Illusion, remember? People see what they want to see...
@illusionremember
Tayber (ze/zem/zir, she/her, he/him) 35+ Queer AF
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I talk about stories a lot. Doing what I can to help.
Censorship is Bad. Write Whatever You Want Forever.
multimedia, multifandom, multi-interpretations, and multishipping
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See pinned post for details on general content, main tags & fandoms, and other online haunts.
Hi, I'm Tayber! Writer, editor, and fandom old-ish. I value kindness, effort, nuance, good faith takes, and taking opportunities for growth.
I spend a lot of time examining writing, queerness, storytelling, censorship, purity culture, the closet, community-building, and fandom. I'm deeply interested in the way that these things intersect, and the role that censorship and morality policing play in oppression.
You can expect to see me reveling in a wide range of film, art, books, video games, poetry, meta, fanfiction, and fanart. I love all forms of storytelling & expression, across all mediums and genres. I don't just read things — I like to read into them.
Tay Speaks | Tayber's Writing | Tayber's Fanfiction | WIP List
My own posts, my fanfic & writing projects, and posts that I made direct additions to. I also make annotations in the tags a lot.
Favorites & Tag Navigation below the cut!
💕It's About the Love — Exploring the way creative passions let us explore human connection & community
✍️On Writing & Write Whatever You Want Forever — Talking shop about stories, writing, editing, and freedom of expression. Also my collection on Diversity & Sensitivity for Writers.
🌈Queer Topics — Queer Solidarity & Inclusivity are vital. Thinking a lot lately about the closet as both shelter & prison.
🚫On Censorship & Purity Culture Bullshit — Discussing, understanding, and resisting censorship, deconstructing purity culture, and examining the roles each plays in oppression.
🤝there's some good in this world and it's worth fighting for — On activism & societal problems. I know this is a difficult subject sometimes; I do occasionally post about current world events and US Politics, if you prefer to block that tag. I do not reblog individuals' requests for financial donations.
🧿Feel Good Today — Emotional palate cleanser tag. This is mostly for me, but go here if you could do with some gentleness or reassurance. <3
📖🎨🎬Favorite Art, Stories, & Fandoms🎮✍️🎶
Favorite Genres:
fantasy, gothic, romance, horror, adventure, and classics. Elements of mystery & historical fiction. I love heavy metaphor & symbolism, and dramatic, thematic aesthetics.
Favorite Subjects & Themes:
redemption arcs, complicated morality, flawed characters trying to do the right thing, queerness, hauntings, magic, love, community, hope, sex, whump, hurt/comfort, rescues, aftermath & recovery, transformation, architecture & settings, ruins of bygone eras, and exploration of the unknown.
Fandom & Favorites Tags:
Favorite Films | Favorite Games | Favorite Books | Favorite Shows
Supernatural & Destiel, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Lord of the Rings, Fright Night (2011), Sky: Children of the Light, ER, LOST, Ted Lasso, The Magicians, Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom, Final Fantasy IX, Fullmetal Alchemist, Sense8, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Sherlock Holmes
Art, Poetry, Music, Horror Love, Fantasy Love, Archaeology Adventure, Gothic Love, Ghost Stories, Witchy Stories, The Art of Protest, Queer Stories, Queer Art, Queer Poetry, Stories About the Closet, Queercoding,
Appreciation post for the acting/casting of Sydney Imbeau as Claire Novak in The Rapture. You can really see that she’s Jimmy’s daughter, and not because Sydney looks like Misha Collins because she doesn’t really — she only looks like Misha playing Jimmy. It’s her mannerisms and expressions that make her look like him; like someone who’s been looking to him their whole life to learn how to express themself. She doesn’t look like Castiel at all, until he takes her as a vessel—
—And then her face looks exactly like her father’s does when Castiel is possessing him.
For the fourth year in a row now, it's time for Small Fandom Summer! Join me for Small Fandom Summer! It's real easy to play:
Make a fanwork for something that has fewer than 1000 English-language works on AO3
Post it to AO3
And then you've done it! You've made a thing and you've diversified the fandom ecosystem! You're basically a hero.
Q: The fandom I want to create for has more than 1000 English-language works on AO3, but the specific pairing I want to write for has fewer than that. Does that count?
A: Yes!
Q: What if it has more than 1000 English-language works on AO3, but, like, just barely?
A: Okay!
Q: What if it actually has a lot more than 1000 English-language works on AO3, but it still feels small?
A: Sure!
Q: What if I don't want to post it to AO3? What if I don't even have an AO3 account? Can I post it somewhere else?
A: Wherever!
Q: What if--
A: Just do a thing, friend. Make a thing. Share the thing. This is not meant to be restrictive; this is meant to be inspirational. Create the fanworks you want to see in the world. Make a stranger happy by appealing to their niche interests. Bring joy.
And if you want to give yourself some silly little Steam-like achievement badges to commemorate your accomplishments, well, you're in luck! I've made a bunch of them right here! You can grab the ones that apply to your work and paste them wherever you like and feel good about what you've done. Here's a few of my favorites:
So you see? This is meant to be silly and fun.
There's nowhere to sign up. There's nothing to commit to. There's zero pressure. You just do it if you do it, and don't if you don't. But if you do want to play (yay!), tag your stuff with #small fandom summer so we can all swoop in and appreciate everyone else's efforts.
I think Bernadette was the first trans person I ever saw in media. I first watched Priscilla, Queen of the Desert when I was about 5 & it immediately became one of my favourite films. My love for it has evolved over time ofc, but it's been a favourite for over 30 years now.
By today's standards having a cis-man playing a trans-woman may be considered inappropriate, but for the time I'm still impressed with how sensitively she's portrayed.
Terence Stamp made Bernadette a real person, she's strong, feminine, beautiful, bitchy, kind, stern, complex, & compassionate. She's fully realised & authentic, so much so that I didn't even realise she was played by a man until I was well into my teens (probably too late tbh 🙈). The way she reacts to Adam dead naming her stuck with me forever, it imprinted that it was wrong to do that before I even knew a word for it.
I'm sure there's other roles Terence Stamp will be remembered for but Bernadette was always a stand out for me. Thank you, Terence Stamp, for Bernadette, and RIP
Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”
So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”
Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.
Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.
my problem really deeply is how shallow a tolerance younger people have for old queer media. like yes, it's dated and some of the politics don't hold water anymore, but to ignore older media simply based on that is to loose EVERYTHING we have bc we don't have a lot. just because queer themes caught up more recently doesn't mean we should rehash everything to fit into a more "presentable" format that is only considered modern bc of the puritanical blacklash of the last several years and sanitization of queer themes.
