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supertrainstationh · 1 year ago

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Disaffinity - Betrayal and Gaslighting of a Fandom

[This piece discusses severe subject matter and is intended for mature audiences]

[If you are looking the intro/news post to my blog that I usually have pinned, PLEASE FIND IT HERE]

Decisions and actions by administration of Furaffinity.net in the Spring of 2023 demonstrate to me that any display of respect toward their users and artists is either performative in nature, or else is temporary, conditional, and based on arbitrary whims and moment-to-moment perceptions of utility rather than loyalty or trust.

Even from my perspective as a family-friendly creator with a negligible following and minimal visibility within Furaffinity, the furry fandom in general, and the wider internet beyond, I am vividly aware of how much it can hurt a creator when the nature and intention of their work is deliberately disrespected by those making misguided judgments and morality-driven accusations of misconduct.

"Disrespect" is a word I use only after careful consideration, but when the morality and acceptability of creators and works that for years were welcomed, encouraged, and even financially patronized by certain Furaffinity administrators abruptly become the subject of an officially sanctioned decency crusade in which those same creators are being faced with expulsion from the site, and slapped with a most severe accusation, that of producing inappropriate images of children, even when the images in question literally do not depict children or underage characters of any reasonable description - "disrespect" sums it up as well as any single word possibly can.

In response to this disrespect, some users and observers involved with the issue have made statements to the effect of "Furaffinity hates its artists."

While my natural reflex is to encourage those frustrated with the situation to dial back such an obviously hyperbolic reaction, upon further consideration, I find it difficult to determine if it could be possible for a person or organization to make implicit public accusations against people of, in essence, creating a form of child pornography, without also saying that they do in fact hate those they are accusing.

If it were possible to accuse someone of creating child pornography, but somehow do so without hating them, perhaps that should call into question the mental state and motivations of the persons or parties casting the accusations.

Deepening the disrespect by Furaffinity toward its own users is the gaslighting practice demonstrated by site staff in making official statements to pacify concerns about the nature and scope of the revised enforcement policy, when details of those statements had already been proven not to be true by specific records of moderation actions which have already taken place, or have been officially threatened to be carried out.

Furthermore, Furaffinity is overtly insulting the intelligence of its users by claiming that this revised policy merely enforces rules that had already been in place for years, and then attempting to establish that the artists impacted by this policy change had been using loopholes to circumvent the official rules of the site all along, and are not being targeted or picked on, but being held accountable for ongoing rule-breaking which was both conscious, and intentional.

It's like a town changing the posted speed limit on a certain highway from 60 miles per hour, to 40 miles per hour, and responding to complaints from ticketed drivers by claiming that the speed limit had always been 40 miles per hour, and that everyone who had previously been driving at 60 miles per hour were habitual dangerous drivers who were now facing the consequences of their deliberate misbehavior.

It's quite rotten that Furaffinity, a keystone website serving a community of people who are already outcasts and misfits in various ways, would spend above and beyond a decade to build up the trust of its users that it was a space where they were not only safe to be themselves, but safe to attempt to make a living on their talent, only to then abruptly accuse their members of having produced egregiously inappropriate content featuring the sexual depiction of children.

This is especially so when the content in question consists of cartoon drawings featuring non-human creatures, and the characters themselves can by no sensible stretch of the imagination be interpreted as representations of children, or people under the age of majority, either mentally or physically.

To be absolutely clear, I am not speaking in defense of artists who draw and publish inappropriate images of child characters, and I am also not claiming that such images are not reasonably objectionable.

What I am speaking in defense of are the significant number of artists on Furaffinity are who being accused by site staff of drawing inappropriate images of children, when the characters they are depicting are literally not children within the context of their artistic designs, fictional lifestyles, and fictional settings.

Furaffinity's definition of what constitutes a "child character" for the purposes of this crackdown have been expanded in a manner so vast and meaningless that a depicted character's chronological age, intellectual maturity, and physical appearance no longer count as valid proof of adulthood, and one might go as far as to joke that even a drawing of that fictional character's imaginary driver's license and birth certificate wouldn't count either.

When explanations of this enforcement policy (as of my writing this) mention that assessments to determine if a drawing of a fictional character or species may count as an inappropriate image of a child will, as a matter of procedure, disregard the creator's intentions, as well disregard any information the creator or other source of material can provide regarding the history or physiology related to that imaginary character or species, there's genuinely nothing that could possibly be assessed other than whether or not a moderator decides they're personally offended by a particular piece, character, or art style.

Official communications surrounding this revised policy state that its goal is to make the site's content guideline enforcement robust against situations resembling a specifically cited hypothetical opportunity for abuse in which an artist might publish art of a character that clearly appears to be an inappropriately dressed or provocatively behaving humanoid child, while insisting that the character is actually a millennia-old supernatural being that doesn't physically age, and using this excuse as a chintzy moral justification to circumvent the rules against artwork of child characters in sexual situations.

This hypothetical extreme example provided by Furaffinity would be an obvious bad faith misrepresentation by the creator of their intentions for the character, and would not be accepted by any reasonable person assessing that particular case.

However, the use of that hypothetical case as the foundation for establishing as standard practice the rejection the context provided by creator intent, fictional setting, and the character's backstory, in examining if a character is a depiction of an adult or a child, and instead assuming nefarious intent based on the style of the artist and subjective "cuteness" or "off-modelness" of the character, demonstrates a refusal to employ elementary human capabilities of judgment and comprehension.

Creating and depicting lively worlds filled with imaginary sapient beings of all shapes and sizes, populating those worlds with compelling characters, and exploring the stories of their lives, which may or may not include sexual aspects, and having the freedom to do all of this without fear of punishment or rejection on the basis of what someone else may arbitrarily decide is abnormal or offensive, is what allowed this fandom, and Furaffinity in particular, to survive and grow in spite of many difficulties and controversies, including organized opposition from people outside the fandom who are angry that it merely exists at all.

My own published creations are entirely appropriate for all ages, and I particularly enjoy creating things that I would have been able to enjoy as a small child, and therefore I have nothing at stake in terms of my creativity being limited by these latest policy revisions on Furaffinity.

What drives me to write in response to this situation is not a desire to defend the production and display of inappropriate drawings of children, which should have never been permitted on Furaffinity in the first place (though at one point it incredibly actually was, and remained so for an extended period of its history), but to protest the sheer injustice and betrayal faced by so many creators who trusted Furaffinity as a place they could be themselves, only to suddenly be discarded like this.

The overwhelming majority of the people affected by these policy changes have always been (and rightfully so) vocally opposed to the creation and display of inappropriate images of children, and in spite of finding such images disgusting, suddenly find themselves being accused by officialdom within Furaffinity of producing exactly that.

For what little art I've created myself, I've faced a small amount of my work suffering from accusations by people outside the furry fandom of containing harmful or morally questionably intent, while refusing to listen to me or attempt to understand what I was making, or what I intended to convey with my creations. These accusations hurt me tremendously, and still irritate me, although years have passed.

Even with that experience, I can't guess how I'd begin to process suddenly having the foundation of my presence within the furry fandom pulled out from under me, if it without warning became an official position of a major website at the forefront of the community, that works I produced without any sort of evil intentions have been redefined by site policy as constituting inappropriate images of children, when the images in question literally do not depict childhood-age characters at all.

Pouring salt on the wound is the absolute nature of this dictate, with it being declared final and infallible, regardless of the sexual maturity, age, and fictional history of the characters in the artwork being judged, a standard which renders the actual work in question an invalid source in considering the nature and intention of the work itself.

It is akin to saying that the addends in an arithmetic expression are invalid for the purpose of reasoning the correct sum of those addends.

Even in consideration of concepts such as Roland Barthes's "The Death of the Author", no legitimate form of argument or analysis of a creative work demands that the work itself be rejected as a valid source from which to formulate an explication of that work.

It's quite incredible that Furaffinity, which describes itself as an art site, would take such a stance.

This model of assessment could be used to define the character Rocko Rama the wallaby from the animated television show "Rocko's Modern Life" to be a child, even though that character's premise fundamentally depends upon Rocko being an adult homeowner with a driver's license and a job, or to define the character Noelle Holiday the reindeer monster from the video game "Deltarune" to be an adult, even though that character's premise fundamentally depends upon Noelle being a young teenager who lives with her parents and attends high school.

I've both heard of and have been friends with several wonderful people who have endured hideous sexual abuse during childhood.

Only much later in life did they discover adults-only spaces within the furry fandom as some of their first encounters with the idea of sexuality as something with the potential to be positive or healthy, which they then explored through creativity within the fandom, and for some, that included the crafting of adults-only work depicting consenting adult characters, and some of which they actually had the courage to share on sites such as Furaffinity, a place they felt they could trust the leadership to respect and welcome them, and take reasonable steps to shield them from negative treatment for their interests and tastes.

Given the extent that people within the furry fandom tend to identify with the characters they create, and use them as avatars for themselves, I can't begin to imagine what it would be like to have endured sexual abuse as a child, and later as an adult begin to explore sexuality in a way felt to be safe, through making adults-only art of an imaginary being representing themselves, art that they may have been sharing for years on Furaffinity, only to suddenly receive official warning that artwork of their avatar, which represents a fantastic version of their own adult self, has been without warning declared by the website to constitute an inappropriate sexual depiction of a child, and in essence that their own artwork of themselves has been redefined as a form of child pornography.

All of this, because the moderator viewing their art, and judging the art style and proportions of an artist's personal avatar, disapproves of the character's height, head shape, clothing, lack of clothing, leg shape, being too cartoony, being too realistic, being "too cute", having the wrong coloring and shading style, or other arbitrary and frequently contradictory explanations that have been given for many characters of wildly varying size, shape, and attributes, and based on that, officially re-categorizes that character to now define a depiction of a child.

With concerns over adult characters being depicted in "cartoon-like", "excessively cute", or "off-model" art styles being frequently cited as the reasoning for which non-child characters are suddenly being declared by site staff as "sexual depictions of children", I really have to wonder where my own art would stand in this situation.

