#gotta find a different way to oppress these people

[meesehands666]

Been thinking about bringing back transsexual as a normal term to fight off the government (US) routinely going through bans of transgender everything. Both forcing them to talk about the difference between sex and gender

Here’s the emergency ban that got blocked. Please read how fucking ableist this is. Boutta get my psychologist to remove all of my diagnosis because I can’t afford to move to fucking Colorado.

One of these should work it’s from the Missouri government site

[swiftfootedachilles]

im just gonna be honest gang obviously its gonna be easy for you to say youre in love with a character and theyre an angel when anytime they do something you don't like you brush it off as out of character

[etz-ashashiyot]

I'm sorry, but actually I'm not over that comment whining about how several of the JVP ritual, uh, practices and bastardization of Judaism are being excluded and how we can't police people's identities.

Actually yes we absolutely can.

[Rant incoming]

Listen, I hate exclusion, alright? Inclusion is always the answer when it comes to people knowing who they are. Every obnoxious identity policing thing in the queer community that has divided us and ripped apart communities has been cruel, counterproductive, given platform to bigots, a distraction from the real issues bearing down on us, and honestly just dumb as a box of rocks. Okay? Okay.

But Jewish identity works differently, because it isn't about YOU. Becoming Jewish is about taking on Jewish culture and religion, a closed ethnoreligious culture, through the narrow path consented to by the collective Jewish people. There IS a path, but it is a highly supervised one. Otherwise it's just appropriation and cultural theft; something Jews have been subjected to for millennia. And if you do legitimately convert you do so because you love the Jewish people - the whole Jewish people - and want passionately to be a Jew for its own sake. You want to join our nation-tribe. You want to join our family.

And the crazy thing to me, the thing that still blows my mind, is that this is allowed! Even after millennia of appropriation, oppression, violence, expulsions, and genocides, Am Yisrael still accepts genuine gerim. It would be so understandable if they had closed the path entirely and tried to shut out outsiders who might bring in danger on their heels even if they themselves were not dangerous.

But they didn't. We didn't. To me this is a miracle, a blessing, and sign of true faith and hope. It is a privilege to be here.

Yet in the same turn, you gotta respect the process! You can't just declare yourself a Jew simply because you feel like it — it doesn't work like that. You can't just declare yourself an Argentinian one morning either without becoming a citizen first, even if you have Argentinian ancestry. And sure, if you do have some of that ancestry, you are connected to the nation, but that's different from being given a vote y'know?

Using a totally unsupervised, totally unsanctioned, brand-new neo-pagan ritual to unilaterally declare your membership in a tribe does not make you one of us. If anything, it proves why you never will be.

Now! Let's assume for a moment that we are referring only to the provably halachic Jews whose connection and backgrounds are beyond reasonable questioning.

You can never really leave the tribe, but you absolutely can apostasize. Plenty of Jews do it. There are plenty of Jews who find that Judaism is not spiritually fulfilling for them but something else is, and they convert out. There are halachic Jews who have walked away from Judaism in order to practice any other number of religions: Christianity, Islam, Neo-paganism, Hinduism, etc.

That is their prerogative, but by doing so they turn away from their people in a serious way and cannot be said to be practicing Judaism. There is of course room for many different types of Jewish practice, but conversely, there are practices that are too far removed from Judaism to meaningfully be considered as such. Otherwise, it's no longer a coherent group identity. And because Judaism is a collective identity, that actually matters.

The Jews as a people have decided that worshipping gods that are not Hashem is not within the realm of Judaism, which is why messianic "Jews" are not practicing a valid form of Judaism even if they are halachicly Jewish and/or have Jewish ancestry. Worshipping Jesus makes you a Christian or at least adjacent. That is a hard boundary.

And yeah — if you change the basic meaning of holidays, if you bring in lots of practices that are brand new and have no halachic or even historical basis, are often highly individualistic, and would not be accepted as Judaism by the vast majority of Jews, then it absolutely falls outside it. If I started practicing a religion that made little icons of Muhammad to pray to once a day and celebrated my ingenuity with pork roast and a nice glass of wine, I don't get to say that I'm practicing Islam.

These people are doing the Jewish equivalent. It is something else entirely. Especially because so many of these practices spit in the face of major tenets of Judaism and go against Jewish values.

To treat it otherwise is to treat it as an absolutely meaningless aesthetic rather than a living breathing ethnoreligious tribe of people who get to decide our own community's boundaries and practices collectively.

And for the naysayers who still disrespect Judaism and Jewish identity and peoplehood so much that they think that they get to define Judaism more than actual rabbis? Look, we can't physically stop you from calling yourself Jewish, but by the same turn, YOU can't force US to recognize you as one of us. You can be mad, but that's the thing about group cultural identities — that cultural group gets to decide whether they claim you or not.

[To be clear: this is not about politics — there are plenty of Jewish non-Zionists and anti-Zionists who are 100% Jewish. This is about this one specific shitty organization and this particular type of behavior.]

[max-nolastname]

types of story that different black sails characters think they're in:

jack: typical underdog overcoming unbeatable odds story; he is the main character and the show is 100% about him and his joseph campbell hero's journey. he is like achilles seeking eternal glory. he is also like gilgamesh, seeking immortality because he's afraid of death

flint: one of those fairytale retelling stories from the villain's pov; he is the fire-breathing dragon/big bad wolf/wicked witch that his village has ostracized, chased out of his home with pitchforks and torches because they feared him and what he is and what he stands for. he knows that in another show, a more popular show, the story would be told from the pov of the villagers about the dangers that lie beyond the village walls and into the forest...but this is HIS show and in HIS show HE is the one that survived the villagers not the other way around and HE is the one that has been wronged and he WILL see them pay for it

miranda: at first she thinks she is the witty and cunning heroine of a regency period romance novel. she is critical of high society and it's archaic and sexist traditions, turns her nose up at the institution of marriage and yet against all odds finds a true partner in thomas. she thinks herself happier and smarter than her peers, for finding a way to explore her sexuality freely and still keep her high status. she is caught in a whirlwind romance with a handsome naval officer and well....then her story turns into a tragedy and a decade caught in lifeless loveless joyless limbo where she is sidelined into the background of someone else's story

max: overly aware that she is in A Story and that she is Not The Main Character; the spotlight is never on her, she will never take centre stage. in fact, she is in the wings, or perhaps watching the show from the back of the theatre as the stage manager, setting the scene and directing others to pull ropes, shine lights, open and close the curtains so that other actors can strut and fret their way around the stage

billy: revenge quest story! thinks he is the good guy, there to protect his friends and get revenge on the tyrant who killed his father. gains some genre awareness and realizes that he is not, in fact, the main character, but rather a side character caught in a romance between his captain and quartermaster and if he really wants to survive he's really gotta break them up

madi: a story of hope told around a campfire, passed on from generation to generation so people don't forget about the time that an island of maroons stood up to a seemingly eternal and unbeatable empire. some days, it's a cautionary tale, on how volatile solidarity can be with divisions like class, race and gender .... or how revolution necessitates violence that people who are comfortable in their oppression rather not pay... but no empire lasts forever and nothing is inevitable. the story sticks in the hearts and minds of future revolutionaries and someday someone somewhere will pick up the torch and continue the fight

season 1 walrus crew: workplace comedy

silver: [redacted]

[dark-frosted-heart]

Crown’s S Class Mission - Roger Barel (Premium end)

As usual, can’t guarantee 100% accuracy on this.

