Vivamus, moriendum est. (2024)

ever search and search in vain for that one thing gerard said about hom*ophobia on warped tour 2004? how about the source for frank and gerard's philosophy for kissing sometimes in 07? do you find joy in reading all about gerard's heartfelt connection to gender nonconformity? or do you just need to figure out when and where he wore that nurse dress, or when "im her kind of girl and she's my kind of boy" started? do you have 50+ other related topics you desire to learn more about!?

WELL WELL WELL. guess who finally cracked and created the WIP comprehensive document of all sources related to mcr and lgbtq+ topics, iconography, and themes... or mcr queer studies, in short.

this is really important to me. if you go alllll the way back in my mcr tag, you'll see one of the first mcr posts i ever reblogged was a post doing something similar. that was one of the aspects of the band that sparked my intense love for it and its people. i talk about this in the document. check it out! fully sourced, with scans and photos and transcripts.

contact me through ask or dm with links if you want to add anything. thank u all for the help <3

An ode to teenagehood; to spontaneity and being carefree and stupid sometimes, and whatever being a teenager entails.

Come find me at the approaching tide when the waters and sky exchange slivers of coral pink. And I’ll make my way up the wet creaking wooden dock barefoot, with enough trepidation as a pilgrim pacing up the steps of Via Dolorosa. Feel the wind ruffle our eyelashes as the air is saturated with sweet moist salt, so briny and thick that from the tip of your tongue you could suck it, lick it, taste it.

This sunset is ours. You and I, we have aged past day but are still too young to stumble into night. My memories are still fresh with sickly sweet sips of Slurpee, from when I loitered at the back of convenience stores instead of getting home right out of school; and you’re thinking of how you’ll eventually forfeit sunsets by the shore once you’re forever trapped in an office cubicle instead. At this precise moment I’m still adrenaline-pumped and awful at goodbyes. Or, I guess you’d prefer me to spontaneously turn around and call to you– let’s dive off the pier when the sun goes down, hand in hand, so we can learn what it’s like to be young and reckless together.

It’s not until the water hits your chest that you’d really start to wonder if you can keep your shoulders above the tide. So we drift in undulating motion as the tide wills us, let the waves wash over our faces and take our breath away,

A final rock-a-bye to those too grown for childhood, yet not somber enough to kiss it farewell.

And I’m not worrying when I’ll get back out again, because I could tell myself,

If I went under here and now, at least I’ll die content.

But there’ll come a day when we drag ourselves out of the water to seek home and a nice cozy blanket. All cold hands and shaky breath, passing around a joint we picked up on the driveway to stay warm. And I’ll say this is the best evenfall ever, when nothing save the lake could hold me down.

Dies Irae [Oh you sweet uncultivated sapling]

ALSO OUT IN MY SUBSTACK HERE

Took a stylistic choice to go experimental with the layout, because I’m trying to make it resemble a hymn. While this is what it looks like on my docs it unfortunately did not translate well into substack’s format- It’s still readable there though (hopefully)

Adding on with a bit of supplemental info: Dies Irae is a well-known Gregorian chant that literally refers to “the Day of Wrath”, which describes what happens on Judgment Day, aka the end of the world. So I think this hymn specifically portrays the aura of fearmongering and judgment that is always present in a strict church, so much so that you’d sense it even as a kid who’s too young to understand everything, even if adults around you are still trying to tell you how God loves you and cares for you and all that. But then, take this poem as you will.

all trans people should get a flamethrower to attack transphobes with, as pictured here

x x x x

new jersey’s rock and roll co*ckroach

+

You must learn

That it is not your place

To be immured in the sarcophagus they carved for you.

Transmisogynists have been talking about putting “terfs don’t interact” banners on their own posts to trick people into reblogging them

So remember to look at people’s urls before reblogging

sh*t like this is why its so important to actually KNOW terf rhetoric and dog whistles and be able to recognize the bullsh*t even devoid of the context of transmisogyny. because all of their ideas perpetuate it, but most dont explicitly state it.

i dont have a comprehensive list rn but honestly if you see any posts that are like“all men are predisposed to violence and are inherently horrible” thats probably terf sh*t. please just pay attention to stuff you reblog

i hope it’s alright for me to add some of my observations because i just spent the past two weeks blocking terfs upon terfs from a post of mine that blew up (there were a few of their blogs that i went through to grab more urls; whoever they were reblogging from regularly and some of the blogs that were recommended by tumblr for being similar to them):

