#I don’t need to justify myself to them…

[what-even-is-thiss]

please look into transfeminism. trans men aren't oppressed for being men, they're oppressed for being trans.

Trans men face a specific type of oppression for being trans men. Certain types of men do in fact face oppression that intersects with their manhood. Men of color for example often have specific challenges and dangers specifically because they are men of a specific ethnicity.

There are challenges that trans men experience that trans women don’t experience and vice versa. I’m not trying to erase the experiences of trans women. I do not claim to speak on behalf of them and what they experience. I do however look around me and see my own oppression for what it is. I see the challenges I face that others who are not trans men do not experience in the same way that I do.

Intersectional feminism is supposed to have the nuance within it to look at what we face at where our race, class, gender, and sexuality intersect. Not deny that the intersection we sit at even exists.

I do not try to tell trans women what they are experiencing and I would very much like it if I was afforded the same courtesy. For the most part I find that they do. For the most part I find that transfems and transmascs are excellent allies to each other and some of the best and most impactful friendships of my life have been with transfeminine people who I stood with in solidarity.

However some people, transfem or not, for whatever reason, do not grant me that kindness. They preach to me about what I am experiencing. Were they there with me at the women’s clinic when I was being tested for cancer and nearly turned away because of my gender? I don’t think that they were. Were they there when I was harassed in public at a crowded gas station for using the restroom? I don’t think that they were. Were they there when I was bullimic and trying to starve myself to make my breasts smaller to no avail? I don’t think that they were. I don’t think they’ve lived in my skin and seen how other people treat me and what things they try very hard to put in my head and do to me specifically because I’m transmasc.

I know being a trans woman is hard. I know that they experience things I don’t understand and don’t live through. I also don’t think that experience erases trans men’s particular issues. I’m not even trying to put a name to these issues because trying to do that at all seems to piss people off and I don’t need a name for it for people to recognize that our specific struggles exist.

Your trauma and/or the feelings you have on behalf of others are real and understandable. That doesn’t however justify trying to tell another marginalized group you’re supposed to be on the same side as what they are and are not experiencing.

Frankly instead of fighting about who is oppressed more we should be fighting for our rights and also making out.

[hxhhasmysoul]

Are we now policing what people get moved by "using a formal tone when discussing a specific topic". The response is spot on, I dare say. I'm not sure what age group is the most represented in the user base but it doesn't matter. Both writers and readers hone their taste and thus their preferred writing style throughout life at their own pace.

What may be banal to you, OP, may be novel and eye opening to others as, and I will allow myself to say something truly obvious and banal, they are at a different point in their art appreciation journey and your experiences, journey and context* are not universal. 

There is no shame in being moved by art, any art. That's what art is for, to move, to exist in that moment when it's perceived by others. While OP may have devoted more time in their life to acquaint themselves with less popular titles, not everyone has and there is no shame in that either. To make some more banal observations:

We all have only so much time and we prioritise it how we need or in ideal situations want to.

As long as we’re alive, our relationship with art will morph. 

Outside of western canon I will mention the Pillow Book by Sei Shounagon. It’s a work of aesthetics as it is a work of meaning. I don’t find all the insights in it deep but I find the work supremely beautiful and enjoyable purely as an aesthetic experience and then there’s the added level of meaning. I read some other nikki and they also had this aesthetised quality, though Pillow Book hits different for me because I subjectively feel the author much more than the others. 

As someone who beta reads as a hobby, I can share my experience of that. Editing, for me, is an exercise in removing my ego and trying to best serve the author and their work. That means meeting them where they’re at, helping them pull out the most out of the style they currently use even if it’s not to my personal taste. Recently I was beta reading for a zine and one fic just felt like it wanted to go the full aesthetic route. Like it needed to become this short vivid snapshot full of descriptions that are there more to paint a picture than to convey ideas. Some of it was purely beautiful and moving in that sense and there was no deeper meaning to it apart from the fact that beauty was being experienced by coming in contact with the surface level of the text. And I’m sure not everyone experienced it the same, not everyone resonated with this kind of beauty enough to have an experience at all. But some did and that’s a job well done. To continue my banal insights, no art is for everyone and art that is not for us has committed no crime, we do not need to justify our disinterest. 

