#primarily as a media event

[micamicster]

it only took 12 interviews i guess for somebody to bring up 9/11 to me

#longer than I expected! I appreciate that. I guess. #anyway we should make a rule where these people don’t get to speak about 9/11 anymore. ive heard enough from White Man From Carolina. stop #there are actually other things you can speak about to a person from nyc. hard to believe but it’s true! #it didn’t happen to him it happened to me! and I know better! I know better! #one of the most insane things about the culture surround 9/11 is that it is simultaneously #valorized in this histrionic performance of grief (for propaganda purposes) #and also like. not treated as a real thing that happened to people. like as if it was a news-only event #it exists in the white american consciousness SOLELY as a rhetorical device. an excuse for islamaphobia hate and violence. war propaganda. #but not as the worst day of my childhood. not as an incredibly tacky topic to introduce in a 20 minute interview with a relative stranger #it only exists on tv. just like all of the monstrous wars we used it as an excuse to start! #who was it who wrote… im thinking of a passage I read about our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq #where the author said because of their distance and the lack of impact on american day to day life the american people experienced them #primarily as a media event #that’s how it always goes I guess! so it fucking goes #I really should know better than to post this but i needed to vent. vent what a stupid word.

[arsenicflame]

me writing headcanons for obscure media that's already been dead for years? its more likely than you think

Avengers Academy Loki primarily identifies as female, and even when she is presenting male, she is pretty feminine. Shes always been secure in her identity, but the first time she ever felt truly accepted and loved as who she is was when Jan offered to make her feminine clothes without a seconds hesitation.

#this is one of those things that is so set in my personal beliefs i forget it isnt canon #this along with the cane as a mobility aid. canon to me idc #Back on Asgard she tended to simply dress more/less feminine depending on how she felt without changing her body #(subtle changes that could be brushed off should anyone decide to take issue with her identity) #but since coming to the school she tends to shapeshift more and more; to become who she truly feels like #she knows shes safe here that her friends will always have her back. even the people at the school who hate her generally respect her #also while she primarily id's as a woman she is still genderfluid! #wasp has been known to post running pronoun updates on her social media when loki is feeling particularly fluid #i like to think the event when you get lady loki is the first time loki shapeshifts her body on campus and wasps reaction to it both shocks #her and encourages her to be more faithful to how she feels internally- after that she spends at least 50% of her time in that form and #using she/her pronouns #avengers academy #avac #avac loki #loki avengers academy #janet van dyne #avac wasp #nyxtalks

[lizardsfromspace]

Was there ever a news event in our lifetimes that the media fumbled more aggressively than Columbine. They genuinely got every single detail wrong

From reporting that they killed someone for saying she believed in God (a different girl who said she did survived) to not reporting that they sought out students of color while yelling racial slurs - on Hitler's birthday & a day after the anniversary of OKC and Waco - while promoting the idea that you have to watch out for loner bullied nerds. Even though later research shows that the shooters were, in fact, bullies themselves, who had a wide social circle, and they were, you know, Nazis motivated by racism and not the video game Doom (1993).

It's a generational fuck-up, the GOAT of bad reporting bc it's still with us. The narrative of persecution after "she said yes" is a huge reason the evangelical right is like how it is today (they made a biopic that uncritically repeated it just a couple years ago!) & they still push the idea that it's primarily victims who do that sort of thing and not aggressors & people still shared that stupid video of Marilyn Manson saying he'd "listen" until a couple years ago (though the shooters being abusive Nazi creeps would uh, not diminish Marilyn Manson's desire to befriend them, I feel)

#shooting cw #gun violence cw #i'm not tagging this with [name] cw bc. you know what kind of people are in those tags #media #racism cw #murder cw #death cw #fascism cw

[storiesfromgaza]

Hello, everyone.

This may be the finest and most important article I've written since the creation of this blog, so kindly read it carefully and pay attention.

And share it so that everyone can see it.

There are many events happening tonight, and I will try to summarize them for you so that you have a complete understanding of what is happening.

Twelve days ago, a gruesome incident occurred, most of you have probably heard of it: the occupation forces shelled the Al-Ma'madani Hospital in Gaza, resulting in the deaths of over a thousand people, including patients, their families, doctors, and young children.

Has the occupation been content with this? The answer is no.

Since that day, they have been threatening another hospital, Al-Quds Hospital, with the promise of bombing it, leaving civilians and patients inside in a state of terror, awaiting death at any moment.

The first time this happened, it spread across social media platforms, especially Twitter, and many people protested, causing the occupation to halt its actions.

Today, twelve days after the Al-Ma'madani Hospital massacre, they have once again sent severe threats to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) for the immediate evacuation of Al-Quds Hospital, as it is destined to be bombed.

"🔴 Urgent: We have just received severe threats demanding the immediate evacuation of Al-Quds Hospital as it is set to be bombed.

Since the early hours of the morning, the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital has been witnessing continuous airstrikes, resulting in the destruction of some buildings within a 50-meter radius.

📢 Please share, save Al-Quds Hospital! 📢

#GazaUnderAttack #GazaUnderSiege #Save_Al-Quds_Hospital

"

The second matter, three days ago, specifically on Friday, the twenty-seventh of this month, the occupation completely isolated Gaza from the world by cutting off the internet, telecommunications, and electricity. They were prepared for a brutal massacre that occurred that night and lasted for two days.

I'm talking about indiscriminate bombardment using all kinds of weapons on all areas of Gaza, whether they were churches, mosques, schools, or homes, regardless of their occupants, be they children, young people, women, or the elderly.

During that period, social media platforms and indeed the entire world were abuzz with the issue.

People from various backgrounds, nationalities, and religions unanimously agreed that it was inhumane to isolate them from the world and deny them the right to have a voice.

They were searching for solutions they could implement.

Some took to the streets, demanding the return of the internet, while others began sharing their plight on social media, primarily on Twitter.

They reached out to activists and officials who had the means to help.

One of the most prominent solutions that everyone turned to was contacting Elon Musk, the former owner of Twitter (X) and the current owner of SpaceX, to enable the people of Gaza to use the internet via Starlink's private satellites.

They hoped that he would hear their plea, as it was their only hope.

