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foropinionssake · 6 months ago

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i have a question for you, and i’m genuinely curious.

do you think womanhood should be defined by the ability to reproduce/have children rather than by living within the social role of womanhood, such as wanting to be called “she?” and for women who can’t reproduce, or who have had a hysterectomy, etc. are they still women? what about people who, in every way, have happily inhabited the role of being a man and even you would call them “he” if you didn’t know they were trans, but they could still technically give birth. is someone living fully as a man actually a woman because of one thing that their body could potentially do? is someone living fully and happily as a woman not a woman because of one thing their body cannot do?

i think these questions are good to think about, because it is just a fact that many trans women get called “woman” and “she” by strangers without a second thought, and they respond to that term and feel happy and comforted by it. throughout the whole interaction, there is no claim made about what genitals, dna, or birth-capabilities they have. you have probably had countless conversations like this too, where you were called “she” without having claimed anything about your body or anyone needing to verify. this is because the word “she” is not being used to refer to genitals etc, it is just being used to indicate that you look and act in ways that make you read to others as a woman. that is, most often, the truth being recognized.

with that in mind, it’s easier to see that, when a trans woman asks to be called she, the truth being told is “i like to be called she and seen as a woman,” not “i was born female and have the capacity to give birth and have xx chromosomes.” i have many close and dear trans friends, and none of them actually deny or disbelieve their own biology. in fact, they are painfully aware of their biology. they acknowledge the truth that certain hormones and surgeries can change some things about their body and not others, thus making it easier for them to integrate into the social role that feels natural for them. i have never heard a trans woman claim that hormones or surgery can let them give birth. all of my trans friends, are fully cognizant of the reality of their biology and the limited capacity of science.

what i see is you falling into a strawman argument, assuming that trans people believe false things about their bodies, like trans women claiming they can give birth or have xx chromosomes

it made me realize that maybe you hear the word woman and you think “birth giver, child bearer” rather than “full human person who’s body is none of my business and who chooses to inhabit the social role of womanhood.” i don’t blame you, because our patriarchal society has taught us that the former is all women are for. but as women, there are so many sexist messages we are taught that we have to unlearn. i mean, think of your own experience. wouldn’t you rather have other people see you as a whole person who has connection to womanhood, rather than just a source for babies? isn’t it more affirming to have people see your womanhood as the complex way you purposely and naturally step into the world and show up each day, rather than just a medical category that was thrust upon you at birth by a patriarchal medical system that wanted to determine who you would be? because i know what i prefer. and, in my experience, that is all trans women are asking.

anyway, i am just sending this out of curiosity, so lmk your thoughts. maybe we can have a conversation, but i won’t engage with hostility. i hope you’re having a nice day :)

Women are adult females. Men are adult males. The ability to have children has nothing to do with making someone male or female besides the fact that males biologically cannot get pregnant and birth babies. I am a woman and I’m choosing not to have children, that doesn’t make me less of a woman. The entire issue here is people are mistaking gender roles with gender. You can change your gender roles. You cannot change your gender itself. You are born with it.

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charmanderxerneas · 8 months ago

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I wish trans people would stop making egg jokes about people other than themselves or people they have permission from. It’s fuckin annoying to assume “Oh this cis person is secretly trans they just don’t know it yet haha” “oh this cis person only hangs out with trans people or is doing something outside of the gender norm? 👀🥚…” fucking stop it.

If someone says they’re cis, they’re cis. Full stop. Just like if someone says they’re trans, they’re trans and you shouldn’t fucking question it further. You don’t know someone else’s gender identity better than they know themselves and it’s arrogant to think otherwise. We should be trying to break down gender norms and allow people to explore gender more freely, even cis people. If a cis guy wants to participate in things that the patriarchy has tried to make only for girls (like painting nails or wearing dresses) it doesn’t mean he’s trans, it means he’s wearing whatever he wants and we shouldn’t be trying to gender shit like that anyways. You don’t want people challenging you on your gender identity- why would you do that to a cis person even as a joke?

It’s just annoying. I’ve seen discourse lately were trans people get So Upset about being told “Don’t make egg jokes about people who say theyre cis, its direspectful” and genuinely have seen dumbass takes like “thats transphobic of you to say. dont compare egg jokes to something as bad as a trans person’s identity being questioned.” I am a fucking trans person and I am telling you that those jokes are not okay unless you have the person’s permission. You ARE questioning a cis person’s gender identity in spite of what they say, which is almost as bad as questioning a trans person’s identity in spite of what they say. Give people some fucking respect. Or ive seen people claim that’s close to “implying trans people are evilly trying to convert others” thats not what i’m saying, please don’t fuckin strawman my argument. There are people who believe that and thats bad but there’s a difference between actually pressuring someone’s gender identity and making jokes. I don’t think theres any mal intent with jokes but like. IMO You shouldnt be questioning peoples identity even as a joke.

It doesn’t matter if the person does later end up being trans or not. What matters is giving them the respect in the moment. Before I figured out I was trans, if people made egg jokes about me it would have been slightly uncomfortable even if true because my relationship to gender is complicated and people pointing fingers going “lol trans” and trying to jokingly assign your gender to you is. Bad. It would have just made me more confused.

In my opinion the only time egg jokes are okay is: 1) If you are talking about yourself and reflecting upon your own experiences (I think it’s perfectly fine to look back on past stuff and go Lol How Did I Not Realize Sooner?) or 2) If you’re talking about someone else’s experiences, just make sure they’re okay with you joking about that. Just ask. its that simple.

If you’re doing it out of genuinely thinking someone is trans: I wouldn’t present it as a joke because you’re trying to be serious but also I would not suggest that to them unless they outright ask you for advice because again: You don’t know someone else’s identity better than they know themselves. It just isn’t your place

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voidify333 · 2 years ago

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People saying “Romeo and Juliet are idiots, that’s the reason the tragedy happens, if I was in their position I would simply just not end my life over a 3 day teenage relationship lmaooooo” actually annoys me even more than people saying “R&J is a great love story”

Like they’re both incorrect and shallow readings of the text but the “great love story” reading is just immature (and tbh I have never actually seen someone state it, outside of song lyrics using their names to evoke the archetypal lovers??? I’ve seen it more often just used as a strawman by people saying the other thing), and comes from a place of sincerity, while the “they’re just idiots” reading is cruel and mean-spirited and comes from a place of irony poisoned bullshit and MISSES THE POINT OF THE STORY

The central thematic idea of the play is that feuds, and hatred more generally, are pointless things that lead to tragic bloodshed.

If not for the feud, Romeo and Juliet could have courted openly, then they’d either get married with no drama or break up over non-fatal drama and marry other people. However, in the world of the play, there is a feud, so the only way for them to explore their attraction to each other is to double down on it to the max, which in the end leaves 6 people dead including them.

THIS IS THE CORE OF THE TRAGEDY and it KILLS me to see people trivialise it down to insulting the leads’ intelligence

Sure you can argue they acted foolishly by doubling down. But anyone who isn’t aroace knows that crushes make you do reckless things, and this is especially true when you’re a teenager experiencing these feelings for the first time

Kids, children, should be allowed to behave foolishly without people ending up dead— the deaths in this story are the fault of the Montague and Capulet ancestors who started the feud, not the kids

#shakespeare #just had to get this off my chest #I like infodumping about Shakespeare

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sunnist4rs · 6 months ago

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Intro Post

Hiya, welcome to my blog!! You can call me Sunni, that’s not my real name but I know people can get pretty crazy when it comes to politics so I’m not comfy using my main username for this blog right now. I’m a teenager so I’m still working out where I stand morally and politically so keep in mind that my views can and will change frequently.

I grew up in Australia until recently when I moved to Spain however my family and I have been planning/preparing our whole lives to live here. I identify as Hispanic as I am pretty involved in the culture and community. If you believe that this label doesn’t apply to me because of my genes that’s fine, it’s your opinion but this country means a lot to me so this is how I identify.

This intro is pretty out of date (I now identify as a radfem) so please keep that in mind while reading.

Blog Purpose:

Now onto the nitty gritty stuff; this blog is for politics keep in mind since I’m not American I of course don’t know lots about their policies. But, I know on the internet the political climate is heavily influenced by what happens in that country so I try my best to understand/keep up to date with American politics, at least the basics.

My political background:

My family and I grew up huge liberals, we used to watch pride on the TV/irl every single year for as long as I can remember. However last year my mum started to become more radical feminist in here beliefs, I remember I’d defend the trans movement with all the same stupid talking points until eventually I started watching more YouTube channels like Acheeto (I was already a fan of him for a while cuz I found him really funny even though I disagreed with him).

For a while my beliefs aligned pretty well with those displayed in a Think Before You Sleep video. Now, I’m sort of torn because my mum is radfem and I naturally want to stand with her but then I’m also still an anti 4th wave feminism. So I’m not sure where I sit with that topic but in general I stand with her.

