#for once. not even in discussions over their fucking oppression

[lesbiansanemi]

Gay trans men be normal about women challenge. Especially trans women and lesbians

#why are they so misogynistic. like why. lol. lmao even. it's infuriatingly hysterical #and not just misogyny in general #the TRANSMISOGYNY?????? #lord. god. dear fucking jesus it's goddamn horrendous #also genuinely one of THE MOST lesbophobic groups of ppl i have ever had the displeasure of interacting with #the disdain for women hidden behind 'well i'm not a woman nor attracted to them uwu it's okay to talk about how awful and gross and terribl #they all are. also i will accuse all of them for being either transphobic or a misandrist or both if they confront me about this' #'because i am trans and a minority group so therefore i can never be wrong uwu' #insane behavior #the way so many of them view afab nonbinary ppl as Women Lite because if you're not a binary trans man who wants to pass as cis perfectly #you are irrelevant and can have no opinions on trans topics or experience transphobia or identify it #crazyyyyyyyyyyyy #don't even get me started on the 'transandrophobia truthers' just admit you can't handle trans women being the main topic of conversation f #for once. not even in discussions over their fucking oppression #and don't even get me started on the internalized shit. like not just the misogyny but honestly this weird brand of transphobia #and homophobia too. it's fucking wild #once again. lol. lmao even. #sorry i saw some stupid shit this morning (and it's been building for a while) and I want to bitch. i'm tired. i'm so fucking tired #it's such a trend i have seen in this group of ppl #OBVIOUSLY i know they are not all like this but GODDAMN a lot of them are #and any time someone tries to point out any issues with the community they're just accused of being a bigot. whatever x-phobia is convenien #to cry at the time #okay i'll shut up now #kaz rambles

[respectthepetty]

In Short (Short Film Appreciation Post)

Because I'm loving the discussion about the lack of queer diversity in western mainstream media, I want to encourage y'all to support your local queer film festivals. They showcase international queer feature-length films and a wide variety of short films from marginalized voices.

To motivate you, let me present two shorts films:

Up first

F^¢k 'Em R!ght B@¢k

I watched this twelve minute short film last year as part of the screening committee I sit on, and I'm pleased it's finally available, for a fee, on several streaming platforms.

After a night of partying, Sammy's boss demands he take a random drug test, so he must avoid and outwit her to keep his job.

This is Sammy.

He doesn't smoke weed.

But he unknowingly ate weed butter when offered a delicious cake from a random guy he slept with.

This is his boss.

He catches wind of her planning to give him a random drug test, so since the system is fucking Sammy over, he plans to fuck it right back by taking two days of leave to figure out how to get out of it.

He tries everything to get the weed out of his system. EVERYTHING!

Even his best friend suggests using her pee instead.

Basically, Sammy is stressed, pressed, and systemically oppressed.

Yet with the help of modern technology, he realizes he can finesse his way out of this.

So looking like a million, he shows up for work the next day.

But in order to find out how he fucks the system, you gotta watch the short.

And let me tell you, the reason is beautiful.

The short features real-life queer rapper Ddm Ddm

But it also touches on workers' rights and community support.

In Short, it's hilarious, realistic, and all-around amazing.

Up next,

How Not to Date While Trans

Director, writer, and main character Nyala Moon shares a humorous take on dating while trans. This 13-minute short film is free on YouTube, but Moon currently has another short making the festival rounds called "Dilating for Maximum Results" and it's just as hilarious.

This heartfelt yet cutting comedy follows the dating life of Andie, a black trans woman, and the problematic men she meets along the way.

Moon's short is comedy gold, and a great part of it is due to her blunt depiction of being a trans woman.

In the short, she plays Andie, who is a transformer, which she explains is an insult to trans women, but she is trying to reclaim it.

She has a three-date rule before she tells a guy she is trans: coffee, dinner date, then the third date must be public in case he freaks out when she tells him.

But the second date is usually the hardest since she has to subtly quiz the guys without outing herself. It's like a game show, but the men don't know they are on it, and she stays safe!

But even when guys make it to the third date, there is still the chance they will run.

So the short discusses not only dating but random hookups.

Will she attempt the tried and true "nail and bail" or is she open for something more?

To find out, you have to watch it!

In Short, it shows all the ways trans women must navigate dating while also making sure Andie gets laid.

Once again, support your local queer film festival and watch some great films!

#in short #short film appreciation #support your local queer film festival #go watch a movie or two #there are amazing films out there

[okay-letsdothisonelasttime]

I'm back on that hunger games bullshit. Cause you know, the world is turning into a dystopion nightmare before our eyes, so why not consume media that showcases the hell on earth we are barrelling toward. And as always I have some (many) thoughts.

(This is long, but I needed to get it out of my head - sorry in advance if anyone does actually read it)

Gale is the worst - we all know this. He's manipulative, petty, short sighted and insecure. A great representation of fragile masculinity. But I'm only now coming to realise a lot of my dislike of the third book was largely ignited by his increased role in the narrative. Don't get me wrong there was a good potion of it that stemmed from being a (privilaged) adolescents at the time and thus unable to fully comprehend and empathise with the themes being discussed. But even at that age he was so unpalatable (and still is) that having to hear about him and his shitty behaviour throughout the story really undermined the complexity of the narrative (at least for me. Shitty unnecessary love triangle with a terrible man = loss of interest).

The third book is so much more interesting to me now (excluding fucking gale) that I have (experience with) comprehensive knowledge of mental health struggles (i.e. ptsd, depression, anxiety, panic disorders etc.). The way that finnick, katniss, haymitch, Johanna and of course peeta (and really all of the tributes) struggle with their truma, particularly in the third book, is very interesting, if horrifying, to read about. Especially when you consider the time during which this was written. Like yes mental health was being discussed more freely and with less stigma. But it wasn't the same open conversations we are having now, over a decade later.

There's so many small details from the books that I had completely forgotten about. Details that subtlety weave into the narrative and really intensify the characters, themes and political systems being represented. Things that make the capitol and their power that much more terrifying. Ideas that anchor the distopian themes more to reality and reflect the growing injustice and corruption in our own world back at the reader.

The books do a better job of representing katniss and peeta's age then I remember. Yes they have grown up with hardship, poverty, oppression and are therefore justifiably tougher and more comprehending then your average (privilaged) teen. But both show a level of naivety (for lack of a better word) throughout the books, particularly catching fire, that is a fundamental buy product and nessisary reminder of the fact that these are 16 to 17 year old kids. Forced into being the face, voice and engine of a revolutionary war.

While I once resented certain character deaths at the end of the series and questioned the motives and decisions made by individuals. I have come to realise (with age and experience) that it was so much more important for the story that it's wasn't contorted into some kind of palatable "happy ending" for fan service. The story would have never worked as a whole if it wasn't being brutally honest about the cost of change. Not just in the indicriminant loss of life (it could be your mum, your neighbour, your bully in school - just like it could be the unnamed character or your favourite protagonist). But the tax it can take on the mind, body, spirit and morality of the people who are fighting for it. Standing up for your rights, for your friends and families safety, for the quality of life of hundreds of unnamed people who you have never met will take a toll. And standing up against the oppression of yourself and or others will never be easy. And there's every chance you might walk away from that fight and no longer recognise yourself when you look in the mirror.

Anyway I'm sure there's so much more, but in conclusion 'the hunger games' aged like fine wine for the most part.

And while i understand why there was so much push back against it for the last little while. A young white women being represented as the savour of the oppressed because she was a figure head (at least for a large part) for the movement, while many grass roots organisations do the actual fighting on the ground. [Please see edit to add below for corrections]

I think overall there's a lot of political issues the book discusses well, which have remained topical and relevant enough that it still has a place in the current day. (Particulalrly with the distopian shithole amaerica is tuning into as we speak).

