His Serene Highness

you ever feel like you were born with something rotten inside you and if people get close enough they’re gonna find out

why should i care about taylor swift when the killer remains at large

#girl… put 2 and 2 together

this is a political compass of sexuality to me.

ultimate sex political compass

Put thee not on Silent

yuri this, yuri that, how about yu-read a boo- huh? you do? well uh, what do you read about? oh... I see...

If you are watching a TV show, it can be live action or animated.

But not when you're reading a book. Much to think about.

Wait.

Wait wait.

tiramisu am i right

his ass is NOT grant o’brien!!!!

Today's episode was a masterpiece honestly

did u seriously just equate physical appearance with morality in front of the hoes

Maybe this is the wrong platform to pose this question given the average tumblr user but

Is it just me or did our generation (those of is who are currently 20-30 ish) just not get the opportunity to be young in the 'standard' sense?

Like, everyone I talk to who's over 40 has all their wild stories about their teens and 20s, being young and dumb, and then I talk to my friends and coworkers and classmates, and we just... dont.

My mom tells stories of skipping school to sneak across the border and spend the day at a bar in Mexico. I was threatened with not being allowed to graduate because of senior ditch day. One of my friends had to go to his first hour class on senior ditch day because the teacher, who almost exclusively taught seniors, arranged a huge exam that day with no available makeup days, specifically to punish kids who took part in ditch day. Our wild and crazy ditch day was playing mini golf and then stopping for ice cream on our way back to one of our friends' houses to play cards against humanity.

Don't get me wrong, we had fun. But all of that, threats of not graduating, threats of failing classes over a single test, over some mini golf and ice cream?

Throughout high school and early in college, my friend group got kicked out of malls, stores, and even a parking lot just for being there wrong. Not being loud of disruptive. Not causing problems. Just being there too long, or without buying anything.

My mom graduated high school, after repeating her senior year, without a single grade above a D, and was offered a full ride scholarship to a state university to play on their women's football team. I had a 3.8 GPA, multiple extracurriculars, a summer job, and over 100 hours of volunteer work, and barely got into that same university, and then couldn't afford to go there anyway.

We've made getting into college so important and yet so difficult that kids are sacrificing their childhoods for it.

Then they become adults and it doesn't go away. Your employer/ potential employers are searching your social media and internet presence so you'd better hope no one has ever posted a picture of you at a party, or with alcohol, or wearing revealing clothes, or whatever else they've deemed unprofessional. And if you want to go out it's a 10 dollar cover and drinks are at least 8 dollars, and you need to tip if there's any kind of live entertainment, who can afford to do all that regularly?

My physical therapist, when I was 18, told me about his 21st birthday, how the last thing he remembers is people taking body shots off him. I spent my 21st birthday alone, was in bed by 10pm because I had to be at work the next morning. My boss had already told me that they knew it was my 21st, and if I called out, she'd write me up for improper use of sick leave because you're not allowed to use sick leave for a hangover. I don't know anyone whose 21st birthday was a big deal. No one went out and partied for it.

I dont really know where I'm going with all of this. I guess I just don't understand the point of it all. We spend our youth working hard to provide a future that we still can't afford. We have to be responsible and professional as teenagers. And we get nothing out of it. We can't afford life or friends or fun. At least our parents got to have fun being young and dumb, we just got groomed on kik.

So I'm not the only one noticing this. I wish I had an answer or at least something to say about it. But I dont. I'm just tired.

Original report (waybacked PDF) is from 2007. That's Gen Z kids.

When I, Gen-Xer, was about 12 - in my rural home, I had about a three-mile range. (Could've pushed it to more, but didn't want to walk that far.) In the city, it was about a mile. Not that anyone was checking; again, that was about the distance I wanted to walk, and besides, that covered all of "downtown."

My kids? Closer to that 300 yards limit at the same age. Not because I wanted to restrict them, but we live next to a freeway on-ramp and between two sets of train tracks... and there is absolutely nothing kid-friendly within a half-mile for them to visit.

I spent my 21st birthday bar-hopping. My kids spent their 21st birthdays at home with a nice meal. I don't think either of them wanted to go bar-hopping - but yeah, as a society, we've removed a LOT of teen-friendly options.

See also: End of Third Places, switch from video game arcades to home consoles (hey, then every kid has to buy their own copy--great for game-makers!), shutdown of malls or restrictions on youth at them, closure of public parks, reduced/removed after-school programs, etc. Plus the places that think it's illegal for a 12-year-old to walk to the corner store unsupervised.

I am, however, DELIGHTED to hear that the booze & other vices industries are panicking over Gen Z not going out to party. Like, you spent 30-odd years removing all the places and ways people can hang out together and have fun outside of someone's personal house, and... guess what, when people hit milestone events (graduation, milestone birthdays, job promotion, whatever), they don't immediately flock to the Party Zone that they have never been welcome at. How shocking.

It sucks that Gen Z does not get to party, does not have good celebration options. REALLY sucks that that's often because school or job has decided to tell them not to celebrate, rather than just not having places to go. I'm just not upset over party capitalism taking a hit.

If sexual activity between same-gender people became illegal, the police would be the ones enforcing those laws.

That's why police are not welcome at Pride. Pride is for unconditional supporters, not for those who would become enemies as soon as they're ordered to.

I feel it's important to amend this with "if sexual activity between same-gender people became illegal AGAIN, the police would be the ones enforcing those laws AGAIN."

They did it before and they'll do it again. Gay sex was only made legal in Texas in 2003. I was at a sleepover at my best friend's house when it happened. We could hear the celebrations from the bar district down the block. We were 14 and both knew we were queer.

So yes, they're not welcome at pride because they'll turn on us in an instant. But also because cops who have been cops for a while full-on were against us only NINETEEN years ago.

And yes I know that's just in Texas and other states have different histories but I'm not even that old and I remember when being gay was illegal. When any relationship I dreamed of having was illegal. And THAT is my bigger reason that cops aren't welcome at pride. Yes they will turn on us, but they already were against us and not-so-secretly still are.

A lot of those cops are still probably on the force and now brag about how long they've been there.

But it isn't like they've been spending all that time learning queer theory and trying to be less homophobic either.

Those same exact people will go right back to arresting us the moment that they are able to.

Cops are not and have never been our allies, they never will be.

Cops are not and have

never been our allies,

they never will be.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

If i dont [experience pathologically concerning sex act] within the next [arbitrary time period] im going to [federal agency watchphrase]

This is what happen when people take the 'your brain doesn't mature till 25' pop-sci too literally and just ran with it, also transphobia

Reminder that those examples Natalie gives aren't random, they're all things you can do at 16 in England, almost 10 years before you'd be able to get real gender care (seeing as they're also getting rid of blockers at child gender clinics)