#just to be clear i do not think the gender of your child determines how they will behave

[jamethinks]

*Scene: Loid and Yor talking about someone who is pregnant*

"I wonder what gender the baby will be?" Yor hummed while folding the stack of dresses for Anya. Loid wanted to help but Yor threatened to slit his throat so he opted to stay to the side and read his book. His "doctor" suggested that he take a few days off since his resting heart rate was concerningly high.

(And by doctor he meant Sylvia playing dress up).

"I personally dont care for the gender of a baby." he commented.

"Oh come on. You mean to tell me you weren't silently praying Anya was going to be a boy?"

Perhaps a boy would have gotten along better with Damian. Then again, there are many ways Anya lacks as a potential bait. He made a piss poor choice but it didn't matter in the end. He was stuck with her and all her shortcomings. Her many, many, many, many shortcomings. Hell, she was literally a shortcoming.

"I just wanted a smooth pregnancy and a healthy baby." Stay neutral. Then again, Donovan was a traditional man who probably wanted all boys. If Yor was to go back to Melinda and retell this conversation would his neutrality put off Donovan and doom the whole operation. "But if I were to have a second kid then I would prefer a boy. To keep things balanced."

"I always saw myself as a boy mom. Boys are so much sweeter and cuddlier. Yuri was such a dear growing up."

-

"Yor! Yor! Yor!" a tiny boy ran towards his sister a little flower in his hand.

Yor turned and looked at him with a bright smile. "Awe, Yuri is this for me?"

"Yup." he cheered. "When I grow I'm gonna get really rich so I can give you a million flowers every single day."

"Yuri, that's so sweet." Their mother commented.

"Yes son. But you should save the romantics for your wife." his dad added.

"But Yor's my wife?" he furrowed his eyebrows.

"No. I'm your sister. Your wife should be a very special lady you plan on loving for the rest of your life. You'll find her when you get older." Yor corrected.

"But I already have someone like that. You sis." he was so innocent it pained Yor to have to constantly turn him down.

Their dad came over picking up the little boy. "You got the right idea but the wrong target."

"Don't worry he'll grow out of it. I hope..." their mother muttered a bit wearily.

-

Loid smiled awkwardly. So he's always been like that. "Haha I remember being that age. I would pick a bunch of flowers for her and try to make a bouquet."

"That is so sweet Loid. You just don't get that kind of treatment from girls."

"Oh I'm sure that's not true."

"Yesterday when we went on a walk, Anya kept trying to give me dead caterpillars even though she knows I'm afraid of bugs."

"That's Anya she's just an asshole. Nothing to do with her gender."

"And Becky?"

"Becky is an angel especially compared to that gremlin."

"You've never seen her with her mom."

-

Yor and Anya had been invited over to the Blackbells for a special tea party. Yor was excited to finally spend time with the Madam of the house, Isabel Blackbell. It was refreshing to have a chance to spend time with another girl mom. What she didn't expect was the odd tension between the mother and daughter. It was so weird watching an adult woman argue with a six year old.

"Were you dropped on the head as baby?" Becky spat.

"You were." her mother grumbled.

"Excuse me!" Becky yelled back.

"Miss Becky, inside voices please." Martha pleaded. "We have guest."

"I am so sorry for the noise. Becky is just throwing a tantrum because her dad bought me a bracelet instead of her even though she didn't want a bracelet." Isabel explained.

"It's not about the bracelet it's about the principal!"

"Wrong principle."

"I hate you!" Becky screamed before running off and flopping down on her bed. Isabell sighed and sipped on her fake tea. She sat up and turn. "Get out!"

"Well, Forgers would you like to head out? " she said standing up from the tiny chair.

With that they left to go downstairs. A few minutes later Becky came downstairs still clearly upset but ready to continue playing. She grumble the notion of apology before clinging to her mom the rest of the playdate.

-

"You caught them on a bad day."

"It's always like that. Fighting and squabbling. I'm worried Anya and I will get like that." Loid bit his lip. He didn't have the heart to tell her that is exactly what her relationship with Anya was like. It was fascinating how many of the conversations would just end in a screaming match only for them to be cuddled up under the blanket watching some cheesy movie. Anya didn't even like romantic movies but anything to snuggle with her mama.

Any mother-daughter duo knew had a similar combative dynamic. Or any older-younger woman combo. He has seen Handler and Nightfall bicker before suddenly gossiping about him (even though he was right there).

He feared the day Anya got old enough for them to start fighting over meaningful things.

"Your sample size is too small."

"Well maybe if Anya made more female friends."

"Becky is enough work for me. Not to mention I have to deal with your whining." Anya, who had quietly watching her show the entire time, suddenly added.

"Anya your father and I are talking. Stay out." Yor scolded. Anya hissed before turning back around. "Did she just hiss at me? Loid she hissed at me?"

"I'm sure those Desmond boys give Melinda a run for her money." Loid did not want to get in the middle of their war. He had a lifetime with these two, he needed to pick his battles.

"Don't change the topic." Now he was getting scolded. "But you're wrong. They're both angels."

-

When Yor arrived at the cafe she was immediately escorted to the back. In a small private room, Melinda was there with her head down on the table.

"Melinda what's wrong?" she sat up with running makeup and a strong pout before slowly raising up a small paper.

"Damian wrote a letter for me." She sobbed. "He spelled my name wrong and corrected it and wrote a little sorry. He wrote the entire thing in a blue crayon because he and I quote "knew it was my favourite colour" and then he apologized for not using a lighter shade of blue."

Yor covered her mouth, tears brimming in her eyes as well. She looked at the tiny letter, the endless scrawling from the first grader coming together to create such a sweet and adorable letter. She could see the little doodles and designs to help make it look pretty. He even tried to draw hyacinths as they were her favourite as well.

"He lost marks *Sniffle* because he put the first line *chokes* as Mama's room because he thought it was part of my address." she fell over crying again.

"He didn't even specify a dish instead he said he would he love it as long as I made it because he loves everything I make."

The two women sobbed over the letter for an hour.

-

Anya had to do the same thing. The assignment was to request your mom to make your favourite dish. Of course she decided to write one begging Fiona to make her that weird fish soup again. She did it in red crayon and tried to add tears for design but obviously the blue crayon in use so she stuck with the red. It looked more like a threat than a heartfelt letter. It didn't that the whole thing was in cyrillic.

She was supposed to fail the assignment (since it was supposed to be for your mom not your father's coworker) but Anya played the dead mother card forcing the lecturer to change the assignment not to exclude her. The teacher was surprised when Yor showed up for the PTA meeting excited to see her daughter's progress. By then the grades were already submitted so it was a lost cause.

As Loid said, it was more than her gender. Anya was just an asshole.

THIS USER DOES NOT SUPPORT GENDERED STEREOTYPES. THIS IS JUST MEANT TO MAKE FUN OF BOYMOMS AND POKE FUN AT GENDER OBSESSED PEOPLE. INSPIRED BY THOSE CRAZY BOYCAT TIKTOKS

[selineram3421]

Petit Lapin Blanc

Part 5

Part 4

Alastor and Human Child Reader

Warnings ⚠

⚠ platonic, (gn) gender neutral reader, N/n = Nickname, Italics=thoughts, I.M.P, the mention of murder, commercial jingle ⚠

You turned by spinning the stool to see a blonde woman with a red-pink suit at the counter where the bell was.

"Oh, good. I have everyone's attention now.", she said with a smile and walked over to you.

Feeling unsure, you reached for Alastor's hand to hold and the man in red let you, giving you a pat on the head with his other hand. The woman bent her knees a bit as she stood in front of you, wanting to be at your eye level.

"Hey little one..", she made her smile look softer. "How did you get here? It's a bit far from home."

You felt a little more unsure after she mentioned home.

"How do you know where home is?", you asked with a slight glare, turning towards the red man a bit.

"Well my dad knows but I've heard stories about it!", she says.

You squint your eyes at her.

"Suspicious..", you mumble.

"Ha!", Alastor laughs. "Charlie, dear. I think it's best that you introduce yourself first. Strangers are quite untrustworthy."

The blonde woman, Charlie, stands up and clears her throat with an embarrassed smile.

"You're right."

Vaggie stands next to the blonde and pats her shoulder.

"Don't worry, she owns the hotel and just wanted to meet you.", the white haired woman smiled. "This is Charlie."

Charlie gave you a small wave. "Hi."

After taking in what you could learn from her appearance, you deemed her safe enough. She didn't wear a fake smile, she stepped back when seeing you uncomfortable, and well..now she was waiting for you to respond.

She wanted your trust.

"Hi.", you waved back.

"Can we know your name?", Charlie asked.

"No.", you said firmly.

Her smile dropped and she looked worried.

"Ah yes. N/n here thinks we are fae, they will not give their name.", his smile widens. "What a smart child."

"Oooh, yeah that is smart. You don't know how many deee-I mean people! Uh, how many people have been tricked by giving their name.", Charlie corrects herself.

"Nice catch.", Husk grumbled, still shuffling the cards.

You almost forgot he was there since he was so quiet.

"So I was right!", you cheered and stood up on the stool. "You guys are like fae!"

"Not quite little one.", Alastor had you sit down on the stool again. "I promised to tell you later, remember?"

"Why is later taking so long?", you pouted and crossed your arms.

"Would you like tomorrow?", he asked with a raised brow.

"No!", you stood up on the stool again and faced the red man with a determined glare.

"And why not?", he questioned, picking you up and shifted until you were comfortable in his hold.

