#No one is entitled to biological children

[coochiequeens]

I don't like conservative "news" media like fox and this site but no one else is talking about how surrogacy gives pedos access to kids.

The fertility industry is handing designer babies over to men with zero vetting or scrutiny of their mental fitness or criminal history.

By KATY FAUST

Surrogacy is risky for children. Not just the risk of a primal wound via intentional birth mother separation. Not just the risk of identity struggles if their genetic mother is purchased from a catalog. Not just the risk of mother-hunger if they are raised in a home absent maternal love. 

Surrogacy puts children at risk for the worst kinds of abuse. 

That became glaringly obvious last month when YouTubers Shane Dawson and partner Ryan Adams announced the birth of twin boys. Dawson’s long history of sexualizing children is well-known and well-documented. Evie magazine detailed concerning incidents including Dawson pretending to masturbate while watching 11-year-old Willow Smith’s music video, referring to a 6-year-old fan as “kind of sexy,” justifying pedophilia as a mere “fetish,” typing “naked baby” in a child pornography search and remarking that the returns were “sexy,” and proclaiming, “I would rape all of you” when viewing a series of photos featuring young girls wearing his merchandise.

In one show, he instructed a 12-year-old to eat a “cocktail weenie” with the recognition that child molesters comprise a significant portion of his audience. Dawson and Adam have another 10 embryos in frozen storage should they decide they want a few more children around the house.

We hope no harm comes to the boys to whom Dawson and Adams have been granted (via surrogacy contract) parental rights. But other surrogate-born children were not so fortunate.

Contrary to what you may think, surrogacy isn’t just about helping infertile couples have babies. When we look at how surrogacy is actually practiced and promoted, we see surrogacy isn’t about babies, it’s about on-demand, designer babies shipped worldwide. And sometimes, those babies are shipped directly to child abusers.

We don’t know the raw numbers because, unlike organ donation, the medical wing of #BigFertility requires no tracking or follow-up of those who avail themselves of their services. (Apparently, there’s more concern about the survival of a kidney than a child.) And unlike adoption, which heavily vets and screens prospective parents and monitors the child post-placement, surrogate-born children are not known to social workers and often disappear across international borders.

Even when safeguards are in place, predators often go to great lengths to acquire children to abuse. In 2022, the country was horrified by the story of a suburban pedophile ring set up by two married men who raped and pimped out their adopted sons. 

That children created by a fertility industry with no mechanism (and no desire) to scrutinize intended parents for things like mental fitness, criminal records, or predatory history end up in the homes of dangerous adults should surprise no one.

Absent any kind of record-keeping or follow-up on these children, those of us who reject surrogacy on the grounds that it violates the rights of children, must piece together the risks when stories of child victimization emerge. 

These 5 Pedophiles Mail-Ordered Babies

Psychiatrist Jo Erik Brøyn held a high position in Norwegian social services responsible for child protection and was involved in several high-profile cases of child removal. He also acquired two boys through an Indian surrogate. In 2018, police discovered 20 years’ worth of child pornography in his possession — more than 20,000 images and 4,000 hours of videos — depicting child sexual abuse including “boys masturbating each other, fixed/sexualized violence against children, anal sex by men with boys or oral sex of children (including toddlers) on grown men.” He was sentenced to less than two years in prison. Some sources report that the boys have been returned to his care.

An unnamed German pedophile hired a Russian surrogate for €60,000 who birthed the baby in Greece. He then flew the child back to Germany. In 2020, a regional court found him guilty of child abuse and producing and possessing child pornography. His child was a subject of 16 of those cases between the ages of 2 and 3, and the defendant was in possession of 175,000 images of child pornography. He was sentenced to five years in prison. The child was removed from his custody. 

In 2013, Mark Newton and Peter Truong were convicted of subjecting their surrogate-born son to “the worst [pedophile] rings … if not the worst ring I’ve ever heard of,” according to one investigator. After paying a Russian surrogate $8,000 to carry the child, the pair began to violate the boy as a newborn.

“The abuse began just days after his birth and over six years the couple traveled the world, offering him up for sex with at least eight men, recording the abuse and uploading the footage to an international syndicate known as the Boy Lovers Network.” Police believe the pair created the boy through surrogacy “for the sole purpose of exploitation.” The child was removed from their custody, and the men are serving decades-long sentences.

During the height of the Indian surrogacy boom, it was revealed that an Israeli sex offender had procured a little girl via surrogacy. Had #BigFertility had any kind of vetting in place or required fingerprinting or simply character references, it would likely have been discovered that the man had spent 18 months in jail for sexually abusing young children under his supervision. The discovery shocked authorities in both India and Israel, but because they couldn’t prove that abuse had yet taken place, there was no ground to remove the girl from his custody. It did however validate India’s decision to ban single men and gay couples, who composed 30-50 percent of intended parents, from the Indian surrogacy market.

In 2014, intended parents Wendy and David Farnell commissioned twin surrogate children in Thailand, then a global hotspot for surrogacy. The little girl, Pipah, was healthy, but the little boy, Gammy, had serious medical issues as well as Down Syndrome. A scandal erupted when the couple took the little girl back to Australia but abandoned Gammy to be raised by the Thai surrogate.

It was then discovered that David had been jailed in the late 1990s for sexually molesting two girls under the age of 10, and was charged, convicted, and sentenced again in 1998 on six counts of indecently dealing with a child under the age of 13. When his criminal record was revealed and investigated, a judge determined there was “a low risk of harm if Pipah stays in that home,” and she remained in the care of Wendy and David until his death in 2020. The “Baby Gammy” case was one of several scandals that prompted the Thai government to ban commercial surrogacy altogether. 

Many of the above cases are older, the results of contracts that were drawn up when surrogacy was less common. Since then, the surrogacy industry has grown exponentially with a projected 1,000 percent increase by 2032. In addition, there are entire organizations devoted to delivering custom-ordered babies to men, none of which will have to submit to background checks or fingerprinting. So expect more cases of surrogate-born child exploitation in the coming years. 

Whether or not the child ends up abused, whether it’s paid or altruistic, whether it’s traditional or gestational, and regardless of the intended parent’s household composition, surrogacy always violates the rights of the child. It is not a problem that can be solved through regulation. The only way to protect children is to ban surrogacy worldwide.

#Anti surrogacy #Surrogacy exploits women #Babies are not commodities #No one is entitled to biological children #Some people should not even be near kids #Are fertility agencies required to do background checks on potential parents?

