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ranticore · 2 months ago

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Now that you mentioned it in the tags; I really enjoyed how you did the queerness of characters in-text and I saw you mentioned more than once before how they consider/call themselves gay or anything and I was wondering if you'd be willing to elaborate on that (in Ironwall, MVF etc), but more from a writing standpoint than a worldbuilding one. Hope Im making sense lol

i looked up the invention of the word 'homosexuality' and found that it was invented 6 years after stbh is set

ghksjdg i mean there's more to it than that but it meant that my language was constrained, which also means that the characters' language is constrained as well. i have to think about ways i want this to come across to the reader. at the time i was thinking about how the basic concept of "btw this character is not straight/cis" is communicated in some of the stories i'd read, and one that stood out to me was a comic i read in a fully fantasy setting where the writer brought the narrative to a juddering halt to explain exactly how gender & sexuality are handled by the people here. as in the characters essentially turn to the camera and give the main character a lecture. i really didn't like it, the author's hand was too visible behind the panels.

but i took it as a learning exercise as well on what i didn't want to do. i didn't like the neon signs pointing at any instance of non-heteronormativity and i also don't like stories that market themselves based on the characters' gender identities, particularly stories which do not involve a coming-of-age/character learns to discover themselves narrative. it's a book about two trans men but it's not a book about being trans. that's none of the reader's business, that's hidden from you (particularly in islin's case, intentionally). i never wanted to foster a sense of voyeurism towards trans people particularly knowing that most readers, statistically, will not be trans. crucially the characters are stealth to literally everybody but like 3 people. their transition is done.

i never wanted a coming out moment, or an "i'm here i'm queer" moment either - not even because Society in the setting just because i don't like those things. to completely normalise it in the narrative between these characters is the goal - almost to the point of never even pointing it out at all except when it has to be. the vibe i wanted was like... hanging out in not necessarily a gay space, but with gay people, talking about random other stuff. i didn't even like the One coming out scene i had to put in (senca being like "i only fuck women" to bowman so that he would stop hitting on her)

so when writing i had a pretty good idea of what i didn't want. for the setting i had some strict rules to follow as well. characters would not identify as gay or bisexual or even some fantasy equivalent because those were not identities, they were acts. and heterosexuality wasn't an identity either, it wasn't even "the natural way of things", it was the means by which wealth could transfer between generations. if you do not marry, then you are not conforming to your gender. the four unmarriagable men in mvf are all denied entry to normative manhood for many de-gendering factors (disability, unmanly hobbies, vow of chastity, etc) but the culmination of those factors is that they can't marry, which is the whole POINT of being a man. three of them are entirely denied generational wealth - forcing them into poverty (it's not a coincidence that gay people are overrepresented in the criminal organisation)

from a writing standpoint this leaves them in a grey zone. when writing i tried out different language to see if it read nice to me (19th century equivalents to 'boyfriend' etc) and they all rang quite false, because outside of the whole 'can we put a label on something that doesn't officially exist in society' thing, the characters themselves are not the types of people to think that way. Bowman was dating Léa but he was never dating Félix. you can't date another man. the only people who date men are women, and Bowman is not a woman. therefore he is not dating Félix. to give just one example. ultimately for the language used i found that just leaving it as-is worked the best for me.

so after working all that out i wrote tha thing and then wanted to kind of explore - at what point does it become romantic? is there an actual border between romantic and platonic when you've kind of already fallen between the cracks in society into the grey zone where nothing is defined because it doesn't affirm the power of the ruling class. and in these particular friendships, where they've already been all things to one another, they've already done everything together, good or bad, does adding 'romantic love' to that list of things wildly recontextualise it retroactively or does anything change at all? just like the ending reveal of stbh says: who actually is the guy we've been thinking of as 'félix ortega' ? does it recontextualise everything we've just read? no, right? (or does it?)

the usual 'will-they-won't-they' romance plot isn't a factor in the book, we already know they will, they have, they won't, and they refuse to, all at once.

(jean-baptiste thinks of himself as an invert because he is Learned and has read some fascinating journal articles about cutting-edge sexology, and his relation to his sexuality is very very different. it's not something he shares with his closest friends in spaces without scrutiny; his entire life is scrutinised and his social system is predicated on marriage. like i think i said in the book, probably, i don't remember: he and renard are two guys clinging to the same life raft. they hate each other! but if you push the other guy off the life raft, then you're just one guy alone at sea, forever.)

#straining at the leash to avoid The Author Is On Twitter syndrome and i'm sorry. today i wasn't strong enough to resist #sorry this is so annoying and incoherent

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redditreceipts · 1 year ago

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i feel like i do agree with most radfem stances but then some just don’t make sense to me

like stating that someone’s bf begging for sex or acting sad he isn’t getting any is akin to rape/coercion into sex? it just doesn’t sit right to me because i got assaulted and it was .. forceful, i didn’t get to decide ‘oh i feel bad for this person, guess i will just do it!’ i didn’t want to and i was forced to. i feel like the many posts about how having consensual sex you regret because you consented for bad reasons making it ‘rape’ are disrespectful towards anyone who actually got assaulted/raped.

then there’s also the thing where Tifs are treated like they are just harmless deluded girls, when most tifs are homophobic and gross- you constantly see them mocking gay men and talking about how they want to go ‘stealth’ and would be fine tricking a gay man into sex. but radfems ignore that and mostly talk about tims.

i also don’t get if most radfems are pro gay or not because i got told multiple times that women who have consensual sex with men or who got married (by their own choice) to a man and had kids with him are also somehow ‘lesbians’. it just sounds like they think lesbian = manhating bisexual with trauma. idk most radfems on here i agree with until it comes down to these 3 points.

hmmm, so I can't speak for all feminists here on tumblr, but I can just give my personal opinion on these points.

So I don't have much authority on the first point, because I've never experienced that (well, I haven't experienced it so far lmao). But I think that the problem is that we have very few words for very different experiences of sexual violence. We have "molestation", "rape", "sexual violence", "coercion", "sexual assuault", - and... well, I'm not a native speaker so I don't know all of the terms, maybe, but most of these terms are just polite descriptions of sexual violence. I think we should invent new terms to differentiate. Maybe one umbrella term like "sexual violence", and then a term for coercion with physical violence, coercion with verbal violence, coercion with manipulation, coercion with threats of taking important things away from a person, coercion from an authority figure via their authority, rape of an inebriated person... Like with violence via physical impact, where we have the terms "punch", "hit", "strike", "nudge", "slap", "beat", "smack", "thump", "pound", "smash", "slam", "hammer", "box", "bump", "spank", etc. Imagine there was just one term: "to hit". But if there was just this one term "to hit", one person would say "I was hit" when they have been bumped into, and you would say "I was hit" when you had been punched in the face. It would of course seem crazy to act as if these two experiences had been similar, but the problem is not someone appropriating someone else's terminology, but the problem is that there is just one word for violence via impact. Maybe that's the problem?

Second, I do think that there is a difference between TIMs and TIFs. 1. Men are more violent than women and there is no reason to think that this would change with transition. There are violent women, yes, but not as many as there are violent men, so violence in men is far larger problem. 2. Also, a woman who is violent against men is less likely to be able to do harm because she will be smaller on average. 3. The general attitude toward transgender people among gay men and lesbian women is very different. While lesbians and bisexual women tend to welcome straight TIMs with open arms (and get to feel the repercussions of that), gay men tend to be much more confident in excluding women from their sexuality. Almost every subreddit for gay men would be labelled as a "TERF"-subreddit if it was women behaving in the exact same way. While gay men have basically the entire internet to talk about how they hate vagina, lesbians have carved out this very little space to talk about how they hate dick. so that's why this is much more frequent, I guess 4. most people on here are lesbian and bisexual women. So I guess that venting about transbians is more common because trans gay men don't invade our spaces. If they do, that's shitty nonetheless of course.

And on the third point - well, many women get married to men they are not attracted to. So if you marry a man you don't like and you do it because of internalised homophobia, you would still be a lesbian. If you are genuinely sexually attracted to him, you would be bisexual. But I've not really seen that happening, but if it did, I'd be happy to get a link because that's of course nonsense, a person who is genuinely attracted to men is not a lesbian.

I hope this answered your questions a bit :)

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swanhild · 2 months ago

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I agree with the person who said that Curufin had the exact same potential to do great things as his father and his son, but at first he was too wrapped up in Feanor/too focused on pleasing him to really branch out on his own and then the oath and subsequent war against Morgoth happened and he shifted all his mental focus and energy towards developing weaponry and armor and so on. Something he was good at, but didn't find particularly mentally stimulating or enjoyable. In my post-canon headcanons/fic that I dream of writing one day Curufin will be the one to eventually invent photography, however. A huge hit with the wider populace of Valinor who don't necessarily have Finwean-style money to have portraits of their babies or weddings done by a professional painter.

He also learns to detangle his existence from Feanor's post-canon (I headcanon he gets released from the Halls before Feanor does) and goes through some personal growth. He also manages to repair his relationships with Celebrimbor and Finrod during that time and grows closer to Nerdanel. He and Celebrimbor actually start collaborating on a whole bunch of projects together and the two of them are directly or partly responsibly for a lot of technologial innovations and revolutions in post-canon Valinor (I mean sure, Curufin is #problematic, but the things he comes up with are just too good/tempting to ignore. And Celebrimbor is okay in most people's books anyway, so...)

I personally am a Curufinrod shipper, but whether platonically or romantically, I think Curufin has a lot of strong feelings about Finrod, most of them quite overwhelming and difficult to deal with for him. And his tried and true method for dealing with such feelings is repressing them. Until he can't anymore and things get crazy. But anyway, one of the more straightforward and normal feelings he has towards Finrod is gratefulness for taking care of Tyelpe after he was re-embodied. I headcanon that Celebrimbor was re-embodied before Curufin and was and still rather unwell by that point, which caused Curufin a lot of worry. Celebrimbor canonically loves Finrod and I think the feeling is mutual (Finrod thinks of him as a son, in a way), so I feel it makes sense for Finrod to be there for Celebrimbor during that time period.

He's a disaster bisexual with internalised homophobia and everything else @gardensofthemoon mentioned on that subject.

He used to have a crush on Aredhel when he was a kid/teen and is still very fond of her.

He secretly craves affection and attention though under normal cicumstances he'd rather bite off his tongue than admit that out loud (or even to himself most of the time). Luckily for him, I headcanon Celegorm as being quite affectionate with the people he loves (in a very casual, easy-going, dude bro-y sort of way: he will slap people on the back, casually drop his arm around them and/or pull them into hugs, ruffle his younger brothers' hair etc.) Curufin will act annoyed with Celegorm when he does these kinds of things, but really, he doesn't mind at all. (In time, Curufin does get better at expressing his wants and needs though, and other people, like Finrod, also begin to understand this about him, so it all works out in the end.)

He's actually rather conflict-averse and tends to avoid direct confrontation in favor of scheming and manipulating his way through life. Direct confrontation rarely goes well for him when he does try, so he leaves that kind of thing Celegorm for the most part. (Another avantage of having Celegorm around. And Celegorm doesn't mind fighting some of Curufin's battles for him).

The siblings he has the most difficult relationships with are Maedhros and Caranthir: When he was younger Curufin felt somewhat resentful and jealous towards Maedhros for being the firstborn son (it should have been him, obviously). He claims Maedhros is doing a terrible job of being their father's heir by frequently going against Feanor or what Feanor would have wanted. A part of him admires Maedhros for being able to stand up to their father and following his own mind, but another part of him is just about self-aware enough to realize that this makes Maedhros more similar to Feanor than Curufin could ever be and resents Maedhros even more for it. He also can't help but feel that Maedhros can read him like an open book (which is true) and in his most paranoid moments Curufin is convinced that Maedhros thinks him pathetic and all kinds of other things he secretly fears about himself. Caranthir can also see right through Curufin, but unlike Maedhros, he doesn't mince his words and very bluntly says what he thinks of Curufin or his actions right to his face. Caranthir is also very close in age to Curufin and doesn't really have Maedhros' older brother instinct of "must protect my little sibling and be nice to him even when he's being a terrible brat". This means that Caranthir can and will say things that cut Curufin right to the core (and which will keep him awake at night because he can't stop thinking about them.)

He is what would nowadays be called neurodivergent (like most of his family) and has a bunch of very specific hyperfixations and interests that only very few people can relate to.

He also suffers from anxiety (something he has in common with Maedhros) and used to bite his nails when he was younger. He still does it sometimes, but he thinks it's a shameful habit and tries very hard not to.

He loves Celebrimbor above all else and genuinely tried his best as a parent (although he didn't always succeed and failed quite badly a couple of times). But particularly when Celebrimbor was younger? I really think he was a pretty involved and good father to him. Also is super proud of Celebrimbor (and Celebrimbor outdoing him bothers him much less than he himself being unable to live up to Feanor).

He usually calls people he loves by their mother names (incl. Celegorm, Celebrimbor and Finrod), but he himself doesn't like being called Atarinke. Most people he's close with just call him Curvo.

He's quite a picky eater and somewhat embarrassed by that as well (it's immature and childish in his mind), but he just can't bring himself to eat certain things.

I also agree with the people who mentioned him enjoying mathematics (he and Celebrimbor like poring over difficult math problems together in my mind), that dark blues and greens look much better on him than Feanorian red, that he's deeply insecure, that he's a night owl (he'll often stay up all night and sleep during the most random hours of the day) and that he speaks in a soft tone of voice.

Hey fellow people who presumably enjoy curufin. Can you reblog with some curufin hcs? I think we truly need more Curufin Attention (either positive or negative but if you hate him why are you even here) in this fandom and I will be the change the world desperately needs. Cheers

#well that turned out way longer than I intended #I just have a lot of feelings about this particular pointy-eared mess ok #curufin #silm headcanons

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hextiger · 4 years ago

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More Research Excerpts

This time it's Der Alptraum in Beziehung zu gewissen Formen mittelalterlichen Aberglaubens. (English: The Nightmare in Relation to Certain Forms of Medieval Superstition).

You can find the PDF here via Project Gutenberg, but it's in German.

For context though: this appeared in 1902 in a magazine published by Sigmund Freud. That fact is very much apparent throughout.

Introduction

"My focus is not on the historical side but the deepest psychological meaning" phrases that clue you in that there's a lot of nonsense coming

Nowadays the word "Weib" really just reads as "woman (derogatory)"

Dream and Belief

"the breath soul and the shadow soul" I'm sorry what. What! Shadow soul?????

