#off-white tm

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

silm fandom can cry about giving women more depth and moral complexity all they want but their idea of "nuance" for female characters is twisting the text to make them into the ones to blame for the male characters' actions. it's not about giving women depth, it's about absolving shitty men bc that's your little meow meow and you don't want him to be the terrible person he canonically is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ "oh tolkien is so sexist" yes he is! and congratulations you're even worse

[whaleofatjme1920]

i loved the write abt a reader w a small chest ! what abt a reader with like a bigger chest. like DD/E breasts ?

Thanks sm!!!

Sorry love bug, my requests are closed!

And honestly, I wrote from my perspective. I don’t have breasts like that, and I know I can’t do them justice. I wanted to write for women that have small, flat chests because I can relate to them and wanted to give them something just for them, and unapologetically in love with small breasts without feeling they have to compensate with something else to make up for a lack of tits. I was tired of people telling me my body isn’t good enough, and I want to focus on women that have non beauty standard features.

I don’t feel right writing for women with large chests because I don’t know that experience and can’t honor them the way someone who is living that experience might!

That’s all, lots of love ♥️

[crimeronan]

Your dad would LIKE the GNC black disco video??

lol, yes! for all his many many MANY faults, conscious antiblackness isn't one of them. (subconscious/unexamined antiblackness is another thing entirely, but that's not the point here.)

my dad grew up with disco and was a club-aged teen in the 70s. disco music is nostalgic, he knows like.... all of it. he wouldn't consider any of the outfit in that vid GNC except maybe the shoes, and those he'd just find funny. if i showed him that vid he'd talk about his teenage memories. it would be nice!

like. this is a guy whose favorite films are canned action movies, many of which are 70s and 80s blaxploitation flicks. he doesn't know what the blaxploitation genre is or that it was targeted toward urban Black audiences rather than rural white men.... he genuinely does not notice when the cast of a movie is almost all Black. (or when a cast is almost all women, for that matter.)

they're action movies that are set in the city and are cool and have a lot of guns. that's all he cares about!

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: THE ART OF EXCESS by Tom LeClair.

Another day, another "requesting niche out of print nonfiction from the library that they have to borrow from the Library of Congress, because of course they do"! I didn't actually read the whole thing because I'm not familiar with six out of the seven books he analyzes, but I did read the preface, the introduction, and the chapter about Le Guin's ALWAYS COMING HOME (which was really the epilogue lol).

His framework of "systems novels" was fascinating to me and my biology-oriented brain, and he flagged a lot of the same things I transcribed for my "le guin posting" tag, which I thought was neat! Unfortunately: he nerfed himself by spending most of his time on behemoth novels by six white men as Representative of Excess as Mastery, so I found his overall conclusions lackluster--like, dude, really, broaden your sample size if you're trying to generalize to American Literature Going Forward (it's no wonder Le Guin was the most hopeful and reconstructive of the lot, given the synopses of the other bricks he discussed). Neat intro and preface! And I found myself nodding along to a lot of his insights on Le Guin, but I also found myself rolling my eyes at how he tried to generalize from the texts he selected.

[bitegore]

Odd to me that the whole "x trans group has it worse, actually" people seem to both be really optimistic about how cissexual cisgender society views trans people of every stripe, just about different groups. Like they don't see any of us as one of them. There's still regular degular transphobia and its fucking everpresent for literally every trans person there is. There's no passing so successful that you opt out of society beong transphobic on literally any side.

[strawberri-draws]

Oc family!!!!!!

[oculusxcaro]

Right after waking up I started thinking about Khare's mutated form and just how goddamn nasty it is. I can't draw well but if ever a scene conveyed how repulsive she becomes, this would be it.

[thalassous]

IF WE CONNECT AND CHECK, MAYBE I CAN DIE.

[ ID : A fully coloured bust of Astarion. His head is held straight and he looks dead on, his face trapped in a scowl. One eyebrow furrows lower than the other. The background is an orange rectangle smaller than him with a textured gradient of a lighter orange at the bottom. END ID ]

[carriagelamp]

I was doing quite a bit of travelling this month, so audiobooks were a blessing (thank you for my life, P.G. Wodehouse). I had a few physical books that I carted around with me, but mostly I really appreciated the bliss of being able to pop in headphones and listen to a story on the plane or to help me fall asleep in assorted inn/hostel/hotels…

A Bear Called Paddington

Speaking of travel, of my destinations this month was the UK! Had an excellent trip, got all around the country, including London. I was thrilled to see the Paddington Bear statue at Paddington Station, so I decided I needed to reread the first book of the series since it’s been years since I read any of them.

