I Want An Alternative Boyfriend.

I want an alternative boyfriend.

Yes, because I think the style makes anyone twice as hot instantly.

Yes, because tattoos and hair dye really do something for me.

Yes, because eyeliner is sexy and lip rings are even better.

But it's more than that.

I need someone who will stay up with me at three am watching thriller movies when I'm hearing things and can't sleep.

Someone who will love swapping playlists, and always listen and give detailed feedback to the song recommendations I send him.

Someone I can paint and cut and pin clothes with, patching together garbage jeans that by most people's standards should have been thrown away.

Someone who will love my look and even give me ideas with it. And will steal my crust jackets so I find him curled up in it on the couch.

Someone who will cut and dye hair with me in the early hours of the morning, laughing at the sleep we're both losing.

Someone who will always be my partner in crime for shows, markets, conventions, so I'll never have to go alone.

Someone who doesn't disapprove of my ideals or try to change them, but who will support me in all my decisions and beliefs.

Someone who believes in the individual and not supporting just any large company; a person who understands my lifestyle and wants to help me learn how to live it.

Someone who will thrift with me for hours and hours rummaging for gold, not standing around staring and waiting for me to get done.

Someone who won't tell me I'm "too much" but will feel more attracted to me the more comfortable and confident I am in myself, whatever craziness that looks like.

Someone who loves what I love.

Believes what I believe.

I want someone to entertain my insanity.

Hobie Brown is a fantastic character.

His design, concept, uniqueness and how HOT he is make him altogether very likeable. But all these things are not why I love him so much; it's what he represents that gets me.

The symbol in modern media he is for many different types of people. For one, he's pretty awesome for people of color to enjoy. Another black hero who can get down to business is always welcome, though it's nothing new for the Spiderverse universe with Miles Morales being our main protagonist. Having a British black character makes it all the more fun, diverse and interesting!

All that being said, the thing that warms my heart about Hobie Brown is what he means for the alternative community.

Im a punk. I'm also an anarchist.

Like anyone, I look for people in media who represent me in both appearance and ideals. As a plus sized person, finding people in media who look like me and aren't part of the toxic stereotype for fat people is uncommon. Chubby characters who don't make their weight part of their personality is unheard of.

Finding characters who properly represent my beliefs and ideals is nigh impossible in my experience. Seeing a punk in modern day popular media is rare. And when I say punk, I'm talking PUNK RAWK. Musicians with colorfully laced boots and symbols painted sloppily all over themselves. Gritty political activists in homemade clothes and piercings, fighting tooth and nail for what they believe in. In truth, I don't know if I've ever seen that in popular media; not authentically.

What do we get instead? Punk coded teenagers who don't really believe in anything, pissing people off for the sake of it. That ain't us. We believe in respect, love and morals. We believe in doing whatever is necessary to achieve the perfect world, whatever each individual believes that is.

The representation is even more insulting for anarchists. Everywhere are both mature antagonists and cartoon villains parading around preaching "anarchy" and completely misusing the word. Its to the point that my political belief is now more closely related to dictatorships (the literal OPPOSITE of anarchism!) or simply death and destruction rather than the true definition: no institutions, just people.

That word has been defiled. I've had people laugh at me and ridicule me when I share my political stance with them due to this stereotype. I've had people tell me I believe what I do just because it "sounds cool."

People that were uneducated to the concept in the first place have now been reeducated by an overlord walking across a battlefield of dead bodies in some movie screaming about "anarchy." Thanks Hollywood. Really appreciate that.

But Hobie is a punk. And he's an anarchist.

He's a hero. He's intelligent. He knows what he fights for and he fights well. That alone is revolutionary for the anarchist movement.

And in a MARVEL FILM. Millions of people watch Marvel films across the globe. Across the Spider verse has pulled in 1.35 Billion dollars. This is exactly what we need.

So, as a representative of my community, thank you Sony Pictures for this gift. I hope to see more like it. And while we're at it, thank you for all the diversity in this new film between all the ethnicities shown onscreen to putting someone my size in the mask!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

(also if anyone has any recommendations for realistic punk characters in media I'd love to hear em)

Omg. This is the best. I'm complete.

Poster boy

Now that I've looped You Are Who You Hang Out With a couple times, I have realized that I very much neglected "Batman." Using a superhero hiding his identity to illustrate what it's like to feel as an infection to those you love, especially your friends, is a brilliant analogy I'm sure many of us can relate to. Brian's ability to turn unrelated concepts and pictures and characters into a symphony of meaning is inspiring to me. It always has me asking "what do all these things have in common?" and looping the songs until it finally hits me. This has become one of my favorite tracks on the Front Bottoms discography very quickly.

