you get when you’re pregnant.” Anne took a sip of water at this. It was all feeling so real now, and it scared her. Lots. “What are your immediate thoughts? I mean if you keep the baby, you’ve got a loving household of queens who will happily jump at the chance to cuddle and care for a baby, or you could go through with this and give it up after it’s born or I could take you to a clinic and we’ll never speak about this again.” Catherine felt like she was being too blunt, but in all honestly she was as scared as Anne. She didn’t know the slightest thing about pregnancy or anything, but she was trying to stay professional, for her baby girl. “I’ll have to keep it.” Anne blurted our, faster than Henry could say “off with her head!”

“What makes you say that?”

“I can’t take the chance of being a mother away from the queens. Catherine, Jane and Anna all had their children taken from them and now I’ve got the chance to have a child, it feels wrong to take it from them. If they ever found out, they’d be heartbroken.” Catherine pulled Anne in closer, holding her as tight as she could manage. “As sweet and as kind as that may be, this isn’t their baby. It’s yours, and you’ll be the one looking after it. If you decide to keep it, it’s going to have to be for you. You need to want this child for yourself. Not for anyone else. Put yourself first babe. I will support you all the way if you want to have this baby, but only if you want it.” Anne looked up at Parr, the fear evident in her eyes, opening her mouth to say something, but was cut off by Cathy. “And if you’re worried about them finding out, I won’t tell a soul, but we need to hide this stick before the queens get back if you chose that option.”

Anne sat silently, contemplating one small decision that would alter her entire life. Instead of verbally replying to Parr, she stole the laptop from her and began to scroll down, reading more on the options. They both sat like this for a while, before Anne was certain. As much as she had loved Lizzie, she couldn’t bear to have another child at this point in her life. It just seemed so wrong to her. “Cathy, I don’t want to keep it.” To this Anne snuggled into the older girl even more, and Parr just stroked her hair, hoping that this was Anne making the decision and that she was certain about what she was doing.

—————————————

“Boleyn, Anne?” A woman cried out into the busy waiting room. The room was busier than Anne had hoped, but all of the chatter seemed to take her mind off of life, so she didn’t mind. Anne stood up, clenching Cath’s hand as she did. As she reached the woman she managed to muster up as many words as she was able. “Can my girlfriend come too?” The voice was weak and totally out of character for Anne, not so much recently but generally. “Of course she can.” The woman smiled. She was in her early 40s and was already starting to Grey, but Anne thought that it made her look kinder- if that was even a thing- but alas it helped to calm herself, she wasn’t going to question it. The lady led the pair down the hallway and into room 2, inviting them to sit next to her desk. “So Miss Anne Boleyn, is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re here for a medically induced abortion, correct?”

“Yes.” Cathy squeezed Annes hand, hoping that it would give some comfort to her girlfriend.

“Okay perfect. Before we start any procedures or any tests etc, I’m going to have to speak to you alone for a few minutes if that’s okay? It’s just to run through the risks, and your reasons for termination. It’s just a routine test we do to make sure you’re doing the best thing for yourself.”

Parr smiled at Anne again, giving her a comforting nod that told her that she would be right outside and she wasn’t going anywhere.

————————————

The chat was taking longer than Catherine had expected, but then again she had been researching abortions in adults. Perhaps there were more questions to ask for a teenager, Parr told herself. And before she had even realised, she was pacing the floor anxiously. Parr knew this procedure and interview inside and out, she had spent nights looking everything up, making sure it was safe, and that Anne would be okay; but she couldn’t help but feel nervous. She knew all of the queens had emotional scars, and physical scars as the cousins liked to point out every chance they had, so adding a terminated pregnancy to annes long list of issues didn’t strike Parr as comforting. Anne pretended to be strong; she was the witty one, the feisty one. But under all of that, she hid her pain with jokes and midnight tears and fits of rage where she would smash up her room and just sit in the mess crying at what she had done. Catherine tried her best, but there was only so far hugs and facts about bugs could go. To be fair the facts about bugs inspired Annes pranks on Aragon, but that’s beside the point.

“Uh Catherine, you can come back in now.” The woman popped her neck around the door and smiled. Catherine smelt Annes familiar scent of cinnamon pancakes and a hint of cleaning fluids- coming from the very large hand sanitiser bottles- as she retook her position next to Anne. “Ready babe?”

