#get your puritanism out of the damn textbook

[duck-in-a-thrift-store]

Getting on my soapbox for a moment, topic being, uhhhh... religious influence on education and bodily autonomy? Smthn like that idk

(This ended up being really long, so, more below the cut)

My parents put my little sister in homeschool as soon as I graduated, which like, i WoNdEr WhY (it's me hi I'm the problem it's me)

And the program/co-op thing she's involved in is christian-based bc my folks are unfortunately conservative christians who think it's a good idea to bias their child's entire understanding of the world through their religious beliefs

So my sis was telling me about her health textbook the other day, and how it was kinda weird? Like, they have a unit on I guess dating and sex type stuff, but this textbook has some interesting opinions

Such as, suggesting kids (not like little kids we're talking about high schoolers here) avoid hugging their partner because it supposedly might turn them on??

And, ok, to be honest I have absolutely no idea how realistic that is, it sounds pretty silly to me, but like even if that totally is a thing that happens to people... who cares, right?

But no, obviously that would be just disastrous because we can't have anyone tempted to do something totally crazy like having sex before marriage, god forbid

And there's just that sort of "no touching" purity culture bullshit and it really pisses me off, especially as someone who was also raised in that mentality, and I was just lowkey flabbergasted by the ridiculousness and audacity of a health textbook to tell kids not to hug someone they're dating bc it might lead to premarital sex, and I basically said as much, smthn along the lines of "imagine sexualizing hugs" to my dad, trying to get him on my side I guess, but that isn't how it went

Let me preface this with: I love my dad. I do. And he has really been making progress in terms of letting me be me and still supporting me even though our views don't always align. But my dad can also be petty, and he's a very touchy-feely person and I'm very much not, at least with most people including him. We have a little bit of history of him trying to hug me, me rejecting it, and him getting butt-hurt over it. So there's your rant-relevant context I guess

So when I half-jokingly say "imagine sexualizing hugs," he shoots back with "imagine being uncomfortable with hugs" in like, a targeted mocking way, like that in any way makes sense to use as an insult toward your own child or anyone for that matter

I didn't have the presence of mind or energy to really unpack that in the moment so I kinda just went "bruh did you really just-" made some joke like "well gee sorry for being autistic" (which yeah that's part of it too) and dropped the conversation

But like.... does he really not see the irony?

One of the major reasons I'm not comfortable with hugs and touch in general is literally BECAUSE of how it's been sexualized, like, that's kinda the whole point?

Of course I'm not going to want to hug you, my father, when there are voices in my upbringing suggesting that touching people is sexual, duh

Like it's literally so obvious to me how the two lines of thought are inextricably linked and how this sort of ideology can fuck someone up because, hello, living proof right here dude, so let's maybe NOT teach the same shit to your younger child?

Yeah you're right I'm not comfortable with hugs and that's kinda sad but I'm trying to get you to see that part of why that is is because of the same idiocy you're letting someone preach to your daughter, so if you don't want us both to be like me,,, maybe don't do that

To the kids and anyone else who needs to hear it, when how and why you touch another person should be up to you and that person and no one else. If you want to hug someone and they vibe with that then hug them, please don't let some bible-thumping freaks tell you it's a slippery slope to sin or whatever. Your body is your own and you make the decisions about what to do with it. That is one of your most basic, most fundamental, most bar-on-the-floor rights as a human being. Anyone who tries to guilt you about something like this is trying to control you and you should be wary of them

Me personally, I just find it interesting how society is so set on calling drag queens and queer people groomers when there are literally religious teachers out here manipulating children into not having bodily autonomy

What's up with that?

[splathousefiction]

"For The Children" Is A Puritan Dogwhistle, And It's Time You Stop Pretending People Who Use It Are Acting In Good Faith.

They're not.

Not once, not ever, nor has any policy, political move, bill, terms of service update or edit to an EULA agreement done under this banner been made with good intentions. "For the safety/good of children" is what's commonly referred to as an "Emotional Appeal", a logical fallacy most of you learn about in grade school. Corporations and politicians, at least in America, will happily strip away your autonomy without a second thought while simultaneously ignoring direct and real dangers that many children face literally every single day. They get away with it too, because gaslighting in American politics works.

There's no grand agenda, no chemical in the water nor some mind control via 5g tower by some shady cabal to harm your children.

You know what kids are really dealing with right now?

There's been 64 school shootings in the US so far just in 2024. The number of kids facing food scarcity or only getting a meal at school (often on the free/reduced price tier) has surged since the 2019 lockdowns. More than 1.2 million kids in school right now are homeless. Schools are underfunded by $150 billion annually, meaning kids don't even have access to the resources necessary to receive a quality education.

