blondie

There are easy answers, like that it’s just fetishizing.  And like, I find men attractive, yes.  But I also find women attractive.  I don’t have a problem with enjoying het romance, assuming I can find good ones.  I enjoy stories with female characters I can relate to.

But there’s something much deeper at play, IMO.  A friend of mine who is a gender studies professor was the first person to point this out to me, but a lot of women enjoy m/m romance and gay porn because of the lack of women.  It removes a source of pressure and sexism.  Without any women present, you don’t have to constantly evaluate the sexism of their portrayal, or be reminded of negative experiences in your own life.  It allows women to experience romance and especially sexuality without all the baggage that comes with it in our patriarchal society.

This was recently illustrated to me rather dramatically.  I read a recommendation for a het romance.  And it sounded cute, and came highly recommended.  The tropes at play were fun.  Until I read a snippet and realized this was a romance between a woman and her boss.  I had a visceral negative reaction.  

Instantly I’m thinking of sexual harassment stories I’ve read and heard from other women. I’m thinking of how uncomfortable it would be to have your boss develop feelings for you.  How icky the power dynamics would be, etc.  

And then I realized…this wouldn’t bother me if it were two men.  Now, there’s no logical reason for that.  Sexual harassment is just as wrong when its object is a man.  But I know I’ve read fics with a similar premise and never thought about it.  Because when it’s two men I can accept this is just a light romance, a fantasy, meant to be fun and sexy and not to represent the real world.

But I can’t when it’s a het relationship.  There’s too much baggage there.  Too much societal history of abuse.  I can’t relax enough with the premise to enjoy that story.  

Now some people can.  And that’s fine.  And some people are never going to be okay with power imbalances like that regardless of gender.  That’s also fine.  I don’t think having either reaction makes one morally superior.  It’s okay to just enjoy light entertainment for what it is without going into deep analysis.

But I wanted to highlight one set of tags (via @reallifepotato​ )

Because I AM comfortable with my sexuality and fairly comfortable with my body, but still, this resonates so hard as someone who has always been overweight.  The amount that our society teaches women to constantly compare ourselves, almost always negatively with every other woman out there, can utterly ruin our enjoyment of this kind of thing.  Like how many times have you tried to watch a mainstream romantic comedy where some utterly gorgeous actress is bemoaning that she can’t get a date, or WORSE is made out to be less than attractive.  And you look at her and go…but she’s fucking perfect?  And you just want to puke.  

@ Harries WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? Why do you hate Liam so much? What has he done to you personally to make you create stupid hashtags on his album release day? What right do you have to go around and send messages to the writers/producers of the songs? What gives you the right to ask for justifications of songs? Why do you think it’s okay to do this over and over again?!

Just leave him alone… If you don’t like Liam then fine, go live your life! Don’t be immature and bully someone that has been through so much in his life. He finally felt comfortable to share his problems with mental health and he is trying to set an example for many of us that go through these things. And what the fuck do you do? You keep on being stupid and hateful!!!!

He doesn’t deserve this and I sure as hell will never forgive you for this. When your fave is “revolutionary” for taking a pic naked or for writing songs about sex/bisexuality, and you don’t give credit to Liam for those then you’re trash!

Just keep thinking....Liam guys? He was out there weeks ago doing this.. And because he had a hard time with it, some went ew no....even though he admitted to the alcohol given to him to loosen him up...despite every struggle Liam has openly expressed about his body and the fat shaming and bullying he has experienced....but here we are praising Harry like we didn't just see naked Liam a few weeks ago being brave despite his worries and insecurities and traumatic experiences.

The fish in Eroda, what are they?

According to Erodeans, they’re just ‘Fish.’ 

We know, from visiteroda.com that halibut are available, but halibut are very large fish that look unlike unlike those seen in any Eroda advertisements.

These best resemble striped bass. 

Which, peculiarly, are native to Chesapeake Bay and migrate locally along the coast [More] and have never been mentioned by Erodeans.

We’ve been told that these are North African Jewel-Coats

But African Jewel Fish (not the N. African Jewel-Coat), part of the Chiclid family, are far smaller. They do not migrate. They are tropical fish. Most importantly: they’re fresh water fish that could never survive in the open ocean. And they look Nothing like the fish above. [wiki]

There are more fish we can see that are Erodian fish, fish which VisitEroda could have told us about… see here:

These would be ‘the daily catch’ which is twice mentioned in the [brochure]. But they’re not [halibut].