I do not create adults-only art of any kind, but what art I have created and shared with the furry fandom over the years is limited by a fine-motor disability I have received services for since childhood, in addition to services for autism spectrum disorder.

My handwriting and artistic capabilities always have, and always will, be extremely limited.

Handwriting and drawing come with difficulty, and the results are stunted in quality to the point where art and language teachers as early as first grade were complaining about the lack of detail and "effort" put into my best work.

Art and writing projects took me many times longer than a non-disabled student to attempt, resulting in me spending most of many lunch and recess periods in detention for failing to finish coloring and math classwork on time, in spite of giving the projects my full and undivided attention.

I created a unique species of worm-like creatures specifically to serve as something I could draw using my limited abilities, and every single digital piece I created with these worm characters took me hours of work in a program like Photoshop for a result that others tend to think I effortlessly scribbled together in Microsoft Paint in a matter of seconds.

With my self-invented race of imaginary cartoon worms, I've explored many subjects and themes, including concepts I can only relate to with the perspective I've gained as an adult.

These themes include frustration with debt, and even affectionate encounters between worm characters, with the last of those themes being presented in such a chaste and tasteful manner that I'm sure my childhood Sunday school teacher would have been charmed by it.

The thought of these ultra flat, ultra simplistic cartoon worms of mine being depicted in any sexual situation strikes me as profoundly absurd.

But now, I find it interesting to think of the peril I would be in now on Furaffinity, if, hypothetically, I had decided to use my Doorworms (which I have already used to reflect my non-sexual experiences as an autistic adult) to also explore thoughts or feelings regarding sexuality, as many others within the furry fandom had in the past using their own invented creature characters, back when there was little risk to be seen in doing so.

I created Doorworms to be able to drawn within the limits of my own motor deficits by using simple body shapes and exaggerated facial expressions that autistic people tend to easily relate to, or find appealing.

So would this make my Doorworms, a direct result of my abilities, disabilities, and neurodivergent life experience, a species that would run me afoul of Furaffinity's new acceptable use policies, were I to have chosen in the past to depict Doorworms engaged in sexual activity?

From what research I've done regarding how these policies have been projected to be enforced so far, some characters with typical seeming adult human body proportions have been classified by site staff as inappropriate images of children.

Even if one moderator were to deem my Doorworms acceptable in an adults-only context, there's no reason to expect other moderators would be so permissive, given the extreme variations in what has and hasn't been deemed compliant since the changes were announced.

The incongruent reasoning in moderator decisions is so extreme that one user has claimed that a moderator on Furaffinity went so far as to declare that a reported case of drawings of anthropomorphic child characters being physically abused in a non-sexual manner by adults was acceptable on the basis that the children were being depicted as not enjoying the experience.

Wasn't this all supposed to be about discouraging imagery that exploits the theme of child abuse for entertainment purposes?

To intentionally repeat myself, I say with confidence that Doorworms would eventually be considered forbidden in adults-only material on Furaffinity because official judgments that a character is a child have already been made on that site based entirely on the character being "overly cute", and ignoring the character's physical age, physical maturity, and mental maturity, which are all the defining factors that differentiate adulthood from childhood in any reasonable situation.

Instead, these decisions are being based entirely on assertions that the character's clothing, or their lack of clothing, the shape and size of their eyes, or that a "cartoon like" art style in terms of design, coloration, or line work, any of which can define the character as being an indisputable depiction of a child in an adults-only situation, and inappropriate for display on the site due to being a form of child pornography.

If an imaginary being that in our world would be of similar size and shape to a typical adult human, and would have the body type, mental acuity, and physical maturity, of an adult, and could be expected to be capable of operating an automobile, opening a bank account, or being employed, can in spite of all of this be determined by Furaffinity moderation to count as a "child", there's no possible way I could hope for my own Doorworms, which due to my fine motor disability were created to be as crude and simplistic in style as an artistic depiction of an intelligent imaginary creature could possibly be, to somehow escape eventual judgment from a Furaffinity moderator of counting as inappropriate images of children, if I had decided to explore themes of sexuality using my Doorworms, and posted them to that site.

Feeling reasonable in my prediction of how the preceding hypothetical scenario would be eventually assessed by site staff in this present situation, I'd have to wonder then, if that would mean that artistic expressions of sexuality through imaginary creatures within the furry fandom were, after all, only a privilege for those fortunate enough to lack impairments like mine which restrict their artistic capabilities to those akin to someone only barely learning to hold a pencil, resulting in a style one might perceive as reflecting "emphasized cuteness", or even accuse of being deliberately "child-like" as though to appeal to an indecent and predatory predilection.

Do my limited motor skills and inability to create more sophisticated, realistic, and human-like character designs, invalidate the legitimacy of my right as an adult to use what little artistic capability I have to explore themes that might mirror sexual aspects of my own adulthood?

If that were the case, it would certainly reflect the ongoing struggles many disabled people face in having their adulthood, including their sexuality, respected as valid by non-disabled people who, consciously or not, may view other's impairments, difficulties, or requirements for additional assistance or patience, as placing them in a permanent state of partial childhood, in which the thought of those same people possessing ordinary adult human attributes such as sexuality seems distasteful.

Luckily for myself, the thought experiment as to if my Doorworms would be tolerated in an adults-only context on the Furaffinity of Spring 2023 will never need to be explored in practice, as I regard Doorworms as an intensely non-sexual creation, and would never create or publish adults-only art of any kind, in any context, anyway.

However I do have concern for others like me. My concern is for adults who may have somewhat limited capacity to depict sophisticated or realistic art styles for their creatures, or who draw cartoon creatures with bright clothing and body coloration, and render faces with exaggerated, "cute", simple-to-read design language and facial expressions, as neurodiverse people often do and find appealing.

These are people who were baited by Furaffinity into feeling safe in exploring the expression of sexual themes through creating artwork of physically and emotionally mature imaginary creatures representing themselves, only to be stabbed in the back when their adult-themed work is suddenly judged by Furaffinity as a gallery of inappropriate images of children, regardless of anything those creators have to say about it.

Any creators on Furaffinity whose existing body of work is now threatened by these policy changes are now, if they dare to argue in their own defense, are facing instantaneous dismissal by Furaffinity administration as bad actors who are making excuses for their extensive histories of disrupting and abusing the site and its community by exploiting it to publish inappropriate images of children, a status which marks any argument they could possibly come up with to be inherently invalid for consideration.

What makes this more insulting still is that in spite of the fact that many of these Furaffinity-based artists have not only always been vocally opposed to the sexual depiction of childhood age anthropomorphic characters, but now find that some of the only furry-dedicated websites they can consider as alternatives to display their artwork are smaller sites with sometimes dubious standings within the furry fandom that flourished by serving as havens for those who wished to to draw adults-only artwork of child characters after Furaffinity forbade such images.

If this new policy on Fuaffinity that redefines which characters are considered appropriate for depiction in sexual situations were a simple matter of forbidding creatures from children's franchises such as Pokemon, Digimon, or My Little Pony to be featured; as inconvenient and unpopular as a decision as that would be for some, and in spite of all the backlash I know I would face for stating such an opinion, I wouldn't have placed blame on Furaffinity for doing so.

However, that is not at all what is actually taking place.

I find it incredibly ironic that I am writing this, because not only do I have no financial or recreational interest in creating and sharing adults-only works within or beyond the furry fandom, but for years I have dealt with backlash from other furries for suggesting that the furry fandom's famous and infamous sex-positive nature might, in some aspects, have made itself into an unhealthy excess of what in reasonable moderation could be a good thing.

Over the years myself and others within the furry fandom have been publicly accused of "sex-negativity" merely for discussing the potential for strictly PG, all-ages options for conventions, art sites, and online social spaces, and I've been called a "fake furry" for not only failing to put my sex life on public display, but failing to establish it as the defining characteristic of my online presence.

Sometimes I've even seen expressions of interest in family-friendly spaces within the furry fandom be derided as veiled attempts to promote bigotry toward non-straight people.

I find this attitude ironic given that I'm sure many of these same people are the sort that get outspokenly offended when mainstream media coverage depicts the furry fandom as an insidious subculture of sex-obsessed maniacs that use cartoon animal imagery to attract minors.

Even polite requests for obviously fetish-driven artwork to be appropriately labeled as such and placed in its defined categories to reduce the chance of it being viewed by those who don't want to view it, or who should not be allowed to view it, face routine backlash, which has included publicly published personal statements that have been made by Furaffinity administrators accusing others of being judgmental.

I've also seen this behavior take the form of resistance from furries, who for example, might insist that a drawing of two characters engaged in foot fetish activity that any reasonably informed person can assess to be sexually motivated, can not possibly be considered mature content.

In this example, the claim that the image in question was perfectly acceptable general-audience content was made on the basis that both of the characters, though blushing, and obviously aroused, were fully clothed, and that therefore anyone who dares suggest that such an image might not be appropriate in all contexts and for all audiences fails to understand the "true spirit" of the furry fandom, because the paws of cartoon animals represent joy, freedom, and innocence, or something to that effect.

Though I could go on with a number of more extreme examples than that, both on Furaffinity, and elsewhere, which I have witnessed personally, my real point of interest here is the extent to which I've seen it as routine that people within the furry fandom take personal insult to the idea that a racy, or even sexually explicit image, might be inappropriate in a general-audiences setting that isn't designated for such material.

It's very strange to me watching furries take offense to a request to tag a sexually implicit or explicit piece as not-safe-for-work (NSFW) and treat the concept of NSFW tagging as a judgmental statement on the morality of the particular piece, those who might enjoy it, and the piece's creator.

Maybe I feel strongly about this due to disability services I received to offset my social deficits, which included actual classes attempting to catch me up to speed on what is and isn't considered appropriate in different settings, and in which I was lead to take these boundaries very seriously.

I can't help but recognize the behavior I mentioned earlier from certain furries who lack ability to reasonably judge which subjects are appropriate for which settings and audiences as a form of impairment of its own.

