#she's a burden on society | aesthetic

[the-bramble--patch]

I’ve been seeing a few posts on minimalism going around, one being @bisquitt’s post on sustainability and minimalism—how the two terms shouldn’t be conflated, and how real sustainability is about anti-capitalism in the forms of reuse, repair, and community interdependence. Another is @allstrangeandwonderful’s post on how Minimalism is an aesthetic based around coping in the "corporate hellscape" we live in—contemporary designers gravitate towards neutral colors as a respite from the warlike corporate use of color to catch the attention of a consumer (See Mina Le's video on this concept also. She offers up a few possible reasons for this trend towards "greige" interiors, one being the inundation from advertising we experience in our everyday lives).

I wanted to talk about these concepts and tie in some other things I’ve been seeing around.

Imo, minimalism is anti-consumerist, but not anti-capitalist. The lifestyle and aesthetic is intended to address the systemic problem of living in a consumerist society on an individual level. Instead of ending the capitalist system that thrusts consumerism on us all, it suggests that minimalists create a safe space away from consumerism. It is not interested in changing the system, only the individual. What really drove this home for me was watching The Financial Diet on YouTube interview The Minimalists, the guys who kicked off the trend. She keeps trying to ask them about the underlying issues Minimalism acts as a band-aid for, and they keep dodging her questions.

The lifestyle choices bisquitt offers up as sustainable are typically lumped under the umbrella of Solarpunk: “fixing shit around your house. thrifting. patching clothes and handing them down. a community garden. potluck dinner parties. farmer’s markets. a barter system among friends and neighbors. kindness. love among community members.“ These things do not conform to the minimalist aesthetic tenets of order, function, and simplicity. They are often vibrant, mismatched, and chaotic, messy even (see my post on solarpunk aesthetics here). This is because solarpunk aims to solve the same issues minimalism does, but on a societal level. Solarpunk is working towards a utopian future of degrowth, where the forces that Minimalism is in opposition to will no longer exist. This allows for everyday people to reclaim vibrancy from corporations. That busyness is only desirable in a world where capitalism isn't such a burden. Solarpunk advocates for simplicity in all but design, instead of the other way around.

Another thing is the separation between meaning and function present in Minimalism. Minimalism is often associated with deriving pleasure from experiences, not things. The physical space is deprioritized (I know the movement is about changing the physical space, but the idea is that the physical space just makes your life more efficient) for a kind of zen outlook about mind over matter. Solarpunk is much more holistic in its recognition that inner peace comes from a play between the external and internal worlds—from connection and respect for people, things, and resources. Instead of removing meaning and beauty from a space to prioritize the mind, Solarpunk instills it, to elicit interaction with the world instead of a retreat from it. Thus, Solarpunk rolls meaning and function into one: a visibly mended shirt is both functional (the hole is gone), and meaningful (it says much more about the politics of the wearer than one mended invisibly). Another example is the bottle walls commonly used in Earthships: Making the bottles visible is beautiful, and it communicates that the builder is interested in using sustainable material.

In short, minimalism is individualist while Solarpunk is collectivist, and the aesthetics of each reflect that. Retreating from a broken society will not fix said society. Sustainability needs to be solved on a societal level, so minimalism as a solution to overconsumption just isn't gonna cut it.

#solarpunk #sustainability #minimalism #solarpunk aesthetics #mine #my writing

[punkeropercyjackson]

Alr i'm gonna assume the best of newer and younger Pjo fans spreading misinfo on punk!Percy and by extension irl punk history and culture by guessing you guys aren't doing it on purpose and were just lied to about us so here's a bunch of debunks and clear ups on punk and why Percy is which also works as a sort of list of tips on how to write punk characters,canon and headcanon and completely original

So the obvious one out of the way first:Percy is actually not canonically a skater boy!There have been exactly two lines of this context in the entire franchise and one was in Som when he mentioned skateboarding once and then never again and the second was in Moa when Piper said he and i quote 'looked like a skater'.Sorry to past cishet Pipes but that's not a thing and Avril Lavigne making a cisheteronormative lyric that's extremely underservingly stuck around for forever dosen't mean she was right that he is one,it means she had internalized homophobia and gender stereotypes and no actual knowledge on alt subcultures because again,'looking like a skater' isn't a thing,it's a sport and not an aesthetic

With that,here's what actually makes Percy a punk:He was a bully beater from a young age and it escalates into full blown direct action for the whole saga,hates authority figures not for the sake of it but because he knows from experience that they're almost universally awful,is anti-corruption including his own by fighting against his intrusive thoughts to turn evil,does activism by helping fix the greco-roman mythos world system whenever he gets the chance to no matter how small,advocates for the rights of less fortunate people both mythical and human,hates rich people,fits entierly out of the box conformity in all aspects simply from the way he is even disregarding his demigohood,respects all minorities and is extremely kind to kids to the point that he adopted Nico and Hazel as his younger siblings and pseudo-kids because they don't really have parents(Hades/Pluto is abusive + Maria and Marie are dead).He fills out every punk requirement to a T,including being part of a marginalized group since he's poor and mentally disabled(audhd with dyslexia,bpd and ptsd)

He was a hero and Luke was a villain because they both hated the gods for traumatizing them and had nonpretty trauma responses from it but Percy still tried his best to stay kind not for his own sake but for his mom and the innocents in the world he knew didn't deserve cruelty and he provided and still does a safe and loving space for children specifically because he was a troubled but good kid once too and wants to be the positive adult figure for them he didn't get to have except Sally.Luke choose nihilism and that grew into turning a serial child abuser with bigoted ideals(his biggest targets being women and poc and in Kelli's case both)and fascist tactics.They weren't 'two sides of the same coin' and they're not even the same currency-Percy's a punk,Luke's a pig

Romantic attraction to someone based off them being 'ideal' by society's standards goes against punk beliefs!Our whole thing is nonconformity and that changing your true self to fit in makes you a sellout so this is why Perachel was canon and honestly i'd go as far as to call the 'outcast punk dude x perfect prep girl' a myth made up by normies who don't wanna date us for our actual personalities and just think we look hot so they objectify us.Related,it's ooc for Percy to be written to use kinds of flirting and dating treatments purely because 'it's what guys are like' since it's canon they hate traditional masculinity and consider it a burden they only force on themselves as a defense mechanism from trauma of being mocked for being 'not normal'

Ascention to godhood or into a titan inherently disquilify being punk and is an insult to irl punks.You literally can't be punk AND in control of a corrupted system,it's our lifestyle to fight them,not perpetuate them.This also applies to him dating deities,being rich in any way or an abuser.Dark Percy is Bootlicker Percy

Sorry to y'all who still think Hot Topic is a funny joke in 2024 of all years but they sold out to capitalism and conformity a loooooong time ago so Percy wouldn't be caught undead near that place and couldn't afford anything anyway because they've upped everything to rich people prices.He'd be going to thrift stores,family bussiness and small shops.Knowing how much free time he has probably knows how to DIY things that don't even exist and he buys all his games/consoles and legos secondhand

No Taylor Swift for him,her music's too corny and fabricated for him to not hate it but there's also how she's a huge bigot,a major bully and a whole ass poluter so🤷🏽‍♀️His favorite band is definitely My Chemical Romance but All Time Low,The Cure and Ramones are up there too

Please draw him with an actual battle jacket and proper piercings-By which i mean give it patches and a hoard of pins and draw it like a BATTLE JACKET,not a LEATHER jacket and actually google kinds of piercings instead of just slapping metal wherever onto him

He is NOT masc or an 'i'm too cool and edgy to like cutesy and kiddy things' type.Every single trans woman i've met in the Pjo fandom have said Percy's an egg and super femme and she does too much actual punk shit instead of trying to look the part to be a poser to care about her image anymore.She loves Polly Pocket,Warrior Cats,Animal Crossing,Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends,Bluey,Blues Clues,MLP,makeup,glitter,yk2/90s/80s toys,cats,Lo-Fi Beats,Cookie Monster and her second favorite color is pink,she loves naturally acting like a momdad and her gender fuckery includes a neopronouns hoard

Would most definitely have radicalized Nico and Hazel into goth punk and pastel goth punk if Rick let them be a proper trio and speaking from experience,it's entierly possible she does it completely on accident by making them want to be like her because of how nice and protective she is to them and what cool things she does

Few last points:She's definitely a heavy energy drinks consumer,a socialist,does vandalism,did actually super heavy research to go full punk once she realized she is and would never be friends with Harry Potter and in fact would probably kill him if they met since ACAB

#percy jackson #perseo jackson #cookie jackson #punk!percy #black percy #latino percy #autistic percy jackson #transfem percy jackson #bigender percy jackson #team parent percy jackson #pjo gods slander #nico di angelo #hazel levesque #black nico di angelo #disabled nico di angelo #anti luke castellan #antilukercy #rachel elizabeth dare #nigerian rachel dare #bi aroaceflux percy jackson #anti percy x gods #anti taylor swift #anti harry potter #pjo #hoo #tods #x black!reader #pastel punk tag #💌 #summerposting

[madhogthymaster]

The Familiar Yet Unfamiliar Horror of The Milk Games

CONTENT WARNING: Mental Illness, Trauma

This is Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag Milk... and its sequel, Milk Outside a Bag of Milk Outside a Bag of Milk... and the sound of an electrical short-circuit you're hearing right now is my anxiety sensors flaring off uncontrollably.

