#it's always the misogynists men who are into hunting

[yourscarofyesterday]

I wish I didn't buy this book I could have read free on internet

[klausysworld]

Triggering, lots of murder. Y/N is basically a psychopath/serial killer (I watch too much TV)

Unlikely Love

Klaus was attracted to her darkness. The cold look in her eyes when someone said something she didn't like, it was like he knew she was something else.

Following her wasn't easy, she always seemed to know if someone was looking at her for any longer than five seconds, she'd caught his gaze too many times and she never looked impressed.

Still, Klaus had the advantage of being supernatural, his speed abilities made good use in hiding from her view. Which was how he learnt that she was more a monster than he thought.

Seeing her plunge a blade straight down into a begging mans chest, her eyes finally full of life as if the kill made her thrive. He shouldn't have been as turned on as he was.

Klaus often found human killers fascinating.

As a vampire, a creature of the night or a werewolf, it was instinctual to hunt and kill but a human? Was it natural to routinely take life after life, brutally and uncaringly?

A vampire was scary because it was wired to need blood but a human like her was worse because she didn't need it, she wanted it and she liked it. Enjoyed it even.

He would watch her ritual often, she had a type. Misogynistic men usually.

"A little ironic don't you think?" She'd ask her latest victim, blade in hand ready as her fingers stroked the steel. "A woman gave you life, and now a woman will take it away." Her tone was always mocking and amused, her smile deepening as the man was splutter false apologies and promises to be better if she let him live. "I would but...gosh I'm just so emotional as a woman that I can't even control myself." She'd whisper dramatically, ignoring his change in mood and the vial curses he'd scream at her before the sharp pain would shock his body and mind into silence.

Klaus could see the peace wash over her at the quiet.

Something about seeing her splattered by blood, painted with her work, it was ethereal. He loved it.

There was a certain thrill of guessing who she'd choose next, who was worthy of her wrath.

Sometimes he would fantasise her choosing him, restraining him and stabbing him with such a delicious force that he wouldn't be able to contain his moans.

Klaus had lost his mind years ago and so seeing her like this so young was peculiar, it had taken him centuries to enjoy the kill.

When it became apparent that he actually wanted her attention, he decided to make a move and invite her to his family ball. He gave her a dress, the fabric as deep a red as the blood in his veins and tucked beneath the material was a gorgeous dagger, from him to her. Klaus knew it would make her turn up.

He appeared behind her as she entered the building, his hand finding her hip and leading her further inside.

"I'm glad you came, my love." He confessed to her, she didn't yet look up at him but he didn't mind.

"What do you want?" She asked, not amused by his efforts.

"You." He told her, finally gaining the attention from her hollow eyes.

"I don't think you understand me as well as you think you do." She murmured to him, her voice low so others were oblivious to the conversation.

"I know what you are." He whispered back, his eyes eager and full of a desire she couldn't reciprocate.

"Then you should know that I will never care for you. Never be attracted to you. You could die now and it wouldn't effect me in the slightest." She concluded and he hummed, not really bothered by the fact.

"Doesn't make me want you less, my love. But don't worry, I won't force myself on you, I wouldn't want to be tied up and killed now would I?" He grinned and she narrowed her gaze.

"Something tells me that you very much would want that." She replied and he chuckled, knowing she was absolutely right.

"Dance with me, despite your lack of emotions, you might not hate it." He enticed and took her hand, guiding her along to the main floor where others already lifted and spun each other around effortlessly.

It wasn't long before Klaus had her in similar positions, hands holding her waist and twirling her around his home until a little smile crept onto her crimson lips.

Once the night came to an end and guests began filtering out, he brought her to his art room. She ran her fingers over the tormented paintings of his mind.

Klaus was able to present death in a way that even non-broken people would find beautiful. For Y/N there was no way to explain the tranquility that his art possessed.

She wasn't bothered by the paintings of her own naked skin drenched in blood, sprawled out in ways only his demented mind could fathom.

"I can't tell if you want to have sex with me or kill me." She told him and he laughed.

"Whichever you'd prefer, my love." He grinned and she shook her head.

"You should know that I'm not unfamiliar with what you are, nor am I unfamiliar with white oak." She informed and he hummed, knowing she was as smart as he if not more so.

"Should I start crying in the corner?" He teased and her eyes rolled.

"It's late, I need to be home." She announced as she tucked his art back into a folder and turned for the door.

"Your home, or a victims?" He questioned, following her out with a smile on his face.

"My home. Unfortunately I have to sleep, otherwise I'm a little sloppy which causes too many chances."

"Of course, well at least allow me to walk you if not drive you home." He offered and she accepted, knowing arguing would be pointless and so let the hybrid drive her home and let her slip away into her own darkness.

Klaus took entertainment in following her, letting her see him every now and then as if to purposely piss her off. She'd always glance to where he was after the tip of the dagger he'd gifted her was buried inside the man on her table.

She didn't understand his attraction to her, she wasn't sure if it made him worse than her or better for at least being able to have those feelings.

Y/N hadn't had sex before, it wasn't something she was interested in. She didn't feel romantically for anybody and she barely liked anybody's company so the opportunity never came up so it was a little confusing when she had a very explicit dream of Klaus taking her roughly against the table that she usually killed people on.

It turned out that Klaus planted the dream, based off of his own fantasies and what he thought she might enjoy, he didn't realise she'd never even considered sex with anybody.

So she wasn't exactly impressed when he kissed her, hand holding the back of her neck and tongue running along her bottom lip.

She bit his tongue, hard, thinking he'd pull away but he only groaned and seemingly melted into her. Her eyes rolled and she kissed him back, tasting his blood and his tongue as her eyes remained open and looked at his closed ones. The way his lashes brushed the apples of his cheeks. When his bright blue eyes fluttered open to look at her, he was a little started to see her dead ones staring back at his. He let his lips detach from hers and slid his hand round to her cheek.

"You don't feel anything at all, do you?" He whispered and she blinked, unsure of what to say because actually, in that split second of looking at him then, she did feel something.

"I guess not." She shrugged and he hummed.

"Was it unpleasant?" He asked.

"Not particularly." She told him and he nodded.

"So we could do it again?" He questioned and she shrugged again.

"I guess."

So they did. Klaus would kiss her because he liked her, enjoyed her and it sated his own beast and Y/N would kiss him back because she wanted to see if she could feel that little spark again.

Klaus would chuckle when he saw her staring straight at him again. "You're supposed to close your eyes, my love. Here, try it." He told her and pulled her back for another kiss and this time she took his advice and closed her eyes. She felt that spark again, a flicker of warmth.

His hand brushed up along her thigh, fingers gently squeezing as his tongue wrapped around hers. Klaus knew not to push it too far and so pulled away after a few minutes and wrapped his arm around her waist and listened to her soft sigh as their gazes drifted back to the dead body on the table across from them.

"I'm hungry." She mumbled and he suppressed a laugh.

