Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder

Who am I? Who cares?

[marcbrainbarf]

[dilfbrigade]

George is out here trying to get laid with a poster at the pride parade at ninety years old

[lgbtlaughs]

This is George Montague, he’s an author who is currently campaigning to have a historic conviction for “gross indecency” from 1974 (PDA with his then-boyfriend) struct from his criminal record. You can sign his petition here!

[iamthecutestofborg]

The epitome of “Distinguished Gay”

[star-temeraire]

Update as of 7 November 2018, this guy is now 95 years old and is still looking for his apology.

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I just looked it up and turns out that George won! His 1974 conviction was repealed in 2004 but he fought for 13 more years to receive an official apology from the government, which he got in 2017! George just turned 96 a few days ago and is still thriving, attending pride with his husband Somchai Phukkhlai (who he has been with for 23 years now) and is still fighting for change. He is a true hero.

Meet the 'oldest gay' in Brighton who's finally received an apology from the Home Office - Independent.ie

A 93-year-old man who was convicted for his sexuality in the 1970s has described receiving a letter of apology from the government as “the m

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I talked to a young man with white hair on a boat cabin in the middle of a stormy sea. He forgot everything about himself exept for the fact that his name rhymed with ‘Time’ so he started calling himself Time.

I offered him an orange in exchange for a meaningful chat. He took the slice and told me “Nothing’s set in stone, but they’re set in a dirt road. If you roll your wagon in the same path too much it’ll soon be the only path you can take without struggling.”

[honestlyanthony]

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I LOVE THIS!!!!

[one-time-i-dreamt]

It’s depressing how we all posted so much about an old church burning, me included, and most of us haven’t even heard of what’s going on in Sudan right now. I only learned about the situation recently, the international media coverage is lacking/almost non-existent, a media blackout is happening in Sudan and things are being censored while so many people were killed and hurt horribly or have gone missing. Let us all at least try and spread awareness about the #SudanMassacre.

reem on Twitter

“this is what’s happening in sudan and nothing has changed till now help saving lives by sharing this video and letting the world know they

What started as a peaceful protest turned into a massacre over the protesters.

Sudanese people are trying to overthrow the dictatorship and are being slaughtered for it.

If you can donate to help fund medical aid for everyone hurt in the protests, here is a confirmed link to a GoFundMe meant for that, if you can’t donate, you can also help by spreading the link and spreading awareness for the situation.

Click here to support Emergency Medical Aid for Sudan organised by Uprisings Charity Event

In the ongoing protests and unrest currently taking place in Sudan, people are struggling to access food, basic amenities, and emergency hea

[tiktokarchive]

“Ay yo, Arizona check!”

[Take It Easy by The Eagles plays]

[threesideddream]

[autistic--rory-blog]

nonverbal does not mean non thinking

nonverbal does not mean non hearing

nonverbal does not mean non feeling

nonverbal does not mean non understanding

[self-healing]

being compassionate to yourself involves making it a discipline to do the things that you love, no matter how many times you attempt to convince yourself that it’s no use. being compassionate with yourself involves sitting down and writing, even when you feel insecure about the work you’re producing. being compassionate with yourself involves taking a walk outside because you haven’t had any fresh air the whole day. being compassionate with yourself involves committing yourself to learning something new even if it hasn’t gone well many times before. being compassionate with yourself is about committing to the discipline of self-betterment and healing.

[prideprejudce]

tbh the best way that i explain to other people what it feels like to live with an anxiety disorder is the one time when i had to get a fingerprint and background check done for a job and i, someone who has never received so much as a speeding ticket my whole life, spent thirty minutes panicking that i would fail because i might secretly be a criminal and have no idea 

[prideprejudce]

[destinyrush]

This is how you should ask trans and non-binary people about their identity 

[starlitvalkyrie]

YOURE DOING SO WELL SWEETIE IM SO PROUD OF YOU

[star-fall-system]

This is cute

[littlemisspipebomb]

[loveislattes]

Mad respect to people who are supportive and doing all they can to be informed! 

[fozmeadows]

on fanfic & emotional continuity

Writing and reading fanfic is a masterclass in characterisation. 