Roger: Hold up. Not gonna let you kill my cute student. Now then, it’s time for Instructor Roger’s fun and exciting punishment.

Master of the estate: Oliver, shut that guy up!

Instructor Oliver: The one who needs to shut up is you.

Oliver grabbed the man and pinned him to the floor.

Master of the estate: *cough* Wha-what are you doing!

Instructor Oliver: I won't feel ashamed anymore!

Kate: Instructor Oliver…

Roger: All the members involved have been captured. They’ll be dealt with properly, but first, they gotta be punished for their crimes.

The master of the estate and all members involved were lined up on the platform.

They all had their wrists bound by rope.

Noblewomen: Huh…what’s this all about? What happened…

Roger: These guys were handing illegal substances to the women of this club. Therefore, we’re gonna hold an extremely punishing Spartan boot camp! Endurance squats—start.

Roger’s shout was the signal for those guilty to start squatting.

No matter how many squats were done, Roger didn’t stop.

Roger: It’s hard? No way, we’re just getting started.

(This is a scene from Hell)

Roger’s sadistic, egoistic, and unforgiving.

But he’s not the kind that enjoys tormenting others.

The evidence was in the calmness reflected in his eyes despite his harsh words.

(Ah, I see)

(Roger’s…really pissed)

Master of the estate: Huff, huff…To humiliate a man like this…

Roger: What does being a man have to do with this?

Master of the estate: …?

Roger: Sure, physically, there’s differences between men and women. But those are individual differences. Just like how women are oppressed, we men have our absurd matters as well.

Instructor Oliver: That’s right… Sometimes we’re all assumed to be strong.

Roger: However, that doesn’t give you the right to look down on others. There’s a lot of people in this club working on getting stronger. I got a cute pet dog who’s just like everyone else here.

(He’s not talking about me is he…?)

Roger: They’re the type that gets frustrated and beaten down by a lot of things, but picks themself back up and tries to be strong. No one’s got the right to stop someone that keeps moving forward and wants to be strong.

(Ah…)

How many times have I looked pathetic in front of Roger?

But every time, Roger would provide support from a distance.

(I’m really no match for him…)

Roger: Besides, I heard that the more stylish you are with women, the more popular you’ll be. Isn’t that right, Kate?

Kate: Hehe, that’s not a very Roger thing to say.

Roger: Well let me be just this once. Kate, what should we do with these guys?

Kate: A sin is a sin and evil is evil. We need to condemn all of them.

Roger: As you command.

After that harsh punishment, all those involved were turned over to the police.

The Beauty Muscle Club was dissolved.

The main culprit was to pay a large amount of compensation and was surely never going to see the light again.

And the bodies subjected to Roger’s punishing boot camp would find themselves useless for some time.

Victor, who had rushed over to clean up the mess, spread his arms out.

Victor: Kate, Roger! Ah…I’m glad you’re alright.

Kate: Thank you for cleaning up after us.

Victor: No need to thank me. It’s my job. Oh, that’s right. Here you go, Roger. A special reward like I promised.

I blinked at the check Victor handed him.

Kate: I didn’t hear anything about a special reward!

Roger: ‘Cause we didn’t tell you. This is gonna help fund my research on curses since it gets pretty expensive.

Kate: Geez…you’re so shrewd.

Victor: Kate, I’d like to give you a special reward too…

Kate: Victor, I don’t deserve it.

Victor: Why do you think so?

Kate: Roger told me not to do anything reckless, but I got carried away by my emotions…

Roger: Hahaha. That slap was refreshing.

Kate: It’s not funny…

Roger: It is. Just laugh and forget about that asshole. But Kate’s right. She’ll get her reward later. Because a student who misbehaves definitely needs to be punished, doesn’t she?

Kate: Huh? Woah… Roger?!

Roger threw me over his shoulder and walked away from Victor.

Victor: I haven’t seen that innocent look on Roger’s face in a while. Perhaps I can leave him to Kate.

--

Kate: H-hey, please put me down!

Roger: You sure are yapping a lot.

Roger sat me down on a sofa. He then sat down next to me and crossed his legs.

Roger: However, I prefer you making a fuss like this instead of depressed.

(Ah, there he goes again…picking me back up)

Roger: The most important thing about reflecting is finding areas for improvement.

Kate: Yes, I agree. What I need to improve on this time is…getting emotional.

Roger: You have a point, but that’s not it. Kate, you can rely on me.

Kate: You…?

Roger: Being strong doesn’t mean doing things alone. I think being able to rely on someone’s also a strength.

Roger’s words touched my heart like gentle rain.

Kate: If I ask…will you help me?

Roger: Of course. I’m your owner after all.

Kate: There you go treating me like a dog again…

(...He’s so sneaky. I would’ve cried if he didn’t say something like that)

Roger: Alright, time to wrap up Roger’s gracious lecture and get to the punishment.

Kate: ……Huh?

Roger: What’s with that dumb look? There’s a difference between reflection and punishment, you know?

Kate: A-anyway, are you going to do something perverted again?

Roger: If that’s what you’re expecting, then I’ll have to meet it.

Roger set down his hunting rifle and removed his vest…exposing his shoulder.

(Eh?)

It wasn’t bleeding, but it was red, as if something chafed against it.

(That’s the shoulder that supports his rifle isn’t it? Did it…)

Roger: I was in a rush to save you that my rifle scraped me when I shot it.

Kate: Sorry…

Roger: I don’t want an apology. Instead…lick it, Kate.

Kate: There’s no way licking will heal it…

Roger: Hmm, not gonna nurse me better?

(That look on his face…He’s totally enjoying this)

(But it’s my fault this happened. So…)

Kate: Okay… Please stay still.

I turned toward Roger and placed a hand on his large shoulder.

And then I ran my tongue over the reddened spot.

Kate: Nn…

Roger’s firm shoulder made me realize just how different he was from me.

(Why do I feel weird when I’m just licking him…?)

Roger: …

Kate: Roger…?

Roger: You’re pretty unreliable.

