#as a queer person this is actually kinda scary.

[simplepotatofarmer]

people really are going 'think of the kids' about velvet, a gay man, and they don't see anything wrong with it, huh.

[koa-z]

ok so i KNOW that when you decide to look alternative, you should expect for some people to react negatively bc like. It's sth they can see, and it's not accepted as normal.

but like I did not expect the sheer number of fragile heterosexual men who would be moved to screaming by the trauma of seeing my pink hair

[drdemonprince]

what was your journey from libertarian to leftest/anarchist like?

well, as a teen i hated authority and society and wanted complete freedom so i was a libertarian. then i realized i was gay and trans and libertarianism weren't gonna do shit for me. when obama won in 2008 i noticed that i felt relieved, even though i had not voted for him. I went away to academia shortly after that, and became surrounded by liberal people, all of them doing research with a liberal point of view, and what do you know, product of my social environment and queer and desperate for acceptance among the group that said they cared about me, I became a liberal too.

over time academia mistreated me and rejected me for who i really was, and i started to transition and realize that i was disabled. i became more left-leaning frankly because it seemed like that was the only way to be able to survive as what i was, identity wise, and find anyone at all who would correctly gender me or tolerate me. if you want to be able to hang out with other trans people and have them treat you right, there are values you basically have to say that you subscribe to. anyone who didn't subscribe to those political values was mistreated, viewed skeptically, talked to like they were dumb, and ostracized. and some of those values did make sense to me, whereas others didn't.

i saw people pushed to the social margins for being libertarians, for instance, as if that is a political ideology that carries any danger when some random trans woman with a very weak social support system says in a support group that she maybe kinda subscribes to it. i was even terrified of people finding out that i used to believe in anything "wrong" according to the social dogma, for a while. but i tried to make the most sense of the confusing tangle of community held beliefs as i could, so that i wouldnt be completely ostracized from both straight and queer society at once. and so I was vaguely leftist, but with a confused understanding of systemic oppression based on identity (among lots of other things, like abolition and anti-colonialism), and a deep terror of ever saying anything that would ever get me criticized/cancelled/viewed as a bad person.

and then the pandemic happened and i wasn't so beholden to mass community scrutiny anymore. i read a ton i looked at how politics actually plays out, and i got a little bit more capable and secure in myself and came to similarly feel awed by how much people are really capable of when they aren't being controlled or dependent upon approval in order to survive. and anarchy basically asserted that it had always been there in me, i just hadn't known the name for it. and by then i felt safe and strong enough and had enough faith in others to decide it was okay to have opinions that others disagreed with, and that i wouldn't starve out in the cold if i gave voice to them.

like a lot of people, i had misconceptions about what anarchism really was and writers like Graeber, Wengrow, Solnit, etc really disabused me of that notion and made me understand that it wasn't a scary worldview at all, it was the most human and accepting one there really was out there.

My political journey has not been especially principled or philosophical, it has been emotional, intuitive, and rooted in a lot of social influences. i think that's what most political ideologies are about for people, ultimately, belonging and safety.

I was originally a political scientist by training and in that field's body of research we see that most people do not have consistent political belief systems, they agree to a mish-mosh of statements and support various policies that don't all add up in a logically explicable way. they also don't tend to have stable views over time. just as i think morality is a pretty bad explanation of why humans do what they do, and why we help eachother and avoid doing harm, it's very evident that political ideology is a piss poor predictor of political behavior or affiliation. the far clearer explanation far more consistent with the evidence is that people politically align themselves based on their social milleu and their feelings.

this is why i always feel myself holding back from dying for a cause, and blanch when MLMs start talking about needing to do all they can to bring about communism with an almost religious fervor (beyond the fact that such thinking also doesn't line up with a lot of communist thought and theory about how capitalism falls anyway). i dont think that any of these ideologies really carry all that much weight or influence people's actions, affiliations, or political behavior on the level we all pretend that they do. i dont think they're "real". anarchy is more of a philosophy of how to relate to other people in daily life, for me, rather than a religion about how the world needs to be or where we specifically need to be heading. it's more big-I Ideological for plenty of other people, and again, i blanch when they start preaching about it as if their whole life is in service to the idea of it. I think we do anarchism by living as if we're free, every day. and that's what i care about, if i'm being honest. feeling free, safe, and cared for by some other people, without conditions, right now.

[ohtransarchon]

August has been rough

Almost 6 months post-op now and I've moved back home with my parents and my mental health has rotted again!!

It's been really rough though. I don't really know how to explain the problem. I've been feeling bad about transitioning and that's a scary thought. I'll be honest I'm scared of fully vocalizing these thoughts, as if saying them out would make it real.

There are many possibilities for these thoughts though, I could be feeling bad because I'm regressing because of moving back home, I have done this before I got surgery back in 2022, I would constantly question whether or not I wanted to reaaallly do it even though I kept thinking about it. And now it's the same except I have actually done it and my brain is just freaking out-

It could also be me struggling with the irreversible part of it, which is a personal flaw of mine. I find myself needing to have a way back even if I never find use for it. Like holding on to receipts of things I want "just in case I suddenly don't want it"

or it could be me somehow pre-mourning a possibility (extreme overthinking on my part), my brain is upset that if I were to get implants they wouldn't be my boobs anymore, like my insides are forever gone so my brain is just prematurely sad for a complete hypothetical scenario.

