#(my issue was that i was constantly made the class example of “what NOT do in your maths books!!!”....

[iampikachuhearmeroar]

so for the past week, i've been obsessively using an app called IXL (unfortunately, yes, it's pay-walled at $15.95AU a month for one subject), to learn maths from preschool to year 12.

while perusing the different year groups from years 5 to 11, i've realised just how much consumer maths, from budgeting and reading financial statements (year 5, in the "financial literacy" screenshot), up to simple and compounding interest from years 9 to year 11...and the ever important unit pricing in grocery shopping can be covered. or will actually be covered, bc I defs did interest calculations, for example, in year 9 and 10 maths.

obviously, probably not all of the screenshots were fully covered when i was at primary school and early high school in the 2000s, and early 2010s for mid high school.... since i dropped maths on purpose in year 11/2012 lmao. but there's SO MUCH about financial literacy, consumer maths (like "what's the best coupon?" in years 6 to 8) and obviously markups and mark downs etc in high school maths.

like obvs, i was *edgy teen voice* scarred for LIFE doing everything to do with interest calculations, GST calculations and wage calculations from years 8 to 10 and always exclaiming "WHEN will i EVER fucking NEED this?? *to the poor person who had to sit next to or near me* hey, chole/dean/jessa/nick can you guys do all the work so you can pretend to wake me up at the end of the lesson?? and maybe i'll copy some of your answers near the end??? thanks. also feel free to take the textbook home, im never going to do my pointless homework!! lol"

like honey. my sweet summer child. you need it NOW. 14 years in the future. you DID get a car eventually in 2022 (10 years after you finally dropped maths lmao). you're now paying double the interest each month to try and get rid of the car loan ASAP. and paying a small extra bit each fortnight to also get rid of it faster. i know it seems so far and impossible to imagine, at 13 to 16, just how far 29 is away from you.... and whether or not buying a car is ever going to happen.

however, you did have a job that went poorly. but it would've been good to know how much super/retirement money to put away while you were there. the said job is how you got the car in the first place lol. now you're trying to get any fucking job possible. where you WILL get paid double time and a half in a casual/part-time job in retail or hospo on public holidays.... or, well, at least hopefully you'll get paid properly lmao.

but my point is like. financial maths/consumer maths/financial literacy IS taught at school. but yeah. it's lost in between polynomials, factorials, parabolas, parallelograms and trapezoids. evil old mate pythagoras and his dastardly triangular formulas. power rules and cube roots. x×y×b= PEMDAS or BODMAS. sin, cos and tan. you get the picture.

but practical real life maths is IN the curriculum. it doesnt need to be taught in an extra class, like everyone who whinges about "we didnt learn about high-yield compound interest savings accounts in school and how they help you save money and help you invest!" bro!!! you fucking did!!! but you were 15. you were probably more focused on playing M/A/S/H with your bestie with your fave mid 2000s/early 2010s heart-throbs.... to give a flying fuck about compound interest. or bitching about how you lost a battle or something on COD. you LEARNT this shit. although, it would've probs also been covered more thoroughly in commerce in years 9 and 10 electives. and economics/business studies (maybe) if your school ran those subjects in senior years.

but again, a lot it is also overshadowed with the "who REALISTICALLY buys 75 watermelons at $400 for the lot, just like sarah and cole?? what a fucking stupid ass question." quips that all teens utter when they're doing questions about money in maths class. because yes, dgmw. 75 watermelons is a ludicrous amount of watermelons for anyone to buy (unless of course they're a greengrocer). but the point of the question is to calculate the idk 15% markup they've been charged (possibly, i just pulled that number out of my ass) and how much they estimate to make back on selling the watermelons at $7.50 each, say, while they're out of season in winter. that shit is important when thinking about sales.... especially how trash sales like black friday have become now. since multi billion dollar retailers will actually UP the price 10% to 20% (bare minimum) or something for the actual proper sale period... all while having great normal pricing BEFORE the real sale week. so then you only save literally $3 over what used to be a good like $40 or more saving.

like a practical example from my life was when i finally got myself off my dads phone bill in 2022.... so now i finally pay for my own phone. however, i added an extra like $30 to my bill each month, at that time, all bc the sales guy was begging me to "augment your phone with samsung buds and the samsung watch because you're YOUNG!!!" like no thanks, rajesh. my phone bill was LITERALLY only $12 more than MY FUCKING FORTNIGHTLY CAR PAYMENT each month. $127 a month for a phone!!! all bc i added two accessories to my bill. my bill is now $96 (still almost $100). mostly bc telstra (main aussie telco) is a piece of shit and decided to raise prices in late 2024 to add an extra $6 to base phone data plans... very obviously right after i decided to pay out my samsung watch up front bc it was down to $80 left.... at $16.50 a month or something, because it took off $10 from my bill by doing that.

like obvs, schools also do sometimes get professional firms (and sometimes banks with their "kids and saving money" for primary school aged kids and "young savers" for middle and high schoolers) programs to come in to teach kids about saving, how to understand their pay stubs and stuff, maybe get some idea of how superannuation works and other financial literacy stuff outside of maths class. this IS important. every school should have access to these programs. overall, my point is though, that these things ARE and CAN be taught to kids in maths class. but it's very obvs dismissed by the kids, like teen me, who REFUSED to believe she'd EVER need those skills. bc alas, sweet kiddo, it CATCHES up to you right fucking quick. let me tell you. ain't no meme gonna save your ass from not knowing how to read a budget.

and all those mid2000s emo band dudes you thought you'd marry, teen me?? i dont think they'd be too pleased to know that all you wanted to do with their money/them was either siphon their funds bc you thought you'd get away with it. all because of the amount of crime channel docos about embezzlement/fund siphoning/money laundering and/or financial fraud you watched (hint: you wouldn't. bc you're shit at maths on purpose.... bc "im just a girl!!! why the fuck do i even need maths, when i can be a sugar baby instead??? lol not lol). or just bankrupt them for funsies bc you had/have no money sense lmao.

like honey. WHY were you so delulu and disconnected from reality??? lmao???? also, maybe i just had tiktok "im just a girl" meme brainrot a good 15 years before tiktok was even a thing. for shits and giggs. which again. is not/wasn't great.

also there was the belief if I ended up as a famous actress (lmao), I'd never need maths.... so I could just pass off onto someone else instead (ie a financial advisor or bank teller). like. I hate to break it to you, teen me. but unfortunately, even successful drama kids (professional actors) and creatives need maths. because most of your pay from a tv show or movie, for example, goes to your agent and entertainment lawyer, etc, and any other retained team you have before it even reaches YOUR bank account.

so then, how do you live off, idk, the maybe $800 you might finally get from one actually paid acting job??? once everyone else gets a cut from your check??? what about residuals?? are they enough to live off of for a time??? (answer: lol, not today in 2025. when studios always actively try to take them off of everyone in tv show or movie casts). but how do you manage this money??? budgeting and maths.

