#these people would not have survived in 2005

[ncutii-gatwa]

really makes me laugh seeing some people complain doctor who is gay now. babe THIS aired in 2005. doctor who has been gay a long damn time get with the program

#random emma thoughts #doctor who #dw #a show with captain jack in it is gay?? WELL DUH #i watched this kiss when i was 8 and was unbothered #welcome to the gay show #these people would not have survived in 2005 #and definitely would have frothed at the mouth at torchwood which is an even gayer show than dw #anyway why are people surprised rtd who is gay writes gay stories #15k

[septembersghost]

omg... when was the last time gene felt the warmth of a genuine hug. that poor man. he is so sweet in the sweater they put him in the last episode. he needs a hug. also I need kim back and I swear my biggest fear is them doing kim dirty by like making her move on and have a new life with some guy like I know they wouldn't do that but I need them to reunite as best friends and to love again I don't care that its unrealistic I don't care. I'm going to start swinging

ok this ask is a mess

anon bestie we can be messes together, i've got you.

if you really think about it, how long has it been since he's felt the warmth of a genuine hug or a real interaction of care and affection from anyone? because saul was incapable and cut himself off from that for years, and gene is lonely and separated from people by necessity, everyone he interacted with was for pretense, even if they liked him. my guess...the kiss in the parking garage. 💔

i think it would be a real disservice to kim to have her randomly move on off-screen with another guy/family, it bothers me that's become a somewhat prevalent theory. not only because she walks out of that room still loving jimmy completely, she also leaves to punish herself, which means she's likely living a life trying to "atone," whatever that means to her, but as quietly and in as small a way as possible. the kind of person she is, so measured and insular to the outside world...not only would she cautiously keep to herself because it's her nature, i feel like she'd do that as part of her self-mandated penance and because she never wants to hurt anyone again. i just don't see her ever getting close to or falling for someone else in those circumstances, especially after all that happened. so wherever kim is, she probably needs a hug too. 😔

you & me, we're believing! i need them to reunite too, i can't imagine them never seeing each other again. bob said the writers acknowledge their relationship as the life of the show, i am holding tight with my bare hands. (realism? who needs her.) we live in reality every day, we look to stories for other things, for more meaning. i know it's unlikely they'll get a second chance at life and a home together, but we can dream anyway, and i do think there will be an acknowledgment of how deep the love was that was there. and that love matters. to them and to us.

#me as a person who never gets any kind of physical contact from other people and hasn't her entire adult life #like since i permanently became ill in 2005...i have to laugh at myself for this and the overattached way i cling to things in stories #humans are very resilient and can and do adjust to circumstance by necessity to survive #i think being touched now would make me recoil in discomfort but i was the huggiest most affectionate child #it's just by virtue of that extreme isolation i'm not used to it anymore #sorry for personal trauma and pointlessness in the tags but anyway #someone like jimmy i think would really struggle with never feeling affection or being social #gene's existence is for all intents and purposes a prison for him #anonymous #letterbox #bcs spoilers

[rongzhi]

English added by me :)

Further Details:

In 2014, while digging ground to construct the Number 7 line for the Chengdu metro, a 2300 square meter tomb with 13 graves was dug up near Mohechi (摩诃池), the former back gardens of the Prince's mansion in Sichuan (蜀王府). Of the 13 chambers in the tomb, most were single graves, and some had been plundered or were difficult to get to. Chamber #8 was found to have its seal still closed and in decent condition, with archeologists speculating that the area had been subject to earthquakes in the past, and robbers skipped over the chamber because they were afraid of the walls collapsing if the heavy stone door was moved. Chamber #8 was also discovered to contain two rooms and the engraving of a dragon and phoenix, indicating that whoever the tomb belonged to were of relatively high status.

While the royal mausoleum of the prince of Sichuan had long been unearthed, the new joint grave was originally thought to be the tomb of an aristocratic husband and wife, as the type of tomb was typical of a husband and wife pair. The area where the new tomb had been discovered was also known long ago as 公公坟 (the eunuch graves). Other tombs of court eunuchs buried around Chengdu had been discovered in 1953, 1955, 1956, 2003, 2005, and 2008.

At the same time, experts noticed that the porcelain relics buried in the Chamber #8 all shared an unusual characteristic: the male figurines had no facial hair. This led to the realisation that the figurines depicted eunuchs. Additionally, two stone tablets were eventually located which turned out to be the epitaphs for the graves, and which allowed the archeologists to confirm that the tomb did indeed belong to two imperial eunuchs from the Ming dynasty. Moreover, the tablets revealed that the eunuchs were named Wei Yu (魏玉, b.1470) and Ruan Ying (阮英, b. 1472). Both were born from poor farming families in Tongzhou (潼州; present day northern Sichuan province).

In the fourteenth year of Chenghua, there was a huge drought in the nation, so both children were sent by their families to become eunuchs in the palace as a means to survive. Being from the same area and around the same age, they would grow to become very close.

In the Ming dynasty, imperial eunuchs had great power, such that they were in charge of many government and even military affairs. Due to this, Wei Yu and Ruan Ying did not stay in Beijing to serve the emperor but instead eventually ended up as chief eunuchs in Shuwangfu, the center of government in Sichuan. Based on the epitaph and historical materials, historians concluded that Wei Yu and Ruan Ying did not necessarily overstep their power as is often the depiction of court eunuchs of the era, and in fact, they cooperated very well with the Zhu Chun, the prince of Sichuan and Hongwu Emperor's 11th son, assisting him to repair infrastructure and bringing prosperity to the people of Chengdu.

Wei Yu was favored by the prince for being clever and witty, and was bestowed the surname Shuang, so is also referred to in records as Shuang Yu (双玉). As Wei Yu's status grew, Ruan Ying's did as well.

In the 10th year of Zhengde (1515), having experienced some rough times, Wei Yu and Ruan Ying decided they wanted to be buried together and and obtained royal permission for it to be so. As they had no children, they were able to accumulate all their earnings (imperial servants were paid) and buy a plot of land. One year later, Ruan Ying passed away and Wei Yu had a tomb built with two rooms so that they could be buried together. Ten years later, when he passed away also, Wei Yu was buried with Ruan Ying, fulfilling their desire to be entombed together.

--

Additional sources:

https://www.sohu.com/a/413776430_120795605

https://m.thepaper.cn/yidian_promDetail.jsp?contid=3744568&from=yidian

https://www.toutiao.com/article/6706734279713358350/?wid=1705638571420

video (in Chinese)

video (in Chinese)

#tried to find a better douyin to introduce/summarise the topic but some of them had really annoying voice overs lol #i think there is like a cctv type documentary about the dig with actual expert talking heads but i can't find the video online atm #anyway. it's really incredible to me that they even recorded their birth and death years like bro...so often these details are lost to time #but we know all these things about these two from 600 years ago :') #chinese history #video #douyin #tiktok #long post #同志历史

[bengiyo]

Hi, i'm a newish bl drama watcher from thailand that just started watching thai bls. i'm a bit ashamed to say that for a long time as a gay man living here i've been avoiding bl shows like the plague cuz of both the fandom reputation and of misconception from my yaoi era which i leave far behind. i'm just want to ask how did you got into watching thai bls and what were you preconception before you got into it.

Welcome to the Tumblr side of BL fandom. I'd actually like to also hear more of your experience with yaoi and BL as a gay person growing up in Thailand if you're willing to share.

For me, I'm a Black American from the Gulf Coast (the South). I grew up in a Catholic city and spent my entire adolescence in the closet. Despite having a sense of who I was as early as 8 years old, I kept most of that to myself. Because I didn't talk about it much with people, I found out most information about queer media and queerness from the internet.

I entered BL via queer cinema. I think the first explicitly gay character that I remember from TV was Marco from Degrassi: The Next Generation. There were probably others, and definitely more subtle expressions, but when I think about the oldest gay character I remember and connect to, it's Marco. I don't like counting things like shipping Shawn and Corey on Boy Meets World or Tai and Matt on Digimon for oldest gay characters. Sailor Moon can't even count because we got a censored version of it in America.

I got access to satellite television away from observing eyes around age 16 and started watching content on Logo back when they aired gay content regularly. I watched basically whatever I could late at night. It's how I saw movies like Get Real (1998), Beautiful Thing (1996), and Bent (1997). It's also how I saw Queer as Folk (2000-2005) Noah's Arc (2005-06).

After hitting adulthood I mostly got lost in video games and standard American TV for a while, but I did basically show up to any Gay Event in TV. I appreciate that Stef and Lena from The Fosters (2013-2018) were some of the only TV lesbians to survive the horror of 2016.

I watched a bunch of movies in this time, many of which appear on the Queer Cinema Syllabus I made for a hypothetical Westerner new to BL and queer cinema, which @wen-kexing-apologist has decided to try to complete.

I got into Thai BL in 2018 accidentally. I started seeing gifsets of Kongpob telling Arthit he'll make him his wife passing around Tumblr and was basically like, "Right, what's all this then?"

I had watched a few Thai gay films, mostly notably Love of Siam (2007), Bangkok Love Story (2007), How to Win at Checkers Every Time (2015), and The Blue Hour (2015), but this was the first time I was seeing a long series made available so easily from any Asian country.

From there I got into Make It Right (2016-17) and Love Sick the series (2014). Once I realized that yaoi had moved beyond manga and a few anime adaptations, I went looking for a lot more. I basically haven't left since I started in about 2016 with SOTUS.

There's my basic entry into the genre. I don't think I was as worried about fandom and worries at the time because so much of being a fan of queer cinema was a mostly-private experience for me for so long. I didn't realize that BL fans active in the space would predominantly be women or queers figuring themselves out. It took a while to adjust to that, and also to adjust my expectations of the kinds of queer stories BL distributors were willing to fund.

That being said, I tend to agree with @absolutebl that BL has a useful role in normalization for non-queer audiences who encounter it. I like cheering BL when it does things I think work really well, and also deriding it when I think it does things that are offensive to help nudge the genre and offer my perspective as a gay man.