He tweeted:

"Starlink will support connectivity to internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza.

[ComStar]

"

On the same day, five hours after the publication of this tweet, the Israeli Minister of Communications commented on it, saying, in essence, that they would use all available means to prevent the supply of Starlink internet to Gaza because Hamas would utilize it. He also threatened that if this were to occur, he would sever all his office's ties with Starlink.

Now, let's discuss the issue of hostages for a moment because it is of utmost importance to understanding the situation.

On the twenty-fourth of this month, Yasmin Porat, one of the hostages, came forward to talk about her experiences during her captivity.

I will now share some of what she mentioned in the interview:

She stated that Israeli forces eliminated everyone, including hostages, amid heavy crossfire and tank shelling.

She highlighted the contrasting behavior of Palestinian fighters who offered hope for safe passage to Gaza. Israeli forces disrupted this hope with a storm of gunfire.

Palestinian fighters treated the hostages humanely, offering them hope of a safe passage to Gaza, despite the chaos.

This compassionate act stands in stark contrast to the chaos that unfolded.

After the interview was broadcast, it was completely deleted and blocked from all social media platforms and even from Kan's website. Moreover, Yasmin's account mysteriously disappeared from the "Haboker Hazeh" program, raising concerns of censorship.

Below, you will find the interview recording.

During that period, the Al-Qassam Brigades continued their communication with the Israeli government in order to release some prisoners for humanitarian reasons, including their age and health, among them two elderly women, one of whom is named Yohav Levisheitz.

But the Israeli government showed no interest in the matter whatsoever.

As a result, they decided to release the two elderly women.

Before leaving, one of them, Yohav Levisheitz, insisted on shaking hands with one of the resistance fighters who she was their captor, as you can see in the following video.

-Tumblr doesn't allow me to post two videos in a single post, so I will provide the video link on the blog-:

https://www.tumblr.com/storiesfromgaza/732027117370572800/al-qassam-brigades-released-two-of-the-hostages?source=share

After this, she insisted on participating in a press conference to share her experience, saying:

"When we arrived in Gaza, they initially told us that they believed in the Quran and that they wouldn't harm us.

They said they would treat us as they do with those around them.

We were under tight security, and medical professionals arrived to ensure we had the medications we always took.

They showed great concern for our health.

Our place of rest was the mattresses.

We had an accompanying doctor who would visit us every two or three days to check on our well-being.

In addition to a paramedic who looked after us and provided us with our medications.

They took on the responsibility and made sure to provide the necessary medications.

They looked after our hygiene meticulously to safeguard our health so that we wouldn't fall ill.

It was they who took care of cleaning the restrooms, not us.

They provided us with everything we needed, and I acknowledge their help in that.

If equivalent medications weren't available, they offered suitable alternatives.

They were remarkably courteous (kind) and ensured we ate well, sharing the same food they ate (bread, cheese, and cucumbers)

We were treated with kindness, and they paid meticulous attention to every detail.

Women among them understood the importance of feminine hygiene and ensured we had everything we needed.

Hamas had meticulously planned everything for a long time, providing us with everything we required, even down to shampoo and conditioner.

The inefficiencies of the army and Shabak (Israel Security Agency - ISA) greatly impacted us; we were pawns in the government's game."

After this, Western media outlets, with CNN at the forefront, distorted Yohav's words and published that she said, "I went through hell."

BBC, on the other hand, released two versions of the statement.

They published the original statement by Yohav on their account dedicated to the Arab audience, while on their accounts for Western and Indian audiences, they published a manipulated version of her statement that included the same content as previously published by CNN.

These are the testimonies of two different women captives, both of whom unanimously agree that they were treated with excellent humane treatment, and no one tortured them or attempted to harass or disturb them.

On the other hand, both of them agree that Israel did not care about their safety in any way and, in fact, they would open fire in the presence of the hostages, leaving behind lifeless bodies hit by their deadly bullets.

Now, let's focus for a moment on the point of Israel and the prisoners.

Two days ago, Abu Ubaida, the official spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, made a lengthy recorded speech in which he spoke about the prisoners.

He said:

"There have been numerous contacts in the prisoner file, and there was an opportunity to reach an agreement, but they delayed and did not show real seriousness in releasing the prisoners.

Instead, its barbaric shelling and continuous crimes have led to the killing of nearly fifty of them so far."

Do you understand now that Israel does not care about the prisoners at all, as it claims, and that their use of the prisoner issue is merely to prevent Elon Musk from providing internet access via Starlink in Gaza for its residents?

Remember to follow our Instagram account.

We regularly post a lot of content with fresh designs to reach a larger audience which you can easily share by posting it in your Instagram story, Facebook story, WhatsApp story or sending it to your friends through Direct Messages, we need all the support we can get.

#gaza #palestine #gaza strip #free gaza #free palestine #storiesfromgaza #غزة #فلسطين #genocide #humanitarian crisis

[bugsbenefit]

forever annoyed by the wannabe activism that got so much worse during the pandemic that so many younger people seem to primarily abide by now. where almost all their "action" is online-based and heavily focused on media consumption and "problematic people". it drives me so crazy. i don't know how to tell you that going after a musician or actor or comedian because of their views or statements is the least productive form of activism and i honestly wouldn't even count it as such. if you want to call yourself an activist you actually need to ACT. not just talk online about how person xyz is evil and be done for the day, or say book/movie xyz is problematic and then log off, that's not enough, that doesn't actually DO anything

call local officials, go to protests, talk to people at your uni/school, boycott brands. hell, even talk to your parents about what's going on in Palestine, or other current events, many older people have conservative views, not because of inherent bigotry, but because they don't have enough information and grew up in a media propaganda bubble. or just talk about ongoing events online, keep the pressure on the public and don't let people lean back and forget. all that are actual forms of activism

i'll never stop being mad at the new wave social media wannabe activism that lets people think they're done with their Activism Activity of the day if they called timothee chalamet or noah schnapp a bad person. girl, yeah they are, but actually do Anything else too, that's not the activism you apparently think it is😭

#something something the lockdown forced people to be online instead of in local in person communities #so a lot of young people never learned how to actually do activism properly and only know the performative online outrage one #same reason why so many young queer people are so out of touch with queer culture and community honestly #i just need people to talk to real people in their area about things like activism and queerness so bad #organized action only works if local people organize and act 😭

[jewish-sideblog]

Hundreds of neo-nazis, including members of the current far-right Italian government, gathered for a ceremony outside Italy’s former neo-nazi party headquarters. They chanted white suprematist slogans, displayed white suprematist symbols, and lined up in army formation for a collective nazi salute.

