#outside of general queer solidarity

[stars-n-spice]

The "G" in GAR Stands for "Gay."

Mr. Star Wars told me so.

Anywho, happy pride!!

TBB Version here!

Close ups and headcanons under the cut!

Tup is gender queer! Also questioning (just everything in general)

Jesse is abrosexual!

Kix is pan!

Hardcase is bi and genderfluid! I saw a headcanon about him being genderfluid and it hasn't left my brain since.

Dogma is gay and demiromantic :)

Tup is there to be supportive

Domino twins are both bi!

But Echo is demisexual as well!

Plo supporting his queer kids :)

Ahsoka is an ace lesbian!

Wolffe is aroace!

Wolffe 🤝🏼 Fox (aroace furry commanders with facial scars who are overworked and tired as fuck)

Barriss is lesbian!

Ace Lesbian Ahsoka, Bi Anakin, and Graysexual Gay Rex - The trio of all time :)

Ahsoka and Rex are WLW + MLM solidarity

Big fan of the headcanon of Rex realizing he likes men after figuring out he has a crush on Anakin so he goes to Cody for help

"Vod, I think I'm gay." - "Join the club."

Also greysexual Rex my beloved <3 (can't help but make all my faves aspec one way or another)

I AM SUCH A SUCKER FOR COMMANDER X JEDI DYNAMICS

Supportive Bly (aka the only straight guy in the GAR) and his Bi Wife Aayla <3

Gay Commander Cody with a demisexual biromantic Obi Wan

Obi Wan being more or less confirmed to be Ace/Bi on some level made me go insane actually and I love it so much

Last but not least some Captains and Commander Mayday!! (My beloveds!!!)

Polysexual Gregor :)

Mayday is gay and in an ideal world outside of canon was probably the guy Crosshair went to for advice after he came out (because like hell Crosshair was going to get advice from Hunter)

Bi Howzer! And he's probably also aspec one way or another too! I do think he leans more towards being MLM though, but I think that's just me being like "his armor looks like the flag"

[doberbutts]

Want to thank you for your time and energy in general. I’ve been a tmoc on this website for a decade and the few other tmoc I’ve come across have always been too nervous to say anything about our experiences publicly.

I hope the rad//fems and their infantile ideology aren’t doing too much for you, but I would imagine they’d target you because You’re Right. You’re Right and they’re scared that us talking about our stuff will make it harder to recruit ppl into their cult. It makes it even more obvious who is a sockpuppet te//rf.

Once people realize there is a lot more masculinity[+ femininity] outside of the patriarchal/colonial kind they’ll realize what a joke ideology it actually is.

Saying this as someone who was a rad//fem when I was in like… middleschool lmao. Then I grew up… into a man who loves other men 😝😝

You don’t have to publish if you don’t want to. I understand it’s like a hornets nest on this website, but I wanted you to to hear the message anyway 🩵🩵🩵

Trans Men Of Color rise up - solidarity my brother, it is good that you got out of that toxic cycle and have embraced yourself and who you are.

I find people in general on this website are very unwilling to understand a viewpoint that differs from their own, and how that difference may shape someone's thought process. Truly, most of the people who Get Me are A: other black people specifically black queers and B: nonblack queer poc who similarly are tired of biting their tongue all the time to keep the peace. I think it's very difficult for many white people to understand how not being white changes one's entire perception of gender and gender roles, and many simply aren't prepared to hear it even if they think they are.

You know what I see a lot of that in? Indigenous genders- ohhhhhhh my god are people (usually white but other non-Natives too) simply not willing to understand that indigenous gender is not so easily defined as Western society would have you believe. Cultural genders really require these folks to have an open mind and they just aren't willing to bother with it, so they still want to sort everyone into "man" or "woman" and occasionally "nonbinary but really woman-lite".

[matan4il]

Hey! Anon from the last time here! By "Pro-Palestine Westeners" I was partially referring to all these students from Columbia and MIT who were illegally occupying the school grounds and harassing/hurting the actual Israeli/Jewish/Middle Eastern/the other generally decent students.

I know there's Pro-Palestine people who are actually decent, but all these college students are risking suspension/expulsion/jailtime because they'd rather chant pro-Ha*as slogans rather and listening to news from biased fonts rather than educating themselves on what's really happening. Some people would rather stay in their ivory towers, rather than going outside and touching grass.

I also know there's LGBT+ people in Palestine and other parts of MENA, and all I wish for them is that they live long enough to find a place where to live freely and out of the closet, without suffering persecution from their government.

Hope this clarified at least a little bit my other ask, and sorry it sounded so ambiguous. Finally, let's hope that Eden Golan gets at least in the top 5 at Eurovision 2024, just to spite anyone who booed her.

Hi Nonnie!

Thank you for sending this ask to clarify the previous one, it's what I thought you meant, and I'm glad to hear I wasn't too off.

TBH, as a gay woman myself, with gay Palestinian friends who are a part of my queer community, and whose struggles I know well, that's the first group I thought about as well. Then I thought about the fact that under Hamas law, husbands can rape their wives with impunity. I thought about the way the Christian population (the biggest non-Muslim minority under Palestinian rule) has demographically plummeted in the areas that Israel passed on to Palestinian control as a part of the Oslo accords. I thought about black people, whose ancestors were kidnapped because of the Trans-Saharan (i.e Arab) trade slave, and are still treated as lesser humans because of that (based on their skin color, they are still referred to in Arabic to this day as "Abeed," meaning slaves).

I think this last group, which most people don't even realize exists, deserves a bit more info shared about it:

Pretty sure black activists in the states, who don't know the history (and present) of the Arab slave trade, or the persisting anti-black racism that exists in Palestinian society, have no clue they're being exploited against the same Jewish community, which stood with Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement, even having some of its members paying with their very lives for this. I hope they wake up and realized they're being used for antisemitic purposes by the same people who enslaved and are still discriminating against some of their people.

But it's funny how the world's activists and human rights defenders seem to ignore the plight of these marginalized Palestinians, isn't it? Almost like, because they're NOT being oppressed by Jews, rather by fellow Palestinians, and can't be used to justify antisemitic rhetoric and action, then they don't count. So much for minority solidarity and intersectionality, right? It doesn't extend to Jews, and it doesn't extend to Palestinians who can't be weaponized against Jews.

Regarding the last bit of your ask, bless you for being hit with Apollo's dodge ball and predicting Eden making it into the top 5, despite every effort made by the jury members of so many countries, the awful people in the audience, and members of fellow delegations. It was magnificent!

Sending you hugs! xoxox

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[gamora-borealis]

bi sapphic & lesbian terminology rant incoming:

something I've been thinking on a lot is like, I understand how lesbians get upset about bi sapphics using the term lesbian because they don't want people to assume that lesbians are at all attracted to men, often because shitty people, especially shitty men, will try and use any excuse to be like "but maybe you could be attracted to guys!!!, which is invalidating and gross. however, on a practical level it's weird sometimes because I feel like so many people still use the term lesbian to mean wlw / sapphic-ness in general. like for example like, if you are a bi sapphic in a wlw and/or sapphic relationship I feel like most people just refer to your relationship as a "lesbian" relationship. or someone might say "oh lesbians do [insert stereotype]" and a ton of bi sapphics probably are like "well hey that's me." and "sapphic" is such an in-community term too for the most part like I rarely hear it outside of queer spaces. idk like, I try not to totally claim the word lesbian as a bi sapphic since I respect that lesbians want a descriptive word that means they aren't attracted to men, but I also wish that more people online weren't quite as weird and rigid about the term because I feel like at least 50% if not more of the time someone irl says "lesbian" or "dyke" they are including bi sapphics in that. even more so when it comes to describing people's relationships.

like as bi sapphics we should respect lesbians and their unique identity but I would love to see more/better solidarity with bi sapphics from lesbians too.