The Milk visual novels, as I would like to call them, are an unnerving, unsafe, decisively un-fun journey into the mind of a broken individual as she navigates an altered reality filtered through the disfiguring lenses of her mental illness, low-functioning neurodivergence and trauma. This isn't as much an allegoric representation of her deeply rooted issues as it is an abrasively surreal piece that aims to subject the player to the world as she perceives it, as her mind mutilates it, making every waking moment of her life overflow with existential dread. Milk accomplishes such devious goal thanks to its unique framework: the player is a voice in her head trying to help her buy a bottle of milk; a task made oppressively difficult by her fundamental inability to function within the "standards of society", at the very bare minimum. The first game assaults you with a barrage of fastidious, disorientating, senses overloading colours, sounds and shapes. The girl copes with it by "pretending to be the protagonist of a visual novel." She is the "milk" inside the bag of her multi-layered, anxious brain.

The second game forces the "milk" out of the bag, once she's home from the grocery shop, and becomes a disturbing therapy session: a nightmarish and morose stream of consciousness fueled by insomnia and very dark thoughts inside darker thoughts inside darker thoughts... It's a visual and verbose trip with recognizable artistic influences (somewhere between Satoshi Kon and Hideaki Anno) that does not relent and does not apologize for it, with its sharp black/red monochromes and suffocating aesthetics, with its dreams within dreams.

Milk Girl is trapped in her own head just as much as she is trapped in a reality that offers no support to her. She has to develop habits and coping mechanisms just to survive the day-by-day Kafkian horror of living. Do not take my word as an authority on the matter but I do believe these games come as close as it gets to properly capture what it's like to grow up as a neurodivergent child, along with the potential scars picked up along the way. As an autistic person, I find myself sucked into this vortex of unease, fear and dread that feels all too familiar yet unfamiliar. Existing in this perpetually fluctuating state of mind between feeling like a burden and hating the world for not conforming to you. However, make no mistake, Milk Girl is not your "puzzle to solve" as the purposeful ambiguity of the narrative framing demonstrates. Understanding "what's wrong with her" is not the goal here. The goal is Empathy.

The Milk visual novels are strongly, viscerally about Empathy. They are about connecting with people you don't understand, people who have suffered for faults not of their own and have been alienated as a result. People that deserve love and to be loved just as much as you do. People that need help but don't deserve pity or disdain for it. People like you but not like you, different yet the same. They (us) are human beings regardless if they are "relatable" or not.

In conclusion: these games are a deeply unpleasant experience and more so powerful as a result, the art direction is impeccably strangling and Milk Girl is an iconic character. Play them at your own discretion - especially if you are neurotypical. This was emotionally draining to write.

---

A/N:

I have had these thoughts on the series typed down since the beginning of 2023. In truth, most if not everything I put in the form of an article starts life as sporadic observations over on my Twitter account. Hence why I keep linking my threads on Tumblr, as well. Anyway, you can follow me there and on YouTube, of course.

The Milk games were developed by Nikita Kryukov. They are available on Steam and Nintendo Switch.

Have a happy new year, or else!

#madhog thy master #milk inside a bag of milk #milk outside a bag of milk #neurodivergent #autism #trauma #mental illness #visual novel #steam #nintendo switch #isolation #got milk? #milk #twitter #youtube #review #satoshi kon #hideaki anno

[imviotrash]

I've started seeing more people appreciating Elizanne and making content of it, which I couldn't be happier about! So let me tell you how I came up with Joanne x Elizabeth, because it was actually really funny:

So I was working on my "100 yrs later" AU back in late July of 2023 and was figuring out what the individual style of each character would be.

So I worked on Joanne and later Elizabeth and it dawned on me that I gave them very similar styles (still different from one another but very similar on terms of aesthetics) and figured that they probably start being friends in my AU because of that.

So I thought a bit more about their dynamic and realized that they both present themselves very similarly, while also having a lot of contrasts.

They bounced off eachother well, TOO WELL.

It was like connecting two puzzle pieces from completely different sets, that fit perfectly with eachother.

Let me elaborate even further on that:

-Their contrasting skillsets (fencing and reading) and personalities (bubbly and timid) make for a quite interesting dynamic and also serve as an opportunity to learn more from eachother.

-Strong Gf protecting her boyfriend, need I say more?

-they're both very high femme and have a very interesting relationship with their gender, especially within such a highly gendered society. Elizabeth is struggling to be a cute girl while also being incredibly strong and Joanne is the exact opposite of that (very timid and quite cowardly). Both of them do not adhere to their gender roles to different degrees and on different levels. I think they can bond over that while also learning from eachother based on the experiences they were allowed to have, because of their gender and their individual education (-> Example: Elizabeth teaches Joanne to fence and he teaches her to dance or something like that)

-I think both of them could be a kind of "safe space" for eachother, a person where they're not afraid to be judged for being "too sensitive" or "too bubbly".

-they're both incredibly emotional and I think Elizabeth desperately needs someone she can confine in on an emotional level.

-They both have unfortunately been confronted with the horrors beyond human comprehension and I think it's nice that they can perhaps find some comfort in eachother because of it.

-I'm gonna be fr and just say that these two have some incredible fluff potential that should definitely be utilized. LET THEM BE HAPPY THEY'VE BOTH BEEN THROUGH ENOUGH!!!! I want these two to HEAL!!!

-O!Ciel is a lovely character of course, but I don't think her relationship with either of the twins is healthy, especially since they're all very young and very troubled. There isn't any open communication, she's only appreciated when she can be utilized for her skills, and other than that she's seen as more of a burden and a status symbol. Elizabeth deserves to be bubbly girly girl without having someone around her who's constantly rolling his eyes at her and truly appreciates and loves her outside of her role as a Bride and her skills. Her cute and bubbly personality is part of her character and should be loved like any other aspect of her.

- As a sucker for colour palettes it's also very nice to see a very vibrant character paired with someone with more muted colours.

-Red and pink is a very underappreciated colour combo in ships and it should be utilized more.

#TLDR: the ship is very gender #elizanne #vio speaks #that was supposed to stay in the drafts for another week 💀💀💀 nvm yall #enjoy your food a bit early

[fictionadventurer]

For the matchmaker

12. Is your OC cynical or optimistic? Who or what shaped their outlook on life?

For one of the suitors

7. Does your OC like their natural hair color or do they dye it? What styles do they prefer?

For Lily

1. What kind of person is your OC in a crisis? Are they calm and collected? Do they panic? Or are they chronically the cause?

12. Is your OC cynical or optimistic? Who or what shaped their outlook on life?

The matchmaker is a weird combination of both. She got into matchmaking because of a level of romanticism about helping people find their perfect life partner. But that comes with a cynicism sparked by viewing what happens when people don't have expert help in this situation. She wants to help people find love but also has a very practical view toward marriage.

She's also more optimistic about other people's lives, while being pretty darn cynical about her own. Ever since the attack that disabled her, she believes that a life of single matchmaking, and trying desperately not to be a burden to society, are the best that she can hope for.

7. Does your OC like their natural hair color or do they dye it? What styles do they prefer?

Hair dye isn't much of a thing in this world. It's too frivolous to even come to mind when you've got more important survival issues to worry about. If you've got hair that's too likely to stand out, you might try to hide/subdue it, but it wouldn't be for aesthetic purposes.

The explorer probably has the longest hair, just long enough to tie back. The warrior would like to have long hair, but the demands of practicality require him to keep it short. The artist has slightly longer curly "artsy white boy" hair. The scholar's got hair longer than the warrior's, but a bit shorter than the artist's.

What kind of person is your OC in a crisis? Are they calm and collected? Do they panic? Or are they chronically the cause?

