Suydam Sweet

janet jackson • the velvet rope (1997)

a billionaire is not guaranteed to be any happier than a millionaire, but both those people are almost guaranteed to be happier than someone living in poverty

No animal is being hurt here. It’s being inconvenienced. He’s handling it gently and demonstrating its natural instincts.

Leslie Jones is currently watching RuPaul’s Drag Race Season Four, and when she got to Willam’s elimination, she wanted to know what really happened.

Never one to shy away from serving good tea, William proceeded to give a rundown of the drama from every single episode up through when he left and I’m posting it just in case he decides to delete those tweets because Y'ALL I LIVE.

I don’t like or dislike Willam. I think his drag is very Man In A An Expensive Dress and he has a bitchy attitude that can’t just be blamed on show editing because that’s how he is on his own social media. Usually, I would hate fullstop, but Willam also stands up for his shit and I can’t be mad at anyone who is not only looking out for their own best interests but the best interests of those around him too.

This is piping Earl Grey tho. 

love you all. I guess.

When I was younger I was very right-wing. I mean…very right-wing. I won’t go into detail, because I’m very deeply ashamed of it, but whatever you’re imagining, it’s probably at least that bad. I’ve taken out a lot of pain on others; I’ve acted in ignorance and waved hate like a flag; I’ve said and did things that hurt a lot of people.

There are artefacts of my past selves online – some of which I’ve locked down and keep around to remind me of my past sins, some of which I’ve scrubbed out, some of which are out of my grasp. If I were ever to become famous, people could find shit on me that would turn your stomach.

But that’s not me anymore. I’ve learned so much in the last ten years. I’ve become more open to seeing things through others’ eyes, and reforged my anger to turn on those who harm others rather than on those who simply want to exist. I’ve learned patience and compassion. I’ve learned how to recognise my privileges and listen to others’ perspectives. I’ve learned to stand up for others, how to hear, how to help, how to correct myself. And I learned some startling shit about myself along the way – with all due irony, some of the things I used to lash out at others for are intrinsic parts of myself.

You wouldn’t know what I am now from what I was then. You wouldn’t know what I was then from what I am now.

It distresses me deeply to think of someone dredging up my dark, awful past and treating me as though that furiously hateful person is still me. It distresses me to see others dredging up the past for anyone who has made efforts to become a better person, out of some sick obsession with proving they’re “problematic.”

The obsession with finding shit in someone’s past and then claiming that a questionable or even sordid past negates all possibility of a good present needs to become extinct. Gold-star activism and purity culture are bullshit and we need to collectively reject the fuck out of them.