#they’re still effectively homeless

[skiitter]

I think it would be very cool if life could stop shitting all over my parents. Like I think that would be just like so neat and chill.

[munsonsduchess]

Monster Smash

summary: you meet eddie at a house party and the night takes an unexpected turn warnings: underage drinking, recreational drug use (weed), face sitting, oral (f receiving), semi public sex (eddie and the reader are in a room at a frat house during a party) w/c: 977 a/n: surprise bitch! another halloween fic! honestly with the amount of ghostface content on tiktok these days it was kind of inevitable we'd end up here, i was originally just going to post the other halloween fic but this one wouldn't leave me alone

It was Halloween and you were having the worst time. You didn’t know anyone at this party your roommate had dragged you to, citing that you needed to get out more, the drinks were shit, the music was shit, honestly you were tempted to just sneak out the back door of this frat house and claim you’d met somebody if your roommate asked the next day. 

You sighed and took another drink from your lukewarm beer and pulled at the hem of the black dress you were wearing. Usually you didn’t feel self conscious in the things you picked for yourself but being, less petite, than some of your peers and wearing something your roommate had picked out so you could both wear matching costumes (you got to be the bad witch) in a room full of obnoxious frat bros made you feel slightly … less confident than normal. 

You were about to cut and run when a guy appeared in front of you wearing a Ghostface Costume,

“What’s your favourite scary movie?”

“The Exorcist, 1973. A masterpiece in horror cinema” you responded without thinking. You hadn’t actually expected anyone to talk to you, after being basically ignored all night

“That’s, yeah that’s a really good pick” the guy pulled his mask off and you found yourself looking into the face of the local weed guy, Eddie Munson. 

Everyone you knew, yourself included, bought their weed from Eddie. His stuff was guaranteed to be the best and not laced with anything it shouldn’t be,

“It’s the line from the homeless guy in the subway ‘can you help an old altar boy father’ and then later on when they’re in Regan’s bedroom and she says the same thing in the same voice. Chills. Literal chills” 

“Such a good movie. They don’t make movies like that anymore, y’know? Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Rosemary’s Baby” 

“Have you seen X? Or Pearl? They have the same kinda vibes but are totally modern movies” 

“I’ve seen X. Massive Texas Chainsaw vibes” 

“Right!” 

You ended up finding a quiet corner with Eddie where the two of you could talk about horror movies for the rest of the evening. You’d honestly never really found anyone who loved horror the way you did so it was amazing to be able to vibe with someone like this. 

⊱ ────── {.⋅ 👻 ⋅.} ───── ⊰

The party raged on into the wee hours and by now both you and Eddie were feeling the effects of the beer and few joints you’d shared. You were feeling pleasantly buzzed and enjoying the attention of an attractive man, even if it wouldn’t go anywhere. 

“It’s so cool that you’re into horror, most people get freaked out or maybe enjoy those like conjuring movies”

“Ugh. The Warrens are the absolute worst, by all accounts they just scam people and then use their stories to write books and make more money” you gestured widely around the room, “how fucked is that?”

“Totally fucked” Eddie agreed 

“You know I almost didn’t come tonight but my roommate kinda forced me to” 

“Remind me to send your roommate a fruit basket or something as thanks then” Eddie said, “cause this is definitely a way better night than I thought it was gonna be”

“It’s so cool to meet a friend tonight” you agreed, “but aren’t you like ‘working’ the party?” 

Eddie laughed and you had to admit you loved the sound. You wondered if he would want to still be friends after the party was over,

“You’re cute. I mean sure it’s great talking like this but honestly, I saw you standing on your own and seriously couldn’t understand why cause just the sight of you in that dress had all the blood in my body run south. I mean, the fact that you’re awesome on top of being drop dead hot is a bonus”

Your brain short circuited for a moment and you couldn’t quite believe what you were hearing,

“So, you wanna get a room?” 

“Absolutely I do”

Eddie smirked wickedly at you before helping you off the couch and pulling you behind him to the main staircase and along a corridor to an empty room. 

⊱ ────── {.⋅ 👻 ⋅.} ───── ⊰

“Sit on my face, come on” Eddie grinned at you, taking one of your hands and pulling you towards the bed. 

You followed the tug and threw one leg over the bed and balanced on your knees. Before you could even try to think about how much weight to bear down you felt Eddie grab your hips and pull you down onto his face forcefully. 

There was no way you could focus on anything but the way Eddie licked into you hungrily. His hands on your hips dug into the flesh there and you threw your head back with the intense feelings, moaning loudly. 

“Oh my god Eddie”

Beneath you Eddie made a muffled noise which you assumed was positive since he didn’t stop what he was doing for even a moment. 

You wondered briefly how he could breathe but the thought left your mind as quickly as it had arrived when Eddie’s nose brushed against your clit and you saw stars. 

Eddie continued to suck and lick you through your orgasm and the aftershocks, the oversensitivity made you want to pull away but Eddie held you firm coaxing yet another orgasm from you until your legs began to shake. Only then did he allow you to pull away and catch your breath,

“Holy shit” you panted, trying to regain some of your self control,

“That’s only the warm up act baby. It’s just you and me and no one is gonna hear you when you scream my name as loud as you want to” 

This was definitely a way better night than you’d thought it would be when your roommate forced you out tonight. 

After all what was Halloween without a few screams?

[pokemonshelterstories]

hello!

I’m thinking of starting a therapy place/shelter, mainly for queer youth, and I was wondering how to help possibly accustom my Pokémon to use as therapy mon? I raised most of them up from youth, and they’re quite friendly, but have been mostly used in battling (which is where I got the money for this) and I’m worried they might react adversely to other trainers and their companions. The main three I’d be using for this would be my Luxray Nimbus, who was the first I ever caught, and my Leafeon and Sylveon (shiny), Morel and Rory.

sorry for the long ask hehe

unfortunately, i think you'd have a really hard time doing this with your former battling pokemon. for liability's sake it's highly recommended that you certify therapy pokemon with an agency. and, for better or for worse, most of these agencies will not certify pokemon who are battle-trained. the general thinking is that a pokemon that has frequently battled, regardless of how friendly it is, is more likely to respond with aggression in unfamiliar situations. if one of your pokemon were to harm a client, you could be faced with charges.

there are, of course, some organizations that disagree with this line of thinking and will happily certify any pokemon that passes its tests; you'd have to look around to see if any such organization exists in your region. of all of those pokemon, your luxray would probably be the toughest to certify due to both general species temperament and typing. still, if you're concerned at all about the way any of them would react to clients, i personally think it's better to err on the side of caution and not use them as therapy pokemon without undergoing a full behavioral training course and assessment.

make sure that you also look into laws and recommendations surrounding accessibility and pokemon-free spaces. as a private establishment, you'd likely have control over whether or not you allow clients to have pokemon in your facilities. but many health providers and shelters do require clients' pokemon to be balled or boxed while they're inside to prevent things like unexpected battles. there's a lot of debate about whether allowing client pokemon in homeless shelters is a safety concern versus whether the mental/emotional effect of requiring vulnerable people to set their pokemon aside is demeaning/damaging. that's a choice you'll have to make for yourself, but i do think it's an important consideration.

[baambastic]

Woo Be Upon Ye:

Medieval fantasy TimKon AU where Kon is a half-dragon prince of the realm who elevates commoner Tim to the Royal Guard on a whim. Also has Bart as an apprentice mage, Donna and Cassie as Themiscyran ambassadors, many of Tim’s school friends as Royal Guards, Wildcat as a mentor, the Daily Planet staff as the royal council, and more! Planned as part one of a four-part series.

Bernard Dowd vs. The World:

After hearing Tim’s many, many, many stories about his friends, Bernard realizes that almost all of Tim’s guy friends were hitting on Tim at multiple points. Failing to convince Tim of this, however, Bernard makes it his mission to obtain written testimonies from as many of said friends as he can to support his case. Such friends include Superboy, Danny Temple, Sebastian Ives, Lonnie Machin, and more.

Two for the Price of Them:

In this AU, Tim’s 100th cloning attempt is a success, and so clones of both Kon and Bart are created. Partway through the artificial aging process, however, an agent of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. (overhauled from the same metahuman-abduction organization from the New52) attacks. Tim is forced to go on the run and off the grid with the two clone babies.

