#Third Culture Kids

[caribbeanart]

Wrote a new post on my substack where I like to explore im/migrant topics and themes from a subjective lens. I don't post often but just a way to communicate some of the issues I care about in an alternative and meaningful way outside of headlines, crisis and politics alone. Have especially been feeling the void of this lately.

[sxyx]

[lucybellwood]

“All that grieved me—that I was half one thing and half another and nothing wholly—was the sorrow of my childhood, but the strength and use of my life after I grew up.”

— Ursula K. Le Guin, Always Coming Home

[eebie]

[gauguinhater69]

Guys, I’ve had Thoughts.

House’s childhood isn’t really explored in a whole lot of depth during the show. The only details we get are some brief mentions of his father’s abuse and the fact that House grew up moving around a lot due to his father serving as a Marine Corps aviator.

I’m pretty sure the only countries that are directly mentioned in the show as being places that House grew up in are the States, Japan, the Philippines, and Egypt. Both of House’s parents are American, as far as I am aware? He also mentions having a Dutch grandmother in One Day, One Room, but I can’t remember if that’s ever mentioned again or if he just said that for the plot. Regardless, this makes House a Third Culture Kid (or TCK).

Third Culture Kid is a term used to describe people who grow up in a culture that's different from their parents' culture or the culture of their country of nationality. TCKs are often children of expatriate workers, including members of the military (like House), or they can also be the result of transnational marriages. TCKs often develop an identity that's based on relationships with people rather than places. 

I feel like this aspect of House’s upbringing explains a lot about his character and why he is The Way He Is. However, I think it was kind of glossed over in canon and could have been dealt with in a really interesting way, but instead they were just kind of like, “Haha, he read manga because army.”

Whether it was intentional by the writers or not, a lot of the ways House thinks, acts, and interacts with other characters is reflective of a TCK childhood. As a TCK myself, I unironically find House to be one of the best-written TCK characters I have ever come across, despite it not being explicitly discussed in the show (genuinely the only other TCK character in mainstream media that I can think of at the moment is Cady Heron from Mean Girls, who is not a good example, sorry girl).

The most compelling aspects of House’s personality, which I believe make him a well-developed representation of what it’s like to grow up as a third culture kid, include:

A complex relationship with authority and rules: TCKs often grow up in environments where they must navigate different sets of rules and authority figures, which could lead to a heightened skepticism about institutional authority. House's disregard for rules, his insubordination, and his tendency to challenge authority figures such as Cuddy, Vogler, Dr. Nolan, and even Wilson at times seem like an indication of a deeper mistrust of systems and structures. House appears to almost compulsively rebel against structure and situations where he is not completely in control, even if he knows that people are trying to help him, as seen in his time at Mayfield.

Alienation of self and others: I feel like this in particular is very central to House’s character and the show. He is constantly pushing the people who care about him away, like Stacy, Cuddy, Wilson, and the Ducklings. He avoids relationships (both romantic and platonic) and emotional connections with the people around him and believes that he is better off relying on himself alone. Many TCKs experience a sense of never truly fitting in anywhere and tend to alienate themselves (whether on purpose or not) because of it.

Detachment and critical thinking: House’s whole thing as a diagnostician is being able to see things from unconventional angles, and his sharp, often brutal, critical thinking is a reflection of this adaptive skill. However, this also contributes to his emotional detachment, as he prioritizes logic and objective analysis over subjective or cultural norms, distancing him from emotional involvement. Being exposed to a variety of different cultures, people, and cultural norms often contributes to TCKs developing the ability to view situations from multiple perspectives and come up with unusual solutions. This could also contribute to House deep desire to figure everything out, this includes the medical mysteries he solves, but also he needs to understand the actions and motivations of all the people around him. He wants to understand and know everything because this gives him a sense of control.

Deep need for control: Growing up in different places, where cultural norms and expectations may have shifted, could have made House feel like he had to assert control over his immediate surroundings to maintain some sense of stability. The trauma he experienced, particularly with his father’s abuse and emotional neglect, likely influenced this desire for control, as he may have associated control with safety and predictability. In addition to this, many TCKs create rigid systems or behavioural processes to compensate for a lack of “home”. House’s fractured sense of identity and personal trauma, which developed as a result of his experiences as a TCK, likely contributed to his need for control in all aspects of his life.