[spitblaze]

Tumblr fucking sucks ass and I'm not joking. I think I might hate this place actually. I hate the shitty circular queer discourse that ALWAYS assumes malice or disgust and nobody is given the benefit of the doubt and if they do are also presumed guilty, I hate that every single statement needs to be couched in qualifiers and conditions and speaking on One Topic about One Group is not fucking allowed, I hate that this website has built a transphobic surveillance culture around itself, I hate that people will see ONE POST that sucks and spend the next several months publicly ruminating over it and extending the discourse long after it's run its course and assuming the worst about everyone involved, I hate that seven out of ten posts about feminism are made by the terfs who run rampant on this site and have nothing better to do than spew vitriol and hate because they don't care to develop the emotional maturity to see anything from a point of view other than their own, I hate that the moment a transgender person dares to have sexual wants and desires outside of the vanilla ideal you’re a freak and a deviant and a pedophile somehow, I hate that for SO LONG we let depressed anti-recovery teenagers dominate the attitude regarding mental health and self-improvement here and it has had lasting effects TO THIS DAY, I hate that as the internet has gotten meaner and crueller and less accommodating that the place that loves to pat itself on the back for its openness and tolerance has 100000% followed suit, I hate that every single fucking topic is dominated by overconfident white shutins who do not talk to other people irl let alone queer ones, I hate how every interesting and important topic of social justice is co-opted and bastardized into an unrecognizable cudgel that only further enforces the status quo rather than challenging it as they're meant to, I hate how often the gender binary is re-invented and deviations from it are punished, I hate that we love to say shit like 'be cringe be free uwu' but the second a member of the cringe queers du jour makes something twee or says something stupid everyone jumps on the dogpile to talk about how that entire group should be prevented from speaking or making art or associating with REAL queers, I hate that making points about double standards and discrimination always involves using people we should be in solidarity with as a gotcha if not throwing them directly under the bus, I hate that for all the talk about engagement with fandom we have nobody ever decides to actually examine their engagement thereof and how so much of it is still a cesspool to this day, I hate how everyone makes such huge generalizations and expects everyone to agree (guilty but I'm pissed), I hate how people take fucking everything personally (including myself), I hate that people are going to read this and get mad at me because everyone here has worse reading comprehension than the average fifth grader, I hate that people cannot self-express without other people getting indignant because they didn't see themselves in it, I hate that the only other regularly inhabited parts of the internet anymore are fifty times worse about ALL of this, I hate how much of a fucking nightmare for my mental health this has become, I hate that people are probably gonna give me sarcastic or smug 'yeah you should probably just log off king's in the comments or to me personally, I hate how much of this I personally am guilty of, and I especially hate that I'm still fucking here.

[chronicallycouchbound]

About:

⌂ born in 1999 ⌂ on/off homeless ⌂ disabled ⌂ mad ⌂ neurodivergent ⌂ queer ⌂ trans ⌂ DID system ⌂ currently precariously housed ⌂ multi-marginalized ⌂ writer ⌂ artist ⌂ zero income ⌂ mixed race ⌂ community organizer ⌂ abolitionist ⌂ pagan ��

Essays:

May Your Hands Always Be Loud

Sword Canes Aren’t Badass. I am.

What’s So Wrong With Having Heroes?

Unlucky: Protective Factors and Homelessness

Homeless Delicacies and Finding Unhoused Joy

Internalized Ableism As Means For Unhoused Survival

Let People On Food Stamps Eat Hot Meals

Intelligence Doesn't Equal Morality

Homelessness as Trauma: Transitioning Into Housing

Winter Solstice / Homeless Persons Memorial Day

Guides:

Unhoused Solidarity in Action (how to help out unhoused people outside of just care packs)

Coming into Disability (best for newly disabled people)

Interacting with People with Psychosis

How to Support People

Underrepresentation in Homeless Statistics

Houseism

Tags:

Original Posts - #chronically couchbound

Unhoused Joy (Story Series) - #unhoused joy

Informational - #info

Guides - #guides

Reblogs - #rb

Mutual Aid Requests - #Mutual Aid Asks

Asks - #asks

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Sometimes, I don’t have the ability to add alt text, image descriptions, and/or plain text versions of posts, feel free to go back and add them if you’re able to and see them needed. I have Low Vision, transient blindness and visual disturbances due to some of my conditions and often require IDs myself. I try to avoid reblogging images without IDs. I try to go back and add IDs when I’m able.

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Occasionally I post sensory-enriched/dopamine-friendly versions of posts that I have previously posted.

Boundaries

I live in the United States so my posts at times are more specific to USA policies. However, in other countries many of the same restrictions, barriers, and systemic issues exist and I hope some of my posts can be a starting point to your own research about your local government policies and issues.

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Hellenic polytheistic worship/main: @fireandfennel

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[wrathofrats]

this isnt so much Writing based but just, general fandom vibes I get from you but I thought of this bcus of some of the responses I read lol

you give the vibe of that one cousin at the family get together who is like, only a year or 2/3 older and, whether you know them well or not you can go hang with them cus theyre really chill. also if you came out to them they're just like "nice" and high five you. and gives really good advice, not in a harsh way per se but a tough love "you need to hear this rn, its not fun, but its necessary" type of way

(this is in terms of like, vibes within the fandom, Im not saying this is how you actually are/are outside of fandom etc)

Lmao I know you see a lot of me so yeah HAHAHA.

The funny thing is is that this isn’t super far off from real life?

Idk life rambles under cut bc I doubt most people care but I enjoy yapping

I am the oldest cousin by like 7 years (besides some on my moms side but that’s a different story lmao, do love them dearly) but I have many many younger cousins and have been the black sheep since I was probably 9-10.

And ya know what? There’s embarrassment about it sure, there’s an awful feeling of having to be the black sheep but I hope that because I had to do it that means none of my other cousins will have to. I’m not out to any of my family besides my dad on this side of the family but like … I’m not hiding it. I have rainbow keychains and dress like an idiot and am openly very left.

And I hope so deeply that if any kids in my family turn out like I did and realize they were kinda odd and strange by the time they’re 12 or 13, I hope they know that I support them even if they’re scared no one else will. That they have someone to confide in if they’re queer or did drugs or are generally just rebellious or have failed at something. Idk I hope they find trust and solidarity in knowing I am too. And they don’t have to be the first, they don’t have to navigate being kinda odd alone they don’t have to be a failure like it’s ok I did it first, you can’t mess up much more than me kid! /lh

[girl4music]

TARA: "Buffy, I promise there's nothing wrong with you."

BUFFY: "There has to be. This can't be me. It isn't me."

--------------------------------------------------------------

TARA: "It's not that simple."

BUFFY: "It is. It's wrong. I'm wrong. Tell me that I'm wrong, please."

