#a written testimony

[adamkvhs]

A WRITTEN TESTIMONY - 2020

Scans of the vinyl artwork, covers and inserts for A Written Testimony by Jay Electronica. Released under the Roc Nation record label.

[sizwezwane]

[rizka-san]

"You see the butterflies of life. And the caterpillars of death. One flies towards it's destination. The other survives on the desecration."

Souls Of The Rhythm - Rizka

[pagesofkenna]

second draft of 'letter to the first presidency to express sorrow over new exclusionary policy' is currently a three-page talk including scriptural references. am i understanding the assignment??

[the-life-of-a-herm]

This is a rushed paper I wrote to my professor as an introduction to intersex genital mutilation. It was all done and researched in less then a day because I was hospitalized. I know it's not the best, but I think it holds up well... (and no the MLA did not transfer over very well when i copy and pasted lol)

-

Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM) refers to a type of surgery enacted on intersex individuals, typically children. The term intersex refers to when an individual has sex variations from the norm. Examples of this could be somebody who went through a feminizing puberty but also a typically closer to male body, somebody who has XXY chromosomes, CAH (Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia), which can cause various mixed primary and secondary sex characteristics depending on the type, somebody with XY chromosomes and CAIS (Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome) will have their body reject all androgens in development and cause them not to develop as male and many more experiences. In the case of IGM, this affects people with variations that cause atypical/ambiguous genitalia. This is genitalia that is between male and female. Because of how humans develop in the womb, this is not as uncommon as one might think. Humans only have one reproductive system, which means that while growing in the womb, our parts start from the same thing and then grow differently depending on other factors like chromosomes and hormones. This is also why SRS (Sex Reassignment Surgery) is possible. So, for people with atypical genitalia, their genitalia grows between the standard male and female genitalia. This could look like an enlarged clitoris, an imperforate hymen (no vaginal opening) on somebody with otherwise typically female genitalia, somebody with fused labioscrotal folds, meaning they have a labia on an otherwise male body and many more variations. Now, while some variations need to be changed to prevent health issues/pain while growing down the road, many are completely fine with being left alone. Despite this, it has been standard practice for decades to operate on babies who have genital sex variations for purely cosmetic reasons. This is still a type of surgery many get today. Despite it being common practice, I believe putting intersex individuals through surgeries they do not need is a violation of bodily autonomy and wrong.

One of the most common reasons people object to ridding children of unnecessary changes to their genitalia is because of social norms. Doctors and parents alike believe that by ‘fixing’ the child’s ambiguous genitalia to look as close as possible to typical male or female genitalia, they are saving the kid from a lifetime of social scrutiny. Or, as Dr. Kenneth I. Glassberg put it, they would be “considered freaks” (Lerner) by their peers. Of course, society can be cruel to people who deviate from the norm, but I hardly think this is a valid reason to support something as life-changing as IGM. If the real issue was that kids would be bullied, then the answer should not be to cut kids up until they conform. The problem will only worsen if we continue to treat intersex individuals’ existence as something inherently needing to be fixed or ashamed of. The correct response to social issues is not to make everybody conform to the majority but to educate people. Children especially need this education. If a child is made fun of for their mixed sex characteristics at school, the answer is to use that as a teaching opportunity for the offending child to understand the world is bigger and more diverse than just themselves. It is illogical to imply that forcing people into conformity is doing anything more than promoting the same societal standards that ostracized intersex people in the first place. Additionally, there is “insufficient evidence that growing up with atypical genitalia leads to psychosocial distress” (Elders et al.) Meaning the entire argument here that most people defending IGM use is based on speculation. Forced conformity to the sex binary does not help those who lie outside of it because it is the enforcement of the comfort of the same people who you claim you are protecting them from.

Additionally, the harm that IGM can cause far outweighs the possibility of saving people from bullying and social consequences for being different. A lot of the time normalizing surgeries can lead to medical complications such as, but not limited to, painful sex, loss of sensation, frequent UTIs, need for additional surgeries later to fix the previous ones, etc. Mind you, these surgeries are often done on infants and toddlers, meaning oftentimes they are too small to know for certain what the results will look like after the kid grows or if it will cause more issues as they grow. Sure, it looks normal when they are an infant, but what about later on? Many opposers to ending invasive procedures act as if these children are “..never going to grow up,”(Fae) and have more complications as they age or loss of function. Surgeons are creating more issues medically than if you just left the child alone. Additionally, many times people don’t know they have had surgery until years later, meaning there could be major complications because of surgery they ignore because they don’t know it’s not normal. Not knowing about your own body and medical history can be an extremely dangerous situation for people. Yet intersex people who go through IGM are oftentimes left in the dark. Few intersex people look back and are happy with the invasive procedures they went through in childhood. (Lerner) When people find out they went through these procedures later on in life, it is common for them to feel violated or like they have been lied to, some even saying they grew up with “deception and shame for years” (Lerner) after they learned the truth. Commonly, intersex individuals will not have the full story about their medical history so they are still left to wonder even after finding out about their surgery. People who never asked for genital normalizing surgery are left to deal with the consequences of the medical system’s decision to think their bodies needed changing.

Furthermore, rarely are these surgeries necessary. In some instances, such as somebody with atypical genitalia will have a variation that can cause pain as the kid grows up, which is a valid reason for considering giving a newborn surgery. However, most times the surgeries that are performed are purely aesthetical. Since around the 50s, the primary reason for IGM has been “...to ‘normalize’ gendered appearance, not to improve function.” (Elders et al.) This means the surgeries don’t aim to improve the child’s physical well-being or make it so their genitals will perform proper functions without difficulty, instead, they seek to force people into a more clear box of male or female. The existence of normalizing surgeries for children is based entirely on the need to make people fit the status quo. These intersex individuals have to experience growing up being uneducated about their bodies and healthcare needs, life-altering complications from surgery, and left coping with “great stress and confusion, often [paired] with incomplete information” (Gregorio) about their medical history and the knowledge they were born in a body seen unfit to live a normal life with. All of these struggles are because of a type of surgery that’s sole purpose is to focus on what a baby’s genitals look like, instead of their own best interest. Leaving babies who do not need medical intervention alone will ultimately cause more good than harm. A kid who was left alone can grow up and decide as an older person they want to have surgery on their genitals, but a kid who had corrective surgery done on them as a child cannot grow up and choose to have it never done in the first place.

Another segment of this issue is intersectionality with other social issues like medical misogyny and medical racism, because of how intersex bodies, and by extension the people with them, are seen as inherently medicalized. Intersectionality is a concept of when oppressions intersect, an example of this is how black women will face certain experiences for being both black and a woman that white women will not, often referred to as misogynoir. Intersex people who are viewed as women/closer to female commonly have to deal with doctors who dismiss their worries. Some women are even being “referred to a mental health professional” (Fae) for merely discussing the pain they experienced. Many medical professionals are uneducated on female anatomy and dismiss the concerns they have. This only gets worse when you are also somebody with mixed sex characteristics, which many doctors don’t know enough to treat properly. Similarly, with medical racism many people with complications have issues getting the care they need. Many doctors are still under the false impression black people of colour have a higher pain tolerance than their white counterparts or dismiss them as drug-seeking. Because of this, people with serious health complications later on as a result of their surgery can have trouble being taken seriously by doctors. Intersex people in general don’t have a good experience with getting healthcare that benefits their needs. However, when you intersect these problems with things like racism or misogyny, the matter gets more complex and harder to navigate for these individuals.

Finally, the major problem with corrective surgeries for atypical genitalia is consent. A baby cannot consent to going through a normalizing surgery, and arguably parents are most times not educated enough to either. Sure, in some cases medical practices override consent. An example of this is giving NARCAN to somebody who overdosed, there are laws protecting doctors in this case from being sued because the person cannot consent, but their life still needs to be saved. However, intersex variations are not an overdose. Intersex genital variations are rarely in need of medical intervention. There is no reason consent should be overridden for a nonessential invasive surgery that can commonly lead to tons of complications down the road. The key difference here is necessity. Changing an infant’s genitals because they need that to function and changing it because they would look more typically male or female are not the same. The situation isn’t dire, and consent matters. If they grow up and wish to change it themselves, that is entirely fine. The difference between somebody older deciding to get surgery and somebody who is a baby is that the older person is exercising bodily autonomy. To do often irreversible invasive surgeries on infants to normalize their genitalia is to rob them of their “right to personal autonomy over their own future.”(Elders et al.) Intersex people deserve to choose what is best for their own lives, not doctors or parents. It is their body that is getting a life-altering change, the consent should lie on their shoulders.

Intersex Genital Mutilation is a standard practice thing that happens all around the world with many repercussions. These people grow up to feel violated and confused and are often lied to about their medical history enough to where many will never know the full truth of what happened to them. These are aesthetical surgeries that are oftentimes nonessential, but cause complications that can last a lifetime. IGM rips people of their bodily autonomy and right to consent to major changes to their bodies. This is an issue that’s been being fought for decades, but through activism, things have started to change a bit. Social and systemic change happens through hard work and education. This will only end if we all educate ourselves and others on intersex issues and urge our government to make a change to protect people’s right to their bodies. Right now IGM is standard practice, but it does not have to be. Organizations like InterACT Youth or Intersex Society of North America are a few activist groups fighting right now for the rights of intersex people. Without more education and more perisex (non-intersex) people standing up for these practices to change, nothing will happen. A better future is possible through social activism, which is spreading information through social means, and joining together to urge our government to say no to IGM.

Elders, Joycelyn, et al. “Re-Thinking Genital Surgeries on Intersex Infants.” Palm Center, June 2017.

Fae, Jane. “Normality under the Knife.” The Guardian, The Guardian, 21 June 2010, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jun/21/normality-under-knife-surgery-genitalia.

Gregorio, I. W. “When Emergency Pediatric Surgery Is Anything But.” Scientific American, 17 May 2017, www.scientificamerican.com/blog/observations/when-emergency-pediatric-surgery-is-anything-but/?WT.mc_id=SA_FB_POLE_BLOG.

Lerner, Barron H. “BEHAVIOR; If Biology Is Destiny, When Shouldn’t It Be?” The New York Times, 27 May 2003, www.nytimes.com/2003/05/27/health/behavior-if-biology-is-destiny-when-shouldn-t-it-be.html.

[rise-my-angel]

I need this show to ask themselves how on earth centuries of history were all remembered as the same stories that were eventually the same stories lied about by maesters spreading pro green propaganda, when the in universe book of Fire and Blood did not exist for so many centuries after the Dance, that the man who wrote it was alive during Robert Baratheons reign.

Were the maesters even then, holding every Targaryean at knifepoint forcing them to spew out history literally everyone would know was not true just in case one man in 200 years future wanted to write a fucking propaganda book about it?

Did Rhaenyras own descendants just willingly spreading pro green propaganda too?

[friendrat]

The problem with the church today is that so many "Christians" do not actually believe in redemption.

[garden-of-thoughts-fruit-of-lips]

Isaiah 43: 10-12

You are my witnesses,” declares Jehovah, “Yes, my servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and have faith in me And understand that I am the same One. Before me no God was formed, And after me there has been none. I—I am Jehovah, and besides me there is no savior.” “I am the One who declared and saved and made known When there was no foreign god among you. So you are my witnesses,” declares Jehovah, “and I am God

Revelation 11:3

I will cause my two witnesses to prophesy for 1,260 days dressed in sackcloth.”

Revelation 12:6

And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God and where they would feed her for 1,260 days

[gorillawithautism]

i would also like to note that while i only talk about how the troubled teen industry functions in the US because that's what i have experience with and have researched, tti is not just a US issue. these types of facilities exist worldwide AND there are many instances of children from other countries being put in US programs. if you think it's not happening in your country because it's not the US, i'd ask you to dig deeper. and if it really and truly isn't happening at all in your country (doubtful), i'd ask you to consider what is happening to those kids instead. are they being criminalized? killed? if they're not being institutionalized, it's likely something even more life threatening is happening. not being in the US is not reason to pull your eyes away from this issue.

[akechis-special-case]

A representation of what Goro does when I look at anyone but him for more than one second:

Maybe I'll use this as a reference and draw it...

He's really persistent to stay in my head I fear...

[feastingonchrist]

overwhelmed trying to write a letter for my church staff because i'm so grateful and it's hard for me to even put into words/feel it all because God has been so good to me and so good to me through them

He's cooking so hard as i'm typing my fingers awayyyy

[lord-squiggletits]

Between TF and my other fandoms like BG3 and TES, I keep finding myself making OCs that have some element of "battle hardened hero who is actually good and righteous, but so traumatized by the toll of war that even after the war ends they feel empty/wrecked and can't enjoy the fruits of victory" and I'm not sure if it's bc I gravitate to a certain type of media where such OCs fit in best, or bc I have a specific character archetype I like and gravitate towards media that contains those things.

[curiosity-killed]

This is the funniest backhanded fic rec I’ve ever encountered. Absolutely incredible 10/10 no edits needed

[meliohy]

Idea: A tower of god fanzine made like a fake magazine "Special edition! Tournament for the slayer nominee's hand"

[shion2nd]

had to open my super old laptop thats been sitting in the closet for YEARS and the most horrid screenshots awaited me in the pictures folder

[sasorikigai]

Hanzo DOES come with a relationship warning.

Part of the process of dealing with Hanzo/Scorpion's trauma is that the edges of him are rough and sharp and don’t allow a smooth approach at the beginning of the relationship. As such, people need to learn how to handle his reactivity and resistance in order to become intimate. For Hanzo, some of the hardest things to accept about himself are things that cause intense feelings of guilt and shame. Often the cover-up for these core feelings (mostly his intimidating allure and gruff and grumpy appearance) are masks that he uses to protect himself from allowing others to access those profound experiences he has lived that caused those feelings.

Resistance to change is like having a tight muscle; the more he works it out, the less tight it becomes and the more natural it feels to have more flexibility in that muscle or joint.

The feeling of freedom and loose pressure on something that used to bother him a lot is the result he gets from a lot of exposure and work on that particular issue to become less rigid and thus more flexible. Neurons and the mind are a flexible muscle as well. The more he stays in his rigid patterns, the less likely to form more flexible neuronal structures that allow him the neuroplasticity to completely reframe his entire reference systems. However, a very important aspect in the process of working out with such “tight muscles” is to give it the appropriate time to heal. Just like any physical injury, healing mental trauma has a time and pace to do it so it doesn’t overload him which ends up being the opposite of healing, but creating instead a new trauma from speeding up the process too much.

Trauma, just like an injury needs time to heal and an appropriate context in which resources are available to help in the healing process.

For Hanzo/Scorpion, the most important part of being intimate with him is the ability to share vulnerability and emotions together. As such, being able to express what he really feels without having to make a joke about it and create banter around the ideas he needs to share with his beloved. It may look more “masculine” and thus make him feel less vulnerable only creates longer journeys for discovering each other. Hanzo already knows, and as the relationship progresses, will grow exponentially comfortable and unashamed to identify what his emotional needs are, his thoughts and feelings, or to express how someone can help him fulfill these.

The practice of vulnerability is something that can’t be taught by any book. Not even therapy really enables him to get down from his head into your heart if he is not fully ready to take that commitment towards himself and work on his reactivity and get attuned to his real emotions. Mostly, the overarching message for warriors and men like him is that any weakness is shameful. And since vulnerability is often perceived as weakness, it is especially risky for men to practice vulnerability.