i was in the middle before i knew that i had begun

"Absolutely bizarre. The media is complicit. I'm seeing less and less about Gaza in my feed - it's flooded with Met Gala content." from Rosy Pirani, 06/May/2024:

please keep talking about rafah. we're on the precipice of one of the darkest unfoldings in human history. please pray for rafah.

The idf/iof zip ties babies

https://x.com/imanisthere/status/1786862679535018389?s=46&t=3GrvGibevq7l874lb9mP7g

nobody better be posting about the met gala without mentioning the giant pro-palestine demonstration going on outside

Kiki 🧹✨🐈‍⬛

in every incarnation that ayda lived alone and lonely there was already a meteor shower on its way through space to symbolise the love she would one day find

Challengers + I'm Your Man by Mitski

Really fucked up that, when they’re young, Patrick and Art are SO tactile with each other, so comfortable sharing the same space. Art lets Patrick touch him and move him and physically overwhelm him and easily acquiesces to it, if not outright enjoys it.

Then in the present, they’ve been so far out of each other’s orbit for so long, held such animosity that when they have their moment alone in the sauna, Art physically recoils from Patrick’s close proximity! It’s so painful to watch because even as Patrick’s goading him, it’s so obvious he wants to be able to get back into Art’s space. But Art has erected all these walls around himself, he refuses to give Patrick an inch or even admit to missing how close they used to be!

AND THEN we see Art and Tashi later and he wants her to hold him, to be gentle with him, and just TOUCH him. Like, he does miss that kind of close physical contact! He either doesn’t know how to ask for it or is uncomfortable being that openly vulnerable. Worth noting that he pretty much always defers to Tashi in regard to initiating physical intimacy (with their first kiss, though he does state his desire, SHE has to be the one to make the first move). And it seems pretty obvious that Tashi herself isn’t comfortable providing that intimacy, whereas Patrick actively seeks to provide it (the hug/forehead kiss after their win together in the early years, dragging the stool closer to him).

Art has tried very hard to act like he doesn’t need physical affection and even though his discipline and devotion to Tashi has made him a stronger tennis player, it’s made him a hollow person, which, in turn, has kept him from becoming a GREAT tennis player.

All of this, of course, is why the ending hits so damn hard.

no because patrick and tashi saw each other as equals in a way they NEVER saw art. they both have wealthy family (though patrick is estranged from his) and are tennis prodigies. and most of all they are people who obfuscate and hide what they really think and want. art isn’t like them and they know it— he’s desperate and has to work hard at tennis and, though he tries sometimes to manipulate them, he is BAD at it. patrick and tashi fall apart because, fundamentally, they don’t like each other that much, even though they’re “on the level” with each other. NOT because art masterminded it. but here’s the thing: even though they both saw art as beneath them, they LIKE him better. art is the one they both want to be with. and in a way THEY are The Challengers, not patrick and art.

Patrick when Tashi is mean to him: oh she wants to fuck me real bad

Patrick when Art is mean to him: what if I killed myself.

Stop Erasing Zendaya’s Tashi Duncan From Challengers Because You Want New Internet Boyfriends, by Ayan Artan