#when i say 'not to be anti-religious' i quite literally mean

[vidavalor]

Joy

Today, as we know, the word joy usually means happiness in either a non-sexual way ("the cute, baby pumpkin I bought for fall is bringing me so much joy!") and/or in a way pertaining to religiosity ("the Lord brings me joy!"). Neither of these things were original meaning of the word.

The original meaning of joy was sexual ecstasy. It was descriptive of sensual pleasure and/or of having an orgasm. It was a very common way to refer to sex and, prior to an estimated sometime in the 15th century, if you told someone you wanted to "joy with" them, you were saying you wanted to make love with them.

How joy came to be so desexualized as a word is unknown but some etymologists theorize that it is a bit of linguistic revenge for people blasphemously evolving the word passion into being the foremost word used to describe erotic love when it was first developed by Christian theologians, intentionally and specifically, from the Latin pati ("to suffer") as a word to describe the crucification of Christ.

Yes, the current best theory for why joy's primary meanings have evolved away from the erotic is vengeful priests being big mad about people not taking their Jesus word seriously enough and using the church writings and masses to reboot the popular sexy word into a religious one... which then later was also secularized by people to mean just happy, upbeat things. So, if ever there's been a perfectly Good Omens-y word... 🤭

There is actually a song that is, more or less, about this. If you've ever heard Three Dog Night's 1970 song "Joy to the World"-- not the Christmas carol; the one that starts with "Jeremiah was a bullfrog"--what you might not realize is that the song is a trolling of the desexualizing of the word joy by poking fun at religious fundamentalists at the same time as it is using joy in its original meaning. It's both about sex positivity and an anti-war song and was a massive hit. (If Crowley didn't write it in the Good Omens universe, he definitely loved it.) What it wound up showing, though, was just how desexualized the word had become by that point, as many did not realize that the song was using the word's etymology and, instead, credited Three Dog Night with coining joy as an euphemism for sex when, really, they were just explaining its full history and using it in its original meaning.

So, anyway, if, say, a word nerdy demon who has been on Earth since its start were to say to, say, his equally etymology-loving, secret, romantic partner that he thinks it's time for a delivery of some "black market joy", he is absolutely saying he would like to joy with his partner, in the original sense of the word, later that night.

Especially because the literal thing the two of them are delivering in the moment that Crowley brings up joy is whiskey, which is alcohol, and alcohol (all-co-hol = fucking one other) is something we know they enjoy in quite extraordinary amounts (amounts 😂).

[radfemsiren]

Where/how did you find that sexist islam hadith? i keep getting pressured that if i "just researched" i would revert and i want to show exactly why i won't

I was told this Hadith by word of mouth as a child. Here is the original and translated, it’s a sahih Hadith, which means it’s authentic: Narrated Ibn 'Abbas:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: "I was shown the Hell-fire and that the majority of its dwellers were women who were ungrateful." It was asked, "Do they disbelieve in Allah?" (or are they ungrateful to Allah?) He replied, "They are ungrateful to their husbands and are ungrateful for the favors and the good (charitable deeds) done to them. If you have always been good (benevolent) to one of them and then she sees something in you (not of her liking), she will say, 'I have never received any good from you."

حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ مَسْلَمَةَ، عَنْ مَالِكٍ، عَنْ زَيْدِ بْنِ أَسْلَمَ، عَنْ عَطَاءِ بْنِ يَسَارٍ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ، قَالَ قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم:

‏"‏ أُرِيتُ النَّارَ فَإِذَا أَكْثَرُ أَهْلِهَا النِّسَاءُ يَكْفُرْنَ ‏"‏‏.‏ قِيلَ أَيَكْفُرْنَ بِاللَّهِ قَالَ ‏"‏ يَكْفُرْنَ الْعَشِيرَ، وَيَكْفُرْنَ الإِحْسَانَ، لَوْ أَحْسَنْتَ إِلَى إِحْدَاهُنَّ الدَّهْرَ ثُمَّ رَأَتْ مِنْكَ شَيْئًا قَالَتْ مَا رَأَيْتُ مِنْكَ خَيْرًا قَطُّ ‏"‏‏.‏

Sahih al-Bukhari 29

Honestly when it comes to debating Muslims, it’s impossible to win. I’ve seen Muslims defend this Hadith saying it’s about the women of jahiliyah, or pagan times before Islam … which still doesn’t make sense because the men of jahiliyah were committing infanticide against their daughters regularly. They were much worse than their women. They also excuse this Hadith saying that it’s just because women have a slightly higher population than men. I’ve heard that one many times. The prophet literally says the reason why in this Hadith, they don’t listen to reason!

If you must debate, this is a good Hadith to bring up, but there’s quite a few mentioning the hell full of women issue, so it might get muddy. Try to stick to the topic of Aisha. It is the core, root problem of why Islam is a threat to women. And simply replying, “That’s still pedophilia.” Works for every argument they bring up.

I’m actually working on a short series explaining the basics of Islams misogyny and it will cover a few topics, like the awrah/hijab law, sex slavery, Aisha, unequal inheritance, unequal eye witness testimony, marital rape, etc! So that’s coming within the week, keep an eye out for that! It will be in my anti-Islam tag :) It’s good to call out misogyny from other cultures too, but we have to be educated and know the difference between oppressive cultural practices (FGM) and oppressive religious practices (hijab laws)

[alpaca-clouds]

Christian Mythology - and the Meaning of Magic

In 2020 I wrote my essay collection on colonial ideas in science fiction and fantasy. And if there was one essay among the 20 I have written in that year, that I would really love to see professionally published it is the one I have written on magic. Because I think that is an issue not explored enough in the way we talk about those things.

Western folks tend to be a bit haughty when they talk about other cultures. Often you will hear them speak about another religious practice and go: "Yeah, those people believe in magic. Did you know that?"

If someone notes something like this towards me, I will go: "And you believe that a priest during mass transforms wine and bread into blood and flesh. How exactly is that not magic?"

And the answer will usually be: "Yeah, but nobody believes that is literally what happens!"

To which I will say: "So, on what do you base the assumption that this other culture believes that literal magic happens?"

So, here is the issue. We kinda consider it normal to use whatever implicated magical stuff from other cultures and religions in our fantasy novels. If you write Urban Fantasy or Historical Fantasy, nobody will usually bat an eye at the idea of bringing in demigods that are kids of any deity of other magical entity from that mythology. You can use gods from those mythologies as your bad guy on any day, even the "good gods". Sure, a few folks will be bothered, but all in all most people think that is fine.

Heck, in some cultures it might even be a somewhat actively practiced religion they themselves will use in their media. Anime certainly is not hesitant about using Shinto deities in their stuff, right?

However, when we go over to the Abrahamitic stuff, it is suddenly very different. Can I use a golem without it having anti-semitic implications? And how will people react if I have Jesus, or Mohammed, or God show up? (The fact that Islam at least does not want you to depict either in any visual way does not make that easier, mind you.) How will they react if I have either character show up as a bad guy?

Now, in non-majority-Christian cultures this is easy. I can name you a couple of japanese media that indeed have the Christian God as a main antagonist (Angel Sanctuary, my beloved) and borrow heavily from Christian mythology in the same way some weeboo authors in the west might bring in Susanoo in their cool hot fantasy property.

