#meanwhile on non-speaking roles we have:

[nekioka]

Seven is a lucky number: Year 1 - 2/3

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(Ramblings and sketches under the cut)

Yesterday I only posted part of the Benny quote that inspired this part of the story. Here's the quote in full:

"When House gave us the Tops to renovate, his robots dropped off boxes full of suits and ties and wingtip shoes. Told us we were the "Chairmen" now. That caused an uproar. But I said "the name sticks." Ciao to the old ways, baby - time to swing in style. If the shoes fit, you wear 'em."

And he also did call "Boot Riders" a silly name in-game, so that is also based on canon.

Benny is defusing the situation between his people and House by acting like House's idea is great. Again. Now House has even taken their name away, so once again Bingo is proven right. At this point Benny still considers this better than the alternative.

Even though I always use the same expression for House I still sketch his face. At this point I think I've simplified it to its barest essentials as you can see below XD And same goes for the dialogue, if these amazing lines are anything to go by. (The texts say: "New name old tacky" and "Family".)

Speaking of this particular page, like I've mentioned before sometimes I draw random characters from other stories on the background. Here's Kim Kitsuragi from Disco Elysium. And behind him is human version of Leshy from Inscryption. I actually have whole AU about all scrybes belonging to different Families (Leshy Chairman, Grimora White-Glove Society, Magnificus Omerta and P03 is experimental securitron that has gone rogue. Every week they gather together to play card games.)

My final pages usually have the same idea as sketches do but this time there were two panels that ended up being different. Both are from the last page. These seemed too chill so I added more (faked) enthusiasm.

Tomorrow final pages of Year 1!

[autball]

Part 5 of a 5 part series about the ways harmful practices are being made to sound more appealing and how to spot the differences between helpful and harmful approaches.

Communication support is a desperately needed thing for so many autistic people and their families. So unlike some of the other things I’ve posted about this week, this is 100% a worthy goal. Unfortunately, many places that claim they can offer it are not delivering. 

In some cases, they simply don’t have the education to properly support communication needs (I’m looking at you, ABA). Other times they do have the proper education (ie Speech Language Pathologists) but they will gatekeep certain methods of communication, either because they believe harmful myths about them or they haven’t been trained in that particular method. Also, not every SLP knows about Gestalt Language Processing, so even an otherwise great therapist could be missing some information.

So here are some questions to ask when trying to figure out if someone is truly capable of offering well-rounded, neuro-affirming communication support:

Are they more concerned with making the client easier to deal with for others, or are they focused on the client’s rights, needs, and wishes? (We’re looking for the second one.)

Do they address the client directly, or do they speak as if the client isn’t even in the room? (We’re looking for the first one.)

Do they see speech and language as a behavioral thing? (Verbal Behavior and PECS are dead giveaways - and we want a NO.) 

Do they understand that an inability to produce speech has no bearing on a person’s ability to think and feel? (YES✅)

Do they only push for speech, see speech as the end goal, or value speech above all other methods of communication? (NO✅)

Do they honor things like echolalia, pointing to objects, and bringing an adult over to something they want as valid communication? (YES✅)

Do they honor things like refusal to participate, crying, and meltdowns as valid communication? (YES✅)

Do they believe that things like pacifiers, AAC, or responding to “non-functional communication” discourages speech/“functional” communication? (NO✅)

Do they know about Gestalt Language Processing and believe it is a thing? (YES✅)

Do they require “pre-requisites” before they will try alternative communication methods? (NO✅)

Do they require the client to earn time on their AAC device or remove the device when they deem it a distraction, essentially taking away their voice? (NO✅)

Do they know who to send you to if they aren’t personally trained in an approach they think would be more helpful? (YES✅)

Obviously, trying to find someone local to you with all the green flags and no red ones is kind of like trying to find a unicorn for most people. But if you have a choice between two or more therapists, you can at least go with the one who has more right answers and be ready to advocate/educate when needed. 

If you literally have only one option available to you and it’s not a good one, you can either be ready to advocate at every turn or just choose not to use their services. Yeah, that’s allowed! Not every autistic person needs speech therapy, and not all communication support has to be directly administered by a professional. You as the parent or caregiver will play a huge role in supporting your person with their communication needs, and luckily there are online resources and virtual trainings that can help you do that.

P.S. What’s the difference between PECS and picture cards, you ask? PECS is a whole ABA-based program that uses a limited set of picture cards and should be avoided for several reasons. Meanwhile, plain old picture cards are something that can be made and used by anyone without any specific program.

P.P.S. Zero debates about the legitimacy of Spelling to Communicate (S2C) or Rapid Prompting Method (RPM) will be entertained (translation - it will be deleted so don’t waste your time).

[ipso-faculty]

Is saying "intersex and/or mesosex" the same way of saying "trans and/or nonbinary"? Sorry I'm trying to (un)learn, I don't want to be seen as insensitive

No, mesosex should be thought of as a subset of intersex. I'd just say intersex. 👍️

I'm gonna give you a wall of text of context so upfront a TLDR: 😅

TLDR: positioning mesosex as in between perisex and intersex is like positioning bisexual as in between queer and not-queer. Intersex people are organizing for inclusive views of intersex and trying to create a middle ground between intersex & perisex plays into conservative efforts to divide and conquer us. 🧑‍🏫

So a big difference between being intersex and being trans/nonbinary comes from the role of medicine being far, far more powerful in its control and oppression of intersex people. In a lot of ways intersex is more like disability than like other queer identities. So much of intersex identity is gatekept by doctors. Intersex people are often told they're intersex by a doctor in a context of telling them they are disordered and broken. Fostering community amongst intersex people is hard because so many of us have been conditioned by doctors to think of themselves as rare freaks.

Right now we in the intersex community are fighting a kind of desperate battle for people to understand that it is intersex people who decide who is and isn't intersex, as opposed to it being up to doctors. And the intersex community consistently says that people with PCOS, Poland Syndrome, or even no diagnosis, who feel that their experiences line up with being intersex are intersex.

Meanwhile TERFs and other conservatives are pushing real hard to keep the definition of intersex as narrow as possible. They don't want intersex people to be common or for us to find community. They're invested in a narrative that intersex people are rare, and are disorderd men/women.

Right now, the track record of treating mesosex as not intersex has unfortunately been that it reinforces those conservative narratives. It's gotten used to imply that people with PCOS aren't really intersex, that they are mesosex instead. Same for undiagnosed intersex people. 😭

Even though this is not what I intended for the term, seeing what's happened with it in the wild it's been honestly scary and upsetting seeing this term get weaponized against an inclusive view of what intersex means. (And more experienced intersex folks raised concern about this well in advance 😨.)

Intersex being an umbrella category I think there is value in having microlabels within the umbrella category, which is why I updated my definition of mesosex rather than abandon the term altogether.

But yeah I would definitely steer far away from treating mesosex as though it's in between intersex and perisex - it's really not at all analogous to being nonbinary. I'd say a better analogy is that treating mesosex as if it is between intersex and perisex is like treating bisexual as being in between queer and non-queer.

The stakes are political inclusion and organizing - politically speaking, any effort to create a group between queer and non-queer generally serves to weaken the collective organizing of queer people. Same deal with intersex. Hope that clarifies things. 💜

[lilyginnyblackv2]

I think something that we need to keep in mind is that Buddy Daddies is taking place in Japan. Not a fantasy setting or idealized depiction of Japan, but just real ol’ Japan. 

So a lot of shitty things happening to the female characters and the female characters in the series being placed in positions where they don’t have agency and power is likely being done on purpose. Why? Because the power that women hold in Japan isn’t much. They are still fighting for that, immensely.

Like, Japan’s gender equality ranking keeps getting higher (aka it keeps getting worse). It’s better than some previous generations for sure (and better than some other countries), but Japan went from ranking #74th in 2020, #80 in 2021, #103 in 2022, and now #104 in 2023, this is out of 190 countries. 

Kazuki and Rei are involved with an Organization that is male dominated. There isn’t a single female assassin in sight, Rei’s mother is non-existent, and wives, girlfriends, and girls (like Miri) are targeted because of their mere existence and bonds to these male assassins being viewed as a threat. Miri being non-blood related is also another reason why she is targeted, but her being a girl (and likely viewed as useless by Shigeki since, like I noted, we haven’t seen a single female assassin) is another. 

