#where one is irreversibly changed bc of the other

[northerngoshawk]

the way changli told rover not to worry about her when she revealed going to mt firmament would shorten her lifespan

the way jinhsi was so willing to give up her life for jinzhou and its people

the way jinhsi told changli that changli taught her to stick to what was true even if it cost her her life

the way changli's expression shifted ever so subtly, as if realizing that perhaps not only did she pass her wisdom to jinhsi but also her disregard for her own life, however subconsciously

the way rover told jinhsi that they won't let her die

the way rover reached for changli as she turned to face the remnants of the tacet discords within the sonoro sphere

the way changli's expression became sad when rover told fuling to remember that people cared for her and wanted to see her live, perhaps coming to understand that she too had been living as if her life was something disposable for too long

i just think they're neat is all

[pepprs]

june 27th give it up for june 27th

[jobean12-blog]

Fallen

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader (Werewolf AU)

Word Count: 689

Summary: Nothing will keep you from the love of your life, not your father's blade and certaintly not a seemingly irreversible curse.

Author's Note: This is my first time writing this AU and although it's short I really enjoyed it and hope to revisit! This is for @pupandkisasaesthetics aesthetic challenge! Thank you bunches to @sgt-seabass and @rookthorne for hosting such a cool challange! 💕💕The prompt I was given is shown below. I know it gives a Viking vibe but I figured it would work as them hunting the werewolf- that's where my brain went! Thank you all so much for reading! Much love always❤️❤️❤️Divider by the lovely @firefly-graphics thank you Daisy🥰 I made a moodboard but it STINKS bc I just can't do it, I'm no good at it, but I included it at the bottom just because I wanted you to see some stuff I had in mind LOL 😆

Warnings: some angst during a chase, small mention of i-n-ju-r-y and b-lo-o-d, softness too!

Your fingers dig deep into thick fur as the powerful muscles beneath propel you forward at a pace that has the wind whipping around you and chilling you to the bone.

The forest is dark except for the ethereal glow of the moon as you race through the shadows, clinging to him and silently urging him on through every labored breath.

The flight is born out of necessity, the distant sound of clashing weapons and battle cries echoing through the trees, a constant reminder that danger is still close.

As the terrain changes and becomes more uneven you tighten your grip but your fingers slip through fur matted with blood. Darkness closes in around you, the trees growing denser and forming an almost protective barrier as you weave about the trunks.

You can feel his heart pound in rhythm with yours, his muscles strained and taut with tension. You whisper to him, a soft murmur against the backdrop of the night and with renewed strength he surges forward, carrying you closer to safety.

Just when it seems he can go no further, a clearing emerges ahead, your sanctuary. He surges forward with one last determined stride and collapses on the stone pathway.

The small cottage seems to have sprung from the very fabric of the woods, the weathered stones surrounded by overgrown moss and vegetation, blending in seamlessly within the trees.

You slide from his body, hot tears streaming down your face as you run your hands over his large body. The wound on his hind leg is deep, the dark red blood still seeping out.

“James,” you cry. “Please.”

Bright blue eyes meet yours and he whimpers before nuzzling his nose under your hand.

“Please,” you beg.

He heaves himself from the ground and limps toward the doorway. You rush forward and open it, helping him inside before he collapses again, unmoving other than the shallow rise and fall of his chest.

It’s late into the night when you finally get the bleeding to stop, his wound cleaned and covered. Your hands are stained red but your tears have dried as exhaustion takes over and you lay your head against his fur.

Sleep comes quickly but it’s fitful, plagued by the nightmares of what’s hunting you. When you awake you’re curled up between four legs, your body cocooned and warm in his soft fur.

You stretch your aching muscles and sit up to check on his leg.

“You haven’t changed back,” you say quietly.

“You were shivering in the night,” he answers as his tail settles on your lap, keeping you warm still.

You burrow closer to him and scratch behind his ears.

“Thank you.”

It’s just a whisper, barely audible to human ears.

His body starts to shift, the long back fur receding and bones realigning. Muscles ripple under skin, adjusting to their new form and sharp claws retract, leaving behind long human fingers.

With a trembling hand James reaches out, his blue eyes still holding something wild and feral, but when his skin brushes yours, tender and vulnerable, you fall into his embrace and feel him sag under your acceptance.

“We cannot stay here,” he murmurs. “Your father will never stop hunting me.”

You lift your hand, cradling his cheek, the skin underneath still lined with a shadow of hair, and brush your finger over his lips.

“Then I will never stop running,” you tell him as you lean closer.

His dark hair falls in front of his face and your fingers trace his jaw before you tuck it back behind his ear. He runs his nose along your skin with a deep inhale, down your throat and back up again until he finds your lips, a satisfied growl rumbling through his chest.

“You would leave it all behind?”

His question is gentle, a gasp against your lips as he wraps his large hand around your waist and pulls you closer.

“There is nothing for me there…not without you.”

Your name falls from his parted lips, leaving nothing but the breath between you and when his lips press to yours he consumes you, body and soul.

@book-dragon-13 @goldylions @sebstanwhore @hiddles-rose @laineyreads @beccablogsthings @justkinsey @kmc1989 @lookiamtrying @randomfandompenguin @late-to-the-party-81 @blackwidownat2814 @buckysdollforlife

[aspengenic]

in regards to aspens other video about minors not having hrt and explaining that hosts change and etc etc. i CAN see where shes coming from with that since that is something we are kindaaa facing rn.

before, we had a transmasc alter as our host now the transmasc alter is still the host but also so is an alter that is a demigirl and super femme. the femme alter is out more than any of us now. were still on hrt tho bc overall it is something we wanna do, the femme alter finds her ways around it to still present as femme as she can when shes out and not at work.

BUT that doesnt mean we should keep minors or ANYONE from having access to hrt. i do believe that is something that should be something that a system DOES consider as a possibility and really think things through, but if it is something they wanna still do, they should be allowed to.

no one else should be allowed to make bodily choices for someone else. before hrt, a doctor always explains the side effects of hrt and the irreversible changes that will happen to your body to MAKE SURE you really are fully aware of what youre in for. in some states (florida, where i first started t) you even have to see a "gender therapist" that will "clear you" to be able to have access to hrt.

also not all of the effects of hrt are irreversible. we had to be off of it for a year bc of some insurance issues and our voice got a little higher again and our chest started getting a little bigger, we even got our period again. our facial hair and other stuff (that i dont wanna mention here uh) remained the same though.

having hrt isnt JUST so other people will affirm your gender either. its also for YOURSELF and your OWN dysphoria! if people saw us as a man and affirmed our gender without us being on hrt then cool, thats great. but when we looked in the mirror before started hrt, we didnt like what we saw looking back. it wasnt us. our hrt is for ourself and for no one else.

anyway. i think she does have a valid concern in the "hosts can change" but that should be something that you let systems know about and make sure they understand that theres always a possibility of a host change, rather than something you fucking gatekeep from children entirely because theres a CHANCE a host will change. some systems dont even have host changes. it should be up to the system wanting access to hrt, not you.

thats my opinion on that.

