Marianne Kirby

everything is hard & awful.

I'm doing a give away.
I can't take this shit.
I can't do much.

Have some sparkle.

Respond to this post before Saturday, March 7 & have an opportunity for a random drawing for 6 holographic or chameleon watercolor glitter paints of your choice.

Mats, this is so cool!!!!!

HELL YES SO EXCITED FOR THIS!

'Smiling' fossil discovered in Northumberland The unusual looking fossil is estimated to be a few hundred million years old dating to the Carboniferous period.

The identification of a 'smiling' object found on Holy Island in Northumberland has been confirmed by BGS senior paleontologist Jan Hennissen.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

BTW if you ever wanna commission an artist you don't have to have OC's or fandom characters- you can literally just be like "dang I'd like to have some more lesbian art exist" or "wow it would be real nice to see some trans rep in my culture" or "wouldn't a yellow centric painting look nice here"

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

If you didn’t see this last night - @megelison.bsky.social and I carried on about fashion in speculative fiction!

This is the good shit.

Where is the security officer who is constantly getting written up for dress code violations because they CANNOT maintain the boring haircut and don't want their piercings to close over???????

I am here for fat goth loli Klingons!

What Elegant Stars Queer Tales of Impossible Style, a fashionable space opera anthology.

If you have enjoyed @megelison.bsky.social and I egging each other on about fashion in speculative fiction, tell us - give us a your fave fashion to discuss!

And we think you'll enjoy What Elegant Stars: Queer Tales Of Impossible Style. Read and back it:

www.kickstarter.com/projects/dav...

The future is a big place. Fit more kinds of bodies in it.

More bodies and more fashions!

Honestly, this is just me challenging all of the writers here to get on it when it comes to the clothes your space future people wear. Space Opera as a genre can handle it, I promise. Especially if those clothes communicate important things to us as readers.

Pals, you should buy Theo's coloring book just in general.

And if you do and then you color me in, post a pic and tag me!

I promise I won't go mad with power. #fatvanity

What this brings us to is that space future fashion is best when it is distinct and bold and BRAVE. It's so powerful when leveraged as a tool to show us or at least gesture at the expansiveness of the imagined world we are being invited to inhabit. Too often it reveals limitations of imagination.

Wearing a jacket I made and RIDING A ROBOT PEGASUS.

The experience definitely healed me at least as much as thirty years of therapy.

TRULY.

And the variety of the costumes really conveys the variety of cultures contained in Wakanda. (Shout out to Winston Duke's thighs, man - M'Baku was a star.)

I love the LoTR costumes but the world of men sure all wears variations on the same thing in a lot of ways.

Also also, I'm in this coloring book and being in a coloring book full of space future fat people is the coolest I've ever felt, frankly.

Fat Ladies in Spaaaaace: A Body-Positive Coloring Book A Body-Positive Coloring Book

Okay one more thing about fat bodies in space, which is that Theo Lorenz illustrated a fantastic coloring book full of fat bodies in awesome clothes in space. Fat Ladies In Spaaaaace paints a more creative view of fat bodies in the space future than most sci fi media.

bookshop.org/p/books/fat-...

See, it's good to have hobbies!

I think we can, like, accept the good fashion as our due AND bemoan the pigeon-holing. I want villains to be well-dressed AND I want everyone else to at least be interesting.

And, ok, we've talked about the Fifth Element. We also have to bring up every citizen of Wakanda.

STYLE.

STOP RESTRAINING YOURSELF

100%

Grounded - a visual symbology of their stature (lol) and being the salt of the earth, etc etc etc. Versus Saruman and his pristine flowing white robes and flowing white beard meant to invoke some heavenly imagery there.

We have totally landed on the shores of the Queer Coded Villain without even meaning to!

Because STYLE is one way villains get that queer coding - an awareness of optics, a perception of caring about their presentation, a certain flare for the dramatic.

Being fat might also still just...be a thing that some bodies are. Either way, I agree that he'd be very into displaying his wealth and power through fashion and adornment. We only have to look to powerful folks of the past to see this urge carried out in a variety of styles!

Note to both of us: We gotta talk about Lwaxana Troi more often. What a badass.

Like, a mithral vest isn't entirely humble. *laugh* But ABSOLUTELY - why would they think about clothes when they have such an important mission??? It's all about practicality.

There's a time and place for this kind of utilitywear but I could have used so much more glam from the elves.

It was definitely a way to trade on the associations the audience would have with familiar actors.

Honestly, it's how people get type cast, right? We used to look at Alan Rickman and assume he was going to be the Hans Gruber of any given setting.

YES! She is introduced as a joke because she's sexually forward and she dresses like she actually knows what natural fibers are and laughs at the idea very idea of them because she is seeking a certain flamboyance.