A BLOG

Come one, come all and view a spectacular array of trivial pursuits and innocuous ramblings! Feel free to waste some time here, heaven knows I have.

[triple-pupil]

I reblogged a post discussing what seems to be an old comment by Frank Miller on Batjokes

Source of this in the original post.

And since I don't see discussion on this expression, I want to share my piece as said in the reblog and see what everyone has to say about it and the original comment:

Wait, What do people genuinely think of this comment? I genuinely ask because I personally like it a lot.

The Joker can be seen as a caricature of the homophobe's view on queer people and Batman as a very very closeted side. Like Joker is the embodiment of what Batman fears he might become if he stops repressing himself, which is an obvious lie, just a delusion.

The phrase of Batjokes being a "homophobic nightmare" has not left my mind ever since I encountered it and I need to know what everyone else thinks of it.

Shoutout @yaybatman for giving me the idea to make a tagged post.

[yaybatman]

@just-kidding-kid

I'm curious how Matt Fraction's run fits into this interpretation.

Joker is being separated from the demonic stereotype of homosexuality while still wanting a pursuing a relationship with Batman, and Batman mutually wanting a relationship back. Their struggle now is simply hiding it. Zeller can't know they're working together or about Batman's secret visits, and Batman would never discuss the more personal parts of their talks genuinely with his family(implied; they wouldn't accept a close not-enemies relationship of Batman and Joker easily after everything he's done. We aren't even sure any of them know he's gone to see Joker at all).

With this they're sort of moving past the homophobic undertones already. The other part now might be interpreting Joker's rehabilitation in this context. Joker's not lost his homosexuality at all, he still loves Batman, but he's being healed of the eccentric part of his persona, it may be best to interpret it literally as him stopping being a murder and nothing else. (there's probably more to say on this)

On another note, I'd like to point out how Bruce is dating Zeller. Explicitly, it's shown he decided to get to know her to learn about the crown of storms and figure out her motives. It was framed as Bruce having been suspicious that she would be a new villain in Gotham or that she is abusing her patients. Then Joker encourages him to continue going out with Zeller and he listens. Joker wanting him to get to know Zeller is presumably to continue knowing what's going on in his life (as he talks with Zeller about in Issue 6, trying to get her information on Bruce), and I wonder if our world's greatest detective realized that. Tying this to Miller, I'd say he admires her dedication to helping her patients, but it may not ever be much more than keeping track of what she's up to.

With this Miller interpretation, it seems to be that Bruce, although still putting up a heterosexual persona to the world and his family, is now able to pursue a healthy relationship with Joker. One that's explained would better his life. The same way his romance with Catwoman has been written as a positive, now it's shown he can also improve and be happy with a man. Though there's only so far Fraction's allowed to go in writing their relationship, he's still breaking free from the homophobia.

[just-kidding-kid]

@yaybatman

I admit, I am not fully caught up with Fraction's run. I am not suprised that Zeller is under suspicion. Personally, the idea of a device that physically alters brain patterns at her whim screams "I AM EXPLOITING MY PATIENTS". After all, how can a patient offer ongoing meaningful consent if their perceptions and thoughts can be altered?

MOVING ON...

I am curious about Fraction's run though because it moves their relationship into a different place, most importantly, one without violence, or even conflict! How do they (especially Batman) rationalise their relationship when the usual rituals which enable their interaction are removed? Batman can't hide behind JUSTICE to explain why he feels moved to see the Joker.

Perhaps that's why he's entered this relationship with Zeller. By making her a suspect and involving himself with her, he gets himself closer to the Joker and once again has him within his locus of control. And how defendible is his position? If she's innocent, "well, I'm just a normal guy pursing a nice, Straight, morally acceptable relationship! Nothing suspect here!" and if she's guilty, "I always knew it. It was for justice!". Both options leave a back door for him to claim it has nothing to do with the Joker at all. The closet strikes again!

