#intellectual woman

[velvetporcelain]

dead man’s blues

hello lover — nothing new here with me except the way i experience the same things everyday. I want to sleep in my bed with the window open- listening to the things i never get to hear — god created a creature capable of thoughts, dreams, consciousness and it became a monster that he left in a jar.

i miss you in a way that doesn’t really hurt anymore. i think of you and i can only mutter the words FUCK YOU. — and that means i am in the perfect position to say so — i attach myself to nothing and i have you to thank for that, but I don’t want to give you too much credit because you were only the push I needed, I taught myself how to apply it.

i would like to stay away forever this time. i have worked too hard to get here and i still have work to do to get to wherever it is i am going- i am not really sure what that is but i continue to flip back and forth between feeling everything and then feeling nothing. feeling nothing seems much like peace but i think its a placebo.

nothing can satisfy the desire of a thinking animal, he will eat his way through every pleasure- ignoring the repercussions of collateral damage. By then, it is too late to really fix anything and that’s when the seven stages of grieve set in— and we weren’t taught how to navigate through them— we skipped those steps by calling everyone sensitive and sent them to therapy. my views of the world continue to reflect in the way I present myself to the world— intense, passionate, consuming, sharp, and artistic. — but never would i choose the word beautiful.

-x

[the-joy-of-knowledge]

Becoming an Intelligent Woman

My Dears,

There is no greater goal than being a fine woman who is intelligent, kind, and elegant. As much as we all want to be described with these adjectives, it takes a great amount of discipline to get there. It is very doable only if you are ready to put in the work.

Here are steps you can add to your routine in the next 4 weeks that will make you 1% more intelligent than you were before. This is a process that should become a habit not a goal. It is long term, however, I want you to devote just 4 weeks into doing these steps first and recognize the changes that follow.

Watch documentaries: This is the easiest step, we all have access to Youtube. Youtube has a great number of content on art, history, technology, food, science etc that will increase your knowledge and pique your curiosity. I really did not know much about world history especially from the perspective of World war 1 & 2, the roaring 20s, Age of Enlightenment, Jazz era, monarchies etc but with several channels dedicated to breaking down history into easily digestible forms. I have in the last 4 weeks immersed myself into these documentaries. Here are a few I watched:

The fall of monarchies

The Entire History of United Kingdom

The Eight Ages of Greece

World War 1

World War 2

The Roaring '20s

The Cuisine of the Enlightenment

2. Read Classics: I recommend starting with short classics so that you do not get easily discouraged. Try to make reading easy and interesting especially if you struggle with finishing a book. Why classics? You see, if you never went to an exclusive private school in Europe or America with well crafted syllabus that emphasized philosophy, history, art, and literary classics, you might want to know what is felt like and for me this was a strong reason. Asides that, there is so much wisdom and knowledge available in these books. In these books, you gain insights to the authors mind, the historical context of the era, the ingenuity of the author, the hidden messages, and the cultural impact of these books. Most importantly, you develop your personal philosophy from the stories and lessons you have accumulated from the lives of the characters in the books you read. Here are classics to get you started:

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

Candide by Voltaire

Paradise lost by John Milton

3. Study the lives of people who inspire you: I dedicate one month to each person that fascinates me. I read their biography (date of birth, background, death, influences, work, style, education, personal life) For this month, I decided to study Frank Lloyd Wright because I was fascinated by the Guggenheim Museum in New York. I began to read about his influence in American Architecture (Organic architecture, Prairie School, Usonian style), his tumultuous personal life, his difficult relationship with his mentor (Louis Sullivan), his most iconic works etc. By the end of the year I would have learned the ins and outs of people I am inspired by through books and documentaries. Here are other people I plan to learn more about:

Winston Churchill

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Ada Lovelace

Benjamin Franklin

Helen Keller

John Nash

Isabella Stewart Gardner

Caroline Herrera

Ernest Hemingway

Catherine the Great

Ann Lowe

My dears, I hope you enjoyed this read. I cannot wait to write more on my journey to becoming a fine woman. I urge you to do this for four weeks and see what changes you notice. Make sure to write as well, it is important to document your progress.

Cheers to a very prosperous 2024!

[mikasasrippedtoenail]

A woman would call the most well articulated essay you've ever read a "ramble" while a man would call his shittyreddit post an "intellectual thinkpiece"

[leclercskiesahead]

Did Carlos go to law school or did he don’t didn’t go to law school

from landofmotorsport

[serpentface]

A witch of the Naig-Troibadnnas (Yellowtail river valley) people, resting and enjoying a smoke of the mild stimulant brolge leaf on a hot summer day.

