#goal oriented poll

[witchyweighty]

Trying to start a new habit of setting 10 goals for myself every Sunday night to do for the week. Setting it as my phone background too so I’m constantly reminded of them. 💪🏼 I’ve eaten like absolute shite the past few days down to massive amounts of stress and upset, and not exercised at all, but absolutely determined to get back on track. 🎯

Also at least one person needs to vote on this poll so I don’t feel like a total loser and become despondent. I totally don’t rely on other people to feel things.

[astrow0rldx]

Mystery pick a card (Some 18+)

Since I did a tarot reading poll for my next tarot reading. lets get the rest of the stuff out of my drafts and reach whoever whenever divine pleases. all different type of questions. some 18+, some not. choose what pile you feel intuitively drawn too.

if you fount it on 10/20-21 24 feel free to vote on the poll for the next reading: https://www.tumblr.com/astrow0rldx/764872633973145600/a-tarot-reading-poll-%E0%AD%A8-%E0%AD%A7?source=share

One

18+ who wants to fuck you?

people probably know them. they are very confident, bold, brave. self assured. they are very wishful, they have a lot of ideas. they could be hopeful, and faithful for big dreams. they could be a person who's naturally inspired, or just carries themself that way. looking for purpose. not really immature energy though, like they seem actually goal-oriented and grounded and serene. this person could make money and actually be well known. they might have a busy life or a lot of eyes on them, like they wake up with a purpose, ideas & confidence in their world,shining. leo, sun, solar plexus energy. but also goal-oriented, focused, practical, money getter. receives nice things. the way they may flirt may be cold-hearted, clever, non chalant. if charming then not too vulnerable. could even be a little shy, have anxiety. or maybe traps in their own head when talking, arguing, etc. so maybe quiet. i don't see them as this optimistic person all the time, they could be very down. maybe a lot of loss hopes. maybe focusing on the bad. could be a person to be like awnn im so sad, so they get inspired to find purpose. they find purpose in themself, and their character and life. you could know them for getting through things. like this person could be strong, a wounded healer. signs: leo, cancer, thick hair, ginger hair, nature, fairy/mermaid, coquette, nighttime, rich, spiritual, moon, been in jail, popular, famous, pretty/handsome. good sleep schedule. mourning and sad but strong and hopeful. get through it energy.

Two

18+ their sexual fantasy with you?

makeup sex, remove tension, confusion and conflict with sex. even tease you a bit. if you guys were both going through a lot because of the connection, or your personal lives, they want to move in and just protect you. stand strong and live a happy ever after and forget about the bullshit. they definitely have fantasies about you fucking while living together and different places around the house, marriage and children may be involved. this type of sex they want to give you they want it to be deep, or performative something to make their mark, own you and make you realize about them or you two. they fantasize about moments when they have to hesitate and they don't know, like should i make a move or should i not. should we go right now, or should we not. and its just so much adrenaline and passion between you guys. they fantasize about you being their ideal woman. you even dressing up in dresses for them, putting yourself together. and then they get to see you take it off, take it off for you and take control. they fantasize about this being connective sex though, so not them only doing the work by the way, don't be afraid to add force, strength or bratty. they want to get.. THERE. rough girlfriend sex. if not girlfriend, bestfriend with benefits, fuck buddy type of thing.

Three

hyping you up and calling you out?

numerology number 222 - You thrive in partnerships, value emotional connection, and have a strong intuition. traits like : Harmony, cooperation, empathy, and diplomacy. You may struggle to assert yourself, compromise too much, or fear conflict. traits like : Indecisiveness, over-dependence, and passivity.

Signs: Strong Libra, Leo, Scorpio, Fire Signs. Favorite - Nicki Minaj

Social butterfly, Creative/Inner child energy. ADHD? maybe Balanced, makes clear decisions. Popular girl energy tbh, if your not, express yourself! popularity doesn't matter anyways your bright regardless this is about you, not others. Heavy re-invent yourself type of person, no matter if its what you been through, your look/aesthetic-ness. Who you are, what you do, you are transformative.

You are a warrior, Your strong. You been through a lot but it made you stronger & only balanced you out. Courageous! It's like you have the power to conquer anything because you rise from it, with grace & confidence. No one should be able to take control of your way when you decide to take control. Game of Thrones energy, like you could look at yourself as some type of character, angel or you know what I mean, it adds to your ego & personality about the stuff you went through. Like this is my goddess, I have faced hardship and became a strong, balanced, warrior with angel wings because of that. You are balanced, wise, & fair. You can make clear, rational decisions. Resilience - the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties. You can re-invent your self, and shine in your character. You are radiant, your full of life, and you bring light to everyone around you. Your positivity & energy is magnetic. Success, joy, and happiness is the aura and energy around you, embrace it and feel it.

Your like this clear, smart, rational person who shines bright and has this positive inner child energy about them. You have a lot of energy, and adaptability. Always on the go, always on the move, facing things, experiencing and going through stuff, or just being that way as your personality. Like Momentum is on your side, you move with speed & purpose. Push forward!!!

Four

how to get to your desired reality?

signs - National Olympics Games, Spelling bees, Swimming, NBA/NFL, Competitive things. Competitive work place/friend group/family. song: Candy Man, Planez by Jeremih. book: 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene.

you may want to get away with something. wish you can take something. have a little secret. be a thief, manipulator, sneaky, rebel. something hidden that you want to get away with. this could involve a relationship or another thing you can desire in your life is a relationship. maybe a dynamic of earth sign fem/water sign masc. energetically, a woman who’s stable, has all her material desires, thriving in the physical & reality. with a emotional, caring, loving, mature man. with the 8 of cups outside of that and 7 of swords before you might have sneaky things going on in the relationship that you might want to leave behind. or you might want to leave a relationship for another person. or leave with this person. this could be another desire in your life to just maybe leave something behind, and move on from something.

you probably miss your innerchild. you miss someone you were in the past. a era in your life before. you want enjoy life, take the innocence and playfulness, the creativity & kindness of it all. you probably wish you had more integrity, more real, more logical. you probably wish you were more of a warrior, stronger, control things when it’s unfair. wish you had justice. you wish you were smart, straightforward, and had clarity, can understand things faster and see things through. better communication skills. work hard, you wish you can have consistency and persistence. good work. learn faster. wish you were good in school and your matters pertaining to your education, work, legal matters and children.

YOU GOT TO HAVE FUN THIS WORLD IS YOURS. GET SOME CONFIDENCE AND BRAVERY. take down your haters. make it through any competitive shit and stand on your throne. you control your reality, you manipulate the situation. you gain the control and the power. that means you decide when stuff is done, you leave stuff behind that doesn’t serve your best. and be in peace. SAVE and NOURISH and RESPECT & VALUE your peace. PLEASEEEEEEEEEEE put your respect and values to the right things and PEOPLE. your peace can help you understand your wishes and your values and your hopes. and help the tooth fairy to come and help you get it and gain control over the situation. meditate. and WIN 🥇

all you have to do is realize something and have the right discernment and judgement. crumble what doesn’t serve you even if it’s chaotic. bond with the right people and go to/make genuine connections. and that can help you unblock something in you to get here.

Five

How to get to your desired reality?

(same question for pile four)

signs - “Just Do it” Nike. Gigi Hadid, Victoria Secret Modeling, Makeup, Pink. Sexy (Red and Black). Red Room. Leather, Black Boots. Blonde Ponytail. Tumblr Feminine Culture. Female Gaze. Fake Friends. Popular Girl Clique. McDonalds. 4 for $4. Song: Pretty Hurts by Beyoncé. Sippy Cup by Melanie Martinez.

okay you ready to see your work that you put in, the time and investment finally make you satisfied. you probably been holding on to some burdens but your ready for a new life a new beginning something fresh. your ready for the heavy book bag to be off your shoulders life to stop kicking your ass and you can innocently walk into something new. you put in the work and your just waiting till the plants grow and you are thriving and the voids are filled. the happiness and everything you want is there. maybe something that you been wanting to start that you been investing in, caring about is something you see as a fulfillment.

you wish you were more abundant, you wish you were more lucky, you wish you were more physically wealthy. you can receive your wants more easily. you wish you were more of a person that receives good karma and fate. you wish you were emotionally stable and mature and looked at the world differently. and were a better and stronger person to achieve and accomplish.

Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and celebrate. emotionally go forward and connect with people. But be guarded and self assured. start being kind of selfish and more connected back with self. holding on to things valuing things. be more energetic fast and about that action. start moving and starting. start DOING.

you might have body insecurities. you might have insecurities about your luck and fate. insecurities about time. insecurities about your learning abilities, your studies, your goals and ambitions. insecurities about your emotional well-being, your depression, looking on the down side. insecurites about your procrastination, persistentence, and future. your material stability. your plan and progress your path.

[siyaazu]

Imagine getting invested in an au (calling it that for the sake of convenience) because of a sexyman poll.

Anyway, for shits and giggles I scribbled something about Doc and his supposed gang/support system(that I totally didn’t make up of all of my favorite characters. Tori is also there but I realized she's missing way too late into the drawing) before he set a goal for himself to help other Sanses.

The gang in question:

Fun fact:

Papyrus flips a coin every morning to decide whether to wear a silly tie or a silly shirt. The kids seem to love it.

The kid in Pap's arms and Doc were supposed to be having a conversation but the lord(me) said no

Muffet and Grillby have some basic level of expertise in each other's fields, which is why they are able to easily fill in for one another on days when one of them cannot show up.

If Doc were to ever come back to his timeline, he would have a loooot of explaining to do and it would probably end with him missing a couple of limbs/j

Last but not least, none of this is canon to Doc's story, but he infested my brain like a parasite and I had to get it out of my system

Shenanigans:

(A little clarification on what happened to Grillby’s bar : he let Sans use it however he wanted on the off-days, and one of these off-days just so happened to be the day his bar was turned into a mini omega timenline. Needless to say nobody’s seen that building since.)

Our multiverse-oriented king gets reminded that his timeline did not in fact forget about him/j

Doc belongs to @tehrogueva feat. Ganz(doing his best) by golzybladedee

[makethosenarratorsfight]

UNRELIABLE NARRATORS; SIDE C

*NOTE; propaganda is out of order due to poll length!

Eugenides Propaganda:

the entire plot hinges on a detail he lets the reader (and every other character) assume is true. I don't want to spoil it because it's a really fun reveal but he is lying from the first second he appears on the page and you can't trust him to tell the full truth about ANYTHING related to himself and his goals. he mostly does it to keep his advantage and not have other characters be suspicious of him but it's just so fun when you realise he's been lying the whole time

Harrowhark Propaganda:

She gave herself a lobotomy and gives completely incorrect flashbacks to the previous book. Things that straight up did not happen. Gaslight gatekeep girlboss.

She’s schizophrenic (confirmed by the author) and also lives in a world with necromancy and ghostly revenants. She’s not just an unreliable narrator for readers, she’s an unreliable narrator of her own internal experience. She knows this and has to work with people around her to compensate for it. Descent into spoilerville below. Seriously Do Not Read if you want to read these books. There’s also the little matter about how she is *not actually the narrator* of a huge chunk of the story that we are initially led to believe is being told from her perspective.

(Spoilers) Holy shit she is THE most unreliable narrator. This gremlin gave herself a lobotomy so that she could forget about Gideon Nav, the most important person in her life (for magic soul-preserving reasons) so half of the second book in the series is spent gaslighting the reader about a book they just read. She comes up with an entire alternate version of the events of the first book in the series to carefully exclude any mentions of Gideon, and any time someone says ‘Gideon’ in front of her she LITERALLY has a stroke and/or an intercranial hemorrhage as her brain overwrites the word with someone else’s name. God occasionally intentionally triggers her memory revision to get out of difficult conversations. She also hallucinates ALL the time (unrelated to the lobotomy). She shows up at her frenemy’s room in the middle of the night (think little kid stumbling to their parents’ room and saying “I frew up”) to ask her to come check underneath her bed for the corpse that’s been wandering the space station. When frenemy checks underneath the bed, frenemy claims not to see anything, and Harrow is such an unbelievably unreliable narrator that it’s an open question in the fandom as to whether frenemy genuinely didn’t see the corpse or if frenemy was just yanking Harrow’s chain. Harrow is also haunted by a literal ghost that fucks up her already fucked up alternate history. Girlie will pick up a piece of paper and read from it the most violent and haunting piece of prose ever composed, when in reality all that’s written on the paper is the elementary school Superman S*. I am NOT joking that is a real goddamn scene. Harrow was created to win this poll. TLDR; she has brain damage and memory loss, she hallucinates, and is also haunted. * https://twitter.com/vestenet/status/1301012651145859072

Girl is so unreliable, she unreliably tells me events I was there for!!! She's retelling the previous book and I'm like "girlie, this is absolutely not how it happened". Also, she gave herself a DIY lobotomy, it has to impact your memory center I guess

She literally had a lobotomy, how can she be reliable

More Propaganda under cut!

Harrowhark is simply the unreliable narrator of all time. Can’t remember shit because of a lifetime of trauma? Check. Maybe lying to yourself and those around you a bit? Most definitely. Being gaslit by the survivors you depend on to orient you to reality? For sure. How about a little bit of canon schizophrenia? She’s got it all. Ghosts? Or something? Spirits that are attached in some way to your body and are not perceivable by others? Sure, sure! But how about spirits that are attached in some way to your body and are gonna use you to hijack others’ bodies and maybe kill God, too? Absolutely. Wee bit of DIY brain surgery? If it would make you an unreliable narrator, friends, then Harrowhark Nonagesimus has been there, been subjected to that!

Okay I don't know that much about this series since I haven't convinced myself to read all of the first book, but this is my blorbo in law so I'd feel bad not spreading propaganda (all of what I'm saying is something I've read, as to prevent myself from straight up submitting misinformation). So all of Harrow's unreliable narration takes place in the second book, Harrow the Ninth. Basically, without her even seemingto acknowledge it, Harrow's brain is very fucked up during this book, to the point where even she's not sure how reliable her narrative is. There's many questions left unclear as a result of her fucked up little brain, like what's real, what's fake, whether we can trust her judgement, whether even she can trust her own judgement, whether her original cavalier is dead or not (Harrow is convinced she is), etc. Let me tell you, I adore unreliable narrators who aren't even that sure if they're reliable. I have yet to eat that trope up here in this circumstance, but this poll might not run again by the time I do, so for now, here's my messed up blorbo in law.

OKAY SO REMEMBER MY GIDEON SUBMISSION? HARROW DOESN’T! SPOILERS AHEAD BECAUSE SHE LOBOTOMIZED HERSELF TO FORGET GIDEON BECAUSE THAT’S A HEALTHY WAY TO GRIEVE AND THEN IN THE ONLY PARTS OF HER BOOK THAT SHE NARRATES (THE REVISED CANAAN HOUSE PARTS) IT’S LITERALLY A ROOM FULL OF GHOSTS HER BRAIN SUMMONED TO DEAL WITH THE FACT THAT SHE CUT HER BRAIN IN HALF TO FORGET GIDEON. she also is a) haunted and b) psychotic, experiencing hallucinations her entire life of both the ghosts haunting her and less supernatural hallucinations- bells tolling, bones rattling, her parents (some of the only dead people NOT haunting her), etc! in the revised history of canaan house that her brainghosts invent, she brings along someone who knows about her psychosis to help reality check her when she tells him go! her caregiver as a child and support when she got older, crux, is a horrible man- but at one point, when someone other than harrow is in harrow’s body and tells him “i am not harrowhark, i am sorry,” his response is simply “aye, you’ve said that before too. who are you then, if not my lady harrowhark?” showing his familiarity with her psychosis and his love for the child he wouldn’t dare see as a daughter. but enough about that lets talk about her unreliable narration! she lies about her feelings of course but she also simply hides the truth from everyone, all the time, compulsively. also literally the entire section of her book that she narrates is a lie she’s telling US about a lie she’s telling HERSELF and no one understands even a little bit of the truth until like the last act of the book. queen.

