#Indigenous health care matters

[harmonyhealinghub]

The Crucial Need for Indigenous Health Care: Honouring Cultural Identity and Overcoming Disparities

Shaina Tranquilino

October 5, 2023

Indigenous communities around the world have rich cultural traditions spanning thousands of years. Yet, these communities often face significant health disparities compared to non-Indigenous populations. Addressing this imbalance requires recognizing the importance of Indigenous health care, not only as a means to improve well-being but also as a way to honour their unique cultural identity. In this blog post, we will explore the significance of Indigenous health care and highlight the steps necessary to bridge the gap in healthcare access and outcomes.

Preserving Cultural Identity:

Indigenous people possess distinct knowledge systems regarding wellness, healing practices, and medicinal plants that are deeply rooted in their culture and ancestral wisdom. By incorporating traditional healing methods into mainstream healthcare services, we can foster an environment that respects and preserves their cultural identity. This integration enables Indigenous individuals to feel more comfortable seeking medical assistance while ensuring their treatment aligns with their beliefs and values.

Holistic Approach:

Indigenous health care emphasizes holistic approaches to well-being, considering physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects as interconnected elements of one's overall health. Traditional healers or medicine people play a vital role in delivering culturally appropriate care by addressing not only symptoms but also underlying causes of illnesses. Incorporating these holistic approaches into mainstream healthcare can enhance patient-centred care models for all populations.

Overcoming Health Disparities:

Health disparities faced by Indigenous communities are multifaceted, stemming from historical trauma, social determinants of health, limited access to quality healthcare facilities, discrimination within the healthcare system, and inadequate funding for Indigenous-specific programs. Recognizing these barriers is crucial in designing policies and interventions aimed at reducing such inequities.

Culturally Competent Healthcare Providers:

To deliver effective Indigenous health care, it is essential to train healthcare providers on culturally competent practices. Culturally competent care acknowledges diverse perspectives and ensures patients' cultural beliefs and practices are respected. By fostering empathy, understanding, and inclusivity among healthcare professionals, we can cultivate an environment where Indigenous patients feel comfortable seeking care and have their unique needs met.

Collaboration and Community Engagement:

Engaging Indigenous communities in the decision-making process regarding their own health is paramount. Collaboration between governments, local authorities, healthcare providers, researchers, and Indigenous leaders can help identify community-specific health challenges and develop tailored interventions. Active involvement of Indigenous peoples in designing healthcare policies ensures that solutions are culturally appropriate and sustainable.

Investing in Infrastructure:

Improving infrastructure within Indigenous communities is essential to enhance access to quality healthcare services. This includes increasing the number of clinics, hospitals, and healthcare professionals within these areas while prioritizing culturally sensitive environments that respect traditional healing practices. Additionally, improving transportation systems and telehealth initiatives can bridge geographical barriers faced by remote communities.

Recognizing the importance of Indigenous healthcare goes beyond addressing disparities; it is about honouring diverse cultures, preserving ancestral knowledge, and ensuring equitable access to quality healthcare for all. By valuing holistic approaches to well-being, investing in infrastructure development, promoting cultural competence among healthcare providers, and engaging with Indigenous communities directly, we can take significant strides towards achieving health equity for Indigenous populations worldwide. Only through collective efforts can we forge a path towards a future where every individual's right to good health is upheld without compromising their cultural identity.

[sapphia]

USA please listen to me: the price of “teaching them a lesson” is too high. take it from New Zealand, who voted our Labour government out in the last election because they weren’t doing exactly what we wanted and got facism instead.

Trans rights are being attacked, public transport has been defunded, tax cuts issued for the wealthy, they've mass-defunded public services, cut and attacked the disability funding model, cut benefits, diverted transport funding to roads, cut all recent public transport subsidies, cancelled massive important infrastructure projects like damns and ferries (we are three ISLANDS), fast tracked mining, oil, and other massive environmentally detrimental projects and gave the power the to approve these projects singularly to three ministers who have been wined and dined by lobbyists of the companies that have put the bids in to approve them while one of the main minister infers he will not prioritise the protection of endangered species like the archeys frog over mining projects that do massive environmental harm. They have attacked indigenous rights in an attempt to negate the Treaty of Waitangi by “redefining it”; as a backup, they are also trying to remove all mentions of the treaty from legislation starting with our Child Protection laws no longer requiring social workers to consider the importance of Maori children’s culture when placing those children; when the Waitangi Tribunal who oversees indigenous matters sought to enquire about this, the Minister for Children blocked their enquiry in a breach of comity that was condemned in a ruling — too late to do anything — by our Supreme Court. They have repealed labour protections around pay and 90 day trials, reversed our smoking ban, cancelled our EV subsidy, cancelled our water infrastructure scheme that would have given Maori iwi a say in water asset management, cancelled our biggest city’s fuel tax, made our treasury and inland revenue departments less accountable, dispensed of our Productivity Commission, begun work on charter schools and military boot camps in an obvious push towards privatisation, cancelled grants for first home buyers, reduced access to emergency housing, allowed no cause evictions, cancelled our Maori health system that would have given Maori control over their own public medical care and funding, cut funding of services like budgeting advice and food banks, cancelled the consumer advocacy council, cancelled our medicine regulations, repealed free prescriptions, deferred multiple hospital builds, failed to deliver on pre-election medical promises, reversed a gun ban created in response to the mosque shootings, brought back three strikes = life sentence policy, increased minimum wage by half the recommended amount, cancelled fair pay for disabled workers, reduced wheelchair services, reversed our oil and gas exploration ban, cancelled our climate emergency fund, cut science research funding including climate research, removed limits on killing sea lions, cut funding for the climate change commission, weakened our methane targets, cancelled Significant National Areas protections, have begun reversing our ban on live exports. Much of this was passed under urgency.

