#or if their repulsion negates part of their identity

[roses-are-repulsed]

You can be AroAllo and be sex repulsed You can be AlloAce and be romance repulsed.

Your allo identity doesn't make you any less repulsed and your repulsed identity doesn't make you any less allo.

Your repulsion doesn't take away from your identity. it adds to it. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

[radicalqueermusings]

The Real Consequences of Exclusion

Content Warning: acemisia, acephobia, correctional rape, suicidal ideations, forced marriage, conversion therapy

On April 6, Yasmin Benoit, a prominent figure in both the Asexual and Aromantic communities, wrote an article detailing the story of a woman she calls Jade. Her name has been changed for her safety and privacy. Jade is a Algerian woman who is a asexual and sex repulsed. She fled her country in order to escape a possible forced marriage, arranged by her parents, and correctional rape.

Her story is like many asexual people's in that she discovered her asexuality during a time when she became highly aware of how fixated her peers were around sex and sexuality. When she moved to the US for university, she began to feel ostracised [sic] by the hyper-sexualized setting (Benoit, 2023). This kind of environment can be very alienating for those who experience little to no sexual attraction and those who feel any sort of repulsion and/or aversion towards sex and sexuality. It becomes clear that these feelings are not that of the majority.

"I first thought my lack of interest in sex was due to the taboo around the subject that I was raised with, but I quickly came to realise [sic] that this was not the case, as even friends who shared similar backgrounds to mine seemed to experience sexual attraction.” (Benoit, 2023)

When she attempted to tell her family about her sexuality, her sister called her weird and her mother suggested for therapy in order to fix her (Benoit, 2023). Later on in the article, it states that according to the National LGBT Survey 2018, that due to asexuality being a medicalized disorder, asexual people were 10 times more likely to be offered to undergo conversion therapy than other orientations (Benoit, 2023).

The looming threat of forced marriage, correctional rape, and, later on, forced pregnancy, was too much for Jade. At one point she considered committing suicide (Benoit, 2023). She had not given up yet as she went on to seek out ways to seek asylum in another country. The struggle came with her identity as an asexual woman.

When Jade tried to seek asylum in the Netherlands, she learned that according to the Dutch Council State, asexual people could not be included in the LGBT applicants because asexuality was "not punishable" in Algeria. In the UK, asexuality was not considered a sexual orientation under the Equality Act 2010. In the US, any potential possibilities did not lead anywhere (Benoit, 2023). In the end, she went to Ireland where she was able to secure a full time job. Her full story in Pink News.

Asexuality has been a contested part of the LGBTQIA2S+ community for years. Even now there are still people who view asexual people as "basically straight". Even though that straight people have always been a part of the community. This descriptor of asexuality as "basically straight" fundamentally misunderstands what asexuality is and the separation between sexual and romantic orientations.

Asexuality is when someone experiences little to no sexual attraction, conditional attraction, attraction without need for reciprocation, amongst other atypical forms of sexual attraction. There are asexual people who are heteroromantic, homoromantic, biromantic, panromantic, aromantic, and so on and so forth. Asexuality on its own is enough to put someone within the community. Heteroromantic asexual people are part of the community regardless of what people may say. Their asexuality is enough.

Some exclusionists make room for non-heteroromantic asexuals into the community, but that sends a very clear message that they feel that asexuality is conditionally queer. They are also giving a great deal of power to heteroromanticism. It is so powerful that it would negate a person's asexuality and deem them "unworthy" of being in the community. Of course, this is not true. It's is also not true for other straight people within the community such as straight trans and nonbinary people, straight intersex people, straight aromantic people, etc.

What exclusion looks like when it comes to real life situations, and not just in online spaces, is a story like Jade's. If asexuality had been included as a part of the LGBTQIA2S+ community, she wouldn't have had to wait a year and a half in order to finally leave her country. She would have allowed to apply for asylum and receive protection. This kind of exclusion affects monosexual lesbians and bisexual women as well.

These conversations do not merely exist in a bubble. They have real world consequences. Both within the LGBTQIA2S+ and outside of it, asexual people need to recognized as members of the community. They should receive representation, have access to necessary resources and receive protection under the law.

Source:

Benoit, Yasmin, 2023. Asexual woman fled home over forced marriage and ‘corrective rape’ threats. Pink News. May 5, 2023.

[womenfrommars]

Debunking myths about Jewish history

1. ‘’Ashkenazi Jews are white Europeans’’

Let’s start with the claim that’s been propagated the most on the Internet. The claim is that some ethnic Jews are indeed Middle-Eastern (e.g. Sephardi and Mizrahi), but that the Ashkenazi Jews specifically are (white) Europeans. This claim simply isn’t supported by scientific evidence.

The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, and suggest that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring nonJewish communities during and after the Diaspora.

(...)

The m values based on haplotypes Med and 1L were ~13% ± 10%, suggesting a rather small European contribution to the Ashkenazi paternal gene pool. When all haplotypes were included in the analysis, m increased to 23% ± 7%. This value was similar to the estimated Italian contribution to the Roman Jewish paternal gene pool. (Hammer et al. 2000)

About 80 Sephardim, 80 Ashkenazim and 100 Czechoslovaks were examined for the Yspecific RFLPs revealed by the probes p12f2 and p40a,f on TaqI DNA digests. The aim of the study was to investigate the origin of the Ashkenazi gene pool through the analysis of markers which, having an exclusively holoandric transmission, are useful to estimate paternal gene flow. The comparison of the two groups of Jews with each other and with Czechoslovaks (which have been taken as a representative source of foreign Y-chromosomes for Ashkenazim) shows a great similarity between Sephardim and Ashkenazim who are very different from Czechoslovaks. On the other hand both groups of Jews appear to be closely related to Lebanese. A preliminary evaluation suggests that the contribution of foreign males to the Ashkenazi gene pool has been very low (1 % or less per generation). (Benerecetti et al. 1993)

A sample of 526 Y chromosomes representing six Middle Eastern populations (Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Kurdish Jews from Israel; Muslim Kurds; Muslim Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian Authority Area; and Bedouin from the Negev) was analyzed for 13 binary polymorphisms and six microsatellite loci. The investigation of the genetic relationship among three Jewish communities revealed that Kurdish and Sephardic Jews were indistinguishable from one another, whereas both differed slightly, yet significantly, from Ashkenazi Jews. The differences among Ashkenazim may be a result of low-level gene flow from European populations and/or genetic drift during isolation. (Nebel et al. 2001)

Here, genome-wide analysis of seven Jewish groups (Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian, Italian, Turkish, Greek, and Ashkenazi) and comparison with non-Jewish groups demonstrated distinctive Jewish population clusters, each with shared Middle Eastern ancestry, proximity to contemporary Middle Eastern populations, and variable degrees of European and North African admixture. Two major groups were identified by principal component, phylogenetic, and identity by descent (IBD) analysis: Middle Eastern Jews and European/Syrian Jews. The IBD segment sharing and the proximity of European Jews to each other and to southern European populations suggested similar origins for European Jewry and refuted large-scale genetic contributions of Central and Eastern European and Slavic populations to the formation of Ashkenazi Jewry. Rapid decay of IBD in Ashkenazi Jewish genomes was consistent with a severe bottleneck followed by large expansion, such as occurred with the so-called demographic miracle of population expansion from 50,000 people at the beginning of the 15th century to 5,000,000 people at the beginning of the 19th century. Thus, this study demonstrates that European/Syrian and Middle Eastern Jews represent a series of geographical isolates or clusters woven together by shared IBD genetic threads. (Atzmon et al. 2010)

2. '’Ashkenazi Jews are the descendants of the Khazars’’

Another popular idea on the Internet, which is also associated with the alt-right, is that Ashkenazi Jews are the descendants of the Khazar people, from the Khazar empire (roughly 600-1000). This culture completely died out and there are no direct descendants, so genetic testing is a bit difficult.

However, there still has been done genetic testing that confirms this hypothesis to be false.

Employing a variety of standard techniques for the analysis of population-genetic structure, we find that Ashkenazi Jews share the greatest genetic ancestry with other Jewish populations, and among non-Jewish populations, with groups from Europe and the Middle East. No particular similarity of Ashkenazi Jews with populations from the Caucasus is evident, particularly with the populations that most closely represent the Khazar region. Thus, analysis of Ashkenazi Jews together with a large sample from the region of the Khazar Khaganate corroborates the earlier results that Ashkenazi Jews derive their ancestry primarily from populations of the Middle East and Europe, that they possess considerable shared ancestry with other Jewish populations, and that there is no indication of a significant genetic contribution either from within or from north of the Caucasus region. (Behar et al. 2013)

However, if the R-M17 chromosomes in Ashkenazi Jews do indeed represent the vestiges of the mysterious Khazars then, according to our data, this contribution was limited to either a single founder or a few closely related men, and does not exceed ∼12% of the present-day Ashkenazim. (Nebel et al. 2005)

3. '’Palestinians are indigenous to the land of Israel, so the Jews can’t be indigenous’’

First off, it has been established that Jews and Palestinians share the same ancestry:

Archaeologic and genetic data support that both Jews and Palestinians came from the ancient Canaanites, who extensively mixed with Egyptians, Mesopotamian and Anatolian peoples in ancient times. Thus, Palestinian-Jewish rivalry is based in cultural and religious, but not in genetic, differences. (Arnaiz-Villena et al. 2001)

If Palestinians are considered native, then so should Jews, since both descend from the ancient Canaanites.

Furthermore, the Hebrew Bible states that Philistines (’’Palestinians’’) came from Caphtor, which has been identified as modern-day Crete, an island that is part of Greece (see also Finkelstein 2002). Other contestants for Caphtor include Cyprus and Cilicia (modern-day Turkey).

