#the secret life of an american trans boy

[punkeropercyjackson]

These slayed harder than Danny Phantom ever could

#one's a trans girl and the rest are poc.i wonder what the connection is-oh hey dp fans aren't you obsessed with danny being a blue eyed boy? #toons tag #static shock #the secret saturdays #american dragon:jake long #adjl #generator rex #the life and times of juniper lee #mlaatr #virgil hawkins #zak saturday #doc saturday #drew saturday #doyle blackwell #wadi secret saturdays #jake long #arthur spudinski #trixie carter #rex salazar #juniper lee #ray ray lee #monroe jl #jasmine lee #dennis lee #marcus conner #jenny wakeman #brad carbunkle #tuck carbunkle #nora wakeman #summerposting

[fitz-higgins]

LGBT literature of the 1860s–1910s. Part 5

After a long pause, the list is back! Here we have a couple of plays, accounts by two trans women, lesbian poetry, and more.

1. Despised and Rejected, by A.T. Fitzroy (Rose Allatini; 1918). A pacifist novel published during World War One? With gay and lesbian characters? Yes, that was sure to get people in trouble. Its publisher was fined and the judge called it “morally unhealthy and most pernicious”. So, Dennis is a young composer who hates violence and therefore refuses to go to war. He also suffers because he is a “musical man”, that is, gay, and loves Alan, art-loving son of a wealthy businessman. His friend Antoinette, meanwhile, is “strangely attracted” to a woman. Nevertheless, the two attempt to love each other. When the war begins, Alan appears in Dennis’ life again, and they try to avoid being sent to the front together. Alan also persuades Dennis to accept who he is. Edward Carpenter himself defended the novel, saying that “the book is also a plea for toleration of a very much misunderstood section of humanity”. Read online

2. Autobiography of an Androgyne, by Ralph Werther (1918). Ralph Werther, also known as Jennie June, wrote this autobiography for doctors, and it is very revealing. Being a New York fairy (male prostitute) and possibly a trans woman, they tell frankly about the city’s gay underworld of the early 20th century and their personal experience, which is sometimes too frank and dark perhaps, but all the more interesting. Read online 

3. Poems by Mikhail Kuzmin. Kuzmin was not just the author of Russia’s first gay novel, but also a poet. Many of his works were dedicated to or mentioned his lovers. I’d recommend Where Will I Find Words (in English and Russian), Night Was Done (both in English and Russian), from the 1906-1907 collection Love of This Summer (available fully in Russian), mostly based on his love affair with Pavel Maslov in 1906. And also If They Say (in English and Russian), which is a great statement.

4. The Loom of Youth, by Alec Waugh (1917). A semi-biographical novel based on Evelyn Waugh’s older brother’s experience at Sherborne School in Dorset. It is a story of Gordon Caruthers’ school years, from the age of 13 to 19, and it is full of different stories typical for public schools, be it pranks and cheating exams or dorm life and sports. Although the homosexual subject was quite understated, the author implied that it was a tradition and open secret in public schools. The book became popular and soon caused a great scandal. Worth noting that before that Alec was expelled for flirting with a boy.  Read online 

5. Two Speak Together, by Amy Lowell (1919). Lowell was a famous American poet and lesbian. Many of her poems were dedicated to her lover, actress Ada Dwyer Russell, specifically the section Two Speak Together from Pictures of the Floating World. These poems are infused with flower imagery, which wasn’t uncommon for lesbian poetry of the time. Read online

6. De berg van licht/The Mountain of Light, by Louis Couperus (1905-1906). Couperus is called the Dutch Oscar Wilde for a reason: this is one of the first decadent novels in Dutch literature. It is also a historical one, telling about a young androgynous Syrian priest Heliogabalus who then becomes a Roman Emperor. Homoerotism, hedonism, aestheticism: Couperus creates a very vivid world of Ancient Rome. He also covered the topic of androgyny in his novel Noodlot, which was mentioned in Part 3 of this list. Read online in Dutch 

7. Frühlings Erwachen/Spring Awakening/The Awakening of Spring, by Frank Wedekind (1891, first performed in 1906). This play criticized the sexually oppressive culture prevalent in Europe at the time through a collection of monologues and short scenes about several troubled teens. Each one of them struggles with their puberty, which often leads to a tragic end. Like in The Loom of Youth, homosexuality is not the central focus of the play, but one character, Hänschen, is homosexual and explores his sexuality through Shakespear and paintings. The play was later turned into a famous musical. Read online in German or in English

8. Twixt Earth and Stars, by Radclyffe Hall (1906). Though it wasn’t known to many at the time, these poems were dedicated to women, some to Hall’s actual lovers. Read online

9. The Secret Confessions of a Parisian: The Countess, 1850-1871, by Arthur Berloget (published in 1895). This account is similar to the Autobiography of an Androgyne, albeit shorter. The author nowadays is thought to be a trans woman. They describe their love for women’s dresses, the euphoria from wearing dresses, makeup and wigs, the life as a “female impersonator” in Parisian cafe-concerts, and their love affair with a fellow prisoner. The autobiography is not available online, but you can read it in Queer Lives: Men’s Autobiographies from Nineteenth-Century France by William Peniston and Nancy Erber.

10. At Saint Judas’s, by Henry Blake Fuller (1896). This is possibly the first American play about homosexuality. It is very short. An excited groom is waiting for his wedding ceremony in the company of his gloomy best man. They are former lovers, and this short scene is not going to end well… Read online

Previous part is here

#lgbt literature #lgbt fiction #queer history #queer fiction #lesbian literature #russian literature #gay literature #gay history #spring awakening #lesbian history #blog: history #blog: literature

[mamawasatesttube]

tim for the ask game? :-)

Headcanon A:  realistic

part of the reason he keeps his hair longer later is that he has a pretty significant burn scar on the back of his neck after the explosion he's caught in late in robin '93. he's not too self-conscious about it or anything, but he hates when people stare or ask about it.

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

when he was going through his dad's stuff after his death, he found a box of his own baby teeth that his parents apparently just... kept. which he had feelings about for sure, but also like... he didn't really want to keep a little box of his own teeth. that feels weird. but also throwing them away when they clearly had significant value to his parents feels BAD.

solution: he makes sure the box is clearly labeled (there's a tiny paper that says "tim's baby teeth <3" in his mom's handwriting in the lid; he goes over it with sharpie because it's kind of faded) and then just leaves it in a drawer in dick's apartment. dick you want these right? for emotional attachment or whatever? yeah cool.

dick finds them like two weeks after tim just places them there and goes hm. considers calling tim like hey why is there a box of your teeth in the drawer under my tv? but then he's like eh you know what, my life is weird enough. this may as well happen. so he just leaves them there and forgets about them again. tim considers this a job well done.

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

he has a boatload of internalized homophobia to work through before he can even admit to himself that he's bi, thanks in large part to jack drake. he's also trans, and jack's acceptance of that hinged on tim being able to play the part of the classic ~all-star american boy~ so well. as a result, after jack is dead, tim has a lot of issues allowing himself to stray from what he knows his dad would've wanted him to be. it's not a simple easy said-and-done journey. it takes him years; he's the last one of core four to come out.

he also doesn't just like. tell people. his sexuality and his relationships are on a need-to-know basis. he's a very private person he's not going like oh i'm queer? i need to inform everyone i know. it's like... partly because he is just a private person, but also because it takes him a looong time to work through the shame around his sexuality that his dad left behind.

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

he and zoanne are still friends. or they reconnect when tim eventually goes to college to get an engineering degree. specifically i think he just goes "well i'm great at tinkering and shit so how hard can this be?" and then once again has to struggle with juggling vigilanteism and having a normal life and doing homework. and zoanne is there going jeez your eyebags!!! are you good?? and tim's like no i want to sleep for a week :( why did charaxes show up last night when i have an 8:30 am lecture on tues/thurs >:( except he can't say that because secret identities. the point being tim gets to continue exploring his Themes and Issues re: identities and ALSO zoanne wilkins is there.

#answers #lemonlimestar #tim #phew....... many tim thoughts i love him. placing him into a centrifuge as we speak

[thatsonemorbidcorvid]

“If the practice stopped, top-level women’s sport as we know it might cease to exist.”

Full text below cut

My wife and I are lifelong runners. It’s the sport we fell in love with, and ended up excelling at—during our wedding, every speaker from the preacher to the best man mentioned some variation of “Can you imagine how fast their future kids are going to be?” My wife, Hillary, is by far the more accomplished athlete. I made the NCAA championship; she was an All-American. I had dreams of qualifying for the Olympic trials; she actually did it. By many measures, she’s simply better. But not by all of them.

