#exclusionary design

[sleepydross]

People who design benches made to harm homeless people should be a prominent group that gets beaten into the ICU as soon as possible, because it takes real evil to even be willing to do that job. You're responsible for doing harm, torturing the poor and homeless. You're not a designer or an artist, you're a monster.

[fenharel-is-so-swell]

I’d love it if character creator discourse didn’t always include describing my literal IRL body (and not being able to create it in CC) as “sticking it to the gooners” and “they’re just mad they can’t create porn stars”.

Not to be that guy, but some of us are actually built like that and uh want to have agency over it in a game rather than the ONLY representation we have of it being in the hyper sexualized context of the male gaze.

[floorpancakes]

ppl will be like omgggg lesbian yaoi when and not know about rei x kaoru

[leolaroot]

I'm going to be honest idc if it's my favourite character I would not vote for him to win the toothpaste flag "mlm" bracket. because I wouldn't do that to him.

[buntress]

[ID in alt text by @horrgores ]

『 ✿ ⋆｡˚ 』 Old Queer

[PT :: Old Queer]

✿ Overview ✿

A blankqueer label // stance for queers who are too old for this shit. It believes that queer // mogai discourse and infighting is stupid and harmful to the community at large and that as long as you aren't harming anyone do whatever the hell you want. One doesn't have to be a specific age to ID with this term, just share the general sentiment. The emoji code is 『 🪻💚 』

✿ Stances ✿

What Old Queer Is ::

Pro MOGAI // Xenogender // Microlabels

Pro Mspec // Contradictory labels

Pro Endogenic // Non-Traumagenic systems and Anti-Syscourse

Pro Queer Education and Research

Pro going outside and becoming active in your irl community

Pro Recovery Paraphilia // Anti-Contact harmful paraphilia

Pro Kink at Pride

Pro Reclamation of slurs

Against the idea of Cluster Abuse ( NPD abuse, BPD abuse, etc)

Anti-Harassment, live and let live.

Pro fucking with bigots for fun

Pro harm reduction

Pro Therian // Otherkin // Alterhuman // Transspecies

What Old Queer isn't ::

Pro Radqueer

Pro TransID

Pro Xenosatanist

TERFs // TIRFs // Gender Crit // Gatekeeping

Exclusionary

Minors in kink // NSFW spaces

Tagging :: @radiomogai @io-archival @redacted-coiner @genderdenied @mimiscoiningcafe @discrophy @dsm--v @kiruliom Simplified flag + color meanings below the cut!

[ID in alt text]

✿ Design Meanings ✿

Shades of purple and blue-green because the colors purple and green are some of the oldest colors to represent the queer community

Yellow lines to represent queer joy

White to represent unity

Violets because, once more, it is one of the oldest queer symbols we have. While violets originally held a meaning for sapphic love, here it is to represent educating yourself further on queer history to understand your community better.

The lacy top and bottom lines to give it kind of a "grandmas lace" feel, making it feel older!

[scretladyspider]

Asexual and aromantic are not “spicy straight trying to be special LGBT”.

This argument, much like “you’re not really bi/pan if you are with someone of the opposite gender”, asks for visibly performative queerness then ignores the inherent queerness in these experiences.

If being straight is being allosexual, heterosexual, heteroromantic, alloromantic, and cisgender, all at once, then a person only needs to not be one of these to call themselves queer if they want to.

This always ruffles feathers, but..cishet isn’t the inherent opposite of queer.

Allosexual — not ace or under its umbrella

Alloromantic — not aro or under its umbrella

cisgender — aligning with your gender assigned/designated at birth

Heterosexual— sexual attraction to the opposite gender

Heteroromantic — romantic attraction to the opposite gender

If all aces and aros were cishet, which we’re not but just for the sake of this example, how would this detract from the queerness inherent in asexuality and aromanticism? Each are complex spectrums of a fundamentally different experience than the world teaches us we should have.

Aces, aros, and bi/pan people in “straight passing” relationships are often lumped into cishet as a way of delineating “not queer”, regardless of other factors. But this dismisses queerness and asks for specific, unnamed perimeters to be met for it to be recognized.

When presented with ways that experiencing little to no sexual attraction, or little to no romantic attraction, are in fact in opposition with the expectation for everyone to have both (allonormativity and amatanormativity or amanormativity respectively), people don’t accept it. Or rather, they don’t accept it as a thing on its own. Sometimes this means getting treated as if you’re just trying to be edgy, as if proclaiming you’re part of a marginalized group gives social media clout or something. Other times it’s just not treated as enough on its own by other queer people.

