Bright Shadows Surround Me

Your scent clings to my skin.......................................... it's tainting all my memories........................................... and I can't escape from it............................................... with every breath............................................................. you're haunting me.......................................................... Support Me on Ko-fi 💖

[blueboxfive]

[thatdorianguy]

the sound is a very important aspect of this

[quantum-dragon]

[tharenia]

two pretty best friends

[hatbabo]

summer nostalgia

[beemovieerotica]

people who are just finding out about internet tracking and data mining in the year 2025 and that your special robot friend does not respect your privacy lol

[herbirdglitter]

The ehlers danlos syndrome person to historical costumer pipeline is or will be a thing and I shall explain why.

At some point one discovers that some sort of supportive structure around your torso feels incredibly comfortable and gives your tired muscles a rest. What’s the coolest and most non obtrusive torso bracing garment? A corset. Believe me when I say that when your torso has the structural integrity of a wet sack of jello, a tightly laced corset makes you feel like a god.

And because historical corsets tend to be more comfortable and are usually made with regular wear in mind, they are the natural choice.

Then you have the shoes. What shoes is someone with unstable ankles supposed to wear, you ask?Lace up boots, for stability. And due to their middle of the heel heel placement, historical lace up boots tend to be way more comfortable than the modern variety.Even the non healed ones, really. Couple that with the fact that Edwardian and Victorian boots are really really pretty…

And after the boots and the corset, it’s a very slippery slope.

Pretty soon you’ll be wondering how to hide your corset under your clothes for when an outer corset is not the vibe, and you’ll be buying yourself a corset cover. Or making one yourself. They’re a great starter project. But that looks weird with a fitted top so cool flowy blouse it is.

Then you realize wearing this with a skirt makes you feel intensely powerful but you don’t want to keep tripping over it so you add petticoats.

And then you realize your neck isn’t so great at holding up your head so you really need to find a hairstyle where your hair sits on top of your head instead of to the sides or to the back so that it’s balanced and you don’t get a neck ache. A high bun it is. Not too tightly, because your scalp is sensitive, but a high bun still works if you bobby-pin it in place.

And then one day, you look in the mirror and you’re dressed like Anne of Green Gables.

And you’ve never looked cooler.

[vintageeveryday]

Back in 1942, when making a bad cup of tea may have been grounds for a divorce…

[hollowboobtheory]

You see 👀 teas grown in hot 🌞 valleys ripen too fast ⏱️🏃‍♂️ so they taste FLAT But Lipton 📦 uses teas 🌳 grown on cooler 🌡❄️ slopes… teas that ripen SLOW ⏰️😴 and gain rich FULL flavor ☕️😚 this special flavor ☕️ has made Lipton 📦 America’s 🗽 largest selling tea.

[feministism]

[swiftlywiththefoxes-deactivated]

January 2019:

[suite-dee-reynolds]

I lost weight when I went on my medication initially because it made me very sick and when I told people that was why, more than a couple would say stuff like “I wish I could get some of that” like you want a weird disorder that is awful and to be violently ill? just to be skinnier?

[existentialismandmakeup]

“After I got the biopsies, they did another mammogram. And I had to have my shirt off. And I was standing there at the machine. And the technician said, oh my gosh, you have such a flat stomach. What is your secret? And I was like, oh, I’m dying.“

-Tig Notaro

[theconcealedweapon]

More proof that the ideal of thinness never had anything to do with health.

[reaqartz]

Dancing King 🙏

[caitmayart]

Feeling rough lately.

[thelocalmuffin]

Hey everyone, I know it's going to be a busy day for a lot of people, but Google enrolled everyone over 18 into their AI program automatically.

If you have a google account, first go to gemini.google.com/extensions and turn everything off.

Then you need to go to myactivity.google.com/product/gemini and turn off all Gemini activity tracking. You do have to do them in that order to make sure it works.

Honestly, I'm not sure how long this will last, but this should keep Gemini off your projects for a bit.

I saw this over on bluesky and figured it would be good to spread on here. It only takes a few minutes to do.

[yeahwrite]

Writers: It's asking to read your Google Docs and be able to 'summarize' things from them and such things. I just turned all mine off.

