#so long as they get to hate on trans people

[winterferger]

Okay, so. I have a lot of feelings about coding. Having grown up in a time when coding was especially important because everything was at risk of being censored, things I could see myself in or relationships that I could become invested in meant the world to me. The way Mac went on a revenge mission for Blair in Predator, the tragic intimate friendship in Enemy Mine, watching Data get picked on for not understanding things in ST: TNG. These were formative.

So, it seems like an obvious, surface level view that these tropes about vampire and robot racism could be taken like this. But in the era vampire racism stories were getting really popular was also an era where AIDS was poorly represented in the media and has persisted through the opioid and other drug crises. So you often had stories about innocent people who were attacked against their will, suffering from cravings they couldn't contain and knew were destructive to them and the people around them. That was important. That was invaluable.

Werewolf racism? What if I know I'm a freak. What if I'm trapped in a human body feeling like a creature that doesn't fit. What if I struggle with impulse and people would rather get rid of me if they knew so reaching out for help is impossible. That spoke to people who felt like they had to constantly pretend to be accepted, whether they were trans, gay, masking so hard that it was hurting...

Robots have always swung trope-wise to either neurodivergent or sociopathy. I actually really loved Alien Romulus for representing both tropes in contrast to each other. But usually, as a narrative analogy, almost always if there is a robot uprising then we did this to us and they're still the bad guys. Like in The Second Renaissance from the Animatrix- the uprising happened because of human mistreatment. Skynet also being one of the classic examples. An AI reacting out of its first inclination of fear. The more aggressive timelines of Detroit: Become Human, or the breaking of the androids caught in what they feel is a torture timeloop in the modern Westworld, we did this to us. Hell, in the classic Westworld, where it was just that the AI created for our entertainment was allowed to act without restriction- we gave it the capacity for that, we often provided the catalyst for the Frankenstein's Monster moment, and very, very rarely do I ever see the AI presented as the good guys in these scenarios. Almost always, despite the fact there was a human designer who enabled the lethality of these machines, that provided the situation to cause a revolt, and the robots are, rightfully, still considered the bad guys.

Now pair this with the trope of 'neurodivergent robot'.

Yeah, you got a logical reason to hate and fear robots. In Star Trek, Data came on the heels of his 'twin brother', Lore (who I have a lot of strong feelings about how underutilized he was in the franchise). In Picard they went far more into AI apprehension, but there was a long history in Star Trek already established about unreliable and dangerous robots, and one that was exactly the same design as Data killed his whole colony. But even if the reasoning was understandable, Data trying to relate to people and constantly having to prove himself as an individual worthy of respect despite prejudices speaks to people. It's hard watching someone whose intent is obvious to us, the audience member, and usually someone going through something similar be treated as less than.

In Terminator 2 we got to see a Terminator turn into a 'good guy', showing all this awkward behavior that made it nigh on impossible to communicate but with a hyper-focus. He only needed to be trusted enough to get the job done. But he was shown a level of care and kindness he wasn't expecting. Even Sarah Connor could see the benefit of a machine 'father' because she knew his priorities wouldn't waver. Now, ignoring various sequels that ruined this- Imagine at the time you were back from Iraq. Operation Desert Farewell happened after Feb 1991, so a good hunk of soldiers came home prior to the summer release of T2. Imagine, now, you have a bunch of military broken soldiers, some suffering from Gulf War syndrome, and their family members going to see this movie where a fight-minded robot is learning to love beyond general 'programming'.

There's also the many, many genres of story that are 'human cop pairs with inhuman cop'. Sometimes robot. Sometimes alien. Almost always copaganda, sure, but also it often appeals to people that want to have someone work to understand them. Any fashion of what's designated by society as a freaking weirdo wants to be understood. This trope is timeless at this point.

