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#cw cultural erasure
sugar-konpeito · 9 months
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reminder that europeans can have brown skin (without being mixed with an ethnicity from another continent). thanks : )
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whtwclf · 2 years
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I have read MK comics, especially the recent ones when he’s talking to his therapist about his conflict with his faith and heritage. I’m not trying to argue or erase anything, it is important to recognise the heritage and culture he comes from, just as it’s important to acknowledge that the trauma he’s been through has had an impact on how he views it
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That’s an incredible and exactly correct point, Anon. It is important to acknowledge that trauma, but the MCU effectively erased the trauma that stemmed from acts of violence per the rampant antisemitism that existed around Marc Spector’s Jewish community. Instead that was replaced with a violent parent, wherein his Jewish roots were hamfistedly, vaguely, or not at all referenced.
However, this mun does an excellent job of detailing that point much better than I can: HERE
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CW: antisemitism, pale of settlement, pogroms, genocide, cultural erasure
I don't think goyim can really conceive of how much Jews actually hold back in our criticism of antisemitism in media, and when you hear us it is often because we see a dangerous message that you don't... Yet.
I have a complicated relationship with Tim Burton's rendition of The Corpse Bride. I love it as a beautiful piece of stop motion art, but it isn't what it should have been, he took a Jewish story from the Pale and with intention stripped it of its Jewish origins. This alone is incredibly antisemitic. The criticism you will hear has probably been "this is a Jewish story, it should have retained its Jewish elements" but have you heard why we feel strongly about this story?
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The story of the corpse bride is incredibly important to me and was born from Jewish trauma and Christian violence. Mobs would routinely attack Jewish weddings, they would murder brides and they would bury them in unmarked graves by the roadside still in their wedding clothes, they reasoned that without Jewish wives there are no Jewish mother's. Jews are intrinsic to the story.
It is antisemitism to take our story, about our pain, at the hands of non-jews and strip it for "useful" parts, in fact it is heartbreaking every time.
We are often forced to pick our battles and fighting a battle over a movie that has already been released by a director with a cult following is not worth it, you only hear us speak up in numbers when the antisemitism may lead to another century of violence, because raising our voice means picking a fight, because so many of you already see our pain as inconvenient and it is exhausting to never be heard.
-anyone can reblog
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herpderpingest · 6 months
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Honestly, if you think about it... living in a universe that keeps trying to retcon him into being straight is the most bisexual thing about Dean Winchester.
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swolesome · 8 days
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What if I told you that the antidote to Islamophobia isn't Antisemitism?
CW for this post (you have seen the title.) I feel like this shouldn't need explaining, but merciful Brigid, some of the shit I have seen. It's time for Led Tasso to come out. I'm not Jewish, let's just get that out of the way first, but my position on Palestine is largely informed by Jewish people who have been protesting for decades about the horrific treatment of Palestinians being done by a settler colonial state appropriating their religion, culture, language, and trauma. Fascist governments weaponizing fear and hiding behind religion is a well known tactic, and the fact that so many people have put this readily available information from their minds, specifically in this conversation, speaks to how incredibly pernicious antisemitism really is. I'm treading lightly here because as someone who's not Jewish, it really isn't my place to explain the cultural complexities, trauma, or general experiences of Jewish people. But if you haven't seen those discussions crossing your feed, you should be looking inward and asking why. Because if you're not invested in Jewish voices right now (or in general), that's a red flag for the kind of rhetoric you've internalized and the struggles you take seriously. The position I can speak from, however, is one of being committed to challenging all forms of systemic violence and oppression. So from that stance, and I cannot stress this enough: If you are fighting for some at cost to others, you are reinforcing oppression. It is wild to me that "Nazi" has come to mean "The worst thing a person can be" without recognition of the fact that the ideology is inherently antisemitic, that this is its centrepiece, that Jews are the number one target. This separation is, once again, an example of how insidious this brand of hatred really is--blatant erasure of the way Jewish people are uniquely targeted. I know a lot of trans people follow me, so here's a fun fact: You know the "Doctors are transing our kids to damage fertility rates!" conspiracy? You can thank antisemitism for that, too! It's literally just a rebrand of the Great Replacement conspiracy, which is modernized "protection of Aryan bloodlines." The most recent chapter of "My Life as A Bigot" by Joanne Klan Rowling isn't just another gleeful display of her hatred of trans people, it's another addition to the laundry list of antisemitic beliefs and talking points she's been peddling for years. The Charlottesville "unite the right" Nazi rally was spurred on by the removal of confederate statues and anti-Black racism. What is it they were chanting, again? Anyone remember? Any of this ringing a bell? OH RIGHT. "Jews will not replace us." So many other forms of systemic violence are steeped in the poisonous rhetoric of antisemitism. Acting like this isn't the case damns our Jewish siblings who need us while weakening our understanding of the oppressive forces we're fighting. "One struggle" includes all of us. The fact that the Likud government uses accusations of antisemitism as a cover for their violence should make you more diligent about condemning antisemitism, not less. Because letting them weaponize something that is already so widespread and destructive makes it that much harder to dismantle.
Do not stop talking about Palestine. Do not stop speaking up against the horrors of settler colonial violence. But if you can't do this without throwing another group of oppressed people under the bus, you need to question where you learned your resistance tactics, because the company you're keeping there should disgust and terrify you.
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andreal831 · 8 months
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TVDU: Vikings in the Americas
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I do a decent amount of research for my fic (which is more than the TVDU writers can say) so I thought I would share some.
For my story, You're On Your Own, Kid, it is based on the Mikaelson's human life. This is a period for TVDU that I find very problematic, specifically how whitewashed it is.
The Mikaelsons would have been one of the first Norsemen to come to the Americas as the first recorded instance of 'Vikings' coming to this area was about 980. Even then, they predominantly landed in areas like Greenland and would not have moved so far away from the coast as where Mystic Falls is supposed to be located. It wasn't until around 1,000 that they sailed further south and landed in what we today refer to as the United States. That being said, the writers have always found geography to be more of a guideline than a rule. Even Elijah mentioning wild horses he remembered from his childhood is inaccurate. During this period, horses were not native to North America and were not reintroduced until the 1400s.
But the problematic part is how whitewashed their village is. Everyone we see in the flashbacks is white, except for Ayana and they give no explanation of why she is the only woman of color in the village (where is the rest of her family?). Even the werewolves who were supposed to be native to the area (*cough* indigenous erasure*cough*) were shown to be white. The show later goes back and shows the Lebonair pack to be indigenous but doesn't explain how Ansel and his pack are white.
And yes, it would make sense for them to settle in an area where other Norsemen have settled, but that raises the question of who they were training to fight. Like most white colonizers, it was likely they were raiding and fighting the indigenous people of the land. We even see a scene where Klaus goes to show someone mercy and he looks as if he could have been an indigenous person.
Many Vikings who came to the 'New World' traded with indigenous people, but here we see Mikael keeping the land by force. To me, this is an unnecessary choice by the writers when Norsemen had a history of trading, they didn't have to be murderous colonizers.
We also see a lot of modern-day stereotypes/assumptions placed on the village. Like Rebekah not being able to hold a knife, when in fact the Norsemen actually valued their women and many of them learned to fight. While women were still viewed as inferior to men and it was very much a patriarchal society, the representation we see in TVDU is more of a European-centric view of women.
Additionally, Vikings were not all warriors. Most of them were farmers. Yes, they wielded swords when necessary and as a culture idolized their warriors, but for the large majority of the time, they spent their time farming or fishing. This is especially true before the religious conflicts between England.
When they did fight, much of their success was due to their navy (which would not be very helpful in land-locked Virginia). They also have such a fierce reputation because the English believed them to be 'barbaric' much like they described the natives when they colonized the Americas.
Elijah mentions that Mikael was a wealthy landowner when we first learn about his family. Land he likely stole from indigenous tribes. Additionally, who is farming all of this land? Vikings were known for taking slaves from lands they raided (we even see this is how Dahlia and Esther are taken), which here would be indigenous people. While Mikael is not a character that is glorified, the indigenous erasure is wildly problematic.
I know it is just a fun CW show, but a little research and sensitivity on these topics would have been appreciated. Throughout the show, we see the (white) Mikaelsons living quite lavish lifestyles but the show fails to acknowledge the people that got them there.
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dark-nimbus · 6 months
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A Rant on Representation in Media (mostly comics)
CW: ableism, disability erasure, mentions of fat phobia, mentions of fetishization, lmk if there’s anything I missed
I can’t believe that here in 2023 we still have to say this, but fuck it this year has already been hell enough so why not add another thing
Representation, whether it be for disabilities or culture, race or religion, any marginalized group— ALWAYS MATTERS
I spent the majority of the other night dealing with people trying to downplay the impact of Barbara Gordon’s paralysis being retconned. Wanna see how that went?
“Oh, but it’s okay if Barbara Gordon still has some mobility because there’s paralyzed people that regain their ability to walk”
Her spinal cord was completely severed, she was left fully paralyzed from the waist down
“There’s a 60yo fighting in a Kevlar bat suit and shifting clay people, but Barbara getting her legs back again is a problem?”
Okay, can clay people restore a spinal injury? Can Batman punch a nervous system into fully functioning? What relation does that have?
Aside from the fact there’s zero connection between the two, paralysis actually fucking exists. Batman and clay shifters, believe it or not, don’t. Lemme know if you find an irl Batman or Clayface that needs representation. Go on, I’ll wait
“Barbara being able to walk again isn’t disability erasure, there’s other paralyzed characters”
The definition of disability erasure is literally terminating someone’s disability under the belief it makes a person less than. The fuck you mean it’s not?
And how many paralyzed comic characters can you name? I’m willing to bet it doesn’t come to 50. Every character belonging to an underrepresented group matters. Whether their representation is taken away completely with that one character’s erasure or not isn’t the fucking point. You’re still fueling the already negative stigma around disabilities and sweeping disabled people further under the rug
“Her disability erasure doesn’t matter, DC will just paralyze her again in later issues”
I’m sorry, are you completely paralyzed from the waist down? Do you embody each and every paralyzed person and their experiences? No? What makes you think that you get to determine whether the erasure of something you don’t even have matters?
As for DC re-paralyzing Barbara, it’s been retconned since 2011. Even if they do plan on undoing whatever whack job microchip magic they’ve got going, they sure as hell are taking their sweet-ass time
I can’t believe people were actually arguing in favor of Barbara’s disability erasure, but here we are. Representation has always mattered and always will, and yet media loves grossly misrepresenting everything. Barbara was such a strong character as Batgirl, and flourished in her character development even more as Oracle. Her struggles, overcoming them, and learning to love herself and value her abilities beyond the mantle made her a well-loved inspiration for many. To have all of that stripped away and undone with a microchip was just as insulting as it was a destroyed opportunity for character growth
And unfortunately that’s not the first conversation I’ve had regarding the representation of characters
Oh, you thought I was done? Ha! I wish. How about Spiderverse?
“Oh but Sun-Spider can’t be a superhero, she’s wheelchair-bound!”
Professor X. The Chief. Oracle.
And just to cover all my bases: Bucky Barnes, Daredevil, Hawkeye, Doctor Mid-Nite, Hornet, Jericho, Cyborg. And that’s not even going into characters with much more hidden disabilities. Disabilities never stopped anyone from being able to achieve anything, nor should it ever
“Fat spider-people? Really? That’s just unrealistic”
Yes, really. What’s the problem with that? Surely it’s not the webbing, which have been proven to be durable enough to support buildings. No way it’s how they’re shaped when there’s a car, a horse, and a whole ass T-Rex spider variant
Some people really forgot the whole concept behind the first Spiderverse movie. How Stan Lee made it clear that “anyone can wear the mask.” It doesn’t matter your body type, whatever disorders or disabilities you have, your ethnicity or your upbringing. Being a hero is so much more than that, and the diversity of each spider-variant only reinforces how Spider-Man represents everyone
But let’s go even further with voice acting
“So what if Sunspot is being voiced by a white person instead of an Afro-Brazilian voice actor? It’s animated”
Oh wow I wasn’t aware that representation stops at the sound machine. Yes, Sunspot’s newest voice actor is Brazilian, but with a character whose ethnicity plays an integral part in his story, you’d think Marvel would figure casting an Afro-Brazilian VA would be more authentic for the role than the fourth white dude in a row, but no. Of course not
And with each VA they cast, Marvel pushes Afro-Brazilian VAs out of this role they’d intimately understand and be passionate in representing. VAs that Sunspot fans would love to see knowing that their favorite character (or even themselves) would be understood, rather than being hollowly voiced with characteristics that don’t match the person
“If Sunspot should be voiced by an Afro-Brazilian voice actor does that mean Magneto should be voiced by exclusively German Jewish voice actors? It’s not a monolith”
And neither are Brazilians. Hell, neither is any religion or race. That’s why we want an Afro-Brazilian VA. There’s so many nuances that can only be breathed into the character by someone who understands because they themselves have lived that life. It may be small but those nuances are what make the character feel alive to their audience, and the closer a VA is to the experiences of their character, the more genuine the character feels
Portraying animated characters doesn’t fall completely on the writers and artists. Artists may take control visually, and writers may be responsible for plot and voice lines, but it’s the VAs that are in the spotlight. VAs are the ones that gives these characters character. And those characters can’t be fully and properly represented for viewers if it’s not all there
Representation always matters. Its significance doesn’t go away with erasure, and it definitely isn’t less important because other people who aren’t among that marginalized group refuse understand. Disabilities don’t define who someone can be, nor does body type, or culture, or religion or any other background. It doesn’t stop at the sound machine. Anyone who says otherwise are just adding to the ignorance most media uses to excuse the already shit representation of the entertainment industry
Every marginalized group is valid. Every minority deserves to be portrayed as they are and not feel like they’re being fetishized, infantilized, or inaccurately represented for the sake of plot
Little me, the queer adopted Asian kid with raging ADHD, severe anxiety, and shit communication skills deserved more than the fetishization from anime characters and shouldn’t have needed to wait until they discovered Cassandra Cain, the first character to show that superheroes could look like them too
And people that never struggled to find themselves represented in media sure as hell don’t have an excuse to encourage lacking representation and feign ignorance when common decency and basic human empathy is free
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oh-my-im-ply · 25 days
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This is another post which isn't completely ply focused, but I want to take a second to point out the overlap between people who are transmisic and people who exclude/invalidate mspec lesbians.