This happens in ace and aro spaces too. Cishet is used often as shorthand for “not queer”, directly pushing away aspecs who may be cishet and also ace and/or aro. It doesn’t seem intentionally exclusionary, but unintended exclusion is still exclusion.

This reflects, also, the expectation of performative queerness that is thrown at bi and pan persons both in and out of queer spaces. There are also many aces and aros who are bi and pan, and who may or may not be cisgender.

The reality however is there is no way to “perform” queerness that is satisfactory to all who demand it. The result this odd sort of existence where when one appears queer “enough”, that is used as weaponry against them, but when it isn’t, it’s used to exclude queer people from queerness.

And the real kicker is asexual and aromantic are enough. Bi/pan folks are still their orientation regardless of what their relationship looks like. Gender is it’s own thing, separate from the others, but related because this all ends up being a pile of queer identity spaghetti.

Regardless of how queer a person appears to you, or if you understand their individual experience… Ace is enough. Aro is enough.

The demand for performative queerness is used to try to defend from harm, but it ends up attacking anyone not visibly queer enough to the beholder.

We need to be more explicitly inclusive — especially in our own spaces, but also outside of them when talking about how queerness operates. If someone else’s queerness makes your idea of queerness more complicated, that’s not a bad thing. Learn from that, and let them be.

If you see someone is ace or aro and then see they’re more like you than you thought they could be, or that they don’t engage with it how you expected, that’s not a reason to be exclusionary. It’s a reason to try to expand what you include in your idea of queer.

Once, you needed someone to include you to feel comfortable in your queerness.

Set your ego aside and extend a hand to those you don’t quite understand. Be inclusive. Especially if someone’s relationship to their queerness challenges what you thought was possible.

thank you for reading if you like this please consider contributing to my moving expenses, there’s $425 to go and anything and everything helps

you can also find my blog, my links, my socials, read/listen to interviews, or just say hi here on my linktree

thank you again for reading and remember to be inclusive! Other queer people are not your enemy. have a nice day!

[butchpeace]

The Rules of Misogyny relate pretty closely to the shit we’re seeing from TRAs right now.

2nd Rule: Women saying no to trans women is a hate crime. Telling them we don’t want them in female only spaces is a hate crime. Telling them we don’t want them in our pants is “exclusionary” and therefore bad.

3rd Rule: Women speaking about female-specific topics is exclusionary and selfish. Women speaking about periods, pregnancy, breastfeeding, female socialization, lesbianism, female-only feminist issues, is exclusionary and selfish.

4th Rule: Women’s opinions are violence against trans women, thus male violence against women is justified. “TERFs” deserve death and sexual assault threats and to be physically harmed at public events.

5th Rule: Women and feminism must be useful to trans women or we are worthless. We must affirm, agree with, and spend energy fighting for what TIMs want, we must include them, or we’re doing feminism wrong.

6th Rule: Women who go around being female AT trans women by menstruating and breastfeeding deserve punishment. TIM’s feelings about those things are more important than what the woman experiences. Women should hide these things because it makes transwomen feel bad.

7th Rule: Women should be grateful to transwomen for everything. We see this in the gay community with “Black Trans Women Gave You Your Rights!”

8th Rule: Trans women are whatever transwomen say they are and women are what trans women say they are. “Trans women are Real Women” and feminists are just hateful TERFs.

10th Rule: The worst thing about TIM violence is that it makes trans women look bad.

12th Rule: Women’s ability to recognize trans women’s male behavior pattern is “transmisogyny”.

14th Rule: Women have all our rights, now we have to focus on trans women’s rights to access female-only spaces and resources, and to unfairly compete against us in sports.

15th Rule: Trans women are the actually real women, surgical vagina is “designer coochie”, real women’s bodies are dirty, imperfect, and smell fishy. Trans women are superior “dolls”.

16th Rule: Women’s bodies don’t deserve safety. Female spaces belong to TIMs and we have no right to contest their use of those spaces. SSA women’s bodies should belong to TIMs, inclusion in our sexuality is something we owe them.

[cephalon-celaeno]

update i REALLY didn’t like this quest. it’s just that usually i consider warframe to be a game with extremely competent writing and this is… hmm. not.

huh! I already knew I wouldn’t like this quest so my opinion doesn’t count but I don’t like this quest!

[froody]

I don’t understand why so many TERFs are afraid to be called TERFs. You call yourself a radical feminist. You espouse viewpoints that are designed to exclude trans people from the scope of progress and vilify them as enemies of feminism. But when someone calls you a trans exclusionary radical feminist, it is a slur?