The World Didn’t Stand Still:

When Kathy Branden plugs a Phantom Zone Crystal into her teleportal and visits the Phantom Zone, she comes back with a young Krytonian boy, Chris Kent, who claims to be the foster son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Effectively taking pre-boot Chris from after his debut story and transporting him into post-Rebirth continuity. Part of a planned trilogy of fics centered on Chris. Guaranteed that they will not end with Chris getting punted into the Phantom Zone for an unknown length of time.

The Dichotomy of Lor-Zod and Chris Kent:

In post-Infinite Frontiers continuity, Lor-Zod begins getting flashes of a life before his own, of a life where he was family to the loathsome Kal-El of the House of El. Lor’s father, Dru-Zod, convince Lor that his affliction must be the machinations of the Justice League’s Martian Manhunter, a psychic attack meant to weaken New Kandor for invasion. Along with Non as a chaperone, Lor-Zod goes on a quest to hunt the Martian Manhunter, though he’s really on the path to restoring his pre-boot history and identity, and all the internal conflict that comes from the contradictions between his two selves. Effectively how I would approach reconciling the current iteration of Lor-Zod with Chris Kent. Guest-starring Martian Manhunter and M’gann M’orzz.

The Cola Caper:

Upon hearing the devastating news that an embargo on the island nation of Santa Prisca will halt the distribution of Zesti Cola in the United States, Dick and Tim go on a mission to infiltrate Santa Prisca and abscond with as much Zesti as they can, and maybe even the secret recipe if they’re lucky.

Stray Little Tiger:

A Billy Batson-centric fic placed in a Stray!Tim Drake AU. Selina Kyle, on her way home from a caper, comes across a lightning-struck boy in an alley. Clearly homeless and in need of help, she decides to take the boy in until he’s healed, though the lightning seems to have severely damaged his vocal cords. She doesn’t know that this boy is Billy Batson, that he’s Captain Marvel, or that there’s something deeply wrong with the Rock of Eternity. This story is told mainly from Selina’s POV, with occasional sidetracks to Tim’s POV, but never Billy’s POV. Identity shenanigans, found family, magic problems, and more.

A Single Word Spoken:

A girl in the shape of a weapon is brought to Fawcett City, where she fulfills her purpose for the first and last time.

The girl who can no longer be a weapon hides from her wielder in an old subway and finds herself transported to a place of great magic.

There, the girl who wishes to be more than she was made to be finds a Wizard, who sees the girl for her heart and not for the blood staining her skin.

The Wizard teaches the girl a name.

Cassandra speaks her first word.

And in so doing, she speaks power.

Also featuring Cass navigating the anachronistic Fawcett City, befriending Billy Batson, codependency issues, an old man who’s also a Bengal tiger, ancient grudges, a different old man who’s barely qualified to give Cass life advice, and more.

Fake it For the Win:

While on a cruise, Tim and Kon decide to fake being married in order to compete on an onboard game show for married couples. When they actually win, though, they have no choice but to keep up the act for the rest of their trip. Fake dating to real dating, with a focus on comedy.

Crossroads of Fate and Eternity:

JLI-era fic with a couple of canon-divergent indulgences. Kent Nelson, helped by Khalid Nassour, decides to take Billy Batson under his wing as a student of the mystic arts. Magic lessons, Tower of Fate and Rock of Eternity shenanigans, Bromfield family stuff, an ancient entity and an ancient demon, philosophy, and other such tidbits.

A Little Ways Along the Family Tree:

When a villain travels through time to the future and accidentally takes Robin with him, Damian Wayne must team up with Mar’i and Jake Grayson to defeat the villain and return Damian to his proper time.

A High-Speed Romantic Tryst on an Open-Water Murder Shack:

When a couple of thugs steal a houseboat belonging to one of Tim’s marina neighbors while he and Bernard are hanging out, the two of them give chase in Tim’s own houseboat. Comedy, crack treated seriously.

[demonbarbers]

so high rn so sorry if this doesn’t make any sense i’m just so emotional about josh and annaleigh and this production so i’m gonna ramble a bit about what i love about it and them. ok. enjoy.

the thing about sweeney todd is that it’s mean. it’s a mean show. it ends on the cruel irony of 2 officers bursting in on toby slitting sweeney’s throat, surrounded by 2 other bodies and one in the oven; on johanna watching her father die holding her mother and not even knowing it. everyone is an abuser or abused, and there is no hope or redemption to be found. and it fucking rules! it just rules. it’s so fun to indulge in our basest pleasures for nearly 3 hours, delicately served to us by one of the greatest composers who’s ever lived.

and every major production takes the bile and cruelty inherent to the material and runs away with it. like- just look at this swedish production from 2006, directed by vernon mound. or the last time it was on broadway, directed by john doyle:

productions tend go smaller and nastier, more intimate, in keeping with the spirit of how sondheim originally conceived the piece. (side note: i LOVE when they do that. my ideal sweeney has buckets of blood and visera right in your face)

the original production of sweeney was MASSIVE, but that came from hal prince. hal couldn’t really get an emotional foothold on the material until he found within sweeney an extended metaphor for capitalism and the industrial revolution; people literally eating people and the machine of capitalism grinding everyone up. revivals also tend to seize on the brechtian class elements, like this absolutely gorgeous korean production from 2019 directed by eric schaeffer:

sondheim, meanwhile, always objected to readings of sweeney as brechtian- it was all a farce to him, just a good, nasty time at the theatre. he approached it as a horror fan who wanted to write some fucked up stuff, which is maybe now some of the best art is created. but hal made it into epic theatre.

(if u don’t know what epic theatre is or what brechtian means google will explain it better to u than my ridiculously stoned ass can rn but im just focusing on one aspect of it rn: the distancing effect. basically, emotionally distancing the audience from the characters and the material so that everyone is engaging with the work on an intellectual level as opposed to an emotional one)

obc sweeney is an alienating show. it’s so fun and brutal and deeply felt, but these characters are grotesque. they’re cartoonish in their cruelty. just look at their makeup! john doyle also embraces the distancing effect; his revival is actor-muso, so we’re pretty aware at all times we’re watching a show. it’s all so cold, and the only warmth to be found is in the humor. and it rules. it’s nasty. i love it. this is the show i fell in love with.

all these things have become inherent to sweeney over time, all teased out of the greatest broadway show to ever exist; visceral horror, cruelty, coldness, and class commentary.

but this revival is just.. it’s warm! it’s lush! it’s romantic! and i don’t mean that in the sense of lovett and sweeney (tho this is the warmest they’ve ever been towards each other in any major production i’ve seen). i mean that it gestures at and plays with romanticism.

my biggest critique of this production is, in doing away with the brechtian elements (sondheim just cheered), it also does away with overt class commentary. it’s all still there in the text- turpin is a corrupt judge, beadle is effectively a sheriff, sweeney and lovett are working class, the beggar woman is homeless- but as a director tommy kail seems… uninterested in any biting political commentary, to put it generously lmfao. and i hate so much how little of it there is to be found in this revival, bc you can still Do It without invoking brecht. but i’ve long made my peace with that. i wanna talk about what i love.

and what i really love and what kept me returning to it (beyond the fact that it’s sondheim, and it’s sweeney, and josh groban is so stupid fucking hot) is how human everyone is. the entire production, from the ground up, is built around taking these characters and their pain seriously.

the ensemble all have incredibly period accurate costumes, unique to each character they’ve crafted (fun fact even the swings have their own unique costume that’s only seen when they perform). gone is toby as a mentally disabled man child with an oedipal fixation on lovett. in gaten’s hands he’s a young teenager, aging out of being a cute urchin and just looking for a mother. in daniel’s hands he’s beaten down young man with a limp and a genuine love for lovett.

ruthie’s beggar woman has developed DID after a brutal rape and the trauma of institutionalization and homelessness. she’s not played for laughs, even if sometimes the audience chuckles, and she makes u feel guilty if you ever did laugh at her situation. daniel yearwood leans so far into anthony as a sweet guy completely unaware of the story he’s actually in to the point of comedy. maria is just a revelation as johanna, all nerve and tension and bloody nails from years of self-harm. it’s easy to lean into johanna as a princess track, but ~crazy~. and maria plays jo as mentally ill and traumatized from years of incesteous abuse, but it’s not a pastiche or a praody of it. jo feels human in a way i’ve never seen her depicted before. i love it. maria bilbao u have my heart forever for this.

