#same as someone getting flagged for 70%

[savage-rhi]

Magenta and a rum & coke.

[roseychains]

Jjk men/boys as red flags ~

A/n: felt like angst

C/w: angst, all sfw.

Gojo: narcissistic 

When you and Gojo were only friends it was fine, it was always just a joke. Even when it would irritate you, you were only friends, so it didn’t mean much. But after you started dating, you realized it wasn’t just a joke. Gojo held himself above everyone, yourself included. That’s not to say he wouldn’t die for you, but instead he just thinks he’s better than everyone else. Including you. He treats you well, but it’s always back handed complements. “You couldn’t do it without me,” or “you need me,” and this time, he meant it.

Geto: avoidant

Geto has never been open with how he’s feeling. When he gets upset with you, rather than explain to you why he’s upset he would avoid you like the plague. Make up any excuse in the book to get away from you, he was suddenly always “busy.” Even once he worked him self back down to normal, it still wouldn’t be resolved in his brain. Ultimately leading to him accumulating sad thoughts that he refuses to share with you or anyone else.

Nanami: priority’s

As much as he loved you, his work always gets in the way between you too. It started with a few days spent overtime, but days turned into weeks, weeks to months, and you realized you were hardly spending time with him anymore. He would work himself day and night, even when you pleaded with him to come home to you. Your pleas fell on deaf ears, he would always tell you the same thing. That he can’t support you without this job, and it was what must be done. Even at the expense of his time with you.

Toji: irresponsible

After his wife passing, he seems to care less and less about anything else in the world. After you began dating, you realized he would do small things, innocent mistakes. Not cleaning up for himself, not switching the laundry, but when you would address the issues, he would suddenly get defensive. First, he’d tell you it wasn’t true. Then, it was an accident, and finally, if you care so much why don’t you do it. Never just “sorry, I’ll handle it.”

Sukuna: aggressive

The first time your forgave him. But when it became a repetitive issue, it started getting under your skin. The smallest things would send him into a rage, a rage that he would take out on you, raising his voice, burdening you with his anger. After he calmed down and apologized, and promised to not do that again or at the very least work on it, progress never came. Trapped in a cycle of yell, apologize, promise, repeat.

Choso: affection

Choso is inexperienced and scared. He’s scared of touch, of intimacy, he wants to love you from afar. He can talk to you for hours, and listen to you talk, but he won’t hold your hand, especially in public. It’s almost like he’s ashamed, embarrassed to be with you. But no matter how much you bring it up, he’d reassure you and say he’s just shy. But never a way to satisfy your need for physical love.

Yuji: ignorant

He doesn’t realize what he’s doing wrong, so when your mad at him he doesn’t know why. He thought he was doing everything right, and even when you tell him, he can’t wrap his head around why that would upset you, he doesn’t get it. He never has, and he never will. He ends up love bombing you and you forgive him, but do you really? No, you let it happen because what else are you supposed to do.

Megumi: self-destructive

Megumi cares about anyone else more than himself, and he refuses to take care of himself properly and repeatedly puts himself into dangerous situations. It doesn’t matter how much you cry, how you sob and hold him in your arms telling him you didn’t think he was ever coming back, begging him to stay, if not for his safety than for you. But he won’t. He never listens, no amount of tears and begging will ever change his ways.

Inumaki: effort

A relationship should be 50/50, but when someone can’t give that, the other person would make up for it. But when 40/60 becomes the new normal, than 30/70, and so on, a lack of effort on his part is a regular occurrence, it starts feeling like why do you even try. Your putting in more than you can just for him to not make it up in return. It’s almost like he doesn’t care anymore

Yuta: obsessive

It was cute first, the way he would get jealous whenever you spent time with someone else. It was a joke right? You started questioning the lightheartedness of his actions when it became frequent and almost forceful. He would resent anyone who you spent time with, he felt like you were being stolen away. So much so the point it became toxic. He would guilt trip you to stay home more frequently. And when you finally decided you were going to leave anyway, the keys to your car had mysteriously disappeared. On no, guess you have to spend the day with him, again, forever.

[brawltogethernow]

I would LOVE to hear your aro Hal thoughts if you don’t mind sharing?

[re:] (Sorry in advance there are absolutely no issue citations; I have saved so many pages in random places without labeling them.)

I don't know if I'd even call it having thoughts so much as having...an incomplete collection of Hal...saying things?

And having things said about him?

And he does this very familiar weasel jink when asked certain types of questions.

Like the general direction of authorial intent here is presumably that he's a ~playboy~ who ~can't be tied down~,

but we rarely see him...like...with anybody. He's an informed attribute playboy who's had a handful of onscreen flings that tend to be complete disasters with significantly less chemistry than a poorly measured baking soda volcano, and other than that there's Carol, who he's been failing to marry with high agitation for sixty-five years at this point. Like in cape comics it's standard for your obvious endgame A couple to take twenty or thirty years to get around to that, but sixty is excessive. Like even Alicia Masters and the Thing managed it faster and they kept getting put off because it stressed out too many Marvel writers to contemplate monsterfucking. (And other less comedic factors but this post isn't about that.)

And every time Hal tries to go steady with Carol he acts like he's dying, even though he clearly loves her and holds having her in his life in extremely high priority.

Like he is not enjoying a playboy lifestyle he doesn't want to give up. He has tried very hard to settle down several times, but he always panics and bolts at the last second like someone who's run out of the willpower¹ to keep holding onto an electrified rod--except when he's rescued by deus ex machina.

¹Ha.

And it's also pretty evident that he hates himself for this and doesn't understand why he can't pass this standard life milestone, or why he keeps hurting Carol, his favorite person, trying and failing to do what they think you're supposed to. He very blatantly views his romantic failures as something that let down other people and "improving" as a sacrifice he's supposed to make for them.

When his desires come into it it's primarily in the context of him gaslighting himself about how he totally wants the things he's supposed to that won't disappoint people, definitely definitely for real this time.

As seen above, romantic success for Hal is often conflated with retiring from being Green Lantern to inject cheap drama and insert a built-in inevitable failure, framing him as staying single because he's "married to the job". This barely ever made sense but was already downright comedic by the, I want to say late 70's?, where Carol was in on the secret identity and John and Katma were pulling off extremely successful GL/GL dating in the same book. At this point it's complete nonsense, so writers have been pulling harder on framing Hal as a disorganized man-child with commitment issues who's just sort of arbitrarily rendered undateable by being a committed superhero, something which, although it's a classic source of drama, has not hindered any of DC's other characters to this degree this consistently.

In conclusion: This aro man does not know what aromanticism is despite being one degree of separation from Connor Hawke, which is ruining his life and his ability to have any self esteem. Him and Carol desperately need someone to tell them what queerplatonic relationships are so they can stop doing these wretched I'm-not-touching-you kisses.

#EverybodyDislikedThat

Also he's been dressing up as the aromantic flag since 1959. Okay now I'm done.

[itoshiabi]

Red or Green flag? (Ft. Bllk boys)

PT.2- Barou, Reo, Nagi

Pt.1- here

Pt.3- here

Barou Shoei (a massive red flag)

Red Flag tendencies:

Dominant: Barou's used to being the king. He likes things his way, and compromise doesn't come naturally. If you're opinionated or independent, expect power clashes.

Short temper: He gets pissed easily and doesn't always know how to channel that anger productively in a relationship. If you argue, he might say harsh things without thinking.

Territorial as hell: If someone even looks at you the wrong way, Barou's already cracking his knuckles. Protective is cute but his possessiveness gets messy fast.

Emotionally closed off: Vulnerability isn't his thing. He's not going to pour his heart out or whisper sweet nothings—so if you need constant emotional connection or reassurance, he'll frustrate you.

Too rigid: He's got a strict routine and expects people around him to respect it. You leave your hoodie on the floor? He'll probably side-eye it like you just committed a crime.

Green flag tendencies:

Loyal and committed: If Barou chooses you, he means it. No games, no half-assed love. He takes his commitments seriously and expects the same from you.

Hardworking and ambitious: He's got goals, and he goes after them hard. Being with him means you'll always be pushed to grow and chase your own greatness too.

Protective AF: No one's messing with you if Barou's around. He's the guy who'll walk on the traffic side of the sidewalk without thinking twice.

Physical affection: He's not a talker, but he will show love through touch—like holding you tight at night or giving quiet, forehead-kiss-style resurance when you're upset.

!Final Verdict!

70% red flag, 30% green flag!

Barou is a red flag for emotional ease, but a green flag for loyalty, strength and stability—if you can handle his intensity. He's not for the soft-hearted unless you've got steel in your spine and patience in your soul.

Reo Mikage (green flag with a hint of red)

Green flag tendencies:

Loyal to the core: Once Reo attaches to someone he goes all in. He's not flaky, he's not half-hearted—he's all about building something deep and lasting.

Emotionally expressive: He's not afraid to say what he feels or show that he cares. Whether it's excitement, sadness, or affection—Reo wears his heart on his sleeve and wants you to understand him.

Supportive AF: Reo will hype you up, help with your goals, and probably buy you a business if you said, "Babe, I have an idea." He genuinely wants to see his partner shine.

Romantic and thoughtful: Fancy dates? Yes. Good morning texts? Absolutely. Remembering your favorite snack from two weeks ago? Count on it. He's the kind of boyfriend who pays attention and acts on it.