"Freud's discovery of psychoanalysis" I don't know that I'd call it a discovery rather than "wholesale invention" or maybe "ass-pull" but sure

You can at times REALLY tell this is influenced by Freud. Example: "The more people have a certain type of dream the more likely it is that its' subliminal content is of a sexual nature" good (?) news for all the people who dream about their teeth falling out

Something something dreaming of your dead mother or father something something oedipus complex repressed in childhood

You can really tell this was written in the early 20th century. Take me back to the 18th/19th century weirdness please

"In a court in 1516 the jury of Trojes admonished the caterpillars who had devastated some distracts on punishment of curse and excommunication to leave within a certain number of days" I have SO MANY questions

The source for the above is "Cesaresco. Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs, P. 183" which I now have to read

Nightmares

"It is generally known that nightmares have a greater influence on the fantasy of waking life than any other dream" my dude you JUST went on for a whole chapter abt sex dreams so like are you sure

"I have added that the repression of female masochistic sexual urges is more suited to the creation of the typical nightmare than that of the male one, a view that Adler agrees with" I just wanna read abt weird hairy creatures sitting on people's chests, not this nonsense

Ok HERE'S something interesting. Dude's talking about how nightmares express deeply repressed wishes like yes. This I can vibe with

"Digestive problems do not explain the appearance of beautiful women from keyholes" sure but if that were a thing I'd sure as hell take the digestive problems

Incubus and Incubation

"In the middle ages the belief was generally that there were evil spirits whose sole function was to have [...] intercourse with sleeping people" HE JUST SAYS THIS. WITHOUT A SOURCE

"A favorite form that incubi took was that of clergy. Hieronmyus reports the story of a young lady who called for help against an incubus which her friends found under their beds in the form of the bishop Sylvanus. The reputation of the bishop would have suffered if he had been unable to convince them that the incubus had taken his form"

People at the time reacted by saying "Oh an excellent example for the wizardry of Sylvanus" so I don't think this bishop was believed

Anyway I WISH that had been an incubus but it really sounds like it was just a creepy old dude

Sir why do you keep randomly throwing untranslated French quotes in this German text

Oh hey another mention of people who were supposedly children of incubi. This time it's Alexander the Great, Caesar, Martin Luther, Plato, all of the Huns and everyone who lived on Cyprus

You're right, it would be unnecessary to linger on how snakes are phallic symbols thank you for not doing that

"The belief that the soul leaves the sleeper in the form of a snake which escapes through the mouth" UM HOLD ON

I checked the source and yeah, that sure is a thing

This one's from Thorpe. Northern Mythology, 1851, Vol I. P. 289f https://archive.org/details/northernmytholog01thoruoft/page/n309/mode/2up

The Vampire

"The wish for reunion, which has its origin in the living person, is here partially projected on the dead" FINALLY some good content

"Widows can get pregnant by their vampiric husbands visiting" uhuh sure

"After the transformation into a vampire is complete it can be discovered by finding the unburied body with red cheeks, tightskin, full blood vessels, warm blood, grown hair and nails and open left eye"

May have found another source on alps here. Features slut-shaming of sphinxes as far as I can tell

"The Wallachian myth wherein dead redheaded men appear in the form of frogs, bugs etc. and drink the blood of pretty girls"

So depending on which church you were a part of before committing heresy you'd either become a werewolf (roman-catholic) or a vampire (greek)

"Like the vampire the Alp can be the soul of a dead person and suck the blood of sleeping people" whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhy do I only read this now

The Werwolf

Apollo's apparently associated with wolves, which I did not know

Oh yeah I forgot about the part of werewolf lore that's like "Yeah they turn their human skin inside-out cause the other side is a wolf pelt"

If you're born on christmas day you're apparently destined to become a werewolf as punishment for your parent daring to deliver on the same day as Mary

"The seventh son is destined to become a werewolf, the seventh daughter a mare" mmmmmmmmm there's Something here I may be able to use

Quick gallows, wow what's that? Oh. Oh it's a gallows where the person has their hands bound behind their back, is pulled up by their bound hands on a pulley and then dropped from great height??????? That's uh. That doesn't sound like a good experience

Armenian werewolves are women who sinned and were thus punished by having to live for seven years as a werewolf.

There's also a creature that's somewhat between werewolf and vampire which, apparently sucks blood from the soles of the feet of people walking by

Very rough translation but "One has to burn the werewolf because otherwise he will rise from his grave a few days later. In ravenous hunger he will eat the flesh from his own hands and feet and when he has nothing else on his body to consume he will burrow out from his grave at midnight, fall into the herds and steal the animals or even go into houses, lay down by the sleeping and suck their blood from them" this is good, actually

I cannot stress enough how openly freudian this thing is

Werewolves can apparently also leave behind their bodies and wander about at night

Devilworship

"Belief in devils can be traced back to an oedipus complex" ok. sure

Apparently the devil used to be a close parallel to jesus. The whole deal: twelve apostles, went to hell and was reborn, hot bod

The devil had his own bible which was written down in Bohemia and is now in a library in Stockholm k so who's down for a trip to Stockholm after [waves hands] all this is done

"One of the later bynames of the devil was Grendel (english Grant)"

The devil is canonically bisexual and bigender

He can only impregnate folks if he previously acts as a succubus

....Merlin was a son of the devil? He was born because the devil was imitating God? His purpose was to defeat Jesus? Is this what Fate Grand Order is about

"if a woman sleeps alone the devil sleeps with her" well good for her

The devil has a second face on his butt that looks like a beautiful woman's face. He sits the wrong way around in chairs. His genitals are on his back

The Witch Epidemic

Witches like to eat babies, especially unbaptized ones

Witches apparently sometimes turned men into horses to ride to sabbath??? rad

Or they rode the devil himself in form of a horse or goat. sure

Why would witches have stigmata. I want to know, but not enough to check the source that's cited for this

The roman-catholic church is at fault for witchcraft

Apparently 40 year old witches turn into Drude which are also similar to alps

In Conclusion

This entire thing was a trip but I cannot recommend reading it or a translation. It's far too Freudian for my tastes. At least there's a little bit here that I can use for A Pale Imitation and its potential sequels.

#Mu speaks #hey did you know #The next thing I'm researching is philosophy #which should be fun #And then some more on mares and stuff which I'm also looking forward to

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veioviswilliams · 3 years ago

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HPHM OC: Veiovis Williams

Name: Veiovis Williams

Nicknames: Veio, Pip, Vei, Will

Name Meaning: from Vejovis, was a Roman god of Etruscan origin, said to be one of the first gods to be born.

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Bisexual

Age: 15 (year 5)

17 (year 7)

22 (became an Auror)

Birthday: 10/24/1972

Zodiac: Scorpio

Blood Status: Half-blood

Ethnicity/Nationality: Yellow, half Vietnamese half American

Language: Vietnamese, English,

Appearance

Body:

Height: 170cm (5′5′’)

Weight: 50kg (110.2 lbs)

Eyes: light sky blue

Hair: Short white

Skin tone: Tanned

Misc: wear glasses when study; have a burn on the left hand at 20 when played with dragon

Material Items:

Clothing: usually oversized clothes, basketball sneakers and not fond in wearing dress, skirt.

Accessories: a silver bracelet, a dragon necklace from Charlie and a Golden Snitch pin from Murphy.

In their school bag: sketchbook, notebook, lots of pencil and eraser, an old Walkman, a comb, a scissors, her wand and hair bands, an Invisibility Cloak

Personality

Traits:

+ Reliable, kindness, intelligent, humorous

+/— Sarcastic, calm, tight-lipped

— Cruel (sometimes), mischievous (when with Tulip and Tonks), overprotective, workaholic, blame everything to herself

Description:

Veiovis is the type of people that cold outside but warm inside. She care really deep about her friends, sometimes can be overprotective due to the lost of her brother Jacob. Not very talkative with outsider, only start to talk when she sit with her friends or when need. She is kinda lack of optimism and fall into depression after Rowan’s death. Veiovis is like a listener, a secret holder to others and she is tight-lipped when they asked about other secret. Feel angry and offended when someone talks bad about her friend and ready to punch them although her friends aren’t cares much about it.

Other:

Likes: drawing, reading about Dark Arts and Magical Creatures, duelling with friends, fly on broom and sing at the commentary at Quidditch pitch with Murphy

Dislikes: cockroaches, bullies, too talkative (except for Tonks and Tulip)

MBTI: INTJ

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Hogwarts

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

OWL Classes:

Astronomy: Exceed Expectations

Charms: Outstanding

DADA: Outstanding

Flying: Exceed Expectations

Herbology: Exceed Expectations

History of Magic: Acceptable

Potions: Exceed Expectations

Transfiguration: Exceed Expectations

OWL Electives:

Care of Magical Creatures: Exceed Expectations

Muggle Studies: Exceed Expectations

Study of Ancient Runes: Outstanding

NEWT Classes:

Charms: Outstanding

DADA: Outstanding

Herbology: Exceed Expectations

Potions: Outstanding

Transfiguration: Exceed Expectations

Extracurriculars:

Clubs: Dragon Club

Quidditch: Beater from 4th year to 6th year

Prefect or Head Boy/Girl: None, lack of performance and duties

Best Classes:

Defence Againts the Dark Arts: Veiovis’s desire make her have to do her best at DADA in order to become an Auror

Worst Classes:

HIstory of Magic: Veiovis is bad at remember date and year

Favorite Professors:

Professor Flitwick: Always cheer Veiovis in testing new spells and care about her after Rowan’s death (well he is Head of Ravenclaw so...)

Least Favorite Professors:

Madam Rakepick: everyone already know why

Magic

1st Wand: Laurel wood with a dragon heartstring core, 12 ½" and solid flexibility

Laural wood:

• It is said that a laurel wand cannot perform a dishonorable act, although Ollivander has known them to perform powerful and sometimes lethal magic in the quest for glory.

• Seems unable to tolerate laziness in a possessor, and in such conditions, it is most easily and willingly worn away.

• Otherwise it will cleave happily to its first match forever and can issue a spontaneous lightning strike if another witch or wizard attempts to steal it.

Dragon Heartstrings: As a rule, dragon heartstrings produce wands with the most power, and which are capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands tend to learn more quickly than other types. While they can change allegiance if won from their original master, they always bond strongly with the current owner.The dragon wand tends to be easiest to turn to the Dark Arts, though it will not incline that way of its own accord. It is also the most prone of the three cores to accidents, being somewhat temperamental.

2nd Wand: Vine wood with a phoenix feather core, 12 ½" and solid flexibility

Vine wood:

• Owners are nearly always those who seek a greater purpose, who have a vision beyond the ordinary and who frequently astound those who think they know them best.

• Vine wands seem strongly attracted to personalities with hidden depths and are more sensitive than any other when it comes to instantly detecting a prospective match.

• Reliable sources claim that vine wands emit magical effects upon the mere entrance into their room of a suitable owner.

Phoenix feather: Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike. Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent and detached in the world. These wands are the hardest to tame and to personalise, and their allegiance is usually hard won.

Special Abilities:

Animagus: Cheetah

Legilimency

Somehow understand what the dragon said (only Charlie know)

Boggart

Form: Jacob become Death Eater and kill her friends

Riddikulus: Jacob is wearing his lame pyjama and a sunglasses, vibing when listening to his music

Amortentia:

What they smell: vanilla, burning wood, smell of grass, rain and sunlight

What they smell like to others: chocolate with mint and smell of rain, sandalwood smell

Patronus

Form: Formerly a cheetah, later change to a dragon

Memory: Veiovis with her brother Jacob sitting next to each other, eating chocolate frogs and listening to music together; Veiovis shared Christmas with the Weasley at the Burrow

What they see in the Mirror of Erised: Standing with all of her friends, Jacob and family, happily together.

FAMILY

Father: Siegmund Williams (deceased) (1940-1979)

Her father is American pure-blood, live at Scotland. Graduated Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, worked as a Healer and help a community of Muggle-born outcasts. Met Mai when shopping, fall in love with her and followed her home (not trying to stalked). After many attempts, finally they got married. Died in a car accident, after Jacob disappeared for 1 year.

Mother: Mai Williams (deceased) (1940-1972)

Her mother is Vietnamese and study aboard at England. She is a muggle, worked at a small hospital as a doctor and later, she moved to Scotland and nursing old people at an aged care center. At there, she met Siegmund wanderer around, trying to find an opportunity to talk to her. After many attempts, finally they got married. Died when give birth to Veiovis.

Brother: Jacob Williams (1967 - now)

Hard headed and hot-tempered, like to solve mystery and get evolved in troubles. Got expelled at 4th year after a very serious case that cause death to his friend, Duncan Ashe. Wandered to find “R” and got assassinated, escaped death but gone blind (his right eye). Discovered the Buried Vault but trapped in a portrait for 4 years. After being saved, works as Curse-breaker for Gringotts Bank.

Pets:

A cat named Ginger and a toad named Will

FRIENDS

Best Friends:

Rowan Khanna: Veiovis’s first friend in her life. Always by Veiovis’s side and go everywhere with her. The first person actually loved her after her father’s death.

Good Friends:

Bill Weasley: brother figure to Veiovis since Jacob disappeared. Always want his attention and look up at him. Likes to make fun of his hair

Fred and George: plays mischief and break rules together

Penny Haywood: Brew Potions and talks about school rumors, girl stuff, etc...

Ben Cooper: overprotective for first 4th year, later become her bodyguard although Veiovis still didn’t know why

Murphy McNully: sing with Veiovis at the Commentary, explain rules and strategies, support her dream to become Auror when Veiovis left the Quidditch team.

Nymphadora Tonks: taught the Patronus Charm, worked together as Aurors, later teach Teddy (Tonks’s son) Charms.

Friends:

Badeea Ali: invented and researched spells together.

Chiara Lobosca: help her to become Healer, have each other’s secrets.

Chester Davies: used to be Ravenclaw’s Perfect, still scold Veiovis even they graduated Hogwarts long times ago (his instinct when lose House Points)

Barnaby Lee: became friend right after Barnaby took a curse for Veiovis, both have interest in Magical Creatures

Cedric Diggory: help him with his homeworks

Diego Caplan: dance with him when they want

Percy Weasley: remind her of some of school rules

Tulip Karasu: searched the Cursed Vaults together, sit next to each other after Rowan died

It’s Complicated:

Merula Snyde: not that hate but not that close, have interested why Merula care so much about the Cursed Vaults.

Love Interests:

Charlie Weasley: really like his expression and smile when talks about dragon although Charlie doesn’t realize. Right before Charlie went to Romania, Veiovis expressed her love. Love from afar until now.

Dormmates:

Rowan Khanna: After her death, Veiovis stayed alone

Doesn’t Interact:

Ismela Murk: no interest in talking

Enemies:

R, Madam Rakepick, Death Eaters, Voldemort,...

Story

Childhood:

Born in Vietnam, live in Scotland with her dad and Jacob until she became an orphan. Stayed with her dad’s friend who actually doesn’t need her, only care about her money. Learn Vietnamese through books and Jacob’s Walkman. Right before she attended Hogwarts, she took all of her money with her, left house right away, never came back.

Hogwarts:

During Hogwarts, Veiovis shows no interest in making many friends but life slapped at her face. Began to search the Cursed Vault in year 1, gone through many things and broke the last Vault, save Hogwarts. Fall into depression after Rowan’s death and after the last Vault but with her friend's help, she successful surpassed it.

Adulthood:

Become Auror and works with Tonks.

Miscellaneous

Song that usually sing with Murphy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRfmrE0ToTo

Listens to all kind of music

Likely to hit a Bludger at whom she hates

When angry, Veiovis will fight with Muggle-style (punch in their face)

#hphm #hphm oc #veiovis williams #profile #hphm profile #harry potter hogwarts mystery #hogwarts mystery

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sebastianshaw · 4 years ago

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Rando Munday ramblings! For new followers, on Munday sometimes I just post a bunch of personal stuff I normally wouldn’t. Not usually anything intimately personal, more like random thoughts and news that just isn’t relevant to the blog in any way, not related to X-Men or RP or writing in general, etc. ....there’s a lot of Hannibal today, sorry, I’m rewatching it.

