#why do so many people forget that disrupting is the entire point of a protest

[myblueeyedbuggers]

My Boys

Chapter 9

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14

Pairings: Reader x Steve Rogers (best friend) Reader x Bucky Barnes

Word Count: 1851

Warnings: Slow Start, Language, Tiny bit of Fluff

Summary: After being abandoned by her parents in Brooklyn in 1929, y/n makes a living for herself by working for the Црни лабуд gang until she meets two boys in a back alley and her life slowing begins to change

So, hi again…I’m gonna be completely honest I’ve practically had no time to sit down and write for the past couple of weeks, college rained down tons of assignments and work kept asking me to do extra shifts. Hopefully you all understand the delay in updates, I’m determined to finish this book for you all, anyways I’ll shut up Enjoy 😊

Whoever decided to wake me up and drag me away from the glorious land of sleep will suffer my early morning wrath, slowly I opened my eyes and the outline of two very stupid and annoying boys filled my vision. “Have you two never heard the saying don’t tickle a sleeping dragon? I quite clearly need my beauty sleep!” why is it every time I threaten to murder these two they just start laughin’? what the hell is wrong with em?!, “ Well good mornin’ to you too doll face, as much as I’d like to stay here and trade threats mama wants you outta bed for breakfast so get ya butt moving” My eyes narrowed at Bucky as he started to follow Steve outta the room, the smirk on his face widening as I reluctantly moved out of bed.

I’ve only been here a week and I’ve nearly killed him at least 50 times, wait that’s not something I should be proud of is it? in my defence Barnes can be a right little shit when he wants to be! Two days ago, he thought it’d be funny to drench me with water in the middle of the day, it’s safe to say he didn’t climb down the tree for a fair few hours. The smell of bacon and pancakes made me completely forget whatever the hell I was talking about, I shouldn’t have rushed pulling my pants on cause my dumbass failed to see that the left leg got caught on the draw knob and I was once again hugging the floor with my bloody face. Great that didn’t hurt at all!

Right let’s check for damage, bruises? Nope scratches? Nope pride and dignity? That went a long time ago who am I kidding? “Y/N You comin down or what?!” Jesus Christ that boy has a voice like a flipping fog horn, I wouldn’t be surprised if they heard Steve in queens! “Yeah give me a minute will ya! No need to get your panties in a twist Stevie” I’m pretty sure I can hear Becca and Bucky laughin’ from up here. Okay enough time’s been spent getting dressed, at this rate the boys will have inhaled all the food…the thought alone is enough to terrifying!  

“Right you lads better of left me at least one pancake and 3 strips of bacon or they’ll be hell to pay later” as a rule most people say good morning but I like to start the day with a decent dashing of threats and insults, cause I’m a friendly person…okay nope that’s a big pile of bullc**p and I know it. “Well mornin to you too y/n, the pancakes are on the table and the bacons on Bucks plate feel free to take some” a muffled sound of protest could be heard over my laughter as Bucky shot Steve a look of utter disbelief. “I think I’ll skip on the bacon then Stevie, by the looks of it Bucks already drooled all over it” Steve and I shared a look before we burst out laughing, Buck was glaring at the both of us with syrup dribbling down his chin and I gotta be honest it looked hilarious. “You guys done laughin’ at me yet or would you like to gang up on me some more?” is this boy dumb or somethin’? “Buck, I’d be on my deathbed and my final words would be some form of insult towards you”.

And there I go signing my death sentence again, at this point Steve wasn’t even on his chair anymore, instead he was lying on the floor completely pissin’ himself laughing while Bucky slowly stood up and started walking round the table. “Oh would you look at the time! Gotta go guys my appointment with the grim reaper’s in a minute!” hey y/n maybe it’s time you start running?! With a small shriek I turned and bolted out the backdoor with a pretty pissed off Barnes boy on my tail. The sunlight blinded me for a couple of seconds, so I was kinda running without knowing what was around me…and as per usual life decided to firmly kick my ass using the form of a bloody tree. A sharp stinging sensation spread across my entire face, huh reminds me of when I ran into that door…only that didn’t hurt half as much and there wasn’t an annoying brunette prick absolutely creasing with laughter behind me. I’m pretty sure that in the process of the tree b**tch slappin’ me I cut the left side of my cheek…oh would you look at that there’s the blood that should have stayed inside me, I couldn’t stop the small groan of pain that slipped outta my mouth, the lower half of my back was more than likely battered to all hell and the stinging in my cheek wasn’t helping either.

Apparently, the sound of my suffering seemed to break the idiot outta his little laughin’ session, I raised my eyebrows at him when it finally dawned on him that I hurt myself and that was pretty funny, all the colour drained from Bucky’s face, his eye’s widened when he noticed the lovely new edition to my face and pretty soon he reached a hand out to help me up. Such a gentleman… that’s if you replace the gentle bit with idiotic. The second I was on my feet, he pulled me into a hug and began checking my face and head, I’m hoping to god he can’t see my flamin’ cheeks cause I know for a fact he would never let me live that down. To be completely honest all I could concentrate on was the gentle touch on his hands on my cheek and the look on Bucky’s face, his eyes were completely focused on my cut. How have I never noticed that his eyes have the smallest flecks of green in them? Or how his dimples show when he frowns?… more importantly why do I feel both excited and terrified but somehow warm at the same time?

My little daze was broken when I realised that his lips were movin’ and I had no idea what the hell he just said, but he must of asked me a question cause he was lookin’ at me waitin’ for his answer. Bollocks. “What’d you say Buck?” Jesus Christ could I have been anymore obvious?! Maybe I should make a giant banner and smack him in the face with it, oh for godsake am I blushin’ again?!, the small smirk on his face grew into a sh*t eating grin as he threw his arm around my shoulders and dragged me back to the house. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say that you y/n were completely blow away by the masterpiece that is my face” oh great I’ve managed to inflate his ego even more, “Actually I wasn’t gonna say anythin’ but you’ve got a little somethin’ stuck in your front teeth” and just like that all the cockiness drained outta his body.

