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hedghost · 28 days

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What’s your opinion on men writing sapphic books?

i mean it’s not like my fave thing in the world. normally my opinion is men should stay WELL AWAY from lesbians, but i think it depends on the book and the content

for example, legends and lattes is one of my fave books, it’s not a romance but it does have a sapphic romance side plot, and that was written by a man. there’s no sex, there’s no deeply lesbian specific experiences, it’s just that two female characters happen to get together, and i don’t think there’s anything wrong with a man writing that.

also my absolute favourite book of all time is this is how you lose the time war, which was jointly written by a man and a woman. again, while that’s completely focused on a sapphic relationship, nothing in it feels like fetishisation, probably because it’s also sci-fi. i have no problem with that partially being written by a man, because it just feels like good storytelling, that happens to be about women (debatable bc one’s kind of a fairy alien and one’s kind of a robot alien but they both use she pronouns so we won’t get into that)

i would say if it’s a book about specific wlw emotions and experiences, for example coming out as a lesbian, or comphet or internalised lesbophobia etc etc, i don’t think a cis man should be writing that, because he has no business doing that. mainly because like, why would a man even want to write that? also like it would just be shite.

on the other hand, a specifically lesbian romance written by a man? (especially if there’s smut) fucking weird. that just reeks of fetishisation, and you know it’s just gonna be gross. none of that thanks.

but yeah, i think there’s nothing wrong with men writing books with sapphic characters or romances in theory, as long as intentions are pure. for example say a man wrote a high fantasy series with various plots and romances, some of which were gay - nothing wrong with that (unless the lesbianism is weirdly sexualised or misogynistic ofc). however if it’s like a book which is focused on the sapphic experience then i don’t understand why a man would even want to write that, so that’s a no from me.

(for the record this also goes for women writing mlm books, fetishisation of gay relationships is not talked about enough and i personally think it’s weird)

there’s a lot of lesbian books which i would feel very weird about had they been written by a man. but there’s probably a few which had they been written by men, i wouldn’t mind. (i can’t think of any atm but i’m sure there are some)

so overall, completely depends on the book and the author. i’d say it depends on how forefront the sapphics are. it’s not a complete no, but there’s a line, you know?

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redxblueihateloveyou · 3 years

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Hey i really love your blog!!! I just plucked the courage to actually send u an ask fhdjhd but GOSH i love your video edits and your gifs and your meta article posts, you're so articulate and you can explain/describe moments in a way that makes me go "oh wow, i cant believe i haven't seen it that way before!!" Haha ANYWAYS i'm just here to say that i completely agree with what all u said, Free creators might do a lil fanservice here and there for the 25 ships that exists within the fandom's circle, but rinharu's storyline is clearly the most romantic one! And i'd argue it's the one closest to being canon esp after part 1, i mean the fact that they put such an explosive emotional outburst right at the end of the second to the last movie means a lot. It's like reinforcing the fact that this series has always been about them, and everything that has happened only happened either because they met or they grew appart and miss eachother. I kinda feel like maybe.. juust maayyybe there's a chance KA wants to make the ship canon, since it's the last movie and they want to end it on a highnote maybe (bcs honestly i think the only reason they've been holding back is purely bcs of the merch sales, since they don't have a problem showing a wholesome lesbian love story in kobayashi maid dragon) butt i could be wrong, maybe i'm just overly optimistic and delusional, they could somehow ruin it and give an ending that panders to all the ships again 😅🥲, but at least there's a clear-cut guarantee that part 2 would dedicate a large portion of it fixing rin and haru's fight!!! Oohh how can i wait another 6 months now!!😭😭 (sorry for the long ask btw!! 🙏🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️)

OMG thank you so so much!! For watching my vids too! ❤️❤️❤️ It really means a lot to me! Ahhhh wow, thats the longest ask I've ever recieved! 😍 I'm trying to explain myself so hard lol I'm glad its appreciated, bc sometimes I'm like "I don't fucking know how to say this" xD

Well, you know me, I only care for one ship, which is the only one with confirmed info that they're both actually gay and have mutual feelings for each other. There are some other ships in free! I'm fine with (those do not include Rin or Haru in them xD), but I just mostly don't care, bc after reading all the stuff, you can see that in some of those to one the other one is actually like his second option, which I just do not like. Others I just don't even see, bc again to me who witnessed great close male friendships and having two sisters who I'm very close to, I just do not see anything romantic in that.