[karomiiz]

Gives my mother her Mother’s Day card today bc I literally had finals on Mother’s Day so I didn’t go home

Her: oh so nice of you to finally decide to do it

Me: well I’m paying for your lunch today

Her: oh I see you’re trying to make amends and be a good daughter

Are you fucking kidding me this is why your two biological children don’t DO SHIT FOR YOU

#bc you act like an entitled asshole #for no reason #bc news flash without your credit card you’re literally an awful mother #you have given both of your children trauma and this is why you’re older daughter is a functional alcoholic #the only one out of us who truly likes you is your husbands child bc his biological mother WAS A CRACK ADDICT SO RHE BAR IS VERY LOW #in what he considers a good mother #like oh my god #dear god what goes through your cement skull when you say rhese things #and also I’ve done NOTHING TO HER

[pers-books]

Liz Truss’s bid to ban trans women from sports runs out of time after MPs discuss ferrets instead

Left: former PM Liz Truss. Right: two domesticated ferrets (names unknown) Getty/Wikimedia Commons

Former UK prime minister Liz Truss’s recent attempt to ban transgender women from female spaces ran out of time and will now not be debated after MPs joined forces to “talk it out” for five hours, including discussing ferret name choices.

Truss, the UK’s shortest-serving prime minister, sponsored the bill – entitled the Health and Equality Acts (Amendment) Bill – saying it would define sex in law as biological and, in her view, end the “absurd and dangerous situation where biological males self-defining as females can access girls’ and women’s toilets and so on – as well as sports competitions”. 

In recent months, Liz Truss has become increasingly vocal over trans issues and has aligned herself with hard-right groups and figures, even appearing at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the US state of Maryland last month, where she claimed that “trans activists” had infiltrated the UK’s civil service.

One of Liz Truss’s allies, Secretary of State for Trade Kemi Badenoch, slammed the “filibuster”, saying that Labour MPs had used parliamentary time to discuss ferret name choices instead of “protecting children.”

Champion said: “I am interested that my right hon. Friend is keenly mentioning ferrets at every opportunity that she can get in this debate, so let me just put it on record that my brother had a ferret called Oscar.” Eagle replied: “My hon. Friend now has that on the record. I do not really know what else to say about that, except that I am sure that Oscar brought her brother great joy.”

Conservative MP for North Devon Selaine Saxby also joined in the Animal Welfare debate after she was asked by Ms Eagle whether she had ever owned a ferret, “and if so, what was that ferret’s name?”

Saxby replied: “That is an excellent intervention. I will come to ferrets, but unfortunately I have not had the pleasure of one at home myself.”

At one point, the Animal Welfare debate segued into a discussion of the soap opera Coronation Street, with Labour MP for Chester Samantha Dixon saying: “Is my hon. Friend aware of a recent Coronation Street storyline on precisely this issue? It involved the indomitable Evelyn, who is, of course, played by Maureen Lipman, and covered the issues around puppy farming. It was a strong, educational storyline.”

A bill aimed at ban conversion therapy failed to move through Parliament on Friday 1 March for the same reasons, after a debate on it ran out of time: with anti-conversion therapy ban MPs, including gender-critical Labour MP Rosie Duffield and several Conservative MPs, similarly accused of ‘filibustering’.

Were it not too early in the morning for it, I'd be HOWLING with laughter at this!

Here's a suggestion - instead of hounding trans people, do something about the number of children being groomed online!

#Trans Rights are Human Rights #Fuck Liz Truss #UK Politics

[tired-but-willing]

I wholeheartedly do not understand the take of "Luke is Padmés child"/"Leia is Anakins child". I understand it's very popular within the fandom, and it's a way for fans to create a connection between characters— but I just don't see it.

Long-winded rant coming. Hope it makes sense. No spoilers for recent Star Wars media, but I do briefly talk about the Original Trilogy, the Prequels, the books (Legends and Canon), and the comics.

The biggest argument that I have seen for both sides is temperament. "Leia has Anakins temper" "Luke has Padmés calm". But really, that's not wholly accurate. Every time that we see Leia becoming angry, it's righteous anger. She's been taken captive. Her planet has been threatened. Her planet has been destroyed.

Now compare that to Anakin. He's mad Padmé won't return his advances. He's mad the council doesn't trust him— for good reason, but we'll touch on that later in a different post.

A major difference that sits between Leia and Anakin (aside from the obvious), is timing. Leia knows when the time for sarcastic quips is. She knows when the time for angry comments is. And she also knows when to shut it down. If you want to compare her to anyone out of the family, it should be to Padmé; but I'll do you one better. Leia's temperament is all Bail and Breha Organa.

It's plenty sweet to want to connect the twins to the mother they lost, but truthfully, they don't get their personality traits from her. If Leia were to take after anyone, it would be the parents who raised her. The ones who brought her up to be good and kind and care about the people of Alderaan. I went off on a tangent: Leia does not have Anakins temper. Not even close.

Compare her moments of righteous anger to his outburst in the council chambers. Mace Windu— quite fairly, in my opinion— tells Anakin to sit down when his adult self starts throwing a temper tantrum for not becoming a barely-out-of-teens Jedi Master. He's entitled. He thinks he deserves the position, regardless of meeting very few qualifications. I'll likely make another post about that as well. The main point of this paragraph being; for Leia to share Anakins anger, it would need to come from a place of entitlement. It does not.

Now onto Luke. I see people attempting to mould him into Padmé for a multitude of reasons. Some want to, as I said, connect the twins to their mother in a way that is easy. They want a parallel to Padmé and Anakin that can be found in their children. Others, I'm sure, just want to make Luke "softer" (though Padmé is far from soft; some people just lack media comprehension). Luke is not some patron saint of patience. He CAN be patient, yes; but it is not his defining character trait. Throughout the movies, books, and comics, Luke has had outbursts. He's not some holier than thou figure who never gets angry. He just works to overcome that anger. Maybe that is a bit reminiscent of Padmé; but do you know who it reminds me of?

Beru Lars.

The same way his stubborn determination (look at him, look at me in my eyes, and tell me he's not stubborn) reminds me of both Owen and Beru.

There's no crime in comparing the twins to their biological parents. I understand the want. I love parallels in media as much as anyone else. I only wish that Star Wars fans would quit labeling Leia as "just Anakin's daughter" because she got a little angry That One Time when That One Thing happened, and quit labeling Luke as " just Padmé's son" because he's a Cool and Collected Jedi. There is so much more to their characters than just their biological parentage. I am begging people to read more into the characters who actually raised them and gave them love for nineteen years of their lives.

Long-winded and incomprehensible rant over <3 ty for reading.

#luke skywalker #leia organa #padme amidala #anakin skywalker #star wars #meta #ft: bail and breha organa #ft: owen and beru lars

[autolenaphilia]

The radfem concept of “male socialization” doesn’t make much sense. Not that we should take it as some serious theory of trans women’s childhood. It’s an attempt to shut trans women up by misgendering them when a trans woman is being too uppity and dares to talk back to her betters. It’s an attempt to suppress trans women who break the gender stereotype of women being quiet and submissive, cloaked in pseudo-feminist language.

I do think many if not most trans women have internalized transmisogyny, but so do most cis women. How can we not? We are beings who were born, raised and still live in a deeply transmisogynistic society, of course we all internalize misogyny. I think we are all taught a patriarchal idea of men and women, and internalize and relate to them in various ways, in which our gender identity and expression is a major factor. That is however a very subtle and complex problem, one that isn’t covered by the “male socialization” idea that a trans woman who shows any kind of independent thought or aggression is actually a man.

