todayisdeadinside

[todayisdeadinside]

As one of the commenters ( @breebers ) pointed out, there's something fishy about this site. Their About, Contact, Meet Our Writers, and How We Started links all go to a 404 error. That might not mean anything, but considering the article also cited no sources and I can't find any opinions on their reputability from a google search, I feel like I have to at least say to take this site and article with that in mind.

Full Article Here

[todayisdeadinside]

https://www.tumblr.com/todayisdeadinside/789330250366615552/harry-louis-closets-are-connected?source=share

Considering that they both have very curated public images, what do you think are the true or genuine qualities about them?

louis has shown himself to be hardworking, very creative, deeply caring, independent, and highly respectful of others. harry has shown himself to be undyingly kind to others, patient as all hell, selfless, and gentle.

both of them are detail-oriented, highly committed to those they care about it, family-oriented, heavy on good communication and planning, and both very very smart people who are always expanding their knowledge bases.

honestly all of the individual traits i listed could go for both of them, but i went for what came to mind as primary traits of each of them.

i think their core traits are all very persistent and easy to see if you pay attention to how they act and speak to others face-to-face, not just what the tabloids say or what gets posted to their socials. obviously theyve grown over the years, but many of their genuine qualities have stayed the same since the early band days, such as the kindness and respect they show for others.

harry and louis are truly amazing people with truly terrible marketing histories that have (and continue to) tainted the GPs image of them in different ways.

[todayisdeadinside]

do you think harry had a hair transplant

lmao no, but if he did that'd be valid. @srldesigns6277 made a good post last year explaining why its highly unlikely that he had a hair transplant, ill link the post here.

[todayisdeadinside]

they blocked me. rude as fuck.

This twitter user stole my post uncredited:

Thank you @prettystylinson for letting me know. This account posted my entire "Harry & Louis' Closets Are Connected" post to their twt without asking me and without crediting me.

I've dmed them to ask them to take it down. If they respond I'll update this but for the future: don't take my posts and crosspost them without my explicit permission. If I want to post something to twitter, I'll do it myself.

[todayisdeadinside]

With how accurate your last tarot reading was I don't know if I want to see another one sorry 😭

no yeah i get scared of my own cards sometimes 💀 theres a reason i trust tarot when working spiritually with people i dont know personally. the spirits guiding my readings know more than i do and they dont lie.

[todayisdeadinside]

Harry & Louis' Closets Are Connected

To some of you, this whole post is gonna be old news. But some of yall seem to desperately need a refresher, so allow me to break down how Harry and Louis' closets are connected and why they intertwine the way that they do. Consider this a reminder of the fact that their closets are still ever-present, still not their choice, and still affected by the fact that they're with each other and not just queer and single.

Harry has been the golden boy since the band days. They tried to market Liam as the face of the band until it became clear that the fans were favouring Harry a lot. This caused a shift to where they put Harry moreso at the forefront, nearly in a "lead singer" type of position. Obviously this was picked up on by people like Jeff Azoff, who started scouting Harry in 2013 to eventually scoop him up as a solo artist.

Louis, on the other hand, was seen as less valuable by Syco and less valuable by other companies. He got stuck with Syco after the band split, only escaping Syco when their company was dissolving. He was somewhat blacklisted, not fully (or he wouldn't have a career right now) but he was limited in where he could go.

When Harry became a solo artist, his fanbase very quickly outgrew the 1D carry-over fans. It grew to the point that Harry was in a different celebrity level altogether, to the point some of his fans have no idea he was even in 1D, and many of his fans have no idea what Larry Stylinson is.

Louis, on the other hand, took a while to start his solo career. He'd spent years being manipulated into believing he was less valuable as a band member and that he wouldn't do well as a soloist, so he took a few years to build up the confidence to start putting out solo albums. This, alongside Syco not particularly liking or helping him, led to his fanbase staying majorly 1D fans and Larries who'd carried over. That isn't a bad thing, but it is relevant.