Ambitious and driven: Reo has goals and doesn't just rely on his family's wealth. He's constantly pushing himself to grow—which means he'll want to grow with you too, not just coast through the relationship.

Tiny red flag tendencies:

Can get overly attached: When Reo connects, he really connects—sometimes to the point where he might feel lost if you pull away or need space. That emotional dependence could weigh heavy if not balanced.

Rare spoiled rich kid vibes: While he's not obnoxious about it, he is used to getting what he wants. If he's ever told "no," he might not take it well right away.

!Final Verdict!

80% green flag, 20 percent red flag!

Reo is a green flag for anyone looking for a romantic, loyal, emotionally intelligent boyfriend who supports your glow-up as much as his own. Just make sure he doesn't put you on a pedestal so high he forgets his own worth when you're not around.

Nagi Seishiro (a sleepy cat that randomly decides to love you really hard)

Green flag tendencies:

Low-drama, chill vibes: Nagi's emotionally mellow. He won't argue over petty stuff or stir up drama. You'll rarely hear, "We need to talk." He just wants peace, snacks, games and your company.

Quietly loyal: He doesn't say much, but when he chooses you, he sticks. He may not write love poems, but he'll hold your hand, let you play with his hair and be your human pillow without hesitation.

Affectionate in his own way: Nagi isn't loud about his feelings, but he shows love through physical closeness and presence. He's the type to lean on you, nap in your lap, and get pouty if you leave him on read for too long.

Straightforward: He's not manipulative or hot-and-cold. What you see is what you get. If he says he likes you, he means it. If he doesn't want something, he'll tell you straight up.

Tiny red flag tendencies:

Lazy in love: He's not the type to plan dates, remember anniversaries, or chase you with grand gestures. You'll probably have to take the lead emotionally or romantically until he gets into the groove.

Avoids deep talks: Nagi struggles with processing or expressing complex feelings, those are a huge "hassle" for him. If there's a problem in the relationship, he might avoid it, hoping it "just goes away."

Lacks initiative: If left unchecked, he can get too comfortable. Like, "we've been inside for 3 days and he hasn't moved” levels of comfortable. You'll need to nudge him into action sometimes.

!Final Verdict!

55% green flag, 15% red flag.

Nagi is a green flag for someone who loves peace, physical affection, and isn't bothered by emotional silence. He's a comfort partner—someone who won't stress you out and will love you in the softest, laziest, most loyal way.

[ukrfeminism]

We’ve been chatting for about half an hour when Eloise lowers her voice to a whisper. Until now she’s been confidently talking through the ups and downs of being a 19-year-old woman in a world she finds unsteady. 

She’s annoyed that, on TikTok, the advertisements she gets are keyrings with rape alarms and “stabby kitties” (a cat-shaped metal keychain with pointed ears sharp enough to cause damage), feels that modern feminism sometimes goes a bit too far, but having grown up in the age of nudes, she doesn’t really trust men. Which is unsurprising considering the story she tells me next.

“So a boy I know was asking a girl at his school for nudes,” she says, quietly. “And then when she refused, he threatened to rape her.” The boy was 14 and had recently posted an Andrew Tate video to his Instagram page, which was Eloise’s first encounter with the online influencer. 

“It said stuff like how women are your property and that it doesn’t matter if women say they’ve been sexually assaulted; if you’re with them that’s your right. I didn’t like it,” she adds.

Tate has made several appearances in the headlines this week. On Tuesday, a Romanian court rejected his appeal to ease the ban on him leaving the country as a legal case against him – in which he’s charged with human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women – continues. He denies all charges against him. The following day, Ipsos polling for King’s College London’s Policy Institute and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership found that one in five men aged 16-29 who have heard of Andrew Tate have a positive view of him.

Separately – or, arguably, perhaps not – another survey published in the same week underpinned a renewed focus on the attitudes and beliefs of Generation Z, this time from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The research asked just over 3,000 adults of varying ages – 50.6 per cent of whom were female – about their understanding of rape and serious sexual offences, and the law on consent, and drew troubling conclusions.

Overall, 74 per cent of people surveyed understood that it can still be rape if a victim doesn’t resist or fight back, but the number fell to just over half (53 per cent) of 18-24-year-olds who had the same understanding. Less than half of respondents from this age group recognised that victims might not report a sexual offence to police immediately, that being in a relationship or marriage doesn’t mean consent can be assumed, or that if a man has been drinking or taking drugs, he’s still responsible if he rapes someone. More than 70 per cent of over-65s recognised that even if no physical force is involved a person might not be free or able to consent to sex, compared to just 40 per cent of young people.

Previous generations have become used to hearing that rape myths and misconceptions continue to persist, but that’s precisely why this week’s grim trinity of headlines stings. “There tends to be a public assumption that things are generally always getting better,” says author and feminist campaigner Laura Bates. “Actually, views like these are incredibly widespread among young people.” 

Bates regularly works with schools, talking to pupils who often tell her that “rape is a compliment”, that “it’s not rape if she likes it” or, “it’s your boyfriend, you have to have sex with him”.

She adds: “Attitude surveys have to be taken seriously because they are a real red flag that we’re going backwards – we’re seeing much more extreme and concerning misogynistic attitudes among the youngest generations than we are among the oldest. We have to face up to that and ask, why is that happening?”

Gen Z has never been neatly contained. Growing up as the first digital natives in the chokehold of crisis – climate, Covid, cost of living – has seen them praised for their social awareness, but disenfranchised and forgotten by politics. Their extremely online nature has given them unprecedented access to the world and other people – but, of course, that’s a double-edged sword.

“The internet has made everyone’s voices louder, but that means the most misogynistic people in the world are heard more too,” says Niya Clement-Hickson, a 26-year-old marketing designer from London. He says his generation has been “kind of ruined” by social media.

“You’d be surprised at just how many people around my age will argue that Andrew Tate is not as bad as he seems.”

When I spend an hour talking to 16-year-old Tate fan Manus from Ohio on TikTok, he says exactly that. He’s relatively timid and seems unsure of what he thinks at times, but came across Tate aged 12, being drawn to his motivational speeches, humour, and attitude towards making money. “[Tate] kinda showed me how people really are in reality,” he says. On Tate’s assertions that women are the property of men, he says those beliefs are simply from the Bible (though Manus himself is Muslim).

He maintains he’s never seen Tate speak violently about women, and when I send him leaked voicenote recordings of Tate saying that he enjoyed raping a woman, Manus is certain it’s fake “probably to make him look bad”. I ask for his views on feminism and he responds that feminists now want “superiority” and “more rights”. What rights exactly? “More rights in general,” he says, vaguely.

This opinion is not a rarity – there’s a pervasive idea circling comments sections and pub corners that the pendulum has “swung too far”. “Some of us warned that when you continue to suppress their identity by telling young boys that they are inherently toxic, they’ll start acting irrational,” one comment under an Andrew Tate post this week read. But it’s not just boys who hold this idea. Early last year, a survey from Ipsos UK and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London echoed this and some of Eloise’s views that feminism has gone too far. They found that 52 per cent of Gen Z and 53 per cent of millennials believe that we’re now discriminating against men. Less than half of Gen Z respondents said they defined themselves as a feminist.

Was it coincidence then, to see that shortly after the research was published in March 2023, the year of the girl was in full swing? A persistently pink summer was punctuated with girl dinners, #tradwives – modern women who believe in traditional gender roles – and stay-at-home girlfriends sharing their daily rituals on news feeds. New York magazine’s The Cut declared it “Woman in Retrograde” as the year came to a close; a cluster of reactionary elements to a significant demise of mainstream feminism.

This shift back to traditional behaviours is also present in younger men, says Niya. “A lot of guys feel that their role is all about providing money, being a protector. But they feel they deserve to get something out of the interaction. They just can’t deal with being told no.”

In terms of consent, does he hear attitudes that put women in danger? “Absolutely,” he replies. Niya didn’t learn about consent in school – “I don’t think it was ever talked about beyond ‘don’t have sex until you’re old enough’” – and thinks this is quite common for men of his age. For Maya, who’s 24 and neurodivergent, the line of consent is difficult to pinpoint and somewhat shaped by social media. There’s a “disconnect” from what she really wants – and is able to articulate – in the moment.

“I think that we do have less and less sex and more and more porn,” Niya adds. “And I think that once porn is your main and in some cases, only engagement with sex and women, then that is going to completely screw up how you see sex.”

Do all roads lead to porn? Probably. Clare McGlynn, who is a professor of law with particular expertise in sexual violence and online abuse, says: “We know that algorithms promote more extreme content, more hate – and many, many younger people, men and women, are getting this. Millions of people, as we speak, are watching mainstream online pornography that is racist, sexist, misogynist and violent in its content. Of course, it’s shaping attitudes and lives.”

“There’s certainly a pressure on young boys and men, for example, to be taking and sharing nudes – they’re part of a culture that is encouraging them to,” McGlynn explains. During a study, she looked at what material was presented on the homepage of popular sites – she found landing pages which were filled with sexually violent material. “So it’s also not them even actively choosing that material; we’re part of a culture that is grooming young men, teaching them expectations around sex – and asking them to accept and normalise it.”

What appears clear from the survey conducted by the CPS is a dangerous lack of understanding of what constitutes a crime. “I do lectures on criminal law and I’ve had students come up to me afterwards and say that they didn’t know they had been sexually assaulted or raped,” McGlynn adds.