and then josh and annaleigh…. ugh!!! annaleigh really captures the avarice at the heart of lovett, but still brings in enough genuine moments of humanity and compassion that you find yourself (like sweeney and toby) endeared to her. lovett is always cruel and can only love through manipulation, but annaleigh’s lovett is a woman who makes small concessions. bit by bit, piece by piece, she erodes whatever goodness she had inside her until nothing but her desire for sweeney is left. she’s a woman who’s used seduction to get her way, and it’s easy to envision that when lucy returned from turpin’s, she shamed her for “giving it away” without getting benjamin back. she’s a monster! and yet, when she dreams of a better life, you feel it. when she holds toby in her arms and cried at her perfect little life unraveling, you feel it. annaleigh makes you laugh so hard she gets under your skin and stays there, exactly how lovett seduces sweeney in ALP. and there it is- identification! the complete opposite of alienation. we’re in it with them.

and then there’s josh and his sweeney… i really feel like his sweeney is undervalued. annaleigh steals the show. she won the drama desk for a reason. it’s a legendary performance. but josh…. man. i just. i keep returning to josh’s open wound of a sweeney over and over again. i think he’s probably had this take bouncing around in his head for years. they smartly leaned away from sweeney as this embodiment of rage and physical menace, which surprised a lot of people. but instead leaned into sweeney’s grief in a way i haven’t seen any major production do. josh’s sweeney feels like a man who was put on this earth to be a father and a husband. there’s a buried sweetness to him and you can still see benjamin barker in him until the very end. i keep calling him “kendall roy sweeney” bc it’s the closest way i can covey to other ppl what josh is doing here. he’s all big sad eyes and suicidal ideation, tragedy and twitchy hands. he’s so deeply pathetic he just endears himself to you. i want sweeney to succeed more than ever before. even though he spends all of act 2 killing people and being a shit father and thus killing benjamin barker, i still find myself wanting him and lovett to get away with it. and when the reveal comes, and even worse the betrayal hits- that this woman who he let into his life and body and who, in some odd way, became a friend, lied to him this entire time- it hits like never before for me.

i just love it all so much. i’m so happy it exists, so happy this revival does something so new! sondheim has said sweeney todd is a show about obsession, and it is. this revival supposes: what is the difference between love and obsession? what if the two look the same?

i think often of this quote from luca guadagnino’s suspiria (a masterpiece btw): “Love and manipulation, they share houses very often. They are frequent bedfellows.”

to me, that’s this revival in a nutshell- the thin line between love and obsession, and all the blood spilled in between.

[vivianbernadetteaurora]

Gaslit

Gaslighting, a new term really in the last 10 years,

but we really did believe back then that was fat .

and she wasn’t at all if anything she was like, normal way this is why most Millennials eating, absolutely hounded her, they said that Chris angel , Mirror and she sack the fat as a joke. which obviously wasn’t funny people like the normal news channels were just absolutely loved to annihilate Britney 2007 .

And even when she was in her conservatorship, we know it got even worse , this amazing woman , and girl when she first came out gave her us her whole career , music her interviews is she was lovely ,

has all faded , and it’s so sad to see a lot of her fans don’t even believe it’s her anymore and it’s a clone because she doesn’t have the same teeth or anything , and  the shape of her mouth is , her smile is definitely not that light in her eyes anymore, which is really sad ,

thank God she’s out of it now but for some reason I think there’s something still really odd going on with her, always these new stories either saying that she’s on drugs, being hit by someone or she hit, just want to make her look crazy I’m scared the next story will be the end,

Just like they did with people like Aaron Carter,  and a few people I can’t remember their names of Isaac Cappy who tried to expose things who was a small TV actor, tried to say that Tom Hanks was a paedophile, moved to Greece because of the age consent of. So I listen to the psychic SLOAN BELLA Who, left home at 14, became a teenage runaway with drugs, homeless people , pimps , gigolo prostitutes you name it she met them , sold her own body. I believe and her body and went from a very young age,

she knows the debauchery of Hollywood, and psychically channels dead celebrities, and she’s been spot on, even energetically done it with celebrities who are still alive, the readings have been really, even trend on TikTok.

Another one I feel he’s Justin Bieber, who’s was just a baby, and now has his own baby I don’t think he’s well enough to even., he has got a wife and, man’s it’s a man’s world

, a completely different story like it was Britney losing her kids, herself and refusing to give the baby back because she was postnatal and of course she didn’t want to give her child back to some loser Kevin Federline , kfed

got through wow Blake fielder civil , honestly honestly it was a different times to live and when I see young YouTuber or young TikTok is talk, think why are you in that time because I was only 17 and I was born in 1990, obviously had a massive effect on all of us, so I know effect on people, because we were used to seeing old Brittany, with a six pack and toned every inch and then had the cheek to call her fat when she was just, self what I loved about Brittany as well is that she didn’t care when her hair was falling out like her extensions and stuff, she actually white trash with her T-shirts, that she just was herself for all of that, and for exposing the way these people treated her was amazing because , husband what I find really weird it’s so many celebrities got married in 2021,think JLO and Ben, BRITNEY and Sam, and Ariana and that Dalton guy, and then suddenly they’re getting divorces and falling for other men besides BRITNEY but do we really look into Muhammad Al Turkey?

[vouam]

just found this guy’s answer to a question on quora (“is misandry a problem in the US?” or something of that nature) and was wondering what your reaction to it would be. there are some points i wouldn’t be sure how to refute, though it’s certainly not enough to change my radfem beliefs lol. i’ll copy and paste it since i can’t send ss in anon

Q:“is misandry prevalent in today’s society?”

A:“I would say so.

Woman: doesn't want a child so she secretly aborts it.

Man: doesn't want a child and is forced to pay child support for 18 years while being ridiculed as a dead beat dad

Woman: my body, my choice

Man: has his genitals forcibly mutilated for no good reason at birth

Woman: free drinks at the club on ladies night

Man: there is no men's night. Drink prices increase to cover all the free drinks ladies get

Woman: oh please keep yourself safe

Man: forced to sign up for selective services (a.k.a. draft) at 18.

Woman: complains about low paying job

Men: 67% of work place injuries happen to men, 93% of work place fatalities happen to men. No one bats an eye

Woman: mostly automatically given custody of children no matter what

Men: you can see your children on the weekend only and pay for child support

Man: simply accused of abusing a woman and goes straight to jail.

Woman: beats the man senseless and if the man defends himself goes to jail. If he doesn't defend himself he still might go to jail or if he is lucky police will tell him to quit making a big deal about it. Has 1 place in the country to go to for sheltering battered men despite the fact that women are the perpetrators of domestic violence some 40% of the time. Woman, have countless battered women shelters to go to.

Man: gets raped by woman at gun point being forced to give oral sex and held captive for days. Society has a good laugh

Woman: gets raped and her perpetrator is rightfully punished. No one is laughing about it. Woman gets psychological help and all kinds of assistance from society. Also if she makes false accusations of rape, ruining a man's life, no one says a thing about it and she is free to go on accusing.

Men: penalties for the same crime as women are much longer sentences.

Men: comprise 60 some % of homeless population

Men: comprise of a majority of suicides

I could go on but it's only going to anger the feminazis more and more”

reading crap like this makes me so mad tbh, like i understand moids don’t have easy lives just because they’re moids but GOOD FUCKING GRIEF it’s like they just can’t fucking get enough of acting like society wasn’t built by men for men. 🙏🙏 sorry it just gets me upset. anyway love ur blog!!

Oooof this is a really great ask so thank you for sending this in! I guess I’ll approach this by answering each one individually (although I might repeat myself)

Men pay child support while women can just have an abotion

This is a very strange argument. Because firstly not every country has fully legal abortions. 47 countries only allow it for health reasons, 43 to save the mother’s life and 22 it is fully illegal. A lot of men like this seem to forget that there are other countries on this planet. I’d personally rather be the gender that has to pay child support for an unwanted baby. Even in the case of legal abortions, abortions are not easy to go through. It is mentally very difficult and can be an invasive procedure. Women are shamed for having abortions in every country, even the most ‘accepting’ places.

Circumcision

I am very against circumcision and this was probably his most valid point(?) But his point excludes the fact that FGM is practiced in many countries and cultures. And while male circumcision is usually done for religious reasons claiming its ‘hygienic’ and has little to no bad side effects while FGM can kill women and girls, and is done for far more malicious reasons that I can’t even begin to describe.

