#but the whole article is very interesting

[thecommunityoftrustworthysinks]

really interesting article, and overall a really good and comprehensive analysis of this research paper which is also massively important, so i want to make sure i say that, i just needed to bring out how this article’s title focus and random pieces of salt about Trans Discourse is bad and just really takes away from the importance of the whole point

specifically i just.

the second paragraph? wrong. i don’t understand where he’s getting this from. no, i don’t see trans men getting “a pass from some oppression for trying to become the societal ideal” bro they fucking hate that. i don’t know where so many people are getting the idea that society is just like “oh ya, this person i perceive as a woman (subhuman) is telling me they actually are a man ! i do believe this is an understandable thing and not an embarrassment and an insult for [them] to even think” that just doesnt happen, nor do i understand the purpose of saying this for the article or the research topic in general. also the last sentence is weird, “but because they [trans men] cannot ever reach this ideal [of being male], both trans women and gay male “sissies” are dehumanized…” the causation here doesn’t track, failing to see trans men as men doesn’t make trans women and gay men dehumanized, and also like is the statement that said-failing-ideal trans man wouldn’t be dehumanized? i just really don’t understand the purpose of this paragraph. feels to me (like other parts) like vaguing this website, and there’s several other links to things about The Discourse:tm: called such so. that’s my guess and it really takes heavily away from this as a whole.

this, while a fully correct statement, doesn’t sit right with me after following everything else because again, *every* trans person is viewed as a woman and not-woman because “woman” is the patriarchal binary world’s Gender Of Bad (but being a normal cis woman is just the Right Way to be the Bad Gender) but what we certainly cannot ever be is what we really are. that’s the only reason this whole argument is even happening and it’s stupid. we read “woman” as meaning “oppressed gender” because historically and widely that’s what’s true. and there’s only two choices so it slips right by us. we NEED to be aware that that isn’t true. women are oppressed for being women but that does not mean that only women are oppressed for their gender, because that idea is fundamentally based on the structure of only two genders. decouple the association. there are more genders and expressions than you could dream of and that means you gotta dig it out from the ROOTS.

like just think about it even practically for two seconds. feminist/gender oppression history in a very simple sense. yeah people passed sometimes but hormones are a last century invention and not everybody can get those. world ruled by cis men who think women are the scum of the earth. then a “man” says she’s a woman. they don’t like that. where does she go? to the other women for support (i.e. feminist spaces). makes sense. then a “woman” says he’s a man. they don’t like that. where does he go? to the women for support. it’s not something that’s separate.

what happens after that fact can vary, since as we all know feminist spaces are certainly not uniformly inclusive and friendly to trans people and a group of cis women is not primed to just accept a trans woman into their ranks like this example. but i don’t wanna get super into that here because this isn’t specifically about radfems. my point is that the only way really to actually benefit from gender in this world is to be a cis man. full stop. the fight for gender equality has always belonged to cis women and all trans people together and im really sick of this weird idea that including trans women in that, for one, is new, and for two, has to mean shunting trans men out. bullshit, helping no one but the republicans, historically inaccurate, kills solidarity.

overall like i said this had a lot of good stuff to say about the study (although i question calling 16,000 a large study when it’s spread over that many countries ? but that’s beside the point, it’s still significant, that’s more just my scientific curiosity about the methodology) but i just don’t understand the necessity of saying things like this, especially the ones that just completely devalue the oppression trans men face because , ESPECIALLY when in the same article there’s a whole bit about how people tend to do that to another queer group, how people often disregard queer women’s oppression because of the quieter and more disregarding nature it can take compared to queer men’s oppression:

THIS to me resonates with how ive been perceived in my life as a trans man (and prior and transitioning etc) and not just because i was seen as a woman, though perpetrators might have. a “woman” wanting to be a man is not something to take seriously, it IS something of ridicule that should be fixed by showing him “her rightful place” as a subservient woman. honest to christ i keep saying it why do people think that trans men are somehow entirely immune to being treated like women. every single thing that can happen to a cis woman can happen to a trans man for the exact same reasons.