The video source here is Twitter. Because despite the fact that multiple Italian politicians have confirmed it’s real, I could only find two “news” articles covering the event, from Vice and The Guardian, of all places. Both refer primarily back to this video. I hate to be the bitch who says “Why isn’t anybody talking about this,” but in this case, the “this” that isn’t getting talked about is the resurrection of the same European fascist regime that led to the literal fucking Holocaust. So I’m not going to ask, “Why isn’t anybody talking about this?” Instead, I’ll say this, and I’ll say it specifically to the Jews:

Western goyim had the chance to stop this from happening. They had the chance to show that they had grown from the Shoah, from Shoah denialism, and from rampant, centuries-old antisemitism. They had the chance to speak out for us, to protect us, and to give real meaning to the words “Never Again”. Instead, they have at best paid hollow lip service to Jewish safety, and they have enabled the globalization of the ripe conditions of nazism we find ourselves in today. We know why no one is talking about this. We know.

There are less Jews today then there were in 1939. We lost six million lives less than a century ago, within living memory. We have not recovered from that loss. But the world has forgotten. Ten percent of Americans under 40 have never even heard of the Shoah. The majority don’t know how many lives we lost. The statistics from Europe aren’t that much better.

They say that those who have forgotten their history are doomed to repeat it. Goyim have forgotten, and the repetition is here. We’ve seen them repeat thousand-year-old canards without batting an eye. We’ve seen them call for the gassing, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of Jews. We’ve seen the lengths they will go to supporting misinformation about our history and culture, in service of the people who call us dirty pigs and dogs who need to be hunted to extermination.

I am horrified that I haven’t seen international news outlets or goyim on social media talk about this yet. I am angered by it. But I am not surprised. Whatever crimes against Judaism come next, I will be horrified, and I will be angered. But I will no longer be surprised by what they will stoop to.

[korrasamiweek2024]

Hi everyone! This December will mark the 10th anniversary of Korra and Asami walking hand in hand into the Spirit Portal and changing the animation game forever. Korrasami means so much to so many people, so let's give them the celebration they deserve💖

Here's a general idea of what to expect and when:

February 1st - April 30th: Prompt Submission. Let me know what kind of prompts you'd like to see! Send me a message here and I'll add it to the list.

May: Prompt Voting. Depending on how many prompt ideas are submitted, this could take one week or a few weeks. We'll see when we get there!

June - December 14th: Long stretch of time during which I'll be on my hands and knees begging you not to forget this event is a thing, and you can brainstorm and work on your submissions!

December 15th - December 21st: Korrasami Week!!!

Keep reading under the cut for rules and guidelines😊

Rules and Guidelines:

1. What's allowed? Pretty much anything! Artwork, fanfiction, gifsets, headcanons, analysis/meta, memes, etc. are all welcome, as long as they're your own work and are Korrasami-focused.

2. Explicit content is fine, but the characters need to be adults, and everything depicted MUST be consensual.

3. Please abide by Tumblr's guidelines about explicit content, otherwise there's a chance Tumblr might delete your submission! If you're not sure, you can always post your work to another site (AO3, twitter, etc.) and then link to it here. All explicit content posted and reblogged here will be tagged "nsft" so be sure to block that tag if you'd like to filter out such content!

4. No whitewashing, racism, misogyny, transphobia, ableism, or other bigotry of any kind.

5. When submitting visual or audio media, please include a description either in ALT text or in the body of the post itself.

6. Other characters and relationships from The Legend of Korra are welcome, but your submission should be primarily about Korrasami.

7. Be kind. No criticism ("constructive" or otherwise) of other people's work unless the creator explicitly requests it. If you don't like something, just keep scrolling!

8. Follow the prompts if you can! They're meant to be helpful, but if you get inspired by something else entirely, please feel free to submit whatever you make!

9. Tag for content warnings if you think something might be triggering.

10. Submit your fanwork either by mentioning @korrasamiweek2024 in the body of your post and using the #korrasamiweek2024 tag, or by submitting it directly to this blog. You can also add it to the Korrasami Week 2024 Collection on AO3. All submissions for each prompt will be reblogged or posted by the end of the day.

11. There's no such thing as a stupid question, so if you're unsure about something, feel free to ask!

#korrasami #korrasamiweek2024 #tlok #lok #korra #asami sato

[tailschannel]

IDW Sonic's Surge the Tenrec to make mobile game debut in Sonic Prime Dash

The third-ever character from the IDW Sonic comics to appear in official, playable Sonic media was quietly unveiled in a Sonic Prime-themed mobile game.

The upcoming in-game event was spotted early Wednesday, with it announcing that players of Sonic Prime Dash will have an opportunity to collect character tokens for Surge the Tenrec, who will debut approximately two days from now.

Surge will also appear in the free Sonic Dash in the days ahead, and expected to appear in Sonic Forces: Speed Battle.

Prime Dash is an ad-free version of Sonic Dash that primarily features characters from Sonic Prime, as well as runners from the general Sonic series. Similar to Sonic Dream Team's exclusively deal with Apple, Prime Dash is exclusive to Netflix's game subscription service.

SEGA HARDlight, the game's developers, has yet to officially announce the IDW Sonic character in any Sonic mobile game, even though the tenrec was spotted in the files of Speed Battle's latest update not so long ago.

(story contributed by Scarlett for the Tails' Channel newsfeed.)

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic #surge the tenrec #idw sonic the hedgehog #idw sonic #sonic idw #sonic dash #sonic prime dash #sonic prime #sega hardlight #gaming #sega #sonic mobile #mobile gaming #sonic news

[wen-kexing-apologist]

A Pause for Reflection: Part 2- Only Friends, Racism, and the Commodification of Queer Asians

Hello! It is me, your friendly neighborhood wen-kexing-apologist. Before Only Friends aired, knowing how sex heavy this show was setting up to be, I decided it might be kinda funny if instead of posting my initial reactions to the episodes, which I knew were going to be something akin to an incomprehensible key smash, if I instead committed to a bit where I wrote very dry, academic essays on sex and sex imperatives in Only Friends.