Consider: in order to successfully write two different “versions” of the same character - let alone ten, or fifty, or a hundred - you have to make an informed judgement about their core personality traits, distinguishing between the results of nature and nurture, and decide how best to replicate those conditions in a new narrative context. The character you produce has to be recognisably congruent with the canonical version, yet distinct enough to fit within a different - perhaps wildly so - story. And you physically can’t accomplish this if the character in question is poorly understood, or viewed as a stereotype, or one-dimensional. Yes, you can still produce the fic, but chances are, if your interest in or knowledge of the character(s) is that shallow, you’re not going to bother in the first place. 

Because ficwriters care about nuance, and they especially care about continuity - not just literal continuity, in the sense of corroborating established facts, but the far more important (and yet more frequently neglected) emotional continuity. Too often in film and TV canons in particular, emotional continuity is mistakenly viewed as a synonym for static characterisation, and therefore held anathema: if the character(s) don’t change, then where’s the story? But emotional continuity isn’t anti-change; it’s pro-context. It means showing how the character gets from Point A to Point B as an actual journey, not just dumping them in a new location and yelling Because Reasons! while moving on to the next development. Emotional continuity requires a close reading, not just of the letter of the canon, but its spirit - the beats between the dialogue; the implications never overtly stated, but which must logically occur off-screen. As such, emotional continuity is often the first casualty of canonical forward momentum: when each new TV season demands the creation of a new challenge for the protagonists, regardless of where and how we left them last, then dealing with the consequences of what’s already happened is automatically put on the backburner.

Fanfic does not do this. 

Fanfic embraces the gaps in the narrative, the gracenotes in characterisation that the original story glosses, forgets or simply doesn’t find time for. That’s not all it does, of course, but in the context of learning how to write characters, it’s vital, because it teaches ficwriters - and fic readers - the difference between rich and cardboard characters. A rich character is one whose original incarnation is detailed enough that, in order to put them in fanfic, the writer has to consider which elements of their personality are integral to their existence, which clash irreparably with the new setting, and which can be modified to fit, to say nothing of how this adapted version works with other similarly adapted characters. A cardboard character, by contrast, boasts so few original or distinct attributes that the ficwriter has to invent them almost out of whole cloth. Note, please, that attributes are not necessarily synonymous with details in this context: we might know a character’s favourite song and their number of siblings, but if this information gives us no actual insight into them as a person, then it’s only window-dressing. By the same token, we might know very few concrete facts about a character, but still have an incredibly well-developed sense of their personhood on the basis of their actions. 

The fact that ficwriters en masse - or even the same ficwriter in different AUs - can produce multiple contradictory yet still fundamentally believable incarnations of the same person is a testament to their understanding of characterisation, emotional continuity and narrative. 

[earlgreytea68]

So I was reading this rumination on fanfic and I was thinking about something @involuntaryorange once talked to me about, about fanfic being its own genre, and something about this way of thinking really rocked my world? Because for a long time I have thought like a lawyer, and I have defined fanfiction as “fiction using characters that originated elsewhere,” or something like that. And now I feel like…fanfiction has nothing to do with using other people’s characters, it’s just a character-driven *genre* that is so character-driven that it can be more effective to use other people’s characters because then we can really get the impact of the storyteller’s message but I feel like it could also be not using other people’s characters, just a more character-driven story. Like, I feel like my original stuff–the novellas I have up on AO3, the draft I just finished–are probably really fanfiction, even though they’re original, because they’re hitting fanfic beats. And my frustration with getting original stuff published has been, all along, that I’m calling it a genre it really isn’t. 

And this is why many people who discover fic stop reading other stuff. Once you find the genre you prefer, you tend to read a lot in that genre. Some people love mysteries, some people love high-fantasy. Saying you love “fic” really means you love this character-driven genre. 

So when I hear people be dismissive of fic I used to think, Are they just not reading the good fic? Maybe I need to put the good fic in front of them? But I think it turns out that fanfiction is a genre that is so entirely character-focused that it actually feels weird and different, because most of our fiction is not that character-focused. 

It turns out, when I think about it, I am simply a character-based consumer of pop culture. I will read and watch almost anything but the stuff that’s going to stick with me is because I fall for a particular character. This is why once a show falters and disagrees with my view of the character, I can’t just, like, push past it, because the show *was* the character for me. 