On this account I’m gonna probably gonna reblog a good amount of TERF stuff even though I’m unsure if I stand with all their opinions. I hope people from that community aren’t gonna be judgemental of me just because I’m not 100% with them right now as I do agree with a lot of what they say.

Some opinions:

The topics I am sure on my stance with are mostly facts>feelings things such as;

Obesity isn’t genetic it’s caused by an over-eating disorder, if you want to maintain a healthy weight you have to deal with the addiction, then make sure you eat healthy food and exercise (both these things are so much fun and so amazing i guarantee it’s easier than you think).

Being transexual is a mental disorder and I feel so bad that you have to deal with that. To people like Blare White, I love you. But, to the many trans people who spread misinformation and gr00m kids into transitioning instead of dealing with their insecurities/mental health issues or try deny biology to force your way into woman’s sports and spaces, I don’t like you.

DNI:

I believe in free speech (the only good thing about America istg) so there’s no DNI for this blog. Everyone is welcome just please maintain basic human decency and civil discussion when in disagreement with me or someone else here. Mudslinging and strawmanning is not civil, treat others the way you want to be treated, respect is important. If you’re rude and don’t display basic decency in debate/interactions I’ll just block you. Also keep in mind that I am a minor so NSFW accounts need to stay away for legal reasons.

Tags:

I don’t have many consistent tags on this blog but my main ones are;

#Sunni posts- for my posts

#Sunni answers- for asks

#Sunni speaks- for when I add onto someone else’s post (sometimes in the tags)

#Sunni reblogs- for when I reblog something

Fave posts:

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shaftking · 7 months ago

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https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5Jind9pJjV/?igsh=MTBzNTA3dGt2eGN0Nw==

This is annoying since as we know, nb isn’t even progressive. If it said “respectful,” that’d be one thing, I guess, but the fact that it says “progressive” gets on my nerves. Not to mention the amount of passive aggressive people in the comments showcasing their privilege and ignorance 🙄

The strawmanning in the comments is crazy too like far be it from me to defend boomers but frankly they’re right about how entitled nonbinary people are calling not getting called they them and neopronouns or changing pronouns daily.

They/them has existed as a singular for a while but it’s only really used in a certain specific context often when you genuinely have no idea if that wallet someone dropped belonged to a man or a woman. Like we call a baby “it” before it’s born a maybe shortly after but would never call a child or a whole adult “it” unless trying to be intentionally insulting or demeaning.

#ask #shout out to that one person in the comments saying they’re 50 years old and nonbinary like that’s a flex and not like #sad really

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irritatednick · 1 year ago

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Your Bullying Doesn't Reveal Our "Hypocrisy": The Body Positivity Backlash, The Scourge of Healthism, and Why Our Language Around Fat is Really Dumb

I wrote this on my WordPress blog 2 years ago and I wanted to share it elsewhere. ...Enjoy?

Content Warning for fat talk, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and infamous bigot Matt Walsh.

I happened to come across asshole Matt Walsh’s video about his perceived hypocrisy of body positivity activists and it’s so strawman-y it’s ridiculous. Now, I kinda didn’t know who Walsh was before this, but after a Google I found out he’s offered many inflammatory hot takes about a bunch of people, including trans people and sex workers, so his fat prejudice is less surprising.

The description for Matt Walsh’s YouTube video The Body Positivity Movement Is Confused (I’m not linking it; search for it if you must) reads:

”According to the Left, you are not allowed to criticize the fact that Americans are coming out of COVID lockdown with some extra pounds, despite it being objectively unhealthy. This doesn’t quite add up given that the body positivity movement tells us we are supposed to be proud of being heavier.”

Wow. FUN.

I felt compelled to watch the video to get more context for this claim, and I ended up watching the whole damn thing. Nine minutes of pure joy. Anyway, Walsh’s issue seems to be with MSM articles for having the audacity to condemn fat shaming toward people who became fatter during COVID-19 shutdowns. If this is his understanding – that Leftists are against criticizing people for getting fatter in the pandemic – then to me it makes perfect sense that BOPO activists, who are “proud of being heavier”, would… not like it? Perhaps Walsh is conflating overt criticism of peoples’ fat with any acknowledgement of fat gain. It should be obvious to him, and to anyone, that if you think "big is beautiful" then you would not like people telling you your fat gain is wrong or bad.

I think what he means though is that simply being told you’re fatter is seen as triggering, and that such a trigger doesn’t square with BOPO. I find it hard to believe that most people who want to have a chat about your fatter body are just making a neutral observation, or that the reason they bring it up at all isn’t because they’ve been conditioned to “watch out” for fat. But this whole thing is a straw man that is contingent upon the second part of the video description, the idea that BOPO equates to fat pride. Someone who is proud of having a fat body likely won’t bat an eye if someone close to them mentions they've gained weight. But fat acceptance / body neutrality covers a range of body beliefs, from “get fatter if you want to because we have body autonomy” to “be considerate because fat growth happens outside of your control whether you like it or not”. Admittedly, body-neutral people may not want to hear any comments about their fat, because it reminds them about their continued discrimination or because, unlike the fat-proud, they believe your fat size/shape is a neutral descriptor and shouldn’t indicate anything about your worth or your personality. Still, this idea that even fat-proud people had oughtn’t even be shaken up by CRITICISM for their fat is really ignorant – that being triggered would necessarily mean that they “know deep down” that they don’t want to be fat, and not that… you know… having past and continued experience of discrimination for your fatness doesn’t still suck even if you otherwise like your fat body.

But Matt Walsh’s beef with body positivity isn’t really about hypocrisy. He rejects the premise outright that we should give fat people a break, and the first reason he gives is that, well, he thinks it’s unfair. Walsh doesn’t think it’s a given that just being confined to your neighborhood is enough of an “excuse” to let yourself become fatter. He said he and others exercised plenty during the shutdown and that he’s in better shape than when it began; people actually shame him for “bragging” about his pandemic fitness progress. He is appalled that feeling good about his own accomplishments can be perceived as a microaggression, and he’s not about to use any social discretion to protect people’s feelings. He goes on to say that in his experience, he’s been in and out of shape, and that some embarrassment is appropriate when you fatten up. It’s “motivating”. Similar to what I’ve heard from self-hating fat people, Walsh claims to know what it feels like to be fatter and unfit. He believes the social narrative that you should “fix” these things with your own hands; to do so demonstrates good moral character. But people like Walsh believe your health is chiefly a “personal responsibility”, so if he has to work hard at fixing his body, he’s not gonna let anyone else off the hook. Unlike actual fat people, however, it is not clear from this video that Walsh’s fears about his body and worth come from the lived experience as a fat person who’s faced the plethora of discrimination that comes with it. It’s not that he drank the Kool-Aid; he is so hard on himself only because fat stigma exists. He doesn’t want to become one of these fat people, to have the fat experience – the kind of experience you can only get from consistent prejudice and discrimination in society and not, as Walsh likely believes, limited to the consequences of your own controllable shortcomings.

Now, Walsh does not “recommend depression and self-loathing” about it. Oh heavens no. He thinks “stewing” and “dwelling” on your embarrassment is bad, sure, but assumes most people should be able to get past it. If you suffer from mental illness, you may have a hard time doing that (this might actually be perseverating). And even if you don’t live with a psychiatric disorder, I think any fat person who endures concern trolling and social exclusion on a daily basis will eventually come to “stew” over their bad bodies. Walsh explicitly states he believes that your fat is something you can and should control, and that being fat is bad for you (though of course he doesn’t specify what metric he’d use to determine who exactly has crossed this fatness threshold). Walsh believes in the “calories in, calories out” model of adiposity – which has faced renewed challenge by researchers – and he takes for granted the idea that a lean (and therefore healthy) body must be EARNED through constant effort, saying:

“The body positivity movement is just one long way around having to go for a jog.”

This assertion implies that we should accept its corollary: if you’re unwilling to put in the effort, you don’t deserve a healthy body. Furthermore, it’s evident from how Walsh talks about fat people that he believes this earned health makes thin people virtuous. As such, fat people must lack virtue.

Toward the end of the video, Walsh gets to his thesis:

”We are… both making excuses for weight gain… and going to great lengths to make sure that people don’t feel bad for their weight gain. And yet at the same time, the body positivity movement tells us that we should be proud of our bodies, no matter their shape… no matter how many extra pounds of lard may be draped over them.”

I so appreciate Walsh’s imagery here. Delicious.

Still, his rhetoric brings together several distinct and important concepts that are integral to fatphobic society all in one convenient clause. Analyzing each word here can illuminate how flawed these concepts are:

Extra When do we consider fat to be extra? Is fat extra in a location, or at some amount? Which locations, and what amount? What is the line between the fat someone needs to be a person and fat that is “bad” for them? I’m not saying you can’t parse that out, or that the answer is NEVER relevant. But you can’t just throw that word around, especially if, ostensibly, we’re concerned about people’s health here. A wrong answer could be deadly. Among other issues, gender policing is afoot. A lot of times, we don’t like where a woman’s fat is located if it makes her look more masculine (e.g., in her belly); we don’t like where a man’s fat is located if it makes him look more feminine (e.g., in his chest).