Well, I wrote an essay on Boston, his cruising habits, and my speculations around him being an embodiment of older queer culture expecting like…three people maybe to make it through legitimately 13 written pages with block text citations. But it did surprisingly well, and so now I have decided to full send. 

In my first Taking Pause post, I wrote about respectable promiscuity and the way I felt that concept impacted perceptions of queer people and queer culture, especially as it relates to engagement with Only Friends. This time, I want to dampen the mood a bit further, and discuss racism and its impact on perceptions of queer Asian characters in the BL industry. This was spurred by Only Friends and especially inspired by the posts I have seen going around that project false purity on flawed characters, but will cover Asian BL engagement more broadly as well.  

Disclaimer: I am a white Westerner, addressing this post primarily to white Westerners, and using Western sources. 

The Commodification of Queer Asian Men

Racism is a complex subject, and while people of color are not absolved of white supremacy mindsets through colorism, this invitation for conversation is mostly geared towards my fellow white Westerners. Racism is persistent, pervasive, and insidious in part because we do not always know when and how our own personal biases and learned racism impacts how we interact with the world, or in this case media. 

With the increasing mainstream acceptance of gays and lesbians, and the increasing visibility of LGBT folks more generally, gay space and straight space, gay sociality and straight sociality, are increasingly blended (Dean, 2014). The commodification of gayness is only one example of this. (Ahlm, 2017)

We are frequently spoiled by BL because of how much exposure to queer people in stories we are allowed to see. These stories are not primarily or inherently made for queer people, but what this massive index of gay shows gives the general public is large amounts of exposure to the concept of gay people (about queers), and growing popularity allows for a rapid commodification of queer Asian experience.  

I want to take a second to show the definitions of commodification, so anyone reading this is aware of what lenses I am working from.

Commodification:  to turn (something, such as an intrinsic value or a work of art) into a commodity (Miriam-Webster) 

Commodity: 

an economic good: such as…c. a mass-produced unspecialized product

a. something useful or valued; b. convenience, advantage

a good or service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (such as brand name) other than price

one that is subject to ready exchange or exploitation within a market (Miriam-Webster) 

Personally, I think it is reasonable to argue that BL and BL branded pairs are exploited by and are an exploitation of the market. We have seen the number of in-universe ads in our standard Thai BLs, the number of BLs being created every year is increasing with the understanding that these shows can be profitable, sell products, sell concert tickets, sell out theaters, make money on fan events, etc.. I think many of us have begun to love when Oishi Green Tea, Nivea Micellar Water, or Canon printers show up in our BLs, but it cannot be denied or ignored that those are commercials for products being sold to us through the images of queer characters and within queer stories. Meaning, the queer stories we are able to interact with en masse are there to sell us a product as well as a story. 

How does this relate to racism? By making queer characters of color sell products within the stories they exist in, we establish a relationship to queer characters of color that extends the commodification of queer men of color themselves beyond what already exists by nature of racism and white supremacy within queer spaces: 

It’s almost as if no gay men of color exist outside of fantasy cruises to Jamaica, Puerto Rico, or the ‘Orient’. And even then, they exist only to fulfill the sexual fantasies of gay white men. ‘Exotic’ vacations to far away places are marketed to rich white men and [low income] colored bodies are only another consumable product easily purchased with western dollars. As such, gay men of color, whether found within western borders or conveniently waiting for white arrival in the far off corners of the globe, are nothing more than commodities for consumption. (Chong-suk Han, 2007)

How many shows have we gotten out of GMMTV in recent years that are absent, or near-absent of in-universe ads? Three? The Eclipse, The Warp Effect, and Only Friends? What themes are at the center of these shows that may make them distasteful to corporations trying to sell their products? 

Now, I entered the BL scene after The Eclipse aired, so I don’t know what its reception was like at the time. But I am pretty certain it was a popular show. Yet, I have personally witnessed the adverse and negative reactions to, especially Ayan, when Our Skyy 2 x The Eclipse aired and we saw Ayan keeping a secret that was hurting Akk’s feelings. I saw the sheer amount of posts coming out of tumblr about how Akk and Ayan were characterized so wrong in this show. And, I am trying to be polite here, but there were just grossly misrepresentative takes on tumblr about the characters we got on screen in OS2, who were extremely in character based on the source material, and not the idea of the characters we have built up in our heads as the lines between Ayan and Khaotung or Akk and First blurred over time. 

The Warp Effect is a show I have constantly been asking people to watch as Only Friends approached and continue to market as required viewing while we are still in the early stages of Only Friends, but it was not widely watched as far as I could tell from the activity on my own tumblr feed and from the number of people I saw reblogging my Case for Watching TWE post who said they had yet to see it. And I get it, it was marketed more as a heterosexual show rather than a BL, but I will go down swinging to defend my position on that show as The Queerest Show of 2023 (so far). 

I think about all the ways people on tumblr have re-written certain characters in their minds to be purer, less morally dubious, more babygirl in order for them to justify loving and supporting a character that is either objectively a terrible person or who has made any number of mistakes that have gotten themselves or others hurt. Listen, my most beloved gay boys are Wen Kexing and Akk but I will be the first to tell you both those men are war criminals. That is not a joke. I love Akk to death as a character, and he let a car roll into a crowd of protestors.

Which is to say, that I am personally made to feel very uncomfortable when I see people twisting the realities of who queer Asian characters are in order to create a false, more pure and innocent version of who they want queer Asian characters to be. Why? Because it treats queer Asian male characters like dolls, like objects to manipulate and control, rather than as the people they are written and intended to be, and the fanservice that is expected of the actors that portray them is not much different: 

At the same time that they are invisible, gay Asian men are also seen as being exotic, submissive fantasies for white men. However, being seen as exotic and submissive is yet another form of subtle racism where gay Asian men are not seen as individuals but as a consumable product for white male fantasy (Ayres, 1999). (Chong-suk Han, 2007)

And yeah, I know some of you may try to deflect this by saying or thinking “wka this quote is about white men and thus does not apply to me” it does. It does apply.

