#young cave mens' association

[sohannabarberaesque]

Why Toxic Masculinity was unheard of back in Bedrock

Credit the influence of the Young Cave Mens' Association (YCMA).

As if the YCMA's core belief in "a sound mind in a sound body" wasn't good enough, its agenda pushed the cause of promoting a healthy regard for sexuality of the caveman stylee (i.e., sex actually feeling good as a way of relaxation and fun as much as perpetuating the family line) without the need for going pornographic or otherwise euphemistically prissy.

In essence, regarding the sex act as a natural function of the caveman body and nothing to be ashamed of or otherwise feel disgusted at doing.

[theartfuldodger26]

Do you see Tom Riddle as a pretty boy or a handsome man?

Perhaps I'm missing some sort of modern slang as to what each means, but I'll reply literally. Anonymous (or others) feel free to correct/enlighten me if I stray off topic.

I don't see why he can't be both, especially considering that we get to experience young Tom as well as older Volmemort in the books.

He was a pretty, good looking boy when he was younger, and remained a handsome man for a while, until his magical experiment and the Horcrux making caught up with his appearance. I still HC that Bellatrix finds him more attractive in his gaunt, skeletal appearance than before, but that's probably just me.

In the fourth book, while he's still a semi-human creature, before the ritual that gives him back his body, Frank, the gardener of his family estate, demands he turns and "faces him like a man!"

"But I am not a man," Voldemort replies, "I am so much more than a man [but why not, I will face you]"

What Voldemort might have meant with that is up for debate. Perhaps all he means is that he is a man (as in biological male who identifies with the male gender), but he is also so powerful and, to use the expression Voldemort himself loved as a child, so SPECIAL, he's also in a class of human on his own.

Also, later on we find out that he has fathered a daughter, so apparently he does have normal urges that men have. He's not above lust, sex and even maybe being fond of another human (Bellatrix and Delphi).

In addition, when Dumbledore and Harry make it to the cave that Voldemort chose as the hiding place for the Locket Horcrux, we find out that Voldemort values magical power above all, and that HArry's magic, that of a young, average (maybe even a little beyond average), won't even register in his book compared to Dumbledore's. To me this seems to suggest that Voldemort is quite happy to be "old", "mature" and, to his eyes, "wise". And it's not hard to see why he thinks this. He used to be a little boy at the bottom of the social ladder. He might have been "pretty", something that, in older times, was associated with "good families" but he was still an orphan people just ignored or even pitied. Now he's surrounded mostly by younger witches and wizards, and he's their leader.

To sum up until now, I think Voldemort is happy to be a man of a certain age and standing, rather than a boy.

However, he wants to be more than that. He wants to be special, extraordinary. And not just with his deeds, but also with his appearance. He doesnt even want people to speak the name he chose for himself, a name that he likes and is proud of, as it sums up his grandiosity and goal in life (to flee death). Altering his appearance and making it bizarre and unique is also part of this need. By looking like a snake, he's finally special in every way: the way he acts, looks, talks, they're all unique to Lord Voldemort. He's not just a man, any man, he's The Dark Lord.

But I digress. The key for me is a (common, I think) headcanon, where Voldemort suffers from some flavour of body dysmorphia as a young boy. I'm not an expert on the condition, so by no means do I claim to know what I'm saying, just sharing how I feel about him. I think he DOESN'T LIKE BEING ATTRACTIVE, especially after he finds out he looks identical to his father. To some degree he finds his "pretty appearance" useful, since, sad truth be told, we're all inclined to treat a good looking person better and pay more attention to them, and in his early days of near starvation and abuse this was useful. But he hates it, deep down, as he hates everything about himself from those days.

Not only that, but he actually doesn't find himself attractive. He thinks he's too pale, his hair annoys him because it's too curly and needs some work in order to look presentable, his cheekbones are too high, he's too thin and boney, and the list goes on and on with things only he finds weird and unattractive. All part of his deep-seated self loathing that is in the root of all his actions, covered up with illusions f grandeur.

And so he sheds every bit of his old appearance that's possible to change, from his eye colour to the shape of his nose. In fact, now I think of it, in Goblet of Fire he says he'll be "Settling for his old body for a while", suggesting he's planning on further transformations in the future, when he has more time with Harry dead.

TLDR: to us, semi-biased readers, he's both. In his own eyes, he's neither.

Also this gave me an idea for a minific, so I may post a drabble at some point, inspired by this.

Thank you, Anon, for an interesting question that made me think and allowed me to put some ideas in order. And that it sparked a fic! ;)

[coochiequeens]

Yet another case for SheWon.com. Not just any case, one where a grown ass white dude was allowed to compete against an 11 year old girl of color in the name of inclusiveness.

By Amy Hamm February 22, 2024

A trans-identified male is set to compete against women as the reigning Women’s Snooker Champion at the English Women’s Snooker Championship on May 24 in Walsall, UK. Jamie Hunter, 27, became the top women’s player following a semifinal victory against a young girl last year.

Hunter first rose to prominence during the English Women’s Snooker Champion finals in 2023 after he came out victorious against Mary Talbot-Deegan, finishing 3-1. Hunter had managed to make it to the finals after he beat out Ellise Scott, an 11-year-old rising star in the snooker world, taking 2-0 against her in the semifinal grouping. The event had been Scott’s debut in the tournament, and, prior to her match against Hunter, she had achieved three match victories against experienced female opponents.

Hunter had been participating in women’s cue sports since 2021, just one year after he “came out” as transgender.

Prior to transitioning, Hunter played in a mixed-sex amateur league for five years. Speaking with Snooker Zone in 2021, Hunter admitted that he had no intention of competing professionally until he discovered that there was a women’s tour.

“Until this year, cue sports was just a hobby, something I done once, maybe twice a week, but now finding out about the Women’s snooker tour, I believe that will change,” he said at the time. “They make out as if I played snooker as a man, I was rubbish, so decided to do it in the women’s instead. I changed my gender for my wellbeing and my life, not for anything else.”

Hunter received significant backlash after his 2022 US Women’s Open win, when former women’s world champion Maria Catalano criticized the policies enabling males to compete against females. In an interview with The Sportsman, Catalano argued that women’s snooker should exclude males from female categories, as some rugby leagues have, to ensure fairness for women. 

“We have fought so hard for our rights in the past – myself, Reanne Evans and others got people to write letters to allow us to play in leagues and clubs that banned women. I don’t believe that women can compete against men on a level playing field in sport. We are wired differently, we think differently. We are mentally different,” said Catalano. 

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) publishes a mixed sex international ranking of players. The highest-ranking female on their current list, Mink Nutcharut, is listed at 119.

In response to the criticism of his wins against women, Hunter has framed the backlash as transphobia.

“Everybody’s human. Regardless of what choices you make. You should treat everybody with respect,” said Hunter speaking to a BBC journalist last fall. Bizarrely, Hunter was interviewed while he sat in a gaming chair in a dark bedroom — which he refers to as “the dark girl cave.” The room has a transgender pride flag pinned up on the wall behind him.

The upcoming English Women’s Snooker Championship is set for May 24, 2024. It is being organized by the English Partnership for Snooker and Billiards (EPSB), which is the national governing body for the sport in England. They describe their goal as creating a “structured coaching environment that will inspire all regardless of gender, ability, or ethnicity to fulfil their potential in our sport.” 

The EPSB has a diversity, equity, and inclusion policy with a lengthy section on discrimination, including a ban on any “condition, rule or practice [that]… particularly disadvantages people who share a protected characteristic.” As for their list of protected characteristics, the EPSB includes “gender, gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, race, colour, nationality, religion, age, disability, HIV positivity, working pattern, caring responsibilities, trade union activity or political beliefs.”  

The English Women’s Championship is set to take place at the Landywood Snooker Club in Walsall, UK, on May 24.

This is not the first time a male has dominated women’s cue sports, sparking backlash from players and fans.

Last November, a female pool player refused to compete against a trans-identified male opponent at a women’s championship in Wales. Lynne Pinches received an outpouring of support as video began to circulate showing her walking away from the table after being matched to play against Chris Haynes.

Days later, two more female pool players refused to compete against Haynes in solidarity with Pinches during the Ultimate Pool tournament in Blackpool, UK.

In January, Pinches headed an effort to launch a lawsuit against the World Eightball Pool Federation (WEPF) and Ultimate Pool Group (UPG), accusing the governing bodies of subjecting women “to direct sex discrimination and harassment on the grounds of sex.”

What does he have to gain from this?

ENTRY FEES AND PRIZE MONEY

Entry: £30

Winner: £200 

Runner-Up: £100 

Semi-Finalists: £50

[nanabansama]

Hi! so I was just wondering about Nene and Hanako! you know that Nene is a ningyo and the story says that her husband grew old and died and she lived a long life ! Do you think something like that can happen in the story? If Hanako can be human again and they get married or something like that !?

Hi! You must be talking about the story Yao Bikuni. Yes, in that story a girl eats the flesh of a ningyo (Japanese term for a half-human, half-fish creature) and becomes effectively immortal. She stays young and marries several men over the course of multiple centuries, but after seeing so many of her husbands and friends die she becomes a Buddhist monk. Then she travels the land helping others and planting camellia trees before eventually she perishes in a cave at 800 years old.

Some fun similarities to the story of TBHK are that a girl eats part of a mermaid, said girl lives EIGHT hundred years while Yashiro's last name infamously contains the kanji character for 8, and that the girl in the story is connected to the camellia, a commonly recurring flower in TBHK and one heavily associated with Hanako/Amane in particular. Indeed, when you examine all of this together, it's hard to imagine that AidaIro wasn't a bit inspired by this story.