Pounds We are accustomed to measuring an entire tissue in terms of weight, which is odd because:

A) The weight exerted by your fat tissue is only one factor clinicians need to know in order to determine IF your fat is dysfunctional and, if so, HOW the dysfunction is affecting you. The problem isn’t simply joint stress from having “too much fat” or internal pressure on organs, and even here knowing someone’s weight/BMI won’t tell you if your adipose is messing with your insides (e.g., if you have fatty liver disease or sleep apnea). That’s because – and if you knew about the science of adipose you’d know this – skin fat takes the lipid burden away from visceral fat, and if this subcutaneous organ isn’t doing its job, you’ll look thinner and weigh less but you'll have diseased fat on the inside, and you may not realize.

B) Adiposity is a feature we mostly notice as a spatial phenomenon – both a dimensional one, like height, and a shape-based one, like sex or age. Yet we don’t usually keep track of our own linear measurements, nor do we solicit others’ (women may take issue with my claim here). As it so happens, if you really want to nitpick about someone’s body, you can measure fatness more directly with tape measure and skin calipers than with a scale. This bias for assessing weight instead of size/shape may be a kind of denial. “Sure you can SEE that I’m fat, but my weight? Who knows!” I think it also ties into how we see fat as transferrable, mobile, and external – not a fixture of our bodies like our muscles and bones. This reductionist conception of the discrete pound, or even the inch, also functions to enforce the notion of fat as an adjustable and isolatable feature of the human body whose sole and exclusive manipulation is both possible and uniquely consequential. Neither of these assertions has good supporting evidence. I recommend Zoe B’s video on nutrition science and the food industry for more info, where she discusses the conceptions of the calorie and the macronutrient and how they’ve been applied.

Lard A double-whammy, this word manages to both ignore the integral, vital, and intractable nature of adipose in favor of its lipid contents, and also reinforce the degrading and partly racist origins of fat stigma by comparing a person to an animal at the same time!

Draped over Yet again, this phrase reinforces the idea that fat is external to the body and both concealing and restraining. Fat is something you wear, not something you have. The “real you” is inside.

Walsh says people want “pity” for their “obesity”, but they still want to “celebrate” it. And he sees this as a logical contradiction, as hypocrisy. He concludes the video by urging fat people to solicit pity – even though he doesn’t think fat people deserve pity – for their own sake.

Because, you know, he cares.

He’d rather them feel entitled and claim to be victims than deny that “being obese is a bad thing”. Passionate fat-enthusiasts may want to “celebrate” fatness. Though they almost certainly don’t want your pity. Even still (scratching my head, dumbfounded here) you surely CAN hold the view that your body is beautiful FOR being fat – or even believe only people who are fat can be beautiful – and also acknowledge the fucked-up ways fat people are treated by a society that wants to keep them down. You can absolutely hold the belief that experiencing fat discrimination does not necessarily mean your fat is diseased or unhealthy, and still call out discrimination against your body type.

Thanks for reading everyone. If anyone vibes, let me know.

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themelodicenigma · 3 years ago

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"Luffy isn't shown to be attracted to anyone so he can't fall in love"

Oh, was he supposed to be drooling at the mouth over any man or woman that he runs across? Or spend 100 chapters in a circular romantic drama? Lol I won't strawman this thing ofc, but at the same time, the above point is laughable to me because it's very inconsequential. Anyone who has tenure in reading manga of all kinds, especially Shonen, knows showing a character actively being attracted to or vying for a romantic interest means NOTHING.

It's a classic trope played on. I mean hek, I've seen it used on female characters too. Take a goal oriented, simple yet strong-minded protagonist, and have them end up in a relationship (or hint thereof) in the same vein of their own simplicity? It's always easy work. It usually works so well because the character themselves typically comes with the ability to befriend and gain connections with others. It's just written in the most direct, uncomplicated way when they decide to see that differently and in the "romantic function" for someone.

Goku and Toriko were probably the funniest examples. You could throw Vegeta in there because him getting Bulma pregnant and really not BEING with her was also as sporadic. Soma has all the romantic subtext with Erina despite it not going all the way in directly expressing it (the author even wanted to write them being married), and Natsu's personality + bond and romantic storytelling with Lucy is enough said.

Their stories aren't exactly romantic dramas and being romantic isn't a direct goal of theirs, but that has never stopped an author from being able to make it happen. In cases like Soma or Natsu, if you're a romantic, you'd likely want it to be with someone the protagonist is super close to despite not drooling after them for the entire story. Because for characters who establish strong emotional connections, they don't really need to do that for it to be applied when/how they want it to.

Of course, who YOU want this to be for Luffy is up to you and all. Go nuts shippers. I'm not even a huge shipper in general (like, disposition-wise), but even I am on the Luffy and Nami boat myself because all corresponding material is the most flexible for it. Plus, I do like all these said materials too. I'd also point out that, uh hello, Nami doesn't exactly spend her time in romantic chases either, and yet people still want to ship her with Sanji while making the point about Luffy? Makes no sense. But, if you saw Hancock for Luffy similar to that of Chichi for Goku, then I understand too. @warlordgab has written more extensive things on this, with also all the materials to even talk about, if you want to check them out.

However, this idea of "charcacter shows no attraction to anyone means they can't have romance" is a really weird take. Not every character is Senku XD And you'd be surprised, even if they were, if a mangaka wants it to happen, oh boy it'll happen.

And probably be so simply dumb and hilarious.

#one piece #monkey d. luffy #luffy x nami #lunami #dragon ball #shokugeki no soma #toriko #fairy tail #manga

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thenightling · 2 years ago

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The Casual sexism in the Wednesday Hate

There is a large faction of people who react negatively the moment something appeals to teenage girls. I'm not saying Twilight is great literature (not by a long shot) but you see it a lot with the Twilight hate. half the things they hate about it contradict themselves. For example: "Edward doesn't act like a vampire!" immediately followed by "He watches Bella sleep. It's creepy." Yes, vampires tend to do that. Do you know how many depictions of Dracula and Barnabas Collins do that? Angel in Buffy did that, no one made a fuss. Or how about "Edward's too old for her!" Yeah, I will reference you back to Angel from Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Also even the romantic depictions of Dracula. He's five hundred years old and Mina is usually depicted between the ages of seventeen to twenty-one at the oldest. Again, I'm not saying Twilight is any good. Hell, I hate that when wounded they crack or shatter like porcelain plates. But when you start to notice the contrary complaints you start to realize it's not even really about the content. It's because it's something popular among teenage girls so that "Must mean it's bad!" Getting back to Wednesday, Most of the complaints are strawman at best. Either saying things like "Wednesday wouldn't do that!" (with the Piranha). The Hell she wouldn't! Or "Wednesday wouldn't defend Pugsley from bullies. She'd join in." Someone ACTUALLY said that to me! There are DECADES of depictions of Wednesday taking on bullies who go after Pugsley because "No one hurts Pugsley but me." That's actually an old line. It's not new. Even Cain has said it in regard to Abel in at least one of The Sandman spin-off comics. Or "They made it woke. Wednesday was never woke!" clearly that one has never seen Addams Family Values or the Thanksgiving Pageant. Or "There was never anything supernatural about the Addamses." Yeah, uh, huh. How many times are we told Grandmama and Aunt Ophelia are witches? And about about Thing and Lurch and Cousin it? Or how about the fact that Uncle Fester has controlled electricity since the 60s? Or It's from Tim Burton. He hasn't do anything good in years. No. He hasn't. But this was actually really good. This was the best thing he's done since 2005's Corpse Bride. Or even the self-righteous "It's racist because the black characters are antagonists." Once you point out they're really not you get a "Yeah, but it looked like they'd be antagonists and that's problematic in and of itself. Meanwhile it's a who-done-it. And everyone looked antagonistic in the first episodes, even Gomez! Or the other self-righteous "It isn't queer enough!" Eugene has two mothers and Enid's mother wanted to send her to "conversion therapy camp." It wasn't overtly gay but it's a gay metaphor. And there will probably be openly gay kids. There's a lot that hasn't been explored yet. So far we've only seen two characters struggling with romances. Give it time. Someone commented about Wednesday and how unrealistic it is for girls to fight each other for popularity or over boys. Umm...That's not in there... At all... No one fights each other over boys in this. There's no competing for a boy's affection. And the only time Wednesday fights the popular girl it's a duel in the Fencing class. The popular girl is actually nice and saves her classmates in the final episode. And of course "It's just a rip off of Harry Potter." or "Riverdale" or "Sabrina" and pretty much the only similarity is "There's a school! And Supernatural stuff!" Yes, The Worst Witch beat you to it, and even Dracula made reference to Scholomance, a mythical magick school in Eastern Europe. It's okay to dislike Wednesday. But I think some of the hate is nothing more than "Eww, teenage girls like it so it must be bad." or you assume it's only for teenage girls, never mind that Tim Burton's work has always transcended demographics.