"I'll buy you dinner." He told her and she shrugged, accepting his hand and going with him to the closest restaurant.

They became an interesting pair. People assumed they were a regular couple. Even his family knew they were together but couldn't exactly pinpoint what was 'wrong' with them but they could tell something was off.

Probably wouldn't have guessed power serial killing couple. The type Love Quinn probably envisioned or Hannah Mckay.

It was definitely what Klaus envisioned anyway.

Especially when she was laid against his chest, in his bed, watching horror films with him. His fingers had been lazily tracing patterns along her thighs, his head resting against hers.

Y/N's body reacted without her really realising. Klaus only knew when the sweet scent of her arousal filled his nose. His eyes focused a little more and his tongue darted to wet his lips.

Y/N was barely paying him any mind as he turned, his body pressing to her side so that his hard on was nudging her hip and thigh. His lips kissed her neck and she let him be, assuming he was in an affectionate mood like he seemed to get after a kill. She was more interested in the film than how the hyrbid humped at her leg.

It was only when he let out a groan that she snapped back into real time and looked down to see him grinding on her with his eyes shut and mouth open.

Y/N blinked blankly at him before hesitantly patting his back, trying to offer...anything to help him as he bucked his hips. She thought that would be it but her touch seemed to encouraged him to slide his hand up between her legs, his fingers stroking over the fabric of her panties beneath the skirt he had bought her.

That was when she grabbed him, his cock specifically and not very kindly.

"Ah- Fuck!" He yelled and grabbed her throat roughly, pining her down as he shoved her hand off him and held himself between the legs, a breath of pain leaving his lips. "What on earth was that for?" He growled at her and she glared, in a second he felt a sharp stab in his side and looked down to see the dagger lodged inside him. His rage built as he stared back at her, he wanted to hurt her but there was this little flicker in her eyes. She didn't hurt him out of enjoyment, she did in defense.

He let go of her neck and moved to lay back down, letting her pull the blade out of him with a grunt as she slipped it back away out of sight. He wrapped his arm back around her and pulled her back to his side.

"Next time, just say you don't like it." He muttered and she scoffed.

"Why did you ever think that I would?" She snapped and he rolled his eyes.

"Sweetheart, I wouldn't have tried to touch your pretty little cunt if I couldn't smell her begging for me." He told her and her face flushed as she frowned and reached her hand down, touching herself with confusion and looking at the wetness that coated her fingers. Klaus's eyes darted down to see the way they glistened, his heart thumping in his chest as he hesitantly lowered his head to lick them clean.

An inaudible sound left Y/N when he did so and he felt her fingers push further into his mouth, encouraging him to suck.

Slowly he pulled off her hand and looked up at her eyes. For once they weren't completely dead. She finally kissed him first.

He pulled her onto his lap, giving her the advantage she needed and letting her be on top. But it wouldn't be enough. He realised that when her hands clutched his wrists tightly, nails dug into his skin until he could smell his own blood.

"Wait..." He mumbled and pulled his hands away, reaching down and unbuckling his belt, pulling it off and pushing the leather into her hands before holding his wrists together. She glanced between his wrists, the belt and his eyes a few times before slowly tightening the belt around them, pulling it so that he couldn't move them at all.

He let her guide his arms over his head and to the headboard, keeping them there as she lifted her shirt over her head and unclasped her bra.

His jaw ticked at the sight of her firm breasts on display but he had no time to appreciate them as she removed her skirt and underwear, her soft pussy finally close to him. His heart pounded but he stayed silent as she pulled his henley off and tugged his jeans down alongside his boxers.

She didn’t hardly look at his cock, not that interested in the sight of it.

Instead she just got herself on top of him like she had in the dream he'd given her and sunk down onto him. Klaus groaned loudly whilst her face twisted in discomfort and uncertainty. She sat on him quietly for a moment before he came to and looked down.

"It's okay, just move your hips a little bit to start." He told her, voice softer then she'd heard it.

Her body moved like he'd suggested, her cunt getting the friction it had secretly desired for the longest time making her moan involuntarily. Klaus grinned, watching her get the hang of it and rock her hips until her eyes were fluttering and her back was arching.

"You like that, my love?" He whispered and she nodded, her nipples brushing his bare chest as she bounced on his lap. "I want to touch you." He murmured, his fingers twitching but her head shook.

"No." She told him firmly and he moaned quietly at her tone and obeyed, adjusting his arms up above his head. There was something about her then, feeling her pussy squeezing so good and dripping so much as her tits pushed against him and her head was back. She was finally feeling something really good. Whether it was emotional or just physical, she still loved the feel of it and of him.

So they did it again, and again and again. All the time.

Klaus was convinced he'd died and gone to heaven. Being able to kill people with approval, to have someone as crazy as he was and have mind-blowing sex 24/7? He'd only wished he'd found her sooner.

Klaus started finding more people for her to kill, wanted to see her all bloody so he could lick it off her as he rutted his hips into her from behind.

The hybrid had developed intense feelings for Y/N, he cared for her truly. He started really loving her and showing it and she showed him similar things back.

They went on dates, they celebrated each other's birthdays and their one year anniversary. She started to know him, give him things, tokens of appreciation.

She touched him, not always sexually but softly and gently as if she cared for him too.

But they weren't the same. Klaus wasn't evil from young, she was. He had deep routed feelings, she didn't.

He should have thought of that some more before falling in love.

Because when it came down to him or her, a dagger against her heart and the white oak against his...he loved her too much to kill her first.

[lizzienorris]

Every time I go on tiktok, I just get angry. Like I've not mentioned the hate after Brazil as a Lando supporter because I choose to tune it out because I'm unwell myself and can't handle the stress of worrying about a man who doesn't know about me, parasocial relationships aside, I do not know this man but I do know what the women and fem presenting people in the F1 fandom go through.

It's not just the "What's DRS then?" joke. It's the sarcasm and snarky comments on every Lando or Carlos or Charles or Oscar (or anyone really) supporter who happens to be a girl's posts. It's the bullying of TEENAGERS by grown men for finding a celebrity attractive or entertaining. When men lust over the WAGs, when the tabloids reported on drivers groping women in the backs of cars and spraying champagne up grid girls' skirts: it gets continuously brushed under the rug because there will always be the power imbalance and a sexist angle in every aspect of this sport because if a woman opens her mouth about liking a driver, she's ruining the sport but when Ayrton Senna dated a 15 year old girl, he was a hero and a different time.

I think of Rush as a film so often and that Chris Hemsworth as James Hunt said that it's not the driving that gets girls to like the drivers, it's the thrill of it all which I think has some weight to it while misogynistic but there's only so much grace you can give James Hunt in this conversation. We look at drivers of the past and those who have grown with decorum and not acted like a fool whilst in Formula 1 or post retirement as this shining light of movement in the F1 world. Seb Vettel was objectively a little shit when he was at RB and look what a shining example he is now, there's room for change, kindness and learning in a sport like this.