Buffy and Tara have a short but very significant dynamic. I've talked about it before when writing about Tara's use and representation in each individual dream in 'Restless'. That for Buffy Tara is a means of identifying and communicating with the deepest parts of herself. A narrative and thematic vehicle for understanding her identity and nature. The parts of herself that she doesn't love and doesn't have any appreciation for. The parts of herself that make her feel wrong and ashamed of herself. The parts of herself that she wants to escape from and hide away. 'BtVS' effectively uses the metaphor or allegory of being a supernatural being like a witch or a slayer or a werewolf or a vampire for being queer. For being an outsider. Cut off from others. Cut off from humanity. And they do it in such a way where you're not meant to believe it as such but to just acknowledge it and entertain the thought that the characters themselves think and feel this way about themselves because they're not really shown or told the contrary until they interact with each other and learn and grow together in solidarity in their experiences of being different from the norm. The writers are basically showing through characters like Buffy, Willow, Tara, Oz and Spike that the supernatural equates to queerness either in identity, sexuality, gender or just in general beingness. Just in being the person that you are. In being yourself.

There's added layers on to it when it comes to the dynamics between Buffy and Spike and Tara and Willow specifically in that it could also mean that they are actually evil in nature as well as queer but going down that route leads to controversial misinterpretations and I don't want to fall into that considering sometimes my words can get me into trouble and I end up insulting or offending a lot of people when I don't mean to. I personally think it's a compelling topical area to explore but I'm not writing this piece of writing today to explore it. Only in what it means regarding being and feeling queer in oneself and, for me, the dynamic Buffy and Tara have best represents that. I suppose for some people who haven't identified and accepted that they're queer, it can come across as feeling evil depending on their cultural background. Their family and home life in particular. And I think the episode 'Family' does a great deal for and in addressing this. Tara has, up to this point, spent her whole life being told by her biological relatives that she's evil or would turn evil. She's been gaslighted and psychologically conditioned to think, feel and believe that her identity and nature as who she is as a person naturally is wrong and is something that she should be ashamed about all because she can do magic. All because she can do things that normal people cannot do - and thus - she's not normal - she's not natural - she's not human. In some ways the demonization of being or feeling queer has a lot of significance and therefore merit in providing overwhelming narrative and thematic substance and depth for 'BtVS's clever take on characterization in a supernatural Universe.

When it comes to the episode 'Dead Things' Buffy is undergoing severe depression and is doing incredibly self-destructive things to feel something again. Something other than her deep despair at being pulled out of heaven by her friends - Tara included. She obviously doesn't like feeling the way she does when she does it but her justification for doing those self-destructive things is because she's come back to life wrong. When she goes to Tara to ask her to check out the spell that resurrected her and Tara comes back to her to tell her that she hasn't come back wrong - that she isn't wrong - she completely breaks down because now that means that she has no justification for doing what she's doing. For using Spike for sexual and emotional gratification, for neglecting her sister and letting her get injured by another one of her friends that's also fell off the wagon - so to speak - and is also involving herself in self-destructive relationships and behaviours with being addicted to magic and numbing herself to her experience, for not making an effort. All of this now is something that she has to question herself on. That if there's not something wrong with her mentally - why is she like this? Why is she doing this? She's just at a complete loss for logic, for reason, for understanding. It's a very effective and meaningful allegory for being queer and not understanding why. Especially because it's Tara she's crying into the lap of in that moment who is queer and can completely empathise with Buffy's experience of being attracted to somebody who she shouldn't be attracted to. And there is a line of dialogue that was removed from the final cut of the scene that explicitly compares Tara being a lesbian and having romantic/sexual feelings for girls to Buffy having feelings for Spike. She gets it because she's been there. She's felt that way too. May even still does even if she's fully out and fully accepted her sexuality. But she knows all too well what it's like to feel wrong for being queer.

Therefore there's a lot to glean about Buffy and Tara's dynamic and what it represents, what its significance is, despite being so short and non-detailed. You could even go as far as saying the metaphor or allegory isn't really one at all because Buffy is actually queer in both identity and sexuality. I mean the narrative hints at this being truth enough times in the show that you could definitely see it happening or becoming a possibility at some point in her character arc. And you know, with the whole Faith thing, it's not exactly well hidden either. Even though I don't ship them at all, Buffy and Faith definitely have something romantic/sexual there that all but makes the metaphor or allegory negated as far as sexuality goes. Identity is another story. And one of Buffy's core themes for her characterization is identity - which is why the Tara = witch/Buffy = slayer parallels work so well and why they so brilliantly convey the notion of queer/gay solidarity.

As for whether that makes them evil or means that they can be evil... that's a topic better left alone but I think it does present a compelling case study for a queer person's experience when they do not understand nor accept themselves for being as they naturally are, which I think is something that makes a lot of sense for the character arcs of Willow, Spike and Oz too in that they have trouble reconciling with their dark sides and that there's much of themselves that they suppress or repress so they don't have to feel like who they are is wrong or evil or a burden to the ones they love and that love them. And that they can be involved and fully connect with others healthily as opposed to destroying themselves and each other in the process like Buffy and Spike do so frequently in their S6 enemies-to-lovers dance of death, abuse and pain sorely mistaken for life, love and pleasure.

There's definitely a compelling case study for all of that to be unpacked and I probably will unpack it at some point once I can figure out how to articulate it so that it doesn't come off as offensive to the people who identify themselves to any of these characters because my intention is never to offend. Only to teach and enlighten. Okay, maybe I don't have the right or authority to do that but I write my meta for me just as much as I do for other people and so I certainly have the right and authority to teach and enlighten myself. And if I feel that I want to write about that topic at some point, I will. And I will do so through the fiction of art/entertainment and my favourite characters because that's the best way that I know how. If it comes across as offensive, all I can do is apologize for it but all I'm intentionally trying to do with doing it is expand my consciousness. I'm an INTP, a Virgo and Claircognizant - this is just how things work with me. I need to write to get a better understanding of who I am. My wording isn't the greatest, I know that. But I'm trying my best. So please - if you read what I write and you feel offended by it, reach out to me and I WILL explain to you that my heart is in the right place. That I just want to learn and understand and evolve. That's all it is.

[gray-ace-space]

can i just say, i truly detest tumblr posts in the format of "yes you're X but are you normal about Y".

i understand the point, to call out hypocrisy and internal issues in a community, but most of the time X and Y have literally nothing to do with each other and, ironically, reveal the poster's biases.

then again i just generally really dislike when people act like groups with different queer identities are in opposition to each other, or one has it hierarchically better than the other. go outside guys. i promise you your grievances are completely incomprehensible to anyone outside your hyperspecific tumblr circle.

if you want to make a point about double standards or intersectionality - and i want to emphasize, those are important points that need to be made - there are better ways to do it than targeting an X group that is also very marginalized as if they're the main perpetrators of bigotry against Y group (in an extremely obnoxious and passive aggressive way).

it's like you're trying to stoke infighting. can we please have some solidarity. goddamn.