[fight-nights-at-freddys]

"I don't support it in real life!"CW: talk of sexualizing minors, slight rant

Then why write about it? If for coping purposes, why post it online for others (especially actual predators) to see and consume? Then why portray those things in a positive light instead of condemning them?And you're seriously going to tell me that just because as an adult (1) you want to see a fictional minor (that mind you, is usually designed to resemble an actual child) depicted in sexual situations doesn't mean you don't share that same view concerning children in real life? You find fictional minors attractive but not real ones? Why does the line between finding someone who is (and usually also looks like) a child sexually attractive get drawn at whether the child is real or not? I'm not calling anyone pedophiles, but if the shoe fits...(1) No I am not talking about 18 y/os finding 17 y/os attractive. Use your brain. Creating content of underaged characters is still questionable regardless of age, however.

"Just mute/block instead of harassing others!"I have nearly 70k people blocked on twitter, and hundreds of words and tags muted, I softblock and mute people who post things I don't want to see. I still see certain things on my timeline, usually because1) It's posted in the main tags of something I'm interested in2) The post isn't even tagged at all3) If someone quote retweets from someone I've blocked, I still see the take on my timeline.

"Antis use the same rhetoric as exclusionists and TERFS!"What exactly does being against pedophilia have to do with trans (women) exclusionary radical feminism?And what does lgbtq discourse in general have to do with not wanting minors to be sexualized?

"Antis harass people!"Apparently, proshippers have never done this before! Not once has a grown adult stalked literal children for calling their ships gross!Not saying harassments ok at all, but let's not act like the poor proshippers are being oppressed here.Also, I promise you, someone saying "x is a proshipper, please block them if you don't want to see their content" is not harassment. Writing callout posts and videos on underaged "antis", however is most definitely harassment but y'all don't want to hear that. People have the right to know if they are platforming people who go against their personal beliefs and morals. Choosing to hide that from people who would otherwise not want to interact with you for the sake of not wanting to "lose friends" makes you a bad person, and you should feel bad.

replying under the cut bc this ask was long enough, and i don't wanna make ppl who follow us/see this have to scroll for eons

why do you think coping mechanisms have to stay private? if someone's coping mechanism was yoga, or working out, would you say they have to do that by themselves, in the confines of their own house, and they aren't allowed to talk to anyone else about it? i hope not, because that would be ridiculous (inb4 "yeah but yoga isn't harming anyone!", neither is fiction!).

the fact of the matter is, anyone can consume any type of content, and that shouldn't prevent people from making what they like. why not portray it in a positive light? what does it matter? any regular person knows that what they see in fiction should not necessarily be replicated in real life. i know better than to go out and kill someone just because billy loomis and stu macher do it.

furthermore, wouldn't you want actual pedophiles to use fiction rather than them going out and hurting real children? that's not how that works, but using your argument that they're one and the same, wouldn't that be better for everyone, and result in less people getting hurt, ergo fiction doesn't hurt anyone?

no, fictional characters are not meant to resemble actual children. that IS a crime. however, you cannot look at an anime child, or idk, kid ashley from TCOAAL, and tell me that looks like a REAL child. that's nonsense. and no, it does NOT mean i "share the same view concerning children in real life", because those characters aren't real, and i (can't believe i have to say this) am NOT attracted to real children. yes, you ARE calling me a pedophile, which is just categorically not true. it's not "questionable" because it's not REAL, which is necessary for someone to be diagnosed with pedophilia, which is a disorder, and not just some label you can put on people.

genuinely, if you are THAT sensitive to people having other opinions, or are sensitive to different kinds of art, maybe social media isn't the place for you to be. if the post isn't tagged, i agree, something should be done about that, but the fact is, WE DO tag our stuff. that has nothing to do with me (or chica), or even proshippers as a whole. you're doing the thing were you believe one rotten apple spoils the bunch.

when you post something online, you HAVE to understand that literally anyone can view it, and if your accounts aren't private, anyone can interact with it. that is the cost of posting online. if you can't handle that, log off.

i don't think i've ever compared being an anti to being a terf/exclus, BUT they do objectively share some of the same opinions as conservatives, and even nazis (which is NOT to say all antis are conservatives/nazis, but that you share some of the same ideals).

i can't speak much to that because i don't think i've ever made that argument, but it is a lil radfem-y when most of y'all go after specifically BL and yaoi. also terfs aren't only bigoted towards trans women, it's also trans men. idk why you said that.

