the space occupied by "transgression without harm" is an important one and I am suspicious of all attempts to close that gap by claiming all transgressions are harmful or that all non-harm should be comfortable

or less pretentiously: being weirded out is not at all the same thing as being offended, and for many of us the weird place provides a powerful sense of refuge, not despite but BECAUSE it is outside social norms

or even less pretentiously this is why so many queer kids are really into monsters

it's a phenomenon I often see described as reclamation, "you call me a monster, well maybe being a monster is good and I can have monster friends!", but that makes it sound like a defense mechanism and undersells the genuine power we may draw from being uncanny creatures

"there there, someday you won't have to feel like a monster"

as if I would ever give up these fangs and claws