[communistkenobi]

prefacing this post by saying that I am a big enjoyer of “this site has poor reading comprehension” jokes on here, but I think there needs to be better and more precise language about this sort of thing that isn’t bound up in like, the ability to parse text, which is always going to be tied to class and ability. I’m not saying every joke about this site not being able to read is classist/ableist, and I don’t think anyone is making any grand ideological proclamations when dunking on a stupid reply to their post, but the backing behind that kind of joke is, ultimately, “haha you’re an adult that can’t read.”

And aside from some potentially troubling baggage, I don’t even think that’s what’s going on in the first place! I think the more precise (but admittedly less catchy) term for “poor reading comprehension” is something along the lines of chronic incuriosity, or a rigid adherence to normative thinking. if you see a post saying, for example, women shouldn’t have to wear makeup to be viewed as human beings, and the comments are filled with “actually you can just wear some winged eyeliner and foundation it’s not that hard to wear makeup and also women love makeup stop gatekeeping,” what is happening is not a failure to comprehend the text in front of them. these responses are not made in ignorance, as in, they are not the result of a failure to understand the sentence they just read. these responses stem from a refusal to challenge base assumptions, and reacting emotionally to the mental dissonance this causes (probably something along the lines of “I think of myself as progressive but this person is challenging something I like doing and this threatens my weak political instincts”). These people are rejecting the opportunity to analyse the habits and behaviours they previously assumed to be non-political (eg, wearing makeup), and then externalising that rejection as a defence mechanism. That is not a failure to read a sentence, that is a demand to be intellectually coddled, which is very different.

Again, I’m sure people are already aware of this. I enjoy being a hater, and having people constantly swarm your posts with ridiculous and hysterical replies is incredibly frustrating (speaking from a lot of personal experience here lol). This is also not me saying you have to do the coddling and explain to them that they’re being ideologically incurious about the world, you don’t have an obligation to do any of that. but I think framing a person’s failure to be curious about their own biases as “they don’t know how to read” situates the problem as an issue of ignorance or lack of technical skill, instead of the much more prevalent problem of people refusing to be challenged or reconsider things in their life they didn’t think about before. Calling these kinds of people ignorant is just letting them off easy

[actualmermaid]

It's been three months since I made this post about Saints Sergius and Bacchus, John Boswell, classical Western homoeroticism, and Christian homophobia.

Since then I have read both of Boswell's books on the history of gay/queer people in premodern Christianity (Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality and Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe), familiarized myself more fully with the spectrum of charges against Boswell and his scholarship, and realized that he's been the subject of ideologically-motivated smear campaigns by just about every political/religious/academic faction you can imagine. My conclusion: Professor Boswell is a saint, martyr, and important queer elder who does not get the respect that he deserves, and I'm in awe of the sheer volume of the massive genius brain that was somehow crammed into his little blond head.

ANYWAY. This is an official followup to my original post, now that I've read Boswell's work.

I take back my hunch that Boswell's work was not intersectional. He was, in fact, a pioneer in the field of medieval social history, and utilized a wide range of critical lenses in his work. He was inhibited by the lack of documented evidence about some groups (for example, he was frequently criticized for not writing more about lesbians, but he was open about the difficulties of researching lesbians in history and explained what he was doing as a scholar and as a teacher to mitigate this) but he constantly called attention to issues of class, gender, and other social factors wherever they were relevant.

I was RIGHT in noticing that the slight difference in rank between Sergius and Bacchus seems to be an erastes/eromenos indicator! Boswell spoke at greater length and with greater sensitivity about erastes/eromenos dynamics in history, so if you want a deeper look into that, you should read his books.

I was also probably right in noticing that the legend of Sergius and Bacchus is seeded with various forms of Byzantine propaganda! I really wish that I could talk to him about it. :(

Both secular queer theorists and religious queer theologians seem to be most uncomfortable with the fact that Boswell was reporting on historical facts and observable social forces, not idealized concepts of queer people as somehow being more ethical or spiritual than the straight majority. He included evidence of things like abuse, prostitution, and exploitation not because he thought they were cool, but because they were part of the material reality of queer people's existence in the past, just like they were part of the material reality of his own 70s-80s gay subculture.

That was his bottom line: gay/queer people are a normal human variation, and as a historian, he could provide hard proof of their existence and what their lives might have been like. If his work seems "shallow" or "dated" to some more modern queer researchers, it's only because so many people were willing to dismiss his scholarship, reject his work, and abandon his research leads after he died. But, he was actually super smart and his scholarship was actually meticulous, so even his most dedicated critics have been unable to "debunk" him. Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality most recently had a 35th-anniversary reprinting, and he is still being cited as an authority by more recent scholars.

Even though the full strength of the Church and the Academy were leveled against him, his work has proven its own worth. He still deserves to be read and discussed by both professional scholars and enthusiastic hobbyists. And, the Open and Affirming movement in Christianity wouldn't be as strong as it is without his confirmation that "gays and lesbians are normal," as he put it, and not simply a construct of modern society.

Rest in power, Professor Boswell. We won't forget you.

Since I made that post, I have also opened a sticker shop with a bunch of queer Christian saint icons, including Boswell and some of the queer saints he discovered/wrote about. They're pretty cool. You should buy one.

[ya-zz]

Hii! I love your work and I'm a recent follower, so I wanted to request something a little selfish for me! If it's okay, and if you're willing, could I have some headcannons with Ramattra, Genji and Lifeweaver with a deaf!reader? I'd love to hear your thoughts about how quick they would pick up on sign language, and maybe reader giving them a cute allias in sign language? Per example, instead of signing Genji ’s name letter by letter, I would simply sign "My Dragon". Again, this is an extremely specific request so if you choose to pass it on, it's completely okay! Much love to you 🌺

This was such a cute thing to write, selfish or not. I don't really see many fics or hc's out there about this sorta thing, so I am glad to write this! Hope this is what you were looking for! ♥

RAMATTRA

Ramattra never knew why you didn’t speak to him, only when someone mentioned that you couldn’t hear him did he realise the issue. 

It also explained why you never answered him. You didn’t even know he was talking.

He researched how to apologise so he could have some peace of mind. He wasn’t mad, but he did wish someone would’ve told him sooner.

He searched for any module possible to instantly talk to you. 

However, there was the issue of finding the right module. 

With the many variations of sign language, he had to find the one that matched yours. 

It took some time, but when he found the correct module, he was practically fluent in sign language, though he was still slow at talking. 

It warms his circuits the moment he first signed to you and you smiled with a sparkle in your eyes. 

His joints weren’t used to doing intricate hand signs, but over time, he got used to it. 

Day after day he would sit with you to learn how to sign efficiently. 

It was a learning curve to him, one he was grateful for as you were the one teaching him.

He was advancing in a way he had never imagined, especially with a human. 

One day while signing with him, having what seemed like a normal conversation, you had signed something he hadn’t seen before. 

It took his processors a moment to work it out and when he realised what you had signed, he chuckled, signing “thank you” towards you with a tilt of his head. 

“My omnic”.