yes, correct, anyone can harass anyone, but the fact of the matter is, 99% of the time proshippers get harassed, it's while we're in our own lanes, minding our own business, and y'all (much like you're doing right now) come into OUR spaces and call us pedophiles, and say we deserve to die, or that we should kill ourselves.

if you've been following this blog for the last week-ish, you'd have seen some prime examples of just that. doing nothing, talking to no one, and getting harassed. people saying i should be on watchpeopledie, saying i should be killed, that they hope i get cancer, or die in a car accident, or that my dad beats me to death. that i should "slit", cut to the bone, kill myself, hang myself. threatening to doxx me, find my address, have tried to grab my ip. the difference is, when proshippers are found to be doing this stuff, they're called out and reported, often by other proshippers, whereas antis, when they exhibit this behavior, they are encouraged. they're praised by their peers.

if all people did was say "x is a proshipper, block them", we wouldn't have an issue, but the fact is, a significant amount of y'all don't start with blocking. you start with slurs, nasty names, disgusting accusations, and downright deplorable behavior BEFORE you block us. if you block us. and when we block you, it's entirely possible you just create a new account to harass us from, or grab your friends to do it for you.

if platforming people who like different types of fiction than you is that big of a problem, that you feel the need to write callouts, make google docs, harass them, and threaten to doxx them, you need to get off the internet. stop interacting with people AT ALL. live in a bubble. because again, people you don't like are always going to exist on the internet, it's your duty to navigate that in the best way you can, WITHOUT hurting anyone.

people hide the fact they're proship because we don't want the harassment. that's sorta the crux of the issue? you're completely ignoring the COUNTLESS posts of people being harassed for simply existing and being proship. we shouldn't be made to feel bad for trying to protect ourselves and our peace, YOU should be made to feel bad for making others feel bad.

[genericpuff]

ok as someone disabled with severe motor skill issues i really hate the argument that "anyone can learn art" and that it's completely accessible to everyone. it's not. there are lots of disabled folks who are getting left out of this discussion with the ableist argument that anyone can do art and if you can't you're just not trying hard enough (which is an argument a lot of abled people tend to use against disabled folks in general). i'm against ai art and will never use it but we have got to stop acting like art is an accessible hobby to everyone because there is unfortunately a lot of people who would love to become artists but will never be able to because of our disabilities.

nah you right! I try to be mindful of that sort of thing but it does admittedly fly under my radar at times because I'm not someone living with a physical disability (and thus it's not as front-of-mind as someone who is) so thanks for catching me on that, many apologies. My argument was regarding the people I've seen who have exclusively used "well I've tried to learn how to draw and it's hard / took too much time / etc." as their driving argument (of which there are just. so many) when like. these are realities for many artists who have been doing this for years, too, including those who are disabled. yeah, making art takes time and practice and a lot of hard work! welcome to the party LOL

but I also understand how keeping that argument so simplified can be exclusionary to those who do genuinely face barriers when pursuing art due to living with disabilities. I've met and observed the work of many disabled artists - webcomic artists, game designers, musicians, etc. - who are out there making their stuff and it comes with all its own unique struggles that shouldn't be forgotten about or overlooked in the discussion regarding AI art, struggles that bar many people from even getting into making art from the starting gun.

I do genuinely believe that art can come from anywhere, that anyone is capable of expressing themselves through whatever medium that compels them... but you're right that many artistic mediums in and of themselves are not wholly accessible to everyone. And I hope to god that more tools are developed to help those who are both working artists as well as aspiring ones.

But AI, in its current state, just isn't one of them. And I'm seeing this sentiment being yelled from the rooftops by many disabled artists who firmly believe that the ends do not justify the means - that they don't want the medium to become more accessible if it comes at the cost of other artists (many who are disabled themselves!) whose work and livelihoods are being replaced with cheap carbon copies. AI art doesn't allow anyone to actually participate in the joy of creating straight from the heart, it just takes from others' joy and spits it back out with an impression of what it thinks the joy of creation is supposed to look like through lifeless pixels. That's not even getting into just how much damage it's already actively causing to our environment, and how quickly AI has started to replace other surrounding industries as well.

Separately from that, you're right, paying for art is a luxury for many, but that's all the more reason why we shouldn't be supporting the current climate surrounding AI IMO which is the crux of what my argument was in that previous Simpsons meme post. Many people do face severe limitations in trying to create their art; the people I'm referring to who are heavily pro-AI are often not those same people and only face the limitations of their own entitlement, which is destroying the livelihoods of many human artists. Is it worth participating in AI art to save money if that same participation perpetuates a growing system that's costing people their livelihoods?