Archeological evidence also supports this theory:

Modern archaeologists agree that the Philistines were different from their neighbors: Their arrival on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean in the early 12th century B.C. is marked by pottery with close parallels to the ancient Greek world, the use of an Aegean—instead of a Semitic—script, and the consumption of pork. (National Geographic)

This was more recently confirmed by DNA evidence:

Now, a study published today in the journal Science Advances, prompted by the unprecedented 2016 discovery of a cemetery at the ancient Philistine city of Ashkelon on the southern coast of Israel, provides an intriguing look into the genetic origins and legacy of the Philistines. The research appears to support their foreign origin, but reveals that the reviled outsiders were soon marrying into the local populations. (...) The four early Iron Age DNA samples, all from infants buried beneath the floors of Philistine houses, include proportionally more “additional European ancestry” in their genetic signatures (roughly 14%) than in the pre-Philistine Bronze Age samples (2% to 9%), according to the researchers. While the origins of this additional “European ancestry” are not conclusive, the most plausible models point to Greece, Crete, Sardinia, and the Iberian peninsula. (Idem)

Now, this doesn’t mean that modern-day Palestinians are mostly European, as the research also found that the Philistines were mixing with the local populations. This also explains why modern-day Jews and modern-day Palestinians are genetically very similar (see above). It is highly unlikely that modern-day Palestinians are the direct descendants of the ancient Philistines.

However, the name ‘’Palestine’’ is derived from ‘’Philistia’’:

The first records of the Philistines are inscriptions and reliefs in the mortuary temple of Ramses III at Madinat Habu, where they appear under the name prst, as one of the Sea Peoples that invaded Egypt about 1190 BCE after ravaging Anatolia, Cyprus, and Syria. After being repulsed by the Egyptians, they settled—possibly with Egypt’s permission—on the coastal plain of Palestine from Joppa (modern Tel Aviv–Yafo) southward to Gaza. The area contained the five cities (the Pentapolis) of the Philistine confederacy (Gaza, Ashkelon [Ascalon], Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron) and was known as Philistia, or the Land of the Philistines. It was from this designation that the whole of the country was later called Palestine by the Greeks. (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Modern-day Palestinians are the descendants of local populations who converted to Islam due to Islamic conquest. Likewise, Jews are the descendants of local populations who left the country. Despite this, both groups are genetically related to each other. This is because Jews have been a relatively isolated group of people, since the religion of Judaism doesn’t permit interfaith marriage (unless a non-Jew converts into the faith). In other words: the fact that the Palestinians may be indigenous to the land of Israel doesn’t negate the fact that the Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel.

Our findings corroborate previous studies that suggested a common origin for Jewish and non-Jewish populations living in the Middle East (Santachiara-Benerecetti et al. 1993; Peretz et al. 1997; Hammer et al. 2000).

(...)

According to historical records part, or perhaps the majority, of the Moslem Arabs in this country descended from local inhabitants, mainly Christians and Jews, who had converted after the Islamic conquest in the seventh century AD (Shaban 1971; Mc Graw Donner 1981). These local inhabitants, in turn, were descendants of the core population that had lived in the area for several centuries, some even since prehistorical times (Gil 1992). On the other hand, the ancestors of the great majority of present-day Jews lived outside this region for almost two millennia. Thus, our findings are in good agreement with historical evidence and suggest genetic continuity in both populations despite their long separation and the wide geographic dispersal of Jews. (Nebel et al. 2000)

4. ‘’Well, the Palestinians were there first’’

As discussed before, the ancient Philistines from the book of Deuteronomy are said to have immigrated from Caphtor, which has been identified as island in southern Europe. The ancient Philistines have no direct descendants because they mixed with local populations. The ancient Philistines are also mentioned in the book of Genesis, which mentions they came from Egypt. According to rabbinic sources, this refers to a different people from the Philistines mentioned in the book of Deuteronomy. As discussed before, modern-day Palestinians descend from neither of these people. Palestinians maintain they are the descendants of the ancient Canaanites:

Both Israeli and Palestinian politicians claim the region of Israel and the Palestinian territories is the ancestral home of their people, and maintain that the other group was a late arrival. “We are the Canaanites,” asserted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last year. “This land is for its people…who were here 5,000 years ago.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said recently that the ancestors of modern Palestinians “came from the Arabian peninsula to the Land of Israel thousands of years” after the Israelites. (National Geographic)

As discussed, modern-day Jews and modern-day Palestinians are genetically very similar. This was again established by a recent study:

Finally, we show that the genomes of present-day groups geographically and historically linked to the Bronze Age Levant, including the great majority of present-day Jewish groups and Levantine Arabic-speaking groups, are consistent with having 50% or more of their ancestry from people related to groups who lived in the Bronze Age Levant and the Chalcolithic Zagros. These present-day groups also show ancestries that cannot be modeled by the available ancient DNA data, highlighting the importance of additional major genetic effects on the region since the Bronze Age. (Agranat-Tamir et al. 2020)

According to the Bible, when the Israelites left Egypt, they conquered the Canaanites, who were already living in the land of Israel. Joshua 10:40 mentions there are no survivors of the ancient Canaanites. However, the Bible was written much later after these events took place. The study referenced above supports the hypothesis of continuity, i.e. the ancient Canaanites were not completely wiped out by the Israelites. Instead, Canaanite culture slowly morphed into other cultures, including the culture of the Israelites. As referenced under 3., it is likely both Jews and Palestinians came from the ancient Canaanites.

The Bible itself also mentions the Canaanites continued to exist in Judges 3:1-3 and explains the command to the Israelites was only given to teach them warfare (not to actually annihilate the Canaanites). It is more likely the Canaanites indeed continued to exist:

We show that present-day Lebanese derive most of their ancestry from a Canaanite-related population, which therefore implies substantial genetic continuity in the Levant since at least the Bronze Age. (Haber et al. 2017)

To put it differently, in the land of Israel, the ancient Canaanites were not destroyed, but rather subsumed by the Israelites. The Jews have maintained this culture and tradition. The Palestinians, on the other hand, have not. Palestinians didn’t maintain any tradition from the ancient Canaanites. Instead, their culture, tradition, and language can be traced back to the Hejaz, a region in the west of modern-day Saudi Arabia. This is also the birthplace of the religion of Islam.

Indeed, up until recently, Palestinians were not even called ‘’Palestinians’’. Instead, they were referred to as ‘’Palestinian Arabs’’. A report from 1946 gives more insight. In Chapter VI, titled ‘’The Arab Attitude’’, it states the following:

The Committee heard a brief presentation of the Arab case in Washington, statements made in London by delegates from the Arab States to the United Nations, a fuller statement from the Secretary General and other representatives of the Arab League in Cairo, and evidence given on behalf of the Arab Higher (committee and the Arab Office in Jerusalem). In addition, subcommittees visited Baghdad Riyadh, Damascus, Beirut and Amman, where they were informed of the views of Government and of unofficial spokesmen.

Stopped to the bare essentials, the Arab case is based upon the fact that Palestine is a country which the Arabs have occupied for more than a thousand years, and a denial of the Jewish historical claims to Palestine.

This report states Arabs have lived in Palestine ‘’for more than a thousand years’’, referring to the Islamic conquest of Palestine in the 7th century. Clearly, Palestinians are identified as Arabs here, by Palestinian leaders themselves.

Another report from the same year supports this view:

In addition to the question of right, the Arabs oppose the claims of political Zionism because of the effects which Zionist settlement has already had upon their situation and is likely to have to an even greater extent in the future. Negatively, it has diverted the whole course of their national development. Geographically Palestine is part of Syria; its indigenous inhabitants belong to the Syrian branch of the Arab family of nations; all their culture and tradition link them to other Arab peoples; and until 1917 Palestine formed part of the Ottoman Empire which included also several of the other Arab countries. The presence and claims of the Zionists, and the support given them by certain Western Powers have resulted in Palestine being cut off from other Arab countries and subjected to a regime, administrative, legal, fiscal and educational, different from that of the sister-countries. Quite apart from the inconvenience to individuals and the dislocation of trade which this separation has caused, it has prevented Palestine participating fully in the general development of the Arab world.

You can see the story changed overtime. The Palestinian claim to Canaanite blood is an ad hoc claim that is meant to predate the Jewish presence in Israel.

In general, the Palestinian claim to Canaanite roots also erases the fact that the Israelites drove the Canaanites out of Israel, to Lebanon. The remaining Canaanites were subsumed by the Israelites. Therefore, if Palestinians are native to the land of Israel, and if they descend from the Canaanites, then they must also descend from the Israelites. However, Palestinians attempt to bypass the Israelite link, claiming to not descend from the Israelites. I believe they likewise deny that the Jews descend from the Israelites, claiming that instead the Jews are just Europeans.

This wouldn’t be the first time the Palestinians changed their narrative either. They used to claim they descend from the ancient Philistines, referring to Genesis 21:34 as proof:

And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time. (New International Version)

As such, the Palestinian PM argued they have lived in the land of Palestine before Abraham. (Video is in the article.)

As explained earlier, the Philistines immigrated from southern Europe, and the Palestinians are not directly descended from them, given the DNA evidence. The ancient Philistines have disappeared as a people, because they mixed with local populations. That also explains why modern-day Palestinian DNA is not mostly European, as would be the case if they directly descended from the Philistines.

Recommended further reading

‘’Are Jews Indigenous to the Land of Israel?’’

‘‘Jews and Arabs Share Genetic Link to Ancient Canaanites, Study Finds‘‘

‘‘The Canaanites weren’t annihilated, they just ‘moved’ to Lebanon‘‘

[graylinesspam]

TW mentions of sex.

For as long as I have been in the lgtb+ community I have heard gays and lesbians and everyone else talk about their experiences with compulsive heterosexuality. With forcing themselves to pick crushes they didn't actually like, and date people they never felt comfortable around and sit and wonder why they didn't feel how they were supposed to feel.

Now anyone who's experienced these things I want you to do an exercise with me. Just based on some basic things I've seen discussed regularly.