“No but fuck it”

————————————

“Catherine, Anne. Nice to see you on this fine day.” Before the girls had even walked through the door, Jane was standing waiting for them, Katherine peering out from a door behind her. Cath didn’t know what to do, on one hand Anne seemed to be fine, but at the same time she knew that although Anne had taken the pill option, it was still a mental toll on her. “I’ve had the headteacher on the phone for an hour screaming about how 2 of her students had snuck out of school and caused a lock down on campus. Care to explain?” Jane tilted her head at the pair and looked furious. Anne was, as suspected, mentally exhausted and wasn’t taking anyone’s shit, especially the woman who had taken her man the day after she was beheaded. “What the fuck is it to you, you’re not my mum?” Catherine looked defeated, of course Anne would say something like this. “What she means to say is-“

“Nah I meant it. Now if you don’t mind im going to my room so bog off!”

With Anne half way up the stairs, still wearing her Heelys, Jane looked at Catherine with a look that said “if you don’t tell me what’s going on I’ll hide your library card.” “Anne was having a bit of trouble and I thought that she should have the day off. It’s my fault entirely- please don’t blame her.”

[farmlandskillrp]

Robin Oliver | The Dreamer | FC: Lily Collins | Taken

Personality Traits:

+ Fun-Loving, Free-Spirited, Witty

- Resentful, Impulsive, Escapist

Aesthetic:

Moodboard

Gender and Pronouns: 

She/Her

Birthday and Zodiac: 

December 17, Sagittarius

Moral Alignment: 

True Neutral

Headcanons (past, present, personality, preferences)

all i ever wanted was everything: Robin’s dream for as long as she could remember was to leave her hometown and travel the world, that was, after graduating from University. For all of the time she spent partying and having a good time with friends in school, she spent equal parts at home reading, and hoped to study English at Uni. Both of these goals were put on pause indefinitely when Robin found out she was pregnant during her first term at Uni. She hoped to continue with school once her daughter Hazel was born, but was forced to withdraw and work full-time to support them both. Although she loves Hazel more than anything, she can’t help but resent what she has become- a single Mum at 22, working as a waitress to support Hazel with the help of Jack.

sometimes this world sucks so i go to my own: At a young age, Robin realized that she could lose herself in her daydreams and forget all of the shit that was happening around her. As she got older, she began to experiment with more tangible ways to lose herself- namely drugs and alcohol at parties. It didn’t matter if it was uppers or downers, Robin loved the escape that came with substances, allowing her to forget all of her troubles and just float for awhile. She always felt untouchable, as if nothing bad could reach her, and was unwilling to let any fear of the unknown keep her from having fun. Robin’s world of escape came crashing down the moment she read that positive pregnancy test. She’d contemplated an abortion, but changed her mind the moment she saw her small baby on the ultrasound during the first check up. From that point on, something in Robin shifted, and though she often hates herself for it, she now views the world from a much more practical viewpoint. With her sole focus now being Hazel, Robin has reverted back to simply losing herself in her daydreams once again.

she’s strong but she’s exhausted: Robin’s parents divorced when she was young and her Dad was never a huge part of her life. Because of this, her relationship with her Mum has always been strained. She didn’t approve of Robin’s free spirit and never missed an opportunity to tell her how reckless she was. Robin getting pregnant was the last straw for her Mum, who kicked her out so she would learn to be more responsible. Robin doesn’t have much of a relationship with her Mum now, and has to rely on Jack or her friends to help out with Hazel.

to the moon and never back: Robin has always found peace and comfort in nature. She ventures out into the fields or to the creek with Hazel any chance she gets, wanting to cultivate a love of adventure in her daughter, in hopes that one day she can escape this small town like Robin has always dreamed of doing. Her biggest wish for her daughter is that she’s happy, and feels free to do whatever she wants to when the time comes.

the girl who lost things: Robin couldn’t choose the family she was born into, but she could choose who to surround herself with when not at home. She and Matt gravitated towards one another at a young age, their mutual love of a good time making them quickly inseparable. Their friendship with Jack and Leo soon followed and Robin felt like she had found it, her chosen family. For years, the four of them were unmatched: parties, school, you name it. That was until the end of college when Robin and Jack evolved from occasional hookups to dating exclusively. They hadn’t planned for it to last, but that changed when Robin got pregnant. After that, the group’s dynamic shifted permanently. Matt continued to be the party animal he always was, Leo distanced himself from Jack and Matt, and Jack and Robin were bound forever through an unplanned baby. In Robin’s eyes, the only redeeming quality of this shift, aside from her baby, was her friendship with Leo. Leo had always been a great friend to Robin, but after having Hazel, she was shocked at how Leo stepped in to help her while Jack was away at Uni. Robin was too busy being a new Mum to properly mourn the end of the most important friendship of her life as she knew it; and now that Matt is dead, she is overwhelmed with the loss of both.

IN-CHARACTER

·      Which of your scars has the best story behind it? And what’s the story?

The most glamorous scar by far is the massive one I have across my abdomen from my c-section with Hazel. After 10 hours of labor things weren’t progressing and the doctor notified me that they had to cut her out of me. Delightful. Obviously she was well worth it, but seeing your insides get pulled out alongside your beautiful baby while you can’t feel anything is an experience that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. Mothers are badasses.