I also think these are all reasons why House is so drawn to Wilson. While Wilson is absolutely as much of a freak as House, he is the most stable and constant thing in House’s life (even more than his job as a doctor is). While medicine is extremely important to House, he works at the hospital on and off, unable to continue his practice while he is at Mayfield, and he ultimately gives up medicine entirely for Wilson. Through all the ups and downs of House’s life, Wilson is there, no matter how hard House tries to drive him away.

House values his relationship with Wilson above pretty much all other things in his life, because Wilson is one of the only constants in House’s life, which is something that House had been lacking before Wilson. House likely had developed the idea that relationships are fleeting due to his constant upheavals as a child, and this may be part of the reason why he is constantly pushing others away to try and save himself the pain of losing people.

However, Wilson keeps coming back no matter what. Despite the fact that House is rude and brash, despite the unhinged pranks, the borderline criminal acts, after House stole Wilson’s prescription pad, after House played a role in the death of Wilson’s girlfriend, again and again Wilson comes back.

I’m going insane, and I think this is very nearly incomprehensible. Does anyone else see the vision?

[orie-jai]

Alright all. Someone posted something a while ago about putting more niche jobs in fanfics. I'm still working on it, but I wanna see if there's any interest. I've seen so many teacher Steve fics, but mostly for middle or high school. So, picture this:

Steddie modern au

Rockstar!Eddie who steps away from his rocker life

Pre-K Teacher!Steve

Eddie takes custody of his little half sister after her mom dies and enrolls her at the school Steve teaches at

Eddie's sister is a weird kid, but it's not a bad thing cuz weird kids make cool adults

[lemonadewine]

Dol Amroth and their Swan Knights will never not be funny to me. Because yes, swans are elegant, of course the famously noble, very Numenorean family would have that as their banner. You know what swans also are? Territorial and absolutely feral if you approach their home and nesting site. (Mute swans are particularly vicious, many swans are just aggressively defensive, mute swans are actively dicks.)

I love the idea of of Imrahil and his family meeting important people and they're so put together and regal, and then you see them in battle and they are... so scary. I love a Lothiriel who seems so smooth and demure and then will absolutely punch the throat of anyone who touches her without permission, no hesitation, you should have known better than to the touch the Princess of Dol Amroth. I love this family of beautiful noble people who defend their home so viciously that they can bring the most troops of the principalities. What? Like it's hard? A family that will not hesitate to cut you but they'll also be the symbol for nobility and honour, with a Prince that even elves know is a pretty impressive person.

Give me the family of Dol Amroth who are loving and calculated and cold and deeply efficient at dealing with threats. Ones who surprise their enemies by being three steps ahead at all times, but 'Elphir could not have done this, he is so noble,' yeah buddy, but you hoarded grain during a siege so I hope you have fun in the Dol Amroth prisons until after Morannon when we can be bothered to deal with you.

Turncoats? Hard to turn a coat without any of the correct information and each and every one of your sources rounded up before you can warn them.

Slimy advisors? Eaten for dinner, Denethor; sad but we planned for this, Mordor and certain death? Sure, not a part of the plan but our knights are renowned for their battle prowess, let's go and tear Sauron a new one.

Give me noble, coldly efficient, wildly territorial and very slightly feral Dol Amarothians. I beg you. Make their swan a symbol of their absolutely unhinged defense of their beautiful, elegant home.

(But like wild oceans and massive mountains? I have a whole post about how this also gives us insight into Imrahil and his kids, or like, my version of them. Water and stone, commanding oceans and navigating massive peaks. The children of Dol Amroth grow up walking uphill both ways, their knees are scarred and bloody from slipping down sharp mountain paths and they are honed to their lands.)

[your-local-depressed-fangirl]

TCK Nico di Angelo & Bianca di Angelo my beloved.

[witchofthesouls]

Can you explain how preening works on bots? For someone who new to the idea of it.

