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you're gonna have to do clockwork orange shit to me if you want me to learn whatever the fuck an abundance agenda is
Straight cultureâs orientation toward heteroromantic sacrifice is also influenced by socioeconomic class. Respect for sacrificeâor sucking it up and surviving lifeâs miseriesâis one of the hallmarks of white working-class culture, for instance, wherein striving for personal happiness carries less value than does adherence to familial norms and traditions. Maturity and respectability are measured by what one has given up in order to keep the family system going, an ethos that is challenged by the presence of a queer child, for instance, who insists on âbeing who they are.â Queernessâto the extent that it emphasizes authenticity in oneâs sexual relationships and fulfillment of personal desiresâis an affront to the celebration of heteroromantic hardship. As Robin Podolsky has noted, âWhat links homophobia and heterosexism to the reification of sacrifice . . . is the specter of regret. Queers are hated and envied because we are suspected of having gotten away with something, of not anteing up to our share of the misery that every other decent adult has surrendered to.â
For many lesbian daughters of working-class straight women, opting out of heterosexuality exposes the possibility of another life path, begging the question for mothers, âIf my daughter didnât have to do this, did I?â Heterosexuality is compulsory for middle-class women, too, but more likely to be represented as a gift, a promise of happiness, to be contrasted with the ostensibly âmiserableâ life of the lesbian. The lesbian feminist theorist Sara Ahmed has offered a sustained critique of the role of queer abjection in the production of heteroromantic fantasies. In Living a Feminist Life, she notes that âit is as if queers, by doing what they want, expose the unhappiness of having to sacrifice personal desires . . . for the happiness of others.â In The Promise of Happiness, Ahmed argues, âHeterosexual love becomes about the possibility of a happy ending; about what life is aimed toward, as being what gives life direction or purpose, or as what drives a story.â Marked by sacrifice, misery, and failure along the way, the journey toward heterosexual happiness (to be found with the elusive âgood manâ) remains the journey.
Jane Ward, The Tragedy of Heterosexuality
if I ever have to see that fucking blorbo jesus crucifixion scene from good omens again i'm going to fucking lose it.
"misandry harms queer men and transmascs too"
still sometimes think about how when my apartment got raided by cops back in 2021 i had a massive neon sign on the wall of my living room that just said "crime"
monkeyâs sinister smile
smoking the weed that makes you lib out
I think one of my biggest contentions with the broader de fanbase (esp on tumblr), is the way people seem to think the 'point' of the story is ultimately uplifting. idk if I'm just a bitter pessimist, but to me, de is much more focused on the spectacular failure to affect change in late stage capitalism. the world of de is essentially a 1:1 mirror to our own, even the more fantastical elements like the pale are obviously meant to be analogous to the existential threat of climate change (I have way more thoughts about the pale but that's an essay I have yet to write). Harry's amnesia and subsequent rediscovery of his past is synecdochally representative of the revechol and it's past. as the player, you uncover both in tandem as you progress through the central mystery of the game. the fact that Harry's ultimate failure, his relationship to Dora, is revealed at the site of a failed revolution is very intentional; both are events everyone is desperate to forget, and yet they are inescapable, informing every aspect of the present reality. again, this is all very bleak, but honestly I think if the game had a more positive outlook I wouldn't have connected with it as much as I have. it's not particularly comforting or inspiring, but it is cathartic.