To answer your question, I think it's possible that things could end up like you say. But just eating the flesh is what made the girl from Yao Bikuni immortal, while all eating a scale did for Nene was give her the ability to turn into a fish and bind her destiny to Hanako's. Optimistically we could take this to mean Nene will be saved from her premature death and that somehow, the Mermaid's Curse means that Hanako can't leave her and they get to live happily ever after...but considering the story of TBHK already contains several differences from Yao Bikuni, I wouldn't be surprised if things take a darker turn.

On the other hand, Yao Bikuni is still quite tragic since the girl has to watch all of her friends and family die while she stays forever young, not so dissimilar from a ghost...so maybe cursing Nene to such a fate is still somewhat dark in itself. Considering Hanako also ate the scale of a ningyo, though, maybe he would be her sole companion? That would be more bearable. :)

Thank you for the ask! I actually didn't know about this story beforehand and had fun picking it apart. Maybe you guys have other theories of what could happen based on the Yao Bikuni story?

[coolest-capybara]

This week, the Maniculum Bestiaryposting Challenge is structured a bit differently: We get a collection of Miscellaneous Birds!

I didn't include all 16 birds in my drawing, instead we have clockwise, from the top right:

The Hurrashbeg (top right)

Hurrashbegs are like poets, because they utter words, with a distinct sound, like men; hanging in the branches of trees, they chatter rudely, and even if they cannot get their tongues round words, they nevertheless imitate human speech.

My interpretation of it is based on the mockingbird.

2. Wahrembeag (small bird flying downwards)

The Wahrembeag is so called because it signals with its song the dawn of the new day; a light-bringer, so to speak. It is an ever-watchful sentinel, warming its eggs in a hollow of its body, relieving the sleepless effort of the long night with the sweetness of its song. It seems to me that the main aim of the bird is to hatch its eggs and give life to its young with sweet music no less than with the warmth of its body.

Based on the sweet music and singing in the morning, I chose a sparrow.

3. Hreakgleav (middle right, sitting on the branch)

Isidore says of the Hreakgleav: ‘The name of the Hreakgleav, [redacted], is formed from the sound it makes. It is a bird associated with the dead, weighed down, indeed, with its plumage, but forever hindered, too, by the weight of its slothfulness. It lives day and night around burial places and is always found in caves.' It is said to be a filthy bird, because it fouls its nest with its droppings, as the sinner dishonours those with whom he lives, by the example of his evil ways. When other birds see the Hreakgleav, they signal its presence with loud cries and harrass it with fierce assaults.

Adapted to live in caves and active at night (which could make it seem lazy to diurnal bestiary authors), and associated with evil and death - all of these made me choose the oilbird ( "In Trinidad it was sometimes called diablotin (French for 'little devil'), presumably referring to its loud cries, which have been likened to those of tortured men. The common name oilbird comes from the fact that in the past chicks were captured and boiled down in order to make oil").

4. Klethghrom (bottom right)

The Klethghrom gets its name, [redacted], from the sound of its cry. Its flesh is so hard that it hardly decays and it cannot easily be cooked. A certain poet said of it: ‘You are lost in admiration, whenever it spreads its jewelled wings; can you consign it, hard-hearted woman, to the unfeeling cook?' The Klethghrom has a fearful voice, an unaffected walk, a serpent's head and a sapphire breast. It also has on its wings feathers tinged with red. In addition, it has a long tail, covered with what I might call ‘eyes'.

The serpent's head was what convinced me to draw this one.

5. Zagsmenrok (bottom right near the center)

Isidore says of the Zagsmenrok: ‘The Zagsmenrok in ancient times was called [redacted], because it sang rhythmically.' Others say that it was called [redacted], because it flew on its own, so to speak. Although it is black wherever it is found, there is a white species in Achaia. The Zagsmenrok is small but black.

Small and black and one of my favorite birds: The common swift!

6. Tluftasong (bottom center behind the tree trunk)

The Tluftasong is a bird that loves the darkness of the night. It lives in decaying walls because it sets up house in the ruins of roofless dwellings. It shuns the light, flying at night in search of food. [...] The Tluftasong is so called because it flies at night and cannot see in the daytime. For its sight is dimmed by brightness of the sun when it has risen. The Tluftasong is not the same as the owl, which is bigger.

Based on the Indian scops owl, mostly because it's a small and adorable owl.

7. Hrongnewit (bottom left towards center)

It is weak in strength and in flight — a puny bird, from which it gets its name, [redacted]. It is, however, a bird of prey, always preying on domestic birds. It constantly hovers around kitchens and meat-markets so that if pieces of raw meat are thrown out from them, it can seize them quickly. The Hrongnewit is timid in big matters, bold in small. It dares not seize wild birds but customarily preys on domestic ones. It lies in wait to seize their young and when it encounters unwary youngsters, it kills them quickly.

American kestrel, because they are tiny and adorable, but look fierce.

8. Lokfotreag (bottom left)

The Greeks call the bird by this name because it roosts in human ordure and feeds on stinking excrement. The filthiest of birds, it is capped with a prominent crest. It lives in burial places amid human ordure. If you rub yourself with its blood on your way to bed, you will have nightmares about demons suffocating you. Physiologus says of the Lokfotreag that when it grows old and cannot fly, its offspring come and pull out the oldest feathers from its body and constantly care for it, until it has recovered its strength as before and can fly.

A black vulture (because of all the cultural associations) with fancy hair (the prominent crest).

9. Wobrahfmet (middle left)

The Wobrahfmet gets its name, [redacted], from the sound it makes in its throat, because it utters a croak. It is said that when its young have been hatched, this bird does not feed them fully until it sees that they have black feathers similar to its own. But after it has seen that they are of dark plumage, and has recognised them as of its own species, it feeds them more generously. When this bird feeds off corpses, it goes for the eyes first.

Croakiness, associated with eating corpses, black feathers - this one is based on a hooded crow.

10. Konchilkuk (top left)

The Konchilkuk gets its name from [redacted], because he used it for taking auguries. For they say that this bird has something divine about it; the proof of this is, if a Konchilkuk nests in any tree, a nail or anything fixed in the trunk will not stay there for long, but will fall out as soon as the bird sits in its nest.

A king vulture, because vultures are associated with augury, and because it is definitely an awe-inspiring bird.

[lokiinmediasideblog]

I Intentionally Start Shit in the Loki Tag

If you complain about Sylvie being "harmful queer rep" BUT want "Lady Loki" in the MCU, which was Loki possessing Sif's body just to torment Sif, I need you to sit down and shut up. a. Genderfluid people don't go by "Lady " when they're femme or women. b. If you don't see the transphobic dogwhistles in the comics possession subplot, I don't know what to tell you... But let's say that hag that wrote those crappy books would love it. c. If you weren't aware about this, maybe you should read the wiki at least before giving uninformed opinions.

I definitely agree that they should not have led people on with the promise of genderfluid rep during the promotion of the series. But get mad at Disney/Marvel for that. Not at the writers or Sophia Di Martino that had to cave in to Feige's demands. That's literally what they have to do.

I really don't give a damn about the "autogynephilia" allegations, which again, is ALSO PRESENT IN CIS WOMEN. Like why the fuck should I care about someone finding themselves hot? There's fascists out there. AGP even if it was a trans-specific thing harms no one. The only harm said to come from it is DUE TO FASCISM because it plays into RESPECTABILITY POLITICS.

If you use AI to create a "proper" Lady Loki or love interest for Loki, you can't complain about the blatant product placement in S2. I am not a fan of product placement either and won't defend it, but those are the rules. Show some integrity. And before you ask, I have not given a cent to Disney since they pissed me off with attempts to trademark Dia de los Muertos for Coco.

If you complain about how being a "Loki" is not a role (unlike Spiderman) and how it should have been all 100% Tom Hiddleston, you don't get to call it selfcest as a gotcha, because you're already differentiating between the variants with different DNA. Like do y'all hate selfcest or not? Make up your mind. The series treats a Loki as an archetype of sorts, so it can be a role. Also, having the same name does not make you related because we don't know what Sylvie's parents are? And we don't even know if Sylvie is also a Jotun, a prop claims she isn't.

If you say you want Sylvie dead but claim to not be misogynistic, because you'd love if a specific love interest from the comics or mythology replaced her, STFU. You only like those because you can project whatever the fuck you want onto them.

If you claim Sylvie is a misogynistic depiction of women but salivate over characters written by cishet white men in the 1960s-1980s that made wanting to fuck Thor or being in a monogamous marriage with Loki their entire personality (there's so MANY OF THESE), STFU. Do you hear yourself? And no, it's not misogynistic of me, a woman, to criticize offensive depictions of women by cishet white men. They're not real.

Our MCU!Loki is not the young adult Ikol reincarnation currently. Of course 20-something Verity is not going to be there! The Loki show should be praise for having multiple female cast members around the same age as the protagonist and pragmatic clothing choices that allowed SdM to nurse her baby.

Selfcest isn't real and I cry tears of boredom whenever someone clutches their pearls over it.