·      What was your first sexual experience if you’ve had one? Do you think back to it fondly or not?

My virginity never felt sacred to me, and I never felt the need to cherish it for the perfect moment or person. To be honest, I was just ready to get it over with. So, when I was 14, I got tipsy at a party and impulsively decided to sleep with a boy in my class that I thought was cute. It was god awful and lasted less than 3 minutes, but I was happy to have the bullshit title of virgin permanently removed from my description. Looking back, I was so young and quick to grow up. I wish I had just allowed myself to be a child. It scares me to think that Hazel could put herself in a similar situation as I did when she’s older, just to try to feel like a grown up a bit faster.

·      What were the last three songs you listened to?

Clair de Lune- Debussy

Dance Dance- Fall Out Boy

Come on Eileen- Dexys Midnight Runners

·      What would be the title of your autobiography?

Mama’s Tired, The Chronicles of Getting Knocked Up at 19

·      Who would you call in an emergency? Why?

If it was an emergency with Hazel, I’d call Jack. But godforbid that happens, because Jack is absolute shit under pressure- hence why we have a child together in the first place.

If it was an emergency with me, I’d call Leo. He is my go to for non-judgmental assistance on most things. And he is the most reliable person in my life, despite not being the father of my child. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

Important Connections:

·      Jack Carter - The father of Robin’s three year old daughter. Her daughter stopped her from going to University and getting her degree, but it didn’t stop Jack. She hates that about them, but she loves that they moved back from their swanky job just to be close to their daughter.

·      Leo Vitale - The most reliable person in Robin’s life. Leo is one of the only people who never treated her differently when she got pregnant. They are a huge support for her and Hazel, even though they have no obligation to be, and for that she is extremely grateful.  

·      Jane Oliver - Her little sister embodies everything that Robin wants to have – a life full of freedom and choices.

·      Evie Jones - Evie and Robin have never really gotten on, as Robin always thought Matt was fantastic and this grated on Evie.

Information that may/may not be relevant to case:

Robin and Matt could have been described as best friends.

[mtvswatches]

Jane the Virgin 2x03 Chapter Twenty-five

Spoilers disclaimer (please read before sending messages or writing comments.)

Click here for previous recaps!

Stray thoughts

1) Wow, they did a great casting with Alba’s younger self…

2) WTF Rafael!

3) I’m sorry, what?!

This doesn’t make any sense? I get that she has a strong connection to Michael, and that she will be forever in debt to him for rescuing her baby, but…? Why would you want a man who you’re in love with to be your baby’s godfather, a baby whose father is another man you’re in love with?

I’ll be honest, it’s getting harder and harder to see Jane as a smart, sensible character.

4) Petra is definitely pregnant… so now both Jane and Petra will be mothers to Rafael’s children… I can’t see any universe where that’s something I’d want to see.

5) His friendship with Rogelio definitely makes me warm up to Michael a bit more…

6) “She’s pretty good at narration.” I don’t know why I feel this isn’t just a random line. But I really don’t know what to make of it yet.

7) Okay, for a second I thought Rafael was going to try and keep Petra’s pregnancy a secret, but thank God, he came clean.

8) Rogelio’s advice about not being a wuss will definitely bite Michael in the ass. “Being a wuss” – if by “being a wuss” we understand being a decent person who listens to and cares about the persons he loves – is precisely what Janes loves about him, and what makes him different from Rafael. Acting detached and aloof is a big turn-off.

9) Oh, the tea is especially good today!

10) I was about to go ballistic on the professor if he didn’t let Jane take the classes, but I’m glad he agreed to give it a try. I’m guessing it won’t be smooth sailing, though.

11) Oh, right. The Moron.

Yes, please, German kidnappers, “mutter” her.  Put us all out of our misery.

12) Jane just Untouchabled that baby carriage in the middle of the class…

13) Rogelio’s diary…

“When you left me, I felt like a tiny kitten without his fur.”

"I often feel like a sweet peach you took one bite off and then carelessly tossed aside to rot in a compost pile of tears.”

"You crushed my heart like a walnut. In a walnut-crushing machine.”

He’s a tortured artist.

14) Petra’s options…

I really do appreciate how the show doesn’t shy away from mentioning abortion as an option. They had the talk when Jane got pregnant, and they’re having it now, too.

15)  Oh my god, I died!!!

16) It was nice to see Jane opening up to the other mothers and all them sharing how they feel about being moms and also wanting to have a life of their own. And Mateo blinked 😉

17) Luciana…

At last, we meet.

I gotta say, I was expecting Xiomara to be freaking out about Rogelio reuniting with his former love, but she’s unexpectedly cool about it. Like, too cool?