We both got our start in middle school. When Hillary was in seventh grade, she ran a 5:42 mile. At the same age, my best was virtually identical at 5:40. If we had lined up for a race, there would have been a close dash to the finish line. Fast-forward to ninth grade, and we were both ranked among the top freshman runners in Texas. But a clear difference had emerged: Her time had steadily decreased to 5:13, while mine had shot all the way down to 4:22. At the end of our collegiate running careers, the massive gulf remained: She ran 4:43 and I ran 4:01. I didn’t train more, care more, or possess more grit. She surpasses me on all of those things. I just had an inherent advantage: my biology.

It’s no secret that sports-performance differences between sexes are a flashpoint in an American culture war that goes beyond athletics into ideology and identity. I’m not here to tackle the tough and important questions of sport and sex, such as how to include trans athletes and people who have differences of sexual development in a sporting world that is mostly divided along binary lines. What I am here to address is one of the simplest debates. Over the past few years, some cultural commentators and sociologists have minimized the impact of sex-based biological differences on sporting performance. Some claim that men’s biological advantages in speed, strength, or endurance are scientifically debatable. (This magazine recently published such arguments in an article about youth sports.)

Here is what the facts say. Sport for women is generally undervalued and under-resourced in America, and this can affect women’s performance levels. Coed sports at recreational and youth standards—played as part of living a good life, not to develop elite athletes—can be both fun and competitive. But at the highest, rarefied levels of many professional sports, men and women appear to have different performance ceilings.

The research is clear: The difference in my wife’s and my athletic progression is not unusual. With young kids, the best boys tend to be only a hair better than the best girls. We can see this in age-group records: The boys’ and girls’ records for the 9-to-10-year-old 100-meter-sprint are nearly identical (12.73 versus 12.85). But in the 15-to-16-year-old records, the gap has gone from a crack to a gulf (10.51 versus 11.34).

A study by Mike Joyner and his colleagues at the Mayo Clinic found the same trend when analyzing the top 100 freestyle-swimming times of boys and girls from ages 5 to 18. Before the age of 10, both sexes are remarkably similar in performance, with the best young girls actually tending to swim faster than the best boys. But after 10, the boys get ahead. By 17, the average difference is 8.4 percent. Researchers found the same trend when evaluating more than 400,000 ordinary kids in the P.E.-class shuttle run: similar speeds early on, but an ever-widening gap starting at about age 10.

The reason for this is simple: puberty. The overwhelming driver for the sudden jump in male performance seems to be the surge, at this specific time of an athlete’s life, in the steroid hormone testosterone. This hormone influences muscle size and strength as well as the amount of oxygen-carrying red blood cells in our body. A large analysis on running, jumping, and swimming found that the rise in testosterone during puberty in males coincided with a steep improvement in performance. When puberty occurs, girls, on average, continue steadily improving their sporting performance into their teens. But boys get a rapid shift upward in their trajectory.

When looking at elite runners—whether sprinting 100 meters or racing many miles—once athletes hit physical maturity, the best men have anywhere from a 9 to a 12 percent advantage over the best women. A significant gap can be seen in cycling, swimming, speed skating, high-jumping, and a variety of other athletic feats. The gap is even larger in sports that depend highly on strength. For example, when looking at elite weight lifters in the same weight class, the performance gap is about 24 to 30 percent.

It’s important to note a few caveats. First, most of the best research is on sports that are easily quantifiable. For example, there’s no way to directly compare the skill levels of elite tennis players to measure for tiny performance differences unless they play one another. What we know is that the less a sport relies on speed, power, or endurance, and the more it relies on skill, the smaller the gap is. In sports like shooting and archery, the difference between men and women is negligible at best. Second, the performance gap of course doesn’t mean that all men will triumph over all women all the time. My comparatively unathletic brother would get beaten by thousands of women in a mile-long race. And if my wife showed up to a local turkey trot, she’d likely decimate all the men. Third, because there is significant overlap between males and females in performance, female outliers can shine, particularly in niche sports with a small number of competitors (e.g., ultrarunning).

But at the top of the top of the athletic world, in widely played sports with elite coaching, the gap between the sexes seems almost insurmountable. Take the queen of track and field, Allyson Felix. The 11-time Olympic medalist’s best 400-meter time ever is 49.26. In just the 2022 season, that would have put her 689th on the boys’ high-school performance list.

None of this is meant to disparage the phenomenal women athletes at the top of their game. But if we stopped dividing sport by sex, elite women’s sport as we know it could cease to exist. We might miss out on Megan Rapinoe at the World Cup or the spectacle of Sydney McLaughlin effortlessly gliding over hurdle after hurdle. Acknowledging the performance differential should encourage us to do everything possible to make sure female athletes can keep competing at these levels.

But how do we know that the gap between the sexes isn’t sociological, like we’ve seen in fields such as math, where research suggests that social factors explain much of the gender gap in average performance? The history of sport is rife with sexism that has held back women. Take, for example, the 1928 Olympics, where Knute Rockne, the famed Notre Dame football coach (and newspaper columnist), reported in The Pittsburgh Press that after the 800-meter final, five women collapsed and that “it was not a very edifying spectacle to see a group of fine girls running themselves into a state of exhaustion.” Following public outcry, the 800-meter was removed from the Olympics for 32 years. But the reports were false—women weren’t collapsing left and right. The top-three women actually broke the former women’s world record that day.

Women today still face inequality in sport. Many professional sports have a significant pay gap, limiting the ability of women to focus solely on it as a career. Media attention for women’s sport is severely lacking, with 95 percent of sports TV coverage in 2019 going to men, according to a USC/Purdue University study. In some colleges, a significant difference in funding and severe lack of female coaches—who act as both a role model and an advocate for women’s sport—can impact participation rates. Yet even in sports where sexist sociological barriers have been lowered, a performance gap can persist.

Women were barred from major marathons for much of the 20th century. The Boston Marathon, for example, didn’t allow women to compete until 1971. At that point, the women’s unofficial world record was about 2 hours and 45 minutes. At the same time, the men’s record stood at 2:08:34. That’s a massive 30 percent performance gap. By the summer of 1984, when women were finally able to run the marathon in the Olympics, they’d massively cut into the men’s lead, leaving only a 11 percent gap. These kinds of gains bred a sense of optimism. “We’re nearer and nearer the men now,” said the second-place female finisher of the 1983 Boston Marathon. But the trend faltered. In the nearly four decades since then, women have kept improving, but the current gap still stands at 10.7 percent.

Every sport is different. Some are still like 1970s marathoning—the chasm between men and women is caused in large part by discrimination. Those gaps need shrinking. But the same trajectory we saw in the marathon occurs in most women’s sports that remove sexist barriers. For example, a 2010 study traced the progression of male and female performance across the prior decades in 38 athletic events in five different sports: swimming, cycling, speed skating, weight lifting, and track and field. It found that the gender gap had been fairly stable for more than two decades, and concluded, “After a significant narrowing of gender gaps, women and men now evolve in parallel, in the same direction.”

The upside of acknowledging that sex differences in performance exist is that we can discuss the vital, knotty debates that emerge from this biology. For example, would creating more coed sporting opportunities before, say, age 10, keep girls in sport longer? How should schools and clubs handle a young female athlete who wants to play football even though there’s no girls’ team? Should we get rid of sex-based divisions in sports like shooting, where the performance gap is minimal? We certainly need to figure out better answers for trans athletes and people like Caster Semenya, who, because she has differences of sexual development, is allowed to compete in the 5K but not the 800-meter race.

To solve these questions, we need to first accept the premise that puberty can create unequal sporting ability. Doing so doesn’t mean that we stop fighting inequality or dismiss tricky edge cases. It actually should free us from arguing over what should be a noncontroversial claim. We can then shift our focus to making sure women have the space, resources, and opportunities to show their talents. We can acknowledge that though I might have run faster at my peak, my wife’s performance and achievements are undoubtedly more impressive. We can stop judging female athletes against their male counterparts and enjoy their athleticism on its own accord.

Steve Magness is a performance coach and sports scientist. He is the author of Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness.

