#Blogger Laments

[soundlesslament]

Apparently the internet hates "The Acolyte", but after watching the first two episodes I still can't figure out why.

It has twins separated and fighting for different sides, a mystery, revenge, the word 'mekmek', neat alien designs, showcase of different Jedi powers, cool fight scenes...

What more do these people want?

[soundlesslament]

Ok, listen here. I have before said that Luke Skywalker fits the "magical boy" anime trope. I have used that exact terminology because yes, the power of friendship and love is how he thrives!

This means I am permanently frustrated by a part of the fandom who seems insistent on changing Luke into a typical adventure hero type. I have seen one too many a post and comment and article complaining about how the new movies or whatever other material don't portray Luke as the greatest Jedi master he supposedly is.

Except Luke was never portrayed as the strongest, best-est Jedi around. He is strong in the Force and has great potential, but ultimately succeeds only by being kind and trying to help everyone.

He didn't manage to destroy the Death Star by being the best pilot around. He did it by being a good pilot and because he had specifically made friends with some guy he hired at a sketchy cantina, who came back to help him.

He chose his friends over his Jedi training. He valued them over learning better skills. Of course, this ends up being the correct choice, because later on he could not have made it through without them, but he made the choice only out of friendship.

Luke doesn't defeat the Emperor by being stronger than him. He wasn't stronger than Emperor. But he loved his father and believed in him, and that alone made all the difference, and the Emperor lost - and lost because he was powerful but could not conceive that perhaps there are more valuable things than power. Palpatine, the antithesis of Luke, was the strongest but in the end he was alone, and that was his downfall.

At every turn, Luke Skywalker succeeds through the power of friendship and love. Ignoring this and acting like he is a typical hero who wins by being the strongest and most skilled is missing the point of the story.

It is also a disservice to the creativity of the movie and writers, who decided on an original protagonist rather than on tired tropes. There are not a lot of protagonists like Luke in the genre, especially not male ones, and I'm guessing this was many times as true back when the first Star Wars movie came out.

I guess I had the advantage of not watching the Original Trilogy until I was an adult; I have no nostalgia about it, and maybe that allows for a more accurate critical eye. Also, I am sure it's just a coincidence, but Luke Skywalker in the Sequel Trilogy fits the "disgruntled old mentor whose spirit is renewed after meeting the new young hero" trope, which is also very common in the Magical Girl genre.

Luke skywalker is so magical girl coded I can imagine him going hyaah! Through the power🌈 of friendship 💫 and love!💓 I will defeat you✨️ and he does the sailor moon transformation sequence and then does a LOVE💖 BEAM⚡️! through palpatine's chest and palpy bursts into a mess of bloody pulp

[unopenablebox]

having a rollicking good time browsing the blogspot-hosted weaving blogs of various middle-aged and elderly women

[soundlesslament]

I am a monster with no regrets.

[grimlock]

fun fact: if you put someone's url in "filtered post content" it's a way to mute them if you don't want to block someone but just don't care for their posts

[gildingthelilies]

12×02×23

i have to cancel on movie night tonight.

it's not a grave situation but it's definitely major enough that i have to ask him to reschedule and it's just so irritating

he'll probably understand but there's obviously the part of my head going "what if he doesn't", and i've just really been lookong forward to this so it's just frustrating that i have to leave campus

[soundlesslament]

Broke: Revan is a Sith.

Woke: Revan is a Jedi even in the dark side route, because all her life was sacrifice - nothing was done for her own gain but for the goal of protecting the galaxy, which could only be achieved through using bloody and cruel methods.

BESPOKE: Revan is neither a Sith nor a Jedi regardless of what route the player chooses. In fact, Revan stands in the middle as a representation of what force-sensitives could be if they weren’t bound by the two orders' polarized extremes. This ties in with Kreia's worries in the second game that the Force makes sensitives fight each other (to achieve balance between the extremes) and her admiration of Revan (who stands in actual balance). In this essay I will-

[soundlesslament]

I see this and raise you my cute ship headcanon that Malak always wears red because one time Revan distractedly complimented whatever red clothing item he was wearing and he never forgot it.