Some people on Reddit told me that it's quite normal for people who have had any kind of surgery to feel kinda like shit 6 months and below after their surgery because your brain is trying to get used to the change, which is something I was aware of but- when you're in it you just become so blind fyi-

Recently though it does seem like maybe my previous identity might not fit anymore :) Sort of like, I used to have a more masc leaning identity to compensate for my body and now that my body is more aligned to me it's kind of like now there's too much masculinity in my life- and I need to get in touch with my femininity more now. I've heard that happen to other queer people as well!

When you transition you might find yourself changing again because your body isn't restricting you as much as it used to.

Transitioning can be freeing but also scary at times. There's a lot going on aaaall the time !!

[homunculus-argument]

hey there! this sounds like a bit of a silly question, but as a trans guy, you’re one of the few trans people i’ve been following almost since i joined tumblr, so based on your other anon ask and answer i figured i’d pop in and ask if you have any advice? if you want to answer, ofc :) — i foresee this being a bit long, so i totally get if not

so i’m also a trans guy, but i haven’t been able to take any steps toward medical transitioning before since i live with my parents. but i’ll move out soon, and i still can’t decide if i should take any of these steps even once i do. i’ve never felt like i particularly wanted to medically transition (i don’t really care about how my body looks + i’ve never really cared about changing any of it), but i would like to be seen a guy — i don’t mind if not so by strangers, but maybe so by like, my friends. but i can’t help but feel like i’d be laughed at for wanting that — i’m not naturally androgynous or masculine looking to others and i have never been mistaken for a guy, because i have really long hair, d cups, and curves. and without medically transitioning, i also kinda feel like i’m… betraying the trans community, since i’m not really putting the effort into my transition and so i’m just ‘pretending’, even though i do know i’m not.

so my question would be: as a trans person who has transitioned, socially and medically, do you think people are more understanding than i think they are currently? do you know of any trans people who don’t want to medically transition, and do you think it’s possible to live fulfilled that way? or even: do you think it would be easier for someone like me to just live a lie? i usually tell people i’m a lesbian, because they definitely would not look at me and assume ‘straight guy’, but also, as a trans person who doesn’t want to medically transition, i’m just always worried that i won’t be taken seriously. i feel like your experience of being trans and probably interacting with the community is much more than mine, which is why i ask this last one — i would try being open myself, but again, i’m still living with my parents unfortunately.

I'll be honest I don't actually really know much "community" save for former art school classmates. I've only known one trans person irl who chose not to medically transition - at the time, Finland's trans law was still shitty and required sterilisation for legal sex change, and all that. She didn't want kids or anything, but refused to engage in the process as her own little personal civilian protest. I don't want to paint some caricature picture of some Sharp Dommy Tall Scary Goth Trans Anarchist, but I was deeply impressed by the way she didn't do a single thing to try to seem smaller, softer, or in any way submissive or docile to be ~feminine~ the right, socially accepted way.

She wasn't just taller than most men but usually the tallest person in the room, and she stood out in a crowd of cis women like a crane in a chicken coop - a bird just as much as they are, but a different kind of bird. And I remember thinking that I could never do that, being so unflinching and unhesitant about standing out in the crowd because assimilating and muting yourself is beneath your dignity.

Honestly, I don't know what to tell you about being openly trans without transitioning medically, save for that it takes more guts than being able to just go stealth. I had physical dysphoria about the way my body was, and was desperate to get top surgery just for the sake of my own physical comfort, and I like the convenient anonymity of being able to just be Just Some Guy who doesn't attract anyone's interest or curiosity.

It's a smart move to not come out to your parents before you're out of their house and not relying on them for anything - this is something everyone should use their own judgement for, but I stress it to every queer kid to not take the risk if there's any chance that they'll react poorly while they still have power over you. But living your whole life in the closet - "living a lie" is a good way to put it - will corrode you from the inside.

It's better to live in peace with yourself and against the world, than in peace with the world against yourself. There is absolutely nothing in your power that you could do to change the minds of people who have already decided that they don't respect you, and if they try telling you that they would, if you only met their approved criteria, they are lying. That's bait they're dangling in front of you, and there's no "earning" the respect of such people.

Stay true to yourself and be good to people, and you'll have the respect of people who are capable of respecting you. Don't waste your time and energy on people who won't respect you, every thought and effort you spare them is wasted on them.

[lestcat-de-lioncourt]

People are saying it's like watching paint dry with Louis and the Brad Pitt vs. Jacob in Interview With The Vampire, yes, because they cast roles for appearance and not to harness their full specialist potential. That was often as happy second.

It wasn't a character he could clearly do, a genre. There's loads of other material he's much better at. This is where casting just a cis white straight guy for his "looks" can stunt a performance.

Now, wild, Hollywood branches out to us minorities, who have grovelled in the dirt to tone our talents, who really want this, and not a person who is beautiful, with a lacklustre for the topic, the genre, it's not their Thing, they are a PERSON with their own interests, wow beautiful, okay, actually, "I really love Aerodynamics and I'm gadd awful at acting" kinda person, in fact, but.. yeah...

Hollywood: "ur prety so u must."

And all that.

•

Can you see where I'm coming from?

