Let’s talk a little more about what I meant by “straight writers being straight writers”
Now obviously, I don’t think that ALL straight writers are bad at writing romance. Anyone who genuinely believes this is what I meant is just looking for reasons to get mad and confirm their biases against ~mean Tumblr SJWs~
But in general, many straight people fail to critically examine their views on gender, relationships, sex, etc. They might be a little more progressive than their parents, but they’ll often still believe much of what they were raised to believe. This means that many straight people who write fiction (straight men who write genre fiction in particular) bring a lot of this cultural baggage into their writing, and end up parroting harmful or just plain boring romance tropes that have been around forever and ever. It’s usually not even intentional–it’s just what they know
Some of the common ones include, but are certainly not limited to:
Stories where the central couple’s relationship and why they like each other is barely fleshed out because “he was a boy, she was a girl, can I make it any more obvious”
“These two bicker constantly, it must be sexual tension!” (see: literally every romantic subplot in Stranger Things)
Manic pixie dream girls
Girls being treated as little more than romantic prizes to be won by the male heroes
Married couples with an obnoxious slob husband we’re supposed to sympathize with and a nagging wife (see: like 90% of all sitcoms)
In general, couples where the woman is way too good for the man
Harry Potter-style endings where the surviving characters are all arbitrarily paired off into straight marriages with kids, regardless of how much or how little the paired off characters even interacted in the series
Similarly: important female characters getting paired off with a guy and being reduced to little more than his housewife
Also, married couples where the husband has tons of friends but the wife has no life outside of being a mom (see: “Does Marge have friends?”)
Stories about how men and women “can’t really be friends” and can only be lovers
Cheating! SO MUCH cheating
“Born Sexy Yesterday” stories, especially in sci-fi, where the male lead falls for a naive and childlike yet also hypercompetent and sexualized woman
In general, men being expected to go after younger women, but usually not the other way around
Men struggling to show their girlfriends genuine emotion and say “I love you” even if they’ve been dating for a long, long time
Keep in mind all of these things pop up in fiction I LIKE. Some of my all time favorties, even! But these things are all so common because many straight people don’t think critically about their views on relationships, and take these for granted as “how couples work.” These stories then reinforce those ideas instead of challenging them and help perpetuate the cycle
Former Vice President Dick Cheney was the quintessential behind-the-scenes political power player. “He really has no signature speech — there’s no great Dick Cheney moment where he was in front of a pulpit delivering a great line,” says filmmaker Adam McKay. “He’s always kind of just been in the background.”
McKay aims to bring the powerful former vice president into the foreground in his new film, Vice, a dark comedy starring Christian Bale. The movie combines the work of investigative journalists with some speculation and comedy (McKay also directed AnchormanandThe Big Short) to tell the story of Cheney’s ascent from Yale dropout, to West Wing operative under president George W. Bush.
“I think a lot of the ways that people like Cheney have gained power is that they rely on us being bored. They rely on us looking at what they do and assuming that it’s just bureaucracy and who cares?” McKay says. But, “when you really dig into it, it’s very exciting stuff. And it’s major stuff that changes the world.”
Do you think Grindelwald’s followers ever suspect something weird happened between him and Dumbledore?
Like why is he always bringing up Albus Dumbledore? What’s up with his near encyclopedic knowledge of Dumbledore? Why does he keep 10,000+ pictures and newspaper clippings about Dumbledore in that drawer in his bedroom?
I think it’ll depend on a lot of factors we don’t know about.
How illegal or open is the gay in magical 1920s? For DD to even say “we were closer than brothers,” the situation must have been better than in the nomaj/muggle world. So, no one is being imprisosed. But, he didn’t say “we were involved.” And Harry didn’t have open gay friends decades later. So, I think maybe only GG’s closest inner circle would only know about the blood oath, but wouldn’t be casually mentioning any past relationships.
The new season of the Emmy Award-winning series finds Midge Maisel mired in personal crises, even as her comedy career is on the rise. David Bianculli says The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel remains a winner.
Watching this now. It’s in PARIS, 1962, bohemians, painters, writers, commies! It’s lovely.
I have no idea who made this. It came across my timeline and is so amazing I had to share it. If someone knows who the artist is, let me know and I’ll update.
Amazon Prime Video’s new drama series stars Julia Roberts as a therapist who’s working with a soldier returning from Afghanistan. Critic David Bianculli binged all 10 engrossing episodes.
Homecoming starts out like a military-themed version of the HBO series In Treatment: one patient, one therapist, and a lot of back-and-forth, slowly revealing dialogue. But very quickly, it turns into something else: a conspiracy drama overdosed with suspicion and paranoia, where almost nothing can be taken for granted. The therapy sessions take place in the present, but there’s also a timeline set a few years in the future – when a Department of Defense investigator is looking into Heidi’s [Julia Roberts] role at the Homecoming medical facility, and finding many more questions than answers.”
I saw this on Amazon and it looked interesting. The plot summary is really grabbing me, ad I havn’t seen Julia in years. She used to be a favorite of mine, so I think I’m gonna make a movie night of this.
Angela Lansbury in costume on the set of the 1946 film, “The Harvey Girls.” This photo is from an unpublished 1945 set of photos by LIFE photographer Walter Sanders. Angela Lansbury is celebrating her 93rd birthday today - Happy Birthday, Angela!! (Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) #LIFElegends #AngelaLansbury https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo_srB6B0Ls/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=b5s8qxigc0gu
