#this is specifically in reference to how the humans

[grvait]

old art again!! this time a rough animation of sawyer and yarnaby 😎 (looks better if u click to view 😭)

im working on a short ppt animation rn. im thinking i should post it to my youtube channel, though im not sure if people here would see it. i think i can link videos on here?? idk

okay I'm gonna talk abt more chapter 4 stuff.. this time about prototype's previous identity.. ch4 spoilers and also a theory below..

hiding the solo yarnaby under here LOL

people theorized 1006 was elliot, which was recently disproven in the chapter 4 tape where poppy refers to elliot as her dad and wishes he were there. in the same tape she addresses prototype as a completely different person. also recall that elliot died in the 90s, meanwhile prototype met theo in 1989. so yeah, they aren't the same person

I've also seen people say rich is prototype, which cannot be true either. in a ch4 tape he speaks to one of the boys who eventually got turned into doey. the kid mentions his coworkers joking about him going missing. before the bbi, it would not make sense for this to be a common rumor at the company, which means this tape had to happen after harley was hired in 1990; at a time when the company would have a reason to silence people

prototype existed in 1989 at the minimum, but considering he says "it's always been about you and me" to poppy, he's likely the prototype of HER. she's elliots daughter, she died in the 60s, meaning prototype was probably created around that time as well.

this means that rich can't be the prototype because he was human long after prototype was made

if you want my take on who prototype truly is, i'd say his identity doesn't necessarily matter. i don't mean to say his origins aren't important, just that his name and specific role in the past probably doesn't mean anything in the long run. i've never believed he was elliot or rich, and maybe in the future i'll be proven wrong but for now i'll tell you the theory i've had since june of last year

elliot's daughter dies in the 60s. he divorced his wife in 1930, so his daughter is probably in her 30s when she dies. she gets sick or injured, maybe she's actively dying or already dead by the time elliot begins his research. he looks for ways to bring her back, but it doesn't work on the rats (as he mentioned a note in the 2nd chapter)

so what does he do? he tries it on something bigger as he said he would: a human. of course he's not going to try this experimental method on his own daughter, even if she's already dead, so he finds someone else to use it on. we know that elliot wasn't evil or anything, so it's unlikely he killed anybody to use for the experiment. considering the orphanage isn't open yet (it opened in the 70s, not the 60s), prototype probably wasn't an orphan child either. if i run with my simple version of the theory, elliot may have dug up a body in a graveyard and used that. maybe a fresh one, who knows. he tried it, it worked, then he revived his daughter with the same method.

this is likely what harley wanted to know about in the chapter 3 tape (the "i learn something new about you every day" one), and also what prototype is asking harley to figure out in the ch4 tape they're both in. in that case, sawyer never actually figured out how to revive people with the poppy substance. sure, he can transfer people into the toys, but he can't bring anybody back to life

more reason to believe prototype and poppy are of the same "batch" is because it seems they are the only two who don't need food. it's outright stated about him in the ch1 trailer, and insinuated with her saying the "toys will starve otherwise" when she's talking about how nasty them eating humans is. she refers to them, not herself. her and prototype are probably the only 2 who were ever brought back from the dead, which circles back around to his monologue and gives meaning to the "it's always been about you and me, poppy. what we are". when i heard him say that i felt like my theory was lowk confirmed 😭😭

no guarantee this is right, but it's been my guess for a long time

[rassicas]

are you in the opinion that inkfish (ig really just inklings) are viviporus, oviparus, or ovoviviparous? ovoviviparous would make sense seeing theyre trying to "imitate" humans to some respect but still have squidlike features... but as far as i know we only have proof as to where octarians come from and no proof as to if inklings do the same

reproduction lore posting 🔥🔥🔥 i see them as egg layers. maybe them being ovoviviparous could work maybe but??? idk, eggs have to be involved. also them being egg layers is weird and i like when inkfish are Weird. I've gotten into this topic before on this blog but it's been a couple years and i think it's worth rehashing First thing to address: bellybuttons. They have them and I hate it almost as much as i hate that they have breasts. i think both are just a result of "imitating" humans in universe, and for design reasons so they don't come off as too uncanny to us, the human playerbase. which is just cowardice to me but okay.<3 In this concept art for Callie in the Art of Splatoon 2 i think this is the only time bellybuttons are addressed, in the top right corner:

"I realized this while drawing, but inklings have bellybuttons..."

that really sounds like it was a design choice that wasn't thought about that deeply...

now there's 2 things that make me believe they have to come from eggs. first from the first artbook:

This is the growth cycle of a squid from its larval to juvenile stages.

larvae come from eggs.

second, this excerpt from the Splatune album jacket about the Calamari Inkantation.

Of course, when we talk about these girls, we can't leave out the "Calamari Inkantation" which is both heavenly to listen to and heavenly to sing. This song, which is also used as the train melody for the Inkopolis Line, is imprinted in the DNA of all Inklings. The sea is our mother, the place where all of life hatched from, and the place where there is no way to return. Since ancient times, this song has been filled with the swirling feelings of "love" and "reverence" towards the sea.

I translated this myself, the word there is specifically "hatched" like from an egg, and not a general term for being born.

One could argue that since this is referring to the squids of the past, it might not apply to modern inkfish. But still real life cephalopods lay eggs, and I don't think it'd be out of the question for modern inkfish to do the same. There are other sapient species that didn't "evolve out" of egg-laying, evidenced by Nishida's 247 siblings and this scroll on coconut crabs.

Regarding Octarians, Octolings develop in the same way Inklings do. so they too would likely come from eggs.

we're ignoring this because 1. it's clearly just concept art that 2. has more recent evidence going against this being the norm for octoling development. I think this is just a weird edge case or just straight up not canon.

baby marina matching the 3rd stage of inkling development shown on the above chart while paul looks like the 4th stage. There's also smollusk that looks like the first stage/ a real octopus paralarva, but since it's a digital entity, who knows how valid that is? Also, Mashup/Warabi from Diss-pair was also confirmed in Ordertune to have come from the same hometown as Acht (the underground) and was described in Haikara Walker as having parents. So Octoling development=Inkling development=eggs??? finally, not 100% if this is what you're asking but as for cut-tentacle Octarians, but with Inklings, this has come up...once

-- But the Octarians like the Octotroopers...? Amano: That's a different thing. Inoue: All together they're part of the Octarian species, but Octarians like the Octotroopers are a separate thing.  --Does that mean that there are some squids that can't take a humanoid form? Inoue: So far, none have been discovered. There may be some somewhere, though

I think the "there may be some somewhere" is just keeping it vague in case they wanna use that idea. but i seriously doubt they will at this point. the concept behind octarians is that octopuses have basically tiny brains in each of their arms, so those tentacle octarians are like if their arms grew into a separate being. Real squids are not built like that, and we even see in game inklings having less movement in their tentacles, and use more styles that cut into their tentacles compared to octolings.

ok that's all TL;DR EGG SUPREMACY 🔥🔥🔥

[kayleafeon]

I keep trying to think of animals that people dislike/are scared of, but I keep immediately coming up with comebacks:

"that's it, I'm sending the snakes" -- Wait no I like snakes, even the deadly ones, and so do a lot of other people. Also it's not specific at all

"that's it, I'm sending the kangaroos" -- Widely known well enough I suppose, but most people will underestimate their strength, those fuckers are jacked and if you see them standing in water they're trying to lure you in to drown you

"that's it, I'm sending the sharks" -- "Okay I'll stand on land what they gonna do to me now lmao" (also marine life propaganda has largely restored the perception of sharks since Jaws)

"that's it, I'm sending the polar bears" -- "What, the two that are left?" Admittedly, even if there was only two, that would still be more than enough to kill someone many times over. But the ability to fire back a sick burn (/s) kinda undermines the tension. Unrelated to the tension, I am too Canadian for this.

I think the best one I've managed to come up with was one I thought of while writing the previous sections though:

"that's it, I'm sending the mosquitoes" -- Most people despise them, me included, it's unclear how many there are, they could be carrying disease, and because of the lack of context you could just as easily be referring to the giant ones from Jumanji but who's to say.

Also terrifying because how did you manage to get them together in the first place? You could feasibly catch most other animals, but mosquitoes are hard enough to slap at the best of times and they have such short lifespans that even if you manage to catch one, chances are it'll be dead by the time you manage to catch another. Alternatively, you're a scientist who studies and breeds mosquitoes for the purposes if that science, but that's a threat in and of itself. You've gotta be at least a little different in the head to study mosquitoes, and if there's one thing I know humans are scared of, it's other humans with different ways of thinking (not that this is a good thing, but I see it disconcertingly frequently). Plus, if you're studying the fuckers, chances are that you're doing at least a mild level of fucked up Frankenstein shit to them, and now they're threatening to send these lab mutations after you. Definitely more than qualifies as ominous threat material imo.

How about “that’s it, I’m sending the lizards”

this would not work on many people lizards are too likable alas. you'd have to specify a species I think. Though I guess a horde of angry anoles would be really really funny.

[ahamkara-apologist]

Eliksni Expression Headcanons

Done mostly for fun bc why not! This is based heavily on horse and parrot facial expressions in terms of eye tightness/squinting/mouth opening. The bristles refer to the mandibular ones mentioned in the Exuviae lore tab; vocalizations are more speculative and highly variable bc they seem to have a variety of chitters and subvocalizations that are very generalized, much like human laughter and hums. References to carapace plates on the back of the neck are for my own Eliksni design (where they have more plating protecting the spine) and can be disregarded to those who are uninterested in using it

...

Smile: eyes squinted with the skin around them soft, nictitating membranes half-drawn (like sleepy cats). Mandibles slack and relaxed, bristles not on end

Accompying vocalization: depending on mood, usually a purr or a soft, burbly chitter/trill, with a low, thrumming subvocalization. On larger Eliksni, this is a deep rumble that can be felt humming through the human body

Smirk: all of the same as a smile, but with tight, rigid mandibles (either fully closed or slightly flared) and more open eyes. Flaring the mandibles slightly would be seen as a shit-eating grin, closed mandibles is more cheeky amusement

Accompying vocalization: either a low, slow clicking subvocalization, or silence

Fear: Eyes huge, the skin around them taught. Mandibles bared and shivering in a ready position, bristles on end, carapace plates on back of the neck and shoulders folded down. Scent/preen glands take on a stress odor to indicate other Eliksni of danger

Accompying vocalization: Tight, high trills and chitters if not completely silent, a low, humming buzz for subvocalizations, almost like a bee's wings but just barely out of human hearing level. When deeply frightened, sharp, dual-tone shrieks occur

Anger: mandibles and teeth fully bared, skin around eyes taught, eyes can be wide open or narrowed depending on how wide the mouth is held or if the Eliksni is ready to fight (open eyes = more ready for a fight, if they are about to bite, the nictitating membranes will flick over the lower eyes to protect from bloodsplatter). Bristles on end, as well as chitin plates on the neck and shoulders, making them look bigger and more intimidating

Accompying vocalization: Highly variable, ranging from slower, sharper chitters and hisses to angry barks to deep, furious roars. Subvocalization: fast, rhythmic tolling, sometimes revving up to a furious low buzz

Submission/guilt: Eyes wide, the skin under them taught, holding the gaze of whoever they're submitting to in order to indicate attention/that they respect them and fear them, mandibles fully drawn up and shivering slightly, bristles flat. Young Eliksni chatter-snap their mandibles while cheeping to indicate that they're young and don't mean to cause offense, which adults only do if they're extremely scared or deliberately trying to unnerve/snark back to someone. Head usually held low with shoulders hunched

Accompying vocalization: Upper auditory ranges silent or utilizing a soft cheep (if pre-reproductive phase Eliksni), subvocalizations limited to very quiet hums if agreeing with dominant Eliksni's terms