I often wonder how much this phenomenon may have to do with people having growing up in the online furry fandom from a young age, routinely encountering inappropriate content and behavior, and ending up with an improperly developed sense that these boundaries should even exist.

For all its positives, the furry fandom is lousy with environments in which the boundaries between adults-only and family-friendly spaces are often very poorly delineated, or not defined at all.

In spite of its new hyper-vigilance against inappropriate artistic images of children, whether the pieces in question actually feature underage characters or not, Furaffinity itself is a prime example of the problem I'm pointing to, in which actual children are at reasonable risk of being exposed to inappropriate content.

Furaffinity presently allows children as young as thirteen years old to hold accounts.

However, the site itself would be blocked entirely by most reasonably robust parental control filters due it not only hosting adults-only content, but adults-only content of a sometimes extreme nature that even many furries find questionable, and that some furries acquiesce to being in the distant company of due to Furaffinity's near-monolithic status within the fandom, and difficulty some find to be "visible" or “discoverable” without the presence of having an account there.

Since I was a toddler, I was fascinated with animals, cartoon critters, mythological human-animal hybrids, aliens, monsters, human-to-creature metamorphosis, and other themes popular within the furry fandom.

I developed and explored these interests before I had even heard of the internet or the furry fandom, and when my household did get internet access, it was so long ago that my first order of business was dialing up a website via AOL 3.0 that provided coverage of the 1998 launch of the Sega Dreamcast.

It's an incredible advancement that the internet has allowed people who would have lived completely isolated in the recent past to form communities and bonds with those who have esoteric interests in common. In spite of all the drawbacks of the internet that could be discussed, the benefits of its emergence are not something I would want to go away, or be dampened or diminished.

At the same time, now that I am an adult approaching the age my parents were when they first set up an original model iMac equipped with a 56k modem in my bedroom, and left me largely unsupervised to use it freely, it's a bummer knowing that if I were a parent, and had a kid with interests similar to my own at that age, that I could never allow my cartoon, creature, and transformation obsessed child to freely partake in the furry fandom, and that I would have to exhibit so much oversight that I could only imagine it as overbearing and stifling.

And that goes particularly so for Furaffinity, arguably the largest site within the fandom, which allows thirteen year old children to join, in spite of it hosting extreme pornography in a setting where a considerable number of users happen to have a concerning difficulty in accurately determining for themselves whether or not sexually implicit fetish content, or even explicitly pornographic material, should be considered "safe-for-work" or not.

Even as strange posturing in the world of politics and public policy drags the furry fandom into the context of a greater "culture war" in which reactionaries are stoking unfounded animosity toward any culture or subculture even slightly alien to them, the furry fandom has enjoyed an unprecedented period of positive coverage from the mainstream media, who are for the first time willing to understand and explain to their viewers and readers that anthropomorphic art, media, and literature isn't a purely sexual, purely fetish-based, or purely adults-only field of interest.

Years back, even the most benign interview between a furry and the mainstream media could be expected to be twisted into a juicy novelty story about a surreal and shocking sexual underworld that was fixated upon kids-only subject matter. Today however, furries featured in such outsider material happily show off their non-adult artwork and fandom related experiences to outside reporters and film makers, and sometimes even discuss adults-only aspects with minimal judgment, at least from the interviewers themselves.

At the same time, in no other fandom or hobby have I been involved in have I found the need to routinely clarify to outsiders, or even insiders, that my mere mention of being connected to it isn't a declaration of my sexual interests, especially in situations where anything related to sex would (with reason) be unexpected, or inappropriate.

Even with the extent of anthropomorphic content and activities the furry fandom has to offer which are genuinely appropriate for all ages, and that without the context of the furry fandom might be likened to the works of Dr. Seuss or P.D. Eastman, there is a reason the furry scene is so closely linked in the popular consciousness with sexuality of a sometimes extreme nature, and no quantity of fundamentally dishonest attention-grabbing hatchet job exploitative news stories could have capitalized on that association without there being some kind of plausible basis for it.

With that having been said, my main criticism of Furaffinity its apparently desperate desire to enjoy the prestige and benefits of taking up an ambassadorial role at the forefront of the furry fandom as one of its largest and most popular websites, and doing so at a time when the fandom is still struggling to be seen as anything other than an untamed scene of sexual radicals residing entirely on the absolute fringes of society.

This alone would be fine, but Furaffinity also hosts a large of volume of not just adults-only content, but morally and sometimes legally questionable content, and has suffered repeated instances of publicly visible hypocritical standards and selective rule enforcement on behalf of site staff and volunteers.

Administrators currently or formerly attached to the site have been known to harbor and shield from criticism personalities seen among many within the furry community to be controversial, or even overtly objectionable.

Furaffinity does this while maintaining a paper-thin outward facade that's perpetually been a breath away from running afoul of the standards of payment processing companies and other bodies the site needs to appease in order to survive, which in the future could include actual lawmakers who are already setting their sights on punishing public schools for employing people known to be associated with the furry fandom in their personal lives.

If past and ongoing questionable and hypocritical conduct among Furaffinity's leadership was merely limited to a long ago incident in which an administrator banned a user from the site for discussing the adults-only aspect of the furry fandom on a daytime television talk show, while the same administrator who issued the ban was known to have funded the creation of custom-made publicly accessible adults-only furry artwork that was published on the very website they banned the user in question from accessing, I'd have no response other than to point and laugh at the irony.

But the sheer volume of obviously bad decisions, direct and indirect compliance in cover ups of alleged and suspected wrongdoing on behalf of certain users (some of which might have been worthy of professional criminal investigation), as well as the granting of privileged permission for continued and overt terms of service violations on behalf of popular or well-connected users, and more nonsense aside from this, all permeate Furaffinity's history and present.

As one of the largest websites in the furry fandom, which many fandom members depend on as the axis of their participation within it, this is not a disaster waiting to happen, its a disaster that's been happening for over a decade.

Furaffinity is an ongoing disaster which the furry fandom has been ingeniously and painstakingly deriving utility from, like squeezing water from a stone in the desert.

The tolerance for mediocrity and discordance from the website itself on behalf of its users, and ingenuity and cleverness from the same to make practical use of it, is made necessary by site's status as a monolithic burning cenotaph of a tower upon which more and more unstable floors are continuously and precariously added like Jenga blocks, while the rest of the surrounding city that is the furry fandom has been starving for wood and nails to build anything larger than a small shack.

As I write this, Furaffinity continues to harbor content of a far more severely ethically dubious nature than art of imaginary adult creature characters that are rendered with "emphasized cuteness" or "off-model body proportions" while being depicted having consensual sexual encounters.

Even if properly tagged and categorized adults-only content is concealed from view of the accounts of Furaffinity users that list their birth-date as indicating an age under that of legal adulthood, I as a parent wouldn't be okay letting my thirteen year old self, if Furaffinity had existed back then, have an account on that website; not when an artist can post something such as a drawing of two cartoon animals relishingly licking each other's feet, or urinating on themselves, and list it as appropriate for all ages based on the logic that the character's genitalia aren't exposed, and where site moderation is known to sometimes take months to respond to enforcing user-generated reports over such cases.

Some might say I'm attempting to instigate a moral panic against Furaffinity or even the furry fandom itself by mentioning these problems, but Furaffinity has done that on their own by starting a crusade against some of the least objectionable adults-only material on their site, while continuing to allow art which replicates real-world criminal acts of sexual violence against animals in a shockingly realistic manner that upon first glance can be mistaken for actual photographs when seen in their miniaturized preview size, all as it fails to address with satisfaction many basic systematic and administrative shortcomings like those I've mentioned above.

Stanley Cohen, who is credited with establishing the phrase, "moral panic", described it as when:

"A condition, episode, person, or group of persons, emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests. While the issues identified may be real, the claims exaggerate the seriousness, extent, typicality, and/or inevitability of harm."

I think Cohen's insistence that an irrational moral panic by definition does not exclude the possibility of a legitimate concern lying at its root to be an interesting one in this case.

In years past, Furaffinity was known to have permitted sexual artwork of imaginary creatures and humanoid animal characters that were explicitly presented and described by the artist as being children.

Even after policies forbidding such content were enacted on Furaffinity, it has been recorded that certain users whose adults-only artwork enjoyed particular popularity on the site, continued to, without consequence, post adults-only art featuring characters which on their Furaffinity listings were explained by the artists as being "short adults", while the same characters were openly described as being underage when posted on other websites that lacked rules forbidding underage characters in adults-only pieces.

The presence of artists who knowingly and intentionally present adults-only art of characters which are very obviously meant to represent children, and make bad faith claims that the characters are intended to be "short adults", or belong to an imaginary humanoid species which retains prepubescent physical attributes at an advanced age, is an actual problem.

However, this problem is not at all significant to the extent which the revised acceptable use policy on Furaffinity would suggest they are.

This is especially true when these revised rules, rather than target specific cases of actual misuse, instead redefine vast quantities of already existing material on the site to constitute alleged inappropriate child images, even if the images in question do not feature anything resembling a child or any other sexually immature imaginary creature or being.

To build on my analogy from earlier, this would be akin to a police department cracking down on illegal underground street racing circuits, not by hiring more officers to patrol particular highways known to be frequented by these unlawful racers, but by reducing the speed limit to a walking pace, and declaring that everyone operating their car at speeds that were formerly within the speed limit must have been participating in street racing gangs all along.

My understanding is that Furaffinity's former policy, which actually permitted sexually themed artwork of child characters, was changed in large part due to pressure from third parties such as advertising service providers, payment processing companies, and prospective investors or owners, which Furaffinity depended on for revenue to run the site, and who didn't want their businesses associated with such objectionable material.

In the case of the Spring 2023 rule changes however, I doubt that demands from third party businesses making ultimatums to Furaffinity as a condition for future transactions were the core cause of these specific policy updates.

