#my brain cooks sometimes
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I have wandered many places But they’re all the same to me Nowhere I’ve found, to settle down A little bit further I’ll find my rest In the shadow of the valley That I love best so i guess i finally started playing fallout new vegas thanks to my friend! this is my courier 6 named Mr. Curious (Jonathan Frank Keith before running into Benny). he finds everything funny after doc patched him up. he also got amnesia for storytelling reasons and also because i kinda dunno a lot of stuff about fallout in the first place so i also drew his portrait as jonathan just to see the change bullet to the head made. he's got a pretty interesting past too as a brotherhood of steel's fugitive paladin but maybe i should make a character introduction sheet once again? or maybe i can just tell to anyone interested. we'll see
#my art#fallout#fallout new vegas#fnv#fnv oc#??? should i call him that?#courier 6#courier six#ahhh this song is so damn fitting!#it's like it's about a peaceful death#also knowing he was a paladin before#this song is about a valley#who knows maybe it's about a hidden valley in this case right#also accidentally used taro's reversed hanged man design#which also works so well#and doc's psych eval as a pool of blood#my brain cooks sometimes
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#yumeiro patissiere#yumeiro patissiere: my sweets cooking#food#this game is sometimes so difficult#like it needs the precision of a brain surgeon??#but it's really cute;;#my edits#my gifs#yumeiro patissiere edits#q
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cant stop thinkin bout charles and erik readin together on the couch but instead of reading with him charles is listening to eriks thoughts while he reads. Live mind commentary ……..
#xmen#cherik#charles xavier#erik lehnsherr#snap chats#the rare time i post an idea of mine only because i really cant think of a way id draw this#usually i hoard my ideas cause i like surprising you guys but this aint really one i feel like drawing so. For You my friends#like i COULD but. idk just isnt particularly something im itching to draw it just seems cute#but anyways no chat let me cook alright hear me out cause i talk in my brain all the time while i read#sometimes i stop reading just to think about a bit i read yeah#i want charles to listen in on all of eriks side comments or observations he makes while reading something#like if he wanted to charles could read the whole book in less than five minutes- maybe shorter than that#and that aint fun that aint cool …. so time for Audible: Husband Edition. With Commentary#ITD BE SO COZY just hangin out by the fireplace …. maybe its snowin outisde … if snow even exists anymore atp#a light fire cracklin and the study SEEMS totally quiet otherwise and yet…..#charles has been locked in to erik’s off-the-cuff literary analysis and mild comments for the past twenty minutes. its simple but its bliss#charles doesnt have to worry about being seen as invasive .. he doesnt have to suppress his powers …#the rare occasion erik lets charles into his mind for somethin so innocent .. ive made myself sick i fear#see now i wanna try writing a fic but 1.) have written in years 2.) id have to really think hard on how erik would commentate on a book#hm…… actually i do wonder what erik’s commentary on The Fable of the Bees would be …..#IN ANY CASE. maybe - at the very least- i can draw cherik by the fireplce someday ….#thatd be cute … hm …. depends on if i get in the mood for it down the line#anyways i have to drive back to my dorm !!! boo !!!! so good night everyone !!!!!
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Heres my spiff design and my rt design together. PLEASE TELL ME YOU SEE MY SPIFF DESIGN WITH A MASK AND NOT HE HAVE MOUSTACHE
#my art#rtgame#the spiffing brit#spiff#my spiff design is inspired by the art he shows sometimes in his youtube video#that when i watched him way back i thought HE looked like that#imagine my surprise when his hair isnt even dark#i find out his face throught the jingle jam#and now spiff and rt plays fallout and my brain is enjoying fallout so much that i WANT FALLOUT AU aughhhh#im cooking a fallout au chat bare with me#very slow on it thought#i love fallout now and im blaming rt
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So I’m having one of my reoccurring dreams about my estranged family. It happens. But this time, in my old family home there’s this supernatural spinoff/reboot/sequel on the tv. I’m not even watching the tv in the dream mind you it’s just on.
The brothers are tracking this like doomsday cult as they do and SURPRISE castiel is back from super hell and he’s a mega powerful new kind of demon! And is the one the cult has been trying to use! And hes still in love with dean! Who’s too in shock to believe this is real or that’s really cas!