On the Subject of Fan Service 

These production companies make a lot of money off of selling the fanbase the idea that these actors are romantically involved outside of their acting careers. GMMTV and Idolfactory are perhaps the most committed studios to fanservice that I have seen, often to the detriment of the health and safety of their talent and potentially their own financial interests. He’s Coming to Me was delayed, and had it’s distribution fucked with because fans protested Singto being separated from Krist and paired up with Ohm for one show. Freen was recorded and blackmailed with a video that showed she was in a romantic relationship with Seng. Articles were published making it seem like it was a truly wild concept that Man Trisanu and Ben Bunyapol were acting to create the chemistry they get on screen. These companies know they can make money off of the fictions they create, both the ones we see as television shows, and the ones we see in fan meet ups. These people are actors, some may date, some may not, some may be really good friends, some may hate each other’s guts, but the fact of the matter is we will never know for sure. Everything we see on camera is a performance. 

How Objectification of Queer Asian Men Relates to Only Friends

I mean…

I don’t know about you all, but I have seen post after post of people projecting images of purity and perfection on to Mew, twisting themselves forward and backward to justify a character’s objectively terrible decisions, or finding scapegoats to blame for their blorbo’s actions. I have seen people truly, legitimately struggle with seeing their favorite acting pair engaging in intimate scenes with different scene partners. And, to me it reads like some audience members are physically unable to separate the actor from their character, or to accurately identify reality from fiction. These are actors, they are playing characters, we know how good of actors they are. We are all aware of how much of a chameleon First is with his roles, how powerful Khao is at portraying grief on screen, how expressive Book is, etc. 

Force and Book are not fucking, Book is not stringing Force along, Force is not fucking Neo and potentially breaking Book’s heart. Top and Mew are fucking (or will). Mew is stringing Top along. Top is fucking Boston and potentially breaking Mew’s heart. Khaotung is not ditching First to go rescue Book, First is not trying and failing to maintain boundaries with Khaotung. Ray is ditching Sand to go rescue Mew, Sand is trying and failing to maintain boundaries with Ray. 

Harkening back to fanservice. Personally, I believe that only ever marketing “love pairs” (aka Force and Book’s characters as a romantic couple or First and Khao’s characters as a romantic couple on screen) severely severely limits the acting potential for any and all of the performers involved in those couplings. Can you imagine what Only Friends would be like with Neo and Louis, rather than Neo and Mark? Louis is great, but I’m not sure that he could do pining simp, or angry revenge the same way Mark can. You can see how good of a match up Fluke Pusit was with Thor in The Warp Effect and you can see how good Fluke Pusit was with Ohm Thipakorn in A Boss and a Babe. 

As I mentioned in Part One, Jojo has said there is going to be sex in every episode. We know these boys have already hurt each other and will continue to hurt each other. We know these boys have already slept around and will continue to do so. There is no need to vilify a character for being a flawed human being. There is absolutely no need to vilify an actor for portraying a character who is a flawed human being. We don’t need to uplift the characters that are withholding their sexuality from others as inherently good, moral, victims of the inherently bad, immoral, predators ruining their lives with their high sex drives. 

…popular culture is permeated with ideas that erotic variety is dangerous, unhealthy, depraved, and a menace to everything from small children to national security. Popular sexual ideology is a noxious stew made up of ideas of sexual sin, concepts of psychological inferiority… and xenophobia. The mass media nourish these attitudes with relentless propaganda…

All these hierarchies of sexual value- religious, psychiatric, and popular- function in much the same way as do ideological systems of racism, ethnocentrism, and religious chauvinism. They rationalize the well-being of the sexually privileged and the adversity of the sexual rabble…this kind of sexual morality has more in common with ideologies of racism than with true ethics. (Rubin, 1984)

I am begging people who are having difficulty seeing their favorite actor be shitty on screen to take a pause, take a breath, remember that they are actors, playing a fictional character in a fictional role. Fictional characters performing fictional actions has not, does not, and will not ever be a true and definitive indicator of that actor’s own personality, morals, or beliefs. Boston being an asshole does not mean Neo is an asshole. Ray being an asshole does not mean that Khao is an asshole just as Gaipa being kind does not mean that Khao is kind. Jojo and co are not monsters for creating a manipulative character(s), or including physical fist fights, drug use, promiscuity, cheating, sexual assault, abortion, kink, fatshaming etc. etc in to their works. You are not a bad person for liking imperfect characters who engage in bad actions, and you don’t need to create scenarios that place blame for those actions on others in order to justify liking a character.  Everyone on that set appeared to have a great time, and Jojo stated very clearly that all scenes were run by the actors in those scenes and anything the actors were not comfortable with being shown to a broader audience were immediately deleted. The actors were granted agency and autonomy that is not usually seen and we are seeing the performance they want to share with us, the performance they liked. That does not mean they themselves approve outside of fiction of the behaviors their characters may portray. 

Conclusion

We all need to, but white Westerners especially, be extremely careful and introspective with the ways we are engaging with queer Asian media. We need to be careful and introspective with the ways we are engaging with queer Asian characters. Asian BLs, Thai BLs especially lean heavily in to the commodification of queer Asian stories and characters. GMMTV sells products, and uses their talent as the salespeople, which I personally believe makes their talent, and the characters in their stories far more susceptible to objectification than, say, Japanese BLs that do not distribute their work as easily, or cater as readily to international audiences. 

As @bengiyo said in his post, it is totally totally fine if you do not like something. Only Friends could not be your style, there could be themes that are triggering for you, etc. that’s fine. But if you are refusing to engage with this Only Friends because Force as Top acted like he was fucking Neo as Boston, or squirming about whether or not you can watch other shows these actors are in going forward because their performances as dumb, horny college students in Only Friends made you question the actor’s morality, then I truly, deeply, and fully beg you to pause, take a step back, and reflect upon what it is about witnessing these behaviors that is causing your reaction. 

