#I'm still confused on that label

[brocedesbenz]

puter, how do I know if I like men or if I am afraid of them and just crave male validation? quickest route, no comphet explanations

puter, do you hear me?

#maybe I should just label as queer and stop thinking about this #or maybe i wad right in labeling myself as bi #was i????? i've never liked a man in the way i like women. and i know for a fact comphet can be a bitch #and also every guy i find attractive always looks very feminine. idk that doesn't mean much really #what if i only like this *one guy* and that's it. am i still a lesbian? how do i know if it's only this one guy??? #needless to say I'm confused #wlw #lesbian #bisexual #queer #queer community #confession #pansexual #unlabeled #ngl being unlabeled sounds great rn #not in the “unlabeled pride” type of way but more in the “prefer not to limit myself so much w all this labels” type of way #unlabeled sexuality #lgbtq community #lgbtqia #lgbtq #comphet #heavily tagged bcs I'm going through the seven circles of hell all by myself #azul rambles

[shadowkoo]

if you see this post can you like it please? trying to see if i'm partially shadowbanned or if this is just dubmlr at it's finest, i feel like my posts are not being seen by my followers :')))))

#i can't tell if only specific posts of mine are being marked with community labels or if it's my blog at this point grrr #i'm still searchable so i can't be totally shadowbanned #confused to say the least #LOL

[nonuggetshere]

I'm gonna continue with the requests later, but I also felt the need to doodle my two PVs with a little bit of gender on the side

They're both still very much genderless, but because not every non-binary/agender person will have the same perception/feelings regarding their gender and won't have the same gender presentation, I decided to mess around with it a little

Hallow is genderfluidv(though after some consideration I realised agenderflux describes them more accurately, but oh well, these labels don't even exist in their story so who cares), they're non-binary but their alignment fluctuates between fem-leaning, masc-leaning, something in-between and neither. They're fine with any terms and pronouns but mostly go by they/them.

Luna is genderfae/transfem, their gender fluctuates between agender and fem-aligned non-binary. They mostly go by they/them and gender-neutral and feminine terms, they're fine with she/her and some neopronouns, but any masculine terms and pronouns are a big no-no for them. Currently, I'm considering making them an enby lesbian, but that might change in the future.

#spooky arts #hollow king au #I swear this is the longest I've ever spent considering what labels would describe a character. I myself have a weird relationship with #labels so I only ever think about what people would a character be into and how their gebder 'feels' like and never go into details #I spent like an hour looking for a term that could describe how I imagined Luna's gender LMAO #Hallow is mostly me projecting. Luna is 75% me wanting to explore a situation where the pure vessel comes out as trans after they're found #out that they're not hollow. And 25% spite for all the people who call them he/him #So you know how some enby lesbians describe their gender as like. The only connection to womanhood they feel is their attraction to women? #That's kind of the vibe I get from Luna. They're enby just very sliiightly titled towards womanhood #They're also a teen and in a scenario where all the different AU hollows interact they'd bond a lot with Hallow as the only other person #who went through the same confusing gender feelings as they are going through right now. #They're kind of like 'man I wish I was a girl sometimes so I could be called princess and wear dresses' 'you know you can just do that #right?' 'I CAN?' #Also even though they're fine with different pronouns I'm still just gonna be using they/them on my blog for them. Bc I know some people #are weird about Hollow's gender and refuse to acknowledge theyre enby or keep misgendering them 🙄 I don't wanna add to that #We give a little bit of gender fuckery to the vessels though. They deserve it. #But yeah I still wanna be clear. Their genders fluctuate in alignment but they're still very much agender/genderless. Please don't treat #them like binary people 😭

[lord-squiggletits]

Something I keep seeing when I speak to others about MTMTE Megatron is basically the idea that he's going on a personal journey to become a better person, that the point isn't for him to be "redeemed" but for him to get a chance to do good and die as a person he can live with again. That MTMTE presents a unique take on this because being away from Cybertron gives Megatron a chance to be a person rather than a political figure and this is how it gives him more depth as a character. Or just generally pointing out in a narrative sense that Megatron being in MTMTE limits his story options so of course his story is going to be more focused on a personal journey than on politics of him dealing with the Decepticons/Earth/etc and that just because JRO made a choice to take that path with Megatron doesn't mean that it's inherently bad.