"Because then it'll never happen.", you explained with a sad, quiet tone.

Whenever grown-ups would say tomorrow, it never happened. You hated tomorrow. You lived by the day whenever it came.

Tomorrow was never promised.

"I hate tomorrow."

.

Alastor found your distrust toward the Princess hilarious.

"Charlie, dear. I think it's best that you introduce yourself first. Strangers are quite untrustworthy.", he spoke up.

The little one finally greeted Charlie after she took a step back from the child.

Then the Princess asked for their name and the human quickly said no. Poor Charlie looked distraught and wondered what she had done wrong, so he decided to help clue the young lady in on why you wouldn't give your name.

"Ah yes. N/n here thinks we are fae, they will not give their name.", his smile widened. "What a smart child.", he complimented.

The Princess almost lets it slip that they are demons but manages to save herself from saying the word demons.

"So I was right!", they cheered and stood up on the stool. "You guys are like fae!"

"Not quite little one.", Alastor had them sit down on the stool again so they wouldn't fall. "I promised to tell you later, remember?"

They pouted and whined that it was taking too long.

"Would you like tomorrow?", he asked with a raised brow.

"No!", they stood up on the stool again and faced him with a determined glare.

Curious.. He thought. "And why not?", he questioned, picking them up and shifted until they were comfortable in his hold.

Charlie's eyes widened at his action but he paid no mind and focused on the human child.

"Because then it'll never happen.", they explained.

Where did they learn such a thing? Hmm.. They must have been disappointed repeatedly.

"I hate tomorrow.", the little human glared with such hatred for that one word.

"Very well, later it is.", he said with a nod. "How's after dinner? I'm sure you're hungry after all that walking."

"Um, actually Alastor. I don't think-", Charlie started.

"Is it safe for me to eat? Fae food isn't safe.", they said. "If you are like fae, then it's not ok for me to eat."

"They are right.", the Princess agreed. "We'd have to get food outside of uh..this realm in order for them to eat."

Clever little thing.

"Alright then, let's get your human food and we'll have dinner!", he declared and placed them back on the stool, making sure they sat down. "Now, you must stay seated on this type of seat, especially since it spins. You can hurt yourself if you're not careful. So, no more standing on it."

"Oh, ok.", they nodded.

"Husker!", he then turned to face the cat demon behind the bar counter. "Continue to entertain them. I must find them something suitable to eat."

"Fine.", the feline responded and glanced at the child. "Hey kid, wanna learn how to bite quarters?"

"You can bite quarters?", the little one asked, spinning to face the cat, interested.

"Want to see me do it?", Husk said as he pulled out a coin and flipped it before catching it mid air.

"Yeah!"

Not having to worry about them running off, Alastor gestured for the girls to follow him and walked to a nearby office.

"Ok, what is going on? How did a human, a human child at that, get down here? They aren't even dead!", Charlie asked, whisper shouting at the last bit.

"Alastor said he doesn't know. He found them on the street, watching the tv's in front of the tech store.", Vaggie explained.

"I was just as surprised as you dear, but they don't remember themselves, A case of amnesia. It's quite the mystery.", he said, holding his hands behind his back and tapped his finger on his palm. "However, we don't have the time to solve it, our biggest problem is getting them food from Earth. As far as I know, there is no way to get up there."

"Because you don't watch t.v.", Vaggie rolled her eyes and got the television remote.

He rolled his eyes in response.

The white haired woman turned on the noisy chatter-box at the push of a button and switched it to a channel.

A commercial was on.

"Hi there! I'm Blitzø, the O is silent-", an imp introduced himself. "..and I'm the founder of I.M.P!"

He glared at the screen, not sure what he was supposed to gather from this commercial.

"Why are we watching this?", he asked.

"Just wait.", Vaggie sighed.

"Well, luckily for you! Thanks to our company's special access to the living world-", the imp said and managed to open a portal with a spell book. "..we can help you take care of your unfinished business by taking out anyone who screwed you over when you were alive!", he walked over to the portal and fell back into it.

Then a music bit for the company started.

Interesting..

"Kids die for free~!"

The commercial ended but then started up again.

Vaggie turned off the television. "That's been on for the last two hours.", she mumbled.

"Oh my gosh..", Charlie covered her mouth in horror.

"Ah, I see now! We can hire that lot to get food.", he said.

"We can hire that lot to send them back! Este idiota-", Vaggie hissed out and then started spewing out some Spanish.

Send them back? He thought. That was the plan, wasn't it..

"Let's make sure they eat first and then we can send them back, yeah?", Charlie placed a hand on her partner's shoulder. "I'm not sure how they got down here but they must be pretty tired."

"Yes, Charlie is right. For now the food will do and then we'll take care of them going home tomorrow.", he said before stepping out of the office.

He walked back to the lobby and spotted the little human holding a fan of cards, playing 'Go-fish' with Husk.

"Mind if I join in?", the deer demon sat on the stool next to their's.

"I beat Husk!", they declared and handed him some cards.

"Oh really?", he said and looked at the cards in his hand.

"I think they're cheatin'.", Husk grinned, pretending to whisper.

"Nu-uh! Am not!", the little one frowned with their cheeks puffed out in anger at the accusation.

"Hmm.. I don't know. I always win at card games..", Husk said, looking at them from the corner of his eye.

"Maybe I'm just better!", they said and asked if anyone had twos.

"Go fish.", Alastor smiled.

Yes, tomorrow they would go home.

He picked up a card from the pile after asking for sevens, receiving the response 'go fish'.

But tomorrow is never promised..

Hi. Thanks for waiting and here you go.

~Seline, the person.

Part 6

Taglist@

@c4rved-pumpk1n @scary-noodlesblog @stolas-thebirb @naelys-the-aster @biromanticboba @lbcreations-blog @ducky-died-inside @kiraisastay @pooplyface1423 @line-viper @117s-girl @spiderlegsling @alastorsgoldie @repentant-repeller @kcsketches @lofasofabread @kotaleee @im-coolrat @superzombiewho @speckle-meow-meow @jammcookie @dilucragnvindr-my-beloved @trashbin-nie @koioli @fatherlesschild2 @mmik3yy @just-here-reading @nealeart @hudiexiaoying @crystal-multiplefandomlover @glowinggoldfish0 @tiredgamerhere @fluffy-koalala @valenfawkes @willowshadenox @aria-tempest @alastor-simp @nonetheartist @gallantys @i-3at-kidz @luxky-aish @ceafighter @xalygatorx @xangel-8 @+?

♥The rest of the taglist is in the comments♠

ML I Alastor🎙| 🐇ChL

[azullumi]

ayato, diluc, childe + alhaitham — playing horror games ☆彡

summary — you invited him to play a horror game with you to which he accepted. now, what will your experience with him will be?

characters — ayato, diluc, childe + alhaitham (w/ gender neutral reader)

tags — fluff, modern, multiple mentions of the word "game"; headcanons

word count — 1225

a/n — i hate the amount of times i used the word game because i couldn't find another word for it. nevertheless, enjoy!

KAMISATO AYATO

Apparently, there was a new game released and it captured the hearts of horror-games enthusiasts and you wanted to try it out, however, the game is hard to clear on your own so you had invited Ayato.

A horror game? Sure, he doesn't mind. He has played a few ones with his sister and Thoma before and it's been a long time since the last time he went through one. 

At first, he's interested and curious but then when he starts playing, there's just confusion. He's just confused, not in a confused type wherein he doesn’t know what to do throughout the game but the type wherein he doesn’t know what is happening and is unaware of the events of the game. Are horror games really like this? As far as he can remember, these are supposed to be much scarier and frightening.

“Oh… Was that a jumpscare?”

He’s bored not until he witnessed your reactions so instead of focusing more on the game, his attention and eyes are all on you. He wants to see more of it so he purposely fails some parts of the game so you two could restart and have to go through it all again. Witnessing the change in your expressions and seeing the way you react is honestly so entertaining for him. Mans out here living the best life while you’re suffering.

Eventually, you’ll notice it. How he intentionally fails and suddenly becomes a bad player once you two get through the extreme parts. It took you quite some time to see through his tricks as you weren’t thinking much about it, however, he doesn’t admit it easily and will probably never do so.

“Are you trying to lose on purpose?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking abou— Ah, I died again. Looks like we’ll have to restart.”

DILUC RAGNVINDR

It doesn't take much persuading just to get him to play a game— a horror one to be exact— with you. He doesn’t mind it anyways and it’s not like he’s the type to get scared easily. It’s just some simple game with some scary components embedded in it.

At first, it was dead silence. You don’t know if he’s scared or just focused on clearing the game. However, the answer was the latter as he is unfazed by the jumpscares of the game and was more focused on the objectives. While you’re out there getting startled at every noise, whether loud or not, he’s focused on solving the puzzles and determining how to attain victory.

He guides you on what to do and even encourages you so that you won’t be scared. He doesn’t leave you behind and if ever you die at some part and you two have to restart, he’ll just say it’s okay and you two won’t have a hard time playing through it as you already know what you’re supposed to do. He’s honestly so sweet and gentle while playing and it just eases your mind knowing that you can rely on him.

“Are you scared? Come closer.”

“It’s okay, you can do this.”

He’ll let you lean on him though or hide yourself behind him. You’ll often block your point of view by using his arms as a cover whenever you feel like something scary will pop up on your screen and he will just let you be, looking at you with a soft smile on his face. He knows this isn’t the time for that but he just can’t help but think how adorable you are when you’re scared.

