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2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
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I'd rather be in outer space šø
Not today Justin
will byers stan first human second
Kiana Khansmith
if i look back, i am lost
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@captainpettie
when you see a tumblr poll with this picture attached and you know it's time to lock the fuck in lest you get a bad grade in an impromptu absurdist pop quiz you didn't know you were about to take
best multiple of nine
9
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This interview with Ncuti Gatwa crossed my dash again, and I was reminded of how much I like it. Because it makes the rare Third Argument for representation in fiction, the argument I think is the best, and I'm always happy to see it. I quote:
At times, Gatwaās casting in those projects has been dismissed as an exercise in ābox-tickingā. Gatwa scoffs. āFirst of all, you donāt know anything about me. Secondly, tick fcking boxes! People need to be fcking seen. What are you going to do, tell the same stories? Have the same people fronting things for all of eternity? Representation and inclusivity and branching outā¦ it enriches us all. How embarrassing. You people with your tiny mindsets ā open a book, look out the window and then f*ck off.ā (source)
What do I mean by the Third Argument? Well, I'm not sure I've ever made a post about this directly, but as far as I can see it, there are three main arguments for greater diversity in popular media. The first two are the most common, and they go like this:
It is good for media to be diverse because it is good for people to see people like them on screen. That is, the beneficiaries are marginalized people.
It is good for media to be diverse because it is good for people to see and learn about people who are not like them through art. That is, the beneficiaries are non-marginalized people, who then (hopefully) pass on the benefit by treating marginalized people better.
These two arguments are the source of a lot of debate here on ye olde tumblr. Despite both being arguments for representation, they pull in different directions. What counts as 'good' representation for the purposes of Argument 1 often would not be good for the purposes of Argument 2, and vice versa. Authentic versus sympathetic. Ugly or over-sanitized. You see this debate play out constantly. It's really hard for a piece of - say - queer media to do both at once.
But these debates tend to leave out Argument 3, the one that Gatwa is making above. And that argument cuts through a lot of this debate.
3. It is good for media to be diverse because art needs variety. The beneficiary of representation is art itself, absent any social effects that may or may not be present.
For this argument, diverse stories are intrinsically good. It is good to make art that's not just the same thing you've seen a hundred times before. Putting the kinds of people who don't often make it into mainstream media into your art is an extremely efficient way to make that happen. It's not the only method, but it's a really good method.
For representation to be 'good representation' according to Argument 3, all it needs to be is interesting. A story you haven't heard before, at least not in that medium. That which counts as 'bad representation' by the lights of this argument are stock characters, like the Eternally Patient Mother, the Gay Best Friend, the Wise Black Advisor. Perhaps there was a time in which these characters were new, but that time has long passed. There's no art in pulling a bog-standard character trope off the shelf. Show us a new kind of guy. The world is infinitely diverse. You're not going to run out. Telling the same stories with the same voices for all eternity, as Gatwa says, is boring. Even if there was nothing else wrong with it, this would be. Art isn't supposed to be boring.
And that's why Argument 3 is my favourite. I do want the world to be a better place, of course, and I think art is a part of that. But the main job of art is to be good as art. And diversity in all aspects of the production of art makes art better.
Fuck Meyer-Briggs whatever typology. This INTFP shit is only for redditors up their own asses to substitute for a personality. Use my new typology instead!
Your ideal environment is:
Hot/Cold
Wet/Dry
Bright/Dark
Loud/Quiet
HWBL - beach boy
HWBQ - tropical fish
HWDL - dingy club bathroom hookup
HWDQ - the swamp woman
HDBL - CoachellaBurningmanSouthbysouthwestACL attendee
HDBQ - Lizard
HDDL - Vegas babeyyyy
HDDQ - Trapped in a slot canyon
CWBL - Rowdy Lobsterman Crew
CWBQ - penguin living
CWDL - port angeles basement show
CWDQ - bruminating amphibian/hypothermic mammal
CDBL - ski resort
CDBQ - Christmas in Nebraska
CDDL - mcmurdo station rave
CDDQ - corpse
Beth McCarthy gives trans fan new name
Queer joy detected!
been stewing on an analytical approach to fiction which I call "is this book afraid of me?" and in order to answer this question you determine how hard the book is trying to make sure you don't come after the writer on twitter
Tags via @deadpanwalking, editor and ass-kicker extraordinaire
Please keep making art. Please make it for yourself. Please donāt let everything become even more of the same flat general appeal nonsense that doesnāt seem to have anything to say
reallllly feel like some of you have to start understanding people are sometimes going to make mistakes and not understand something and not know things and it's going to slot them in a perfect place for you to scoff and call them problematic and evil and they're not even going to know why.
not everyone is chronically online, or online at all. don't act like everyone who's ever enjoyed harry potter is a cartoon villain, when most of them barely know who jkr is and definitely don't know what she's done, or know what the actual symptoms of schizophrenia are, or understand what a neopronoun is. like, yeah, okay, you can get frustrated when people don't listen or when they willfully ignore you, but don't pretend everyone on earth is supposed to know already. my life advice.
my friend is a cishet white guy who's entire knowledge of schizophrenia was "yeah that's the thing people have in horror movies that make them kill people." he didn't even know hallucinations were involved. after meeting me, he googled it. like, while we were hanging out, he pulled out his phone, took two minutes to read up on it, and went "oh, so it's like autism, but scarier for you." i told him about neopronouns, and therians, and objectum, and a bunch of other chronically online bullshit, and he nodded along. later he messaged me with a couple questions, which i explained, and he thought it was all very cool. he has a snapchat and an instagram, both of which are exclusively for hunting and fishing friends, he didn't even know why the r slur wasn't okay to say. im not saying you have to educate everyone you meet on the street, but for the love of god, you need to recognize when someone's actually trying to hurt you and when someone is just not really sure what's going on.
this might piss some people off but I donāt think some of you actually ever tried to unlearn your hatefulness. you just came out as queer and decided your new targets really truly deserve it this time.
Instagram article from Fifty Shades of Gay
write insane shit thatās way beyond your perceived ability and skill level even if you donāt finish it even if you think it sucks
evil great lakes
lake inferior
lake normal
lake offtario
lake hurton
lake michigan
i went at not writing island and saw all of you there
Me on not writing island, looking at you on not writing island knowing weāll both be here tomorrow.
On to the next adventure!
I know it goes against everything we've ever been taught, but we do need to put in the work to realize that being ugly is...completely fine. like entirely neutral. so is being conventionally attractive. neutral. not just for other people, but for ourselves. you need to be able to look at yourself and see what you perceive to be physical flaws and go "this is okay, this is the least important part of who I am." It's so beyond okay and normal and fine to be ugly. And I know! Easier said than done. But I do genuinely believe that freedom from looking into the mirror and hating yourself is a worthy goal. Freedom from judging a person immediately based off of their appearance is a worthy goal. Freedom from buying the thousands of products they try and tell you will make you perfect, as if that should be the aim and goal, is a worthy goal.
(smoking a cigarette) the average american is afraid of what is new and what is foreign, and especially of what is adult. they are trapped forever in daycares of their own design, reading books and watching shows made for children. And while there are interesting things made for children, by and large, they tend to stick to inoffensive, intensely juvenile things that won't challenge them much. And worst of all, if you suggest to your Average American that they should try to step outside of their narrow box, especially if they're trying to become artists, animators, film makers, novelists, etc, everyone acts as if you've just bombed the daycare. Wow.
THE BOYS 5.05Ā One-Shots
