#i also understand i am definitely not the target demographic for this but still

[scrapcheese]

Warning: dragon maid rant!

wooow not only do we get lolicon and shotacon stuff, but we also get siscon stuff (read: basically just incest) and we learn more about Lucoa commiting SA to her sister! thanks coolkyoushinja (/sarcastic)

context: Dragon maid main series manga chapter 137 dropped, i didn't think it could get any worse than chapter 134 but somehow it did!

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Hello, Anon, this is your Oldie Chinese Diaspora Anon™️. I am sorry to keep you waiting. As you’ve probably noticed, vinyl and non-resin dolls are usually not my forte. It took a while to dig up some information for you, but I hope to be able to answer your questions.

The advent of “Cheaper, affordable MJDs” didn’t come from the desire to make BJDs affordable. In fact, the technology that really elevated the production of this kind of MJDs started from what we understand as vinyl collectibles. These small figurines are made from a combination of PVC powders as well as a series of other emulsifiers, lubricators and activators (From the factory that produces them, here: http://www.dgzhonglinhb.com/news_content-859681.html ) Different companies have slightly different recipes, which would explain the different pliability of their final products. The technology was first created as a way to create memorabilia that are of limited edition and they were first considered as collectibles. They’re known internally as “Urbanvinyls” and include signed trinkets that can go for hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. Some examples would be KAWS, Kidrobot, Tokidoki, Bearbrick etc.

With the rise of “Made in China” soft power, the internally patriotic sentiment had fostered local artist-designed vinyl collectibles, which had eventually ballooned into the blind box craze that we see in the last 4-5 years. It also opened a door for vinyl/PVC based MJDs. I do not think they were specifically made to usurp the DD/SmD market, but since “moe sells”, a lot of the new doll companies go with the cute, anime-inspired aesthetic while the blind boxes cater to more design elements. These newly designed MJDs tend to be small, usually 1/12 and 1/6; larger ones exist, but they are rare. In all, they are created to be much more like their direct inspiration, the “blind box collectibles” than what we would usually consider to be articulated dolls. It also meant their target demographic is very different as well. The lower price point allows more people to impulse buy out of FOMO; these are things you buy on a whim instead of saving up to buy.

In this arena, Imómó is not alone in terms of aesthetic, pricing or packaging. Other companies in this group include Hüa Jüan, Tïny Fóx, UFdóll, CNDóll, Kimdóll, Pópmilk, Mónst and the upcoming YünLai/LückyDoll, etc (but not YMY – who has lost a battle with Piccodo for copying their body design recently). These dolls are created with a higher number in circulation in mind – but still limited enough to stimulate the FOMO behaviour – with shared features (sharing bodies, design elements, etc). To keep the production cost down, these dolls would be considered rather threadbare compared to BJDs. I have seen box opening videos where the floating “blind box” heads were packaged in a brown shipping box and wrapped around in clear plastic bags with no other packaging material. The “accessories” for these dolls are usually close to none as well – no or very simple COAs, basic box, air-filled tubes instead of fabric cushions, etc.A snapshot in time in online stores shows that Imómó is definitely not an outlier in the new era of MJDs: https://weibo.com/1448114577/Nj9fqfog3

https://www.dollyteria.com/product-list/58?page=1

If there’s something that really made Imómó stand out, it was the rumours that spread within Chinese doll collectors earlier in the summer of 2023 about the company not issuing legitimate receipts (usually with the intention to cook their books to pay less in taxes). They accuse Imómó of being a “Three Nothings” company (no date of manufacture, no QC and no source factory) with really awful customer service. They had registered the company as an “overseas-based” one so they would be in a different tax bracket. Some collectors also accuse the owner and their family members infiltrating doll collector groups to hype up their own products and downplay the complaints. A popular agent, SWDólls, were also implicated in helping them to not issue traceable receipts. (Details and screen grabs can be found here: https://weibo.com/7303299294/N8lHE6wGE?type=repost ) I have also heard of owners who complain about the parts not fitting well, the seamlines were wide and uneven as well as other imperfections that should’ve never passed QC, if there was a QC.

I understand that most of us, who are looking in from the outside, would wholly welcome a new era of articulated dolls that are affordable. They are a great entry point for people who want to get into BJDs or just want to collect these dolls on their own. I personally think they are great the way they are, because they are starting to populate a brand-new market for people who like dolls in general. However, the first company that most folks encounter in this group was probably Imómó. I cannot comment on the accusations made by the Chinese collectors; all I can say is, I am hoping that the other named companies start to make headway into the overseas market. We’d been waiting.

Note: The write up here didn’t include previously existing vinyl dolls such as Azóne and Obitsü or the vinyl versions of resin dolls such as Kinókó Jüice and Püyüdolls. This write-up only includes MiC, PVC-based, original, MJDs. My understanding is that they are not on par with the company in question in terms of price range, target market and country of origin. I didn’t think they’d make for a fair comparison, but your mileage may vary.

~Anonymous

[castlebyersafterdark]

some photos of mbb's wedding have dropped and i love the italian villa style, but i showed some friends who are casual enjoyers of the show, and they said 'mbb gives me vibes of someone who is pretending to be a person' and it made me laugh so much like how did they nail it on the head hahahaha

so she's comparable to david beckham's son and elon musk, who one friend said is 'an alien who zips on a human suit and walks about pretending to be a person' hahahah

so yeah. maybe this is the oddness we all feel around her. i mean, her surroundings i guess, so we lament too. everyone said she would go off the rails when s1 dropped and she hasn't, not in that 2000s brat paris hilton way, but maybe her life is odd in another way. i mean, i hope she's happy but that's a given (i hope). i just find it detached odd removed a bit scary. eh.

I'm going to be analytical (surprise surprise) about Millie in a way that might shed some light on her to try to understand her in a neutral/positive way from someone who's honestly not a fan.

The thing with this girl is that more so than anyone else on the cast - she's also a Brand. There's MBB and there's the Millie that her friends and family know. I'm not fond of the constant chatter, oh it's a PR relationship and marriage, oh it's all marketing to get married so young - actually, no?? I don't know anything about baby Bonjovi but they're very much a legit couple, and some celebrities will always use everything in their power to feed the image machine. Take J-Lo and Ben (I mention them often but they're an easy reference point - you can't really avoid them in the press, even normal non-Hollywood tabloids). I don't doubt for a second that there was legitimacy to their relationship. But two things can be true - genuine love and emotions and a relationship as well as a simultaneous media leaning, marketing angle to that same relationship. They need to be in the limelight. They are the Brand. That's Hollywood, baby!

This type of celebrity content is not interesting to me. The clothing lines and product launches catered to the instagram era of polished posts and this glamorous veneer, the constant perfect updates. Influencers who are also A-listers. But, I'm not into fashion and makeup and travel and lifestyles of the rich and famous as presented through filter heavy photos on social media catered to those who scroll and - I don't even know. I just don't care. No shade to be into that, but that's not me and that's why I'm bored. And I find her press personality a little grating - but that's fine. We don't have to like everyone. I don't think she's very relatable. But not everyone has to be. Her brand seems to be more of the "aspirational" appeal. She's selling things, mostly. I'm also definitely not her targeted demographic. So it's not working on me. She does seem like an alien in a way. But - I feel like that's purposeful. Aspiration. Still can be genuine.

Sure, I and others find her annoying. I don't know all of her controversies, some have detailed them to me in asks and I just process and absorb because I'm not here to dive into negativity, though I do find it useful to be made aware of things. But, otherwise? Clearly, other celebrities we follow with more fondness view her as a very close friend, and others say she's super sweet. And I don't doubt that. And that's really great. Genuinely. But, we don't know her, we're not being malicious, and some, including myself just get a vibe from her we don't, well, vibe with. No one is for everyone. I'm not for everyone. One of my biggest insecurities is feeling unwanted and unliked and annoying. It's debilitating sometimes, and I know that's something I will always have to work on about myself. Yet, here I am pinning that on some girl I don't know, who's a major part of a television show I love, and my sole reason for disliking her bar anything else - is that I simply find her annoying. Such is life!!!

I think we all can be very genuine but we all also zip up our human suits sometimes. Some just wear theirs very well and get Vogue spreads about lavish weddings where the very polished version of the suit gets marketed to whoever it is that needs to see and feel inspired by it.

I do wish her the best and hope she has joy as a newlywed with the man she loves. Solidarity there. It's unkind when people say that her marriage is destined for divorce in a few years time, if that. I say two things - first, so what? Let them have their bliss and let them find their way, even if it ends in disaster. Who cares? Second - some young marriages last a lifetime. My parents got married very young, too. Still together. You never know!!

[silkflovvers]

hey miku is 16 jsyk!!

Anon, I'll be honest I'm not fully sure what your intentions are with this message… I've been in the Vocaloid, UTAU and Vsynth trenches since 2010. That may not be 16 years worth of time here, but it's still a long time to be a fan of one thing considering it's about half the time I've been alive. So that means I'm going to impart some knowledge here that newer Vocaloid and Miku fans may not understand (Especially anyone coming to my account after being introduced to Miku through Project Sekai).