Kate: You think you're strong-willed, but you're easily manipulated.

(That’s because of you, Roger)

(Because of Roger…?)

Roger: The thought of you listening to anyone worries me. Besides…you’re defenseless and naive.

Kate: Eh? Ah…

Before I could react, the laces on my blouse were undone and my underwear was pulled down.

Roger: They’re already hard. What’s making you so excited?

Kate: No, I…

Roger: Geez… I’ll need to discipline you on not feeling something whenever someone touches you.

Kate: Huh? Kyaa.

Roger turned me away from him and placed a hand on my butt. Roger: This is your punishment, Kate. No matter what I do, you’re not allowed to take pleasure from it.

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this but I gotta start somewhere. I've been learning a lot about indigenous history and activism as I work on deconstruction, and a sentiment I come across a lot is bitterness towards Christianity. I cannot emphasize enough how much I fully understand. The rough bit is that sometimes when I read their work, I get the implication that there's nothing worth saving in the Church/Christianity- that to hold on to it is to hold on to all the colonialism and white supremacy and yuck.

As a disabled trans Christian, I get that, but it still hurts. I love God and am a Christian despite everything. I want to be an ally to indigenous people, but I want to follow God this way too. I know those aren't mutually exclusive, but it feels that way sometimes. Do you have any insight for me to find peace in this regard?

Thank you.

Hey there, thanks for the question, sorry for the delay!

This is something I've also wrestled with — a question I ask myself over and over, and probably always will. I cannot offer you peace, because as Jeremiah 6:14 says, "There is no peace!" — not while our faith continues to be wielded as a weapon against so many peoples. What I can offer you are some of the thoughts that have allowed me to continue to be Christian with hope that this faith can be better than what it's long been misused for, and the resolve to do my part to make it so.

First, that Christianity isn't unique in being co-opted by colonialist powers.

Any belief system can be twisted for violence, and many have been. If Christianity didn't exist, white supremacy still would — colonialist powers would have found a different belief system to twist into justifying their evils.

That absolutely does not absolve us from reckoning with the evils that have been done in Christianity's name! This isn't about shutting down critiques of Christianity with "uh well it could have been any religion" — as things played out, Christianity is the religion responsible for so much harm, and we need to acknowledge that and listen to groups who tell us how we can make some form of reparations.

But for me at least, there is some comfort in understanding that Christianity isn't, like, inherently evil or something. Recognizing that it isn't unique even in its flaws helps me look at the problem with clearer eyes, rather than wallowing in guilt and shame, if that makes sense.

Next, that there are Indigenous Christians, and Black Christians, and other Christians of color — that oppressed peoples have found things worth cultivating within Christianity! If they can find something worthwhile in this faith, it would be arrogance for me to deny it.

For instance, even when white slaveholders edited Bibles to remove too much discussion of liberation, even when white preachers emphasized verses about slaves being obedient to their masters, many enslaved people recognized how Christian faith actually affirms their equality and the holiness of their desire for liberation.

Black Theologian Howard Thurman opens his 1949 book Jesus and the Disinherited with a question asked to him by a Hindu man who knew the harms white Christianity had done to both their peoples: “How can you, a black man, be Christian?” The long and short of Thurman’s answer is that, in spite of the pain and exploitation too often inflicted by Christians in positions of power, the oppressed have always been able to see past that misuse of the Christian message to the true message lived out by Jesus Christ: a message of liberation for all.

For more thoughts on why and how to keep being Christian in spite, in spite, in spite...I invite you to look through my #why we stay tag.

___

How I wish that Christianity had never gotten tangled up in Empire! but it did, and it still is, and because for good or ill I cannot help that my spirit is stubbornly drawn towards the Triune understanding of the Divine, the best I can do is to use my privilege and what small influence I have within Christian institutions to move us towards decolonization. What some of that's looked like on the level of my personal beliefs:

I am firmly against any form of proselytizing. I don't support evangelism financially, I speak out against it, I don't platform it. (If someone wants to hear about my faith, they'll come to me — I don't run after them. And if someone does want to have that conversation, I aim to make it a dialogue, where we are learning from each other.)

I continuously work to recognize and uproot Christian supremacy within myself — the beliefs I didn't even realize where there until I started digging. That has included challenging any inkling within myself that Christianity is the "best" or "most right" religion. (One book that's helped a lot with that is Holy Envy by Barbara Brown Taylor.)

I seek wisdom from and relationship with Christians of color. Their insights are vital to our faith, and I try to use what small influence I have to uplift them.

On that last note, here are some resources I recommend as you continue to explore these questions:

This First Nations Version of the Christian Bible is gorgeously written, and a great way to explore scripture through a Native lens.

Native by Kaitlin B. Curtice is a lovely poetic memoir that explores how one person has sought to hold both her Christian faith and Potawatomi identity within herself. (She also has a new book out that I haven't read yet but really want to!)

God is Red: A Native View of Religion by Vine Deloria Jr.

Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys by Richard Twiss

I haven't read any of these 4 books but they look good too

This video with advice to non-Indigenous Christians

If anyone has any resources to add, please do!

[capitalism-and-analytics]

I don't believe anyone has the right to discriminate against anyone for reasons of identity. Because if they didn’t do anything objectively then your problem with them is subjective and therefore should only be your problem.

You don’t have to like them or respect them or the way they live. But if you provide goods or service to everyone not only the people you approve of. Because either that's the standard you set for everyone. And not only justifying the emotional weakness of every shop owner (which is something I thought only liberals were supposed to do.) But then that gives people the right to further retreat into their own personal bubbles and to not have their viewpoints challenged by everyday life.

That and when this becomes the standard for everyone 1 day you'll be kicked out of some place for something they don't like about you, and you'll be like "that's not fair I did nothing wrong." Which means that you're telling people to express themselves less and to be less of how they are. Which is the thought process totalitarianism is based on.

And if we don't go through with tlhe implications of this and only do this to gay people then they'll ask "well what did we do wrong? Why are we less legitimate than everyone else?" And we answer with: "well it’s how they feel." "Then all they gotta respond with is "well we don't guard anyone else is feelings that much so seems dumb to me." And there's no logical counter to that.

So at worst it's tyrannical and at best it's hypocrtically. Remember freedom of people always comes before freedom of business because if not than the businesses will oppress us. And oppression of any kind is awful.

Well there's quite a few things to address here and to avoid a terribly long post, I am going to try to keep it focused and on-topic of the original post.