Men who don’t fit in or try to deflect from this Organization and the things it stands for, also become targets. Because they, too, are viewed as threats. They are viewed as traitors. Japan is still in a place, in regards to women’s equality, where men are the ones that have to support and speak up for women, in order to make the room and space for female voices to be heard loudly and for women in general to gain more power and control and agency over themselves.

There are, of course, many Japanese women fighting for all of this right now. They aren’t helpless, but the society they are navigating and fighting their way through, was not built for them to have the level of power as men. They really need the support of men, in the same way that any minority group ultimately needs the support of a majority group in order for their own voices to be properly heard. With Buddy Daddies, the Organization and Shigeki represent tradition. They represent “blood purity” and things remaining unchanged - in this case, men being in positions of power and traditional blood bound families that can produce blood-bound heirs. 

That is the world that keeps harming the women in this series, and that is the world that Kazuki and Rei are leaving. That’s the world that is viewed as being incorrect, wrong, and villainous. 

Meanwhile, the world that showed Kazuki and Rei that they could change is the one that is dominated by women - childcare. But, unlike the Organization, the world of Miri’s daycare is open to others - the head of the daycare is an older man, there was one male daycare worker at field day, Kazuki and Rei were accepted at the daycare, during field day you can see old, young, and Taiga’s parents who are “delinquents”. Women’s voices are heard. Miss Anna is depicted as strong. Miri is shown having agency, making decisions, being in a leadership role (both in Episode 6 when she leads her friends around the zoo to find Miss Anna and again in Episode 9 when she makes the field day speech). The mom’s shout and are loud (field day), we see them expressing themselves in various interesting ways in the mom chats. 

And it is only after Kazuki and Rei start stepping into this world, where learning, changing, growing, and accepting the non-traditional and unconventional are openly accepted that we start to really see them both grow and change too. 

Buddy Daddies writing isn’t perfect. I personally don’t like the whole “overprotective dad” stuff and I do feel that we should have gotten another episode between E10 and E11. Some of the events in E11 do feel rushed in their execution. Though I have seen far worse.

But the series is making some points. Kazuki and Rei are two men that are shown to be fully capable of caring for a child. There are some learning bumps along the way, but they are able to do it in the end. Many of the men who are part of Buddy Daddies, like the VAs, talk about how this is a series that men should watch, because more men need to be like Kazuki or learn to grow and put in the effort like Rei. 

Men in Japan (and like in many other parts of the world too) don’t put in the same amount of time, effort, and care when it comes to childcare and childrearing as women do. Our protagonists are showing that they can and should though.

And they have chosen to continue existing and pursuing the world of fatherhood, a space where women have more of a voice and unconventional family dynamics are welcomed, rather than stay in the world of assassination where men dominate and blood is what matters. 

If the series does go in the direction that many think it will, then Kazuki and Rei (likely along with the help of Kyutaro) are going to be directly targeting and potentially killing the character that represents tradition, male domination, and a world where women and children are killed because they are viewed as both useless and a threat at the same time.

Does it suck that most of the women in the series have been fridged or exist to further the plot of the men (Kazuki and Rei)? Yes, it does. But I think we are meant to feel frustrated about that. We can see the cruelty and pointlessness, and feel the frustration at the powerlessness that they have. 

The series hasn’t wrapped up yet. Episode 12 could do something that totally destroys this reading. But, for now, this is what I’m getting from the series. One of the script writers, likely the main one at that, since she is a veteran and has a lot of series to her name, is a woman. So I would like to think that these things aren’t just happening because the plot calls for it (getting Misaki out of the way for Kazuki and Rei), but for more complex issues instead.

[thowawayuntilfurthernotice]

“Critical Role is just a DnD podcast and the cast are Z-List celebrities. You shouldn’t expect them to comment on what is happening in Palestine.”

They why do they have their own non profit org that is dedicated to humanitarian causes?

And are we seriously gonna sit here and pretend like they weren’t one of the first groups to put out a public statement regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine?

The fact that it took them four months to donate to any Pro Palestine charities honestly makes my blood boil.

It shouldn’t have taken them that long, all they had to do was voice their support for a ceasefire and their fans would have done whatever they could to help push for a ceasefire.

I’m not expecting them to fix the issue overnight, but they have one of the biggest platforms imaginable and they couldn’t be assed to do the bare minimum.

Meanwhile, voice actors who have much smaller platforms are organizing Pro Palestine rallies and using their social medias to speak out. Even though they know they’re most likely going to get blacklisted by the industry by doing so.

Like I said when I discussed Mercer’s video, I am happy that he contacted his reps and asked them to push for a ceasefire, but waiting five months to put out a statement is a pretty bad look.

Yes, the CR crew gets a lot of unwarranted hate, but for a group that built a brand around the importance of social justice, their handling of the current situation in Palestine has been downright abysmal.

[coochiequeens]

https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/warmington-female-rugby-players-complain-trans-opponent-hits-too-hard

Female rugby players are not used to feeling like they have been hit by a bus on the field. Or a truck.

A veteran female rugby player, who plays for the Stoney Creek Camels senior women’s team, said she was hit so hard in a recent game, it felt like a man delivering the tackle.

This transgender player, known as Ash — said to have registered as a non-binary person who identifies as female — stands about 5-foot-10 and weighs up to 220 pounds. 

“We are women,” said a female player on the receiving end of a tackle. “It’s a whole other thing playing rugby against men.” 

Or one who used to be — especially one of that size, who is also said to have been an MVP at the men’s level just last season. 

“I had never been hit like that before, even at the competitive women’s level,” said the player. “There was so much more brute force. There are women who are bigger than him, but no girl hits like that. This is a strong human.” 

“The player is a nice person, but that is not the point,” said the female player. “We are now at a disadvantage.”

This story has sparked a lot of discussion within the rugby community – many comparing it to the Leah Thomas swimming issue in the United States. But as one female player pointed out, competitive swimmers have their own lane and there are no collisions. In rugby, it’s all collisions, all the time. She said Ash’s legs are massive and strong, and “you feel the hits from (them) the next day.”

Diana Murphy a friend of some of the players, tweeted: “Three women’s rugby players had to be removed from a game and treated for injuries from hits sustained by a transwoman” and that she feels “Trans have no place in women’s sports.” Rugby Canada said there were no illlegal hits, but sources in the game said Ash received a yellow card from the referee for a hit to the head of one female player. Ash was pulled from the game. Players said they are not clear whether it was at the insistence of the referee or the Fergus coach. Either way, Rugby Canada said this is a federal inclusion issue and not only is this transgender player welcomed in the league, but the law protects that person from discrimination.

“We are aware of the matter in question but would advise that Rugby Canada has received no formal complaints,” said Managing Director Tania Richards. “All rugby played in Canada abides by federal government laws which regulates inclusion in sports."

She said there were no players hurt and there were no illegal hits as has been suggested on social media. What there has been, said Richards, is online harassment of the transgender player. The Fergus club has not yet responded, but has forwarded our request to speak with Ash. Meanwhile, there are some players who feel they should not have to play against someone who was recently considered male, but are afraid to reveal their identities for fear of being targeted or cancelled themselves.

All sides use the word “complicated” when talking about this matter. Rugby Ontario sent a communique to members, saying “for those who attended Sunday’s board meeting, you are aware of some concerns that have arisen about player safety in the context of a transplayer playing in club games” and “we are working closely with Rugby Canada senior staff on the matter and are together developing action and communication plans, informed by the counsel of their third-party crisis management PR agency.” They also asked, “if you are contacted by anyone in the community or the media, please do not engage by offering any opinion or comment on the situation.” What they don’t seem to be doing is fully accepting there are some female players who don’t feel comfortable going up against a transitioning opponent in a physical sport where size and strength play a role. One player said the collision she had with trans player Ash was unlike any other impact she has felt in all her years playing rugby.

[rippleclan]

[Image ID: the title of the article is "Clerics & Their Code". Fennelspot sits underneath the words.]

A two-for-one deal, since the cleric description and the code of clerics option both won in the last lore vote. Today we'll be looking at the two main responsibilities of a cleric and the unique set of restrictions that bind them.

Clerics: Healing

The main job of a cleric, the one which most cats can relate to, is to heal sick and injured Clanmates. Their medicine dens are not only places for recovering cats to sleep but act as important stores for medicinal liquids, powders, and other concoctions. Clerics are very picky about who can meddle in their stores, but there are multiple roles that need access to the medicinal goods. Artisans trade certain medicines with other Clans. Mediators sometimes need herbal remedies for the mental afflictions of the Clan. Historians often learn about medicine in their studies. Meanwhile, caretakers and warriors often assist in collecting herbs and turning them into medicine. Other cats can all be recruited to help clerics in times of crisis when they need more paws caring for injuries or are too sick to care for others themselves.