18) Yep, I jinxed it, cool lost. Cool lost.

19) Damn, Jane had the same reaction Xiomara had when reading Alba’s baptism note. I’m guessing it’s going to be a tear-jerker…

20) Lina is wearing a dress a la Madonna in Like a Prayer…

And Michael is going to be Mateo’s godfather… that’s definitely going to be weird if Jane ends up with Michael. “My father! My Godfather! My father! My Godfather!” Yikes.

21) Damn, it was a tear-jerker…

My precious child, these are the things that I hope for you and your life. May you be bold. May you be brave. May you be loving and joyful and kind. May you carry with you the vitality and the spirit of the generations before you. Whatever you dream for your life, may you summon the strength to follow that dream. May you always let your faith be greater than your fear. May you never forget, through all of life’s adventures, through every moment of every day that I walk beside you, cheering you on, hoping for you, praying for you, loving you. And may you one day love your own child as deeply as I love you, today and always.

I guess writing does run in the family…

22) I’m glad Jane is going to grad school.

23) Oh, my god, she is a MORON!!

24) I’m definitely borrowing this move from Alba. Bless her.

25) Okay, Michael. Good move. I’ll give you that.

But I do have some experience with the whole "surprise pregnancy via insemination" scenario. And when it happened with you, well, I pretty much did everything wrong, 'cause I just tried to ignore it instead of embracing it. So that's my advice to you. There's a baby coming. Whatever that means to you, embrace it.

It’s coming to a point where Michael is becoming the best choice for Jane, regardless of who is Mateo’s father. And tbh, I’m Team No One because the thing I dislike the most about this show is the love triangle no one asked for. But at this point, I just wish they would settle for one or the other and be done with the whole thing. I hope this moment between Jane and Michael means she’s leaning toward him, even if it’s just for the whole triangle thing to be over. But if I’ve got this show right, we’ll probably get a Rafael moment next episode that makes her doubt her feelings yet again.

26) How can Rafael even consider the possibility of seeing his own kid twice a year? What type of man are you if that even crosses your mind? How can one kid be more valuable than another?

27) And the fact that Jane is the one making this decision for him speaks volumes about the type of person he is. So, if she had had any problems with Petra sticking around, then he would’ve gladly given up on one of his children??

28) Rogelio and Xiomara continue to be the most functional couple in this show and I love them for it…

ROGELIO: You were right, there was chemistry. But let's be real, I would have chemistry with a cardboard box. You are who I want to be with.

XIOMARA: Good. Then I'll suck it up and deal with it.

ROGELIO: You don't have to. I told Dina, "No, Luciana's out.

XIOMARA: Uh, but is that what's best for the show?

ROGELIO: No, but you're more important than the show. We're gonna have to hire someone subpar, and I will shine brightly enough for us both.

29) What the hell did Rose this to these poor people? They were terrified to hear her name…

30) Okay, so the Germans didn’t kidnap Luisa for Rose but to get to Rose…

31) Here we go again…

And why did Petra take a picture? Who am I kidding? It’s obviously for blackmailing purposes, duh.

32) A literal cliff-hanger, that was epic!

33) Okay, I’m intrigued by the Rose storyline, but I really hope her whole motivation to be brought back into the mix is not her love for the moron. I’m over the whole Jane-Rafael-Michael love triangle, and I continue to be proud af of Xiomara and Rogelio. I have zero idea what Luciana is holding over his head, though. If I’d have to guess, I’d say it’s something embarrassing rather than something unethical or illegal.

34) Hope you enjoyed my recap, and, as usual, if you’ve got this far, thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recaps and my blog, please consider supporting it on ko-fi.Thanks!

[mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker]

...let’s do this...

“Dan Slott’s decade-long tenure on writing Spider-Man recently came to an end, swapping the prolific writer out with former Captain America/Secret Empire scribe Nick Spencer. The first issue of his and artist Ryan Ottley’s much hyped run, Amazing Spider-Man #1, took Peter Parker back to the basics. The hero has lost Parker Industries, is under investigation for academic fraud, was fired from the Daily Bugle, and other New York heroes hate him because they think he’s buddy-buddy with Kingpin of Crime turned New York mayor, Wilson Fisk.”

First of all Peter lost Parker Industries during Slott’s run so i dunno why this ‘article’ is framing things as though that is a development from Spencer’s run.

Second of all heroes hate Spidey because Kingpin made it look as though they were friends, its not as though Spider-Man really was friend with Fisk as this article frames it.

 “The issue ends with the two kissing and Peter declaring that this is ���their story,” emphatically saying what the suspicions have been for some time: the new run of Amazing Spider-Man will begin to undue the events of the controversial “One More” and “Brand New Day” storylines that Slott became infamous for, which saw Mephisto destroy Peter and MJ’s marriage in exchange for bringing Aunt May back to life.”