GENJI

You had been responding to the ninja fairly well, but when you didn’t respond to his callout once, he wondered if you had ignored him. 

He approached you, a little cautious in case you were annoyed at him, but when he realised you were constantly looking at his lips, it clicked for him. 

Genji was close to you, figured you were just the quite kid, but being deaf was something he hadn’t thought about. 

He spent that night researching and practising sign language.

It was a slow process for the ninja; he was always too distracted, but he picked up words and phrases to impress you. 

Maybe a month went by before he finally managed to say a full sentence without any mistakes, but the fact that he was trying was enough for you. 

After awhile, Genji would try to learn more.

He would take online classes to make sure he was doing the correct hand movements; that he was making sense. 

Sometimes he would mess up, but that was okay.

The ninja spent his free time learning full sentences, eventually leading up to a full conversation with you.

It made you warm with happiness that he went through the effort to learn something new. 

Sign language was hard, and with Genji being constantly distracted, it only made it slower to learn and he was several months in to learning. 

Though, when you signed something to him that he had never learnt, he stumbled, thinking about it for the rest of the day before he researched what you had said. 

A genuine smile appears on his face when he learns what you called him. 

“My dragon.”

LIFEWEAVER

Niran had some knowledge of sign language prior to meeting you.

When he heard you were deaf, he was excited to speak to you, though his speech was limited. 

Seeing him interact with you was comforting, even if he did get embarrassed about his mistakes. 

He would spend most of his nights practising, relearning what he already knew and focussing on his weaker points.

Niran would always go to you for help, wanting to know if he’s signing right and what he needs to work on. 

It was like you were a tutor to him, one he felt comfortable around. 

When he wasn’t working on his biology and science, he would study some more.

There was always room for improvement. 

His mind was taken up by you, the want and need to impress you, no matter how many mistakes he made. It was all apart of the process.

Everything was going smoothly. His nightly studying was paying off and he was starting to fully understand conversation.

It only took a couple months for him to be fluent, the perks of being a fast learner but also sticking to a regime.

There was the odd occasion where he would mess up, but even you wouldn’t lie that you did it too.

He was fond of your presence, much like you were fond of his.

Niran was surprised when you signed a different name for him, one that made his cheeks flush the same pink colour.

“My lotus.”

[yuri-is-online]

I'm not sure if the position of honor student exists in real life in the Japanese school system, but I wanted to ask if you could headcanon the authorities the MC, as an honor student, might have. Canonically, we know she is an inspector, and she can ditch class if necessary, though it seems all ghouls can do that. She has a personal allowance, and the academy generally treats her better than, say, Haru, who mentioned he has a budget for buying things, implying he uses his own allowance rather than one given by the academy. Am I missing any other authorities?

"Honor student" typically just means a student with high grades, so if we look at it from that perspective, then the MC's powers seem a bit strange. What seems to be happening is that the MC has been given a role similar to that of a prefect, which does exist in schools in Europe and I think some private schools in Japan. You can think of her as an authorized student worker for the Institute. She does a lot of paperwork and manages the ghouls for the school, the ditching classes thing is something she is allowed to do to assist the ghouls on their missions. The ghouls aren't required to attend class at all, but they can't graduate unless they do which is allegedly the issue with Ed. And if they don't graduate they don't get to leave the school and have a life.

As for her allowance vs Haru... if Darkwick runs like my University does then you need to submit a budget request for things you need, so what I think is happening in Jabberwock is that Haru is a chronic overspender constantly getting things he doesn't need so the school has stopped approving his budget requests. With MC, her allowance could be seen as payment for her work as an inspector, and I doubt it's much more than what she needs to cover basic expenses like food and maybe some casual clothes to replace what she was forced to leave at home.

Powers wise, we know she has access to certain documents like the Catsmo travel records but that made me think. MC's title is probably specifically honor student to avoid giving her more powers (like to write a student up for example) as most of what the school allows her to do seems to be relegated to dealing with the ghouls. I don't think she has any powers over the normal students. The academy certainly treats her better now, but if her curse progresses to a point they think she's dangerous that would change real quick. I was re-reading the intro a bit ago and the word they used for what they were going to do to MC was "detain." She was going to be detained while they studied her curse.

In other words I'm sort of curious if she was headed to Ultio prison and a cell next to Lyca. Something to think about.

[hazelnut-u-out]

What would your ideal Morty therapy appointment look like (assuming that he went alone)? 🤔

Going to try to answer this even though my brain feels like mush, lol.

So, there are quite a few things I'd like to see. Obviously, I wouldn't expect a single episode to actually tackle every aspect of what therapy would realistically look like for a character like Morty, but hey-- at this rate, every episode aside from 'Fear No Mort' that's attempted to psychoanalyze him hasn't done the best job, I fear... *cough cough*

Anyway, here are some of the things I'd like to see addressed in an actual therapy setting (importantly, not some other form of psychoanalysis, like the Fear Hole, Roy, etc.):

Autism/Pilot Disability

It bothers me every day that the writers never followed up on that throw-away line about Morty having a disability in the pilot. Obviously, I headcanon that he's autistic (I mean, surely that's half of the dynamic with Rick right there, lol). I personally think that Rick and Morty have some autistic traits that present to the opposing extremes. For example, I think Rick struggles with hypo-empathy and Morty with hyper-empathy. I think Rick excels in math where Morty excels in English/literature. I think Rick struggles to mask and Morty is high masking. Rick just doesn't people please to survive in the same way Morty has been socialized to. (Most of this is my interpretation of the characters, but there are scenes that back up my points, as I'm sure you've caught onto, haha.) I think it would be cool to see Morty open up about feeling ostracized from his peers, struggling to make friends his own age, struggling with feelings of being 'behind'/weird/awkward, and how all of that made him the perfect victim. This is probably the least likely of my wants to be addressed in a therapy setting. I think that if they confirm it, it'd be in a pretty lowkey way, similar to what they did with Rick. I think the cold open for 'Mort: Ragnarick' might've actually been an indication that Morty isn't neurotypical, but we knew that already. I actually sort of headcanon Goldenfold's class as a remedial math course because of how simple the math seems to be, though I'm sure it was initially just some math they threw in for the pilot.

2. Grooming...

This is a tough one to include. Morty has been with WAYYY too many older women throughout the course of the show, but Planetina in particular gives me the chills. I would love to see how that's impacted him, or maybe even how his abusive dynamic with Rick and his neglectful relationship with his parents pushed him into that vulnerable position even more.

3. Mommy Issues (or neglectful parenting in general)

This one is a good follow-up for the last one. Morty's dynamic with Beth in 'A Rickconvenient Mort' is something I literally get up in the middle of the night just to think about. It makes my chest ache. I think it's because I know exactly how it feels to be Morty in that situation. When your parents constantly downplay your own feelings, put you in dangerous/vulnerable situations with reckless abandon, and completely shut you out emotionally it can feel like they just want to ruin your life when they try to protect you. To be honest, the show's dynamic wouldn't exist without Beth's negligence. Morty has two moms and neither of them have really tried to protect him. Even Jerry failed him.