Lily is the worst person to have with you in a crisis. Okay, maybe not the worst--she won't do anything to make the situation worse than it is. But at best, she freezes up, at worst, she freaks out, and when it's all done, she's going to retreat from all society and make sure she never comes anywhere near a situation that is anywhere near that dangerous. It's a problem, and it's something she spends most of the book actively trying to overcome.

#answered asks #adventures in writing #lily between worlds

[spider-lily-droplets]

WARNING: muse has traumatic past with miscarriage-related and cheating abusive ex-partner

Follow From: @eunoiaastralwings

Other RP Blogs:

Tolkien - @luthriel-tinuviel | @quiet-flower-wonderlings | @illicit-unknown-shadows | @son-of-the-moon-and-sun | @tears-of-burden

Non-Tolkien: @shadow-hazehuntress

Feel free to reach out – with an idea of your own - RULES

Beautiful aesthetics by @edensrose

FICS/HEADCANONS:

Artworks: Miguel x Alora

INTRODUCTION

NAME: Alora Matei

NICKNAMES: Lor, Ali, Rosie, Red

GENDER: Female

BIRTH DATE: November 29

BIRTHPLACE: Ukraine

ETHNICITY: born half Ukrainian, half Romanian.

APPEARANCE

FACECLAIM: ( x ) , ( x ) , ( x )

HEIGHT: 5’4

BUILD: Lean, Lithe, athletic

RACE/ETHNICITY: half Ukrainian, half Romanian.

EYE SHAPE: heart

EYE COLOR: green-blue

HAIR COLOR: dark red - long and wavy.

HAIR STYLE: freely left down most of the time, otherwise in a messy stylish bun

DISTINGUISHING MARKS/FEATURE: her dark red hair

SKIN: fair, slightly sensitive, lightly freckled

HANDS: small, slim fingers, squoval nails

SCARS: One on her torso.

TYPES OF CLOTHES: classy lean styled clothes with color that match her hair.

MANNERISMS: Softy spoken. Clicks her tongue when thinking or bites her lip. Motherly nature. Gives advice. Nervous to speak about herself - traumatic past.

ABOUT

SEXUALITY: Heterosexual, Demisexual

Canon Love Interest: Miguel OHara

RP Love Interests:

LIKES: books, flowers, planting, cooking and crafting. Being spiderwoman

DISLIKES: immorality, lying, cheating, abuse.

FEARS: Her ex-fiancé did give her trauma.

LITERATURE: Mysteries, paranormal.

MOST PRIZED TREASURE: The list of names who had chosen for her potential baby. . .

FAVORTIE COLOR AND WHY: Red because while it stands for danger, it also does mean love

FAVORED EXPLETIVES: For fuck's sake. . .

HOBBIES: drawing, crafting, planting.

FAVORITE MEMORY: Her unborn baby

WORST MEMORY: her miscarriage and cheating ex-fiancé who who pushed her down the stairs after she confronted him (pre-spiderwoman powered).

TYPE OF PERSONALITY: Motherly nature to everyone around her. Gives advice. Nervous to speak about herself - traumatic past.

PERSONAL TRIGGERS: reminders of her past

WHAT ARE PHRASES OR WORDS THEY OVER USE: Oh, for fuck's sake, If only. . . , Oh my days. . .

ARE THEY OPTIMISTIC OR PESSIMISTIC: Pessimistic when comes to herself, but tries to optimistic for others

HOW DO THEY DISPLAY AFFECTION: Words of affirmation, acts of service - and physical touch (when a romantic relationship).

STRONGEST CHARACTER TRAIT: Compassion, fair.

WEAKEST CHARACTER TRAIT: Poor self-esteem.

GREATEST FEAR: Losing yet another loved one.

WHAT DO THEY CONSIDER AN OVERRATED VIRTUE: Solemnity and temperance.

Smell: she prefers to wear perfume that smells like vanilla and roses/tagetes.

EXTRA NOTES

Alora was born to an Ukrainian mother and a Romanian father. She fell for a Romanian man herself too - named Sébastián. They were high school sweethearts - who got engaged young.

She was 23 when she realized she was pregnant - they were delighted. But then - she soon realized her fiancé was a lying and cheating man. Alora had confronted him about his cheated - he had gotten angry with her - blaming her for his infidelity and pushed her down the stairs. She had collapsed due to the fall and later waking up in hospital. She discovers of her miscarriage and it of course greatly affects her.

It was 3 months later the incident - she gained became spiderwoman after she was bit my mutant spider (we all know how the story goes). It was during one of those days -she was met with an anomaly and meets the spider society.

The first time she even meets Miguel - who saved her from a fatal fall that day. They have a friends frenemies to lovers type of story. Miguel is the only one that knows of her traumatic past - she only ever opened up to him knowing his past with the daughter he lost in an another universe.

She helped Miles escapes - causing Miguel to be very angry with her and they had broken up by the end of it, and she joined Gwen's teams.

#Alora Matei #across the spiderverse #across the spiderverse oc #oc rp #miguel x oc #atsv miguel x oc #atsv oc #eunoiaastralwings #tw: abuse #tw: miscarriage #tw: pregnancy #tw: partner abuse

[humbly-a-doppelganger]

THE STOLEN CHILD - WIP intro

So, I thought I’d post an overview of the world that burst inside my mind four years ago, and has so far refused to leave :)

The Stolen Child is the first part of a multi-book, multi-POV series titled The Kinship Chronicles. The story falls under the self-engineered time capsule urban fantasy genre, which is short for a mosaic of urban fantasy, historical fiction, adventure, a touch of horror, a tentative dark academia, and probably a couple other genres I’m forgetting right now. It's also YA! But, above all else, TKC is a story of doomed debts dealt across generations.

The synopsis is as follows:

Coraline 'Cal' Everitt has a secret. Her body, which at the age of five, she discovered would split into two forms—one mortal, the other not. Oftentimes without her consent. Why? All her attempts to learn the reason proved fruitless. But here's the one thing she's certain of: no one in her family shares her ability, thus, she must bring it to her grave.

Oliver Whitaker has a secret. His double-lived identity. He hails from The Kinship, an underground society for the otherworldly Saz. And yet, he spends his days Aboveground, spying on Cal in search of a sign that would mark her as one of his own, like her parents before her. Even though they hold no memories of it.

Diana Zubairu has a secret. The ghosts of her past haunting her present. Her family moved to London in hopes of escaping the aftermath of her brother's death. She may think herself on the path to healing, may find new companions in Cal and Oliver, yet John's clutch is strong and stubborn—and he has deemed her his sole victim.

Then a sudden attack falls upon them, causing the walls guarding their secrets to crumble to dust. Cal, Diana and Oliver will have to rediscover reality in the latter's native land—the very same land Cal and Diana are also entitled to. But in The Kinship, they'll get entangled in a quest that will challenge the very basis on which their perceptions hinder. Min Hao, the youngest daughter of a dying politician, is missing.

And only they may save her.

The Stolen Child is an amalgam of a myriad of tropes, plot points, etc. that don’t quite fit into any categories. You’ll like it if the following catches your eye:

Character-driven stories

Fleshed-out lore

Slowburn

Victorian era aesthetics

Underground, secret societies

Unconventional powers

A strong emphasis on platonic relationships

Mysteries

Queer characters and storylines

Time loops

Creepy, monstrous children

Saphic yearning

Rotten utopias

"We were fated to meet"

Diary romance

Journey to acceptance

Complicated families

I have a sick obsession with making characters. Seriously. The Stolen Child has a main cast of eight:

Cal Everitt ✧₊⁺ A newcomer lost amid her birthright

Oliver Whitaker ⚕ A healer who many help all but himself

Diana Zubairu ཐིཋྀ A foreigner hiding from her ghosts

Selvar Zandstra 𖤓 A survivor frozen in time

Atalanta Everitt-Melton ೱ A historian on the verge of collapse

Hunter Hao 𓍼 A brother with a blindfold in tatters

Morgan Hao ☠︎︎ A sister burdened by her misery

Caleb Verninac ♫ A son of secrets and pain

If any of this interests you, here’s the chapter list with links to each respective chapter!

Aside from posting on Tumblr, you can also find me on AO3 (Crosskill11), on Wattpad (Crosskill-11) and on Instagram (humbly_a_doppelganger), though I very, very rarely post anything there, if at all.

Now, this is getting too long, so I’ll be posting my inspirations for The Stolen Child—and The Kinship Chronicles as a whole—under the cut.

