#like even if im mistaken and it is a valid concept i dont see a practical use for it beyond gatekeeping

[sknolls]

Maybe you'll find this helpful? But I think the concept of intelligence sort of dissipates as you get older. Because everyone works by their own metrics and specialties. Like, I couldn't tell you the first think about biology, that doesn't make me less intelligent than a dedicated biologist. Just means they specialize in something that I don't. And applies to shit that I'm good with too. It's all just experience. Even within the same profession, you wouldn't look at two brilliant artists and go "yep that one's smarter," without coming across as extremely reductionist. It's sort of hard to have a good relationship with a false concept.

I think the main thing that made me dismissive of the concept is that I couldn't define a coherent metric for it. Even as an abstract concept. Is Intelligence a measurement of the amount of information someone knows? One's propensity to learn and accept new information? Is it a collection of general knowledge or is it specialized knowledge? What information constitutes one's intellect? Is it a static variable or one that's in constant flux? Like, I've generally been above average at math in elementary school, but then I hit a brick wall upon reaching higher levels of it, which involved invoking a different set of skills. So, what does that say about my intelligence on the matter? Another potential metric for the concept is one's propensity to think. But the act of thinking, itself, isn't a measurable concept either. Like, it's the closest approximation to how I'll use the words "smart" and "dumb." Basically as ways of saying "you gave me a lot to think about" or "I don't think you've put in enough thought." But there's a more accurate set of words for that: thoughtfulness, nuance, etc. For the sake of comparison, I'd argue that wisdom is an abstract concept, but still a real one. It's the measurement of one's life-experience. It is abstract because it cannot be objectively measured, but its components are commonly understood.

Also, when I coin the term false concept, I'm just saying it's a concept people invoke and attach meaning to despite the concept itself being rather meaningless. When I say an abstract concept, I mean it's a concept that lacks quantifiability and yet still holds meaning.

I personally find talking about concepts and philosophies to be rather annoying because language is fundamentally imprecise. I dont think thats a fault of English specifically. I think it's more that language is how a person translates their thoughts into a format understood by their peers, and I think my autism just gives me a heightened sense of awareness to its function as a translator. Every word carries a degree of nuance and air for interpretation that makes communicating ideals, especially with non-autistic ppl, tedious. That's also why I end up using a lot of big words and coining a lot of terms; feels more precise.

I want to be smart and be seen as smart by others, its one of the only things I latched onto as a pup that could make me feel like I had something that neurotypical people didn't. It's at best a silly fantasy, but since I'm white I don't really know if I can have a productive relationship with "intelligence" in the first place. Much to think about.

[staatsanwaltnightingale]

Are they, are they not?

„GoodOmens“ content was flooding my dash for a while now.

At first I ignored it, but I grew more curious with every post about the show, cute fanart does that to you.

So i made an amazon prime account (thankfully there is a free month option) to check out for myself what that hype was all about:

Aka the two cents noone asked for.

I like bible story adaptations. Though I myself am not a believer, I love the concept of angels, demons, gods, mythical creatures, all that good stuff. Makes sweet fuel for the creativity engine.

I did enjoy the story, the story telling. I liked quite a lot of the characters. The humor. Cringed at some scenes and lines.

All in all the series was a solid 4,5 out of 5.

The big questionis: Are the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley a thing?

((Now I only watched the TV Series, never read the book. But as far as I am aware, what I could gather from tumblr posts anyway, there are quite a lot of differences, so they should be treated seperately.

What I could gather, in the book they held hands facing the Apocalypse, and at the end moved into a cottage together.

What I do know, is that in the series one of the angels that cornered Aziraphale to question him, called Crowley something along the lines of „your boyfriend with the sunglasses“.

If they arnt canon, why put a line like this in there. I mean yeah I guess its meant as harmless joke but did they really have to include that?))

- I have seen many opinions on this:

Some claim it is absolutely canon, refering to the creators confirming it in an interview.

- Others say they are just (best) friends.

