#and partly bc of feminism and socialism reasons

[loving-n0t-heyting]

Against my better judgement, a not-very-original contribution to rattumb feminism discourse

Theres a common retort to complaints about feminism from rat-adjs, which when phrased politely reads like "You have the excuse of yr main exposure to feminism being 2010s era jezebel bullshit" and when phrased impolitely reads like "yr main exposure to feminism being 2010s era jezebel bullshit is not an excuse", which takes it for granted that the dumb shit that occupied seemingly 90% of the internets collective attention in 2011-2015 was some inane culture war drivel significant basically only insofar as it sucked up ppls attention or contributed nebulously to the "wider conversation" with distant and vaguely delineated consequences in the objective world

This is kinda funny, bc what i remember from the feminist resurgence of that time period was the massive, largely successful campaign perversely combining a bold expansion of the boundaries of "rape" and an intensified brand of punitive vitriol for alleged rapists. Criminal and quasicriminal consequences for rapists were ramped up, concerns about "due process" were dismissed (with institutional effect!) as antiquated patriarchal relics, judges bemoaning the eighth amendment were touted as heroes, protesters with ak 47s showed up outside the houses of convicts they thought got off too easy. Ppl would extol distant bands of vigilantes in public, and domestic lone assassins in private. Ppl lost their freedom. Ppl lost their lives. And all of this nancy grace nonsense in the most pristine of bleeding heart blue enclaves, under banners of deepest pink!

I could provide citations, but i wont, partly bc i am tired, partly bc all of these are things ive given concrete evidence about on this blog previously, partly bc we all know this to be true anyway

And what grates on me about that patronising reply to those of with the gall to carry trauma from this orgy of bloodlust is that these noose-tying fanatics and the avant garde against the gamergator menace were the same fucking ppl. Saying it all for the same fucking reasons. Again, no citations bc ive said this all before, but search yr feelings. Im not complaining about some more serious problem that gets mixed up with the way the internet collectively decided zoe quinn deserved to be pre-canonised by the magisterium of public opinion as a martyr for the true faith, im complaining about the same problem, of which the lynching enthusiasm was the worst expression. In the annals of the horrors of war, small losses in public life are placed alongside the lists of honoured dead, bc they are alike symptoms of the same overarching social disease

And if you hear more about the milder instances of this mass insanity of last decade, consider this might be bc famous "cancelled" performers and academics have access to more bandwidth than randos stuck rotting inside state prisons

[notesofarichlycolorednight]

Hey,pal! I loved your hc ' s about Luke! And reading your last answered ask about him reminded me of something. You pointed out how the Hermes cabin was disrespected. Then, my mind went back to one of your Silena asks. Especially, how people said that she could've betrayed the camp because her cabin was being disrespected. However, the disrespect wasn't more than obnoxious most of times, IMO. And that's talking about the rest of the campers. Like, let's take the flag game. There's no bullshit...

…Like “-The cabin 10 losers are yours! -No,they’re yours!” In the Flag Game. The Aphrodite children rarely participate because they usually don’t want to. Besides, Silena and her siblings seem to have quite an easy time shutting down those people. It’s not like she felt hopeless(except when Beckendorf died, but that’s not the issue here). Unlike the cabin 11,where they put the “undesirable kids”,and people didn’t trust them.

hey dude! thanks, i’m glad! i’m having fun thinking abt these :D

yep! most of the disrespect that the aphrodite cabin receives is from the other campers and their stereotype of aphrodite (partly due to rick’s ability to fall into stereotypes when it comes to feminism)

i mean i’m glad that rick moved away from that in hoo, in that aphrodite talks abt her origins and how her son was the one who founded the Great Roman Empire™ or whatever

but he still fell into other stereotypes regarding aphrodite’s children still, so it’s not that much of an accomplishment. and the only reason he detailed aphrodite’s origins is in order to further piper’s character arc (and foil her more with one-dimensional drew) so… not to mention, the rest of her cabin remains p stereotypically aphrodite-like

but anyway, i agree. it’s more obnoxious than anything. hc that they knew what thier mom was abt, so it really didn’t matter what others thought of them, bc the only opinions that mattered were their own. they knew they were powerful in their own right, and if the camp didn’t want them to participate in capture the flag bc they’re always being misunderstood, then fuck ‘em.