Right now my big thing is the Juno Steel stories, and I know that they’re doing all this genre stuff and they have mysteries and there’s sci-fi and meanwhile I’m just like, “Okay, whatever, I don’t care about that, JUNO STEEL IS THE BEST AND I WANT TO JUST ROLL AROUND IN HIS SARCASTIC, HILARIOUS, EMOTIONALLY PINING HEAD.” That is the fanfiction-genre fan in me coming out. Someone looking for sci-fi might not care about that, but I’m the type of consumer (and I think most fic-people are) who will spend a week focusing on what one throwaway line might reveal about a character’s state of mind. That’s why so many fics *focus* on those one throwaway lines. That’s what we’re thinking about. 

And this is what makes coffee shop AUs so amazing. Like, you take some characters and you stick them in a coffee shop. That’s it. And yet I love every single one of them. Because the focus is entirely on the characters. There is no plot. The plot is they get coffee every day and fall in love. That’s the entire plot. And that’s the perfect fanfic plot. Fanfic plots are almost always like that. Almost always references to other things that clue you in to where the story is going. Think of “friends to lovers” or “enemies to lovers” or “fake relationship,” and you’re like, “Yes. I love those. Give me those,” and you know it’s going to be the same plot, but that’s okay, you’re not reading for the plot. It’s like that Tumblr post that goes around that’s like, “Me starting a fake relationship fic: Ooooh, do you think they’ll fall in love for real????” But you’re not reading for the suspense. Fic frees you up from having to spend effort thinking about the plot. Fic gives your brain space to focus entirely on the characters. And, especially in an age of plot-twist-heavy pop culture, that almost feels like a luxury. “Come in. Spend a little time in this character’s head. SPEND HOURS OF YOUR LIFE READING SO MANY STORIES ABOUT THIS CHARACTER’S HEAD. Until you know them like a friend. Until you know them so well that you miss them when you’re not hanging out with them.” 

When that is your story, when the characters become like your friends, it makes sense that you’re freed from plot. It’s like how many people don’t really have a “plot” to hanging out with their friends. There’s this huge obsession with plot, but lives don’t have plots. Lives just happen. We try to shape them into plots later, but that’s just this organizational fiction we’re imposing. Plot doesn’t have to be the raison d’etre of all story-telling, and fic reminds us of that. 

Idk, this was a lot of random rambling but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. 

[nianeyna]

“fanfiction has nothing to do with using other people’s characters, it’s just a character-driven *genre* that is so character-driven that it can be more effective to use other people’s characters”

yes!!!! I feel like I knew this on some level but I’ve never explicitly thought about it that way. this feels right, yep. Mainstream fiction often seems very dry to me and I think this is why - it tends to skip right over stuff that would be a huge plot arc in a fanfic, if not an entire fanfic in itself. And I’m like, “hey, wait, go back to that. Why are you skipping that? Where’s the story?” But now I think maybe people who don’t like fanfiction are going like, “why is there an entire fanfic about something that could have happened offscreen? Is anything interesting ever going to happen here? Where’s the story?”

[earlgreytea68]

Yes! Exactly! This!!!

This crystallized for me when I taught my first class of fanfiction to non-fic-readers and they just kept being like, “But nothing happens. What’s the plot?” and I was so confused, like, “What are you talking about? They fall in love. That’s the plot.” But we were, I think, talking past each other. They kept waiting for some big moment to happen, but for me the point was that the little moments were the big moments. 

[meanderings0ul]

This is such an awesome conversation, but I think there’s even another layer here that makes ‘fic’ its own genre. And it is the plot.

Everyone who’s experienced in reading fic has their little ‘trope plots’ we are willing to read or even prefer in order to spend time with our favorite characters. We know how it’s gonna end and we genuinely don’t care, because the character is the whole point of why we’re reading. And that is unique. That’s just not how mainstream media publication does things.

But there are also hundreds of thousands of fics people might call ‘plot driven’ and they have wonderful, intricate plots that thrill their readers.

But they’re not at all ‘plot driven’ in the same way as other mainstream genres.