Miku is, by all definition, an instrument. A voicebank is an instrument. It is a tool used to create music. The only thing that truly sets her apart from other electronic instruments or music making software is that she has a 2D mascot assigned to her to make her more marketable. That mascot was meant to be 16, yes. I will not deny that fact. Her voice bank even turned 16 years old this year since she was released way back in 2007! Happy 16 years of physical existence to your original disc-based software, Miku! So her Mascot associated as the face of the voicebank is 16 in both her physical age since launch and what's included in her original bio in that software and on the Yamaha website. If you wanted to say she was 16 years old at birth, then she'd actually be 32 years old this year if she actually aged. But her mascot doesn't age, just like all mascots of goods and brands do not age (Except for the Planter's Peanut guy I guess???). If this was a character from an anime that was always portrayed as a 16 year old and never anything else ever, it would be different. But only the 2D mascot tied to the voicebank and used as a marketable image is 16.

Now here's the part where saying she's always 16 years old all the time no matter what makes you look a little silly.

As an instrument and voicebank, Miku has been used to tell stories and fill roles much different from the bio of her software mascot. She's a medium to tell stories through, just like human voices are! She is whatever the person using her to tell a story wants her to be. This could be the VocaloP, the illustrator, or even the person creating the music videos deciding her age. Sometimes she's used as the stand-in voice for the person using her to tell the story, perhaps because they themselves aren't confident in their singing ability or wish to remain anonymous like in PowaPowaP's songs. Sometimes she is just her default voicebank self like in KIRA's Digital Girl. More often than not, she's portrayed as an original character the person using her made up in their head like she is used in mothy_悪ノP's The Evillious Chronicles. She can be anything.

She's literally the target demographic for those unpaid internship listings on job app websites that ask for 30 years experience in the field before you should even consider applying for the internship. Those aren't targeted at you, those employers want Hatsune Miku. Obviously.

That said, I don't think it's fair to apply the default voicebank mascot info to her if the person using her voice or image says otherwise.

If we really want to be picky here, the Kagamine voicebanks are even younger than Miku according to their software mascot info (15 years old), but VocaloPs wasted absolutely no time using Len to sing songs like SPICE! and Gigantic O.T.N. and Rin to sing songs like Alluring Secret ~ Black Vow ~. They were both used to sing songs like Corrupted Flower and if you also want to count violence as a mature theme here, Karakuri Burst. Does that mean they're 15 years old in any of those songs? I don't know. The person who wrote the song or the person who made the art for the music video might know, but I definitely don't. I also don't have the right to decide that specific bit of info for them since I am just the viewer.

The case is the same for the special Pokemon collab "What if Miku was a _type trainer?" series. I'm not the illustrator of each of the Trainer Mikus, so I don't know anything other than what they look like, just like the rest of the general public. The only people who have the right to decide the canon age of the Pokemon trainer Mikus are the people who illustrated her (and maybe whoever was directing the collab in the first place). Not me, not you dear anon, and not even KEI, the original illustrator and character designer for the mascot of the voicebank known as Hatsune Miku have the right to decide the age of the Trainer Mikus. The people actively telling a story with Miku are the ones who decide who she is, where she is, and what she is. Until we are told the Trainer Mikus illustrators' exact intentions, ages are up for interpretation and no one's interpretation is a cold hard fact.

The only times the person using the software or image of the mascot can't choose what age the character is are when there are specific rules listed in the software manual or on the official website. As an example, I'm about 98% sure the voicebank for Kaai Yuki has restrictions for what types of songs she can be used in since the voice providers for the voicebank were actual children. That's the only exception I am personally aware of within the official Vocaloid brand voicebanks by Yamaha. There may be non-Yamaha voicebanks, UTAUs and VSynths with similar restrictions that I am unaware of.

Now that you've been given a small history lesson on voicebanks and the fact they're used to tell stories as all instruments are, I'll give a more personal reply.

If your ask was sent in response to me tagging the Dark type Trainer Miku art with "I'm gay" in my reblog, you may be taking Tumblr and social media as a whole a little too seriously. Dark type Miku is pretty and I love dark type Pokemon and trainers, always have. I've been a Mawile fan since the Pokemon was still considered a Dark-Steel type and it took me a very long time to stop being upset when they switched Mawile to a Fairy-Steel type. Anyway, if we're being honest, I wish I looked like Dark Type Miku. This is the response of a nonbinary lesbian desperately wishing they could look as good as Dark Type Miku. I'm not lusting after her, I'm not lewding her. I just wish I was as hot as she is in this artwork.

If you don't agree with anything I've said in my reply to this ask, then please do not continue to make yourself uncomfortable by interacting with me or my social media accounts. Please block me if you must! I highly recommend blocking accounts and muting tags that make you uncomfy! I do it all the time! It's the only way to stay sane on social media, aside form simply not using social media.

[clonerightsagenda]

beabaseball

I definitely think it's also worth pointing out that you don't necessarily WANT all the people who are part of The Empire telling the story of the people being persecuted. Definitely some are good but you don't want it to become like. Mandatory for the discussion. In the fma case i think it is made Very Clear that the genocide was unequivocally bad and that people Just Following Orders are not excused (thinking esp of Risa, who still is very Follows Orders)

To me, being like 12 from the US and reading fma introducing scar for the first time post 9/11, I was really aware that Scar was a Brown Terrorist and that it was deeply uncomfortable. The story exploring the empire/victim and proxy wars was definitely very good for a younger me still like. Living in a very Republican area.

It's true, it can be done very poorly.

And I agree that the genocide's badness is textually clear - I just passed the point where Riza says "even if the homunculi orchestrated it, we carried out the orders, we've killed too many people to object if the justice system decides to take our lives as well". The critique I've seen more and am engaging with is that it focuses on the badness through the perspective of the perpetrators. Which it does, but as I have been arguing I think that's intentional.

Re: your experience, I think that type of realization is one of the goals of this type of story. I don't know a lot about Japan, but my understanding is they are also sometimes leery of directly discussing past atrocities. This is a way of addressing it without doing so directly.

That makes me wonder whether we'll see more or less of these 'are we the baddies?' stories as the US continues to target 'divisive concepts', and whether there will be increased or decreased demographic distancing in those stories. Something to observe anecdotally I suppose.

(Sidenote relevant to this discussion: I am currently consulting with esteemed Metal Gear scholars about whether Metal Gear counts as one of these stories or if it's too thematically confused.)

[lets-make-a-thing]

About @lets-make-a-thing

By now you must be wondering... what is the "letsmakeathing" account? What even is this "project"?

For those who wish to stay and vote in the project, I look forward to the continuation of your support. <3

ABOUT ME AND THE PROJECT

Hello. I'm the creative manager of this random and spontaneous tumblr poll project. I'm a digital artist and video editor, hobbyist music producer and concept designer. I used to dabble in creative writing back in 2016, and am currently working towards my jlptN4 qualifications. Put shortly, I'm an otaku with a lot of hobbies.

For context, I call the purpose of this account a "project" because that's all it is right now honestly. It's not like, an OELN, a novel or action game or animation or even anything yet. When the time comes, we'll vote on that. :) Simply a random concept design idea that is intended to represent the wishes of myself and of a good harmonious community.

Basically I don't know what this is. Or better yet, it's more like "let's find out what this will be, together".

Sorry, was that too anime protag vibes? 😂😂

ABOUT SPIRITUALITY

tl;dr People can act stupid, and through this project I think we can, at least a little bit, show each other how not to act stupid /hj

On a different note, I don't like to talk about religion and spirituality online because there are a lot of controversial opinions about them. However, I'll mention it because I think it is very interesting in regards to our project.

I believe in the Universal Truth, comprising of God the Father, the Holy Spirit Mother, Christ the Example. For context, I'm spiritual, not religious.

People who claim they are Christian or who represent God sometimes do really bad things. And because of sinful people claiming to represent the wishes of God, people who would have been believers instead turn away, because they believe that just like the sinful people, God also "acts evil." Because of the sinful people, they have a harmful interpretation of Christ in their minds. Definitions of words are switched around, and unknowing people are tricked into believing "God is evil."

This makes me really disappointed in people sometimes.

Situations like that are part of the reason why I aim to be kind and respectful to various people, to properly help represent Him and the Truth, and to act in a way that God would approve of. Obviously I'm not perfect, but I like to think I'm trying.

I want to clarify that God is the one who decides who represents Him. And because the true God is always loving and caring of everyone, having a plan to bring about the highest good for everyone... if you have been hurt by someone claiming to represent God, I want you to know those people are not true emissaries of God or Christ in those moments.

THIS PROJECT AND SPIRITUALITY

You may be annoyed reading the above section, or why it has anything to do with our project, especially if you are not a spiritual, philosophical, or religious person. Bear with me, I'm getting there.

For more context, I also like looking at different cultures. Being open minded. Seeing things from other people's perspectives. This does not mean I endorse certain beliefs, as I do have strict values of my own, but I do like to understand the thinking processes of people with experiences different than my own.

The results of the poll was mainly fantasy, then psychological/suspense, then mystery. And next, the target demographic was older teens and young adults. This means the content and concepts would be more deeper, psychologically. I think there is a certain way to touch on these topics with decorum, which is what I want to express when writing story arcs and stuff for our project.

Relating that to lets-make-a-thing, I think that this project can unite people with different beliefs, backgrounds, and values. I think that everyone can see a portion of God, no matter if it's a lot or a little, and even if they don't call it God, He is still there. I think by showing people that we have that in common, we can gradually melt our fears away to replace it with harmoniousness, and then we can understand a little better the way we should act as humans.