See, because of the difference in 1D & Larrie populations in Harry and Louis' fanbases, the way their teams (closeters) have to go about denying and minimizing Larry rumours is very different. For Louis, it's verbal denials, social media denials, more harsh phrasings and occasionally even naming Larry Stylinson as the conspiracy he's denying. For Harry, it's usually putting him into a stunt to show the GP he's not gay.

If Harry were to address Larry as directly as Louis does, it would cause more problems than it solves. His fanbase majorly doesn't know or care about Larry Stylinson, so a direct denial from him would just spark more rumours and probably raise a lot of questions as to why he's even bringing up a supposed conspiracy theory from 15 years ago. But for Louis, his fanbase has such a strong Larrie (and Directioner) presence that his denials more effectively damage the thick concentration of Larries that reside in his fanbase. He has very few solo fans who aren't aware of Larry, so there's little risk of sparking new Larries when he does a denial. That's why his denials work so well at making people un-Larrie en masse.

Now, to get into their teams' opinions of them as artists. I wanna start by saying that there is an established pattern of Harry and/or Louis pushing against their closet, followed by the punishment from their teams of Louis doing a denial and Harry starting a new stunt. I know a friend of mine is working on a post showing all of the examples of this pattern, so I won't detail every instance here, but this is a pattern. Anyway, teams & opinions;

Harry, as I said, has always been the golden boy. The money maker. His level of fame means his team has to be VERY good at their job to avoid anything going wrong. His public image is very carefully created, and any controversial aspects (such as his womanizer rep) is very carefully constructed on purpose to add reasonable flavour to his public persona that will attract fans more than it turns them away. His team is smart in that way, and they're always working in the best interest of making Harry palatable to the most amount of people possible.

Louis, on the other hand, doesn't seem to even be liked by his team. He's been kept in this weird stasis where he can't seem to break out of his primarily 1D fanbase, but he also doesn't ever sink out of the industry and get fully blacklisted like people like Katie Waissel or Rebecca Ferguson were. KW and RF have to be fully independent now because of blacklisting, to give an example of how Louis hasn't been fully blacklisted.

Louis' team frequently makes moves that actively damage his rep, and they've been doing this since babygate started. That was a major rep-ruiner, and it's only continued as much as he tries to fight it. The party boy image, the lazy laddy lad image, the homophobia image, none of it helps his career. Zara very MUCH doesn't help his career. His team doesn't even seem to enjoy promoting his shows and works, he doesn't get a ton of radio play, the list could go on and on forever.

Now, if Louis' team doesn't like him, why are they keeping him as an artist? Well, Harry. This is what I mean by they're keeping him in stasis; Louis can't be fully blacklisted and kicked out of the industry as much as his team seems to want to do because that would give him the freedom to talk shit and expose things like KW and RF did after getting blacklisted. Even if he's not a huge 'asset' to his team, the connection to Harry makes his freedom too risky. If Louis were to come out or talk shit because he got blacklisted fully, it would affect Harry's carefully constructed image and career.

Harry is a HUGE artist. Fucking HUGE. His team isn't going to risk something like that, which is why Louis is in this stasis. He isn't allowed to get too big, he's harshly punished for Larrying and hinting at his true self, but he isn't let go entirely as an artist. They keep him tied up in contracts so he can't affect Harry's career. It's very very interwoven.

And yeah, it's not fair. It's not fair to either of them, and I know Harry is likely just as upset by the fact that Louis always gets the shit end of the stick as we are. It's part of this not being their choice, because if this was something either of them could control, the balance wouldn't be so skewed. Closeting is never a willing choice, and in HL's case specifically it's evident that neither of them want the intense closet they're stuck in with all of the things they're forced to say/do to maintain it.

It's so important that we not blame Harry and Louis for their closet. Feeling your feelings when a denial happens is one thing, but be SO mindful of what you post and where you throw your accusations and hate. Remember who is in control here, remember who your enemy really is. This isn't a case of "they made their bed and now they must lie in it," it's a case of over a DECADE of interwoven closeting and contracts and blackmail and threats that has culminated in the dynamics we see today and the patterns that have never once changed.