These are just the causes I can personally think of that we should be investing in "for the children", and yet as literal bodies pile up every year, kids starve and freeze outside in the elements, I've watched our politicians just shrug and say nothing can be done while actively infringing on the privacy and safety of it's citizens.

Instead of doing something about gun control, we've got militarized police in schools and talk of allowing teachers to carry firearms. Instead of taking my tax money and at least feeding the kids, I've watched them be fed stuff so lacking in nutritional value it might as well be dirt. I've seen politicians move to keep the holocaust out of textbooks and reduce the horrors of war to a few paragraphs-always with this country as the winners, the good guys, the MCU equivalent of the avengers coming to save the day. Don't even get me started on housing those homeless children. If the US doesn't care about kids being shot to death, it sure as hell doesn't care about giving them adequate shelter.

I'm not so dumb as to assume there's a single solution or a single cause to any of this, but I'm also not ignorant to the fact that every single fucking time I've heard "for the safety of kids" or "for the good of the children" used by someone, they're about to do something fucking hideous to all of us and get away with it. They're about to rob you of your rights, your humanity, your name and culture if they think they can. And they're gonna get away with it too, because what kind of monster would ever argue against the safety of kids?

"For the children" is a conservative dog whistle. It always has been, it always will be, and every time you see it used it's time to start harassing the shit out of the people saying it by asking them what they're legitimately, actually, factually doing for kids. Because there's a damn good chance their entire argument is built on a throne of corpses.

[salsa-and-light]

My, my, my,

Someone's certainly caught an attitude.

"It took you eleven days to come up with the most incriminating response."

If you wanted a speedy response you might start with giving a good faith reading of what you're commenting on; or using the @ sign.

"What gossip am I repeating? Because pornography has been placed in schools and is rightfully being removed."

You answered your own question but you seem to have missed the lesson.

If you're going to be so unpleasant you should really have some evidence that you're not telling tall tales.

"You can stick your head in the sand like an ostrich all you want but it’s happening"

Okay, prove it then.

It really is quite simple.

Unless these books fell into a wormhole there should be some evidence but you're acting all high and mighty off the fumes of a rumor.

"and pretending it isn’t for the sake of being progressive is a dangerous mindset."

It would be,

if that were what was happening.

But there's no proof of that.

"It’s also dangerous to equate banning pornography in children’s schools to homophobia"

It would be, but that's not what's happening and you know that.

Or rather you should know that, if you had actually bothered reading this long conversation you willingly chose to enter.

But it seems you didn't ,so you must have missed the explicit homophobia from some of the censors and the implicit homophobia of almost universally targeting Queer stories and Queer inclusive educational materials.

"unless you’re saying the lgbtq+ community is inherently filled with pedophiles and groomers?"

This is a dishonest semantic trick meant to intimidate.

I've been called a pedophile because I said that men can wear makeup, you're not going to be able to intimidate into agreeing with your claims when you have no evidence.

"You know damn well what I mean by calling pornography a deterrent from learning."

No I actually don't, that part of your writing was unclear.

I don't understand your rage honestly.

You've been very impolite and you won't even answer a simple question when you do actually know the answer to, so why should I trust that you're some impartial or reasonable courier for the truth⸮

All you're showing is that you're unreliable.

"You know damn well pornography is more than just a “dirty word”"

I do indeed, which is why I know that people are censoring books without pornography in them.

That's also why I think it's probable that most of the censored books are being removed for equally unjustified and insipid reasons; and I've seen no evidence to contradict that theory.

"and you know damn well it’s not puritan to not want kids to see pornography."

Again you are correct but completely off topic.

I'm talking about people who explicitly want to censor Queer people from media, I'm talking about people who want to censor mentions of sex, people who think that nudity is immoral.

Those people are in fact regressive puritans, and if you don't think they exist then I advise you check out this clip where a grown man is throwing a fit because a sex-ed book contains nude cartoons and he considers this to be "pornographic".

Just wait until he finds out what's in medical textbooks.

He also seems to take particular umbridge with the fact that cartoon same-sex couples are shown in bed together under the covers. Because of course he's also homophobic. Unless you have a good explanation for why two cartoon men shouldn't share a bed

Listen, I'm not going to argue about the presence of puritans, I grew up with them, they're real, if you can't differentiate yourself from them that should be a wake-up call.

"Keep repeating what you’re saying and I’m gonna be forced to believe that you’re just a grooming pedophile who gets off on seeing kids reading pornography."