I don't mean to sound annoying, or preachy. I would just like to tell a good story. A funny one, a heartwarming and emotional one; a story with some kind of significance.

More specifically, I want to tell the story you guys want to see. That's why I have you all voting this project in the first place.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This is the first type of concept designing project I've documented online, to this extent.

I did not even expect or initially intend for the project to be serious and deep, or anything regarding psychological or spiritual concepts. But what made me audibly gasp and spin in my chair for 5 minutes straight is when I saw the results of the polls for the genre pick poll.

When I saw the vote result, lots of thoughts went through my mind. Do people actually want to see this kind of concepts? Won't they be afraid because they might have been traumatized by false religion? Don't most people in this generation hate people who hold similar beliefs to myself?

What is funny is the exact opposite is true. You guys actually picked the only option which had anything to do with spiritual concepts. This surprised me very much, in an unexpected but very good way. Even seeing some of the comments/hashtags of suggestions (for example, under the "what is magic poll") I found very interesting.

I feel that a story that presents glimpses of little Truths and spiritual concepts in a way that is palatable and even entertaining is something that may be well received, compared to something dubbed religious that may scare people away. Something entertaining and nourishing, like Avatar, the Last Airbender (2005), or Dragon Prince (2018), or To Your Eternity (2021).

Can't hurt to dream, right?

CONCLUSION

As you can probably tell, over the past few months I've grown to care about this project quite a bit, but at the same time I'm not too serious about it... and I think being able to have a project without pressure (to have a sort of "creative breathing room" I guess?) helps enable me to continue posting the project with a relevant passion.

Thank you for the feedback about the polls, I will consider it carefully.

I also intend to make a taglist post for those who would like to continue being a part of the project. I'm curious as to what this will become in the future, but I also want to take my time to make sure I don't get burnout. The next few posts should be much more shorter than this, but no promises. :\

Thanks for reading all my yappin. Hope I didn't bore you.

-- @lets-make-a-thing

[younggayanddoingokay]

Yeah, I get this.

Like, I don’t think they’re all evil monsters. I think it was a shitty, smarmy, greedy move that is going to exclude a lot of the fans who most loved and supported their business when they really needed that support. I think it was insensitively handled. Personally, besides Puppet history and the occasional mystery files Ep, I never actually watched most of the watcher content. I didn’t like it as much as I liked BFU, but that was a personal preference. I know others still like enjoyed the content.

I think this was a terrible business decision. From what people who know the world of YouTube financials, the ballpark estimate of what they were making on YouTube and with sponsors is way more than they’re likely to make off of this site. The site itself is poorly designed, as people who DID buy a sub have mentioned.

I also think it shows a remarkable lack of awareness of their target demographic- teens, broke young adults, international people who can’t afford the subscription since they didn’t adjust it for other areas of the world, or people who might be *able* to afford it, but understandably don’t want another streaming service, don’t think it’s worth their hard-earned money, or were just so put off by how the announcement went that they’re choosing not to on principle. All of these were, from a business sense, pretty massive fuck ups.

Do I think this makes them all terrible people? Not at all. Life is more complicated than that. But I don’t really know them beyond their capacity as content creators, nor does anyone else who watches their content. So while I don’t think they’re awful people, I do think it was a shitty thing to do to fans, almost certainly a shitty business move, and I will probably feel a little bit smug about the company crashing and burning when it eventually does because of this, because I’m a petty bitch and, like many people, I love watching Internet drama that doesn’t actually directly affect my personal life.

So yeah, I hope they learn from this. I hope nobody else subs to their dumb “streaming service”. And I kind of hope their shitty decision is met with shitty consequences. But I am not gonna come at them with a pitchfork and say they deserve to have their lives completely destroyed over this because I don’t think they’re bad people. I think they’re doing a pretty shitty thing and I’m angry about that.

But that said, the vitriol of some of these people on tumblr is definitely concerning. Like I don’t inherently think para social relationships are automatically terrible. But they DO need boundaries and limits. I think it’s definitely over blown and at an unhealthy level if your favorite celebrity doing something shitty causes you the same level of anger as a deep personal betrayal by a loved one.

the watcher discourse has completely gone out of the window on all sides and I have no idea what to believe anymore

like idk it feels like an absolutely terrible business decision that will massively impact viewership and subscribers but immediately calling these people evil feels like some people completely jumped the shark

why have I only seen this hate now? it all feels very parasocial

I'm sure they thought this was a great idea, and it absolutely wasn't. it's a huge disappointment. I don't know their wealth, I don't know what to regard them as. it's all completely out of hand and I don't know what the right information is so much that it actually hurts. I don't want to be soft or hard on them for this. I'm angry at the world in general and the cost of living crises happening and the ability to enjoy things without seeing these deluge of subscriptions everywhere

I'm in the middle and I just want to fucking scream

[violet-knox]

young severus with a male gryffindor reader? or just a male reader in general

Leap of Faith

Pairing: Male!Reader x Young!Severus

Summary: After finally finding the courage you lacked all these years as a Gryffindor, you finally found enough of it to ask out your one and only crush, excited and nervous to go on your first date.

Warnings: Mention of child neglect, abuse and lack of self worth, but it's mostly fluff

Word Count: 3524

A/N: So first things first. I'm SO SORRY to the anon who requested this. I don't even know how long it's been, I hope you're still around to read it because I by no means did not plan for it to take this long. Life got away from me, I stopped writing for a while and then had a lot to catch up on (still trying to catch up on).

On another note...

I understand the need to ask for physical specifics for the reader when it comes to under represented Snape x reader fics, and while I have no issue with this, I would really prefer if some sort of plot was also indicated. It just makes it easier for me to come up with a storyline when I have more than just a physical description of the reader since that isn’t something I usually concentrate on with the exception of smut. 

It was a bit difficult for me to figure out what I wanted to write for this request since my first instinct is to keep away from specifying the gender of the reader and while I do try to keep the reader gender neutral even if the request specified the reader as female, I just didn’t feel like that was an appropriate thing to do for this one for two different reasons: first, if I kept the reader gender neutral, that sort of defeats the purpose of the request since I’d be left with just “Gryffindor reader” (which I’ve done before) and second, Snape x male readers are scarce and this was a good opportunity for me to expand from my comfort writing bubble and contribute to a less targeted demographic. 

I wouldn’t call myself a natural writer, it isn’t something I’ve ever been comfortable with and it took a lot to get to the point where I am now so this was definitely a challenge since I’d gotten so comfortable in the bubble of reusing the same few very similar characters (usually only varying in Hogwarts house placement) to put in place of the reader while I wrote (this is just part of my writing process as I can’t really write imagining a ball of nothing in place of the reader while I write). I hope I did justice to the request despite my non-existent experience writing for male readers and I’m happy I got the opportunity to push myself.

You could still remember it, that first time you met him on the train before you’d even arrived at Hogwarts. He’d stormed out of his compartment and bumped straight into you, a boy who’d just found out a few weeks ago that he was a Wizard. You were a nobody, a shadow to him. You would never even dream of someone like him, someone who grew up knowing all about the Wizarding World to know your name. You’d always wondered what caused him to run out of that compartment so fast, though over the years, overhearing James and Sirius talking and laughing in the boy’s dorm about ‘that slimy git’ who wouldn’t leave Lily alone, you could only guess that they’d begun their abuse that same day, seeing them smirking and laughing when you passed the compartment window.

Every year you’d go back to the Muggle world, hiding who you truly were in fear of expulsion only to return to a school to hide yet another part of who you were. Gryffindors were supposed to be brave, yet you were far from it. You couldn’t bring yourself to tell anyone the truth, let alone the one person in the entire castle you’d grown to care for. Your heart broke every time you heard whispers of Severus pining over Lily and over the years, you’d convinced yourself that you wouldn’t have to reveal yourself because the one person you cared for couldn’t care for you back. But oh how badly you wanted to. It wasn’t until you spoke with Lily that you realized he cared for her because she was the first and only person who treated him like a human being that deserved to live. She was the first person to show him a glimpse of friendship while everyone else around him treated him like he was worthless.

It wasn’t fair to him. It wasn’t fair that you were the only one who could see the beauty and grace in his loyalty, his passion and admiration for greatness. It took everything you had not to shout at the world for mistreating him, defending him against the universe that seemed determined to test him time and time again. But you couldn’t. What would people think? You were barely friends with him. In fact, you didn’t even know he remembered you until he called your name, asking if you had a spare quill you could lend him in class a few months ago. All these years later, after pining over him, watching him from a far, fantasizing about your name escaping his lips, he’d remembered your first run in, the first conversation you’d ever had with someone at Hogwarts. After that day, you thought of nothing but all the missed opportunities you’d had to speak with him, get to know him and it was at that moment that you decided you’d stayed in the shadows enough. You had to take action, else you would have spent the rest of your life wondering what if.

The blood rushed through your veins as your heart worked overtime to keep from exploding when you first approached him. After all the anticipation and fantasizing these last five years, your first real conversation wasn’t as bad as you imagined. He was reserved of course, defensive as always, but open to your words. He listened and spoke with you as an equal, recognizing the fact that you were nothing like the Gryffindors that harassed him, that you were very much still that kind boy that spoke with him that first day on the Hogwarts Express, salvaging his first experience in the Wizarding World. These last few months were the best months of your life. You spent every second of everyday thinking about Severus, looking forward to seeing him whenever you could, finding a sense of relief when you finally took that extra step and asked him out.

