pinkrobotgirl:

fleecedragons:

myheartofgoldturnedplatinum:

alwaysyourbaby:

desert-revolution:

I firmly believe that the reason many Slytherins were easily convinced to join Voldemort was because they were treated like shit by the rest of the houses while they were growing up. Imagine spending seven of the most important years of your life being told that you were part of the bad house and therefore bad yourself. Everyone boos your quidditch team. All the houses will hang out with everyone except you. You grow up being hated by your fellow students and many of your teachers.
Now imagine someone comes along and tells you that you’re not worthless and bad. That you’re invited to join a family where you will right the wrongs committed against you. You have the opportunity to be wanted and powerful instead of a hated outcast. Several of your former classmates are telling you how great it is. How you’re welcomed and needed. These are the kids you grew up with. The classmates who went through all the same things you did. Being a Death Eater sounds pretty good now.

I’ve been waiting for a post like this.

THIS.

BLESS THIS POST

!!!!
thank

I was always bothered by the scene at the end of book 7, when the students are asked whether they want to fight the incoming Death Eater army. The Slytherin students are all like, “Uh. No?” And they’re treated like terrorists for it. In the movie, they’re even locked in the school dungeons while everyone cheers.
Did nobody stop to think and realize that if the Sytherin students had stood and fought, they would have been facing their own parents on a battlefield? Even if some of them weren’t really on board with the whole Death Eater thing, expecting them to fight was just cruel. They were children. The oldest of them were seventeen. Babies. And their own professors were asking them to shoot illegal killing spells at Mum and Dad.
Imagine you are a Slytherin and you are staying behind to defend your school and maybe restore some honor to your House. The other students are all giving you mistrustful glares. You know they’re waiting for you to start hitting them in the back with stunning spells. You consider doing it, too, because you’re already starting to regret the choice you made.
Then the battle begins, and you are up against a crowd of strangers who aren’t strangers at all. You recognize voices, muffled behind masks but still piercingly familiar. Your uncle. Your cousin. Your best friend’s big sister.
And then you see a tall man in expensive grey robes. A moment later you notice the small, curvy woman next to him, wand ready. They are guarding each others backs.
You recognize their shoes.

See, I think that’s exactly the reason they were removed from the fight. But I think that the Slytherins being removed from the fight is a good thing.
In fact, I think that there are two points above, and both of them relate to why they weren’t allowed to be there, and both of them show why it was a really excellent idea to not have the Slytherins be there.
One is the prejudice and mistrust of them coming from the other students. If the students from the other houses are expecting a Slytherin to stun them in the back when they’re not looking, they can’t fight well together. In fact, they may even take preventative measures to ensure that they don’t get stunned in the back, and that leads to infighting among the students, which is the opposite of what you need during a fight.
Is the prejudice right, or even okay? No, of course not. But it was still there, and right before Voldemort attacks your school is not the time to deal with it.
The second point is the fact that, if the Slytherins had been allowed to stay and fight, it’s true that they would eventually have probably run into a family member or family friend. And having to fight someone like that is terrible, and can be completely traumatizing. Imagine deciding to fight for your school, and then accidentally hurting or even killing your father, or your aunt, or someone who was like family to you while growing up. No one should ever have to go through that, and the Slytherins were by far the ones with the highest risk of that happening if they had been allowed to stay.
And then, beyond any of that, imagine having to choose. Having to choose whether you’d rather be traumatized from the things you would have to do in a fight, or being seen as a traitor and a coward for not fighting. Having to choose between potentially having someone who is supposed to be an ally get nervous and hex you, and abandoning those allies all together. There’s no way the Slytherins could have won if they hadn’t been forcibly sent away.
So yes, it’s unfortunate that it had to happen. And it’s unfortunate that all Slytherins were seen as sympathetic to the Death Eaters for it. But I’m just sayin’. It’s a good thing that the Slytherins were forced out of that fight. It was an act of kindness and mercy. It wasn’t a good situation, but it was the best thing they could have done with it. And true healing can begin afterwards.
…And in the epilogue, you see that there is some healing. When Harry talks to Albus, and he asks about “what if I’m in Slytherin?”, it’s more about how he’ll be separated from his friends and family in Gryffindor. And Harry responds only that Slytherin will then have gained an excellent new student.
It’s not perfect. But it’s not that terrible.
/unintentional essay

fleecedragons:

myheartofgoldturnedplatinum:

alwaysyourbaby:

desert-revolution:

I firmly believe that the reason many Slytherins were easily convinced to join Voldemort was because they were treated like shit by the rest of the houses while they were growing up. Imagine spending seven of the most important years of your life being told that you were part of the bad house and therefore bad yourself. Everyone boos your quidditch team. All the houses will hang out with everyone except you. You grow up being hated by your fellow students and many of your teachers.

Now imagine someone comes along and tells you that you’re not worthless and bad. That you’re invited to join a family where you will right the wrongs committed against you. You have the opportunity to be wanted and powerful instead of a hated outcast. Several of your former classmates are telling you how great it is. How you’re welcomed and needed. These are the kids you grew up with. The classmates who went through all the same things you did. Being a Death Eater sounds pretty good now.

I’ve been waiting for a post like this.

THIS.

BLESS THIS POST

!!!!

thank

I was always bothered by the scene at the end of book 7, when the students are asked whether they want to fight the incoming Death Eater army. The Slytherin students are all like, “Uh. No?” And they’re treated like terrorists for it. In the movie, they’re even locked in the school dungeons while everyone cheers.

Did nobody stop to think and realize that if the Sytherin students had stood and fought, they would have been facing their own parents on a battlefield? Even if some of them weren’t really on board with the whole Death Eater thing, expecting them to fight was just cruel. They were children. The oldest of them were seventeen. Babies. And their own professors were asking them to shoot illegal killing spells at Mum and Dad.

Imagine you are a Slytherin and you are staying behind to defend your school and maybe restore some honor to your House. The other students are all giving you mistrustful glares. You know they’re waiting for you to start hitting them in the back with stunning spells. You consider doing it, too, because you’re already starting to regret the choice you made.

Then the battle begins, and you are up against a crowd of strangers who aren’t strangers at all. You recognize voices, muffled behind masks but still piercingly familiar. Your uncle. Your cousin. Your best friend’s big sister.

And then you see a tall man in expensive grey robes. A moment later you notice the small, curvy woman next to him, wand ready. They are guarding each others backs.

You recognize their shoes.

See, I think that’s exactly the reason they were removed from the fight. But I think that the Slytherins being removed from the fight is a good thing.

In fact, I think that there are two points above, and both of them relate to why they weren’t allowed to be there, and both of them show why it was a really excellent idea to not have the Slytherins be there.

One is the prejudice and mistrust of them coming from the other students. If the students from the other houses are expecting a Slytherin to stun them in the back when they’re not looking, they can’t fight well together. In fact, they may even take preventative measures to ensure that they don’t get stunned in the back, and that leads to infighting among the students, which is the opposite of what you need during a fight.

Is the prejudice right, or even okay? No, of course not. But it was still there, and right before Voldemort attacks your school is not the time to deal with it.

The second point is the fact that, if the Slytherins had been allowed to stay and fight, it’s true that they would eventually have probably run into a family member or family friend. And having to fight someone like that is terrible, and can be completely traumatizing. Imagine deciding to fight for your school, and then accidentally hurting or even killing your father, or your aunt, or someone who was like family to you while growing up. No one should ever have to go through that, and the Slytherins were by far the ones with the highest risk of that happening if they had been allowed to stay.

And then, beyond any of that, imagine having to choose. Having to choose whether you’d rather be traumatized from the things you would have to do in a fight, or being seen as a traitor and a coward for not fighting. Having to choose between potentially having someone who is supposed to be an ally get nervous and hex you, and abandoning those allies all together. There’s no way the Slytherins could have won if they hadn’t been forcibly sent away.