Men’s drinks night

Does he know the implications of what ‘buying a woman a drink’ means?? Yeah, I’d much rather be a man in this situation 😭

Drafted at 18

I am against anyone being drafted, and I’m against any military work period. But men made this rule because they deem men to be brave and strong - a stereotype designed to benefit them.

Work place injuries and fatalities

Most injuries and fatalities happen with manual labour, construction/factory work etc. Same stereotype as listed in the point before this.

Custody over children

Again, this happens due to a stereotype that benefits men. Women are ‘better parents/nurturing’ while men are not and should go out there and work and achieve their goals while women stay at home. Literally designed to benefit men. Also, a lot of men view the custody struggle as a privilege because they cannot be bothered to be fathers.

Going to prison because of a simple accusation and less abuse shelters for men

This is the craziest point because men do not go to prison over some random accusation pulled out from thin air. In order to accuse someone of abuse, you need extensive indisputable evidence. Even then, the police will not take it seriously or the defence will win the case for whatever reason. These are the hardest crimes to prove in a court and the statistics show this. Less abuse shelters for men because they are far FAR less likely to be a victim. Yes, its’s sad but this literally proves misogyny is a thing rather than misandry - because I know damn well which sex I’d rather be in this instance.

People laugh at male rape victims and women are given full support/legal justice

I addressed this in the previous point. Women are ridiculed and not believed/not given justice at an extremely higher rate than men.

Longer male prison sentences

Same stereotype that I’ve said before about being stronger/braver vs weak/nurturing. The stereotype was made to benefit them. Also this ignores that a lot of the time there are other aspects to a crime that result in a higher sentence given. For example 1st degree murder done for financial motive vs sexual motive.

Larger male homeless population and male suicide rate

I guess this is more of a question of why men are more likely to be homeless or commit suicide. Make suicide rate studies suggest it’s harder for men to admit mental health struggles/reach out for help. Again, it’s sad but the strong brave stereotype was designed to benefit them, like I’ve said before. Permanent homelessness is largely due to addiction, mental health, childhood poverty, financial crisis, loss of relationships to family/partner. These can all happen to women, except a lot of the female homeless population are trafficked, resort to prostitution, enter abusive relationships to escape the streets. In a lot of countries, people seem to think its 99% men that are homeless, but its usually not. You just typically only see male homeless people sitting/sleeping on the street in public spaces - that’s a more terrifying place for a woman to be compared to a man.

—

I guess this guy’s main problems is that he:

- Thinks USA/Europe/western countries are the only places that exist

- Can’t see that bad things that happen to men are actually a result of stereotypes designed to benefit the male population

- Makes up statistics in his head that aren’t true

- Has a crazy victim complex

- Can’t see that the women’s position in his scenario is actually worse

I hope this helps with any future debates and refutes! And I hope I explained myself well enough 😭

[bumblebeerror]

Actually no the tags I just wrote should be a post.

I didn’t realize this wasn’t a commonly understood thing but. We are not in a massive economic depression right now. Which is actually. Worse!

You see, an economic depression means that through market failures, businesses fail en masse, leaving people unemployed and impoverished, leading to further market depression. An economic depression is started largely by MARKET issues, a toppling of dominos in the stock market. The 2008 economic depression effected regular folks because big businesses going under meant jobs disappeared after companies already went down.

This? The current high food and gas prices, rampant underemployment, the large majority of workers living paycheck to paycheck, rising homelessness and debt?

This is unchecked capitalist lobbying.

Companies are still making record profits. No big businesses are being bailed out by the government because they don’t need to be. They’re hiring because they’re still making money. They’re whining that nobody wants to work because they know they can be choosy in this economic climate - they know they can wait out for more desperate folks who NEED to make rent or be homeless.

This is entirely manufactured by unchecked capitalism consuming the consumers. This is the government failing to ensure that it’s people can live within its borders on minimum wage. This is suppression and subjugation of the working class.

It WILL eventually lead to a major economic depression. Eventually, they will manage to drain the consumer base dry, and as more people only spend enough money to scrape by and more people have to grow their own food to make ends meet, businesses will start hurting.

But without someone in office giving a damn, it will get worse before it gets better - because it’s for damn sure that companies will not be checking themselves.

[cutepastelstarsalior]

Screw it, just like Hazbin, I’m going to review Hellava boss.

Pilot

Ok, so the pilot was made in 2019???? Wow…Starting off strong, the first thing is a cartoonish drawn “content warning” that the show has swears. Honestly I feel like if they wanted the content warning to be taken seriously, while also having it be based off a drawing, it could have been really cool? Like with some cartoon tiles, shows have the titles change fonts or add special effect. If they just made the warning more in depth, it would be fine. But since they didn’t, it feels a bit mocking?

Richard Horvitz???? The VA for Invader Zim??? WHAT ARE YOU DOUNG HERE??? :0

You can really hear the difference btween professional VA vs new ones. Richard tone sounds more deeper then the others, and his words made more pronounced. While Millie’s and Blitzo’s VA are more softer and quiet.

The animation is fine, a bit fluid in some place, a bit stiff in others. I do like the color palette, compared to Hazbin, the colors aren’t an eye-straining red.

The Imps are a group of hired assassins! That’s a really cool concept!

The humans in this world are a bit jarring when they’re next to the Imps. The humans doctor has a thicker lineart then the Imps, so he stick out more awkwardly

I don’t like Loona’s design. Every time she looks forward, her muzzle is short and squish and her head shape is off.

Blitzo slept with Stolus (is that his name?) to get the book to take them to the human world. Interesting thing, but man that bird guy is a bit of a creep.

The pacing of this show is a bit off, it starts when the Imps talking, then it shows the musical ad, then it cuts to them hitting a child and taking said child to the hospital. Then it goes back to them talking, then it’s a montage about Loona, then that cuts to Blitzo getting the book and that bird guy, now it’s back to the Imps talking.

I like Moxxie. He a a very snarky dude. He also sets boundaries and telling Blitzo that stalking him and Millie is not appropriate. Though him calling Luna a meth addiction homeless women is….bad.

😬😬 R slur.

The child that they took to the hospital is ok. But then the kid calls them out and…eugh left a bad taste in my mouth. It felt like the kid was rude to be shock value? That with the onscreen death and disembodied of said kid?

One thing I didn’t like besides the ending was that amount of cursing. It’s much tone down from Hazbin, (I think? I can’t remember).

Scale of 1-5, I give this a 4. It’s pretty good!

Episode 1

The first episode was released in 2020, that pretty impressive. I don’t know a lot about indie animation, so I don’t know if having a show be picked up a a year after the pilot is a good thing or not.

Another content warning! This one more official, well beside the “horny humans and horny demons” part…

Oh my god is this whole show going to have a musical scene???

The animation is much more fluid now!

Oh wow…..OH wow. Ok so this teacher, she was at work, a one of her students reminded her that today is her husband’s birthday. So she had the children…call him on the computer? Skype?? I’m guessing this was in a time period that didn’t have phones.. But the teacher saw her husband having an affair. She left, after throwing a child out the schools roof, and murder the women. She saw the computer was still on, then I think killed herself??? Anyway the children will definitely be traumatized after that.

Oh the women survive the shooting. But she was claimed as a hero and got a lot of money out of it???

Moxxie is hesitating about killing an entire family. While Millie seems fine with it. I just since she’s a demon, she doesn’t care that much for human? It interesting that they made Moxxie like this? In the pilot he was just a snarky jerk..

THERE FIREFIGHTERS IN HELL???? man they must be paid a lot of money, since hell has a lot of fires. Or are they worked too much?? I’m curious about how the hell works in this show..

Oh, the family are cannibals. Also I’m getting MAJOR Residents Evil Biohazard vibes..

The color palette for when Blitzo was running in the forest is very pretty. Nice purples mixes with red. And Stolas’s bathroom is very pretty too. Thought I don’t like his new voice, it’s to high pitched for me.

“Stolas is a Great Prince of Hell, commands twenty-six legions of demons. He teaches astronomy and is knowledgeable about herbs, plants, and precious stones. He is often depicted as a raven or a crowned owl with long legs” that what’s Wiki says. So Stolas is like, an adviser? What is his job?? One a month on the full moon, Stolas wants the book back and to have him and Blitzo…have sex? Company? Then Blitzo can have the book for the rest of the time….I don’t know how that deal is efficient..