But, again, I haven't caught up entirely. From what I've seen though, Fraction is a writer who recognises and even enjoys the queer subtext of Batman and Joker. I've seen a smattering of quite intimate moments shared between Batman and Joker in the comic which defintiely beg the question "Why would you do that if you didn't care?". It'll be interesting to see how far he stretches this situation, and whether anyone will call out Bruce on his behaviours towards Joker and how he is using Zeller as a way to get closer to him.

Bruce seems to almost want to unpick it as an evil plot so he can return to status quo, so he can get his fix and remain firmly in his closet. A Joker who is "good", or perhaps a better word is passive, would force him to act, not react, in the relationship and re-evaluate how he feels and acts towards him. Defintely a good axis to break free of this homophobic narrative and like you say, Fraction has already scored points for not doing the whole "Insane = gay" things (Criminality = Insanity = Homosexuality...its the Batman trio!). I only hope he brings it home!

(Subtextually, of course, this is DC we're talking about)

Anyway, there's my smattering of thoughts formed too early in the night/morning. I hope it makes sense...

[sonicguillotine-deactivated2025]

Firefox Extensions I like

UBlock Origin - Adblocking

Chameleon - IP and random agent spoofing

TrackMeNot - Floods web search engines with false queries at a settable interval

Location Guard - Obfuscates precise location

Privacy Possum - Blocks and falsifies information collected by tracking

ClearURLs - Removes tracking elements from URLs

LocalCDN - Prevents third party requests

CanvassBlocker - Prevents fingerprinting

UnPaywall - Circumvents paywalls for research papers

Sci-Hub - Adds a Sci-Hub link to academic papers

ChromeMask - Disguises Firefox as Chrome for Chrome-only websites

FlagFox - Adds a flag next to the URL indicating its origin

[itookthetardis2liveaid]

I came across this last night

Finally all that doomscrolling payed off

not mine

[yourdailyqueer]

Gerd Katter (deceased)

Gender: Transgender man

Sexuality: N/A

DOB:  14 March 1910

RIP: Died 1995

Ethnicity: White - German

Occupation: Carpenter, insurance agent

Note: In 1927, at age sixteen, Katter became a patient of Magnus Hirschfeld's Institut für Sexualwissenschaft in Berlin with his mother, and had gender affirming surgery in the form of a double mastectomy.

Note 2: In 1928, at age eighteen, Katter sought further affirmation of his gender identity through acquiring a document known as a transvestite pass (German: Transvestitenschein). This document, issued by the governments of the German Empire and the Weimar Republic, identified its carrier as a transvestite, and allowed them to present in a way that may not have aligned with their assigned sex at birth.

[velvetvexations]

Weird Fantasy (1950) #18 written by Al Feldstein and drawn by Joe Orlando, with editor Bill Gaines

[velvetvexations]

So he said it can't be a Black. So I said, "For God's sakes, Judge Murphy, that's the whole point of the Goddamn story!" So he said, "No, it can't be a Black". Bill just called him up and raised the roof, and finally they said, "Well, you gotta take the perspiration off". I had the stars glistening in the perspiration on his Black skin. Bill said, "Fuck you", and he hung up.

Al Feldstein, Tales of Terror: The EC Companion

[iconuk01]

Just to add context for those not aware of the impact of this story.

The reason it was so important for narrative purposes, was that the plot concerns the visit of the Astronaut, in his completely opaque spacesuit, to a planet populated entirely by self-aware robots (originally from Earth) who have built their own society and are petitioning to be allowed to interact with Earth again as equals.

They have a democratic government and free choice of careers etc. as the orange robot serving as guide tells the Astronaut.

The Astronaut notices that there are two different types of robot on this world; the orange ones, who are in charge, gifted access to all information and facilities. and the blue robots, who are seen as more limited in function, have less access to information and resources, and are not allowed positions of power or as wide a choice of employment opportunities. Even transportation is segregated.

The Astronaut investigates further and discovers that the blue and orange robots are actually structurally identical, there is absolutely no difference between their potential or capabilities, and it is only because the orange robots are instructed by their Educator system to consider themselves superior, that the difference exists.

The Astronaut tells the robots they are not ready for re-alignment with Earth, until they come to terms with their own unfairness, and how Earth had had to deal with this issue themselves. When that time comes, the robots will be able to ally with Earth.