I like the place we're at right now where there's way too much to watch for any person with other hobbies and responsibilities because it means that people can pick and choose what's to their tastes.

More often than not, I'm probably most-invested in something airing from Japan because of my melancholy nature, but there's so much variety these days that it's okay if you don't like everything. I certainly don't!

I'm glad you joined us on Tumblr and look forward to your thoughts!

#answered #thai bl #fandom life #about me

[stuccobaby]

kahlopatra headcanons? 🙏

bestieeee

these are gonna be random a f

(college au/i aged em up)

Cleopatra runs cold, Frida runs hot. It's perfect.

yes, they both have their tickets for the Barbie movie. Cleopatra has her outfit planned out (pink pink pink everything) and Frida is very excited to be Cleo's Ken.

Frida thought she had a high tolerance for spicy food but Cleopatra is in a different league. Like she could go on Hot Ones and not even flinch.

but Cleo haaaates Tajin. Frida loves it. She puts it on fruit and Cleo couldn't believe her eyes.

Cleopatra has a cat! (i was picturing a siamese) Frida is lowkey allergic, but she can handle it. But if you thought Cleo was snooty...wait till you meet this cat.

Cleopatra snores. Frida thought it would be cute and quiet but it's actually kinda loud. Frida is contemplating ways to bring this up and survive to see another day.

Frida is an Aquarius! Cleopatra is a Scorpio (not to get in my astrology bag but I think she's a scorpio sun, leo rising and gemini moon. venus in leo or taurus. what do yall think about it.)

I wrote a lot hehe woops.

(TW: weed) Cleopatra is like a 'smoke at parties' kinda girl, whereas Frida smokes often for funsies and as a creativity boost.

(TW: weed) They tried to do a 'take an edible and go to an aquarium' date but Cleopatra got too high and freaked out in the shark tunnel. They'll try again but with an arboretum next time.

Frida can play the guitar. Cleopatra goaded her into playing for her once and folded immediately when she started singing. (at one point, Frida looked up and Cleo was taking off her clothes)

Speaking of, Cleopatra told Frida she signed up to be a model for her art class. Frida did not know she was a nude model. Frida should have guessed. damn it was hard to focus on painting that day

Cleopatra is now Frida's personal fashion consultant. She's a (cheerleader, homecoming queen) part-time model, she has a very keen eye for fashion obvi

When it's cold, Frida wears socks to bed and they argue about it all the time. They also argue about what side of the bed to sleep on (they both want the right side smh).

Frida loves going along with Cleo on her many beauty shop appointments (nails, hair, spa, etc) but won't go into any waxing/threading shop because the technicians start getting twitchy just looking at her. She feels like if she fell asleep, she'd wake up tied to the chair with two eyebrows.

They watch a lot of movies. Cleopatra laments how expensive TVs used to be but loves that they're cheap now because a big screen TV still makes her feel rich and luxurious.

Frida will be the first one to say I love you and it will mess Cleo up a little bit. don't worry tho, they'll talk about it! she's just not used to being loved (saad)

Frida is teaching Cleo Spanish, but all she wants to learn is swear words and dirty talk. it's gonna take a while

Cleopatra is a bug killer, Frida tries to trap and release.

Harriet (Frida's roomie in this AU) was extremely suspicious of Cleo at first ("wasn't she like your nemesis?") but she came around eventually ("enemies to lovers is kinda sexy...")

Frida is currently showing Cleo so many Spongebob episodes, she was sick of her constant references going to waste.

yes, they listen to a LOT of new music together. Frida tries to go in chronological order (2004 music, 2005 music etc), so that Cleo could hear the progression of music sound. (i could go on and on about music but these r getting long already)

Cleopatra is a passenger princess, but mostly because everybody is too scared to get in a car with her at the wheel; she drives like she's playing fucking GTA. (Frida thought people were kidding, but after they went soaring over a downhill speed bump one time, Frida politely took the keys forever).

speaking of GTA, that's Cleo's favorite video game. she enjoys mowing people down, blowing things up, and getting cute new outfits. Frida thinks its a good way for her to indulge her sadistic streak.

Mario Kartin': Frida mains an Orange Yoshi, Cleo goes between Peach and Rosalina (she refuses to make a Mii she thinks they're too ugly to represent her).

They become a different couple when they play mario kart. Frida is really fucking good and Cleopatra can't stand that shit eating grin every time she wins. (cleo would be like that tik tok sound: right hand on the bible, god can strike me down if im lying, that motherfucker's cheating!)

-----

I could write more but i wrote way too much already. y'all would have to ask for part 2. Also... may have snuck my next fic in here teehee.

if anybody wants to use these for art or what have you, go for it (but it better be gooood 😜)

tag and credit me tho so i can see it and be overjoyed

THANKS FOR ASKIN BESTIE!

#kahlopatra #clone high frida #clone high cleopatra #thank you for this question bestie hehe #anybody watch mpgis?

[soraontop]

SORA TRIVIA

She auditioned at Cre.Ker Entertainment as a joke in 2015 with singing Adele’s Rolling in the Deep and dancing to BTS’ RUN, but was surprised when she was accepted.

Even before Produce 101, she’s always been a popular trainee— especially when her cover of Katy Perry’s Wide Awake went viral in 2014.

She has a Chihuahua named Miso that lives with her friend, the two adopted her in 2018 when they were roommates.

Her favorite idols have always been Lee Hyori, IU, SNSD, and Wonder Girls.

She is a huge Jujutsu Kaisen fan, fans have given her gifts from the show’s merch or handmade gifts.

Her Dark Moon character is named Lua, and she has the ability of invisibility and force-field manipulation.

In 2020, she left Cre.Ker Entertainment due to inconsistent promises on her debut and joined BigHit Entertainment (G)I-DLE’s Soyeon (though, just ‘a friend’ to the public’s knowledge) told her about how they were looking for female trainees for a co-ed survival show.

Her biological mother died in 2005, her brothers are all half-brothers and their mothers have either left or died.

She is not a PDA person at all, but she’s always sleeping with a teddy in her arms. (The boys do get jealous … of an inanimate object.)

She’s allergic to dogs and strawberries. Despite this, she still has a dog and eat strawberries.

Despite her closed off nature, not letting people in, she has a lot of idol friends.

Her hidden talent is that she can tie cherry stems into a knot with her tongue.

She is a brand ambassador for Gentle Monster and a global brand ambassador for Dior.

Old classmates of her have said she was well liked amongst staff and classmates alike, always willing to help with classwork and kind, encouraging words. She was also really easy to get along with.

She loves American artists like Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, and 5SOS. She has a wide variety of taste in music, she even likes a bit of country.

She’s been a fan of 5SOS since 2013.

She shares a birthday with Jake’s dog, Layla.

She loves space and conspiracy theories.

Her favorite features on herself are her eyes and lips.

She is close with RIIZE’s Seunghan, LE SSERAFIM’s Kazuha and Yunjin, ITZY members, (G)I-DLE’s Soyeon and Shuhua, THE BOYZ members, IVE’s Yujin and Wonyoung, and her former I.O.I. members.

Fans found old photos of Sora and RIIZE’s Seunghan when they were younger and connected the dots, fans even spotting Sora in a hat and mask at RIIZE’s debut showcase. She then later confirmed it on a WeVerse Live.

Along with the entire group’s manager, Wooseok, she has her own female manager, Hyosun, as the company thought would be best for her to have a woman she could go to and not any men.

She was on a swim team when she was younger.

She’s not easily scared by horror films, and enjoys them as long as they make her jump.

She’s the most flexible in the group.

The members she talks to the most from I.O.I. are Somi, Doyeon, Yoojung, and Chungha.

She went to an international school as her father thought it’d be more beneficial for her future.

She made her acting debut in 2010 as Jung Somi in The Man From Nowhere, where won Best New Actress at the 2010 Korean Film Awards for her role. She also played Do Kyunghee, Cha Eunwoo’s character’s sister, in My Gangnam Beauty in 2018.

She loves spicy food but can only eat so much without something to drink.

She has a low alcohol tolerance, the members have to watch her when she’s drinking.

The members compare her to a cat, similar to Jungwon, with how she denies affection and then craves it.

It’s easy to be her friend, but it’s hard to get her to open up.

She finds it funny with how much she has to say an English word in a Korean accent for the others to understand sometimes. She finds it even funnier with Jake’s accent.

She chose Sunoo and Jungwon as the cutest members.

With Engenes, she finds their reaction when she flirts with them funny, but she also loves seeing their reactions when she ‘rejects’ someone (i.e. affection, fans asking her out, etc.) so she picks and choose how she responds to certain things.

After I.O.I. but before ENHYPEN, she had a YouTube channel named Sorabae where she posted make-up videos but the channel has been inactive since 2019.

She can play the piano, but hardly ever plays anymore.

Her persona in front of fans and her actual persona were very different for a while after debut. She didn’t know how to act in front of fans, especially after debuting as the only girl. She slowly started to get more comfortable around fans in the beginning of 2022.

For the majority of her career, including I.O.I., she had a ‘Golden Girl’ image until she gradually changed and allowed herself to let go of things. ENHYPEN have hinted towards this, saying how much she’s opened up to them and more comfortable. She’s also often said how she’s no longer the same girl.

She likes teasing fans more than feeding into delusions, flirting with them and taking it back with a joking snarky comment or saying a comment that had a double meaning and acting as if she had no idea what she said really meant.

She has a small appetite and always ends up giving the rest of her meals to her members.

Her favorite drink is a mocha frappuccino.

Out of everyone, she probably keeps most of her personal life to herself from the fans.

Her favorite dessert is cheesecake.

She prefers fall weather over the summer.

Along with Jay, she cooks the most in the dorm which she doesn’t mind.

She hates waking up early, but she does it to make sure everyone eats.

In an old middle school picture of her on a field trip, Sunoo is seen photobombing behind her with a peace sign.

She knew Heeseung, Jay, and Jungwon before debut as they were all trainees under BigHit.

