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tokillamockingbird427 · 3 months

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I finally remembered to Mich post at a convenient time. (Get it? Mich post? Sounds like shit post?)

Mich is an OC I created with @callofdooty and he is a massive meme! Half of the shit we gave to him character-wise was done with the thought "This would be funny." and we were 1) Right 2) Also somehow added depth+feels to it.

Mich, pronounced like Mitch, is actually named Michael. Full name, Michael Rorke. And he is Gabriel Rorke's older brother. Oh no, there's two of them! *Screaming* (Credit to Doot for naming him, the genius.)

Read more insert/cut off due to length

Mich and Gabe grew up in a classically patriotic household, and were pretty close siblings, even with the latter having a temper for everyone. (Mich has a scar on his chin/side of his mouth because Gabe whipped a rock at him once.) Unfortunately, Mich was a bit of a black sheep and felt he didn't really fit in with his family, for various reasons. So once he could leave, he did, and just never really looked back. Which left Gabe feeling abandoned. (Mich's reasons range from not vibing with his parents authoritarian structure to being queer+trans and them not really being the best people to support that.)

After he was out of the house Mich went on to live his best life. He is best described as an anarchist weed-head woods-hermit survivalist. Quite the description! My favorite idea for him was that he'd live in "No Man's Land" post ODIN because the only government presence is the military, who doesn't really bother with random people in the woods.

Here's where the depth comes in: We decided the reason Gabe is the way he is, Americas ugliest lap-dog, is because he was upset with Mich for leaving and more or less rebelling against him for it. (I have a quote to sum it up "Rebellion for Mich was running away from their parents. Rebellion for Gabe was running away from Mich.") Mich didn't really intend to abandon Gabe, it's more or less something that happened and only tried to correct once they were both adults. (Which didn't really work out well. Gabe is very iffy with him.)

Now there's not a lot more to his "canon" because he just gets tossed into various scenarios and then reacts, but I do have a list of what are more-or-less "fun facts" about him.

Mich fun facts: -Isn't bald, unlike Gabe, but does keep his hair on the shorter side. -Regularly dyes his hair random colors and patterns, the latter of which he free hands. (Has never in his life set foot in a salon. Somehow hair hair isn't crunchy.) -Likes to use "Pal" and "Little buddy" whereas Gabe is always using "Jr" and "Kid" -Wrinklier and smilier version of his brother. They look hella alike, to the point that he wigs Hesh out when they first meet. -100% can and will adopt Hesh. That's his lil guy. Logan is not exempt from this either. -Has zero problem with Gabe joining the Federation. Is more upset about the whole "Murdering his homoerotic "best friend" and traumatizing both his sons" thing. -Fluent in Spanish+Portuguese. -Has no formal military training but finds no problem wielding firearms or finding himself in combat. (I mean, he lives in NML. That place always got some kinda battle. You gotta know some fighting skills.) -Bandannas and cowboy hats are his favorite headgear. -Keeps photos of him and Gabe on his person. -Constantly jokes that his full name is actually "Michigan" and that's what "Mich" is short for. -Performed his own top surgery. /J -Very laid back personality, though he's smart enough to know when/if he needs to be more serious/strict. -Incredibly annoyed that Rorke kinda stole their last name like it's his first name. -Very aware of whatever Elias and Gabe have/had going on. Very amused by it. -"Protect trans kids" flag in his front room. -Has multiple spouses. Romantically or just legally has yet to be decided. Not that he'd tell anyone. -Has kids. Mini Mich's causing chaos. (Just don't ask where the kids came from, mf made them from clay for all we know.) -Mich and Merrick are besties. (At the very least, Mich is the person Merrick tolerates the most. Outside Hesh.) -For all the quirks he really is just some fucking guy. -Daniel and The Cooler Daniel meme.

#call of duty #call of duty ghosts #michael rorke (oc)#gabriel rorke #elias walker #ghost husbands #thomas a merrick #hesh walker #logan walker

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thewebcomicsreview · 8 months

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https://pandorastale.com/

Okay, this one got submitted to me, so lets take a look.

Okay, first things first. This is a pretty solid first page. It immediately establishes our protagonist, an external conflict (”broken rules”) and an internal conflict (”What am I if I’m not obedient”) in three panels and fifteen words. This is a page that makes me want to read more. Good job!

This leads into a scene that we later realize is a few minutes ago, and I like that the first page was “smoky” like that, which made it feel more like an “intro page” than the actual page 1 of the story. If there had been a detailed background this transition would’ve been more jarring but as is it works.

Your getting a lot of mileage out of this art. I like that our unnamed trans catgirl is sitting with her legs crossed in a feminine way, and the way the director is covering the P in the sign in the background. HERE TO HELL!

Anyway, our catgirl escapes in a smokey pod while she has a think, letting us know we’ve “caught up” to the intro. Cool.

She’s found by a group of normal people who awkwardly explain to the black person that slavery is bad, which is an unfortunate blocking decision. Also, I feel like the preceding 16 pages did such a good job explaining the helpers that this exposition is redundant, and it makes Isabelle (who we soon learn is in “the resistance”) look a little dumb, like she joined an anti-slavery network but is only learning about slavery just now. This is kind of nitpicking, I know, but the comic’s been really smooth up until here and this has been the first speed bump I’ve noticed.

Okay, so, our protagonist is technomagically compelled to fall in love with Isabelle, who is also the most anti-slavery member of the group. There’s a lot to unpack there, and me saying that isn’t a criticism.

Isabelle reveals this is a t4t romance and I’m not sure how I feel about the trans flag being in grayscale there. Like, the whole comic’s in greyscale, so it fits, but also the only way to tell it’s a trans flag is from context because otherwise it’s just kind of stripes.

On the other hand, even ignoring my shit ten-seconds-in-MS-Paint recoloring skillz, busting out the Sin City splash colors makes it really fourth wall breaking, but it’s literally a giant trans flag magically appearing so that ship’s sailed....but also if you ever want to print this book it’d be pain....but also also you could keep the spot colors in the book maybe....I dunno. I’m bouncing back and forth on it.

Anyway, Isabelle names her pet slave Pandora.They go to a doctor and are all “Can catgirls get HRT” and the Doctor’s all “Fuck if I know, let’s ball” and I’m not sure if that’s handwaving away a detail in the service of the main story or setting up Pandora having an allergic reaction that causes anime shenanigans to happen. Either/or in this comic

Pandora offers to be a sex slave and Isabella is like :| and they sleep next to each other in an awkward but happy embrace that feels like this comic could end there and be a complete short story, one that I’d say is pretty good.

There’s another six chapters, and I kind of skimmed them and I’m still a little iffy on the resistance side of the story, but at the least this is a pretty solid opening.

I got to admit, though,...I’m not super fond of the handling of the cops. Not that it’s Objectively Wrong, but I feel like they’re not quite bumbling enough to be comedy foils but they’re too bumbling to be dramatic threats so they’re just kind of there.

youtube

My subjective suggestion is think about making the cops even dumber. Having them come in guns ablazing as a serious threat like in the Matrix or whatever doesn’t seem like it’s the tone you’re going for, and you can always have the rich people have Elite Private Security if you need a scary competent villain later.

All-in-all, though, I think this is comic is well-done!

#submission #Pandora's Tale

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alpaca-clouds · 18 days

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The Headache Of Human Gene Editing

Let me start at the place where I left off yesterday: The headache that comes from human gene editing.

As I am currently reviewing that Brazilian Solarpunk anthology, I noted that most of the stories are actually a lot more Biopunk than Solarpunk. Because so far all stories I have read actually featured a central theme off someone editing human genes, often enough in a way that actually brought with it a lot of iffy eugenicist stuff.

But... Let's actually talk about gene editing. Because it is such a complex topic when it comes to humans.

First off: No, I am not afraid that when we start editing human genes (we already did) we accidentally will create humans with like four arms or something. While we do not understand the human genome perfectly, we understand it well enough.

No, the issue is this: We can cure deadly diseases with gene editing. Again, we have some cures established already that are right now in a testing phase. Most of all we will probably be able to cure certain kinds of cancer via gene editing - and given that cancer just super sucks as a disease I am all here for it.

There is a chance that we can cure some other stuff like certain types of diabetes as well. We might be able to also save some of those kids that would otherwise die not shortly after birth. And with gene editing we might also fight off some infectious diseases that right now are hard to cure (for example because the bacteria have largely become immune against antibiotics).

But... as soon as we start with it... Look folks, I know people hate the slippery slope argument, but it sadly is a slippery slope when it comes to things like this. Because drawing a firm moral line when it comes to this is gonna be very hard.

Because I think we pretty much all can agree that curing cancer is actually pretty worthwhile. And curing other deadly diseases as well. Sure. And yeah, a lot of people with diabetes would rather not have diabetes, sure.

But what if we have the ability to edit genes at a young age or even prior to birth? In my family a lot of women have a gene that makes them very, very likely to develop certain types of cancer. Three women from my family died of it. I thankfully do not have it, but if I had... Would be cool to edit it out, right? And if I had been able to get kids, and I could edit those kids' genes to make sure they don't have it, I would probably.

But... where to draw the line? Because at this point we get easily to all sorts of disabilities. If we could "edit them out" early on... Should we?

As soon as we are a bit better with it, there will be people who will argue for it. "A quality of life improvement" they will argue. Because for them it also is going to be so much easier than it would be to make places and life more accessible for diabled folks.

And let's face it. If we ever found the genes (that might or might not exist) that make people gay or trans... There is going to be folks that would argue about that, too.

This is what makes this topic so fucking complicated. A line would need to be drawn - and a lot of people will argue about that line.

#crispr #gene editing #dna #biopunk #solarpunk #eugenics #disability rights #ableism #lunarpunk #genetics

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so-i-grudgingly-joined-this-site · 1 year

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Part 5: “It sure is exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero”: Should We Even Care?

Note: this is a part of my essay "The Awkward Meta-Tragedy of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman", see [here] for the masterpost of all links, reading order, and content warnings.

Now, of course, thus far I’ve been discussing events as if we’re meant to be at least somewhat sad that Morpheus apparently dies at the end, and especially sad if he died by suicide. However, upon my reread of the comics in preparation for writing this essay, I hit a bit of a snag. Are we even supposed to like him enough to care?

It seems like Morpheus is supposed to be a likeable, if SEVERELY flawed, protagonist up until around Brief Lives. Even though he sentenced an ex-girlfriend to 10,000 years in Hell unjustly, a huge point was that he was changing; he had the character development to realize his error and set things right in Season of Mists. But then, in Brief Lives, we get his romance with the witch Thessaly, and the sympathetically-portrayed goddess Ishtar openly accusing him of misogyny. And as of The Kindly Ones, if you consider his arc to be a straightforward suicide, you have him willingly letting his own subjects get slaughtered just so he can end himself.

Now, Thessaly is unpopular, at least among the current tumblr crowd, because she’s apparently transphobic and her actions lead to the death of a well-liked and heroically portrayed trans character. This has led to the semi-meme of “Thessaly is a TERF.” However, that’s far too simplistic a way to describe how terrible she is. She’s the epitome of the immoral immortal, living out of spite and anger rather than actual love for life, killing for fun, and putting her own interests above everyone else’s. She’s a thoroughly unpleasant, violent, hateful person; even if she were written without the transphobia she would not be easy to cheer for.

And according to Lucien, Morpheus may have been deeply in love with her.

Well, Luce doesn’t say that in so many words, but he does state that Morpheus’ mourning when Thessaly dumps him is far more extreme, intense, and different from all of Morpheus’ other dramatic breakups. He even states that Morpheus is being more intense about it than when Calliope left him in the wake of their son’s death! A breakup after a couple-months fling hit him harder than a divorce of a decades-long marriage spurred by the tragedy of losing a child. She meant that much to him. Thankfully Merv is there to rebut Lucien’s observations, complaining that Morpheus “does this every time” there’s a breakup, but the reader is seriously left to question who to believe—the loveable but ditzy Merv, or the Dreaming’s head librarian and Morpheus’ closest confidant.

If Morpheus was the most heartbroken ever over someone who’s basically a serial killer only out for her own gain, who he likely knew about going into the relationship, that doesn’t reflect well on his character at all. His punishment of the serial killers at the Cereal Convention comes across as arbitrary and hypocritical, for sure. It makes one wonder why he’d admonish Hob for getting into the slave trade (pre-character-development, no less!), if his own girlfriend is just as likely to use people in horrific ways. Why would he be so broken up over killing Vortexes if one of his closest associates is downright eager to kill in the name of self-preservation? Is it just “opposites attract” but written poorly?

(Actually I could go on and on about how women in The Kindly Ones, Thessaly included, are prime examples of “women being obviously written by a straight white man”—the man in question being generally progressive doesn’t mean he’s immune to the occasional iffy writing—and how questionable their portrayals as characters are, but that’s beyond the scope of this essay. It’s also likely an artifact from these books being from the 80s-90s and then-progressive tropes from that era not aging well. For now, let’s just say that I side-eye that the evil immortal human just happens to be the female one while the good immortal human is male, and that the major forces that end up killing Morpheus/facilitating his suicide are all female…)

Ishtar straight up accuses Morpheus of being sexist towards women when he confronts her over the whereabouts of Destruction. And, well, his treatment of his ex-girlfriends certainly doesn’t point towards him being respectful to them at least. He cruelly discarded Alianora to live on a skerry when he tired of her, in addition to the infamous sentencing of Nada to hell. The official analysis book The Sandman Companion even went so far as to suggest that Madoc’s treatment of Calliope was also indicative of Morpheus’ treatment of her during their marriage, with Morpheus also callously using her as inspiration for his dream-creations. However, since Calliope herself emphatically says otherwise, I consider the Companion analysis to be near-offensively wrong and seriously question the other analyses in that book as a result (it was not written by Gaiman, for those wondering). Morpheus also sure seems to send his inspirational abilities primarily towards male authors, but then again there’s not a large sample size in the text. Besides Lady Bast and Mad Hettie (both of whom are notably portrayed as old/past their prime), the only women he seems to care about are either ones he’s related to, or ones he can sleep with, and in the case of the second category things go badly once he tires of sleeping with them (or if they refuse him, yikes). One could easily argue towards Book!Morpheus being a canon misogynist, at least by 2020s standards.

(Another side note here: Thank GOD the live action adaptation made Lucien a woman. Dream’s relationship with Lucienne finally portrays him as having a, for the most part, mutually respectful, presumably non-sexual, relationship with a woman who is neither related to him nor portrayed as old or undesirable. Show!Dream might, just might, be able to respect women beyond the ability to sleep with them.)

And then there’s the sequence where The Kindly Ones rampage through the Dreaming on their way to the palace, brutally slaughtering all the whimsical denizens we’ve come to know and love throughout the story’s run. If one assumes that Morpheus intentionally invoked their wrath in order to die, that means he facilitated all of their suffering on purpose. Once again this paints him as a massive hypocrite; if seeing his realm in tatters after his imprisonment was so painful for him, why tear it all down on purpose? Of course, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” shows that he isn’t always aware of what consequences his actions might have, so maybe it somehow slipped his mind that this would be the consequence of his plan.

Um, anyways, what was I saying? Oh yeah, so, Morpheus’ intense relationship with one of the least likeable characters, along with his general misogynist and jerkass behavior, especially strains potential reader sympathy for him, painting him as a hypocrite regarding his unambiguously heroic moments—which were already few and far between overall. Then again, perhaps it is wrong to judge him as a “hypocrite” when he isn’t even human. We don’t judge dolphins for the ways they treat other dolphins, after all. (They’re quite violent: look it up.) Even though they’re intelligent and sentient and it’s unethical to keep them in a fishbowl, they’re so separate from humans that imposing any sort of human motivations to their actions is a failure.

But yet, this series is a book intended for an audience of humans, so the human reader’s perspective IS important regarding Morpheus’ actions. Regardless of whether he or the other Endless “should” be subject to modern moral standards is irrelevant to how we’re supposed to perceive them as subjects of the texts, especially when the culmination of the whole story is one of them dying. The line between tragedy and comedy might lie solely in the audience’s perception of a character.

There’s also the matter of narrative satisfaction. If Morpheus is meant to be a villain, completely self-disposing villain isn’t satisfying, no matter how unsympathetic they might be to the audience. Imagine if Palpatine just offed himself, with no intervention at all from Luke or Vader! What would be the point of the story then? If Morpheus is intentionally unsympathetic, is this some kind of meta ploy about storytelling expectations? Like, we expect a sympathetic (if flawed) protagonist due to the first arc starting with him torturously imprisoned, but then he’s actually a complete villain protagonist? Or, we expect to be cheering for him to change, but we end up cheering for him to die instead? Is this an early case of the “subverting expectations” type twists where the only point is playing the audience? (Admittedly, a work with such strong metafictional themes might be one of the few places where such subversions might be justified rather than contrived.)

Are we supposed to be glad Morpheus dies and is replaced, because he was what we might consider “an asshole”? Are we supposed to be sad, because his more humanlike and relatable traits contributed to his downfall, and we see ourselves in his plight? Both? Neither?

Honestly, I have no idea.

Likewise complicating matters of “should we care” are two scenes from The Wake. One is Fiddler’s Green refusing Daniel’s offer of resurrection because “death is the only thing that gives life meaning” and the other is Lucien’s insistence that nobody has died besides a point of view, because Dream of the Endless is an idea and you cannot kill an idea. While I suspect that Lucien’s statement is supposed to be taken optimistically, when paired with the former scene it comes across as callous towards the reader and edges close to “we shouldn’t care because they’re not human” territory. If nothing has died besides a bad or flawed point of view, then why go through the trouble of asking the reader to ever care about Morpheus? Were we supposed to be rooting against him all along? Is he just supposed to be the “bad side” of Dream of the Endless? Should we be celebrating because nothing of value was lost?

Is dying the only meaningful thing that Morpheus can even do, because it would make way for the positive Daniel to take over?

#the sandman #the sandman comics #the sandman spoilers #the sandman comics spoilers #the sandman comics meta #the sandman comics analysis #neil gaiman's sandman #literary analysis #my writing #sandman essay

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bookish-monster · 7 months

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BOOK REC

Exodus 20:3

by Freydís Moon - find them on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok

the storygraph link for this book contains information such as page count, publication date, and community-created content warnings.

Exodus 20:3 is a standalone love story centered around Diego, a Mexican-American trans man, and the relationship he forges with a Brazilian angel named Ariel as they refurbish an abandoned church in New Mexico together. It’s a beautiful blend of queerness and religious eroticism that comes in at around 100 pages on my Kindle edition, and has been recently updated with a new cover (see above) that is absolutely gorgeous. There is prayer, body worship, divinity kink where the divinity is no fantasy, hemipenes, and more eyes and teeth and wings than humans are used to experiencing in their love affairs. I absolutely loved it.

A note about body terminology for trans readers: Diego’s genitalia (he has had top surgery but not bottom surgery) is referred to using feminine terms such as “cunt” and “clit.” Some trans readers might find this dysphoria-inducing or otherwise upsetting.

Diego is what many people would call “troubled.” He does camming out of desperation for money, has recently quit using opiates illegally, and is struggling to deal with his mother’s disappointment once she found out about the latter through Diego crashing a car and getting sent to jail once the cops found said opiates inside the car. Basically, he’s not having a fun time as the family disappointment, so he reluctantly agrees to his mother’s plan for him to earn enough to pay her back for his bail money via refurbishing the church in New Mexico.

Ariel is the church’s caretaker. Diego is attracted to him from the jump, but that attraction is tempered with the wariness of a prey animal who has been hunted down and abused one too many times. Diego isn’t used to tenderness or genuine love from his sexual partners, and he isn’t interested in getting mixed up with someone and used in ways that don’t make him happy in the long term. I really loved how complicated Diego is—he’s tough as nails because the world hasn’t treated him gently, but also desperate for real affection because of how love-starved he’s become over the years.

Ariel isn’t smothering when offering that affection, nor parental in caring for his new laborer. Initially, he comes across as enigmatic and perfunctory, reclusive and emotionally distant. But as he insists on digging into Diego’s past, so too does Diego start putting the pieces together and realizing that Ariel isn’t quite the man he seems. During their first sexual encounter with each other, consent is kind of iffy, but it gets talked about later between the characters. The sex scenes are lavish and drawn out, abstracted by Freydís’ beautiful prose into things elegantly rendered yet primal in their intensity.

The writing in this novelette is exquisite, by the way. Freydís has a command of language that I’m nakedly envious of, and there were multiple points where I stopped to re-read certain passages just to savor the taste of them, as well as the beautiful wordplay and turns of phrase. I keep a list on my phone of 1-2 sentence snippets I read in various places that are too good not to write down, and that list gained several entries from this book.

Finally, I really liked Exodus 20:3’s frank discussions of trauma and oppressive systems. As a Mexican-American, Diego is no stranger to the violence constantly forced upon brown bodies by the United States government, and as a trans man he’s equally familiar with transphobic violence from cis people. Although Freydís makes absolutely zero attempts to gloss over or divert attention from real-world issues inherent to their characters’ identities, nothing ever felt hopeless. Diego is initially very cynical, but as his relationship with Ariel evolves so too does he undergo a change of heart toward the nature of faith. You can get a side of religious philosophy with your steamy monster fucking in this book, if you choose to accept it.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and cannot recommend it enough to anyone who’s in the mood for queer Latino romance stories. I can say with confidence that nobody who chooses to pray at Freydís’ altar will be left unsatisfied.

find this book on Amazon Kindle (US)

#bookblr #monster lover #monster romance #book recommendation #terato #book lover #human x monster #monster smut #monster love #angel x human #fantasy romance #transgender #trans man #queer books #lgbtq books #trans romance #latino

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mueritos · 1 year

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screaming and crying i dropped an ask on like july last year and then left tumblr so cannot see at all what your response was to it (if even responded at all) but it’s so cool to still see your being a very open loud and proud faggalious transmasc, given how many terfs are false reporting openly trans people (specially if they’re that loud and proud about it) i was worried they would’ve stuck down your shit by now anyways, what your thoughts on being mixed? im mixed (black dad, white mom, both latino) and it feels so complicated?? you’re not black enough for black people and you aren’t white enough to get any safety out it. even if you’re white passing (which is an iffy term for me ngl but i understand the point of it so i still use it)

Aw hi there!! I apologize if I never answered it, I have close to 2k unanswered asks in my inbox, so I try to answer what I can with the energy I have. I'm happy you could find safety in my blog from how open I am :)

As for your question, I can say that I'm mixed myself! I can guarantee you that all latines are. I found out last year that I am half indigenous (North American and Central Mexican Native) and half spanish/portuguese. This makes sense due to colonization, of course, but its hard not to know until an actual DNA test of what that makeup is. Even now I still struggle with being okay to call myself indigenous (I have no tribal affiliation due to colonization), and I at the most call myself detribalized. I am often "too mexican" for white spaces, but I am also constantly question why white people about my ethnic/racial status, or about the extent of how "mexican" I am. At the same time, I worry I am not mexican enough even when in mexican spaces, as I am trans/queer/neurodivergent, and this complicates my relationship with my ethnic/racial identities. I, however, have white privilege (I refuse to use "white passing" because what the fuck is that), and I won't ever experience colorism or racism the same way darker skinned latines will.

I think being mixed can bring complicated relationships, especially when it comes to dual identities, whether racially, ethnically, or nationally. It can make you feel like an outsider within your own family, but it can also allow you to see and experience multiple worlds/cultures with a level of intimacy others do not have.

I know other mixed latinos with 2c hair, Black/indigenous features, and latino last names who call themselves "white passing", even though I have paler skin than them! You can use whatever terms you want to describe yourself, but please keep in mind that white folk have taken this term and run off with it, applying to any and every mixed/non-white person just because they look slightly "european".

I think latines have a long way to go in terms of acknowledging race, but colonizer racial castes definitely have their blame in this failure to recognize Blackness and Indigeneity in latine populations. Afro-latino wasn't even recognized in countries like Mexico until a few years ago. I really suggest finding community with people who are mixed like you, who can understand the deep rooted confusion, unlearning, and relearning that being mixed and accepting that mixed identity can bring. Finding community with others will always allow you to feel safer and connected with others.

#muertoresponds #i can talk more about it but ive stopped myself there #its not easy being mixed and my experience is going to be wildly different from people who are mixed black because phew #antiblackness is one hell of an oppressor #wish u the best of luck my friend

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honestmouse20 · 21 days

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I am Back from vacation! Thought on new ninjago season under the cut :)

First off, I just wanna say that I watched it at 6am in my hotel room with headphones while my friend slept next to me lol. So I watched it all again yesterday too. Turns out I'd missed a Lot.

I really loved the pacing in this! Each character to me felt like they all had something to do and it all went towards the plot. Wildfyre learned to slow down and let herself heal, Kai and Nya both learned the paitence and tecnique to do Rising Dragon. Lloyd OFC got a Lot to do with his visions and panic attacks! I really liked how they handled his mental health in this one. Cole being back didn't feel forced! he was there bc Bonzal was essential to Ras' plan. Sora got a ton of development and I do wonder if they'll have her learn spinjitzu in part 2. And of course, Arin. Boy is Going Through it. It's a nice parallel to Lloyd also having a rough time. While Lloyd is haunted by possible futures, Arin is terrified of not being Good Enough to contribute to the team Or to make his parents proud.

This post would be hella long if i rambled about everything i loved in this season But I wanna highlight Some of my favs!

Cole and Geo Constantly holding hands and leaning on eachother (and geo's flashback to s1 being changed so they're holidng hands More)

Bonzle's whole arc and how she's a person now! Hella trans implications and also just a really sweet story when they show that she Does have agency and her creator Does recongnize and care for her

Sora and Arin's dymanic continues to be Really Good! I like how the initial excitement for being a ninja has worn off and they're starting to struggle.

Speaking of Arin, I stg that scene of him and Ras fighitng in the last couple episodes makes me think we're gonna get a dark Arin arc. Maybe he won't Stay evil (I don't want him to be a villan but they Could go that way if they want) but seeing Lloyd's reaction to his student turning sides would be very angsty and Very good

Also Lloyd in this was So good! Even tho he's trying very hard to be a Master and the keeper of the monastary, he's struggling and these visions are only making it harder on him. I'm sure we havn't seen the end of these visions and I'm sorta hoping they'll come to some big breaking point for him in part 2. Where he'll have to drag himself back up and Never Quit despite everything falling apart just like the visions said it would

Once again this show made me like kai again lol. HIs relationship with Nya and Wildfyre is So good and you really can see the similarities in how he interacts with them!

lloyd's power confirmed to be life????

why is no one talking abobut that ? did i read it wrong???

Onto some things i didn't Quite like but definatly didn't hate!

Ras' master is like 90 percent gonna be the Overlord. I'm aprehensive on this bc he's not really my favorite villan. Plus like he was Just the villan in crystalized so i feel like it's too soon for him to come back. once again gonna give this show the benefit of the doubt bc they've done a lto of stuff Really Really well. I'm just sorta hoping it's Not the overlord. Plus the powers were golden and that's Not the overlord's colors

what is timeline?????

i thought the shorts were two years after s1 and that s2 was gonna be between the shorts and s1???? but now the shorts are at the Beginning of the season and ryu is a teenage dragon? how long has passed? If it's been a couple years since season 1, it's a little less believable that arin and sora havn't progressed much fruther in their training. also no one Acts like it's been years?? But if it's Not a couple of years and Ryu just Grew up like that it's still a bit iffy. Ik they probably won't tell us exact times but I hope it's implied or Something bc im hella confused

so, tldr: This half of the season was Fantastic! From the animation being Incredible and the relationships between the characters being super interesting and realistic, this season was a ride from start to finish! I'm excited, and a bit scared, to see what part 2 brings!

#ninjago #d rambles #ninjago spoilers

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autistic-katara · 10 months

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ok finally making that writing post-

hi! i’m Ryan, or Raines_Adopted_Son on AO3. i write fanfic (mainly angst) and my inbox/dms/ao3 comments r always open for requests, here are some guidelines:

fandoms i will write for: (keep in mind i join new fandoms all the time so if theres a fandom u want me to write that isnt here that u think i like just ask, i probably forgot to update it // will say next to the fandom if ive written for it before or not)

Stranger Things (written for it before)

The Spiderverse Movies (written for it before)

The Owl House (written for it before)

Nimona (haven’t written before)

PJO/Riordanverse (including mcga and tkc // written for it before)

ATLA (including lok/the kyoshi novels // written for it before)

Heartstopper/Osemanverse (haven’t written before)

Jackson’s Diary (written for it before)

Bungou Stray Dogs (haven’t written before)

The Dragon Prince (have written but never posted)

Derry Girls (haven’t written before)

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (haven’t written before)

Good Omens (haven’t written before)

stuff i enjoy writing/specialise in:

shortish one-shots (1k-2.5k words // i would like to write longer and/or multichapter stuff, this is just my current level)

angst

hurt/comfort

heavier topics relating to mental health stuff (depression, eating disorders, self-harm, suicidal characters, etc.)

queer (specifically trans) stuff

stuff i feel uncomfortable writing/am unsure if i’m able to write it but wanna push my boundaries on: (aka send me requests but theres less of a chance i’ll write it)

nsfw stuff/smut

depictions of abuse (non-romanticised obv)

depictions of SA (specifically just the recovery tho, i am NOT writing non-con)

longer fics

multichapter fics

pure fluff (idk if i’m able to write smthn w/o angst 😭)

stuff i will not write: (do not ask me to write this stuff :))

nsfw/smut of characters under the age of 15 (that being my current age // still kinda iffy abt characters 15-17 but yk)

stuff that romanticises things like SA or abuse

any ships where both a) at least one of the characters is a minor and b) the age gap is canonically 3 years or more (emphasis on canonically, looking at u punkflower antis)

incest

other stuff i wasn’t sure how to fit in:

when it comes to depicting types bigotry or hate or whatever theres some stuff i feel comfortable including and some stuff i dont (obviously in a non-romanticised way as just like part of what a character experiences):

homo/transphobia, i’m fine with including this, i am queer + trans and feel like i could sensitively depict those topics.

racism/xenophobia, i dont rlly feel comfortable writing abt this stuff given that i’m white i rlly dont think id be able to write that stuff properly like at all.