And I'm just, mmm like I understand all of those points and acknowledge that they all contributed to the MTMTE Megatron we got. I even think that without JRO writing Megatron we wouldn't have had his lore be as fleshed out and 3D as it ended up becoming.

(Post starts out as a sort of meta analysis or at least me giving a reasoned explanation for my interpretation of the story, ends up being petty bitching in the last 1-2 paragraphs)

I just..... I just personally don't agree with the "he's becoming a better person by getting a chance to relax and experience happiness and trust after a life of trauma" as being the best choice for his character? Because the problem is that maybe if he were a random Decepticon foot soldier that would be appropriate, but he was literally the leader of the Decepticons that made them Like That and has political/cultural/societal responsibility for why things are the way they are? To be completely frank, I don't care about him going on a personal journey for self-peace, I think that he should become a better person by helping to un-fuck all the things he actually screwed up???

Like idc about the debate of whether he can be "redeemed" or if he should've been killed/imprisoned/etc at the ending. It just comes down to the fact that for me personally, I feel that since Megatron's wrongdoings were at a social level, him "being a better person" would've been better shown by him engaging with those people who he wronged instead of just going on a frigging personal journey for his legacy and self-peace???

Especially since in other series (exRID, possibly Windblade) we literally got plots like "the neutrals hate Autobots but they hate Decepticons even more" and "the Decepticons have been taken over by Galvatron and are now invading earth 2 electric boogaloo" and "yeah the Decepticons are literally living in slums because people hate them so much and won't give them any work." It just leaves me wondering why in the hell people are like, "oh Megatron got to be happy and have a chance to be a normal person." I don't want him to be normal! I want him to repay his debts to the people he actually wronged! Like if you want to cast Megatron as a hero of the people so badly (which so many of his stans do as if he actually cared about the Cons) then how do you reconcile the fact that Megatron just fucked off and left the Decepticons to suffer on Cybertron? Including some of them attacking during his trial and getting killed and Megatron is basically like "sorry, I'm not coming with you and this isn't going to work." And then Megatron complains about "toxic Decepticon loyalty" as if he didn't literally make them that way? Like I get that MTMTE Megatron is still an asshole but if you've read something besides MTMTE and know what the Decepticons are going through, it just ends up being really grating.

I just don't see Megatron as being a particularly good hero or having a particularly fulfilling story if he's completely isolated from all the bad things he did on Cybertron/the way the Decepticons are suffering until LL#25 where it's like "ah damn I'm going to trial now, well this is what I deserve so it's fine." Why could we not have seen something like Megatron trying to deradicalize the Decepticons or change their public image so they could integrate into normal Cybertron again? They were living in SLUMS and getting gunned down by Starscream's badgeless enforcers!

The best we got was the Functionist Universe but like.... I'm sorry, but JRO inventing a whole alternate universe for Megatron to save doesn't do jack shit to save or fix the people he left behind in this one. It was especially grating to read because JRO literally wrote in someone saying "you saved billions of lives from the Functionists" as if he was trying really hard to show how good Megatron is because he saved people (and also if not for Megatron existing Cybertron would be even worse and half of your faves would be enslaved or dead, also the Functionist Council was going to genocide organics too so technically they're WORSE than Megatron since they hate organics AND want to enslave their own race).

I read Barber's, JRO's, and MScott's series concurrently using the omnibus + a release order list for phase 3, and after all that I'm kind of puzzled why the fandom seems to ardently love MTMTE Megatron and think he's so well written but then also shit on Optimus for things that he did during the same points in the story? Because, and I know this is a blazing hot take, I honestly think that Optimus makes a better hero of his story than Megatron does for his, and Optimus' personal journey combines his personal and political identities into a narrative that's a lot more gruelling and questioning of his goodness than we got for Megatron in MTMTE. Which is fucking saying something considering Megatron committed crimes against sapient species and Optimus is the guy who tried to stop him from doing that and has always been pro-equal rights for all beings. But people pretty much just cherrypick things like Optimus annexing Earth or beating up Prowl and go "he's bad" and I'm like no??? IDW OP isn't a bad person or a bad character??? It's just that unlike MTMTE Megatron he's placed in a narrative that actually suits the nature of his actions and has themes that match. To the point that IMO sometimes Barber's narrative shits on Optimus excessively or paints him mainly in the most unflattering ways.