[b-does-the-write-thing]

general incivility, chapter three

                              - a brienne x jaime pride & prejudice retelling -

chapter one l chapter two  l chapter three

Brienne woke,  still in the previous evening’s ill humor. She had forgotten to close the shade and thus was rudely awakened despite seemingly only just falling asleep. She lay there for a moment, knowing Septa Roelle would not begrudge her a lie-in after her evening at the assembly.  For a second, she was tempted to do just that. Lie there, stewing in the memories of Tyrion Lannister’s voice, bordering on admiration but landing in disbelief, and green eyes, dabbling in disbelief but ending, as they always did, in revulsion. 

Instead, Brienne rolled out of bed and laced on her boots. She donned an old threadbare gown before she quietly made her way down the stairs. Faint snores emanated from Septa Roelle’s room, even though the kitchen staff were already awake and seeing breakfast. The scully maid was too busy poking worriedly at the unrising loaf of bread in the oven, so Brienne grabbed an apple from the basket before anyone could see and slipped outside. Mr. Tarth may pay their wages, but Septa Roelle ran the staff with an iron grip, if any of them saw Brienne up this early, they’d have fetched the matron at once. 

Despite the lingering humidity, the early spring air was frigid this morning. It felt refreshing and by the time Brienne had made her way to her gate, she was wide awake and eager to start her day. Taking another large, satisfactory bite of her apple, Brienne meandered down the path to the Colonel’s yard. Having foregone a bonnet, she tipped her face to the cloudless sky to enjoy the warmth against her skin.

“Dinna expect to see you, this morn.”

Inhaling deeply, Brienne lowered her gaze to where the Colonel stood at his gate. “Morning,” she greeted before finishing the apple with another large crunch. Juice ran down her fingers, and she was tempted to lick her fingers clean, but she didn’t dare. Colonel Brandon was a lot of things, but he was also still a man. One more interested in other men, whether for the love of boxing or for another kind of pleasure, Brienne couldn’t say. Nor did she care. 

Forging the pleasures of the apple, Brienne lowered her hand to her side, discreetly wiping her fingers against her skirt. It was ruined anyway; being slightly sticky and smelling of apples was hardly the worst thing to befall it. “You’re finally fixing it?” she nodded to the gate, one creaky hinge slightly off-kilter and causing the entire panel to sag into the dirt of the path. 

“Thought I’d have the time.” The Colonel spat into the bushes as he leaned against the fence post he was repairing. “What with you having had the ball or what not.”

“The assembly,” Brienne corrected. 

“Word is the new master of Morne Manor is the runt of the litter. Any truth to that?” Brienne recalled the mismatched eyes crinkled up at her in solidarity, a queer sort of understanding between two outsiders. “He seems like a good man,” was all she said. 

The Colonel snorted. “Your a’ great deal too kind to people in general, lass. You never speak a cruel word of anyone, including those who deserve it.”

Brienne’s grip tightened around the apple core until juice squeezed between her knuckles to drop to the dirt beneath her boots. “Up for a bit of sport this morning?” Brienne proposed. 

“Most ladies would be talking my ear off about the new lord and his company,” the Colonel observed as he swung the gate open to permit her entry. 

Brienne tossed the apple core aside. “And what would I have to say about the new tenants? Lord Tyrion is shorter than most, this is true- but he possesses no shortage of wit. He danced nearly every dance and conversed with all that approached him.”

“Beggars cannae be choosers,” the Colonel grunted as he dropped into a ready position. 

Brienne followed suit. “He was a deal more pleasurable than his brother or their cousin.”

“Heir to the Rock dinnae have to be pleasurable. A dwarf bastard does.”

“He’s not-”

“Fists up!’ The Colonel had taken a swing at her, and she stumbled to the left to avoid the jab. 

“I wasn’t ready!” she protested in disbelief. 

“Stop your chattering then,” he advised, feinting back before issuing a clean uppercut. Brienne blocked it, and he danced away, giving her a precious moment to compose herself. “Always be ready. Distractions are just that, distractions.”

They fell into a familiar pattern. The Colonel was older, slower, but precise. He waited for her to drop her guard before dancing close. Brienne circled slowly, keeping her fists up. She was careful to keep her feet light, knees bent, elbows close as she watched her opponent. 

The next time he came at her, she was ready. She feinted to the left, and when he followed, she sidestepped neatly. He floated past her, already turning on his heel, but she pressed the advantage. She had him against the fence with three quick punches. He raised his elbows, took the hits, and returned them in equal force.

He was a tall man, maybe as tall as Jaime Lannister, but he had been brawnier in his youth, where the young lion was lean. Now, the Colonel’s brawn had withered away to a hollow chest, leathery sinews, and a weathered face. Still, they both had that same easy grace of a soldier in their movements and in the way they looked at her, sizing her up not as a woman but as an opponent.

The Colonel lashed out, and Brienne, caught in her recollection of the handsome stranger, barely raised an elbow to block him. His punch landed on her chin. She staggered backward, and instinct took over. She pitched forward to offset her momentum, throwing out her left hand wildly to prevent the Colonel from pressing his advantage, but he was already lowering his arms.

“Ah,” he groaned, rubbing his cheek with the back of his hand. “You here or somewhere else this mornin’, lass? I havene got such an easy hit since you were sprouting ringlets.”

Brienne straightened, internally cursing herself for three times a fool. “Here,” she proclaimed before dropping into a fighter’s stance. Boxing was her respite, her haven. Here, everything else faded away to the dance. She was no longer too big, too tall, too strong- here, she was no lady, no one’s daughter,  just a boxer. 

A damn good one too.

Brienne released a flurry of jabs and punches, ducking once, twice, three times before landing an uppercut before spinning away. The Colonel did not follow, taking the time to set back up before she came towards him again. This time, she danced around him in a circle, just out of reach. Her skirt flapped about her ankles, but she paid it no mind. It was nothing to her. Here, she was not the Beauty, the maid of Tarth, or an unfortunate wench. Here, she was Brienne.

As the sparring practice continued back at Morne Manor, the trio of Lannisters were just arriving home. Jaime and Cersei stumbled off to sleep, but Tyrion, still slightly drunk on brandy and good times, made his way to the breakfast room.

The staff had already laid out the morning meal, noticeably less than most mornings but perfectly suited for his needs. There was toast and porridge, a rather large pot of coffee, which he ignored, and boiled eggs. He helped himself to a bit of everything, humming some country tune he had just learned that evening. His legs were cramping terribly, but overall, he was in such a fantastic mood he could barely be bothered to care.  He was free. Free to do whatever he liked, such as throw the plate to the floor, demand more brandy, or fall asleep in his porridge. Here, clear on the other side of Westeros, his father’s shadow was not quite as long. Tyrion had six thousand pounds to his name, an estate of his own, and was quite satisfied with the arrangement as it stood.  

Unbidden, he thought of Tysha and how well she would like it here, but the thought sucked all the joy out of the morning. Tyrion crashed back to earth, all too aware of what he was, what others must have thought of him. He grew somber as he stared out the window across his new garden, where the trees were starting to bud, and dew glistened on every blade of grass. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day, yet his mood darkened. 

Tysha was a sore spot, much like an abscessed tooth. He ought to leave it alone, but he found he could not. How did one forget their first love? Their only love?

A whore, Tyrion corrected with a shake of his head. “I ought to have known,” he said aloud as he looked down at his stubby fingers where they clutched the knife and fork. “Ah, but it was a sweet lie while it lasted.”