Witches are a small part of the everyday cultural framework among the Hill Tribes. They are individuals considered born possessed by a virgranul, a type of disembodied wild spirit that seeks to inhabit human flesh, either entering the body at the moment of conception, or entering the body at the moment of death. The latter is a dire circumstance that requires significant intercession to fix (the dead body may wander off without rites, leaving the person's soul trapped and liable to warp into the dangerous fuldaigh spirit), while the former circumstance is what causes a person to be born a witch.

In the case of those afflicted in the womb, possession by virgranul is lifelong, and is both a curse and blessing- it divides and isolates them from the human world and causes other wild spirits (both benevolent and malicious) to be perpetually drawn to them, but also allows for them to be attuned to the subtleties of spirits, and able to work magic and divination that the everyday person is incapable of.

Witches are usually recognized from a young age due to marked behavioral differences or atypical development, though are sometimes simply identified as such without obvious behavioral indications, by other witches having read signs of their coming. Their occurrence is not frequent, usually once in a generation for any given tribe. An identified witch child will be taken from their family (the timing varies by tradition, though is usually upon puberty) and into mentorship by an established witch, who will impart their accumulated knowledge and skill and teach the child how to best harness their condition.

One can be a witch regardless of their gender, with the only commonality being that they must remain unmarried, and are expected to never have children (deemed too dangerous, unavoidably placing a child in the path of potentially harmful wild spirits). With no spouses or children to support them in holding a household and herds, witches are instead supported by their communities as means of payment for their services. They typically live in semi-isolation in the boundaries between the village and wilderness (a reflection of their own division between the world of people and of wild spirits, and a protective measure for their communities), and will periodically be brought needed supplies. They do not commonly enter villages unless summoned, or for the sake of certain holidays and festivals, and live most of their lives in seclusion aside from any given mentee (who will in turn care for their mentor in old age).

The societal function of witches is as intermediaries between people and their ancestors, people and wild spirits, and as especially skilled performers of practical magic (most commonly weaving protective spells into worn items, such as clothing or the nose rings of cattle). Forms of practical magic and intercession with ancestors and spirits are performed by all members of society, but a witch has intimate, detailed knowledge of such things and tremendous natural skill that makes them an invaluable asset.

Witches personally discern the identities of the spirits living in any given area and will attempt to familiarize themselves with them, learning in depth about their ways, giving warnings of where the particularly dangerous (or mischievous) ones are, and giving recommendations on which will be receptive to offerings in return for boons. When a village needs to commune with a particularly powerful or dangerous spirit (such as a wildfolk witch), they will commonly send their own witch as an intermediary.

They are ascribed have the ability to directly summon ancestors (who otherwise come and go of their own volition, and rarely ever deign to come at the call of one who is not their descendant). This is of great use when a person finds themselves punished by their ancestors with no certainty as to why, or cases where an orphaned child's ancestry must be identified to gain them proper spiritual support.

They are also regarded as having innate qualities of divination, particularly in reading birdsign (itself generally acknowledged as communication from ancestors, and occasionally gods). The average person has basic knowledge in reading omens of birds and a learned repertoire of key signs, but a witch can divine the messages of birdsign in immense and specific detail, through a vast knowledge system of the meanings of the species, sex, flight direction, gaze, prey, number, and songs of birds. It is common for people to approach a witch for a reading of the skies before undertaking a significant venture or life change, in order to receive detailed and specific advice.

Witches are always literate (and will be taught to read and write by their mentor if they cannot already) and will record their repositories of knowledge in tomes. These are items of absolute secrecy and taboo for a non-witch to touch (the consequences can be severe, you really don't want a witch ancestor-spirit upset with you). Witches can often become competitive about the knowledge stored in these tomes and are known to organize heists amongst themselves in order to gain access to each other's secrets. Most people avoid getting themselves entangled into the complicated rivalries of witches, as these competitions can get ugly and result in many a petty curse if one gains a witch's ire.

---

The only visual cue distinguishing this man as a witch is the tattoos on his forearms, otherwise usually regarded as inappropriate to mark in the contemporary Hill Tribes cultural sphere (the face, upper arms, and sternum is reserved for important clan/tribe/ancestry identification, hands and forearms are reserved for witches, and the rest of the body is appropriate for decoration). These unique forearm tattoos indicate his ancestral connection with a lineage of witches, not blood ancestry but rather the generations of mentors that have produced him. The lines extending down to his fingers are the newest, indicating that he has fully mentored another witch and gained a place in this ancestral line.