We all get used to this misogyny at times, we take the blows given out for having an interest, we get reminded of our places in society in a patriarchy like F1 and we do it because we want that morsel of respect. We fall to it sometimes, personally I've seen multiple girls and fem presenting people make the joke of "why are we sexualizing the drivers?" "why do you have to make everything weird?" May it be the constant willingness to shrink ourselves into the background and be the ones who don't cause a fuss or make our excitement the loudest but if you are in that either end of that situation, I see you and I hear you. You are allowed to be happy. You are allowed to be as loud and as proud as you want to be about your favourite drivers and teams. Defend that shit with your life if that is your joy, do not let anyone take that from you but understand every action has a reaction and if you have a disdain for your fellow girl, please ask yourself why.

The girls are in the academies, baby girls are growing up in garages and in front of TV's in awe of fast, brightly coloured cars, freshly 18 year old women are becoming motorsports students and interning on go-kart tracks and mechanics. Let's not crush their dreams by letting misogyny no matter how miniscule win.

[gacha-incels]

I hope no one is falling for the same horseshit Korean misogynist men try to barf up when they want “logical” westerners to be on their side regarding 🤏. The thing that always strikes me when they fear-monger about the defunct megalia website is this: if these women writing “cruel” things online and engaging in mirroring techniques is enough to brand them man-haters and have them become some eternal boogeywomen, why aren’t the men stabbing, killing, raping, witch-hunting, sexually trafficking and beating women - because they are women - branded as extreme women-haters in turn? Surely these targeted attacks that have happened, and continue to happen frequently, are enough to label these men extremist misogynists whose actions and texts are dangerous to Korean society? But instead, as we have seen recently, their deranged misogynist thoughts are carefully listened to and their delusions are catered to by major companies.

Secondly, these guys like to portray the women they go after as having dangerous opinions by saying, oh the pinched fingers means they’re megal and therefore it’s a secret signal for all these “hateful” thoughts. However the “radical, hateful thoughts” the men trawl through these women’s social medias to find have always ended up being basic women’s rights: the right to have an abortion, being against sex trafficking, being against molka, condemning misogynist hiring practices, etc. These extremely basic tenets of feminism are what these men consider radical and dangerous to society. When they try to pull the wool over your eyes by saying “feminism is different in korea it’s extreme and evil” THESE are the things they mean. Saying “it’s a megal symbol for crazy female supremacy” is a smokescreen for misogynist men to punish women who want basic human rights. The smaller group of women engaging in 4B there try to live their lives in a female-centered way, away from men. These are the women that misogynist men revile so much that simply existing as a woman with short hair is enough for them to violently attack you with a knife. So how does this make sense? The women branded as evil misandrists live their lives avoiding men and uplifting other women. The men who hate women do the complete opposite: they go out of their way to physically and sexually assault women and get them fired from their jobs. The misogynists in that group who witch hunt women are not labeled extremists, but rather catered to by companies like Nexon. Don’t fall for their shit.

[rapeculturerealities]

The Shameful Controversy Over Olympic Boxer Imane Khelif | WIRED

Everything seemed to be running smoothly until the 2023 World Cup, organized by the International Boxing Association. The Russia-led IBA, which is not recognized by the International Olympic Committee, disqualified Khelif after a gender eligibility test allegedly found she has XY chromosomes. IBA president Umar Kremlev has said that both Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, who allegedly had a similar test result, “were trying to deceive their colleagues and pretend to be women.” Khelif has contested the allegations.

Both Khelif and Lin were admitted to Olympic boxing competitions. Admission rules in this case are handled by the so-called Boxing Unit, which has ensured that all athletes participating in the Games' boxing tournament comply with the rules of eligibility and registration for the competition as well as all medical regulations, which also includes the appropriate demonstration of medical certificates stamped and verified to at least three months before the start of the competitions.

“These boxers are completely eligible. They are women on their passports, they are women who have competed in the Tokyo Olympics and have been competing for many years, I think we all have a responsibility to tone it down and not turn it into a witch hunt,” said IOC spokesperson Mark Adams, at a news conference on Tuesday.

Still, prominent figures on social media decried Khelif's participation in the Games. X owner Elon Musk amplified a tweet from swimmer Riley Gaines that “men don't belong in women's sports,” while author J.K. Rowling falsely referred to Khelif as “a male who’s knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head.”

[i-cant-sing]

May I request a headcanon of teen fushiguro reader pretending they have a bf and reaction from their close fam and peeps?

Just very loud arguing between Uncle Naoya and teen Fushiguro, reader yelling that Naoya shouldn't stop her from having fun just because he doesn't have any bitches.

Naoya, narrowing his eyes: OH AND YOU DO???

Reader, petty af: I DO AND IM GONNA GO FUCK HIM LATER, SO BACK OFF!

And everything just goes dead silent, like birds stop chirping too. No sound at all, as all eyes are on you.

Naoya, with barely concealed shock in his eyes: who?

And reader obviously can't just fess up and say "oopsie I lied" because then Naoya will always be on her ass about being a liar and he's annoying as is. So she's just making up stuff as she goes.

"His name's... Theodore. We met each at the 7/11 down the street, and we've been going out for the past 6 months-" and everyone just loses it. Naoya's banshee screaming as he yells at everyone to keep you in the fucking house while he hauls his ass out to hunt down your boyfriend. Your aunties and other females of the family are lowkey scared for you because they think that Naoya and the other men in the family will now be very harsh towards you, while also pestering you to tell them more about your boyfriend because they wanna make sure that you're not dating some controlling, abusive, misogynistic jerk like the rest of them married. Your uncles and the other men in the family are either helping Naoya out on hunting Theodore or have simply went into an existential crisis and are just one second away from obliterating any curse/servant that comes their way.

Then a few hours later, Naoya comes home dishevelled and out of breath because my man went around the whole city looking for "Theodore" but no such man linked to you exists and he finally found out you lied. So now you're again grounded for not only lying, but also for lying about having a bf and doing nasty things (kissing) and not once thinking about bothering to stop Naoya from wreaking havoc upon poor, innocent Theodore named individuals.

What's worse is that the Zenin clan has now realised a new fear of theirs-

You having a s/o.

They're just trying so hard to not throw up and cry and burn down everything in sight at the mere thought of you holding hands with someone else.

[forevermore05]

1. I can't speak for other cultures that were represented in this show (I'm so sorry if your representation was ruined too), but since I'm a South Asian and specifically an Indian and Hindu. I think I have some credibility. Ok, so this may depend on the interpretations of Hinduism that you've grown up with if you're a Hindu reading this. Well, growing up, I was always taught that Chakras were so important. I learned that the GODS could not accomplish something unless they access all their Chakras (again, this is the interpretation I grew up with it might not be the same for you). So the fact that watching Aang just be able to live life without accessing all of his charkas properly was a big slap to the face. Let me just say this right now. If you were representing a culture, especially the culture that you base the entire show on you either do it correctly or you don't do it at all. Don't make it half-baked because that's just disrespecting the people who follow that religion. And you're emphasizing how insignificant their religious values are (mind you Hinduism is one of the oldest religions in the world). What little representation we had was also ruined.