Dominance/pride: Eyes narrowed and hard, pointedly looking away or offering only quick glances to submissives, head tilted up to bare throat, mandibles closed but flared out to show teeth. Bristles in a neutral state, as is chitin on back of neck. Openly scents the air or other Eliksni. Staring at someone is specifically a challenge, with the expectation being to either fight or to maintain eye contact and begin submissive posturing. Breaking eye contact after prolongued staring is usually a dismissive, rude gesture, indicating that they don't believe their enemy is dangerous enough to continue observing. Scent/preen glands more active

Accompying vocalization: Hissing (if challenged), deep roars. Subvocalization the same as anger, but often more of a low purr, like an engine growling

Irritation: Eyes narrowed and hard, mandibles taught with a little bit of teeth showing, bristles flared. Often paired with a head toss, the Eliksni equivalent of rolling one's eyes

Accompying vocalization: Silence to irate chittering, subvocalization is tolling (canon). Hissing also occurs

Contentment: eyes narrowed, the skin around them relaxed. Jaw closed or loosely open, with mandibles slack. Bristles in a neutral position, nictitating membranes visible at the corner of the eyes but not drawn up like in a smile

Accompying vocalization: Low hums, purrs, chirps, and trills. Subvocalizations always a low, buzzing purr

Courting/aroused: same as contentment, but with the mouth deliberately open for scenting purposes, and mandibles drawn away in show while remaining relaxed and loose. Eyes can be more open/tense depending on the mood. Head usually held high and at an angle to bare throat, chitin on back of neck slightly raised, skin on neck, face, and lower abdomen flushing a darker, richer shade to show off patterning- less like blushing, and more like firing up in reptiles. Scent/preen glands more active

Accompying vocalization: Rich low purr, paired with a deep, rumbling subvocalization. Creates an almost dual-toned, humming 'song' to court potential partners

Sorrow/pain: squinted/closed, hard eyes with bottom eyelid drawn further up over the orbit than the top, mandibles shivering, slightly flared, and held taught. Nictitating membranes almost or fully drawn over the eye. Bristles flat, head usually dipped down closer to the chest. Scent/preen glands take on a fear/stress odor to warn other Eliksni of danger

Accompying vocalizations: High-pitched, undulating keening and low warbling, shrieks if pain or fear is really bad. Hard, rapid clicking for subvocalizations

Surprise/curiosity/trying to look innocent: eyes huge but soft, mandibles tight and faintly flared, showing teeth. Bristles and chitin plates half-puffed up. Usually accompanied with a few head tilts and head bobs to elicit better hearing, and the mouth opening further to allow scenting.

Accompying vocalizations: Trills, chitters, and hums, a buzz-click buzz-click subvocalization that is pretty much the Eliksni verbal equivalent of a question mark, the speed of which indicates the intensity of the individual's mood

[warpfactorsix]

[Text: The Anomaly and Hexcorization are major events in season 2, and they involved a lot of innovative design work on the Riot and Fortiche sides. As usual, Fortiche drew from sources that might have looked far-fetched but ended up looking completely natural to their new context. Gold, for example, is a recurring motif in both of these events, and for its use in the show’s design. Anne-Laure To, from Fortiche, brings up the influence of kintsugi, which is a repair technique in Japanese ceramics. How could that possibly figure into Piltover or Zaun, which are technically not related to Japan? The connection actually comes from the very concept of kintsugi rather than specific pieces. “Legend has it that an emperor broke a bowl that he loved, probably from an earlier dynasty, and that had great artistic and monetary value,” To said, recounting the origins of the technique. “He asked several artists to repair it and they said it was impossible. An artisan came in with the idea to fill in the cracks with gold, to emphasize the cracks themselves. So the object became even more valuable because the new technique had sublimated the cracks. It’s visually striking but it’s also full of meaning, and it was interesting to us because some characters might be deformed in some way, which impacts the way they move.”

