#**brijun

Oh my god.

The idea that she’s “using” a child you don’t even believe exists… and then saying that’s why you cannot even give her the basic respect of acknowledging that she is a human person with the value intrinsic of being a human person… can you not see the fallacy there?

If you don’t believe the baby exists, then you can’t believe that she’s ~using it for personal gain. Just in case that wasn’t clear. Your own justification for refusing to treat her like a person makes no sense.

That’s like people being like “I don’t think dragons are real but I’m definitely going to blame dragons for every problem in my life because they CAUSED THEM.” Or something. Like I cannot even… oh my god.

AND! THERE! IS! NO! PUBLIC! PROOF! (NOR DOES THERE EVER NEED TO BE!) THAT! ANY! ACTION! SHE’S! TAKEN! AFFECTS! ANYONE! NEGATIVELY! EXCEPT! HERSELF! If the baby exists, who are YOU to decide whether that affects “anyone” (and lbr, you mean specifically Louis; Briana’s well-being here does NOT matter to you and neither do the well-beings of anyone else in their lives) negatively? And if it doesn’t exist… and you like Louis… wouldn’t you be thinking he’s like, smart enough to have noticed by now and isn’t being negatively affected bc he’d have to be complicit at this point?

Assuming that she’s a ~scheming nasty lying ho~ is the OLDEST thing in the BOOK of cultural devaluation of women. Like society was basically invented around people having freakouts about not being able to prove paternity to those around them (because fathering children is still seen as a show of masculine dominance, which is gross, and the idea of ~being made a fool of!!!!~ was more important to dudes than, idk, making sure that babies and kids had adequate care regardless of parentage). The whole idea of “she’s a woman with less financial means than the guy MUST MEAN SHE’S LYING SOMEHOW AND/OR TRICKED HIM, THE POOR WOOBIE BOO” is WHY THE PATRIARCHY EXISTS. Men have been fragile donuts about this since time immemorial. They do not need women to be fragile donuts about it on their behalves.

If the baby exists and it’s Louis’, you have NO validity to decide FOR him whether it’s a positive or negative. If the baby exists and it’s not Louis’, then he’ll be fine. We live in an era of paternity tests and lord knows he can afford to trilliontuple check if he wants or needs. And if the baby doesn’t exist… then who cares? It won’t affect anyone in ANY way, positive OR negative.

Except… wait. It’s already affecting someone negatively. HMM: BRIANA. THAT’S THE PERSON BEING AFFECTED NEGATIVELY WHETHER THE BABY IS REAL OR NOT, LOUIS’ OR NOT. Pregnancy is AWFUL. And online hate mobs are ALSO AWFUL. And being an international laughing stock is PROBABLY PRETTY AWFUL.

But again: either it exists and you’re upset that it exists, but doesn’t matter because Briana is a person who deserves respect as a human, or it doesn’t exist and that doesn’t matter because Briana deserves respect as a human.

I don’t mean “respect” in terms of having to LIKE her. Or even be NICE to her. I mean respect like “let her live and acknowledge that her life has the basic level of value and worth that all lives have.” It is NOT a high bar.

Anyway, Louis has nothing to lose over this situation whether the baby exists or not, AND whether it’s his or not. He has the privilege and financial capacity to choose exactly to what extent he wants to be involved or not and his career, prospects, body, and lifestyle will be exactly what he wants them to be. “Not having to be negatively affected by a pregnancy unless you choose to be” is the most basic cis-male privilege there is.

I mean, that’s another reason she and Louis may not be talking… she may not want to be pregnant in this situation and it’s early enough that she may choose not to remain pregnant, and in that case, it would be totally inappropriate for Louis to speak over her or for her, either. There are genuinely a lot of reasons that are about health and privacy that they might not be talking, and that’s kind of just what I wish people – in general, not just in fandom – kept in mind when talking about the bodies and pregnancies and agency of others. Whether it’s your neighbor or a celeb herself or a celeb’s babymama, their choices and health and privacy are theirs to talk about or not and never have anything to do with someone else and what they want to know.

(But I feel you on the FUCK THAT as far as my own ovaries, which is def part of why I feel weird about anyone being pregnant! I just can’t imagine actually… wanting that or feeling safe about it.)

