#subverse 15 -.-. .- .-..

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

GW finally dragged the model designers kicking and screaming into a new Tyranid range, so they had to immediately turn around and let them design a Primaris Lieutenant with dead Tyranid bits on his base as a treat.

[mikansei]

the story has no real reason to take us to veritas prime but i hope it does solely because it would be funny if everyone, characters in-universe included, assumes ratio's clothing is indicative of the style of his homeworld, but when we get there it turns out everyone wears togas.

and ONLY togas.

ratio's skimpy black underlayer is comparatively covered up like a Victorian widow in mourning. the boob window is actually stuffy and conservative, everyone else is running around with at least one tit fully out at all times. they think he's the weird one for wearing pants. it would serve no narrative purpose whatsoever but it would entertain me greatly

[blurrypxls]

Recreated Leigh, one of my long lost legacy sims from 2015, and she’s got a new lease of life going for her in the Griffinverse! 

[fdelopera]

Welcome to the 36th installment of 15 Weeks of Phantom, where I post all 68 sections of Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, as they were first printed in Le Gaulois newspaper 114 yeas ago.

In today’s installment, we have Part IV of Chapter 14, “La lyre d’Apollon” (“Apollo’s Lyre”).

This section was first printed on Thursday, 18 November, 1909.

For anyone following along in David Coward’s translation (the link is to the Kindle edition on Amazon US), the text starts in Chapter 13 with Christine's description, “Then the man jumped into the boat which he untied from its mooring ring,” and goes to Erik's line, “You will never see Erik's face!”

This is a long post, so I am putting it under a Read More.

There are some differences between the standard 1st Edition text and the Gaulois text. In this section, these include (highlighted in red above):

1) Chapter 14 in the Gaulois text is Chapter 13 in the 1st Edition, etc.

2) Compare the Gaulois text:

L’homme me déposa dans la barque, qu’il délivra de son lien de fer 

("The man placed me in the boat, and freed it from its iron ring")

To the 1st Edition:

...puis l’homme se jeta dans la barque qu’il délivra de son lien de fer 

("...then the man jumped into the boat and freed it from its iron ring")

3) Compare the Gaulois text:

il s’empara des rames et nagea avec force et promptitude

To the 1st Edition:

il s’empara des rames et rama avec force et promptitude

In this context, both sentences mean: "he grasped the oars and rowed with powerful and efficient strokes"

4) Compare the Gaulois text (this is one of several places in this section where I prefer the 1st Edition to the Gaulois text):

Au centre d’un salon qui ne semblait paré, orné, meublé que de fleurs, la forme noire d’homme au masque se tenait debout, les bras croisés…

("In the middle of a drawing room that seemed to be decorated, adorned, and furnished with nothing but flowers, the dark figure of the man in the mask stood perfectly still, his arms folded across his chest…")

To the 1st Edition (Leroux expanded upon Christine's description of Erik's ungainly attempt to woo her with flowers):

Au centre d’un salon qui ne me semblait paré, orné, meublé que de fleurs, de fleurs magnifiques et stupides à cause des rubans de soie qui les liaient à des corbeilles, comme on en vend dans les boutiques des boulevards, de fleurs trop civilisées comme celles que j’avais coutume de trouver dans ma loge après chaque “première” ; au centre de cet embaumement très parisien, la forme noire d’homme au masque se tenait debout, les bras croisés…

("In the middle of a drawing room that seemed to me to be decorated, adorned, and furnished with nothing but flowers, flowers both magnificent and absurd because they were tied with silk ribbons in baskets, like the kind that are sold in shops on the boulevards; flowers that seemed too genteel, like the ones that I was used to finding in my dressing room after each ‘premier’; in the middle of that perfumed and very Parisian floral setting, the dark figure of the man in the mask stood perfectly still, his arms folded across his chest…")

5) This section did not appear in the Gaulois publication. This is another place where I appreciate the detail that Leroux added to the 1st Edition:

Les tapisseries de ces murs, ces meubles, ces flambeaux, ces vases et jusqu’à ces fleurs dont j’eusse pu dire presque d’où elles venaient, dans leurs bannettes dorées, et combien elles avaient coûté, enfermaient fatalement mon imagination dans les limites d’un salon aussi banal que bien d’autres qui avaient au moins cette excuse de n’être point situés dans les dessous de l’Opéra.

("The wall hangings, the furniture, the candlesticks, the vases, and even those flowers in their gilt baskets, which I could almost have told you where they came from and how much they cost, inescapably confined my imagination within the limits of a drawing room as mundane as many others, although they at least had the excuse of not being located in the underside of the Opera.")