[butchpositivity]

Is it a normal experience to question if you’re butch or femme and go back and forth with those labels? I feel like most people just know if they’re butch or femme already and I feel bad. I feel like either one I went with would have me wishing I could be the other. And I know I could be neither but these labels are really important to me I guess?? I guess it’s not really a butch thing to wish to be femme but idk. I’m comfortable being masculine usually, it’s just my default state. I also want to be seen as masculine and I wanna be a femmes butch!! The label and experiences resonates with me a lot. But I also deeply wish I could dress more feminine or wear makeup and use the femme label.

i say this with love friend but you are trying to change yourself to fit a label rather than allowing a label to describe you i think. like if either one would make you feel bad and want to be the other, i don't think that's you? and maybe im wrong bc really its up to you to figure out yourself without approval from me or anyone, and maybe ur a butchy femme or a femmy butch in your own lil niche, but like just sayin it's totally fine to be fluid or androgynous in presentation too. its also not like, a life long irreversible thing. you can try calling yourself a femme for a while and living your life in that shape and see how it feels and same with butch. idk i hope you get where you're goin though bud, take it easy.

[transmutationisms]

i used to use tiktok all the time, it was awful i felt nauseous every time i opened the app bc it was just full of hostility but i started to really depend on the constant stimulation. i think people on here can definitely be a little dramatic about "tiktok culture" and whatever, but i'm genuinely scared of how tiktok changed the way i consume media and process real-world stimuli and such. it's not just that there are a lot of bad takes on there (there are, but there are plenty of other spaces where that's normal), it's that you get so dependent upon that level of stimulation that you can't close the app even when it's making you feel like shit so you just end up immersed in horrible takes all the time. ofc it's a huge issue that goes well beyond tiktok itself, changing landscape of digital "content" and profit-driven internet whatever whatever, increasing popularity of fast overstimulating short-form (often rage bait) content anywhere that there's enough people for it to be lucrative blah blah blah, idk it's fucking scary though

can i be honest though. people have been saying this type of shit about overstimulation, excessive entertainment, excessive sensory input &c about new media forms for literally centuries. i think we can all calm down here. like there are plenty of reasons to avoid scrolling on reactionary profit-seeking cesspits of random dogshit opinions but i actually don't think "irreversible brain damage" is one of the things we need to worry about here lol

[jeanmoreaux]

top 9 books

tagged forever ago by @doctorsrose & @rosesau (🫶🫶🫶)

tagging: @lvnchs | @permanentreverie | @tolerateit | @speaknowtv | @henwilsons | @newtmsa | @greenribon | @brimay | @hollyfhumberstone | @tbosas | @alinastarkovz (ofc no pressure <3 would love to hear about your fav books in whatever way you wanna share and if you don't then that's okay too!)

rules: list your top 9 books obviously. like the people before me and probably most people who did this i cheated and put series or several books by the same author as one thing bc rules are made for breaking <3 this is very much both an 'off the top of my head' as well as a 'laboured over this for hours' kind of list that's heavily biased to the present moment.

(1.) all for the game by nora sakavic; i don't even know what to say about this. either you read it and Get why this is on my list or you Don't. and if you haven't read it this is not a recommendation btw. this is just me saying these books did irreparable damage to my developing teenage brain. hit me like no other series probably ever will again because i read this at the Right Time while being the exact right amount of Insane. and just like seed mentioned in her list if you want to know Me and Understand Me then you need to know this series. i am sure there are traces of it in my dna by now.

(2.) the raven cycle by maggie stiefvater; same goes for this one tbh. if you want to know Me and Understand Me then you need to know this series. another instance of Right Time and Right Me. these books burrowed themselves deep into my bones and became a part of my dna. they shaped soo much of my taste in prose, storytelling techniques, tropes, and dynamics. this story and these characters took me apart and put me back together again but rearranged some essential parts inside of me. much like with aftg, i came out of this series irreversibly changed and drenched in blood final girl style.

(3.) frankenstein by mary shelley; a beautifully written story with soooo much room for whatever literary lens you want to apply to it. i know i answered an ask once where i talked about my love for this book in detail but i can't find it. but i found this rant on frankenstein and the creature. i think a lot of my love for this story comes from the fact that i had the chance to work closely with the text several times. but also it's just a heart-wrenching tale about how we define humanity and how love is essential nourishment for the soul. it reminds me of that one quote from the good place: "people improve when they get external love and support. how can we hold it against them when they don’t?" because frankenstein basically answers the question what happens when someone gives you a life you didn't ask for and then opts out of any (emotional) responsibility and leaves you desolate and utterly forsaken.

(4.) the green bone saga by fonda lee; an epic family saga i still think about A Lot. kinda succession without logan but make it fantasy mafia. sibling relationships are a big part of this story too. which if you know me. big fan of that. it's also a series that grows in scope (world building wise) and keeps adding complexity So Naturally it's impressive. amazing storytelling craft at work fr. definitely an underhyped series in my opinion.

(5.) the sword of kaigen by m.l. wang; another fantasy story focusing on family dynamics but also functioning as a character study. it's a self-published work and it shows in the BEST way. there's just something about it that makes me insane one a storytelling level because it breaks so many conventions and you either hate that or love that but no matter your opinion on it i think it's undeniable that this book has some of the best character work written in recent years. i desperately need to reread.

(6.) on earth we’re briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong; another book that fucked me up with its beautiful prose and incredibly gut-wrenching emotional honesty. it really feels like you're reading about someone ripping out the most vulnerable and messed up and complex parts of their soul and laying them bare for you to see expecting nothing but acknowledgement in return. and while my own lived experience is nothing close to ocean vuong's the emotional core of this book rings so true. also i just have to say it again. the prose fucks severely.

(7.) the grisha trilogy & the six of crows duology by leigh bardugo; another (two) series i read in my teens that shaped my taste to a drastic degree. the crows are just forever ingrained in my brain. alina's story will forever fuck me up. you all know. you all understand. w're not getting into it. i think the fact that tgt is so misunderstood and undervalued just makes me love it more. because if you get it. damn. devastating. if you don't. so sorry for you because you're missing out.

(8.) the song of achilles & circe by madeline miller; tbh both of these retellings did something to my brain. you all know these i don't have to elaborate. it's very typical queer of me to fawn over anything to do with greek mythology and retellings but. these two just HIT different. also, the prose? makes me a little insane.