TLDR: There's a lot that I can go on about, I got a whole book worth of thought in me, but my big points are: - These tropes began as products of their time. Not only products of their time, but they also introduced people to ideas in a way that made it easier to ask for help. It opened up the doorways to relating. - Even in a world where censorship isn't quite as pervasive, we need narrative metaphors for the shit that bothers us because it's padding. I don't want to fucking doomscroll my entertainment. Not all the time, but sometimes I'd rather watch the android get up and put his arm back on after being gang-beat for being a freak than seeing a realistically bruised-up girl be helped home by a friend because it reminds me of shit that's happeend to me. Not shitting on the real thing but sometimes I want the metaphorical thing, thanks. - I actually love the audience capacity for sympathy. To some people it might be sympathy for the devil. To other people the 'robot-overlords' feels like when you're accused of being part of the 'woke mind-virus' and being villainized, or vampire hate is like, 'wow I have an impulse problem and I can never ask for help'.

the reason "robot racism" is often a really stupid metaphor is the same reason that like. discrimination against demons or vampires or whatever doesn't work, is because there's often a pretty justified reasons humans are scared of vampires or robots or whatever, in a way that doesn't apply to real life minorities, like a fantasy author will be like "the reason vampires are discriminated against is because most of them and kill and eat people for fun and pleasure, and so humans respond by trying to kill them, isn't that so sad" and like no that's a perfectly fine reason to not trust vampires i think.

[twicedone]

Let's talk about... Pyrrha Dve

So, firstly!!! I want to make it plain here that I am RAMBLING about a character I LOVE and while I'm going to TRY to keep things about them as close to canon as I possibly can - I am dumb, and I forget things!!!!!! Secondly; SPOILERS FOR Harrow the Ninth and Nona the Ninth!!!! Thirdly; I will be making grammatical errors and you will be dealing with them!!! (sorry!) Anyways, I absolutely ADORE (full-caps and bold too!) Pyrrha Dve, I think that there's FAR more to her than our beloathed (I kid) Tamsyn has outright stated! (refer to @dammit-tazmuir 's wonderful post here for a look at the Pyrrha-berg ) and I think she'll be pretty important in Alecto the Ninth! However, this post is less about how Pyrrha IS and more about how she FEELS to me. I'm very early on in my transition journey, poking myself with a needle and crying at stuff all the time... so when I started reading Nona the Ninth and saw all the care Tamysn had put into Pyrrha I started to have the thought that maybe --just maybe-- she'd been intended to be read as a Trans character. I kept reading (and talking to a friend about the books, 'cause that was fun!) and the more I learned about her the more the conviction built in me that she was Trans; well, not LITERALLY Trans. (She had a female body at one point, one that she sacrificed long ago... and maybe that sorta disqualifies her from it but that also sounds REALLY fucked up to me??? So I think she's fine, and can rep Trans pride whenever she wants.) Anyways. She's lived the past TEN THOUSAND YEARS in a male body (sounds familiar.), having to stare at the face of her half-dead best pal whenever she intermittently had control of him! I can hardly imagine a better metaphor for dysphoria... forced to stare at someone other than yourself, someone who you care for on some level (it's you, after all.) but you know it's not REALLY you or your body. It's just your soul looking out of eyes that hardly belong to you. Her insistence on shaving her facial hair and hair-hair, even though it was only mentioned a handful of times, it really spoke to me. I hate seeing anything on my face, and I hate the mop of hair that my body makes. When she asked Pal if he could zap the follicles out of her chin, jod (lol) I felt that. There's also like, just how emotional she can be... (not really a trans-thing but more a TD (that's me) thing.) which speaks to me on a personal level 'cause of all these stupid new feelings I have to deal with. And just like, a lot of her dialogue. I don't know, maybe it's wishful thinking and the desperate need for a role model transplanting my own experiences onto a fictional character! Whatever! It's my head canon, and I'll do what I want with it! Edit; I FORGOR TO TALK ABOUT PYRRHA AND WAKE!!!!!!!!!! I can't be the only one (and I'm sure I'm not) that thinks that Pyrrha and Wake were far more intimate than Wake and G1deon, right?! It seems like all signs are pointing towards it, like Wake only included G1deon by accident because she wasn't aware of what Lyctorhood actually was! I think maybe they even loved each other, in a fucked up and supremely toxic way. Maybe Pyrrha would've actually helped her had she been in charge of G1deon's body at the time. ALSO What Trans woman isn't in love with a crazy fucked up woman? (or man, or enby, or someone outside or in between it all) I'd fall for Wake too, Pyrrha says she's got a thing for "Landmine People"? Wake is a fucking NUCLEAR BOMB!!!! I'd betray my jod to sleep with her too, WOOF!