Last week, I made a post where I mentioned being a polysexual lesbian, and I made a few mspec lesbian pride flags. Yesterday, someone asked if I was polysexual or a lesbian.
On this blog, we have rules for interaction, as well as rules for mods to follow. At the very top, we have a rule against exclusion and invalidation towards good faith identities, and a rule against bigotry and dogwhistles. However, we will answer questions when they may have been asked in good faith.
So, I answered with this:
Both. I'm attracted to many genders, but not binary men, so I find that polysexual and lesbian both describe my orientation well. Other people may identify as a polysexual lesbian for other reasons.
After I answered, the mask came off, and they started being transmisogynistic and nonbinary-exclusionary, and weaponized the existence of bimisia against me. I deleted their comments and blocked them last night, so I can't copy what they said word for word, but I will repeat their key notes under the cut.
CW: bi erasure, exorsexism/nonbinary-erasure, transmisogyny, mentions of genitalia
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"This is what people mean when they talk about bi erasure. You're erasing bi people."
This is a complete misunderstanding of what bi erasure even means. Bi erasure is when you ignore (the existence of) bi people, or outright deny their existence. These are some examples of bi erasure:
Erasing or ignoring bi history.
Saying that bi people need to just "pick a side."
Saying that bi people are secretly straight/secretly gay.
Saying that bi is just "a transitional orientation" or "a phase."
Redefining the broad definition of bisexuality without the consent of the bi community, especially with the intent of telling people that they "aren't really bisexual" or replacing the bi label.
Saying that "everyone is a little bit bisexual," especially with the intent of erasing bisexuality as a distinct category. This can also be a form of erasure against people who aren't bisexual.
Note that "identifying as something other than bi" is not a form of bi erasure, even if you might "technically" fit the definition... Because that is a matter of personal identity.
But do you know what is a form of bi erasure? Erasing bi history. Mspec lesbians (particularly bi lesbians), have existed for decades. It is not a new identity, and bi women and enbies have a right to identify their attractions to women as lesbian attraction if they wish to. The exclusion of bi people from the lesbian label began as a form of bi erasure. It happened because of separatism and political lesbianism, and an idea that attraction to men "tainted" people, or was a "betrayal" to feminism. It happened because of bimisia.
The word "lesbian" has served as an umbrella term synonymous to "sapphic" for over half a century. You want sources? Here you go.
Miller, Trish. Lavender Woman, Vol. 2, No. 5. Lavender Woman Magazine, 1973. "What is a lesbian? To me, a lesbian is a woman-oriented woman; bisexuals can be lesbians. A lesbian does not have to be exclusively woman-oriented, she does not have to prove herself in bed, she does not have to hate men, she does not have to be sexually active at all times, she does not have to be a radical feminist." Ferguson, Ann. Patriarchy, Sexual Identity, and the Sexual Revolution. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 1981. "Lesbian is a woman who has sexual and erotic-emotional ties primarily with women or who sees herself as centrally involved with a community of self-identified lesbians whose sexual and erotic-emotional ties are primarily with women; and who is herself a self-identified lesbian."....."[My definition] defines both bisexual and celibate women as lesbians as long as they identify themselves as such and have their primary emotional identification with a community of self-defined lesbians." Kafele, Dajenya Shoshanna (1991). Bisexual Lesbian. Archived from the original on July 25, 2022. Queen, Carol A.. Strangers at Home: Bisexuals in the queer movement,. 1992. "A great many bisexual women, particularly those who are feminist and lesbian-identified, have felt both personally and politically rejected and judged by the separatist sisters." Kafele, Dajenya Shoshanna. "Which Part of Me Deserves to Be Free?". Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, & Visions. New York : Haworth Press, 1995. ISBN 9781560249504. "Personally, I am unable to separate out the various ways that I am oppressed (as a woman, as an African American, as a bisexual lesbian, as an impoverished single mother) and say that one oppression is worse than the other, or that I desire one form of liberation more than another." Wyeth, Amy. "Don't Assume Anything". Bi Women: The Newsletter of the Boston Bisexual Women's Network. Vol. 5, No. 2, 1995. "Unfortunately, many of my experiences as a lesbian-identified bisexual woman have said to me that having an appearance or demeanor that diverges from the expected means I will not be accepted as truly belonging in the lesbian community. Despite my attendance at gay pride parades, dollars spent at gay resorts and in support of gay causes, and numerous attempts to participate in gay and/or lesbian groups and volunteer events, I have often felt unaccepted by this community." Holleb, Morgan Lev Edward. The A-Z of Gender and Sexuality. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2019. ISBN 9781784506636. "LESBIAN — A woman who is sexually or romantically attracted to women. Lesbian can mean women who are attracted exclusively to other women, but it is also a broader term for women and femmes who are attracted to other women and femmes. This includes bisexual and pansexual women, asexual women who are romantically attracted to women, and non-binary people who identify with womanhood." Lesbian. The Trans Language Primer. Archived from the original on October 22, 2021.
Does this mean bi people have to identify as lesbians, or "aren't actually" bi, or can't just identify as bi? Obviously not, and I never said that was the case. That would be bi erasure, because that's policing bi people's identities and forcing them under labels that they may not want to be included under. But in the circumstance that a bi person also identifies as a lesbian, they have every right to do so. Bi-inclusive definitions of lesbianism have existed for at least 51 years, and still exist today.
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"Attraction to men, binary or not, means you're not a lesbian."
See above for why the lesbian identity is not always dependent on a lack of attraction to men, binary or not. But lets focus on the nonbinary part specifically:
Nonbinary people can people included in lesbianism and lesbian attraction if they want to be. Yes, that includes all nonbinary genders. Even if attraction to men inherently disqualified a person from lesbianism, nonbinary genders cannot be confined to binary gender rules (even when they're aligned with binary genders) because they're nonbinary. Treating nonbinary genders like they're "functionally the same as binary genders" is a form of nonbinary erasure, regardless of gender alignment.
Whether nonbinary people are included in lesbianism or not is entirely up to each individual nonbinary person regarding their own identity. It is not dependent on the gender label used; it is dependent on how each nonbinary person feels about it on an individual level.