I think transfeminine people as children often don’t have typically male childhoods. We often come across as effeminate and are bullied by boys because of it. Such bullying tends to not build the self-confidence or sense of entitlement that radfems see as signs of “male socialization” in trans women. We often feel alienated from the ideal of a masculine man, and don’t internalize it and make it part of our identity. To the extent we do try to perform manhood or masculinity, it often feels like an uncomfortable mask. Whereas we can often internalize ideas of womanhood instead.

My own case is a good example. I felt alienated from masculinity and manhood, to the point I was often bullied as a child, with physical violence. I never felt ease at the concepts of “boy” and “man” being applied to me, and at around the age of 12 I invented being agender on my own. I decided that “boy” was something biological that had nothing to do with my mind or my identity. I was dissociated from my body and my physical being in the world. I wanted to be a girl, but thought it was impossible. And far from making me an outright misogynist, my alienation made me horrified at the misogyny I had to listen to when boys and men had (sometimes literally) locker room talk with each other around me

I think radfem concepts of male/female socialization overlook that the foundation of gendered socialization must be to get the children to view themselves as girls or boys based on their assigned gender at birth, and then comes that they should behave in feminine or masculine ways accordingly. Trans children, even if they are not aware of being trans or self-identify as such, still often reject or feel some kind of disconnect with their assigned gender, and that makes their socialization pathway crooked.

And when trans women start identifying themselves as women, they have firmly rejected the basis of that gendered socialization. They don’t view themselves as men anymore, if they ever truly did. And that is in itself the most meaningful rejection of any male socialization possible, as it rejects the foundation of such socialization.

#my writings #male socialization

[joyish-little-boy]

One Backstory to Rule them All

Anyone else think about how Sanji's backstory parallels every other Strawhat's backstory?

1. Luffy - Luffy is the most obvious, as they quite literally flashback to Shanks losing his arm right after Sanji explains how Zeff sacrificed his leg for Sanji. It's interesting the parallel here - because Shanks sacrifice is what took Luffy a step further in his dreams and made him determined to be the captain of his own pirate crew rather than simply joining Shank's crew, which is what he wanted to do previously. Now, for Sanji, Zeff's sacrifice had the opposite effect and Sanji chained himself to Zeff and what remained of Zeff's dreams rather than being pushed forward by it.

2. Zoro - I find it interesting that all of the Monster Trio parallel each other in their backstories in that all of them constantly lost when they were kids. Zoro lost 2001 times to Kuina, Luffy lost 50 fights to Ace and 50 to Sabo every day, and Sanji was constantly being beaten by his siblings. Each were called weak by those beating them, and each grew past that. What's also interesting to me is that there's the specific method of losing in Sanji's losing montage that's a direct callback to Zoro's backstory, as Oda includes multiple scenes of Sanji being beat at fights with wooden swords.

The difference being that Kuina is a decent human being and doesn't abuse Zoro. She calls him weak, but ultimately respects him as a rival and Zoro respects her in turn. Luffy also eventually earns that respect, though Sanji never does which leads to a noticeable difference in how Zoro and Sanji see themselves and their places on the crew - Thriller Bark I think being a perfect example of how Sanji believes that he's replaceable in a way that Zoro doesn't.

3. Nami - Nami and Sanji were both kids that found themselves in abusive situations, though at different ages. For both of them, their abuse centered around a man who's belief in their own superiority led them to a sense of entitlement to what was theirs. Arlong believed in his own biological superiority and Judge believed in the superiority of the Vinsmoke name, as well as genetic superiority which led him to experiment on his own children. Arlong values the lives of fishmen, the lives of the rest of his crew over the lives of Nami and the rest of her village. Judge values the lives of his other children over Sanji, seeing him as a failure for the way he was born (although it's also mentioned he blames Sanji for what happened with Sora). I think another very interesting parallel in their stories is the role of their respective older sisters. Nojiko and Reiju both privately support their younger sibling but both cannot stand up to the abusive figure in their lives. Nojiko gets tattoos to match Nami's to help her feel less alone, she listens to Nami, and does her best to try and support her through the 8 years of hell (8 years being another parallel to other members of the crew including Sanji). Reiju for her part laughs along with her brothers, but never lays a hand against Sanji and does her best to patch him up after everyone is gone. Their actions are indirect and discreet, save for the final fights, and that muted care is a very interesting part of each of their characters and it's why, I think neither of them felt it was their place to accompany their siblings on their journey. When Nami leaves, Nojiko lets her go, like she's always let her go. And Reiju pushes Sanji to leave, just as she pushed before. That regret of not being able to help more will stick with them forever.

4. Usopp - Usopp's backstory is all of 5 seconds long and still manages to parallel Sanji's somehow??? If I had a nickel for each strawhat who's mom was sick and died from illness when they were young, I'd have 2 nickels-

5. Chopper - HOO boy the parallel of your biological family hating you for the way that you were born and neglecting/abusing you for it hits right on Chopper's blue nose. Now, it's not all bad for either of them, though - considering they each had someone that accepted them for who they were. Chopper had Hiraluk and Sanji had Sora. Hiraluk inspired Chopper to be a doctor, emphasizing he had the most important qualification - a big heart. Sora meanwhile cried about how kind Sanji was to Reiju and her nurse, when he told her to "get better soon", calling him the "sweetest boy in the world". That kindness - that caring nature, is something that Hiraluk and Sora would do anything to protect and it's so evident that these two cared deeply for their kids. It's why Hiraluk ate that poisoned mushroom and encouraged Chopper to become a doctor and Sora ate the ruined food despite her fragile constitution and asked Sanji to cook for her again! This is love, baby!

These two kids were willing to risk so much to bring nourishment and care to the ones they loved, BOTH standing up to their biological families - Chopper fighting through his old herd of reindeer to get the mushroom, and Sanji sneaking out risking his father's wrath and braving the storm and wild dogs to deliver the food. Hiraluk and Sora are Chopper's and Sanji's source of encouragement which kick start each of their passions. And both of them tragically die which is honestly just heartbreaking. But all hope isn't lost, and both Chopper and Sanji find a new mentor, ones who are strict - but do care a lot for each of them, and help them develop the discipline they need to learn their respective crafts. Kurehara and Zeff are interesting parallels, both tough older mentors who are sharp of tongue and strict with their new apprentices. They can be this way without discouraging Chopper and Sanji, because the passion has already been ignited and so it's easy to see how they're good fits for helping these two live up to their full potential.