Early 2000s urban YA fantasy literature: in many ways, The Kinship Chronicles is an ode to those stories of girls who discovered the world was not what it seemed, that magic was not the stuff of fiction and that, despite everything, she was owed a place among that newfound reality. Only it is queer

The Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare: literally all of it, from The Mortal Instruments to The Last Hours. In fact, The Kinship Chronicles started out as a mesh of wild TSC fan fiction and a pre-existing WIP of mine I’d created at 14. Those books have nurtured me in my adolescence (and early adulthood) and in many ways, The Kinship is what my social sciences brain would’ve liked the shadowhunter world to be. The Infernal Devices and The Last Hours made me fall in love with the Victorian and Edwardian Eras

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs: his books were the first time I heard the word ‘time loop’ (or bucle temporal in Spanish), and I remembered being so mesmerised by the kind of powers peculiars wielded—they were, in themselves, peculiar, and I hope that Saz’s insignias embody that same peculiarity

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James: I don’t think many people have read this book, I finished it at 2:00 a.m. in a random summer and it’s stayed branded in my brain ever since. I can’t recommend it enough. Strangely, it made me love the idea of falling in love with a person who you’ve only known through their writings

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie: listen, the second line of the first chapter of The Stolen Child directly mentions Barrie. Peter Pan was my first fictional crush, Neverland my first form of Heaven. Two summers ago I read the original book from the early 20th century and I bawled my eyes out. Because of this, my main character, Cal, adores Peter Pan and I hope to be able to convey at least half as much as what Peter Pan conveyed to me. I don’t care if it sounds childish

Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac: eight-year-old me had no business watching this anime, but I’m glad I did. My man Ikki had done wonders to help me worldbuild

Tales of Berseria & Tales of Zestiria: undisputed JRPG masterpieces. Great, great, great for worldbuilding

Uncharted & Tomb Raider: I will cry, I wanted to step into their worlds so much I carved out a piece of them and stitched it into Mirror (this is very vague inspiration, but inspiration nonetheless)

Plato’s philosophy: truly inspired a great plot point and Morgan and Hunter’s character arcs. I should really get to reading the Symposium

Descartes’s philosophy: can’t say how or why, but by God I love Descartes

Spanish and, more particularly, Andalusian culture and heritage: this will be evident at the very end of The Kinship Chronicles. It’ll potentially traumatise some people, but that doesn’t erase the fact that I think my culture’s beautiful and that I’m forever grateful that I get to experience it

Roman law: my inner law student took the reins. The XII Tables my beloved

#writeblr #female writers #original writing #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writing #queer writers #original character #writing community #oc #ocs #my ocs #wip #current wip #my wips #work in progress #the kinship chronicles #tkc #the stolen child #writers and poets #ya writing #original story #original work

[disneydarlin]

1992 Aladdin: Aladdin & Jasmine —Aesthetic

Aladdin & Jasmine's Relationship

Aladdin is immediately taken by the princess's beauty. As a person, Jasmine is charitable, comedic and burdened with pressures from society. As a result, she longs to escape and be free. These traits are relatable to Aladdin, who noted Jasmine's personality to be "smart and fun". This is the first example as to why he fell in love with her. Jasmine is also the first person to treat Aladdin with kindness as an equal, instead of someone below her. In turn, Aladdin is the first to treat Jasmine as a person, rather than an object, as palace life would have, by listening to her problems and expressing genuine care for her feelings. Thus, the couple find freedom with each other to be themselves as accepted equals. Additionally, Aladdin constantly has a desire to continuously protect, impress, or prove his love for Jasmine.

#aladdin #jasmine #art #disney #aesthetic #moodboard #royalcore #princesscore #princecore #moroccan

[princessbabygirlforever]

An older trans woman once told me that she sits to pee, which occasionally results in her peeing on herself, because that’s how hard she’s worked to block out the fact that she’s still retained her original organ all of these years. That’s what girls do: we deal in affect–feelings, vibes, emotions, moods—to counteract dissonance. If you feel like a girl, you are a girl. Serving cunt is the law of assumption. Pussy-stunting is a mindset. Delusion is a lifestyle. And dissociation is effortless, unselfconscious, easy.

After white men, only white women and girls are afforded an unstudied ease, a universalizing, pedestalizing canvas-like blankness free of aesthetic assumptions, charged with authority and unburdened by race and gender. The rest of us are seen as open wounds. I used to try to fight how I am perceived by feigning a sense of aloofness, insouciance and smallness. I did so by tucking my hair behind my ear, wistfully, longingly staring off into the distance, dissociating from my body to temporarily transport to a place where I could write like a white girl.

I would conjure the white girl vibe instantaneously when I’d listen to music, especially if the music I am listening to is really loud, almost dulling my other senses and causing me to feel what can only be described as the opposite of embodied: void-like. There, I could exist as an empty, diaphanous vessel unfilled by anything at all. There’s no burden of “identity” in the club or the bedroom or the hammam or the garden or online as the avatar of your choosing–anywhere deemed a feminine space worth inhabiting. Online, especially, is where anyone can lay down their burdens—the thick coating of class and race, geography and gender–and escape the indignities of womanhood, blackness, otherness. No fat…no trauma…no spiritual heaviness…no intensity…only purity. A blank canvas no one can ascribe assumptions and project onto. You’re the default player in the game. A babygirl.

As a terminally concerned girl teeming with big, electrical emotions, presenting myself as an open wound–where the id is steering the ship despite societal expectations and pressures to the contrary to flatten and suppress– has never quite appealed to me because I know it doesn’t appeal much to anyone else. I think of myself in relation to others, in a sort of triangulation with the world. I don’t want to be a spectacle, if I can help it, because I know I already am, that there is an audience baked into my experience, mercilessly ascribing the same assumptions to me that they would someone engaging with hallucinations on a city bus. On a city bus, to witness someone mumbling to themselves, smiling exuberantly, screaming, singing terribly or sobbing loudly in public, is to have a front row seat to an undesired excess, intensity and earnestness. That person has unconsciously chosen to present themselves, to the subtly disciplinary gaze of surveilling strangers, like a spectacle to be gawked at. They’ve interrupted the homogenizing edicts of polite society in a manner considered vulnerable, neurotic, unusual, boundaryless, histrionic, unrefined, unserious, grotesque, eccentric, amoral, out of control, shameless and cringe-worthy. Their vivid displays of animatedness, too gauche for “normal” sensibilities, so we’d rather tuck them away like an unsightly pile of rags on the floor, undermining them like we do our own id in the company of others.

This image is commonly associated with the mentally ill and the homeless, whom the public bodies and perceptions of are heavily policed and politicized. States of animatedness, of excess, are also racialized and gendered. Femininity and blackness, its sincerest expressions, deemed maximalist, evidence of effort, and therefore, failure. Too much.

To transcend our animatedness, we must turn our disciplining gaze to ourselves, self-effacing to make space for whiteness and maleness, totally erase ourselves. This palimpsestic quality is achieved through minimalist attire (no garish, colorful clothes re: avant basic), eliminating girlish and black vocal tics, adapting middlebrow tastes, writing in 3rd person, muting one’s melanated state with black and white photography, aspirational thinness so there is less of you, and an attitude that communicates aloofness so severe that you don’t even care about yourself.

These attempts at minimization, of disciplining your public animated body, will allow you to enjoy a certain remove from the wider world. You’ll be cured, no longer teeming with niggerishness and schlepping the mantle of womanhood into every room you walk into for the rest of your life. You’ll be the babygirl again, who you were before you ever knew that you occupy a subordinate role in society, and before you were privy to the myths and ideologies that have been created around your image and identity.

Like a princess, your girlhood and daughterhood had a sense of prestige, making the fact of your consanguinity almost secondary, except as a matter of differentiation from the masses of non-princesses. There wasn’t yet a force larger than life requiring self-minimization as a necessary boon. You were presumed to be a pure, guileless blank canvas of a girl. You didn’t have to arm yourself with knowledge of that—or any truth—to feel a claim to safety and purity because the fact of it was informed by your singularity.

The babygirl, elegantly inert and slow, never had to run outside of the context of a freewheeling and uninterrupted playtime. She was never embarrassed into velocity. She never had to be strong or work hard. She’s never had to learn to self-preserve because her existence hadn’t called for that skill set. Self-preservation is the ministry of wounded girls. The babygirl has never been wounded.

The babygirl is light, buoyant with a feeling she belongs right where she is. She’s preternaturally interested and keenly aware, with an insatiable attention and curiosity for entertainment, her commodities, the objects in her bedroom. She prefers living in a rapt state, the romantic eye of her mind transporting her from her present surroundings and the inherent ennui of girlhood into her imagination.