I like to think that Malak is a nickname that he got from Revan. It derives from Revan calling him "My Alek" which eventually became "Malek" which could also be spelled "Malak"

[ravingsofamadsoutherner]

Never Turn Down Dessert

Never Turn Down Dessert #Blog #Blogger #Blogging #Dessert #Lamentations #Loss #Covid #Friendship

“Life is short, eat dessert first.” –Unknown Two and a half years ago I sat at a little “choke and puke” joint. I don’t remember which one. I have several on my list of places to eat. I just remembered warm cherry cobbler and vanilla ice cream a-la-mode were on the menu. I remember turning down the opportunity. “Man, I’m tighter than a tick on a fat dog. Don’t think I could eat another bite.” I…

[soundlesslament]

Devs: “Well, we were going to kill him off.” All us players: “Yeah, but you didn’t.”

I too have read that Bao-dur was supposed to die during the game but because it released still unfinished, that part got cut. So nothing actually happens to him and we all have the most plausible of deniabilities to believe he is fine.

Personally, my theory is simply that he was in charge of managing the crew’s “visit” to Malachor from afar, should anything go wrong. That’s why he was seen giving instructions to his droid through holovid. See? Perfectly plausible. Contradict that, devs.

I want yalls theories.

What happened to Bao-Dur at the end of kotor 2??

Bc he is even missing when we go back to Telos when Nihilus is attacking there.

[autolenaphilia]

Transandrophobia isn’t real because misandry isn’t real. This is the basic truth of the matter.

The very structure of the word implies some kind of intersection of transphobia and misandry, which is impossible, because again misandry doesn’t exist. The phrase “transandrophobia” exists as a transmasc counterpart to transmisogyny, and it doesn’t work, because while misogyny is real, misandry/androphobia is not. The things that are described as “transandrophobia” which are actual instances of oppression are better explained as plain transphobia.

The antifeminism of transandrophobia theory

“Transandrophobia” theory often launders antifeminist concepts of misandry. Of course this is openly often denied. The defense is that transandrophobia doesn’t imply that misandry exists, but only describes transphobia directed at transmascs.

And it’s often disingenuous. I’ve come across numerous transandrophobia blogs that clearly believe in misandry. The very coiner of the word, says it’s caused by “the effects of irrational fears of masculinity and manhood“ (taking “androphobia” quite literally) which implies both the existence of misandry and also misogynistically dismissing women’s fears of men’s violence as irrational.

Of course they change the language around, using euphemisms for misandry. In fact transandrophobia is a clear evolution of the term “transmisandry.” Genderkoolaid and ey’s idea of “anti-masculism” that I criticized here is maybe the most obvious example of that on tumblr today.. The belief in some kind of systemic force that “negatively impacts men and masculine people on the basis of their manhood and/or masculinity.“ to quote genderkoolaid is as succinct a definition of misandry theory as any. And ey even outright admits that “antimasculism” is just another word for misandry. Other transandrophobia bloggers like the transunity blog outright use the word “misandry.”So for simplicity’s sake, I’m going to use “misandry” for whatever euphemisms transandrophobia people use, like “antimasculism”, “androphobia” or claims that “society hates men” or “there is a widespread irrational fear of men and masculinity.”

The use of feminist language like “patriarchy” common among transandrophobia people is either severely confused or outright dishonest. It’s a symptom of the terrible understanding of feminism on this site, as I lamented before. Patriarchy as a term that inherently implies male privilege, men are privileged for being men, not disadvantaged. Claiming the patriarchy oppresses men on the basis of their gender is a contradiction in terms. And belief in misandry is inherently misogynistic and anti-feminist.

