ok so i’m still thinking about venom but HEAR ME OUT: eddie brock is so emotionally open in a way that i am so unused to seeing superhero/villains being, especially the dudes. his feelings! are right there! he says them! he admits when he’s sad! when he’s scared! when he’s lonely! and it makes this campy, violent little film into something that’s all about heart? his heart? his heart poisoning a poor alien with feelings? a poor alien that just came down for a snack?
AND you guys AND can i just call attention to the fact that there was no love triangle? like the person he loved was not with him and he was sad but there was no macho posturing against dan. no squaring off. no fighting over a person like they were a prize. i can’t remember the last time i felt so relaxed with a romance angle. this was just. wow.
And Dan just saying how much he truly—apparently sincerely—appreciates Eddie’s work, then going inside like it’s nothing to let them talk. Both men weren’t posturing or puffing for a fight, even with Eddie’s incredibly pathetic visit to Anne’s home. Dan helping Eddie with proper do-no-harm medical concern. And even Eddie on the stoop at the end disagreeing with Venom about ‘getting Anne back’.
I just… There was so much to this movie, and I need to see it 5 more times STAT.
The lampshade when Anne starts telling Dan that there’s nothing between her and Eddie and he’s like, what are you talking about I’m not worried about that, I’m worried about THAT SLIMY ALIEN THING
There’s not even any of those ‘if only they talked to each other’ misunderstandings?
It’s adorable, really, but also a refreshingly realistic take on how people interact.
This this this. This was my favorite thing about the movie, and about Ant-Man and the Wasp: none of that toxic exes bullshit. Just people who care about each other, even if they didn’t make it work, and going the extra mile to help them when they’re in need. Dan made me ridiculously happy because he was genuinely concerned about Eddie. And Eddie was a fuckup, and it’s totally understandable why Anne dumps him after he blows up her life, but she doesn’t turn into the harpy that Hollywood always makes the ex girlfriend/wife out to be. A+, keep up the good work Marvel (and Sony), this is one of the few things you’re doing right.
The buzz word in popular feminism today is empowerment. When I became a feminist many years ago, the word we used was liberation. Unlike empowerment, liberation is a collective concept which means that even if my life is all rosy and “empowered,” it doesn’t mean shit for those women who are doing low paid jobs while trying to raise families.
In fact, there is a very good chance that elite women’s empowerment is built on the backs of other women whose exploited labor provides the goods and services that enable a good career and a comfortable lifestyle. The low pay of nannies, cooks, cleaners, sweat shop workers, and day care providers means that wealthier women are freed up to make a salary that no doubt does feel empowering.
alright so i know we are all into punk sirius who is hot on slumming it in his teens, showing just how connected to the working classes and the great unwashed he is by living in a tiny poky flat in London, BUT I submit, for your delectation:
everyone lives au in which sirius decides to reverse stick it to his fam by joining forces with andromeda to become the hot new socialites in magical britain, hosting charity balls for postwar rehabilitation and like, vampire & werewolf charity fundraisers – lavish affairs in which the rich and the beautiful are subtly pressured into outbidding each other into donating more and more absurd amounts of money or else risk being socially ostracized FOREVER because they won’t receive one of those EXCLUSIVE invitations to number 12 Grimmauld Place & this INFURIATES narcissa who CLEARLY is the HEIR to the social lives of the black family and will not be USURPED by her black sheep of a sister and the family’s wild canon and dissolute disowned heir, her cousin lbr she probably bitches about this to Bellatrix’s portrait ad infinitum and Bella’s just like why don’t I have my WAND why can’t I cast spells and make her SHUT UP she and Draco grow very close in those months with Narcissa’s wailing incessantly about how NO ONE will attend any of the Malfoy’s social events and also FANCY!!!! ANDROMEDA HAVING THE AUDACITY TO DISINVITE ME FROM MY OWN ANCESTRAL HOME!!! AN INSULT NOT TO BE BORNE!!!!
anyway, Sirius obviously throws each and every single piece of furniture in Grimmauld Place out and strips it down, knocks down a couple of walls and adds in some elegant french windows and with Fleur’s help redesigns the place entirely because for god’s sake, victorian gothic is SO last century and besides, if we’re really doing pureblood decadence the only way to go is French Rococo lbr and everything is now MIRRORS and GILT and frankly ridiculous furniture that is IMPOSSIBLE TO SIT ON but everyone adores even when they’ve been standing in six inch heels for three hours running. Walburga Black obviously has kittens over this redecoration and this meticulous stripping away of their HISTORY (we can trace our family all the way to the Norman conquest! Your great great great great great great great great great great grandfather fought alongside King William at Hastings (unlike the Malfoys who only LIE about their involvement, just so we’re clear) she shouts until Sirius reveals his party trick aka the elaborately brocaded silk curtains he’s installed to be pulled over his mother’s painting so she becomes yet another one of the #quirks of Grimmauld Place, an entertainment set piece and nothing more).