Yes, they're grown men now, but they were not grown men when they signed their first contracts and when the closeting started. They've been funnelled through the industry in such a way to maintain these closets and maintain these dynamics in the best interest of greedy companies who want to profit off of Harry and minimize how much of a "problem" Louis is. That's where we are at, this has not changed, and if you call yourself a Larrie it is so important to understand the situation they are in so we don't unknowingly aid their closeters by pedalling hate towards HL for a situation they didn't ask to be in.

Don't make the jobs of their closeters easier.

[todayisdeadinside]

sadly you're far from the first one. whyislarryreal is a twitter account that has been stealing post on tumblr for ages, I mean more than half their content if not all of it is stollen. The earlier I remember it being reported here was 2020 I think? They've been called out many times by various larries blogs or their mutuals but never stopped. They just block people when they come to complain about their stolen post and carry on doing it. It's infuriating but there doesn't seem to be any way to stop this account, twitter/x be shitty that way...

im so baffled. its so rude and their account is so popular its frustrating.

[todayisdeadinside]

This twitter user stole my post uncredited:

Thank you @prettystylinson for letting me know. This account posted my entire "Harry & Louis' Closets Are Connected" post to their twt without asking me and without crediting me.

I've dmed them to ask them to take it down. If they respond I'll update this but for the future: don't take my posts and crosspost them without my explicit permission. If I want to post something to twitter, I'll do it myself.

[todayisdeadinside]

Tarot Thursday ~ Harry & Louis Reading

(Yes I know this is late, I totally forgot to do it yesterday lmao. Also, yes, I'm changing the colour theme of this series again, I decided to do gradient text based on my actual tarot deck!)

Reading Overview:

Harry's reading seemed to be very focused on either his work life and/or his spiritual life, and highlighted a lot of emotional struggle with connecting to spirituality, as well as a sense of giving up. As usual, his emotions and outlook seem to be complex and layered, but there may be a spirituality-related positive change in direction heading his way.

Louis' reading started off talking about feeling limited in his choices regarding his physical situation, having restricted options, and feeling disappointed. Later in his reading, though, the focus shifted to his relationship with Harry being good and harmonious right now, as well as Louis starting on his spiritual journey again after a period of ignoring his guides like he was last week.

Overall this week's reading was very layered for both of them. Things between them seem to be good, but external forces (mainly work and closet related) keep causing disturbances and issues with them individually. They're still both on journeys, but aren't we all?

Harry

Pre-reading observations: Nines. All the fucking nines. That number seems cursed in my Harry readings, it's almost always a bad omen when I pull cards of that number for him. We've got a good mix of suits but there's emphasis on Wands which I'm curious about. Wand cards heavily relate to spirituality and identity. And once again we have a King and Queen for Harry. I'm very surprised to see no major arcana for him, that's highly unusual.

Material World

Nine of Swords & Nine of Pentacles. Nine of Swords represents nightmares, hopelessness, and anxiety. Concerning right off the bat. This card represents someone trapped by their own negative thoughts, whether or not the situation warrents it. "This card hints at over-analysis leading to crippling indecision." Nine of Pentacles is kind of the opposite, being about rewards and the fruits of one's labour. Once again I'm getting a weird dichotomy for Harry where he's having a lot of anxiety and negative thoughts, but materially things seem to be going well or at least not as poorly as he thinks they are. There seems to been a lot of emotional push and pull for Harry the past few weeks/months in my readings. He's always getting these contradicting cards that suggest a complexity to his situation that I struggle to parse apart and label perfectly. Because of how MIA he's been recently, I struggle more and more to pinpoint the cause of these conflicting emotions if it's not clear and if my cards don't attribute a specific cause such as his album or personal life. Because these were pulled for material world though, I suspect they relate to something work related, as that tends to be the case. Especially 'fruits of one's labour' tends to come up in work contexts more than anything.