How terms for systemic oppression actually work

Let’s however assume that the word “transandrophobia” just means “transphobia aimed at transmascs.” Then I don’t see why this word needs to exist. It contradicts most academic work on systemic oppression. New terms are generally not made just to describe “specific experiences of an oppression”. Instead they are created to describe meaningful intersections of different forms of oppression. Often these are intersections with misogyny, because that particular oppression affects about half the population. So misogynynoir describes an intersection of anti-blackness/racism and misogyny that black women experience, and lesbophobia describes an intersection of homophobia and misogyny that lesbians experience. And transmisogyny describes an intersection of misogyny and transphobia that trans women and transfems experience.

The lesbophobia example is especially pertinent to this discussion. The homophobia that gay men experience is often distinct from that lesbians experience, and homophobia against gay men is no minor prejudice, gay men have literally been murdered for being gay. Yet there is no “homoandrophobia” (to borrow an argument from this post by catgirlforeskin) and that’s because misandry/androphobia isn’t real. Men experience systemic oppression differently from women experiencing the same oppression, but that’s because of the absence of misogyny, not the existence of any misandry.

So a word like transandrophobia does imply an intersection between “androphobia/misandry”and transphobia. Otherwise it doesn’t have much reason to exist.

Misandry must affect all men in order to exist

I have seen claims that while “cis misandry” doesn’t exist, trans men and transmasc people are in fact oppressed for being men or masculine. And that’s how transandrophobia works

.

But that’s just transphobia. Misandry can only be real if it affects all men. Misogyny is a viable term because all women are oppressed for being women, even if they can also be privileged because of things like being cis, wealthy or white which balances out their oppression for being women (intersectionality is complex). I wouldn’t claim misogyny was real if it only affected a subset of women.

You can’t claim that men are oppressed for being men or being masculine, that it is some stigmatized gender or gender expression, when being a man and specifically a masculine man is what is expected of about half the population, and in fact men gain privilege for the successful performance of masculinity.

It’s true that trans men and other transmascs are systemically oppressed, and do indeed experience severe pushback if they express their manhood or try to transition in a transmasculine direction. But that’s because they are trans. Transfems experience a similar oppression for expressing their womanhood or trying to transition in transfeminine direction. That’s why the word transphobia exists.

Let’s make an example of a common bit of rhetoric among transandrophobia people, and see how it is all explained entirely by transphobia. Transandrophobia people talk about some general “hatred of testosterone” as part of transandrophobia, often dishonestly conflating transfems expressing their dysphoria with transphobic rhetoric about how testosterone ruins transmasc bodies.

But any idea about society hating testosterone fail to account for why the testosterone flowing through bodies deemed naturally male is seen as okay. In fact being “high-t” is seen as a positive in a man. It’s not even a prejudice against medical testosterone, being “low-t” is a fad disorder that cis men can easily get testosterone prescriptions for. And trying to lower your “natural testosterone” levels is something that’s actively hindered and gatekept, something I’ve experienced. I waited three years to get on t-blockers due to medical gatekeeping. In my country Sweden getting your balls removed legally and thus permanently lower your t-levels is something you have to petition the government for, something I’m trying to do.

Any kind of theorizing about a misandristic hatred of testosterone can’t explain this. It’s only so-called “cross-sex hormones” that are seen as bad, not testosterone in itself. And this is entirely explained by transphobia, not misandry.

It’s of course true that men are oppressed, but it’s never on the basis of being men. People who try to argue for misandry often use (often appropriatively) the struggles of oppressed men and try to argue they are oppressed because they are men. And transandrophobia theory is no different.

“Deserving a word”

The attitude among the transmascs who support transandrophobia theory seems to be “transfems have transmisogyny to describe their oppression, we deserve a word too.” Except again, transfems don’t have the term transmisogyny because we are very special girls who need a special word for our oppression, it exists because it describes the intersection of misogyny and transphobia we experience. It exists for the same reason as lesbophobia does, to describe an intersection between misogyny and another oppression. Gay men are not disadvantaged compared to lesbians because they “only” have the more general term “homophobia” while lesbians have the more specific word “lesbophobia.” And I don’t think transmascs would be disadvantaged if nobody accepted transandrophobia as a tern for their experiences.