The act of acting has been lost in portion, due to film, ONLY, because people can fall back on the outtakes, which, makes it so much more accessible and I love that too, but, drumming out an acted, ingrained performance, if you will, is something else.

It's safer this way, so we don't get too hung out by the character we play to the point it becomes reality, I know, but still. People love to say they pick actors PERFECT for the portrayal, but they just look like the character/same skin colour as the character/gender as the character.

•

If you cared that much, why not get a person that totally encapsulated the character, and make them look like you envisioned?

It's complex, for sure, but, please, why cut corners for just the standard beauty trope at the time, the biggest names, and so on. I know you gotta sell. But..

It's all a building process though.

•

I would've said, just to make sure queer fiction managed to get the limelight it mutually deserves, but, I can't even go with that because it paints Lestat as a nasty scary queer guy who's after all yo' partners in IWTV(1994), and at the time of when it came out, was quite a remarkable thing in many ways.

Troped up as "gays are monsters" and, so on, ignoring all the straight vampiric action, many wish to see, 24/7, is what it also developed a presentation of.

But now the being a "vampire" is normalised to the point where we can have "why are all these vampires gay in this series, ugh?" On YouTube coming up, even for me, we can accurately spread our wings, playing queer monsters, without, y'know, the witch hunt cult actually treating us like one just for being born.

[the-goya-jerker]

In light of my most recent review (Piss Christ), I wanted to talk a little bit about a personal pet cause of mine. There's over 300 of you, I can subject you all to my favorite little interests. >:3

Since I discussed our revulsion and distance from death, I think it'd be good to mention The Order of the Good Death. If you don't know about them, you probably know of one of their founder Caitlin Doughty or, as you might know her, Ask a Mortician over on youtube.

One of their big things is Death Positivity, basically encouraging people to speak about death frankly and without any stigma. Being able to have proximity to our dead can help us mourn. Different cultural groups should be able to practice their funerary practices even if we think they're weird or gross.

They're big on green burial (being buried not in a concrete box in the ground, without chemicals harmful to the environment), and legalizing human composting. Which, ik, that sounds kinda scary to some people, but y'know that "grow a tree with your ashes!" thing? 1. That shit is bullshit, cremains won't help a tree, they're sterile ash. 2. It's basically a version of that, but it actually works. It's just giving your body back to the earth. Not for everyone, but it should be an option!

They're also working on guides for queer people in like, end of life care and self advocacy for your death plan.

Also, if anthropology is your jam, check out From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty, cause it's a great book on death practices around the world.

Anyway, overall I just recommend checking them out. I talk a lot about death here and the eroticism of rot, I figure some of you may have an interest. I'll link some of Caitlin's videos that I really like below the cut, cause she's funny, and death is super fucking interesting.

[wordsinhaled]

transmasc haircut woes ahead...

so i was growing out my hair again but it is starting to become annoying/a sensory nightmare this summer/doesn't feel like me/kinda gives me some dysphoria.

so i wanna give it the chop (again).

but the thing is i am. like. very intimidated by barber shops??? i live in a significantly queerer and more progressive city now than i used to which helps. but i'm still a tiny 4'10 pre-T transmasc person and i do not feel like i look like someone who "belongs" in a barber shop, if there is such a thing (i'm sure there isn't but the anxiety tells me there is).

i am sure i am overthinking it but being in like... a Designated Male Space feels quite scary. i struggle to even walk past florsheim's in the mall or have other men see me in the men's section of stores, if that gives you context on how scary all of this is for me. i have no idea what i think is gonna happen if i walk in there - like, anxiety brain says i'm gonna be gatekept out, people are gonna be like, "what are you doing here?" or "you're not masc enough to be in here," or whatever, i have LITERALLY no idea - and i'm sure i'm making a mountain out of a molehill and no one will actually be mean to me or bully me in a barber shop!

but the thing is i have like, no idea what goes on in there? and that's part of the anxiety, i guess. mind you, i know queer cis women go and get their hair cut in barber shops as well, so i guess... i also don't want to be read as that either?

i have gotten my hair cut before by a male hairdresser at a hair salon and it was a person my parents picked, a hair style my mom picked, and then he would dye my hair a Different Shade of Brown and my mom would give me frosted highlights or whatever at home, because she told me my natural hair color was boring and lacked depth. i had more or less zero control over the experience in terms of what i came out looking like. i was like... 23, 24 when this was still happening.

at one point, she took me to a consultation to get my hair chemically straightened (keratin, i think it was going to be) which would have gotten rid of my natural wavy texture, because i was "too lazy to put in the work" to do anything with my hair (because i wanted it to be short, most of the time, if anyone asked me). that was like, the one thing i brought myself to be able to say no to because. i didn't want to do that.

it took a while for my hair not to be processed to shit and to grow back in nice. but i fucking LOVE my natural hair color and texture and volume actually, it's beautiful, in my opinion, if i do say so myself. it's a lovely shade of brown and it's got amber/chestnut highlights in it in the sunshine and it has nice texture and it's soft. come pet my hair, basically.

anyway, sorry for the detour about Hair Styling Trauma but maybe this will help explain why the fuck i feel like i can't go and just Get My Hair Cut. lol, gotta love finally getting out from under the thumb of a narcissist and still having Shit Going On years later.