 

[wangxianficfinder]

Famous

~*~

Pop and Prejudice by flowerofgusu  (E, 25k, WangXian, Modern AU, Popstar, Pining, Misunderstandings, popstar wwx and music critic lwj, Falling In Love, Pride and Prejudice References, Eventual Smut, Slow Burn, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, POV LWJ, LWJ Has Feelings, Pining LWJ, Famous WWX and Non-Famous LWJ, First Time, Light Angst, Soft WangXian)

The Fault in Our Stars by Vamillepudding (T, 17k, WangXian, Modern AU, Getting Together, Romantic Comedy, Comedy of Errors, Misunderstandings, the title makes it sound like a cancer story, it's not a cancer story)

The Shape of Your Love (is Horny) by Vamillepudding (T, 25k, WangXian, Modern AU, Urban Fantasy, Getting Together, Romantic Comedy, WWX is Bad at Being a Demon, LWJ is definitely a Monsterfucker)

your heartbeat, across the grass by fakeplasticlily (E, 44k, WangXian, Modern AU, Football, footballer!lwj, Mutual Pining, Fluff, Oblivious WWX, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Sexual Content, liberal use of romcom tropes, Childhood Friends, Kid Fic, this is not American football btw it’s what you guys call soccer)

live from new york an snl au by varnes (E, 105k, wangxian, JYL/JZX, This is a SNL AU, however the juniors are featured and there are lots of shenanigans!, slow burn, friends to lovers, pining, getting together, happy ending, accidental marriage, secret marriage)

🧡 I Don't Want to Debut! by countingcr0ws (G, 56k, WangXian, Modern AU, Reality show, Idols, Actor LWJ, Forced Contestant WWX, Tencent's 2021 Idol Producer)

❤️ Knight Hunt! Phoenix Mountain by travelingneuritis (E, 51k, wangxian, modern, dating show, Modern Cultivation, but in the silliest way possible, Reality TV, the juniors are interns, Smut, Illustrations, low-stakes pining)

Waiting for Spring by thievinghippo (E, 130k, WangXian, Modern AU, MLB AU, Baseball AU, Mutual Pining, Pining while fucking, slight angst, Happy Ending)

WeHateDogs by trippednfell (T, 3k, WangXian, Modern AU, Inspired by Twitter, Social Media AU, WWX is a professional dog hater, Fluff and Crack)

~*~

YouTuber

~*~

like, comment, share & subscribe by detectorist (T, 22k, WangXian, Modern AU, College AU, YouTube, Social Media, Flirting, Humour, Banter, Getting Together, First Kiss, Texting, Youtubers For Social Justice, YouTube Rivals to Lovers)

Obligations and indulgences by Winxhelina (T, 27k, WangXian, LWJ & NHS & WWX, Modern AU, College/University, Miscommunication, Pining, Humor, Misunderstandings, Explicit Language, Influencer NHS, Drinking, Drunk LWJ, First Kiss, Social Media, Texting, NHS meddiling)

Cloud Nine Series by mssdare (E, 86k, WangXian, Modern AU, YouTube, Depression, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, Mental Health Issues, Mental Breakdown, Suicidal Thoughts, ASMR, youtuber LWJ, youtuber WWX, Social Media, Getting Together, getting better, Happy Ending, Intercrural Sex, Shower Sex, Sleepy Cuddles, Videoblogging, Sexual Dysfunction, Erectile Dysfunction, Medication, Touching, Anal Sex, Domestic Bliss, Nightmares, Cuddling & Snuggling, Hand Jobs, Blow Jobs, side effects of medication, Slow Pace)

🧡【那夏天的我們】a stroke of fate by puddingcatbeans (G, 59k, WangXian, Modern AU, Fluff, Slice of Life, Falling In Love, Summer, Barakamon AU, renowned musician lwj escapes to tiny village and falls in love with local farmer boy wwx, good times only, YouTuber WWX, Food)

simping for hanguang-jun by defractum (nyargles) (T, 6k, WangXian, Modern AU, YouTubers WangXian, Fluff, Among us game, Streamer AU)

🧡[restoration exercise - no talking] by spookykingdomstarlight (M, 18k, WangXian, Model WWX, ASMR YouTuber LWJ, Strangers to Lovers, Meet-Cute, Long-Distance Relationship, Identity Porn, Fluff, Light Angst, Loneliness, Yearning)

🧡a baby rabbit is called a kitten and other fun facts by aurora_chiroptera (G, 11k, WangXian, Modern AU, this is really a kid fic in a lot of ways hidden in a youtube/social media au, Mutual Pining, NHS uses they/them pronouns, JZX is a trans lesbian and uses she/her pronouns, Child LSZ, Long-Distance Relationship, (kinda?), Fluff, and bunnies, Soft WangXian, Good Parent WWX, Single Parent WWX, Getting to Know Each Other, Getting Together, Nonbinary NHS, LWJ Has Friends, set in the US)

i hear your name in the wind by meanderingroad (T, 20k, WangXian, Modern AU, POV Alternating, Social Media, vlogger!WWX, Pining, Misunderstandings, Texting, Light Angst, Happy Ending, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, WangXian.mp3, WWX talks about his feelings, Yunmeng trio bonding, Identity Porn)

episodes by kasunn (M, 34k, WangXian, Modern AU, Fluff, basically all fluff, Youtuber WWX, Social Media, Actor LXC, Artist JC, Chef JYL, Babysitting, lowkey kidfic, Surgeon LWJ, Canon typical feels, Taiwanese WWX, Copious amounts of Chinglish, pets!, Secret Relationship, kind of bad pet names, Established Relationship, LSZ is a wen)

rhythm after summer by callmeb6104 (T, 10k, wangxian, modern, youtuber WWX, single parent WWX, animaal keeper LWJ, fluff, LWJ in denial, family feels)

Winter Sun by brojorlas (M, 38k, wangxian, youtuber!WWX, pining, miscommunication)

Yoga With Wangji by rovi (G, 6k, WangXian, Modern AU, Mutual Pining, Getting Together, Yoga)

love on 35mm by fakeplasticlily (M, 26k, WangXian, Modern AU, College/University, Swimming, film student lwj, Pining, Mutual Pining, swimmer wwx, best friends lwj and jyl)

Just So by airinshaw (E, 21k, wangxian, modern, fluff, getting together, pining)

Inflexible by yeaka (E, 3k, WangXian, Modern AU, PWP, Anal Sex, Semi-Public Sex, Established Relationship, Dominance, Dom/sub Undertones)

How to Draw Clouds, a Guide by Little Apple’s Emotional Support Human by sweetiejelly (M, 7k, wangxian, modern, youtube, pets, getting together, fluff & humor)

Dine Together by nagi_blue (G, 7k, WangXian, Modern AU)

Going Viral by Wishful_author_xoxo (G, 1k, WangXian, Modern AU, Fluff and Crack, Protective LWJ, BAMF WWX, Grocery Shopping, Crack Treated Seriously, Disney References) - actually tiktok

#Wangxian Fic Rec #The Untamed #wangxian #MDZS #wangxianficfinder compilation post #long post #youtuber au #youtuber compilation #famous au #famous compilation

[richincolor]

Trans YA Books for Your 2023 TBR Pile

The last time there was a big B&N sale, I knew I had to stock up on some YA books -- and as I was sifting through my frankly absurdly long to-be-read list, I realized that there were more than a few YA books centering trans and BIPOC characters. I was so excited by this, and hope there are even more books centering BIPOC trans characters in 2024. For now, here are 5 trans YA books -- available now! -- that you should bump up to the very top of your TBR:

Venom & Vow by Anna-Marie McLemore and Elliott McLemore Keep your enemy closer. Cade McKenna is a transgender prince who’s doubling for his brother. Valencia Palafox is a young dama attending the future queen of Eliana. Gael Palma is the infamous boy assassin Cade has vowed to protect. Patrick McKenna is the reluctant heir to a kingdom, and the prince Gael has vowed to destroy.

Cade doesn’t know that Gael and Valencia are the same person. Valencia doesn’t know that every time she thinks she’s fighting Patrick, she’s fighting Cade. And when Cade and Valencia blame each other for a devastating enchantment that takes both their families, neither of them realizes that they have far more dangerous enemies.

Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution by Kacen Callender From National Book Award–winner Kacen Callender, a contemporary YA that follows Lark's journey to speak the truth and discover how their own self-love can be a revolution

Lark Winters wants to be a writer, and for now that means posting on their social media accounts––anything to build their platform. When former best friend Kasim accidentally posts a thread on Lark's Twitter declaring his love for a secret, unrequited crush, Lark's tweets are suddenly the talk of the school—and beyond. To protect Kasim, Lark decides to take the fall, pretending they accidentally posted the thread in reference to another classmate. It seems like a great idea: Lark gets closer to their crush, Kasim keeps his privacy, and Lark's social media stats explode. But living a lie takes a toll—as does the judgment of thousands of Internet strangers. Lark tries their best to be perfect at all costs, but nothing seems good enough for the anonymous hordes––or for Kasim, who is growing closer to Lark, just like it used to be between them . . . In the end, Lark must embrace their right to their messy emotions and learn how to be in love.

Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix by Anna-Marie McLemore Stonewall Honor recipient and two-time National Book Award Longlist selectee Anna-Marie McLemore weaves an intoxicating tale of glamor and heartbreak in Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix, part of the Remixed Classics series.

New York City, 1922. Nicolás Caraveo, a 17-year-old transgender boy from Minnesota, has no interest in the city’s glamor. Going to New York is all about establishing himself as a young professional, which could set up his future—and his life as a man—and benefit his family.

Nick rents a small house in West Egg from his 18-year-old cousin, Daisy Fabrega, who lives in fashionable East Egg near her wealthy fiancé, Tom—and Nick is shocked to find that his cousin now goes by Daisy Fay, has erased all signs of her Latina heritage, and now passes seamlessly as white. Nick’s neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious young man named Jay Gatsby, whose castle-like mansion is the stage for parties so extravagant that they both dazzle and terrify Nick. At one of these parties, Nick learns that the spectacle is all for the benefit of impressing a girl from Jay’s past—Daisy. And he learns something else: Jay is also transgender.

As Nick is pulled deeper into the glittery culture of decadence, he spends more time with Jay, aiming to help his new friend reconnect with his lost love. But Nick's feelings grow more complicated when he finds himself falling hard for Jay's openness, idealism, and unfounded faith in the American Dream.

The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa El Diablo is in the details in this Latinx pirate fantasy starring a transmasculine nonbinary teen with a mission of revenge, redemption, and revolution.

On Mar León-de la Rosa's 16th birthday, el Diablo comes calling. Mar is a transmasculine nonbinary teen pirate hiding a magical ability to manipulate fire and ice. But their magic isn't enough to reverse a wicked bargain made by their father and now el Diablo has come to collect his payment: the soul of Mar's father and the entire crew of their ship.

When Mar is miraculously rescued by the sole remaining pirate crew in the Caribbean, el Diablo returns to give them a choice: give up your soul to save your father by the Harvest Moon or never see him again. The task is impossible--Mar refuses to make a bargain and there's no way their magic is any match for el Diablo. Then, Mar finds the most unlikely allies: Bas, an infuriatingly arrogant and handsome pirate -- and the captain's son; and Dami, a genderfluid demonio whose motives are never quite clear. For the first time in their life, Mar may have the courage to use their magic. It could be their only redemption -- or it could mean certain death.

Transmogrify!: 14 Fantastical Tales of Trans Magic edited by g. haron davis Transness is as varied and colorful as magic can be. In Transmogrify!, you’ll embark on fourteen different adventures alongside unforgettable characters who embody many different genders and expressions and experiences—because magic is for everyone, and that is cause for celebration.

Featuring stories from: AR Capetta and Cory McCarthy g. haron davis Mason Deaver Jonathan Lenore Kastin Emery Lee Saundra Mitchell Cam Montgomery Ash Nouveau Sonora Reyes Renee Reynolds Dove Salvatierra Ayida Shonibar Francesca Tacchi Nik Traxler

#trans ya #ya lit #we need diverse books #self-made boys #the wicked bargain #transmogrify #venom and vow #lark and kasim start a revolution

[j-femmescoli]

books i read in 2023

my goal was to read a book a week and while the timeline wasn't perfectly even, i did manage to get it to add up (and then some!). this year i focused on religion and philosophy as well as classics (of which im counting both as traditional "ancient or pre-modern famous and outstanding" types of books, but also famous more modern books). i also bolded some books that were really good in my opinion that have really stuck with me so if you are interested in the genre i'd suggest those

st joan by bernard shaw (play)

mary and your everyday life by bernard haring (theology)

theology of liberation by gustavo gutierrez (theology)

magnificat by elizabeth ruth obbard (theology)

piedras labradas by victor montejo (poetry)

the boy who was raised as a dog by bruce perry and maia szalavitz (psychology)

4 great plays by ibsen - the dollhouse, ghosts, the wild duck, and an enemy of the people by henry ibsen (plays obvi)

the night of the iguanas by tennessee williams (play)

being logical by dq mcinerny (idk sociology maybe? it was about recognizing and avoiding bad-faith arguments and logical fallacies)

the alchemist by paolo coelho (classics)

frankenstein by mary shelly (classics)

an american tragedy by theodore dreiser (classics)

is this wifi organic? by dave farina (idk how to classify this one either but it was also about recognizing bad-faith arguments, specifically when it comes to pseudoscience)

the nicaraguan church and the revolution by joseph muligan (theology, history)

catholic social teaching: our best kept secret by peter henriot, edward deberri, and michael schultheis (theology)

beowulf (classics)

sapiens by yuval noah harari (anthropology)

the church and the second sex by mary daly (theology)

mary in the new testament edited by raymond brown, karl donfried, joseph fitzmyer, and john reumann (theology)

a catholic devotion to mary by oscar lukefahr (theology)

1001 nights / arabian nights trans. sir richard burton (classics)

a house on mango street by sandra cisneros (poetry)

primary source readings in catholic church history edited by robert feduccia and nick wagner (theology)

doing faithjustice by fred kammer, sj (theology)

winds of change by isaac asimov (sci-fi)

the sound and the fury by william faulkner (classics)

una ciudad de la españa cristiana hace mil años by claudio sanchez-albornoz (history)

the glass menajerie by tennessee williams (play)

reinventing the enemy's language by joy harjo and gloria bird (indigenous women writers anthology)

the great gatsby by f scott fitzgerald *reread* (classics)

the bell jar by sylvia plath (classics)

the kite runner by khaled hosseini (classics)

one nation, under gods by peter manseau (history)

development as freedom by amartya sen (economic / political philosophy)

women in ministry: four views edited by bonnidell and robert g clouse (practical theology)

mother of god: a history of the virgin mary by miri rubin (theology / history)

a study in scarlet and the sign of four by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

adventures of sherlock holmes by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

the casebook of sherlock holmes by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

the valley of fear by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

the memoirs of sherlock holmes by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

the return of sherlock holmes by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

the hound of the baskervilles by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

his last bow by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

the fundamentals of ethics, fourth edition by russ shafer landau (philosophy)

dracula by bram stoker (classics) (yes i'm counting dracula daily)

desde mi silencio by carmen gomez (poetry)

happiness in this life, excerpts from the homilies of pope francis (theology)

the vigilante / the snake / the chrysanthemums by john steinbeck (classics)

quest for the living god by sister beth johnson *reread* (theology)

the adventures of tom sawyer by mark twain (classics)

the adventures of huckleberry finn by mark twain (classics)

the boys in the boat by daniel james brown (history)

and that's all folks, ending the year with some classics, plus my mom insisted i read the boys in the boat while im home for christmas because she wanted to see the movie lol. i got so many books for christmas so i'll be startin off strong next year too, and my goal is finishing my collection of john steinbeck, by which i mean obtaining as well as reading everything i can find by him. here's my list from 2022 and i'll see you next year

#books #bookblr #reading #literature #classic lit #john steinbeck #philosophy #religion #classics #sherlock holmes #mystery #psychology #theology #history #poetry #sociology

[sageandred]

Some LGBTQ+ Shows + Movies that aren't talked about enough

□ Key : ❤️Netflix 💚Hulu+ 🧡Max 💙Amazon

Sense 8- a sci-fi series featuring queer and polyamorous relationships that follows 8 strangers, who become connected mentally and must survive as hunters view them as a threat to the world's order

Nuovo Olimpo- a story through the years that follows two 25 year old men who fall in love, get separated, and try to find each other again over 30 years

Mutt- a transgender man is swept into a whirlwind of emotions when people from the past return to his life over 24 hours

Merlí- a drama surrounding a philosophy teacher, along with his gay son, and the unconventional methods taken to influence the student's rebellion

Heartbreak High- an Australian tv series that features asexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and nonbinary characters navigating the ups and downs of high school, life, and romance

In the Flesh- a post-apocolyptic short series in which zombies get rehabilitated back into the normal world (disclaimer: was cancelled after 2 seasons)

Plan B- a comedy movie about a girl and her best friend who have 24 hours to track down the morning after pill following her regrettable first time experience, with commentary on women's sexuality + double standards

Pose- an upbeat drama mostly about trans women and gay men who are POC building a community in New York City during the late 80s and early 90s (disclaimer: season 2 gets darker, but it's still got some happier moments)

