#USA going backwards

[raincitygirl76]

I wish there had been out queer teachers at my high school when I was closeted and terrified. Of course, I was born in 1976, and graduated high school in 1994, so they wouldn’t have dared speak to their students about it. They could’ve lost their jobs.

There were rumours about some of the teachers at my high school, of course. Mr D the biology teacher was known to own a house with his male “roommate” and their 2 dogs. And there was a lot of gossip about Mrs S, a French teacher who had a baby with no husband. And was very butch, so my fellow students gossiped that she was a lesbian who’d gotten pregnant via artificially insemination. I have no idea if she really was queer or not.

And there was poor Mr W, my Grade 4 teacher from elementary school (1985-1986 school year). He died of AIDS in early 1990, when I was in Grade 8. My younger sister was still at the elementary school I’d gone to when he was my Grade 4 teacher. There was a HUGE amount of gossip about Mr W after his death, because his obituary actually listed his cause of death as AIDS complications, instead of hiding it.

And as well as his parents, siblings, and various other relatives, a “longtime companion” with a male name was listed in the obit. That caused a big furore among the parents at my old elementary school. He was still teaching Grade 4 when I was in my final year of elementary school (Grade 7, 1988-98). But he was obviously sick with something by the start of that school year. I didn’t know at the time what, of course.

Mr W didn’t return after Christmas break and a long term sub took over his Grade 4 class. So he disappeared from the school in January 1989, and then nobody heard anything until spring 1990 when his obituary was published in the paper. I guess it was still a pretty big deal for AIDS deaths to be clearly labelled as such in obituaries written by their families. Or for same sex partners to be listed in the obit as if they were family members.

Sounds like Mr W’s birth family was supportive. Which was not always the case back then, and is still not always the case. But at least the general public in 2023 is better informed than the general public was in 1990 about how you can and can’t catch HIV. Nobody at my old elementary school knew what he was sick with until he died. Well, maybe some of the teachers did know, but they didn’t talk to the parents or kids about it.

So Mr D and Mrs S, the high school teachers who seemed happy enough but had lots of rumours flying around them. And Mr W, dead in his early thirties. There may have been more queer teachers, but they were probably deeper in the closet than those 3.

And here in 2023 we have Heartstopper, with multiple queer teen characters, and multiple queer teachers supporting them openly. I think my high school years might have been slightly less miserable if I hadn’t been closeted and terrified of anyone finding out.

I’m glad things are not quite as crummy for this generation as for mine. There’s still a lot of work left to do, but we’ve come a long way since the early 1990s when I was the same age as the Heartstopper characters.

Although I admit I’m a little jealous of Gen Z queer kids. Not very noble of a middle aged woman to be jealous, but there it is. At 16, it would’ve never occurred to me in a million years that same-sex marriage would ever become legal. I wouldn’t have imagined it in my lifetime.

And the idea that there would be multiple TV shows and movies with queer characters in them also boggles me. Queer characters whose queer romances are the main story, rather than textually straight characters being coded as queer, or Very Special Episodes where a minor character (usually never heard from again) is revealed to be queer.

I realize media representation isn’t everything. Laws need to catch up too. Yeah, there are Heartstopper and Young Royals on Netflix, and Red White and Royal Blue on Amazon Prime soon. But queer Texans and Floridians are still getting fucked over (especially the trans and non-binary members of our community).

Nonetheless, given how far we’ve come since the early 1990s when I was in high school, I am hopeful that the likes of Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott will have trouble taking us back to the bad old days on a permanent basis.

HEARTSTOPPER (2022 - )

2.03 - Promise

[necroromantics]

🪓 — Canon Facts About Ticci Toby

all of these are directly stated by kastoway himself in deviantart posts/comments, instagram stories, or tobys canon story

I. Toby has a split eyebrow from the car crash

II. He only attended grade school for a short time when we was 12 before being homeschooled due to bullying

III. Kastoway describes Toby's eye colour as "dark brown/black"

IV. Kastoway created Toby as a fan character when he was 12 just for fun. He never expected him to get the attention that he did

V. Toby was stated to be 19 in 2013, which means Toby was born on April 28th, 1994. Today he'll be turning 30 years old

VI. In Toby's age chart, he is shown to be in a straitjacket at 30 years old, and described to "not have much time left on his plate", "any bit of sanity in him is probably gone", and "lives out the rest of his days in a mental asylum and/or gets put down"

VII. He has little to no memory of his life before becoming a proxy

VIII. When he was a toddler, he'd carry around a cow stuffie and put bandaids all over it

IX. Toby was killed by Clockwork, who was possessed by Zalgo, sometime between ages 19-25 (presumably 20-22). Kastoway had vague plans for Toby to "miraculously survive" and live up until around 30 years old, with no contact to the others

X. Toby chews his hands to the point of eating his own flesh, which is why he wears gloves

XI. He is born and raised in Denver, Colorado, USA. He has German ancestry

XII. His theme song is noted to be "I'm Not Alright" by Shinedown

XIII. His personality is described to be, "volatile, friendly at times, sarcastic at times, natural born trouble-maker, mostly up-beat"

XIV. In an older, outdated reference sheet, his friends are listed as "Jeff The Killer, BEN, BOB, Smile Dog, Slenderman, Splendorman, Mr. Widemouth, Ragface, Eyeless Jack", and his rivals are listed as "The Rake, Masky, Enderman, Zalgo"

XV. His mask is a mouth guard, like the one Hannibal Lecter wears

XVI. He is canonically shipped with Clockwork

XVII. Toby has "big ass eyebrows" (Kastoways words himself)

XVIII. Toby doesn't hate Masky, he just acts like an annoying little brother around him because he's jealous that Slender favours him. He's chill around Hoodie, but they don't talk much