But like. It's just funny to me because Optimus spent his entire part of the story doing things like trying to stop Earth from being invaded/colonized yet again. Grappling with his identity as Prime and dealing with the fact that people literally worship him vs. the fact that his upbringing made him see the Primacy as nothing more than a facade of authority/leadership. Having people get mad at him for prioritizing politics over friendship/relationships with other people. Even getting shit on for being a cop a decent amount so people can STFU about IDW OP being "copaganda" or "not held responsible for his actions". The problems that Optimus dealt with were personal because they had to do with his self-doubt, culpability for the war as a leader of one of the armies, distance from his soldiers, etc. But all of these are also POLITICAL struggles. Because Optimus gave up on the chance to just be a normal person having personal struggles when he chose to become a LEADER, which also means that he's held to extremely high standards that he regularly fails at in the eyes of others.

That's why, to me, MTMTE Megatron falls flat in comparison and really as a "hero" or heel-face character in general? Because he also made a decision to be a leader, and IMO once you do things like become the commander of an army and start your own galactic empire, you lose the right to prioritize your personal problems and instead are obligated by the power you've chosen to wield to focus on your POLITICAL problems. If Megatron's power, influence, and crimes are of a social-political nature, then his heel-face turn arc and ways of showing that he's a better person/helping to heal what little damage he possibly can should have been shown with actions that help on a social-political LEVEL. That's why I'm not particularly impressed with his character arc and feel as if it was overhyped by other people in this fandom: sure, the extra character depth and emotion is nice, but I'm not really going to see him as extraordinary or even particularly good when the extent of him "becoming a better person" happens entirely on a random road trip to fuck-off nowhere. Especially not when the ending of LL tried to sell me a "they lived happily ever after" ending while basically leaving the freaking MUTINY as just Rodimus going "oh it's okay you're forgiven, we're all together again" and I guess everyone was fine with Megatron and wanted to spend an eternity on a ship with him just because Getaway died.

This is why I like (the concept/themes of) exRID/OP and the way Optimus' character arc was handled a lot more. Because for Optimus, the personal and the political were as one. He was held accountable for his actions towards others and the disruptive effects they had on a social level, sometimes to a ridiculous extent (the fucking "oh Megatron is an Autobot so now that makes the Autobots colonizers" plot and that stupid colonist screaming about how Optimus is "literally fascist" my beloathed). Even his very personal issues like his relationship with Zeta were still cast in a wider lens of, yeah this is a personal struggle that Orion faced, but he was still part of a Society TM and his actions were sometimes ill-informed or harmful to others. Even if I had a lot of problems with the way Optimus' story was written by Barber (plot holes, little meaningful character interaction, forced conflicts), at least the BASELINE of it was way better than Megatron's in MTMTE. Especially since Optimus' struggle was explictly about things like struggling with responsibility and how he feels he HAS to intervene in political affairs because has to save people/make up for his past mistakes. That's something that a good leader/good person actually does, so I found Optimus to be a better hero (even if his actions weren't all "good") because he was trying to be a good person by actually getting involved with Cybertron/Earth and subjecting himself to something he hates (leadership, war) and dealing with a shitload of criticism instead of just going on a fuckin "personal journey" lksdlkfsd.

