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popculturebuffet · 3 years ago

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You Should In Fact Say Gay All The Damn Time Special : Fire and Ice/Father Figures (COTC and PF: LAP)

Hello you beautiful technicolor rainbow. I’m Jake, I review animation, comics and other media. And as you can tell by the title today’s reviews are a response to recent events over in the state that god and shirts forgot, florida. As you all likely know but i’ll repeat for any latecomers, a bill passed, dubbed by the public as the “don’t say gay” bill, a bill that prohibits education on LBGTQ+ topics from kindergarten to third grade and allows parents to sue the school if they don’t like what their teaching. In other words a barely concealed way to prevent LBGTQ children from getting critical need to know information to make their lives better, to feel normal and to help straight children learn things every child should know, disguised as...

Bullshit that , ONCE AGAIN, tries to paint gayness as a topic JUST for adults and that kids can’t POSSIBLY queer. Spoilers they can, are and I know some. As you can tell i’m just a tensy bit absolutely pissed off about this whole mess despite living far from florida, especially since this comes as Texas is trying to pass a transphobic and homophobic bill that would force teachers to out students.

And while Don’t Say Gay hasn’t been signed yet by Flordia’s Govenor Ron DeSantis, it’s all but guaranteed he’ll sign it. DeSantis has spent the pandemic proving he cares nothing for human lives,doing the right thing or shutting the hell up, uincluding a recent incident where he yelled at teenagers for wearing masks at an event, so even possible pressure from coprorations probably wont’ stop him. Thankfully the LBGTQ+ community of flordia HAS rallied against this nonsense and is prepared to fight any stupid lawsuits and sue the state itself, so we have that at least but it’s still a very bleak moment in an already bleak time for this country.

And of course what would a slap in the face to LBGTQ+ people everywhere be without Disney somehow making it worse? During this mess since Disney has a lot of stake in florida, Disney Fans were HOPING the company would speak up against the bill, maybe even use their signifigant pull in the state and vast money bins to combat it in some way. Granted we knew we were likely setting ourselves up for disapointment: this is the company that killed one of it’s finest shows and its possible headliner for being gay as shit, and had about 87 “FIRST GAY CHARACTERS” in various franchises that are either just queer coded or could easily be edited out of foreign dubs and releases in homophobic countries before FINALLY balling up and having Phastos be openly gay in a way that can’t be written out for eternals. If there’s something remotely queer in something on D+, they do not put anything about it in the summary to avoid offending the right.. forgetting that this happens anytime they see something remotely gay

So hiding it isn’t going to make them any less homophobic. But while not suprising, CEO Bob Chapek’s comments aren’t any less disgusting:

“I want to be crystal clear: I and the entire leadership team unequivocally stand in support of our LGBTQ+ employees, their families, and their communities. And, we are committed to creating a more inclusive company — and world. We all share the same goal of a more tolerant, respectful world. Where we may differ is in the tactics to get there. And because this struggle is much bigger than any one bill in any one state, I believe the best way for our company to bring about lasting change is through the inspiring content we produce, the welcoming culture we create, and the diverse community organizations we support.”

To break down all the ways Bob is talking bull patties in this statment:

1) “ we are committed to creating a more inclusive company “ You have canceled 2/3 shows that have had a queer character prominently in the cast so far, with the only one you haven’t still up in the air and would not let ducktales outright confirm a character was a lesbian nor gravity falls confirm two characters were gay till the very last minute. You took 20 films into the mcu, not including pre+ shows you barely controlled or cared about, to have an out gay character. And of course we have this clusterfuck from pride last year

2) “ I and the entire leadership team unequivocally stand in support of our LGBTQ+ employees, their families, and their communities.” Again the owl house debalce, where at leat one exec hate dit being gay so much he canceled it and you either were him or did nothing to stop it.

3) Where we may differ is in the tactics to get there. And because this struggle is much bigger than any one bill in any one state” Yes it is.. but “it’s a big ongoing, neverending battle for progress” isn’t an excuse for not doing shit on a smaller scale ESPECIALLY when you do tons of buisness in said state. You have more power than ANYONE other than Ron DeSantis himself to stop this bill and did nothing. even condeming it alone would send DeSantis poll numbers down further into the gutter simply because you create tons of jobs in said state just by existing. And shit like this spirals: other states might be emblodened to do their own version of it. Small thigns can grow into large problems. You should know this, you own fucking ant man. Furthermore, as a wise man once said “the only way for evil to win is for good men to do nothing” By doing nothing.. your enabling this to happen adn impliciitly condoning it. You care more about the money you’d loose making an actual stand, money that would be a drop in the damn bucket for you, than actual decency

4) I believe the best way for our company to bring about lasting change is through the inspiring content we produce, the welcoming culture we create, and the diverse community organizations we support.” The first part IS a good way to go about things. But again your not doing it now and have no clear plans for queer content we can see right now. You might have something up your sleeve and in that case good. But your history of burying queer content or canceling it tells me you aren’t really changing. I’ll belivie it and praise it when I see it.

Furthermore said content.. dosen’t come from you. It comes from the creators, many of the biggest having come out to condemn this shit. Alex retweeted the tweet I used, Dana posted a heartbreaking video about how draining this is, Matt Braly posted in support and Bruce of The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder posted on his twitter a message from the crew condeming the bill.. on the same day an episode aired about gay dads. No one planned for this, it was on the schedule for some time, but Bruce certainly loved the timing.

My point is Disney fucked up royally... UPDATE: This review was originally SUPPOSED to be published thursday but a day long bout of sickness so bad I was unconcious during mos tof that day and in pain when I wasn’t , so naturally the above rant wasn’t published with Chapek’s apology in mind. I”m still going through with this both because said bill passed.. and becaue it took severe and notable backlash from disney’s own creators, staff and the general public for him to actually take a stand against it and by the time he has it’s too late to fix anything. Now if he GENINELY doubles down on queer content and actually trying to make a change after this, I will fully credit him for that but for now it comes off like half hearted ass saving from a man who could’ve done so much more so much sooner As such today’s double feature is dedicated to both showcasing some truly great queer content from recent months, including as recent as yesterday no less, as well as using both episodes to shoot down the bullshit of the bill and disney respectively. So join me under the cut as we get extra super triple gay and super salty at disney and florida shall we?

Craig of the Creek: Fire and Ice

So our first episode up is the most recent episode of Craig of the Creek at the time of this writing, a show I haven’t really covered since I got super behind on it for a while. Like the second part of this double feature I INTENDED to save this for Pride Month.. but it was so relevant to the issue at hand I just had to bump it up.

And COTC has never been remotely shy about Queer content. We’ve had gender nonconforming characters, non-binary characters, and TONS of gay characters: Raj and Shawn, Laura and Cat, the Witches, Jasmine. All supporting sure but all nicely understated and all very present. It’s not hidden or coded, it’s just there as it should be. Proud and beautiful.

The one exception to the shows out and proud nature was Kelsey, brave warrior, bird enthussit and loyal friend. She’s also in third grade, which gives you some context already as to why I felt this one was extra relevant, but more on that soon. She’s also been transparently gay since the show started, having subtext with her friend, archivest and closest frined outside our main trio stacks, and having what amounted to a very obvious crush on wildernessa. The creators even outright confirmed both Kelsey and Stacks were lebsians last year in word of god posts. The question was would the show be able to pull the trigger. While Cartoon Network has gotten better at representation, they could still be gunshy about having a child be openly gay given the whole stupid, entirley wrong school of thought that “Gays should be only a thing adults talk about”.

Fire and Ice’s response was “Yup, one of our three main characters is gay.”. Not the first time, see steven universe, but unlike steven there’s no space rock buffer here: this is a queer child, one of the main characters and she’s gay beyond any resonable shadow of a doubt.

And thus for an event of this weight we do get an episode actually struggling with Kelsey’s sexuality in a painfully realistic way, especially since I myself was in denial for some time and despite being twice kelsey’s age if not more, panicked at the idea I was into men as well as women. I”ve obviously fully accepted it by now, but it was still terrifying. So imagine being a kid who likely knows gay people exist but never realized she was one NAD realizing those feelings because you suddenly realize your in love with one of the only people in your life who it’d destroy you to loose.

And that my friends is the episodes brilliant and heartbrekaing central conflict: At the creek’s secret book club, because of course this recess style book club has a secret book club that was started entirely to trick Kelsey’s friends into reading, the kids are all reading their own books they made. And part of the show, and this episodes strength is it’s built on previous continuity. every other episodes with Stacks has built here and built their relationship to this point: She first bonded with Kesley over reading, helped trick Craig and JP into finally reading a book which lead to said club expanding, then helped kelsey sneak her own book into the library which lead to a kids section after the librarian found out kids wer emaking their own books, and finally their last major ep together, not counting the mercurial halloween special, had Stacks confront kelsey on being left out and thus get included more. Every step here is paved on previous stories in a way that’s accesible, you can watch this episode without having read them, but that still rewards you for taking the trip to get here.

So it’s not a huge shock after tons of romantic subtext and time together that the two’s epic, she ra-esque fantasy story about brave warrior fire and her beloved wizard companion ice takes a turn for the romantic for the duo as they fight a dragon , nor that Craig obllivously points out just how similar kelsey and stacks are to fire and ice.. something that would normally be no problem. Kelsey’s entire life is one long larp. But here it makes Kelsey scream internally as she finally puts the pieces together... and promptly runs the fuck away and tells Stacks she can’t write for a while, musing over the idea, in dramatic monologue of course, that she really could like stacks. Naturally Craig and JP, who badly want a solution to the cliffhanger the story end on, are no help, trying to put themselves ihnto the story (which Kelsey shoudl consider overall, they’d make great supporting cast, but now isn’t the time). We then get what I find an intresting moment.. when kelsey admits she’s stuck, JP knows just who to call: his sister Laura’s girlfriend Kat, who we met way back in season 1, casually introduced as Laura’s childhood friend and longtime friend of the mercers turned girlfriend. And what’s intresting to me is i’ts ambigous: did JP send kelsey to her because she’s a writer.. or because kat is gay and he could sense what was really going on, but knew just taking Kesley over there for what she REALLY needs help with, accepting that she’s gay and her feelings are normal, would just scare her more. And yes JP is legally brain dead half the time... but he has shown he can be wise with romance and not only was pratically raised by his gay sister, but has a stable relationship. Pun unintended. I’d like to think he did.

So from that we get the bets scene of the episode, Kat talking with Kelsey over her work and being geninely impressed while JP plays with his cat Goo, who we need to see more often. It’s a gentle, touching scene as Kat admit’s it’s impressive.. and also not only gets the character thing.. but gets what’s going on. But both her and Laura, who naturally also helps because she’s the best, ease Kelsey into it: Kat simply gently backs Kelsey away from trying to make it not resembler herself, and talks ther through WHY Kesley wants to change it: she’s scared of her feelings. Laura points out what she feels.. is good and it’s not wrong to feel it. And what I like is the angst dosen’t come from the outside but the in... it can be hard to accept what you are even if you know those you love will accept you no matter what. And this beauitful scene of having two experince lesbians help a younger one see what she is is beautiful and she should embrace it.. it’s so damn sweet.

And i’ts why I choose this: because even if flordia wants to pretend gay children don’t exist.. they do and they need someone to reach out to. To guide them and tell them what they are is normal, not hide it because “oh kids can’t be gay”. To embrace it. It really is sad when a , if brilliant, children’s cartoon is doing more to actually educate kids on queerness than the actual goverment running the schools.

Anyways the episode ends on a touching note: Kelsey , now accepting she gay, finishes the story with the two heroes confessing.. and then tells stacks the truth while the rest of the club is distracted.. nad Stacks reciporcates, closing the episode with the two cutely and awkardly holding hands. And this sin’t the end. She hasn’t told craig, Jp or most importantly her daddy guy yet. The journey isn’t done... nad I can’t wait to see where it goes. As if you coudln’t tell this episode is truly excellent, Noel does some of her finest work here, check it out immedeitly.

The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder: A Rope of Sand: Father Figures

So onto disney getting shot in the groin with a gun it designed, manufactured and handed to the shooter.

So we open with Felix’s first role of note since the revivial began. While he had a small cameo last episode coaching the opposing team, this time he’s actual integral to the plot as Oscar lures him to his garage and traps him in there and won’t let him go till he invests in Oscar’s newest scheme: Snackland

Naturally Felix has no intrest in this and Oscar is only trying to dupe his best friend into it because he has such horrifying credit he can only get the loan needed for this latest disaster if someone cosigns. Felix naturally wants no part of this and thankfully before things can turn into a psychological horror movie real fast, Felix tunnels out bugs bunny style.