XIX. Kastoway was inspired by Marble Hornets to create Ticci Toby

XX. Toby's tics are described as to "uncontrollably crack his neck, twitch around, bend over backwards"

XXI. In his updated appearance (the sketch made by Kastoway in 2014 with the cheek gash), he's described to be in his early 20s. He also said he was thinking of having the cheek gash be caused by the fire, but said that Toby eating through his own cheek was "a really good idea"

XXII. Toby was originally going to be a cannibal before Kastoway put the idea on the back burner, though he says "he'll eat some of the things he kills kind of like Eyeless Jack"

XXIII. He had CIPA, Tourettes, Schizophrenia and PTSD after the car crash

XXIV. His older sisters name is Lyra, his mothers name is Connie, and his father is canonically unnamed (though he's typically called Frank by the fandom, this is not stated by Kastoway)

XXV. He was originally going to be 5'4....... But ended up being made 5'6 (lucky bastard)

Thats all I can think of right now... Happy Birthday Toby

[candela888]

After much research I have decided that vampiric entities in the Americas come in three different types, based on region. If u have any questions feel free to ask.

Vampiric entities of Mexico & Southwest USA:

Ojai vampire

Chupacabra (dog-like variety)

Tlahuelpuchi

Lechuza

Vampiro de Belen

Cihuateteo

Witch-like or animalistic. Tend to feed on defenseless children or animals. Many can shapeshift, usually into animals like wolves or owls.

Vampiric entities of South America:

Pishtaco

Abchanchu

Peuchen

Chonchon

Capelobo

Patasola

Tunda

Boraro

Animalistic and monstrous, many of these are barely even humanoid, usually horiffic to look at. Tend to go after adults, and are usually malicious. Many have backwards feet.

Vampiric entities of the Atlantic Coast:

New England Vampire panic

NYC vampire sightings

Hag, Ole-Higue, & Boo Hag

Chupacabra (alien variety)

Vampiro de Moca

Loogaroo/Rougarou

Soucouyant

Asema

New Orleans vampire sightings

Jacques St. Germain

Almost always humanoid, usually undead, sometimes witch-like, tend to attack people of all ages.

[2023himbotournament]

Said this on my main and I'll say it here too:

1: White Christians historically have done this shzt a lot but people only seem to actually care/acknowledge it's a horrible thing when it's done by minorities. (It's not right obviously, but like you should be caring about it ALL THE TIME not just when you can use it to vilify people. Like all the various times this shzt had been used in colonizations by all sorts of groups, even non-white and non-christian. But like we have a lot of cases of white Christians doing it because Europeans kinda pioneered colonization y'know, even if colonizations happened even before the British started doing it-)

2: a lot of Iranians fzcking hate the regime like talk to my family have a lot we can say about it. But like crappy governments are just. A thing that exist. Everywhere. It's not unique to Iran guys like you realize how many places used to be in a similar spot to it or are still in a similar spot right now? Like istg it's an extension of the white savior complex like. How about you just accept that we don't need westerners to sort out shzt out for us? Telling an Iranian that the regime sucks is like telling literally anyone that the sky is blue like Thanks captain obvious /s, but we already know that. Just let us have our own fxcking history on our own terms.

but like also don't start making posts sucking up to the regime please I don't wanna see people go in that direction like my parents have told me enough about growing up in Iran and also literally in October around when this whole shztstorm began the morality police killed a 16 year-old girl under similar conditions to Amini. Literally my age by the way, I think I cried. and no one talked about it because I guess caring about what happens IN iran is too much for people. Misogyny and potential ethnic cleansing (given that both Amini and this girl were Kurdish and I heard some people say there was like a pattern for this-), people can't care about that because Iranians were protesting it and it would make West Asians look like human beings who care about morals. Instead they pretended to care about Muslims during that and called the protests Islamophobic and otherwise ignored them. Bullshzt. Or at least that was the response Amini, when people didn't just ignore it. But for the second girl I can't even remember her name because people literally JUST ignored it.

oh yeah and since I saw someone do this in the notes on one post I think: if you call Iranians Arab or lump us under Arab just know you're being racist, literally only two percent of Iranians are Arab. Most Iranians belong to Iranian ethnic groups, mainly Persian. But like there's a lot of ethnic groups in Iran. Please don't assume that West Asian = Arab that's like saying that East Asian = Japanese or something.

[headspace-hotel]

Many people, especially USAmericans, are very resistant to knowing the plants and living according to the ways of the plants. They lash out with a mix of arrogance and fear: "Don't you know what bad things would happen if we lived a different way? There is a REASON for living this way. Would you have us go Back—backward to the time without vaccines or antibiotics????"

Ah, yes, the two immutable categories that all proposals for change fit into: Backward Change and Forward Change! Either we must invent a a futuristic, entirely new solution with SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY that further industrializes and increases the productivity of our world, or we must give up vaccines and antibiotics and become starving illiterate medieval peasants.

Every human practice anywhere on Earth that has declined, stopped, or become displaced by another practice, was clearly objectively worse than whatever replaced it. You see, the only possible reason a way of life could decline or disappear is that it sucked and had it coming anyway!!! Pre-industrial human history is worthless except as a cautionary tale about how miserable we would all be without *checks notes* factories, fossil fuels and colonialism. Obviously!

Anyway, who do you think benefits from the idea that pesticide-dependent, corporate-controlled industrialized monoculture farming liberates us all from spending our short, painful lives as filthy, miserable peasants toiling in the fields?

First of all, I think it's silly to act like farming is a uniquely awful way to live. I can't believe I have to say this, but the awful part of being a medieval peasant was the oppression and poverty, not the fact that harvesting wheat is a lot of work and cows are stinky. Same goes for farm labor in the modern USA: the bad part is that most people working farms are undocumented migrant workers that are getting treated like garbage and who can't complain about it because their boss will rat them out to ICE.

Work is just work. Any work has dignity when the people doing it are paid properly and not being abused. Abuse and human trafficking is rampant in agriculture, but industrialization and consolidation of small farms into gigantic corporate owned farms sure as hell isn't making it better.

Is working on a farm somehow more miserable than working in a factory, a fast food restaurant, or a retail store? Give me a break. "At least I'm not doing physical labor in the sun," you say, at your job where you're forced to stand on concrete for 8 hours and develop chronic pain by age 24.

When you read about small farmers going out of business because of huge corporations, none of them are going "Yay! Now that Giant Corporation has swallowed up all the farms in the area, we can all enjoy the luxurious privileges of the industrial era, like working RETAIL!" What you do see a lot of is farmers bitterly grieving the loss of their way of life.

And also, the fact is, sustainable forms of polyculture farming that create a functional ecosystem made up of many different useful and edible plants are actually way MORE efficient at producing food than a monoculture. The reason we don't do it as much, is that it can't be industrialized where everything is harvested with machines.

Some places folks are starting to get the idea and planting two crops together in alternating rows, letting the mutualistic relationship between plants boost the yields of both, but indigenous people in many parts of the world have been doing this stuff basically forever. I read about a style of agroforestry from Central America that has TWENTY crops all together on the same field.

Our modern system of farming is necessary for feeding the world? Bullshit! Our technology is very powerful and useful, but our harmful monocultures, dangerous pesticides, and wasteful usage of land and resources are making the system very inefficient and severely degrading nature's ability to provide for us.

What is needed, is a SYNTHESIS of the power and insights of technology and science, with the ancient wisdom and knowledge gained by closely and carefully observing Nature. We do not need to reject one, to embrace the other! They should be friends!

Our system thinks land is only used for one thing at a time. Even our science often thinks this way. A corn field has the purpose of producing corn, and no other purpose, so all other plants in the corn must be killed, and it must be a monoculture of only corn.

But this means that the symbiosis between different plants that help each other is destroyed, so we must pollute the earth with fertilizers that wash into bodies of water and cause eutrophication, where algae explode in number and turn the water to green goo. Nature always has variety and diversity with many plants sharing the same space. It supports much more animal life (we are animals!) this way. The Three Sisters" are the perfect example of mutualism between plants being used in an agricultural environment. The planting of corn, beans, and squash together has been traditionally used clear across the North American continent.

And in North America, the weeds we have here are mostly edible plants too. Some of them were even domesticated themselves! Imagine a garden where every weed that pops up is also an edible or otherwise useful crop, and therefore a welcomed friend! So when weeds like Amaranth and Sunflower pop up in your field, that should not be a cause for alarm, but rather the system of symbiosis working as it should.

A field of one single crop is limited in how much it can produce, because one crop fits into a single niche in what should be a whole ecosystem, and worse, it requires artificial inputs to make up for what the rest of the plant community would normally provide. The field with twenty crops does not produce the same amount as the monoculture field divided in twenty ways, but instead produces much more while being a habitat for wild animals, because each plant has its own niche.

[a-very-tired-jew]

So we all saw the MIT sukkah and how bad that was.

Are you ready for NYU’s?

Because not only is it bad, but the persons behind it are either Jews with no connection whatsoever to their culture and can’t be bothered to do a basic fact check or it’s goyim who can’t be bothered to do a basic fact check.

That’s right. It says “l’chaim intifada” on their post. Yes, the structure is made out of wood. Good job for not using an event tent as the base like MIT. But you've built it under a tree, a no-no, and just said “To life intifada” on your “solidarity” sukkah poster.

That’s as bad as the backwards Hebrew.

It’s a nonsense phrase and makes no sense.

So what else is in the post?

Points 1 through 3 are standard for these organizations. Others that have more experience regarding the legalities of these asks have broken down why it won't happen for 1 and 2.

Point 3 is just xenophobic and discriminatory, and shows the hypocrisy of these orgs. I hate whataboutisms, but this same academic boycott is not being held for other countries that have committed or are committing comparable or worse actions. I have not seen calls to boycott Russian, Chinese, or Iranian academics and condemn research alliances or remote campuses.

Why is it only Israel?

(we know why)

Points 4 and 5 are what we expect as well. But here's the thing. Point 4? So much research and innovation comes through military contracts and funding. Medical entomology alone is reliant on massive funding from the military and was actually established by the US Military as well. The break throughs in treatments for vectored diseases typically come from their projects.

This is going to piss people off. But cutting funding projects that are associated with our military industrial complex is actually really bad for innovation, research, and scientific advancement.

"They can get the funds elsewhere".

No the fuck they cannot. Tell me you know nothing about research in academia without telling me.

But sure, cut funding to things associated with the MI-complex. I'm sure the DHS and DOD projects that are working on medical innovations will definitely help "Free Palestine".

Point 5 states it is "No Normalization", but the text reads more that they want to undo the Find Out portion of the Fuck Around they've been doing all year. As well as redefine antisemitism the way they want so that their dog whistles can be allowed and then it gets to the normalization thing. Which is just a way of saying they don't want peace. I'm not surprised as normalization processes lead to peace, and these groups don't want that. We've seen them eschew peace repeatedly and endorse violence.

But they'll tell you they're a peace movement.

Point 6 is just odd to include. 1 through 5 are standard, but 6 gets into the academic pay scale and structure and that just feels tacked on. It's trying to put a rider to ban abortion at the back end of the agricultural bill. It's trying to say "while I have you attention, also this."

I'll be the first one to say the academic pay structure is fucked and needs to be overhauled (The Cali University system has had multiple protests because Professors can't afford to even live in the cities they teach in). But putting pay structure issues onto this is just "everything relates to Gaza!" nonsense. We've seen countless occurrences of these activists trying to link any and every movement and concern to I/P throughout the year and it's just ridiculous.

Also note the text "expanding further into the city and across the globe" makes it seem like they view the university they are attending as a colonizer as well. If such is the case, and they're against colonization as vehemently as they attest to, then why are they still attending as their tuition is funding colonization? Yes, this is a "why don't you leave" argument, but they have the option to drop out or transfer. It's not leaving the USA, it's leaving or changing schools (and that's much more doable).

Point 7 isn't really a point. It's the same thing we've seen from anti-Israel groups across college campuses in the USA a long time. The problem is that they deny Zionism/Zionist has become a major dog whistle that has a history of being one ever since the Soviet era. Is every instance of anti-Zionism antisemitism? Of course not. But because major antisemitism groups, militias, and governments have used it for decades as a cover it is often viewed as such.

There's no denying that.

The problem is that you have college kids who are earnest in their beliefs that they don't see how they're being manipulated to use said dog whistles. It's especially worse when it comes to anti-Zionist Jews because they will say/endorse absolutely horrendous antisemitic rhetoric while justifying it through "Don't worry, I'm a Jew".

Unfortunately the sukkah they've built and the "L'chaim Intifada" brings in to question how Jewish they are. Even secular Jews would know that L'chaim means "To Life" by simply existing within our culture. So they're either extremely detached and didn't fact check, they're religious Jews who don't know enough Hebrew and didn't fact check, or they're goyim who are cosplaying as Jews and didn't fact check.

Initially I was leaning towards the detached as being behind this as I personally know several detached Jews who are using their ethnicity to defend antisemitism in NYC and by these groups. And because this is NYU it's more than likely that detached Leftist Jews are behind this with support from goyim than simply goyim alone. Which shows how little is know of our culture in general and means they really shouldn't be relied upon as arbiters of what is offensive to Jews and what isn't.

However, there is nothing Jewish about what they post. They even have photos of them in the sukkah and there's not a single kippah in sight. It's all keffiyehs. You'd think that if they wanted to show solidarity there'd be some variation in garb. You'd think that if they wanted to show that Jewish religious traditions and culture are welcoming that you'd have some visibly Jewish persons in your sukkah sitting side by side with keffiyeh wearing activists in this "solidarity sukkah"

But there's not.

Now this isn't to say I know who is behind this group, who the members are, or what the agenda is.

But this organization has only existed since November 2023, regularly cross posts with NYU SJP, and endorsed/justified 10/7 as well as the anniversary events celebrating it.

Come to your own conclusions as you will, but I know what I think.

[eeldritchblast]

They’re Not “Playersexual”, You’re Just Biphobic

(I was going to save this until September 23 because I thought that would be an appropriate date, but the Ask I got included in this essay just put me over the edge. So, here it is now. Buckle up.)

Bisexuality/Pansexuality is the attraction to people regardless of gender. About 4% of the USA alone (over 13.6 million people) openly identify as bisexual, according to Gallup’s latest polling. But unfortunately, bi/pan identities are so scary to some folks that they need to make up terms to avoid calling their favourite characters such. Thus, the term “playersexual” was born: a term to describe a game character who is attracted to the player character... regardless of gender.

If that sounds like it’s just a circuitous way of describing a bi/pan character, it’s because it is.

I first heard of the term “playersexual” almost a decade ago, from a Dragon Age fan complaining that Dorian was gay and thus it was “unfair” that she couldn’t romance him as female character. This fan said they wished BioWare would go back to Dragon Age II’s model of everyone being “playersexual” for “equality”.

Now, if you’ve actually played DA:2 and you’re not a bigot, you’re probably rolling your eyes just as hard as I did when I first read such a ridiculous statement. Well, prepare for this next one:

“When you make a male Hawke, Anders and Fenris are gay and Merrill is straight. Opposite is true if you make a female Hawke.”

These people are so afraid of bisexuality that they cannot even fathom its existence. They can believe in dragons and magic, but they cannot believe that a character is simply bi/pan. I find this especially hilarious for Anders, considering he had a canonical boyfriend, as confirmed both in-game and in The World of Thedas: Vol. 2 book.

I truly thought we were past this nonsense in 2023. I really, truly thought that. But then Baldur’s Gate 3 was released in full, and suddenly these same fuckers came out of the woodwork to bend over backwards avoiding calling these characters anything except bi/pan.

Note how in the above Ask, the anonymous questioner actually doubles down on avoiding addressing these two characters in particular as bi/pan!

“Playersexual” doesn’t even truly work for the characters of Baldur’s Gate 3 regardless, because the definition is oriented around attraction to the player character… which these characters are not exclusively attracted to. Here are some examples that prove otherwise:

If neither Lae’zel nor Astarion/Gale/Wyll are in a romance with the PC, Lae’zel will say she plans on propositioning one of the men for sex at the night of the tiefling party. She also flirts with Karlach in party banter.

Shadowheart expresses interest in Karlach, (“I like her. She looks like she could throw me over her shoulder and carry me to safety, should the need arise”) as well as Halsin if he leaves the party, (“he may have been misguided, but I liked looking at him.”)

Astarion flirts with nearly everyone in the party, but to just pick two examples: he mentions Wyll is the type of princely figure he used to dream about marrying, and says to Shadowheart “such a grim name for such a beautiful flower”.

Gale used to date Mystra. He also debatably flirts with Astarion by offering him some blood, after Cazador’s battle.

Wyll flirts with Lae’zel in party banter, and also refers to Halsin as a “delight” and “hunk”.

Karlach seems to have a little crush on Jaheira by the way she reacts to meeting her. She also says of Halsin, “everyone in this camp wants to climb that oak”.

Please keep in mind these are just a few examples I’ve picked out from screening through the dialogue, and there’s even more that prove the attraction to different genders these characters have is not related solely to the player. It’s just part of their identities.

In the Ask sent to me above, the anonymous questioner said they “cannot see Karlach as anything except lesbian and Astarion as gay.” This is just as bad as saying they are “playersexual” in my opinion, because yet again it’s erasing their bisexuality/pansexuality. Worse yet, it’s doing it because of the way the characters act. You cannot measure queerness based on actions and appearances being in line or not with queer stereotypes—it’s not a scale! And bi/pan folks are just as queer as lesbian and gay men, by virtue of simply being bi/pan!

All in all, I think this entire “playersexual” debate boils down to the fact that some people still refuse to see bi/pan identities as anything but “discount straight”. And that’s why people are rightfully angry when folks try to further this myth by pretending bi/pan characters don’t actually exist.

[cloud-based-and-rainpilled]

Neil Gaiman accidentally wrote a gay self insert 30 years ago and my man has been trying to no homo himself out of it ever since 💀💀💀 Michael Sheen hitting them with the ✨“best buddies” ✨ we see you

they renamed the lovers card featuring azicrow to 'the duo' in the tarot deck.... neil is claiming this was based on a miscommunication from his side. apparently the accompanying guidebook still refers to them as lovers at one point. neil also said 'sorry' jdshdsj

ShGzioxcl this is so beautiful. Amazon said “we won’t separate them Neil but I hear you brother we can do a little no homo while keeping them on the same card”

[bibliophilea]

So... this isn't the first time I've seen people being incredibly mean to a whole section of the phandom. It's the first time in a while I've seen a post this bad in the main "danny phantom" tag, though. I have Thoughts™ that have been stewing for a while. Thoughts™ that shouldn't be put in the tags of someone else's post.

I'm not going to link anything. These are just my thoughts, raised to the forefront by recent posts in the main tag.

TLDR: I have two main Thoughts™:

No matter what you ship, I welcome you to this phandom. The folks who openly despise real people for shipping fictional things do not represent all of phandom. Y'all deserve better than being called shitty names. Your ships do not make you a bad person, and I personally welcome you.

To y'all who keep trying to draw a line in the sand to define who is "degenerate" or whose work is "degenerate": the moment you draw that line, you create a way for others to shove people behind that line. And the folks who usually get shoved behind that line and called "degenerate" are lgbtqia+ folks, and sa/csa survivors. It's happened before on LiveJournal and FFN, and it's happening now, irl, with book bannings across the USA (and especially in Florida). The only way to protect lgbtqia+ folks and sa/csa survivors from this abuse is to not draw a line in the sand at all. Don't call folks "degenerate" for any reason, unless you're ready to have that finger pointed back at you by a larger and more negative movement.

If you desire fuller context, it's below the cut.

First: no matter what you ship, I welcome you to this phandom.

The views of hatred and disgust that pop up in this phandom don't represent all of phandom. No fandom is perfect, and we'll always see some form of the "logic of disgust" from some folks in any fandom. But no matter what you ship, and whether or not I personally ship it, I welcome you. You will find no disgust from me as I am now.

If you dig backwards into my blog, you might find some anti sentiment. My introduction to fandom was first FFN, and then tumblr, back when I was more of a black-and-white thinker. I'm pretty sure I experienced some form of shock when I really started digging in to the Wild West that is fandom. I don't know if I ever expressed this shock online. But none of you deserve to be called "degenerates" over liking whatever fictional content you like. Y'all are a part of phandom, too, and any attempts to erase you or deride you are wrong.

We shouldn't be drawing lines in the sand and throwing people behind those lines. That's dangerous.

Second: to y'all who keep drawing lines in the sand, please consider the broader context around you.

The moment you draw a line in the sand to delineate between you and your group of people, and "them" and their group of "degenerates", people find ways to shove other folks, including you and your folks, behind that line. Historically, both in fandom and outside of fandom, the folks who get shoved ALWAYS include lgbtqia+ folks, and sa/csa survivors. We saw this with the purging of LiveJournal. We saw this with the multiple purges of FanFiction.Net. We haven't seen this with ao3, as far as I know; but their stance seems to be very anti-censorship for fandom-historical reasons.

Outside of fandom, we are seeing this now. I'm doing my senior capstone project on book bans. According to PEN America's data, over the past school year alone, 154 counties in 34 states have banned 1557 books 3362 times overall. Over 40% of those bans come from Florida counties. And much of the "reasoning" behind these bans is the same logic of disgust that fandom applies to "problematic ships": They call it pornographic and pedophilia. They call it harmful and age-inappropriate. They largely target books about lgbtqia+ people and people of color. And this year, they've also targeted "books on physical abuse, health and well-being, and themes of grief and death" - expanding their censorship to "protect the children".

Censorship doesn't protect anyone. Instead, it prevents people from holding genuine conversations with real people about the censored material.

And if you're not ready to have that conversation, that's fine! You do you! But don't create an environment where other people can't have that conversation. That only breeds the sort of black-and-white thinking that leads to 1406 book bannings in the state of Florida.

This is just speculation on my part: but I reckon every single person who supports those bans would love to ban the same content you want censored. And they'd call for you and the content you love to be lumped in with them.

We all deserve better than that. So please stop drawing lines in the sand.

[hcsiqs]

kate martin x volleyball player ? love your writing so so much !!

| i see kismet sinking in

• pairing: kate martin x volleyball!reader

• summary: head cannons of kate dating a girl on the hawkeye volleyball team

• warnings: none

thank u sm that’s means the world ☹️☹️

always talking about how she played volleyball in high school

always talking about how you should’ve done played basketball because you would’ve had crazy blocks

“No you don’t understand how crazy people would go for your blocks!” Kate was walking backwards in front of you.

“Kate, people go crazy watching me no matter what,” you joked, a laugh escaping your lips.

“Ok, but, just imagine you like blocking a like 6’8 girl because of how high your vertical is!”

goes to every single game and is sitting court side yelling at the top of her lungs

brags about your kills and goes crazy every time it happens

always wanting to play with you, anywhere a net is !! (she’s definitely trash talking the entire time and then gets embarrassed right after she looses)

kate probably made you watch her high school highlights and makes you tell her what she could’ve done better

loves the fact that she understands the sport that you love so much

when she finally gets you to do a 1v1 you ended up hitting the basketball, instead of catching it and she started dying laughing

when you made the women’s olympic team for volleyball she posted it absolutely everywhere and texted everyone she knew. like wouldn’t shut up about it

“Do you know her?” the blonde asked randomly asking a man on the street, who just shook his head. “Well she’s on the USA women’s Olympic team for Volleyball!”

“Kate!” you smacked her arm, “I’m sorry about her,” you apologized to the poor man that Kate had just randomly told about your accomplishment. “You gotta stop doing that baby”

“But I’m so proud of you!” she beamed, pulling you into a hug.

when the basketball court is being changed for volleyball practice, kate stays around to talk to you the entire time before your coach pulls you over to your team

when you won the NCAA volleyball championship she bombarded your apartment with your favorite flowers and took you out to an expensive restaurant

“Kate this is too much,” you covered your mouth walking into your apartment with her behind you.

“Nothings too much for you, you deserve it!” she cheered, placing a kiss to your temple.

“I don’t say it enough, but I love you Kate Martin.”

“I love you too, Y/N L/N.”

has a jersey with your number and loves to wear it to your games

let’s just say her eyes wander to a certain area of your body when you’re in your volleyball uniform

allie’s corner

i hope this is ok! i know absolutely nothing about volleyball 😭😭

anyways volleyball kate 💗💗

[slytherinn-xo]

Swim Tryouts at 7:30- Danielle Van De Donk

Danielle Van De Donk X USWNT Player! Lyon Player! Reader

Synopsis: When Daan has football at 7:00 and swimming practice at 7:30, while at the world cup.

851 words

Being a US player that plays outside of the US is rare, like extremely rare, but being the only one to have never played in the NWSL, now that's rare. 

I was born in the USA, raised in Memphis Tennessee, but when I was 14, I moved away to Germany as that's my father's home country. When I spent the next three years before I started off my career in the German Women's top League.

I've played for four leagues, now, starting off my career in the German League with Bayern Munich in 2017 for just one season. Getting to play with the greats over there, learning so much from Frido, Sara Dabritz, Jill Roord, Leupolz, and Leah Galton.

Before I signed with Arsenal in 2018, for the next three seasons, until 2021. Where we won the WSL title once, in my first season.

Which was where I met Daan, I fell in love to say the least. But she was already in love, with Beth Mead, so I watched on from the side lines, like I was waiting to be subbed on now.

But she was my best friend, it was her, me, Viv and Jill when she finally came and joined us. The Dutchies and the American.

But they were my family.  

And then I moved to play for Barcelona for just one season after they won the Champions League in 2021 til 2022. Before I moved, and I got the chance to be with the girl I was in love with. 

Daan. 

So I joined in 2022, which was where we reconnected, and to say we both fell in love was the truth. We've been dating now for 10 months, and we do hide it, but we don't at the same time. 

We're private people but not a secret.

So facing here now in the group stages of the Women's World Cup, it was hard. 

But with less than 3 minutes to go of extra time was on the clock, and I turned back after the whistle was blown. 

I just saw an orange shirt on the floor. "Who is it?" I asked Lindsay, my Lyon teammate, as I couldn't read from that far away. Well that and I'm dyslexic and can barely read myself.  

"Daan." She muttered before I ran over to my girlfriend. I couldn't hide all of this, I was scared, my girlfriend is on the floor not bloody well moving. 

"Schatje." I told Daan standing by her as she was led on the floor not moving, crouching by her as I had my hand on her shoulder. 

"Poepie." Daan muttered back to me. 

"Not that name." I told her with a smile, that was one good sign she could still understand me and knew who we were around her. 

When the Dutch medics made their way over to Daan you saw the first showings of blood slowly coming out of her hair, but you had no idea how much there would be under there. 

I wasn't given a choice but to move away from her as the Dutch staff moved me out of their way, pushing me back away from my girlfriend. 

"No, stay!" Daan told me as she locked eyes with me, trying to reach her hands out to grasp onto me. 

"I'm right here." I told her as I kept eyes with her. 

I watched as they placed some gauze over her wound, before just placing a swimming cap over it. 

I laughed at her. 

"Not a word!" Daan told me, pointing that finger at me, wagging it at my face. 

"You look like you've got swimming practice in half an hour." I told her with a smile. 

"Oh shut up." Daan told me as she stood up. 

"Make me!" I told her walking away from her backwards as she was escorted of the pitch before she could return to play. 

~~

"Are you two doing okay, it looked rough on the pitch?" The interviewer switched to English seeing me walk up to Daan, and I stood a bit behind my small gal. 

"The best players are always the most competitive." I told the interviewer as I interrupted Daan's interview. 

"Best friends?" The interviewer asked us both, as my arm was around Daan's shoulders but Daan's was holding onto my waist. 

"The best." Daan answered like clockwork for us, squeezing my waist twice, doing our code, for when we wish we could say our feelings. 

"Go get that checked out properly." I told Daan raising one eyebrow up at her, as she nodded, looking deep into my eyes. 

"I will, ik houd van je." Daan told me, trying to politely kick me out of the interview. 

"Ik houd van je." I told her back quickly kissing her before walking off to Lindsay who was gasping at my actions, before I froze. 

"You didn't mean to do that?" Daan asked me. 

"No I didn't!" I said shaking my head, before running back to kiss Daan one last time before running away back to Lindsay as we were both bright red in the face now. 

[dizzyduck44]

USA, the rest of the world is done with you. We are so fed up with your desperation to cling to wealth you once had.

Voting someone into power who uses the word “again” tells you he and those that support him want to return to the past. They are not interested at looking to the future.

The whole world is suffering from inflation and debt run up during Covid. The is not an isolated thing. No one has a magic wand to make that disappear instantly. You are about to realise that. It’s just other countries will be talking the tough route out of it whilst the reality slowly and painfully dawns on you.

You did this to the world after you crashed the global financial system. Accept that the choices you have made is the reason you are worse off, not that there is something unfair taking money from you.

If you want to move backwards on human rights and climate science and education and continue to support a war in Israel that has been condemned as genocide if it makes you feel good right now. Hell, try and take it all the way back to the 1950s if it makes you feel better, just don’t expect the rest of the world to lower its standards to appease you.

And when you have realised that you have made your life harder, not better and you can’t magically improve an economy without some form of sacrifice, the rest of the world will have moved on so much, even those countries you look down on now. Getting back into that top tier of things is going to be even harder. The jumps you will need to make to catch up and meet the new standards and expectations will be huge.

It’s very hard to have sympathy for a country that has voted for this. If you won’t help yourself, why should anyone else bother? Why should anyone lower their principals and values to suit you? And why should anyone else make it easy when you realise the truth?

I feel sorry for the Americans who already know this, but have been condemned to it anyway.

[cowboybarzy]

what about a little utah hiking blurb with barzy for the summer series? I just know that man would hike shirtless in slutty 5in inseam shorts and would be the real view to look at the whole time👀

come along the world trip

Can I make this smutty? Please? Please? Oh well I did. I'm sorry I turned into a slut thinking about this.

word count: 1.6k warning: smut!!! 18+

📍utah, usa with mat barzal

Abs. So many abs. This man in front of you had abs for days and you weren't even ashamed to stare. You knew he enjoyed it. From where you were sitting on your big rock taking a break from your hike you could perfectly see the beautiful mountain range and your boyfriend Mat drinking some water. The sunlight hit his chiseled abs and when he squirted some water over himself, he wasn't the only one getting wet.

"You can do more than just look, you know." Mat walked closer to where you were sitting when he saw you staring. His body above you blocked the sun which made it easy to look up at him. His smirk was wide and he wiggled his eyebrows knowingly.

You were in the middle of a hike in Utah, where you were spending a few of days with your friend group. You had rented a big house in the middle of nowhere and just spent your days hanging out by the pool, going hiking or doing some other outdoor activities. Todays hike was long and unfortunately for you you were hiking with mostly professional athletes who were making this look way easier than it was. Didn't help that Mat took his shirt off pretty much right when you started walking and that his tiny shorts kept riding up exposing his thick thighs. Multiple times Mat told you he would be more comfortable if you walked in front of him, but the view of looking up at his ass definitely was worth saying no to him.

"You wish." You patted him on the shoulder as you stood up and followed your group who was done with the water break.

"Wait!" Mat caught up to. "Can't walk faster than me. How else are you supposed to check out my ass?"

He laughed as he made a show of walking faster and sticking his butt out a bit.

"Stop!" But you couldn't help but look and let your mind wander to what you would be doing later on at night in bed. "Mat!"

"Oh, come on, admit it." He turned around and grabbed your outstretched hand to pull you into him. "Admit that you're horny as fuck on this hike," he whispered harshly in your ear as you stumbled backwards.

"Seems to me you're the one that's horny as fuck." He shrugged as he tightened his arms around you and you could feel his erection rub against your lower abdomen. "Huh."

He looked around his shoulder making sure your friends were far enough away and thankfully they just turned a corner. He quickly slammed his lips on yours and pushed his tongue into your mouth for a desperately needed kiss. Who was more desperate in this moment was unclear but you kissed each other with fiery passion. His hands wandered to your ass pulling at you while your hands desperately pulled at his sweaty hair. "Mat! Not here."

"No one is here," he mumbled in between kisses. He moved you further back until your back hit a boulder. "You know you want me to fuck you right here against this rock."

Your core clenched at his words, wanting exactly what he just proposed. Your head was spinning and your entire body tingled with excitement. You never thought you'd be into public sex, you barely liked kissing him for more than a few seconds in public, but right now the idea already had you chasing a release. "Oh god," you moaned as you dug your nails into his scalp. Mat chuckled against your neck, then sucked on it.

"Tell me." He wrapped a hand around your thigh and lifted your leg to wrap around his hip to get a better angle to grind into your core. "Tell me how much you want it, baby."

"Oh, Maty." Your head fell back. "I- I wa-"

"Barzy?! (Y/n)?!" Your friends voice interrupted your moment and you froze.

"Uh- We're okay!," Mat yelled back. "(Y/n) twisted his ankle, we're just taking a break. We'll catch up."

"Good. We were already making bets on whether or not you were fucking based on the way you were eye fucking each other earlier." You both bit your lip to keep from laughing and thankfully the boulder was hiding you from the compromising position you were in.

"Nope, no fucking here."

"You need any help, (y/n)?"

"All good, thanks. Already feels better," you yelled back and pinched Mat in the bicep, trying not to laugh.

"Alright, see you later."

The moment was now ruined, so you took a few moments to collect yourself and then tried to catch up with your friends.

***

"Oh my god!," you screamed as Mat seemed to pick up his pace driving into you. You held on to his shoulders as you threw your head back against the shower wall when your body started to tingle with an orgasm fast approaching.

After you had gotten back from your hike, Mat immediately pulled you into your bedroom and in for a shower where he made up for the moment that was ruined earlier. While the shower wall wasn't exactly a boulder, him fucking you against it had the same effect. The second you were wet enough (both meanings) he hoisted you up against the wall and sat you on his thick thighs and entered you with such force, you thought you were being ripped apart. And that feeling didn't stop as he was gripping your ass and thrusting his thick cock into your tight pussy.

"Fuck, don't stop." Your lips found his neck and wandered up to his earlobe, which you bit into when he hit your g-spot. "Oh, god, I'm gonna cum. Maty!"

"Do it," he grunted. "Cum for me, baby."