ableism/saneism, depends on the type tbh, maybe subtle ableism to an autistic character (i am autistic) and casual ableism to a chronically ill character (i am chronically ill) but other than that ehhhh

antisemitism, while i am Jewish and have experienced it myself, for personal reasons i’m not comfortable writing stuff including it, even if its subtle and not a big thing (other kinds of religious discrimination i wont write simply cause idk enough about allat and dont wanna be insensitive abt it)

thats all i could think of for that one but next thing: i dont like AUs. its not like i hate them or anything, and if i time traveled to the future and found out i learned to love them i would be ecstatic since thats more fics for me, but for some reason i just don’t enjoy reading/writing them (excluding canon divergence, i wouldn’t mind writing a fic with canon divergence // didn’t wanna put this in the hard-no section cause again its not like they’re smthn i hate or am disgusted by or anything, i just don’t find them appealing)

also if u dont know what i ship/what ships id be ok w/ writing just ask, a couple of them should be clear based on what i rb/post tho lmao (still if u gotta ask, ask)

anyways yeah thats all i could think of for now, i probably forgot smthn important so i might edit this later + lmk if u have any questions srsly id love to answer :)

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padfootastic · 1 year

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Unpopular opinion time! I'm queer and super here for queer rep always, but the newest/youngest wave of MWPP fans needs to understand that there just wouldn't have been 5-15 openly queer/trans/gnc students running around Hogwarts in the 1970s. Even if one or all of them had the wherewithal to understand that about their identity in the first place, it wouldn't have been safe to be openly out in that context. Hell, it was illegal to be gay in Scotland until 1981.

So this unpopular opinion is a 2-parter, which is also that fic is way more interesting when it depicts queerness as understanding its context. Sure it can be there, it always has been, but this is a conservative boarding school in 1970s Scotland and is so much more interesting when that's acknowledged.

oooooh okay, so. we’re really getting into it, huh?

i think i’m gonna go with…neutral on this. not because i don’t have opinions, but bc i have too many of them.

so, for one, funnily enough im not big on realism in fiction (esp set in other universes like hp’s wizarding world) and that translates into a lot of freedom to move around in terms of identity hcs. one of my favs, for eg, is that homosexual relationships aren’t a big deal bc say, fertility potions & pregnancy spells, yeah? another longstanding hc i have that i staunchly believe in is complete gender equality/lack of sexism in the WW. so, if u hc it as being open to all sexual/gender orientations bc, magic, then u completely (and happily) sidestep the whole ‘queerness in 19th ce britain’ yeah? the whole illegal thing is also a bit iffy too bc i personally consider the WW to be a v distinct society with its own everything but that’s a personal hc tbf.

having said that—i get so annoyed by some representation lol

i mean, people write what they want as they should but sometimes it comes off so fkn hollow. like they’re doing it because they should, not bc it’s their wish. and there’s all sorts of sociological reasons behind it and why i’m so annoyed by that but the baseline is this: queer rep becomes more virtue signalling that robs itself of all its virtue and i don’t…vibe with that.

Send me unpopular opinions!

#i loved this one!!#i usually run the other when it comes to representation talk #bc my opinions r…very. how do i put this.#not what the majority says #and i know that’s bc it’s a very individualised thing based off my own experiences #so i try not to generalise it. which means not rly speaking about it #but yeah #dude i almost deleted this by accident #literally about started crying #anyway. i’ve not quite conceptualised what exactly i would vibe with #but i know what i don’t with #so. yah. that is where i’m at rn #somewhere in the middle bc i *get* it but i don’t like it #re: nuance of sexuality. well fandom would be better if people acknowledged nuance in general #so much becomes shallow and meaningless #pen’s asks

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basedkikuenjoyer · 2 years

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You're a young Eiichiro Oda in 1982, let's assume like many readers of Weekly Shonen Jump you've been enjoying this silly little romcom about a boy being pursued by the perfect woman...as long as he gets over one minor hangup. You open up the chapter, it seems like a fun one. Just like our first it's setup around the idea a new boy is coming to live with the Oozora family and its four lovely daughters. This is the last panel you'd see. That's it, Hibari doesn't make her way back into serialization. Maybe if you were in the know you could piece together the manga has had some weird gaps. Kinda like Hunter X Hunter today. Guess Eiiguchi had health issues. We'd later hear he just couldn't keep up with the schedule of weekly releases anymore. He'll go on to have a nice, stable, but quiet career as an illustrator for businesses.

So, what exactly is tough guy Gekijiro up here shouting about? That’s a pretty iconic ethos for a guy that shows up and ends a popular series. To be fair, Stop!! Hibari-kun did love a fair amount of meta humor up to and including several bizarre interludes of author Eiiguchi taking over for a few pages. Often some little joke about being a pervert and his editors having to keep him in line. So from that vantage point it wasn’t hard to see where this joke came from. Hibari was one of the magazine’s then-twin pillars of popularity off the back of...fashionable young women and Hibari being trans making for this excellent setup to slip in a lot of humor that would be iffy to censors yet relatable to young women.

Subtle stuff you don’t always see today even. Casual jokes about periods, accurate sisternal cattiness. Perfect recipe for a crossover hit. Cute girls for that bit of eye candy, they’re real enough girls can enjoy too. Romcom fun with a little dash of action through MC Kosaku joining the boxing club. Starting to sound a lot like Ranma 1/2? Yeah, I’m pretty sure given the timing of her start on Urusei Yatsura these two were cribbing notes off each other back-and-forth. Rumiko Takahashi never really kept things as grounded as Hibari-kun though, which was probably it’s undoing.

See...I also wanted to take this little detour because of something from the start. Hibari beyond being a likely influence on a series like One Piece that so elegantly recaptures its recipe for crossover success had an interesting story on it’s own. The official line is that Hishashi Eiguchi turned in the final chapter and hid out in hotels from his editors. Leaving a short version and an abrupt end because he just couldn’t keep up with the stress. Problem is...it took until 27 years later, 2009, but we finally got a proper omnibus collection.