Mind & Emotions

Queen of Swords. HAHAHA sorry this is just so on the nose of what I just wrote regarding the last section. This card represents complexity (what'd I JUST say), perception, and clear mindedness. "A woman of immense complexity, sometimes considered cold-hearted, but also sharp of mind and wit." I think this one is clarifying that Harry's mind and world is complex right now, but he's used to that level of complexity, and he's navigating it in a compartmentalized way right now. Checking last week's reading, I remember that Harry seemed to have experienced a betrayal recently. I think his conflicting thoughts and emotions relate to that still, but instead of it causing him to be shaken up like it was at first, he's beginning to handle it more diplomatically. That's the word that comes to mind— diplomatic. I once again struggle with pinpointing specifically what the betrayal from last week was and why his approach to it has shifted this week, but again I believe it's work related in some way because of where the cards were and the phrasings in some of them. Coming back to this after the spiritual world pull and I think this could also be alluding to Harry believing he's thinking clearly when he's in fact not. There's a temporary sense of clear-headedness that comes when pushing away spirituality, but it fades as you realize you're lost. I wonder if Harry thinks he's thinking in simple and clear terms when he in fact is just ignoring the true complexity of the situation, espeically keeping in mind the dichotomy I pulled for material world.

Spiritual World

King of Wands (rev) & Seven of Wands (rev). Wands immediately relate to spirituality, really compounding the fact that this is asking about his spiritual world right now. King of Wands reversed is about feeling inadequate and incapable of meeting expectations. Taking a backseat, not being proactive in your life. Hm. In context to spirituality, I wonder if this is saying he's becoming more detached from spirituality. It can also suggest that someone is being overly rigid with themself when exploring spirituality, and I do wonder if that's the case considering what I've observed about Harry's spirituality thus far. His beliefs seem to be narrow and I think, alongside last week's advice for him to listen to the spiritual guides trying to aid him, expanding his range spirituality will benefit him. Seven of Wands reversed represents folding on your beliefs, quitting, and giving up. I think this ties into last week's reading which again mentioned he was ignoring or pulling away from spirituality.

Overall

Page of Wands. Wands for overall makes me think this whole reading for him relates on some level to spirituality, which would make sense with how everything has tied together thus far. He seems to be feeling a lot of conflicting thoughts about spirituality and pulling away from it heavily. Page of Wands represents good news that will be coming shortly. So, it hasn't yet. I wonder if this will be spirituality related and if it will cut through all of these harsh emotions he's been feeling about it. This card can also represent feeling inspired and creative, so perhaps he'll have a bit of a spiritual re-awakening soon and it will spark positive changes. "In a spiritual context, the Page of Wands can indicate that you are about to take a new direction on your spiritual path."

Louis

Pre-reading observations: Lots of major arcana for him this week, as well as low numbers like 2 and 3. Harry got a lot of larger numbers like 7 and 9, so I'm curious what that all means, if anything.

Material World

Two of Wands (rev). This card reversed represents lack of planning, restricted options, being held back and disappointment. I'd say that's pretty fuckin' spot on for his position materially lately, with the denial tweet. I was just talking in my post about HLs closets that they have very limited options, especially Louis. The disappointment bit is a reminder that Louis is not happy about the position he's in, and he's probably feeling a million times worse than any of us fans over that tweet going out. He's been fighting so hard against his closet lately, and while it may pay off in some ways eventually, the punishment still hurts him and hurts Harry by proxy. "Two of Wands reversed indicates that you may be limiting or restricting your choices or options in a work context." There you go.

Mind & Emotions

The Hermit. This card upright usually means someone is entering a period of soul searching and spiritual enlightenment. I think the denial tweet happening finally kicked Louis' arse into gear with listening to his spiritual guides and the warnings he was recieving, and he's starting that process of reconnecting again. "The Hermit can also indicate isolating yourself or withdrawing into oneself in order to recover from a difficult situation." This as well is notable, perhaps Louis is taking a moment to withdraw after everything big that's happened recently, so he can recover mentally and emotionally and determine his next steps.