The implication that manhood inherently dominates and erases the rest of a person's identity is also troubling. If you accept that nonbinary people can be included in lesbianism, you must also accept that nonbinary men can be included in lesbianism. A nonbinary man is still nonbinary; their manhood doesn't erase that.
As a pangender lesbian, I've had to deal with the experience of people not only erasing my enbyhood, but my womanhood as well, because they think my manhood is the only relevant aspect of my identity. This is misogynistic and exorsexist, plain and simple, and people use this misogyny/exorsexism to tell me that I'm not a lesbian.
With all of that said, nonbinary people (of any gender alignment) are not always comfortable being included in lesbianism. This is why I describe myself as both polysexual and a lesbian; the polysexual part of my orientation acknowledges that my attraction to enbies can't always be described with my more binary-aligned labels.
And funnily enough, while some people tell me that I can't be a lesbian and can only be polysexual, other people tell me the opposite. So clearly, there isn't a consensus on which label is "correct" for me.
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"If it has a dick, you can't be a lesbian."
This is just blatant mask off transmisogyny, and it's the main reason I blocked them. Do I even need to explain what's wrong with this? Even under a strictly monosexual definition of lesbianism, this statement is just false. Being attracted to people with penises does not equal being attracted to men. If a lesbian is exclusively attracted to women, including women with penises, that lesbian is attracted to only one gender and is not bisexual or mspec.
Any gender can have a dick. Lesbians can have dicks. Women can have dicks. The presence of a penis or lack thereof is not a defining trait of lesbianism, nor monosexuality. And for fuck's sake, maybe don't call your hypothetical trans woman "it"??
"Mspec lesbian" does not mean "lesbian who is attracted to vaginas and penises," and if you think that's what it means, you need to educate yourself. Yes, this includes any people who might identify as an mspec lesbian because of that transmisogynistic definition.
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This blog is an inclusive space. If you come in here to spew bigoted or exclusionary nonsense, expect to be blocked. Think before you speak, and please read our rules.
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bat-besties · 1 year
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Who is Lili? (1.5)
Part two got quite long, so this 1.5 is going to focus on the time between Lili’s backstory in Cambodia and her appearance in the “current” continuity. It’s the most speculation-heavy segment as we only get one line about what she was doing. I’m also going to discuss her suddenly being an expert martial artist. 
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CW: discussion of the real human rights violations in these camps, discussion of Cambodian cultural erasure, no graphic detail for either. 
It makes sense comics-wise for where Lili has been to be a quick line- but it leaves a gap in her story. What could she have been doing during this time? 
If Rose is 14 when Slade said this, that would be 6 years in a camp. (Lili would have left the camp in 1987 if this was 8 years before 1995)
Thai camps were referred to as “determent camps” because they were meant to “deter” Cambodian refugees from coming to seek a better life. They were poorly provided for and protected. In Site 2, the most populous camp, violence, rape and robbery were common from both the gangs within the camp and the Thai rangers meant to keep order.  There were dirt-floored hospitals and little schooling. In the dry season, water had to be driven in by lorries, and the few supplies brought to feed refugees entered the black market. 
To have stayed in those conditions so long implies that Lili’s wider family were killed/imprisoned and she had no contact with Slade, as either could have provided her a way out. She was totally alone. 
Giving birth with inadequate medical support and raising her baby alongside the threat of violence and without basic needs being met would be horrific. It’s no exaggeration to say that without her metahuman genes Rose was likely to have died in infancy. 
[Rose spending the first five years of her life in one of these camps is so massively psychologically damaging and it is NEVER mentioned or discussed. She would have been malnourished, witnessed violence regularly, and been told not to trust men with guns and uniform. No wonder she has issues with authority!]
Going back to Lili, the fact she survived this ordeal and kept her daughter alive through it is yet again testament to her love, strength, and intelligence. Based on her previous actions, I can very much see her being “princess to” others and providing leadership and negotiation with those in power. I think her fluency in English would be valuable for those hoping to get to the US, and I imagine she already spoke some Thai or if not would have an easier time picking it up as she’s already bilingual. Like the real adults in these camps, she may have taught in the makeshift schools, performed in basak plays and raised Rose on folktales, trying to pass on her culture to the next generation. 
There is something else which I think happened during this time - later on in the US we hear and see that Lili is suddenly an expert martial artist.
Now, Lili had no combat skills in her backstory, and martial arts in Cambodia are traditionally male-only so I doubt she learnt that before the civil war as a minor royal. The decision that once Lili is the owner of a brothel and not in sexual slavery she should suddenly have martial arts skills shows her transition from one stereotype to another - the lotus blossom to the dragon lady. 
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Like the lotus blossom, the dragon lady is exotic, othered and sexually available, but she is a powerful villain rather than a love interest. (Lili is not a villain in the US arc, but she does wish to kill people and she’s allied with Slade, so she’s definitely not portrayed as a hero.) The dragon lady is not as weak as a lotus blossom trope, and for defying Western ideas of demure Asian women she becomes dangerous and amoral. She is a ruthless fighter, usually with a proficiency in martial arts - but, as in the panel above, her skill is sexualised.
The audience is not expected to question why Lili has this expertise- there’s an implication that when an Asian woman becomes powerful she magically gets martial arts skills. 
However, taking Lili’s backstory as-is from comics, I think the Thai determent camp is the most logical place for her to have learnt martial arts.
 Pol Pot persecuted men who practised traditional Cambodian martial arts like bokator, and many teachers fled as refugees or went into hiding. It’s possible that Lili made a connection with a martial artist in a determent camp, and he taught her enough of his craft so that she could defend herself and her daughter in this dangerous environment. Perhaps she was ahead of her time in being a Cambodian woman who broke gender roles to learn bokator and preserve the art Pol Pot tried to destroy. And perhaps it was those skills which kept her and Rose alive and safe until they made it to the US. 
Whatever happened, she and her women passed on self defence skills to Rose. 
Slade was never Rose’s first instructor - Lili was. 
After her mother’s death, Rose tries to repress all memories or thoughts of her to avoid the pain of her grief. The first time she’s able to think of her without breaking down is when she uses her mother’s teachings to protect herself. The moment is one in which Lili is able to protect Rose even after her death. 
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Sources:
Report on overview of Cambodian refugee sites in Thailand (I didn’t go into it in the main post but she could be in any type but one run by the Khmer Rouge, and Site 2 or 8 are most likely. I discussed Site 2 in the post as an example with most written about it, not that she would have definitely been there.) https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/just-waiting-to-die-cambodian-refugees-in-thailand-134989/
Article focused on daily life in Site 2 - https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-11-24-vw-202-story.html
Study from 1995 (the year this storyline is written) about intergenerational PTSD in Cambodian refugees in the US - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7559310/
Study from 1996 about PTSD in adolescents from Site 2  - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8714328/ 
Dragon lady tropes-
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/03/26/asian-women-hollywood-portrayals/
https://www.hercampus.com/school/american/the-dragon-lady-the-lotus-blossom-and-the-robot-archetypes-of-asian-women-in-western-media/
Bokator - https://intocambodia.org/content/bokator (note the use of amulets)
https://sankimsean.com/  - the history of the modern father of bokator
The Cambodian women learning bokator today -https://www.khmertimeskh.com/89481/female-bokator-martial-artist-challenges-gender-norms/
Taglist:
@sporkberries
@gnawingonwood
@mariniacipher 
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tonkysexist · 2 years
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Where did they make Wanda a Christian? Like I know they erased her Jewish heritage but I honestly have no idea when they said she's now a Christian
Hi! Thanks for asking. The stuff I remember is this:
First, Wanda's bedroom in Captain America: Civil War has crosses hanging on her wall:
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I can’t see much of a reason for this. It’s a bizarre decoration and just seems to rub in the Jewish erasure.
