“But Skyler fucked Ted!” I wish she’d fucked Walter’s mom actually. I wish she’d told Walt to kill himself every day for breakfast lunch and dinner. I wish she had taught Holly to say “dad sucks” as her first words. So no she wasn’t perfect.
Did you know that between 1939 and 1941 the NYC Tax Administration and the Works Progress Administration collaborated to take photographs of nearly every building in all 5 boroughs of New York City? And that you can see these photos today thanks to NYC Municipal archiving? This is, obviously, amazing for hundreds of reasons. For the purposes of this post, it's fantastic because this is a very real address:
And when I put that address into the photo locator map, I get this:
Going from there, we can walk around the surrounding blocks via photographs. And if we assume that Steve and Bucky's pre-war apartment was fairly close to the Barnes', then these photos from 1939 to 1941 are a historically accurate trip to their neighborhood.
So, let's explore some pre-war Brooklyn. For your fic inspiration needs, your feelings, the general Stucky vibes, or just because:
160 State Street, bigger and without the map.
(If you ever feel like making the details of a fic incredibly historically accurate, there are so many real businesses to choose from in these photos.)
Like I said, there are pictures of nearly every building. This is just a small collection of the images I grabbed from the immediate blocks around 160 State. You can walk around the neighborhood in more detail, or anywhere else in 1939-1941 New York you want on the map I used.
Anyways if you use straight jackets and other forms of restraint, padded rooms, in your art etc as someone who has not experienced this form of psych abuse I really really need you to tread lightly. I need you to be fucking respectful about it. If I see it used as a throwaway aesthetic choice or god fucking forbid as a JOKE one more time. I will set shit on fire.
I need you to understand that this is one of the worst things that can be done to someone, that it completely breaks you down. It is generally paired with isolation from other patients, sometimes In special rooms, sometimes stereotypically "padded" (though in real life I've only ever seen thick carpet being used, not whatever exists in those movies).
Really think about what it would do to you to be tied down in an empty room, no clocks, no indicator of time passing aside from the steps you hear coming down the hallway sometimes. Are they having lunch? Are they having dinner? no humans around you majority of the time, the nurses just checking on you through a window that you often cant see them through. They might be painted pink, or purple, etc, meant to "calm" you. It doesnt. It makes you lose your mind. You cant even fucking scratch your nose. There is nothing to fill the time. No reading. No listening to music. No connection to anyone who might help you. You can scream for hours, but you often quickly learn that the more you scream the longer they will keep you there like this. The most human reaction to this treatment is seen as proof of your insanity and as a need to prolong this treatment.
that it is often used to break you into compliance with whatever other fucked up shit they want to force on you. You dont want to take your meds? Well we cant legally force them down your throat (at least in some places I guess) but we CAN tie you down for a shit ton of time and the only way we will let you go is if you "consent" to taking your meds.
Your OC, your fucking blorbos, whatever, laying in a padded room tied up might be funny to you, isnt it so hilarious that they're (treated like) "one of those crazies". Look at this funny picture hihi. Sitcoms use this shit too. Psych ward, padded room, restraints, cue the laugh track.
But as one of those crazies we can usually tell when you want to actually depict our suffering and recognize it as such, give it the gravity it deserves. and when you only see this intense abuse as a funny thing or an aesthetic. And both are absolutely disgusting. Is this necessary? Is it worth more than preserving our dignity after the fact with treating our trauma with the seriousness and weight it deserves?