Laura Bates says that we’re in the midst of a “crisis of sexual violence among young people”. 

“Deeply misogynistic misinformation is being spread to young people online at a rate that most people just have absolutely no idea about,” she says. “And there is a massive knock-on effect.

“Some will look at these surveys and go, well, what does attitude matter? But you have to draw a connection between these really worrying attitudes about rape and the fact that nearly 80 per cent of young people told Ofsted inspectors recently that sexual assault is normal and common in their friendship groups.”

So what can be done? More responsibility and accountability from social media companies, says Bates. Tate’s content – some of which reportedly shows him attempting to beat a woman with a belt; she later hides behind a locked door – has been viewed more than 11 billion times on TikTok, she says, adding: “That’s more than the population of the planet.” Last year, advocacy group HOPE found that more 16-17-year-old boys had watched Tate’s content than had heard of Rishi Sunak. “I think it’s really important that the government supports high quality, age-appropriate sex and relationships education,” she adds. 

Actively listening to and engaging with boys – as seen in initiatives like the state of New York’s Starting the Conversation campaign – is also important. Boys must have a safe and judgement-free environment to express themselves: the more their experiences of rape culture are internalised, the more difficult they are to see.

The Online Safety Bill, which was enacted in October last year, she says, was a missed opportunity for change. While it asks for more transparency on social media platforms and imposes sanctions for those not following the act, along with criminalising cyberflashing and sending unsolicited nude images, “it went 250 pages without mentioning women and girls once, until campaigners changed that”, Bates says.

“It’s so much more effective to focus on prevention of radicalisation than trying to unpick it once it’s happened,” she says. “Young people really are prepared to listen and prepared to change their minds, it’s just a shame this isn’t happening in every school.”

“It does make me worried about how safe the world is going to be,” says Eloise, who will begin her twenties in the summer. “What if people really start thinking that women are property again?” Then, she’s quiet again. “I really hope it can change.”

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

Pride month prompts 2025

That's right! It's time for the yearly pride month prompts! For all of June, there's a prompt for each day that you can choose do something with: Writing, art, edits... whatever you decide!

I'm releasing them now so that you have plenty of time to start doing something for them before June is here. And then, once June arrives, it's just to release them right away! ;)

It's usually very fun. People create all kinds of art and fics, and original stories too. I also wonder if we'll get a visit from a certain person who only appears during june and is famous for hating a certain wlw ship, and writes a fic about how they come out as straight. This has been happening for 2 years in a row now, I'm really wondering if it's a troll or if they're legit.

Just in case the picture is blurry for some, I'm gonna present all the prompts down below, and some descriptions of them!

Day 1: Colors. Can be the colors of someone's pride flag that they're showing off! Or maybe people just go on a walk and notice how colorful everything is now when it's pride month. Or maybe the colors are metaphorical...

Day 2: Baking. A classic coming back from previous years! What are they baking? Maybe rainbow cupcakes? Cookies with pride flags on them? Or maybe your local lesbians are just baking together! What do I know?

Day 3: Crush. Having crushes can be complicated, especially when you're not straight... but who knows! Maybe they like you back!

Day 4: Community. Even though sadly not everyone will accept you when you come out, there is a community out there who would do anything for you and will help you out. But this prompt can also be used for something wholesome, like maybe the local pride meeting coming together for an event and just have fun together!

Day 5: Two moms. Maybe someone reveals they have two moms! Maybe it's two women who just recently had a baby together! Maybe two random women who aren't specifically dating each other, but the character in question see both of them as mothers to them!

Day 6: Story. Maybe someone is telling the story of how they came out? Or maybe a fairy tale about two gay princes living in the woods? Is the story from real life or made up, or a mix of both?

Day 7: Alternate universe. It can mean anything from "these characters in a fantasy setting or a college setting" to "everything is the same as canon but everyone is now gay"

Day 8: Two dads. Maybe someone reveals they have two dads! Maybe it's two men who just recently had a baby together, or recently adopted a child together! Maybe two random men who aren't specifically dating each other, but the character in question see both of them as fathers to them!

Day 9: Parade. What shenanigans can happen at a pride parade?

Day 10: Kiss. Mwah! I hope it was consentual (and fruity)!

Day 11: Alternate time period. You know this show that takes place in the modern day? What if it takes place 100 years earlier? And you know this thing that takes place during the 70s? Put them in modern times, will you?

Day 12: Song. Maybe someone sings a sapphic jam to their crush. Maybe it's a random song playing as someone realizes their sexual identity. Songs can have so much meaning!

Day 13: Fruity sleepover. Ooooooh!! Let me guess... they're sharing a bed! Or they're playing truth or dare... or it's just a queer friendgroup having a sleepover together and playing video games all night!

Day 14: Queerplatonic. Maybe two aces marrying for tax benifits. Maybe two friends who decide to start a foster care business together. It's up to you what to do!

Day 15: Surprise. Surprise! I'm not straight! Surprise! We're dating! Surprise! We're making you a coming out party to show you our support! Or maybe the surprise is that the people were supportive when you didn't think they would... or they AREN'T supportive when you thought they would... it depends on if you wanna be angsty or wholesome

Day 16: Closet. Is it a literal closet someone's hiding in or a metaphorical one?

Day 17: Date. Yay! I hope they have fun on their date! Unless you're an angsty person who wants to make them suffer for some reason.

Day 18: Early signs. There were early signs they weren't straight, or cis... here's some examples of that.

Day 19: Growing old together. Maybe an old couple who look back on their life together... or a young couple hoping to spend the rest of their lives together. Or a group of queer friends who have followed each other through a lot and now old together

Day 20: Speculating. Are those two girls dating? Is that guy gay or not? Is that person one of us? How can we ask without feeling intrusive?

Day 21: Support. Support when someone comes out! Support when someone is experiencing gender dysphoria, or homophobia... there's people for you! Who will shower you with support and comfort!

Day 22: Accidental coming out. Oops!

Day 23: Proposal. What is better than gay proposals? Especially because I feel like it's a TREND that both of them planned on proposing at the same time x)

Day 24: Are they queer or not? Well, we can't just ask! Can we? Maybe we should try to go elaborate ways to figure it out... but it's also none of our business, of course... but we also wanna know!!

Day 25: Present life. You know thay gay couple that got together in the 90s? How does their life look like today? That lesbian girl who came out in the 50s, what is she doing today in her older days? Heck, even people from stuff that came out only a few years ago... what's their life in 2025?

Day 26: Wedding. Two brides, two grooms... or maybe a bride and groom, but they are each other's beards! Or they're both bisexual! ;)

Day 27: In love with my best friend. Ay... who knows, maybe they feel the same? Or else you might just be pining forever.

Day 28: Decorating. What are they decorating? For pride month? Maybe pins on their jacket or maybe it's a store that does rainbow decorations. Maybe the decorating is a bit insignificant, it's the events around it that is important.

Day 29: Gender euphoria. EUPHOOOOOOOORIAAAAA FOREVER 'TIL THE END OF TIME FOR NOW ON ONLY YOU AND I WE'RE GOING UP UP UP UP UP- /j

Day 30: Reflection. Reflecting over how far they've come since they first came out? Reflecting on all the things that has happened that got them to this spot? Reminiscing about the past? Or is it a reflection like a mirror? You decide!

I hope to see some of you in June! <3

[maxdibert]

I feel like the main reason why people love the marauders era so much is because it is very easy to create a bunch of aesthetics out of it. It's the 70s so people already glamorize it and make it edgy etc. and that's why the fans get lost in their stories. It's all fun and games, dancing, fighting, passion and rebellions that people just romanticize every single character and completely erase or downplay who they actually were. Like with Lily, James, Remus and Sirius. They all smoke cigarettes while listening to ABBA after a day of making silly pranks or fighting for a "cause" during a war. People just project their desires and fantasies into these characters when in reality they all kind of sucked and noone would probably want to live in an era of war and rising fascism with these people.

Honestly, I have no issue with them creating a parallel universe where it's practically a Muggle school with occasional spells because everything about that fandom’s dynamic is basically your average teen drama series. I get where that comes from, and that’s fine—the inseparable friends trope, high school drama, self-discovery, and all that stuff we’ve all related to at some point, even if those of us over 25 find it boring now because it feels far removed from our lives, which are more about paying bills and antidepressants. But I understand the fandom. I understand why they love to idealize it. I get why they’re so into creating "headcanons" that aren’t even headcanons but just rewriting the canon to reflect their image and make them feel seen.

My only real issue, the one thing that genuinely bothers me about that fandom, is that they include absolutely everyone—characters who canonically didn’t even overlap in school years, characters who are canonically psychopaths and torturers, characters who are literal garbage—and they justify everyone. Everyone except one. And that one character, unsurprisingly, is Severus Snape. The canonically poor, canonically unattractive, canonically unmasculine, canonically non-conforming to hegemonic standards of masculinity in both his time and ours. He’s the one who always gets all the hate. He’s the one labeled the homophobe, the sexual predator, the violent one. The one it’s okay to call ugly, disgusting, or make fun of for supposedly not showering or mockingly use his bully-given nickname. Only him. No one else. Just him.

And it disgusts me because that fandom didn’t used to be like this. They didn’t do bashing for no reason; they weren’t this childish.