- I definitely wanna have a pair of critters named Hannibal and Hasdrubal at some point, maybe if there's a third I'd name him Hamilcar. I know everyone will think I named them after Hannibal Lector but actually these are really common names from Ancient Carthage. Like if you look at Carthagian history and records, everyone is Hannibal, Hasdrubal, or Hamilcar, it's like John, James, and Jim. I'd prefer the pair, though, since Hannibal and Hasdrubal were a pair of brothers and famous historical figures, so it would feel much more like a "set" that way (whereas they did not have a brother called Hamilcar) - Speaking of Hannibal Lector, I knew he was based on a real person, but I did not realize that person was a gay Mexican man. That’s...an interesting example of gay history, for sure. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Thomas Harris (the writer of the books that the films and later the TV series were based on) based Hannibal on a surgeon he met while interviewing an inmate at prison for another novel. This surgeon was so intelligent and charismatic that Harris implicitly assumed that he was a doctor in the employ of the prison. Nope---the doctor was an inmate himself. Harris was so shaken by the encounter that it inspired him to create Hannibal Lector, who, in contrast to the typical media portrayals of serial killers as uncontrolled lunatic slashers like Michael Myers or Leatherface, is a charming, culture, charismatic intellectual. To protect the man’s identity, Harris called him “Dr. Salazar” in interviews, so that was always how I knew him. I just now learned not only was his real name Alfredo Balli Trevino, but his victim was Jesus Castillo Rangel, his male lover. Harris describes him as a small, lithe man with dark red hair and, unsurprisingly, “a certain elegance about him”. Though Trevino was given the death penalty for his crimes, his sentence was commuted to 20 years and he was released in either 1980 or 1981. He died in in 2009 when he was 81 years old. He reportedly spent the last years of his life helping the poor and elderly, and he expressed deep regret for his “dark past”---which I suppose makes sense, since his crime was that he killed a lover in a fit of rage during an argument, whereas Hannibal simply killed people in cold blood whom he had no attachment to because he liked eating them (something Trevino never did) and to punish them for rudeness. - I’ve decided to stop buying silk, unless it's from a thrift store and thus my money won't go to supporting sericulture. Ahimsa silk isn't an option either, the bugs aren't technically killed but they're not treated well either. I know it might seem weird to eat meat and wear leather and yet not want to purchase something that hurt moths and larva, but...I have to eat meat for medical reasons, and my leather purchases is limited to boots that I then keep for YEARS AND YEARS so it's very sparing. There's really no such thing as a cruelty-free diet or lifestyle, whether that cruelty is suffered by animals or by other humans, but I can still make choices that at least lesson some small aspect of harm. I need to eat meat, I don't need real silk. ...Haven only wears bamboo silk for this reason and when this came up with Shaw, he absolutely thought she was fucking with him, like even SHE can’t be THIS insane, NO ONE ACTUALLY CARES ABOUT BUGS WTF - The books nearest to me right now are “Women Who Run With The Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype ” by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period, “X-Men: The Legacy Quest Trilogy” by Steve Lyons, two horror anthologies, the script for “M. Butterfly” by David Henry Hwang, “The Spanish Riding School of Vienna: Tour of America 2005″ book I got from when I went to see the Lippizanner horses perform, and a big beautiful leatherbound English translation of “The Flowers of Evil” by Charles Baudelaire. This is...this is a summary of my whole personality, sans rodents. Also god I need to clean my room. - Something I've noticed is that many sci-fi horror films that do the whole "science went too far against nature!!!" thing....don't actually have the problem result from the lack of ethics involved or because the scientists did something "unnatural", it happens because they didn't follow basic safety precautions, lab protocol, common sense, etc. "Splice" for instance, is a really good example---the problem isn't that they made a part-human hybrid, that's not why shit goes wrong, shit goes wrong because the two scientists act like idiots, adopt the creation as a child, hide it in their barn instead of a sterile controlled environment, and then one of them HAS SEX WITH IT. Or in "The Fly" the problem isn't that Brundle invented a teleporter, it's that he tested it ON HIMSELF while he was ALL ALONE. Even in "Jurassic Park" the issue is less that dinosaurs are breeding and more the result of a disgruntled worker who was given way too much power over being able to run things, and thus shut them down when he wants to. So many "science gone wrong!" movies end up not really being condemnations of science itself, so much as depicting scientists as utter dumbasses. Which, on the one hand, I do like, because I dislike the notion of condemning scientific progress just because it seems icky or creepy or "goes against nature" (so do vaccines, I still like those!) But on the other hand, the movies don't FRAME it as "this is the result of failure to practice science safely and sensibly" they frame it as "they should never have attempted such an unnatural thing and this disaster is punishment for a moral sin" even though the issue doesn't happen because what the scientists did was "wrong" it happens because they do something DUMB. - Bringing it back to Hannibal, I reached the episode where Margot Verger first appears, and if I have one big disappointment about the Hannibal series, it's Margot. In the books, she's a huge butch lesbian, literally and figuratively. In the TV series, she's a pretty femme fashionista like all the other women, and she fucks Will in order to get pregnant. At the time this came out in 2013, I tried to be all resigned and fair-minded about this. I was like "ok, well, they didn't want to be offensive with a stereotype, and I guess that's fair, I guess not hurting people matters more to me than getting the horseback-riding bulldyke hearthrob of my high school years on-screen at last" but you know what? No. Firstly, butch lesbians deserve representation too. How many have you ever seen onscreen, let alone in a mainstream media production? Sure, it's a stereotype, but it's not an inherently negative one, they just get treated that way in media because society sees it that way. But the way to handle butch lesbians and femme gay men and so on isn't to erase them from the screen, it's to start writing them as human beings and not caricatures or jokes or monsters. Margot is a fleshed-out human being, she's nuanced and twisted and hurt like everyone else in this series, she would be PERFECT for that. She wouldn't be just a butch lesbian, she'd be a CHARACTER who just also happens to be a butch lesbian. I don't really think she was changed to avoid "hurting" lesbians, I think she was changed because the director, gay man or not, clearly has a way he wants the women in his series to look (they're all fashion plates, all have long hair, all very sophisticated, etc) and book Margot didn't fit his aesthetic, his design if you will. Because god forbid we just make her a DAPPER dyke, right? Back to having sex with Will, which most certainly did NOT happen in the books...that's not bad itself in a VACUUM, fucking men to get a baby is something real-life lesbians do, I had a friend in college who was actually conceived that way, but like...no media exists in a vacuum, and there is very little depiction of lesbians in media that doesn't feature them fucking men for SOME reason or another. They want a baby, or they start the story with a boyfriend, or they're actually bisexual, or they're even raped, but there's always SOME reason we have to watch a guy fucking them and it's frankly distressing. Like, remember Irene Adler in BBC's Sherlock? It's a pattern. And I'm not saying lesbians who have had a sexual past with men, or who were the victims of sexual violence by men, don't deserve representation, I would never say that, those are very common experiences, I'm not saying "gold stars only", I'm saying that there is a strong pattern in media where it seems almost obligatory that a lesbian has to have sex with or be attracted to men at some point, while comparatively the opposite case, where a lesbian is depicted as exclusively and only attracted to and "with" other women, is seldom there. And it's just kind of a kick in the nads for me, as I think it was for a lot of other lesbians, butch or not, that a gay director took an opportunity like Margot Verger and turned her into just another attractive lipstick lesbian that is okay with having sex with the male protagonist as a treat tee hee (Spoiler: She does end up with Alana though, which I appreciate)

#out of shirt #munday #mun monday

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wildwcmen · 4 years ago

Photo

Basic Information

Full Name: Thomas Wilde

Nickname(s): Tommy

Age: 25-28

Date of Birth: May 10

Hometown: Dallas, Texas

Gender: Cis Man

Pronouns: He/Him

Orientation: Bisexual Biromantic

Religion: Atheist

Occupation: Bar owner, musician, gambler

Language(s) Spoken: English, French

Physical Appearance

Face Claim: Keith Powers

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Brown

Height: 6′2

Weight: 180 lbs

Build: Athletic

Tattoos: None.

Piercings: Ears.

Clothing Style: Alternates between punk and classy. When he’s working or in Vegas, he loves to overdress and wear suits. In his personal life he likes ripped jeans, band tee’s, etc.

Usual Expression: Passive, zero fucks given, blank stares.

Distinguishing Characteristics: Freckles across his face and arms.

Health

Sleeping Habits: Generally good sleeping habits. He sleeps early (unless he has a gig) and wakes up early. He’s definitely a believer in the early bird getting the worm.

Eating Habits: He eats a fairly healthy diet and tries to take care of himself. He’s a decent cook and eats in more than he eats out.

Exercise Habits: Cardio and weights daily.

Emotional Stability: 9/10, almost too emotionally stable.

Sociability: He likes being around people, but is very picky with the company he keeps.

Drug Use: Yes, only cannabis.

Alcohol Use: Yes.

Personality

Positive Traits: Charming (when he wants to be), good humored, intelligent, lucky, strategic, chill.

Negative Traits: Illusionary, rude, judgmental, arrogant, boastful.

Fears: Intimacy, losing.

Hobbies: Gambling, card games, playing the drums, traveling, working out.

Habits: Rolling his eyes, staring.

Favourites

Weather: Spring, rainy.

Colour: Green.

Music: Punk rock, indie rock, classic rock.

Animal: He only likes his dog and his bed, he’s sorry.

Family

Father: name tba (adopted)

Mother: name tba (adopted)

Sibling(s): Twin sister, Jackie.

Pet(s): Golden retriever named Rilo

Family’s Financial Status: Upper class

Extra

Zodiac Sign: Taurus sun, Gemini moon, Leo rising

MBTI: XSTJ

Enneagram: The Performer

Temperament: Phlegmatic

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Moral Alignment: True neutral

Primary Vice: Greed

Primary Virtue: Patience

Element: Earth

Flaws

Strengths

Skills & Hobbies

#i only bet my heart like a spade / tommy #stats / tommy

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all-things-are-nothing-to-me · 5 years ago

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Dangerous Foundations: an Argument Against the "Identity" in Identity Politics

I believe that Identity — always mythical and invented — is in itself oppressive, and that a politics founded upon one or another particular Identity is a dangerous strategy. These dangers are numerous, and include: the creation and policing of arbitrary boundaries of Identity, rigorous essentialism, the intensification of the norms associated with the Identity, the suppression and homogenisation of difference within, and the failure to recognise commonalities across boundaries of Identity.

In line with Judith Butler and Donna Haraway, I want to suggest that a politics of affinity, rather than Identity, has vastly more potential to transform the myriad of oppressive relations that we are subject to, and participate in, every day. And though this essay is primarily argued through the lens of the sex/gender/desire matrix, the implications for other struggles based around Identity are thoroughly implied.

. . . . .

The ‘Identity’ of identity politics requires some investigation. It isn’t the more mundane aspects of our identity such as our name, our age, or perhaps the car we drive, though all of these could become the basis for capital-‘I’ Identity. Rather, the idea of Identity used here includes sex/gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, nationalism, sometimes class (when it defines who one ‘is’) or even political allegiances (‘anarchist’ included). Identity in this sense is an extrapolation from some personal aspect of our selves — parts of our body, our desires, beliefs, etc. — to a social category. In turn, being a member of such a social category is deemed to say something important about ourselves. One boy being attracted to another boy, for example, is one desire among the thousands of everyday desires we have. But in contemporary society, this desire becomes something much bigger: it locates the boy in a social category, that of the ‘homosexual’ (and, thus, not a heterosexual), which then implies a number of things about the boy, a number of essential qualities. Perhaps he is a sissy, or artistic, likes shopping, or any other number of homosexual stereotypes.

It says something else too: in being homosexual, the boy becomes located within a social hierarchy. He is lesser than heterosexuals, perhaps on par with bisexuals (or perhaps, as half-bloods, they are lower still?), and no doubt above transsexuals. Identity is essential to these sorts of hierarchies. Racism, sexism, compulsory heterosexuality, and so on, require that an otherwise unique individual become Identified, given an appropriate placing within the various hierarchies of Identity, and treated in accordance with the value, traits and norms associated with that Identity. Those Identities deemed of highest value are usually considered normal, and deviations beyond its boundaries are considered lesser and subservient, or sometimes even abhorrent (and in need of rectification).

Despite this hierarchy, the different identities actually need each other to make sense: the heterosexual only makes sense in relation to the homosexual, defined as its opposite, its relational ‘other,’ and likewise man and woman only remain stable categories of identity when they have each other to be defined against: I am a woman because I have a vagina which a man does not have.

In being the basis for founding much of our behaviour, and our conceptions of the world and each other, these identity categories need a certain solidity, a foundation from which they can be asserted. And, obviously, simply being relational to one another doesn’t provide this foundation. Identities are therefore deemed as natural, as biological or god-given. In having a penis one joins the identity group of ‘men,’ being like them in several very important ways, and exercising the power attributed to them; and that this is natural therefore puts it beyond question. The fact that these identities constantly change in meaning or are simply invented, that the homosexual identity, for example, was only invented in the last decade of the nineteenth century, must therefore be forgotten or else history rewritten.

Identity works in two ways. It firstly locates someone within a social category, and thus within a particular hierarchy: it shapes how people relate to one another. In this operation, social identities are applied to ourselves from an external source, and we are judged and treated accordingly. What is more insidious, however, is when identity categories become internalised. They become standards to which we aspire, and we seek to take on and enact these categories based on what we consider to be their essential qualities. And so in being located as a man one becomes attributed the power granted to the social category of men (in those situations where this power is recognised, that is), but one also becomes subject to the norms of masculinity. To be a man, one must constantly act as a man, must properly perform their masculinity, and re-establish their identity in new situations. Identity, therefore, is a prescription; it defines how people should act. And it is a cause of much pain when people who are identified as a particular identity fail to perform that identity properly: they must constantly monitor their movements, their speech, their interests, and so on, or else face retribution from those around them. In properly performing their identity, however, they simultaneously recreate the norms associated with that identity, subtly but effectively policing the boundaries of the category. And of course, people can, and often do, police the boundaries of identity much more explicitly in employing a continuum of violence, from non-verbal and symbolic gestures of disapproval, verbal taunting, social isolation, physical violence and even death.

. . . . .

It’s a peculiar thing that most all of the movements seeking to overcome identity-based hierarchies have sought not to dismantle the founding identity, but have instead asserted it ever more strongly, demanding equality of identities. This is identity politics, and it has been the dominant method of approaching these struggles for well over 200 years.

The Identity part of identity politics has such appeal partly as a result of the ‘existential solidity’ Identity provides. Or, put differently, it gives us a concrete foundation for our place in the world, our position within the natural order of things. It helps put to rest any number of niggling questions about ‘who we really are.’