[megumishousewife]

Streamer! Megumi x Chubby!Streamer Reader

A/N: I have been gone for a MINUTE so imma try and make this lil story the best I can because I’m really doing this because I had an idea one night. Annndddd even though this is more oriented to plus size girls, I want everyone to enjoy this piece. ANYWAYS…

For today’s stream, your chat decided to play a little bit of Resident Evil 4 since it was a new game popping off at the time. You’re a big horror fan so this makes this even better, but you were a little late to the party, seeing that other youtubers and streamers had already beaten you to the punch. You told your fans that even if they have probably seen other people play the game before you, all that matters is that they are getting the uncut Y/N version so they are in for a good one.

 “Just letting you guys know that we are donating to a charity that helps families in need of major necessities so please donate and help the cause. If we do raise past the goal today, I might let you guys pick your rewards. Maybe a 24 hour stream or another vlog, but it’s up to you guys,” you said with a smile.

You watched as your chat was lit up with multiple comments and you just laughed at the excitement of your fans. Even though you probably pull in 10k a stream, you want to make all ten thousands of your fans happy. Also on your youtube channel, Y/N Games, you have already reached 1 million subscribers, which you told everyone was a big milestone. Continuing on, you played RE4 for a good three hours with nothing but a few deaths, multiple donations, giggles, and you simping over Leon because who wouldn’t.

You said, “Y’all, if I was in the zombie apocalypse and I had to have one of my crushes save me...you guys already know who he is.”

Your fans already know how much you gush over the streamer,Megumi Fushiguro, aka Megs. You always found his stoic attitude very sexy and the jokes he made were very similar to yours. You could probably go on for hours talking about this man since you found him way before you even considered doing content. He has probably around an average of 25k viewers and 5 million subscribers on Youtube. You always talk about how you see him at conventions and never speak to him because you were scared of what he would think of you. For some reason, your stream was blowing up the chat about him and that he’s live right now with his best friends, Nobara and Yuji, who are also content creators. 

You laughed, “Guys, I will react to their stream tomorrow, butttt I see that we have reached our goal of donations! Thank you guys so much and we can actually take these last few minutes to discuss what you guys want for your reward.”

After looking at the comments for 5 minutes, you have narrowed down to 3 options.

“You guys really want me to come out of my comfort zone with these,” you said with a nervous laugh, “Option One: collab with fav youtuber or streamer. Two, ask out my fav youtuber or streamer. Or three, prank calling my streamer friends. This decision isn’t up to me, so I will put a poll on my twitter so you guys can take a vote on what we should do. It will be open for 24 hours so you guys can pop in anytime to vote. Thank you so much, I love you guys and good nigghtttt!”

You clicked off the “end stream” button and you felt your heart pounding out of your chest. The first two options were already embarrassing because how in the hell were you going to get in contact with Megumi. And knowing your fans, they were not going to do the last one because it’s too easy. Sighing, you got up to take a shower and flopped on your big bed. Just for background noise, you turned on another plus sized youtuber that you always watched do a random storytime while you got to work. The fastest thing to do was to upload the VOD of tonight's stream that one of your mods saved to your youtube channel. since you stream Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; you didn’t want your youtuber watchers to miss out on your newest gameplay. Next, you went to Twitter and uploaded the poll, feeling a small pit in your stomach. You also saw that you were tagged in a video of Nobara, Megumi, and Yuji rating Youtubers and streamers. You pressed play and saw what was about to unfold.

Nobara said, “Next one is plus sized youtuber and streamer, Y/N games!”

You could feel your face flush up instantly. What. The. Fuck. They are rating you out of all people and the only thing you can do is brace yourself for what to come because when it comes down to being a plus sized content creator, or just being plus sized in general, you have to be thick skinned and not let the hate get to you. But, the friend group actually took you by surprise. 

“Not gonna lie, she kinda bad! Megumi, you’re silent. The fans need your feedback,” Yuji said, nugging his best friend.

Megumi looked as if he’s even embarrassed to say anything but he managed to get a few words out as his face reddened.

“She’s pretty,” Megumi said, keeping his response short. 

Nobara and Yuji laughed as the chat was blowing up saying he might have a crush, but you rolled your eyes and logged out of Twitter for the night to go to sleep. Even though your body felt tired from the day’s work of streaming, editing, and sending emails, you couldn’t take your mind off of Megs’ face when he called you pretty.

“Maybe I’m just in over my head,” you thought to yourself.

After trying to let the thought pass as best as possible, you allowed yourself to drift into a deep sleep.

Don’t jump me! I know this is a little short but I think I’m going to post them in sections because chile, I’m acting like I haven’t typed in forever. But I hoped yall enjoyed it!!!

[evidence-based-activism]

Hope this isn't a weird question, but do women do well in positions of leadership? The constant statement that women are too emotionally to lead is getting tired.

I feel like that's a really unfair statement anyways considering women were kept out of leadership positions, and now many women refuse to lead. That's okay, not saying women must. However for the ones that do, I'd like to know some female leaders I could look up to.

Not weird at all! In short, literature on this topic suggests that women in leadership positions perform either the same or better than men.

First, there are a few laymen oriented articles that address this topic [1, 2, 3]. These were written by the American Psychological Association [1] and Forbes [2, 3] and are heavily sourced. I'll be referencing some (but not all) of their sources as well, but they should be easy to follow if you want to read more. The articles use links instead of a reference list, however, so if you find a broken link, consider using the WaybackMachine on archive.org to find a copy of the source.

Subjective Perceptions

The Harvard Business Review has gathered a large dataset on subjective ratings of leader performance as evaluated by peers, superiors, and subordinates. From this dataset, they found that women outscored men on 17 of 19 "leadership capabilities", replicating their earlier results and indicating that on-average female leaders have a greater subjective performance than male leaders [4].

The American Psychological Association (APA) conducted a meta-analytic review of "16 nationally representative U.S. public opinion polls ... extending from 1946 to 2018" [5] found that a public opinion shift took place over this time, such that women are now rated as either equally or higher than men for competence, intelligence, and communion (broadly: concern for others). Men have retained a slight advantage in ratings of agency (broadly: self-oriented goal attainment).

Beyond that, the "mere presence" of a female leader led people to anticipate fairer treatment [6].

And a Pew Research Center survey from 2008 found that people ranked women either equal to or higher than men on most leadership traits (e.g., honest, intelligent) and political performance skills. Almost 70% of people indicated women and men make equally good political leaders. However, despite women's clear advantage when asking about specific skills, when directly asked who makes a better leader only 6% of people said women and 21% said men. This suggests that people's answer to this second question may be driven by sexist stereotypes (i.e., despite ranking women's leadership skills as better, people still default to belief in male leadership). [7]

All in all, this suggests that people believe that women are either equally or more qualified than men to lead (even if that doesn't translate to an explicit endorsement of female leaders over male leaders). So ... what about objective measures?

Political

A 2020 review on the impact of female political leaders [8] found strong evidence that more women representatives is related to lower levels of corruption, along with some evidence that more women in politics leads to better implementation of social programs, more legislation on neglected issues, and less conflict/human rights abuses. Women in politics are also more likely to prioritize human rights and access to "care" (e.g., health care, welfare, education, international aid, equal rights, etc.).

Another report [9] linked increased women’s political representation with greater legal equality and economic performance, and suggests that women's political representation leads to these outcomes. (While causation cannot be definitively established, the longitudinal research suggests a causal relationship such that having more female leadership leads to these positive outcomes.)

One way to objectively evaluate differences in men's and women's political leadership, is to examine differences in outcomes from a major global events like the COVID-19 pandemic.

