#tw exploitation

[wilwheaton]

When you watch The Curse, you are watching two children who were abused and exploited daily during production. No adults protected us.

This was originally published on my blog in August, 2022.

I had a wonderful time at Steel City Comicon this weekend. It was my first time at this particular con, so I didn’t know there was such a huge contingent of horror fans, creators, and vendors who attend.

I love horror, and I was pretty psyched to be in the same place as John Carpenter and Tom Savini, across the street from the Dawn of the Dead mall. Pittsburgh feels like one of the places horror was invented, at least to me.

A number of these horror fans came to see me, and asked me to sign posters and other things from a movie my parents forced me to do when I was 13, called The Curse. I had to tell each of these people that I would not sign anything associated with that movie, because I was abused and exploited during production. The time I spent on that film remains the most traumatizing time of my life, and though I am a 50 year-old man, just typing this now makes my hands shake with remembered fear of a 13 year-old boy who nobody protected, and the absolute fury the 50 year-old man feels toward the people who hurt him.

I told this story in Still Just A Geek, and I’ve talked about it in some podcasts I did on the promo tour, but I’ve never put it out in public like this, in its entirety.

I suspect someone at the publisher would prefer I tease this and hope it drives book sales from people who want to read all of it, but I honestly don’t want to have another weekend like this one where everything is awesome, except the few times people who have no idea (and why should they) put that fucking poster in front of me, and all the fear, abandonment, and trauma come flooding back as I tell them that I won’t sign it, and why.

To their credit, each person was as horrified as they should have been, told me they had no idea (if they didn’t read my book why would they), and quickly put the poster away. They were all understanding. I am grateful for that.

But I really don’t need to tell this story over and over again, so here it is, with a child abuse and exploitation content warning, so I can just tell people to Google it.

After Stand by Me, everything changed. The attention from entertainment journalists, casting directors, and especially teen magazines came pouring in. The movie was a generational hit, beloved by critics and audiences alike, and every single one of us could pick anything to do next.

River’s parents and his agent got him Mosquito Coast, with Harrison Ford, as his next movie. I also auditioned for the role, but I knew even then that River was going to book the job. He was perfect, and I’d have to wait a little bit for my opportunity to come along.

I went on a lot of theatrical auditions after Stand by Me. I had tons of meetings with directors and the heads of casting at every major studio. It was all a very big deal, and I felt like we were all looking for something really special and amazing as my follow-up to Stand by Me.

At some point, a couple of producers contacted my agent with an offer to play one of the leads in an adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space.” The script was titled The Farm. (It would, of course, be changed when the film was released).

I read it. I did not like it. It was a shitty horror movie, and I saw that right away. It was the sort of thing you rented on Friday when the new release you wanted was already out of the store.

My mother, already an incredibly manipulative person, used every tool at her disposal to change my mind. My father threatened me, mocked me, told me “It’s your decision” when it clearly wasn’t. It was all so weird; I didn’t understand why they cared so much.

I told my parents I didn’t like it and didn’t want to do it. I clearly recall thinking it was a piece of shit that would hurt my career.

It wasn’t the first thing that had come our way that I wanted to pass on, and every other time, it hadn’t been a very big deal.

Sidebar: I was cast in Twilight Zone: The Movie, in 1983. The film tells four stories, and I was cast as the kid who can wish people into cartoonland. It was a GREAT role, in a movie I still love. (Note that Twilight Zone had four directors. One of them got three people killed. The segment I was cast in was not that one. I mention this because too many people zero in on this to deflect from what this whole thing is actually about.)

But I was CONVINCED by my parochial school teacher that if I worked on The Twilight Zone, which she had determined was satanic, I would go to hell. (This woman and her bullshit played a big role in my conversion to atheism at a young age, but when she told me that, I was all-in on the supernatural story they taught us in religion class.) I was so scared, more scared than I’d ever been to that point in my life, I cried and wailed and begged my parents to not make me do the movie. And I never told them why, because I was afraid my dad would laugh at me for being weak and afraid. My agent tried to talk me into it, and I wouldn’t budge. It’s the only thing I deeply and truly regret passing on, and I really hate I made that choice for such a stupid reason.

Okay. Back to The Curse.

This time, when I told them how much I hated it, they wouldn’t listen to me. My mother, already an incredibly manipulative person, used every tool at her disposal to change my mind. My father threatened me, mocked me, told me “It’s your decision” when it clearly wasn’t. It was all so weird; I didn’t understand why they cared so much.

That is, until they made me take a meeting with the producers of the movie, in their giant conference room on the top floor of a tall building in Hollywood. All I remember about this place was that it was huge; the table was way too big for the five of us who spread around it, and there were floor-to-ceiling windows on three of the walls, but the room was still dark. There was a weird optical illusion in the center of the table, this thing they sold in the Sharper Image catalog, made from two reflective dishes with a hole in the top of one. You placed an object in the bottom of the bottom dish, and it made it look like that object was floating above the whole thing. They had a plastic spider in it. What a strange detail for me to remember, but it’s as clear in my memory as if I were sitting in that room right now.

One man, who I presumed was the executive producer, was European or Middle Eastern (I didn’t know the difference then, he was just Not Like People I Knew), and I was instantly afraid of him. He was intimidating, and seemed like a person who got what he wanted.

So we sat there, my father who didn’t give a shit about me, my mother who was cosplaying as someone with experience, and me, thirteen years old, awkward as fuck, and scared to death.

I don’t remember what they said to me in their pitch or anything other than how uncomfortable and anxious I was to even be in that room. I tried so hard to be grown up and mature, but I — and my parents — was way out of my depth. I’d done one big movie and that was it. We didn’t have my agent with us, who had lots of experience and would have known what questions to ask.

No, in place of my experienced agent, my mother had decided she was going to be my manager, and she tackled the responsibility with an enthusiasm that was only matched by her absolute incompetence and inability to go toe-to-toe with producers the way my agent did. She was outwitted, out-thought, and outmaneuvered at every turn.

“You don’t have a choice,” my father commanded. “You are doing this movie.”

So we sat there, my father who didn’t give a shit about me, my mother who was cosplaying as someone with experience, and me, thirteen years old, awkward as fuck, and scared to death.