Thanks for Reading!!! (Or skipping to the end to yell at me!) Please let me know what you think in the quotes, and I'm sorry to dammit-tazmuir if I accidentally pinged them or something, I'm still learning how to use tumblr!

ONE LAST THING!!!!! I will throw myself on a fence and haunt Tamsyn as a revenant for all eternity if Griddlehark doesn't get a payoff, you have been WARNED!!!!!!!!

[forgivenessissupposedtobeearned]

I've been around for this name bullshit long enough to remember when everyone gave trans men shit for picking names like "Adain" and "Alex" and "Max" because it was too basic or too common despite these being in incredibly common names for cis men. And now trans men get shit for picking unique or uncommon names. It's because trans men are going to be mocked for everything they do because people hate trans men and don't want to admit it

yeah, it's getting kind of obvious that it's not for any old reason beyond "well i think i should be allowed to make fun of them because i feel like it and that's that"

also kind of feels like we're stuck in a forever loop of that barbie movie speech about women's expectations being contradictory so that they're never good enough...

but wait... trans men aren't affected by misogyny /sarcasm

[wolfertinger]

i know *you* aren't transphobic but I think at this point you might have to put a disclaimer in the blog description that's just like. Says no transphobes or just a "do not misgender Salem or Wis" thing bc I have noticed people have they/them'd both of them and just having something like this on the blog can help since people that aren't in the know or ppl that have come on the blog and said they used to think this was just a transphobic hate campaign. It's just really unfortunate that calling out bad people that happen to be trans always seems to attract transphobes

tbh. yeah. i have been getting weird comments, lately.

again. i wish to emphasize something here, i said in comments, elsewhere. "why is it, that people do not degender cis abusers, the same way they will trans people. unless, you think being trans is a privilege you revoke at will."

although it is one thing, to examine salem's attitude towards transness, and the way he speaks about both other trans men and trans women. and it is another thing entirely, to be transphobic toward him as a whole. do not stoop to this level. if you will only respect a trans persons identity, so long as you like them, you are not safe for ANY trans people.

[notesbynor]

Okay i finally finished MisMag so i can have opinions on the discourse.

TLDR: good effort but could be better

They did a good job critiqueing HP from a world building POV, and a racial diversity POV with most of the people on the table and the PCs being POC

But i think the main/loudest problem about JKR more than anything is that she's a proud TERF. They should've adressed that by having actual trans main characters and people on the table (i know Erika is trans, but Dream/K themself didnt even consider being trans until the final episode).

They can do better than just saying "fuck TERFs" by actually having trans representation especially transfem rep which i KNOW dropout has (Persephone is RIGHT THERE)

And like, even the cis players can choose to have trans characters (like Oscar Montoya playing Rue in ACOFAF) but no they just chose to make cis characters.

It's kinda sad because i KNOW what dropout is capable of in terms of representation and inclusion. They do care about representation and i know that. But at the end of the day i think MisMag kinda falls short on that aspect.

[fingertipsmp3]

God grant me the strength not to reply “there are other books you could read and other films you could watch. Hope this helps 🤞” to all the HP fans whinging about JKR’s latest tirade, specifically because of how it affects their enjoyment of the franchise

[shigussy]

i keep getting tiktoks of these younger gen z kids referencing a time they did something relating to fandom in public and now they're embarrassed by it and everytime i see one i sit there thinking over all of middle and high school and having genuinely 0 moments that i feel embarrassed by, like i definitely did a lot of shit these kids would be embarrassed by but i think these are all just really fucking funny

also photographic evidence of the kinda kid i was. these are from 2014/15 when i was in 8th grade

-desolation row one shot(still on wattpad gerard way/reader smut)

-twerk it on (mcr crack fanfic no longer on wattpad but i have another fic in my library called twerking in taco bell which definitely ALSO used for my reading log)

-frank iero must die(a serial killer/assassin frerard fic, still on wattpad)