2. I also want to talk about another point since I'm here. I think I've made it very clear that I'm a woman of color. Even though me and Katara Are not the same ethnicity. She was my representation through skin color. And it's so interesting. How even though I knew that she was not my ethnicity, I still grasped onto her as a representation. Now this is not a PSA for studios to say "Hey, let's have a person that is brown, and everyone will be okay with it because they will have a person of the same skin to relate to." No this is me criticizing the lack of diversity in the show. The fact that you can base an entire show on a culture but not be able to handle a main character from that culture. And also I think the reason why I like Zuko and Katara ( I've made this point before) But the amount of respect that they have. As a woman of color, I have not exactly received respect from other men whether that be because of my gender or my skin color. So seeing a woman of color be respected regardless it's just so refreshing to me.

3. Also I want people to be mindful that a lot of people who ship this ship. Are women of color and/or part of the LGBTQIA2S+ community. However, I'm going to talk specifically about women of color since I'm straight. A lot of us have come from countries that have been colonized and still face the repercussions of colonization to this day, so what I'm trying to say is. When woc ship this duo they know what they're doing and they're not doing anything wrong. It's disrespectful to insult them for being racist and misogynistic when in reality a lot of these women face misogyny and racism in their own lives. They understand why they ship this ship. They understand it very well because they able to see and understand what is truly going on.

4. If you have a problem with this post and want to potentially hunt me down. I'm only saying this because I've seen other women of color be harassed for liking Zutara. I need you to remember that I'm a teenager. I'm a kid. I don't think you want to beef with a kid. And no, it does not matter that I'm 18. You shouldn't be harassing anyone over a ship. In fact, accusing shippers of being racist but then being racist to that poc/woc shipper is insane. It kind of shows that those people are not on a moral high horse.

5. I'm a kid......don't even think about it.

[prairiedeath]

ON TRANSMISOGYNY AND GENDER COLONIALISM • 1/?

So many leftist spaces have long been gentrified and full of fake-ally cis people, whether it's chauvinistic, plain old misogynistic cis men, or crypto-terfs & trans-misogynistic cis women who may never publicly say "trans women aren't women" but will always treat us with less respect and trust than they would cis women, even many times like predatory men. More often than not, this micro-aggression goes completely unnoticed by cis allies, but the longer a trans woman is out, the more we notice it, the more we realize that in order for us to assimilate, we have to walk on eggshells and make more space for everyone else (despite being given the least space by anyone else) so that we aren't blacklisted and ostracized undeservingly.

Expanding on that, this phenomenon is pervasive in almost any space that claims to be feminist, whether that's explicitly a women's space (in which case the micro-aggressions from cis women are usually even worse), or any other kind of space. It's like a plague in DIY scenes, as an example. It's understandable why trans women want to assimilate and we should take no blame for that, all we usually want is to survive. We ask only for a ceasefire but we never get one. We want to love and to be loved by our communities the way any community should love one another. But our goal should have never been to assimilate. We should never have wanted to accept the bare minimum from cis society. We should all want the space for ourselves, as we all deserve, to live a long life, to have dreams, to want love, to want sex, to be angry, to make mistakes which we grow and learn from, cis people are given more space for all of these very human experiences than trans people and that is a definitive form of dehumanization. For trans women, and trans people in general, to assimilate into cis society, to demand nothing more than tolerance, is in the same vein as a cis woman being forced into submission by the patriarchy; weaponized promises. Transmisogynistic micro-aggressions, and the proceeding witch hunts against trans women, are the perpetuation of gendered violence, the violent enforcement of toxic gender roles, and even further, **𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑚**

cis women participating in this gendered violence is just another case of members of one marginalized group supporting the marginalization of another in order to alleviate their own misery- it's downright wicked. Cis women know what it's like to be the target of constant, ceaseless gendered violence, and yet many jump on the opportunity to dish it out against someone even more marginalized than them. This is why radfeminism is a toothless, watered down form of "feminism", this is why radfeminism is anything but radical. You will not solve the issue of gendered violence against women by dishing it out on people who are raped and murdered by men at a higher rate than anyone else in the world, even cis women.

trans and marxist feminism both demand that trans people, especially transfems, are given the same space to react with hostility to our oppressors as the left would give any other colonized group. And the sad fact is that even most left wing spaces in the west, even what should be spaces of our own, have failed to give trans women the room to react to gender colonizers or to even live our lives to the fullest. transphobia is so much more than bathroom bills and "don't say gay" (though those are absolutely battlegrounds for trans rights), it is also microaggressions, alienation, dehumanization and witch hunts.

These are all things I've had to learn on my own. Nobody ever warned me I would face these specific cryptic forms of discrimination and violence; because so many of us are stuck in a cycle of catering to cis society, while cis society gaslights us about it, that none of the trans women I knew back when I came out 7-8 years ago quite had the language to describe these experiences to me. Every day that passes the urge grows for me to find the words myself. I learn the hard way every day that trans liberation will never come from toothless cries for acceptance, it will only ever come when we turn the barrels of our guns to the gender colonizers.

[lesbiansforboromir]

Why you don't like Galadriel?

WELL. I mean this would need a complex answer, for one thing because you could say I don't actually dislike Galadriel as a character really. She's interesting, she has layers, her position in the story creates intriguing mysteries and insights into elven realities and her actions are always percieved in multiple different ways by different characters. She is both an object of world building and a lense to view it through, she had only contempt for Feanor but is the character MOST like him in the end, there's lots going on!

So as usual what I'd say I dislike is more fandom's perception of Galadriel than Galadriel herself, although don't get me wrong in terms of sympathy for her I have none to spare. But to the fandom she's like... well she's whatever anyone wants her to be, so long as that's pretty much perfect and always more right than anyone else around her. Idk if this question came because of my RoP Galadriel tirade post of a week ago, but the fact that people seem to believe Galadriel's right to the 'good guy' role is so irrefutible that it makes any negative portrayal of her 'bad' and 'tolkien's rolling in his grave' etc etc- it's just flabbergasting to me and is a symptom of this problem.

Like Galadriel's entire motive for coming to middle earth, declared and narrated, is to rule over people. She wants to be a Queen of a land that she controls with people inside it whom she has power over. That's it. Now, far be it from me to be on the Valar's side, lord knows I don't support their right to unquestioned rule either and the Eldar's urge to rule themselves is completely valid and Galadriel's no worse than any of her male counterparts who were also looking for the same thing. (In fact, given this is something she is apparently required to 'overcome' when none of those male elves must do the same, I'm inclined to believe this is another of those 'eowyn must reject violence for peace because war is bad except when men do it and for sure the men do continue to do it that's fine' misogynist tolkien moments.)