I am assuming this post is in response and in context of the court decision (correct me if I am mistaken), but the decision was limited to expressive services and protecting individuals' rights of expression that in conducting business they have a right to reject providing expressive services that conflict with their own beliefs. This is very different than summarizing it as "only people you approve of" as it should be better described as "only forms of expressions you approve of". I understand the concern that people have that this could be a slippery slope situation that could turn into discrimination of certain groups of people solely based on a protected form of identity, but that is an inherent risk regardless as unfortunately, bigotry cannot be legislated away.

that gives people the right to further retreat into their own personal bubbles and to not have their viewpoints challenged by everyday life

Absolutely not as this "right" has already existed by consumers. The difference is that the right has been extended to businesses too. For example, forcing Muslims to shop at a Christian wedding store will not challenge their viewpoints, it will merely oppress them. Similarly, forcing a Christian wedding store to design services specifically for a Nikah will have the same effect.

In contrast, if you give them both the right to willingly participate, then you will find the Christian wedding store may choose to be more open to other religious practices in order to generate more business or the Muslims may consider purchasing some items/services from the Christian wedding store than to go without.

Remember freedom of people always comes before freedom of business because if not than the businesses will oppress us

I am not sure what you mean here because businesses are people. They are just a legal term to describe the entity providing a good or service. Are you referring to corporations being separate legal entities than their stockholders?

In the context of the court decision, we are referring to a self-employed website designer being protected by the first amendment, i.e. freedom of expression. Are you arguing that the Constitution or more specifically the First Amendment should not cover those involved in a business-related activity? I don't wish to strawman or misrepresent your argument.

[tonightillbeonthathill]

Bruce Springsteen: I understood that underneath this illusion of freedom was an oppressiveness that would kill me

My Hometown (Bruce Springsteen Live at LA Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA - September 1985)

Bruce Springsteen: “At some point I said to myself—and I know this is one of the things that caused me a lot of distress—I said, Well, okay, what if I am the guy in ‘Born to Run,’ with the bike and the girl, shooting down the road. But when you get out there a little ways, there’s not that much traffic. And you can’t see the people in the cars next to you; all the windows are tinted. And all of a sudden you’re out there, but where is everybody? So I guess I kinda thought, Well, all right, you know; so maybe I get to do these things, but what about everybody else?

And that didn’t come from a real selfless motivation or some idea to do good. Because I understood that it was a self-preservation question. I realized that you will die out there, simple as that. I understood that underneath this illusion of freedom was an oppressiveness that would kill me. And that where maybe I was different was that I knew it.

So when I got in that situation, I felt tremendously threatened, and I did not know why. It was totally instinctive. Matter of fact, I don’t think I really knew why until not that long ago. But initially, when I was twenty-five, it was just instinctive—I felt threatened, I felt in danger. And it was funny because those were the exact opposite responses that people generally have. But I didn’t know why I was havin’ ’em; I was just havin’ ’em.

So initially, I wanted to just reject the whole thing—‘This is bad; all this is bad’—as people have done before. I think you look at some of the older rock and rollers, they’ve chosen to reject it and their opposite choice was to move to religious fundamentalism. But I got so alienated from religion when I was younger that there was no way that that was ever gonna be an alternative, in that sense, for me. I just could never see it.

I think when I got in that spot, I really did feel—and not in a paranoid fashion— attacked on the essence of who I felt that I was. So at that point I realized that, unattached from community, it was impossible to find any meaning. And if you can’t find any meaning, you will go insane and you will either kill yourself or somebody will do the job for you, either by doping you or one thing or another.

I began to question from that moment on the values and the ideas that I set out and believed in on that Born to Run record: friendship, hope, belief in a better day. I questioned all of these things. And so Darkness on the Edge of Town was basically saying, You get out there and you turn around and you come back because that’s just the beginning. That’s the real beginning.

I got out there—hey, the wind’s whipping through your hair, you feel real good, you’re the guy with the gold guitar or whatever, and all of a sudden you feel that sense of dread that is overwhelming everything you do. It’s like that great scene in The Last Picture Show where the guy hits the brakes and turns around. The Darkness record was a confrontation record: ‘Badlands,’ ‘Adam Raised a Cain,’ ‘Racing in the Street’all those people, all those faces, you gotta look at ’em all. Right through to ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’—that was a whole other beginning.

Now, you strip a whole bunch of things away from the thing, and you lose a lot of your illusions and a lot of, I suppose, your romantic dreams. And you decide…you make a particular decision. And that is a decision, I believe, that saves your life—your real life, your internal life, your emotional life, your essential life. Because you can live on, and a lotta people do; there’s all sorts of people livin’ on out there, you know. But I knew—and this ties right in with the discussion I had with Jon about Born in the U.S.A.—that the reason I began to do what I did was for connection. I desperately needed connection. I couldn’t get it; I wanted it.

And that’s why the guitar was my lifeline. That was my connection with other people, more than anything else. Because other things will not sustain you. Maybe for a while you’ll be distracted and have some fun, but in the end, your real life, you’ll die, you will really die. And then once that happens, I believe there’s only a certain amount of time before the physical thing catches up to you.

So you’ve got that situation, where I turn around—on the live record, that’s where ‘Badlands’ fits.”

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

I hate it when people draw characters with WAY darker skin than they really have... like, there's a particular fandom that I'm in, where the main character is played by a mixed race actor with pretty light skin, and people draw him the color of chocolate all the time. Nothing wrong with that skin color, of course, but isn't it kinda racist to look at a guy and say "ok, he's not white so he's gotta be BROWN" to the point where it doesn't even look like the actor? Is the real life person just not brown enough? I dunno, it just weirds me out.

I wonder if it comes from a place of fan artists not feeling confident about their abilities to draw distinctive facial features. So they worry that the accurate skin tone will cause people to accuse them of "whitewashing". 🙁 I get that, if so. It's just a shame that fan communities can be so awful.

THANK YOU!

I read a lot of Yuri on Ice fanfic and it always drives me up the wall when writers describe Yuuri as having darker skin than Victor. Look at these two

They have the exact same skin color. You'd have to go into photoshop and search around with the color picker to find a different shade on their faces.

It's like they can't admit that Japanese people can have pale skin because in their woke brains everyone is separated into White People--Evil, Bad, Pale Devils, and People of Color--Oppressed, Dark Skinned, Perfect. And when they're confronted with a "POC" that has light skin, they can't handle it.

(these are the same people who though Chris Pratt tanning for Jurassic World was him trying to "look black", so we're not dealing with a lot of brainpower here)

I do think a lot of what you're talking about comes from being scared of being accused of whitewashing, because fandoms are super toxic about any character appearing even a shade lighter than they're supposed to be. But I also think at least some of it comes from people not being able to deal with the fact that sometimes non-white people have pale skin. Especially when the characters are animated. They see darkening the skin as "correcting" or "fixing" the character. It's super racist, and really exposes how much dark skin is almost fetish-like for them.