Unfortunatley for Felix, Oscar is ALSO skilled at bugs bunnying and tunnels into Felix’s house to stalk him some more. Felix still swiftly turns him down before getting into his marriage issues, as he DIRECTLY PUTS IT ‘Sunset... she’s... happy!”

Now I get the original show had these kinda jokes with Felix and sunset.. but it wasn’t funny then.. and almost 20 years have passed. Comedy has evolved to thankfully expunge this shit for the most part. While ther’es stil plenty of ...

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The whole terrible married life played for sitcommy laughs trope has died out in all btu the most hackned of sitcoms and shows. So choosing to keep this of ALL THIGNS, especailly when they eased up on it for the most part with Oscar and Trudy is just utterly baffling. You’ve had 20 years to see this is stupid, why did you not think this through. Just because we liked the show dosen’t mean you can’t fix up things and if the creators didn’t think that, they wouldn’t of added needed representation. This kind of shit died out for a reason.

Anyways the reason Felix is worried is that he fears Sunset is cheating on her with her new partner Barry, aka the sexiset dad in disney history. Right above evil ranting moth dad. Which of course somehow leads to the second overplayed cliche as the punchline becomes

Another outdated and offensive joke. It also is to the show’s credit that despite these jokes.. Barry and his Husband Randall.. have a completely beliviable and wholesome relationship. Whenever we see the two together it’s clear they love each other almost more than anything, with only their kids being as important in their eyes and in a show where the romances and gender politics are handled about as well as that crate full of osolots Oscar illegally imported last week, and while the episode has misteps, it’s handing of these two and their relationship, as well as how they ar eis parents, is not one. We’ll get to the latter in a second.

So while this was going on the kids were competting for tickets via an online video using Lacienga, who after being symathetic in the first ep... is back to her usual self centerted bitchtastic self, calling the others her “followers” and putting her face over zoey’s flute solo.

Naturally given Lil WIzzy is the other competior, our heroines loose but Barry just happens to be working security as a side hustle and invites the girls to come along, with Sunset shooting down an attepmt to provent laceinga to go by felix. God this part of the plot makes me age 10 years I swear.

Okay so at the Pink I Concert, who I like a bit probably because both pink hair and freckles are a thing for me, our heroes meet Randall, KG and Maya’s other dad. We also get great KG content as while Maya is still in resting bitch face towards our heroes for stupid reasons.. despite you know having hung out with one of them last episode for no reason, KG warmly introduces his dad.. which everyone but Djonay gets as them having two dads. It takes her about two minutes to get it.

This ends up being a bad thing though as while their all leaving, Djonay tries to snap a pick of the happy family together, which itself is a really nice moment, showing the dads holding their daughters up after the concert. It’s also a humanizing moment for Maya, one of two in this episode, as it shows her being vunerable for the first time all season. She may be angry around penny and co... but she loves her dads and appricates them.

Penny EXPLICITLY tells her not to and for good reason: While Djonay tries to reflect with “it’s the roaring 2020′s” penny isn’t that naive: just because we’ve come a long way dosen’t mean bigotry dosen’t exist and evne if it didn’t.. it’s still NEVER okay to out someone or their parents. Naturally the second Penny’s not looking after SWEARING not to tell.. Djonay texts everyone she can the picture.

The show does get credit though in how the outing comes out: while there’s a few bigoted dicks, most people either fully accept they have two dads or geninley don’t care because why should they. Someone having two dads should be perfectly normal.

But i’ts clear from Maya and KG’s walk into school the next day i’ts not so easy: social media is one thing but real life.. is a bit more complicated. It’s clear from Maya and Kg’s expressions they know exactly what’s happened: once again someone’s outed their dads, and while ther’es plenty of approving looks from most of the students.. there’s also a nasty message left on KG’s locker. It makes the message painfully obvious but in a way that dosen’t feel overblown: just because most people have grown accepting dosen’t mean everyone accepts lbgtq people or their children, and that this kinda bigotry is just something the two will have to put up with their whole lives, just as their dads have... and i’ts something their used to.

Penny , despite having every reason to hate maya.. feels bad for BOTH of them, getting that as much as she can’t stand her rival’s self righteousness.. no one deserves this, getting only worse when a character I don’t remember from the first series but Penny mentoins having liked so I assume we’re supposed to know him bullies KG. Though KG’s response.. cements how much I love this freaking kid as while he was releatable comic relif before.. this episode fleshes him out as a person. HIs response to being bullied is to actively challenge Frankie to step outside and while Frankie says he’s “nothing to me” and walks out.. it’s very clear the asshole did not expect KG to actually want to fight and feared he’d actually take him.

So Penny tries to figure out who dunnit.. and it takes all of two seconds to realize it was Djonay. And look Djonay did a LOT of shitty things in the original series.. but outing two people’s parents and not giving a shit about the damage she caused is the lowest the fucker has ever sunk. And she outright REFUSES to go sit with them in solidarity when penny offers despite being DIRECTLY RESPONSEIBLE FOR THIS SHIT. Like my god they’d actually put work in to making Djonay less obnoxious, even toning down her stalking after episode 1, but this.... I haven’t seen a character crater this fast since

Oh yes that’ll do. Oh and none of them but micheal stand by her on this. Lacienga I get, she’s just selfish as hell, but Zoey? I get she got peer pressured before but here that’s not the excuse. Her excuse is and I quote “I’m running for class president and have to stay neutral on this issue”. and much like bob she only turns around on the issue when i’ts convient for her. Disney could not have crafted a bullet better shaped for their nuts if they tried.

And yes ONCE AGAIN penny’s friends betray her and look terrible.. I know this suprises few people but.. I GENINELY thought the show had abandoned this shit.. and god does it suck to be proven wrong. Again you had 20 years and fans SCREAMING AT YOU about how bad of a friend Djonay was.. nad you didn’t fix it. What a waste.

Thankfully Micheal stands up for them but Penny’s attempts at making jokes fall flat.. and we get yet another fucking fire bit from KG as while Maya just storms off KG at least explains: While he appricates them sitting down and actually trying to support them, they don’t know them well enough to joke about it.. especially not having a mom as it turns out ,to my suprise as I thought the two were adopted as babies, part of Maya’s anger.. comes from being adopted and likely bounced around in the hell that is the foster system. Of not knowing who her birth parents were and why they abandoned her and then finding loving, wonderful parents.. only for the world to mock and scorn them just for being who they are.

Speaking of which as Penny heads home, Trudy and Oscar are fighting... and Trudy telling her to not fill their daughters head with his nonsense makes it damn clear Oscar, despite Penny thinking otherwise, is a homophobic ass, as proven when he tries to tell her not to hang out with maya and KG. And this is where the ep really shines for me as the homphobia is portrayed realistically: the kids bully at school but only where they can’t get caught, in public sure but not where any teachers are, while Oscar tries to not outright SAY he’s against this to his daughter.. even though ti’s clear he is and the most he can say about KG and Maya’s bullying is “life isn’t fair”.. which EVERYONE glares at him for, knowing i’ts a bullshit way of saying “It’s their parents fault for being gay”. And it fits oscar: he’s been prejudiced, sexist and other stupid shit before. Him being homophobic is not suprising. And for once his mom’s abuse comes off justified saying “this is why I don’t like telling people your my son”. Most other times she’s said that shit it was bad, still is... but here her son is being a bigoted dickhead and refuses to stand down or listen on the topic.

It also shows how even if a parent can teach good values.. they sometimes don’t practice them. Oscar and Trudy taught Penny to respect other people and to hav eempathy.. but when the time comes to man up and show empathy to two men and two kids who need it.. oscar has none. I also give the episode credit for NOT making the main cast exempt from fuckups. Granted I WOUL’DVE liked Djonay to actually suffer for her actions, but when you look at it one of our main family is homophobic, and all but the pansexual one among Penny’s friends, while not against gay people, aren’t willing to actually stand with them if it risks their own comfort or saftey. It shows that sometimes homophobia.. is just doing jack shit about queer problems. And with Penny’s blunder at the lunch table it also shows sometimes even well meaning allies can fuck up. Even if I don’t like Penny’s friends betraying her for the 888th time, I can appricate the creators not holding back and having major characters be bigoted or have bystandar syndrome despite the heavy risk of doing so.

So the next day the family, including the twins and puff, ignore Oscar as he prepares to go try and get his loan anyway.. from Randall who he’s unaware is gay.

We also have Oscar outright trying to suck up to him by putting on sterotypical african garb to just try and score points.. something I actually talked about with my friend @cipher-club who is from africa and enjoyed the bit for how stupid it makes oscar look and added a lair to the gag: Oscar is putting on a costume literally an dfiguartively, not bothering to check his heritage or anything just wanting to score points, something Randall no sells. Randall does geninely bond with oscar, seing oscar as the good natured determined idiot he is and gladly singing the lone. But naturally being this is oscar his biggest enemy is himself.. and upon Barry showing up and the dots connecting in his head, Oscar’s brain about explodes.. and finally does, along with his eyes shattering, when the two kiss, with Randall swiftly taking in the loan. And I like Randall a lot.. and not just because he’d make a good three way with his husband. Seriously he’s like a cuddly bear. No he’s also just a good, genine person whose willing to give Oscar a chance when most wouldn’t.. but will not take homophobic bullcrap for a moment, not getting shouty with oscar but not giving the guy a win either for his blatant prejudice.

So that night, Penny and friends head home from school and see Maya getting jacked by the gross sisters. once again her friends want to stand by and do nothing

But Penny finally shames them into doing the right thing, starting with fake-ass zoey and trickling down. Turns out though the Gross Sisters aren’t jacking Maya for having gay dads.. but the fact Penny was willing to stand up to the three of them on that premise does geninely suprise Maya, shattering her half baked notions of penny and seeing the real person for the first time. The real reason is hilarously simple: their dads both make decent money as a police officer and banker respectively, thus Maya has more to give. Still Maya dosen’t back down, but Barry shows up and Maya dosen’t snitch, earning the sisters respect... for a second till KJ dosen’t want to return ole’s affections because SEXUAL HARRASMENT IS FUNNY RIte. So maya GENINELY thanks penny and we get a great bit about penny standing on a soap box.

So we end on a truly amazing scene, as what was supposed to be a small get together for the neighbors, ended up being most of the neighbors showing up for Gumbo, with the bigoted bully from earlier apologizing and Oscar still being blind from earlier and still trying not to go in. But what I like most is how oscar breaks from his bigotry. As the party linedances to Earth Wind and Fire’s all time banger september, as you do, Randall admits he approved oscars loan afterall as thanks for what Penny did for his kid, recognizing that while Oscar might be an idiot.. he raised a good kid and maybe he CAN change... and recommends he do so by seeing it from penny’s eyes. And it’s by seeing all his friends nad familyd ancing, treating these two men as normal.. that oscar’s vision symolically and literally clears and he sees the two men kiss crying as he does. Is it a bit over the top? Sure. Is it any less poginant, showing Oscar finally realize how stupid he was to judge these kind wonderful men by their orentation, and to not listen to his daughter? NOPE. The following talk betwene penny and oscar is likewise really sweet

Penny: Daddy, I know you don't agree with me. But you and momma taught me to treat other people the way I wanted to be treated. Oscar: Mm-hmm. I know, baby-girl. I'm just glad you listen to the smart things that we say, and ignore the dumb stuff.

It’s a geninely touching ending. Will the prejudice for the Lebowitz-Jenkins end entirely? Probably not. But by one person having the courage to do what’s right.. another realized they were wrong. And sometimes that’s enough

Final Thoughts: As if yo ucoudlnt’ tell this episode is excellent, it’s only issues being ones from the series as a whole they haven’t fixed rather than anything. It’s one of the first shows for kids to geninely tackle bigotry. While I appricate other shows showing everyone being causally acepting, and that still rocks sometimes you still have to tackle bigotry head on if you want to get anywhere.. and they did so with flying colors here. See you next time

Patreon. Please join I’m broke as oscar.

#disney #louder and prouder #the proud family #cotc #craig of the creek #animatoin #lbgtq+#don't say gay #queer conetnt

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wagner-fell · 3 years ago

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I am still very new to this website and I don’t know how link a post but this fic is based on a post by @sandersgrey

(If someone reading this knows how to link a post please either explain it to me or link it in the comments because that post is *amazing*)

“Hmmm,” said Tessa, depositing Mina into Kit’s waiting arms and examining her buzzing phone critically. She shot a quizzical look in his direction.

Jem looked up from his novel. “What is ‘hmmm’, my love?”

Kit mimed vomiting but stopped dead in his tracks when she replied, “it’s Astrid’s mother. You remember her from parent teacher night, don’t you, my darling?” Kit swears they were being extra insufferable just to mess with him but he didn’t have the time to be annoyed when Astrid’s. Mom. Was. Calling. Tessa.