Can someone from that crowd explain to me why they hate J.K. Rowling so much when they’re perpetuating the same garbage stereotypes? Why do they think they’re so avant-garde by changing the sexual orientation of every male character while relegating the female ones to decorative props, pairing them off so they don’t interfere with their MALE ships? Why do they think they’re more progressive for making Sirius "feminine" while villainizing Severus, a character canonically mocked for being unmasculine? Why do they label James Potter as a saint under the rainbow flag and call Snape a homophobe when it was James who canonically mocked Snape for his appearance and for not fitting the mold of hegemonic masculinity? Why do they go on about body positivity, headcanoning Regulus with crooked teeth or Lily as plus-size, while turning around and mocking Snape for—God, this is so laughably ridiculous—not fitting beauty standards? They literally have posts laughing at him for having a big nose or greasy hair and then have the nerve to act like making Lily plus-size in their fics is groundbreaking?

Do they not realize how utterly hypocritical, cynical, and cringe they are?

If this wasn’t the case, I honestly wouldn’t give a damn about that fandom. I wouldn’t care if they idolized a bunch of bullies or treated a group of budding psychopaths as misunderstood kids. Really, I wouldn’t care. But trying to sell this idea that they’re so inclusive, so free of prejudice, and that their view of these characters is doing the world a favor when they’re perpetuating the same prejudiced, discriminatory, classist, and misogynistic crap as J.K. Rowling on one of her better days on Twitter? They can go straight to hell with that.

Stop bashing a character for no reason, especially when that character canonically embodies everything they claim to be fighting for with their pastel pink version of "That '70s Show." Give me a break. Tell it to someone else.

[mythalism]

about ai in fanfic, wasn't there some huge drama about a popular solavellan fanfic "writer" who used ai to pump out a total of 700k words in a month or something a while back?

I will never understand people who do that, not stolen valour, but just fake valour. Cheap plastic valour that breaks after a single use.

i have been largely not commenting on these AI fic debacles because im controversial enough on my own however at this point its getting so fucking annoying that idc anymore. yes people across the fandom keep writing AI fics that are blatantly AI in terms of the INSANE literally physically impossible word counts in short periods of time, lore inconsistencies, internal inconsistencies (characters changing eye color between chapters, for example), repetitive prose, repetitive scenes (like literally the same scene happening 5 times), repetitive formatting (very little variation in paragraph length), absolutely no spelling or grammar mistakes in an entire 400k word fic, no intentional stylistic errors, no character development across 400k words, strange nonsensical metaphors, and also they just feel... off? i DNF'd the one you're alluding to because it was just OFF. also i thought the portrayal of sexual assault was careless and clumsy and the age dynamics were... bizarre. a red flag even. AND THIS IS ALL NOT EVEN MENTIONING THAT THESE FICS COME UP AS 70-100% AI ON AI DETECTORS. ive literally been trying for weeks to get a false positive and ive yet to be successful. nothing human-made that i have put in that detector has ever come up as more than 0% AI. nothing. and yet people are literally fighting for their lives in the streets to defend these authors against "false accusations"? when they get accused and then cannot provide any proof in the form of notes, outlines, google docs version history? and then people start sending the accusers death threats and calling them slurs????? (yes this happened on both twitter and tumblr) ARE YOU PEOPLE FUCKING INSANE???????? WHAT DO YOU GET BY DEFENDING THESE PEOPLE THAT ARE LYING TO YOU???? POINTING OUT A FIC IS AI IS NOT BULLYING. ITS NOT A SMEAR CAMPAIGN. ITS A FACTUAL STATEMENT THAT MAKES THEM UNCOMFORTABLE BECAUSE THEY ARE RIGHTFULLY ASHAMED. GET A GRIP OHHHH MY GOD. dragon age has famously some of the most fantastic fic i have ever encountered and the fact that people are literally putting forth AI slop TRAINED THROUGH PLAGIARISM OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN PUTTING THEIR SOULS INTO THEIR WRITING FOR YEARS is so disgusting. AI is encroaching on every facet of our fucking lives and if you cannot speak up against it we are going to be literally devoured by it. chatGPT's energy consumption is immense, it uses the same amount of wattage daily as 180,000 US households and consuming what is equal to a bottle of water with EVERY. SINGLE. CONVERSATION. and every time someone uses it to write one of this braindead fucking fics THEY ARE DELIBERATELY CONTRIBUTING TO THIS. THE CEO OF OPEN AI HAD A FRONT ROW FUCKING SEAT AT TRUMP'S INAUGURATION AND DONATED A MILLION FUCKING DOLLARS TO HIS INAUGURAL FUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY ARE WORKING TOGETHER!!!!! DOES THIS NOT INFURIATE YOU? YOU ARE MORALLY BANKRUPT!!!!!!!!! HOW DARE YOU CONTRIBUTE TO THIS????? FOR WHAT???? INTERNET CLOUT???? THAT YOU DID NOT EVEN EARN YOURSELF????????? GOODBYE!!!!!! LITERALLY LOG OFF. I WILL CHASE YOU OFF THE INTERNET WITH A BROOM I CANNOT STAND IT!!! GET OUT AND DONT LET THE DOOR HIT YOU ON THE WAY OUT

[octosan]

No but when I say that the problem isn't that Veilguard is bad (when it is IMO) I'm specifically saying that I would have forgiven so much about this game in a vacuum.

In a vacuum, Veilguard feels like a genuine attempt to release a AAA game that isn't preying on its consumers with live service models, overpaid DLC that should have been in the main game, and obvious gamebreaking glitches that turn average players into unpaid beta-testers. And when I was playing it, in a lot of ways it felt like the most technically finished dragon age game of the series. It's the first dragon age game since Origins that doesn't need to be launched by the actually broken EA App! It actually has accessibility options!

But is it really less predatory to misrepresent the tone and content of the game to longtime fans? To not give so much as a warning that it, at the very least, would not be more in line with the writing and depth-of-lore of previous entries? To baldfacedly and repeatedly lie about the development cycle which shrewd players knew by heart already? Is it really okay, is it really acceptable, to wave our hands and go "well the devs probably signed an NDA that makes it so they can't openly address critique" for a game that is 70+ dollars USD and pushes merch that costs upwards of 150 dollars and is (in my understanding) even more expensive overseas? Should I, an average player, have been expected to research the ins and outs of game development language to read between the lines?

Like there's so many... greedy? decisions in this game. I have such a hard time believing that they redesigned the complex and terrifying red lyrium idol into a generic blue fantasy dagger (a redesign so half-assed they had to include a beat in the game where a character "recognizes it" for players to even know it was the same thing) for any reason other than making it easier to replicate as cosplay merch they can sell in their Rook's Coffers bundle which doesn't even include the game.

I mean the fact that they claimed, in the marketing, that the character designs in Inquisition and Veilguard were both made with cosplayers in mind should have been another red flag to me tbh.

Is this really okay?

Like,

I was (briefly) in the Bioware server, you know? I was surrounded by people who were so excited for this game and how it would follow up on previous installments. And every time someone had misgivings because of what they were seeing in the marketing, the general attitude was "everyone who worked on the game is so excited about releasing it, the writers and the devs and even the voice actors, so I will trust them that it is good." People pre-ordered the game even knowing it might not be good because "It's Dragon Age", to say nothing of people who pre-emptively bought that merch bundle.

I was one of those people. I thought "why would they bring attention to this stuff if it wasn't good? Why would they go on about how deep and rich the lore and characters are, how the story balances grim and light-hearted moments, how good the banter is, how much you can shape your Rook and their feelings on their own backstory in roleplay, how Veilguard is better written than all of the prior games, why would they say that this is the best DA game they've ever worked on, if they, at least, don't believe it? Even if in the end I'll find my tastes are different in regards to the narrative choices, it can't be worse than DA2--very flawed but which I loved--or even Inquisition--which I hated (or thought I did until now) but still get a lot of mileage out of. It will still feel like Dragon Age. So yeah, it'll be worth it to me to spend this money."

My sister dfkgkdfkgfdsk begged me to wait until the game was on sale before buying it, but the thought of waiting months and months for that made me feel depressed and again--I took the developers at their word that it would be good.

This is a joke I know the developers are not literally as bad as Gortash.

Now, though, I feel sick and embarrassed that I spent so much money on this game in a time of my life when money is increasingly becoming an issue. When I actively wish I hadn't played this game at all and had its lore and narrative decisions burned into my brain.

And it's taking me days and days to even unpack and articulate this, every time I think I'm done venting the worst of my grief I realize I have more to say.

I've seen that Jenny Nicholson quote going around lately and it's very poignant, but you know what Jenny Nicholson video reminds me of Veilguard the most?

The Star Wars Galactic Cruise video. If you haven't watched it yet, you really should click the link and check it out because it's a fantastic video, the best example of niche journalism I've personally ever seen.

I think about the ways that every point she makes in her video talking about this atrocious money-sucking Disney attraction reminds me of Veilguard. Right up to the very end where we see what we COULD have gotten and didn't because of corporate greed.

As well as the fact that there is a significant crowd of people who not only enjoy Veilguard (which again, is not an issue and I'm genuinely glad if the decisions the devs made made this a better experience for you than previous games because I would not wish this sheer level of buyer's remorse on anyone) but are claiming that the fans sitting here feeling scammed out of unreasonable amounts of money because of the misleading marketing just had "too high expectations" and "you get what you put into it" as if we don't have previous dragon age games with their shitty development cycles to point to in what we wanted out of this one and what the devs were capable of putting into it.