and hey, guess what, you can still take what aphrodite is goddess of and turn those tropes on their head. like there’s a post going around abt wing-eyeliner so sharp it literally can cut ppl, using stilettos as weapons bc have you seen those heels? can’t remember if this was part of the post, but blood-red nails like claws dripping with real blood

i think esp when it comes to love–bc love is so much more than just romantic or sexual. there’s so much to be said abt the many facets of love, and some love between two ppl we don’t even have a name for, but it’s so profound and beautiful

like where’s that aphrodite, huh? love and beauty, love is beauty. beauty simultaneously spending hrs on your makeup, hair, and clothes and not giving a single shit. love being someone who loves you regardless of whether you’re the former or latter person.

and then the badass aspects, like stated above

this is kinda going off on a tanget, but ugly and beauty are socialized standards. bc of this, it’s my belief that anyone is beautiful when they smile, when they’re truly happy, when they’re doing/talking/thinking abt something they truly enjoy, smth they’re passionate abt ya know?

/tangent

so yeah, i think the fact that chb put undetermined kids into the hermes cabin spoke to how not only other demigods, but also how the gods, feel abt hermes as a god and while i kinda feel bad for hermes, talking abt just how shitty he was as a father makes me feel way less bad so

now i think some could make the argument that bc hermes is the patron god of travelers, it “made sense” i guess that they’d throw the undetermined kids in his cabin, bc they’re…traveling i guess??? but that argument is flimsy at best. chb is supposed to be their home (or home away from home if they only go during the summer), so they’re not traveling. they’ve found out their demigods, they could at least get some recognition of who their godly parent actually is

his powers are really, so very subtle, so it’s difficult to see how powerful he could truly be without the right context. part of me feels it’s almost by design, bc a lot of his powers can be used for illegal activity, and you don’t really want to be noticed. maybe by other criminals, and by an alias, but certainly not by your true name and the cops, ya know???

but it still communicates how everyone thinks of hermes, whether or not it’s on purpose. we’ve had not indication that hermes really cares abt that, but we’ve also not interacted with hermes a whole lot in the series, except for when we’re talking abt luke so

i think some of his skills are lost in other gods, too. take for example athena who is, as we all know, the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy. her children are intelligent, good at planning, and battle. hermes invented the internet. do you know what kind of genius it takes to do that? but it’s masked, covered up bc athena is the patron goddess of wisdom, of things like genius and intelligence.

hermes is a v “jack of all trades” kind of god, so gods who are more powerful in certain aspects that he can manifest in his children–charisma (apollo), cunning (athena)–are obscured by the more specialized god or goddess.

and while being the master of one or two things is beneficial, there are also benefits to being a jack of all trades, esp in the right context. they could become chameleons–fitting in where they need to be, and getting out before the going gets too rough, or they’re asked to do something beyond their skill set. which, again, usually lends itself to more…shall we say less legal activity

now that’s not always the case of course. those skills can be applied in more legal settings. but i’ve been watching a lot of spy/crime/espionage shows since i was like 10, so i like that kind of stuff. i’ve also been binging person of interest on netflix, so that’s on the brain as well. it probs doesn’t help that hermes is also known as the god of thieves so

as always, thanks for sending these in!!! hope to talk/discuss more soon ^_^

FEED ME SEYMOUR

[sotorubio]

hey so I can only talk for myself here but I think the important difference is that since druck s5 began, a lot has changed. They stepped up their game, not only character and storywise but also they included more poc and queer rep, so for me the new gen is more woke (in a good way). They even addressed (white) performative activism in s6, which was actually surprising because Noora was literally the definition of one and 99% of nooras from the remakes were too. And now Lou is stealing tampos and posting it on insta and we shouldn't say that it is a bad influence? Sure she isn't eViL or anything, she had flaws like everyone else.