It's not just Free! tbh, it's like any sports anime these days. They see two guys walking together, it's a ship. And like no one cares if they're just bros. Like I'd get i they did some fanservice fanservice, but like I never saw anyone in Free! crossing the line the way rinharu do. I can without thinking much name you 10 rh moments that no matter how hard you think can't be explain as being bros, but can't name one when it comes to others. I just find some ppl shipping everyone with everyone weird sometimes. It's like western fans see like some eastern actors or singers slap each other ass lovingly and they're like "oh they're fucking" I'm like "yeah, ofc all 500 of them, you're absolutely right". And Free! doesn't do anything even like that, I just do not get sometimes like what moment even brought on some ships. I'm genuinely confused. Albert and Haru? You fucking fell from a sakura tree or smth? I'm...

I'm especially confused when it comes to guys, whose character type is who I call "I only want this one and if I can't have it, then I'm ok" xD. It just always surprised me, when they try to pair up them with someone else, it's like a complete ooc.

I'm also not into this whole "well, if there are gays in this anime, than everyone there is gay". I'm like... huh. It's like with KNB and MDZS I had same feeling. It's like you have already couples there who are canon/borderline canon, why do you need another 10 who don't even interact or just don't even go there? I'm always so confused in those situations. Or like wangxian is married and some are like "no, I actually don't like it, let me write a fic when they're with other ppl". Lan Zhan... being in love or having sex with someone else? Yeah, that's not Lan Zhan, dude, you're writing about someone else. Might as well change the name at this point.

But last time I went to twitter someone had a thread about how if they make s4 of Free! they should mainly explore there Momo's angst (and no, it wasn't a joke), so I'm already like, I'm just.. nothing will surprise me no more. But I'm forever gonna be confused.

Yeah, I eel you about "going there". I mean seeing part of it, it just kinda cemented my confusion, bc I do not get how it can be considered platonic. We were just discussing since yesterday with @freeseafirefly how I now even more perplexed and do not understand how they will resolve it without going into relationship territory. It's just our point here is that like... no one forced them to go there (I mean its not like this whole fandom has some wild expectations or anything already), we were waiting or our usual friendship and swimming and maybe tiny conflict about struggles of pro-careers and some usual rh implications (maybe all the rh gay in dramas as always). Not some pure fanfiction coming to life here haha.

Like why I'm laughing is bc I twice used in my "fics" bringing up him leaving Haru as a force to push the confession, bc there's no way if he adresses this it won't lead to this. And now we not only have this (bc Haru just basically layed it out there), but an actual scene of him playing on their feelings for each other and a literal image of Rin leaving and "taking Haru's heart with him" to the point when he's for the first time in his life openly crying on the ground. And it's not like this scene can be interpreted as anything else, the whole fandom talks same, bc the whole fight was just about them, what Haru said was just about them, there's a literal boom of his heart getting out of his chest, before he falls and now he's heartless.

So our question is like... why go there?

It's like some say that they might still resolve it with "they're special to each other" and swimming, but still like we already knew that, there was no reason to go that far is what I'm saying. And to think that it was planned since forever giving the clues is like... ???

The whole spoon theme also throw me on the loop because like, lets be honest, it's wedding themed. And that part of the interview about part 2 there also made me go...?????? Because I mean, huh?

This is just all in all very interesting turn of events to say the least. I do not see the point of all of this if its not what I think it is, esp after seeing tweets like "even I see a rh wedding and I'm mh T_T". It's just all very unsubtle, that's why we're confused.

Like who knows, maybe we'll really by some magic turn of events get lucky and they really decided that since its the ending, it's okay to go for it. But I also don't wanna to hype myself much, I'm already really happy with it, just bc again, this scene already proves all of my points.

And yeah, I'm sure they'll pander to everyone, bc it's the end and etc and we have to handle everything on the good note and there's a whole line of ppl who's obsessed with us, esp with Haru xD, but like bromance pandering and romance pandering are different things, you know *wiggles eyebrows* and u know who always gets the second one.

