#but people who do know that it's a plural symbol will know

[tesco-finest-aromantics]

we should get an ampersand enamel pin

[kiruliom]

[ ID: A flag with five horizontal stripes, in the following colors: turquoise, off-white, yellow, orange and dark blue. /End ID ]

atypical system flag

a flag for all systems, plurals, and adjacent that feel they are excluded from their own community because their experiences with plurality/systemhood is considered wrong or fake by the exclusionary individuals within.

coined bc it felt wrong to get lumped in with endos as a traumagenic non-disordered system by anti-endo communities when Im not endogenic. also spite. lots and lots of spite.

this is by all means not coined to divide the plural/system community, just something for those who often feel left out to take pride in.

-

includes, but isnt limited to:

endogenic, nontraumagenic, traumaendo, and adjacent systems

willogenic, spiritually formed, partially or fully voluntarily formed systems

traumagenic by proxy systems (formed to deal with a traumagenic disorder's symptoms, etc.)

non-disordered systems, systems who dont fit the criteria for a CDD.

systems who's trauma doesnt fit CDD standards, or are told/feel its not 'bad enough' to cause CDDs

OSDD/UDD systems who feel excluded by the huge focus on DID in the community

median systems who feel excluded by the huge focus on multiple systems in the community

systems who prefer to identify as one person or use parts or otherwise outdated terminology

schizospec and psychotic people who see themselves as plural due to their consistent delusions and/or hallucinations.

anyone else who's plurality feels too atypical to fit in even in this community full of atypicals

-

it is not meant to include transplur-al people who are 'transitioning to become a system' with no concern or forethought for the actual challenges of being multiple people, but if a transplur-al person chooses to identify with this I dont have the power to stop them. the dash is there so it doesnt show up on the search. just know I dont like you, at all.

the coiner of the term is against the name tulpamancy for willogenic systems but they can use this flag as well, again, no power to stop them.

-

feel free to make alternative flags, symbols, etcetera! however do tag me in them if you do.

please do not reupload without permission and credit

[yersina]

a linguist* plays chants of sennaar (pt 1)

*i studied linguistics for four years and concurrently did three years of sociolinguistics research, but i'm not currently employed in a linguistics-related field.

[pt 2] [pt 3] [pt 4] [pt 5]

thought i'd have some fun breaking down the languages in cos and stretch my rarely used linguistics muscles in the process! disclaimer: can't promise that i'll have any insights that a layperson wouldn't have, this is kinda just me thinking through the grammar of the language out loud haha.

this post covers the first language and will contain spoilers! it also assumes that you know what each of the symbols means already.

so the three glyphs from the devotee's language that you get introduced to right off the bat already tells me a lot: it's a pictographic logography (real life example: chinese characters), which is probably a good place to start for people who are new to language deciphering (also, none of these languages are spoken so an alphabet would be pointless lol). a logography is a writing system that represents whole words/concepts with a single character, as opposed to representing the sounds that the words make (like alphabets or syllabaries). i haven't completely finished the game yet (most of the way through the fourth language), but i'm p sure 1) all of the languages are logographies and 2) the devotee's language is the most true-to-life with its pictograms.

with these three words we can also begin to establish a pattern--verbs most likely have a line on the bottom, which holds true for the rest of the characters. i think the only exception to this rule is the character for "greeting", which is also used as the verb "salute" later in the game (an interesting choice (considering etymologies for greetings in irl languages), but it makes sense when your language is only 40 words lol). other patterns include the curved line for tools, the semi-open box for structures/locations, and the half-circle with the line for things relating to sight (which amusingly is also the overall game symbol for examining something). (not gonna include things like "man" and "music" and "plant" in this list cause they're defined in game.) i do think it's kind of fun that they introduced "i/me" and "you" before they introduced "man"—it validates that you'll find patterns haha.

(while writing the prev paragraph, it finally hit me that the symbol for "key" is open-tool. isn't that cool!)

i did notice at one point in the game that there was a devotee word that was cut off in one of the stone carvings that looked like it might have been the equivalent for "fortress"--it was the room radical with the two opposing arrows from the word for "warrior". although it's not validated by the game's automatic translation function, it does seem to be evidence that the language elements are fairly flexible and recombinable!

this language is SVO (subject verb object), like english, which again is a choice that makes sense in terms of easing people in. it uses reduplication with nouns to indicate plurality, which as far as i can tell is unique amongst the languages in this game. there's no tense markers, which is common to all the languages in this game (again, as far as i can tell without having encountered the last language yet). given how simple the languages in the game need to be, i'm not surprised that there aren't really auxiliary verbs or indications of infinitives either.

questions that still remain unanswered: - "dead/death", "seek", and "find" all have dots that don't show up in the other characters. not sure why that's the case. could be a representation of something metaphysical? - the character for "go/pass" has a "room" radical on the right side and something else on the left side. wonder if that was intentional

[sassykinzonline]

sometimes its actually alarming HOW uncritically the naruto fandom looks at the text like because something isnt "shown" in canon/on-screen (it usually is, but just implicitly) people think it means it couldnt have happened and therefore making sweeping statements about the character like "theyre just weak" or "they make no sense"

as usual im going to focus on naruto (😌) heres an example but it applies to many others (itachi, gaara, neji, hinata,...me)

here are some things we know about naruto:

he is inexplicably talented at taijutsu despite having no mentor

he created sexy jutsu for attention from older men (he craves a father figure)

he is rather repulsed by affection aside from certain people

he relies on shadow clones to outnumber his enemies and protect him from damage, as well as acting like diversions (he only later on seems to learn to use them practically as well, and he doesnt use them as an actual team iirc)

he represses his memories and life severely if they cause him distress or negative emotion, and when he doesnt do that it causes him to lose complete control of himself in anger

some of these things are basic signs of a child who has been abused in multiple ways (particularly verbally, physically, and sexually), but also just logically how is it possible that naruto became proficient at taijutsu when he didnt train with anyone and had no teacher to correct him? why would it be important to naruto to have, what are essentially, human shields? why does naruto freely tolerate physical abuse he receives while others openly complain about it? why would that lead to naruto eventually wanting to defend/protect everyone in tandom with ANOTHER orphan who feels the same? why would WE not be able to have a clear directly depicted answer to this as a reader?