Then, in WandaVision we see her and Vision celebrating exclusively Christian holidays (Easter and Christmas)
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Honestly— I think Marvel Studios doesn’t care about Wanda’s comic origins. They probably used these holidays because Christian culture is so baked into media that it seemed natural. Either way, Wanda isn’t Jewish. She may not be religiously Christian, but culturally she noticeably is.
In CW they could’ve easily included a mezuzah on her doorframe (very visible as Steve lingers in the doorway for half that scene lmao). In WV they could’ve used those photos to show Purim or Chanukah. It would’ve been that easy. (Also not having her volunteer for Hydra would’ve been great).
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bracketsoffear · 5 months
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Firelord Ozai (Avatar: The Last Airbender) "Fire powers? Check. Used to inflict only pain and suffering? Check. Complete and total destruction of an entire culture and the attempted destruction and assimilation of the rest of the world? While using said fire powers? Check.
The use of fire to permanently disfigure his son for a minor slight and then strip him of everything he's ever known by exiling him in a futile quest feels SO desolation to me, It's like Jude Perry but without the stock market. Taking everything from the children of the Southern Water Tribe, both the victims taken and killed by the firebenders and the rest of the adults who left to fight them. The destruction and erasure of their own history for the sake of filling their children's heads with propaganda. Literally using the power of the eclipse to blast burn immense swaths of land from the air, impersonal and complete destruction. If you extend Ozai to represent the Fire Nation as a whole, which I think is pretty reasonably done as their dictator, it's pretty cut and dry."
Pyro (Team Fortress 2) "As shown in "Meet the Pyro", even their own team is scared of them: the Spy muses on what could fuel such a desire for destruction, the Scout promptly exits the interview room while refusing to divulge any information them, and the Heavy muses that “I fear no man. But that thing….it scares me”—the Pyro is so scary that he doesn't even consider them to be human. The Desolation is described as “a manifestation of pain, loss and unthinking or cruel destruction: ‘all of the worst parts of fire, with none of the warmth’ […] ‘a reckoning, a surging tide of destruction and pain’ and ‘blackened earth, the destructive agonising heat of burning flesh and land scoured of life, the light with the comfort of fire stripped from it, leaving nothing but the terror of its approach.’” Pyro may or may not intentionally be inflicting the Desolation on those around him considering that he sees the world through Pyrovision, but regardless he inflicts a great deal of unthinking suffering on his targets. He burns people alive, shoots them dead, and hacks people apart with axes, resulting in everybody being absolutely fucking terrified of them. Also, while Provision makes them see the world as a rainbow wonderland where killing mercenaries is playing with babies, when they hallucinate a bear telling them “Fire is nobody’s friend,” they hack the bear’s head off so brutally that bone shards start flying everywhere. It says a lot about them that Meet the Pyro is basically a horror movie."
Video CW: Violence
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yomiurinikei · 1 year
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wait what did the dub team do? i’ve heard some stuff but i don’t know how much is true
it’s always the dub team people r surprised about- well. actually no i mention the dub team a lot more than i mention like. isle of nowhere + most formerly popular accs are defunct now. people only know the dub team. this makes sense nvm.
anyways!!!
the biggest thing that always jumps out to me is that emmas voice actor is… i wanna say pr0 ship? sorry for censoring but i don’t wanna end up in that tag lol. but no iirc emmas va had a ton of nsfw of characters who were very very explicitly under 18, on their socials- they didn’t even have anything saying their acc was nsfvv, they had 0 warning and would send links to their acc for people to check out. im also 100% sure they had minor/adult ship content (like. high schooler confirmed to be <18 x adult in their 40s) on their page. the team was aware of this and… did not care
then, a few? years back? before they had released anything playable, back when all they had was VA intros, they said that sora was confirmed to be het by linuj- this was back when the game wasn’t even fully released, let alone fully translated, i could explain. how horrible the word of mouth culture was back then because of this, but with the dub team being in contact with linuj to begin with, people heard this and 100% believed it. they said this in response to people shipping… iirc it was specifically a reaction to some soruko stuff, but anyways, the intent was “so u can’t ship her with girls cuz that’s het erasure, sorry :(“ they later. straight up admitted it was a lie, that they had chosen to not tell the truth, that linuj had never said anything like that
those are the two most… reputable? well documented? things against them- the sora straightbait stuff used to be common knowledge, and i saw the stuff with emma’s va first hand (im just not certain about if they had straight up nsfvv, or if it was just. f3tish stuff which people might not have realized was. s3xual just scrolling through their page- and again, they def had minor/adult stuff). there’s also been reports of harassment by the adults on the team to minors in the server and stuff, and people have said it was just overall an uncomfy environment, but those are the two things that i can personally verify happened
it’s ur choice if you wanna support the dub, and i know some people are 100% fine with emma’s va even knowing the stuff they’d post- im not telling u how to feel, pls don’t come argue with me abt morals, these r just. the things they’ve done which i have an issue with!
Edit: (cw: adult showing nsfvv stuff to minors)
forgot about this one, but yukis past va straight up read nsfvv stuff to minors in voice chat. he was a full blown adult, and im not aware of all the ages involved, but at least one of the minors involved was 15. again! full grown adult on the dub team doing this. i didn’t witness this one personally but multiple people (who i trust/don’t think would lie abt smthn like this) have verified this, and it checks out for dub team to do smthn like this.
Edit episode 2: The incident with Yukis va was in 2018, and as of 2020, yuki has a new va! i wasn't aware there had been a change in va, but! yeah, the current va didn't do this, the va that did that is no longer yukis va
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rgr-pop · 2 years
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sadly cw for domestic violence and rape i have to mention the trial..
seeking derangements posted a screencap of the them amber heard article as a joke
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the joke being the bi discourse is at it again…
a queer friend sent it to me thinking i would also think it was funny.
the first paragraph of the article being made fun of here recounts heard’s testimony that at one point depp raped her because he was jealous of her interactions with another woman. this was not the only account of abuse related to her sexuality that has come up in this trial and previous ones, notably imo their divorce itself, which was the last time her sexuality was really public discussion. and we should understand the workings of divorce itself as a tool of abuse in any kind of case like this (if we understand that actions in divorce are abusive tools for men against women [and i can think of some times when it’s women against women lol shout-out to the uk for convincing feminists banning divorce was their idea 😔]) what then must we understand of their heterosexual marriage to begin with… digressing!)
this is an extreme but not particularly uncommon example, and it’s not like bi erasure or whatever other thing, it’s more like— it’s very obviously manufactured. the joke about amber heard being raped for being a queer woman and then crying bi oppression seems like one kind of thing. but the other thing is you endlessly sharing and circulating “annoying bisexual” tiktoks that were literally designed in a lab to create this reaction, and then generating from them that reaction (mad about a bisexual woman you invented in your head, bisexuals have taken over the culture, etc.) do you genuinely think, using your entire brain, that this is an accident of timing?