And honestly, when it's a real mixed race actor? It's doubly shitty. Mixed race people deal with a lot of stigma from within their communities and without. "Too black for the whites, too white for the blacks" is a common sentiment among Americans with mixed racial heritage. For fandoms, who love to act like they're super "anti-racist" and "allies", darkening a real person's skin in their fan art shows that they don't even know what racism is. It's just the sad state of modern fandom.

Thankfully, most medium to large fandoms seem to have groups that aren't like this, and they're usually not that hard to find.

[professorspork]

the big 'Faunus worldbuilding in Newsbees' post

as requested by EVER SO MANY OF YOU (!!), I now embark upon a post to talk much more about the Shallow Sea Verses and about the Faunus culture and worldbuilding I did for Newsbees. I've talked about them a little bit before, and I'll try not to repeat myself too much there but there's gonna be some overlap.

I imagine when some of you asked me to say more about this, what you were hoping for was like a "here's all this great stuff I came up with for other traditions that I never got to use in the fic!" and that is--not what this post is, sorry. by virtue of the fact that this was, ultimately, a literary device very much devised to move this story forward, I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about in in ways that weren't plot-relevant. if you have prompts for, like, "how would they do/think about X" I'm delighted to give it a think, but it's not something I have just lying around.

instead I'm gonna talk about how it came about, why I did it, and what my priorities were

okay so I'm gonna take this in... I guess chronological order is the best way to make sense of it

from the outset of the fic's conception, I knew that I wanted it to be a reflection of my values. like. it's about unionizing a workforce, it's about socially-conscious community-building and class struggle and FUCK COPS. to disregard the minority oppression of the Faunus (which you'll note is something I always capitalize, for what I should think are now-obvious parallel reasons) in a world and a story like that just felt... not just insulting, but downright stupid. a missed opportunity. and I've always felt like this subject deserved much greater forethought and much better execution than canon provided, which I think can be described most charitably as "mostly serviceable" but is mealy-mouthed, inconsistent, and both-sidesy-whattaboutist at way too many points for me to feel like it merits any credit. like. if you're gonna do catgirl racism and intra-community disagreements over praxis, you gotta actually do catgirl racism and intra-community disagreements over praxis, you know?

(gee, I'm sure you're shocked Sienna is very much alive in Newsbees, wonder why that is)

ANYHOO

so that was thing one.

thing two is that this is perhaps the GREATEST ARGUMENT I HAVE for why I prefer writing everything in advance and then posting on a schedule, because I knew it was something I could then find my way into and then retcon back in, if needed, and that I therefore had the entire canvas available to paint on. and it's a good thing, too, because it saved my ass multiple times plot-wise and not just in this worldbuilding way.

to combine those two thoughts, the first time ANY of this actually came up in the drafting process was when I hit the Ilia scene in chapter 6. I knew what I wanted Blake to say to Ilia in that moment, which she absolutely couldn't say, which was: "I said the Mourner's Kaddish."

which: that's already a lot to unpack, so let's do that a bit! the first thing that drew me towards formulating my conception of Faunus culture around parallels to the diasporic Jewish experience is, of course, "write what you know." I'm not a racial or ethnic minority but I am Jewish, and so it was something I could use the 'draw from wellspring of personal knowledge and emotion' part of my brain for, rather than the 'radically and empathetically imagine the other' part of my brain. I've seen all sorts of fanon Faunus ideas where people drew on different and likely personal interpretations-- including things like the Faunus having their own language, Faunus interpolations of the Maiden myths and other Remnant lore having different values or being scaled more towards the God of Animals, Faunus having their own foods... if someone not-me had written this fic, this could have manifested in any number of ways. because the Faunus don't fit neatly into my (very American) notions of race, religion, or even X-men style "maybe we should regulate the people who have nukes for hands" minority/majority frameworks, I had the freedom to use the one that had the most personal meaning to me... and to deviate from that when it suited and felt appropriate. Neon's rightfully combative stance about Faunus mistreatment and how she reacts to it, for example, is far more aligned with the experiences of my friends and loved ones who are POC than it is anything I've personally gone through as a Jew.

so!

knowing, then, what my destination was (a Faunus cultural framework that would have specific death rites and rituals), I worked backwards from there. what makes a culture FEEL lived in is that people LIVE in it, that it relates to their everyday lives as well as its most significant moments-- what do we eat? how do we treat guests in our home? how do we handle life cycle events (birth/marriage/death)? without a country of origin, as the Faunus have none-- they made Menagerie, not the other way around-- and not wanting to go TOO explicitly religious by having there actually be some sort of dogmatic (har har DOG-matic) text about the God of Animals, I instead lit upon the idea of old poems whose metaphors have been transformed into material gifts. this felt intuitive to me probably largely because I'm Jewish (we're called the People of the Book for a reason lmao, we're all about interpretation and re-interpretation of text) but also, honestly, because the written word is WILDLY IMPORTANT in newsbees. they work at a newspaper! there's a reason the very last words of the story are Blake saying "for the record," which is a reporting pun. in hindsight, however, this is also sort of Sappho-y, which is also neat and, again, shows that ALL the ways I've experienced my own Otherness show up here.

having a text then gave me a scale of orthodoxy to work from, as in "very traditional people still recite these texts in a ceremonial way," but also a background radiation-level casual level of interaction, which is "yeah I leave shells at graves because that's what my parents taught me and I don't even really know why." this also means that all Faunus have the same sort of playbook to work from, regardless of where they're from geographically or what kind of Faunus they are.

once I had that in place, I immediately realized that whatever traditional Mourner's Verse there would be probably would feel kind of insulting re: what happened to the Amitolas, which is why I came up with the Traveler's Verse workaround. and the second I came up with that, I knew I could use it to connect Ghira and Kali back into the text at the end-- I'd been wanting to find a way to do that and hadn't come up with a method.

the first draft of that scene then promptly infodumped every thought I could possibly have about the Verses, immediately. @theseerasures teased me that it read like a Codex entry from Mass Effect, and she was 100% right-- and it totally interrupted the flow of the VERY EMOTIONAL scene with Ilia, which wouldn't do at all.

and that's where the 'writing it all before posting it' thing comes in. that infodumping then became the scene at Doc's in chapter 3. this also solved another problem I had, which was that in the VERY first draft chapters 3 and 4 were one very long chapter. I'd subsequently split them, which left chapter 3 quite short-- but at that point, the moment where Blake is upstairs getting her snack was only a brief explanatory paragraph. moving the Verses stuff back made the chapter a chapter, so it did a lot of heavy lifting for me. wanting the Verses to feel integrated, I also at that point went back and added the engraving on Tukson's door to the prologue, so that it would be seeded in from the start.