 *pinches bridge of nose* ohmygodohmygodohmygod.

 Okay so...Dan Slott WASN’T RESPONSIBLE FOR OMD OR BND!

M**********r Wikipedia could have told you that! HOW?! HOW do you not know that Joe Quesada wrote OMD!

HOW do you not know this piece of comic book osmosis that everyone knows! My God!

Furthermore aunt May didn’t effing die in OMD. That was literally the point. They mad ethe deal to SAVE her from death. Not undo it!

I know people who’ve not even read the story and THEY know that!

Also Dan Slott became infamous but it had nada to do with OMD but other stuff.

Also also the story hasn’t shown or promised to undo anything yet but clickbait gotta clickbait.

Also, also, also UNDO ISN’T SPELT THAT WAY!

Holy fuck how do you write for the front page of the biggest comic book news site, get paid for it and not spell check shit?!

“And like those now infamous wedding issues for Batman and X-Men, the move to bring Peter and MJ back together doesn’t really work. There are couples who’ve gotten back together after a time apart, but the issue itself piles so much misfortune on Peter’s doorstep it feels like Peter should be looking into a therapist or anxiety medicine instead of making out with his ex.”

-Is what someone who’s never read Spider-Man would say.

Like Peter went though a lot of bad stuff in ASM volume 5 #1 but:

a)    Asshole please, this is nowhere near the worst most stressful or therepy worthy shit Peter has lived through. Supporting his sickly recently widowed mother figure financially whilst going to school, getting bullied, having a crappy boss, dealing with an unreasonable girlfriend and ALSO fighting crime in a city that feared and hated him for no reason. THAT is anxiety and that is also known as the start of Spider-Man’s entire story you fucking hacks!

b)    So when you’ve had an awful day and everything has fallen apart getting TLC from someone you deeply love and who deeply loves you...doesn’t  make sense. Okay sure.

c)    Justin Carter where the fuck did you learn how to read subtext? Shit, nevermind the subtext, where did you learn to read the text bro! The story spells it out for you. Peter’s life is bad, he keeps making the same mistakes again, he wants things to change to be better. So he steps up to the plate and puts the effort in to MAKE it better, specifically by chasing the thing he wants most, the thing he’s yearned for and literally dreamed about (as CLEARLY SHOWN on the first effing pages!). He reunited with the love of his life. For the fuck is that something that DOESN’T work!

d)    Exempting the X-Men wedding the Batman wedding issue in my observation totally worked from a characterization pov even if it wasn’t the result fans wanted to deserved.

“Peter and MJ Are A coulee Again! And It's The Wrong Move...”

 It isn’t the wrong move and I see no reason why anyone should take this article’s claims that is is seriously when it can’t even spell the word couple!

 “Like all relationships, the ones between superheroes and their non-powered partners are full of drama. In the decade since their split, Peter and MJ had many relationships that provided what neither could offer the other at the time. MJ got to date men who were reliable and had the stability that Peter couldn’t entirely provide, and Peter was with those who were more accustomed to or in the line of superheroic work as he.”

 Go fuck yourself CBR seriously.

 Let’s start with Peter. What in the flying fuck is this shallow, Celebrity gossip rag, juvenile, simplistic, unlearned horseshit of a mentality towards superhero relationships over the last several years that has the absolute biggest hard on ever for the idea that heroes have to date heroes.

 Especially Spider-Man.

 Whenever the mere idea of Spider-Man dating another hero crops up that is literally the ONLY thing people talk about.

 They have so much in common because they are both heroes.

 Well shit...why doesn’t he date literally any of the women in the multiple Avengers teams he was a member of. No Carol Danvers doesn’t count, it was one date.

 I’ll tell you why.

 Because if any of these jackasses knew what the fuck they were talking about with Spider-Man’s character, both in terms of who he is as a person and the entire concept behind him, they’d know that civilian women are both his preference and more in line with the idea of him as a hero who could be you.

 YOU in the real world do not date goddam superheroes. You date normal people. Therefore Spider-Man also dates normal people.

 ‘But what about Black Cat’, I hear you cry out.

 Yeah Felicia let’s talk about her for a second shall we.

 Felicia, the cat burglar costumed criminal. The one who tried to trick her boyfriend into a life of crime literally the issue after they hooked up.

 Felicia, the woman who recoiled upon seeing Spider-Man’s real face.

 Felicia the woman who lied and went behind Spider-Man’s back to get super powers that literally caused him cosmic bad luck even after they broke up.

 Felicia, the woman who jeapodized Peter’s secret identity multiple times.