The rest of the tattoos here are tribe and blood ancestry identifiers (on the face and upper arms respectively, worn by all members of society), and purely decorative imagery (visible here is a deer, horse, eagle, and a dragon). He also has a snake on his forearm, applied decades ago in an act of youthful rebellion, which has since gotten in the way of critical open skin space.

His clothing is otherwise typical wear for warm seasonal conditions- a man's wool shawl and woven belt, short trousers, decorative deer hide (distinct to the Naig-Troibadnnas), and sandals (these are imported Wardi style sandals, which have been modified with preferred elevated heels). The horn shaped torc on his forearm identifies him as an esteemed elder.

[murakamijeva-muza]

[thundergrace]

I did it. I finally found porn for lesbians

[is-this-really--life]

When I see men living their entire lives through the lens of dominance hierarchies, what I feel is almost akin to pity but is more like disgust. Like damn boy, you live like this? No wonder your life is so empty. You're completely devoid of empathy and compassion. Especially for the half of the human population you desire and want to build a life with. You view all relationships through the shallow lens of respect. You see being feminine, or whatever you see as woman-like, as beneath you.

I really don't think women should actually extend empathy and care toward them like some more liberal feminists are pushing for (to show them how to get in touch with their emotions). I think they need to learn to extend that empathy first.

[lady-corrine]

"Rhaenyra being usurped had nothing to do with misoginy and her being a woman -"

"The Greens are not only constituted by misoginystic -"

"Aegon and Rhaenyra were just as bad and neither deserved to -"

"George is writing about how Aegon and Rhaenyra were equally bad, not about how misoginy and patriarchy killed a woman and ruined her entire life -"

"Rhaenyra being murdered has nothing to do with her being a woman, nor is she sexualized even in death-"

[notbecauseofvictories]

I'm watching SurrealEstate, because "what if real estate was haunted as a matter of law, and also haunted haunted" is a good premise, even if the show is fairly boring in execution.

[velvetporcelain]

i was smiling to myself today— being disconnected from the virtual world has got me so connected to the actual world! Praise Mother Earth! wild women NEED this vital relationship! it lights us up and allows our souls to recover and radiate an unconscionable feminine energy!

for the darkness I am ready- nothing is more sinister than a woman’s dark mind and if it shall call me weak then so be it! — humans are weak so tell me something new! allow me to dive deep into my abyss with confidence, trust, love and anticipation!

drown me and I will open my gills to the sea. there is no such thing as suffering. Only adaptation and knowledge.

so it be. i am free.

-x

[laurapetrie]

She was incapable of resisting a desire, and often she would become infatuated about some trinket which she happened to see, and could not sleep till she had gone and bought it. But after these spams of gaiety, she would sit on the ground dreaming with her head down and her hands clasping her knees.

Gustave Flaubert, Sentimental Education (1869)

[uramitashi]

do you guys remember how girls "weren't as smart as boys and couldn't be in school with them because their role and biology did not align with academic excellence"?

and now college-aged young women are smart and cunning and phenomenal while their male peers are fasc1sts with no future prospect or sociocultural literacy.

[majaurukalo]

To understand disability issues better there needs to be a serious talk about the link between disability and freedom of choice (or lack thereof).

Western society loves to brag about freedom of choice in terms of being free to do and say and think whatever (we have seen a lot of it during lockdown and regarding vaccine and such and from that it became clear that people don’t really know what “freedom” really means).

So let me straight up tell you that we, disabled people (not all but a lot of us) don’t have much freedom of choice.

First of all, if you consider inaccessibility, we are not free to go wherever we want or socialise or work wherever or attend any kind of universities or schools (yes, I know people who had to give up going to the uni or school of their dreams because they didn’t want/couldn’t provide accessibility).

If an able-bodied person has to find any kind of job to not end up homeless or starve they can do whatever minimum wage job that involves physical strain until they are back on their feet. This is not possible for some disabled people (like me). So this leaves me (us) out of some choices. And in a precarious financial situation.

Some disabled people aren’t free to go to certain shops or restaurants or bars or shows or events etc. because of inaccessibility.

Disabled people who need assistance to travel with public transport can’t choose to travel on their own terms or jump on a last-minute trip because assistance needs to be booked 24 hour earlier in most cases (and some require even 48 hours).