Humming the same tune from earlier, he hopped down and made his way towards his bed. He was growing aware of the alcohol leaving his system and the dregs of exhaustion growing too pronounced to ignore much longer. At the top of the stairs, he stopped to look about his manor.

Red and gold hung everywhere, all orchestrated by Jaime in some misguided guise to remind Tyrion he was a Lannister. Poor, dim Jaime had never understood their father did not think of Tyrion as anything more than a cruel jape, a millstone about his neck. 

“Well, father,” Tyrion drawled. “I would have been happy with a cottage in the woods with a whore for the rest of my days, but I suppose I’ll make a go of playing the lord’s son.”

He had not expected Jaime to come with him. He had barely spoken to his brother since Tysha but Jaime had been there at his departure and throughout the journey east. And just as he had always been, Tyrion was somehow comforted by his presence. 

After all, the two had been close as far back as Tyrion’s earliest memories. In spite of all their great oppositions, Tyrion loved his brother even though they could not be more different in temperament or life experience. Tyrion had learned at an early age to charm with wit and quip, but Jaime had always been loved for his beauty and brawn and had never developed any charm. He was blunt and bold, and people permitted it because he was heir to Westeros's richest estate.

And yet here he was, with Tyrion, attending dances and setting up manors, all things Jaime Lannister hated. 

On the way back from the assembly, Tyrion had pressed Jaime for his thoughts on the Stormland assembly, eager to hear what his brother had to say. “Very pleasant people, these Stormlanders,” Tyrion had declared. Sure, people had whispered and pointed but they had done that in the Westerlands as well.  “And the girls- as pretty as any girl in Lannisport,” he needled, watching Jaime’s face closely. 

Jaime just lifted an eyebrow and went back to watching the horizon roll past as Cersei dozed beside him. He had spent the evening in abject boredom, having found the company dull and vapid. The girls had not been any prettier than any he had seen before, the country fashion far out of style and the dances clumsy at best. The talk had been of weather and crops, same town gossip, and that of the militia coming to town by summer. He had been bored within the first hour of their arrival. 

Though, there had perhaps been one note of interest, that huge hulk of a woman, the one his brother had called the Beauty of Tarth.  He had been taken aback when he had first laid eyes on her. Her strange, homely face had been so open he could read every thought crossing her mind- but then he had seen her arms- capped in ridiculous sleeves and adorned in white gloves- the lace only served to accentuate the tendons in her arms, the curve of the muscle, the only curves she possessed judging by the way her gown fell in a shapeless sack. 

Jaime would have taken odds the horrible excuse for a dress hid a waist as thick as a tree trunk. And by the time he had remembered himself, she had been flushed as red as a Lannister flag, every inch of flushed skin covered in freckled skin that spoke of too many days in the sun. She had somehow managed to disappear into the crowd before he could get another look at her. Surprising considering her broad shoulders and the fact she had towered over even him. 

Brienne the Beauty. Whoever had given her name had been in his cups—there was truly nothing beautiful about that poor creature. Brienne the Brute, Brienne the Bear—he amused himself with the various nicknames, her name rolling around in his mind like wine in a cup—each new alliteration causing him to grin: Brienne the Barbarian, Brienne the Beast, Brienne, Brienne, Brienne.

As he fell into his bed, Jaime stared up at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Despite his exhaustion, whenever he closed his eyes, he could only see a pair of rather remarkable sapphire eyes. 

--

AN: I honestly can only blame @butterednuggets17, who commented and reminded me this existed. After that, it would not leave my head, so I wrote some more of it.

[beguines]

Jodi Dean's Crowds and Party, while noteworthy for privileging the communist subject over working-class consciousness, demonstrates that even contemporary returns to the communist party have not divested themselves entirely of the economism they partially critique. Although Dean's argument for the necessity of a communist party is a significant development in a context that treats this concept as orthodox and old-fashioned, her focus on the necessity of its form and not its substance becomes a serious theoretical obstacle. "The problem posing itself today," she writes, "concerns less the details of party organization . . . than it does solidary [sic] political will. Can the Left's wide array of associations come together in a way that will achieve a real political advance?"

By failing to recognize that this "wide array of associations" might not be able to come together outside of a doomed big tent socialism, Dean does not seem to grasp that this "wide array" is often divided by very significant political differences. Although the exploited and oppressed masses might be united against capitalist exploitation in general, they are not necessarily politically united in key areas. Should internationalists unite with groups that, while being vaguely committed to socialism, have no problem with Zionism or other national chauvinisms? Should communist formations that treat feminism as important unite with those formations that dismiss it as "petit-bourgeois" and thus foster misogynistic practices? So when Dean complains about a "left realism" that is fragmented

"into an ever-expanding array of populist, liberal, progressive, trans, pluralist, green, multiculturalist, anti-racist, radical democratic, feminist, identitarian, anarchist, queer, autonomist, horizontalist, anti-imperialist, insurrectionist, libertarian, socialist, and communist persuasions, and treats this fragmentation as 'symptomatic of such a realism . . . [that is premised on the assumption] that collectivity is undesirable and that collectivity is impossible,"

we should ask what kind of unity she desires. Dean is correct to recognize that a politics that begins by focusing on difference rather than solidarity will be doomed to failure, but it is also correct to recognize that a project of solidarity must begin with an understanding of significant political differences. (Many of these political differences, we should again recognize, are the result of different subject positions that are generated by various forms of oppression.) Drawing clear lines of demarcation in the realm of politics and deciding upon what must be included or excluded from this basis of solidarity is necessary. To start with a big tent socialism of the 99% ignores the multitude of distinctions that will, if forced into a false unity, produce the most cynical form of solidarity: my comrades are not imperialists, racists, homophobes, TERFs, sexists, etc. And any movement that attempts to enforce a solidarity between all of these problematics, thereby ignoring the material fact of actual oppression and exploitation, will possess the most cosmetic unity and eventually collapse under the weight of its multiple contradictions.

J. Moufawad-Paul, Politics in Command: A Taxonomy of Economism

[yugotrash]

Why do you think homophobia is systematically unsolvable?

this would take a lot more space but i'll try to be brief. i'll begin by acknowledging that here i primarily have my own country in the capitalist (semi-)periphery and male homosexuals in mind, since i don't believe in a sex-neutral homophobia (lesbophobia is enmeshed with misogyny much more than anti-homosexual sentiment).

"Solving" homophobia, that is the elimination of negative societal attitudes towards homosexuals, would require constant and consistent political action in changing the attitude of the vast majority of people in a given society. Such action would require homosexuals as some kind of collective political subject. However, homosexuals are structurally incapable of organising in a way that is required by such a bottom up campaign. This is due to several reasons:

Homosexuals are dispersed randomly across space, race, class, age and sex, to the degree that their common sexual orientation cannot bridge. Solidarity along some of these other lines will invariably carry more weight.

Homosexuals are a tiny minority of the population. This minority has no capability to disrupt society (cannot withhold labour or reproductive function, for example), and society would continue to exist smoothly if they were all to vanish. They also cannot engage in separatism both because of aforementioned dispersal and inability to reproduce their own community.

Homosexuals' half-hidden existence, in which they must explicitly "come out" to people around them to be recognised as such and experience direct pushback means that, for reasons of safety and convenience, an even tinier part of an already tiny minority can "afford" to be openly homosexual at all times - this is deadly to any attempt to recruit for a grassroots cause.