#answered #a-girl-with-a-ponytail #rinharu #harurin #free! the final stroke #free!#free #rin matsuoka #haruka nanase

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vampiremansionpoolboy-moved · 3 years

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I didn't know you had ocs!! Can we know more about pedro or any other oc please?🥺

ahhh yes ofc!! ok so i’m planning like two books series and like four separate books and i’ll name a few of the characters from those books but then i’m gonna ramble abt pedro bc i love him and project onto him too much

ok so the book series pedro belongs to doesn’t have a name so it’s called untitled book 1 (bc theres more than one) ok but so a few characters from that

- pedro (sad gay vampire w mommy issues. also he’s a vegan vampire and drinks coconut water instead of blood and yes i will admit that i got the idea from that from that one tumblr post. he has braces and glasses and is hypersensitive abt his teeth bc if he does anything wrong they might find out he’s a vampire, so he hates going to the dentist anymore than he needs to, and the dentist thought his teeth were rlly weird but it’s just bc he’s a vampire. also his dead mom was a very powerful government figure who was mixed up in some shady business and then killed by the vampires she was working with then causing him to be bitten)

- benji (bi trans guy who wants to be a witch even tho the witches in the coven try to kill him bc his ancestors were witch hunters. also he was bullied at his old school and has one hell of a backstory. and dw he wasn’t bullied bc he’s trans it’s bc he got into fights a lot and beat the shit out of ppl bc he’s insanely good a fighting)

- quinn (useless lesbian who lost her first love to a horrible mistake she made and now the brother of her first love hates her and the fucking kid can turn into a dragon so she lives life on the edge bc he could easily kill her and will not hesitate. going into hs she had a friend group of two other girls but she had a major fight w one freshman year and just drifted away from the other girl and then she becomes friends with pedro and benji and two charcaters w/o names (i swear i’ll name them soon i swear TvT). anyways she grew up thinking her mom died in a car crash on a work trip then finds out her mom was actually a witch who died under mysterious circumstances during a mission. she’s the protagonist of the series btw)

- then there’s a girl whose a cursed familiar and so she can turn into a chipmunk when she wants and she’s a simp for quinn

- then my favorite and they don’t have a name but i have a whole note of info abt them in my notes app. they’re elf whose a disgraced royal orphan with major attachment issues and no will to live. i literally could talk abt them for forever

ok this post is long enough so i’ll just add my other universes and if ur interested ill talk abt my oc’s from there

- a underground school in nyc with descendants of gods and they kill monsters that are the bases of mythologies. also the main cast are sorta criminals and are gay and depressed and have a forced family turned found family dynamic going on

- a victorian era murder mystery all within a house of a nobel. there’s gay ppl and murder and all that over fun stuff and the police are incompetent ofc

- this story takes place in the same universe as the one above but across the world and it’s abt a queer couple whose absolutely batshit feral and work as a librarian and dock worker respectively by day and kill ppl as acts of romance during the night

- and then gay superhero and supervillain falling in love in a coffee shop as civilians and being affectionate bastards to each other as hero and villain and then running away together after the villain gives up and the hero cracks under the pressure of the city depending on them. also it’s nblnb so there’s that too

#sorry this is so late it sat in my drafts half finished for like a week and i forgot abt it #i have more i could add but this is long enough and the other stuff is still half baked #toad talks #an amphibian ask #moony my beloved #long post

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fyrapartnersearch · 3 years

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one gay, please

hey there! you can call me dreamer. she/her, pan person who is Very enthusiastic about all things gay! 24, GMT timezone with quite the hectic sleep schedule, cat mom (will totally send you pics if you ask)! been writing on and off since i was like, 11? (i got exposed to the internet way too young lmao) i’m not gonna claim to be amazing at writing or anything, though. if you’d like to see a writing sample, just ask!

the roleplay stuff:

i love me some original roleplays! canon stuff isn’t my cup of tea unfortunately

i usually write in 3rd person, past tense (present tense is ok with me if you prefer!)

quality > quantity! i don’t pay attention to my word count tbh; i just write whatever’s appropriate for the situation. my minimum is probably around, like, 200-ish? and i can go up to 3k, maybe more. it really depends on what’s happening! but i always make sure to give my partner something to work with, ofc! i just Really like describing my character’s thoughts and feelings

my reply frequency varies depending on what’s happening in my life (which is nothing, currently). I really don’t think i can go for a post every day all the time, so it’s more of 2-3 times a week. even though i have nothing going on, sometimes i just wanna enjoy other hobbies that day or chill and binge random youtube videos, y’know? the upside is that the same applies to you: just because you *can* reply at to the roleplay doesn’t mean you *have* to in that given moment, and i’m more than happy just chatting!

which takes me to my next thing! ooc chatter is like, super important to me. no matter how good a person’s writing or characters are, if i feel like they’re very into talking with me, i get demotivated quickly. so *please* be open to talking! whether it’s discussing the roleplay and poking fun at our characters or just chatting about the day we’ve had and our hobbies, i would definitely like to at least attempt to be buddies!

i LOVE romance! however, it’s not a requirement, and i’m just as happy to do something platonic or like, see whether our characters have natural chemistry rather than pre-planning anything. unfortunately, i am Not into hetero romances between our characters. at all. but give me all your bisexual and gay and lesbian and nonbinary characters and i will be more than happy!

mature themes (alcohol, drugs, violence, smut, etc.) are a-ok. smut is also cool! i’ve honestly been wanting to try my hand at writing more smut, so if you’re also into that (with the plot still being the major focus tho) then that’s awesome! if not, fade to black is still fine with me! just let me know your comfort level with sexual topics and the other mature stuff because the last thing i wanna do is mention anything that will make you uncomfortable! that said, whether you’re fine with mature themes or not, please be 18+!! It’s just a comfort thing for me personally!

if we do go with smutty stuff, i’m not down with top/bottom dynamics, honestly. switching is where it’s at (or at the very least not forcing roles from the very beginning and letting things happen naturally)

limits:

-adult x minor

-master x slave

-alpha/beta/omega

-incest

-bestiality

-vore

-toilet stuff

-romanticized abuse

now that we are hopefully on the same page, you may be wondering, what about plot ideas? well, i do have those! however, i’m kind of looking for something centered more around our characters. there still has to be some kind of plot, of course, but i’m very interested in character interaction and development right now moreso than getting from point A to point B in the story as fast as we can. basically, i’ve got a bunch of characters of mine whom i’m itching to use and flesh out, and i’d love to put any of them against your character(s) and see what happens! my characters already have some sort of ongoing story or whatever so it definitely wouldn’t be hard to create something together! but if that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, here are some plot concepts i’m really into that we can work out a plot for together:

-androids! i have an android oc whom i’m dying to try out, so any kind of world where androids exist would be amazing. i think his backstory could potentially make for quite an interesting plot too!

-angels, demons, fallen angels, demons kicked out of hell or just undercover. i. love. angels and demons. i’m up for pretty much whatever when they’re involved! i’ve also got a couple of plot ideas i could throw at you if this is the stuff you like!

-vampires, werewolves, fairytale creatures, monsters that should only belong in people’s worst nightmares. i LOVE anything supernatural.

-thieves, assassins, bounty hunters, royalty, etc. YES. things are bound to be action-packed when people like these come in! alternatively, anything kinda like dnd class-like stuff (archers, warlocks, fighters, etc.) would also be amazing!

-very into dark academia or ‘boarding school but it’s magic’ in general rn!

-any mix of the above would be spectacular too!

besides all this, don’t be afraid to come to me with your own ideas/concepts at all!! just because i didn’t list them doesn’t mean i’m not interested in them; these’re just off the top of my head!

contact info:

[email protected]

when you contact me, please tell me a bit about yourself and what you’d like to write together! i’ve got discord for OOC chatter, but i prefer to give those out after an initial email. take care!

#oc rp #multiple paragraph #long term #action #adventure #comedy #drama angst #fantasy #modern #original #post apocalyptic #romance #scifi #slice of life #steampunk #supernatural #submission

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pbjpuppy · 6 years

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do every oc question but with horsepower PLEASE

DUDE I WAS SO HOPING SOMEONE WOULD ASK ABT HER IM SO EXCITED

THIS IS SO LONG SO I’M PUTTING A READMORE

1. Do they sleep with a stuffed animal? If they have multiple, who’s the favorite?

SHE does Not surprisingly!! BUT similarly to Giovanni with his kids, Serene is always sleeping next to her bc she’s Warm and Soft so it’s like, kinda the same thing

She IS the type to love sleeping with a ton of pillows though

2. Can they take care of a plant? What about a pet? What about a child?

Horsie doesn’t have the world’s greenest thumb but she could probably keep a houseplant alive!! She likes nature a lot she’s just not stellar at gardening

She would be REALLY GOOD with a pet though that animal would THRIVE and she’d be the type to take like 400 pictures of her pet and spam everyone with them like “Look at this Fucking Angel”

And she’s DEFINITELY GOOD W KIDS seeing as she’s basically raising Serene!! Serene can testify that she’s the Best babysitter (even if she accidentially taught Serene like. 20 separate curse words gdgjdsk)

3. Ask them to describe their love interest.

OOH FUN DIALOGUE

“Um, she’s.. REALLY pretty. Like, really fuckin’ pretty. I think she made me like, 17% more lesbian the first time I saw her. And like, we’ve known each other for a long time and we know each other’s secrets n’ stuff… ahahah, that came out really weird! I just mean we’re good friends, y’know? Hah. Anyway, she’s a bad bitch, I’d die for her. Love her.”

Her love interest is actually a character named Destiny who I havent drawn yet!!

4. Do they look good in red?

I think she could pull it off bc red is in her color scheme but also like.. there’s already so much warm colors!! I think she looks the best in gray or black tbh (like imagine her in a black suit or something she’d look SNAZZY)

5. Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Will they give one, and what about?

“HHuuh WHAT AM I S’POSED TO TALK ABOUT? Fuck. Uh. Respect lesbians.” Mic drop

6. Who will they take advice from, no matter what it is? Who won’t they take advice from, no matter what it is?

She’ll ALWAYS take advice from her friends, especially Destiny, bc she trusts them to know when she’s being too hot-headed or rash- There’s a character in her friend group who hasn’t got a name yet but he’s REALLY good at giving advice!!

She will NEVER take advice from her old rival Lockjaw, and she shouldn’t- he’s always out to sabotage her somehow and plays dirty a lot of the time, and he’s known to be a huge liar (Plus they just hate each other)

7. Describe them in three words. Now let them describe themself in three words.

My three words: Fiery, protective, loving!!

Her three words: “Uh.. Gay. Handsome. Wait, scratch that. Gay, HOT, optimist.”

8. Do complex puzzles intrigue or frustrate them?

She WANTS to be intrigued but she just gets frustrated and crumples up the paper after a few minutes if it’s not a super easy riddle sjhsjf she knows by now that it’s just Not Worth It

9. Do they empathize with non-sentient things (dolls, plants, books…)?

She only usually does with like people (or I guess furry)-shaped objects like stuffed animals and dolls, and even then not to an extreme degree- it’s really Serene who has the EXTREME empathy and empathizes with everything!!

10. What age do they most want to be right now?

THIS IS SUCH AN INTERESTING QUESTION she misses being a kid like Serene is a lot, but she’s pretty happy where she is- she’s in a better place than she has been for a long time at the current point of her story! If anything, she wishes she could go back and tell her middle/high school self that things are gonna be okay

11. They’ve won the lottery. Spend, or save?

She’d SAY she’s gonna save it and REALLY try but she wouldn’t be able to resist splurging on some really cool stuff bc COME ON she won the LOTTERY!! She’d also wanna buy gifts for the Monster family because she wants to thank them for how generous they’ve been to her so it’s really very wholesome

12. Do they like romance in the books they read (or in the book they’re in)?

She doesn’t READ that’s for NERDS

JUST KIDDIN but nah she’s not really one for “mushy stuff” and prefers action/adventure stories!! She’s also a fan of mysteries and anything that’s not Painfully Heterosexual

13. Name one thing their parents taught them.

Her parents weren’t the best, but they did teach her very good manners- she did go through a BIG rebel phase where she definitely was Not as polite, but overall her politeness and natural charisma really help her out in social situations (especially when she has to get favors from people and stuff)

14. Would they agree with the term ‘guilty pleasure’? Do they have any?

I think she’d agree with the term in a general sense!! I’m not sure exactly what guilty pleasures she has, probably just the fact that she can be kind of a thrill-seeker and take unnecessary risks- not involving Serene though ofc

15. What would they consider a waste of time– other than school or work?

The first thing that came to mind is that she considers arguing with people you KNOW aren’t gonna change their mind to be a waste of time- Especially when it comes to social justice type issues she knows not to waste her energy on people who just won’t listen (but she’s argumentative by nature and usually ends up doing it against her better judgement)

16. If money wasn’t a limit, what would they wear?

LEATHER JACKETS AND COOL BOOTS AND SUCH!! She’d also wanna buy a bunch of cool pins to put on said jacket (And she’d probably have to get it tailored bc of her wings too which would also be money..) She would also probably get some kind of cool patterned horseshoes!!

17. Do they like children?

Yes she DOES and Serene is her favorite (Even though she calls her a booger)

19. Do they study before tests? Practice before job interviews?

NOPE she usually dives into most things headfirst, which can be VERY UNWISE but she feels like it keeps her brain clear to not stress about stuff beforehand

20. What do they like that nobody else does?

HMM… I don’t really have an answer for this one tbh!! I’ve been thinking about it for a bit, the only thing that I can think of is that she likes waking up REALLY early and the smell of smoke, but lots of people also like those things

21. What would it take for them to break up with someone? What would be the last straw?

She’s actually really bad at getting out of situations like that, like if she’s in a relationship she’s not happy in she’s bad at getting herself out of it- but probably something that really make her realize she needs to get outta there would be if the other person seriously hurt her on purpose

22. Do they like being called pet names? Do they call other people pet names? What’s their go-to?

She LOVES pet names and calls EVERYONE pet names (unless they’re not comfortable ofc)!! Nicknames are kinda hard to make from “Horsepower” so a lot of the time she’s given weird affectionate pet names instead, it’s somthing that she’s kinda known for

DEFINITELY her go-to pet name is “babe”, she calls almost everyone that and I like to imagine that it’s very soothing bc she has a lovely deep voice.. other go-to pet names are baby, hon and love!! She has a lot of personal nicknames/pet names for individual people though

Tbh she only really refers to someone as their full name if she doesn’t know them or if she’s mad at them shfshf

23. Stability or novelty?

Novelty!! Stability is important to her but she gets bored and anxious if she’s stuck in the same routine for too long, that’s why she likes taking care of Serene bc Serene is ALWAYS doing new things

24. Honesty or charity?

Ooh that’s difficult… Once again both are important values to her, but I’m gonna go with honesty- she’s a very (bluntly) honest person

25. Safety or possibility?

Possibility!! As established before she’s kinda a daredevil she doesn't care about SAFETY (unless it’s anyone else but her doing it then she’s gonna lecture them)

26. Talent or effort?

Effort!! She is EXTREMELY passionate and such an overachiever about everything shkfskh it’s like Hey Horsepower Can You Do This Simple Task For Me and she’s like Oh You Wanted Me To Change The World? I’ll Do That

27. Forgiveness or vengeance (or…)?

Definitely vengeance she holds grudges REALLY BAD and as kind as she tries to be if someone who hurt her or her friends gets hurt… she can’t help being satisfied

30. What would they do if they knew it would be forgiven?

OH THATS A HEAVY QUESTION since she holds grudges so bad she’s probably try to get revenge on Lockjaw for all the grief he’s caused her over the years, if she knew she’d be off the hook she’d get really nasty about it bc her anger at him has just been Boiling for years

WOW THAT TOOK A WHILE BUT IT WAS SO EXTREMELY FUN THANK U SO MUCH FOR ASKING!!! I’ll do the other one tomorrow bc I need to go to BED

Also I did cut out a few questions!! I either didn’t wanna answer them or I had answered them before

#chitchat #furbrain #Horsepower

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sapphicscholar · 7 years

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hi so I didn't know who to ask but in my psych class we're learning about adolescent psychology, & there was this unit on developing interest in relationships. It went way into detail on how the brain changes during that time, which was interesting, but ofc my gay ass couldn't relate. at the end all it said was 'it's different for homosexuals.' I guess I'm wondering if you know of any way to learn about psychology relating to LGBT people? srsly im thirsty for anything in academia I can relate to

(same psych anon) that was a pretty specific question so I guess like do you have any info or know of any links/ websites/places to learn about lgbt history and lives and stuff like that in an academic way? bc I love school & learning but I’ve always wanted to learn more about myself and people like me, but they never teach that in schools.