So yes, it’s unfortunate that it had to happen. And it’s unfortunate that all Slytherins were seen as sympathetic to the Death Eaters for it. But I’m just sayin’. It’s a good thing that the Slytherins were forced out of that fight. It was an act of kindness and mercy. It wasn’t a good situation, but it was the best thing they could have done with it. And true healing can begin afterwards.

…And in the epilogue, you see that there is some healing. When Harry talks to Albus, and he asks about “what if I’m in Slytherin?”, it’s more about how he’ll be separated from his friends and family in Gryffindor. And Harry responds only that Slytherin will then have gained an excellent new student.

It’s not perfect. But it’s not that terrible.

/unintentional essay

(Source: zaynx)

Social justice on Tumblr is a lot like fandom.

It’s mostly people who are super passionate about the things that they care about, and they want to talk about it and share it and their views about it with the world.

And then there are the crazies. The ones who break someone’s arm, throw acid in their face, or threaten to kill them for having a different opinion/worldview.

And the crazies are the overwhelming minority. They’re a tiny percentage, but they’re so loud and so crazy that they can’t be ignored, so they end up defining the group.

That doesn’t make outsiders any less scared of/angry with/disgusted by the group.

fuckyeahsexpositivity:

aggressivelyarticulate:

If anyone else out there has been looking for a good overview of the issues that ignited all this backlash against Laci Green, this post does a really good job.

It makes me really sad to see all this happening to her. Having done some reading over the past few days on it, I can say there have absolutely been some really serious problems with her choice of language/attitude towards certain things in the past, and some of her attempts at adressing those issues have fallen seriously short. It was a really disappointing thing to see in someone I’d grown to admire so much.

Still, I think she was a powerful voice in discussions of sex positivity, sexuality, and social constructions of gender and sex, and it makes me very disappointed as well to see how people’s anger and hatred has managed to shut down the conversations entirely.

There were some serious conversations that needed to be had. It’s very frustrating to see anger and violence closing those doors when there was so much potential for education and growth beyond them.

This is basically everything I feel about the Laci Green controversy in one convenient post. Thank you.

rapturesrevenge:

arthoniel:

rapturesrevenge:

arthoniel:

paru-na:

significantlyunknown:

pockytardis:

ceruleancyanide:

penguinsonwheels:

monalisamusings:

Respect one another <3

aaah, I love this! I see a lot of introvert appreciation and awareness on Tumblr, but not much for extroverts. It’s nice to see us recognised too~

oh look i respect most if not all the extrovert ones with my mom

but instead of her respecting any any of the introvert ones with me, she pulls 5 and 12 CONSTANTLY

holy shit someone actually made one for extroverts that isn’t shaming them

Can I just hang up the introversion one like, everywhere I go?
People never seem to understand it .-.

I’ve been waiting for an extrovert addendum to reblog this…

This should be on everyone’s blog for how true it is. ♥

ALWAYS REBLOG THE ONE WITH THE EXTROVERTS!

Because, you know, introverts aren’t the only ones who need to be understood.

As if extroverts don’t get enough attention as it is…their post stinks of ableism.

Wait, I’m confused. Where is the ableism in the extrovert post? The general theme of it is about standing back and just letting extroverts do their thing… how is that ableist?

#2 and #9. Basically, those two are forcing introverts out of their comfor zones. Maybe one of those introverts is autistic or has a social anxiety disorder? That’s why it’s ableist.

But the thing is - and tell me if you see it differently than I do - this post is about how introverts and extroverts should be cared for in an ideal world. Kind of like guidelines; they’re a thing to keep in mind when you’re with your friends who gain their energy differently from you, but you don’t always have to follow all of them exactly all of the time. So it’s not saying that every introvert ever absolutely has to come running up to us extroverts and give us hugs every time they see us or anything, just that we enjoy compliments and gestures of affection if you’re willing to give them, just like introverts enjoy quiet and having time to consider everything that they do.