I get where you are coming from and I partly agree. Other characters (mostly white, skinny +/- mlm) are getting cut some slacks while other's don’t, but I still don’t agree with Lou's action at all and I hope that they will not try to act like this type of performative activism is cool (i actually was super irritated when she just...stuck her gum on the wall for no reason???)

hmmm so i understand what u mean n i agree in some ways but i think the best way to answer this is to point out that when i make posts abt lou & the reactions she receives i'm mostly doing it bc of the second point that u also brought up: that other characters get away w it/are even admired for it while she gets hate for the same (or even less bad/extreme) things. so the intention behind my posts isn't rly to try n uplift lou or cheer her on, more so just to point out the clear double standards & bias within the fandom itself. bc i absolutely do agree w u that the events of the last clips shouldn't be portrayed as cool or as actual meaningful activism.

i assume u sent this after seeing the post abt lou vs evak? bc i did also make other posts abt it last night n in one of the tags i did also say that i think the filming & knocking stuff over was annoying. i don't like that she did that/the writers made her do that n i agree it's very performative (in the very literal sense of the word, since she was in front of a camera on purpose) n it makes lou seem irritating to me too. however i don't think there was anything wrong w her stealing. if she had just stolen the tampons for herself n not made a performance abt it for social media & not come up w some self-glorifying nickname for it, it wouldn't be a staple of white feminism rly, it'd just be stealing which i'm not against.

so that was kind of the point of my post. i was trying to point out the vast difference in the way a fat gnc woman is treated as opposed to two skinny guys even tho the illegality of the guys' actions was far far more severe. that particular post was solely abt the double standard in the reactions to illegality, not the morals behind it, bc there were a lot of ppl claiming that what was wrong w lou's actions, the "bad influence", was the stealing itself.

if i were to make a post abt just lou's behavior i would agree w u. the additional stuff like filming n turning herself into a hero was shitty n fair to criticize or reasons to make ppl dislike her. however, even then i don't agree that it can be classified as bad influence. is it good influence? no, ismail shouldn't be learning that white feminist rhetoric from her. but that doesn't automatically mean it's bad influence either. ismail isn't new to being a bystander in stealing. last season they just let their white best friend steal a living animal n then pushed that responsibility on someone they had never even rly spoken to (who was, additionally, a woc so.)

i think it's fair to criticize lou as a character. "she's very much like the instas", "she thinks she's being cool but is just being performative", "she should not get praise for this" but it's a whole other thing to imply that she's a bad influence on our poor ismail who's just So InNoCeNt n PuRe. could she be considered bad company, considering the way she's been written? yes. but bad influence? no. bc there's nothing to influence since ismail is already like That n has done the same / worse things before even meeting her. she's not making ismail worse, she's barely matching ismail's energy. which is like the bottom line of my point. portraying & seeing a fat gnc girl as smth that's influencing ismail in a bad way is horrible, when canonically nothing they've done so far has been worse than things ismail is already used to = they cannot be influenced by this

so. yeah i agree w ur point abt lou's actions themselves being wrong n i think this piece of writing should be criticized instead of seen as progressive & meaningful. but that's not rly what i was talking abt in my own posts. so this feels like an argument against a point i wasn't even trying to make. which i don't blame u for, i think this is an important topic to bring up anyway n i know my posts can be easy to misunderstand smfkdlfjd but yeah my posts weren't supposed to be defending lou, i was just saying we should acknowledge the fatphobia & misogyny that makes ppl criticize her for things they let other characters do. criticizing her for things that we'd criticize other characters for as well is ofc alright. for example in the way ppl are acknowledging the white feminism now bc that was done in s6 as well.

[scriptlgbt]

(nb 1/3) Hey there family! I have a char in this story who’s assigned male at birth, identifies as NB, but prefers to present their own self in a feminine way/feels more comfortable being perceived as a woman. They don’t experience dysmorphia with regards to their genital, but they end up in a lot of bad places mentally for never fitting as woman or man in people’s expectations and not being understood as neither. In terms of body dysphoria, their height is a touchy matter (very tall).

(nb 2/3) They’re feminine, but choose against HRT/surgeries (maybe later?) bc they’re on PREP and the combination might lead to lower bone density (they’re a MedSchool stdt, they’d know). And they’re on Prep bc their boyfriend, the protag, is Poz, but their relationship isn’t healthy (constant arguing and protag trying to decide NB-char’s career for them). But NB-char puts up with it for years. Partly for love, partly bc protag accepts their gender, and they think they won’t ever have that again

(nb 3/3) Eventually they dump him, get back on track on the career path they wanted, and find love elsewhere (these aftermaths will be in the bg of protag’s story). Bc they’re protag’s ex, I considered having their sex life come into view. But I’ve to make some delicate decisions on that representation and… Reading some things lately, I’ve begun to question whether this character should exist at all. Not being a male-assigned NB person myself, would I be doing more harm than good w/ this char?