Which just makes me extra salty that people hold up MTMTE Megatron as the pinnacle of Megatrons and literally the best Transformers writing evar! while turning up their nose and ignoring or outright despising IDW Optimus. Like okay. I guess since Megatron got handled with silk gloves on while Optimus got put through the wringer of being shit on by every other person in the story, it's easier for you to pretend that Megatron is a poor uwu boy who just needs friendship and love while Optimus is literally the worst bastard to ever exist. Or maybe it's just that since Optimus' story involves him sometimes fucking up, being criticized, or making things worse, that makes him morally bad. As opposed to Megatron who disrupted a lot of other characters' stories in MTMTE, had to have an entire alternate universe invented so that he could "save lives," and got to sail off on a quantum Lost Light happily ever after, so since he's happy and the story says he saved people that means he's a good hero.

#squiggposting #it started out sort of analytical but ended up bitchy #i also feel like for some reason my understanding of what a redemption arc is is different from others? #when i talk to people about it they keep saying 'well M can't make up for what he did' #and i'm like. no that's not what i mean by redemption arc #to me redemption arc literally just means 'a character goes from bad to good over the course of a story' #whether they're forgiven or if they can 'make up for it' objectively is irrelevant like #redemption arc is literally a common label used for the general trope so idk where this confusion is coming from? #also hot take when i say a character should be redeemed i'm literally not talking about wether they're forgiven or pardoned in universe #i just mean. as a reader. do i read their story arc and see them go from bad to good and progress in meaningful ways #do they do something. anything. to address or apologize or fix what they did #is there some sort of symbolic or literal sacrifice or act of service or any Good Thing even if it's only one single moment #then to me they've been redeemed in a narrative sense. it has nothing to do with whether they can literally compensate for hteir crimes #anyways. the tldr of this is that i don't hate mt/mte at all and i also don't hate idw M. i love them in fact #it's just i feel like i was severely let down by how much this fandom hyped and continues to hype mt/mte meg #(peg/gy the pirate spongebob meme voice) that's it? that's the M redemption arc? #that's just a guy going on a space road trip and being emo #mfs tried to tell me it was one of the best tf stories ever written and i'm like. yeah thanks but no #worse still ppl came out of m/tmte going 'actually M was right about everything' #and i'm like. shit take and you are spreading this nonsense everywhere including shitting on my faves w your bad takes #mfs wanna call M a hero of the ppl who at least cared about the cons when he literally left them for broke on cybertron #i don't think idw M had a good heel-face turn arc bc he didn't really like do anything meaningful in the wider scope of things #what if idw M achieved inner peace by protecting the cons and making sure they had rights post war. how about that #i mean for various reasons the story would've been more complicated than that due to editorial and company mandate bullshit #i just feel as if talking about the story narrative itself IDW M's redemption arc is far from remarkable #except for the fact that JRO dared to do it at all perhaps #(vine voice) that's my OPINION!!!!!

[weedle-testaburger]

something’s just hit me. i don’t necessarily ‘not want to put labels on myself’. i do have labels i like, they’re just not labels society at large is that understanding or accepting of

#personal crap #it's like. i like calling myself pan and enby but if i try and tell people i'm that it confuses them and i hate that #it sucks how other than l g b and t people saying they're a queer label is still seen as weird

[alectricblue]

being obsessed w the ineffable idiots has had me once again questioning my romantic attraction during my hiatus lmfao

conclusion so far: cupio and (maybe) demi are the ones I relate to the most. somewhat. vaguely

and a bit of aego, for otps and romantic songs (romance makes me a bit uncomfortable unless it is in one of those two things)

#but ehhh #romantic attraction is very confusing #it's the weakest type of attraction I feel I think #but what I Know is that I do feel love. a lot. of many kinds. and I want to put it somewhere. or I'll go crazy /hyperbole #I'm not loveless. but I'm not... the opposite of that either? #lovelustic could still work #much to think about #what I'm saying is I want what crow and azi have. whatever that means for me. and I'm too much of a crowley to be on my own lmfao /hj #personal #save #I don't really care about labels that much. whatever happens happens. but they're good to help you know yourself better #huh this turned into a aimless rant lol #I have been Thinking

[angstyvylene-i]

Guys what would u do if I was straight. Like hetero. (In a nblw way)