EDIT TO ADD: it has come to my addention that Kitniss was infact written into the books as a POC, likely either Native American or Melungeon. Something I didn't know, but makes a hell of a lot of sense, and I think is far more powerful when you consider her role in the series. However this does bring the white washing of her role in the movies to the forefront and opens up the issues of racial prejudice and lack of equal oppunity in hollywood. How visual media can very easily corrupt and alter our comprehension of literature. And why represention is so incredibly vital.

Because the reality is that, for me, having Katniss' role payed by a white women in the films completely steam roled and mentally erased the nuance of her characterisation as a POC women in the books. As I'm sure it did for a lot of young white teenagers. Which in turn emboldened a lot of (priviaged and white) people to participate in proformative activism. And subsequently led to the backlash that I wrote about above.

Thank you to @bluestrawberrys for bring the above issue to my attention so I could make the nessisary correction.

#the hunger games #catching fire #mockingjay #my thoughts #a reflection on the series #i have such different perspectives now than i did when i was 13 or whatever #it held up #for the most part #district 12 #the capitol #peeta mellark #haymitch abernathy #finnick odair #johanna mason #katniss everdeen #we live in a distopian nightmare #so why not read about it?

[checkoutmybookshelf]

And the Familiar was a Sourdough Starter

This is actually not a book I picked up, it was a book a friend who is very into baking loaned me. And let me just tell you, it was a DELIGHT from start to finish. There were baked goods, an aggressive sourdough starter, and so, so many gingerbread cookies. There were also excellent questions about what it is to be a hero, the limitations and failures of authority, and under what precise circumstances climbing up a garderobe becomes a viable option (spoiler alert: it's when there are literally no other options). Let's talk A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking.

There will Be SPOILERS below the break! Be warned!

Fourteen-year-old Mona is a baker first and foremost. If she sometimes can save overworked dough with magic or make a like of gingerbread men can-can, well thats just a thing she can do. She is a baker. Until, of course, a dead body shows up on the kitchen floor.

Dead bodies showing up randomly is just never, ever a good thing.

Its even less a good thing when a bougie, dickheaded wizard from the castle decides you did it, and because a whole lot of people at a whole lot of levels failed catastrophically in their job, you end up in the position of having to climb a garderrobe to galvanize a weak leader into not doing a magical racism. And then because EVEN MORE PEOPLE FAILED TO DO THEIR JOBS, you at 14 are the last wizard left to defend the city (which is currently sans army) against a bunch of mercenary raiders. Oh, and your magic is entirely bread-based.

I, much like Mona was, would have been royally pissed that I had to be a city-saving hero at 14 because the system and a bunch of key individuals failed that hard and it somehow got left to me. And that is possibly one of the best parts of this book, is that discussion that heroes rarely feel heroic, and then asks WHY. And the answer is almost always some variation on "because a bunch of other adults fucked up." And that sucks, and it's hard, and it's unfair, and all of that is acknowledged in story. But Mona still has to step up and BE that hero.

Thankfully, however, the book at least acknowledges that the 14-year-old should never have to make the sacrifice play. Knackering Molly, a deadass (pun fully intended) horse necromancer who was heavily implied to have been forcibly employed by and subsequently deeply traumatized by the army in her youth, steps up to make the sacrifice play to save the city that did her so dirty. And she does it not because it's heroic or even because it's the right thing to do, no. She does it because if she doesn't, then another wizard kid--of whom she is rather fond--would have to. It's not fair that Molly has to take that hit either, but she was a grown-ass adult who was capable of making that choice, and I love that she did it for Mona. If Mona hadn't been in the picture, I think Molly would have let the city fall without a second thought. And that might even have been the right choice.

Wrapped up in Mona's hard lesson in adults fucking up is a hard lesson about the fact that authority can be weak and corrupt, and it can and will use state actors (the "all cops are bad" energy of a couple of scenes in this book is legendary) to oppress and murder people without power or authority. It encourages questioning and holding authority figures accountable. And once the fight is over, it acknowledges that being given a butt-ton of awards and recognition doesn't make any of it ok. Mona is still angry at the Duchess after all is said and done, and that is very much framed as perfectly understandable and acceptable.

Now, while the politics and power brokering and coming into an adult understanding of how systems of authority work are really excellent parts of this book, they're not the only excellent bits. We have got to talk about the magic system.

People who hate soft magic systems should leave now, because the magic system in this book is softer than raw dough. There is no Sandersonian breath counting here. But I have always thought that magic systems shouldn't get in the way of a good story, and I like a good soft magic system. This one also goes back to basics with what they call sympathetic magic--basically, if you have a bit if a thing, you can command the rest of the thing (you might recognize this as thaumaturgy).

This works beautifully for baking magic, because you can do a LOT of this with dough. And Mona does, from little magics like saving overworked dough or stopping biscuits from burning to full on bad gingerbread men who sabotage the enemy and GIANT BREAD GOLEMS. Seriously, the magic and the baking works together with a natural synergy that just happens effortlessly. The gingerbread men are sassy and wonderful.

But of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention Bob the Sourdough Starter. Bob is...an accident, more or less, from when Mona panicked that she had killed her aunt's sourdough starter and threw magic at it. Bob was the result. Bob eats flour, sugar, odds and ends of baking, and the odd dead fish when nobody's looking. He also has definite opinions about people. Mona is the center of his world, and Spindle and Aunt Tabitha are acceptable. Uncle Albert gets growled at, and when Mona yeets Bob at the Spring Green Man during his attempted assassination of her, Bob burns the Spring Green Man like acid. Needless to say, when the city is besieged, they yeet chunks of Bob at the oncoming hordes and it is...disturbingly effective.

In this house, we stan Bob. From a safe distance and with a haddock I hand, if at all possible.

Overall, this book was a delight to read, and I'm a little sad I have to return it to one of my book buddies. Mona was a treat as a protagonist, the supporting cast was colorful and fun, and the stakes were realistically high. I highly recommend this treat of a book.

#a wizard's guide to defensive baking #middle grade fantasy #ya fantasy #bread magic #books and reading #books #books and novels #books & libraries #book recommendations #book review

[qweerhet]

frequently, it's Exhausting being at an intersection where i have experienced both "sanist and racist Reddit Atheism lateral violence" and "anti-atheistic and racist Liberated Religion lateral violence" because of the simple fact that both camps are deathly committed to arguing that the other camp does not, in fact, exist in any meaningful way and only exists as singular rude people in individual leftist spaces.

like i truly do not enjoy how this makes me sound like an Enlightened Centrist, but quite frankly i have been in a variety of left-leaning spaces over the course of my life, and there are left-leaning spaces which are run by members of one particular religion (or even, occasionally, have power systems that privilege two, possibly three religions working in conjunction) who use systemic power within that space and use it to oppress atheists and agnostics within that space. and there are also left-leaning spaces which are run by atheists that use systemic power within that space to oppress minority religions, primarily along the axes of sanism and racism, and therefore all non-consensus-reality experiences regardless of religious status.

and like, in both cases, i've experienced institutions being utilized to enforce that oppression--the institution of the church + equivalents in the case of the religious oppression, obvs, and in the case of weaponized atheism, the mental institution and the carceral system (which are so interrelated it feels rather redundant to refer to them separately in this context tbh).

and i think it's extremely unwise to build your entire comprehension of religion + privilege + systems of power from your leftist bubbles, tbh, because that's how you get shit like "christianity is the only religion that has any problems" on the Liberated Religious side, and "anyone who has an experience outside of consensus reality is an agent of oppression" on the other side. like, hyperfocusing on your experience within left-leaning bubbles is to exclude yourself from a more holistic understanding of how religious institutions + systems of power operate worldwide, and how those systems of power are reproduced on smaller scales and within interpersonal relationships.