4. Crying.

Idk, just lots of it. He deserves to cry about whatever he wants and be validated.

5. Justifying Rick's Actions

I would LOVE to see Morty try to explain Rick's actions away to someone who actually cares if he's being abused. I could see Morty say something to a therapist, there be a negative reaction or uncomfortable silence, and him try to say: 'It's really for my own good, though, you see...'/'You just don't know Rick the way I do. I'm the only one who really gets him...'/'It would break Mom's heart...'/'He would never hurt me on purpose...' Then to have a professional get in there and really debunk that internalized manipulation? I would die (in a good way).

5. Trauma Responses

They've sort of been hinting at this for a bit, but I think the whole point of Rick's improvement-- at least, in Morty's case-- is 'too little too late.' Rick may be getting better, but how is Morty supposed to trust him? Especially when Rick has been 'nice' for the express purpose of hurting him before? Even in his everyday life, I'm sure he has those moments of anxiety/dread/odd behavior because of the shit he's been through.

There's more, but my brain is fried right now, so maybe I'll revisit this ask later. Anyway, this was fun to think about! Thanks for asking! <3

[tthatsonme]

Intellect, by molly.

— People often underestimate the seriousness of your sudden shift of motivation, in this day and age; it’s uncommon to see anyone (especially younger people) read a book or have any interest in having goals whatsoever, but you’re different, you’ve set the curve, you’re the centre of attention and everyone should be like you especially when it comes to academics, parents are constantly asking you to teach their kids your way because of how effortless your work ethic and dedication to school seems.

— Whenever the teacher needs an example on how to do a math equation or what a well written and worded essay SHOULD look like they always hold up your assignments as an example, you are 100% the best example of what a student should be like an any generation but especially this one, all of the parents and guardians with the “brain rotted iPad babies” or “wasting their lives away because of technology addiction teenagers” beg you to tell them what your “secret is” but maybe you’re not even fully aware of your greatness or level of discipline and success.

— You have a very distinct and important morning routine that you do every day, whether your routine has 4-steps or 40-steps it’s almost like it’s been burned into your DNA to follow it daily, your routine is not optional, you have the most perfect sleep schedule it’s almost as perfect as you, but in case you need a late study night you wake up everyday well rested regardless of whether you slept a full 8-hours or not, your memory to do things is amazing, you have a better memory than most people in your classes, you remember everything that you hear, read, and write in terms of school, you remember how to spell everything, your handwriting is always neat and legible, you could basically rewrite the dictionary at this point, fun fact: most people in this generation aren’t fluent in English because of the lack of spelling and vocabulary (my teacher said this so it’s probably true), while the other people in your class are crying over the phone ban if you have you you’re perfectly fine without your phone for 6-8 hours a day, you’ve never had any issues writing stories or having original thoughts, you have an extremely expanded vocabulary and are an amazing writer, “You don’t use brain rot?? Nerd alert!” It’s surprising to hear someone only use quote “brain rot terms” ironically, whilst the rest of the world is having unintelligent conversations about skibidi toilet and whatnot you’re the complete opposite.

— You have no issues in and are the best at all forms of mathematics, geometry, algebra, calculus, arithmetic, trigonometry, number theory, statistics, set theory, topology, discrete mathematics, probability, combinatorics, numbers, mathematics analysis, analytical geometry, differential equations, applied mathematics, game theory, pure mathematics, linear algebra, numerical analysis, and matrix algebra, natural sciences, engineering, medicine, finance, computer science and social sciences, biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, earth sciences, zoology, ecology, microbiology, astrophysics, neuroscience, logic, ethics, psychology, philosophy, mechanics, and social sciences, morphology, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, psycholinguistic, linguistics, phonetics, historical linguistics, stylistics, and computational linguistics plus whatever other courses and classes that you have. [If this last part seems random it’s because it is, it’s copy and pasted from a personal sub I made a year ago for 11th grade :p]

_Things to remember

You can and will only ever manifest what you desire from this subliminal

Make sure not to obsess over your results because they can lead to limiting beliefs

You don’t have to listen daily or 1-7 times or anything like that, one is always enough with any subliminal :)

[andreal831]

I found it so absolutely crazy that the Mikaelsons (especially Klaus and Elijah) were constantly throwing Marcel’s background back in his face and just the fact that they lived in/on the same plantation that he was a slave on was absolutely wild. Marcel was so blatantly “othered” by the Mikaelsons, even though they said he was family, they always reminded him that he wasn’t ever one of them/a mikaelson and Klaus would always remind him that he was a slave before. Someone made the analogy that it’s like when a racist white family adopts a black child and make it clear that he’s not one of them and that’s quite LITERALLY what happened.

I would go as far as to say that Marbekah is not just weird because Rebekah knew him as a child, but also because of that strange power dynamic of her being a rich white woman and him being a black slave boy and that subtext there and it just doesn’t feel right (and this is a feeling I don’t get from normal interracial relationships, just THOSE TWO). And if you like Marbekah, that’s great! I just don’t lol.

And the fandom always says that “it’s just Klaus’ personality that he does and says these things to Marcel, etc” like… ugh.

And there’s other poc in TO that deal with the racism like Vincent and Inadu, etc

I love the Mikaelsons but they were so problematic to the point that I have to retcon certain things or at least insert headcanons to make me not hate them. Because you are absolutely right. It was literally a racist family playing white savior. People try to give Klaus props for killing an enslaver and freeing Marcel, but we see him kill one enslaver and free one person who was enslaved. He didn't do it because he was morally opposed to slavery. He did it for his own selfish reasons. Otherwise we would have seen more of this. People using the excuse that "oh it's just x's character to make racists comments" is very telling. It means the character is racist. They are literally saying it is part of that character. The Mikaelsons thinking it was fine to live on an actual plantation both when it was functioning and after is proof of this.

I personally do like Marbekah but they are not necessarily in my top favorite ships. I love both of the characters but I also hate how they began (same with Freelin, but I'll go into that in a moment). But again, you're absolutely right. There is not only the inappropriate dynamic that she helped raise him, to some extent, but yes, that he grew up being treated as a second class citizen, not only when he was enslaved but also when he was taken in by the Mikaelsons. There is also the bad dynamic of how possessive Klaus is over Rebekah and her romantic life. People love to say Klaus daggered Rebekah when he found out about Rebekah and Marcel because he was protecting Marcel, but let's be honest, he wouldn't have cared if it was anyone else but Rebekah. Klaus didn't have any issues going after teenagers, why would he care that Marcel was being groomed by an older woman? Klaus always treated Marcel as more of a friend than a son and we all know Klaus is not a good friend. I, once again, have to insert my own headcanon that Rebekah was not heavily invovled in Marcel's upbringing. I pretend Klaus was just as possessive of Marcel with Rebekah as he was with Elijah. We only see the one scene of Rebekah training him so I just pretend that was a one time thing and they hardly interacted outside of that. This not at all what the writers intended. They loved creepy, grooming relationships so it is completely understandable to not like them.