Spiritual World

The Chariot & Three of Wands. The Chariot represents overcoming obstacles which makes so much sense with the previous card and Louis supposedly reconnecting spiritually. "The Chariot can represent the beginning of a spiritual journey." Precisely. Because a chariot is a mode of transportation, this card could also be representing a physical journey for spiritual purposes, but right now I think it's more likely referring to his mental spiritual journey. Three of Wands represents— oh, would you look at that, travel and a journey. Adventure. Maybe he is taking a physical journey? Or the cards wanted to harp on the beginning of another spiritual journey for him, hard to say. "It is a good omen for psychic development as it represents foresight." Interesting. Good things on the spiritual horizen for Louis, I believe.

Overall

Two of Cups. This card is all about a positive relationship or partnership of some sort, which I love to see. He and Harry seem to be doing good right now. "In romantic relationships it can signify harmony and mutual respect" Hehe mutual respect mention!! I love that the overall focus of this week for him is his good relationship, that's amazing.

[todayisdeadinside]

Fuck That Noise by todayisdeadinside

Explicit 19k Famous/Nonfamous

Harry Styles is a college student in a band called One Direction that he put together with mates from his dorm. Louis Tomlinson is a world-famous rockstar who’s been a household name for years, and is rumouredly planning his next album and a world tour to go with it. They live two completely different lives, the only shared aspect being the city of London they both reside in. So what the hell is Louis doing in Niall’s basement, watching One Direction perform?

[todayisdeadinside]

One Direction Academia: Schooling The Directioners

Me? Starting a new series? More likely than you think. This one is about various pieces of 1D-related academic literature that has been published over the years.

I got these from an old link masterpost, but unfortunately many of them no longer exist, so in this series I'll be going over the ones that do still exist and explaining what they're about and my opinions. Hopefully this is a lighter break from my usual series posts about the music industry.

Today's 1D paper is called 'Schooling The Directioners: Connected Learning and Identity-Making in the One Direction Fandom.' by Ksenia A. Korobkova. It's dated to March 14th 2014.

This entire thing is 39 pages long and has multiple sections, so as I go over select sections, I'll include the page number so you can read the full context if you'd like!

I don't know if the author of this paper uses any particular pronouns, so I'll be using neutral pronouns to refer to Ksenia throughout this.

Starting on page 4, Ksenia begins by explaining the purpose of their paper. They use the example of a 17 year old Directioner pseudonym'd Nikki to explain common Directioner terminology, as well as to explain that the focus of their paper will be on how the Wattpad Directioner community can function as a space for connected learning.

In the following section, I describe how the Directioner community on Wattpad integrates the three separate “spheres of learning” associated with connected learning theory: interest-powered, peer-supported, and academically oriented.

On page 6, Ksenia describes their study to be focused on exploring how a female-dominated teen-prominent fandom navigates learning and networking, as well as how identity expression presents in a boyband fandom specifically.

Ksenia explains that their methods included observing the Wattpad Directioner community for 9 months, interviewing 25 individuals across the community (writers, readers, commenters, book cover artists, ect). They go on to explain in detail what Wattpad is and how it functions as a site, which I won't go over because I assume most tumblrinas are unfortunately already familiar.

Something I found interesting was that, in Ksenia's explanation of fanfiction, they stated that one of the oldest examples of fanfiction was John Lydgate's 1421 extension of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

Ksenia also spends a period of time on page 11 explaining the controversies of RPF fanfiction (in 2014 academic terms, lol), which is also interesting.

Next, on page 12, Ksenia gives a bit of background on the participants of their study. They spoke to 24 young people (mainly middle and high school students, and a few college students) in the fandom as well as 1 parent from (mainly, not all) the US, UK, and Australia.

Within this sample, all but three participants (92 percent) were female (one male participant was not “out” as a Directioner to anyone in the “real world” and another admitted to posting fanfic only ironically).