(9.) giovanni’s room by james baldwin; this book has some of the most insane prose i have ever read. baldwin's grasp on language is uncanny fr. every other sentence packs a punch in one way or another. he manages to capture some aspects of the queer (specifically the bi) experience in a way that felt so familiar to me and put words to so many of my internal experiences. it's about the self and identity and being lost and refusing to let yourself be found. it's also about human connections and how you'll wither when you deny yourself to open up to the people closest to you. it's about so many things without being about one think in particular. like all the other books on this list, love and belonging are at the core of it, but in a very distorted way. i don't think you can really understand unless you've read it. it's So Good.

honorable mentions; emma by jane austen (cunty women RULE), wuthering heights by emily brontë (severely fucked up in the most entertaining way. that's how you write drama.) east of eden by john steinbeck (cain and abel shit and deranged women? sign me up), these violent delights by micah nemerever (be gay do crime in the most mentally ill way possible), if we were villains (love it when characters haunt a narrative. also definitely a book about the gay sex that is not happening), women in love by d.h. lawrence (still currently making my way through this one but it's so deliciously messed up and queer i am almost certain it will leave a permanent mark)

[vickyvicarious]

Thanks to y'all I finished the Marsh Masterpiece and you weren't exaggerating and, as you had pointed out, it sucks at depicting the aftermaths of assault (among the things that made my Syrian ass sigh as much as every other anti-middle eastern propaganda shit out there) bc it handles trauma so bizarrely? Holt is tortured by the caricature, and upon seeing Paul L who he admired react with terror about that same caricature, he proceeds to lose respect for him for being unmasculine. Paul proceeds to care about his kidnapped fiancee's state of purity above all. Marjorie is attacked by the bug in her own bed and her reaction to Holt's fear of the same bug is contempt. There was a rife opportunity there for exploration, like how shared trauma between lovers affects their relationship. Look at how the once meek and scared Harker forsakes his soul if his love is forsaken, how he called the vampires devils of the pit and now chooses to share a bed with a devil, or how the once bubbly and confident in her goodness Mina asks him to vow to brutalize her and internalizes her Fallen state as deserving. Boom, cause and effect- the villain has irreversibly changed them and their relationship and we see how they deal with that. With the Beetle, what was even the point?

The saddest thing about this is that it reminds me of how much HAS NOT changed in media depicting assault. It's for so many times JUST for shock value and/or demonization of a group of people. Modern police dramas and fantasy series are notoriously bad about this, though not just them. But yeah, great to know that people always loved sexplotation crap...

First of all: I sincerely apologize for my part in getting you to read the entirety of this book. (said jokingly, but also a little bit not, haha)

And YEAH, everything you said is so right. There's not just a weird handling of trauma, but this bizarre disconnect between all the characters. None of them have empathy for one another, even when the source of their fear/trauma is literally the exact same person (though 'caricature' is in many ways a better word, not like the Beetle gets much personality outside of a bunch of racist stereotypes in a trenchcoat), most of the time even via them acting in the same ways. And so the result is this story where none of the characters really connect with one another in a meaningful way. That's definitely not the only problem, but - as I saw in a meta from @animate-mush earlier today - in The Beetle, things just seem to happen to the characters, and the horror is more about their helplessness. In Dracula, the characters feel and do things all the time! Often, those aren't the right feelings or actions, or the characters wind up feeling like they're participating in the evil, thus fostering that horror of complicity. But in this book, our ongoing jokes that nothing anyone does affects the plot at all are... not really jokes, they're pretty true. If all the POV characters had done nothing at all, the Beetle still would have hypnotized someone else to steal Paul Lessingham's letters, still would have terrorized/kidnapped Marjorie, and still would have died in the train crash (setting aside the sequel-bait "or did they live after all...?" moment). Not only did they do very little in the first place, what they did was irrelevant. I guess you can say that ties into the theme of the horror, but, ehhhh.

And again, you are absolutely correct about the missed opportunity for conflict/growth between the couple. They spend almost no time together outside of flashbacks, and don't confide in one another at all, let alone explore their changed relationship. But also, to zoom out from just them... for a novel which is at least 70% people telling one another stories about what happened to them, no one actually reacts to those stories very much. In Dracula, Jonathan's diary provokes strong reactions in everyone who reads it, and directly/very importantly informs their next actions. Mina's account of Whitby gives Van Helsing the push to start the hunt for vamped!Lucy, and Seward's records give the clue that Renfield is connected to Dracula in some way. Even the Captain of the Demeter's log, read after his death, gives added context to the hunt and helps set them on their box chase which is of vital importance. The characters not only tell each other their stories - and write letters, and look up records - but they are changed and brought closer by the sharing of their experiences. The whole process is a unifying one.

The Beetle doesn't do any of that. After hearing Holt's account, Marjorie and Sydney unsympathetically take him to revisit the source of his trauma. Sydney, despite knowing she's telling the truth, tries to dismiss Marjorie the entire time she's talking to him. Champnell privately judges Paul Lessingham throughout his story. Marjorie and Paul don't really talk at all! Even when all of the characters come together for the final chase, they spend half the time talking over/insulting/arguing with one another. Both because they haven't all shared information fully in the first place, and because none of them have been changed or emotionally affected too much by one another's stories. The whole book reminds me of this excerpt from a critical essay about Dracula where the author claimed that there's a horrible bitter rivalry between all the suitors and their proclamations of love and friendship are lies. It's the worst bad faith interpretation of the text... and one Richard Marsh, seemingly, would have looked at and went "let's make that canon!"

Finally... it really is sadly true how little some things have changed. I mean, certainly, you can find a lot of much better depictions of trauma and aftermath (and companionship and less racism and better writing and-) nowadays. But equally, you can find plenty, scads upon scads, of the same kind of awful tropes as Marsh used (I can easily come up with some common ones in police detective shows especially). Maybe the worst part is that they can normalize terrible associations/expectations in a casual audience without them even realizing. And even in more nuanced stories, lots of people have very reductive interpretations. (See: the above mentioned Dracula essay. Or any of the many Dracula adaptations that claim to be more feminist or something while playing into just as bad and in some cases worse tropes as the original.) In a lot of ways, many of our modern tropes and interpretations around race/sex/gender/etc. are often not any more enlightened than Victorian ones were. Not always, of course! But more than enough.

[numetaljackdog]

what i'm listening to 8/5/2023 (SKAUGUST SPECIAL) (song notes under cut)

spot. link⬛⬜⬛⬜⬛yt link

bonjour tout la monde :3 i see you're all working on that first course...... perhaps you'd like another? :3c

now. this is no ordinary WILT. bc as i've mentioned i have been absolutely INFECTED by the skaucous skanking energy of SKAUGUST!!!! i might do a mini-WILT later in the month with some other stuff i've been listening to, but for now this is an ENTIRELY SKA playlist ^w^ well...... almost entirely. there is one exception, of course....

Laura Les - Skaunted: it's skaunted. by laura les. i really did try to find a ska cover for this but as far as i can tell there is none. get on that, people.