“You can open your eyes now, there’s no more jumpscare.”

Truly a reliable teammate.

CHILDE

He's the chatty type of person while playing, would often say remarks filled with confidence and would reassure you that you just have to follow him from behind and he can finish the game in no time. He's so confident and sure of himself that when you two started playing, you were relaxed because of the things he had said. God, you wish you didn't believe him.

He's the type to treat the game like it's some sort of comedy show and would laugh at certain elements of the game that are supposed to be scary. He makes fun of the “ghosts” and would challenge them to scare him. However, once he really gets to the jumpscare and intense parts, he becomes silent.

Then he goes back to being the normal chatty person that he is. He doesn't want to admit the fact that he is scared, especially after all that talk he did. He’ll convince you that he isn’t frightened at all and would attempt to regain his composure. It’s honestly cute how he tries his best to look strong and reliable.

You can’t help but tease him while playing, saying things that will scare him. Poke him for a bit and he suddenly jumps startled which also scares you.

"Archons above, (Name)! You just can't do that!"

"I just poked you."

After finishing the game, he'll just laugh and say, "that's all?" before asking you to watch a movie with him next. However, you shook your head and showed him the next game that you two are going to play and unfortunately for him, it’s a horror one again and it was a continuation of the previous one. He doesn’t have any choice but to play it with you.

“Don’t worry, if you’re too scared, you can cling to me.”

“Shut up.”

ALHAITHAM

He doesn't see the sense of even willingly playing horror games despite the fact that you'll just get scared, nevertheless, he still plays with you because why not. It’s not like he’ll die if he did. Maybe he'll end up seeing something interesting or maybe he just wants to see how you’ll react.

He’s the type to tease you by suddenly scaring you in tense and terrifying parts of the game then pretends that he didn’t do anything. At these times, the thought of how Alhaitham can be a little shit goes through your head and if you weren’t that scared right now and not leaning on him and using him as some sort of cover, you would have smacked him right on the head.

He’s expressionless, he’s unaffected by the horror factors of the game and would just continue on like nothing happened.

“It’s not that scary, (Name). It’s just a mannequin.”

“Look, there’s nothing terrifying here. It’s just the wind.”

You don’t know if you should be thankful for his comments because it was helping you to replace your fear with irritation. However, you can’t get mad at him because Alhaitham… Alhaitham was extremely helpful in clearing the game especially on the hardest parts and would tell you what you should do to avoid having to restart. Sometimes, he’ll throw in some words of encouragement here and there to further encourage you.

Despite the small yet constant bickerings and teasings, it didn’t take you long to finish the game. He thinks it was boring but if you were going to invite him to another one, he won't complain nor even hesitate in joining you. 

“Let’s play another one.”

“Aren’t you scared already from the one we just played?”

He still doesn’t understand how you still want to play these games knowing the fact that you’ll just be frightened the whole time you’re playing though.

— navigation | masterlist

[lowkeyrobin]

Hello I was wondering if you’d be able to write a Ranboo x Gender neutral reader that’s struggling with self harm/depression (only if you’re comfortable with writing something like this, I’d not I completely understand) :)

hi!! thank you for the request! ; and I'm totally okay with writing this, considering I'm fully healed from my very depressive middle school state and the only things bothering me haven't hurt me that much in a long time 🫶 I hope that you're doing okay anon 🫶🫶🫶

RANBOO ; it's okay to not be okay

summary ; ranboo does his best to help you while you struggle with depression

warnings ; language, talk of self harm & depression, talk about relapsing, mentions of ED

genre ; angst/fluff

word count ; 627

masterlist

he'd known for a while that you were struggling and even suggested taking a break/breaking up if you needed it as to not overwhelm you with managing a relationship

obviously you didn't want too

but that came with a negotiation that he was going to genuinely help you no matter what

literally came over after a stream, like 9pmish and went straight to your bathroom

they got a little trash bag and threw out all the razor blades in your house, like looked everywhere, tore the whole place up to even get secret stashes

you followed and watched them do this, fearing they'd yell at you afterwards because they were totally silent while doing so

they also stashed the knives in a drawer with a child lock which you genuinely couldn't open, using the smart logic to use a butter knife if you needed to cut something up

if you were making food and needed to cut up meat, call him and he'd open it for you, considering you lived like 5 minutes away from each other

after he threw all the razors and pencil sharpeners and anything you didn't need that could hurt you away, he sits you down on the couch

you have a long talk about how you need to stop hurting yourself and you talk about safe self harm

from coloring on your body, listening to music really loudly, experiment with guided imagery, holding ice, punching a pillow/cushion instead of yourself, eating sour/spicy candy, etc

they're just trying to give you safe alternatives to substitute the actual harming tactics because they know you won't be able to quit immediately

every week you have a long talk about your feelings, how you're doing, etc so ranboo can determine how to help you/get an idea of how you've been doing

you talk to him frequently that you're worried about relapsing and hurting yourself somehow, from cutting to slapping or punching yourself

if you run to him thinking you're gonna hurt yourself, he wraps you in a hug and doesn't let you go until you feel more calm

frequently sends you texts to uplift you a bit and make you smile

sometimes you'll just have tight hugs on the couch where he just talks to you to get your mind off of everything and make you a little happy and joke around

usually takes you on long walks to clear your head if you express being stressed or very upset about something

he gets you on a nice healthy diet and helps you not under/overeat and possibly give yourself an ed

also helps you get into a routine to feel more clean and organized

refers you to therapy and towards yoga/working out

they'll happily do yoga or work out with you, 100%

anytime you smile, he just looks at you with like love in his eyes because he's clearly doing something right

loves taking you out into nature to listen to the birds singing and smell the fresh air, he can tell it does wonders for you

loves bird watching with you too

he'll find a show with like 7+ seasons for you to watch together so you can get interested/fixated on something and think about that more then your fear of hurting yourself or relapsing

in general they'll do whatever it is to help you cope, knowing they can't magically make you feel any better

so supportive as well

when you reach sobriety milestones (a month, two months, three months, six months, a year etc) he throws a little party

over time all your friends get more and more proud of you and show that well

ran however is definitely the most proud, seeing as you'd found a way to overcome the pain that tormented you

[pub-lius]

Hey, so recently I saw a post about the misogyny of hamilton, so I wanted to ask you if it was true. Not the part of misogyny (because in that time it was normal, I guess), but rather how much was? (does make sense?), did it affect the relationship with eliza or with her daughters?

Thankyu!!! (Muak)

hm okay so im not completely sure what you mean but i am going to do my darndest

So, in the time period which Hamilton was alive, which is the latter half of the 18th century, there definitely was a profound attitude of misogyny, but it was very different from what we know today. Most of our idea of sexism comes from the religious revivals of the 20th century (and people who know me know how i feel about the godforsaken 20th century when it comes to history). This is yk your typical idea of a housewife being at home, taking on the burdens of homemaking and child rearing and basically keeping everything together at home while the husband worked a stressful 9 to 5 and didn't do shit at home and weaponized incompetence and implicit biases and yadayada

This was not the case in the 18th century! 18th century gender roles are very different from what we're used to, and even more different than what the Victorians and Edwardians considered the norm. This is especially visible in Hamilton's relationship with women, so I'm quite excited to talk about this.

Firstly, I want to talk about the joker to my batman: Ron Chernow. A major theory he supports in his biography of Hamilton is the two sided nature of Hamilton's perception of women. He says that there is a clear distinction between two "types" of women in Hamilton's wife-- the good, Christian mistress of the house and the stupid, mentally unstable skank. These are his terms. I want to hit him in the head with a brick.

"Together, the two eldest [Schuyler] sisters formed a composite portrait of Hamilton's ideal woman, each appealing to a different facet of his personality. Eliza reflected Hamilton's earnest sense of purpose, determination, and moral rectitude, while Angelica exhibited his worldly side- the wit, charm, and vivacity that so delighted people in social intercourse." -Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, page 133

Yeah, this is horseshit. It gets worse when he compares Elizabeth Hamilton and Maria Reynolds on page 367, but I'm not going to get started because I won't stop. And this isn't about him anyway.

Instead, I want to talk about WHY this is horseshit. First of all, even Alexander "thinks with the wrong head" Hamilton didn't have this fucked up mindset, because it is heavily based in 20th century evangelicalism that didn't even exist in Hamilton's world.

Yes, obviously there was religious attitudes that condemned certain actions from women, but this was not as intense as in later periods. In the 18th century, an upperclass woman, such as Elizabeth Hamilton, would be responsible for maintaining the household, but this meant being in charge of the servants rather than doing the work herself. The work she did do would be maintaining the finances and the family's reputation.

Reputation was everything in the 18th century, and this especially applied to women. Not only did they have to maintain their own reputations, but they had to raise their children to have the skills necessary to do the same, and often had to fill in for their husbands in this department if they held public office. It's very difficult to maintain your reputation if you're beating people with walking sticks in the Continental Congress.

When it came to lower and middle class women, their jobs weren't different in that they carried an equally important role in the family. They would be doing household chores just as well as their husband, and these weren't easy chores that made women "feeble". They very often took a lot of physical strength and endurance, and it wasn't considered unladylike for women to do "men's" chores while their husbands were away. This isn't to say that women in later eras didn't do the same, but it wasn't as publicly frowned upon.

Hamilton had a very unique perspective as he was witness to both sides of this coin. His mother, a single, working class mother would be juggling both the man and woman's role. I think it was really this background that allowed him to have a much more informed perspective on womanhood. He was one of the few men in this period that I've seen write from the perspective of a woman, specifically a grieving mother.