even up until the most recent time my hair was short, i have been going to hair salons (not barber shops) and i have been in that weird limbo of "girl asking for pixie cut," which is NOT the experience i want this time. every hairdresser i've ever had is always like, are you sure you want it this short? the last person who cut my hair was a pretty chill italian guy (like, came recently from italy, spoke italian in his shop, not like long-time italian-american type italian) who felt... probably the safest i've found because he was sort of relaxed about the whole thing and didn't get weird about it. but even with him, as close as i managed to verbalize what i want was to ask for something "gender neutral" because it felt like. incredibly scary to be like, "i do not want to look like girl. please do not make me look like girl."

he understood the assignment and is probably the one who would give me the best haircuts i've had. but even then it still sort of felt like i was... asking for it in a sort of weird adjacent-to-what-i-really-meant way and getting there by sheer coincidence of a person understanding the assignment vs like. please make me look more like boy. am not girl trying to look like boy. am not edgy girl with pixie cut. you feel me???

edit: also. i don't think that hair is inherently gendered one way or another, it's just like... the way that people tend to gender the process/different types and styles of hair that makes me uncomfortable and makes me feel misgendered. and like the perceptions of you that people have. and that a lot of the vibe is going to depend on how whatever individual haircut works with my face. and that when i go on T these things may also change. so i'm not trying to like... binary the hair but also... it's the dysphoria of how people talk to you/look at you/etc. at personal care places, you know?

i don't even necessarily want something with zero length, because my hair tends to look good when there's something there to style, but i just ... i don't want a Women's Short Haircut, you know??? at the same time i know that i have a Lot of Hair and people have fucked up my short haircuts before so i don't want a Bad Haircut either. i don't feel like i can do the same shit i always do again where i come in and sit there silently and slightly embarrassedly while i secretly hack my way into gender euphoria while the person thinks they're cutting a girl's hair.

anyway, what the fuck do i do and how do i not feel like dysphoria central during this whole process? what is a barber shop like? what do people talk about in there? can i just be quiet? is everything going to clock that i have not socialized with men like ever but want to? idk, do i lead with being transmasc? do i just bring sample photos of men's haircuts only and have a conversation about how they will work with my face shape? do i just say i am trying to look Not Like a Girl? that seems. incredibly terrifying. i would bring a queer friend to chill me out, but i haven't made any here yet to be able to bring.

asdjdjfj if u have read this far thank you and sorry for being a hot mess !!!

[blubushie]

tbh, as a woman who hangs out in communities where alot of middle aged men are guaranteed to gather around, you really hit the nail on the head. i've yet to find a tf2 fic that actually captures that male camaraderie that i've seen from the men around me.

Also, knowing this is the queer website and that much of the TF2 fandom is transmasc, I'm gonna address this so these kids can't go "I don't do that!! I'm a man!! I know what men act like because I-"

Men in queer spaces don't act the same way in the queer space as they do outside of it. I know I don't, cuz people get judgy. Queer community does not like men or masculinity. If you look too much like a man, or act too manly/boyish, or engage in male behaviours even with other men, they will look down on you. The only acceptable men are behaviorally effeminate, androgynous white twinks. If you divert from this in any way—too masculine, too POC, too physically male, too tall or fat or broad—they will treat you like a predator.

So a lot of these people, if they are interacting with men, are often interacting with other young transmascs who aren't socialised in male behaviour yet (usually online), or with men in queer spaces only—men who are masking. And they think men are just like this all the time.

And any man who doesn't play up the effeminate harmless uwu-shyboy persona is now scary or being toxically masculine because he's engaging in friendly ribbing with another man while being in a queer space.

I noticed it especially when me and an older bear went to a queer event (separately, we didn't come together) and he was practically ostracised because he's tall and bearded and bald and hairy and fat and very obviously male. And it turns out he was a trans man and he felt he didn't have a place in this event because everyone shunned him, or somehow managed to bring up toxic masculinity and how they don't feel safe with men in certain spaces, all in front of him while very obviously targeting him. The younger transmascs, of which there was quite a few, agreed with this. They ALSO didn't feel comfortable with him there because he was TOO male despite being just as queer as the rest of them (if not more—he was in his 50s and the oldest person there and had been out since his early 20s, so he defo had the most life experience of everyone there as far as the trans folk were concerned).

So naturally he and I hit it off. We separated off from the group, got drinks, and spent the afternoon in the corner, just us, discussing boats and fishing and lightly ribbing each other and laughing to ourselves while everyone else kept giving us glares and side-glances. Men are not welcome in queer spaces. Masculinity is not welcome in queer spaces. People treat ANY instance of masculinity as toxic. And so these young transmascs lost out on a perfect opportunity to see how men actually interact with each other, because the only other men they're actually interacting with are other trans men who don't know how men socialised as male act either.

It's kinda sad, in a way. Cuz they're gonna continue not knowing, and when the day comes they're gonna be blindsided and not know a fucken thing about how to be men in social environments because they don't wanna listen to or observe other men, not even the transmascs what came before them. Masculinity scary or some shit. And this is why it's SO IMPORTANT to have people outside of your familiar circle or your social group or your echo chamber as friends. It's why you should befriend your elders and learn from them, not shrink in fear cuz beards are scary or something. Not everyone can be a skinny white transmasc twink and not everyone WANTS to be. Masculinity is NOT a bad thing.