idk to me personally there are a lot of things people say are "headcanons" are just things they logically put together based on subtext, and theres a reason why a vast majority of people who read the same text come to the same conclusion. it seems like this is a lot less common in manga form (i dont read manga so i wouldnt know, i understand different mediums have different communication norms but some things are just literary basics), so its the first time ive encountered this "why does everyone believe in [some idea not said in plain english]? it's never said anywhere!" logic...it doesnt need to be. there are certain clues and patterns youre supposed to be able to draw conclusions for based on common life experiences (archetypes/universal symbols).

if you can do these above steps and come to a conclusion, and a plurality of people come to the same conclusion, it was probably intentional on the author's part. if the author explicitly states its not intentional, then sure, but that doesnt take away from how/why the story is impactful because the author may not even realize theyre doing it. an easy example i can think of is tsunade's fear of blood, where its meant to symbolize death, but in her case also ends up symbolizing love wrt her relationships with naruto and jiraiya. and thanks to blood gaining this symbolism through tsunade, when you see uchiha tears of blood, you instantly make those same connections. then you think back to gaara screaming about having never seen his blood (coming from his forehead where that tattoo of his is......), then the eventual resolution of that being an inversion of the symbolism the manga establishes when he battles his father during the war.

more than anything though i find it kind of concerning that adults sit around laughing at obviously what is meant to be traumatic. as if there arent people in your life who sit around with these same experiences and signs, with something they havent told you about because theyre afraid youll laugh at them.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

Thinking about the fact that Delta!Sans canonically is a plural character cuz he absorbed the Bravery soul and now they share a body and can canonically have soul-to-soul conversations and time kinda freezes for them when they do.

Thinking about how Ultratale!Chara is referred to as Omega and Delta is Delta and thinking about the kiddo tryna call themself Alpha cuz they’re “cool and manly and tough.” But somehow Delta manages to convince the kid to settle on being nicknamed Beta instead, symbolism of being a second-in-command and all that.

Thinking about Delta wandering by stores and getting distracted because the kid spotted some cool boxing gloves or action figures in the glass windows and then Delta shows up late to his meetings with Epic and Color, carrying bags of toys, because the kid started crying when Delta tried to leave without buying them anything.

Or whenever the Epic Sanses hang out, Delta always makes sure to order something sweet for the kid to enjoy because listening to “grown up talk” is boring and not fun and if he doesn’t Delta will be dealing with a headache all evening.

Thinking about Delta trying to keep the kid away from the worse of the fighting and all the worse things that the Multiverse has to offer, because the kid dreams about their death at Asgore’s hands and what it felt like being held in a container for centuries almost every night. But the kid always insists that they’re brave and tough and strong and they can handle everything.

Delta taking every opportunity he safely can to allow the kiddo to be a kid again. Decorating their shared room in their apartment in the Omega Timeline, making a spot in the corner designated for Beta. He sets time aside to allow them to partake in activities of their choosing, such as puzzles, strategy games, and competitive games.

Thinking about Color and Delta hanging up all of Beta’s drawings on their fridge like proud parents, and Color sometimes just sitting and listening to Beta yap to all the other six souls absorbed inside Color because, unlike Beta, they aren’t exactly their own full people anymore but it makes the kid feel less alone.

Letting the kid explore the surface and play in the sun whenever possible, as they spent who knows how many years trapped Underground in a jar. Maybe Delta even gets glimpses of Beta’s memories whenever they dream, the loneliness and claustrophobia of being trapped in a jar. The fear of being hunted down by monsters throughout the Underground and having to face down someone as intimidating as Asgore, the pain and fear of death, experienced through the eyes of a child. A very brave and strong child, but a child nonetheless.

Maybe Beta clung to the few embers of warmth they had when they were living under Toriel’s care, and Delta/Sans gets to see his friend in a new light, but also he gets to make true on his promise by at least keeping an eye on and taking care of Beta when he couldn’t for Frisk.

I think Delta possibly considers what happened to his Frisk a very deep and personal failure, made worse by the Toriel that Beta remembers—because Delta gets to see how much Toriel loved each and every fallen child and he can imagine the grief she felt when they all left and died. I’d like to think that AUs of Asgore, heights, spears, being alone, and enclosed spaces are all fears for Beta, so Delta always tries to reassure them even though they attempt to be brave every time.

So basically both of them are struggling with PTSD, and also Beta with the fact that they’re now in a body that isn’t their own after however many years of not having a body. And also the fact that any friends or family they might’ve had when they were alive are likely dead now, so I’d imagine that Delta would try to search down and visit any graves of Beta’s family whenever visiting Ultratale or any of its variants.

Beta proposes making graves for the residents of the Underground too, probably in the Omega Timeline. And given that Delta is friends with Epic who is friends with Cross who shares a soul with XChara, I can already imagine the trouble that XChara and Beta would get into.

[interstellarsystem]

We get that not everyone is able to, but we're taking a lot of joy in being more openly alterhuman. Years ago, we couldn't even talk about being trans to anyone in our IRL circles--which is a big enough issue as it is. But we've gained more confidence through IRL advocacy and social groups and so much more... We've really come a long way in being confident in ourselves and talking to people even just generally. And we're noticing a change in how we present, and what we wear and do.

We openly wear alterhuman symbols--we have an otherkin star necklace we wear any time we go outside. We have a therian sticker on our phone case and plan on more. We are planning on decorating our cane with stickers of our identities and things important to us. We want plural rings or an ampersand to wear in some way. And really, it's getting so much easier to talk about around people IRL, even if just symbols are subtle. It's euphoric to know that we're representing ourselves in an "if you know you know" way, and hell, we've met other alterhumans IRL before. Maybe someone will see these symbols and feel safer even if they don't talk to us directly.

We know we're lucky to have friends we can be safe around IRL, and so we can keep being who we are publicly without much of a safety concern. We hope that one day every alterhuman can just do whatever they want without fear of harrassment from people who hate "furries", people using transphobia against us, or alterhumisia in general.

[indigovigilance]

The Hornet in the Beehive

The passages of the Bible that mention hornets (or, notably, just a single hornet) are talking almost exclusively about the Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt and God guiding them to the promised land. Specifically, these verses discuss how the people already living in the promised land will be destroyed ahead of the chosen peoples’ arrival by the hornet(s).

The hornet is not who you think it is.

Read on Ao3

Exodus 23:28

The reference in verse 28 appears within this section, entitled God’s Angel to Prepare the Way:

20 “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. 22 If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23 My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out… 28 I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. 

