When Aziraphale says, âthe southern pansy,â it is a defining character moment for him. It is proof that he is not obliviously pinging everyoneâs gaydar. He is making an active choice to appear as gay as possible, and is proud to do so. He intentionally chose to live in the gayborhood, and go to discrete gentlemenâs clubs, because he identifies strongly with gay culture. In this essay I will
From the beginning, I expect Aziraphale felt strangely disenfranchised amongst his own people, even though heâs never done anything specifically wrong. Even though they never see him in his private moments, or perhaps his time with Crowley, they can clock just in conversation that he is Not Like Them, and they treat him curtly, stiffly, accordingly. They probably feel awkward and uncomfortable around him, even though he isnât doing anything like, unkind or unpleasant, just that heâs different. It isnât anything he can help, either: itâs just the way that he is, and much as he might try to appear angelic in the right way, itâs impossible to keep it up, because itâs something undefinable that makes him noticeably different in conversation.
So why, indeed, would Aziraphale identify so much with gay people?
Why, indeed, would he go out of his way to present himself as a gay man? Not just as a matter of being non-threatening, then, but as a matter of kinda clicking with people like him â also subtly (or not subtly) pushed out by their own families, without being pushed out all the way. Gossiped about, and undergoing a great personal risk just while living his life, constantly worrying about presenting in the right angelic/straight way, constantly tiptoeing this line between being himself, and being disgraced, cast out by his family.
Folks let me talk about Crowley and sunglasses, because I have a lot of emotions about when he wears them and when he doesnât, and Hiding versus Being Seen.
Weâre introduced to the concept of Crowley wearing glasses even before weâre introduced to Crowley, by Hastur: âIf you ask me heâs been up here too long. Gone native. Enjoying himself too much. Wearing sunglasses even when he doesnât need them.â
Honestly Crowleyâs whole introduction is a fantastic; we learn so much about his character in a tiny amount of time. The fact that heâs late, the Queen playing as the Bentley approaches, the âHi, guysâ in response to Hastur and Ligurâs âHail Satanâ. I like this intro much better than the one originally scripted with the rats at the phone company, but I digress.
Crowley wears sunglasses when he doesnât need them. Specifically, he still wears them around the demons, and when heâs in hell.
You know where Crowley doesnât wear glasses? At home.
We never once see him wearing glasses in his flat, except for when he knows Hastur and Ligur are coming. Thatâs an emotional kick to the gut for me. Hereâs one of the only places Crowleyâs comfortable enough to be sans glasses, and when he knows itâs going to be invaded he prepares not just physically with the holy water, but by putting up that emotional barrier in a place where he wasnât supposed to need it.
An argument could be made that Crowley actually never needs glasses. Weâre shown that itâs well within the angelsâ and demonsâ powers to pass unnoticed by humans. Crowley and Aziraphale waltz out of the manor in the middle of a police raid, and going unnoticed by the police takes so little effort that they can keep up a conversation while they stroll through. Even an unimaginative demon like Hastur apparently doesnât have trouble with the humans losing it over his demonic eyes. The humans in the scene at Megiddo are acting like âthis guy is a little weirdâ and not âholy shit his entire eyeballs are black jellyâ
That means that Crowleyâs glasses are a choice, just like Aziraphaleâs softness. Sure, he could arrange matters so that nobody ever noticed his eyes, but he doesnât want to. Crowley wants acceptance, and he wants to belong, and heâs never, ever had that. He didnât fit in before the Fall in Heaven, he doesnât fit in with the demons in Hell. With the glasses, and with the Bentley and his plants and with the barely-bad-enough-to-be-evil nuisance temptations, heâs choosing Earth. This is where he wants to fit in, perhaps not with the humans, but amongst them.
Even after Crowley is at his absolute lowest, when he thinks Aziraphaleâs dead and heâs on his way to drink until the world ends, he takes the time to put a new pair on when the old ones are damaged. He needs that emotional crutch right now, even with everything about to turn into a pile of puddling goo heâs not ready for the world to see his eyes.