The thing about ‘plot’ in fic is that it tends to ebb and flow naturally. There’s not the same high speed, race to the finish you’d get from a good action movie. There’s no stop and start of side plots you get in TV genre shows. The best fic plot slides from big event to restful evening to frantic activity to shared meals and squabbles and back, and it gives equal time and attention and detail to each of these things.

Like @earlgreytea68 said, “There’s this huge obsession with plot, but lives don’t have plots. Lives just happen. We try to shape them into plots later, but that’s just this organizational fiction we’re imposing. Plot doesn’t have to be the raison d’etre of all story-telling, and fic reminds us of that.”

Fic plot moves at a pace similar to the life of whatever character it’s about. Not the other way around. There’s a fundamental difference in prioritization in fic.

I think this only adds to the case of ‘fic’ as its own, distinctive genre. Stylistic choices of writing that would never work in traditional, mainstream fiction novels work for novel-length fic. Fic adventures spend as much time fleshing out the little moments between romances and friendships as they do on that plot twist. The sleepy campground conversations are as important to the plot as the kidnapped princess, because that’s how the characters are going to grow together by the end of the story. It’s not a grace note, it’s not a side episode or an addition or a mention - it’s integral and equal.

That’s just accepted as fact by fic writers and readers. It’s expected without any particular mention. And it gives a very unique flavor and pace to fic that makes a lot of mainstream stories feel like stale, off-brand wonderbread. They are missing something regular fic readers take for granted (and it isn’t just the representational differences, because we all know that’s a whole different conversation). There’s a fundamental difference in how ‘fic’ is written, detailed, and paced that is built on its foundations as a ‘character driven’ genre.  

And it isn’t only action/adventure/mystery plots that have this difference in fic. Those ‘everybody’s human in today’s world’ AUs, those ‘friends to lovers’ slow burn stories have it too. They have a plot, but it’s the life - the grocery shopping, the dumb fights and sudden inescapable emotional blows, those moments of joy with that person you click with, managing work and family and seasons - that’s the whole plot on its own.

And that’s almost impossible to explain to someone who hasn’t really experienced fic as a genre, who’s used to traditional person A and person B work together/overcome differences/bond to accomplish X. In fic accomplishing X might be the beginning or the middle, not the end result of the story, and A & B continue to exist separate from X entirely. X is only relevant because of how it relates to A & B, not the other way around.

Fic is absolutely its own genre and it has a lot to do with plot. I’ve been calling this ‘organic plot’ in my head for months, because I knew something felt different about writing this way, how long fic plot ebbs and grows seemingly on its own sometimes. ‘Dual plot’ could be another option, maybe, though the character plot and life experience plots aren’t really separate. Inverted plot? Hm. I’m sure a good term will develop over time.

[earlgreytea68]

OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE THIS. 

I was always fond of saying, about my own fics, that my plots show up about two-thirds of the way through, because it takes me that long to figure out where I’m going, and then I would lol about it, because, ha, wouldn’t it be great if I organized it better. 

And now I read this and I’m like, WAIT. YES. THAT’S WHAT’S HAPPENING. IT’S BEEN HAPPENING ALL ALONG. I NEVER REALIZED IT. The idea that the primary importance is the throughline of the characters, and that’s what we’re following, and the plot is what’s dangling off the side of their story, that is SO IMPORTANT. You’re right, that usually we’re told as writers to construct stories from the plot outward. “Here are the beats your plot needs to hit, here’s the rising action to the climax to the falling action, now make sure your Character A makes this realization by Point X in order to get your plot into shape for Point Y to click in.” It’s *such* a plot-centric way to write and I am *terrible* at it. And I’ve always said, whenever I sit down to “outline” a story, like, How do you this? How do you know where the characters are going until they tell you where they’re going???

But it’s not that I’m “bad” at this, which is what I’ve always thought, it’s just that I’m coming at it from the opposite angle. I can’t plan the plot before the characters because I’m sticking close to the characters, and the traditional “plot” is secondary to whatever’s going to happen to them. And that’s not a wrong way of writing, it’s just a different way of writing. And it’s wrong of me to be thinking that my stories don’t get a “point” until they’re almost over. THEY’VE HAD THE POINT ALL ALONG. What happens when they’re almost over is that the characters come to where they’ve been going, and then the traditional “plot” is what helps shape the ending. The traditional “plot” becomes, to me, like that epilogue scene after the biggest explosion in an action movie, where you’re told the characters are going to be okay. I spend the entire movie telling you the characters are going to be okay, and then my epilogue scene is tacked on “oh, p.s., also they saved the day.” 