and NONNNEEE of that means it’s not also true for trans women. it is! he’s absolutely right trans women have unique and brutal oppression stemming from their position as trans women in a transmisogynistic society! there is just never any reason to frame it as if trans men are making shit up like “SEEEE TRANS WOMEN HAVE IT SO SHITTY MORE THAN THEM THOSE TRANS MEN OVER THERE” like please please please be vocal about trans women without putting down trans men there is NO REASON TO DO THAT. it’s less than useless, it’s actively harmful to trans solidarity, and because now that’s what your post is about, man (@ the author of linked post not op) it’s not about raising awareness for trans women anymore it’s about proving somebody’s suffering more than somebody else who is also suffering and that just sucks ass. does not, MUST not, be a competition for us to succeed in liberating ourselves.

omg did not expect to see “we have mainstream research evidence for transmisogyny now” this morning but happy friday?? thanks dr. devon price for pre-digesting it

and of course there’s the angle of, well lmfao yes trans women have been saying this in mainstream print since at least 2007 and doubtlessly in other fora for much longer, but sometimes an argument from authority has more force and how do we emotionally reckon with ongoing lack of agency in conversations about us, but i digressss

[carylmeanslove]

Luke's Floral Message

I had some requests to do a floral meaning for Nicola's Harper's Bazaar Woman of the year photo and I do intend on doing that one soon. I have been quite busy in RL so haven't been in the right head space. I do believe I am coming out of that now and will be able to get to doing that analysis soon.

This one is a quick and easier one seeing as it's one flower. Luke is holding two light pink shades of roses in his People's Sexiest Man Alive 2024 issue photoshoot.

I for some reason am not able to highlight right now. Agh! So I will add the portions that apply below the screen capture.

Joy

✅ Joy and Happiness makes sense for Luke. I mean we can see how he is whenever he is with Nicola. In the 'This or That' that comes along with this article spread he is smiling and looks happy. So that is a yes.

✅ The beginning of a new relationship. I take that to mean a new commitment level in an established relationship. One of the further meanings backs that up. More on that one in a bit.

Tenderness

✅ A love that is tender and enduring. The way Luke always describes Nicola shows how Tender she is to him and he is to her. It's also lasting and enduring. Through all the baseless rumors of them beefing these two never gave up on each other. Nicola stood up for him multiple times and they both still showed they were in contact throughout the time of the rumored "beefing" period. Reminder to people, online interaction isn't the be all and end all of relationships. Nicola and Luke have proved in the past that they talk/text on the phone (Luke was so wanting to say they talk everyday even, but Nicola had to backtrack on that les the cat be let out of the bag about their relationship) and they hang out (They went to the play A Streetcar Named Desire and Hamilton together. She also went to his play The Shape of Things opening night then out to eat afterwards. We also got evidence of her being at his place for the Cinnamon Roll social.) Point is they are part of each other's lives outside of Bridgerton. People who want to not believe that then they are being willfully blind. All that to say that their relationship is enduring and lasting. No loud minority of fans can or will change that. No adjacents (agh I hate that word too) that they very highly likely hired to help them have privacy during a very life-changing time can or will change what they have.

✅ Suitable for long-term relationships. See long-term relationships. Luke and Nicola have known each other for 5 years. Due to some crumbs that Nicola and Luke have been giving us. They are most likely in a very serious, long term committed relationship now.

Femininty

✅ Gentleness. I wonder if Nicola helped him pick out the flower he used in this photo? She has been using flowers a lot lately in sending messages. She is very gentle to him. But he is gentle to her as well.

✅ Love. Biggest duh ever right? They love each other. Our in love pair.

New Beginnings

✅ New beginnings. Yep, their commitment rose to a new level. Deeper commitment.

✅ Purity and Innocence. They have a healthy relationship. A good and wholesome beginning. I truly believe friends to lovers is the most healthy, pure and Innocent beginning for any romantic relationship.