I mean, I don’t think that #6 and #7 of the introverts post is ableist, even though it would be very difficult for someone who is manic to be able to do those things, or #5 and #8 for someone who’s autistic and can’t always control the things that they say. I think they’re just general things to keep in mind. If you can’t follow these guidelines, then you can’t. So it goes. Maybe you could do something else on the list instead, if the opportunity presents itself, but no big deal. But if you can, they’re handy for dealing with your introverted/extroverted friends when you’re an extrovert/introvert.

/two cents

rapturesrevenge:

arthoniel:

paru-na:

significantlyunknown:

pockytardis:

ceruleancyanide:

penguinsonwheels:

monalisamusings:

Respect one another <3

aaah, I love this! I see a lot of introvert appreciation and awareness on Tumblr, but not much for extroverts. It’s nice to see us recognised too~

oh look i respect most if not all the extrovert ones with my mom

but instead of her respecting any any of the introvert ones with me, she pulls 5 and 12 CONSTANTLY

holy shit someone actually made one for extroverts that isn’t shaming them

Can I just hang up the introversion one like, everywhere I go?
People never seem to understand it .-.

I’ve been waiting for an extrovert addendum to reblog this…

This should be on everyone’s blog for how true it is. ♥

ALWAYS REBLOG THE ONE WITH THE EXTROVERTS!

Because, you know, introverts aren’t the only ones who need to be understood.

As if extroverts don’t get enough attention as it is…their post stinks of ableism.

Wait, I’m confused. Where is the ableism in the extrovert post? The general theme of it is about standing back and just letting extroverts do their thing… how is that ableist?

"'Listen here, Internet girl,' he says, getting up. 'It wouldn’t kill you to watch a film or pick up a newspaper once in a while.' I’m not sure how he’s forgotten that I am writing for a newspaper."

killerkaleidoscope:

lucyzephyr:

triangularisthepie:

isabelthespy:

michelledean:

deepomega:

barthel:

Here is an article by Sarah Nicole Prickett in which she very gracefully allows Aaron Sorkin to demonstrate everything awful about Aaron Sorkin, from the arrogance to the woman problem to the inability to comprehend the modern press. (via @jodyrosen)

The good news is, now I can’t stop thinking about a scripted dramedy about a Gawker-alike.

This was very satisfying, not least because it comes on the heels of Matt Zoller Seitz accusing everyone not-so-into Sorkin as being horrible cynics who don’t dream the way Sorkin does!

oh my christ, what an unholy asshole. this is indeed a satisfying read except that now i’m a little sad i can’t punch him in the face.

this article is

magnificent

(and there vanishes any residual desire I had to watch Sorkin’s, well, anything)

OKAY I AM REBLOGGING THIS AGAIN, HAVING NOW READ IT

Read it, people.

Holy fucking shit, read about this self-absorbed asshole.

He’s learned fucking nothing from Studio 60 tanking. He is worse than ever before.

I vote we all ignore this show and just watch the first three seasons of The West Wing again.

“I think I would have done very well, as a writer, in the forties,” he says. “I think the last time America was a great country was then, or not long after. It was before Vietnam, before Watergate.”

Dude. Do you even hear yourself.

This article is also meandering, it doesn’t have any real purpose, and it makes no real argument. There is certainly no thesis statement. I couldn’t tell whether this was supposed to be a review of The Newsroom, a commentary on Aaron Sorkin, or just a feminist’s rant against someone who came off poorly to her. Whatever this was supposed to be, it failed. So, just a few more things I’d like to say:

1) Don’t watch Aaron Sorkin’s work if you don’t want to. I’m sure he’ll cry all the way to the bank. And you’ll just be missing out on some great movies and television. The author herself talks about just how stellar The Newsroom is, and The Social Network is a defining film for our time. You don’t have to agree with him. But not watching the things that he writes does absolutely nothing. If you really want to fight back against him, you need to know what he’s doing so you can take examples from his work to show what he’s doing wrong.

2) Also, throwing it out there that not watching his work doesn’t put you on any kind of a moral high ground. If all you ever know is your own point of view, and all you ever read or listen to is people who agree with your point of view, you are just as uneducated as people who know nothing about the issue. You can’t argue an issue until you know the other side just as well as you know your own so you can tell them exactly why they’re wrong and where the flaw in their logic lies. “Oh my god, this guy is such an asshole” is not an argument.