The babygirl’s emotions don’t give the appearance of an overflowing volcano of lava curdling into evidence of effort and maintenance and failure and toxicity, clumps for other people to step over, ignore, forget, apply a disciplining gaze to. She is like the waves in the ocean crashing freely into each other, free to express the gamut of her emotions, whether sad, irritable, annoyed or enraged, without it sweeping up the rest of her image and identity until there’s nothing left of her but her feelings, in the unforgiving, cynical eyes of the strangers she will meet in the world who will, inevitably, only see animatedness.

What makes me a babygirl–and what unifies me with all the other babygirls online who’re so hotly debated and contested and disbelieved–is our sensitivity and an unrelenting over-identification with objects and other people. Babygirls are committed to the aesthetic reading and viewing of still images, films and the internet, which informs a girly canon of derealization ephemera not intended to be over-identified with: antiheroines, dreams, the moon, theory, book spines, social outcasts, fonts, hysterical and ribald women, “invalid” women who live in their beds, dolls, numbers, voids, the color pink, avatars on social media, God.

All that is ostensibly facile and self-explanatory, for the babygirl, is gleaned through persistent observation. The babygirl fills emptiness with a divine estuary from which an embodied and pillow-soft love audaciously converges with nature’s brutal architecture—pulsating alive with blood and flesh.

Being a babygirl is like the infinitude of the world contained in a pop song or the gaze of someone staring down the barrel of a gun; it stretches on and on forever. Anyone, then, who sees through people like they are vacant homes waiting to be occupied by her, who thinks they know others with the cultic conviction of a true believer, who is wildly and wholeheartedly alert, is a babygirl.

And I am Princess Babygirl.

I am novelty combined with appropriation like collage art, music sampling and recipes. My palimpsest quality is not an encryption of the self; but rather, an illuminating synthesis of my embodied experience. I have been the host to various narratives, epistemes, connections and dreams that I’ve neither fully abandoned nor refined. I’ve imprinted my affects and vibes forever–going on and on like the perfect pop song on repeat–so I can never be erased. Princess Babygirl is who I was before all of the sublimated tensions, marketplace competitions, traumas, vulnerabilities, anxieties, mimetic rivalries, delusions, dreams and violence of womanhood happened to me.

As Carl Jung foretold in his writings on the Age of Aquarius, human consciousness is moving toward a more feminine-centric paradigm. I want to represent the metamodern conditions of this moment in a blend of identity-critical autotheory and audiovisual stimuli exploring affects, aesthetics, taste, psychology, consumerism, the performance of womanhood and modern femininity.

#girls #girlhood #womanhood #gynocriticism #self-optimized girl #identity #cultural criticism #identity politics #girlblogger #writers #substack #vibes #affect theory #collage art #maximalism #minimalism #taste #aesthetics #princess babygirl #babygirl #princessbabygirlforever #autotheory #autofiction #esoteric #femininity #modern femininity #feminism #femcels #it girls #otessa moshfegh

[monvenusblg]

Eight of Wands & Motorsport Racers

You don’t need a license to heed the siren call of the open road.

💋Motorsports or Biker fashion aesthetic and the individuals who wear them embody the energy of the 8 of wands best. Mandolin-collared racer jackets, belted boots, and chunky zippers all preferably in leather equipped these warriors for an urban apocalypse. The highly durable, high-speed clothing symbolizes protection against the dying city streets of a post-apocalyptic world. In comparison with ancient suit of armors, however, current styles are far more playful and sexier. The aesthetic’s created fantasy of crime and speed attracts people to them in recent years. Muses of the 8 of wands tempt us to strike while the iron is hot. To live a life of adrenaline. Their style represents what living in the fast lane and/or wide expanse looks like.

☄️The final stages of the fire suit in tarot (wands) had left the drive to conquer in Aries and the celebration and trials of leadership in Leo. When we arrived in Sagittarius, the heroine became legendary for her previous deeds. At the end lies a burden to sustain one’s legacy. Hence, in the 10 of Wands imagery, a man is weighed down by his many accomplishments. The 8 of wands is exactly where the action is. A mutable fire or a wildfire is on the move. Here in a Jupiter-ruled fire sign, ambition changes gears to higher realms. Ruthlessness and conflicts seemed to be left far behind in Aries and Leo. So why is there something immoral about Sagittarius first decan? Why the association with crime?

☄️Boldness, Malice, Liberty headline the decan’s Agrippa image. We encountered a warrior braving the open road. Perhaps for an adventure or…in most cases, to get away with something. Mercury who co-rules with Jupiter gives this decan its shadow qualities since he is the god Hermes who travels between the underworld and the surface world. Constantly lurking between worlds often pushes them to the fringes of society. It is one of the many hermetic explanations for Sagittarius' bohemian or free-spirit stereotypes. They are sometimes deemed dangerous for being part of the counter-culture. Often they are tasked to carry the collectives' shadow representing the antithesis of whatever was the norm at that time. Another significant Hermetic symbolism is the fixed stars of Lupus the wolf which can be seen in three degree groups of this decan. In ancient times wolves were powerful shamanic creatures representing higher learning (9th house) and the human drive to investigate the existence or nature of God. A very Sagittarian theme. Unfortunately, by medieval times wolves became negatively associated with heresy. Women especially are vulnerable to allegations of dark witchcraft practices. Believed to seduce “wretched” people and entrapping them.

💋Etymologically, Lupa in Latin (lit. she-wolf) translates to a prostitute who seduces through her rapaciousness. Interestingly, a key feature of the biker aesthetic during its peak fame (2022/2023) is a luscious deep red dubbed ‘cherry cola’. It was in every subsection of beauty (hair, nails, makeup). The star muse of this shade is a leather jacket-wearing and over-lined lipped Kylie Jenner, emphasizing yet again the sex appeal of biker/racer-inspired clothing. Although the clingy materials of biker aesthetics are mainly worn to shield them from the rough asphalt, they naturally complement the body’s natural curves. I think this resonates with the 8 of Wands persona. Natives of this card play the forbidden fruit, the dark bittersweet cherry who is likely to scare you as much as she entices. Mercury’s wit and Jupiter’s jovialness bestow a charming and humorous attitude to individuals of first Sagittarius. The humor is not without irony, however, a little black and morbid. Still, this gives them a uniquely intoxicating charm, capable of making illicit subjects and dangerous antics at best, cathartic and simultaneously fun.

☄️Sagittarius Decans are represented by the Centaur creature (half-man, half-beast). They reveal the unification of our animalistic nature with our human (strategic, meaning-making, rational) mind. our pursuit of higher learning and philosophy can’t be separated from the physical prowess of our lower, instinctual nature. Instead, in Sagittarius, we learned that it is on our basest nature to enquire about the physical world around us. Hence, there’s an understanding among racers and bikers to merge with their vehicle. Akin to ancient Amazonians and warriors who built genuine deep relationships with their horses. Together they become formidable warriors. Moreso in this decan than the ones after do we see the full result of this unification. Austin Koppock named Decan one of Sagittarius: “poisoned arrows”, which I think testify to the swift precision of its natives in obtaining their goals. Whether it is a race to the finish line, a beloved to seduce, or dreams to chase, it'll surely be attained fast and decisively.

💋To feel the 8 of Wands in its entirety I suggest watching the Fast and Furious movies. They feature styling and female characters who embody the card/decan's bold, fiery, and intense energy with a hint of malice. The garments and styling worn in the "Fast and Furious" saga testify to its global settings (Puerto Rico, Tokyo, London, Los Angeles, and more). Since Jupiter does not understand boundaries and only expansion, travel is expected. Elements such as muscle tees, jeans, leather, etc. are modified through color and cut depending on levels of practicality as well as settings and characters. The women share an element of vulgarity overall though, especially in the earlier installments. Each look is adorned with silver metal jewelry and chunky leather footwear. The clothes show equal parts skin and fierceness, fitting for the characters' rough lifestyle as professional drag racers. A personal favorite of mine are the looks worn by Suki (Devon Aoki) in 2 Fast 2 Furious (2015). She clearly wasn't denied any restrictions with colors. Dressed in multicolored ensemble of crop tanks and shirts paired with the internet famous hot pink low-rise jeans which display cheeky crossed threads at the crotch and thigh area. Then there's a tartan schoolgirl skirt paired with studded boots number, as well as a monochrome look of matching short-shorts and racing tee with knee-high white boots. Suki's overall wardrobe is an ode to the spunky enthusiasm of Sagittarius Decan one/8 of Wands personality.