6. Robin - the big parallel with these two boils down to these two scenes and I sob about both of them.

Saul and Reiju, telling them to set out to sea, placing faith in the vastness of the world, knowing that they've done everything they can for now and planting that seed of hope that someday Robin and Sanji will meet people that can give them what they deserve is just such a touching moment. While this parallel is interesting, what's also interesting is the ways in which these two characters differ. The danger that Robin runs from is something that chases her, whereas the danger that Sanji runs from is his family and once he's made it onto the boat he's free. Robin thought she would never be safe, Sanji thought he was safe up until the wedding fiasco. And precisely the thing that hurts Sanji - the fact that his family wanted him gone - is so different from what's hurting Robin - the fact that she'll never be left alone by the government. Robin is wanted for the skills she and only she has, her story is (wo)man vs world, her bounty set at 79,000,000 which is the literal value on her head. Sanji is unwanted for the skills he, and he alone (in his family) lacks. There's no bounty, no one goes after him. His story is man vs self and undoing the damage that was done to his psyche as a child. It's so fascinating to me the way that both of these characters are saved by the crew in similar but such different ways, the way that each of them wanted to die, but for different reasons. Robin wanted to sacrifice herself because she's been betrayed and hurt by the world so many times that she couldn't trust in the strawhats' love. She loved them too much to risk being hurt like that again. Sanji wanted to sacrifice himself because he'd rather die than inconvenience the crew. Rather than not believing in their love, he doesn't believe he's worth that love, preferring to solve his problems on his own. And I think that it's so fitting the way that both of their stories intersect in Wano, with Robin being able to protect Sanji and Sanji finally believing in his own worth enough to ask for help. They're such different characters, with Sanji wearing his heart on his sleeves and Robin holding her's close to her chest and such interesting mirrors of each other.

7. Franky - they're cyborgs, what else can I say? The difference here is clear - Sanji's body was modified without his consent, whereas Franky modified himself. They're also both unwanted children, with Franky's parents abandoning him on Water 7 whereas Sanji's father was happy when Sanji left.

8. Brook - the parallel here is in the loneliness that both of them experienced, and really Sanji just got a taste of what Brook went through. Sanji and Brook were both parts of different crews before they were on the strawhats, albeit Sanji as a child and for a very short time, whereas Brook was with the Rumbar pirates for a longer time as an adult journeying very similarly to how the strawhats are now. Both were the sole survivors of their respective crews after being attacked, and though Sanji had Zeff on the rock, neither of them communicated with each other for the first 70 days after their initial agreement. Sanji felt a taste of the 50 years that Brook had to go through, with no food or water or way to escape off his abandoned pirate ship.

9. Jimbei - honestly I don't really have a good comparison for these two, other than they're both people who when confronted with the cruelty of others chose irrational kindness. Jimbe eventually learned how to live with and respect humans, and Sanji wouldn't let his family die, even after everything they put him through. They're both people who derived their codes of honor from others - Jimbei from Fisher Tiger and Queen Otohime and Sanji from Zeff. Idk maybe there's more there, but i don't really have too much to say about these two

Anyways, idk i just think they're neat 👉👈 and the way that Oda threw in parallels to all the other character's when completing Sanji's backstroy is so fascinating to me

#monkey d. luffy #roronoa zoro #nami #vinsmoke sanji #usopp #franky #nico robin #tony tony chopper #brook #one piece #jimbei

[niiwa-angel]

I have so many questions about this comic it isn't even funny.

1. How is recognizing ones biological sex dehumanizing and cruel?

2. Does the artist know it's very obvious what sex people are? Nobody is being outed when they have to use the bathroom assigned to their biological sex. If anything, they're outed by using the bathroom assigned to the opposite sex, since everyone can see by looking at them that they do not belong there.

3. Not a question but I think it's absolutely hilarious that, just like in their real life arguments, this trans activists comic completely bulldozes over the very real concern about women's safety with a bunch of incomprehensible word salad. If they're one thing, they're consistant

4. So having a male student use the men's bathroom is humiliating and cruel, but forcing little girls to expose themselves in a space that should be safe isn't?

5. Again, not a question but this comic talks about trans students "hating the world if someone asked if they deserved to live a quiet life at school mind their own business" and I have a few thoughts on that. For one, nobody is saying trans kids can't live a quiet life at school, we're saying males can't go into the girls rooms and girls can't go into the men's rooms. Two, parents are entitled and should be encouraged to raise concerns about their children's well being. Three, this once again glosses over the rights and safety of little girls. Why are boys who identify as girls allowed more protections than actual girls?

6. How is it child abuse to make the boys use the boys rooms but forcing girls to share their intimate spaces isn't?

Anyway, fellow Radfems, I'd love your thoughts.

#radfem #radical feminism #radfems please respond #radical feminist #radical feminists do interact #radfems please interact #radfem welcome #radfems please touch #gender critical #trans men are women #trans women are men #trans violence against children #trans misogyny #sex based rights #protect womens spaces

[gegengestalt]

Some thoughts on how Dmitri Karamazov and Pavel Smerdyakov are perfect foils

*Keep in mind that this contains spoilers for the entire book and that in order for this comparison to work, one must assume that the rumour about Fyodor being Pavel Smerdyakov's biological father has to be true.

While there is a lot written on the theological debate of Ivan and Alyosha Karamazov, I have yet to see a comparison of Mitya Karamazov and Pavel Smerdyakov. Perhaps I haven't explored enough, but these are my two cents (dare I say 3000 rubles) on the matter. Both taken care of by Grigory, both suspects in the murder of Fyodor Pavlovich, yet two men couldn't be more different from each other. I will write down my thoughts in this order:

Different from their birth (social circumstances)

Contrasting the individuals (their descriptions and characterization, side by side)

Brotherhood (relationships to Ivan and Alyosha, preparation for the next point

Narrative (their place in the narrative)

1. Different from their birth

From even before they were born, their paths are opposed. Mitya is born out of the union of Fyodor Pavlovich and Adelaida Miusova, an aristocratic, beautiful and educated young woman who married Fyodor against her family's wishes and was no innocent victim of his. Even when he left her son, it was her choice, though a hard one (and probably the best one, considering her fate.)(BookI,chapter1). Stinking Lizaveta didn't have much of a choice. She was a poor and mentally disabled woman who suffered violence from Fyodor shortly after Adelaida left, and died in childbirth (BIIIch2). Mitya keeps a connection to his mother through his inheritance, but for Pavel, it's a curse. He is "the stinking son of Stinking Lizaveta", and ironically the child that remains in his father's home for the longest time.

From these circumstances, the children grow up to be a firstborn who feels entitled to what he feels is owed to him, and an illegitimate son whose work as a servant is taken for granted. Yet, even when Mitya is of a good social position and Pavel is of a lower one, Mitya is the one who seems to sink below what is considered to be how an aristocrat should act in public and is compared to a beast, and he has often surrounded himself with peasants in his parties. Pavel is the one who takes small steps to strive for more than what he's given, he likes to dress well, he learns and has aspirations beyond what he's expected to do. (For this whole paragraph, BVch2)

2. Contrasting the individuals

Their differences come down to individual characteristics as well, and it's evident even in how they present themselves. Mitya is described as muscular and sporting signs of masculinity like a moustache that is often seen in military men (BIIch6) He walks with long strides, he's loud, outwardly emotional and often gesticulates in exaggerated manners. Pavel's main physical feature is his weakness and sickliness. Compared to Mitya's masculinity, Pavel is portrayed as emasculate, as he is compared to an eunuch. He has a silent and discreet demeanour, and he's not very expressive. (BIIIch6, BIXch6)

Mitya is impulsive. This causes him to have a temper and not be very smart in the way that requires focus, patience and forethought (seeing him as completely stupid leaves out so much of his character). What Pavel lacks in the physical strength that Mitya has, he makes up for with a more calculated and patient approach. He's neat and meticulous even in the night of the murder, while Mitya runs around stained in blood. Speaking of meticulousness, it's interesing to me how Pavel's behaviour could be described as effeminate, while Mitya's masculinity is overdone through several masculine stereotypes at once (the knight of honour, the brute, the sensitive and tortured artist).