I don’t catch what happens next but later as I’m packing to go to the airport (another staple of these dreams) I’m listening to a video essay about how this continues the shows homophobic trend of treating gay love as monstrous and predatory. With tumblr discourse over how this was handled and if it was good or bad.
And can I just say, what a b plot
#supernatural#destiel#i’m not even in this fandom#I don’t really ship this#castiel#dean winchester#dreams#this was barely in the dream but it stood out to me so much#what a fucking background detail#later#as I was starting to wake up#I realized this probably wasn’t real#so I checked tumblr to see if it was trending#knowing if this was real it’d be all over my dash#it wasn’t so I concluded my brain cooked it up#then I woke up#I had checked tumblr in my dreams#to confirm if the dream show was real#and it somehow worked#imagine my suprise to wake up to Dean Winchester actually trending lol#up there with the time I was running from my estranged family while they were in pioneer clothes#and I was shouting for help and to watch out for people in old timey clothes#and a SEPERATE PACK of women in regency era dresses run up beside me#and I shout to the pack of people it’s okay#they’re dressed from a different historical era#you can tell by the empire waist lines#the regency women helped me run too#my brain is so fun sometimes
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me
me when
me whm
e whn
wh
funny closet pig
#uncle samsonite#jake bowen#why couldnt my adhd fixate on like cooking or something USEFULL#*points at my closet* WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT#sometimes I get so tired of my brain. what if I don't want to fixate on creatures?#what if I wanna draw or read or learn smth OR BE NORMAL#AGAIN#*points at the fatass creature in overalls chugging mountain dew in my closet* WHAT. IS. THAAAAAT
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Kung Fu Panda 2 Scene Analysis + Discussion Post
Hey, all! Here's a KFP2 scene analysis because I felt like it. 🤷♀️
I have an itch to scratch and I'm going to make all of you read about it. I've been revisiting KFP2's remarkable storytelling methods—namely for conveying strong emotions without relying on dialogue and putting more faith in the narrative—and when I got to the harbor scene, I couldn't help but write something up on it. In general, writing short essays on scenes/sequences is a great writing exercise that I would recommend for fellow writers because it's a big help when you're trying to emulate a certain style or feel in your work. KFP2 is a great movie and I love it, so I often refer back to it when I'm struggling.
In short, this is me gushing. I know as a fandom we've talked this part of the movie to death a hundred times over, but it's a scene that deserves it. I'm going to be focusing on the aspects of it that interest me most, but the final battle following this scene is just as worthy of being fawned over. I am a KFP fan through-and-through and every scene (in this film especially) deserves its own discussion post. Unfortunately, I'm employed.
I've never done a dedicated sequence analysis before, but I've been delving back into studying animation and that paired with my long-time love for storytelling is more than enough to make me want to do a Tumblr deep dive on this 20~ second master-class in storytelling.
To begin, let's take a look at what's happening here:
Po swims to Tigress to make sure that she's okay. He holds her hand and gets close to her, which is something we can assume he would never do otherwise. I'll cite the attack-hug; we witnessed his (albeit completely understandable) reaction to Tigress initiating physical contact, and his instinct was to freeze in place. It tells us that physical contact is uncommon and maybe even a little awkward for them, and yet, he grabs her hand without hesitation.
My heart...ugh. I was little when this came out and I was STUPEFIED. I also realized I wanted to make movies, though, so I guess it worked out. 🤷♀️
Plus the little thumb-hold from Tigress. I'm nauseous. Kill me.
It's also worth mentioning that despite the fact that Po audibly says her name, she doesn't respond to hearing him. She responds to feeling him. She doesn't start to lift her head until he touches her.
Earlier in the film, it had been made a point that she "feels nothing," which was intended to refer to both her hands and her emotions. She physically and mentally beat herself up for 20 years until she couldn't feel the hurt anymore.
Even so, it only takes Po to unravel that. This is the movie further cementing the franchise-long theme of Po bringing inner peace to the valley. On a more personal note, it's also the movie telling us that Tigress's jadedness only goes as far as she lets it. She is capable of recovery, capable of feeling—it only matters that she allows herself to have those moments.
She looks up. She's relieved. She couldn't save China, but she saved Po. She didn't fail in protecting him this time. She did her job. There's a beautiful contrast between what she's feeling and what he's feeling but they share a point—kind of like a venn diagram. Both feel some kind of relief, however brief. As for their differences, Tigress's defiance is weakened and Po's is ignited. He takes on that weight for her.