To understand why Kit was panicking as much as he was, you must know that Astrid’s mom was incredibly chill. She never got mad. The worst punishment she’d ever given her daughter was taking away her iPod for a week so she couldn’t listen to Mitski.

Was she calling about last night when Astrid, Mari and Kit threw eggs at the Shadowhunter’s that were giving Mari’s pack a hard time for no reason? No, that couldn’t be it. She’d given them the eggs.

Could the call be about the day before yesterday when Kit and Astrid got distracted doing homework and ended up snapping the coffee table clean in half while battling gladiator style with pool noodles? No, that wasn’t it. She’d just handed Astrid a twenty and told them to go to Kevin’s parents' shop and get a new one. Was she pissed because they ended up spending the money on ice cream instead? No, they ended up finding a table for free in the rubbing bin outside a fancy hotel.

Kit clutched his sister to his chest and prepared for the worst.

“Seo-yoon! What can I do for- Oh, hello Astrid!” Tessa paused briefly, presumably to listen to Astrid speak, and Kit sighed in relief.

“Kit is occupied at the moment but I can relay the message.” Another pause. “Oh don’t be frightened of me. I’m a tots rad mom. Your secret is safe with me.” Kit felt his face flush red as he heard his best friend’s laughter echo across the living room. “Okay! I’ll let him know. He has to get Mina to sleep before he can leave though. Lord knows he’s the only one who can these days.” Tessa chuckled at something Astrid said before wishing her good luck in her endeavour and ending the call.

She turned her attention back to Kit. “Astrid needs your help breaking into your teacher’s home to retrieve her cell phone.”

Kit blinked at her, dumbfounded. “You aren’t mad I’m going to go break the law?”

Because of course he was doing it. Astrid’s dad had bought it for her and he was extremely cautious about money. That was one of three things Kit knew about her dad. He was cheap, he lived in America and he loved the movie Fight Club.

Tessa ruffled Kit’s hair affectionately. “Please. I’ve raised two other Herondales. At least I know about this particular adventure beforehand.”

Mina began snoring softly and Kit handed her back to her mother. He grabbed his bag and started his journey to the door when Tessa added, “she also told me to say hi to a ‘daddy Kit’. Are you ‘daddy Kit?’”

‘Daddy Kit’ closed his eyes and wished for the sweet release of death.

“Why is Kit a daddy,” Jem asked, genuinely confused. “Aren’t I the daddy?”

Kit swung the door open so fast not even a speed rune could have aided him. But not before I heard Tessa reply, “Lily Chen certainly thinks so.”

Mrs. MacNamara clapped her hands together. “Why don’t we all go around and say a few things about ourselves?”

Kit buried his face into his hands. He’d been relieved when no other teacher had fulfilled the Disney channel stereotype of making every student introduce themselves to the new kid. But Mrs. MacNamara didn’t even seem to realize what she was doing.

All Kit’s fellow classmates groan. Expect one. Her hand shot up immediately. She was short, like smaller than Clary short. She wore a baggy pink shirt with the words ‘Queen Glimmer of Etheria’ sewed on with purple sequins and tight black jeans. Her colourful, choppy hair was in a low ponytail and she flew a few strands out of her eyes as her hand wiggled in the hair.

Mrs. MacNamara pointed at her. She stood up and smiled at Kit. “Hi. My name is Astrid. My hobbies include making my little cousin’s girl Barbies kiss, as it should be, and watching television shows where everyone is a terrible person so you can love all of them!”

“And what shows might that be?” asked Kit, already in the process of pulling out his phone and opening the Notes app.

“Grey’s Anatomy, Glee, Grey’s Anatomy again because it’s seventeen seasons as of right now. And to be fair it practically became a different show when they killed off Mark Sloan.”

“That’s enough, Miss Yang,” said Mrs. MacNamara. Astrid sat down and winked at Kit. Then she took out her phone and airdropped him a complete list of all her favorite shows, along with her number.

After Blessica’s pre-birthday birthday party, they went to Cirenworth and stayed up till four A.M. binging them.

They met outside a queer dry bar called Aries Not Welcome, the unspoken gathering place of the Merry Hoes. It was run by a poly lesbian couple in their mid-thirties. Quinn, Sydney and Aliyah may not have served alcohol but at least they were open 24/7.

“Did you bring the shit?”

Kit gave her a look. “The shit? How conclusive.”

“Shut up. You know, the shadowhunter thing.”

“The shadowhunter thing?”

“The, the, the glow stick that you draw with.”

“The glow stick that I draw wi-“ Kit closed his eyes briefly. “Do you mean a stele?”

Astrid snapped her fingers. “That’s it!” Kit shook his head in exasperation, smiling fondly. “I borrowed a torch from Quinn, let’s move.”

“Should I be worried that you know where Mr. Smith lives?” questioned Kit as he followed Astrid’s lead through the park.

“Should I be worried that your mom was fine with us breaking and entering?” she shot back playfully. Kit pushed Astrid and she fell off the path, laughing all the way.

“You called me ‘daddy’ to my mom’s face.”

She just laughed harder, slinging her arm around Kit’s shoulder. “It was over the phone, Christopher. And as I should.”

“Pffffttt. Why did you get your phone taken anyway?” She put her hands into her jumper pocket and looked at the ground. “Astrid.” She remained silent. “Astrid?”

She mumbled something under her breath. “What?” asked Kit.

“I WAS READING NINEJ FANFICTION!” she shouted.

Kit gasped. “I thought you were a die hard Kanej shipper,” he whispered.

“I’m a multishipper, okay?!” she replied, equally quiet.

“Does Blessica know?”

She shook her head. “And she will never find out.”

Kit saw the opportunity and he seized it. “She’ll never find out as long as you never call me daddy in front of either of my parents.”

She removed her arm from his shoulder and guided them out of the park, in the direction of the many apartments that lined this side of town. “I hate you.”

“Well, so does Mari. You're not special, Ast.”

She rolled her eyes. “You know Mari doesn’t actually hate you, right?! They’re just still in the enemy phase of your enemies-to-lovers romance. She only dislikes you because they feel something for you but they don’t know what so she interrupts it as loathing. In reality, her inner soul knows you’re hot and shmexie.”

Kit didn’t know how to process this so he just nodded and follow Astrid in silence to Mr. Smith’s house. (Plus, he was kinda glad that, according to his best friend, he had a little more time for Mari to ‘discover their true feelings’. If Kit screwed this up, he was out of countries to run off to.)

“Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me.”

“What,” asked Kit, turning around to face Astrid and closing the drawer he was rifling through. “Did you find your phone?”

“Yeah. But I also found Blessica’s. She was Snapping Kevin. Platonic my ass. But he took the fucking trans flag out of her phone!”

Kit snatched Blessica’s phone out of her hand to examine it for herself. She was telling the truth. Where the glitter pride flag usually rested was just a clear purple case. Kit couldn’t believe his eyes.

“It’s one thing to misgender her every day.” Blessica had forced all four of the other Merry Hoes to sign a contract saying they wouldn’t do anything to harm him because of it. “But this is the last straw. You know what we have to do.” Oops.

“Yeah, but we don’t have any spray paint.”

Kit eyed Mr. Smith’s pink sofa, blue bar stool covers and white picture frames. “I think I have something better in mind.”

It would have been easier for both parties to just zip off the sofa cushions and tape them to the wall but by ripping them off in strips, they ensured he would have to buy new ones. And judging by the car he drove and the fiji water in his fridge, Mr. Smith could definitely afford it.

That reminded him, “I’ll finish up with this. Go put all his fiji water into my bag.” Astrid saluted him and ran off. “Wait.” She stopped and looked at him. “Steal all the remotes you can find.”

“How is he not awake?,” asked Astrid as they ripped the fabric of his seating from the stool.

He shrugged. “Don’t question it.” He shoved the bundle of cloth into her arms. “Glue this above the pink. I’ll handle the frames.”

“Say the magic word,” she sang.

“Please?”

“No. Lesbian. Come on, I thought you knew me better than that.”

Kit laughed quietly. “Can you lesbian glue this above the pink?”

She grinned at Kit. “It would be my pleasure.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hello! Sorry I haven’t written anything in so long. School just restarted and it has been…a lot.

@adoravel-fenomeno @thechangeling @the-blackdale @the-wckd-powers @thomas-gaypanic-lightwood @im-not-ruined-im-ruination @ithurielkeepsgettingkidnapped @noah-herondale-lightwood @arangiajoan @shelvesofgold @maxboythedog @book-dragon-not-worm @hardlymatters

Very sorry if I forgot anyone. Lmk if you want to be addEd/removEd from the tag list.

#mari the werewolf #mari machado sotomayor #mari machado #kit rook #kit herondale #astrid yang #blessica reyes #Kevin chu #tessa grey #jem carstairs #lily chen #mina carstairs

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whatdoesshedotothem · 2 years ago

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Friday 2 November 1832

8 ½

11 10

we fretted ourselves to sleep last night she lay on me as usual to warm her stomach and then and then lay in my arms but I was perfectly quiet and never touched her queer the tears ssilently trickling from my cheeks down hers ssomehow I was shockingly attendri tho’ perpetually saying to myself well I care not what she decides I care not much for her on awakening found myself as tearful as ever just before getting up I got scissors took up her night chemise and attempted to cut the lock but kissed her queer gave her the scissors ssaid she must cut it for me herself and threw myself into the great chair she soon gave me the golden lock threw herself on the chair by me we wept and kissed I thanked her and she left me – F51 ½° at 8 ½ am and damp drizzling morning - packed my travelling bag downstairs and breakfast at 10 - both of us attendries and the tears starting perpetually I said my mind was made up for the worst she said well but she had not given her answer yet she had begged me before getting up not to come again till Monday I only asked her to send James over as early in the morning as she could with a note containing her answer her letter to Mr A- is also to be sent made a thousand apologies but only gave her this trouble that I might have a little while an hour or two for preparation and then I would be off to see her she seemed pleased at my request saying yes it would be better she wished to try the effect of absence from me had near given her answer the night we returned from and now wished she had done it then I said that as things had turned out I was thankful it was as it was she said how well I behaved that I could not be unhappy she would and did mend my gloves begged me to promise to let her have a night chemise for a pattern but she saw I declined promising she hoped she should do many more things for me never knew till now how much she was attached to me I made no reply no reply but that she would know I was ssilent merely because I doubted what answer I ought to make she hung upon me and cried and sobbed aloud at parting saying well I hope we shall meet again under happier circumstances ah said I any circumstances would be happier than suspense and hurried off would not anyone suppose from her conduct and manner that she means to say yes? well said I to myself as I walked off a pretty scene we have had but surely I care not much and shall take my time of suspense very quietly and be easily reconciled either way - home in less than ½ hour at 12 10 it rained all the way and latterly pretty smartly - sat talking to my aunt but nothing about Miss W- Mr Jeremiah Rawson came at 12 40 and staid 40 minutes not meaning he said to have gone away without bargaining but he only bade £160 per acre and I would not abate at all from what I asked when he was here i.e. the middle price better than 2 prices at which my uncle had sold the lower bed to Messrs. Oates and Green, and Hinscliffe and company - Mr JR- said he thought I should have been more reasonable - said if he knew me at all he would know that I should not swerve from what I said - but that in fact I had heard a good deal about the coal since I saw him, and so far from being better, should be worse to bargain with - said that even if we agreed as to price I would only sell the coal in parts and parcels - he wanted all they could get with their water head hold - not said I, till I know what and how much you can get - well but they would let nobody go into the works till we had made the bargain - very well then said I, I will not see according to the quantity you can get, but according to the quantity I myself choose to dispose of which I will take care shall be little enough at a time - I do not want to loose anybody’s coal but my own - he did not believe their water head hold would come lower than the house (Shibden Hall) but owned it would go down in a diagonal taking up a good deal below - said they could not get more than a breadth of 20 yards from the old water head holds of Oates Hinscliffe and company - he owned that if they could not soon agree with me they must turn their works in another direction - said I should be going from home in January (to the continent I hoped if I could on account of my aunt’s health) and after that should have nothing done about the coal till my return - when he saw me so determined he said well he must consider about it again - said they should want an air pit

SH:7/ML/E/15/0138

or two - I said I thought one would do - had more great objection to that if not inconveniently placed and if the stuff was properly taken away so as to make no eyesore - but I must know where it was to be placed - he mentioned the upper bed, as if he meant to have both the lower bed and what remains of the upper at £160 per acre - of this I took no apparent notice - he wished me to look at the coal leases to see what were the priced my uncle sold at and begged me to write and fix my price - the latter I said was unnecessary as I should not take less than I had already named - but at last agreed to write and name the 2 prices my uncle sold at - went to my room at 2 and from then to 6 taking paint out of the sleeves etc of my new pelisse (done on Tuesday in Miss W-‘s new greenhouse) and putting away and tidying my things - dinner at 6 ¼ - afterwards till 9 ¼ wrote out the last 16 lines of Wednesday and the whole of yesterday and so far of today - went into my little room at 9 20 – read tonights’ courier – came upstairs at 10 10 – rainy day – F57° at 10 ¼ pm

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rethesun · 3 years ago

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Idk it's my first and probably last tumblr post, "reading into things 2.0?"