which is kind of to say that ALL WRITING IS CHEATING. we get to manipulate circumstances to best suit our needs! callbacks feel elegant and cerebral, but they're actually a very blunt and easy tool to use-- you get tons of mileage out of just establishing something and then bringing it up all the time. I'd already written the thing about Tukson being picky about book damage, and so I let that become a part of the Verses lore by saying it was a Faunus thing, and then doubled down on it with the "throwing the book at Ghira" anecdote.

as for what things mean what, the basic rule I gave for myself is that everything had to be common and easily-obtainable for a community often left impoverished and on the margins. that's why so many of them are food-based, because that's a very "even if we have nothing else, we have THIS" sort of thing. when coming up with the thing that would represent love, I lit upon honey BEFORE i realized "oh duh, lmao, bees" because... I'm an idiot, but luckily I figured it out after a bit. I was very enamored of the idea of it representing not just sweetness, but industry (as in "busy bees"), that love takes steady and determined work. the second I did think it up, the Velvet gag gift ("they're making fun of me") sprang to mind, though ironically it wasn't necessarily tied to the Mantle Bee yet, though that was also already a concept on the page.

probably the hardest thing to come up with was the NOT-honey gift for the epilogue (which ended up being nuts for growth), because I was like... is it a pen and paper for a first job? Is that too bougie? maybe a cute little desk succulent? but what would it represent?

and yeah, that's pretty much how I got there. it was a question of making something specific enough that it would feel authentic, but open-ended enough that I could make up whatever I wanted to suit the moment and have it all feel of a piece. from there, it was just about USING it-- keeping it in the back of my mind in Faunus-related scenes to see if there were ways I could weave it in somehow.

phew! okay I think that's pretty much everything. if anyone is so very enamored of the Verses that they'd like to use them for their own fics, you certainly have my permission to do so (with a link back to Newsbees for credit, please). I'm intrigued to see what you'd do with them! but also, like-- I love how multi-faceted and varied different interpretations of Faunus lore can be, and I'd love to see what y'all come up with for your own systems!

CONSIDER THE GAUNTLET THROWN. HAVE FUN OUT THERE.

<3

[vipersforlife]

A/n so for a while I’ve wanted to write a alphabet and have decided to give it a try with yandere!Eyeless jack, the original template for the alphabet is not mine and I don’t know the true creators name unfortunately.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Affection: How do they show their love and affection? How intense would it get?

I think Jack would start out extremely distant, and probably being very cautious due to his previous relationship with Jenny. But overtime would show more affection, which could get intense as it continues.

Blood: How messy are they willing to get when it comes to their darling?

Not very messy, Jack would kill but he’d be very meticulous with it, since he is/was a doctor. A simple slit to the throat or maybe a few organs removed is enough.

Cruelty: How would they treat their darling once abducted? Would they mock them?

He’d be very careful to keep them close and make sure he can keep an eye on them. (Wouldn’t want them to escape). Also he’d totally mock them. He’s a literal demon and if his darling in human there weak in his eye.

(Personally I feel jack would be a bit of a jerk to some people.)

Darling: Aside from abduction, would they do anything against their darling’s will?

He’d lock them up, and isolate them from everyone. So the only one they have left is him.

Exposed: How much of their heart do they bare to their darling? How vulnerable are they when it comes to their darling?

He’d bare very little, his heart is cold and dead. As for how vulnerable he is when it come to his darling, it’s not much. Hes the one in charge and will show it.

Fight: How would they feel if their darling fought back?

Amused, very amused. How stupid of his darling to think they can beat him in a fight.

Game: Is this a game to them? How much would they enjoy watching their darling try to escape?

This is a game to him and also a experiment. He’s find in very fun to watch his darling escape. All he’s gonna do is drag them back.

Hell: What would be their darling’s worst experience with them?

Definitely when being punished for the first time, Jack would lock them up for days (starving them). He’s wait till his darling is practically begging to be let out and saying how sorry they were.

Ideals: What kind of future do they have in mind for/with their darling?

Jacks not thought that far ahead yet, and doesn’t intend to.

Jealousy: Do they get jealous? Do they lash out or find a way to cope?

He hates his darling around others, how dare they talk to there darling. He’s the only one that they should be talking to.

He’d lash out by killing them. .

Kisses: How do they act around or with their darling?

Not much different then he would in public, maybe a little bit nicer and gentler.

Love letters: How would they go about courting or approaching their darling?

Mask: Are their true colors drastically different from the way they act around everyone else?

As mentioned in K he wouldn’t act much different.

Naughty: How would they punish their darling?

He’s first start with isolation and starvation. But it could get worse by making them lose an organ (even worse his darlings awake the whole time just can’t feel it)

Oppression: How many rights would they take away from their darling?

He’d isolate his darling from everyone, also would probably try to control there diet a little. He’s gotta make sure there healthy at all times.

Patience: How patient are they with their darling?

Very patient, this man would wait for the perfect opportunity, starting form stalking and learning his darling routine.

Quit: If their darling dies, leaves, or successfully escapes, would they ever be able to move on?

Yes, to him you were like a pet. Eventually his darling would have to die. But if they leave or escape, I doubt he’d care

Regret: Would they ever feel guilty about abducting their darling? Would they ever let their darling go?

No, and he’d never let his darling go. There his and his alone.

Stigma: What brought about this side of them (childhood, curiosity, etc)?

I’d say curiosity. He wanted to keep someone around him and learn more about what humans do since hes no longer human.

Tears: How do they feel about seeing their darling scream, cry, and/or isolate themselves?

He feels happy and confident, cause he knows that eventually his darling will come back for comfort. After all he’s all they have.

Unique: Would they do anything different from the classic yandere?

He’s a fucking cannibal.

Vice: What weakness can their darling exploit in order to escape?

I feel like jack would be a little bit touch starved and would want yo stay close to his darling.

Wit’s end: Would they ever hurt their darling?

Yes, he would probably take a few organs from his darling. Or would hurt them when punishing them.

Xoanon: How much would they revere or worship their darling? To what length would they go to win their darling over?

He’s not all that interested in worshipping his darling, if anything they should be worshiping him.

Yearn: How long do they pine after their darling before they snap?

Jack is smart and knows what he’s doing, so I doubt he’d snap.

Zenith: Would they ever break their darling?

Not intentionally, but hey at least now his darling won’t leave right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/n hope you liked this, if there’s any grammar problems I’m sorry. Also for a little bit of an explanation on Jacks personality I’ve always seen his as a very cocky and calculative person.

He’s very aware of his actions, knowing what he’s doing. If you want to see another one of those I’m thinking of

Masky

Hoodie

Jeff

Toby

Jane

That’s all for now.