Exactly the same crowd claiming that people paying for an upwards $6,000 USD LARP experience are being "too nitpicky" when they point out various problems like the game breaks for some people and they didn't even make sure everyone can see the stage at the dinner show.

[coimbrabertone]

A Postmortem on the Competitive Era of MotoGP

Okay, that is a very dramatic title, and hopefully, a year from now I'll be able to look at this and say I was wrong, but...I think MotoGP's competitive era is over.

First let me explain what I mean by competitive era.

Grand Prix motorcycle racing, more so than other forms of motorsport, I think, is prone to eras of complete dominance. Agostini in the 60s and 70s, Doohan in the 90s, Rossi in the 2000s, and Marc Marquez in the 2010s. Marc Marquez's run of dominance, however, came to an abrupt end at the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix.

Here, Marquez crashed riding maniacally to make his way to the lead. Marc broke his right arm and started a multi-year struggle with injury that would impact his 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 seasons. This would also ultimately end Marc's relationship with Honda, as at the end of 2023, he decided to move to a Gresini Ducati.

In the meantime, MotoGP was wide open.

Joan Mir on a Suzuki won the 2020 championship on consistency over the Petronas Yamaha of Franco Morbidelli, with teammate Alex Rins in third.

Fabio Quartararo on a factory Yamaha won 2021 over the raw speed of Ducati's Pecco Bagnaia and Suzuki's Joan Mir.

Pecco Bagnaia got the upper hand over Fabio Quartararo in 2022, with additional challenges from the Gresini Ducati of Enea Bastianini and the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro.

Bagnaia won again in 2023, but it was a new cast of characters around him. Instead of being pressured from outside, he was being pressured from within as the Pramac Ducati of Jorge Martin and the VR46 Ducati of Marco Bezzecchi challenged him for the championship.

2024, however, is when things started getting stale. Jorge Martin won the championship over Pecco Bagnaia - the same top two from last year, just in a different order - whilst Marc Marquez on the Gresini Ducati was third, and Enea Bastianini on the factory Ducati was in fourth.

Five years with four different champions.

Suzuki riders, Yamaha riders, factory Ducati riders, and satellite Ducati riders.

It was variety, it was amazing.

However...it was already getting stale this year.

Ducati has been the strongest for a few years now, I admit that even as someone who initially was in favor of Ducati dominance - my logic being that Honda and Yamaha have dominated MotoGP for so long that it was nice to see a European bike take a turn on top - and they've really mastered it this year.

KTM didn't win anything this year.

Aprilia only won two sprints and a single race.

The entire winning constructor column on Wikipedia is a sea of Italian flags without interruption.

And I fear it's only going to get worse for 2025, because Marc Marquez will be on a factory Ducati. After four years of being broken and one year of being on year old machinery, I fear that we may be seeing the Marquez revenge tour for the next few years.

Now, I'm sure for Marquez fans, they'll have a lot of fun.

But...I'm not a Marquez fan.

I'm a Ducati fan, I suppose, but even then, I'm more of a competition fan. The last few years I've found myself turning away from Ducati and becoming an Aprilia fan. The problem with Aprilia, however, is that Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales are good riders, sure, but they're not the kind of riders Aprilia needs to take the fight to the Bolognese.

So Aprilia has made a change for 2025.

Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi.

I think this is a good change. I don't like Martin, his personality rubs me the wrong way and I've spent the last two years rooting against him, but hey, it's Aprilia nabbing the reigning champion, so I understand why they'd want that.

Marco Bezzecchi I'm more excited about. I like him more as a rider, and while I expect Martin to be faster, I hope Marco gets some success too, because then I could at least enjoy some of Aprilia's successes.

Assuming, of course, that Marquez doesn't go and win everything next year.

Will KTM be able to provide any resistance? Maybe. Pedro Acosta is impressive, and Brad Binder has put on some performances at the end of this year to finish ahead of Acosta in the standings, but neither of them have finished any higher than second, so...what they can do depends on where the 2025 KTM is.

The same goes for the new Tech3 KTM lineup of Maverick Vinales and Enea Bastianini, two riders I like - I was glad to see Vinales succeed at the USGP, while Enea has been the rider I've rooted for in MotoGP ever since I became an active fan - they're both moody riders. On their day, they're invincible, problem is that their day doesn't come around nearly often enough to mark a consistent challenge.

And to add insult to injury, Pierer Mobility Group is suffering poor sales globally.

This is why Tech3 is going to be a KTM team instead of a GasGas team, because Pierer is refocusing their marketing on their core brand to try and regain stock value.

So...maybe they can challenge, but I'm not particularly optimistic.

Yamaha? They're gonna need a hell of a lot more speed if they want to challenge.

Honda? Look, yesterday at the Solidarity GP, Joan Mir crashed on the Honda and Neil Hodgson went "oh it's Mir time" so...the less said about Honda right now, the better.

Especially with Repsol gone.

How about the rest of Ducati?

Well, Bagnaia still won eleven races this year, so he's certainly still a force, but is he capable of beating Marc Marquez on equal machinery? I hope so, but given that Bagnaia just got beat by Jorge Martin on equal machinery, I'm not sure if I'm optimistic.

There is also only going to be one more factory-spec Ducati in 2024. Pramac has gone over to Yamaha, while Ducati has given a single GP25 to VR46, putting it in the hands of Fabio Di Giannantonio.

I think Digia will be good on the GP25 this year, and maybe he'll win a couple of races, but I expect him to finish somewhere between third and fifth. Third if no one else can challenge Ducati, fourth or fifth if the likes of Aprilia or KTM can start to pressure the Ducatis.

So overall, I think most races next year will finish with Marquez and Bagnaia in the top two slots, and everyone else fighting for third. The bright side for everyone else, I suppose, is that both Marc and Pecco can be crash prone, so maybe that's where all the other wins will come from.

Will that be good?

We'll see.

Was this competitive era good?

Yes.

Hearing about 2020 and 2021 and paying attention to the very end of the 2022 season is what made me want to become a MotoGP fan. I watched the entire 2023 season on janky streams, I was relieved as hell to see the 2024 season come onto Max so that I could watch MotoGP legally and safely - and share it with my racing friends - so for me, this competitive era has been great.

The entire reason I'm writing this blogpost is because I'm scared that MotoGP is turning for the worse just as I've become a fan.

So what era do I think is most comparable to this competitive era?

The early 2000s. Let's say 1999-2003 for instance.

1999, Mick Doohan gets injured and suddenly the best 500cc GP rider is out of the picture. Alex Crivillé on a Repsol Honda and Kenny Roberts Jr. on a Suzuki battled for the title, with occasional appearances by the other two Repsol Hondas of Tadayuki Odaka and Sete Gibernau, as well as Max Biaggi who was dragging that Marlboro Yamaha forward.

2000 continued the trends, with Kenny Roberts Jr. winning on the Suzuki, Valentino Rossi pressuring him on a Nastro Azzurro Honda run by Mick Doohan's former crew. Max Biaggi on the Marlboro Yamaha was third, with a huge variety of satellite riders involving themselves as well. The Emerson Hondas of Alex Barros and Loris Capirossi, the Red Bull and Antena3 Yamahas of Garry McCoy and Norifumi Abe, Carlos Checa on the other Marlboro Yamaha, and Alex Crivillé struggling on the overpowered - no literally, it had too much power - Repsol Honda, only taking one win in his title defense.

2001 was a turn towards dominance with Valentino Rossi on that Nastro Azzurro Honda, but we still saw wins from Max Biaggi on the Yamaha. We saw the Pons team - now West Honda - continue to pressure the front with Capirossi and Barros, and Sete Gibernau won a single race on the Suzuki. Interesting how that happened twice in a row. In 1999, Crivillé on the Repsol Honda won the title just to win a single race in 2000, while in 2000, Roberts on the Suzuki won just for Suzuki to only take a single win in 2001 with Sete Gibernau at Valencia.

2002 I think lines up with 2022. Valentino Rossi, now brought into Repsol Honda, wins the first 990cc title over Max Biaggi on the Marlboro Yamaha. Tohru Ukawa on the Repsol Honda and Alex Barros on that West Honda also challenge for wins on the same bike as the champion, playing that Enea Bastianini role.

2003 then, is the Honda show much like 2024 was the Ducati show. Valentino Rossi on the Repsol Honda, Sete Gibernau on the Telefonica Gresini Honda, and Max Biaggi, now on the Camel Honda - Pons with a new title sponsor - with Loris Capirossi at Catalunya playing that Maverick Vinales at COTA role as the sole win for a different manufacturer.

2004, however, marked the end of that era. Valentino Rossi went to Yamaha and still won the title in dominant fashion. Five Hondas in the top six but it was Rossi on top with nine wins on a bike that hadn't won since 2002. That shattered the idea that Valentino Rossi was simply the best of the Hondas, instead, he was the best in the world, perhaps the best ever.

And maybe on an optimistic note, in 2025, his protege, Pecco Bagnaia, will prove that he is more than just the Ducati champion. Perhaps Bagnaia will weather the storm of Marc Marquez as his teammate and win the championship anyway.

MotoGP seems to be in a bad way, with Ducati dominant, Bagnaia having been beat by Martin, and Marc Marquez coming into Ducati and threatening to dominate.

