#not exclusively but i am talking about her

[opencommunion]

one reason (white) queer people misuse the term homonationalism is that they see queerness (or whatever you want to call it) as naturally disaffiliated with the US empire. so they understand homonationalism as a divergence from a natural mutual antagonism between queerness and empire. they talk about homonationalism as if it's an exclusively "normie gay" project, and as if it's a divergence from, rather than a consequence of, the overall trajectory of western lgbtqia+ politics. ironically it’s that self-exceptionalization by the queer, on the basis of their queerness, that imbricates them in homonationalism. they produce themselves as a homonationalist subject, and reproduce homonationalism, every time they articulate their queerness as individualized freedom. and Puar actually anticipates all of this in her original theorization of homonationalism in Terrorist Assemblages, and that's why it really helps to go to the text instead of osmosing queer theory solely through tumblr posts (esp when tumblr is so white and the queer theorists are not): "Some may strenuously object to the suggestion that queer identities, like their 'less radical' counterparts, homosexual, gay, and lesbian identities, are also implicated in ascendant white American nationalist formations, preferring to see queerness as singularly transgressive of identity norms. This focus on transgression, however, is precisely the term by which queerness narrates its own sexual exceptionalism.

While we can point to the obvious problems with the emancipatory, missionary pulses of certain (U.S., western) feminisms and of gay and lesbian liberation, queerness has its own exceptionalist desires: exceptionalism is a founding impulse, indeed the very core of a queerness that claims itself as an anti-, trans-, or unidentity. The paradigm of gay liberation and emancipation has produced all sorts of troubling narratives: about the greater homophobia of immigrant communities and communities of color, about the stricter family values and mores in these communities, about a certain prerequisite migration from home, about coming-out teleologies. We have less understanding of queerness as a biopolitical project, one that both parallels and intersects with that of multiculturalism, the ascendancy of whiteness, and may collude with or collapse into liberationist paradigms. While liberal underpinnings serve to constantly recenter the normative gay or lesbian subject as exclusively liberatory, these same tendencies labor to insistently recenter the normative queer subject as an exclusively transgressive one. Queerness here is the modality through which 'freedom from norms' becomes a regulatory queer ideal that demarcates the ideal queer. ... I am thinking of queerness as exceptional in a way that is wedded to individualism and the rational, liberal humanist subject, what [Sara] Ahmed denotes as 'attachments' and what I would qualify as deep psychic registers of investment that we often cannot account for and are sometimes best seen by others rather than ourselves. 'Freedom from norms' resonates with liberal humanism’s authorization of the fully self-possessed speaking subject, untethered by hegemony or false consciousness, enabled by the life/stylization offerings of capitalism, rationally choosing modern individualism over the ensnaring bonds of family. In this problematic definition of queerness, individual agency is legible only as resistance to norms rather than complicity with them, thus equating resistance and agency.

... Queerness as automatically and inherently transgressive enacts specific forms of disciplining and control, erecting celebratory queer liberal subjects folded into life (queerness as subject) against the sexually pathological and deviant populations targeted for death (queerness as population). Within that orientation of regulatory transgression, queer operates as an alibi for complicity with all sorts of other identity norms, such as nation, race, class, and gender, unwittingly lured onto the ascent toward whiteness. ... To be excused from a critique of one’s own power manipulations is the appeal of white liberalism, the underpinnings of the ascendancy of whiteness, which is not a conservative, racist formation bent on extermination, but rather an insidious liberal one proffering an innocuous inclusion into life."

Jasbir K. Puar, Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times (2007)

[bestworstcase]

anyways. enough spitballing

i was so right abt fun parent tai

YANG: Do you… wonder why he’s not here? With everybody else? I know Qrow said he’s on assignment, but what’s more important than here? RUBY: Maybe we don’t have the full picture. YANG: I don’t know. Some things you just need to be there for.

first. there are two possibilities: if qrow knows what this “assignment” is, he hasn’t filled in his nieces and the old guard backslid HARD after team rwby fell—the exclusion of ren and nora from the secret meeting in B1 also points in that direction, so it feels quite plausible; on the other hand, if raven knows where tai is and what he’s doing, it seems strange that ruby and yang would not also know, unless the girls haven’t asked her about summer at all (in which case i’d believe that they’re just not really on speaking terms).

like if raven had a conversation with ruby about summer, i can’t see her hiding ‘the full picture’ with regard to tai if she knew about it, even if qrow wanted her to. maiden of knowledge, begrudging oz his secrets, and all.

on the other hand. if the girls know everything qrow does, that would imply that tai’s “assignment” is either an ozpin secret (and oz hasn’t been keeping his promise to be honest, which feels incongruous with him actively fighting his curse now) or a taiyang secret, in which case i am one hundred percent sure it isn’t to do with the crown of choice.