I want you to think about the first time you were talking about a friend you made at school and your mom made a joke about you having a crush on them.

I want you to think about having to scrambled through the list of classmates to pick someone to have a crush on when your friends simply wouldn't take 'I don't have a crush' as an answer. When they poke and prod and made fun of you. Call you a liar.

I want you to think about the times in your childhood that everyone made jokes or straight up accusatory comments about how you couldn't be trusted around the opposite sex because you wouldn't be able to help that you wanted to screw them.

I want you to think about your first hetero boyfriend or girlfriend. The first time you said yes when someone asked you out. The first time you held their hand, or kissed them, or called them yours and how that made you feel. Nauseous? Empty? Just a little wrong?

How long did you try to force attraction when there simply wasn't any? How long did you go through the motions? Did you date anyone for a long time? Did you wait for the emotions to magically come up. Did it feel gross and wet and uncomfortable every time they kissed you?

Did you try having sex? Did that also feel wrong? Was it distinctly wrong? Gross? Or just uncomfortable? Lacking? Were you completely unable to become aroused? Did you sleep with your hetero partner regularly to keep the relationship going even though you barely felt anything for them?

Or did you truly care for them but felt like you were just a bad partner because you never liked them as much as they liked you? Did the unbalanced relationship get to you? Make you feel like an asshole? Make you feel selfish or mean?

Did you spend your high school years waiting for the celebrity crushes and the over-sexual teen gossip to suddenly make sense? Did you think most of it was a joke until your peers were suddenly making good on all of those gorey promises?

A lot of queer people experience an expectation of attraction that is just never payed off on. They think statements like 'sex sells' truly are a joke. That their friends exaggerated all of their dirty comments for the comedy 'that's why everyone laughs right?'

Only to realise the first time they kiss someone of the same gender or whatever group they actually find themselves attracted to that 'holy shit, this is what everyone was talking about'

And I have seen these shared experiences passed between members of our community for as long as I have been a part of it. Seen that the ability to relate has brought people together, helped them understand each other.

And guess what? These experiences are common for Aro/Ace people as well. Because forcing yourself to play into an attraction that you don't have can feel alienating, selfish, or just empty. Not having an attraction to the same sex doesn't negate the effect that forcing yourself to pretend you have an attraction has. If you can conceptualize that these experiences can do damage to the psyche of young queer people then you should be able to understand that it can hurt Aros and Aces.

The experiences of the identities in the LGBT+ community are not all exactly the same but there are key overlaps that we share. Feeling alienated from hetero society is certainly the core one.

Compulsive heterosexuality and romanticism are things that queer people go through. Sexual repulsion or disinterest is something queer people go through. Having to make up lies and pretend to participate in standard hetero attraction even during the earliest of your childhood is something queer people go through. Being unable to distinguish between romantic and platonic affection is something queer people go through.

And guess what? Ace and Aro people are queer too.

[aspecpplarebeautiful]

Loving the idea of romance but being aromantic and occasionally (randomly and without warning) getting romance repulsed is just. Really hard. Whole new meaning to the phrase “hopeless romantic”. Idk, today’s just a hard day to feel good as an aspec person for me. Usually I think about it and while I never fully know what all the parts of my identity mean when stacked together, I can appreciate the complexity of it and how it just means that I’m putting a lot into understanding the world and my place in it. I usually get a sort of comfort, secure, safe, reassured feeling when I think about being aspec. Days like today are few and far between, but they always hit hard :(

Yeah, those days definitely happen. And it doesn't negate the good days, but that also means it's OK to have hard days too and feel them for how they are. Because it's like you said, identities are complex.

I definitely feel you in getting hit by bad repulsion, and very few things are as frustrating as repulsion that's pushing you away from something you wish it wouldn't.

Take care, Anon.

[bigbrotherlouis]

hey, ignore this if you want to and obviously your label can change and evolve as you learn more about yourself but i think that's how a lot of non-sex-repulsed asexuals feel. I definitely vibe more with your description than most of what i'm seeing in fic rn

oh no for sure i tend to vibe with sex-positive ace more than anything else, and even gotten more positive as i’ve gotten older and more confident in myself, but there’s always that creeping doubt in me that that means i’m not really ace or whatever, i don’t want to get too deep into that in public on tumblr dot com. but a lot if comes because there’s this very persistent ace archetype that’s virtually the only representation (if anyone has any fic/media that’s closer to what i’m talking about, lmk) and it just... does not necessarily line up w my own whatever which means it’s very hard to validate my own identity! like not to bring ~my area of expertise~ into this discussion but a crucial part of forming and resonating with an identity is having that identity be validated by an external group with the same label. which then, of course, reinforces those labels, which validates members, which reinforces-- and so on and so on. but what’s happened with asexuality online is that only a Very Specific Ace Experience is accepted as valid or true, which puts everyone who does not hit the Very Specific Ace Experience touchstones on thin fucking ice. you’ve got juuuuuust enough to be kinda validated and think it’s your place/identity, but not enough to be secure in it which is stressful! it’s exhausting to have to constantly be checking and rechecking, and adjusting and readjusting yourself to fit those touchstones that do not come so naturally to you, even subconsciously. and if there’s no safe place to explore your identity because you risk becoming invalidated and having that identity stripped from you, where does that leave you? uncomfortable, mostly., and alienated from people who should be your peers.

this is not even touching on what’s happened regarding asexuality on tumblr dot com, which is its own very real trauma, that both negates all experiences that aren’t sex-negative (traumatized) aces, and villainizes them in the same go because “that’s not a real thing” or “you’re just [this sexuality] but you don’t realise it” which makes it SO HARD to explore and accept for fear of being, for lack of a better word, cancelled. and then you get people who are trying to defend themselves and reinforce touchstones, because that’s what you do when your identity is being threatened, and it just works against them because they go too far. they get crystalized within their trauma and unable to move past it, and that lends people credence to marginalize and excuse away.

sorry anon you did not ask for a Theoretic Discussion on Asexual Identity but you’re sure as hell getting one here because a girl’s gotta process and where better to do that than in the place where she got chewed out five years ago for daring to wonder if she counted as being queer while ace and questioning. thank you for this ask and for being kind, apologies for the mini lecture

(obligatory reminder that my experiences are my experiences and not yours, this may not relate to you, i’m not trying to be a definite word on every queer experience, yada yada yada you do you)

tl;dr: we are all just trying to know who we are, one way or another. 

[gayatri001]

On the Nature of Vrittis (Emotions) and Cakras - The Phenomenology of Tantra (Excerpts)

“Vrttis set the mind in motion (hence the name emotion) so as to understand, act, and react to various external and internal cues as it passes along it’s evolutionary journey from animality to humanity and eventually, to divinity. 

The actional expression of the vrttis unfolds in pairs of opposites to maintain the equilibrium of the mind.  In fact, in all mental and corresponding chemical (hormonal, neurotransmitter, etc.) states of the body there are actions and counter actions that maintain the organism in a state of homeostasis.  Blood sugar levels are balanced by insulin, the blood must maintain a delicate balance in the amount of iodine and calcium, seratonin levels are balanced out by norepinephrine, and countless other examples. The mind coordinates the same process with emotions in an attempt to maintain mental equipoise.  Jung contended that for every assertive feeling or thought there lies a potential antithetical negation of this assertion repressed beneath our conscious awareness due to its contradiction with the conscious attitude. 

Human psychology is fundamentally the psychology of opposites. Our conscious personality traits may often conflict with hidden, unconscious counter tendencies.  For example, the way we think or rationalize about something often conflicts with our heart’s feelings about it.  We make factual statements about the world based on sensory information while at the same time we experience non-sensory intuitive processes.  One may be predominately introverted, but at the same time there are tendencies to be extroverted, or vice-versa. Emotionally, hope is counteracted with worry, joy with pain, attraction by repulsion, like by dislike, love by hate, etc. This confrontation of opposites, however, brings about the process of what Jung called the transcendent function if the unconscious tendency is brought into conscious awareness and incorporated into the self.  This incorporation reconciles the antithetical tendencies and makes the self a more complete whole.  What was once repressed and unconscious becomes a part of a much broader conscious identity that accepts and amalgamates the polar, clashing, hence undesirable traits.  This synthesis in turn leads to higher self-awareness, a broader concept of the self, and a greater degree of emotional intelligence.”

“This demonstrates that vrttis are dialectical in that they must always confront an opposing tendency.  However, this dialogue is one that leads one to a state of transcendence beyond all dialectics in that the reconciliation of the oppositional vrttis successively stimulate higher ones that propel one to attain the infinite, unchanging, non-dual reality.  The development of higher vrttis leads, of course, to more subtle mental conflicts that must further be resolved by higher vrttis until the vrttis become so subtle that their attraction to the Infinite enables one to eventually merge the mind in the Supreme entity, where all vrtttis and individual mental functioning ceases, and with that, the existence of the mind. “

“So vrttis are what keep the mind’s vital, dynamic momentum in constant association with an object while maintaining this panoramic, phenomenological flow of the mind as it struggles to move from the crude to the subtle mental occupations, and evolves toward higher, spiritual states of emotion and cognition.   That is, until the termination of it’s existence in an objectless state of consciousness, or pure subjectivity.“

[jamiebluewind]

Bi Erasure

I know we in the LGBTQIA+ community all joke about being gay. Even I do and I'm an omnisexual! But something that has always bothered me is when we have a fictional character who has had attraction in canon to more than one gender and the MINUTE they start dating someone of the same gender, they get OVERWHELMINGLY characterized as gay. That's just... that's not how this works! That's not how any of this works! Regardless of the gender of the person we date (or don't date), we are still [bi/poly/omni/pan]sexuals. Those of us in this group have all dealt with something in the "pick a side" genre. A LOT of people think that when we get in a relationship, it negates our previous identity because we were "just going through a phase" (if dating the opposite gender) or our identity was "just a stepping stone" (if dating the same gender). Far too many straight/gay partners push us to pretend that we are the same because otherwise, they worry we will run off with someone that's the opposite gender of them. It's a big ol' mess yall!