like, that's all awfully broad, i acknowledge, but it's difficult to get into specifics without missing the forest for the trees once again. when you're tweeting like "and where are these evil anti-atheist members of minority religions who oppress you? are they in the room with us now? you're just mad about being called antisemitic" you're Missing The Forest For The Trees in that, like, "religion" doesn't mean one specific thing and "atheism" doesn't mean one specific thing (they're both extremely general terms for extremely broad concepts that have varying relationships with the concepts of culture + consensus reality + history depending on the context they're being used in!) and maybe atheist jews are also mad at you for erasing the negative experiences atheist jews have in religious jewish spaces when you say that. and sure maybe your social context is primarily made up of dealing with antisemitic shit from white supremacist atheist leftists who utilize power structures to paint targets on the jewish members of your social bubble when religion comes up at all, but also, like, there is absolutely a social context where pretty much every discussion of religion is centered around an institutionally powerful theocracy attacking atheists and leftists utilizing that power structure to oppress atheist leftists within their social bubble.

like--again, i fucking hate how much this makes me sound like an Enlightened Centrist, and on a personal note, i do feel like there is a moral pressure to pick a side, but i really don't think there's "sides" to pick at the end of the day. i think atheist social bubbles, particularly in america, are incredibly vulnerable to hegemonic ideals of sanism and racism, and i think lefty religious social bubbles are incredibly vulnerable to hegemonic ideals of "subtle" conservatism engrained in religious institutions and racism, and i think all of these things are really fucking easy for groups to begin enforcing violently when the groups in question are both violently oppressed and under constant attack from the institutions in power in their particular areas of the world. like, it's so easy to fall back on hegemonic failsafes to protect one's own, and i think the core of this perceived divide is that these groups have high rates of people defensively and publicly participating in oppressive hegemonies to attempt to garner some form of protection from the constant oppression they face, and forming high-control social groupings based around this phenomenon.

[tittyinfinity]

I know it's already been said (can't find the post), but just a reminder that once this is all over, you can't expect people who just went through the worst trauma imaginable to be able to get over it and become model citizens immediately. Trauma that bad lasts for generations. We've seen this pattern play out many times from US and UK imperialism – take away the people's resources, ruin their mental and physical health, blame them for the struggles imposed on them, heavily judge & police every action of theirs, and then use that to justify their arrest/murder.

So if you don't have a perfect interaction with a person who is going through/went through/had family go through a genocide, give them some fucking grace. Maybe their politics don't line up with yours. Maybe they have some out-of-date beliefs. Maybe they're angry & irritable; maybe they aren't the nicest to you during a discussion. Still give them some grace. You know why?

A lot of us have had the privilege of being in a place where we can assess our biases & behaviors in order to correct them. They don't even have the time to think about it.

Think about all the old biases you used to have. Would you have grown out of them if you had experienced nothing but trauma, with no outside resources to help you learn about those things?

So if you're white and you find yourself thinking something like "I don't care about this person's oppression because they were homophobic" you need to re-assess that. It's been proven that punishment and ostracization does not help anyone get better. You can't defend other human rights with racism.

Identity politics isn't our first priority. Our first priority is MAKING SURE EVERYONE HAS A RIGHT TO LIFE so that there are even identities to discuss in the first place.

#.bdo

[tinynebula]

to be fair when people criticize usamericans for being incredibly self centered in terms of social issues it's not about a ranking of who's more oppressed like it doesn't matter if people in the third world are obviously struggling more than poor people in the usa because that's beyond obvious the point is that people in the third world don't have the privilege of the absolute monopoly of information and control over the entire cultural landscape on the internet which is supposed to be the only place where actual people can spread awareness over social issues without going through the filter of corporation owned news media like we're not exaggerating when we say you can't asks us to care about social movements like BLM even if they're objectively a good and righteouss cause because it goes both ways and you've proven that you won't even lift an eyelash over similar problems in the rest of the world. there are entire civil wars happening all across the globe but a senator in the usa farts in public and we all have to hear about it. and then when people get righteously mad about the group that holds monopoly over every single discussion on the internet for ignoring very important social issues somewhere below the ecuator (if they even remember that "the rest of the world" is not just europe) you decide to act like it's cringe to say "nobody is talking about this." yeah, because nobody is. once again i don't know how to explain to you that you should care about other people and i don't give a single fucking shit that your education is bad. EVERYONE'S EDUCATION IS BAD. and the places that say they're better like europe, they're lying, because they don't teach them shit about colonialism, clearly, since to this fucking day they still act like they're superior to everyone else.

#anyway fuck you

[ragnarssons]

i legit gotta understand, how the s3's yennefer storyline is like "oh noooo aretuza is destroyed :(((((( ooooh but the girls are gonna miss it so much :(((((( and tissaia is saaaad :(((( and they will come together to build it back up!!! yayyy!!!" and i'm like-

i'm sorry, am i supposed to see aretuza as anything but another spoke on the patriarchy wheel that has been ruling over and ruining these lands for way too long? like, it's ruled by men "the brotherhood", where tissaia, the only woman member has had to fight for hundreds of years to get there (and it's up to discussion but all i saw was her being used as a pawn and being belittled by dirtass men). tissaia who herself, became like the oppressors of young girls she "taught" while simultaneously abusing them, or murdering them, (yes because i consider turning some of them into eels so that they power the power house, as murder) not caring if they disappear??! from right under her nose (and that's on s3 so i'm really supposed to see any evolution in her?) all in the name of ancient men-decided rules. aretuza that allowed men like stregobor to thrive and do whatever the f*ck they wanted with women, including young girls whom he murdered, tortured and experimented on. they knew, they knew all along! even tissaia knew! the place was built out of the oppression and murder of elves, treated as slaves and then disposed of, for their carcasses to use as foundations for the place. hello?! and best of all these scenarios, these young girls turned into "witches" would then be literally given to rich kings, depending on their prettiness, to sell either s*xual favors in exchange of a modicum of respect and -very fading- power (yennefer, philippa, sabrina, etc), or be treated like shit and used and abused once more (cough cough, fringilla). and tissaia presented yknow, neutering these girls in exchange of their power "an evolution" from pregnant women being "banished" from aretuza back in the past, like wow, evolution sure is something. like sure i do understand yennefer and tissaia mending their relationship through time and as yennefer grows and tissaia evolves (even thoooo... well i'd have STUFF to say about that). but yennefer with the brotherhood and aretuza? i really don't understand the dedication. on s2 the brotherhood wanted to kill her, even after what she did in sodden, that saved everyone. on s2 stregobor tortured yennefer and was never punished for it. on s2 yennefer fled aretuza and the brotherhood and they treated her like shit. don't understand how she'd even think ciri would be safe there, and i don't understand why she's willing to sacrifice her life as a mother with geralt and ciri, for this shithole. like yeah, somehow the brotherhood persuaded everyone that they were "the keepers of the peace between the kingdoms" but duh, that's obviously a lie. the brotherhood and aretuza alike got played like a fiddle by vilgefortz and only three of these women even saw it, and were treated like shit by their peers (some of them at least) for trying to change things. out of this whole place, triss seems like the only one with a freaking beating heart in her still. SO. AGAIN. WHY TF AM I SUPPOSED TO CARE? i legit cheered when fringilla murdered her shitass uncle. i cheered when stregobor died, and i was on philippa's side. and yennefer i'm sorry honey, but i do not care about how sad you are about this fucking wretched place being destroyed. it should be.