Oh no. Another bad faith ineffectual intimidation tactic.

You're not going to be forced to do anything, this little mindset of yours is a product of your own creation.

You could have actually looked into the issue, but instead you flew off the handle and starting accusing me of being a "grooming pedophile" just because I told you that you shouldn't be spreading misinformation.

It's an ego trip.

Fix it, or don't I'm not your mother.

But if you want to be morally irresponsible on the internet you're not entitled to the rest of the world not noticing.

"Either that or you’re such a pathetic sheep that you’ll defend your community no matter what even if they all started raping and pillaging cities."

You automatically assumed that this was a Queer problem.

How very unsurprising that you have no qualms about spreading homophobic propaganda too.

"I’m more inclined to go with both as for now."

I'm so shocked.

Never mind that you have no information to base this on; go ahead protect your ego.

Only the bad people disagree with you right?

"Don’t reply back to me again unless you’ve finally learnt something about child abuse you asswipe."

Darling, so far you've only showed that you don't know what you're talking about and you're unwilling to learn.

You think opposing censorship means that I'm a pedophile.

You're trivializing actual abuse in the service of this cause. A cause, which you may or may not even agree with, but about which you are staunchly refusing to learn.

I don't know what to tell you, here's your badge I guess

I don’t know guys maybe there should be a don’t say gay bill since gay sex is apparently all the left wants to talk to children about.

[viscountessevie]

Idk if and when you'll start answering benophie asks again but I cant help but notice how all the 🌼 that shit on aofag by saying its classist and elitist are also the same people who don't want to see that story played out on screen. It's such textbook virtue signaling and I'm tired of it. Like just say that you don't relate to to sophie or her story of trauma and abuse, just say that you want a story about two rich people going to balls and falling in love. There's nothing wrong with that. (1)

Related Ask I got about a week after(?): 

First off hii anon thank you for sending this in and waiting a while! 

Just a lot of shit happened on this blog and then when you sent this in I was trying to keep my blog ‘neutral’ because some people took offence to my post calling you-know-whos after a old timey disease and decided that we wouldn’t be impartial with our poll results which btw I apologise to everyone who is still waiting for it - I’ve been depressed (I’m fine don’t worry it just be like that sometimes) and my friends all have started school/work so life has happened we’re going to try to compile everything starting this weekend hopefully! Will come back with more updates when we’re ready to post. 

That tangent aside, that’s why I couldn’t answer right away and then everything on my blog happened but now it’s free rein, The Petty Viscountess is here and ready to answer all your anons venting and calling shit out on you know which fandom. Not even gonna bother giving them a cute nickname, they’ll whine. 

Let’s get into your ask, shall we! I don’t have more points to add to be honest - you said it all! 

Sophie saved their book!! And also we have Luke T to thank for making Ben even more likeable! Ben has his charming moments in the books but we all - even those of us who love him - gotta admit he was so creepy at times being so pushy. I think its good for us Benophines to accept that part of him in Book Canon and engage critically with that aspect of him. 

However that being said, you’re absolutely right about the way other subfandom fans can be so annoying about our ships by acting all high and mighty about their ship both being virgins. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that inherently and it can be romantic - but to act like that somehow makes their racist faves a morally better couple??? Do they realise they sound super puritan and like Church Pastors and Nuns who scared us former Christian kids into not having sex cos it was supposedly a sin?? 

It’s funny when you realise now most of them are trying to their couple out to be Kathony 2.0 in order to generate the hype for S3 its pretty sad that they don’t even believe in their own ship to let them be their own people.

To end this ask off I do wanna reiterate two very poignant points you made in your ask: 

I'm disinterested in half the bridgerton ships but I don't go around pretending to have a good reason why.  

They're already getting their season a year early, just leave us to our misery and they enjoy the content you get instead of constantly rubbing it in our faces. Every single ship is annoying but *god* their egos have inflated to the size of a bounce house lately. 

I have no idea why That Subfandom is so hellbent on everyone liking them and their ship so damn much. Like just accept that the show version have shitty versions of those characters and that majority of your fandom are racist assholes so the rest of us want nothing to do with you!! Be secure in yourselves and accept that you don’t need anyone else’s validation - yall have shown yourselves that you’re are deluded enough anyway. 

[I always say this but just a reminder: the only valid ones are most of the time Book Polins who hate the show version and are upset their fave chars have been character assassinated - I actually have a Polin who sent me an ask about this! I didn’t forget you - I’m just putting tgt a list of positive rep for you anon so hang in there <3. Also there is ONE rare person I’ve talked to who does critically engage with Show Pen so they’re okay - I just wish they would be more confrontational with their fandom tho.]