6) Compare the Gaulois text:

J’avais sans doute affaire à quelque effroyable original qui, mystérieusement, s’était logé dans les caves, comme d’autres, par besoin, et, avec la muette complicité de l’administration, avait trouvé un définitif abri dans les combles de ce monstrueux palais.

("I was no doubt dealing with some horrid eccentric who had mysteriously come to dwell in the cellars, like others who, by necessity, and with the silent complicity of the administration, had found permanent shelter in the rafters of this monstrous palace.")

To the 1st Edition (another nice addition to the 1st Edition):

J’avais sans doute affaire à quelque effroyable original qui, mystérieusement, s’était logé dans les caves, comme d’autres, par besoin, et, avec la muette complicité de l’administration, avait trouvé un définitif abri dans les combles de cette tour de Babel moderne, où l’on intriguait, où l’on chantait dans toutes les langues, où l’on aimait dans tous les patois.

("I was no doubt dealing with some horrid eccentric who had mysteriously come to dwell in the cellars, like others who, by necessity, and with the silent complicity of the administration, had found permanent shelter in the rafters of this modern Tower of Babel, this place where we conspired together, where we sang in every language, where we loved in every dialect.")

7) This sentence in the Gaulois text was omitted from the 1st Edition:

"Je regardais l'homme à genoux..." 

("I looked at the man on his knees...")

8) Compare the Gaulois text:

Alors, alors... la Voix, la Voix que j’avais reconnue sous le masque, lequel n’avait pas pu me la cacher, c’était cela qui était à genoux devant moi : un homme !

("Then, then... the Voice, the Voice that I had recognized beneath the mask, that mask which could not conceal the Voice from me, that was what was on its knees before me: a man!")

To the 1st Edition:

Et alors la Voix, la Voix que j’avais reconnue sous le masque, lequel n’avait pas pu me la cacher, c’était cela qui était à genoux devant moi : un homme !

("And so the Voice, the Voice that I had recognized beneath the mask, that mask which could not conceal the Voice from me, that was what was on its knees before me: a man!")

9) Compare the Gaulois text:

Je vous ai dit que, s’il ne m’entend pas chanter demain soir, il en aura une peine mortelle.

("I have told you that if he does not hear me sing tomorrow evening, it will cause him mortal pain.")

To the 1st Edition:

Je vous dis que, s’il ne m’entend pas chanter demain soir, il en aura une peine infinie.

("I tell you that if he does not hear me sing tomorrow evening, it will cause him immeasurable pain.")

10) Compare the Gaulois text:

Il y eut un silence effrayant entre eux trois… les deux qui parlaient et celui qui écoutait, derrière…

("There was a terrible silence between the three of them … the two who spoke and the one who listened, behind them…")

To the 1st Edition:

Il y eut un silence effrayant entre eux trois… les deux qui parlaient et l’ombre qui écoutait, derrière…

("There was a terrible silence between the three of them … the two who spoke and the shadow who listened, behind them…")

11) Compare the Gaulois text:

Il est prêt à me montrer le mystérieux chemin ;… seulement… seulement je suis bien obligée de me souvenir que, s’il n’est ni fantôme, ni ange, ni génie, il est toujours la Voix, car il chante !…

("He was ready to show me the mysterious way out … only … only I was obliged to remember that even if he is neither phantom, nor angel, nor spirit, he is still the Voice, for he sang!…")

To the 1st Edition (another small but nice addition to the 1st Edition):

"Il est prêt à me montrer le mystérieux chemin ;… seulement… seulement il s’est levé, lui aussi, et je suis bien obligée de me souvenir que, s’il n’est ni fantôme, ni ange, ni génie, il est toujours la Voix, car il chante !…"

("He was ready to show me the mysterious way out … only … only he too arose, and I was obliged to remember that even if he is neither phantom, nor angel, nor spirit, he is still the Voice, for he sang!…")

12) Compare the Gaulois text:

Elle me fit entendre une musique nouvelle qui me causa une étrange impression de douceur, de langueur, de repos…

("It shared with me a new music which awoke in me a strange feeling of tenderness, languor, and calm …")

To the 1st Edition (another important addition to the 1st Edition):

Elle me chanta des morceaux inconnus… et me fit entendre une musique nouvelle qui me causa une étrange impression de douceur, de langueur, de repos…

("It sang to me unknown pieces … and it shared a new music which awoke in me a strange feeling of tenderness, languor, and calm …")

13) Compare the Gaulois:

...une petite chambre toute simple, garnie d’un lit étroit en cuivre...