 Felicia, the woman who literally got in bed with a mercenary (in every sense of the word) in order to frame Spider-Man for murder by seducing him.

 Felicia the one and only girlfriend Peter had before he got married who was a fellow costumed person...and she was literally named after something that brings you bad luck.

 It’s ALMOST like it was doomed to fail from the start.

 It’s ALMOST like it was intended that way.

 It’s ALMOST like it was a great big subtextual commentary about how Spider-Man is better off with normal non-costumed women.

 Oh...but if only there was some kind of page or panel clearly spelling out the idea that Felicia the costumed person was wrong for Spider-Man but someone else, someone normal, someone rooted in the real world with all it’s relatable problems and activities, was right for him...

...if only...

And if only the comic book run most guilty of shipping Spider-Man with a costumed person post-OMD which was initiated by a hack writer had itself a page or panel spelling out that Spider-Man dating costumed people because they ‘get’ his lifestyle more doesn’t mean jack shit, showcasing even they recognize it to be a stupid shortsighted attitude to Spider shipping.

IF.ONLY! 

Let’s move onto Mary Jane.

 MJ dated exactly 2 men during the decade after OMD. Bobbi Carr and Pedro the fireman who was literally a poc fireman version of Peter.

 Reliable and stable huh?

 Tell me how exactly is the life of a rising A-list movie star ‘reliable’ or ‘stable’...even aside from the fact that he was a drug addict?

 Tell me how exactly is the life of a firefighter whom would be rushing off whilst on duty and risking his life A LOT be stable for poor Mary Jane’s anxieties over his safety?

 What? Reliable is steady job+regular hours?

 That’s what Peter couldn’t provide so this reconciliation is bad?

 ...Didn’t Mary jane literally WORK for goddam Tony Stark, the globe/galaxy trotting superhero Avenger leader who went into a coma then disappeared?????????

 And she took that job by effing choice? AFTER breaking up with Pedro the fireman?

 How much ‘reliable stability’ does she really want or need?

 Because assholes MJ dated and was married to Spider-Man for fucking years. And she liked it. Are we just IGNORING that?

 Like assholes that wasn’t even the thing that they broke up over. MJ didn’t break up with Spider-Man in OMIT because he was unreliable and didn’t provide stability. She accepted that. She accepted that shit even in the nuclear levels OOC flashback sequences to their aborted wedding.

 She broke up with him because it endangered her family. THAT was the rationale. THEN she got back with him in Superior. THEN she broke up with him at the end because she wanted normalcy but then she literally said pages later that she’ll never get it because she lived in NYC and because guys like the Goblin wouldn’t care if she was dating Peter or not. THEN she threw away normalcy by working for Iron Man FFS. THEN in Red Goblin she claimed she couldn’t be with him because I don’t even know, some bullshit about feeling guilty that she was keeping him away from being a hero.

 So the stable reliability argument holds no goddam water to her pre or post OMD characterizations.

 Basically the above paragraph boils down to:

 “Peter and MJ getting back together is bad because they dated people who could offer them the stuff that neither could offer the other, even though there is nothing indicating either wanted that stuff in the first place.”

 “Not all of these relationships were perfect, but they were signs of real change, something that isn’t typically allowed in big two superhero comics, or at least, not in any lasting, meaningful way.”

 No they weren’t. They were signs of Marvel putting the characters on rotation because they axed the ACTUAL meaningful change that was the pair getting married and committing to a longterm permanent relationship that lasted 20 years.

 Hence why literally none of these relationships had ANY lasting impact upon either character.

 MJ was unchanged by Bobbi Carr dating her beyond it prompting her to return to NYC, i.e. return to her old status quo.

 Peter was unchanged by Carlie Cooper, Liaeean Teaaen, Mockingbird and Silk. I mean my God this article bangs on about how Mockingbird was so important because she provided something Peter otherwise couldn’t get from MJ but the seires literally handwaves away their relationship. They don’t even get a major break up scene or issue. It’s just. “We broke up, brief flashback. That was it.”

 “The last couple of times that Peter and MJ broke off their romantic relationship — after that one time Doc Ock jacked Peter’s body for over a year — it was because she didn’t want his, frankly, ridiculous life as a superhero to define hers.”

 The article says the last couple of times they broke it off then lists one example because what is counting.

 And as I said that was NOT the reason they broke up after superior. Hell they didn’t even really break up that time. Otto broke up with MJ in Superior ‘2, then she called him up to break up with him many issues later then she went to Peter when he got his body back to give a break up speech to someone she wasn’t even dating!

 “More, she didn’t want to keep risking the danger the comes from being close to a superhero.”

 And then she went to work for an even more famous superhero who didn’t even have a secret identity and who have much more powerful enemies many of whom would’ve targeted him even if they didn’t know he was Iron Man..before re-entering his friendship group in from Power Play onwards thus rendering her entire rationale for breaking away moot....not that it made any sense to begin with.