Marcel was treated as more of a possession than anything. I'm biased so I like to believe Elijah saw Marcel as a child at first and wanted to mentor him before Klaus got in the way. You mention Elijah throwing Marcel's history in his face, do you have an example? I am genuinely asking. I've seen people make this comment before and make comments of Elijah calling him "boy" but I for the life of me can't remember when he does, because yes, that is obviously racist. I am trying to think past my Elijah blinders, but welcome any help. Elijah is definitely condescending to him and it would be foolish of me to assume part of it isn't racism. Again, I insert my own headcanon that it is more to do with his elitism and how he speaks to everyone (i.e. the scene where he calls Klaus and Hayley "chiiillldddreeen" for bickering). But I also acknowledge that my headcanons are my own and we still need to call out the characters for their problematic behavior. The fact that Elijah doesn't lift a finger to help a single person who is being enslaved or to even condemn the slavery when he very much had the power and privilege to do something about it shows his racism, if not overt racism than at the very least covert.

I personally headcanon that Celeste set Elijah straight while they were together and got him more invovled in the abolitionist movements, because I refuse to believe Celeste was fine being with a man who was fine with slavery. I also love Elijah and refuse to love a racist so I have to insert my own head canons to fix the racist writing. I would also be remiss to point out how problematic it is that Elijah is constantly given partners who are women of color but the show only emphasizes his white counterparts. There is more love for Eelijah, a crack ship, in the fandom than Celijah, one of the two people Elijah loved by his own admission. I love haylijah, but how the women of color he dated were treated by his family, the writers, and his family, even by him, speaks volumes to their racism.

But back to Marcel. It would have made sense for Rebekah to be a mother figure to him since she is always talking about wanting kids, but the show makes it clear that there is a distinction between biological children and adopted. Here the Mikaelsons have a chance to be parents and they all squander it. It's hard to not talk about Marcel's race in that discussion. Rebekah loves her time taking care of Hope, who, while her blood, is still not her biological daughter. Why wouldn't she jump at the chance to raise a frightened boy who lost his mother at such a young age? Why wasn't he given a mother figure? Hope has like five. Marcel isn't even given a father figure. Again, Hope has like five. Because Marcel was never viewed as a child. This is a common trope where black characters, especially boys, are not seen as kids. Rather they are forced to be more mature and treated as adults, while their white counter parts are allowed immaturity. Marcel was never allowed to be a kid because the Mikaelsons didn't want a kid. They all had their own selfish desires for Marcel and they were all terrible.

I do think the Mikaelsons are also just a toxic, dysfunctional family. Literally none of them treat the others well. I love certain relationships over others, but it would be lying to say they weren't all toxic to each other. So it's no wonder all of their relationships with Marcel were toxic. Klaus undaggers Kol and instead of being angry at Klaus for keeping him in a box, he turns his anger and frustration on a literal child. You would think this resentment would fade when Kol starts dating his nephew's daughter (sorry, couldn't help myself), but it doesn't. Marcel and Kol still harbor so much animosity for each other and Kol's is merely based on Marcel being more included in the family, which is sad considering how little Marcel is included in the family. But even that extent was too much for Kol.

The writers had a fresh slate with The Originals. There was no book to attempt to follow or even to dictate character relationships. They could have done anything with Marcel, but they chose to make a black slave from the 1800s that Klaus "saved" in order to play into the idea that Klaus was a good guy underneath it all. So instead of focusing on Marcel's trauma, the story is told through the Mikaelson's perspective, the white perspective. It reminds me of so many movies, The Blind Side comes to mind. Media loves to focus on the white saviors and praise them without mentioning the trauma they actually caused while playing savior. In these stories, the white families aren't adopting a "child" they are "investing" in what that child can do for them.

I mentioned Freelin earlier and I don't think it is a coincidence that the only two instances where a white Mikaelson's endgame invovled a person of color there is a massive power imbalance. I want to love Freelin so much because I like both the characters but I struggle to get past how they met and how quickly it changed. Freya never even felt guilty or apologized for literally kidnapping and torturing her. The show loves to match up characters, especially women and especially woman of color, with their abusers with no repercussions to the abuse.

I could write forever about the blatant racism in this show.

Thanks for the ask! I hope I answered everything. As always, please let me know what you think or if you disagree with anything I said.

[yanderespamton78]

pls help waaauuuughhh

rrriiight you lot i have an issue

so theres this friend that i have had for 7 years now. only issue is theyre honestly kinda toxic and manipulative and allat. they mock me, theyre hypocritical, theyre unampathetic and honestly i think that they have been manipulating me (every time i start to get to the end of my tether theyre suddenly really nice to me for like a week or 2 before going back to how they were before). This isnt something thats been deeply affecting me, more just a weight in the back of my mind. i have two other friends who are friends with this person. my two other friends want to just call them up and talk to them about how much of a shit person theyve been before just cutting them out completely. one of these other two friends has really gotten the brunt of their shitty-ness and seems to just be a punching bag for them. they constantly make fun of her behind her back but they are very kind to her face to face (buying her stuff for example. they never buy me or the other friend stuff). for me it feels a lot like im giving a lot of kindness and energy and care to them and getting nothing back, and ive wanted to cut them out for years now. im just unhappy around them.

So. i made a gc without the toxic friend and we made plans to call them and preparations and we shared stories and stuff and i even made notes for what to say but i was talking to my mum about it just last night and she said "well imagine if your three closest friends just randomly rang you one day, said "youre a bitch" then hung up" and that really got me thinking. like sure theyre a shitty friend but like holy shit thats a lot to just dump on a person. they have a few people they can hang out with instead of us but im honestly not sure if they even like those people or not

im not sure what to do. theyre very dominant and kinda the leader of the friend group so itd be very hard to just slowly drift away from them, so cutting them out abruptly seems like the only option, except im worried about the aftermath (especially for the other two friends. its not at much of a problem for me since im in a different class but it could be a massive problem for the others.)

the main thing thats making me doubt myself is the fact that this isnt constant. there are plenty of good memories i have with them, plenty of gifts theyve given me, and a lot of the time they are nice. but they are the only one of my friends whos made me take "is your friend toxic" quizzes and watch videos on it and none of my other friends ever make me feel as shitty as they do on a near daily basis. but i can and do just brush it off and go on with my day. it isnt something that deeply affects me.

waaaauuuuuuuggggghhhh

[theradicalscrivener]

I'm gonna get new ears installed.

It's getting close to 5 am and I can't sleep yet. Part of it is because I just finished work, but part of it is because I'm... Excited? ... Anxious? I'm both happy and sad and a little hopeful but also very fearful.

So, for those not in the know. I'm deaf and have been my whole life. It's not one of those things like I can't hear anything. But a lot of frequencies and sound ranges just don't work well for me. I tried wearing heading aids when I was a kid, but they made things worse. All they did was amplify everything. That made it harder to hear the pieces I had to struggle to hear since it was getting further buried under even more background noise.