Cleric medicine is a complex enough topic that a cleric spends most of their life devoted to the subject. It's not just about collecting the right leaves and stuffing them onto wounds. In this world, clerics have a wider range of medicinal technology. They harvest herbs and transform them into some of the following;

Infused oils: While WheatClan is the only Clan that produces the ever-useful flaxseed oil, which they trade for use in both food and medicine, clerics and artisans can make a simpler, cruder oil from animal fat (the finished product isn't considered "oil", however, due to its differences from flaxseed oil). Clerics infuse this oil with herbs by mixing the two in one pot, then setting it inside a bigger pot with some water over a fire (clerics have their own fireplace/oven setup that is only used for medicine). The water around the smaller pot infuses the herbs into the oil over the course of an hour. When it's done, they strain the herbs out of the oil and keep the finished product.

Salves/Balms/Ointments: Clerics mix their infused oil with a strong wax (beeswax or tallow) to create a stronger variation of a traditional chewed poultice (although they may add some solid herbs to the finished product). Ointments involve the use of water and are better for skin/fur issues than the stiffer salves and balms.

Concoctions: This includes adding herbs to food for medicinal benefits, boiling herbs for decoctions, mixing herbs with honey, and otherwise mashing them together.

Clerics also use the herbs as we are traditionally familiar with, having patients chew them or eat them whole. A cleric's job also involves a series of non-herbal strategies, which includes the use of leeches, exercise, grooming, rituals to StarClan, and more. Notably, while cobwebs are a great emergency bandage, artisans can craft actual bandages from animal skin and plant fiber. Some of these bandages can be washed out and reused.

Clerics: Connection To StarClan

The other major job of a cleric is to maintain a connection to StarClan and advise their Clan on the opinions and advice of their ancestors. If a StarClan cat needs to speak to a living cat, they will usually go for the cleric. Oftentimes, StarClan only has the strength and knowledge to send vague signs and omens which clerics are trained to identify and interpret. They visit StarClan's Shrine on the half-moon preceding the Gathering in order to reconnect with the ancestors and get more clear-cut advice (while also connecting with fellow clerics on spiritual/medical matters).

Clerics have a wide range of rituals designed to bring strength from StarClan. They can also summon StarClan spirits through a special ritual (which I will explain another time). They can even perform a variant of it to speak to a Dark Forest cat, but this is seen as taboo and would earn ire from StarClan's Judges.

The Code of Clerics Origins: The First Cleric

The first cleric in the impressive records all historians work hard to maintain was known as Hickoryroot. A lot of her story sounds like myth at this point, but historians have worked hard to keep it as true as they could.

It is said she was a SlugClan warrior from the days where roles were not split as they are in the modern Clans. It is said that she learned some of the first medicines from watching a human (a Native American, possibly East Cree) gather herbs and turn them into a medicine for a wounded friend. The stars saw her experimentation and provided the herbs she needed to establish the foundations of Clan medicine. This provincial relationship made the role of the cleric forever connected to StarClan.

The process of preparing medicine was so time consuming that Hickoryroot had no time to help with hunting, kit care, or the other duties of a warrior. As such, the Clans decided her role would be distinct from the others. She would work under a different set of rules. With that, the Code of Clerics began to grow.

The Decrees within the Code of Clerics

A cleric's job is to care for the health of their Clan and connect the worlds of the living and dead. As such, they are not expected to help in other duties in the same way as most of the other roles. In fact, it is the duty of the Clan to support the cleric in whatever they need. They need more bandages? Artisans will make more bandages. They need extra paws to harvest herbs? Caretakers will join them and care for their herb patches/gardens for them. The Clan will protect and feed the cleric so all they have to worry about is their job.

It is forbidden to endanger, harm, or disrupt the work of a cleric. StarClan helps them heal their Clanmates and guide the Clans as a whole. Since clerics are forbidden from combat, to attack one is sacrilegious and will send a cat to trial. Only StarClan can order a cleric not to heal someone in need. If a cleric decides they need to help, no one can stop them.

Hickoryroot established this practice as a social custom, but it was later solidified as code that clerics cannot take a mate or have kits, even as an honor sire. It's not that a cleric would be distracted by their family (they have friends, siblings, and parents, after all), but rather that a cleric is a servant of StarClan and has an elevated position over other cats. They cannot take a mate in an equal relationship and they cannot take the guiding role of a parent without diluting their spiritual connections. It should be noted, however, that this aspect of the code is only a tradition in RippleClan, not a decree. Clerics in RippleClan are allowed to pursue relationships. Whether Fennelspot will take a mate one day remains to be seen...

[total-drama-brainrot]

Alenoaheather grabbed me by the throat and body slammed me through 15 consecutive buildings a week ago and it is entirely your fault/lh

But I was thinking about the incredible Fake Dating AU y’all were putting together and had a question, then realized I could just ask the question because it’s ✨Tumblr✨. But what do you think would’ve happened if Izzy wasn’t there when Noah passed out at the gym with Eva? Like, imagine Alejandro and Heather bust into the gym, but because of Eva’s awkward ass self(I love her sm) it genuinely just seems like she knocked out Noah. How would you expect the scenario to play out after that, because I do imagine that Aleheather wouldn’t be happy about seeing Noah laid out like a starfish-

My apologies 😔 (I'm not sorry 😈). /lh

The idea of Eva holding up a passed out Noah by the collar of his undershirt, all but looming over him in her desperation to get him to wake the fuck up, only to have both Heather and Alejandro burst into the room and misconstrue the situation entirely is so fucking funny to me. Thank you for the mental image, anon.

Because Eva has aggression practically woven into the threads of her character; she speaks aggressively, se thinks aggressively, and we all know she acts aggressively. Even when she's trying to be gentle she's always going to be rough around the edges, so it'd genuinely look like she's about to pummel an unconscious Noah into nerd-paste. Without Izzy there as a mitigating force, Eva wouldn't have the eloquence to properly explain the situation before AleHeather jump to conclusions and act accordingly.

Which would mostly be Heather trying to beat the shit out of Eva, physical discrepancies be damned, as Alejandro scoops up their partner bridal style and fusses over the 'damsel' in the situation.

Because, out of the two of them, Heather's always been the more physically aggressive one. She's not afraid to start throwing hands- of course, Heather's more likely to attack others with her words, but she's never shied away from a more hands-on approach to conflict. Whereas Alejandro, for all of his displays of physical prowess, doesn't ever really use his strength in a hostile way (his boxing math with José non-withstanding), and he's far too much of a gentleman to ever hit a woman.

So Eva would be staving off an irate Heather, who's trying to claw her eyes out or something, using her superior muscle mass to (as gently as she can) subdue Heather so she could explain herself. But 'fighting back' only makes Eva look worse to the pair, and any explanations she'd try to offer would be all but drowned out by Heather's enraged screaming, falling on deaf ears. Eva really doesn't want to hurt Heather, so she'd hold back the majority of her overwhelming strength, but Heather would interpret that as Eva looking down on her which would only serve to fuel her anger.

Meanwhile, Alejandro and his saviour complex would be trying to resuscitate Noah from his overexertion coma (previously established; Noah goes sicko mode on a punching bag and his noodly ferret body couldn't handle the strain of physical effort), though half of his attention would be diverted towards Heather going beast mode on Eva- either because he'd be genuinely concerned/alarmed by her ferocity, or because Alejandro seems like the type of guy who'd find Heather going feral kind of hot (whichever's funnier).

Eventually Heather would either tire herself out and Eva could attempt to blunder her way through an explanation- under the dual judgemental/seething glares of AleHeather- to mixed results, OR Noah would wake up, have a 'what the fuck is going on here' moment, and quickly clear up the confusion in his patented know-it-all way. That is to say, insulting everyone involved for their incompetency whilst ignoring his own pivotal role in the disagreement, and then explaining that he and Eva are cool now. (He'd probably be a dick about it to; "We're besties, me and Eva are having a sleepover tonight and we're going to talk about Boys and Shoes and Makeup and you're not invited." Noah can't stop being a sarcastic jester-coded prick for more than one scene or else he'll implode.)

-

Of course, this is all just speculation. I expect @perpetualexistence has plenty of their own thoughts to add to this hypothetical, as the adoptive 'co-parent' of this AU!