The way her head slowly falls back down makes me think she's too exhausted to keep her head up any longer. She had used all of her strength to hold onto Po and look fully at him, face to face, to be sure he was alright. Tigress is the most capable member of the group, but where her most important strength lies is revealed here as well as in the rest of KFP2: in her compassion and care for others.
Po looks at Shen with scathing, genuine contempt. He's taken away too many people Po loves, and Po won't let him take away another. He's thinking about the valley, about his friends, Mr. Ping, and his duty to defend China and bring evil-doers to justice. We see the resolve in his eyes. He'll do what he has to.
The angle of the image is also worth mentioning. With the way the "camera" is tilted—now at a direct eye-level as opposed to a few shots before when Po was almost slouching below mid-frame—Po looks bigger in this shot. He's being framed as a protector. Defender of China. The Dragon Warrior. He's really, truly stepping into this role.
Tigress bows her head and Po takes on the weight, which is a huge contrast to the rest of the film. Before this scene, Tigress is the one being strong, being smart, taking charge, and leading the group. Throughout the mission, Po was consistently reckless, stubborn, and distracted. We know why. This bit is his amendment. This is him saying and meaning, "I've got this."
And then he pushes Tigress away. The little look I caught in this screenshot lingers for only two~ seconds, but what I love about animation is that everything is intentional. He watches her float away for an extra few seconds because it meant something to someone that he did.
AND THEN SHE REACHES FOR HIM. Whose idea was this? We need to have some words. You guys were evil and I love it.
She's exhausted, hurt, and is likely carrying the crushing weight of China's defeat on her shoulders, and yet, she reaches for him. It wouldn't even be for her own comfort, either, but because she still has the urge to save him. Even in her state of being borderline unconscious, she still has that instinct—that care. She can't watch her friend be killed.
I pause on this whenever I watch this scene over. To me, this frame perfectly encapsulates Po as a character. We see him facing impending doom in the form of a massive ship with a monstrous-looking cannon strapped to the front, harboring a psychotic peacock fully intending to kill him—just like he killed Po's mother—when he gets the shot.
Despite this, Po only pushes Tigress—a loved one, and while it's far more impactful to the story that it was her, it could have been anyone and the point still stands—out of the way. He moves her out of the line of fire and lures the danger away. That simple action of pushing her away is the epitome of "show, don't tell" used correctly and tells the audience everything we need to know.
And then he goes and stands on a floating chunk of fallen ship (not even solid ground!) and fights solo against an entire fleet of weaponized ships. And then he wins in what's arguably the coolest, most badass way possible.
This—this frame, not the fight itself—is easily his most heroic and selfless moment and it's my favorite frame in the KFP trilogy.
Thanks to all who read this through for indulging my intense love for this specific sequence! This analysis isn't objective, obviously, so if there are any disagreements, I'd really like to talk about them! I'm always looking for different perspectives and ideas, and I'm sure there's a fan somewhere who interpreted this scene wildly differently. I'd also just really love to hear any additional thoughts if there's something I missed. And if another scene gets you super excited like this one does for me, tell me all about it!
An update for my readers: Chapter 6 of The Days is well on its way and I can't wait to share it with you—there's some fun stuff in there and I'm really excited to post it. Thanks for reading, guys! :)
#kung fu panda#kung fu panda 2#cinemetography#cinema#written in one sitting so I'm sorry if I sound insane#dreamworks animation#kfp#movie analysis#analysis#might delete later#po and tigress#they live in my brain#they go on long vacations sometimes but they always come back#probably reading too much into a few bits but shhh#i'll never forgive them for adding this pivotal sequence#and proceeding to do nothing with it#didn't have to cook that hard#such a moving and emotionally charged scene#how i love intelligent storytelling#bring this back#i beg#i love this so much it makes me sick#guillermo del toro#pls come back
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thematic throughlines I am noticing in veilguard so far:
-- even at times when everyone involved is acting with the best of intentions, bad things and consequences still happen. how will you live with it, how will you move on from it? (b/c the alternative isn't pretty)
-- parenthood, leaving a legacy in other people's lives, what do we owe each other -- and what is too much to ask of anyone?
