if you enjoy my work, i always, always, always wanna hear about it.
even if you’ve already commented before. even if you also have constructive criticism to share. even if you don’t quite know what to say or how to say it.
To all the folks who already connect with me in this way, I appreciate you so much. Sustained engagement helps me to keep doing the things.
If you want to show your support, there are many ways to do so with varying levels of time and commitment: sending prompts, commenting with your thoughts, reblogging or bookmarking, recommending my works to others, buying a coffee at the link in my bio, or messaging me to discuss your ideas/opinions.
the office romance gl Hak Na My Boss (I Love You) starring Yoshi Rinrada and Diana Flipo is currently filming 🎬
this is the first gl to have a trans woman in a leading role!! 🥳🏳️⚧️
synopsis: My name is Chama, the owner of an import-export company so successful that I was given several businesswoman awards. As my business grew, the need for more employees grew as well, which led me to meet Nilmookda. She was a newly graduated student who had applied for the accounting department. The moment I saw her, I knew it was love at first sight. She was the one for me. I began giving her bouquets, leaving Post-its on her desk, and showering her with fruits and gifts. But her reaction was not what I expected. She became paranoid, convinced someone was watching her. Oh, even though my intentions were good, her response made me lose all confidence!
⭐ starring Diana Flipo as Chama and Yoshi Rinrada as Nilmookda
📖 adapted from the novel I Love You by Chao Planoy (Gap, Us, Pluto, Affair and more)
🎥 directed by Golf Tanwarin (Love Bully, The Eclipse, Wandee Goodday, Love Like A Bike). Golf themself is trans so this show is in good hands!! fun fact they are Thailand's first ever trans MP
🎞️ produced by S Class Entertainment (Love Like A Bike)
👀 bl watchers might know Yoshi from The Sign where she played Sand
or from Daou's Lalalye mv
Yoshi is a famous actress and beauty queen. she has spoken up about only accepting roles that don't disrespect or discourage trans people:
"Every time I am contacted (for a role in a drama), whether it’s high or low budget, I always ask about the ending – will there be an insult to trans people? Will there be a scene where men run away when they know I am trans? where they are shocked to hear my voice? where they catch that I am trans and leave me? If the script is well-written, even if it’s not high budget, I will take the role as long as they support LGBTQ+"
(translation cr OGTNAF on twitter)
LET'S GIVE THIS SHOW A LOT OF SUPPORT!!!!
➡️ S Class Entertainment on twitter, Yoshi's new twitter account + instragram
I found it deeply fascinating to watch the women characters in Blossom (2024) because, be they villians, allies, or our beloved Dou Zhao, they all approached their circumstances with survival in a patriarchal world as a main goal, even as they also desired other things - love, companionship, or power.
Spoilers below:
Dou Zhao comes into her second life with the knowledge that, in order to live a long and peaceful life, she cannot comply with the many people looking to oppress her - and she is also punished frequently for being capable and straightforward, whether framing Ying Xue out for poisoning her before she actually can do so, and refusing to marry Wei Ting Yu. She spends her childhood being raised by her grandmother who maintains her own property and chose solidarity to her maidservant over her rapist husband; along with her friends that themselves buck convention - business-minded Susu being the main breadwinner for her family and bold Zhang Ru being so prized by her father that any potential husband would be expected to marry into their family. Zhang Ru's father is one of the few positively-portayed fathers in the narrative, the other being the Duke of Ding, both of whom stand up for their sisters against the betrayals of their husbands.
Susu prioritizes survival not in romance, but in her relationship with her family; she knows that, without her, they are not willing or capable to provide for themselves. Their survival overrides her own desires, with the implied 'reward' being that she marries for love - except she ends up with Song Han, an initially passive turned cruel person who refuses to understand the complexity of her feelings, and destroys his own family/their relationship because of his patriarchal values of entitlement and power through violent domination. Susu ends the show with one of the most politically-inclined characters at her side, having seemingly given up on marriage for the stability and support of trusted women in her life.