-viper

[cripplemagics]

idk if i'm in different circles now or what but i'm seeing a lot of negativity about pride as like. . . a month? mainly because people either 1. don't like rainbow capitalism or 2. just find it plain annoying because they're 'not THAT kind of gay.'

i get not liking rainbow capitalism. however if we keep tearing it down and getting mad at it it'll become easier for corporations to listen to bigots. and besides: for people who can't necessarily hide a package from a queer business but can hide shit in a target bag or whatever, rainbow capitalism is a way for them to still get pride goods. YES CORPORATIONS SHOULD OPENLY SUPPORT THE QUEER COMMUNITY ALL YEAR AROUND. but they're not gonna do that if we boo people about it.

on the 'i'm not THAT kind of gay' statement: i'm not sorry you feel uncomfortable around queer people who are happy and proud to be happy and queer. yes flamboyant people can be hard to be around if you're an introverted person (i am introverted so i get i really do) but like. . . why drag the concept of pride down just because you don't like people being loud about shit? we're celebrating the fact that our community has been torn down and torn apart and yet despite it all we're still here. its celebrating our history and what it took for us to get here where we have made progress.

and its a month to remember that there are other countries where queer people are still heavily oppressed to the point of being killed for being who they are and loving who they love. it's so much more than blasting gay anthems and twerking and waving flags. its still a time to protest against bigotry. and if we gotta riot again, so be it.

[angstics]

it's always been interesting to me that the only thing seemingly "separating" the transgender truthing from the homosexual truthing, in terms of legitimate proof that someone who only knows gerard way through interviews and stage performance could provide, is the history of open gnc-ness. which doesn't really correlate to any kind of transgender identity but obviously i know why people choose to interpret it that way. (even then, the offstage dude kissing could and usually does fill an identical role in other peoples interpretation of gerard as being secretly gay so. shrug). but this time TRUST ME his performance art in solidarity with an oppressed queer group is ACTUALLY him being secretly trans. i try not to engage with any mass discourse events and find the she/her pronoun usage distasteful and just personally uncomfortable, so i dont directly encounter many people who even orbit this kind of discussion lol. im curious what you think about this comparison! and i apologize if anything was worded unclearly :)

this is a big can o worms! i like hearing your thoughts. there’s sooo many different readings on his identity and how the outfits factor into that.

it’s invasive but it’s not the same ethics as theorizing about a friend. understanding an artist is important to people. it’s part of being an artist which is normal but heavily contested. im always reminded of siken’s response to the student who wanted to learn more about his life to understand his poetry lol (he wasnt nice). why would it matter? authenticity, connection, need to label? there’s no universal or moral answer

anyhow back to gerard. the shift from homosexual to transgender truthing is funny! people didnt give up, they just concluded he’s unlabelled gay 😭 not from the on/off stage kissing (which were all performative) but from the tweetsss. “when people try to define your sexuality [morrissey picture]” and “why would i hide it if i was a Homosexual”. the affair conspiracies and gay music themes and general stereotypes probably aided that. whether the assumption is true or false makes no difference. the reasons behind why ppl even make the assumption are so intriguing to think about… but this is already too long.

the “trans truthing” is complicated bc it’s more personal to ppl. im not gonna create a boogeyman. ive seen all of this, some i align with some i dont. putting them in a list cuz it’s easier to read

ppl in my corner of the fandom are comfortable with calling him queer, nb, trans — from most to least common. all as umbrella terms. all to mean not-cis. justification is good ol FLAGGING. like getting an undercut to tell girls yr a dyke without needing to come out. i can expand on this thought process if wanted. ive seen this kinda labeling for YEARS

a lot of ppl i follow stop at gnc because that is the only visibly obvious option. and it’s the term The Advocate used for him in 2018 (tho we gotta note that he didnt self-id — the writer used the same principal of gnc being about presentation over id). the term is treated as if it were between cis and trans. or more accurately, not-cis not-trans.

ive noticed that old/ex fans or outsiders under my 30k cheerleader gifset see the dress as a coming out…? people of 1 and 2 chalk it under that history of gender nonconformity. it’s surprising but makes sense. i think that’s the function of said history

all the egg talk ive seen is on twitter among transfem ppl and tumblr posts in the wild. i searched “gerard way trans” and got so many tweets referencing kurt cobain. that is transfem business, not mine 😭

all this to say that i havent seen anyone in these circles insinuate he was Secretly trans. it’s the same as the gay assumption. it isnt about proving what reality is. just whatever individuals accept as their truth. lots of 1 ppl have said that if he suddenly came out as cis, their perception wouldnt change. i take that to mean bc the performance itself is the person and the performance they see is transgender.

i dont see how art and artist can be separated in performance. what other version of the artist are you getting? i dont know if anyone round here is talking about the couch sitting gerard way. like why would we 😭 even if one does, it’s under the perception of the performance we know. if we werent talking about the performance, we wouldnt even be talking about it. you wouldnt imagine your loved one watching tv. youd sit next to them. look at them. talk to them. YOU KNOW? like this whole debate on whether it’s invasive goes NOWHERE. we arent talking about someone who could be known. we are barely talking about the real person.

and he knows this because anyone with a Name becomes this. the real life person doesnt need defending. he needs respect. to me that means not harassing him, not digging into his private life, not speaking for him. the rest is what feels ok for me. if the environment is uncomfortable, all i can do is share why. which is why talking about it is important.

ill say, im fine with she/her-ing him. i know those arent his defined pronouns. i know i use them as a term of endearment and character-dedication. i know when to avoid them. i personally dont believe in rigid pronoun use. i don’t believe in there being a handbook of rules of what is or isnt rude (not to say there arent general rules). you learn person to person.

goes back to the Pursuit of Universal Morality. god i remember last year getting so mad at the trans labelling id leave tumblr to complain on twitter. but ive changed my tune to seeing the non-cis ambiguity. not because of Evidence but because i found comfort in that connection. i wasnt wrong then, am not wrong now.

it isnt really about him, it’s about what he says and does. which IMO he’s likely to accept as an artist.

so yeah. TLDR: posts that are like “how can you say he’s [cis/trans] if X?!” are really just stating their own perception. even if they uncritically believe what theyre saying is reality, it’s THEIR reality. there is no difference btwn “his performance art in solidarity with an oppressed queer group” and “him being secretly trans”.

[cesium-sheep]

I was talking to amy about lace and they were like "I'm gonna invent a way to weave lace with magic in order to make money if I ever got isekaied" and like they tried to explain the logic and all and it's like. you are my dear friend and I love you and I do believe you'd have an exceptional grasp of magic if you got isekaied but you have never once talked to me about doing anything crafty, not even basic sewing, and I really don't think you know at all how crafts or crafters work. like if lace predated your isekai arrival, someone would be producing it through magic even if it was worse than making it by hand, and if it was better than making it by hand it absolutely would have already spread. and most of it is not made with wool, let alone something so expensive as lambswool. the properties of wool do not suit the lace they're thinking of at all imo, although I'm sure some people do it anyway. (also it wasn't even woven lace, it was embroidered net.)