Click this link if you would like to share the original post that prompted this. Please go like it too! I read this link yesterday, and it clarified things I thought I understood well enough already. You'll need to read the source first for my commentary to make sense. Thank you for reading.

Question: Did harry ever say that he was unlabelled?

@genuineconspiracy answered:

As far as I know, the word "unlabelled...."

Harry's quote from GQ in 2013: "Bisexual? Me? I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I'm not."

Now fast forward to a 2014 One Direction interview when Harry casually made a few pointed comments. In a separate interview on the same day, Niall scoffed at the suggestion that his next date could be a man, Harry bumped him on the knee and quipped: "Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it."

"The "unlabelled" thing comes from the time...why queer artists should be asked to subject themselves to that treatment."

1. I do not speak for everyone in the LGBTQ+ community: This section discusses why I'm not pressuring myself to label my sexuality for now/maybe forever or decide to come out as unlabeled. Whether with any intention or not, Harry has softened barriers for some things to feel less taboo/daunting. Most of us do not want to subject ourselves to different treatment, especially if it's negative. Not all of us have the privilege to do so either.

2. I agree it is not justifiable, and he's right to question them. Being open to everyone isn't easy. Now imagine yourself no less human than right now, but add millions of eyes on you. It's insensitive to assume about someone when they could be doing their best/what is comfortable—please let's stop invalidating what we don't understand.

"the line "It's not a case of: I'm not telling you cos I don't want to tell you."....his first opening band, the queer girl group MUNA...it's that he can't talk about it."

Maybe. I agree; the quotes from the opening band MUNA are telling. There is so much that is telling. Check this out? Harry said he shows how he feels about many things with his actions, more than he verbalizes. The other side of this is Harry has also said he likes that there is a sense of mystery about his life now, and he keeps as much as he can/wants(?) private. I don't blame him whether that's the sole reason or not; it's valid.

"The reporters asking...know that's a possibility for him...by setting up barriers for queer people to clear - like a formal coming out."

I entirely agree.

"I believe the last comment Harry gave about his sexuality in the Guardian interview makes it pretty clear what he meant:

Harry: You respect that someone's gonna ask. And you hope that they respect they might not get an answer. "

"He's telling us that he's not commenting on his identity...He doesn't seem to care what other people think."

He really doesn’t. I don’t perceive Harry as insulted by any genders or sexualities. He’s unbothered comfortable and accepting and I think it would be great if more people felt that way. Some people still live through a prejudice lens and use different labels as insults when they shouldn’t be at all.

"We all know that no one except Harry knows the reality, so we're all just doing the best with what we do know."

As far as labeling goes, I understand where others are coming from, and at the same time still implore we respect what is shared and what we currently know. I'm cis, so I'm not the most equipped to address this. Generally, no one should change pronouns of someone unless said person puts out a message for everyone or directly tells you. To clarify, even though other pronouns are not disrespectful by themselves, assuming Harry would want us to change his, is. So we should all keep using he/him unless told otherwise. The same is to be said about sexuality. However, words like gay queer and no known label are always acceptable because those are umbrella terms for the lgbtq+ community.

My conclusion on the above and what I learned: I also respect that people have different opinions on things in this fandom, and we won't all arrive to the same conclusions, and that's okay. It is best not to assume things if we do not fully know, and finally, if you do respect people enough to ask them, be prepared not to receive an answer or the one you prefer to hear.

More: Queer people are under no obligation to announce or owe the world an explanation and are still just as valid if they don't make their identities loud. It does not sit right with me to speak for people, so I do not think it is disrespectful to understand the topic more. Now I know how to explain better if I am ever defending him or myself honestly. (separate circumstances)

What Harry does not share or does share is his right. Someone's mental/physical health and happiness should matter more than what we may think is true. I am grateful for the things Harry has done, inspiring the world and making it better. I believe sexuality and gender are fluid, and so as I would for anyone, I support Harry without boxing him in, and that extends to career or personal things—unless he chooses to.

Off-topic, but here is a vague message as an extended ending to this post because I wrote it back in June 2021 when Harry was acting for the film My Policeman: As of late, it hurts more than usual that Harry is constantly being suffocated by crowds of people who want something from him, mainly because I know that he'd give them everything if he could. We can do better, can't we? So let's work on understanding one another. Practice extending more kindness and respect, whether it's family, friends, a colleague, social media anon, stranger/celebrity. We can all agree on one thing: Harry deserves the best this world has and to be treated as well as he treats all of us.

#chooselove #harry styles #sexuality #gender #lgbtq+#rethesun #source: me #source: other bloggers #harry styles sexuality #harry styles gender

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eolewyn1010 · 4 years ago

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3 seasons of Charité - upsides and downsides

Includes spoilers for all three seasons!

What I like about Charité, season 1:

- Ida is a relatable and stubborn woman, and while I think the protagonists of the newer two seasons are written better and more interestingly, she makes for a good central character

- Behring is great to watch, complex, enthusiastic, arrogant, passionate, desperately forlorn, sweetly encouraging, irascible, honest, and I’m always torn between loving and hating him with all my heart

- he also stands in for how badly society was suited to handle people with psychological issues back in the day

- actually, none of the characters are simple or one-sided; expectations are often subverted – Behring is not heartless, but he can’t just be “saved” either, neither Koch nor Virchow are as benign as they seem at first, Tischendorf is not the sweet young Prince Charming who’ll give Ida the dream life she deserves, Hedwig is not a brainless little floozie with no deeper thoughts or feelings, neither Therese nor Martha are all the strict boss ladies they want to be, Edith is not just a snotty bitch etc.

- medical history of that time, a blunt look on methods and circumstances

- the rivalry between the doctors; it’s fun to watch them passive-aggressively piss on each other

- the staging of the Tuberculin scandal was really effective, with all the hyping, the downfall and the consequences

- we get sweethearts! Stine is a sweetheart, Else is a sweetheart, Therese is a sweetheart, Dr. Kitasato is a sweetheart, and most of all Dr. Ehrlich. I like kind people, ok? Especially in a setting where so many people are asses

- the music is atmospheric and quite nice

- despite two options of marriage, the female protagonist remains single and gets to focus on her career, even in a time and setting that’s not supportive

- I’m having a blast with Minckwitz – he’s such a bitch, I love it

What I hate:

- the lesbian dies for no good reason

- did our main character really have to be a tragic, left-all-alone orphan in debts? Would you like some cheese with that whine?

- the big, hammy speeches get on my nerves after a while

- my sweet lesbian Therese dies, awfully, of frickin’ tuberculosis

- say what you will, Ida and Behring could have made it work; I think they would have been good for each other. Kinda disappointed

- Else Spinola deserved better

- poor Therese dies, thinking that God punishes her for being in love with Ida

- those weird slo-mo shots between scenes don’t serve any purpose

- what’s with the random fortuneteller scene? What was that good for?

- THERESE DIES! We go with f***king Bury Your Gays??? F*** YOU!

_________________________________

What I like about Charité, season 2:

- Anni and Dr. Sauerbruch – different than with Ida, we get two focal characters who aren’t presented as doubtlessly morally good. On the contrary, Anni starts out as quite the happy-go-lucky little Nazi follower – and then we get all the character development; hell yeah!

- Anni chooses to keep and raise her disabled baby herself, come hell or high water; damn, she fights for that kid. And Martin is positive disabled representation, too – thanks for giving me a handicapped veteran who’s not a bitter, drunk wreck just whining about what a cripple he is! He’s got a grip on his life, and the leg only ever comes up on three occasions; it doesn’t define him

- Otto, Martin, Doc Jung, Margot, Maria Fritsch and Kolbe are more clearly positive characters, but they aren’t one-sided, either – like, Otto plays that bright sunshine, but there’s so much seething in him. My sweet baby boy

- same for the negative characters, because they aren’t flat either; Artur, de Crinis and Christel are super interesting, all different levels between quiet, only semi-aware compliance and full-on, not-so-blind fanaticism. Gawd, those shitheads, but they’re fascinating to watch

- all them relationships – Margot-Ferdinand, Otto-Martin, Otto-Anni, Artur-Anni, Margot-Doc Jung, Ferdinand-Doc Jung, Anni-de Crinis, Bessau-Artur, Martin-Christel, Otto-Christel, Anni-Martin… there are so many interplays, so many dynamics that influence each other! SO many layers!

- the acting is better, I think; the characters altogether feel less wooden, much more human than the first time around – perhaps because it’s not 19th century manners anymore now, I dunno; I’m getting really emotional over shit, and I love it

- incorporation of the political and social situation into the hospital setting – much more than in the first season, the state ideology influences the way the doctors can do their work, and many of them do their best to still hold onto their duty when everything around them falls apart, which is beautiful

- power struggles between the characters in charge and ideological / political nuances are more subtle; nothing is black and white

- but there’s nothing subtle about the presentation of Nazi crimes and how many people actually just went along willingly – that cold bluntness is just what that subject needs

- interactions with patients are better this time; they’re more now than passive, pitiable creatures who quietly die their way, they’re characters with their own minds and drives (Lohmann, Magda Goebbels, Hans von Dohnanyi, even Emil)

- the music is even better than the first time around, I love it – so gentle most of the time, but it can also really help to build the tension

- we get a very sweet, functioning queer romance between characters who consist of more than “well, they’re gay and it troubles them”, and they both live – THANK YOU for learning your lesson; there was no good reason to have the gay character die, so Otto and Martin get a happy end. Was that so difficult?

What I hate:

- Yrsa von Leistner is so effing random. Who the hell wrote this? If you can’t incorporate a character properly, why bother including them in the first place?

- the passivity and anonymity of the disabled children – why didn’t Artur or Anni ever get to perceive one of them as a person? That girl Traudel for example, Anni could have talked to her

- there’s a slight tendency to “I’ll just tell the character next to me” exposition – Artur when he and Anni wake up together that one morning (why wouldn’t Anni know yet what he’s working on? That long-winded explaining sentence just came off as awkward), Peter Sauerbruch to Margot about the Dohnanyis and Bonhoeffers

_________________________________

What I like about Charité, season 3:

- I’m all pro ProPro! Honestly, that man is a treat, both how the character is written and how the actor carries the situations and interactions he’s in. He’s arrogant and narcissistic, but he’s also principled, insightful and caring, unpolitical in a smart way and honest in a quiet way, and he gets how people are, and his mentorship of Ella, how he supports and encourages her and also bluntly gives her the dressing-down she needs, is a thing of beauty. And that she has to earn his attention first

- I have a personal soft spot for the scene where ProPro is doing his sports and going jogging while talking with Ella, and then just has her run along. That man’s hilarious, I love him

- Ella’s spirited, and while I don’t love the protagonists of this season as much as those of the second, she’s still great in her own right – the dedication to her research, the strength with which she handles the shit that’s thrown at her

- everyone’s so snarky!

- the wider focus on medical history and research; we see a lot past surgery now

- everyone’s taking shit in stride – staff is running off to the West? Ok; rest gets double shifts. We don’t have a senior doctor on the ward this morning anymore? We do shit ourselves. An illness we’re not prepared to treat anymore because, actually, there should be vaccination enough? We’ll make do. I love that spirit

- positive disabled representation! Rapoport’s daughter actually interacts with people, is presented as a person, has dreams and strengths and can handle her issues – yes, please!

- we get an intersex character, not for long and the story isn’t treated with the care and attention it should have, but props for the effort, I guess

- the setting allows for Ella to focus fully on her work and passion, not really giving much on romance and marriage without that seeming out of place – Ida’s conversations most often revolved around a man, Anni was considered a Nazi role model for being married and a mother, but Ella, while the relationship with Kurt is an option, never prioritizes this and never needs it

- personally, I’m smelling threesome subtext between Ella, Kurt and Alex Nowack – that may just be me, but I like it

- how everyone handles situations, how the changes happening in the country are incorporated into the world the characters live in, how they are able to cope with stuff and make decisions, in the end even without shifting blame

- even more so than in season 2, I really like how human the patients and their relatives are, that interacting with them in the right way is made an important part of the doctors’ work, even when some of the patients are asses

What I hate:

- people are mumbling – it’s not dialects, it’s not accents; they’re mumbling. They never were in the first two seasons

- the cancer stories were really no favorite of mine; what’s with the teary melodrama and the sudden gory shock value? Come on, Charité, you can do better. Presenting the human side of everything has always been the strength of this series, so why going so overboard now?