Patriarchal values are present in many of the men of the series. Thus, Dou Zhao initially believes that marrying again would come at the cost of her freedom, and that love does not prevent betrayal. We know this is a logical conclusion, as we see that her mother and father's genuine relationship did not prevent him from cheating with Ying Xue; and that her main role model after her mother's death is that of her grandmother, who lives a peaceful and financially stable life only because of losing her relationship with the rest of her family.
Ming is doomed by the narrative because of her refusal to acknowledge the reality of her situation, assuming love will be enough to invalidate the consequences of class and gender politics. While she makes a bold decision to take DZ's place in the wedding, it results in severe abuse by her sister-in-law - which is initially dismissed by her husband due to misogynistic expectations that she must perform wifehood, that her sister-in-law is right to 'train' her to proper standards, and that as the outsider coming into a 'new' family she must suffer to earn respect. The consequence of a miscarriage is shrouded in gender politics - Ting Zhen bemoans that she wouldn't have been so harsh had she known it would have caused the death of 'her brother's first son'. Ming is encouraged multiple times by Dou Zhao and her mother, two characters who fully see her as human, to consider divorcing WTY. We even see Ying Xue give her a bracelet as an implied escape fund at the wedding. While everyone can easily see that Wei Ting Yu is an incapable life partner, it is the other women of the narrative who fully understand the potential consequence. But unlike Ying Xue, Dou Zhao offers support and solidarity to other women, following her grandmother's example.
Ying Xue weaponizes misogyny and its violent outcomes many times in the series - she tries to have her nephew rape Dou Zhao to force her into an honor-saving marriage, attempts to have her caught in a compromising position with Wei Ting Yu, and attempts to give Dou Zhao's money to placate the angry Ting Zhen with the full knowledge that it would leave Dou Zhao with no opportunity to marry a high-ranking (aka, safe and well-providing) partner in the future.
Ying Xue clearly demonstrates a clear awareness of her and her daughter's precarious situation, and sees her crueller actions (stealing her best friend's husband, commiting financial fraud for decades) as necessary in the same way as degrading her own status through selling soup earlier in life. Like several of the other villianous women in the series, she presents her case as ends justifying the means - to marry the man she loves, the first wife must get out of the way. This misogyny, prioritizing herself over others, is what dooms her to eternal unhappiness - instead of setting the bandits up to be caught by Wei Ting Yu, which would have ensured her daughter a well-respected husband and resolved her own problem, she sets them on the city to rob and potentially murder Dou Zhao. But misogyny endangers all women, not simply the ones she is threatened by - and so it is Ming who dies for it. By taking the life of Ming's maidservant and surrogate mother to hide her crimes, she dooms herself.
The Empress is another character who prioritizes power at the expense of other women in the narrative, and is doomed for it. While the Emperor's betrayal of her is itself deeply misogynistic and the root of many of the show's problems, her manipulation of Su Yan and utilizing all of the capital women as hostages - despite a clear understanding that they are all in similar positions under the patriarchy - dooms her and her son's plot for the throne. Just as her husband assumes that, despite knowing how intelligent she is, that she would never be clever or direct enough to poison him, she herself assumes the other women of the narrative do not have complex motivations balancing love with intent to survive. Dou Zhao and Song Mo's anguished expressions of love are something to be mocked, despite the fact that they are the main couple of the show to care for and honor one another outside of the strict expectations of the patriarchal world. The Empress' masterplan appears much like trying to win a patriarchal prize, playing by patriarchal rules - but the fact is that a woman winning at patriarchy is still patriarchy and still requires disenfranchising women, especially those of the subjugated class - after all, who suffers most in times of war? Power over - who?
The Empress' granting of Song Mo's request, to allow Dou Zhao to reject marriage if she so desires, is a powerful moment in hindsight, because it shows what could have been. The Empress' power does exist within the story, and could have been used to better the situation of many other women who are forced into arranged marriages with dangerous or incapable partners.