But in 2003, everyone swore up and down that the 990cc five-cylinder Honda was the best bike in the world, only for Rossi to go onto the Yamaha and win anyway.

Honda seemed invincible in 2003, but Yamaha beat them in 2004.

Marquez seems inevitable in 2024, but maybe someone can stop him in 2025.

Maybe Pecco, maybe Martin on the Aprilia, or maybe the Japanese will shock everyone and somehow bounce back.

It's unlikely, but...maybe there's still hope.

[ohkate]

Regarding AI

You can write something entirely original, with solid grammar and spelling, and still have an AI detector claim it’s AI generated. Writers like me are walking around with the fear of having to wear a scarlet “AI” on our chests, being accused of using AI just for writing well.

In my writing club, we’ve talked about amazing writers we know who have started intentionally adding grammar and spelling mistakes to their work just to avoid accusations.

You can sometimes tell when AI has been used. Not because it’s too perfect but because it’s so not. It writes over-complicated descriptions. It overuses punctuation (at this point I'm scared to use em dashes). It throws in distracting dialogue tags. I can usually tell when I read something with dialogue tags like 'retort' or 'articulated' in places that seem odd.

That being said, AI detectors are not accurate. I spent seven months writing my story Bite, and I used 0% AI to do it. (I mean, I googled what a helicopter pilot might say during takeoff, and some basic research like military ranks, expensive alcohol and car types so the story felt more accurate, and google uses gemini. If that counts, sue me.) I had a beta reader throughout the process who saw the sweat and rewrites firsthand.

Still, someone in my writing group said their story got flagged for AI even though she's never used it before and she was mortified. So I got curious and ran Bite through two different AI detectors. One said “likely human.” The other said “70% AI.” I ran the exact same story through the same detector again a few days later just to see, and this time it said 40% AI instead of 70%... with no changes.

AI detectors aren't accurate because—THEY USE AI.

I’m converting my story to a real book and I’m combing through every line, tightening it, improving it—doing what writers do. But hearing that some literary agents are using these detectors to screen submissions is scary. Because now, if you write anything remotely polished, people might assume a bot did it.

You don’t need AI to write. You need to read more. Write more. That’s how you get better. That’s how I got better. Honestly, writing weekly 100-word Gallavich drabbles has helped more than anything. Learning to strip things down, say more with less... that sharpened every other part of my writing. If you compare my first AO3 story to my latest, the difference is night and day.

So yeah, I hate AI for how it devalues the work we put in. But we also need to be careful not to start a witch hunt. Writing well shouldn’t be a red flag.

[nerdygaymormon]

Happy Pride 🏳️‍🌈

I want to wish a Happy Pride to:

Thumb Rings

Throughout history, accessories have been used by marginalized groups who turn everyday items into subtle symbols of identity and resistance. Women traditionally wear one or two pretty rings on their fingers. If a woman has 3 or more rings on her hand, especially if those rings wouldn't be seen as delicate and beautiful, and even more so if she's wearing a ring on her thumb, this act of rebellion against traditional beauty aesthetics is a subtle way for someone to signal they are a lesbian.

Chuck Taylors (Converse All Star shoes)

It may seem like a paradox that the best selling sneaker of all time could be a symbol of nonconformity–but it is.

In the 60s and 70s, it was considered rebellious to wear sneakers outside of the gym and was seen as anti-establishment. The grunge music scene of the 1990s adopted Chucks in their aesthetic and Kurt Cobain was almost never pictured without a pair, which he would regularly scrawl on. In a room full of people wearing them, it’s unlikely two people will be donning these shoes the same way or for the same reason. Maybe it’s somebody rejecting what's considered fashionable, maybe it’s a sulking skate-kid, or someone channeling a bygone subculture.

Given that rebellious, nonconforming reputation, it isn't surprising that these shoes are popular in the LGBTQ+ community, plus Chuck Taylors are offered in unisex sizes, making them accessible to people of all genders. For years, Converse has been creating annual Pride collections as a way to celebrate the queer community and show its support for inclusivity. Since launching its first Pride campaign and collection in 2015, Converse has donated nearly $3 million to LGBTQIA+ organizations.

The Gay Agenda

The phrase "gay agenda" was first popularized in 1992 by a California evangelical group as part of its effort to create fear and hostility of LGBTQ people and to build opposition to efforts for LGBTQ rights, such as getting married, to not be fired from a job simply for being queer, and to be allowed to serve in the military. The term "the gay agenda" was accompanied by a lot of false claims and accusations, and was effective for a number of years. The queer community changed this from an anti-queer slogan to one which is largely benign by reclaiming it (yes, we do have a gay agenda which is equal rights), using comedy to skewer the anti-queer meaning (the real gay agenda is getting Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance for when it's raining men and a nationwide ban on pleated pants), and most of all by the success of obtaining queer rights.

Zucchini

In 2010, someone going by the name Kaz expressed frustration that there wasn't a good term to describe a relationship which isn't romantic or sexual but has a more intense level of commitment, status, and structure than a friendship. Meloukhia responded by calling these "queerplatonic relationships" (QPR's) and suggested that the people in them be called zucchini. In other words, it was a joking way to point out that a term didn't exist that accurately described someone in this sort of relationship, so they took an existing word and gave it a new definition. The term took off and by 2014 it was well-known enough to be used in the title of the zine Rotten Zucchinis which discusses queerplatonic relationships (check out their primer on QPRs).

Gaysper

In April 2019, a political party in Spain posted an image of symbols of their opponents which included feminists, anti-fascists, news organizations, and a modified version of the Android 5.0 ghost emoji in the colors of the LGBT flag. This was initially met by a negative reaction from the LGBT community, but they started using it in memes and eventually it became reappropriated as a symbol for the queer community. The icon became known as Gaysper, which is a portmanteau of the word Gay with Casper the Friendly Ghost. It's been used by the press, on television, and at Pride events. Versions of Gaysper using the colors of other queer flags have become common in the LGBTQ+ community in Spain and beyond.

The Trevor Project

In 1998, HBO was going to air an Academy Award–winning short film titled Trevor, which is about a gay thirteen-year-old boy who is rejected by friends because of his sexuality and he attempts suicide. The filmmakers realized that some of the program's young viewers might be facing the same kind of crisis as the Trevor character and wanted a support line to be shown when the film aired, but they discovered that no such helpline existed. They used the license fee from HBO along with funds provided by The Colin Higgins Foundation to create an organization to setup the first nationwide, around-the-clock crisis and suicide prevention helpline for LGBTQ youth. The Trevor Project works to promote acceptance of LGBTQ youth, and to aid in crisis and suicide prevention among that group. The Trevor Project also does school workshops and undertakes mental health research focusing on LGBTQ youth.

Those who blame things on Mercury being in retrograde

Do your queer friends regularly forecast your Saturn return or blame Mercury being in retrograde when something unfortunate happens, that's not surprising as a Pew Research survey shows that LGBTQ+ Americans are twice as likely as their peers to embrace astrology in their day-to-day lives.

Because Mercury's orbit around the sun is faster than Earth's, when it "laps" the Earth it appears to be moving backwards from our viewpoint. This is an optical illusion which is known as "Mercury in retrograde." Many people blame bad things, especially related to communication, transport, and tech, on Mercury being in retrograde. It's fun to be able to blame bad things on something other than ourselves (Ack! I didn't mean to send that text to the whole group, I wonder if Mercury is in retrograde).

The High Five

The high five is a hand gesture where two people simultaneously raise one hand and slap the flat of their palm against the other. The gesture is often preceded verbally by a phrase like "Give me five", "High five", or "Up top." It can be a greeting, a congratulations, and a celebration.

Many don't know that Glenn Burke, a gay outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, is credited as the inventor of the gesture in 1977, it quickly caught on after he gave a high five to a teammate following a homerun. After retiring from baseball, Glenn used the high five with other gay residents of the Castro district of San Francisco, where it became a symbol of gay pride.

Lemon Bars

Inspired in part by a Star Wars t-shirt that said "Come to the Dark Side. We have cookies," in May 2018, Reddit user u/Tuxedo-T-Shirt posted to the r/bisexual subreddit "Welcome to the Bi Side! Have a lemon bar!" and the greeting took off. Within a few months, lemon bars became such a popular topic of posts they have their own tag—or “flair,” as it’s known on Reddit. Even Urban Dictionary now defines the dessert as “the official snack treat of bisexuality.”

One explanation is that “lemon bars are the unsung heroes of the pastry world, and they’re crazy f**king delicious, but they get put in the background all the times behind less bold flavours.” Kind of like how bisexuals often aren't so visible or appreciated in the queer community.

Until about 10 years ago, most of the bisexual stereotypes which existed were biphobic, but a bi microculture has emerged online with good-natured and often self-deprecating stereotypes being created by, with, and for bisexual people. According to this microculture, in addition to liking lemon bars, some other things they've agreed upon is that bisexuals cuff their jeans, don't sit in a normal way, wear denim and/or leather jackets, and they use finger guns and/or flash the peace sign (with either hand gesture, the individual is using two fingers, which also acts as a reference to the attraction to two or more genders).

