#sex ed! its very important!

[goldmanguyperson]

(idk how to tag this so im just going to put a break in. i talk about sexual trauma but in a way that is not at all detailed; i am simply speaking of why people, especially kids, might not talk about it. Cept for the last part which i have put a special and very large warning for)

i think it’s weird that many people expect minors to be completely pure and have no sexual thoughts or desires. not to say that they should publicly express them!! that is dangerous and also i do not want to know about it (and neither should any other random adult).

but i do think that acting like they can never be sexual makes it a lot harder for minors to accept that feeling such ways is completely okay. Especially since the age range the term “minor” is about, includes the ages when theyre experiencing such things for the first time, and trying to figure them out. They deserve to feel safe to talk about it with people they trust, and should not be shamed for doing so. Even when it turns out poorly for them because the person they trusted turns out to be not trustworthy, that still does NOT mean that it was their fault and they should go back to being “pure”. it means it was the trusted person’s fault. (Please note i am not saying it is okay for adults to engage in explicit talk with minors. i mean it should be safe for them to ask questions about what is okay and to search for reassurance. and it definitely should be okay for minors to speak amongst others around their age, so long as everyone is safe and comfortable, just like anybody else).

demonizing these feelings among minors also can make it harder to discuss things that have happened to them or things theyve seen that they may be uncomfortable about, if they are sexual in nature. It is vitally important to be able to speak about scary and uncomfortable things that may have happened to you, and making that as a cultural baseline harder to do is fucking nasty.

There is definitely a lot of questions and concerns to be had about teens communicating about such things online. I do not deny that. But I do also think it worth considering that many people do not feel comfortable speaking about many things with others in person, or they may have a tough and unaccepting in person life that makes it difficult to speak to others in general, and they do not deserve to feel lonely in any aspect. This is not to say that talking online is fully safe, and no harm can come from it. It isn’t, and it can. And yes, it can totally be easier for minors to be exploited online, in large part because you cannot tell who is on the other side of the screen. But life offline is also not perfectly safe. It offers a few more tools to know who to avoid, but can also be more dangerous to being physically safe, and liars and exploitative people always have the potential to lie and exploit, no matter where they are.

(suicide attempt CW, no detail and not mine, in this next paragraph. Also sexual harassment, when i was a child, that was done to me! awesome /sarcasm. and obviously, you dont need to read this next part.)

I speak from experience. we all were young once. my most traumatizing online experience was not a sexual one, but it was still extremely distressing, and it did involve a different but similar taboo. Someone almost killed themselves when I was trying to help them over DM. If my mom were any less supportive or understanding of those with mental health issues, I likely would not have talked to her about what had happened. I only got support in what happened because i grew up around those who attempt to destigmatize mental health. I cannot imagine how i would deal with an experience like being sexually taken advantage of or otherwise traumatized or significantly discomforted in a sexual way online. i dont think i would have told a soul, for many reasons, the significant one being that it was so often implied to me that to be sexual is wrong. it took me years of help from my friends to stop being so scared of myself in this aspect.

I actually literally did get sexually harassed once, in person, by an at the time fellow teen. i was slapped in an inappropriate place and taunted about it. I told nobody until years later; in part because of the idea that to be sexual is to be bad. I only even realized that this fit the definition of sexual harassment much later. If I had not been steeped in the idea that nobody my age could have possibly done such a thing, if i had not been steeped in the idea that minors can never feel sexual or want power in a sexual manner, if i had felt able to speak, maybe some action could have been taken. maybe i would at least have not had to fucking deal with that kid at camp again. Or maybe i wouldve just been pulled out of that camp because of course, it’s always the victim’s fault, isn’t it? But anyways. yknow the only people i ended up telling? one girl who thought the guy was into her, to try and keep her safe; and my online friends i have had for probably like half a decade now (a lot to all of us cuz we are all young and around the same age) because they were the only people i really trusted about stuff like this.

in ending. Fucked up shit! stigma is bad, people, it fucking sucks! I will not let you perpetuate it. especially not in the name of progressivism, not in the name of keeping kids safe, not in the name of anybody. you help nothing and and up ruining lives

[mantisgodsdomain]

...sometimes we forget that normal people's gore tolerance, like. Ends at butchering a frozen chicken or whatever. Absolutely incomprehensible to us that there are actual real people out there who would genuinely get faint at the sight of blood. Don't you, like, have blood in your body? You've got body parts too, you know. You are capable of being injured. How on earth did you manage to become an actual adult person while being afraid of a state of your body?

[portraitofadyke]

I think Our Flag Means Death is a very unique show in a way that they don't care to cater to mainstream media. And yes, by mainstream media I mean the general straight people.

I think it's very important that we have feel-good shows like Heartstopper. A few years back, a tv show about two queer boys in high school would be unthinkable. But its plot generally revolves around explaining queerness. Sure, it's nice. It's definitely the show I would watch with my family if I were a teenager and wanted to come out again (I had to watch glee with my mom to do that. not optimal). It's the show where teenagers find love and themselves, but sexuality is constantly discussed, explained, sanitized. It's the show straight people will watch. And that's good. We do need shows like that.

But Our Flag Means Death doesn't even bother trying. It's a show about mostly middle aged people, most of them not white, most of them queer in one way or the other. It's really a game of spot the hetero, like someone said. And the characters are not sublte about it. They have sex for fun, something most characters don't have in tv shows, definitely not queer characters. They make dick jokes. They are not all conventionally attractive and they know it, and the writing doesn't care. They are all people before they are queer representation.

Stede's storyline in s1 is in a part about discovering himself and his sexuality, but it's not obnoxiously repeated. Instead, it's played in a natural way. Stede's storyline is ALL about finding himself, yet it's not just about that. Just like Ed's storyline, it's about toxic masculinity and allowing himself to have fine things and self-hatred and finding his place in a world, something most of us can relate to. Hell, none of us were even sure the main characters were going to kiss and end up together, we were all so sure it's a queerbait. But this show doesn't bait its audience. It's not afraid of weirdness. It embraces it instead. There is a nonbinary character. No, they are not a mermaid. Call them jim. That's it. Yes, Lucius and Pete got engaged. Everyone there knows what mateolage is, congrats. Olu and Jim never break up and then Archie shows up, then Zheng, and we all know. We all know.

Two men nearing fifty have a deep, romantic moment where one of them appears as a mermaid, and it's treated as the profound scene it is without ridiculing it. This would never fly in a 'mainstream' media. It would have to be downplayed. Here, it saves Ed's life.

The show tells you racists suck, but it doesn't tell you in a condescending, finger-waving way catered to the white people. Instead, it sets your ship aflame and burns you alive, runs a knife through your hand, puts poison in your drink and kills you.

This is a show for adults, for queer people of all kinds, and it does not give a fuck if anyone else gets it. It's so rare to find a tv show that caters to us, yet alone a tv show that's genuinely good and caring and so well loved.

This is a show that basically straightbaited its audience in the first season, that's how much they don't care.

Idk, I just feel that it will take ages for another show like OFMD to exist in a world full of MCU and media that tries so hard to be liked by everyone it loses its personality and charm. Rant over

[icedbatik]

I saw this opinion piece in the New York Times and, while I don't normally copy and paste entire newspaper articles, this is an excellent (if scary) read.

Aside from the sections on how much lack of consent there is in today's sexual landscape, hockey fans -- who should be well aware of the dangers of concussions -- might take particular note of the section in which "choking" during sex is linked to brain damage on par with concussion damage.