From this, we may be able to take that the guardian angel sent ahead of the Chosen People to wipe out the unclean is synonymous with the hornet (in the original Hebrew, הַצִּרְעָ֖ה,  “haṣ-ṣir-‘āh” and yes it seems that the Hebrew word for hornet is pronounced Azira, or more specifically, “A-tsira,” “the-hornet”). (Why did I look at this? Because I wanted to know if the translation for hornet(s) was from a singular, plural, or group noun. Seems like it’s a group noun but I’m not certain.)

So what we have here is an angel symbolically represented as a hornet, pronounced Azira in the original language of the Bible, whose job it is to wipe out those God deems unworthy.

Do with this as you will.

Deuteronomy 7:20

This verse appears in a section entitled Driving Out the Nations

1 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— 2 and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally (footnote: The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them; also in verse 26). Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.

20 Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished.

Notably, “hornet” is translated in the singular in seven out of eight translations available here. The Message even capitalizes it.

Joshua 24:12

This section is entitled The Covenant Renewed at Shechem

8 “‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land.

11 “‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. 12 I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. 13 So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’

Translation choices here are getting a little tricky: nine translations use “the hornet,” and the Lexham English Bible specifically emphasizes the hornet. New Living Translation and New Century Version have both replaced “the hornet” with “terror.” A footnote available here reads: Traditionally, “the hornet” (so KJV, NKJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV) but the precise meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain (cf. NEB “panic”).

In summary

There’s a hornet (someone very powerful and very dangerous) in the beehive (Heaven), but it isn’t Crowley.

This is (in my humble opinion) some strong evidence that the intended symbolism behind Aziraphale’s name is a reference to the Hornet that goes before the people of Israel, slaying the Amorites, et cetera, to claim their land. There is some apparent parallelism between an angel clearing out the unfaithful to make way for the chosen people in the Exodus, and an angel whose major responsibility it is to bring about the Second Coming, the Day of Judgment which will also result in the wiping out of those who are found wanting.

The Final Fifteen, again

Aziraphale could not have said no. He could not have refused the Metatron and run away with Crowley. Aziraphale is the Hornet that goes before the righteous to rid the world of the unrighteous.

This was always Aziraphale’s destiny.

~~~

Author’s note: we live in interesting times. My use of the word “Israel” and surrounding language in this meta is strictly with regard to ancient Biblical texts as they are relevant to a fictional work, Good Omens. None of this should be construed as an opinion regarding current political events.

~~~

If you enjoyed this, please check out my meta index for some additional light reading!

[capn-atlas]

Introduction :3 (Please read this before following)

[disclaimer- this post is not screenreader friendly. here is the link to the screenreader friendly one]

collective names--- Captain, Atlas, Anna, Cheshire, and moots can use Atty/Addy

collective pronouns--- any/all, especially neos

collective genders--- agender, genderfluid. our genderfluidity is somewhat due to our plurality

quick alter intros---

Anna/Atlas, she/xe/he/they/star/ze/any, *bodily age*, host, no full intro, this post is mainly written by me and is basically my full intro Lennon, he/they/star/xe, 16, big brother of the system, full intro/blog (by Lennon) Eva, she + any neos, 6, syskid, full intro 1 (by Eva), full intro 2 (by Anna) Riko, he/him, 8, syskid/"Eva regulator", full intro (by Riko) Enzo, he/him, 7, syskid, full intro 1 (by Enzo), full intro 2 (by Anna) Maddelleine, she/her/him, 18/22, protector/anger holder/syskid caretaker, full intro (by Anna) Starwork, she/it/xe, age unknown, no role, no full intro Athena, she/her, age unknown, no role, no full intro (new alter)

we are an endogenic system. Anti-endos will not be tolerated on this blog. If you are anti-endo, please DNI. Endo-neutrals are okay.

the sexuality we have decided to identify as as a whole is greyromantic panromantic aroflux asexual. we’ll sometimes just say we are aroace for simplicity

theriotypes--- brown wolf (Anna), black cat (Anna), brown rat (Anna), moth (not sure what type) (Anna), red fox (Lennon), meerkat (Enzo), prairie dog (Enzo), border collie (Riko), t-rex (Eva)

fictionkin-types--- Cheshire Cat (Alice in Wonderland) (Anna), Mabel (Gravity Falls) (Eva)

otherkin-types--- alien (Anna, Riko, and Eva), deer cryptid (Anna), angel (Anna and Athena)

objectkin-types--- doll (Anna), puppet (Anna)

current interests--- Only Murders in the Building, Wednesday (the show), Wicked (the musical and book), My Little Pony (Friendship is Magic, and we're on season two)

currently watching--- The Good Place (season three), MLP- FIM (season three), Call the Midwife (ITS A GOOD SHOW) (season six)

favourite shows--- Only Murders in the Building, The Owl House, Gravity Falls, MLP, Call the Midwife (I watch it with my mom it's actually a good show don't make fun of us), Wednesday, Bob's Burgers, My So-Called Life, A Series of Unfortunate Events

favourite movies--- Nimona, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Tangled

BEFORE YOU FOLLOW:

We are bodily, and mostly collectively, minors. 18+ can follow us, but NO DMs if you are over 18.

We do not like to swear. We will occasionally, such as when we are very upset, and Maddelleine swears sometimes, but for the most part we do not. If you know you are interacting with one of the littles, please do not swear. Otherwise, go crazy.

DNI:

anti-therians/furries

TERFS

queerphobes (e.g. homophobes, transphobes, biphobes)

p3dos

z0os

radqueers

any explicitly NSFW blogs

anti-endos

people that sexualize age-regressors

people that sexualize therians/furries

and just general assholes (basic DNI)

other than that, be respectful to us and we'll be respectful to you.

REQUESTS:

Therian pfps (include the 'type/animal, what symbol (if any) you'd like me to put on the forehead, and if possible include a photo of the 'type so I don't get mixed up)

Name requests! (moots only) you may request a name/nickname from us if you are a moot. (examples)

beloved moots--- @mxmorbidmidnight @pocketsizedking @specss00 @thelab-experiment @but-aint-this-texas

dividers by @kodaswrld Userboxes (first five by @kthecritter, goose one by @but-aint-this-texas, and last one by @ghosting-plural-userboxes) under the cut!

guys be nice. ^ as you can see, a morbid goose protects this blog. @mxmorbidmidnight is that morbid goose. ze will come for your head. (if ur not nice)

[paras-doxical]

Paraqueer

[ID: Two nearly identical flags. The flag has nine stripes, with all of them except for one being the same width. The middle stripe is twice as large as the other stripes. The stripe colors are: dark blue, dark green, yellowish green, off-white, pale sea green, off-white, yellowish green, dark green, and dark blue. The second flag has the symbol of a turtle over top, its silhouette in black. End ID]

What is paraqueer?

