#just. begging you all to go outside. make friends with some poc. read a book by poc...

[robobee]

not to get c*ntroversial on here but the way non-muslims talk about us like we're some rare species is. so fucking weird. "oh it's OK I read somewhere that the mozlems don't think of the heejabs as cloth" like it's. well meaning. i guess. but it feels sooo skeevy . it's like. the same energy as pointing at a Christian and going "Oh it's OK guys i saw a movie once and the necklace is actually for their Deus' child and NOT decoration. just wanted to clarify for my poc followers <3 correct me if I'm wrong but do it nicely bc im an uwu baby🥺🥺 yes I'm a 34 year old mother of two but uwu"

[chatalyst]

(I don’t know if my last ask sent, the one where I tried to clarify) but to clarify even more bc now I’m anxious for being your worst ask ever (sorry), the past few months I’ve been depressed and I guess having an existential crises, so sometimes I just think about things and just everything or for example how I never would’ve been more before 1967 since interracial marriage was banned and I’m brown (half white) and how every poc was treated until recently. I guess it just makes me sad sorry

TW//assault, racism, homophobia

Hi I had to take a second to chill out but now that I’ve had a minute let me explain something. I’m going to address what you put in your other asks first, but I will not be replying to those asks because what you put in them is extremely triggering and doesn’t belong on my blog in any capacity.

Women are not, and never have been “weaker than men”. There are more biological similarities between the sexes than there are differences, and to imply that women are “naturally born weaker” and asking “did we do something wrong as women?” is a blatant disregard for how deeply rooted mysoginy is in our world and how it has affected us from before birth. We didn’t do shit but exist, and to imply that, somehow, because women have suffered, it is THEIR fault for what they’ve gone through? is not okay.

Now, I know you said in your second ask that your upbringing taught you that that is how it is, that women are “naturally this” and “naturally that”; it’s all bullshit. It is nothing more than the words of deeply sexist people, and what they say is not rooted in fact nor has it ever been.

There have been strong women throughout history that are examples of how all of that is false. Women who have taught you that it isn’t about biology; it isn’t about how you were born. That teach you that women have always been as strong as, and STRONGER THAN men. Yes, it is expected that women be softer, kinder, gentler, less assuming, breakable, quiet. But I have never in my life met a woman who fit these roles unless they had deep conditioning to believe that was all they could be. And I hope and pray that you do not internalize what you told me in that ask, because none of it is true.

What women have suffered throughout history is not their fault. It is not because of some “predetermined biological blueprint” that says they will be unable to fight back because men are stronger. Look around you. There are women fighting every day for our right to be taken seriously because we STILL have to fight to be heard when we speak up about assault. ASSAULT. NO ONE ASKS FOR ASSAULT it is something horrific that happens. Do NOT blame victims of actual literal crime for what happened to them, it is ALWAYS the fault of the attacker.

Now, I’m going to address this. I know it’s scary out there. And I know things feel hopeless; I am BEGGING you to find a creative hobby to take your mind off of it. As soon as you feel that feeling of anxiety? Read a book about history, about sociology, about psychology. READ and learn about these topics, and not from some random ass relative who told you women are naturally weaker so they deserve the pain they go through. And I know I’ve answered a few asks like this before, but my ask box is not an education box. I’m not responsible for teaching you about why these thoughts are backwards. I’m not responsible for teaching literally anyone why something they say is DEEPLY sexist, racist, or homophobic.

I grew up in one of the whitest, most homophobic, most religious, most sexist, backwards ass neighborhoods. As a bisexual Latina woman who came from an extremely catholic family (when the rest of my peers were Mormon), my entire life was struggling to find my identity while every single person I met outside of my family was telling me I was wrong. That shit you sent is triggering not only to me, but to ANYONE who had to endure what you talked about. I know you feel anxious, but I dealt with that already and I overcame it through educating myself, and that is all I can offer to you in return.

This is a miraculous ladybug fan blog, but I am very vocal about my identity. Why would anyone look at who I am and what I’ve defended and what I’ve been outspoken about and ask me why women are weaker than men? They’re not, and any look at the women through history would prove that to you.