At some point, this man, who is represented in my memory by big Jim Jones sunglasses under dark hair above an open collar, said, “We are offering you a hundred thousand dollars and round-trip travel for your whole family. We will cast your sister, Amy, to play your sister in the movie.”

It all made sense, now. I was only thirteen, but I knew my parents were pushing me so hard because this company was offering me — them, really — more money than I’d ever imagined I’d earn in my life, much less a single job.

I knew that the right thing to do, the smart thing to do, was to say no. There would be other opportunities, and it was stupid to cash myself out of feature films for what I thought was, in the grand scheme of things, not very much money.

It’s incredible to me that I knew all of this. It’s incredible to me that I could see all these things, plainly and clearly, and my parents couldn’t (or, more likely, chose not to).

So after this man made his offer, all the adults in the room ganged up on me, selling me HARD on this movie.

My mother said, “Don’t you want your sister to have the same opportunities you’ve had? Wouldn’t it be fun and exciting to go to Rome? Think of all the history!”

The experience was awful. It was the worst experience I have ever had on a set in my life, by every single metric. The movie is awful, and it is the embarrassment I knew it would be.

I don’t think about this very often, because it’s super upsetting to me. Right now, I’m so angry at my parents for subjecting me and my sister to this entire experience. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

In that moment, I felt bullied and trapped. All these adults were talking to me at the same time, and I just wanted it to stop. I just wanted to go home and get out of this room. I just wanted to go be a kid, so I did what I’d learned to do to survive: I gave in and did what my parents wanted.

The experience was awful. It was the worst experience I have ever had on a set in my life, by every single metric. The movie is awful, and it is the embarrassment I knew it would be.

But here’s the thing: when you watch The Curse, you are watching two children, me and my sister, who were abused on a daily basis. The production did not follow a single labor law. They worked us for twelve hours a day, on multiple film units (while I work on First unit, second unit sets up and waits for me. When I should get a break to rest, they send me to Second unit, then to Third unit, then back to First unit. I was 13.) without any breaks, five days a week. I was exhausted the entire time. I was inappropriately touched by two different adults during production. I knew it was wrong, but I was so scared and ashamed, and I felt so unsupported, I didn’t tell anyone. I knew my dad wouldn’t believe me, and my mother would blame me. Anything to keep the production happy, that’s what she did. That was more important to her than the health and safety of her children. The director was coked out of his mind most of the time, incompetent, and so busy fucking or trying to fuck one of the women in the cast, he was worse than useless. He was a fading actor who was cosplaying as a director, as in over his head as my mother. My sister and I were never safe. Instead of harmless atmospheric SFX smoke, they set hay on fire in barrels and blew actual smoke onto the set. They took buckets of talc, broken wood, bits of wallpaper and plaster, and threw it into my face during a scene inside the collapsing house. My sister is in a scene where she goes to get eggs from some chickens, and they attack her. So they hired Lucio Fulci, the Italian horror master, to direct her sequence. His idea, which everyone was totally on board with, was to throw chickens at my sister. Live chickens, live roosters, live birds. Just throw them at a nine-year-old girl. Oh, and then tie them to her arms and legs so they’ll peck her. All of this happened under my mother’s observation, and with her full participation.

Everything I need to know about who my parents are is wrapped up in that experience: the total lack of concern for my safety and happiness, treating me like an asset instead of a son, lying to me, manipulating me, and using me to get things they wanted, and then gaslighting me about it.

If just ONE of the things I can remember happened to someone I loved, I would have grabbed my kids, gone to the airport, and flown home. Fuck those abusive assholes in the production. Let the lawyers sort it all out. Nobody hurts my children and gets away with it.

My mom says she “had some talks” with the producers. She claims that, once, she wouldn’t let us leave the hotel. (God, what a fucking dump that place was. It was just slightly better than a hostel.) I have no memory of that, but honestly the entire experience was so traumatic, I’ve blocked most of it out.

The movie was the commercial and critical failure I knew it would be. My parents spent the money. I don’t know what they spent it on. I got to keep fifteen cents of every dollar, so . . . yay?

My sister and I hardly ever talk about this. I suspect it was as upsetting and traumatic for her as it was for me. I told her I was writing about it, and asked her if she remembered anything. She told me she’d been lied to her whole life about this movie. Our mother let her believe she had been cast on the strength of her audition. “I was excited to work with you,” she said. She reminded me about some stuff I’d blocked out, including a scene where my character’s older brother (played by an actor named Malcolm Danare, who was kind and gentle, and made both of us feel safer when he was around) shoves my character into a pile of cow shit. When it came time to shoot the scene, the mud they’d put together to be the cow shit looked an awful lot like cow shit. When Malcolm pushed me into it, we all found out it was real cow shit. I was FURIOUS. The director had lied to me and had allowed me to have my entire body shoved into an actual pile of actual cow shit. I don’t remember what I said, but I remember he treated me the exact same way my father did whenever I got upset: he laughed at me, told me I was being too sensitive, reminded me that he was the director and he wanted to get a “real” performance out of me, and concluded, “If it bothers you so much, we’ll get you a hepatitis shot,” before he walked away.

My sister also recalled that, after she survived the scene with the chickens, it was the producers’ idea to give her one as a pet.

Okay, let’s unpack that for a quick second: you’ve been traumatized by these birds, so we’re going to give you one as a pet. That you’ll somehow keep in your hotel, and then will somehow get back to America. It will shock you to learn that neither of those things happened.

She remembered, as I do, the huge fight I had with my parents in our kitchen, where I told them I hated the script and I hated the movie. I didn’t want to do it, and I hated that they were making me do it.

“You don’t have a choice,” my father commanded. “You are doing this movie.”

“This is the only film you are being offered,” my mother lied to me. She made me feel like, if I didn’t do this movie, I would never do another movie again in my life. I had to do this movie. As my father bellowed, I had no choice.

Both of my parents denied this argument ever happened. Can I tell you how reassuring it is to know that my sister, who was also there, remembers it the same way I do?

The makeup department decided they would literally cut my little sister’s face with a scalpel, in three places, and put bandages over them.