#The casual sexism in the Wednesday hate #Wednesday Addams #Wednesday #The Addams Famiily #Addams Family

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miraculouscontent · 3 years ago

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Anonymous asked:

Considering how divisive Ephemeral has been, what is your opinion about it? Other than that the show (Astruc) is running itself?

An episode that could’ve been really good, but is dragged down by the “100″ gimmick, ridiculous reaches to get to the point they want, hurried pacing, and its endless need to gush over Chat Noir, insisting that Ladybug needs him when this season has showed the exact opposite.

In its effort to convince people of the love square, the show again showcases that the writers are garbage at convincing people of anything when they do this little thing called trying, which is why Lukanette ends up coming out on top in the end; specifically because they’re not trying.

I don’t even know what the intention was with the scene Luka and Marinette had where he “convinces her” (unintentionally) to love AdriChat, because instead of Marinette coming to the conclusion on her own to show that this love isn’t a question to her, it comes off like she blended Adrien+Chat in her head, realized that Adrien (the side she “loved”) wasn’t who she thought, and sought out someone to tell her how to feel. The transition is too jarring for it to be anything else, and when even the writers seem to recognize that Marinette can’t decide that she loves AdriChat wholly all on her own, there’s a problem that the writers won’t say outright but we can see.

And rather than Ladybug being allowed to make an informed decision with all the information about Chat (i.e: threatening to let Paris drown if he doesn’t know secrets that aren’t his to know) while Su-Han gives an actual argument (ex: “Is it a good idea to have a cat who might not be able to show up for battle?”), Ladybug is just there to shut Su-Han up and claim that her and Chat Noir are excellent heroes (I agree with 50% of that statement) while Su-Han is a borderline strawman. His arguments specifically designed to be easy to argue with and of course he never learns Chat’s identity because he probably wouldn’t even stand someone like Adrien (who’s super busy) wielding a miraculous. The guy isn’t even wearing the shoes Marinette gave him, for crying out loud, and him knowing could’ve made the episode worth something.

Instead, it’s just filler episode that does everything wrong except for Luka, Lukanette, and explaining why the love square is trash.

Overall, average/below-average.

Anonymous asked:

While unfortunate, I'm very glad the whole rising sun thing was the tipping point for people to realize whats been going on with the show

Yeah, it’s super unfortunate. Issues like that are always uncomfortable and extend so far beyond the usual territory the show offends.

#category: salt #episode: Ephemeral #salt: love square #other: ask and answer

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archaeologistic · 6 months ago

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Ok, but really, (assuming this actually happened) she went up to a guy (who is supposedly her friend) to ask him about “penised [fake] lesbians” and then immediately follows that up by asking him whether he knows his male (hetero) friends’ kinks and sexual preferences.

Which…is a generally sensitive topic even WITHOUT the weird and bigoted starting point that is only vaguely related EVEN IF you’re willing to commit to the insane level of mental gymnastics needed to get from trans lesbians to “straight men” “pretending” to be lesbians to…the kinks of straight men who sleep with straight and bi women. And…because she is SO concerned with not acknowledging trans women as women, she switched over from saying that trans lesbians are sleeping with (“legitimate”) cis lesbians to sleeping with women attracted to men (straight or bi). Because to say that trans women (“straight men”) are sleeping with lesbians would be to indirectly say that these cisgender lesbians are, themselves, recognizing trans women as legitimate women.

This is a side note, but even at this point her entire argument falls apart. Because she’s trying to say that “real” lesbians are being victimized by being forced to sleep with trans women, but also refuses to admit that any lesbians acknowledge trans women as women, so really the people trans women are sleeping with are straight or bi women…who are attracted to men (and maybe also women)…so they’re still sleeping with someone of their preferred gender…Where are the victims here (apart form the misgendered trans women)??

Anyways, going back to this insane tweet. After approaching her “friend” with this nonsense, Joanne THEN goes on to construct a fictional straw man of getting a bunch of bi/straight women talking about (and presumably mocking) the kinks of the men they’ve slept with. Which…is not cool, regardless of what someone’s gender is. All to bring up that some cis men are into cross dressing during sex.

Of course her friend was uncomfortable!! That’s such a weird and awkward conversation!! Imagine you go out to coffee with your friend from work or something and they start THIS hell of a conversation, just…out of the blue.

And her friend being uncomfortable is supposedly a sign of…what, exactly? Joanne comes up with three reasons:

1. The idea that women talk about the kinks of people they slept with made him upset. Yeah, understandable. That’s fucking rude.

2. That he thinks she’s proving him wrong/ignorant and doesn’t like it? I really can’t laugh harder at this. Her tweet was such a rambling, incoherent mess that I had to read it several times to even begin to see how she could think her one sided conversation was thematically consistent. I can’t imagine how hard it must’ve been for this man to piece together what was happening in real time.

3. That he “found the whole subject ick.” Uh, yeah Joanne, NO SHIT. I showed my partner this post and the idea of that conversation happening made HIM uncomfortable.

The only reason I can even kinda believe this actually happened and isn’t just a creative writing exercise is because her women-talking-about-kink strawman (and general publicized writing) is so bad that I’m not sure if she could’ve come up with this story on her own.

“i sexually harassed this guy and he was uncomfortable! this is somehow trans women’s fault!”

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riverdale-retread · 3 years ago

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Riverdale S6B Ep #108 (“Ex Libris”)

This episode is supposed to be about library books, but actually this seems to be the Season of the Reggie Mantle Ascendancy!

Barchie are not pregnant. Betty is worried about carrying on her dire family legacy. Archie thinks that Fred having been a ‘good father’ will somehow just carry on through him, even though he is categorically such a different man from what Fred was.

Veronica, smarting from being rejected by someone she never very much valued, goes on the offensive to attack Reggie as he’s packing to leave. Reggie suddenly gives as good as he gets to point out that Veronica has killed a husband and a father, which doesn’t really make her the most promising girlfriend material. “You’ve never spared my feelings before,” is such a damning assessment you can get from someone breaking up with you, isn’t it? (Consider the stark contrast to how Jabitha are constantly sparing each other from their own distress!).

But.

I am having SUCH A GOOD TIME with Reggie just laying Veronica out flat like this. I don’t know why this is happening, but I am here for it! The mercilessly accurate way he lays out Veronica’s tendency to latch on to men? The way he’s so articulate and calm? Nice!

This is the library book episode of Riverdale.

Percival, accompanied by deputies with shotguns (!) visits each of the main residence of Riverdale to demand the return of library books they checked out as children, in commemoration of the library itself being shut down. When someone is unable to produce the book on demand, Percival takes something valuable as ‘collateral.’

Jughead: Metamorphosis ←→ the inscribed Baxter Bros. book his grandpa wrote & sent him

Archie: Songwriting From The Heart ←→ Archie’s guitar (Percival has a nugget of palladium)

Veronica: Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig ←→ Hiram’s portrait.

Chery: Flowers in the Attic ←→ Jason’s body

Betty: Small Engine Repairs ←→ Her diary

Reggie: ACTUALLY HAS THE BOOK. Dyslexia.

My first thought was “Do they not have ebay?” but later it’s revealed that there is some form of ebay in Riverdale, so that’s good.

Interesting things are revealed.

Thousands of dollars is a dire threat to Archie and Jughead, but of no consequence to Veronica. Jail time matters to Veronica.

Cheryl is a great match for Percival. I hope Tabitha figures out that Cheryl should be at the forefront of the fight against Percival.

Betty I think is supposed to be being persecuted by Alice. But this actually makes me feel contempt for Betty. Alice is being exactly how she always was, and it’s not clear why the fuck Betty keeps letting this happen? I want to respect Betty, Riverdale, so please, let her move out of this stupid house.

Percival says what I said last episode about Reggie Mantle, after making a very wonderful unexpected-delight sound when Reggie produces his book. “There’s more than meets the eye with you.” Reggie and Percival also have the same haircut.

Jughead convenes a meeting, which means they meet at the Jabitha residence. (Tabitha is out of town trying to get Pop’s declared a landmark). Why don’t they have all their meetings here? He launches into a speech about the benefits of reading which is very funny coming from a TV show. That books are ‘terrifying’ to would-be-despots. Are they though? This is such a Cold-War Stalinist kind of strawman we’re positing, and even then, were those guys actually afraid of books?

CHERYL HAS VISITED HOBO AND HIS NEW BRIDE AT THEIR RESIDENCE. I was actually quite shocked by this. She says the only worthwhile thing (Sorry, Jughead, but your speech, inclusive of the factoids about how ‘some states’ deal with overdue library books etc was just filler). “There’s a whiff of sorcery about all of this.” And yet - AND YET - possibly for the first time ever, Cheryl and Jughead agree completely about something: Books are immensely powerful. Cheryl, the one who never accepts fate as handed to her, is the one better suited than Jughead (always fated to die) to perceive that what Percival has on them are both intimate knowledge about their formative years and objects of personal importance, which as a witch she would think are imbued with magical powers.

