having a cozy start of autumn by reading stuff about the charioteer and relistening to the audiobook😌 uwu

from History's Queer Stories: Retrieving and Navigating Homosexuality in British Fiction about the Second World War by Natalie Marena Nobitz

@mademoiselle-red 'Interesting points on how the novel engages with Plato! I cringe at this and other analyses of the novel that claim Laurie’s attraction to Ralph was initially and primarily physical though. They always ignore the emotional attachment imo'

Yes I agree! That was one of the things I didn't agree with. I think emotional is the right way to describe it.

Though perhaps I am biased since I used to be a 'Ralph girl'. I used to consider the ending to be a happy one but I am not so sure now

But I still think there's more than physical attraction, even though it's not the intellectual attraction he feels for Andrew. Idk although they do represent those sides of attraction, I don't think it's so clear-cut, because although they're all parts of 'the charioteer' metaphor? allegory? they're also more fully-fledged characters than that and don't just have one single function and that's it, and Laurie's attractions are more nuanced in my opinion as well even though he and the metaphor give the functions of white and black horse to Andrew and Ralph

Yes! The metaphors are inadequate analogies for capturing the complexity of his feelings for both men and their three dimensional personalities. That’s something that Laurie also learns throughout the book: when he tries to apply the platonic model to his love interests, he denies them their humanity. He thinks he can protect Andrew’s “innocence” but robs him instead of his agency. He tries to dismiss Ralph as the unruly immoral dark horse (“too many Bunnies”), which prevents him from seeing Ralph’s innocence (both his innocence in the accusation of visiting Andrew, and his “curious innocence” about love and sacrifice, as Alec tells Laurie at the party).

I disagree with the analysis that Laurie betrays his convictions and let the black horse win. It is rather sloppy literary analysis, in my opinion, to look at the protagonist’s growth and change at the end of a coming-of-age novel and call it a “betrayal” of their convictions. In the end, Laurie learns that there is more to love than the model of love as a ethical ideal, the love as the shared pursuit of philosophy presented in the Plato, more than following the “hard logic” of the platonic model. Laurie learns through his relationship with Ralph that love is also forgiveness, kindness, compassion. In the end, he finally sees Ralph’s vulnerability and innocence about love, and is then able to fulfill his long cherished desire to protect and save Ralph. By doing so, he levels the playing field between them: he now protects and takes responsibility for Ralph as Ralph does for him. In Renault’s rewriting of the charioteer myth at the very end, the black horse doesn’t win, but rather the white and black horses are reconciled, only for one night because they can never be reconciled forever: it’s the human condition to be pulled in two directions by reason and emotion. I would also note here that when Laurie was with Andrew, the black horse was fully suppressed, which mirrors how Laurie’s pain and physical senses were suppressed by medication. His journey to true medical recovery and the return of his sexual desire coincides with and is facilitated by his reunion with Ralph. Laurie is not “destined to be Ralph’s lover for now because Andrew is not ready to face the truth”, Laurie is Ralph’s lover because he chooses to confide in Ralph and spend time with Ralph again and again, because they have so much in common: their disabilities, war experiences, their shared past, their tendency to interfere in other people’s lives, their shared sense of humor, their shared intellectual (!!!) interest in queer philosophical and literary figures. Furthermore, Andrew is not ready to face the truth because Laurie chooses to keep him at arm’s length as the platonic ideal rather than get to know him as a human being. Note how we and Laurie don’t see Andrew’s room, his belongings, his quirks, but we get details of Ralph’s quirks and belongings. I believe Laurie uses protecting Andrew from sexual knowledge as an excuse to reject Andrew’s attempts to deepen their friendship. Andrew is treated like a vessel for philosophical intercourse (which seems to be the purpose of love in Plato’s model) and a surface for protecting Laurie’s platonic ideals, but the close third person narrator never observes how he eats, how he likes his tea (!!!!), what few personal belongings he has in his room that he shares with other people, what books he likes to read, what his friends and acquaintances are like as people, and what he thinks of them. Laurie is Ralph’s lover because he loves Ralph, and has learned to stop feeling guilty about loving him in an emotional and sexual way. Laurie is Ralph’s lover because he has finally found some compassion for himself and his love for Ralph in a world and ethical system with very little compassion for queer people. Oh, and because he knows how Ralph likes his toast and Ralph knows how he likes his tea~ (that was a long rant but ranting at other academic papers is something they train you to do in grad school lol)

In summary, if we read the novel as a critique of the platonic model of love as it is presented in the Phaedrus, then the ending is a classic bittersweet coming-of-age realization that the world is not black-and-white, books and the ideal lives they present don’t hold all the answers to the complexity of life’s questions. The protagonist has to become a “maker of his own maps” and forge his own path ahead. I think the ending sets up Ralph as the lover who will accompany Laurie on the rest of the difficult road ahead. Of course anything could theoretically still happen after the end, but the ending itself leaves our protagonist with his lover in a state of peace, with the knowledge that they will have to face the challenges of their relationship together the next morning. But the loneliness lengthened by their strife has shown that they need each other, need to be reconciled with each other, in order to achieve even one night’s rest.