They scouted people who were both popular in the fandom, and brand new. Part of the process was difficult because Ksenia needed parental permission to interview people's kids, which they couldn't always obtain since fandom habits tended to be kept secret by young people at the time.

About half of the study participants identified as white, and the rest were evenly split among other Census categories—12.5 percent Asian, Hispanic, Black, and Mixed.

Ksenia went on to explain that these demographics show how the stereotype of Directioners all being Western teen girls isn't wholly accurate, with about half of their sample size not fitting that archetype. This part really stuck out to me as a Directioner who is both male and mixed, since I also don't perfectly fit that teen girl idea of what a boyband fan is.

First mention of tumblr is on page 13.

'Youth Stories' begins on page 14, going into each specific participant. All names are pseudonyms as Ksenia mentioned at the start.

The first participant was a 13 year old girl from Canada dubbed Abigail, and it goes over how starting to write on Wattpad aided in her gaining confidence and outgrowing shyness, as well as generally improving her creative writing skills in school as she learned from other writers in her corner of the community. Abigail was able to get into an exclusive writing-centric school as a result of the skills she developed on Wattpad.

I know it's only the first story and I have something to add, but I really do love this angle of exploring how fandom can shape someone's skills and personality in positive ways. People so often like to dub fandom as a useless hobby one shouldn't spend too much time on, but it's truly so useful for skill and social development. I personally learned how to write through fandom and fanfic, and many of my academic interests wouldn't be what they are now without fandom shaping me in my developing years.

Abigail's story is essentially a prime example of the connected learning concept Ksenia is focusing their study on;

The connected learning approach posits that personal interests promote learning through igniting the drive to gain knowledge and expertise. When the learner finds the given material interesting, he or she is able to achieve much higher-order learning outcomes.

I love this concept so much. This has always rang true for me, and I adore that it's a studied concept in relation to fandom specifically.

Another participant, Maya aged 16 from India, explains how she was bullied in school and while she's still bullied, being part of the Directioner fandom taught her to not care about the opinions of hateful people. She was able to find a core group of friends in the fandom, which helped her feel more secure socially.

When young people learn through interacting with their peers, they become more engaged in their own learning and their critical thinking is enhanced. Young people who learn with their peers tend to contribute, share, and provide feedback to one another more readily than in more traditional pedagogical settings.

Ksenia goes through a few brief participant examples of varying opinions on Wattpad comment/feedback culture, exploring the debate of whether to only leave kind feedback, constructive critique, ect. as well as exploring where people's personal boundaries are with what counts as constructive vs. rude feedback.

They then go on to explain how most participants did not like to share their fanfic activities with adults, but of those who did, the positive feedback and support from parents and teachers was extremely valuable to the concept of academic-oriented connected learning (aka learning via personal interests but with adult educator guidance).

Participant quotes get into the difference between professional writing and fanfiction, while also recognizing that despite those differences, writing on Wattpad has definitely helped their schoolwork improve and writing skills in general. It's an interesting tidbit; the way concepts can be taken from a fanfic context and applied to an academic or professional one.

Even just from some of these quotes, you can tell the participants are good at phrasing their opinions in a way the average, say, 13 year old might not be.

The next section on page 21 discusses the production aspect of both the 1D fandom and the connected learning framework; how creating something is ultimately a major goal in both contexts. Within fandom, that creation usually revolves around remixing existing content, which does fit into the connected learning framework alongside original production.

Ksenia uses these 1D ID cards as an example of how production and identity attribution interact in the fandom, with Directioner-related traits being valuable aspects of these fans' identities.

They also explain how gif makers in the fandom are literally learning how to produce a new thing (gifs) from their fandom peers; as well as the social learning aspect of identifying what clips will be entertaining or useful if made into a gif.

Painstakingly, Ksenia also explains what Imagines are, which sent me into my own Wattpad flashbacks. Moving on.