Maybe some day we'll get AI tools that are less predatory and destructive and help those who want to create art do so. Maybe we'll finally get some stricter regulations around what companies are allowed to get away with in their respective industries. I'd like to think also that the rise of AI art will, by extension, make human-made art all the more valuable. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish for tools that made making webcomics just a teeeeny bit more efficient without being completely unethical LOL But until any of those scenarios prove to be true, we're dealing with a monster of our own design that will never stop eating even after we've all been consumed. The toothpaste is out of the tube.

[escapismmaxing]

rainwing headcanons!! + history rewrite and canon tweaks

physical headcanons!!

they’re kind of small i think, mid sized. very long certainly, i imagine them lounging around in trees like jaguars

maybe THIS is my most canon compliant design actually

manes of long hair aren’t uncommon, but not every dragon has them and very VERY rarely a rainwing will have hair trailing down their spine and ending in a fluffy little tail,, rare but possible

speaking of their tail, it doesn’t really get “thinner” or taper off at the end simply because that’s reallyyy not how prehensile tails work, so while rainwings don’t have thick tails per se, their tails do have a semi consistent thickness

their horns are long and slender, they’re considered very elegant and they usually stay close to the head/neck of the rainwing to not get caught while tree gliding

their frills are HUUUUUGE i'm always disappointed when i remember how small they are in the canon drawings

like NO their frill obscures their neck most of the time, also covers their ears, and it is very prone to being very expressive

the membranes connecting the spines of the frills also come in different shapes!

their frills also sometimes have butterfly like tails where part of the frill near the face hangs really long and thin? if that makes sense. like a swallowtails tail, but on their frills

i also shrunk their wings a little,, still long for gliding purposes but not necessarily wide/tall since those would just get unnecessarily tangled in trees

their little fangs stick out of their mouth,, oh so little

social/family structure,,, 

more communal living!! we love it

rainwings are very communal and lack the family structure of sibs, so they’re comparatively more communal than mudwings

monogamy is slightlyyyy more common, but it’s still not necessarily the norm. rainwings and their polycules,,,

i think they keep track of who their kids are!! sorry but that’s just my belief. i think parents (even if they’re not committed or mates or whatever) will somewhat co parent their kids

they’re incubated all together, but parents keep track of where there egg is and how far along it is and when it will hatch etc, and then they will be there when the egg hatches to make sure nothing goes wrong

even if the parents aren’t there, it is someone’s job to be there and make sure the dragonets hatch successfully, and then they are safely transported to the dragon equivalent of daycare

childcare is such a big job market in the rainwing queendom,,,,

i think depending on the parents, they will raise their dragonets in their home, but these dragonets still spend a LOOOOT of time in the daycare. i think dragonets are just very widely cared for by basically everyone, some pairs of parents just spend a bit of extra time with their dragonets, but they’re never raised 100% secluded from the town

grown dragons will divide the dragonets into age groups and teach them stuff

tree gliding, fruit finding and identification, flower identification, flower drying, leaf weaving/thatching, etc

also oral storytime! very important

grown dragons stay very communal, they don’t really couple off and move into their own “houses”

they have couples and polycules and just kind of go into the next generation, raising the new dragonets in the same communal way

and a history rewrite,,,,

basically i wanted to give them a reason they were so exclusionary in the original five books and this is what came from that

i didn’t like the rainwing racism was like,,, right? obviously some rainwings can be “lazy” or whatever, but the fact that all of them were + not the smartest + not really empathetic was just like,,, not the move imo

maybe about a century before the sandwing war of succession, the rainwings experienced their OWN war of succession, except they didn’t drag other tribes into it and it was kept within the queendom

a queen died and had many daughters who could take the throne, and then the daughters started fighting over this

(this is where it’s somewhat necessary for me to input just a general dragon headcanon,, i think they live for sooo fucking long. like 150 years easy. they don’t mature at 6 they mature at like 25-30. so these wars of succession last for SO LONG because the daughters won’t fuckin die (from old age)!)