"For the sweet babe, my doting heart Did all a mother's fondness feel; Careful to act each tender part And guard from every threatening evil. But what alas! availed my care? The unrelenting hand of death, Regardless of a parent's prayer Has stopped my lovely infant's breath-" -Papers of Alexander Hamilton, volume 1, page 43.

Chernow attributes this to Hamilton's deeply empathetic nature, which is fair, however I think it also shows that he was able to understand a woman's experience specifically.

I say this because Hamilton does tell us a little bit about exactly what was expected of women in the time during Elizabeth's first pregnancy in a letter that is usually used to call him a sexist, but I think it's a little more complex than that. Here's the excerpt:

"You shall engage shortly to present me with a boy. You will ask me if a girl will not answer the purpose. By no means. I fear, with all the mothers charms, she may inherit the caprices of her father and then she will enslave, tantalize and plague one half [the] sex, out of pure regard to which I protest against a daughter. So far from extenuating your offence this would be an aggravation of it." -Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, October 12, 1781

In this letter, Hamilton isn't telling Elizabeth that he wants a boy to inherit his fortune, to carry on his name, or the other reasons that were given by his contemporaries for preferring sons over daughters. He specifically states that his reasons are his fear that his traits will be passed onto his children, and that if its a daughter, she will be more discriminated against than his son because of her sex. Essentially, it was easier to be a gay son in the 18th century than a thot daughter. In that question, Hamilton would choose gay son because he knew that men were generally less criticized than women.

So, I'm not saying Hamilton wasn't sexist, because, by definition, he was. He was taught that women were fundamentally different than men, but he didn't look down on women for that, because that simply wasn't normal. You wouldn't be a gentleman if you looked down on a woman for being physically and psychologically different from a man, you'd be an asshole. While their interpretations of these differences don't align with what modern medicine has determined, they weren't the same as in the later eras in American history. Women were, most certainly, oppressed because of these perceived differences, but it was a different system of oppression than what typically defines our idea of sexism.

It's hard to say if it affected Hamilton's relationship with his wife and daughters, as there isn't any real written proof, but I imagine Hamilton's attitude specifically towards women did make their relationship different than other fathers, daughters, husbands, and wives of the time. We do know that Hamilton was a very hands on father who dedicated a lot of time and care towards his children, and he did not treat his daughters any differently than his sons. He put the same amount of energy into their education, though they weren't educated in the same thing, and he seemed to be equally close with all his children.

Hamilton and women is a very interesting topic, and it gets more complicated when it comes to Rachel Faucette and Maria Reynolds and those parallels, but that is a topic for another time. Good thing its women's history month! Hope this helped :)

[princess-of-thebes-1995]

Today was another important day of your life. Why? This house party is your gender reveal! That is right, your six month baby will be revealed.

You could not believe your good luck. You were born into poverty, misfortune, and difficulty. Like Vivan in the Pretty Woman movie.

A rich man took you from rags to riches. Took was a gentle word. He forced you by threatening you. Andy Barber was a lawyer. He knew a lot of American laws and secrets.

He almost sued you for a small reason. You gave in for your baby's sake. Andy was the sperm father of your child. He then forced you to marry him months ago.

Despite his craziness which scared you. You began to love your new life. You now live in the Suburbs of Newton, Massechusets. No work, labor, or bills. Andy saved you from the cruel world. All you had to do was "take care" of Andy, the house, and your baby.

You wore this elegant dress Andy bought.

"Are you ready?" Your new husband poked his head inside his shared roo with you.

You looked over your shoulder and smiled. You used to hate him but you felt your love growing a little each day. He was not your type at first. But, now, you like how he is not your type. Love is a strange thing.

Andy walked over to you and drank you in. "You make the dress more beautiful."

You blushed and thanked him. Andy wrapped his arm around your shoulder and led you downstairs where the guests were. Andy was grinning like an idiot. He found his dream girl.

He just hated your life story. Money ruined your life. Or the lack of it. He was determined to give you the life you deserved.

The guests were all Andy's friends. You had no friends. The ghetto neighborhood you used to live in had drug addicts, liars, and thieves.

But, since Andy pays for your life. You ignored the way his male friends ogled you. Many times, men offered money for your body. It gave you bad memories.

You remembered crying in bed with Andy shushing you like an infant. A lot of men told you that with your face you were born to suck penis. As if you were a sex object.

Andy treated you like a sex toy sure. But, not all the time. During the day, he treated you like a pet kitten. In bed, he tied you up and whispered dirty curse words. He never degraded you in a way you hated. You hated spitting, hair pulling and all that. You loved him biting you, sucking, and pining your wrist. Stuff like that.

Andy pushed you down to your seat and made a speech. He grabbed champagne and toasted you. Everyone looked at you.

"My wife and future mother of my child..." Andy continued.

Your red face felt really hot and you kept smiling. You were excited to pop the balloons. But, that is where it happened. Your feet began to swell. You looked down and it was true. You kicked off your shoes and sighed.

"To family." Andy finished. "To family." The crowd cheered.

Andy drank and noticed your feet. He set his drink down. "I will get you a wheel chair."

Andy left you alone and then he came. A dirty blonde man with green eyes and tan skin walked with a grin.

"I do not think we met before. I am Max." He took your hand and kissed it.

Out of manners, you smiled. You told him your name but Max interrupted and said he already knew you. You blinked in surprise.

The two of you chatted. Max was looking at your swollen chest. He kept licking his lips despite his drink in his hand.

Grimacing, you knew his thoughts. A sex doll is what you are to the world.

Andy cleared his throat and you saw his annoyed expression. Max smirked in amusement. He patted Andy and whispered something in his ear. Andy glared as Max left.

You asked Andy and he muttered that it was nothing. He easily picked you up from your seat and placed you on the wheel chair. You touched his face but he moved away.

He did not say anything but rolled you to the nearest room. The guest room with the chimney.

He locked the door and he turned to glare. "What the fuck was that? Flirting behind my back." He hissed. He crouched to your level and placed both hands on your arm rest of the wheel chair and was facing you.

You flinched. You assured him that Max walked to you first.

Andy shook his head and stood up. "You seemed to be enjoying his attention."

"I guess it is not your fault. Your pregnancy is making you a horny slut."

You gasped. "How could you, Andy?" Tears leaked out.

Andy’s arms were crossed together as he shrugged and studied you with a clenched jaw.

That is where you lost it. "I thought you trusted me." You also mentioned how like others he assumed the worst of you.

"The fuck are you talking about?" Andy frowned.

The whole town treated you badly. Calling you a gold digging slut. A woman who trapped a man by pregnancy.

Andy blinked. He did not know that. He never heard of those rumors.

You then covered your face and sobbed.

Andy felt ashamed of his childish and unjustified jealousy. He blamed you. Max was guilty. Poor you.

Andy pried your hands gently away from your lovely face. He kissed your cute nose. Without more words. He picked up and gently laid you on the guest bed. He unbuckled and unzipped his pants and he just tossed your panties but kept the dress on. He just moved the skirt folded up to get access. "My poor baby." He peppered your neck with smooches.

You used both hands to caress his face and then trailed to his wide shoulders.

This time, he did not moved away from your reach. He let you touch him. He was slow but then became a wild dog once more. He collapsed and was sweating hard. He dressed himself and looked at you.

"What are you thinking?"

"I have so many names to choose for both genders. I am debating."

Andy grinned. "Do not worry. Who said we will have only one baby?"

You giggled and it made Andy laugh.

The two of you returned to the party. Andy made you dizzy. You wanted to sleep after your make up sex.

You asked Andy to popp the balloon for you.

Licking his lips he popped it.

"It's a boy!"

[cfiesler]

Twas the weeks before Christmas And Santa was busy His list was so long It was making him dizzy

There are too many children List checking can’t scale If I do this by hand I will certainly fail!

But one of his elves Had a brilliant idea What if we automate Christmas this year!

There always are kids Who are naughty or nice Every year for millennia You’ve checked that list twice

Every child there’s been From Aaron to Zeta We can build an AI Because we have the data

Now, Santa is old Didn’t quite understand But he trusts his elves So he okayed the plan

First the elves cleaned the data They were very precise To determine the patterns In the naughty and nice

Gender and parents And address and race Grades and faves Really, every trace

Billions of children Made into numbers AI makes predictions While each child slumbers

The goal of the model (Just to be clear) Given these patterns Who’s naughty this year?

They held back a sample So that they could test And the model? Not bad. Ninety percent, at their best

So they brought it to Santa And said, never fear! Machine learning Will save Christmas this year

Santa pulled out his list For his own kind of test Hours later he went From impressed to distressed

We can’t use this, he said You must realize the stakes There also are patterns In errors this makes

Like take little Aaron Do you think it’s fair That in numbers he’s ‘like’ Naughty kids over there?

We’re also assuming Our own perfect past Have we made mistakes? We at least have to ask

Because look at this insight The data supplies us Some elves on these shelves Might have unconscious bias!

And you all made choices Which features to add Are you sure this was fair? And the elves looked quite sad

They had to admit They’d bought into the hype But those errors did matter And Santa was right

For now, Santa said I’ll go back to my list Some things need a human To ensure they’re not missed

I do think tech could help us You didn’t mean to abuse it But with any great power Be careful how you use it

So next Santa hired An AI ethics team We moved too fast, he said We don’t want to break things.