& now it is accompanied by people posting 100 astroturfed tiktoks while being like “i have cool bisexual woman friends who aren’t annoying” and/or sharing those directly with your bisexual woman friends being like not YOU and it’s like why ? what validation for your grievances are you genuinely asking us to perform for you while the queer podcasters joke about the lie of bisexual woman getting raped and then having all their money taken from them while also a same exact version of the money piece AT LEAST is probably happening to many of us in that moment. why ? why are you mad about tiktoks. you really do need to figure out how to free yourself from Brands this pride
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american-pagan · 2 years
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Discovering Paganism: White American Identity Crisis & Conceptualizing the "Old World"
If you're a White American, like me, your relationship with your ancestry or ethnicity may be rocky or limited, if not non-existent. For me, this made trying to connect to a non-Christian, non-Abrahamic, culturally appropriate faith really difficult. In fact, this makes a lot of aspects of identity really difficult. And so, I start this diary of things that I've thought about, things that have worked for me, and things that have not in my quest for spiritual reconnection.
CW: White supremacy. This is a long one, for the boys.
P.S. I know that Black and Brown people can be Pagan, but I am focusing on White people in this conversation because I am using the word Pagan to mean a follower of a pre-Christian European religion or a related descendant faith, and most of the descendants of those ancestors are going to be White. Black and Brown Pagans, you are valid and I support your creating a voice for yourselves, I'm just not focusing on you this time.
In Soul-Searching, White Supremacy is Not Your Friend.
It is obvious that White supremacy is bad. Clearly. It harms and has harmed millions upon millions of other human beings, and if you are White, I will stick my neck out and say that it's our responsibility to be the anti-racist firefighters and megaphones of our ancestors' nightmares. But where White supremacy often grants us privilege, the quest for spirituality is not one of those privileges. It is true that we, as White people, (often) have a sense of unique national origin or ethnic identity that many of our Black neighbors whose ancestors were enslaved do not. We also have the ability to build family trees through document-hopping, which is impossible if your ancestors were only recorded as nameless, faceless "property," and not as full and equal human beings. However, we also had much of our historic identities stripped from us by mechanisms of White supremacy, which sets up for us a constructed binary of White vs. not White, and as such conflates all European-Americans into a homogenous, racialized "superior" on the White supremacy pyramid. While this is a lie, the consequence of this construction of race (in the United States) is often an erasure of ethnicity and for White Americans, and comes with the pressure of conformity into the dominant, Anglo-American culture. If you yourself weren't born in Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, or France -- you're not Danish, German, British, or French. You're just White. So the logic goes, with maybe the exception of second-generation immigrants. Of course, this racialization that describes people primarily as Asian or White or Black or Indigenous -- and more or less does not care about ethnic identities -- impacts Americans who are not White just as pervasively, if not more.
If we are all forced to abandon our individual European ethnic identities for assimilation into a White supremacist, Anglo-originated American culture, does that mean all we need to do is rediscover the identities and cultures of our ancestors? "Yes," was my original thought, but I think I was wrong. It's complicated. We are in a bizarre position as White Americans. I do think that rediscovery of ethnic identity can be very important for White Americans to continue to get practice seeing how race and ethnicity are constructed, and the more research into ancient European history you conduct, the more you see how flexible concepts of nationhood and "otherness" are. So yes, in that way, having a distinct European identity can challenge that social structure, but as Americans, we run into big problems with that.
Reasons Finding an Pagan Religion As an American Is Hard
1) We are not 100% any particular ethnicity, usually. Although you may be 100% Romanian or Swedish or Austrian and easily be able to identify your European ethnicity, you are probably not. Many White Americans have British, French, or Spanish ancestry, due to their prolific colonization of North America, but you probably have a big mix. So if you are choosing to follow a particular Pagan pathway, how do you choose which to follow? Genetics? Our ancestors didn't have 23andMe, so maybe that's a weird way to determine origin. There are also people who have strong cultural ties to a particular ethnicity of origin, even if they are only 1/4 or 1/8 that ethnicity "genetically." So culture? A lot of us have been heavily separated from our ancestral cultures as descendants of settler-colonists. We do not live on our ancestral land, so we miss a big tie that can strengthen many spiritual bonds. Even if you have a Dutch name and one or two Dutch Christmas traditions, for example, it might feel weird to say that you are "culturally Dutch," if you have never been to the Netherlands and don't speak the language.
2) Europe still exists, and maybe we're not European. One of the major reasons that I think it was always irritating to me in high school when some White American kid said "yeah, I'm Irish" with his full chest and red-white-and-blue accent, or had a sticker on their laptop of the Norweigan flag, was because Europe still exists. I think we have a tendency as White Americans (at least I do) to think about our identity in "Old World" terms -- ancestral culture and indigenous land. Which isn't inherently bad, though some of us do use it to make us feel special and spicy when we are having an identity crisis (not me??? *cough cough* I would never). But we have distinct cultural and ancestral experiences from modern Europeans, so it feels weird to say, "yes, I'm Irish" when I want to say no... you're American. One of my ancestral ethnicities is a north-central Italian one, but despite my Italian name, fabulous pasta-making abilities, machismo-driven family dynamics, and the consistent pressure to consume insane quantities of red wine at every family gathering -- I'm not Italian. When I meet Italians, people born and raised in Italy, we are totally different. My skin and hair color is atypical for most Italians, I didn't grow up Catholic, I don't speak the language, and I was not born in Italy nor grew up there. So next to an Italian, I'm not one -- I'm an American. I'm only Italian next to my friends with no Italian ancestry. When we talk about countries of origin it is important to remember that many of the cultures we draw or hope to draw our Pagan practices from are still alive. There are living Celtic Pagan Traditions right now in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England, maintained by people who participate in living cultural activities like traditional song and dance and who speak the language on their ancestral land. If you are interested in pulling a Pagan tradition straight out of the history books, be aware that it may be a living tradition with modern Pagans reconstructing it on their ancestral land and with their long-lived ethnocultural practices which may intertwine with their spiritual ones. As such, I recommend thinking about how the adoption of such a tradition has the potential to be culturally appropriative, even if you claim that particular ancestry. This is not me telling you what traditions you can or cannot adopt, I just recommend being mindful.