It’s been six months.

[delicatelysublimeforester]

Celebrating Our Volunteers: Every Moment Matters

[xdivinedecay]

Patron saints for US election aftermath

Below are some saints I humbly recommend to pray to as the United States faces this new and challenging era after the results of our recent election. Those that use prayer for intercession may find comfort in learning more about the saints below, and building a communication with them.

Social justice — St. Martín de Porres Poverty — St. Francis of Assisi Women — St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Immigrants — St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Racial justice — St. Katharine Drexel Ecology and environment — St. Kateri Tekakwitha (the first Indigenous American saint) Education/teachers — St. John Baptist de La Salle

If you'd like, I have included some notes and extras below —

Please if you can, take some time to learn about St. Martín de Porres! His soul is beautiful and his work was absolutely selfless as he cared for others in the face of social abuse and adversity. He really is someone to aspire to be like.

I nominate St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in this particular instance as it's difficult to pin down a definitive patron saint of women (all of my cross-references didn't produce a strong label on any one saint; many were for mothers or some other aspect attributed to womanhood, so there are many options). But St. Elizabeth was the first American-born citizen to be canonized as a saint, and in her life she started a Catholic school for girls. She is most known for founding of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph’s, the first religious order in America who contributed significant humanitarian work. In the wake of the US election results, I think she is an apt choice for connecting with for intercession.

I'm a biased St. Joan D'Arc follower, but hear me out. She was the crux of saving her home country from the very literal brink of being lost to Britain in a war that spanned a century. She rallied the last skeleton crew of the remaining French monarchal power that had all but been defeated already, and helped to take their name and land back from the English. I will be continuing to pray to her regularly to help find ways to fight for our freedom and remain courageous. I encourage others to do the same if you pray to her, or would like to start.

While I wish I had a suggestion for a saint to pray to for the LGBTQIA+ community, as they are adopted through history (St. Sebastian) or are not strictly official. But there are some interesting perspectives to find online, I just couldn't find a saint I could comfortably name with my whole chest for this particular group. I was intrigued by some responses on this Quora thread on the matter in question.

As always, these are only suggestions based on my imperfect research, as I am still newly navigating my reclaimed faith. If you have other patrons to recommend, please add them in a reblog so that others may learn about them.

divider made by animatedglittergraphics-n-more

more lists of patron saints — Patron Saints for your problems • Patron Saints for World Mental Health Day

[alpaca-clouds]

Utopia is always a Compromise

Someone asked me something in a private message, getting rather annoyed with my insistence that pretty much any and all conflict can happen in a Solarpunk world: "Well, what is an utopia to you?" And technically the answer is fairly simple: "An utopia is not perfect, but as good as things are going to be." And that is a claim I am going to stand by.

I spent yesterday pretty much the entire day writing a Solarpunk short story for an anthology. And that short story very much is about all that. About compromises. Because I somehow feel, that a lot of folks in the solarpunk sphere do not grasp two things about utopias:

Utopias are going to differ a lot depending on who you ask.

Because of this, any utopia is inherently political.

One person's utopia is going to be someone else's dystopia. Or to put it differently: Nazis imagine utopias too. In their utopias whole cultures have been eliminated, while a few rich white people rule over everyone else. To them this is what they imagine "the best possible world" to be.

Of course, Solarpunk inherently is a very left leaning genre and ideology. My Solarpunk utopia is anarcho-communist of course. In my Solarpunk utopia, there are no more nation states, and there are no more borders. Everyone who wants it is given room to live, and the other necessities to life: access to clean water, food, electricity, health care and education. The education system is a lot more self-directed by the students. And the electricity obviously is created by renewable ressources. Food is grown more locally. Indigenous people get their land back. All those things apply.

And yet, even my Solarpunk utopia has to deal with compromises. Because some things are always going to be a compromise.

Everyone who has been following me, knows that I am a prison and police abolitionist. And this means compromise. While I am 100% certain, that most crime can be prevented by giving people access to the ressources listed above, and allowing everyone a healthy life, some crime will still happen. People still will find reasons to argue. And in some cases arguments might result in violence, and in some extreme cases in death through violence. And some people will be more prone to that violence, for a variety of reasons. And I still think, they should not be "locked away", with maybe some extreme cases as exceptions. But all of that is always a compromise not everyone is going to agree with.

The story I wrote yesterday tackled two other topics in this regard, I have very complicated feelings about myself. Religion and mental health.

Most folks active in the solarpunk sphere are either agnostic or atheistic, or part of some more spiritual nature-related religions. And either group generally tends to have a big disdain for organized religion like Christianity or Islam. Which I - someone who has been abused for pretty much his entire youth through the means of Christianity - absolutely can understand. And yet, I do not think it would be right to overly regulate religion in a Solarpunk world. Even though a lot of those religions are very anti-anarchist in many regards, I also do not think it is the anarchist way to forbid someone else from believing in whatever feels right for them to believe. But that will undoubtedly bring further issues. Because where are you going to draw the line? No matter where you draw it, it is going to be a compromise. And some conflict will arise from it.