I want to end with the following quote: 

Thus, white men can choose when they want to be objectified, but men of color are simply objects. As discussed above, existing only as props for white male consumption represents another subtle form of racism. As Tony Ayres notes: First, there is overt belligerence…The second response is the exact opposite of this racist antagonism. It is an attraction to me because of my Asianness, my otherness ... This has nothing to do with my individual qualities as a person ... It is the fact that I conveniently fit into someone else’s fantasy (1999, p. 89) (Chong-suk Han, 2007)

As a reminder that we as fans, need to take a step back and consider if, when, and how we are objectifying queer Asian men. We are seeing a huge period of growth in the Asian BL industry, which means we are very likely to get more shows where we are going to see more stories like Only Friends that center realistic depictions of gay Asians as written and directed by gay Asians. And we have to check our privilege, homophobia, and racism at the door.

Sources

Ahlm, Jody (2017) Respectable promiscuity: Digital cruising in an era of queer liberalism, Sexualities, DOI: 10.1177/1363460716665783

Chong-suk Han (2007) They Don't Want To Cruise Your Type: Gay

Men of Color and the Racial Politics of Exclusion, Social Identities, 13:1, 51-67, DOI:

10.1080/13504630601163379 Rubin, Gayle (1984) The Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality- Chapter 9: The Sex Wars.

(thank you to @bengiyo, @lurkingshan, @neuroticbookworm, @so-much-yet-to-learn, and @waitmyturtles for your beta readings!)

#only friends #only friends the series #ofts #sandray #topmew #topboston #bostonnick #forcebook #firstkhao #neomark #wka long post #jojo tichakorn #the eclipse #the warp effect #the eclipse the series #twe #our skyy 2 #our skyy 2 x the eclipse

[genericpuff]

Since you have mentioned your own original webcomic has time travel, do you have any advice for people who want to make comics or simply write stories that deal with time travel?

Could be any kind of time travel, like time loops, characters traveling to the past/future, dealing with paradoxes, etc.

Short answer: don't LOL

Long answer: Obviously if you wanna tackle time travel, go for it, but the first and most important rule of any time travel is to establish your rules. How does the time travel work? And how will you commit to consistency?

Some basic time travel rule structures include:

Clone travelling - This is the most common form of time travel that's used the most. When you go back in time, your past self is present alongside your present self. Examples include Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Doctor Who, and Austin Powers.

Singular consciousness travelling - This is one I've only seen used a couple of times, and the only one I can think of off the top of my head is Life is Strange, but what I like to call 'singular consciousness travelling' is the form of time travel where instead of travelling to a point in the past, you return to a version of your past self, fully aware of the future that awaits you but 'stuck' within that past to live out the timeline in real time again. Though it's not as commonly used, it's one that will typically present less paradoxes as there are less moving parts to worry about. Prophecy storylines also use a similar philosophy to this, albeit without the literal time travel and more so 'time travel' via premonition (could we call Raven from That's So Raven a time traveller?)

Loops - This is a form of time travelling seen in media such as Groundhog Day, where a person continuously travels back to the same point in time over and over again to relive the same events until they can somehow break the loop.

There are loads more of time travel structures I could go over, but those are three of the most basic. Regardless of which structure you use, you have to be willing to commit to it. It's like choosing a writing perspective and tense, if you choose third person past tense ("he said, she said, they said"), then suddenly switching to first person present tense ("I say", "I do", "I feel") without any context to establish that switch will be jarring. Make your rules, and if you have to break them, make sure they're broken for the sake of the story (ex. if you present some sort of plot twist to reveal the 'true nature' of the time travelling plotline).

Here's a great video that goes over some different time travel plotlines from movies/books/etc.:

As for my original comic, we go for the time travel = multiverse theory approach, where any changes made to a timeline in a past state will not change that timeline's future, but rather, create a new timeline where those past changes are true and written into the script, essentially relegating every single new timeline to a parallel universe. This is essentially how it's done in Avengers: Endgame , but instead of characters abusing the laws of quantum physics to travel back in time, it's characters abusing a magical book of diary entries that are primarily used by the main character to help him control and guide his time travelling abilities. Every diary entry essentially serves as a roadmap for him to find his way back to his home timeline from which he disappears every time he jumps. Much of the story is written entirely atop a paradox, specifically the bootstrap paradox:

(because if there are gonna be paradoxes no matter what you do, may as well have fun with them!)

There's a lot more I could go into regarding that, but for the sake of sparing the handful of Time Gate readers here of spoilers, Time Gate's laws of time travel dictate that you can't really change your past, just the future for other versions of you that you create when you try to change things.

All that said, I will say that in most cases, thinking too hard about any time travel story will cause it to fall apart, because time travel is a fictional trope that relies a lot on logical sequencing of events to work. So you kind of do just have to 'let it go' and have fun with it - but having rules to stick to will make things less of a headache for everyone, especially when it comes to telling a coherent story. Even my own criticisms of LO's time travel really don't matter in the end, because LO's problems go far deeper than some cheaply-made time travel and any of the time travel problems in the story will undoubtedly be explained away as "timey wimey shit". I'll still be pissed about it, but time travel isn't real (at least not for you) so it's not worth getting too bogged down by. Just do your best to tell an entertaining and coherent story.

#ask me anything #ama #anon ama #anon ask me anything #time travel

[dpxdc-sapphicweek]

Introducing our first ever DPxDC Sapphic Week event!

Sapphic Week will span from march 3rd to March 9th 2024

The Official DPxDC Sapphic Week is an event that celebrates all things sapphic in our wonderful little crossover fandom.

This is a multifandom prompt event for writers and artists.

When: March 3rd-March 9th

What: Each day has three prompts: one ship dynamic and one single word prompt, and a Sappho poem. You can use both of these or just one! This is a primarily crossover event, but you can use these prompts for single fandom works, too.

Other Information:

All forms of art are welcome. Tag your works appropriately (including possible TWs). No sign-ups necessary! Just post your work and tag it and add it to the ao3 collection. The tag is dpxdcsapphicevent24 Don’t stress if you don’t make a prompt by the time its day is over! You can post your works after the due dates. This is all for fun! Please don’t post prompts early. No one is required to do every day!

Each day features a ship, a Sappho poem, and a prompt. Feel free to use all of them or one of them or whatever inspires the muses!