A Bear Called Paddington tells the story of how a young bear “from Darkest Peru” winds up in London. The Brown family find him in at Paddington Station with a tag that says “please look after this bear, thank you”. Not able to stand leaving him on his own, they bring him home and that is, as they say, history. The stories are all quaint little adventures about the well-meaning Paddington exploring every day London life and the inevitable mishaps and misadventures he gets drawn into.

Black and White: Tough Love at the Office

Ah, the Toxic Yuri everyone’s been talking about! I honestly don’t quite know what to say about this one… this author had a very specific fetish she was going for and succeeded! It’s all about an office rivalry and how out of hand it gets, very kinky. There is absolutely nothing of substance here but tbfh if you read that title and decided to pick it up substance proooobably isn’t what you’re looking for. The art is nice! I wouldn’t bother reading more, but I had fun reading this.

Heidi

Another childhood classic I hadn’t read in years. It felt like a good summery read so I decided to revisit it since the last time I read it was probably late elementary school and I remembered having vaguely warm feelings for it. The story is about a young orphaned girl named Heidi and how she is sent to live with her gruff grandfather up in the Alps. Despite people having doubts about her doing well in such a harsh environment or with such a harsh man, Heidi takes to the mountains immediately and her bitter grandfather is soon softened by having her around. Things get complicated though when Heidi is taken away from her uncle and forced to live with another family, far away from her mountains and the world she knows…

I enjoyed it well enough. It was sweet and endearing like children’s books from this era are, though the moralistic Christianity was a little heavy fucking handed for this particular atheist. Could have done without. Not sure I’d bother rereading it again now that I’ve been reintroduced to the story, but it is a nice one and obviously a classic for a reason.

Into the River Lands // Mammoths at the Gates (Singing Hills)

I seriously can’t sing my love for The Singing Hills Cycle loudly enough. Go read it! Go go go! I was iffy when I read the first book, it took me a little bit to really understand what the book was trying to do, but by the time I hit the second book I was sold. By Into the Riverlands I was in love. 

These stories continue to follow the cleric Chih as they travel the lands collecting story for their monastery which exists to keep detailed records of all sorts of stories, both historical and fictional. These books are fascinatingly meta, and tend to weave multiple stories together with the framing device of Chih in the present day and then whoever is telling them their stories. It means that things often aren’t said plainly and you have to pick apart these various stories and the biases they’re being told through in order to understand the overarching story of the novella. Into the Riverlands is about Chih trying to collect stories about legendary martial artists from the riverland region and the companions they joins up with to travel a dangerous river road. Mammoths at the Gates is about Chih returning to the monastery only to find that it’s been besieged by mammoths and that an important cleric has died. They get wrapped up in trying to help mediate both the siege, the death of the cleric, changing relationships, and how stories affect the way we feel about people.

Star Crossed

This one was… a comic. I’m not really sure what to say about it. My girlfriend bought it for the pretty art and lent it to me and it was… a fine read. The art was definitely pretty! But the pacing was brutal. There was some genuinely lovely ideas and the relationships that were set up seemed appealing, but everything happened at such a breakneck speed that there was really no chance to feel anything. I couldn’t tell you a damn thing about it anymore, honestly. A problem was no sooner introduced than it was resolved. This felt like it either needed to be a story with a much smaller scope, or it needed to extend over quite a few more books. Ultimately if you want a story about star people, and a king/body guard thing, and some nice art it wouldn’t hurt to read. But like… you aren’t getting much. Kinda just made me want to go and reread Dogsbody instead which did sentient star politics in a much more interesting way. 

Right Ho, Jeeves // Very Good, Jeeves! // Thank You, Jeeves // Code of the Woosters // Joy in the Morning // The Mating Season (Jeeves & Wooster novels)

So! I got a little into the Jeeves books! They made absolutely perfect falling-asleep-books since, much like Bertie, they don’t take a lot of brain power. They’re like eating a bowl of popcorn for my brain. They were fun, silly, with just enough scheming to keep things interesting. I adore Bertie Wooster with my entire heart, and it’s always very fun to see Jeeves swoop in to save the day. My one condemnation is that this is very much a “if you’ve read one, you’ve read them all” sort of series. Which clearly worked for me! I wanted more of the same and by god I got it! Could not for the life of me tell you what each book was about, but I had a blast listening to them and intend to listen to more too after I’ve had a break. Every time Aunt Dahlia turns up my heart sings. I am also delighted to have reached the books that feature Gussie because he's also an absolute delight!