#Lately the lesbian label has been idk for me!!!!! I feel like my genderfluidity affects it or smth. IDK. #Ik nb ppl can be lesbian duh but it's just that I don't think the label fits me anymore xdddd #Or maybe it still does. idk!!!!! I'm just gonna try out calling myself straight if it fits #I still love women its just that my gender is going crazy #AVTalking #If there's advice anyone has plz lmk BECause it's confusing

[kalloway]

kinda wish I'd been recording the process of this because it'd make it VERY obvious I don't work smartly at all, and that's why all my rough 'shading' layers are so messed up because I made alterations as I went lol

anyway, another WIP - this time of my OC, Beck (who I have not posted about in ages lmao) from the Android AU Been having Thoughts(tm) about this bastard character of mine and how I could make him even worse than he already is 8) hehe

#delete later #wip #oc #original character #myart #do not mind all the weird lines - this is still not 'finalized' and all the lines are on like 3 different layers I forget about #tfw u label ur layers but still get confused #anyway he REALLY ended up looking like a Dio (specifically how I used to draw one variant before I retconned his look) but uhhh #that was unintentional lmao I WAS USING A REF FOR HIM AND EVERYTHING and somehow still failed his likeness #but this is fine - I'm hoping the colours will make it less like that but we'll seeeee #god even the perspective on his top is strange......... I gotta fix so much still aaaaaa #BUT IT'S 5AM i need to sleep I can fix things tomorrow when I look at this with fresh eyes again #I just wanted to do something vaguely 'fashion-y' ...made funnier by the fact his *girlfriend* is a literal model in this AU #BUT Beck is a vain POS who stresses about his (physical) self-image so I mean..... I think it works out #I've been using this one airbrush I downloaded for CSP for the shading on this and other WIPs and I'm... honestly liking it??? #I mean the opacity thing is kind of weird to work with but im not *hating* it... at least on colour stuff #BUT YES OKAY ANYWAY i need to sleep gn folks #also btw the shading doesn't fit very well on his legs cuz that was the shading on just his body lines... which got mostly erased #I was gonna just redo them when I finalized them anyway so I'm trying not to care about how odd it probably looks hahaha

[sixxtytoo]

thinking about bridget

#i love them it's just #is it great that we have transfem rep in ggst? absolutely! this is not what i'm arguing #the thing is testament being nb makes perfect sense thinking about how they were written in xx and stuff #but bridget being transfem doesn't.. really feel like the writers actually thought about how they have felt about their gender #like bridget's whole deal was and still is not wanting to be defined by how they dress #and they actively disliked being seen as feminine? so overall i am simply Confused #i already loved bridget sooo much for being gnc as hell. like they were blorbo day 1 #the writers' decision doesn't make sense! #but honestly i probably only have this conflict bc i've followed the story since i was like 12 #this prolly isn't a thing for people whose 1st game was ggst and that's not a bad thing #isolating bridget to their appearance in ggst is completely valid if u really do like how they were written though!!! no biggie #.. i have been thinking about this.. so long #it's just. it feels like #the writers saw that they had an amab character who wears typically feminine clothing #(not taking into account why they wear clothes like that) #and labelled them as transfem without regard to any other label that would suit them better #they can be unlabled too. goddamn just put some thought into what u do before making inauthentic rep

[unicornswilleatyourboobies]

sometimes i'm like 'yknow racism on an induvidual level isn't as bad as it was when i was growing up' and then my white flatmate saw me washing daal and asked if it was food

#this happened like. 2.5 hours ago and i am still not over it #like no the thing i am washing in the kitchen that very clearly look like lentils and is opposite its bag labelled 'red lentils' isn't food #WHAT ELSE WOULD IT BE [REDACTED] #i just. the pure audacity coming from someone who cannot cook (this isn't a slight it's a fact she told me this and then proved it) #i'm also honestly a bit confused about how she's _never_ heard of daal before??? #like it's common?? it isn't this like super foreign concept you can get it in asda