The idea of a repair that actually alters something’s nature is especially poignant in the case of Hexcorization, which refers to the way Viktor’s life is somehow saved by [the] Hexcore at the start of Season 2, while being irremediably changed by it at the same time—Arcane is, in part, about trying things out, sometimes with little idea of the consequences. The Anomaly and Hexcorization are examples of Riot and Fortiche setting an almost experimental course in both storytelling and design, incorporating classic science-fiction themes (and visuals) such as biomechanical mutations and the exploration of mind power.]

***

OK, so i saw this floating around on Pinterest and thought hey, pretty art! but then i started reading the text and this passage struck me:

“An artisan came in with the idea to fill in the cracks with gold, to emphasize the cracks themselves. So the object became even more valuable because the new technique had sublimated the cracks.”

Which interestingly, goes against the crux of Viktor’s villain arc—the idea that physical “impurity” and the fickle nature of emotion, and thus leading him to denounce humanity as a whole:

“It's inescapable. Humanity. Our very essence. Our emotions... Rage. Compassion. Hate. Two sides of the same coin. Inextricably bound. That which inspires us to our greatest good is also the cause of our greatest evil.”

And thus what is needed to “fix” the world is “a repair that actually alters something’s nature [which] is especially poignant in the case of Hexcorization”—something that moves away from the human condition, rather than embracing it with all its flaws, as with kintsugi, where “the object became even more valuable because the new technique had sublimated the cracks”—not an erasure, but a radical acknowledgement and embracement

So then we we have Jayce’s dialogue:

“You’ve always wanted to cure what you thought were weaknesses. Your leg. Your disease. But you were never broken, Viktor. There is beauty in imperfections. They made you who you are. An inseparable piece of everything… I admired about you.”

Viktor is Jayce’s kintsugi bowl. Not someone to be loved because of an other “perfect” and “cured” self, but someone to be loved because of the whole sum of themselves

So this vital contradiction of the philosophy of kintsugi and the process of Hexcorization, as much as they share visuals, is just incredibly fascinating to me

[ckret2]

I heard the song "Frontier Psychiatrist" by The Avalanches and it immediately reminded me of your Bill- the artists make songs out of clips from old movies, and I feel like this one is a perfect mix of chaos, tragedy, Bill's childhood, and the Theraprism.

On that note, is there a specific genre of Earth music or an artist that Bill would listen to? We know there was music in Euclydia, but is there any flavor of human music he likes? (Or would at least tolerate?)

Boy are you ever in luck because I have a whole post about what (mostly human) musical genres I think Bill would canonically like. And an addendum. And what he'd think about dreamcore. And a few specific bands I was asked about. And the ONLY Lemon Demon song I'd ever add to his (and Mabel's) playlist. And I made a playlist of what I think he'd listen to, although it's really more of a small sampling of the kind of nonsense he'd play. And what songs he'd like playing on the piano, which is a different question from what he listens to. And a further addendum to the initial posts about his tastes, plus a mention of how, in fic, Bill's tastes would change due to being stuck with the humans. And a little summary of most of the above.

(And as long as this post is turning into a masterpost for my musical taste headcanons, I'm going to add my post about the Mystery Shack gang's musical preferences and Ford and Mabel's similar tastes and songs Ford would like but doesn't know about and a smattering of stray thoughts including about Gideon's tastes and Gideon's tastes part 2 and Gideon's tastes part 3 goddammit. And the next time I try to find all my GF music headcanon posts, I'll run into this post first and save myself time searching for the rest.)

tl;dr:

Based on the info we have from canon:

we know he thinks non-musical (to us) sounds make for some damn good music, but understands the difference between music he likes and objectively "good music" by human standards

he's into mid-20th-century music—but one of the first human songs he specifically highlighted as good was garage rock and he really hit his stride infiltrating the human music industry with motown, so I tilt him closer to the 60s than the 40s

he's into fun party music, which drowns out the screams in his soul

he doesn't say he hates country music, but he really gives off those vibes

He's heard listening to a fair amount of EDM despite claiming synth music is "painful," so I put the dividing line for "good electronica" and "painful electronica" around 1990 and have him steer away from new wave in particular

Addictive earworms are his enemy, and I like to imagine him battling them like how medieval scholars drew knights battling giant snails

He's fairly fluent in popular music in general and can casually drop song references into conversations with humans.