Streetlight Manifesto - Everything Went Numb: very likely my favorite ska song i've ever heard, this one's been with me for a good few years now. there's just such a drama to it, lots of storytelling gravitas rather than just a fun pop song. and the HOOKS they cram into this thing, good lord. the rapid-fire lyrics and layered horn section and difference in dynamics all work so well together.... i always find myself running through the part "i don't wanna hear, i don't wanna be near, i do what i gotta do, just to keep my nose clean" over and over and over again. that and the quiet part "a little something like this, na na na na na na, na na na na na na na" i've never heard a band that made na na na's work as well as these guys, and you can take that as an insult to whichever pop punk band you like if you really want, but one way or another this is a fucking golden track and you HAVE(!!!) to listen to it at least once okay?

No Doubt - Just A Girl: probably one of the most if not just the absolute most commercially and culturally successful moments that ska has had..... and it's not hard to see why. this song is a fucking ALL TIME crusher, it's got hooks for days, the little synth part is all crunchy, it's a bona fide feminist pop anthem, and, if we can all take a second to be real with ourselves here, gwen stefani is an excellent performer for stuff like this. i have no trouble imagining young teen girls in 1995 seeing this shit on mtv for the first time and having their lives and brain chemistries irreversibly changed. this and spiderwebs but there's only so much room in the playlist, folks

Madness - One Step Beyond: considering what we still have yet to get to in this list, it's a real testament to how much i instantly loved this one that it's placed so high. it's goofy as shit but it represents so many things i love about 2 tone. first of all, the just intrusively obvious british lameness of it is quite charming, and also just really interesting from a historical perspective. as we'll see, a lot of 2nd wave ska bands hailed from the uk, likely bc of the genre's connections with new wave, which began largely as a british export. and then with third wave ska, the usa became the new hub of ska music, but i feel like that british influence remained a crucial part of the way ska presented itself even then. very interesting, if you're as big a nerd as me. i feel like this is also a tune where you can hear some of ska's jazz influences, which is awesome to think how this revival movement for jamaican dance music not only preserved its basic rhythm structure but also some of its influences. i ALSO like that it hardly has any words - they were just like here's some of the tastiest fucking riffs you've ever heard and a guy yelling "ONE STEP BEYOND" what else do you need? and i was like nothing 😌 you've given me all i need you bunch of goofy suited skanksters

Catch 22 - 9mm and a Three Piece Suit: i see this one as sort of a companion to everything went numb, which makes sense bc streetlight manifesto actually covered the entirety of keasbey nights at one point. 9mm predates streetlight's stuff by a good number of years, and i do prefer the roughness of the original version. it's more of that very fast-paced storytelling type of songwriting, and i've had this song with me for several years as well. not really much i can say about it that wouldn't be repetitious, but definitely love this one to death as well

Choking Victim - Crack Rock Steady: coming from a background of hardcore heavier music, it makes me so happy that people saw the rise of ska punk and said yeah man we need a way to make this all heavy and nasty too. and we'll sing about killing cops. and they did! ^w^ and so enter the creators of a genre named after this very song (though by my understanding of its influences it could have easily been called "crust ska" - but that wouldn't have been a fun pun now would it?). i just love that you could easily get up and skank to this song, it's very upbeat and lively, but it is also VERY about killing cops. like there is no mistaking that this is cop killing song from first lyric to last. so that's dope. or i guess it's crack

The Specials - A Message to You Rudy: the specials cover an enduring jamaican ska classic... it's a tale as old as time. i love the arrangement on this soooo much, and the pretty and subtle harmonizations. this is almost kind of a dreamy song to me, the way it just floats through the air. that has more to do with the base melody itself, but i do like the dandy livingstone original a lot as well! once again, only so much room on the playlist. the specials join madness as the two bands that i would deem most prominent and influential in the second wave, but i think the specials were a little less new wave and had some more of the original ska spirit in them. not a dis on madness, of course, i've already expressed my enjoyment of them. just an interesting difference between the two

Rancid - Time Bomb: just a girl might be ska's big moment for a lot of people, but for ME, it was time bomb. i heard this one on the radio as a kid, and it was one of the first ska songs i was exposed to, and i LOVE IT. it's definitely a little basic but it just epitomizes the phrase "ska punk" to me. so guitar-forward and with super rough vocals but also so fun and real and bouncy with an absolutely endlessly repeatable chorus. i love you time bomb

We Are The Union - Morbid Obsessions: oh, i'm sorry. did you think i was gonna make a list of my current ska favorites and NOT include a selection from we are the union's 2021 album ordinary life which documents the lead singer's journey and self-discovery? well you thought fucking wrong, dumdum!!!!!!!!!!! this was such a big album for me when i was. uh. how old was i in 2021. when i was like seventeen. i would almost go so far as to say that this album was my "transgender dysphoria blues" if not for the fact that i was also listening to that album a lot around the same time. there were some discoveries happening. but anyways this is such a great little album, i really recommend the whole thing. chewy tasty indie pop with a delightful ska base. and the band even has jer (of skatune network fame) on trombone!! how cool is that!!!! also AGAIN i kept it to only one song but if you only check out one other track from this record, listen to the closer "december." that shit makes me cry

Smash Mouth - Walkin' On The Sun: I'LL ADMIT IT. THIS IS ONE OF SEVERAL TIMES THAT I'M GOING TO CHEAT ON THIS WILT. in the sense that this isn't really a ska song - it's a song by a ska band, and has some ska flavor in there as an influence. can you evar forgive me 🥺 but also like. look. it's fuckin smash mouth, okay. and this song is Loaded with them fucking HOOKS babeyyyyy. and it really is interesting, how smash mouth managed to be so commercially successful that they really existed as a goofy corporate pop rock band that had a couple big all-quadrants hits. but like you can feel that they have background in "The Scene." you can practically smell the punk on these guys, the same way you can smell the nu metal on sugar ray. these are always bands that used to be Something Else and that Something Else is undeniably cooler than what they are now, but what they are now is definitely catchier. so. walkin' on the sun! i like this better than all star, for the record, but it could also be a matter of overplay on the latter's part

The Selecter - On My Radio: this and one other song we'll get to are like the epitome to me of how second wave ska had huge crossover with new wave. the first time i heard this one i was kinda like ehhh yeah it's cool i guess. and then after a couple more listens i realized how well constructed of a song it is, and how great the performances are. the lead vocalist here is a real treat, apparently some people call her the "queen of ska" which is fucking awesome. also i love a good song about a radio, especially in retrospect now where it's like eh yeah you darned kids had better learn about what's what on the radio bc back in my day-

Operation Ivy - Sound System: this is like, the birthplace of ska punk/third wave. okay maybe not this particular album, but you could certainly make an argument for that early op ivy ep! point is, they were on the ground floor, and sound system is definitely the catchiest song i've heard from them. and, not dissimilar to songs about radios, i can get behind a song about a sound system! love it! honestly, despite being rough and punky, this song's almost... cute? like aw :) the sound system is the one thing he can depend on. i'm glad he has that kind of relationship in his life!

