Maxim Falk

There have been a million of these stories in both film and novels. Stephen King wrote one FFS.

But the minute a queer creator writes a coming of age story about their sexual awakening, they bring out the torches and pitchforks.

The whole anti-fiction crusade pisses me off so badly because not one of the people involved understands art or fiction.

These people are fine with boring heterosexual coming of age stories where some Billy Everyteen is clearly having sexual fantasies about banging some girl his age.

This is hilarious.

Also, completely enraging.

Almost 10,000 authors have come together to publish an empty book protesting the theft of books by tech companies to train AI models.

Titled Don’t Steal This Book, it is empty of text except the names of the authors involved.. 🧵

An intricately lined digital artwork of a thin pale masculine person facing backwards with his arms reaching back over his head, as a rose bush blooms from his spine and fills the bottom of the illustration. The lines are a rich deep blue, with flat colors of light pink, medium pink, and soft blues.

To all trans people (especially in the US/UK):

Remember that we'll always bloom again. Our community has been through loss and oppression and repression time and time again. But, like a field of roses, we can never be totally destroyed.

Also, I think its time to use our thorns ngl 🌹

An illustration of two masculine figures together, one sitting on the other's lap with a hand on the other's chin, their eyes locked together. They wear fancy period clothing like a powdered wig and corset, one specifically dressed in very gender-nonconforming attire. A magenta banner at the top says "We've Always Been Here: A queer historical zine" and a blue banner at the bottom says "launches in 24 hours!"

Just 24 hours until we launch on Kickstarter!!

Remember: If you want early bird discounts, they will only be available for the first day (and while slots are still available).

Get notified when we launch ⤵️🎉
www.kickstarter.com/projects/tap...

Art by @thistlearts.bsky.social

#QueerArt #ArtZine

"To say that straight men are heterosexual is only to say that they engage in sex (fucking exclusively with the other sex, i.e., women). All or almost all of that which pertains to love, most straight men reserve exclusively for other men. The people whom they admire, respect, adore, revere, honor, whom they imitate, idolize, and form profound attachments to, whom they are willing to teach and from whom they are willing to learn, and whose respect, admiration, recognition, honor, reverence and love they desire... those are, overwhelmingly, other men. In their relations with women, what passes for respect is kindness, generosity or paternalism; what passes for honor is removal to the pedestal. From women they want devotion, service and sex. "Heterosexual male culture is homoerotic; it is man-loving." Marilyn Frye, The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory

Also a reminder that the Epstein ring literally promoted pro-censorship and puritan laws and social policies (which is exactly what these harassers are doing!) because censorship actively protects traffickers. Especially queer censorship. Especially artistic censorship.

Every person who goes on a witchhunt to take down a queer artist because they draw taboo subjects is actively participating in fascism and actively sustaining systems of sex trafficking. Censorship has never once helped us survivors or victims. Censorship helps traffickers and abusers.

It's actually morally correct to guillotine the Epstein Class.

Art at its core is a pure and sincere act of communication. Someone, somewhere, wants to make you feel something, wants you to relate to their personal experience.

Just so that in the end we all feel a little less confused and alone in the vast dreariness of life and space.

Art is raw empathy.

If you think about it, the very best books are really just extremely long spells that turn you into a different person for the rest of your life

If you’re ever feeling down about yourself, remember that there are people who dedicate their entire lives to dismantling democracy and making vulnerable people less safe.

You could do absolutely nothing every single day and still be doing more good for the world than they are.

This project is BEYOND incredible! I’ve had the chance to peek at all the art in this book and it is not only all stunning, but incredibly global, cultural, and historically accurate too!

Proof that we really have always been here, and always will be. 🥰

Please share, to spread this queer joy! 🌈

Doing a little more digging. It's from 1921.

The more I learn, the more I'm convinced that the only true representation of people in power isn't even Bond movies. It's fucking Austin Powers.

[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.] JANET: Ugh... LIZ: What's up? JANET: I am so bored of cooking peas! LIZ: Have you tried... AI peas? JANET: AI peas? LIZ: They're peas with AI! [Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI]. LIZ: Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas JANET: What LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines] Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas? [Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it] LIZ: Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine [Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas] LIZ: With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas! JANET: What LIZ: Shut up LIZ: Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow From opening the bag of peas to boiling the peas to eating the peas To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means. JANET: Is it really necessary to- LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]: THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET [Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan: AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas. [Ends]

Every ad now

And every time you use ChatGPT, an artist dies a little.

Best of luck!

Yeah, for about 50 years or more, "besprizornik" was a very common term for a child or a teen living literally on the street.

So I'm not buying your Pride Burger, your LoveWins monthly subscription, your trans flag Mickey Mouse ears.

And if you try to borrow our struggle for your aesthetics again, expect to be held accountable.

Those are powerful symbols you need to earn. You do not deserve them. 3/

We all knew it was hollow and meaningless. But watching just how quickly they dropped all pretense as soon as they sensed a move to the right?! We won't forget.

We won't forget how queer folk, trans rights and progressive beliefs about our livelihoods were used as set dressing. 2/

When, at some point, the Overton window shifts left. Even slightly. What we're NOT going to do is allow all those big companies, brands etc suddenly put their rainbow flag cosplay back on.

We are NOT going to allow them to pretend they didn't just drop us as they decided we weren't fashionable. 1/

It's all about context and tone. You can call someone Lenochka, meaning that she is a sweet person - OR that she is a bitch.

You nailed it!

Andrej, not Anlrej, sorry

Oh, then it's not relevant. :)
I wanted to say that for a native Russian speaker Andy and Lexi refer to different names. Andy = Anlrej, Lexi - Alexey.
But here it doesn't matter, as those nicknames were given by non-Russian speakers.

Or you can make a patronym from the actual name (Michail = Michalych), if you are really close old friends, no matter the real age.

May I give a small tip about the variations of nicknames?

And you can even make masculine or feminine form Gender Neutral to show the distancing, like "I don't know wtf is this and I don't want to deal with it".