floating freely on the tides of hyperfixation

what do I mean by this? here's an example. when my surgery is delayed multiple times, I spend a little time looking up (there is only one surgeon in the entire area who will perform this surgery on trans people, so every trans person's surgical timeline is bottle-necked and delayed by months every time he goes to a conference or takes a vacation or experiences an injury. in other words, if I was cis, I would not encounter this difficulty in accessing surgery). and then I spend time looking down (due to nonstop harassment and legal threats, this practice now only treats adults and will no longer perform surgeries on minors. in other words, my access to surgery is predicated on adult privilege I have at the direct expense of trans youth's lack of access).

danandphil tiktok

“The notion that people panic and run screaming for the exits is a Hollywood fiction,” said Prof Stephen Reicher, an expert in group behaviour at the University of St Andrews.

“Characteristically, people stay and help each other,” he said. “We found this during the 7/7 attacks on the underground and the 1999 attack on the Admiral Duncan pub in London, where people looked after each other even though they feared other bombs.

“In our own research on the Leytonstone tube attack in 2015, there was an amazing level of spontaneous coordination by bystanders: some directed others away from danger. Some distracted the attacker. Some confronted the attacker. Each was able to act because of the others. Heroism was a feature of the group, not just the individual,” he added.

When the train disembarked, in a long stream of people marching purposefully across the station in the usual commuter way, I decided to pull out of the main traffic and lean against a railing to recover a bit, being interestingly pale. I'm a very competent and cool person, a long way out from my first rodeo. I certainly am FASCINATINGLY pale when ill, and am attractive in my way for strangers to look at twice, but I hadn't thought it was to the extent of the attention I received.

Over the course of pulling myself together, five people departing from the train, of a huge diversity of backgrounds, came over and spoke to me. A woman offered me water. Another offered to stay with me. A brisk woman with a wheelie-case, a healthcare-professional's confidence and an unreadable but trustworthy-looking lanyard, politely but firmly took my pulse. I guess I looked that green.

A magnificent elderly tweedy gentleman, about 200 years old, had a whole instinctive flowchart of time-honed chivalric suggestions: escort to bench? provide arm for support? provide mint from 200-year-old tin? summon train staff to the lady's side? PROVIDE HANDKERCHIEF? He bowed majestically when I declined his assistance, but I rather wished I had needed his help for something. He had such a splendid bearing, and locked-in programme! He didn't even need to second-guess himself or make any new decisions! There was no overlay of social anxiety; it was utterly part of his molecular framework! IF Ladylike Object IS Deathly Pale, THEN: give > mint!

(There's the caveat that immediately-obvious public transport crises and other mid-range disasters, as outlined in the OP, are a prime example of when people living in the UK tend become more organised in a crisis, not less. It isn't a great place to get case studies since a lot of people living in the UK are quietly holding themselves in readiness for the day when they can participate in being a Collective Hero of Public Transport.)

There is overlap, but A League of Their Own was very clearly centralizing a queer female gaze - not either a straight male one or a straight female one - and there is a gap in marketing and demographics. It did actually push beyond what the original film did, in terms of queer representation, gender representation, and the intersection with race.

Even in the darkness, there is beauty.

Cloak made by me with wool outer and viscose lining.

Photography by @haunted-rose

Modeled by @shillelagh-to-the-kneecaps