#i have to be smarter than this but I'm also a [slur] that can't ever ever live on her own

[lightnersdream]

WHY are these people so insistent on me never leaving. i am an adult! leave me the fuck alone!!!!

[sqbr]

Actually, she did apologise, making it clear she understood at least some of the reasons everyone was upset, and she acknowledged fault and said she would do better.

It's just that her behaviour around and after that apology only make her look worse.

Since it's a perfect example of the kind of shell game of shifting buzzwords she always uses to excuse her behaviour, and to prevent anyone saying "actually she did apologise" as a defense, I'll go into it under the cut. (Edit: readmore is being flaky, sorry!)

Disclaimer that this is based on decade old memories and may be wrong in some details. But this is how I remember it.

So. At first she said her victims deserved having slurs/violent language etc thrown at them because they were bad writers. When that kind of bullying fell out of vogue, she said she only attacked people who deserved it for being bad writers and problematic. She was punching down!

And if she attacked another POC it didn't count because they were American, and if she attacked another non-Western POC it didn't count because they were straight, etc etc. And if that didn't work she'd point out that some of her critics were racist white people (true!) so why criticise her instead of them?(because we can do both) To my eternal shame, I was somewhat swayed by this rhetoric myself. But eventually the weight of evidence became undeniable.

She made a new persona, the squeaky clean and friendly author Benjanun Sriduangkaew. Who initially not only denied that she was Requires Hate/winterfox, but encouraged people to attack anyone making the connection.

It was only once one of her 'friends' made the connection undeniable that she finally felt obliged to apologise. And she still took time to imply that the real problem was her critics.

And when that didn't fix everything her supporters would go "But she apologised! And she was under 25 for some of it so she can't be held accountable! And the real bad behaviour was creepily documenting every bad thing she did, why don't you focus on that??".

And then when people stopped talking about it she shifted her story to "noone ever told me why they were upset, it was just a bunch of white women being vague".

So yeah, apparently she is very sorry for everything she did, but also the accusations are too detailed, and also noone ever told her what she supposedly did wrong.

And there's no sign she's really changed.

Afaict these days she is presenting herself as a Defender of Trans People which is both darkly funny and horrifying. On the one hand I'm glad she's stopped gleefully throwing around transmysogynistic slurs, but on the other hand would prefer cis allies not focus quite so much on presenting certain trans identities as the Bad Ones (but it's ok, because she's Defending Trans Women!). I'm less sure how her pattern of attacking disabled people has evolved over time but am probably happier that way.

So yeah! Be smarter than past me! Stay the fuck away, and don't be taken in.

PSA: Winterfox/Requires Hate/Benjanun Sriduangkaew/Maria Ying

I'm starting to see recs for Benjanun Sriduangkaew crop up in fandom again, so here's your reminder that Benjanun Sriduangkaew, aka Maria Ying, is actually Winterfox/Requires_Hate, a well-known serial harasser, blackmailer and abuser who decided that the best thing to do with her multimillionaire heiress time and money is to do real and lasting harm to many communities and many writers (especially writers of color) that she saw as rivals.

with how fast things move online right now, I imagine she's banking on people just forgetting everything she pulled: please don't! But even if you won't deny her your attention, at least keep yourself safe and remember that her modus operandi used to be either love bombing people until they let slip something she then blackmailed them with, or literally decades of unhinged harassment.

feel free to share.

original sources:

Mixon report: https://feralsapient.com/?p=889

The letter to Apex editors: https://web.archive.org/web/20170216003240/http://awitin.likhain.net/2017/02/a-letter-to-apex-editors-re-the-intersectional-sff-roundtable/

Zen Cho's report (start here of you never heard of any of this): https://web.archive.org/web/20200808225250/https://zencho.org/being-an-itemised-list-of-disagreements/

Rachel Manija Brown's report: https://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1288081.html

[cooplagoop]

I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO PUT THIS: I am not intersex and I'm not an expert on biology. I'd like to thank you because I learned something new out of this. I didn't know the term hermaphrodite was still being used for snails and some smaller organisms.

Please reread your post a bit.

The definition you're using doesn't include anything higher on the evolution chain than fish. The organisms that can be described that way don't even have the sentience of a pigeon much less a human.

The character that op is trying to attach the slur to has human intelligence, can make choices for himself based on their choice to have piercings, the choice to interact with humans, the choice to patronise inventors and even Belphegor's choice to identify as male (I assume from the use of he/him pronouns in his descriptions) shows he has human sentience. He can't be classified as something as simple as an organism on the level of a plant, fish or snail that has both reproductive systems or produces both types of gametes at the same time because he doesn't have the appearance nor the intelligence of those organisms.

The reason I bring up human sentience and human intelligence is because if you have a character, who thinks on the level of a human (as human intelligence is the standard by which animal intelligence seems to be measured) or is even smarter than a human through devinity or magic or some other power, why would they call themselves a human slur?

To answer your questions of fictional sentient aliens that I assume have reproductive systems like Belphegor's, I'll ask the same follow up question. Why would they call themselves a human slur? Also why would they call themself that human word over intersex? Wouldn't they have their own word in their language for individuals with two reproductive systems? Even if they have attributes of the hermaphrodite plants, fishes or snails you mentioned, they wouldn't want to call themselves that as it clearly indicates viewing them as simpler organisms below the average human or rather as animals.

I was gonna do another paragraph about fantasy creatures, but stopped because I realized all the stuff I wrote about the sentient aliens also applies to fantasy creatures.

I also don't know what intersex-coded means and I don't think I've ever encountered it in the media I view.

(re)design trivia: Belphegor

° hermaphrodite goat-like creature

° female breasts, male penis, two functional reproductive systems, can both conceive and bear

° huge horns don't give manoeuvrability, but Belphegor doesn't care

° ear and nose rings

° firstborn spirit who (like Mammon) took on the flesh of devoured animals

° god of mount Phegor

° lived in the gorge of the mountain and was quite curious about the local moabites; they fed him what they could, he protected them and participated in rituals

° the most sympathetic to mortals, although he's greatly disappointed in human vices

° phenomenally lazy, which is bad, but doesn't judge the past and patronises inventors, which is good

° uses the sword as a weapon when needed for a distant slash at the throat and as a way to delineate boundaries

main gang: Vaggie, Charlie, Angel Dust, Niffty, sir Pentious, Cherri Bomb, Husk, Alastor (+ as humans)

Heaven: Adam, Eve, Lute, Emily, Sera

Adam and Eve's children: Cain, Abel, Seth, Awan, Azura

Hell: Lilith, Lucifer, Seviathan, Helsa, Razzle and Dazzle, Keekee

Sins: Asmodeus [Lust], Beelzebub [Gluttony], Satan [Wrath], Mammon [Greed]

Lucifer's wives: Eisheth Zenunim, Naamah, Agrat bat Mahlat

Vees: Vox, Valentino, Velvette

overlords: Zestial, Rosie, Carmilla Carmine, Odette and Clara, Flaming Skull Guy

friends and relatives: Mimzy, Arackniss, Molly, Alastor's mom, Alastor's father