-- the tension between individuals and the organizations and structures they exist in
-- the transcendent power of love and connection to overcome despair (this is a bioware game that one comes free on the bingo card)
-- if there were a bunch of gigantic hands everywhere would that be cool or what? (it would)
#I love lucanis enough that I forgive that his traversal ability has elements of timed platforming mechanics (my Enemy)#and also because sometimes the platforms are hands and undeniably it looks kind of sick#hands reaching out just. everywhere. sure is Doing something to my brain though they're cooking with this#dragon age#dragon age: the veilguard#dragon age: the veilguard spoilers#dragon age spoilers#this is part of why I'm fine with the slight restrictions in roleplay horizontally as it were -- we are exploring Themes with this one folk#we are looking at some specific questions to answer#I like that approach to rpgs more than the sandbox one that's just my personal preference
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Does anyone think of that moment when Tony and Cameron are literally in bed and he’s so upset about Declan leaving and she says “I knew you and Declan weren’t going to work out you’re too similar”
like leave Cameron alone and go fuck that old man Tony. We know you want to
#Extreme boredom and sleep deprivation made me write this#Sometimes problematic gay rivals polycule just comes to my mind unbidden#It’s a curse at this point#My brain early in the morning dreading a full day of academic stuff: those three old men should have fucked#Also like leave Cameron alone you creep#tbh she deserves to kill them all with hammers but tony most of all (she deserves to resurrect and beat the shit out of him again)#sorry I’m just very passionate of these two things#Rivals#declan o'hara#rupert campbell black#tony baddingham#cameron cook
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His is the spear that will pierce the Heavens!!
or something- I was sent a bunch of pretty outfits and this was just me kinda- faffing around with the dress-up dollie. experimenting with the sun and Dragoon Animations (the only 'posing' I did to any of these was Positioning/Rotating the whole character and some in-game lights yk) - I think they look neat
#sometimes you just need to dress a guy up and spin the camera around him and go WOW! NEAT!#also learned about Brio's scrub tool which is CHEFS KISS for finding dragoon freeze frames. I'm gonna use the hell out of this.#Also finding holiday inspiration is proving DIFFICULT so I'm taking the slower route (cooking it in my own brain without references)#ffxiv Au'ra#ffxiv Khorloo#ffxiv Side Squad#This did solidify I think of the two#Khorloo is more acrobatic and flexible in a way Tag isn't which is important. To Khorloo.#He has to find his unique strengths and exploit them ok#ffxiv Screenshots#ffxiv Screenies
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So i bought a packet of instant mix custard. And in my tiny little brain I saw them say mix 400g with 600g sugar and i was like ah yes. Imma get 1kg of custard. (2.2pounds)
No. NO
I followed the rest of the instructions to add fucking 3kg of water/milk. And my brain didnt process that I just made 3kg of custard. 🫡 (6.6pounds was the conversion)
My hand is shaking. I am tired. Wtf.
#smth smth my brain is too dumb to be given control of the kitcheb#i joke i love cooking#but sometimes#sometimes i think i need superstition#XD
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Everyone talks about ADHD memory problems with missplacing things, or entering rooms and forgetting why.
No one talks about ADHD memory problems with struggling to learn new skills.
You research and practice. And forget.
Sure something sticks.
But it's frustrating that you need double the time to learn the thing, because your stupid brain can't just grab the information from the first(several) time, like others do.
#adhd#memory issues#cooking is painful#i keep forgetting the order of everything i was already making for some times#brain come ON its not hard stop it TT#and then trying to learn how to draw#where i keep just#forgetting things i've learned so i am rediscovering them all over again#instead of learning the next new thing#i fucking hate it#i feel trapped in my own brain#feels hopeless sometimes(
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you say they can’t put telepaths in marvel rivals, yet we have some very credible leaks that jean grey and emma frost are gonna be in the game soon.
that being said, jean has telekinesis (and the phoenix force) and emma has her diamond form. telepathy is all charles has, lmfao. odds are pretty low for him, but maybe not zero if they give him telekinesis!
if yall have me say he got psionic blasts one more time i am going to scream HE HAS MORE THAN TELEPATHY . LIMITED BUT HE HAS IT <- he has gone against sentinels and disabled armies with it before HE CAN FIGHT I PROMISEEE
and technically they did give him telekinesis in krakoa (and very weak telekinesis sometimes before krakoa) so .... not my fave move but he does have that ...... and ig they give him a gun sometimes ........ last resort type shit but he has options ..