What if you have a religion that thinks queerness is bad? Or that thinks women belong in the kitchen? When is it okay to regulate a religion? Because you will not have political success going on and wanting to forbid the world largest religions. Trying to do that would be quite dystopian to me. You also cannot force them to completely change their doctrine, and even if you tried, they would probably still preach some of it behind closed doors. So what are you going to do? Which is the compromise you would take?

In the story I wrote, the main character was a queer guy who has grown up religious and struggled a lot with mental health issues because of it. Because he was queer and his family had been hateful towards that queerness because of their religion. Simply for the reason that controlling someone's personal believes was not right - but the family controlling that queer kid was not right either.

And mind you: We know that contrary to what atheists say, religion is not fully something people choose for themselves. There is some genetic component to religiosity. And if someone has grown up religious, you cannot just force that person to change their religion. That is absolutely akin to forcing a gay person to be straight. It is a violation of the person's rights and freedom, and will be very detrimental to their mental health.

But the mental health issue is another one that is a big topic for compromise in the anarchist way - and even in our modern democratic way.

Most progressive nations do not allow a person to be forcefully put into a psych ward, unless that person tried to commit suicide, or was outright physically violent towards another person. This is also the same bar that usually has to be cleared before someone has to be forced into therapy, and you basically cannot force anyone to take medication. But this is a compromise as well, that does harm as much as it does good.

Because even those mentally unwell people who might not be physically violent, still can very much be abusive towards others. Be it family members, partners, colleagues, roommates, friends, or themselves. And there can absolutely be an argument made that it would be better for everyone to set the bar lower before you can force someone into therapy, as they would probably even benefit themselves. Yet, we do not do that. Because technically it is everyone's personal freedom to decide, whether they want medical care or not - and because we have made the mistake in the past, of course, when a lot of people were forced into and kept under miserable conditions in psychological phacitilies. And we do not want any repeat of it.

But to come back to the story: The main character is abusive mostly towards himself - but this is obviously still harmful towards his partner and child. Nobody can force him to accept any help, after having made a bad experience in therapy before. But the status quo clearly also is not helping anyone.

And you will find those issues in a thousand of different ways. If you are anarchist, you are going to be against a lot of regulations, because those will always give some people power over other people, but where will you draw the line to regulate? Where will you allow some people to make decisions over other people?

Because in some regards this will always have to happen. And no matter how much you can argue: Every line is pretty much arbitrary. Which is why you will find some people argue for pretty every possible line you could draw in the sand. I can bring a thousand arguments for prison abolition - but the people who are for keeping prisons around, can bring a thousand arguments themselves. Sure, I think a lot of those arguments are bullshit. But they think the same about my arguments. And the big issue with those social topics is, that the science is not as firm as we wanted it to be. I will argue that there is some science clearly giving indications for prison abolition - but the prison abolition crowd such as myself does also assume a general scenario, that never has been tested in the modern world. We do not know if it would work. And I myself will openly say, that I have no fucking clue how to deal with issues like misogyny, where we have some data that suggests that once it has taken a certain hold even the best rehabilitation system will not erase it from someone's mind in about 30% of all cases. Sure, we might be able to get rid of it over the course of generations - but as an anarchist I also have to ask: "What do we do until then?" Because those misogynist men will kill and assault women.

I know it is easy to imagine that if only things were better, all human strive would end. But it simply is not the case. Partly, because some people will still struggle with one thing or another and develop bad ways of dealing with that struggle. And partly, because certain ideologies that lie at the root of so many issues cannot just be erased from the world from one day to the other. You cannot uninstall hate from someone's mind. You might through education get some people to be better - but not everyone. And this... Well, this will always create some issues.

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

ok so like objectively yes ed did things wrong but not only do i personally feel no negative emotions about any of that, i swear it would make more sense tonally with the rest of the show to NOT make a huge chunk of s2 be about ed facing the consequences for and redeeming himself from the marooning/pushing lucius overboard/izzy toe thing. like if im wrong i’m wrong and it’s whatever but i really really think the focus will be more on ed’s internal emotional state and how his choices were informed by trauma and how he’s going to learn to heal more than it’s gonna be like, Ed Learns It’s Wrong To Maroon People And Force Feed People Their Own Toes. like if anything i think it’ll be Ed Learns That He Deserves To Be Happy And He Also Realizes That Marooning People And Force Feeding People Their Own Toes Is An Unhealthy Coping Skill That Negatively Affects His Mental Health And He Learns New, Healthier Coping Strategies. like i think the focus of coming out of the kraken era is going to be almost entirely on ed’s feelings, and any mention of how his actions harmed the rest of the cast will be brief and/or it’ll primarily be played for comedy

which yes irl this would kinda suck to have some guy respond to getting his heart broken (and other stuff) by killing and maiming people and then have his whole journey of self-discovery be solely abt him and not any of the people he’s hurt. HOWEVER a biiiiiig part of the humor of the show is that the characters are experiencing some very real and very relatable self-esteem issues and insecurities and vulnerabilities, and all of that is placed on a backdrop of comedically gratuitous pirate violence. like this is a romcom and ed is basically going through the classic emotional beats of the romcom heroine getting her heart broken and eating a whole tub of ice cream and crying in her room for days before becoming cold and distant and “love is dead” edgy, only the joke is that bc he’s a pirate his “love is dead” romcom era includes some people actually literally dying. izzy and the crew all just happen to be in the blast radius for this joke, and while we as fans might love and care abt those characters too, the plain fact is that ed and stede are the main characters and the other characters’s feelings or storylines or internal motivations simply do not matter nearly as much to the show as theirs (with the exception of maybe jim, and also maybe olu depending on how s2 goes). and that’s literally just how romcoms work. this sort of “protagonist bias” is like, a core part of this kind of story.