Then he leaves in his spaceship, and it's only in that one final panel that we see the Astronaut is black.

Not subtle, nor should it be, but for 1950 this was a breathtakingly powerful statement, perhaps the first of it's kind in the genre.

The black character was not a caricature, or comedy relief, he was a main character in his own right, a human who "simply" was black.

[assortedinsanities]

Ok, but this story is sadly revolutionary even now. That is not just a human who happens to be black, as far as every other character in this story is concerned this is the most important, maybe even the only human they ever see, who happens to be black.

As depressing as that is, but a black person just casually representing the entirety of humanity is a breathtakingly powerfull statement even today, a quarter of a century later.

[about-faces]

[anarchistmemedistro]

*a breathtakingly powerful statement even today, three quarters of a century later

[needlesknick-knacks]

Once i read all of golden age and silver age and bronze age and pre-crisis in general and post crisis and new52 and rebirth and all the different events and crossovers and learn all of the writers’ histories so i am aware of their biases and influences when creating those stories and familiarise myself with the cultural/social/political climate of when those comics were written to be able to understand and analyse them well from both a watsonian and doylist perspective it’s over for you all

[tainbocuailnge]

"we're all faggots in the eyes of the state" okay but the state recognises different category of "faggot" where one is "idiot womanchildren with delusions of grandeur" and another is "subhuman predators that must be excised from society posthaste" like neither are a great way to treat another human being but can we pleeeeeeease acknowledge the difference here

[tainbocuailnge]

"stop queer infighting we're all-" okay so is this actually queer infighting or did a trans woman describe her lived experience in a way you didn't like

[k-wame]

C H I L L S

[parasocialites]

how did a woman manage to date elvira for 19 years and not tell every single person she knows

[onetine]

[clearlightwired]

sorry for the random question but what's your opinion on transmasc people?

They should install Firefox with UBlock Origin and start using a password manager (I recommend bitwarden)

[roguestorm]

In many ways, the Batfam being together/interacting on a regular basis ruins a lot of what I like about Batman comics because what I like is the Gothic-ness of it all. What if your mother was dead and your father was in a coma and you were alone in a giant mansion with a man and his relentless crusade and the inscrutable butler and you signed up for it but the weight of it still rests heavy on your shoulders? What if you were trained to kill but you escaped that prison and now you live high in a clocktower with a woman who treats the world as a chessboard and occasional visits from the icon you've chosen to imitate? The isolation is the point! The connections between Batman and Robin or Oracle and Batgirl or Robin and Batgirl are worthwhile because they happen in the context of that isolation. They are the small moments of relief from feeling like you have to take on the world alone!

[catsfellfrosh]

Christoph Schneider, interview in Portugal, 2010.

Sometimes the Beast named Rammstein is hard to control. As humans, we're very quiet and calm by nature, but when it comes to music, videos, and the entire Rammstein enterprise, we get immense pleasure from creating this Beast named Rammstein.

We won't even take on a project if we don't enjoy it, if it doesn't bring us any pleasure... We were dealing with a stupid song, uncharacteristic of Rammstein.

About "Pussy":

We didn't know what to do with it. The song itself is very catchy, but it's not what listeners expect from Rammstein. We were lucky with a director who suggested the wonderful idea of ​​making a pornographic version of this song. This is because the video perfectly complements the music.

We're capable of doing things that ordinary musicians wouldn't sign up for, wouldn't dare to do, but we, Rammstein, are perfectly allowed to do them. Rammstein is the only German band capable of such a feat.

At the time, I was an ordinary young man, standing in the crowd, holding a candle and chanting "no violence, no violence" at the police.

I remember some people dancing on the Berlin Wall. I didn't like them... too pretentious. And when the Wall was torn down, I didn't rush to the western part of Berlin immediately; I adopted a wait-and-see attitude.

Back then, everyone wanted to feel important and unique. Of course, that was a bit silly. On the eve of the Wall's fall, the atmosphere in Berlin was extremely tense. You could feel the tension, the crowds on the streets, the demonstrations, the police... and the smell of burning in the streets.