The arm around my shoulder disappeared rather quickly, to my amusement the boy next to me did as well, I could feel the little smirk on my face as I carried on walkin’ forward as he stayed behind more than likely doin’ that cute stupid thing with his eyes. Wait what did I just say?! What the heck is wrong with me these days? Its like a flippin’ alien’s taken over me and made me into a normal girl! .It feels all kinds of wrong. A sudden cough disrupts my inner monologue, my eyes roll to the sky as the smirk reappears on my face, I can’t help the laugh that escapes me when my gaze meets Bucky’s. He was stood with his hands on his hips, his eyes narrowed as I continued to laugh and slowly his face formed a pout as he waited for me to finish completely wetting myself with laughter. “You done yet?” his brow was pulled in as he tried to fight off the smile, “Do I actually have somethin’ in my teeth or were you just being a bully?”.

“Nah, just needed to keep your ego in check before it inflated and carried you away into the wind” Buck looked like I’d just shot him in the chest, I had to bite my lip to stop myself from laughin’ at him as I turned and started walkin’ back to the house. “Ya know you can be a real piece of work when ya wanna be don’t ya?” thank you captain obvious! “I know I am, you know I do it out of love don’t ya?” I shot him a small smile as I wrapped an arm around his back and pulled him in for a side hug, Bucky shook his head with a small smile, but accepted the hug anyway. After that we stayed in a comfortable silence as we walked back towards the house, his arm never pulled away from me till we got inside, that was until Mrs Barnes walked into the kitchen and saw the cut on my cheek, to simply put it she completely freaked out.

I watched her quickly shoo everyone outta the kitchen, she somehow managed to pull a chair out and sit me down while grabbing a towel and bandages, question after question was fired at me while she gently started cleaning to cut. After a while the conversation died out, Mama B was completely fixated on cleaning the cut and if I’m honest the silence was peaceful, well it was for the 5 seconds it lasted.

Bucky burst through the door lookin’ like someone was trying to murder him, not that I could blame them, 2 seconds later Steve and Becca burst through the door armed with…wait is that eyeshadow and lipstick? I watched as Bucky backed into the corner, his eyes wide as he begged them both of them for mercy, whatever he did to piss the pair off clearly warranted this man hunt and there is no way in hell I wanted to stop it just before it got good. Soon enough Becca and Steve some how managed to pin down Buck, and despite the many protests, the pair managed to smear the lipstick all over his face and dump most of the eyeshadow in his hair.

I tried my hardest not to laugh I swear, but he looked like a very disturbed and demented fairy princess and I couldn’t hold it in anymore, soon enough we were all having a little laugh at the poor bloke, eventually Buck saw the funny side of it and he too joined in with the mess that was the Barnes family.

So, I’m gonna be honest here this is more of a filler chapter/character development hopefully it didn’t suck as much as I think it did XD Okay I’ll stop rambling, Thanks for reading!

Rose Xxx

#winter soldier x reader #winter soldier #captain america x reader #captain america #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers #mcu #fanfic #reader #reader insert #sebastian stan #sebastian stan x reader

[thesociologicalcinema]

Helpful Rebuttals for Racist Talking Points

This isn't meant to be comprehensive or the angles you HAVE to take, but it's a good starting point or reference guide for hard conversations. Feel free to share! 1. "Cops Kill more white people than Black people." - There are an estimated 5.7x more white people in America than black people--so yes, by sheer numbers, white people are killed by police more. But cops don't kill white people simply because they're white, and Black people are killed by cops at a rate 3X HIGHER than white people, often when unarmed. That a glaring inequality, and it exists because of race. An hey, consider this: the fact that police brutalize and kill people is a problem IN GENERAL, which is why we should be against police brutality. Yes? (Sources: CIA Factbook; mappingpoliceviolence.org) 2. "The problem is Black people commit more crime." - Correction: crimes committed by Black people are more reported, and/or over-attributed in a corrupt system that values arrest quotas. As part of gentrification there is often a higher police presence in diverse neighborhoods than in white neighborhoods. This means there is often a higher police presence in diverse neighborhoods than in white neighborhoods. This means there is more police surveillance in general, AND more instances of new white residents calling law enforcement on people of color for perceived misdemeanors. (Like noise complaints, "behaving suspiciously, etc.) More "crimes" being attributed to Black and Latinx people is more reflective of excessive police presence and white people making the calls, not "proof" POC actually commit crimes more frequently. (Source: The Atlantic) 3. "Well, what about Black-on-Black crime?" - We're discussing RACISM, and Black people don't kill each other because they're Black, firstly. Secondly, if you compare white and Black neighborhoods with similar income levels, you see similar rates of crime. But systemic economic inequality is a factor that people forget. So if you use comparisons that put together both wealthy and upper income class neighborhoods (that are predominately white), and middle/low income neighborhoods (that have more POC), it skews the data. Poor people commit more crimes because economic insecurity leads to those crimes; it just so happens that Black people are still at an economic disadvantage because of the enduring consequences of America's racism throughout history. (Source: The Guardian) 4. "What about gun violence in Black neighborhoods like Chicago?" - The above info on economic inequality applies here too. Also, this isn't directly related to this conversation. 5. "If people just followed the law, they'd be fine." - A) Whether or not someone committed a crime does not mean they deserve to be killed. Cops are not judge, jury, and executioner. B) Innocent people have been killed for "fitting a description," or for misdemeanors, or "by accident," or because a cop felt like it and didn't fear repercussions. And rarely is justice served. C) The law and the system protects white people in ways it does not protect Black people, Indigenous people, or people of color. 6. "White privilege isn't real." - Consider: Brock Turner. Also consider: white shooters are miraculously apprehended safely, yet unarmed Black people are killed with alarming frequency. Look, there's not enough space here, but the info on this guide indicates SOME ways white privilege is real. In essence, white is seen as the default "normal"; white people often receive the benefit of the doubt in ways POC don't because of stereotypes and lack of representation in media; and because of CENTURIES of history rooted in racism/oppression, white people have advantages and systemic power that Black people don't. (Learn more: tolerance.org/magazine/fall-2018/what is white-privilege-really)