so the rainwings fought with each other for ages, and during this war (with a deadly biochemical weapon like their venom) a lot of things like literacy, written history, math, etc, don’t seem as important, so they’re somewhat forgotten because parents are more focused on keeping their dragonets alive and safe

also a lot of scrolls and stuff are literally destroyed

and then this is also the reason for really low literacy rates

post their war of succession, they establish the “court of queens” which is kind of like a voting ruling body, but they don’t always like each other a whole lot and are prone to argue more. also being queen actually DOES mean something (a bit more than a tie breaker)

i’ll align with the book here again that i do think anyone can be on this council, but then queen is chosen from the council members and by the council

and each newly coming in council member does have to prove themselves in their rainwing skills

again, following this war, there was a lot of focus on internal repair rather than fixing relationships with other tribes, so they became very exclusionist as the other tribes saw them

so the stereotype of the rainwing ranges a bit more,, paranoid, exclusionist, lazy, etc

somewhat soon after their own war of succession, the sandwing war of succession breaks out, and they go FUCK NO and hide in their rainforest just trying to recuperate

this is why they’re so self contained when the DoD encounter them

they’re aware of the disappearances, and they’re worried, and they’re putting in measures to try and prevent them,,, but also they do NOT want to fuck with another tribe. please. just let them rest

and they were aware that glory’s egg went missing, but they were like “FUCK one of those snakes got in here” and changed the designs of the hatcheries or something

fitting this into canon

i think it fits pretty neatly?

the general vibe of the rainwings is that they’re all a whole lot more scared/paranoid, but we still see a lot of the chilled out moments where they’re at peace

the council (again) isn’t lazy (at least not all of them)

they kind of exist along a spectrum where different members kind of have different vibes

it’s the same queens from the book, now just on a council

some of them care a lot about the disappearances, but they’re still scared/too cautious to get involved

some of them don’t reallyyy care, and they would rather just focus on the rainwings that are still here, tighten up the border to reduce disappearances and just hunker down

also they don’t have an army, and they consider themselves pacifists and really don’t want to fight anyone or organize an army considering their history

glory becomes apart of the council rather than directly becoming the queen, and grandeur is the official queen

a turnover of the council happens because glory is PISSED and grandeur just lets it happen lol

this is where the group competition fits in like it fits in in the book

so basically glory + the rainwing gang is challenging the council members because she thinks they’re so incompetent

not saying that kinkajou (a child) or tamarin (a child) STAYS on the council, but it’s just the start of the turnover for the council to get more proactive rainwings involved

grandeur takes a shining to glory and lets her lead the invasion as it happens in the book

fashion and jewelry!

although in modern days, rainwings incorporate some very gauzy, light, see through fabrics into their fashion as shawls and such, this wasn’t always the case

for a long looong while, the main components of rainwing fashion was stringing plants across and around horns, wings, tails, necks, etc

the main fashion was the changing scale color and pattern, which still holds up, but now with a little extra flair

jobs

rainwings grow exotic flowers and trade these with other tribes! with tribes that are farther away, trading dried or otherwise preserved flowers is more common since the flowers are indeed prone to dying

rainwings also make perfumes from flowers,,,, like that one fuckass queen she was onto something

their expanse of flowers and fruits also give them access to the most dyes! so any other tribe that produces a fiber frequently works with rainwings to get them dyed pretty colors

also also, rainwings make paints and trade these to other tribes 

rainwings are pretty advanced healers, despite seeming a bit uh,, confused in the books. they just didn’t know how to treat a sandwing stab bc they haven’t dealt with sandwings in ages! but when it comes to other aches and pains and illnesses they have a wide amount of remedies

they also focus a lot on the mind especially after the rainwings are gotten back from the nightwing island

they study the effects of the no sunlight vs sunlight,, they see a lot of mental effects,,, basically they become wellness influencers.. KIDDING but they do start a “mental health matters” type thing lol

along with the healing, lots of potions and elixirs are created for healing purposes, and rainwing small magics (related to my animus magic rewrite, dw abt it, but basically a lot of dragons have the ability to do “small magic”) relates to potions and elixirs and such

rainwings are incredibly good mimics! so after they come out of their shells, they learn other tribe’s languages super easily and therefore are great verbal translators! 

it’s very common for rainwings to work with other tribes on a queen’s counsel as a translator for foreign and inter tribal affairs

history researchers? like of their own internal history trying to recover stuff from pre their war,,

there’s also a lot of biologists/naturalists/dragons who are studying the animals and plants of the forest just for the sake of science

