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Taglists for the WIPs in the individual posts. To sign up for any of the taglists, please fill out this form. I will also share snippets and crumbs from projects other than these three as well. Those will be tagged with timis other stories, but I'll make them a masterpost someday for organisation purposes. ♡
Is there another Mandela Catalogue discord floating out there?? 👀
//might not be able to thread but I can send cursed inbox stuff >:3
ooc. ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, dunno why everyone wants to hear my tired ass and hoarse voice, but i’m going to do the rest of these voice memes tomorrow after college! sorry for the abrupt end, but i honestly can’t do these anymore and i’d rather not actually half ass these things out.
Double Standards
There are two parallel situations I’ve been thinking about for quite some time: the two babygates and solo Harry vs. solo Zayn. * **
Babygates
*** I find it so interesting that the same people who ripped apart all the inconsistencies with bg 1 are those who look at bg 2 and are like, yep, sounds plausible to me.
Both babygates follow the exact same formula of either The Sun or Dailymail revealing the exclusive relationship, a way too early pregnancy announcement, a father that is seemingly detached from it, and none of the band members participating in it.
The only difference is in one, you have a fame hungry family and a faked pregnancy. In the other, you have a fame hungry woman and a real pregnancy. In fact, the formula of a fake relationship between Cheryl and Liam was so obvious that everyone mocked it. No one believed it. But suddenly, the minute we figured out Cheryl was actually pregnant, people were like, oh, I guess that means Liam’s the father.
What??
What??
And this is where the double standards set in.
In Louis’ situation, I read numerous times how, “Louis is a 24 yr, famous artist, in the biggest band, just about to start his solo career. There would be no way that he’d risk all of that to have a kid.”
But, what? Liam would? Liam, who actually has solo music coming (at the time of bg 1, Louis didn’t have solo plans) is going to be promoting his music, touring, focusing on his career - he would risk all of that to have a kid? A kid he’s apparently very committed to, but at the same time won’t even be around given the promotion of his solo career.
Let’s also not forget that Liam and Cheryl had been ‘dating’ for a few months when the pregnancy rumours started swirling. Liam who had just gotten out of a ‘long term relationship’ just jumped into another with a woman multiple years older, and not be married, no actual commitment, but be like cool, yeah, let’s have a kid.
In fact, if you look at the situations, the story that Louis had a one night stand and got a random pregnant, is actually more plausible than Liam dating Cheryl for a few months and deciding to father her child and commit his life to her.
So, it begs the question, why does the fandom believe that Louis would be too smart to get himself in such a situation, but Liam wouldn’t?
(Also the fact that Briana clearly wasn’t pregnant, yet Cheryl clearly was – that doesn’t count as a reason to believe bg 2. Because IVF is a thing.)
Solo Harry vs. Solo Zayn
This one has been irking me for a long time. In fact, ever since Harry outright said that he was the one who came up with the hiatus in 2014, yet for some random reason, Zayn was the one who left first?
I’ve seen a lot of people using solo Harry promo as evidence that look he LOVES One Direction. He dedicated an entire segment of his movie to the boys. He talks to his boys all the time. He’s a true 1D stan.
Yes, I’m aware that a lot of this is in retaliation to the perpetual rumours that Harry hated being in the band. But it’s interesting that the smallest examples of 1D love are raised as gospel.
Where as for Zayn:
A wall in his house:
So why the discrepancy?
(I know that the Twitter fight between Zouis and the #realmusic left a horrible taste in everyone’s mouth. I also know at that time (when I actually wasn’t privy to the I heart Zayn side of the fandom), I had laughed at all of it and been like, lawls, they expect us to believe this twitter fight? They expect us to believe that Zayn’s actually tweeting that shit?
Imagine my surprise when, oh hey, people actually believed it!
Isn’t it interesting that we shouldn’t believe everything that print Harry says? Isn’t it interesting that we shouldn’t believe everything that SM Louis says/ does? Isn’t it interesting that we should believe that the boys are in some ridiculous contract that would create a fake baby and fake relationships? That this contract is so ruthless that they wouldn’t let Niall take time off his knee surgery, didn’t care how they were working underage boys to the ground, all in hopes of some money.
But wait.
How come people do believe the shit that print Zayn says? How come people do believe the shit that Zayn tweets? How come people do think that this contract and big, bad, Simon Cowell suddenly grew a heart when he looked at Zayn and realised he was unhappy making music?
Like, oh poor Harry and Louis they want to be together, but if they do, my profits will go down so I will force them apart. Poor Niall, he needs some time to fix his knee, but if he does, that means cancelled shows, my profits will go down, so I won’t let him get the proper medical attention he needs. Poor boys, they’re so tired, they barely sleep, they’re constantly working, but if I allow them to rest, my profits will go down, so I’ll force them to keep going. Oh poor Zayn, this music is definitely not what he likes, I’ve already forced him into four albums, and if he leaves, he’s sure to take a chunk of the Asian market, so my profits will go down***, so I’ll force him to – oh actually, never mind. I’ll actually let him leave.
I’m sorry, what? Do people actually look at these situations and go, yeah that makes complete sense??)
I find this interesting because there are so many times when Zayn and Harry have said the exact same thing, how they are making music that is truly theirs, how they’re finally getting to the sound that they want to listen to. Yet one is praised for staying true to himself (despite some controversial songs) and the other is despised for making music he enjoys.
What was the point of this? To say that it doesn’t matter if one of the boys aren’t your faves. You don’t have to love Liam as much as you love Louis. You don’t have to love, heck, even tolerate Zayn as much as you tolerate Harry. But you should at least extend the same level of analysis and critical thinking to the band as a whole.
When you are quick to judge other people for believing a het!Harry narrative, or a Harry hates 1D narrative, or a het!dad!Louis narrative, and tell them to look at the facts, think critically, think logically, use your goddman brain, yet refuse to do the same for other members – I’m sorry but your double standards are showing.
*This is mainly the discrepancies in how people perceive each situation. I don’t know if it’s because some people either just don’t want to look into things enough, or if they genuinely believe one situation over the other. Or that people just don’t care enough about Liam and Zayn.
**This isn’t referring to people who believe everything 1DHQ says, hook, line, and sinker. At least they’re extending their beliefs equally across all boys. This is referring to those who pride themselves as being analytical and seeing the truth about certain situations, but refuse to apply that same level of thinking to others. It’s about those people who only look at certain situations and then believe 1DHQ narrative for others.
***I am intentionally ignoring the boys’ sexuality when discussing this, because I read multiple times that you don’t need to know Louis’ sexuality to dispel bg. So I’m going with that.
****A quick Google search shows that Four performed better than MITAM did.
alrIGHT I FINALLY CAVED. I’m gonna watch the bee movie for the first time guys wish me luck