3) How far back are the "old traditions"? One of the problems you run into when looking at historical Pagan practices that you realize that there Europe has been conquered a lot, so when you're looking at the pre-Christian religions of a particular European place, you will likely notice that it has been conquered many times -- maybe the Romans, before that the Gauls, before that the Celts, etc. Which one do you pick? Because we are not following a tradition handed down to us from our direct family, most likely, we don't have the benefit of guaranteed "authenticity" (or authenticity to a particular area), as modern Christians might. So if historical reconstruction is your Pagan interest, how far back you want to go in the history books is an important thing to consider.
4) Like Christianity, ancient Pagan religions can have problematic messaging. The long history of imperial conquest after imperial conquest and thousands of years of enforced patriarchy means that when you are looking at traditions that are 2-3,000 years old, they are not going to be all sunshine and roses. For example, the Roman god Jupiter had children with Juno. They both shared a father, Saturn, and thus, Jupiter married his half-sister. Does that mean you shouldn't choose a Roman tradition to practice? Or that you are pro-incest if you do? No, it just means if you are looking for a perfect ancient religion in which your ancestors are in harmony with the earth in an egalitarian society, which all came crashing down at the spark of Christianity, I will offer to you that that does not exist. That does not mean you cannot craft your own, well-informed practices that aim to create that world -- or revitalize ancient tradition with a critical eye -- but ancient people were human beings with problematic hierarchies and stories, and an exclusively romantic vision of ancient Pagans is not realistic.
5) A lot of American Paganism can feel scammy. I know not everyone is going to agree with this, but personally, I feel that mainstream Pagan/Pagan-adjacent practices can feel like games, gimmicks, or cash grabs instead of sincere, life-giving religion. Witchy aesthetics can be adopted by non-Pagans with symbols that have real significance to certain sects, like the pentacle. Astrology appears as online compatibility calculators and horoscope apps filled with ads, overlooking the deep celestial knowledge and consequence it brings to believers. Psychics, mediums, or spiritual readers can conduct tarot, palm reading, or interplanar communication for monetary gain and with little to no way of knowing if they are legitimate in the eyes of a particular tradition. As a result, it can create a binary within Pagans, at least from certain (reconstructionist) perspectives. There are those who live on their ancestral homeland, who speak the language and participate in cultural activities handed to them from their immediate family ... and then there are those who are settler-colonists, engage in a compilation of practices from a wide variety of traditions, have a particular interest in spellcasting or clairvoyance, and who focus on modern Pagan spirituality instead of historical tradition or gods. If this was the impression you also got in any learning you have done about Paganism or a Pagan tradition, I want to clarify that I think this is wrong. Even if a practice is not "authentic" in the sense that it reflects ancient historical practice, that doesn't mean that it is less valuable or couldn't be "true." There are plenty of things we do differently, if not better, than we did 2,000 years ago. If a practice, like astrology, is portrayed in an almost disrespectful way or is capitalized on for money, it does not mean that the tradition is bad or wrong, only that it may be abused or not taken seriously. I do not think that a "by the book" historical reconstructionist tradition is better than a modern, syncretic belief -- it is about whatever calls to you and whatever is fulfilling to your soul and world. The whole spectrum from strict tradition to many contemporary changes all have the potential to be lovely and connecting.
Anyway...
These are just some thoughts I have about how American identity impacts the search for Pagan tradition. For me, I was raised Atheist (I know, I'm a rare little snowflake) by a firmly Atheist parent revolting against their Christian upbringing. I imagine many of you are that person, turning away from Christianity but still feeling that spiritual drive to connect with the world more deeply. As such, I have seen Paganism as a way to express the deep spiritual connection to the world that I feel in clear, knowledge-giving, non-Christian terms and with such rituals. But that doesn't mean that finding a faith tradition isn't hard, especially when it's a minority faith in your country. If you're like me and want practices that are culturally ethical, useful, and knowledge-giving, there is more sifting to do. Even more, if you want traditions of ancestral Pagans. Thanks for reading, I know this was long. Feel free to comment your thoughts on this idea! What resonated with you, what you think I got wrong, etc.
TLDR; We're very isolated from ancestral Paganism, so reconnecting with a tradition is hard :((
Best of luck in your faith-seeking journey,
American Pagan
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sillyman-inc · 2 years
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CW: little rant, homophobia
Another day of using TikTok another day of dealing with my daily dosage of homophobia to the point that I had to turn off comments.
Having a great day /s
For context, this was the video I posted:
And people in the comments are just. Proving my point and reason as to why I posted it. I still gotta go through and block some people because of their comments. But I’ll do that later. Rn I just like.
Can’t deal with the massive flood of homophobia I got. Or it felt big at least. I dunno it was quite a few people though and I did in fact not enjoy it.
also, another thing: I’m a SFW account so the “sexualizing” comments I was getting weren’t making sense. I know that queer relations are so sexualized by western culture though so. Yeah.
I have some screenshots of some people on that video though of the conversations if any of you wanna read them.
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There’s more too but I don’t wanna post stuff that gets cut off mid convo.
Ugh I think I need a break from posting over there or something because I get these literally every video I post something involving queerness. It gets so annoying and people are so dense about it. And some people are literally apart of the lgbt community and being against headcannons.
There’s such small rep for queer folks and so that’s why headcannoning exists. It only becomes an actual problem when the character is lesbian (for example) and someone headcannons them as a different sexuality. Then that’s lesbian erasure.
Straight erasure doesn’t exist. People need to stop acting like it does because even if a character is cannonically straight it doesn’t hurt anyone if someone headcannons them as queer. Straight people already have a bunch of rep as it is.
Okay that’s my rant, I’m getting progressively more angry with these comments/people as you can tell.
Anyways over here you guys are very polite and I appreciate you all, all my followers over here get cookies mwa.
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Actual footage of me making cookies for you guys <3
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unnamedelement · 3 years
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You Carry Them in Your Heart: Ficlet for Diverse Tolkien Week
I wrote this little snippet this morning in honor of @diversetolkien​‘s Diverse Tolkien Week, using the prompts “Women of Color,” “Culture,” and “Anti-racism.” It is inspired by a number of blatant headcanons (and some canon-based meta, imho), and the versions of Legolas and Mirkwood that exist in my own work. 
Further, it is inspired by my own relationship with my messy and ethnically-complex family history. While I will never know what it is to not be white in this world, I do know what it is for whiteness and for imperialism to steal the truth from you. I do know how badly it hurts to never be able to reach those parts of you whose stories were erased; how it hurts to know that your family’s language was beaten out of them; how it hurts to know that someone somewhere in the past started shaming children for their questions and teaching them lies about their brown skin. I know how it feels to have nameless grandmothers, to have ancestors whose stories were lost to time and shame and trauma, to the endless march of the victor’s narrative.
So, all that is where this little ficlet is coming from. My own family shit, but also Mirkwood and its arguably colonial positioning, plus all my own very gratuitous worldbuilding and headcanons. 