The dominance of identity politics itself is no doubt in part because there is a very real sense of solidarity to be found amongst people subject to a similar experience. In coming together, and in realising that individual experiences are shared across a number of people, there is a great sense of strength to be gained. One of the first moves I made in coming to terms with my obviously deviant sexual desires was to seek out and talk to other guys my age, who had come out or were coming out, to share stories and learn survival strategies from one another, and to simply provide support. Building a political strategy upon these linkages isn’t such a leap.

There is possibly a second reason for its dominance as a strategy, in that it is particularly well suited to liberal politicking. The liberal paradigm of equal rights before the State requires, firstly, recognition before the State. This cannot be achieved without a well-defined ‘special interest’ or lobby group, whose boundaries are clearly delineated, and with leaders or organisations that can speak on behalf of the group, that can represent it before the State. Within this liberal logic of recognition and representation, Identity therefore becomes the bedrock upon which it is based, and it is not politically sensible to question this foundation.

In any case, identity politics has dominated, based upon the familiar strategy of oppressed identity groups asserting their Identity, demonstrating the common condition of oppression and the unity across that Identity, and demanding equality alongside other Identities.

. . . . .

So what is wrong with identity politics? How could it possibly be dangerous? I want to use Judith Butler’s ‘matrix’ of sex/gender/desire to make my points here. In this matrix, sex and gender are separated in the classic (but problematic) division between the biological body (sex) and the social/cultural body (gender). The French feminist Simone de Beauvoir’s famous line from The Second Sex makes this separation quite succinct: ‘one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.’ Gender in this sense is the identity given to the biological body, including the prescriptions and norms given to specific bodies, the knowledge about those bodies, and so on. Desire is the last aspect of this matrix and describes sexual desire, whether for men or women, young or old, or any other number of sexual desires. The only two truly accepted sex/gender/desire matrices are male/man/hetero and female/woman/hetero. Jumbled matrices are obviously of a lesser status, and matrices which cannot be clearly described, such as hermaphrodite/neither masculine nor feminine/asexual, are abhorrent, or ‘abject.’ Drawing upon this framework, I want to try and illustrate some of the dangers of identity politics.

Identity politics reinforces (binary) divisions and is essentialist. In choosing not to transcend, but rather found their politics upon the boundaries of existing identity formations, identity politics tends to reinforce these divisions. Defining and redefining the nature of the identity upon which these strategies are founded results in a policing of the borders of that identity, and this often takes the form of controversies about where precisely the boundaries lie (are transgendered men to be considered alongside women? are bisexuals our allies or sexual traitors? etc.).

The unproblematic use of the identity categories of men/women and heterosexual/homosexual gives these categories a new life; it treats the categories as natural or biological, thus hiding their ‘invented’ nature. In doing so, the use of these categories engages in an often rigorous essentialism, entertaining the idea that there are indeed universal and ahistorical properties associated with sex, gender and sexuality, for example. This is particularly strange given the widespread feminist concern with detaching gender from sex. Judith Butler has commented that this separation should have radically destabilised the binary categories of gender, creating a proliferation of gender scripts (since male ≠ man, and female ≠ woman), but instead gender is talked about in the very same terms as sex, where gender and sex become one and the same again (and never mind that biological sex is itself not dualistic).[1] The same applies to the use of homosexual and heterosexual categories. Rather than seeking to reveal the multiplicity of desires within each of us that certainly transcend these categories, ‘gay pride,’ for example, has revelled in its distinct and separate identity to heterosexual culture.

Identity politics further entrenches individuals under the respective regime of identity. In calling upon individuals to embrace a particular identity, the individual either enters for the first time the regime of norms associated with that identity, or else has the norms brought upon them with renewed strength. Engaging in homosexual relations, for example, did not necessarily make one a homosexual prior to the gay rights movement (and still does not, of course). In the rise of homosexual identity politics, however, large numbers of people were called upon to ‘come out’ and be proud of being gay, to embrace the homosexual identity. Those who came to identify as gay found themselves brought under the norms of gay identity; they became subject to the homosexual discursive regime, and the stronger the insistence upon this identity, the stronger its norms came to bear.

When people don’t fit with these norms — for example, are hopeless at artistic endeavours, aren’t beautiful and slim, are macho, or are not hopelessly intrigued by shopping — the gay identity becomes either strongly alienating or, more commonly, works so as to transform them according to those very expectations. My personal experience of first identifying as gay and watching TV shows like Will and Grace was one of alienation (and disgust), followed by an attempt to bring myself into line with those expectations.

The assertion of identity within the gay rights movement also had the effect of creating an entirely new commercial market, where a large group of otherwise disparate people could now be collectively called upon through advertising to buy or partake in a variety of gay-oriented commodities and services. This was a similar operation to that of homosexual norms.

Identity politics homogenises and overrides difference within. In asserting a commonality across an identity, those that fall outside these descriptions have their voices silenced and actual differences are suppressed. This is especially true of identity politics when it engages in representation, where individuals or organisations who presume that their experiences are generalisable speak on behalf of all members of that particular identity. The dominant versions of second-wave feminism, for example, were regularly opposed from the 1960s up until the 1990s first by working-class women whose experiences were altogether different to the then-dominant middle-class feminists, then by black women, lesbian women, transsexual women, and a number of other intersections of identities and experiences. Another way of saying this is that identity politics often imposes a unity upon what are clearly divergent experiences.[2]

The dominant articulation of a particular identity not only silences those who fall outside its parameters, but also works to create new norms of identity. It was not just in watching Will and Grace that I came under the norms of homosexual identity, but also in the dominant voices of homosexual organisations, in the voices of ‘my own people.’ The media that they produced, the ‘help guides,’ and the stories that they told, had a much bigger effect than heterosexual media on creating the standards to which I believed I had to aspire. This was a form of internal control and regulation, though it was internal only with respect to the arbitrary boundaries of homosexual identity.

Identity politics reduces ‘internal’ power plays to secondary concern. This is very closely related to the last issue, because of course those doing the silencing were precisely those who were higher in other hierarchies, whether straight, white or upper/middle-class, for example. There is a very real and justifiable fear that these internal differences and hierarchies will shatter the supposed commonality of experience given to an identity. Therefore, equality is often sought first and foremost for the primary identity, and intra-identity hierarchies are suppressed for the sake of unity, to be dealt with as a secondary concern (such as at the annual conference). It thus encourages a piecemeal approach, ignoring that concrete relations of oppression and domination are experienced within a single field of experience.

Identity politics masks commonalities that transcend the boundaries of identity. Identity politics often frames oppression as singularly and uniquely experienced by one particular identity to which others, at most, can act as allies. This masks the shared interests some within an identity category may share with others designated beyond its boundaries. Gay rights, for example, frames homosexual oppression as something only experienced by homosexuals. But what of the sissy boy who fails to live up to the norms of masculinity, who may in fact be largely heterosexual in desire but nonetheless gets pounded into school walls and jeered as a faggot? The same sex/gender/desire regime is clearly at play, but the closed boundaries of homosexual/heterosexual identity mask and obscure this commonality.

Identity politics often encourages limited models of power. It frames power as ‘them’ versus ‘us,’ as one identity group dominating another. Heterosexuals oppress homosexuals, men oppress women, sex-dominants oppress intersex/non-sex people. As a general description this is often true, but by itself it misses at least two further aspects. It misses how power is also created bottom-up, which is to say there are generalised practices that occur across identities that re-create norms and further entrench identity formations. Where, for example, do the norms of masculinity and femininity come from? who polices their boundaries? who exercises violence when norms are broken? The production of these norms and their maintenance cannot be reduced to one group, not even in a general way.

The second aspect often overlooked in identity politics is when the general oppressor/oppressed relation becomes conceived as a hard-and-fast rule, a totalising form of power where all relationships are re-coded in this way. When, at the concrete and everyday level, these relations are reversed or otherwise broken, identity politics often tends to treat them as anomalies, and thus sidelines the experience completely.

. . . . .

These problems around founding a political strategy upon identity have been well known within feminist and queer theory for some time. The fear was that, without asserting a central point of commonality and unity in Identity, there was no other way to continue the feminist/queer project. And so the notion of ‘strategic essentialism’ was developed, which posed a project based around ‘womanhood,’ for example, which was conscious of its mythical founding principle, but which used it nonetheless as a necessary point of unity. While strategic in its intention, the project rapidly digressed towards explicit essentialism only to be renounced by one of its original theorists, Gayatri Spivak.

Can we imagine a politics against Identity-based oppression that is not itself founded upon Identity? But if not Identity, around what do we come together? One answer to this has been what has been called a ‘politics of affinity.’ A ‘politics of affinity’ is politics that seeks cooperation between people based upon similarities in political project, in vision, and in methods. It is a series of associations formed not upon who we are today, but based on how we desire to change and what we desire to effect, whether that be a dismantling of gender scripts, the creation of practices that encourage egalitarian relations, and so on. This is therefore not a project founded upon existing categories of Identity, but instead ‘marks out a self-consciously constructed space that cannot affirm the capacity to act on the basis of natural identification, but only on the basis of conscious coalition, of affinity, of political kinship’ (Donna Haraway, 1991: 156).

A politics of affinity seeks to abandon Identity as its founding principle, and seeks in its methods not to maintain and reinscribe the boundaries of Identity. It does not, however, pretend Identity doesn’t exist. Indeed, Identity is so thoroughly pervasive that it is difficult to imagine a politics without it. A politics of affinity therefore embodies at least two moments. The first moment is a recognition and interrogation of existing categories of Identity, their boundaries, their essential properties, their myths of legitimacy, and the mechanisms through which they are deployed so as to create oppressive relations. In doing this, it also seeks to destabilise them: it is necessary to show the boundaries as arbitrary and overflowing, the myths of legitimacy as false, and to describe the changing history of how those Identities have been understood or created.

This second moment involves a process of ‘disidentification,’ which is both a rejection of existing categories of Identity as a lived practice, and necessarily the creation of new performances, new scripts, perhaps even new Identities (to be abandoned and undermined the moment they take hold). Identities maintain their grasp only partially through ideas; the more substantial component to Identity maintenance is in the practices and performances of our everyday lives.

The rejection of Identity therefore means the rejection and concomitant creation of new ways of living. It means behaving differently, trampling scripts of Identity (and not simply inversing them either) and creating ourselves anew with one another through collective experiments. These experiments in living must seek to confront existing practices of domination, but they also allow for a positive conception of freedom not possible within identity politics: the creation of practices that further extend the possibilities of living for everyone.

In doing so, in seeking to spread a project of disidentification, the hope is that the foundations for Identity-based oppressions will be undermined, and new egalitarian practices developed in their stead. Judith Butler has ironically suggested that more might be achieved by searching for points of disidentification than identification, and that in this process a politics of affinity, and not identity, may be forged.

* A politics of affinity… is about abandoning the fantasy that fixed, stable identities are possible and desirable, that one identity is better than another, that superior identities deserve more of the good and less of the bad that a social order has to offer, and that the state form should act as the arbiter of who gets what (Richard Day, 2005: 188)

Endnotes

1. ‘If gender is the cultural meanings that the sexed body assumes, then a gender cannot be said to follow from a sex in any one way. Taken to its logical limit, the sex/gender distinction suggests a radical discontinuity between sexed bodies and culturally constructed genders’ (Judith Butler, 2006: 9).

2. ‘These domains of exclusion reveal the coercive and regulatory consequences of that construction, even when that construction has been elaborated for emancipatory purposes. Indeed, the fragmentation within feminism and the paradoxical opposition to feminism of ‘women’ whom feminism claims to represent suggest the necessary limits of identity politics’ (Judith Butler, 2006: 6).

#Imminent Rebellion #social war #anarcho-nihilism #anarchy #anti identity politics #anti essentialism #anti politics #attack #anarchism #anarcho communism #communism #individualism #individualist anarchism #nihilism #post left anarchy #post leftism #Aotearoa

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qqueenofhades · 6 years ago

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Hi, I love your blog (and by extension, you) and I was wondering please if you had any recommendations for how to get into Shakespeare if one only knows the basics from school? (R&J, Midsummer, Macbeth, Othello, and that's it.)

Ahaha, excellent. I LOVE Shakespeare for many reasons, but I appreciate that it can be daunting to get into the original. Probably all of us have seen some kind of adaptation or reworking or modern version of his plays, we have all used some turn of phrase or name or other staple that he invented, and his influence on the English language and dramatic conventions cannot be overstated. So yes, I think it’s worthwhile to know his stuff, but I also think you shouldn’t read it (or anything) just because Old White Men Classic (TM). But if you want to approach it and learn more, you’re in for a treat.

First, I really don’t think Shakespeare is meant to be read by yourself. You can, but... you lose a lot from seeing it performed, and the complexities and richness and ornate nature of the language can be somewhat dense or inaccessible when you read it, vs. hearing it spoken. It was really written to be performed, and if you see a good production of it, you can understand how the language is supposed to sound and the emotions that go with it. I have watched Shakespeare for many years and I’m still delighted by his turns of phrase and the relatable humanity of his characters and the sheer brilliance of the Things He Makes You Feel. Also, the only valid Shakespeare is queer Shakespeare, lbr. He was a bisexual glovemaker’s son with only a grammar school education, he wrote some of the greatest literature in the English language and classist snobs have spent years trying to “prove” that he didn’t, and understanding this about him makes you appreciate him more, imho. The plays weren’t written for the fancy amusement of the upper classes, although Shakespeare acquired more royal patronage as his career went on. These were all freely available for the common people who thronged the Rose, the Globe, the Swan, and other Elizabethan-era theatres, and they would have watched all of these and enjoyed it just as much. It was how they talked and how they lived, and they would have appreciated both the high drama and pathos and all the dirty jokes. Shakespeare loves a good dirty joke. There’s nothing inherently inaccessible or fancy about him. He has been made elite and a sign of Refined Taste or whatever, but really, these plays were always for the people.

If you are currently down the Good Omens rabbit hole as most of us are, or even if you’re not, I can absolutely recommend David Tennant’s Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, and Richard II, because they are all absolutely fantastic and made me feel Many Things (seriously, I am gonna be over here shouting at everyone to watch Richard II, I loved it SO MUCH). The Royal Shakespeare Company is usually pretty good for having quality productions with great stage actors, so you can’t go too far wrong with them (I saw Julius Caesar at Stratford in 2008 and it was great). Because I am a dramatic angsty ho, I also love The Tempest and King Lear, though I can’t think offhand of particular productions/versions of those that I would especially recommend. The classics that you have already named (Macbeth, Midsummer Night’s Dream, etc) are all worth a watch even if you have already read them a while ago. As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and The Merry Wives of Windsor are good for Ladies Doing Things (especially As You Like It), and The Winter’s Tale gives us that Truly Immortal Stage Direction, “Exit, pursued by a bear.” (And is good for both drama and a eventually happy ending, rather than being just a tragedy or a comedy.)

Anyway. There is not really a “right” way to do Shakespeare, and you don’t need to be an expert on Elizabethan literature or early modern English or anything like that to enjoy him. You will definitely get more out of it as you go along, when you get more familiar with the language and the structure and the setup of the jokes, but really, start anywhere you like and work from there. You will be like “oh, THAT’S where that saying comes from” at least once a play, and some of his soliloquies and monologues and so forth are just... heart-shakingly brilliant and they will stick in your head forever. It’s also delightful, at least for me, to see these characters all acting in such human and recognizable ways, as a reminder that people in the sixteenth century really were not different from people today in many ways. We say a lot that people have always been people, but when you’re watching something written that long ago and you can still recognize the fact that they’re exactly how we would understand them to be, it’s just really wonderful.