In terms of Simon, I can see why he’d be given a voice here: he created 1D, he manages the band (or whatever it is he does), and he IS considered an authority figure where they’re concerned by the media and a lot of fans, in general. I don’t think it’s weird that they called him first to speak on it.

I do totally agree one of the weird things in the handling is how quiet Louis’ family are, and I think it’s really crappy for Briana (and Louis, and all of 1D tbh) how loudly her family is talking, regardless of what’s happening. But there are at least reasons that are good, real reasons why Jay, etc., might choose to be quiet here.

Like I’ve just been trying to say, there are a lot of really real, really valid, really important reasons that someone might not want to talk about an early-stages pregnancy, and I honestly would not expect for someone to talk about it in a public way before the second trimester or later. JJ Hamblett’s girlfriend, Caterina, didn’t announce that they were having a baby until she was 7 months, and Union J are nowhere NEAR as famous as 1D, so she had less outside stress and hate to worry about getting, on top of all the general “health and privacy” reasons one might keep a pregnancy quiet about.

But Briana’s family can suck and it doesn’t have to mean /she sucks/. Her family blabbing might be as big a betrayal of her as the fandom feels this situation is to them. Thinking they’re fame-hungry shouldn’t change the amount of empathy or sympathy that people can feel for her or the way that people talk about HER. A lot of people’s families suck. And Louis might be stuck with her sucky family for a long time. I’m not going to throw Briana under the bus for maybe having a sucky family.

And also, the Tomlinsons/Deakins might be choosing silence as a protective measure after seeing what four years of mud slinging from all sides (NOT JUST LARRIES, CLARIFYING HERE: FANS OF ALL PERSUASIONS) did to Eleanor as a person and to Elounor as a couple. If Briana is the mother of her first grandchild, Jay might just be like, “Okay, I’m just going to be quiet here to keep everyone here safe and healthy and around,” yk? Or maybe THEY feel weird and haven’t processed it yet, which totally makes sense to me, too. There are a lot of reasons for someone to stay quiet.

This is not critical analysis, babe. You have no evidence other than your faith. And I’m not saying you can’t have your ship and your friendships based on your ship and whatever. You do you. Just do you without being hella gross and disrespectful to real human people with real human lives that have nothing to do with you.

…And Simon Cowell. Literally Simon actual Cowell confirmed it. Simon Cowell. The Simon Cowell, the Simon Cowell specifically chosen to manage One Direction, One Direction’s manager. That Simon Cowell.

“The BS they’re spoonfed” – yes, a lot of it comes from papers and mainstream media, and it’s really, really good to think critically about it. It’s also critically important to question things that other fans and bloggers tell you… especially ones with an agenda based on maintaining popularity or power status by promoting one singular idea.

Yes, the mainstream media lies. But so do other people. A LOT of the Larry truther rhetoric is “spoonfed BS” and it’s BS being spoonfed by adults with a pathological need to make younger fans believe a) what they believe and b) that they are not wrong.

I understand an investment in not being wrong. I’ll happily be proven wrong about Larry – I like the ship, I think they’re cute, I’ve written and read the fics, I have nothing against Larry as a ship or most fans – but I’m not going to say, “Larry truthers are right simply because mainstream media says the opposite of what they do.”

Also, literally Simon Cowell confirmed it. Simon literal Cowell.

And if she loses the baby and people act like that’s “proof” of their ideology: you should be ashamed, and that, THAT, WILL make me lose my empathy for these fans.

I am ALL FOR critical media analysis, but “critical media analysis” doesn’t mean “a blanket statement that all things ever said by mainstream media are a lie and I will consider no potential truth ever because I don’t want to.”

A LOT of the “critical analysis” I see coming from Larry truther blogs is *batshit illogical.* That is not critical analysis. Because here’s the thing with critical analysis: you don’t start with your conclusion and only show research that you can use to prove your point. That’s how you end up with, like, anti-Vaxxers. You have to let the research guide you to your conclusion to be successfully analytical.

And I have no issue at all with people choosing to believe in Larry. I fully do not. I don’t care. It doesn’t affect me, and as long as they aren’t being gross to Harry, Louis, their families, their s/o’s – including Briana – or friends or whatever, then honestly I don’t care. You do you.