Back to the meaning of the song... I'm an extrovert, and my depression has begun to take my enjoyment of social interaction from me. It's a dark place when the thing that gives you energy and has made you feel alive all these years becomes an anxiety ridden task and people don't talk about it enough. It's hardest when you love your friends and you want to see them, but the voices try to convince you that they don't love you. They'll try to convince you that you're a poison to them. That they have forgotten you. That they didn't want you here to begin with, you were invited out of pity, and you should leave. Permanently.

If you feel this way, know you're not alone, and don't feel guilt for it. These feelings don't mean you hate your friends. They don't mean you need to isolate yourself to the point of dying of loneliness and live with your battery on empty. All it means is you are struggling. Things are hard for you... and you should surround yourself with people who will be understanding of that and help you fight it. People who reassure you that they love you. People who tell you how they feel about you often and in detail.

"Sure, I make plans. I make plans because I should want to go. I make plans because sometime I would have wanted to go, it's just not much fun having fun when you don't want to have fun, mom."

-Sabrina Benaim

(Explaining My Depression to My Mother)

This person gets it🤘

Baby punks!

Listen up. I got a few tips and stuff.

1: Thrift everything. I'm not even remotely kidding. You can go MILES with the shit available at thrift stores and only spend like 10 bucks. I go to Goodwill about once a week and I find more than I even really need.

If you wanna make patches but don't have anything to cut up, just buy like 3 pairs of jeans for like 3 dollars and you'll be set up for a while. Cloth, clothes, gadgets, wallets, jackets, even shoes. If you're worried that punk is "expensive", you're not looking in the right places.

2: Five Below. They have really solid fabric paints and stencils you can get. Also check out Joann's and Michael's. They got needles, embroidery floss, fabric paints, fabrics, etc. But be wary about those two, prices are up due to inflation.

3: YouTube tutorials are your friend!! If you're confused about how to do something, take to the web. You won't get all your answers, but you sure will find how to attach a zipper to your pants.

4: Dental floss. This is brought up every time in these discussions because it works. If you need to sew something onto your pants, jacket, whatever, use dental floss. You can snatch some up at CVS. It is very helpful.

5: Find a jacket with wide armpits. Especially if it's denim and especially if you plan on adding zip-off sleeves. ESPECIALLY if you have armpit hair. Just trust me on this.

6: Do you drink soda/beer/other canned beverages? Because if you do, save them. The cans, the tabs, all of it. It can be very useful. The cans, you can turn into spikes. The tabs can be helpful for zippers, chainmail, whatever you might use them for.

7: Believe in what you're saying. Don't just claim you stand for human rights, put it into action. Learn. Understand that some women, black people, and/or other minorities are gonna be hesitant to trust you and understand why. Know when it is your turn to participate in a conversation, and don't force your way into a community or conversation that isn't yours. You're going to be in a strange place where you've been pushed away from all the bigots in your life but can't go to other minority communities because they don't know whether or not you can be trusted. And don't try to make them know that you're "one of the good whites/men/etc". You're gonna need to find community and put weight behind your words. A friend or a relative says something just a little bit off? Don't laugh it off, make them know it was wrong (my go-to is to stare at them in silence the moment they say it and not budge until they repent the comment). Nobody's gonna trust you unless you mean what you say.

8: Don't listen to the gatekeepers. Anybody who tells you "oh well, that's not really punk, you're a poser!" Is missing the point and is hence the real poser.

9: Participate in the culture! Really! Go to playlists, find local bands. Go to a punk show. Make friends, participate in rallies/protests.

10: Be you! Seriously, be you. Whatever you think would look cool or would be comfy, do it. Literally, if you wanna turn a winter coat into a battle jacket, go for it. The key to punk is expression. Don't feel like you've gotta meet up to everyone else's standards. Punk fashion should be a tool to help you find yourself and what you're comfortable in, what you enjoy. If you're doing something to fit in, you're doing it wrong, and you're doing yourself a disservice.

Been on the hunt for some kick ass platforms for a while now, which has proven difficult when you try not to throw money to just any company and you have freaking massive feet. So when I found these platform American Eagle sandals at the thrift for four bucks I knew my time had come. So some locktight, painter's tape and half a bottle of white fabric paint later, here we have it! My reason for exiting my house at all in the summer! Seriously though, so obsessed with how these turned out.