#US-centric post

[sivavakkiyar]

it has been 2 years since Biden was elected, and there’s still no real sense of what it means to be living “in the Biden years”. No real grasp at a zeitgeist, no real framework. Still just post-Trump, or end of history stuff.

[mjec]

Just imagine a world where in 2007 Bush said "sure you can get married to someone of the same sex, but you don't get access to the earned income tax credit." So done, right? Because there's technically nothing stopping you from getting married. And hell, if you're wealthy enough, it doesn't even make a difference!

Not only would that not be marriage equality, it's an insult to suggest that's in any way ok. In some sense it's even worse: we're going to pretend to treat you equally, but actually treat you worse. That's basically what's happening here.

fucking hate the "well it's not technically marriage inequality that disabled people can't get married without losing their benefits because no one's stopping you from getting married" yeah something is stopping us from getting married. Loss of medical care. Homelessness. Hunger. Death. I don't know how to tell you this but SSI is not a thing that you get because you could technically get a job but you don't feel like it. The process is awful, it's dehumanizing and it can take years even if you're clearly disabled. If you can work you do work, and if you can't work you can't afford to lose your "benefits". It's eugenics plain and simple, it came from a time where you could only fuck if you were married and they wanted to de-incentivize disabled people from fucking so we would stop existing.

[ruporas]

endless love!

[ID Two drawing collage pages of Vash and Wolfwood from Trigun Maximum. In the first collage, top corner, Wolfwood looks upwards disgruntled with a flushed expression, lying against a pillow, as his hair is being pet by Vash's hand. Next shows Vash and Wolfwood from behind, Wolfwood with his top bare and hickies covers around his nape area. Vash lifts hair away from his nape and asks, "More?" Wolfwood nervously says, "No." Next is a side profile of Vash, his arms around Wolfwood from behind while Wolfwood rests his hands against Vash's arms. Next to this are two smaller drawings; Vash turns to Wolfwood and says repetitively, "Wolfwood, Wolfwood..." Wolfwood, not looking at him, says "What?" He finally turns his head and looks shocked as he exclaims, "So close!" Vash says plainly, "You just noticed?" Below these is a drawing of Vash and Wolfwood sitting together as Vash kisses and hugs him from behind with his right arm around Wolfwood's neck and his left hand around his side. He also has his right leg propped against Wolfwood's knee. Bottom of the page has a comic. Wolfwood looks annoyed, speaking to himself, "Where is that idiot?! Need to get out of town before--" A chat bubble exclaims, "Wolfwood!" The next panel shows Vash running from the townspeople, small text saying "Get him! Vash the stampede!". Wolfwood, mad and about to pull the Punisher off his shoulder, says, "Argh, you fucking dumbass!" Vash exclaims, "Ah, don't!" before pulling Wolfwood into a quick kiss. He then tugs on Wolfwood's collar and says, "There's no need to shoot, just run!" Wolfwood stammers, "R-right..." with a flushed, dumbstruck expression.

Second collage; Top left, Wolfwood spoons Vash in bed, his arms around his chest and the other beneath Vash's head. Vash has his hand on top of Wolfwood's as he sleeps while Wolfwood lies awake. Behind this drawing is faint sketches of Vash's face. In a small panel, Wolfwood hides in Vash's neck as he mumbles to himself "Stop. Stop thinking embarrassing things, Wolfwood..." Beneath this drawing is another of them in bed, Vash now turned to Wolfwood and a hand on his cheek as he kisses him good morning. In a simpler style, Vash wraps an arm tightly around wolfwood with the text "snork mimimi" next to him while Wolfwood says, "We need to get up. Spikey! HEY!" In this corner, there are faint sketches of Vash and Wolfwood; one of them looking at each other; Vash kissing Wolfwood's forehead; Wolfwood saying, "Hand" with an outstretch hand and Vash says "ok" behind a drawing of them holding hands, both turned away from each other shyly. Next is a 4 panel comic. First shows Wolfwood's face getting squished by Vash's hands with the text "squish" around his face. Next, his cheeks are stretched with the text "Chee--" Wolfwood then hits Vash's face with his palm, exclaimining "That hurts!" The last shows Vash on Wolfwood's lap, smiling to himself as he continues to have Wolfwood's face in his hands. Next to this is another comic; A close up of their hands, Vash holding Wolfwood's with both of his. He then kisses the palm of Wolfwood's palm and says, "They're soft!" Wolfwood looks at him with flushed cheeks, "There's no way that's true..." END ID]