She was best friends with a fellow trainee and contestant on I-Land, Lim Chaeyeon. The two were both expected to debut in the final line-up until Chaeyeon was eliminated in the last episode, leaving Sora (and Iseul before she left) the only girl(s) in ENHYPEN. This has started rumors of I-Land being rigged, especially with how seemingly neither girls talk anymore.

Both of her upper and lower lobes and her antitragus are pierced, as well as her left industrial and right helix. She plans on getting her right industrial done when her first is finished healing in a few months. She also wants to get her belly button pierced.

She thinks “tattoos are sexy.” (Dark Blood Fancall 230530)

If she wasn’t an idol, she’d probably have a career in the medical field.

reply to join taglist!

#˖ ࣪ . ࿐ ♡ ˚ . sora ⌗ misc #enhypen 8th member #enhypen #enhypen addition #enhypen female addition #enhypen fluff #enhypen imagines #enhypen reactions #enhypen scenarios #kpop female addition #kpop addition #enhypen angst #enhypen x reader #kpop poly #enhypen poly #poly enhypen #poly kpop #kpop female member #enhypen x female reader

[herrscherofmagic]

Fun fact! If Sirin survived the Second Eruption, then by the start of the game she would've been old enough to be Kiana's teacher at St. Freya :)

so I was thinking about what it might've been like if only Sirin survived the Second Eruption & was adopted by Cecilia and Siegfried, right?

and usually that scenario is depicted in fanart/fanfic as being Second Eruption Sirin alongside Kiana and/or Bianka and/or HoV, and the rest of the cast as we see them later in the story.

Plus Captianverse Sirin is shown alongside Definitely-Not-Bronya and Definitely-Not-Seele and about the same age as them. So I imagine this is the mental image most people have of Sirin when they think "Sirin with the Kaslana family".

Here's the thing, though! Second Eruption takes place in the year 2000, right?

Sirin was still a kid, my guess is ~12 years old but could be a bit younger or older than that.

But Mei and Kiana were really small children and Bronya hadn't even been born yet!

So if Sirin DID survive the Second Eruption in the real world... she'd be roughly 10 years older than Kiana, give or take a couple years. By 2015, Sirin would be in her early-to-mid-20s!

What's more: Himeko was a high school graduate in 2005, that means she'd only be like 5-6 years older than Sirin (assuming she's 17 or 18 at graduation). Plus according to a Honkai wiki, Rita was 11 years old in 2007. Meaning... Sirin would be only a few years younger than Himeko and she'd even be a few years older than Rita.

By the Kiana would've been old enough to go to St. Freya...

Sirin could've gone to St. Freya, GRADUATED, gotten experience as a Valkyrie, and then returned to be a teacher at St. Freya!

Rita would've been old enough to have been a recent graduate (assuming she ever would've gone to St. Freya in such a world), and Himeko would've already been a teacher for a few years at that point.

So if Sirin survived the Second Eruption, Himeko & Sirin could both have been teachers at St. Freya, alongside Theresa and Principal Cecilia- making Sirin both the adoptive sister of Kiana AND a teacher to her, Mei, Bronya, and Fu Hua. and why not Seele too, just for funsies?

just some food for thought~ ^.^

#also it's kinda hilarious to think about Fu Hua in this case #Fu Hua fighting Sirin in the Second Eruption... #...but then 15 years later she shows up at St. Freya and walks into her first class only to see grown-up Sirin as the teacher #“oh hi sensei! remember when i almost killed you. then you almost killed me. then you killed my student. good times!” #talk about an awkward situation #honkai impact 3rd #hi3rd #honkai 3rd #sirin honkai #sirin #kiana kaslana #raiden mei #bronya zaychik #murata himeko #rita rossweisse #bonus: Sirin would've been a teen throughout the 2000s #meaning sirin could've been using myspace and early tumblr & early youtube and other ancient relics of the internet :)

[ashcal99]

Collarbones : Jasper Whitlock Hale~

Prologue

"I can see your collarbones and baby I'm scared, Never thought I'd be so unprepared"

Summary: Camila Johnson was only 16 when she was diagnosed with leukemia. By the time she had turned 17, the doctors had tried everything to save her. Her family is close to giving up hope when they hear of a doctor who may be able to help her. The only problem is, he lives on the opposite side of the country. The small family soon decides to move to the small town in Washington, in efforts to prolong her life. In doing so, her life changes forever.

Warnings: Eventual smut (18+ only), mentions of death, depression, descriptions of disease and weight loss, general angst, slow burn

Words: 1.8k

A/N: Not sure how many parts this will be but yahhhh. Comment if I missed any warning or anything plz thnx.

Soundtrack

Series Masterlist

——————

January 22nd, 2005

Snow had always amazed Camila. The way that each flake was so diverse in size in shape. It was quite like people she had thought. All beautiful is their own unique way. As her eyes focused on a particularly tattered looking flake she thought that must be how she looked. Fragile and so ready to melt away from this world. Just teetering on the edge of existing.

She wasn't used to snow, had only seen it a couple of times in her entire life. You didn't get much snow in Orlando. None to be exact. But her world was going to be different now. Everything in her life had been uprooted because her body couldn't do the most simple thing in the world; live. The majority of the world's population had so much life to live, years to make mistakes and find their purpose, to find their happiness. She didn't get that privilege, however, not since she got sick.

So there she was, in the back seat of her mother's mini van staring at snow falling on her window for the past ten minutes. It had been just the year prior Camila had found that her body was failing her. Leukemia. A disease she had known little about before all of this. So many doctors, so many tests. She often wondered if this was all worth it. Moving their entire lives across the country for her health, when she most likely would never recover. Cancer was expensive and the odds of her survival weren't looking too good. She practically had one foot in the grave as it was. What was the point of dragging on another year of her life if it meant piling on medical debt?

She knew her parents would never see it this way, so she had always kept those thoughts to herself. In reality, she had come to term with dying not long after being diagnosed. It was too mentally exhausting dreading the inevitable.

Of course she had to put on a brave face for her mother and father. Dying was simple for the dead, you take your last breath and you're done, you're free. The real tragedy was with the people who were left to mourn the dead. To have someone you love so dearly be ripped away before your eyes, the pain was unimaginable.

So she endured the treatments, the testing, although she knew in the end, it wouldn't work. She would get another year at best. Most likely less. She had low expectations for her life now. She knew, as much as it hurt her to her core, she would never get to go to college, get drunk, get married. Her whole dream of a life had dissolved with her diagnosis.

Her parents seemed to think otherwise, hence the move. They had heard of a doctor in a small town in Washington. They had hoped that he could help. Naive wishes, but Camila wasn't about to take that away from them, no mater how much it hurt to see them waste so much money on her deteriorating health.

She could see it, her body starting to wither away. Her once curvy stature had began to whither away to skin and bone.  Her eyes, once bright and joyful had turned dull, filled with pain. In fact everything had turned dull, her eyes, her skin, hell, her life. She had a future before everything, and now she had nothing but a ticking clock on her life. Her bones constantly aches and she was always covered in bruises, sometimes it even hurt to breath.

A small sign blurred by her window, welcoming the small family to the town. Finally, signs of civilization were starting to appear as the drive further into town. They had been driving along empty road for what seemed like years, so she was relieved to see some life finally.

The van slowed to a stop in front of a house suddenly. The house was a small homey looking thing, painted a dull yellow. Ugly, but still cute in a weird way? They had to size down from their house previously, having so many medical bills to pay off. Luckily, they weren't a huge family. Just her mother and father besides herself.

Her parents had wanted more kids, having Camila at a young age, but after years of trying, they were met with no success. Who knows, maybe they would try more after Camila died. A second chance at being parents. She hoped they would, they were good parents. The best she could have ever asked for. She was truly lucky to have them.

Ignoring the aches in her joints, Camila stood slowly from her seat onto the cracked pavement of their new driveway. She circled around the car to meet her father at the trunk. They had left most of everything behind to make the move easier, deciding to buy cheap used furniture instead. "What can I help bring in?" Her voice croaked, groggy with fatigue.

"Nonsense, sweetheart. Your mother and I have got it." Her father tutted shooing the teen away. She huffed, laying her hand out in front of her.

Her father looked questionably at his daughter's palm. "Well, I at least need the keys. Don't I?" She laughed, rolling her eyes sarcastically. Receiving a low chuckle in response, he dropped a small silver key in her hand.

"This one can be your copy." He smiled down to her.

She made her way into small house, floorboards creaking beneath her feet as she walked into the family room. The house was only one story, this having been a selling point to her parents as their last house had been two floors. After being diagnosed, it had become too difficult for her to walk up the stairs to her bedroom on a daily basis. There were only two bedrooms in the house, the master, and her own room, so it was easy enough to avoid getting lost. She swung the door open to her own, the hinges whining in protest. 

It was small, but freshly cleaned. She could smell the faint scent of pinesol in the air. The wooden floors were bare except for full sized mattress that sat against the far left wall. Her mother had already made a deal with their realtor, making sure that she had acquired a bed before they got there, so Camila could go to sleep early like she often did as of late. 

Fatigue often riddled her withering body, but at that moment she was more alert than usual, ready to set her room up and decorate to her liking. She walked to the small window that sat to the right of the mattress and drew the thin white curtains back. The ground outside was stark white with snow and bare besides the trees that lined the edge of the forest. At least she got a nice view. 

Once her boxes were carried into her room for her, she began unpacking. She went through piles and piles of her clothing, most of it being many sizes too large. After losing so much weight, she had refused to go out and buy anything new. What was the use when the new clothes would stop fitting within a few months anyway? She did have to buy a few new items, like underwear and a few pairs of pants, but for the most part, she made the baggy shirts work and wore a belt when necessary. If anything, it would hide how unhealthily skinny she was becoming. 

Letting out an exasperated sigh, she finished hanging the remainder of her clothing in the cramped closet. She pushed the last few boxes aside, opening one to grab some clean bedding and a pillow. She struggled, bones starting to ache fervently and she stretched the last corner of the fitted sheet onto the mattress. She huffed as she threw the blankets and pillows in place and stepped back to look at the finished product. She shrugged, deciding that it looked comfortable enough.