#the witcher #the witcher lb #the witcher spoilers #i swear when they were all sobbing at the end of ep8 #about how uwuwuuuw the whole place is destroyed #i was like HUUUUUUUH YES GOOD #ffs is that stockholm syndrome or something #i really don't get it #how they don't question it #how it's not more heavily adressed if they do #because they seem so passive and stupid #and im so sad to feel like yen is trapped in a storyline i hate #she was good on s1 when she was FAR AWAY from that shithole and hated it #when falka was like 'burn it to the ground' to ciri #i was at the point of being like 'yeah do it babe'

[life-in-the-monster-haus]

you sound extremely white…. especially in your posts defending Gil and blaming shit on Lagoona, like….

your posts only convinced me even more that those two shouldn’t be together.

girls shouldn’t have to put up with racism for the sake of a guy and implying that lagoona should just go “that sucks 😢” whenever gil mentions his parent’s racism? Like wtf how is that a better lesson for kids than her wanting her boyfriend to stand up for himself? and if protecting lagoona from racism is oh so terrible for gil, just…. have them break up ffs. don’t encourage kids to stay in relationships like that where one has to endure racism for the other cus otherwise the person with racist parents gets punished.

Like, way to make it POC’s fault for racist parents being abusive to their kids? “it’s all lagoona’s fault cus she forced gil to take a stand against racism even tho his parents would punish him” like wow. you truly sound very white.

let’s also not gloss over the fact that you called Lagoona a bitch at one point for crying when Frankie asked her about boys. or you calling Draculaura a cow at one point too like wtf??? so maybe lay off the gendered insults for girls??? before jumping to the defense of a character POC dislike and who’s flaws you excuse as trauma cus you see yourself in him.

I'm gonna put this answer under a cut because some folks get cranky when I make long posts, even though there is a feature in your settings that can auto trim long posts, I get blamed anyways... it's easier to blame the person than to address the problem directly isn't it?... hey! that's kinda what happens to Gil! let's discuss.

Saying someone sounds white based off text and nothing else. 🚩🚩🚩

I'm Puerto Rican, thanks for asking. But I blamed shit on Lagoona because, some stuff was her fault, specifically stuff that put Gil directly in harms way. Maybe your cool with dumping your personal baggage on a disabled 16 year old but I'm not and no one should.

My posts were never written to prove that Gil and Lagoona are meant to be together, perfect for each other OR even good together, you're confusing me with a shipper, at most I've stated Gil is decent boyfriend material and I stand by that. The entire reason I write them is to prove Gil is an innocent and defend him from slander that this annoyingly prevalent sub-section of the fandom has been spreading that has absolutely NO basis in canon, if you read my posts like you claim to you'd have known that. I'm not really sure WHY Gil has become the fandom punching bag, Maybe it's because he's less masculine than the other MH guys? is it because he's Asian coded? is it because he needs a device to breathe? Maybe it's some unholy combination of homophobia, racism and ableism. fuck if I know, so I went looking: I watched hundreds of webisodes, days worth of movies and countless pages of teen wank in diaries so that y'all didn't have to and I put it in an easily digestible format but I guess that wasn't good enough for you hmm?

Girls shouldn't have to put up with racism for the sake of a guy. you're completely correct and I don't think I ever made that claim. UNFORTUNATELY saltwater people DO face racism in the G1 Monster High universe and Lagoona would face that same racism regardless if she was dating Gil or not. The racism isn't radiating from Gil, Lagoona says herself there is a long standing system of oppression against saltwater monsters which I covered here.

Also don't put words in my mouth, it's poor form- especially in a text based forum where people can go back and re-read everything we both said. I never once implied "that lagoona should just go “that sucks 😢” whenever gil mentions his parent’s racism" I said it was wrong of her to force him to tell his parents that he was seeing her, especially when she knew they had a threat hanging over his head. Also Gil doesn't just go around mentioning his parents are racist, it's just a fact that exists in this universe and when he IS forced to talk about it, it's always spoken with great shame. Like when he tried to dump Lagoona during the Gloom Beach arc, Y'all think they should have broken up? well here you go. Gil tried to break things off with Lagoona before they were even officially dating, he knew it was painful and tried to spare her. But she likes him and he likes her, so obviously that didn't work.

Gil DID stand up for himself, A LOT. I documented it WELL with pictures, links and colored words for emphasis! I practically spoon fed it to the reader from a silver platter, a child could understand it. If you read my review well enough to understand it to the point that you have a problem with it that you just HAD to tell me about, you'd know that. But clearly you gave my review as much attention as you gave canon because here is what happened in canon again since I don't think you listened the first time it aired or when I said it. In Episode 24 Gil defends Lagoona against Mr. Hack's bigoted statement that Sea Monsters are bad parents, they weren't even dating at that point they were just classmates. He defends Lagoona directly again in Volume 2 where he speaks directly to his parents (Probably his Father?) On the phone in front of Lagoona. THAT phone call? got him sent to a Boarding school far away as punishment for defying his parents wishes and wanting to be with Lagoona and he was there for the entire summer and half of the next school year. They are still TECHNICALLY not dating by this point they are just hanging out and into each other - even without the reward of Lagoona, Gil STILL stood up for her, got punished for it and came back for more because he directly defends Lagoona to his racist parents AGAIN in Volume 3 where Lagoona isn't there, it's just him and his parents so you know how he feels is genuine and not performative, there's a whole episode about it called "Defending your Lagoona" ... I didn't even need to write what I did, the episode should have been enough proof but clearly no one pays attention to either canon or context because some key component of understanding clearly got lost in translation. I'm gonna ASSUME that most of y'all just haven't watched G1 in literally 9 years and have FORGOTTEN the subtle things that make Gil a good kid, it's like y'all watched the first half of skull shores and were like "Wow, Gil is a piece of shit!" - without finishing the movie to know that he saved everyone in the end. People cite Gil being "wishy washy" or "spineless" as reasons why they don't like him, but the shit this kid has been though? He could be getting flogged off screen like Jesus in "the Passion of the Christ" for defying his parents for all we know: he's scared of his parents for a reason but he has been ALWAYS loyal to Lagoona and he stood up to Mr. Hack, Farnum and his own parents for her... the kids spine is made of iron. Some of y'all can't get your man to take a shower for you meanwhile Gil is out here chewing bigots a new one for Lagoona.

Rebelling against your parents prejudice and wrong beliefs to live a life that makes you happy is a GREAT message for kids to learn.

"if protecting lagoona from racism is oh so terrible for gil, just…. have them break up ffs. don’t encourage kids to stay in relationships like that where one has to endure racism for the other cus otherwise the person with racist parents gets punished."

Do you want to watch a show where they are constantly pining for each other because they can't be together? Because I don't... If I wanted to torture myself with love that is there but also isn't there I'd watch Miraculous. Lagoona also never endured any racism directly at the hands of the Webbers, she was just told not to date their son and they didn't even tell her themselves, Gil was always the messenger and he softened the blow as much as he possibly could. while it sucks that she keeps getting bad news it's not really quite the same as experiencing it first hand. But any story-line where the racists get what they want is a bad story-line.

"Like, way to make it POC’s fault for racist parents being abusive to their kids?"

... Did you seriously just try to tell me that G1 Lagoona is a person of color. Blonde haired, green eyed, beach waved hair, light skinned, tiny nosed, Australian, voiced by a white woman, Lagoona... is a person of color... I'm not saying that any of these traits in of themselves automatically makes G1 Lagoona white OR that people of color can't have any of these traits. I'm just saying that all of them PLUS how she's handled in the show with her privileged Yacht owning parents AND the sheer nerd rage from fans at her being Latina in G3 and thus "no longer white" are things that make her white. I know many people have head-canons that shes Aboriginal and that would be fantastic if it was true. But let us not give Mattel too much credit to think that far ahead. for all intents and purposes, G1 Lagoona is white.