In the end, Dou Zhao's daughter is surrounded by loving, caring, and supportive people of all genders is a refreshing ending that, while still existing in a reality with patriarchal expectations, pushes the boundaries of possibility. Dou Zhao exists outside of the sole boundaries of mother/wife, happily going on a picnic while her daughter is cared for by their extended and chosen family. Song Mo and Dou Zhao leave war and the capital behind, choosing peace over the presumption that power = protection.
the way touch your heart (2019) attempted to explore and then failed to hold a consistent message about gender-based violence has me HEATED
The plotlines initially seem to say that just because a woman doesn't fit a particular expectation - why would Secretary Yang's daughter have the same coat as the bully, if she wasn't bullying? This girl who lies about everything refuses to take her charges seriously! Oh Jin Shim is a vapid, untalented actress so therefore she must be guilty of partying with drugs - that she can still be victimized; people can still be framed, bullied, and misunderstood even if they previously lie, etc.
The case of an abused woman appearing to have killed her abuser during a beating seems to explore the theme with genuinity. Is it understandable for someone to kills their abuser vs. calling for help? As Yoon Hui says herself, "should I have died instead"? Perhaps, the show hints, here is another woman being crushed by unfair social expectations...
...except, no, the abused woman actually intentionally remarried to an abusive man so she could murder him for the insurance payout, and framed a disabled man that had a crush on her to do so.
The character who comes the closest to guessing the victim's true character just so happens to be one of the most misogynistic and bullying characters in the series - Yeoreum's coworker, who mocks her upbringing, her father, and her past relationship with Se Won to her face. He also accuses her of overstepping with a case she was only given because they thought having a woman prosecutor would look better when they indict an abused woman for murder. The group of women's rights activists protesting the arrest? An inconvenience, more set dressing than an actual perspective for any of the characters to meaningfully consider.
In the first half of the show, Jung Rak puts a psychologist on the witness stand, to answer the question why a woman who has experienced abuse would ever date another abuser. By the end of the drama, this comes across less as a genuine attempt to explore the repetitive cycle of violence (and the actual reality that experiencing abuse is a risk factor for experiencing more abuse later in life), than it comes off as clumsy foreshadowing - no real victim would date an abusive man, unless it was part of a convoluted plot!
The 'framing' of a man that none of the characters are aware of, until they just so happen to cross his path, can perhaps be chalked up to poor writing - plot twists relying on coincidences that the mastermind character shouldn't have reasonably been able to rely on. But the very idea that someone would "allow themselves" to be abused, with a potential payout as a motive, is genuinely sickening.
It feels intentional that Im Yoon Hee is the only character who is depicted in scenes with significant physical injury; our beautiful main character may be drugged and stalked, but perish the thought that there be any meaningful physical or psychological depictions of that trauma.
This follows a frequent failure in media depictions of abuse, where once a character has attained the status of Victim, the narrative struggles to conceive of them as dynamic and complex enough to experience joy, romance, or the full spectrum of human behavior. A Victim can't also make spoiled, selfish, ditzy mistakes; a pretty and sweet actress crushing on her boss certainly can't also have any long-term symptoms of trauma. Physical and sexual assault is reserved for characters who become almost inhuman in depiction, whether as a Victim or when that victimhood is discarded to make them the true Monster.
Abuse culture requires us to look away from the reality of violence; whether literally (dialling up the visceral discomfort of Yoon Hui's face covered with blood and bruises), or metaphorically (that same face contorting in a sneer as she reveals her true intentions, transforming her from someone we can sympathize with to someone we must despise).
In an abuse culture, a Victim isn't, in fact, a Victim - whether because her trauma can be erased within 40 minutes through the love of a good man, or because she never was one at all.
Among the many things i love about blossom (2024) is how clearly it depicts the different ways that men fail the women they claim to love. By refusing to fully see the women characters as complex humans, vs. as mere tools or extensions of their own desires and goals, their relationships are doomed. The men who support, encourage, and protect the rights of women - making their own desires and egos secondary - are the only characters who experience true, honest love within the narrative.
Spoilers below:
Dou Zhao's father not only very obviously betrayed his first wife to serve his own desires; but also mistreated his mother for her leaving an abusive marriage, which is influenced by his father and brother's belief in men's entitlement at the expense of women's safety. He loses his daughter's respect because he does nothing to protect her from the long-term abuse and schemes of his second wife and brother, as he sees DZ largely as an extension of his own regret and shame over her mother's suicide. Him cheating with Ying Xue while he is in the capital taking the scholar's exam ties together his political ambitions with his carelessness as a father/husband.