3) There are several things that he says here where he makes a real point. The comment about how the U.S. as a country hasn’t been great since before Vietnam and Watergate is an entirely legitimate one to take. Before that, in the forties and fifties, we were the best in science and math education, we were growing at an extraordinary rate financially, we were one of the world’s two superpowers after WWII, and we were making incredible scientific discoveries - we’re the ones who made it to the moon, and who developed vaccines for so many major diseases and made sure that everyone had them, for instance - that just haven’t been echoed since Vietnam and then Watergate. Yes, in the sixties and seventies we had the Civil Rights movements, but we also had a few of the most disgusting “wars” of our country’s history, spurred entirely by the Cold War, and then came Watergate, which completely destroyed the trust that Americans had in their government, and we haven’t been the same country since. As he says in The Newsroom, the country is more polarized than it has ever been since the Civil War, and in many ways, that stems from Watergate. Saying that we haven’t been a really great country since about the forties is absolutely a legitimate viewpoint to take.

Now, am I trying to argue that Aaron Sorkin is a perfect human being? No, of course not. There are certain things that he does and that he says, particularly in this article, that are absolutely ridiculous. The comment that he makes that is the title of this whole post, for instance, is kind of absurd, and shows that he can clearly be very self-involved and obsessed with his own point of view. Or the idea that women have to be taught how to high-five properly is insulting and disappointing.

But that doesn’t change how good of a writer he is, or how spot-on he can be when discussing certain issues.

Aaron Sorkin is a lot like Steven Moffat, basically. Both are kind of sexist douchebags, but when they’re writing good television, they’re writing television that just takes your breath away because it’s so extraordinary. And if you don’t watch the things that they do, then it’s your own loss, and you’re just missing out.

And, like the author of this article says, The Newsroom is absolutely an exceptional show. And it makes a ton of very, very valid points about what the news is like in our world today. And if you can, you should be watching it.

Finally, guys, don’t tag your hate. This was in the Aaron Sorkin tag. It’s just not cool, and you’re only going to piss off fans of his who go to it. Internet etiquette. Super simple stuff.

in all seriousness though the phrase “mens rights activist” makes me so angry
i’m like sorry your last girlfriend dumped you but there are countries in the world where women get DOUSED IN GASOLINE AND SET ON FIRE BECAUSE THEY CAN’T PROVE THEIR VIRGINITY. NO ONE IS TRYING TO SET YOU ON FIRE GUYS CHECK AND SEE YOU ARE NOT ON FIRE

Katherine Gregor (via elfluxcapacitor)

Alright katherine, while this is hilarious and adorable, I do think that men’s rights are a thing that is worth fighting for in America. Men’s rights to be feminine. Men’s rights to express themselves emotionally. Men’s rights to wear women’s clothing. Men’s rights to be openly gay. Men’s rights to be anything but the cookie-cutter ideal for masculinity. While it may not sound like something a feminist should say, I stand for Men’s Rights and I fight for Men’s Rights, because I advocate equality. However, Katherine, I still find you humerous.

(via crapplejack-snapplejack)

(Source: ggggnashville)

Wampercycle: gentlemanbones: mistercoventry: STOP RIGHT THERE! CYBER-POLICE!PUT...

omgimsuchadork:

yokothetypo:

gentlemanbones:

mistercoventry:

STOP RIGHT THERE! CYBER-POLICE!

PUT YOUR OPINIONS IN THE AIR WHERE I CAN SEE THEM

OH GOD
UNLEASHED IS MY FAVORITE SONIC GAME
I DON’T LIKE DUBSTEP AT ALL
THE HULK WASN’T A COMPELLING CHARACTER FOR ME AT ALL UNTIL MARK RUFFALO PLAYED HIM

FUCK

I…

USUK IS RETARDED

SOMETIMES PARENTS SHOULD HIT THEIR CHILDREN

I DON’T THINK SLUT-SHAMING IS SO BAD

BLACK PEOPLE NEED TO CHILL OUT ABOUT “BLACK” ISSUES. (hi i’m black lol)

HOW ARE YOU BAD AT MATH? IT’S BASED IN LOGIC: IT MAKES SENSE, IT SAYS SO RIGHT IN THE NAME.

I AM NOT A SMART OR SKILLED PERSON: IF I UNDERSTAND SOMETHING AND YOU DON’T, YOU’RE PROBABLY DUMB.

…these are really unpopular opinions, let the unfollowing begin.

STRAIGHT PEOPLE DO HAVE A SAY IN LGBT ISSUES - IT’S THEIR WORLD, TOO.

STEVEN MOFFAT NEEDS SOMEONE TO WRITE WOMEN FOR HIM BECAUSE HE CANNOT DO IT.

FEMINISM IS STILL NECESSARY, BUT WAY TOO MANY FEMINISTS TAKE IT WAY TOO FAR IN THIS DAY AND AGE.

ABLEISM DOES EXIST. SOMEONE NOT UNDERSTANDING DEPRESSION OR ANXIETY BECAUSE THEY’VE NEVER EXPERIENCED IT IS NOT IT.

SOMEONE HAVING A DIFFERENT OPINION THAN YOU DOES NOT MAKE THEM STUPID, A BAD PERSON, OR UNEDUCATED.

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND JOHN WATSON ARE NOT GAY.

NEITHER ARE ANY OF THE AVENGERS.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH CAN STAY IN THE U.S. IF HE WANTS TO. HE’S A GROWN-ASS MAN AND CAN MAKE HIS OWN DECISIONS.

IF THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES DOESN’T GIVE AN OSCAR TO YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE, IT’S NOT BECAUSE THEY’RE ALL CORRUPT, OR STUPID. IT’S BECAUSE YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE WITH YOUR FAVORITE ACTOR SIMPLY WASN’T THE BEST. AND I PROMISE YOU, THE MEMBERS OF THE ACADEMY KNOW CINEMA BETTER THAN YOU DO.

SAME GOES FOR THE EMMYS, THE GOLDEN GLOBES, THE BAFTAS, AND THE TONYS.

UNLESS YOU HAVE A SUGGESTION AS TO HOW THEY CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, REBLOGGING POSTS WITH LISTS OF PRIVILEGES OTHER PEOPLE HAVE DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

TWILIGHT IS A GOOD STORY, AND A FUN READ. IT’S NOT SHAKESPEARE, BUT IT IS GENUINELY ENJOYABLE IF YOU WOULD ACTUALLY KEEP AN OPEN MIND ABOUT THE SERIES.

babblegirl:

samatethecookie:

babblegirl:

whimsicalcircles:

alexkingstonsrampantrabbit:

RIVER SONG IS BISEXUAL!!

CONFIRMED BY THE MOFF!!

Problems with this:

Jack Harkness is not bound by the gender binary. He is capable of being attracted to all adult humanoids.

Sexual orientations are not “narrow views,” nor are they ridiculous or stupid.

Funny, I hear that River’s bi, but she was wrote for and completely revolves around the Doctor.

I don’t enjoy being the wet blanket, but yeah. Try again.

Oh hey I have a “narrow view” of the world because I am attracted to women.

I am so sick of that idea. Being bisexual or pansexual does not equate being “open minded” and being gay or straight is not “narrow”. It just means you are bi or pan or gay or straight.

I am not fucking ignorant for not being attracted to men.

Nice to know I’m so ridiculous to The Doctor.

lol wow.

I would give him the benefit of the doubt and believe that he really wasn’t thinking about the implications with that statement, but this is Moffat and he’s said plenty of awful things before so. :\ (That and it would’ve been just as troubling if he didn’t stop and think about what he was saying before he posted that.)

Also, River Song being bisexual? I approve. Now if you put it in the show, I’ll really be impressed.

I don’t think Moffat really thinks about the implications of much of anything. Maybe yeah he puts a shit load of forshawdowing in his shows, but he really isn’t the OMG GENIUS WHO THINGS OF EVERYTHING he’s given credit for.

But bugs me. So much.

If he meant that on Gallifrey there is no distinction between sexualities, like they just don’t have the concept or whatever in their culture, I’d be fine with that, but it’s not some enlightened state or something.

*sigh*

See, the thing is, as much as I have my problems with Moffat, I don’t think he’s a bad person. I think that he genuinely wants and tries to be open-minded and accepting. He just doesn’t think about it, and all that comes out are his own points of view, his own ways of seeing the world, in the most self-righteous way possible.

This man just needs someone to filter everything he says. Someone to run his scripts, Tweets, and things he’s about to say in interviews through to make sure he’s not about to say something in the douchiest way possible.

veggiemonstre:

babblegirl:

arthoniel:

babblegirl:

imperfectyetflawless:

negritaaa:

jfc, try harder.

right? like i like you enough JHutch, but im not a fan of this.

^My feelings exactly. He seems dorky and nice but I wish he wouldn’t say this shit.

I like my IDENTIFICATION. I am a person and I am also a gay woman, a lesbian.

I dunno, I think he got it pretty right.

I mean, when I’m asked to provide a label for myself, I identify as bisexual. I am attracted to both boys and girls, after all.

But damn, I hate it when I have to do that. I hate having to define myself as one thing. I hate having to box myself away into one little category for people to understand me.

And I’m not saying that labels can’t be good for other people! If identifying as lesbian or straight or pansexual or whatever you want is good for you and makes you happy, then that’s awesome, and you should keep on doing that! Doing that can definitely be helpful for understanding yourself sometimes, and it gives you a good base for exploring other parts of you. Defining yourself in your own terms is one of the most important things a person needs to do to really know themselves, and if you’re doing that in a kind of spoken language, then that’s just fine. You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do for you, man.

But not all of us want, need, or like labels. I just like being me, and liking who I like, and not bothering to define it as anything in any language or tying myself down to a specific identity. I define myself in a way that I understand and feel and innately know, but I couldn’t communicate it with just one word, and I dislike it when I’m told that I should, or that I have to.

And I think that that’s what Josh Hutcherson is talking about here. He’s not saying that we should get rid of those terms. Just that we shouldn’t define people by them, and them alone. That if someone wants to just be themselves, and doesn’t want to classify as “gay” or “straight” or anything else, they shouldn’t have to. That they should be able to just be a “person”.

Is this the best phrased thing he’s ever said? No. But is what he’s trying to say wrong? No. No it’s not. And it’s not fair to jump down his throat for it.

He’s on our side, after all.

/two cents

I just don’t think some straight dude with straight privilege should be talking with so much AUTHORITY like he seems to do when it comes to queer rights

Lots of us like our identification. Some people don’t, of course. But I don’t want straight people going on about how sick THEY are of the words “gay” and “lesbian”.

His sexuality is the default and he rarely needs to clarify it to people.

I like him when he’s being a dork and not trying to speak for me. But when he goes on like this I just want him to stop talking and remember that this is NOT ABOUT HIM.

IDGAF if he’s sick of those words. It’s up to each individual if they want to use those labels/identifiers or not, either choice is legit and cool as long as it is YOUR CHOICE, and it’s not to please straight people and he needs to understand that he needs to LISTEN to actual queer people and just because he’s at the GLAAD awards doesn’t mean he’s a champion of queer rights.

I just have a lot of issues with this and I don’t like straight people telling me How To Gay.

Yes, I’m just a person, but I identify as gay and that doesn’t negate the “just people” thing. It’s how I identify.

I just wish queer people were the center of media attention about queer rights.

bolding by moi.

too many straight people these days try to direct my queerfeels and it’s not cool. it’s not cool when I go to queer dances that only play gaga. it’s not cool when I’m the only queer in my COLLEGE literature course and I use the word “queer” and get jumped on by everybody else for using a word that’s soooOOOOOOOoooooo offensive to their sensibilities. it’s not cool when my pride committee thinks using donations from urban outfitters for our event is a good idea and try to talk me out of being uncomfortable with it.

it’s fucking annoying when people tell me not to call myself a dyke, because I like that word so much more than “lesbian” and I feel empowered by it (when I call myself one) and they rationalize by saying THEY’RE uncomfortable with the word. and it super sucked when my housemates last year told me I should just deal with them calling each other faggots because “people are always going to use that word anyway” and then I had to contemplate moving out even though there was only one month of the year left. and then one day they didn’t know I was upstairs in my room and I overheard them screaming slurs and mocking me for being offended by them. and I didn’t say shit because I already knew the kind of response I’d get, because I get these kinds of policing responses from every straight person in the universe on the regular.

see people say a lot of different things about how I should react to shit being said about my community, whether they’re close to me or not, because for some reason everybody thinks they have a say in queer issues if they have so much as a sex drive. or they feel like they’re some kind of superhumanbeing if they act personally offended by words that I like.

anyway you all can defend these gifs if you like but I’m still going to be pissed off with how much praise he gets for regurgitating the same shit every straight person walking down the average street likes to say to prove what an open-minded hotshot they are.

Oh man, I don’t know you or more of your life than what you’ve just said there, veggiemonstre, but your roommates sound pretty awful. I’m sorry you have to put up with all of that.

Because I know what it’s like, to have people be insensitive about a person’s sexuality. And you’re right - it does suck. It sucks when my mother doesn’t believe that I’m bisexual, and only ever tries to talk to me about boys, or just cuts off the conversation whenever I bring up a girl that I might be attracted to. It sucks when my psychology professor says that she’s not entirely sure that bisexuals really exist as we’re discussing adolescent sexuality. It sucks when I ask a friend of mine whether or not another girl is queer because I think that she’s pretty but I don’t want to waste my time if she won’t be attracted to me in return, and I get a look and a very slow reply in response. It’s hard to be LGBTQ in today’s culture, and it’s impossible for any rational person to deny our hardships.

But we’re not the only ones that this culture has an effect on. There are our parents who now have to adjust their expectations for their families and their future lives when their child ends up being LGBTQ. There are people we meet every day who may not have ever met someone LGBTQ before (or at least not someone who admits it) who are dealing with a person who exists in a way they haven’t encountered before. For people who are only attracted to people of their own sex, there are going to be people of the opposite sex who like them, and then have to deal with the fact that their feelings won’t be returned just because of the way that they were born. I’m not saying that their hardships are harder than ours or anything even close to that, but we do live in a culture of straight people, and we can’t possibly exist independently of them.

And while a person being LGBTQ is obviously something that ought to be normal and fine and not something that people have to “deal” with, there’s a certain point at which that is the society in which we live, and we need to work with the world we’re in. Should it be changed? Yes, of course! But we live in a heterosexual-dominated society, and we can’t tell them that their opinion doesn’t matter.

The majority of the world is heterosexual, and that’s plain biology. Humans need to be mostly heterosexual after all, in order to procreate and continue the species. It’s how we, like any other species, have evolved. But because of this, you can’t blame straight people for being straight. And because they are the majority of our species, we alone can’t convince them to change their minds about something that’s been ingrained in the majority of human culture for thousands of years.

And more than that, not all straight people are responsible for our problems in the LGBTQ community. So many of them, in fact, want to help us, because they think that the discrimination we face is wrong! They may not have experienced the problems we’ve dealt with, but they still see what is happening, and they believe that it’s wrong. They want to help us. And we need them. We can’t do it alone. We need those of them who really know and believe that we are people too to speak up, and convince the others. Not all of them will listen to us. But they will listen to each other, and while the whole “some straight people won’t listen to us” thing is not the endgame that we want, straight people listening to each other about us is a very important first step.

We need straight people to help us. We need them to advocate for us. We need them to speak about the LGBTQ community. Because we live in a heterosexual world, and while it’s not right that they dominate us now, we need to work with them if we’re ever going to be equal. And you can’t tell them that they can’t discuss the world they live in. It’s the same as ours, after all. They are more privileged in it, but it’s the same world.

(Source: ohdarefinnick)