“maybe we don’t have the full picture,” says ruby, thinking about what the blacksmith showed her and what the blacksmith said. that’s the big lesson she learned in the tree, not to jump to conclusions on incomplete information. so that narratively links tai’s mysterious “assignment” to summer’s mysterious “last mission,” which was a “summer secret.” if tai stayed behind in vale to deal with a taiyang secret that not even oz knows about… it’s summer. lol. it can only be summer. if it were the crown, oz would know because ozpin would have given him that assignment in the first place; if it were defending people hiding in mountain glenn, there’s no reason for it to be secret.

but if he knows summer is alive and well and with salem, and he’s trying to, i don’t know, turn her against salem (or ‘save’ her)… well. maybe we don’t have the full picture indeed.

second. oouuugh the weight of what yang doesn’t say. back in v4 she forced herself to put on the prosthetic before she was ready and white-knuckled her way back to functional so she could go find ruby because her dad said he hadn’t gone after ruby because he had “some stuff to look after” at home, and yang thought he meant her; that the only reason he wasn’t out there with ruby was because he had to be here with her.

so she removed herself from the situation—left to find ruby herself—and tai… stayed at home. it’s been months, now. atlas fell and everyone is regrouping in vacuo, trying to prepare for an attack they know will come sooner or later, except tai, who is “on assignment.” what’s more important than here? what’s more important than being here with both his daughters, at the end of the world? if qrow knows, what’s so important that he has to keep them in the dark? if qrow doesn’t know, then it can’t reasonably be to do with the relic at beacon—which is the only thing that could arguably be more important than joining the vacuo coalition.

“some things you just need to be there for,” says yang. my dad just kind of… shut down. and then dad was always busy with school and ruby couldn’t even talk yet; i had to pick up the pieces. i had to keep things together, alone. ruby starts to reminisce about coming to this place with tai when they were kids, and it’s a fond memory for yang too…but one undercut with all of this. the outings were fun—they slowly increased from once a month treats to twice-a-week because ruby got so excited—(ruby is over the moon when she sees the boba shop; yang spends half the walk there second-guessing herself and downplaying the surprise; both reactions speak to their experiences of these outings in childhood)—and why isn’t he here now? why is it, once again, yang trying to pick up the pieces alone while he’s busy with something else more important?—and this time it isn’t even that he’s going to work to put food on the table and make sure bills get paid, he’s just “on assignment” doing… something. that qrow either won’t tell or doesn’t know.

and that feeling is what incites her to talk to ruby about her own failings, and the first thing she says is i don’t need an explanation, because she doesn’t want to make ruby’s crisis about herself but also because she’s about to apologize for not being attentive enough or present enough or aware enough to Be There when ruby needed her.

which is not untrue (surprise! parentified children don’t make good parents for their two-years-younger siblings!) but also. back in v5 when she confronted raven, yang compared herself to raven (you’ll give me the relic and run because you’re afraid of salem; i’m afraid of salem too but i’ll be here waiting for her when she comes after me).

and that’s what yang is doing here with tai (he was physically there and provided for their needs and took them on fun outings sure, but he wasn’t there, when yang looks back on her childhood what she remembers is a sense of overwhelming responsibility and isolation because her dad wasn’t present, and now he’s not even here; she let ruby down in a similar way, being around without really seeing what ruby was going through, but she sees now how she failed and knows what she needs to do to make up for it and she will, she promises, she already is.)

[anneapocalypse]

So, just curious how many writers and creators will have to be forcibly outed by relentless harassment before we acknowledge that "This queer characters was written by a cishet person and that's why they're bad" is not good criticism.