Anyway rant over. Point is these people don't know what male comraderie looks like cuz they don't actually put themselves out there to experience or observe it. Or even just engage in media where it's plainly showcased. 🤷‍♂️

[kindalikerackham]

The Black Sails Drama Highlights™️

Like, what the fuck happened over there?

Lucky for you, I was there on the ground floor (even sent in some propaganda that elicited a truly baffling response from the poll runner) because I'm a nut for goofy little tumblr polls and a nut for best little lesser-known-tv-show Black Sails.

Alright, so. @/pirate-battle (from here on out referred to as OP -- the Original Pollster) was running, as one might expect, a pirate bracket. At first glance, it wasn't explicitly presented what the criteria were, so people voted on their preference, often moving along pirate icons (Hook from Muppet Treasure Island)/characters from active fandoms (TAZ), etc etc you know the drill. (Although they later clarified they were looking for favorites, not the "best pirate.")

OP's first mistake, I think, was the assumption that a silly goofy little tumblr competition about characters archetypically ungovernable would remain silly goofy and with minimal strong language.

But this wouldn't become visible until they made their second mistake, creating a first-round poll between James 'brutually murdered a crewmate in the first episode solely to maintain power for his revenge-quest against England' Flint of Black Sails vs Stede 'notable used tissue' Bonnet of OFMD. They did recognize some of the coming danger even with that post, tagging "#I predict slaughter in the tags"

O Apollo, strike down these children with prophecies that bite them in the a--

Anyway. Predictably, there was slaughter in the tags. Violent language rather typical of the tumblr that I came from (the tumblr of the early 2010s), but seemed to be utterly shocking to some OFMD fans.

Exposition time: It should be noted here that there exists at least two-ish different kinds of users of tags. Those that use them to scream personal thoughts into the void and/or whispers into their mutuals' ears, and those sneaky little fools who will peruse everyone's personal little screams/thoughts to their internet buddies. And original posters are relegated to suffer the yelling/whispers without choice.

So that slaughter, in the tags, those rivers of blood through the whispers of a fervent fanbase of a violent and freeing queer show, did reverberate around other users, regardless of etiquette.

And for some of those very sweet very uwu our flag means gay fans, that was.. very scary. (Must be all those spooky theatrics with the smoke and mirrors).

(....Idk??? Maybe I'm just battle-hardened from superwholock, but saying a tag a la "AHHHHHH I'm going to rip something's head off my BOY BETTER WIN" just doesn't really phase me?? Nor does "#I'm literally going to k/m/s if x wins." Overkill? Yeahhh... But this is tumblr. We invented overkill for the media we like. And again, this was in someone's tags.)

Moving on, as tags of that violent nature starting pulling through, and people started vigorously defending black sails as a franchise over ofmd, myself and others sent in some propaganda of my own, urging OFMD fans to really understand that Black Sails is mostly incomparable to OFMD and... Black Sails is just kinda better. Cuts deeper. Genre difference at work here.

Soapbox Side Note: Black Sails can actually be kind of game changing, especially for a show that came out in 2014. There's so much to say about it but it's hard to talk about without spoiling. I might add a link to a good 'things to know' post if you're looking to get into it.

Anyway. OP was starting to lose it.

Like, I really just don't think they had mentally prepared for how truly feral Black Sails folks were/are about that show, and how they were willing to get all HRRRRRRR CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP about it.

Additionally... OP was white, and they were super duper unprepared to engage with any of the discourse about racism that these shows dig up (They're about pirates, and a lot of pirates engaged in the slave trade. Or had freed slaves on their crew. Some even owned slaves themselves. It was complicated and pirates are typically a white fantasy vehicle and anyway I'm getting off-track--)

OP started to really fan the flames with more and more visibly emotional responses

They said "it's not a competition" between the two shows, despite it... being a literal competition...

They called people out for "gatekeeping," but didn't really define what it meant in the context of saying one gay pirate show was way better than the other.

They told Black Sails fans not to express negative feelings towards OFMD on the internet (because good representation is the god us internet queers pray to, and we wouldn't want some network exec to say "oh those mean people on the internet, better not renew the popular pirate romcom" obvi)

After some more of this, they then threatened to overturn the results of the poll entirely and remove Flint from the poll wholesale, despite the fact that he had won. (Which is hilarious if you know anything about Flint in Black Sails. He's literally That Guy That Makes People Break Democracy Attempting To Unseat Him).

Finally, after a day of trying to ignore the fact that they'd become a meme within black sails circles (one post even screenshotted then with "new copypasta just dropped" yikes), they threw in the towel. And bless them, I do think they needed the break. They were kind of going through it.

In conclusion,

The Black Sails fans pulled what I might even daresay to be,, , a fuckery "of censorship and fear",, over OFMD fans and some poor unprepared poll runner who had no skin in the game, while using only strong language and some mild mean-spirited memes (95% of which in their own tags and posts).

[thegirlmirage]

This website (and Twitter for similar reasons) has a lot of "transfem verse transmasc" fighting happening that doesn't exist offline, at least, not even close to the same scale.

I need people to understand that the discourse is poisoned by the amount of TERFs and Fascists that staff refuse to ban. You won't even be aware of it having a direct pathway but I promise you, while there may be genuine salient points people need to make, they're being fired up by transphobes. If we're fighting each other we're not fighting them.