For example, if you've ever been to a movie where the sound mixing was off. The dialogue is incomprehensible because the ambient noise is so frickin loud. If you try to turn the volume up, all you hear is more jets and explosions.

Anyway, I've had some issues in class where some professors are very hard to understand but the college wouldn't help me until I had a current diagnosis from an audiologist saying that yeah. I really am just that deaf. In the process of seeing the audiologist though, she was telling me that they have new stuff that can work for people like me. Unlike old hearing aids that amplify all sound, these things have like adaptive sound controls and can amplify specific frequencies on the fly. So in theory it will bring my hearing to similar levels as other people's.

The thing costs $10k... I have decent insurance which drops it down to $6k but it's still a massive expense. I'm going to do it though.

I'm both excited and anxious. If the audiologist is to be believed, I spend a lot of my energy on listening to people speak, then replay it back in my head and soft through the possible similar sounding words and recreate the sentences on my head.

I've always said I do this. I jokingly refer to it as "buffering" because I'm running on a few second delay in conversation. Like imagine those interviews on the news where there's this awkward pause of four to five seconds where the signal gets sent across the world from the asker to the answerer before the other person can respond to it. The doc says this is probably the source of a lot of my frequent migraines and exhaustion and is exacerbating my tinnitus. Basically I'm in like hyper vigilant mode 24/7 constantly trying to pick out the faintest sounds so I can be functional in normal life leading to constant mental fatigue.

Anyway. I don't know how long it will take to actually get the device, and once I get it, the doc said it'll take a while to get adjusted. They're not just going to throw me into the deep end and let me figure it out. The plan is to slowly increase the deadened frequencies until they balance out with the others.

I don't know what this will actually do for me. I've never been able to hear normally so I don't know what it will feel like. I don't know if I will ever get to a normal hearing level. I wonder if this will make it easier out in public. I get overwhelmed in busy places since there are so many sounds which makes it impossible to hear the things I want.

I'm worried that I'll spend all this money and it won't improve anything.

I'm worried that I will get these and it will be everything I wanted.

How long has this tech existed? Could I have had this years ago? How much have I missed by not being able to understand people talking to me.

If I get this will it make a noticable difference in the migraines? In the chronic fatigue? I don't know. I want to be optimistic, but it's hard to even know what to expect.

Anyway. If you want a bit of a glimpse into what it's like being me, give this a listen

[tittyinfinity]

There is no concept of racism towards white people because whiteness is designed to destroy itself from the inside. Any kind of "prejudice" towards whiteness is a symptom of white society itself.

White people are raised with a lot of internalized supremacy. We are taught that the only way to live a good life is to be better than others.

It has bled over into American society in general. The rules of whiteness suddenly become applicable for POC as well. If they don't conform, then they're labeled as an "example" as to why it's wrong for us all to be different.

Conformity is a HUGE part of white society.

You are judged and excluded from certain privileges if you don't conform to everyone else.

We are taught that people who dress and act different are inherently less educated and have less worth. Because we believe that white conformity is the ultimate achievement, that we've advanced so much further than other cultures, and if anyone acts different, it's because they haven't completely "learned the ways."

Take suburban neighborhoods with HOAs as an example – the vast majority of the people living in them are upper-middle class whites. All of the houses look the same. You aren't allowed to look "out of place." Painting your house or putting out the "wrong" decorations can get you harassed. You're even judged for growing your own food simply based off of the "aesthetic." You can't walk around the neighborhood in certain clothes (this goes quadruple for POC). Your neighbors will call the police on you and/or your kids if they see you outside and don't like/don't know what you're doing. Shit, in a lot of places, riding a skateboard as opposed to a bicycle will automatically get you labeled as "more trashy" and get the cops called on you for a disturbance.

Lower-income white people don't have as much of an issue with those things, but it doesn't mean those biases don't exist to some extent. My friend and I, while living in a lower-income neighborhood, had CPS called on us for letting kids aged 5-10 play outside in the backyard while we were making dinner because "we were risking them getting kidnapped" – a development in white society where we're taught that we have to constantly assume people have bad intentions "just in case" – made much worse by the increasing trend with True Crime. To white people, our biggest threat is that a random person with a bad agenda will hurt us. All while denying that POC, LGBT+, disabled people, poor people, etc are constantly treated with violence simply for existing.

"Systematic violence isn't real! Anyone could be a victim of anything at any time!" We're taught.

We still have a lot to unlearn. You can't truly unlearn your biases until you study how your relationship with whiteness affects it. I know this as somebody who has spent the past decade unlearning all the terrible shit I was taught. Whiteness and capitalism are connected. Whiteness and ableism are connected. It's connected to a lot more than you think.

[mx-piggy]

Okay I've finally watched the new Futurama... almost a week after it came out. In my defence, I had a pretty busy week, if you can class 'binge-watching several movies ready to go see stuff at the cinema and trying and failing to get some sleep before job interviews' as being busy. I digress. So, here's my review of The Temp. Spoilers ahead!!

This season has been consistently strong so far.

The Temp is an example of an episode that is all-around good; I'd rank it pretty highly amongst these revival episodes. The story is interesting, most of the jokes land, there's a lot of fun cameos and references for simpletons like myself to point at excitedly. After the devastating end of Quids Game, it was fun to see Futurama showing how great of a sci-fi comedy it is, with a fun, sci-fi, Twilight Zone-esque premise that is packed with strong comedy.

This episode definitely could have turned out more meanspirited than it did, but the crew constantly forgetting who Frank was never, for me anyway, veered into the cruelty of some of the Comedy Central episodes. I'd say that it stayed in the territory of funny, as opposed to doing a disservice to the characters like the Comedy Central era did.

The Temp actually reminded me a bit of Homer's Enemy, not just because Frank shares a name with Frank Grimes, and both episodes are named after each Frank. But, this episode feels a lot lighter than Homer's Enemy.

My only real issue with the episode is that the pacing feels a bit off at the end. I do appreciate its attempt at using a unique structure, and I would love to see further attempts from the revival to use a more a unique story structure without it being reserved for more emotionally-driven episodes like Quids Game. That said, I guess that it feels like, by the time Frank takes over Fry's identity in the main bit of the episode, it only lasts for a few minutes before they find the real Fry again. So, in total, there's only around seven or eight minutes where, as the episode synopsis describes, 'a mysterious temp worker takes over Fry's job, as well as his entire life', and we get around five minutes of that at the beginning, then three minutes in the middle of the episode. That and the six week timeskip leaves the episode feeling a bit rushed at the end, so it made it feel a bit underdeveloped. Again, it's just a minor criticism, and I liked the episode as it was; the structuring did make for an interesting story overall.

Part of me is tempted to write a Homer's Enemy-esque character study of Frank to satisfy my love of exploring characters whose lives kinda fucking suck lmao.