And I can guarantee you, when I talk about the bible as Christian Mythology, and do it in a public setting, there will at least be one Christian, who will gasp out loud at the implication that anything in the bible might be mythology.

Now, this has not stopped authors from using this mythology in their media exactly. There is a lot of Jesuses showing up in American Gods, and even though I have not watched more than 6 episodes of Supernatural, I am aware that Jesus and God show up as characters in that show.

And of course there is Dogma, that good old movie, that has Alan Rickman as Metatron.

Chances are, however, that even with something like Supernatural, that all in all has a lot of conservative ideals and definitely is very pro-Christian, there will be some people who will becry the depiction of God, Jesus, and what not as elements of a Fantasy story.

And this leads to a weird phenomenon: A lot of media that generally seems to work on "Clap your Hands if you Believe" (aka, everything humans believe in is real) very awkwardly shrugs with the shoulders, as soon as Christian mythology comes up. It will be like: "Oh, yeah, Greek gods are totally real here. Yeah, Shinto gods, too. And the Zulu and Yoruba gods, also absolutely a thing. Oh, yeah, some souls end up in the Duat and will be judged by Osiris. God? Heaven and Hell? Uhm... Uhm... I am not quite sure what you are talking about, hehe. Do not mind that. Anyway. We also have an Underworld."

I noted this on a couple of Castlevania servers, because Castlevania Nocturne kinda confirms my suspicion that this world does also work on "Clap your Hands" as a basis. Or at least it strongly implies it. Yet, while we see the supposed "hell" in season 3... If the show was a person, they would start profusely sweating, if you asked them about the Christian God and Jesus.

And mind you, Castlevania is not alone with this. My traditional writing genre has always been Urban Fantasy. And I can name you so many both good and bad Urban Fantasy series, that will just assume it as normal that deities from ten different pantheons are running around the setting, but will never quite answer whether Christianity is also true in that setting.

There is a reason for this, of course. And the reason is not just that the Abrahamitic religions are more political. But it is also... If Christianity in a world is explicitly said to work by the same logic and rules as all those other religions... It is no longer special.

So, basically atheists, who usually will play way nicer with pagans, will be pissed because Christianity is real. And Christians will be pissed, because Christianity is not "special". So in the end, the creators of those shows kinda sidestep the issue and just... leave it as an open question.

And mind you: One partially written Urban Fantasy story I have is "Heaven's Heist" (I love alliterations). Which is basically about a conspiracy in Heaven and how Jesus teams up with a group of demigods to kidnap God from heaven, because heaven these days is run by some of the angels, given that God has severe mental issues - as "Clap your Hands if you Believe" is actually really bad for the mental health of a deity, if there are millions of humans who believe you are kind and forgiving, and millions, who believe that you are wrathful and ready to bring down a next flood.

Yes, that story very much is a commentary on religious politics, played a bit for satire. But let's face it, there would be some Christians who would be pissed at the idea.

[mostly-mundane-atla]

Real talk: i have been pretty absent from this blog (i wouldn't say slacking necessarily because it is first and foremost a hobby, a means of communication second, and i do not consider it a job to any degree). Do not worry, nothing bad has happened, and a big part of it is rediscovering my love of literature. Got my hands on a copy of Thomas Kinsella's The Táin, read The Handmaid's Tale, and recently finished Ivanhoe through audiobook.

I've already been singing the praises of the Táin Bó Cúailnge so i'll spare you having to read through that gushing. Ivanhoe is incredible and shockingly sensitive on the topic of antisemitism for something written by an early 19th century Christian author intended for a majority Christian audience. The scenes with Robin Hood also filled me with a childish glee and i think it was suppose to be a surprise that this guy is Robin Hood but he introduces himself as Locksley and wins an archery contest and leads a gang of outlaws in the woods, including a hermit who refers to Alan-a-Dale quite a bit so it's very obvious to a modern reader. Handmaid's Tale was also as good as i've heard it was, but there's a specific detail i want to discuss that feels relevant to how i think of this blog and how others use it.

I've read the reviews and the plot synopses amd analyses, i knew about the epilogue that frames the story as a historical document a century or so in the future. This did not surprise me. What did catch me by surprise, and something i feel is entirely overlooked, is that this story of an oppressive theocratic regime that uses Biblical precedence to excuse extreme atrocities of human rights violations and turned out to not even last very long, is contextualized as the topic of a discussion hosted by First Nations academics who study white people cultures. You can be pedantic and say "oh but technically they're only First Nations coded because it's presented as a transcript with no physical descriptions" and to a degree you would be right; but when you see names like Maryann Crescent Moon and Johnny Running Dog used for professors of a University of Denay (an anglo-phonetic spelling of Diné/Dene) in Nunavit, there isn't much room for speculating what ethnicity they're supposed to be.

There are so many little details in the book referencing Indigenous genocide. Details suggesting forms of genocide Atwood would be familiar with as a Canadian citizen. To only bring up religious fanaticism and patriarchal regressive politics in Middle Eastern nations like Iran and Afghanistan as well as the United States as inspirations for a surface level five minute summary is one thing, but to ignore all the anti-Indigenous policies that are also obvious inspirations (literally just read the passages about how the Narrator/Offred's daughter was taken from her, renamed, and given to a "proper home" to get what i mean, it's that blatant) when the iconic epilogue makes it as explicit as it can be without writing "THESE ARE NATIVE ISSUES" in big red letters? I won't lie to you, it feels like a slap to the face. Especially when the take away message of such a conclusion seems to be that Native peoples will outlive these regimes.

[yarpharp]

So because I am strange and always fascinated by posing cultural questions when it comes to creating crossover fanfiction, I had this wild thought worm recently for no reason: If you dumped Link (Legend of Zelda) into Thedas (Dragon Age), how the fuck would everyone in Thedas react to him?

I mean, depending on how you interpret Link's character, he doesn't talk. At all. I've always been of the opinion he speaks via some form of generalized Sign Language, but Why Would Thedas Share Any Common Signs? And who's to say there IS a formalized sign language in Thedas? Maybe there is, but it's technically a dead language now. The Elvhenan were fucked up but extremely modernized, so maybe they did have a Sign Language. Maybe the Dalish still have a lot of it, because Sign is a great way to silently communicate and Not Alert The Asshole Shemlen.

Either way, Link doesn't talk. And even if he can communicate via Sign Language, I highly doubt Hylian sign is gonna be understood. So there's one issue.

Secondly: Hylians don't look exactly like Theodosian elves. Modern elves of Thedas are scrawny and small but not too small; eyes bigger than a human and with cat-like night vision. Link? Link is canonically 5'2" and quite fit. Not skinny built and quite healthy, generally soft nonbinary features, bright eyes (at least in recent games; Link's got big fucking blues that almost glow for a nice contrast in TotK/BotW), pointy but not super pointy ears. Compared to Theodosian elves which are designed to look "distinctly fantastically different" in comparison to humans, Link just looks like a very short human with elf ears. So people might get a bit baffled at his looks; he's elfy but to the left.

Third: Hyrule isn't anti-magic. Magic is so inherently tied into everything in all the Legend of Zelda games, we the players just accept it. Link can wield magic rods and staves with no issue. Gerudo can use fire magic or summon lightning storms. Link can use magical items to summon winds, or devices that can magically transport him far distances. Rito can summon gales instinctually. Zora have water/ice magic and healing powers. If Link dodges correctly, he can seemingly slow time for a moment to deal a flurry attack. He uses Rauru's arm's magical abilities without blinking. The Master Sword is literally the ultimate magical item with a spirit inside of it.