✅ Emotional Interest. Has anyone seen this boy looking at Nicola? He is definitely emotionally interested in her.

I'm manifesting a Nicola photoshoot by Rachell Smith and an article that will go hand and hand with this one. That it will give some more clarity. Much needed for a certain portion of this fandom.

Anyway...there you go. I thank Luke for taking a leaf from his wife's book and sending us these messages in the language of flowers. As well as all the delicious bread crumbs throughout the whole article spread, photoshoot and videos. We love you Luke! Tell Nic Hi for us and that we love her too.

[cookinguptales]

I was trying to learn more about Japan's parapsychology craze in the 80s and 90s and was having a surprisingly difficult time finding good sources on Google. So I kept trying different search terms and finally this comes up

cia??? freedom of information act???

Anyway!! I clicked on it and the page is "down for maintenance" and I have never been more consumed with curiosity lmao.

I had no idea that Google would search through FOIA documents...

[queendumpling]

have been just reading a bunch of interesting articles and written pieces about this and I like this one from a diasporic Taiwanese-American:

Tianshu evokes that feeling of loss—of something missing, of a flaw that spoils the whole. The work affirmed my diasporic position of standing outside and looking in, of being denied access to something that was familiar but just out of reach. It challenged what had always felt to me like a binary definition of identity: Either you are Taiwanese or you are not, with language being the litmus test I would never pass. Tianshu opened up the possibility of a third space for someone like me who was neither an insider nor a foreigner, but in between.

also from a compilation of articles written on tianshu, a researcher identified 2 characters from tianshu as real characters from a chinese dictionary, but very obscure and obsolete, but one of those characters has been also traced to have been created back in the 9th century and was not given a meaning. so there's like an unintentional double layer of a real character that still has no meaning

book from the sky (tianshu) xu bing, 1989-91

I was so excited to see a copy of this in real life bc it's something I studied in art history. this is a book that was typeset and printed by hand using wooden blocks but every one of the characters was invented for the sake of the piece and does not correspond to any word in the Chinese language

[red-moon-at-night]

Etruscan mirrors are so bloody interesting like... What do you mean Hermes carried the egg with Helen in it from the underworld to Castor/Pollux/Leda/Tyndareus/all of them??

What do you mean sometimes they're pointing down to the ground and sometimes the ground is actually depicted as the ocean??? You're saying that the egg was LAID in the underworld and not up here???? The implication being yet again that Nemesis is the mother in these scenarios.

Carpino, Alexandra (1996) "The Delivery of Helen's Egg: An Examination of an Etruscan Relief Mirror," Etruscan Studies: Vol. 3 , Article 2.

Literally knowing of death before her life has begun.

[wrenhavenriver]

[tame-a-messenger]

Hi there :) I just wanted to appreciate you for creating this blog, I adore Damien & Angela’s dynamic so much :D

Smoshtwt isn’t too fond of Damangela, ’cause a lot of them seem to think all of us ship them romantically (it seems like most of us just enjoy their fun & teasing dynamic!), so being over here is just a lot more fun with less drama!

Anyway, it looks like today’s Games video is gonna be a TNTL Trivial Pursuit - hoping for Damangela!!

- 🐦‍🔥

Thanks💖 I'm happy you like my blog! :D

Smoshtwt can be something else I tell ya. If it was all shipping they are still so aggressive for no reason. I try to stay out of it as much as I can.

(I'm a longtime fandoms lurker. There's a lot of new blood all the sudden trying to change things up, I will not sway and buckle because they think it's 'cringe'. Like I know it's cringe?? I just don't care. It brings me joy)(the word "fan" literally comes from "fanatic" and you're telling me I shouldn't be excited about my cuties™?? be quiet.)