Actually, before we move on, you all have to see this image insert because I had to:

(Vampire Harry is taking me OUTTTT)

Starting on page 25, Ksenia gets into the openly networked aspect of connected learning. The fact that Wattpad is a free accessible site to anyone with internet lends itself to that aspect; connecting people across the world without the geographical boundaries of a physical learning space.

Maya, 16, describes establishing a friendship possible only through the Internet: “It was easy [to become friends with her]. Both of us were Indian Directioners and both of us were the only 1D loving people in their respective schools. It was a friendship with a common dilemma, and it happened. Through Wattpad.”

They also explain how the 1D fandom gives people with low-to-no real life friendships to connect with others through their shared interest. Having that shared interest really breaks down the barriers of meeting new people and socializing.

Again, this is something I really found personally notable, as someone who's always struggled with in-person connection due to being autistic. Making online friends via fandom has always felt easier and more accessible to me.

The young women I was in touch with in the United States, Australia, India, and Indonesia talked of 1D as a real point of connection between their friendship networks and social media affiliations.

Page 26 starts the shared identity/shared purpose section. Ksenia explains how Ayush, a male college student, was able to break down barriers of collaboration through the 1D fandom. When he began posting his stories, other people with talents in areas of production he didn't have (like making book covers) reached out and offered to make those things for him. This collaborative aspect of fandom is highly useful for learning new skills both literally and socially.

Describing the motivation to “collab” in this way as “fun,” Sandra demonstrates another way in which members of the Directioner community on Wattpad achieve a collective goal.

As well as encouraging collaboration, fandom also allows for connections to be made across age and location in ways most traditional educational environments cannot.

Sometimes, connections between members would be otherwise unexpected in a traditional learning environment. Sandra shares how she befriended an older Directioner with whom she would not have otherwise connected, given that traditional educational settings are generally segregated by age.

The reflection begins on page 29, where Ksenia overviews how the past few decades' worth of literature has shaped the debate on what it means to be literate, as well as reflecting on the many niche identity terms Directioners have created to label where they fit in the community (Larries weren't mentioned, but boy was I surprised that they weren't).

There's also a section on page 30 discussing fans vs. fangirls and how different Directioners have different views of whether fangirl is a positive or negative term. The general consensus of 2014 seemed to be that fans were more nonchalant and serious, whereas fangirls were excitable and "crazed."

Page 31 goes over the perception that Wattpad Directioner spaces are exclusively for teens, despite many participants also acknowledging that adults participated in the fandom.

Like gender, age became layered into the participants’ definition of what it meant to be a good fan. In fact, many interviewees considered “fangirling” the band a developmental phase that all females go through. The discourse community of Directioners was touted in opposition to the adult-ordered “real-life” worlds of the participants, including their homes, clubs, and schools.

This tidibit I feel still very much rings true today for many people in fandom:

The fear of being thought of as “crazy” and being misunderstood came up several times with the interviewees, especially those who write stories that have overtly romantic and sexual themes.

Page 32 starts the discussion into people not viewing fanfic as "real" writing. This is a debate as old as time itself I fear, many of the same points still being made today of the originality and context of writing fanfic differentiating it from "real" writing.

A few participants did make interesting points about how fanfic differs in a non-inferior way because of it's freeform and personal nature;

For both Sandra and Katie, school writing is something you do when you are provided a stimulus or a topic that is school sanctioned and teacher approved. Students’ descriptions see schooled spaces as top-down, expert-centric authority; school writing is thus disciplined and regimented.

Fanfiction writing, on the other hand, is something you do when you can “fangirl out” and use everyday language and expletives. It requires passion, love, and inspiration that could never be achieved in schooled literacy activities.

For Ayush, similarly, school is the place where he was forced to speak English and perform on tests. In contrast, his creative writing took place in his home tongue, Malayam, and later had to do with his passions of manga and fanfiction. He specifically shields those activities from institutions and parents as they seem sacred and personal.