Something I really enjoyed about this episode is all the cameos and references it has. There's the Omicronians, Calculon, the Robot Mafia, Zoidberg's Uncle. And, I loved the incorporation of Amazonian Women in the Mood into this episode's story. It was such a fun, clever choice, and (unlike with Children of a Lesser Bog) it wasn't delivered in a clunky way. I also loved the Professor's 'I'm already in my pyjamas' (and how they subvert it).

And, this episode was so funny that I couldn't possibly list everything that made me laugh. Probably the biggest laugh was Bender's 'who the hell is he?'.

Overall, I probably liked The Temp a bit more than Quids Game and a lot more than The One Amigo, because I really enjoyed having an episode where we got to see the Planet Express crew together. Right now, I'd give this one a 7.5/10. I've used the word 'fun' far too much in this review (my apologies) but I really do want more fun episodes like this with interesting sci-fi premises and a mystery element to them, all the while being comedically strong.

As always, let me know what you thought about this episode!

[linguistics-and-such]

Every linguist and their grandmother knows about the "thou"-"thee"-"ye"-"you" situation.

(In older English, "thou" was used as the singular subject, "thee" was used as the singular object, "ye" was used as the plural/formal singular subject, and "you" was used as the plural/formal singular object. Eventually, though, "thou", "thee", and "ye" faded into obscurity, and "you" became acceptable to use in the subject, object, singular, and plural.)

For centuries, people have been trying to find a solution to a certain linguistic gap in English. That is, there is no singular 3rd-person pronoun for referring to people animately and unambiguously. "It" is inanimate and can thus be perceived as dehumanising, and "they" can be confusing because it can be both singular and plural. (No hate to people who go by "it" or "they" - I'm just pointing out the linguistic issues with them.)

Since at least the 1800's, various educated people (linguists, lawyers, doctors, teachers, etc.) have been trying to find a solution to this linguistic gap by attempting to implement neologistic pronouns (they're now commonly known as "neopronouns" but, back then, they were usually called "epicene pronouns").

The attempt to introduce a new pronoun into the English language actually had a lot to do with early feminist movements. Historically, many people viewed a statement like "Everyone has to choose his own poison" as sexist (it is), and they viewed a statement like "Everyone has to choose their own poison" as grammatically incorrect (it isn't).

Neopronouns are making some headway in the English language (as well as in other languages, like French and Spanish) since the advancement of trans and non-binary discussions. But progress is slow in English, likely due to the fact that pronouns are considered a closed class of words in that language, as well as general social pushback towards trans and non-binary people. I have no doubt that at least one set of neopronouns will pass into common usage eventually, though I have no idea how long that will take.

In the meantime, I was made aware of a very interesting compromise from the podcast, Ling Thusiasm (episode 02, I believe: "Pronouns. Little words, big jobs"). The podcasters talked about the "thou"-"thee"-ye"-"you" situation I mentioned at the start of this post.

The podcasters said that, because "you" is now ambiguous, many makeshift plurals for it have been invented over the years, many of which are now words in their own rights. The most common ones I've come across are "youse" (possessive: "youse's") and "y'all" (possessive: "y'all's"). I'm from Australia (mate), and I constantly run into "youse" and "youse's." I also have friends from the USA, and many of them make liberal use of "y'all" and "y'all's". I've also seen/heard of "you'uns" (from "you" and "ones"), "yuys" (from "you" and "guys"), and "yinz" (not sure what that's from).

The podcasters suggested coming up with makeshift plurals of "they" in the same way, so "they" could be (mostly) singular, like "you" is now. This interested me because some of my linguist friends and I have previously come up with this exact idea.

So, this would be things like "theyse" (or "themse", though I think "theyse" is easier to pronounce), "th'all", "they'uns" (or "them'uns", which I think rolls off the tongue a bit better), "thuys", "thinz", etc.

We already have sort of a workaround for the ambiguity of "they", and that's popping in words like "both" and "all" to specify when we're talking about more than one person. For example, if I were talking about my non-binary friend who goes by "they", and I were talking about them giving cookies to three other people, I'd say something like "They gave them all cookies." If my non-binary friend were the one receiving the cookies from the other three, I'd say something like "They all gave them cookies."

But I think it would be cool to have an "official" plural or two of "they", since "you" has so many already. Plus, it'd be quicker to say "Th'all gave them cookies" or "Theyse gave them cookies" than "They all gave them cookies." Yes, pronouns are closed class in English, but that doesn't mean that members of that group can never change or come about. It just means that it's more difficult to change or invent members of that group than, say, a noun or a verb.

[nerves-nebula]

what made your first year of college so much worse than the second?

godddd where do i even start. Complaining goes under the cut cuz it’s too damn long.

8 hour studios 3 times a week that start at 8 AM and only break for lunch. one of the professors expected us to stand the entire time we were drawing and only sit when we went on break. plus homework for those studios, because each studio was a different foundational class. and on the days when you dont have those studios you got other foundational classes like art history and literature or something. you've got homework for all of these classes too and tests and everything.

and each studio being a different class is a huge issue and really frustrating as well. the classes are drawing, design and, like, basically a 3D class, right? where you use power tools and carve stuff and all that. But imagine you go to this school for painting or to make clothes, then the three foundational classes might just really bore and frustrate you. because you don't really feel like they're helping you gain any skills in your preferred major.

so you have all these artistic kids who want to do their best, being forced to do things they hate and being told it's to make us "more well rounded." (which dont get me wrong i understand, but that doesnt make it suck any less)

so all the art you make is painful to create, and you don't even like the result. but we knew what we signed up for, and the point is to last past first year so you can get into your major. thats the point for me, at least. so you just get what you can done, but i cant imagine what I would've done if i'd fallen behind even once.

And then my own personal hell- being in a new place and not knowing what to do or who to talk to or how to communicate ! So i was constantly stressed out in like a social way. idk if i vented about this here but i fell over in a fit of anxiety and hyperventilation in class multiple times first year. I straight up fell over at least twice and i had crying fits multiple times (with varying degrees of how quiet I was being, sometimes they don't even notice :D)

I was incredibly emotionally isolated and cried myself to sleep like every night. my only social interactions were at work because I'm very bad at socializing properly and making friends in class, and i was always too tired to go to any events. LUCKY for me I met a really cool friend while doing some student work and it was really nice and chill.

ANYWAY BACK TO THE STRESS. to give an example of the situation: our first homework for drawing class was to make this big ink master copy of a van gogh sketch, and it didn't have to be perfect, or even GOOD tbh, but regardless it took forever. and i spilled my ink on it which nearly led to a breakdown but instead i just laughed cause otherwise I'd go insane. the amount of podcasts and audiobooks i burned through that year just to keep myself sane was mind-numbing. i listened to, no joke, ALL of Well There's Your Problem, and i went back and listened to a lot of them more than once.

i was really lucky though, cause some other students had first projects that were like "bring in 50 drawings by next class" or "make a chair out of only cardboard that you can sit on without it collapsing" or something. and i never had a teacher that bad.

actually, my second semester design professor was really REALLY chill. He let me sleep in class if i finished the work so I spent a few hours in his class just chilling and sleeping fitfully (as in I was so stressed i would gasp and mutter myself awake, which really alarmed my classmates but i never got close enough to them to explain myself soooo they prolly just think something is wrong with me. which it is! oh well)

i can only speak for myself but i was basically working any moment i wasn't sleeping, eating, shitting, or showering. somehow other people made time to befriend each other and hang out and like, go to parties??? i dont know how. Frankly I don't even remember how i did what i did either, specifically I reached out to my college's mental health services and got on some medication for anxiety. I also somehow managed to write an essay for our student published thingy about how I wanted to kms and felt unsupported by mental health professionals lmao.