He disregards the ways his second wife Ying Xue sacrificed her reputation in order to provide for her family, which only further sours their relationship and reinforces her hatred of DZ. Ying Xue's genuine love and desire for him is merely a reflection of his own guilt and shame.
While his and DZ's relationship improves, it is only when he makes committed decisions that prioritize the rights of others over trying to avoid the emotional consequences of his mistakes - depicted by his beating the drum for Song Mo towards the end, choosing the truth over his own reputation.
By dehumanizing women in the narrative, the men of the show feel justified in exploiting, discarding, controlling, and failing them.
Wei Ting Yu is perhaps the best example of this concept - in his first life, he not only degrades his relationship with Dou Zhao by cheating with her sister, but actively participates in a campaign to have her framed and murdered. The justification for this is simply that he resents her capability, and does not have romantic feelings for her - therefore, she ceases to matter as a human being. In his second life, he is less scheming but still dooms both himself and Ming through his constant centering of his own desires and comfort.
Scene after scene depicts his inability to follow through and act with consideration for the object of his romantic intentions. He refuses to complete the hunt, which despite charming Ming on the surface, foreshadows his inability to provide for a family if it is at all uncomfortable. He gives Ming the gold knot and states they could die together if they can't live together - something that we see her actually use to attempt suicide, while he simply mopes his way through his wedding - at least until it's revealed that it is Ming, and not Dou Zhao who completed the ceremony. Ming's courage at stealing her sister's intended husband (unwanted though he was) is not matched by WTY in any way.
When Ming suffers a miscarriage and is contemplating divorce, his apologies still have a self-absorbed flavor - slapping himself in the face and begging her to reconsider, despite being well aware that their options are either poverty or resigning Ming to more abuse at the hands of her sister-in-law. Ming's grief, exhaustion, and pain is secondary to his own desire to ensure she remains his wife.
Despite all of the love he claims to have for Ming, WTY continues to selfishly prioritize his own interests and ego - which not only dooms Ming, but denizens of the city and, in the end, himself.
Song Yi Chun is a more straightforward example - literally discarding, aka murdering, his wife and daughter to uplift the son and woman he truly wanted to be with. He abuses and attempts to frame/murder Song Mo, simply because SM is the son of a woman who was better off dead to him. He considers DZ initially as simply another tool to torture his son with; and, later, a threat due to her rumored pregnancy. The fact his misdeeds are revealed through the testimony of a traumatized maidservant, someone to whom he would never spare a single thought, reinforces the theme of uplifting marginalized voices (a mentally ill working class woman) in order for the happy ending to be possible. Song Yi Chun depicts a dangerous level of entitlement - his wife and her children are inconvenient, and so they are all his to abuse and discard at will.
Song Han inherits his father's beliefs in the worst possible way; initially passive (he asks his father not to let the bandits into DZ's side of the house, but notably refuses to attempt to warn or rescue her), he becomes deeply entitled to the idea of an upper-class position upon the revelation of his true parentage. His request of the Emperor to marry the princess is not outrageous simply because of their class divide, but in that he sees the marriage only in a manner in which he can benefit, with the feelings, personality, and desires of the woman involved to be irrelevant. Miao Ansu being made an honorary princess for the purpose of being his bride demonstrates the ease with which women's roles are defined, and redefined, for the political and social benefit of the male characters.
Song Han takes control of the relationship in many ways, including determining which of her financially abusive family lives or dies, never considering her own thoughts and feelings on the matter. He kisses her suddenly and aggressively. He manipulates her friendship with DZ and physically abuses her, never taking full responsibility over blaming it on paranoia. However, Miao Ansu ends the show by resetting the power dynamic - by taking Song Han's life and allying herself with Dou Zhao. Song Han's claim of love is irrelevant to the ways he has betrayed her.
Notably, Song Han's physical abuse of Ansu is mirrored as Song Mo's worst fear, a vision used to torture him - the idea of harming Dou Zhao. Of all the men in Blossom, Song Mo is the hero because of his consistency in humanizing the women in the show.
