the thing from the thing

teddy // 22 // he/him // horror enjoyer // 18+ i follow from @room56pod

[harrow-marrow-soup]

would you still love me if i was the thing from john carpenter's the thing (1982)

[fascinationstreetmp3]

of course you could

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

*sighs* we sent four astronauts up and four came back huh

[annaisuagain]

Were you expecting more?

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

five was the bare minimum for me

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

oh well. there's still the moon ghosts

[pnglove]

[soldier-of-death]

im only attracted to worthy opponents

[dykepuffs]

It is bizarre to me how much the UK has just totally memory-holed how poor the whole country was in the 80s and 90s, but seeing the popular imagination of "How things were in the 80s and 90s" look more like the comparatively prosperous big-city-not-an-industrial-economy American 80s and 90s, rather than anything that I actually remember is weird.

Obviously, this will be partly tainted* by my growing up poor in a proverbially benighted area (South Tyneside, the northernmost edge of County Durham, battered on one side by the closure of the pits and from the other by the closure of the shipyards) but at the same time... The same horrors that were gutting communities in the North East were also destroying Nottinghamshire, the South Yorkshire coalfield, the Valleys, Glasgow, London's Docklands, and in Belfast as well as the poverty and dissolution of heavy industries there was also the Troubles.

I grew up around here: Chris Killip photographed his punks at The Station in Gateshead (first 2 pictures), and at Skinningrove (next 3), where they tucked their fashionable jeans into tough gumboots to work on the fishing boats. Tish Murtha's endless clans of youth inhabited the back alleys of Elswick (last 5 photos), that were visually indistinguishable from the ones I lived in half a dozen miles south. I went to the same DHSS as the one she documented in Youth Unemployment, for a while. A lot of these pictures could be pictures from my own life, in the bits that I desperately tried to not document at the time because it wasn't Cool or Dramatic, it was just grubby and sad.

And I wonder what it means, that this version of the past is wiped away into a vague blur of neon and big hair and high contrast matte makeup.

[hetchdrive]

This is a slight divergence but I've been watching a lot of 80s movies with a friend recently and we've been talking about how weird it is that all this 80s nostalgia in film totally fails to capture the texture and atmosphere that was being captured by movies made in the 80s and one of the things we keep pointing to is poverty. It feels like a lot of movies made in the 80s (not all of them, obviously, but some), just in capturing the background world, captured a broad slice of socioeconomic background. But movies made now set in the 80s are curating for only aspects of the 80s that are shiny and pretty and clean and it makes the world feel sort of empty. And it does feel kind of sinister and revisionist to treat the past as better and specifically wealthier than it was but it's also weird to me because it's so easy to see how it's untrue just by looking at art about the time period vs art from the time period.

[dykepuffs]

YES exactly! Like, looking at pictures of me and my family, it's not just the standard line of "They're the unfashionable masses, not trying to keep up with trends and buying from catalogues, so they don't have the silhouettes and colours of the fashion plates." because most of them in various ways are 'doing' fashionable - Especially the young people.

But like... The new leather jacket from the department store was worn with a jumper that your Nana knitted, the same pair of jeans turn up in ten years' worth of photos, being pegged-in then dyed black and embellished as time goes on. The one that always surprises me is that wool trousers are really common, jeans aren't yet the totally-universal "basic casual trousers" that they would be by the late-90s, so men especially often built their fashionable outfits around the sensible, unremarkable, flannel trousers that hadn't much changed since the 1920s.

I love this photo taken by a journalist of the Handyside Arcade in 1983, then comparing it to the ones of the Green 20 years later - The same subculture, so to speak (peaceful goth-adjacent counterculture kids in Newcastle, England)

Retro-nostalgia-core tells us that all of the kids in the first picture would have huge teased hair, and all the ones in the second picture would have New Rock boots... But in reality, in both pictures, almost everyone involved, however dedicated to their counterculture they were, was first of all poor. So in the second picture, they're wearing white trainers because their school probably insists on white trainers for PE, and they can't afford a second set of comfortable shoes.

And the answer is just... We were poor, we were really fucking skint and clothing was still expensive compared to today. And forgetting that ends up leaving a dangerous hole in the understanding of what things looked like and felt like. The Metro Centre was built in the middle-1980s, which was the archetypal Shiny Shiny 1980s Shopping Centre:

And it still wasn't the neon fever-dream that The Mall In 80s Nostalgia is!