7. "Many of the people killed had criminal histories." - That doesn't matter and isn't relevant in the moment when a cop is making an arrest. A past criminal record (which is often uninown!) doesn't justify the use of excessive force or murder, especially if someone is subdued. Cops are not judge, jury, and executioner. Also, many of the cops who are killing people have prior "on the job" offenses or murders on THEIR records, yet they're still on duty causing harm. That should be your ACTUAL point of concern. 8. "Why can't they peacefully protest in a way that doesn't disturb anyone?"- A) How do you feel about Colin Kaepernick? B) The point of protesting is to create sustained disruptions to the status quo, forcing people in power create change. This has worked multiple times throughout history. C) The protests remain peaceful unless or until the cops deliberately use tear gas and "non-lethal" bullets (that can maim and kill). 9. "But the rioting and the looting!" - The majority of protests are entirely peaceful. Others are peaceful until the cops turn them into riots with tear gas and "non-lethal" bullets (that can maim and kill). That can lead to others taking advantage with chaos/looting, often detracting from the goals of the movement. "Small businesses shouldn't be destroyed" and "there is a problem with racism and police brutality that needs to be addressed" can and MUST coincide. Don't focus on the property loss at the expense of the repeated loss of lives that's been occurring for years. If you allow those few instances to direct your attention away from the reasons for the protests, you're playing right into the hands of those trying to change the topic-the media, the police, and the politicians who prefer orderly status quo to change. If you're primarily seeing select news of property damage, but no evidence of hours of peace and repeated police violence, ask yourself WHY. (400+ instances of police violence at protests: slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/06/george-floyd-public-spreadsheet:police-violence-videos. html) 10. "How come [other race] doesn't protest?" - A) They probably do, or DID, and you're just not aware of it. B) If they did now, would you personally actually be listen- ing to them, or dismiss them? and C) Bringing this up perpetuates the "model minority myth," which is the idea that some minorities have achieved higher success and are "better" because they keep their heads down and work hard. It's erasure that encourages people to not speak out against injustice, and also pits minorities against each other. (tolerance.org/magazine/what-is-the-model-minority-myth) 11. "White people have been oppressed too!" - Are white people oppressed in Western societies, right now, BECAUSE OF THEIR RACE? No. Can white people be oppressed in other ways UNRELATED to their skin color, like sexuality or gender or economic status or ableism? Of course, but that's a different conversation, and racial oppression is currently what we're discussing. 12. "Well, I don't see color." - You may mean well by saying this, but what you're actually doing is invalidating the experiences of anyone who isn't white. You can't discuss and change problems if you refuse to acknowledge they exist in the first place, nor can you support those whose skin color and cultures differ from yours. We are all human and should strive to be kind, yes. But in a society filled with microaggressions and overt racism and injustice, we are not all equal, and we must listen to each other's experiences. We also can't forget to value the things that make us unique or celebrate the beauty in diversity, especially when those differences are often used to perpetuate oppression. You truly need to "see color," hear people's different stories, and honor them by working against racism.

13. "Blue Lives Matter." - Being a cop is a choice; being Black isn't. White people can stop being cops by simply taking off their uniform for the day (or quitting) to remove themselves from danger; Black people can't stop being Black or experiencing the repercussions of racism, hence necessary activism. Cops getting hurt or killed while on the clock is an occupational hazard they signed up for; Black people didn't sign up for living with those real fears, and they can't escape them. 14. "Not all cops brutalize and kill people." and/or "It's just a few bad ones." - The ones who DO kill and brutalize rarely face true consequences, because the system is broken. When someone says "there are no good cops," it doesn't mean no good person has ever become a cop. What it DOES mean is that American policing is set up as a system that doesn't allow for what we'd expect a "good cop" to be. The supposed "good cops" are complicit in supporting a system that lets the worst of them get away with horrible things; this is called the blue wall of silence. And any cops who DO try to speak out against corruption are often punished for it; for example, read about Adrian Schoolcraft. The problem isn't "a few bad apples," but rather "the whole tree." (Sources: themarshallproject.org/records/605-blue-wall-of-silence Schoolcraft / villagevoice.com/2010/05/04/the-nypd-tapes-inside-bed-stuys-8 1st-precinct/) 15. "Why isn't anyone talking about how how many good things cops do?" - People do, all the time, in ~feel good~ stories. But it's difficult to separate genuine "good" from what is often well-timed cop propaganda that tries to get people to stop speaking out, or delegitimizes voices for change by implying any problems are about individual cops rather than the system. Recently and frequently, cops kneeling for photo ops at protests have gone viral, but then later in the day those same cops used tear gas and violence on protesters. Also, some of the cops who go viral for "good deeds" may have a history of violence on their records. The bottom line? It's difficult and/or harmful to praise people who are part of such a broken system that kills and harms innocent or unarmed people. 16. "Cops are human too. Are they just expected to do nothing while getting screamed at?" - Yeah, actually. If customer service people can take abuse, the "protectors of society" should be able to. Being a cop is a high pressure job, and they need to have the mental fortitude to not allow emotions to cloud their judgement and/or lead to violence. Things like anger management training, background checks on records of violence, mental wellness checks, etc. are the bare minimum that should be happening, but aren't-nor would it be enough. 17. "So what's the solution?" - Defunding and/or abolishing the police. Now, that sounds crazy if you've never heard of it before... but allow me to quote the people who know what they're talking about. Essentially, we currently ask cops to solve too many of the world's problems-meaning at best they're ineffective and at worst, actively harmful. So: "We're talking about a gradual process of strategically reallocating resources, funding, and responsibility away from police and toward community-based models of safety, support, and prevention. The people who respond to crises in our community should be the people who are best-equipped to deal with those crises. Rather than strangers armed with guns, we want to create space for more mental health service providers, social workers, victim/survivor advocates, religious leaders, etc.-all of the people who really make up the fabric of a community-to look out for one another. Crime isn't random. Most of the time, it happens when someone has been unable to meet their basic needs through other means. By shifting money away from the police and toward services that actually meet those needs, we'll be able to get to a place where people won't need to rob banks." This is just a start. See below to understand more! "All Lives" Can't Matter until Black Lives Do. Source: @Charcubed / Inspired by: @Sujoy_Shah / mpd150.com/faq/ / Campaign for 8-Step Plan: 8toabolition.com