- My friend told me she read an article where the creators (or one of them anyway) said that they cant be in a love relationship because celestial beings apparently dont have a concept of that kind of love. To which I call bullshit, because not only do they experience love for things like food or a bentley to the point they are „having a moment here“ when it burns down, to crying over the loss of a best friend.

Its not a huge leap from best friends to Significant others, rather its a pretty small step.

And before anyone says something along the lines „Just because they dont have sex on screen...“ yada yada. Of course they dont have to fuck to be a valid couple. I myself wish nothing more than  relationship stories that dont revolve around sex in this over sexualised world. Id love to see more Asexual rep.

I love their relationship: being fond of each others company, wanting to run off together, worrying for eachother, caring for eachother,  having fun together...but how hard would it be to say „I love you“ or hold hands while smiling lovingly at eachother. Because as cute as their interactions are, you COULD interpret it as just really close friends.

Hell, there are still a lot of people denying Korrasami (the lesbian couple from the show „the legend of Korra“), calling them gal pals and seeing their handholding and them longingly gazing at eachother as being really close friends. (disclaimer, Im not saying their relationship has been established in a perfect way with all the love triangle going on etc.)

- I read an article, where N.G said that it IS a love story, which kind of love, though, is up to the viewers interpretation. Which, to me, is one of the rudest things to say, especially as an supposed ally. What does he think have we been doing all these years? Starving for representation, the lgbt-etc community kept grasping at any ever so small hint, clinging to any for two same gendered individuals atypical interaction they could find, just to be shown the middle finger in the end.

Is it queerbaiting?

((If Im not mistaken the book and the series was written by two authors, and I dont know, to me, if its not both parties agreeing on them being gay, and only one pushing this narrative, then I wouldnt count it.

Also im not sure why he is practically begging for fanfictions. If your show is good and you have nice character you dont even have to say a thing and there are thousand fanfictions appearing every second. Mostly fetish/kink based porn fanfictions, but yeah.))

((Disclaimer: Before I get jumped, yes I know angels and demons have no gender, I am aware of that.

But they present themselves mostly as men. Sometimes as women.

So lets just say it would be a win for nonebinaries and homosexuals alike.))

Many shows like using queerbaiting to boost their views. Using interactions between two same gendered people, including romantice cues, to wake the illusion of a possible homosexual relationship, but keep it vague enough not to throw off the straight viewership.

And boy do the fish bite, just to be tossed into the grinder when the show is done and it turns out, hey those two characters were straight all along. Silly fish.

I mean, are straight people not tired of the „will they wont they trope“?

Also it bothers me how we have two celestial beings knowing eachother for thousands of years  with the potential of an enemies, to friends, to best friends, to significant others love story and get nothing (?).

But then we have two characters that literally just met, and they fuck in a storm because of a prophecy.

That scene threw me off. Did I miss something? Did they stop the storm by fucking? Also haha hes a virgin. And after that they are together.

That being said, in no way do I want to force the creators to change their characters into something they didnt envision them to be. But if you didnt plan it then stick to your actual plan and dont give people, who are starved for this kind of content, false hope so you can collect browny points and/or gain more viewers. And Im pretty sure making their interactions as gay as they are is a huge part why this show exploded so hard.

Also we should stop praising „browny point fishing creators“. (of any media)

In this case its absolutely valid to praise the creators of Good Omens for a good show, I liked the series too.  

But dont put them on the throne as saviors of the lgbt community.

((As I already mentioned, I liked the show, it was a cute little story with nice characters.

But I dont really want to invest my time and energy into supporting a noncanon pairing like I used to.

Its tiring and draining and ends in sadness. Id rather move on.))

This is a written mess and all over the place, so please do correct me on anything that I got wrong.

All I want to know is the truth.

[genngraymane]

America: Really THAT Bad? (spoilers btw)

BEFORE:

It’s been a while since I read anything Marvel in the last few years. I think I stopped reading around the time of Marvel Now! because I was too focused on DC’s New 52 at the time (plus I took a break from comics around that time shortly after). So aside from the few issues of Young Avengers I’ve read years ago, I know nothing about this character. Obviously, I’ve heard some polarizing things about this book, but I’m still pretty excited to see what the hubub’s all about. One thing I remember loving about Marvel was their teen heroes. Hopefully America rekindles the things I missed from Marvel.