I do have an issue with people manipulating younger fans and I have an issue with people who are manipulating, or attempting to manipulate, and often silence, queer fans, in the name of a slash ship. That’s not cool.

If more blogs wanted to critically analyze pop culture by truly critically analyzing it, I’d be over the freaking moon. That’s my jam right there. But critically analyzing a life while it’s being lived is SO HARD that it’s basically impossible. Critically analyzing a life that you have no access point to is literally impossible. You cannot critically analyze the inner thoughts, feelings, and private life of a stranger. Even if they ARE in the newspaper every day. Everything Harry and Louis do that we can see is public, and when they’re in public, they are performing roles. You can analyze those roles if you want, and that is a perfectly fine thing to do, but again: you’re a) analyzing fictional representations of tropes, basically, and b) analyzing lives while they’re being lived is nigh-on impossible.

Larry truther blogs do a ton of research, and to that end, like, kudos, constantly running research is exhausting and I’m not going to fault them for their engagement with their fandom in that regard. I am going to fault their “critical analysis” for starting with a steadfast conclusion and never, ever considering that ANY piece of evidence could EVER disprove them even if it’s literally proof that their conclusion is flawed, because that is NOT critical analysis. And I am going to fault them for using their flawed methodology to manipulate other fans. That shit isn’t on.

…You’re literally demeaning her entire existence as a person in this message. And I get that you’re either baiting me or trolling, probably, but I’m not in a coherent enough place not to respond to this. So, here’s my thing about messages like this, and the entire fandom dialogue right now:

a) I don’t care what someone’s mother or aunt or next door neighbor’s dog-sitter does when they’re around a situation of fame. If you’re saying “I think that she’s a lying liar who lies for attention because her entire sack of barren uterus body is only worth something if she’s attached to a famous man and potentially filled with his sperm,” you’re not saying she “exists just fine.”

You’re saying she has no integrity, for one, and you’re saying that she went after “fame” not by like, doing something as a person, but that her goal as a person was “fame by being impregnated by a famous dude.” Like, her only viable talent in life was fertility?? Or… her sole option in life was this?? IDK, there’s just an innate grossness in the whole party line of “groupies are empty-souled succubi whose sense of self is imbued via penis.” It’s just nasty, and it’s even nastier when it’s mixed with “any woman seen near Harry or Louis is a paid fame-hungry monster who’s keeping them down.”

b) I don’t care whether you think she’s pregnant. As far as we know, she is. That’s all that matters and it can’t be changed by “belief.”

c) Briana is a person. It does not affect you whether she’s pregnant or not pregnant, and even if – IF – she doesn’t ever have this baby, you can’t say “#shittyPR” because guess what?

People lose pregnancies all the time.

It’s one more reason not to announce to anyone, let alone the whole world, so early on. And you know what can endanger the health of a pregnant woman and/or embryo and/or fetus? Stress. Such as perhaps from being denied agency and validity as a person on an entire global scale. So, just… stop. Like. Stop.

d) Also, if this were a PR stunt, it’d probably like… get the band good press… and make sense…? Once again for all the times people claim any of the boys’ being NEAR a woman is “just bad PR”: THAT DOESN’T MAKE MARKETING SENSE. Marrying off a boy bander is not good PR for the target demo. Neither was the Haroline thing. Neither is this. Like, Elounor was kind of and Sophiam is kind of but like…

e) Again: her pregnancy is not affected by your belief in it. If she really is not pregnant – and has never been pregnant – then it has nothing to do with your system of belief. If she is not pregnant but was at one point and people end up crowing about their belief system’s triumph over nature: fuck that. It’s awful. And if she is pregnant?

It isn’t because people didn’t believe enough. It isn’t because anyone is trying to spite you. If she is pregnant, it has nothing to do with #Larries. It just doesn’t. I promise, and the reason I say “I promise” is this:

It really fucking hurts when your fandom mode of joy is taken from you, and I totally get that. And it also really, really hurts when someone or something you have faith in is broken or chipped at, and I get that, too – trust me. So I just want to say, like, I am harshly anti-LarryTruther, but I also have a lot of empathy for the people who are confused and hurting right now.