Fire can’t hurt demons, but they can get hurt when shot at…interesting.

Moxxie lets the family life and just called the police to have them deal with it. That’s sweet. I always think shows that have supernatural or villains characters having a heart of gold or a soft spot is a cool tropes.

Yeah, this is a dark comedy.

Scale out of 5, I give this a 3. It was fine, the art was pretty and I love the teacher.

episode 2

Stolas has a baby! Octavia, she cute. Him singing her a lullaby is sweet. And the scenery is very beautiful, I love the colors. Stolas’s VA has a beautiful singing voice..It’s funny when a character has a different voice when they’re singing vs when they’re speaking…

Oh, so it seems like the family isn’t good. Stolas is having an affair, and the mother is very angry about it. Stolas decided to take his daughter out to a theme park, but he wants Blitzo to come?? Also Blitzo wants to have a three way with Millie and Moxxie….hmmm.

Lucifer has a theme park?? Since this world takes place in Hazbin Hotel…when did Lucifer do that?? Also, is hell just full of imps and some higher princes/demons? Humans that died? Did Moxxie, Millie, and Blitzo die? ALOS WHY ARE THERE DEMON CHILDREN??? Are they human kids who died or are they like, born into hell??

Alex Brightman WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE????????

Wejdnwdjicnwkejcnkwedjnwendjwkednwide robot clown….i love you….

Hmmmm.

The robot clown did a small parody of Charlie’s song from Hazbin Pilot. Makes me wonder what the timeline of this show..

I don’t know why but I need to keep talking about the colors in this show. THIS SHOW ISN’T EYE HURTING RED!! THERE GREEN AND BLIES AND IT LIKE AN ACTUAL THEME PARK I LOVE IT.

Octavia ran away and Stolas finds her and there talking. “Are you gonna run off with him and leave me behind? Go away where I can’t find you?”

OW. Poor Octavia I know what that kind of feels like. (Divorce parents, but thankfully no affairs.) it’s scary when your a kid and you think that one of you’re parents is going to abandon you. In Octavia case, her dad is flirting with Blitzo even when she’s in the room, so the doubt in her mind must be very hard to handle. Especially since Stolas can turn people into stone, so he really doesn’t need Blitzo to be there. He just wants the picture perfect family he created in his mind.

Scale of 5, I give this a 3.

[cuteniarose]

also this anon came here from ur art blog!

can you tell us more abt ur ocs?? infodump plz

Hey, it’s fine, don’t sweat it! That was all on me, tbh, I have a habit of not putting too much info about my OCs into posts because they have a target audience of two, me and my partner in crime, and obviously we both already know pretty much everything there is to know about these guys. It’s very rare that anyone stumbles upon my art blog, let alone likes it enough to come here and send multiple asks about my characters, so thank you for that!! Maybe I should start putting small bios in the descriptions of my art posts, at least ages and sexualities and who they are in relation to whom 😅

Anyway, I did make a long infodump post about my main OCs, Suiren and Midori, here, and 99% of that information is still accurate, so I’m not going to repeat myself. And the rest depends on who you wanna know more about, Kat and I have over 20 between us, if I were to talk about everyone we’d be here until next year. But for now.. how about a rundown of the ones I currently speak of most often?

(Under the cut because this got LONG)

Haya – Born in 120 AG, she/her, cis, thinks she’s straight but definitely some flavour of queer, will most likely never figure it out :/. She’s Ghazan’s older sister who raised him after their parents fell victim to a plague when she and Ghazan were 14 and 5 respectively. Obviously, life wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the two of the after that. Haya had to quit school so she could work to provide for her brother, and she worked herself to the bone at any job that would take her because what else could she do? Let her brother starve? Not pay the bills so they’ll eventually end up homeless? And with how tired she was, of course she had little capacity remaining for kindness. She became hardened, mean and immensely overprotective, always yelling at Ghazan whenever he didn’t do as she told him, particularly he ran off to play in the Swamp despite it being where the sickness that took away their parents had come from, even more so when he made friends with Ming-Hua, and eventually she started hounding him endlessly about how much money he’s costing her. And it all boiled down to Ghazan running away as a teenager and joining the Red Lotus, later reuniting and falling in love with Ming-Hua, and having Suiren and Midori. When the time came for the plan to kidnap Korra, the girls were left with Haya, and that’s where things take a sharp turn for the worse. Haya saw her brother in Midori and the swamp rat who stole him away from her in Suiren, they were living proof that her brother abandoned her and she couldn’t stand it. And so she became physically, verbally and emotionally abusive, and the effect that childhood had on the girls will stay with them long after they’re out from under her roof. Haya is easily the most emotionally conflicting character that I have. You want to hate her, you SHOULD hate her, she’s an absolutely awful person with 0 redeeming qualities, but then you remember that once upon a time she was very much like Suiren, a young girl who loved her mother very much and just wanted the best for her little sibling, and now she’s older and alone and miserable. It’s.. a sad fate, and a part of me can’t help but sympathise with her. Not that it excuses her actions, but it adds a layer to her for sure.

Summiya – Born in 124 AG, she/her, cis, aromantic allosexual, no exact sexuality label beyond that since for her, sleeping with people isn’t about the partner, but rather what they can give her. Zaheer’s older sister, the stereotypically perfect eldest child who sets impossible standards for her siblings. What sets her apart from the rest is that her face is perfectly symmetrical, as if someone put a mirror to one half of it, and while she’s undeniably beautiful, the symmetry tends to freak people out a little. She doesn’t look human, more like a perfect porcelain doll, and that’s exactly what she was raised to be. She was born into a noble family and given the patriarchal structure in place her only role in life is to uphold her father’s reputation and political status by being married off to the highest bidder and becoming the perfect wife and mother. When she was 16, Zaheer ran away from home and she denounced him as a brother with no hesitation. When her sister Aiza did the same thing three years later, Summiya struggled a lot more to do the same, but she was already married and pregnant at that point so pushed the event deep, deep down and focused on her own family. Following her siblings’ betrayal, she was placed under a lot more pressure to not end up like them and not let her kids do the same, which resulted in her becoming an overbearing control freak who hates that both her children (a girl and a boy, just like her own siblings were) were born with birthmarks on their faces, making them imperfect, and her carefully concealed but still obvious hatred of those marks drove her daughter to attempting to bleach her skin. And all her efforts were for nothing, because they still end up rebelling against her as teenagers, not too long before she discovers her husband is cheating on her and only a few months before Zaheer is imprisoned. Tough year, what can I say? And she just.. cracks, completely loses it, and Kat said she’d write a proper fic about it so I’ll leave the details to her, especially considering tumblr won’t like me talking about them, but she begins cheating on her husband too and is a complete masochist, to the point she deeply scares her partners and they end up breaking it off. Essentially, Haya on steroids 😅

Aiza/Emran – Born in 126 AG, she/he/they, genderfluid, pansexual, polyamorous. Zaheer’s other sister, the middle child in the family. The three siblings were never close with each other, they were never allowed to be, but Aiza and Zaheer still managed to share a few moments where he told her about Air Nomad culture and philosophy, thus causing her to gain an interest in it too. After he ran away she started reading a lot more and aching for the freedom described in the texts. At age 17, a few days before her arranged marriage, she gets into an argument with Summiya about duty, sacrifice and wanting more from life, much more than being married to a guy she never even had a proper conversation with and birthing his children, and upon finding no support in her sister she decides to run away too. She cuts her hair, disguises herself as a boy under the name Emran and becomes an air acolyte at one of the temples. She struggles at first since she never had to work for anything before, but eventually begins to love this way of life and gains a lot more confidence in herself. She makes friends and grows so close with them she sees them as family, and at some point reveals her deceit, but no one is too mad at her because ultimately, she’s still her. But after that revelation, she realises that she didn’t dislike being a boy, and she doesn’t hate being a girl as long as she’s not under the intense pressure her parents placed on her, and becomes genderfluid, using different pronouns and both Aiza and Emran as names depending on what they feel more like that day. They also start experimenting with their sexuality and fall in love with a bunch of people of all genders, forming a polycule though never settling down officially. After Harmonic Convergence they will gain airbending, and eventually, several years later, they’ll reunite with Zaheer and the two will get to need out about Air Nomads together like they were always meant to 🥹🥹

Ehuang – No exact birthdate yet, but most likely >180 AG. She’s still a bit too young for us to really decide on gender and sexuality and whatever else, but for now, cis, she/her. She’s the daughter of Midori and Opal Beifong, conceived with the help of Bataar Jr (Midori was the one pregnant). Midori and Opal adopt several kids together, but at some point Midori decides that she wants to know what it’d feel like to carry a child herself, to be there when they’re born, to see traits of her family reflected in them. So she and Opal talk, ask Bataar for help, one thing leads to another and nine months later, precious baby Ehuang is born. She’s the love of my life and light of my world, genuinely the most good and pure thing to ever exist, the representation of everything finally being okay with the world, and I adore her beyond what words can convey. She’s named after a character from the same legend her great grandmother’s (Ming-Hua’s mom, Nuying) name comes from, and will eventually reveal herself an earthbender, though not a metalbender like Opal’s family, but a lavabender like her grandfather. Truly the perfect mix of her entire family <3 This section is a bit shorter than the rest, but that’s simply because she doesn’t have too much going on with her yet. Hopefully one day we’ll find the time to add to it (and finally design her siblings, maybe???)