Anyway. I love Shakespeare. So yes. (Ask me about my feelings on Elizabethan theatre/Shakespeare as a normatively queer space. Ahem.)

#shakespeare #anonymous #ask

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galadrieljones · 5 years ago

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11 Questions

tagged by @buttsonthebeach. thanks so much!! ^_^

1. What image or images do you come back to over and over again in your writing?

Birds, orchards, night sky.

2. Which character’s point of view do you most enjoy writing? (OC or canon)

Not sure? I have really grown fond of writing men. I like writing the male POV. I think it’s an interesting study and use of empathy.

3. What is the first piece of inspiration that led to the project you are working on now?

For that he may hold me by the hand, which is my BRAND new project--I have always liked the Arthur/Albert ship. I’ve always liked the bisexual Arthur headcanon. Rockstar has written a bisexual male protagonist before, so this headcanon is very arguable. Arthur, as a character, seems very emotionally unavailable throughout most of the game. I feel like all the times he comes closest to *actually* flirting with any character in-game, the times he seems most open and easy-going, most confident and in-control of his own domain, are spent with Albert. With Albert, Arthur comes alive a little bit, like he’s got some blood flowing through his veins. I guess I wanted to explore that further, and of course it’s mostly planned out, and it is looking like probably the most straight-up romantic love story I’ve ever written. I mean, Arthur offers to protect Albert multiple times. He uses those literal words: “I’ll protect you.” Albert flails. He calls Arthur a gentleman. “You, sir, are a gentleman,” he says. “You don’t know me very well,” says Arthur. “Well, you’re a gentleman to me,” says Albert. Arthur legit is blushing. Arthur carries his bag for him. ???? Arthur worries about him. Albert is genuinely in awe of Arthur’s relationship to and knowledge of nature. To me, Arthur feels genuinely under-appreciated by nearly every member of the gang. There are really no other characters who fawn over and admire Arthur the way Albert does. I think...I think Arthur could get into that.

4. What is one fic you have always wanted to write but haven’t gotten a chance to yet?

My Arlathan AU! I always talked about going back and writing the story of my Arlathan and the Great War--Solas and Mythal’s love story, what happened with Solas’s mother Leanathy, the love triangle with Solas, Ghilan’nain, and Mythal, Ghil’s betrayal, Solas smoking elfroot in the kitchens with Abelas and flirting with the servant girls, etc. etc. I want to write it! But I don’t! Think! I ever will! Wah.

5. What project has been the toughest for you to work on?

Probably my art! Ugh. With the new baby, it’s really fallen away. I still draw, but definitely not every day. With drawing, I really have to like, focus and try so hard. It’s not easy, and I get very fixated and it’s hard for me to move in and out of the space at a moment’s notice, which I sort of need to be able to do right now. But writing for me is easy. I can be writing while doing anything. I can be writing one minute and then tending to my kids in the next, and vice versa. It’s just an experience thing. So I’ve just been writing a lot. That’s been my main creative outlet, which is okay. It’s normal for me. But I miss drawing!! Of course starting another chapter fic probably isn’t going to help with that much lmfao.

6. Do you have any routines or habits for writing?

Probably just my new need to have my phone drafts. I so rarely just sit down to an empty page without prepared material anymore. I write so many scenes on my phone before I start typing in word. It’s like the lynchpin of my writing process lately.

7. How do you get to know more about each of your characters? Do their personalities and backstories tend to come to you immediately, or do you have to “spend some time” with them to figure that out?

Hmm. I think I need to spend some time with them. There are certain things that come to me immediately, and a lot of the time, it’s because those things just fit my aesthetic tendencies. So like, Arthur being able to count cards and cheat at blackjack, and his ability to do sleight of hand at the poker table--these things came to me immediately, just like they did with Solas (who also does sleight of hand and magic tricks and is very good at cards). That stuff all just comes from my husband, who is a good mathematician and super good at games like poker and blackjack. So like, most of my male characters are...that way lol.

Other things, like backstory-wise, it’s usually a mixture of spur of the moment and then well-thought-out stories. So for Mary Beth, she just seems like she’d be from Kansas. So, she’s from Kansas. Then I go searching for a good town for her to be from in like the 1870s when she would have been born. And I find a good town, and then that leads to something else about the backstory of the entire gang, etc. With Sene Lavellan, it took me a long time to invent her whole backstory and to realize she was a rich Dalish elf, and that this was central to her identity. BUT, I knew she was a loner and a hothead right away. So. Yeah. It’s a mix.

8. If you could only write one for the rest of your life - smut, angst, or fluff - what would you choose?

Probably fluff? I need joy.

9. What trope do you love to include in your writing?

I like characters who are protective of each other (it’s not a gendered thing--I like protective women as well as protective men). I like hurt/comfort a LOT. I like touch-starved characters easing themselves back into the throes of intimacy with partners who are patient. I like secret relationships. Fake relationships. Sorry this is multiple tropes I just realized the question didn’t include the plural lmfao

10. Do you write original works in additional to fandom works?

Yes? Theoretically? Lol. I have original stories that I work on from time to time. It used to be all I wrote. I wrote and published original stories before I got here. I miss it sometimes, but to be honest, the transition from fanfiction to original work is not simple. It’s very complicated. That’s not because fanfiction is easier. It’s because it’s a different genre. It’s an entirely different rhetorical situation. The conventions do not match up. Despite the common purpose of “storytelling,” the way you get there is another animal and it takes time and focus to make the change. If I make the change it will most likely be a longterm change.

11. What author’s style do you admire the most?

Probably Hemingway. I love a lot of different styles, but his particular brand of minimalism is, I think, the most taut and the most stylistically interesting to me.

I’ll tag @morgan-arthur @pikapeppa @a-shakespearean-in-paris @ellstersmash @idrelle-miocovani @thevikingwoman @bearly-tolerable @gentle-outlaw @goldenentertainment @jarbaje and @nyoom-bum. Your questions are under the cut <3

What is your favorite character from a video game and why?

When you look back at your middle/junior high school years, what is the first album, band, or musical act that comes to mind?

What makes you nostalgic?

What is your biggest pet peeve when it comes to tumblr, fandom, and/or publishing at AO3?

Describe the place where you are from in three sentences.

Which fandom(s) are you most active in right now? What is your current favorite ship from that fandom?

Where/to whom do you turn when you seek wisdom?

Do you like sports? If you do, what’s your favorite sport to watch and/or play?

Have you ever been to Las Vegas?

What is your guilty pleasure TV show and why?

Do you believe in ghosts?

#11 questions meme #about me

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savegraduation · 5 years ago

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Aaliyah Would Be Proud

I'm James Landau, known on the Internet as Savegraduation.

I am starting this blog, Aaliyah Would Be Proud, to discuss one of most important and flammable issues of our time: youth rights. There are civil rights (for African-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Jewish-Americans, Arab-Americans, Native Americans, Mexican-Americans, Indian-Americans, Filipino-Americans, and others); there are women's rights; there are LGBT rights (for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender people, and non-gender-binary people); there are workers’ rights (for union laborers); there are disability rights (for the physically challenged, the blind, the deaf, the mute, the obese, arthrogrypotics, epileptics, CPers, autistics, Aspies, Downies, people with bipolar, people with borderline, schizophrenics, Touretters, obsessive-compulsives, ADDers, PTSDers, etc.); and then there are youth rights. The youth rights movement seeks to abolish or lower the age of legal restrictions, as well as change informal societal attitudes, that look down on people below a certain age (often 18, 21, or 25) as inferior and undeserving of even basic human rights.

We youth-rightsers aim to lower the voting age to 16. To lower the drinking age back to 19 or 18. To lower the age of majority and age of emancipation to 16. To protect students’ rights at the mandatory institution known as school. To abolish age-discriminatory store policies (”no more than two high school students in at one time”). To extend the rights of medical consent to all people old enough to wish for or object to treatment, regardless of age. To stop punishing parents for their minor children’s crimes. To abolish the draft. To ease restrictions on younger workers, and stop employers from viewing young employees as a liability. To allow people under 16 to get a job without adults bellowing, “Child labor!” To guarantee to every American the right to practice the religion she or he wants to and express her/his mind without her/his parents having her/him arrested for “insubordination”.

Age-discriminatory laws run a wide spectrum of enormity. At one end are age restrictions of things, such as drinking alcohol, smoking weed, or gambling, that the majority of Americans today believe are morally wrong for youth to do. Then come other status crimes like teen curfew laws. Then come laws like the laws in America preventing under18s from voting (even though Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Austria, the Crown Dependencies, Scotland, and Malta already allow 16-year-olds-to vote; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_age#Chronology_of_lowering_the_voting_age_to_16 ). Then come the oversteps of strict parents and Skinneresque faculty at K-12 schools, trying to prevent boys from wearing earrings, or censor the school paper because the principal doesn't like the angle of a particular student-written story or editorial. At the far end are stories of teens being abducted from their homes and taken into gulag camps simply because they have parents who don't like their nonconformity. Teens having their most beloved possessions destroyed or thrown away by their parents. Teens having to drive over state lines into states that will vaccinate them, lest they die before their eighteenth or even nineteenth birthdays because their parents refuse to let them have a vaccine . . . and also the less lucky teens who died already because a state legislature decided a parent's wishes trump a teen's concerns. 16-year-olds who have been seeking emancipation for a long time and then get kicked out to house by their parents (to their initial delight), only for the parents to then lie and report their child as a runaway, and having the mendacious parents rather than the truthful teen believed because of pervasive ageist attitudes and stereotypes, vitiating the minor's eligibility for emancipation. Gay teens undergoing the atrocious conversion therapy. Parents who take their 12-year-old sons to get circumcised against their sons' wishes. (And judging by their "Being a minor is only temporary!" argument, ageists seem to believe the boy's foreskin will magically regenerate on his eighteenth birthday.) If, when you hear the phrase "youth rights violations", you think simply of "You have to be 21 to drink", think again.

The title of this blog came from the R&B singer Aaliyah, who was born at the beginning of the Millennial Generation in January of 1979 and succumbed in a plane crash in 2001. In 1994, at the age of 15, Aaliyah released an album titled Age Ain't Nothing but a Number. Aaliyah lived her life to the fullest, not kowtowing to ageist laws and attitudes, and it was a good thing she did, because her life lasted only 22 years. I like to believe that if Aaliyah were to read my blog today, she would be proud of me for making the case for youth rights.

The seed of this Tumblr blog was planted several months ago, when a member of the NYRA Youth Rights Discussion Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/NYRAyouthrights/ told us about the Tumblr blog he had started on the topic of adult privilege (as analogous to male privilege, White privilege, straight privilege, etc.). Even though this blogger was an adult himself, he was swamped upon posting his first entry from people who wrongly assumed he was a kid who was upset because his parents wouldn't buy him an iPhone.

It is common among Gen-Xers (born 1964-1978) to be unaware that it's normal for Millennials (born 1979-2004) -- even the ones in our twenties or thirties, or who turned 40 this year -- to take many pro-YR positions, such as suffrage for 16-year-olds or restrictions on parental authority. These ignorant people assume that anyone starting a blog about ageism and ephebophobia (the fear of youth) must be "some kid", and that their concerns must be about positive rights (entitlement), rather than pressing negative rights.

Underlying this ignorance is a big myth surrounding generations that states every generation follows the same lifecycle as the Baby Boomers (born 1943-1957) did: they are innocent as children, then turn into wild, pot-smoking, socially liberal teen-agers who argue fiercely for youth rights, then go on being young and idealistic until they have children of their own and settle down . . . to then become "responsible", socially conservative adults who considered their younger selves to be irresponsible and misguided, raise their own kids strictly, start claiming "marijuana is illegal for a reason", and oppose youth rights. Or so the narrative goes.

But not every generation in Anglo-American history has followed this lifecycle. Take the Silent Generation (born 1925-1942), for instance. They began as Shirley Temples and Alfalfas amid the Great Depression and World War II, then spent their teens being a low-crime generation, despite all the Blackboard Jungle concern about juvenile delinquency and gangs. They married young. During the Postwar Era of 1950′s America, some of their members were beatniks, or invented rock-and-roll, or crusaded for the Civil Rights movement (after all, Chuck Berry and Martin Luther King, Jr. were Silents), but more often they kept their heads down, being grey-flannel-suit fathers who focused on their careers instead of activism, or barefoot-and-pregnant mothers who focused on being the perfect housewife. William Manchester wrote of fifties-era high school and college students: "Never had American youth been so withdrawn, cautious, unimaginative, indifferent, unadventurous -- and silent." They were indulgent parents, however, raising the Baby Boomers to the tune of Dr. Spock. Then they hit 40, and had their "midlife crisis", realizing they had wasted their youth being so un-rebellious. They started riding motorcycles and growing ponytails in middle age, and during the Vietnam Era, they generally raised their Baby Boomer and Joneser (born 1958-1963) kids permissively. It was a Silent, 1932-born Ted Kennedy, who proposed amending the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to lower the voting age to from 21 to 18 at a national level, and argued in Oregon v. Mitchell that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment meant Congress could pass voting-age-related legislation at a federal level.

The "all generations are the same" myth notwithstanding, there is another, competing big myth prevalent today. This myth states that today's youth are "the worst" ever. Older Americans often indulge in saying that the Millennial Generation is the worst generation ever . . . or at least was until the Fifth World Generation (born 2005-today) came along. Memes posted by Boomers and Xers on the Internet say that when they were growing up, youth respected their elders, parents spanked their kids without fearing CPS, the spankings did no harm, and children freely "drank from the garden hose". Do they even remember the accusations during the sixties that teens had "no respect for their elders", "no respect for authority"? Older generations like to stereotype Millennials and Fifth Worlders as generations of Eloi, genetically attached to their smartphones, phones that are smarter than they are. Mark Bauerlein titled his book on Millennials The Dumbest Generation.

Are Millennials really the worst, dumbest generation ever? Nope. As sociologist Mike Males wrote in an LA Progressive article : "Imagine that a time-liberated version of vigilante George Zimmerman sees two youths walking through his neighborhood: black, hoodied Trayvon Martin of 2012, and a white teen from 1959 (say Bud Anderson from Father Knows Best). Based purely on statistics of race and era, which one should Zimmerman most fear of harboring criminal intent? Answer: He should fear (actually, not fear) them equally; each has about the same low odds of committing a crime." From 1982 to 2012, crime rates among African-American youth plummeted: property offenses declined by 51%, assault declined by 59%, robbery declined by 60%, rape declined by 66%, and even murder declined by 82%. And even though Donald Trump said in 2017 that "The murder rate in our country is the highest it's been in 47 years", the murder rate in America has in fact been halved since its 1991 peak. Far from the fabled heathens who have no morals because their parents didn't spank them, Millennial teens and twentysomethings, whatever their race, have too many moral compunctions to murder, rape, burglarize, or assault someone or set fire to someone's beloved belongings. Sadly, the stereotype that today's youth, especially boys and especially African-Americans, are "superpredators" persists, and has cops and security officers shooting and killing Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Freddie Gray. People often support their fears by using the thinnest of anecdotal evidence: “Look at Columbine, they were teens!”