☄️Alternatively, "Mad Max" films feature a grittier take on the “men being one with their machine” trope. Here there’s an added touch of ecological doom where the desert becomes a character of its own. Both franchises rely on “horsepower” aka the speed of their chosen machines. It's a testament to the double mercurial influence in the 8 of Wands; quick instinctual movement and action is emphasized as important skills to survive the harshness of each respective environment. The costumes carry the 8 of Wands message for proper mental and emotional preparation before you embark on a journey or face a war zone. In Mad Max, the threat is very much physical, depicting environmental devastation and civilization collapse. The outfits consist of tattered rags, harnesses, and armored chest pieces. ID-magazine describes 2015 Mad Max movie’s aesthetic as the "scavenged and wanderlust". The female characters of this world have no choice but to roam. Their clothing provides immediate protection from the post-apocalyptic desert. With Furiosa's (Charlize Theron) tactical attire, we see someone who possess mastery over her environment. Her femininity is hidden underneath the ashy face paint and accessories made from cars and motor parts. Including a symbolic asymmetrical shoulder armor. She dress similar to that of the opposing ‘war boys’. I think this signifies her alignment with the 8 of wands message I wrote above. In contrast, the nymph-like tattered white fabrics covering the rescued maidens, expresses human vulnerability against such conditions. They were previously held hostage and therefore are yet to subtilize the high velocity energies around them. Violence, warfare, and oppression are some thematic commonalities of this film with the 8 of wands. So, although the outfits of Mad Max aren't acclimatized into the mainstream biker/racer aesthetic, I believe they represent the energetic essence behind this aesthetic in its most pure and rawest form.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Check the gallery below for more contemporary fashion/visual inspirations:

🫶Let me know if you enjoy this post! I’m thinking to turn this into a series about all 78 tarot cards and each corresponding aesthetics. So far, I’ve seen really fascinating patterns emerge and I’m so excited to share them. I hope my posts will get better as i adapt to writing my downloads. x Jess

#eight of wands #sagittarius aesthetic #sagittarius I #decan astrology #sagittarius beauty #tarot cards #witchblr #astro notes

[etruatcaelum]

i am once again rewatching rwby.

RED TRAILER.

45s in i have to pause to yell (again) about “thus kindly i scatter”—THE SPEAKER. SUMMER ROSE IS NOT THE ROSE. SHE IS THE SPEAKER WHO KILLS THE ROSE AS A CONTEMPLATION OF HIS OWN MORTALITY IN THIS ESSAY I WILL–

“soon may i follow/when friendships decay/and from love’s shining circle/the gems drop away/when true hearts lie withered/and fond ones are flown/oh! who would inhabit/this bleak world alone?” the moon will sadly watch the roses die, huh.

lol.

lmao even.

i know it was just because the budget was a shoelace and chewing gum at this point but the grimm here being fully black with no plating is really funny in the context of my worldbuilding. because it means ruby just fucking slaughters a bunch of baby grimm bfrghfk

WHITE TRAILER

atlas is full of the worst kind of person (people who do flash photography in theaters)

it really is bonkers that jacques was like. yeah i won’t let you attend your college of choice unless you defeat this huge old geist that i have arranged to be captured and inserted into one of our comically oversized suits of armor. sir,

how did they even CATCH that thing.

this is probably my favorite of the trailers in all honesty. the duality of her public/private lives on such raw display. & i think the fight choreo is the cleanest.

the moon does not look broken so much as it looks like something has been nibbling on it. zhan tiri behavior.

BLACK TRAILER

i love how the thinking behind forever fall forest was clearly just “we cannot have green trees in this trailer it’ll ruin the whole aesthetic.” brhdjgh

YOUR HOPES HAVE BECOME MY BURDEN. I WILL FIND MY OWN LIBERATION. salem foreshadowing dot txt.

mumbles. V2 heavily implies that ozpin thinks blake is salem’s spy. so it is not inconceivable that that crow might in fact be qrow. i think about this often.

i have to imagine that this unbelievably over the top security robot was there because somebody tipped off the SDC as to the robbery plot. because lmao.

YELLOW TRAILER

“scathing eyes ask that we be symmetrical” this counts as arm foreshadowing tm

raven being here at the beginning really makes this. somehow a more attentive parent than tai BRGRHFKF (for legal reasons this is a joke)

ozma like yeah in my ideal society there is a minuscule class of elite special warriors with superpowers who roam around unrestrained by law or regulation and with zero meaningful oversight besides their own guild. & then there’s everybody else. why isn’t humanity united yet

i love them so much. they’re so stupid BRRHDKVJDNV

yang’s introduction vs the other three is really so hysterical though. she just- she swans into a nightclub and hospitalizes like fifty people HRGKH. she’s SEVENTEEN.

girl,,

junior and oobleck have the same basic weapon. oobleck’s is also a thermos, befitting his status as a hyper-caffeinated eccentric historian. junior runs a nightclub. do we think he can drink booze out of his

why is tai letting his fifteen year old wander around in the industrial district after dark 😭 man WHAT are ya doin

EP 1: RUBY ROSE

salem: humankind is wise, strong, resourceful, passionate, ingenious, did i mention resourceful? all it took for them to defy fate itself and flourish against all odds was a single spark of hope <3 …what was i talking about? oh, right. oz, your terror of change and your reliance on isolated guardians to hold up the rotting façade of your precious academies will be your undoing because there is no victory to be found in strength. fuck you.

oz: but perhaps!! victory is found in the simpler things that you’ve long forgotten. like hope and honesty <3

salem: ………really?

they are so. DIVORCED. AJDHSHDK

“so-called free world.” her protégée was a child slave. her protégée was a child slave whose mentor attempted to arrest her after she murdered her owners. slavery was abolished after the great war. your so-called free world.

shes so ANGRY.

“a smaller, more honest soul” says the LIAR LMAO

ruby: i think today i will murder some goons <3

ozpin pretending like he doesn’t know exactly who ruby is. most hysterical play of all time. it’s clearly not a secret he’s keeping for a reason—otherwise qrow wouldn’t have been so loose with telling the girls he’s tight with ozpin and ironwood later on—so like. ozpin are you just lying to this girl out of HABIT (probably)

“i want to be a huntress”/“you want to slay monsters?” -> “and what exactly does a huntress do?” “fight… monsters, i guess?” SCREAM LAUGHS.

glynda is like “he’s going to let this child into the school. gods help me” she does NOT get paid enough. whatever he’s paying her isn’t enough

ruby: i don’t want anyone to think i’m special or anything :(

ozpin: good news everybody—

“our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace! please do not ask why we need to train warriors to uphold this peace, thank you :)” cult behavior

the !!empty!! cloak floating above summer’s grave… she’s so alive it makes me crazy

“i don’t want to hear your absolution/hope you’re ready for a revolution” SCREAM LAUGHS AGAIN.

#WRAPPED UP IN A LIE ( ooc. ) #liveblog tag. #[ V1 is so fun. #insane rewatch value. #all the foreshadowing hits like a truck hrgdksgf ]

[mdxlearningjournal]

Reading report 1: Unbearable weight- Susan Bordo

Overall, I feel that Susan Bordos book “Unbearable Weight” is a book about western culture and explores the ways that women’s bodies have been portrayed in our society. Bordo (1993) argues that women’s bodies have historically been the target of strict regulation and restriction, she claims that the female body has served as a focal point for societal anxieties (Bordo, 1993). She analyses a variety of things like art, film, and advertisements to demonstrate how the female body has been portrayed as an object of lust, contempt, and control. The book also looks at the ways in which women have battled against these societal influences and attempted to reclaim their bodies in resistance (Bordo, 1993). We need to come up with a new way to change current perceptions of female bodies to remove any negative influences.

I found it interesting that Bordo (1993) chose to include a poem at the beginning of the book, what seems to be a metaphor about the relationship between mind and body. It nearly seems as though the body is being referred to as a burden or a cause of shame given the description of it as a "Heavy bear" that follows. Even though he wishes to be free from this source of shame, he feels limited due to his appearance and alienation from others, even though they may struggle the same way. I think the poem implies a conflict between wants and reality as well as between oneself and society, this being used as a way to introduce her first theme, ‘Cultural expressions of mind-body and dualism’.

I think with the way society is, I can agree with Bordo that the ideals of the female body are what cause people to internalise “disordered” beliefs. All these negative perceptions of ourselves are a result of what is popular and what is portrayed at “right” in our society (Bordo, 1993, p. 57). In my opinion it all starts with early exposure of stereotypes of masculine or feminine body image, it encourages children to fit in with popular culture rather than exploring and being themselves. I agree that the media's standard for models—tall and thin—can be seriously harmful since it misleads people into thinking that these characteristics are synonymous with femininity. I also don’t think it helps that from a young age we are surrounded with cartoons and toys (Like Barbie) that only represent that thin aesthetic that society and media loves. They develop this dislike of fatness as they mature into teenagers, which ultimately leads to peer pressure and poor eating patterns. From this I can say that I believe factors like Family, environment and social media are the key forces that drive ‘disordered’ cultural ideals and cause this never-ending cycle of self-sabotage. These elements, along with everything you encounter, the people you meet, and the culture you were born into, serve as the foundation for your identity.