("...a small, simply adorned room, furnished with a narrow, brass bed...")

To the 1st Edition:

...une petite chambre toute simple, garnie d’un lit banal en acajou...

("...a small, simply adorned room, furnished with an unremarkable mahogany bed...")

NOTE: Leroux's initial concept for Erik's mother's bed was a narrow, brass bed, which Leroux then changed to an unremarkable mahogany bed in the 1st Edition. However, in the Gaulois text of "The End of the Phantom's Love Story," the Persian's description specifies that the bed is in the "lit-bateau" style (a “boat-like” bedframe, which is typically made of wood, not brass).

14) Compare the Gaulois text (here, Christine's description of the "Louis-Philippe" room includes the door to the torture chamber; we also learn that Christine's ensuite bathroom had a door that closed):

J’étais prisonnière et je ne pus découvrir à ma prison que deux portes dont l'une était hermétiquement close et dont l'autre ouvrait sur une salle de bains des plus confortables...

("I was a prisoner, and in my prison I could only find two doors, one that was hermetically sealed and the other that opened onto an amply spacious bathroom...")

To the 1st Edition:

J’étais prisonnière et je ne pouvais sortir de ma chambre que pour entrer dans une salle de bains des plus confortables...

("I was a prisoner, and I could not leave my room except to enter an amply spacious bathroom...")

15) Minor differences in punctuation and italicization.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE:

In Gaston Leroux's novel, the first time that Erik took Christine down to his lair, Christine was still dressed in her costume from Faust. By her own account, she did not change after she rushed back to her dressing room following the chandelier crash. Instead, she immediately began to entreat the Voice of the Angel of Music to manifest itself to her to show her that it had survived the accident. Erik then led her through the mirror.

This means that Christine was still dressed as Siébel, i.e. in traditionally male attire. 

This is an example of Lerouxian trope subversion, in that Christine takes on a traditionally masculine characterization, while Erik is described as “la Voix” (the Voice), and is frequently given the pronoun of “elle” (she), since “Voix” is feminine. This isn’t experienced overtly in French, since all nouns have randomly assigned gender, but it adds to the overall gendered “role reversal” between Erik and Christine that Leroux infused into his novel.

This is also why Erik goes shopping for Christine the next morning and brings her back various dresses to wear. She was still dressed as a man. I suppose that he could have just gone up to her dressing room and brought down her own clothing, but this is Erik we're talking about; he's a flamboyant little shit. Plus, he's got to spend that 20,000 franc monthly salary somehow!

This illustration by Rachel Perkins, from the Barnes & Noble Classics Edition of The Phantom of the Opera (tr. de Mattos), picks up on the fact that Christine is still dressed in 16th century male attire when she is abducted by Erik.

Perkins also captures other classic Lerouxian details that are rarely depicted, such as Erik's rowboat (the gondola was introduced in the 1925 Lon Chaney film) and the white form of César the horse fleeing in the background. She also depicts Erik’s mask as being made of black fabric, but she was working from the de Mattos translation, so she didn’t know that Erik’s mask was a black silk “domino” mask with a “barbe” (a hanging piece of fabric covering the mouth), similar to this one.

Click here to see the entire edition of Le Gaulois from 18 November, 1909. This link brings you to page 3 of the newspaper — Le Fantôme is at the bottom of the page in the feuilleton section. Click on the arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen to turn the pages of the newspaper, and click on the Zoom button at the bottom left to magnify the text.

[girldraki]

reading this unlocked part of our brain and made us truly realize. Wow we really aren’t fifteen anymore

[tilbageidanmark]

(Click to see the memes I'm making)

[sheila--e]

the way Sheila's described as both being covered in scars and also being a very self destructive person with little care for herself and a desire to die for a good cause (or a very long way of saying she's got suicidal tendencies yet masks it as a form of courage) makes me think she self harms. it wouldn't be out of this world tbh. coping mechanism adopted from her self hatred and a need of punishing herself for being a horrible person. she doesn't know where to put all of those chaotic feelings, and the only way she can redirect it is to herself. not out of character frankly.