You were so scared. Rejection was a natural thing of course, everyone experiences it, but that wasn’t your fear. You risked asking him out because you weren’t sure he’d be interested in boys and if he wasn’t, you worried what little progress you’d made with yourself would crumble into a million pieces. Would he laugh at you? Would he run away in disgust? Tell the whole school your secret? But he didn’t do any of that. He actually accepted like it was the most natural and logical question you could have asked. He acted as if you’d asked him if he’d finished his Potion’s homework, like it was the most obvious question in the world and you couldn’t have been more grateful.

Your smile didn’t fade until the next day, your mind wandering in class to what your first date might be like. Would he be as nervous as you? Would you talk as if it was just another day? Would you share your first kiss at the end? You didn’t know what to expect, but you finally felt ready and that was enough for you. You woke up an hour early to get dressed. You went through every single item you had in your trunk, tossing it upside down until you finally felt comfortable enough to leave the dorm for breakfast. It had snowed the night before, the entire castle grounds covered in a pure white, the sun shining behind a few clouds, shimmering against the white flakes. Hogwarts had never looked so magical though you wondered if your imagination and excitement exaggerated the scenery.

“(Y/N).” You heard him call for you and your heart nearly jumped out of your chest, your smile returning as you turned around to see him approaching you. His hair looked much softer than usual, sleek and shiny. The expression he wore had you wondering if his initial acceptance of this date was all a mirage. His eyes were sharp, his jaw tense. He was trying very hard not to look nervous.

“Severus,” you nearly choked on his name, as if you weren’t worthy enough to speak it. “So, you want to tell me where we’re going?”

“Not just yet,” he said, looking back at you with that half smile he rarely ever showed and a devious twinkle in his eye. You couldn’t recall the last time you ever saw him wearing a full God honest smile. First year perhaps? He always looked like the world had wronged him, like he wasn’t allowed the happiness everyone craved. Maybe one day you’d see him give you a proper smile, that would be the day you knew you’d done right by him.

“I seem to recall that I was the one that asked you out,” you replied, picking up your pace to catch up to him. He was always so calculated, a bit opposite to your own persona. But perhaps that was a good thing. He could balance out your spontaneous nature and add a bit of mystery to your life. You couldn’t lie though, a part of you worried he kept the location of your date a secret to trick you into some horrible trap. Would the entire school be waiting for you, laughing at you? Or would he try and harm you in some way as revenge for asking him out?

“Yes, but it’s your own fault for not preparing a location, or a date for that matter which gives me all the right to withhold our destination from you.” Typical of a Gryffindor to act before thinking. But he couldn’t blame you for the courageous act you took. In truth, he’d been hoping you felt towards him as he did you. But you were a Gryffindor, you slept in the same dorm as Potter, ate at the same table, he could never bring himself to ask of your interest in him because he knew rejection would lead to much more than a broken heart. He would be humiliated beyond belief, driven to an unbearable life.

Lily was the only other person that knew his secret. She was his best friend, until Potter entered her life and did everything in his power to make her hate him all because of one conversation on the train to Hogwarts. Potter was the living example of what ignorance brought, and he could never tell anyone about his affection towards a boy like you because of that. He could only be grateful that you’d approached him, thankful that you showed truth in your eyes when you had no plans beyond asking him out. Even if it was a trick, even if you’d planned something with Potter, he had control, he chose when to meet, where to meet, where you’d go.

“We’re not going into the Forbidden Forest, are we?” You began to worry as you saw Severus leading you towards the forest. You were all for exploration and adventures, but students weren’t allowed in there and for good reason.

“I thought Gryffindor’s were supposed to be brave,” Severus teased with a smug smirk. He’d always wanted to explore the forest, knowing full well what sort of creatures awaited him in there, but such a place was not appropriate for a first date. Perhaps on your fifth date, he’d propose the idea. Fifth date. He spoke to himself as if the future was set in stone, like that one question you’d asked him had cemented your relationship, a binding honest agreement that couldn’t be broken.

“Severus, you know we aren’t allowed to roam around in there,” you almost spoke with a stern voice, but more than anything, you were simply worried and unprepared for such an adventure and in all honesty, you didn’t think you could focus on anything other than this date going well. You would absolutely die if the one boy you’d ever asked out ended up not liking you. What were you to do if this date was a disaster? You could never bring yourself to ask out another boy again, and worst of all, you could never speak to or look at Severus ever again.

“Relax, we’re not entering the forest,” he eased your mind, slowing down a bit to get near you. “There’s a hidden path beside the forest, that’s where we’re going.”

You looked over to where Severus was pointing and smiled in relief. You’d never noticed this trail and as you approached it, you began to wonder if anyone other than Severus had discovered it. It wasn’t something you’d notice if you weren’t specifically looking for it and for a moment, you wondered how Severus found it. You followed behind him on the path, watching him confidently walk through the trail that only fit one, wondering how often he’d walked this path. The trail was so narrow, almost perfectly fitting Severus’ physique as if he was the only person to have ever walked this way before, like it was made for him, or perhaps made by him.

“Not much further,” Severus assured you, feeling anxious to make it to the end of the path, wishing the path was wide enough to accommodate you both side by side, and perhaps, one day, if you continued to date, it would. He’d lost count of the number of times he’d walked through this trail, and the more he did, the more he feared someone else would discover it. He hadn’t told anyone about his discovery since the day Potter chased him off into the Forbidden Forest, the trail he found saving him from a certain doom. Not even Lily knew he’d run off here from time to time.

The path suddenly widened and Severus turned back, waiting for you to catch up. You looked over at the clearing the path had led to, trees surrounding it like a barrier, the grass covered in a thin layer of snow. It was an amazing little area and you couldn’t believe more people didn’t know about this place.

“This way,” Severus continued onwards, walking through some trees, leading to a steep incline. You followed him, wondering what more there was to see. You didn’t have to walk far as Severus stopped, enchantedly staring down a cliff. Joining him, you could see why he was excited to get here. The cliff stared down at Hogwarts, the castle seeming miniscule from this distance. Everything was covered in a light layer of snow and you were in absolute awe at the sight.

“Wow,” you whispered in amazement, trying to take in every inch of the scenery, the feeling of the sun shining down on you, the cold air breezing through your hair. This was definitely first date worthy, a place to remember and enjoy in the future.

“I’m glad you like it,” Severus said, staring at you, relieved everything had been going smoothly so far. This was it, the moment of belief that this was real. Someone had shown actual interest in him and beyond friendship for that matter. It felt surreal, like he wasn’t ready for such a privilege, but he enjoyed the feeling of being wanted very much, a feeling unfamiliar to him.

“It’s amazing! I can’t believe I’ve never been here before.”

“No one knows about this place,” Severus spoke softly, his voice shaking as he finally realized what he’d done. The one place in this entire world he felt safe, the one place he felt belonged to him was no longer so. Someone else shared it with him now, someone else had stepped foot where he believed no one else had been. He’d opened up this place, himself to this virtual stranger. But you weren’t a stranger, you were the boy who salvaged his first day at Hogwarts, the boy that secretly stood by him all these years, the boy that now knew more about him than his own best friend.

“Oh?” You raised a brow at him, wondering what was running through his mind, why he seemed so scared all of a sudden.

“I discovered it a few years ago and put a spell on the path to derail anyone else from finding it,” Severus confessed. You could go running to your Head of House, to the Headmaster, or even worse, his Head of House. He would surely be expelled in a moment's notice, something he was sure Potter would love to see. There was still a chance, a chance you might betray him, but his heart told him his mind was wrong. His thoughts were trying to poison the pure and loving connection between you as they usually did and he wouldn’t let them win this time.

“Then why was I able to follow you?” You asked in awe. You always knew Severus was a gifted Wizard, that his skills went beyond what you were taught in class. If anyone was going to grow up to change the world, it would be Severus. But the level of talent that required a spell such as this was beyond the knowledge of even a Seventh year and you could only imagine the sort of amazing things he could accomplish after graduation.

“Because you’re with me,” he said in an obvious sort of way. You smiled at him, your curiosity peaked. Clearly he used this spot for a specific purpose and either this was a special place to him, a place reserved just for him and his thoughts, in which case, it was rather sweet that he brought you here, or...

“Do you bring all your dates here then?”

Severus looked at you a bit stunned, wondering if that was a serious question or not. Did he look like the sort of person that would attract the attention of more than one person? Or did you think of him as some sort of predator?

“I’ve never brought anyone here,” he answered honestly, “and… I’d like for it to remain that way. Please don’t tell anyone I brought you here.”

He pleaded with you with the widest eyes you’d ever seen, eyes that begged you for your compliance and you knew that this truly was a special place for him. You did know what to say, what to think. He trusted you with this? He opened up to you enough to share this secret, this place that clearly meant a lot to him. There really was only one thing you could say: “I won’t”

You smiled at him, taking a step towards him and reaching for his hand. You slid your fingers along his icy palm and intertwined his long thin fingers with yours. Closing your grip, you stared into his eyes, hoping he understood how grateful you were for his trust, his openness and his honesty. Severus squeezed your hand as he looked back at you, his heart beating faster with worry and excitement. Where was this date going to go? He’d only planned for the worst, he’d only planned what to do when this date eventually went sideways, but what was he to do when it was going so well? He couldn’t even begin to comprehend why someone like you would ask him out, how was he to deal with the truth and honesty spilled out in front of him, staring at him with comfort and want. He didn’t understand, he didn’t know why this was happening to him.