- I dunno, the crime cases ProPro investigates don’t seem to be incorporated that well? I suppose they’re there to establish his main field of pathology, but they spend a lot of time on that “Biter” case, and I’m not sure why

- would have been nice if Inge Rapoport had gotten to interact a bit with important characters other than her husband, Arianna and Kraatz – she’s a lovable, strong female character; why keep her so one-sided?

- what’s with the black’n’white painting? You showed us how conflicted and nuanced people under the Nazi regime could be; why now the clear line between “those people are good” and “that one sold his soul to the Party”?

- you show us an intersex person, introduce her as a character, make us sympathize, show us her hindrances and possibilities – and then she’s just gone? What about her treatment? Positive development? Making Kraatz’ interactions with her a counterpoint to his interactions with Doc Rapoport? What WAS that?

#Charité #personal opinions #comparable review #Charité at War #Charité season 3

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noctomania · 4 years ago

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Just having a moment

Dad already had been fighting a lung infection for a while when the pandemic hit. After about the first year, I think, of the pandemic his health has steadily gotten worse. It's been one thing after another and now we're looking at a situation where he may be facing the end of his life. He can't breathe well on his own and he has an extreme phobia of wearing a mask so he's been apparently a bit difficult during the pandemic in terms of wearing a mask, but also now that he needs a mask to help him breathe. The only way they could get it to work was sedating him (with his permission) so he can wear it.

I'm at work rn but I'm not *here* really. I couldn't tell you anything about the last hour. Ive not cried, the only time i really felt close to crying was bc I was hearing my sister cry on the phone. I'd known this was coming and I guess either I'm prepared? Or just hasn't really hit yet? Idk. It's complicated bc my relationship with my parents lately has not been great, we don't really talk. I still haven't talked to my stepmom. I don't know how to explain why I feel a way towards them. Bc it's not like a blunt obvious issue yanno? It's just they have a culture about them that I don't deal well with i guess.

I don't know that I'll be able to speak to him before he passes, idk what the next steps are, and I can't be there so I'm just stuck knowing that things are going south and that I have nothing to do but sit and wait for the inevitable. It's not that I don't feel anything, I feel sick and tired and frustrated. But also plain overwhelmed so I can't even get the energy to deal with any of that feeling. I do care, I just deal with things differently bc I have to.

Anything to do with family immediately triggers a ton of shit I don't want to think about yet think about all too often. I can't shut shit off. And what's worse is there is also a part of my brain saying I'm selfish and petty and that nothing but other people's issues matter and all that shit. That if i had real problems I wouldn't be where i am. But then i remember I'm only where i am bc I have fought so hard to keep from giving up even though I have wanted, dreamed, fantasized about not having to fight anymore and just giving up.

Do you know how infuriated i get with myself when I am triggered by a fuckin pill bottle bc I feel like I'm the one who made myself mentally ill? But i have to give myself grace and remind myself that I'm not in a tunnel and that isn't Destiny - i just need to let the moment pass and the moment pass and the moment pass. That nobody makes themselves miserable on purpose. That not all issues have a place to lay blame. That the important thing is to try to take care of myself. Which is hard when I'm not getting the prompts I should or don't understand them or whatever.

When i last talked to dad he said he'd always been proud of me. Idk why or how. I'd never really thought about whether or not I make them proud. Idk why. I've felt just difficult, inconvenient, a financial drain. When i moved into their house they put me to work as soon as it was legal, when it was exhausting me bc I was in school and literally hurting bc my feet are shit, I was shamed for quitting. When I was turning 18 i was given an ultimatum to either go to college - which I did not want to do bc I had no idea what I wanted to do & it was a lot of money - or move out and find a way to live off of what a queer 18yo in texas fresh out of high school could find to sustain them. Somewhat homeless during college, as every holiday and summer break it was like ok who is going to let me sleep on their couch while the dorms are closed? Eternally grateful to those who put me up here. Can think of at least 3 households who did. I hate accepting help. It was humbling and I always tried to be a good guest. I never felt like I was good enough and always felt like a burden despite never being treated as such by these households. They treated me as family.

That continued as college ended going from couch to a full time live-in temp job to scrambling to find an apartment that I couldn't really afford when ppl couldn't put me up anymore. Applying to over a hundred jobs. Then landing an overpriced room in a precarious situation I was too naive at the time to navigate that also almost landed me on the street. When I reached out to my parents just for guidance on what I could do, they took it as me asking to move in with them (which i never asked for that i recall), said they couldn't help me, and that I'd have to sign up for the military if I was struggling (which was illegal at the time bc of the trans ban they clearly didn't care to know about despite knowing their son is trans) Anyway...

Idk what there was of me to be proud of. What did I do? What you told me to do? Is that what you're proud of? My submissiveness? Ruining my life for your opinion?

He also asked if I was happy. Happy? In this world? In this pandemic? I said I'm content bc at this point I didn't feel allowed to complain about anything but certainly couldn't lie. I wasn't allowed to feel vulnerable about what I'm facing every day. Someone always has it worse.

Well no shit someone always "has it worse", bc that's not a real standard. Am I not allowed to say it's hot out bc people in hell don't get snow cones?

Part of self care I've had to learn is that grace with yourself and taking yourself seriously. This is a very hard thing to do for some of us. Some of us will let ourselves get to a point where it's worse than had we dealt with it earlier on. Some of us struggle with knowing what it looks like to ask for help or where or how or even allowed to. Or even necessarily to know when we should.

I'm trying to balance the self care with trying not to be self-absorbed. I'm trying to still differentiate between the two as somewhere along the way I'd been taught they are the same when it comes to me but nobody else. I'm trying not to believe this whole post is self pity bc it's really just relaying the facts. I just can't help but imagine the shit being talked about me behind my back bc I know it happens.

Idk there's no real end to this and i should be more focused at work. I just needed to dump this off.

#dear god im an emotionally complex person but i dont feel like i have permission to be

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skgway · 4 years ago

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1832 Nov., Fri. 2

8 1/2

11 10/..

We fretted ourselves to sleep last night. She lay on me as usual to warm her stomach and then lay in my arms, but I was perfectly quiet and never touched her queer. The tears silently trickling from [m]y cheeks down hers. Somehow I was shockingly attendri, tho perpetually saying to myself ‘Well, I care not how she decides, I care not much for her.’

On awaking found myself as tearful as ever. Just before getting up I got scissors, took up her night chemise and attempted to cut the lockut [locket]. Kissed her queer gave her the scissors said she must cut it for me herself and threw myself into the great chair. She soon gave me the golden lock, threw herself on the chair by me. We wept and kissed. I thanked her and she left me –

Fahrenheit 51 1/2º at 8 1/2 a.m. and damp drizzling morning – Packed my traveling bag – Downstairs and breakfast at 10 – Both of us attendries and the tears [s]tarting perpetually. I said my mind was made up for the worst. She said, well but, she had not given her answer yet. She had begged me before getting up not to come again till Monday. I only asked her to send James over as early in the morning as she could with a note containing her answer. Her letter to Mr. A[insworth] is also to be sent.

Made a thousand apologies, but only gave her this trouble that I might have a litt[le] while. An hour or two for preparation, and then I would be off to see her. She seemed pleased at my request, saying yes it would be better. She wished to try the effect of absence from me. Had near given her answer the night we returned from [York] and now wished she had done it then.

I said that as things had turned out I was thankful it was as it was. She said how well I behaved. That I could not be unhappy. She would, and did, mend my gloves. Begged me to promise to let her have a night chemise for a pattern. But she saw I declined promising. She hoped she should do many more things for me. Never knew till now how much she was attached to me. I made no reply but that she would know I was silent merely because I doubted what answer I ought to make. She hung upon me, and cried, and sobbed aloud at parting, saying ‘Well, I hope we shall meet again under happier circumstances.’ ‘Ah,’ said I, ‘any circumstances would be happier than suspense,’ and hurried off.

Would not anyone suppose from her conduct and manner that she meant to say yes? Well said I to myself, as I walked off, a pretty scene we have had. But surely I care not much and shall take my time of suspense very quietly and be easily reconciled either way –

Home in less than 1/2 hour at 12 10/.. – It rained all the way, and latterly pretty smartly – Sat talking to my aunt but nothing about Miss W[alker]. Mr. Jeremiah Rawson came at 12 40/.. and staid 40 minutes not meaning he said to have gone away without bargaining but he only bade £160 per acre and I would not abate at all from what I asked when he was here before, i.e. the middle price between the 2 prices at which my uncle had sold the lower bed to Messieurs Oates and Green, and Hinscliff and Company –

Mr. J[eremiah] R– [Rawson] said he thought I should have been more reasonable – Said if he knew me at all he would know that I should not swerve from what I said – But that in fact, I had heard a good deal about the coal since I saw him, and so far from being better, should be worse to bargain with –

Said that even if we agreed as to price I would only sell the coal in parts and parcels – He wanted all they could get with their water head hold – Not said I, till I know what and how much you can get – Well, but they would let nobody go into the works till we had made the bargain – Very well then said I, I will not sell according to the quantity you can get, but according to the quantity I myself choose to dispose of, which I will take care shall be little enough at a time – I do not want to loose anybodies coal but my own –

He did not believe their water head hold would come lower than the house (Shibden hall) but owned it would go down in a diagonal taking up a good deal below – Said they could not get more than a breadth of 20 yards from the old water head holds of Oates Hinscliff and company – He owned that if they could not soon agree with me they must turn their works in another direction –

Said I should be going from home in January (to the continent I hoped if I could on account of my aunts health) and after that should have nothing done about coal till my return – When he saw me so determined, he said well he must consider about it again – Said they should want an air pit or 2 – I said I thought one would do – Had no great objection to that if not inconveniently placed, and if the stuff was properly taken away so as to make no eyesore – But I must know when it was to be placed –

He mentioned the upper bed, as if he meant to have both the lower bed and what remains of the upper at £160 per acre – Of this I took no apparent notice – He wished me to look at the coal leases to see what were the prices my uncle sold at and begged me to write and fix my price – The latter I said was unnecessary as I should not take less than I had already named – But at last agreed to write and name the 2 prices my uncle sold at –

Went to my room at 2 and from then to 6 taking paint out of the sleeves etc. of my new pelisse (done on Tuesday in Miss W– [Walker]’s new greenhouse), and putting away and tidying my things – Dinner at 6 1/4 – Afterwards till 9 1/4 wrote out the last 16 lines of Wednesday and the whole of yesterday and so far of today –

Went into the little room at 9 20/.. – Read tonight’s courier – Came upstairs at 10 10/.. – Rainy day – Fahrenheit 57º at 10 1/4 p.m. –

#anne lister #ann walker #shibden hall 1832 #anne lister code breaker

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hellomynameisbisexual · 5 years ago

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How Do Bi Parents Come Out to Their Kids?

It’s not always straightforward.

By Lux Alptraum

As the author of multiple memoirs, psychotherapist Wendy C. Ortiz, M.F.T., is no stranger to personal disclosures. In her books, she’s told readers about her teenage sexual exploits and her struggles as a 20-something Angeleno, and she’s even provided lengthy descriptions of her dreams. But over the past few years, Ortiz has been navigating a different disclosure wholly unlike the ones that have shaped her literary career: coming out as bisexual to her young daughter.

“We’re still trying to find a way to explain it without opening a can of worms that we are not quite prepared for yet,” Ortiz tells SELF.

Ortiz’s nine-year-old daughter has always been aware that her parents are not straight—being raised in a household with two moms made that evident. But Ortiz’s bisexuality has been a more complicated identity to discuss, one that expands beyond her current relationship and encompasses a broader swath of who she is as a person. Over the past few years, she’s been experimenting with how to be open and honest with her daughter in an age-appropriate, accessible way that offers comfort and clarity rather than just creating more confusion. Though Ortiz and her family have started the conversation, it remains a work in progress.

She’s hardly the only parent to find herself in this situation.

There are a lot of reasons bi parents choose to come out. For many bi parents, sharing their identity can feel essential to providing their children with an open-minded understanding of the world around them. “I’ve always wanted to give my son what I didn’t have growing up,” Ellie W., 25, tells SELF. Her own religious upbringing didn’t include open conversations about sex and identity.

For others, being out about their identity can feel like a way of encouraging honest communication with their children. “I decided relatively early on in my then partner’s pregnancy that I wasn’t going to be secretive about stuff, because I had dealt with a lot of secretive approaches in my own family around all sorts of things. It was bad for me and also bad for the rest of the family,” Jerome C., 44, tells SELF.

And in a political environment that’s increasingly hostile to LGBTQ+ folk, some parents see informing their children about their bisexuality as an important part of preparing their kids for the future. “To be trans and bi is to be pretty visible,” Nola P., 36, tells SELF. “I wanted to make sure that they understood some of the things that might happen, and how it might affect our family directly.”

