#smth smth bodily integrity

[maccadeau]

number of characters swapping eyes in naruto is abnormal. kishimoto do you have something to say.

[talaricula]

Hi, I saw you post about the PvdA and I really appreciate how in depth you go, many of the issues you've brought up are things I agree with and are reasons why I don't want to vote for the PvdA, but I still haven't decided who to vote for, could I ask why not vooruit? I am aware of the more obvious reasons (basically everything that Conner Rousseau is the face of to simplify it, one of the reasons I don't want to vote for the party), but are there other reasons? And why you specifically are going to vote for groen? I have some more ecological oriented friends who I fully expected to be voting for groen and they don't really want to vote for groen, so I'm curious what convinced you to vote for them? Asking here more for the regional and federal elections.

I am basically just jumping between groen, vooruit and PvdA (definitely never saw PvdA as a possibility on the European level) atm, I think if Conner Rousseau hasn't become the head of the party, I probably would have voted for vooruit, but from the beginning he became the head of the party, I just felt less and less like voting for them and then the thing™ happened with him.

Sorry for the later answer, I wanted to take my time with this a bit!

Why not Vooruit: because they have, in the words of the standaard, rebranded as "vooruit en rechtsaf". Their communication and an essential part of their program seems to me to court Vlaams Belang and NVA voters and smacks a bit of "eigen volk eerst" socialism. There's Conner's catastrophically racist rant of course, which the whole party is a bit quick to forgive after an apology, as if the fact that the party head clearly holds such views does not mean smth for the party line. More importantly imo, there's the concrete racism in the party program : one of Vooruit's main points of action in their program is to make immigration harder. Now, again, I'm a human rights lawyer, I've seen my fair share of migration and asylum cases in Belgium, and Belgium already does everything it can to avoid respecting international refugee law. Presenting things as if Belgium takes in too many refugees, as if refugees have it too easy to get here, as if they have it too easy accessing benefits here, is simply factually false and clearly meant to recruit voters who are, at worst, openly racist, and at best, subconsciously only believe in socialism, state support, equality and welfare for westerners (aka white people). Family reunification is already super hard, does not need to be harder. Making benefits dependent on an inburgeringstraject is counterproductive - how do you want to integrate if you're obnibulated by the poverty line. Encouraging asylum in neighbouring third world countries is ignoring Belgium's colonial history and responsibility in the socio-economic fragility of those regions. Basically, Vooruit's entire migration policy is, imo, built on false narratives about migration, at best casually racist, and courting VB voters. By contrast, Groen's position on immigration is orders of magnitude more inclusive, they want to make it easier in general, and their proposals about it correspond much better to what I've seen in my line of work. That's the main reason why I am not voting Vooruit and am voting Groen.

Vooruit is also less pro-Belgium, while Groen wants to federalise some competences and wants a federale kieskring. Vooruit is more circumspect on queer rights, while Groen is going to bat for some of the most concrete and controversial among them (surrogacy, trans rights, and education in schools). There's other things I agree more about with Groen but I'm not gonna go super into detail on every element - in general, their stances on education, welfare, pensions, care for sick, disabled and elderly people, ethical questions of bodily autonomy (abortion and euthanasia) are bolder and lean closer to mine, while Vooruit keeps wanting to put asterisks next to many of them which reads as paternalistic to me and imo undermines their efficacy.

(Worth noting that on the questions of Belgium, queer rights and other "ethical issues", OpenVLD is actually much much more progressive than the Vooruit. Not gonna vote for them bc their economic policies are fundamentally antisocial and I don't believe in "fiscally conservative socially progressive" bc economic equality is essential to social equality but, yknow, worth noting when comparing parties.)

I don't love everything Groen stands for - I know their hardline stance against nuclear energy is v controversial, for example, and I strongly dislike their history of making ritual animal sacrifice a hot button issue that contributed to islamophobia and antisemitism (it smacked of "I can excuse racism but draw the line at animal cruelty"), but it is still by far the party I agree with the most about the most things, which is how you pick a party to vote for, I think.

I assume you've done the stemtest, but if you don't feel up to reading the complete programs of the parties you're considering, I'd recommend checking out De Tijd's kieswijzer too. You can compare some hot button issues without registering, and if you make a free account for a month (no automatic payment after) you can compare more issues in detail. It's been v helpful to me.

TL;DR again : not voting Vooruit for (program content wise) their asylum and immigration policy and (communication wise) the racism, which I am very actively opposed to, voting Groen for their positive stance on migration and asylum, Belgium, queer rights, abortion and euthanasia, social welfare, education, and ecology.