Meanwhile in the library Sirius probably donates half the books to Hogwarts and then redoes the entire place in homage to the Brighton Pavillion (You see I’m not entirely unpatriotic, he tells the portrait of his fuming father) and then installs CARD TABLES at which the rich and the famous can do things like LOSE ENTIRE FORTUNES and also the family diamonds – all in the name of charity.
Also, most importantly is the draw Sirius exerts on the entire wizarding world because he obviously cultivates an eccentric and bohemian persona and insists on receiving guests for one hour only from a chaise longue in one of the parlours where he reclines in these hideous brocaded silk dressing gowns, with bottles of sal vol and assorted smelling salts around him and he only ever extends a single well-manicured hand to everyone: twelve years in Azkaban, he says faintly to everyone who visits, but the healer says I should recover my nerves soon (no one knows when ‘’’’’’’’’soon’’’’’’’’’ is, but this goes on for at least ten years after the war.)
And obviously each and every single one of his relatives stuck in their portraits are clawing their eyes out or shrieking in horror about WE HAVE BEEN REDUCED!!!! REDUCED TO BEING NO MORE THAN THE LAUGHING STOCK OF BRITAIN!!! except possibly Regs who is amused at just how terribly transparent & crude his brother is at the art of provocateuring.
Can I just say, as great as Venom and Eddie’s relationship was, I appreciated Dan and Anne’s. Dan didn’t fall into the jealous new boyfriend category. Not once did he mistrust Anne about Eddie, showing he was totally comfortable in that relationship and trusted her totally, he was so nice to Eddie instead of telling him to stay away from Anne. It was a healthy relationship dynamic (despite Anne’s possible remaining feelings at the end) and I appreciated it and Dan as a character
Update: I forgot to add, Dan had his priorities right like when he told Anne they needed to talk about what was going on and she said there was nothing going on with her and Eddie and Dan was like ‘no we need to talk about the weird parasite thing that’s unknown to medical science obviously’ and I appreciate that he was focused on the right thing
I think part of what made the Venom movie so palatable to me was the whole situation with Dan and how it was handled as if everyone involved was a Decent Adult Person instead of the heteronormative caricatures we’ve come to expect. Just by being written the way he is, Dan makes my queer ass feel so much safer in indulging in this fandom, and I love him for that!!!
I was prepared for a boatload of second hand embarrassment at the restaurant scene but it was wonderfully resolved when Dan was like “Yes this is my girlfriend’s ex behaving inappropriately in a restaurant but also he’s obviously visibly unwell and I’m a doctor so can we all please calm the fuck down so I can get him to a hospital.”
In Mendoza, Argentina, a non-binary person won the fight to change their birth certificate, and now it reads they’re non-binary. They presented all the papers necessary to have the very same change on their DNI (Documento Nacional de Identidad), and is waiting for the new one to arrive.
hey guys! here’s some fun things i learned from this article about Dion Diamond:
he did these sit-ins by himself. like idk about you, but i always thought of sit-ins as organized by groups, what kind of bravery does it take, man
he didn’t tell anyone about it, like he was no glory-seeker about this. his parents didn’t even know until reporters started calling them up like “hey, did you know your son is in jail?
when someone called the cops he’d skedaddle out the back door although he was sent to prison multiple times
the last time he got arrested was in Baton Rouge, and the cops were so sick of him that they told inmates they’d put in a good word for anyone who gave Diamond a hard time. (the inmates didn’t take the bait.)
he’s still alive!
hark, a hero of our times!
It’s important to remember that this happened a mere fifty-eight years ago, just two years older than my father. I can’t imagine going to a restaurant and not being permitted to sit down. Regardless of your politics, it’s vital to recognize the events that shaped our culture.
Rebellions are built on hope 