AFTER:

Okay so I just finished the first 7 issues. Overall it wasn’t the horribly unbearable experience my buddies kept warning me about. No where near as offensively bad as they made it out to be. If anything my only gripe with the book is that it’s rather forgettable. With the exception of Kate, America’s supporting cast feel like they’re just background pieces with speech bubbles. Her girlfriend didn’t do anything aside from filling in a damsel in distress role. Her parents and Grandmother really only serve as plot-devices, and the rest the students of Sotomayor don’t really do anything except gush over America’s self-imposed greatness.

And it really is a shame, because Rivera introduces some really cool concepts like the interdimensional schooling of Sotomayor and the cosmic origins of Planeta Fuertona. There’s some really cool wacky Sci-Fi stuff in this book, and I’m pretty sure if that was the focus of the book then I would have enjoyed it a lot more. But unfortunately that’s not the case because the main focus of this book is also one of the things I can’t stand about it.

THE ROMANCE.

Oh my God is America an asshole to her girlfriend. If there is anything I can’t stand about romance, it’s needless drama. And holy shit, Rivera did not hold back from it. This is the first appearance of Lisa, one of America’s love interests.

I’m sorry, WHAT??? You’re not going to tell me jack about our MC’s love-interest and then break them off in just TWO PAGES? I’m generally used to teen drama bullshit like this from other teen hero books (I have Johns’ Teen Titans to thank for that), but this sequence here is just too much for me to ignore. We don’t know anything about Lisa aside from being America’s girlfriend, so that’s all she ends up being, and America just breaks things off and leaves before they even have a legitimate conversation? And America’s acting as if she’s in the right? This sets up every interaction we see between these two as needless melodrama. And that’s exactly what it becomes in later issues. There’s all but one scene of America showing remorse for dumping this chick, but then America acts like the victim again in a later issue with Storm.

Like, what is your damage, America? You’re the one who broke up with her and left in a fit but then you say shit like “SHE SENT ME AWAY” as if we’re supposed to sympathize with you throwing that necklace at her. And when Lisa finally shows up again, they act as if they spoke and came to terms, but this is the first and last time we ever see these two actually speaking to each other anyway, so what was the point?

America’s other love interest is an actual character this time around in the sense that she’s actually involved in the story, but when Magdalena is introduced, it’s almost as if Rivera forgot about the first love interest.

Either America has amnesia, or Lisa never gave America flowers, which probably puts America in the right for breaking up with her. I’d be pretty upset if my girlfriend never gave me flowers. What was the point of all this? Why didn’t Rivera just start with Magdalena as the badass action-girl love interest instead of having us deal with the damsel in distress bullshit from the non-character that was Lisa during the Chavez Guerrillas arc?

I think all of my gripes with the romance in here comes from a combination of two different things regarding this book. One is that nearly every character in this book has NOTHING going on with them. The other is that America is painfully unlikable in this.

I think the introduction of Sotomayor was pretty awesome. Rivera introduced us to a setting with a lot of potential for crazy, dimension hopping adventures while providing the framework of introducing new characters within a self contained story similar to that of Hero Academia or Avengers Academy. If America’s badly written relationships were at the background of the series while introducing a diverse, well-written cast that interacts almost exclusively with America through the school setting, then yes, I think this book would have won me over. But that’s not the case because nearly every student in Sotomayer doesn’t do anything meaningful to the story or help America progress as a character. How the hell do you have a character like freaking Prodigy on the sidelines with nothing insightful to say? They were on the same team before this! Even America’s parents, the main reason she became a hero, are constantly glossed over in this book until the reveal of her Grandmother. 

Speaking of this page here, why did Madrimar even wait to reveal herself to America until now? It’s not like anything was stopping her during all the time she spent at Sotomayor.