I know none of yall mean any harm. It's always GREAT to see LGBTQIA+ representation in the media and we just get so freaking excited when it happens. It makes my heart happy too! I'm just asking that yall acknowledge ALL that awesome rainbow community that we are a part of (that includes my awesome allies too!) and lift EVERYONE up with all the support and love in your heart. ^_^

***

Crash Course In Terms

Note: This is by no means a comprehensive list, but should give more of you the words to define characters other than straight or gay/lesbian. Also, all identities automatically include trans people because duh.

WlW: A woman who loves women (lesbian/gay, bisexual, polysexual, omnisexual, pansexual,...)

MlM: A man who loves men (gay, bisexual, polysexual, omnisexual, pansexual,...)

Gynosexual: People (of any gender) who are attracted to femininity

Androsexual: People (of any gender) who are attracted to masculinity

Hetroflexible: People who are attracted to the opposite gender 95% of the time, but has a limited number of exceptions to this rule

Homoflexible: People who are attracted to the same gender 95% of the time, but has a limited number of exceptions to this rule

Androgynesexual: People who are attracted to people who are androgynous, genderqueer, have no gendered traits, and/or have both masculine and feminine traits.

Bisexual: People who are attracted to men and women (or masculine and feminine). Some prefer the definition of attraction to the same and other genders (and that's okay!). Bisexuals who do not have their attraction perfectly split between genders are still valid!

Polysexual: People who are attracted to multiple genders, but not all genders. Polysexuals who do not have their attraction perfectly split between their preferred genders are still valid!

Omnisexual: People who are attracted to all genders, but for whom gender still matters and can be attracted to people based on their gender. Omnisexuals who do not have their attraction perfectly split between all genders are still valid!

Pansexual: People who are attracted to other people based on their personality regardless of the other person's gender or sex. They are often called "gender blind".

Queer: Non-hetrosexual people who find that they either don't easily fit in a category or prefer to not have a label. It can also be used as a way to just say "not straight". Originally a slur, it was reclaimed by the LGBTQIA+ community.

Demisexual: People who require a deep emotional connection to feel attraction. Once in a relationship, they tend to still only feel attraction to that person. They can be sex favourable, sex neutral/indifference, or sex repulsed (or a mix of the three). Demisexual includes all genders unless used as a prefix to define another identity (like demi-androsexual or demi-biromantic). Part of the asexual spectrum.

Gray Asexual: Person who either rarely feels attraction or feels it at such a low level that it could often be ignored. Nicknamed "grace", it includes all genders unless it is used as a prefix to define an identity (like gray-polysexual). They can be sex favorable, sex neutral/indifference, or sex repulsed (or a mix of the three). Part of the asexual spectrum.

Asexual: People who feel no sexual attraction to any person whatsoever. Nicknamed "ace". They can be sex favorable, sex neutral/indifference, or sex repulsed (or a mix of the three). Some also feel romantic attraction. Part of the asexual spectrum.

-romantic: The non-sexual attraction a person feels for another person. It includes things like cuddling, hand holding, emotional closeness, love, and sometimes kissing (depending on the person). Most people have the same romantic attraction as they do sexual attraction, so it is implied. Others have split-attraction where their romantic and sexual attractions are different (like biromantic asexual). Any prefix used for a sexual identity (like homo-, hetro-, bi-, a-...) can be added to define it.

Aromatic: People who feel no romantic attraction to any person whatsoever. They can have split-attraction (like aromantic bisexual) and are nicknamed "aro".

Sex favorable/positive: People who enjoy sexual acts or the concept of sexual acts, but may or may not experience sexual attraction.

Sex neutral/indifference: People who have no strong feelings about sexual acts or the concept of sexual acts. They might do stuff for their partner (just like one might do the dishes to help them out) or for procreation, but have no desire for it at all.

Sex repulsed/negative/averse: People who feel disgusted or revolted by either sex acts that involve them or just the idea of sex acts in general. The degree of disgust or revoltion varies as well as what the person is averse to.

***

PS: I still love you guys. I PROMISE I'm not attacking anyone in particular. It's just something I've been seeing a lot lately from the fandoms I'm in (such as Fantasy High) and I wanted to point it out because I imagine most of yall have no idea that something like that could bother someone. Don't feel bad if you did it! Nobody is perfect *hugs and lots of platonic love* ^_^

[horsyunicorn]

horsyunicorn’s guide to telekinesis

1. Focus on your own body first. Either stand in a relaxed position or sit in a supportive chair, fairly upright. Become aware of the tension in your shoulders, and let it go. Do the same for the tension in your hips, and any in your feet. For any tension you can’t immediately release, send it down into the floor. (The Earth is much more massive and can absorb a lot of tension compared to your body.) Finally feel a tiny bit of expansion in your joints, starting from the base of your spine and moving all the way up through your neck and out the top of your head. You should feel like your head is being held up ever so gently by a balloon. (If you are sufficiently supported by a chair, you may only need to expand from your waist upward. The appendicular joints do not carry weight, and therefore, do not need to be expanded in the same manner, at this stage.)

2. Focus on the object to be moved. Say it is an apple, one foot away from your outstretched hand. Imagine a pulling force, an attractive force, between the apple and the palm of your hand.

You may have to reset your own posture and internal relaxation and then try again with your hand.

The sensation of pulling an object into your hand is similar but not identical to reaching and grabbing it physically with your arm. Learn the difference. Next, try gently pushing objects with the same approach.

3. Once you have mastered moving objects by imagining attractive or repulsive forces from your limbs, move on to doing it entirely with your mind. Visualize how the object will move before you begin the impulse to move it. There is no point flinging uncontrolled energy at an apple for it may fly off into a window or someone’s face.

4. The next step after moving objects is to move one’s own body by telekinesis. This is trickier as it involves keeping relaxed while the body is moving. To prepare for this step, you can try walking while practising the relaxation part of step one. (This is where you will require a slight sense of expansion in appendicular joints, especially the hip.)

The easiest (and safest) procedure is to negate the effect of gravity. This by itself is challenging because we are all accustomed to its constant influence and do not normally think about operating gravity-free. Try to suspend yourself, motionless, in a comfortable position. One method is to enter the relaxed state and prepare your mind; stand upright; raise one leg and cross it in front of yourself; then, raise the other leg while keeping your body in place.

The more difficult (and more hazardous) procedure is to attempt flight. Padded walls, floor and ceiling are an obvious advantage here; but the difficulty lies in maintaining control while moving and suspending oneself from the Earth’s gravity. This is not to mention that you may master suspension, but yet require a gentle push from an external force such as an assistant, to begin lateral movement while floating.

You will know you have mastered telekinesis when you can control your body’s flight by imagining attractive or repulsive forces to the nearest wall, ceiling or floor. It can be helpful but it is not necessary to study aeronauts and their methods of streamlining or otherwise shaping the body for controlled descent after exiting aeroplanes at altitude.

Remember the process:

External relaxation - internal relaxation - easy flow of internal energy - control of internal energy - external results.

[queernuck]

Fucked: Death, Disease, COVID-19, Sexuality, Performance, and Psychopolitics in Early 2020

When a crowd can make AR-15s, masks and gloves look uncool, there is something seriously wrong with their priorities. The petit-bourgeoisie nature of protests to “reopen” states and the neoliberal direction, as well as the way in which neoliberal opposition directs a flow of crisis, anxiety, and repetition thereof into state control and the power thereof, creates a model whereby two wings of the same party join in a kind of neoliberal unity in order to protect the articulation of hegemony at a time when it is most in danger, when the commodities it most openly fetishizes are at risk of falling out of use, when the two form coalitions such that various apparatuses of recapture can function as usual even in a highly unusual time.

And what better apparatuses than those of intimacy, sexuality, the means by which vulnerabilities are made most clear and a point at which numerous striations upon the socius are imparted, cross, become part of assemblages of the body in forming the many linkages of binary-machines that make up the series of desiring-machines most active in a time of quarantine. In this time schools, asylums, hospitals, factories and prisons seem to be sharing far more than ever, are converging on and repeating one another in frightening fashions as conceptual spaces of play become ones of work, languages of wartime production become the vocabularies of virologists, and the tally of American lives is measured against terrorist attacks and failed wars of conquest that define exactly who can be considered “American” at this time.

It is rather clear that those who attend these reopening protests are at the least not terribly concerned with their own safety, at least from COVID-19: there is a belief that a personal exemption can be had from the virus, in a fashion which specifically targets individualism, notions of routine and fetishization of lifestyles as consumerist acts of branding, identification with brands and experiences thereof which have become the basis for psychopolitical engagement with Neoliberal modalities of exchange. By stripping off the surgical mask, there is another mask (in the sense of Jung) being placed on, one of an exceptional specimen who is undaunted by a kind of agenda which wishes to blow the Coronavirus out of proportion, to deny that the thousands of deaths are happening, to attribute those same thousands to a bioengineering project on behalf of the Chinese state, and moreover to claim that just as America is artificially inflating the number of deaths, China is deflating them by an even greater magnitude. The attitude, the brazenness with which these acts are carried out, requires a kind of specific ideological positioning wherein one’s safety is in fact not actually meaningfully threatened by the prospect of reopening en masse.