That sense of community, identity, and visibility is a big part of why some parents might feel driven to open up this discussion with their kids. Being open about your bi identity can help combat bisexual erasure and help kids understand bisexuality not just as an abstract concept but as the identity of someone they’re close to. It can also help create a sense of open dialogue that will serve kids later in life if they wind up identifying as queer.

“Parents might think in the back of their heads, Well, what if my child was bisexual? I would want them to feel like they could come out to me. So I should come out to them and be that role model that they deserve,” Dan Rice, M.Ed., executive director at the sex education organization Answer at Rutgers University, tells SELF.

Indeed, Mike F., 42, was prompted to come out to his teenage daughter after she came out to him first. “I don’t remember the exact conversation, but she made a joke about not being ‘exactly straight,’ and I said, ‘You and me both, baby girl.’ She paused, looked at me, and said, ‘Cool,’” he tells SELF.

Of course, there are a few reasons coming out as bisexual to your kids can be complicated. For one, bi parents who choose to broach this topic with their children run the risk of facing judgment from family members, friends, and community members who consider this disclosure to be TMI. On a popular podcast I listen to, a women’s health expert advised an audience member against coming out to her daughter as bi, saying that it was a discussion best reserved for older kids. The expert’s reasoning? The audience member’s young child wasn’t ready to hear about who her mommy liked to have sex with.

Um. While most of us would agree that frank discussions of adults’ sex lives aren’t an appropriate topic for children, coming out as bisexual to your kids in no way means giving them an extensive overview of everyone you’ve slept with (and how). “Being bi isn’t just about how you have sex and who you have sex with, it’s about how you understand desire and love and connection and community,” Cory Silverberg, an award-winning sex educator and author of Sex Is a Funny Word, tells SELF.

Though some parents might fret about the possibility of burdening their children with too much information at too young an age, Rice doesn’t think parents need to worry about having this conversation too soon. “It’s never too early,” he says. “What we’re explaining to children is love, and who we love and have a special love for. Children understand love.”

Then there’s the fact that starting the conversation can feel complicated and intimidating. A simple way in might be a casual disclosure during a discussion about different styles of relationships, something like, “Some people fall in love with people of a different gender, some people fall in love with people of their own gender, and some people, like me, can fall in love with people of any gender.”

It’s also key to keep in mind that your kid might not react with enthusiasm or even interest. “This could be a conversation that the parent might hope is longer, but maybe the kid isn’t interested, and it’s something to come back to,” says Ortiz, who in addition to navigating this on her own also works with many queer patients as a psychotherapist. Ortiz recommends mainly letting the child lead the discussion: Tie your disclosures to questions they’ve brought up about relationships or love or identity rather than forcing them to listen to a personal monologue that they’re not ready for or couldn’t care less about right now.

In Jerome’s case, he first discussed gender and sexuality with his son when the child was nine. “It was around that time that one of his cousins came out as transgender, so that gave me the opening,” he says. “I tried to make it ‘not a big deal,’ which meant that, in turn, he didn’t seem particularly fazed by anything I was saying or talking about.”

Above all, it’s important to remind your kid that having a bisexual parent doesn’t change things or mean that their life isn’t going to be the same. Even if this information is new to them, it doesn’t change who you are: a parent who loves them very much.

For many, this is bound to be an ongoing discussion, not a single conversation. The conversation you have with your kids about your sexual identity is likely to shift and expand over the years as your children get older and better able to understand more complex topics. Silverberg recommends using pop culture as an entry point to additional conversations. If you’re watching a Disney movie, for instance, you can remind your child that not all princesses marry princes: Some might marry other princesses, some might be happy with either option, and some might decide they’re not interested in marriage at all.

This can be especially useful for younger children. Ellie says her son is too young to understand sexual and romantic attraction, so she describes her own partners as “friends” but encourages him to observe diversity in the world around him. “He seems entirely [unbothered] by the idea that some children can have two mamas or two dadas or two mamas and one dada,” she says. “He found it quite amusing that there are infinite possibilities of how to make up a family.”

In Ortiz’s own home, the conversations about identity started around the time her daughter turned six. It was something, she tells me, that largely happened organically. When her daughter started talking about kids at school having crushes on each other, Ortiz and her partner gently brought up the idea that people can have crushes on someone the same gender as them as well as on people of different genders. Meanwhile, shows like the cartoon Steven Universe showcase queer relationships in a fun and casual way and have given the family an opportunity to talk about the wide variety of relationships humans might arrange ourselves in.

When Ortiz’s daughter stumbled on photos of Ortiz with an old boyfriend, Ortiz didn’t shy away from being honest about who that person was in her life. “In the last year we’ve approached the subject that I was once married to a man,” Ortiz says. “It’s like, ‘Oh, this is Mommy’s identity,’ versus her other mother who identifies as lesbian.”

As the years have passed, it’s become clear that the many conversations they’ve had about identity and relationships have had an impact on Ortiz’s daughter. When she talks about the future, Ortiz says, her daughter leaves the question of her own orientation open. “She will preface by saying, ‘And I might be with a girl or a boy.’” Thanks to her mothers’ openness about their own identities, she’s able to be confident that whomever her future relationships end up being with, she’ll have the support and love of her family. Which is, of course, what truly matters.

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transastronautistic · 5 years ago

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queer history: a chat with Anne Lister and Leslie Feinberg

you know what i’d love to witness? a conversation between Anne Lister and Leslie Feinberg. can you even imagine it??

Lister wrote, “I am made unlike anyone I have ever met. I dare to say I am like no one in the whole world.” but i think she’d quickly realize that Feinberg is “made like” her -- that Feinberg has a very similar sexuality and gender expression to her own, and truly gets what it’s like to be persecuted for those things. Lister’d be so thrilled and relieved to find she’s not alone!

and Feinberg? when ze was younger, ze was desperate to find hirself in history -- just like Lister, ze was convinced that “No one like me seemed to have ever existed” (Transgender Warriors, p. 11). Feinberg would absolutely recognize Lister as a part of the big beautiful queer history that ze eventually discovered.

there are many parts of Feinberg’s story that come to mind as i watch Gentleman Jack -- such as when Lister is talking to the little boy Henry, who asks if she’s a man, and she replies:

“Well, that's a question. And you are not the first person to ask it. I was in Paris once, dressed extremely well, I thought, in silk and ribbons, ringlets in my hair. Very gay, very ladylike. And even then, someone mistook me for a...Mm. So, no, I am not a man. I'm a lady. A woman. I'm a lady woman. I'm a woman.”

when i watched that scene, i immediately thought of this passage from Feinberg’s Transgender Warriors:

“...I was considered far too masculine a woman to get a job in a store, or a restaurant, or an office. I couldn’t survive without working. So one day I put on a femme friend’s wig and earrings and tried to apply for a job as a salesperson at a downtown retail store. On the bus ride to the interview, people stood rather than sit next to me. They whispered and pointed and stared. ‘Is that a man?’ one woman asked her friend, loud enough for us all to hear. The experience taught me an important lesson. The more I tried to wear clothing or styles considered appropriate for women, the more people believed I was a man trying to pass as a woman. I began to understand that I couldn’t conceal my gender expression” (p. 12).

over a century separated these two, but people who could or would not conform to their assigned gender suffered in both eras. both of these people longed for a connection to a wider community of people like them, longed to know why people like them were persecuted and hated and told that God reviled them. but while Lister did manage to cultivate a tiny haven for herself of loved ones who accepted her, she never found the wider community that Feinberg found -- the world of “drag queens, butches, and femmes,” a world in which “I fit; I was no longer alone” -- a world that extended beyond gay bars, deep into past millennia as well as across the entire globe!

Feinberg worked hard to dig up the answers to all hir questions of why -- “Why was I subject to legal harassment and arrest at all? Why was I being punished for the way I walked or dressed, or who I loved? Who wrote the laws used to harass us, and why? Who gave the green light to the cops to enforce them? Who decided what was normal in the first place?” (p. 8). what ze concluded was that the rise of class so many ages ago is what sowed the seeds of transphobia.

in Transgender Warriors, Feinberg argues that in ancient societies that followed a matrilineal system and shared all resources communally, whenever agriculture enabled some men to begin accumulating and hoarding resources, an intolerance for gender diversity would also arise (see pp. 42-44, 50-52). once these men had capital, they had power. the Few could use their capital to bribe, to threaten, and to control the Many. eventually these men would twist their communities into a patriarchy in order to ensure that they could keep the power in their own hands. for patriarchs rely upon a rigid gender binary to keep their power, wherein those assigned male are placed above everyone else. after all, if men behave "like women," how can we place them above women? if women behave "like men," will they try to force their way into the dominant group? if some people are too ambiguous to be categorized into either group, what does that say about our argument that this binary is the natural way of doing things or divinely ordained?

i think that there are some aspects of this history that Lister would be excited to learn. she’d recognize herself as one of those women trying to force their way into the dominant group, and agree that the patriarchs of her day were not happy about it. she’d appreciate Feinberg’s scholarship around those religious texts that she as a Christian and Feinberg as a Jewish person shared, how Feinberg shows that it was not God but men who decided that the gender binary must be enforced. Lister would heartily agree that her nature is God-given, not God-hated.

but the conversation between Lister and Feinberg would very quickly break down, for the same reason that transphobia sprung up: because of class.

not long into their discussion, Feinberg would be like “and that’s why Capitalism is the root of all evil and people like us will thrive only once we’ve overthrown the landed gentry and disseminated all the wealth” and Lister would be like. “excuse me. i am the Landed Gentry. the lower classes will get their callused hands on my wealth over my dead body"

and the relationship would promptly dissolve from there -- and i’d take Feinberg’s side 1000% and hope ze could knock some humility into Lister’s classist ass!

but anyway to me the similarities between these two historical figures combined with the stark differences in their worldviews only goes to show what an enormous factor class is! Feinberg notes this fact, that “trans expression” has existed among all classes -- and that social privilege makes a big difference in a trans or gnc person’s life:

“For the ruling elite, transgender expression could still be out in the open with far less threat of punishment than a peasant could expect. For example, when Queen Christina of Sweden abdicated in 1654, she donned men’s clothes and renamed herself ‘Count Dohna.’ Henry III of France was reported to have dressed as an Amazon and encouraged his courtiers to do likewise” (80).

(to be fair to Henry III, his gender non-conforming ways were used against him to justify his overthrow. but for a time, he had the means to express himself and to gather others who were like him into his court.)

if Feinberg had been born in the uppermost class of hir society, would that have protected hir from much of the cruelty and violence they experienced? after all, ze would never have had to scramble for a job, to try desperately to conform to gender expectations just to survive. Lister was able to spend much of her life refusing to listen to the hateful words circulating behind her back because to her face people tended to be much more polite. would Feinberg have had that experience too, had ze not been of the lower working class? would ze have never gone through the pain and struggle that caused hir to dig so ferociously into the history of transphobia and queerphobia?

it’s much less likely for someone at the top of the food chain to question the food chain -- even if they notice how the Way Things Are does work against them in some ways. Lister was unlikely to notice how a social hierarchy that pits the wealthy above the poor is intrinsically linked to the structures that pit men over women and confine each person into a rigid binary box -- because to notice that truth would have been to her own detriment. she may not have wanted to keep the cissexism, but she did want to keep her wealth.

As Feinberg puts it in Transgender Warriors when discussing afab people who fought for the Confederacy in the US Civil War, “just being [trans] doesn’t automatically make each person progressive.”

Lister was not prepared to fight a battle against her own privileges, even if it would also have been a battle against her own oppression. that doesn’t mean that those of us looking back at her story today can’t treasure what we have in common with her! we can. after all, in Transgender Warriors, Feinberg recounts the stories of the more “problematic,” complicated figures in queer history right alongside the ones that better fit hir own views. ze finds value in their stories despite the flaws, and we can too.

but at the same time, we have to acknowledge where Lister fell short, and do the hard work of examining our own privileges and considering how we can be better than Lister. we can instead be like Feinberg, whose marginalization -- as a butch lesbian, as a Jewish person, as a transgender person, and as a lower class person -- inspired hir not to cling to the privileges ze did have as hir only foothold in the power structure, but rather to be the best ally ze could be to people of color, to trans women, and others:

“We as trans people can’t liberate ourselves alone. No oppressed peoples can. So how and why will others come to our defense? And whom shall we, as trans people, fight to defend? A few years before he died [Frederick] Douglass told the International Council of Women, ‘When I ran away from slavery, it was for myself; when I advocated emancipation, it was for my people; but when I stood up for the rights of women, self was out of the question, and I found a little nobility in the act.’ I believe this is the only nobility to which we should aspire -- that is, to be the best fighters against each other’s oppression, and in doing so, to build links of solidarity and trust that will forge an invincible movement against all forms of injustice and inequality” (p. 92).

so, yeah. i’d love to hear these two people chat. i relate deeply to both of their experiences and think they’d find a lot of commonalities between themselves. ...and then with Feinberg i’d love to give Lister a piece of my mind when it comes to her classism.