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You Carry Them in Your Heart 
It was midafternoon and the sun shone weakly overhead, and Legolas and his mother were traveling with a small group of elves. It was cold but not too cold, but Legolas was young, and his mother had buttoned him into the fisherman’s sweater gifted him by the Lakemen before they set out that morning. 
“Mother,” he asked quietly, and he curled his fingers into his mother’s shawl from where he rode behind, pickaback, and he listened vaguely to the murmurs and melodies of the elves around him. “Why are the Men of the Lake pale like moonlight?”
It was the first time his mother had taken him with her on her trade trips to negotiate with the men around Mirkwood, and he had had many questions.
“Your father is pale like moonlight, emlineg,” his mother responded, hitching him up slightly so his face was pressed momentarily into her curls.
“He is not,” Legolas said, shaking his head firmly. “He is pale like sunlight.”
“Your friend Ithildim is pale like moonlight,” his mother answered smoothly.
“Hm,” he said quietly, and he laid his head on her back, raised a hand to stifle a yawn, for they had been up since long before sunrise. “Ithildim is pale like moonlight...”
There was quiet for a time and Legolas watched those traveling around him. They walked up the River and back toward the wood, and his home was a dark mound on the horizon. The elves around him, however, were not all pale like moonlight. They were some of them the moon, yes, but they were also autumn trees under sun, were hazelnut and chestnut, every shade of the endless wood. 
He spoke again: “The Lake is to the east of our home, Mother?”
“It is, child.”
“Saida said the men of the West are different than those of the Long Lake.”
His mother laughed lightly, and Legolas gripped her tighter. “And how would Saida know anything about the men of the Western Woods?”
“Her brother has told her,” Legolas said eagerly. “For he is a captain and has seen many things! He says the people to the West run the plain outside our woods, and they worship the North Sun.”
“And so do you, emlineg,” his mother countered. “The Sun brings us warmth after long winters, does it not?”
Legolas reached a hand out into the air around them and the wind played between his fingers.
“But she says those Men are not pale like moonlight, Mother. They are like loam beneath leaf mould after winter.”
“Like you, then?” his mother asked wryly.
Legolas shook his head behind her. 
“Like me?” she tried again.
He shook his head once more. “You are too dark, and I am too light. And they are cool, like clay under silt.”
“Ah,” his mother murmured, and Legolas felt it vibrate from her into him as he pulled his hand back in, wrapped it gently in that hair that was so like his own. “Saida knows a lot for just being told.”
“Her brother is also an artist,” Legolas said matter-of-factly. “He draws her pictures of his travels in the evenings, in their camps. He brings them home to her and tells her stories. His stories are like picture books. I have heard them, too.”
“That is nice of him.”
“Yes. I wish Felavel could draw like him.”
“Felavel brings you back other things from her work,” his mother said neutrally.
“Yes, and I love them—there are so many different things in our Wood!”
“There are, child.”
It was quiet again for a long time. Legolas knit his mother’s hair between his fingers like a loom; her hair was a dark blackwater that contrasted with his tawny skin, warm as the hair she had plaited from his face into a knot that morning, to keep it tidy during travel. He loosened his hold on his mother’s hair and it unwound from his hands like a spring. He scratched at a braid that tugged at his hairline and then turned his attention again to the elves around him. Their hair was light to dark, cornsilk to coils, but the Men of the Lake had hair that waved like gentle weave in shades of brown, and those of the Western Plains had hair that fell in a sheet like dark and windless rain. The men of those places had one hair, it seemed—not many.
He shifted against his mother’s back and spoke: “Why do all the Men in one place look the same, but we elves here—in our one place, in our Wood—we do not?”
His mother did not answer for a moment, and he could feel her thinking, and he matched his breaths to hers while she pondered. She readjusted her hold on his thighs, and Legolas waited.
“Our people are complicated, Legolas,” his mother finally said. “We come from many places and many cultures and many histories, but we all eventually made Mirkwood our home.”
“Ithildim says he has been here forever.”
She laughed. “Many of his mother’s people are Avarin, Legolas. But they have not been here forever, though they have been here longer than even our own folk”
“And much longer than Father’s,” Legolas said assuredly. “Well,” he immediately corrected himself, “than—than his father. Is that right, Mother?”
“You have many questions, emlineg,” his mother said, but she was laughing again. “When we return, I will be telling your father you are finally old enough to begin your studies!”
Legolas shrugged and then squirmed to be let down. She dropped him to the ground and he took her hand.
“That is all right, I guess,” he finally said, and she swung their hands between them. “I think I  want to understand.”
There was quiet as they began their journey again, as they watched the wide and wild world move about them.
“The most important thing for you to know, emlineg,” his mother said finally, after they had walked together for a time, and had fallen slightly behind the others due to Legolas’ small legs. “Is that we are all wood-elves, and that you have parts of all of its folk—East and West of the Mountains—in your soul, and your history. You are the creation of all those who came before you, and you carry them in your heart, where'er you go.”
Legolas looked up at her, and her dark hazel eyes were wide and bright and shining in her face; her hand was tight on his. 
“That is a beautiful thing, child,” his mother whispered. “You must never forget that.”
Legolas stood and watched her without moving for a moment, for there was something happening here that he knew he was not quite old enough to understand, but it seemed so important to his mother...
He eventually raised his arms into the air without words and she picked him up. She adjusted him so he could tuck his head against her chest, so his legs dangled to either side of her hips.
They were almost caught up with their folk when Legolas finally affirmed, voice muffled in her shawl and cut short by a yawn: “I shall never forget it, Mother.”
And she pressed a kiss to his head then, and he let himself drift as the river cut the plains and they eventually breached the wood; let himself drift as voices were lifted in song, as birds wove their notes in his mind; as it fell to darkness around them and the Sun fled them and the night came down heavy; and he drifted, too, as they went through the great gates and crossed the bridge into the Halls. 
He did not even truly wake as his mother handed him to his father, as they hugged above him, as golden hair caught blackwater curls and tickled his tired nose.
That is a beautiful thing, child. You must never forget that. 
But he was safe and he was warm and he was loved, and that was beautiful, and elves—
Elves do not forget.
He adjusted himself against his father’s chest and felt his mother’s hand brush his cheek; his father’s heartbeat was strong and steady in his ears as they moved toward his room, and it was a bass drum at festival that beat in time with his; it was a lullaby that reassured him into sleep.
.o.
Years would pass, and Legolas’ mother would leave them, and so much of what and who he was would flee. 
And yet, even after all that—even after his mother was but a memory in the wood-elves’ storied past—Legolas would carry her inside him. 
He would let her beat in his heart with the dozens of mothers of their people that had come before them—that he had never known—and he would carry them forward, and on.
And to the day that he sailed oversea, Legolas would never ever forget.
FIN
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Please reach out to me in a DM/chat if you feel I have written something insensitive. I would be happy to speak with you.
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