Song Mo and Dou Zhao's first encounter in the show, when he is at his most inhuman and yet still comes to her, a stranger's aid, marks feminism as a core value that makes him a hero character. The weapon he carries is his mother's. Saving his uncle's newborn child, at the request of his aunt, is worth risking his and many others' lives for. In an underrated moment, he accurately depicts her handwriting to not only mimic her being forced to use her non-dominant hand, but the character she uses to reference her beloved mother's name - because she is a person who has grieved and sacrificed in ways that so many people don't notice. That's a layer of understanding, of romance, that completely outpaces Wei Ting Yu watching Ming stare at a butterfly.
To protect Dou Zhao from a forced marriage does not mean marrying her himself, but giving her the choice and power to never marry at all. Dou Zhao's happiness, and her future, is a separate thing from his own - unless she decides that the two should be connected.
He burns his own hand in order to place DZ's mother's lost bracelet on her wrist, because the wedding traditions don't define their marriage - her happiness does. His constant yearning for a warm and loving family comes second to whether Dou Zhao would want/could safely carry a child. And in each scene where Dou Zhao demonstrates her capabilities of political maneuvering, he expresses clear admiration - crucially, without revelling in the ways he personally will benefit. Their happy ending is not for him to be a politically untouchable general (his brother's dream), or to be a rich in the capital (Wei Ting Yu and, to some degree, DZ's father's dream) - it is to return to the country with their children and loved ones and to have mutual safety, together.
Title of a book you own that's in the worst physical condition you have. Explain what happened to it. Post a picture if you want.
A paperback copy of Trumpet of the Swan from elementary school - due to being old/fragile, probably shoved in a backpack at some point, etc., part of the cover is missing and some of the pages are bent. Otherwise, I take good care of my books.
I like _____, recommend me a book to read, please!
I like historical queer fiction and yearning relationships (esp where they go from friends/collaborators to lovers).
stein and marie legit have THE MOST unconventional, totally bonkers pathway to getting together. imagine you're a child who moves to Nevada to attend magic powers boarding school because you have magic powers and there you meet your friend group and one of them is this boy who is definitely ostracized from the rest of the school because he scares everyone and you're like 'fuck you, actually, that's my future husband!' and you're friends for years even when you find out that he was legit dissecting his roommate in his sleep which throws the whole friend group into disarray but doesn't really affect your crush on him so you're still close and anyway eventually you graduate and move to Australia because you landed a job immediately because you're exceptional at what you do and he is too but he ends up sequestering himself in his laboratory in Nevada and distancing from everyone because he's a tortured genius and he DOESN'T EVEN CALL
so you're like okay cool, childhood crush was for childhood, i'm grown now, and you live a good 10 years dating scrubs who disappoint you until you're like 28 and suddenly get called back to Nevada because uhoh! the world is in danger! and surprise! you're partnered with your childhood crush who is somehow like 7 feet tall now??? because your boss (who is the God of Death, don't worry about it, this is normal) is worried this dude will just snap one day so he's like 'hey, you have a calming presence, the two of you should partner together' and you end up living together and working as teachers at the same school you went to once and getting all cozy together and everything is going okay until your ex shows up and you plan to go on a date and catch up and then OH NO he's MURDERED
and everyone's like 'yeah, your partner did it' but your friend group as a child (who are also all there) are like 'listen, i don't think he did it. we're gonna send him off to find who the real killer is' and you're like 'i'm going with him' even tho your friend tells you that's maybe not a good idea but you don't care so the two of you go on the RUN FROM THE LAW together and end up hooking up (whether this is before or after you find out he didn't actually kill your ex is unclear, but enough about that) so now you're sleeping with your childhood crush and partner but you can'T TELL ANYONE so you keep your relationship a secret and uhoh you got preggo spaghetti-o and STILL don't tell anyone because there is a battle for the earth's survival happening on the moon and you're not gonna miss that shit!!!