 “If anything, his life has become even more crazy since their split, since his teacher is the Lizard and he’s a roommate with Boomerang.”

 The Lizard was his teacher in the silver and bronze age too you goddam hacks and having a villain for a roommate is NOT crazier than your body being stolen by a villain for God’s sake.

 “Both of those situations are going to end pretty badly, and that’s coming just before the “Spidergeddon” event that’ll bring together the Spider-heroes of the multiverse yet again in a fight for survival against evil vampires.”

 I didn’t know CBR could see the future and also apparently knows that despite all current evidence to the contrary that Spencer would be doing a tie-into Spider-Geddon.

 “Fans of Peter and Mary Jane as a couple aren’t exactly hard up for a comic about their exploits. The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows series may be set in a new universe, but it’s been quietly operating as a book for the two to be happy together. Not only do they have a daughter in that universe by way of Annie Parker, the three of them are a crimefighting family where Annie is Spiderling, and MJ gained powers of her own and became Spinneret. ”

STFU CBR.

a)    EVERYONE knew RYV had a limited shelf life

b)    RYV is about Peter and MJ are a superhero family, which is a cool concept but also not what a lot, probably even most Spider-Marriage fans want to see. They want to see Spider-Man with a non-powered MJ in the main 616 universe because that is the original real versions of the characters and that dynamic is innate to the inherent concept of Spider-Man as a relatively realistic guy

c)    RYV places a lot of focus upon Annie, probably more than on Peter or MJ, especially after the time skip

d)    NOBODY who loved RYV was going to simply accept it as a suitable substitute for 616 Spider-Man and MJ not being together. Because as much as we love RYV Peter and MJ those are not THE characters. The specifics of each version of each character carry different emotional investments for the readers. And Marvel knows this hence why they didn’t permanently replace the 616 Spider-Man with Miles Morales, just the other Peter Parker Spider-Man who sold less and had been around for a mere 10 years. It is also the reason why Spider Marriage fans didn’t just say “Oh well at least I still have Peter and MJ in USM and Spider-Girl’ after OMD

 “Even if Renew ends and is considered no longer needed, it’s provided the most logical endgame with the best outcome one could think of. Doing that all over again in the 616 universe comes across as redundant and the only thing it really does is reduce the amount of Spider books on the market.”

 This one is a real headscratcher.

 RYV is not the logical endgame because MJ with powers is not the logical conclusion. Merely ONE conclusion.

 FFS RYV isn’t even the same as Spider-Girl despite the premises being similar.

 You can take the same broad ideas and do them suitably differently.

 Like I dunno exploring the inner dynamics and ups and downs of a couple who do not have a kid?

 Focussing mostly upon that as opposed to the kid and all three of them working out how to fight crime together.

 Not to mention from this point to even get to RYV (even pre-time skip RYV) would take effing years. Peter and MJ just got back together but it’s a write off because we’ve already seen Peter and MJ with an 8 year old kid so fuck following the trajectory that might get us there?

 What kind of nonsense is that?

 CBR nonsense, that’s what.

 Just like the ‘it will reduce the amount of books on the market’.

 Well fuck dude we used to have FOUR Spider-Man books every goddam month about literally the same version of Spider-Man. then 10 years later we had 1 book about Marvel Adventures Spidey, 1 about a high school Spidey, 1 about Mary Jane, then 3 about an adult married Spider-Man.

 I THINK we can be okay with a Spider-Man who’s dating or married to a normal woman and another one where he is married to a super powered version of that woman and they are raising their teenage super powered daughter FFS.

 And even if we do unfortunately lose Renew Your Vows the argument of ‘we’d be losing a Spider book’ doesn’t even hold up THAT much because...WE ALREADY HAVE TOO MANY SPIDER BOOKS!

 Amazing Spider-Man TWICE a month.

Spectacular Spider-Man

Miles Morales

Spider-Gwen

Venom

Scarlet Spider

And soon to come

Spider-Geddon

Spider Force

Spider-Girls

Yet more bullshit I’m sure.

Like I don’t want to lose RYV but dear God we’ve already got TOO MANY Spider books as is.

 “And it may have been better for them both to just stay friends, or at least not jump into getting together again so amazingly fast.”

10 years isn’t amazingly fast bro.

 So to sum up this article is hot trash that utterly failed to justify it’s own stupid title.

 Or maybe it just chronically misspelled it’s own title. Who effing knows. But burn it with fire either way.