Ila and Alasie – Grouping these two together because they tend to go hand in hand with each other. Going off how old I imagine them to be compared to Suiren, Alasie was born in 152/153 AG and Ila in 150 AG. Cis and she/her for both, but Ila is a lesbian and Alasie is aroace (and a waterbender, though she’s rather bad at it). They’re not related to each other or, surprisingly, anyone else either on my OC list or out of canon characters. They both work as handmaidens in the Northern Water Tribe palace under Malina, Unalaq’s wife. Now, there’s quite a bit of lore surrounding Malina, but the basics are that her and Unalaq’s marriage was arranged, he has no interest in her because he’s a spiritfucker and only into Vaatu, she hates him, dislikes her kids, and was generally unsatisfied with life right up until one of her handmaidens showed interest in her, and in the nearly two decades since then she’s formed a proper harem out of both maids and guards who are all utterly enamoured with her. It’s not a permanent arrangement, a lot of them end up leaving their positions to get married or whatever else, and Malina chooses not to mourn and simply move on. Ila is a girl very much like the rest, in love with Malina and becoming absolutely obsessed after the one night she had with her. The difference is that her affection is completely unidirectional, she looks at no one else but her lady, completely and utterly devoted to her alone. Alasie, however, is aroace, and after being propositioned by Malina one evening tearfully confesses that she never wants to be touched by anyone, and Malina smiles and calms her and allows her to sleep in her bed, no obligations or anything, just so she can feel the warmth because she comes from a poor family and her clothes aren’t nearly as good at keeping her warm. What she ends up having with Malina is most similar to a queerplatonic relationship, and through that she becomes friends with Ila too, as they’re the two that Malina is most fond of at the moment. I will admit that Alasie is basically just a projection of myself that was created when I first figured out I was aroace and having a whole crisis over it, and Ila shares quite a few traits with Kat, so… yay for self inserts? They’re just fun characters to play around with when we need a break from the general doom and gloom of our main universes, that’s all :)

Oof, this took a looong time to write, and again, these are only about a sixth of all the OCs we have, so if you have any more questions about them, or wanna know about anyone else specifically, feel free to ask!!

[lilyhoshikawa]

So between the time of the prelude part of ATSV, where Gwen’s dad rejects her and she becomes effectively homeless, to the scene toward the end where they reconcile, she:

- Grows her hair out a noticeable amount, dyes the end on one side

- Changes the design of her Spider-Woman suit (the prelude scene uses the ITSV costume and it is slightly different after her reintroduction)

- Goes on “a couple dozen” missions with Hobie, becomes close with him, eventually good enough friends that she can crash at his place and steal his shoes

- Spends enough time in the Spider Society to become closer with Jess and to some extent Miguel, enough so that she talks about them to Miles as if she knows them well, and to the extent that Jess views Gwen as her “star pupil” (whether that comment have been made seriously or demeaningly, it implies they’re close enough that Gwen will catch the message and that they’ve spent some time working together). Miguel also later implies that Gwen “knew better” during the Mumbattan mission, again implying she’s been at least taught this stuff and Miguel is aware of that

- Spends enough time apart from Miles that both parties are experiencing a lot of longing to see one another again. This is hard to quantify bc there’s also the time between the end of the first movie and the prelude to take into account, but it still feels meaningful. It’s been long enough that Miles has filled a sketchbook with doodles of Gwen, which has to have taken awhile

And I’m thinking abt all of this, and how that’s easy to miss. In the scene with Miles, Gwen doesn’t directly mention that she’s homeless or that her dad basically kicked her out, she says Hobie lets her crash in his dimension sometimes, but she’s obviously underselling how long it’s been just the same as she’s underselling a lot of other things in that scene. I think we’re kind of underestimating just how big the gap in time was that Gwen was away from home, why her dad changed his tune when she reappeared, at least partially. It’s possible part of why he was willing to listen was bc Gwen just DISAPPEARED for anywhere from weeks to months.

And that’s a period of time that can’t have been easy for her either- effectively homeless, prohibited from seeing Miles, only having a few ppl to confide in, and being indoctrinated by the Spider Society’s toxic beliefs surrounding the canon. It’s no wonder she behaves the way she does after Miles meets back up with her, given what she’s been through and is still going through at that point, and I think a lot of ppl are quick to jump the gun when blaming Gwen for not immediately jumping to Miles’ defense. Sure, she was wrong to side with the Spider Society, but keep in mind that they were effectively dangling homelessness in front of her at every turn. Jess threatens her when she sneaks off to see Miles just once, just briefly, and after she’s determined to have “failed” a second time, Miguel makes good on that threat by dumping Gwen back in her home dimension and shutting off her watch, effectively abandoning her altogether. If her dad had so much as withheld Hobie’s watch from her, if he hadn’t been willing to make amends, she would be stranded with nowhere to go. So the fact that she still puts herself on the line to go after Miles? Pretty goddamn commendable.

A lot of ppl talk abt the obvious transness of Gwen in this movie, both allegorically in her arc and subtextually with all the neon trans pride flag colors the movie keeps slapping u in the face with to make sure u get it (not saying that as an insult btw- with trans allegories, blunter is better, given how reluctant general audiences clearly are to accepting trans characters being canonized), but this is one element I don’t see discussed as much. Gwen embodies this very raw, vivid element of the trans and especially transfeminine experience in this movie.

She is a homeless transfem minor, kicked out of her house by a parent that does not accept her identity, who finds a home with the first group of ppl who are like her and willing to accept her for who she is. She is desperate to please them because they’re her only support system, even as they actively cut off her other avenues for support and make her reliant on them, frequently threatening her with abandonment unless she falls in line, shuts up and acts as she’s told to, knowing that if they drop her she has nowhere else to go. That’s the lived experience of many a trans woman who goes looking for help in a desperate situation. It’s extremely hard not to sympathize with her knowing that.

[cyberneticghosts]

Just some thoughts on dnd Dragonborn in BG3.

Appearances/Fashion.

Sexual dimorphism is Dragonborn is not clearcut all the time; some male Dragonborn are not massively muscular, some are just taller. Some female Dragonborn are also just huge depending on lineage (think how hawks and falcons have much larger females). Horns, frills, and scales are not even amazing indicators for their sex/gender.

Since in BG3 Dragonborn do not have breasts (due to not being strictly mammalian and egg-laying), those unfamiliar with their race can get a bit confused as to a particular individual’s gender/expression. But some feminine Dragonborn have taken up the presentation of breasts in their clothing by, effectively, stuffing their bras, mostly as a fun fashion statement picked up from other humanoids. Others won’t do so, or will base it on the type of clothing they’re wearing. It strikes me as funny when the default db feminine body wears a bralette despite not having any chest definitions that would normally require a bra, so it’s really just a clothing choice influenced by Faerǔn customs and clothing.

Dragonborn only sometimes have tails, and a very rare few will have leathery wings (and those wings may or may not be functional).

A small gag I wrote is that humanoids unfamiliar with Dragonborn in-person could be led to believe that female Dragonborn do, in fact, have breasts, because of cheap smut books taking artistic liberties.

