theoutsidersswag

[theoutsidersswag]

Things I think the fandom needs to remember sometimes

-Ponyboy is not a loner or unpopular. He admits to having a lot of friends at school, and a few of them even visit him when he gets out of the hospital, though he notes it makes him uncomfortable that his middle class friends get to see where he lives. Which brings me to my next point;

-The gang does not spend all their time together, or even most of it. Yes they’re all friends, very CLOSE friends- yes, even Steve and Ponyboy- but they have lives outside of the gang. Pony has school friends, Darry has work or old school friends he skis with, Soda and Steve are inseparable to a degree that their outside lives overlap and their identities within the gang are also interwoven, but they all very much have lives outside the gang. Two bit has his mom and little sister and a revolving door of girls. Dallas only shows up when he feels like it and  he lives at bucks and jockeys in the races. Johnny couch surfs at the curtis’ and Two’s place, but he also regularly camps out in the lot and presumably crashes at Dally’s place sometimes too. Yeah, he’s Ponyboy’s best friend, but they’re not inseparable the way Steve and Soda are. It’s a different dynamic. The whole group has lives outside of the gang and I think it’s important to remember this. 

-The term ‘greaser’ is a derogatory term and originated in the 1800s as a slur against Mexican immigrants. It coloquial meaning changed when readopted by the greaser subculture in the 1950s and 60s (according to wikipedia), to primarily refer to lower working class individuals of mexican or italian ancestry, and becoming more ethnically ambiguous, but it still wasn’t widely used outside the subculture itself. Ponyboy is white, but he probably has some Italian ancestry which is characteristic of the greaser subculture, and he identifies with the word- but it’s still a more loaded term than the fandom sometimes pretends, and it still has racial undertones, regardless of how it’s portrayed in the novel and how it moved away from it's historically primarily racialised usage when adopted by the greaser subculture. Ponyboy makes a point of saying in the book that it’s okay for himself and the gang and others of their social group to use it, but when people outside the group call him it it ‘doesn’t make him feel so hot’. I think this helps illustrate that yeah, it’s an offensive term. ‘Greaser’ carries weight and I think it’s important for the fandom to recognise that.

-Darry is trying, but he isn’t a good guardian, and if he was then his character would not be redeemable after The Slap. The reason Darry Curtis as a character is so sympathetic is because he is twenty years old and trying his best, and his best is never good enough. If Darry was a well equipped guardian who was able to parent Pony AND Soda AND the gang (to an extent) the way his parents did, then him slapping Ponyboy would be unforgivable. It would be the action of a brute instead of the action of an overwhelmed older brother forgetting his new role as guardian. The reason Darry is forgivable and so beloved is because he is not perfect, or even good, at his role but he keeps trying and choosing to be present for his brothers over and over. (Remember, he had to fight very hard for custody, probably harder than Ponyboy realizes.)

-The portrayal of every female character is biased by Ponyboy’s narration- and Ponyboy has a lot of internalized misogyny and classism. It makes sense that he holds these ideas, considering the time period and the male dominated environment he grew up in where (presumably) the only woman he ever had any sort of close relationship with was his mother, but it doesn’t make it any less true. However, the women themselves are few and far between but incredibly important characters. I’ve spoken about it before but I think Sandy’s character and her unplanned teenage pregnancy sheds a small amount of light on how poverty affects women as opposed to men, something the book largely lacks due to the only main(ish) female character being upper class;  whereas Sylvia serves as a foil to Dally, and is essentially written to be the offscreen ‘female version’ of him, basically a representation of the ‘worst’ sort of greaser girl while Dally is the ‘worst’ kind of greaser. The only reason these women receive so much hate is because of misogyny- don’t pretend it’s just about the cheating, because it’s not- and if you want to hear further takes on them you can read my thoughts on the misogyny in the fandom here, and my thoughts on Sandy here.  Even Cherry, whom Ponyboy views positively, is viewed that way because of Ponyboy's biased ideas of what makes a girl 'good' and worthy of respect.

-Ponyboy has a fairly negative view of alcohol and alcoholism, but has a very addictive personality. Ponyboy has tried alcohol but didn’t like the way it made him feel. However, his view of Two-bit, while positive, seems to find him less brave than the rest of the gang as he drinks before the rumble, and Ponyboy ‘would hate to see the day he had to get his nerve from a can’. Soda’s reluctance to drink or smoke also adds to Ponyboy’s worship of him, despite the fact that Ponyboy is addicted to nicotine and caffeine respectively and it has the potential to be his undoing more than anything else in the east side.

-The entire story is built on grief. Johnny and Dally are doomed from the start, and Ponyboy mentions his parents' deaths from the first few pages. But loss of a loved one is not the sole type of grief the novel covers. Darry mourns the life he could have had, Soda mourns his imagined future with Sandy, and by the end of the novel Ponyboy is mourning his childhood and loss of innocence. I could go on, but I think the effect of grief is sometimes missing from analysis or canon compliant fanworks, when it is quite literally the driving force behind the story.

[theoutsidersswag]

if there is one thing outsiders adaptions be doing it’s giving soda scary blue eyes 🙏

no for real tho

book soda v. movie soda:

get that boy some contacts stat

No offense to folks with blue eyes, but y’all scare me (/j)

[theoutsidersswag]

Do you think the roofers at Darry’s work call him “the kid”?