The comics aren't perfect. As much as I loved the recent Dan Watters run (and German Peralta's art), the comics art has some very questionable tendencies, especially regarding Loki's nose when she's femme. It's associated with how some kinds of facial features are considered masculine or feminine (and racialized). Noses have no gender, ffs! Women with nose bumps exist! For some reason Loki always has a tiny button nose when she's a woman or femme. There's also the BLATANT physiognomy that has ALWAYS PLAGUED Thor comics since their inception, and Loki's facial features as they've become more "grey" and less evil is an interesting study. Peralta's far from being the only artist with this problem, and is far from being the most problematic. For comparison from Loki (2023) run:

Loki from ye olden days:

[womenaremypriority]

Seeing young kids on Tumblr and Tiktok who very obviously conflate femininity with the word women, or the word masculinity with men, is so heartbreaking. Kids saying they never got femininity so they must be nonbinary or a man, kids defining the words men and women by ‘vibes’ kids calling any cool outfit as ‘gender envy’ or implying gender is somehow based on personality and interests. It’s just really sad. The existence of transgender people who don’t take steps to pass, or trans people denouncing gender stereotypes, does not change that their movement has reintroduced sex stereotypes. Conservatism and traditional gender roles never disappeared, not at all, but that doesn’t change that they’ve been revitalized in the younger generation by people who call themselves progressive. Yes, it is “just the internet”, but they are real people, who did not get their opinions in a vacuum. Tiktok is a major source of information for a large part of Gen-Z. And there are hundreds of videos with thousands of likes that parrot this. And there are real children, who think they’re not a man or a woman just because they like dressing a certain way. And see gender (which they conflate with sex) as clothes, and hair, and personality, and interests. I remember seeing someone ask “just curious, what keeps you a woman?” On the video of a GNC lesbian. And yeah. Why would you choose to be a women? Why would you choose to be the ones denied the vote? The one who barely exist in your history textbook or in classical novels, except o occasionally as a sex object? Why would you choose proudly to be associated with women, in a world and community where ‘cis’ people are viewed as boring, where people make their interests part of their gender, or where people use they/them pronouns because they’ve never felt feminine. What are you supposed to think? And every time someone caves, the pressure on GNC boys and girls rises, every time the definition of men becomes more related to masculinity, and the definition of women becomes more related to femininity. And no amount of denying will deny this. If gender is a personality, and expression, and a vibe, and a choice, what does that say about the people called women?

[infinitelystrangemachinex]

13, 14, 26, and 33

13. A naturally sheltered place

Deep underneath Illuvitas and Elenghul is a network of caves and tunnels where the most unfortunate of the Wanwathin live - protected, certainly, but unfortunate, since hiding from the very sky is viewed as both barbaric and an act of utter cowardice. Though Manjee was very young when she and her mother emerged aboveground to seek better lives in Illuvitas, she can still remember the quiet of the caves punctuated only by a strange, sweet music she could sometimes hear in her loneliest moments.

14. A building considered a refuge against the world

Illuvitas has cradles built all over the city which are now used like chapels, but whose primary purpose used to be for the yearly long sleep, where families and communities would bunk down and hibernate for the winter. Since no one has been able to enter a long sleep for decades, this use for the cradles is quickly passing out of generational memory, except that there are still a lot of songs and stories - usually romantic ones - detailing social conventions and exceptions around who did or didn't rest in the same cradle as someone else, or the feelings of separation young lovers experienced during a winter they spent apart, or when they resisted the long sleep long enough to try and have the city to themselves while the rest of their community slept. Cradles built for the upper echelons of the Wanwathin have trees growing in them with glass ceilings that show the night sky, replicating older ways of living before Illuvitas was built.

26. Slang or a language associated with a religion or belief

Since the development of their organized religion and their transition to calling themselves the astrolatic faithful, the Wanwathin have personified various astral bodies in their view of the cosmos and named them deities, but deities who won't take the Wanwathin as their own, since the people are still forsaken. Though there's increasing pushback against this view of the world because of a growing interest in explaining the world with science, some of the old curses still stick - "And so the laughing wolf smiled" is among the more archaic, referring to a trickster deity who was created to explain why the long sleep started becoming more scarce hundreds of years ago. It used to be said that this so-called laughing wolf roamed the caldera when it dried up, a rogue star taken physical form, and the long sleep couldn't come until it was pierced through the throat. So long as the laughing wolf lives on to smile, the long sleep will remain out of reach, and it is implied, the Wanwathin's eternal exile will also continue. A certain cult developed many years ago that believed that the wolf moved among the Wanwathin in the form of a person, and every now and then throughout the people's history, a witch hunt is recorded where people were killed in an attempt to root out the trickster.

33. A profession that is considered dirty

Any job that involves the ground, but especially being UNDERground, is considered low and dirty, which includes mining, excavating, and more. These jobs are usually left up to horned Wanwathin, but they have their own beliefs about people who dig or work with the ground, such as men and women who were born from moving lava, or people who were struck by the volcanic lightning that makes much of the Wanwathin's glass and lived.

Worldbuilding asks

[wisdomrays]

REFLECTIONS ON THE QUR'AN: Sūratu’l-Kahf (The Cave): Part 2

It is We who relate to you their (the People of the Cave’s) exemplary story with truth. They were young men who believed in their Lord, and We increased them in guidance (so they adhered to the truth more faithfully). And We strengthened their hearts, (and a time came) when they rose up (against association of partners with God and other injustices in the society), and they proclaimed: “Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, and we never invoke any deity apart from Him; if we did so, we would certainly have uttered an enormity (a monstrous unbelief).” (Al-Kahf 18:13��14)

The noun phrase of Ashābu’l-Kahf used in the verse means “the People of the Cave” or “the Companions of the Cave.” Whether they are considered to be followers of Jesus and the Gospel, or any other Prophet and Book, based on their mention in the Qur’ān, we can say that they are a group of people or community who represent all the movements of revival until the end of time. Every movement of revival inevitably suffers and has suffered oppression and persecution so that a period of concealment or remaining in a cave has been necessary.

As for the number of “the People of the Cave” mentioned in the Qur’ān, the Qur’ān refuses the claims that they were three, describes the claims that they were five as “guessing at random at the Unseen.” However, it does not criticize but remains silent as to the claims that “they were seven, and their dog being the eighth.”[1] Therefore, most of the commentators agree that they were seven, which the style of the Qur’ān also suggests. There is another fine point in the verse regarding their number: after stating that the number of the People was “seven,” it adds, “and their dog being the eighth.” The use of “and” (wa) indicates that human beings and dogs cannot be added together. The dog is not of the People of the Cave but accompanies them. This implies that as reported from the Prophet, even if their dog enters Paradise with the People of the Cave, the people will enter Paradise with their human characteristics and horizon and that dog accompanying them into the cave will enter it with its own distinguishing characteristics.

Now let us study the verse under discussion: God Almighty states, “It is We who relate to you their exemplary story with truth. They were young men who believed in their Lord, and We increased them in guidance (so they adhered to the truth more faithfully).” They were a group of virtuous “young men who believed in their Lord” sincerely. They were courageous in heart, mind, and acts and in rebellion against falsehood. Despite their being few in number, since they had a sublime aim for the sake of which they started a movement of right guidance, God Almighty “increased them in guidance” out of His Mercy. They followed this guidance of their own free will, and He made them a firm community of brave young men who strove for sincere servanthood to God and rebelled against all evil and falsehood. As stated in the verse, “We strengthened their hearts,” God made their hearts firmer and stronger with His special favor and support. Thus, they remained firm in their mission in proportion to the profundity of their intention. They were supported by God sometimes visibly, and this added to their conviction and satisfaction.

The word ribāt, which is mentioned in the statement “warabatnā ‘alā qulūbihim” in the verse under discussion means connection with God. Always seeing Him, listening to and heeding Him, feeling Him, awareness of His Power, and always seeking Him are all included in the concept of ribāt. In one of his hadīths, God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, mentions taking ablution under hard conditions, preferring to perform the Prayer in distant mosques and therefore taking more steps towards them, and waiting for the next Prayer after performing the previous one, and then adds, “This is ribāt” three times.[2] Indeed, this is being ever watchful of the servitude to God and thus being in contact with God to the degree one keeps watch against the enemy attacks. This is because ribāt also means the fortification or post on the frontier. Consequently, the statement, “warabatnā ‘alā qulūbihim” means, “We supported and strengthened their hearts with their connection to Us.” Certainly, those who attained such connection with God would be truthloving, faithful, brave, and indifferent to any danger and threat.

These faithful people “rose up” against association of partners with God and other injustices in the society. It is known that the concept of uprising or revolt entered world literature with such philosophers as Sartre, Camus, and Marcuse. However, their revolt was against the customs and traditions of a society and its religious conceptions and values that they regarded as ridiculous. However, the uprising of the People of the Cave was not so. They rose up declaring, “Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth,” and showed the alternative formation and construction. In other words, what they did was not an act of destruction and radical annihilation as existentialists suggested, rather, it was an act of building and reformation in connection with God. Having believed it is God Who has created the heavens and the earth and Who has absolute power and control over everything—administering the entire existence with such an ease as turning the beads of a rosary, they rose up with an alternative movement of renewal and reconstruction. They proclaimed their objection, saying, “We never invoke any deity apart from Him,” and started a sacred process, declaring: “if we did so, we would certainly have uttered an enormity (a monstrous unbelief).” Therefore:

1. It is not possible for us to think that their departure from society and taking shelter in the cave as a flight. Indeed, their departure was never like the departure of cowards; rather, it was like the departure of ‘Umar from Makkah, who challenged near the Ka‘bah: “I am migrating to Madīnah! Whoever wants to leave their wives widows and their kids orphans can come after me (to prevent me)!” In fact, what the People of the Cave did was apparently a flight, but theirs was a flight towards and taking refuge in God, as stated in the Qur’ān: “So, flee to (refuge in) God” (Adh-Dhāriyāt 51:50).

2. Such an uprising and ensuing disappearance caused their ideals and beliefs to be reflected in their community over time. This brave and sincere declaration and uprising changed many minds and softened many hearts. Like a seed sown under earth, the ideals, beliefs, and actions of these brave men were conveyed from mouth to mouth and from heart to hearts and came to be adopted by the community. Then, they grew and embraced almost all people, like buds that open and young shoots that grow into stalks of grain when their time has come.