[britttle]

stop telling people who have abusive parents to “just leave” after they turn 18!!!!!!! it’s not that fucking simple!!!!!!!!!

i’ve been an adult for two years now and i STILL live in this hell hole. you know why? CONTROL. you can’t just walk out of the house and never look back like they do on tv. it doesn’t work that way. you take documents with you (that, if your parents are anything like mine, are locked up tight in a safe), you have to have enough money and a stable job and a place to go (which most victims are unable to get jobs due to mental/physical health or parent control), you have to move all your things out of their name (phone, car, etc). the list goes on. don’t you dare tell an adult victim that they’re just “not helping themselves”. i’m tired of hearing it.

adult victims of abusive parents: your abuse is still valid and i promise you there are those of us who understand and care.

(and before you try and pull the “here’s some suggestions” shit, my doctor has already met with a social worker with me. i’m stuck here for the time being. thanks for your concern but fuck off.)

[monzterzack]

Finally a post that points out what I been trying to say!!!

Leaving abusive situations is not simple, like even between couples, it’s a hell of a situation and requires for you to have an entire support system outside of your family

[cillianmurphy]

I AM ABSOLUTELY LOSING MY MIND AFTER READING THIS PLEASE READ IT

[cillianmurphy]

READ PART TWO AND THREE BELOW !!!!!

[whatsnew-lgbtq]

Botswana decriminalize homosexuality in a land mark ruling

After three judges came to the decision unanimously, Judge Michael Elburu delivered the verdict.

“Human dignity is harmed when minority groups are marginalized,” he said.

He labelled laws banning gay sex as “discriminatory” and said: “Sexual orientation is not a fashion statement. It is an important attribute of one’s personality.”

The law has been in place since 1965 when it was brought in by the colonial British government.

Read it here.

And here

[rat-faced-boy-deactivated201906]

why cringe culture is dumb as fuck and hurts autistic kids

There’s this kid at my school and he has autism. His special interest is Five Night’s at Freddy’s. He loves it, he spends a lot of time drawing art of it and making characters of it and watching videos of it. He has all the games and knows all the secrets and he’s really passionate about it. 

Now, as another kid with autism, my special interest is computers. I’m known at my school for having hacked the wifi and gotten the password to the fast wifi over and over and even getting around to downloading games like Minecraft and other games on the school computers and get passed blocked sites. 

My friends are fucking exhausted of me constantly talking about computers and going off on long programming rants and they don’t understand a single fucking thing. 

Who gets bullied more? He does. Because of his special interest whilst I’m praised for it. People come up to me and pay me to help them with their game programming class assignments and projects. But him? He is constantly harassed for it. Why? Because FnaF is “cringe culture” 

 People constantly say “if it was middle school he’d be normal but now he’s just cringy.” and “wow he’s the embodiment of cringe culture”

it’s dumb as fuck ?? He’s literally just enjoying a game ?? Him knowing all the secrets in that one fnaf game is literally the same as all these other kids in class knowing all the hacks in COD or Black Ops or people knowing the ins and outs of some book. 

But because it’s “cringe culture” he gets bullied every day. Yes, sometimes he goes off on it and doesn’t stop talking, but he’s so passionate about it and he’s smiling wide the entire time because it makes him happy. 

But now he rarely even wants to talk about it. Instead of on the computers, he’s on his phone with the brightness all the way down. He doesn’t draw his ocs or fan art anymore, because he’s ashamed of it because of all the bullying he’s received. 

anyway long story short cringe culture is dumb as fuck and it hurting autistic kids who have “cringy” things as their special interest. 

[stimman3000]

[samuraiknitter]

More Humans are Weird

Because this hash tag is SO FUN and thought-provoking. 