Homosexuals are severely limited in their ability to develop the kind of consciousness that has shaped mass liberation movements. They are deeply invested in woman-hating modes of thought and behaviour, queer or otherwise, and enough frank analysis would lead to them realising that they are not the protagonists of their own liberation, as homophobia is a byproduct of the rigid system of sex roles, which women are the only ones capable of abolishing.

The problem of consciousness continues if you factor in rampant mental illness, social alienation and an ever-present conviction, whether articulated positively or not, that the homosexual is so far removed in his experience from anyone else in the world that basically no real alliances with other social groups are possible, and such a small minority without such an alliance is permanently impotent.

The nigh-total domination of genderism and queer politics among the homosexuals has ensured that large numbers of that miniscule number that can "afford" political action is deeply invested in essentially homophobic politics. In Western societies, this kind of new homophobia is fast becoming not only the gay orthodoxy, but the orthodoxy of general political discourse as well.

Due to political developments since the 1960s and the domination of Western institutions globally since the 1990s, homosexuals are largely incapable or unwilling to articulate their own positions outside the dominant liberal orthodoxy - western governments and NGOs fund and maintain loyal proxies in the rest of the world who largely hold monopolies on homosexual-related topics in public discourse in their respective countries. By virtue of their resources and protections, these proxies effectively position themselves as representatives of (among others) sexual minorities both to the government/public and to their country's homosexuals as well, regardless of how little they actually represent their interests. There is virtually no prospect of breaking this stranglehold by committed groups of dissenting homosexuals due to factors listed above.

Although I consider homophobia to be mostly derivative of sex roles and failure to adhere to them, I'm increasingly convinced there is also an irrational, organic or non-learned element, a kind of visceral revulsion the heterosexuals feel towards homosexuals that may be impossible to ever get rid of.

All in all, my conclusion is that you have to look truth in the face and realize that if you're a gay man, nothing short of a radical feminist revolution will really remove the problems you face as a homosexual, and that in the meantime all you can do is lend your support to feminists, find local and small-scale ways to soothe those aspects of homophobia that hit you hardest with support of your immediate community, make gay friends you can actually relate to and look around for more productive standpoints you can occupy towards society other than your sexual orientation. Kill the desire to center your entire experience around being gay, as you'll eventually run into a lot of dead-ends otherwise.

[sailorblossoms-snowbaz]

So I have more thoughts about labels. Yeah yeah, no one cares, I’m talking to myself here, please save your tomatoes and bricks. (Writing down my thoughts helps me stop overthinking things, like “I did something with this so now my brain will let me be free,” I treat this like a diary etc etc) (I’ve always been A Blogger haha). My disclaimer is always that Simon not labelling and not knowing himself is important and cool (I approach my own identity like that, I’m not super big on labels). 

When I first read these books last year, I did it as a casual reader. I looked at fanarts and some discussions between books (which I read pretty quickly). It actually made me think Simon Snow being bisexual was canon! so I was pretty shocked when I first read the scene discussing bisexuality. It almost made me feel like I was reading a direct answer to what turned out to be headcanon and... it wasn’t a yes. (so freaking popular that it apparently still has strength in certain parts of the fandom? as someone who grew up believing I was straight, and picked bisexuality as my first step into embracing my queerness – I now know I’m also somewhere in the acespec and honestly? Simon helped me accept that – Simon’s reactions alone would be enough for me to never want to call him bi again haha his gut reaction was “hell no, what are you talking about??”). Nowadays I’ll insist Simon Snow is a gay man who struggles but who slowly comes to terms with it (it’s a small part, but we can’t ignore that Simon found himself wondering “am I legally allowed to kiss Baz in this state?” that’s heavy stuff) and that the writing in these books is very acespec friendly. 

Reading My Rosebud Boy (an AU where the author tries to make them feel like the same people) makes me more confident that I’m not just seeing shit in the main trilogy. Simon in his early thirties explicitly says “yeah I’m gay, I used to have an issue with that (in his teenage years, when he dates girls, and maybe early 20s) but I’m cool with it now” (only dating men as an adult). I think we can find that sentiment in the trilogy. In Simon’s questions about women (“mayhaps I was never attracted to women in the first place” he says, while staring at the distant boobs, after not noticing boobs that were on his face or literally never in his life) (Baz having “a problem” with boobs while Simon doesn’t is not about Baz being gay while Simon isn’t. It’s about Baz, living in fear that Simon doesn’t want him anymore after spending his entire adolescence believing he’s straight, worrying that Simon would be into the boobs, and on that deeper level, that Simon would leave him. Note that every mild ass comment Simon makes about a girl being “cute” puts a focus on Baz's reaction. It’s more about Baz’s insecurities! And what we have is writing choices that make it so the timing of boobs being almost on Simon’s arms has Simon looking sick and green – a hell of a choice to not do it on purpose – Simon not even looking, Simon focusing only on the food, Simon thinking “maybe not for me and I don’t know what I am, but if a lady wants to show off her tits, why would I object?” While considering he might only be into Baz) (maybe his thoughts are also big tit solidarity. Ha.)  

I think the popularity of bisexual Simon could start with a misunderstanding of his feelings for Agatha. I have written lots of posts on why the “inanimate objects” comment about her is overcompensation and deliberately silly (inanimate objects don’t have feelings, don’t have wants and desires, don’t have choices) and equating the way he sees she’s pretty to the way Baz, a gay man can see it, etc etc. Him saying “I always wanted her” and then proceeding to make comments that indicates he wants to be like her, not that he desires her, but people interpreting the latter because well, boy and girl. Which takes me to the other reason I think this took off: media tropes and general assumptions. But media tropes and assumptions outside of the books. Like reading “maybe I’m half gay” and your mind instantly goes to “ah shit, here we go again” because how many of us have seen bisexuality described that way? Like it’s mathematical? A perfect 50/50 every single time? How many of us have been frustrated at reading sexuality struggles in media that has you like “this would be so much easier for y’all if you consider bisexuality is a thing that exists, that it’s fluid and can vary from bisexual to bisexual” etc etc. I’d bet this played into the reviewers I’ve seen writing off CO as bi erasure. But I don’t think this is on the books. It’s not what they were going for. I think this is on the reader. 

I include his comments about other girls here. “She’s cute” “she’s beautiful” so are kittens and flowers. I understand that someone horny can use “cute” when they’re attracted, but within the parameters of these specific books, I think it’s a stretch to see it that way. Attraction in these books can be measured in: repetition, hyper-fixation (on details no one else notice) and derailed thoughts (they go insane over it!). Shepard says Penny is cute! But note that he doesn’t says it and moves on. Oh no, Shepard has a whole fucking meltdown because Penny is cute. You would never think about Penny’s knees if it wasn’t for Shepard. It drives him insane that Penny is cute. He can’t cope! Cute, cute, cute. Repetition. Cute knees. Hyper-fixation. Derailed thoughts. Simon doesn’t linger on those comments. Baz also calls girls beautiful and gorgeous. Neither of them lingers on that. For Simon, All Horny Roads lead to Baz (even in my rosebud boy! yes I can write that post goddammit). I also think there might be some projecting in the sense that a reader can see the how horny he can be around Baz and project that into him, even when he just said “cute” and moved on immediately.