[last-starry-sky]

Because this isn't mentioned above, also go to google.com/drive/settings and turn off all the annoying bits that interface directly with docs there.

This is all in the "privacy" tab of your settings. How fun that everything is hidden two layers deep. 🙄 This DOESN'T get rid of the stupid little star constantly asking you to use it, unfortunately, but that's what the picker in ublock is for. 😉

[buf309]

More detail instructions for OP's post for those who are confused. This is done from the browser on my laptop, I don't know what they look like on phones.

When you click the first link gemini.google.com/extensions, you need to click on the setting icon at the bottom, then choose "Extension", like this:

Scroll down a bit, you will see the options, turn them all off.

Then, you click on the second link myactivity.google.com/product/gemini, you'll see it tells you that it's already "turn off". NO! IT'S NOT! You have to click on that "Turn off" option, it'll drop down a menu like this:

Turn that thing off. Until that button shows you have to click to turn it back on like this:

And then, click on the delete button down there too, even if it says there's nothing to delete, just do it as a caution.

After you's done with those two. You go to your Drive, find the Setting button.

Click on the "Privacy" tab, choose the button "Manage Workspace smart feature setting"

Tick both of those off, then click Save. Or if you still want to use Google AI assistant for some reasons, please read the fine lines very very carefully.

Only then, you can feel safe enough with this force AI assistant bullshit. FOR NOW 🤡 All these steps still can't get rid of that Gemini blinkblink icon though >:(((((

Repeat for every one of your google accounts 💀

[wheahead-deactivated20260112]

Ok, do I adore jarthur getting separate bodies and immediately becoming the clingiest fuckers known to man and beast? Absolutely. However.

What if John gets his own body, his own piece of humanity won with whatever blood and tears he could lay claim to. He reaches out, with two hands this time and yet with still the same intent as a hundred desperate cries before, finally gets to see his friend, finally gets to touch him with a hand unshadowed by its implications and-

Arthur flinches. Jerks away, his body reacting like a thing which cannot run but cannot bear to simply be slaughtered. He apologizes, that ever present tension running up his voice, and it's brushed away with every other singularity of two souls being rent apart.

And then it happens again

And again

And it doesn't stop happening.

Because to Arthur, much as he wishes to tear at the parts of himself that think it, that body is not John. John, who has been so completely and uniquely separate from physicality. John, who made himself known with the fractured mosaic of madness contained within their shared skull. John, who is a voice, and a hand, and not that voice, and not those hands.

Because to Arthur, there will always be some lingering part of him that wonders this is truly John at all. If he, as he was, as he chose, could really exist in such a tangible way. Could ever really exist in such a wholly different form.

Because to Arthur, his friend has vanished from his long held place.

Because to Arthur, this is a stranger's body.

And so few strangers have ever been kind to them.

[ilovedthestars]

I wish it wasn’t a hot take that a story in which two characters of any gender prioritize their purely platonic relationship over any other romantic or sexual interests they might have is a textually queer story

[ilovedthestars]

A lot of people really don’t understand amatonormativity as another dimension of “there is a right way to love people” that we have to dismantle.

Amatonormativity 101: Amatonormativity, a term coined by Elizabeth Brake, is the very prevalent idea that there is one relationship type that is above all others. This relationship is an exclusive/monogamous, committed, romantic and sexual relationship.

According to amatonormativity, this specific kind of relationship:

Is something everyone wants (or should want)

Is the most fulfilling relationship it is possible to have

Takes precedence over all other relationships in your life

This goes hand in hand with heteronormativity, which says that this ideal relationship also has to be straight. But if you remove that part, all the normative forces of amatonormativity still exist. And they suck for just about everyone! Amatonormativity says aromantic and asexual people will never experience the “highest” form of love. It says single people are inherently less happy than people in a romantic relationship and should always be actively looking for one. It says sex without romance or romance without sex are both lacking a fundamental part of an ideal relationship. It says polyamorous people are failing to choose the one person they can be fully devoted to. It says that your monogamous, committed, romantic/sexual partner is the most important person in your life—more important than your family, your best friend you’ve known all your life, etc.

I hope we can all agree that is something queer people, and also people in general, would benefit from dismantling!