The Troubling Trend in Teenage Sex

April 12, 2024

By Peggy Orenstein

Debby Herbenick is one of the foremost researchers on American sexual behavior. The director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University and the author of the pointedly titled book “Yes, Your Kid,” she usually shares her data, no matter how explicit, without judgment. So I was surprised by how concerned she seemed when we checked in on Zoom recently: “I haven’t often felt so strongly about getting research out there,” she told me. “But this is lifesaving.”

For the past four years, Dr. Herbenick has been tracking the rapid rise of “rough sex” among college students, particularly sexual strangulation, or what is colloquially referred to as choking. Nearly two-thirds of women in her most recent campus-representative survey of 5,000 students at an anonymized “major Midwestern university” said a partner had choked them during sex (one-third in their most recent encounter). The rate of those women who said they were between the ages 12 and 17 the first time that happened had shot up to 40 percent from one in four.

As someone who’s been writing for well over a decade about young people’s attitudes and early experience with sex in all its forms, I’d also begun clocking this phenomenon. I was initially startled in early 2020 when, during a post-talk Q. and A. at an independent high school, a 16-year-old girl asked, “How come boys all want to choke you?” In a different class, a 15-year-old boy wanted to know, “Why do girls all want to be choked?” They do? Not long after, a college sophomore (and longtime interview subject) contacted me after her roommate came home in tears because a hookup partner, without warning, had put both hands on her throat and squeezed.

I started to ask more, and the stories piled up. Another sophomore confided that she enjoyed being choked by her boyfriend, though it was important for a partner to be “properly educated” — pressing on the sides of the neck, for example, rather than the trachea. (Note: There is no safe way to strangle someone.) A male freshman said “girls expected” to be choked and, even though he didn’t want to do it, refusing would make him seem like a “simp.” And a senior in high school was angry that her friends called her “vanilla” when she complained that her boyfriend had choked her.

Sexual strangulation, nearly always of women in heterosexual pornography, has long been a staple on free sites, those default sources of sex ed for teens. As with anything else, repeat exposure can render the once appalling appealing. It’s not uncommon for behaviors to be normalized in porn, move within a few years to mainstream media, then, in what may become a feedback loop, be adopted in the bedroom or the dorm room.

Choking, Dr. Herbenick said, seems to have made that first leap in a 2008 episode of Showtime’s “Californication,” where it was still depicted as outré, then accelerated after the success of “Fifty Shades of Grey.” By 2019, when a high school girl was choked in the pilot of HBO’s “Euphoria,” it was standard fare. A young woman was choked in the opener of “The Idol” (again on HBO and also, like “Euphoria,” created by Sam Levinson; what’s with him?). Ali Wong plays the proclivity for laughs in a Netflix special, and it’s a punchline in Tina Fey’s new “Mean Girls.” The chorus of Jack Harlow’s “Lovin On Me,” which topped Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for six nonconsecutive weeks this winter and has been viewed over 99 million times on YouTube, starts with, “I’m vanilla, baby, I’ll choke you, but I ain’t no killer, baby.” How-to articles abound on the internet, and social media algorithms feed young people (but typically not their unsuspecting parents) hundreds of #chokemedaddy memes along with memes that mock — even celebrate — the potential for hurting or killing female partners.

I’m not here to kink-shame (or anything-shame). And, anyway, many experienced BDSM practitioners discourage choking, believing it to be too dangerous. There are still relatively few studies on the subject, and most have been done by Dr. Herbenick and her colleagues. Reports among adolescents are now trickling out from the United Kingdom, Australia, Iceland, New Zealand and Italy.

Twenty years ago, sexual asphyxiation appears to have been unusual among any demographic, let alone young people who were new to sex and iffy at communication. That’s changed radically in a short time, with health consequences that parents, educators, medical professionals, sexual consent advocates and teens themselves urgently need to understand.

Sexual trends can spread quickly on campus and, to an extent, in every direction. But, at least among straight kids, I’ve sometimes noticed a pattern: Those that involve basic physical gratification — like receiving oral sex in hookups — tend to favor men. Those that might entail pain or submission, like choking, are generally more for women.

So, while undergrads of all genders and sexualities in Dr. Herbenick’s surveys report both choking and being choked, straight and bisexual young women are far more likely to have been the subjects of the behavior; the gap widens with greater occurrences. (In a separate study, Dr. Herbenick and her colleagues found the behavior repeated across the United States, particularly for adults under 40, and not just among college students.) Alcohol may well be involved, and while the act is often engaged in with a steady partner, a quarter of young women said partners they’d had sex with on the day they’d met also choked them.

Either way, most say that their partners never or only sometimes asked before grabbing their necks. For many, there had been moments when they couldn’t breathe or speak, compromising the ability to withdraw consent, if they’d given it. No wonder that, in a separate study by Dr. Herbenick, choking was among the most frequently listed sex acts young women said had scared them, reporting that it sometimes made them worry whether they’d survive.

Among girls and women I’ve spoken with, many did not want or like to be sexually strangled, though in an otherwise desired encounter they didn’t name it as assault. Still, a sizable number were enthusiastic; they requested it. It is exciting to feel so vulnerable, a college junior explained. The power dynamic turns her on; oxygen deprivation to the brain can trigger euphoria.

That same young woman, incidentally, had never climaxed with a partner: While the prevalence of choking has skyrocketed, rates of orgasm among young women have not increased, nor has the “orgasm gap” disappeared among heterosexual couples. “It indicates they’re not doing other things to enhance female arousal or pleasure,” Dr. Herbenick said.

When, for instance, she asked one male student who said he choked his partner whether he’d ever tried using a vibrator instead, he recoiled. “Why would I do that?” he asked.

Perhaps, she responded, because it would be more likely to produce orgasm without risking, you know, death.

In my interviews, college students have seen male orgasm as a given; women’s is nice if it happens, but certainly not expected or necessarily prioritized (by either partner). It makes sense, then, that fulfillment would be less the motivator for choking than appearing adventurous or kinky. Such performances don’t always feel good.

“Personally, my hypothesis is that this is one of the reasons young people are delaying or having less sex,” Dr. Herbenick said. “Because it’s uncomfortable and weird and scary. At times some of them literally think someone is assaulting them but they don’t know. Those are the only sexual experiences for some people. And it’s not just once they’ve gotten naked. They’ll say things like, ‘I’ve only tried to make out with someone once because he started choking and hitting me.’”

Keisuke Kawata, a neuroscientist at Indiana University’s School of Public Health, was one of the first researchers to sound the alarm on how the cumulative, seemingly inconsequential, sub-concussive hits football players sustain (as opposed to the occasional hard blow) were key to triggering C.T.E., the degenerative brain disease. He’s a good judge of serious threats to the brain. In response to Dr. Herbenick’s work, he’s turning his attention to sexual strangulation. “I see a similarity” to C.T.E., he told me, “though the mechanism of injury is very different.” In this case, it is oxygen-blocking pressure to the throat, frequently in light, repeated bursts of a few seconds each.

Strangulation — sexual or otherwise — often leaves few visible marks and can be easily overlooked as a cause of death. Those whose experiences are nonlethal rarely seek medical attention, because any injuries seem minor: Young women Dr. Herbenick studied mostly reported lightheadedness, headaches, neck pain, temporary loss of coordination and ear ringing. The symptoms resolve, and all seems well. But, as with those N.F.L. players, the true effects are silent, potentially not showing up for days, weeks, even years.