and there’s nothing wrong with not vibing with the story because of that. if season two comes and goes and you aren’t happy with how the show handled the consequences of ed’s actions in e10 that’s fine, nobody has to feel any specific way about this show. but if i’m right and this is how s2 plays out and some of y’all don’t like this, the problem is not that ofmd is bad. the problem is just that this is not the story you wanted or expected to be told.

i DO think, tho, that there’s something very powerful abt a character like this being a queer indigenous man. he’s a gay romcom protagonist and narratively speaking his feelings trump all. this is a queer romcom that uses gratuitous slapstick violence as a punchline and where the queer main characters are allowed to get violent and unhinged about their feelings, and at the end of the day they ultimately get a pass bc it’s a gay romcom and the show is about them. like literally that description itself is more than i could’ve ever dreamed of from any tv show ever, and THEN you’re telling me that one of the main characters is indigenous???? it’s been a year and a half and s2 is right around the corner and i swear to god i still can’t believe this show actually exists. we don’t GET shows like this, we don’t GET characters like this. ed teach is such a fucking blessing of a character and i love him with all my heart.

[333mp444thy]

YOU CANNOT CARE ABOUT WOMEN'S RIGHTS, DOMESTIC ABUSE, ABORTION RIGHTS, FREEDOM OF SPEECH, ANIMAL WELFARE, CHILDREN'S RIGHTS, MENTAL HEALTH, HOMELESSNESS, INDIGENOUS LAND RIGHTS, FOOD SECURITY, THE CLIMATE CRISIS, REFUGEE AND MIGRANT RIGHTS, DISCRIMINATION, HEALTHCARE, HUMAN RIGHTS... AND STAY SILENT ABOUT PALESTINE, SUDAN, AND CONGO. YOU CANNOT CHOOSE TO SEE THE SUFFERING OF SOME AND IGNORE THE GENOCIDE AGAINST OTHERS. YOU CANNOT BE SELECTIVE ABOUT ACTIVISM AND WHOSE LIFE MATTERS MORE.

[itshazzyx]

Not my usual post but this is urgent

—

As the 2025 election comes to a close here in the US, it’s evident that the outcome of this election isn’t in the favor for many people who live here in the states.

People of color and other ethnicities, women, disabled individuals, LGBTQIA+ community members, as well as a plethora of minorities are at risk under the upcoming presidency.

The future of American citizens that don’t fit the narrative of a Straight, White, Christian, Conservative, cisgender male are all at risk. Under the future system imposed by the 47th president, many progressive laws that help protect minorities as well as the rights of women will be taken away.

As a transgender individual, I am in fear for my life. I am in fear that my rights to my own bodily autonomy are in play of being stripped away. Just because I’m a transgender man, I am aware that I’m born female, due to this, I’ve always looked at women’s right to healthcare my own reproductive rights as well.

It is beyond my comprehension as to why an individual should or would even want to put restrictions on the female body and her right to make a decision. Two women in Texas have died from being denied access to basic healthcare, and this number will only continue to grow more and more as individuals are forced to carry a fetus to term only under the acceptation that the mother’s life is at risk, and even then sometimes it’s too late. These individuals will be forced to give birth to a child even if it was a result of SA, Incest, or even if the fetus is nonviable.

As a victim of SA, it pains me that if something was to happen and I ended up pregnant, that I would have been forced to carry that unwanted child to term as a child myself.

To my fellow members of the LGBTQIA+ community, never stop being proud of who you are. Never forget what people have went through to give us the rights we have now. Always stand out, never hide yourself behind closed doors just because you’re told to. No matter what, the rights of the community were always deserved. It had taken years to earn the recognition that we deserve. Hiding your identity is what the future wants. Do not let them decide who and what you are. Always stand out and remember to be yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks or says. We will always come back stronger and better than before.

My page will always be a safe space for everyone of the LGBTQIA+ community. I will fight for our rights as much as I can. However, as a single individual, that’s not a lot. I did vote in favor to protect and preserve the rights and safety of individuals like myself. I will never change my opinion on the subject of abortion being health care, the fact that lgbtqia+ rights are human rights, and so many other things that help bring minorities into the spotlight and help us get the recognition and support that is deserved.

Regardless if you’re black, white, Asian, indigenous, mixed, European, gay, trans, nonbinary, straight, Christian, Muslim, etc, we are all human and all bleed red in the end.

[multiplicity-positivity]

Here’s some positivity for American systems!

You can’t help where you’re born, and there are many systems that live, struggle, and thrive in the United States! It’s not always easy, and life may be challenging, but this post goes out to all the American systems out there!

Shoutout to systems who are unable to receive treatment due to their struggles to afford health insurance, copays, and deductibles!

Shoutout to indigenous systems whose ancestors were uprooted from their land, who belong to other nations while living within US borders!

Shoutout to disabled systems who have been repeatedly denied government aid, and to those on SSI who are forced to remain in poverty as a result!