When it comes to women, God, their country and poetry, their opinions are comically different. Mitya enjoys the attention he gets from women and returns it, he expresses love for God and Russia in the text and he's very fond of poetry, quoting it often and even speaking with rhymes and wordplays at times. (BookIIIchIII&IV, Epilogue 2). Pavel happens to disdain all of these. While he holds contempt for both men and women, the suggestion of marriage digusted him. He rejects God, claims to hate all of Russia and declares that poetry is rubbish ("who ever talks in rhyme?" well, it seems like Mitya does)(BIIIch6, BVch2).

3. Brotherhood

Ivan and Alyosha, the children of Sofia Ivanovna, have contrasting relationships with their half- brothers. Mitya, who quickly grew fond of Alyosha, puts him in a moral high- ground and pours out his heart to him. Alyosha accepts it and reciprocates his brotherly love, even if he isn't as outwardly enthusiastic. Pavel, on the other hand, looked up to Ivan on the basis of thinking they could be alike and shows great interest in Ivan's displays of intellect. Ivan is increasingly scornful of Pavel as the story progresses. Ivan and Alyosha's contrasts extend to their half- brothers as well. Mitya and Alyosha are the life- affirming pair of half- brothers, while Ivan and Pavel are the pair with the ideas deemed destructive by the narrative.

Two fun contrasts I noticed, as a side note:

Mitya and Alyosha are two sides of not working for money, and Pavel and Ivan are two sides of work.

Book III ends with Alyosha and Mitya parting ways and Book V ends with Pavel and Ivan parting ways.

4. Narrative

While Ivan and Alyosha carry the theological and philosophical discussion in the heart of the book, Mitya and Pavel are the main players in the world that puts the theories and ideals to the test. Dostoyevsky's narrative attempts to make the reader sympathize and have faith in the greatly flawed human being that is Mitya. Those who believed in his capacity for spontaneous good will never believe that he murdered his father, while those who didn't would have a harder time believing in his open- ended redemption. Pavel's case is a little more complicated. His inner thoughts aren't as exposed as Mitya's, and his motivations aren't explicitly nor reliably stated, so it's harder to consider his importance unless one pays attention to how the narrator presents him as an outsider, a shallow presence. Not even his relationship with Marya is explored. I have my reasons to believe this may be a deliberate choice, since a theme in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's work is the suffering of the lower classes. Mitya is a great character, but Pavel isn't, not because he's badly written, but because perhaps his conflicts aren't Mitya's intense and paradoxical angst and passion. Perhaps there is a lot of boring and unromantic pain in the world.

Mitya and Pavel execute Alyosha's and Ivan's respective positions, even further. Mitya's religious fervor surpasses Alyosha's, his faith is a simple and unwavering affirmation even when he's drowning in the guilt of sin or Rakitin pesters him to dissuade him from his faith. His religiosity goes so far that he overdoes one of the core ideas of the book: while he embraces Zosima's idea of guilt for all, it doesn't just mean that he should be guilty for everyone, but that everyone is guilty for everyone else. Those are fundamentally different things. As for Pavel, he dared to do what Ivan doesn't, he put his ideas in practice (BXIch7-8). However, I don't believe that he was directly inspired by him. I think he adapted the ideas to his own interests. Sometimes people love to realize what they already knew, and wait until they find a justification. One of my favourite things about Dostoyevsky is that we see the philosophical content happen in the world of his stories.

From their birth to their fates, two men couldn't be more different. Mitya, who acted or expressed himself in a suicidal manner well over ten times, ultimately stays away from the pistols and declares a sense of responsibility for a crime he did not commit. Pavel, who was shown to feel attachment to his own life and save his own skin, destroys himself out of his own volition after tormenting Ivan.

Thank you so much for reading if you made it all the way to the end!

#the brothers karamazov #how do I even tag this? tbh I could write even more on this #tbk #dmitri karamazov #pavel smerdyakov #fyodor dostoyevsky

[coochiequeens]

Speakers and hosts agreed that instead of regulating the practice of surrogacy, which would only create demand, efforts should be made to highlight that surrogacy means, in essence, the commodification of children who become objects of surrogacy agreements, which is a deep violation of their human dignity.“

The European Christian Political Movement together with the offices of Members of the European parliament Bert Jan Ruissen (ECR) and Miriam Lexmann (EPP) organized on 23 May a conference on parenthood policies in the European Union, with a focus on the issue of surrogacy.

The two keynote speakers invited to provide expertise on the matter were Adina Portaru, Senior Counsel for the faith-based legal advocacy organization ADF International and Olivia Sarton, the scientific director of the French children’s rights organization Juristes Pour l’Enfance (Lawyers for Childhood).

The conference came as a response to the European Commission’s recent proposal for a EU-certificate of parenthood which is currently being debated in the European Parliament. This initiative would put pressure on member state governments to sanction surrogacy even though a country may not allow the practice.

It also comes as a contradiction to what the Commission has repeatedly said on various occasions: that the European institutions do not have competenceover issues like family, marriage, parenting, etc.

The hosts suggested that surrogacy fuels abuse, human trafficking, violating the rights of vulnerable women and children, in essence violating human dignity. The practice commodifies both children and women’s wombs, which is unacceptabl, they said.

Olivia Sarton underlined that surrogacy is a new form of exploitation that takes advantage of the bodies of women and appropriates the children they bear. She added that the conditions under which many women consent to the practice (state of need and psychological fragility) cast doubt on whether they freely gave their consent. She also made reference to the Casablanca Declaration, which calls for the universal abolition of surrogacy.

According to Portaru, the above-mentioned proposal of the European Commission puts into practice a very specific objective that the EU has pursued and promoted in the past years, captured in the slogan: “If you are parent in one country, you are parent in every country”. For her, this means that “if one EU country recognizes, for example, a US judgment which recognizes parenthood emanating from a surrogate agreement, that relationship or birth certificate will have to be recognized throughout the EU. Therefore, de facto, all kinds of surrogacy will be allowed and justified through the proposed regulation”.

Speakers and hosts agreed that instead of regulating the practice of surrogacy, which would only create demand, efforts should be made to highlight that surrogacy means, in essence, the commodification of children who become objects of surrogacy agreements, which is a deep violation of their human dignity.