“Why-why did you ask me out?” He asked, needing an answer, needing reassurance this wasn’t a trick, that this was real, that you had a real and valid reason for wanting this, for wanting him.

“Honestly Severus, I couldn’t stop thinking about you since the day we first met. I’ve wanted to ask for a while and only managed to find the courage to do so now.” You were taken a bit by surprise at the question, but he wasn’t exactly popular with your peers. He was a loner, the person people whispered about behind his back so you understood his lack of self-worth and hesitation.

“But why me?”

“Because I think you’re brilliant,” you said honestly, deciding honesty was the only way about this. You’d both opened up so much to each other already, a good start to what you hoped would be a long and fruitful relationship and honesty was how you were going to move that relationship forward. You looked at Severus, realizing you had a ways to go before he believed any compliment coming out of your mouth. He stared at you as if you were speaking a different language, as if you didn’t understand the question and had spoken of someone else. “The day we first met, you told me that you’d always looked forward to going to Hogwarts, because you felt that it could provide you with something you’d never had before; a home. A place to be accepted, to be who you were freely without fear of discovery. I understood how you felt, because that’s all I’d ever wanted as well.”

Severus’ eyes narrowed as he began to digest what you just said, trying to sort through every word, every tone in your voice, every facial expression you gave him until he finally understood. “Acceptance?”

You nod your head with a smile, your shoulders dropping in relief. He understood you, he knew what it was like and finally you found someone that could relate to how you felt. You’d never felt so willing to open yourself up to someone before, so trusting and it scared you. But you were ready for this chapter in your life. You were tired of living in your own little bubble, you needed someone to share with, someone that would understand you.

“So, this place is a disappointment to us both then,” Severus stated smugly, looking down at the castle that was supposed to be his salvation. There were times where he was glad he was away from home, glad he could use his magic, but Potter and his friends made sure to remind him that he didn’t belong, that he deserved the abuse he endured all his life.

“I wouldn’t say that.” You brought his gaze back towards you and smiled. “I accept you, Severus.”

And for the first time since you’d met him, you saw a hint of a real smile appear on his face. He looked happy, like those four words were all he’d ever wanted to hear, all he ever needed to finally feel worthy of existing.

“I suppose Hogwarts did give us what we were looking for,” he whispered in absolute bliss. He couldn’t believe how gleeful he felt. His heart fluttering with joy and love, his eyes sparkling, the blood returning to his face, the warmth of your hand giving him life. For the first time ever, he felt happy.

“It certainly did,” you whispered back before leaning in to connect your lips with his. Severus’ lips moved with yours, his hands gripping you tightly as he leaned into your kiss like it was a lifeline. Your hearts beating in unison, the spark between you lighting into a flame larger than the sun as both your futures together began that very moment. One kiss to change the course of a singular person, one kiss to ignite a lasting romance, one kiss to save the world.

[whiteowl-18]

Why I can relate to Heartsopper

I am quite a bit older than the target demographic for this show. So, why do I watch it? Because, honestly, I can relate to it a lot. Let me explain (I know this is long, but I promise I’m going somewhere with it).

Something personal about me: I am asexual. The thing is, I only figured that out very, very recently. See, when I was growing up, sexuality wasn’t something that was really talked about. We learned the biological part of it at school. We learned the reproductive system and how babies are made in science class. There were some vague conversations about condoms, but that was it. Sexuality itself was never addressed. And I had a very, very surface-level understanding of it. To me, people were either gay, straight or bi. I honestly had no idea that it was a spectrum and I definitely did not know that asexuality was even a thing. I thought boys were physically attractive and, in my mind, that meant I was straight. I also didn’t have a lot of friends to talk about this, so this was my understanding of it. And it remained so throughout all my school years and even through college and after.

Around 2016, I started using Tumblr (and Twitter, but mostly Tumblr). And that made all the difference. All of a sudden I saw people describing their sexuality using terms I never even heard of. Pansexual, demisexual, asexual. What did any of that mean? As I started to dig deeper, and saw people describing what it feels like to be sexually attracted to someone, I realized that I never really felt that. I thought boys were pretty from an aesthetic perspective, but I wasn’t really attracted to them. Then I also saw people talking about the difference between romantic and sexual attraction. So I started thinking “Was that it? Was that what I felt? Was I romantically attracted to boys and not sexually?” That was something that was never explained to me. I didn’t know that this distinction existed. So, I realized that I was probably not heterosexual. But knowing what you’re not and knowing what you are, are two very different things. And I still didn’t know exactly what I was. For a while, I thought I was demisexual. I thought it was the closest thing to what I felt. Last year, I finally realized that I am, in fact, asexual. There wasn’t a lightbulb moment, it just became clear with time.

I honestly still don’t know how I fit in the romantic attraction spectrum. For a while, I was convinced I was heteroromantic. But since I figured out I am asexual, I’m starting to think that I might be either biromantic (I never even considered my feelings towards women) or just aromantic. I’m still trying to figure that part out.

What does this have to do with this show? Well, it’s quite simple: if there had been something like this in my teenage years, I might have figured out my sexuality a lot sooner. If I had seen a show or read a book with an asexual character, maybe I would have realized that, yeah, I’m like them. Isaac is probably asexual, and I really hope they explore that as tactfully as they did Nick’s bisexuality. Because I’m sure that there are asexual kids out there who really need to see someone like them in the media they consume. Shows like this matter.

I can also really relate to the bullying part, but I’ll leave that to another post.

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

And now I’ve watched episode 3 of Walker because of reasons. (You guys asked, that’s reasons.) #1

My review of episode 1 got a lot of positive feedback and a lot of you asked me to cover more episodes! But my review of episode 2 didn’t get much feedback at all. Possibly because episode 2 was boring and you can only make so many funny jokes about the glowy wife before it gets stale, so I get it, it’s fine. It was boring for me too. Hopefully this gets funnier! I actually have high expectations for this episode, since apparently it introduces NotDean. You know, the childhood friend who Walker loves like a brother and is the Han Solo to Walker’s Luke Skywalker. Like, what. Stop comparing Jared Padalecki characters to Like Skywalker 2021 challenge. *insert you keep using that word...*

Anyway, in case you missed it - here are all my reviews of Walker episodes, in chronological order.

EDIT: *screeching* GUYS YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN THIS. YOU CANNOT IMAGINE WHAT HAPPENS IN THIS. Read to the end, don’t stop at the padalacting. I’m begging you asdfghjkl

Alright. Let’s start this. Actually I have a thought before we start. You know, I was thinking that episode 3 of Supernatural is when Dean gets genuinely introduced as a person. Sera Gamble and Raelle Tucker were the first to give Dean the personality that stuck and developed into the character that we love. Dead In The Water is, not coincidetally, the episode that sold Supernatural to me. The first couple of episodes were weirdly compelling, without which I wouldn’t have continued watching, but you must understand that I’d never watched horror before. It really wasn’t my genre. I was just watching on the assumption that it would get better at some point, and if it didn’t I’d stop. But Dead In The Water got me. Because that’s when we’re really shown Dean for the first time. The rest is history and now we’re here.

So I wonder what will happen in episode 3 of Walker. Is it going to magically pull a Dean out of the hat and get me?

Let’s start. The Texan countryside. The yellow, glowy light tells us this is a flashback. Closeups of Jared and Gen. He is somewhat concerned. He’s at the wheel of a car, still on the street - a red Mustang. Unlike the red Mustang of the horseman War, it is a convertible. Fun fact: a Mustang was Kripke’s original idea for the Winchesters’ car, but then switched to the Impala for body-in-the-trunk reasons. I am the 😬 emoji.

Actually guys I need to show you a couple Jared faces. I think they’re supposed to be purposely comedic faces, but honestly this is just how he acts normally. I promise I am not coming in this with a bias towards Jared’s acting. I just observe, with my eyes. He was actually good in many Supernatural episodes.

I just can’t see Cordell Walker. I’m just seeing Jared and Gen Padalecki delivering what is a somewhat padalecki acting in front of my eyes and I swear I had to close the video in the middle of this scene and start over because of a sudden attack of second-hand embarrassment.

Let’s continue

Basically, Walker is trying to drive the Mustang, but he is not good at it and the car stops after two meters. He feels exactly how I feel when I watch Walker.

“Damn it!” Jared exclaims, jaredly. I think that this scene is supposed to be set Many Years Ago, because Walker is wearing a backwards cap and Emily has her hair styled like Bad Janet but straighter, which actually says a lot about this show somehow.

God, I wish I could gif the entire scene to show you guys the padalacting. I mean, I could, but ain’t nobody got time for that. Have a bit of the scene.

For some reason she puts this thing on the dashboard, because he “puts your mind at ease”.

He makes more Jared faces, which we’ll skip because I don’t want to spend 7 hours on this.

Wait look at this shot of the car (with some bonus Jared face).

Why does this look filmed by your dad with a videocamera on Christmas afternoon after you received a toy car as a present? I suddenly have a newfound admiration for the directors who did Impala shots on Supernatural because it would seem car shots are not that easy to make. Maybe this is why Supernatural always filmed at night with a black car.

Guys I am telling you, if you need to watch one scene of Walker in your life, watch this scene. It’s so embarrassing. I almost decided to gif the moment of the car going and commenting “nyoom” but the Impala does not deserve this.