Paraqueer is inherently pro paraphilia and anti contact. It is a term meant be used by queer paraphiles. You can only use this term if you are queer and a para.

Paraqueers understand the importance of consent and are strictly anti contact for any paras that would be nonconsensual or harming to others if acted upon. They know that children and animals can never consent.

Paraqueers know that they can be proud of their paras without harming other people, and they support other paras. Paraqueers also support recovery for those who desire it and finding coping mechanisms. They understand that thought crimes do not exist.

Paraqueers know that paraphilias do not necessarily make them queer; however, their paraphilias can interact with their queer identities.

Turtle and mountain emojis can be used as symbols for paraqueers. (🐢⛰️) (🏞️🐢) (🏔️🐢), (🐢🗻), etc.

Paraqueers support:

Anti-contact

Kink

Sex workers

Plurality/Systems

"Contradictory" labels

Mspec lesbians/gays

Lesboys and turigirls

Neopronouns, xenogenders, and neurogenders

Those who are aspec, including aplatonic

Freaks and weirdos

Polyamory

Disabled people

Body inclusivity

Self-shipping

Informed self-diagnosis

People with personality disorders (including NPD, ASPD, BPD, etc)

People with mental disorders/who are mentally ill

Neurodivergency

Stigmatized disorders

Accessibility

Fictionkin/Otherkin/Therian/Alterhuman/etc

Cringe/being authentic

Solidarity

Identities they do not understand

Paraqueers are against:

Pro contact/contact neutral/contact complex/anyone who claims that children or animals can consent

Minors in kink

Purity culture/anti sex beliefs

Exclusionism

Gatekeeping

Censorship

Ableism

Fatmisia

Abuse and grooming

Harassment

Bullying

Shaming

[markiafc]

not sure how to put this into words. but buddhism (literature, figures, history, etc.) is queer and has been queered over the years. and when a chinese story embarks on a daoism-buddhism-confucianism study, there are echoes of similar themes, devices, techniques, allusions. by nature of being a chinese story, the frequent heart of it is a daoism & buddhism vs. confucianism ideological battle where the latter is rules and conventions and social expectations. and the former is liberation, a queered deviancy because it advocates for plurality and fluidity.

the lotus sutra has a prominent gender-change motif so as to present freedom... the buddhist ideal to emancipate oneself from mainstream society is often realized as a release from the gender hegemony. non-duality teachings in buddhism encompasses all of this.

in the lotus sutra, the dragon girl turns into a male and then proceeds to attain enlightenment - in direct response to the men telling her she cannot do so, that women are spiritually disadvantaged. transitioning is a queer act but also a buddhist achievement: an entity letting go of their body and subsequently their confucian identity of "father", "son", "wife", "mother", "daughter", etc. through this they learn non-duality & non-self & abandoning illusions, the primary concepts to buddhism.

in the lotus sutra, bodhisattva guanyin also notably underwent a male to female transformation. back in the day, guanyin's male form was at first more popular and their masculine image dominated. today it's an androgynous woman in white robes that's become iconic. this gender fluid nature again stands for liberation; guanyin is a beloved figure for women because they depict a breakaway from male-oriented society and the patriarchy. from the sanskrit name "avalokitesvara" (lord who looks down) to the chinese "guanyin" (one who observes the sounds). the chinese symbol of mercy is necessarily linked to a male to female trajectory, described to have a total of 33 male and female forms. for artistic depictions, guanyin has a feminine face but a masculine body (typically an exposed flat chest) too.

even when imagined as a girl without a history of gender swaps, they were still an antithesis to the male-dominated confucian scene. 妙善 miao shan is guanyin's other popular myth: the princess at odds with her royal father. she refuses his demands to marry until he ultimately executes her. it is a narrative negating the confucian relationships, (a) father/son or child, (b) ruler/subject, and (c) husband/wife. this is the constant of guanyin. a direct challenge to chinese patriarchal ideals.

as an aside, post-execution miao shan becomes a bodhisattva in the mountains through one spiritual miracle or another. in the mean time her father grows ill and the only cure is the eyes and arms of a person without anger. they seek out miao shan, not knowing who she is, and she gives up both arms and eyes for her father. after his recovery, the true identity of the bodhisattva is revealed and the father changes his ways. and miao shan ascends to become guanyin. related because an elusive figure amongst nature, blind and physically impaired, is also.... a prevalent trope for enlightened peoples.

overlapping the feminine and the masculine, a presence that has one foot in both categories, is the buddhist language for enlightenment + a manifestation of core buddhist teachings. when you are outside the gender regime and when you are outside human society, when you're beyond a cogent and organized identity, you are free. you are happy. which also means you are queer!

[fortuna-et-cataclysmos]

Ms. Sans-Culotte and the obvious French Revolution symbolism

This episode is a field day for me, so I'll need to analyse it bit by bit. Let's first start with the obvious and less obvious French Revolution references in this episode. This will be especially obvious for French viewers, but I thought that it may be interesting for others.

Sans-culotte

I know that the term sounds funny to most, but sans-culottes are a key figure in the French history. Those were the commoners who revolted to the King and aristocracy, and undertook the French Revolution of 1789. As Mademoiselle Bustier explains in the beginning of the episode, the sans-culottes were called so because:

Contrary to rich aristocrats, they would wear simple pants.

So when Mlle. Bustier is akumatised, we see the following character design:

THE PANTS. Very obviously the pants. But there are more obvious symbols in this character design.

Marianne

Marianne is the national personification of the French Republic. She is very much synonymous with the free and republican spirit of France. Yes, that's also the name of Master Fu's girlfriend, and for good reason (she was a Résistance fighter during the German occupation of France!).

By the way this exact painting is in the background in the few seconds after Mlle. Bustier is akumatised:

Marianne is usually depicted with the following symbols:

the Phrygian cap

Greco-Roman clothes

Partial nudity

We see these signs in Mlle. Sans Culotte's character design.

Mlle. Sans Culotte's helmet has the unique shape of the Phrygian cap.