#black lives matter #police #policing #law #police brutality #blue lives matter #racism #crime

[mipplenoop]

Chapter One: Refractory

I swiped left, I swiped right. My lips echoed those satisfying plinks and plonks as points racked up and candies dropped. There was a strange sort of comfort that came from controlling supersaturated treats on an iPhone screen, as their bright light danced on the mute concrete around me.

Though I was a prisoner, the phone made me feel free. It brought me back to all those hours at home, playing the 8-bit games that were all the rage back then - especially Sweets Smash. With Aaron, with Ruby, I remembered sitting under the dining table gathered around my brother’s old console, hiding from the discipline of our parents. Even though it was called Candy Crush now, and on a screen smaller than my palm, the feeling was the same. Just like back then, staring at those lacquered sweets made my mouth water.

Oh, how I longed for a good meal. I couldn’t recall the last time I had digested something other than salty, rubbery chicken and reheated green beans. I was so starved for something different that I could’ve eaten, say, an entire spotted hyena. Yes. I imagined myself grabbing the beast by the belly while its brethren howled and laughed, sinking my teeth into its fur and biting down through its thick, black hide. Tasting that sweet, fibrous flesh of a being inferior to me. In fact, I’d have eaten the whole pack - my stomach bubbled and churned as I immersed myself in the game, trying in vain to stave off that ever present sensation. But not a moment passed that I didn’t force myself to gulp down a torrent of saliva, lest I drown in my own starvation. At this point, the mold growing out of the cracks in the wall looked tempting. What made me, of all people, deserving of such punishment? Of such pain?

Nothing, I reminded myself. I was an honest person. I worked hard at making it in this life. I was caring, curious, and funny. Loyal. There were people who loved me. And I loved them, even to the point that I would’ve given my life for them. Sure, maybe I hadn’t always been the best I could be, but I tried. I tried so hard.

Yet in the eyes of the law, I was nothing but a killer. They - the police, the prisons, the surveillance companies, “They” with a big “T” - knew my sins, and were never going to forget. A cold, computational system never forgets. Charged on two counts of first degree murder. One count of aggravated assault.

Nobody understood that I was a victim, too. In the last moments of Duy’s life, it was me or him. Letting him live would’ve been a dark, endless pit that pulled me down forever, sinking me deeper and deeper into a suffocating void of toxicity until I died. Of abuse, or stress, or insanity, I didn’t know. But I felt it in my loins. That feeling was frustrating, and it was the only thing that hurt more than the hunger. They didn’t understand that I was more than ones and zeros. That Aaron, or even Duy was more than a statistic, more than... Fuck. The gnarled remains of my cock hurt just thinking about it. A phantom pain. Tears streamed down my pudgy cheeks, falling onto those precious candies.

I swept the tears away, but no matter how hard I tried, each move felt like a setback - a step towards loss. With each combo, blocks of chocolate grew in area, threatening to envelop my remaining freedom - eating away at the space which would allow the creation of striped candies and color bombs. Those big brown balls dotted with sprinkles of rainbow, that was what I needed to win. Just six of them, in about three times as many moves. I hoped that when I saw that victory screen, with all of the points I had won, it would be almost rewarding as a real meal - maybe I would be able to forget where I was, even just for a second. Yet those brown squares were eating away at my freedom to win, or to even try to win. It was a never ending battle for territory, where each attack that did not seek to eliminate the chocolate only facilitated in growing it.

“Your phone time is over, Gambia.”

The sound echoed through my head, disrupting the swirling thoughts that I had grown so accustomed to housing. When had he entered? I hadn’t even noticed.

Loop Liu eyed me through the bars of my cell, pelvis thrust forward in a display of attempted dominance. His hands rested over a pair of bony hips, lined by a belt weighed down with all variety of police gadgets. Handcuffs, pepper spray, knives, and whistles. Two empty gun holsters. Blue fabric of his much-too-big uniform sagged over them, weighted down by a sparkling, star-shaped metal buckle that identified the man as chief - pinned over his heart like a sticker for good behavior. It made him look even more so like a child in a man’s outfit. His lanky arm reached through the bars, beckoning me to hand over the phone.

“You made your one phone call, right? Who did you contact?” he questioned in a somewhat accusatory tone.

I looked down at the phone, at my game. I hadn't made the call, but only because I was too busy crushing candies. I tried to concentrate on winning, since that was the only thing I could control now.

Still, it was interesting that he used that phrase. “One phone call.” That was just a myth from Hollywood movies, wasn’t it? Aaron had made me aware of such factoids during our time in the hospital. People treated that line as if it was written in the Constitution. But in reality, I had no rights the second they found me - a beautiful brown big boy - beaten, bloody, in a room with two bodies. This phone didn’t even belong to me, but to the lieutenant currently at the front desk. It was an aesthetic. Worse than that, it was probably monitored, tapped, just so they could incriminate me further.

The chief sighed. “Gambia. This ain’t a hotel. Say something. You gonna make me come in there?”