And listen like, there will be things we kinda do need to disagree on. But we need to be really really really understanding with each other, we need to be acting in good faith with each other - there's an inherent loss of understanding online because people aren't in front of you gesticulating and speaking. It's easy for people to angrily disagree when they're actually agreeing even in offline spaces.

Me and my friends knew this transmasc person who spent most of their time online, and had become convinced that you genuinely couldn't trust trans women and when I actually met them, they were sort of weird to me (not in a major way) that made me uncomfortable and so we didn't want to spend time with them. But I was fully ready to befriend them. I later found out prior to even meeting me that they had spread rumours about me not being safe, which is always a little scary when that happens.

They are a very lonely person and often spend a lot of time talking to their friends about how they struggle to make meaningful connections - I'm a big believer in giving people a proper chance, I have a very good track record with helping lonely people make friends and I really did want to be friends with this person - but online discourses had made them mistrustful and actually a little dangerous towards me.

I'm not saying every situation is the same. But what I am seeing is a very clear pathway for people becoming more isolated when what they really need is community. It pains me that this person couldn't see past that and was actively sabotaging themselves.

Please. Be nice to each other. Try to understand. Meet up outside at queer events and forget what you've read online. Let's hang out in the park and share a picnic together instead of all this fighting

[treecut-place]

Just gonna leave a few requests here, I’m fine with waiting for them

I’d love to see

Leafpool x Hollyleaf

Leafpool x Jayfeather

Leafpool x Lionblaze

That’ll be it for now

Oh hey I like leafholly :3

No warrior name since they came out looking pretty apprentice aged, but a few names I could think up for them would be Juniperskip, Juniperbranch, Juniperleaf (now they're all leaves..), Junipershine, Junipershade, Juniperheart.............

Also uhh *looks at the date of the last Everything* long time no see huh. I did not forget but Damn did Things Happen

To anyone wondering I/we're doing fine! While this blog has been put off on somewhat of an unofficial hiatus, list of things that have occured to the entity running this includes: quietly left the general wc fandom (I'm still into it it's just... the fandom........ scary), deleted outlook-rock, got into rain code, experienced ego death, became a big boy rain code blogger, turned out to be fictionkin, the nefarious personality disorder came (or was there all the time but I ignored it lmao), turned out to be a system, on all levels except physical is most likely not the same person(s) yall know from the early 20s wc profic resurgence but there's lots of memories of it, got into akuma kun, got into a bunch of shit actually, acquired cool mutuals, healed from the horrific trauma of being called a ribosome at wattpad, got even more queer uhhhh etcetera etcetera basically life went on at least for me

But aughhhh I kinda miss the profic wc fandom. It feels like just less and less people are really posting anything, and I don't really know exactly how much the general tumblr fandom has shifted but from what I can gather it's still heavily leaning into the more anti side as usual. But ever since I kinda branched out more, I feel way safer and just. Better. Than when I was just mainly posting cats

But yeah, uh!! Yomi (one of our Guys. proooobably was around in our wc days? can recall most people we sorta got to know back then) has actually recently made a wc sideblog, @/snakerocks! He's the only one that plans on posting abt cats in the near future, and while it's mainly his some others are also allowed to occassionally also post on it as guests lol. The blog is private so it doesn't come up in search results (unless you type it all the way) so he doesn't have to worry about fuckwads getting pissy about whatever he posts like they use to on public blogs. Sooo if ur enchanted with our wcposting you can go follow and ask him whatever, shipping or character or au/rewrite wise or whatever, no matter how random................ So yeah!

Anyway concerning this blog: I definitely won't delete it, I may continue to just post on and off whenever I feel like it, maybe it's gonna be slow and rare as always, maybe i'll get a sudden burst of kitty inspiration and get more active, I dunno.

I hope you all are doing well, whatever you are doing now <33

- ashley & Yomi

[milomaxxy]

Okay, this is gonna be kinda hard for us bc we don't really talk about being a system outside of specific spaces. But, we're going to do an introduction post for us, just to kinda put names to the posts.

We don't all really know our roles, we don't even really have all the terminology down. Tbh, it's only thanks to social media that I even have the words I do have to explain what I go through literally every day. Hell, a couple of us don't even have names, we just kinda front and then disappear.

Milo- the host, 26, he/they. Nonbinary puppy-cat that enjoys photography, D&D, stoner shit, and general horror media. A big ass nerd. Likes low-impact nature walks, indie games, and kink. Autistic, picky eater, and goes non-verbal occasionally. Doesn't like loud noises, Family Guy, bland food, hot (above 74°F lol), and -phobes.

Jolene- the protector, 28, she/her. Dyke dog, bisexual lesbian. Enjoys kink, anime, spooky YouTube videos (especially LazyMasquerade), and hiking. Doesn't have a filter, goes off, kind of like "I can make it up later, but that's not gonna fly". Doesn't like smart technology (too complicated lol), mean jokes, Family Guy (or other shows like it), food that isn't meat and potatoes (or cheese), and alcohol.