This is mostly just me pushing my "AleNoah ask for no pickles, Heather's the one who confronts the cashier when they get pickles" Alenoaheather dynamic. Heather the girlboss and her two cringefail, pathetic-pilled boyfriends. She's the only one of the three who can be direct with her misgivings (Noah is blunt, sure, but he skirts around confrontation- see his reaction to Alejandro's comment in "I See London..."). Also a not-so-subtle nod towards Alejandro always prioritising being the 'hero who rescues the damsel' over the 'hero who confronts the villain', which is literally just canon. The guy's not confrontational despite being manipulative- the puppet master works behind the curtains, after all. (The only time I can think of him ever directly confronting someone is, again, his comment to "Noah in I See London...", which is less of an accusation and more of a pointed comment.)

[jojotichakorn]

i know you're mostly kidding but. is there any part of you that's actually mad about straight dramas? i'll be honest. there is a small part of me that is 🤠

ur so real for that actually kgjlkdfjglkfdjgklf

no but. hm, i wouldn't say i'm actively mad. one of the things about gmmtv series specifically is that we are in a unique position where one more cishet series = one less queer series. literally. they have a specific amount of resources per year and those resources are poured into a specific amount of series they can afford to make. i know it's a little silly because it's not like some queer series was actively murdered to birth a cishet one, but it's a thing in broad terms.

it's also like i am not really even advocating for more bls necessarily. there is a reason why i choose such broad language to describe the series i want / don't want to see more of.

if you look at my list of favourite dramas, you will see things like 3 will be free and the warp effect and even dirty laundry on there. and the thing is, the main reason why i love 3wbf is literally because of an m/f pairing. but that pairing isn't cis. and generally, 3wbf is a queer series with a poly couple at its centre and a trans woman playing an important role in it as well. the warp effect technically revolves around lots of m/f romance, but you have a non-binary character and a trans character and lesbians and gays and puppy play - it's a really queer series, even if technically the main character is cishet and the main pairing is m/f. not to mention that it was actually something really unique and important in terms of how it discussed sex. dirty laundry is very much about an m/f pairing as well, i would say it's a fairly standard romcom about a guy and a girl, but you once again have trans women in that series, and generally it feels incredibly queer. most of all because all these series are directed by jojo tichakorn, of course, and all of his works feel incredibly queer regardless. and i love all of them. and i'd love to see more of them.

so i'd love to see more of those queer series with lots of different, important representation and more gls, of course, instead of, let us put it plainly, a series with the same fucking cishet storyline you have seen literally millions of times before. and even if the balance shifts at one or two companies like i want it to, those same cishet storylines will still be made thousands of times more often than queer ones. so it's not like i'm suddenly depriving people who wanna see boy and girl fall in love in the same way for the billionth time of the opportunity to do so. it's still out there. it's being made right as we speak. a lot of it. like a whole fucking lot of it. meanwhile, one dedicated motherfucker with a free evening on their hands can trace every single queer series that's being made at the moment with ease. the gap is fucking insane there.

[sixcostumerefs]

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month to our Queens!

Hey y'all! Here in the US Sep 15th-Oct 15th is Hispanic Heritage Month! Today I'm taking a moment to spotlight all the Latino/a/e/x queens in global productions of Six. Quick note that Hispanic/Latino identities have quite a bit of complexity that I'm trying to factor in while making this post; for further explanation of which queens were/were not included, check the "read more."

Aragon: Phoenix Jackson Mendoza (Brazilian, 21-23 Australian Tour), Gerianne Pérez (Puerto Rican, Boleyn Tour) Boleyn: Erin Ramirez (Peruana-American, alt B/H/P, Aragon Tour), Analise Rios (Puerto Rican, Breakaway 6.0)

Cleves: Janice Rijssel (Surinamer, Breakaway 4.0), Haley Izurieta (Ecuadorian, formerly rehearsal alt B/C, Bliss 5.0/6.0), Krystal Hernández (Puerto Rican, Canadian Tour)

Howard: Samantha Pauly (Puerto Rican, pre-Broadway tour/Bway), Brianna Mooney (Bliss 3.0), Cassie Silva (Mexican descent, alt A/B/C/H, Aragon Tour/US universal alternate), Didi Romero (Puerto Rican/Boricua, Aragon Tour), Aline Mayagoitia (Mexicana, Boleyn Tour)

Parr: Anna Uzele (Puerto Rican, pre-Broadway tour/Bway), Marilyn Caserta (Cuban, alt A/B/C/P, Bliss 3.0/US universal alternate/Broadway), Gabriela Francesca Carrillo (Mexican-American, Aragon Tour), Sydney Parra (Puerto Rican, Boleyn Tour)

Rehearsal alts: Adrianna Glover (alt A/C/P, Bliss 3.0), Alizé Ke'Aloha Cruz (Mexican, alt B/S/H, Bliss 3.0)

Some stats: - We still have not seen any Latina Seymours who actually got to debut (although Alizé Cruz did cover the role as rehearsal alt). - Howard has been played by the most Latino/a/e/x queens, with four principals as well as two alts and a rehearsal swing. - Meanwhile Cleves and Parr have had three principals as well as two alts and a rehearsal swing; Boleyn has had one principal as well as three alts and two rehearsal swings; and Aragon has had two principals as well as two alts and a rehearsal swing.

A couple notes and definitions: - All information is from this post. There may be additional info or queens missing, as it's only information I specifically have been able to verify. This list also doesn't encompass the full breadth of many queens' identities; many of them are of mixed race and ethnicity, or of several nationalities. For more info on any given queen, that post has everything I know. - The terms "Hispanic" and "Latino" are often conflated within the US, but have different meanings. "Hispanic" refers to someone with heritage from a Spanish-speaking country, such as Spain, Mexico, Chile, and Cuba. "Latino" (or Latina/Latine) refers to someone of Latin American heritage, which by broad definition includes South America, Central America, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and some of the Caribbean, including non-Spanish-speaking countries like Brazil. While the month is called Hispanic Heritage Month, it's typically defined as focusing on celebrating those of Latin American descent. As such, I'm not including queens of Hispanic but non-Latin American descent. - However, there is further debate and difference in identification even beyond that in terms of which countries/people identify as Latin American. For anyone from an area where Latin American identification may differ, such as most of the Caribbean, I generally acquiesced to what the queen themselves identify as. As such, there's very little inclusion of Caribbean queens on this list, because most of them identify themselves as purely Caribbean rather than Latin American. - This debate also comes up with the many Filipino/Pinoy queens. Many identify themselves as being of Hispanic AND Asian heritage due to Spanish colonization in the region, which would make them Hispanic rather than Latino. Of course, there is a possibility that some of the queens could be have mixed Filipina AND Latina background; however, I don't have anything where any of them identified themselves as such, and so in keeping with specifically Latin American queens I did not include them in this post. (You can find them in the Asian American and Pacific Islander post, however!) - Additionally, this post does not include Rhiannon Bacchus as she was part of the cancelled Breakaway 2.0 cast. She is Guyanese.

--------------------------- Photos of Gerianne Pérez, Erin Ramirez, Krystal Hernández, Samantha Pauly, Cassie Silva, Didi Romero, Aline Mayagoitia, Anna Uzele, Gabriela Francesca Carrillo, and Sydney Parra are by Joan Marcus. All other photos: sixthemusicalau, unsure of origin (Phoenix Jackson Mendoza), _animalise (Analise Rios), janice_rijssel (Janice Rijssel), 0haley0 (Haley Izurieta), briannabritomooney (Brianna Mooney), marilyncaserta (Marilyn Caserta), alize.kealoha (Adrianna Glover and Alizé Ke'Aloha Cruz)

[marsinthecorner]

SCARAMUCCIA INFO

My BF came up with all this, he loves science and helps me a lot when it comes to how the species functions, as well as world building.

Evolutionary History:

- Scaramuccia come from a line of proto-mammals that developed bipedal locomotion, and they'd be most visually similar to primates, BUT they have unique markings, colors, patterns, and body types that aren't found in primates.

- They're also somewhat similar to bipedal flightless birds when it comes to their spectacular markings and they have types of mating displays that are more bird-typical than mammal-typical. This "bird-like" similarity generated a unique set of chromosomes that differentiates themselves from mammals. They developed "XX" chromosomes for male and "XY" chromosomes for female. Birds have this system, but we call it "ZZ" for male and "ZW" for female.