Only fifteen moves left, and I still needed four more color bomb swipes. It was tough, trying to get a row of candies to align in the right configuration. With the limited space imposed by the chocolates squares, it would take all of my skill to get a win.

“Don’t make this harder than it needs to be,” he taunted.

Fourteen moves now. I couldn’t stop.

“I know people like you, you don’t have anyone to call. You don’t have any family or friends, because either they got scared and ran away, or because you killed them. Am I wrong? I know I'm not. Frankly, it disgusts me that we have to do anything for murderers like you,” Loop Liu tucked his thumbs under his belt and stretched backward. “But it’s the law.”

I continued swiping. Two more moves but no closer to my goal.

He was wrong, wasn’t he? I didn’t call because I didn’t want to hurt anyone else. I had people to contact. The nurses at the hospital, family friends, my parents’ old lawyer. Right? I just didn’t want to involve them in it. And as for the people I had supposedly murdered… Duy… well, that wasn’t my choice.

“Now if you didn’t call anyone, that’s perfectly understandable. You can give me the phone and I’ll leave you be. But if you did talk to someone, and we don’t know about it, if you’re lying to me, well, that’s not good. In fact, some may say that your actions are grounds for additional obstruction of justice charges.”

Why was I still thinking those thoughts? About what happened with Duy. Why was I being stupid again? There was no way out for me. The chocolate was closing in, leaving me with only a five by five grid to build the bomb. Maybe I could use a lollipop booster? No. That would be cheap. Aaron would never have resorted to using microtransactions or cheating in Sweets Smash.

Then again, Aaron wouldn’t have killed anyone, either. Maybe I should just give Loop the phone. It wasn’t even mine, and, like I had said, it was probably compromised. It was evidence that the whole world was against me, that they would try their best to make sure I lived in a dark, cramped jail cell for the rest of my life. It was an impostor. It was a fake friend. My real phone was broken, along with Duy’s spine, when I had crushed him.

My arm began to move, raising the phone toward the chief’s hand.

But I stopped myself.

“No. I want to see Big Wang Chang’s body. Then I’ll give you your phone,” my voice cracked, after having not spoken for days.

It was a pathetic declaration. Irrational. Yet, there was something in me that wanted to grasp onto just an infinitesimal chance at hope. Even though I would never talk with Ruby or Aaron on our old farmhouse, my heart still jumped every time I swiped a candy and was reminded of their warmth. Despite the fact that I would probably never again see the light of day, I pictured myself taking Aaron’s body from the morgue, dressing it in fancy clothes, giving it a modest send off and burying it in the field out back with Ruby.

Loop laughed, as he unhooked a ring of keys from his belt. “You think you can make demands? You’ve already asked us for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a goddamn late night snack every single day you’ve been here. You’re out of requests.”

My stomach growled. Candies beckoned me, and they tasted like my lover. If I didn’t try now, I probably would never be able to again.

“I just want to see him one last time. I won’t do anything crazy,” I spoke, now with a more confident voice.

The chief rolled his eyes. “You want to see Aaron, you mean? Your ‘brother’?”

My twin.

“Not a chance,” asserted Loop. “Quit whining and give me the phone.”

I crossed my arms stubbornly in protest. The chief stood in contemplation for a moment.

Loop Liu lifted his cap and scratched his balding head. “Look, we don’t even have the body anymore. I don’t know what the feds did with it, but it got separated from Duy’s at the hospital. Good thing, too, if you ask me. You wouldn’t want to see your own handiwork. From what I already saw in the photos, that kid's chest was messed up.”

Duy had stabbed him, yet I was being blamed. This was the brilliant system at it again. Aaron was covered in my blood when they found us, and that was all there was the story. No need to investigate further, or to learn about how he saved me from an infection that would’ve taken my life, not to mention my whole cock. My blood began to boil at the sheer thought of it, and the only thing keeping me in check was that I had just gotten another color bomb. Its electricity reached out like tendrils of Aaron’s hair all those summers ago, long before he had cut it. I only had three more to go.

“That’s a lie. If you don’t have a body, how do you even know he’s dead?” I demanded.

I knew he was dead. There was no way around it. I was just stalling, taking up time, in a big middle finger to the chief. How dare he try and tease me, to give me the hope of seeing my twin once again. Fuck the chief. I remembered what Duy had done to Aaron. All I wanted was for them to give me the truth.

“Look, Gambia, we can go over all the fun details during your official interrogation. But let’s take things one at a time. First, I need you to hand me the goddamn phone.”

But I could already recall all the details. How the paramedics first took Duy’s body and threw it on a stretcher. How it landed with a squelch, and how blood spurted from his open mouth as his head fell back. His crushed, limp body jiggled as they tried to take his pulse. No response. Then they just carted him away, into another room full of body bags.

And I was left there gasping on the ground, as Chief Liu’s underlings took photos of me and Aaron.

The chief huffed. “Remember when we talked before? You gave me your solemn oath that we could get started after you settled in. With a real interview, and a phone call to your family, and all that good stuff.”

That wasn’t a promise. It was coercion, as I was being thrown into a hospital bed still bleeding, and still drenched in Duy’s blood. I was being smothered in questions and flashing lights, swarmed by the police, while they left Aaron in that terrible room all alone. Then when all of the doctors had gone, Chief Liu bent himself over me, and pushed his knee deep into the pulp that was the remains of my penis.

“Promises to bastards like you don’t count,” I sneered.

That last statement came out overflowing with anger. I guess I needed to practice holding in my emotions after experiencing so much trauma and isolation. Whatever. That didn’t matter now. I went with it. I held the phone out in front of my face and continued playing, as if to tell the chief “Come get it.” And my game was on an upswing, too. Only two more bombs needed, with eight moves left.

Liu swung his head to the side, with an amused expression.

“Don’t talk to me like that, boy. You won’t like me when I’m angry,” he laughed.