“royalty” and commoners

so, this “council of queens” is established after this war of the queen’s remaining daughters

i truly think this war was devastating, so they start on rebuilding their queendom right away

internal focus, accidentally icing out other tribes

they want to avoid the war happening again, so they stop passing down the throne through daughters, rather any female dragon can petition to join the council

and any GROUP of dragons can petition to remove a queen from the council

it’s a very,,, democratic? system

but it boils down to their being only a little bit of separation between royalty and commoners,, and it kind of doesn’t exist tbh

this along with the really intense communal feelings and being raised communally and raising dragonets with one another,, very close knit tribe

not a whole lot of class strife like icewings or seawings or something

superstitions

there’s a lot of beliefs surrounding different flowers, kind of similar to victorian messaging around flowers

i’m not really sure how superstitious/religious they are tbh,, again maybe a lot of this fell away during the war as more cautionary tales were told rather than superstitious fables or anything

but there is definitely a system of flower messaging

i think they hold all animals in high regard, and think they all have high intelligence (they just favor sloths)

some animals do have certain beliefs surrounding them

seeing an increase of frogs means the rainy season is coming soon, when they start decreasing the rainy season is ending

sightings of pods of dolphins around the coasts means generally good tidings and a positive short term future

i think they do have a lot of pet superstitions?

sloths are pretty common, so nothing super crazy there

but if a dragon has a big, jungle cat, other dragons will view them as very charming/caring, as it takes a lot of work to get a big cat to trust you

small amphibians or reptiles means that a dragon is detail oriented

snails and insects and mollusks are considered like an “old dragon’s” pets

so yeah! rainwings. this still feels weirdly,, incomplete? maybe it’s just because of how much i like them i just want to make them fully fleshed out which they aren’t really here. but i think they’re really cool, i just don’t love their canon all the time. yeah! idk. complex feelings. as always, hit me UP with your ideas anywhere you please i love hearing feedback :)

[boag]

You didn't ask but my take on Brandy is that there's nothing wrong with only selling xs/s clothing but they should put that size on the tag or put "one size" instead of that "one size fits most" bullshit they use because they know it doesn't fit most people. I think the reason Brandy feels so exclusionary is because it's 100% marketed to feel like that - from their insistence on using "one size fits most' to the fact that the founder has literally shut down entire locations when the local demographics were not to his liking because too many "ghetto" girls were shopping at his store (translation: too many brown or black girls). so that icky feeling about Brandy is probably just the founder's obvious fetish for skinny white rich girls bleeding into the atmosphere he created for the store.

Yes yes yes all of this. Every detail of their branding and marketing down to the way they pick skinny pretty white girls out of their stores to hire as models/cashiers is designed to make it feel like an exclusive club for young girls to aspire to being a part of so they can feel like they’re the best of the best and it’s SOOO harmful for so many reasons

[xxx-ang3l-w1th-a-sh0tgun-xxx]

THE LABRYS FLAG - a quick queer history lesson & my flag redesign

so I've been doing a lot of research into the labrys flag (below - these two versions are the most popular) and i feel that it needs a quick redesign. first though, lets start with the current labrys flag and it's history...

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basic history - the labrys symbol & the creation of the flag:

this flag was originally a symbol for the lesbian feminist community

the symbol, the labrys, is an Ancient Greek double-headed axe and it has been used as a symbol of lesbianism since the 1970s

the labrys symbol represents strength and empowerment

back in the mid-70s to mid-80s, wearing a small silver labrys on a chain was a way to self-identify to other lesbians (similar to how carabiners are used nowadays in the same way)

the actual flag was officially created in 1999 by graphic designer Sean Campbell and published in June 2000 in the Palm Springs edition of the Gay and Lesbian Times Pride issue

the colour violet (the background colour of the flag) became associated with lesbians through the representation of the violet (the flower) as a symbol of lesbian love, which originates from a poem by Sappho about a lost love wearing a garland of "violet tiaras, braided rosebuds, dill, and crocus"

it's the oldest lesbian flag by a decade

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discourse, discomfort & TERF association:

the flag was invented by a man, not a lesbian, which has created some discourse among lesbians

the purple on the flag is sometimes said to represent only cisgender women, while the black triangle symbolizes lesbians

this flag didn't represent lesbian transgender women or non-binary lesbians

the black triangle symbol is a reference to the Holocaust, and the antisemitism claims are essentially discourse about whether lesbians are 'allowed' to reclaim it. while lesbians were targeted under the 'asocial' label, they weren't explicitly targeted in the same way gay men were

it's also gained a lot of popularity among TERFs (trans exclusionary radical feminists) and various exclusionist groups

although it's the oldest lesbian flag, there's various reasons for people to be uncomfortable with it, instead sticking with newer, less problematic lesbian flags, such as the sunset flag

many people choose not to use the labrys flag because it's popular among bigots (mostly TERFs), so only bigots end up using it, reinforcing the association