The language of social distancing and self-quarantine, when weaponized in the survivalist vocabulary, has become sort of an excuse to throw a Flugaloo bash in hopes that an oncoming Boogaloo is rising: “Boogaloo” is a term that has gone through a series of ironic internet references to pick up iconography of igloos (the Big Igloo), tropical shirts (referring to the Big Luau) and now the “Flugaloo” with cheeky Lysol cans attached in place of vertical grips on paramilitary-style rifles. Self-quarantining and social distancing, as practiced in this case, is a kind of performative creation of quarantine as begrudging, the result of a liberal overstep, but a time to work on various projects, or to goof off, a time for telecommuting but also not doing all that much business at all, is a kind of extension of the petit-bourgeoise lifestyle that many aspire too and that most would have to be to maintain a serious hobby of survivalism and small arms collecting, given the price tag on some of the more useful rifles out there. The lifestyle is documented on instagram or reddit for consumption of others, as a psychopolitical display which aims for a kind of living-out in the exact sort of display that the protests at capitol buildings are aiming for. They assert a kind of right over individual bodies by a means which entirely negates any actual critique such an assemblage could raise: Butler’s description of protests which specifically flaunt rules by following them more earnestly than a traditional protest is entirely lost, in that here assembly is taken as a more absolute directive to break guidelines in order to assert a truth about oneself, one’s identity, to cultivate one’s own immunity through presence in the body wielding an invisible hand to pry markets back open. The admonishment of some that these protests represent working-class anxieties is mostly misleading in that not only are these reactionary protests (and thus, lacking in class consciousness, refusing any potential even among those who may be working class within) but additionally by positing oneself as a consumer, as part of a consuming or leisure class which is suffering as a result not of the virus, but the antivirus, bodies repulsed by the antibodies of closures and distancing. One can “bug out” or hunker down with as many weapons as one wishes, but only after engaging in the conspicuous displays of consumption that ensure the current “late-stage” acts of capitalist identification are met, the correct Veteran-Owned companies are supported, the right businesses buycotted and so on.

Of course, even from home the act of identification through the willing acceptance of a certain state of things and a retirement to various internet services is another psychopolitical recourse for many. In trying to find humor within the notion of social distancing and self-quarantine, the subject of nonmonogamous relationships has become a particularly fertile ground. Reductress and The Hard Times, two of the leading satire sites that have picked up slack after The Onion’s ownership group neutered some of its best content, have discussed sex and sexuality in relation to COVID-19 in a fashion that is hip, relatable, most of all distanced from any meaningful commitment to statements on exactly what one should do or be within systems present in neoliberal logics of life and commitment, especially regarding the topics of polyamory and open relationships. Discussions of nonmonogamy seem to predominantly tend toward offering a reactionary structure of preemption: by being “above it all” with a kind of ironic detachment, nonmonogamous relationships can be dismissed out of hand as worthless or less worthwhile, in a fashion that retains a certain woker-than-thou aesthetic while also failing to meaningfully situate itself in relation to notions of monogamy and life within it. At once there are both assumptions about nonmonogamy and polyamory: it is a singular slightly-above-average and certainly-above-her-station woman who is entertaining multiple affable but ultimately disposable men, while also being a man who is effectively cheating on a number of women all at once, with both deserving different sorts of contempt, either the woman with her “simps” or the kind of softly wrapped cheating and manipulation that the man gets his partners to pretend to accept. Even in queering this structure, recognizing that there are far more relationships than these two structures can describe, than these two Oedipal fantasies, there is a basic assumption that one body must fit at the nexus of this, that the polycule requires a center and is not simply a relationship of affinities, part of an assemblage of various other relationships that could just as easily be friendships, kinship, social ties with or without sexual implications that are not codified as such.

That there is frequently a display of such relationships on apps such as tumblr, facebook (wherein the parties’ partners engage in displays of affection that are almost as much about confusing those who are not clued in and reassuring themselves of a certain status as they are about making the partner feel loved) and Discord, along with the means by which psychopolitical acts of refusing to name certain potentially-rhizomal developments of friendship and trust in fact serves as an excuse to force an arboreal notion of dominance on them, making it so that the placehood of a relationship is profoundly realized during the decision to quarantine with a particular partner. Nonmonogamous structures of relationship in relation to contemporary questions on sexual identity, the ways by which sexual relationships are formed and realized, and the many ways in which a proliferation of identities converges on a sort of infinite signification, a kind of Dessert of the “Real” wherein one spoils oneself with the sweet possibilities of a Virtual life, is coming to the fore at this very moment. The beauty of relationships outside of a single structure, either a requirement of monogamous narratives (perhaps queered by the introduction of some sort of academic reasoning to them) or polyamorous ones (with the insistence that there is an inherent radicality to this that ignores how partners may wish to interact with one another, may get-along-or-not, may in fact be hiding their own feelings on such a relationship for various reasons) makes it such that the psychopolitical aspect of new relationships and their potential is continually in flux, on display, must always be presented in order to be analyzed by those whose relationship to the relationship is a foundational aspect of the relationship itself, a kind of audience (imagined or not) for which one performs.

More generally, discussions of relationships in quarantine are common, and most are pointing out what should be obvious: any situation wherein an abused partner is forced to spend more time with their abuser will be fraught, will be difficult, will have at the very least some psychological toll if it does not unfold into outright violence, how the threat of abuse functions in relation to abusive actions, how abusive actions play with certain thresholds in order to retain the structure that enables them (that is, refraining from physical violence specifically such that this points to an absence of abuse rather than a genuine calculation on the part of the abuser) and moreover how domesticity in the middle of a crisis such as this can exacerbate and trigger certain dynamics which were not as clear formerly, how loss of work or loss of a social circle greatly increases one’s susceptibility to violence, how a pressure to show that one is not only quarantining, but quarantining well, doing sufficient effort to come out of this “better” extends even to those who have already been submitting to an act in order to hide being abused so that there is always more more more to hide. 

So then, what kinds of assemblages are possible over distance? What performative structures result from this? The way in which nonmonogamous structures are enabled and enhanced by the digital interfaces with which a larger Virtual is created includes a new update to cruising: that of Grindr, a vast improvement over chancing dying on 9/11 cruising in the WTC bathrooms, one must admit (even if dying for a well-sucked dick is a romantic prospect). Grindr did long before and to a far greater extent what apps such as Tinder have attempted to do, in that their Virtual is a kind of hyperreal sexual signaling, is in many ways a part of a cultural shift, is a kind of discrete indiscretion that has been interrupted by the ban on casual travel enacted by COVID-19. The granting of an app access to one’s most private sexual desires is a new transformation in potential acts of control one which goes far beyond mere newspaper classified ads: the danger of Grindr as a lure for homophobic attacks is well-documented, with the fear of various dangers laid upon the spectre of homosexuality far more easily raised and discussed by a largely heterosexual class of analysts and spectators. Even within communities, objections to the ease with which Grindr enables practices such as chemsex and the related acts of dealing shows a desire for some kind of respectability: there is a limit on what can be enacted, and it is far better to make the sexual statement on freedom than to adopt a more genuinely radical philosophy around what one may do with one’s body in expressing sexual identity, how the chemical alteration of the body must stay within acceptable limits, the skin must remain intact, the phallus the only phallus and the act of fucking the only penetration, fists and hands allowed but needles only for play, never injection. Again, subjecting oneself to a certain sort of mask (the one that the Grindr logo cheekily evokes) allows then for a new sort of expression, for flows of desire that are not otherwise possible and moreover which are newly made possible by the kinds of knowing connections Grindr fosters: the creation of more intricately-planned public scenes, staging of a sexual fantasy more readily, the commodification of sex. 

As to who makes money off of these commodities, one perhaps might point to the rise and dominance of OnlyFans: as a means of sexual expression, as a means of sustaining oneself while in quarantine, as a kind of entry into sex work or as a means of transitioning to a different platform through which to perform such work, it has been a dominant part of the discursive structuring of COVID-19 and quarantine when it comes to sexuality. Sauce Walka, a rapper known just as much for his lean and jewelry as his rapping, started a companion OnlyFans to the two women he is currently dating, who both have OnlyFans of their own. Beyoncé namechecked the site in a verse on her remix of “Savage” with Megan Thee Stallion, whose song was already a cultural force in its own right. The way in which a kind of public discursive function is served by the question of what exactly is implied, mediated by this website and its functions is specifically that of a larger discussion about what sex work entails, its acceptability, its structure and just how much striations within sex work apply in relation to class and identity just as with any analysis of the sort. Again, all at once it is a kind of psychopolitical exercise for the performer (that is, submitting oneself to a specific kind of willing surveillance) and one for the audience (whereby one may reference it in order to support or malign those on the platform, to signal various identities and acts of identification, so on). The means by which it has become a discursive tool in addition to the website makes it so that the hyperreal version, a kind of Virtual idea of what it entails on top of the Digial interface, the second-order simulacra of what fantasies about the site insist it must be, makes for a far more interesting and impactful statement than actually going through and looking for any individual consensus on who uses the site how, just as Craigslist before it had no one common class character.

A commonality between the many lines of critique is some belief that quarantine may not be permanent, for one reason or another, and it is this vital difference which drives the differance between the notion of staying quarantined and reentry into “business” as usual. What the more Democratic solution seems to understand is that, even at home, the psychopolitical necessity of consumption has taken a toll to the point where brands can advertise that they will indeed, merely continue selling their products and consumers will support them. Companies will offer a charitable side dish to their main meal of a product, and it will be eagerly consumed. These new forms of consumption are a kind of test for ideologically-pitched battles over exactly what kinds of risks are entailed in preserving the socius. Spontaneous gatherings are too prone to turn into riots, to insurrectionary forms, to develop into battles within a People’s War: it is better to create a notion of prison that relies on a complete separation from any meaningful experience of prison, a specifically white consciousness of imprisonment separate from its presence in living with antiblackness that transposes itself onto the form of quarantine. Similarly, the means through which the school, the hospital, the asylum are all located within the home, are reliant on the psychopolitical acquiescence of an audience, and moreover a lack of questioning of exactly how effective this hastily-compiled pedagogy can be (thus preventing sponaneously radical pedagogical efforts) or how effective telemedicine is as a practice (making it such that doctors can arbitrate their power more effectively, psychologists and psychiatrists can focus more on specific mannerisms to add to the next DSM once this less expensive and more profitable means of seeing patients becomes more dominant) makes it rather easy to make accessibility inaccessible, shows just how frustratingly arbitrary many barriers have been and how even more frustratingly present many are now when making themselves known along settler-colonial lines, in communities that are marked by antiblackness (and high COVID comorbidities) as well as in vulnerable communities like sex workers, people who use drugs, disabled people who need support groups or extra medical care (and providers of such care), the many immunocompromised and those who love them. The means by which this crisis has striated the socius so dramatically is not going to be forgotten soon, and undoing it except through a full-scale dismantling of capitalist structures of exchange and marketing is perhaps not even a goal worth discussing, let alone an attainable one.