His air of nonchalance infuriated me. It wasn’t just about what he had done to me, either. I knew Loop Liu was corrupt. A liar and a rapist. Duy had told me as much the last time we met, as we hugged with his mouth pressed to my ear. In the end, perhaps he had become so disillusioned with the world because of what Loop had done. That’s right. I had to remember that we were all victims.

“And how are you when you’re angry? What’s that like?” I asked. My voice quivered with rage.

“You just might find out. I’m specially trained to take down punks like you,” the chief snorted.

“No, Loop. I’m going to take you down. There will be a day that comes when everything you’ve done comes back to bite you in the ass.”

“Really? That’s hard to believe, because I haven’t done anything,” the chief snorted.

“Of course you have. You know it, and I know it.”

“Is that a threat?” he asked, half jokingly.

No. It was a prophecy. One that was going to come to pass very soon.

“Duy told me,” I said flat-out. “I know what you did to him. What are you going to do when I let every police officer and lawyer in the city know that?”

There was a barely perceptible change in his expression. His brows crossed just a little deeper, and his forehead became just a little more wrinkly. This was the expression of a man who was not quite angry - afraid, and just enough to lose his cool. It made me feel a little bit better.

I was going to win. I could see the path forward - four blue candies split in half by a yellow. I just had to make the right move. Clink. Plop. Candies dropped. I looked at Loop as he started to tap his feet and pace the ground outside my cell. Clearly my statement had some effect on him. He was off balance now, so maybe there was a way through. Not just in the game, either. I was talking about getting out of this cell.

“You know, Julius,” he spoke quietly.

“What?”

“Some of the boys and I made bets. Bets on how many beatings you would have to take before confessing to the two murders. What do you think I wagered?”

“I don't know. Sixty nine?”

Loop chuckled to himself. “I said only one, because despite how fat you are, you have a feeble soul. And I reckon I’m right - don’t try to prove me wrong.”

Oh. Those were fighting words.

“Are we passing on the interview, then?” I asked, barely able to contain myself.

Loop Liu stared me down. “We sure as hell are. And I’m going to substitute it for a beating right now.”

It was fitting. As kids, Aaron always got out of doing chores on the farm by sweet talking our parents. He would joke with them, talk about how little work I was doing, or fake being sick by warming his forehead with our old heated toilet. I was never as smart. I would always end up doing his work, or take his beatings, while he got to go off on adventures with Ruby, or play Sweets Smash without me.

But as a result, I was used to doing backbreaking labor every day up until I fell off the roof of that barn. And even though it had been three years, I was nearly just as strong as I was then. Under my layers of folds and flaps was a man with the strength to bend steel bars. To crush the entire police force.

To kill.

Fuck! I messed up. It was the chocolate again. I wasn’t watching it. Now I had just two moves left, with no clear path to getting that color bomb.

I clutched the phone tighter as traumatic memories caused my hands to glisten. I couldn't handle another loss. I heard crackling, but I couldn’t tell if it was Candy Crush or the device itself. Or Duy’s ribs. The way I squeezed them with such ease, until his lungs popped and his chest caved in. Those round, blue candies reminded me of Duy’s glistening, pleading eyes as I smothered the life out of them-

“Just give me the damn phone!” screeched chief of police Loop Liu.

He had unlocked the door while I was deep in thought. Of course he had, that slippery bastard. Just like he had barged into mine and Duy’s relationship, he began to enter my cell. This space that they had designated for people like me without giving it a second thought. But now I knew it intimately, like Aaron’s smooth, slender body. And I could beat him with that.

Adrenaline, anger, and power pumped through my bloated body, and in that moment I saw every detail of my surroundings: the sixty nine rusted cell bars before me, the cold, mossy concrete slabs behind me, and the faint breeze that pulsed through each of their cracks. The high hum of the security system that blocked me from the outside world. Yellow heat lamps, swinging on their tethers. There was Loop’s pale hand against the door, ready to push. The hinges to squeak and squeal at his behest. And I knew the exact trajectory of its opening. I could think of one thousand ways to stop Loop from grabbing me, but I only needed one.

“You don’t want to do that,” I warned. “You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words.”

I strutted forward in a confident rage, knowing that I could take him. I no longer cared about my freedom, or Duy, or Candy Crush. I wanted revenge. If I played my cards right here, I may be able to escape and wreak even more destruction. The chief was thin and unathletic, hardly able to stand up to my thickness. The distance between his elbows was less than half that of my body. Even though I was sorely lacking nutrition, I had no doubt that I could take him.

I smacked the man across his face, knuckles digging deep into the bony recesses of his cheeks. His head snapped back and the chief fell to the floor.

I stood dominant over my prey. This spotted hyena of a man, a pathetic excuse for chief, pleaded upward at me in terror. But despite my blinding anger, I still knew in the back of my mind that he was cunning. Duy had told me that much. His pack could arrive at any moment. And so I kept an eye on bony fingers as they slid across his belt, making sure he didn’t radio for backup. Once they came to a rest, I was going to pounce. Aim for the legs, then the face. Then the groin - for Duy.

But no. Wait. the chief was reaching for something else, not on his belt. That was it. A bright red whistle tied around his neck. How had I not noticed that before?

In a single motion, Loop Liu grabbed it, put it to his mouth, and blew as hard as he could.

The shrill banshee cry made me shrink back, stumbling ass first into my cell, shielding my sensitive ears with my palms. My strength negated. Could I still salvage the situation? Nobody would have heard that whistle except for me, right? No. Before I had time to regain my surroundings, with just one glance, I knew it was over. I had no more hope of escape, save for some divine miracle. The physical barrier was just too great.

They lined Loop like a street gang: three dark, African men to each side of the chief, each outfitted in tactical gear, batons in hand, ready to wage full on war. They wore full face shields, the tinted plexiglass as dark as the skin peeking out beneath it. In contrast to the chief, they were brimming with vigor and muscle.