Percival, in conversation with Kevin, calls the OG Riverdale Five “demagogues.” His mission is to punish them for their hypocrisy, and torture them a bit. Kevin is such shit, because he suddenly is worried about their well being.

Kevin: Lord of the Flies (no collateral).

Percival’s magic (sorcery, whatever) is done by lighting candles and reciting Latin. He’s of the Nana Rose school of witchcraft.

Archie gets mocked by his stupid meathead students at the RROTC about his guitar playing, festival participating past. Reggie can’t read anything without the dyslexia book. Betty develops an extreme sensitivity to bleach scents, to the extent that she hallucinates her father. Veronica sees a spider on her portrait but when she whacks at it, it’s gone.

Sidebar: Veronica is, just like Jughead, often a bit wrong about the literary references she uses, and now the way the show uses The Kiss if the Spider Woman is in alignment with that. Is this an intentional joke about how Veronica Lodge has never read a book by Riverdale? Because if so, I love this. By the same token, while he’s looking for Metamorphosis on Riverdale Ebay, Jughead starts to develop a painful looking eczema on his hands. Which is also not what happens in Metamorphosis, so this is a second joke, this time about Jughead Jones also never having read a book! (Ok well not quite. Jughead is shown reading Dune, for example, and flipping through lots of texts about serial killers.) I barely watched this scene where Jughead’s hands are coming apart in his, um, hands, because I cannot cope with horror, but I am pretty sure a fingernail comes off.

Betty goes to claim her diary back from Percival. He refuses to give it up but permits her to read it in the shop redolent with the scent of bleach.

Cheryl, wearing stiletto heels in her own house alone, hearings the sounds of a girl giggling and goes looking for the source. The sounds that identify Heather for Cheryl are two fold, actually: Girlish giggling and orgasmic sighing. OK, Cheryl. Yup. Whatever it is that was sitting under the sheets on the bed in her attic dematerializes into a pile of scarlet rose petals.

Percival plays the cello (rather than the guitar he confiscated), forcing Archie to hallucinate a very creepy Miss Grundy zombie doing the same in the music room. Meanwhile, Jughead’s skin condition gets worse and DUDES Jughead never read Metamorphosis. He must’ve carried that book around like a talisman to keep himself tethered to the world while he was homeless, because THIS IS NOT HOW GREGOR SAMSA TURNS INTO A BUG OK? This is however how Jeff Goldblum turns into a fly in that one movie with Geena Davis (the correct reference that Jughead makes is to Cronenberg, not Kafka.)

Reggie ascendancy is still with us (somewhat) and I want to keep hoping for the best. He wants his dyslexia book back. Reggie has intuitively made the leap that Cheryl (an actual witch) has done - that this is a magical object for him. I will permanently adore Reggie and place him above all others for the way he has absolutely no interest whatsoever in dealing a parting blow to Veronica Lodge, even though he acknowledges that their break up was brutal. Unfortunately, Percival (like Hiram, like the wise guys, like Veronica) has cottoned on to Reggie’s extreme usefulness as a henchman. Percival uses the voice on him to deliver a (cursed?) glamerge egg to Veronica.

Back with Archie, Betty tells Archie about another one of her repressed childhood memories. She associates the smell of bleach with Hal’s serial killer ways. Unlike the time she had to brain a cat with a rock, she just simply didn’t understand what she was witnessing because she was a child.

Betty Cooper has the most vainglorious egotism of anyone on this show, and because I was very similar, I am going to call her out. Betty thinks she’s the smartest, most perceptive, most responsible person on the planet, and that because she is gifted with these massive, exceptional brain powers she owes it to humanity to be on top of shit all the time. “It was right under my nose. And I missed it.” She says this about something that happened when she was 12. By the same token, Alice missed this too, but Betty truly believes she’s smarter than all other people who have existed, so Alice is excused her blindness. One of the ways to break out of this way of thinking is to remind yourself that you’re not that special. It’s very liberating. I’d like that for Betty, for someone to tell her that she is just not that exceptional, so she can relax.

When Betty asks Archie if something strange happened to him, he lies at first (“Nothing”) and then amends to say “Nothing I want to talk about” but the blinding egotism that Betty suffers from makes her a bad listener. Why is she so incompetent as an investigator? Nothing I want to talk about means something did happen, but she just glides on by. Of course, the reason Archie can’t bring up his Grundy related trauma is because Betty was such an asshole about it when she first discovered it. She’d been enraged at the time that Archie didn’t want to be sexual with her, so he’s not comfortable talking about it now.

Jughead goes to Sketch Alley. He finds a lone man, Hank, who spookily says that the clearly magic spell that Percival put on the homeless there was worded to leave Hank out (“He said walk. It’s the one thing I can’t do.”) Jughead Jones doesn’t believe in magic yet, so he impatiently asks to see if there’s a way to find Doc so he can try to get the book he didn’t read back from his old friend. Everyone walked to California! Is this deus ex machina homeless man in a wheelchair some sort of guardian angel? The stuff he says sounds absolutely sarcastic (“I may have a number for a payphone on Venice Beach”) but it’s meant to be sincere!

Veronica has received the Glamerge egg left by Reggie. Despite being subjected to the Voice, Reggie didn’t deliver the egg in person. Smithers can’t find the Puig book, so Veronica namechecks The Strand in NYC which made me sad. The Strand NYC 2022 is not the place it used to be in days of yore that made it famous. (Fun Note! They got declared a landmark against their will, which then fucked up its entire business plan of having lots of old and rare books. It’s now just a Barnes and Noble type business inside the building that used to house the true Strand.) When Veronica opens the egg, she hallucinates spiders spewing out of it, but the moment passes.

Moose had the copy of the Lord of the Flies! When he hands it back to Kevin, Kevin says the saddest thing: That he identified with Piggy and still does, no matter what transformation he was able to bring about on his external physical self.

Cheryl calls the next meeting, bringing everyone to Thornhill. What follows is a very sober exposition dump about how the magic Percival is using works. When Cheryl asks if this resonates with anyone, the only one with enough honesty, emotional courage and open heartedness (because he STILL trusts all these people!) is Jughead. His hands look very messed up. Jughead Jones’ biggest fear is that he’s going to die alone having only written one book. (This better not be foreshadowing or I swear to GOD).

The alternatives that Cheryl lays out are pretty stark as well as being surprisingly sensible. Either fulfill the demands of the spell (Find Library Books, Get Back Personal Totems) or face their demons. Archie absolutely does not feel ready to face his demons, so he breaks into the shop to just steal back his item. Percival is way ahead of him. He’s left a note on the cursed cello for Archie, mocking him.

Jughead goes back to see the (so far ) not an angel deus ex machina man that is Hank, who apparently really has gotten in touch with Doc in Venice Beach via payphone. Doc has sold the book to a Barney’s Book Barn in Allentown. Allentown is real, the bookshop is not.

Some smugfaced asshole among Archie’s RROTC class mocks Archie because somehow he’s figured out that Archie had a sexual relationship with Grundy. Archie absolutely gets triggered, threatens a kid, and then violently destroys a cello when he is engulfed with memories of Grundy. Did the showmakers know at this point that S7 would be the last one for the show? Bringing up Grundy now (and using the S1 footage) is very odd.

Next comes the most upsetting thing I’ve ever seen on Riverdale. Percival seduces Kevin by promising a release from past demons of bad self image and self esteem and then they kiss and I find this repellent. The show has figured out two was to gross me out now - Foni’s male-female bisexual kiss (which they couldn’t even bear to show me in bright lighting) and now this. A kiss between two objectively good looking men (Percival and Kevin) that gave me the absolute heebie jeebies.

Just to twist the knife, Archie has to deal with Betty coming home wearing the heart shaped Kubrik’s Lolita sunglasses that Grundy used to wear. Betty is very appropriate to Archie, using the right language (he’s right to be triggered, because he was groomed). Is this the show’s apology for their very outdated “hot for teacher” storyline back in S1?

Jughead, looking exactly like he did when he went to the underground movie party, is on the most urgent used bookstore browsing of his life.

Veronica did exactly as Reggie suggested. She’s called Heraldo over to not have to be alone. The next morning, Heraldo is dead. He suffered a very bad death too from the looks of him. Veronica’s first action after the removal of Heraldo’s corpse is to call Reggie to yell at him. (”Idiot!” “You fool!”)

Betty’s FBI office uses faxes. The other TBK victim who survived said that the killer always left a light on for her. This triggers a second memory for Betty involving her dad. He leaves a nightlight on, before telling his little daughter that they are both monsters. Betty decides that they need to look for a serial killer with a daughter.

Jughead has found the books.

To make up to me for the deeply upsetting Percival-Kevin kiss scene, Riverdale gifted me with Reggie (REGGIE ASCENDANCY! I AM HERE FOR IT!) confronting Percival. First, Reggie checked the egg before giving it to Veronica, even though (let me say this again) he was being compelled by “The Voice.” KING. Second, the way he asks Percival if he’s a wizard means he’s smarter than the rest of the ‘core’ members put together because they all needed to be TOLD by Cheryl what was going on, more than once. Reggie just figured it out by himself. He wants to learn.