Anyway.

Listen, if I have to see thing thing over and over, you have to see it too.

He’s brought the damn thing onto a new cop truck while on a stakeout with Ramirez, who is just as happy about it as any normal person would.

I think they’re outside a strip club, judging from the posters outside.

He keeps quoting lines from the scene with his wife, which is sort of weird since Ramirez is not his love interest. Yet. Oh no. Don’t. Don’t do that. Don’t even thinking of doing that. Ramirez has a perfectly fine boyfriend.

Walker says that since they’re sitting there just waiting for the suspect’s movements or whatever, they should use that time to get to know each other, like “favorite movies, the teams you root for, middle names”.

Ramirez is me.

He’s like ~let’s bond~ and Ramirez goes immediately for the jugular and asks how Stella (his daughter) is doing. “Wow” he says. He says he and Stella are “in a good place, I think”. You’re not and we’re definitely not. This is the bad place.

Basically, they’re trying to live in a bubble of ignoring her upcoming court date for the marijuana thing. Ramirez says that the easy route is not a good idea. He’s like, are you speaking from experience? Basically they keep implying Ramirez also has a ~bad girl past, which I can absolutely live without.

Aaand now we see the inside of the strip club. The suspect is there, a lady with a Latinoamerican name, apparently bisexual because she’s surrounded by a woman and a man in underwear, the woman is touching her, it leaves no doubt about it. 😬 Enter the stripper on stage, who captures the lady’s attention.

The stripper is a man. Dressed as a slutty cowboy. There’s glitter.

Yeah, you read it right.

Oh no. No I absolutely change my mind. If you have to watch one scene of Walter, it must be the slutty glitter cowboy stripper.

There’s. There’s a. There’s a slutty glitter cowboy stripper.

The CW could do slutty glitter cowboy strippers and Dean Winchester is not there?!

I repeat, they killed Dean Winchester and then did slutty glitter cowboy strippers in Walker?!

This is a travesty. This is an outrage.

Crime. Pure crime.

Listen, I’m not optimizing these gifs, take these super quick gifs, I can’t possibly spend my night optimizing glitter cowboy stripper gifs. But you need to see.

What’s the target demographic of this show? Texan housewives? The gays? Are they trying to test all the waters and see what happens? Is Walker going to become about gay people and Jared’s character a secondary character in his own show?

Wait

*sweats* Are they really trying to replicate Supernatural in everything after all?

The bisexual lighting is there and all.

The guy in skimpy underwear is distracting. I can’t believe yesterday I saw a Jared interview where he said he couldn’t watch Supernatural with his kids because of all the violence but Walker is a show you can watch with kids. I mean, aside from this scene, Walker is definitely more kid-friendly than Supernatural for obvious reasons. But hey, since Supernatural already was non-kid-friendly, they could have at least put more dudes in skimpy underwear.

You know what, I think they’re just aiming for Texan housewives.

“You’re hotter than Austin asphalt” suspect lady tells the stripper. You know. Something normal people say.

(If Texan people actually speak like this, do NOT tell me.)

Guys, we’re only four minutes in. It’s midnight. I will continue tomorrow...

*screams into the void* These have been the four wildest minutes of my life.

[felgueirosa]

organizations that have the same or similar goals often exist to target and change the view of different demographics and use diverse strategies and appeals to people with different politics and backgrounds.

people who already believe in the goal are often members of all or some of the organizations, even if one might have much less radical ideas than the other. you don't have to choose one. it also allows people who might not to be able publicly join one of the more radical organizations still be able to align themselves with the cause. it creates connections between people in more radical organizations with people in the less radical organizations between people not in the organizations to negotiate, change minds, and reach a goal

inn and jstreet are not radical enough for you because you are not the target audience and you do not understand the benefits of organizing in this way.

i'm not going to judge whether it is perfect or not and i am certainly not going to say inn and jstreet are perfect organizations, and neither is jvp, but i don't think i could have imagined the amount of jews openly protesting israel, not just on the streets but in everyday life, on social media, to their families, definitely not in the community i was working in years ago and i don't think i want to hear thoughts on organizing from people who have never done it

you can tell that almost no one on this website has ever actually participated in longer term activism or organizing

[lochnessies]

ok here’s a dissection of a post an anon sent me the link to and bc i have the worst time management possible and i completely forgot i had it lol so sorry anon here you go ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

I am constantly thinking about how Edelgard just doesn’t seem designed to appeal to cishet men.

i hate to be the one to break this news to you op but just because a character doesn’t show skin like charlotte fire emblem doesn’t mean she isn’t designed to pander to men. she’s very much designed to pander to the (majority straight male) player base with her ‘uwu i only trust you professor omg did u see that rat? pls don’t look at my painting of you uwu’.

then there’s the whole edelgard c support in japanese where byleth makes reference to having come to her room for ‘yobi’ which is

there’s also the scene where byleth can make an unsolicited comment about edelgard’s breast size. which is… uhh… gross.

edelgard also has cipher cards that go from slightly fanserviceie to full on suggestive

and also her breast armor that my sister relentlessly mocked lol

and here’s a chart from the 3h subreddit about gender/sexually in regards to edelgard and edeleth. it’s extremely straight male. op might have just overlooked this since they probably don’t go on reddit and stay on tumblr (which unlike reddit is mostly female and has a high lgbt demographic).

Like the joke is that Bleagles is the Gay House, but everything about her feels deliberately non-hetero.

i don’t like where this is going…

She’s dressed in sharp outfits covering her upper body, with proportions that don’t seem exaggerated.

so women who cover up must be lgbt because straight women are naturally more revealing? oh y i k e s

Her poise and the way she effortlessly flourishes her axe exhibits an air of coolness. While titties out =/= character of no substance, Edelgard being dressed more modestly suggests that she wasn’t designed with male-centred fanservice in mind.

“titties don’t equal no substance but here’s my post on how she has more substance because she doesn’t show titties” ok

And she still looks absolutely stunning in her more modest attire (like seriously, I haven’t felt the need to return to cosplay in years but I want to do her academy look so bad). 

yes she does. amazing design 10/10. i have a feeling this is the only part i’m going to agree with

Edelgard is intense. She does not mince her words and she is constantly evaluating you. Though she tries, she has a difficult time understanding her peers initially. Early on, she talks about how she would sacrifice herself and others in the name of some greater good. She is terrible at communicating with her peers. She has to be seen as infallible. Her heart has been hardened for years and she assumes she has to stay that way. She also assumes everyone mourns the same way she does - which is why she (kind of insensitively) insists you move on when Jeralt dies. Because to her, grief has to be channeled towards action, or else you’ll get lost in it. This attitude is demonstrated time and time again as she presses on. It can make her come off as cold and unfeeling - but look closer, and she’s anything but.

don’t really have anything to say at this part. it is pretty on the nose though i would slightly disagree with that last sentence a bit. i wouldn’t say she’s as i feeling as hubert is but all of her talks of the war boil down to how she feels and never her victims.

Her story is ultimately about her realizing that to achieve her goals, she needs to let people in and allow herself to want things like cakes and tea parties and lazy days in peace. 

????? what ????? her goals include imperialism, ethnic and religious targeting. her story is about having a set of beliefs and mowing down anybody who stands in her way. that has nothing to do with tea, friends, and lazy days. also am i supposed to be sad that she has to get up everyday and work? i do that and i didn’t start a war and only throw a pity party for myself

The game leaves the player guessing as to how involved the Flame Emperor was in each Part I event, makes you feel hurt by her betrayal, and leaves you with a choice: do you follow the orders of the woman who tried to make you a god without your consent, or a young girl with questionable morals about to throw the world into upheaval?

this isn’t an ideal situation but i think i’m going to stick with the woman who tried to make me a god since i’m not selfish and i know it’s not only my desires and life at stake here. plus the green hair slaps ngl

Choosing her of your own volition (not for completionist reasons) requires the basic ability to sympathize with a woman’s pain. It also requires the player to read beyond her unwavering will and dubious methods to get a sense of how deep that pain goes and how the theme of humanity relates to her differently in each route.

i’m not going to touch this since @nilsh13 made a post on it that i’ll link here. i agree with everything he said so to repeat it would be redundant.

The player must be able to see a young woman’s desperate resolve to change the world so it stops exploiting people and ruining lives. They must be able to accept the fact that women can make the same morally wrong and ambivalent decisions that complicated male characters get to make all the time and still be the one to root for.

literally the same reason i love rhea lol her goddess experiments are dubious at best but her reasons are the same you mentioned. i would say that i like this quality in edelgard too if her ending, while bloody, actually ended in a good outcome for fodlan.

This is not unique to LGBT+ people, but this population is likely to understand why Edelgard feels so strongly about why she has to change the system. 

i understand wanting to change a system, i really do. like edelgard, i’m an opinionated bisexual woman (who’s also physically disabled) so yeah i get it. and change can be good but it can also be terrible. even if the church was the boogeyman edelgard treats it as she still replaces it with her own shit regime. so it’s the same circus just with a new conductor.

I don’t think “Edelgard gets undue criticism because she’s a woman” captures the full picture. An important aspect of her treatment by certain parts of the fandom is that she’s a radical woman.

or maybe she does some pretty fucked up shit and it goes unacknowledged in her own route. and yeah she’s radical but in all the worst ways.