#snap chats#area man gets too passionate about charles xavier more at 12#also did i not say emma had her diamond form or did i delete that tag#omg no i deleted the tag fuck my life. please believe me i did say emma had her diamond form i didnt think anyoned care tho#but with charles. as i said before. he has more than telepathy ...#limited but .. it exists options exist ... he can also Arguably control machinery#i say Arguably cause im still figuring out how he controls machines he says he does with his mind#then he can Also read like ??? SOME kinda waves in sentinels ??? that was a thing im p sure#BUT YEAH NO LISTEN this is what im saying when i say he could be a support character and not a duelist#as if anyone was contemplating duelist charles ........#lol i love how i call 'vanguards' tanks and 'strategists' supports but i stick with duelist for damage. sorry duelist better#anyway let charles be support it'll never happen because this game hates me but i can dream#listen im just saying maybe charles can have a move that disables machinery or something#like punisher or iron man... maybe like a temporary lock on weapons... just one target#lmao wait im just thinking of sombras ult from ow arent i. yeah fuck it why not he can have a disable-all-skills ult idc vejRLKAERJE#sounds bout right for how sneaky he is sometimes .....#his left and right clicks could lit just be psionic blasts of varying strength and speed#doesnt even have to do physical damage ... mental damange .... what the difference right the brain sayin There Is Pain anyway..#maybe charles could have a sonar ability that lets him (maybe nearby allies too) see through walls for like. three seconds... 50M range....#like yk what i mean he can sense where people are thats my idea...#LIKE LET ME COOK MARVEL LET MEEE IN <- dont ill make him busted or horrible there is no in between
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dw is a mid kid's sci-fi tv show and it's quality level has been mostly entirely consistent (mid, basically, with the occasional very good episode to balance out with crimes against humanity it sometimes produces) the whole reboot, and anybody acting like the Only thing going into peoples opinions of the characters are writing preferences are either Deeply naive or are trying to hide something they know people will not take kindly to.
#dw shit#but look. If you seriously think the one Single doctor without depth is 13 then that is a You having a woman issue. it just is.#there's lots of it#there's thousands upon thousands of words of meta about her and her characters online#as there is for Every Other Doctor#because they All have depth#if you fail to see it the one time you're Not presented with a dude that's not my problem#nor am i gonna hold any hands#i'm not trying to convince you of anything i'm not your mother#but sometimes a duck is just a duck and I will call it a duck#this isn't about Liking the story it's about having a brain not cooked in misogyny to even See it#to start with (you failed the challenge)#kinda hoping the large number of people living up rtd's ass will save gatwa from some of this treatment but i'm not holding my breath#'but I personally would never!' okay but... what about all your buddies??? what about everybody else?? if you're distancing yourself from#Those Bad People you are admitting they exist and there was no point getting pissed at me for pointing out they exist#the lady (gender neutral) doth protest too much#look i don't like Rose much (the og) but you can Bet i've seen some Questionable takes on why she's bad and i'll call them that#the classism and the sexism and the noxious fumes#you can just. Admit that. Even about characters you dislike lol pls
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these results WILL surprise you
i'm happy to announce that the vast majority of you got this WRONG, while 4 of you got it right: yes, the right answer was NONE, these are both baby matoba!!
the left one is from this panel (left) in world unbent and the right one is from this panel (right) in hand extended
#natsume yuujinchou#anyways my objective with this was 1. to have a little fun#and 2. to see if a silly little joke i cooked up in my brain had any basis#hehe anyways#even tho baby matoba can be tanuma's spitting image sometimes#i only compared tiny tanumas and matobas so idk if this actually has any meaning lol#tho from comparing them i noticed that teen matoba has a smaller face and longer lashes in comparison to tanuma#tho it's hard to see that when they're tiny like this (tho you can kinda see the long lashes on the left one)#also i did compare current timeline matoba and tanuma#but besides the longer black hair (that is already so distinct in this sea of light haired ppl lol) they dont look that much alike#but i did notice that midorikawa has been drawing matoba with longer lashes in recent chapters#and even tho they're not as long as natsume's they're just as long as shinobu's#so (excluding the color) they have like the same eyes especially the narrowed snake-like format#no wonder matoba and shinobu can look so alike in some panels#tho shinobu is that much more expressive so we see her eyes being more than just narrowed lol#also also another thing i noticed#is that present matoba has a smaller face in comparison to natori and other adult male characters most of the time#tho it's not frequent enough for me to be sure that it's an actual character design trait (scratches head)#anyways#i managed to actually fool majority of you!!!#an actual win in my book#also ignore my vote i just wanted to see results bf the poll was over at some point lol
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a meandering post about transmasculine aesthetics (or lack thereof)
i was thinking about how in both big and small, common and niche/micro ways, when youre transmasc you kind of have to resign yourself to the double bind of both always having to borrow the language of other people and groups to describe yr own experiences and simultaneously being accused (though not always so directly & in so many words) of stealing valor.