[nazorneku]

this is smth i wanted to touch upon, considering i've been asked 'bout this before and just to accentuate his strengths and weaknesses due to his nature

An oni is a kind of youkai, demon, orc, ogre or troll in Japanese folklore. They are known for their superhuman strength and have been associated with powers like thunder and lightning, along with their evil nature manifesting in their propensity for murder and cannibalism. They are typically portrayed as hulking figures with horns growing out of their heads, massive teeth, with red, blue, black or yellow colored skin. Oni are able to change their looks to fool their victims into trusting them. It is believed that oni were originally once human beings, but are born when an evil human dies and is sent to one of the several Buddhist hells where they are transformed into an oni. Oni, written in kanji as 鬼, meaning something invisible, formless or unworldly, in other words, a 'ghost' or the 'soul of the dead'. Particularly powerful oni may be described as kishin or kijin (literally "oni god"; the "ki" is an alternate character reading of "oni"), a term used in Japanese Buddhism to refer to Wrathful Deities. The Japanese oni represents bad luck and violence in Japanese culture. In art and literature, they attract destruction, plagues and disease around them. Paradoxically, the Japanese demon is also a figure of protection and good fortune.

Even if in possession of physical bodily form, an oni in its core nature is a spirit, thus the damage done by primitive weapons such as knives would eventually be mended; despite breaking the integrity of the skin and drawing blood. Such injuries would not last, nor they would cause great impact upon his over whole constitution. Momentarily disturbance and unpleasant sensation, but nothing critical. In addition to own demonic physique, that grants him strength which exceeds of a regular human (example to compare from modern world, above the level of professional bodybuilder or weightlifting athletes), as let's not forget how Ais broke ribs of a roughneck without turning body into a poppy mess; there's also a matter of borrowed powers from Ocudeus, that undoubtedly have healing and shielding properties. Hence to influence such creature you would need to implement powers of corresponding nature - magic. That also would include wards, runes, incantations, potions, bombs with specific herbs or ingredients that hold sway over demons, and obviously enchanted or magical weapons would deal great damage to both body and spirit. Worth to mention that due to demonic nature he does not easily become inebriated with human made beverages. He drinks and smokes for its taste mostly. As well him accepting Leander's shots serves as a welcoming challenge to actually experience being intoxicated, made body languid or his mind being affected in a way. After all, Leander applies magic to his concoctions. Specifically in my portrayal, Ais draws powers from the depths of the Seaspring, from its pool, from the blood. Now I'd avoid writing a detailed description of how his powers manifest, as I actually intend to write this specific moment in one of my responses. I also want to reference Blood Pond Hell in the hot spring town of Beppu. Its connection to healing and improvement in health, its symbolism as it's notoriously mentioned for its striking appearance, which according to Buddhist belief, resembles the entry to hell. And I also want to point one of my previous posts, as the torii gate, that stands in the middle of the spring, could be an actual gateway, a demonic door to the domain of Ocudeus'.

[iagreewithlilithsrightsnwrongs]

ok so. in my college au, theres no supernatural elements, yes? so ive been thinking abt ava n how in the shadow her being paralysed, alone, an orphan with poor caregivers is an integral part of her character. and i dont know how to incorporate smth similar in this au.

i’ve read abt conversion disorder. you can google it n have a better understanding but basically “Conversion disorder is a mental condition in which a person has blindness, paralysis, or other nervous system (neurologic) symptoms that cannot be explained by medical evaluation.”

“conversion disorder happens as a way for your brain to deal with emotional stress. It’s almost always triggered by upsetting situations and other mental disorders.” and “It also happens more often to people who have a history of emotional stress or who have a hard time talking about their feelings.”

the most common symptom is “the loss of one or more bodily functions. Examples include: Weakness or paralysis. Loss of balance or difficulty walking.” also: movements that you can’t control, tunnel vision or blindness, loss of smell or speech, numbness. 

(this got long but this is useful for me n shit so yeah)

common signs: a debilitating symptom that begins suddenly, history of a psychological problem that gets better after the symptom appears, lack of concern that usually occurs with a severe symptom, they affect your movement or senses, and you can’t control them, hey can’t be explained by any other condition, medication, or behavior, they aren’t caused by another mental health problem, they cause stress in social and work settings.

“The physical symptoms are thought to be an attempt to resolve the conflict the person feels inside.”

here’s some examples (which i need a lot of cuz its kinda hard to understand all those medical terms n shit, from all the sites i’ve read on it): “For example, a woman who believes it is not acceptable to have violent feelings may suddenly feel numbness in her arms after becoming so angry that she wanted to hit someone. Instead of allowing herself to have violent thoughts about hitting someone, she experiences the physical symptom of numbness in her arms.” “For example, imagine taking a hard fall off your bike and then not being able to move your arm. But your arm isn’t injured. Neither is any other part of your body.Your body converted the emotional and psychological stress of your fall into the physical response of a paralyzed arm.” “Physical symptoms can sometimes help with an internal conflict. For example, if you’re struggling with the desire to hurt someone, conversion disorder may cause you to become paralyzed, making it impossible to act on that desire.”

now back to ava. it started to happen after the car accident that took her mom. because of how stressful it was, for weeks, ava was paralysed n doctors were confused cuz every test didnt show how the fuck that can happen. some episodes last days but sometimes its weeks, n they might be gone just as soon as they appeared. 

lil 7 year old ava was terrified n it just kept being amplified everytime she thought it was getting better. her mom was dead. the doctors told her her dad wasn’t coming to pick her up which shocked her cuz she thought he was dead (very awkward for the doctors). both parents only children so no help there, grandparents either dead or in care homes. 