FAQ:

Q: What counts? A: Any Danny Phantom and DC Media crossover! You can also just do fics for the parent fandoms! So DP only and DC only submissions are more than welcome!

Q: Can I add fics with additional fandoms? A: Sure! All are welcome!

Q: do I have to use the prompt/ship/poem fragment for each day?

A: nope! If you just want to use the fragments as your prompt or the ship, that’s totally fine. We gave three options for each day so that you can have more freedom to choose what suited you more!

Q: What ratings are allowed? A: All ratings, but be sure you're tagging any triggering content!

We request that you do not publish a work before the day of its prompts, but we will keep the collection open a month after the end of the event.

Please tag your fics dpxdcsapphicevent24

#dpxdcsapphicevent24 #dpxdc #dp x dc crossover #danny phantom #detective comics #dc universe

[veinsfullofstars]

✨ May I interest you in some Dedede and Meta Knight as childhood friends? ✨

(ID: Kirby series fanart, Childhood Friends AU, of King Dedede and Meta Knight as kids interacting in various cute and wholesome scenarios, such as coloring, cloud-watching, sparring with sticks, overindulging on sweets, protecting each other from bullies, and more. Design-wise, young Dedede is short and chubby with a smaller beak and three feathers sticking up from the top of his head. He wears a pair of red overalls with gold buttons on the straps and a pocket on the front with a white two-finger peace sign. Young Meta Knight is maskless and similar in appearance to Kirby, save for his yellow eyes, dark blue complexion, and a pair of tiny wings on his back. Additional headcanons and worldbuilding for this AU under the cut. END ID.)

UPDATE 03/11/24: Added a scar to Meta's head. | UPDATE 04/24/24: Touched up a few headcanons below.

Started on 10/09/23, finished on 10/11/23. NOTE: This was originally posted on my deleted account on 10/11/23.

—

-This AU primarily takes place within the Kirby gameverse (with a few superficial elements borrowed from external media), the timeline starting decades before the events of KDL and eventually catching up to and following the main games’ canon (with nods to side games and some unique events added here and there for character flavor). I am trying to stay canon-compliant, but I’m also kinda making things up as I go and changing them as needed, so no promises I won’t just go completely off the rails the more I workshop things, haha.

-I'm mostly going to leave ages nebulous in this AU, but - for clarity's sake - we'll say Dedede and Meta are both the equivalent of 7-to-11 years old here, though they first met a little earlier...

-Meta Knight is just called Meta for now - he won’t earn his title until after he starts his overstars military training with the Galaxy Soldier Army (GSA) in his late teens.

-That hammer belongs to Dedede’s mama - a former pro-wrestler - and will someday be passed down to him (once he’s strong enough to actually pick it up).

-The Star Warriors/GSA inclusion in this AU is more for flavor than any major role. In this version, they are basically an intergalactic military group fighting various forces of evil and providing relief-aid across the universe, their reputation generally positive thanks to a genuine effort on their part to balance acts of war and defense with acts of philanthropy, community assistance, and compassion, well-known enough to reach even distant Popstar. Any known Star Warriors - Sir Arthur, Sir Dragato, Kit Cosmos, etc. - are either long since passed on or retired somewhere outside of the story. Upon learning of the GSA, Meta becomes enamored with their deeds and longs to be a knight himself (not yet aware of the hardships involved in becoming one).

-The kids like to spar for fun in their free time, but on occasion they get proper training from Dedede’s papa - a retired knight with connections to the GSA who’d settled in Dream Land with his wife just before they had their only son. Meta looks up to him with the same admiration he has for the Star Warriors. Dedede, however, doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with his well-meaning but rather strict father.

-Meta is quite shy around people he doesn’t know well. In overwhelming situations, he tends to either shut down and go non-verbal or quietly slip away to recoup. That said, he is much more expressive around those he trusts, listening eagerly and chatting far more than he would otherwise.

-Dedede has an impulsive streak and likes to make wild plans that tend to put him and his buddies in precarious situations (when he can be bothered to actually follow through with them, that is). Meta is often the first to point out the flaws in his plans (if Para Dee doesn’t do it first) but inevitably ends up tagging along anyway, his wariness easily overturned by his curiosity.

-Meta is sometimes bullied by the bigger kids in the village due to his strange appearance and timid nature. Dedede is quick to step in and defend him, usually getting into scraps in the process. It will be a little while before either of them gain the respect of their peers…

#veins art #veins fanart #fanart #kirby series #kirby #king dedede #meta knight #star warriors #AU #childhood friends au #friendship #technically pre-relationship #but I'm gonna keep the tags platonic for now since they're still kids here #no weird gooey feelings yet #right now they're just a pair of good buds who really believe in each other #veinsfullofstars

[userdramas]

USERDRAMAS EVENT 13: TEAM SPIRIT

For our first event of 2024, it will be all about TEAM SPIRIT. This is your chance to highlight your favourite group or team dynamics, like a sports team in your favourite sports drama, or a group that functions as a team in an office drama you enjoy. You can also highlight your favourite music groups, or their subunits. Alternatively, make gifsets/edits primarily using the colours of your team:

CHERRY BLOSSOM = red JASMINE = yellow LOTUS = pink

We encourage you to make any type of visual content (gifs, edits, fmvs, fanart, etc.) of Asian media inspired by TEAM SPIRIT. This event will run from January 1st to January 29th.

TO PARTICIPATE: ✿ join our network  ✿ reblog this post  ✿ make visual content featuring this month’s prompt  ✿ caption your post as follows:  @userdramas event 13: team spirit [optional: insert quote/description/caption]

#udevent #event13 #kdramaedit #asiandramasource #asiandramanet #kdramasource #jdramasource #kdramanetwork #chinesemedia #cdramaedit #jdramaedit #asianlgbtqdramas #ccnet #admin post

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

have you shared your views on the TWST time loop theory on this blog yet? i think i saw you said once that you’re not the biggest fan of time loops, but my memory isn’t the best so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yup, I've mentioned a few times before that I don't really like the trope of time loops. It's a matter of personal taste, time loops just are not my thing!