A lot of people I’ve talked to about this book says Rivera was trying too hard. In my opinion, she didn’t try hard enough. I know a bunch of people gave this writer shit for coming off as too preachy, but expressing positivity through diversity is a core part if America’s character and the reality we live in. The only problem I see with her writing regarding this is that it the way she portrays America makes it difficult. Rivera’s America just shouts out slogans and gets confrontational with anyone that challenges her way of thinking. America needs to be put in a situation where expressing her cultural and sexual identity isn’t accentuated through punching things while preaching about how awesome she is and getting constant validation from background characters (the prep-school cyborg fight is a jarring example). 

One of the only characters I actually liked in this book was Kate. She actually acts like she’s in the story. She talks to America about her problems, consoles her in times of need, and is generally a blast to have in this book.

With the exception of Magdalena, Kate is the only person in this book that America actually approaches like a civil human being. America doesn’t get all up in her face and throw snarky insults at her like she does with nearly everyone else. Kate is one of the only characters here that can actually get America to feel like a person instead of some impregnable brick wall. And Kate is actually involved in America’s story! She has presence! But the more I read about these two in here the more I notice Rivera was just queer-baiting them for no reason.

Like, we get Kate’s into her. But if Rivera had real control over this, why didn’t she just start things off with Kate as the friends with benefits into girlfriends angle? Why have us go through all the damsels in distress and generic femme fatale action girls in America’s life instead of a popular established character like Kate Bishop? They have a history together, so it wouldn’t be unbelievable at all. This book focuses so much on romance but never has its priorities straight on who these people are to America. It only seems to care who America is to them. And tbh I think that’s the core issue of Rivera’s America.

This is the first page of the book, and it got me super excited. I thought the approach Rivera was going to go was make America relevant not only as a hero but as a symbol. I thought this book would highlight the importance of expressing pride in diversity while expressing how America represents that pride and what that means to the people around her. I thought it would have been akin to All-Star Superman’s approach of finding the balance between the symbol and the person while struggling to understand what that might mean to the people of the world. But instead any concept of that constantly gets sidelined by the badly written melodrama bullshit all across this book. It just always stops me from getting into this.

Now if I’m not mistaken, this book is canceled at issue 12, so at some point I’ll go back and finish the last couple issues, but honestly I could see why this book got canceled. Rivera has some really cool concepts in this book, but falls short on the execution on multiple levels. Hopefully they bring America back with a new creative team because there is some cool stuff here and I don’t want it all to just disappear. Maybe even keep Rivera and give her a co-writer to help?

[drashleighreid]

Odd numbers yo!

1. How do you define your sexuality?

i sit pretty comfortably w queer and gay because theyre so broad. i feel pretty ok w referring to myself as a lesbian too. 

3. At what age did you first come out?

i actually have no idea i feel like i started thinking about it and discussing it with friends at maybe like 17ish?? but it was never a ‘coming out’ per se... the most vivid ‘this feels like a coming out’ moment was probably with my host mom where i was actually anxious abt it and i was probably like 20 but id been pretty intensely open ab being gay w friends n on the internet before that. the concept of ‘coming out’ has never rly sat well with me and ive never felt the need to do it to feel any kind of closure. 5. How out are you? i mean i dont really hide it but i dont talk about it all of the time either. ive never really ‘had the talk’ with my family just because ive never really seriously dated anyone and i dont see the point behind telling them and making a big show about it just for the sake of saying something because i feel like that’s just exacerbating the idea that theres something wrong w not being straight and that there even *needs* to be that coming out moment it just feel unnecessary to me. but im not ashamed of it and i dont hide it. 

7. What is your current relationship status?

waiting 4 my chl*e beale tbh 9. Do you have any LGBT relatives?

a cousin i was really close to growing up is gay. 11. How often do you wear flannel?

sometimes lol i used to quite a bit but i havent for a while 13. Do you wear skirts and dresses? If so, how often?

yeah i usually wear skirts and dresses when i go out somewhere. 15. Do you have any tattoos? If so, what of and where?

not yet17. Have you ever been to a gay bar or a gay club?

yes many times lol19. Have you ever had a crush on a straight girl?