Another experience I will share is of there being a period in my life of working with small film festivals, reviewing films and watching like 80% of what was being released in my country regardless of how niche it was. Including watching quite a lot of so-called “arthouse” cinema and indie films. What I’ve learned from that is: “rare” means “rare” ; it has no bearing on quality. Some of those texts* were truly interesting on many levels. Some of them were: I went to film school and read philosophy 101. But while I found the latter tedious, especially after seeing so many of them, I know others resonated with them. To each their own.

In my country secondary school is this semi-prison, where I was locked for 6-9h a day with the same people without much variety, because I was assigned to a class which was made up of particular people. And I remember there being cliques based on interest and in those cliques there were these internal rules who was looked down on and why. Some of that was based on art (in the widest sense of the word) people enjoyed. Things like: we’re all listening to this music now, reading these works now, watching these films and those who don’t, those who don’t know them, those who don’t see how great and deep they are? Those are the other, the lesser, the unwashed and uneducated masses who “keep latching onto writing that has the superficial signifiers of depth and quality while lacking them on a deeper structural level“. Those who don’t understand and are unfit or too lazy** to understand. 

Some of this mentality continued into higher education.

What the two experiences I described above, and several others, gave me was the freedom to thankfully mentally leave my secondary and higher education and move on with my life. 

Tumblr users yearn for good writing; well used language that conveys a meaningful message. 

I will also allow myself to communicate my point in a more understandable manner, as formal and bitchy passive-aggressive and condescending seems to be the tone of this discussion. 

The fuck you know what “Tumblr users yearn for” or consider as “good writing”. Citation fucking needed on both these fucking claims. You want to do an understated “ad academia” with this “deeper structural level” shit?  Where’re your statistical analysis bitch (gender agnostic use) of “Tumblr user yearnings” and the corresponding literary analysis of examples of what they perceive as good writing mapped to the “yearning” statistics. What methodology did you use to come to these conclusions? What was your framework? May I chance a guess that it was your subjective observation of a tiny snippet of Tumblr that you experience in your daily usage of the site filtered by your bias to see only the examples that confirm your opinions? 

__________________

*I identify as a linguist, contexts is everything, everything is text

**see point one in my list of banal thoughts above, plus fuck me classist and ableist much. maybe a little intersectional leftism to spice up your analysis, some stepping beyond your comfort zone, expanding that methodology?

Tumblr users yearn for good writing; well used language that conveys a meaningful message. And yet your average tumblr user's idea of "good" writing is very secondhand. They know roughly what it looks like, what it feels like, but not really what it is. So they keep latching onto writing that has the superficial signifiers of depth and quality while lacking them on a deeper structural level

Just think of the prose that make tumblr users say "these lines go hard". All the poetry that tens of thousands of users treat like the most moving thing they've ever read. So much of it is nothing more than excessively elaborate and ornate writing (often with some crude Bathos thrown in) used to communicate ideas that are painfully banal or plain incoherent. Juvenile word spittle shaped in the mould of half remembered quotes from Shakespeare or Melville or Milton that most of this site just eats up because they don't care for any media beyond pulp-quality commercial works and the fanfiction derived from them.

We don't even need to touch on the painfully Anglocentric nature of this site's userbase because it isn't just ignorant of media in other languages, but of most works in English itself. And there's little point blaming the US* education system because even confined to the chauvinistically narrow body of work placed within the accepted "Western Canon", it's not difficult to find writing that "goes" much "harder" than Seven Deadly Sins Squidward

*where the majority of this site's userbase is from

[katt1281]

got my first negative comment on my timeloop fic…not to be dramatic but I never want to write again rn :] They said everything in the latest chapter was ooc and it’s a huge blow to my confidence as a writer honestly! Why the hell do people feel the need to give ‘constructive’ criticism when I didn’t ask for it…just leave me alone god I’m doing this for free and for fun, not to meet your expectations. If you don’t like how a fic is going then tap the fuck out, don’t stick around and tell me that an essential aspect of the plot sucks. Literally criticizing the main thing I can’t change. If I were to change it to their liking, 1. It would be a different fic entirely 2. It would also be a blank document, because I don’t want to/know how to write that fic. Anyways. Good morning

[r0semultiverse]

I’m just gonna say it, the newer generations (yes even that one other trans/nonbinary person you think would never hurt you) are way too comfortable pedojacketing their former friends/partners. Just because someone hurt you or you didn’t like the way they acted around you, doesn’t mean they’re a pedo or some shit. I’m tired of seeing this happen to other younger trans folks and I’m tired from having gone through it myself with younger nonbinary folks. It’s always the younger folks too it feels like. You need some reason to try to “cancel” someone even though you have no evidence and no case whatsoever because you would rather be in control and be angry than face your own sadness and sit with your discomfort at a situation that doesn’t require any public outcry!