You can be upset about what women have to go through. Hell, I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve broken down over that shit. I’ve seen women I admired and looked up to go through it. I’ve gone through it. My family members, closest friends, total strangers have gone through it, and never once have I thought to myself “what woman would let that happen to them?” It is not our fault, and it never will be.

What you sent to me isn’t okay. I know you’re searching for answers in a world that seems like it would never listen to you, but I need you to educate yourself, not ask chatalyst on tumblr dot com about white supremacy and sexist biological theory. I’ve dealt with those questions and I’ve done a damn good job of cutting off people in my life who believe that shit, and I believe it would change your entire worldview if you did the same.

So, thank you for apologizing, and I don’t believe you were trying to be malicious with the questions. But you’re obviously already aware that there’s something wrong with those beliefs, and now it is up to you to educate yourself and distance yourself from anyone who believes that. I wish you the best.

[theconservativebrief]

When Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone came out in the United States 20 years ago, it changed the way we thought about children’s books. Under Harry’s influence, kids’ books got longer. They got more prestigious. They became culturally inescapable. And for a generation of writers, the Harry Potter books became foundational texts, ones to refer to again and again to figure out what their next book should look like.

Vox spoke to seven writers via email about their memories of growing up on Harry Potter, and how the books influenced their own writing. In their own words, here’s how Harry Potter changed the next generation of writers.

The following comments have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Lee’s gay Regency road trip novel A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue was one of the most charming books of 2017, and its sequel will come out in October.

My strongest memory of Harry Potter is listening to the audiobooks narrated by Jim Dale. I was a big audiobook reader as a kid, and I used to carry a little cassette player all around the house, listening to Harry Potter over and over again until I could recite passages from memory. I also remember going to a release party for the fourth book, where my sister and I made her a Fluffy the three-headed dog costume and she won second prize in the costume contest!

My other biggest Harry Potter memory is when the seventh book came out, my family made a pact we’d all read it together. But I couldn’t wait! My mom was keeping a close eye on the book to make sure no one read ahead, so in order to sneak it away, I swapped the dust jacket with another fantasy novel and pretended to be reading that one instead. And it worked! She didn’t know until I told her years later!

I feel like Harry Potter is always with me, and always with everything I create. I’m constantly chasing the feeling those books give me in everything I write, and hoping that someday someone will love my work even a smidge as much as I love Harry Potter.

Robson is an internationally best-selling author of historical romances. Her new book The Gown comes out in December.

My sister put the first book in my hands a year or two after it was first published. I read it straight through without stopping, and then I turned to the first page and read it all over again. When my now-teenage son was still very little, probably no more than 4 or 5, I read the first three books aloud to him at bedtime over the course of a year or so. I simply couldn’t wait any longer to introduce him to the world Rowling had created.

The clarity of [Rowling’s] vision continues to astonish and inspire me. She saw, right from the beginning, where the great arc of the series would lead Harry and his friends, and she knew exactly how those thousands of puzzle pieces would fit together. I also adore Harry himself, not least because he reminds me of another orphan who only wanted to be loved and have a place to belong and a family to call her own: Anne Shirley [of Anne of Green Gables].

For me, Rowling herself is the inspiration. I’d dreamed of writing a book for years, but for one reason or another I kept putting it off. And then, late one night when I was up with my weeks-old daughter, I watched a documentary about Rowling, and how difficult her life was before the great success of Harry Potter. She wrote her first book without any of the supports that many people would consider essential to such a grand endeavor: no supportive partner, no child care, no money for things like a computer or research trips or even a nice cup of coffee at the end of a bad day. She kept going through the bad days; she never gave up. I started writing my first book the next morning.

Knisley is an author and illustrator who reimagined each Harry Potter book as a poster-length comic. Her new book Kid Gloves comes out in February.

I was that cool kid who had a book club with my sixth-grade teacher. We’d trade books that we thought the other would like all through elementary school and into high school. In my freshman year of high school, she sent me the first Harry Potter book. It was the last book she ever sent me, but it was probably one of the most long-lived gifts I ever received.