3. According to certain reports, the People of the Cave belonged to the Roman royal families. It was hard to believe that one would leave the comfort and ease in the palace and enter upon a way that the king and the whole community rejected. Therefore, the attitude and action of the People of the Cave certainly attracted the attention of the community, and their sacrifices for the sake of the true Religion shocked their community. Hence, everyone’s attention was directed to the message that the People of the Cave represented and conveyed.

4. If the People of the Cave entered the cave with the intention of waiting for the conditions to change and thus be appropriate for the practice and communication of their message, they must have had the reward of 300 or 310 years of worship. It should also be considered that the sincerity and profundity of the intention add to the reward. For instance, if a tired person sleeps before performing the Night Prayer (‘ishā’) with the intention to wake up in the middle of the night and perform the Prayer peacefully in better conditions, this sleep may be regarded as worship. Therefore, the People of the Cave must have taken refuge in the cave with the intention of waiting for the change of the conditions in favor of their message. If you prefer the hard stones of the cave to the soft beds of the palace; consent to the dry bread in the cave, leaving the comfortable life behind; and instead of having a group of men and women standing before you to fulfill your desires and carry out your orders, agree with the friendship of a dog, will you not expect such reward to be added to your record of deeds? So undoubtedly, God must have added to their records of deeds the reward for their sincere intention.

5. A cave is indeed a place where believers are charged with spiritual, intellectual, and metaphysical energy and discover their essence. For it can be possible only through a Prophetic power and determination to strive against unbelief, shake it at a time when there is no balance of power, and defeat it in the end. Consider the life of Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings. Did he not remain in a cave for six months before his Messengership? All of those who have followed him and struggled against unbelief or heresy in his footsteps have spent a certain length of time in a cave. For instance, Imām al-Ghazālī, Imām ar-Rabbānī, Mawlāna Khālid al-Baghdādī, and Bediüzzaman Said Nursi spent a part of their lives in a cave to be charged with metaphysical energy to struggle against heresy, discover their very essence, and attain intellectual and spiritual maturity. While our Prophet was in seclusion in a cave for six months, there are saints and pure, saintly scholars nearstationed to God who have remained in caves for five or ten or even as long as sixty years.

The same reality also applies to communities that reconstruct history or give it a new direction and show humanity their essence once more. Indeed, it is possible to see a period of cave dwelling in the lives of almost all those communities that represent the spirit of futuwwah (youth and chivalry).

Truly, one needs a period of cave dwelling or seclusion in order to receive Divine inspirations and become receptive to heavenly favors.

Once the necessary messages and lessons are taken from the experience of the People of the Cave, engaging in the discussions about the unimportant issues such as the place of the Cave, the identity of the tyrannical emperor or governor who forced them to leave their town, and the time and the place where this event occurred, about which the Qur’ān and the Sunnah keep silent, means, according to the Qur’ān, “guessing at random at the Unseen” for only a crumb of information for the carnal, evilcommanding soul that is of no use for the spirit, faith, knowledge of God, love of God, or spiritual pleasure.

Our Lord! Grant us mercy from Your Presence and arrange for us in our affair what is right and good! And bestow blessings on our master Muhammad and on his Family and Companions until eternity!

[gemsofgreece]

Christos Davelis

The Brigand Captain

Christos Davelis, who is mostly known as Λήσταρχος Νταβέλης (Lístarchos Davélis, Brigand Captain Davelis) in Greece, was a notorious bandit who was active in the regions of Attica and Boeotia in the mids of the 19th century. Although he died young, his life reminds of fictional literature, so much that he became a folk hero of sorts in the collective Greek memory, despite not really possessing heroic virtues.

His real name was Christos Natsios. His birthplace is not certain but it is believed he had some Arvanite-Vlach descent. Christos was initially a shepherd, just like most of his family. He took care of the flocks of a monastery in Mt Penteli. Someday, the abbot approached him and asked him to deliver a letter to a nun in Athens in full secrecy. Overcome with curiosity, Christos gave the letter to someone who could read it for him instead, as he was illiterate. Learning of the letter's contents, he decided to meet that nun himself and he became a frequent visitor of hers. The abbot found out and accused him of robbery. Christos was whipped and exiled to Euboea island.

There he fell in love with the daughter of a priest (he did appreciate the religious vibe apparently), although she was already betrothed to a prosperous shepherd. The shepherd seeked revenge and led Christos Natsios to the authorities claiming he was a deserter they were after, called Nastos. Christos failed to convince them his surname was different. He managed to flee though and he escaped to the mountains, under the alias Davelis.

There he joined the bandit gang of his uncle and soon he created his own, with which he was robbing travellers, shepherds and farmers who lived in Attica, Boeotia, Phthiotis and Euboea. One of his most notorious operations was the kidnapping of the French officer Berteau, who had come to Greece in order to convince the Greek government to not participate in the Crimean War by Russia's side (and against the Ottomans). This operation proved to be his most prolific as the Greek state paid him 30,000 drachmas in gold (an outrageous amount of money back then) to let the French man free.

His reputation grew bigger in 1855 when his gang was active near Marathon and Davelis used the Cave of Penteli as his lair. This cave is still said to have a haunting vibe about it and it is sometimes associated with stories of supernatural incidents.

The Cave of Davelis.

The most famous and decisive point in his life though was his affair with the Italian duchess Luisa Bacoli, who asked the gang's protection in order to visit Delphi safely. Davelis' right hand, Yannis Megas, fell in love with her and went mad when Bacoli responded to Davelis' advances instead. He left the gang, denounced his former lifestyle and joined the police, determined to hunt Davelis down.

This was not even the only duchess seduced by Davelis charms' who was said to have a soft and delicate face, despite his reputation and lifestyle. According to folklore, he also had an affair with the Duchess of Plaisance, Sophie de Marbois-Lebru and there was a tunnel connecting his cave all the way to her villa in Athens.

Sophie de Marbois-Lebrun, Duchess of Plaisance

Another legend was that Davelis often disguised himself and casually visited Athens, where he conversed in coffee shops with the locals.

Folk art of Davelis.

The police was humiliated often by Davelis , once being surprised by his gang in Menidi and being forced to hand him their weapons. This made the police (and Megas) even more determined to catch him. This finally happened in the summer of 1856, in a proper combat between Davelis' gang and the policemen. Seeing many of his men fall, Davelis offered to fight Megas in a one-to-one duel. Megas leaped furiously at him with a sword but Davelis managed to kill him first, using a gun. His victory didn't last. A policeman killed him with his sword, while Davelis was crying "ούτε ο Νταβέλης στα βουνά ούτε ο Μέγας στα παλάτια" (úte o Davélis sta vuná úte o Méghas sta palátia = "neither Davelis in the mountains nor Megas in the palaces"). His head was put on a stick and left in common view in Syntagma Square in Athens for several days, in the summer of 1856. The head is now kept in the Museum of Criminology in Athens but the access to it is restricted.

The Greek painter Nikephoros Lytras, just passing by, took a photograph of his head, and later took it to Munich where he would be working for a while. While there, he became friends with the German painter Gabriel Cornelius Von Max.

One day when the German artist was in Lytras’s studio rummaging through his files, he came across the portrait of Davelis’ head. He asked Lytras about the identity of his model: “He was the most terrible thief that Greece has ever known, a ruthless, ferocious man” – “And yet,” Von Max countered, “in this picture, I can see that this man met God at the moment of his death. You have the portrait there of a saint; a great saint.”

Lytras thought that Von Max was obviously deranged. “Since he interests you so much, the portrait is my gift to you.” Von Max took away the portrait and used it to paint his most famous work: ‘The Veil of Veronica’; reproduced millions of times.

Sources: x, x

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

11th July >> Fr. Martin's Reflections / Homilies on the Mass Readings for the:

Feast of St Benedict, Abbot, Patron of Europe  (Inc. Matthew 19:27-29)

and for

Thursday, Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Matthew 10:7-15)

Feast of St Benedict, Abbot, Patron of Europe

Gospel (Except USA) Matthew 19:27-29 They will be repaid a hundred times over and inherit eternal life.

Peter spoke to Jesus. ‘What about us?’ he said. ‘We have left everything and followed you. What are we to have, then?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I tell you solemnly, when all is made new and the Son of Man sits on his throne of glory, you will yourselves sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land for the sake of my name will be repaid a hundred times over, and also inherit eternal life.’

Gospel (USA) Matthew 19:27-29 You who have followed me will receive a hundred times more.

Peter said to Jesus, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life.”

Reflections (5)

(i) St Benedict, Abbot, Patron of Europe

Benedict was born of a distinguished family and was educated in Rome. He abandoned his studies and his inheritance and he devoted himself to the quest for God. This initially took the form of a period of solitude in a cave at Subiaco just to the east of Rome. His solitude was interrupted by those who were drawn to his way of life and wanted to gather around him. Much against his will, he organized these followers into a group of monasteries and he himself took leadership of one of those monasteries, Monte Casino, which is now considered the birthplace of the Benedictine order. There he wrote his Monastic Rule which set a standard for the future Western Monastic tradition. His rule was marked by moderation, balance and humanity. Community was a key feature of his monastic vision and he stressed the value of community life as a school for holiness. He saw the community as a place of equality where each person was helped by everyone else along the path of holiness. The monk’s primary occupation was liturgical prayer, complemented by the reading of the Scriptures and manual work of various kinds. He was made patron of Europe in 1964. In the words of the gospel reading, Benedict left everything as a young man. Yet, in leaving everything he gained that new family which the gospel reading refers to. Indeed he gained a family of families, a great multitude of monastic families or communities, linked together by his spirit and his rule. He is a living example of that image of the grain of wheat which when planted in the ground dies but in dying bears much fruit. Whenever we give generously, we invariably receive more than we give. Our giving, our dying, creates a space for the Lord to work in a life-giving way in us and through us.