Reference:

Bordo, S. (1993) Unbearable weight : feminism, Western culture, and the body. Berkeley ;: University of California Press. (Accessed: 23/02/2023)

[beitching]

Xiao Muyi of gray vision

Reporter Xiao repeatedly emphasized that Dr. Li Wenliang has been in a state of depression since he was infected, and then explicitly or implicitly blamed this state on Dr. Li Wenliang's previous improper admonitions. Do people get frustrated when they think they've been treated unfairly? This is indeed possible, but common sense tells us that when a person suffers from a medically unknown disease, the most likely states are anxiety and depression. Comparing the two cases, which one is more likely? Why did Xiao Muyi choose to avoid it? Here, Reporter Xiao becomes a willful and lame tailor. No matter how old the customer is, he just tailors clothes according to his own aesthetic. How can a person who is burdened with private goods and cannot treat authenticity objectively write an "investigation" report that always emphasizes objectivity? Xiao's focus was actually on Dr. Li Wenliang's last rescue, expressing his point of view in the words of a doctor who didn't know if it really existed: This was the rescue of a corpse. This is a very eye-catching view, and one that has no lower bound. The main purpose of the so-called investigative report is to try to steer viewers' attention to the rescue process, thereby sparking dissatisfaction with the Chinese government. I don't think there is a doctor who doesn't want to try to save a patient, let alone a colleague. Objectively speaking, there may be the possibility of overtreatment in this matter, but this is originally a clinical medical problem, not an insult to the remains. Overtreatment involves medical ethics, especially in a country like China that has valued ethical traditions for thousands of years. Xiao Muyi has been in the United States for several years and can quickly evaluate Chinese medical care from the perspective of Western society. She had to sigh that the roles changed so quickly. As for reporter Xiao's statement, he was ordered by the government to buy time for the disposal, which is even more nonsense. To say that the Chinese government cannot properly handle this incident is to underestimate government officials. A country with a population of 1.4 billion can continue to strengthen itself over decades. This fact is something Xiao Muyi cannot and cannot understand. Her vision is only a small gray area, and it is impossible to have a grand vision and pattern. If this is also a deadlift on the government, I don't know how the states

[fbrefugeechannel]

my intention is NOT to spam homefeed, let me know, or feel free to block. noone tells me anything and common sense doesn't always bring answers when things don't seem "right". i just want to put my thoughts down and purge. major medical problems, my body is falling apart, displaced, again.. still trying to get back on my feet, and solitude and being lost in thoughts or feelings of being on trial or on defense, to justify one's own existence in present day society keeps me sort of maladjusted to "normal" people. frustration, depression, how i deal with it. dumping my burdens out on something or somebody, without being destructive or hurtful to loved ones while mataining the person that i am and the person i want to be.

sometimes it feels like people want me to lose my sense of perspective. my own standards of living or my ideals because i don't align with most people.

working on ways to tell me that i'm wrong, beliefs, ethics, morals, aesthetics, because somebody wants me to change. it's basically politics.

it sucks when somebody thinks their judgement is better than your own. the infrequent times that i visit friends or peers, some of them inevitably say something condescending about me or the things or living creatures i care about. what do their homes look like? it's not about luxury, status or bling. it's about cleanliness opposed to clutter or being disorganized. they criticize how i spend my time.. well maybe somebody would be there cleaning up and maintaining while the "breadwinner" is at work, as long as they wanted to live under the same roof, unappreciated.

i used to go out in makep everyday. then i was laid-up in the hospital for malnourishment. my organs basically started shutting down. i could not walk for two years without assistance until my balances were in order and until i got my strength back. now i look like i melted.

and now everybody seems cold and is wearing covid masks everywhere. life was fine, then covid, my sister got married. congratulations to them both im happy for her. i have no problem cheering on her pursuit of happiness. she married a cattle rancher with a couple hundred acres. oh. the irony. i was vegan. they are christians. i am not. so everything that could be incompatible, is.

anyway. now when i go out without makeup and looking like a dude. people treat me worse around town? two years in the hospital, almost died, and now people seem more rude than before. like they're still busy wishing me away? how does this add up?

was i somehow under investigation, found out they were/are barking up the wrong tree, and now they're mad, but can't say why because it would mean having to admit or apologize for their dishonesty towards me? would that offend you? people being indignant?

dude. i might as well have just woke up from being in a coma for two years, and suddenly everybody is an uncooperative asshole? what the fuck happened while i was out? who's been trying to make new arrangements with my fate? knowing most "good christians" you should be happy to see the glamour aestheic gone. although inside, i tell myself it's because they don't like it when i look better than them or have nice things and "take care"of them.

when did that become a popular parting phrase amongst "friends" or drinking buddies? when an ex girlfriend told them what to say to me?

to sort of let me know who's an informant or middle-man for somebody? what sort of prescribed response were you hoping for? my prosperity? yeah, right. funny how i'm accused of being a snitch, when i'm the only one in the peer group who isn't being kept in the dark and fed bullshit, and the only person in the peer group wo isn't concealing loyalties behind the scenes. 🤘

and this crap haunting me from my past.. when i was in elementary school. what the fuck about it? if you even can't say it to my face, you don't need a confession or juicy details about me. this isn't a dating app. and you never "confess" and you don't tell me a damn thing about your past, or thoughts or feelings.

why? who is saying what about me? is it in a police report at the department? is the person badmouthing me or AN ACCUSER, slandering me in church, are they talking shit amongst social circles as if he's charlie manson trying to recruit some people to get their hands dirty and keep himself safe from any backlash or return-fire for trying to instigate it? as well as any illegal activity or social justice warrior lynch mob shit, in hopes of some girl putting out for you if you avenge her accusations?

put up or shut up.

if an accuser won't shut his mouth, does he need the law to document it and silence them in court and make them bow to legal, enforceable authority, until they understand?

[emmvxnce]

EMMELINE VANCE & MARY MACDONALD

we staked out on a mission to find our inner peace make it everlasting so nothing's incomplete it's easy being with you, sacred simplicity

@marymacd

#she tastes like fairy tales; she tastes like hope | mary macdonald #she's a burden on society | aesthetic #dulcetask

[cancerjupiter]

astrology notes: moon’s origins edition (pt. 2)

moon in libra

libra moons crave the idealized experience of beauty and peace; you seek to co-operate with others, to please, and to establish one-to-one relationships which are mutually gratifying. you also find satisfaction in using your minds, particularly your power of objectivity. a parent who valued you highly and enjoyed pleasing you; who encouraged your aesthetic and intellectual development, and who was willing and able to appreciate your points of view, may have helped you to become attuned to the positive dimensions of a libra moon. 

if, however, your moon is in difficult aspect, or if its trines or sextiles suggest a parent who was only superficially available to you, you may attempt to gain from a partner what you could never experience from our parents. you may become overly dependent upon others, seeking to win their favor by being indispensable and satisfying their every desire. you 're also inclined to avoid confronting our anger and pain, suppressing emotions because you fear any threat to your relationships which might force you to acknowledge your aloneness. these patterns were probably by a parent figure who placed too much emphasis upon appearance or surface harmony, who could not tolerate discord, or who led you to believe that relationship equals subordinating oneself to another. such a mother or father may have brought many unfulfilled needs into parenting, expecting you to compensate for deficiencies he or she experienced in childhood or marriage. 

although your libra moons suggest that your emotional fulfillment requires mutually significant relationships with others, you can only build satisfying connections by first developing a secure relationship with yourselves, accepting as valid your own feelings and needs, and being willing to assert yourselves, even when it means experiencing temporary discord for the sake of more authentic contact. you need to apply your openmindedness and capacity to identify with many points of view in relation to both yourselves, and others - to listen to and affirm each of your internal needs, willingly entering disharmony and imbalance when necessary to create a more enduring harmony and balance which is so vital to you. you need to honor your libran need for beauty and peace, creating environments and relationships which truly soothe and uplift you. 

moon in scorpio

this moon shows you value your privacy; you are capable of considerable emotional intensity and passion; and you need to probe beneath the surface of experience to truly connect with something. when your feelings are denied or your needs unmet, you may easily resort to detrimental scorpio behavior patterns - obsessions with sexuality or money, expressions of revenge or destruction, or demanding and manipulative behaviors. one of the difficulties of a scorpio moon is related to the fear of losing control or surrendering. because of this fear, you may deny or conceal the softer, vulnerable facets of yourselves, preventing yourselves from experiencing the genuine connection you seek. 