I did not say most of this to them because the whole conversation felt pretty patronizing, like if a cis man was like "well if I went back in time I'd simply invent modern bras!" and it's like dude do you know literally anything about the actual construction of a bra? do you know how differing undergarments function with different clothing? do you just believe the concept of (a)historical fictional women being sooo oppressed by their corsets that some people still actively choose to wear to this day but also expect all your dates to wear full wire bras that you find acceptably aesthetically pleasing?

like. I really don't feel like starting a whole fight with them about it especially since we had such a nice conversation a couple days ago. but woof. (they respected when I said the conversation was annoying and stopped talking abt it tho. I'm not gonna keep trying to tell them why it's stupid but I gotta say it somewhere -n- )

[djservo]

sending this to you early before i forget (and i will forget), april is OVER. the year really starts zooming past march it's scary! april reads, were there many of them? what did you think? other media interests also what's the spring/summer reading vibe?

april summary

you could probably tell by my lack of goodreads updates but my ass was NOT reading this month omg. 2 books but Barely since the first I started in February and the latter and I only just finished on the 30th WAHHH it's been stupid busy and stressful at work these past few weeks to the point where my free time could only consist of simply hanging out and watching movies/survivor and other thoughtless little things like that 4 my own sanity. in hindsight, absolutely not the best time to take up two meaty theory/cultural criticism books smh!! I was too ambitious, and while I could've just called it quits and picked up a more manageable/digestable read, I thought I'd be able to brave it out eventually... meanwhile my pdf of Man's Rage For Chaos sits abandoned + bookmarked at a measly 50 pages in amongst dozens of survivor screenshots LOL Sigh! it may just have to be another DNF because I don't think I have it in me to absorb another 300+ page long pdf just yet (it was a feat getting thru Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture at times)

but OK, onward!

Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl — a juicy romantic drama masquerading as just another foodie book. I would've been perfectly satisfied if it'd been the latter (I really loved Tender at the Bone) but when I TELL U I was gasping and clutching my pearls every other chapter, scandalized at every corner!! the book follows her foray into the world of being a food critic, during which she finds herself in two different affairs while married to her longtime husband/companion (who is revealed to have also been cheating on her at the time rip). Somehow she managed not to make herself come off as a victim, so clearheaded and honest with her actions and mistakes, but part of you also can't help but root for her a little -- to flourish in her career, to grow a backbone, to come to the harsh realization that sometimes people just grow apart no matter how much history there is. So much wisdom and heartbreak!!! And, as she was about 30 during this period, my favorite reminder that the intrigue and possibility of Life(tm) isn't nearly over after your mid 20's--it's hardly even begun at all. and then of course all the food descriptions, glorious and sensual as always. Tampopo (1985) instantly came to mind: food + sex + woman's quest for the Meaning of it all, you simply gotta love it

Theatre of the Oppressed by Augusto Boal — I don't think I can add anything substantial to this even if I tried LOL I'll say I'm always tickled by any critiques and callouts of western civilization, and his connection of US presidents defending "reactionary imperialist interests" regardless of "character" (or political party) = the enactment of terror that's natural when it comes to the succession (hah) of oppressive forces... floored babes!! tell it like it is!! ok I lied, one more point -- a lot of this book discusses this radical methodology of theatre that involves the audience, allows them to interact, adjust, implement meanings as a means of revolution and there's this big brained review I read on goodreads that connected it to TWITCH STREAMS of all things, specifically gamers who allow the chat to vote on/make the decisions while the gamer performs these choices. I feel like there's so much Meat there... an analysis of the interactive nature of the internet/contemporary popular media and its influence on the way we perceive free will... anyway.

I started a saucy short story collection that'll hopefully keep me titillated, and I think I'll also treat myself to a fun graphic novel moment after my failed lil scholarly attempts hehe movie-wise I got sucked into this awful franchise The Brotherhood by David Decoteau which is basically college fratboys/hunks who have to fight some killer and/or mystical force of evil in the most homoerotic way possible (the filmic equivalent to trashy little convenience store pulpy softcore erotica methinks).... 6 full films of regurgitated storylines and gratuitous shower scenes and I must admit I had a blast !!! it morphed into a sorority-slasher theme, which then morphed into a broader theme of Tormented Women(tm). It's been a loose goal of mine to keep my letterboxd watchlist number lower than the amount of films I've logged for the sake of staying manageable/realistic, but there's now a scarily small difference of 5 films between the two 😢 so i think I'll try to stick to my watchlist as best I can this month 🫡 and ofc watching survivor as always, nothin new there yeah yeah I'm predictable

[aleshakills]

re trans man anon; yeah, that's fair enough.

i don't know if i'd say that the different ways transphobia presents are merely "set dressing" but i understand what you mean about transandrophobia guys denying the more complex roots of the issue so they can cut trans women out of the conversation. i also agree that it isn't its own axis of oppression. it just feels dismissive when people argue trans men face "just transphobia" as if transphobia isn't deadly and dangerous on its own. eh, i can get over it.

transandrophobia guys do this thing where they treat trans women like garbage, deny the existence of transmisogyny, and then go ":( but why don't the mean scary trans women care about my problems too?" it's not that trans men don't have problems, it's that like. listening and solidarity has to be a two way process. it's gotta be collaborative. you can't tell trans women to shut up and get mad when they aren't inclined to listen to you yknow

i think trans guys are more inclined to think being demonized is cool but much more sensitive to feeling like they're being dismissed. i know that at least for me, i sometimes find myself in a position that's like g-d, call me a monster, call me crazy, call me terrible, just stop trying to convince me that i don't exist. and i often find the opposite sentiment from the trans women i know.

hm. much to talk about, and unfortunately few conversations are possible until certain parties get their heads out of their asses. anyway, thanks for the thoughtful response, sorry for rambling. well wishes to you and your loved ones.

See, I do sincerely and genuinely believe that everyone is entitled to their feelings. Which does sound a bit silly to say, but I do mean it. And we should each have the space to talk about the things that make us feel sad or angry or small.

The breakdown I see most often is when trans women say, "Please don't talk over us or be dismissive of our lived experiences," certain individuals choose to interpret it as "Oh, you just want us to shut up and never talk about what we go through!"

And like, after you've had that interaction five hundred times, eventually you just start telling dudes, "Actually yeah, shut up. I am tired of hearing you."

So yeah, the conversation isn't happening in part because a lot of us are just sick of rehashing the same shit over and over again. Cause even if it feels brand new for some of you, I've been in this shit for 11 years now, hearing the same discourse on repeat. I'll join in when there's a new conversation about something different.