A few years ago someone asked me to explain AI bias to them like they were five, and so I thought of something five-year-olds care about: Santa. It also happens that the idea of using AI to predict who will land on the naughty or nice list also serves as a metaphor for biased recidivism algorithms used in the criminal justice system. (And I’ve also always thought that elf on the shelf is a good way to teach your kids about surveillance…)

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night, where you can dream of real people learning the same lesson that Santa did. :)

[msdenvs3000f24]

Unit 3

What role does “privilege” play in nature interpretation? Please include your working definition of privilege.

I would consider privilege to be centred primarily in one’s upbringing and the experiences they were afforded in their early years due to the socioeconomic standing of their family. More and more I have come to realise that I have been privileged in my ability to access nature from an early age, I have benefitted greatly from what my family could offer because of the area we lived in, finances, and the ability for them to take time off work to connect with nature as a family. Also, the fact that my parents recognised that connecting with nature as a child is important is another point of privilege, in my opinion. As a personal example, it’s the travel experiences that stick in my mind as a clear cut example of near-textbook privilege. I think of my time spent in the French Alps, specifically, where I had the opportunity to feel small in nature among the vast peaks. I would consider these trips truly formative, as they taught me to appreciate the unpredictability and immense power of nature. Lightning storms are common in the Alps in summer, and it came as quite a shock to see lightning repeatedly strike a summit that my family and I had been stood at just half an hour earlier. The experiences I was fortunate to have throughout my childhood through travel, access to books and media, and simply our proximity to nature in my hometown afforded me tools to nurture my connection with nature. So, even though I would like to think that I would have found my way to this point on my own, without these experiences, I am not certain that I would feel as strongly about nature as I now do.

 A cloudless sky near the summit just an hour before the storm rolled in (Chamonix, France. 2020)

To understand the true sway of privilege in the environmental sector, one must only look at statistics around race, gender, nationality and many more characteristics determined as ‘birth rights’ that apply to top policymakers, publishers, and famed interpreters. Above that, privilege has strong influence on the most heard voices when discussing protecting nature and other environmental issues.

Through my interpretation experience so far (yet another experience the privilege of being able to move to a new continent to attend university has afforded me), I have become mindful of making these spaces and scenarios as welcoming as possible to as many people as possible. This sent me down path of intense learning, and has led me to seriously consider how I can recognise my privilege and reduce the way it may warp my view of nature, and the wider world. Beyond the personal benefits I have gained from this, I would consider this to be an example of the power of interpretation; where not only the audiences are learning, but the interpreters are too. I think that through mindful and equitable nature interpretation we can start to bridge the gap that privilege creates, and hopefully reach a point where everyone is afforded distinct opportunities to develop their own relationship with nature.

[the-white-soul]

Frisk is pretty smart over here too, huh? And despite all those death threats and stubbornness they stay determined.

I'm not talking about the Frisk in this universe though. I'm talking about the Frisk in my world! Sure, this version reminds me of them because they are practically the same person, but I'm not going to bother every Frisk in the multiverse.

I just want mine to be mine. In my universe we're still underground, thankfully, and the major problem they faced is me. I was relentless. I used to be so mad at them for ripping the timeline away from my control, and I'd let them know. I didn't care if they were using it to figure out how to make everyone happy; I wanted that goody-two-shoes dead.

But they didn't stop. They just kept on being so nice to me and everyone else in the underground, trying to make the perfect world. I couldn't understand. I killed them over and over again, but they got sad for all the wrong reasons. Frisk wanted more than anything to make sure I was okay, and they looked at me with sympathy, especially after hearing what had happened to us, Chara. It was clear they wouldn't stop no matter what I did. I grew to respect them, and I guess they won in the end. They're kind, confident, warm, patient, snuggly, and a little bit strange, but the last part is entertaining!

Both for my Chara and Frisk, I do my best to be the best for them. And for you, of course. I still have different opinions on how things should be handled while Frisk insists on peace for everything, but I generally try to keep murder and torture to a limit. Though it really is good when I get to do it to someone like Jack.

Hey... I know I've been speaking about my Frisk, but do you think yours is okay? If you haven't heard back from them in awhile and they are getting death threats, I worry that they...

*Flowey doesn't finish, but he doesn't need to. His posture droops for a moment. The probability of death while Frisk is looking like a monster is high, even with them being so nice. It's so easy to just walk all over them. Still disturbed, Flowey begins to crawl back to the courtroom.*

I think we might be continuing the session now. I've been talking for awhile.

(Chara) "Yeah, we should go in. *They walk in while talking* Also, one quick thing you need to know about our Frisk is they're getting trans surgery. They wanted to be a boy for the longest time. Now THAT'LL get you death threats in the Undertale community. Seeing a Frisk that isn't gender neutral, I feel like some Frisk's get hanged for that! Luckily, they don't know. I might be getting off-topic as well. You know the one thing about Frisk, our creators can make them a monster, a human, a psychopath, or the sweetest human who ever lived but the second they say she,

(Chara) "BOOM!!!"

(Chara) "Reputation ruined. Anyways, they seem to be starting now!"

(Judge Reggie) "Is the defense ready?"

(John) "Yes, Judge. I'd first like to call Asgore to the stand."

(Reggie) "Go right ahead."

(John) "Thank you. Now Asgore, did you kill Chara?"

(Asgore) "No, I did not kill that child."

(John) "Did you kill Clover?"

(Asgore) "No."

(John) "What happened to the soul of justice? Specificaly the sixth soul you got."

(Asgore) "They killed themself and gave their soul to Ceroba who then gave their soul to me."

(John) "Perfect, Asgore."

(Rick) "Objection your honor, argumentative."

(John) "I didn't even say anything that..."

(Asgore) "Please just let it be."

(John) "Fine."

(Reggie) "Objection sustained. Now please John if you don't have any new information then please get away from Asgore."

(John) "I'll try to do better, sir! Asgore, have you ever felt your own actions necessary?"

(Asgore) "I needed the souls to break the barrier. We needed to get out of there! We were at war and if they invaded our homeland then we're in the right to kill them. At least in the eyes of the law."

(John) "Yes, the law! I must ask you to tell me if you've ever known what a war crime was until you left."

(Asgore) "I honestly forgot some of them now. *The jury laughed*"

(John) "Did you believe you were in the right by killing those kids?"

(Asgore) "*He practiced this before. He was going to say of course and give his reasons. Something in him made him hesitate though. He saw Chara. He froze.*"

(John) "Um, Asgore?"

(Reggie) "Asgore you're stalling a federal court! I must find you of contempt of court and sentence you for the rest of this court to go back to your cell!"

(John) "No! The guy's probably just nervous! Please give him another chance."

(Reggie) "I already did. *The bailiff forced Asgore back into a prison cell.*"

[oswinsdolma]

i've been reading a bunch of modern aus lately, and i've noticed that quite a lot are a bit uncertain about how the british education system works. it's not a problem by any means, but for anyone who wants it, here is a brief explanation:

we don't say "grades", we say "years", e.g. 7th grade would be year 7. we also don't say things like freshman/sophomore/senior etc. it's just the numbers.

however, some primary schools split into infants and juniors, infants being from yR-2 and juniors being y3-6

we also have a national curriculum all throughout compulsory education, which means everyone studies the same thing, more or less. there are discrepancies at GCSE/A-level with different exam boards, but in general, most people take either the same, or very similar exams, and are taught the same skills.

you start primary school when you are four or five in year R, and continue through primary school from years 1-6.

at the end of year six, you take the SATS, which are a really insubstantial national standardised test for english, maths and spag

it is also optional to take an exam called the 11+ at the end of y6. if you pass, you can go to grammar school. these can be state or private, and are basically redundant nowadays, and just used so parents can say that their child passed the 11+ and got into the Smart School. These are usually single gender and low-key cult like, but otherwise, are exactly the same as normal state "comprehensive" schools.

secondary school is from y7-11. at the end of y11, everyone takes the GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education). you have to do english, maths and sciences, plus several other subjects. most people have between 7-13 GCSEs, and if you fail english language or maths, you have to retake until you pass, even into college.

GCSEs are graded on a scale of 9-1, 9 being an equivalent to A** and is the top 1% of the students who got 7+, and 1 being an F/U. the pass mark is a 4.

the grades you get in your GCSEs are kind of irrelevant, except they determine which subjects you can take for A-level.

After secondary school, you have to stay in full time education for another two years (allegedly, though ik a few people who dropped out), and most people do A-levels (Advanced Level Exams). Instead of doing loads of subjects like at GCSE, you pick 3-4 and study them for two years. these are a LOT HARDER than GCSEs.

if you do four a levels, you're kind of a try hard. honestly, if you do it, good for you, but as a cultural thing, so many people who did four a levels were the most insufferable people who only did it to gloat, and then couldn't handle the workload.

oh, also this entire system is pretty much 100% exam based. for 2/3 of my a levels, i had a coursework essay that was pre graded, but it was only worth 20% of my final grade, and those were rare occurrences. at GCSE, unless you do art or something like that, everything is exam based.

A-levels are graded on a scale of A*-E, and then a U if you literally get nothing. which happens more often than you might think.

this is the bit that i see a lot of people get confused about. in the UK, we don't call university "college". college, to us, is where you take your a levels. if it's an independent institution, it's a "college/further education centre". if it's attached to a secondary school, it's called a "sixth form" (because y12 was year six of senior school in the old system).

i'm sorry i'm trying to be as clear as i can but our education system is complex af

your A-level grades determine where you can apply to uni, which you HAVE to do through a system called UCAS.