Skye- unknown role, 16, she/they. Demisexual queer. Enjoys art, photography, writing, and hiking. Is timid, anxious, stuck in an "ask permission to do anything" mindset. Very picky eater, will always eat mashed potatoes. Doesn't like most foods that aren't typical safe foods, authority, AI (who does lol), bugs, strong smells (even good ones), and peanut butter.

Kid Milo- the child, 6, they/them. Has a massive crush on Giles (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Enjoys scary movies, nature walks, cartoons, and animals. Loves stuffies, but not to play with, for snuggles. Autistic, picky eater (like, really really picky), goes non-verbal regularly. Would become your best friend for a Cadbury Egg or chicken nuggets. Doesn't like real scary movies (based on true stories), being touched, being hot, getting partially wet (like stepping in a puddle), and being told what to do.

Tiguar- emotion holder, 20s, he/him. Best described as a tiger/jaguar combo, not in the furry way (we love furries, he's just not one for clarification). Ace-aro. Enjoys gaming, hiking, stoner shit, and horror movies. Loves meat, especially steak. Was non-verbal entirely, uses writing to communicatebut is working on talking. Doesn't like foods that aren't meat (even cheese, sadly), large crowds, strong smells, most tv/movies (he really only likes games), and mean people.

Emrys- unknown role, 100, he/they/fae. Fictive. A half-elf rogue that basically started as a DnD character for lack of better words. Queer. Enjoys urban foraging, stoner shit, thrill-seeking, and playing DnD. Doesn't play well with others, actually can't stand people who just start talking at us. Doesn't like sitting still, reading, dogs, and fast-food. Favorite food is beef jerky.

And that's us. We're a system of 6 (as far as we know, we didn't even know Skye existed until last year, and Emrys justcame forward recently) with a lot of trauma that we don't even really remember fully. We kinda thought we were one person imagining it all for the longest time, in the first place. But this is us kinda working on de-internalizing stuff in a way

[fanfic-gremlin-ft-trauma]

15 people, 15 questions

Thank you @transboyzuko and @kiki-strike for tagging me!!

1.) Are you named after anyone?

Nope. My parents nearly called me Isabella but they chose Sofia last minute (I’m glad they did bc it’s Portuguese and there’s also like a million Isabellas.)

2.) When was the last time you cried?

Thursday last week bc I watched a movie in class that I didn’t expect to be triggered by but Oh Well.

3.) Do you have kids?

I don’t even have a job 😭

4.) What sports do you play/have played?

I’m absolutely terrible at every conceivable sport and hate it with a passion but I did play netball for like, six years when I was really young. Still shit at it tho lol.

5.) Do you use sarcasm?

When I need to, yes. But not if I know it’s gonna upset someone.

6.) What’s the first thing you notice about people?

Their eyes. I don’t know why it’s so random but I’m always drawn to eyes, maybe it’s because they’re the window to the soul or maybe it’s bc that’s the centre of the face and I’m scared shitless of first impressions and always think about Eye Contact.

7.) What’s your eye colour?

Green but it shifts from forest green when I wear dark green clothes to lighter green when I wear (shocker) lighter green clothes.

8.) Scary movies or happy endings?

I cannot be paid or coerced to watch anything vaguely scary so I’m strongly on the happy endings side. I just want my fictional characters to have good lives man 😭😭

9.) Any talents?

Well, I am a bit of an artist. That’s quite underground though, I’m not sure if people know? (I’m not funny) No but seriously I draw, sing, act, write, play3 instruments, I can do accents? If that counts lol. My friends say my ability to be nice to anyone is a talent, which is sweet so I’ll add it :)

10.) Where were you born?

Idk I just was

11.) What are your hobbies?

Drawing, singing, writing fanfic (guilty pleasure), reading fanfic, playing instruments, history facts (yes I’m a nerd shut up)

12.) Do you have any pets?

Never had one :’)

13.) How tall are you?

5’7 and still getting taller

14.) Favourite subject in school?

English english english I knoWW we all hate writing essays but uh. I don’t? It’s kinda fun actually 😭 and I like analysing poems? Uh. My English teacher is a gift to the earth so maybe that’s why

15.) Dream job?

Psychologist. I’ve always wanted to help people (especially teens) with whatever they’re going through, neurodivergent people, queer and trans people. Literally anyone who I can help. I know it’s a hard job, and it takes a lot of work, but honestly? Seeing people happier or if I can help at least one person would be worth it :)

Tagging people who might already have been tagged uhhhh but it’s fine probably

@adriancatrin @haroldtea @please-dont-burn-out @electro-strike-zukka-time @erisenyo @divorcedzukka @strrwbrrryjam @sukiluvvs @sukidude @bonksoundeffect @blu3berrydraws @mike-queerler @myguiltyartpleasure @moncuries @marriedzukka

[deepseacityunderground]

anyway... i was actually thinking recently about why i prefer "subtextual" or "accidental" lgbt stories compared to explicitly "queer rep" stories when it comes to relationship and character writing... i said i was reading a lot of midcentury (20th) and earlier literature where, if lgbt identity is even brought up at all, its either maligned by the narrative or at least not central. and yet... i personally found the quality and depth of the same-sex relationships (implied/subtextual even tho) much more engaging than the modern queer lit (genre) books i was also reading alongside, which i found kinda unsatisfying and also sometimes really fucking annoying...and then i also think about how i was having a discussion w/ someone earlier re. the lady oscar readaption where many ppl were confused why the series is considered yuri when the lesbian relationship is at beast subcontextual, and then comparing it to modern yuri which is wholly engaged with lesbianism in a way which would not actually have been possible when lady oscar was first released. its like when a thing gets popular for being countercultural and spawns so much trope that it becomes the new culture so when people return to it later they cant see it for what it is.