#trans history #sapphic history #leslie feinberg #< my icon and my hero #anne lister #< a garbage gay who's a genius about so many things yet falls for the classist bullshit of the very people who made her life difficult #averygaypost #uhhhh....anyone have any Thoughts?

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yasbxxgie · 5 years ago

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I am reluctant to call any work by Octavia Butler “speculative”, as I suspect that she was in fact scrying the near and distant futures, and drawing inspiration from the lives of her ancestors, in her present, and sending us messages here, waiting for us, in our present, our future. Octavia Butler was a messenger, one of many, inspired, inspiring, and certainly gone from us far too soon. Two hundred years of her guidance and griot work would have been too little. Yet, she gave us much, and left road maps, and motivation.

I wonder what to think of our very American way of thinking over and to a thing, and to call it discovery, as it has always been there, and consider how this colors our childlike enthusiasm around Afrofuturism and Black speculative fiction. I think back to my time spent with Octavia’s Patternmaster, and Wild Seed, and Dawn, and both Parables, and I see her speaking directly to me, to us, in present and future tense. Watch yourself now, watch yourself as you are becoming.

And now, our joy, and discovery. This path was already charted, even before Octavia, but she took the machete to the path, just so. That path was worn well by her, and so many others who toiled to keep the path clear, but she, Octavia, she carved, and lit, and burned, bright. We should spend a moment with her, a moment that she left for us, for this moment, among ever so many, is an important one.

I have worked my way to what we popularly call Afrofuturism in very jagged steps. My Western trained mind and sensibilities first wanted to narrowly define and cage my understanding of the concept of Afrofuturism, and speculative fiction. I demanded categories and borders. The more time I spent with the arts, and the artists, and meditating on the vastness, the less frustrated i became. Octavia, and her works, soothed me as I was cast adrift. I simply needed to swim out into these works, knowing I would find my way back. I could forsake my sense of what is and isn’t and treat these works as living things. I felt the joy so many experienced when they lived with that film last February, but so many times over.

In my walk with, and curiosity about, Afrofuturism, what impacted me most was the complete absence of rules around identity. In Octavia’s work, there were very few ideological heroes and villains. There were very few clean antiheroes and pure causes. Even after the many tragedies and traumas faced by her characters, there were very few survivors, as my experience with fiction came to teach me to understand survivors. She created a very real diversity in purpose and psychology in her characters. They are creatures living in their moments, reflective, rich, and frustratingly complicated.

In one instant, I was made to assume the point of view of a body and soul snatching immortal who craved companionship, and struggled with having to learn love and the meaning of family. Complicated rites of passage, the meaning of being, extinction, responsibilities of station and status, so much more. In every work. Octavia would sail me out, toss me off of the ship, and order me to go and find the story being told. I would never return until I did.

What was, is, will be, so remarkably powerful about her work, about much of the focus of Afrofuturism and Black speculative fiction, is the telling and making of the world and galaxies and gods, in the image of Black people.

Not only in the physical image of all of those in the diaspora, but the full, three dimensional, fully realized, human image. She gave us all powerful rulers, beings remaking the world, prophets, all Black. Worlds and ways, all Black. She was a raucous part of this essential conversation, a gifted runner in this necessary marathon. Octavia scribbled a way forward before leaving us.

She gave me, us, those coming, both Lilith and Lauren. Deeply rich and evolved sisters, and both unlike much of what we came to know of Black women in fiction. They were, are, beings of immense potential, and purpose, and those were their powers. Taking circumstances, making change, leading their tribes through what appeared to be hopeless circumstances, making difficult choices and carving out solutions. Thanos would have stood no chance would he have crossed either.

And so, the question for me now, was, will be, what of the works going forward. There is Hopkinson and Okorafor and so many others confidently setting foot on the literary path of Afrofuturism, and they are setting down permanent stakes, well lit, for us to follow, but what of the messages and stories and lives?

With afrofuturism so readily shattering and bending and piercing these typical notions of identity, I would love to see so much more, and frequently, and shared without reservation.

I am ready for the great genius villain in the tale to be an elderly Black woman. And for her apprentice to be a confused Black boy. And for the hero to Black and Queer, and a gamer, and lover of candles, and….I want to see so many of our lives poured out and painted on these canvases in wide and messy and real patches.

I am seeing the films, often after an apocalypse, where our community saves the planet, and we are gods, and children, and create new civilizations. I am seeing the art, the images of heroes and demons, and our eternal souls, and I can’t wait for the cosplay to emerge from these images and manga, and films and stories. I am here for all of it.

And I thank Octavia for finding me, and pulling me in, and casting me out, and I thank all of those who swim in these waters, and refuse to be tethered, and show me how to live in the moments of us creating for an with ourselves, and I am preparing my part, my piece of the story, as Octavia guided me to do.

I ask you to head out, well past that experience you had last February, start with Octavia, but find all of those she birthed and taught who are still telling the story, and leaving the strands of clue for us to follow. Go, find them.

Our newer and best selves are in those arts and minds. Support, live with, and know them.

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thecourtneychronicles · 6 years ago

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“Courtney Act is a TV sensation: Australian Idol, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Celebrity Big Brother UK,Eurovision and The Bi Life – the Australian drag star thrives at everything she competes in. Most recently she made it to the final of Dancing with the Stars Australia, dancing in drag as part of the first same-sex pair on the show ever. Now, Courtney is headed to London to bring her smash-hit cabaret show Under The Covers to the Underbelly Festival from 12th-19th May. We spoke to Courtney to find out what we can expect…

You just made it all the way to the final of Dancing with the Stars Australia. What was your favourite moment of the competition?

Dancing with the Stars was so cool and getting to do it in Australia where I grew up was amazing. Me and my dance partner Joshua Keefe were the first same-sex couple in the Anglosphere to compete, which was pretty epic as well. I think my favourite moment was when we did a tango on episode three that was themed ‘Most Memorable Year’. I started off as Courtney and was dressed in pink. My dance partner was on the other side of a mirror, all dressed in blue. I pulled through the mirror, we did this dramatic tango and I tore off my wig and my dress. Then I ended up back at the mirror, rubbed all of the make-up off and ended up as a boy.

Did a lot of planning go into that performance?

When we were planning it Vanity, who does my hair, was like ‘well it sounds good, but you shouldn’t attempt to do all of that in 1.20 minutes’. It could have gone horribly wrong. But it all went right! It was so magical. Afterwards Vanity was like ‘oh actually, you did it – I was surprised that it worked, but you did it’. I think that really was my favourite moment.

What it was like working with your dance partner?

He was absolutely amazing. We just got really lucky I think, because we got on so well. We’re a similar age and worked so well together. When you have to spend six hours of a day basically hugging someone it’s important that you get on with them. And you can’t mind their sweat all over you either. We had a lot of fun.

Now you’re bringing your cabaret show Under the Covers to London. Can we expect to see some ballroom dancing in the show?

It’s funny you mention it, because I’ve actually been hunting around for a Latin ballroom dancer in London so I can include a little dancing. I haven’t actually nailed anyone in yet, but it’s a definite maybe. But there will definitely be stories and a video montage.

Why should people come see the show, even if they might not know all of your work?

It’s a great night out. Just getting out of the house and seeing some live theatre is so much fun. We do so much television-watching and phone-watching nowadays that I just love getting out and seeing a live show. Being in a room filled with people and having a shared experience with a big audience is great. There’s lots of really fun bespoke costumes, fabulous wigs and fun stories too.

Music is a big passion and talent of yours, what can we expect to hear in the show in terms of music?

There will be live music and a live band. We’re featuring lots of your favourite songs that you didn’t know where covers, like Björk’s “It’s Oh So Quiet” and Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”. Even “Gloria” by Laura Branigan is actually a cover of a song that was in Italian by a guy called Umberto Tozzi.

Are you excited to come back to the UK?

I’ve been in Australia for four months doing Dancing with the Stars and out of the UK when it was really horrible and cold, so that was handy. Now I get to come back after that beautiful summer we had in the UK last year. I’ve been in lots of competitions and reality shows all around the world, but I’ve only won one and that was in the UK (CBB). It’s a good omen. I feel like the UK appreciates me, so I appreciate the UK as well.

Would you say your time on Drag Race has helped you channel your creative energy to be able to put together a show like this?

Starting out in the year 2000 on Sydney’s drag scene, we had to do everything ourselves. We were making the costumes, we were putting together the soundtracks and writing the jokes. That’s what a drag show is to me. We didn’t have much money to do it either. So being a drag queen is good preparation for being on Drag Race and then Drag Race teases out these individual components and you just have so much fun doing it. Everything is preparation.

What advice would you give to anyone who doesn’t know how to channel their creative energy?

Try different things. At school now there are so many cool subjects. You can even do queer studies at school, that’s just crazy and brilliant to me. But yes, just try lots of different things. I’ve tried so many things now and have been fortunate in my career to be able to do that. Even Dancing with the Stars most recently – I was amazed at how much I loved it. If you’ve got that creative energy try doing lots of different things, whether it’s fine arts, visual arts or performance art. It might even be creative mathematics! Find out where it is and express it and wear it on your body and feel comfortable with it.

Courtney’s interview with the Topshop Blog - May 1, 2019

#ca interview #01.05.19 #courtney act #dancing with the stars #rupaul's drag race #rpdr

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mermaidylluria · 6 years ago

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Warning to all you mers on Tumblr out there: The purge has officially begun. My account just got flagged, and the only things I have on here are my own event photos (which are all family-friendly & fully clothed), and mermaid art (both classical and new, some of which has an LGBTQ focus- and may, at times, *gasp* in some cases feature kissing). So.. just as a heads-up, the whole Tumblog censorship hubub is a real thing. My hope was that in a page FULL of mermaids, it would be obvious what the space was about- that it was absent of pornographic or ANY kind of child-endangering content, n’ be subsequently left alone. But it appears that’s not the case. So now that we know mer art is going to be targeted (after all, “NEKKIT BEWBIES, ER MAH GURD!!”), I suggest we all get ready to either defend our posts (via disputing flagged content), participate in some kind of (peaceful, preferably meaningful & artful) protest, or just leave the platform all together. 'Cause this tells me that they're not only flagging classical art, they're also trying to eradicate LGBTQ content, and NONE of that is okay. Personally, I’m going to do all 3. Fight and dispute, while making preparations to move my space elsewhere. Where that’ll be I’m not sure yet, but if we loose, I want a place for my mermaid stuff to go, and the demigods at Tumblr better be aware, I’m taking my decently-well-known bellydance n’ other blogs w/me too, if I’m forced to leave.

And just for my personal 2 cents on the matter? Dear gods, not ALL of the internet has to be child friendly. XP Censorship like that happening on YouTube, Facebook & now Tumblr stifles creativity (look at channels like Glam&Gore, who can’t barely do SFX makeup anymore because she keeps getting demonetized), silences valuable artistic and minority voices, removes audiences for burgeoning creators (who, btw, may NOT be engaging in pornographic content in ANY way), and forces narrow-minded, puritanical standards of "decency" (which are by FAR the minority), over others' ability to operate successfully in that medium. This smothers decent, AWESOME things like art, science, expression and SO much more. XS See, it’s not about the p0rn. It’s about the CENSORSHIP. This is the internet. It was designed to dispense and SHARE information, ideas, inspiration, fun, etc. Not be a surrogate nanny for your kids. XS

ANNNNYWAY, if you want to read more about what is and is not allowed on Tumblr now, you can visit: https://tumblr.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/231885248. (And be sure to read to the bottom, where users can find out how to appeal post & entire blog flags under the last 2 questions.) And if you have a mermaid blog where ANY kind of toplessness is involved, note that "female presenting nipples" is distinctly mentioned, which, as I'm sure lots of you already know, directly impacts classical AND modern art- one of the few things on Tumblr that can be shared WITHOUT a copyright, as well as a TON of mermaid art, classical and otherwise. XP

What does this mean? Well.. in simple terms, it means that stuff like Botticelli and Picasso are no longer welcome on Tumblr. It means that Reubens, Waterhouse and Rodin, if they have artistic interpretations of naked women in their work, cannot be shared on Tumblr. Even though their works are featured in international museums of the highest callibur, lauded all over the world as legends of innovation, vision, unparalleled beauty, & precision, expression & creativity, and world-famed for their social and economic value. Those.. are not welcome here now, apparently. Meanwhile, images & videos stolen from present-day & other modern hard-working artists, photographers, cartoonists, writers and other creators from allll over the world arrre hunky-dory. XP DaFUQ, Tumblr??? (At -least- they mention mis-attribution & non-attribution on their new guidelines now. That at least, is an improvement. X*)

But now.. let’s see how that’s directly affected my blog, shall we..? ‘Cause, as I mentioned before, I figured surely since I didn’t actually have any pr0n on my pages, I & other mer pages should be safe, right? BZZZZZZZT, WRONG. After getting this e-mail (pictured above), I went through my whole blog and found the 4 posts that were "flagged" as having adult content. *rolls eyes*

3 of them were reblogs &1 was an original post.