[katabay]

my knight-monk agenda strikes again, but this was less of a 'I read something that made me experience several emotions and a strike of inspiration at once,' and more of a 'wouldn't it be fucked up if the bejeweled skeleton saints came to life and and started. eating people. or something. in revenge. medieval catholic horror, or an older horror of not being buried right. zombies, even. a complete bastardization of holy visuals. zombies.'

it's a far away idea, but I still wanted to play around with font layouts. like, if I DID make it into a full comic: these would be visual vibes, perhaps.

it's also a little bit about the kind of intimacy that these kinds of spaces provide, or in the case of this monk: the heavy trauma of war and the death of your brother, the escape to a secluded monastery, spiritual brotherhood to make up for your dead brother, but your role as a physician keeps pulling you back to this violence you want to escape. physician, heal thyself, only you have a holy calling to serve those in need, so instead: physician, open up your wounds again. saint jude, patron saint of lost causes, give us a fucking hand here, man. amen.

Homosexuality in the Renaissance: Behavior, Identity, and Artistic Expression, James M. Saslow

and this one is about earlier history than the medieval period that this comic is set in, but the monk character is sort of an exploration of earlier themes. a little bit. I like overlapping eras with each other, I've done it before and I'll do it again. this character is an exploration of some other stuff too, but mostly this book was interesting to read

From Monastery to Hospital: Christian Monasticism and the Transformation of Health Care in Late Antiquity, Andrew T Crislip

bsky ⭐ pixiv ⭐ pillowfort ⭐ cohost

[skittishlikefromthewar]

I think about these two moments a lot

of people hanging in each other's arms, being held up when they're overwhelmed (be it in a time of heartbreak or even in a time of joy and relief). And about how so much of Jamie's journey was about him growing strong enough and supported and stable enough to be able to pay that grace forward and hand it out to others.

[royalarchivist]

[A sad violin song plays over an image of a sad hamster]

Pac: This doesn't have anything to do with me – I wear a blue sweatshirt, you're crazy, this mouse doesn't even have a sweatshirt, this hamster! [Reading chat] Am I a depressed hamster?

[ Transcript continued ↓ ]*

–

Pac: Actually– that's fine! I embrace that idea – of course I'm going to be depressed, are you crazy? [He hits his desk, then starts counting off people on his fingers] Fit is gone, Richarlyson is gone, Ramon is gone, Bagi and Empanada who were always there when we were there are also gone, I haven't seen them! It's just me and Tubbo, and sometimes Philza shows up.

Pac: I lost Chume Labs, I lost the Favela, I lost Murder Mystery, I lost Ilha Chume Labs, it's crazy! Look at how much I've lost, and I've gained nothing! Of course I'm going to be depressed, are you crazy?! How am I supposed to be happy?!

Pac: [Reading chat] "You have us Pac," that's true, thank you. No, that's true, sorry.

* NOTE: Please note that this is an incomplete transcript, as I was primarily relying on Aypierre's translation mod at the time and if I am not confident of the translation, I do not include it. As always, please feel free to add on translations or message me corrections.

[trans-androgyne]

To get a proper picture of modern trans oppression, you need to recognize the ways trans issues have varied across history and still vary heavily across places. I made a post the other day about how things have changed in my country for trans people over the past 50-100 years, but it was incredibly US-centric, a huge issue when trans discussions on here tend to be western-centric in general.

I feel most folks recognize that where things are bad for queer people generally, they're terrible for trans women and similar groups. It's illegal to be queer in one-third of all UN member countries, and in 13 cross-dressing is explicitly criminalized. Such laws have often targeted transfeminine expression specifically. And of course, Trans Rights as we know them (such as access to medical transition, ability to change gender markers, anti-discrimination laws) are a struggle in even relatively accepting countries; there are plenty of trans and other gender non-normative folks that don't have access to the most basic rights I do as a trans person in the United States. Problems trans folks face here, like trans women being forced into sex work, are even more prevalent and severe elsewhere in the world.

But fewer people seem to recognize that where things are bad for cis women, they're terrible for trans men and similar groups. There are so many places where those considered women are put under much heavier appearance and behavior restrictions than here and I can guess that trying to undergo any amount of masculine transition would not turn out well for them. Where I live, we may have gotten better than 50 years ago about not treating women as babymaking property, but there are 46 countries where marital rape is not a crime, while 40% of folks globally live under restrictive abortion laws. I know forced pregnancy as a form of controlling and detransitioning trans men and mascs happens enough where I live, and I cannot imagine what it would be like to live a transmasculine life under these conditions. I'm privileged by where I was born, and hope to find more stories of trans and gnc lives in other places. If anyone has any stories to share or somewhere to point folks towards to educate ourselves, it would be incredibly welcomed and appreciated.