I say this because I find it difficult to believe that a brand manager from a company such as Visa, American Express, or Pay Pal, in the course of preserving the good will and reputation of their company, would know of, care about, or even be able to comprehend the sorts of discussions this policy change has provoked.

These discussions often consist of esoteric debates over subjects such as if a magical transforming fox monster from a video game, or a computerized feline imp from a twenty-five year old Japanese cartoon, count as adult characters in the context of these imaginary creature's ability to undergo instantaneous supernatural transformations induced by elemental trinkets and magical phrases.

If it turned out third party demands were the underlying cause of these changes, I imagine the new policy was specifically formulated in such a manner that Furaffinity could sacrifice a calculated number of users in the course of presenting theatrical reforms that an uninformed outsider could perceive as bringing that site in alignment with higher standards and casting out significant numbers of alleged bad actors, while they remain ignorant of what's actually been going upon the site this entire time, which would likely drive them to abandon ship immediately.

The fact is, in spite of whatever strengthening of the moral fabric of Furaffinity that those at the helm of that site may think they are carrying out by cracking down on adults-only art featuring adult characters arbitrarily deemed to be "children" based on unpredictable and incongruent judgments of art style, Furaffinity remains to be a site that not only currently allows near-photorealistic computer generated artistic depictions of human beings sexually assaulting unintelligent, non-anthropomorphic animals that are obviously incapable of consent, but allows children as young as thirteen years old to hold accounts there.

It is akin to the captain of an airship inflated with explosive hydrogen gas ejecting passengers that were wearing wool sweaters for fear the sweaters could build up static electricity and spark a fire, but openly permitting the on-board smoking of cigars, lighting of fireworks, and wielding of flamethrowers by a handful of favored passengers, while the majority of those on board would rather have had the airship inflated with non-explosive helium in the first place, but tolerate the risk for lack of any other practical means to travel, and the likelihood of being thrown out the window should they speak up on the matter.

It's all rather silly.

[Twitch] [VOD Channel] [Furaffinity (Writing Only)] [Ko-fi]

#a.griffin writes #furaffinity #furry #furry fandom #furry drama #fandom drama #opinion piece #essay #furaffinity aup

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burstingsunrise · 2 years ago

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2022 Writing Evaluation

thanks for the tag bella @clumsyclifford! thinking about writing and stats is weird for me in a lot of ways right now but I thought this might be a nice way to try to reflect on it in a constructive way.

1. number of stories posted on ao3: 21

2. word count posted for this year: 341,517

3. fandoms i wrote for: 5sos

4. pairings: cake, muke (I know what I like)

5. story with the most kudos/bookmarks/comments:

Kudos - for real

Comments - this city screams your name (which makes sense because chapters) but then there’s a massive drop to a ton of fics that all have about the same amount.

Bookmarks - new shapes and for real are tied

6. work i’m most proud of (and why):

hmm. I think probably for real? It’s the longest fic I’ve ever written and one of the few this year that generally came fairly easily for me overall. i really thrive in a world where I can just describe Luke in a way that feels very true to actual Luke but also am scared of canon friends to lovers, so famous aus are a sweet spot.

And I guess maybe interlude too, because I hadn’t really done a “big” muke fic in a long time, and it was challenging, but in an overall rewarding way.

7. work i’m least proud of (and why):

I guess I don’t often feel good about a fic before I post it these days, but there’s not necessarily one that stands out here as something I’m least proud of.

I’ve posted a few fics this year that have just been lingering wips I managed to wrap up, and they tend to feel the most incomplete to me, like lowercases and capitals and keep these dreams. I feel like you can tell that I originally wanted more for them and just didn’t have the inspiration to make it happen.

8. share or describe a favorite review you received:

Meg read my muke! And made a meme!

9. a time when writing was really, really hard:

It’s been hard all year. Especially the second half of it, there were multiple times I wasn’t sure I’d ever finish another fic. And I’m still kind of in that space of…I’ll keep trying to write, but I can’t guarantee anything will get done.

I think some of that is just because after writing for the same fandom for a certain amount of time, it’s kind of hard not to just feel like you’re repeating yourself, which saps inspiration. There’s also so little engagement with fic these days that it’s hard to actually tell if your writing is any good, which makes motivation difficult for people like me who don’t write specifically for engagement but DO have a strong desire to Be Good.

That said, I’ve still managed to post a lot of content, so the way my brain is processing this isn’t necessarily in sync with reality, and that’s something I can try to be aware of and try to reframe when I get in my head about it.

Above paragraph brought to you by meg encouraging me to be positive and celebrate the work I’ve done this year.

10. a scene or character you wrote that surprised you:

Maybe comfortable silence Luke. He really turned into something a lot more nuanced than I expected.

that fic in general became a lot different and more than i expected. it wound up being maybe the most “real” thing i’ve ever written and ever will write.

11. a favorite excerpt of your writing:

Oh god. um. That would require me to remember what I write. I literally have no idea. There are some scenes that stand out, like the beginning of for real when calum and luke meet for the first time at the coffee shop, and the porch scene in new shapes.

12. how did you grow as a writer this year?

I’m not sure that I did. And I don’t mean that in a bad way necessarily. I just feel like I fell into a groove in 2022 and have not really grown but am also quite comfortable in my groove.

13. how do you hope to grow next year?

I think to grow as a writer I need to work on my perspective in terms of what counts as “success,” what are reasonable expectations to have for myself, and learning how to be better about dealing with the times I don’t feel inspired. Figuring out how to do that in a more constructive way mentally.

And, in answering the next question, I thought of another thing - I tend to assume people don’t want to hear about my writing unless they ask directly. So I stew in things a lot. I get stuck, I get frustrated, and I feel like no one cares, so I just don’t talk about it. But when I do manage to talk about it with the right people (see below), it’s always helpful. so maybe trying to get out of my own head more and be more proactively open about my writing.

14. who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc)?

Meg @kaleidoscopeminds. It’s meg. In so many ways. Not just in terms of supporting and encouraging my writing and helping me through sticky spots, but also being my audience. Like even if no one else reads a fic, I know meg will, and that makes it worth posting.

Aria @calumthoodshands has also been a key influence here by being an idea machine, always prepared with suggestions. Not to mention the moodboard she made for comfortable silence before it was finished, which ended up inspiring several scenes in the fic.

15. anything from your real life show up in your writing this year?

there’s at least one fic that’s very specific to personal experiences in many ways, but I think generally the way real life sneaks into my fics is through little details. Things that have happened to me, things that have happened to someone I know, or just things that I talked about with someone. Like in the spirit is the direct result of a “real” conversation with meg, even if nothing in it is remotely real.

16. any new wisdom you can share with other writers?

I think last year I talked about writing something even if it means writing out of order or jumping between docs. And I still think that’s good advice for a lot of writers.

Beyond that though…this year has been all about learning to create in an environment where it doesn’t feel like the content is really being consumed. Finding ways to be okay with sending a fic out into the world and not really knowing how it’s received. Which is something I’m still working on.

17. any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year?

This is going to sound more negative than it is - but not really, no! I have a couple WIPs that I might at some point get inspired to finish - including podcast cake! But I have no big ideas for new fics, and I don’t have anything I’m currently working on that I feel enough strong inspiration about that I’m confident I’ll finish.

But you never know when something will hit, and there’s something nice about the sense of possibility there.

18. tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read:

@ashtcnirwin @calumthoodshands @daydadahlias @crossedwiress

#tag games #writing #i have a complicated relationship with stats and reflecting on my writing but #i wanted to try to do this and maybe set a positive tone going into 2023 #like yeah idk what i'm doing but maybe i can be okay with that u know!

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cazort · 12 hours ago

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I like how neatly you laid out what you want for trans politics and trans rights.

For my part, while transmedicalism *is* unfortunately common in leftist spaces, I personally consider it a conservative/controlling concept - there’s a long thread of “if you *must* transition, do it like this, don’t challenge too much of the larger system of gender” stretching back through Harry Benjamin’s “true transsexual.” It’s currently showing up as transmedicalism, a lot like how old radfem concepts keep popping up in new feminist discourse. Legitimizing transition through surgery is also enforced by entrenched legal means - for example, requiring sterilization to change gender marker.

And other leftists push it the other way - “feeling dysphoria means you’re gendering bodies, and that’s regressive, so you should just learn to see yourself as your ~true gender~ without surgery.” Works for some people. Other people find that no amount of conceptual reframing will ease the constant dissonance from feeling a phantom dick. Or just don’t want to change how they internally relate to their own body in that way. People of all stripes get real weird about bottom surgery in particular.

I personally want radical bodily autonomy, backed up by institutional and social change to make the choice meaningful. I think that anything that pushes people to be a particular gender, or to understand or present their gender in a particular way, or to have a particular body configuration or internal relationship to their gendered/sexed body, will have transphobic and intersexist effects. I think that medical transition should be readily available to people who want it, and that we should have an expansive enough view of gender to make the choice available without pushing either way. And, especially around medical transition, I think this is a larger conversation that has to come from a disability perspective as well as a gender one.

Thank you! I'm not sure what specific post or collection of posts you're referring too but you have definitely understood my stances correctly, and I appreciate the additional commentary and insights you've added.

I've often been frustrated that my takes on trans issues seem not to attract a whole lot of attention, whereas I see bad takes both from a right-wing and left-wing perspective, getting a ton of attention.

For anyone interested I would encourage you to read posts in my transmedicalism tag, because that's where a lot of this stuff is.

I also agree with your insights here that a lot of transmedicalism is a form of far-right thinking, a sort of binarism, just repackaged to make it palatable to left-wing people. And I agree about it being analogous to how TERF is a right-wing movement manifesting as feminism. Another example of this are the ex-fundamentalists who become radical atheists and retain the "us-vs-them" and judgmental attitude, just changing the target.

All of these things have in common black-and-white thinking and an us-vs-them mentality.

And I totally agree with your goal here for trans people, making medical transition available to all but without any pressure one way or the other. I personally feel great pressure for medical transition from both right-wing perspectives (people refusing to acknowledge my identity unless I look a certain way) and left-wing (transmedicalism) and it's so frustrating to "get it from both sides" like this. I just want to be free and make my own choices, and I think most people do, so I fail to understand why it's been so hard to build a consensus around this stuff.