All together at the Jabitha residence, Jughead is congratulated by Cheryl for finding the books “With his bookish ways.” She calls him Nerd not Hobo, which I think is a step up in her estimation. Archie, still enraged, says that if Percival doesn’t keep his end of the bargain he will commit murder via arson. This turns on Jughead, of course, leading him to give Archie the most inappropriately loving smile in response to such an outburst. Veronica doesn’t want the Hiram portrait back. Cheryl says they have to perform a ‘ritual’ when they get the things back.

At the Curiosity Shop, Percival smarmily offers to give everything back to everyone except Veronica, who makes a grand statement: No one has power over me.

Oh dear. Famous last words??

Right before Cheryl’s ritual, Betty tells Archie that she is now finally aware that she is an absolute font of repressed memories. Cheryl’s suggestion is to set the whole set of things on fire. Jughead does not want to set the book on fire - because it’s a book, because it’s his grandpa’s, because he’s sentimental about remembrance, and about legacy. So that’s Hiram’s portrait and the first Baxter Bros. book still in play.

Meanwhile, Percival is being super cute and making a list of his besties in his notebook. A. Cooper, T. Keller. F Andrews. K. Keller. R. Mantle.

Doctor Curdle Jr. tells Veronica that though Heraldo did actually die of a black widow spider venom, he wasn’t bitten by a spider. The venom entered Heraldo’s body through his lips. We zoom in on Veronica’s unhappy, pretty mouth. (Um. Shout out to the Tumblrinas who pointed out that Curdle Jr. looked as unhappy as he did because he did not want to discuss any other points of entry on Heraldo’s body that made contact with Veronica’s. I understand what you meant now.)

#I am playing catch up maniacally because i am normal about my hobbies #riverdale opinion #riverdale episode 6.13 #riverdale episode 108 #reggie mantle #jughead jones #Riverdale s6 #riverdale recap #riverdale episode recap

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wolf-queer-discourse · 3 years ago

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Adventures in Aphobia #1

So I was scrolling through Tumblr the other day (a regrettable mistake as always), and I had the great pleasure of seeing this joyous post.

*deep breath*

Not gonna lie, posts like this make me real pissed. Pissed because the person who posted this exists in a space where they feel comfortable enough to post this online. Pissed because these posts are so common and often face little backlash. And pissed because there’s nothing better than allosexuals condescendingly explaining to asexual people why they’re dirty attention whores who invent their own oppression. Ace people deserve to be defended against this horseshit. Young people see these posts, and it’s extremely damaging to have your identity be nothing more than fuel for people in discourse to mock you and demand you bled in order for them to notice your pain.

Anger aside, many people do not see why this post is wrong, so why is it? Let’s unpack this clusterfuck of bigotry:

“would love to see substantive evidence of systematic “aphobia” that isn’t actually just misogyny, toxic masculinity, or rpe culture.”

God damn, we are not mincing our words here XD. A few things: systematic in bold, which tells you if you do not make a blood sacrifice on the altar of queer pain you will not be taken seriously. Potential nitpick, but systemic and systematic are not the same thing. I believe systemic is the word they’re looking for. Systematic implies a lot more intentionality that can be hard to prove. Systemic merely means that systems, in their current state, do aphobic things, which they absolutely do.

“Aphobia” in quotes is absolutely rich. Not only will this person refuse to acknowledge systemic aphobia, which is only one type, but this poster casts clear doubt upon the mere concept of aphobia in and of itself. We love to see it.

There’s a lot to unpack here. The statement, as clearly condescending as intended, is sort of correct, though it doesn’t mean a whole lot. Systemic oppression is about the systems in a society (government, healthcare, etc) discriminating against people. Systemic oppression is not bigotry faced on a person-to-person level. In short, systematic oppression is something a person experiences in their overall life, while personal discrimination is experienced on a personal level by people who are not singularly in control of the systems. This post boils down the negative comments ace people face into being called “weird”, which is an understatement for sure, but calling a gay person weird isn’t systemic oppression either.

It’s still bad and discriminatory.

This is such a snotty way to dismiss aphobia as some mere, insignificant comment with no meaning as if it doesn’t reinforce society’s painful aphobic views in the same way casual homophobic comments reinforce heteronormativity and society’s hostility toward gay people.

Ace people face discrimination in healthcare, most notably, which is systemic discrimination, but the systemic discrimination of asexuals really ought to be its own post if I’m to nosedive into it. Even if ace people faced no systemic discrimination, it wouldn’t make this point anymore correct. Discrimination is a perfectly valid reason to feel disregarded by society, and often only ace people are denied the right to feel this way and are instead gaslit into admitting what they face is no big deal and they’re just making it up for attention.

The experience of being pressured to have sex when you’re allo vs ace is very different. The vast majority of allo people do not plan to be celibate their whole lives. Many ace people do not want to have sex, ever. “Waiting for sex” in much of western society and in Christianity is seen as pure and honorable. Yet being asexual and never wanting sex is seen as a deviant disorder and people are accused of robbing their partner of sex forever.

There’s really a specific flavor of sexual pressure that is unique to ace people. Sex being to “fix” someone or because they “just need to try it”.

In this respect, aphobic sexual pressure is better compared to that faced by gay people and lesbians. Lesbians especially often can face this same struggle, men pressuring them to have sex because they think lesbians just need to “try it” or to “fix them”. I can imagine this poster would have no issue acknowledging lesbophobia being the root of lesbians coerced into sex with men, yet she does not give ace people the same.

Imagine if someone said (and knowing our fucked world, someone probably has): “Lesbophobia doesn’t exist. It’s just misogyny. Straight women are coerced into sex too!”

It’d be pathetic bullshit. Toxic masculinity, misogyny and many other issues can all tangle into combined messes with other forms of bigotry. Lesbophobia is an experience that deserves to be recognized apart from misogyny, even if the two are linked. Please stop erasing ace people’s experiences with this when it’s not the same thing.

Honestly, though, this post, as trashy as it is, if anything, is perhaps, really asking: Is there any type of aphobic experience that’s inherently exclusive to ace people?

I still wager to go say, yes, yes there is, but I must make an important point first:

Most experiences of queer discrimination are not limited to queer people.

Homophobia and transphobia are both experienced by cishets in certain instances. Feminine straight men can be victims of homophobic harassment. This does not disprove the fact that it’s homophobia just because a straight man is the victim of it. A tall cis woman with broad shoulders and a lower voice may be the victim of transphobic remarks or comments. The basis of these comments is rooted in transphobia, however, so the fact that the victim is cis does not erase the transphobia.

People who argue that experiences ace people complain about can be experienced by allosexuals are not poking a legitimate hole in doing this. Certain experiences related to aphobia can and are experienced by allosexuals. If you do not acknowledge this, then homophobia and transphobia aren’t real because cishet people have sometimes experienced them.

Despite cishets sometimes experiencing queerphobia, most of us acknowledge that their experience of that bigotry, however unfortunate, is not the same as that experienced by actual queer people. It’d be quite homophobic for a feminine straight man to claim he knew just as much about the gay experience as an actual gay man. Similarly, when allosexual people relate experiences that were rooted in aphobia, it’s overstepping a line when they claim asexual discrimination isn’t real because they experienced elements of it too.

Cishet (cishet including allosexuals) people do not experience their doctors telling them their sexuality might be a disorder or caused by trauma. Allo queer people can experience this with their sexualities too.

“using sex appeal to sell products is misogyny, it is not engineered to gross sex-repulsed people, it is meant to objectify women.”

This is a strawman thinner than my last nerve. Uh, what? What ace people are you seeing that literally think sex appeal was engineered to gross-out sex-repulsed people?? I don’t think this is a core argument??

Yes, sex-repulsed ace people sometimes complain about sex appeal in media being uncomfortable. But that’s it. Every time an ace person shares a discomfort of theirs doesn’t mean it’s the entire basis of their oppression. For the love of God, let ace people discuss their experiences without being blow-torched over not being oppressed enough with an individual discomfort.

BONUS ROUND

(This was in the tags)

“Completely vilifies celibate individuals”

...no…? What…? Huh…?

The most charitable interpretation of this vague accusation is that the poster means celibate people face aphobia as well, due to not wanting to have sex. I have no idea how this “vilifies” anyone, but that aside, as said before: people who are not queer can face aphobia. Also worth noting that society treats celibate people way better than ace people, which is really another example of aphobia. Celibate people can be told they’re missing out (which could be at very least related to aphobic ideals), but they’re rarely called broken. Celibacy is seen more as a respected, controlled ideal in allo people, but when ace people want to do it, they’re just mentally ill.

Anyway, the post was aphobic trash, and it needs to be debunked more often. Mocking ace people online is not a good look anymore, guys. Don't be ugly.