2. Mlle. Sans Culotte is dressed in a Greco-Roman armour. The usual depiction of Marianne is in flowy Greco-Roman clothes, but the helmet and armour really add to that fighter spirit of Mlle. Sans Culotte. Also, even though rarer, there are some depictions of Marianne with a Greco-Roman armour.

3. Partial nudity. Obviously they couldn't actually show that on a kids show. However, I think that the character design does hint to a type of nudity. The fact that the white of the French flag covers all of Mlle. Bustier's face and body make it seem like it is not actually her clothes but her skin. And other than the golden armour she wears, she has no other clothes on her.

The Guillotine

Mlle. Sans Culotte's weapon of choice is a freaking guillotine knife. This was a device used by the French revolutionaries to behead their opponents. To this day, it is associated with the violence of the French revolution.

Now to more implicit references:

Ça ira

When Mlle. Sans Culotte hits people, they turn into balloons that chant:

Ça ira, ça ira, ça ira!

Which is a song sang by the sans-culottes during the French Revolution (thanks to @2manyfandoms2count for helping out with this one!)

Other quotes and remarks

There are various quotes throughout the episode with a revolutionary lexicon.

Monarch: The power of Jubilation will help you show the people their dream of freedom, and as such gain partisans/supporters to your cause.

Monarch: To arms, citizens! Form batallions!

This one is especially striking for me, because it is very explicit call to violence (frequently used in French revolutionary history too).

Mlle. Sans Culotte: No one stops the revolution. Long live the revolution!

She quite literally says Vive la révolution. Seriously, it doesn't get any more obvious than that.

She literally runs head-first into a group of policemen, paralleling the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789. And literally afterwards Chat Noir mentions this same event:

Chat Noir: It is not the 14th of July, my Lady. Do you think that this akuma victim wants to celebrate the Bastille Day early?

And later on:

Mlle. Sans Culotte: Ladybug, Chat Noir! Help the sans-culottes (plural!) to liberate Paris from its aristocratic Mayor!

Ladybug: Terror is not the solution!

Chat Noir: To get your voice heard there are the elections!

Ok, the word "terror" here is important. I had previously mentioned in my post on Felix's anarchist revolution that the French Revolution was followed by a period of violence where all those against the revolution were murdered. The name of the period is literally the Reign of Terror. We see that Ladybug's words is a reference to that.

Ladybug: (after receiving her lucky charm) Revolution, sans-culotte, and the Mayor of Paris who acts like the King?

The parallel is there. They're not even trying to be subtle. This is the retelling of the French Revolution.

Except that it doesn't turn out like the French Revolution. In the end, Mr. Bourgeois willingly steps down, Mlle. Sans Culotte rejects Monarch's powers (as in, she drops her weapons), so there is no revolution and no bloody reign of terror.

But still, the power dynamics end up shifting tremendously in the Miraculous Paris. How and why? I'll make a post specifically analysing this. Stay tuned for part two!

(Also, I have likely forgotten or omitted some other symbols, feel free to add them to the comments - if there are enough, I can make an addition to the post :))

[ryanyflags]

could you make flags for trinary terms such as you did xenox xenan and xipflux? since you coined trinarine

→ ↓ From left to right, top to bottom:

✦ trimel / trinmel ✦ trian / trinan ✦ triary ✦ trinaryfluid / trianfluid / triaryfluid / genderfluid trinary / genderfluid trian / genderfluid triary ✦ trinaryfluix / trianfluix / triaryfluix / genderfluix trinary / genderfluix trian / genderfluix triary ✦ trinaryflux / trianflux / triaryflux / genderflux trinary / genderflux trian / genderflux triary ✦ butch trinary / butch trian / butch triary ✦ futch trinary / futch trian / futch triary ✦ femme trinary / femme trian / femme triary

Terms explanation:

trimel and trinmel : trinary sex terms; trinary equivalents to enbinmel, male, female, etc. tri-/trin- in front from trinary, with -mel at the end following the format of these nonbinary sex labels. Note: the spelling of -non and -nox reminds me of nonbinary (plus the term system was originally for nonbinary terms), and trinary isn't inherently nonbinary, so I just used -mel instead (which is based on male/female). Perhaps trinon/trinox could be for nonbinary trinary sex terms?

trian/trien and trinan/trinen : adult trinary person/people; trinary equivalents to enban/enben, man/men, woman/women, etc. tri-/trin- in front from trinary, with -an (singular) and -en (plural) endings following the way enban/enben, man/men, woman/women, etc. are spelled.

triary / triaries (triarys) : young trinary person/people; trinary equivalents to enby / enbies (enbys), boy/boys, girl/girls, etc. tri- in front and ending in -ary like trinary, the E sounding ending is to match how many other diminutive terms end in E.

The fluid, fluix, and flux terms are based off genderfluid man/boy, genderfluix man/boy, genderflux man/boy, and the matching woman/girl versions. For my trinary terms/flags though, I’m defining them more broadly, so any combination of trinary + fluid/fluix/flux works.

Butch, futch, and femme is the same. Anyone who’s butch/futch/femme and trinary, whatever that combination means to them, can use these flags.

Also, I didn’t list every possible name for the fluid, fluix, flux, butch, futch, and femme terms. You can use alt terms/names, as long as they have the same meaning.

Note:

I conceptualise trinary as both an umbrella term and a standalone term, bit like how nonbinary is both an umbrella and its own gender.

Of course it would include anyone who considers their gender to fall under trinary, but surely it's possible for someone to consider their gender just trinary? Like abinary and midbinary, I think, were mainly just coined as umbrella/categorisation terms, but people can use abinary/midbinary as on its own specific gender. So I don't see why someone couldn't do that with trinary.

Trinary terms+flags ^^

[ Gender Flag Sets Masterpost ]

If I going to make the terms, might as make it a whole set to match the others right?

I don't really coin terms, so I hope the spelling isn't weird.

All these flags reference my trinary flag, so the main colours are blue, green, pink, purple, and grey.

For trimel and trian, I just went with a format that felt right / looked nice. Having the stripes be horizontal looked too much like orientation flags to me, so I used vertical stripes (pride flags don’t often use vertical stripes, so I think this helps make it more unique). And the second one, I felt darker and maybe just a bit of desaturated colours would fit. I still wanted them to be colourful though, since I think the opposite gives the impression of depression, which is not just what adulthood is.