you may have internalized messages from your parents which enabled you to develop resourcefulness, endurance and strength of character, and the power to plumb the depths of experience. your sexuality may have been awakened early through the intensity of friendly or family interactions (this doesn’t mean abuse; but sex was one outlet your intense feelings found to let themselves go), so you were forced to come to terms with your own life and death force. a scorpionic parent, however, may have negatively influenced your ability to receive nurturance and to nourish yourselves. perhaps such a parent was hostile and disciplinary, so you developed considerable mistrust and learned to hide your feelings. they may have been dominating, intrusive or sexually provocative, leading you to fear being possessed or overpowered. coldness or stoicism, as manifested in a 'be tough' attitude, may have prevented your internal child from receiving the tenderness and care you needed. sometimes a scorpio moon suggests the premature death of a parent, or a premature confrontation with realities of death or violence. 

you have the power to re-parent yourselves by recovering, accepting and expressing your feelings and emotional needs, not just your sexual desires. you need to contact your core, to possess yourselves rather than others, and to learn how to channel your passion constructively. one task of your scorpionic moon is that of discovering your inner power and drawing upon your own capacities to meet your needs rather than manipulating others to give you what you are unable or unwilling to give yourselves.

moon in sagittarius

if you have a sagittarian moon, you need to be free to expand your boundaries - to discover and actualize possibilities, to travel, and / or to develop your own understanding of things. you have a generous heart and seek to give from your own bounty; you also seek to rise above your difficulties through humor and friendship.

when your real needs aren’t met, or when you come into contact with feelings or desires which threaten you, you may express your sagittarian nature in a defensive or twisted manner - procrastinating or avoiding immediate issues by focusing upon the future, abstract realms or escapism (daydreaming); becoming preoccupied with ideals or goals rather than current tasks; intellectualizing or philosophizing incessantly; joking inappropriately; or moving restlessly from activity to activity or person to person on an endless quest both to escape from responsibility and to fulfill your inner emptiness.

most probably, your mother or significant parent figure provided you with a constructive philosophical framework by which to view life, and imbued you with a love of both internal and external exploration. but such a parent may have been fearful of emotional closeness and taken refuge in themselves rather than responding to your actual needs or feelings or to the difficulties or burdens you experienced. they may have indulged you rather than given you real nourishment. they may have preached rather than gently taught, issuing 'shoulds' or religious principles which may don’t keep up with your own nature and development.

those with moon in sag may need to reparent yourselves by creating your own philosophy and morality apart from your parents and by using your philosophy to help you come to terms with rather than suppress your feelings and needs. your tasks may also include learning to give to yourselves and others, developing the internal freedom capable of existing within limitations and commitments, and discovering and maintaining contact with the god you believe in (if you do), the universe within or whichever internal guiding spirit which leads and inspires you.

moon in capricorn

those of you with a capricorn moon (me!) need the security of organization and structure, and the satisfaction of maintaining commitments and achieving your aims. you take pride in your work and want recognition for your accomplishments. capricorn is the position of the moon's detriment (i know. i know.) and is therefore a particularly difficult position for experiencing emotional nourishment and developing self-nurturing behaviors. when feelings and needs emerge, you may not even allow them fully to enter your consciousness. you may be too afraid of your vulnerability or weakness, and too judgemental of your inner child. repression of the deeper facets of yourselves may lead you to wallow in depression, negativity or self-criticism, to work incessantly, or to isolate yourselves from fulfilling connections with other people. you may continually give ourselves 'be tough' messages which support your self-sufficiency but prevent the real connection with your feelings which makes close relationships possible. 

it is most likely that a parental figure helped you to learn to control your emotions, take responsibility for yourselves and make adult rather than childish decisions; and also provided the consistency and safety you needed to feel secure. however, having a capricorn moon suggests that you could never give free rein to your feelings, and that you probably did not receive much tender nurturance (i did, but it was from another parent; mixed messages can make your feelings even more blurry). your parent may have been cold and rejecting; they may have neglected you or told that your feelings and needs had little value. perhaps they were also a perfectionist you could not satisfy, and whose acceptance was conditional upon notable achievement and success. as a result, you may feel a sense of worth only for what you accomplish, but not for who you are. 

moons in capricorn, you need to create their own standards for yourselves apart from your parents' standards, and to give up compensatory striving which does not meet our genuine needs. your task involves developing an internal source of security and giving yourselves the validation and recognition you may have originally sought from others. you may only experience the fulfillment you seek when, by accepting your feelings and needs and allowing yourselves to be vulnerable, you discover strength and self-sufficiency which embraces rather than denies the sensitivity of your inner child.    

moon in aquarius

your aquarian moon shows that you need to experience and express your individuality, to be free to interact with a wide range of people, and to use your intuitive, inventive and abstract mental capacities, and to contribute meaningfully to society. the energies of aquarius do not mesh easily with the cancerian moon principle. you may have difficulty acknowledging and validating your desires and feelings, and fear closeness and intimacy. when threatened by emerging emotions or needs, you may rationalize or intellectualize, may rebel or loudly proclaim your self-sufficiency, or may become overly preoccupied with meaningless shit. sometimes, moon in aquarius may lead you to make sudden abrupt changes in our lives to overcome the internal suffocation of too much closeness or intimacy with another person and / or lifestyle. cultivating a network of friends, and dedicating yourselves to a cause in which you believe, may fulfill you, but may also be a compensation for unmet personal needs. 

it is most likely that a parent encouraged your aquarian qualities. they may have been intellectual, humanitarian and individualistic, and supported these traits in yourselves. you learned to take pride in your uniqueness and originality, and in your social and mental skills. however, such a parent may also have been emotionally detached or cold, and unable to nurture you physically or emotionally, while remaining responsive to large groups of people and social involvements which were less restrictive and emotionally demanding than ties to you. one or both of your parents may have been erratic when relating to you, so you could not develop trust in stable relationships, and learned at an early age to defend against intimacy. 

you who have aquarian moons need to experience and value your own uniqueness, while simultaneously creating for yourselves your own society of intimates, one in which your emotional needs are respected and met rather than suppressed. you need to develop and trust your intuition, and to use your minds to help you understand your feelings and discover how to meet your needs, rather than escape from them. other tasks of your moon involve cultivating the internal freedom which results from full openness to your emotional natures and learning to be your own friend rather than submerging ourselves in social interactions because of your discomfort with yourselves. you can only have yourself.

moon in pisces

having this placement means that you need space in your lives to drift and to dream, relationships based upon empathic bonds, and openness to sources of inspiration inside and outside yourselves. the water energy of the moon is easily expressed, and sometimes overly emphasized, by a pisces moon. when you experience your feelings and needs, you may even indulge them through long bouts of crying, self-pity, or elicitations of sympathy from other people. with or without awareness, you may seek to escape from yourselves through fantasy or idealization, or through such addictions as alcohol or drugs. many of you with pisces moons may vicariously experience your feelings and satisfy your needs by continually focusing upon the feelings and needs of others and devoting ourselves to their welfare. 

a parent who was a piscean influence most probably responded sensitively and compassionately to you and encouraged your inspirational temperament. however, if your Moon is afflicted, such a parent may also have had a detrimental influence upon you. they may have overindulged you, catering to your aches and pains, or too frequently played the victim, giving to you wholeheartedly but also invoking guilt or seeking complete dedication in return. they may have been hypochondriacal, or of an ethereal nature which could not easily come to terms with physical reality. a piscean parent may have been victim to their own addictions, or tangled in dreams or fantasies and not fully emotionally or physically present. 

moon in pisces may need to learn how to respond constructively to your own feelings and needs, to serve yourselves and give to yourselves rather than attempt to lose yourselves in others. often, because you suffer from a spiritual discontent, you may have difficulty accepting and adapting to the realities of an earthly existence; you need to translate your visions into action, to live those dreams which are viable, forging a link between your practical and spiritual or creative natures. you may seek to experience oneness in close relationships, but you are not likely to know wholly that oneness unless you cultivate your attunement to your own creative and / or spiritual source, and open your hearts to the fullness of both the love and the pain within you.    

#astrology #zodiac signs #pisces moon #sagittarius moon #aquarius moon #capricorn moon #libra moon #scorpio moon #moon signs #moon in pisces #moon in libra #moon in scorpio #moon in aquarius #moon in capricorn #moon in sagittarius