Outside the info we have from canon, I imagine he's pretty easy to get into new music as long as it's "fun"—he doesn't like broody downer sad songs—but I think getting him into 3 or 4 mad-at-the-world-and-your-parents early '00s alt-rock bands would fix him.

[sapphicslaylist]

+ Realized I should add some info for fanfic writers, too! All of these are pulled from my own fanfic On Borrowed Paths, where one of the main tenant IS realistic disability portrayal. This isn’t the only way to write these, but may help for those looking for some accurate disability rep.

Post passout exhaustion. Thorn cannonically has a somewhat croaky voice (friends have joked I sound more like Thorn when I’m sick), so levels of fatigue and weakened ability is important. Touch of internalized ableism.

⚠️ Internalized ableism. Those of us with severe physical disabilities may wind up hating our bodies, particularly the source of the mobility challenge. Others don’t, and I am super proud of you all! But Thorn’s behavior indicates she would survive amidst stigma.

🩸 Blood tw 🩸 If you have Thorn gain her scars throughout your story - especially the hand ones - I recommend there being either immediate medical attention and/or her passing out from blood loss. The level of laceration she has means she would lose A LOT. This is NOT rendering her weak; it’s just how human bodies work. And people with more severe injury often fatigue more often than without.

In case a non-patronizing, realistically healed Thorn description is needed.

The scars heal over and fade gradually, but still remain faintly and won’t undo the mobility challenges. The body remembers past injury and works around it.

Body hair does not regrow in places with scar tissue

Healthier body weight. This is just an extra!

+ Don’t assume all scar victims are “weak!” Please understand that plenty of people recover and maintain strength; you aren’t gonna knock someone over simply by touching them. That’s genuinely offensive (hence why I point it out).

I also welcome cross-reference for any other disabled characters anyone has! I’m just specifically looking at Thorn for this as a case study and also because I love her. My manic disabled QUEEN.

STP: Thorn Scarring & Disability

I'm going to gently tap the fandom with a stick: scars are not just a simple cosmetic detail which can be ignored/removed "stylistically" or given to make characters "cool." They impact a person's daily life, confidence, and way of interacting with the world, and need to be handled with consideration. Therefore, as a disabled person with background in accessibility, I think it's my turn to cover this one.

Going to specifically address this with Thorn, but it applies to others as well (not just because she's the most blatant example, but also as she's a character who the fandom likes to "heal" by removing all traces of her scars. Going to address what this implicates below).

Some important details:

She is deliberately depicted with heavy wounds of a variety of different depths. It can be assumed that they have been accumulated and left open for a significant amount of time.

We know the ones along her hands are the deepest because of Narrator's remark wherein "[she] picks up the blade, slicing through what little skin remains" of her hands and wrists. It is very likely these are not only permanent, but also have the possibility of muting or eliminating tactile sensation in her fingers either temporarily or permanently. She would therefore interact differently with the world if written outside the context of cannon

Further mobility issues may result from the wounds along her limbs. Because scar tissue is less flexible than normal skin, this would further constrict movement.

Some of the shallower ones may heal, yes. But deeper scars typically fade, but not vanish entirely.

This inherently makes Thorn disabled, and removing her scars IS disability erasure.

And it isn't just about physical disability, either. Witch & Thorn deal with removing stigmatization surrounding feminine beauty, and removing that detail does also impede the body positivity which she carries for survivors. Scar victims, especially people with deep scars are often considered "ugly." This especially applies to women, who are expected to cover them up or face value judgements regarding their appearance. The game does the opposite, by placing her hands at forefront within the kiss scene. The reason the kiss is so important is because people who are "non-traditionally" beautiful are still worthy of love - something which Thorn struggles to accept with throughout her route.

