oh, yes... there will be blood

embraces (melt into me)

—carol ann duffy, from medusa; ‘the world's wife’

@rbhvleo // roberto ferri // mothering by ainslie hogarth // rainer maria rilke // ? // planet of love by richard siken // a self portrait in letters by anne sexton // indian summer by ron hicks

Source: The Butch/Femme Photo Project , by Wendi Kali

The Hunger Moon, Marge Piercy

— Angela Carter, from “Flesh and the Mirror,” Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories

what some people don't seem to understand is that using the lens of psychology to nitpick how healthy or not fictional romances would be if translated to real life dynamics is also a form of CinemaSins brainrot. I'm not talking about pointing out harmful patterns like the way so many romcoms involve the guy manipulating the girl into falling for him, or how so many action heroes act predatorily toward their love interests. I'm talking shit like "Romeo and Juliet never loved each other, they were just horny", or "Rose never actually loved Jack, she was just clinging to him as a escape valve from the life she hated", "these relationships would not work long term because they had no concrete basis beyond infatuation", etc, etc, when these stories only work if you buy into the idea that, yes, this is true love, and yes there was a happy longlife relationship waiting for them on the horizon that fate has cruelly pulled out from their reach upon their untimely deaths. what would be the point of a tragedy where the stakes are just "horny teenagers can no longer bang until they get tired of each other"? suspend your disbelief and stop being a killjoy.

this doesn't go just for tragedies tbh, sometimes I just want to write a romance between two traumatized people finding healing and comfort with each other without the need of writing an epilogue like "and then they each got therapy so they wouldn't burden each other with solving all their trauma, and they also got each a strong friend group so they wouldn't become overly dependent on each other for emotional support, so don't worry, their relationship remained long and healthy *thumbs up*". can't you just assume that whatever happened after the story is over it worked out in the end? otherwise the romantic arc they went to get together would have been pointless? thank you.

Making Out: The Book of Lesbian Sex and Sexuality, photography by Laurence Jaugey-Paget (via dykedeviance)

i hate you romantically involved characters who talk to each other like they’re in a couples counseling session, i hate you watering down of the word toxic, i hate you plot twists where the male love interest is actually a villain because see, silly girl? in the REAL world guys like that are DANGEROUS, i hate you relationship therapist breaks down movie couple’s relationship videos, i hate you “romeo and juliet were just stupid horny teenagers” “belle had stockholm syndrome” “wuthering heights isn’t romantic” hot takes, i hate you sanitization of romance in fiction

Ada Limón, “Love Poem with Apologies for My Appearance”

Savannah Brown, from Closer Baby Closer; “Notes on your dramatic exit from the house party”

thinking abt couples kissing in front of klimt's kiss

Alphonse Mucha (Czech, 1860-1939), The Embrace. Charcoal on paper laid on cardboard, sheet: 48.9 x 64.4 cm.

Wouldn’t leave my mind sorry

Ildjima Masrangar and Nastya Kublitskaya by Alexandra Sophie for Vogue Portugal December 2023

Romance