I know tumblr has accepted the whole “cat’s internal monologue is a desolate Victorian child” thing but what if a cat’s internal monologue was Gollum/Sméagol

-scratching the floor near their bowl- “Nasty, filthy dry foods they serves us. We wants soft, juicy morsels from the canses.”

-sitting in the window- “What’s it doing, precious? What noises it makes with pointy mouth. We wants it…”

“Wicked, tricksy humanses doesn’t feeds us in hours. Must reminds them or we’ll starve. Wait for dinners? Oh no. That would kill us! Kill us!”

-bringing dead animals to owner- “Look! Look! See what good kitty finds! Eat them! Eat them!”

There are many flavors of cats. Victorian child cats and Gollum cats are both equally valid.

And so are cheezburger cats.

Henri Biva (1848 - 1928) 

Villeneuve-l'Étang embrumé

SUMMER 2023

- UNLEARN THE SHAME

- DANCING IN THE DARK (1984)

- TANK TOP (NO BRA)

- JACK OFF

- SERVE CUNT

- FIND HOLY IN THE MUNDANE

- IGNORE THE DREAD

- BUSH, HAPPY TRAILS, BODY HAIR

- BISEXUALITY

- SHOW YOURSELF GRACE

- BE GENTLE AND KIND

- LET GO OF THE PAST

When Ralph goes on about dating women and Laurie is like ✨️ what a refreshing perspective, I will never need this advice in my life ✨️

Ralph's love language is acts of service and Laurie's love language is being bitchy together

Orville Peck styled by Cathy Hahn [x] [x]

Hi my name is Ralph Ross Lanyon and I have short silky blond hair (and, at one point, a beard) and icy blue eyes like limpid tears and Laurie tells me I look like Jack from Coral Island (AN: if u don't know who he is get da hell out of here!). I'm not related to the sun god Apollo but I wish I was because he's a major fucking hottie. I'm a sailor but recently I lost my ship and a couple of fingers with it too. I'm also on a super secret Navy course that my crazy ex teaches (long story). I'm queer (in case you couldn't tell) and I mostly wear my Navy uniform. For example today I was wearing it under a long coat and my trademark black gloves. Today was a good day because Laurie spent it with me and not with that annoying Quaker boy from the hospital who can never love him like I can. Alec stared at me and told me I should get a grip. I put up my middle finger at him.

A prodigy

You missed the best part. They weren’t even their sheep. This good pupper gathered up a bunch of random sheep it found somewhere on the countryside and brought them home for its human.

*whispers* the countryside is full of free sheep

it definitely varies by country so i'm not saying this as a universal thing, but in the uk at least, you are very unlikely to be convicted of anything if you take unprescribed testosterone, especially for gender-related reasons. firstly it's not actually illegal to possess testosterone without a prescription; it is illegal to distribute, hence the secrecy around keeping sellers' identities hidden, as the sellers (or distributers for those who compound their own testosterone and distribute it for free to trans people; of whom i know a few btw!) are breaking the law, but by buying testosterone domestically you technically have not broken a law. if you import testosterone that is also illegal.

the thing is, even if you do break the law (eg by importing testosterone), you're very unlikely to be convicted of anything regardless of your reason for taking testosterone, but also "i'm trans and taking T for gender dysphoria, because the NHS waiting lists are 5+ years long and i can't afford private healthcare" is going to be viewed far more sympathetically in court than just using T as PEDs which is why most cis men use unprescribed T. anecdotally: i know many transmasculine people who take DIY testosterone in the uk (in fact, a quarter of all people taking "cross-sex" hrt in the uk had done diy) and exactly zero people who had gotten into trouble for it. not that there is no risk, but the risk is very small tbh. honestly the physical risks of liver damage or polycythaemia are greater than the legal risks of using a controlled substance when it comes to testosterone.

in conclusion: diy hrt is for everyone, including transmasculine people. if you are transmasc and need T but don't have access to it, i would recommend hanging around local gym communities. i know a lot of transmascs who have had luck sourcing T from gymbros

So, I’ve been pulled over a few times in my life. Not many, but a few. And I’ve also been in a couple of cars that got pulled over. And let me tell you, if you were actually doing something wrong, the officer doesn’t make any small talk, just straight into “I clocked you doing 70 in a 55.” The only time I’ve ever gotten the “do you know why I pulled you over?” was the time when I wasn’t doing anything wrong, and I got let go even though he insisted to the end that I was doing 87 in a 70 (white privilege at work).