so the two of you fight together on the moon to save the world and you avenge your ex by killing the person who murdered him (who is like. . .a teenager dressed as a priest who slowly started transforming into a creepy clown because he was being corrupted but anyway) once you do that your partner asks you to go back because it's dangerous as hell and you've done what you came to do and you're like fine, okay, but then things get dicey and you end up transforming into a hammer (which is your magical power, but enough about that) and getting thrown back onto the moon to keep fighting and then it looks like you're going to die up there whilst he's back down on earth and in an absolute hail mary you get sent back to earth and survive and you and him watch the celebrations because you did it!!! you helped saved the world!!! and he lets it slip to your friends and your new boss (who is the son of the God of Death, don't worry about it) that you're preggo and he's the daddy and the two of you live happy ever after in the laboratory you helped make a home
and that's what Marie Mjolnir lived through and you expect me NOT to stan???
can we please acknowledge that tma/tme is a meaningful distinction? a justice of the US supreme court is openly saying that it's legal to discriminate against trans women because the same laws do not target trans men. the transmisogyny is what makes it permissible. your transphobia is fine as long as it has carveouts for men.
Fascinating parallel here. This incapacity of the legal framework to protect groups who are at the intersection of two protected groups (trans women in this case, black women in the original) even while protecting both groups individually is Crenshaw's original reason for coining the word "intersectionality", which has since gone through the wringer.
I want to clear up a mistake people make with Azula and Ursa.
Ursa didn’t play favorites.
Ursa didn’t think Azula was a monster.
Ursa simply, unequivocally, just didn’t enable Azula’s worst traits like Ozai did.
Ozai’s favorite child was Azula, but Ursa still loved her more.
Because enabling isn’t love.
What did Ozai’s enabling do? It made Azula into the type of person to never have any loyal friends. It made the type of person that Mai and Tai Lee would betray at the risk of their own lives.
Ursa pushed Azula to be with her friends. To be with Zuko. Ozai pushed Ursa away, and both kids suffered for it. Azula became a sadist, enjoying seeing her brother get burned—while Zuko was pushed away because he cared for his people.
Azula thought her mom hated her because her mom was the only one who cared enough to tell her no.
Mai being presented as an apathetic and uncaring character but then upon closer look you see that she’s like that because
(a) her parents incentivized her to be quiet
(b) she grew up with a scheming sneaky politician father and sees the way he uses people
(c) she grew up watching Azula take any information about someone and find a way to use it against them
And so you actually realize that she’s not apathetic but is severely repressed as a form of self-preservation
THEN once she finally has a relationship where she’s not being used, she learns that this survival method of repression is negatively affecting the one relationship that she’s chosen for herself…
All of this culminates in her being willing to shed this long held means of survival to in order save Zuko all while knowing she’s opening herself up to destruction…
What a scrumptious delicious MEAL of a character for her to be hated, mischaracterized, misunderstood, disrespected and invalidated for the past TWENTY YEARS and now we’re seeing it happen AGAIN in live action
The Bill hasn't passed yet; however it is very likely. Turkey just shut down the social media accounts of LGBT+ organizations, and quietly banned/"made not possible to see" multiple dating apps for LGBT people such as Taimi. These are small steps leading up to this. Just less than a year ago the distribution of Estrogen was made ten times harder and hormone replacement therapy laws upped the transitioning age from 18 to 21. Please speak for us.
Now a third of the way through A Power Unbound and
Maud to the authorities, for at least the fourth time in the series: Lord Hawthorn will clear things up right away!
Lord Hawthorn, dragged out of his house because the medium he has taken on as a surrogate little sister went to a cemetery and got turbo-possessed, forcing the righteously hostile porn peddler he is trying not to want to fuck to punch her unconscious in front of a cop:
Come to think of it, it really is insane that my entire country is burning alive and literally no one in the rest of the world cares. Thousands of Indians are dying every day from the heat, it's 45+ degrees in multiple areas, the government couldn't give two fucks, we're getting severe warnings and red alerts, and not a soul outside of South Asia is speaking about it because why would you ever care about brown people
USA folks, that is a consistent temperature range hitting 113°. Death Valley temperatures. In Banda, it hovered between 116°-118° (47°-48° C) for a week straight.
This has been happening all month with little to no international media attention. Here are a few organizations you can check out for resources or to support:
Venezuela was hit by two earthquakes yesterday, a 7.2 and a 7.5. Many parts of the country have been reduced to rubble, and areas of Caracas have been flattened. Their infrastructure has already been under immense strain. Here's how you can help:
