#football disucssion

[dcbrierton]

Yuletide recs (part 1)

In reading order... "An Account of the Nanite Epidemic in Broad Street", 1850s London Cholera Epidemic RPF, Gen, General Audiences

Not just 1850s London Cholera Epidemic RPF, but 1850s London Cholera Epidemic RPF in SPACE with ROBOTS that ALSO HAVE (SPACE) CHOLERA. What more can a person ask? There is general (not at all graphic) discussion of the symptoms of cholera, which some readers may not enjoy.

"Refraction", 17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future, Gen, Teen and Up Audiences

A fanfic about the 17776 space probes discussing fanfiction. The primary fandom disucssed is, of course, football RPFs, specifically Game 27. That's the one with the crazy field maps.

"A Night of Purest Winter Vintage", Anne of Green Gables, Gilbert/Anne and Diana & Anne, General Audiences

A very sweet wintry skating fic set set during Anne of Avonlea.  I love the way that Anne feels deeply and often messily/non-transparently-to-herself in canon, and this fic captures that perfectly.

#yuletide #fic recs #17776 #anne of green gables #london cholera epidemic

[cccxxvi-blog]

Trigger warning: suicide mention, images

For this week, I would like to disucss the suicide attempt made by the character David Karofsky.  For a little background, David is a football player and went to McKinley High with the rest of the cast.  With most of the school unaware, David is gay.  He is in the closet, and he preferred to stay that way (which is valid, as a lot of LGBT+ youth do not wish to come out so soon).  He comes out to Kurt, another gay character, and later on, he ends up switching schools.  There, he is outed, and thus we have this emotionally powerful scene.

This is something that happens for too often in LGBT+ youth.  The suicide rate is at such an awful high for this category of youth.  It is a sad fact that we need to take more measures to protect LGBT+ youth, but we won’t get into that for now.  Let’s dissect this a bit: it’s a realistic story line.  A popular football player hides his sexuality, gets caught at a gay bar (okay, maybe that’s not too realistic), is outed by his “friends”, cue the teasing and bullying, and he falls into the suicidal spiral, taking an attempt on his own life.  Luckily, he survives.  Unfortunately, a lot of teens do not.  As realistic this is, was it necessary? Sure, it can show the realness of how your words affect someone’s life and well being, but should we need this in order to spread that message? I vote yes and no.  While it is compelling and absolutely heartbreaking to watch this teenager go through it, it’s a little striking and sudden.  David was only a side character, so you didn’t get to see his emotional road.  I feel this would have a much greater imapct if a character that was seen in the light more went through this.  And again, why do we have to show LGBT+ representation through the form of suffering?  Why can’t happy storylines just exist, and why can’t queer characters be genuinely happy?  I find myself asking this question a lot, and I have another question as well.  If TV and film is made digestible to the majority, why do straight people love to watch queer characters suffer? 

#GWS201002