Your toes curled and your entire body started shaking as your orgasm washed over you. He set you back down on your feet once you stoped shaking, but he never once stopped touching you. His hands wandered up and down your body, his lips kissing you with such desperation like he was starving. Your hand snuck between you and grabbed his cock, pumping it a few times earning moans and grunts from him that made you wet all over again. Thankfully, he didn't make you wait long. With a swift maneuver, he had you turned around and your hands against the wall.

The water from the rain shower head trickled down on you, a refreshing treat from the extremely hot weather just outside.

"Mathew," you whined, when he didn't immediately touch you, but that was soon remedied when his hand slapped across your ass. You gasped, feeling and reveling in the burn it left. "Again."

He complied, rubbing the area afterward and sliding his fingers through your wet folds. "You like that?" He spanked you two more times before he grabbed and turned on the detachable shower head and handed it to you. He guided it to your waiting and throbbing pussy and with your help angled and held it just above your clit. Your head dropped in pleasure and your muscles already started shaking.

"Oh, fuck yes," you moaned when he gripped your hips and slid his cock in between your folds.

"So fucking horny for me," he groaned, continuously teasing your entrance. "You were really going to let me fuck you against that boulder, huh? My girl."

"Yes. Yours." With one quick thrust he entered you, making you almost lose your balance. Your entire body tingled and waves of euphoria crashed over you with every thrust of his thick cock massaging your core. The water stream against your clit had you shaking and screaming Mat's name so fast you could barely feel the orgasm coming.

"Uh, uh, keep it there," Mat demanded as the shower head started to slip out of your hand and off your clit. The sensation was too much to handle.

"I can't," you answered breathlessly when your orgasm subsided. "Too much."

His hand snuck around your body and grabbed you lightly by your throat pulling you back to meet his chest. "You can handle it, right? You love my cock in this tight pussy of yours, eh?"

All you good do was nod as he whispered into your ear and continued to pump into you. "Good girl. And you're gonna take my cum so well, eh?"

"Yes! I want it." His other hand came to your sore clit that was hurting as he rubbed it quickly to coax a third orgasm out of you. "Oh, god, Maty, I can't-"

Your pussy tightened around him as his swelling cock getting ready for his release. Your hand found the back of his head, pulling at his wet hair. "Fuck, baby. I can't get enough of you."

His hips sped up, sliding impossibly deeper into you as you arched your back for him to do so. And that was what it took for your body to start convulsing in his arms again. Mat's grip around your hip tightened and with a few more hard thrusts he emptied himself inside you with loud grunts. He thrust in, stayed, and then pumped you full of his cum until you felt it began to leak out, getting washed away by the water. He kept releasing while that rush took a hold of your body, miking his cock until you both fell back against the shower wall spent and tired. After catching your breath, Mat pulled you in for a long and tender kiss. "I love you so fucking much."

[headspace-hotel]

some times i look at terf blogs just curious about wtf kind of Drama is going on cause "radfem" tumblr is constantly exploding when one of their buddies turns out to be a horrible person.............in a way that affects them personally

Like last time there was a whole thing over a woman needing funds for an abortion and getting harassed by other "radfems" over it because "she chose to have sex with a man"

now some person is saying that although all men are bad, white men are inherently safer and less violent than men of color, and a bunch of people are defending them and its a total shit show

There is nothing i could say about this that would communicate more than just the posts themselves

That's Racism. You Just Described Racism. It Does Not Stop Being Racism because you believe there are real differences between how violent different ethnicities are. That Is The Racism

Miscellaneous other rancid takes within a few reblog chain links of the above

this person had another post like "why are we funding ozempic when you can just lose weight by replacing all the fast food in your diet with vegetables? it's easy!"

zero people were burned at the stake at salem.

...

okay but how do I even BEGIN to extract the infected ingrown toenail of stupid that this post nauseatingly embodies. Terfs have this whole genre of post that mourns every devastating historical evil as an atrocity "men" perpetrated, caused by "patriarchy/male violence."

Sure. Whatever. Slavery in Britain and the southeastern USA, (the only places slavery existed), the Holocaust, that was "male violence," caused by men, because men are violent and violence is male. Women are definitionally incapable of violence and have never ever ever abused power over others and the world is made of pudding.

Out of the 19 people executed at Salem, by hanging, 5 of them were men. This doesn't matter because facts don't matter, what matters is that the Salem witch trials are the example of violence prompted by alleged "witchcraft" that you can remember without googling it, and in the deeply symbolic mythology of your ass backwards brain, violence against alleged "witchcraft" is always ACTUALLY patriarchal retaliation against Women's Knowledge, which is always ACTUALLY an ancient genocide of women that transcends culture, which by the way is what you're experiencing when people are mean to you online.

Therefore the Salem witch trials, an event with fewer casualties than the Boston molasses flood, is similar in significance to the Holocaust.

Wow. Such biological reality. Very scientific facts.

[apas-95]

the weird armchair-revolutionary stuff surrounding the red cross and red crescent on here is fucking weird. like it goes along with the denigration of the hard-won truce that just expired, with people criticising it and labeling it a distraction, as if it were brought about by western Political Pressure, rather than being achieved by the Palestinian resistance, who delivered countless losses and military reversals to the IDF. the backwardness of thinking, that leads people to think that peaceful protest marches in the USA have more of an effect on IDF operations than resistance rockets and fighters killing them do, is the same backwardsness of thinking that leads people to follow up a description of how the IDF is killing anyone and everyone who approaches a hospital complex - bombing and dropping artillery on the complex itself - with the assertion that the only reason the red cross didn't enter the hospital to aid in evacuation was because of a lack of will. it is a view of the current situation that entirely fails to grasp the fact that there is a war going on! that military action by the IDF and by the resistance are, far and away, the most decisive factors in each and every situation. it's a politics of betrayal, spurred on by an underserved and unearned pessimism from people who think their posting online is seriously making the IDF 'embarassed' or 'afraid of being exposed'.

in case everyone somehow forgot - the widely-spread image of the ambulance, hit by an R9X Hellfire, was a Red Crescent ambulance.