Less Than Jake - Nervous In The Alley: LTJ is the first ska band that i really became a fan of, probably bc of how accessible they are, particularly to the typical pop punk or skate punk enjoyer. they have three songs in this playlist that i have enough history with to warrant including but i don't have much to say about any of them. the fast part of this song is the best part, obviously

The (English) Beat - Mirror In the Bathroom: it's so funny to me that they're called the english beat but only sometimes. sometimes it's just the beat. i understand why but it amuses me. anyways THIS is the total new wave song i mentioned, and like with on my radio i didn't really "get it" at first. but man, what a track. not only does it have great composition and a delightful balance of new wave polish and ska beat, it's also just kind of a unique concept for a pop song. self-obsession pushed to the point of madness, framed entirely through the listing of different common objects one can look at themselves in while carrying out everyday business. just an interesting little chune :3

Less Than Jake - Bomb Drop: honestly this one could probably go higher i fucking love bomb drop. but once again i don't have much to say about it. i will say that i didn't realize until watching the music video while making this list that this is apparently about like, cyberbullying? the video's kind of lame honestly, but the intentions are good. i've had this song so long i forgot how recent it is, but i guess it's a testament to how consistent LTJ has stayed, and perhaps as a consequence, how little they've changed. you could send this song back to 1998 and apart from the slightly slicker production nobody would bat an eye

Derrick Morgan - Tougher Than Tough (Rudie in Court): had to get at least one first wave song that wasn't a 2 tone cover in here, right? this is another classic that earns the title of "rude boy anthem." without getting too serious, i do think there's something to be said about rude boys' existence as a subculture and the way that blends with the punk ethos later but also how the term exists more in isolation in jamaican ska. as the title suggests, there's definitely an element of getting into trouble here - was that something that inspired the revival of ska at the hands of rock bands later on? i can't say. but i think about it

The Aquabats! - The Shark Fighter!: if i'm 100% honest i don't tend to really like the aquabats. i wish i did but i don't. but this song is sooooo catchy. i did watch the full episode of the super show that the song appears in (which is in the youtube playlist btw) and it was some campy fun but not anything that made me want to watch more. what i will say is that not long ago i was rewatching robbydude's vods of reel fishing: road trip adventure, a vod series that contained a lot of ska references (not the least of which relate to the title and the continued botching of it to instead say "reel big fishing"). but one of the bits was that every time he went to catch a hammerhead he would play this song. so now it's lodged in my head forever. go make the same happen for yourself

Less Than Jake - Goodbye in Gasoline: some b-side action for you. the video for this one that i have in the youtube playlist is so funny, it's from SUPER early youtube and it's just a bunch of stupid random pictures over a low-quality mp3 of the song. there's only two comments and they're both people being like "this is dumb why did you make this." as far as i'm concerned this may as well be the official music video for goodbye in gasoline

Rancid - Hooligans: HOOLIGANS! rancid! RUDE BOYS! rancid! HOOLIGANS! rancid! RUDE BOYS! rancid! on a loop forever in my mind

Lazy Town - We Are Number One: once again i am super cheating bc this shouldn't count as a bonus track really, it's just not on spotify anymore. so whatever there's 20 songs, sue me. i don't need to introduce you to this song but what i do have to say is MAN is this a banger or what?! like yeah it's a kid's song and yeah it's a meme, but i really do love it! i've never seen an episode of lazy town in my life! i remember a tomska & friends video where they did a meme review of the 2010s and tom (who, as you may guess, is a noted ska fan) picked this song for 2018 or whatever fuckin year this blew up, but he noted that while he didn't really have very strong feelings about it one way or another, he had to take the opportunity to be excited that a ska song had become popular online. i can respect that. rest in peace of course to the actor who played robbie rotten, he seemed like a nice man and i'm glad we all are preserving something he worked on so passionately :)

wouaghhh. so that was the skaugust special!!!! thanks for reading, i hope your love of ska is improved by the work we've done here :3 i feel the need to give thanks to the wonderful violet of the gec (hi :3), fellow musicgirl and the creator of skaugust, because. oh man. i have not felt this energized to listen to and talk about music in MONTHS. in case you were confused about the thing i said about a first course earlier, go check out vi's batch of songs for some more certified bangers. do it NOW. okay thankies see you next month ^w^

[ragecndybars]

Top five poor little meow meows, any medium but limit it to one per series or you're just gonna talk about Akihiko five times

this ask is a landmine. and i'm about to step on it.

Anthy Himemiya. Hashtag Anthy Did Nothing Wrong. Everything she did is retroactively morally correct purely because it was her who did it. True, she has a bodycount of, at an absolute minimum, 100 students who burned to death + Mikage himself + Kanae, but have you considered: she is terminally in middle school. Using magic illusions and or hallucinations to drive Mikage to mass murder and eventual death? They hate to see a girlboss winning. That last episode and her whole, uh, thing with Utena? God forbid women do anything. The way she fucks with Nanami, too, simply because of the Recognition of the Self through the Other (derogatory). ALSO IS SHE MIKI AND KOZUE'S STEP MOTHER OR WAS THAT A METAPHOR. ANSWER ME IKUHARA. Not that it actually matters bc she was just having a category five girl moment. Get your princess witch dichotomy out of here she's my special little meow meow and she deserves to travel the world with Chuchu and Utena while Akio rots underground <3

Edelgard von Hresvelg. Sorry but nothing need be said here. Other ppl have said it all already. Black Eagles 4 Lyfe.

Chidori Yoshino. Yes, she was party to multiple murders. No, there was no real goal or justification beyond money. Yes, she was utterly indifferent to the blood on her hands. No, she never really changed her mind about that or ever came to understand why standing idly by and letting Takaya murder people who she helped track down was bad, nor did anyone ever really try to explain it to her. Yes, she kind of just said "whatever man" and went off to have her own character arc completely divorced from the murder. No, I do not care. She is my precious little angel she didn't deserve anything that happened to her she needs all the love and understanding in the world.

Clive Dove. MFW I'm traumatized and orphaned as a child and the man responsible not only faces no consequences but even becomes Prime Minister and so I build an entire fake future London underground beneath the real London and conspire with a man who created an actual real functional time machine to trick some people and kidnap the prime minister and smuggle him away and make a fake evil future version of the guy who comforted me after my parents died and then pose as the future version of his apprentice to get close to him and kidnap his daughter also at one point and really just let everything get out of hand up until the point I get caught and hop into an enormous mechanical fortress and pop out through the ground slash ceiling of my fake future london to start smashing the shit out of the real london all the while the woman who literally travelled through time is like damn i'm dying and now my bf and i cant even have a nice last date. Anyway Clive is peak and he should have faced zero consequences for this. But Bill Hawks needs to die ASAP.