She sluggishly pealed her clothing away from her body, exhaustion suddenly hitting her like a ton of bricks. Pulling on the old worn sweatpants and t-shirt she had set aside, she plopped down onto the plush mattress, already feeling her eyes droop with sleep. She decided she would push her shower off until morning, knowing it wouldn’t go well if she was so lethargic. The last thing she needed was to pass out in the middle of showering.

January 23rd, 2005

The warm stream of water poured over her fragile body, trailing down her thin frame. She let out a contented sigh, relishing in the comfort that it brought to her aching skin. She looked down at herself, taking the sight in. Her hands were becoming much bonier than before. Her old rings no longer fit her fingers, sliding and rotating anytime she tried to wear them. Her hip bones jutted out, no longer having a layer of fat to cover them.

She had used to be a little chubby, always wishing she could have a flat stomach. Now, she would do anything to get her old body back. It was odd how that worked. You really didn't appreciate what you had until you lost it.

Her thoughts were cut off, the once warm water turning to ice. Shit, she thought, jumping out and engulfing her rigid body in a fluffy towel. Guess the hot water ran out. She wrapped the towel snuggly around herself, walking swiftly to her room, locking the door behind her.

The sun peered through the crack in her curtains, leaving a beam of blinding light streaming through the mostly empty room. Rummaging through one of the boxes labeled with her name, she grabbed her hairdryer and plugged it into the outlet next to the one mirror she had brought from the move. She didn't like the way it made her hair frizzy, but she also didn't want to go to her first day of school with wet hair. She definitely didn’t need to get sick with a cold on top of everything else.

School. Forks High School. She didn't enjoy the fact that she would be entering halfway through her junior year, but she refused to let her parents keep her home any longer. She had begged them to let her go, her lack of a good immune system being the reason they had taken her out in the first place. She wanted to experience some kind of normal high school life before she died. She wanted friends again. So she had decided to try and conceal her sickness as long as possible. She didn't need people's sympathy, she'd gotten enough of that, she just wanted some sense of normalcy. Luckily, her hair hadn't started falling out from chemo yet, so for the time being she could act as if things were normal.

But in the end, it would be the farthest thing away from a normal high school experience.

Next Chapter

#bella swan #edward cullen #twilight #twilight smut #eventual smut #charlie swan #leah clearwater #jasper hale #jasper whitlock #jasper #jasper hale smut #jasper x reader #jasper hale x reader #slow burn #seth clearwater #la push #forks washington #fluff #jasper hale fic #jasper hale fluff

[critter-catcher]

Let's talk about gay penguins for the next day of pride month!

I think most people know at this point that penguins are known to be gay, and even lesbian! But what most people don't know is that they've been seen to engage in homosexual behavior since at least as early as 1911!

See a scientist, George Murray Levick, documented the behaviour in Adélie penguins at Cape Adare, but described it as "depraved". He decided it was too shocking for public release so he hid it. The only copies that were made available privately to researchers had the English text partly written in Greek letters, to prevent this knowledge becoming more widely known. The report was unearthed a century later, in June 2012 and was finally published.

(X)

Unfortunately that's not the last time gay penguins would cause an uproar.

There have been a lot of homosexual behavior seen in penguins in captivity, including Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins in New York City's Central Park Zoo. They were noted by staff at the zoo in 1998 to be performing mating rituals, and one of them in 1999 attempted to hatch a rock as if it were an egg. Zoo keepers decided to give them an egg from a pair of penguins, which could not hatch it. Roy and Silo spent two and a half months raising the healthy young chick, a female named Tango. When she reached breeding age, Tango paired with another female penguin named Tanuzi!

(X)

Now for the "controversy".

And Tango Makes Three is a children's book published in 2005, telling the story of Roy and Silo. There was a lot of support, but there was even more backlash. Despite having ten awards and two nominations, it appeared on the American Library Association’s top ten banned books, banned in 2023, 2020, 2017, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, and firstly in 2006, just a year after it was published.

(X)

Alright, enough sad stuff, lets talk happy.

Here's the thing, penguins often lay more than one egg, though usually only one chick will survive. In captivity same sex penguins will adopt (or steal) extra eggs to incubate and raise the chicks! It's likely this happens in the wild, though it’s harder to say. Visibly, male and female penguins tend to only differ in size, and not by much. On top of that, they act very similar, particularly in terms of reproduction. Both males and females invest pretty equally in raising their chicks. That means it’s difficult to tell male and female penguins apart and even more difficult to identify any wild mating pairs as homosexual.

There have been many records of captive same sex penguins, and, there's even what could be considered a non-binary, or genderless, penguin.

In 2019, mothers Rocky and Marama hatched a chick together at sea Life Aquarium in London. This chick caused further controversy after the aquarium announced that it would not be assigning the chick a gender. The chick is identified with a gender-neutral purple tag rather than the usual gendered name and color coded tag. Beyond that, the penguin’s life will be the same as any other penguin at the Aquarium. They say that Gender means nothing to penguins, so why have we continuously assigned it to them? The General Manager of the aquarium comments that the decision to raise a genderless penguin is following an increase in conversations around human gender neutrality.

(X)

#this one got long sorry yall😅 #found out a lot more than id already known #animals #nature #critters #wild life #wildlife #animal facts #facts #birds #penguins #gay #homosexual #pride #pride month #lesbian #non-binary #lgbt

[herohimbowhore]

The Lost Generation of Formula 1

Generation Why by Conan Gray is perhaps the anthem of F1's current lost generation.

So you may ask - what is the lost generation?

The lost generation is defined as the generation that reached maturity during and just after World War I, in which a high proportion of the men were killed during the war years. A lost generation is a generation with unfulfilled potential that missed out on the opportunities that were enjoyed by their predecessors and will be enjoyed by their successors.

For F1, at least currently, the lost generation would be drivers who entered Formula 1 sometime between 2010 and 2014.

Of the 2023 grid, the lost generation would include:

Nico Hulkenberg (2010)

Daniel Ricciardo (2011)

Sergio Perez (2011)

Valtteri Bottas (2013)

Kevin Magnussen (2014)

When they entered F1, they were hopeful of their chances of winning a championship. The years prior had been highly competitive with no easily identifiable dominance since the Schumacher/Ferrari era came to an end with Fernando Alonso's 2005 championship win. Alonso had won the 2006 championship, then Kimi Raikkonen won in 2007, Lewis Hamilton in 2008, and Jenson Button in 2009.

But as they were entering the Red Bull or Mercedes dominance was beginning. They became valued and experienced drivers during the Mercedes' dominance era. Now as they reach the latter years of their careers, another dominance has begun but with new championship hopefuls.

________________________________

Go wherever we want 'cause no one cares that we're gone

The lost generation of F1 isn't filled with the Lewis Hamiltons, Max Verstappens, Charles Leclercs, Fernando Alonsos, Sebastian Vettels, and so on.

Daniel Ricciardo is one of the most well-known drivers in F1 right now, Sergio Perez drives for the current dominant team, and Valtteri Bottas drove alongside Lewis Hamilton after the brocedes dissolution and throughout some of Mercedes' dominant years.

But in the end, they're not World Champions, nor are they in the conversation for being world champions as often as they once were. The expected challengers to Max Verstappen right now are assumed to be Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Fernando Alonso (if he gets the right car), and so on.

With the exception of Daniel Ricciardo, who became the person who brought fans to the sport through the access he gave Drive to Survive from the start, people wouldn't necessarily care as much about the lost generation retiring as they would about Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, and Max Verstappen.

You and I haven't got much to lose

So do you wanna rot in your room like we always do?

Talk about how fast we grew

And all the big dreams that we won't pursue

Every F1 driver comes into the sport with hopes of winning - winning races, winning championships, just winning.

That is the big dream that they want to pursue and have dedicated their childhoods to. Giving their blood, sweat, and tears to this goal.

But with F1, timing is everything.

They entered Formula 1 as the Red Bull or Mercedes' dominance eras were beginning. From 2010 to 2013, Red Bull was the team to be in. Did others challenge Sebastian Vettel? Yes, but in the end, he was dominant. Then beginning in 2014, the Mercedes dominance era began with two highly competent and competitive drivers - Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

They grew into experienced drivers during the Mercedes' dominance era. From 2014 to 2016, the battle was always between the Mercedes drivers - a living Greek tragedy. And after that, the dominance was so clearly by just Lewis Hamilton.

And now, well we all know the story of the 2023 season. We are now in the era of Max Verstappen with a younger generation of drivers coming in to challenge him.

Bookended by dominant eras, F1's lost generation grew up quickly and never got to truly pursue the dreams and hopes they came into the sport with.

Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why

We're livin' night to night

Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why

Since we're bound to die, oh

Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why

Oh, what's the use in trying?

Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why,

And it's exactly why

The lost generation is living race to race, season to season. To keep their place in Formula 1, they need to show their value to the teams that they drive for.

They're not guaranteed a seat for as long as they may like in the way that proven world champions are. If Fernando Alonso wants to race well into his 40s and 50s, some team or another will provide him the race seat to continue on. He could have a horrible season and still be guaranteed a race seat unlike the members of the lost generation that need to keep showing their value.

For Haas, Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg bring two experienced drivers that aren't costing them millions in damage. Haas doesn't have the capacity to develop drivers so they need the experience offered by their current lineup and they don't have the ability to bring drivers with expected WDC potential. On a similar note, Valtteri Bottas brings experience and stability to Alfa Romeo/Sauber as they wait for Audi to come in.

Sergio Perez was brought in to help Max Verstappen's championship campaign from 2021 onwards and be there when Max Verstappen couldn't be to maximize points potential for the team. And while the current season has brought that into question, he was able to help Red Bull secure their first 1-2 in the WDC.