[Harry Potter] celebrates everyone’s differences. We love the characters because of their individuality and strengths, and that they can find a place for themselves. I was a lonely, awkward kid who changed schools quite a lot (a Neville, if you will) but I recognized this world in the book as a place where everyone, oddball or misfit or even bratty narcissist included, could find their home.

I think Harry Potter has given all of us something to strive for — a world so beloved and complete that people of all ages get lost in the pages. I’d love to be able to write a book like that someday.

Matharu became a YA fantasy sensation on the fanfic website Wattpad. His book The Summoner’s Handbook comes out in October.

I was first given Harry Potter at around the age of 9. It was right before the series became a phenomenon — I hadn’t heard of it before. When I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for the first of many times, in my eyes, it was like any other book.

That was before I started reading it. I became an instant fan — I loved every page, and immediately begged my mother for a trip to the bookshop to purchase the second one when I finished it. After that, I was one of the many readers who had the release date of the next book written in my diary, and would queue up with my parents outside the bookstore, waiting for the doors to open. I count myself lucky to be in the first generation of Harry Potter fans.

J.K. Rowling lived and breathed the world of Harry Potter, and that was plain on the page. You believed it when you read it. And perhaps most important of all, it was a world you wished you could live in. I stayed up all night on my 11th birthday, waiting in hope for an owl to deliver my Hogwarts acceptance letter.

Of course, now I know that Muggle-born children don’t receive owls — a teacher from Hogwarts arrives at their door with the letter, to explain everything to their parents. It’s that kind of attention to detail that made the world of Harry Potter so special.

It’s no coincidence that my own first novel takes place in a boarding school setting, where teenagers learn to control their powers. Harry Potter’s Hogwarts is one close to my heart, and it inspired me to make my own magical school. That being said, [mine is] more of a military academy. Training involves learning how to fight as military officers, in a war against the savage orcs of the Southern Jungles.

The magic is also very different; no wands or broomsticks here. But even here, Rowling’s influence can be seen — students’ powers involve summoning demons from another plane of existence. These demons are magical creatures inspired by world mythologies, not unlike Rowling’s own bestiary of fantastic beasts.

Along with his brother, young adult author and icon John Green, Green is one half of the YouTube power duo Vlogbrothers, the founder of VidCon, and a longtime member of Harry Potter fandom. His debut novel An Absolutely Remarkable Thing comes out this month.

The way we loved Harry Potter while the books were coming out was so good and big and pure, and the fact that some of the younger, nerdier parts of the internet were simultaneously on the rise can’t really be separated from each other. The community and passion of the Harry Potter fandom was, for a lot of people, how their experience of the internet began. That community was vital to my growth not just as a creator but as a compassionate, thoughtful citizen of the internet. Weird, but true.

Lam is the author of the critically acclaimed YA fantasy series the Micah Grey trilogy and the Pacifica series.

My best friend since I was 6 thrust the first book into my hands when I was 11 or so. I devoured the first three books and became an instant fan. I waited in line at midnight for the next book release, dressing up. When a new film came out, my mom would let my brother and me play hooky and we’d go watch a matinee showing. In a roundabout way, I met my husband and moved to Edinburgh, the birthplace of Harry Potter, through the books too, because he was a troll on a Harry Potter Yahoo chatroom that me and my friends posted on (it’s a long, nerdy story).

My favorite thing about the books is the sense of magic. It was pure escapism. It didn’t matter that if you thought too hard about certain things about the world, it didn’t exactly make sense. Because it was such a wide phenomenon, it was fantasy that all my friends also read. It was my first fandom, where I read fanfic and started thinking about where else the world could go and who else could live within them. I was especially drawn to fanfic about the marginalized that didn’t show up that often at Hogwarts — the queer and POC characters, for example.

I once uploaded two chapters of a Harry Potter fanfic called The Black Cat. I have zero recollection of what it was about — I only know the title because I referred to it in my teen diary. It’s better lost to time. My first love is fantasy, and that’s what I started writing. Harry Potter’s influence has creeped into my Micah Grey trilogy, starting with Pantomime. Micah runs away to a magical circus to escape his stifling real life, changing gender presentation within the process. There’s even a trio — Micah is definitely the Gryffindor. Cyan is Ravenclaw. Drystan is Slytherin but with a little bit of hidden Hufflepuff. I’ll always be thankful to Rowling for the magic.