[dream-beyond-the-fantasy]

Jimmy: 3, 5, 13, and 29 Julie: 12, 16, 20, and 30

Jimmy

3. Ask them to describe their love interest.  Man, where do I begin?  With Julie, there is more than meets the eye.  I only thought I knew her all those years.  But it wasn’t until I took her to prom that I really saw her and got to know her.  Julie is smart, sweet, kind, and funny.  I never realized how much she cares about me.  Just knowing how much Julie loves me… it just makes me want to be a better person, one deserving of her love and faith in me.  She has such a big heart.  Julie is beautiful, sexy, and strong, but she just doesn’t recognize these things about herself.  I love how she gets excited about little things, like chocolate, books, or something good happening to her favorite characters.

5. Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Will they give one, and what about?  Overall, Jimmy doesn’t really do speeches.  He is usually the quietest one out of his friends and his family.  But he has no problems speaking up when he wants to.  Of the few times he made a speech of his own volition, Jimmy was proposing marriage and gave one at his wedding reception.  The combined gist of both speeches:

 how his feelings for Julie came out of nowhere and surprised him

his feelings for her might actually be love, a love that he wants to nurture and see grow

how he is just start beginning to truly know her and that he wants to continue to do so

he knows things are moving fast and that this isn’t how either of them wanted to become a couple, married or otherwise

he knows she is scared and uncertain of the future, especially of becoming a parent, because he is too

he believes that they can make it work and that their bumpy start could lead to something amazing and long-lasting if they believe in each other and work together

13. Name one thing their parents taught them.  Probably the most important thing his mother taught him was how to cook and bake.  Jimmy started out just wanting to spend time with and help his mother, an overworked wife and mother of three.  But he soon discovered that he had a knack for it and really enjoyed cooking and baking, as well as finding new foods and recipes to try.  It also came in handy when he started his family with Julie, who knew nothing until he taught her.  But they both prefer when he does the cooking, as she views it more as a chore or an undertaking, while he enjoys the work, as well as making her and the kids happy.  The most important thing that Jimmy learned from his father was to do the right thing and to take responsibility for his actions.  Jimmy may not have always done this, which led to disappointment in himself and from his parents.  As a consequence, he has always tried his best to live up to these principles.  One reason, but not the only one, Jimmy chose to propose was because he wanted to take responsibility for Julie and the child he helped create, as she was in this situation because of choices that he made.

29. What recurring dreams do they have?  Jimmy dreamed about Julie after she left for college.  Even though they talked on the phone and exchanged letters, he missed seeing and spending time with her.  It was what prompted him to surprise her at Berkeley, leading to their weekend together.  After San Francisco, he kept dreaming of her and their time together.  He couldn’t get her out of his head.  After learning she was pregnant, Jimmy has recurring nightmares of losing Julie or Julie and the baby, which only got worse when they learned that she was carrying twins.  These nightmares would have him waking up in the middle of the night with a cold sweat.  He would always have to check on Julie, watch her sleep and talk to the unborn child(ren).  Jimmy would have these nightmares each time she was pregnant, but thankfully they decreased over time, especially after he finally told her about them.  Jimmy would also dream about his children - were they boys or girls? what did they look like? what were their personalities? what kinds of situations would they get themselves into?

Julie

12. Do they like romance in the books they read (or in the book they’re in)?  Yes, Julie typically likes the romance in books she reads.  In fact, romance is one of the key elements in her choosing a book to read or enjoying a book.  Reading about romance led her to being a romantic.  She grew up reading Jane Austen novels and Jane Eyre, among others.  However, she would be quick to point out the problems that the characters were creating in their relationships.

16. If money wasn’t a limit, what would they wear?  Money usually wasn’t an object in what clothes she would wear or buy.  It was more of her confidence levels, what her parents (read: stepfather Sid) thought and would allow her to wear, and what she felt she could wear as a mother.  But she would have liked to wore some Vivienne Westwood, Nolan Miller, DKNY, Versace, and Gucci.

20. What do they like that nobody else does?  Julie likes to watch soap operas, something that she got from her mom.  Becca only watched them a little in the 1980s, but only for big stories that everyone talked about.  She tries to share her love for them with her kids, but Lily only liked them when she was little and Sophie is the only who shared Julie’s love for them.  Julie has a lot of pregnancy cravings that have everyone looking disgusted and thinking she is insane for eating.

30. What would they do if they knew it would be forgiven?  Julie wouldn’t really do too much differently.  Well, as a teenager, she probably would have been more rebellious and snuck out more.  But that would have worked more if her brother had been her guardian, rather than Sid.  Johnny would forgive his little sister anything, so he came to terms with her relationship with Jimmy.  He was more angry with Jimmy for sleeping with her/going along with her idea.  Jimmy would have supported her and have forgiven her if she did have an abortion, provided that she told him, even though it would hurt.  But the reason why Julie doesn’t is because she would never forgive herself for doing to Jimmy and his child.