[zemnarihah]

i've been having. gender issues i must say

#i think like in a different and much more progressive world i would like almost certainly id as nonbinary in some way but like #idk i do think i have dysphoria esp w my chest lately but i don't think it's to the level that my life would be improved by like #going by different pronouns and coming out w a different gender label and stuff #bc it's just so incredibly inconvenient and like especially in my area ppl would either not take me serious or like be straight up hateful #i also think i'm not like. NOT a woman like i've lived as a woman my whole life i don't think i'll ever see myself as like divorced from tha #but it's just. still not quite right yk #like i feel pretty uncomfortable w most traditional femininity but i feel COMPLETELY uncomfortable w almost all masculinity so it's like. #idk #not cis or trans but another secret third thing yk #i mean at the end of the day there's not rlly any point in doing anything abt it and i think i have had lapses like this before and have had #times where i think i was fairly comfortable w being a woman and w my body (relatively) so maybe it's just smth that will come and go u know #i just wish i was like 50% more androgynous looking and like. didn't have tits. and could go by a pronoun that like isn't she/he or they #but is also very normal and commonly understood that nobody will be weird or confused abt #so. idk #like now that i think abt it there's no pronoun that i actually feel good abt ppl using for me. but i think that might also be bc i feel #uncomfortable w the idea of people even talking abt me at all #i think i'm starting to understand people who use it/it's lol #i mean before i never liked judged them or anything like i always use peoples correct pronouns but i was always like huh idk why someone #would want that #and now i like. see the appeal. kind of divorced from gender and identity in general. it's nice

[silver-queen]

The kids love me for my neurodivergent swag

#monologuing #idk i feel like the reason i'm better with kids than people my age is bc i'm neurodivergent in some way #adults are so concerned with apparent normalcy so they have so much difficulty with children #idk if i'm autistic or not. the resources to find out just isnt there for me and i dont want to diagnose myself #but whenever i have to interact with young kids i just go autism mode and the kids love it #just go sillay! dont dismiss their interest! engage and actually talk with em! #also i'm really hesitant to categorize whats nd behavior and not bc the standards in this website are very. western #here it's more categorized as a learning disability. people are still very cruel to nd ppl here #but ppl accept eccentricities here! my hs friend gestures a lot and has a different way of speaking and shes pretty popular #a good amount of relatives in my family has vocal tics. mom and dad and my aunt and uncle makes weird noises at the regular #i'm confused over what this site labels as 'weied' because here theyre just. quirks people pay no mind to #anyway yeah be silly to young kids they love it #i turn into an entertainer in front of kids even though i worry about their opinions about me. which is dumb i know GDMGKGKZKGKDK

[vettely]

not me questioning my sexuality after finally meeting a really nice guy who i thought would be a perfect fit for me

#like i am bisexual #i've been labeling myself as bisexual for years #and i really really like this guy he's fucking amazing #but i kinda have a feeling that i might be homoromantic???????? #it's so weirddddddd #bc if you asked me this question 3 years ago i would be like i'm heteroromantic bisexual #and i thought i wasn't happy in my relationship with guys bc they just weren't the right guy #but what if they just weren't a girl????? #i'm so confused #ffs karla you're 22 why are you still questioning yourself you had years to do so #jfkdkdjfkdkdj #and this guy is so good #and i really thought he's literally the love of my life when i first met him bc we just clicked #but now i'm???????????? #sorry for the rant #ignore this #personal

[songstep4002]

Does anyone else look back and realize that one of your childhood invisible friends had some really weird gender stuff going on that you never thought to examine at the time?

Like I had a whole superhero universe and the main villain, T-who, was... I don't even know. I used he/him to refer to him, but thinking of him as a man feels so weird to me now, and the way I pictured him, his gender was similar to Princess Lily, the main hero, who was Very Definitely A Girl. (His real name, Tom Jack, was like the first two random guy names I could come up with- and the whole thing was a Voldemort ripoff because 'if you say his real name he will send his wolves after you'- not even getting into the fact that my younger brother proceeded to rip off my ripoff by creating an entire supervillain society of alphabet people named A-who, B-who, etc. It was a whole thing.)

But anyways yeah I don't know what was going on with the gender stuff.