But one thing she told me, the thing I did not know, the thing that makes me so angry I want to break things, actually managed to make the entire experience even worse than I remembered it.

There’s a scene after her chicken incident where I check up on her in her bedroom. She’s got cuts and bruises, and I guess we talk about it. I don’t remember and I can’t watch the movie because I’m terrified it will give me a PTSD flashback (I’ve had one of those and I recommend avoiding it). Here’s the thing about that scene: she has some cuts on her face, and those cuts are real. They are not makeup.

I’m going to repeat that. My nine-year-old little sister had actual cuts on her face that were placed there by an adult, on purpose.

The makeup department decided they would literally cut my little sister’s face with a scalpel, in three places, and put bandages over them. My sister told me our mother wasn’t in the makeup room when this happened — honestly, it seemed like our mother was strangely and conveniently absent when most of the really terrible things happened to us on the set — and when my sister told her what they’d done, she “lost her shit” at the production. She was pissed, I guess, which is appropriate and surprising. I wonder what would have to have happened for her to put us on a plane and get us home to safety? I mean, her son being abused daily didn’t do it, and her daughter being CUT IN THE FACE ON PURPOSE didn’t do it.

I just . . . I can’t. I can’t understand or comprehend allowing your own children to be physically and emotionally abused. They were literally selling my sister and me to these people, like we were some kind of commodity.

This was a tough conversation. My sister’s experience with our parents is very different from mine. My sister and I love each other. We’re close. I know it’s hard for her to hear that her brother, who she loves, was so abused by her parents, who she also loves. I was really grateful she made the time to talk to me about it, and grateful the experience wasn’t as horrible for her as it was for me.

As we were finishing our call, Amy also remembered one man, a young Italian named Luka, who was our driver for the movie. I haven’t thought about him in thirty years, but I can see his face now. He was kind, he was friendly, he taught us how to kick a soccer ball, and in the middle of an abusive, torturous experience, he stood out as a kind and gentle man. I mention him because she remembered him, which made me remember him, and goddammit I want at least one small part of this thing to not be awful.

The Curse remains one of the most consequential times the adults in my life failed to protect me. I’m 50. I still have nightmares.

Ultimately, as I predicted and feared, this piece of shit movie cashed me out of respectable films forever. I got offers for movies, but they were always mindless comedies or exploitative horror films. They were never the serious dramas I wanted to work in after Stand by Me. The industry looked at me and River, wondering if one or both of us would become a breakout star. They quickly saw that River was doing real acting work, and I was in this piece of shit. For River, Stand by Me was a beginning. For me, it would turn out to be pretty much everything, at least as far as film goes.

There are thousands of reasons film careers do and don’t take off. Maybe mine wouldn’t have taken off anyway. Clearly, it’s not where my life ended up, and I’m super okay with that now. But when all of this happened, it hurt and haunted me.

The Curse remains one of the most consequential times the adults in my life failed to protect me. I’m 50. I still have nightmares. Everything I need to know about who my parents are is wrapped up in that experience: the total lack of concern for my safety and happiness, treating me like an asset instead of a son, lying to me, manipulating me, and using me to get things they wanted, and then gaslighting me about it.

This annotation is the last thing I wrote before I turned this manuscript in, because opening these wounds is hard and painful. I put it off as long as I could, and I feel like I’m still holding back, because just this small glimpse of the experience has taken me a week to write. I can’t imagine trying to go back and unpack the whole thing. (Note that is not in the book: I’ve made an EMDR appointment to work on this because the nightmares have come back after the weekend).

Fuck The Curse, and fuck every single person who exploited and hurt two beautiful children to make it. You all participated in child abuse, and you all knew better. Shame on all of you. I hope this follows you to the end of your life. I hope that living with what you did to innocent children has been as hard for you as it has been for me, because you deserve no less.

#tw abuse #tw child abuse #tw exploitation #child actor #still just a geek #lucio fulci #trauma survivor #speaking up for the child who was silenced by his abusers

[clownrecess]

(TW FOR ABLEISM AND EXPLOITATION)

AAC is not a well known disability aid. Due to this, I struggle a lot with feeling embarrassed in public, out of fear people will assume I am an "I-Pad kid". In fact, people HAVE assumed this. Something that I think would help decrease things like this is people seeing AAC users online and on TV. Unfortunately, AAC users online typically are children being filmed by their parents in an exploitive way. I want AAC users to make more content ourselves. By AAC users having a bigger online presence, we can increase the number of people aware, properly educated on us, and accepting of us. This can help to raise awareness about our experiences and challenges and promote greater understanding and empathy.

I hope more AAC users make content, and less parents nonconsensually post their children.

#aac #actually autistic #neurodivergent #aac user #autism #nonspeaking autistic #nonspeaking #aac device #aac users #situationally nonspeaking #disabled #nonspeaking autism #nonspeaking representation #tw ableism #tw exploitation #neurodivergencies #neurodiversity #disability aids #autistic representation #autistic and queer #nonverbal autism #nonverbal #nonverbal autistic #actually nonverbal #actually mute #actually nonspeaking #nonspeaking and proud #neurodiverse stuff #autipunk #cripplepunk

[anonymouslydisabled]

this epilepsy awareness month I'm challenging parents of epileptic (and other seizure having) children to NOT post videos of their kids having seizures online. The only reason they should even be taking these videos in the first place is for medical professionals or if the child wants to see what their seizures look like. Posting a child during an active medical episode on the internet is exploitative and icky, find a better way to raise awareness.

#epilepsy awareness #epilepsy #seizures #tw exploitation #neurodiversity

[murderluv23]

Go OFF, King!!

This song was so fucking sick! What a hype send off! Ahh! Look at my baby knowing his worth. Also, super fucking funny Mammon didn't pick up on the fact this was about him. SO in line with bastards like him. Ozzie popping in to spell it out was gold.

What. A. Badass. Fizzarolli looks THIS Mammon in the face and doesn't flinch an inch and stands his ground. Kissing the ground this jester walks on. Also, obviously, sick form from Mammon.

Ozzie backing Fizz up like the king he is. Love him.

