Rules make me more defiant

you'll never find my mainblog, teehee

[juno-infernal]

my little brother & i are having a scholarly debate about mornings

[juno-infernal]

[juno-infernal]

he’s like if an enlightened sage was a 22 year old metalhead who likes to rollerblade in the house

[nickyandmikey]

when two musicians sing into the same microphone and lean in very close to each other… like omg are you guys gonna kiss now to relieve the homoerotic tension?😳

[nickyandmikey]

THIS IS NOT ABOUT ONE DIRECTION I DON’T KNOW WHO THIS “HARRY” PERSON IS GO WATCH BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND CLARENCE CLEMONS KISS ON STAGE RIGHT NOW

[irrelevantlyvalid]

op is the only valid person i’ve ever met. everyone else needs to come to the light

[chokolattejedi]

Okay, but this is really important: Bruce Springsteen occupied this really weird place in music history. His songs were all from this pessimistic, nihilistic view of an America that had let him down:

Just like the anti-Vietnam War protest songs that we associate with the 1960s, or the early nihilism that spawned punk music in the 1970s. But he didn’t *sound* like a punk anarchist; he sounded like a country rock singer. When he released Born in the U.S.A. people completely misinterpreted (or possibly ignored) the lyrics in favor of the tone of the music.

Politicians used his music to promote their ‘Murica Yes! brand, and he had to literally explain that that was not what he was about. He’s over here asking when we’re going to have jobs and heathcare, not stanning the politicians who weren’t helping the people.

It was also kind of a big deal that he had an integrated band, because even as late as the 1980s music was still kind of segregated and MTV was straight up racist. They refused to play and promote black artists and then claimed that were no black artists in the first place. Michael Jackson’s record company had to threaten a boycott of their white artists to get MTV to play his Thriller video.

Plus, the first black/white interracial kiss on TV was in 1968 (OG Star Trek). Also it took us until the 70s to get sympathetic gay characters on screen, and the 90s to get gay characters to kiss onscreen. And all of those firsts were met with outrage.

So keep that in mind when you see Bruce Springsteen not just playing with an interracial band, but engaging in an interracial, gay kiss on stage repeatedly.

Passages from American Popular Music by Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman

[executeness]

I used to think that Bruce and Clarence kissing onstage was exuberance, showmanship, and telling racist homophobes to fuck off. Like, they picked up a certain kind of audience and went “Racist homophobes? Not in our house!” And started the kissing then but then I actually looked it up and

https://www.gq.com/story/this-fucked-me-up-bruce-springsteen-singing-about-clarence-clemons

It was a story where… we remade the city. We remade the city, shaping it into the kind of place where our friendship and our love for one another wouldn’t have been such an exceptional thing. - Bruce Springsteen

It wasn’t about showmanship or rejecting bigots or anything it was just. Damn right that was one of the loves of his life and damn right he was going to kiss him onstage

It gets me a little that Bruce has had a divorce, that he’s been married twice, but he loved Clarence for the rest of Clarence’s life and will presumably love him the rest of his own

Clemons said in one interview. “Bruce and I looked at each other and didn’t say anything, we just knew. We knew we were the missing links in each other’s lives. He was what I’d been searching for.” In another version of the story, Clemons says “He looked at me, and I looked at him, and we fell in love.”

I’m having some emotions about it!

“He was elemental in my life,“ Springsteen adds, “and losing him was like losing the rain.”

Not just! I love you pure and deep and true but! I am going to love you like that in front of the whole damn world!

We have fewer narratives about taking risks and making statements for platonic love rather than romantic and supposedly it would be easier to downplay this onstage than romance and! They refused! They fucking refused! In front of hundreds of thousands of people, over the course of years! In the spotlight, in word and deed, I love you!

God I’m not okay about it

[ramshacklefey]

Now I’m mad that this is not among any of the things I was ever told about this artist.

[jbbartram-illu]

I knew about this in general (& via all those fabulous photos), but this just adds even more beautiful context <3

[eregyrn-falls]

Just to add to the pile: this was the cover of Springsteen’s break-through album Born to Run, in 1975:

I mean, will you LOOK at this:

This was the pic chosen for the album cover from an extensive photoshoot, too. A few others:

There’s a lot more online if you search. They’re all pretty amazing. But the photographer is right, the one chosen for the album cover just pops.

[dollgirllandsknecht]

Hey tumblr why is this post marked mature?

[constellation-of-disasters]

Okay but as someone who grew up listening to Springsteen constantly, how did I not know this?? I knew he was anti-Vietnam and had a very critical view of the US (obvi) but his relationship with Clarence Thomas adds a whole other layer — this is so cool!!

[waggoboyo]

Everyone so mean to me *drags my fat fucking tail thru the doorframe breaking it*

[a-silly-poll-side-blog-yay]

you have to spend a day with the main character of the book you're currently reading/of the book you finished lately, are you doomed?

yes

no

*panic screech*

hell yeahhhh

results

Voting ended onMay 2, 2025

[thetursithan]

Even anteaters have fun...