Disclaimer: I am transmisogyny exempt and this post involves consultation with someone who is transmisogny affected.

First of all, I’m not sure if you’re going off your own independent research on PreP, experiences, or you are a med school student, but I do not think the information you have about it is correct. All research I have done on the matter reports that there is no drug interaction. 

In 2011 the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health at the Universityof California, San Francisco reviewed the possible impact of antiretroviralmedications on cross-sex hormone therapy and determined that there wasno scientific reason why the drugs would interact: 

There is no evidence or clinical studies of potential drug interactionsbetween different classes and combinations of antiretroviralmedications (ARV) and cross-sex hormone therapy (csHT) used bytransgender women for gender transition and feminization.

(PDF, p 14)

Lower bone density is really not a big concern with nearly any medications (at least that are taken regularly on such a big scale) and the idea that it “might” cause that seems like a pretty weird reason for not going on it. Even with lower bone density if it were a guaranteed thing, I really can’t see that holding someone back. Maybe if they were constantly at risk for broken bones and were very reliant on their current bone density.

It would be much, much more realistic to have a number of reasons that are more complicated and feeling-based. For example, maybe it just didn’t occur to them as something they wanted right now. Or they wanted to still be seen as not-straight when being around their partner (this was one of my reasons back in my pre-HRT days). (Which I feel kind of silly about now, considering being on hormones makes me feel more confident in clothing gendered similarly to my AGAB, and it’s pretty hard to mistake me for a straight person.) Or they’re not ready, or they’re waiting for something, or there’s some social factor that was holding them back before. I’ve had all of these reasons and I’m sure you could come up with something.

If you go through with writing them, I would try and keep the difficult stuff in their life to a minimum unless you have been in that position, if only because it can come across as entertainment based around a TMA* person struggling. Toxic relationships are a pretty overwhelming majority with representation of LGBT+ relationships in general and it’s kind of a tired trope, so you’d want to bring something refreshing to the table with it.

Since your protagonist is their ex, you are at a serious danger of perpetrating some really toxic ideas about transmisogyny affected folks and what a relationship with them looks like. This is the biggest issue I see with this, personally.

With regards to having their sex life come into view, I think that it’s okay to represent your character as having a sex life. (I’m a little unclear what you mean by having it “come into view” - but if you’re featuring it more specifically than “they do have sex sometimes and it’s usually with this person or that person” I would maybe not write that unless you potentially have a co-author who has firsthand experience from the relevant perspective.)

* Transmisogyny affected

- mod nat

Speaking as a transmisogyny-affected person as well as a former pre-med student, I don’t really buy the whole “avoiding HRT to preserve bone density” thing. Trans women frequently take micronized progesterone alongside estrogen—something with no scientifically guaranteed benefits whatsoever, and something that has been correlated to slightly higher risks of breast cancer—because it’s believed to (among other things) enhance breast growth during transition. (I myself did this for years, and I have no proof it did anything at all, and y’know what? No regrets.) Trans feminine people do hardcore shit on a regular basis.

The idea that this character would forego the opportunity to hormonally transition—and thereby potentially forego an opportunity to be more readily accepted in cis spaces, forego any hopes of feeling less dysphoric about her own body—seems like a scenario tailor-made to shoehorn her into an inherently tragic situation, something I think addles trans feminine representation enough already.

I think also, when people write stories of trans women staying in toxic relationships and being incredibly self-sacrificing (e.g., skipping on HRT so that they can be physically available for their lover), it feeds into crypto-transmisogynistic stereotypes of trans women in relationships having abysmally low standards and being enormously forgiving because of an idea that trans women are inherently undesirable, and toxic relationships are the best that they can get. I don’t really trust transmisogyny-exempt people to write these kinds of stories.

Even if your trans feminine NB character gets a better shake in the end, the fact that she stayed in the crummy toxic relationship for years is enough to make it problematic.

Thank you so much for your consideration! 

—Mod Pepper