#transgender #transmedicalism #trans rights #body autonomy

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mcad-creative-leadership · 2 months ago

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Critical Theory and Creative Leadership (Deep Dive)

Leadership itself is a driving force behind organizational culture. It serves as a compass that provides direction on how to approach certain situations, deal with each other and align with overarching goals. Leadership evolution is fascinating! A leader's influence extends beyond the boardroom and shapes today's society's work environment, experiences and culture. Katherine E. McKee discusses the importance of critical theory in shifting and reframing current leadership paradigms. She writes, "Existing literature tells us that many of the leadership theories we teach do not pay attention to social identities and how historic marginalization has impacted who accesses leadership development." Most modern leadership theories have emphasized the narrow view of a white male perspective. This hinders the dynamics of an inclusive leadership environment that has the power to drive organizations forward. By bringing creativity and inclusion into traditional leadership models, we can begin to untangle the threads of this complicated discourse and thoroughly explore the nuances of what it means to be a leader in the 21st century. But what is critical theory? Critical theory critiques the contemporary social world. It searches for new options and positive implications for social action. It challenges historical and contemporary assumptions and designs new conceptual frameworks. In forms of leadership, critical theory aims to show how and why certain ideas are privileged and become more dominant while others are marginalized. Critical theory is not only about efficiency but also about individual and societal well-being by giving a voice to all. And how might we improve our current leadership systems? From the ideas of both McKee and the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, a deconstruction of the interconnectivity and intertextuality that exists within critical theory analysis. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy disrupts the leadership paradigm by illustrating an attempt to demystify power structures and ideologies and encourages change and action over passivity. The Frankfurt School characterizes critical theory as a set of "methodological aspirations": (1) self-reflexive, (2) interdisciplinary, (3) materialist and (4) emancipatory.

self-reflexive: accounting for its own embeddedness in specific social and historical conditions

interdisciplinary: integrating philosophical analysis with social theory and empirical social research

materialist: grounding critical theorizing in social reality

emancipatory: orienting itself toward the goal of social emancipation

McKee goes beyond theory and works within the framework of action steps and WAYS to get there. She mentions, "A socially constructed reality must be participatory, intentionally engaging the people who are typically marginalized in setting the desired outcomes, focus, planning, implementation, and use of the research." What linguistic devices and structures create power and reinforce language within the paradigm? We can reframe our questions to include everyone, not just a specific group. This starts with gaining trust, assigning roles to people traditionally "positioned as followers", and building a solid foundation of personal understanding, including the power and privilege everyone has access to. This may mean asking for feedback, admitting mistakes or failures, reflecting on social identity, talking about emotions and experiences, or standing up for oneself. Creativity in leadership allows leaders to uncover blind spots by staying curious. Listening is a powerful tool in leadership and business, but it's not about listening to speak; it's about listening to understand. In this way, leaders are better equipped to resolve conflict, increase efficiency, and create inclusivity, communication skills and connections. It's funny that we learn these things as young children, but in these "adult" spaces, we must relearn how to be self-aware and kind to others.

#creative leadership #learning #critical theory #leadership #creativity

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arttheory2024 · 3 months ago

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5.2 Feminist Philosophy

There are a number of ways to address and restore the fallacies of the Western art canon. The most obvious being the continuous inclusion and elevation of women artists and women-dominated artforms (crafts, sewing, textiles). By attempting to preserve the past information regarding women previously forgotten by the canon, we can begin to re envision the complete picture of art history. Simultaneously, we must create space and appreciation for current women artists, too. Allowing women to address topics specific to women such as menstruation, childbirth, motherhood, sexism in their own means and without reticence from the audience (Korsmeyer & Weiser, 2021) we may be able to begin to bridge the inequality within the art world where feminist or women’s art is taken under different parameters than mens’. You cannot promote what is best for a marginalized group without direct and open conversation with the group itself. Listening to women artists' explanations and perspectives can also repair some of the damage of the missing history of past women artists.

A feminist philosophy that stuck out to me regarding this question involves the phenomenological theory of gender in which feminism encourages the idea that womanhood is something cultivated, something that happens through direction, not mere biology (Butler, 1988). This theory continues to then discuss that there are certain acts done in the name of womanhood and then acts removed from this notion. This concept brings up the question of whether women created art is in the name of womanhood or if it is merely art created by a human being and should be separated from the concept of gender. This cannot be settled in a universal sense and requires case-by-case analysis. I personally enjoy considering gender as performative or chosen rather than subjected to a person through society. This creates intrigue when discussing works of art made by women who may not have necessarily been allowed to express these kinds of ideas or concepts. How do you analyze a work separate from gender if the concept of gender was so constraining upon the artist?

References

Butler, J. (1988). Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory. The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 519-531.

Korsmeyer, C. and Weiser, P.B. (2021). Feminist Aesthetics, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2021/entries/feminism-aesthetics

#art criticism #art theory #week 5 #modern art #feminsim #feminist philosophy #gender bias #women artists

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baileytomkinsviscomblog · 1 year ago

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'Intersections' - Pt. 1

Brief

This project, as the title makes clear, is about intersections. An intersection, put simply, is the point where two things come together. Examples of intersections that we experience each day are bus stops, train stations, car parks, bridges, or even corridors. Intersections can also be things that don't necessarily take a physical form, such as conversational intersections, for example, the joke you didn’t understand, the comfortable silence between a conversation, or the hand gestures used to fill in the gaps. These intersections happen to us every day.

The brief for this is to explore a series of specific sites and find an 'intersection'—somewhere that is the border between two different spaces. Once we have discovered, documented, and explored our chosen intersection, we must then interpret it and create a response to it. This response must either conceptualise a method for highlighting the space or, alternatively, attempt to bring together the two spaces and the different entities within them.

Research

As an artist, when I'm presented with a challenge or an opportunity to create ideas, I will often jump straight to the end result, as it's part of my mind's natural creative thinking and curiosity to want to immediately solve problems and picture in my head all the possibilities. This thinking process is helpful to me; however, during this course, I've learned to try and slow down my thinking, attempting to properly structure my process of research and development. I usually start with a mindmap and primary research, as I feel that this is the best way to start thinking about different ideas as well as understanding the brief more effectively. I feel that the mixture of the theoretical and the practical creates a good balance of data, from which I can start to dive deeper into certain areas that I find most intriguing.

Often, when throwing out a wide net, you will get some ideas that you later realise don't have much potential; however, I think that it's still worth doing this as you can compare those ideas to your better ones and examine why they would be more effective. I believe this process makes it easier to develop good ideas instead of applying a perfectionist approach where every idea must be profound and well thought out, which can restrict and slow down your creative process.

Mind Maps

Although many of these ideas I knew I would be unlikely to pursue, this exercise really helped to open up my mind and get the cogs turning. Often, it can be helpful to have less substantial and weaker ideas for comparison, questioning why other ideas may be stronger, why they connect with me, and how they may relate to others. From these mind maps, the idea that stood out to me the most, even at this early stage, was related to the concept of being present and always looking forward. I find that I will often use ideas that resonate with me on a personal level. I believe this gives me a better understanding of the work I am going to do and also increases my passion and motivation for the project. Despite locking into one idea, I was very interested in all the other possible paths I could have followed, and it may be useful to look back at them for inspiration when starting a different project.

Primary research

These are just some examples of the initial primary research I did at the start of the project. I found that photography was a great method of collecting primary research because it was quick and also encouraged me to explore what's around me. It turns out I didn't need to go far to find inspiration; most of these intersections I come across as part of my weekly university routine, for example, walking to the shops, travelling home, getting ready in the morning, sleeping, and jogging. I enjoyed collecting this research as it allowed me to stop and look at the world around me, seeing things from a different perspective.

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maddielivinginternationally · 1 year ago

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"Gendered Urban Spaces and the Quest for Inclusivity: Insights from Paris and the Paris 2024 Olympics"

In this week's reading from Chapter 9 of "The Urban World," Palen briefly discusses the historical concept of "gendered public spaces," which are areas that have traditionally encouraged gender-based segregation. This led me to reflect on my personal encounters with such spaces.

As a woman who grew up in Paris, studied in London, and now resides in Philadelphia, I've observed how the places I frequent are influenced by gendered norms, which contribute to the division between men and women. Specifically, the most pronounced disparity can be seen in the context of safety within cities. When going out, I've often heard unsettling stories about my male friends returning from clubs, half-drunk, relying on night buses, the subway, or even walking alone. Considering the prevalence of sexual assault in society, I've consistently chosen to return using taxis or Uber, without questioning these means of transportation. Even when I'm with a group of female friends in a city we know well, not intentionally placing ourselves in risky situations, I've had moments of feeling uneasy. Even in well-lit and crowded areas, I can't help but recall the Kitty Genovese case and the subsequent analysis. While I'm not paranoid, I remain cautious at all times. This is also a significant reason why I've taken up karate.

I have also observed the presence of gendered public spaces here at Penn, particularly along Locust Walk. As Palen notes, "In contemporary urban areas, men and women are still sometimes spatially segregated in ways that reduce women's access to information, knowledge, and power." Along Locust Walk and nearby streets, you can see fraternity houses where young men come and go, often sitting in front of the houses on benches and sofas. While they may be showcasing "fraternity life" in some way, I couldn't observe similar displays at sorority houses. This highlights that our shared urban spaces, despite being co-ed and technically open to all, still carry strong gendered characteristics that perpetuate the subordination of women. In settings like universities, where students strive to acquire "information, knowledge, and power," these social norms reinforce the notion that men have primary access to these resources, with women following closely behind. Indeed, Palen states that "Women are discussed as a minority not because of their numbers... but because of their historically subordinate role."