According to the American Academy of Neurology, restricting blood flow to the brain, even briefly, can cause permanent injury, including stroke and cognitive impairment. In M.R.I.s conducted by Dr. Kawata and his colleagues (including Dr. Herbenick, who is a co-author of his papers on strangulation), undergraduate women who have been repeatedly choked show a reduction in cortical folding in the brain compared with a never-choked control group. They also showed widespread cortical thickening, an inflammation response that is associated with elevated risk of later-onset mental illness. In completing simple memory tasks, their brains had to work far harder than the control group, recruiting from more regions to achieve the same level of accuracy.

The hemispheres in the choked group’s brains, too, were badly skewed, with the right side hyperactive and the left underperforming. A similar imbalance is associated with mood disorders — and indeed in Dr. Herbenick’s surveys girls and women who had been choked were more likely than others (or choked men) to have experienced overwhelming anxiety, as well as sadness and loneliness, with the effect more pronounced as the incidence rose: Women who had experienced more than five instances of choking were two and a half times as likely as those who had never been choked to say they had been so depressed within the previous 30 days they couldn’t function. Whether girls and women with mental health challenges are more likely to seek out (or be subjected to) choking, choking causes mood disorders, or some combination of the two is still unclear. But hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation — judging by what research has shown about other types of traumatic brain injury — could be a contributing factor. Given the soaring rates of depression and anxiety among young women, that warrants concern.

Now consider that every year Dr. Herbenick has done her survey, the number of females reporting extreme effects from strangulation (neck swelling, loss of consciousness, losing control of urinary function) has crept up. Among those who’ve been choked, the rate of becoming what students call “cloudy” — close to passing out, but not crossing the line — is now one in five, a huge proportion. All of this indicates partners are pressing on necks longer and harder.

The physical, cognitive and psychological impacts of sexual choking are disturbing. So is the idea that at a time when women’s social, economic, educational and political power are in ascent (even if some of those rights may be in jeopardy), when #MeToo has made progress against harassment and assault, there has been the popularization of a sex act that can damage our brains, impair intellectual functioning, undermine mental health, even kill us. Nonfatal strangulation, one of the most significant indicators that a man will murder his female partner (strangulation is also one of the most common methods used for doing so), has somehow been eroticized and made consensual, at least consensual enough. Yet, the outcomes are largely the same: Women’s brains and bodies don’t distinguish whether they are being harmed out of hate or out of love.

By now I’m guessing that parents are curled under their chairs in a fetal position. Or perhaps thinking, “No, not my kid!” (see: title of Dr. Herbenick’s book above, which, by the way, contains an entire chapter on how to talk to your teen about “rough sex”).

I get it. It’s scary stuff. Dr. Herbenick is worried; I am, too. And we are hardly some anti-sex, wait-till-marriage crusaders. But I don’t think our only option is to wring our hands over what young people are doing.

Parents should take a beat and consider how they might give their children relevant information in a way that they can hear it. Maybe reiterate that they want them to have a pleasurable sex life — you have already said that, right? — and also want them to be safe. Tell them that misinformation about certain practices, including choking, is rampant, that in reality it has grave health consequences. Plus, whether or not a partner initially requested it, if things go wrong, you’re generally criminally on the hook.

Dr. Herbenick suggests reminding them that there are other, lower-risk ways to be exploratory or adventurous if that is what they are after, but it would be wisest to delay any “rough sex” until they are older and more skilled at communicating. She offers language when negotiating with a new partner, such as, “By the way, I’m not comfortable with” — choking, or other escalating behaviors such as name-calling, spitting and genital slapping — “so please don’t do it/don’t ask me to do it to you.” They could also add what they are into and want to do together.

I’d like to point high school health teachers to evidence-based porn literacy curricula, but I realize that incorporating such lessons into their classrooms could cost them their jobs. Shafia Zaloom, a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, recommends, if that’s the case, grounding discussions in mainstream and social media. There are plenty of opportunities. “You can use it to deconstruct gender norms, power dynamics in relationships, ‘performative’ trends that don’t represent most people’s healthy behaviors,” she said, “especially depictions of people putting pressure on someone’s neck or chest.”

I also know that pediatricians, like other adults, struggle when talking to adolescents about sex (the typical conversation, if it happens, lasts 40 seconds). Then again, they already caution younger children to use a helmet when they ride a bike (because heads and necks are delicate!); they can mention that teens might hear about things people do in sexual situations, including choking, then explain the impact on brain health and why such behavior is best avoided. They should emphasize that if, for any reason — a fall, a sports mishap or anything else — a young person develops symptoms of head trauma, they should come in immediately, no judgment, for help in healing.

The role and responsibility of the entertainment industry is a tangled knot: Media reflects behavior but also drives it, either expanding possibilities or increasing risks. There is precedent for accountability. The European Union now requires age verification on the world’s largest porn sites (in ways that preserve user privacy, whatever that means on the internet); that discussion, unsurprisingly, had been politicized here. Social media platforms have already been pushed to ban content promoting eating disorders, self-harm and suicide — they should likewise be pressured to ban content promoting choking. Traditional formats can stop glamorizing strangulation, making light of it, spreading false information, using it to signal female characters’ complexity or sexual awakening. Young people’s sexual scripts are shaped by what they watch, scroll by and listen to — unprecedentedly so. They deserve, and desperately need, models of interactions that are respectful, communicative, mutual and, at the very least, safe.

Peggy Orenstein is the author of “Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent and Navigating the New Masculinity” and “Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape.”

[aristia-pjoheadcanons]

Hi it's literally the same anon that requested the percy NSFW headcanons but I'm back for more🤭

I would absolutely devour percy x virgin fem! Reader headcanons

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE 💙

Interested? Click HERE for Jason nsfw headcanons.

->masterlist

Slight NSFW warning, Percy Jackson and !virgin reader

You are a virgin? Well, he is too. This guy does not have any experience at all. His first kiss was probably you.

First time would be sweet, slow, and soft. He is too afraid to use his strength and does not know how to move his hips.

Once he gets a nice rhythm, the only thing he’s doing it watching your facial expressions to see if you’re enjoying it.

If you aren’t enjoying it, he will also not enjoy it. Pleasure is a mutual thing.

His mother has taught him consent and the school taught him sex ed. So, he does know that he needs a condom.

Percy wouldn’t even bring up sex during the relationship – its just such a weird and odd thing to bring up in his opinion so why would he?

But then as the relationship progresses, I’m guessing after 1 year and he’s in college now; he could perhaps be tempted to be more teasing in a way during kisses and let his hands wander a bit.

Then he would ask quietly if you’ve ever thought about the two of you having sex.

“Have you ever thought of us...y´know…doing...something….together?” “Like what? What do you mean” “you know…like touch--ing….” (Licks his lips nervously).

If you’re open and say yes, he would say “me too” in such an awkward way lol.

He would be tempted to run away from the conversation and apologize if you said no.

“Do you ever wanna….do something…more? —or want ME to do more?” Percy would look at you through his bangs.

The discussion is awkward but important to the both of you. Talking about the things you like and whatnot – but don’t expect anything too detailed he´s too embarrassed to even say sex out loud.

But that doesn’t mean he is a kid who doesn’t know how it works. He gets it, he knows that it isn’t embarrassing to say dick, vagina and sex – but he’s not used to saying it.

When he first bought a condom, he was actually tempted to just ask Grover to buy it because he’s older than him.

But at the same time, it´s kind of embarrassing so he decided not to.

He just took the first one he saw and luckily it was a normal condom that does the job just fine.

He totally didn’t look suspicious wearing a hoodie and having his head hanged low to the ground. When the cashier did small talk and asked him how he was – he didn’t even answer and shifted his feet anxiously.

He is so goddamn nervous before he does it too. He doesn’t know when to make the move or if he should just jump straight to undressing.

Most likely happened when he´s at the Beach house or in his dorm room.