-hair (really vague maybe a phanfic? nowhere in my wattpad library rip)

my binder i used in 7th grade i had a blue one that looked pretty similar to this for 8th grade but idk where it went, also the parts i scribbled out are my full legal name i had written on it. i wrote it normally and then the big spot is where i wrote my name REALLY BIG in elysian code from the vladimir tod books. also the lines are from when i used an exacto knife to cut up some papers and forgot that my binder was underneath

in conclusion yall can now see why im so shameless about talking about shigaraki the way i do

[rivetgoth]

I’m a huge proponent for anyone should have access to whatever tools they need to do whatever they want to their body etc but ngl it makes me sad seeing the number of AFAB transes who speak of taking testosterone as this almost like, unfortunate thing you gotta endure to get a set list of Desired Changes, or this sorta like, thing you gotta compromise on, with this whole list of negative effects that you gotta risk if you want the positives or whatever, and just constant posts that are functionally like “how long do I have to be on T until I can stop?” or “I want XYZ changes from T but I don’t want ABC changes,” and like it just frustrates me because to be frank I love testosterone. I love everything about being on it and I consider it a miracle that modern medicine has made it possible to access this hormone exogenously if we can’t produce enough of it ourselves. I feel like fundamentally my lack of proper T levels had a negative impact on me until it was corrected and I don’t feel like I was truly myself until I began HRT. Literally the only negative thing about it at all is the frustration that I’m dependent on an outside source for the rest of my life rather than able to just make it myself but there’s no doubt in my mind that I want to be on it for the rest of my life. While maybe a bit pedantic I don’t view T as having side effects, I don’t even necessarily view it as a medication in the traditional sense, it’s just an artificial way for me to correct my body to the state it already should’ve been in. I was overcome by relief after taking my very first dose when I was seeing 0 changes and even as the initial excitement has naturally died down over the years that relief is something I never take for granted. If I could keep every change T has given me and stop taking it I still wouldn’t because beneath all the desire for the changes there is an innate desire to just be on testosterone. I just idk dude I wish that HRT at least within the FTM / transmasc community was viewed with more reverence and the perspectives of those who view it as genuinely a life saving and necessary resource were given a little more voice. I think the entire idea of hormonal dysphoria and the need to alleviate it by correcting one’s hormone production separate from the laundry list of the possible more visible changes and side effects and what’s desired or not or what’s permanent or not etc etc of HRT is seen as weirdly archaic in lots of mainstream FTM spaces and it’s a bit frustrating and isolating.

[cuntwrap--supreme]

I've been doing a lot of grocery delivery in the country lately, so I ordered myself a nice bumper sticker so I fit in with everyone else's stuff :)

I've seen a lot of these lately, but they were all of a pride flag I don't recognize. Not sure which gender/sexuality has the red and white stripes with the blue with white stars in the corner, but I guess it's an ok design. The rainbow is the traditional LGBT flag, though, so I feel it symbolizes the collective queer community a little better and will be a little more noticeable/recognizable than niche flags, like this stars and stripes guy.

[chaosspelledwrong]

Wrote out an entire vent post and changed my mind. Into the tags you go.

[kjzx]

I've been playing slitherio these past few days, and after some time messing around with nicknames and my own experience with the stuff, I've realized anger is something very easy to weaponize. On my second attempt of having "trans rights" as a nickname I killed a huge ~5k point worm as a teenie tiny 200 point worm simply because it was so desperate to kill me specifically. Anger makes your life harder, but it also makes people really unwise. I fucking bet this is in "the art of war", even though I haven't read it.

[kumakuma-circus]

just randomly remembered that during my like 10+ attempts at the shadow yukiko fight i more or less consistently ran out of revival beads so yosuke was just dead (well unconscious but whatever) on the ground for like half the fight gfhfjvhfhfhd-

[omnipitant-duck]

Hey, to the maybe one person that might see this, I'm gonna be going on a little mental health break for a while. Things have just been going to absolute shit for me mentally and I need to take a break before I actually can't take it anymore and do something I'll regret and can't undo. I've been getting really stressed out lately with school and life and just a lot of self-depreciation and doubt that I just can't seem to get rid of. So I guess I'll post again when Im feeling better. Have a good day/night to anyone who sees this and just know you're loved, if not by anyone else, then by me <3

(Tw for some kind of heavy topics in the tags and a lot of venting)

(Like, genuinely contemplating su!c!d3 kind of heavy)

[atom-bomb-baby]

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