This 2021 review [10], found female leaders (at country and state level) had a quicker response to the pandemic onset, lower fatality rates, and greater humanitarian response than male leaders. Given the comparatively low number of female leaders, some of these results were not statistically significant, but the pattern of results is still strongly suggestive. In any case, female leaders were at least as capable as male leaders in responding to the pandemic.

The above results are confirmed by a 2022 country-level analysis [11], and these results were strongly statistically significant, indicating that female leaders resulted in lower cases and deaths.

In fact, a Brazilian study [12] found that in addition to female leaders outperforming male leaders (in terms of a lower rate of COVID deaths and hospitalizations), local female leaders were able to mitigate the damage done by an irresponsible national leader (Bolsonaro). In short, "when faced with the decision between enforcing health measures against COVID-19 or trying to conquer the votes of local Bolsonaro supporters, our results suggest that female mayors were more likely to prioritize measures that can save lives".

All in all, female political leaders are either equal to or better than male political leaders.

Corporate

To start with, this 2017 review [13] indicates that some literature on financial outcomes suggests "firms run by female CEOs often report better ROA [return on assets], ROE [return on equity], and sales performance". However, they also indicate that research looking at a broader population (i.e., beyond "large firms in the United States"), does not always find this relationship. Even then, however, women's financial performance under a female leader is still equivalent to financial performance under a male leader.

An additional review [14], found similar results, with some finding a positive impact of female leadership on firm performance and others finding no difference between male and female leaders.

Other sources indicating increased profit under female leaders include:

A McKinsey & Company report [15] found greater diversity (i.e., sex and race) was associated with greater profitability. Specifically, the top 25% (top-quartile) most diverse companies worldwide had a 21% likelihood of outperforming their bottom-quartile peers.

A report by S&P Global, found firms with female CEOs and/or CFOs generated $1.8 trillion in excess profits and superior stock price performance [16].

An additional study [17] on 2 million companies across 32 countries in Europe found "a strong positive association between the share of women in senior positions and firms' ROA [return on assets]".

Beyond pure profit indicators, female corporate leaders are associated with:

Greater corporate responsibility [13]

Better internal management [13]

Lower firm risk [14, 20]

Better corporate credit rating [14]

Greater (bank) stability [18]

Fewer environmental violations [21]

Greater innovation [22]

Now, a reasonable criticism of all of this, is that this research is correlational and cannot establish causation. (The omnipresent problem in social research!) To a degree, this is a problem that cannot be fixed (i.e., there is no way to definitively prove causation without a controlled experiment). However, there are techniques that can provide strong support for causation. One such paper provides support against "reverse causation" (i.e., the idea that firms increase female representation when performing well), and found female representation among corporate board leadership predicts positive future performance [19]. This provides support for (but, again, cannot technically prove) a causal relationship between women's leadership and corporate performance.

Again, this indicates that female corporate leaders are either equal to or better than male corporate leaders.

Other

Political and corporate leadership are the two big categories where most of the research has been done. There are a few other relevant studies I'll describe here:

UNICEF (a part of the UN) reports that "women-led schools may perform better than men-led schools" as "learning outcomes ... for both girls and boys in female-led schools are higher" [23]

An experiment investigating team performance found "a positive and significant effect of female leadership on team performance" specifically "driven by the higher performance of team members in female-led teams" [24]

Unfortunately, the above study also found that "in spite of the higher performance of female-led teams, male members tended to evaluate female leaders as less effective, whereas female members have provided more favorable judgments", suggesting that men's interpretations of women's leadership abilities doesn't align with objective outcomes [24]

While not specifically about female leadership, a large study found that the "collective intelligence" of a group (essentially the IQ of a group rather than an individual) increases with the proportion of women in the group [25]

In addition, this review [26] describes a number of female leaders, so you may interested in it for "some female leaders [you] could look up to"

Women and Emotions

Lastly, I wanted to address "the constant statement that women are too emotionally to lead".

In terms of objective (or, as objective as we can get) measurements of emotional variability, there is little evidence that any sex differences exist, and if they do exist they are likely to be so small they would be (practically speaking) negligible [29].

However, an interesting study [27] examined "emotional expression content" by considering "feminine display rules" (suppression of negative emotions + simulation of positive emotions) and "masculine display rules" (suppression of positive emotions + simulation of negative emotions). As expected, women tended to follow feminine display rules, while men followed masculine display rules. However, this paradigm suggests it's not the amount of expressed emotion that varies by sex but the type of expressed emotion. Importantly, they also found that only the feminine display rules were associated with subjective distress.

A different study [28] examined sex differences in emotion regulation, specifically looking at two prosocial mechanisms and five antisocial mechanisms. They found women and men reported similar endorsement of 1 prosocial and 1 antisocial mechanism, women reported greater endorsement of the other prosocial mechanism, and men reported greater endorsement of the other 4 antisocial mechanisms.

One of the first articles I linked [2] discusses how women outperform men on prosocial behaviors/emotions (e.g., self-control, kindness, moral sensitivity) and men "outperform" women on antisocial behaviors/emotions (e.g., narcissism, aggression, etc.). To be clear, this is almost certainly a result of differences in socialization. That is: these differences are not "biological" or predetermined, instead society expects women to be more prosocial and men to be more antisocial, and we (tend to) meet those expectations.

All together, this suggests that men and women are both expected to modify their emotional expression (although the expectation for women is more likely to cause distress), women are more likely to display more prosocial and less antisocial emotions/behaviors, and women are more likely to deal with emotion constructively.

Ironically, based on the literature in the previous sections, society's expectations for women (i.e., empathy, team work, care for other people, etc.) are part of what drives their superior leadership performance over men.

TL;DR:

Women are either equal or better leaders than men based on: subjective evaluations, objective evaluations of political leaders, and objective evaluations of corporate leaders.

Women — in general and in leadership roles — improve the performance of people in their group.

Women and men likely don’t differ in emotional experience, but are both expected to modulate their emotional expression (in different ways).

Socialization and societal expectations induce more prosocial behavior in women and antisocial behavior in men. (Likely contributing to women’s superior leadership.)

References under the cut:

Novotney, A. (2023, March 23). Women leaders make work better. Here’s the science behind how to promote them. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/women-girls/female-leaders-make-work-better

Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2021, March 7). If women are better leaders, then why are they not in charge? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomaspremuzic/2021/03/07/if-women-are-better-leaders-then-why-are-they-not-in-charge/

Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2022, March 2). The business case for women in leadership. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomaspremuzic/2022/03/02/the-business-case-for-women-in-leadership/

Zenger, J., & Folkman, J. (2019, June 25). Research: Women score higher than men in most leadership skills. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2019/06/research-women-score-higher-than-men-in-most-leadership-skills

Eagly, A. H., Nater, C., Miller, D. I., Kaufmann, M., & Sczesny, S. (2020). Gender stereotypes have changed: A cross-temporal meta-analysis of U.S. public opinion polls from 1946 to 2018. American Psychologist, 75(3), 301–315. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000494

Joshi, M. P., & Diekman, A. B. (2022). My fair lady? Inferring organizational trust from the mere presence of women in leadership roles. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 48(8), 1220–1237. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672211035957

Men or women: Who’s the better leader? (2008, August 25). Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2008/08/25/men-or-women-whos-the-better-leader/

Cowper-Coles, M. (2020). Women Political Leaders: The Impact of Gender on Democracy. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/giwl/assets/women-political-leaders.pdf

Wyman, O., & Weh, D. (2023). Representation matters: Women political leaders. Oliver Wyman Forum. https://www.oliverwymanforum.com/global-consumer-sentiment/2023/sep/representation-matters-women-political-leaders.html

Luoto, S., & Varella, M. A. C. (2021). Pandemic leadership: Sex differences and their evolutionary–developmental origins. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 633862. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.633862

Chang, D., Chang, X., He, Y. et al. The determinants of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality across countries. Sci Rep 12, 5888 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-09783-9

Bruce, R., Cavgias, A., Meloni, L., & Remígio, M. (2022). Under pressure: Women’s leadership during the COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Development Economics, 154, 102761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2021.102761