#discourse #queer discourse #LGBT discourse #Adventures in Aphobia #ace discourse #asexual discourse #aphobia #ace discrimination #asexual #asexuality #LGBT #queer #ace #rant #aphobes have no shame but they should #imagine having a brain smoother than a banana peel

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in-tua-deep · 3 years ago

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Ok I totally want to hear more about this survivors au/Delores is real! How do the siblings handle having this different version of Five? Five may be better adjusted but he still has to heard his family around like a bunch of stray cats. What happens when Hazel and Cha Cha show up? How do they find out that Vanya causes the apocalypse and how does Five handle that revelation?!

here is the thing, i think the survivors au has the potential to be HILARIOUS

no one knows how to handle a well-adjusted five, and this absolutely includes the commission

So you mentioned Hazel and Cha-Cha?? Five in this au was not nearly as absolutely feral as he is in the show bc he knows how to interact with people - he was raised by a competent adult and a weird best friend and they occasionally saw other survivors as well

please picture old Five hanging around the water cooler and chatting with Hazel

the other funny thing is that Five is competent passing - he is well adjusted emotionally but functionally?? Hazel is out there complaining about dental being cut and office parties and budgets and Five is there sipping his drink having never filed taxes in his life. Five doesn't know what the fuck a dental plan is, he was a child soldier and then lived in an apocalypse.

So please picture for me Hazel being like "okay I know corporate wants us to keep what we're being paid to ourselves but fuck that, workers unite, what do you get paid as a legend old timer?"

and five is like "you're getting paid? i get to not get tossed back into the apocalypse, I think"

"but what about expense forms? what about medical care?"

"I'm like 80% sure i'm being experimented on, actually." Five says nonchalantly, "Don't get me wrong, my idea of medical care is fucked by being a child soldier but I'm pretty sure regular people don't have electrodes attached to their heads every time they get a checkup. Could be wrong though! My ex-dad used to monitor my brainwaves while I slept so like, my idea of appropriate shit is fucked, you know?"

This is a Five who was raised by Rick, he is polite to his coworkers. If Dot asked him if he wanted to grab lunch, Five would have gone and grabbed lunch with her or politely said that he couldn't.

Cha Cha only ever talks to Five when she wants to talk shop, so they've had a couple of conversations about weapons but not much else tbh, Hazel just tends to be more personable

So when they're sent after Five, Hazel is much more hesitant to kill who he perceives as a "work friend" and also is definitely thinking about all the times Five casually revealed a way the commission was being highkey shady about him, such as the potential experimentation, no pay, working under duress etc. He's much more easily turned against the commission because he's even more primed to say "fuck the commission" than he is in canon

Hazel out here like "how did Five break his contract when Five wasn't even being paid? I kind of want to read it."

Hazel out here like "I would unionize if I didn't think the commission was anti-union enough to send literal assassins after me if I suggested it :/"

meanwhile with the siblings

Five just. talks over them a lot and makes so much sense that it's actually really hard to argue with him, and he's weirdly considerate of his family's obligations

Like Diego is like "i have to go see Patch" then Five is like "that's great I'm proud of you buddy, it would actually be really handy to have some law enforcement read into the situation if you think she's up to the task. that goes for everyone by the way! If y'all have people you trust, more bodies would be super helpful I think"

the entire family, collectively, who have like zero trusted social links: uhhhhhhhh

Diego, with this weird permission, probably?? Does? Awkwardly attempt to read Patch into the situation? Patch is, obviously, like "what the fuck, Diego" but probably goes with him to the mansion (????????) because she's concerned and then meets his fucking whacko family with their superpowers and suddenly everything is 100% more realistic

Five is just like "yes hello I'm aware I look like a child, i'm actually in my late 50s or early 60s (apocalypse time amiright) because of time travel stuff. Yes I am Five Hargreeves who went missing in like 2002 or whatever. anyway it's lovely to meet you, i'm so glad diego has someone he trusts, and considering my sibling's shifty looks when i told them to invite anyone they trusted this genuinely makes me concerned that Diego is the most socially well-adjusted of them."

"That cannot be possible." Patch says, like someone who has met Diego Hargreeves.

"You haven't met the rest." Five says sympathetically, "In our defense we were raised in isolation as child soldiers."

"That... explains so much." Is all Patch can say to that, "But you seem..."

"I'm adopted." Five waves away.

"We're ALL adopted." Diego grits out, very aggrieved by this and also not sure if he likes the fact that Patch seems friendly with Five, or at least is listening to him?

"I'm double adopted."

However! With the recruitment of Patch, herding Diego becomes like 90% easier.

Honestly the worst to herd are probably Luther and Allison? Luther because he's Number One and resents Five taking charge and also resents Five's casual dismissal of Reginald and also suspects that Five (or at least the commission) has something to do with Reginald's death?

Allison because she is torn between following Luther and helping him and helping Five but also calling Patrick and Claire at every possible moment while ALSO trying to repair her relationship with Vanya. She's flighty - she'd bail on a Five-apocalypse-assignment if Vanya mentioned being hungry or if Luther called or anything like that

Vanya likes to be included and, if asked, would probably drop as many current obligations as she can. Like she would probably cancel her teaching if Five genuinely and sincerely asked her for her help, which he does because he's 100% sure Dolores would manifest in front of him and smack him if he dared even imply someone without powers wouldn't be helpful

Vanya is like "I'm not sure if i'll be helpful - I don't have powers ):" and Patch is like "wtf are you talking about - my superpowers are Gun, Backup, and Reading Comprehension and i am like the most useful member of this team right now"

Vanya gets a confidence boost just from hanging out with Patch honestly, I think they should be friends

Klaus is thrilled to be included are you kidding?? He says he does it for money but he's just happy to be there and also as one of the most emotionally intelligent siblings he is mildly concerned about the fact that Five looks like he's about to cry and also emotes

Five also gives Klaus positive reinforcement, hugs, and Five absolutely weaponizes the I'm not mad, but I believe that you can do better and I'm going to give you more chances because I love you and fully believe that next time you'll be amazing way that Rick used on him.

I feel like Five ends up saying something along the lines of "I understand that x is really important, and we're definitely going to look into it. Is it something that needs to be addressed right now, or is it something that can wait until after April 1st? If it can wait, I can write it down here on this list so we don't forget. If it can't wait then we can figure out a time to address it and help you" a lot

Like Grace malfunctioning and potentially killing Reginald?

"We don't have to make this decision right now." Five says patiently, "Because Grace is a robot, we have some options. Living with a robot who is potentially malfunctioning and homicidal is dangerous, but Luther saying that means admitting that Reginald might have made a mistake or error with Grace's programming or upkeep. I haven't been here for a long time, but I remember Reginald being very precise. Regardless, this isn't a choice between permanently shutting her off or not. We can shut her down temporarily until we can fully address the issue. We can ask and see if there is a 'system reboot' option or some sort of system check that Grace can undergo. We can try find and hire an expert to take a look at her programming to find the issue."

Five gives this speech while like, organizing the weaponry in the house on a table very nonchalantly

Five out here making buzzer noises at his siblings arguments like "yeah no that's a false dichotomy and a strawman's argument, want to try again?"

(Look apocalypse nights were long and they had games that were literally about arguing pointless shit like ranking types of chairs or the best way to break out of a prison without powers and things could get heated)

"Who died and made you boss?" Luther demands.

"Uh, the world? Were you not listening?" Five asks, looking very purposefully confused.

It gets even MORE delightful when Five reads Rick into the situation because a) he promised and b) his siblings really have like, no connections jeeze

Rick fully believes that this is his son from the future, like Five introduced himself, but Five skipped out on a few key details. Such as being adopted.

So Rick spends a solid chunk of time just staring at Five, who looks basically nothing like him, trying to think like, who is his mother ???? if we save the world will Five stop existing? why would I name my child 'Five'? Does everyone have powers in the future? was there like... a radioactive apocalypse? would radiation give future humans superpowers? when did my life turn into a comic book? am i even allowed to ask these questions? will knowledge of the future fuck things up?

and then when Five comes back and is like "what is up everyone this is my dad Rick who will be joining us, he doesn't have any memories of me thanks to time travel but if anyone is mean to him i WILL kneecap them"

"Your DAD?"

Five does kidney punch Klaus for saying that Rick is a DILF but otherwise everyone just is like, warily looking at this Normal Dad Man in confusion because?? This is the dude who raised Five, who they watched take out like an entire commission team by himself yesterday? He looks so. Normal.