Regarding the physical layout of public spaces, I've also noticed efforts by designers to promote inclusivity and create a sense of welcome, aimed at desegregating spaces for women and individuals with minority gender and sexual identities. Watching the video in class of how Barcelona incorporates gender equality perspectives into urban planning and public transportation, which includes considering the safety and needs of women and minority gender and sexual identities in the design of public spaces, was very interesting. It made me wonder what measures Paris had initiated to enhance women’s safety in public spaces, especially with the upcoming Olympic games scheduled for July 2024. They indeed included increased police presence in certain areas, the establishment of women-only carriages on public transportation, public awareness campaigns to combat harassment and violence against women, but also well-lit pathways and improved infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists.

Furthermore, the French organizers leveraged the event itself, a truly unique urban occasion, to champion gender equality. A number of projects have been put in place to achieve the "first ever parity games", including the choice of the Paris 2024 logo, Marianne, a parity programme for choosing volunteers and Olympic torchbearers and the feminisation of symbols and infrastructure names, as part of the "Sport et Parité" programme. The latter was launched after the alarming realisation that less than 1% of sports facilities in France are named after a female athlete or personality, implicitly prioritizing men over women.

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alliyah237130 · 1 year ago

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Reflective Writing

Throughout the duration of Communication for Makers, I have embarked on a journey of mindfulness and discovery. I was thrust into a world of perspectives that I had never once considered in my life. Disabling spaces, the importance of representation, and Assumptions were all topics I encountered that reshaped my way of thinking for the better.

When it came to the topic of disabling spaces, not once had I considered in my abled life that certain areas in my daily commute were completely inaccessible for people with disabilities. 18 years of my life were in Hawke’s Bay, Napier, where most people thought a disability was simply your legs not working. During the first activity, when we documented disabling spaces on our way home, I thought back to my high school on a hill with a long, steep ramp right before the school entrance. Every day, students had to walk up this ramp to get to the school entrance since getting dropped off by a car wasn’t permitted. Students got told off for being dropped off even though they were using crutches and had a cast on their legs. And when these students decided to stay home because of this, they were told off once again. This was just the surface of the stupidity we faced in high school. Teachers called you dumb when you were dyslexic, they said you never listened even if you were hard of hearing, and overall, made you feel alienated from everyone else. Sunaura makes a point that help is something everyone needs and is not properly addressed in our current society (“Examined Life” 6:26). With that in mind, a place of education should one hundred percent encourage the engagement and support the capabilities of its students.

Representation is so important when it comes to building acceptance for minorities that are not as widespread in the community. As a minority, I’d always felt strongly about this—what I didn’t realise was how representation applies to more than just race. It can apply to anything from a less mainstream hobby to people with rare disabilities. Anything and everyone can benefit from representation, especially when accompanied by an explanation. This topic taught me how representation can be very damaging when a specific message is trying to be portrayed. For example, as a child, when I refused to eat my vegetables for dinner my mother would always say, “There are starving children in Africa”. I know I wasn’t the only one who heard this as I’d heard other kids in primary repeating the same phrase. The constant repetition of this saying led me to believe everyone in Africa was living in poverty and caused me to develop a sense of ‘western superiority’. Only as I got older, I’ve come to realise how stupid that was since Africa is a continent with many thriving countries. Children are starving everywhere so why was Africa the main victim of this saying? The only answer I can think of is how they were represented in the media. This is why representation is so powerful; with good execution and an educated audience, the message will be communicated effectively.

I always thought I was a person who openly embraced the vast range of perspectives that accompanied certain situations and topics until we discussed Assumptions and Discoveries; constantly repeating a single description until it becomes reality to the listener. This concept wasn’t new to me it was something I’d heard many times. Only this time, I took what was being said to heart. Adichie tells us how poverty was her single story for a boy called Fide and was shocked to find out his family had a talent in making (“The danger of a Single Story” 4:00). Because her mother kept reminding her Fide was poor, that was all she believed. Similarly, last year I lived with an incredibly negative person who loved gossip and would tell me the whole world was against me. I was depressed and lonely so I couldn’t see my life positively at the time. The hateful way she spoke about others drove me away from my closest friends and turned me into someone bitter and spiteful. It got to the point where she drove me away from my best friend. Eventually, I began taking her words with a grain of salt and noticed her stories were often highly exaggerated. I began acting less like her and was shocked to see a positive change in the way people interacted with me. When I chose to stop listening to a single story/storyteller, my perception of reality changed drastically.

Upon reflecting on this course, I’ve found these topics to interconnect in dozens of ways. Without representation, how can someone understand the alienation people with disabilities experience in their daily lives? And how can representation be presented close to reality when a single assumption is made about the subject? Each topic relies on the other to be successful in its mission and more importantly, understanding the importance of these topics is crucial for the message to be received effectively. I’m happy that this course took the time to hammer this information in my head because I now feel like I can approach new situations/subjects with open-minded thinking; the subjects I have reflected on are easily relevant and necessary in today’s modern world.

Bibliography

“Examined Life - Judith Butler and Sunaura Taylor 720p.avi.” YouTube, 6 Oct. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0HZaPkF6qE.

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “The Danger of a Single Story.” Ted.com, TED Talks, 2009, www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en.

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planovashopfittingsolutions · 2 years ago

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Know why is Retail Shelving Important for Your Company

If you operate a store, then you are aware that choosing the appropriate shop display equipment may have a significant impact on how customers view your establishment. This is especially true if you want to attract new customers. In point of fact, there is a wide variety of retail shelving available, each of which provides a unique set of advantages for your company. Your shop can also benefit from reliable shop fitting manufacturers, which will ensure that your shop is never lacking in inventory and will keep your shop looking neat and tidy. In the following paragraphs, we will examine a few of these benefits and discuss how they might assist you in enhancing the experience that you provide for clients that visit your retail site.

It helps to maintain order among your products.

It is impossible to place enough emphasis on the significance of shop display equipment in a store. It keeps your products organised and makes them easy to find, which assists customers in finding what they are searching for in a timely manner and lowers the chance of items being misplaced or damaged by customers as well as by personnel.

This is due to the fact that it makes it possible to create an organised display, which in turn makes it simpler for customers to move through your business by making use of touchpoints (like racks), rather than attempting to stroll around and look at every shelf from every perspective. When someone wants something from a certain section of the store, they can simply walk over to that section and get their item without having to go through a wide variety of different things first. Additionally, because of this, they are able to access those items even if there is no staff member present who is aware of exactly where those items are located in another section of the same aisle!

It Encourages the Right Kind of Retailing

The act of displaying goods in a manner that persuades customers to purchase those goods is known as the practise of merchandising. It is essential since it not only assists individuals in locating the information they seek but also encourages repeat visits from those individuals. If you want repeat business from your clients, you need to ensure that your store displays merchandise in an attractive and organised manner. If you don't do this the right way, then it's possible that when your consumers go into your store, they won't be able to find what they're looking for!

It Provides the Consumer with an Easy and Convenient Shopping Environment

Customers benefit greatly from retail shelving since it makes shopping much more convenient for them. This is one of the most significant advantages of retail shelving. Customers are able to quickly and easily find what they require in any given moment, even when searching for something as specific as a particular brand or product range. Customers have an easier time comparing products and selecting those that meet their requirements when they shop at stores that have shelves displaying those products.

It makes the most efficient use of the available space in a shop.

You, as the owner of the business, will want to make the most efficient use possible of the space that is available in your store. You are able to showcase things in a variety of different ways and entice more people by utilising retail shelf display. This is because it enables you to make effective use of the vertical space that is available.

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miekasa · 3 years ago

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speaking of college boys, what do the college au aot babies study??

Okay, okay, I think I’ve talked about this in an ask before but I can’t find it 😭😭 but it’s okay, I love college aus, so I’ll talk about it again! Plus, now I’ve got more thoughts for more characters, so here we go

Levi — neuroscience and psychology of human behavior

He started out on track to do a bachelor of arts in psychology, but when they touched on the anatomy and biological parts of it during his first year lecture, he switched to a bachelor of science.

The focus is still psychology, but through a more clinical lens. Essentially, he gets the best of both worlds this way. He’s intuitive and analytical, so clinical and mental diagnosis is easy to dissect for him. He’s also canonically good at math, so the calculus and stats parts aren’t too bad, either.

This major also leaves him with a few options post-grad, which is a nice bonus for him. He’s likely going to medical school, but that’s not the only route open to him: law school, therapy, lab work, medicine and pharmacy, even teaching are all viable options without going to grad school.

Do not talk to him about Freud unless you wanna get punted off a building.

Be careful with him, because with a single glance he’s already got scarily accurate predictions about your parental and emotional attachment styles, your behavior in social settings, and the onset (or seemingly lack thereof) of your frontal lobe development.

He thinks he’s so smart making comments like, “I see those synaptic connections aren’t working so well for you today,” like mf come here let me lobotomize you and see how well your synaptic connects are working after that🙄

Eren — general health sciences

He’s interested in science and the discovery aspects of it, but picking a specific field of focus right now feels too final. He likes it this way, because his schedule and requirements are less restrictive, and he has more room to find out what really interests him.

He does best when he’s doing something he loves, so picking a major with a bunch of reqs that he couldn’t care less about would have sucked big time for him. It also would have affected his grades. There are still some classes he has to take that he’s not fond of (see: chemistry), but that’s to be expected. Science in general is cool to him and he hopes to make his own discovery some day, even if it’s microscopic.

He also plays a lot of sports, keeping his schedule flexible is important. The sports end up helping him excel academically, which is a nice bonus. Honestly, Eren uses his time at university to learn more about himself than anything, so having control and freedom to do what he likes the majority of the time was important to him.

He uses his elective credits to take philosophy or history courses of his interest, or maybe even a course that you’re in just to spend time with you. He also uses you as a live model for his homework bye, congrats on being patient number one to him.

Armin — astronomy and physics

He’s still interested in marine biology, but unless he attended a school near a coast, or with a specialized integrated program for that, it’s unlikely he’d major in it during undergrad.