Her hatred of the Church and the Crest system resonates way harder with people who have been hurt by institutions that are deeply engrained in our society. 

and what about people who have been hurt by systems where their ‘merit’ didn’t measure up and they were left behind? what about people from nations that experienced imperialism?

Siding with her means siding against the Church - which, while different from real world religious institutions, still invokes language about “sin” and “punishment.

yeah the ‘sins’ and ‘punishments’ are used in relation to attempted murders which i think everybody can agree is a bad thing that needs to be condemned.

Choosing Edelgard will likely hit different if homophobic and transphobic Christians used that rhetoric against you.

it has literally nothing to do with ‘sins’ and ‘punishments’ in regards to being gay or trans. that’s you projecting. especially since the church has 2 canon gay characters and two coded ones.

like i can understand why having a church condemn you can be uncomfortable but i’m begging you to please look at the context of what’s happening.

I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that the reason F/F Edeleth is the more popular iteration of that ship because most people who would choose to S-support Edelgard are LGBT+ themselves. This is not a revelation. To anyone in the community, it’s fairly obvious. 

i was talking to nilish and he said

so yeah… while there is definitely sapphic femleth shippers out there, there’s still a whole lot of weird fetishizing going on from straight men about edelgard.

Crimson Flower was my first route. I went into the game knowing absolutely nothing. I played it during the last week of 2020 and hoo boy was it cathartic. 

i can tell. this wasn’t supposed to be a dig but it came out that way and i’m not taking it out.

I felt like I was living out a gay revolution power fantasy, where I could truly change systems of oppression while fighting alongside a group of troubled students I’d shaped the lives of.

so a gay revolution power fantasy (cringe) goes hand in hand with imperialism and installing a dictatorship? also the war had nothing to do with sexuality.

Through your unwavering support, Edelgard learns that she needs to be human, that she must listen to her friends, and that she’s allowed to enjoy the world she’s creating.

edelgard gets to learn how to be human all while hunting those who don’t. and she doesn’t listen fo her friends. she doesn’t even trust them. she’s willing to talk to byleth but keep the people who’s been by her side for five years in the dark about everything. and yeah she gets to enjoy her new words since she’s on top. hate to be a commoner under her rule after she burned down my village in her war.

I love this character so much.

clearly. and i honestly don’t care if somebody likes her. i do as well even if my sometimes scathing words can make it seem otherwise.

It has been six months since I first played and I am still analyzing her,

me too. please help me escape i’m losing my mind

because there’s so much depth. Yet so many people fail to see that depth and dismiss her as evil,

i mean, she does some fucked up shit that goes beyond any of the less than desirable actions of the other main characters and does an extremely poor job in trying to make herself seem innocent. i personally don’t think she’s pure evil but i completely understand where the people who say she is are coming from.

because they never had the will to understand complicated women in the first place. 

that’s big talk from somebody who implies that a gay pope is comparable to homophobic and transphobic irl religions and that leads an oppressive regime all because she uses the vague terms of sin and punishments that you have to gay power fantasy your way out of

[tsunflowers]

...god. nonsugar is a popular team bc younger kids relate to them (and it's also why Laala was younger than most of the cast, to give them a bigger target demographic among younger people than pr did and I think it was a neat choice bc she could be naiver and more childish and still come across as having good intentions that her older friends understand like the hibiki arc) but I really wish they didn't appeal to creeps in canon stuff as well. And it's a shame Pepper ends up being racist but(+)

I also think that we are to blame the executives for that as she was the first dark skinned girl to have some kind of plot significance in the franchise and you could see that from beta art the staff tried to do these many times before so I really think that was the only way the executives could approve back then. I think that Cure Soleil reception might have changed their mind as even if Dark Dia was skeevy, Jennifer seems to be a really good step for them to take.

I also liked how laala was baby compared to the rest but it's funny bc I'm on the opposite side of the target audience so the introduction of non as a main character for them is like "wow someone who's closer to my age who I can relate to" and for me it's like "laala was young but non is an INFANT!"

the character designers were definitely trying to include characters with dark skin much earlier, that's true. concept art for wakana had her with brown skin, right? the pepper stuff is just SO tone deaf though. I wish that she was like, stranded on a deserted island as a baby and that's why she grew up with only animals and is so weird. that trope still has a lot of racist ideas built into it but at least it doesn't carry the implication that this is just what africa is like in the pripara universe

I am really happy with jennifer so far. I think dark skinned characters in Japanese media tend to be either sexier or wilder than the rest of the cast and while jennifer is probably the most "sexy" of the primagi girls she's a glamorous superstar everyone wants to be

[echodrops]

Is there anything you wish your students would do, not do, or get better at? Other than like... Making sure to read their syllabi? Just curious!

1. Please, I am begging you, read the assignment instructions. In fact, read them twice. At least. 

I’m going to tell you a secret: every (decent) professor will tell their students that there is no such thing as stupid questions and to please contact us with any question (please please please). However, the truth is, even though every (decent) professor will politely answer any question a student sends, if the assignment instructions say “Read the poem on page 345 of our textbook and answer the following close reading questions” and then I open my email and see that a student has sent me a message asking “What page is the poem on?” that is, in fact, a stupid question.

After an entire day’s lecture on determining purpose and audience in essay assignments, I recently gave my freshman students an activity that was clearly labelled “Figuring Out Who Your Audience Is.” This activity was a packet that contained the instructions for three different essays, with instructions at the top of each page that clearly stated “Read the assignment guidelines below, and determine who the target audience of this essay might be. Think about demographics--is this essay targeting older people, younger people? People of a certain ethnicity or from a specific location? Describe the intended audience of the essay.” At least five students from the class failed to read the instructions and, instead of describing the audience for each essay... They simply started trying to write three full essays. (Because yes, I definitely wanted you guys to stop in the middle of our unit on audience to write a full op-ed piece about bicycle trails...) 

Read all the instructions on the assignment, please. 

-

2. Be an active participant, not a hapless bystander.

At least a few times a semester, I have a student come to me after an assignment was due and go “I’m sorry I didn’t turn the assignment in. I didn’t know how to do _______ thing, so I didn’t want to turn it in and be wrong” or “I’m sorry I didn’t do the peer review, I couldn’t find my partner’s contact info.”

What? Every time this happens I just thousand-yard stare for a second, because honestly, in what world is not doing anything the correct response to being confused?

If you’re confused, you do need to ask your questions (yes, even if the questions seem dumb). Just doing nothing because you’re confused about something is the absolute worst response. If you don’t know how something works, don’t know how to find something your professor told you to go work on, or don’t know who your group members are for a group project, do not just passively assume the information will be given to you if you wait long enough. 

You need to be a proactive participant in your own education; if you cannot find something your professor told you to go find, you need to ask for help right away. If you don’t know who your group members are, you need to ask for help right away. If you don’t know which pages you’re supposed to be reading that week, you need to go look for that information right away, not two days after the work was due.

Likewise, I also want to specify here that even though (decent) professors will answer the really obvious questions (honestly, a student once asked me “What chapter are we supposed to take notes on for the Chapter Five Notes assignment?”), that doesn’t mean that students are excused from putting in a modicum of effort to try to find out the answers to obvious questions on their own. If you can’t find the pages for an assigned reading, check the obvious places (your LMS such as Canvas, the class syllabus, etc.) first before asking. Re-read the assignment title and instructions before sending in your questions. Check through your emails/LMS announcements for messages from the professor first. 

If you’re confused, please ask questions--but do put in a basic amount of effort to check first and see if your question has already been answered.

-

3. Learn how weighted grades and percentages work and how they will impact you. 

Most classes in college sort assignments into weighted categories. What this means is that even if two assignments are both listed at 100 points, one might actually be worth more if it is a category that is “weighted” more heavily. For example, if there are three categories in a class, one worth 50% of the final grade, and two worth 25% of the final grade, assignments in the 50% category are automatically more important and worth more to your final percentage than assignments in the 25% categories.

Understanding this is important because this is how you get away with not doing everything.

To be honest, as a literature professor, I assure you that I am fully aware that students are not going to do every single reading assigned in my class. When I was a literature student, I didn’t do all the readings either. I’m aware.

But what I do expect, as a professor, is that students think ahead and skip strategically--make sure to do all the assignments in the heavily weighted categories, and if you’re going to miss assignments, make sure they’re the smaller assignments in the lower-weighted categories, which will have less impact on your total final grade.

Often I see students fall behind and then tell me they are working hard to catch up. But what do I see as they’re trying to catch up? They turn in all the little assignments and leave the big assignments missing, which means that inevitably they still struggle to pass the class as a whole.

Pay attention to the weights of grades and assignments in your classes so that you know exactly which ones are going to affect your final grades the most, and make sure to work hardest on those.

There’s plenty more, of course, but I think that’s enough for now.

[of-science-and-stars]

Oh boy. Buckle up you guys this is a fun one.

I have a couple memories of seeing Ben 10 ads or merch or whatever when i was a kid, right? Had my moments of "ew, a boy show!" and stuff, but i really remember being curious about the premise of the show (OS, by the way). Little tiny me had not yet had realized her interest in sci-fi, nor in "boy" shows.