The men seemed to have appeared from nowhere, in a highly coordinated effort, and the beck and call of Loop. They stood with feet perfectly aligned, immaculately distanced from each other in a regular fashion, not a millimeter off. They were not only strong, but obedient. Clearly, the best of the police force.

“Come get some!” I shouted.

They charged, and my fists pounded against their vests.

They seized me. Twelve arms wrapped around my torso, beastial limbs ripping into my form as I struggled against them. With every twist, with each shove, they pressed into me harder than ever before. They were the chocolate, and I was that last color bomb, never meant to be.

As I was suffocated under their layers of Kevlar and sweat, I thought to myself that I could’ve overpowered these half dozen thugs. If only I had a little more food, if only I had won in Candy Crush, it would be a fair battle. The embarrassment brought on by my weakness, and my impotence, only galvanized my struggle even more. My muscles rippled under my corpulent body as I cried out in frustration and shame. This brought only further embarrassment, perpetuating a vicious cycle that soon brought me to tears. The phone fell from my hands, screen shattering against the unforgiving floor. I would never be able to play Candy Crush again.

“You’re not going to win, Loop Liu,” I resolved. “I’ll kill you one day, I swear!”

Loop Liu giggled like a hyena. His head rolled back and he clutched his belly, though I could barely tell through the prison of meat that surrounded me.

“Oh, Julius Gambia. You think you’re ever going to get out of here? Out of the most secure containment system humanity has seen since slavery? No. For that commotion you caused, you’re going somewhere not even your lawyers will be able to find you.”

“And where’s that?” I asked, gasping for air.

“To the depths of hell.”

[emilywhite1999]

WE ARE FUCKED! Read The Facts Before You Call Me A Criminal

WE DESERVE THE TRUTH

People have been blinded. Blinded from the facts, the information and knowledge necessary to bring us all together to fix the biggest problem humanity has ever faced. If we do not act immediately the world we live in now will be a very different one in the years to come. We as a human race could be extinct before we know it. You may think I am being a little dramatic but I can assure you that is not the case once the facts are presented. Why have I not read these facts you may ask? Well that’s because our government doesn’t want us to be able to read the full story and know the truth. Boris Johnson claims we have a free press yet it is owned by billionaires. The press could bring us all together to fight the climate and ecological emergency yet they sell easy stories to bring about confusion while pretending to be the voice of the British public. They report on the consequences but not the underlying causes. Extinction Rebellion are only asking the press to do what they already claim to do and that is Tell The Truth! 

(’Are Humans Next On The Endangered Species List’ Photo via Instagram @emilywhite1999)

WE ARE NOT ALL JOBLESS

I have only been part of Extinction Rebellion for 2 months and the reason for that is because I was not aware of this huge problem we face! I had been blinded myself but as I began to read the facts and the stories from young people my own age, who had dropped out of university to help this cause, I felt compelled to do my part. The reason some of the younger members of Extinction Rebellion (XR) decided to drop their university degree is because they realized the jobs they were working towards wouldn’t be there much longer if they didn’t help save the planet. There is nowhere to work on a dead planet. In XR there are doctors who are trying to make people aware that more people die every year from climate change related issues compared to any other cause. Scientists speak at our demonstrations to speak the facts that don’t get publicized enough. Mothers and fathers come to protest for the future of their children and their future grandchildren. Yesterday at the London protest there was a march for the Indigenous women of the Amazonia because their home, the Amazon rainforest, is being lost due to climate change and us as humans destroying it. So many people of all ages and walks of life come to XR protests because they know the truth and they refuse to sit and do nothing about it. I saw online a lot of people commenting on social media that we must all be work shy clowns and that we need to go get jobs. Most people in XR do have jobs, my parents for one. They have been working their whole lives while supporting Extinction Rebellion on the side. A lot of people give up their spare time for XR actions because they know the urgency this matter demands. 

(My beautiful mum at the protest this week! Photo via Instagram @del_photos)

WE AREN’T THE BAD GUYS

In the press over the past few days Extinction Rebellion has been labelled as an organised crime group which is totally unfair on the thousands of ordinary citizens who support it and its cause. We are peaceful protesters who are using the laws regarding protesting to get our message across. We have also been accused as a group of giving Covid-19 to the police who don’t all wear face masks or social distance while we all try to. We have been targeted by the press to look like the ‘bad guys’ to hide their own mistakes and the mistakes of the government. I have so much respect for the police and would never do anything I thought was morally wrong or breaking the law. It is clear at the protests this week the police are being used to clear up the governments mess which is not right. They have denied food and water to protesters in trees (which is a human right) and cleared us in some areas because of covid but allowed us in other areas. They seem to just being using the best excuse at the time to get rid of us. Just the other day they blocked bike riders on a bridge and gave no warning of arrest but told everyone there they were going to be arrested. Under law they are not actually allowed to do that but they did all to stop our message getting across. The press once again in this situation made us look like the ‘bad guys’ by reporting that we prevented an ambulance getting to its destination which was not the case. The rebel riders did not block the road in this case, the police did for no real justified reason but the press didn’t tell you that did they?

I DIDN’T BLOCK A ROAD FOR THE REASON YOU THINK

I did find myself helping block some of the roads in London this week but I will tell you why because a lot of people moaned about the disruption we caused. The reason I personally blocked the road was because I wanted to help raise awareness of the situation we face. The situation is we are heading towards mass extinction. If we carry on with our lives the way we are like the public was trying to do on that day it is a certainty that we will be extinct before we know it. I wanted to help show that by acting now we can bring about great change. I wanted to help try and get the media attention to try and just get some of the truth out there so people can see it for themselves. We wanted to get your attention as well to show you the truth because we all deserve the truth. A few days of disruption is nothing in comparison to what will happen if nothing changes. 