Can you imagine Link losing his weapon in battle and just picking up a staff without thinking, but WHOOPS Thedas is kinda religiously anti-magic and someone is watching him just SUDDENLY THROWING ICE SPELLS (thinking about those magic staffs in BotW/TotK with the default AoE ice spell) without any hesitation? That is Not Normal for them like it is for Link. And Link himself like... Serves a powerful princess with the bloodline of a goddess. She literally tosses around light magic and time magic and shit. He probably can't begin to fathom a society that shuns something that so integral to Hyrule/Hyrule's safety in the face of Ganondorf's machinations.

Idk this was a bizarre thought worm I had. Maybe I will write a fanfic. Maybe I won't. It's interesting to think about in an extremely nerdy way, lol.

(also Link would HATE Solas but LOVE The Iron Bull and The Chargers. Prove me wrong, I dare you.)

[super-hero-confessions]

Love when Loki stans act like religious nuts giving a pass to Catholic pedo priests because "well not all of them are pedos!!1!1".

Great. Nobody said they were, just like nobody said that all Loki stans are nut jobs giving him a free pass because he's a pretty white boi. Claiming that's what's being said is not helpful to the conversation that people are actually trying to open.

That being that Loki can and does often get a free pass for the sole reason of being pretty and white from many many of his stans.

Not you? Then why are you acting like you've been personally called out and making strawmans to justify liking him? Nobody cares about why you personally feel the need to defend Loki on behalf of the bad actors in fandom who are being called out.

Just acknowledge the fact and move on morons. It's not hard to admit or understand that Loki has both tragic history and does awful things with a slap on the wrist from white supremacists and people who want to fuck him.

Two things can be true at the same time and not be mutually exclusive. Loki is a bigot that called the human race fucking ants and saw them as beneath him, planning to step on them. He's also a genocidal maniac with daddy issues.

He's also a grown ass man responsible for his own fucking choices. Nobody, and I mean nobody tried to get him to destroy Jotunheim. Everybody, and I mean everybody, tried to stop him.

He's also suffered a great deal due to personal hang ups and not quite fitting in from not being made aware of his adoptee status. I get it, that's relatable?? Still not an excuse to be genocidal space Hitler for blue people and a bit of an overreaction from a literal prince for space gods but oh well.

Loki can be both a villain and a victim and canonically is both. That's the point. He also has plenty of stans and antis that will only acknowledge one or the other. That's the point. And he definitely has stans that only care about how hot or white he is and will say anything to justify his unjustifiable actions. That's the point.

Not you? Then why the fuck are you offended when you know those people exist? Your denial of them only proves the point and lumps you in with those bad stans.

Because you're going out of your way to defend those bad stans, not Loki, instead of calling them out to make the Loki fandom better and less toxic.

The Loki fandom has been successfully converted into a perfect hiding place for real racists, bigots, white supremacists, fascists, victim blamers and the like who wanna skirt on by being genuinely hostile towards valid criticism and nuance, just like the Catholic church.

Congratulations. You played yourselves. Enjoy the literal Nazis that may be standing right next to you.

[artist-issues]

Ok, I've been thinking about your wish posts for quite some time, and I’m very confused, can't seem to follow them. Magnifico's main philosophy is to forget without regret (he, like Faciler, is taking the easy route of life).

Even if a goal doesn't come true or you give up, you should still reconcile with those scars, grow, and let them heal naturally. You say the star thing is sacrificial, but it's not saying Asha is a literal star; she's connected to stardust; it more evokes how God says we are made in the image of him (we are obviously not god, but we are all connected to him and his children).  

Putting aside that, I don't think this movie is religious at all, and I find the implication insane. I think Star is more god, and Magnifico is a false idol and a corrupt leader. Asha sings the lyrics, so I look up at the stars to guide them, much like how the shepherds followed the stars to Bethelheman.

Taking the lyrics of at all costs into account, I'll promise, as one does, I'll protect you at all costs. He's locking them up and stealing their souls, and he wants to seal his people's desire to live so he can achieve ultimate power.

When Asha says I'm a star, she's saying anyone should spread peace and reflect on their scars, and the wishes that are dangerous can be stopped, so if society (Magnifco) decides you are useless or not needed in society, do you listen?

Well, God would never say people's autonomy is useless, like Magnifico, nor do you have to grant everyone's wish, but you can't determine people's way of living or their souls. With no offense, I find your analysis posts to be rather anti-human and I’m curious if you have any answers to these points

First:

Every story is presenting a worldview. If you present a worldview, that worldview WILL come into conflict with other worldviews that say the opposite thing.

Wish may not be saying a word about any one religion—but by presenting the philosophy that human beings have the power of the stars in them, from the star matter inside of them—it is in conflict with several religious worldviews.

"Powerful Stardust Inside Humans" an actual "religion/"worldview out here in the real world. It's founded in the "big bang theory," which as far as I know, guesses that the ancient stars of the universe were made up of helium, lithium, and hydrogen. Then the other elements (the ones that make up us) allegedly gradually formed inside of those, then allegedly blasted all throughout the galaxy during the Big Bang. Therefore, allegedly, life on planet earth is made from star debris, or "stardust."

Then New Age believers take that a step further and decide that this means that a spiritual connection is between us and the stars, which are powerful, because of their religious astrological beliefs.

Which is exactly what Wish is also presenting, as a worldview, in "I'm a Star!" and in every moment where Asha claims she can understand what Star is trying to tell her, and in every moment where the effects artists specifically caused characters' chests to glow with a Star sparkle. Real people in real life believe that real stardust in humans gives them real power.

And that belief is either based on truth, or it's not. People who believe it are either wrong, or they're right.

Because other worldviews believe the opposite of both the New Age idea that stardust has supernatural power, and the opposite of the Big Bang.

Christians, as you know, believe that the world was created (and Earth, which mankind was formed out of, was created before the stars) by the word of Yahweh. They believe the Big Bang Theory is false. They believe that worshipping creations like stars through astrology, or attributing any supernatural power to humans, is false and also wrong.

Other worldviews besides Christianity also don't believe in the Big Bang, or astrology, or New Age spiritualism. But Wish framed Star and the whole "I'm a Star!" song as if these things are the truth...meaning, everything else is not true.

So you can say it had nothing to say about religion, but just by presenting a worldview that is contrary to many religions...it is saying something about religion. It is saying religion is incorrect. Passive-aggressively. But still saying it.

Second:

Star does not represent the God of the Bible in any way.

As I've said before, Star is presented as a higher power, because he is blatantly connected to the wishing stars of other Disney movies—which have been higher powers—but then he's able to be defeated. He's trapped easily by Magnifico. He is unable to rescue himself and has to be rescued by everyone else.

Nothing about that is like the God of the Bible.

Additionally, he's just one star. I feel like everybody is acting like there aren't other stars in the sky—the movie never presents Star the character as the only powerful godlike being in the heavens—in fact, the movie has a line from Asha's father about how "the stars (plural) are there to guide us." There's only one God, the God of the Bible specifically claims to be the only higher power.

Plus, even if Wish were saying that Star is the only wishing star, as a parallel to God's exclusive existence...he does nothing to "guide" Asha.