Oh my gosh SO MANY THINGS! Okay, so, the psych stuff is pretty outside of my knowledge but I asked my gf (she does the science in this relationship while my gay ass just reads a whole lot of books), and she recommends Helen Fisher and looking at the researchers at the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality or the Kinsey Institute, as well as The Sage Encyclopedia of LGBTQ Studies (it’s an online resource a lot of universities subscribe to). But I’d also say that as far as thinking about developmental narratives, LGBTQ memoirs are a great place to start, especially since so many of them go through their own experiences of having to confront this heteronormative, cis-centric narrative that just doesn’t fit them and their lives.

So some good queer history authors are: John D’Emilio (comprehensive, if a bit male-centric), Lillian Faderman (writing all about lesbian history, including more recent history; very well-respected; she’s got some issues in her scholarship that by no means discount it as a whole, but I’m happy to talk more about if you want), Michael Bronski (his Queer History of the United States is really accessible), George Chauncey (it’s just of NYC, but still fun), Estelle B. Freedman, Foucault (though it’s not quite “history,” it’s a kind of history meets theory of regimes of power and how sexuality got tied up in that), Martha Vicinus (I adore her), Valerie Traub (goes all the way back to the early modern period), and so many others who really focus more on niche history, so I won’t list them here. There are some web resources, but I know a lot of them are databases that are subscription-based. I’ll see what I can’t dig up in the next couple of days as far as free websites. I know they exist; it’s just a matter of having the time to look…

Okay, you didn’t specifically say you were interested in literature but bc I taught literature and think it’s a great way to learn about the history of a group, I’m gonna list some anyway and you can feel free to disregard!

Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt (or Carol, depends on the year it was printed) – you can also check out the movie! I find the two to be complementary (the book gives you Therese’s POV almost exclusively, whereas the movie shows much more of Carol’s story)

Alison Bechdel, Fun Home is her graphic novel/memoir that’s really excellent, but the comic strip that sort of launched her as a public persona (at least within the lesbian community) was Dykes to Watch Out For, quite a bit of which is available for free online

Henry James, The Bostonians – one of the first recognizable depictions of a queer female character in literature (not really…I’d trouble that as a professor, but that’s how it gets taught in general, and it was one of the first books where even contemporary reviewers were quick to note that there was something “wrong” or “morbid,” which was 19th C. code for what would come to be understood as lesbian sexuality, about Olive Chancellor) – free online, though it’s James at his most….Jamesian, which means it’s not that accessible

The poetry of Emily Dickinson! It’s all free online. There’s a ton of it, though much of it isn’t obviously queer

James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room – gets into bisexual identity in a way a lot of works don’t do; on the sadder side…fair warning

Virginia Woolf! Especially Orlando or Mrs. Dalloway – the former has been called “the longest and most charming love-letter in literature” (to Woolf’s longtime friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West) and deals with the fluidity of gender and time; the latter has quite a few flashbacks to the brief childhood romance of the protagonist and her friend. Both of them are great, but Woolf, as a modernist, can have a writing style that’s difficult to get into at first (for instance, time really isn’t stable or linear, which is something I adore about her, but definitely takes some getting used to). They’re both available free online through Project Gutenberg

Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness – it’s a classic, in the sense that it’s one of those books people sort of expect you to have read if you do lesbian literature. It’s certainly an interesting story and told well, but it’s not even close to a happy ending and is rather conciliatory to prevailing norms (though even still it was taken to the courts under the obscenity laws) - free online, though!