This is literally just me with Fizz this whole episode and overall. Except I'm not abusing him for profit and never will. Fuck you, Mammon. You're lucky you look like a cuddly Christmas tree.

HE'S SO DAMN PRECIOUS!!! GHGFJGXD SDDFDF!!! HELP!

Overall, I really love what this episode did. Delving into celebrity culture and it's toxic enforcement of perfection on the individuals involved. The entitled fans who become parasocially attached and get it into their heads they own their idols. I really felt for Fizz this episode and it made me love him so much more for many reasons. The entire time I was audibly telling this sweetie that he's more than enough and sacrificing his well being isn't worth it. God, his panic attacks were so real. I've had that shit of overthinking my impressions on people and going into a frenzy. And it's not fun. I figured there'd be plots like this with Fizz and I wasn't disappointed.

I just wish we had more with his relationship with Mammon so that this last song felt even more rewarding. As always, I feel the show is held back by how much it focuses on Stolitz and not other threads and characters. But again, this episode was still fucking phenomenal.

Fizzarolli is at the top of my list of favorites, even more officially now. Sorry, Stolas. Sit the fuck down. These last two episodes have done his character MASSIVE favors! And I can't wait for more Fizzarolli content. I need that shit like I need air.

I seriously hope Fizz doesn't completely abandon the jester aesthetic. Love that detachment from stardom for him- but, ah! I love the jester theme for him too much! Fingers crossed. Also, Fizz is such a fucking theater kid. Lmao.

Bonus:

Spider Blitz! Spider Blitz!

#helluva boss #helluva boss spoilers #original fizzarolli helluva boss #fizzarolli helluva boss #anti stolitz #mammon helluva boss #blitz helluva boss #asmodeus helluva boss #ozzie helluva boss #don't tag as ship please and thank you #viv gave us commentary on toxic celebrity culture and it was brief but beautiful #we love her in this house #tw panic attack #tw exploitation #tw manipulation

[killemwithkawaii]

soooo uhhhhhh.... about Travis' mom?-

Some (almost) totally baseless hc about Travis' mom-

[CW: Racially motivated violence, abuse/exploitation/murder of indigenous peoples/ Native Americans, child abuse, death of a parent, Ch5 spoilers, Kenneth is an evil fucked up irredeemable racist misogynistic dickbag and getting stabbed was way too good for him]

>Travis' mom was a young brainwashed cult member that Kenneth '''''''married''''''' because he found out that she was a direct descendant of the Grey Tribe with very few remaining family members that would come poking around looking for her if she went missing

>Likely ended up in the bologna/ fed to the endless one/ used as a ritualistic sacrifice after she gave birth to Travis and she was 'no longer of use as a vessel'. (Hell, the birth of Travis/ 'the D.O.G. heir' might have been made into a huge cult ritual in itself)

>Publicly, Kenneth still wears a wedding ring says that his wife died 'giving the gift of life to his son', which always gains him sympathy and stops people from asking any more questions.

>Travis has never seen a picture of her and has no memories of her, so the only reference he has for what she might have looked like is what he can piece together from his own reflection. He mourns the relationship he never had with his mother, rather than his mother herself (how could he, if he doesn't know anything about her?)

>Kenneth doesn't tell him any details about her beyond the fact that she existed and she died giving birth to him. It's a huge source of guilt and Kenneth doesn't hesitate to use it against Travis whenever he's being defiant. Travis doesn't press for details about her anymore because it has earned him a number of beatings in the past.

>'Nannies'/ female cult members that were tasked with caring for Travis when he was a child would disappear if they let any details about his mother slip (though most of them didn't last more than a year, anyway. Kenneth couldn't let anybody get too close to him and make him 'soft'.)

>When he was a child, Travis assumed that Kenneth refused to talk about her because it was too painful. Travis began suspecting otherwise when he started seeing just how fucked up the cults practices were behind closed doors and how many people disappeared from Nockfell every year without anybody bothering to look into it.

>Travis killing Kenneth was about revenge- for himself, for Sal, for the countless victims of the cult, but most of all, it was revenge for the mother he never knew and the childhood he never had because of his fathers own egregious actions.

#k.e.w.k. answers #sally face headcanons #sally face spoilers #travis phelps #kenneth phelps #tw abuse #tw death #tw murder #tw genocide #tw violence #tw racism #tw racial violence #tw violence against indigenous peoples #tw violence against native americans #tw exploitation #tw child abuse #tw cult #tw brainwashing #tw misogyny #tw sexism #tw human sacrifice #tw child birth #allll the trigger warning tags #edited

[wtf-a-psychoanalysis]

Once the Shredder Au

18+

Angsty Au Idea. I created this while processing my trauma. And it's really fucked up. Enjoy

Tw: Abuse, emotional trauma, body horror, de-aging.

The turtles are part of a secret organization of spies and were chosen by the handler known as Splinter. Hand picked for a top secret experiment but why is the boss' kid's here? They didn't know what they were signed up for untill they saw the corpses of lab turtles in each of there experimentation chambers. Now they are mutated and de-aged into the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles. Too bad their minds didn't change with them. "But that's a secret between you and me" Splinter said to each of the turtles separately.

Leo:37 chronologically 16 biologically.

Red eared slider (as Splinter said to him "You are a well known pet and invasive like them. The perfect fit. Don't you think so.")

The leader and former right hand to Splinter. He was picked up by the organization in his twenties and had a period of time under the alias of "the Shredder for his brutal execution and disposal style. Now de-aged and having everything he built up held over his head by his handler, he is forced to keep his mouth shut on topics such as his past. He's been controlled by others his whole life, made to do things and feel things he when he didn't want to, so this isn't so hard, is it? Just do the job and no time he gets to see his "daughter" again.

Raph: 18 chronologically and biologically.

Painted Turtle (My son you are like this creature, beautiful, yet get ill in captive environments like your school. I'll make sure that you can thrive in your more natural environment)

Splinters biological son. Self proclaimed oldest. A small time delinquent that was the leader of his former group, now fights Leo any chance he gets in order to take his position. Sees himself as the favorite and will beat everyone up who says otherwise. Thinks the other turtles are "Lab Grown" so he doesn't tell them about his past

Donnie 27 chronologically 16 biologically

Logger head sea turtle (I don't know if flippers are a good fit for you but don't you want your arms back?")