Gipson, A. N., Pfaff, D. L., Mendelsohn, D. B., Catenacci, L. T., & Burke, W. W. (2017). Women and leadership: Selection, development, leadership style, and performance. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 53(1), 32–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886316687247

Serena, Z. (2020). Do women leaders improve firm performance? European Journal of Economics and Management Sciences, 2, 21–26. https://doi.org/10.29013/EJEMS-20-2-21-26

Dame Vivian Hunt, Lareina Yee , Sara Prince, & Sundiatu Dixon-Fyle. (2018). Delivering through Diversity. McKinsey & Company . https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/delivering-through-diversity

Sandberg, D. J. (2019). When Women Lead, Firms Win. S&P Global. https://www.spglobal.com/content/dam/spglobal/corporate/en/images/general/special-editorial/whenwomenlead_.pdf

Christiansen, L. E., Lin, H., Pereira, J., Topalova, P., & Turk, R. (2016). Gender Diversity in Senior Positions and Firm Performance: Evidence from Europe. IMF Working Papers, 16(50). https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513553283.001

Sahay, R., Cihak, M., N’Diaye, P., Barajas, A., Kyobe, A., Mitra, S., Mooi, Y., & Yousefi, R. (2017). Banking on women leaders: A case for more? IMF Working Papers, 17(199). https://doi.org/10.5089/9781484318164.001

Qian, M. (2016). Women’s leadership and corporate performance (ADB Economics Working Papers). Asian Development Bank. https://www.adb.org/publications/womens-leadership-and-corporate-performance

Perryman, A. A., Fernando, G. D., & Tripathy, A. (2016). Do gender differences persist? An examination of gender diversity on firm performance, risk, and executive compensation. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), 579–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.05.013

Liu, C. (2018). Are women greener? Corporate gender diversity and environmental violations. Journal of Corporate Finance, 52, 118–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2018.08.004

Chen, J., Leung, W. S., & Evans, K. P. (2018). Female board representation, corporate innovation and firm performance. Journal of Empirical Finance, 48, 236–254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jempfin.2018.07.003

Brossard, M., & Bergmann, J. (2022, March 8). Can more women in school leadership improve learning outcomes? | Innocenti Global Office of Research and Foresight. UNICEF | for Every Child; UNICEF. https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/stories/can-more-women-school-leadership-improve-learning-outcomes

De Paola, M., Gioia, F., & Scoppa, V. (2022). Female leadership: Effectiveness and perception. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 201, 134–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2022.07.016

Woolley, A. W., Chabris, C. F., Pentland, A., Hashmi, N., & Malone, T. W. (2010). Evidence for a collective intelligence factor in the performance of human groups. Science, 330(6004), 686–688. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1193147

Abdul Wahab, Shazanah; Mohamad Rasidi, Nuur Mohamad Firdaus; Wahab, Samsudin. Influences of Women’s Leadership Performance Towards the Corporate, Political and Social Success: A Review and Research Agenda. Asian Journal of Research in Business and Management, [S.l.], v. 2, n. 4, p. 54-68, dec. 2020. Available at: https://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ajrbm/article/view/11571.

Simpson, P. A., & Stroh, L. K. (2004). Gender differences: Emotional expression and feelings of personal inauthenticity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(4), 715–721. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.4.715

Zimmermann, P., & Iwanski, A. (2014). Emotion regulation from early adolescence to emerging adulthood and middle adulthood: Age differences, gender differences, and emotion-specific developmental variations. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 38(2), 182–194. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025413515405

Weigard, A., Loviska, A. M., & Beltz, A. M. (2021). Little evidence for sex or ovarian hormone influences on affective variability. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 20925. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00143-7

[agreed-upon-solutions]

My name is Spring, and I represent Agreed Upon Solutions, an experimental consensus-oriented social polling site. We're here to help mitigate a potential disaster, so we'd like to ask you, the fine users of Tumblr, for an organic Blaze campaign. Please reblog the shit out of this, it is important.

The goal of Agreed Upon Solutions is to implement a fully functioning democracy. By necessity we run it as a game (we aren't a government), but it's a game whose goal is to produce the policy we would have, if allowed to build the best possible voting system. Normally, this would just be a fun experiment, but the upcoming election wound up being critical at the "foundations of government" level, so we are responding seriously as well.

We need to be prepared for the reality of what is happening next Tuesday. The upcoming US election is about remaining a democratic country, and plausible worst case scenarios include actual civil war. If this happens, there needs to be a counter-argument for democracy: There needs to be an explicit demonstration that voting is capable of reaching common decisions, and we designed Agreed Upon Solutions to do exactly that.

On November 5th, we are holding a one-day vote on Every Thing, details below. The more information we can provide about crowd consensus, and the better organized it is, the better we are able to resist a total agenda (eg. Project 2025) from being shoved down our throats. This is especially true if we are focusing on the specific day of November 5th: we do not want to allow the objection of "they did not vote on election day."

Summary:

We are discussing Every Thing, over 157,000 topics extracted from Wikidata.

As of Oct 29th, not all topics have been ranked.

Voting to put topics in importance order ends midnight of the day before. If you want to influence the order of importance used on election day, get in your vote by November 4th @ 11:59PM.

Currently all topics in the top 1% are open for early commenting.

Votes will reset on midnight going into the 5th, to ensure a clean ballot. Previous votes will be restored afterwards, but will not appear in the November 5th totals.

Links:

You can rank topics in order here.

You can comment on specific topics here.

You can vote on the stream of all opinions here.

All functions can be accessed through the Every Thing homepage.

Site homepage

About Us

The larger the turnout, the better off we will be.

[neathbound-fiends]

OC Smash or Pass

Rules: pretty self explanatory. include physical descriptions or pics, and propaganda. the “other” label can be used for “sexuality misalignment” (ie: oc is femme and you’re gay, vice versa or you aren’t into smashing but a specific thing you wanna do with them like perhaps hug or study them under a microscope idc).

Was tagged by @letters-of-fire

Doing this a little different just because I wanna do all of the adults because I'm indecisive and don't wanna pick just one (so this'll be five different posts)

Dr. Joseph Valentine | the Infernal Surgeon

Age: thousands of years old, but looks something around early 50s

Gender: male

Sexuality: asexual, but will seldomly if work demands it

Occupation: surgeon, professor of medicine at Benthic College

*We are assuming, for the sake of this poll, that he is both unmarried and also would be open to smashing*

Propaganda for:

+Highly organized and efficient, and great with money

+Extremely devoted to his partner and to his job

+Highly ambitious and goal oriented

+Evil old man pussy

Propaganda against:

+Workaholic who spends the vast majority of his time working and doing things to further his goals

+RIGIDLY inflexible, in both schedules and rules to which he follows for himself and for others

+Cold, ruthless, extremely possessive

[cheezihouse]

So the poll winner was, Preg Drive!!!

I’ll take some time to build goals and whatnot, maybe look at others to see what they did! I don’t necessarily have a follower goal- so it’ll be just like and reblog oriented!! Maybe tips if wanted, but that’s on the table

Now, since I have a bucket full of characters- I am once again asking for your vote! If you see a name and have no idea who it is, feel free to scroll around my #cheezis characters as I usually mention their names.

Also please feel free to leave suggestions!! Animated? Still? Normal babies? Magic? Monsters? Goals you yearn to see? 👀

The possibilities go on and I am forever indecisive 👀

Thank youuuu <33

[blvckentropy]

This is a globetrotter challenge w/ a twist. A (visual novel) Simder dating adventure more like it. No cast call, just my own personal goal to make up for actual gameplay in game. As much as I love making sims, I hate not having any use for them. So, I had the bright idea to make the longest bc ever lol But at least I can go my own pace. My goal was to make a sim and have them do the globetrotter challenge but instead of those rules; I made up my own. Instead, I wanted her to explore and "speed date" a sim from all 25 worlds (debating to exclude Batuu) w/ 1 hidden world (Sixam). We love chaos around here lol. Each sim gets 2 dates (day/afternoon and night).