That’s the real last scene. I know that “Shonen is dead” line is that kind of meta joke because it turns out we did have the full chapter. He makes that pretty clear. Here’s our real abrupt finale. What!? Oh, so this new arrival wasn’t just some random dude. He’s a trans boy who’s a perfect mirror of Hibari? Total macho dork and peep that line up top. Not only do we get the explicit “man at heart” cliche (Hibari dances around the equivalent but never goes so blatant) but he’s taking hormones? Uhhh...even more modern stuff focused on being a positive take on these themes like Wandering Son at most sorta gloss over the particulars of medically transitioning. Worth noting a strange little legal quirk, because of a dodgy interpretation of WW2 peace agreements Japan was one of the few countries to have an out-and-out ban on the procedure until I believe 1993.

Doesn’t mean people didn’t do it, and this is a series about a Yakuza family. Characters casually talk about shooting up meth or underage drinking. Knowing all this though...anyone else getting the impression this may have been a little more of a veteran mangaka making a stand? A magazine pulling the plug to be more kid-friendly? The story had been trending away from being a silly romcom a while before. This shift in the plot is huge, but it’ll be forever resigned to “what could have been?”

That’s the main reason I got really excited seeing a Hibari in One Piece who has the right look. I’ve wondered about this for a while. We only have what Eiguchi is willing to say in public interviews, it just isn’t the norm in the industry to air dirty laundry but he has progressively opened up about the series over time. It’s tripped me up since even before Wano really, timing and popularity and shared elements make this feel like such an influence. Now we’re seeing things that poke at those lines more. I’d love to see Eiichiro Oda pull in Hisashi Eiguchi for one of these interviews he’s been doing.

#one piece #stop!! hibari-kun #eiichiro oda #hisashi eguchi

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steviecrowdude · 6 months

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Im starting to get followers now! Yaay!

I do want to lay some stuff out though, to potentially set in stone expectations for followers.

I reblog whatever i see that i wanna reblog. I may forget to tag things, but i try to if i have enough energy and it really needs tagging. This includes memes and funny stuff, but also just stuff i find important.

I am a trans man. Binary trans man (edit: to yall at least, behind the curtain I'm fuckin around with gender). No connection to womanhood other than the fact i dont publicly pass. He/him. If theres anyone out there who decides to come here and try and tell me im a sad woman or something, no. You dont know me, i know myself. Welcome to my blog.

I dont do that trans gatekeeping stuff. You fuck with gender? Ya trans (if you want. We also love gnc people here. Also you dont need to id as trans.) Neopronouns and xenogenders are amazing, and contradictory labels are cool as shit. I feel sad i need to clarify that but i do want to.

Im also Aroace and sex repulsed, dont know about the romance repulsed part, but it sounds right. What those things mean to me are private to me.

If you dont have sex, me too dude hell yeah. If you do? Hell yeah dude have fun. I want people to be happy and safe (whatever that means to you) and if youre consenting to it, then i cant think of anything better. (All that to say, dont fuckin, use sex repulsed people to be antikink or something, like c'mon)

Oh, im also autistic, and i have a medley of other mental stuff and neurodivergencies that i have yet to be diagnosed with.

Edit: im also definitely chronically ill in some way so i reblog about physically disabled stuff too

Im gonna reblog things that have to do with that stuff.

I also reblog things i think are important, such as bipoc rights and safety, disabled rights, intersex rights and queer rights in general, safety for everyone, religious freedom and human rights. (Im white, dyadic, and nonreligious, so do tell me if i reblog something thats iffy. Ill be happy to delete it.)

Edit as of January 9th 2024: i feel like i should clarify just because of the rise in antisemitism in the us especially; i dont tolerate that type of stuff. If your support of palestine and people in gaza comes at the cost of your support for jewish people you can leave cuz i dont wanna interact with you. I will advocate for the people in gaza being killed and attempt to uplift their voices, but i will not tolerate antisemitism in the same breath.

Like i mentioned before, if i reblog something and someone following me feels like its fucked up, ill delete it.

I mostly reblog memes and things i find funny.

A lot.

I dont tend to interact with fandom spaces much. But i do enjoy the funny from fandoms, and i reblog fandom content.

Thank you for reading :)

#thisll be my pinned post

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hollyhomburg · 1 year

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Hi Li! I’m usually a rather silent reader, but lately I’m trying to get out of my bubble and interact with people on here more. I just wanted to say that I absolutely love bily with all of my heart 🥺 When I first discovered it, there was only around 20 something chapters I think. I was pretty iffy about reading it at the beginning because I knew Tae would be trans in it and I tend to stay away from stories that include anything about gender because I’ve been struggling horribly with my own gender for the past 7 years. Stories that touch the subject of gender usually trigger me and send me back to the deep end, but I’m so so happy that I gave the story a chance. Sure I sobbed like a baby when m/c discovered Tae’s secret and even more as Tae’s story progressed. But reading the interactions with Tae and m/c and then Tae with the rest of the pack is so healing and makes me so happy😭

And don’t even get me started on how much I love the m/c and how the pack is with her. Reading the m/c being all small always makes me feel all tiny and squishy🥰 Mommy Tae, dom Jin, and pack alpha Namjoon have become my weaknesses!! But I can’t wait for her and Hobi’s relationship to progress! Everytime they interact with each other, I end up feeling silly from mentally telling them to just kiss already 😫

I rearranged my room and ended up moving my bed into the corner of my room. It’s piled high with pillows, blankets, and my stuffies and it feels like the comfiest nest ever. I just melted back into my bed when I woke up this morning and I don’t want to leave! So I’ve officially decided that I’m spending the day rereading bily for the millionth time. Anyways, I’ve rambled on long enough. I hope you have a great day love 💕

This is one of the reasons why I really try to be gentle with the parts of bily that have like all the gender stuff <3 because I know we all struggle with it in one way or another. Most of the time I try to stuff my thoughts about gender into a box and shove it into the back of my closet like an old sweater- but it’s hard! Sometimes it’s easy to forget how far the story has come but thank you for reminding me that if I can be proud of anything- I can be proud of bily Tae <3

I will always be small and soft and squishy m/c’s biggest protector (after Minnie maybe lol) there is something so like- healing about reading that people have found the same solice that I have in writing her

Ahhhhh sounds like you’ve gotten into some good old nesting <3 I used to keep my nest going fairly frequently but I’ve fallen out of the habit of it recently <3 I hope your nest is extra extra cozy tonight!!! Happy re-reading I know it takes a long time!!!