And/Or

(ii) St Benedict, Abbot, Patron of Europe              

Today’s gospel reading for the feast of Saint Benedict begins with a question from Peter, ‘What about us? We have left everything and followed you’. Peter and the other members of the twelve had given up a great deal to become followers of Jesus. They may have been wondering if it was really worth it all. We too have responded to the Lord’s call, although not in the same very radical way that those intimate associates of Jesus or men like Benedict answered the Lord’s call, leaving livelihood and family for a very uncertain future. Perhaps on our off days we might be tempted to ask a similar question to that of Peter; ‘Is it worth the effort, this following of Jesus, this struggle to live by the values of the gospel day in and day out’. The answer of Jesus to Peter and to us all is that, ‘yes, it is worth the effort’. Jesus promises us in that gospel reading that when we respond to his call, when we give of ourselves for his sake, we will receive far more than we will give. In particular, he says that we will gain a new experience of family, far beyond the confines of our blood family, the family of believers. We will find ourselves co-travellers with others who are trying to take the same path as ourselves; we will experience the richness of the church, the community of the Lord’s followers. That community who journey with us embraces not only those still on their pilgrim way, but all who have passed beyond this life, including the saints, like Saint Benedict, what the letter to the Hebrew calls that ‘great cloud of witnesses’.

And/Or

(iii) St Benedict, Abbot, Patron of Europe

Benedict was born of a distinguished family and was educated in Rome. He abandoned his studies and his inheritance and he devoted himself to the quest for God. This initially took the form of a period of solitude in a cave at Subiaco just to the east of Rome. His solitude was interrupted by those who were drawn to his way of life and wanted to gather around him. Much against his will, he organized these followers into a group of monasteries and he himself took leadership of one of those monasteries, Monte Casino, which is now considered the birthplace of the Benedictine order. There he wrote his Monastic Rule which set a standard for the future Western Monastic tradition. His rule was marked by moderation, balance and humanity. Community was a key feature of his monastic vision and he stressed the value of community life as a school for holiness. He saw the community as a place of equality where each person was helped by everyone else along the path of holiness. The monk’s primary occupation was liturgical prayer, complemented by the reading of the Scriptures and manual work of various kinds. He was made patron of Europe in 1964. Peter’s question to Jesus in today’s gospel reading, ‘What are we to have then?’ has a somewhat self-regarding tone. It is a very human and honest question from one who, as he says, ‘left everything’ to follow Jesus. Peter went on to give everything, to lay down his life, for Jesus. Peter’s question is one we can all be tempted to ask as followers of Jesus. ‘If I am to take this difficult path, what is in it for me?’ Saints like Benedict prompt us to move away from such questions. He gave to the Lord and to others without regard for personal gain. As a result of such a generous spirit, in the words of the gospel reading, he was ‘repaid a hundred times over’ with communities of work and prayer that helped to renew the church of the time and ever since, and he also inherited ‘eternal life’. If we give generously to the Lord and to others, without calculating the likely benefits to ourselves, we too will be ‘repaid a hundred times over, and also inherit eternal life’.

And/Or

(iv) Feast of Saint Benedict, Abbot

Benedict was born in Norcia (480) about 80 kilometres south east of Assisi and was educated in Rome. He abandoned his studies and his inheritance and he devoted himself to the search for God. This initially took the form of a period of solitude in a cave at Subiaco just to the east of Rome. His fame spread and, very soon, people began to join him who were drawn to his way of life. Much against his will, he organized his growing number of followers into a group of twelve monasteries. He himself moved to a place called Montecassino, where he founded his famous monastery. There he wrote his Monastic Rule, drawing on the monastic wisdom of the Christian East, as well as earlier Western monastic rules and his own experience and practical wisdom. His rule was marked by moderation, balance and humanity. The monk’s primary occupation was liturgical prayer, complemented by the reading of the Scriptures and manual work of various kinds. He was made patron of Europe in 1964 by Pope Paul VI because of his influence in the formation of the Christian ethos of Europe. According to today’s first reading from the Book of Proverbs, if we take the Lord’s words to heart, then we ‘will understand… all paths that lead to happiness’. Benedict recognized that our hearts were made for the Lord and it is in seeking the Lord and trying to live by his word that we will find the path that leads to happiness in this life and the next. In the gospel reading, Peter asked Jesus whether all that was involved in following Jesus was worth it, ‘What are we to have, then?’ Jesus assures him that those who are prepared to renounce themselves to follow in his way will receive a hundred times over in this life and inherit eternal life. Only a small number of us will be called to the kind of life Benedict and his followers embraced, but we can all seek the Lord with all our heart and strive to walk in his way in the midst of our daily lives. If we do so, we too will find the paths that lead to happiness. The Lord will always give us more than we give him. That is why the psalm can call on us to ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’.

And/Or

(v) Feast of Saint Benedict, Abbot

‘The first monks in Italy and Gaul followed Eastern models and rules, which were usually marked by extreme austerity. It was Saint Benedict who adopted monasticism to European needs, and laid the foundations of the great monastic system which bears his name. Benedict was born in Norcia in Italy about the year 480, and as a youth studied in Rome. Disliking the licentiousness of the city, and feeling that he had a special call from God, he retired to a cave at Subiaco, about forty miles south of Rome. He lived there for three years. His manner of life attracted followers, and this led to the establishment of a monastery at Subiaco, which still exists. Later, probably in 528 or 529, he went further south and built the great abbey of Monte Cassino in the central Apennines. He remained there until his death in 547, and it is there that he drew up his famous Rule for Monks’ (Website of Mount St Joseph’s Abbey, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, Ireland). Saint Benedict taught his monks the value of the common life. They would often pray alone, but they would also pray and work together and show hospitality to visitors. Having left their families and home, the monks discovered a new family, the community of their brother monks. In response to Peter’s question in the gospel reading, ‘What about us? We have left everything to follow you. What are we to have then?’ Jesus promises his disciples that everyone who has left home and family for his sake will be repaid a hundred times over. Most of us are not called to leave home and family for Jesus’ sake. Yet, there is always something we have to leave or let go of if we are to remain the Lord’s faithful followers. Jesus assures us that if we are prepared to take this path of letting go for his sake, we will always receive more from him than we have let go.

---------------------------------

Thursday, Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA) Matthew 10:7-15 You received without charge: give without charge.

Jesus instructed the Twelve as follows: ‘As you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. You received without charge, give without charge. Provide yourselves with no gold or silver, not even with a few coppers for your purses, with no haversack for the journey or spare tunic or footwear or a staff, for the workman deserves his keep. ‘Whatever town or village you go into, ask for someone trustworthy and stay with him until you leave. As you enter his house, salute it, and if the house deserves it, let your peace descend upon it; if it does not, let your peace come back to you. And if anyone does not welcome you or listen to what you have to say, as you walk out of the house or town shake the dust from your feet. I tell you solemnly, on the day of Judgement it will not go as hard with the land of Sodom and Gomorrah as with that town.’

Gospel (USA) Matthew 10:7-15 Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.

Jesus said to his Apostles: “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave. As you enter a house, wish it peace. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you. Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words – go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”

Reflections (6)

(i) Thursday, Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

This morning’s first reading from the prophet Hosea is surely one of the most beautiful readings in all of the Jewish Scriptures. God speaks of his relationship with his people Israel as loving parents would speak of their relationship with their child, indeed as a mother would. ‘I myself taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in my arms… I was like someone who lifts an infant close against his cheek; stooping down to him I gave him food’. Yet, in spite of such tender love, Israel turned away from God and went after other gods. Jesus is the fullest revelation possible in a human life of this tender love of God. He too experienced the turning away of people from this love, their refusal to respond to it in any meaningful way. When Jesus sends out his disciples in this morning’s gospel reading he warns them to expect the same. They are to proclaim the good news that the kingdom of God is at hand, the reign of God’s life-giving love, but they will encounter those who will not welcome them and will not listen to what they have to say. This negative response is not to deter them from their mission of proclaiming God’s loving presence by what they say and do. It certainly did not deter Jesus. When he suffered the ultimate rejection on the cross, he proclaimed the same good news as risen Lord to those who had turned away from him and rejected him. We are to reveal the loving presence of God, regardless of how we are received by others.

And/Or

(ii) Thursday, Fourteenth week in Ordinary Time

Jesus is the fullest revelation possible in a human life of God’s tender love. Yet, he experienced the turning away of people from this love, their refusal to respond to it in any meaningful way. When Jesus sends out his disciples in this morning’s gospel reading he warns them to expect the same. They are to proclaim the good news that the kingdom of God is at hand, that the reign of God’s life-giving love is present, but they will encounter those who will not welcome them and will not listen to what they have to say. Jesus insists that this negative response is not to deter them from their mission of proclaiming God’s loving presence by what they say and do. It certainly did not deter Jesus. Even as he suffered the ultimate rejection on the cross, he continued to proclaim the same good news of God’s unconditional love for all, even for those who were responsible for his crucifixion. We too are to reveal the loving presence of God, regardless of how we are received by others. As Jesus reminds us in today’s gospel reading, we have received without charge. God has graciously loved us in Christ even while we are sinners. In response, we are to give without charge; we are to pass on the love we have received without asking for anything in return.