Overall, I think that people need to understand that they're not merely a literary symbol. But even within that context, the message of Thorn's route is that you can't eliminate your past/go back to who you were before, and that's okay. Because even if scars fade, they aren't something we can simply pretend didn't happen. They remain a part of us throughout the rest of our life, but we don't need to keep bleeding in the present.

Anyways! I hope this explains it. And if anyone does want advice on how to write these out, you're welcome to ask me!

[evidence-based-activism]

I have known sex workers. I have no illusions about how damaging that experience can be. There are also sex workers who are happy with their work. I belive that rather than attempting to banning media, we should attempt to outlaw and vehemently prosecute pimps and exploitation. I don't buy into feminism which denies an individual woman's agency because I think that infantilizes women.

I have known sex workers. I have no illusions about how damaging that experience can be.

Then why are you advocating for a system you know causes extensive harm.

There are also sex workers who are happy with their work.

Really, Anon? You want to show me a "sex worker" – by which I mean someone who is actually engaging in sex for money, either as a prostitute or in pornography – who's "happy" with their work?

Can you prove that she has an actual choice to engage in "sex work"? That is, if she wanted to stop tomorrow: can she? Or is her choice between "sex work" and loosing food, shelter, and other necessities? Can you show me she wasn't tricked or coerced or "persuaded" into this by a boyfriend or family member? Can you show me she's not re-enacting the physical and sexual abuse she experienced as a child?

Can you promise that in ten years, or one year, or one month, she won't look back on this and realize, "oh ... that was rape"?

And if you really, actually can: why would you prioritize these rare cases over all the women who are exploited and trafficked and abused and coerced into the industry?

I belive that rather than attempting to banning media, we should attempt to outlaw and vehemently prosecute pimps and exploitation.

Exploitation is inherent to the industry.

The conditions are coercive and dangerous

The women in the industry express the desire to leave and document extremely high rates of current and past abuse, mental illness, and poverty

It is impossible to make the industry compliant with workplace safety standards

Legalization of the industry leads to an increase in human trafficking

And you can never truly know if any specific act is consensual

I'm on board with prosecuting pimps ... along with any sex "buyer" and the porn producers and the men who host porn sites and the men who post revenge porn and every other man who makes a profit off turning women into a product.

I don't buy into feminism which denies an individual woman's agency because I think that infantilizes women.

Do worker's rights movements infantilize all workers? Do anti-racists movements infantilize people of color? Prisoner rights and prisoners? Disability rights and disabled people?

Feminism is the women's rights movement. It does not infantilize women any more than any other rights movement infantilizes the people they advocate for.

Even if you meant to refer purely to sex industry abolitionists: do anti-slavery movements infantilize slaves? Union rights infantilize union workers? Was it infantilizing to ban companies from exposing their workers to dangerous chemicals and workplace hazards? Is OSHA infantilizing, Anon?

No! The answer is no! Woman challenging the social structures that position women as products for men to buy is not infantilizing. In fact it is the only position in this argument that does not reduce women to objects.

[mostcursedofpastas]

Other alien races on Babylon 5: This is not a place of honor. No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here. In fact, HERE THERE BE DRAGONS. Just don't even fuckin try it

Humans: What if we send a scientific expedition (＾▽＾)

[totally-not-an-awkward-okapi]

Still thinking about that little angel I dreamt about a bit ago so I’ve been binging other angel stuff and felt inspired to try to draw him as @hoaxghost ‘s style of angel.

[dreadfutures]

Ixchel's happy place is listening to Solas and Dorian have a "friendly" debate about time magic.