[thresholdbb]

I have a gripe about the Star Trek mugs...

Picard's teacup is a delicate, fragile little thing held by a strip of plastic and a dream. That thin glass will break if you look at it sideways. And where do they put that ridiculous tiny cup? On the Enterprise, which is always being dragged into conflict

The DS9 raktajino mugs are hefty, wide-based things that are meant to not tip over. They're called no-spill mugs. They have a foam piece on the bottom so they don't slip. They're incredibly sturdy – meant for ships and traveling! Where do they put them? At the station, which is arguably the most stable place they could be cause DS9 rarely gets knocked about.

Far as I'm concerned, Janeway's the only one doing practical space mugs correctly. Come on, a metal travel mug that's as strong as her coffee is black? Takes a beating through 70,000 light years of bridge shakes fighting off the Borg and the Hirogen and still holds a hot drink? Now that's a space mug

[radiohead-spiderman]

Listen, listen I love Plus Size Lily Evans, glorious headcanon absolutely, however, SOME of you are making her plus size just for the sake of making her insecure, which is odd guys, plus size Lily is like one of my favorite headcanons too, but making her plus size JUST for the sake of making the whole “Lily fell first she just thought James was messing with her” thing work?? Odd, veeery odd

Lily Evans means the world to me and I honestly in my personal opinion hate the “she fell first, he fell harder” trope with jily, let her not like him, let Lily wait till James Potter changes into someone different from the annoying boy that was mean to her best friend, into someone who was kind, let years of James PINING (not harassing her PINING because also the headcanon that he harassed her on the daily is NOT cute) go by before Lily finally agrees to go on a date with him. Let Lily be her own character damn it >:(

Don’t even get me started on making her plus sized just for her PARTNERS to be upset with her body?? That’s just?? Literally all of the ships with Lily, would not care that she’s plus size, you can name any of them and I will back up my point and be right, not even SNAPE would (controversial take I know) care about that, also to add I am not a snily shipper I just can’t imagine young Snape caring all that much about Lily’s weight, still cannot stand older Snape though, I am not a snily shipper at ALLLL. Also, are you telling me you think that JAMES FLEAMONT POTTER wouldn’t WORSHIP the ground Lily walked on?? That’s insane, that man was the most whipped a man could be

Also, name me any other ship with Lily and I assure you they would absolutely also worship the ground she walked on even if she was plus size. James? Already covered. Pandora? Ab-so-lutely head over heels. Dorcas? Idiotic question.

Lily Evans is just THAT girl, let her embrace her body PLEEEEAAASEEE

Anyways, stan plus size Lily Evans for clear skin

[cattons]

emerald fennell will get on her zoom and say [posh voice] Nooo no darling the rich people are the worrssstt. You’re supposed to side with the povvo. referring to the 130 minute film she helmed in which a family of prejudiced but loveable aristocrats are murdered and usurped by an upper middle class lunatic

[inamindfarfaraway]

You know Andrea Davenport's intense hatred of her name being mispronounced? It's a particular, notable quirk of her character. This small error brings out the absolute worst in her; in her introductory episode she's much crueller and more of an active bully, enforcing the total social exclusion of Molly, instead of simply self-absorbed and insensitive but ultimately good at heart as she has been since, all because Molly accidentally says her name wrong more than once in their first meeting.

Why? The correct pronunciation of Andrea in her case is the less common one (and therefore seems posher), and less intuitive based on the spelling. It's quite reasonable that someone would say the other pronunciation more than once out of instinct. She can surely intellectually understand that. So why is this such a big issue for her?

Well, a lot of her bad behaviour can be explained by her parents' behaviour. Her father can be selfish and greedy in regards to his business, and while Andrea is spoiled materially and financially, both her parents routinely ignore and emotionally neglect her to pay more attention to their work, social media and image. When she focuses excessively on herself and her reputation, she's directly imitating her two first and most influential role models. Maybe if she makes the family and their brand look good enough, she'll be good enough for them to give her their time. Maybe if she's exactly like them, they'll be more interested in her. They're always interested in themselves, after all.

What if her parents are so neglectful that they can, at least on occasion, accidentally get their own daughter's name wrong?