Triary follows this girl flag (which has also been used for other diminutive flags, like boy and xip). I don’t know how to make symbols for it though, so I left them blank. Having symbols would help them look more unique, so if anyone wants to make symbol versions, they’re welcome to.

The fluid, fluix, and flux flags follow my formats, which are based on genderfluid man/boy, genderflux man/boy, and the matching woman/girl flags.

The butch, futch, and femme flags are based on these femme/futch/butch man flags, that's where the 3 horizontal stripes come from. For the diagonal stripes, they're meant to mimic the diagonal stripes in my trinary flag. The colours chosen for them are based on what trinary colours aren't in the horizontal stripes. Butch has green and blue, so I used pink and purple for the side stripes. Futch has blue, pink, and purple, so green was used for the side stripes there. And femme has pink and purple, so green and blue were used. All of the side stripes have grey in them, since the horizontal stripes don't. And the extra unused colour(s) gets blended into the horizontal stripes (whichever mixes best / are the most similar originally).

[sophieinwonderland]

Tagging @explaceholder for post alert.

So, until recently I absolutely didn't care about multiplicity and in fact education that I received suggested that multiplicity is not real, including DID.

What coincided is that in the last few weeks several posts about it made it on my dash and I lurked r/fakedisordercringe. The subreddit left me with conflicting feelings because on one hand it's true that many of the featured people clearly don't fit the criteria for their disorders, but also the place felt too aggressive considering that the "fakers" may be just misinformed.

With most disorders it's clear because there always exist states that severely deviate from the norm but are not pathological. With multiplicity though it's clear that most of those people don't have DID, but some people noted (and later I saw it on your post) that said "fake" multiplicity may be just non-pathological spiritual practice. I know a number of ideas about how human psyche can be dissected into sub-personalities, including those that were proposed as psychotherapy techniques and for a time I semi-regularly interacted with tulpamancers who also fit the criteria of "believe in possessing multiple personalities inside one body". And while I never experimented with splitting psyche and don't want to, I have some experience with other spiritual practices and know that power of believe and symbolism may make you feel very interesting things. And some of the "ex-fakers" even report that those other personalities felt real as long as they were doing practice but eventually disappeared after they stopped.

So while having DID without trauma is scientifically impossible, I can easily accept that people may have brains or experience that makes them feel like there are multiple hypostasises inside of them. Which is very different but as legit as any other self-conceptualization.

What I am getting at is that I don't want to dismiss endogenic systems as non-existent, but they are obviously non-pathological. Main complaint from the cringers is that endogenic systems downplay the severity of DID and misinform people, and it would be in fact a very bad thing to do. But like, do they? Or are you mostly having discipline and distinguish pathological and non-pathological states?

I just recently learned about the whole thing and want to study it for scholarly reasons and also because it feels like it becomes louder and louder, so I decided to just ask the most important question directly. Also feel free to correct me on any of the mistakes

Thanks for taking an interest in this and being open-minded!

If you're interested in studying multiplicity, this doc has a ton of sources you can check out:

For plural history, you may want to check out the Plural Deepdive:

Something I find about r/Fakedisordercringe is that a lot of ableist misinformation gets spread around there. Many of the things they claim aren't symptoms of DID are, in fact, and have been well-documented.

I also think you shouldn't necessarily conclude based on behaviors from brief snippets that their experiences aren't pathological.

In the end, the only things you see are the snippets these systems want to show, which are then further cherry-picked by the cringe subreddits.

While it's great that you're more interested in non-pathological plurality, please don't assume that someone's plurality isn't pathological just because you see a video of them being happy with their system. Because dissociative disorders are immensely complex, and there are plenty of systems that get along very well. One study even showed a majority of people with DID said they would miss the voices of their alters if they were gone. But they still had DID.

It's very, very common for people with DID to enjoy some aspects of the disorder, even if other aspects still would result in clinically significant distress or impairment that would make it pathological.

So while having DID without trauma is scientifically impossible

I wish people would stop saying this. We are... in a very gray area.

What we know for certain is that people with DID nearly always report a trauma history with statistics being upwards of 90%, which is huge. And the fact that it's not quite 100% can possibly be explained by amnesia... but we can't know that for certain.

There is a huge difference between "DID is virtually always caused by trauma" and "it's scientifically impossible to have DID without trauma."

Remember, a lot of science operates in these gray areas and our scientific knowledge is constantly overturned with new research.

I don't mind if people believe that all DID is trauma-based. I just don't think it should be presented as if it's some sort of scientific law when there are still too many unknowns.

Main complaint from the cringers is that endogenic systems downplay the severity of DID and misinform people, and it would be in fact a very bad thing to do. But like, do they? Or are you mostly having discipline and distinguish pathological and non-pathological states?

Personally, I think it's kind of silly for people to say "these people who don't say they have DID are downplaying the severity of DID."

Because by and large, that's what we're talking about. Only a very small number of DID systems identify as endogenic.

At least purely. There are mixed origin DID systems who may report being plural before they experienced the trauma that caused them to develop their system, or they may identify some of their headmates as spiritual, or consider themselves mixed for other reasons. But people who will say they have DID without any trauma are an exceedingly rare anomaly.

So yeah, most purely endogenic systems are not saying their plurality is related to any disorder and there's no logical reason their presentations of plurality should affect the perceptions of disorders they aren't claiming to have.

...

Anyway, hope this was able to help! 😁

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

just finish hunger games movie series & screaming at songbirds n snakes bc it not just a prequel just to be prequel just for money just to put series name into people mouth again. or separate story that happen in same universe with mild connections but can be see as separate. but prequel that add so much extra depth n meaning to original. read live comments as watch & many posts by others, all help explain things to me n here some thoughts after

only watched 1 & 2 when younger n didn’t understand A Thing n it amazing rewatching n see how much missed n see how it. all not that hidden

all parallels…. obvious one be katniss/lucy gray but also, peeta/lucy gray, katniss/S (snow’s “friend” from school forgot spelling), katniss’ prim/tigress’ snow, katniss/snow, how songbirds n snakes plural n now snow n lucy gray both at same time, etc etc

end of movie lucy gray escape n snow can’t find, n go back to capital, n then line from old/original/“present day” snow.

n then IMMEDIATELY song from lucy gray to snow

imagine it as something song to snow, ringing around his ears his head, during katniss era, end of his presidency during rebel revolution, from full start of it at beginning of mockingjay where still think can win, to slowly, clearly him losing.

really. really want re-boot of original 3 but through snow perspective because. truly want see his reaction to all lucy gray parallels. n parallels with younger him… “similar situation but produce vastly different result”. see katniss first volunteered, see her name. what went on mind when first saw her mockingjay pin. when katniss mention places at 12 he went to with lucy gray. when mockingjay became full rebel symbol. when katniss sing lucy gray song (n not knowing who it from but song survives).

n. if lucy gray able see it. her reaction to katniss & to snow’s reaction to katniss.