[wisdomrays]

WHAT IS THE SPIRIT AND HOW DOES IT AFFECT US?: Part 1

There are many worlds, among them those of plants, animals, people, and jinn. Our visible, material world addresses itself to our senses, and is the realm where God Almighty gives life, fashions, renews, changes, and causes things to die. Science concerns itself with its phenomena.

Above this world is the immaterial World of Divine Laws or Commands, the spirit's home. To learn about this world, consider the following: A book cannot exist without meaning, the main part of its existence, regardless of our excellent printing press or paper. The essence of life and the law of germination and growth stimulate a tree's seed to germinate underground and grow into a tree. In their absence, there would be no trees.

Menstruation prepares a womb every month for insemination through a (biological) law. Millions of sperm head for the womb, but only one fertilizes the ovum. Another (biological) law causes menstruation to stop until birth. An embryo develops into a person through other (biological or embryological) laws. The Qur'an says: We created man from a quintessence of clay. We then placed him as a drop in a place of rest firmly fixed. Then We made the drop into a leech-like structure suspended on the wall of the womb, and then of that leech-like structure We made a chewed-like substance. Then We made out of that chewed-like substance bones (skeletal system). Then We clothed the bones with flesh (muscles). Then We developed out of it another creation. So blessed be God the best to create (23:12-15).

This process occurs within three veils of darkness: He created you in the wombs of your mothers, in stages, one after another, in three veils of darkness (39:6). These are the belly, womb, and caul or membrane; the fetal membranes' constituents; or the decidua's three regions: the decidua basalis, decidua capsularis, and decidua parietalis. The verse includes all of these meanings.

We derive such laws from these processes' almost never-changing repetition. Observing surrounding (natural) phenomena reveals other laws, among them gravitation and repulsion, and water's freezing and vaporization.

The spirit also is a unique living and conscious law issuing from the World of Divine Laws or Commands: Say: The spirit is of my Lord's Command (17:85) If the spirit had no life and consciousness, it would be a regular law; if a regular law had life and consciousness, it would become a spirit.

Science Cannot Define or Perceive the Spirit

All matter is composed of atoms, and atoms are made up of more minute particles. But the spirit is a simple, noncompound entity, invisible but knowable through its manifestations in this world. We accept its existence and see its manifestations, but cannot know its nature. Such ignorance, however, does not negate its existence.

We see with our eyes. Although the main center of sight is located in the brain, the brain does not see. You do not say: My brain sees, but rather: I see. But what is this I? Does it have a brain, a heart, and other organs and limbs? Why are we unable to move when we die, although all our organs and limbs are there? Does a factory operate by itself, or does something else (i.e., electricity) cause it to work?

Any disconnect between the factory and its electrical source can reduce the factory to a heap of junk. Is this comparable to the spirit“body relationship? When death severs this connection, the body must be disposed of quickly, before it begins to rot and decompose.

The spirit is not an electrical power, but rather a conscious, powerful thing that learns and thinks, senses and reasons. It develops continually, usually in parallel with the body's physical development, as well as mentally and spiritually through learning and reflection, belief and worship. As the spirit determines a person's character, nature, or identity, each person is unique, although all of us are created from the same elements.

The Spirit Needs Our Body

The spirit must use material means to be manifested and function here. As the body cannot contact the World of Symbols or Immaterial Forms, the spirit cannot contact this world if there is no human heart, brain, or other bodily organs and limbs to mediate. The spirit functions through the body's nerves, cells, and other elements. Therefore, if bodily systems or organs go awry, the spirit becomes disconnected and unable to command the body. Death occurs if this failure or illness severs the spirit“body relationship. Some meaningless hand or finger movements can be produced by stimulating certain areas of the brain, but these are only automatic bodily responses. The body needs the spirit, which is conscious and has free will, to produce meaningful movements.

Although psychoanalysts have offered explanations for dreams, dreams cannot be said to consist of the subconscious mind's jumbled activities. Almost everyone has had true dreams. Many scientific or technological discoveries were seen first in dreams. Therefore, dreams point to something”the spirit”within us that can see in a different way while we sleep. Although the spirit sees with our eyes, smells with our nose, hears with our ears and so on, some people can see with their fingers or the tips of their noses, and smell with their heels.

The Spirit and Our Face

Our face opens on our inner world, for it discloses our character. Psychologists assert that almost all movements reveal character. Such observations resulted in physiognomy, the art of judging character from facial features. The spirit determines these features.

Our body's cells are renewed continuously. Every day, millions of cells die and are replaced. Biologists say that all bodily cells are renewed every 6 months, and yet the face's main features do not change. We recognize individuals through their unchanging facial features and fingerprints. A finger's cells change, but its print never does. Each individual's unique spirit stabilizes these distinguishing features.

[mishifoltyn]

I wrote a text about Circular Dimensions, an exhibition of sculptural ceramics and paintings and drawings by Ontario-based artists Heidi McKenzie and Maya Foltyn. The goal was to bridge these two independent practices through echoing experiences and moments in the artists’ lives. Here is the text in full. Circular Dimensions – Heidi McKenzie & Maya Foltyn February 7 – March 1, 2020 Opening reception: February 7th from 7:30 – 9:30pmMeet the artists: February 23 at 2:00pm  Circular Dimensions merges two distinct and individual practices, taking inspiration from personal experiences and collective histories from all over the world. Artists Heidi McKenzie and Maya Foltyn bridge and cross disciplines, roles, trajectories, and aesthetic languages in this ceramics and painting exhibition founded on circular movement. Join the artists at the vernissage on Friday, February 7th from 7:30 – 9:30pm at Carnegie Gallery (10 King Street West, Dundas, Ontario) and meet the artists at a special conversational event on February 23rd at 2:00pm. A look into, around, and within Circular Dimensions, a ceramic and painting exhibition by Heidi McKenzie & Maya Foltyn Text by Agnieszka Foltyn  “Everything is a balance between control and gesture,” Maya starts. This simple statement echoes a conscious act of negotiation of change or perhaps tensions in flux within our rhythms, our perceptions, and our responses to the world. It is a negotiation of the stimuli of phenomena that makes up our understanding of the world around us: its politics, its people, where we are, who we are, but importantly, how we are together.   The practices of Heidi McKenzie and Maya Foltyn touch and separate, intersect and cross over, flow in parallel, and divide in separate directions. These are not linear trajectories but rather circular or cyclical meanderings, stimulated and affected by the machinations of society throughout time. They are dreams, thoughts, extensions of a willingness to understand or to come into contact with the unknown. They are meditative, rhythmic techniques tailored to the individual lives of the artists. They express a subtle hope.   “Everything is in flux. That we see something as static is a form of abstraction,” Foltyn states. And in this exhibition, abstraction is key. Perhaps what draws us to this concept is a negation of the direct messaging of a qualified truth. In this present of fake everything, scripted bias, and media monopolies, what abstraction does is make space. It makes room for the viewer to determine their own position – through their movement within the gallery space, peering from one work to the other, from one artist to the other and back again. The viewer has the freedom to exercise their agency, their will to decide or not to decide, to determine or to not, to look, to question, to relate, to feel wonder. Making room for agency is a powerful political act. It creates space for a diversity of voices to be heard. The artists make space through the use of a minimal visual language, the round shape, the circular trajectory becoming a symbol of a journey – their own intersecting with many others.   Heidi McKenzie’s ceramic sculptures flow, grow, shape, twist, and turn as “soul sketches”, moments of her personal journey capturing a specific moment of her own development but at the same time resonating within the entire sum of her experiences. It is a moment, but one that points to the future. McKenzie’s practice brings her all over the world, connecting to people, places, skills, and techniques. Her background traces its roots across continents and her inspirations delve even further. “As an artist, it’s important to speak in your own voice – play in your own sandbox,” she begins. “Speaking in my own voice speaks to a lot of people.” The global movements of humanity over time have shaped our cultures and our viewpoints. Values and meanings have risen and changed. These intersections, moments of meeting, create a certain effect that resonates in other people’s lives. Paisley is a recurring motif in McKenzie’s work. “It represents both sides of my cultural heritage,” she states, referencing her Indo-Caribbean, Anglo/Irish roots. She draws a simple outline of its journey, originating as an almond shape in South Asia before making its way into the Scottish textile industry. While at a residency in Australia, she found herself exploring a particular shape. “That form came out of me in Australia,” she states, her arms outstretched. “There is a humanity that is connected to this shape.” The word excavate appears several times. To excavate: to dig something out, to expose something that is made meaningful in a new time. These works trace stories, identities through time and place, affected by meetings with other people, their cultures, and their traditions. These narratives are assertions of identity. But they stay away from appropriation, rather they comment on how interconnections with the unknown or the Other impact the ways we live now – and also how we move into the future.  Aesthetics are visual languages laden with symbols and meanings from the past and the present. They advance certain ideas, certain markings through moments in time and history. These languages have been used, appropriated, and redefined. “And why shouldn’t I?” McKenzie counters, when asked about this choice of visual language. Specifically the languages of minimalism and modernism have historically championed the division of the sexes and a Eurocentric viewpoint, erasing particularly women and people of colour from the annals of art history. But these movements originated in functionality, forms of categorization, and a use-function with the person in mind. “The fact that I am a woman of colour, it never made me repulsed by this aesthetic.” She continues, “What am I going to do that makes it different? And how am I going to invite a broader more pluralist audience to engage with these genres?”  A position is easy to betray or contradict. But a presence brings something completely different to the table – a seat. If we see the table as a place in which dialogue, community or exchange can happen, then taking a seat at this table is the most important act of all. It is a willingness to meet with the Other, a gift in a way, where the artist takes the first steps in reaching out, saying something of themselves with the hope of a response, a beginning. We assert our positions in this world through presence by bearing witness. In an age of increasing turbulence and concerns about our collective future, being visible is important. Being visible together is an act of solidarity.  “It’s important to have ideas and to make artwork,” Foltyn states. Art is a dynamic bodily happening. It is an expression of a specific spatio-temporal context. The phenomena of the surrounding environment, the thoughts and dreams and lived or imagined experiences are understood and come out through the actions of the body. Foltyn describes her work as a combination of interior and exterior landscapes, stemming from the junction of the mind and the body. It is a blend of memories and experiences, reacting into the moment through bursts of gestural movement and controlled, skilled technique. “I was never good at or drawn to react to the world realistically,” Foltyn states. She describes the teaching approach of professors in Poland in the 1980’s, which focused on the development of a specific individual style and on the mastery of technical skill within it. But for Foltyn this instruction was limiting. Education is for experimentation, with a freedom to try, to innovate, and to make mistakes. “Sometimes a mistake brings forth a new experiment.” She continues, “Art speaks to your perspective and point of view. It is what draws people in and what pushes them away. Those who are left are to be nurtured and grown from.”  Working across multiple pieces and compositions at once is an approach Foltyn uses to moderate between these two elements. “What is most important are the ideas that rise to the surface, that come out.,” she states. They come after a night’s rest, in the shower the next morning. Intensity and repose is also a rhythm. We often find that ideas come at moments of rest, during which the mind is free to dream. “It is the collection of different elements coming together,” she continues. “You pull them out, they come in. Sometimes it’s so intense you cannot sleep.” Abstractions don’t come from nowhere. She describes an intensification of many stimuli, phenomena, and emotions that are processed during moments of rest. “It’s not that it all comes from an experimentation of different gestural forms,” she says. But this is way of learning, too. The movement of the body taking internalized forms of being and translating it into visual forms of articulation. They say something. These are wishes, not only coming to the artist from the outside but also hopes for something else. This embodied method of working provokes ideas, thoughts, drawn from the subconscious more than from reality but having lived it all. Musing is an important process of understanding.  The artworks seem to be landing points for both artists – acts of making that serve as temporal reference points in the development of ideas, echoing rhythms of control and gesture. Alternate and embodied forms of articulation engage different types of knowledge. This process underlines the importance of making as a method of learning, sorting through information in an embodied way – taking part in the world, physically, emotionally, and mentally. We are corporeal beings. Through the act of making we come to a fuller understanding of being in the world. We also cement our presence – within the cannons of history, in art, in daily life, situating ourselves within histories in which many narratives have been omitted or made invisible.   The works in this exhibition convey very clearly the artists behind them, in a firm but accessible way. This exhibition is full of contrasts, brimming with nuance, time, and change. The viewer has room to feel it out on their own but always in relation to something there – the wondering of time immemorial, the cultures and roles of the people throughout history, the space we inhabit, and how we navigate our societies, perhaps our society as a whole. 