Rick is very confused and like, wonders if he's supposed to be the team mascot? But Five keeps involving him and asking his opinion and in return Rick enforces snack breaks and makes everyone sandwiches and has gentle talks with everyone

Every time Five notices someone about to blow he just lovingly makes sure that that person is alone in a room with Rick

Luther ends up crying on the sofa with Rick gently patting his back as Rick calmly states that Luther seems like he's put a lot of time and effort into his family and making his father proud and that since Reginald isn't here to say it, Rick will have to be the one to say that he's proud and that they've been dropped into a difficult and stressful situation - so soon after Reginald's death when they're still grieving! - and he's doing so well

Luther, experiencing unconditional positive paternal regard for the first time in his life: i don't know why i'm crying so much

honestly this is just a comedy of juggling the gang, having impromptu therapy sessions and discussions, investigating the apocalypse and the eye, leonard trying to meet vanya continuously and failing because she's constantly surrounding by family or rick/patch, the commission trying their best to bust up the dream team/isolate Vanya/kill or remove Five, while Hazel lives out his romcom dreams with Agnes and also says "fuck the commission"

#HUH?#survivors au #well adjusted five au #long post #far tua long #five recruits rick to be team dad #rick is DEEPLY confused #but he's the kind of person that rolls with it #dolores probably ends up tagging along as well on at least one occasion #dolores and patch bond #five pretends that dolores is a new sibling and not his dolores #five calls rick 'dad' and it messes with everyone else #patch is on team fuck-the-apocalypse(-and-reginald)#vanya is never alone so fuck leonard #five finds out that vanya causes the apocalypse and is like #vanya: HUH?#luther: maybe we should lock vanya up -#rick: are there are any other possible actions that might be more appropriate in this situation?#vanya: i could try get more meds to take and we could address the powers thing after april 1st #vanya immediately gets validated that reginald sucks #even luther who has had multiple conversations with rick is like 'dad... didn't always make the best choices...'#everyone: :0 #hazel doesn't kill patch so he probably joins team anti-apocalypse at some point #hazel: why are you a child #five: oh you know i'm young at heart and all that #OH forgot to mention one of the main differences in this au is that five like properly grew up this time #so while he is inconvenienced by his body he's not so deeply uncomfortable or angry about it #just resigned #'this might as well happen' - five #five probably makes jokes about it as well

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sorreen · 2 years ago

Text

To the gender criticals out there, know that when we say “let trans people in sports”, we are not suggesting that we should end the conversation at that. We are suggesting that with the topic of trans people in sports, y’all are not going in the right direction.

Actually what you are suggesting quite clearly is that you want trans people to be in the sex category they identify with, there’s no nuance of “we just want to have a critical discussion” as you dishonestly suggest in the second part, it’s quite literally a “do as we say and don’t ask questions”.

You cannot identify womanhood by any given trait or feature, besides the fact that somebody feels like a woman.

Actually I can. There’s nothing stopping me from doing just that, neither on a logical nor legal basis. A woman is an adult human female.

That is what makes them feel comfortable in society and their bodies.

What about biological women who are made to feel uncomfortable about their bodies by society? Are they not women? If they feel like women, but are not comfortable in their bodies (as many trans “women” experiencing gender dysphoria are) are they not women or is that conclusion just incorrect? I’ll just assume this was a logical misstep on your part.

Not all cis women have uteruses. Not all cis women produce estrogen. Not all cis women have breasts. Not all cis women even have XX chromosomes.

Strawman. Pretty irrelevant to the discussion considering radical feminists don’t claim women (read: adult human females) with intersex conditions aren’t women.

These women are biologically female, and their womanhood should not be defined by arbitrary traits that you assign them.

So you agree, these women can all be identified as biologically female.

Besides, to imply that they are worthy of womanhood, and trans women are not, is hypocritical.

They are not worthy of womanhood. Frankly no one is worthy of womanhood as it is a quite uncomfortable experience, at least in our society right now, and I don’t think anyone deserves that. But it is characterised as something adult human females experience. You can’t do anything to earn or unearn womanhood, it is an experience characteristic you either have or not, the same way you can’t be worthy of blackness or homosexuality.

Gender isn’t just a social construct, it’s the way our brains perceive ourselves and our role in society from birth.

The second part is a decent definition of gender, I actually like it. It’s just sad that it contradicts the first. If gender is the way our brains percieve ourselves and our role IN SOCIETY, it is quite literally a social construct. Any role in a society (whether assigned by yourself or someone else) is socially constructed.

You cannot be critical of things that are not subjective concepts. That is called ignorance.

This is a conclusion from a subset of cases in which the “objective” is being criticised. While I am not a believer in humans being able to percieve things that aren’t subjective, even if we were, being critical of objective and “objective” things is what empowers most scientific advancements. So no, just because something not subjective is being thought of critically, doesn’t mean it’s out of ignorance. (This is of course ommitting any arguments about things that are neither objective nor subjective and about what a “concept” is)

The issue with trans people in sports (and I know there is one) is not that they’re a danger to sports, it’s that the system we compete based on is outdated, and biased towards a very stereotypical type of man and woman.

“They’re a danger to sports” is kind of a strawman, but I’ll just count it as a dramatisation. The correct version would be “Trans ‘women’ are a danger to womens’ sports”, since they have an unfair biological advantage. The system might very well be oudated, but it is not biased towards a stereotypical woman, it’s in fact biased towards an entirely astereotypical woman, since women with strong muscle development, a tall build and high testosterone levels (all stereotypically male traits) generally do better. Now I’m assuming what you’re trying to say is that sports are seperated based on biology and that that doesn’t work out well for trans people. The point of seperating sports by sex is to give women a fair chance and a reason to compete in sports. If all sports were unisex, there would be little reason for any women to compete professionally since even the top female athletes don’t stand a chance against the top males, which is the exact problem we’re running into with trans “women”.

The solution is not banning a minority from something built for enjoyment, the solution is to abolish the system that they, along with many people outside of the minority, do not fit into.

“The solution” is to seperate sports by sex. Everyone fits into that system, both the minority you’re referring to and others. Also sports on a competitive level are not built for enjoyment, they are built for careers and entertainment.

There is no one-size-fits-all for sports separation, and different sports can be separated in different ways. If your system is built to regulate womanhood, it is not a system of protection, it is a system to oppression. We are all humans, and every day the excuses of “gender ideology” and “gender confusion” become more and more absurd.

The first sentence is actually some nice food for conversation, I don’t disagree with it at all. “My” system doesn’t regulate womenhood, therefore it’s not a system of opression, I agree, but since you’re going to question the first part here’s a breakdown: My system doesn’t regulate, it is defined. That definition is quite simple: A woman is an adult human female. There are no regulations, no dress code, no activities you have to take part in or anything you have to do. Words have defintions, which is something your side of they argument vehemently oposes. I’m not an enemy of semantics, I quite enjoy it actually, just not the kind TRAs usually pose; that being: “no one knows the definition of any word ever actually”.

Think for yourself.

Already on it

If you were born with something that made you different than other men or women, would you really be okay with everybody excluding you? From children’s soccer teams? From high school basketball practices? From putting in the years of effort to compete in the Olympics? All because you were born “imperfect” by their standards.

This is an unsuitable analogy since trans people aren’t excluded from sports or childrens’ soccer teams. While sport might be -in your world view- labeled incorrectly/outdatedly, it still offers a place for everyone. Not everyone has some right to be included in everything. I am not allowed to take part in the masters program at my uni, since I haven’t completed my bachelor yet. I am not allowed to go to drink alcohol in certain countries, because I am not yet 21. Just because something excludes me, doesn’t mean it’s doing so unjustly. Also show me one person that isn’t imperfect by any standard, I doubt you can. This so dramatically rhethorical, I have trouble taking the entire paragraph seriously now.

This isn’t something I’m willing debate.

Then why post this. Why post this on a website where people can reply to it. I’ll just take this as a “agree with me or get blocked” but seriously, if you don’t want a conversation, why say anything.

If you disagree with including minorities in sports, or allowing intersex people to compete, you need to do some long, individual reflection on why you care so much about how limited of a human experience a minority should have. Don’t try to reword yourself into the hero. Use some critical thinking.

Thanks for exempting me from the homework, but I’ll gladly do it anyway

You cannot identify womanhood by any given trait or feature, besides the fact that somebody feels like a woman. That is what makes them feel comfortable in society and their bodies.

Not all cis women have uteruses. Not all cis women produce estrogen. Not all cis women have breasts. Not all cis women even have XX chromosomes.

These women are biologically female, and their womanhood should not be defined by arbitrary traits that you assign them. Besides, to imply that they are worthy of womanhood, and trans women are not, is hypocritical.

Gender isn’t just a social construct, it’s the way our brains perceive ourselves and our role in society from birth. You cannot be critical of things that are not subjective concepts. That is called ignorance.

The solution is not banning a minority from something built for enjoyment, the solution is to abolish the system that they, along with many people outside of the minority, do not fit into.

Think for yourself. If you were born with something that made you different than other men or women, would you really be okay with everybody excluding you? From children’s soccer teams? From high school basketball practices? From putting in the years of effort to compete in the Olympics? All because you were born “imperfect” by their standards.

This isn’t something I’m willing debate. If you disagree with including minorities in sports, or allowing intersex people to compete, you need to do some long, individual reflection on why you care so much about how limited of a human experience a minority should have. Don’t try to reword yourself into the hero. Use some critical thinking.

#radfem #radical feminism #radical feminst #radfems do interact #radfems do touch #radfems please interact #rad fem

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