Daniel Ricciardo is perhaps the anomaly in this lineup. While he didn't win a championship, he made his mark on Formula 1 as a highly regarded driver and someone who is often cited by fans as the person who brought them to the sport. Daniel Ricciardo brings to AlphaTauri/Red Bull his marketability and experience. AlphaTauri has cited his arrival to the team as a resurgence in morale and form after a lackluster beginning of the year. There's also been new sponsor interest due to his return.

But they're bound to eventually leave the sport, and unfortunately, it will be sooner than later.

As time progressed, members of the lost generation left F1 for one reason or another until only 5 have remained.

Other notable members of this generation included:

Bruno Senna (2010)

Pastor Maldonado (2011)

Jean-Éric Vergne (2012)

Jules Bianchi (2013)

Marcus Ericsson (2014)

Daniil Kyvat (2014)

Alexander Rossi (2014)

#formula 1 #f1 through music #daniel ricciardo #max verstappen #lewis hamilton #nico hulkenberg #kevin magnussen #sergio perez #valtteri bottas #sebastian vettel #fernando alonso #f1 #charles leclerc #red bull racing #mercedes #the lost generation #formula one

[ovaryacted]

Hey there! I saw that you mentioned writing an analysis on Leon's character, and truthfully i'd personally be really down to read what you have to say about him. There's barely any to go around unfortunately so it's very fun to read what other's take from the games.

Also, the most interesting arc of Leon so far to me has been from 4 remake, would you ever consider doing an analysis on him from that period and how he went through a drastically better development rather than that of OG? (ofc it's just my opinion since i prefer 4 remake version much much more!) either way, would love to see what you got!

Hey anon! I know you sent me this a while ago, and I want to give you a proper answer to this analysis so I will try my best to give you something well thought out because I really loved the direction they took to characterize Leon differently in RE4R. I also apologize if this was long, I tend to ramble lol.

So, we all know that the original RE4 is a cult classic in the horror gaming genre, and rightfully so. Here we see Leon Kennedy as the badass he is, he is capable, witty, and nonetheless different than the rookie we were first introduced to. However, considering the period the game was released in and the intentional perception of Leon Kennedy at that time, Capcom went the route of pleasing the "gaming bro" community to make Leon into something he isn't.

Sure, he's one hell of an agent, he knows what he's doing and quite frankly is probably the only person who is capable of saving Ashley Graham. But in the OG RE4, Capcom does not focus on the trauma that he's carried since RE2, which I also don't blame them for doing. The OG RE4 was released in 2005, of course, they were going to focus on making Leon Kennedy super macho and strong and just overall cool because that is what sells. Not to mention the objectification of Ashley Graham also matches up to the period as well, and that's already a whole other problem with gaming as a whole that is not just reserved to Capcom entirely.

Regardless of that, OG RE4 is still considered one of the best games in the genre. It's timeless, it's fun, and it makes other people appreciate Leon in another light because he is now "cool" enough as an agent that the rest of his experiences don't matter as much.

Now moving on to the RE4 Remake released in 2023, the direction they took in characterizing Leon is more on par with what they've been doing with his character since RE6. One of the biggest gripes I have with Capcom in particular is their lack of character depth when it comes to elaborating on the traumas that each character possesses. They are so busy trying to make these characters killing machines that they leave huge gaps in showcasing their humanity, hence why a lot of the lore involving these characters' pasts is left for consumers to interpret.

In RE6 which came out in 2012, Leon Kennedy often compares the mission in China and what happened at Tall Oaks to Raccoon City, saying how it reminds him of that day before he found himself in this mess fighting bioweapons. The detail might be minuscule, but it gives people the assumption that Raccoon City was in fact traumatizing and left a huge imprint on Leon's character, altering him for the rest of his life. You also see Leon wanting to save as many people as he can with Helena reminding him that they don't have the time or ability to do so. His survivor's guilt and humanity are now considered as parts of his character for probably the first time on screen.

Until then, we didn't really know anything else regarding Leon's experiences until the RE2 Remake came out in 2019, and here the way they characterized Leon changed dramatically. He really is just a guy who came to the wrong place at the wrong time, experiencing horrors unimaginable and miraculously survives with two other people he met less than 24 hours ago. Yeah, I'm sure if you drove into a city and experienced your own personal apocalypse, that is sure to change who you are as a person. Now, the RE2 Remake I think was the first remake that used the new RE Engine seen in RE7 & RE8, and from a gaming perspective, Capcom is now adding the horror aspect back into the RE franchise that was certainly missing.

We don't know what happens to Leon, Claire, and Sherry after the RE2 Remake game ends because they're seen walking into the sunset hand in hand, but the idea is that Claire goes off to look for Chris and leaves Leon and Sherry behind where they are eventually apprehended by the U.S. government. I think it's in Darkside Chronicles where Leon is seen being interrogated by the government and he's blackmailed into military service as a means to protect Sherry because she's infected with the G-Virus.

After that, we know that there are other missions that Leon went on in between that time; Operation Javier being the most prominent one since that happens before RE4 and it's where he's working alongside Krauser. There are of course other animations and movies that are made to show Leon at different points in his life, but we don't know much about Leon and what he's been doing in the new canon timeline until he is re-introduced to us in the RE4 Remake.

At the very start of the game, we get an opening monologue from Leon directly where he mentions that Raccoon City was a day he will never forget, the cop inside him died that day, and shares his frustrations with the government because they left people to die before literally nuking an entire city off the map and not saying anything about it. He also mentions that he was "asked" to join the military and help in this new initiative to destroy BOWs and states that he didn't have much of a choice. Just his training alone was gruesome even if we don't necessarily know what it involved, but it kept his mind off of the trauma and the pain he experienced constantly.

The words that Leon is saying plus the way the camera pans out to show Leon's face for the first time since we've last seen him in a canon game reflects just how much he's been through in that 6/7 year timespan. The details on his facial features are enough to show that he's been through the gutter: he's lost the baby fat in his cheeks (which happens with aging anyway but still), his dark circles are prominent along with his scowl, and he already has wrinkles on his forehead which probably came from stress.

It is very obvious that this is not the same Leon Kennedy that we saw in RE2R and that is done very intentionally. He's an agent now, he has experience under his belt, and just like the OG RE4, he is still badass and capable enough to do this job. The big difference in how Leon is characterized in the remake is his humility is now added as an aspect of who he is.

Despite all of the trauma that Leon has gone through and continues to experience, he still has his humanity attached which is one of the biggest things that make me love his character in particular. He cares, and that's what makes everything hurt for him. In that scene where he finds Ashley in the castle and consoles her, he's telling her the words he wishes someone had told him, reassures her that she is strong and will get through this, and even adds a small smile at the end. Leon isn't this heartless person and his trauma hasn't wiped out any remaining empathy he has left, which the remake captures well.

You also see Leon acting like this when he's next to Luis after Krauser kills him and is still remorseful towards him until death despite knowing that he used to work for Umbrella. And then again after he kills Krauser, someone who trained with him closely and who he thought was dead, he is emotional after using his superior's knife to end his misery despite it being a subtle detail. As you continue to play the game, there these moments in the gameplay where you get bits and pieces of Leon and the kind of person he is, which weren't really there in the original game.

The remake also didn't just highlight Leon's humanity but also changed how the other characters are perceived and added new elements that we could appreciate as consumers. Personally, RE4R is such a phenomenal game because of the changes they made to showcase Leon as a human being who is trapped in the worst possible circumstances one could think of, and it makes me hope that they'll elaborate on his trauma in a RE6 Remake or in other CGI movies.

I also hope that Capcom continues to give their beloved characters more of a spotlight that reflects who they are as people instead of their capacity to be badass agents, but one can only hope, right? I wonder what direction they'll go for the RE5 Remake and how they will change Chris, Sheva, Wesker, and Jill but everything is under speculation so we really won't know until that game drops.

#ovaryacted asks #leon kennedy #leon scott kennedy #leon s kennedy #resident evil #ovaryacted thoughts

[mikasasrippedtoenail]

The Plight of Indian Widows

A woman's dignity is not her own possession. Her life is at the mercy of men around her. She is a commodity to be owned and sold first by her father then her husband. Her entire existence is tied to her servitude to those around her. After giving so much to the world, there is little life left inside of her. Yet, the world still demands her forfeit of this little life after the death of her husband. In India, a woman was expected to burn herself alive in the holy pyre of her husband's body as a show of loyalty in a practice called Sati that was outlawed in 1929(yet it is still rampant today in many rural parts of India).

With her husband no more, she must have no reason to live.Widowhood is the harbringer of acute discrimination for women in South Asia. Widows are ostracized by society and shunned by their family to live a destitute life in "Vidhwa Ashrams". Even the shadow of a widow was believed to inflict depredation and brought. They are called witches and man-eaters. They are forbidden from wearing anything but white clothes and are expected to practice strict abstinence. Widows in Afghanistan are called besarparast, meaning "household without a head". It is customary for a woman to shave off her head to appear undesirable. Her sexuality is confined, her needs and wants must die alongside her husband. Widow remarriage-although legal- is deeply stigmatized as a grave sin.

Widows are not considered to be a part of society. They can neither celebrate festivals nor travel without a religious purpose. In some extreme cases, they are made to drink the bathwater of their husbands’ dead bodies and have unprotected sex to "cleanse themselves of the sin of causing their husbands" death. Young widows also fall prey to the leering eyes of men. Child brides especially are prone to fall victim to manipulation by people around them. Men consider that since marriage has taken away her "innocence", she can now be sexually exploited.

Barring a few states, married women cannot inherit their husband's property. This lack of financial stability is the root cause of their exploitation. Most husbands leave their wives penniless. What little savings he might have had are spent on funeral rites. Relatives do not want to support her financially, considering her children and herself as excess baggage. Her parents also close the doors on her face for it is often said - "only a woman's dead body should come out of her husband's house."