Shoutout to systems who are punk, anarchists, activists, or advocates for positive change within the US, and to those who are a part of the BLM, LandBack, or StopAAPIHate movements!

Shoutout to queer and trans systems who live in fear that their bodily autonomy will be taken away at any moment!

Shoutout to systems of color living in the US who have to cope with the nation’s ingrained societal and institutional racism!

Shoutout to non-Christian, religious systems who have been discriminated against or faced harassment due to their faiths!

Shoutout to immunocompromised systems who are endangered in public due to how rare wearing face masks is in the US!

Shoutout to systems who hate cars, are forced to rely on driving to survive, can’t drive for whatever reason, or who long for an accessible, nationwide public transport system!

Shoutout to systems who are anti-war, draft dodgers, or vocal about the many war crimes of the United States!

Shoutout to systems who reject blind patriotism and make efforts to learn about and understand the grisly history of the United States!

We know that it may feel hopeless living in the United States, but we promise there’s still hope for you! Take joy in the little things, in nature, your loved ones, and finding community with likeminded folks! Know that your nationality does not define you, and you’re a cherished and wanted part of the plural community, no matter where you live!

Please take care of yourselves to the best of your ability and know that there are other people like you trying to survive in the US! Thanks so much for reading, and have a great day!

(Image ID:) A pale orange userbox with a cluster of multicolored flowers for the userbox image. The border and text are both dark orange, and the text reads “all plurals can interact with this post!” (End ID.)

[cy-cyborg]

You can't get upset at us for writing disabled characters if you don't engage with us when we talk about them in our writing groups. We live in a diverse world, some people want to be cured, others don't. Why do I have to follow certain rules or be deemed as ableist when I spoken to other disabled people who don't care about the cure trope?

I DO engage with authors, my whole online pressance across multiple platforms since about 2017 is built around doing so.

just not in general writing groups specifically

I did that for about a decade prior and it mentally drained me because this kind of behaviour happened over and over again. So now, I engage with authoes who are explicitly interested in learning and want to hear what disabled people (not just myself, there's a reason I say "talk to other people/talk to sensitivity readers" in every other long post) have to say. No one is forced to come here and read what I write/listen to what I make, and no one said you're ableist if you don't.

But more to the point, the frustration didn't come from people not following my suggestions to the letter or whatever. I've been online long enough to know not to expect that. It came from people in the group saying that they know more about the disabled experience and what counts as ableist than myself, my partner (also disabled) and the several other disabled people in the chat who were trying to explain things, despite the people i was talking about admitting they werent disabled and didnt speak to any disabled people. It was the fact that several other disabled people in the group were being spoken over on matters of our own experience and ignored. It wasnt about the advice, it was the reaction of "ive never experianced disability but still i know more than you". If you are not disabled, you do not get to decide what is ableist, end of story. Just like white people don't get to decide if a trope about indigenous people is racist, or a cis person doesn't get to decide if a trope about trans people is transphobic.

No one is forcing you to be here or follow the suggestions i offer, you can do whatever you want and write whatever you want, but if you are writing about an experiance that is not your own, and you ignore the input of people who have experiance on the subject, you can't get upset when we express frustration with that.

People in minorities shouldn't have to put our mental health at risk to try and educate people who don't want to listen.

[qqueenofhades]

Is it... bad that I just do not CARE about men's mental health no matter how many articles I see about it? "single men are lonely :(((" They made the manosphere roe is overturned and are railing against no fault divorce. I just... don't have energy for this right now. Like i've advocated for men's mental health before, but I'm seeing an INFLUX of "what about men??? they need WIVES!" sentiment from the right and i just. I'm just not feeling it.

No, you're not a bad person at all. The intense legal misogyny and widespread cultural revanchist toxic-masculinity grievance politics right now are absolutely exhausting, and I often feel the same way. However, I think it's possibly useful to differentiate what's actually upsetting you the most, and how that's not the same thing as what the peddlers of this narrative would like you to think. After all, you're not fed up with men's mental health per se; you're fed up (and rightfully so) with the reactionary right-wing fascist narrative that constantly insists that helpless men are victims of the evil women and gays, that the only way for a (white, straight, Christian) man to be happy or a "real man" is by engaging in toxic masculinity, traditional patriarchy, and the destruction of feminism, and that Manhood (tm) is under some kind of existential threat by those soft wimpy liberals who talk about feelings and other gross stuff, and not just Beer, Guns, God, and Freedom. (You know, as if the entirety of human history has happened just to get us back to this point of caveman patriarchy, but let's not talk about Bruno.)

Extreme and macho masculinity/insisting that there's only one way to be a man/any gender variance or departure from traditional norms is Bad, are all key social features of fascism. That's why a) there's such a backlash against trans people right now, and b) most of that concern has focused on the idea of "men in dresses" pretending to be women, "betraying" their gender assigned at birth, "preying" on (poor, helpless, unaware, feeble) women, and otherwise voluntarily relinquishing their manhood, which under fascism is synonymous with power and therefore the worst crime imaginable. After all, with these ludicrous state laws about being forced to dress as your gender assigned at birth -- who do you think is going to be most affected by that? I'm sure they'll get around to criminalizing women wearing trousers and plaid shirts eventually, but it's really hard to tell if a woman is "dressing according to her biological gender." If a male-presenting or AMAB person attempts to dress in more feminine fashion, however, that is the heart of the problem and what fascism is trying to restrict and outlaw.