HOWEVER, what she is going through IS a common struggle among people of color and I think Mattel did this intentionally to avoid torturing an actual person of color. Little brown kids get subjected to racism enough, they don't need to watch the cartoon mermaid go through it too. or maybe now I'm the one giving Mattel too much credit they probably just wanted to show "Look! white people have it tough too!"... Honestly? this whole allegory would have worked better if Lagoona was a dude and Gil was gay. None of you would have dared to force Gil out of the closet if Lagoona was a dude and his parents were homophobic, but for some reason because it's racism and not homophobia it's okay!? to put Gil at risk!? Would y'all be like "Maybe if Gil just wasn't into men he wouldn't have these problems!" being homeless because of being gay and being homeless because of racism is STILL being homeless, he gets disowned either way.... Make it make sense folks, because it doesn't. Didn't an actor recently get forced out of the closet and it was widely regarded as an awful thing? So why are we so gung-ho to make Gil tell his racist parents he's dating a girl he knows they won't like? Would you do that to him if he was gay and wanted a boyfriend? probably fuckin' not.

I never said everything was Lagoona's fault she is ALSO young and still learning, but somethings were - like him getting sent to boarding school. I realize that Lagoona is a fandom darling and most of y'all's precious little meow meow but she was wrong for that. And I don't hate that, I LIKE that we get flawed characters! Do I love it? No! she was wrong! BUT I LIKE that she was wrong, part of being young and learning is screwing up and making mistakes! we deserve complex characters who aren't perfect in every way. Being pushy and assertive is part of what makes Lagoona a compelling character - but it got someone hurt in this instance and she should learn from that... THAT is good writing... and it's one of the rare instances of good writing we get with these two but I'll get to that in a minute.

"let’s also not gloss over the fact that you called Lagoona a bitch at one point for crying when Frankie asked her about boys."

Once again putting words into my mouth, By making this statement it LOOKS like you read Page 2 of my media analysis but did you though? because context is SUPER important. I did not call Lagoona a bitch for crying, I called her a bitch for being mean to Frankie. Frankie went to Lagoona whose supposed to be their friend for advice but instead Lagoona made it all about her and was then sarcastic to Frankie's plight because her problem is worse and She's aiming for the gold medal of the Pain Olympics. I hate the pain olympics, there are no winners, only losers.

"you calling Draculaura a cow at one point too like wtf??? so maybe lay off the gendered insults for girls???"

And why DID I call Draculaura a cow?... Was it because she was cheating on her black boyfriend with a white guy? 3 seconds after he walked off screen!? because I'm pretty sure it was because she was cheating. once AGAIN we are in a situation where context is important! In the exact same page just discussed I took an entire sidebar to explain why Draculaura was being a cow. I have absolutely zero respect for cheaters and I could have (and should have) called her a lot worse. I'd also like to say that as far as insults for girls go? Cow is fairly mild I could have called her another C word that is frequently used against girls but I went with cow to keep it classy~. also side note: there are male cows, I think they're called Steers... but it's still a cow. Anyways I don't think you really care what I call Draculaura, I think you're now just trying to paint me out as some type of misogynist... which, just proves you don't follow me or know anything about what I preach here you're just mad that I defended a boy whom you're assuming is white.

"before jumping to the defense of a character POC dislike and who’s flaws you excuse as trauma cus you see yourself in him."

UHM... I don't recall reading anywhere that Gil is disliked by POC specifically!?!?! I can't track the barometrics of Monster High tumblr... In fact from what I can gather if TikTok & Twitter are anything to go by most of the people who are hating on Gil are overwhelmingly white... but at the same time I'm not polling anybody either. But just for the record I'm Latine and my friend who helps me out with MH & Gil lore, @peppapigvevo isn't white either... Sooo if your point is that POC are the ones who don't like Gil... I'm here to tell you that POC are also the ones defending him.

But Gil canonically doesn't really have a ton of flaws and the tiny ones he does have stem from him being young and inexperienced, frankly I wish he had more, it would give people a legit reason to hate on him instead of their reasoning now which boils down to: "His parents are racist and even though HE isn't racist I'm gonna blame him anyways because someone on social media told me to and I haven't watched the show in a decade so my memory of the lore is fuzzy at best but I saw Lagoona cry once so Gil MUST be the bad guy!." Which... Y'all are expecting perfection from Gil and that's a ridiculous standard for anyone to live up to let alone a 16 year old boy. But I'm not like... making up trauma for Gil, based on how much he fears his parents THAT is a trauma response that they have instilled in him, it's there I didn't invent it. healthy normal kids don't fear their parents the way Gil fears his, I can only assume he is afraid because they have given him a reason to be afraid. a statement I have also said, several times, in my posts that you claim to have read and take issue with.

Was Gil and Lagoona's relationship written extremely well? No. But do I think Mattel should have never touched the issue of racism in their show? also No! it took a lot of guts to put a story about prejudice in a kids cartoon and MH is for little kids, their target demographic is 6-11yr olds, obviously MH skews a bit older, otherwise none of us would be here. But I'm glad they covered this topic, I don't much care for shows that shy away from scary issues or talk to kids like they're stupid because kids aren't stupid, they're little proto humans who learn things way faster than we do and we should treat them as such. Not only did they touch the topic they did so with a main character and they didn't sugar coat it! we saw the pain Lagoona AND Gil went through because of his parents racism. Touching this topic at all is huge, was it perfectly handled? absolutely not! they never actually resolved the issue, Gil's parents never learned a lesson, got comeuppance or accepted Lagoona, Gil never got to date the girl he likes with family approval there was always something looming in the background. which is... fine?... things aren't always wrapped up nice and pretty with a bow in real life, sometimes things are messy. However, one thing that bothered everyone, including me was towards the end of G1 the writers didn't really know what to do with Lagoona and Gil so they just kinda... rehashed the same fight 3 or 5 times... it happened in the webisodes, diaries and the movies. and that's sloppy on the writers part, the same fight being milked for drama isn't Gil's fault and shouldn't be blamed on him... but it is. Gil is just the messenger and y'all shot him on sight.

Mattel:

Gil:

However, that wasn't the end. Gil and Lagoona may not have got the fairy tale ending some people think they deserve or the tragic breakup that other people think they deserve but they did get closure. Gil's Mansters diary takes place after the events of 13 wishes and his parents wrote out a list of chores for him to do while they are out on a trip and before he goes to stay with Deuce for the weekend and the last thing he SAYS they put on the list is as follows:

"+ Don't date Lagoona. They didn't actually write that. I just know what they're thinking. Actually, we don't really talk about that directly very much anymore. We kind of just agree to disagree, especially since Lagoona was wished into a freshwater monster and back again. I think they saw how miserable I was during that whole time, and I believe it made some kind of an impact.. hopefully."

and that was how the saga of Gil, Lagoona & The Webbers ended. Not with a roar but with a whisper. It's also canonical proof in his own words that Gil was, in fact miserable during 13 wishes just in case anyone doubted it after my review.

It's not a happy ending or a sad ending it's not even a peaceful ending. it's an uneasy cease fire... which is good enough? I suppose. Gil's parents love him enough to let it go (after both Lagoona and he endured great personal struggles), They know he's dating Lagoona and he knows they don't like that, Lagoona knows they don't like it, I'm sure Lagoona isn't welcome over for dinners or anything but the issue has been dropped. Gil and Lagoona can finally date, no strings attached.

I'm sure that's not the ending you would have written, my very grumpy anon. But relationships are complex and sometimes the solutions to their problems are complex too but love finds a way to triumph over bigotry.

And that is a message that we could all learn from.

#monster high #gil webber

[transandersrights]

Happy Friday!!! For DADWC this week, how about Adrel Surana and what they found in Haven? (That is, the Cult of Andraste-the-Dragon, led by a mage)

(I take prompts! See info here)

Okay this took me AGES but in my defence: I hadn't actually played the urn quest back then. So, for @dadrunkwriting, ~850 words of Adrel in Haven!

Content warnings: a lil bit of violence, discussion of oppression of elves and mages

It was when the first jolt of magic hit their chest that Adrel realised: the preacher of Haven’s Chantry was a mage.

It very nearly knocked them fatally off-balance — it certainly would have a couple of months ago, when they were fresh out of the Circle. A mage outside of the Circle was shock enough of its own, for one. A mage who wasn’t part of some blood mage sect or a hermit in the woods was another. A position of authority? Strike three.

