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the best fic you have ever read in your entire fucking stupid life: written by anonymous

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.

hypokeimena

#'this is present in the text' is often a good first step #but those second and third ones (naming it; describing its function) are vital (via @elucubrare)

trans-girl-nausicaa

fanfiction.gov

dark-academia-lady

archiveofourown.edu

emmaharwoods

ZENDAYA as EMMA HARWOOD THE DRAMA — 2026, dir. Kristoffer Borgli

theartistichuman

andrew, putting himself in that car with tilda: whatever, there's two of me anyways

ceruleanheaven

bad media will piss you off good media will heal your soul bad media that couldve been good will ruin your life forever

one-time-i-dreamt

Law & Order: SVU

Created by: Dick Wolf

Co-Produced by: Speed Weed

grntaire

breaking my silence. it is insane that a marriage is more celebrated than earning a degree.

beccs

RUE BENNETT Euphoria | 2.08 - All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned for a Thing I Cannot Name

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Calm autumn morning in Dragonstone, 127 AC

Rhaenyra finding her 5 boys — Joffrey (10), Viserys (5), Aegon (7), Jacaerys (13) and Lucerys (12) — playing with baby Stormcloud in a courtyard at Dragonstone. Autumn of 127 AC, everything was still possible…

Apparently I like to press where it hurts :’)

Just realised I forgot the earrings on everyone except Joffrey…

-> Luke is saying "Good morning Mother, how are you?"