After all, regardless of what the right wing carps and sobs and screams about, "manhood" is not a unitary, singular category, and rich, white, straight, Christian, Trump-loving men are not the "default" standard for manhood, no matter how many terrible books Josh Hawley might write about the subject. Black/Hispanic men, Indigenous men, trans men, queer men, disabled men, immigrant men, poor men, Muslim men, etc., are all also men, but obviously fascism doesn't value them or think they're complying with the heteronormative white supremacist paradigm. So yeah, obviously all their talk about "men's rights" basically boils down to "women should voluntarily relinquish all the legal and social advancements of the last 150 years in order to meekly serve men, uphold white theocratic fascism, and establish Gilead without a complaint, like good biblical helpmeets!" So THAT, or at least it feels like to me, is what you're angry about, and you should be!

Because the right wing has been so successful at casting "men" in general under this one category, it can be hard to pick apart or see any nuance in what's going on, and you don't have to give the time of day to those "poor mistreated men need tradwives!" nonsense pieces. But by continuing to push back against this awful definition of manhood, you can help show how it's interlinked with fascism and racism, it's inflicting terrible damage on men themselves, and help men understand that they DON'T need to live like that or force themselves into that paradigm in order to be successful. So yeah.

[realjaysumlin]

Racism starts before kids even start school, causing a major mental health crisis. An AP series explores the mental health impacts of racism faced by black children.

Black Indigenous Children in crisis and not even their Black Indigenous Parents seem to show concerns. I'm at a loss of words for some Black Indigenous parents because they don't seem to care about their precious babies. I've asked this question many times to Black Parents, if you are not willing to protect our beautiful and precious children, why do you bring them into this world?

No one is willing to fight for the safety and well-being for Black Indigenous Children worldwide and I can't understand why this is happening 😭😭😡💔. Their lives matter to me more than my own. I try my best not to mention negative thoughts about the Black Indigenous People but somehow I can't find anything positive to say whenever I see our children being attacked by whiteness and no one comes to their defense.

[rrezshifts]

𝓶𝙮 𝙧𝖊𝙖𝙡i𝙩𝙞e𝙨 !!

“ my dreams fuel the fire that brings me to my desires „

formula 1 reality (1) — theodore gutierrez is the mclaren reserve driver who replaces lando norris mid 2023 season, with a contract already signed up before his first practice session. admist the pressures of succeeding in formula 1, the new driver has personal stresses over his strained relationship with his now teammate oscar piastri, and the past they share.

ancient greece reality — theodorian of athens, the son of rich wine makers in greece, is set to inherit the business after his father retires. his father tells the press that he won’t retire for years, so the heir lays in wait for his time to come. in his rest, chrysanthos of athens (oc) catches the young man’s eye. as the two spiral into love, they have to grapple with the public’s eye and opinions.

formula 1 reality (2) — theodore gomez, scuderia lamborghini’s golden boy, is loved by so much of the world wide sport. that doesn’t seem to be enough for the young driver, who falls for his ex-teammate and best friend, charles leclerc, who he just made up with after leaving ferrari with out a work. to make matters worse, he feel for that friends girlfriend, alexandra saint mleux, as well. it’s quite rare for messy situations to end in clean solutions, but here we are.

model!marauders reality — theodore grado is a trans male model hiding in the background of many runways and shoots compared to his high end friends. he doesn’t yearn for the spotlight, living for the moment is all he cares for. especially with his friends. especially with his best friend sirius black. the two madly in love without knowing it’s reciprocated.

young avengers reality (comics) — in tommy shepherd’s penthouse room in the avengers tower, you can find theodore gutierrez. he’s either waiting for his boyfriend to come back from a mission or cuddling with his boyfriend as they rewatch their favorite movies. theo has powers, but not the guts to fight, only using his fear manipulation to calm his anxiety.

marvel reality (comics) — theodore gomez met two average people before learning of their hero identities and the fact they weren’t as average as he thought. maya lopez & matt murdock however have met before before meeting theo, having gone on dates but eventually going separate ways after complications … now theo has fallen for both, and the twos feelings remain.

dead boy detectives reality — charles rowland and edwin payne are two ghosts who died and run from death to stay in the afterlife solving crimes. theodore gutierrez is an immortal demigod, son of the universe, he’s able to see and interact with ghosts. he runs into the two men in 1998 after living for 36 and then spends the next 26 years with them helping them solve crimes with his psychic like abilities. truths and feelings spill out as events spiral out of control.

bridgerton reality — eleanor hayward, daughter of a viscount, left for america with dreams of an education. there she met an indigenous mexican man who she married, has a child, and lived with for decades. her family however begged eleanor to send her only child, theodore guayuán, to london to find a wife after failing at home. in london theo doesn’t find a wife, however, instead finding augustus st. vincent (oc), a viscount often described as a wallflower.

read dead redemption reality — when the majority of the van der linde gang seperated from their leader itself as his mental health declined and he refused to listen to reason. they headed for california in hopes of a life far away from crime. as they reached the northern part of the state, they found theodore gutierrez on his home reservation. theo offered to help the gang guiding them down california to find a final stop in the journey for a peaceful life for the crew. through this journey him and charles smith get closer and theo has to decide if he’s returning to his reservation or staying with his new found family.

nepo baby reality — the grandson of old hollywood actor sal mineo, and the great-godson of james dean, theodore grado isn’t a a-list actor and never wished to be. spending time on projects that mean a lot to him or are just fun. he’s often voice acts when he gets the chance. in 2015 he meets elle purnell where they become close friends, eventually slowly starting a romantic relationship.