“Do you know why I pulled you over?” is a trap. It means there’s a good chance the officer doesn’t actually have a good reason to ticket you, and is trying to get you to waive your 5th Amendment rights and incriminate yourself. If you make a guess, that’s a confession of guilt.

But there’s another trap, that I’ve heard of but haven’t yet experienced. It’s “do you know how fast you were going?” With that one, they’re hoping you’ll say no, because then they can name whatever speed they want – you just said you didn’t know how fast you were going, if you deny the speed they name then you’re lying to them.

Oh, I’ve had that one. Go with “yes.” Don’t give them a number, just say “Yes.” Then they still have to offer a number and you can deny it without contradicting yourself. They could just ask you, at that point, but that’s suspiciously similar to saying they don’t know, and they tend to avoid doing that.

Reblog to save a life

if you scroll past this just because it doesn’t affect you personally, i see you.

Also, you can always go to court and contest a ticket, and a lot of times you’ll win. Or if the cop thinks you’ll win they won’t even show up and you’ll win by default.

They like to target out of state plates because anyone who would be majorly inconvenienced by a court date two months away is a lot more likely to just pay it.

The $100-200 it usually costs to hire a ticket attorney is well worth it.

I’ve gotten a $500 ticket dismissed because the cop claimed I was texting while driving. I said “your honor, I’d like to show you something, may I approach the bench?” and when granted permission I approached the bench, slapped my dumbphone down on the counter, and said “your honor, would the officer kindly send a text on this so I can find out how to do it?”

Between that and having lied about me turning left on a protected red (my light was both green and nonprotected, which means there was no turning lane), I paid exactly $2.25 for that ticket instead of $535.

That was my parking toll. Because I showed up, I didn’t have to pay.

that makes sense, thanks so much!

This site has been going around Twitter trans accounts quite a bit lately, so just pointing out here too that it'll do fuck all, they're exploiting trans people at a time when hrt is particularly hard to access and please don't give them your money

fuckin exploitative bullshit marketed in the worst way imaginable

literally selling laxatives as weight loss supplements

Reddit post by Dr Will Powers

No actually, this needs to be in the body of the post.

This isn't someone looking to make a quick buck off the backs of desperate trans women.

This is someone who is gathering a hit list. This person may use your info for active swatting, but not just that, this product will kill you.

This product is outright dangerous. This dose of ashwagandha is ASTRONOMICAL. It's anxiolytic - meaning that it causes agitation and anxiety - and if you take this dose every day you'll be developing serotonin syndrome within 4-6 weeks, and an ER trip/death within 8. And if you're on medications that interact (SSRIs, antipsychotics, most kinds of opiates) or alcohol, this risk is magnified.

This person wants to KILL YOU.

Also the photo they're using for the founder is AI generated. The easiest tell is the neck tattoo seemingly merging with the collar of the shirt, and none of the locs actually having an end that connects them to the scalp.

There's a terf in the comments screeding about how this totally isn't a rightwing psyop and it's asian fetishizing trans ppl obsessed with anime doing this, so here's some irrefutable proof that it is, in fact, a right-wing dox honeypot!

If you go to any post by TheQueerQuirk on Twitter and replace the username part of the url with transaretr8ors it will redirect you to the same tweet with the new username, indicating that TheQueerQuirk's old username WAS in fact transaretr8ors. You can test this yourself.

They're also stealing images from r/transtimelines for fake reviews.

Their domain name was registered on June 2 and the address marked is a common scam address (seemingly of the Icelandic Phallological Museum).

THIS IS A HONEYPOT. THEY'RE COLLECTING ADDRESSES. YOU COULD BE SWATTED, HAVE YOUR IDENTITY STOLEN, OR AT THE VERY BEST RECEIVE A PRODUCT THAT WILL CAUSE SEROTONIN SYNDROME.

SPREAD.

you know what? at least there's bears

the men or the animal

yes

lesbians over 60, photographs by elana freedom, published in common lives/lesbian lives no. 15/16, june 1985