this i think applies across the board in a variety of cases but specifically i was thinking about victimization/victimhood, including but not limited to sexual victimization. and ofc victimization is not all there is to being trans &/or queer but as i said a while ago in a post re: that one girl raised by gay dads who was complaining about how lgbt culture is "too focused" on homophobia, victimization (& ostracism, & aggression, & in general adverse social circumstances) is an inescapable part of the queer experience so i feel like this is an especially apt case study.
like (and now im gonna go so micro and niche this probably wont be recognizable outside my very specific sphere of mutuals & inlaws but its the example on my mind rn) i have often seen tboys etc. on here for lack of a better word romanticizing a certain kind of sexual abuse & exploitation that is commonly associated (socially and artistically) with boys and young men who are "too" "feminine" and thus attract the attention of adults esp adult men. and like even once we go past the whole "are you allowed to (fantasize/post/make art/romanticize/jerk off/...) about X thing, do you have the correct trauma, i want an itemized list of everything bad that's happened to you on my desk by tomorrow or i unleash the mob" and we get to people who correctly see that type of thinking as always anti-victim and inherently deleterious (as well as anti-art but thats another post entirely), there are still plenty of instances of in this case transfems who have this...... disdainful and almost condescending tone of "actually what youre sexualizing is MY experience, MY oppression, MY victimization, /I/ and/or people like me were the ones who were abused for being boys who looked like girls, NOT you" which ..... i dont even really want to disprove or anything like that bc im not particularly interested in that, and tbh i get how it can be extremely annoying and frustrating for a general group of people to not give a fuck about your extremely real and continued oppression and/or contribute to it only for some of them to turn around and also aestheticize some aspects of that experience. like i totally get where the girls are coming from on this mostly.
but what i want to draw attention to is something else which....... ok let's say all the guys immediately drop the ganymede/painting of isaac/takemiya bpd shota/whatever posting tomorrow. let's say that is a transfeminine or queer male experience the tboys have no claim over or whatever. the alternate pool of imagery & psychosexual landscape to borrow from is that of female victimhood. which again a lot of guys do draw from. but as soon as a tboy gets on some ldr coquette dollette traumacore shit he gets accused of holding onto his white female privilege of being presumed harmless and ontologically innocent and so on. so what then?
to be clear, im bringing up these criticisms which are most commonly levied at transmascs by transfems not because i want to criticize transfeminine people or transfeminism especially but because i see this stuff as the most poignant and relevant commentary on transmasculinity that exists in the contemporary discourse as of 2025, and im including academic & adjacent writing in that statement. (for instance, a cis feminist critique to the ldr shit would be that trans guys are trying to escape sexist oppression while stealing its valor, as i was saying at the beginning of the post. i think that statement is erroneous and dumb for reasons that should be self evident and if they arent then this post isnt for you.)
anyway. my aim isnt really to debunk these transfeminist criticisms or even put an asterisk next to them and say in which exclusive cases they are applicable. the transfeminist theory answer to these qualms is obviously that there is overlap btw the experiences of cis women, trans men and trans women because they all occupy a minoritary (in the deleuzian way) position in the hierarchy of power founded by and based on cis masculinity. but the point im trying to make, or rather the issue im trying to discuss, isn't one of power politics. it's one of language, or more specifically symbols, or more specifically aesthetics.
there is no such thing as a transmasculine aesthetics, and yes, this is most likely because of discrete sociocultural historical reasons and was probably in no small part spurred by a transmasculine desire for assimilation into one group of cis men or another at all costs or at least for blending into the background as "just a regular guy" (this was a really interesting post touching on this topic. i havent done the reading myself but it's a credible account that makes perfect sense to me). but again, im not interested in a social and historical account. What im interested in is aesthetics: how people internalize, digest, express concepts on a sensorial and pre-verbal (or non-verbal or quasi-verbal) plane.