It also picks my attention that a common bullshit regarding bi erasure in media (looking at you, old trashy... guilty pleasure manga) is having the MC being all “I’m not gay!! I'm only about [male love interest]’s dick and that’s that” and maybe even putting on his clown shoes to insist he’s totally straight and totally only likes women. Or this would come in the character being asked questions about men in general or just called gay (so... much to unpack in those stories... I used to blog about old manga. Fun times). Simon doesn’t consider men in general (already telling). He considers women when he’s like “yeah... maybe not for me... i don’t know” and upon getting close to see the answer is maybe a nope, he goes to a place that gives him security: being a certified Baz-fucker. And the biggest thing that doesn’t play into those tropes or ideas or assumptions? Simon never thought he was straight. The mere suggestion irritates him. 

I wrote some posts about that, but I’m too lazy to search for it. It’s clearly lazy saturday (I also wrote too many fucking posts so linking starts to feel like work haha) The summary: Simon never thought about his sexuality at all, the repression of his desires and his crazy magic (can't get worked up without danger of going off) make it unlikely he’s ever even masturbated (using other outlets like practicing with his sword/jumping Baz to fight to work off some steam haha), his rejection of bisexuality (because he does reject it! Especially notable because it would have been “the easy” answer for him, the maybe more comfortable, and yet it inspires nothing but discomfort! and when he opens himself more to consider it, he’s still leaning more to the negative, he still always goes back to “gay” and never once to consider “bisexuality” — and putting 2 and 2 together, about Simon having a knee-jerk rejection of his relationship with Agatha being understood as sexual attraction, or him being seen as a woman-fucker. It’s Baz insisting that Simon must have liked/being attracted to her what frustrates and bothers Simon and pushes him enough to process in real time that the answer is no. It’s wild to me to read him saying “what I liked about her is that she awoke absolutely nothing in me,” which he demonstrates with his thoughts, and then still seeing the argument that he ever had a single horny feeling for her). 

I think that something that also complicates it is the negative idea that being bisexual is not good enough. Not gay enough. Not straight enough. We belong nowhere. Our validity is questioned every single fucking minute. The idea that bisexual Simon is contested because “that’s not good enough.” But I don’t think that’s it here. I don’t think that’s the intent of the books, or the people who have been seeing Agatha and Simon as lesbian and gay so far into the closet they don’t even know they’re there from day one (or mine!) 

I respect the author always replying “I don’t think Simon knows!” when directly asked if he’s bisexual, because it honors his struggles and journeys, but I also think the answer is on the page. I think Simon’s journey there is both about not feeling pressured to define himself, that he’s allowed to live and love without picking an exact word or a flag to fly at pride, and also about becoming comfortable being gay. He goes from “I’m not even remotely ready to think whether I’m gay” to “if we’re not safe to be gay in ikea, where would we be?”/"gets off with gay PSA with Baz” to “I’m totally gay for all intents and purposes” – there’s a progression. There’s growth and acceptance. And it’s always around the word “gay” (not as an umbrella term) and never anything else: not straight, not bi. Not even when it’s offered as a reasonable alternative. 

[alittlegayhistoria]

Zoe Leonard - 'I Want a President' (1992)

“I want a dyke for president…” form the opening lines for the battalion of critical incisiveness and queer radical spirit that is Zoe Leonard’s 1992 piece ‘I Want a President’. Surging forth into the American public realm following the fatal negligence of Reagan’s administration during the AIDS epidemic and the next presidential election run-up, ‘I Want A President’ dared to interrogate the fundamental denial of marginalised bodies, minds and experiences in the political arena. Constituting a poignant position in the broader visual languages of AIDS activism and queer resistance, ‘I Want A President’ broke ground in inspiring and furthering a critical modality of hope. Its impassioned sentences at once demand empathy and humanity from authoritative figures. Leonard’s statements queer the metrics of power that vehemently deny those outside of cis-heteropatriarchal society by providing currency in promoting otherwise silenced voices, and reestablishing their lived experiences as ethically fundamental in the articulation and implementation of policies that account for real citizens.

Functioning as a key catalyst for ‘I Want A President’, Leonard was inspired by the dynamism of fellow lesbian poet and artist Eileen Myles’ presidential bid in the 1991-1992 presidential election, alongside Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Ross Perot. Myles herself charged up by Bush’s lamentations of “the politically correct” (which implied an intended diminution of the voices of women, people of colour and LGBTQ+ critiquing hegemonic political assertions) in his commencement address galvanised an intellectual juncture that scrutinised the supposed impossibility of an openly female, openly queer president in the mainstream American consciousness. Acting in symbiosis to Myles’ work and presidential candidacy, Leonard was (and remains) a prominent and active member of queer activist collectives like Fierce Pussy, and her political praxis and astute artistic sensibilities informed the dissemination and distribution of ‘I Want A President’. Formerly intended to be a statement for an underground LGBTQ+ publication, the piece was printed as a Xerox document and circulated amongst Leonard’s friends, wider queer social circles and activist cohorts. It rapidly rumbled outwards into the wider public space, levying a challenge to the unfeeling political elite through progressive prose that illuminated the standpoints of those most denigrated in American ideology and dogma.

Spanning experiences of targeted violence, poverty, and disenfranchisement, the rhythmic structure of ‘I Want A President’ is arresting in its unflinching engagement with state-enabled trauma interwoven with empathic sentences expressing solidarity with those who continue to survive despite the odds. Grappling with legacies of lethal indifference in institutional engagement with the AIDS crisis, environmental damage bolstered by social inequalities, and sustained acts of gender-motivated attacks, Leonard’s calls and aspirations for a feeling, loving and reflexive leader remain tantamount in the contemporary era. The concluding lines “Always a boss and never a worker, always a liar, always a thief and never caught” is deeply evocative as a searing indictment against acts of blatant corruption and incitement of destructive community tensions by political elites able to evade culpability through immense social privileges. ‘I Want A President’ and its power lies in its calibration of empathy as a lightning rod for action, to make the yearning for difference not a mawkish instinct, but a place of generative resistance against political systems that seek to elicit apathy from sustained deprecation of those who fall outside of the power lines on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, class, ability and beyond.

‘I Want A President’ continues to have vibrant reverberations in contemporary political and queer counterculture. In 2016, it was erected under Manhattan’s High Line, a New York park built upon a disused elevated railway, proclaiming its moving and robust prose to a new public audience in the run-up to the 2016 election which devastatingly saw in the presidency of Donald Trump, reminding us all too much of what ‘I Want A President’ advocates against. Leonard’s powerful work continues to garner creative inspiration amongst queer artists, notably being read by queer rapper and artist Mykki Blanco, directed as part of a film by Adinah Dancyger in 2016, providing a reading that was passionate, imbued with immense political frustration that made its words all the more visceral in the face of Trump’s eventual inauguration. In 2018, the piece was reprinted with 100 copies and distributed in aid of the Treatment Action Group, a community-based think tank producing bold, advancing research into AIDS/HIV and other conditions in the pursuit of LGBTQ+, gender and racial liberation. The timelessness and transience of ‘I Want A President’ is made clear in its sustained relevance in the fluctuations in the national political milieu, demonstrating its significance as a queer cultural artefact that inspires fights for justice across multiple social intersections.