UCAS (the university and colleges admissions service) is a national system where you put in all your details required to apply for uni. you start it in the june of y12 and send it in by January** IN MOST CASES

to apply for uni, you need to list all your qualifications/details, predicted grades, personal statement essay and teacher references. this all gets submitted by your school.

HOWEVER. if you are applying to medicine, vet, dentistry, oxford or cambridge, the deadline is in october, and you have to submit written work, do multiple assessments and do rounds of interviews in addition to everything else (would not recommend).

you can also apply to conservatoire for music/drama schools, which tend to have their own deadlines and systems because they're not technically universities

okay nearly at the end

the closest thing we have to an Ivy League is the Russell Group, but it's not as prestigious. Russell Group unis tend to be higher ranked, offer niche courses and demand high grade requirements.

Oxford and Cambridge are not normal universities. i CANNOT stress this enough. you apply through ucas, but the courses themselves are unique and highly competitive (the one i applied for had like 10 spaces)(i got rejected lmao). also they are arranged in colleges within the uni, so it's like a collection of tiny unis linked by a larger institution. colleges are not subject specific and most of them have weird cults. if you're writing oxbridge students, google it, not just for accuracy, but because it's absolutely hilarious.

interviews are also more like interrogations. i was reduced to tears on several occasions, and you also have to swear not to reveal the questions you were asked (everyone does it anyway but STILL IT'S WEIRD). for example, one of my interviews, i was given a poem about feet and asked to analyse it on the spot over a blurry zoom screen. they don't ask you about yourself. they don't ask you about school. they just quickfire questions at you for forty minutes and roll their eyes when you take more than a few seconds to answer.

we also don't have majors/minors. you choose one subject that you apply for specifically, and spend 3-7 years studying that subject pretty much exclusively. the only deviations from this might be if you were taking archaeology and took an art history class or something — everything is really closely related.

we can also drink at 18. not that an age limit has ever stopped anyone in the uk from getting drunk. getting pissed in a field is a major pastime for anyone from the ages of 12-28. it's a problem.

instead of having dorms at uni, most people live in flats. there will be like ten people on a corridor with a shared kitchen. you only live in university housing for your first year, unless you are at oxbridge, in which case i think it's mandatory to live in your college for your whole course.

community college and private universities aren't a thing either. when you apply to uni, you apply to student finance (unless your parents are absolutely LOADED and pay for you) and get a loan for your tuition, and also a maintenance loan based on your household income, which is used to pay for rent, food, etc. you cannot be exempt from financial aid but a lot of people do not receive enough, particularly in recent years when the cost of living in the uk has gone up so much.

university is roughly £9-10k per year (depending on where you study) which is a Lot. but why are people in the US paying hundreds of thousands of dollars, are you guys okay???

also, if you're scottish, university in scotland is free. they also have a standard four year systm rather than the three year system in england and wales (idk about ni i didn't apply there). why?? because the english government is absolute shite and they got rid of the state university programme for england (blame the tories)

don't do your research on the student room. just don't. for your own sake.

and a couple more cultural things before we leave off

we all wear uniform until we get to year twelve. everyone. even the four year olds.

Nottingham Trent university is just the butt of so many jokes and I really don't understand why (they're not even the lowest in the league table 😭😭)

Durham is full of Oxbridge rejects who are in denial about it, and is also the butt of a lot of jokes

everything i have mentioned so far is about STATE education. private education runs on different tracks: you have prep schools, which run from yR-8, and senior schools that run from y9-11, and most of them have attached sixth forms. there is a massive cultural and economic divide between state and private school kids, because they get so much more help applying for uni, and also there is so much nepotism in our government. like. politicians wear their old school ties in parliament so they know who to give favours to. it's AWFUL.

some private schools are so fancy they loop back around and are known as "public schools". they're schools like Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Marlborough, etc. really old institutions that basically guarantee you a place at oxbridge because of family legacy (though this has got a lot better over the last decade or so)(but they still have an unfair advantage).

a lot of compulsory education schools are really religious because education in the uk used to be run basically by the church, and the church still own a lot of schools. universities though, even the ones with roots in the church, are atheistic, their religious links symbolic or supplementary to their main purpose.

okay that ended up being way longer than i thought, but i hope someone finds this useful when writing, or at least interesting.

[goat-and-a-pig]

Chapter 10

Present

“So Stud, I’ve got a question for you.” Icarus glanced over nonchalantly, his face betraying no hint of his plot.

“Sup,” said Stud. He glanced over his shoulder. He obviously wasn’t paying attention.

Perfect.

“Spud Potatoes?!? Seriously?!?” Icarus burst out laughing. Stan turned the color of a ripe tomato. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, that wasn’t my… best alias.” He grimaced.

“Wasn’t your best one? Does that mean you have more than one? Is Stud Pilfer even your real name? What is your real name? Do you really spell it P-I-L-F-I-R? Seems a bit tacky-” Stud cut him off. “NO, they’re just terrible at spelling!” He glared at him. “Also, I don’t really “do” backstory. But I am fascinated by yours! I assume I can’t ask about Bill.”

“Nope.”

“Or your weird name.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Or your sidekick, Invisi-Girl.”

“Hey!” Mabel shouted. “I am a person, and I am right here. Any questions about me you ask to my face, punk.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “Sheesh, okay.” Stud (if that even was his name) chuckled. “So here’s my question- why’d you never leave the spaceship? You figured people were looking for you- right?” Icarus squirmed. “Well, Bill said I was too weak for the first year, and for the next nine I needed to build up my immunity to the radiation-”

“I never got mutated,” Stud interrupted. “And Mabel hasn’t been there for ten years, right?” She nodded. “So why wasn’t she mutated either?” Icarus frowned. What he said made sense, but it didn’t agree with what Bill said-

A shout arose from the tunnel. “PILFER!” A mustachioed guard yelled at them with more guards behind him.

They booked it.

When they got outside, Icarus could see the guards plus a big man and a small child with big white hair (or maybe it was an extremely short old person; Icarus couldn’t tell the age or gender from here) in handcuffs. Wait… Is that guard a centaur or just riding a horse? He’s too far away… He looked around at his settings, losing his train of thought. They were in a clearing with a canyon and a wooden dam. Who builds a wooden dam? That is so structurally unstable! I mean, come on-

“Dam it,” Stud puffed, breaking Icarus’ internal rant. Icarus looked pointedly at him and then at Mabel, to which Mabel rolled her eyes at. “No, dam it! As in, if we get them all down there and you stay up to break the dam-”

“-We can flood the canyon and get away!” Finished Icarus excitedly. “Yep,” said Stud, a bit miffed that Icarus stole his thunder. “What about the prisoners though? Are they good guys or bad guys?”

“Bad guys,” Stud and Mabel replied in unison. They eyed each other suspiciously. Stud broke first. “I, uh, might’ve cheated them off of their fair share of the profit,” he admitted. “But to be fair, they deserve it! Lil’ Gideon is so annoying! How is he so evil for a ten-year-old?” Mabel scoffed. “He deserved it,” she said darkly. Seeing their looks, she explained. “He’s my ex (sort of). And he’s really clingy! He wouldn’t stop sending me these creepy love letters and- ugh. Forget it.” Yikes. “Here, I’ll be motive enough to get Gideon down there. Bud will follow him from there. You get the guards.” Icarus grabbed her shoulder. “Are you sure about this Mabel?” He asked quietly. She looked up at him, determination gleaming in her eyes. “Icarus,” she said softly. “I know I’m twelve. But I’m more capable than you think I am. I’ll be safe, I promise.” He nodded uneasily.

“I’m gonna need a weapon, because you’ll need my gun. You got any?” Icarus felt around. “Here, take this.” He handed Stud his D, D, & More D rulebook. “Seriously?” But Stud went with it, waved his arms and shouted, “Catch me if you can, suckers!” while running down into the canyon. Mabel went over to Gideon (whichever one that was) and got both of them out of their handcuffs, pretending to help them. He caught the last part of her monologue. “So you’ve decided to take me back?” The short one asked. Guess that was Gideon. Eugh. “Heck no!” She smacked Gideon’s hand that had been creeping its way toward hers. “W-what?” He asked bewilderedly. “I said NO, Gideon! I think you need to learn what that means!” She sprinted down the path.

Gideon took the bait. Icarus could practically see the steam coming out of his ears as the other man (Bud?) lifted him onto his shoulders and ran after her. Down there, it looked like Stud was almost out of luck. He looked up at Icarus who mimed a hitting motion. Stud lifted the book and hit the guard forcefully on his head, knocking him out. “Hey! Your nerd thing is pretty good at putting people to sleep- in more ways than one!” His voice carried as he laughed. He continued to whack people. Icarus rolled his eyes and began to shoot.

Being made out of wood, the bullets went through easily. And being old, it didn’t take long for all of the strategically placed holes water was bursting through to make it collapse. The wood started to creak. Icarus only had to place one more bullet.

“Stud! Mabel!” He cried. They began running up the pathway. “Well I beat the-” he glanced at Mabel “-crap outta those guys. I don’t think you need to shoot it open.” He handed Icarus his book back. “Oh, okay,” Icarus agreed.

Then the dam flooded and swept them all away.

_____

“Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!” They screamed. They held tightly to one another as they were swept away. The guards and prisoners screamed too as all three groups were rushed onto different paths from a three way fork. Icarus, Mabel, and Stud spotted a cave and swam for it to escape the rapids. But as soon as they entered, rocks fell, blocking their exit and leaving enough tiny holes for water to start flooding in.