He doesn't suggest a path for her to take. She just decides she wants to go get Sabino's Wish back, and Star does cute little antics like any super-powered sidekick might to help out, and then she gets Sabino's wish back. Then later, he gives her magical tools that wind up being no help at all—she gets captured by Magnifico anyway. In the climax, he just sort of...pushes on the wishes, then gets sucked into a staff. He very simply does nothing super-helpful. He's just the regular amount of ordinary-helpful to Asha.

Besides, when we say a higher power "guides a character," we usually mean that they offer the hero a choice, and that choice challenges the character to choose what they need instead of just what they want. Like the Blue Fairy (the original wishing star) or Mama Odie. They aren't with the heroes every step of the way, jumping in to do part of the work of the adventure. Jumping in and doing part of the work is what Ray the firefly or Jiminy Cricket do. Star jumps in and does part of the work, like a sidekick; he does not give guidance or direction or a challenge that deepens the hero like the Blue Fairy, or Mama Odie, or The Enchantress. And like I said, he's nothing like God—

—except that he's presented like a higher power who gives guidance, only to actually do the opposite of that, which is a commentary on how the creators of Wish see "higher powers." I can't explain it any more clearly than that.

Also, just for point of reference, the phrase "made in God's image" does not line up at all with Asha's "connection" to Star. Because like I just said, Star's set up like he's supposed to be a higher power but then fails, so he's not that high of a power. Asha's "connection" to Star is a direct link to real New Age Evolutionary spirituality—they say, word-for-word, what New Age Evolutionary Spiritualists say in real life in the song "I'm a Star!"

Which is it: is the movie not religious at all, or is Star God while Magnifico's a false idol?

See, you can't even talk about Wish without acknowledging that it says something about higher powers, I.e. God.

I've already explained why Star isn't an accurate representation of the God of the Bible: he's more an accurate representation of what humanists believe about higher powers: they believe we're all "higher powers." (Which is to say, everyone is powerful and nobody, not stars or gods or nature, is higher than humans.)

But listen—they borrowed the idea of "look up at the stars to guide me" from several different places. One, yes, the Bible. Two, all of navigational history, which uses stars like maps. Three, astrology, which believes that stars give literal spiritual guidance and have an effect on everything that happens on earth. So no. It wasn't a direct one-to-one comparison to the wise men who followed the star to Bethlehem.

Your Claims About What the Movie is Saying:

"He wants to steal people's desires to live" - No, he doesn't, that's not in the movie. All the adults in Rosa's no longer have their wishes; none of them act depressed or suicidal. Not even Asha's mother, after her wish is literally crushed in front of her.

"When Asha says I'm a star, she's saying anyone should spread peace and reflect on their scars" - That's just a theory of yours; it's not supported by the movie. Nobody in the movie wrestled with "their scars." Not even Magnifico. The movie just hints that he lost something in his past—it never fully fleshes out that he's still upset by that, or afraid of losing anything he cares about except power. Asha's father is dead, but other than one line about how nobody should have to live with that pain (which is the opposite of "reflecting" on scars) the loss of her father is never treated like a deep emotional wound she needs to acknowledge or overcome. It's never mentioned again in the movie.

The thing is, none of your points are supportable from what's in the movie. You're reading more meaning into it than the movie actually has—and some of that meaning, the movie itself contradicts.

About how my posts are anti-human:

They're not anti-human. They're anti-humanist, maybe. I don't believe humans are the center of everything. I don't believe they are just as powerful as "higher powers." The point of "higher" powers is that they're HIGHER than what? Higher than humans.

God absolutely does determine what's right and wrong; He invented "right." And He does judge people's lifestyle, and their souls. Sure, Magnifico had no right to do that—but you know what, it's not because "nobody should decide how an individual lives except the individual themselves!" —it's because Magnifico is human. So he doesn't get to judge. God however? God gets to judge. God gets to decide. And He always makes the right decision.

[ladyimaginarium]

%100 understandable if you don't have the energy or desire to answer this genuinely no pressure here

But I was wondering if you had anything you wanted to talk about in terms of anti native racism in the plural community, if there's anything you could get non-natives to internalize what would that be etc that kinda thing

hellooooo sweetling, thank you for asking !! :3 I& hope you don't mind me& answering, we've& been quite switchy lately !! Now… sit down and listen up, nonnatives, especially you, white settlers, class is in session !!

I. Don't name yourselves after our spirits and/or our nations !! I& cannot express enough how infuriating this is !! There was a time when we& had to deliberately tell a white bodied system to change their alter's name from W**dig* to something else, not just for their safety, but ours& as a Native bodied system !! W **dig*ag are NOT spirits to mess with, let alone to use as a name if you're nonnative, especially if you are a white settler !! These are Algonquian and Anishinaabe sacred spirits, and, no, sacred does not always mean good, and quite frankly, to use our sacred religious figures or any of our nations as your name is cultural appropriation !! And, no, your "w*ndig*" headmate is likely not a w*ndig* at all, it's not a deer creature !! It's very insensitive, our cultures, practices and religions have already been stretched far and thin over the years to the point where we have been imprisoned or murdered for practicing them in the past until only a few decades ago, so be respectful !! Don't be a loser !! 🖤🖤🖤🖤 II. Native bodied systems don't care about your white guilt !! Listen... we& know most people's intentions are well, but at this point, we& don't care, we've& often been forced to listen to white people whine and bitch about how sorry they are, how bad they feel about the way their ancestors treated ours, and will often overstep their boundaries and their place when speaking with us& !! Yes, we& want you to acknowledge who's land you're on, yes, we& want nonnative, especially white settler allies, to be there with us and uplift our voices, but don't speak over us, you're not solving anything by venting to us&, a Native bodied system, about your ancestors' guilt, if you are white. We're& not here to hold your hand, we& won't coddle your feelings, we& won't give you a cookie for expressing and doing the bare minimum and be your palatable native system !! III. Having an exoethnic Native headmate doesn't make your body Native !! I& don't know how else to say this ... simply because you have an exoethnic Native headmate doesn't make your body Native and as such that doesn't give you the right to speak our languages, practice our medicines or call yourself Two Spirit if you are nonnative, especially if you're white bodied !! If you're a system of color and you want to learn our languages, depending on what the language is because some languages are exclusive only to members of that nation, even to other natives, we'd& be more flattered, but if you're a white bodied system who has an exoethnic Native headmate and think that automatically gives you the right to come into our spaces and learn our languages and ceremonies?? Think again !! :3 There are teachings by our& elders and knowledge keepers from different nations that we& are literally forbidden from sharing with nonnatives !! I& understand how frustrating this can be, but respect is essential !! IV. White bodied and nonnative systems of color are not immune to antinative racism and Native erasure in plural spaces !! Native bodied systems, let alone Native singlets, aren't often included in the table on how to make things better in our spaces and are treated like an afterthought even on our own lands !! This happens so often that this led to the term called Native erasure which is extremely common in the media, even in POC spaces !! Don't demand we do your homework for you. Don't hesitate to check up on your Native friends !! V. Our cultures are not homogenous and there is no one "Native look"!! I& don't want to repeat ourselves& but our cultures and peoples are so unique, special and distinct from each other !! We can have any skintone, any hair type, any eye color, we can look like anything !! — 🖤 / Bellatrix& / Beretta&, she/her.