Leonard continues to enjoy a lustrous artistic career, and is now represented by the Hauser & Wirth gallery, where ‘I Want A President’ was celebrated and honoured for its cultural impact and staying power. Translating the piece’s deep insights and challenges against discriminatory political dominance in the British context, one can foster ‘I Want A President’ in expressing their disavowal of political acts devoid of empathy and basic human respect. Namely the state hatred of trans and genderqueer people in the name of political point-scoring, the loathsome class stigmatisation of current prime minister Rishi Sunak in his boasting of defunding what he deemed ‘deprived’ urban areas and the skyrocketing levels of financial precarity and homelessness under a fractious economic system. Leonard’s ruminations and desires in ‘I Want A President’ remain emblematic of the potency of queer activism and eternally vital, in demanding better representation, for politicians that care, that feel, that emote, that dare to think holistically beyond the sinister motivator of unbridled capitalistic power.

[nothorses]

People's reactions to atheism kinda feel similar to people's reactions to asexuality and aromanticism. "What do you mean you don't have gods/sexual/romantic attraction! Everybody has that! You probably just haven't found the one you vibe with yet".

At least as an ace person who grew up without religion and find that it is not for me, I keep seeing the similarities. People act like my thoughts and ideas about my own life in regards to religion do not matter since I don't have one. I have friends who downright said "of course you should celebrate Christmas, everyone does!". If I had been Jewish or Muslim I doubt they would have said that, but since I am seen as "neutral/not yet converted" they think it's fine to treat me as "Christian lite" even though I'm not christian and have never been. It's very annoying and it's gotten to a point where I am seriously considering converting to forn sed (asatru) just to get them off my back. Although I doubt they'd recognize that, either...

(Obligatory i don't hate religion and I can see what value people get out of it, and from an outside perspective I find it similar to any relationship, aka it could be abusive/hurtful but in general it is a positive experience for the people involved.)

Hey anon I understand where you're coming from, but. I regret to inform you that it is in fact extremely common for people to try to pressure non-Christian theists into celebrating Christmas; Jewish and Muslim people very much included.

I really recommend connecting with and listening to the experiences of Jewish and Muslim folks, because while avoiding making those assumptions in the first place is a good first step, it can be hard to really understand your own blind spots without some real context.

I also point this out because I think this tendency to compare hardships is really damaging, and takes away from the solidarity atheists need to have with minority religions. This isn't a "theists vs. atheists" issue, it's a "dominant religion vs. marginalized beliefs" issue. It's not about the presence or "lack" of beliefs- it's about marginalization and oppression on the basis of belief.

And you're right: we need to be able to see atheism as the presence of a belief (that there is no higher power), which contributes to a unique and valuable worldview just like any religion.

The key here is that we're shifting the conversation away from this Christian-fabricated argument about whether atheism is Right And Good, or Immoral And Bad. Because it doesn't matter, and it's not the basis any other conversation about religion is operating on- any other religion deserves to exist regardless of "accuracy", and atheism- no matter how much we believe it's the most correct- operates the exact same way, and deserves the exact same space.

Just like the a-spec discourse, the divide is artificial. A-specs have unique experiences with oppression, but ultimately the reason for their oppression is the same as any other queer identity: because they're not straight*. And just like them, atheists have some very different experiences from marginalized religions, but ultimately atheism is marginalized for the same reason any marginalized religion is: because we're not Christian.

I think that's a great comparison for another reason, too: a-specs can share intersecting identities (gay ace, pan aro, straight ace, etc.) that do create overlap with experiences unique to those intersecting identities (including straight experiences!); but we argue that straight a-specs ultimately aren't considered straight in the eyes of cisheterosexism, and aren't given the same treatment as them, because any deviation from that established norm is cause for punishment.

*I say "straight" to mean the position of power; identifying as/being straight is one thing, but being treated like you're straight, and afforded that position in oppressive power structures, is a completely different thing.

[feliscloudnine]

Hey there, y'all! You can call me Feli if you'll ever find yourself in a situation wishing to address me by name.

While I had originally set up an account on this site for the primary reasons of learning a bit about the various online communities dedicated to kink and fetish play as well as putting up some 'general' (yet personal) guidelines in order to attempt 'harmonizing' the different spheres of life, I've definitely grown (anonymously) fond of a handful of said communities and their approach to sexuality and other forms of intimacy.

One of, if not the personal main interest of mine might be a certain branch of 'bimb°ism/bimb°fication': namely the one without the facets of pure superficiality, egocentricity, vanity/competition, 'lowered intelligence' and ignorance, indifference and - especially - (non-playful) subordination to 'men'. Perhaps one could call it a form of moderate, responsible or consequentialist hedonism based upon the pillars of friendliness (respect, solidarity), happiness and open-mindedness (unity-in-individuality). I like the glow-up and raise in confidence whenever people gather the courage to embark on a journey feeling right for themselves (without relentless selfishness), and I regularly - not always - find this in a person 'indulging in their personal process of bimb°fication'. Moreover, I do have a weakness for the specific body type usually associated with 'bimbos' - I often find it quite alluring. Which (by no means!) doesn't mean I'd prefer it over others though. Lastly about the exclusion of subordination to 'men': I (try to) condition my willingness to interact solely on the interpersonal chemistry and thus don't really care about sex and gender either. If the chemistry happens to be right with a man, the possibilities for a relationship are almost unlimited, including kinky or degrading submission of myself within consent. Yet 'consent' is the keyword: The relationship in any particular form will be a result of an agreement between equals, not a consequence of naturalistic or theological essentialistic dogmas and doxa suggesting hierarchies between allegedly clear-cut collectives/collective 'identities'. If I behave in a way some people might call perverse, depraved or easy and 'slutty', please don't expect the same from anyone else who is pigeonholed and assigned to the same common hollow categories as me.

Take good care of yourselves, stay safe, decide to be kind with each other and feel tightly hugged for a brief moment, everybody! 🐾

| Respect, Diversity and Equality |

| Rainbow Community | LBGTQIA* |

| BLM | Queerfeminism |

| Body and Plastic Positivity |

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍

| Late Twenties - Minors, please do not interact 🔞|

| Pan (with a sapphic tendency), Queer and 'Fem' a.f.a.b. - She/They |

[Not every entry endowed with a 'heart' is 'approved' by me, and not every subscription is a sign of agreement. There's just no other way to mark them.]

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Additional disclaimer: This little blog almost exclusively consists of photos and short videos depicting people with a very specific, often surgically altered and regularly fetishized body type.

This doesn’t mean, however, that I would like to promote this as a general ‚ideal‘ or as an ‚ideal‘ at all. Far from it: Everybody – and everbody’s body – is beautiful in their unique kind of way. And moreover and even more importantly, being considered ‚pretty‘, ‚beautiful‘ or ‚handsome‘ (or anything else: for example ‚unique‘) by others doesn’t define a person’s (for lack of a more suitable word:) ‚ value‘ anyway: Everyone is ‚valuable‘ and ‚worthy‘ just by being alive!

Therefore, even though I myself may personally aspire to look like an allegedly ‚superficial‘, ‚conceited‘ and almost ‚doll-like‘ human being on the outside at some point, please be assured that I’ll still always (at least anonymously) have your back and you’ll always have my support when it comes to finding and following your very own path in life, no matter which path it may be – as long as you don’t intend to do harm to other people.