[elisedonut]

thinking again about how i think Percy yapping about the tournament was a bid for connection and specifically that if someone actually had talked to him talked to him and asked about it with interest he would have spilled info about it

Percy cleared his throat significantly and looked down toward the end of the table where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting. “ You know the one I’m talking about, Father.” He raised his voice slightly. “The top- secret one.” Ron rolled his eyes and muttered to Harry and Hermione, “He’s been trying to get us to ask what that event is ever since he started work. Probably an exhibition of thick-bottomed cauldrons.”

Yeah Ron he wants someone to ask because he wants to yap!! He wants to tell you and you keep snubbing him!!

Which is why i think in a soulmate au Colin knows far more info about it than he's supposed to because the moment the words 'top-secret' left Percy's mouth Colin was asking with such earnest curiosity that Percy immediately was like

'Ok so don't tell anyone remember top-secret but-'

if he really didn't want to say anything about it he never would have mentioned it at all (again look at how he was in COS about Penny) and especially not multiple times and even getting louder when he brings it up giving his siblings multiple chances to ask about it.

like i could see him teasing a bit and going all "Oh- i don't know i'm really not supposed to say anything-"

but he's going to spill if given the opportunity at least to people he cares about he just wants the attention the connection of it

[maxdibert]

So, just because you and your friends can’t respond to arguments with any real substance because, let’s be honest, you’ve probably never read more than two actual books in your lives (your “favorite books” say everything about your lack of cultural depth) and the only thing you know how to do is accuse me of racism, pedophilia, using AI, and running smear campaigns or hate blogs just to discredit me… that’s not my fault.

Like, darling, calling someone a racist just because you don’t like them and need to defame them doesn’t make them a racist. Where’s the evidence? In your dumbass imagination? Meanwhile, what is well-documented—literally everywhere—is how you and your little crew keep excusing, justifying, and whitewashing abuse just for the sake of your weird fetishes. Now that’s fucking problematic.

But since you’re so fascinated with my life, let me set the record straight, just so next time you try to spread lies, this version is out there:

• My account is a space where I say whatever the fuck I want. Sometimes I’m joking, sometimes I’m dead serious. When I call you classist scum for sanctifying abusers? Not a joke. When I call you bigoted trash for mocking people’s appearances? Not a joke. When I say that falsely accusing someone of being a racist or a pedophile is defamation and an actual crime? Not a joke. And of course, when I call out how you excuse and minimize abuse depending on how much you like the victim? Yeah, still not a joke.

• I wish I were the one sending myself anons. Sorry that only your fellow rich-boy lovers write to you, but unfortunately I’ve gotten messages from people telling me to die, to throw myself down the stairs, out the window, wishing I’d get raped or beaten. But you don’t care, right? Because you only care about harassment when it happens to people you like. If someone you don’t like is publicly humiliated? Doesn’t bother you at all. You’re so ethically consistent. And no, girl, obviously I’m not sending myself those 300+ unanswered messages. Let’s not flatter ourselves.

• Why do I answer? To show you how dumb you are! And no, I don’t use AI, lol but if you want to believe that it’s not my problem. Believe whatever you want.

• I have a double degree in Law and Political Science. Plus two master’s degrees, because without the Bar Master’s you literally can’t practice law in court. I’ve said this multiple times, if you’d done even the bare minimum of research, you’d know. And yes, I love crime fiction. Shocking, I know. Not mutually exclusive.

And don’t worry, I can call you names and dismantle your bullshit arguments. Multitasking isn’t that hard. And by the way, kinda weird how you’re calling me “obsessed” when you’ve just admitted people are dying to know details about my personal life. So who’s obsessed, really? Me? Or the people creating blogs about me? Or the ones constantly name-dropping me? Funny how one of those freaks is part of your little friend group too.