Leonard Church. The misogynist of all time. He loved his wife who he constantly referred to as a horrid bitch so much. He loved his daughter who he neglected and emotionally abused by comparing her to the impossible standard of her dead mother soooo much. He loved himself so fucking little that he tortured himself to create an AI out of himself and then he tortured the AI to try to create a new version of his wife out of his own memories. The neglect and emotional abuse of his daughter is continuing in a big way throughout this tbh. Then he accidentally tortures his AI self too much to the point where AI him loses his memory and his fake-ass AI wife who despises him now for what he did has to kidnap him from himself and now he's just back to being a huge asshole who calls his wife a horrid bitch all the time. And then he can eventually develop a conscience and start to remember more and more (and cause irreversible trauma and brain damage to wash at one point in there oops) and then even though he still doesn't remember her, he can team up with his daughter to track down his original, human self to stop him from continuously committing war crimes and human rights violations in his efforts to resurrect his wife. and he can finally put his wife who he calls a bitch to rest. I'm not gonna say I love you... I'm gonna say... I forget you. I'm letting you go. And then he can die pathetically as a human while his better AI version sticks around with his daughter who he still doesn't really remember for a while until he eventually has to sacrifice himself as well. And ain't that just a bitch.

[kentuckyanarchist]

Songs of 2022

Year-end lists always seem doomed to become outdated. Am I really expected to have heard all the best songs of 2022 in 2022? It’s never going to work, they’ll seep through over the course of the following year or years. But giving it six weeks is better than nothing, so here we are in mid-late February.

1. Tomberlin, “Stoned”.

Stoned indeed: woozy, baffled, bodily undone.

2. Camp Cope, “Running with the Hurricane”.

Camp Cope perfected a bassy, blunt melancholy with How to Socialise & Make Friends; here they don’t so much break from that template as turn it to other—affirmative? aggressive?—purposes.

3. Caroline, “Good Morning (Red)”.

The year’s most something-new-on-every-listen song, its most capacious.

4. Christian Lee Hutson, “Age Difference”.

Lyric of the year: “Do my impression of John Malkovich critiquing food in prison / At first it isn’t funny, then it is, and then it isn’t.”

5. Big Thief, “Change”.

A panoply of possibilities on such a sprawling, immersive album by the absolute best in the game, but this most plaintive and stubborn lament just edges the rest.

6. Rachika Nayar ft. Maria BC, “Heaven Come Crashing”.

Sounds for the silentest disco.

7. The A’s, “Why I’m Grieving”.

A path not taken from an archive not delved-into; a peppy sad spurt of jolly heartbreak.

8. Black Country, New Road, “Snow Globes”.

I’m still not sure if this song’s about going mad, getting old, living through winter, all three, or none.

9. Arctic Monkeys, “Body Paint”.

Searching, insistent: like Alex Turner’s got you caught in a lie.

10. Stella Donnelly, “Cold”.

This could’ve been any of Stella Donnelly’s songs where the lilt of her voice is always dropping into conversationality, but this one, where she ends the conversation, full-stop, shuts me up the most.

11. Martha, “Irreversible Motion”.

So many of these songs are about little things, like the bones of the inner ear; this one maybe more than all the others.

12. Florist, “Red Bird Pt. 2 (Morning)”.

A delicate retrospective collage, a slow bashful loving appreciation, a puzzled amazed asking-why, a cautious comfort.

13. Aldous Harding, “Fever”.

Aldous Harding’s songs have this wonderful, dignified refusal to cohere; this one just lopes, or loafs, in and out of view.

14. Meg Baird, “Will You Follow Me Home?”.

The way Meg Baird’s vocals stay half-submerged here is what gets me: “Will You Follow Me Home?” goes from lazy river to maelstrom without you quite noticing.

15. Brian Eno, “Making Gardens Out of Silence”.

If you ask me, “Making Gardens Out of Silence” is a panorama from the time after humans, built from salvage by whatever-comes-next.

16. Hurray for the Riff Raff, “SAGA”.

A lot of these songs express a specifically 2022 kind of bafflement. “SAGA” doesn’t know how to get past this condition either, but it’s pushing against the boundaries.

17. Lana Del Rey, “Watercolor Eyes”.

You think you know someone’s schtick, but they surprise you.

18. Black Belt Eagle Scout, “My Blood Runs Through This Land".

Alternating between wordlessness and breathlessness, either way keeping on building to something.

19. Jake Xerxes Fussell, “Love Farewell”.

Stoic and stolid, Jake Xerxes Fussell bets on metaphor but could’ve made do with just rumble, growl and twinkle.

20. Ezra Furman, “Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club”.

Secret-telling in movie-theatre darkness.

21. Let’s Eat Grandma, “Happy New Year”.

Let’s Eat Grandma have the saddest synths but this one’s rose-coloured.

22. Joshua Burnside, “Louis Mercier”.

Time-travel klezmer-pop that jostles you like a cobbled towpath.

23. Beth Orton, “Weather Alive”.

When talking songs become singing songs so sylphlike and effortless.

24. Sault, “Life We Rent but Love Is Free”.

Sounds like certain small parts of London, for certain small moments, on busy summer days in the past.

25. Bill Callahan, “Coyotes”.

One for slickrock and sagebrush, which are not without their romance.

26. Yard Act, “Tall Poppies”.

A self-consciously small story, a kitchen-sink drama, a talking head, no denouément.

27. Angel Olsen, “All the Good Times”.

A rhinestone widescreen production, a road movie on a soundstage.

28. Beach House, “Hurts to Love”.

Generationally speaking, the ending of Skins series 1 still packs a fair bit of a punch, so rewriting “Wild World” by Cat Stevens makes more sense than you’d think.

29. The 1975, “The 1975”.

Imagine taking “All My Friends” and making it about your cock and it’s still good; that takes rare talent.

30. Craig Finn, “Birthdays”.

Comforting because it really is nice to know there’s someone in this world who’s always known you, and comforting because it’s Craig Finn doing Craig Finn stuff with his big dumb Craig Finn voice.

31. Julia Jacklin, “Lydia Wears a Cross”.

A bodily song: knees, eyes, clothes, adornments.

32. Anaïs Mitchell, “On Your Way (Felix Song)”.

You get the sense Anaïs Mitchell finds nothing all that difficult—eulogising, philosophising, doing justice to a life, picking out the pithiest reminiscences, in just under three minutes she bowls it all over.

33. Billy Woods, “Pollo Rico”.

Intrusive thoughts, compulsion to repeat. A personal history of madness.

34. Bright Eyes, “Arc of Time (Time Code) (Companion Version)”.

This year Bright Eyes re-recorded some of the songs from the 2000s I love/hate the most. “Arc of Time” gets remade without the beats or the keys, but stays smart and wry and death stays on its mind. 

35. Fred again.., “Berwyn (all that i got is you)”.

Fred again..’s songs are urban explorations, entries to London’s subterrene.

36. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Spitting Off the Edge of the World”.

Cosmic.

37. The Big Moon, “Ladye Bay”.

Supersized, tectonic.

38. Drive-By Truckers, “The Driver”.

Grimy, grunting noir.

39. Ethel Cain, “American Teenager”.

D. H. Lawrence would’ve liked Ethel Cain and her Great American Hauntedness.

40. Girlpool, “Butterfly Bulletholes”.

Such a shame to lose Girlpool in 2022 but they were four or five bands in just two people, they gave us a lot.