The tech guy and the best hacker in the whole organization, before he got his arms blown off, close to Leo because he was the only one there besides Splinter after the accident, it's a shame that Splinter was grooming him for loyalty just as he did with Leo. He thinks of Leo like the perfect big brother, as his own brother who works for the organization abandoned him after the accident. A touch starved codependent nerd and a touch repulsed leader is not a good combo but Leo deals with it as Donnie hasn't given hugs in 3 years. Knows what Leo knows but keeps it a secret because he doesn't want the two others to have a crisis

Mikey 23 chronologically 15 biologically

Diamond Back terrapin (ironic considering how much your father has killed due to polluting the rivers)

The poisons expert. Former Trust fund kid. Cut off because he wanted to be an artist. Was tricked into joining to the organization by his parents. Feels like he was given a new lease on life, tho with less pampering. Embraces his new age and acts like it and wants nothing of his past. Looks up to Raph. Was the eldest in his family, now is the self proclaimed youngest.

#tw #TMNT au #tw abuse #tw trauma #tw exploitation #tw body horror #tw de-aging #tmnt #au #tmnt 2k3 #tmnt 2k12 #bayverse tmnt #rotmnt #once the shredder au #ots au #rottmnt

[thecanadianweeb]

i hate capitalism so much, it profits off of people's and animal's suffering and death. like if a bigoted form of it existed i feel like we'd literally be exploited everyday and used until we have nothing and left out to rot.

sorry if this is too harsh, i might have become corrupted.

#corruption #destroy capitalism #boycott YouTube #tw hate #tw exploitation

[aardvaark]

what a normal opinion you have there, mr NFT consultant

#wren speaks #orphan crushing machine #late stage capitalism #capitalism #tw racism #idek what to tag this. what the fuck #tw exploitation #‘​let’s pay people to walk back and forth and exist for us to play games so they won’t starve’ says crypto man #‘let’s exploit people literally for our entertainment’ #this is the plot of a speculative fiction horror short story istg #wait literally. #hang on #… the semplica girl diaries. this is so close to the plot of the semplica girl diaries. #actual fucking horror story #real life person suggesting plot of a horror story

[darbyblanco]

“I GET TOO CAUGHT UP IN A MOMENT”

INTRODUCING…

NAME: Valerie Margarita Darr-Blanco { Darby Blanco }

GENDER & PREFERRED PRONOUNS: Cis Female {She/Her}

AGE: 27

BIRTHDAY: September 29

SEXUALITY: Bisexual

FACE CLAIM: Bruna Marquezine

OCCUPATION: Actress & Model

HOMETOWN: Manhattan, NY.

APARTMENT NUMBER: 1203

TIME IN APARTMENTS: 3 months.

CHARACTER PLAYLIST: HERE.

UP NEXT: “I AM NOT A WOMAN, I AM A GOD” BY HALSEY

BIOGRAPHY: TW Neglect {Alluded}, Partying, Drinking {Underage, Alcoholism}, Age-Gap Relationship, Exploitation of a Minor, Infidelity.

A product of an affair, Valerie never knew just how much her home life would affect her mentality until she was much older. For the time being, the young girl grew up with various nannies who came in and out of her life. Unlike her parents, she favored the nannies - at least knowing when they’d be there when she got home. Her mother was a famous pornstar who broke her way into the mainstream blockbuster business all on her own. The truth of the matter was that her mother’s very young boy toy, casted her in a lot of his films that seemingly put him on the map to becoming the next Tarantino. 

Being homeschooled, Val wasn’t used to social settings that weren’t black tie events or red carpets. Drinking by the time she was 10, the girl was always thrown in with the other celebrity children who wanted nothing more than to make their parents’ head roll. She never felt heard or seen, until meeting this crowd and realizing she wasn’t alone in wanting a normal life out of the public eye. She took part in everything under the sun; Heavy partying, to petty theft in Chinatown. If anything, her attempts created the negative affect and her mother praised her for being so wild and bold. It was then, that all of Val’s cares (or what was left of them) disappeared.

She found herself falling into her mother’s footsteps, though she tried everything in her power not to. Never dipping her toes into the porn industry, Val still managed to find herself exploited at the young age of 16 when someone on the internet claimed they hacked into her iCloud account and got a hold of her nudes. Though it wasn’t true, her life was burnt to the ground as her image was torn to shreds. Her life wasn’t hers anymore, as others made up their own stories and assumptions and posted them without a care. Instead of turning off social media, Val took to YouTube where she created a safe space for herself to air out her side of the story on the supposed scandal.

It wasn’t too long after the scandal, that Val met a director who was significantly older. It was a power play, something completely wrong but she was unaware of it at the time. He wound up leaving his wife for her after they spent a couple nights together. Though, she was naive and didn’t understand the weight of it all at the time. This relationship actually made her feel empowered, despite the fact, in that she could pick and choose what projects to be a part of, and her career as an actress then took off. She wasn’t expecting to blow up overnight, but all it took was the one movie and now she was destined for the same path as her mother; Something she absolutely hated to the point she legally changed her name, taking on the last name of the father she’s never met as a slap to her mother’s face. 

Upon turning 18, her boyfriend dumped her and thus she began dissecting every little thing that happened in the relationship. She took a couple years to fully reflect on everything that had happened and realized she hadn’t really had a great example for what love was. Once she came to terms with what had happened to her, she took to her YouTube in order to address the issue plaguing Hollywood and the predatory behavior of those these young girls trusted at the time. There was a lot of positive feedback, the young woman soon becoming a huge spokesperson for a bigger movement than she had thought.

Recently, things have grown tense in both NYC and LA, the director who was her abuser now creating a film to depict ‘his side’ - emphasis on painting Darby as the villain. She wouldn’t have seen it as such a big deal, if there weren’t so many other directors supporting the disgusting project and people now giving her heat from something that happened when she was a stupid kid. To go under the radar for a bit, she found herself signing a lease in Seattle with their new Amore Lux Apartments; Hoping to find a little peace from everything that is blowing up in her life behind the scenes.