[uptownthots]

mayhaps unpopular opinion but I feel like the fact that a 100k salary is not the exorbitant, unlimited amount of money people think it is should be, like, radicalizing

[succikko-nebulae]

the gall of people over there thinking arab people want to take their right away like im sorry maam you live in Racist White Country(tm) this poor lady wearing a hijab is on the verge of losing the few rights she has fucking shut the fuck up

people just existing and living their life are not trampling on your rights stop thinking you're the victim jfc

you gotta learn to live in the same place as people you dont like, you dont have to like everyone but you can't ask to take away other people's right bc you're uncomfortable or some shit

you can just ignore them and live your life!!! it's free!!! mind your business leave them alone!!!

[unproduciblesmackdown]

ppl will be explaining how a difference is a difference & not a Deviation from a Superior state, & people who are the ones considered Default Normal (superior) will be like "okay....to be polite....i Might say i consider Some aspects of Some people's existence mere 'difference' & not being less than me...." as like hey i'm a Benevolent god. i still actually get to consider you worse & don't have to "humor" anything that challenges my superiority. if you only want everything to fit into the norm then it will all come back to upholding the norm. thinking of people's analysis of their own realities as equally legimate as being like Obscure, Irrelevant, Superficial & then using that reasoning to justify dismissing them. same as worrying that the [Different Lessers (Others(tm))] as Everywhere = a manifestation of the awareness that, yeah, respecting them as equals Does threaten your norm which is smothering everything everywhere. ppl who need to lock in the idea of Borders around personhood like um Yes they're all delineated separate Identities outside any hierarchy & so i think it's relevant to for some reason push back against "ohh so now Everyone's queer" like why not. why couldn't they be. what if they were. what if queerness was everywhere b/c it's ideological not a cordoned off Alternative Identity that is accommodated by focusing on Love(tm) as the new border around whose existence we might begrudgingly accept at arm's length (i.e. being otherwise "normal"! just imagine swapping out the binary gender (or, deep breath, presumed Private Parts) of one partner in an exclusive romantic lifelong nuclear family marriage, & that is Gay / Trans Rights. still gross but maybe we can do it, as long as they don't talk about it or shove it in our faces or even exist for more than one encounter w/us in our lives b/c what are the odds). evergreen laughing at someone suggesting ableist logic might be embedded in language of past & present b/c it's just So little to ask for that it's irrelevant but it's also So much to ask for that of course i'm not gonna do anything more than pass it along like "this is why i don't take ableism seriously" like yeah it's the disabled randos like it's the individual cringe teens(tm) ruining [the cishets would take Gender seriously otherwise!!!] & that's why you won't think about it or do anything about it & continue being comfortable with the norm & resent that actually their Difference is Less & disability is something worse that ppl "excuse" & all these ways that people are & all these things that they do are funny & weird & inexplicable & etc & one can't possibly be cruising along perpetuating a hierarchy with a sense that you're reasonable, well meaning, kind, etc etc & thus Justified, systemic oppression definitely wants to maximize how uncomfortable & arduous it feels to everyone rather than push to make it more streamlined & rewarding to embrace, or at least accept, whatever superiority over others you're afforded

[lisbonsteresa]

obsessed with this blocking

[makeitlookdecent]

end of year "colors" (sketch)

[lacewise]

Last post on pleather being marketed as “vegan leather”: this change occurred BEFORE the ubiquity of fast fashion (mid-2000s, was already a grassroots shift when I was in school) and anyone telling you otherwise is trying to trick you. It did not start with mainstream or burgeoning fast fashion brands. (If I’m remembering my experience correctly, I’m pretty sure it started with consumers themselves.)

I forgot the age demographics of the internet and assumed everyone else also remembered that.

Although I am curious about the people younger than me who seemingly don’t have anyone older to ask about v mainstream societal shifts?

(I do remember people bringing up that it was probably a psyop from the oil industry around the mid-2010s but then vegans sent everyone trying to exonerate them death threats and said PETA was right, if you’re wondering where that conversation disappeared to. I’ve been on the internet way too long.)

[chisatowo]

I love nuzlocks you get forced to use pokemon you would never use otherwise (especially in randomizers) and then you can chose out fun naming themes and have a fun little lineup of guys that you may or may not get to use and then there's the horrors