Spieller is a literary agent and author of the YA novel Your Destination Is on the Left. She recently revealed her Harry Potter allegiances via Book Twitter’s version of fuck/marry/kill: “Write Gryffindor. Edit Ravenclaw.”

I heard Harry Potter before I read it. My seventh-grade computer teacher read the first chapter to the class, then helped us build basic HTML websites inspired by the story. I remember a lot of pixelated, rotating witches’ brooms …

My favorite thing about the books is how they make me feel. Reading even a single line takes me back to childhood, when all I wanted was to receive my Hogwarts acceptance letter via owl. J.K. Rowling makes Harry’s world feel lived-in and real by including lots of small details. I try to do that with my own books.

Original Source -> 7 authors tell us how 20 years of Harry Potter shaped their lives

via The Conservative Brief

[aquarianlights]

I need you to know, you matter. Your posts have made me feel like I'm not alone in this world so many times. Please know that you make an impact on this world by just being who you are.

I...cannot even begin to describe how this made me feel. I am so goddamn discouraged right now and I just... the joint pain I am experiencing is unreal. But heavy doses of Lyrica impact my ability to function...I’m having anger-induced black outs which...apparently anger is normal when you first get diagnosed with a chronic pain disorder or anything that changes your day-to-day life significantly that you cannot fix. I read a whole book on it yesterday...how the anger is normal. But having black outs due to that anger is apparently not normal, so...Idk. And I’ve been feeling so much less and less motivated to get through the day. . .After I’m awake and I get up and get coffee, I’m okay. But actually waking up (if I take meds to go to sleep, otherwise I won’t sleep at all) is.....it’s... it hurts? Does that make sense to you or..anyone? When I wake up, all I want to do is writhe in bed and cry and fall back asleep, but I know if I try to go back to sleep, the second time I wake up, I will be nauseated so when I’m up, I have to get up to avoid intense nausea. It’s hurting to wake up and I don’t want to be awake anymore...but then I get going during the day doing things...and I start to feel better...But unless I’m studying medicine or doing “adulting”-esque things for the day that go above and beyond the normal. . .I don’t feel a passion or need to exist. But I don’t want to not exist either...maybe I do. I don’t know anymore...I kind of want to give up and die but then other times, I just say “Fuck this. Fuck everyone. Fuck myself and my negativity. I’m gonna do all of this and prove everyone wrong.” And I mean, I always succeed when I say that and I’m having to use less and less valium...I’m experiencing less and less panic attacks...I’m able to do so much more than I could even a year ago...But it’s not enough in my mind despite the fact I’m doing a neurotypical taskload everyday...sometimes even moreso than your average neurotypical. And some days it feels effortless...other days it feels like it’s the end of the world if I spend another 24 hours on this planet... I don’t know.. I feel... I feel hollow. I feel like my soul has been ripped out of my body and pinned against the wall and forced to watch me struggle to get out of bed (both physically and emotionally/mentally/psychologically) every day. I feel like I lost something....something very significant... Yet, I don’t feel like there was anything left for me to lose at this point. Everything just feels so...hollow. Like I’m neither living nor existing... I feel nothing or everything. Sometimes both simultaneously. And that makes no sense and no one is going to understand that but it’s...it’s...infuriating and frustrating and makes me feel this white hot anger bubbling in the middle of my chest. It’s hard to breathe sometimes. Physically hard to breathe. But not in a ...chostochondritis way. Or a pre-panic attack way. It just...it just feels like someone or something is ripping the air from my lungs piece by piece. It feels like someone poked a bunch of holes in my lungs and are now slowly siphoning the air from my lungs little by little through those holes every time I take a breath of air. And there’s this heaviness on my chest...all the time...no position alleviates it and Idk whether it’s physical or mental or both or related to my chronic costo...or what...

I feel passion and fire and drive and determination and all these wonderful things in such extreme doses......but I also feel defeated and dehumanized and demoralized and like maybe it’d be so much better for EVERYONE involved if I just fucking gave up and let go...