BUT STILL.. that's not like... a GOOD motive is it? It's neutral at best, right? And Galadriel never actually does anything that could be called more than polite for the rest of the time we know her. She never risks anything for the good of middle earth, she never solves any problems, she goes from place to place to avoid any conflict that threatens her until she and her husband finally decide to usurp a Silvan kingdom and magically isolate it from the rest of the world. They change Lindórinand's name to Lothlorien, thereby overwriting the language of it's native population and Galadriel then uses the power of her ring (that was given to her she didn't make it heself) to EMBALM (tolkien's words) the forest in time just so that she could make it appear as much like Valinor (her home, not the silvan's) as possible. Like!! This is not some paragon of virtue character!

Honestly RoP's portrayal of Galadriel is actually vastly more sympathetic than her actual character. PTSD, survivor's guilt and the maladaptive cope of needing to hunt down evil fanatically for all eternity is, to my mind, 100% more understandable than just... staying in Middle-Earth because she still wanted to rule over people and never believed she did anything wrong in the first place. Which is the canonical reason she's still in middle-earth post the first age, technically a sin by the Valar's standards! Galadriel is rebelling against the will of the west in doing this, but apparently SHE gets all the grace and chances to 'reform' in the world, unlike some other characters I could name >:|

... Maybe she aggravates me a little, but she does so IN COMPARISON to the criticisms other characters must bear as 'the reason they had to die to redeem themselves'. Like if Boromir wanted to take the ring once in order to save his people, is death really the only way to atone for that when Galadriel has been power hungry for 7000 goddamn years nonstop, acquired and used her own ring of power to satisfy that power hunger and then managed to 'overcome it' at the very last minute JUST before middle-earth became 'less elven' (and therefore her position there would be less prestigeous) to demurely sail off home to a gilded cage paradise where literally all her family are alive and waiting for her. Like is 'power hunger' really the sin Boromir comitted here that he needs to die for. Is Tolkien really criticising the desire for power. Is the narrative of lotr really so cohesive and consistent as to allow you to put all the characters into good and bad little boxes and declare those categorisations infallible?

Am I making sense, is this coherent. Does it make more sense if I say like... I do not dislike Galadriel as a character, I dislike what her fandom-reputation reveals about the way the story is engaged with by and large? When I am getting heated about this or that misconception or aspect of her character, it is not because I hate she has that aspect, I like a lot of morally questionable characters, what I am railing against is the double standard that her having that trait reveals. (And I'm not even really angry about it I'm more just very activated by what it reveals about the story, like it makes me feral) The narrative loves Galadriel, Tolkien loves Galadriel, characters regularly threaten violence in order to defend Galadriel from even mild verbal criticism and no one appears to see this as a kind of ominous aspect of her when she's done very little to deserve it. Other than, of course, be ontologically 'pure' and 'divine' due entirely to the circumstances of her birth. I'm a bit manic right now so I hope literally any of that made sense.

Actually addendum example just to further affirm my point. So catholic tolkien scholars will tell you that Denethor's use of the Palantir was a sin, apparently even using a tool you have 'the right' to use to observe reality as it actually exists and then extrapolating that observation into a prediction of the future (ie seeing frodo is captured and the ring gone and extrapolating that the enemy has it and you're all doomed) is a sin. Because only god is allowed to see into the future. And this is somewhat backed up by the way characters treat Denethor's use of the Palantir, it was apparently foolhardy and bad and reckless and nebulously wrong etc. Remember, the Palantir is not a mystical artifact, it is like a satallite imaging tool + a one way video only skype.

.

Galadriel's mirror literally sees the future 😂LIKE? WHY DOES SHE HAVE IT? WHY IS SHE ALLOWED TO USE IT? WHY CAN SHE JUST SHOW IT TO OTHER PEOPLE? It's because she's holy!! But that doesn't mean anything about her actual character, it's just an attribute she inherited from her family and her place of birth that actively changes what her existence means entirely by it's own virtue. Imagine living in this world for a second, imagine if it was ontologically true that you (an unblessed child of eru) would never be as right or as good as Galadriel, no matter what the reality of both your actions were. LIKE. !! WOULD YOU LIKE GALADRIEL?

[blubushie]

Yikes, reading some of these messages hit a little too close to home.

I'm a trans man, and my relationship with masculinity has been more rocky as recently. I started T and realized I have much more dysphoria than I realized because I was ignoring it. And I've experienced my fair share of transphobia.

I've had classmates say (jokingly, I know) that I'll start becoming entitled, and a misogynist because I started T. In a university level queer studies class, they all had certain distaste for men. The expectation was that they would shut up and not talk over the woman's experiences (to be fair, I was one of 2 men in that class). Even one of my closest friends has issues with hating men that I've meant to bring up (I'm the exception because I'm trans and don't really look like a man most of the time). But I've always brushed it off, saying that "trans women have it worse" or "this is what I get for becoming the 'enemy'".

It took me a long time to even admit I was trans because I know that men were "the enemy" and I was betraying people by becoming one.

That anon who said that he didn't want to become a Twink, oof I relate to that. It wasn't until I got into TF2 that I realized what kind of form I wanted (Engineer and Soldier being major players in this realization).

You are the only one I've ever really seen talking about masculinity. Like ever, and I've been in queer spaces for a very long time. It's comforting to know that my struggles are real. And aren't being brushed off as "well xxxx have it worse." (I know. I know other trans people have their struggles and should not be treated as irrelevant. I know that. But I never see anyone talking about masculinity. It's treated as a disease almost).

I'm rambling, but I guess I just wanted to say thanks. I rarely talk to anyone on the Internet, content to just observe, but you've really made me feel seen. So thank you

I don't wanna be the one to break it to you, but if someone says they hate men and say you're an exception because you're trans or don't look enough like a cis man, it's because they're transphobic and don't see you as a "real" man. And that will change when you start passing and getting clocked as male, and it'll especially change when you express any joy in what testosterone is doing to your body or any joy in being perceived as male. You're most likely an exception because they don't see you as a man yet even though you are one.

Additionally I don't know how long you've been out, but since you're just starting on T, this means people have probably been clocking you and IDing you as female most of your life. Which means you have every right to discuss women's issues and misogyny because you have been subjected to misogyny. NO ONE gets to just erase your lived experiences growing up in a female body and being subjected to misogyny just because you are now openly identifying as male.

And we don't choose our gender. We're born this way, remember? You're betraying no one by "becoming" a man because you were born a man. At most you're making a choice to change your body to ease the symptoms of an illness—gender dysphoria—and I don't see anyone copping shit with depressed people for taking antidepressants. You're not on some random drug, you are specifically on a medication to treat an illness that you have. If people don't like that because of what variant of that illness you have, they can get fucked. They are not worth your time.