[wagesof]

“The White Anti-Racist is an Oxymoron: An Open Letter to ‘White Anti-Racists’” by Tamara K. Nopper (published in Race Traitor and ChickenBones under the name Kil Ja Kim in 2003)

I received an annoying e-mail about white people and their struggle to do anti-racist work. I keep reading and hearing white people talk about their struggle to do anti- racist organizing, and frankly it gets on my nerves. So I am writing this open letter to white people who engage in any activist work that involves or affects non-whites. Given that the US social structure is founded on white supremacy, and that there is a global order in which white supremacy and European domination are at large, I would challenge any white person to figure out what movement or action they can get involved in that will not involve or affect non-white people.

That said, I want to begin with what has become a realization for me through the help of different politically conscious friends. There is NO SUCH THING AS A WHITE ANTI-RACIST. The term itself, ‘white anti-racist ́ is an oxymoron. In the following, I will explain why. Then, I will begin to detail how this impacts non-white people in organizing work specifically, along with how it affects non-white people generally.

First, one must realize that whiteness is a structure of domination. As such, there is nothing redeemable or reformed about whiteness. Intellectuals, scholars and activists, especially those who are non-white, have drawn our attention to this for years. For example, people such as Malcolm X, W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Barbara Smith, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Frank Wilderson, Kwame Ture and Charles V. Hamilton, and many, many others who are perhaps less famous, have articulated the relationship between whiteness and domination.

Further, early on people such as Douglass and DuBois began to outline how whiteness is a social and political construct that emphasizes the domination, authority, and perceived humanity of those who are racialized as white. They, along with many other non-white writers and orators, have pointed to the fact that it was the bodies who were able to be racialized as ‘white ́ were viewed as rational, authoritative, and deserving. Additionally, and believe me, this is no small thing, white people are viewed as human. What this means is that when white people suffer, as some who are poor/female/queer do, they nevertheless are able to have some measure of sympathy for their plight simply because they are white and their marginalization is considered an emergency, crisis or an issue to be concerned about.

Moreover, even when white people have been oppressed by various dimensions of classism, homophobia and heterosexism, they have been able to opt for what DuBois, in his monograph Black Reconstruction brilliantly called ‘the psychological wage of whiteness. ́ That is, whites who are marginalized could find comfort, even if psychological, in the fact that they were not non-white. They could revel in the fact that they could be taken as white in opposition to non-white groups. The desire for this wage of whiteness was also what drove many white people, albeit marginalized, to engage in organized violence against non-whites.

Of course, legal cases such as the Dred Scott Decision along with many different naturalization cases involving Asian individuals, has helped to encode a state- sanctioned definition of whiteness. But there are other ways in which white people are racialized as white by the state. They are not stopped while driving as much as non- white people. Their homes and businesses are not raided and searched as much by police officers, INS or License and Inspections (L&I). White people's bodies are not tracked and locked up in prisons, detention centers, juvenile systems, detention halls in classrooms, and ‘special education ́ classes as much as those of non-white people. White people’s bodies are generally not the site of fear, repulsion, violent desire, or hatred.

Now some might point out to me that white people are followed, tracked and harassed by the police. This is true. White women experience state-sanctioned discrimination. Queer whites are the subject of homophobia, whether by individuals or by the state through laws and police violence. Some activist whites are harassed by the police. White people who play rap music and wear gear are stopped by cops. Poor whites can be criminalized by the state, especially around welfare issues. What I want to point out is that, while I do not condone police violence and harassment, there is a way in which white people will not be viewed as inherently criminal or suspect unless they are perceived as doing something that breaks particular norms. Further, the breaking of particular class and sexuality ‘norms ́ is highly racialized, meaning that it is generally when white people engage in acts that appear to the state not appropriately ‘white ́ that they are subject to state violence. In other words, white people experience state violence when their bodies engage in acts normally considered deviant and inherent in non-white people.

Other racial groups, particularly Blacks and Native Americans, are considered inherently criminal no matter what they do, what their sexual identity is or what they wear. Further, it has always struck me as interesting that there are white people who will attempt to wear what will signify ‘Blackness, ́ whether it is dreadlocks (which, in my opinion, should be cut off from every white person’s head), ‘gear, ́ or Black masks at rallies. There is a sick way in which white people want to emulate that which is considered ‘badass ́ about a certain existential position of Blackness at the same time they do not want the burden of living as a non-white person. Further, it really strikes me as fucked up the way in which white people will go to rallies and taunt the police with Black masks in order to bring on police pressure. What does it mean when whites strategically use Blackness to bring on police violence? Now I know that somewhere there is a dreadlocked, smelly white anarchist who is reading this message and who is angry at me for not understanding the logic of the Black masks and its roots in anarchism. But I would challenge these people to consider how they are reproducing violence towards Blackness in their attempts to taunt and challenge the police in their efforts.

Now back to my point that white anti-racism is an oxymoron. Whiteness is a social and political construct rooted in white supremacy. Drawing from the work of Frank Wilderson, I understand white supremacy as a structure and system of beliefs rooted in European and US imperialism in which certain racialized bodies (non-white) are selected for premature negation whether through cultural, physical, psychological genocide, containment or other forms of social death. White supremacy is at the heart of the US social system and civil society. In short, white supremacy is not just a series of practices or privilege, but a larger social structure and system of domination that overly-values and rewards those who are racialized as white. The rest of us are constructed as undeserving to be considered human, although there is significant variation within non-white populations of how our bodies are encoded, treated and (de)valued.

Now, for one to claim whiteness, one also is invested in white supremacy. Whiteness itself is a political term that emerged among European white ethnics in the US. Some who used the term white were those who were part of the dominant social structure, such as the slave owning class, which included many of the US ‘founding fathers. ́ Others were European ethnics, many of them reviled, who chose to cast their lot with whiteness rather than that with those who had been determined as non-white. In short, anyone who claims to be white, even a white anti-racist, is identifying with a history of European imperialism and racism transported and further developed into the US.

However, this does not mean that white people who go around saying dumb things such as ‘I am not white! I am a human being! ́ or, ‘I left whiteness and joined the human race, ́ or my favorite, ‘I hate white people! They're stupid! ́ are not structurally white. Remember, whiteness is a structure of domination embedded in our social relations, institutions, discourses, and practices. Don’t tell me you're not white but then when we go out in the street and the police don’t bother you or people don’t ask you if you’re a prostitute, or people don’t follow you and touch you at will, act like that does not make a difference in our lives. Basically, you can’t talk, merely ‘unlearn ́ or think through whiteness, as all of these annoying trainings for white people to ‘unlearn ́ racism will have you think.