“No, no, no, no, no,” muttered Stud, panicked. He tried to get some rocks out of the other wall of the cave so they could break free, but with the water rising in the pitch black cave, it was futile.

“It’s useless. I can’t see.” Stud sighed. Mabel shivered and Icarus pulled her closer, his hair dripping on her forehead.

“Stan Pines.”

“Huh?”

“You asked me what my real name is; it’s Stanley Filbrick Pines. Feels like something I should get off my chest before I die.” Mabel gasped softly. “No way,” she whispered. Icarus smiled. “You know, I think I like Stan better.” Icarus felt Stan shrug. “Eh, suit yourself.” They sat in silence for a second, then Icarus spoke up.

“My eye glows when I say an incantation,” he offered. Then it struck him. “My eye glows when I say an incantation!” The water had almost completely filled the cave. He began to speak quickly.

“A-X-O-L-O-T-L!

My time has come to drown!

I invoke the ancient power-”

The water filled the room.

Icarus hesitantly opened his eyes- and could see! It had worked! Stan began to move the rocks frantically, scraping his hand in the process. He moved a rock and found a hole for water to leak from. Then another. And another. With each stone removed, they had a greater chance of living.

Suddenly, the wall broke and they tumbled out with it.

[wptfif]

What Is WPTFIF?

Hey @count-cr4ckula here. You can call me Boopus/Beep/The WPTFIF Guy/Count Crackula/Ghouly Rooly/Jules, whatever as long as I’m cool with it. This pinned post will be a big base resource on my WIP story We Put The Fun In Funeral (Acronym: WPTFIF). If you have any more specific questions about WPTFIF, feel free to comment below or ask me about it on Discord if you find me.

What Is WPTFIF?

WPTFIF was initially a fighting game concept I had in my head about a goth kid and a demon that have a big trip around the country to recapture ghosts back inside an enchanted book. The concept is relatively the same except with a few changes and that I don’t have a particular medium in mind to convey the story at the moment other than hand drawn work (Maybe animation if I gather the motivation). The current story of WPTFIF follows a Nameless punk (They/Them) who grew up without parents that steals an accursed book called Codex Kakos, containing 22 powerful monsters from a traveling performer demon named Edgar (He/Him). Edgar leaves his troupe and his brother Oswine to retrieve Codex Kakos before anything goes wrong… it does go very wrong as the 22 monsters are released across the country of Canada, The Nameless Kid and Edgar have about a month to recapture the 22 monsters into the book or else a terrible cataclysm will occur in the next full moon. The story is subject to have plenty of changes and new additions I will add to his blog as we move along.

What Will This Blog Serve?

This blog will host discussion, art, concept work, story elements, and plenty of development shenanigans for WPTFIF. Once again the determined medium for the story isn’t clear yet, is it a comic? Cartoon? Game? I don’t know, I just wanna iron out the fun bits (the story and stuff) before I do anything big with it.

Any Sensitive Content?

I think even when my work isn’t taking a serious direction, I would probably add sensitivity warning anyway because my work is big on gross visuals or grim subject matter every now and then because I’m a massive horror fan. This series will likely contain stuff like bright colors and gooey visuals, creepy clowns, death, spiders, and other ghoulish stuff. More sensitive stuff included may be included. I will list them as they appear in my creative process in a sort of does the dog die website kinda manner in one big post.

Characters?

There’s going to be a lot of characters in this project. The two main characters are Acronym Kid/Nameless Kid/Punk/Gender Ambiguous Child/The One Not To Be Named and Edgar. There will be a few reoccurring side characters like Edgar’s brother Oswine, a few human characters, and even some of the more notable or the 22 monsters.

Another note to add to this section is that just like with my other work, majority of the characters are LGBTQ+. I am queer myself and I like writing other queer characters so if you dig that and you like the characters for it, I’m happy for you. If you’re here to be a dick about it, this blog isn’t for you.

How Can I Acceptably Interact With this Work?

There are a few ways you can contribute to this project if you’re interested in it. Asks are always fun, you can ask me questions about it on the Ask Tab or ask characters questions and I can give you little drawn responses if I have the time. I am super flattered whenever I see fan art or fan works of any kind and I’ll surely reblog it here if I can. My only major limit to fan content is that I will not reblog or engage in any NSFW/Inappropriate/Fetish stuff. I’m a minor that’s actually fucking weird if you think content of my characters is okay like that. I’m fine with somewhat suggestive work or shipping content if that’s your cup of tea.

Thank You For Reading This Post!

Future updates with new characters, illustrations, and story stuff are to come in the near future! Stay Tuned.

[berries28]

Aizou and Yuujirou were able to get as close to each other's face as they get during performances, touch each other the way they are able to infront of their fans, only because they were in a very unique position of both trust and un-like. I don't want to use 'dislike' or 'hate' because by the time they were doing performances, they more or less stopped hating each other.

But back to the question of how Aizou and Yuujirou are able to touch and get physically close without either of their traumas or icks activating- because 1. Trust. They know that the other one is reliable enough to let themselves get so close, and 2. Un-like. They know that neither is attracted to the other, and thus believe that their partner would never attempt to do anything the other would usually be very wary of with any other person. Yuujirou struggles dealing with people but also hates being lonely, but he doesn't have to worry about pushing Aizou away, since he knows Aizou is as determined to about their idol career as Yuujirou himself is. Aizou hates the thought of romantic prospect with any woman, and Yuujirou is not a woman. Better yet, he also knows Yuujirou would never leave him since he's as determined about pursuing their music career as Aizou is, so Aizou's abandonment issues are also lessened.

Which brings me to the sheer potential of a romance and the changes it would make to their idol pair. Yuujirou is entirely uninterested in romance, but he IS interested in something "convenient". He still doesn't understand what he has with Aizou, except that he's started caring for him as more than just his unit partner (not that he'd admit it). He enjoys what they have- his first real friendship- and that's enough for him, for now.

The catalyst for change here, then, HAS to be Aizou. Aizou, who never wants to date women due to a personal trauma, has never completely dismissed the idea of entering a romantic relationship. It's even implied in the LIPXLIP Valentines event when Yuujirou asks him if he's ever been in love, Aizou blushes and dismisses it as 'we're talking about you now!' This implies Aizou DOES know what love is. Unfortunately, it's not totally clear if it's for Yuujirou or some random celebrity crush he had as a child. (Yuujirou doesn't even have that, the poor kid. He gave his entire childhood to kabuki.)

I remember from a LIPXLIP New Year's event, that Yuujirou helps Aizou put on traditional Japanese clothes for a programme, and with Yuujirou's head just beneath his chin, his expert fingers working against his chest, Aizou "can't help but feel restless in this sort of situation." I've felt it, Every queer person has felt it before- when a friend of the same gender helps you fix your clothes (a saree or the like that needs an extra pair of hands to fix), and they're so close, the unintentional intimacy is enough to make you hold your breath. I suspect Aizou felt the same.

If we remember correctly, Aizou is always the one initiating physical interaction during their interviews or public appearances, and Yuujirou comfortably eases into his touch, knowing he is completely same. Now, if or when Aizou gains romantic awareness, he might go the regular teenager routes, and either feel to conscious of Yuujirou to touch him casually anymore (which would be disastrous for LIPXLIP as an idol unit), or, more likely, amp up his touches even more. Aizou, the boy who's sent flying to the other side of the room if he bumps into a girl, willingly putting his arms around Yuujirou (in a joking way of course), even when there is no public appearance. Yuujirou might find it annoying or unnecessary, but may eventually get used to it too, even liking the skin ship (as all humans need it at least a little bit, either from family, friends or pets).

Anyway, yeah, that's how I think an 'official' path of them getting together would be handled. I'm fairly certain their won't be explicit "I love yous", but it'll be obvious if and when it happens.

Thanks to anyone who read this far!

[iabggsyk]

So, you know what I wish would happen. What I wish would happen is that someone would make a horror movie/story/oneshot fic where like a group of 28 people:

Family A— A single mom, her 12 year old daughter and their nanny

Family B— A couple (you can choose the names race, nationality, sexuality, age, height, appearance, personality, jobs and gender for everyone who doesn't have one or more of those things listed) with a 12 year old, a 10 year old and a 8 year old

Family C— A single father (because single dads deserve recognition as well; also he's kind and caring about others feelings especially his kid's because men don't need to be macho and have zero emotions to be considered "real men" and if you think that then ignore this post) and his 12 year old

Family D— A single mom with a 12 year old and 9 year old

Family E— A couple with a 12 year old, 7 year old and 4 year old

Family F— A couple with a 17 year old, a 14 year old, a 12 year old and a 11 year old

Family G— A couple with a 16 year old and a 12 year old

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Plot:

So the 7 families all live in a small town and the 12 year olds are all a group of friends that go to the same school and attend the same class(es). The mother of Family A has a job that pays her well enough for her to buy an old mansion on the outskirts of the town but at the cost of not being able to spend as much time with her daughter as they'd both like so the Mom hires a nanny for her daughter so she wouldn't be lonely.

So the daughter invites all of her friends plus their families (because they live in a mansion and can afford to fit everyone in there) and somehow (you get to decide on how) the daughter finds a Ouija board and decides to play with it with her friends after sneaking it back into her room (except for except for the friend in family E who politely declined because he/she/they watched too many horror movies and knows this is a horrible idea. Luckily his/her/their parents had something come up so family E left leaving 23 people left in the house).

