Come and Waste an Hour or Two

don't call what you create "content". regardless of what it is. that's the devil talking. call it art, call it writing, call it music, call it analysis, call it editing, literally just call it what it is

I was going to put other things but oh my god please just don't call yourself a "content creator". you are a person you are making art / writing / music / etc you are an artist an author a musician

Shitposting? You're a comedian, a satirist.

Long posts about other people's art? You're a critic (positive), a scholar.

Long posts exploring ideas, society, and the world around you? You're an essayist, a philosopher.

Can't get enough of sharing information about X topic? You're a scholar, an educator, a columnist.

Just love collecting and sharing other people's stuff on your blog? Archivist, curator, collector.

Just not sure where you fit? Babe, you're a blogger.

i am creative, but to only call myself a creative A) is incredibly vague and B) undermines what i actually do in my practice.

the example when i heard this for the first time was basically like this—

X: what do you do?

Y: i'm a creative

X: so you create? what do you create? for which industry? how do you create? how are you different from other creators?

—and on and on.

but it is why, in my case, i call myself a "writer, designer, nerd". it narrows my profession exactly to what i want to do, what i want to focus on in jobs, what my practice entails.

the example above is extremely pedantic, of course—there will be follow up questions to what i write/design/nerd about and how i differ from others who do the same. but in a professional setting (eg: a job interview) it gives an immediate impression of how i function and how i can contribute.

being precise about your creative practice also helps narrow down what to include in portfolios. in my case, i have specific sections for writing and designing (and yes, projects where i got to nerd out too). for others, it can look like this:

photographer -> digital or film? black and white or full colour? what subjects?

painter -> what types of paint? traditional technique or more experimental? traditional canvas or other medium?

animator -> 2d or 3d? what programs are used most often? are storyboards included or is there more focus on rendering?

meanwhile:

creative/creator -> what exactly is being created? is it possible to narrow this down? if yes, to what? what should be included as a creation in relation to professional or personal practice?

the questions obviously overlap but the gist is there: if you limit yourself to being a "creative" or "creator" it actually leaves you way too open with possible portfolio examples.

and to op's point, while being a "content creator" has immediate connotations, it's still so vague. it can mean being a youtuber, a tiktoker, a twitch streamer, an instagram influencer, etc. it can come with the implication that you're an online trendsetter, but specifying the type of content created is so important for pragmatic and personal reasons.

is your content the type to be sponsored? or are you a creator who can take on commissions? can you monetize your content? on a personal note, do you even want to?

(which is...........antithetical to the op......bc it kinda goes back to how your art can be monetized as "content".........but i digress. it's why i ask at the end "do you even want to" since being a content creator usually implies that the answer is "yes" lol)

THIS.  Not only is Barbossa far more of a Proper (Cinematic) Pirate than Jack (with the outgrown Errol Flynn hair to prove it!), but he absolutely plays the role of Hades in Curse of the Black Pearl.

While Elizabeth first boards the Black Pearl (here functioning as both Hades’ chariot and Charon’s ferry) more or less voluntarily, Barbossa/Hades does indeed kidnap her and take her to the “land of the dead”—the Isla de Muerta.  The Black Pearl also serves as a kind of limbo, holding men halfway between death and life.  Much like Pluto of old, CotBP!Barbossa is strongly associated with both wealth and death, even more so than the other pirates.  When they get to the “Underworld”, we see that the cursed crew members require a blood sacrifice to regain (permanent) corporeality, paralleling the shades Odysseus encounters who require blood to regain the ability to speak (Odyssey 11.24-50).

By the time At World’s End rolls around, Elizabeth has begun to catch up to Barbossa in terms of piracy and command.  She visits another, more literal Underworld at Barbossa’s side; he knows the way, and she has more than learned from her previous experiences.  It was Elizabeth thinking more piratically—thinking like Barbossa—that made the trip to the Locker necessary, after all.

In the end, she eclipses Barbossa in power and is crowned King, with her own beloved ferrying souls between worlds as she sails the seven seas.  Like Persephone, Elizabeth straddles worlds and holds power in both, and it was Barbossa/Hades who first helped her get there.

I’ll blame a lot of factors for why people don’t really seem to understand the dynamics of these four characters. First of all, Jack is not the protagonist (the failing of OST is, in my opinion, that they forgot this little detail). Will and Elizabeth are the protagonists. Jack and Barbossa are secondary supporting characters, whose purpose in the plot is to drive the development of those two. Their influences on Will and Elizabeth are very specific. And when you analyze the relationships, you definitely see a very distinct pairing up. Will and Jack, Elizabeth and Barbossa.

Will needed Jack, because Will needed to learn how to put himself first sometimes, needed to learn to see things from more than one angle and that things aren’t as black and white as they seem. Will needed to see someone strange and confident and dangerous who could inexplicably do good things, who had a good heart (and, originally, Jack absolutely did; the fourth and fifth movies absolutely decimated this aspect of his character, and I will die mad about it) but was still able to be a little selfish. Because Will? Will had no concept of selfishness. Will was perfectly ready to sit and pine over Elizabeth for the rest of his life, to let a lazy, sloppy drunk take credit for all his hard work, to fade into the background and let life happen around him. That was how things were supposed to be. That was how the world worked. Black and white. Right and wrong. At least once more, Miss Swann, as always. I practice three hours a day so that when I meet a pirate, I can kill it. My father was a good man. Will is a good man, but he needs to learn to be a bit of a pirate. A bit selfish. A bit dangerous. And in the end, Will is cursed to captain the Dutchman, a twisted take on the immortality Jack has sought. His companions are dead men, his ship is a ghost. He is a legend. So, in a way, he surpasses Jack.

Elizabeth, though? Elizabeth had no need for lessons on shades of grey. Elizabeth likes pirate stories. Elizabeth loves the blacksmith’s apprentice, and flirts openly with him in front of her own father. Elizabeth is constrained, not by her desires, but by her station, by expectations. By love for her father, because it’s obvious in the film that her desire to please him is out of love, not obligation. What Elizabeth needs is to be shown how to take what you want. How to choose the rules you wish to follow, and hang the rest. She’s a natural leader, born into a world where no one would ever let her lead. Jack is a lot of things, but a leader, he is not. He inspires no loyalty, except in the form of debts to be paid. He keeps secrets from his crew, tells them nothing, trusts no one, and in return no one trusts him. Barbossa, meanwhile, was able to win over all but one member of Jack’s own crew and get them to turn on him. Barbossa had these men follow him for ten years, trusting that in the end, he would save them. Barbossa inspires confidence. He’s honest with his men, and honestly no crueler than is necessary to keep pirates in line. This is why Elizabeth is the King, because she respected Barbossa, watched him, learned from him. And, yes, surpassed him.

inspired by the lovely fic, “Sacrifice” by Bloopy42 on AO3: