#idk man we're shitposting today

[mooni]

[little-shadows-story]

About Tumblr and AI companies and having to opt out of it + Tale 2 of "Little Shadows"

In case you haven't heard, this is what's happening. I've already opted out in all of my blogs here, but man. This sucks a lot.

I guess the biggest problem for me is: how long have they been doing this? Not knowing frustrates me to no end. I decided tumblr would be one of the main places to put my experimental writing precisely because there was no AI third parties involved, but if this is how they're gonna play now I have to reconsider uploading my stuff here.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna leave Tumblr. This is one of the only social media I actively use unlike FB or IG that I have but are basically dead, and I left twitter waaay before the beginning of the fall, way before Musk even bought it iirc. But I'm not comfortable anymore uploading and sharing my writing here, and it sucks. I wanted tumblr to be sort of an archive for my writing (besides my own archiving in my computer) but I'm having second thoughts now.

Tale 2 of Little Shadows was supposed to come out today, but now I'm secong guessing wether I really wanna post it here or not. I have Royal Road, and I have my own blog via Blogger too -and now that we're talking about this, idk if Blogger also has a deal with AI companies or not, fuck- so maybe I'll just. Upload there? I saw a while ago an iniciative for a new tumblr like site, I gotta look thru my likes and reblogs to find it, so maybe I'll go there? Ugh. Like, I'll still use tumblr for doing updates on my progress or shitpost, but when it comes to sharing my writing, even the experimental one.... yeah i don't know about that man.

So I guess. I guess this is it for this blog, huh? Wow, that sucks. I won't delete it, and I while I thought I can use it for promoting the links to the Royal Road chapters, I now think my main blog is better for that, since I have more followers there. I'm sorry. I just can't keep posting here in good faith for the time being.

So again, FYI: I won't delete this side blog, but I probably won't post more in here unless something happens that makes me come back.

If you liked Little Shadows so far, thank you so much!!! Here's the link to Tale 2 in Royal Road. From now on, if you'd like to continue getting news and notifications about when a new chapter comes out, please consider following my main @mary-is-writing, or give a follow to the wip in RR itself.

Thanks for the support so far, and I hope I see you again someday soon. This blog will go to sleep now.

[butchamy]

Was thinking about this post again while out on a walk today. Like (I assume) a lot of butch trans women, I spend a lot of time thinking about what really makes the difference between a butch woman and a cis man without resorting to some dumb gender essentialism shit. (Obviously self-identification is the major factor but I still think that begs the question of why the distinction is made to begin with, and how people use those labels - in particular I think of a lot of posts that are like "I thought this was a butch woman but it was actually (cis male celebrity)".) (There's definitely a lot that can be said about how said men (including David Byrne) are almost universally skinny and white but that's beyond the scope of this personal post)

And that made me think about why I made this post - it really wasn't a non sequitur shitpost, it was something I genuinely felt during and after watching Stop Making Sense (not trying to transvestigate David or anything, it's just that the way he looks and acts on stage is kinda #goals for me as a butch woman).

I think what on a broad level differentiates butch women and cis men, definitely from an outsider's perspective, is the fact that for a butch woman, they are deliberately performing (a certain kind of) masculinity. (I wanna emphasize the word performing because I think this is very different from, say, 'replicating') (I like this way of looking at it because it's an analysis that can equally apply to trans women like me, who have already spent a long time in a 'masculine' body and in 'masculine' dress.)

And a lot about what David Byrne does on stage is, well, performance. He is not just singing lyrics or playing instruments. He is presenting in a very deliberate way. (I think this speaks to another corollary between myself and Byrne - we're both very visibly autistic, so in a sense any interaction with others is a form of performance.)

And I feel in Stop Making Sense particularly it's a very masculine performance. Not masculinity in the macho sense, but- you know, the slicked hair, the suit (both big and small). It feels very butch to me in a way that I can't really describe better than I already have.

Idk this feels even more rambling than my usual posts but I just wanted to get my thoughts out there

David Byrne is a beautiful butch woman. to me

[mirapunk]

My sister said that no man in Germany pees standing. That's where we're headed in this country, my friend. The president of the US pees sitting down. We got a bunch of preachers & leaders who don't stand up and piss against the wall like a man. That's what's wrong with America today. If you think I'm being vile, then God's being vile, because the Bible refers to men as "he who pisseth against the wall". 400 years ago, pastors used to preach how to be a man & that a MAN NEEDS TO BE A MAN.

idk if this is a shitpost or what but what the heck did I just read

tho I gotta say this feels slightly transphobic tbh?? like the thing of equating maleness with pissing standing up is really :/ espec since I’m a trans man