He would be seated somewhere comfortable, like the couch or the sofa. And he would bring a towel and awkwardly put it next to you – just in case of a mess.

Closing all windows and curtains, locking each door – he would not be able to chill out LMFAO.

And then, watch a movie or something. He would sit next to you – not daring to even glance at you. Sweaty palms and you can hear him swallowing his own spit next to you.

You would maybe have to take the initiative with the cuddling or scoot a bit closer to let him know you´re ready.

Maybe he would swing an arm around your shoulders or lean on you.

Then the quiet question comes when he touches the seam of your shirt.

He would start touching any skin that’s available, stomach or legs, or shoulders or neck.

Things gets difficult by then – where should he touch next? He doesn’t know.

Biting his lip anxiously, he’s waiting for you to do something that will give him a clue. If you lean your head back, then he leans down to snuggle his face there and gives it a kiss.

Kissing->making out -> touching your waist and hips and legs.

“I want you”. Something corny he might say but he means it.

If you back-out he is very understanding – but will feel like it´s his fault when it really isn´t. But will take it as a valuable lesson to learn more before he does it again and the next times would be better. No matter how many times you say you don’t want to – he will respect it and will never make you feel bad. Actually, he is relieved that you are vocal about it.

And then, I´m guessing !reader keeps their shirt on at first since it’s the first time so things can get awkward quickly.

Grinding->touch his stomach and he will melt into the touch->help his shirt over his head and kiss his collarbone->Percy would start to inch your shirt higher and higher to expose more but will tell immediately if you get shy or nervous and would stop->eye contact is so important he needs to know how you are and if you aren’t going to talk, you bet he’s going to communicate through other ways.

Then, shimming your pants/skirt/dress off, ->he leans closer and cuddles you->if you say “more” he will send a questioning look because what does “more” mean? More kissing, more touching, more grinding, more noises? -> “more of x”.

Then, when both are naked, don’t worry Percy already has blankets ready to cover the both of you so you are both underneath a shared blanket->”Is this okay?” “Are you alright?” questions will be murmured and quietly asked, Percy is looking for reassurance->then it happens, its difficult to put it in and he already put on a condom->goes excruciatingly slow because he does not want it to hurt (perhaps he confided in Annabeth before he decided to have intercourse with you)->any advice he got from his friend will be used.

In the end, overall, he would be satisfied but wants to be better next time. Percy is the type of person that is always striving for best.

[emo-milk]

its really irritating and disheartening to see people mock how nick and charlie ask for eachother's consent in season 3 when its actually incredibly important that those scenes are included in a season where sex becomes a huge part of the storyline. i think a lot of people forget that sex ed in schools almost if not entirely revolves around straight sex and there is very little reoccuring discussions of consent as well. to broadcast a healthy sexual relationship to such a huge audience (and a mainly queer one too) where the main characters are exploring their sexuality in a healthy manner and asking questions, opening up discussions about consent and boundaries is actually A GOOD THING. and it sucks to see so many people writing it off as a cringe teen show when i would have loved to have heartstopper when i was young and queer and didnt know anything about sex or sexual interactions and how they were supposed to feel/be like. i dont know if this makes any sense. im just sick of gay sex and relationships being treated as taboo all of the time and then when there is great representation of young gay relationships and discussions of consent in a majorly popular mainstream show, people mock it rather than continue the discussion further. okay, rant over :D

[eimids]

Masterlist🤝

Pretty much just woso x reader fics. I might write for criminal minds or marvel (women)

Who I write for!

NSFW alphabet (18+):

Prompts

Alessia Russo: All letters

Alexia Putellas: All letters

Lucy Bronze: All letters

Bottom!Leah Williamson: All letters

Top!Leah Williamson: All letters

Ona Battle: (almost) All letters

Maria Leon: (almost) All letters

Leah Williamson🫶🏻

Tension (18+)

Reader is questioning her sexual identity, Leah’s there to help.

Loving you is all I need

Leah and reader get stuck in an elevator after a fight

Now that we don't talk

Based on 'Now that we don't talk' by Taylor Swift

Forgive me

Leah lashes out on reader and then tries to apologize (18+)

Making up

They say best sex is make up sex? They are absolutely right (18+)

Lucy Bronze😋

Looking like a winner (18+)

Lucy is exited after winning the euros

Mastermind

You ended up in the same room with Lucy. Was it a coincidence after all?

Mastermind part 2 (18+)

Lucy takes you home and fucks you.

Mastermind part 3

The aftermath

Weddings and heartbreaks

R fell in love with the wrong person

I am beautiful

Reader is really insecure about how they look because they’ve gained weight after Ed recovery and they don’t feel good enough for Lucy but Lucy shows reader how much she loves her.

Alexia Putellas

Don't care about them

Reader has gotten mean comments on her social media after her relationship with Alexia came public.

Stay and wait (18+)

Reader allowed Lucy to flirt with her. Alexia didn't appreciate that at all.

I miss you, I'm sorry

Your and ale's relationship and how it came to its end.

Katie McCabe

I can cheer you up (18+)

Reader doesn't get invited when all her friends are going out and she's sad about it. Katie wants to cheer her up.

Vivianne Midema x Beth Mead

The ups and downs

The life after their ACL injuries.

Leah Williamson x Alessia Russo

Two idiots in love (with sex) (18+)

I wanted to write smut so Leah and Alessia it is. This is literally just smut with a little bit of plot.

Leah Williamson x Katie McCabe x reader

Making up part 2 +18

Just smut.

Lionesses x reader

Emotional support water bottle

R has a very important water bottle (blurb)

Big bad flight

R is scared of flying (blurb)

Game day shenanigans

R gets tackled and Lucy isn't happy about it

Overwhelmed

Someone gets a bit too handsy during a fan meeting.

Rise and shine

Reader being hangover

Sickness and Cuddles

Reader is sick and lionesses help

Arsenal x reader

Your worst enemy

Reader is suffering with depression and doesn’t want her teammates to know

Your worst enemy part 2

Reader getting better with the team by her side

[amber-tortoiseshell]

A, B, C, D, E - Cat vs Rabbit

My comparative cat and rabbit color genetics post

Wild type (black agouti) rabbit and cat

My color genetics interest started out with rabbits, and while I know much more about cats now, they'll always have a spot in my heart...

In this post I'll go through the most important color genes, although sometimes I'll make comparisons based on phenotypes too.

All the photos are from the Warren Photographic Image Library.

A. Agouti

Both species have the dominant agouti (A) and the recessive self or nonagouti (a) alleles.

Black self rabbit and cat

Beyond these, cats add the charcoal (Apb) from the leopard cat, while rabbits have the otter or tan allele (at).

B. Brown

Black (B) as wild type, chocolate (b) as variant for both, and an extra recessive allele for cats: cinnamon (bl).

C. Color restriction

The most dominant allele of the series is the full color (C) for both species.

In rabbits the next is dark chinchilla (cchd), this gives the chinchilla and related colorations. Phenotypically basically the equivalent of silver tabbies in cats, despite silver (I) being a different gene. Chinchilla doesn't show up meaningfully on solid rabbits, so there's no smoke there.

Silver tabby cat and chinchilla rabbit. These are genetically very different colors, but manifest similarly: the animal loses the yellow-red pigments, and keeps the black.

The next rabbit allele in order of dominance is the sable or light chinchilla (cchl) which can be interpreted as the equivalent of sepia/burmese (cb) in cats, although they probably aren't the same mutation, because like the dark chinchilla allele above, sable has "silvering" effect on agoutis. Their shared characteristics are the slightly darker extremities and the intermediate interaction with the point allele.