And/Or

(iii) Thursday, Fourteenth week in Ordinary Time

In my earlier years as a priest I used to go along regularly to a charismatic renewal prayer meeting that took place every Tuesday night in the parish hall. The opening lines of one of the hymns that was regularly sung went, ‘Freely, freely, you have received; freely, freely give’. It was clearly inspired by a verse in today’s gospel reading, ‘You received without charge, give without charge’. These words were originally spoken to the twelve, as Jesus sent them out on mission. Yet, it is a saying of Jesus that continues to speak to believers today. The sequence of the sentence is important. Jesus’ statement, ‘you received’, comes before his call, ‘give’. There are times when we can reduce the gospel to the moral call to ‘give’. However, the call to give ceases to be gospel if isolated from the core of the gospel, ‘you received without charge’. God in Jesus has loved us and continues to love us unconditionally. God has bestowed his grace and favour upon us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and the sending of the Spirit, without looking for some payment from us in advance. The only response God asks us to make initially to this gift of his gracious love is to receive it. We open our hearts in our poverty to receive God’s unmerited love. Such receiving does not always come easy to us. We wonder ‘what have I done to deserve this?’ and we can struggle to live with the answer ‘nothing’. It is only in responding to the Lord’s call to receive than we can then go on to give as we have received, ‘without charge’.

And/Or

(iv) Thursday, Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

When Jesus sends out the Twelve to share in his mission in today’s gospel reading, it seems as if he is sending them out in a general state of unpreparedness. The usual resources that people would take with them for a long and demanding journey are being denied to them. From a human point of view, Jesus sending out his disciples almost devoid of the usual resources seems foolhardy. Jesus had a habit of speaking or behaving in an exaggerated way to make his point strongly. In sending out his disciples in such a vulnerable state, Jesus was teaching them not to be over reliant on their own human resources, but to rely on the Lord to provide for them. The value of self-reliance is an even stronger one today than it would have been in the much more communal culture of Jesus. We have been taught to leave nothing to chance. We must plan for every eventuality. Yet, when it comes to the work of the Lord in our time, we need to have a light hold on all our many resources and to allow room for the Lord himself to work. We can be so absorbed in the work of the Lord that we can side-line the Lord of the work. If we excessively provide for ourselves, including our work in the Lord’s service, we can forget that the Lord is the ultimate provider. Poverty of resources can sometimes allow the Lord to work more powerfully than he could if we had every eventuality covered in advance. The Lord is always inviting us to step out of the boat, trusting that he will not let us sink. As Saint Paul reminds us, the Lord’s power is often made perfect in weakness.

And/Or

(v) Thursday, Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

There is a very motherly image of God in today’s first reading from the prophet Hosea. Speaking through the prophet, God says to Israel, ‘I was like someone who lifts an infant close against his cheek; stooping down to him I have him his food’. It is language suggestive of a mother’s care for her infant child. The quality of God’s love is such that it needs to be expressed in the imagery of both motherly and fatherly love. The best of a father’s love and the best of a mother’s love gives us a glimpse into the nature of God’s love. Jesus was the fullest revelation of God’s love possible. He speak of his searching love as like that of a shepherd searching for his lost sheep and a woman searching for her lost coin. He speaks of the kingdom of God as like a farmer who sows a mustard seed in the soil and a woman who took yeast and mixed it in with three measures of flour. There is a male and female dimension to the kingdom of God. In the gospel reading, Jesus sends out the twelve to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God is close at hand. They are to give expression in their ministry to both dimensions of the kingdom of God; they are to reveal both God’s motherly and fatherly love. Such love will show itself especially in their care for the sick and vulnerable. The church needs to find new ways of expressing the male and female character of God and of God’s kingdom. It is only women and men working together in ministry who can begin to give adequate expression to the love of God spoken of by Hosea in our first reading.

And/Or

(vi) Thursday, Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

There is a very emotional scene in today’s first reading. Joseph learns from his brothers that his father Jacob, whom he had presumed to be dead, was in fact alive. When Joseph then revealed his true identity to his brothers, they were speechless when they discovered that the brother whom they had presumed dead, because they had thrown him into a pit, was alive and standing before them. Joseph’s brothers had good reason to think that he would now turn against them, as they had turned against him. However, Joseph realized that God had kept him alive for this very purpose, to preserve the lives of his brothers who were facing famine in Israel, ‘God sent me before you to preserve your lives’. Joseph recognized the purpose of God in all that had happened to him, including the terrifying experience of being left for dead by his brothers some years earlier. In retrospect he came to see that the Lord had been working through him all along. In the gospel reading, Jesus sends out the twelve on mission so that he can work through them for the benefit of others. They are to proclaim the same message Jesus proclaimed, ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand’, and he empowered them to do the same life-giving work he had been doing. The Lord wants to work through all of our lives. Sometimes, as in the case of Joseph, it is only looking back that we can see how the Lord was present in our lives, how he was working through our lives, even in those moments when, at the time, we thought he had abandoned us because life was so difficult. The Lord is with us always, working for our good and the good of others, even in those times when he seems to be absent. As Paul says in his letter to the Romans, ‘all things work together for good for those who love God’.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[thegrapeandthefig]

Thank you for answering about why you chose Thasos. You said you could do a whole post on the UPG and the inscription alone. No rush but when you have time I'd love to read it!

(This took me much longer to put together than I wish it had, my apologies for the wait. Fair warning to everybody who isn't the anon, this is a follow-up question to this post. I strongly recommend you read this preliminary post first for important context).

Let me start with the inscription, since it requires a bit of commentary. Here is my translation (from French to English; as it was published without the full ancient Greek text):

For you, an open-air temple, enclosing an altar, and its cradle of (grape)vine, O prince of the Maenads, a beautiful evergreen cave. That is, Dionysus Bakkheus, what Timokleides, son of Diphilos, founded; and for the initiated, a venerable oikos where to sing evohe, and the wave of the Naiads Nymphs with pure radiance; this is what with your grace, willing to mix the sweet nectar that pauses the worries of men has consecrated your priest, O blessed one; and you, in your turn, keep a physician in Thasos his homeland, keep him safe, you who always return young from year to year.

*the Greek term here is θυηπόλος which means “who performs sacrifices”, “priest” but also “diviner/soothsayer”. The French translators chose the term “minister”, and I’m choosing “priest” for simplicity’s sake, but while Timokleides was clearly the one performing the sacrifice that is linked to this dedication and this altar, but it’s impossible to say if he was a “Priest” from the term alone (as in city, temple-bound priest).

To give some background: This inscription was found in Thasos and dates back to the 1st century AD. It gives us information on the dedicant - Timokleides - who self-describes as a local doctor. The overall context, which is supported by other, more fragmentary, inscriptions from Thasos is that the island was the home to private dionysian associations (thiasoi, but not always) whose presence on the island span between the 1st century AD to the 3rd century. What hints at an associative context here is the mention of “the initiated”. The altar Timokleides was dedicating was both for his personal use and the use of the member of the association he was a part of.

But what made this inscription stand out to me isn’t the associative context. It was those first few lines: “For you, an open-air temple, enclosing an altar, and its cradle of (grape)vine, O prince of the Maenads, a beautiful evergreen cave.” and it is precisely this description that led researchers Jaccottet and Wyler to write a dedicated article about it. Before I start summarizing their analysis on the matter, let me explain where my UPG comes in the picture.

My UPG was specifically a very vivid (lucid) dream in which the setting corresponds to the description given, with emphasis on the words I’ve put in bold. If I were to choose a picture to illustrate it, I’d choose something like this:

Except it was denser, wider, taller and seemed endless. I can recall the yellow-green colour of a harsh sun hitting the leaves, very much like on the brightest parts of the picture above. He was there, mostly silent, if not for a sentence about a ring on his finger that was of a stone sharing the same hue of bright green.

So when I read that description, a good few months after having this UPG, it rang a massive bell, but as I said in my last post, I had no clue what to do of the information and let it simmer. And it also didn’t come to me to check the location the inscription was linked to at the time.

Then I found the article, titled ‘‘Le bel antre toujours vert’’ : une architecture éphémère, entre texte et imaginaire by Anne-Francoise Jaccottet & Stéphanie Wyler. It was impossible to miss, because ��un bel antre toujours vert” is the French translation to “a beautiful evergreen cave”. In this article, the authors focus on the ephemeral quality of certain altars, and especially the ones for Dionysus. They contextualise the important role of the idea of a cave in Dionysus’ myth (think the cave in which Semele gave birth, and then where the nymphs raised him.) They argue that the Ancients, in order to replicate the mythical idea of the verdant cave of Nysa and to link themselves with the Dionysian retinue (maenads and satyrs), have found architectural alternatives to create a vegetal “cave”, which has taken various forms throughout the centuries.

Now, concerning the Thasian inscription in particular, the authors come to a very similar conclusion to the one I ended up with through my UPG:

“Si ce temple en question n'a pas de toit en dur, le feuillage vert de la vigne se charge de lui en fournir un dont la nature sied particulièrement au dieu que l'on y compte honorer, Dionysos, dieu de la vigne et du lierre. Que cette structure, couverte de l'entrelacs des pampres, comme une tonnelle, soit reprise dans la dédicace par les termes d'"antre toujours vert" ne saurait dès lors paraître incongru. La verdure de la couverture végétale du temple fait écho au qualitatif aeithales, alors que la forme extérieure de l'ensemble, structure bâtie pour sa base et couverture de pampres, se conçoit assez naturellement comme une métaphore de l'antre.”

“If the temple in question does not have a hard roof, the green foliage of the vine provides it with one, the nature of which is particularly suited to the god it is intended to honour, Dionysus, god of the vine and ivy. The fact that this structure, covered with the interlacing of vine branches, like an arbour, is referred to in the dedication as an "evergreen cave" cannot therefore seem incongruous. The greenness of the temple's plant cover echoes the qualitative of aeithales*, while the external shape of the whole, a structure built for its base and covered with vine branches, is quite naturally conceived as a metaphor for the cave.” *ἀειθαλής = evergreen

The article itself is a call for historians to revisit the existing archaeological evidence with the knowledge of the existence of this type of structure, which might have been hard to notice.