[thesaltofcarthage]

okay, it took me a lot longer than it should have to realize that the light-colored things are the anteater's arms/front legs and not a raccoon which had somehow remoraed onto the anteater

[caressthosecheekbones]

tickle fun with mommy

[bingusfinger]

I was bored in class

[hierophagy]

i ended up liking how gendered french is solely because i can say that i want people to use he/him pronouns for me the same way they use it for angels, blood and blunts

[hierophagy]

i asked a trans friend to give me her fem version of this and she said that people should use she/her with her the same way they use it for the sea, flesh and stuffed toys

[samwisegamgeeee]

I don’t speak French but I speak Spanish and I’m nonbinary so the whole gendered language thing is… difficult. I couldn’t get this post out of my head and so I wrote a poem. It's a first draft but i just had to get it out there

It’s called “Masculino como el amor, femenino como la espada”

Si tienes que usar el masculino conmigo, usa el masculino cómo lo usas para el azúcar para el lobo el amor y el mar. Pero si tienes que usar el femenino, úsalo cómo lo usas para la tierra para la anaconda la guerra y la mar. Llámame masculino cómo el día cómo el melocotón el pecho y la cometa. O, llámame femenino cómo la noche cómo la piedra la leche y la mano. Masculino cómo el viento, femenino cómo la tormenta. El hueso, la sangre. El mito, la magia. El sol, la luna. Si tienes que usar el masculino conmigo, o si tienes que usar el femenino, llámame femenino con la boca y la lengua o llámame masculino con los dientes y los pulmones. O si puedes llámame por mi nombre. Llámame yo.

Translation: Masculine like love, feminine like the sword

If you have to use the masculine for me, use the masculine like you use it for sugar for the wolf love and the sea. But if you have to use the feminine, use it like you use it for earth for the anaconda war and the sea. Call me masculine like the day like the peach the chest and the comet. Or, call me feminine like the night like the stone the milk and the hand. Masculine like the wind, feminine like the storm. The bone, the blood. The myth, the magic. The sun, the moon. If you have to use the masculine for me, or if you have to use the feminine, call me feminine with your mouth and your tongue or call me masculine with your teeth and your lungs. Or if you can call me by my name. Call me myself.

[hierophagy]

no one speak to me this poem cut me open

[samwisegamgeeee]

alsdkfjalsdkj thaaaaanks! I made a few typos but i'm fairly proud of it hehe

[joyandotherstories]

I’m not Spanish speaking but oh gosh I would love to print this and hang it up somewhere

[ineffablebookgirl]

Oh my god

[jelliebeanbitch]

@tiredlinguist

[demonprincex]

you don't "hate kids," you hate being forced into a caretaking role.

you don't "hate kids," you hate censorship passed off as family values.

you don't "hate kids," you hate the constrictiveness of the nuclear family.

you don't "hate kids," you're just not used to occupying fully age diverse spaces so you're not used to the noise or the many different kinds of needs.

you don't "hate kids," most public spaces just aren't built for kids, and so the few kids you see are always uncomfortable and distressed.

you don't "hate kids," you hate the intense social rules assigned to kids and anyone who interacts with kids.

You don't "hate kids," you hate how society reproduces its most restrictive elements and how kids are powerless to resist it.

[the-haiku-bot]

you don’t “hate kids,” you

hate being forced into a

caretaking role.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[deergirlsrituals]

youtube

[fatpunk]

you think fat trans men are hot. reblog

[997]

🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨

Sign the Petition

Defend the Internet Archive

[997]

[celestialrunes]

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT YOUR DONATIONS ON CHANGE.ORG DO NOT GO TO THE SUBJECT OF THE CAMPAIGN

That means that when you donate, it goes to change.org. Now, this isn't useless — it does mean that the petition gets boosted. However, you're pretty much doing the same thing by reblogging. I am concerned about people donating something like $40 dollars since I'm not sure if they realize it doesn't contribute to the legal fund or not.

If you want to donate to the internet archive's legal fund (and help with operation costs), then you can click here to go their donation page

[callmearcturus]

I saw this without that last bit before. READ THAT LAST BIT.

[official-library-posts]

official library post

[parkchanwoohoo]

i find it v cute when rpgs offer me, someone whose sole strategy is “attacking enemies,” status changing effects. “this lowers your enemy’s speed” you know what else would lower their speed? being dead, from my fists

[doggirlpaws]

[johannestevans]

horniest battle moments:

- taking your ally's weapon out of their scabard to use yourself

- using someone else's shoulder as a rifle stand

- nudging someone's chin up with the tip of your weapon

- freezing with your blades against one another's throats, breathing into each other's mouths

[hokudraco45]

teehee

bye now!

weeeee *i say as i ascend into the stratosphere*

[queenotrera]

History wants so badly for Cleopatra to be beautiful. Like they can’t conceive of Rome being intimidated by anything less

[terpsikeraunos]

because being a linguist, fleet commander, and powerful ruler doesn’t matter, only her looks

[captain-palestine]

Reblogging the version without any terfs on it

[steeple333]

here’s the picture of her face so theres no reason to reblog the terf version, esp since it talks about her lack of beauty being tied to her curly hair and hooked nose, yikes

[alkimara]

You say “history wants to bad for Cleopatra to be beautiful” as if she isn’t already beautiful

[chonaku-things]

But she is beautiful was my first reaction. 

[jheselbraum]

A more accurate complaint would be “modern amateur historians want so badly for Cleopatra to be conventionally beautiful by western European standards, and they want this to be the only thing about her that is remembered, and not her sharp wit and general academic prowess”

[necromatador]

^^^

[cottoncandyrhythmqueen]

[50-shades-of-cloaca]

[cottoncandyrhythmqueen]

You come to my post and try to out-perform me.

[sparrow-va]

WHY DOES POOB HAVE ME BLOCKED LMAO

[sparrow-va]

poob DOESN'T have it for me. they've had ENOUGH of me