Sable rabbit and sepia (or possibly mink) cat

The colorpoint pattern is also present in both animals under the names siamese (cs) and himalayan (ch). It manifests as pale body with dark extremities.

Pointed cat and rabbit

Edit: unfortunately I made a mistake here: while the color of this rabbit is indeed called point, it's not himalayan, it's nonagouti+sable+red. A real black himalayan rabbit looks like this:

Note the red eyes of the rabbit and the blue eyes of the cat - both suggest depigmentation.

Cats have a rare extra allele called mocha (cm).

And lastly, albino (c) is also present in both.

D. Dilute

Pretty much the same both genetically and in look. Dense (D) is dominant, diluted (d) is recessive.

Diluted (blue self) rabbit and cat

E. Extension

The mutations of this gene can be grouped into two categories:

increase of function: overproduction of black pigments. The animal is dark, melanistic. Dominant alleles.

loss of function: underproduction of black pigments. The animal is yellow/red. Recessive alleles.

Rabbits have two dominant alleles in the first group: full extension or dominant black (Ed) and steel (Es); cats have none. (Although this group isn't absent from the cat family either: black jaguars for example have a dominant black mutation.)

In the second group we have lots of different alleles: harlequin or japanese brindle (ej) and red (e) for rabbits, and amber, russet and copal/serdolik for cats (but their red is a different gene!). These all give different reddish phenotypes.

Red rabbit and cat - same name, similar color, different genetics.

The orange gene of the cats is an entirely different matter, and it's just a funny coincidence that harlequin rabbits look so similar to tortie cats. Brindle in rabbits is its own allele, not just the phenotype of the heterozygotes, and it's not sex-linked. Buck rabbits can be harlequins just as easily as does.

Harlequin rabbit and tortoiseshell cat - similar look, different name, different genetics

To make everything even more complicated, the word "tortoiseshell" (or shortly "tort") is used in rabbit breeding too, but it means a completely different thing than in cats: a nonagouti red. I assume because a nonagouti red rabbit (just like to the genetically very similar nonagouti amber cat) is darker than the agouti counterpart, especially on the extremities.

Tortoiseshell rabbit and cat - same name, different look, different genetics: bunny is a recessive homozygote for not sex-linked red, kitten is a heterozygote for sex-linked red.

+1. White spotting

Rabbits have three different white spotting genes: blue-eyed white or viennese, english and dutch. The latter two are strongly linked, the crossing over is rare. It's suspected that all three patterns are caused by mutations on the KIT gene. KIT is also the gene where all the so far known cat white spotting alleles: dominant white, white spotting and white gloving were mapped to.

Black dutch rabbit and black bicolor cat. They are remarkably similar, aren't they?

Summary:

[eldritch-spouse]

https://www.tumblr.com/eldritch-spouse/745594646225354752/if-i-ran-a-business-in-sloth-id-make-a-type-of?source=share

Hey same anon. so I finally had some time to write this, it's short and it's sfw though so forgive if you wanted something spicy. I tried to make this reader friendly too.

"M-m-madame- Forgive me for bothering you since you're resting right now, but its urgent!" The nervous greed demon stood in front of you looked like he was about to fall apart any second. It's not like him, he's usually calm and collected.

"What is it now, Martin?" I asked with monotone voice. Sitting at my desk, I set aside my drink to save for later. This better be good.

"We have a special guest at the inn, ma'am. A really important guest. And they wish to speak to you."

"Who is it? Tell them my shift is ov-"

"It's the icon of Sloth!" Martin interrupted.

Silence. My eyes widen from what I heard. A royal guest. Here at this small inn of all places. I stood up from my desk and calmy went over to put on my favorite robe. Without saying anything I left my room. Martin followed behind me.

Luckily, it's not busy at this hour at the inn. Some sloth demons with humans they rented passed by. Sometimes other types visit here too. A large buff wrath demon holding a small demon by the scruff of their neck walked towards us.

"Boss, this one tried to kill one of the humans. What do you want me to do with them?" The Wrath demon spoke.

"Your choice, just get rid of them, permanently, Uthin." I just waved my hand and continued walking.

We entered the lobby. I shoo 'ed Martin to return to the front desk. I immediately noticed a huge demon lying down in the waiting area. The air around us smelled sweet, and fragrant. Very strong and soothing. It feels as if you could sleep instantly in one blink. I can feel my energy draining really fast. Any longer my muscles might betray me, and I'll collapse on the floor. That must be the Icon of Sloth.

I approached the Icon. I put on a tired smile as I made a low bow.

"Greetings, your majesty. A thousand pardons for making you wait. Welcome to the Sleep-Inn. How can I help you this evening?"

There was a long silence from the Icon. I can't tell if he's even looking at me with the veil covering his face. My heart was pounding in my chest. Did I say or do something wrong? Maybe if-

"I want to rent you for the night." The icon rumbled in a soft voice.

I just wanted to finish my drink.

------

Notes:

The names I gave to the demons I just pulled out of my ass. Same with the Inn's name.

Hope I didn't make Zizz too ooc. I kinda guess what it'd feel like if you get too close to Zizz.

It's up to others on what happens next. I just wanted to get this short of my chest.

[No, I think you did a fine job with Zizz! 👌 Also, "Sleep-Inn", sleepin'?? Anon your brain is massive.]

Zizz has heard of your little establishment for a decent while before visiting it, most likely. He did his research, and he decided it was worth his time.

Really, you should be flattered for several reasons here- It's rare for King Zizz to personally visit a location instead of ordering people to come to him, so the fact that he showed up in person is already a serious indicator of interest. The fact that he chose you immediately without even sparing the others any mind is also cause for great flattery needless to say.

For all intents and purposes, Zizz is as courteous as an exemplary customer, although he would prefer to bring you to his mansion than remain in your establishment. The King promises you gentle, soothing dreams, his hold of you loving and careful as he sighs his contentment. His veil is lifted, and in the darkness, Zizz places mellowing kisses along your skin. His touch is always slow and prolonged, and while he's very much hard against you, you can deny him sex.

But know that this will repeat itself every single time he rents you. There will come a time where you spend more nights with him than you do with your workers.

Zizz can keep you if he wants. You know this. He knows you do. There'd be nothing and no one to oppose him.

So really, tell him no all you want when his claws flirt with your mons, shift away when his cock presses against the small of your back and turn your lips away from his kisses- You know you'll just end back here again the next night, and your will isn't infinite.

It's certainly not enough to rival Zizz's.

[sixtynineinchnails]

I've been wanting to make this post for months and in light of the recent ex-presidential ear piercing now seems as good a time as any.

As a non-usamerican, as someone who is pro Palestine, as an anarchist: I am begging you with every fibre of my being to go to the fucking polls this fall and

VOTE.

Disclaimer: I don't live in the united states and I never have and I probably never will. I can never truly understand what it's like to be a usamerican and I'm not going to pretend like i could. I fully expect to get called a fascist or some shit for saying your should exercise your right to vote but at this point I don't care. I'm scared, we're all scared, and news like we've just gotten tonight is only going to compound the fear and chaos and conspiracy thought and fearmongering and hopelesspilled doomerism we’re all dealing with rn. I don’t want to make anyone’s day worse. I'm not looking to debate you. I just want to say some things that i’ve been thinking about for a long time now while a couple people might actually stop to listen.

The united states of america is the most powerful country in the world.

What happens in the united states government this fall will affect every single person on the planet, in some way, for better or worse.