So there it is. The full explanation of how I lost my mind trying to make sense out of this mess. In hindsight, I am glad it all spanned over several months to get from the UPG to Jaccottet's thesis to the last article I summarized, because otherwise the overload would have been real. It's only after all this that I decided to dig deeper into Thasos as an island, which links back to what I described in the first ask you sent. I am typically wary when it comes to sharing UPG because it is intrinsicly subjective, but this is a case where I feel I have enough material outside of it to justify why this isolated inscription was the turning point in my (very) personal practice.

[holidays-events]

Lupercalia

Lupercalia as a pastoral festival of Ancient Rome observed annually on February 15 to purify the city, promoting health and fertility.Lupercalia was also known as dies Februatus, after the purification instruments called februa, the basis for the month named Februarius.

The festival was originally known as Februa ("Purifications" or "Purgings") after the februum which was used on the day. It was also known as Februatus and gave its name variously, as epithet to Juno Februalis, Februlis, or Februata in her role as patron deity of that month; to a supposed purification deity called Februus; and to February (mensis Februarius), the month during which the festival occurred. Ovid connects februare to an Etruscan word for "purging".

The name Lupercalia was believed in antiquity to evince some connection with the Ancient Greek festival of the Arcadian Lykaia, a wolf festival (Greek: λύκος, lýkos; Latin: lupus), and the worship of Lycaean Pan, assumed to be a Greek equivalent to Faunus, as instituted by Evander. Justin describes a cult image of "the Lycaean god, whom the Greeks call Pan and the Romans Lupercus", as nude, save for a goatskin girdle.

The statue stood in the Lupercal, the cave where tradition held that Romulus and Remus were suckled by the she-wolf (Lupa). The cave lay at the foot of the Palatine Hill, on which Romulus was thought to have founded Rome. The name of the festival most likely derives from lupus, "wolf", though both the etymology and its significance are obscure. Despite Justin's assertion, no deity named "Lupercus" has been identified.

Locations

The rites were confined to the Lupercal cave, the Palatine Hill, and the Forum, all of which were central locations in Rome's foundation myth. Near the cave stood a sanctuary of Rumina, goddess of breastfeeding; and the wild fig-tree (Ficus Ruminalis) to which Romulus and Remus were brought by the divine intervention of the river-god Tiberinus; some Roman sources name the wild fig tree caprificus, literally "goat fig". Like the cultivated fig, its fruit is pendulous, and the tree exudes a milky sap if cut, which makes it a good candidate for a cult of breastfeeding.

Priesthoods

The Lupercalia had its own priesthood, the Luperci ("brothers of the wolf"), whose institution and rites were attributed either to the Arcadian culture-hero Evander, or to Romulus and Remus, erstwhile shepherds who had each established a group of followers. The Luperci were young men (iuvenes), usually between the ages of 20 and 40. They formed two religious collegia (associations) based on ancestry; the Quinctiliani (named after the gens Quinctia) and the Fabiani (named after the gens Fabia). Each college was headed by a magister.

In 44 BC, a third college, the Juliani, was instituted in honor of Julius Caesar; its first magister was Mark Antony. The college of Juliani disbanded or lapsed following the Assassination of Julius Caesar, and was not re-established in the reforms of his successor, Augustus. In the Imperial era, membership of the two traditional collegia was opened to iuvenes of equestrian status.

Lupercalia most likely derives from lupus, "wolf", though both the etymology and its significance are obscure[8](bronze wolf's head, 1st century AD)

[typing-noises]

mythological creatures (part 1)

hi guys, this is audrey and I am back :D it’s also me taking over for this week!! hereeee are some cool mythological creatures you could add to your wip…part 1’s focus will be some scandinavian, irish and japanese mythological creatures 🐍🧚🧟

scandinavian

elves: can take the form of dimunitive faerie spirits or tall, ethereal humanoids. associated with early morning mist or twilight specifically in swedish folklore. it’s said they dance in the low-lying mist during dusk or dawn and you can hear birdsong. little mushrooms sprout where their feet have danced.

fossegrimmen (norwegian)/strömkarlen (swedish): a water creature taking the form of a young man who sits naked while playing music on a fiddle underneath waterfalls. can teach humans how to play his music if they steal a piece of meat for him.

huldra (norwegian)/skogsrå (swedish): a forest creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman with an animal tail (often a cow or a fox tail) and a back resembling a hollowed out tree. known for being kind to charcoal burners by watching their kilns while they slept. some tales say that she seduces men by hiding her tail in a knot under her skirt.

kraken: giant, squid-esque monster from nordic folktales that can drown entire ships by wrapping its tentacles around them

lindwyrm/lindworm (danish): a limbless serpent that emits poison. grows fatter over time from the humans it consumes. legends say it likes coiling up around churches to prevent people from going to sermons.

trolls: forest dwellers with grotesque appearances; short limbs, slime-covered skin and fat bellies. known to live in family units inside caves or mountains. intrinsically connected to nature and not particularly aggressive towards humans but can be cunning tricksters.

valkyries: beautiful, female warriors who descend on battlefields to bring fallen warriors to valhalla (heaven promised to vikings)

irish

changelings: faerie babies that are swapped with human babies by faerie parents

banshee: a female figure who wails or shrieks to warn of an incoming death. can take various forms such as an old woman, a woman in white or a shroud, though it’s her wail and red eyes from weeping that can be used to identify her.

dobhar-chú: a half dog-half otter creature that lives in bodies of water and eats human flesh.

dullahan: a faerie that takes the form of a headless rider on a black horse. some folktales say that he uses a human spine as a whip and can foretell deaths – when he calls out your name, your death is imminent.

faeries: one of the most well-known creatures in irish folklore. they are split into two categories: unseelie faeries are known to be more troublesome while seelie faeries are more helpful towards humans.

fear gorta: legend emerged during the great irish famine in the 1940s. symbolises the spirit of starvation and takes the form of an emaciated, old man begging for food. generous passers-by are rewarded with good fortune

leprechaun: a small, humanoid being who loves being mischievous and playing tricks

pooka: a shapeshifter with bright, golden eyes who can transform into any form. it’s able to speak, confuse and terrify.

redcap: a malevolent goblin who can be found in castle ruins. described as taking the form of a short, old man. known for soaking his cap in the blood of unwary travellers who try to seek refuge in his lair.

japanese

tanuki: shapeshifting racoon-dogs known to be tricksters who enjoy playing pranks on and stealing money from passing travellers for fun

tsukumogami: household objects turned into spirits after acquiring a kami (spirit) of their own when living for 100 years. generally considered harmless but can be vengeful to the humans that abandoned them.

kappa: has amphibian and reptilian features – slimy, scaly skin in various shades of green, webbed toes and fingers. all kappa have turtle shells on their backs, beak-like mouths and are said to carry bowls on their heads with liquid inside that is said to be their life force. not necessarily friendly and known to lure humans into their rivers to drown them.

jorogumo: evil spider demons who disguise themselves as women to hunt for human flesh

kitsune: intelligent, mythical foxes with the ability to shapeshift. can be symbols of both good and evil in Japanese folklore. the most powerful kitsune were the nine-tailed foxes who had infinite knowledge. kitsune would grow a new tail for every 100 years they were on earth.

onryō: restless ghosts with long, unkempt hair and blue-tinted skin. driven by the desire to get revenge on people who did them wrong in their human life. reflect perceived wrongs, jealousies and crimes of passion.

that’s all for today! there’s still more that I haven’t covered yet…but part 2 👀 see you next time :)) - audrey

[caxycreations]

Happy Blorbo blursday! What songs do you associate with some favorite OCs of yours? I'd love to know!

Ooooh, late to this but I love this ask!

Happy late Blorbo Blursday >///<

David

"Flashback" by Klace

Davina

"Bitch" by Meredith Brooks

Ryder

"Dirty Paws" by Of Monsters and Men

Trace

"Ends of the Earth" by Lord Huron

Luka

"Brother My Brother" by Blessed Union of Souls

Olivia

"Don't Laugh at Me" by Mark Wills

Cyrus

"Being Evil Has A Price" by Heavy Young Heathens

Devon

"Magnum Bullets" by Night Runner and Dan Avidan

Kaleb

"Red Right Hand" by The Bad Seeds and Nick Cave

Zephyr

"Good Riddance (Eurydice Solo)" by Darren Korb and Ashley Barrett

Carlisle

"King of Villains/When I Said I Was Evil" by Aurelio Voltaire

[seewetter]

(I thought these posts where a great way to discuss an unrelated problem in the trans community, so I'm hijacking the thread with a post that's inspired by this discussion but mostly a tangent. Sorry)

Here on Tumblr, some people have learned (correctly, in my opinion) that freedom of expression and association and general autonomy is important for trans issues. Which means that:

people can be (m)any gender(s) or none

people can have (m)any pronoun(s) or none or more

people can mix any gender with any pronoun

people can be any sexual orientation they want

people can define sexual orientation labels how they want

people can express gender how they want

people can use "microlabels" for gender expression (what does a butch look like? a butch looks the way a butch has decided to look)

people can do to their bodies what they want and use language toward their bodies how they want

at the same time (some) people on Tumblr have become "puriteens" or puritanical progressives:

some have adopted ideas from the Right in trying to stop kink at Pride to protect children from seeing nudity or sex at pride, which is likely engineered by right-wingers because... why wouldn't we ban kids at pride instead?

others have taken ideas that are politically bipartisan (opposition to child abuse) to misguided extremes (for example trying to stop fan fiction about adult characters 2 years apart in age)

others are taking progressive ideas and turning them into absolutes: trying to promote censorship of reactionary art ...is functionally conservative, for example.