[varilien]

been a bit since i cleared out my drafts :3 ft. the original concepts for my bill that i completely forgot id been meaning to post! still kinda reworking the child and impostor for different aus ive been toying with, but unfortunately as much as i still really really like the girlthing, i just couldn't come up with context for him that i jived with :( alas. maybe one day

Palestine: Funds | Action | eSims | Info Sudan Resources | Congo Resources | Lebanese Red Cross

[fisheito]

found a baby yaku amidst the Sketchbook-glitch-corruption wreckage..... wondering if he flipped skin tones between black and red and everything in between until he saw his to-be-grandparents (and started mimicking THEIR skin tone....... )

[djuvlipen]

Not to mention the obvious; that "genocide" is a word that belongs to the legal and judicial realm. it was coined to allow international courts of law to judge and condemn people accused of a very specific crime against humanity. as such the word "genocide" is not something people can bend at will to make it say whatever they want it to say. it has a very specific definition. it refers to the killing of the entirety, or a part, of a religious, national, racial or ethnic community. "genocide" doesn't refer to any kind of prejudice; it specifically refers to racialized hatred and racism. this doesn't mean that other kinds of persecution carried by the Nazis (political persecution, killing of communists and resistance fighters, stripping women away from their rights, sexual violence against women, deportation of homosexuals) are less bad or should be disregarded. it just means they were a form of persecution of another kind. not everything has to be genocide to be bad. applying the word genocide to any kind of persecution just puts marginalized communities into a weird competition. all the frameworks developed to understand genocide specifically refers to racism and other forms of racialized hatred. removing racism from the definition of genocide just waters down the specificities of racism and antisemitism, how central they are to Nazi ideology, how they work, how they are upheld, how they can lead to genocide. it also sets back all the efforts that were done by antiracist, antifascist, jewish activists and peace activists -- these are the people we owe memory politics, the definition and the characterstics of "genocide" to.

and then another obvious fact; that the people talking about the trans victims of the Nazis are posthumously classifying homosexuals and GNC people as (what we now define as) trans. that is both offensive to these people and an ahistorical way of looking at the past. you are not supposed to look at history through a modern lens

In between a tweet yesterday that said trans people were the first victims of the holocaust that had over 30k likes, and another today saying Holocaust museums/memorials employees are exploiting Jewish suffering, you have to wonder where the antisemitism and Holocaust denial is on the rise 🙄🙄

[prolibytherium]

There's a LOT of things people do wrong when constructing fantasy beliefs in pantheons of gods, but one of the more specific is having only one god related to fertility and it kind of being just a horny sex thing.

Like you'll have one in the entire bunch whose sphere is listed as fertility and it's basically like Yeah this is the sex one. She's always depicted naked (but not TOO naked because censorship and/or the writer's own skittishness). She's going to have the exact body type epitomized in contemporary western beauty standards and there's usually no chance in hell that she's gonna be fat (unless MAYBE they're referencing 'venus' figurines). Her thing is fertility, which means having sex and making babies. Might be a goddess of beauty or love or marriage too, because these are kinda sex things, but that's probably it. And yeah that sort of thing is virtually nonexistent in real life.

Like the concept of fertility is so fundamentally important to the function of most societies in human history in ways that it is just Not in industrialized imperial core countries. Most people are getting food from stores, and not having to worry about harvesting crops or breeding livestock or foraging for food or having enough animals to hunt, so fertility only really comes up as a concern if you're trying to have kids (and there is certainly societal pressure to have children, but your wellbeing and survival is rarely going to Depend on it). And I think writing only from that perspective and not even trying to learn about WHY fertility is so conceptually important is why you see this trend.

There's no absolute universal statement about how people believe in gods but it's broadly accurate that systems with many deities will Usually have more than one deity associated with fertility, and these associations will certainly include human reproduction but also the fertility of livestock/hunted animals, plants, the land itself.

Some fertility deities may also be heavily associated with seasonal changes or environmental factors that agriculture or foraging is dependent on (spring/summer/fall, seasonal rains, seasonal flooding, rain itself, sunlight, good soil, rivers, wetlands, etc). Some certainly might be related to love, marriage, sex, and beauty, but that's VERY RARELY going to be the sole way the concept of fertility is embodied. And they'll often will have other associations not directly about fertility, or related to fertility in culturally specific ways.

[biblically-accurate-dca]

super disorganized sketch page because i do what i want