You aren't just voting blue to avoid trump turning the united states into an alt-right theocratic dictatorship (which on its own is bad enough). You're also voting to avoid the right from gaining power (where they haven't already) in of other powerful democratic countries. You're voting to stop Palestine (and let’s be real, probably a handful of other places) from being wiped off the face of the planet with nuclear bombs. You're potentially voting to avoid a third world war. I'm not saying this to spread fear of these things happening. I'm saying this because if you're not already aware of how huge the scope is here: you're not voting to save your country, you're very likely voting to save the entire world.

I can't speak to how people feel everywhere (if you’re also a non-usamerican please feel free to share how this is/has/will affect your country in the notes) but I want to speak to my own for a bit. I can confidently say that what happens in america heavily affects the political and social situation here in canada. We would not have had a convoy of thousands of people drive across the country (which takes days to do) to occupy our capital city for a month and halt almost $4 billion in trade to protest, i kid you not, wearing a mask during covid, if trump supporters hadn't paved the way (and directly influenced canadians to follow in their footsteps). We wouldn't have had "concerned parents" protesting against sex-ed and LGBTQ+ inclusivity in schools (protests full of armed+mounted police which they brought their young children to during school hours) if trump supporters hadn't paved the way. There are people waving flags and signs around on street corners along major roads every single week everywhere from the largest city in our country to small towns of under 5000 people. I’ve heard of people who’ve spiraled into such severe conspiracy rabbitholes that their entire lives and personalities have changed in just a few years. Despite being canadian nationalists, these people and their patterns of behaviour are all a direct result of donald j trump and his followers. And no matter your political leaning, pretty much everyone hates our current prime minister, our economy is bad, even people with decent incomes can’t afford to eat, and everyone is frothing at the mouth for something to happen. If america votes trump this fall, I see very little hope that our country won't vote conservative (our main right-wing party). They will backpedal decades of LGBTQ+ rights and Indigenous peoples' rights and climate action funding and children's education and a whole pile of other important stuff. They have made it very clear that they will follow the exact same path as right wing america and there are a scary amount of people here who want that. And even if canada remains centre/left while sharing the largest land border in the world with a trump dictatorship....well I for one can’t see that going over very well either.

And that's just my country. I know a lot of other countries have been battling a similar spike in alt-right groups and conservative ideologies following the last trump presidency. I don't think any of us are truly prepared for what will happen in the event of another one.

Look. I hate biden too. In general I disagree with the very concept of colonial government and money and the division of countries/states/etc and the legal/carceral system and a whole whack of other shit that we have to live with right now. Someone’s said this before but if any of us thought that telling you guys to blow up a walmart would save your country from a fascist dictatorship I for one would encourage it. But none of us are actually going to blow up a walmart, and it wouldn’t solve anything at this point anyways. We all have to take action in whatever ways we actually can and will. Voting is one of many small, simple steps you can take, should take, fucking better be taking. It’s easy, it’s legal, if you mail in you don’t even have to go to the polling station, and if you really can’t vote for whatever reason, encourage everyone you know who can to do so. Hell, if I could vote on november 5th I would crawl my ass over the border on my hands and knees to do it. I'm sorry that the two options are a fascist police state and an even worse fascist police state run by a man who thinks he's a god, but not voting won't fix that problem. You're not going to establish a revolution by purposefully not taking part in social change, and encouraging others not to either. Not voting against trump = voting for trump. If you don't vote and that orange nukefucker takes over your country it is your fault. And we’re all going to pay for your inaction, especially the people in places like Palestine who will be in significantly more danger than they already are if trump gets his fake tanned hands on the situation.

Anyways. Keep fighting. Stay safe. Do what you can. Don't give up. There is always hope for a better future. And for fucks sake go vote.

Oh and if we do end up in the worst timeline this november and I see you anti-voting fuckers making "lmao time to move to canada" jokes...count your fucking days.

-

TLDR: usamerica is not the only place in the world affected by the actions of usamerica. If you’re still railing against voting at this point you’re pro-trump lmao.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

just wanted to say your posts about sex ed are super cool and epic and swag. i was informed recently that i was supposed to get sex ed sometime in the 3 years i was going to catholic school (basically my middle school years) and i was not supposed to have to learn everything from fanfiction/The Internet(TM). And they maybe shouldn't have taped closed the sex ed sections of the family life textbook. Catholic school was wild.

anyway wanted to ask how does one go about explaining kink to teens? education around kink seems like one of those things that are especially denied to young folks, and there's so much stigma around it, and it doesn't seem like there are many (if any) resources out there that keep teens in mind (which makes sense but its also infuriating! there are kids out there who feel deeply ashamed for this kind of thing!! or are practicing unsafely!!!)

hi anon,

with teens who are old enough to be kink aware and kink curious, I think the big thing is emphasizing that while there's nothing wrong with being interested in kink at a young age it is very possible that folks who are inexperienced are going to make mistakes that can be really scary and dangerous for themselves and/or their partners, a la the "choking epidemic" described by Evie Lupine here.

it's also worth noting that kink is historically something that's largely been taught and mediated through communities of kinky people, which are understandably not spaces that teens are welcomed into for the safety of everyone involved. obviously there's no stopping The Youth from getting up to whatever they want to get up to, but I think it's really important to emphasize that virtually any sexual behavior entails risk, it's going to be much safer to avoid playing with things like rope, needles and/or blood, breath, and consensual nonconsent (to name JUST A FEW!) until they're old enough to be part of spaces where people with experience can teach them how to play safely.

[just-a-random-dead-thing]

~Lost and Found~ (Larissa Weems x Student!Reader)

The reader is 19 in this fic!!! The show makes it clear they have students well above the age of consent.

My undying love for this woman and her actress mixed with the honesty concerning lack of fics for her character has finally compelled me to publish something. This fic is completely self indulgent and probably not worth your time but if you for some reason feel compelled to read on, thank you and enjoy!

Chapter one (1k words)

Be warned this is very shitty angst and do not expect it to get better as I continue on. If anything expect it to get worse. Nothing for this chapter but please be warned moving forward this fic will discuss some triggering topics which will be made clear at the start of each chapter they appear. Also eventual smut you have been warned...or teased?

Finally thank you to my friend who edited this because it's the only reason it is semi-readable, they're the best <3

The rain drops raced down the cold slabs of glass, through which I watched the students running late to their classes. They sprint across the courtyard with books above their heads, sacrificing their notes for the sake of keeping themselves dry.

I hear a faint ringing. Noises blurring into high pitched radio waves as I tune back in, slowly coming to the right frequency to hear the disgruntled voice of my teacher calling my name. I say nothing in return.

Dragging my attention to the front of the class, where my teacher is writing something on the board pertaining to- werewolf procreation? Vampire sex ed? I can't keep up with the 50 different (and equally boring) lectures this man gives.

Once again I find my mind wandering off to far away places. Anywhere but this grey box, which traps me within its walls like a glass traps a spider. I have given up on any hopes of understanding today's topic of useless information, so instead I retrieve my book from my school bag and begin to read. The Outsider by Albert Camus, ironic and meaningless when you're in a school for outcasts.

I am half way through the chapter when my teacher's grating voice once again bursts any sense of joy I am experiencing in his class. This time I just can't be bothered listening to the lecture on the importance of whatever the fuck he's teaching so I get up and walk out. He continues to get louder the further I get out the door, so I flip him off for good measure. Come on, seriously! How are you that bad at your job I can't figure out the topic of today's lesson even when I put the effort in to try? If I require this much to even figure out what to put as the title of notes then your teaching certainly isn't important enough, and you aren't good enough at your job to keep me in that room any longer.