[leadendeath]

i don't want to reblog the post because my commentary is not relevant to the subject, so i didn't want to put this in said post's tags. also as i type it turned into a long...? something. vent maybe? i don't even know what to refer to it as. but i've seen a couple of posts recently that have really got me thinking.

as i'm writing this, they both just appeared on my dash. they are this one and this one. i'm definitely going to post this now (i have to) and not just save it in my drafts forever.

Having sex with friends sounds nice! I am pro-that! (pro meaning not anti) for me it would alleviate my fears of hooking up with those I just met or haven't known for years because friends are less likely to murder/kidnap you or give you a disease! (I do not want to die from sex lmao) the con: now they know what i look like and what bodily/physical problems i have that aren't visible to the general public. no. i can't have sex with my friends. my god. it all boils down to my body dysmorphia. literally the mortifying ordeal of it being known

So I think again, like I often do, about my place on the ace spectrum. I usually do not care for labels, don't find them necessary to apply to myself, but it's totally cool if other people have tons of different labels that they use. I am pro-that too! I myself am definitely grey-ace or demi-something. I landed on aegosexual- a disconnect between yourself and your sexual attraction- for a long time. I am never sexually or romantically attracted to somebody I don't know. Not even people on the screen. What if that hot (definition for this context: visually appealing) actor is a dick? Good looks garbage personality? At least you can do research on him. Not the case with "irl contacts" (definition: non-famous and real people who you might actually meet or know in person).

I know that I definitely experience sexual attraction, and want to have sex. Based on that I don't feel quite right calling myself asexual.

I don't LIKE that I feel too bad about experiencing sexual attraction to act on it. There's this weird feeling that's hard to place, but closest to "guilt", I'd say. Disgust with myself.

That time I was propositioned to go back to a con hotel (i turned him down and he listened and respected me and was nice, it's just i stopped myself), or that other time when making out and groping (different guy different occasion; we could've gone further but i stopped myself), or even just flirting and talking about our turn-ons and things we Like with my long-distance online sort-of bf that I had. I'm even hesitating to follow the "after dark" art accounts that I want to follow on bird site because of the guilt and almost embarassment I feel at myself (I'm fully aware that the only reason most people have locked accounts which you have to request to follow is to keep out minors and trolls btw, and i'm certainly neither of those!).

All of this is stuff I want and that's enjoyable to me, but this nagging "don't do that. you're gross. why would you say/do that? you're being weird. stop. stop. stop. you're not allowed to do these things." is always there in my mind. I don't want it to be there, and it's always there.

Now, this doesn't come from religious trauma, like "sex before marriage = wrong and bad"? "gay sex = ultimate evil"? Nah, I was never told those things. I didn't even have a very religious upbringing. These thoughts can't be explained away by any of that. Even my mom has always been like "you can have a girlfriend or a boyfriend! i don't mind as long as you're happy! :)" yknow having that nice accepting approach to that time when I was like 15 and settled on bi for "what i was" at the time. No judgement, no condemnation there either.

It's not real.

When I learned that I have ocd, suddenly I started to maybe have an explanation for these thoughts. Some people's obsessions focus on repetition or contamination. A good part of my obsessions focus on condemnation. I'm scared of it. I take "beating yourself up over something" to the next level. Just like any other person who's familiar with delusions, intrusive thoughts, etc will tell you: knowing it's not real doesn't make it any better. Doesn't make it stop. Doesn't make it go away.

When I could explain this detrimental thought process away by finding this horrible disorder to pin the blame on, I felt freer. I've thought many times throughout my mentally ill life about bringing up my (questioning)asexuality to a therapist one day, and I still will, even more so now. i felt before like I'd bring it up to them and not be able to back it up with any evidence, and just be brushed off? That's a stupid way to think, I know. And a therapist who would really do that is one you'd leave immediately. You don't need evidence to talk about how you feel, that's so silly... but that thought itself comes back around, in a vicious cycle, to my needing to justify myself because otherwise I am Wrong And Bad. jeez. what a way to think. i hate that. will be so glad when i get it under control after 25+ years.

edit: oh ya there's also this. my tags on one of the above posts i never reblogged, sat in my drafts.

my disability is inseparable from my sexuality, whatever it is.

[psychictwat]

Dude this entire time I've been questioning my sanity at every waking moment because every other hot take basically boils down to all Palestinians = Hamas and saying anything critical of the state of Israel = antisemitism apparently??? And I'm like.... MY DUDES. you are inflicting the same scapegoating and demonizing techniques on Arabs that N*zis did to your grandparents HOW IS NONE OF THIS CLICKING??? DIDN'T KNOW "NEVER AGAIN" CAME WITH *RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY

it's truly exhausting. especially since people love overlooking the fact that so many actual Holocaust survivors and children/grandchildren of survivors are openly protesting against the Occupation.

As a reform Jew from Boca Raton, I can say without a doubt that Zionism has been so strategically and delicately woven into the way that we as American Jews (mainly Ashkenazim - that's what I am and unfortunately I do not know any Sephardim or Mizrahim from my area) define ourselves.

The modern Jewish identity in our country practically was built upon the foundation of supporting Israel wholeheartedly, seeing it as a homeland and safe place post-Holocaust. And this happens no matter what denomination you belong to, religiously. It's a cultural and societal brainwashing that, somehow, I bypassed at a young enough age to form my own opinions on Israel and my own identity as a queer Jew.

I know so many people who vehemently support Israel, who believe Jews are "chosen" people, who have homes in Israel, use my queerness against me when I post pro-Palestinian news ("they'd kill you but we're so liberal in Israel! we have free speech!"). The amount of people I grew up around, that I thought I could trust (of all ages, at that) are publicly advocating for the genocide of the Palestinian people. It's horrifying and surreal...yet at the same time, unfortunately unsurprising.

The rhetoric has always been inflammatory when it comes to Israel, it's always felt cult-like. Of course, anti-Semites exist and take every opportunity to come out of the woodwork at a time like this. But that does NOT mean that critiquing or actively protesting Zionism is anti-Semitic.

What I love about being Jewish is that it's quite literally baked into our religion and culture to question everything, to be curious, and to learn from the world around us. To think that all of our problems, all of our persecution could be solved by simply establishing a "state" is, in my opinion, foolish and not rooted in true Jewish lines of thought.

but that's just me :)

[skelltan]

ok google what is the meaning of life

I detest pondering on the meaning of life. When I was younger, I was interested in philosophy. Is till don’t think it’s a fruitless pursuit, but with more wisdom you start to see the divide between people who actually have intriguing concepts, and misled teenagers misquoting the same sources over and over again. Even then, some adults fall into the false genius archetype be it because they huff their own farts for a living or have done too much acid – whichever form of stunted growth they have.

That’s the crux, isn’t it? Intangibles. You have all these people who think life is a game to be won, with one singular vision of success, and blindly following Jordan Peterson or whatever other figurehead will lead you to enlightenment. Ironically, often the same creed to condemn religion. It’s all mindless gesturing. “I want to have a goal to make a lot of money and then I’ll be successful and happy!”, all under the lens of intellectualism. Congratulations, American Dream, you’ve conned more through the guise of trojan horse.