So the group of six 12 year olds ended up fucking around and finding out when they accidentally summoned either:

A. A vengeful ghost of a woman who either

1A. Killed her own kids due to (insert tragic backstory here) and now kills other families because if she can't be happy then no one can or

2A. Watched her kids be killed in front of her due to (insert tragic backstory here) and now kills other families because if she can't be happy then no one can.

Or....

B. A demon who is determined to kill the families because anything from "it's a demon lol" to "insert long explanation here."

Then things happen, and the first person has to die before the 12 year old from family B finally tells the parents and older siblings what's going on.

Stuff happens people die and the Mother from family D and her kids stick with the Mother from family A and her daughter because both Moms were childhood friends and the Mom from family D really doesn't like the tactic of splitting up.

Eventually they get to the final confrontation with the vengeful ghost/demon and the only people still alive are the Mother and daughter of family A, the Father and son/daughter/child of family C and the Mother and children of family D who all somehow managed to meet up in (insert room of your choice).

Just as the vengeful ghost/demon is about to attack the Mother from family A gets in front of the others and basically says to the ghost/demon "Bitch I fucking wish you would. If you even so much as think about killing my kid, me, or anyone else in this room I will personally destroy any sliver of evidence that might prove of your existence and then you. I do not care if you're a ghost/demon I WILL find a way to simply make you no longer exist. Try me mother fucker. Try. Me. You want to do this? Let's go. But let me be clear that if you try anything I WILL be the LAST thing you see before you poof out of existence."

And if you chose demon she also says "I do not care if I have to drag you out of hell, I will do it and I will make it seem as if you never existed."

And then the spirit/demon becomes so absolutely fucking terrified of her that she/he/they/it just end up leaving the last surviving members alone and going out of her/his/their/its way to not only avoid her but the other family members as well.

And if you want to do a second one have like at the end when the last of the new people who weren't killed off are fighting off the spirit/demon the mother from family A just shows up, now visibly older but not old old yet, kicks down the door and just looks at the spirit/demon and it screams in fear and starts running.

I feel like if someone decides to use this format for their horror story could they just tag me so that I could get credit for making the format (not the story, whatever happens in the majority of the story is up to you) and so that I can read it because I really want to see what a bunch of creative people can each come up with and how while using the same format, their stories still differ and are unique from each other.

Also if you could reblog and like this so more people could get awareness to that would be great.

[gothmods]

The thing about baby names like these is if i met someone who had named themselves theory id think that was cool as fuck but thats very different to being assigned theory at birth

And i dont even mean this from the angle of bullying so muchs as i mean

1. Children have very little autonomy and that extends to names. Beyond many adults simply not taking childrens requests to use a different name seriously a minor cannot legally change their name without the support (and often financial aid) of their legal guardians.

Which flows through to point 2 which is that you have no clue what kind of person your child will be, their gender, their likes/dislikes, what they want to do with their life etc etc and while there isnt a clear solution to this as long as names exist as a legal identifier determined by your parents i do feel you should consider the possibilities of who your child may be and what names will suit a wider range of those potentials

Like of course its not possible to accurately predict how a child will feel but i do think the using-words-as-names thing like pixie theory leaf etc can be very loaded with ideas of personality and even aesthetics in a way that can be very uncomfortable when you didnt actively choose it as your name

And i know all names have meanings attached to them it just feels much moreso with these kinds of naming trends. That and i think that because of the whole children having no initial say thing that you shouldnt get too invested in the idea of baby names as an expression of ~you~

[skullamity]

Here's a fun analogy since words are apparently very hard for you to understand even when someone is being very, very clear with you.

When I was a kid, my grandma repeatedly tried to teach me how to knit. It never stuck--she would teach me and I would spend an afternoon doing some basic knitting, and then a week later she'd suggest we pick it back up and whatever I knew about knitting last week was just gone. I had to learn all over again. She tried for a year before we both gave up. It turns out that it was hard to focus on retaining anything I knew about knitting because all I could think about was drawing. It turns out that drawing suited me way better!

Now, by your logic, we should...what, go back and decide that to....what? Even though those knitting lessons were a thing I experienced, repeatedly, and their intent was to teach me a new skill, knitting, I didn't actually learn to knit, and what I actually learned to do was drawing, on account of all of the time I spent thinking about drawing while I was knitting. So should I retroactively start referring to those knitting lessons as...drawing lessons? That doesn't sound right, does it? In fact, I think you will find that that sounds fucking ridiculous!

There are two kinds of gendered socialization--the traumatic, pointed kind that someone intentionally does to fix you and make you into what they think you are supposed to be (ranging from extremely irritating to traumatic and extremely bad!), and the kind that comes form the accumulative background noise of what you absorb from the world and the people in that surround you (ranging from shit you don't even notice you're absorbing to mildly irritating because you disagree with it on some level to perfectly acceptable because you agree with it).

The bulk of our socialization comes from the second type. If you think that you experienced the bulk of that socialization through that lens, that is up to you to determine. But you need to understand that:

1) someone attempting to force you into a male role when you were a child was enacting MALE SOCIALIZATION on you, with that intent. It is something that is done TO YOU and your actual identity does not determine the name it is called by, because its name is derived from the INTENT of the people who perpetrated it against you. It has literally no bearing on your internal sense of identity, your experience of your own gender, and was harmful to you specifically because it was not compatible with your gender identity.

2) it is possible to feel like and actively experience early gendered socialization as female socialization if that is the axost around which all of your young thoughts revolved, these are not incompatible statements and I do not know what you want them to be incompatible so fucking badly that words apparently stop making sense to you, but here we are!

3) gendered socialization that was done to you is not commentary on your actual gender or internal experience, it is not misgendering you to say that someone wanted you to be a boy, the RIGHT kind of boy, even, so fucking badly that they were willing to traumatize you over and over to achieve that goal and still failed to do so. It is describing a SERIES OF EVENTS that someone who isn't you tried to force on you, it is NOT describing you, it is NOT describing your gender, it is NOT describing your internal sense of self and it is NOT describing any accumulative background noise socialization you experienced in a way that you disagree with. IT IS NOT RELATED. THESE TWO THINGS ARE NOT RELATED. THEY DO NOT INFLUENCE EACH OTHER IN A WAY THAT IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH ANYTHING YOU HAVE SAID, AND THEY DO NOT INFLUENCE EACH OTHER IN A WAY THAT IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH ANYTHING I HAVE SAID. It is just a NAME for a CONCEPT that describes the INTENDED OUTCOME of an action that someone did to you, and that person's intent does not even determine the outcome of taking that action because neither the person nor the action get to determine what you take away from the experience, because that is internal and unique to YOU in the act of HAVING THAT EXPERIENCE.

It seems like you've assumed a lot about me, and if your recent vagueposting about me is any indication you have had a shitty and abusive relationship in the past with a closeted trans man. That sucks for you, it really does, and I'm happy you escaped that. But you have entered this discussion and have spent the entire afternoon trying to explain to me why I love to misgender and shit on trans women, and given me not one iota of good faith, not asked me a single clarifying question, because you don't want clarity, you don't want me to have room to explain something you initially misunderstood, because you straight up cannot entertain the idea that you have spent a lot of time ascribing positions to me that I literally do not hold because it would be embarrassing for you to stop and just own up to that fact at this point.

If you want to believe that you dodged a bullet (male socialization) by taking a a different bullet (female socialization) to the chest, you do you! But it's still a bullet! They're both still a bullet when the intent is to "fix" children who are not conforming to their agab in a satisfactory way, they're both traumatic and bad! I cannot stop you! But I am done! I'm putting a 15 minute timer on my phone and when it goes off, I block you, whether you've had time to read this or not, because I am not your therapist and I am not going to be a stand in for trauma surrounding your ex, either.

I get a little frustrated with the discussion over socialization that I see in current trans discourses.

Like, I get that being called "female or male socialized" is used as a cudgel by transphobes, particularly radfems, to say that we can't Really BE our gender cause we weren't "socialized" the same. I get that there is a valid knee-jerk dismissal given how it is bandied about as some sort of litmus test for if someone is oppressed or privileged or whatever the fck other box people want to say has no nuance or needs credentials for having an opinion about.

But like, socialization is a thing. it is a thing that happens to people, and it is a useful academic term for understanding acculturation and how social norms and practices are reproduced. Male and Female socialization are things that have coherent meanings, but are context dependent and nuanced. it feels kinda like throwing the baby out with the bath water when we categorically say that socialization is "bullshit" or "not a thing" because it absolutely is.

It just Also has nothing to do with whether or not someones gender identity is "Real" or "Valid". it actually does not matter whether or not a trans man or woman or non-binary person is female or male socialized, that does not make their perspective less real and valuable or make them less their gender. It just doesn't. It's a non sequitur. If we can understand that someone who was put into one sex category is and can be a different gender...why does their socialization suddenly matter for whether or not they experience that gender?

Honestly, I think it just comes down to people reaching for logical short cuts, for ways to control and gate-keep spaces/discourses by misusing social science as a purity test. People are very obsessed with trying to find the "truest" or "most oppressed" experience that they ignore that actually every human has a unique perspective and you actually have to look at their arguments and actions not some immutable characteristic that you can somehow use to explain their entire perspective.

The problem with people who make socialization arguments are that their arguments are bad. They don't actually prove anything, because socialization can't actually prove gender identity or amount/type of oppression someone faces.

socialization is a description of a process that has no guaranteed outcomes, not a some sort of black mark on someones soul.