[theoutsidersswag]

Back on my musical brainrot bc what do you mean Darry gets the only solo song of the whole show. What do you mean no one joins him during Runs in the Family. He get a small section where the other greasers come in and he talks to Ponyboy but no one else sings with him. Not even Ponyboy has a song where no one else sings with him bc in his songs other people sing with him during the chorus but not for Darry.

Cause also like the implications considering that the musical plays up the time “Darry almost went soc” so even though in the song right before his Dally sings with every other greaser(including Darry) no greaser joins Darry for his song. But of course no soc character/actor joins him either bc why would they Darry isn’t one of them. But it could be less about the other greasers separating themselves from Darry and more Darry separating himself because he isn’t like the others. Not even in the sense of being a greaser or a soc but in the sense that he’s a guardian. He has to be responsible to look out for his two younger brothers but in doing so he can’t let himself be a greaser because greasers aren’t responsible, they get into rumbles and cause chaos and general mayhem, they’re rough around the edges, and Darry can’t afford to be like them because if he is his brother’s might get taken away. But because he sticks by his brother’s he loses any opportunity to become a real soc and make something of himself. And since he’s the only “adult” in the show he is quite literally the outsider which is why he sings alone when everyone else gets to sing with others.

[theoutsidersswag]

Ponyboy walking down the hall a couple weeks after canon next to Steve and Soda and suddenly feeling a heavy arm around his shoulders, tugging him against someone to his left. Expecting Soda, he looks up, but finds Steve glaring at a Soc across the hall.

Darry getting home after a long day and going to grab the grocery list before heading back out only to find it isn't there. He sighs and opens the fridge, which now has everything that was on the list, along with a sticky note that reads "on the old man".

Dally being forced to set the table with Steve. Looking over the knives, searching for the one with the red handle (the best one) and finding it already at his spot.

Johnny showing up at the lot after wandering away from the Curtises' because Darry and Ponyboy were fighting, to find a thick blanket he recognises as the one Steve always brings when he's kicked out.

Two-Bit getting up and walking out of his house, dreading the long walk to the Curtises' the day after Ponyboy showed up at the hospital, and finding Steve waiting in his car, thumbing through some magazine he definitely doesn't find as interesting as he tells Two-Bit it is.

Soda noticing all the little things Steve does for everyone else, seeing the effort he puts into showing what he's been taught to never say. And yet, somehow, he remains oblivious to the fact that the shoulder nudges and slightly too long hugs and grins from across the street are different from how Steve treats everyone else.

[theoutsidersswag]

i wonder why fans will write pages upon pages of lore for why paul holden jumped ponyboy and how misunderstood he is as a soc but then turn around and talk about how they want to kill sandy for cheating or blame cherry for the events of the book

[theoutsidersswag]

soda and steve doodles

[theoutsidersswag]

i just did gingerbread houses with my family and i present to you: how the curtis gang does making gingerbread houses (a little modern ig bc im thinking about the gingerbread kits that target makes)

darry - follows the instructions and makes himself a quaint little cottage, bro roofs houses, he KNOWS what he’s doing :)

soda - he always gets the most obscure kit (barn, train, mansion, he physically can not JUST build a house), tag teams with steve, does NOT follow the instructions at all but somehow it stays upright

ponyboy - follows all the instructions to perfection but there’s tHIS ONE WALL THAT WONT STAY UP (he just didn’t wait long enough for the frosting to harden)

johnny - he likes the kits that come with a few small houses bc he thinks they’re cute (don’t tell anyone tho), he REALLY likes the gross candy decorations

dally - doesn’t do one but he does steal a bag of darry’s candy decorations and throws it at people’s houses to see what sticks (pony’s walls keep falling, he is NOT happy)

two-bit - uses as little frosting as possible while constructing his house and then eats it straight from the piping bag while everyone else decorates (he thinks it’s delicious and will die on this hill)

steve - works on a kit with soda, but he’s pretty much only there to snackc there may be a bite or two out of their chimney piece bc of him but that’s not the point, he came for the snacks, not to actually build something

[theoutsidersswag]

RIP Steve Randle you would’ve loved block blast

[theoutsidersswag]

kindergarten boyfriend but it’s marcia about two bit

[theoutsidersswag]

the outsiders is literally just heathers but in the '60s

[theoutsidersswag]

ok i said i was gonna yap my band kid headcanons for the gang so here goes

ok if there's one thing i'm sure of, it's that Two-Bit plays the trombone.

source: most of my closest friends play trombone

anyway i think steve either plays baritone or maybe percussion. maybe the baritone thing is me projecting but i don't care. he'd eat that up i promise

tbh i don't really have anything for the rest of the gang except that darry would play tuba/sousaphone or trumpet (if i had a nickel for every trumpet player i knew that plays tuba as a second instrument, i'd have two nickels. which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice)

this is really just me spreading the low brass agenda i guess

[theoutsidersswag]

ughhhhh i really should post more hear

i know i keep saying that and not doing it

maybe i will this time? who knows

Actually rehearsals for my school's musical are starting soon so maybe i'll yap my theater kid headcanons for the gang

wait i should tap my band kid headcanons

ok i'll do that in its own post

[theoutsidersswag]

Ponyboy if his true side showed that’s darry in the back disappointed

[theoutsidersswag]

i will die on this hill 🫶

[theoutsidersswag]

THEY <333

[theoutsidersswag]

twenty years old he should have been at the club