Essentially, I'm choosing from a spin wheel, but every blue moon might have a poll to ask for help. Should be fun. Probably won't premiere till August.

Ciara, 31 she/her

Ciara Gifford, a local from Windenburg and a graduate of the University of Britechester, is now embarking on a new journey of vlogging and traveling. After working as a professional chef and veterinarian, she is ready to explore different cultures and embrace life on a global scale.

Orientation: Pansexual

Likes: animals, cooking, green, sweets, social media, traveling

Dislikes: Obnoxious showoffs, liars, insects, eels

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group B Round 4: Kageki Shoujo!! vs Orient

#B2: Kageki Shoujo!!

Girls aiming to become top stars in a Takarazuka high-school

#B3: Orient

Samurai on motorcycles!

Details and poll under the cut!

#B2: Kageki Shoujo!!

Summary:

After being forced to graduate from JPX48 following a controversial incident with a male fan, Ai Narata swears to never interact with another man ever again. Using her talents and strong desire to get away from men, Ai auditions for the exclusive all-female Kouka School of Musical and Theatrical Arts. The school is renowned for producing the best actresses that go on to perform in the famous all-female Kouka Theatre Troupe. Coming from the idol industry, Ai is the perfect candidate for the school’s hundredth generation class, but her aloof demeanor alienates her from her classmates. The eccentric Sarasa Watanabe is the only person who wishes to become Ai’s friend. She enters Kouka with the goal of becoming a top “otokoyaku” performer—an actress that plays traditionally male roles. After seeing a Kouka performance of The Rose of Versailles when she was younger, Sarasa dreams of performing as Lady Oscar one day. Unfortunately, Sarasa's inability to read a room causes friction between her and her classmates, including Ai, who reluctantly becomes her roommate and partner in many of their classes. Succeeding at Kouka will involve more than just raw talent for these young girls as jealousy, deceit, and the harsh realities of show business put their mental fortitude to the test. Will Sarasa and Ai be able to rise to the top and stand on the silver bridge?

Propaganda:

If theatre setting/schools is your thing, you’re probably going to love this series! We follow our protagonists and their schoolmates following their dreams to become actresses for the prestigious Kouka Revue. Not an easy road as they will have to face and overcome many challenges, the hardest ones coming from themselves. Indeed, the story is not afraid to address sensitive topics and their resulting traumas (see TW list) always rightfully handed. These episodes may be a bit hard to see if you’re sensitive to these topics, but the show never leaves you in discomfort: everything is properly addressed, and characters are cared for realistically.

The characters are all very well-written, portraying individuals with way more depth than they may appear at first glance. We follow their growth—or its start—during the series. Sarasa is a walking sunbeam, and her blooming friendship with the withdrawn Ai is a delight to watch. We learn to know—and love—all their classmates as well, as episodes switch focus to one or the other.

The OST is really good, with a catchy opening, and no less than five different versions of the ending song, a fabulous duet voiced by the cast! The animation features really pretty art with iconic details like the stars in Sarasa’s eyes. The series is a homage to Takarazuka and scatter references to famous real-life Revues and older famous shôujo manga series like “Versailles no Bara” or “Glass no Kamen”. Actually, it feels like a modernized version of their essence: roses, sparkles, spotlight, drama, all while staying safe!

This anime is like candy for eyes and soul, and I really hope we'll get a season 2 to explore the girls' voices further!

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Pedophilia, Self-Harm

Nothing is too graphical nor explicit, just the right amount to let the unsettling situations be clear enough to watchers, and they’re always addressed correctly.

Child abuse/ Pedophilia: episode 3 (+4), about Ai’s traumas

Self-harm: episode 5 focuses on a girl with an eating disorder, forcing herself to vomit (not sure if that really counts as TW?)

#B3: Orient

Summary:

Freed from the rule of samurai 150 years ago, the people of Hinomoto live peaceful lives and revere their liberators—demons whose true forms remain elusive—as gods. Fated to mine rocks for the demons to feast on, Musashi knows the grim truth: humanity is enslaved by these otherworldly beings and the samurai are the last bastion fighting for freedom. Hiding his true opinion from his peers and growing distant from his childhood friend Kojirou Kanemaki, Musashi lives in angst until the day of his graduation.

When the fresh graduates arrive at the mine, they are horrified to see the inhumane treatment of miners and the uncanny physical appearance of their overseers. However, Musashi manages to endure thanks to Kojirou's help. As the demon leader wreaks havoc on the quarry, Musashi is saved once more from certain death by the Takeda samurai clan. Recovering from humiliation and yearning for adventure, Musashi embarks on a journey to become a samurai and form his own clan!

Propaganda:

Ohtaka has done it again in creating a world full of characters with more depth than can be portrayed limited amount of screen time that each of them get. This leaves the viewer with a whole lot of potential to imagine on their own, even after watching. It’s kind of unique that it is set in the samurai era of Japan, but thanks to crystals left by the demons, motorcycles and flying castles are a thing outside the main characters’ mining village. There are plenty of gags throughout and dynamics between characters. Personally, I loved the second half a lot more than the first because of the cast introduced then. For example, the detail given to Kuroku with the lace she wears–it’s so intricately beautiful! Plus, most of the mechanics of how the world works is covered by then, so we can get into the action.

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Emotional Abuse

The third main character comes from a mentally abusive family situation, but the other two help her leave that situation. Main character’s child abuse is in flashbacks for character development to rise above that and break the cycle. Don’t know if gore or fan service need a trigger warning, typical shounen stuff.

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form with your revisions, and I’ll consider adapting those changes.

New: Starting round 5, screenshots will be included in the poll post. You can submit screenshots through the form linked above, or through here, via ask or dm.

Guidelines in submitting screenshots:

No NSFW or spoilery images.

Pick some good images please. Don’t send any blurry or pixelated ones.

You may send up to 9 screenshots, but not all may be used.

[yugioh-rare-pair-poll]

Round 1: Poll 17

Propaganda under the cut

Pairing 1: Psychoshipping (Yami Bakura/Yami Malik)

Propaganda: They are esentially same goal orientated except Marik is far more successful. They would get alone perfectful if it wasn't for the single fact they both want to be the one to kill the Pharaoh and his little friends. Just everything about them makes me happy and I have loved them for nearly 20 year straight.

Pairing 2: Snareshipping (Ryuji Otogi | Duke Devlin/Katsuya Jounouchi| Joey Wheeler )

Propaganda: They would make an amazing couple and would definitely get married | They plague my mind every waking moment. Their chemistry is insane and theyre both so hot. | They look cool together n have that playful sorta rival dynamic. Also dog costume dont forget that XD

Now, let’s keep things civil. This is a silly poll where we can share why we love our overlooked ships. There’s no need to be nasty to prove your point. Bashers will be banished to the Shadow Realm.

[adhd-merlin]

merlin's personality type (mbti)

Post inspired by my own poll, which was in turn sort of inspired by a post calling Gwaine and Merlin "extrovert bisexuals". This baffled me at the time because, to me, Merlin was obviously an introvert. But when I stopped to think about it, it wasn't actually all that obvious. 

As I mentioned previously in my own tags, I think you could make a decent argument for either Extrovert Merlin or Introvert Merlin. After some flip-flopping, I think I've gone back to my original position (for now). Introvert Merlin still feels right.

Why, you didn't ask?

Below I ramble about MBTI types despite actually knowing very little about the whole system. Read at your own risk.

(I want to clarify that I don't think there's anything scientific about MBTI classification. I like to think about it in the same way I would try to sort a character into a Hogwarts house. It's just fun.)

Since it was proving tricky to pinpoint Merlin's position on the Introversion/Extraversion spectrum, I decided to first narrow it down to a few MBTI types that might suit his character.

The 16 MBTI personalities can be divided into four “macro-categories” (known as “temperaments”):

Guardians

Artisans

Rationals

Idealists

To me Merlin obviously belongs in the "Idealists" group, which would make "NF" the "core" of his type (xNFx). This leaves us with two orientations still to be defined: "Extroversion vs Introversion" and "Judging vs Perceiving".