- This eventually led to the loss of the female sex in Scaramuccia. Eventually, their "Y" chromosome got lost, leading to the end of "genetic females". HOWEVER, the noble lineage retained the genetic information, so occasionally babies are born with this lost chromosome and genetic information. This chromosome is also tied to pink and purple colors, tear-shaped marks, coily hair, and pink or orange skin hues. (And some other traits that we haven't decided on yet.)

- There might be two subspecies of Scaramuccia that are as different as humans are from neanderthals (not much difference, because they can interbreed). One subspecies is the royal lineage that retains the female Y chromosome. The other subspecies is the common scaramuccia, which only has X chromosomes, which is male.

Modern Scaramuccia Sex Systems:

- Since the majority of Scaramuccia have identical chromosomes, they also inherited a reproductive method similar to fish, where they lay their "eggs" in specialized plants that co-evolved with them. (No name for them yet, but they probably look like they have colorful balloon leaves.)

- This also means that male-male pairings are the norm. Scaramuccia have some degree of parthenogenesis, but it's uncommon and discouraged, because asexual reproduction in Scaramuccia leads to stunted growth and small size. Speaking of which, part of why Scaramuccia evolved to be so big and bulky is because they're prey for feline alien species. Very small scaramuccia used to be easy food for them. This is also why Saltee has always needed protection and care, even into adulthood, because their species was hunted for thousands of years by felines.

- In royal societies, male-female pairings are a lot more common. There are "genuine females" in royalty, including Icee's mother. Meanwhile, Slurpee and Saltee probably have two fathers, so do most common Scaramuccia. However, when a non-royal male mates with a royal female, there's a strong chance that rather than producing a male or female offspring, they'll produce a transgender offspring. This means that transgenderism is genetically tied to royalty, including the extremely elusive trans man, which is a rare case of a "genuine female" (which is already rare) having a male gender identity. Trans women are very commonly born to royal and non-royal couples.

- There are also some rare cases of trans scaramuccia being born outside of royalty, BUT it only occurs in extremely hot environments, because scaramuccia have a degree of gender variability in their egg form, so if they're hatched in the desert, transgenderism can happen. This is the biggest reason why Icee didn't know if she was from royalty or if she turned out trans because of desert heat. In fact, her parents had her out there to hide an affair! (Probably -- unless an affair would be a dumb plot twist, then they just had her out there to hide her from the royals.)

Modern Scaramuccia Gender Roles:

- They've almost completely lost a sense of "femaleness" or "otherness", because most lineages lost the female sex completely, making it a male-dominant species. However, because they're not humans and they're not real mammals, the male gender looks very different for them than it'd look like for us. For example, nurturing and compassion are traits associated with males. The ability to carefully watch after others, to build up strength, to help others succeed, and to raise and train other scaramuccia -- these are all masculine traits!

- Traditionally, in scaramuccia, the female gender was larger than male. Polymorphism, or the ability to change size and shape, developed in males, which greatly contributed to why the female gender went extinct. The female gender became redundant. When they were common, the female gender had the following traits: adventurous, curious, inquisitive, and somewhat lonely. They used to also raise young, but they were known for scouting out new territory, building houses, expanding their communities outwards into nature, and also assigning the clan and rank of their offspring. Without them, most scaramuccia did away with this class system -- except royals, who kept their class!

- This also means homosexuality is the default sexual orientation! Most scaramuccia are born homosexual, because their mates are most likely the same gender, and their offspring have an extremely high chance of being born male too. This means 75% - 95% (depending on the community and where they live) are born male and homosexual. Also, bisexuality or pansexuality is much more common than heterosexuality. In royal society, the inverse is true where heterosexuality is much more common. All scaramuccia have the capacity to be bisexual or pansexual, but almost none identify as such. (Hi Slurpee)

- Most non-royal scaramuccia think that the female gender went extinct a long time ago, because it was redundant. They can reproduce without a second gender, so they've lost use for it. As a result, they assume that traditionally feminine gender presentation is roleplay or cosplay, and it's been adapted for theater and entertainment among common scaramuccia, almost like a historical costume.

- Female scaramuccia have the unique Y chromosome. Trans women don't, but royals have some methods to genetically modify trans women into something that resembles a more "cis" appearance, including drinkable hormones and gene therapy. Because there's a natural chance of transgenderism occurring in pureblood royals, their technology for treating gender dysphoria is very advanced, and all the common trans scaramuccia scramble to get into this society, marry into royalty, or even be someone's favorite concubine in order to get ahold of these transformative substances.

- Almost all scaramuccia have a degree of "polymorphism". This means their bodies are very susceptible to rapid, sudden change, and it can be reversible. This is an adaptation to being a prey item for felines. They can make themselves bigger to avoid being eaten. However, only males and others with XX chromosomes (including trans women) can change their size. HOWEVER, here are some exceptions:

1) Royalty can't change their shape or size. The presence of two different chromosomes limits their body's ability to change. They're relatively inflexible and rigid, which is why common scaramuccia say that they look like plastic or like mannequins. The inability of royalty to change their bodies explains why Icee can't, despite being a trans woman with XX chromosomes.

2) Common scaramuccia with birth defects also can't change their shape or size, especially if their egg got damaged while they were developing. To be able to change shape and size, all of the cells and genes need to have the coding for it, and even one cell missing the information could cause a disastrous and potentially fatal attempt at transformation, so if even one cell is missing it, that scaramuccia cannot change shape or size. This explains why Saltee can't do it!

3) Females can't change their shape or size, because they inherently have the Y chromosomes that forbid it. This also affects trans men, who have Y chromosomes. If Guzzle is trans like I headcanoned, this would explain why he can't do it! However, there is a loophole: with the same technology that allows for drinkable hormones and gene therapy, a trans man can lose his Y chromosome to become "genuine male", which unlocks the ability to change shape or size after gene therapy.

[seirei-bh]

A theory about Maia and Onin

Reading through J&D TPL's design bible, I realized that Onin and Maia have one thing in common: they can both predict the future and can hear and interpret prophecies.

The description about Maia in TPL design bible says Maia was able to predict the future and shout prophecies with a voice that was not her own. In addition, Maia is said to have used a "dark socery" and it is even hinted that she was so powerful that she created an army of enemies (it may refer to her creating the Lurkers or at least experimenting with them to mutate them in different ways). Onin is also renowned in Haven City as a true sort of fortune teller and sorceress. The two are the only human characters who have these powers so strange and uniques.

But why do they have these powers? Why does Onin know so much about the Precursors? And why was Maia going into a trance and speaking in a voice that was not her own? Why did Maia and Gol wanted to experiment with dark eco?

Here we go, theory time!

I believe that Maia and Onin are people "chosen" from birth, just like Jak, to fulfill a role that guides Jak to be the hero he is today. But Onin and Maia had an opposite role. One was chosen by the Precursors, and the other by the Dark Makers.

Onin was born blind and mute, therefore, the Precursors spoke to her and gave her a gift of light eco, so that she used her gift for good, and was, like Samos and Damas, a key person to guide Jak on the good path of his hero journey. Meanwhile, the voice Maia heard was not the voice of dark creatures who used to be Precursors: the Dark Makers, who tempted her and Gol to the dark side. On the one hand, this would cause the future, Jak and Daxter to have to embark on their path as heroes and become stronger, but it would also be what would trigger Jak and Daxter to find the Rift Gate and with it the metalheads could reach their world, destroy, conquer, and later the Darkmakers might also come to that world and destroy it.

However, it's true Onin came to do things that can be considered not very good, since it was she who told Erol that Jak was "special" and that is why the KG took him to prison, but we need to remember that the Precursors are gods who play with people as game board pieces, So Onin knew that Jak needed to go to prison to gain the power of the dark eco to defeat Kor, in the same way Samos also knew it was necesary Jak needed to go to the past and later go to the future.

And in certain way, Samos also is a opposite parallel to Gol, both being sages with an important role in Jak's journey. In both cases, we have a sage and a sorceress.

It was necesary that also Jak had people in both sides of that coin that helped him to become in the hero Mar. Since he achieved both eco powers: light and dark. That's whay the Symbol of Mar represents: the balance.