[astr0exe]

K9 [COD MEN (POLY??) X M!READER] CH1

Ch.1 , Ch.2 , Ch.3

CAS’ MASTERLIST !!

reader is transmac and autistic cause i said so :)

AO3 VERSION : K9

SUMMARY: The boys meet someone new. He seems cool but his dog seems to enjoy ripping people apart.// The boys meet the K9 trainer

(first time transferring my AO3 work to tumblr so)

(my writing is also quite shit but hey ho)

( i project so so bad with this character)

(pls give me feed back)

CHAPTER 1

Soap's POV :

The Captain dragged us into a meeting and we have no idea why. I was busy watching Princess And The Frog after working out for ages, I just wanted to relax after so many back-to-back missions.

"Thank you all for showing up I do appreciate it, I know we are all probably tired, however I thought this was important to discuss before you saw them around the base." Huh saw who around base? Is someone new joining? I glanced around the room and caught Gaz's confused eyes.

"See who sir?" I asked cautiously, "___ they are the K9 trainer and his callsign is K9 because of this. He has a fully-grown perfectly trained cane corso who is with ___ at all times. If any of you are scared of big dogs then I am sorry because Bucky is huge. There will be a meeting introducing you all do not worry but I thought I should give you a heads up. Dismissed." Answered Price.

Whilst walking next to Ghost in the hallway I couldn't help thinking about what Price said. I don't even know what a cane corso looks like. Oh well, when I get to my room I'll find out cause Google is my friend. "Hey, Lt. Do you know what a cane corso looks like?" I questioned, "I think I have an idea, pretty sure they grow up to 70 cm (27.5 inches) ish and weigh up to 50 kgs (110 pounds) They are massive dogs." Ghost murmured.

I could feel my eyes bulging out of my sockets at the thought of a dog that big.As I finally got to my room, I instantly looked up what a cane corso looked like and I think I shit myself. I have to meet one of those tomorrow.

Time skip : meeting K9 and Bucky

We all sat in the common room for our introductions. Me and Gaz were playing uno whilst Ghost was just watching us like a babysitter would with two children whilst we were waiting for Price and ___. Slowly we heard footsteps, they sounded heavy like platform boots, you could hear heavy breathing coming from Bucky and mumbling muffled talking from K9 and Price. The footsteps gradually increased in volume until Price walked in along with an awkward-looking guy. He wore large combat boots which had to add at least 3 inches to his height, and a large leather jacket with lots of patches on ranging from band patches to quotes. Oh and a trans flag. Nice. His belt was studded like he bought it in the 2000s with added chains which actually looked heavy, he had black eyeliner on and a face mask. If he wasn't like 5"7 with his boots on I'd say he was terrifying.

After I finally stopped staring at this Greek god of an emo boy and got my shit together I noticed his dog, Bucky, who was eyeing everyone wearily as if at any point we would attack him or ___. With how intimidating they both look I think they suit each other.

"Um hi I'm ___ or K9 and I'll be training dogs you take on missions and sometimes taking the dogs on the missions myself. Nice to meet you all. As you all know, this is Bucky, he won't hurt you." He giggled towards the end and oh my god it's like I heard heaven gates open and when I gazed around the room I knew everyone felt the same with all the wide eyes and stuttering introductions.

"Well these are my boys, Lt. Ghost Riley , Sergeant Soap Mactavish and Sergeant Gaz Garrick. Boys this is Sergeant K9 he will be working with you as he described he will also be living on base and training with you lads so I expect them to come back to me feeling welcomed into the Taskforce is that clear?" Demanded Price. "Yes Sir." We all responded in unison.

As I observe K9 and Bucky I cant help but smile at how at ease he seems with his dog. I think he is gonna fit in perfectly.

[sparklyshakespeare]

the case for hyper-femme hotspur

this is my tumblr blog and this is like kind of just what we do heresies

OK so basically okay so

first of all i think anytime there is a character who is so strongly associated with an extreme form of gender expression in our collective zeitgeist (i.e hotspur and hyper-masculinity) there’s something not only extremely fun to play with but incredibly valuable about analyzing the story from the opposite end of the gender performance specturm. also canonically there are like 3 female characters in 1h4 and that sucks. also also don’t you want to see hotspur in pink glitter? i know i do and this tumblr is not a democracy!!

in this hypothetical dream sparkly version of the play, both hotspur and worcester would be women. not played by women, i mean textually explicitly women. this is important!! 

worcester should be very nancy pelosi hillary clinton-esque in the way that this is a middle-aged woman who has been taught that to be successful in her field (politics) she will have to strip herself of most of her femininity and perform a certain level of masculinity in order to be taken seriously. this creates a whole other layer to the hotspur/worcester dynamic when all of a sudden this young, hyper-feminine woman is being taken more seriously and being given more praise than someone who has worked and fought through the bullshit and done it all “right”. she hasn’t earned her place, she hasn’t had to struggle - and worcester resents her for that. (there’s like a whole dissertation to be written about how much of 1h4 changes when only worcester is genderbent, i love you queen worcester you are everything not in this version here you kind of suck lowkey)

henry iv is just a misogynist he just kinda sucks but like this is something we all knew screw that guy

ok now we can talk about hal because i know hes like the one all you little gay people care about. 

to me, it’s never made sense why the Henriad is framed as hal’s hero’s journey. maybe it’s because i’m queer (i’m like actually positive that’s why), but leaving home and finding acceptance and family from a group of outsiders who society has deemed as worthless is the path i’ve watched so many friends walk. having to leave that and return to your shitty dad because “duty calls!” and THEN leaving behind and disavowing the same community that opened its arms to you? i don’t see that as an awesome coming-of-age about learning how to handle responsibility, that’s deeply, deeply tragic. and far farrrrr too true a reality for most members of our LGBTQ+ community here (Bible Belt). SO guess where this version of 1h4 is set!!!!!! anyways, its the Medieval Revival of the ‘70s in the Bible Belt south, the Boar’s Head is a gay bar, and hal is trans. 

hal is trans-masc in some way and this needs to be incredibly explicit (like pronouns pin with trans flag on costume explicit). and then when the news breaks, when “I’ll to the court in the morning.” (we’re cutting the text so this is where that scene ends. cool? cool. cool!), hal takes the pin off. it needs to be like A Moment. it should make me cry, and i cry really easily so that’ll probably be pretty easy to do, but this is a gut punch. 

oh and lady percy is still a woman, they’re gay, because i said so. blah blah blah because look hotspur and hal really were so alike all along and look hotspur is fighting so voraciously because she’s hungry for a world where she can openly and unabashedly be with the person she loves but ultimately because i love lady percy and i love lesbians and this play doesn’t need another man. but also because look hotspur is fighting so voraciously because she’s hungry for a world where she can openly and unabashedly be with the person she loves. worcester and vernon should also both be women and have the blossoming of a relationship but be a lot more discreet about it (worcester should be extremely hesitant). now we get a cool split between younger and older generations of activists in both the feminist and the gay rights movement oooo themes oooo motifs oooo lady gagita 

as far as hal/hotspur parallels go, it’s probably pretty obvious at this point. your dad constantly praising someone who represents, at least in his mind, the ideal concept of a woman, disappointed you can’t be more like her, all the while you’re coming to terms with the fact that you’re not a woman, but he’ll never see that, so what the fuck are you supposed to do?!? it’s a LOT! but i think there’s also something to be said about the less obvious parallel. which is that hyper-femininity is NOT an attempt at ideal polite womanhood or self-Stepfordization, hyper-femininity is in fact the extreme performance of womanhood in rejection of that. hyper-femininity is queer in nature (also hotspur quite literally has a wife but i guess hal wouldn’t be able to tell that just by looking at her) there’s something to be said about the moment hal and hotspur see each other, and then the moment hal and hotspur seeeeeee each other. and go hey, you’re just like me. this person who you’ve been constantly compared to and made out to be lesser than  because you dare to be deeply wildly madly truly you is in fact exactly the same. we’re the same. and oh my god, in another world wouldn’t it have been lovely to just like go dancing together? sucks it’s not another world now we’re going to gay fight each other i guess

[gingergofastboatsmojito]

The C person is a Beningn Narcissist

Carmy is her chosen victim.

She loved-bombed him.

He fell for her because he was vulnerable.

Disclaimer: This meta might already exist. However I tend to avoid reading about the C person, so most likely I avoided it unless it was from a mutual and crossed my way when I was in an extremely good mood, because otherwise I just can't stomach reading about her. But I doubt I'm the first person on Tumblr who noticed she's a narcissist as it can be seen pretty much from outer space. That being said, I will go for it because I have been sitting on this post since I spotted the triangulation she pulled with Tiff on June 26. But also, writing about her feels like pulling teeth to me. So wish me luck. Here I go:

I have been going over this massive black hole from Carmy's perspective on multiple occasions already:

Stuck in her mud

Backfire

He let her take the wheel

And barely edging it from hers:

Her reverse psychology

Her dark side

Source: Psychology Today

From the outside, it's quite easy to spot her first red flag 🚩when she didn't take the "wrong number hint" and bulldozed into his life. Obviously, Carmy didn't, and let's not say the C person is unattractive or downright unfuckable because that would be not only mean but also inaccurate, she's the kinda woman a guy who barely ever gets laid would be all over if she was easy and willing, which she was, even if that guy wasn't Carmy. No man with a pulse would resist a woman like that who wanted to get in his pants so badly. So Carmy was no exception. Let's not blame it all on his mental health and on Syd never giving him the slightest hint that she was interested in him as anything other than a business partner at that point. Let's be realistic.