Clans/Neighborhoods:

Dragonborn outside of Tymanther tend to congregate in neighborhoods— the clan lineages are not as strictly maintained as they loosely assimilate with the cities they settle in. The families tend to all know each other and their lineage and consider themselves a ‘clan’, even if they have no family ties. So, outsider Dragonborn will often have an easier time introducing themselves into a dragonborn neighborhood in Baldur’s Gate than if they were in Tymanther.

The sense of community care is still fairly strong— including taking care of the elderly, sheltering the homeless, and caring for the sick. That said, they really dislike seeing Dragonborn begging for money/food, or working in ‘lowly’ jobs for others of low status. (I.e. if you run your own business in sanitation, you’re fine, but if you work for someone else in sanitation, you have to ‘prove’ that your job is not lowly. But being an esteemed servant of a noble will generally be considered a well-regarded job. It probably varies heavily between individual Dragonborn as to what they consider acceptable or not). Artisans and Craftspeople are most often well-respected in the community.

While Tymanther has a more highly militarized society, Baldur’s Gate Dragonborn don’t seem to have as much draw to positions in military factions, as guards, etc. It may be part of being a more insular minority culture, or perhaps the Dragonborn who left Tymanther in the first place were wanting to avoid such roles in society.

Multi-generational extended family households are the norm.

They also will accept other humanoids into their neighborhood with ease and enjoy some cultural exchanges as well.

Dragonborn generally remain quite protective of other Dragonborn, though, even if not from their own clan/neighborhood.

Qallim/Love/Relationships

Tymanther society has Qallim as a legal obligation for all healthy young adult Dragonborn, which is basically a reproductive contract (temporary ‘marriage’ with the express goal of producing young, dissolved once the children become a few years old). Qallim is practiced outside of Tymanther but much more rarely and usually from familial pressures versus legal. It’s not necessarily frowned upon in Baldur’s Gate, but approached differently. Many Dragonborn left Tymanther specifically to avoid fulfilling Qallim contracts.

Relationships outside of Qallim are extremely varied. Some chose to participate in long-term marriages out of love, or arranged marriages for the sake of having children and strong family units. Dragonborn also often participate in casual relationships on the side of Qallim or arranged marriages, with communication and permission from partners.

Since Dragonborn are from another realm in origin, it’s unclear to me if they are able to reproduce with non-Dragonborn humanoids, and what the results of those unions would look like. It is not, however, unusual for Dragonborn to partner with non-Dragonborn humanoids and have loving relationships with them.

[thistlecatfics]

do you have opinions on cbt

Hahaha everyone has opinions on CBT. For the radical queer trauma therapist circles I run in I’m actually pretty pro-CBT. For the average person involved in mental/behavioral health, I’m probably anti-CBT. 

[For context, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a famously evidence based type of therapy which works by targeting thoughts/cognitions. It theorizes that thoughts cause behaviors which cause feelings which cause thoughts all around and around in a spiral of doom for which the easiest intervention is targeting the thoughts. It can be very regimented, hence it’s easily studied, hence why it’s so “evidence based.” You basically identify “cognitive distortions” like catastrophizing (I failed my exam and so I’m going to fail out of school and live in a cardboard box) and reality-check them (it’s one exam in one class and I can still pass the class if I get a decent grade on my final). You also identify the thought/feeling/behavior spiral (thought=I failed -> I will be homeless, feeling=fear, shame, behavior=avoiding the professor and anything associated with the class.) It’s definitely bigger and more complicated than that, but you get the idea.]

For a lot of people with anxiety and with OCD especially, it can be so life changing. 

For a lot of people, especially people who are trauma survivors or whose presenting problems are connected to trauma, it can feel like gaslighting. 

(Fun fact! Part of the reason TF-CBT (trauma focused CBT) has such solid evidence behind it is that it ignores the wild survival bias in its studies. People who have a lot of trauma or really intense PTSD tend to drop out. Those who stay mostly have success with it and provide happy little data points)

I think certain parts of CBT can be so useful – noticing thoughts, identifying cognitive distortions, checking in with reality – and I think using the triangle with clients (the little triangle of “thoughts,” “emotions,” “behaviors”) can be super useful, and I do it fairly often.

Personally, I find a lot of my clients can do (most of) the mental/cognitive work on their own – what they really need help with from a trained professional is actually a felt sense of safety and emotional processing which require therapeutic flexibility and other modalities -- and a longer period of work.  

Some people like a very concrete, structured approach, especially if they’re new to therapy or skeptical of the value of therapy. Also, a lot of people only can access therapy for a short time and a lot of people only want to be in therapy for a short time, and you can make changes quickly with CBT. Also, from the therapist end, there are a million free CBT trainings and workshops you can do vs. most other modalities where you have to pay $1000s for trainings (on top of getting a graduate degree). 

Insurance companies and payers in general LOVE CBT because it’s structured, evidence-based, and short-term. You also require clients to do homework, which is basically like extra therapy time you don’t have to pay the clinician for. You can also train people in it pretty easily. I think it’s important to understand *why* CBT is held up as the best/standard therapy type now, and it has a lot less to do with CBT itself and more to do with service provision and structural factors around paying for therapy and with what can be effectively researched. 

I’m reading Richard Schwartz’s “No Bad Parts” right now about Internal Family Systems therapy, and I’m now thinking of CBT within that framework. Basically, CBT is an effective part of the overall therapy system but it’s being asked to do too much, and so is overfunctioning and causing problems. We really should just let it settle into its own niche. 

It’s not my therapy niche! But it has a place. 

(If you were asking about Cock and Ball Torture therapy that would probably fall under the category of “experiential” therapy. Not sure it’s really been studied, but I’m sure there would be enthusiastic participants.)

[gilverrwrites]

I am Canadian and have a connection/interest because of that to the British Royal family. There are some of the members that I like ( Late Queen Elizabeth II, I absolutely love and adore her, Prince Eddie, Zara, Princess Katherine) and others less or don't like at all (Charles, Camila who I won't call her by honorifics, Andrew the Pedophile).

There are two people, a couple who I just cannot stand, I don't understand how they were stripped of their titles, but are still called by them ?! If you guessed, Harry and Megan, you were RIGHT! They are Harry and Megan. They just annoy me so much with their lies, false claims, greed of prices and pretends of being humble while wanting and spending tons of money. What do you think about them, especially since you are from the UK ?

As a Brit, I don’t know anybody under the age on 60 how cares about the royal family tbh.

They do not contribute to tourism as much as their supportors would have everyone believe. There is no practical need for them in the slightest.

I think we should abolish the monarchy, give all the stolen jewels and artefact back to their home countries and turn their palaces into homeless shelters or something to that effect.

I have even less of an opinion about Harry and Megan. They wanted out, I respect that but, they’re out now, bye bye, be quiet.

I won’t lie, I can see the appeal of being interested in them, from the historical perspective. I’m very into the Tudors. And the little girl in me who grow up loving princess media will occasionally see Kate in a pretty dress and go ‘!!!!!’ But that’s it. They’re kind of like the British equivalent to The Kardashians. Famous for being rich, kept in the media for the drama.

But they’re not going anywhere anytime soon, so you do you boo! I don't think any less of ya for enjoying what you enjoy 💖

[jinxedshapeshifter]

Alright. My dumb ass decided I am attached enough to Shaun Murphy from The Good Doctor that I am defensive if I see anyone shittalking The Good Doctor SO HERE WE ARE

Medium/high support needs, especially in the context of Shaun’s past, does NOT mean “no job, can’t live on my own”

I have reasons I don’t live on my own. In fact here they are:

I need structure, something I can’t really provide myself with on my own. I’m not getting it currently either but that’s not my point

I have time blindness and executive dysfunction issues, both of which prevent me from functioning like a regular human being

There are probably other issues but I can’t think of any lol

I don’t have a job because I know for a fact I’d need a job in something that interests me, something Shaun clearly did. In fact, it’s clear from the beginning that Shaun has a special interest in either the human body or surgery specifically, something his savant syndrome makes clear.

There are reasons Shaun lives on his own, and lots of medium/high needs autistic people live on their own and suffer from burnout and don’t know when that burnout is going to end, which results in messy houses and apartments similar to Shaun’s because they don’t know how to handle their burnout. So let’s go over a few things. By the way I’m not going into production, I don’t think I ever will, I just want to discuss the issues I have with how people decide to criticize Shaun’s character because I don’t think people are being fair, and I also feel like people aren’t acknowledging Shaun’s past.