[folklaurr]

I had so many people tell me to watch You’re Next but I didn’t like it I feel so bad

[destructrice]

Not trying to go on a rant (and yet already ranting) but I’m sick of people faking that “granddaughters of the witches you couldn’t burn” isn’t an AWESOME feminist catchphrase, and branding it as white feminism because “Karen your granny is a christian conservative” like yesss it’s true my granny is a christian conservative but she also secretly had her tubes tied in an illegal clinic because my grandpa was against birth control, and my great-grandma ran away from home at 15 because her parents were against interracial marriage, and my great-great-grandma fled her country because there were no job opportunities for poor women there, and my other grandma also fled her country because her boyfriend tried to force her to have an abortion and she wanted to have her baby, and my mom never married and chose to raise a child on her own, and I am a feminist butch lesbian, and this is what this quote is about, it’s not about your granny being pagan, it’s about valuing your matrilineal lineage of subversive women, even if their subversion was minimal, because they could have been killed or maimed any time by men for not conforming to gender roles even in the slightest way, after all, the witches who indeed were burned were more often than not also just regular, mostly christian conservative, women that somehow pissed off a man

[harimenui-forever]

Tbh I personally think that the underlying issue that is so irritating when it comes to especially this episode is the clear lack of respect for the listener. It doesn't matter if people actually talk like this online or if they don't, the episode is written to be irritating and, at least to me, it feels like it's just making fun of the audience. Testing how far it can go

But yeah the "you're not online enough" is funny

laughing at the fact that the two interpretations of this case ('even 'fake' tiktok influencers talk more naturally than this' and 'no there are people who talk like this and ive seen them i swear') are both accusing the other of not being online enough to know the difference

should also say that i genuinely dont mind if you disagree... we're discussing minutiae of exactly how much internet speak is too much internet speak. it's not that big a deal. i just find it fun to chew on, for how this tiny aspect of online culture interacts with underlying discussions about things like intergenerational conflict, cultural appropriation and misogyny

[embracing-the-ineffable]

Save Good Omens 3!

The delightfully legendary subversive movement among key GO players continues! First, Mickey Ralph, Lead Graphic Designer, tweets on 10/15, "Well team, we may have bloody done the impossible. Looks like I might be headed back up to Scotland" and then adds "KEEP SHOWING LOVE!!", "PROVE TO THEM ITS WORTH IT!!", "@FYeahGoodOmens pls jump in and rally the troops!" (tweet since deleted). Plus a comment on Instagram, "Oops! Not me leaking info to hungry fans":

And now Peter Anderson Studio, today, 10/18, "here's a sign we designed that could perhaps lead you to a nice little cottage" and a reply to someone (about their "weeks of silence") with a gif with the text "Were you silent or were you silencedt?!":

That post was replaced with this less-obviously-GO one (the comments are great, go read them!), "Many of you may not know we design signage sometimes too! Here’s one we made for South Downs National Park a few years ago":

They're feeding us hope in return for us showing strong support to Amazon to #ResumeGoodOmens3 🥰 Keep it up everyone, let's get our hashtags trending!

[mcyt-aro-week]

Welcome to MCYT Aro Week!

What's that? MCYT Aro Week is a week to celebrate aromanticism in the Minecraft YouTube fandom! We noticed there wasn't a lot of hype for aro CCs, characters or headcanons, so we want to celebrate them! As with most appreciation weeks, you can create any kind of art (including writing, music, webweaves, playlists, anything really!) inspired by the prompts!

How will it work? The event will have two prompts per day, and participants can choose between them or combine them! During the week of the event, please tag our blog and use the #mcyt aro week tag on your post, and we'll reblog your creations! The event will run for a week, with different prompts assigned to each day, but if you need to post your creations late that's okay too! We'll reblog creations for the event for at least a week after the event ends, so that all late submissions still get to be featured!

Who's running it? This event is run by 4 mods:

Mod Rain (they/them) - @stardustanddaffodils

Mod Khads (she/he) - @ctommy-antigone, formerly @/clethos

Mod Pixie (she/they) - @severevoiddragon

Mod Vwoop (they/it/ey/vwoop) - @ranvwoop

Okay, when is it? 6th-12th October!

What are the prompts?

October 6: QPR / Celebration October 7: Acceptance / Battle October 8: ___ to Friends / Pets October 9: Aplatonic / Space October 10: Flowers / Wedding October 11: Community / Magic October 12 & 13: Halloween / Free Choice

FAQ & Previous Events under the cut!

March 11 - March 17 2024

March 11: Unconventional relationships / Trope subversion

March 12: Loveless / AU

March 13: Solidarity / Hobbies

March 14: Aro joy / Adventure

March 15: Spectrum / Baking

March 16: Coming out / Found family

March 17: Aromantic (free day!!)

FAQ

"Can I do headcanons?" Absolutely!

"What is aromanticism?" Aromantic means you do not feel romantic attraction to others, but it's a wide spectrum ranging from absolutely no attraction, to little, or anything in between!

"Can I do asexual instead?" We're prefer you not to. You're welcome to do aroace (aromantic asexual) characters, as this still includes aromantic, but we'd prefer not to swap to asexual, as they are two separate identities!

"How about NSFW stuff?" We'd prefer not, but since we can't stop you, we simply won't reblog any NSFW art!

Do I need to create for all the days? Nope! However much you want to or are able to participate is perfectly fine!

"What counts as aromantic?" However you want! Any portrayal is great!

More questions to come!

[davidtennantgenderenvy]

My Two Cents On The “ Is David Tennant Queer” Drama

As some of you know, I spent a solid third of the past year working on a movie-length video essay about David Tennant. This video essay features an eight minute section titled “Gender, Vulnerability, and Why David Tennant Is A Queer Icon”, which does not speculate on David’s own sexuality, but discusses the queer coding and subversion of gender norms in plenty of his roles and his importance as an ally to the LGBT community. At the same time, I was also coming to terms with my own identity as nonbinary and bisexual, and it ended up playing a crucial role in me finally working up the courage to come out to my parents. Characters like Crowley and the Doctor, both in terms of how they present themselves and how and who they love, have been absolutely instrumental in me developing my queer identity, and my comments section was full of people who had had similar experiences, who’d realized they were trans, nonbinary, gay, etc thanks to David and his characters. And as a result, I won’t deny that if David himself were to be queer, it would mean a lot to me.

Do I think David is queer? It’s certainly possible. I see a lot of how I express my queerness in how david chooses to express himself, most prominently through his frequent queer coding of characters who don’t necessarily have to be played as such. This can especially be seen through his Shakespeare characters, such as Richard, Hamlet, and some would argue Benedick as well. When I was 15 I played Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, who I chose to play as a closeted young gay man harboring an unrequited crush on Romeo. I think I saw this role subconsciously as an outlet for my own repressed queerness, both of gender and sexuality, as I had experienced an unrequited crush on my female best friend the previous year which I was still in denial about. I’ve described my gender identity as “a girl with a chaotic tortured gay man inside of her that needs to be let out every once in a while”, which has never been more true than with Mercutio- a character who I might add, I took a great deal of inspiration from David when playing! In terms of using roles as an outlet for one’s queerness, I could absolutelt see this being true with David, especially when it comes to Crowley, who seems to have had an impact on David’s style, behavior, etc in a rather similar way to how he’s impacted me. I don’t want to act like David wearing pink docs means he must be gay, I think people should be allowed to wear whatever they want regardless of sexuality, but taken in conjunction with so many other things about him, it does make one wonder, and the fact that a seemingly straight man has been so many people’s queer awakening is a bit puzzling to say the least. I won’t pretend that these “signs” (if you interpret them that way), haven’t been increasing somewhat in the past year, and if I got to share my own coming out journey with the man who inspired it, I would be absolutely thrilled. I also can’t specifically think of an instance where David has SAID he is straight, as opposed to Taylor swift, who has.

With all of that said, where I personally draw the line is when mere speculation crosses into interfering with the subject’s personal relationships and the sense that one is OWED something. I believe that what matters to David more than anything is being a husband and a father. I believe he adores Georgia and his children and would not do anything in the world that he believes would jeopardize his family. As happy as I would be for David if he were to come out (probably as bi) I realize that that would put so much unwanted attention on his marriage and family and I think that’s the last thing he wants. I don’t think it’s IMPOSSIBLE that he and Michael Sheen are having a passionate love affair behind everyone’s backs, but I absolutely don’t consider it my place to insist that they are, because as much as I may feel like I do, I don’t know these people! And besides, if David were cheating on Georgia, he really would not be the person I thought he was.

So many queer people see themselves in David and his characters, and that is beautiful. And I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with having theories that David might be queer himself. However, it must be acknowledged that these theories are THEORIES, and they should not be used to invalidate people’s real life relationships- after all, it’s totally possible to be bi/pan and also be in a loving and healthy heterosexual relationship like David and Georgia at least seem to be in! If David were in fact “one of us”, I would welcome him with the openest of open arms, but unless and until he himself decides to proclaim himself that way, I will not expect anything of him other than to be the incredible artist and person we know and love.