Now I’ve got a question, because I think I have the right to ask:

Why are you all so disgustingly classist and so hellbent on defending abusive rich kids? Why do you know so little about social issues yet talk about politics like you’ve studied anything more than four TikToks? Why do you pretend to care about discrimination when you don’t even know the basics of Marxism or structural inequality? Why do you think you’re right about anything when you can’t even grasp the most basic reading on power structures? And most importantly—again—why are you so classist, and why do you feel the need to whitewash, justify, and romanticize oppressive, abusive rich boys? Turning them gay doesn’t magically make them less problematic. Just saying.

Thank You 🙏🏼

Hottie do NOT try debating Maxdibert it’s like talking to a wall. A wall that thinks it’s better than you and has terrible takes

Debate is my forte, though 😔😔

But I get what you mean. I know when things get silly and stop being a debate (not that it really is in the first place when they jump on my dick in a disrespectful way, by telling me I have no intelligence and need to wash my mouth out with bleach 😭😭). Insulting people personally is a good way to have lost a debate regardless.

[portrait-of-a-moron]

There doesn’t have to be an audience for your art your art is for yourself!!!! Be self indulgent!!! Draw the character no one likes!!!!! Write fanfiction of a show no one watched!!!!

Allow yourself to just make stuff for you!!!!!!!!!!

[mylove-thresher]

I have an idea ahh thresher

[mars-ipan]

(copy/pasting this last paragraph bc i literally hit the mobile image limit tumblr when i get you:)

also. i think chiaki wants in one day after seeing them. nagito is Immensly upset about this but keeps his composure . because now hajime is his knees and that's fine too.. i hink chiaki's trying to be careful to not dirty but hajimes like "u cant garden right if ure too scared of getting kinda dirty! god made dirt and dirt dont hurt ^o^" (this is also how he justifies eating slightly dirted from dropping food. i mean he is a farmboy i dont doubt he wouldnt od that.) LOLL toodles ^w^

—————————

OKAY. so tumblr hates fun and glitched this ask out so i couldn’t answer it but i do not care i Will Answer It.

@spinecurlingmice (@ing you so u get the notif) i could kiss you on the mouth MWWWAH this is gorgeous and lines up so well with things i already have in mind for priest au. literally everything here fits into the canon i have in mind it’s perfect. i’ve been wanting to do more worldbuilding and such but i get really tired (lots of research…. lots and lots of googling) and you’ve done such an important thing for me by finding incredible plant symbolism. mwwah mwah mwah thank youuuu <333 obsessed with a lot of this but this post is long as hell already so it’s tags time

[ihauntyoursocks]

*staring at a corkboard filled with red wires, illegible writing, and printed out images*

I need to. explain why they make sense and are the best.

They’re like one of the most popular ships in the fandom.

I NEED TO EXPLAIN. FOR ME. SHUT UP.

[please-picturemeintheweeds]

..

[fingertipsmp3]

If anyone here keeps a reading/book journal what do you dooo. I feel like I’ve tried multiple options and none of them have really been perfect

[bunnyinvanilla]

imagine soft bunny girl wanting to play a silly little prank on sugar daddy!dilf john price by paying for the check. only an harmless little prank, nothing serious, right?

not for him. as an old fashioned gentleman, he wouldn’t take that well. he’d never let you pay for a single thing, you’re his sugar baby after all (his unconventionally too young girlfriend)

let’s say you’re on a date. restaurant, sweet treat break, anything you’d like, and when you’re done, you stand up in your frilly little skirt, glossed lips, strawberry and vanilla perfume that swirls around him when you lean down to kiss him on the corner of his mouth, right above that mustache you go crazy for.

“be right back sir, lady needs” you use the bathroom excuse, he gruffs out a “aight doll” but instead of heading to the toilet, you secretly go pay. innocent, naive little bunny, you think he’s gonna laugh at that, find it hilarious.

little does he know, you slip to the front and quickly pay the bill, before slipping to the toilet.

but after you actually hop to the bathroom, he stands up. broad shoulders, straight, imposing stance that exudes confidence, pure masculinity that stretches like leather with every step he takes, a cigar that’s not lit yet hanging from his mouth.

he doesn’t say a word, leisurely takes his wallet off the back pocket of his expensive suit jacket and proceeds to hand the card to the waiter, who, cluelessly, just smiles at him,

“the bill has already been paid, sir”

john blinks, once, then twice, maybe his ears are starting to play on him, given his seasoned age. he’s not sure he’s heard that right. so he mutters a rough “ ‘scuse me?”