I slowly make my way through the empty halls of the academy, continuing to read as I venture back to my dorm. Thankfully, I don't have to share a room. If I had a roommate, they'd probably be dead within the week. Probably not on purpose, but you never know - I could have just been having a really bad day, and thought a light spot of murder would cheer me up.

I bang into something large, falling over my feet onto the cold stone ground. I reach to pick up my book, but before I can reach it, it’s plucked from the ground by a hand, which my eyes follow up to a very disapproving Principal’s face. Oops? What am I meant to say, sorry? It was an empty corridor, she could have easily walked around me.

She's always needlessly difficult for no reason.

"Y/N..." Weems says seething, scowl firmly fixed on her face. God, the annoyance is really seeping into her tone and body language today. Normally she at least keeps the plastic smile up, while passive aggressively giving you a lecture on how you've disappointed her, harmed the school community and destroyed its image. Hmm... the board must have cut her budget for the semester.

I meet her eyes, nearly breaking my neck in the process since she's over a foot taller than me. I smirk as I address her. "Headmistress...I didn't see you there, out for a morning stroll?" She scrunches her nose briefly at my coy attitude before replying, her words like venom.

"No Mx/Mr/Miss L/N, I'm actually coming to find you because once again you've managed to piss off the teaching staff, and I have to deal with the repercussions of them complaining about you."

Honestly, I only processed one thing she said, and that was Weems swearing. She's never done that before. Hot... definitely hot.

I chuckle with a reply. "Well looks like I've out done myself this time. I've got you in such a state that the perfect facade has fallen and you're even swearing, that's not very school appropri-"

I am interrupted part way through my gloating by a sudden sharp pain in my back. I come to realise I have been slammed against the rough wall of the corridor, causing the air to leave my lungs and leaving me helplessly gasping for air.

She leans in close with an almost deadly expression as she whispers, "This is my final warning. Make light of this situation again and I'll have you in detention with me every lunch, free, and evening for the week on top of whatever I am going to have to arrange for your other grievances.

“Skipping class and disrespecting the teaching staff - not to mention, myself - with your snarky comments and nonchalant attitude when it comes to your studies. You refuse tutoring despite being seriously behind on control of your powers - do you even know if you have any? You certainly haven't displayed any thus far throughout the two years you've been at this school.

“Sometimes, I seriously question why you chose to transfer to this school, and why I even accepted your application. It had nothing Nevermore looks for in a student and you've clearly shown you don't intend to work on that."

Listening to her words as they become increasingly more personally, tears prick the corners of my eyes but I do not allow them to fall. I refuse to show weakness towards this woman who knows nothing about me. My brief sorrow turns to anger, as I respond with possibly my last words whilst I'm alive, "Go. Fuck. Your. Self."

I desperately try to escape her grip, but just like a fly in a spider-web, it is hopeless. She is a foot taller than me and twice my weight. Her arm presses harder against my chest, air struggling to get in and out as the carbon dioxide begins to drown me. Blurred darkness slowly eclipses my view of her.

I mean, there's worse things to see in your dying moments.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Carter Sherman at The Guardian:

Awash in soft, peach-colored light, the infant yawns, sticks her thumb in her mouth and flutters her eyes at the camera. As the camera pulls away from her, an umbilical cord and the fleshy tunnel surrounding the infant comes into focus. This isn’t a newborn baby: it’s a fetus in a disembodied womb. “This is Olivia,” a British female voice narrates. “Though she has yet to greet the outside world, she has already completed an amazing journey.” Say hello to “Meet Baby Olivia”, an animated video made by an American anti-abortion group that purports to depict humans’ embryonic and fetal development in an alleged effort to convert young people to the anti-abortion cause. The video – or something very close to it – will be required viewing for public school students in two states, with several more potentially on the way.

Last year, North Dakota became the first state in the nation to pass a law mandating that schools screen “Meet Baby Olivia” or a similar video. This year, Tennessee enacted its own “Meet Baby Olivia” law, requiring that “Meet Baby Olivia” or something like it be shown as part of schools’ sex education curriculum. So far in 2024, legislators in at least 10 other states have introduced bills that would require schools to show students “Meet Baby Olivia” or, in language that appears repeatedly throughout the bills, a similar “high-quality, computer-generated rendering or animation” that shows “every stage of human development inside the uterus, noting significant markers in cell growth and organ development for every significant marker of pregnancy until birth”. Including Tennessee’s legislation, bills in at least five of the states cite “Meet Baby Olivia” by name.

Classrooms are a burgeoning front in the post-Roe v Wade abortion wars, as conservative activists have increasingly intertwined their attacks on abortion with their distaste for sex ed that discusses alternatives to premarital abstinence. But medical professionals have accused the anti-abortion group behind “Meet Baby Olivia” of spreading propaganda and even misinformation in order to convert young people to their cause.

Seven of the 12 states where the bills have been introduced or passed ban almost all abortions. So far this year, state legislatures have considered at least 135 sex-ed bills – a record number, according to a CNN analysis. Sixty per cent of them would restrict sex ed in some way. Live Action has denied accusations that any sentence of “Meet Baby Olivia” is inaccurate. “‘Baby Olivia’ isn’t about abortion. It never says the word ‘abortion’,” said Noah Brandt, Live Action’s vice-president of communications. “‘Baby Olivia’ is an important place for states like Tennessee and North Dakota to turn to next, to continue to do work to educate on both biology and life, because they’ve already protected life so now it’s about teaching people when life begins and to respect that.”

A quiet success story

The emergence of the “Meet Baby Olivia” legislation comes at a precarious time for the anti-abortion movement. Since the overturning of Roe, support for abortion rights has mounted even in conservative states. Some Republicans have tried to downplay their opposition to the procedure or even supported efforts to protect it, in a sharp departure from decades of marching in lock step with the anti-abortion movement. But as the anti-abortion movement flounders, the “Meet Baby Olivia” bills are a quiet success story. Abortion opponents overturned Roe by spending years pushing for state-level abortion restrictions; if a restriction was successful in one state, lawmakers in other states would copy-paste its language and introduce their own versions. This strategy gnawed away access to abortion. In the “Meet Baby Olivia” bills, observers see a similar strategy at play – and evidence of mission creep.

“Anti-abortion, anti-sexual and [anti]-reproductive health movements have been focusing on other areas and expanding their scope in terms of what is relevant to them and what they’re working on,” said Kimya Forouzan, principal policy associate of state issues at the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. Although Guttmacher tracks restrictions on sexual and reproductive health, Forouzan said that she had never before seen legislation quite like the “Meet Baby Olivia” bills.

[...] In at least two states, West Virginia and Iowa, “Meet Baby Olivia” bills passed one legislative chamber, but both state legislatures have now shuttered for the year. Most of the legislatures that introduced “Meet Baby Olivia” bills have either ended their 2024 sessions or are set to do so in the next few weeks. Compared to the rest of the country, the states that have introduced “Meet Baby Olivia” bills this year – which also include Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina – have less comprehensive sex-ed policies, according to Siecus: Sex Ed for Social Change, a decades-old organization that issues best practice guidelines for comprehensive sex ed. (None of the states garnered more than a C grade in the Siecus ranking system.) Most states do not require public school sex ed to be medically accurate, culturally appropriate or unbiased, according to Guttmacher. Only four states say that sex ed cannot promote religion.

The Guardian reports on the disturbing trend of red states pushing new bills that require the showing of the propagandistic "Baby Olivia" video by anti-abortion extremist group Live Action in classrooms as part of the right-wing war on sex ed in schools.

[nebulousgaythoughts]

Ofmd season 2 episode 6 spoilers!!