#Europe #european union #Juristes Pour l’Enfance (Lawyers for Childhood) #The European Christian Political Movement #Anti surrogacy sunday #surrogacy exploits women #Babies are not commodities #no one is entitled to biological children #Casablanca declaration

[michelleleewise]

i’ve requested something twice because i wasn’t sure if you got it but i figured it would’ve been posted by now. if you don’t want to write it just say so

Well hello anon. Now, to be honest this comes across as very entitled.....but it may not have been meant that way so, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and kinda give you a peak into my life as of today......

Number one- I work a full time job, so I'm pretty constantly running around work like a maniac at any given time.

Number 2- I have 3 children.... all girls and one who is autistic, so to say they take a pretty decent amount of time is an understatement.

Number 3- now, not many people know about this, but I'm going to share it with you just so you can get the entire picture..... i am currently going through a divorce from my husband of 17 years because he decided to "meet" other women if you get my drift.

Soooooo, I am now working, taking care of 3 children, and dealing with the emotional fallout that comes with 17 years of my life washed down the drain for some passing fancy and doing all of it BY MYSELF. my mom passed away last year, my step father stopped speaking to me about a month after, I have no contact with my biological father because he's a toxic pos who decided I wasn't good enough because I'm not a male, my brothers took his side. I have only a few close friends I speak to on the regular so everything is sitting and swirling in my head non stop.

Now don't get me wrong, I love and adore ALL of my followers, ALL of my asks, ALL of you guy's requests are very very important to me. I'm working towards getting them done, I really am. But I'm not a machine. I can't pump out fics like it's nothing. I put alot of thought into each one, I make sure eveyone gets exactly what they ask for.

So I guess all I'm asking is be patient with me, because I am trying.

#sorry anon #anon asks #im trying so hard #im tryin my best #divorce sucks #be patient with me #life is brutal

[neurotypicalabusesurvivor]

ASPD is a prefect example how psychology and mental health industry is bullshit.

One of the main criteria for ASPD is a consent disregard for the rights of others. But what is a right? Who gets to decide what a right is? A right is just something someone feel entitled to. Men right activist, father rights, private property rights are things used to oppress people that claim to be rights. A "right" is just something people feel entitled to which may or may not be helpful to society. Even rights which are for the most part good, like freedom of speach can be used to advocate for genocide. The freedom of Assocation can be used by queerphobic parents to disown their queer children. Private property (liberal definition) rights can be used to justify artificial poverty. In other words people with ASPD do not buy into the entitlements of others.

under this logic all men have ASPD because of the patarachy. All white people have ASPD because of white supremacy. All ableist (both neurotypical and neurodivergent) have ASPD. So why are these groups of people who have a history of civil right violations not label as ASPD. Because they do so in a socially acceptable way. Sexism and Racism is still social acceptable to a degree even after many decades of social justice activism.

the basing morality in and of it self is inherently problematic as you are being dependent on a biological function to decide who is moral and admoral. there are many reasons why someone might not feel guilt or remorse. The chief amongst these is dehumanization, racism, sexism, queerphobia, ableism, ageism, classism is all rooted in dehumanization. as a result, a lot of abusers engage in similar behaviors as cluster Bs. This comparison is only on surface level. Abusers get away with abuse because their behavior are protected by society, the verry same society that condition them to be abusers. Are jails are filled with narcissist and sociopaths because they do not have neuronormative privilege. When they act "abusive" they do so in ways that are not socially acceptable. meanwhile rapist, child molesters, killer cops, imperalist soldier get away with their brutality.``

The status Quo doesn't want to admit that the patarachy exist, so when a man become a serial killers they claim they have ASPD refusing to admit that people with ASPD are not immune to the patarachy. If the patarachy did not influence people to become serial killer a equal amount of men and women would be a serial killer and they would kill for the same reasons. Tough ASPD may influence why the serial killer's behavior the ASPD is not the root cause. The role of the medical model of disability as will all forms of oppression is deradicalizations. Just as the ruling class and the privilege class redirected attention away by blaming the jews, immigrants or othger margalized people the medical model redirect attention away by blaming "mentally ill people"

This brings me to my next point neurotypes are social constructs. They are the interpation of human biology that involves the brain. These interpations is done so for the neruonormative gaze. We decide them by comparing neurodivergent people to a standard of health that is also socially constructed. Alot of time people are deemed "disabled" or "mentally ill" because they are not compatible with the status qou, as status qou that is also socially constructed, but also socially constructed for the benefit of the ruling class at the expense of everyone else.

but.... but.... alot of these people are neurodivergent. Neurodivergent people can benefit from the oppression of other neurodivergents who is not the same support level as them and neurotype as them. Being neurodivergent is not a magical pill that make you anti ableist. A neurotypical is just the highest possible amount of neuronormative privilege possible. Alot of neuronormative privilege is required to get a college degree and to become a psychologist or a neuroscientist so even if the mental health professional is neurodivergent they still have a respectable degree of neuronormative privilege.

What is to be done, You may ask? neurodivergents must seize control of the psych industry away from those who want to benefit from neuronormative privilege and weaponize it against those who want to benefit from neuronormative privilege. People who do not accept neurodivergent trait will be pathologized. We will subject them to the same trauma that neurodivergent was violently subjected to. where therapy was weaponized against neurodivergents and used as a excuse to maintain the status Quo. we will seize control of this industry and use it to oppress ableist. Instead of expecting neurodivergent to mask ableist will be expected to learn coping skills, cognitive behavior skills to reduce distressed cause by ableism. Gone will be the days in which ableist infantilize themselves by hiding behind a therapist and psych meds.

What if this system destroys the mental health of an ableist. If you're in a self defense saturation do you care if you defending yourself result in grave bodily injury of your attacker. Do slaves during a slave revolt care about the mental health of their master family or employees. Do feminist care about the mental health of there rapist. Oppressors forfeit there right by violating the justified rights of others. There has not been a single major civil right earned that did not involve violence and trauma. The peaceful protest of the liberal is a lie. When people with neuronormative privilege rape disabled women like it goes out of style, sit by and do nothing as killer cop gun disabled people down in streets, though certian neurotype in jail, the bourgeoise drive disabled people into extreme poverty, imperialist engage in wars that destory the mental health of the global south and homelessness how dare you care about the mental health of ableist. How dare you expect mentally ill people to care about the mental health of their oppressors.

#aspd #social model of disability #medical model of disability #mental illness #leftism #neurodiversity #ableism #medical model #actually mentally ill #social construct

[thenightfolknetwork]

Hey!!

(I saw your fairy girlfriend last week, I think. I'd recognize that snooty accent anywhere, and she looked angry. My condolences to whoever she's arguing with)

So, changelings! It seems that stealing children from their cribs never gets old, and if my parents didn't notice that their little baby suddenly had a mouth full of teeth from one morning to the next, then, well, they were begging for it.

You see, I'm not a person from the past, but lately I keep thinking about the child who was traded for me. I wonder how different it must have been to grow up human in a world of creatures, and whether it was as strange as growing up a changeling in such a sapio-normative world.

I keep thinking about a girl with lily hair and the right amount of teeth in her mouth, irredeemably human, despite her upbringing.