Disabled people can’t always choose the cheapest option because that is usually inaccessible for us so we have to spend more money and not because we like fancy stuff. Also, disabled people are the poorest community and in some countries you can’t have more than a certain amount of money in your bank account if you don’t want to see your benefits gone (benefits that, I highlight, are essential for our survival) so we cannot even climb the social ladder. Another layer of choice stripped away from us.

Disabled people can’t chose where to live or who to live with. Some disabled people need assistance and, since finding a PA is hard and they need to be paid, some of us have to live with our parents or family members and if they are abusive or the relationship isn’t working we can’t just decide to walk out. Because who is gonna help us then? That’s why a lot of abuse towards disabled people remains undiscovered. Some disabled people can’t even acknowledge it and report it.

Many of us can’t just move away from a city or a country because our well-being is tied to a supporting network that we wouldn’t find anywhere else. Not to mention doctors and medications that might not be available somewhere else. So if we complain about the situation of the place we live or that we don’t like to live where we live, it’s not so easy for us to leave everything and move somewhere else (for some it’s impossible).

Disabled people aren’t always free to choose to have kids. The medical system and society’s prejudices make it hard for disabled parents to have kids and there is always a lot of judgment towards disabled parents, especially mothers. Many of us risk to have our children taken away by social workers.

Disabled people don’t have the freedom to choose for their own bodies.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something else but these are the things that worry me the most, regarding my own life and the life of my community.

The only thing this society seems pretty happy to make us choose is assistive dying.

But please, tell me again that we are in it for the money. That we have benefits so we don’t have to work and lazy around all day. Tell me that our lives must be easy.

Even on my off days I’m not free to choose what to do because I might have a flare up, I might be in pain, I might have to go to the doctor.

Oh and one last thing: your freedom to not get your vaccine hinders someone’s freedom to go around. Someone’s freedom to live.

For some reason, this society is quick to judge and justify everything that keeps away disabled people’s choices.

Some able-bodied people think that it is okay to equal disability to a lower quality of life but that lower quality of life depends only on external factors and could be easily improved.

Fuck you!

[violentdevotion]

I watched s4 of the boys and a lot of the criticisms of the american military fall a bit flat when there's literally someone who served in the iof in the cast

[lilacerull0]

I think a lot of it (being drawn to people who remind us of other people) has to do with our human tendency for pattern recognition. For better or worse, we like to notice patterns and group things accordingly, and this ABSOLUTELY plays out in how we choose which people to spend time with! There's a sense of comfort that comes with familiarity. "Ah, I already know how to interact with this type of human." I think THIS is mostly the explanation for the very real phenomenon of people choosing partners that resemble their parents in some way (there was no need to get as weird with it as Freud did, haha). You feel like you already know what to expect! They feel like "home" in that way, but whether that is good or bad largely depends on what the prior relationship WAS. Sometimes a familiar Badness can FEEL safer than the Unknown. But anyway, we also recognize those patterns with other relationships! "I made friends with this person because they remind me of ME," or "I was attracted to this person because they remind me of this other person whom I love, and I already know that I get along with this Type of person." There's a lot said about the allure of the "new" and the whole "opposites attract" thing, which of course CAN come into play as well, but I think there's also a lot to be said about getting to know a person and sensing: "Oh. I know YOU." (The same way we know which berries are the ones safe to eat. 😂 We observe and categorize. All the time!)

This is a topic I have been fighting about with my mother for YEARS now (I literally nicknamed her Freud) and we only recently came to a sort of compromise when it comes to it and yes. Okay. I am willing to accept that my mother acts like my father's mother, my grandmother, or that my father resembles my own mother's father in certain regards, but I came up with my own romanticized view on it that works in certain cases. Sure, there must be something animalistic about it and for some it's definitely this cyclic occurrence involving generations and generations of people, but in my particular case my mother and father both managed to outgrow the circumstances of their childhoods, both financially and psychologically. (our family is nothing like the families they grew up in and I wish everyone could grow up the way I did) But I choose to believe this urge to find others similar to us or our loved ones in thought specifically can be a form of breaking the cycle. I love the way your mind works because mine or a loved ones works similarly so by "assembling" these people based on this instinct we are capable of building our own families, not entirely independent from genetics or history, but even better precisely because it is based on these things we cannot chose, but still manage to outsmart in some way. Sure. I pick you because you are familiar in some way, but what if we were dealt the same cards others before us were dealt and we did something different with them this time. Even if it's a slight change, it's still a fresh addition to the genetics of our lives because it's only a form of mutation that is capable of changing things for the better.