If you’re anti religion – not anti constitution, hating the self righteous Christians and such, but rather the type to wear atheism as a badge of honour – that’s a pretty good sign that I shouldn’t give a fuck as to what you have to say. I’m not religious either, but it’s like magic. I don’t believe in it, but that doesn’t mean I have to shit on people who do, nor does their belief instantly make them a rube – in fact, it can have benefits. If someone is practising religion in a non hateful way that gives their life meaning, that is quite literally the same thing as living your life following vague notions of hope spurred on by whatever science geek you follow.

Religion to me is a means to an end in the exact same way. Of course, there are superficial differences – holidays, bible tales – but what purpose does religion serve in good faith if not a list of guidelines to help people feel fulfilled in life? I was not brought up religious, and there are so many religions that I find no real reason to indulge myself in any – because if I develop my own guidelines, what difference does it really make? Obviously, zealots would say that it’s a self-centred viewpoint, but I don’t care about them and that’s sort of my whole deal. This is to say: I hate to describe my beliefs of what a fulfilling life is and how to lead it, what tenets I have. I used to be the type to think these were things that could be outlined in a book, and sure, they can, but that too often breeds sycophancy. Despite my hate, I write this so I never have to address these topics in the future lest I wish, and when someone asks my beliefs, I hand them this document and summarise: I use intuition and common sense to do what is right. I could probably write my tenets, but what point is there? I have a life to live and I’m aware how I wish to live it, and I think all people can do that if they just live their life rather than sticking their heads in books all the time.

[raposarealm]

Rapo Rambles About Juri and Herself

Maaaan, reading through Juri’s MSS, I’m seeing what I very well could’ve been.

I took on working on the JSON for Ai’s translation of Juri’s MSS, and while editing the file format to merge with the Japanese JSON, I’ve gotten to read through the translation (which is quite well done, thank you Ai!) 

For some context, Juri attends Ryuugasaki Academy, which is a relatively well-to-do all-girl’s school. She worked hard to get into its attendance, so her father (who’s both single and a teen father, so he has literally Juri and that’s it,) wouldn’t have to worry about her getting a poor education, or, more importantly, her getting kicked out. Except, she continued to get into tussles, and was on the verge of expulsion, presumably not for the first time, when she was approached by Kyubey, and made her wish: for a “perseverant heart”. That’s what granted her personal magic as such; she can endure much more than before, but the more she endures negative emotion, the more violently she’ll ‘explode’ when she reaches her inevitable limit. As of her MSS, the only outlet she’s found has been to physically fight other people (mostly Yuna). 

I remember when I was in elementary school, and was in private schools similar to Juri’s. I also had a serious anger issues, coupled with a number of neurodivergencies that made it all worse. From what I can see, I don’t know whether Juri was bullied or hazed when she was younger, but given the combination of her extremely short temper, rough behavior inherited from her father, and of course, said father’s young age and single status, I’d wager she definitely was. I wasn’t in Juri’s exact situation, but it was comparable in some ways -- for one, I had a mother in bad health, who was bedridden for part of my elementary years, and for two, I attended so-called ‘Christian’ private schools that were, for the singular exeption of one actually good Catholic school (yes, I’m serious!), were basically Evangelical nightmares. 

My father, as I’ve noted on here before, is a Doctor of molecular genetics, and from the combined influence of him and my mother’s profession of emergency nursing/paramedicine, I developed a strong interest in scientific fields very early on. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d routinely answer ‘a chemist!’, with heavy enthusiasm -- I wanted to work in drug research specifically, because another hit to my mother’s health was her extreme allergy to NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), which are the primary treatment for most chronic pain. Needless to say, the minute any of my teachers found out of my father’s profession, and how his love of the sciences had rubbed off on me, they’d give me all hell. ‘Of course she’s bad, her father’s a biologist! Which means he believes in evolution,’ they’d unilaterally think. (Look, my ‘science’ textbook in fourth grade claimed the Moon was only a few thousand years old, which was the moment I realized how dumb the curriculum was.) So I was allowed to become the bullying target, with the teachers refusing to reprimand any student who harassed me, and instead turning the blame on me when I’d boil over from repeated abuse. Hell, I sat out in the hall as ‘punishment’ nearly every day in fifth grade, arguable the worst year of my life. 

The difference though, from Juri’s background, is that I had two parents, one of whom was a full-time mother, for the very reason of my severe neurodivergence. When I got to middle school, which hilariously was a public school run fifty times better than even the best private school I’d attended, these sources of abuse were removed, since the teachers a) didn’t give a shit about what my parents did for work, b) were required to keep their religious views out of the question, because while Virginia might be a Bible Belt state, this was Northern Virginia, where that sort of bull doesn’t fly, and c) were informed of my special needs before the year started, and were required to follow any accommodations on my IEP (thanks, ADA!). Juri doesn’t get these luxuries, I know, and I can only imagine that I’d have turned into her by high school if I hadn’t gotten the support I did. Juri’s old man is as supportive as he can be, but he was stated to be only 19 when Juri was born (so 35 now,) so he’s got his own set of issues to deal with, and likely didn’t get the time to mature properly himself, ‘cause he had to raise a kid at the same time. (Meanwhile, my folks were nearly forty each when I was born.) She’s been stuck with no support but her father her whole life, and she’s had to support him right back. It’s kinda surprising that they don’t fight all that much, actually. 

To go into some Arc 2 spoilers, Chapter 10 gives us another perspective, too, showing us what Juri would’ve been like as a parent... but also what she’d have been like if she’d been given a fairer shot. In the Kimochi bit in episode 4, we see Juri as a teen parent to Ao, yes, but she’s not alone like her father was -- she has Yuna, who’s been the closest to support Juri’s had this whole time. She’s also got Hikaru, to an extent, and while Hikaru won’t hold down a job to save her life (ironically,) she’s still good-natured and kind, and, more importantly, cares about Juri and Yuna’s wellbeing. Juri’s given a chance to ‘trial-run’ being an adult, since she knows this whole bit will end eventually (though, from their perspective, in 14 years!) She’s given a chance to work for something, to have a support structure she didn’t before. All that ends up giving her ways to manage her anger beyond just beating people up -- yeah, she still has to fight the kimochi every time Ao gets fearful, but she’s got Yuna in tow to help, as well as Hikaru. 

I’m in my 20s now, and I’ve only just started attending college. I’ve got a certification for pharmacy technicians, but no license, and I go back to school for my third-ever semester this winter. I’ve been convinced for years that by the time I’d get to college, my dreams of having a four-year degree in a science field or in translation would be violently shattered by my own inability to simply ‘do things I don’t like!’. Well, while I likely won’t be able to handle a full degree for quite a while, the idea that it’s my own damn fault I can’t do so has also been shot down. I’ve been struggling with a deep depression and a sometimes straight-up paralyzing anxiety for years now, to the point that my whole high school career was extended an extra year past when I should’ve graduated as a result. But, after almost a whole decade of being psychologically stuck, I’ve gotten some treatment for it. The chronic pain I’ve been fighting is starting to be managed, after we finally found a pain management doctor who’d actually take me seriously. I’ve found a therapist who’s actually able to cut through some of my own self-deprecation to get the point across that my behavior is normal for ADD folks. I’m inches away from getting a license finally, after being forbidden from getting one at sixteen, and I’ve been cleared to ride my bike into town along a certain route, so I’ve got ways to get outta the damn house. I know those aren’t the same ‘clean break’ Juri got in Chapter 10, but given that the Kimochi mindscape wasn’t reality anyways, she’s still gonna have work ahead of her to make that future a reality for herself, too. But, knowing that there’s a chance that things can turn out alright, and that you’ll be happier in the future, takes a lotta weight off the shoulders, y’know?