So what are they? Atlantic Salmon. The size and color are consistent with Erodean fish. They can survive the Atlantic. They naturally migrate. They even turn pink in mating season. 

Their natural range is between North Eastern America and North Western Europe. 

Erodean travel brochures were found in NYC and they inform us that Eroda is in the Irish sea. So these fish migraine from the Chesapeake bay area (where the striped bass are found) to the Irish sea, where we are led to believe Eroda is by the brochures which were found back on the North Eastern coast of America.

So these fish migrate between NYC and the Irish sea, for our purposes. People do travel to see them migrate. 

So why on earth are Erodeans so reluctant to simply tell us that they have large quantities of salmon at some times of the year? Why would they tell us they’re North African Jewel-Coats, a species that doesn’t exist by that name, and the most similar variety could not survive migration nor do they migrate in their own waters?

So, after an intense afternoon of speculations in the gc, I decided to post the result of so many hours of laughter to let you have one too.

What we’ve noticed is there could be several references to the Fine Line’s tracklist on the website vistiteroda.com (Attractions, Accommodations). 

More under the cut.

louis listening:

Ok friends, here is my best HS2OUR advice. Be sure to check for specifics of YOUR SHOW on Harry’s Tour Page. My advice is based on living in the US, so there will be some differences based on region.

BUILD A TEAM - Enlist non-fandom and fandom friends alike. Can a non-fandom friend take 30 minutes out of their day? I realize it’s not the current situation, but I definitely got LOTS of folks to sign up for codes for Arena Harry. Do you have fandom friends in different time zones? The more folks you have trying, the better the chances.

KNOW WHEN YOUR PRESALES START - Check your tour page.

START 30 MINUTES EARLY - Get ready. Get in your headspace. Make sure all your details are right. There are waiting rooms. They start 10 minutes before go time (in the US). But get your head in the game. Sing some High School Musical if you want to. You will be asked to verify your cell phone number when you get in the waiting room, but that means you’re set when you go into the queue. The speed with which you enter the waiting room does not seem to matter, so don’t fret.

MAKE SURE YOUR PAYMENT SHIT IS RIGHT - Check your credit card and address in your Ticketmaster/Live Nation account. Don’t fuck with that shit in the moment. I got all the way to the end for Glasto tickets and fucked it up because I didn’t have the right credit card info. Don’t make this mistake.

DON’T FUCK WITH A BAD INTERNET CONNECTION - if you have bad wifi, go somewhere with good wifi. Be careful on public connections because you will be transferring credit card data. I made this mistake and it almost cost me One Night Only tickets. You’ll go from the waiting room into the queue and the speed of your internet matters here.

PAY ATTENTION TO TICKET LIMITS - Ticketmaster will cross check every bit of your information. So, don’t go over the limits for an individual human for tickets. They’ll check CC, address, name, email, phone. And they’re looking for scalpers. Don’t get caught in the cross-fire. The limit is 4 tickets PER CODE but also PER VENUE. Pay attention if you’re in a city with multiple nights at the same venue. But you can check by clicking MORE INFO.

DECIDE ON WHAT YOU WANT - In an arena environment, it’s much less likely that you just straight-up won’t get tickets. Like, WAY less likely. I don’t like to speak in absolutes, but I really don’t think that’s the issue. If you want pit or first couple rows, keep at it. I did Poptopia for almost 2 hours and they released better seats later. So, my advice would be, don’t settle for something you don’t want. Ticketmaster seems to be playing on our anxiety. The fear is that we won’t get good seats so then we take the first good seats that we can manage. Then, we keep trying. And when they release better seats, we have to resell the first ones, driving the prices up. (I’m sure I’ll get follow-up questions on this, happy to answer).

ONE ACCOUNT PER QUEUE - This is different. If you are in the same queue with the same account, you’ll get kicked out. And if you were logged in as one and then logged in as another, it doesn’t always realize. So, I would restart your computer and your phone. And if you have 2 accounts, login to one on each device.

KEEP TRYING - You’ll get the, sorry a fan beat you to those seats. Keep trying. It takes longer to get what you want in an arena show.

ASK FOR THINGS - If you don’t get tickets and you feel like you want to cry, talk about it on Tumblr. Let people know you’re looking. I got a second ticket for SF Harry because I was open about needing one. I have found this fandom to be incredibly generous. I have two tags and am willing to post asks with either. You can look at my HAS TICKETS and NEEDS TICKETS tags.