[littleberrybat]

Don't look at the polls don't look at the polls it's too early don't look at the polls don't lo—

*looks at the polls*

oh I'm going to be sick

[wren-kitchens]

mildly frustrated at how many 'we need to talk about lizzie more' posts ive seen and the distinct lack of actual posts of art or writing about lizzie that ive seen cross my dash

like guys i thought we wanted to talk about lizzie and not the fandom's problems when is that happening

[facelesspassport]

Today I heard someone say that there is an "insecurity epidemic among young men" and I am just so fucking happy someone has FINALLY given me the words to describe what is happening to the world. I keep hearing whinging about "men's mental health crisis" and "male loneliness" and "male suicide rates" blahblah in spite of the fact that none of that stuff is actually an issue. Women's depression and rates of suicide attempts have remained consistently higher than men's over the years, and if we look at sex stats you'll see that the rise of loneliness is actually affecting women at very similar rates to men (12% and 14% celibacy rates in the US, respectively). Not to mention the suicide attempts of young women and girls have sky-rocketed in the last couple of years. Suicidal ideation in girls in my country is currently double that of boys. In spite of all this we still see males lashing out en masse, claiming that "men are under attack", "women are privileged", and feminism is "ruining men's lives". Even though none of their claims have any basis in reality there is still an obvious problem here- something is very disturbed in the modern male psyche; but I have not seen anyone accurately label the issue until today. There is an insecurity epidemic among men. Women are finally attending classes, entering the workplace, and gaining voting rights in most countries around the world. These changes are a recent development and they are making modern men question their place in society- as they should. Sadly, instead of taking this time to self reflect, men are desperately trying to stop women's suffrage and cry "abuse" whenever we hold firm. What we are seeing is a big, glorified tantrum, not a "mental health crisis". I am not sure how we would go about fixing this problem but I'm glad that I am finally able to name it!! I thank D'Angelo Wallace for the help.

[simptasia]

LOST: Season One

[jingerpi]

hi US-Americans who feel the suffering of being proletarian: yes you suffer because you are a worker, even in the imperial core. however, if you consider for even a little bit you will understand that there are workers in other countries, countries which your country oppresses with embargoes and military coups, among other things. I don't think there is a single person who is saying that there is no oppression for being a worker in the imperial core, they're just saying you are in the imperial core, and as such don't experience many of the oppressions imperial periphery workers do. the analogy is by no means 1-1, but consider if you someone said "gosh, I'm tired of cis privilege, cis people don't know how bad it is to be trans" and then someone responded with "well actually I'm a woman, so I do experience sexism" that's just fundamentally not what it's about, yeah? that's how you sound when you argue that you don't experience privileges for being in the imperial core. again, the analogy isn't 1-1, there are specific differences and nuances I don't want to flatten, but you can understand that fundamentally the axis' of oppression are different right? one is about being a victim of imperialism, and one is about being a victim of domestic capitalism. please for yourself and others learn to distinguish between these things and axis' of oppression generally. I promise it will only lead to good

[dreameroftheblue]

bunch of recent crowley studies + a few doodles from memory; sorting my wing ref folder made me wanna practice some less common poses/angles... so of course they all became God's Favourite Demon™. because he lives in my brain and hands and demands to be released

(listen I know that the wings are meant to be metaphysical/spiritual/etc,, but also. monsterpeople with realistic proportions doing natural sorts of movement will never not be fun lol)

[professionalchaoticdumbass]

if i see another “just start hrt now :)” post i am going to start guilt tripping posttrans people i swear to fucking god

[uncanny-tranny]

The idea that trans people in "safe states" shouldn't still fight for their rights isn't the right thing to do, I think. In fact, I'd caution against complacency. We have to ensure that safe states stay safe states. You cannot assume your rights when they are being taken away in many other states

[aropride]

every day i find out more "health science" thats used to justify fatphobia is bullshit. for instance did you know that the fda's recommended 2000 calories a day that's on all the nutrition labels is made up and also not even a recommendation. first of all, The intent of the 2000 number and the percentages on nutrition labels is as a quick way to gauge what, for instance, 500mg of sodium is, not as actual health advice. they got the number by taking a survey of people and asking how many calories they had per day (and people probably underreported, as people tend to do). women said 1600-2200 calories/day, men said 2000-3000 calories/day, and children said 1800-2500. the fda thought about making the "average" used on nutrition labels 2,350 calories per day, but the people (average consumers btw, not scientists, just random people) who responded to a survey about what the benchmark should be said 2350 Sounded too high, and nutrition educators thought it would make people overeat if the average was 2350, so they rounded it down by 20% to 2,000. literally they took a survey of average people, lowered the numbers so americans wouldnt be "encouraged" to eat "too much," and ran with it . bonkers