It’s late, and I’m tired from my medication increasing in dose today, so I dunno if I’ve made much sense, but basically I love Juri more now because I can see myself in her, and therefore I can see some hope for myself in there, too.

[fierceawakening]

The prolife thing is especially weird to me because… anyone remember that one study that said autistic people stick to moral rules more than nonautistic people and spun this as the autistic people being less moral for not being able to be as flexible?

I’m not diagnosed autistic but I am delfinitely not neurotypical, and one ay this manifested when I was a kid and probably still manifests now (see al, the time I spend defending deontology when everyone else is a good consequentialist and wants me to be too) is that I took moral rules as absolute.

So I was anti abortion. Do not kill humans. Ever. At all. Do any alternatives exist whatsoever to not taking life in this instance, even if they make you sad, tired, angry, triggered, or take time? Then do not take life.

I’ve since become more consequentialist on this specific issue for several reasons, but my intuition? Is very much still “if alternatives to taking life exist, you must exhaust them first or you are behaving immorally,” so when I see in particular the phrase “without apology” it instinctively raises my hackles until I remind myself of the consequentialist concerns and remind myself “and therefore there is no reason to apologize, so sure they’re being confrontational but by your own lights you should actually not care.”

But the thing that puzzles me is people who argue against abortion… don’t actually seem to be saying “I know following the rule is excruciatingly difficult in this circumstance, but you need to do it unless you’re legit gonna die,” the thing I used to believe.

Instead they seem to have weird religious understandings of how you detect life, which don’t make ANY sense to me at all. I have no fucking idea when life begins or what life beginning even actually means, so I can’t even parse “this was human but not alive yesterday, but now it’s human and alive.” I literally cannot with that. What would that even mean? Like unless we are successfully creating zombies that is not a thing.

I was (and quite possibly still am?) the weird one for being neurodivergent and never even knew it lol. I still have zero idea what is going on with these people. Like at all. They really do just seem to want to control people, rather than for… moral rules to consistently mean things because it makes them uneasy and confused when they aren’t consistent.

(By which I mean: still uneasy and confused about this! Not gonna force someone to raise a kid cos I’m uneasy, though. Not okay, me.)

[quoth-the-raven-wtf]

This is my last repost in regards to this argument. Respond as you wish, you won't be receiving one in return, as this argument isn't going anywhere and your insistence of my ignorance is incredibly ironic.

In your claim that antis are only cherry-picking sources is incredibly ignorant on your end, because you refuse to acknowledge the evidence I have pointed out in the source you provided not being credible. Science may be motivated by religion in some cases, but once again, this paper is using religion as scientific evidence. That is the main reason it is not a credible source. Just because I don't have a religious practice of my own does not mean I don't have the understanding that religion has motivated many sciences [this is taught in primary education, it would be ridiculous not to acknowledge that]. Not once did I say that religion immediately invalidates an argument. Do not put words into my mouth.

[May I add that I still don't see anything about brain scans in these sources.]

You searched for this paper without ensuring it was a credible source. All I've done is point out why it isn't. The main argument supporting the existence of non-trauma originated systems is religious, and quite literally taking other people's word as truth without actual scientific evidence. The comments have yet to provide credible or sources, either.

Please fact-check your sources when doing research. This is how misinformation is spread.

friendly reminder to not get involved/interact in endo bullshit.

block them.

they will not listen, they will not change.

ignore them.

[hello-that-happened]

What’s in a Name, Hordak?

Happy She-Ra-versary, everyone! c:

To celebrate, I wanted to post a few more religious-meta essays exploring parallels between the portrayal of The Horde in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (SPOP) and Christianity. My previous two essays explored SPOP’s secular humanist, anti-Christian-fundamentalist message in a culture gradually escaping from Christian fundamentalist hegemony.

Today, I first want to talk about the Christian theological parallels of Hordak’s name.

“It is wrong to have a name,” Hordak explained to Catra in “Corridors,” because “Prime’s chosen servants are but parts of the whole.” Each clone was designed to be an instrument of Prime’s will, in a similar way that many Christians aspire to be instruments of God’s will (Luke 22:42, Prov 3:5). No clone of Prime needs a name when every clone exists to execute the same will.

When Hordak first reunited with Prime, he said, “I have built an empire in your name.” Prime played along until Hordak slipped up and said, “I have bent [Etheria’s] people to my will.” Prime immediately caught the slip-up: “To your will?”

To discover why Hordak dared to mention his own will, Horde Prime violated any concept of individual privacy and broke into Hordak’s mind. What went wrong with this clone, Prime wondered, that gave him such absurd notions as carrying out his own will?

When Prime read Hordak’s mind, he observed one fact first and foremost: “You have given yourself a name.” Prime’s amusement quickly ignited into fury: “You have forgotten who you are. You truly thought yourself worthy to stand beside me — could be equal to me?! I made you in my image! But you have become an abomination. And so, you must be reborn.”

If “it is wrong” for one of “Prime’s chosen servants” “to have a name,” because a name shows an individual will different from Prime’s, then it is doubly wrong to defy Prime’s will by choosing a name for yourself. Prime created an army of clones to carry out his will because he believes that only his will is morally legitimate. Only Prime can choose rightly, he believes, and a clone’s purpose is to carry out that choice. Agency is a privilege, of which Prime alone is worthy.

No wonder that Prime calls Hordak “an abomination,” then, using the same language that the Bible (at least seemingly) uses to condemn gay men (Lev 18:22 and 20:13). Christians usually interpret “abomination” to mean a creation that fails to fulfill its purpose. Christians generally believe that all humans are designed to carry out God’s will, which includes God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen 1:28). If all men are designed to carry out God’s will by procreating, the reasoning goes among many modern Christians, then gay men have failed their proper function.

Other interpretations exist, and I do not want to argue here about which is “correct.” Applying this common interpretation to Horde Prime, though, if a human — or one of Prime’s clones — instead carries out their own will which differs from their master’s, they are deemed “an abomination.” For a clone of Prime to choose using its own will is to betray its design, is to quite literally fail its proper function.

Why, though, does Prime interpret Hordak’s self-naming as setting himself equal to Prime? Naming is not just any choice; it is a choice about identity. God gave Adam the right to name all other creatures (Gen 2:19-20), including Eve (Gen 2:23), but God never gave Adam the right to name himself. Adam named Eve “wo-man” for “taken out of man” (Gen 2:23), but Adam’s name as “man” was given to him by God (Gen 5:2). To name oneself is a right owned only by God — or by Prime.

So when Hordak named himself, Horde Prime took it as a direct challenge to his superior authority. By naming himself, Hordak rejected his design as an instrument of Prime’s will, and instead recognize himself as an instrument of his own will. That is why in Hordak’s grand fuck-you speech to Prime in “Heart Pt. 2,” the first thing Hordak says after “You made me in your image, but I am more than that” is “I gave myself a name.” The last is,

[who-is-page]

We sort of started this discussion at Chimeras' Othercon panel, but I wanted to keep it going so I figured I would send an ask. What do you think it would mean for our community to drop the focus on voluntary and involuntary identities? I agree that we fundamentally should, but a bunch of things immediately jump to mind.