Eirik was in a position of religious authority, and that was strangest of all.

Adrel believed in the Maker, once — there was never any reason not to. He just felt like a fact of the world, real to everything around them even if not everyone in the alienage believed. Those times were foggy and only got foggier as the years went by, but they remembered thinking that, just maybe, all of the gods could be real. The elven gods just lived in a different part of the sky — and definitely not the bit that hung over Amaranthine.

It changed slowly but surely when they were taken to the Circle. Adrel didn’t know how fast, or when it began, just… one day they realised: they didn’t believe in the Maker anymore.

Maybe it was because there was no point any longer — the Maker could offer them nothing, and believing achieved less. Some fabled creator a very very long time ago had given the world capacity for magic. If He existed in the way the Chantry said, long since having abandoned His children, He had no bearing on the way they lived now.

Adrel had been twice denied a meaningful space by the Chantry; that was a part of it, too. No elf was truly welcome in the Amaranthine Chantry’s halls — there was no escaping or replacing their childhood circumstances in the way Alistair or Leliana had.

Mages too were reviled — hated not by the Maker but by the faithful for their crimes against the heavens, the voice of the Maker, the world. The Chantry was where they trained people to kill those like Adrel, to prevent them from committing a crime they were never in a position to commit.

South of Tevinter, that truth was absolute. Mages were separate from the world, for everyone’s sake. Mages were dangerous. Mages would never be forgiven for their sins, real or future or so far in the past that Adrel could never be meaningfully connected to a single one of them. It was true everywhere; except in Haven. And oh, what a fucking exception it was.

There were so many mages, they had to be marrying. Having children, families. They taught each other, lived together. No mage children taken from their parents. No friends stolen by Harrowings. No Templars breathing down anyone’s necks.

No, just a batshit dragon worshipping heretical cult intent on killing outsiders and preventing anyone from sharing in the blessing they supposedly hid.

Incidentally, Adrel did believe in Andraste. Not like that, with mystical life-giving ashes and the whole works, but not like they didn’t believe in the Maker.

In truth, Adrel felt bad, cutting down the cultists. Every time, they remembered — this was another way of life. They weren’t hurting anyone, at least not most of the time. If there was nothing here worthy of note, then no one ever would have disturbed this mountain community where mages could live like people.

If there was nothing here worthy of note, these people probably wouldn’t fight so hard to protect their isolation, and then they’d be right back in the situation Adrel couldn’t help but admire them for avoiding. Even if it did come with some frankly concerning bloodstained altars.

When the village fell silent, Adrel tried not to think about exactly what they’d killed here. Not anything they could have been a part of — only humans here. Those who brought the ashes back to Ferelden did so separate to the long march south for the elves of Tevinter, and maybe there was simply no place in their cult for those Andraste and Shartan fought to free. Even if there had been, none of that remained.

Even here, in a village built with mages at their core, there wasn’t a place for someone like Adrel. Maybe there was nowhere — maybe they’d never belong. Maybe the world just didn’t work for someone like them.

Their eyes on the mountain, Adrel pushed the thought out of their mind. If there was nowhere, they’d just have to carve a space themself.

Later that day (and so, so many tunnels later), when the final cultist fell, Adrel retrieved his sword from the ground. It crackled with electricity, the hilt thrumming with power. They hadn’t seen his technique before, but they knew it intrinsically: the stance of the arcane warrior, defenders of the ancient elves. Some time, a long time ago… the art was shared with these people. For it to persist so, they must have passed it down for generations upon generations.

If only Adrel could have been so lucky. Maybe one day, someone else could be.

#dragon age fanfiction #da drunk writing circle #adrel surana #dragon age origins

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

What do you think about the whole Jedi and Sith are ancient religions that no one believes in Original Trilogy and then in the prequels that happened like two decades ago everyone believes in the Force and them? Like Doylist explanation is obvious with the prequels releasing later but what Watsonian explanation works if any can?

I think it's easier than you think and that Palpatine did a very good job wiping them off the map.

The Old Republic

First, let's take a look at Jedi in what we see of the prequel films, around 20 years before the OT takes place. Jedi are fairly isolated. They're a big part of Coruscant, yes, right across from the Senate but they remain in their temple and rarely venture outwards.

There are also not many of them, in the entire galaxy there are enough Jedi to be able to occupy the temple, with no sign of a Jedi temple on every major planet in the galaxy. They are a drop in the ocean.

What this means is that there are likely planets who never had any contact with the Jedi whatsoever or, if they did, it was very sparing with once every few centuries.

Relatively few planets would have frequent contact with the Jedi Order and likely this was directed through the Senate. This means only certain segments of the population are typically going to see the Jedi (i.e. things like Padme needing bodyguards, Padme being the queen of Naboo and not your random person).

Most ordinary people know next to nothing about the Jedi and have never seen them. What they hear is tall tales, and as the war goes on for three years and plagues the galaxy, dissatisfaction as the Jedi are just as responsible for destroying their homes as the Seperatists.

People don't talk about the Force, don't understand it, and don't know what it is Jedi do beyond voodoo witchcraft magic.

Palpatine Takes Over

The Jedi Order is utterly decimated. There are a few survivors, but they must go into hiding and even then are hunted down one by one by Vader.

Palpatine now gets to say whatever he wants.

He tells people that the Jedi religion stole their children, that they oppressed the people and brought war to their doorstep, etc. Temples are destroyed, artifacts erased, and if you want to live you don't fucking talk about it.

To most people, then, especially those born afterwards or those who were just children: the Jedi Order is something that once existed but seems little more than a religious cult.

The Force is not something anyone sees actually used, if they know the term at all, and Jedi seem more and more fantastical and ridiculous to your common person just trying to scrape by.

And if there were these Jedi, then where are they now and why are they all dead? If they had these great powers, surely they would have survived.

And so, Palpatine is able to rewrite history.

These Things Do Happen

There are regimes today that have rewritten events, or else denied them outright, that happened only a few decades ago. These events are not discussed, out of fear of severe punishment and consequences, and there are people who are now adults who were born afterwards who have never heard about it or only in vague whispers.

They know next to nothing about it, if they know anything at all.

Even with all the access to the internet, there are places where it will look as if these events never happened.

It is not unrealistic to me that Palpatine could accomplish the same thing when it comes to the Jedi.

#star wars #star wars meta #star wars headcanon #prequel trilogy #original trilogy #sheev palpatine #darth sideous #the jedi order #meta #headcanon #opinion

[louiskechi]

alright let’s get this over with

here is a basic summary of all you could possibly need to know about me before you go starting something with me (this will be updated as i see fit)

-trans rights are human rights. this is not up for debate and is a block on sight if you disagree. same goes for black lives matter, and any other basic human rights that people somehow take offense to.

-xenogenders, lesboys/girl gays, mspec lesbians/gays, and all other non traditional or contradictory labels are valid. you can continue being angry that you aren’t allowed to fit queer people into strictly confined boxes all you want, but the long term goal of the queer movement should always be to break down restrictive labels and emphasize being who you are. this applies to neopronouns as well, obviously. all good faith identities are valid. full stop.

-transandrophobia is real. to deny that transmasculine people experience a unique type of transphobia tailored by bigots to specifically target our experiences is complacency. if you engage in hierarchical structures to organize the oppression marginalized people experience (i.e. saying things like “tme people need to shut up for once” when discussing transphobia) is reductive and only divides the community.

-self diagnosing is valid. not everyone has access to psychiatrists, let alone ones who will give a proper assessment. it’s also worth mentioning that both the medical field and the government have a lot of ingrained ableism, which can bar you from access to jobs, and can cause you to lose legal rights and bodily autonomy. (did you know getting an autism diagnosis can prevent you from getting a visa to most countries? it can even get you placed on a mandatory DNR!) accompanying this, i do not care what a system’s origin is. as a plural person, i couldn’t give less of a shit. if you say what you’re experiencing is plurality, i will believe you. trying to determine who “is and isn’t actually plural” does nothing but give fuel to those who will fake-claim us no matter how much proof we provide. you are helping divide our community and prevent mentally ill people from getting support that could save their lives.