I believe there are many different variations of the time loop theory, but it essentially boils down to this: Yuu (or at least different iterations of Yuu, including the light novel and manga depictions) keeps repeating the same events over and over because the world/the characters were failed to be saved in the previous loop or by the previous Yuu. A lot of the evidence presented for this theory are primarily suspicious dialogue in the prologue, the existence of other Yuus in official TWST media, and the fight against what many suspect is OB Grim in the very beginning of the game before the real story opens (although personally I think this could very well be a flash forward to far later in the main story to foreshadow those events).

I... don't really have anything to add to this theory?? Like, I completely understand why some people are super into it (and the idea of a Yuu-niverse where all Yuus are present and valid in their own AU), but I'm not too hyped since I was never into time loops or most of the Yuus myself + there isn't any "solid" evidence (aside from vaguely ominous lines and imagery that could really be interpreted many different ways) as far as I can tell. The theory's definitely a real possibility (there's not really anything to glaringly disprove it or mark it as an impossibility), but I'm not actively cheering for the time loop to become a reality or anything.

#anyways stan Yuuta Mito from the Episode of Octavinelle 🫶 #twst #twisted wonderland #Grim #Yuu #disney twisted wonderland #disney twst #notes from the writing raven #question #twst manga #twisted wonderland manga #twst light novel #twisted wonderland light novel #twst theory #twst theories #twisted wonderland theories

[hanaleeappreciationweek]

We begin our first day of Hana Lee Appreciation Week 3.0 TOMORROW!!

In our previous editions, we had kept Hana's AWs on days that celebrated her passion - music! This time, we decided to shake things up a little, and hold the event around the time of World Book Day! This time of the year is also fitting because it will be spring in many parts of the world, and there are very few things that remind us of Hana more than flowers do!!

Day 1 has two themes to choose from - Character Appreciation and Throwback.

We love having Character Appreciation as a theme because it encompasses everything!! Anything goes - as long as it includes whatever you love most about Hana.

Throwback is simple - any creative work on Hana that you've done before this edition of HLAW came out! Reblog any fic, art or meta that you've done before on her, and if you'd like to take us through the process of how you made the work - we'd love to read all about it!!

Any content is welcome!! Fanfic, fanart, edits, moodboards, interactive, media, headcanons, screenshots, playlists, meta...even screenshots of your favourite scenes would be great!! Our only requirement is that the content is centered on Hana, and that the depiction of her is positive. You can also send in WIPs in case you don't complete a work!

You can also send in a work on the days following a particular theme - this is no pressure for it to be put up exactly that day! We will also have an extra week for anyone who still needs time 💕 May 4th will be our final official date for entries (to incorporate into our video!) but HLAW will still be open for entries for the rest of the year until the next event!

You can find our full list of prompts here!

Be sure to do the following when making your posts:

1. Use the tags #hanaleeappreciationweek and #HLAW in the tags (along with the day you made the post for - #HLAW Day 1, #HLAW Day 2 etc)

2. Tag @hanaleeappreciationweek as well as hosts @lizzybeth1986 and @sazanes, we don't miss out on your posts!

FAN CONTENT BLOGS are instrumental in keeping the fandom alive - with events and fun activities that encourage us all to contribute and create. They have also been amazing in their support towards our character events. Do check them out to see all the new incredible events and prompts coming up!

@choicesficwriterscreations - Primarily fanfic and fanart (no AI allowed). Check out their rules and roster of events!

@choicesmonthlychallenge & @choicesaprilchallenge24 - Any and all content welcome! They have a collection of prompts you can use for the month of April!

@choicespride - Any and all content is welcome, as long as it is centered around queer characters and/or themes.

@choicesflashfics - Primarily fanfic under a 2500 word count. Every week they use new dialogue prompts. The prompts for the coming week will be out soon!

@choicesholidays - Any and all content welcome, as long as it is centered around one of the holidays listed! Currently, they are hosting Spring Fling!

@choicesprompts - Any and all content welcome! You can check out their current Round Robin event here!

Hope to see more incredible works from you all for Hana this week!

Happy Hana Lee Appreciation Week, everyone!!

#hana lee #the royal romance #hanaleeappreciationweek #HLAW #HLAW 2024 #HLAW Day 1 #HLAW Day 1: Character Appreciation #HLAW Day 1: Throwback

[detailtilted]

CHICON 2007 - "Enhanced Edition" of Jensen's Solo Panel

Direct link.

Here’s my next “Enhanced Edition” video from the CHICON 2007 event. This was Jensen’s solo panel, so it’s mostly just Jensen, but I included Jared and J2 in the tags because Jared shows up at the end to give Jensen some shoulder squeezes and kick him off the stage, plus there’s a funny and sweet moment in the middle where Jensen talks about his relationship with Jared.

Just like with the J2 Breakfast video I posted a couple weeks ago, the original source videos aren’t my own. Credit and links to the originals are provided in the YouTube video description. However, I spent hours (and hours and hours) adding enhancements: 1. Slight upscaling of original videos to make them easier on the eyes.

2. Additional content to clarify or refresh people's memory about references so people can better appreciate what they’re talking about. It’s mostly displayed to the side, so my hope is that it's easy to ignore if it isn’t of interest.

3. Good, color-coded English subtitles that can be turned on through YouTube’s CC button to aid in understanding the sometimes chaotic audio.

4. For this panel, the source videos had some missing sections and I couldn’t find any other videos to fill those gaps. I personally hate it when there’s a gap and I don’t know what I’ve missed, so I added some still images at those points with text to explain a little bit about what was missed.  The video description has a link to my source for that info.

If you think this is worth sharing with other people, I’d be hugely grateful if you shared it wherever you think it might be appreciated. I don’t have much of a social media presence, so not many people will see it on my own blog.

Let me know if you catch any errors in the subtitles. They’re a separate file from the video, so I can upload a corrected file pretty easily. I changed Jensen’s subtitle color to a lighter blue that I think is easier to read, and I also updated the Breakfast video subtitles to use the same color.  The next video I post will be the solo Jared panel, followed by the J2 panel to complete the CHICON 2007 set. (I'm focusing primarily on Jared and Jensen for now.)

#jensen ackles #jared padalecki #j2 #chicon 2007 #chicon #supernatural #dean winchester #sam winchester #Youtube