Back to you Benophie Anon: Your last line made me LAUGH OUT LOUD and LOUDER FOR THE RACISTS AT THE BACK: 

They're already getting their season a year early,... enjoy the content you get instead of constantly rubbing it in our face. *god* their egos have inflated to the size of a bounce house lately.

Check yourselves @ you-know-whos!! Another season why we don’t like you, no one likes gloater and we get it Production Loves You so just stay in your corner! Leave us the fuck alone and stop being so self-righteous and trying to make your ship Kathony 2.0, they’ll never be Lord and Lady Bridgerton. Only Mr. and Miss for you. 

Anyways last thing: @ both anons who sent in their asks if you’re anti-racist/homophobia/sexist Benophies who don’t send doxxing threats, please hit up my friends Belle aka sophiamariabeckett and Michaela aka minim236 they need more sane Benophie mutuals/friends! We’re tired of finding out some Benophies here and/or Twitters are secret racists or homophobes [this ask got long so I’ll put the red flags in the comments] 

[robinskalechip]

ultimately - chapter two

masterlist

robin buckley fan fic

a/n: how we liking this so far?

warnings: smoking, language

not my gif!

chapter two - it’s a date

robin felt nervous for the second day of school as she thought of her schedule and each of her individual classes. she felt herself get more nervous when her mind got to her english class as she thought of the school’s newest mystery

robin was suddenly missing the old way the classes were set up. they had a days and b days but the district made it to where they classes were shorter and you went to all of them in a day. she liked the change at first but now all she could think about how she was going to see this new presence every day.

all day she anticipated that period and when it finally came she felt like she was going to throw up but thinks she did a pretty good job at masking it

when she entered the classroom, she greeted mrs. olsen before seeing emily already sat at her desk. she was reading the scarlet letter, the book they were told would be their first one of the semester. the distaste she was feeling towards the book was so apparent and robin took notice.

robin walked towards the desk she sat at the day before and began putting her things down “not good?”

emily angrily put her bookmark into the book and aggressively dropped it onto her desk “it’s the god damn puritans they ruin everything”

robin laughed to herself as she looked through her backpack

the class period went by pretty quickly, they were discussing the background information for the scarlet letter as emily continued reading said book and hating every second of it hi i’m kale, the author of the fic and scarlet letter anti

once mrs. olsen finished with her lecture, she allowed the remaining class time to be free time for the class to which emily, unlike almost every other person in the class, got excited and moved to a different seat to be close to a friend, kept her head burried in the book, showing no signs of emotions to the words being said around her

robin started to pack her things before she was startled by the familiar sound of a book being angrily thrown onto a desk “have you started this shit yet?”

robin looked to her right to see emily looking at her, anticipating a response

“yeah i started it during lunch today”

“how the hell can you read in that chaos of a cafeteria?” as emily spoke, robin became lost in her details. she got lost in her uneven part in her hair, most likely from her running her hand through it. she got lost in her jewelry that she had seen the day prior; the leather bracelets and small silver bands on her fingers and the necklace she wore tucked into her shirt that robin could catch a glimpse of here and there. she was lost in her but snapped out right in time to answer her.

“i go outside during lunch”

“interesting”

the bell rang and emily packed her things as robin walked past her

robin turned around briefly as she was allowing people to go before her in exiting the doorway and was met with emily’s eyes staring right back at her. this time there was no smile, but robin wasnt scared like she had been in every other interaction with her.

after a few seconds robin exited and made her way to calculus. the entire period consisted of her inability to concentrate without her mind wondering to those last few moments of english.

now all she could think of was the clock ticking and how soon she would be in her presence again in their advanced european history class

she hurried downstairs immediately once the bell rang and tried her best to get there before anyone could take her seat next to her

but once she got there, emily was no where to be seen and didn’t come to class at all during that period. robin felt somewhat worried but let it pass as she tried to focus on the course at hand, at least while she had the mental stability to do so since the one who had been distracting her so much was no longer there

the next day, robin let the endless possibilities as to where emily could have gone wander through her mind until those thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a granola bar landing in her lap as she sat underneath her beloved lunchtime tree

robin looked up to see emily, smiling so faintly it could hardly be seen

“what’s this?” robin didn’t eat lunch every day and it was a rare occurrence for someone she barely knew to just give her food like this. regardless she started to open the packaged good and break it in half, holding one half up to emily in an offering

emily grabbed the half bar and popped it into her mouth as she began to sit next to robin “you weren’t eating anything, the granola bar was at my disposal, 2 + 2 robin”