And "kids have no respect for their elders"? So what. Just as Boomer youth were right in questioning their homophobic, pro-war elders from the Greatest Generation (born 1911-1924) during the Vietnam War, today's youth are not necessarily in the wrong for speaking out against a parent, uncle, teacher, principal, coach, or psychologist-they-were-sent-to-after-being-diagnosed-with-ODD when said elder tells them that boys shouldn't grow their hair long, or that it's "inappropriate" for two girls to kiss, or that only paranoid alarmists believe in climate change, or that George W. Bush must be followed, right or wrong, or that kids must never express disagreement with adults on even as subjective and trivial a matter as whether the weather today is nice.

And the accusation that Millennials and Fifth Worlders are stupid? Co-champions were declared at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2014, 2015, and 2016, for only the fourth, fifth, and sixth times since the bee's inception in 1925. Then came 2019, when the spellers were so good that Scripps ended up with an EIGHT-way tie! Word lists got increasingly harder; the winning words from 1935 to 1941 were "intelligible", "eczema", "promiscuous", "sanitarium", "canonical", "therapy", and "initials", while the winning words from 2007 to 2013 were "serrefine", "guerdon", "Laodicean", "stromuhr", "cymotrichous", "guetapens", and "knaidel".

Other ageists listen to media frenzies over teens eating Tide Pods and snorting condoms. The moral panic over these "trends", however, has turned out to be a tempest in a teapot. Reports of being poisoned by laundry detergent pods were actually down in 2018, at the same time the media hype over this alleged teen fad was spiking. The trend stories were trend pieces reporting on previously written trend pieces, with acts of detergentophagy less common than the media would have their unwitting dupes believe. As the Washington Post wrote: "There's just one small problem, however: Those headlines were wrong. The only thing viral about the condom challenge right now is the moral panic about the idea of teens doing the condom challenge. In a matter of days, word spread from a single local news report to a small army of local and national publications across the world, all warning about a challenge that, in 2018, barely exists." As a Snopes page discusses, claims to fake "teen challenges" have been around for a long time. Sorry, but real youth are not as dumb as urban folklore makes them out to be. The media is simply getting more ephebophobic.

A common misconception among ageists is that the reason youth rights activists who are older than about, say, 25 still support youth rights is that they are pedophiles. The fact of the matter is that most adult youth rights activists are still fighting for youth rights because they faced some instance of ageism, or a repeated barrage of instances of ageism, during their childhood and/or adolescence that scarred them for life.

I am a young adult, soon to be middle-aged. I had many run-ins with, and undeserved attempts at discipline and sociaLIESation from, my parents, teachers, school administrators, psychologists, psychiatrists, and random adults in the neighborhood as a child, teen, and college student. I was also the victim of nonconsensual medical treatment, as I'll open up about in later blog entries.

When I was in kindergarten, the class learned the song "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", of which I was horrified. I starting scraping my nails down my throat and sticking them out of my mouth whenever I heard the words "spider" or "goat". Over the next two years, the "purging" ritual I was developing went down to my groin, and more words (and objects!) were added from ages 6 to 22. Other words were dropped over the years.

Little did I know at age 6 that I was developing what I call "logaesthesia", or word-tasting. When I hear or read one of those terrible words like "scxxt" or "whxxps", I get the sensation that I have swallowed the word. It's as if it's inside of me, slumbering in my intestines and attracting intestinal slime. To hear or read a word is to take in. I can never read an article without feeling as if I'm taking a drink of that article's waters, feasting on a repast of bread, beef stew and almond roca from the article. The same with listening to conversation. The words, further, have specific tastes when I eat them. When I hear the word "whxxps", for instance, I immediately taste whipped cream. The whipped cream is there right inside of me, its cold creaminess sitting in the front seat of my pants. Would you like you have whipped cream in your pants? That's what it feels like to me. The word "mxss" tastes like oatmeal. "Scxxt" tastes like cooked carrot, like the carrot in pot roast. "Jxggle" tastes like red hots -- the candies -- while "jingle" as well as "t-ngle" taste like those tiny spherical hard candies you put on cupcakes. "Xll xver the plxce" tastes like pasta-ey soup, a soup like Spaghetti-O's perhaps. And "ice xxxxx", of course, tastes like ice xxxxx.

And it's not only the words that make me purge that have a taste. Many of the innocuous words do too. For instance, "trump" tastes like sautéed mushrooms. "Doodle" tastes like macaroni. "Kentucky" tastes like fried chicken. With my logaesthesia, I am a person to whom words do more than convey semantic meanings. To you, "tale" is just a word for a story, but to me it conjures up the taste of lasagna, the pasta in lasagna with a light sauce on it. Even names can have tastes to them: Greg tastes like chocolate Easter egg, while the name Kevin tastes of ice xxxxx cone and Tiffany of lemon meringue pie.

To avoid coming in contact with these words, I don't watch television, nor do I go to the movies. I avoid coming into chatrooms as much as I can, too. Logaesthesia affects my life when it prevents me from doing certain things such as these. I also used to suffer while surfing the Internet and had to copy-and-paste a lot of posts from the Net into Notepad and use Find & Replace on them. Now I have a Greasemonkey filter that replaces the offending words.

The object triggers in logaesthesia also affect my quality of life. To avoid coming across things that make me purge, such as spiders and cobwebs around my parents' house, or plastic silverware in restaurants, or Winnie the Pooh and Spider-man garbage in stores, I have to close my eyes, or at the very least cup my hand in front of my eyes so I only see the aisles in front of me. It makes it hard for me to make my way around a store when I can't allow myself to look around, and sometimes I even bump into shelves. I can't push shopping carts or wheelchairs when we go into public places, unless we're going to someplace where everything is safe, such as See's Chocolates.

I often go into rooms alone so I have a place to purge where no one will see that I am purging. I used to purge in public, but eventually the rituals got so deep into my groin that I had to unbutton my pants and couldn't do it in public anymore. I am not prudish about other people seeing me, but I am afraid that other people might tell me my behavior is "inappropriate" or "socially unacceptable" if they see me purging, so I need to hide my purging to save my fragile soul.

Because of my condition, teachers and other adults who had convinced themselves that I was masturbating, or even who insisted it was "inappropriate" even if it wasn't really masturbating, because of society's taboo against what they called "putting your hands in your pants" (ooh, how I hated that phrase) have tried to socialize me, talked down to me, and then told me I was wrong for contradicting an adult when I defended myself. All the "socialization" I received in high school, all the being forced to do things, all the fascist comments that my behavior was "inappropriate" or "socially unacceptable", haunt me to this very day. I still think back weekly to run-ins with authoritarian teachers that happened during my school years, triggered by the logaesthesia or other, non-logaesthesia-related events, causing me to yell, bite myself, punch my skull, and punch my abdomen as if slicing open a watermelon. If I had only been given the chance to stop going to school, to live away from my parents, to move to Berkeley, I may have been able to get away from it all before too much damage was done.

It doesn't help me much either that I have never heard of another person having logaesthesia. OCD? Yes. Lexical-gustatory synaesthesia? I've met a few such people online. But the two in synergy? I've never even read of it. It attests to the extreme rarity of my condition that I was the one who had to coin a word for it. And I feel lonely. People with ADD, Asperger's, social anxiety, Alzheimer's, or conduct disorder are a dime a dozen, especially on the Internet. But me? I really know the meaning of being lonely. Even the Ehlers-Danlos "zebras" have found each other on the Net.

Let me tell you more about myself. I am writing a rock musical about Millennials, called The Bittersweet Generation, and had an alternative band called Red Cilantro during my late teens and early twenties. I have a collection of music on my iPod that includes such artists as Nirvana, Third Eye Blind, Smash Mouth, Fastball, the Beatles, Pink, Sia, The Naked and Famous, Florence + the Machine, Gotye, Enya, the Cranberries, the Sundays, Of Monsters and Men, Shaggy, KT Tunstall, Avril Lavigne, Hole, Michelle Branch, Lady Gaga, M83, Muse, Ingrid Michaelson, Bastille, Depeche Mode, the Weeknd, and Xymox, and listen to my headphones when I am out and about to avoid hearing purge words. I do my hair like Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, and always wear a turtleneck, khakis and sunglasses. I love trying new foods and eating old favorites such as lasagna, biscotti, sushi, Chinese food, Taco Bell, spice drops, ravioli, manicotti, rice crackers, cranberry juice, challah, suman antala, dolmas, quiche, pomegranate juice, Brussels sprouts, banh mis, enchiladas, rambutans and piroshkis. When one of my friends was diagnosed with cancer, I tried to get everyone we knew to pray for her. I like spending time with my friends, both male and female, whom I love to a degree more typical of friendships between two females than of male-male or male-female friendships.

Another abnormality I suffer is a sensation I call That Feeling. I will be in the middle of an activity, or just lying down, when all of a sudden I feel as if spiders are going to fall down from the ceiling onto me. I begin constantly looking for spiders on the ceiling, and checking my own hands for specks of dead spider that may have gotten on my hands from handling objects -- again and again. I feel as if my eyes are going to cross. It feels as if I am using 110% of my brain. I notice every object and sound around me equally, and have a hard time telling my surroundings from my own thoughts. My eyes can't make sense out of the pictures I see online. This has been happening to me since 2009. I'll call my caretaker and tell him, "I've got That Feeling again", and he'll know what I mean.

I am cismale, bisexual, Jewish, deist, a beatnik, ENFP, 4w3sx, Virgo, Californian, anarcho-syndicalist, bearded, anosmic, and childfree, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. I was born sunny-side-up with a single umbilical artery. On Simon Baron Cohen's tests, I got an empathizing quotient of 32, a systemizing quotient of 17, and an AQ of 24.

I've participated in, and read, many debates on the voting age, the drinking age, parental authority, school dress codes, medical consent, the youth rights movement as a whole, or just the whole concept of taking kids seriously -- I've seen them on Internet fora, on the comments sections of news websites, and in the emails I've received. And every place youth rights issues have been debated online, I've seen certain very shoddy and fallacious arguments against youth rights regurgigated again and again. If you're active in the youth rights movement, or even if you just read the comments sections at the Washington Post, you've probably heard them all: "Being a minor is only temporary", "You can wait", "16-year-olds will vote like their parents", "Young people think they're immortal", "I supported youth rights when I was younger but then outgrew that position", "You'll change your mind when you're older", "The only adults who still support youth rights are pedophiles", "If 16-year-olds are deemed incapable of signing a contract, how can they be mature enough to vote?" (the de jure fallacy), "My house, my rules", "Emancipation will solve everything", "Kids aren't oppressed -- they don't have to pay bills!", "Teens were eating Tide Pods a week ago", statements beginning "Society has decided . . .", and the red herring question "Bah, what about child labor?" Many of the posts in this blog will be centered around focusing on a certain argument and refuting it.

Then there are the scientific claims, published even by respected scientists, that claims teens have immature, underdeveloped, etc. brains, which first became trendy during the nineties. In a 2007 Scientific American article titled "The Myth of the Teen Brain", psychologist Robert Epstein exposes this as junk science. As Epstein points out, the studies that examine adolescent brains, teen-age pathologies, and teen angst do not distinguish cause from effect. Teen-age ills are caused by the restrictions on youth and segregation of teens from adults that got started in the early twentieth century. Teens in preindustrial societies do not show high rates of crime, and spend most of their time with adults. They do not feel teen angst. When Western-style schooling and television are brought to these societies, the adolescent members of these now Westernized societies begin to exhibit delinquency and teen angst. The Inuit living on Victoria Island, Canada had no problem with juvenile delinquency until their community was Westernized in the eighties, and by 1988 they had established their first permanent police department now that the worms had escaped from the can. Epstein also points out that brain imaging studies show only a correlation between age and brain anatomy, not a causal relationship. While the orthodoxy in the 1970's was that the brain reached its adult state at 18, and in the 1990's the line changed to "The brain isn't fully developed until 25", research in the 2010's now reveals that a person's brain in fact continues to develop and change for her/his whole life.

It's enlightening to see the kind of junk science that was used in its own time against women's suffrage, as in this recent article in the Atlantic. Note that William P. Sedgwick, an outspoken opponent of women's suffrage who claimed voting would be bad for women's brains, was a reputable professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But all of that will be delved into in more detail in my blog entries in the weeks, months, and years to come. I've been writing about youth rights and ageism for more than two decades, and I do believe it is high time I had a blog on it. I have a moral philosophy I call bixochromatism (which in a nutshell states that the freedom to be in control of one's own decisions is more important than making what people tell you is a "good" or "wise" decision), which I will discuss in future posts. In the meantime, you can read my essay, 10 Reasons to Support the Youth Rights Movement, at http://khemehekis.angelfire.com/10reasons.htm , or even browse the website of the National Youth Rights Association (NYRA) at https://www.youthrights.org/

In solidarity,

Savegraduation

#youth rights #ageism #medical consent #voting age #baby boomers #generation x #millennials #fifth world generation #myths about youth #logaesthesia #aaliyah #silent generation #teen crime #national spelling bee #politics #hot topics

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salavante · 6 years ago

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Odwain! The goodest.

Wow, featuring one of the more flattering drawings I’ve done of Odwain. Like last time, I’ll post all these guys separately and then do all the headshots in a masterpost. In the meantime buckle up for...a lot. (Thank you for giving me my favorite character.)

Full Name: Odwain Novak. In Ben Yit’gab, the Bennai language, his first name would be Oediwen, and it’s what his dad called him. His mother calls him Oddy and he does not like it.

Gender and Sexuality: Male and Bisexual

Pronouns: He/him

Ethnicity/Species: Odwain is a Ben-Aleth, a Human-Bennai hybrid, also called a mosshead if you’re in coarse company. His human mother Blanche Novak is mixed race. Odwain’s maternal grandfather came directly from Earth, Poland specifically, during one of the several accidental migrations of humans coming from Earth to The Road. His maternal grandmother is from a previous wave who were already settled on The Road by that time, but the family can trace her ancestry back to West Africa. Odwain’s father, Ashatov Novak, was a full-blooded Bennai, a plant-based halfling race. Ashatov took his wife’s last name.

Birthplace and Birthdate: Thinking about this trips me out man. Odwain was born in 1946, sometime in the summer, probably July or August, in Septor Secundis, a coastal, metropolitan city and the seat of The Road’s government. He’s 27 during his first adventure and right now, in Godslaughter, he is 69 (what the FUCK). He will live maybe 20 or 30 years longer than your average human, and is in better physical shape than a human would be at 69. He’s more like late 40’s or early 50’s.