?? people have crushes on NOT straight girls?? wild. 21. Is your nose pierced?

it used to be a couple of years ago23. Will you wear a dress for your wedding?

yeah, sure. 25. Have you ever watched The L Word?

ive seen like the first season. i didnt get into it unfortunately. 27. How do you feel when someone uses the word gay to mean stupid, dumb, or boring?

ur so 2000 and late29. Have you ever been to a pride festival?

no ! :( 31. Have you ever participated in the National Day of Silence?

no33. Have you ever worn any men’s clothing?

yeah35. Do you consider yourself a feminist?yeah

37. Are you religious at all?im open to it but not really, no. 

39. What is your ideal first date?

coffee. 41. How outdoorsy are you?i like the outdoors, i love hiking and the beach etc but im also high maintenance and need 2 be clean and comfortable after it lol so camping n stuff isnt really my thing.43. How much makeup do you typically wear?i go through phases. im comfortable wearing no make up and dont usually wear much of it in day to day life. sometimes i just do my brows. sometimes i got that full face of poppin highlight and contour whom knows. 

45. Are you more feminine or more masculine?

id say more feminine47. Have you and a girlfriend ever been mistaken for sisters?

no lol49. Have you ever wished you were completely straight?there probably were times when i was just realising it and was scared where i did but not in recent years.51. Do you wear any combat boots, Doc Martins, or Timberlands?yes lol all three. ive been living in my docs

53. How athletic are you?

i enjoy exercising55. What is your opinion of septum/bull nose piercings?i think theyre fine. i wouldnt get one but i appreciate them on other people

57. If you are not a lesbian, about what percentage of the time do you find yourself attracted to other females? i dont actually experience attraction very often but when i do its always women and it always kicks me on my ass

59. Have you ever liked or dated a girl with the same name as you?nope

61. Are you a virgin?wow ! 

63. Have you ever been told that you are too pretty to be gay?

i dont think so65. Have you ever driven an SUV, Jeep, or a pickup truck?no lol i always wanted a jeep tho

67. Agree or disagree: Everyone is at least a little bit gay.hm... its hard to say. i def think attraction is more of a spectrum and some ppl are more closed off to the idea but i dont know other peoples experiences

69. Boobs or butts?

butts71. Do you have a favorite lesbian movie?most lesbian media sucks ass. i actually really enjoyed the movie ‘below her mouth’ tho thats the first one that comes to mind73. From 1-10, how attractive are women who wear glasses?ok i dont like this rating system tbh alsdjlakj it makes me uncomfortable the next few questions all get 10′s because all women are valid and beautiful 

75. From 1-10, how attractive are curvy/plus-size women?77. From 1-10, how attractive are masculine butch women?79. From 1-10, how attractive are tall women (i.e. around 6 feet or taller)?81. Has a girl ever dumped you for a guy? Have you?

no83. Do you wear any hats such as snapbacks or beanies?i wear beanies sometimes 

85. Would you ever date a trans girl?yes87. Have you ever had a crush on a woman who’s much older than you?L O L. people have crushes on people their own age ?? wild. 

89. Do you have any opinions on LGBT people in the military?no different than my opinion of anyone else in the military. no one should be discriminated against because of reasons like this is ridiculous. 91. Have you ever been told that you look gay (i.e. like a lesbian)?one time in highschool this girl told me i seem like a lesbian because i never ‘dress cute’. i wasnt her friend, never saw her outside of school, and we had a uniform and all wore the same thing but true, cool. 

93. Is there such a thing as “good” lesbian porn?

its out there but hard to find. 95. How often do you wear a bra?

always bc i am a big titted lass97. If you could live your life all over again, would you still be attracted to other women?

yes its my favorite thing99. What advice would you give a girl who is struggling to figure out her sexuality?honestly probably shit advice but dont stress so much. i know some people are more comfortable with labels and defining it all but i think its far more complex and fluid than that. my understanding of my identity is constantly changing and fluctuating w my life experiences and i learn more nd meet new people every day who open up new doors and help me understand more abt identity and life. honestly its calm just have a good time and try 2 enjoy urself beb do what feels right and comfortable and dont think so much. 

thank you for sending these and helping me procrastinate my life ! xx have a nice evenin lovely