SHADOW AND BONE (2021-) | “The Unsea” (1x07)

I am a Gen Xer, and I've been having some conversations about photography and selfies lately, and I want to share a little bit, because I think younger queer people don't quite understand what things used to be like.

I have no snapshots of the era of my life in which I was smootching girls behind the tilt-a-whirl at a shitty traveling carnival in a dusty empty lot. In fact, I have no pictures of any of my friends from that era aside from yearbook pictures of the friends who were in my school. I was a little goth teenager and many of my friends were also punk queers. We could not take pictures of each other.

Why? Because pictures were taken on film. And film needed to go somewhere to be developed. And if there were pictures of people "being gay" then sometimes your whole roll would disappear at the photo processor. Or your 36 exposure roll would return only 32 pictures to you. Because the processor would censor it. And aside from that, you had to be cautious about whether a photograph would somehow be seen by parents, who could kick your friend out of their house. Just because someone was holding hands in the background of a photo.

Snapshots were for kids who did sports and wholesome activities.

A little later, I had a friend who took photography and had access to the school photo lab (the art teacher didn't care as long as no one was developing nudity), and there were some photographers who hung out with the skater kids. But prior to that, there was a whole era of my life, people who were super important to me for a time, that I just don't have pictures of. At all. Because it wasn't safe.

I found myself recently explaining this to a younger coworker and another colleague in the meeting, a gay man about my age, was nodding along. This was an important facet of life if you were a queer teen in the 80s. You didn't have pictures of your people until you knew someone with use of a darkroom.

“I hate obvious symbolism” bro shut up sun and moon couples are a pillar of our society

Jude Duarte

Hands in Denis Sarazhin’s art

It's all fun and games with Neil 'I'd rather be free than safe' Josten vs. Kevin 'I'd rather be safe than free' Day - until you whip out Jean 'Please just kill me' Moreau

what the Trojans expected: violent dangerous giant ex raven 👹🔪

what they got:

what the Foxes expected: traumatized poor baby angel runaway 🥺😇

what they got:

oop kinda forgot about tumblr for a second there.

Please have this Vampire Neil and Vampire Hunter Andrew for spooky season to make up for it! 😌💗

Please don’t repost, but do follow me on instagram! I post more frequently there 💓

my favorite scene in all of literature is when Neil Josten wakes up in Columbia after being drugged, hurls an alarm clock at Aaron, dumps his water on the floor and throws the cup at Aaron, stuff his clothes down the toilet and squeezes out through the window, has the foresight to call Matt from a pay phone to protect his shit, hitch hikes back to campus, eyes back to brown?? shows up on Wymack’s door like 😜 and reveals he could speak German the whole time?? CHARACTER OF ALL TIME, that is a protagonist who knows how MOVE THE MFING PLOT ALONG

Happy happy Neil

I need an inebriated Jean to grab someone fiercely by the arm, and in the thickest French accent, say “I thought my life with the Ravens was bad. Now I want to fuck a man who wears puka shell necklaces. Where is the humanity? The Justice? Put me down before it’s too late; I cannot live with indignity any longer.” And then fall asleep.