REMEMBER RESALE TICKETS MAY BE CHEAPER - All but the best seats will likely be cheaper closer to time. Pit tickets won’t be. The first several rows won’t be.

Louis’ new unreleased songs @ CCME, 14/09

This is a masterpost of all of my alpha/beta/omega fics in order of word count. I’ll be updating this list as I write more a/b/o fics! You can see my fic masterpost here with all my fics listed in the order I wrote them.

~~*~~

If I Loved You Less

Words: 36k 🌺 Rating: Explicit 🌺 Pairing: Alpha Harry/Omega Louis 🌺 Prompt: Regency Era 🌺 For: @hlregencyvictorianficchallenge

Beautiful omega Louis Tomlinson is set to make his come out in London society and determined to find a mate in his first Season. With the help and protection of his oldest friend, Lord Niall Mendes, he takes Society by storm.

Being a wealthy and titled alpha means Lord Harry Styles has grown used to avoiding unmated omegas…until now. This Season he finds himself at every Society event just for a chance to speak with the omega with the flashing blue eyes.

Louis has the aristocracy at his feet and all the suitors he could hope for, but his secrets may ruin his chance at a love match.

I Didn’t Fall For You (You Fucking Tripped Me)

Words: 20k 🦎 Rating: Explicit 🦎 Pairing: Alpha Harry/Omega Louis 🦎 Prompt: The fear that the neighbor’s monitor lizard might sneak in over the balcony. 🦎 For: @1000feelingsfics

These days Louis tends to steer clear of dating alphas. He’s dated too many knotheads in his time, and he’s ready to just focus on school and his friends and his pet monitor lizard, of course.

Too bad the alpha next door won’t take a hint and stop using the worst pick up lines of all time on him. He’s really got to stop laughing with him–and talking to him and walking to class with him and letting him bring him coffee and tea and gifts for his lizard and watching Netflix together and…

No Easy Love (Could Make Me Feel This Way)

Words: 17k ⛲ Rating: Explicit ⛲ Pairing: Alpha Harry/Alpha Louis ⛲ Prompt: Windows Moodboard ⛲ For: @moodboardprompts

There’s never been anyone for Harry but Louis. He had always thought their love would last forever, despite society’s pressures on an alpha/alpha relationship. When Louis breaks up with him and moves to Chicago, he’s suddenly left behind to pick up the pieces of the life they once shared. Instead of moving on, he finds reasons to keep Louis in his life and in the process begins to piece together what went wrong.

Or an Alpha Louis/Alpha Harry au where they get a second chance to make things right with the love of their life.

Stay Forever

Words: 6k 🍓 Rating: Explicit 🍓 Pairing: Beta Harry/Omega Louis 🍓 Prompt: Eminent 🍓 For: @wordplayfics

For the last year and a half, Harry has spent his coffee break at the same cafe every day, not because he loves their coffee, but rather because of the gorgeous omega behind the counter making the coffees. As a beta, he’s sure he doesn’t stand a chance with him, so he goes online to find as close a substitute as possible. A camboy au

Easier

Words: 6k 💞 Rating: Explicit 💞 Pairing: Omega Louis/Omega Harry 💞 Prompt: Tin 💞 For: @wordplayfics 💞’

The last person Louis wants to see is his ex-boyfriend who also happens to be his soulmate.

Hey, Mr. DJ

Words: 5k 🍊 Rating: Explicit 🍊 Pairing: Alpha Louis/Omega Harry 🍊 Prompt: Foot 🍊 For: @wordplayfics

Harry really, really does NOT want to go out to a club tonight and be hassled by a bunch of alpha knotheads, but against his better judgement, he finds himself alone on the dance floor, barefoot, with an orange in his hand. This is all Niall’s fault. At least the DJ is the most strikingly gorgeous alpha he’s ever seen…

Whisk me off my feet

Words: 5k 💗 Rating: Explicit 💗 Pairing: Alpha Harry/Omega Louis 💗 Prompt: Fluffy 💗 For: @wordplayfics

When Louis locks himself out of his apartment in just a pair of novelty underwear, he hopes his new neighbor can come to his rescue.

White Stripes

Words: 3k 🔳 Rating: Explicit 🔳 Pairing: Alpha Harry/Alpha Louis 🔳 Prompt: Zebra 🔳 For: @wordplayfics