Guilty Pleasures: A lot, probably - Odwain has just a bit of hedonistic streak just because he feels miserable so much of the time that he needs to feel good somehow. He smokes cigarettes for much of his life (but eventually quits), is a casual cannabis smoker and binge eats really truly terrible junk food (and has a bit of a gut because of it, but because he’s kind of lanky otherwise, he’s just kind of gourd-shaped). He likes beer, but doesn’t drink hard liqour all that often because he gets astronomically bad hangovers. Despite having a generally weak stomach, Odwain really likes frightfully spicy food, and his kids’ obligatory dad-gifts for him are probably hot sauces. When he’s not pounding down garbage, his favorite kind of cuisine is Thai. Not a guilty pleasure per say, but he also loves all things that have to do with insects, and when he and Rusty have a house together, Odwain takes up gardening as a hobby and plants an expansive garden of flora that are attractive to bees. (A Nice Thing: Odwain plants this garden when Rusty is pregnant because he found his love of insects through his father’s garden as a child, and wanted to give his kids the same opportunity) Odwain also maintains an apiary from the time that he’s living in a warehouse in the desert, to when he’s living with a partner and beyond. When he learns how to make Hot Honey it’s over for all of us. He has a modest collection of novelty bee-themed things that he’s amassed over the years, but he is not guilty about asserting his love of bees/wasps, like, at all. He’s also a little kinky but I’m not going into that.

Phobias: All of Odwain’s fears are existential - what if I push everyone away, existing in society is anxiety inducing, what if I’m just a bad person and my existence is making everything more difficult for functional people, etc. Though he’s kind of a sad fellow and has ideated suicide, and came very, VERY close to trying to kill himself after he dropped out of college, he also fears growing old and dying. I think death is more digestible to him if it’s on his own terms, but even then, I think what coaxed him off the edge was fear. If anything ever happened to his chosen romantic partner or any of his kids, he’d be besides himself, and is kind of one severe trauma and emotional breakdown away from becoming a bee-themed supervillian.

What They Would Be Famous For: Odwain is notable at a certain point in his career for being a pioneer in AI programming, and also for designing, building and patenting an invention called the Hercules Rig, which is basically a beetle-wing inspired jetpack. You can see it here. He holds the patent very closely and only allows it to be reproduced for recreation, construction, emergency rescue operations, etc. Odwain has taken a very firm stance on not allowing the military or any paramilitary organization to get their hands on it, though it has not stopped them from making shitty knock-offs that he is constantly suing people about.

What They Would Get Arrested For: Breaking and entering. Exploding something he shouldn’t. Buying illegal hazardous materials. Doing something petty that bites him in the ass.

OC You Ship Them With: To be honest there are not a lot of other characters besides Rusty that I ship him with. Bitter college rivals, thrown back together as late twenty-somethings, becoming better people together and learning to express empathy and vulnerability…it’s good. The only other character that I really go yeah, that’s the good stuff, is Jake’s character Finnick, who is kind of Odwain’s weird BFF and fellow mad scientist type. I don’t think they’d have a super stable relationship, and I think it would most likely be a “we yelled at each other and had weird sex enough that we like each other now” kind of scenario. But I do think they would come to love each other and have each other’s back to the death. Him and Hemlock, my dirty swamp witch who’s only picture was devoured during the great tumblr purge, also make a pretty fun couple for similar reasons. Iona too, but I think they are too explosive of personalities to ever find a stable middle ground. I also think he would find certain people attractive (August, Hare, Ganzrig, Ifechi the man I have spoken of but once, Jonquil in certain scenarios) but may not put himself out there to pursue them.

Neither of us have ever posted any art of her but here’s a few headshots of Finnick I did awhile ago, because she really is my favorite romantic partner for Odwain aside from Rusty, and is the only other one that’s really relevant in our games.

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Odwain is fairly physically fragile and to be honest I think that most people could kill him as long as they could get their hands on him - he’s very dexterous and has a lot of gadgets that let him get the upper hand, keep enemies at a distance or escape. He has a ranged fighting/add-spawn build so he is mostly out of direct harm unless he’s reeled in somehow. But uh, Odwain IS dead right now in Godslaughter, he died fighting an eldritch deity named Dreamer who sucked him into a nightmare dimension and flayed his soul out of his body. It’s ok though, as long as the party beats Dio, he’ll be fine. I didn’t cry you’re the one who’s crying.

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Ok, so, first off HAHA Odwain canonically likes Transformers and collects them, which are a thing in circulation after the last human migration from earth in the 90’s. Imagine. Imagine your grown ass father with a genius level IQ and multiple patents collecting plastic robots. Him and Finnick have transformers sonas - ANYWAY, that aside, he doesn’t really read for pleasure, just information, and generally just puts on cable while he works for white noise (and in later years, whatever The Road’s TV streaming service is). Most of the media he consumes is incidental to him, but will get interested in strange things that pique his interest. He probably thinks true crime docs are neat and enjoys pulpy sci-fi stuff that he can complain about. Any documentary about bugs. He’d like Mystery Science Theatre if they had it around. He enjoys things that are the fun, good kind of “bad” and has a fairly high threshold for disturbing imagery.

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: Odwain is that guy who makes 20 minute long youtube videos lampooning movies for “not making sense”. If there’s anything that breaks his suspension of disbelief, his attention and tolerance disintegrates, even if it’s just one of those things that needs to happen to move the plot along. It doesn’t really matter what genre it is, though he is most hard on sci-fi and fantasy. There is a tipping point for him, however, where he starts enjoying the thrill of blasting something and circles back around to enjoying it.

Talents and/or Powers: Odwain is only a little bitty bit magical, and only because Bennai are the most magical race on The Road. He has latent magical ability that allows him to sense magical signatures and incorporate magic into technology, and maybe cast a low level spell if he tries really hard. If he was in a high fantasy setting, he’d be an enchanter. His staff (the big lightbulb thing I draw him with sometimes), the Hercules Rig, his Wasp Suite (robotic wasps with an AI and different spells loaded into them) and any other devilish, bug-based weapons and utility objects do his work for him.

Why Someone Might Love Them: Odwain’s a bit of a tough walnut to crack because I think that he shines in moments of sincerity and vulnerability, but he has to, well, get there. He’s capable of very great, thoughtful acts of selflessness and compassion, and deeply desires meaningful relationships with other people, but he gets insecure about how he expresses himself and can clam up. He’s passionate, emotional and expressive, but has been put down for being so, and was probably a very brilliant, curious child who was beaten down into a somber adult. I actually think that, at some point in his childhood, he was not entirely unlike Whitty in the way that he was eager to share things with people and explore the world around him, which is why Odwain feels very protective of his grandson. I think the most lovable thing about him is that when he’s at his best, nothing can stop him - he’s extremely intelligent, diligent, creative and innovative. He truly, deeply loves making things, and making them better, and when he’s not in a crash, creates prolifically. What he loves, he loves deeply and without compromise, which makes Rusty, a person that could also be said of, a good match for him. I also think his cattiness makes him very witty, he’s a genuinely funny guy who can engage in some really goofy shenanigans when he’s feeling up for it.

Why Someone Might Hate Them: Oh, lots of reasons. Odwain is an acquired taste to many, or just not to many’s taste at all. He is very petty, blunt and catty, and as a young man is extremely bitter and negative. You’d be very hard pressed to get a positive statement about anything out of him between the ages of 16-25. He’s very confrontational, can become very loud and intense if it’s something that he feels is important, and is not afraid to cut people out of his life if he feels that they aren’t good for him. Sometimes, he will end relationships/friendships prematurely because of this. Being such, he is heavily prone to self-inflicted isolation. He has no childhood friends, and only kept in touch with one person from college. He just cuts and runs. Odwain’s self-loathing runs very deep, which makes it hard for him to accept, or ask for, emotional support or affection. And that can be hard on the people around him who care about him. His executive dysfunction can also be abysmal, making it seem like perhaps he is messy or lazy, but he’s just kind of a mess himself, hah.

A weird non-psychological one but I think is enough to get someone’s hackles up is that Odwain doesn’t like animals very much unless they are insects, invertebrates, etc. He finds mammals loud, messy and needy, and that “I’m the only one in my house that is allowed to be all of those things”.

How They Change: As Odwain ages and gains a stable support network of friends, his edges soften and he learns how to ask for help more effectively. He also learns how to better choose his battles, and how to exercise the compassion that he knows he has, but has been too insecure to utilize. He manages his mental health better, but is never entirely free of it, because you never really are. Most importantly, I think, he learns how to forgive the people who deserve forgiveness, and give people second chances, accepting that people can change. Which means the same can be said for him, too.

Why You Love Them: I’ve talked about this before, somewhere, I’m sure. Odwain is one of those characters that has a very big slice of my personality, and has a lot of my more negative traits, though they are ones we’re both working on. My first session with Odwain was a scene where Odwain’s dad died after being ill for a very long time, and as it happens, it was on father’s day, on the first or second father’s day after MY dad died, after several brutal months fighting with the cancer that eventually killed him. I had to put down the dice, so to speak, and for a short time, thought that Odwain might actually be a character that I scrapped completely. He came too close to something very painful and personal. I don’t remember how, exactly, but the solution to this problem of mine was that if he’s getting close to me on his own, then I might as well just let him in on everything. I can genuinely say that doing that has changed the way that I empathize with my characters and how I make them, and that there is something I share with Odwain that I don’t have with many of my other characters. Also, I like bees.

#odwain #tyromedico

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wbbing · 6 years ago

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hi everyone ! it’s ya ( new ) girl bee and i’m here to give you a little rundown of my on-fire trashcan of a son ! feel free to hit me up with any questions or ideas you might have on discord, i’m really excited to bring him up to speed in this world ! ! !

LINKS.

AESTHETIC SIDEBLOG ∕ PLAYLIST ∕ ETC.

BASICS.

Given / Birth Name : Peter Benjamin Parker Nickname / Preferred Name : Pete , Petey , Tiger , Web-head, Wall-crawler Alias(es) : Spider-man Birthdate / Age : October 12, 1990 / Twenty-eight Place of Birth : Queens, New York City, New York Current Location : Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York ( Chinatown ) Gender Identity : CIS Male Sexual / Romantic Orientation : Bisexual / Biromantic Ethnicity / Race / Cultural Heritage: Ashkenazi Jewish Marital Status : Single Occupation : Unemployed ( currently ) , inventor; research assistant, ( formerly ) photographer at the Daily Bugle, (formerly) teaching assistant, (formerly) pizza delivery boy, (formerly) wrestler Religious Beliefs : Jewish

CHARACTERISTICS.

Height : 5′11″ Weight : 167 lbs Body Type / Build : Mesomorph / long limbs and lean Eye Color : Blue Hair Color / Texture : Brown / very thick with a ( very slight ) wave Recognizable Features / Scars : Scars as a result of his work as Spider-man can be measured in the hundreds ( an accelerated healing process makes most of them barely noticeable ). Mole at the corner of his mouth. Speech Patterns / Accent : Born and raised in Queens, that much is evident in the way he speaks. Though not as harsh as some of the other neighborhoods in terms of the approach, Peter still characterizes it with his own ( relentless ) rhythm. Identified in childhood, he occasionally will stutter though has more or less aged out of it ( less... he’s aware of it and tries to avoid it as much he can ). Languages Spoken : English / Yiddish / Hebrew ( kind of... maybe... don’t quiz him ) Powers / Skills / Abilities : Spider physiology ( wall-crawling, superhuman strength / speed / agility / equilibrium / reflexes ), spider-sense. Genius-level intellect ( inventor / engineer ). Skilled photographer. Also dabbles in design / sewing / costume construction. Overall Health : Regenerative Healing and an enhanced immune system puts him in excellent health. That being said, his diet and sleep habits leave a lot to desired.

RELATIONSHIPS.

Order of Birth : Only child. Number of Siblings : 0. Father’s Status + Relationship : Richard Parker ( biological father / deceased ) ; Benjamin Parker ( surrogate father / deceased ). Peter’s father died while he was an infant though he carries the memory of his parents with him in everything he does. He is aware that they worked for the CIA ( though the actual capacity of their work has never been revealed ) but chooses to focus instead on the character that was described to him from his remaining relatives. Ben Parker, Peter’s uncle and guardian after the death of his parents, effectively raised him and remains one of the single most influential people in his life. It is his lesson in responsibility which drives Peter forward. Mother’s Status + Relationship : Mary Parker ( biological mother / deceased ); May Parker ( surrogate mother / alive ). Again, Mary is someone that Peter can not quite remember but carries with him as best he can and attempts to honor her memory as much as he is able. May on the other hand, is not only Peter’s best friend but his mentor though he has not yet made her aware of his double life. Sibling Status + Relationship : N/A Loyalty / Affiliation : No known affiliations at the moment.

PERSONALITY.

MBTI : ENFP Hobbies : Photography... and that’s about all he has time for. ( And he barely has time for that as it is ). He has been known to also be constantly upgrading / fiddling with any kind of tech he can get his hands on. Bad Habits : Never on time to anything, ( somewhat ) impulsive, self-sacrificing, chewing on his cuticles, stubborn, going days without sleep, too long without eating ( a disaster with his metabolism as it is ), fidgeting, walking away in the middle of a conversation because he gets an Idea. Three Positive Traits : Earnest - Despite spending twelve years in a mask, Peter still operates with a level of conviction and sincerity that can not be tarnished even as he frequently is stuck acting a drain stop to the increasingly growing cynicism of the world around him. His commitment to doing good is unwavering, though his approach sometimes falters. Quick-witted - Gifted with genius-level intellect, this is also evident ( much to the chagrin of foe… and sometimes friend alike ) in his quips. Peter has a quick tongue, though his humor does typically stem from his good-nature. Mostly self-deprecating, he is able to find the humor in almost every situation ( really… even when it probably doesn’t want to / shouldn’t be found ) Resourceful - A necessity ( on his budget ), Peter is inventive in both his solutions to problems as well as brainstorming the engineering of his tech. Gifted not only intellectually but physically, it is still his perseverance which sets him apart in most battles. Three Negative Traits : Guilt-ridden - A martyr complex that could rival the best of them, Peter has a habit ( from birth, according to Aunt May ) of taking the weight of the world on his shoulders. Duty-bound by what he has the potential to accomplish, this means every misstep is often taken as a personal failure. And, given his conflicting worlds, his often is faced with this reality. Consistently striving to be the best version of himself sometimes means sacrificing parts which could offer him real happiness, and ultimately work against him. Socially awkward - Though dripping with the gift of gab, this is one ability that he doesn’t always mind as carefully as, say, his strength. Not always knowing when to pull the reigns back, his motor-mouth can get ahead of him. ( Probably due to the amount of time he spends talking to himself while swinging around ). Chronic-outsider - Though Peter does have plenty of ( bordering on too much ) empathy, there is a part of him which also is prone to isolating himself. Self-sacrificing to the disadvantage of his own personal health, he is known to try and offer cover for all others whiles some impending danger presses on. He isn’t lonely, exactly. Isn’t lacking in friends or connections by a long shot, and there is certainly an amount of hubris that comes into play every time his dons the mask but Peter keeps his lives separate for a reason, and it isn’t always Moral Alignment : Neutral Good

ASSOCIATIONS.

One Song : High Hopes - P!ATD One Quote / Piece of Art : / THIS WHOLE ACCOUNT. One Fear : Failure. One Strength : Indomitable will. One Object : Web-shooters. One Place : New York. One Food : Pizza. One Scent : Aunt May’s kitchen. One Lucky Charm : Hilarious.