“Oh, you think I'm gone 'cause I left / But I'm in the trees, I'm in the breeze” n it so true n that song absolute perfect (always heard this line as “you think i’m gone because i *lived*” n honestly like that better)

don’t find it as “corruption arc” or story about how snow turn evil from good to evil because circumstances but more of. it in snow all along & he actively chose all choices that lead him to this, when given choice he chose self over others all along (like him help lucy gray in game doing that whole time because for himself for his benefit). n movie show him amateur school boy do that -> grow into him professionally doing that. as game master (think it implied at end he become one?). n as president

mockingjay (entire main series but especially out in open in mockingjay) not meant to be just another action based movie with hero leader in charge inspire all & defeat bad guys n how good will beat evil in end. n if go into it expect it be another one of those going be disappointed n find boring. katniss from very beginning been victim & child who pushed to be this “hero” be seen as one unwillingly & not realize it & not want it. didn’t enjoy some mockingjay film choices & it confusing & find pacing weird (find most films split into parts have weird pacing) but ultimate story think it way it meant to be

what typically would expect is after katniss go to 13, would be hail as hero by crowd put in leadership position & all respect from coin & coin willingly step down n say how been waiting reserving this for katniss all along hope she come to. n katniss willingly naturally get into that lead role n lead resistance n ultimately win n capture bad guy n now new era of totally completely different… except it none of that. subversion of trope absolute perfect

instead all that, instead at front of line of fire. katniss be front of camera.

n how even more real it is… wondering how much… (not much) would be different after “revolution” from snow to coin.

coin proposing new hunger games… all while pretending choose word so carefully so delicately. revolution in truest sense—revo-, around, 360 degree, back where started.

really think snow’s reaction at end of mockingjay well done. his conversation with katniss in plant place. him bursting out laughing when katniss shot coin instead of him.

n now after watch songbirds & snakes. double think so.

[desirfictional]

hi idk if this desirdae term exists yet but tips for a desir-ancient-roman-citizen?

lucky for you i know a LOT about ancient rome because i took several years of latin (and because of the autism), so here you go:

♡ learn at least a bit of latin- if you dont want to spend a really long time learning the entire language, at least learn a couple important words/phrases. "hello" is "salve" (plural is "salvete"), "goodbye" is "vale" (plural is "valete"), "how are you" is "quid agis", "my name is (name)" is "mihi nomen est (name)". those are just a couple of basic phrases that you can learn pretty easily, and if you want to learn more, there are plenty of guides online!

♡ for more about learning latin: what i do when im trying to figure out a specific word is i translate the word into latin using google translate and then i put the word into whitaker's words (you can find the site by just googling "whitaker's words") to see what the actual definition is (since google translate is often very inaccurate). for declensions, you just google "latin declensions" and go to images or you can go to the youtube channel "hi paws" to watch his songs of all of the different declensions and verb forms and such. you can practice translations on the site magistrula.com - this is a good way to learn and memorize new words, translate sentences, memorize endings, etc.

♡ romans would often have altars to the specific gods they worshiped- the gods they worshiped would depend on family history, their profession, etc. for example, someone who was a soldier would worship ares, someone who made wine would worship dionysus, someone who hunted a lot would worship artemis, etc. pick one or two gods it would make sense to worship and make some sort of altar to them (even if its just a picture of them with a bowl in front of it). for my gay and trans people, ganymede was often a symbol of being gay, and iris and dionysus were both often symbols of gender nonconformity/being transgender.

♡ on the topic of roman religion, be sure to know a lot of roman history and mythology. you can pretty easily find translations of books like the iliad, the odyssey, and the aeneid online or on amazon, if you want to read those, or you can also just do research yourself. for roman history, i recommend madeline waehner's weekly roman history videos where she explains all of rome's history- there are 22 videos and each are around 15 minutes long, you can probably finish them in a week or two if you have the time.

♡ common roman meals included fried dormice- if you dont want to eat real dormice, you can make dormice out of jumbo marshmallows, stick pretzels, and fake edible eyes! romans also ate a LOT at dinner, and they ate while lying on their sides- you could eat in bed or on a couch (although i suggest not throwing up to make room for more food, just eat until youre full lmao)

♡ some other common foods included wine (if youre underage, just drink some sort of juice or milk), fresh fruits (such as apples, pomegranates, strawberries, pears, melons, grapes, blackberries, and dates), white bread (often with cheese), and meat (especially fish and pork). for desserts, romans often ate fresh fruits, sponge cakes, ice cream, and cheesecakes.

♡ for clothes, romans usually wore tunics- for men, tunics were traditionally short-sleeved or sleeveless and went down to their knees, and for women, tunics traditionally had sleeves and went past the knees (however, this wasnt always the case, and either gender was known to wear sleeveless or sleeved tunics that were long or short). for formal occasions, men wore togas over their tunics, and women wore a sort of cloak over a stola (which is similar to a tunic but longer and more fancy). you can pretty easily buy tunics, togas, or stolas online or make your own (since they were usually pretty simple to make). for shoes, romans were usually barefoot, or wore sandals.

[circular-bircular]

Christianity and Plurality

I want to preface this with a few different things. 

Firstly, I don’t fully identify with the label plural, even if I used to; I struggle to see my plurality as “plurality,” even if I do technically fall under that label. I’ve been working on finding a good alternative, but at the end of the day, I still associate with certain plural ideals and symbols, and regardless of how much I’d rather not associate with that community, I am forcibly put into that community due to my disorder. I feel qualified to talk about plurality from a personal experience lens, but as always, do not take my word as the one and only truth.

Secondly, I have wavered somewhere between Christian, Agnostic, Atheist, and various other styles of “ex-Christian who is traumatized by the religion.” I’m not entirely sure what label to apply to my religious ideals, particularly as, I didn’t think I’d be figuring this out due to… syscourse, of all fucking things. Through all of this, I think I’ve determined I am Christian, just… loosely.