[fractualized]

I have learned we are getting batjokes anime? 👀

Joker's new adult animated series turns him into a vigilante searching for Batman's killer

The Clown Prince of Crime goes on a ruthless quest to find Batman's killer in Joker: Laugh Riot

In Joker: Laugh Riot, Batman is murdered and the Clown Prince of Crime goes on a ruthless crusade through Gotham’s underworld to try to find his killer. Joker becomes more vigilante than villain, and has to figure out who he is without his greatest adversary.

[dykeselfcest]

holy shit okay may have found a game-changer for web searches...with duckduckgo it's easy to turn off the ai features permanently, but regardless of engine there's the increasing problem of the search results themselves leading mostly to ai-generated articles on random ghost websites that say a lot without any information, and then the information they do give is contradictory or otherwise just wrong. this is especially a problem for me when trying to search for, e.g., a current list of the best products in a certain category.

finally searched for a solution and there IS in fact a giant hand-curated list of sites containing this content. it can be imported to ublock origin on desktop or mobile, and even can be used on iOS via the ublacklist extension in the safari app. it's updated regularly, and importing via the link as described should allow those updates to go into effect automatically.

i've only tested it a little bit, but after importing the list and repeating my duckduckgo search for backpack recommendations, my top results now lead to websites that appear to be linked to actual organizations in some form, with an "about us" page and the name of a founder and everything. the text is still often a bit wordy and SEO-optimized, but it now has actual recommendations that are relevant to the query. BIG IF TRUE???

please do not start talking about The Definition Of Art on this post, or Whether Human Creations Have Souls. i am very tired.

[dykeselfcest]

once I added this it took me 15 minutes to find a backpack that met my needs and order it with free shipping. I feel reborn

[frontmansdefender]

RIP to the legend

[silvermoon424]

This goose fucking rocks and had a crazy life!

I really just have to summarize Thomas's entire life:

He was in a committed relationship with a male swan named Henry for 18-24 years before a female swan named Henrietta showed up and mated with Henry.

Thomas was initially jealous of the pair and attacked them, breaking 2 of the 5 eggs Henrietta had laid. However, once the remaining eggs hatched, Thomas warmed up to them and helped raise them.

Henry couldn't fly because of an injured wing, so Thomas taught the cygnets how to fly.

When they needed to reduce the goose population in the pond where Thomas and the swans lived, they dyed Thomas's feathers red so he wouldn't be separated from Henry.

Henry, Henrietta, and Thomas remained in their happy throuple for years and raised 68 cygnets before Henry died in 2009. After Henry's death, Henrietta found another swan and flew away, leaving Thomas alone.

Thomas finally met and mated with a female goose in 2011 and had his own babies. However, another goose named George stole them and raised them himself.

As Thomas grew elderly and blind, he was relocated to a wildlife center where he raised orphaned cygnets.

His caretaker at the center described him as "pretty high maintenance."

Thomas died in 2018 at the age of around 40. He had a funeral that included a small coffin and a procession that was led by a bagpiper. He was buried under the stone where Henry was buried, the two finally reunited in death.

Before and after his death, Thomas has been celebrated as an icon of the LGBTQ+ community for obvious reasons.

[dragonsblowingoutbirthdaycandles]

your life is not an optimization problem

[dragonsblowingoutbirthdaycandles]

as in you'll never achieve the perfect daily routine, sleep schedule, coping mechanisms, mannerisms, fashion sense etc. even after years and years of healing and improvement and self-discovery. you will never be so good at life that you manage to utilize every waking moment. its great to be productive and all but sometimes you'll suck ass. sometimes you'll take eight hours to be done with a twenty minute job. you'll prioritize the wrong thing. you'll sleep for 12 hrs just to avoid being awake. you'll relapse. and you'll relapse again. you'll forget to turn in the assignment. you'll order too little food. life is far too large and complex for you to even experience it completely, much less try to make sense of and control it. you can't. please give up on that and be at peace with the hours you lose. they are not separate from your life.

[headoverhiddles]

When any member of Rammstein says "sank you"