I feel like there’s this heavy weight attached to me following me at all times. Like. . .Like a balloon filled with lead that floats... Multiples of those balloons...tied around my throat and wrists and waist and ankles...just...dragging along behind me... giving me this feeling like something is going to happen...something very bad. I feel imminent threats and danger all the time...and I feel like something is pushing me towards a pool filled with tangible defeat. . .and like I won’t be able to stop them from pushing me over the edge and into that pool. . .and like tangible defeat is like quicksand where...if you struggle, you get pulled deeper and deeper in...but if you stay still and calm and accept your fate...you can eventually get out yourself or have someone help you out. But my fight or flight response is SO strong and in that situation, there’s no doubt my system would choose fight despite me wanting to choose neither. So I would struggle and struggle as this thing or person is standing on the precipice...watching me drown in tangible defeat... And it would swallow me whole.

I feel like that is destined to happen in this linear timeline...and that it is so soon. I have come back from SO much in my life...I have come back every goddamn time. I have struggled and made waves in this world... But... It feels ... It feels like that’s not enough. I’m doing something wrong. Or maybe there’s something inherently wrong with me and my mind? Maybe both.

It almost feels like psychosis. Like...Like I’m watching from the outside in... Not dissociation. It doesn’t feel like that. It feels like I’m trapped in a room and that room moves with my tangible body............okay, I guess I’m not describing anything in any way that anyone can comprehend right now. . .

Everything is so conflicted in me. I think it’s just a major flare up of BPD like I’ve never experienced before because all psychs have said I’m a textbook case of borderline and that I am an extreme version of borderline..But I’ve never experienced ANYTHING like this.

This isn’t depression. This isn’t anything akin to depression. I know what depression feels like. I know what suicidal ideation feels like. I lived with both for 24 years. I KNOW this isn’t anything akin to depression/MDD. This is SO MUCH stronger and so much worse than that. Honestly, I would rather just...be straight up suicidal again rather than dealing with these extremely intense, overwhelming swings of passion to defeat. I can go from 0 to 100 back to 0 back to 100 in like...a second flat. I go between “I can do this! Fuck everyone! I’m a fucking demi-god, bitch. Positive vibes. I can do anything. LITERALLY ANYTHING.” to “I can’t do anything and I am the most worthless creature on the planet. . .but I can’t die...and I need someone to kill me.”

I genuinely considered finding a cop and approaching them and from a distance telling them I was armed and that if they didn’t shoot me dead, I would I stab them or threaten them in some way. And if they didn’t believe me, I’d whip a knife out or my taser or my brass knuckles or all three and charge at them. But then I realize I’m 5′2″ and white. . .and....they’d see me as female even though I’m clearly not... They wouldn’t take me seriously and would probably just taser me and cuff me and then either jail time or psych ward. They may not even taser me. They’d probably just throw me on the ground. . .which. . .I’ve had done to me before. I’ve had a cop pick me up with one hand and throw me on the floor in order to cuff me. I know what that’s like... Didn’t hurt at the time coz I had drank a whole bottle of Schol’s vodka and downed exactly 100 xanax. So I felt nothing. But...my friends made me aware I am white and 5′2″ and nonthreatening and even if I begged them to shoot me or did something genuinely threatening to make them have reason to draw their gun or shoot...they probably wouldn’t. . . Which is just... so unfair to everyone involved. All these wonderful, innocent POC being shot all the fucking time, usually to death...for absolutely no reason at all..... and then us saltine crackers not being able to be shot even when we’re begging or doing something threatening. All these people that deserve to live dying.......yet I’m here...still alive... and worth nothing and should be dead....

I’m in ramble-mode now and I’m losing focus because I’m trying not to cry.

Just know...this message......is exactly what I needed right now...

And I cannot even fathom how or why you would feel this way....how or why anyone would...or could... I can’t fathom why you would take the time to write such a wonderful, genuinely kind thing to me... I can’t...I can’t....

Thank you does not even BEGIN to describe the appreciation I want...NEED...to convey. I can’t... I can’t begin to express my appreciation for this... This is literally a life-changing ask. I’m not kidding you. You may very well have just saved my life with this ask.

Thank you. That doesn’t begin to cover it, but...thank you.