“yes, the lady who’s here with you paid earlier”

those words feel wrong in his head, unwelcome. he wants to spit them out, but he’s always a man of undeterred and outmost control, composure. only the way his jaw clenches underneath his thick beard, salt and pepper like the mixed thoughts running in his mind, says otherwise.

he doesn’t how how long he remains still like that, buff muscles somehow becoming thicker, building a stonelike wall that prevents the boiling fire within him to flow outside. unmoving, like the endless times spent eyeing the target from afar, waiting like a statue for the perfect moment to bounce on them.

feigned stoicism and broodiness decor his mature face, as he tucks his wallet back inside his pocket with more strength that before — he nods to the waiter, and waits for you outside. when you come back, careless, sugary bunny that hops close to her brown bear, unaware of the way she’s offended his sense of manliness, you grab his hand with both of yours, smiling sweetly, blinking your long lashes. “we can go sir”

“what did you do, doll?” his rough tone should’ve made you halt, but you, sweet soul, think that his usual half, lazy smile is going to appear on his mustache. you shrug, like it’s nothing, really, giggling playfully soft.

“treated you for once,”

he’s gonna find it funny, you thought.

but he doesn’t.

“did i give you permission to do that?”

your smile falters. you blink, bunnies are slow in their movements when they’re processing their surroundings. but then, they haste.

“what? oh, no, but i just wanted to pay for once. it was a j—“

“get in the car, now.”

oh no. you hope you didn’t ruin your date with your little prank. it was supposed to be harmless, just a mere little thing to take him off guard. but—

“it’s fine, you always pay, sir, i thought you’d find it funny that i paid for once” you try to justify yourself, but he doesn’t laugh. his characteristic authority and intimidating nature comes out, a second skin that fits him perfectly.

“i said get in the car, doll, don’t make me repeat myself again, angel”

and when you do arrive home, you don’t even have time to take off your heels. you’ve always been a good girl, obedient, well mannered. you never disobeyed him once.

he never had to punish you for anything.

you squint when he pats his thigh, sitting on the edge of your bed. the rustling of his leather belt being unbuckled. manspreading his legs, he invites you.

”how much did you pay?” his voice could cut on stone, deep, low and husky.

you almost shiver, poor bunny, you keep your eyes down, fidgeting with your hands,

“and don’t lie to me, sweetheart. i can check your account.”

your mumble is almost a mute one as you whisper ”sixty, sir”

his hand looks large, heavy, you knows it’s gonna leave red marks on your butt, as red as your flushing cheeks. ”good. gonna keep count until half of it, come here, princess, thirty spanks, and then you’re gonna be my good girl all over again. understood?”

“but—“

“not mad at you, princess. you’re still my good girl. you didn’t mean to misbehave, daddy knows that. but actions have consequences, angel, even if it was well meant and intentioned, now,”

he patted his thigh again, and you swallowed, docile eyes downturned.

“don’t make me wait, have to put those money back in your account”

[digitaldiseas3]

fighting demons today

[fierykitten2]

Pokémon fans don’t understand that “event-exclusive” means that Wake and Leaves can’t (and shouldn’t be at least until the next time they appear in a game that isn’t SV) be found in the game outside events part 8000000000000000

[lucielovekj]

I loathe how much people struggling w hygiene is such a sticking point in these conversations, how it’s like one of the most known and common symptoms of basically every mental illness and yet it stalls literally every conversation asking people to not actively abuse us for being mentally ill.

I’m lucky, during those times I’ve always been able to shower and dress myself when I’ve needed to, I’ve never been forced to actually go anywhere like that…but people act like someone being so miserable and so detached from themselves that they can’t even bring themselves to perform basic self care is 1. A personal attack on them which they’re justified in retaliating for, 2. A personal choice they’re intentionally making and 3. Something which makes someone less of a human being and less deserving of compassion and respect.

Like yeah standing behind someone in line at Walmart who smells funky isn’t fun, but I promise you whatever they’re going through that’s caused it is a million times worse and harder than the 30 seconds of mild, escapable discomfort you felt. I promise you they know they’re not doing great, they’re absolutely sorry, they definitely feel bad about it, you don’t need to make it worse. They don’t wanna be that in that place any more than you do. It costs nothing to just have some compassion for them.