[dontforgetukraine]

16 reasons we should be very alarmed!

by Dietmar Pichler, disinformation analyst

1. Russia is successfully uniting the anti-Western propaganda bloc. 2. Many naive & non-resilient Westerners are embracing the russian narrative of a "multipolar" world. 3. Disinformation & influence campaigns are not limited to social media. 4. We are ignoring "traditional" propaganda channels (books, events, and agents of influence). 5. Russia and its allies have deeply infiltrated and contaminated our societies with agents of influence, useful idiots, spies—or people who serve both roles... 6. Anti-Western narratives are widespread in the West, in the far left, the far right & even the center. 7. We take democracy for granted and remain unaware of the authoritarian threat. 8. The issue isn't just dictators but also their enablers, partners, and apologists in the West. 9. We refuse to confront collaborators because it is painful to address the issue head-on. 10. If we don't protect our democracy and build resilience, it may soon be too late. Subversive actions by autocratic states like Russia and China are already in full swing. 11. Besides our grave mistake of largely ignoring traditional subversive activities—such as those carried out by paid authors, professors, and former or current politicians—cyberspace is now the main battlefield in the information war. 12. We continue to practice appeasement in various ways, embracing dictators who despise us in the hope they will change, while neglecting our allies who admire our system. 13, One-sided calls for peace and disarmament, which began during the Cold War, may ultimately complete their intended work. 14. The influence and brainwashing of many people through so-called "peace activities" still linger in the minds of many who participated. 15. We lack the politicians, leaders, communicators, and societal resolve bold enough to tackle this challenge and defend the democratic world. 16. Subtle and covert influence is something we almost completely fail to detect!

[velvetvexations]

I just want to rant about my least favourite Julia Serano post/passage/concept, because as a transmasc nonbinary person this genuinely raises my blood pressure. Sorry about how long this is lmao

Link: https ://juliaserano.blogspot.com/2014/02/what-is-subversivism.html

It's her concept of "subversivism": bigotry that posits trans people as non-subversive, and compliant with the social order of patriarchy. Essentially, it's the impossible expectation that trans people should always be subversive to gender norms in everything they do. TERFs do this a lot, by claiming that the existence of trans people who happen to fit a gender stereotype (e.g. a trans woman w/ feminine interests, a nonbinary person that dresses androgynously) mean they support gender roles.

This is a really good concept! It's very useful for explaining how anti-trans activists, particularly TERFs, talk about trans people.

The only problem is that instead of talking about her own experiences with subversivism, or using some kind of source as an example of how subversivism works, she spends most of the post/chapter making harmful assertions with no basis in reality. Specifically, she asserts that transmasculine people are seen as more subversive than transfeminine people, and that genderqueer or GNC people benefit from subversivism. And she doesn't even attempt to have a source for it, because if she talked to a single transmasculine or nonbinary person about subversivism, they would tell her that they've experienced it too. Hell, even if she just looked at how TERFs talk about transmasculine and nonbinary people, she'd see that subversivism is a common tactic. So the piece is filled with bigoted bullshit.

In one part she notes that masculinity is associated with power/boldness, but femininity is associated with weakness/timidness. And she suggests that may be why transfeminine people are seen as non-subversive, which is true! But that's also the exact reason why transmasculine people are also seen as non-subversive: in a TERF's eyes, transmascs want to go from weak femininity to powerful masculinity, which is seen as the "easy way out" of misogyny. Later, she mentions transmasculine people being supposedly welcomed into queer and feminist spaces, but fails to consider that often this "acceptance" is often contingent on being misgendered and treated as a woman. (I think some of your more recent reblogs have also talked about this). In her more recent book, she even refers to subversivism as "compulsory genderqueerness". This is clearly meant as a nod to the concept of compulsory heterosexuality. But genderqueer is not in any way a privileged identity like heterosexuality, and it's extremely offensive to suggest that it is! Some studies even indicate that nonbinary/genderqueer people have worse mental health than binary trans people. (Unlike her, I have a source for that: https ://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11930-017-0111-8).

And what's most frustrating to me is that she knows better! Like, it'd be one thing if this was just a tumblr post by a random trans person. But Julia Serano is a published academic, and very well respected in the trans community. She has done legitimately good work, too - her work on debunking AGP and ROGD is a genuinely good resource. So she knows full well that sweeping statements like the ones she makes in this piece need a source. In the blog post she magically remembers how to use sources when she talks about oppression of bi people, which makes it all the more frustrating. And the thing is, I'd also be fine with it if she didn't mention transmasculine or nonbinary people at all, and only talked about her own experiences. I'm not even asking to be included, just to be… not demonised, or gaslighted about my own experiences of transphobia!

Now, Whipping Girl was published over 15 years ago, and she might have changed her opinion since then. But she pretty clearly hasn't, since she was reposting her passage from Whipping Girl about it on Twitter a few months ago! That's how I found out about it in the first place. Honestly, it's a testament to how pervasive anti-transmasculinity and anti-nonbinary rhetoric are in the trans community that Whipping Girl is regarded as a core text for transfeminism, but I've barely seen anyone else talk about the blatant misinformation in it.