EXTRA-EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT HER!

Darby is never in the grey zone; Always on one side or another. She’s either going out and partying, or staying in and binging Netflix for the whole weekend. Her style is a dead giveaway of this aspect of her: She’s either all glammed up, or taking a completely different approach with Nike AF1′s and sweats. Though she’s had a lot happen to her in her past, she doesn’t speak about it and the mention of her mother makes her bolt in the opposite direction. The young woman inherited her father’s drinking habits, making it hard for her to pinpoint her limit. Because of this, she tends to monitor and keep up with who she’s with. She also is prone to saying the wrong thing, completely unfiltered when she’s drinking. Darby hasn’t been to a therapist, she’s mostly just been reflecting and figuring out herself on her own terms; Not only marking her stubbornness, but also a note that she is aware she has some issues and just can’t stomach a diagnosis. With that being said, a lot of her anxiety and negative aspects come out in regards to relationships and just love in general. She doesn’t believe it’s real, and that’s because she’s never had a good example of a healthy relationship/depiction of love to go off of, nor has she experienced one for herself. She tends to self-destruct in any form of connection that means something to her, and if she feels she’s just getting too close in general. Darby is also prone to jealousy, thanks to her mother’s horrific dating life; Never really trusting anyone, and alway believing they’re cheating. It’s one of the reasons she’s just barred herself from dating, altogether. Darby is known for her one night stands though, and isn’t a stranger to hooking up and then never talking to people again. She also is very laidback with hooking up with those she sees as friends. Though she has a lot of work to do on herself, Darby is a bit of a wildcard and is always down for a good time. She loves dancing and going out, and is actually really supportive when she warms up to people. She’s an advocate for people being themselves, though she’s the first to hide behind some armor. She’s also sarcastic, but more so n a humorous way rather than a mean one. 10/10 one of the girls hyping you up in the bathroom if you’re crying over a heartbreak, and will invite you over to make cookies even though she’d most likely burn her place down if she tried. 

PERSONALITY:

+ Enthralling, Apolaustic, and Resourceful

- Reckless, Coquettish, and Detached

#ahq:intro #//annnddd darby <3 #tw alcohol #tw age gap #tw infidelity #tw power imbalance #tw exploitation

[deadassdiaspore]

#Bronx #Black history #labor rights #domestic workers #tw exploitation

[prudencepiper]

Not everyone can say they’ve been to the Big Apple, but  [ PRU PIPER ], a [ TWENTY-FOUR ] year-old [ CIS FEMALE ] has lived in [ FLUSHING, QUEENS ] for [ FIVE YEARS ]. This is the city of dreams and [ SHE ] knows it, because they came to NYC to be an [ PODCAST HOST ].. Living in the city means they meet all kinds of people, but everyone always seems to think they look like [ LILI REINHART ]. They even got away with free cab fare once because of it! [dell, 32, she/her, cst]

trigger warning: please note that this bio contains mentions of parental maipulation, hollywood industry exploitation, familial financial abuse. please proceed with caution.

SPEED ROUND.

full legal name: prudence piper carey

stage/industry name: pru piper

birthday: august 3rd

astrological sign: leo

STORY SO FAR.

Pru Piper was born in San Jose, California, the youngest of three daughters. Her father (Thadd) worked in advertising, while her mother (KiKi) apparently thought her career laid in being a full time stage mother. From the moment Pru could sit upright, she was getting her headshots taken. By the time she was one, she had already won six beautiful baby contests and had starred in a Pamper’s commercial for the briefest of moments.

Pilot season for the Carey family meant a yearly pilgrimage to Los Angeles from January to April, with KiKi living out of a motel room with her daughters. By night, the girls were homeschooled and by day the girls were brought to every audition, casting call, and agents office as their mother could fit into a daily schedule. Most years pilot seasons ended with disappoinment -- roles lost out on or shows not being picked up to series by networks -- until that at changed when Pru was six years old.

Pru was cast in a Disney channel show called 'Royal Flush', where she played the precocious and wise-cracking Princess Kitty -- who was constantly acting as a foil to her older siblings plans. The show was a hit, Pru was a scene stealer, and the entire Carey family took residence in Los Angeles permanently -- putting a down payment on the family home with her first paycheck.

The hours were long and the work was hard -- Pru missed being back home and going to school with her friends -- but Kiki (who had swiftly taken her place as Pru's business manager) constantly reminded her daughter that she was living the dream of million's of little girls across the world.

'Royal Flush' ran for eight seasons on the Disney Channel (as well as producing two DCOMS), with an offer of a Princess Kitty spinoff on the table.

Prudence didn't want to take the job -- insisting that she wanted to return to normal schooling and make her own friends and move out of LA. However, she realized that she had become the soul breadwinner of her household. Everything -- house payments, car payments, credit card bills, and her sisters' college tuition -- rested on her shoulders.

The spin off show 'Kitty's Kourt' made her the Disney Channel's most bankable star. Soon, Pru's face was on back packs, t-shirts, and every clickbait link on Just Jared Jr.. Along with the show, she became the leading star of two-record breaking Disney Channel musicals.

Acting had stopped being fun for Pru long before she had turned eighteen, but once she was of age she finally felt she had some control. However, after going to the bank to check her savings behind her parents' back, Pru found that the majority of the money she had made throughout her childhood had been drained completely. All that remained were the funds that had been set aside for her Coogan account.

Once her contractrual obligation to the House of Mouse was complete Pru took all the money she had to her name and left California -- and her family -- behind.

After being accepted by NYU, Pru did her best to settle into the life of normalcy she had craved before. Classes, study groups, roommates. But there were always bumps in the road -- classmates who would take her picture in exam halls and guys who would take her on dates just to post online that they'd fucked her. It was a balancing act.

She dabbled in acting occasionally -- starring as Needy in the movie version of Jennifer's Body: The Musical -- but hasn't had a credit to her name in two years.

At the end of her senior year, Pru started a podcast in her dorm room -- untangling blind items, telling stories about her old Hollywood life, and talking to other former child actors. 'Formerly Famous' shot quickly to the top of the iTunes podcast charts and remains in the top ten consistently to this day.