Now let me talk about an example of what I was referring to in the original post.

If you’re not familiar, Elementary is a TV series based on the Sherlock Holmes stories. It’s a modern day adaptation featuring Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective for the NYPD, and Joan (rather than John) Watson, his sober companion and eventually detective partner.

Sherlock has many casual sexual relationships with women throughout the series, while Joan has a string of romantic relationships with men. Neither of them is textually queer (although Sherlock feels very aromantic-coded, if unintentionally, and I personally think an aro reading of both characters has merit).

However, the two of them share a relationship that defies amatonormativity. Sherlock and Joan share almost every part of their lives together—first because Joan is monitoring Sherlock to help maintain his sobriety, but soon because they have actively chosen to remain in each other’s lives. They eventually become partners as detectives but are also functionally life partners, living together, sharing their resources, taking care of each other emotionally and physically. At multiple turning points in the story, they express their love for each other. Throughout this progression, their relationship never becomes romantic or sexual. While Sherlock continues to have casual sex and Joan continues to go on dates, it’s clear that Sherlock and Joan remain each other’s most important person.

This relationship defies amatonormativity, and in my opinion that makes it queer. Queer as in breaking boundaries, defying norms, challenging the idea that there is any right or wrong way to love someone.

Now it’s time for my real hot take. There is a reason I used Elementary as an example, instead of the many other pieces of fiction that have a very similar dynamic between two characters of the same gender.

Those stories—stories that center a platonic relationship between two characters of the same gender, a relationship that remains platonic but is deep, devoted, and prioritized over other relationships in the character’s lives—are textually queer. They are not textually gay (although yes, many of them are subtextually gay). But that does not stop them from being queer stories.

If you want to read into whatever subtext might be there and interpret that relationship as a gay romantic/sexual relationship, that's great. But I wish more people shared my opinion that this is not making a previously normative story into a queer one. Usually, it’s trading heteronormativity for amatonormativity, creating a relationship that defies different norms.

I’m not saying that one or the other interpretation is more valuable (in general—which one is most meaningful to you is a personal preference). I think they’re both queer interpretations of the story. However, given how often stories like the ones I’m describing get accused of “queerbaiting” or simply “not being canonically queer,” I’m pretty sure my opinion on this is not widely shared.

In conclusion: Queerness is a much broader set of concepts than just gay romance. We should consider amatonormativity another dimension of oppression that queerness is in opposition to. Ship or don’t ship whatever is more fun or meaningful to you but please don’t assign moral righteousness to one kind of queerness while erasing another. Also, please be nice to aro and ace people, we already have enough to deal with. I wish none of this was a hot take. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[deenigma]

Viktor study?

Viktor study.

[tofindloveinpoison]

First thoughts on Malevolent:

I think there is a reason this appeal to queer people so much (or maybe more than one): Arthur’s story is queer, even if he is not, because he is a man living a female fear.

Let me explain: his body is host to a creature that needs him to be alive to effectively survive. But the way he deals with it is What is interesting: he does not want to get rid of John as if he were a parasite, he wants to be safety separated from him. He wants his autonomy back but also wants John to be safe and have his own autonomy.

This kind of experience is closer to an unexpected pregnancy than a demonic posession.

On top of that he mentions having dressed up in his mother’s clothing as a child, further tying him to femininity. And also the way Kayne speaks about him and John.

He might not be queer but he is dripping in queer themes.

[renthony]

You won't get media with messier, more nuanced, more realistic queer characters if you keep flying off the handle the second a fictional character has sex, does drugs, swears too much, or acts vaguely like an asshole.

You won't get more diverse queer media with wider stories if you can't handle it when queer artists make art that is raunchy, crude, edgy, and gross.

You won't get more diverse queer media if you shut everything down the second it does something you, personally, get squicked out by.

You will never get more diverse queer media if you contribute to the way queer media is picked apart, raked over the coals, and held to unreasonably high standards.

You will never get what you want if you keep tearing queer artists down for their weird experimental art instead of learning how to say, "this isn't for me, that's fine, and I'll be over here in my own space."

[captaincravatthecapricious]

Suggested listening: Well… better than the alternative