“i didn’t know you had this lunch” robin hadn’t seen her at all in the last couple of days

“yeah because it’s still summertime technically and its hot so i choose to be a normal person and stay inside” robin laughed at this statement

“it isnt even that hot”

emily mockingly laughed at her “easy for you to say, i’m from further north where cold is cold and it stays comfortable any other time of the year” as she spoke she took the cigarette that was carefully placed behind her ear and lit it. she began to take off the maroon jacket she was wearing

the girl began to lay down in the grass, still taking in her cigarette every five seconds or so

robin looked at the girl as the sun shines onto her face that now was home to her closed eyes “what”

the girl sat up and grabbed her bottled water and took a drink from it

“nothing” robin felt flustered by the girl and it was taking everything she had not to show it

robin remembered the day before “where were you yesterday in last period”

emily was looking around at the other students surrounding her a robin. it seemed as if she was trying to find someone “family emergency”

“what kind of emergency”

emily redirected her attention to robin “a family one”

the bell rang, signaling they now had to make their way to english

emily got up first so she could help robin up before throwing her cigarette onto the sidewalk and extending a hand to robin who was holding her chemistry and physics textbooks and was indeed struggling

“what”

“give me one”

“why”

emily rolled her eyes before grabbing one of the books from robin, despite her protest

robin tried to argue but emily just started to walk off as she flipped through the pages of the advanced chemistry book

“oo atomic theory” emily seems intreged by the contents of the book, paying little to no attention to her surrounds

robin smiled to herself as she saw the girl’s fascination

once they got to the classroom, emily rolled her eyes once again as chase began to approach her. she looked at robin, handing her the textbook to then give chase her attention once more

“what”

“so”

emily looked at robin who was sitting at her desk now, watching the situation unfold as a small grin appeared upon both of their lips

“basically i thought i’d give you these last couple of days to settle in and what not. i know a new school could be tough so now i’m here to officially ask you on a date this saturday at the drive in...”

emily looked at the boy who seemed desperate. but not for her acceptance but his friends’.

“sorry chase, i’ve already got plans”

a boy named tyler approached the scene from behind chase, “you literally just got here what could you possibly have to do on your first saturday night”

emily looked to robin “i have plans with robin”

robin furred her eyebrows in confusion before unfurring them when she saw the heads of the two boys turn to look at her as she gave them a sarcastic smile in agreement

the bell rung for class to begin and emily watched as the two boys went back to their desks before going to hers

for most of the class period, no one spoke except mrs. olsen until she announced that partners were to be made to discuss the scarlet letter

robin was about to turn to emily before she felt someone pulling her hand towards the back corner of the room, right by the window where emily then hopped onto the countertop

“its a shit book, there we discussed it” robin found emily’s hatred for the book amusing

she jokingly tried to object “i don’t know i think it’s pretty good”

emily’s head immediately shot to robin’s face, away from the window she had been looking out of “now i’m definitely canceling our plans for saturday”

she saw chase turn around at these words before she shot him down once again “i’m kidding chase”

robin and emily used the ten minutes they had to discuss their favorite books without going into excruciating detail. emily liked books that made her feel at ease but excited at the same time. “i like books that make me feel like i’m in love again”

robin was growing the love her mind, and emily was growing to love robin’s

once the bell rung, robin helped emily down from the countertop and walked with her until she arrived at the enterance of her classroom. it took her a few seconds to lose the smile she was sporting because of emily, which kind of bugged her. it was killing her vibe.

robin had realized that calculus was just going to have to be difficult if this was how she was going to show up to class everyday; struck and counting down until the class was over

once robin got to european history she saw emily once again, reading the scarlet letter and looking like she wanted to end herself and that book

“still not any good?”

emily put the book down as robin began to take her seat and ran both of her hands through her hair “i am constantly annoyed by every single one of the characters”

robin felt nervous as she asked her next question “were you serious about the saturday thing?”

emily started to laugh as she mocked robin “aww does freckles want to go on a date with me?”

robin rolled her eyes as she laughed with her “no its just a question”

the girl next to her briefly paused her laughter to raise her eyebrows in a “really” sort of format

“for clarification”

emily caught her breathe before looking robin in the eyes “freckles”

“yes?”

“would you do me the honor of fulfilling my lie that i said to avoid the biggest idiot in this school?”

robin was smiling, even though she wished she wasn’t “sure”

“great it’s a date”

next chapter