TNTL TRIVIAL PURSUIT!!!! I wonder who it will be today!! (as always, hoping for 🕯️🕯️🕯️Damangela🕯️🕯️🕯���)

[historitor-bookshelf]

To translate the article as a whole with some choice comments by yours truly (and the whiny bitch doubled down after being "forced" to delete his tweet):

Cologne CDU-Politician questions women suffrage

Picture: A young woman puts a note into a ballot box (symbolic picture): CDU-Politician Gundolf Siebeke questioned suffrage for women

Cologne CDU-politician Gundolf Siebeke put women's suffrage up for debate on "X". The Reason: Robert Habeck.

In a thread from November 9th 2024* (by now deleted) Cologne CDU-Politician Gundolf Siebeke reacted to the video of Minister of Economy Robert Habeck (Green Party), in which he announced his candidacy for chancellor. Siebeke wrote: "Should it be that women's vote*1 lift Robert H. up to chancellory and Germany with that over the cliff*2, one has to consider women's suffrage inofficially and anti-emotional democracy officially....".

Post on X inserted here, dated to November 13th:

After my post from November 9th about the contentless, purely emotional video by Robert Habeck until now has beeen hundreds of times intentionally misinterpretated and instrumentalised, I have now deleted it. When a political Mob smells blood they are unstoppable. The Worst Teustscher*3 Charaktere I will not give a base.

It's exactly about not damaging women's suffrage as an achievement of our democracy. Buit exactly that Robert Habeck does that by instrumentalising women without political content and by reducing them to their emotions. He suggests emotional closeness to women especially, to create an emotional connection. This is mysoginistic and antidemocratic!

Habeck opened Pandora's box. If Germany votes in an emotional agitator in 10 or 20 years, so one has to confirm that Habeck allowed the entry of such antidemocratic methods.

Cologne Greens show outrage

The post caused a wave of outrage. The Greens in Cologne are shocked: "Gundolf Siebeke, member of Cologne CDU, questions women suffrage and denies women's ability to judge" the Green Party writes on facebook.

The Green Party demands, that the CDU in Cologne distances themselves from the mysoginistic exclamations. On inquiry by t-online, Bastian Ebel, managing director (?) of the CDU Cologne, declares he does not want to comment on "the lonely opinion of a member".

The Bundesvorsitzende of the Green Party, Ricarda Lang, reacts to the post of the Cologne CDU-politicians. On "X" she wrote: "Small tip to this CDU-member: If you'd like to inofficially do away with women's suffrage, I woudn't post it on Twitter*4."

*November 9th is an... interesting day to post this in the first place. There are three November 9ths that are important in the past 106 years: The proclamation of what would later be known as the Weimarer Republik in 1918 (twice, technically), the Reichsprogromnacht 1938 which was a progrom against Jewish life in Germany and the result of hate campaigns stretching back years at that point and the fall of the wall in 1989. Usually, while not officially marked as a "holiday" it is still commonly a day of rememberance, of both the Holocaust's victims and the victims of the seperation of Germany.

Oh, what might be interesting to know: Women's suffrage in Germany? First declared by the Rat der Volksbeauftragten (Council of the People's delegates (?), who were semi-offical-kinda-official the head honchos after the proclamation on November 12th 1918.

*1 Frauenstimmen: While I like to assume that it's women's vote in this context, it also can means women's voices. Just as an added interested point. Means nothing of course, I'm just a silly emotional girl here.

*2 as in: an then to kick it down the cliff onto the rocks beneath

*3 Might be a typo, and would mean deutsche or Auto-correct fucked him up considering it is also a surname. I don't think so. You see, "Teutsch" is a very old form of writing "deutsch", e.g. German. Grimm's Dictionary from the 19th century still lists both writings, with essentially the same meaning. You know, the good old times!

*4 Yes, she deadnames Twitter.

fellow germans, i don't know what to say anymore, was ist denn hier los

[ace-and-ranty]

Looking a bit more into the Dinaledi story, looks like the team excavating the site is vehemently defending that Homo Naledi did ritualistic burials, and it's a big deal because it challenges the idea of "human exceptionalism" and I understand that that's a big sticking point for Religious ReasonsTM, but oh my God, I personally find the idea so so so so ssssoooo stupid

Like, who CARES if humans aren't the only ones to do X? Or do Y? Who cares if humans are not nature's most special-est little guys? I can't imagine being so invested in wanting humans to be UNIQUE(TM). I for one would fucking love if we had evolved on a planet where we weren't the only fully sentient species. Can you imagine the kind of comparative studies we could do if there was even one other species as intelligent as us??