monster high!college reality — theodore orlok is the son of the vampire nosfertu. getting their degree in monster ecology has never been more fun in a world like this. ghoulia yelps catches the eye of the vampire, and he does all he can to get closer to the zombie. however smart she is, she can not see the signals he sends her way.

arcane reality (1) — theodore | ৻ꪆ viktor & jayce talis

arcane reality (2) — theodore | ৻ꪆ jinx & ekko

marauder!uni reality — theodore gutierrez | ৻ꪆ sirius black [more coming soon…]

twilight reality — theodore gomez | ৻ꪆ angela weber [more coming soon…]

the quarry reality — theodore gomez | ৻ꪆ jacob custos [more coming soon…]

star wars reality — theodore geyit | ৻ꪆ tech [more coming soon…]

ib !! @hrrtshape & @mjsrealm

divider !! d-oie

[just-an-enby-lemon]

I never on my life got this nervous with a post before. This is me advocating for a group I'm not a part of and I tried to do my research the best I could. So let's go.

THE YANOMAMI HUMANITARIAN CRISIS (AND GENOCIDE)

When the pandemic hited Brazil and it was revealed that former president and Trump personal dick sucker Jair Messias Bolsonaro refused the vacine numerous times and ignored Pfizer tentatives of contact, not only that but he spred dangerous misinformation about the virus. Because of his lack of responsability during the covid-19 crisis brazilian left wing started calling him a genocide. But we had no idea how right we were.

Bolsonaro was always a huge supported of mineration. He even tried to legalize it on indegenous people - an effort he didn't suceed. One of brazilian biggest gold reserves is in protective areas more specifically in the divise between Brazil and Venezuela were the yanomami indigenous tribe lives. Well you can imagine where the story goes.

Bolsonaro defunded organs that protected native people and put on comand of the yanomami areas high ranking militar people who had no experience, instruction or prepare whatsoever for it. They made a concil to discuss the righs of land and protection of the Amazon rainflorest and none of the members where native people. They autorized the miners to act close to the area.

Not only that but they refused to send help, closed health centers and ignored letters from people working for FUNAI (the organization that protects and acts on indegenous land) about extreme violence from the miners and corruption inside the institucion (for instance their helicenter for specialized helicopters was being used by the miners who bought the people fiscalizing the landings). 30% of the medicine sent to the tribe never got to them.

With the miners destroying the land they depended to leave, bringing deceases and cominting acts of violence soon famine came to the tribes and the miners started to trade food for either gold or more frequently sexual favors mostly from minors. Some that couldn't sexually assault them by despair did it by force and a 12 year old girl was abused and killed, her body throwed in the river, the authorities took a long time to hear the natives denounces and try at least rescue the body. They also used food as payment to work either on their farms or by doing the mining. Besides that they would trade alcohool and drugs to the natives to turn them addicted and dependent on them.

Bolsonaro and some of his personal are being investigated for purposifully causing this tragedy as means to facilitate mining wich constitutes in proper ethinical genocide. It's only an investigation but if nothing more his inaction and omission already constitutes a human rights violation. I don't know if anyone will actually respond for it. I hope they do but I don't trust this capitalistic society to do anything against powerfull people no matter what they do.

Now I did lie in the begining of this post. I'm sorry. I said we had no idea about it and that's a lie. Me and other white people had the priviledge of not knowing or caring enough. Indigenous activists have been talking about it the whole time. In november when doing a presentation about how psychology could help in the fight for land reform and indegenous spaces my research took me to an interview with an indigenous leader where he said that Bolsonaro's discourse by itself made so the miners and landowners relatated to agriculture would invade protected areas and beat or even kill the natives who oppose and when they talked about their rights they would say "not for long" or "it doesn't matter president Bolsonaro is on our side". That was just based on his racist rethoric against native people. His actions were even more talked about. This was an evitable tragedy and we have to keep it in mind so we can always listen and look for the signs of prejudice and violence to at least try to end them before it's too late.

I'm doing this post not for a lession on white inaction but mostly because there isn't much I can do to help as a broke college student. So I'm trying to maybe hype some donations from you guys.

Here is the link from an organization who is helping to buy food and medicine and help the humanitarian crisis. I did some background checks and also this one actually accepts money in different currencies. So yay. Please, please IF YOU CAN DONATE.

[orcinus-veterinarius]

hi, i learned about Tokitae/Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut thought my engagement in Indigenous environmental justice projects and subsequently the Lummi's efforts to have her repatriated. i initially felt very strongly about this but since learning more from you about marine mammals in captivity and how awful the whole Keiko situation was, I'm no longer sure. what are feasible options for an orca as old as her assuming the priority is continued good health? is releasing a long-captive wild-caught orca something that necessarily ends badly?

Hello, thank you for asking! I've let this one sit for a while because it's a very sensitive subject. I'm not Indigenous, so obviously I cannot speak for the pain and injustice suffered by the Lummi people. Taking orcas from the Puget Sound was horribly cruel not only to the animals, but also to the people who have cherished them for millennia, and I don't want to diminish that in the slightest. I can only speak on the feasibility of actually returning Tokitae/Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut/"Lolita" (who I'll refer to by her nickname "Toki") to her native waters.