Preening is a real-life bird grooming behavior that extends the life of their feathers as well as waterproof them using an oil secretion from a gland and a bonding activity, too. Transformers fandom likens the Seekers to birds, so I'm doing my duty and expanding on it lol

For Seekerkin, preening is a grooming behavior that satisfies multiple functions: a social activity for the trine and flock, a necessary and vital part of maintenance to check out the responsiveness and state of their flight systems, and trains the very young or very new on how to handle environmental influx, both passive and active. It's typically guided by the more experienced hand: mentor to student, parent/guardian to child or newbuild, elder to newcomer, trainer to trainee. A pair of hands skims and go over the expanse and edges before using their talons to pick out the slag in the fine seams as they test out various sites and sensor response.

It's an activity that actively builds social cohesion as it takes a lot of trust to allow someone else around appendages packed with a variety of sensors. It feels good as well. Not a sexual pleasure. It's more akin to good massage or very nice body scrub. A great source of stress relief under an at-home health check. Of course, that also fosters relationships between kin, trines, cohorts, and flocks.

Arcee and Bumblebee have their own sensory panels to care for, and it's a job for a second pair of hands. Ratchet has similarities with his own servos.

Miko is too much of a young menace to realize others don't have her own War-Forged physiology, so she's allowed to go ham on the heavier armored Autobots because she's mimicking the care she's receiving.

[freakedouthow]

had this thought at like 3am and it made me laugh but i don't think it should have

for those who've never heard the term:

"Third culture kids...are people who were raised in a culture other than their parents' or the culture of their country of nationality, and also live in a different environment during a significant part of their child development years."

[sharksandjays]

just made homemade turkish chai for the first time in 4 years…i miss home

[totally-ikea]

Shout out to all the Third Culture Kids who still wonder what the smell of home even is

[ceasarslegion]

Forced displacement isn't like, good suddenly when you do it to the citizens of the Bad Country. Although I guess I can't count on the "the problem with dictators is that they aren't left wing" website not to say "the problem with the apartheid state is that the wrong people are being forced out of a given area instead of the right people to force out"

I mean I thought we all agreed that random ass Russian citizens weren't at fault for the actions of their government, but I guess it's different when the demographic is primarily Jewi-oops I almost said the quiet part out loud I guess I'm a violent zionist who supports genocidal bombing campaigns now

[crown-of-nimbus]

Projecting onto JD as a TCK but specifically during Freeze Your Brain

[catchcrows]

anakin, ten years old, who's never heard obi-wan speak in anything but a coruscanti basic accent: hey master, you're back! how did your meeting with the council go?

obi-wan, who hung around the little stewjon district in coruscant as a kid because qui-gon thought it would be good for him: ye ever wanty just wrap yersel up in durafoil nice and cosy and then just kriffing get right inty the nanowave and blow yerself up tae kark?

[i-didnt-hate-it]

Okay I've just gotta talk about The Acolyte for a second. Potential spoilers for episode 7.

I'll be honest, this last episode wasn't as cool as the previous few for me. The flashbacks just aren't doing it for me, I'm not sure why.

But one "issue" that I really thought a lot about episode 7, that I feel like people are probably gonna complain about (because "fans" will complain about anything), is how what the Jedi do doesn't make any sense.

Because yeah, it kinda doesn't. But I'm not saying the writing doesn't make sense. Honestly I'm not talking about the writing at all. In universe, what the Jedi do om Brendok doesn't make sense. But it's also EXACTLY what the Jedi would do. They're just too high on themselves to realize that they're doing something crazy until it goes as bad as it possibly could.

This is the High Republic era. The Jedi are so incredibly untainted that they think they can do no wrong. They only begin to think about how taking children away from their homes might be a bad thing when it results the destruction of the entire community and almost the loss of their own.

Like the only reason this particular kidnapping by the Jedi is noteworthy is because a bunch of people died because of the Jedi interfering. And considering how the counsel covered it up, who knows how many more times "accidents" like this happened?

The Jedi really look at a completely alien culture, see kids that they can manipulate, and say, "is for me?"

I've seen things comparing Sol to Qui-Gon Jinn, but... no? Sol is like Qui-Gon, if instead of making a deal to free Anakin, he just said "hey Shmi, you know I have a right to test your kid, right?" and then killed Shmi, and blamed the destruction of Mos Espa on C-3PO after he started a fire. Like if in the Phantom Menace they just flew away with Anakin while Tatooine burns behind them, that's pretty much what Sol did.

The only reason Sol seems so wisened in the "present" is because he's had 16 years to think about what a big mistake he made.