With the money she has made through social media brand deals, and residuals from the reruns of both 'Royal Flush' and 'Kitty's Kourt', Pru has begun the Sucker Punch Podcast Network -- currently taking on new shows!

PERSONALITY.

- loyal, hardworking, engaging

- inhibited, gullible, workaholic

BITS n BATS.

- favorite color is pink

- waves at people who try to sneak her picture at sunday brunch

- hosts diner parties at her loft but can’t cook for the life of herself so she has them catered

- her dating life is still constantly rumored about

- has five tattoos

- loves new york winters 

- obsessed with dessert

- was on the ‘30 under 30′ list last year, as well as People’s Most Beautiful at 16 and 17 

CURRENT CONNECTIONS.

to be updated

WANTED CONNECTIONS.

-other big names! while she’s definitely treading the line between B and C list, her name does often end up on invites! give me people she sneaks away to smoke or talk shit with 

- former college roommates and friends! pru went to NYU and was probably a lost baby bird for her first semester especially, so the people who she met and became friends with in this time probably are like family to her!

-found family! because im always a hoe for it. pru hasn’t seen or spoken to her family in five years, so she probably seeks out people to depends on and who she can support as well.

- podcast guests! people who pru has had on her podcast to talk about fame, acting, celebrity culture, influencers, deep dives, etc!

-bad influences and party friends! pru went a little wild when she hit new york in college and was truly on her own for the first time! once she was free from her disney conduct contract she likely got herself into a tabloid mess or two in a club or stumbling out of one.

- romantic! despite the rumors always flying about who she may be connected to, pru is always flipping around on about four dating apps in constant rotation. did they have a good hookup? did she sneak out in the morning? perhaps a fwb situation going on? did they fuck her just to brag about it? the more mess the better!

overall (god bless you if you’re still reading) pru is kinda inspired by the likes of emma watson, selena gomez, demi lovato, millie bobby brown, kiernan shipka, dove cameron etc. so imagine that kind of vibes in terms of her fame growing up and her current media presence!

i’m truly open to any connections and plot ideas so i you’re interested please don’t hesitate to hmu!

#intro. #enyc.intro #tw parental manipulation #tw financial abuse #tw exploitation

[faithfromanewperspective]

okay but sometimes I’m kinda here for my dads weird rants about the psychology industry. why don’t they allow more people in to the masters of psych to become licenced counsellor so we have, I don’t know, ENOUGH SUPPLY TO MEET DEMAND? why don’t we simply connect with people with similar experiences to us on here and book like a therapy appointment that’s for a whole group of us in bulk and split the payment?? why must you society seem to want to exploit the already most vulnerable people in order to give any hope to feel better? put us through wait lists and prices we have to choose between rent and food and paying for?? why must it still be treated as a luxury?

#punk mental health solutions I guess #tw exploitation #idk what else to call it #BUT IN THE DOUGHNUT ECONOMY WE WILL #like don’t get me wrong I don’t want a middle aged engineer to try design something better #but maybe if we collaborate. the one thing they are scared of us ever finding out about. we can #I know it’s not intentionally thought about that way. most people genuinely want to help they’re just closed minded #but damn it it seems changing the system was genetic

[worst-mother-throwdown]

BRACKET 1

Round 2

TW: child neglect, exploitation, mention of vomiting

Mom Turner propaganda

Tiffany Meyer propaganda

#worst mother throwdown #worst fictional mother throwdown #fairly oddparents #gen v #tw child neglect #tw exploitation #tw mention of vomit

[sassypotatoe1]

I'm about to talk about cancer and religion and indoctrination and I'm going to try to address it as sensitively to all parties as possible.

Someone reposted a tiktok on one of the community Facebook groups of a very sick man, emaciated, struggling to breathe even with cannula and just all round looking very close to death. Before I get into what he said, I need everyone to know that his primary oncologist told him he is resistant to treatment and should consider hospice-based palliative care from what he's said in the video.

He claims that Jesus healed him, while he is still very much terminally ill. I know many Christians believe in miracles and divine healing, I know a ton of Christians experience miraculous healing and attribute it to God, I personally as an agnostic person don't believe it's divine healing from God but very much still miraculous, and if it brings you comfort to attribute your sudden turnaround to God I am not about to fault you for it or tell you you're wrong, it's just something I personally don't believe.

My personal belief on it is that there are some miraculous medical phenomena that can't be explained with current medical science, and there's two possibilities. Either there's some mundane explanation we just don't have yet, or it really is an act of divine healing and I'm wrong. I'm willing to accept both, and I'm also willing to accept that if I'm wrong about God and divinity then I am and I will accept whatever punishment divinity has for me for not believing.

What I do have a problem with is the exploitation of someone's suffering and pain to convert them. Here we have a man that has been convinced by a pastor that his doctor lied about him being terminal, and that he should give his life to Jesus to be cured, when he did he was told he was cured when he clearly is still very terminally ill, and then given the caveat of "even if you die now you won't go to hell but you need to spread the gospel by telling everyone about how miraculously Jesus has healed you and tell them to also accept Jesus into their life or they will go to hell and they will suffer and they will die if they get cancer because only Jesus can heal you".

When I still did believe in divinity, I believed that God gave scientists and doctors the knowledge and wisdom to understand the universe and medicine to be able to help people get better and that that was how the miracle of healing worked in modern times. The part of me that still likes the idea of divinity still likes that explanation, and I emplore religious people to adopt the same belief, because from my perspective if God gave us the knowledge to make medicine and develop medical technology and surgeries to reduce suffering, it would be slighting God to reject these things in their name.

But telling someone who's very definitely still dying and very definitely still ill that they've been healed by divine grace and that the doctors who studied and qualified and practiced to be able to diagnose, treat and lessen his suffering are lying to him about his illness, the treatments he's undergone and become resistant to, and that he needs palliative care in a hospice because of how his illness has progressed, that just sets him up for a lot of pain and suffering before his imminent death, and people in that situation adopt one of two opinions.

The first is "God may not have healed my body but he's healed my soul and my suffering will be over soon and I'll be in heaven", which is a pretty healthy way to cope with imminent death and intense suffering and I will happily allow people that belief in their own personal capacity, as long as they don't manipulate others with it. Shouting on street corners and don't let your left hand know what your right is doing and all that.