-proshippers are annoying as fuck and i hate you all. no, you are not “just anti harassment,” in fact it’s a favorite hobby for quite a few of you. i do not identify as “anti ship” but having an integral part of your identity being that you think shipping a grown man with a child is fine tells me something about you that you somehow haven’t realized about yourselves. and no, you being a trauma survivor does not absolve you of abhorrent behavior. at this point it’s not even the content itself that worries me, it’s the relationship you people have with it. you can’t even handle the most mild criticism or discomfort about it. quit bragging about how uncomfortable you make everyone and really evaluate yourself.

-lolicon/shotacon is pedophilia. if you have some sort of objection to that you should really be looking up direct translations of the words you choose to identify yourselves with. terminology aside, no matter how much you try to insist “fiction doesn’t always effect reality,” that fictitious drawing of child rape is certainly effecting the reality of your now-erect cock. consider checking yourself before you get checked into a correctional facility.

-paraphiles deserve understanding and recovery. you are not going to eliminate things like pedophilia and zoophilia by arresting them, or worse, killing them, for feelings they can’t control. the solution to these things is easy access to therapy so they can work through those feelings and hopefully be rid of them one day, or at least no longer be a threat. most paraphiles do not want their paraphilia much less to act on them, and even those who do will not benefit from incarceration.

-the way some of you engage with fictional characters is disgusting. no, vriska serket was not a “girlboss” for telling the person she physically disabled to “apologize for being cr*ppled.” no, you do not think valentino is “just a really interesting villain” when i can see you talking about how sexy he is in the scene where he rapes the protag, followed by woobifying him and never addressing his actions at all. please get off the internet. it is genuinely disturbing the way you talk about these characters and it makes me deeply concerned about how you would act if you ever learned to shut off your computer. and yes, it is that deep.

#trans rights #black lives matter #xenogenders are valid #etc #im too tired to write it all out again #fuck proshippers #argue with me if you want

[klapollo]

about elemental (spoilers if you care)

so the first 20-ish minutes set this up as a story about immigration, assimilation and xenophobia. ember's family are from a "foreign" nation called fireland, and are coded as asian, though not one specific culture (director peter sohn who based elements of the film on his own experiences is korean, the actresses who play ember are chinese, the actor who plays the father is fillipino and the mother's actress is iranian)

the story beats and tropes are very predictable (names changed at immigration, starting a family business) but i at least found this part of the story compelling and entertaining. at first blush the story seems to be following a plot thread about ember having anger issues that prevent her from earning her father's trust to take over the family shop, which i thought was interesting.

then suddenly as soon as wade shows up the movie nosedives to try and focus almost entirely on their romance. there's a muddled web of plot contrivances from this point onward that i honestly struggled to follow or remember at times which is not good when youre dealing with a childrens' movie.

the stakes feel so fucking low like even as someone from an immigrant family who usually relates to immigrant narratives i was just like "why should i care about this"

like i said, it's established in this movie that fire people are effectively an oppressed class who are shunned, belittled, and isolated out of society to the point where most of the infrastructure of element city is actively physically dangerous for them to use. they are not allowed in certain places. it once again falls into the zootopia pitfall of "some races are predisposed to being dangerous" without going for the very easy slam dunk conclusion of "and that turned out to be a myth"

it's all but outright said that the water people are the dominant class, the city is built to serve and prioritize their needs, they're usually wealthy and privileged. wade himself is well-off. this is never meaningfully discussed let alone confronted. they just repeat some flavor of "elements don't mix because reasons!" over and over without dissecting the class structure element at all. the closest we get is ember being like "yeah i'm not rich like you" once. the conflict between wade and ember's relationship is, if anything, that she feels like she has to inherit her family's shop when she doesnt want to.

there are water lesbians so. cool i guess

#long post

[the-path-to-redemption]

Vol 9 Ch 2 Review

....Man.

Spoilers for Chapter 2

Again, what is with this tonal dissonance between the situation and the characters? It went from, “hehe haha what a whimsical place” to “nothing make sense, and this world is fucking stupid” to “we’re terrible people and everything we touches goes to hell” within a minute. The tone transition doesn’t feel natural, and it nearly gave me fucking whiplash just looking at them interacting.

I do appreciate the more cartoony, slapstick style of animation though. Even if it’s, once again, tone deaf and weird AF.

Wow, Blake is finally a bookworm again. After 6 fucking years.

A little nitpick, but really? Alix and the Jabberwocker? That’s the length you’re going with? Just fucking slap me with a brick that said “it’s Alice in Wonderland”, I don’t think I caught the memo yet. /s

The Dormouse gag with Little is getting a bit tiring tbh. 

Two thoughts about Jinxy: 1) he’s kinda cute :3 would pet. 2) Oh my fucking god, please tell me this isn’t a caricature of Romani/travelers, please please PLEASE. You can’t just do something else?? Bro, we know fairy tales are laced with antisemitism and anti-traveler rhetoric but you’re supposed to be AGAINST it.

*flashback* “hey it’d be kind of interesting to see Yang without an arm and having to adapt to the situations without relying on-” 

*Yang got her arm back literally the next episode, killing any potential ideas of her actually being interesting as a disable character having to navigate and adapt to her surroundings using skills and wits*

...I’m in hell.

Speaking of Yang:

Yang: Alix was kind of an asshole huh. :/

Also Yang: I’m going to disrupt a public event full of civilians, beat up someone in front of the guards and potentially create chaos the moment I step foot in a foreign community, despite Blake telling me to “when in Rome, do as Romans do”.

Hypocrisy has a bloodline, and it started with Raven. 

Another nitpick, but wow, I wonder which is the arm. The two ambiguously looking items, or the scepter that looks exactly the same as the damn arm. 

Also, ENOUGH with the Bumblebee pussy footing. “What’s the meaning of love?” “Are we holding hands? :3c teehee no no, just teasing.” Get. It. Over. With. You wanna fuck each other, just do it already and spare me 8 more episodes of your pseudo-queer bullshit. 

Again, the tonal dissonance. Ruby’s having a crisis over Penny’s sword (I’ll get to this madness later), Yang excitedly running away, Blake is frantically doing the same... Weiss just walk off nonchalantly. ISTG if this is her stihck for the Volume I’ll wrangle her myself. 

Blake: I just didn’t expect us to be morals in a story.

...so, the entire White Fang storyline, in which you were constantly on Adam’s case about being “pacifistic” in the eyes of systematic oppression, continuously making a fuss about an issue that affects YOUR race and life despite barely doing jackshit, and always fucking around when it comes to the reality of a racist world that shits on your people wasn’t a moral journey to you. 

Can’t say I’m surprise, Blake, you pasty All Lives Matters bitch. You continued to ignore an enterprise’s legal slavery after TWO people you knew shows you the horror of racial discrimination while your ass was cozy in an island mansion. You can’t be trusted to talk about morals, you lacked them. 

Ruby herself is giving me so much mixed feelings right now, more bad than good. She’s broken up about Penny, which is understandable, but I really, REALLY can’t believe her when she honors the poor girl. Not after gaslighting her in Volume 8, not after barely having a discussion about the events of Beacon, not after everything between them that was just Penny giving and Ruby taking for the entirety of Atlas. 

She got a W though, for being the only sensible person at the end. None of them know what they’re doing, not after crashing a kingdom and economically cripple another in your absence. So stop acting like they know what is going on. 