You are 100% valid in your experiences and feelings. I'm glad that I can offer a safe space for you to speak about those things.

Also, if I can suggest, it might do you some good to join a club of some kind with a lot of men where you can see masculinity be celebrated in a positive light instead of demonised. I'm not sure if you're into hunting or fishing, but those are my best suggestions. An archery club, a hunting club, a fishing club, etc. Hang out at your local bait shop looking like a sad puppy and some old fart'll find you and invite you fishing.

Chookas, mate. Keep your chin up. You're doing fine.

[my-mt-heart]

Hi Mt! Hope today was good to you. I liked the poster, but Carol was so much smaller than Daryl which didn't feel too good. It felt like AMC wants me to think DZ will give us canon and I'll tune in only to watch ship bait and a shit fest when Caryl's bond is shredded to pieces because it's a bag of tv tricks to the show runner. I have a question about that: you always say and I've seen some people on twitter say it too that he should be fired. Who would take his place? The other showrunners already worked on TWD when they got the job but the writers of TWDDDTBOC aren't very good. Do we even want one of them? Will the same thing happen? They are part of DZ's crew so they probably think the same thing he does. The Caryl podcast mentioned that MMB didn't have the emotional bandwisth to have a real impact on where the show is going so would the other writers make her uncomfortable too? I want to see her imprint on the show because MMB IS THE ONLY GOOD THING ABOUT IT!!!

Sorry my response is a few days late. To me, it just feels like AMC is trying to lure in everybody and their dog at this point, so that's not very encouraging. I really wanted a story about Daryl and Carol fighting like hell to get back to each other (because they're each other's one and only choice), but I'm terrified of what the actual story will be.

Zabel should've been fired a long time ago. I'm so sick of the men in this franchise getting away with everything despite their incompetence while the women have to constantly walk on eggshells to keep their jobs. Replacing him with a writer who worked for him or for Gimple won't solve the problem. AMC already knows who can. It's not a matter of hunting for the right person.

The podcast didn't say Melissa doesn't have the emotional bandwidth. It's extremely difficult to be seen and heard when literally everybody else with power from the EPs to the directors to the execs are men, and some of those men are ageist, misogynistic egomaniacs. Look at the panelists for Palyfest and NYCC. Who's names come first? Where is she on the list? She needs a showrunner in her corner who has a deep understanding of Carol's and Daryl's story, treats Melissa like a lead, and also welcomes all of her creative input.

[blackswallowtailbutterfly]

Here's what women absolutely do NOT get about men:

Men emotionally pressure-test each other, all the time.

...

Read that again and let it sink in. Women generally don't see this, they don't understand it when it is explained, and they react with horror and disgust when they do understand - because for them, emotional pressure-testing is a Sisyphean task suffered at the hands of their mother-in-law who hates them.

Men need to know if a young dude is ready to go hunting buffalo, and the way to separate those who are ready from those who are not is to find the young boys' emotional weaknesses. Is he going to freeze in fear? Is he going to break down weeping at the sight of a fluffy baby buffalo wheezing it's death throes? Is that young man going to put the entire hunting party - AND ALL THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN AT HOME - at risk of death by starvation?

So we throw insults at each other to see where the emotional cracks are. How does that man respond to benign insults and empty threats? If he can't cope with a joke about his mom, is he ready to be trusted with life-and-death issues? No, he's not.

Women look on in horror, because for them, emotional pressure testing is an attack on their capabilities as a human, mother, woman, and individual. It's always meted out by other women, and always in a nasty way.

Women can't conceive of the idea that men would find this amusing, and from every woman's perspective, emotional pressure testing is ANTI-WOMAN. It's anti-her specifically. It's anti-her-friends. It's hateful and misogynistic.

But the reality couldn't be farther from the truth.

Men's emotional pressure testing is designed to keep WOMEN AND CHILDREN SAFE, FED, AND HAPPY, by testing other men's capabilities and excluding those who will endanger the women and children.

I'm not surprised that RadFems - and women in general - have such a problem with men making "sexist" or "misogynistic" jokes about their moms, because first and foremost:

No RadFem and very few women have ever stopped to ask men how they actually think, they've just assumed that men are damaged 2nd class women who need to emote more to safely vent their feelings.

No RadFem understands men. Nor do they want to.

As if that in itself isn't sexist.

Ironically, by making these (very much needed) male-safety-gauging practices illegal, we put more women and children in danger.

So it's also misogynistic in its outcome. It literally ends up hurting women more, because men are not allowed to test other men's characters, leading to pedophiles, molesters and murderers going unchecked.

Go radfems, you played the whole of womankind.

lmao!

Dude you could have just put "WE HUNTED THE MAMMOTH WHY WON'T YOU BE GRATEFUL!" and it would have been just as incorrect (women absolutely hunted, and gathering edible plants was way more important to our species' survival than hunting big game), but you would have wasted a lot less energy. Very entertaining, though!

[juniperhillpatient]

thinking about how yellowjackets portrays sex & sexual situations gender & the… not unique but certainly rare way this show focuses on men versus women & I know we’re all tired of phrases like “male gaze” & “female gaze” but I think the show almost like… purposefully repurposes the male gaze from the perspective of its female characters.

jackie’s introduction pretty much is a sexual situation but it’s not a fun hot scene. it’s uncomfortable & awkward because it’s very clear jackie isn’t being pleasured. jeff just kind of looks like a tool. then later we get the sex scene between jeff & shauna & it’s different because both characters are into it but also it’s all about shauna, & the focus is mainly on her making jeff tell her that he loves her. it sort of reminds me of the scene in buffy the vampire slayer when buffy is feeling down because she just saw her most annoying ex living his best life so she demands spike tell her he loves her. it’s not a healthy situation. it’s… concerning & toxic. and even a bit manipulative & predatory to use someone that way.

and the other thing we know due to the focused shots of shauna looking at jackie is that this is not about jeff at all. he’s just the guy who happened to be between these two girls. when I first watched the show I disliked him but more & more I’m realizing… this is all about shauna & jackie. this entire relationship between shauna & jeff that turns into a marriage never has much to do with jeff himself at all. jeff is the epitome of literally just Some Guy.

anyway. I’m getting off track. I wanted to discuss jackie’s introduction versus her death. jackie being left to die because she had sex, on the surface seems like misogynistic writing. typical “female character is punished for sex” (not to harp on buffy again but..) trope. especially because the other girls are angry when they see the blood stain from her lost virginity.

but… the other girls aren’t angry at jackie because of sex. it’s because she’s “taken what didn’t belong to her.” & it’s interesting how none of the other girls care about or are invested in natalie & travis’ romance until this point. because it’s not about that. they objectify travis to the point of seeing him as literal food.

the framing of the jackie/travis sex scene is fascinating, the way it’s shot back & forth with the girls in the forest going feral. and the way in the end, travis is disoriented & confused & immediately following this the other girls begin sexual assaulting him & hunting him like an animal. like everything about travis & his arc, it’s such a subversion of the way female characters are so often treated in media.