Our community has spent years leaning heavily into the lines between voluntary and involuntary identities and taken special care to make massive distinctions between them, leaving little to no room for grey area. It's no bit surprise that alterhuman spaces have had actual, legitimate, longstanding issues of grilling and gatekeeping. Nonhumans with nuanced and complicated identities are forced to shove themselves into a box to fit into the community, and the ideas we have about certain identities needing to be involuntary are absolutely baked into many aspects of our community and its history.

At the same time, we have used this unjustified gatekeeping in part to protect the community from genuine threats and appropriation of our terminology. The way we have limited our concepts of who is allowed to identify in what ways is generally wrong and has no doubt harmed a subset of kin, but at the same time is understandable in the sense that it has a cause. Yes, this was an issue even before KFF, but KFF certainly don't make it easy to create space for genuine voluntary kin and other voluntary alterhumans.

How do we create the space for nuance and fluidity and complexity in these terms and identities after we have spent so long defensively creating rigid boundaries and restrictions regarding the ways people are allowed to identify? How do we address community gatekeeping while also protecting our community from the people who use our identities and terminology in bad faith?

I have a lot of ideas, but this is obviously a very complex topic that we can't just solve in a day. I was just curious to hear your thoughts, if you had any. Hopefully once our personal website is up one of our first essays will be about this issue. (Also, how is Page? /hj)

So I know we’ve been sitting on this ask for... -checks watch- ...almost two weeks now, but it’s genuinely because I just wasn’t sure how to answer it for a good long while, and I didn’t just want to throw out some haphazard, half-hearted answer to such important questions. So here’s our thoughts on the debacle.

Voluntary and involuntary is a focus I doubt we’ll ever see any of the alterhuman communities permanently drop, for several reasons.

The first and foremost being that, by the definition of the term “alterhuman,” defined here as “a subjective identity which is beyond the scope of what is traditionally considered ‘being human’,” both experiences at their most extremes technically fall underneath the label, rendering the distinction (to some) vitally important to helping understand and define their identity/identity labels. The difference between KFF as an alterhuman identity and forms of otherkinity as an alterhuman identity, for instance, as you mention.

And then there’s the societal factors to consider. People like nice, neat little boxes: people like to be able to compartmentalize their communities, with no overlap, with no spillage, with no complications or grey areas or nuance. It’s a fact of life that people often instinctively want to water down labels and identities into more easily digestible formations, though there are arguments around why people precisely do it. And, as you point out, that often means alterhumans and nonhumans with more complex or nuanced identities typically get shoved into one box or another that they may not perfectly fit into.

When we zero in on specifically the otherkin community, this becomes even more complicated given the community’s rife history: abusive p-shifter groups, the appropriation of language by roleplayers and fiction writers, zoophiles attempting to forcibly associate otherkinity with pro-bestiality movements, and the blatant general misinformation spread by laymen and academics alike, just to name a few relevant problems the community has faced and continues to face. The community is stubborn to a fault, largely because it’s had to be in order to survive. It holds to its preconceived notions and rigid boundaries like a dog with toy aggression to their favorite plush stegosaurus. Fittingly so, really.

So how do we take that stubbornness and change it to be more inclusive to our own? How could we, while still surviving all that onslaught and more? That’s the big question.

In regards to the larger alterhuman community, we’re blessed in the fact that it’s still such a young concept: it hasn’t quite yet had to face the “pathological anger” Religious Studies professor Joseph Laycock has described otherkin as bearing the brunt of. It’s still a community figuring itself out, with much of the anger you find related to it aimed at specific subsets of community within it, rather than at alterhumanity as a whole. And I think the fact that the alterhuman community is still metaphorically air-drying on a table means we have the opportunity to prevent anti-nuance and anti-complexity attitudes from taking hold in it. How we do that is another battle in itself-- I feel like the encouragement of inclusive dialogue, of open discussion intermingled with considerate or civil attitudes, within alterhuman-marketed spaces is a good starting point. I also think that the encouragement and legitimization of “alterhuman” as its own standalone term would be a positive force, where it functions as a broad, diverse identity label in addition to being an overarching, joining umbrella label. A label where someone doesn’t have to give details away of their identity if they don’t feel comfortable doing so, or shove themself into a box they may or may not actually feel they fit into. Something functionally similar to how many people use “queer,” if you will.

But that still leaves aside the issue of identity and terminological misuse, I am aware. And that is...an abstract thing to ward against, at absolute best. I think that the defining of our own spaces not only through our words but also through our actions would perhaps be the best thing we could do, realistically. The cultivation of websites, of group projects--books, zines, comics, pictures, forums, anything!--, of community-led conventions and meet-ups and howls and gatherings. Things which foster and build a community identity of sorts is the best defense against those who would try and distort that which makes us, us.

Zooming back in on the otherkin community, these answers change slightly, because--going back to the clay metaphor--the otherkin community has already metaphorically been glazed and baked (in the fires of hell). That history is cemented, the ways people have wronged it and continue to try and wrong it is cemented, the assumptions and attitudes are cemented.

With the otherkin community, I think that the burden of changing minds and pervasive attitudes falls a bit more onto the shoulders of “community leadership,” because of how the community functions and values both community experience and articulation. There’s a reason we don’t have a term comparable to “greymuzzle” in any of the other alterhuman communities, after all-- it’s a well-known and often aggravating quirk of the otherkin community, to hold certain individuals in such high esteem and put them on a pedestal because of their longevity and the things they’ve done and said. I hate to say that they have to set an example, but in the otherkin community that really is one of the best ways to advocate for change, or to push against those gatekeeping and grilling attitudes--by those who are largely well-respected putting forward ideas that have previously been mocked or disavowed, pushing debates on their legitimacy into community consciousness until it eventually trickles into community normalcy and foundation.

(This is, as you can imagine, a double-edged sword depending on how it’s used. But that’s a discussion for another day.)

That’s not to say that the ideas of creation and creativity with the goal of cultivating an inclusive community identity, like I suggested for the alterhuman community, is inapplicable to the otherkin community: but the otherkin community already has a long-term community identity, so it’d moreso be creation and creativity for the sake of formative inclusion. “History is always written by the winners” is a very, very literal phrase in its application to the otherkin community. Our community memory, for lack of a better way to put it, sucks from individual-to-individual. The future of the otherkin community, its eventual-history, is determined by its historians and creators of today: day-to-day arguments and discussions, unless deemed historically relevant by one archivist or another, disappear to the sands of time, and much more long-term recordings such as essays, websites, comics, etc., often go far beyond just its creators hands and get passed around and down for years, potentially. If you want a more nuanced and inclusive community, you have to dig up the clay for it, shovel by shovel, and bake it yourself, brick by brick, and eventually, with luck, or enough backing prestige, or just because those bricks are so astoundingly solid people can’t resist taking some to build their own foundations to nonhumanity, things will change. It will take time above all else, but once it’s there it will be impossible to remove, because people will just assume those bricks have always been there given enough years.

But those are just some of my thoughts and opinions on it. It’s an issue with so many layers of complexity to it, that there’s really no perfect answer out there that I can offer, and I know even what I’ve shared here has its flaws and drawbacks. I’m sure plenty of my followers also have additional thoughts on the subject, and I’d love to hear from other people what they think in the replies and reblogs.

(Also, Page is a very tired boi.)