//extra side note: I also have some headcanons (for fanfics that I never couldn't finished and I hope I can back to write them some day) about Onin being a long lost member of the House of Mar (a Damas's great-aunt or something like that), and that was why she knew so many things about the tomb of Mar, and Jak's mother being a distant relative descendant of the Acheron clan -not directly of the evil twins, of course, I mean descendant about other non-mentioned members of Acheron family. Being those things even here more representative and symbolic to Jak's light/dark sides, but I'll talk more about this in other post~)

[mariacallous]

According to Russia’s propaganda outlets, one of the goals of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is to fight back against the "sexual permissiveness" and “moral decay of the West." Since the war began, Russian politicians and pro-government news net have flooded the airwaves with stories about the “depravity” of the Ukrainian army, repeatedly equated homosexuality with pedophilia, and presented Russian troops as heroes fighting for “traditional values.” But however absurd this rhetoric may be, it’s not new or unique: throughout history, these same ideas have repeatedly arisen in a variety of dictatorships, from Hitler’s Germany and Stalin's Russia to Gambia and Uganda in the 21st century. Meduza explains why authoritarians on both the right and the left can be counted on to persecute LGBT+ people.

Do we really want kids in Russia to have Parent No. 1 and Parent No. 2? Have we lost our minds? Do we really want our kids to have it drilled into their heads that there are more genders than sexes? Do we really want our schools to hammer perversions into their heads that lead to degradation and extinction?

So went one of Vladimir Putin’s numerous digressions during his speech at the signing ceremony for the treaties on Russia annexing four partially-occupied Ukrainian territories last month.

In recent years, the Russian president’s rhetoric surrounding LGBT people has gotten crueler and more intense. In 2014, for example, after signing the law banning “gay propaganda” among minors in Russia, Putin pointed out that “non-traditional relationships” themselves were still legal in Russia, denying accusations from human rights groups that the new law was discriminatory. On the other hand, in the same speech, he went on to name “homosexualism” and “pedophilia” as part of the same list, implying a similarity or connection between them. Even earlier, in 2013, he said that “in Euro-Atlantic countries, moral principles and traditional identity are being denied. [Those countries] are implementing policies that put multi-children families on the same level as same-sex partnership, and faith in God on the same level as faith in Satan.”

In addition to maligning LGBT+ people, Putin has told bogus stories about how, in Western countries, “there’s serious talk of registering parties that aim to promote pedophilia.” The party he was likely referring to was created in the Netherlands in 2006 and only had three members. It disbanded in 2010 after widespread public outrage.

Nonetheless, while Putin used to at least pretend that LGBT+ people have the same rights in Russia as everybody else (apart from the “propaganda” law), he now speaks about them as a force to be fought against. Moreover, in his annexation speech, Putin effectively said that one of the goals of Russia’s Ukraine invasion is to prevent the normalization in Russia of all sexualities not sanctioned by the state.

Meanwhile, for Putin and his propagandists, the idea that there are more than two genders has gone from a “perversion” to an “existential threat to the country and its people.” In Russian state discourse, homosexuality has rapidly became as inherent a characteristic of Russia’s enemies as their “commitment to Nazi or fascist ideas." On October 1, for example, pro-Kremlin film actor and Russian State Duma deputy Dmitry Pevtsov claimed Russian troops are fighting for “families to consist of a mom, a dad, and children — not some guy, some other guy, and some other who-knows-what.” And on a Russian talk show in May, he said that “militant faggots have become the main defenders of Ukrainian values.”

The Russian authorities’ rhetoric surrounding gender and sexuality bears a remarkable resemblance to that of numerous other totalitarian, authoritarian, and dictatorial regimes. To gain insight into why this form of intolerance consistently plays an integral role in how dictators maintain power, Meduza turned to history.

The Nazis simultaneously despised and feared LGBT people

The idea of a government-recognized union between one man and one woman as the only permissible kind of romantic relationship is one of the fundamental principles of most fascist regimes. What's more, both members of the relationship must understand their gender in a way that “matches” their sex characteristics; most fascist governments have considered cross-dressing and being transgender just as “deviant” as sex between two men, for example. It’s no accident that in Vichy France, the state motto was changed from Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité (Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood) to Travail, Famille, Patrie (Work, Family, Homeland).

In the Third Reich, LGBT+ people faced mass persecution and were declared a threat to the welfare of the state and of the people. In the minds of Nazi propagandists, gay people were the antithesis of everything Aryan patriots were supposed to embody: asceticism, masculinity, and a willingness to forego pleasure and entertainment to devote oneself to the homeland and the Führer.

Sexual “perversion” in Hitler’s Germany was seen as a remnant of the decadence and hedonism of the Weimar Republic. The Nazis sought to cut all ties with their predecessor state and tightened legislation criminalizing sexual relations between men. Beginning in 1933, when the National Socialist Party came to power and Hitler’s dictatorship was established, prosecution for homosexuality no longer required even physical evidence — it was enough to bring a witness statement from a “law-abiding citizen” who claimed to have seen a suspect look too intensely at another man.

Like in many dictatorships, the image of LGBT+ people that the Nazis pushed was based on two contradictory premises. The first was that LGBT+ people were weak, pathetic, sick people who didn’t deserve to be a part of society. The second was that homosexuality was passed down like a deadly virus and could destroy German society from within if the proper measures weren’t taken to defeat it.

Thus, on one hand, LGBT people were cast as subhumans who deserved contempt, while on the other hand, they were accused of being some of the most dangerous and insidious enemies of the state. The propaganda failed to explain how a group so weak could simultaneously be so powerful.

“In nazi propaganda, homosexuals were generally portrayed as soft, cowardly, cringing, and untrustworthy creatures,” Dutch historian Harry Oosterhuis has written. “[But] in Hitler's and Himmler's view they nonetheless appeared to possess an imperious character and to have at their disposal special intuitions and aptitudes which were withheld from 'normal' men. They were capable of strongly organizing in secret and thereupon making a grab for power.”

In the 12 years the Third Reich existed, according to historians’ estimates, about 100,000 men were arrested for allegedly engaging in “unnatural sexual acts.” Out of the 53,400 men convicted, between 5,000 and 15,000 were sent to concentration camps. The rest were given prison sentences or forced to undergo “treatment.” Persecution against LGBT+ people also got worse as time went on: from January 1933 to June 1935, about 4,000 men were charged for “unnatural sexual acts,” while from June 1935 to June 1938, the number rose to at least 40,000.

Communist regimes were no friendlier

In 1934, an openly gay Scottish journalist and communist named Harry Whyte wrote an open letter to Joseph Stalin. He wanted to explain to the Soviet leader why, in his view, “a homosexual [can be] considered someone worthy of membership in the Communist Party.” At the time, Whyte had been living in the USSR for several years, working as a writer for the English-language Soviet propaganda outlet the Moscow Daily News. Quoting letters written by Marx and Engels, as well as Stalin's own speeches, Whyte criticized the way gay men were treated under capitalism and fascism. He said that even when he had visited Soviet psychiatrists and asked them to “cure” him, they had admitted this might be impossible. He went on to liken the fight for gay rights to the struggle for women's rights.

Whyte expected Stalin to be receptive to his arguments — and to take a kinder view of gay men than that of the British authorities. Instead, the dictator’s response was brief and hostile: “An idiot and a degenerate.”

Shortly after, Harry Whyte left the Soviet Union and was kicked out of the Communist party — but not before Maxim Gorky published a response to his letter in the Soviet newspaper Pravda. “In a country where the proletariat manages courageously and successfully,” Gorky wrote, “homosexuality, which corrupts young people, is recognized as socially criminal and is punished.”

Despite universal equality officially serving as one of the principal ideals of communist and socialist regimes, LGBT people in the Soviet Union found themselves in similar circumstances to those of queer people in fascist dictatorships. The decade that followed the relatively free 1920s was marked by the passage of legislation even more reactionary and repressive than that of the Russian Empire. Like the Nazis, Soviet leaders viewed LGBT+ people with both contempt and fear. In official discourse, gay people were depicted as untrustworthy figures predisposed to deception and betrayal.

The year before Whyte’s letter, the USSR’s Central Executive Committee criminalized “sodomy," making voluntary sex between two men punishable by up to five years in prison.

However, unlike in fascist regimes, where persecution against gay and trans people took place primarily among the general population, "sodomy" allegations in the Soviet Union were frequently used as a pretext for political purges. Facing a “sodomy” charge under Stalin's government was tantamount to being accused of treason.

Over the next 60 years, about 60,000 people were convicted of “sodomy.” Having these charges on one’s record often made it impossible to find work or enroll in university.