regardless of the reasons, we are here now: there is no transmasculine imagery of sexual victimization. there is no transmasculine imagery of much anything. this is especially true the more "queer" you get in an academic sense, i.e. the further away you go from a type of (trans)masculinity that is as close to hegemonic as you can get without cisgenderism (strong, in control, buff, facial hair, capable, handy, butch, a top, dating a woman or someone unambiguously more feminine...). there is no transmasculine aesthetics of gender non conformity, of artsiness, of etherealness, of fragility, of madness, of gayness & bisexuality, and yes, of sexual victimization - or rather, there are aesthetic languages for all these things that transmasculine people understand, appreciate and engage in, because we are people in the world like everyone else, but none of them are recognizable as transmasculine.
if youre wondering, why do you really care that much about aesthetics? arent there real, material problems in the world? id say yes, and we face those too. however. i am a big proponent of the importance of aesthetics as a mode of analysis because i believe human beings perceive, interpret and digest the world largely (though ofc not exclusively) through aesthetics. but even if you dont agree with me on the general plane, please look at the world around you. in the 2020s aesthetics are everything. all of our culture, all of our thinking, is done through imagery first and logic and words second, if at all.
in fact, though it is almost certainly just a coincidence due to the unprecedented exposure transgenderism is having right now (which i dont count necessarily as a good thing but not the point rn) a kind of explicitly transmasc aesthetics IS being born through what some have jokingly dubbed the "sweatermuppet industrial complex" - you know, the st sebastian with top surgery scars, png of a syringe, dog poem, richard siken quote collage type shit. ive criticized that stuff before and i'll do it again, not only because i find it corny, but also and especially because i feel that not even a few years since its inception have passed and already it has become a self-referential, sterile vein only good for selling lame sweatshop tshirts. but thats what happens when you scold every other type of expression out of existence: at worst it simply never gets made, or at least shown, again, and so it doesnt get to inspire the next thing, at best its edges get sanded down into something inoffensive if not exactly excellent and you get the doglamb with two heads again. and at this point it feels important to restate that any representation of queer & trans existence, ESPECIALLY the negative aspects of it (which again, are an inevitalbe and intrinsic part of it) will necessarily be offensive or even repulsive and yes, problematic, to some.
anyway. it all pisses me off and makes me sad for so many varied reasons. because i love aesthetic and artistic expression - not even just art, but every kind of utterance that is done on an aesthetic level - and i want to be free to do my own & also i want to see those of other people who are similar to me in some ways but different in others and let that inspire me to create, think and live in new ways (as indeed i already do with stuff mostly made by non-transmasculine people). because those of us (transmasculine people, trans people, gnc people, queer people) who are marginal and specific and weird even within our already small identity-groups deserve to express ourselves and be understood rather than languish in unsayability. because any of these experiences - queerness, transness, sexual abuse - is painful enough already when you CAN talk about it. because transfeminine people are lowkey carrying & saving art, culture and cultural discourse in this century even more than usual and i believe and feel in my bones transmascs as a group can give that much more if not to the mainstream at least to the community. because i believe the only thing that can save us from hurtling past the edge and down into the void is an aesthetic revolution and i also believe that only queer people can bring that about. etcetc. and yes tumblr is a very bad place to have any sort of conversation bc youll get into fights anywhere but tumblr is also soooo irrelevent. but also i feel like this is the only place where we can have this sort of conversation at this (extremely granular, specific, sophisticated) level where you need to have understood a bunch of shit beforehand already. theyre still doing pronoun circle type shit on ig. anyway. that was my post thanks for reading. shuffles off my soapbox
#idk why i typed all this post especially since i havent actually been thinking a lot about this lately but yk how i roll#sometimes my brain just cooks on the back burner and then decides to inform me a take is done.#anyway i ended up in a very grandiose place and vast scope for something that i started with such a specific niche example#but im simply deciding to trust the internet today. i know everyone will take my post in good faith and understand that this isnt a 20 page#academic article with bibliography where i build up perfectly to everything etcetc and i know my dear readers will have the mental elastici#to connect the specific to the vast by themselves. no one would purposely read something in bad faith on the internet right? uwu#mine
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