Which is why I swore out loud when Hastur forciblytakes them off.
Itâs about the worst thing that Hastur could have done. Rather than leading with a physical threat, his first act is to strip away Crowleyâs emotional defences. Itâs a great writing choice because god it made me hate Hastur, even more than all the physical violence we see him do.
Itâs also the moment that Crowley really truly gets his shit together, and focuses all of his considerable imagination on getting to Tadfield and Aziraphale to help save the world. Heâs wielding the terrifyingly unimaginable power of someone whoâs hit rock bottom and realised it literally could not get any worse than this. He doesnât put another pair of glasses on after discorporating Hastur, and he spends the majority of the airbase sequence without them.
He puts them back on again, I think, at the moment that he really lets himself hope. When he thinks âshit, there may be a real chance that we get through this to a future that I donât want to loseâ.
The vulnerability is back, and he needs Adam to trust him. In Crowleyâs mind being accepted by a human means he needs to have his eyes hidden. Someone give the demon a hug, please.
Interestingly, thereâs only one time in the whole series that we see Crowley willingly choose to take his glasses off around another person. Only one person heâll take down that barrier for, and even then heâs drunk before he does it.
Dear God/Satan/Someone that makes my heart ache. Crowleyâs chosen Earth, but heâs also chosen Aziraphale. Heâs been looking for somewhere to belong his entire existence, and itâs with the angel that he finally feels it.
When the dust settles and the world is saved and they finally have space to be themselves unguarded, I like to imagine Crowley takes off the glasses when itâs just the two of them; the idea of being known doesnât scare him quite so much anymore. Â
talking about Rosie The Riveter, fun fact: while the We Can Do It picture has become the most-well known depiction of her in modern times, it wasnât really a famous image when it was madeâin fact, it wasnât even intended to be her
the most famous depiction of Rosie The Riveter during WWII was probably Norman Rockwellâs paintingÂ
note what sheâs resting her foot on
i fully support anti-fascist/anti-nazi butch lesbian rosie the riveter
To @kushandwizdom this is a rather unfair portrayal of Africa as a whole since half of these are literally just South Africa. So Instead to add to this post and better dispel the myth of Africa as the vast wasteland of poverty most people think, I found a much more mixed collection of pics from various countries.
Luanda, Angola
Agadir, Morocco
Lagos, Nigeria
Cairo, Egypt
Port Louis, Mauritius
Abidjan, Cote dâIvoire
Algiers, Algeria
Tripoli, Libya
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Tunis, Tunisia
So, there, a much better case demonstrating the various major cities around Africa showing it isnât some technologically backwards continent, but actually pretty up-and-coming in the world of commerce.
I once was talking to my Ethiopian manager about ignorant people asking her dumb shit about her life before she moved to the statesâŚ
the worst story she told me about was when she told a fellow student (at a fairly prestigious university) about a concert she went to back home. The other student responded with âomg you have music there!?â đ¤Śđžââď¸
Rebloging, because we need to see these pictures.Â
As for stupid questions:Â âdo you have grocery stores in Ecuador?â
These are great!
A redneck neighbor once asked my mom (in the 80s) if they had cars in Peru. Sigh.
This is the product of poor world history in school & little current affairs coverage outside Western Europe, except for catastrophes, so all we see are the war torn, poverty stricken, disaster-affected parts on the news. And racism, of course.
I bet most Americans who think that African countries are just completely poverty stricken have no idea what the US looks like in its poorest areas, not everywhere in the US is nice suburbs or unrealistically large apartments on tv
Los Angeles, California
Hartford, Connecticut
New Orleans, Louisiana
Camden, New Jersey
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
McDowell County, West Virginia
Flint, Michigan
Washington, D.C.
this American girl asked me if we had sparkling water in KoreaâŚ. sisâŚ.. I have a soda maker at homeâŚ.