Lastly, connecting to the syscourse point: I really don’t want to make this post. The only reason I am is because I haven’t seen people who share my perspective speaking out, despite knowing that many do, and I figure… If I won’t, who will? As a Christian who struggles with modern Christianity, and a system who struggles with modern Plurality(™), I feel the need to speak up about all this drama lately regarding the topic of a Plural God, and how it is negatively impacting me. I want to speak my truth, y’know? 

So, let’s talk about it.

When I was still going to church weekly, I was part of both the children’s worship and the more adult sermons. I watched the sermons for adults before heading downstairs to work with the children and see their lesson. By and large, I appreciated the latter far more than the former, as I felt it got to the core of the religion without frustrating semantics and vague ideas. 

In all of these spaces, when the topic of the Holy Trinity was mentioned, it was… odd and definitely confusing for me, especially as someone who struggles with AND without things being seen in absolutes. I’m unsure what denomination I fell under (my parents refused to inform me, saying we’re all the same under God) but the approach was the same for the three different churches I recall attending.

The Holy Trinity (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) was a triad of things. The Father was God, the Son was Jesus, and the Holy Spirit was what came after Jesus’s death. However, it was secondly the phrase, “My God is three-in-one,” referring to the idea that God is present in all of those ideals, having given the world Jesus, and having predetermined Jesus’ sacrifice to save us from our sins. Lastly, the Holy Trinity was a concept and belief, and that was what was focused on the most. See, the denominations I was raised in specified that belief in God and the Son and the Holy Spirit were just that: a belief. That our belief in God is what made us worthy of salvation, and thus, the Spirit of God was in all of us. 

It was known to me that God was not also Jesus and was not also the Holy Spirit. They were separate, but each part informed the other, and our understanding of those three separate parts formed one unified belief.

With this new rise of the comments that God is an endogenic system… It feels incredibly disjointed from the childhood beliefs I’d learned and absorbed. Suddenly, my belief is something that isn’t factored in; the Holy Spirit is now something solid and tangible, an entity rather than my faith in Christ and the Lord. The best comparison I’ve been able to come to is how people play with Greek myth, making it more modernized while ignoring the original premise and meaning behind the myths -- No, no, Persephone wanted to marry Hades, really (ignoring the kidnapping of Greek maidens and the betrayal inherent to motherhood, yada yada yada yada).

If God were an endogenic system, suddenly, Jesus’s sacrifice is the death of God as well (as headmates share the same body). Unless people are attempting to say that Jesus’s death was only innerworld, in which case, we’re now saying, “The death that led to the salvation of humanity from eternal damnation was entirely in the innermind of God.” 

It removes the human element of everyone else in these biblical stories. It removes the human context, the failure of humanity (and the successes) from the core essence of Christianity and centers instead solely on this idea of plurality. 

Then we get to the Holy Spirit, and it all breaks down more. Now the endogenic headmate of God is inside of me? Now you’re stating that my belief is on the same level as my parts; but it’s not. God is not in my head — he’s in my heart and soul. He’s not an alter. 

I will say, this is no fault of those who are sharing this headcanon, but I want to add it to provide context for why people may be feeling particularly heated about this topic. I’m currently in a very stressful time in my life, and this discussion of a plural God has made me start thinking about all of this at an incredibly poor time. Made me start thinking about the concept of the Holy Spirit being an alter, rather than the presence of God’s love in me, and how it’s suddenly more concrete. This has been sending my demonic and angelic alters into quite a tizzy, especially as one of those demons (Numb) is a protector who is certain I’ll be splitting a fucking Jesus introject.

Needless to say, this wouldn’t be good for us.

But do you see how the spiral arises?

I will say, I don’t feel that the belief that God is an endogenic system is inherently bad, and having a belief in God that could negatively impact someone else’s view of God or even just them as a person is not on that person’s shoulders. Again, I only mention the splitting thing because I want people to understand that these topics are stressful — and not just for “ridiculous anti-endos.” 

I’m also not saying it’s bad to play around with the concept of God and adopt new beliefs that are outside the norm. Quite the contrary; I’m sitting here with the belief that God is a genderless being using He/Him and They/Them in conjunction, that Jesus qualifies as trans and queer, and that Joseph and his technicolor dreamcoat put on a stellar drag show for the Pharaoh, his lover. I know plenty of Christians who would have a heart attack at these ideas.

The issue I do have is that those who are saying that God is an endogenic plural are not doing so (excuse the pun) in good faith.

When I say that Jesus is trans, I do not do so to “raise awareness of transness in Christian spaces” or to “own the bigots and reclaim Christianity.” I do so because I genuinely believe it to be true, and I like to share that truth. I share it to help others gain more perspective about religion, not about transness. I also share it with those I know would receive it, as I don’t want to push others away from the concept of transness or Christianity by offending them -- religion should not be the starter course of acceptance.

And yet, in all of the discussions I’ve seen of this topic, it has not felt that anyone is actually saying this because they truly believe it. It doesn’t feel like people are saying this to share their joy and wonderment about finding themselves in their religion. It feels instead like people who are purposefully trying to bait anger or confusion in order to manipulate people into learning something, or even simply to be cruel. As a teacher, and as someone who was also manipulated by the church, I can attest that manipulating people in this way doesn’t… help. Why are people purposefully seeking anger? This literally goes directly against the edicts of the God you’re theorizing about. 

In the past few weeks, I’ve seen more vitriol at the “colonizing homophobic Christian bigots” than I’ve seen for years, particularly as I’ve tried to avoid any mentions of my religion in public after years of abuse (both from my religious parents, and from non-religious peers). I try to avoid it because people form assumptions about me if I mention my religion, even in passing. Let’s not forget the poll that stemmed from this that lumped all Christians under the straight white label, an issue that persists and that queer Christians have tried to fight for goddamn years. 

And all of these people are going on about a plural God. 

It just feels… disconnected. Like the people saying this don’t actually say it to connect to God, but rather, to tread on those religious beliefs for their own agenda. It feels like people using my religion for their own means, without actually caring a lick about the meaning behind what I believe. 

And that’s why I’m hurt. 

I ask kindly that people consider not using a religion they don’t believe in for their crusade for more acceptance of Endogenic systems, or at least, to do so with the intention of actually interacting with the religion as more than a simple mythology. Please try to consider the context of these stories, the power behind these beliefs, and the impact that imposing modern systems (another good pun) on these beliefs could have.