Page 33 going into 34 gets into how these two worlds can affect one another, with many participants unknowingly expressing that they gained skills and/or positive views of academic topics through writing fanfic. Examples ranged from the obvious grammar and linguistic improvement, to one participant gaining a positive view of the English language where he'd previously only associated it negatively with his classes.

On page 35 we get another full youth story, this one of a 17 year old girl in India named Nicole. Ksenia explains how Nicole greatly improved her conversational English and internet slang understanding through the 1D fandom.

Although Nicole tells me she has never been a motivated student—“especially not in English!”—her desire to fully participate on affinity sites such as fan websites and Wattpad facilitated her skill development and literacy learning.

The conclusion starts on page 36. Ksenia goes briefly back over how fandom & the 1D fandom can both support and challenge the connected learning model, as well as explaining how some participants could draw connections between formal education and fandom while others couldn't until prompted.

Overall I found this paper really interesting, especially for 2014. I knew a lot of these sorts of things inherently from growing up in fandom and applying concepts learned there to my academic or real-life pursuits, but it was fascinating to see it all laid out with case examples and academic references.

[todayisdeadinside]

Me: yeah Simon was basically like let's take the four white boys and one Pakistani boy who passes as white to make a band—

My mom: One of them is Pakistani?????

Me: ...yes mom the man named Zayn Javadd Malik is half Pakistani.

they were marketed in such a way that many of their differences were missed or bulldozed over by the GP. people forget zayn isnt white, people forget niall isnt british, most anyone whos not a directioner manages to mix the 5 of them up despite the fact they dont look anything alike each other.

as a fan its surprising when i see someone say something like what your mom said, but i also have to remind myself that these boys were marketed in this way on purpose to appear as one cookie cutter unit almost.

and im sure editing played a huge role in it too- they edited out liam's birthmark i recall, ive seen a lot of marketing photos of 1D where it looks like they made zayn look whiter either with lighting or makeup, to the point sometimes harry would look darker than him.

its such an odd dichotomy to witness where a lot of white celebs get edited to look darker than they are where actual nonwhite celebs get edited to look whiter. like what are we doing.

[todayisdeadinside]

It's so insane how you, as a Larrie, opens the front door and Mother Nature is just like:

[todayisdeadinside]

love seeing consentual harry photos on the dash

[todayisdeadinside]

all of my anons are saying different things about the lottie / caroline / lewis thang so imma not post any more of them until i can dig into the facts myself. just to be safe coz ion wanna post misinfo (assuming i havent already, crossing my fingies)

[todayisdeadinside]

and don't forget lottie and Lewis met at Caroline's funeral (yikes) and she was there because she was friends/co owners with Lou Teasdale who was Caroline's BFF and also worked with 1d and Louis and Harry separately the same Lou that was connected to Harry multiple times (as well as her friend Tamara who was connected to both Louis and harry at least twice between 2013 and 2015 )

And then there's Niall who dated Selena gomez who lottie was supposed to tour with the same Selena that's BFF with Taylor who Harry stunted with who's ALSO friends with gigi hadid who was rumored to be harrys next stunt but it turned out she was dating zayn who-

one time I tried to make a diagram of all the people connected to 1d and turned into that red string meme

THEY MET AT HER FUNERAL?!

[todayisdeadinside]

the theory that harry and louis have an open relationship is perpetuated by people who are still partially drinking the media koolaid. youve seen harry be paired off with loads and loads of women, youve seen louis be placed in relationships with women, some of those media pushes with more "evidence" than others, so part of you is probably going "surely they actually dated ONE of them, statistically?" and that leads to thinking larry might have an open relationship.

but the thing is, no, they havent. harry and louis have made it clear time and time again that theyre EXTREMELY posessive and dedicated to one another and nobody else. media stunts aside, their actual words and treatment of each other and songs about each other highlight a relationship that is locked TIGHT, full of dedication, and unwaivering. its highly unlikely that either of them would WANT an open relationship, its just not in line with what we can deduce about them as a couple and what theyve shown with regards to their posessiveness.

does that make sense?

clarification