41. The Beths, “Expert in a Dying Field”.

This one speaks for itself.

42. Nilüfer Yanya, “Shameless”.

Breathless, almost somehow fleshless, rattling ribcage xylophone.

43. Mesadorm, “Soap Opera”.

Skew-whiff boiler-hiss robot pop.

44. Porridge Radio, “Back to the Radio”.

Porridge Radio’s skills are in cacophony, cataclysm, crisis, ruination, disaster mismanagement.

45. Wet Leg, “Too Late Now”.

Every introspection needs a wise-crack or two.

46. Wilco, “Tired of Taking It Out on You”.

Aged 29, I had chickenpox recently; I recovered but it’s made looking in the mirror interesting, all these new small markings on the same face.

47. Plains, “Hurricane”.

The lyrics to “Hurricane” read like an apology, but Katie Crutchfield’s voice always sounds a little barbed to me; that’s what makes this work, I think.

48. Daniel Avery, “Higher”.

Frenetic travel in place.

49. Kevin Morby, “Bittersweet, TN”.

Kevin Morby hits all the requirements, he straight-A’s being a country singer.

50. Beabadoobee, “You’re Here That’s the Thing”.

In 2023 I resolve to continue to love silly rhymes, campfire rhythms, dewdrops and holding hands.

[blossomingbellflower]

“I don’t own you, you just belong to me, just as this Sesshomaru belongs with you.” ((OOC: not me adding an extra bit bc I can- Fangsofdestruction))

𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐒|| @fangsofdestruction

"Is that so~? So brazen and yet...very true. There is no one I would rather belong to than you, dearest."

The words spoken by her husband to be, both excited and pleased her. Her heart admittedly fluttered and the pit of her stomach filled with warmth. Stepping forward, she extended a hand to affectionately brush a few silken locks from his cheek. Fingers purposefully grazed along his cheekbone as she gazed up at him.

Only he had the right to say such words to her. Sesshomaru was the only one who can say such a thing and elicit a pleasurable chill down her spine. He was her world and the one worthy to give herself to. After all, not anyone can win nor earn her heart so easily. And yet, he had done so even back then..when she was a simple, wandering miko.

Of course he had since grown since then,but..he still retained the traits that resulted in the ice around her heart to melt. What she loved about him endured the test of time and matured with other aspects. One could also say that as she learned more about the present him, there was more that she irreversibly fell in love with.

"And yes, I agree. As I belong to you, you are mine alone. I will allow no other to touch a hair on your end, far less come between us. Only a fool would dare." It was both a fact and a vow. Kikyou will not sit idly by this time around, should another attempt to overstep their boundaries. She will remind them where they belonged. Kikyou will protect what was hers..as she was certain her love would do the same.

Fingers brushed against his jaw, lightly trailing down his neck and onto his chest. The hand changed position and a palm soon rested above his heart. "I am at my happiest when I am by your side."

[princess-earthquake-the-third]

i love how every chapter these days could be the very last and i would have no idea bc im just going along w the ride and waiting for the irreversible psychic damage it'll inflict on me (although the last few chapters were kind of softer)

but also im collecting my thoughts on it tbh. anyway im curious, what's your first impressions of it?

Well,for one thing,I am dumb and I need someone to explain stuff to me usually so take this with a grain of salt,but my impression of it is basically just.

It's happening,things are happening, slowly but surely,one step after the other,the stars shine and the earth spins ,the water moves and the plants shake with the wind,the sun is bright and the rain falls.

It's happening,that is to say, existence is happening and for the first time in a very long time,Phos is experiencing it.

Ever since Phos started their journey they've been running forward towards an ever changing goal,and changing with every step,but now they've reached a seemingly unchangeable state, they've slowed down to a halt,but the world still moves beside them,and they're beholding it.

Maybe that'll give them some comfort,I don't know where it'll go.

[scarletanpan]

.

I don't have anything else to say but the mindset of so many ppl taking nothing serious and not caring abt cancel culture or accountability or looking at history combined so perfectly with these last 8 yrs of increasingly open and vitriolic bigotry to the point where this shit fucking happened. And I saw it from miles away, I saw it get worse every year and still so many ppl either started to disengage or act like all these ppl are crazy and bad but its not that serious. They dk that the ppl who want to oppress us care a lot more than we dont. Elon musks million dollar giveaway was given the green light two days ago which I'm sure helped. As fucking illegal as that clearly should be this election was bought by rich ppl. Its like everyone forgot so many conservatives are rich ppl who wanna stay rich, and will pay to convince their supporters to do anything for them. I'm just so scared for palestine it's making me sick because that was my biggest fear they're fucking evil. Ill do what i can but how was this not more important to everyone else.. I'm so disturbed seeing my state have less than 30 out of 120+ districts blue... like oh. Wow. Everyone loves this fascist, thats genuinely insane

Do yall realize how hard we rubberbanded back into yt supremacy after obama got in office. So hard that it completely fucked up the political scene irreversibly, removed any type of decorum left and turned it into a cult of personality. Like one of the most important parts of change is handling all the conservative backlash that comes w it. We do not make progress in this country w/o strong opposition from the status quo, but when everyone acts like nothing matters anyway it's impossible. I'm so serious just the reaction to cancel culture by itself basically amplified and was applied to every single aspect of society for most ppl. That is maybe the scariest result bc we just watched them plan and admit to doing some of the most horrific things time and time again with no consequences. Saying how they'll make all marginalized ppls lives miserable and destroy the election process and idk

It's just insane there's too much to how this all played out but the point is im sad and frustrated asf. If Elon musk dropped dead 4 fucking yrs ago there's at least a smaller chance this would've ever occurred. I don't feel safe going anywhere rn bc this whole week there's trump supporters on every block. Seriously.. but the important part is to not make like so many ppl not affected deeply by marginalization and fucking give up. It's just depressing asf feeling like wow yall rlly hate poc. And queer ppl. And disabled ppl. Or thought bigotry was solved bc u see representation a little more and stopped caring abt the deeply systemic issues still affecting us everyday. But whatever, im just prepping myself mentally knowing things will be going downhill for a while.. I doubt it but I hope some ppl have a fucking wake up call and rlly start caring more. Fr like the only way I can cope w this is doing more research so I feel less insane abt all of it, and spreading awareness which I rlly need to I'm j so mentally behind rn

And so frustrating too the way the US is such a corrupt imperialist country that this result affects everybody else. But ppl barely understand the politics in this country much less care abt all the other ppl this parasite of a collection of states ruins. It sucks to live w this but it is a privilege to have the right to vote and change things. Like I get why ppl get so fucking annoyed w Americans bc being this ignorant and complacent in fascism is pathetic. Knowledge and history has never been more imperative than right now