This new found vulnerability makes her an easy prey for prostitution. A primary form of survival for widows is to sell their body through pimps. However, in most ashrams, they are forced to perform sexual favours by the heads of the ashram to gain money. The heads use their political power to silence the widows from raising their voice against this rape. With nowhere else to go, this cycle continues. The widows who get pregnant from this rape are "mauled by quacks for a painfully searing abortion and If that’s not done, then they would have an extra mouth to feed and an extra pair of hands to beg."

As of today, India is the abode of 42 million widows-a social class that is woefully exploited. Widows are often forced to dedicate the remaining parts of their lives to their religion. They must have no desires or wants except singing the God's praise. Widowhood for most women marks the death of their happines and social life. Although with changing times the attitude towards widows is turning positive, it is the bitter truth that the condition of widows from orthodox regions live a terrible life.

Laws protecting women are scarce- let alone widows. In India, widows are considered to be the class 1 heirs of ancestral properties. However, most of them are uneducated and unaware of the laws surrounding them. They are easily manipulated by relatives to give up their rights to the property. As for self acquired property, most men do not mention the name of their wives in their wills. After 2005, women alive on december, 2005 have a right over their father's ancestral property alongside their brothers. One must not forget that women inheriting property is still not socially acceptable in India and women who recieve property are few and far between.

To uplift widows, one must make them aware of the rights around them. Government and local NGOs should work together to organize awareness campaigns on the rights of widows. Women without capital left behind by their husbands should get a monthly stipend. "Vidhwa Ashrams" should be heavily regulated. More so, the social stigma shrouding widows must be removed. Treatment of women belonging to marginalized communities are a reflection of how dire the situation of women's rights are in India. Opening women owned women only shelters is the prime solution for the upliftment of women.

#radblr #radical feminism #radical feminists do interact #radical feminists do touch #terfsafe #radical feminist safe #trans exclusionary radical feminist #female seperatism #women are the superior sex #widows #india #Patriarchy #male violence #male privilege #sexism #gender roles #womens rights

[doverstar]

A handful of people have requested I expand on my epiphany that the Tenth Doctor is the Doctor lineup’s equivalent of Enamored Smurf, so here I go if you care to waste some time-

Lots of Doctor/Rose fans like to say Ten was born out of love, specifically for Rose. He is tailor-made for her; we saw that. Even in the novelized version of The Christmas Invasion, Rose suspects that the Doctor’s new face has picked up a few of her mannerisms. I want to say, firstly, that I’m not sure that it’s technically canon that Ten was made for Rose, or that if you asked the writers, they’d say that his tenth regeneration was born out of love for her. I actually can’t find anything in my limited research where that’s canon – it’s fan speculation, but it seems to be true and that’s the short version of why I think Ten is the Enamored Smurf of the Doctors. But of course I’m me so this will take longer than that.

I’ll start with this factoid – Ten has kissed every one of his official companions. That says something. Bupbupbup wait, I know, that was Cassandra on New Earth, it was just a genetic transfer on the moon, he needed a shock to eradicate the poison in 1926, etc. Okay, I know he has good reasons behind each kiss, but it says something that David Tennant’s Doctor is the Doctor that the show felt most comfortable - how do I say this kindly - auctioning off romantically. Jon Pertwee’s Doctor, Tom Baker’s, even Peter Davison’s before him – there was a much different sort of conduct with them, just in my opinion. I don’t know if the audience at the time or the writers at the time would have been quite so free with the Doctor’s romantic potential. With Tennant’s Doctor, it’s just. Everyone. All the time. Astrid, Christina, Madame de Pompadour, Joan Redfern, Queen Elizabeth. Look, Ten is not the first Doctor to be kissing companions or even almost-companions, but he’s the one that seems to do it most often, especially in the 2005 revival (and here we exclude Matt Smith’s Doctor because he came afterward and Moffat was at the helm and Moffat cannot write a male protagonist who doesn’t kiss or get kissed by every young woman breathing near him). What I’m communicating here is that there is something about the Tenth Doctor that is, by nature, very romantic. He is romance-inclined. And most fans take that to be a direct result of the way he was brought into existence. The Doctor’s ninth incarnation was killed by absorbing the Time Vortex, and the only way he could survive that process was to regenerate. How did he absorb it? He pulled it out of Rose Tyler to save her life, after she absorbed it to save his. How did he pull it out of her? He kissed her! Could he have done it in a different way? *noise in my throat for I-don’t-know* Probably. Maybe he could’ve hooked her up to something in the Tardis, or used the sickbay or even tried the Zero Room. But he didn’t; he kissed her, and it’s canon in both RTD’s words and the words of the cast and other writers that Nine kissed Rose because he wanted to kiss Rose, and because he wanted to save Rose, and he was happy to give his life for hers – and that these actions were done out of love. Romantic love explicitly, as well as the self-sacrificial type of real, true, lasting love. That was agape stuff right there. Be still my heart hooooo boy-

So Nine is dying because he sacrificed that incarnation of himself to save Rose, because he loved her. And when he changed, when he regenerated, he changed into this younger-looking, Londony puppy dog man with hair Rose obviously likes and with a clear inclination toward romance. From the first, he’s a dashing hero with ego and brains.

Suddenly the Doctor is not the war-torn, forty-something-looking Northerner that takes a tiny bit to warm up to people and doesn’t seem to think much of himself. Suddenly, the Doctor likes to wink and click his tongue, give crooked smiles and really-tight hugs, and boy does he love physical touch. The tenth is obnoxiously flirtatious, and, appearance-wise, he’s just as grin-heavy and charismatic as the men we’ve seen Rose prefer in past episodes. If we go with the long-running theory that regeneration, while definitely 80% uncontrollable, can be at least a little influenced by cause of death and the emotional inclination of the Gallifreyan who is regenerating, then the most logical explanation is what?

He is ‘born out of love’. The Tenth Doctor is almost literally fizzing with passion. Look at him. Go look at him. Is he not hand-stitched to be roguish and attractive and fun and amiable and watch out, ladies-

(Mr. Tennant you are a fabulous actor and you do the show credit and you are this generation’s Tom Baker and you are more than your eyebrows, sir, please forgive me, we love you-) Even when he is being weird, he is being charming. Even when Martha does not know why he’s throwing away his shoes, even when she has concrete proof that he is another species and not human, she still swoons when he kisses her or smiles at her or looks in her direction. (Mad Martha, charity Martha, you deserve much better!) When River calls him ‘pretty boy’, even Donna’s affirmation comes out a bit quick, and there is no chance of that relationship ever being romantic. Astrid only has to meet his eyes one time and she’s a goner. Do not get me started on Madame de Pompadour-

The Tenth Doctor is a total Casanova. He exists in a state of romantic potential, because when the Doctor changed his face into that face, it was after saving – and finally embracing – this human girl that he is objectively, canonically in love with. He is Enamored Smurf. Now, that’s actually a huge problem. Because an alien man engineered to love one person is a lovely thing -  as long as he can love that person. But the issue is that he’s a Time Lord. He can’t love the Earth girl practically the way he would like to, the way that’s best. He can’t settle down with her, he can’t even marry her. He knows that. He will outlive her. So he can’t ever say I-love-you because that’s commitment, and he can’t commit to Rose because it would be dangerous and unfair, especially to her. It wouldn’t (in his opinion) lead to a happy ending for both of them, but I already beat this horse to the deadest death, he’s buried over there, shhh-

Okay. So what does he do with all that love? While he’s with Rose, it’s mostly fine. He can show her all the time that he’s absolutely gone for her without ever saying it. “Oh, she knows.” “Does it need saying?” I mean. If the constant hand-holding and hugging and disarming smiles (ah, The Stone Rose, how are you today my beloved-) didn’t say it, the REALLY INTENSE BROWN EYES BURNING HOLES IN HER FACE will say it just fine.

Only this incarnation of the Doctor isn’t just romantically-inclined. He’s also got the biggest freaking ego I have ever seen on that man, don’t look at me Six, avoid eye contact Three- He’s full of passion, as aforementioned. Everything is – wait for it – at a ten. Where are you going, come back here-

So if he’s full of passion, that means everything he feels is at its peak. When he’s angry, he’s furious. When he’s sad, he’s miserable. When he’s confused, it’s a thousand whats before we get to a proper line of dialogue. When he’s happy it’s the best smile in the universe. And when he’s in love? Do not get in the line of fire (and by that I mean the big-brown-eye-contact) or you will be struck down in your prime. The issue with being the Doctor and being born out of love, full of passion, but unable to settle down with the object of that love? The issue is that it all goes other places, too. It’s not just for Rose. The Doctor as a character has forever been, in a sense, in love with the universe. In love with the human race in particular (not romantically, yikes, but you get it). If ever there were a species he’d be most inclined to fall for romantically, it’s going to be a human being. We saw it before Rose, we’ll probably see it after Rose, though not at the same level because – well, different relationships are different relationships.

And this Doctor has a huge ego. He loves attention. He loves praise. He even loves being adored. He knows darn well Martha fancied him the whole time and he still kept her close to him, and then bragged about it to Donna later. He finds the fact that he enchanted and snogged Madame de Pompadour delightful, and funny, even though he met her first as a child and hi, he has two very-mortal human beings already traveling with him on that clockwork spaceship who he should probably not leave to be disassembled for five and a half hours. One of which is supposedly the person he is in love with and who loves him back. But I digress; that episode in particular is another horse to beat at another time. Not Arthur. A different horse. He seems to pass out attraction and affection easily, and really take pride in that, which, if I were Rose, would be incredibly unnerving when he’s so affectionate toward you but he is also flirty and loose with basically every other woman he meets as well. Hear me, Rose is not entitled to reciprocation – neither is the Doctor, actually – but it does demonstrate surprising carelessness on his part after Nine’s clear, unwavering preference and devotion toward Rose. It’s obvious they care so much about each other, it’s obviously love, but of course she wanted him to say it out loud. He gives her reason to doubt that she’s in any way special to him. But because she’s Rose, of course she decided to stay with him because he needs someone, because she loves him, regardless of how thoughtless he can sometimes be about how he may be affecting her.