(The 4 MBTI dimensions)

Potentially, Merlin could be an:

INFP – The Mediator

ENFP – The Campaigner

INFJ – The Advocate

ENFJ – The Protagonist

Judging vs Perceiving

One thing I find interesting about Merlin is his decision-making process.

There are some momentous decisions that Merlin spends a considerable time agonising over – for example, whether to kill Morgana or, later on, Mordred – but once he's made a choice, he tends to actually be quite inflexible about it.

Seriously, good luck stopping the little guy once he's decided that something Must Be Done.

“Don't try and stop me, because...you can't.” (The Wicked Day, 4x03)

(That's right, Gaius. Fucking deal with it.)

Merlin will BULLDOZE his way to his goal regardless of anyone's opinion, sometimes even in the face of actual evidence suggesting this might actually be a Bad Idea™.

There is one significant occasion in which Merlin backtracks after having made a huge choice, and it's when he resolves to save Morgana's life after an accident he involuntarily caused (her fall down some stairs) left her deadly injured.

I'll come back to the reasons behind Merlin's change of mind later. What's interesting to notice is that, even in this case, once Merlin’s made his decision he sticks to it quite stubbornly.

He has to ask Kilgharrah for help to heal Morgana and his exchange with him, in case you don’t remember, goes something like this:

Kilgharrah: Merlin don't this is a terrible idea

Merlin: JUST FUCKING DO IT

This stubbornness – or better yet, inflexibility – makes me lean towards Judging rather than Perceiving as Merlin's preferred mental function.

While it's true that Merlin sometimes defers making a decision until it's no longer possible (see: freeing Kilgharrah), which is superficially similar to the way Perceivers prefer to keep their options open for as long as they can, Merlin doesn’t do it to see if new information might come up and help him make a better choice. He only needs time to internally evaluate the decision and consider how it aligns with his moral values.

Once a choice is made, Merlin can act very impulsively – as I've joked about here – and is very reluctant to deviate from the plan, which is typical of "Judger" types.

I also think this becomes especially apparent during the whole Mordred situation. Merlin never really pauses to take Mordred's actual actions into account when deciding whether or not he poses a threat to Arthur – despite Gaius trying to at least make him consider that Mordred might not mean the king any harm. Once Merlin decides that Morden is dangerous and needs to go, there's no turning back (not until it's too late).

Extroversion vs Introversion

(A typical introvert, according to most people.)

Merlin tends to make decisions based on his own values and feelings first. Yes, he will consult others in moments of doubt – like Gaius or Kilgharrah – but his first instinct and tendency is to do what feels right to him even when it's not the wisest or most logical course of action based on the facts at his disposal.

(Incidentally, I find this interesting when compared to Arthur, who – in my opinion – turns to others for counsel far more readily [Merlin, Gwen, Agravaine] and gives more weight to the advice he receives. Arthur’s actually more open and flexible than Merlin when presented with evidence that contradicts his worldview – see his attitude to magic at different points in the show, perhaps most notably in episode 5x05, when he decides to return to the Disir.)

Merlin's decision-making progress is very much inward focused, which makes me think of an Introvert rather than an Extrovert.

I'm thinking of Introvert vs Extrovert (or Extravert) in a Jungian sense here, which is to say, not (just) how someone interacts with others and how social interaction might drain or energise them – quite a subjective metric* – but rather whether they have a tendency to turn inwards or outwards to process information and react to external stimuli.

Or, in Jung's own words, whether someone is "more influenced by environmental influences or more influenced by subjective factors".

An introverted consciousness can be well aware of external conditions, but is not motivated by them. The extreme introvert responds primarily to internal impressions. (x)

In this specific sense, I think Merlin acts more as an Introvert than an Extrovert, which would make his MBTI personality type “INFJ”.

INFJ – The Advocate

INFJs are also known as Advocates, Protectors or (rather aptly, in Merlin's case) Counsellors.

I won’t go into a description of this personality type here – like I said I’m no expert, and you can Google it just as easily as I can. 

I’ll just highlight a few INFJ traits that I think are very relevant to Merlin.

Once they have formed an intuition about something, INFJs tend to stick to it very tightly, often to the point of being single-minded in their focus. INFJs are sometimes viewed as stubborn and unyielding. (x)

Because the INFJ has such strong intuitive capabilities, they trust their own instincts above all else. This may result in an INFJ's stubbornness and tendency to ignore other people's opinions. (x)

Something typical of INFJs is also having strong "hunches" (what Arthur would call "a funny feeling"). They are very much a "mystic" or "visionary" type.

INFJs have uncanny insight into people and situations. They get "feelings" about things and intuitively understand them. (x)

Of course, much of Merlin’s intuition is based on magic, but that isn't always the case.

When Gwen Comes Back Wrong™ from the Dark Tower, Merlin can sense she isn't quite the same. When Gaius asks him to elaborate, however, he is unable to articulate exactly why he feels that way, because there is nothing obviously different about Gwen.

MERLIN: Have you noticed anything about Gwen of late? GAIUS: Nothing unusual. Why? MERLIN: I'm not sure exactly. GAIUS: Something she’s said? Something she's done? MERLIN: No. It's nothing in particular. (A Lesson in Vengeance, 5x07)

I'd like to point out that 1. Merlin looks especially hot in this scene, 2. his "funny feeling" has nothing to do with magic here. In fact, it takes him stalking Gwen and digging for evidence to discover that she is conspiring with Morgana.

Advocates tend to carry around a sense – whether conscious or not – of being different from most people. With their rich inner lives and their deep, abiding desire to find their life purpose, they don’t always fit in with those around them. (...) Many Advocates feel that their life has a unique purpose – a mission that they were put onto this earth to fulfill. For people with this personality type, one of the most rewarding aspects of life is seeking out this purpose – and then, once they’ve found it, striving to do it justice. (x)

Merlin's search for purpose is one of his main drivers (if not the main one). He almost immediately asks Gaius if he knows why he was born with magic and is quite heartbroken when Gaius can't offer a satisfying answer. After Kilgharrah tells him about the prophecy that concerns him and Arthur, Merlin throws himself into his destiny wholeheartedly, readily adopting it as his life's purpose.

Another INFJ characteristic which I think fits Merlin’s character quite well is that INFJs are harmony-seekers and deeply concerned about others’ feelings.

We see it at times in Merlin’s interactions with Gaius – although the two of them have their disagreements, and Merlin can be quite vocal about his opinion, Merlin's first instinct is usually to keep secret anything that might upset or worry Gaius too much.

For example, when Gaius earnestly pleads with Merlin not to meet with Finna (The Kindness of Strangers, episode 5x10), Merlin gives an evasive answer rather than confronting him, despite having already made his decision.

Being at odds with Gaius is truly distressing to Merlin – as shown in episode 3x09 (Love in the Time of Dragons), where Merlin's dejection after an argument with Gaius is evident enough for Arthur to notice and try to offer his advice.

Although INFJs rely primarily on Introverted Intuition (their dominant function) this is supported by Extroverted Feeling, their auxiliary function.

Extraverted Feeling is the secondary function in INFJs. Deeply concerned with the energy, moods, and feelings of others, INFJs have deep insights into people and situations and make decisions based on how they will affect people. (x)

In stressful situations, an INFJ might try to rely on emotions when making decisions, especially if it means pleasing other people. (x)

I think the best example of the above trait is Merlin deciding to save Morgana’s life in episode 3x05 (The Crystal Cave) after his initial decision to let her die. He does not do this because of any new evidence or information – he still has every reason to believe Morgana poses a threat to the king and kingdom, if not immediately at least in the near future – but because he's witnessed how her imminent death is affecting those he cares about (in this case, Arthur and Gwen).

It could be argued that Merlin’s choice not to reveal his secret to Arthur is also partly motivated by his Extraverted Feeling tendencies rather than just self-preservation.