The second, and ime more common, is "God was supposed to have healed me, why would I still be suffering and dying, why would a god of love allow such pain, he must not be real" and if I'm wrong about divinity and God really exists and the caveat for getting into heaven is believing in him (which is a different discussion because I've encountered theology that I can't confirm because it was too long ago indicating that those who don't know better will still go to heaven if they've lived a good life) then convincing someone terminal that God will heal their illness and end their suffering if they just believe when they're not going to suddenly stop being terminal and suffering is counter intuitive, exploitative and cruel.

It's especially exploitative and cruel if you use a dying man desperate for relief to spread your agenda, draw people to your church, and convert him and them to get more influence and money. That's insidious and greedy and, again, cruel and the Jesus I grew up with would turn over your tables and chase you out of the temple with a flogger/whip.

Christianity is about flouting authority in the face of oppression and immorality. It's about giving love and support. It's about appreciating, admiring and protecting all of God's creations. It's about empowering the poor, accepting the different, loving everyone, as in recognizing each and every human's inherent worth just for existing, no matter their crimes or origin or nationality or religion.

You spread the gospel by showing people the love of Jesus, the love he preached, the non-judgemental, slow to anger, selfless and giving love. The love for your fellow human beings driving you to fight against unfair authority to bring a net benefit for everyone. That's the Christianity I grew up in. Spreading the gospel is showing that love, and manipulating people with a video of a crying man in his death bed convinced he's healed and going to heaven is not.

#tw christianity #tw religion #tw cancer #tw terminal illness #Tw indoctrination #tw manipulation #tw emotional abuse #tw exploitation #I think I got them all #Please if I missed something lmk so I can add it #Sassy posts serious stuff

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

so theres a lot of posts going round about the titanic wreck and the missing submarines; all of them that ive seen have made very good points about how shoddy the submersible seemed to be and how the company decided to wait eight hours before reporting it, and how this is a play stupid games, win stupid prizes for the ultra-wealthy who paid like 250grand a ticket for this thing.

but what i havent seen any posts about is how the titanic wreck is a gravesite and this tourism is disturbing the graves of over 1500 people.

sometimes its kinda hard to remember that those on the titanic were real people; it was over a century ago, the story has been romanticised in so many ways (like the movie), theres conspiracies theories galore that cloud everything with misinformation, but at the end of the day, those who died were real people.

do you want their names? heres a list of them; its a long read. and for fun, heres another site where you can see photos of the children and babies who died aboard.

their bodies are long gone and their lives long forgotten. all we have to remember them and honour them is the wreck itself. its all we have of them and it is their gravesite. its their tombstone.

caitlin doughty/ask a morticians video on the great lakes discusses the topic well, and why we should leave these shipwrecks alone because again, they are the gravesites of all the souls who died aboard those ships. we rarely have bodies to recover so we really are left just with the wreck.

and what really upsets me about titanic tourism is how the majority of those who died that night were not the ultra-wealthy rich folks you might picture when you think of ocean liners.

61% of the first class passengers survived

42% of the second class passengers survived

24% of the third class passengers survived

24% of the crew survived **

the majority of those who died that night were regular folk; not to be cliche, but they were just like us. titanics wreck is not only a gravesite for over 1500 people, its also a majority working class gravesite.

and look at us now. look at what were doing. the ultra-wealthy can pay the equivalent of peanuts to them to disturb a mass gravesite of the exact kind of people they exploit today to hold onto all their wealth. 

its easy to point and laugh at these dumb idiots in their playstation controller submarine, seemingly held together with super glue and duct tape, but its also important to remember that what they were doing was simply disturbing a gravesite for fun. though the company does research, these guys werent down there to conduct research, they were there so they could brag about it to their friends. its like “climbing mount everest” while your sherpa does all the work.

if you cant tell, i have a lot of feelings about this. shipwrecks and ocean liners are one of my special interests and im currently building a (beginner’s) model of the titanic, for fucks sake. but i would never go down to see that wreck because its a fucking gravesite and we should not be disturbing their final resting place.

#kai rambles #long post #i guess? #titanic #titanic wreck #oceangate #titan #titan sub #submarine #tw death #classism #capitalism #capitalist bullshit #exploitation #mass graves #tw mass graves #shipwrecks #oceangate expeditions #stockton rush #hamish harding #tourism #i have so many thoughts on shipwrecks because there are many you can actually explore #but as far as im concerned i really dont think you should if people died when that ship sank #you wanna go explore ss america? go for it #but titanic or the fitz? no #its a gravesite and we should be respecting those who died rather than rooting around their fucking graves #im upset and angry and just you know feeling A Lot #but also if you ever need titanic facts or stuff in this realm my askbox is always open and also go check out oceanliner designs on yt #shipposting

[uncanny-tranny]

The leftism/anticapitalism leaving people's bodies the zeptosecond you imply that disabled people who aren't "productive" still matter in society and need to be treated like intrinsic equals who have a place in this world:

#disability #disability advocacy #described images #image description in alt #ableism #ableism tw #my full-time job is my disability and you're lucky that i am still 'productive' as-is #your boss doesn't care that you think you're superior for being hired by them. they're still going to treat you like profit machines #it astounds me how people will capitulate for oppression because they place their intrinsic value in their ability to be at the top... #...or at least 'at the top' compared to others. it's the same impulse that makes people think their cisgender status makes them superior... #...you are placing your worth into systems which not only oppress others but offer you no true sense of worth... #...ESPECIALLY if you're also being exploited (even if just a bit)... #...you have a job sure but... do you actually get treated like a human being? are you actually paid? are you actually safe?... #...if the answer to any of those questions and more is 'no' then why do you place your value in capitalistic production. genuinely. #and why would you DEMAND disabled people to have the same exploitation you experience. why do you DEMAND productivity if you are proletaria #yes being a leftist and anticapitalist are linked but. some people still internalize capitalism without questioning it #being a leftist is about challenging that rather than assuming you're correct i think #also scientists were very silly when describing time that's like. less than a millisecond i think