and that brings me to travis & natalie & how they subvert gender roles. travis starts off seeming a bit sexist but the more we learn the more it’s clear he’s just an inexperienced teenager. he’s a virgin scared for his first time & he’s falling for the experienced bad girl who’s kinda scary. we literally always see that set up but with the shy inexperienced girl falling for the bad boy. even the way travis haunts the narrative & serves as part of natalie’s pain arc is reminiscent of the dead girlfriend trope. he is to natalie as jess from supernatural is to sam winchester. he’s fridged but the boy version. & that’s why he’s a babygirl to me <3

and like… we could talk all day about the pine cone in travis’ mouth & the sexual assault blood orgy scenes but let’s move on to the most functional couple of the entire show with some of the only sex scenes that actually seem like a fun sexy time where it’s just two people in love having sex

taissa & van! their conflict develops throughout the season as van is almost eaten by wolves because taissa is busy being possessed by the wood spirit & taissa’s frustration with van’s belief in something supernatural grows but… beyond that? they’re actually just super into each other. they are constantly talking about how gorgeous the other is, being all over each other, skinny dipping & doing more typically fun & romantic activities than all the other characters. & it’s 2 women

from shauna having sex with adam who ends up dead to whatever the fuck misty has going on with ben (not to mention adult! misty’s introductory scene where she manipulates a man into coming home with her by faking insecurities - or perhaps playing them up & using them, it’s unclear) it’s just totally fascinating to me the way this show subverts expectations with gender & sex

[gacha-incels]

after over a month it’s easy for some to forget the extreme misogyny that is at the heart of the PM/Limbus Company wrongful termination. I’ve seen people refer to it as a vague legal battle, twitter users overreacting, just protesters that “hate project moon” or simply that Vellmori “was fired”. This entire situation happened because Korean men on DCinside thought putting a run of the mill fashion choker on Sinclair and having Ishmael in a skin-tight diving suit meant there was a feminist working for Project Moon. In a logic jump that would make even Alex Jones blush, they said Sinclair’s choker obviously meant the artist sees men as slaves. Frequently in South Korea men like this often go on “feminist hunts” where they will try and get women fired and ruin their lives for expressing even the most basic support for women’s rights. When they found out a male artist drew the Sinclair and Ishmael IDs, they specifically stopped going after him because he is male. Instead, they found out there was a female artist working for Limbus Company, Vellmori, and subsequently tried to ruin her. In their digging they found deleted tweets of hers which, again, showed support for basic women’s rights and condemned sex trafficking and molka. Then, in an act of q-anon tier paranoia, these men went through the Limbus Company CGs and found what they thought was hands drawn specifically to do the 🤏 emoji(korean incels go through their own personal 9/11 every time they see this image. I think they tried to cancel Starbucks over it once? ironically, I saw the latest summer male costume in FGO has the character always posing with pinched fingers. I guess the incels can let this one slide because that gacha is overflowing with scantily clad women who want to fuck you and a very concerning number of little girls in microbikinis?). They wanted Vellmori fired because of these years-old deleted tweets and illustrations of hands. They did this because they hate women. Vellmori was targeted because she is a woman. These men are misogynists who are part of a hate group.

Now, instead of telling these guys to stop bothering PM employees or the law will become involved (something they have literally done when their restaurant’s staff was getting harassed), Project Moon’s CEO quickly wrote a post acquiescing to these men’s complaints including the “ideological” posts by Vellmori, who he said was let go because of this. The reason why so many female fans have dropped the game and deleted entire accounts of fanart is because we saw Vellmori get fired immediately after the misogynistic witch hunt against her. She was fired for saying abortion should be legal, she was fired for condemning the rampant hidden cameras put in women’s public toilets and changing rooms, she was fired for condemning the Nth room case. In accordance to her contract, these years old tweets had even been deleted. She was fired because delusional men thought they saw pinched fingers in her art and wanted her to suffer for it.

If you are on the fence about the boycott spearheaded by Korean fans, you need to ask yourself if accepting this rampant misogyny is worth playing a glorified casino game over. No matter how “generous” you see Limbus Company, it’s a gacha game like any other. If they wanted a “live service” game, they would have made one. If they wanted to simply tell a story, there wouldn’t be a .png casino tab with an option to pay up to $70 multiple times to gamble with, nor incentives to log in daily. They made a gacha game because this style of game makes the most money.

[mandy4ever69420]

kinda to your point on ur post ab mandy it annoys me when ppl say that deleted (i think) scene where mickey’s like ‘don’t ever hit women’ is like #MaleFeministGoals when it’s just a pretty patriarchal view that women are weak and inferior and can’t fight back. when ppl edit that scene of all the boys going ‘pedophile hunting’ in like a badass way i just sigh bc like guarantee most of those men have assaulted or harassed women before, we know terry has. and that was the point of that scene to me, that it’s not about saving victims or whatever but about being a white knight and feeling good for defending the ‘vulnerable’ and what is their property. that’s why the scene where they find out it’s a woman is important. they don’t think women are capable of power so they don’t care.

anyway the writers decided they hated women after s2 so im sure they meant that as male feminist goals but i prefer s2 mickey’s ‘you don’t know my sister until you’ve fought my sister’ vibes. bc yeah. he sees her as an equal.

yeahhh!!! i don't recall the scene specifically so yes it was probably a deleted scene. it's a funny balance on the 'dont hit women' thing bc i myself for example know i would react SIGNIFICANTLY worse just on a gut instinct way to seeing a male character like mickey hit a woman the same way he hits men (specifically - when motivated by speech rather than retaliatory strikes, lol). & like part of this is due to the associations on a societal level with how much violence is directed at women by men in order to enforce patriarchy. male violence against women as a cultural phenomenon rather than an individual one is just more widespread and harmful, which is represented by individual occurrences. hmm. but part of it is just. how misogyny works. & the gut instinct level that it just feels worse to see.

there's not NOT a point to "don't hit women" like, WRT mickey's job in s4 to enforce against violent clients (mr patel) he's recognizing the pattern of someone who thinks a sex worker is less human, and wants to play out his fantasies about doing misogynistic harm to women through someone he can "get away with" hurting. also, because it's his job that svetlana specifically told him to do. lol

this also has to do with like... you'll see in shameless there are plenty of male abusers (kenyatta, terry, jody, kash & ian's abusers, also tommy is still canonically a pedophile, btw), but women who act abusively or are sexually coercive are much more likely to be sympathetic characters: mandy, debbie, karen, sveltana (with kev and v, the mickey thing is different. though i want to point out in s4 she did try to isolate him from ian as a support system by violence).