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the sunset flag:

the sunset flag seems to be the most universally understood and least problematic lesbian flag (below)

the 5 stripe flag (right) is just the simplified version of the 7 stripe flag (left)

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reclaiming the labrys flag:

many lesbians wish to reclaim the labrys flag, ignoring the TERFs who use it to exclude trans lesbians

the colours and symbolism are important in lesbian/queer history and for a while, the labrys flag seemed like a good and accurate representation of the lesbian community - it empowered lesbians and acted as a symbol of love and reminded people of queer history

many lesbians who still use the labrys flag are assumed to be TERFs/transphobic, so many are afraid to reclaim the flag or even just use the labrys symbol for fear of judgement or misunderstanding

the labrys symbol alone isn't problematic and it is not a TERF symbol

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my opinion & my new flag designs:

as someone who is trans, gender non conforming, a lesbian and a feminist, i feel that the labrys flag does have some problematic elements to it but i still feel that the flag could be redesigned to be more inclusive

i have decided to experiment with creating a new lesbian flag which combines the unproblematic elements of the labrys flag with the current inclusive sunset lesbian flag

these are the flag designs i have made so far:

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explanation/description:

top left - the sunset lesbian flag with the violet labrys symbol in the middle

top right - the triangle from the progress flag, (to represent people of colour, trans and non binary identities and intersex people) and the sunset lesbian flag, with the violet labrys symbol on the right side

bottom left - the transgender flag with the violet labrys symbol in the middle

bottom right - a half and half design with the sunset lesbian flag and transgender flag, with the labrys symbol in the middle

i have used the labrys symbol on all of these flags as the symbol itself is not problematic. it represents strength and empowerment

(the white outline on the labrys symbol is just to make it stand out more against the backgrounds)

i made the labrys symbol violet - violets have been linked to lesbian love for over two and a half thousand years. i felt that using the colour violet represents the history of lesbians

i have also included the transgender flag in some of the designs to represent the trans community, specifically including trans people to deter TERFs

i included part of the progress flag in one design to be even more inclusive of marginalised groups

i have decided not to include the triangle symbol in my designs

overall, my flag designs are supposed to be as inclusive as possible, whilst still referencing the original labrys symbol and its unproblematic meanings. my flag versions specifically include the transgender community and marginalised groups

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this redesign is just an idea and my historical research may not be 100% accurate

if my research is incorrect, please let me know and i can edit parts of this post to make my research more accurate

and if anyone has any suggestions or ideas for anything i can change/add to my designs please let me know!!

if any symbols/colours/imagery i have used in my redesigns have problematic meanings, this is completely unintentional, so please let me know

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feel free to use my designs with credit!

do NOT use this flag as a TERF/radical feminist/transphobic symbol as that completely defeats the whole idea of the redesign

[ghelgheli]

So..can amab people be part of womanhood? From what you say, that doesn't seem to be your view. You think that if an amab ceases to be a man, they can only become a third gender (faggot, failed man) but a third gender defined by being a male at birth. Womanhood isn't accessible to them because it's socially constructed in an amab-exclusionary way. So "trans women are women" isn't socially true, right ?

But if that's not the case then how, why can amabs be women, but afabs can't be trans women?

gonna use hegelian "identity of identity and non-identity" because I read about it in a book recently. as a matter of fact I think trans women are women! I also think we're not. this is true of many, perhaps most, women. because we can speak of "woman" as an umbrella gender characterized by a particular adversarial and oppositional relationship to patriarchy, i.e. misogyny makes womanhood, and trans women are certainly this—or we can speak of "woman" as the essentialist ideal, the standards of which many women (e.g. the infertile post-menopausal woman) fail to meet. every woman is a woman and no woman is a woman, though the designated failure of the trans woman is particularly intense because we are precluded from performing the bulk of the peripheralized labour already reserved for women (there will also be intersections with racialization here).

I'm not a third-genderist about trans women, or whatever you might call it. I don't think that's a productive analysis. this is why I keep saying that trans womanhood constitutes an underclass of woman: woman by dint of being less than woman. woman is many genders as much as it is one gender. but if you think what happens materially to the "afab transfem" is at all in the neighbourhood of the material facts of transfemininity, your imagination is at an impressive remove from what the fuck is going on.

[markrosewater]

Speaking of "real Magic". I've feel like most people dont realize that people don't realize that's there's no actual unanimous definition of such. Digital cards are 100% designed around the MTG IP, yet I still see calls of "not real Magic".

It’s why I’m not a fan of the term “real Magic”. It tends to be used to be exclusionary.