All these groups are puritanical progressives, but it's not a unified group.

For our purposes it's just important to know that puritanical progressives as a whole will include some people that try to ban certain genders or pronouns from use!

People who are a bit more oriented around ensuring the maximum amount of gender freedom, perhaps even comfort are (rightly) suspicious of any ban of genders or pronouns. But that's what lead to people accusing OP of invalidating pronouns.

That serves as a nice example of why it's important to hear other people out before judging.

OPs statement: "Chat isn't being used by these young people as a new pronoun" only makes sense once you've really learned that pronouns are something else than "words used to address people". Meaning that people who haven't understood that are a bit like someone in Plato's cave picking a fight with some shadows.

Tangent: The Parallels with Gender Identity:

That problem also extends into the "how many genders are there" discussion.

Having the right answer to that question (that gender is socially constructed and there can be infinite genders) doesn't equip people for the more nuanced conversations.

For example, I would say the best way to describe what transgender people as a whole want is freedom of association: people in society ask you to comply with social rules based on biological measurements of your body. But if you reject these social rules, you are falsely told that you are rejecting the biology, not the rules.

What that means for (cis and trans) men and (cis and trans) women is that men and women are the people who not only wish to / desire to physically associate with others (join a women's group or men's group) but also the wish to / desire to fully belong to that group.

I use the movie Billy Eliott (about a boy that wants to do ballet among a group of girls) to illustrate the example:

Billy Eliott wants to be in the girl group, but is fine with being an included outsider, a person who is "a boy among girls" and is also fine with not being considered a girl.

But what if someone wants to? What if someone really wants to belong or disassociate themselves from men and women? That's what being transgender is all about.

Tangent continues:

Hopefully the tangent illustrates that the underlying freedom trans people seek is different from the popular discussion of being trans.

The popular discussion frames what trans people seek as authenticity, "being yourself", "being who you really are" and other such internal explanations. So currently a trans person is still described less as someone making a free choice and more as someone wanting the freedom to pursue an inner relationship to gender of some kind.

As a result, people get hung up on counting or documenting genders and validating genders ("you are valid").

Also as a result, trans people then often worry about the internal reality of their gender: "what if I'm really..."

The puritanical progressives (maybe I can find a better word, but the sort of people who have mostly progressive views but want a quick list of definitions of who is queer in what way and exclude everyone else), are on the other hand concerned with brute forcing trans liberation into existence and thus often resort to exclusion of those who are different and respectability.

Puritanical progressives also lack a developed concept of what kind of freedom should be guaranteed to trans people... so they assume that the freedom trans people seek is roughly equivalent to the freedom gay people seek, such as perhaps the freedom to transition or the freedom from cruel misgendering. I want to be 100% clear: misgendering is threatening and cruel and viscious and wrong.

But it's main function is actually to restrict trans people. To pressure trans people not to behave in certain ways. To scare people into the closet. To maintain that men and women "stay in their lane" or to intimidate people who are "exceptions" lest they alter men and women's "natural" path.

Right-wing puritanical trans advocates like Blaire White are not progressive puritans because they aren't progressive. Well, at least not part of progressive communities. And they promote horrible right-wing nonsense. But they are advocates for a certain form of trans activism and in that sense share some things in common with the puritanical progressives I was just talking about.

Folks like White focus almost exclusively on the freedom to transition (and try to discourage misgendering by telling cis people that misgendering a person who reads as cis female will just cause confusion) while the left-wing puritanical trans advocates (not sure there's a prominent example) will try to create firm rules for how being trans "works" in order to garner sympathy the "valid" sub-communities. So he/him lesbians will be attacked by puritanical progressives because each form of queer existence (like "lesbian") has to be documented, catalogued and given specific rules "so it can be understood, appreciated and valued", to paraphrase how zoos talk about endangered animals. A lesbian using he/him seems to some "progressives" to be a contradiction of the definition of lesbian and so must be stopped.

"Gender identity" is something that can't be measured. This is why conversations around animal life and gender identity are weird:

female lions can grow manes and take a male role

Yeah, but their bodies do that naturally. It's a physical automatic body change that happens from the outside.

We can hope that all lions who do this actually want to grow a mane and have their bodies change, but we don't know their internal life, so we don't know.

Since gender identity can't be measured, neither can authenticity. Being yourself can't be measured. Which is nice on the one hand: you can just say whatever and do whatever. But it also becomes a huge psychological burden. What if you thought you were X but now you feel you are Y and then you make up your mind again! How long until people pressure you to call yourself genderfluid (even if you don't feel genderfluid) or stop taking you seriously?

And that isn't fair, since people are doing what they are doing. Sometimes this is circumvented with truisms about how people are just "exploring their identity" but the whole point was the claim that trans people KNOW who they are better than the outside world. Exploring requires an UNKNOWN thing.

The idea that the freedom of trans people has to do with inner authenticity, with expressing an innermost true self... kind of sucks.

The idea that gender can be "valid" sucks.

What if instead, we look at gender externally? NO, NOT BIOLOGY.

But let's look at the motivations for people to say they are transgender and look at the relationship this motivation has both to the basic experience with gender and to the labels people tend to choose for themselves:

some people are men or women regardless of what society says. That's the group they are a part of, sometimes as rejected outsiders. It's their frame of reference and the thing that will tell you more about them than any biological evaluation. I'm aware I'm still telling you who they are, not their motivation, but you can see this as something other than their "an actual gender" but instead a freedom being pursued, a need being articulated, a group being joined or left, a series of attempts being made to fit in or not fit in but assert oneself.

Now imagine taking a multiple-choice quiz with only 2 possible answers:

If that quiz is anything like being told what gender you are, then humans are all going to respond to being restricted to 2 choices differently:

"Only 2 choices? Screw this test, I wouldn't pick either"

"Only 2 choices? Why can't I pick C?"

"Oh dear. I picked A and was certain but now I wish there was a C or maybe a D. You know what, never mind, B would have been right. At least I think it's right at the moment. Agghh, why did I hit Submit, why can't I edit my answer?"

"Only 1 choice can be picked? But I like both!" or "Picking B is only part of the answer. They should give me a C and D option as well" or various other desires to click multiple options

"Can't I pick like...a mix between A and B" or "A mix between A and some other option" or "A mix between 2 options not even on this silly quiz would be correct"

"Ok, I picked A. And it was more correct than B. But let's face it, the answer they included for A is slightly reductive and ...you know, I'd agree that A is pretty much the right answer, but it's also kind of not."

We can use other thought experiments: your hometown forces you to like their team and hate the rival towns team. Or tries to force you.

There's not just two choices. You can end up in conflict with your hometown not because you liked the rival team, but because you don't like sports or because you want your own team.

We can do this for lots of things.

But the point is that each of these captures a specific experience with exclusion and forced inclusion. A person fighting really hard to ensure their right to not be member of a club is different from a person fighting really hard to be a member of a club that won't allow them to join.

That's why words like "genderless, agender" are fundamentally different from words like "bigender, polygender, pangender". It's not just a difference in somebody's perception of themselves, it's literally a unique political struggle.

Why write this post?

That's why a debate around "is chat a pronoun or noun" is so troubling. "Rules of grammar" sounds like rules which sounds right-wing. So then it sounds really progressive to just... call chat a pronoun. If somebody in Plato's cave fought a shadow, they would probably think they were having a real fight.

That same problem plays out when people try to legally protect gender identities and end up with longer and longer lists of things to protect. It's like a freedom of speech law that has to protect each word and sentence individually, saying "that sentence you're also free to say" "and that one too" "oh, and this one".

If we talk about transgender issues like this: (picking fights with the rules of grammar because we imagine grammar is transphobic or trying to protect each gender identity one at a time) then there will be desperate trans people who think that autonomy and freedom for all is bad. These puritanical progressives will end up "carrying water" for the Right. All they wanted was to try and fix this absurdity, but it ends with them doing something far worse and far more absurd.

It matters that the struggle for non-binary people's rights usually doesn't split the non-binary minority. Genderfluid and genderless people fight side by side to ensure that the public knows that gender isn't biology based or binary.

Why is there this ...not solidarity, but unity? Because often the differences between non-binary people are not important. And when they are important, it's stuff like what I outlined above: a difference in how people answer the "multiple choice quiz" of what group they join. A difference in motivation and experiences made.

People who are fire-gender or deer-gender don't have much beef with each other, because they might have "different genders from each other", but effectively the restrictions of society not only don't make a hierarchy between these groups, they don't make out any difference between them at all. Not so for genderfluid and bigender people. Those groups are differentiated, because the thing they say seems absurd to cis people in different ways. Genderfluid and bigender are two of the most common labels not because they really describe who people are (there are so many differences between genderfluid people, for example) but because there is just a fairly small amount of sub-communities within the trans community that have unique struggles. The list does not go on and on. You can use the "multiple choice test" or the "rival sports teams" analogy to quickly identify most of them.

Just as "chat" is a noun (even among Gen Z) and it only superficially feels like it's now used as a pronoun (when Gen Z addresses a fictitious "chat" as if they were currently livestreaming), so too are the motivations trans people have to disagree with social norms about gender the actually meaningful differences between sub-communities, not our gender identities. The sooner we realize that, the more likely laws will protect the exact thing that our enemies are targetting.

Thanks for taking the time to read this monumental essay. ILU <3

I keep seeing the "chat is a fourth person pronoun" post and it's getting increasingly hard to avoid starting discourse in the notes of it. chat I don't think they know what these linguistics terms they're using mean