a blog might be run by a terf or party to the platforming of terf rhetoric…

• if they refer to themselves as“radfems” (or“RF”) “gender critical” (“GC” for short) or as terves, terven, being “biologically female” or a “biological woman” or “biological lesbian”, tehm (trans-exclusionary hom*osexual male), febfem, vixenamoric, or “gold-star lesbian”
• if they place strong emphasis on “believing in science/biology” and being a “real”“female” lesbian (you may also observe a lot of blatant butchphobia coupled with this sentiment; demonization of masculinity and condemnation of “glorifying” masculinity or “maleness”) - to a lesser degree, some covert terfs use “critical thinker” as a stand-in for “gender critical”, and “chromosomal woman” or “XX” or “womban/wombyn” to denote chromosomes and uteri
• if they post a lot about the “nordic model” (re: “ending prostitution”), being strongly anti-p*rn and anti-sexwork, often refusing to call it sexwork and instead referring to it as sex trafficking (to lump consensual sexwork in with actual sex trafficking) - while not all swerfs are transmisogynists or transphobes, many terfs are swerfs
• if they fixate on, as the addition prior to this one mentions, “all men being predisposed to violence” and are insistent that men are also inherently rapists
• if they, as shown in the screenshots above, refer to trans-inclusive feminists as “libfems”
• if they make posts or share‘articles’ (always by obviously disreputable news outlets) about ‘high numbers’ of trans people being pedophiles or sex offenders (by the way, this is why terfs in the uk are trying so hard to make trans health records public, including supporting health secretary sajid javid’s intentions to allow researchers free access the private medical history of trans people, including trans minors - they genuinely, seriously believe that there is no difference between being transgender and being a sex criminal and they want there to be a public list of trans people like there are sex offender registries)
• if they post sh*t like“terf is a slur against lesbians” and“when they say no terfs they mean no lesbians” - often labeling themselves as “political lesbians” or “lesbian separatists” (i.e. “get the L out” and“drop the T”) and identifying strongly with regressive waves of feminism
• if they talk about autogynephilia like it’s a real or valid thing (and not the ramblings of a literal white supremacist)
• if they refer to LGBTQ+ educational material (presentations, literature, videos, etc.) as“tra propaganda” or “brainwashing” or “misogynist conditioning”
• if they talk about trans women being “socialized male”
• if they post a lot about female genital mutilation (FGM) in combination with consistently trans-exclusionary language and other dogwhistles or warning signs from this list, additionally referring to top surgery (or gender-affirming mastectomy), chest binding, and phalloplasty as FGM

more information on how to identify and combat terf ideology can be found here

Some other things I’ve noticed in terms of urls and blog themes that terfs have that have helped tipped me off:

• have feminist or variations in the url
• Lisa Simpson or a Daria icon (I don’t know why terfs like them)
• Green purple and white (this sucks for all my genderqueer peeps out there)
• Have the word moon in their url
• Female is in their blog description

I have several of the terf tags blocked (I went on a massive blocking spree after some terfs started debating autism and gender in one of my posts). Sometimes tumblr will block a seemingly innocent post and then I go to the OP and guess what they’re a terf. I recommend blocking:

• radfem
• radfem friendly
• radical feminist
• radfems please interact
• terfs please interact
• terf friendly

Image descriptions: Two screenshots of a Tumblr post originally by @/feimineachradacach with reblogged comments from @/aferret and @/auntiewanda.

The post says “we should start ending all our posts with “TERFS DON’T INTERACT” so libfems will take our ideas seriously”.

The reblogs say “You’re a f*cking genius lmao / Also I’m 100% serious when I say that, first of all they’d be more likely to just scroll past without investigating OP and keep the idea classified in their minds as a good idea, instead of instantly doing the mental equivalent of covering their ears and going “la la la terf terf terf” and secondly if they find out we’re doing it np now they are just going to have to second guess everything they read and check OP’s blog always, necessarily reading more radfem ideas in the process and hopefully eventually getting tired and wondering why everyone says terfs are evil yet we have so many good and logical points / I’m immediately reminded of how Andrew Yang gets Conservatives on board with universal basic income by calling it “Freedom Dividend”“.

End IDs.

If you ask someone what thee running motif of mcr is, you usually get one of these answers: heart, death, finding strength, or something along those lines. All good answers! All correct! However, I think if you really broke everything down, you could say mcrs running motif is ‘stay’. Just, stay/staying. It comes up repeatedly throughout their discography, in so many contexts and iterations. Until it doesn’t anymore. I’ll get to that.

Throughout their discography “staying” is a very prominent theme. It’s everywhere. Even if the word ‘stay’ itself is never uttered, the sentiment is still there. It’s heard as a statement, a plea, an act of rebellion; an absolution; a declaration of intent. It makes sense, in the grand scheme of everything. It fits with their message. ‘Stay with me, until the end. Hold my hand and never be afraid again. Take strength in knowing you’re not facing the hardest part alone, I’ll be with you.’ That’s mcrs message. Survive. Stay. The fact I can write it out using their lyrics says it all, honestly. But somewhere down the line, the message shifted. Mcr (more Gerard) no longer wanted to ‘stay’. Danger Days was the beginning of the end, and I think Gerard knew it. Whether conscious or subconsciously, that was when the message shifted from ‘stay’ to ‘leave’.

This isn’t to say that the motifs of leaving or running away aren’t ever used before this, but it’s usually only in dire circ*mstances. Off the top of my head the only example I can think of is early sunsets (running away and hiding with you), which is a song based off dawn of the dead and also wasn’t even written by Gerard. I’ve talked about this on another post, but the way Gerard writes it’s so interesting because it’s the same themes, even the same exact lyrics, over and over. Yet, it never sounds the same. The other interesting thing is the way concepts will just, sit in his head for a while. A very long while. You’ll see glimpses of them, like little breadcrumb trails you didn’t even notice where being left for you to find and follow, until the you get to see the whole picture and realize it was always there. the leaving motif wasn’t like that, isn’t like that. It popped up out of nowhere. And I can’t help but wonder what caused it. A mix of things, the industry stifling the bands creativity; the fan’s reaction to such drastic change from them; Gerard’s mental health at the time. I think Gerard was right about mcr dying young, but I don’t think it was ever going to die in a car crash. I think it was more like the warmth and comfort of your home rotting away with you still inside. Where do you go? When your sanctuary isn’t safe anymore? You either leave, run away while you still can; or it collapses with you in it. I’m happy they got out in time.

okay but hear me out: MCR cover of Bela Lugosi’s Dead by Bauhaus

plsss