Fidel Castro’s Cuba was another communist state in which LGBT+ people faced brutal repressions. For decades after Castro's rise to power in 1959, LGBT+ people were sent to labor camps and forced to publicly renounce their “criminal predilections.” Police arrested men whose behavior they deemed “feminine” or who dressed “like a hippy.” To extract confessions from gay men, investigators would wrap them in barbed wire or bury them up to their neck and deprive them of food and water.

Castro normalized and encouraged homophobia among the public as well. Like current Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, the Cuban dictator held that “there are no homosexuals in this country.”

The masculinity cult

Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs at The New School and the granddaughter of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, has attributed authoritarian leaders’ consistent persecution of LGBT+ people to their constant need to emphasize their own strength. The image of a man as the embodiment of masculinity, she writes, is connected in these leaders’ minds with the “natural order of things,” the violation of which poses an immediate threat to their continued power. For dictators and their devotees, queer people provoke not just disgust and confusion but also fear, because they represent an “alternative” order.

Under totalitarianism, homophobic discourse is usually predicated on the idea that if same-sex relationships or non-binary gender identities are normalized, there will be no place for “normal” people in the “new” world. Despite the fact that it’s LGBT+ people who have consistently faced persecution under fascist and communist regimes, dictators promote the idea that queer people are the ones who pose a danger to others. As Khrushcheva wrote in a 2021 column:

These leaders' reliance on “hegemonic masculinity” – the idea that men should be strong, tough, and dominant – to bolster their position should not be surprising. Authoritarian states are fundamentally weak, and dictators are fundamentally insecure. So, they constantly attempt to project strength.

But in today's fast-changing world, ordinary people are feeling insecure, too – especially those who think their traditionally “dominant” positions are being eroded. That makes them eager to embrace strongmen who promise a return to the order and predictability of a more socially rigid past. In other words, people are afraid of change, and think they need macho leaders and patriarchal rules to protect them.

The first order of business for authoritarian leaders seeking to scapegoat queer people is to convince the population that minority sexualities are dangerous. To that end, they usually claim that there’s a correlation between the sexuality or gender identity they disapprove of and some imagined negative trait. For example, authorities might claim that LGBT+ people are incapable of engaging in patriotism or living in society without imposing their “deviant” predilections on “normal” people.

To stir up homophobic sentiment among the public, propagandists try to convince the heterosexual and cisgender majority that LGBT+ people’s worldviews and psyches make them something akin to invaders from another planet. This is because it’s much easier for people to hate “aliens” than to hate people who have everything in common with the majority except their sexuality.

Leaders in authoritarian and totalitarian regimes frequently claim that LGBT+ people are a threat to demography, depicting homosexuality or nonbinary gender identities as a virus that can be passed from person to person. State propaganda traditionally seeks to scare people by asserting that the “spread” of homosexuality will lead to a decline in birthrates — and ultimately to extinction. But this is a fantasy: nothing remotely close to this has been observed in any democratic country where same-sex relationships are legal and socially acceptable.

One of the world’s most well-known homophobic leaders was Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s prime minister from 1987 to 2017. When trying to justify his repressive policies against LGBT+ people, Mugabe often presented the same arguments Vladimir Putin has begun using in recent years: that gay people are “harmful” and “unnatural,” and that their supporters are either “idiots” or “Satanists.”

In the years since Mugabe’s rule came to an end, Zimbabwe has seen the opening of its first health clinics for gay and bisexual men — a step lauded by the local LGBT+ community as a “historic victory.” In other African dictatorships such as Uganda, however, state-sanctioned homophobia continues to thrive.

After inculcating homophobia among the public, dictators themselves usually shape their own public image around stereotypes of masculinity, contrasting themselves with people who don’t fit into their “traditional” conceptions of manhood. And because citizens’ primary responsibility in authoritarian regimes is to buttress the state, LGBT+ people are stigmatized and demonized for not fitting into the model of the “classic” family and for showing their individuality — something authoritarian governments strive to suppress. 

[msfbgraves]

The CK writers can’t NOT know how the Sauna scene looked! I don’t know what gay culture was like in the 80s for non-Americans, but I do know, as an American, that gay men frequented saunas and gay bathhouses to engage in casual sex with other men. It was considered a “safe” spot away from judgement, and part of the gay cruising culture. And the fact that Terry engages with Daniel in a sauna, apparently without clothes (?) speaks volumes. What with Daniel looking so frightened, all done up to the throat with his white virginal robe…meanwhile Terry towers over him and doms him without laying a finger on him. The scene is LOADED. Especially given how campy and off his rocker Terry was in KK3…and the general weirdness of that movie, and how much gay, grooming, and obsessive subtext there is…the sauna was such an odd and perhaps deliberate choice for Terry and Daniel to have an interaction. I’d sell my soul to get the answer from the CK writers on this!

Nonnie, I really can't help you. All I know is that both Cobra Kai and and of course The Karate Kid III are very mainstream pieces of media and they're writing for the mainstream. Now, I've also seen mainstream writing teams deliberately trying to write queer themes and kink and it often comes out really off putting. If you watch Hugh Grant in "Maurice", with the faintest veil of plausible deniability, you get a beautiful queer romance, but watch "A very English Scandal" and it's completely awkward and unpleasant. As for kink, Paul Giamatti and Maggie Siff in "Billions" are just uncomfortable, they're so not into this dynamic, like the writers, presumably. But in stuff that would never be marketed as "queer" or "kinky" people often end up having to fan themselves, and I think that's because the writers either are completely oblivious or they have to pretend they are but I'm guessing the former, giving the actors more freedom. I really wouldn't put it past them to think of that sauna scene as "just" a callback in CK. Did they mean to cast a female lookalike of Terry as Daniel's wife? They didn't even know they'd get Thomas on the show and they don't know how to write character - there's hardly any overlap between their young versions of Terry and Kreese and what Marty and Thomas are playing, and I don't blame the actors for that! And yet! Daniel's ill fitting suits! The way he still gets sexually harrassed by his "rivals", be it Tom Cole or Johnny Lawrence painting a dick on his face - somewhere the penny dropped for Daniel that all these boys not so much wanted to kill him but they wanted to fuck him and men still want to fuck him and I think it was Terry that opened his eyes. Triple painful that with Terry he was into it and that ended badly. But he's learnt to see it and he doesn't like it, if he does flirt people into buying his cars. Was that the writers or Ralph? Hm, I think the writers didn't want him to look sexy and Ralph has a no nudity clause that some nuns may find a tad restrictive (no way he was unfamiliar with creeping men in Hollywood, the way he stayed away from anything romantic in his films) and yet here we are. It reads as a middle aged man who has been either beat up or prepositioned one too many times. And Terry was the first to use sex against him. And Terry knows he was the first. And he knows that'll fuck with Daniel's head six ways to Sunday because he knows they have chemistry. And it's a brilliant role reversal because Daniel has also used flirting to get what he wanted from people. He would have called it friendliness and it was, but he loves asking for it when he knows people can't do anything to him even in high school, he knows it confuses men and makes girls like him. He does it to Johnny in the first film and Chozen in the second but when he does it with Terry he doesn't get the usual flustered confusion but now Terry is doing it to him and he's never been at the receiving end of that...

...but it's very plausible that in his sales jobs he totally was and it was Amanda who taught him to weaponise it and there's something very hot and very familiar about her anyway...

The only way I can get this to make sense in my head is:

Ralph and Thomas have always known exactly what they're doing. I really applaud how Ralph has played the shadow of Terry before we knew Terry would even be in Cobra Kai. And Thomas' re-entry in the series is seamless. No continuity breaks like with Ralph and Billy. Man is a writer who knows his craft and he made them listen to him or he wasn't coming on the show.

The writers do not consciously know - if they knew they'd try to undo it in the text - but they do pick up on it and it bleeds into their writing.

[sapphos-darlings]

In a wlw relationship, does one person usually has preferences in regards to things that would often be gendered in straight couples, like lifting the other up, guiding or being guided in a dance, having your hands on her waist or hers on yours, or do most just don't really have much of a preference and enjoy doing either? Do those gestures mean something, is the one doing the 'top' and the other the 'bottom'? In straight relationships, people often atribute meaning to those things, but I don't know how that works between women. I'm figuring out my sexuality now and I want to date women from now on, but I'm trying to concile that with the heteronormative context I've been in until now, because I keep trying to understand, but I don't, and I think I have to if I'll be dating other women.

