#it is astounding

[laundryandtaxes]

When the whole thing is said and done, I hope that what comes out of the medical scandal of pediatric transition is an understanding not just of the fact that it's important not to let ideology guide practice such that real physicians tell outright lies, ideological abstractions, and/or functionally religious beliefs (that one may have been born in the wrong body, or that one may have the wrong variety of brain in their body, or that one could possibly be "harmed" by going through one's natural puberty in and of itself, etc) to patients who are literally too young to distinguish between lies and truth, but also an understanding that what happened here on the whole with the medical approach to gender dysphoria was a total abdication of duty to provide least invasive practices first, total refusal to provide justification for the practice of selling extreme body modification to people who are at least often obsessively convinced that something is wrong with their body when medicine doesn't do this regularly for any other patients with body distress, total failure of safeguarding practices in a patient group very likely to contain vulnerable and otherwise emotionally distressed patients, and most of all a refusal to even try to address the mental health concerns of a group of people that these physicians just decided on no basis (there are no large studies comparing overall outcomes with transition treated as an actual variable, wherein some people are given one treatment, others none, others another treatment, underlying this practice) were too ill to respond to all of the practices we have already accepted as approaches to psychological distress.

This is at the heart of why ROGD has so many people freaked out- sure, those people who show signs of extreme gender nonconformity in childhood, who grow more distressed than normal at the onset of puberty because it means a loss of the androgyny that protects so much of child gender nonconformity, who are likely to grow into crossdressing homosexual or bisexual adults, who are more likely than other people to struggle with obsessive and compulsive tendencies, who are more likely to struggle to connect with other people socially, I'm sure they require surgical and hormonal body modification in order to live happy and healthy lives, but I am quite sure that no such treatment is right for my sweet, outgoing, heterosexual daughter who until 6 months ago was never very gender nonconforming. People like her deserve extra safeguarding so that the only treatment medicine ever even attempted at scale for this psychological problem is reserved for the people who truly cannot be integrated into society any other way. It is really quite deeply offensive that, because very gender nonconforming people are less valued, we got none of the normal safeguarding or study or approach to treatment that people who approach doctors with broken bones or other physical problems receive. Of course there is always some very real chance that we just happened upon the "right" treatment, but for one thing we don't know that because we simply never tried anything less invasive the way one normally does in medicine (let alone actual comparative studies different potential treatment options) and for another it's currently being sold to people using ideological abstractions or functionally religious concepts that have no basis in reality like the concept of being born in the wrong body. Those are both problems no matter how long medicine is allowed to continue ignoring them, which by the way will not be forever. If medicine cannot reign itself in, if it cannot police itself, then the only actors left to reign it in are all much more susceptible to their own forms of ideological capture than medicine was, such as state legislatures, which is bad for everyone in the same way that state intervention in doctor/patient decisions is almost always bad for everyone.

[chthonic-cassandra]

Apropos of the cookbook conversation, we have recently been cooking out of this massive world vegetarian cookbook by Madhur Jaffrey, and it turns out that she is equally fantastic at recipes from seemingly every single cuisine she includes

[impeccablebackside]

What ethnicity would you think the Queens are?

That is truly quite a thought provoking question anon, but I do not think I have a realistically definitive answer. Do let me know what you have in mind though.

Perhaps most importantly with this question, my perspective and opinion is formed from exposure to the 98 film, 2019 movie, recent US Tour, and / or preferred boots of past productions (I happen to have a big hard-on for the 2016 Broadway Revival even though many people dislike it). The point is that a lot of how I imagine any of the queens stems from the specific actors portraying them in more immediately accessible visual media. Nothing inherently wrong with that, as all of the female actors from any of those places are hot as all hell.

The most pressing issue with this is that those actors are almost all predominantly white American or British women, so I tend to gravitate towards those ethnicities (or lack thereof) when picturing the queens. It is an unfortunately narrow-minded way of thinking due to the media I have been mostly exposed to and the fact that I am just some white dude.

That being said anon, I would prefer not to necessarily label any queen as being a specific ethnicity. There have been so many absolutely beautiful women casted throughout the world in different roles during the 40 or so years the musical has been around for. It is simply impossible and foolish to define any queen as being one ethnicity / 'type' because it diminishes or pushes out those who have represented the character just as well but do not fit that specific mould or definition. My opinion is that any ethnicity works for any queen, with maybe the only caveat that Rumple still has to have the Cockney accent. I promise that is not meant to pander or anything, I legitimately think everyone casted in show is beautiful and worthy of praise no matter what they look like.