Likewise Eldon Square, which was built near the Handyside Arcade in the mid-1970s, and set in motion the plans that led to the Handyside Arcade I mentioned above being demolished, and the local goths moving to the Green:

Again... The landscape looks like a spaceship (I miss that flying saucer! It was a department store cafe!) but even in a photo trying to capture the prosperity of Newcastle, the people don't look like 80s Nostalgia People. The colour photos were taken around the same time as the ones in Elswick in the first post, and are only about a mile apart.

It's... something. Disturbing, maybe.

[drtanner]

Hello! 👋 I grew up in the West Midlands and we were poor as fuck in the 80s and 90s, too!

It's true that TV and film of the time more accurately portrayed those days than anything made more recently; my very favourite example of this will always be Button Moon, a children's TV series made mostly out of literal rubbish because it had a budget of about £20 to spend over the course of its entire 8-year run.

Button Moon was notable for the efforts made to portray its world in an honest, sincere way that would be familiar to the children watching it. Lots of things happen in Button Moon that don't typically happen on kids' TV, like children being looked after by a neighbour (their very obviously black neighbour with dark "skin" and curly black hair!) while their parents are at work, and the Spoon family giving a friend a lift to her job because she doesn't have a car.

Egbert's family lived in a block of flats rather than a house, and his father was out of work for much of the series, but this was never portrayed as a bad thing: "Daddy Egbert is out of work. It gives him lots of time to help others."

These were realistic things that the show's creators made a point of putting on screen because they knew that the children watching at the time would be able to see themselves in it, and they wanted to show that it was normal and nothing to be ashamed of.

I fucking love Button Moon. It'd never get made today.

[dykepuffs]

OH MY GOD YES me and my cousins used to watch this! And when I was a bit older I remember really appreciating that it looked like where I lived (other than that we weren't made of paper cups and corks and stuff!)

And it wasn't Gritty and Grimy about it, it was just... Nice. When a lot of stuff being made for adults either really focused on how downtrodden everything was (Brassed Off, Full Monty etc) or was just unreal.

[datadegroove-deactivated2026042]

why do creepy child ghosts always laugh in abandoned buildings. theres nothing even funny in there

[sottopressione1]

Dutch resistance members celebrate at the moment they heard of Adolf Hitler’s death over the radio, May 1945

[cwnerd12]

this will one day be us

[maid-photographer]

The more I get back into doing creative stuff the more I understand that one Fujimoto quote

[malpensante]

[letatlin]

for anyone wondering about the second quote:

[analogdelight]

Every one of you that isn't a trans woman, listen for just a sec.

Have you seen The Matrix? Do you remember the film? Keanu Reeves, leather trenchcoats, bullet time, all that jazz? If you haven't or if you need a refresher, go watch it. It's 2hr16min long, I'll wait. I'll be here when you get back.

[analogdelight]

Done? Great flick, right? Enjoy your popcorn? Cool. Alright. Now hear me out.

Y'know how the Agents could turn over anyone who isn't Unplugged™️? How every faceless person in the movie could become someone intent on hunting down and killing trans women Neo and the rest of the unplugged humans? You are that person. Society will use you and your blind spots to harm trans women.

Y'know how towards the end of the movie, Cypher betrayed everyone so he could plug back in and enjoy the relative comfort of a life without knowing about the Matrix? You can do that. You always have that option. Society will always reward you for turning on trans women.

You can also just be an Agent, full stop. You can make it your life's work to ruin the lives of trans women, and Society will reward you for it.

[analogdelight]

I can't be any of these things. I can't plug back in. I can't go back in the closet. I can't unsee the way me and my sisters are treated. My only two options are live and fight, or die.

I feel like I have to treat everyone around me like one of the three things you can be. I cannot and will not feel safe around you until you prove to me that you are Unplugged™️. And to be unplugged is to fight.

You have to make your own life more uncomfortable by actively fighting transmisogyny even when there are no trans women around you. If you can't do that, you are not safe for me.

Living outisde of The Matrix is hard. It's uncomfortable. You need to be ready, willing, and able to deal with that discomfort. Otherwise, you're just an agent of the system waiting to happen.

There is no way to be passive and to be safe for trans women. You have to be a traitor to the system.

[silliestbutch]

Transfem Butch Books:

The Scales of Seduction by Rien Gray [historical fiction, retelling, erotica]: An erotic lesbian monster novella reinterpreting the Medusa myth. Romance between Medusa and a basilisk warrior. Transfem butch protagonist.

Reverse Tomboy by Auto Anon [literary fiction, autofiction, essays]: A novella about a trans woman who struggles with relationships, familial dynamics, and reclaiming her masculinity after transitioning. Comes with an essay on transfeminine butchness and masculinities. Transfem Jewish butch protagonist and author.