#tbh the way I saw gender as a little kid was an absolute mess #like I specifically remember my favorite color being green and my least favorite being pink #and one day my older brother told me that girls like pink #and I just kind of decided that now pink was my favorite color and green was my least favorite? #and I would always sing a little song to myself that went 'I wish I was a boy' #and I remember having a whole list of reasons why being a boy would be better but I can't remember what any of them were #except for 'boys have short hair so it wouldn't get tangled in the trees when I'm climbing #but like nowadays the idea of being a man produces a visceral 'oh hell no' reaction #like I have done the gender questioning and am literally cis #but I still get weird gender moments from like getting my stuff labeled as guy stuff or something #Like maybe you could describe it as being a girl who is a guy #or is that just called being butch #which is even more confusing because now I am VERY attached to my long hair #for dragon reasons rather than gender reasons #because to add some extra layers to this- I experience dysphoria of a non-gender variety! #where was I going with this

[mrfoox]

Playing the log dark to cope without cuddles again

#miranda talking shit #The good news is I got invited over again tomorrow #The bad news is that it's tomorrow night and we both got work in the morning but- #Still so confused why he keeps... Dealing with me... #And we still haven't defined anything and half of me prefers it that way and the other is like... Lmao I'm going to kill us both #I'm waiting for me to do something... Too out of line and him freaking out #He gave me a smooch last time so that was not me crossing borders #I suck at dealing with things that aren't... Defined bc I want labels on everything #Binch what the fuck are we? Lmk. As long as you're not going to freak out and leave then forget I asked #I say I'm borderless and that's true but I'm also so in the most guarded way man #Bc I know myself and if I LET GO I will catch feelings so I'm like... Keep it friendly feelings

[trans-leek-cookie]

[image id: a cropped picture of a bottle of calypso lemonade. The cropped portion is to highlight a paragraph of text, eith the title (all caps) Taste of the Islands. The paragraph reads: "Kiwis are like the geckos of island fruit. Hear me out, okay. We're both small. We're both green. And most importantly, we both know what it takes to make any part a beach party. Think about it. We're practically twins." The paragraph is signed Jojo (which I assume is the name of the mascot?) End id]

Ok so this whole paragraph is just. Random company bullshit right?

Well. As someone who looked up kiwis at some point for reasons I can't remember, it struck me as odd. Here's why:

Island Fruit.

Fun fact: kiwis are native to China. They are sometimes called Chinese Gooseberries.

But yknow maybe they were referring to the fact that a lot of them are grown on islands? Possibly. So I looked it up on Wikipedia.

[image description: a screenshot of the Wikipedia page for kiwi, specifically under the production section. It's a simple graph labeled "Top Kiwifruit Producing Countries". The countries are numbered from greatest to least produced. In order: China, New Zealand, Italy, Greece, Iran, Chile, Turkey, France, Portugal, and United States. Below is the source for the numbers. China produces approximately 2.2 million tonnes, while Aotearoa (aka New Zealand) produces .6 million tonnes. End ID]

So. China produces more than 3 times the second place country, and said second place country is the only island on the list.

Also, a quote from the production section: in China, kiwifruit is grown mainly in the mountainous area upstream of the Yangtze River, as well as Sichuan

In conclusion: the mountains of China are my favorite island

#I'm assuming they confused island with tropical or like thought they were synonyms?? I guess? I'm not like. Mad idk it's just. Wrong. #Fun fact: tropical and trope share a root- tropos (to turn). Idk how that works but if that sounds familiar it may be bc of the word #Zoetrope (a device that worked as pre-film way of creating animations) which also shares said root! #Idk if kiwis are ACTUALLY a tropical fruit but that description is like. Less Wrong than ''Island fruit'' #And like I said I'm not Mad about this but I def feel like it speaks to the way ppl don't necessarily. Think about where fruits come from? #Not all the time but like. Island fruit is such an interesting label bc it implies things abt the way kiwis are seen as exotic. You know #Idk that's a deep dive I can't do but it just made me go wait. What. Bc I've been carrying around the little fact that kiwis are native to #China in my brain. Anyway I guess I could see the fact that Aotearoa is an island and they're associated w kiwis (ppl and birds) but still. #Anyway as always if image descriptions need improving pls lemme know