"I didn't want to put you in that position" – he tells Arthur – again, showing a keen awareness of other people's feelings and a desire to maintain social harmony.

You can read more about the INFJ personality type here:

Portrait of an INFJ and INFJ & Relationships

INFJ Personality

INFJ: Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging

----------------------------------------

*I've stumbled upon this article which elaborates on cognitive Extraversion/Introversion, as opposed to introversion and extraversion as they are commonly understood: Typing Tutorial

[ultrainfinitepit]

Hello! I see a lot of the Design Request angels for your campaign are getting done. Or close to it? It looks like 3 different designs for oriented aroace, 2 for aegosexual, and then 1 each for neurodiversity, butch, bear, and pangender. 9 out of 10 total! That's amazing!

Is it possible more Design Request tiers will be opened up if the campaign manages to do well enough? Or do you prefer to stay will just the 10 so you're not to overworked? (very understandable if that's the case!)

Also, will the request designs be made into pins as stretch goals, after the current pin stretch goals are met? It looks like right now they are only available as stickers and keychains, but I might have misread something, apologies.

Hmmm good question Anon. I'll see how far I get with finishing up all the requests I've gotten so far. If there's enough time left in the campaign once I'm done I'll consider adding ten more slots (total number of Pride Angels must be a multiple of ten because of my brain).

The previous batch of slots didn't get filled as quickly as I expected so I'd really want people to be sure that they will pledge for slots before adding them. I might run a poll on the next campaign update. Or you all can let me know in the replies here if you are committed to pledging for a Design Request if more open up.

The Design Request angels will be stickers and keychains since we reached those goals; and like all the other designs they will be unlockable as pins, patches, and lanyards if they get enough orders in the survey/preorder store.

I am open to adding them as pin stretch goals if there is enough interest expressed on that discussion post, and if we fund all the existing goals.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution

* * * * *

No More Mifepristone

Joyce Vance

On the Friday before Easter, just after the end of the workweek in Texas, a federal judge in Amarillo decided that Mifepristone, one of two key drugs used for medicated abortion, should be banned. This despite 20 years of data showing it’s safe and effective. Mifepristone has a lower rate of complications than Tylenol.

The judge also entered a stay, which means his order won’t go into effect for seven days. He did it to give the government an opportunity to appeal. But if neither the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, deeply conservative after a tranche of Trump appointments, nor the Supreme Court orders a lengthier extension, legal access to Mifepristone will come to an end. Not just in Texas, but nationwide.

The government didn’t need seven days. It filed its appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals a few hours after the decision.

DOJ was prepared to file immediately because they understood the inevitable ruling in this case. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who the plaintiffs judge-shopped for by filing this case in the Amarillo division where virtually all cases are assigned to him, has a background of deep antagonism to letting pregnant people make their own decisions. Kacsmaryk’s legal ruling affects the entire country, not just Texas. A federal district judge in Washington State entered a ruling ordering the FDA to keep Mifepristone on the market, just moments after the Texas ruling. But Kacsmaryk entered a nationwide injunction that rescinds the FDA’s approval of Mifepristone nationwide—even in states where abortion is still legal and without exception for the mother’s health.

That’s not the legal landscape the Supreme Court said it was creating when it ended 50 years of abortion rights under Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs case. When the Court decided Dobbs, it said decisions about whether and under what circumstances abortion should be legal would be left up to each state. But now, Judge Kacsmaryk has made that decision for all of us—you and me, for our mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, and friends, regardless of medical necessity or our personal religious and moral beliefs. Judge Kacsmaryk knows best.

Challenged legal rulings are typically stayed to preserve the status quo while appeals work their way through the courts. But the post-Trump, uber-conservative Supreme Court has always had a different jurisprudence when it comes to abortion, permitting restrictive measures like Texas’s SB-8 vigilante-justice law to go into effect while the appeal was pending. Nothing says “result-oriented” like special rules for anti-abortion litigants (to say nothing of reversing the long-standing precedent of Roe that had worked well to balance rights and did not meet the Court’s test for when precedent should be reversed). It’s tempting to think the Court might decide the Mifepristone decision is a bridge too far, if not based on legal principles and the expectations it set when it decided Dobbs, then out of purely pragmatic political considerations some of Justice Clarence Thomas’s billionaire friends might want to see in order to avoid steep Republican losses at the polls following yet another anti-abortion decision. But it’s difficult to imagine this Court walking it back so close to its goal of extinguishing abortion rights. DOJ has strong arguments to make on appeal—compelling ones on threshold issues like whether the plaintiffs had standing to bring this case, as well as on the merits. Whether the Court will give them a fair hearing is an entirely different matter.

Soon we’ll find out if the Court meant it when it said abortion would be up to the states. Or if one judge in Texas can resurrect the long-disfavored Comstock Act and terminate people’s rights across America. The Act is an 1873 law that makes it illegal to advertise or mail anything, including information, related to preventing contraception or producing abortion (as well as outlawing sending “obscene, lewd or lascivious,” “immoral,” or “indecent” publications). The Comstock Act fell into disuse because of its effect on First Amendment rights—it involves prior restraint by the government on speech. The prohibition on materials and items related to contraception was removed after the Supreme Court’s 1965 decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, which held that Connecticut’s “mini-Comstock” law unconstitutionally invaded the privacy rights of married couples. Be concerned about where a resuscitation of this law could lead.

Restricting abortion today does not seem to be about good-faith conservative values and protecting the sanctity of life. It’s hard to believe that a party that denies access to basic medical care and education and that lets schoolkids die at the hands of mass shooters in the name of the Second Amendment is deeply committed to unborn children, unless it’s become somehow morally righteous to protect them only until they leave the womb. Ending abortion is a political rallying cry, used to bring voters to the polls and raise money, with a healthy side effect of owning uppity liberal women.

It’s really not that difficult: If you’re against abortion, don’t get one. We live in a pluralistic society and there are religions other than conservative Christianity, for instance Judaism, that command their followers to protect the life of a mother over that of an unborn fetus. Somehow their rights are now ignored, while a minority that has gained control of the Supreme Court dictates to the rest of us.

Interestingly, banning Mifepristone isn’t just part of the trend to make abortion less available; it’s also part of the trend to make it less safe and to endanger women’s lives. I spoke with Jesanna Cooper, a friend and a doctor in Birmingham, who is an experienced Ob-Gyn. She told me, “The take-home is that without mifepristone, more people will hemorrhage and/or get septic from incomplete expulsion of the products of conception.” Using Misoprostol, the other drug used in a medication abortion procedure, alone is “less effective,” she says. It involves the “same amount of pain but [is] more likely to be incomplete, which can be dangerous.” It doesn’t sound very pro-life.

More information about the two drugs, if you want to read some of the science, is here.

In 1996 then-Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder (D-CO) tried to convince the House to take the Comstock Act off the books. They didn’t. But her floor speech has resonance today. She explained that the Act was named for a man named Anthony Comstock, who “was one of these people who decided only he knew what was virtuous and right, and somehow he managed to convince all sorts of people that this was correct.” That sounds familiar.

She continued, “Anthony Comstock was a religious fanatic who spent his life in a personal crusade for moral purity—as defined, of course, by himself. This crusade resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of a multitude of Americans whose only crime was to exercise their constitutional right of free speech in ways that offended Anthony Comstock. Women seemed to particularly offend Anthony Comstock, most particularly women who believed in the right to plan their families through the use of contraceptives, or in the right of women to engage in discussions and debate about matters involving sexuality, including contraception and abortion.” We don’t need a new Anthony Comstock, and we don’t need Judge Kacsmaryk to dictate health care—or the absence of it—to people across the country.

You know what the solution is: go vote. Democrats will need sufficient majorities in both houses of Congress to restore protections for abortion. It’s not enough to win the House or the Senate; Democrats must take both to ensure access to abortion, and 2024 is not that far off.

We’re in this together,

Joyce

[Civil Discourse With Joyce Vance]