You don’t need a specific word to talk about your experiences with transphobia, just as gay men don’t need a world like lesbophobia to talk about their experiences with homophobia. You can just talk about them, and use the word “transphobia” as a label for it.

And sometimes acknowledging that our experiences of oppression can be similar is useful for solidarity and community building. All trans people are negatively affected by transphobia, and that is the real “transunity.” theory.

Don’t end up like nothorses who once unironically listed “Misgendering over the phone,“ as an example of transandrophobia/transphobia only affecting transmascs.

Words exist in a context

Transandrophobia clearly exists as some transmasc counterpart to the transfem transmisogyny. It was even more obvious when the word was “transmisandry.” Words always exist in a context, and is often built by binaries. How someone who believes it defines transandrophobia does say a lot about how they define transmisogyny.

I’ve already described how if transandrophobia merely means “transmascs specific experiences with transphobia” it doesn’t have much reason to exist. But it also by implication diminishes and reduces transmisogyny. If transandrophobia only means “the transphobia experienced by transmasculine people”, transmisogyny is reduced by implication to only meaning “transphobia experienced by transfeminine people.” It’s another symptom of how tumblr discourse is uninterested in acknowledging misogyny, and in this case that misogyny is intersecting with transphobia in transmisogyny.

And well, if transmisogyny means “an intersection between transphobia and misogyny experienced by transfems” it does imply that transandrophobia also should describe an intersection, for why else does it exist. And we are back to it describing an imaginary intersection between transphobia and misandry, a misogynistic and antifeminist idea.

Who gets to define their own oppression?

Of course I am a trans woman, and I will of course get accused of hating transmascs, and robbing them of their ability to define their own oppression.

I would be more sympathetic to this argument, if transandrophobia theorists didn’t keep on constantly defining transmisogyny as the result of misandry. It is common in these circles for transmascs to reject any tme/tma distinction too. Literally going “I got mistaken for a trans woman once, that means I’m affected by transmisogyny.” There is absolutely zero respecting transfems rights to define their own oppression in transandrophobia circles, so why should I respect theirs?

Seriously, the “transmisogyny is actually misandry” claim just keeps happening. Genderkoolaid did it, the transunity blog too, and this dude who I literally found by browsing the “transmisogyny” tag spewing his misandry nonsense.

The problem with “transmisogyny is misandry, actually” is that misandry isn’t real, men are privileged for being men. Transfems experience oppression because we reject being men and performing masculinity. Men are in fact our oppressor class. When transmisogynists talk derisively about “men who wear dresses and say they are women”, they aren’t saying that being a man is bad (in fact they are often men themselves), it’s that “being amab and rejecting masculinity and manhood and claiming to be a woman is bad.” Its an intersection of transphobia and misogyny.

“Transandrophobia” is seldom just talking about the difficulties of being transmasc, it wants to redefine how transfems think about their oppression as well. And it does so in misgendering and transmisogynistic ways.

The transandrophobia theorists generally ignore the existence of transmisogyny, especially in queer communities. In fact it often implies or outright states that transfems are privileged in the trans/queer communities for being women or feminine, which is bizarre. In reality, Transmisogyny is rife in queer spaces, with “crazy trans woman syndrome” being common.

And it’s not like transandrophobia discourse is immune to that particular syndrome. Transmisogyny-exempt privilege dynamics remain very much in play. Transfems tend to get accused of being transandrophobic. The accusations are framed as “lateral aggression” not oppression, although the tone of these posts suggests “lateral aggression” is another polite euphemism word swap game like misandry for “androphobia.”

It feels like the antifeminist, and specifically anti-transfeminist roots of the whole transandrophobia idea coming to the forefront.

[papasmoke]

2023 tumblr controversies to look out for

TumblaRouchite: An insular group of mutuals who have most of this website blocked independently speedrun the ideological development of the political theorist turned cult leader Lyndon LaRouche via the hyperanalyzation of children's cartoons.