I know no one keeps humans as pets anymore, so I like to think she had a good childhood, unlike mine. For a while, thinking about it seemed enough.

Not anymore.

I feel like I'm rambling here, but I don't know how to explain it any other way than this: I was swapped for a child and never thought much about her. Today, I think about her every day.

I would like to find her. Does she still look like me? Or rather, do I still look like her? Or did the magic flow away like water? Or were we never alike to begin with? There are many questions and few answers, so I come to ask you for help.

Or to your irascible fairy girlfriend.

Where do I find the person I was meant to be?

(And if I find her, how the hell am I supposed to act?)

First of all, reader, kindly refrain from making comments about my personal life, the people with whom I might share that life, and the terminology we may or may not use to describe that relationship.

Secondly, I feel I must remind you that not all reclaimed slurs are acceptable to all members of the community they describe. In short: call her an “f-word” again, and there will be consequences.

Despite your quite astonishing lack of manners, I have chosen to respond to your question because I think it speaks to a very common feeling among people who were the subject of infant substitution.

It's easy to get fixated imagining your “other self” – the child who, were it not for an almost arbitrary choice made by your biological parents, would have grown up in your place.

However, I am not sure I understand what you hope to gain by reaching out to this person. Please understand, your sudden presence in their life has the potential to be extremely disruptive.

She is more than just your erstwhile template; she is her own person, with her own life and her own feelings and ideas about the way she was raised. I see no reason why you should feel entitled to impose yourself on her for your own whims.

Instead, I encourage you to consider what it is you feel this reconnection would achieve. You say you've never thought much about her in the past. I wonder if there is some reason you've suddenly developed an interest.

Perhaps there has been a change of circumstance in your personal or professional life which has left you feeling disconnected and uncertain of your place in the world. Perhaps you've encountered some new feelings of self-doubt, and are seeking some way to reassure yourself.

Or perhaps you are simply bored. Whatever the underlying cause, none of these are good reasons for inserting yourself into this woman's life.

Take some time to ascertain what might be causing this new obsession. I feel quite sure your rumination on your substitute is a symptom of something else. Get to the root of the issue and handle the matter from there – and leave this poor woman alone.

#answered #the nightfolk network #monstrous agonies

[ukrfeminism]

1 minute read

A former barrister has won the right to sue an institute of higher eduction that allegedly ejected him from a course over his “gender critical beliefs”.

A judge has ruled that James Esses’s claim that he was treated unlawfully as a result of his beliefs should be tested at a full employment tribunal.

The trainee therapist has alleged that the UK Council for Psychotherapy ordered the Metanoia Institute in Ealing, west London, to have Esses thrown off his masters course.

It is alleged that the council issued that edict after Esses had raised concerns about the institute’s attitude to transgender issues, particularly relating to children.

At a preliminary hearing Esses set out the beliefs that he said should entitle him to legal protection. According to the judgement, these include “that sex is binary, immutable and biological, and gender is a question of identity based upon a variety of factors, including culture and socialisation”.

Esses went on to add to his definition “a collection of attributes or traits typically associated with a particular sex. Although someone may exhibit more masculine or feminine attributes or traits, it does not change their biological sex.”

The former criminal defence specialist said that “gender identity and sex are independent of one another and separate”.

Relating to the approach of psychotherapists to these issues, Esses argued that “gender reassignment is not de facto the appropriate treatment for all individuals experiencing gender dysphoria and that there may be such individuals who ought not to be treated in this manner immediately and/or merely by fact of their gender dysphoria”.

His view was that “psychotherapists should explore by way of open-ended discussion the context and possible causes of a person’s gender dysphoria, which may in some cases lead to the person desisting from a course of potentially irreversible and potentially damaging medical intervention such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and sex reassignment surgery”.

The hearing in London was told that after Esses began his studies at the Metanoia Institute — which awards degrees and provides psychology, psychotherapy and counselling training — he applied for trainee membership of the UK Council for Psychotherapy in 2020.

And last year Esses sent an email to the council expressing his “concern with a lack of balance in the discussion and debate around treatment of gender dysphoria, particularly for children”. But the next month he received an email from the council’s registrar warning him that if he wished to apply for full membership he would have to abide by the body’s “ethical framework”.

Later an email was sent by the council to the chief executive of Metanoia, which stated “we are greatly concerned by this situation”.

Esses’s contract with the Metanoia Institute was then terminated and three weeks later he was informed that as he was no longer a student. His trainee membership of the council was also terminated.

Esses has now claimed that he was discriminated against, harassed and victimised because of his beliefs.

In his ruling, the employment judge Beyzade Beyzade said that Esses’s allegations should be tested at a full hearing, saying: “This is a fact sensitive exercise that the tribunal at a final hearing will be best placed to carry out.”

[ahundredhundredheartbeats]

Children in crisis do not exist to be a resource for you to build a family if you can’t or don’t want to have biological children but you still want to be a parent.

Children in crisis do not exist to heal your infertility trauma.

Children in crisis do not exist to heal you in any way.

Children in crisis do not exist to be a solution to your infertility.

Children in crisis do not exist to be your backup plan if you can’t have biological children.

Wanting a child does not entitle you to having one.

WANTING A CHILD DOES NOT ENTITLE YOU TO HAVING ONE.

If you are not adopting solely to help a child in crisis, if you are doing it because you want a child, you are not helping a child, you are just helping yourself.

And IF you want to help a child in crisis, it is better for them if you do not sever their legal relationship to their biological family by adopting them. You can hold guardianship and provide a loving, safe, secure home for them without adopting, and this is by far better for the wellbeing of the child.

Choosing adoption over guardianship because you don’t want to “deal with” the biological family is selfish and wrong, and it causes objective permanent harm to the child you claim to want to “help.”

The “blank slate” theory is a myth.

Adoption is trauma. Yes, even for newborns.

Separation from the birthing parent and the biological family is trauma. Yes, even for newborns.

Severing all ties to biological family is trauma. Yes, even for newborns.

Removing a child from their culture and heritage causes harm, and in the case of white people taking children of color from their communities, it's perpetuating the progress of colonialism and genocide.

Taking responsibility for a child in crisis means prioritizing their trauma care and their wellbeing above all else.

It is demonstrably true that guardianship and kinship care are less traumatic to a child than severing all ties to biological family through legal adoption.

If you've never heard of guardianship or kinship care, you are not knowledgeable enough to even consider being able to care for a child in crisis.

The adoption industry is a for-profit, multi-billion-dollar industry with a horrific history of human trafficking, eugenicist ideology, and straight-up baby stealing. These issues have not been sufficiently addressed in legislation and regulations, and the industry continues to exploit, violate, and traumatize untold numbers of children every day.

The adoption industry prioritizes the wants of the adopting parents over the wellbeing of the child.

Adoption is not the beautiful, romanticized method of family-building that the dominant culture makes it out to be.

Children are not property to be passed around for the pleasure of adults. Children are human beings with human rights. Children have a right to know who they are and where they biologically come from. Children have a right to maintain connections with their biological family, their culture, and their heritage. Adoption always interrupts the natural relationships inherent to these rights.