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thessalian · 1 year

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Thess vs Bad News

This country depresses the shit out of me.

A thing that’s been in the news lately was some lovely lady was growing vegetables in her allotment and giving them to the needy. Now, we probably wouldn’t have heard anything about this, except that someone else apparently took exception to this. Did they destroy the garden? Not quite in the way you’d think. They didn’t uproot plants that I know about; they salted the earth. I mean, I mostly grow herbs with the occasional strawberry and tomato; I tried some veg last year and it was only a partial success and I worked hard. I cannot imagine how that poor woman must have felt when she came to do some weeding and harvesting and found that. There’s no coming back from that. There’s no replanting until they can deal with the salination level of the soil. That’s just atrocious.

And then there’s Andrew Edwards, a councillor in Pembrokeshire. He has literally been recorded saying that “all white men should have a black man or a black woman as a slave” and “there’s nothing wrong with skin colour; it’s just that they’re lower class than us white people”. This is all still under investigation, because Edwards refuses to confirm or deny and threw it at an Ombudsman. I don’t really trust the Ombudsmen anymore, honestly, but ... oh, hell, I don’t even know anymore. I wouldn’t put it past any of them, honestly, either side of the political divide in this case.

Because there is no political divide anymore. Starmer’s throwing his entire party manifesto out the window to be in lockstep with Tory ideology, apparently trying to steal votes from them and ignoring the votes of people who don’t want any more of this shit. Recently backtracked on standing behind the Gender Recognition Act, instead saying he wants to “reach a consensus”. There is no ‘consensus’ to be reached here! Trans people just want to live as the gender with which they identify, and their allies want that for them; the other side wants them gone or dead! The only middle ground that exists there, if you want to call it that, is “They can exist but their lives have to be miserable and we have to be able to misgender them and force them into unsafe spaces all we want”, and that’s not existing! That’s not middle ground! That’s “Maybe if we make them unhappy enough, they’ll go away and / or die”, and that’s grotesque!

I cannot do anything about any of this. I live in what has been a fairly safe Labour seat (though I don’t know what’s going to happen in future given that Labour is just the Tories with a red tie now) but that means jack all when there’s an 80 seat Tory majority and a string of Prime Ministers we didn’t even get to vote for. We don’t get a vote for PM for another year at least anyway. I hate this country like you would not believe. I know it’s a vocal minority that’s being like this, but that vocal minority has the money and the power and the rest of us are stuck suffering for their comfort, all the way across the board.

So I may be ever so slightly depressed.

However, there are good things. My friends love me and I love them in return. My plants are thriving - my tomatoes sprouted already, and there’ll be pictures when the light’s a little less iffy (it’s been partly cloudy today, so the sunshine comes and goes). Somehow looking at my growing seedlings makes me feel better. And I still have a couple of days off and new House Flipper DLC, so there’s some Zen that should help. Though doing a farm DLC, and even looking at my plants, still gets me thinking of that poor woman with the allotment. At least her Gofundme to keep helping people is going well, but nothing will take away the sting of someone going that far to ruin so much hard work so completely. I hope they find that asshole and I hope they go to jail.

#Thess vs the Tories #Thess on politics #Thess on gardening

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asexual-means-no-attraction · 2 years

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Hi, I know that you can’t speak for the whole trans community but I was hoping I could get your thoughts on something.

I know that body dysphoria can happen across cis and trans experiences, with ‘gender dysphoria’ being a trans experience but I feel like I have double standards because while I support trans people getting surgery to help them feel comfortable in their bodies, I feel more iffy about cis people doing the same. I don’t approve of cosmetic surgery because no one shouldn’t have to conform to standards, let alone risk their lives or physical bodies, but I understand that surgeries can help people with making their lives bearable.

For example, I wouldn’t encourage a cis woman to get a larger chest because I’d assume it’s for attention but I wouldn’t care what chest size a trans woman would go for (provided it doesn’t strain her back or anything). The reasoning I’d give is because it can be dangerous for trans people to be unable to pass, but then some cis women might not pass as cis? So maybe it’s a case of giving trans people something they don’t have (like when trans men feel they should have a dick), but then trans people also get facial surgery?

I don’t know, I’d appreciate any thoughts! Hope your day is well

Like you said, this is just my opinion. But I'm a firm believer in what others decide to do with their own body is their choice. And I have no say.

That said, I think there's something to be said about social pressures when people make that choice. A difference between internal an external factors.

The point of many medical procedures is improving quality of life. Be that with a live saving operation, or an operation that has no actual danger to life if not done. For trans people who decide to, medically transitioning with hormones and surgeries improves their quality of life. It makes it easier to feel like themselves, and live as themselves.

If we lived in a society that did not have any pressure to look or act a certain way, trans people would STILL medically transition. Doing so would STILL improve their quality of life (including things not usually seen as a part of the process like facial reconstruction). This is because being trans is an internal experience. It's not influenced by outside factors (tho we react to outside factors and those reactions can help us realize we're trans).

Not all, but a lot of body dysmorphia comes from social or cultural pressures. A women wanting a bigger chest (using your example) because she has been pressured to believe she isn't enough with out it is being affected by external factors. I don't have any say in her choice, and if she wants it I will support that choice. But I do think it's important to point out that there are people who have desires to change their bodies because of the world around them. And that is indeed fucked up. It's fucked up that we as a society have pressured people into thinking they're body isn't enough as it is. That they need something more to stay valuable. They need medical procedures.

But there's no way to know their reason. That women could very well just want bigger boobs for herself. She might live alone in the middle of a deserted island where no one is around for miles but just want a bigger chest. No external factors involved. There's no way for us to know. The only person who would know is the women herself. Encourage and show that people are valuable as they are. But don't judge someone who's decided to get something done to themselves because you don't know what their reasons are.

I understand why you'd be put off by it. And I can't say I'm not also taken aback when it comes to it. But I think it's important to remember what others do with their live is their choice. And efforts would be a lot better placed in showing the people we interact with personally that we value them as they are, and encouraging those around us not to pressure each other based on looks or actions, than to sit and judge people who have decided to undergo medical procedures. Cuz that's just more pressure being put out, and it won't help anyone.

#answered #ask #not discourse #if you want me to go into more detail let me know #thanks for the ask

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