Space and ocean exploration aren’t all that different. Both are vast, largely unexplored domains that reel-in Armin’s interest for discovery. So, while studying astronomy, he still gets to study evolution and make his own predictions about what could be out there because there’s so much to know.

Physics comes with the territory of learning about planetary science, and he’s mathematically inclined, so it works out for him. Learning about the different physical properties of other planets and space masses is honestly pretty sick to him. Because math isn’t a struggle, he actually considered aeronautical engineering, but he didn’t want to be a part of the college to military pipeline; that is, he didn’t want any potential design of his to be weaponized.

He still gets to study animal biology through his elective courses, and might even find a few focused on marine animals to satiate him. Plant and cell biology are also of interest to him, and are just further applications of his primary study anyway, so he’s got plenty of room to work with.

This boy is interning at NASA and still, with his whole chest out is like, “I don’t need to discover a new planet, you’re my whole world.” Armin, go check on the Mars rover or something please.

Mikasa — anthropology + minor in japanese language studies

Anthropology is virtually interdisciplinary in nature, and Mikasa is a pretty well rounded student, so she’s able to excel in a program like this. She gets to study history, science, cultural studies, and even a bit of art all at once.

She’s still debating between going to law school vs med school, so anthro this is a good in-betweener. She gets a taste of science through her anatomy and kin courses; and lots of practice with reading and dissecting texts through the historical and cultural lectures. So, when the time comes to decide, she’ll have some experience with both.

Don’t know whether it’s confirmed that she’s (part) Japanese or not, but either way I headcanon that she speaks/spoke some second language at home. She wanted to delve more into it, and courses were offered at the university so why not?

Cultural studies courses end up being her favorite. She likes learning about the history of people and their cultures, and it encourages her to learn more about her own family history and culture. It also propels her to apply for a study abroad opportunity, so she spends at least one semester doing an exchange program and absolutely loves it.

She would also encourage you to apply and go, too. You guys might not be in the same program, but if there’s an applicable program in the same country she’s going to, then she’d definitely want you to apply. Spending the semester away with you would be a dream come true.

Hange — bioengineering + minor in political philosophy and law

It’s almost self-sabotage to be in an engineering program and have a minor; the coursework for engineering alone is backbreaking, and bioengineering has the added weight of human intricacies, but of course Hange makes it possible.

They’re nothing short of a genius, so of course they have time to work a completely unrelated minor into their schedule. It doesn’t surprise anyone that they go on to complete an MD-PhD after undergrad. Insane.

Bioengineering is essentially the synthesis of chemical engineering and health sciences; Hange spends their time exploring biological sciences and applies the engineering aspects of their coursework to their understanding of (and interest in creating) medicine. Truly a one of a kind mind.

They also have an interest in philosophy and justice, so when they found out they only needed a measly nine or ten courses to minor in, they went for it, of course. In honesty, they don’t find the studies all that opposing: both law making and medicine making both have some kind of philosophy or method to them in their eyes.

Hange has... little to no free time pls. They don’t mind it, because they love their coursework, but this means you are essentially ducking into their labs or scrambling to find them in-between their classes during your time in undergrad. They appreciate every second spent with you tho, and will gladly rope you into long discussions about their work.

Jean — biochemistry + minor in art sustainability

He was undeclared his first year, and took a little bit of everything: art, science, history, anthropology, english. Basically, anything that fit into his schedule. It was hard for him to pick one thing—he liked the science and lab applications of STEM courses, but not the math; and the obvious painting and creativity of art, but hated the pretentious air about art history.

What he wants to do is make a difference, which is how he ends up knowing that he wants to go to med school after, so he picks a science-heavy major, but uses his elective spaces to take art courses. When he mixes the two, he ends up on sustainability—and the complexities about it that are applicable to both science and art are what really reels him in.

Interdisciplinary studies end up being his forte. He can approach sustainability from a science perspective which impacts his art style and materials; and tuning into his creative side allows him to think about science not just from a purely clinical perspective, but from a human one, too—patients are people after all.

He believes that everything is connected somehow, even things as seemingly opposite as art and biochemistry. And he works towards finding the unique intersection where everything overlaps. His studies are pretty cool, and he’s very passionate about them, so ask him about it 😌

The art he makes is pretty sick, too, and often commentary about science; he’s proving they’re not so opposite. You also heavily influence his studies in both areas: caring about you so much inspires him to take the healthcare focus seriously, and your very nature is inspiration to his art.

Sasha — nursing

She’s friendly and good at working with people, so nursing was an easy choice for her. She accredits most of her motivation to being around her younger family members, and learns that she finds a simple kind of joy in helping to take care of others.

She struggles a bit her first year when it’s mostly all grades and standardized testing, but when she starts getting clinical experience and working in the hospital on campus, things round out for her.

Patient care is her strongest point. A lot of people often forget that knowing everything isn’t everything; if you don’t know how to calm or even just talk to your patient, you’re not that great of a healthcare professional.

Pretty certain that she wants to work with kids in the future, but she’s open to public health and even being a travel nurse if she finds opportunity there!

Of course, she’s pretty doting when it comes to you and all her friends. She might want to go into pediatrics, but the basics of nursing and health care extend to everyone, so you’re guaranteed to be well taken care of with Sasha around. You might even have to switch roles and take care of her sometimes, because her coursework can get pretty out of hand.

Connie — computer engineering with a focus on game design

He might not look it, but Connie has a brain under that shaved head of his. Computer engineering is cool to him because he basically learns about how simple things he uses every day (ie: phone, computer, microwave) works.

Systems and coding are actually the easy part for him, especially when they get into the application of it and aren’t just stuck looking at examples. That’s how he gets into game design.

The part about math and electricity and magnetic fields… well let’s just say he needed to make friends with someone who likes math and hardware his first year to get through it. But the struggle was worth it, because by his junior year he’s found a professor willing to mentor/supervise him as he works on his game and other projects, so life is good.

His school work is definitely hard, which is why the lives by the mantra of “work hard, party harder.” It’s only fair.

He makes you a little avatar so you can test out his games for him <33 best boyfriend things <33 He’d also… build a game about your relationship. Every level is a different date you guys went on, and he definitely includes something cheesy, like “There are unlimited lives because I love you forever babe <3”

Porco — kinesiology + maybe mechanical engineering

He’s pretty into athletics and working out, but didn’t wanna go down the sports psychology route; he wanted something that left him with a few more options, so he ended up in kinesiology.

He was surprisingly pretty good at biology in high school, so something stem-oriented works out in his favor, and it turns out he’s pretty damn good at anatomy, too. He’ll probably end up in physical therapy after graduation.

He’s also got a knack for cars, which is where the engineering comes in, but he doesn’t care so much for the math part of it (he doesn’t care for it at all actually, fuck that); he just wants the hands on experience of building/fixing things and working with his hands. So, if he can get a minor in it and not struggle through 4 years of math, then he’d do that. If not, he’d take a few workshop-like classes.

Because he wants to go into physical therapy, you are essentially his practice patient. Your back hurts? Not a problem, he’s basically a professional masseuse. Muscle aches? He’s got a remedy and understanding of why it’s happening. Don’t let him catch you hunting over your desk grinding away at your homework, because he will poke your neck and correct your posture (he’ll also massage your shoulders, but after the scolding).

Pieck — classics + minor in philosophy

Ancient studies interest her, but more than that, the language of ancient Greek and Roman culture fascinates her, so classics is the way to go.

Because her focus within Classics ends up being Greek and Latin language studies, she is essentially learning both languages at the same time. She gets farther with Latin that she does with Greek. For whatever reason, the former comes almost naturally to her, so her written and translated work is more complex in Latin.

However, she finds cultural studies relation to Greece more interesting than that of Rome, so it’s a give and take with both; better at languages for Roman studies, better at culture and history for Greek studies.

Her minor is a natural evolution from her primary coursework. Ancient Romans and Greeks set the foundation for a lot of modern day philosophy, so it comes up in her major classes, but she wanted to delve further into the philosophy, and not just look at it historically, so she takes more courses to fulfill the minor.

Can be found laying on a blanket in the quad on a hot day, with her books spread out all around her, highlighter in hand as she works through her reading. You’re always invited to sit with her, and more often than not, it ends up with Pieck’s head in your lap, a book in her hands, and your own schoolwork in yours as you both read in each other’s company.

Bertholdt — computer science and coding

He’s level headed, good at planning, and above all, patient, so he’s cut out for this. He doesn’t consider himself to be particularly creative, which is why he doesn’t pick a speciality with lots of design; but he’s good at streamlining and ideas to life.

The patience really comes in when his code doesn’t run. It’s frustrating to scroll for two hours just to find out that the issue is a missing semi-colon in line 273 that he overlooked, but Berty will sit there until he finds it.

He’s also good at fixing issues. That’s not limited to issues in the code itself; it can mean finding shorter ways to produce the same function or loop, or integrating new aspects into existing code.

Also, he’d just be so cute, coding away on his computer. Just imagine: Berty working on his homework in the library, he’s got his signature crewneck + collared shirt look going for him, his blue-light glasses, a cup of coffee nearly as tall as him sitting at the corner of his desk. Adorable.

He’d make little codes/programs for you, too, even if it’s silly. A simple code that helps you decide what to eat for dinner or where to go on a date, one that shuffles different reminders for you, hell he’ll even forgo the torture of design engineering just to build you a little robot that says “I love you” to you.

Reiner — english + minor in justice & political philosophy

Everyone expects Reiner, star quarterback of the university’s rugby team, to be a business student or communications student; but no, he’s an English major, and he loves it.

Just imagine a guy as huge as Reiner absolutely manhandling someone on the field, just to show up in his lectures with a tiny paperback of The Great Gatsby tucked between his fingers with his reading glasses on. It’s so precious.

He’s always running a bit late to class—either coming from the gym, or practice, or oversleeping from exhaustion—but he’s so sweet to his professors and genuinely interested in the literature that they don’t give him a hard time about it. They can tell that balancing school and sports is difficult, and they just appreciate that he takes his studies seriously.