[gaytobymeres]

i think the point of a university-level education is a bit lost on some of my course mates...

[oflgtfol]

watching the hbomberguy video about plagiarism and hes discussing man in cave. as a certified cave enthusiast, and a certified cave disaster enthusiast, which was kickstarted by floyd collins videos, and particularly by the mental floss article, i must say. i had seen man in cave when it was first uploaded and i did think it was mid at the time i juts didnt realize it was plagiarized that badly. i have watched so many fucking floyd collins videos at this point that they kind of blend together so i thought the script being boring and done-before was because of that, not because it was a word for word copy of the mental floss article. lmfao.

[cyrsed]

just learned the last lighthouse keeper in the US retired december 31st 2023, and she (sally snowman) was the only female lighthouse keeper of the boston light lighthouse. the article is also about female lighthouse keepers in general and it's very interesting!

The light itself has long been mechanized, but the original 1859 Fresnel lens is still in place. Unsurprisingly, cleaning it requires a herculean effort. “It’s my meditation,” Snowman said. Standing nine feet tall, and with 336 prisms, it’s so precious that she must remove any clothing with buttons to avoid chipping it. Over four hours, she and her husband swab the lens with lint-free cloths dipped in a mixture of distilled water and white vinegar. “I feel like I’m a part of something bigger than me,” she added, “that there’s something universal about this glass that came from Finland, from a beach over in France, that made this gorgeous lens—that I get to clean.” What she loves most of all, she says, is to go up to the gear room. On a clear June day, at about 5:00 p.m., “when the sun is at a certain angle, it cuts through the glass,” she said. “Down below, in the shadow, is a rainbow. I love to stand so, as it turns, as the light is turning, the rainbow flashes across me. I call it being rainbowed.”

[rotzaprachim]

minx is interesting. It’s interesting and it’s interested in things in a way that I find a lot of current media about feminism not to be. There’s an active interest into poking into some of the uncomfortable areas without simple conclusions when it comes to how feminism should relate to sex and the market/capitalism.

also really appreciate the unapologetic 70’s ness and the use of 70’s events, catchwords, buzz etc in a way that doesn’t always feel tee hee

[ikjun]

idk if it’s interesting for anyone but the reason the hybe sm deal goes through with little economical fanfare is bc the fair trade laws surrounding big conglomerates like this are fairly weak sauce and what hybe (and kakao if they would have gotten the deal) is doing is basically just. buying off the market 101 in a chaebol-enforced economical makeup to keep kakao from creating their own bigger monopoly over the tech and entertainment sector. hybe is not yet in the process of aggressively and actively creating a monopoly, but they are creating an environment in the kpop industry that makes them the sole provider of artists / artistic labour etc. hybe buying into yg’s subsidiary shares and now making the deal with sm on behalf of lsm doesn’t make them seem like they’re forming an actual hostile monopoly bc they are moving through subsidiaries and ‘only’ acquiring shares in these companies through mutual agreement (lol) rather than downright buying them off. though we all know that is their end goal, especially when it comes to being the sole provider of kpop globally. sm basically handed the board to hybe while chris lee wanted kakao to have it. you pick your poison i guess … but it will still be poison.

[bybdolan]

taylor fan brain rot is reading an article about the sexualization of young female celebs in the 2000s and immediately knowing that the very wise writer shaming that behavior is the woman who wrote Taylor's 2009 Rolling Stone cover story.

[red-moon-at-night]

Excerpts from Nuptial Eros: The Visual Discourse of Marriage in Classical Athens, Robert F. Sutton, Jr., The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, Vol. 55/56 (1997/1998), pp. 27-48 :