“’Black Sails’ reimagines representation in period dramas by making it integral to the show itself.
Flint’s internal struggle is not figuring out or discovering his sexuality – rather Flint’s character arc exists entirely because of his sexuality. His sexuality is not a prop meant to bolster another more important character or storyline. James Flint would quite simply not exist if he had not fallen in love with another man. Indeed, few plots on the show would exist if not for the fact that various women fell in love with women and men with men.
The driving narrative of this show is the battle for Nassau, a battle waged because of Flint’s love for another man and because this love was taken from him.
Flint is seen as a monster by England — he is a vicious pirate, guilty of innumerable crimes. He was a monster to them before he did any of that, though — he is told his relationship with Thomas is too loathsome and profane to be forgiven, and he is cast out because of it. The trope of the predatory homosexual is deeply rooted in our society. Homoerotic undertones in supernatural fiction have long cast gay people as monsters.
“Black Sails” takes this trope and attacks it. The show insists, rightfully so, that LGBTQ+ people have always existed, but it does not sugarcoat that existence. “They hang men for this,” Mrs. Hamilton tells Flint hours before their worlds all come crashing down, and she is right. Regardless of whether he’s a pirate or a respectable lieutenant, Flint will always be a monster to England, because of his sexuality.
In the third season, our crew is stranded on an island housing a matriarchal colony of marooned and escaped slaves. These people have formed a society entirely in secret. They exist outside the grasp of England’s fist because the crown does not know they exist. “Black Sails” is about people who have been cast out of society, it is about “monsters.” They are gay, women, marooned and escaped slaves. They don’t exist within civilization because civilization cannot allow them to exist. Their very presence challenges the entire façade, because civilization only survives if people cannot imagine it any other way.
In one of the most powerful scenes of the four-season show, Flint acknowledges this construct: “They paint the world full of shadows, and then tell their children to stay close to the light. Their light. Their reasons, their judgments. Because in the darkness, there be dragons. But it isn’t true. We can prove that it isn’t true. In the dark, there is discovery, there is possibility, there is freedom in the dark once someone has illuminated it.” The significance of an explicitly gay character making this declaration cannot be overstated.
For a shining moment, the show allows you to imagine a world in which this coalition of outcasts won. An alternate reality in which the New World was wrenched from England’s hands by an alliance of gay and black men and women. Of course, we know they did not win. Homophobia would become the law of the land in the New World, same as the Old. Slavery would flourish, and the world as we know it today would be built on the backs of enslaved peoples.
So what, then, is the point of “Black Sails”? It is just a story, with very little basis in history. Why imagine a world that could have been when we have to live in the one we have? Thinking of his happiness with his male love, author E.M. Forster once wrote “I see beyond my own happiness and intimacy, occasional glimpses of the happiness of thousands of others whose names I shall never hear, and I know that there is a great unrecorded history.”
“Black Sails” is imagining one of those thousands of unrecorded histories.
The show is an examination of the stories we create of, for and about ourselves. It is about how our narratives are wrested from us and twisted, and it is about how we fight to reclaim those narratives for ourselves. It is the lies we construct and the lies we are told, and the eternal struggle to maintain some truth in the midst of both.
The series closes with a character insisting that, “A story is true. A story is untrue. As time extends, it matters less and less. The stories we want to believe. … Those are the ones that survive, despite upheaval and transition, and progress. Those are the stories that shape history.”
We know from the beginning of the show that Flint’s war against England and civilization itself will not succeed. England’s power eventually waned, yes, but not before piracy was crushed and slavery was firmly entrenched. Homosexuality was still a criminal offense in my lifetime. Despite all of this, “Black Sails” is the power of stories we create in opposition to the stories civilization is built on. As long as we can tell those stories, we exist.
Here’s some examples awkward accessibility being a thing:
Your at a hotel that has a lift to get you from one sub-floor to another, but the lift can only be unlocked and operated by one specific person that the hotel now has to go find. Sure, they’ve made the entrance to the sub-floor is accessible, but now it’s a thing.
The buses are wheelchair accessible but the driver has to stop the bus, take 30 seconds to lower the goddamn ramp, move passengers out of their seats, hook up the straps and then secure you in the bus. Sure, they’ve made the busses accessible but now it’s a thing.
The restaurant has an accessible entrance, but it’s past the trash room and through the kitchen. Sure, the restaurant is accessible, but now it’s an insulting thing.
Here’s some great examples of accessibility not being a thing:
The train to the airport pulls up flush with the platform. I board with everyone else and sit wherever the fuck I want. Riding the train is accessible and not a thing.
In Portland, I press a button the side of the streetcar and a ramp automatically extends at the same time the door opens. I board in the same amount of time as everyone else. This is not a thing.
I get that it is difficult to design for wheelchair accessibility, but folks need to start considering the overall quality of the experience versus just thinking about meeting the minimum requirements.
For the love of all things holy please pay attention to this
This is why universal design is so important. I had a great class that focuses on applying universal design aspects of architecture into teaching. Accessibility ideally should be integral to the design in the first place, not added on as an after thought.
Stop making fun of people’s jobs. It doesn’t matter if someone is the ceo of a business company, doctor, fry cook, retail worker, janitor, teacher, whatever. They’re doing what they gotta to to support themselves, and it’s none of your business.
I haven't reblogged any of it or looked into it myself (or believed any of it), but can you elaborate? Maybe, in case it comes up in convo (cause I have a friend I think who believes it or has mentioned it to me)? If that's not too much to ask. (About Gal Gadot)
So, there’s this trend that happens in liberal/activist spaces, where the second gentiles find out you’re Jewish, they no longer trust you unless you immediately, completely denounce every aspect of Israel down to its very existence.