Yeah he’s in a book club and he dog-ears his books. What about it. They’re doing poetry this month and Reiner actually likes Edgar Allen Poe. Who said jocks can’t be sentimental.

He also reads a lot outside of his classes, and has a soft spot for coming of age stories. He usually empathizes with the main character somehow. His ideal weekend plans after a week of grueling games and essays is taking a long, relaxing shower at your place, while you both share a bottle of wine, and maybe even get you to read a chapter or two of his current book out loud to him.

Annie — clinical psychology/neuroscience

Almost scarily analytical and methodic, so this major was calling her name. Localizing brain legions is… insanely intuitive to her it’s incredible. She’ll be an insanely impressive doctor someday, even if she doesn’t end up working with patients directly.

She doesn’t care too much for the more philosophical/reading heavy parts of psychology. Even experiments and research closer to the social end of the spectrum aren’t all that interesting to her; but the brain science behind it it.

Nobody should be good at cellular biology. Nobody should be able to ace cell bio and neuro and calc and work towards their thesis proposal in the same semester, but Annie proves it’s possible.

Ends up working in one of her professor’s labs by her junior year. She was offered three TA positions working with first year students, but she swiftly turned them down. Teaching isn’t her thing.

She doesn’t bring up her studies to you unprompted, but if you ask her about them she’ll explain it to you. Her notes are color coded and it’s super neat, and very cute; coloring them is somewhat relaxing for her. She usually saves the coloring part for when you guys study together; there’s extra comfort in doing it with you around.

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unproduciblesmackdown · 2 years ago

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tfw you think about how jeremy & christine’s journeys to embracing themselves are so parallel & jeremy is to christine what she is to him; jeremy sees her Being Herself & recognizes both himself & how he wishes he could be, i.e. he thinks she already embraces herself (more than she actually does) b/c he mostly sees her operating within the frameworks in which she feels safer actually being herself, like going down the hall interacting w/no one, or most prominently within theatre, which is her version of the metaphorical squip that not only supposedly tells her how she should Successfully act, but beyond that provides this context in which she feels she can be spontaneous & offbeat but feel okay about it, like doing performance art. and jake pointing out that her [this is how i should do things / this is the Zone i have to stay in to be acceptable Enough to others] device is theatre, like his is (certain) extracurricular overachievement lol....that, as is pointed out, even once the squip is involved christine still really mostly sees jeremy Being Himself, even if the squip is smoothing over some details, or trying to, and what really matters is in fact that jeremy is being More himself than ever b/c he feels like he has this safety backup that will make sure he stays Socially Accepted no matter what. jeremy’s freaking out in a mall court Organically even if the squip gives him an excuse about it, he’s adding all this dramatic flair to his monologue even if he didn’t memorize it himself (hey hamlet be more chill), then certainly obvious events like his interactions w/her before agtikbi or its reprise. and this applies even with his more outright / intrusively guided interactions w/brooke, who’s Also being somewhat spontaneously, weirdly Herself more than she realizes when she’s also trying to do what she’s Supposed to do, more obviously in dywr when her figurative squip guidance is right there from chloe, or later when she doesn’t have so much direct input going on but is surely still drawing from that sort of influence abt how she Should be / how to Correctly operate in such situations

anyways the point is that it’s so good how the way jeremy sees christine is how christine sees jeremy. he may have had a head start on noticing her, b/c presumably jeremy is trying to get as little attention as possible & does a solid job, he can’t help a dedicated bully having specific instruction to notice him anyways, & jeremy’s Role in which he feels he can be more of himself, like christine’s Roles in theatre, is being michael’s friend, which they mostly get to do outside school (and when it happens At school, jeremy gets the boost to Go For Something like signing up for the play) (and jeremy feeling more stifled by a) having one limited Role / Space to be more himself and b) feeling like that Role / Space is more determined by someone else than christine is yet re: her relationship w/theatre at this point, since jeremy has more motivation to act / set things in motion / be the protagonist most at the center of things, and christine needs a little externally provided impetus in jake pointing out the “when’s the last time you tried something new Not on a stage” limited nature of her Being Herself only in a specific context).......but from christine’s perspective, jeremy’s Appearing while she’s in that realm of her established / accepted Roles, waiting on play rehearsal, and jeremy’s the one out here being nervous & Elevated & Noticeable, & even though it’s just this communication misalignment when she says it’s about swim team, he’s the one who feels like he did something awkward / weird more so, but christine recognizes that He’s Nervous through this reaction, You’re A Virgin....but then christine would’ve retreated back into how it’s Okay to act outside actual rehearsal, Reining It In(tm) and reading her book, but it’s jeremy’s obvious interest & nonverbal encouragement / positive reactions as she talks about how she feels / behaves more Spontaneously in general that ilpr even happens in the first place, and pretty clearly this is someone she Likes at all upon their Introduction to her, and later on when jeremy says he’s this committed to the play just b/c he Loves Theatre, as supposedly the Right Thing to say via the squip, she’s a bit disappointed b/c you know, there’s already that nonzero romantic interest in him too, but she isn’t actually encompassed by her love of theatre & while she’s interested in this actual relationship, obviously being like, perfectly devoted to Theatre, or switching gears & thinking she’s gone for jake so now you have to also be Popular when that’s jake’s thing, are missteps / not Enough on their own, when she goes for jake first Because he’s breaking out of his own role and encouraging that from her, even if likewise that on its own isn’t necessarily enough that they have a great relationship, And they’re potentially leaving these genuine aspects of themselves behind by just switching up their sense of The Right Way To Be to try out something new....and naturally, christine Confiding in jeremy via agtikbi in preceded by their Genuine spontaneous “weird” “Wrong” interaction beforehand where the squip is just like hey lol what. the hell. which is just their enjoying Interacting Genuinely with each other, same as how this comes back around during the party going disastrously for the both of them re how acting Correctly in this realm is feeling (as well as the sunk cost factory of doing that since partway through act one for both of them) and they bond over being even more spontaneous & genuine while realizing they’re both in this situation where neither of them know how to navigate it / both feel out of place, but not Quite getting all the way to fully realizing how things are for the other Or themself, b/c this isn’t the climax of the show lol & obviously their arcs as individuals or for their relationship doesn’t resolve here, and they both need to further learn that a) the other person doesn’t have it together / isn’t as Confident in themself as they seemed to be, jeremy being surprised at the end of the agtikbi reprise scene / after the smartphone hour scene that christine’s questioning herself this much, vs christine maybe more so being a bit confused by jeremy at this juncture like, possibly testing out what his whole thing is by introducing this opportunity to lay out what she Thinks his role is at the party, i.e. one of the popular people, apparently Trying New Things(tm) plenty, etc or something, with the excellently telling line later on about “is that what’s been going on with you” once she’s being More surprised about realizing he hasn’t been as self confident as he seemed to her either, wherein she’s presumably realized he’s sometimes being “weird” vs his actual less filtered / more genuine self, i.e. there’s no reason for her not to have noticed he’s seemed a bit inconsistent with these bursts of genuine connection between them at certain moments and then less of that / him not acting in that same more spontaneous / offebeat way......and how naturally during the play, they’re both dealing more with Themselves as it’s time to like really confront the experience of ditching “actually being yourself” for what would technically be the smoothest sailing that hypothetically avoids any conflict or uncertainty in any social interactions / connections ever....the neurotypical “social skills” ideal lmao, jeremy is so autistic coded, for us....wherein christine, not the protagonist, is getting this crash course experience in the combo epitome of this validated / accepted role through both a squip And a part in a play, and where her rejecting that is implied b/w the play & vimh, since with her autonomy & agency & all she Could’ve just been like “no yeah i do want a squip” lol but is not, & jeremy obviously realizing through his own experience & christine’s as these Supposed Ideals that yknow, they aren’t ideal, not what he wants for himself, and prioritizing undoing what he got christine into here even if he obviously knows he doesn’t want to be stuck here himself but this is the Action he’s taking about it regardless....and you know, christine also understanding herself better for being presented with those supposed ideals of having this star moment role in a play & how to avoid doing any/everything wrong, and also going “yeah no i don’t want that,” and naturally having this evidence that jeremy doesn’t want her to Be Someone Else / doesn’t only like her acting some certain way within some certain externally outlined role, since his climactic decision / act there was to choose to make sure to give christine back that unhindered capacity to be herself, however that looks / whatever that means for her, and you know, there they are having both Liked each other since ilpr (& beyond, for jeremy at least) & now having this increased understanding of & confidence in themselves thanks to the plot having happened for them, & this increased understanding in each other just in general & re: everything that had happened prior where they weren’t quite in alignment At The Time & kind of always both playing catchup trying to Get what’s going on with the other lol, but now they Are aligned and yknow that it’s Fine when there’s not perfect alignments, like misunderstanding each other momentarily in this vimh interlude conversation but just then clarifying lol, and the show not needing to end with like “and then everyone had everything figured out forever & never felt uncertain or confused or like they were doing things wrong ever again” b/c that whole Conclusion is that all of that Not being guaranteed / being guaranteed to continue to be a issue for them at some points is something that can be handled & doesn’t prove that there’s something inherently wrong with them for it when it’s so [yep that’s part of the human experience] that naturally Everyone is connecting over the literal connecting but also just their collectively relatable struggles with this that have also been parallels w/everyone else’s arcs this whole show

anyways taking a lot of words to talk about it as always but tl;dr it’s sooo fun & so neat how yknow jeremy sees christine as like wow here’s this person who’s so obviously genuine in a way that really resonates with me & i want to interact more with them & they’re so bold in being themself & god i wish that were me & also i Like them, and that’s how christine’s seeing jeremy too

#they're so good. it's incredible. devastating (complimentary)#bmc #love them sm....like that from christine's perspex jeremy may as well get a solo for her to be this enraptured audience for also #but b/c he's the protagonist it wouldn't really make sense for Us the actual audience as an audience if that happened lol #if christine was the protagonist jeremy would absolutely get a song to introduce himself while it's christine's job to be like ;w; about it

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