now im not trying to say that i think these older stories are better "queer rep" than explicitly lgbt narratives, or even defending queerbaiting, this is simply a look at my own tastes... like i think a good example of this (even if not quite relating to what i was talking about earlier) is i was reading this contemporary novel about lesbians doing lesbian things and theyre explicitly lesbians and altho its not a romantic novel theres lesbian sex and lesbian relationships. but... i found the characters so distant and one-dimensional, i had difficulty actually imagining them interacting in a romantic way, or having a community. meanwhile, touhou project is not a lesbian story. nobody in touhou is a lesbian, except maybe on a subtextual level if you squint. yet... i havent been able to stop thinking about the homoerotic components of byakuren and miko's rivalry since i first played the games. i think part of it is the subtlety of it, youre given the freedom to construct a relationship from these little hints and leftover bits that you find as you learn the story. i also think that one of the issues with "queer lit" (genre) which is becoming better thankfully, is the fact that lgbt authors may feel very self-conscious that theyre writing for both younger lgbt people like themselves but also cishets and so they feel like they cant push the complexity of their characters too far incase they become "bad rep" by being too much of a real person. this is especially an issue with books with wlw or transfem narratives because of the "predatory" stereotypes associated with these demographics from bigots so characters from those communities are either portrayed as uwu soft meme entities that do nothing because giving them agency would make them too scary or (even worse) an "edgy" countercultural reaction to prev that never quite commits because once again too scared to write real people incase theyre "bad rep".

[lover-of-mine]

I fully agree that it was a lot to have buck hurt eddie like that. Like I get why they did it cause let's be real if eddie had been able to walk it wouldn't have been Tommy at buck's door but I wish they'd go about it in another way...

On another note, do you think buck will analyse his whole relationship with his family and friends with his new found discovery (I still can't believe we have bi buck still feeling shaky omg) and also im sure you've gotten something similar asked but I kinda would like a reassurance well as close to one as I can get, but do you think that means we are headed toward buddie? Or will they be like hey at least you get this kinda thing?

Thank you for your posts they've been great and like I feel we all lived through this together and I'm thankfull for your takes :)

This is actually the first time I thought about them hurting Eddie as a plot device to stop him from reaching out occurred to me. I see it, I don't like it, but I see it.

Okay, yeah, I kinda think he will, finding out you're bisexual as an adult, specially when Buck did as well with women as he does, will be some cause for panic (I say this as someone who was good with men and only found out she was bi as an adult) about particular reactions of people around him (kinda terrified what this means for him with his parents about to come into town) because even if you know some of the people who love you will be supportive, is still a scary experience, even more if you've been trying to find this one thing about yourself for decades, so, yeah, I do believe he will be forced to reevaluate a lot of stuff in his life, and Tim and Oliver seem to be ready to try and tell this story right and I am super interested to see how this will go (I can't believe Bi Buck is real, it literally rewired my brain, I might be losing my mind because I need to sleep because I've been up for who knows how long because every time I try to sleep my brain goes BUCK IS BI and then I start freaking out about again)

I know a lot of you come to me for the logical side of it all to get some reassurance and I love that I can be this person, really, especially in moments like this, so, I love that you came here 🫶. But the buddie of it all, I don't see why they would make Buck queer and not go there with Buck and Eddie. I maintain what I've been saying, that the loft scene is gonna tell us if they are turning up the heat or if we are keeping the energy we had so far while Buck explores his own feelings about being bisexual, even more if we are gonna get 2 for 2 and they are planning on making Eddie demi (god imagine if they actually put a character like Eddie in the ace spectrum, I would die), because then you can use a Buck who's settled into being bisexual to drag the realization from Eddie, because this can cascade into Buck realizing what he's looking for is what he has with Eddie, and since men are an option now, he could look at their relationship and be like "oh so I needed to figure out that I like men, for me to realize that the love I want is with this man" and then trying to figure out if Eddie could feel the same about him, and Eddie having his own queer arc about how no one has felt as right as Shannon because he needs a deeper connection that he does have with Buck and them going there. Buck being bi puts at least halfway there on the road to canon buddie, because now it is an actual canon possibility that Buck will develop, or find out he already has feelings for Eddie. Especially with how intertwined with the discovery with Tommy, Eddie is. Everything that points to Tommy, points to Eddie if Buck just looks to the right, yk? Obviously the showrunners and actors will keep saying there's no plan, and they are seeing where it's going, but if they handle the next episode well, just sit back and enjoy, because they're cooking. They could've made Buck bi be only about Tommy, but they didn't, they made a very intense point of adding Eddie to the mix so I will continue to believe they have a plan and this is a slow burn that's gonna happen, because I honestly, even more now with canon confirmation that Buck is bi, I think it's the only way to look at them, yk? I don't see why they wouldn't go there now that they are not hiding behind the "they are both straight" excuse. And personally, as a writer, I think it would be a waste of a setup not to go there now that we know they can go there.