It's not quite that black and white and definitely not as rigid as it may seem! There is a culture of butch/femme in the dating scene for gay women, and a more widely spread idea of top/switch/bottom from the gay scene in general, though this one is more relevant to gay men than it is women. The reasons to why this exist are complex and historical, and our other mod (Lavender) may be better equipped to tackle that side, but contemporarily speaking, these roles are not as relevant as they were earlier in lesbian/bi history and subculture.

To establish first: there is generally a celebration of "true" equality in gay relationships, of being free of the sexist implications that have been placed on straight relationships, and the ability to move on the spectrum from feminine to masculine in terms of behaviours, activities and appearance freely. Particularly in relationships between women, the lack of a direct patriarchal influence in the relationship is generally celebrated as a positive. However, in the past, the butch party would assume the traditionally masculine role. Femmes had the appearance and behaviour of more socially acceptable women and provided "shelter" for the gender non-conforming butch lesbians, who dressed and behaved in a masculine manner, sometimes living in the male role in society altogether, regardless of the actual gender identity of the butch in question. These roles were often assumed for survival, and we're talking pre-80s culture here, from the 1900s upwards, during very "nuclear family" and "traditional values" times, the majority of which homosexuality was labeled as a mental illness or was illegal altogether. But it's our cultural heritage, which in better times has become less of a cornerstone of survival and hiding in plain sight and more of an identity, a celebration of who we are - so butch and femme survive to date, and are mostly regarded as valid and beautiful identities to take on in the community.

I'd still say that in modern dating, they're less prevalent than they were before. We still have masculine women and feminine women dating each other, surely, but we also have masculine women dating masculine women and feminine women dating feminine women and women dating women who just don't fit anywhere specific on that spectrum. It's very much up to a person's nature and preference; playing into each other's strengths, rather than holding onto a specific role. For example, I'm naturally quite strong, and love picking up my small partner and hauling them around the house for the sheer joy of it. Picking people up is delightful and my partner loves to be picked up. Meanwhile, we do house maintenance together as a team, both of us know how to wield a hammer and work with nails, and if we had a car, we'd be tinkering with that together.

When it comes to roles in dancing or such, it's up to a person's personality and their level of confidence - the one who is confident and tends to take a leadership role in general will likely feel more in their element leading the dance as well. Similarly, in sex, it's up to personal preference: what you like doing, what you don't, and what experiences feel good to you and what doesn't work out. Some people are natural tops, some are natural bottoms, most people like to switch around depending on what the specific activity is all about. Sometimes a top is a dominant personality, sometimes they're a very soft person who simply enjoys to be in "lead" of the act, similarly for bottoms, they may be masculine or feminine or anything inbetween, there isn't a set place for "the woman" or "the man" in a relationship between two women, as it is, and as it should be, a relationship between two women.

In my experience, there isn't an expectation that in any given couple, one of them will assume a masculine or a feminine role and vice versa. This tends to come from the heterosexual world, and is often summed up in the rather unintentionally homophobic, ever-repeating question of "so, who's the man?" Nobody in a relationship with two women is the man, unless one of them or both of them specifically want to be the man, or feel like "the man" is an identity for them. Same with being "the woman". Ultimately, we are all just people, and these are gender roles that patriarchy and heteronormativity enforce across the gender and sexuality spectrum. Inherently, all of us share some traits in common with these roles, but very few of us fit into the set boxes neatly with all our limbs comfortably inside. In gay relationships, one of the most freeing things is to be able to let go of all of that and focus on who you are as a person, and who your partner is, and what you two have together, how you fit each other, how your strengths work into each other's weaknesses, how you support one another as a team.

Restricting yourselves down to one party being "a man" and the other being "a woman" in all things would be unnatural and clip the wings off of the potential you two have together to be strong exactly as you are, regardless of societal expectations.

Hope this answers your question!

[ngmn2002]

Ch 101 random thoughts.

Hmm? Does it have 'my wakeup-call' in it? -yes ...

AHH!! WHERE IS IT?! WHERE IS IT??!! Ok... starting the chapter with...

OMG! TSUKASA?! I MEAN... 'Alive' Tsukasa?! For real?! I thought I would never see you... I'm so glad I got to see you...! What a shocking pleasent surprise! I... am... not dreaming I finally saw your face... right??? (Ahh... you're singing too... I'm not thinking about a wizard version of you after seeing these music notes.. nope! not at all!)

Hmm... the twins were first year students by then... and in different classes it seems?

I adore this boy's way of talking... though... Amane... are these words really from your heart? Tsukasa's class is looking for him… that caught me off guard… for real? I mean… looking back at the p.p arc… it was kinda the opposite?

Aww... that's it... !

Ehhh..... 💜

Wha.......?

....? Wait... what?

💜❤️ So, it seems Tsukasa had asked this question to Amane before and is still waiting for him to answer? Why did he have to do that? They were getting so well together the years before? What made Tsukasa ask that? And... Amane... please... just give him an answer and say "of course I want you with me"? It's not that hard.. you know? I'm afraid you being hesitant to answer this 'simple' question led the 2 of you to the future we have now… or maybe… you answered it… by… the 2 of you dying together? I don't know what to say… took you over a year to give a proper answer? The situation is too complicated it seems...

"I'm staying with you" Kind of thing? Why do I have a feeling their whole last year was centred around this question… it's a question of life and death… ah… Now... after we're done with that... where are they? Inside the clock of No.1? Amane is trying to make it move again? Why? (thinking about why the clock stopped moving in the first place... it's suspicious)

Hmm....

Is that true though?

And speaking of the clock keepers... does this thing has a connection with what Amane was doing...?

Makes me wonder!

What do we have so far? Tsukasa being as carefree as ever sitting on that… what? Edge of a window in there? Singing... I must hear him singing at least once for my own sake then asking some serious stuff... Amane trying to make the clock move again to get something out of it (maybe to control the school time as the rumor says? for some special reason? woohoo! Guess who was right to assume that? *laughs proudly*)... (what is it his reason...? what is it…? it would be awesome is he was trying to answer Tsukasa's question somehow by doing that? wishful thinking? anyway… now, whould I be right in here as well? hehe~)

Moving on...

Huh? Who is that? What do they mean?

I feel sorry for him... and... What is it with this face?

Are you really sure about that? I mean...

Hmm... I won't be making fun of you, you're in luck.

Why do I have a feeling these words have a deeper meaning...? They remind me of... the boy with her... a lot... in many different ways.

Nene!!! So lovely... ah... adorable! Please stay like this forever... keep on being happy and smiling...!!!

Hmm... trying to look like a 'charming' prince, huh? ^^ Oh! Also... Nene's role in the play... "twister No.4"... does it have anything to do with No.4? Eh... still thinking about what the the price of her wish that she gave to Tsukasa might be...

Cuteness... it's too much... too much... !!!!!

She is shining... shining! ahhh... she is so... precious! just keep on smiling forever for me!

💘

This makes me feel uneasy...

OOOH!!!

What a specific timing... and... why did you need to do that... and why did you forget "why"... I want to know...

Meanwhile I'm looking at these things for no reason at all...

Which one is it? Or it could be non! Haha... looking at these things is fun I assume!

Now... did I forget anything...?

Hmm... I see a pattern in there... how boring... at least change your way of doing things just a little, it's not fun. Also... that 'evil' look... eh... I'm not impressed even for a bit to tell you the truth. It seems him and her really try too hard to look 'cool'... yet to me at least... it turn out so 'meh'. Though... to get Akane to help... I'm afraid Aoi might be used in a dirty way by them... she is his weakness... I'm worried about her...

Speaking of them...

I can tell, you 'evil' thing.

Soooo…. these 2 are up to a plan of 'hers' yet again. This girl is striking again I see? What 'tragedy' will happen now?

The time before they used Kou to get No.6 and left him behind... now it's Akane's turn I see... the poor thing... he will be used for them to get to No.1 then will be left behind to look like a fool like Kou did...

These 2 love to play with others and use them until they get what they want then throw them away soon after to live with "I got nothing, but the 2 got what they want", huh? How evil. Oh! her servant said that about the 2 of them already... my bad! They call themselves like that!

Enough of that... thinking about something good again... TSUKASA! What is he up to now? And no... I don't think he is working with these 2 by any means... since it seems these 2 are up to things of their own or rather... her own. On the surface it might look like Tsuaksa and the 2 are working together, but on a deeper level, it's not like that.

Ehhh... at least I got to see 12 years Tsukasa looking so good for now... I'm happy with that...

*****

Oh! Must keep this in mind as well!

Super Great Chapter!!!