Sarah Waters – a contemporary novelist who writes almost all historical fiction about queer women! Some of her stories are better known (e.g. Tipping the Velvet), but they’re pretty much all great. Varying degrees of angst, but definitely an accessible read

Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts – sort of experimental in form (it’s fiction with footnotes!); it deals with a lesbian woman coming to terms with her partner’s transition and her own identity during the process

E.M. Forster, Maurice – even though it was first drafted in the 1910s, Forster edited it throughout his life, and, given the subject matter, which was also autobiographical, and the prevailing attitudes at the time, the book was only published posthumously in the 70s

Colette’s Claudine series – it’s long (multi-volume) but sort of a classic – they’re all old enough to be free online, though the English translation is harder to come by

Eileen Myles – lesbian poet and novelist – I’d recommend Inferno but some of her poetry is free online

Rita Mae Brown – Rubyfruit Jungle and Oranges Are not the Only Fruit are both quite good, though, especially the latter deals with religiously-motivated homophobia, so I know at least my girlfriend, who dealt with a lot of that from her family, opted not to read it for her own mental health.

Tony Kushner, Angels in America – this two-part play deals with the AIDS crisis in America – it’s been turned into a TV miniseries, a Broadway play, and a movie, some of which are available online

Really anything by David Sedaris or Augusten Burroughs – both are gay authors who deal a lot with short stories (a ton of memoir/autobiographical stuff) – the former is a bit funnier, but they both have enough sarcasm and dry wit even in dark situations to make them fast reads

Alan Ginsburg’s poetry

Walt Whitman’s poetry (though it can be really fucking racist)

Binyavanga Wainaina, One Day I Will Write About This Place – does deal with issues of sexual abuse as a warning

Anything by Amber Hollibaugh (she writes a lot about class and butch/femme dynamics – quite a bit of her stuff has been scanned and uploaded online)

Michelle Tea – was a slam poet; recovering alcoholic; fantastically funny and talented author and delightful human being if you ever get the chance to meet her or go to one of her readings

Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On – more a work of investigative journalism than anything, the work is a stunning indictment of the indifference of the US government during some of the worst years of the AIDS crisis, but it also provides a good bit of gay history

Terry Galloway Mean Little Deaf Queer – deals with one woman’s experience of losing her hearing and navigating the world and the Deaf and deaf communities as a once-hearing person – she’s sort of acerbic and always funny;

Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex – grapples with intersex identity in a way that’s still far too rare in literature

Theodore Winthrop, Cecil Dreem – just rediscovered about two years ago, this is one of the few pretty happy gay novels from the nineteenth century! Free online!

Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues – pretty clear from the title, but deals with a butch character’s struggles with gender identity (takes T to pass for a while, but then gets alienated from the lesbian community; eventually stops taking T, but still struggles with what that means for her) – Feinberg’s wife made it free online for everyone after Feinberg’s death (the book had a limited print run, which made finding copies both hard and expensive)

Harvey Fierstein, Torch Song Trilogy – trilogy later adapted for film about an effeminate gay man (who also performs as a drag queen) and his life and family

Oscar Wilde – his novels aren’t explicitly gay, but they often dance around it thematically, at least; his heartbreaking letter, De Profundis, which he wrote to his lover while imprisoned for “gross indecency,” is available online

Anything by Dorothy Alison

Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name - great as a memoir and a cultural history

There’s so many more but this is so my jam I suspect I’ve already rambled too long

If you’re interested in film, here are a few:

Paris Is Burning (a film about drag ball culture in NYC)

Fire – Deepa Mehta (it’s on YouTube in the US)

Boys Don’t Cry – there is a lot of homophobia and transphobia in the film, so it’s definitely one you’ll want to be in the right mindset to watch (I, for one, have only watched it once)

But I’m a Cheerleader – over-the-top mockumentary-esque film that satirizes conversion therapy and the Christian “documentaries” that claimed to showcase their successes (RuPaul is in it as well)

Desert Hearts – one of the earliest films to leave open the possibility of a happy ending for the lesbian couple

Hedwig and the Angry Itch – deals with gender identity and feelings of not belonging (also a fabulous musical)

Philadelphia – about one man’s experience of discrimination while dying of AIDS

There are plenty of lighter films, but I figure these tend to also talk more seriously about some issues as well

I don’t know if anyone but me made it to the end of this post, but there’s also so much fun queer theory out there that I won’t get into here, but I’m always up for giving more recommendations!

#ask me #anon #professor rambles #lgbtq history #lgbtq literature #book recommendations #film recommendations

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