Like Glitter is Exploding Inside Me

Like– the world already ended, a long time ago, and the characters are surrounded by the ruins of dead countries. They spend most of their time journeying through places that are either abandoned (Moria) soon to be abandoned (Rivendell/Lorien) or half-destroyed and falling into decay (Rohan/Gondor.) The villains are creatures that Used to be Human; I feel like Lotr’s orcs/ringwraiths have more in common with zombies than they do with DnD-style orcs, because they’re a state that “normal” people enter when they’re corrupted by a supernatural force.

Even the Shire is surrounded by ruins– the ruins of watchtowers, the ruins of the old Northern Kingdom, the ruined city near the Grey Havens. The people around there have an idiom “when the king comes back” that means the same thing as an idiom like “when pigs fly”–  “when a completely ridiculous improbable thing happens.” They’re so used to the disintegrated state of the world that the idea of a central government is fairy-tale-like and bizarre. They have their little mayors and thains; they don’t need anything else.

So yeah! I see people try to “modern-real-world- au” versions of Hobbiton by making it “a peaceful suburb” but to me, a modern au version of Hobbiton would be more like…….

You are a hobbit.

You don’t know much history, but you understand that there were Wars a long time ago that destroyed a great amount of life on earth.

You live in a little hole in the ground. You don’t know that long ago these holes used to be called “bunkers;” you decorate them with flowers.

When you want to say that something won’t happen, you’ll sarcastically say things “lol yeah SURE that will happen! And tomorrow pigs will fly, Parliament will come back into session, there will be a president in the White House, there will be a prime minister making speeches, and diplomats will intercede between all of them! ha! XD”

If you journey even a little outside of your home, you’ll find the ruins of old cities and skyscrapers. There are messages in the ruins that are written in languages you don’t speak. Human beings used to live here; they don’t anymore.

captain K.P hob and delloso de la rue as frederic william burton’s the meeting on the turret stairs.

BIRDS: EXPOSED

[x] Bonus:

‘Queer’ was reclaimed as an umbrella term for people identifying as not-heterosexual and/or not-cisgender in the early 1980s, but being queer is more than just being non-straight/non-cis; it’s a political and ideological statement, a label asserting an identity distinct from gay and/or traditional gender identities.People identifying as queer are typically not cis gays or cis lesbians, but bi, pan, ace, trans, nonbinary, intersex, etc.: we’re the silent/ced letters. We’re the marginalised majority within the LGBTQIA+ community, and‘queer’ is our rallying cry.

And that’s equally pissing off and terrifying terfs and cis LGs.

There’s absolutely no historical or sociolinguistic reason why ‘queer’ should be a worse slur than ‘gay.’ Remember how we had all those campaigns to make people stop using ‘gay’ as a synonym for ‘bad’?

Yet nobody is suggesting we should abolish ‘gay’ as a label. We accept that even though ‘gay’ sometimes is and historically frequently was used in a derogatory manner, mlm individuals have the right to use that word. We have ad campaigns, twitter hashtags, and viral Facebook posts defending ‘gay’ as an identity label and asking people to stop using it as a slur.

Whereas ‘queer’ is treated exactly opposite: a small but vocal group of people within feminist and LGBTQIA+ circles insists that it’s a slur and demands that others to stop using it as a personal, self-chosen identity label.

Why?

Because “queer is a slur” was invented by terfs specifically to exclude trans, nonbinary, and intersex people from feminist and non-heterosexual discourse, and was subsequently adopted by cis gays and cis lesbians to exclude bi/pan and ace people.

It’s classic divide-and-conquer tactics: when our umbrella term is redefined as a slur and we’re harassed into silence for using it, we no longer have a word for what we are allowing us to organise for social/political/economic support; we are denied the opportunity to influence or shape the spaces we inhabit; we can’t challenge existing community power structures; we’re erased from our own history.

I’m not kidding. Cis LGs have literally taken historical evidence of queer people’s involvement in the LGBT rights struggle and photoshopped it to erase us:

Pro tip: when you alter historical evidence to deny a marginalised group empowerment, you’re one of the bad guys.

“Queer is a slur” is used by terfs and cis gays/lesbians to silence the voices of trans/nonbinary/intersex/bi/pan/ace people in society and even within our own communities, to isolate us and shame us for existing.

“Queer is a slur” is saying “I am offended by people who do not conform to traditional gender or sexual identities because they are not sexually available to me or validate my personal identity.”

“Queer is a slur” is defending heteronormativity.

“Queer is a slur” is frankly embarrassing. It’s an admission of ignorance and prejudice. It’s an insidious discriminatory discourse parroted uncritically in support of a divisive us-vs-them mentality targeting the most vulnerable members of the LGBTQIA+ community for lack of courage to confront the white cis straight men who pose an actual danger to us as individuals and as a community.

Tl;dr:

Don’t be fooled by the black and white, this picture is from the early 1990s. I believe Queer Nation itself was founded in 1991.

Same group, but I want you to look at that slogan at the bottom. That was the movement’s rallying cry for YEARS. L, G, B, T, Q, I, and A. All of us. That’s what we screamed when we were dying of AIDS and what we screamed when we were being beaten to death and what we screamed demanding the right to see our partners in the hospital. I’ve personally screamed a variant of it, “we’re here, we’re queer, we want our civil rights” marching down Pennsylvania Avenue with thousands of other queers demanding marriage equality and an end to queer-discriminated adoption. (You’re fucking welcome.) This slogan was often paired with “not gay as in happy, but queer as in fuck you.”

Show from 1999. Around the same time, there was a show on called “The L Word.” That’s right–“queer” was more acceptable than “lesbian.”

2003.

Learn your history. “Queer is a slur” only if you’re a TERF. Otherwise it is a blanket term over three-quarters of the community uses.

We’re here.

We’re queer.

The only vacation I’ve ever been on in my adult life was a trip to the UK that took me 3 YEARS to save up for. I had to save for money to travel and money to pay rent and money to make up for the money I wasn’t making while I was gone. I almost lost my job for demanding the time off. I used and saved 2 years worth of tax returns to be able to go (timed the trip for in March when I’d have certainly just gotten mine). It’s easy to forget the cheapest air fair we found to “cross the pond” was over 600 dollars. That’s a months rent. It’s so expensive to go anywhere that isn’t Canada or Mexico depending on which border you live close ish to.

There so much in the UK that was so cool and accessible. We ate that ?? What was it? 5 dollar meal deal? Almost every meal. A drink a main and a side??? That’s like 12 dollars minimum in America. We got to go to museums FOR FREE!??!!! That still blows my mind. That’s easily 40 bucks in America. And the churches were historical sites ALSO for free. For free we got to walk around the oldest church in London (according to the sign) and see a patch of Roman road. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve seen and it was free!! So much access to art and celebration and history. It was wild.

Pupkin

a woman in a classic outfit