The way they showed Ed and Stede's first time was so interesting to me. First of all, it happened directly after Stede killed someone for the first time, so automatically, Stede was in a very strange and vulnerable headspace. And that's not to say he was taken advantage of--he very much initiated it--but it happened while both of their identities were up in the air. Stede was adjusting to being an *actual* killer, while Ed had just apologized earlier for shooting Izzys leg.

And then we see Ed sitting on the bed, still fully clothed in leather while a shirtless Stede closes the curtains. And what interests me the most is that we don't even see his face. All we see is Ed looking up from the bed, and Stede looming close to the camera, mirroring the way that Blackbeard was first introduced to the show--facing away from the camera and smoking a pipe, obscured with power and mystery. The fact that their first time co-occurred with such a dramatic shift in dynamics is a little concerning but I have total faith that they will *eventually* talk their shit out).

I don't fully believe Ed when he said that night was a mistake. I do believe he has commitment issues like a bitch, and when Stede started to become more like him, he got scared. We can see him pulling away, sitting in the corner of Spanish Jackie's as Stede revels in his infamy. He wants to truly make amends to the people he's hurt and traumatized, and he can't do that if he's with someone who's drinking, and making people walk the plank, and lighting people on fire.

And it's not because Stede is evil--sure he's a bitch, and occasionally ends a life or two, but that's not who he truly is--its who he's trying to be. A murderer, not a bitch--cause he is a bitch, but he's trying to be a murderer, because his whole life he's been bullied and mocked for not being manly enough. For not being a good husband, for being sensitive and soft, and well, gay. And Ed doesn't understand that this is why he wants to be like him, like Blackbeard (because they haven't fucking talked about it), because for Ed, being Blackbeard ruined his life. It nearly ended it (and others) and he doesn't want Stede to fall down the same path.

So yeah, Ed decides to become a fisherman, because like he said, he has no idea who he is. He still has so much healing to do, so many wrongs to right, and it's just so fucking tragic that now is the time when they need each other the most, but they're moving so rapidly in opposite directions, and neither of them know how to communicate it.

I think Anne and Mary were right--they are fucking 14 year old boys. I mean, Stede literally called Ed a coward for leaving instead of chasing after him. But they're not going to turn out like them. Ed and Stede are going to grow up, and they're going to talk, and they're going to heal each other's scars instead of causing each other more. They're going to learn how to commit to each other and stay even when things get hard or scary. (David Jenkins please for the love of all that is holy let them better each other and also fuck again but after they come to terms with who they are and want to be)

Edit: actually, hot take, but I think them having sex actually was a mistake. And yeah, Ed left instead of talking about it, but still. Their relationship is still so new and unstable, and I wish they waited until they were in a more grounded place. I wish they would have reckoned with their opposing paths before doing something so intimate and vulnerable, but I have a feeling they're going to reckon with it by the end of the season.

Ed asked Stede to go slow for a reason. And yeah, they both consented, which is more important than anything, but damn, it happened so fucking fast. I mean, they are gay, so. (David Jenkins I am in your walls please make Ed and Stede practice healthy sexuality and communicate about their life goals so they can prevent further miscommunication and heartbreak)

[youhideastar]

Wangxian A/B/O Bingo Wrap-Up 2: Gusu Lan Sect

To celebrate finishing the Wangxian A/B/O Bingo series, I wanted to write a few posts talking about the series as a whole, now that that's a thing I can do! If you have a question about any aspect of the series/project, shoot me an ask - I would love to hear from you!

For example, I got the following great ask:

For the A/B/O fics - you clearly played a lot with the Lan Sect being really conservative and prudish and how that interacts with this entire new gender system. What was your favorite version, and were there any other versions or attitudes of the Lan Sect (and perhaps the world at large) that you didn't get to use?

This is such an interesting question because it's absolutely true that the prudishness or lack thereof of the Lan Sect varies a lot between the stories! Gusu Lan's sexual conservatism plays an important role in 3 of the 9 fics: Dangerous (WWX Alpha/LWJ Beta) and Late Bloomer (WWX Omega/LWJ Omega), where that prudishness is a negative force, and Fit for Purpose, where it's actually a good thing; the Lan Sect's strict sexual morality prevents its members from exploiting betas in the way that members of other sects do.

Then there are the fics that don't really emphasize that prudishness, or where it's just not clear. In out with the wolves, LWJ has a lot of shame around his sexual desires, but that's because they're the "wrong" desires according to cultivation society as a whole, not because of Gusu Lan Sect specifically. In And these are all for you, A Sword With No Hilt, and River-to-the-Sea Sure, LWJ doesn't appear to have any particular hang-ups around sex beyond those that were standard for this version of Ancient Fantasy China (i.e., in all three, it's assumed that you shouldn't be having sex outside of marriage and if you do, you should marry the person afterward--but canon makes clear that's not just a Lan thing).

Finally, I would say The Dare and scarcely trust my candid heart both posit a Gusu Lan Sect that's at least somewhat open about sex: in The Dare, the Lan Sect library includes a collection of books about sex that disciples considering marriage can ask to access (including a book that teaches using spiritual music for sex!) and LWJ mentions receiving very practical sex ed; in scarcely trust, there's apparently a lot of giggling about sex in the disciples' dormitories (much to LWJ's annoyance).

All of which is a long prelude to anon's actual questions: what was my favorite version and were there any versions I didn't get to use?

Taking the second part first... no one will believe me, but other than the false start for Alpha WWX/Omega LWJ, this series encompasses all the A/B/O versions of canon that occurred to me! I don't have any others hanging around (although I do have one modern AU Wangxian A/B/O posted and another that I might post someday), so no, there weren't any versions I didn't get to use.

My favorite take on Gusu Lan Sect from this series is definitely Late Bloomer, because I was able to do something with Gusu Lan Sect culture there in a way that shaped the worldbuilding as well as the plot. The concept (that Gusu Lan would teach disciples to suppress their heats as long as possible) drives the whole action of the story by forcing LWJ to have his first heat at an unusually advanced age (with painful consequences) and in wildly terrible circumstances... and it's an A/B/O worldbuilding concept that I haven't seen before but which I think makes a lot of sense. I hope other authors pick it up and run with it!

[joelmillerisapunk]

What's "sex ed" about? 👀👀

HI! <3 its a dbf Joel who is your college level sex ed teacher. But this class is VERY hands on and there's a lot of demonstrations. I've done more human anatomy research than ever before haha. I have a small snippet below

"Today, we're going to discuss something that's often misunderstood or overlooked," Joel begins, his voice steady. "The clitoris is a key player in female sexual pleasure, and it's important that everyone in this room knows exactly where it is and how to engage with it respectfully and effectively."

He scans the room, gathering his courage. "I'm going to need a volunteer for this demonstration. Remember, this is a consensual, safe space. There's no pressure to participate in a way that makes you uncomfortable."

A murmur ripples through the class, and a few hands tentatively rise. Joel nods encouragingly, but before he can call on anyone, a familiar voice pipes up from the back.

"I'll do it, Mr. Miller."

Your voice cuts through the room like a bell, and all eyes turn to you. You meet Joel's gaze with a defiant yet playful smile. Joel's heart skips a beat, but he masks his surprise with a professional nod. "Thank you. Please, come to the front."

---

"Stimulation of the clitoris can lead to intense pleasure," Joel continues, his voice remaining clinical despite the intimacy of the moment. "But it's important to remember that every person is different. Communication and consent are key."

He demonstrates various techniques, from light, feathery touches to more firm, circular motions, always checking in with you to ensure your comfort. Your responses guide his movements, a real-time example of the communication he preaches.