Vida- a story about 2 Mexican-American sisters who return home following their mother's death unearthing her secrets as one sister goes on journey of exploring her own repressed feelings

Gentleman Jack- a historic lesbian love story within the British monarchy

Looking- an intense look on how internalized homophobia can deeply impact life and love; there's some negative critiques in some areas, but it's a realistic look at how the way you grew up can affect, particularly in regards to gay relationships

Animal Kingdom (2016)- a crime drama centered around the dealings of a family involved in shady business when a teenager goes to live with them following his mom's od

Anne+ - Anne examines multiple past relationships and how they have contributed to who she is

The Blue Caftan- a middle aged man and his wife run a store where they hire a young apprentice that he falls for

Demain Nous Appartient (Tomorrow is Ours)- soap opera that features gay storyline after a plane crash accident in which a boy has lost his eyesight

Eismayer- openly gay soldier and a tough officer in the Austrian army fall in love

Glue (2014)- crime drama series that features a bl relationship (warning: tragic love story)

Le Paradis (The Lost Boys 2023)- a forbidden love story in which it is prohibited to engage in physical contact for boys at a detention center

The Trace of Your Lips- lockdown movie where 2 men living across the hall from each other break the rules

#putting this here for me to come back to #movies and tv #lgbt movies #lgbt shows #recommended #lgbtqia #heartbreak high #merlí #mine #lists #lgbt

[thestupidhelmet]

i'm about to send you a bunch of these hehe

B and C, 1-6

🤭

Babies, how many and their names: Eric, Donna, Jackie, Hyde, Fez, Kelso.

You didn't specify Eric/Donna as a couple or Jackie/Hyde as a couple, which would be numbers 17 and 18. You also didn't specify Fez or Kelso in a relationship with a specific person (I put numbers for those, too), so I'm going to answer this question based on the characters as individuals.

Note: Since a baby's gender can't be planned (without medical involvement), in some cases I'll give options for more than one gender. Also, people's biological sex doesn't always match their internal sense of gender. Trans people often choose their own names when they're older, but that fact is beyond the scope of this game (but certainly not beyond the scope of thinking about the T7S characters' children 🏳️‍🌈).

Eric: He grew up with an unhealthy sibling relationship, so he might want only one kid for that reason. Then again, he might want two and do his best to foster a healthy relationship between the two.

If he has a boy, Luke. (Obvious reason.)

If he has a girl, Kayla. (It was a popular girl's name in the 1980s and honors his mom without being a direct copy of it.)

If he has a second boy, Peter "Pete" (after Peter Parker).

If he has a second girl, Robin. (Another popular girl's name in the 1980s. It honors Red with the first letter and is the name of Batman's sidekick.)

Donna: One child. She wants to be a mom but not have that be the only part of her identity.

If a girl, Isabel "Izzy" (after feminist journalist and author Isabel Allende).

If a boy, Anthony. (Susan B. Anthony's father was a huge women's rights advocate and opened a school that taught both boys and girls when his daughter was rejected from school for being female. That's just one way he tried to help and protect women's rights and safety in his life. The name Anthony is also common in Italian-American families.)

Jackie: She's an only child and barely got attention from her parents. She could either go the one kid route to make sure she'll be as present as possible for her child. Or she might have two but not more. If following in her parents' footsteps, she'd be rich one way or the other, and a nanny would raise the kids.

First boy, Jack. (Jackie is named after her father, whose canonical name is Jack. Nothing in T7S tells us differently.)

First girl, Jacklyn. (Essentially Jackie Jr., but the different spelling was popular in the 1980s and gives her daughter's name a little individuality.)

Second boy, Jason. (Sticking with the JA theme plus son. See what she / I did there?)

Second girl, Sarah. (It means princess, and one can infer from Jackie's JSB shirt in S1 that her original middle name could have been Sarah before it was retconned to Beulah for a running joke. Jackie hated her middle name, so she might have gone as Jackie Sarah to her friends until, of course, her secret is discovered.)

Hyde: No kids. He wouldn't want to be a father for so many reasons, but he'd be a wonderful uncle -- because, in part, his uncle was the kindest family member to him growing up (that's a headcanon inspired by the fact his uncle left Hyde his boots).

Fez: Three kids. I see him wanting a big family but a manageable one.

First girl, Michelle (after his best friend Michael Kelso). Middle name after Fez's mother.

Second girl, Stephanie (after his best friend Steven Hyde). Middle name Linda, after the goddess tattooed on his body.

Third girl, America (after the country he chose as his home and his good friend Eric Forman).

First boy, his father's name but called by a shortened version of it.

Second boy, Charlie (because Fez would want his son to have his own beautiful angels to do his, er, bidding. Sorry about that one. 😄)

Third boy, Alexander (a popular 1980s boy's name with a lot of history. Fez wants his son to be a conqueror of worlds 👀).

Kelso: Wants no children. He grew up with six siblings, and his parents barely knew he existed. Unfortunately, he ends up with at least half a dozen -- if not double that -- kids he never intended to have. He probably doesn't know he's the father of most of them (until talk shows start doing paternity tests for ratings).

Careers

Eric: Vice President of a toy company, either as a prototype approver/tester or toy inventor.

Donna: Rock journalist.

Jackie: Fashion designer, fashion stylist, or wedding planner.

Hyde: Owns his own record label and signs bands.

Fez: Chocolatier (competitive).

Kelso: Marries a rich, much older woman and cheats on her with much younger women. Or he becomes a catalogue model. Or both.

Jukebox Ask Game

#that 70s show #jackie burkhart #eric forman #donna pinciotti #that '70s show #ask game #jukebox ask game

[cr-amber]

navigation

i've decided to finally be fancy and tell you where all my stuff is in one place!

my ao3: where i publish all my fics that are longer than microfics!

multi-chapter fics

i think that possibly, maybe i'm falling for you: drarry wip, 11/13 chapters, rated e, 35.5k words currently

Harry runs into Draco working at a coffee shop fifteen years after the war, and he’s nothing like Harry remembers.

featuring trans draco, plus size harry, and frankly a lot of smut to come

perfect little life: jegulus raising harry, 5/5 chapters, rated e, 6.5k words

Just a collection of snapshots from the life of Jegulus raising Harry and being hot and in love.

featuring trans regulus, wolfstar as harry's uncles, and a delicious lil explicit scene at the end

coming soon: marauders band/uni au, ft. jegulus, wolfstar, dorlene, and marpanlily

also coming soon: jegulus-centric no voldemort au, regulus runs away to the potters' with sirius

oneshots

jegulus

the one where sirius is an accidental matchmaker: rated t, 2.2k words, american muggle au, getting together

sirius accidentally (read: forgetfully) ditched regulus for a date with remus so james takes him to a movie instead

bad day: rated e, 1.2k words, trans regulus

Regulus had a bad day. James makes it better.

desperate prayers of a cursed man: rated m, 2.1k words, canon compliant, based on dear reader by taylor swift

He knew he was aiming at the devil. He knew he couldn’t miss. But he had.

you're on your own, kid: rated t, 3.9k words, black brothers focused, based on the taylor swift song

Regulus is on his own. He always has been. Right?

your secret admirer: rated t, 1.7k words

Regulus writes James a secret admirer letter.

call him pretty: rated m, 1.2k words, head boy james is dating regulus

In which Regulus is a simp who has no filter when he’s drunk and misses his boyfriend.

kiss me goodnight: rated e, 4.1k words, my take on the red room scene from rwrb but make it jegulus, trans regulus

James “So I guess I should tell you I’m bisexual” Potter and Regulus “Good to know. I am very, very gay” Black finally get together.

not exactly a secret: rated t, 1.1k words, relationship reveal

James never used to sleep in the head boy dorm, but now he has a reason to. A reason that has been a secret, but won't be for much longer.

you don't even like me: rated t, 1.6k words, mutual pining

In which James has a hopeless crush on Regulus and Regulus has a hopeless crush on James and they each handle it in very different ways.

drarry

you're the one i like the best: rated t, 4.5k words, drarry as professors, inspired by little person by matt maltese

A chance Draco/Harry reunion in a different country, an invitation for them both to teach at Hogwarts, and a friendly seeker’s match. What could possibly happen?

fresh plates and clean slates: rated t, 1k words, holiday/new years vibes, inspired by snow by sleeping at last

Harry’s friends have helped him learn to be a human again after the war, but Draco hasn’t been so lucky, so Harry takes it upon himself to do the same for the man he loves over the holidays.

wolfstar

something to tell you: rated t, 0.7k words, getting together

Sirius has something to tell Remus. It goes better than he expected.

rosekiller

hits different ('cause it's you): rated t, 2.2k words, post bartylus breakup, based on hits different by taylor swift

Evan takes Barty out to help get his mind off his breakup with Regulus.

microfic

all my microfics

wolfstar microfics

drarry microfics

jegulus microfics

my writing: every post in which i've talked about my writing, written something, or shared a snippet!

