They Did It Together. 🥹

I’ve been thinking about The Half Of It all weekend (the trailer of which just started randomly playing when I logged into Netflix on Friday and I was curious enough to give it a shot and have no regrets) and when I was gushing to my brother about it earlier, I realized why I love it so much:

See, setting up the whole “nerdy girl helps jock boy get popular girl” cliche and then throwing in the twist that “nerdy girl loves popular girl too” is fantastic, every part of the queer storyline was beautiful, the opening monologue and how it was a direct parallel to the water scene, the painting metaphors, the jean jacket, the cliche religious hick small-town that could have been mine, the fact that they literally showed a mountain and prompted me to spend a whole day making a Landslide AMV (cough), the secret looks they give each other throughout the movie, that final kiss and the promise of something more in the future, all wonderful, beautiful, NEEDED…

But none of that compares to the amazing love story that happened between Paul and Ellie. These two going from being rivals to being tentative friends to having a genuine love for each other that confuses Paul because he’s a teenager in a small-town and, let’s face it, he probably only learned “you either feel a casual friendship with this person or you feel horny af” because that’s the binary they teach in these small town high schools, so it makes sense that he looks all sorts of confused when he realizes how much he likes her, and you can tell that he’s still confused, even as he goes to kiss her, then she immediately pushes him away which adds to even more confusion, then he realizes that she’s queer, which goes against every bit of small-town-religious-hick lesson that he had ever learned. So, he lashes out at her and he runs away and I do wish he had been supportive all along but then we wouldn’t get the scene in the kitchen so it was honestly worth it because…

The scene in the kitchen. When Ellie’s father is reminiscing about his own familial love towards his daughter and he asks, “Have you ever loved someone so much you don’t want anything about her to change?” and you just see Paul’s reaction, just look at this:

That is someone who just realized what platonic love is!

Not only that, he realized that his platonic love for Ellie is so strong that he is willing to accept her, no matter what, and help her, no matter what, and love her, no matter what. Not a romantic love, not a familial love, but a pure, genuine, deep, platonic love between a boy and a girl! WHAT A CONCEPT!

Then, of course, he stands up for her, literally, in church. He does so without outing her and, just a note, he never outs her to her father, even when her father begs him to say why Ellie is so upset, Paul never outs her and I know, I know, people shouldn’t usually get props for not being jerks, but seeing as how every other guy in that school is that stereotypical hick/jock, the fact that he’s able to subconsciously keep her secret shows how deep his love is, even when he doesn’t even realize it.

Then, of course, you have him crying on the platform and chasing the train to show her how much he loves her, to make her laugh and cry and whisper, “Moron!” and you know that, whatever the future holds for Ellie and Aster, that’s nothing compared to the love and support that Ellie will always get from Paul and that’s nothing compared to the love and support I have for this movie, it’s so good, you need to watch it…

cmon girlies we’re picking out a 10k+ single chapter fic on ao3 to read stomach down head turned towards our phones held next to our pillows as we move only our thumbs to scroll until our sedatives knock us out

You're right I have read coffeshib work BUT I hadn't in a while and that deliciously soft 50k one shot did the trick. I've also seen one rec in the notes I haven't read yet so that one is next! Thank you so much for answering this ask.

alright so, i actually managed to think about some more soft stuff ive read so here have a follow up fic rec i guess???

Please Clarify by @gveret-fic

it's easy (when i'm with you) by falsealarm

Something Borrowed by janewithawhy

how do crows know when an earthquake is about to happen? by @c--and--b

Point of Maximal Impulse by @zofiecfield

and a lot of @spaceman-earthgirl

not to be dramatic but katie in this fit could have me in a choke hold and i’d thank her

In honour of Cody’s recent comment. U right Legend.

*jumps*

"homosexuality is unnatural! there's only two genders! it's a sin-"

I'm sorry, have you seen NATURE???

and there's so many more species than this that exhibit homosexuality, varying genders, etc. SO! MANY!

it's very much a natural thing. it always has been. unfortunately, while homosexuality is found in many species, homophobia is only found in one

ALSO THE ARTIST IS HUMON, FIND THEM AT HUMONCOMICS.COM!! was so sure I had included that but apparently I forgot, so sorry!

TW: Pedophilia

Teenagers are rarely taught the reason why they can't consent to sex with adults.

And that's because teaching them that would completely unravel our coercion-based society.

It can be difficult to explain in detail the exact reason and all the specifics in a way that they will understand. But the simplest way to phrase it is that in some cases, even when someone agrees to something and even when they appear enthusiastic about it, there's too much of a power imbalance that it's no different than forcing them. Also, having power and being abusive doesn't require a conscious expectation to be obeyed.

Imagine a world in which every teenager understood that and was easily able to call out anyone who tried to convince them otherwise.

They'd know that there's no such thing as an employee consenting to working for a poverty wage, working in unsafe conditions, working long hours, or working without taking breaks. They'd know that there's no such thing as consenting to paying a bank overdraft fee. They'd know that there's no such thing as consenting to student loan debt. They'd know that there's no such thing as consenting to medical bills. They'd know that there's no such thing as consenting to generating profit for banks or landlords in order to have a place to live and being evicted or foreclosed when you lose your source of income. They'd know that there's no such thing as consenting to a police search. They'd know that there's no such thing as a child who's okay with their parents spanking them. They'd know that being dependent on someone does not mean that you can never criticize them. They'd know that if it's considered abusive to simply play along when someone obeys, then it has to be much more abusive to actively expect to be obeyed, which many adults do to them.

And people who benefit from a society based on coercion masquerading as freedom wouldn't like that.

So instead, teenagers are taught something dismissive. They're taught that what they want doesn't matter. They're taught that they're too young to know what love is. They're taught "it's the law". They're taught things that are insulting to their intelligence, which they'll naturally rebel against.