Shaun was abused as a kid; he and his brother were homeless for a while and living out of a bus because of this and eventually Shaun’s brother died, which left Shaun without the support he’d had for however long he’d had his brother around. He’s probably used to being on his own; I doubt he’d want to change that very fast.

Shaun is implied to have a special interest in either medicine or surgery; his brother gives him a toy/plastic surgical kit (a toy scalpel from which he can be seen stimming with occasionally) and he’s seen reading medical books in flashbacks. When he loses his brother, this motivates him to pursue surgery as his career.

Even just in the first few episodes, the hospital staff are trying to teach Shaun effective communication; that’s what residency is for, learning. As a resident you’re still considered a student. It’s not even like Shaun can’t necessarily effectively communicate in the first place; he just needed to learn social cues and bedside manners so he knew how to properly discuss surgery and test results with patients without scaring them.

Meltdowns and shutdowns are involuntary, and from what I’ve seen, other characters in the show do pretty well accommodating Shaun’s meltdowns, whether he’s working or not.

He’s not living in total squalor. The reason he has the bare minimum is because he just moved, at least at the start. Outside of that, he’s probably used to having the bare minimum, and it might just be what he’s comfortable with. Aside from that, he literally makes subtle improvements to his apartment as the series goes on. When his apartment is first shown, he’s sleeping on the floor. Next episode he has a mattress. Apartment is probably a studio apartment, which would explain why the mattress is in the middle of the floor. He’s not living in a total fucking mess lmao. Even if he did, there are people who live like that because that’s what they’re used to.

The medical diagrams that people view as “dramatizing autism”? That’s a visual representation of Shaun’s savant syndrome. Shaun has near photographic memory, and without those visual effects we would have no way of knowing what’s going through his mind as he’s examining scans, organs, and everything else, which is something that is INCREDIBLY important for us to know. It’s not a dramatization of autism, it’s a visual representation of Shaun’s photographic memory lmao.

Yes, Shaun has higher support needs. Yes, Shaun has issues that might make it harder for him to do his job. That doesn’t mean he can’t live on his own and that doesn’t mean he can’t be a successful surgeon; hell, he made an improvised one-way valve and saved a 10 year old’s life. He improvised keeping a liver healthy so it could be successfully donated. He improvised removing a kidney so a tumor could be removed, saving a woman’s life, and that’s not even a fraction of everything. Any hospital would be lucky to have a surgeon like him.

Also. Freddie Highmore does incredibly well playing Shaun. I feel like he very clearly did research and very possibly talked to autistic people about their experiences. He accurately portrays stimming, he accurately portrays a lack of social awareness, he accurately portrays meltdowns, he does so incredibly well and I love him for it. Like. I genuinely don’t get why people keep bringing up projects he worked on in the past, he’s an actor. That’s his job lmao. Outside of that, he produces it. Just figured I’d point that out because I would think that factors into how he portrays Shaun.

Communities aren’t a monolith. I’m not saying you, as an autistic person, can’t not like The Good Doctor, but you also shouldn’t be invalidating other autistic people who enjoy it or even relate to Shaun. You shouldn’t be turning Shaun’s meltdown about being suspended from his role in his department into a meme because it’s ableist to do so (you’re literally making fun of an autistic person’s meltdown. Imo it’s no different than those parents who post their autistic kids’ meltdowns online for laughs). You shouldn’t be claiming that individuals with higher support needs can’t live independently without living in squalor, because Shaun doesn’t live in squalor and most autistic people who live in squalor are suffering from autistic burnout because they were forced to mask for years because of shit like what I’m complaining about.

I shouldn’t feel like shit for liking The Good Doctor, just because some people in the community think it’s bad representation. I feel represented by it; I feel seen by it. I binged the first few episodes with my brother the other night and was smiling the entire time because for the first time in my life, I found a character who I could fully relate to. I saw myself in a TV show character. I saw a character whose behavior and mannerisms I could look at, and say “Hey, I do that!” or “that’s a whole mood lmao!” Yet I feel bad for enjoying it because so many people in the autistic community think it’s bad.

I’m getting tired of it honestly. You can enjoy what you want and voice your concerns on what you don’t like, but you shouldn’t be acting like your voice is the voice of the entire community and you shouldn’t be so opinionated and aggressive that members of your own community feel demonized for liking something you don’t like.

Liking something that has negative aspects to it, or is harmful, or something else, does not make you a bad person. I can relate to Shaun’s mannerisms and that draws me to The Good Doctor. There’s an episode (okay multiple episodes but I am thinking of a specific episode here) of House, MD that’s just medical malpractice, and I think we all know that if House did not exist in a medical drama he’d be getting slammed with malpractice lawsuits but nobody gets harassed to hell about enjoying House.

Yet so many autistic people are like “The Good Doctor is bad and if you like it you’re bad” and like??? It just makes me feel like shit???? Can I just watch my autistic doctor medical drama in peace without feeling alienated by my own community please

[sing-me-under]

I find the basic fandom tropes for the BatKids to be so boring. I think it’s just me, but they’re like… really stale. Like old bread. Not even the good kind of old bread that you can make croutons with.

My takes under the cut:

Trope: Jason was abused by his dad and neglected by his mother then was homeless on the streets for a period of time.

I like his original (post-crisis) background where his mom had cancer and took drugs to deal with the pain and where his dad tried so hard to provide for him and Catherine, resorting to illegal means, then getting sent to jail then killed very shortly after being released before he could return home. That’s an interesting and complex relationship with his parents. Jason loved his parents. He had no frame of reference for parents who don’t love their children because otherwise he wouldn’t have trusted Sheila Haywood so easily.

Furthermore, I imagine he grew up in a very tight-knit and supportive community. In his introduction (post-crisis), he stashes the Batmobile tires in his apartment. It’s clearly his based on the personalization. I imagine that after his mom died (in the hospital), social services never came for him, effectively being abandoned by the system, but his neighbors provided what little support they could offer simply by not chasing him away and looking over him staying in the single room flat. He had one neighbor who even held onto his legal records for years after, waiting to give it to the rightful owner. Jason fended for himself by fencing off tires and probably other things, but he has a faith in people that only started to wane after becoming Robin.

Trope: Tim was criminally neglected by his parents and they emotionally abused him.

Rich people do have a tendency to just throw their children into the most convenient boarding school and rarely interact with their children. Oftentimes, they have kids out of social obligation. But Tim’s parents did love him. They were distant and often focused on their own work and hobbies, but they proved they cared about him enough. Jack had his flaws but he did genuinely care about Tim’s wellbeing. Also, I can never get over the issue of Tim meeting his mom again just talking to her and Janet listening supportively. I like the idea that they used to take Tim with them everywhere when he was younger and only put him in boarding school at a later age in order to socialize. They trusted that the school was taking care of him (even if Tim did escape quite frequently to be Robin). It’s such a damn shame that Janet died so early into Tim’s tenure as Robin. I wish I could have gotten a better characterization of her in like No Man’s Land or something. Or just Tim being a proper corporate heir to Drake Industries for longer instead of being mildly upper middle class with a comatose-then-emotionally distant father before becoming the Wayne heir.

I feel like Jack Drake is like the epitome of the “father is for emotional distance” meme. He’s well-meaning, but he’s still a man of the patriarchy.

Trope: Stephanie is from a family reminiscent to Jason’s.

I have no idea where the fuck this characterization came from. Like. Have they never even READ Steph’s wiki? Did they just go “Jason but female and waffles and purple”??? Arthur Brown was a host to a game show that was popular enough to feature celebrities and the rich and famous. His whole villain origin is that he hates the stupidity of the rich, and he ended up blowing up on TV. The scandal got him unemployed and he resorted to theft to make ends meet after. Later on, he became a strategic criminal adviser or something. Cluemaster eventually got caught and put into the Suicice Squad, eventually dying. Meanwhile, Crystal Brown is an overworked nurse who takes extra shifts to make ends meet. She’s basically a single mom at this point. I think she gets addicted to something in order to get by and goes into rehab at some point after Steph’s death. Steph loves her mom and has very complicated feelings about her dad. When she was pregnant, she feared that Cluemaster would harm her baby in order to get to her.

Anyway, the whole point of this is that my perception of Steph is that she was raised solidly middle class. She’s from the Bowery, not Crime Alley. Her parents used to send her to gymnastics classes, and she was very good. They took her out after Arthur was unemployed.