Hot Girls with Balls by Benedict Nguyen [litfic, satire]: A contemporary satire novel about two trans lesbian volleyball players, who have to grapple with the anxieties of stardom as well as their their own off-court relationship drama. Transfem Asian-American protagonist. Transfem author.

Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plante [litfic]: A trans lesbian mourns her straight trans friend, and comes to terms with her death by writing a personalized encyclopedia/love letter about the latter's favorite obscure TV show. Transfem soft butch protagonist. Transfem author.

Herculine by Grace Byron [litfic, horror]: A disaffected and traumatized young woman arrives at an all-trans girls commune founded by her toxic ex-girlfriend, only to discover something sinister afoot. Transfem butch love interest and side characters. Transfem author.

Our Monsters by Jemma Topaz (mystery, erotica, satire): In a futuristic city inhabited by monsters, a human woman tries to solve a series of grisly murders, while romancing several monster girls. Transfem butch love interest (poly romance, not the only love interest). Transfem author.

Always open to recs. Transfem butches are loved and appreciated, and I don't tolerate invisibilization of transfeminine people when speaking of butchness and lesbian masculinity.

toss a coin to a silly butch 🐻

[silliestbutch]

Fat Butch Romance Recs:

Nightingale by Frances M. Thompson [historical fiction, romance]: In 1990s London, a nurse develops feelings for a patient's friend/caregiver during the AIDS crisis. Butch-femme romance. Fat, Jewish butch lesbian protagonist.

My Best Friend's Honeymoon by Meryl Wilsner [erotica, romance]: A spicy f/nb romance, where a young woman dumps her boyfriend days before their wedding, but chooses to go on her non-refundable honeymoon anyway–with her lifelong best friend instead. Butch-femme romance. Fat, non-binary butch lesbian protagonist.

A Little Kissing Between Friends by Chencia C. Higgins [romance]: Two best friends–a popular music producer and a strip club dancer–try in vain to deal with their complicated feelings for each other, without somehow ruining their existing bond. Black sapphic romance. Fat stud lesbian protagonist.

As The Sun Comes Up by Olive J. Kelley [slice of life, romance]: An agoraphobic young woman's life is thrown into turmoil when her crush–a gorgeous bed-and-breakfast owner–shows up to crash on her couch for a few days. Cozy, butch-femme lesbian romance with disability rep. Fat, Jewish butch lesbian love interest.

Higher by Roz Alexander [holiday romance]: An uptight, high-strung woman ends up in an awkward situation, when she realises she accidentally had a one-night stand with the artist commissioned by her temple for the Rosh Hashanah celebrations. Butch4butch holiday romance. Fat, Jewish butch lesbian lead with chronic migraines.

Mixing Up Mayhem by Heather Nix [paranormal, monster romance]: A pastry chef dealing with the aftermath of a terrible breakup has her life turned upside down, when a bizarre mishap unwittingly summons a hellish demon princess to her kitchen. Silly, steamy monster romance. Fat butch lesbian protagonist. (Sort of misleading cover; protagonist is explicitly described as fat)

Wrong Number, Right Woman by Jae [romance]: A random, out-of-the-blue text message about dating advice sets off an unexpected relationship between two women. Low angst romance. Fat butch lesbian protagonist.

Season of Love by Helena Greer [holiday romance]: A Jewish Christmas romance, about an artist who must put aside her rivalry with the worker at her family's tree farm, so that they can save the business together. Hallmark-y butch-femme holiday romance, mixed with heavier themes of trauma and healing (look up tws). Fat butch lesbian protagonist.

Eight Kinky Nights by Xan West [erotica, holiday romance]: An erotic, festive romance revolving around a newly divorced woman who moves in with her friend, and grows closer to her over–you guessed it–eight nights of kink lessons. Poly butch-femme romance, with middle-aged leads, disability and Jewish representation. Fat, Jewish, pansexual, stone butch lesbian protagonist, with chronic pain.

[femme-4-butches]

Femme Rooms.

Ulla's Room, 1998. Asia's Room, 1996. Miss Deena, 1999.

All photographs © Chloe Sherman.

[femmewulf]

HERE IT IS: BEWARE THE BITE OF THE WERE-LESBIAN, a zine about lesbian werewolf sex/sexuality! It was a final for a queer studies course this semester but i really like the final product :)

edit: added image descriptions!

other edit: I've put PDFs including a printable layout up on my ko-fi for free! link here

[queer-as-city-folk]

David Lynch made movies exclusively for himself and incredibly fucked up trans people and I really respect that vision honestly

[forbittenromance]

together we can make this haunted house a haunted home

[dogpuppy]

[kiskajaw]