(I don’t like that about Ten, personally. I don’t like the ego, or the rampant flirting, but I really dislike that carelessness. And I understand the difficulties and the complications and the layers to that romantic relationship, to Doctor/Rose, and I get that it makes for good television drama, but also – sometimes you just wanna shake him. Either say you love her, or say very clearly that it will never work out and you are refusing to commit. You can have all the best intentions in the world because you love her, but if you’re not clear with her, it’s just making things harder for her on days when you are winking at and holding hands with someone else. I can make a separate post about how I have a very bittersweet opinion on Ten and would not like to travel with him, but…eh.)

Anyway. This post is longer than I wanted. The point I am trying to make is that he is the Doctor who is, yes, the most inclined toward romance, Enamored Smurf, but also that that is not always a good thing. Being born out of love and being full of passion can be a very dangerous thing. He is not just the most inclined toward romance – he is also the Doctor who is the most inclined toward villainy. Get behind me, Moffat, no Eleven is not-

As the Doctor with the most passion, born out of love, when I say that when he’s angry he’s furious, I am talking Time Lord Victorious furious. He is at times the most imposing version of the Doctor. In fact, there’s an entire alternate multimedia canon dedicated to the idea that the Tenth Doctor specifically could one day be a villain, after making a thousand small decisions that surface-wise don’t seem so bad, but that eventually snowball into one big, bad decision. And suddenly he thinks he’s a god and we have to root against him. And that’s just one drawback. The other drawback is plainly seen after Doomsday and Journey’s End – the Tenth Doctor cannot handle losing Rose. He’s completely ruined without her. He changed every single cell in his body with an eye toward loving her, and when she is gone, it probably feels like an enormous chunk of himself is missing. It probably feels like everything is tilting sideways, just a little bit, all the time. And the fact that he lost her and never explicitly told her how he felt? He has no idea what to do with himself. He goes from bad to worse. First of all, it’s made very clear that he is okay with dying when Rose is gone. We saw that in Turn Left. He was never trying to survive anything he ever did. He was saving other people, but he would have died several times over and had zero desire for self-preservation. The man practically begged the Daleks to kill him in Manhattan, and he would have drowned (in misery and river water) if Donna hadn’t been there to tell him “You can stop now!”

He has Martha and that helps, but she leaves. He has Donna and that helps, but she has to go too. He had Rose again, just for a second, but he can’t keep her this time, and that’s the last straw. He just snaps. Then it’s all bitterness, it’s all anger, it’s all ego. And it’s all at a ten, because what is he when he’s born out of love and the woman he loves is gone? What does he do with all that passion and pain? I’ll tell you what he does. He becomes the worst, most dejected maniac in the universe. He goes from wishing he could die to stubbornly refusing to die. And when it is time to die, he tries to be sure the last human face he sees is Rose’s face.

Actually the more I’m talking about it, the more I’m thinking Ten is the saddest Doctor. At least his other incarnations tried to die as heroes. At least they didn’t get to the point where they could look at Wilfred Mott, a global treasure, and say “not remotely important”. He’s Enamored Smurf, but he can’t do what he was sort of made to do. He can’t be with Rose. He can love her by giving her the chance for a happy ending, and he can love her by showing her the universe, and he can love her by giving his life for her, but he can’t keep her. He has to be without her. He can’t settle down (why do you think John Smith was so quick to fall in love and want a future with Nurse Redfern while being unable to stop dreaming of Rose, unable to stop dreaming she kept walking away?). If there was any version of the Doctor that wanted to be human in order to be with someone he loved, it would be Ten. Because he’s born out of love. And he just can’t escape that. Like this really beautiful, wonderful plant that gets moved out of the sun and is unable to reach water, so all its fruit goes sour. He’s miserable. Oh look I made myself sad-

#tenth doctor #10th doctor #doverstar's thoughts #ten #10 #david tennant #billie piper #timepetals #rose tyler #rose #doctor who #dw #dr who #10rose #tenrose #doctorrose #doctor/rose #the doctor #rtd #rtd era #long post #text post #opinion piece #tragedy thy name is enamored smurf

[gatheringbones]

[“The fact remains that the most effective long-term solutions to protecting and empowering victims of abuse are policy changes that would grant victims reliable access to health care, housing, livable income, paid sick leave, child care, and safety from criminalization. Yet bureaucratic impediments on the federal level, lack of leadership from Democrats as a serious “opposition party” against Republicans, and general inaction have stalled meaningful, nationwide, progressive economic legislation for decades. As a result, too many victims are forced to stay in dangerous, traumatizing relationships solely for economic reasons, in a country where poverty can be a death sentence, and those who experience poverty are disproportionately policed for “survival crimes”—what we call being punished by the state for its own failure to invest in community resources, and its reliance on commodifying and profiting off incarcerating the most vulnerable.

Despite how frequently cases of rape and domestic abuse are invoked to justify policing and prisons, women who are victims of abuse face more severe punishment for “enabling” child abuse, pregnancy loss, or even surviving abuse, broadly, than their abusers do. The many documented cases of this include Marshae Jones, a Black woman in Alabama who was jailed for fetal homicide in 2019 after miscarrying from being shot in the stomach. Sex workers who report being victimized are disbelieved and often criminalized by police officers themselves (a 2007 study found 44 percent of police officers said they were unlikely to believe a report of rape from a sex worker), while the rapes and sexual violence cases of Black and Indigenous women and girls are chronically ignored by police departments and media.

Victims of abuse with the least resources and social capital are more likely to face punishment than anything else when they seek help from authorities, rendering it more likely they would seek criminalized means to protect or provide for themselves. In too many documented cases that disproportionately implicate people of color, pregnant people are criminally charged for ostensibly endangering fetuses—for example, due to substance use struggles—and even prior to the overturning of Roe, for self-managed abortions. Many pregnant people have faced charges or incarceration for miscarriage or stillbirth, and even for harms inflicted on them while they were pregnant, like Marshae Jones.

This is in part because about forty states have feticide laws that were written with the intention of protecting pregnant people from domestic violence. It’s an important crisis to address, given how high homicide rates targeting pregnant people are. Yet all too often, feticide laws are co-opted and misused by anti-abortion activists and prosecutors to criminally charge pregnant people who lose their pregnancies. Misuse of fetal homicide laws has contributed to the nearly 1,300 criminal charges for pregnancy loss doled out between 2006 and 2020 alone—a number that’s tripled from 1973 to 2005, according to research from Pregnancy Justice. Let’s not forget that it’s police officers who are the primary enforcers of abortion bans, a role they’ve enthusiastically stepped into: In February 2022 the city of Louisville paid a police officer $75,000 in settlement fees almost a year after the officer was suspended for protesting outside a local abortion clinic while armed and in uniform. After being suspended with pay for almost half a year in 2021, the officer sued the city for supposedly violating his constitutional rights while off-duty and discriminating against him for his “pro-life” views. The incident is part of a long history of police officers either ignoring or enabling violent anti-abortion protesters at clinics, and apparently even joining protesters themselves.

Fetal homicide laws are just one example of legislation that accords unborn fetuses with legal personhood rights, resulting in extensive legal risks for pregnant people, and particularly those who experience abuse. Dana Sussman, deputy executive director of Pregnancy Justice, told me in 2022 that there’s “simply no way to grant fetuses ‘personhood rights’ without subjugating the rights of pregnant people by creating a false tension between the rights of the fetus and the rights of a pregnant person.” When a pregnant person’s “rights are secondary to the fetus, or at odds with the fetus, that lends to an environment in which violence—whether it’s state violence like imprisonment, or interpersonal violence—can be committed against pregnant people with far less accountability.”]

kylie cheung, from survivor injustice: state-sanctioned abuse, domestic violence, and the fight for bodily autonomy, 2023

#kylie cheung #currently reading #cw rape #cw abuse #history stuff

[roxannepolice]

This may be stretching the concept of work's intent and possibly conflating it with reader's intent, but I think if you scratch to the absolute bottom of chameleon arch in s3 the ultimate difference between the Doctor and the Master becomes being people oriented vs. goal oriented. Like, if you go beyond the question of "could the Doctor have been something of a bad person* and the Master a good person", and ask "under what circumstances would they be like this", it looks like the Doctor - or, what aside from a body (with all its mind-indepented memories) was left of them in John Smith - was. well. being oriented towards people around him. And. that's what had One go from crotchety man willing to kill over his secrets or even a freaking lighter into the Doctor that is. Meeting all those wonderful companions, starting from Ian and Barbara that would just tell him fuck off you're crossing a line and I will not have it. And no, I don't think it's a matter of "wanting to be liked", but rather seeing "oh my Omega, I actually hurt this person". And in the main story that worked out for good, and in fact I would say that when it comes to "origins of morality" and "how to live" questions, that is the more reliable way to go! But when that same mindset is surrounded by all the bigotry - as well as just living a nice life as it is provided to you! - of edwardian era, it results in... well, obviously, the way to deal with those evil guys is to FITE! and this is what all those teenage boys have been trained to do, should the need call (ah, the hanging cloud of knowledge a need will in fact call them so soon in this two-parter...)! And this... competent. but ultimately underdeveloped through no fault of her own maid needs to just have the distinction between fiction and reality explained to her, the poor thing probably thinks the invention of writing is only to be used for things that are absolutely true... Yeah, punch him.