[castleoflions]

Regarding the ace discourse that went down today on this blog...

I’ve received a good number of messages, and I thank you all for talking to me and navigating this weird little intersectional part of the LGBTQ+ community with me. The messages I’ve received have been very thoughtful with sound logic and tons of valid points.

Just to make something abundantly clear, because it’s something I noticed over the course of the messages: Ace and aro people belong in the community, absolutely. You all exist and are real, what you feel and experience is real and valid, I understand that that you’re outside of the norm. Hell, I’m part of that spectrum myself, being demisexual. I get that frustration/repulsion/confusion/etc. That was never, ever a question, and I’m sorry if I didn’t articulate myself clearly enough to make that clear. Ace and aro people exist and are valid, full stop.

The hang up I personally have is with cishet people because The Straights™ have historically been oppressors of the LGBTQ+ community, and very violently so. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling fear and frustration about accepting cishet aro/ace people into the fold, and that’s ultimately what my hesitation is built upon: fear and frustration. Not of ace or aro people, no, that was never ever the case. Fear of straight people being violent or co-opting the community or taking advantage of us or inserting themselves in a space we have all created over generations in order to guard against the heteronormative society that surrounds us at every waking moment.

H O W E V E R!

Some have made the case that being asexual immediately negates the “heterosexual” part of that oppressive identity, and while I admit it took some mental gymnastics on my part to follow, I can absolutely see that point.

Others have made the case that while still being het and cis, being ace or aro bucks the typical, accepted heteronormative performativity that society tries to impose on all of us. Another really, really good point. It reminds me of Judith Butler and performance of gender, but this time it’s about not performing romantically and/or sexually the way society expects. By dictionary definition, that’s queer; it’s strange, unusual. And that’s what I was picking up on last week when I was like “yeah, sure, makes sense that they would belong...”

Honestly, at the end of the day, I know these things to be true:

I’m not a gatekeeper, nor do I want to be, fuck that 

I accidentally slid into that role today and I apologize; that was not my intention and I hate it even got to that point

I’d much rather be inclusive than exclusionary

Still fuckin do NOT want straight people or their garbage opinions near me, tho...

And with those things in mind, my personal verdict is this: cishet ace/aro people welcome (because we are a community of people who torch heteronormative performance because it’s shitty and restrictive and ace/aro cishets still do that to a degree), BUT! understand that y’all are on thin fucking ice and that you’re very much on probation. Use your privilege in straight spaces to elevate the oppressed voices of those around you who do not share that same privilege. Understand that the rest of us have laws that deem our existence illegal and punishable, that we face unspeakable violence every. single. day. and have endured such for centuries. Do right by us and we’ll return the favor.

[the-renegade-child-of-time]

Time Lord Physiology

*Name of TV episode, novel, audioplay or comic this is referenced or shown in is in italics*

External Anatomy:

Gallifreyans are identical to humans in their appearance

Gallifreyan children age at a similar rate to human children (The Sound of Drums) but upon hitting puberty their ageing would slow with their teenage years lasting for decades (Legacy of the Daleks) 

When fatally injured or sick, Gallifreyans have the ability to regenerate when they would usually die

If injured, but not severely enough to require regeneration, a Gallifreyan can slip into a “healing coma” where they would appear dead but they can dedicate all their energy to healing (Inferno, Planet of the Daleks, EarthWorld, Vanishing Point)

Some Gallifreyans can change their eye colour without the need for regeneration (Vampire Science, Doctor Who and the Daemons)

Gallifreyans are superior physically to humans (Terror of the Autons)

Gallifreyan bones can withstand pressures and impacts which would shatter human bones (The End of Time)

Gallifreyans have resistances to both extreme cold (Tomb of the Cybermen, Planet of the Ood) and extreme heat (The End of the World)

Gallifreyans can survive exposure to vacuums for brief periods (The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe)

Gallifreyans can resist higher-frequency sounds which would deafen a human (The Christmas Invasion, Partners in Crime)

There is a vulnerable nerve cluster in a Gallifreyan’s left shoulder which can disable them if hit (Set Piece)

Gallifreyan reflexes and dexterity are far above humans with the ability to perform actions which humans can’t (Terror of the Autons, The End of the World, The Doctor’s Daughter)

Gallifreyans can see in the dark (Lucifer Rising) and notice incredible amounts of detail from distances which humans would find impossible (The Eleventh Hour)

Gallifreyans can identify substances by taste including specific details about the composition of the material (The Christmas Invasion, Bad Therapy, Tooth and Claw, The Idiot’s Lantern, The Eleventh Hour, Day of the Moon, The Time of the Angels, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)

Internal Anatomy:

Gallifreyan blood is darker in colour than human blood and has an orange tint to it (The Two Doctors)

Gallifreyans have a two hearts (The Power of Three, The Doctor’s Daughter) but can survive with only one working heart although in a greatly weakened state (The Shakespeare Code, The Power of Three)

Gallifreyans have 2 extra ribs compared to humans giving them a total of 26 ribs (Blood Heat)

Gallifreyans natural body temperature of 15°C/59°F (Blood of the Daleks)

Gallifreyan brains are larger and more complex than human brains (The Brain of Morbius)

Gallifreyans can separate their brain hemispheres allowing them a greater ability to multitask (Island of Death)

Gallifreyan lungs are the same size as humans but they have extra pulmonary tubes similar to a lymphatic system to supply oxygen to their dual hearts this also makes them naturally buoyant in water (Island of Death)

Gallifreyans can survive longer without oxygen to the point that a human would be unconscious (The Two Doctors, Mummy on the Orient Express)

Gallifreyans do not need as much sleep as humans and can survive on as little as one hour of sleep (The Talons of Weng-Chiang, Mummy on the Orient Express, Night and the Doctor, The Highlanders)

Gallifreyans are immune to the effects of helium gas and some anaesthetic gases (The Robots of Death)

Gallifreyan skin has a deeper subdural and subcutaneous layer which gives them greater durability (Burning Heart)

Gallifreyan DNA has a triple helix structure (The Crystal Bucephalus, Doctormania)

Gallifreyan bodies can reject and expel cyanide (The Unicorn and the Wasp)

Gallifreyans can and do have allergic reactions to specific substances (The Caves of Androzani)

Other Abilities:

Gallifreyans can share a telepathic link with each other allowing long distance conversations (The Three Doctors, The Pirate Planet)

Gallifreyans are largely resistant to mind control (The War Machines, The Green Death)

Gallifreyans have several mental manipulation abilities including: hypnosis (Terror of the Autons, The Ribos Operation, Fear Her), mind-reading (The Girl in the Fireplace), sharing thoughts (The End of Time), relief of mental disorders (The Shakespeare Code), inducing sleep or unconsciousness (Listen), influencing dreams (The Eleventh Hour), transferring knowledge (The Lodger), and memory erasure (Journey’s End)

Gallifreyans have the ability to sense all possible timelines radiating from an event (The Parting of the Ways, The Fires of Pompeii) including negated timelines (Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS)

Gallifreyans can sense, and have a instinctual repulsion to, fixed points in time (Utopia)

[discourseboyfriends]

what do y'all think about ace discourse?

Wolf: In my personal opinion, saying that you’re ace isn’t very meaningful at all if you still have sex regularly (I’ve heard some people call themselves asexual because they have sex and enjoy it “for libido” but “not for attraction” which is??)Ace people definitely exist as a valid orientation, but the definition really doesn’t need to be stretched to the ridiculous lengths that it has been.Also, being ace and/or aro DOES NOT give you the inherent right to reclaim slurs! You aren’t queer because you’re ace, you can’t call yourself ‘faggot’ because you’re aro, and stay away from the word ‘dyke’ or using femme/butch labels just because you’re aroace.*Of course, this doesn’t mean that being ace negates your other identities! If you’re an aromantic gay guy you can totally identify with being gay! If you’re an ace lesbian that’s cool, embrace loving women!* You’re a trans girl who happens to be aromantic and asexual? Jump right into the trans community, hell yeah!But this also means that it doesn’t negate your other identities! If you’re heteromantic but asexual? You’re not gay! You shouldn’t call yourself queer, either!**All in all, I think that there’s a lot of nitpicking as to where the “ace spectrum” starts and stops, so it can be harmful in a lot of ways? I personally ID’d as asexual for a long time, but I realized a few years back that it was just due to my trauma symptoms being pushed as part of asexuality. Now that I’ve addressed these issues, I realize that I’m TOTALLY NOT asexual AT ALL. Not to say that being ace because of trauma or relating your asexuality to trauma is bad! But the mentality of “Oh, you’re asexual! Nothing is wrong with you so there’s nothing to fix!” can be harmful when pushed as a catch-all, since for some people their repulsion to sex/hesitancy to engaging in sex is DEFINITELY something that they’re repressing or not working past, and being encouraged to not self examine these things can be awful for a person.ANYWAYS this is a longass dissertation to say no, you’re not inherently super-duper-queer-gay-lgbt+ just because you’re asexual. I definitely do think that asexual people and aromantic people can be in the LGBT+ community if they have other intersecting identities, or even if they’re both aromantic and asexual. I’m more iffy on het aces, but if they need a place to talk about asexuality then that’s up to the lgbt+ aces around them to decide that they do/do not feel comfortable inviting them into their own, specific spaces.

*: I’m not a lesbian so I don’t want to go on too much about this, especially since I’ve seen a LOT of disagreements on whether or not being lesbian equates being attracted to women or just explicitly not being attracted to men, but I didn’t want to pretend they’re not part of the equation either.

**: I don’t think that heteromantic aces or heterosexual aros should necessarily be labelled as ‘straight’ without mentioning their ace identity/aro identity just because that feels really erasing of their experiences? But obviously they’re still het and they can’t ignore that.