Storybook

i'll always make fun of how stupid the "born evil baby" trope is but truly it is such a wretched trope i hope it dies forever

it's like the perfect package of "child you are allowed to harm" and "easy way to not interrogate how commonplace child abuse is". thank goodness this child was simply born wrong, we never have to examine the conditions they grew up in.

unless you want to teach small kids about a laundry list of sex acts, they're not going to even recognise many acts of CSA as sexual in nature. instead, we need to have children who are raised with an expectation of bodily autonomy and who feel comfortable complaining when they're made or asked to do things they don't feel comfortable with. we need children to have the expectation that those complaints will be taken seriously and that they'll receive backup to make sure situations like that don't continue. if their desires for bodily autonomy are consistently ignored, how can we expect them to speak out when something confusing and uncomfortable happens with their parent, cousin, or babysitter? we've already taught them that what they feel comfortable with doesn't matter

niall and ruben calling themselves brothers even though their parents couldnt be married and they only lived together for a few years. SICK. ruben constantly calling niall “son” and treating him like a child that needs to be guided through his firsts (even the ones a father shouldn’t guide) despite what his own father did to him. SICK. niall pulling ruben way from alby like a cliche soap opera housewife trying to stop her husband from beating her secret lover. SICK. not blood related and not even very brotherly but somehow incestuous in every direction. SICK!!

taking issue with people sexualizing half man even though eroticism is literally a core tool the show uses to put us into the headspace of a protagonist who feels simultaneously terrified of and attracted to his abuser, who has been both aroused by and irreparably damaged by the things that have been done to him... if the use of eroticism in stories about abuse makes you uncomfortable i get it, its for sure not a tool to be wielded lightly, but sometimes it does serve a purpose and especially in the case of half man i think that to feel all the same feelings niall is feeling (arousal included) is to experience the show exactly as it was intended, like i really dont think richard gadd did All That just to have us sit quietly in our pews and not feel the terrifying heat behind ruben and nialls every interaction, in fact i think that to feel it is at the very heart of the human experience gadd is trying to convey with this story

also we have GOT to collectively come to terms with the fact that me or any other stranger online disliking or even making fun of something you like is not saying “no fun allowed” “no one can ever enjoy this” you have simply got to grow a spine and be able to like the shit you like. you don’t even have to defend it! like 90% of the media i really enjoy is divisive and half my friends actively hate it. i really don’t give a fuck though because i like it. you can write whatever you want! you’re allowed! even if it’s MY least favorite genre or style of writing and i have active distaste for it!

Richard gadd pioneering a genre of gay tv previously unseen outside of my dead dove ao3 bookmarks just wasn't something i ever considered could happen

apparently youre supposed to perform. they love it when you perform. but it has to be authentic. they hate it when it's not authentic. but you have to perform.