We Need More Art That Is Unpleasant And Makes You Feel Bad

reblog to pet his bald head

Straight culture’s orientation toward heteroromantic sacrifice is also influenced by socioeconomic class. Respect for sacrifice—or sucking it up and surviving life’s miseries—is 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 “being who they are.” Queerness—to the extent that it emphasizes authenticity in one’s sexual relationships and fulfillment of personal desires—is an affront to the celebration of heteroromantic hardship. As Robin Podolsky has noted, “What 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.”

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, “If my daughter didn’t have to do this, did I?” 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 “miserable” 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 “it is as if queers, by doing what they want, expose the unhappiness of having to sacrifice personal desires . . . for the happiness of others.” In The Promise of Happiness, Ahmed argues, “Heterosexual 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.” Marked by sacrifice, misery, and failure along the way, the journey toward heterosexual happiness (to be found with the elusive “good man”) remains the journey.

Jane Ward, The Tragedy of Heterosexuality

i love you and we will make it thru this together

once every 2 million babies, a “strong baby” is born. That baby has the strength of one hundred regular babies. I am that baby, and I wish you a merry christmas

the way you guys treat transfems is actually fucking disgusting

I've had this image saved for months waiting for inspiration

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.

Unknown. China Album Containing Twelve Paintings of Insects Qing dynasty (1644–1911)

part 2 was also pretty bad :( I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with exploring a more at-face-value right wing reading of Nietzsche, and it's pretty silly to insist that that reading isn't supported by his work. But it's still an odd choice to not acknowledge any leftist/deluezian analysis, since imo there's a lot of interesting stuff there! anyway shout out to Liv Agar's podcast ep about contrapoint's equally disappointing Nietzsche takes that made me interested in his work to begin with

philosophytube really pissed off the deluezeheads this time huh