I use the term "goal-oriented" for the Master, but I suppose I should clarify, because we all know that if it was pure goal-orientation, then there are infinitely easier ways to take over the world that *checks notes* man-eating sofas. Yes, the Master is absolutely into over-convoluted plans to the point where they become a goal in itself. But what I mean is, no, they can't just hang around seeing the universe, they need a goal to achieve, there has to be a point to all this, and survival and power are arguably the two most basic goals there can be, once you scratch happiness as a bit too indefinite. And obviously, that's the exact opposite of "how to live". In many ways its a much more animalistic and base motivation than anything a conscious mind might want. Kind of existence vs. life distinction. BUT? In those last few decades of universe's existence??? Where there is literally no other goal left than survival? Not necessarily your own survival, but rather survival as an abstract concept, survival of ANYTHING? That mindset, combined with brains, makes you the most wonderful person that could possibly be! You're there, doggedly pursuing the only goal left in the universe, putting all of the resources you have left, MAKING ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY OUT OF FREAKING FOOD, and if anyone has any shot at surviving it is indeed thanks to you! There are two apparent contradiction to this (as of course there have to be in a story that's honest and not just making a point). The first is Yana keeping up the hopes of other people even while knowing it's likely false, and the second is him being willing to sacrifice himself so others will reach Utopia. But if you think about it. Both of these things are, in a way, utilitarian. Yes, hope is often framed as the ultimate irrational ideal, but once it's gone from everyone else, then... what is there to do? That's the end to the only goal left. So long as others hope you can get them out, you can go on tinkering just in bloody case. And while giving up your life for others tends to be framed as the ultimate act of good... there's a level at which Yana just freaking calucates himself as the easiest to expend. He's old and tired. The people who managed to reach the silo are either children or young and strong, there's a lot ahead of them. This is cynical and absolutely not the perspective to hold. But. at the end of the universe. This cynicism leads to sacrifice.

THAT IS NOT SAY YANA ISN'T JUST PLAIN NICE AND SHOWING MORE CONSIDERATION FOR OTHER'S FEELINGS THAN THE MASTER IN ANY FORMAT EVER DID! But I suppose when you're goal-oriented and everyone around you literally has no other goals than yours... why not just be kind** indeed?

Yes, there's a great tensimm fanfic about this:

*I admit I think one of the most interesting aspects of John Smith was precisely making him not a good person but hardly the worst man there ever was maybe it's because I've read edwardian era books that makes me think his paternalisation of Martha really wasn't the worst way for a white man to treat a poc even without outright violence. But if he was a really good person then that would just tell you making him give up his existence was bad because he's a good person whereas as it is the question is what makes the subjectively real existence of this particular not very good but not really worse than millions of people like him man that devloped subjectively very real bonds with others more expendable than any other's?

** Gosh my mixed feeling for Twelve, like I love him, he's up there with 2,3,4 and 10 as character-defining for me, but why just why have him always turn out to be ultimately right about his absolute morals, he's kind of the antithesis to time lord victorious, so long as you do the kind thing then there's always an unforeseen ex machina to prove you right, you'll never fuck up REAL bad, a real dilemma is not between making the choice that's subjectively or objectively good, it's between two objectively bad choices once again Simm!Master fell where he stood no less than Twelve.

#doctor who #meta #doctor who meta #dw meta #the doctor #the master #tenth doctor #john smith #jacobi!master #professor yana #doctor who human nature/family of blood #doctor who utopia #philosophy in doctor who

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Bengiyo's Queer Cinema Syllabus

Had a busy couple weeks, but here I am, returning to @bengiyo’s queer cinema syllabus. I am currently working my way through Unit 4: Heartbreak Alley, the totally light-hearted, definitely not agonizing section of the syllabus where I get to watch countless acts of violence be committed against queer people. Thank fuck I have Lesbians waiting for me at the end of this unit. The films in Unit 4 are: Bent (1997), Strange Fruit (2004), Boys Don’t Cry (1999), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Parting Glances (1986), Philadelphia (1993), The Living End (1992), Holding the Man (2015), Jeffery (1995), and Boys on the Side (1995).

Today I will be writing about

Strange Fruit (2004) dir. Kyle Schickner

[Run Time: 88 min, Available: had to purchase a DVD, Language: English]

Content Warning: lynching, racism, homophobia, rape, violence/gore

Summary: A New York attorney must return home to Louisiana to investigate the death of a childhood friend who, like Boyals himself, was both black and gay. 

Cast: 

Kyle Faulcon as William Boyals

Berlinda Tolbert as Emma Ayers

__

Well.

First of all, I guess, a thank you to @bengiyo is in order for discovering that Strange Fruit was available on DVD so that I was actually able to watch it. This has joined the likes of Mysterious Skin on my ‘definitely something I needed to watch, but can probably never watch again” list. 

I want to warn anyone that is considering finding this film and watching it that it starts with a lynching. I…. I’m not sure I have the words. Not to get too real on main, but I have some pretty major trauma related to hangings, and I am just desperately glad that I did not watch this last week, as that was the anniversary and I am not confident I would have been able to finish this film. As it is I have been sitting in complete and utter silence since finishing the movie because a) holy shit b) the rope burns on his neck c) holy shit. 

How do you watch a film like this knowing that lynchings still happen all the time? How do you watch a film where a gay Black man in a small, rural country town is brutally beaten, raped with a branch, and hung from a tree on screen while knowing that just last week a Black man was found hanging from a tree in a small, rural country town? For a movie that was filmed on a budget of only $250,000 (according to Wikipedia, the director was offered 6 million if he didn’t make the lead character both Black and gay and he turned it down) it is absolutely packed with very important, nuanced social commentary around queerness, around race, around homophobia in general and homophobia within the Black community specifically, around how the police uphold power, around the relationship between intellectualism and the South, and around how the queer community survives. 

(sorry for the abysmal photo quality, there are no photos of this film and I watched it on my TV so I was not able to take screen shots)

For as cheaply as it was made it packs a motherfucking punch let me tell you, watching Kelvin scream for help, call for his mother, was just gut wrenching. Watching William desperately plead with the Black men who were lynching him not to do so because they were perpetuating the cycle of violence done by white men to black men not that long ago. How some Black men were fine with that because Kelvin, because William were faggots. How others killed themselves when the dust settled, understanding the realities of what they had done. The speech at the grocery story between Mrs. Ayers and Mrs. Boyals about how desperately Mrs. Ayers had wanted to disown Kelvin for being gay and how grateful she was that she hadn’t because she lost Kelvin too young. 

The way small town loyalties and small town fears intersect, Matthew being so grateful that William protected him all the way back in fifth grade that he went against the orders of the other cops to tell William everything he knew, and how he was so afraid to be considered a homosexual if he stood up for a queer man. The way Sheriff Jensey was a racist, homophobic piece of flaming dog shit who still was doing everything he could to prevent people from knowing his nephew was gay. How he was reduced to ground meat for it. (Though, he can die, I have no remorse for him whatsoever). The way Mrs. Ayers calls out the fact that William can pass as straight but Kelvin couldn’t. The way that the queer community was silent in the wake of Kelvin’s death because that was the only way to guarantee the survival of community pillars. The fact that there was no new coverage of Kelvin’s death that we could see, but when the white man was lynched, there were news trucks all over the place because someone in power was affected. 

And perhaps my favorite example, Duane, who refuses to step foot in a gay bar for fear of looking gay when he first starts investigating his brother’s murder with William who is ready to throw hands at Sheriff Jensey’s nephew when he makes a homophobic comment, putting his parole at risk, who ends the film driving around in William’s rental car which has the word Faggot spray painted on the back. The way he was angry at William for the stupid, elitist shit he was saying, about how everyone in Louisiana had an IQ below 80, how he refused to call this place his home anymore. Duance handled those moments so beautifully. There are so many important scenes in this film, I don’t think I can count this one as my favorite, but I do need to acknowledge how happy I was that Strange Fruit let a Black man cry on screen. Like, so much of Kelvin’s murder, and William’s attempted murder was incredibly upsetting, but I felt very deep in my soul the pain, the grief, the nausea that Duane must have been feeling looking at the memorial to his brother at his murder site. 

I know because (again to get too real) for every day for months after my hanging related trauma I had to walk past a memorial for the person who passed, and let me tell you that shit was fucking brutal. 

There is so much more that could be said about this movie, but genuinely, I cannot find the words. The production team knew what they were doing when they didn’t put a backing track on the end credits, opting for a silence that was interrupted by only the chirping of crickets. Because that is what this movie is, that is what this movie does. I am not exaggerating when I say that the only thing I could do for thirty minutes after the screen went to black, was just sit on my couch, frozen, and feel the weight of the silence around me. 

Favorite Moment 

I talked about this a bit above but my favorite moment in Strange Fruit is when Mrs. Ayers and Mrs. Boyals run in to each other in the supermarket and Mrs. Ayers gives a very passive aggressively polite talking to to Mrs. Boyals about her homophobia, trying to get her to go back on her decision to disown William after finding out he was gay. I do think it is vitally important that we get a scene where a mother of a queer son, who just lost her child because of it, is able to admit that she struggled with his sexuality, that she desperately wanted to be rid of Kelvin, that she desperately wanted to forget he even existed. The way she was spared from having a major regret in her life because she ultimately did not do that. She lost Kelvin when he was too young, she understands at a cellular level the precious nature of time, and how easily it can be squandered and she is trying to spare Mrs. Boyals from that pain. I appreciate it strikes enough of a chord with Mrs. Boyals that she attempts to visit William at the hospital, even if ultimately she is not able to make it through the doorway to his room. 

Favorite Quote

“See that’s the thing about the bayou, no matter how much you try to push it back ‘ventually it’s gonna claim what belong to it. This is where you from man. This is where home is. Don’t matter how many degrees you got, you country.”

As a Southerner who did flee North, Duane’s words are still ring true. Even when my home state wants to dispose of people like me, even when states I have called home express their hatred of people like me, there is still a part of me that feels the emptiness of being away from home. I miss the mangroves, I miss the mountains, I miss the food, I miss the people I love who love me. It feels impossible to have the type of community I had back home up where I am now, and I am trying as hard as I can to cultivate it. I just love this line so much because I think it is important to remember where you came from, especially because William just before this was insulting the intelligence of people in the South, his people, from his home. I’m really glad he apologized for that. 

Score

8.5/10

If this was a grade based on just emotional manipulation, the film would get a 10 cause...fuck. But structurally I think it's probably like a 7 or an 8 so I am gonna give it an 8.5.

#bengiyo queer cinema syllabus #bengiyo queer media syllabus #queer cinema syllabus #strange fruit #strange fruit (2004) #strange fruit the movie #unit 4: heartbreak alley