Flash forward a good few years. At this point I'd long since realized i was aroace, and was just a little bit past admitting that I thought I was nonbinary and agender. Now in high school, I was probably past the target audience for anything Ben 10, but I'd seen the Ink Tank's summary video, and I couldn't deny the fact that the show sounded like it was on crack. But oh boy did i want in. By now i knew some of what i liked in media. Animated TV show? Cool aliens? Kid with superpowers? Sign me up!

So after getting over the initial embarrassment of wanting to watch a show far out of my demographic, i sat down on ye olden definitely-legal site for cartoons and... binged through the whole of OS in two days. UAF followed suite, then OV. Before summer was over, I'd watched everything original-continuity Ben 10 that i could get my grubby little hands on, and I was loving it.

But i think something of note to your topic would be that I did all this because I really identified with Ben during the course of the shows. He was a kid with a lot on his shoulders, and even if he had extraordinary powers and i didn't, the kinship was there. Especially in relation to the literal fluidity of his identity due to the Omnitrix, which always gave him a certain flavor of nonbinary to me. I was jealous, honestly. I'm still just as riddled with dysphoria as i was then, and at that time, i wanted nothing more than to be able to shapeshift into anything other than what I was. If i hadn't already realized it, i think that Ben 10 would have helped me understand that dysphoria a little more, and eventually come to know that I was enby.

In a way, that whole nonbinary flavor, in addition to the escapism to get away from dysphoria, was what led me to the show, even if unconsciously or whatever.

And all this isn't even taking into account the ships. Being aro as hell, i always found the romance in the show to be a little bit uncomfy, especially when forced, and for the most part, any hints of gwevin in UAF flew right over my head. Of course, I sat through it, but i wouldn't say it made me happy.

But what did make me happy were the close friendships. Ben and Kevin. Ben and Rook. Hell, even Ben and Rex, despite them not spending the most time together. These are the ones that stuck out the most to me, especially since they're about our main character, but there are plenty of others that I'm due for a refresher on. All this went to further affirm my own desire for close friendships like that, instead of a romantic partner.

Um, i think that's about all i have to say, so thanks for letting me recount my whole life story in relation to Ben 10. This was fun to write about.

Tldr; Shapeshifting is the most nonbinary power ever and thus Ben exudes enby energy to me, therefore i relate to him cause I'm agender and nonbinary, and also i am aroace so i want close friendships like Ben has.

Hello Ben 10 fans!!!

I am currently working on an essay on the relationship between Ben 10 and queerness, and I was looking to get different fan’s stories and experiences with how Ben 10 has affected their queer identity/etc. Responses are greatly appreciated!!

Please share!

[with-my-murder-flute]

Hi everybody, thanks for the asks letting me know I made the top of @yusuftiddies’ list of Homophobes in TOG Fandom, you can stop sending them now.

So.

I can make mistakes and fuck up and own that. I am serious about listening to marginalized people. But... in this case, while @yusufstiddies generally describes factual events that happened and factual posts that exist, I have to say that I can’t actually apologize for the things I’m called out for because I don’t think they’re homophobic. The things he criticizes me for are things that come from a lot of personal experience as a queer bisexual cis woman, as well as a lot of reflection, research, and study. I believe in them really strongly and stand by them.

I’m really sorry if this makes TOG fandom too hostile, because it is not my intention to make this place so unpleasant that anyone feels driven out. I understand if my stance means people no longer want to follow me/read my stuff/participate in projects I’m involved with (though I’d rather hand off the Research Hub to someone else than see it go down with me). I’m posting this so people can know where they stand before they decide whether to keep interacting with my blog, or “deplatform” me as @yusufstiddies recommends.

I would recommend, for anyone who doesn’t want to see my posts, using Tumblr’s new post content filtering feature. If you type a username (like star-anise or with-my-murder-flute) into it, Tumblr will hide all posts featuring that specific string of characters, and therefore any post or reblog of mine.

To address the accusations against me:

I am an anti-anti: Yes. I’ve reblogged posts of mine about this before. I care passionately about preventing child abuse, but I think there are better ways to prevent child abuse in fandom (like concrete harassment policies so predatory behaviour can be reported and stopped early, and education about digital consent and healthy relationships) than attacking people who write “bad ships,” not least because the first people it hurts are abuse survivors trying to work through their trauma, and because the research says you cannot actually tell who’s a sexual predator based on what they write about.  Fiction affects reality, but not on a 1:1 basis. My mainblog, @star-anise, has a really extensive archive of my writing on the subject.

I said cishet men aren’t more privileged than gay men: Kinda. What I actually did was question whether Every Single Cishet Man benefits from more privilege than Every Single Gay Man. If a man is cishet but gets beaten up because people perceive him as gay, he’s not exactly feeling the warm toasty glow of heterosexual privilege in that moment. Oppression is complicated and there are times when someone’s lack of privilege on one axis is way less important than someone else’s lack of privilege on another axis.

The post above also includes me reblogging someone else’s addition about how straight men can be included in the queer movement: I’m queer. @yusufstiddies has made it very clear that he isn’t comfortable with the word “queer” and doesn’t like it. Therefore I think it’s understandable that he might not understand that the queer community sees ourselves as a coalition of people dedicated to dismantling the structures of sex and gender that oppress us, not a demographic of people whose gender identities or sexual orientations can be neatly mapped. However, I would say that doesn’t make queer theory inherently homophobic.

There are also some related points @yusufstiddies didn’t level at me specifically, but I would like to address:

The constant focus on the unsafeness of cishet people:

I’m not cishet. I’m a bisexual woman who’s dated women. Sixth-light is a queer woman married to a woman. This is not an issue of non-LGBTQ+ people blundering their way into something they don’t experience the daily consequences of. This is an issue of people from WITHIN the LGBTQ+ community who sincerely disagree with @yusufstiddies about the pressures we experience and how best to deal with them. I think that even if @yusufstiddies were to filter his fiction input to only LGBT-written work about LGBT experiences, or even only trans-written work about trans people, he would still find a lot of things he finds upsetting or transphobic, because sexual and gender identities are really diverse and not everything will suit one person.

The contention that saying “’Queer is a slur’ is TERF propaganda” is transmisogyny because it dilutes the definition of “TERF”:

People who point out the phrase is TERF propaganda are not calling every person who says it a TERF, and we are not trying to argue that telling a queer person that queer is a slur is inherently equal to the kind of damage a TERF does when she attacks a trans woman out of transphobia. Queer people being able to use the word “queer” does not have the same importance as trans women being able to live, work, and survive in public. Rather, we are literally saying, “This is a thing TERFs say when they take a break from attacking trans women and try to recruit new members to their group, so it’s in our best interests to not give it too wide a currency.”

Some people have experienced the word “queer” used as a hateful word hurled against them and don’t want to hear it ever again. I get that. It happens. Where I grew up, “gay” was a synonym for “shitty” and it took me a lot of years out of high school before the word “gay” wouldn’t shoot my blood pressure through the roof.  I actually do understand that and think that’s valid (and again, support using post content filtering for that word).

One of the things I do at @star-anise is argue with young people who are headed into full-on transmisogynistic TERF territory, and work at reeling them back and deradicalizing them. I use a tag called “weedwhacking” so my followers can filter out the sometimes lengthy back-and-forths we get going.

Something I’ve learned, interacting with so many TERFs and proto-TERFs, is that one way they frequently get recruited into harassing trans people was through discourse around the word “queer”. For one, it encouraged them to want to distance themselves from any perception of LGBT people as “weird” or “not normal”, which led to seeing trans people as “weird” and “not normal” and therefore not good members of the “gay pride” community. For two, repeating “queer is a slur” predictably causes a lot of queer people to react in a defensive manner, so by teaching young or new people to say it, TERFs can set them up to feel alienated from the larger LGBTQ+ community and more open to TERF propaganda.

The next issue isn’t mentioned in the original callout post, but I think it’s key to this entire issue:

@yusufstiddies has made several posts about what cishet people should and shouldn’t write. For example, cishets shouldn’t write Nicky experiencing internalized homophobia.  Another is a detailed post of things cishets shouldn’t write about trans people, including which sexual positions only trans people are allowed to write. I would imagine that part of his frustration with fandom has been the lack of traction those posts have gotten. I know I very deliberately didn’t reblog them.

That isn’t because I don’t agree that the things he complains about are rarely handled well by cishet authors. I agree that there’s a lot of bad fic out there that contributes to negative stereotypes against LGBTQ+ people and is basically a microaggression to read.

I have two very deeply-seated reasons for my position:

LGBTQ+ identities are different from many other political identities because most people are not born identifiably LGBTQ+. It’s something we have to figure out about ourselves. And one really important way that we do that is using the safety of fiction to explore what an experience would be like, sometimes years before we ever admit that we fit the identity we’ve written about. So banning cishet authors from writing something is really likely to harm closeted and questioning LGBTQ+ people. It will lengthen the amount of time questioning people take before finding the identity that really fits them, and force closeted people to be even more closeted. 

There’s a lot of undeniably shitty stuff in fandom. However, I fundamentally believe that trying to target the people creating it and forcing them to stop doesn’t work very well, and has the serious byproduct of killing the creativity and enthusiasm of the rest of fandom and resulting in less of the actual thing you like being produced. I think that it is infinitely more productive to focus on improving the ratio of good stuff in fandom than trying to snuff out every bad thing.

Like I said: I understand if this means former followers, mutuals, or friends no longer want to interact with me. I’ll be saddened, but I’ve obviously chosen this path and can deal with the consequences. 

I wish this could have worked out differently.