Anyway that's the end of my rant, sorry it's so long but I could write so much about this lmao

What is velvetvexations.tumblr.com if not a place to complain about Whipping Girl? You're valid, anon.

It's really not hard to tell why so many people who worship her do the same thing where they compulsively compare everything to how much better they very wrongly believe non-trans women have it. Even if she doesn't personally believe the exact same things her attitudes have bare minimum greatly influenced this bullshit and she needs to reign it in.

Like, is it bad to place responsibility on her like that? To say she needs to put in time and effort countering these things and educating herself where need be? I don't think so. She is, evidently, the Queen of Transfeminism, she, apparently, wrote the transfeminism Bible, as far as I'm concerned it's her job to climb back into the trenches when people start abusing her shit.

[qui-gg]

that one post you made about lightbulb and how she made up her entire relationship with paintbrush until ep12 made me like her character a lot more soo has ur thoughts and opinions on lightbulb and maybe paintbrush changed since episode 15??

Thank you for this question and it definitely has, it’s just been taking me a bit to think and format into words exactly how to say this! But with ii16 releasing soon i should go through this now, so be prepared for a ramble.

Since i’ve made that post, I’ve gone through a few more realizations about the preexisting material itself. I should say it’s a bit dramatized when I said she made up the ENTIRE relationship- there was obviously something there since they’d known each other for a very long time, after all Paintbrush does say “we’re STILL friends”, but she moreso took it and ran with it to a level it was never at. I’ve never properly talked about my feelings on Alternate Reality Show here? But it’s my favorite episode and I have TOO MUCH to say. I’ll be bringing up key parts of my analysis though since this is about 15.

This episode features Lightbulb’s elimination, and so evidently that means it should be seeking a way to properly wrap up her story. It’s not the total focus of the episode, and neither is she the main character (she already had that in 12), but I think it was handled the best way it could have been. Initially when I watched the elimination in the Chicago theater (slack jawed and having my heart broken I was cosplaying Lightbulb😢) there was a lot running in my mind but the fact Lightbulb’s expectations had been subverted in the very best way was on the forefront. Leading up to 15, there was a lot of extra material released that pointed towards hyping up Lightbulb. She’s a very popular character so the average fan’s expectation is exactly what she mentioned in the episode, that she’d win for her team. The exit interviews of the flying buddies ALL point towards their expectations of Lightbulb to win- which I think was SO clever and must’ve been intentional. Lightbulb likely hasn’t seen these interviews, but I think on a meta level it’s for us to see and then Judge Lightbulb’s reaction to those expectations. Because as she does, she takes something as friendly and simple as what Test Tube said to her at the end of 14 and blew it out of proportion. Her friends are giving her encouragement to win of course, because that’s the nice thing to say and do when your friend is in a competition! But as we learn from 12, Lightbulb is seeking more from the game than just the game. She’s here for relationships first and foremost. And, we see that she has so much more of a thought process beneath the surface than we initially expect, that she is very observant and aware of her own feelings and others and takes that into account which presents as her backwards intentions in her quirky behavior, the stuff she does that doesn’t seem to make sense all has meaning. (We also see this exerted in one of my favorite Lightbulb appearances, the Jacknjellify upload of the 2022 meetup short, where there’s a scene of her in her own head through the situation. She recognizes she’s failing an interaction, gets insecure about it, and we see her make up a quirky lie in real time! It’s incredibly important LB material) She just prefers to distract herself from them the more intense they get because when things get more serious it is hard for her to be taken seriously or believe that she could be. And Test Tube is very important to all of this despite not speaking in 15 because Lightbulb’s relationship with her was one of the first that became Real. Test Tube recognized that Lightbulb was struggling most prominently as she alone had been on that journey with her and had that talk, she knew her heart wasn’t in the game for a long time. Which affects her actions towards her in 15! But I’ll get to that in a bit. The point i’m trying to make here is that it is the PERFECT SUBVERSION of audience expectations, that Lightbulb would be willing to win for her team, to reveal that instead she just wanted to go home and be with her friends. She had built up those expectations for herself too and thought EVERYONE (both her friends and on a metatextual level, the real fans) would be disappointed in her for feeling that way but it’s something you can see if you’re looking! Her reactions to all the flying buddies’ eliminations, in the 14 stream there’s a discussion about how she’s not doing well at all being all alone, She just disguised it! As usual! And punished herself for feeling different. And I need to emphasize IT IS THE PERFECT WAY TO GO TO ELIMINATE HER VIA LIE DETECTOR. That was one of the coolest things to me. LIGHTBULB, WHOSE FATAL FLAW IS THAT SHE CANNOT SAY WHAT SHE’S FEELING COMPLETELY STRAIGHT OR HONESTLY, WHO NEVER MAKES SENSE, is forced to fight for a position she doesn’t believe she deserves on a lie detector. My little analytical heart knew as soon as the challenge was revealed she was out. But again, the way it all played out was subversive in just the right way and accurate to her character and I couldn’t be more thankful.