Toki was estimated to be 4 years old when she captured in 1970. While calves only nurse for 1-2 years, she was very likely still socially dependent on her mom (who has never been confirmed to be Ocean Sun as is often claimed) at this time. She was sold to Miami Seaquarium in Septemer of the same year and placed in an undersized tank called the "Whale Bowl." She has not left that same pool in the 52 and a half years that have passed since. Furthermore, her mate, Hugo, died in March 1980, meaning she has not seen or communicated with another orca in 43 years. All of this is to say: she is quite literally the worst possible candidate for transfer to a sea pen.

But that doesn't seem to matter. Today, the Dolphin Company gave in to pressure from animal rights groups and the public and announced that Toki is going to be "released" to a sea pen.

It seems we learned nothing from Keiko's heartbreaking fate. At the very least, it seems that they plan to allow her to live out what little remains of her life in managed care, rather than attempting to completely release her as was done with Keiko.

I do not wish harm on Toki. More than anything, I hope this goes well, for her sake. But I, and every other animal care professional I've talked to, do not beleive it will. Toki is a geriatric animal in delicate health. She has spent half a century with extrememly minimal change in her environment, and she is going to be removed from her habitat in a sling, placed in a very large crate, driven to the airport, and flown clear across the country. Cetaceans are transported between facilities routinely, but they have to be in excellent health and are properly trained and desensitized to the process. Toki has never been transported, not once in her long life. I will be genuinely surprised if the shock of transport doesn't kill her. And if she survives the move, she is going to face a barage of pathogens she hasn't encountered in 50+ years the second she hits the water. While in an immunocompromised state due to her age and stress. Folks expect her ails to be magically cured once she's in her natural environment. Let me tell you that the opposite is true.

And if she dies, it will inevitably be blamed on her "years of captivity." No one will admit that this misguided experiment was the cause of her demise. They'll just say, "at least she died free!" Just like they say about Keiko.

And that doesn't even touch on how they plan to fund her ongoing care. Keiko was a beloved movie star, and the donations dried up shortly after he arrived in his sea pen. The general public just doesn't understand how nigh-impossible it is to "free" an animal that has spent decades upon decades in human care.

I'm terrified for Toki, and I'm terrified of the precedent this will set for other animals. I can only hope that AZA facilities with cetaceans buckle down to protect their animals from activists.

[big-coyote]

hi!! this may be a weird thing to ask about but ive decided to make one of my longtime ocs a coyote therian (they were connected to coyotes since the beginning) and i wanted to ask if theres stuff i should avoid when talking abt them or doing character design?

ive done some research on my own looking thru tumblr blogs ran by therians mostly, but i mightve missed some stuff!

for now they show their theriantophy as either wearing a coyote looking onesie (which is the first outfit they ever had) or when wearing other clothes they have a tail keychain on their trousers, so i also wanted to ask if you know of any other things they could have to connect with their theriotype?

again im sorry if this is a weird question! <3

(1/2) Hello! Not a weird question at all, I’m actually very honored and happy you’ve asked! I have quite a number of OCs myself that are also therians or otherkin adjacent lol. Also if anyone else has any ideas they’d like to add/advice feel free to comment or reblog!

As for things you should ovoid I’d recommend straying away from the idea of therianthropy being inherently because of mental illness. While it’s totally okay for your Oc to struggle with mental health problems or other serious topics. I often see the stigma online where people assume being nonhuman or having a alterhuman identity means the person in question must have Schizophrenia, Dissociative Identity Disorder, psychosis, a delusional disorder, etc. And again while I know plenty of nonhumans who have those disorders (I have some of them) and that may effect their identities as a whole, it shouldn’t be the end all be all of their identity you know? Ovoid adding more stigma to both.

Another thing I’d stray away from is the idea of a character being a therian because of spirit animals or any mythology related to closed practices/groups. I’ve seen many indigenous people online speak about their discomfort with the word ‘spirit animal’ and how it’s been adopted into pop culture. Being alterhuman is much more then “I feel connected to this thing/this thing is just like me”, it runs much deeper then that and it is as much as a real identity as something like gender, sexuality, religion, etc. It should be taken with as much care and seriousness as those other identities because it is huge and important part to a lot of our lives.

Lastly I’d recommend avoiding making the character the butt end of the jokes. While the Oc themselves can be funny, have funny things happen to them or have funny experiences as a coyote Therian I’d ovoid making them the punching bag to other OCs. Online it’s not uncommon to see many people misunderstanding and mischaracterizing being nonhuman for a quick laugh. It be very disheartening if an OCs entire existence in a story is just “haha they think they’re a dog, that’s stupid”. Again it’s important to take any identity like being a Therian seriously instead of just being the punch line for a joke or gag.

As for the clothing I think the onesie would be incredibly cute and good to wear as well as the tail! Many therians wear tails, both real and faux fur ones, to feel connected to their identity and feel more comfortable. I’ve also known many therians who were things like jewelry with their theriotype on it, fake animal ears, t-shirts, rings, fur coats, earrings, pins/buttons, etc. Some also like collecting plushies or posters with their theriotype as well, or having stickers on their books or drawing them. Or if you’d prefer a more casual character design you could have a character who doesn’t wear any outward Therian gear and prefers to keep it low key. Both options are very valid and would be interesting to see!

But no matter what I’m sure your Oc is going to be amazing and I can’t wait to see them! Please tag me if you make any art or stories about them, or if you have any other questions feel free to ask again or DM me!