*do not repost my works to any other site*

#finally decided to put all my stuff in one place! #navigation #my writing #my works #my fanfiction #fic masterlist

[atomicinsantiy]

LGBTQ HEADCANONS AND LORE FOR THE URBANSPOOK BANDITS

The killer

Gender: Transmasc

Sexuality: Bisexual

Lore: He was originally born in Russia, his birth name is secretive. He didn't stay long as 1 year after his birth his mother was arrested and was charged with death by lethal injection, he also chooses to keep the reason for her punishment a secret. And from a very young age he was put into an orphanage, along with his older sisters and brother, the brother taking his own life shortly after their mother's death. However, he was adopted very soon by an American family, and raised in another country. His adoptive family wasn't abusive, the only abuse they had was with his father who was every alcoholic ever. Once he turned 12, he met the Painter, they got along well and they were like partners in crime, this was also around the time he became Trans. Once the end of their High school approached, Killer was already a mess, not only did he have to deal with a drunken and abusive father but now a mother who doesn't support him, school was stressful too. Killer, who was hoped up on drugs and many failed assignments, then got the amazing idea to kill his parents, fake his own suicide, get out of town, escape the pressures of life, and be free to do whatever the hell he wants! And, for some reason, Painter actually helped him, probably because they were going through the same problems he was, and they pulled off their first of many killings. And for good measure, they blew up the house, part of the 'fake your death' part of his plan. And they drove away into the sunset and had sex.

The painter

Gender: Any pronouns

Sexuality: Pansexual

Lore: Painter, like Killer, had a shitty family. Except it wasn't abusive, we'll technically it was, but not in the way you think. Like all Asian parents, Painter's hated it when they failed and would constantly torture them even when they got a 99% on a test! However, his miserable life changed when he met Killer, he was honestly stunning, even if he fell in love with him as a girl at first, his long black curls and deep brown eyes, he was just as hand so as ever as boy, Killer was also his only friend that actually felt like a friend rather then an acquaintance, so he would never leave his side. Once high school nearer it's end, Painter had alright grades, not to bad, but not enough for his parents, they started to lock his entire bedroom shut, got ride of his electronic's, and tried to stop him and Killer from seeing each other seeing him as a distraction for his studies, little did they know his real cause was him sleeping through class because of the amounts of torture he's out through each day. When he heard Killer was gonna kill his parents, he immediately joined in, not just because they loved him, but because he was his only friend who actually cared, the one he felt safe and comfortable around, and the person who couldn't leave him for shit. Once they did their deed, Killer even offered to killer his parents, but Painter refused, sure they were horrible but they don't deserve death, in his opinion of course. And on the way out, he confesses his love for Killer, and after they have hot angry sex

#urbanspook #art #the painter #fanart #analog horror #the painter urbanspook #the killer

[penthepoet]

"What are these Shin Megami Tensei: The Goetic characters?"

I'm gonna start rambling about my OCs here more, which means I need to make a summary about what these characters are like.

Good thing I made one sentence summaries for a bunch of the currently important NPCs that I can ramble about here!

The campaign takes place in an original setting called Kuroiyakyo - particularly, at a famous international college called Kuroiyakyo Academy for the Immaculately Gifted.

Hopefully this post helps describe a lot of the characters I'll be bringing up in rambling about SMT: The Goetic in the future.

Warning, this post is long.

Azalea: The girl who's death causes all of this. Twin sister of Amelia. Left tapes around the setting that point to a grand plan she orchestrated...

Pixie: Fun-loving party girl who holds grudges. Dating Severin. She seems to hold a grudge against Azalea.

Winston Emmett: Azalea's boyfriend. A brash but well-meaning boy with enormous mommy issues. Seems to struggle with a darker strain of thought inside himself. Obsessed with werewolves.

Amelia: Azalea's twin. A shy girl who dwells in the library. Constantly seen as a metaphorical shadow.

Soul: A mysterious fried rice cook with a lot of connections. After comforting one of the PCs, he's become a witty, indispensable friend - yet is he hiding more than he lets on?

Gaspard: A flamboyant man suspected of killing Azalea. He also appears to have connections to supernatural forces.

Seabrook: A trans girl who just wants to be a hero. She's begun to keep a journal on the goings on at the school.

Weird: The party's mentor, a werewolf-cat-witch who leads an secret society known as the Wine-Darkened, which the players become a part of.

Jurika: A girl caught up in something beyond her control. After the death of one of the PCs, she's become vengeful, and caught up in her anger.

Leah: Azalea's rival-paramour (?) A very bitter, thrill-seeking woman of horrific charm. Though her words are often hurtful, she pushes those around her to do their best.

Severin: Pixie's boyfriend. A sad boy who sees himself as a mistake. Sarneta: A trans man biker with a love of sacred geometry.

Infobroker: The setting's information-gatherer, a former mafia man that lives in the walls. Older brother of Freak. Will give you information on any rumors for the right price.

Freak: A cheerful Irish goober who's dating one of the party members. Brother of Infobroker. Formerly hosted an Occult Club that was dispatched by the Student Council.

Ellis: A headstrong girl who resents her mother Verene and wants to move away. Though she's forced to pursue Dance, her real passion is law.

Obsidian: A quiet boy with a lot of secrets. Ellis' brother.

Sydney: An Aussie girl searching for her missing older sister. Has been keeping a journal that she's been passing back and forth with Seabrook.

Victor Blackwood: The father figure of one of the PCs. An American still-life painter who keeps memories of the past close.

Himari: A rambling, adorkable fisherwoman who serves as a grounding force for one of the PCs.

Verene: A stern, terrifying woman who knows magic. Despite this, she appears to have her own "benevolent" goals at hand…

Victim/[unknown]/"Verse": A OSDD system/plural priest known as the Victim in Triplicate, formed from the trauma of being forced to serve a cult. Despite this, they all forge onward.

Jyoji: A teacher who seems to know a lot more than he lets on. Yes, he's exactly who you think he is, SMT-speaking.

Jimenez: A lazy professor who gets his students into trouble. Yes, he's also exactly who you think he is, SMT-speaking.

Arata: A mysterious, smooth-talking man in a suit who seeks a certain painting in the college archives.

Meli Evans: A bright girl who goes to another college in the area. Dating Ellis.

Daisuke "Touji" Arataka: Uncle to one of the PCs. Was involved with the Wine-Darkened secret society that Weird helped run, and was deeply in love with Weird before the Student Council erased his memories. Died before the campaign began, but he haunts the narrative, to an extent.

Reynard Winthrope: Father to Azalea and Amelia Winthrope. Part of the Wine-Darkened. A taciturn, gentle man deeply wounded by all the loss he's had to face.

Ishin Koizumi: A highly strict but benevolent professor who wants the best for his wife and his students.

Anzu: Former member of the Student Council, now deceased. Served as a Disciplinary Officer.

Heart: Azalea's protege on the Student Council. A frightened trans boy who finds a lot, lot more horrifying sides to himself once he's sworn into the Council.

Sonia: The main Disciplinary Officer. A car-obsessed adrenaline junkie and borderline sadist who enjoys hurting other students and gambling with them.

Tomita: The second-in-command of the Student Council. A deeply smug and ingloriously petty boy with bone-deep body dysphoria and an even deeper resentment towards the world.

Tsumiya August Mitsuhide: The Student Council President. A horrific overseer who takes great, great pains to veil himself in mysticism and secrecy. He is hated, respected, feared, loved, worshipped and revered in equal regard, his shadow looming over the lives of all in the school.

#smt: the goetic

[newsalvations]

paul rudd, homosexual + homoromantic, trans man + he/they → isn’t that florian silverstone? i’ve seen them hanging out with the fairies. i hear they’re three hundred & fifty-four years old, but they’ve only been in alexandria for one hundred years. they seem to be protective + nurturing, but also overbearing + sensitive. it’s cool that they’re capable of floral magic!