Well, turns out that not taking the phone number hint was not her only NARCISISTIC red flag that showed her 0 fucks given for other people's agency. The list went on and on... The other one was the party she "invited him" to, basically manipulating him in the car to accept the invitation, etc. I will not go into all of her red flags because I'm positive that they have already been covered by all Sydcarmy truthers since S2 premiered.

What I will say is that those were not just red flags, they were narcissistic traits and in her case, since she's a caretaker and works in the healthcare industry, specializing in Emergency, plus she triangulated with Tiff to spread HER SIDE OF THE STORY after being broken up with in a really fucked up way to play the victim in a passive-aggressive fashion, typical of her kind, she could very well fit the criteria to be profiled as a Beningn Narcissist and that would make Carmy her victim, not her boyfriend.

It's important to clarify that having Narcissistic personality traits or a Narcissistic personality and having a Narcissistic personality disorder ARE NOT the same. I won't elaborate on that one either but FYI narcissistic TRAITS are present in 70% of the world population yet NPD only affects a much lower number. I don't cite references here because most narcissistic cases are sub-clinical, which means they do not show up in consult. So all the figures that authorities have are estimates.

That being said, the C person is a clear case of a sane person (no disorder can be diagnosed based on what's canon) who does show multiple traits that can effortlessly typecast her character as the Bening Narcissist type, which would definitely be a type that would feel attracted to someone with the dysfunctional psychological makeup that Carmy clearly has.

Again, I would rather stay out of that angle, what I will do now though, is go over all the red flags from a behavioral perspective to get to the point that actually concerns me, which is: Why is Clairmy doomed.

Her cluelessness about Carmy's unwillingness to remain in touch with her by giving her the wrong number is nothing but LACK OF EMPATHY.

BTW: his first response to her asking for his number was to give her the wrong one, but his second one was ALSO NO, repeatedly:

Her convenient "My cousin bailed on me." was nothing but another manipulation and ENTITLEMENT because she put him in a place where he was gonna look like an ass if he said no, so she assumed he was gonna agree to it if she played that card and she wasn't wrong. Of course, she wasn't, she must do this just about dozens of times a day, she's a fucking pro at it.

Not to mention her "little entitlement joke" as subtle as a bull in a china store:

Her childlike attitude is nothing but GRANDIOSITY in disguise:

She tries to mask everything with humor and sympathy, but her dysfunctional behavior is anything but funny and Carmy eventually noticed when he noticed she was absorbing him completely to the point where he had to choose between her and Syd the restaurant.

Had that been a healthy/functional relationship, he wouldn't have had to choose because they would have seen each other maybe once a week and talked every now and then like a normal couple that is in the early stages but she LOVED BOMBED HIM. She spent every spare minute she was not at the hospital either at his place or texting him. We don't know if Carmy stayed at some point at her place too, but that is plausible.

These narcissists only talk about themselves or work to make your story, or what you are saying, about them. There's no way I'm gonna rewatch and record the scene where he tells her that Sunday is his least favorite day of the week, but you sure know what I'm talking about. And it's extremely likely that such a sequence was very common between them. Those "talks to get to know each other better and share, etc..." always ended with HER anecdotes, where she looked like a heroine without a cape. I bet.

These benign narcissists have a superficial immaturity and often resemble teenagers, as they don't have emotional maturity, which is also why Carmy and her felt this mutual attraction since they were young. They were always a match.

He's also an emotionally immature person, but in his case is a trauma response, not a narcissistic trait. I went over his immaturity here.

But Carmy is changing. He's learning the hard way.

Bonus track: She's the predator, he is the prey.

I wanna point out how Claire displayed predatory behaviors, viewing Carmy as her prey because by overruling his consent in giving her his personal contact information and then love bombing him as I explained above she was trying to own him, not just be with him. She was trying to take over every minute of his time, which is what we saw in S2 and gladly ended like this ↓

But it could have very well ended like IRL, where the prey is completely isolated from their circle and loses friends, family, jobs, etc. Before they notice, their entire world revolves around the predator, which makes them stick by their side because is not like they have anyone else. The prey ends up with an empty life where the predator is their only company, their only "friend", their only link to any social life. As you can imagine ending and leaving those relationships is complicated and it's also usually devastating for the "prey". Carmy didn't take it that far, thanks to Cicero's intervention and because he was actually already "taken" by Syd. Otherwise, the story would have been quite different. Carmy's walk-in breakdown also helped. That trauma triggered the crisis that brought to the front of his mind all the reasons why C is not and will never be the person he should be with, not because she represents amusement and enjoyment but because she represents a mirror that will forever reflect and replicate his own dark side, the dark side he wants to break free from, for Syd and for the star he feels he owes her.

B side: How do Narcissists pick their prey? Narcissists feel attracted by people's strengths and talents because they feel their "prey" makes THEM look good. The trophy wife/husband is a typical accessory these types love to wear and collect. If we dig into C's past we will most likely find many "Carmys", possibly doctors, professors, etc. Narcissists feel attracted to those who validate their feelings and are docile so they can get their way with them. This was the test and Carmy failed, which gave her the greenlight she wanted and needed to do her thing:

Had Carmy stood his ground, she wouldn't have considered him "prey material". The second test came seconds later when she asked him to help her move her thriving mother's boxes out of nowhere. Again, she pushed and he didn't stand his ground, she advanced. And that's how she was testing him over and over in every interaction to see how far he let her go, the further, the more his prey status consolidated in her eyes. Otherwise, she would have lost interest in him pretty much immediately, and in her version of the story he would have been a piece of shit who lied to her from the get-go and that would have been the story that she would have made sure got spread around. Narcissists feel attracted to people who overlook their shortcomings and won't leave them high and dry because they want to foster a co-dependent relationship with their prey for the reasons aforementioned, and C did that in the car, at the party, etc. She was open about certain things that she did in her past, strategically breadcrumbed for him to think of her as "real and honest" but also a test to see how he reacted to them, he let them slide. He didn't see a red flag in her circle of 30-year-old kleptomaniac teenager-like friends who threw a party mid-week and played with fireworks in a backyard till someone called the police on them. Again, Carmy FAILED the test, which greenlighted her.

I won't elaborate on the following concepts because they are painfully obvious: Narcissists are attracted to people with low self-esteem and co-dependency issues, which is exactly what due to his history of abuse with Donna, that is the only abuse she knew about but it's only the first one on Carmy's record because Chef Fields came next, she knew Carmy fit these criteria. Jeremy recently said in an interview that there's a co-dependency issue between his character and Jamie Lee Curti's and of course, there's Donna’s alcoholism → Narcissists are attracted to someone who has already UNSUCCESSFULLY DEALT WITH another narcissist because that is precisely what entails the low self-esteem and co-dependency issues they need their prey to have so they can succeed in predating on them.

All of these behaviors or red flags are obviously operated from an unconscious level. C is not deliberately and consciously choosing to do any of this. She's soooo used to operating on this level that this is exactly like breathing for her. The break-up with Carmy may or may not be a wake-up call for her but no one can change personalities. Either way, IDGAF TBH.

Remember to follow my tag #Gingerpovs 💋

[p41nty]

adam katz has done way too much shit and y'all just let it slide we all know about the ableism in the show and the fact he blocked who dared criticize him, but let's talk about the blatant ZIONISM of this man:

he had an isreali flag in his instagram bio until he was called out for it.

he said he put it there for "jewish pride" BITCH THAT'S NOT AN EXCUSE, THE GENOCIDE HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR 70 YEARS

he originally wanted to delay an episode for ONE DAY "to express our condemnation of violence"… sounds like shitty white man capitalist performative activism doesn't it

when he was called out he deleted his twt, privated his instagram and blamed it all on "harassment" and "death threats". what a fucking coward. y'all yt ppl love using the word "harassment" as a fucking buzzword

his mother, jill katz, openly expressed her support for isreal and was following the IOF on twitter. guess the apple doesn't fall far away from the tree.

we should kill this fucker already

do i even have the mental capacity to reply to this coherently.

adam is not his mother? he doesnt share the same views? hes made it explicitly clear he does not support the genocide. hes a jewish man who wanted to celebrate jewish pride but all of you motherfuckers think that just because someone is jewish means they support israels actions. news flash, they DONT.

have you even been on twitter to witness the threats actually happening? i have SEEN people be absolutely horrible to that man and send him death threats and harass him. but just because hes a white man you seem to think he just throws around that word to get sympathy. how is he gonna SEE any of the sympathy if he doesnt have any accounts to begin with?

and im not gonna pretend i wasnt pissed off at ae's shit episode delay, i was. i was infuriated that they thought one day was enough.

they heard us and changed it in the end didnt they? they listened to us and delayed it another week to make room for more awareness

of course at the time preferably not air it at all as it would act as a distraction from what was happen but ae is kinda going downhill so im not really surprised + the ableism thing has been going on for a while with the entire team and not just adam on his own (this is not defending him im mentally disabled myself so seeing him do this stuff is also harming towards me)

"blocked people who dared criticize him" because it resulted in him getting harassed. he unblocked them and apologised + put out a public apology about it later on (and it was well written might i add) since he had to step back and take a breather due to all the harassment he received

let me say this again.

NOT ALL JEWISH PEOPLE ARE ZIONISTS. ADAM DOESNT SHARE THE SAME VIEWS AS HIS MOTHER. LEAVE HIM AND HIS RELIGIONS BELIEFS ALONE.

the fact youre wishing actual DEATH on him makes you no better.