Imagine an episode about Andrea where Molly is either observing her without her knowledge like in "The Don't-Gooder", or hanging out with her in a normal way, since she is her "best friend" now in Andrea's own words. Andrea is talking to her parents, who are looking at their phones and only half-listening.

Then her mother or father distractedly mispronounces her name, or even calls her a different name like Annie or something. Molly gasps, bracing for how badly Andrea will react. Her parent doing it is far more insulting than a stranger doing it!

But Andrea barely reacts at all. She's stung, dejected, but not angry. Resigned. She doesn't even bring it up. Like this is frequent enough that she doesn't think that her literal parents remembering how to say the name they chose for her or even the name itself would be a guarantee.

She doesn't have much power over her parents. Not the kind that will sway them to meet her basic emotional needs. But as she learned early on in life, thanks to her wealth, beauty and charisma she can exert power over her peers, and later the general public and her fanbase. So she is going to make damn well sure that everyone else refers to her correctly. And if they don't, she'll subject them to the most painful, degrading treatment she can conceive of: being ignored.

Her name thing set the whole plot of the second episode into motion. Can you imagine, after how firmly it was established, the impact on Molly and the audience of Maxwell Davenport saying, "That's nice, Angela" and Andrea's only response being reserved, familiar hurt?

@fallen-gravity

[majorshatterandhare]

Thinking to myself “man it’s a good thing there nine mechanisms to project my disabilities onto, wouldn’t want people to think I’m headcanoning them to have an unrealistic amount of issues.” When it’s like, I have all these issues! And some people have way more comorbidities than me!

[vampacidic]

i have a very specific anzu and rei dynamic in my brain and i have no idea how to say what it is but just like. anzu non verbal autistic + rei is really fucking good at reading her for no reason. has been from the start. she stares at people like the tbh creature and rei just lurks behind her like a fucked up ghost. anzu sniffs wrong and he's like "ah she is overstimulated and i must take her home immediately" and just does

[treesbian]

i feel insane i feel so insane. i feel so goddamn fucking insane. feels like my sisters won't allow me to even be civil to them anymore every interaction ends up with all 3 of them insulting me and when I tell them shit like "you're being mean" or "i don't think that criticism is coming from a place of love" they just try and justify themselves and insult me more. no one is on my side but I'm so so convinced that if an outside party came and observed what was happening they would see i'm being bullied. maybe i am insane. maybe there's a reason no one is on my side. i know i'm not perfect but goddamn. i love them so much and it feels like they hate me. i can say the world's most neutral statement ever and one of them'll have a snide and insulting comment about it and then everyone acts like i'm being unreasonable if i react. and again if i call them out and i say "you're being mean. do you not see what you're doing? you're being mean." they all just get excused bc apparently me having a hard time with filtering what i say and having debilitating executive dysfunction is "traumatizing" and their bullying is a trauma response. and they won't let me even fix my behavior bc if i say something that contradicts my past behavior they'll be like "oh so NOW u care about that. you don't actually care 🙄" can i do fucking anything. can i do fucking ANYTHING.

(through gritted teeth) my big sister's coming back from washington next week. next week she's coming back from washington. i think she'll be able to recognize what's happening, right? like if they do it in front of my parents then they'll probably do it in front of her too. but ofc my parents don't care. they are actively against my side in this.

[pergaias]

.

[in-tua-deep]

yesterday bc my bday is coming up I lovingly sent a text to my most beloved sister saying that she could remind my mum not to get me a gendered card and had a moment where I was like “does my brother know my pronouns” 

and then immediately recalled he does not bc I walked into his room once and was like “hey you know how I’m not straight” as a precursor and he was like “no??” and I was so taken aback by his blindness that I was like “huh! well now you do!” and walked out without clarifying anything at all

[calcescarp]

anyway i caught up on spy x family within the last 24 hours and i'm fucking in love with it

[peapod20001]

Ngl man..this made me snort laughing

[aroacehanzawa]

Exclusive Memory (獨家記憶) (2019) is the BLUEPRINT for romance i can't do this anymore every single episode i'm blushing and giggling and kicking my legs and silently screaming into my pillow and clutching my heart this is truly getting ridiculous and i will die miserable and alone because i will never have what they have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tbcanary]

category 100000 roy harper moment