BASIC INFORMATION

full name: florian oberon silverstone

nickname(s): flor

age: three hundred & fifty-four

date of birth: july 2

hometown: silverspring, a small community in rural massachuetts

current location: alexandria, louisiana

species: fairy

ethnicity: ashkenazi jewish

nationality: american

gender: trans man

pronouns: he/they

orientation: homosexual + homoromantic

occupation: headmaster + professor at silverstone academy

living arrangements: at his estate

language(s): english, hebrew, latin, the romantic languages

accent: new england

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

face claim: paul rudd

hair color: black

eye color: hazel

height: 5'10"

weight: 165 lb

build: average

tattoos: none

usual expression: playful smile

distinguishing characteristics: his bright eyes, smile

PERSONALITY

positive traits: protective, nurturing, paternal

negative traits: overbearing, sensitive, wrathful

myers brigg: isfj

zodiac sign: cancer

element: earth

enneagram: the helper

temperament: melancholic

hogwarts house: hufflepuff

moral alignment: lawful good

primary vice: gluttony

primary virtue: kindness

fears: losing his son

hobbies: gardening

FAMILY

father: oberon silverstone

mother: rosalind silverstone

sibling(s): arabella silverstone, daphne silverstone, alwyn silverstone, duncan silverstone, ambrose silverstone, rhiannon silverstone

pet(s): various birds + a dog

FAVORITES

weather: sunny

season: spring

color: green

music: anything airy and light

movies: comedy / romance

beverage: water

food: anything vegan

animal: all

NSFW

preference: bottom, switch

kinks: breeding, lingerie, light dom/sub, roleplaying, public sex, open to others

anti kinks: scat, vomit, blood play, etc

BIOGRAPHY

florian was the oldest child of a very large family, his parents had been the leaders of a small fairy community that settled in rural massachuetts that was called silverspring. because of this, they were usually too busy to look after their seven children and the responsibilites of parenting was left

florian was the oldest child of a very large family, seven to be specific, and his parents were the leaders of the small fairy community that they created when they migrated to the new world and settled in rural massachuetts. because of this, they were usually too busy to look after their children and those responsibilities were put on florian who had to grow up quickly from a young age. the two youngest, ambrose and rhiannon, saw florian as their parent instead of their actual parents.

something florian always struggled with was his parents instistance that they stay away from the human world. the last thing that fairies needed was for humans to realize all those fables were real and try to exploit them. or worse, harm them. florian accidentally stumbled on a human boy, stefan, one day when he was seventeen or so and was quickly infatuated. the two formed a secret romance, though it quickly soured after he confessed the truth about what he was to stefan who tried to use him for personal gain and then tried to kill him when florian said no. although oberon was upset his father didn't listen to him, he knew this would be a teaching lesson for his son.

as florian got older, he started to feel feel confined by the small community he'd spent his entire life in. deciding to try and explore the world on his own, he told his parents and siblings good-bye before leaving. the next several decades consisted of florian exploring the world and finding various romances, though he never truly felt like he knew what his purpose was.

by the early 20th century, florian was visiting an old friend in louisiana when he discovered the town of alexandria and was mesmerized by it. the diverse community and mystical magic that seemed to radiate there, he thought maybe this was where he had always been meant to end up. although the chateau was nice, florian needed his own home in nature and built the silverspring estate-- named after his original home. it took less than a year before he realized what his puprose was, to bring an education and assistance to the young minds of alexandria. he'd already spent years helping young fairies, like his siblings, so this felt like the natural next step in his life.

florian would eventually bring his son into this world, the most important person in his world and who he'd sworn to protect no matter what the cost might be.

#unveilintro #( bio: florian silverstone )

[myfavebandfizz]

Clash Magazine Interview - Feb 15, 2024

“Community, Togetherness, Collaboration” FIZZ On ‘The Secret To Life’

Martin Luke Brown, Greta Isaac, Orla Gartland, and the mononymous dodie are each successful singer-songwriters. Just a couple of months ago, Martin released his long-awaited debut album damn, ‘look at the view!’. Last year, Greta released the EP ‘I Think You’d Hate It Here’ – and she also runs a successful enterprise doing art direction for other artists. Among these artists is dodie, who in 2022 achieved the career-long goal of appearing on NPR’s Tiny Desk series, following the release of her critically acclaimed ‘Hot Mess’ EP. Playing guitar with dodie behind the desk was Orla Gartland, whose debut album ‘Woman on the Internet’ took the world by storm in 2021, and whose brand new single ‘Kiss Ur Face Forever’ was released at the start of August. 

The curricula vitae of these four musicians are long and impressive. And in June, they announced that they were coming together to form FIZZ, a gaudy, genre-bending supergroup which sounds a little like all of them and nothing like any of them, all at once. Alongside the release of debut single ‘High In Brighton’, the band announced that their debut album would be coming in September – and that its title would be ‘The Secret To Life’. 

I had the opportunity to all four cogs in the FIZZ wheel via ZOOM in July, and my first question was a broad one. 

“What is the secret to life?”

“That’s what we’re all trying to figure out!” Greta protests. 

“For me, the secret to life is finding comfort in absolutely everything,” says dodie. 

Orla agrees. “It’s community, togetherness, collaboration,” she adds. “Being in a band but also like…having tea together.”

Greta says that “The secret to life is unwavering commitment to carrying on,” while Martin’s answer adds a touch of whimsy to proceedings. “It’s playing Rocket League, with the boys standing next to me,” he says, quoting a track from the upcoming album.

I ask the band if it was scary to come together as FIZZ. 

“I think everything is scary!” says dodie.

“Relate!” says Greta, “I haven’t left my house in days!”

“We promised ourselves we would leave our egos at the door when making this album and there was something so unfamiliar about that,” dodie adds. “It was scary and difficult – and it still is – but at the same time it’s so rewarding.”

What I hear on ‘The Secret To Life’ is four egos in a room managing to co-exist, and when I share this with Greta, it seems to resonate. 

“We have to remember that we made the album and all of our voices are equal and that shows up in the tiniest places. The best decisions are made when we each have our voices heard.”

“It’s an honour to rock out with you guys,” Orla adds, in an ironic, self-effacing American accent. The band bursts into laughter, and I get a little peek into what it might have been like in the studio during the making of the album. 

The consensus among the band seems to be that it’s felt refreshing to leave introspection behind. Martin points out that dodie – known elsewhere for the quietness of her vocals – is screaming on this album. Martin himself meanwhile has gone from ruminating on masculinity on his debut to “banging on his chest and taking up space” here. 

I ask Martin how it feels to be the “token man” in the band, and he says that during their Latitude set, an older couple had asked his pronouns, thanks no doubt to his flamboyant stage outfit. 

“I’m a straight man,” he says “But I felt so touched by someone of that generation asking that. It felt so humbling. Growing up, I was quite flamboyant naturally.”

“It’s a slippery slope, Martin,” I warn him, citing my own experience as a trans woman. 

“Welcome!” the rest of the band jokes.

“Something I’m very conscious of is that our audiences are quite gay,” Martin says, pointing to dodie and Orla in particular. “And I wanna respect that and exist in that environment in a way that feels me and not like I’m pretending.”

At risk of making a lofty comparison, I tell the band that the album reminded me of ‘Sgt. Pepper…’ by The Beatles. I ask the band whether they feel as though they’re playing characters on the record – and if so, who those characters are. 

“We’re elevated versions of ourselves,” says Orla. “and pushing each other to be more out-there”. 

“We’ve relinquished expectations of what we should be making and how we should be presenting,” says Greta. “It was a realisation of what we’re craving in our own artist projects, which was explosive, uncompromising joy.”

I ask the band if the joy of the album is all real, or if there’s something bleak being played on here. Is ‘The Secret to Life’ an attempt to escape from a pervasive sense of existential dread? 

“That’s spookily like something we’ve said before,” says Orla. “That really we’re adults playing dress up and trying to re-ignite the joy in life.”

“It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows,” says Greta. “There’s this mesh between youth and adulthood that’s complicated and messy.”

“I will say that the whole process has genuinely been unadulterated joy,” offers Martin, placing a reassuring hand on Greta’s shoulder. “There really hasn’t been any kind of weird ulterior motive. Whenever I speak to other artists, everyone’s moaning about TikTok and how hard you have to work as a musician. It’s a slog – and for a lot of people, the shine of it has just worn off. I think the novelty of being a musician isn’t enough to keep you smiling anymore. Starting a band and doing an album like this is a response to ten years in the industry. It’s joy that’s come from pain.”

I suggest that listeners might share the band’s pain here, especially in the political climate of 2023. It feels as though FIZZ is the music people are reaching for. 

“I feel like I’m chronically afraid of the world,” adds Greta, laughing through gritted teeth. “And getting to create FIZZ was an escape from all of that, but naturally a fear of life creeps into it as well. I would hope it would offer comfort and validation when you need it,” Greta agrees. 