I have NO IDEA how i did any of that because this year i kept falling asleep for five hours in the middle of the day. my theory is that I got more done because I physically HAD TO STAY AWAKE. I COULD NOT ALLOW MYSELF TO FAIL.

I was so stressed out the first year that I often couldn't sleep without hugging my giant elephant stuffed animal or using it as a comforting weight on top of me. one morning i woke up hyperventilating and went to go cut a huge role of paper at like 6 AM because i was so worried about forgetting to cut the paper before i left before class at 8 AM.

so yeah, my theory is that since second year wasn't that insanely stressful, all those hours i spent eking out any artistic joy possible (making owl house comics, writing that essay, and painting my clothing) just to make sure i didn't kms were replaced instead with me just falling asleep at inopportune times, because I wasn't as scared that I wouldn't have time for my work.

OH MY GOD AND FIRST YEAR I GOT PUT IN TWO CONSECUTIVE GROUP PROJECTS WITH THIS ABSOLUTE MONSTER- but that could be its entire own post. suffice it to say that he had been reported multiple times for various things and one of my classmates recognized who i was talking about just from me vaguely complaining about how much i hated him.

anyway im sure there's even more that i forgot about but to be honest i think i've explained enough.

[mithliya]

when you said pretty privilege is getting raped/stalked, are you suggesting men are more likely to rape/stalk "pretty" women? no woman is "ugly" enough to not be stalked/raped smh. "pretty" women can and do make "ugly" women's life hell and there's only so much sympathy we can have during high school especially just because they're female. there's proof the "prettier" you are the more opportunities you get. we aren't talking about makeup pretty, we're talking "genetically blessed." i think "privilege" is too strong of a word but your response suggested it's HARDER being a pretty woman which is absolutely wrong. especially considering a lot of "ugliness" is disability and/or gnc traits.

nah i’m saying men regularly harass women they consider pretty, as in men considering a woman pretty is not a privilege at the end of the day. beauty is not an objective fact, it’s subjective.

anyways ppl online have told me i have “pretty privilege”, when growing up i was constantly bullied and physically abused for my appearance. one day i’m the “ugliest girl in school” and the next i’m put in a list of “hottest girls in school”, neither felt good and it just highlights to me that “pretty privilege” doesn’t exist bc “pretty” isn’t an actual definable group to begin with. at the end of the day my appearance was being valued more than me as a person and i was made to feel shitty either way.

my gf has a conventionally attractive face by her culture’s standards, minus her gender non-conformity and skin colour. but simply bc she’s butch & im not, i face a lot of sexual harassment that is quite foreign to her whereas she experiences a lot of casual homophobia due to being visibly a lesbian. because my skin colour is darker, i often face prejudices on that basis too. because she’s asian, she also faces prejudices that i dont face. because im brown, i face prejudices that she doesn’t face.

i can agree that different factors in one’s appearance can impact our experiences, factors such as weight, skin colour, race, and gender (non-)conformity. but to translate that into “pretty privilege” or even “pretty advantage” is beyond stupid in my eyes. it just doesn’t make sense to me to act like there’s a class of women that are objectively pretty & treated better bc of it vs a class of women that are objectively ugly and treated worse bc of it. what makes more sense is to say that there’s prejudices based on differing aspects of ppls appearances that primarily impact women, women being fatter or darker will often harm their job prospects for example. but beauty is subjective + women are considered ugly as we age which is also inevitable for us, there’s a reason this doesn’t impact men. the issue is women are constantly reduced to our appearances and we should be combating that instead of pretending there’s a systemic privilege to being “pretty”, whatever that means. the issue is that our appearance is valued over all else and this isn’t gonna be much of a privilege ultimately bc it always means our merits are overlooked and that we are being objectified. it is not a privilege to be objectified, whether u get positives out of it or not

[m1d-45]

OKAY once i’m done with the first quest (brain is very bad at letting me play video games it’s an issue) i’ll drop the uid because that gives me motivation to actually open the game and do shit!!!

now onto the scp thoughts: so. reader creates teyvat, fucks off to earth to take a nap, but picture this with me for a second: instead of eventually being born a regular human until you play genshin, there’s something a bit off about you from the beginning. you look human, sound and act human, but the world always seems to work in your favor even when it logically shouldn’t - the air around you warms up when it’s snowing so that you’re not too cold, obstacles seem to vanish when you walk so that your path isn’t interrupted, animals are calm and polite in your presence. pretty weird, but nothing worth alerting any supernatural government organizations about.

i have no clue what would tip off the scp foundation, BUT they take you in, designate you as a keter class because of how your “reality bending” abilities would easily serve to break you out. maybe they treat you fairly well, maybe not, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’ve been locked up and decided to be less than human because of something you don’t even understand.

you dream of another world, a world where you are free to be what you are. a bright world that feels like home, even though you don’t think you’ve ever been there before.

okay pretty prose moment from teddy is over you get isekai’d into teyvat and like. it could be imposter au but you’d be getting hunted down by the scp foundation anyways for breaching containment so it’s not like you’d be let off the hook if it wasn’t imposter au!

(also. it turns out there’s an archon class. this isn’t related to anything i just wrote but i thought it was cool) - teddy anon

reader but something is Off…. the world bending to your will without your knowing… ough..

similar to analog horror the scp entire… thing has a core place in my mind. i used to spend my free time just looking through the articles and ngl my favorite is that one machine that just constantly made weed /j

reader being keter is 100% accurate for what you described and i adore the “a home you’ve never been to” vibe but is like you to consider: thaumiel reader.

(hopefully i spelled that right-)

thaumiel reader who’s… like the very earth itself. it makes sense, they’re the one who made it, they’re one with the concrete walls and iron chains- maybe they’re miscategorized as keter because of the form they take, but- ok the best example i have is that ikea scp. the ikea is the scp but it has separate sentient like. things inside it right? it’s like that: you’re literally one with the earth, with everything on and in it, but you take ‘host’ as a humanoid.

all i’m thinking is all the damn paperwork it’ll take to try and 1) reclass reader as thaumiel because how to they know what’s a thaumiel anymore if the whole world is a box(referencing that one chart describing the differences in class)? 2) how do you even have a thaumiel class scp the size of the fucking planet?

luckily you seem benevolent enough, but the higher ups who know about you are always cautious when walking by your cell.

(also i don’t remember the archon class but i do remember the higher classes than thaumiel, do you have any sources for that-?)