#rwby #rwde #long post #fuck me I'm gonna die at the end of this #rwby vol 9 thoughts

[acethena-discourse]

In what way does me having gay sex oppress ace/aros? The reason the term allo isn’t appropriate and doesn’t even make sense is cause y’all can’t even agree on the definition of what the word even means, and second, LGBT people are told that the kind of sex we have is repulsive and enough of a reason to kill us, literally where and how does NOT having sex or relationships cause y’all ANY legal/physical/actual oppression?

hi, allo does have a consistent definition. It means not ace. Cis heterosexual heteromantic people, not ace, trans bi man, not ace, trans lesbian? Not ace. Like literally is a word created to just say "you are not ace" the same way cis means not trans, or neurotypical means not neurodiverse. Or Allistic means Not autisitc, since you know, the person who created allo used the same rules to create the term that the autistic community used, a community they belonged too iiirc.

My issue is the demanding of people that aces not use langauge we created to discuss people who are and aren't ace with ease, again, look at it as trans or cis.

But seeing as you uh, can't see, I"m literally a transman, something exclus regularly ignore. I'm in a relationship with an allo bigender bisexual man. Something exclus love to paint as abusive on the regular.

The fact you hear "allo" and go "how dare the aceys say i'm not oppressed" when thats not what we're sayign, again, cis vs trans. A cis gay might not experience transphobia, but the that doesn't object to homophobia happening. Its literally "not ace." The same way cis is literally not trans. Saying you're allo just means you don't share my experience as an ace person.

Which lets go over what happened to me before I was anything other than ace.

I had people offer to "fix" me, often the implication being Rape. I had literal rocks thrown at my head, I've had boys and men put their fucking hands on me. I've had fucking ace exclus like yourself tell me this is because I was a woman, and also that the one boy who did actually grope me because I was ace, and even said "i wouldn't have to do this if you weren't ace, weren't a fucking tease," equating my aceness to being just unwilling to have premarital sex despite my vitriol for religion and overall sex positivity. Btw, rebelblaze in particular, has said to me and others that our sexual assaults happened because we were "mistaken" for gay even when once again, ouright my assailant and others said it was because we were ace.

As a matter of fact when I was 6 hours from my pc telling all of this to rebel on a fairly public forum she kept demanding study, despite me telling her I was oujt of town for the weekend, on my cellphone, and have a disability that makes using my phone to find sources, links etc, harder. Even accused me of faking disability to "Get out of having to give sources" despite assurances as soon as I got home from my doctors 6 hours away, I'd get her all the sources I have saved on my pc. She genuinely couldn't be assed and continued to say if *my personal experience had happened* i'd have *real sources* because my personal accounts of assault, and harassment aren't proof enough. (Which tells me that yall must think a trans woman who didn't file a police report is lying right? Because yall enforce ":proof" the same across the board, her saying it happened isn't enough for yall yeah? (sarcasm btw ofc yall would believe her lest yall further be proven to be transphobes)

But heres a wonderful masterpost of ace exclus acting in badfaith and outright telling aces to kill themselves being racist to black aces for being ace saying aces and their partners are all rapist etc.

a pair of parents cruelly kicked out their asexual child despite her atttempts to say "its not the same as being gay," the oppressor class, cis hets, didn't care so she turned them over to the police for illegal firearms.

heres yasmin benoit an asexual woc on twitter who regularly faces discrimination from cishets and other queer people. As a black woman are you willing to tell her she doesn't know what oppression is?

her twitter was under violent, viscious, and visceral attack on ace day, whY? because she partnered with stonewall UK to discuss and research discrimination from cishets and queer alike face by aces and aros. Yall didn't defend her from the racism in particular, many exclus on twitter said if she didn't want to be called the n word she shouldn't put herself out here go ahead and take a gander from her twitter in april and the way terfs and ace exclus teamed up to harass her. Not for her skin color, tho they didn't hesitate to use her blackness as a tool to further demean and dehumanize a beautiful, wellspoken, asexual woc. the times article here was one of many responses, the times is a rather large platform btw to post anti ace bigotry.

You read that right btw, yall demand research but when we invest money from *our* community, into it, from aces, or people who care about us, you do accuse us of stealing. Yasmin funded the ace project *soley* with money from her work for aces or private contacts, no donations were used that were intended for causes like the trevor project. Or tax money thats given to stonewall uk. Stonewall is only going to PUBLISH the research after it has been gathered.

but seeing as you elected to hide behind anon (likely because you're block evading) you likely won't care about any of this. But I sincerly hope you do. I hope you see the aces who are people of color, see their abuse BECAUSE THEY ARE ACE and how they deserve to be assaulted and are disgusted. I hope you see that a child being kicked out for being ace and are horrorified. I hope you take all of this to heart. But chances are you won't.

You'll come right back with one of two responses

"None of this really happens"

or

"it happened but not the way you're telling me." despite links being right there for you to click through. So go ahead, go click through ALL OIF THEM. Go thorugh my blog find ALL THE WAYS i've been told I''m a liar for my pain, or that I didn't remember the attacks right. Or that I'm infintalized not for my transness or attraction to men, but because I"m ace. Go on.

Go find Rittz telling me I'm not actually oppressed, and when I call them on their ableism for saying a housing ordinance will affect aces disabled, trans etc, saying its okay it'll affect disabled people because it'll hit abled ones too. Meaning its fine for a disabled person to be homeless AS LONG AS IT KILLS AN ABLED BODIED PERSON TOO RIGHT.

All because I am Ace. When I demand yall recognize your transphobia is showing everytime yall ignore that 70% of aces are "real el gee bee tees". Your biphobia shows everytime yall accuse us of not being gay enough, a popular tactic used against bi people.

Yall literally will demand we research, provide links, and then spit in our faces.

So i genuinely hope you look at this, you read it, and you fucking *vomit* when you see how aces are treated because we are ace by cishets and terfs and biphobes and ace exclus. I hope you fucking get it.

#ace discourse #queer discourse #exclusionist #exclus

[euleiopraburroclarice]

Reading a book on the principles of feminism/a brief introduction to its history and lots of things and politics are starting to make much sense now to me, even as an old feminist. At the beginning of the abolitionist movement, for example, men had time to talk about very much anything on and not related to it. They even acknowledged how important women's activism was important back then but, hey, hold on... It got nothing to do with why we are doing. The reason behind that, I started thinking to myself, is because men never found a single clue of things they would obtain in return with exchanging rights with women. And I am pretty sure not to be the first saying this but, in the context of abolitionist and when it comes to slavery oh my fucking GOD. It becomes CLEAR. I don't know the predominant way non latinos view the abolition of slavery in the context of being related to the French Revolution, but over here we have a pretty clear idea why they did it: getting money. So, when women started trying to insert into the conversation maybe some possibilities of women rights and slowly, who knows, a truly liberation, men thought to themselves what they always think: What. Will. We. Be. Getting. With. That. They have the same feelings nowadays. That's why their "feminism" - how could they ever prioritise women enough to make it too their #1 goal as feminism recquire. Men, in their social place, may be just a bit near of it, as it would mark for them such a tremendous loss - and the way they talk about it is so fucking and always superficial and out of reality too and even between leftists. Lately I wonder and pondere and keep to myself: we aren't accepted in the left as we are and should and in the right much less, those are straight up bastards. The difference between them is just the left makes it unclear and covered. Because, at the end, is just us for us. Men never wanted a real liberation and that's partly why they will support everything they suppose is right without wanting to discuss the true effects women feel when it comes to it. We will be the topic when talking about oppressed groups, but we will never be called to the conversation. They will teach socialist feminist women and exchange with them their problems too because oh Lord Men Also Have Problems Caused By Patriarchy!!! And, again, it is about them. Is always about them. Because female liberation would give nothing to them. Because, for once, they would feel left over in this unbelievably unfair historical construction.

#radfems #radblr #radical feminism #radfems do interact #radfems do touch #radfem safe #radfem space #rant #radfems interact #radical feminist community