I have experienced this interrogation and distrust personally, in activist spaces at UCSC. At one point I even made a Facebook post about it because I was curious if it was just me and discovered that every other Jewish person I know at UCSC had also experienced something similar. Leftists do not welcome or trust Jews who have any qualms about disavowing Israel.
To be clear: I’m NOT talking about acknowledging that the Israeli government is committing human rights violations against Palestinians. That should be obvious, and isn’t inherently antisemitic. What IS antisemitic is this trend that has been going on for years in liberal activist spaces, where the second a Jewish person is involved in literally anything, ie Existing While Jewish, gentiles HAVE to bring up Israel, and quiz us on it until they’re satisfied that we have completely denounced it, including its right to exist. And if we don’t denounce every aspect of it to their satisfaction, then obviously we must support the genocide of Palestinians and are cast out of activist spaces.
That’s what’s going on with Gal Godot. The plot of Wonder Woman had NOTHING to do with Israel or Palestine but because she is Israeli, because she served in the Israeli Army (which by the way, is mandatory, and also she served as a goddamn fitness instructor) gentiles are pouring out of the woodwork to deem her “problematic.” And I’m fucking pissed.
Gentiles are encouraged to reblog this, because I am TIRED of seeing this shit in supposedly liberal spaces. We Jews can’t be the only ones calling this out. That’s a catch-22, because our opinions of Israel and antisemitism are ‘’’untrustworthy’’’. :)
I just want to add on to this that, if anyone is saying Gal Gadot advocates killing babies (and yes, I have seen that on Tumblr reblogs), that is
explicitly blood libel (yes, even if it comes from someone on the left), and I would really like to see goyim calling that out.
Guys, PLEASE pay attention to this. I’m seeing Jewish people report this more and more, and it is frightening.
I think it’s even worse because, unlike earlier waves of anti-Semitism, which was common in highly insular conservative circles. it’s happening within the supposedly “diverse” multicultural left. When people who’ve established their image as open-minded to other races, POVs, cultures and religions start treading the well worn path of anti-Semitism, it starts slipping under the radar.
It’s also harder to see when it’s being done by other oppressed groups. Not a lot of outrage in the gay community about the Jewish group tossed out of the Chicago Dyke March because the organizers thought the Star of David on their banner might offend people.
A pretty good amount of anti-Semitism shows up in Islamic groups, and it gets praised by leftist groups because they believe it shows support for Palestine. It’s either/or thinking, instead of both/and.
The idea that Jewish people are untrustworthy because of some sort of inborn divided loyalty, interrogating Jewish people about their loyalties, dividing them into “good” (those that readily denounce everything they’re told to in order to fit in) and “bad” (those that don’t denounce, or refuse to play ideological litmus tests), and penalizing the “bad” Jews…
This is how shit started almost 100 years ago, people. EXACTLY how it started. The “good Jew” was the one who assimilated perfectly into society, whose identity was subsumed, the “bad Jew” was the one who wanted to retain their Jewish identity and insisted their they could be both Jewish and a patriotic citizen of their country.
Giving “bad” Jews penalties, and encouraging the “good” Jews to lambast and guilt their brethren are what is starting to happen.
And for those that have gone ahead and made sure to denounce the “evils” of Israel in order to fit in, you should look at history and realize that the step after this is to remove the idea of the “good” Jew entirely, that all Jewish people are “irredeemable” in the ideological context in question, all are untrustworthy, and, thus, all should bear penalties.
We all know how that one plays out. And for those of us Gentiles playing at home, you might want to take note that this mentality ALWAYS spreads. Jewish people walk point - they get hit first, and if we don’t come out and defend them, stop the advance right in its tracks, it’ll keep going.
Forget sending around the “punch a Nazi” shit. Speak up when you see this anti-Semitic shit pop up, call it what it is, and stop it dead. NO ONE deserves this. Ever.
Three Jewish women were ejected outright from Chicago’s Dyke March on account of their rainbow flags emblazoned with a Star of David (not even an actual Israeli flag, or an adapted version– just a rainbow flag with the Star). I converted in– “oh wow you don’t look Jewish” and “oh did your boyfriend make you do it” are comments I’ve heard way too many times from people who are supposedly intersectional and above gross stereotyping based on appearance. I’ve been subjected to the “okay you’re Jewish but are you anti-Israel enough” interrogation several times, and there are leftist and queer spaces where I’ve heard open antisemitism and sweeping, unfair generalizations about Jewish political leanings. I confront it where I can, but it’s incredible how deeply ingrained and intractable these opinions are, and how quick people are to extend them to *all* Jews.
Fact is, a lot of us think Netanyahu and his schmucks are heinous bastards, but we aren’t about to go and hate a whole damn country and people because of the government. Moreover, most of the Jews you’ll talk to weren’t even *alive* when they drew the goddamn maps way back when, and… and I should stop here, because it’s such a tangled fucking train-wreck of a situation that I’ll have written five white papers on it before I’m done.
TL;DR? Leftist antisemitism is all too real, and it hurts like fuck. Please stand up to it.
look, im just a slut for some magical exhaustion okay give me your whumpees overusing their magic and having physical repercussions from it, bloody noses, unable to stand, getting progressively weaker, utterly exhausted and spent !!
bonus points: if they know they are running low on magic but they have no choice but to keep using more until they just collapse
bonus bonus points: if their magic is somehow connected to their life force!!
![marshmallow-spoonie:
“historyarchaeologyartefacts:
“The amber bear amulet, 3500 years old. Slupsk, Poland [1200×851]
”
@rockflavors
Gummy candy
”](https://66.media.tumblr.com/9bb0bd9d2177376b99ee6a7b180e7b98/tumblr_pl9x6xoIZC1vx1np0o1_1280.jpg)