part of this is shameless falling into the idea that a woman doing it is "less bad" even as they critique that idea in other parts of the show. (also, they don't always seem to notice when something is assault) but the contexts in which these things happen ARE in fact really sad and messed up for these girls as well, & IMO there's a point here about how usually even SA, which people have very strong feelings about, can be done for sadass reasons. & that these are things you CAN recover and improve after - esp when willing (debbie having learned and telling carl he was assaulted - intent to prevent or sympathize with this), or when the other people involved are okay emotionally or forgiving

i imagine most people would like me be extremely unnerved if this was a point made using male characters even half as much. even though, like, technically it'd still be true. but man! i would not fucking like it if debbie and carl's plots were swapped. i refer specifically to how debbie treated derek delgado, which she did know was manipulative, not to how she acted with matt, who was grooming her and she didn't understand her behavior. ALSO: there's the aspect here that telling this story with a male character would've read SIGNIFICANTLY more as making excuses - as much as women perpetrating abuse is not taken as seriously, women are also held to much higher moral standards & hated more virulently for misdeeds. it'd look like a propaganda piece about how misogynistic violence is not that bad, actually!

i was pretty surprised and pleased that shameless was so on the ball with the 'pedo hunter' thing & establishing that terry milkovich is absolutely a pedophile. it's not that everyone with violent fantasies about attacking rapists is secretly compensating for one themself, but that a lot of these people have blindspots in recognizing their own behavior & are more excited about doing violence in a morally Righteous and protecting-our-women self-affirmation type of way. Also sometimes they are overdoing it to cover shit up.

come to think of it, i wonder if the reason so many people seem to have faith in mickey's brothers being "decent" is to do with the "i hate rapists, too" (s2) line? -- we know mickey is in fact protective & motivated by care wrt mandy & ian because we know him & we see the contexts he acts in & how he acts, but we have no such indications about anybody else having specific standards, rather than knowing there's a category of "bad person" (and person means man, in this mindset) that it's satisfying and righteous to violently retaliate against. also, doesn't sandy refer to mickey's brothers getting drunk and crawling into her bed? she was kind of referring to theft. but. like. well anyway

i know i really enjoyed watching mickey harass kash (satisfying) & i think when it comes to getting back at ian for "messing with mandy" there is something to be said there for protecting a girl you love against misogyny/misogynistic violence where possible. but you can't brush aside that retaliatory violence against sexual assault, especially mob violence (especially from a family full of white supremacists, good lord) has a really ugly self-serving history & doesn't necessarily indicate respect. & that is what was being invoked. a viewer should be put off by this or have a mixed response (again, the "dont hurt my sister thing" can also just. be nice) & not just because the info these guys were working with was inaccurate. also TBH i think you miss out on how impressive it IS that mickey is as good at boundaries and gentleness as he is if you refuse to understand the context of how bad violent mobs tracking down alleged rapists are and can be.

it's always really bothersome when people react to mickey's pimping as like a Big Misogyny like, not just because that's really not accurate, & it's reliant on the idea that these women don't have autonomy of their own. it also misses out on where you CAN see mickey interact with misogyny as a character trait. if you're too distressed by mickey calling svetlana a whore because she called him a pussy you're going to miss out on his occasional belief that women can't fight back, or have power. he falls for the manipulation of that pedophile in s3 (and has very sad sex right after walking away. also there's implications there) & he thinks it's embarrassing to be scared of his wife (even though he knows she's tough and intense). occasional because he can definitely tell that people like mandy, debbie, svetlana, and sandy have hands.

but also, like, when he's acting like a dick there it's treating these women as on equal footing. i saw a while ago someone try to read "we are thirsty" / "good thing theres a sink in the bathroom then huh" as, like, a damning mark on mickey's moral record. but man, i think svetlana was trying to figure out if mickey was white knighting, and if she could use that to her (& her coworkers') advantage. and he was like No because that's a very simple entry level manipulation that he's not going to fall for. also because the kind of white knighting she was checking for involves attraction (see: "nice guy" shit) and he is gay.

worthy of mention: mickey alleging that frank raped a girl, and mandy alleging that ian attempted to rape her are the same strategy in use to recruit. they each had their own agendas going on here & they both knew what'd get backup of people who are just excited to do violence. i wonder what this means about mickey maybe already knowing that mandy had been lying. i can see him realizing that if she was ACTUALLY hurt by someone she probably wouldn't have said anything but assuming she had her reasons anyway that she wouldn't disclose. 🤔🤔

there's also a point being made here about the fact that violent retaliation against abusers doesn't even necessarily do anything besides feel satisfying on an emotional level. when mickey is harassing kash, before we find out he's gay, ian grows more, not less, protective of kash, and feels more strongly attached. -> related to fiona's incredibly negative reaction when steve ditches frank in canada, contrast to mickey Not allowing ian to hurt kenyatta (though he also didn't want ian to do something he'd regret and get arrested)

[sombercorvid]

Just so you know what else is currently happening as I have not seen any English speaking articles about it:

On Friday a report by a state TV station was released about the "klaasohm" fest on the island Borkum (Borkum is a small island of the German North Sea Coast). The festival is mostly unknown to people not from the island as the organizers make it very clear that they don't want it to be public knowledge. They cite that outsiders always have a hard time understanding local tradition and by not posting about it on social media or talking about it in general keeps the festival "safe". Last year some journalists went there to observe the festival and this is what they gathered: no one wants to talk about it. The mayor, the police, the organizers, the locals, no one. Some brave souls mustered the courage to share the experience but as a condition for their knowledge they wanted absolute anonymity to prevent retaliation. And the festival itself is not different.

The klaasohm festival is on the 5th of December and there 3 young members of the local fraternity organisation (which only accepts men) are chosen to be klaasohm (and wear special costumes assuring anonymity and looking like a winter demon). A fourth one gets to be the wiefke (and dresses up as a women). First the klaasohms have to do ritual combat to clear the hierarchy (only members of the fraternity are allowed to witness) and when that's finished they are going from hous to house hunting women. If they find a woman or teen girl outside of their home (like on the street or in a bar) that night they capture, restrain and beat her with a cow horn. The beating is not ritualised, though the strikes are concentrated on the butt and thigh, and the strikes can be so hard that the women and girls have bruises and hematomes for days afterwards. The anonymous source state that even if they begged to not be beaten they were striked regardless and after it happened they were just left sobbing on the street all by themselves. During the filming of the 2023 Klaasohm the journalists were also threatened to be beaten and chased to their hotel room by some locals.

No official of any kind wants to speak about it apart from saying that it's an old tradition and it's important for the community identity of the Borkum people. The locals do not dare to speak against it as most of them are in favour and they don't want to be excluded from their community.

It is genuinely frightening that theses kinds of "festivals" are still possible and other communities showed how they can be modernized. The krampus nights in Austria for instance have a clear system in which bystanders can consent to the ritual beating, the krampus's have numbers so you know who to report if things get out of hand, and everyone agrees that the line is drawn at physical harm.

Right now the outcry in Germany is pretty big but I think this archaic and misogynistic tradition should be known to everybody.