GENDER:  No one can keep up with humans and gender. There are no easy signs to tell who is what, not clothing, not body morphology, not how they paint themselves or their grooming or vestigal hair. The humans themselves argue about how many genders there are. Eventually they quit trying and refer to all humans as ‘they’. Most humans are fine with that, even compliment them on their support (?) and progressive views (??). A few humans are offended, but are shouted down by their other humans. The other beings of the galaxy officially give up. 

SEX:  Some humans want to have sex all the time. Others barely can stand to be touched at all, even casually. Some will have sex with their own gender, which does not produce offspring and is confusing to many. Some will have sex only with certain people, some will have sex with anyone. SOME will have sex with other species, occasionally challenging their own safety and everyone else’s. None of this is considered strange. Anyone saying it is strange is again shouted down and shamed into silence. The other beings of the galaxy officially give up. 

CATS:  Humans adopt small predators as pets and kiss their “widdle faces” and giggle over their clawed toes (???) and fuss and are thrilled when the predators sleep with them (isn’t that UNSAFE? IT IS FULL OF POINTY BITS) and often sport scratches and bite marks inflicted when the animal was ‘playing’.  “When were these ‘cats’ domesticated?” “Oh, we never really domesticated them. We just let them move into the house with us. Aren’t they CUUUUUTE? Come here, baby.” -kissy noises- The other beings of the galaxy again give up. 

RELIGION:  Wars fought. Millions - probably billions, through history - killed. Crew members huffy with each other. Various holidays celebrated, none of which make sense, some of them celebrating events that are physically impossible and could not have happened. All for something that can’t be proved.  The other beings of the galaxy would think this was all an elaborate prank if it wasn’t for the body count. 

GERMS:  Humans get INFECTED and act as if it is a personal affront, and cuss about it. They confine themselves to quarters so they don’t infect the rest of the crew - very kind, in that respect - and otherwise wrap themselves in bedding and bitch about it for three days while doing their work by remote - “It’s fine, just a cold.” followed by horrifying noises they call ‘coughing’ and ‘sneezing’ -  and HOW. HOW DO THEY EVEN.  The other beings of the galaxy, for whom infection is always life-threatening, boggle from a safe distance. With respirators on. 

ALPHA PREDATOR…?  They come from a death planet, these naked apes with no armor, no fangs, no speed. They have the ability to conquer the galaxy, if they only agreed with each other long enough that it was their goal. Instead they poke their noses into other death worlds, ‘exploring’, they call it, adopting horrifying creatures and making friends with other predatory beings, brewing poisonous beverages from whatever they can scrounge, which they then drink for fun. The rest of the galaxy is relieved. If humans had an attention span, they would truly be in trouble. 

No one wants to know what a ‘shark’ is. Humans seem to be afraid of them, and if it frightens the humans, the rest of the galaxy is, to a being, terrified. 

[justanotherass]

both? both. both is good.

happy pride month!

[bonghistorian-deactivated201811]

Nope. No. You’re wrong. Color photos have been around since the late 1800s there are a bunch of full color photos of MLK. The us govt and educational system just doesn’t show us because they want us to push back the civil rights movement and distance institutionalized racism from today’s society.

Here are just a few of many photos of MLK in FULL color. This wasn’t that long ago. This is RECENT history. Segregation, the terrorizing of black communities, the brutality isn’t old - it is still present.

When my dad was a little boy, my grandfather was one of the ministers who marched with MLK on Washington. He grew up hearing stories about the great Dr. king and the differences he made BUT he still saw the blatant discrimination against black folks and other people of color (hell he experienced it himself). My dad was a kid watching MLK. My DAD. My grandfather who only passed away about six years ago MARCHED with him. This isn’t twelve generations ago. THIS IS RECENT HISTORY.

[jabberwockypie]

Star Trek: TOS was filmed in color and MLK watched it with his family, so they definitely had color photography at the time.

Nichelle Nichols was going to leave after the first season, but MLK told her that it was the only show he and his wife would let their children stay up to watch and she HAD to stay because people seeing her in that role on tv was so important. (It’s a digression but I love that story so much.)

https://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132942461/Star-Treks-Uhura-Reflects-On-MLK-Encounter

[my5creativenames]

I... Actually didn't know this, and I think I'm kind of ashamed. I had no idea. Now I do.