We Start With Stars In Our Eyes...

✨✡️ / מלכּה / / There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.✨✡️

[yidquotes]

Rabbi Yitschak Eisik said, The motto of life is ‘Give and Take’ Everyone must be both a giver and a receiver. He who is not is like a barren tree.

Martin Buber

[thisbibliomaniac]

"i asked chatgpt" well i asked the girls in my phone, and they answered with love and wisdom and bias

[worriedyourwingswouldmelt]

“let’s run away together” trope fucks me up bc it’s almost always doomed. but what if it’s not this time.

[angelicguy]

modern seinfeld plot where kramer gets into a polyamorous relationship with 4 other people but the one girl leaves so its just him and 3 straight guys that hang out and when jerry asks why theyre still together he says "we cant take that much hurt!"

[cryptid-sighting]

this is honestly the best modern seinfeld treatment anyone has written 

[womany]

Photos of Jewish butch lesbian icon, Hannah Gluckstein from Brighton Museum’s Gluck: Art & Identity exhibition.

[narcoticvenus]

Homesickness

1. Louise Glück

2. Franz Kafka

3. limer3nce

4. Miriam Adeney

[bunnyhauntingthedollshouse]

Oh to be a gremlin child again. Covered in grass stains and grazes, hair unbrushed with daisies in the knots, no concept of my own physicality, half way up a tree and eating an apple around my missing tooth. To be unabashedly ugly, to be unashamedly hungry, to be healthy and hearty and lean and covered in bruises and full of love and sun warmed strawberries. To feel time stretch forever, only flying when I fall into books. To love summer once more, and her insects and sweat.

[bergoozter]

y’all ever just

[onthemeander]

Part 1 >>>> Part 2

"Am I not like F---King you good enough, because I can always do better."

That line has been living rent-free in my head for days. Love to know my favorite characters are going through the same issues I have a therapist for. Blitzø babe, it's time to go back and see your therapist love.

[wollowstar]

Blitzøs entire life spent being unwanted. So he adapted, and learned how to be something needed, something to be used.

Which is why I think he firmly believes he is being used by Stolas. He simply cannot fathom a different reality, one in which he is wanted for once in his life.

[mercymornthemilf-deactivated202]

audre lorde, uses of the erotic || mary oliver, how i go to the woods || be steadwell, greens || hozier, to noise making (sing) || muna, loudspeaker || half alive, runaway || audre lorde, again

[juniper-petunia]

my immense attraction to nerdy losers is consistently a hinderance in my day to day life. oh you’re infodumping about whatever character you love a ton and are shipping your self insert with? great, now i have a crush on you, how am i supposed to talk normally to you now???

[litbowl]

From Andrea Gibson's book, You Better Be Lightning. (Button Poetry).

[counttwinkula]

hey did you know that uhh

i. the monster's body is a cultural body

ii. the monster always escapes

iii. the monster is the harbinger of category crisis

iv. the monster dwells at the gates of difference

v. the monster polices the borders of the possible

vi. fear of the monster is really a kind of desire

vii. the monster stands at the threshold… of becoming

[counttwinkula]

oh shit i didn't expect this to actually get notes lmao

these are all direct quotes from jeffrey jerome cohen's "monster culture (seven theses)" (full pdf linked) i highly encourage you to read it yourself!

that said, while i think cohen's writing is evocative, it can be a little dense, so while i'm here, here's my capsule summary (you can also hear me talk about this in the first episode of my podcast) (listen to @ghostswerepeopletoo)

i. the monster's body is a cultural body - The monster is a work of fiction to be analyzed through tools of literary and sociological theory.

ii. the monster always escapes - As long as the cultural fear from which the monster stems persists, the monster will reappear in retellings, reimaginings, and sequels.

iii. the monster is the harbinger of category crisis - Monsters defy binaries and challenge easy comprehension or categorization.

iv. the monster dwells at the gates of difference - The monster represents the Other.

v. the monster polices the borders of the possible - Tales of the monster exist to discourage unacceptable or taboo behaviors.

vi. fear of the monster is really a kind of desire - Subjects can vicariously participate in the disruption of the social order through the monster.

vii. the monster stands at the threshold… of becoming - Within the monster we find information about the self.

[counttwinkula]

i just want to say that i appreciate the love people are showing this post so much, and i also want to recognize that SO MANY of the people sharing this post are trans. i think that's so rad

cohen's theories are useful for analyzing propaganda, and we can recognize the way that transphobes monsterize transgender people in their rhetoric. monster studies has roots in the analysis of how gender deviance is punished; not only does cohen mention and dissect this in "monster culture (seven theses)", he borrows the concept of category crisis from majorie garber's book, Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety.

i've spent a decent amount of time researching the relationship between transphobia and monsterization. i implore that you read "my words to victor frankenstein above the village of chamounix: performing transgender rage" by susan stryker. here's an excerpt:

Hearken unto me, fellow creatures. I who have dwelt in a form unmatched with my desire, I whose flesh has become an assemblage of incongruous anatomical parts, I who achieve the similitude of a natural body only through an unnatural process, I offer you this warning: the Nature you bedevil me with is a lie. Do not trust it to protect you from what I represent, for it is a fabrication that cloaks the groundlessness of the privilege you seek to maintain for yourself at my expense. You are as constructed as me; the same anarchic womb has birthed us both. I call upon you to investigate your nature as I have been compelled to confront mine. I challenge you to risk abjection and flourish as well as have I. Heed my words, and you may well discover the seams and sutures in yourself.

and i would also like to turn your attention to the book Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, And the Rest of Us by kate bornstein:

So much violence is perpetrated in the name of that fear and that loathing [of gender transgressors]. […] Transphobia is one term in vogue with some transsexuals. Fear of crossing? Fear of transgressing? If this term were allowed that sort of breadth—that is including the fear and hatred of any kind of border-dwellers—then it might have some possibilities.

bornstein's book reads as an early nonbinary manifesto (one that predates terms like "gender nonbinary" and "cisgender") and so much of what they have to say connects to this topic of monsterizing trans people, i hope you consider looking for a copy

i'm thrilled (though not entirely surprised) that so many people on tumblr are interested in monster studies, even if it's just my summary of cohen. take this lens and apply it to the world around you. take note when you see the Other being turned into a monster—horror has its place, but monsterization is a dangerous rhetorical device

[ancientson]

If you want to learn more about monstrosity and monster studies, especially if you're also interested in trans aspects, I highly recommend reading the work of Jack Halberstam, particularly Skin Shows. Jack is an academic who is considered something of a pioneer in the field of monster studies. He also happens to be transmasc, and has done a lot of work on gender. Skin Shows is a fantastic study of monstrosity, what it represents, and its role in storytelling and media. He does quite a bit on transness in this book as well, e.g. the monstrosity of characters like Buffalo Bill and Norman Bates and how transfemininity is used as an indicator of monstrosity in film (as monstrosity goes beyond just things with teeth and claws).

[applecherry108]

Emotional Support Frog

[wibblyrlin]

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE One of the Greats (2025)

[angelicdewdrop]