HunterxHunter: Hunter Biden's 12 year old Tumblr account is discovered and it's filled with nothing but meth-fueled orgy selfies, reblogs of fan art of him fucking himself, poetry lamenting how fucked up he is, and a series of superwholock shipping war posts from 2013.

MODS! MODS! MODS!: Tumblr introduces it's own version of forum moderators, every abuse inflicted on forum users at the height of forum culture is unleashed upon Tumblr. Sixpenceee uses a fake identity to gain mod status and seeks revenge on everyone who got mad at her for having a child slave.

All Or Nothing: Tumblr users realize that they can evade the current adult content filter by heavily tinting their photos green. A gofundme to manufacture and cheaply distribute green light filter sunglasses for easy viewing is set up by a popular blogger. It raises $170k.

Human Pet Resources Guy: TheCyberSmith is revealed to be a long time Tumblr employee.

[toldentops]

On the topic of “reblogs>likes”, I find that I don’t reblog art with these “out of spite and hatred in my heart” or whatever the fuck, I’m just kind of sad that this is a phenomenon in the first place. Like, as an artist, I absolutely understand that reblogs do count, especially depending on who reblogs it. But also as someone who used to obsess over the numbers on notes and get frustrated about something that I put effort into not getting attention, you kind of have to learn to realize that a) it’s not healthy to seek validation all the time from people on the internet and b) post what you like to post, and you will attract people that will reblog your posts eventually. Sometimes a post will just get happen to get seen by a popular blogger and reblog it, sometimes not, and you are not “owed” their reblog because they’re popular, which is another argument I’ve seen where people think they’re obligated to reblog their art. Sometimes it just depends on the content or the fandom and you have no control over it and that’s Fine. Some art I like enough to reblog, some art I’ll just leave a like, and that’s not a measure of how “good” the art is. And everybody operates their blog differently and nobody should be obligated to do one thing or another. And before anyone brings up “relying on social media for business” I absolutely do understand as someone who does business online, but you’re going to be getting attention primarily from people who already like and follow your art, and from my experience and seeing other people, lamenting on why your posts don’t get notes and if your art is good enough for attention is just going to drive people away. Sorry for being blunt. Have confidence in your art. Idk I wish there was more nuance about this topic but most talk about it annoys me anyways post over

[soundlesslament]

Reblogging from my TS4 blog and tagging @for-the-love-of-starwars who wanted to see my KOTOR sims. I'm not the best at screenshots, RIP.

I wanted to make sims of my Revan and Exile (+Malak) from the KOTOR games. Spent an entire day looking - and failing to find - all the CC I needed, then pulled a "Screw it, I'll do it myself" and learned how to recolor items.

Behold my KOTOR sims and my first attempts at Sims CC ever. I am really proud at how the Exile's armor came out, and Revan's undersuit (which also has an underwear version based on the game). I also made Revan's mask, and Malak's suit, jaw piece, and head tattoos.

Most were recolors of game items, but I also recolored CC by @puna-sims (mask), @lady-moriel (jaw piece), and @natalia-auditore (hooded cloak). All mesh credit goes to the original creators.

[horsegirl]

but who would hear the blogger’s lament except the silent html of its post

[delawaredetroit]

Worst part about your posts regarding how interactions between Izuku and Toga could have gone is that there is nothing of the like you are describing anywhere.

I read your posts and I want to read them interact like that but nothing. Canon is a lost cause and fanfics might as well be a desert where I need water.

Curse you Bayle Blogger for having posts too good.

That would be why I was lamenting that missed potential that was Izuku and Toga's character dynamic, yes. Because it wasn't explored in the manga despite all of their parallels even through Ochako who was the glue connecting the two of them in canon. If there were good fanfics that explored their dynamic more (as well as Ochako and Toga) I'd love to read them.

Sorry, anon. As a consolation, if you want to read a manga where the teenage yandere with systemic social critiques who wants to consume/become their narrative foil gets more focus and an interesting relationship with the protagonist, may I recommend you Mairimashita! Iruma-kun. You may like whatever is going on with Amy Kiriwo.