NOTES.

Primarily 616-based but I will incorporate all elements brought over into the plot as they were related to MCU.

Also taking inspiration from Marvel’s Spider-man on PS4 because I’m a garbage person and 2018 is the year I am finally gifted good Spider-man content.

He has been Spider-man for about 12 years now. His status has been mostly regulated to that of a street-level fighter though there have been moments where he’s been tempted to come forward towards a larger entity of enhanced heroes like himself.

He sat out of the events of CW, and rather took on the mantel of resistance when it came to revealing his identity. Peter has several reasons why he feels he can not reveal himself to the public at large and has tried to take good care of this. It hasn’t always worked.

He does still occasionally freelance for the Daily Bugle. Mostly for their online works.

Currently ( mostly ) unemployed, recently achieved his PhD.

#united task 001 #united intro

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notspeedy-blog1 · 6 years ago

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–– task one.

STATUS: complete !

BASICS.

given / birth name: roy william harper jr.

nickname / preferred name: roy / roytoy.

alias(es): speedy, arsenal, red arrow.

birthdate / age: november 1st / twenty-five.

place of birth: united states. no exact whereabouts known.

current location: no fixed address, travelling between here, there and everywhere. wherever a job takes him. with his current observation of what’s going on with the jl, he’s mainly between nyc and gotham.

gender identity: cisgender male (he/him)

sexual / romantic orientation: biromantic / bisexual.

ethnicity / race / cultural heritage: caucasian. rasied as a traditional navajo and treated as a member of the tachini tribe by brave bow.

marital status: single.

occupation: mercenary.

religious beliefs: due to his upbringing, roy shares the same beliefs as the navajo. navajo spiritual practice is about restoring balance and harmony to a person's life to produce health.

CHARACTERISTICS.

height: 6’0. ( i’m ignoring canon telling me he’s 5’11. no he is not, dc. you’re all liars. )

weight: 195 lbs.

body type / build: relatively slim despite the muscle. he can eat anything and doesn’t seem to gain weight, which he can be pretty smug about from time to time. he’s like a stringbean but with added muscle basically.

eye color: emerald green.

hair color / texture: red, on the lighter side. surprisingly soft, despite being shoved under a hat so often. he’s growing it out for now, more to his n52 length. ( he looks cute okay just hear me out !! )

recognizable features / scars: armband tattoo on his right bicep symbolizing his belonging within the navajo nation, a few nondescript tattoos on his forearm ( red arrow, horizontal ) and chest ( date of his sobriety –– a year in –– in roman numerals. ) he only remembers getting the one on his chest, the forearm one's a mystery to him. he also has six bullet wound scars on his chest and a surgical scar running the length of his sternum.

speech patterns / accent: uses a lot of fillers ( uh, um etc. ) has a terrible habit of starting a sentence and not finishing it. sometimes he’ll do it on purpose if he knows it annoys people just because it’s amusing to him. general american accent.

languages spoken: english, diné / navajo.

powers / skills / abilities: archery ( he’s a marksman of incredible accuracy ), firearms, martial arts ( thanks to training from dinah and ollie ), investigation ( he possesses keen analytic skills and deductive ability ), he used to be a drummer in a band ( great frog...... name a more iconic band i dare you ), can use a wide range of weaponry and has strong leadership skills from experience of leading the titans and outsiders for a period of time.

overall health: since recovering from his heroin addiction, he’s been in good health. he makes a conscious effort to stay active and socialise. his mental health is better than it was but he still has off-days when he’ll isolate himself and coop himself up until it passes.

RELATIONSHIPS.

order of birth: first born / only child in terms of biological family.

number of siblings: one. not biologically related. mia dearden kinda counts so i’m putting her here too.

father’s status + relationship: deceased. he passed when roy was around two/three, so it’s hard to say. he adored roy wholeheartedly though, i’m sure of it. ( how can anyone not, honestly? ) his relationship with oliver queen is somewhat tense as per usual, but roy still looks up to him as a mentor and father figure. brave bow helped roy sharpen his archery skills and abilities as a talented marksman, which he’s eternally grateful for.

mother’s status + relationship: deceased. died during childbirth.

sibling status + relationship: roy sees connor as a brother and holds him in high regard. mia is like family to him too, he’s protective over her. a good older brother!

loyalty / affiliation: team arrow.

PERSONALITY.

MBTI: ENFJ

hobbies: inventing a wide range of arrows for all situations simply because he can, video games of any description ( hey gamers ), reading ( whenever he gets the time ), helping out at soup kitchens, drumming now and then ( he doesn’t wanna get rusty but there never seems to be much time nowadays ), working out ( helps keep his mind busy as well as his body! It’s a win/win. )

bad habits: going days without sleep voluntarily due to getting too into a project in one of his various workshops, acting on emotions rather than logic if the situation strikes a nerve, smoking when stressed.

three positive traits: dependable, trustworthy, shows initiative

three negative traits: impulsive, cocky, self-doubting.

moral alignment: chaotic good.

ASSOCIATIONS.

one song: i wanna get better — bleachers.

one fear: disappointing those closest to him + relapsing. ( the two are practically synonymous for him. )

one strength: his trust in others.

one object: his dorky trucker hat(s). dweeb.

one place: the reservation he grew up upon.

one food: he’s a sucker for cheeseburgers of any kind. your typical fast food fan.

one scent: gasoline.

one lucky charm: a faded photograph of him and dinah from when they first met. ( hello gap-toothed roy. ) he keeps it framed in his wallet.

#united task 001 #➶ –– headcanon !#drug use tw #death tw

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kingdomshiftersministries · 5 years ago

Text

William Lynch Theory And The Plantation Spirit

By: Dr. Taquetta Baker - Kingdomshifters.com

From My Upcoming Book: Strategies For Eradicating Racism

BLACK PEOPLE WHY YOU ACT LIKE THAT????

LETS TALK ABOUT IT!

SHIFT RIGHT NOW!

In the slave days, Black people were forced to work and live on a plantation with their slave masters and their families. A plantation is a large farm or estate that is usually used to grow different types of crops for the purpose of sale. These crops may include cotton, tobacco, coffee, sugar cane, vegetables, etc. The slaves were forced to work the fields, plant, cultivate and grow the crops, as well as take care of their slave master’s families - their needs and desires. It was not uncommon for a Black mother, father, child, and some of the mother’s and father’s siblings, to be purchased together to work different areas of the plantation. The slave owner would then use the threat of a family member’s life to keep the other slaves in line.

A plantation had its own territorial culture that veered severely from God’s true plan for family. Especially, because the intertwining of people and family included those that were privileged and considered blessed of God, and those who were enslaved, viewed as cursed, and only good for labor and servitude. Yet everyone was human and the only difference was skin color. In order for the plantation to work to benefit the White slave owner and his family, the culture had to be created and cultivated to make sure the slave knew they were nothing but slaves, and that their worth was rooted how they served and pleased their slave master. Such mindsets allowed for the opportunity of a plantation spirit to hover over the territory and further bind and trap slaves into a false mentality, identity, and relationship style that demonically oppresses Black people to this day.

According to Dr. Jackie Green, the author of “Deliverance From Plantation Spirits Manual,” a Plantation Spirit is “a demonic, generational spirit that comes down through the bloodline of any oppressed people to hinder them from reaching their God given potential and possessing God’s very best for their lives, families, churches, cities and nations. It is a territorial ruler spirit of bondage that can sit over regions for hundreds of years until dethroned.”

William Lynch was a British slave owner from the West Indies who came to the United States for the purposes of teaching American slave owners how to engage with their slaves. His main focus was helping slave owners to subdue and control their slave, and not succumb to killing them. He wanted them to understand that the slave was a financial investment, and they could not make money off a dead slave.

William Lynch actually stated that his method of engaging the slave could leave a generational impact of at least 300 years. He surely was right because we are now into about 150 years of slave abolishment, but Black and White people are still generationally cursed by slavery, and Black people are generationally traumatized by the bondage of slavery.

The following tactics were taught and implemented under the William Lynch Theory:

» Instilling fear, distrust, and envy for control purposes. These negative tactics still overshadow the Black person today. White people feel justified in how they engage Black people because they are automatically incited with these alarming connotations. They make it be the Black person’s fault, rather than recognizing that these tactics are rooted in slave plantation behavior, taught to slave masters to cower, oppress, and suppress Black people.

» Inciting Black on Black conflict, especially penning young Black against old Black males. This is interesting with the challenges we have today of Black on Black crime, Black men not being able to sufficiently sustain in their roles in families; many Black males are not positive role models for their sons, so the sons are raised fatherless by their mothers who are striving to teach them how to be men. The generational breech of Black men trusting and learning from one another, from one generation to another, and being viewed as sufficient heads of their families was broken in slavery. The Black man was taken out of their role and replaced with the White slave master who was viewed as the head.

» Penning dark skinned slaves against light skinned slaves. We see the results of this in society today as light skinned Black people are preferred among Black and White people, are considered less threatening, are considered more beautiful since they are light complexed and closer to the White skin color, and are considered the house “negro” who worked inside the home in less laborious favored conditions, versus darker skinned person being viewed as the “field “negro.”

» Creating mistrust and division between Black males and Black females. Often raping the Black women was used to create this conflict. The slave masters would rape, prostitute, and seduce the Black women to incite jealousy, shame, and/or abhorrent so that Black men would shun, and dishonor Black women. Sometimes these rapes occurred in front of the Black boyfriend, husband, father, brother, child to cause humiliation the Black man and shame the Black woman. The intent of this was also to construe the Black man’s view of the Black woman where they would view the Black woman as someone to sleep with, but not good enough to love and marry. To the day, many Black men disrespect Black women for no apparent reason. They write and sale music that dehumanizes the Black woman, while in the next breath, contending they honor the Black queen. Many Black men feel inferior to strong Black women and have an innate need to assert control and dominance over them or to use them for sex and companionship, but not deem them as marriage material. They would rather marry weaker women that they can control, light skinned Black women that fit the White picture of a successful life, or not be married at all.

Some White slave owners made Black men strip naked and severely beat them while demoralizing them. Some White slave owners raped Black men. Especially if they thought their wives or children had a liking to that Black man, or if the White woman accused the Black man of wrongdoing. Sometimes if the Black male was dating or married to a Black woman that the slave owner had a liking for. These types of experiences stripped the Black male of their sexual identity and their manhood. It demoralized them and made them feel inferior about who they were as men. To this day, many Black men struggle with secret homosexuality (downlow). Or they are blatantly effeminate whether homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual. The root of slave rape has not been dealt with so as society became more freely sexualized, the manifestations of these roots are increasing and are being embraced, with no regard to whether it is the true identity of the person, or a bloodline curse resulting from slave rape and abuse.

» Teaching White servants and overseers to mistrust and be suspicious of Blacks - always viewing them as a potential threat. This is a major stronghold in society today. The eye view – eye gates - White people have for Black people have been misconstrued since slavery days. The White man was conditioned to be defensive and be guarded towards the Black person, especially the Black man. They were taught to see them as a threat and to attack them first as self -protection and as a way to assert dominance and control over the Black man – to put the Black man in their place.

» Teaching the White slave owner to assert dominance where the slave would depend on them, love them, trust them, and respect them only, and not want freedom or to work for another slave owner. This was done through psychological manipulation, where the White slave owner would be nice to the slave one minute then beat them in the next breath. They would show kindness then become a vicious villain. They would also use abusive manipulative language to make the slave feel obligated to serve them, and make the slave believe it was their life’s calling and duty to be their slave. Black slaves were so psychologically traumatized that once slavery was abolished, many remained on their plantations asking to work it because they felt they had nowhere to go, did not know how they would build a life, or make a life a part from their slave master. This is because they were constantly told they were nothing without the slave master, and could not be anything, or have anything separate from them.

This trust of the White man was also in relations to finances and work. Black people, especially the Black man was reprogrammed to rely on the White slave owner for finances, provision, and employment to provide for basic needs for him and his family. White people stripped or coveted and abused the creativity, inventions, gifts, and talents of Black people. To the point that Black people did not feel they could make a living without or survive with their Black slave owner. Hard labor and working for another was rooted in the Black person, especially the Black man, where even to this day, the initial mindset is to work for the White man, rather than to branch out and create one’s own wealth through inventions, gifts and abilities, and business ventures.

Being used for entertainment and gaining wealth and favor through entertainment was instilled in the Black person, especially the Black man, from slavery days. Black people were not allowed to read, write, or be educated on the plantation. Those that already knew how to read and write when becoming slaves, were subject to only what the slave master wanted them to write or read. Any hope they had of owning land, businesses, being anything other than a slave was killed in them through the control, abuse, and oppression of White people. Even as slavery was abolished, Black people have been suppressed and segregated as it relates to poverty, education, and housing; in how they learn, what they can learn, where they can live, and how they can prosper. The quality of education in the Black community is not equivalent to that of White communities. Efforts to change this politically and socially, have been met with much hardship, racism, and privilege mentalities.

Black people naturally enjoy the arts and are naturally talented. They used dance and entertainment as a way to escape slave life, find enjoyment in adverse situations, and to communicate their pains, needs, and desires for freedom. Sometimes the White slave master would beat Black people with the lash while forcing them to dance. Sometimes the Black person was used to sing, dance, perform dramatizations, comedy, eloquent readings and poetry, etc., to entertain their White slave owners and their families and friends. They were mocked, ridiculed, and often told this was all they were good for aside from slave labor. Even today, White people enjoy the artistry of Black people and even mimic them, but despise the Black person and their culture.

Many wealthy Black people are public entertainers or have some type of career or business due to sports, music, acting. Some Black people have no concept of saving, passing wealth to the next generation, taking care of the poor and needy, tithing and giving, sowing and reaping, investing and creating opportunities for more wealth. Some Black people tend be stingy, fearful that someone is after their wealth, and think someone is taking advantage of them when financial conversations arise. Many have been rich or financially successful, but have spent much of their wealth on materialistic goods and trying to fit in and create an identity of happiness and importance, comparable to their White rich counterparts. They spend their money on White manmade products, in White stores, and tend to shun buying and supporting Black businesses. This is due to the mistrust that has been created by the William Lynch Theory and the plantation spirit mentality, regarding Black interactions and perceptions of their own people.

Such tactics reshaped how Black people engaged one another, engaged White people, and how they engaged and approached life. It reshaped their ability to develop and maintain healthy marital, parenting, family, interpersonal, and social interactions, and relationships; to establish, value, and retain covenant; and to be faithful, loyal, trusting, trustworthy, consistent, and sustaining. The William Lynch Theory is the reason for many of the problems within the Black community, culture, and families today. These roots have generationally boggled and stronghold the mind, soul, heart, personality, and identity of Black people, especially the Black man. There must be deliverance and healing of these generational roots, and a breaking of the curse of the William Lynch Theory and plantation spirit off the lives and blood lines of Black people, along with learning and reshaping healthy relationship patterns and interactions.

Until we deal with root issues of racism, the cycle and patterns of it will continue to reign in our lives, bloodlines, systems, societies, nations, and the world at large. IT IS TIME TO DEAL DEEP! #SHIFTRIGHTNOW #SHIFT

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