Anyway, one of my personal favourite things are Asian women casted (outside of the Shiki productions) as Victoria because I think they portray the gentle grace of the white queen quite well. Does that mean they should only be Vic? Absolutely not. There have been a number of really cute Tantos or Jemimas / Sillabubs over the years that have been Asian too. I have a huge thing for the Japanese queens, and Asian actors in general as well. I think 'everyday' Asian beauty, particularly amongst Japanese women, is just so so beautiful. I have a hard time phrasing it in a way that would not come across as my appreciation being built from fetishized or sexualized preferences. It is not a fetish thing, I promise.

Otherwise, it is similar with black actresses anon. One (that immediately comes to mind - there have been more) of the hottest Casses ever in my humble opinion was black. Same with some of the more beautiful Demeters casted in the show.

As the musical progresses, there have been more and more ethnicities represented as well, and I think that is an absolutely amazing thing. For example, more recent (past 2-5 years or so) productions have had more South Asian actors casted and represented. I hope the push for increased diversity in theatre leads to more ethnic performers being given the chance to be in Cats and make their own mark.

All of this is not to exclude every single Shiki cast in the past 40ish years that have been literally nothing but stunning Japanese women casted as the queens, or the multiple Chinese language productions, or the French productions, or the Dutch productions, or the South Korean language productions, or the Spanish production, or the Russian production, or the various South American productions, or the substantial amount of German productions. Plus, that is not even to mention the (more than just a) handful of notable non-replica productions worldwide either with some very hot actors.

For example, if you told me I had to watch of production where Yuka N*tsuka was (simply the cutest) Vic, Rina Punw*ni was Rumple, Mari*h Reeves was Cass, K*rin Sang was Tanto, Gloria T*ba was Bomba, Emmanuelle N'Z*zi was Deme, Gloria A*ra was Jenny, Leah delos Santos was Sillabub, Li-T*ng Hsu as Griz, and Y*meko Aki was Jelly, I would think it would be a proverbial all-star cast. (Sorry for the *s - trying to keep this post out of the search for those names). You could easily switch out every single one of the actors with several others who are non-white, and it would still be an all-star cast.

That is the literal beauty of Cats. Anyone can be one of the queens and they would be a perfect fit.

[guardian-of-soho]

Still stuck on how Aziraphale ate that meat like he was starving. Like he’d been starved for millennia, and he hadn’t even known it, because he’d never once been fed. But we know they don’t have to eat (nor sleep, etc.), so what he’d been starved for is pleasure. Being present in his body, feeling the joys and longings it could feel. Understanding what taste buds were made for. He hadn’t known; he’d never learned to miss it.

Now imagine what a kiss has done to him.

[fumifooms]

This panel is so poignant in the manga but out of context it’s so funny to me. It sounds like dad Senshi judging Laios and giving him a crash course on masking

[bronzeplates]

dandadan dandadan dandadan dandadan dandadan dandadan dandadan dandadan dandadan dandadan dandadan dandadan

[uncanny-tranny]

The leftism/anticapitalism leaving people's bodies the zeptosecond you imply that disabled people who aren't "productive" still matter in society and need to be treated like intrinsic equals who have a place in this world:

[baby-girl-aaron-dessner]

Israel has planned its latest bombing campaign around the American consumer. They waited for the Super Bowl to begin before they launched a violent attack on Rafah Refugee Camp.

So between the noise of Beyoncé’s new album, Taylor Swift cheering on her boyfriend and Usher’s performance, we are viewing the corpses of dead children.

We are truly living in dystopian times.

[univemma]

I acknowledge that the season was cut almost in half so I should really cut them some slack but I WON'T, SO:

Plot holes/Forgotten Stuff in TUA:

(some of these are mostly just unanswered questions)

-Sloane?? Where tf did she go?

-Why was Jennifer (in the original timeline) in a cage? In Moldova?? Like, was she discovered to have something ( the dimaldo stuff whatever) inside of her, so they wanted to test on her? if she never came into contact with marigold before ben then why would they? WHAT

-also wait how the fuck did she get that stuff in her anyway? How did the dimaldo get to earth after it caused the end of Reginald's home planet? Like,,,shouldnt we know that?

-Her,,,in a squid??? she was Inside a giant squid? W h a t

-the S3 post credits of ben in the train. sure, whatever, that means nothing LMAOO

-I also can't get over - Five explaining "oh yeah when we do this EVERY ALTERNATE TIMELINE is gonna be destroyed, leaving only what should've been - the original," and lila fighitng to put her family in the train station,,,All the other timelines will be destroyed??They're dying and being reborn/reincarnated in the new one anyway GIRL WHAT ARE YOU DOING

(unless ive highly misunderstood that which is likely)

-this isnt a plot hole just - five "trying desperately over and over again to save his unhelpful family who he loves very very much" being literally turned into,,,that. did someone say character assassination?