#original #adoption industry #adoption #human trafficking #trauma informed #child abuse #child exploitation

[tonechkag]

Whats your stance on adoption as an adoptee?

It's a disgusting predatory industry that takes advantage of vulnerable women & sells their babies. Adoption is not your family building tool no matter your sexual orientation, fertility or financial situation. It's a tool of genocide & the commodification of children.

Many of us were kidnapped, trafficked & sold and our families have been looking for us all our lives.

Many of us get abused, molested, tortured & murdered by our adopters.

We get rehomed on Facebook like animals when our adopters don't want us anymore.

Adoptees are also at a significantly higher risk of suicide than non-adoptees, there's even a day of rememberence for us.

Adoption needs to be abolished entirely & family preservation needs to be prioritized above all else ESPECIALLY over the wishes of people who feel entitled to buy someone else's child.

Here's a few more resources I could find

If you want more stories & evidence, look up #adopteevoices on just about any social media platform & listen to the adoptees who are telling the truth of what adoption is.

And for any adoptees who have a good story, I am truly truly happy for you. However, you are one of the lucky ones. Adoption destroyed my life in more ways than one & it's destroyed the lives of countless other adoptees & their biological families. I will not argue with people on this so don't bother trying.

#adoptee voices #anti adoption #adoption is cultural genocide #international adoptee #transnational adoptee #adoption #adoption industry #abolition #pro choice #pro choice adoptee #adoption trauma #russian adoptee #chuvash adoptee

[kavinskhhy]

Heartfelt pledge for unity to our fandom family

My dear Grishaverse family,

We're all heartbroken after Netflix announced the cancellation. For most of us, this wasn't just a TV show but what saved us from the depth of despair as we were struggling with some of the darkest chapters in our lives. A few years back, I was very sick and almost died. This show gave me hope, courage, strength, and a reason to fight, survive, and see another day. I met great friends through Grishaverse conventions and online fandom groups. After losing all my biological family, this fandom has become my home, family, and refuge from the darkness of real life.

And let's not forget that aside from a few stars and famous names on the show, for most of the cast and crew, this has been the most important project in their entire career. People often make the false assumption that actors are all rich, looking down at us from the penthouses of their ivory towers. But if we look past the few stars, every frame & scene involves the efforts and toiling of dozens or hundreds whose names we ignore within the credits as we click on the next episode. The majority of people working in the movie industry don't have stable jobs, pensions, or even health insurance. The majority of them struggle to make rent. Imagine their lives and the lives of their children when they come back after a long strikes season to be hit with the news that they don't have a job to go back to. Imagine yourself, your parents, siblings, & children going through that. Some of us, working in other industries, like service, know that feeling too well & can very well relate. For the rest of you, I hope you will never experience that.

So it's crucial that we stay together, united and strong as a family as we call for a renewal.

But recently, as I joined others in campaigning and raising funds to convince Netflix or any other streaming service to bring back the show, I've been confronted with a divide within our fandom family. I do understand some of the points of view and every single person is entitled to their own opinion. In fact, there's disagreement in every family. My sister and I fought a lot, often over the most trivial things. But from the outside, we always represented a united family. Sometimes, I would be jealous of her getting a gift. But she would tell me that as long as one of us got a prize, we could both share it. It doesn't matter whether it would be the 3rd season of Shadow And Bone that we'll get or a Six of Crows spinoff. We can share in each other's success because one will lead to the other. That has in fact happened for many shows, which have gotten both further seasons and spinoffs thanks to the strength of their fandoms.

We're currently campaigning on two fronts: the petition (https://www.change.org/p/save-shadow-and-bone-5ff54b93-d127-44a9-9f77-dfc410bdc2ba) & the Kickstarter to raise money for billboard (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/647648562/save-the-crows-six-of-crows-spinoff)s

We've gotten a number of objections I wish to respond to:

• Why not invest all that money, time, and effort in supporting a more important cause? This argument makes a few false assumptions. One can support more than one cause. I know for a fact that many of our donors to the Kickstarter campaign and all the organizers also donate and support various charities and noble causes. There are indeed wars and genocide going on in our current world. I have donated to Doctors Without Borders ([MSF.org](https://MSF.org)), and I highly encourage everyone to do so. Moreover, as I've mentioned earlier, this show isn't just entertainment. As a war, genocide, and abuse survivor, I know the value of hope and having a little respite from the brutalities of real life to gather enough energy to survive another day. The 9,000 dollars this Kickstarter has raised so far isn't enough to end wars or world hunger. But we have been getting messages from people in bomb shelters who have gotten to watch the show and it helped them. The show also provides positive representations for people like us who cope with genocide, human trafficking, civil war, abuse, chronic illness, disability, mental illness, and even being bullied and alienated for just being different. It gives us hope that we can turn our lives around. That we aren't too broken to save ourselves. That we matter. And again, let's not forget that for the crew working on this show, it is a matter of survival, it's how they feed their children and make rent. If our 9,000 dollars would have a chance at saving a hundred crew members from homelessness, I would take it.

• Why should the Darkling fans care about another season or a Crows spinoff? Putting aside the bitterness of "why should I care about a cause that will not benefit me personally?", we can still hope that another season or a spinoff could eventually give us back the Darkling as per how the Rule of Wolves book ended. Another season or the spinoff can have the plot of saving the Darkling (if you haven't read RoW, you need to check it and the ending of it where the crows are to be given a mission for that very purpose.) I won't go into more details due to spoilers.

• Why should the fans of other non-crow characters care about a Crow's spinoff? Based on the Crooked Kingdom plot, characters like Nikolai, Zoya, Genya, David (we don't know exactly what happened to him in the show, so let's hope for the best), Tamar, and Tolya are also featured. As for Mal and Alina, we can hope that based on the direction season 2's ending has taken, both could be featured in the spinoff. And even if the current script didn't feature them yet, we can still convince the writers to remedy that and include both of them. We do have our channels to do so if only we get the show back.

So, I ask you, my dear family, please help us save this show that is much more than just a show.

Please donate to the Kickstarter if you are able & ask friends, social media followers, and anyone you can influence to do so: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/647648562/save-the-crows-six-of-crows-spinoff

Please sign the petition: https://www.change.org/p/save-shadow-and-bone-5ff54b93-d127-44a9-9f77-dfc410bdc2ba

Please let us all keep a united front on social media and in public. Like every family, we can have our differences, but together we stand stronger than alone. Don't let them divide and conquer us.

And please, please let's keep it civil, respectful, and polite both in the comments here and anywhere online, on social media, and on any other platform.

I wish you all the best and hope we'll get our show back. Lots of love for all of you my dear Grishaverse family.

[Text and image taken from the subReddit of the grisha verse, all credits to u/Intelligent-Term486]

#shadow and bone #grishaverse #six of crows #crooked kingdom #alina starkov #leigh bardugo #the darkling #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #kanej #darklina #nikolai lantsov #king of scars #jesper fahey #wylan x jesper