javert thee railed

the medallion is also confirmed to be st christopher: the patron saint of travelers. it’s a symbol of good luck, guidance and protection on a journey

so you know. i’m really normal and fine about this

This is how Project Hail Mary went, right?

If you’ll all pardon my Americentrism for a moment, the amount, visibility, and flamboyance of Pride merch available in clothing, home goods, and comestibles stores is a DIRECT reflection of how safe it is to be queer in public in the United States.

How? Simple. Out groups aren’t profitable. If you’re not “acceptable” in the current social climate, big franchise businesses will not market to you. (Prime example - Look how quickly Target dropped all their Pride merch after having been wall-to-wall rainbows every June for almost a decade prior.)

Sure, capitalism sucks and being viewed as an exploitable marketing demographic isn’t a fun concept.

HOWEVER.

The grim truth is that being normalized enough to be considered profitable by corporations IS A GOOD THING in terms of the barometer of social acceptance.

Same thing goes for smaller businesses that throw kitschy Pride events or even just put a token rainbow flag in the window or somewhere inside the shop. That’s a level of acceptance that DID NOT EXIST thirty years ago, and I can tell you because I was there.

The fact that we can scoff and bitch about being an exploitable marketing demographic nowadays means we have made GIGANTIC strides since the 1990s. It also speaks to the fact that the drive and the conversation surrounding LGBTQ+ rights and acceptance are continuing. And getting louder.

You can be cynical about it if you want. But I will take a store that puts out lip-service rainbow merch over a world that pretends we don’t exist any day of the week. Because that will always mean something.

Yet, when they start being included, they are like “well, that’s just capitalism taking advantage of us, so it doesn’t count.” Like, you can’t use your EXCLUSION from something as evidence of general societal marginalization and then claim that once you’ve started to be included, it is politically meaningless. You don’t really get to have it both ways. That’s moving the political goal posts.

I get that we shouldn’t consider Target pride merchandise as like the pinnacle of queer politics or even the pinnacle of queer inclusion. I get that inclusion in capitalist intuitions is a very ambivalent form of social progress. But the truth is, capitalism is a big part of what creates our social reality right now (unfortunately).

Capitalism makes TV shows, and movies, and books, and ads, and greeting cards, and toys, and clothing, and, and…

When every single aspect of commercial social reality excludes queerness, that DOES create a real sense of social alienation. I don’t love that capitalism is responsible for creating so much of our collective social reality. But granting that it does, I think we’re forced to accept that our inclusion in it IS politically and socially important.

❤️ Madame Magloire/Baptistine Myriel ❤️

Apparently, Maglistine is a rarepair. Rare! Goes to show that none of us here have good taste.

These two old women spend their lives together, in a quaint little town, with their pet bishop. Must I convince you that they are married?

Eva Motherfucking Stratt

Everyone forgets (especially movie fans since I don’t think they even brought it up for y’all) that Stratt wasn’t a scientist like the rest of her crew. Sure, she was definitely smart enough to understand most of what they told her, but it wasn’t her field of study. She wasn’t a biologist or a chemist or an astrophysicist, she was a historian. She was also recommended for the project because she was an incredibly talented diplomat. Canonically, she’s fluent in at least seven languages, and probably speaks several more- give her a day, and she’ll understand Eridian almost as well as Grace. The atmospheric testing, the experimentation with Xenonite, that’s all her crew. But getting to know an alien race, learning all about their language and their history and their culture? That’s her thing, right there.

🔹If someone else's fiction is causing you emotional or psychological harm, or distress, you can put it down and not read/watch it.

🔹Your emotional well-being is not the responsibility of fiction writers.

🔹Someone else's fiction is not about your personal trauma.

🔹When reading or watching fiction, you always have the power. You can always stop. You are never reading fiction without your own consent.

🔹Fiction writers are not responsible for other people's mental health.

🔹The content of a piece of fiction does not reflect on the morality of its author.

🔹Just because someone writes about bad things happening, doesn't mean they want those things to happen.

-discomfort is not the same as harm and acclimating yourself via fiction to strongly unpleasant emotions such as sorrow, indignation, and disgust will make you stronger and healthier