-lila and five. thats a plot hole in and of itself I DONT CARE if he's aged 12 years from season 3, (6 yr timeskip at beginning of season, then 6 technically 7 in teh train), I DONT CARE IF HES 25 NOW, I DONT CARE IF HES MENTALLY 60 SOMETHING. Lila met and spent time with him when he looked like THIS

THATS A CHILD. and clearly, the family had SOME contact in the 6 yr skip, so she WATCHED HIM GROW UP from 13 - 19, like thats just so WEIRD WHAT

this was supposed to be plot holes and just turned into me being pissed im sorry but HOW DO YOU FUCK UP AN ENDING THIS BAD??

[stil-lindigo]

PALESTINIAN FAMILY FORCED TO RESTART FUNDRAISING - PLEASE DONATE!

PROGRESS: £520 / £35,000

a little while ago, I was contacted by Amal Abushaban, a Palestinian mother of 5, for help regarding her Gofundme campaign.

In summary, after spending months raising over $13,000 for her family, she attempted to withdraw the money. She did everything right, she answered Gofundme's questions, she provided the details of her beneficiary and she contacted their support team - only to be left in the dark until an email came one day, notifying her that her campaign had been closed and all donations were now in the process of being refunded.

I tried kicking up a major fuss about it online, as well as trying to pester Gofundme Support on my own account, but all it did was send me in circles as I desperately pleaded for the Gofundme Support person I was assigned to at least re-instate the damn fund. Even worse, Amal got her first email today about refunds going through.

Regrettably, Amal is being forced to start over completely in her fundraising efforts. Her beneficiary has started this Paypal fund for her. Please donate and share!

PROGRESS: £520 / £35,000

[johnboyegbert]

Hello, random billionaire. I want to play a game. In front of you is an unsealed, poorly built submarine. You do not have to go in the submarine. If you do, i will seal you inside and drop you so deep in the ocean that no one will ever find your body. Entering the submarine will cost you $250,000. Just to reiterate, you absolutely do not have to go in the submarine. There is no benefit to going in the submarine. You have 96 hours. Make your choice.

[dreadfuldevotee]

Crazy to me that people are upset at the fact of people being excited for Devil's Minion stuff in ep 5. "Its not romantic, Armand is gonna psychologically torture that man". My brother in Christ, this is the psychological torture as foreplay show

[aquacomet]

The 2024 DCA Reveal-versary magma collab has been wrapped up and here are the final results! ☀️🎉🎂🌙

A super big thank you to all the amazing artists that attended the collab to celebrate! We've broken way over 2023's record of attendees with a overall number of 59+ artists! It really is a lively celestial party in there, they're probably going to need more cake!

An additional thank you to all who stopped by, shared the event, expressed their interest and to the Daycare Friend Pick Up mods for also allowing this in their discord server!

(Due to being over the tumblr tag limit for the full credit list, a reblog will be added onto this with the second section of credits!)

⭐Here's the list of all the artists that participated!⭐

@aquacomet - @crystalmagpie447 - @pure-plum

@thatmooncake - @flinxypie - @eggcromancer

@nexerist - @crabsnpersimmons - @zamjd

@darlingdeer21 - @agent-darkfest - @piowasthere

@nighternex - @gyxtar0luvs - @sulfadimethoxine

@pluck-heartstrings - @starshinenoa - @enduu115

@tvboxi - @tinkpumpkin - @marshmallowcat666

@luckyyyduckyyy - @m-mints - @sunshinehare

@ping-ski - @lil-artist-blog-fandoms-ocs - @sipnoot

@synthrobeat - @galaxysugarr - @alynwrench

(I took care to note down everyone who participated and added their credits, but if I missed someone let me know what you made and I'll add you to the list!)

[imnotpoppunk]

Xie Lian: San Lang is perfect and can literally do no wrong?? I love him so much why is everyone so mean to him???

Xie Lian looking at Hua Chengs handwriting: This is the most embarrassing fucking thing I've ever seen in my entire life what the actual fuck is wrong with you?? If you tell anyone I let this happen I swear—

[multiseb21]

he really did birth that dog

[wolfythewitch]

You'd think out of everyone in the odyssey, title character Odysseus would have the most fan ships. But actually it's Telemachus