When I cheekily ask about the album’s lead single ‘High in Brighton’ and what it might be about, Martin tells me it’s all about paragliding. 

“If you do go paragliding or ride the zip line in Brighton,” Greta says with a wink, “then make sure you do it with people you feel safe with and trust – and check in that you’re ready to go paragliding.”

“Maybe just have a good time before the FIZZ gig,” Martin advises cryptically. 

The production on the album is busy, deliberately messy, and full of countless little exciting details. I’m interested to know when and how the band – and producer Pete Miles – knew when to stop. 

“Pete tells us when to stop,” says Martin with a smile. “He has a holistic approach to everything. Pete is a bit of a wizard and he sets us up as primary school kids and encourages us to just run around making noise. Then it felt like we would just get tired, and Pete would be like – that’s it.”

At this point in our conversation – which is happening over ZOOM – Martin silently leaves the room to have a wee. The rest of the band apologises, and I tell them it’s okay because I can’t hear him. “We can,” they say in chorus. 

Conversation turns to the latest single ‘As Good As It Gets’, on which Greta takes the lead vocal. She says she turned up to the studio upset and stressed that day, and tapped into “a voice I didn’t know I had”. 

“I don’t mean a singing voice,” she clarifies, “I mean the bravery of just going for it. We probably wouldn’t have been able to sing that way if we hadn’t felt that pain. That’s what’s so special about this band. Our fears and our vulnerability and our pain is given a function and a meaning. I was so grateful for that day.”

“For all the convoluted things that this job can be,” says Orla, “taking what you feel and processing it through song is the reason I got into this. It feels like 2% of what we do sometimes, but it’s still its core for me. To me, that’s the whole reason for doing music, and there’s so much of that on this album.”

“I love writing with you guys,” adds dodie. “Our whole ethos with FIZZ is to get rid of the restraints – and we’re such fans of each other that we said yes to everything, which makes the songs so maximalist but so interesting and so fun. If I could take away everything else, I would just wanna write with you forever.”

dodie’s words here are the sort of sentiment that would normally inspire a moment’s reflection, or hugs and thank yous. But in FIZZ, they go unremarked upon. The band just carries on talking about something else. And that’s not to say they don’t appreciate dodie’s words – far from it. It’s just that FIZZ has fostered a culture where the magic of collaboration is constantly acknowledged, love and friendship are constantly upheld, and celebration doesn’t just happen on special occasions. Maybe that – at the end of it all – is ‘The Secret to Life’. 

#fizz #yourfavebandfizz #fizz band #all #interview #clash magazine #clash magazine interview

[justletmeon12]

Books Read in 2023 - If you're curious about any of them, please ask! I love talking about books

Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier)

Introduction to American Deaf Culture (Holcomb)

The Colour of Magic (Pratchett)

The Autistic Trans Guide to Life

Luda (Morrison)

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Genderqueer: Voices From Beyond the Sexual Binary

The Mask of Benevolence: Disabling the Deaf Community

Between Two Worlds (Sinclair)

Under the Skin (Faber)

When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father’s War and What Remains

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Portnoy’s Complaint 

Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of An Disability Rights Activist (Judith Heumann)

Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality

This is Moscow Speaking (Arzhak/Yuli Markovich Daniel; tr by Stuart Hood, Harold Shukman, John Richardson)

The Call-Girls (Koestler)

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For

Homintern

A Scanner Darkly

The Trauma of Caste (Soundararajan)

Shards of Honor (Bujold)

The Origin of Virtue

Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers

Dreadnought

Children of the Arbat (Rybakov; tr by Harold Shukman)

The Gay Metropolis: The Landmark History of Gay Life in America

Janissaries (Jerry Pournelle)

The Disability Studies Reader (Davis)

Fat Off, Fat On: A Big Bitch Manifesto

The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth

Inseparable (de Beauvoir)

World’s End (T. Coraghessan Boyle)

American Melancholy (Joyce Carol Oates)

Transgender Children and Youth (Nealy)

Disgrace (Coetzee)

The Light Around the Body (Bly)

The Hangman’s Daughter (Pötzsch)

Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction (Goffman)

The Trouble with Tink (Thorpe)

Gender Advertisements (Goffman)

And the Band Played On

Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg

The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life

Old Norse Poems: The Most Important Non-Skaldic Verse Not Included in the Poetic Edda (tr. by Hollander)

Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations (Rich)

Ladies Almanack (Barnes)

Over the Hill (Copper)

Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand

The Poetic Edda (tr. by Bellows)

Paris Peasant (Aragon, tr. by Taylor)

Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration

Stigma (Goffman)

Rubyfruit Jungle

Fairies and the Quest for Never Land

Sight Unseen (Kleege)

The Homosexuality of Men and Women (Hirschfeld, tr. by Lombardi-Nash)

Bea Wolf

New Selected Stories (Thomas Mann, tr. by Searls)

Gay Bar (Jeremy Atherton Lin)

Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat

Treatise on Style (Aragon, tr. by Waters)

Diana (Frederics)

The World I Live In (Keller)

Christopher and His Kind (Isherwood)

Put Out More Flags (Waugh)

Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man (Mann; tr. and introduced by Morris, Lilla, Rainey)

On Our Own (Judi Chamberlin)

All Boys Aren’t Blue

Artemis (Weir)

Goethe und die Demokratie

Dress Codes (Howey)

Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing

Forms of Talk (Goffman)

Sister Gin

The Decameron (Boccaccio; tr. by Musa and Bondanella)

Elric of Melniboné (Moorcock)

Paradiso (tr. by Hollander and Hollander)

My Mistress’ Eyes are Raven Black

Mademoiselle de Maupin (Gautier)

The Magic Mountain (Mann, tr. by Lowe-Porter)

Home to Harlem (McKay)

The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (Moorcock)

#books #books read in 2023 #book reading #my reading list actually got longer this year #again #it's over 11 pages long #and some of the entries are just authors I want to check out

[breithenua]

Speaking as a former fan of Bill Maher, I think what is most disappointing is how reluctant he is to grow as he ages, and in response to criticism he just doubles down instead of even *considering the possibility* that he's in the wrong.

Everything about his attitude and his seeming to go further right-wing as things go on just screams that this is a man so resistant to change that he'd rather petulantly alienate people that could otherwise be on his side than actually listen.

And it's a shame, because he actually has a sharp wit and some poignant points every once in a while, but it's just ruined by this spirit of meanness for anyone that tries to point out problematic language he uses or problematic ideas he's proposed.

Like as an example of that mean-spirited nature, remember when Stan Lee died and Bill proceeded to mock all the people that were mourning him because he thought all Stan did was write stupid comics? I have to wonder if he just completely missed the point of X-Men, being about not discriminating against people that are different from you. And furthermore, it showed a willingness to mock people that have done nothing to him while they're mourning one of their heroes. Even if his comic books were just for kids (which they certainly are not), does that just mean what he wrote and/or supervised has no value? Of course not. There's a reason that Disney is so popular even with adults. There's a reason that to this day Littlefoot's mom dying still makes tons of people cry.

And it's not like fiction for children (which again, Marvel is not just for kids) has nothing adults need to learn. Ferngully had a message about taking care about the environment, which I know Bill Maher cares about too.

The Secret of Nimh has a wonderful story about a mother risking her life on a journey to get treatment for her dangerously ill child, a good lesson on how much you should care about your children (if you have any).

The Lion King is a story about a boy becoming a man and taking on a responsibility he didn't want, for the good of people that he loves.

The Pagemaster is about the balance between reading, book smarts, preparation and caution, versus actually trying to live your life a little.

An American Tail is about a family immigrating to America to have a better life, and all the struggles that come with it, as well as a story about a child being separated from his family by circumstances and trying to find them again. It is rich in references to the time period of Ellis Island being used as a check-in station for immigrants, the building of The Statue Of Liberty and the ideals it represents, what life was like in those days, and the oppression and discrimination most immigrants faced at the time, regardless of their country of origin. God knows a few American Conservatives could've stood to learn from that movie about compassion for those from different lands *stares in Family Separations At The Border*.

But I got off topic there, I digress. This post was originally about Bill Maher and his reluctance to take in criticism or new ideas, especially sources he treats with derision. It's more than just fiction with him, obviously. More often than not lately, it's been his language regarding the trans community, and his reaction to being asked to use different terms or think about how he talks about us in general (I'm NB). He has the wits to be a great ally for us, he just doesn't do so. And it's disappointing.

#an american tail #land before time #fiction #kids movies #marvel #stan lee #Bill Maher being an ass