Now it’s time for me to address the Lightbrush elephant in the room. I think Brian said it best on the Jazzy ii15 stream- why does a relationship need to be romantic in order for it to be special? There’s a lot there that is written into the show as is that doesn’t need a kiss scene to suddenly make it pay off or matter. So in this analysis i’m not here for Lightbrush at all. It’s best appropriate to look at it from the lens of a platonic friendship as it was intentionally written and portrayed in the show itself, not to speculate on things that aren’t there.

(Plus, i’m less of a fan of the ship these days. My relationship with it is complicated. I just adore Lightbulb and Paintbrush as characters too much)

Obviously it had to be Paintbrush who responded to the emergency signal. It wouldn’t make sense thematically for it to be anyone else. It was revealed by Brian on a few streams that Test Tube chose to tell Paintbrush to go answer the signal intentionally to help Lightbulb out, knowing that she was missing them and her heart was not in the game. I think it speaks to the strength of the flying buddies that they’re able to read each other like this! In III, we come to understand this is how Paintbrush was feeling after their elimination in 12 and solidified in their season 3 elimination, Their heart wasn’t in the game without meaningful relationships. Both of them were just seeking connection the entire time they were apart, and I think this has to go back to what I said in the post you mentioned that she made up their entire relationship with them. They both had a lot of regrets about the way their friendship worked before their first real connection in 12 before being separated, and spent so much time dwelling on how they could repair that but weren’t able to yet. So now that they have to chance to build that up again together they’re going to take it. I think the talk with her between Baseball Knife and Suitcase at the start of 15 is indicative of this as well, she questions Baseball about voting out Paintbrush, something she never previously expressed any anger about. But she’s not angry, she just has been thinking about it more. And also, that scene is incredible because I fully expected Lightbulb to be alone and misunderstood by the Grand Slams because they saw none of her development and hardly understood her but they approached her to see if she was doing okay and I was surprised! Very much a necessary step towards her decision in the end.

It is INCREDIBLY difficult for Lightbulb to be straightforward. When she’s clicking the pen that’s a coping mechanismmm and when she’s FORCED to say outright “I’m scared, and I need help.” That’s painful for her. Unnatural. Her behavior and method of presenting herself through quirks can’t just be turned off, it’s baked into who she is. And she doesn’t need to change that, she just needs to be seen and recognized and taken seriously anyway. Which makes it perfect when she chooses to eliminate herself with what else but a lie. It’s too hard for her to say “I don’t want to be here. I want to go back and stay with you all”, so she tests her resolve once and for all despite knowing in her heart she just wants to leave with them. She’s not giving up a million dollars just to go be with Paintbrush and I think that take is a bit degrading towards her character- This decision holds a lot of weight to her and the audience who expected a lot from her over the four years of buildup to her appearance here. But everything I mentioned previously built up to this choice, plus the point Taco had been making about leaving the game spoke to her but she chose to leave in her own way, not for the reasons Taco thought she should. And we see also at the end of the episode ��today I think an old friend tried to show us she’s drowning” despite being scared of her earlier in the episode SHE STILL SEES TACO AS AN OLD FRIEND FROM SEASON 1! It’s so good that Lightbulb says that line so juicy. But that goes to show again Lightbulb is extremely observant of others. Also i love all of the ocean lingo and theming with her. I should post the Baxter essay sometime. ANYWAY! The point is Lightbulb didn’t make this choice lightly, she’s been toiling with it for three episodes now. She missed “her crew”. And she was always here for relationships and fun, not for the money or the game. She finally built something, and now she just wants to lay with it. She’s earned her rest.

I also need to mention the Dunce hat. Oh my god. Her exiting the show with a Label announcing her as an idiot, a perception so so many have of her and within the show, her friends previously had of her, but she doesn’t care because there are people who see through that, who see her! Sure she might not be understood by everyone for the way she is, but there are special people in her life who do. Lightbulb is such an incredible character.

I tried to keep this brief but of course it isn’t!! And this still feels like I haven’t said enough. But yes 15 was very good for Lightbulb and a great way to wrap up her story- even if it’s not technically over yet! We’ll see what happens in the movie. Thank you for reading this far!