then she gets send to the orphanage, all alone and confused since they were in Spain on vacation n now she doesnt understand anything. most workers n kids dont even speaking spanish since the orphanage specializes in misplaced children, so now shes learning english, n spanish, and she thinks shes still paralysed for weeks, months UNTIL. she makes a friend, a kid in another room who found out abt her n befriended her. 

and ava only starts feeling better when this friend, diego, who’s such a sweet boy, but so sick he’s not gonna live that much longer, and he knows it, says “jsut because you cant move doesnt mean ur not fun!! i think ur cool, ava silva.” n ava moves. its a miracle, diego is an angel, ava is saved n all the kids are ecstatic, ava is crying in pure relief but also confusion because what???

doctors label it as a freak accident n dont want to think much of it since what does it matter, ava is just a girl. but the childcare workers now label ava as the attention seeker n never trust her abt anything. some older kids do it too, but most of them are agaisnt the ladies there out of principle n spite. still, it sucked, n now ava cant trust any adult to save her life n cant even trust her own body to work how its supposed to.

as she gets older she both gets better and worse? she definitely knows when and how to calm down, n the episodes go away if the main source of stress gets resolved, except for any stress caused by ptsd, which ava definitely has from yknow the fucking accident n her moms death. she also, however, has a very yolo mentality, n will get in trouble n in stressful situations most of the time. she’s a menace to herself, n it normally results in one or more limbs to go numb or paralyzed. 

she was homeschooled tho, since it two maybe 2 years of her being bullied, picked on, critiqued, n having the overall stressful n horrible experience that is being a new kid in a new school after ur mom died, for the teachers to beg the childcare workers to keep her at home and safe so she stops showing all these upsetting symptoms. its freaking everyone out and it disrupts the class. so yh, ava was struggling.

when she turns 18 n ages out of the orphanage, she scrambles to find a job n a home n shit. father vincent, a local priest, helps her and shelters her. she shows her the beauty of religion n its practices n the glory of god, but ava is more fascinated by the art there. like sure shes seen movies n read things, but shes never stepped foot in a museum. in fact she didnt go out much just out of precaution n also cuz the ladies most of the time forbade her (if she got hurt they could come under fire n they didnt want that with her symptoms n their unpredictability)

vincent tries to teach ava all abt religion, meanwhile she’s studying the architecture, the paintings, the sculptures. vincent wanted a student, but he didnt have that in ava. so he decided to embrace that n help ava with this calling. its also vincent who tells ava to go to therapy n research abt her symptoms n possible disorder. ava does it more out of the fear vincent would get fed up with her not following his rules n getting kicked out for it. it actually helped tho, and she wont admit it to no one ever. 

i rly like this hc for this au, since it stays true to the character while remaining realistic to our universe n world n shit. HOWEVER. if anyone who has this disorder wants to criticize anything ive written, pls dm me, ask me, whatever. im open for constructive criticism always!! 

also this got long apologies

[autisticmob]

okay so. i don’t particularly enjoy talking abt abor/tion rights As A Topic because people get just.... SO heated about it. but I live like right next to plan/ned parent/hood, and its across-the-street neighbor, nebraska right to life, who supplies a near constant stream of protesters. so it’s a thing i encounter and think about a Lot and today i realized smth that made me incredibly angry so i just gotta rant i guess.

so what i realized is that outlawing abor/tion provides my living body less of a right to bodily autonomy than my corpse. like, in order to Most Completely legally protect the integrity of my body, i as someone with a uterus would have to Die, which is supremely ironic given that proponents of these restrictions claim to be “pro lif/e.”

like okay, i personally am an organ donor, but for the sake of argument let’s assume i am not. when i die, if someone wants my organs, even if it’s to save a human life, even if i’m the only potential donor they can find, they can’t take my organs if i did not consent to it premortem. 

now for the sake of argument let’s pretend i’m alive and pregnant, but did not plan to be, and would prefer not to be. the argument these protesters are making is that the unborn child in my uterus requires my body to survive, it will die otherwise, and as such it has a right to stay in my uterus until i give birth to it. but the thing is, i haven’t consented to that. even if it was my choice to have sex with somebody, i consented to like, Have Sex. I never consented to becoming pregnant or carrying a baby to full term. 

so by organ donation laws, i should be able to say, “hey, no, this other human being can’t use my organs. I don’t consent to that.” that logic would stand up in court if i was a corpse! but because i’m alive, these people are saying that i should be legally compelled to give an entire organ to this other tiny human for 9 months? that’s wack. that’s stupid.

or like! say i was dying of kidney failure, and i needed a donor or i would die. and let’s say i find out somehow that another person is a perfect match for me, and really the only viable donor. according to the logic of these protesters, that other person should be LEGALLY COMPELLED to give me one of their kidneys, because i would otherwise die. 

but that’s not how the law works! that isn’t how bodily autonomy works! that would be madness! that would be repo the genetic FUCKING opera irl!! but apparently this one specific organ, this one Specific type of body is different for them. god its so fucking stupid i’m just angry