[samuelroukin]

oh cmon that sounds cool asf kudos to 14yo ben

Wasted Potential Normal Guy is one of my favorite kinds of guy. i love me a story about a regular ass dude. and urban fantasy is so nice!! (and suits you so well imo). love the idea of a world where people are like "oh and this is josh he has Visions sometimes" and it's no big deal. speaking of deals, The Deal sounds mysterious and engaging and very curious 🧐 btw wonder how he got ex bf from hs to tag along (such a funky backstory for a friend. very fun. love it)

anyway that sounds just like my type of story. what a surprise! almost as if you were just my type of author or something. like if i liked your writing loads (haha loads) and that was the reason why i read it. huh. imagine that.

but fr it would probably Change me irreversibly. love me some good themes and motifs and the little bit you said already hit home lol. a book like that would fit my tastes to an almost concerning degree

(now give me some time i need to grieve that this is not a book i can pick up and read rn)

btw im being nice to you because i want to and i can and i mean it 😼

ough yeah there's so much to it (and i'd have to cut like 80% of background shit lmao) Many fun characters too, i have a full cast besides the main guys 😌 he (matt) and ex bf (hakim) haven't seen each other in years at that point and recent(ish) he walked into the coffee shop and they were like HUH bc whole different state. and instantly gelled again. and it certainly doesn't hurt that he's looking for a Film Project for school (yes he's nearing thirty and going to uni). and documenting a road trip like this sounds like a good opportunity lmao

slkjhsjkghfhgst fair! but trust me, the potential of it is better than anything i could actually Do so we'll both have to settle for wishing it was real 🫡

well stop it bc i clearly don't know how to handle it 🙏💀

[starburst2000]

Hi. I'd like to hear from a young person, because I want to better understand some of the anomalies going on in the world today, and I was struck by your profile which said you're ok with TERFs (which I had to look up bc I had no idea what that acronym meant).

I am 61. So call me an old geezer or whatever, but I lived a few years, and visited or lived in a number of global geographies, and have experienced a lot of things.

I have had an education in the top secondary and university institutions. I have nothing against anyone doing what they want (legally) when they reach maturity.

I'm a sort of libertarian and pro free market trader. I am for less (not more) govt intervention. I am for a smaller (not bigger) bureaucratic state.

There's very little I can point to where the govt does anything well, and certainly nothing better than the private sector, and I mean NOTHING. NOT one thing.

Having said that, it's probably best for a public army, not a private one. They say the human brain hasn't really reached maturation until 25. But let's say it's 18. I say, it's your choice. Do what you want.

My question is, what is going on with letting 3, 4, 6, 12, 14 year old girls (or boys), decide they are boys? And what is with parents "affirming" this decision? And what's with puberty blockers and/or irreversible gender surgery starting at adolescence? It seems to me that no matter how many surgeries, a boy can never be a girl, or vice versa. So okay dress up all you like, but that Bud Light male (Mulvaney) is a guy with a penis and he will never be able to make or carry children, nor should he. He actually makes for a decently beautiful woman w/ all the dress up and makeup. Although he comes off as a creepy groomer to me much of the time.

But my question is, why would be affirming a 13 yr old's fantasy or dysphoria? Why not wait until he/she is older?

Why ruin (potentially) this person for life? I don't buy "if you don't affirm them early, they will kill themselves" argument. My guess is is that everyone with a mental problem (like gender dysphoria, bi-polar disorder, etc) has MUCH higher rates of suicide. Why would we do things that will likely make matters worse?

My 6 yr old and my 12 yr old didn't know what breakfast cereal they wanted, or what color bike was best for that matter. They were confused and exploring lots of things. But suddenly, I should affirm their sudden idea that they think they might be the opposite sex? Why do teenagers and college kids think this is OK?

A young woman going through puberty - it's tough. Suddenly, when you start becoming a woman, physically, your body changes dramatically, and so does your psyche. They go through this much earlier than boys who eventually become men. There are biological reasons for this. Menstruation sucks. The pain can be excruciating. "Please make it stop." One's hormones are raging. And if you're not "pretty" based on one's # of social media likes, the pressure to be accepted by one's peers, or attention from boys, can be tough. But eventually, one matures and grows out of such cosmetic social issues. One realizes- over time - that other things matter more. Like the brain - and one's creativity and intellectual abilities or physical attributes and character - those things matter the most. I'm also very concerned about trans women (biological men) taking over women's sports, which is already happening in EVERY category. They are taking medals and scholarship opportunities from biological women. Seems absurd to me and unfair, not to mention, dangerous (already seeing many injuries of trans women (biological men) injuring the women they're competing against. There's a reason women's sports was separated and in the U.S., we passed Title 9, which mandates that schools give equal money and attention to women's teams as the men's teams. Having biological men compete against women is just bad in every level, and antithetical to the spirit of Title 9.

So I'm wondering what you, a young person thinks about the trans issue. I'm really curious and would love to hear your opinion.

Thanks

Good evening.

I suppose I have to rephrase better what I wrote on my bio on Tumblr, that is "Blog opened to everybody (except for TERFs, MAPs, porn blogs, Trump supporters)". This says, my blog is pro-LGBT.

Trans Exclusionist Radical Feminists are in NO FUCKING WAY allowed here on my blog. the same goes for porn blogs and anyone who supports Trump or any right-wing party (because, let's say it, an huge percentage of Tumblr users are American, and I'm from Europe).

About the transgender issue, medical studies have shown that the brain of a person doesn't always match the form of their genitals. A "male brain" means you identify as a male, even if you are an AFAB person. Some people find out they're trans pretty early in life, others only after puberty starts, and others during their older adult age phase.

In many cases, a child that comes out as trans only has to socially transition (change clothing according to what they identify as, and either cut or let the hair grow. Hormones come some time later, and in some cases there are health issues hat prevent them taking the hormones)

There's also the fact that hormones can change a person's phisical aspect, from the growth of body hair to the body fat accumulating in different body parts, to the muscular mass in general. This can also happen in women with PCOS, a chrinical illness which is debated on whether to consider it a form of intersexuality or not.

There's also the case of David Reimer, an AMAB person who underwent a sex change at a very young age after a circumcision that went badly, and who later transitioned back to male. Here is the Wikipedia page about him.

Intersexuality can also play a role in the trans issue: perhaps a person was assigned male at birth, but later started to develop female traits, or vice-versa; however, it's a too long argument to explain, but I will tell you that trans people have existed since the dawn of time. Some examples are the Hijiras in India, or the Scythian Enarees from 9th/8th Century Central Asia.

Also, let me ruin for you Pixar's "Finding Nemo": normally, in clownfishes groups, there's only a female that lays eggs, and the rest of the fishes are male; when the female dies, the male fish that's right under her develops female gonads, and the chain of life goes on.

I strongly suggest you to find some trans bloggers here on the website, as they might give you their persinal expreience on the matter.

In conclusion: Trans men are men. Trans women are women. Nonbinaries are nonbinaries.

Hope my answer was good enough.