2 of those posts were queer-positive modern art.

1 was a photographic collection of pieces FEATURED IN "W" MAGAZINE,

And the last is a piece of classical style, queer-positive art. XS

One of the modern pieces doesn't even show nipples, just saggy bewbies COVERED with small seashells.

The other modern-style piece was a Rackham style drawing, where the tatas are but a mere suggestion of simple lines and dots.

One was shown in a INTERNATIONAL FRICKING FASHION MAGAZINE SPREAD, which was apparently suitable for SOMEONES' interpretation of public consumption,

and the last only shows suggestions & curvatures of breasts! (Showing the side and outer portions of the female chest, with no nipples. XP)

-And WHY AM I HAVING TO JUSTIFY THIS???? THIS IS ART. THIS IS NOT P0RN. Again I say "WTF, Tumblr????" XS

As you can see, 3 of my posts were reblogs, so I had no means of disputing those posts. (According to their new guidelines, the owner of the original post has to do that, and if they are found as having “inappropriate content,” there’s no further means of appeal.) But one of them, one of the very first posts I ever made in this blog, was an original, so I was able to refute its being deemed as inappropriate. FIrst, you have to go through allll of your posts to find.. whatever it is someone’s had issue with. (Whether it’s a person who’s flagged it or something chosen by Tumblr’s algorithms/keyword alert systems, I have no idea.) But they don't even bother to link you in your notification e-mail, so first you’ve gotta FIND what’s being flagged before you can repeal it. (I didn’t even know what I was looking for at first. They never specify. Would it be a tiny new icon near the Edit and Share buttons at the bottom? A wee little flag pointer, outside of the post itself..? Do I got to my posted page n’ try to find it? Or will it be in my Posts stream, & the whole post be red..? Who knows?) But eventually, after enough scrolling, I found what I was looking for. A big red bar across the affected posts. -And if it’s a post you can do something about, they give you a button to push on the designated "flagged" work, at the top right. After you hit the "dispute" button, you’re given a largely blank page. In the center, you get to choose between Dispute, Cancel or Learn More. No “tell us why you feel this should not be flagged, why it doesn’t violate our rules,” nothing. Nowhere to speak your peace. You just hit a button, and you’re done. You get no say, other than “I object, your honor!” NOT COOL, people. NOT COOL. You clearly don’t wanna hear the voices of your content creators, or, at least, enough to allow them to speak for the work they felt appropriate enough to post..

Reading this from another media source? Please don’t discount this issue if you don’t personally have a Tumblog. It doesn't really matter whether you use tumble or not, whether you think it's lame or not, etc. The problem is much, much larger than that, and it’s growing. This is another very large, social media platform that's being affected by censorship in the name of marketing- and thus, be child-friendly. They want the whole family to be able to come and see all the ads they wanna put here, and without that, they don’t make their money. So anything not child-friendly, even vaguely PERCEIVED as not child-friendly (by God only knows whose standards), is being wiped out from the whole platform. Don’t believe me? It’s happened on YouTube, on Facebook, and likely, many others. Do some googling and check it out for yourself. YouTube is a platform that’s being strangled by this phenomenon right this very second. There are videos on it. Go see. Now. ‘Cause if we don’t educate ourselves about this n’ do something to fight it, what’s happening to YouTube is our future. Not just here on Tumblr, but EVERYWHERE.

Big Brother isn't just watching, guys, he's stealing your open arenas for personal and creative expression, so he can better market to you & yer kids. He wants EVERYONE to buy his Stuff. And if the kids can’t see it here, they won’t ask mommy and daddy to go get it for them. So out classical art, and LGBTQ content, and mermaids go. Out the door. (Meanwhile, who do kids love?? UM.. MERMAIDS. HELLO!!! What should be educating them about history and the arts? UMM.. FINE ART, HELLO. Who teaches them about tolerance and diversity and SO MUCH MORE? Umm.. THE LGBTQ community! Who teaches them about what human bodies look like, and that it’s okay to have ANY kind of body? UM.. BODY POSITIVE ART, THANK YOU.)

We need to put the kaibosh on this somehow, now. Not just for Tumblr, or Facebook, or YouTube. We've got to find SOME way of letting the Big Boys know this is not activity we will tolerate. 'Cause the places to freely express ourselves are going to continue to diminish, get scarcer, and fewer.. until they're all.. gone.

ART =/= PORN, YOU IGNORANT, PURITANICAL, MONEY-GRUBBING FISHTITS. LEARN TO POLICE YOUR OWN CHILDREN, MORE EFFECTIVELY POLICE GENUINE CRIMINALS, AND LEAVE THE REST OF THE INTERNET ALONE. Please.

♥

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lesbian-ed · 7 years ago

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yeahsureyoudo replied to your post “What are your opinions on gay women choosing to identify as Queer...”

I actually identify as Queer, not because I'd have any shame about identifying as a lesbian but because i just feel more comfortable with Queer.

I also think the term queer is useful for trans lesbians that perhaps aren't out yet? Women that love women but are not fully identifying as female to the whole world yet. If that makes sense?

I find it both sad and amusing that you have unwillingly proven the point of one of the many issues with the word ‘queer’.

First off, lesbians don’t ‘identify as’ lesbians, we are lesbians. To imply identification, which is something immaterial and subject to constant change, tied to the whole gender-mania of ‘~~~sometimes I’m more of a boy, sometimes I’m more of a girl and sometimes I’m both!!!1!~~’ means you’ve successfully tied lesbianism to a choice, to ‘fluidity’ (to play along with the jargon) and all that hogwash that has nothing to do with what an actual female who is exclusively attracted to other actual females is. The word Lesbian is not a title, it is not a label to be given or ‘claimed’ because it has a very clear definition: as just mentioned, lesbians are females exclusively attracted to other females. No ifs, no buts, no choices, no silly little games of ‘identity’. It is for no one to use for themselves but actual lesbians; it’s not for straight women, it’s not for bisexual women and it sure as hell isn’t for any sort of man to put his greasy hands on.

If by any chance, ‘lesbian’ feels ‘restrictive’ or if it really, really doesn’t reflect your experiences (as in, if you’re not really a homosexual female), maybe you’re just bisexual -- and there’s nothing wrong with that. But, see, the problem lies not with lesbianism; the problem is with the hypothetical person in question, who just isn’t a lesbian.

To posit lesbianism as an identity is to allow anyone to take it and, among other things, this is what the ‘queer movement’ does, stripping actual lesbians from ourselves (calling us gynosexuals or something equally ridiculous, as if we needed another word, as if ‘lesbian’ didn’t express it) and handing us on a silver plate to anyone who isn’t us -- but wants to exploit us.

Secondly, ‘queer’ is something that alienates us from ourselves and pushes us towards the values of those who antagonise us. I’ll break it down for you: if a lesbian falls into ‘queer community’ and starts to absorb their values upfront instead of those which would actually benefit her as a lesbian, it becomes easy to manipulate her to act against her own interests and those of lesbians she might come in contact with. Instead of finding her own crowd, with experiences and needs that are much more akin to her own, she mingles with people who oppose these experiences and deny these needs directly -- she begins to interact with and defend, as you have just done, the interests of males masquerading as women trying to get into lesbians’ beds, for instance, without understanding just how fucking perverse that is. We find adversaries in what presents itself as a community of equals, of people who understand and sympathize with our struggles, because in fact ‘queers’ do not understand the first thing about our struggles.

‘Queer’ is a divide-and-conquer tactic. The more lesbians side with it, the more they compromise their safety and their own subjectivity, something already much beaten around by a lesbophobic society that tries at every turn to annihilate us, either by physical force or by total erasure, by conversion, by coercion, trying to get us to worship at the altar of the phallus which, by definition, we are incapable of doing because we’re gay women, for fuck’s sake. We can be mislead, as the ‘queer folks’ try to do, but we cannot truly be converted. However, this deception is highly destructive, individually and collectively.

‘Queer’ alienates us from our very selves and it alienates us from one another, it creates rifts between lesbians who could otherwise work together, live together, love together. It walks hand in hand with cries of ‘terf!!!’ because all the ‘non-queer’ lesbians end up being shunned -- we don’t want to associate with men impersonating women or lesbophobic bisexuals (or straight people who truly believe a woman using a strap-on with a man is somehow ‘queering sexuality’ and makes them in any way comparable to us homosexuals!), so we’re punished for it. Lesbians who walk away from it are deemed suspicious and bad, while the ones who accept the label and play along with delusions are the ‘good’ ones and it stunts communication between these two ‘factions’ that should never be factions in the first place. It sets us apart and it sets us against one another. Quite honestly, it’s extremely depressing to see misguided lesbians being pitted against others simply because, unlike them, we prioritise actual lesbians in our lives instead of people who think we should all just shut up and open our legs for just about anyone.

This damn term creates a divide. It’s hard for us sometimes to find authentically lesbian communities because the support for ‘inclusivity’ -- as opposed to our caring about ourselves for once in our lives, since nobody else in this godforsaken planet gives a single shit about us -- makes enemies out of women who should have the same goals. It contributes to the effacing (and worse, the self-effacing) of lesbians, it corrodes our networks, it isolates us from one another. Inclusivity in the name of what? To whose benefit? Because the effects of all of this are negative to lesbians. And I know people who aren’t lesbians couldn’t at all be bothered about us and wouldn’t care if all of us ‘transphobic, biphobic’, ‘queerphobic’ dykes up and disappeared, but that’s precisely why we must put ourselves first. It isn’t selfish, it’s self-preservation. We have a right to exist as we are, not bent and broken as people want us.

Some lesbians fall into the trap of thinking that ‘lesbian’ is just a porn category, that it’s too loaded a word, and they shy away from it. But we came before porn, are we really just going to strip ourselves of our words, silence ourselves, and hand them over to sick men just like that, in the blink of an eye? They should be ashamed of co-opting a beautiful word that holds meaning to us to tag their trash with, not us. And as for it being a ‘loaded’ word, yeah, it has history, it has weight, it has pride. It is us, us who refuse to die out, who refuse to erase ourselves to be with men just because ‘oh, poor menz, give them a chance’; it is the name of our almost unwilling resistance because honestly it should not be so hard to live in this stupid world, having to justify ourselves at every turn, having to defend ourselves from attacks on all fronts just because we were born women who commit no other crime than loving only other women.

You have given the key to understanding the problem in your own reply. That a straight male who doesn’t even go to the trouble of dressing himself up in order to disguise himself as his revolting idea of what a woman actually is should use ‘queer’ so as to access spaces to which he otherwise could not shows what the word can do. It blurs lines. It removes barriers that exist for a reason. To be ‘queer’ is to be nebulous because nowadays it means just about anything; and lesbians are not someone’s vague idea, we are women of flesh and blood who have very specific experiences that are tied to our sexuality because this lesbian-hating society despises us to the point that we are being pressured to abandon the words that define us so we don’t sound ‘outdated’, so that we are more ‘inclusive’ and politically correct, preparing the terrain ourselves so that men can try to get into our pants. Do you see? We are being deprived of even calling ourselves what we are, we are being deprived of ourselves, in a way. And, I repeat, to whose benefit? Think. And if you refuse to think, then feel -- since so many are ready to feel on behalf of transgender males, why is it that you have never and will never feel anything but contempt for lesbians? Why do they deserve your time and compassion and why do we deserve your scorn?

Lastly, because this has gone on too long, let me reiterate a very simple fact about this blog: it is for lesbians. We have stated time and again that we are open and welcoming to bisexual women in relationships with women, but ultimately our focus lies with lesbians and we shall not tolerate male-pandering, lesbophobic bullshit here. If you’re not a lesbian, if you’re not here for lesbians, if you sincerely believe that we should embrace males as ‘lesbians’ because of ‘queer fraternity’ or some equally obnoxious, ridiculous garbage argument, kindly fuck off forever from this blog and please never interact with a lesbian again.

(An addendum: Why on Earth have you capitalized ‘queer’ but not ‘lesbian’? Seriously??? Why is that? Must I dwell on that too, must I interpret it here or is that proof enough of just how little respect there is for lesbians that the word in itself is seen as lesser-than as opposed to how people use what many still consider a slur? Fuck’s sake.)

/Mod T

#yeahsureyoudo #answered replies #queer politics #lesbophobia #q slur #mod t

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