(Photo via Instagram @emilywhite1999)

THE FACTS

Our climate is changing faster than it ever has for at least 65 million years. Closer to 252 million. We as humans are responsible for this because we are ignoring the signs and the science. Governments have refused to take the positive action within their power allowing relentless consumerism and irresponsible industry to pillage and pollute our only home. The science is hard to hear, horrifying in fact. There has been an average of 60% decline in wildlife populations in just 50 years. The insects that pollinate our planets are dying. No pollination means no food. The birds that protect our crops from pests are dying. This means an increase in the risk of famine and disease. Our oceans are heating up which is killing the coral supporting 1/4 of all ocean species further destabilizing all life on earth. This is not science fiction it is happening right now. Governments and Industry are not acting fast enough to safe guard our future. Sea levels are rising faster than scientists first predicted meaning our sea side towns will start to disappear soon. More pandemics are also likely to happen due to climate change because an unhealthy planet means unhealthy animals. 

(Photo by John Keeble at gettyimages)

THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO LISTEN 

XR last year demanded that the government acknowledged the emergency that we face. They did as they declared a climate and ecological emergency but said they will not act until 2050. That is far too late. The point is to act now if we are to stand any chance of changing the course we are currently set for. This year we are demanding the passing of the CEE bill to end decades of inaction. If it is passed it will make new UK law so that we have to take responsibility for our entire carbon footprint and protect nature which our very lives depend upon. It will draw together ordinary people in an emergency Citizen’s Assembly to find a way out of the worst crisis we have ever faced. On Wednesday the bill was taken into parliament and only 21 out of 650 MPs supported it. They kicked it down the line for another 6 months again prolonging the process and putting off what needs to be done. This is a government that declared an emergency but now will not act on it. 

(At XRSouthend ‘Tell The Truth’ banner drop. Photo by Gaz De Vere)

TREES

There is a great solution to this huge problem that we face. There is a magic machine that sucks carbon out of the air, costs very little and builds itself. It’s called a tree. A tree is an example of a natural climate solution. We have to restore what we have destroyed to try and balance our earth again. Other solutions alongside this would be needed but this is one of the best ones. That is why we have people at HS2 camps in the trees there as we speak. HS2 is the high speed railway the government is building using taxpayers money. Nobody asked for it and nobody is asking about it. To build this railway hundreds of ancient woodlands are being destroyed killing animal habitats in the process. This is a great example of how we are destroying our planet rather than helping it. That money could be better spent trying to fix our problem not make it worse. 

(Photo via Instagram @artbyemily1999)

SUPPORT FROM CELEBS

Celebrities like Harrison Ford, David Attenborough and Stephen Fry have been trying to help warn us of what is to come. They tell us to not loose hope and to not give up when fighting for the future of humanity. We must not forget nature. The destruction of nature accounts for more global emissions than all the cars and trucks in the world. If we can’t protect nature we can’t protect ourselves. Powerful or powerless, we will all suffer the effects of climate change. Those least responsible will bear the greatest costs. 

ACT NOW OR IT WILL BE TOO LATE

Extinction Rebellion aims to bring about the changes needed to fix the problem we face. Whether you agree with how we do this or not is up to you and I respect others and their opinions also. I’m sure you can not deny though that the changes we demand need to happen. Doing something is better than doing nothing. When I have a child one day I don’t want my child to be brought into a world that is doomed. Where they may have to fight for each meal, where they don’t get to see and appreciate the beauty of nature and its animals. We have become too busy and distracted looking at our screens, sucked into fake news and jobs that take over our lives that we have forgotten to look at the truth that is right in front of us. It is time to step outside and bring about the change you want to see in the world. Covid did not stop me stepping outside and protesting because if I don’t protest now the climate emergency will only bring about more pandemics. There is no better time than now.

(Credit to Extinction Rebellion science sources, YouTube and Twitter where I gathered some of my information and words from)

(Photo via Instagram @emilywhite1999)

#actnow #savetheplanet #extinction rebellion #kindness #courage #climate change #facts #tellthetruth

[intersectionalism]

By Gabrielle Blair

Today, I tried something new. I wrote a Twitter thread for the first time. It’s about abortion, and how I think we need to approach the topic differently. I thought I’d share it here, because I know many of you don’t use Twitter.

So here’s the thread, broken up into small Tweet-size pieces. : )

 I’m a mother of six, and a Mormon. I have a good understanding of arguments surrounding abortion, religious and otherwise. I’ve been listening to men grandstand about women’s reproductive rights, and I’m convinced men actually have zero interest in stopping abortion. Here’s why…

If you want to stop abortion, you need to prevent unwanted pregnancies. And men are 100% responsible for unwanted pregnancies. No for real, they are. Perhaps you are thinking: IT TAKES TWO! And yes, it does take two for _intentional_ pregnancies.

But ALL unwanted pregnancies are caused by the irresponsible ejaculations of men. Period. Don’t believe me? Let me walk you through it. Let’s start with this: women can only get pregnant about 2 days each month. And that’s for a limited number of years.

That makes 24 days a year a women might get pregnant. But men can _cause_ pregnancy 365 days a year. In fact, if you’re a man who ejaculates multiple times a day, you could cause multiple pregnancies daily. In theory a man could cause 1000+ unwanted pregnancies in just one year.

And though their sperm gets crappier as they age, men can cause unwanted pregnancies from puberty till death. So just starting with basic biology + the calendar it’s easy to see men are the issue here.

But what about birth control? If a woman doesn’t want to risk an unwanted pregnancy, why wouldn’t she just use birth control? If a women can manage to figure out how to get an abortion, surely she can get birth control, right? Great questions.

Modern birth control is possibly the greatest invention of the last century, and I am very grateful for it. It’s also brutal. The side effects for many women are ridiculously harmful. So ridiculous, that when an oral contraception for men was created, it wasn’t approved…

… because of the side effects. And the list of side effects was about 1/3 as long as the known side effects for women’s oral contraception.

There’s a lot to be unpacked just in that story, but I’ll simply point out (in case you didn’t know) that as a society, we really don’t mind if women suffer, physically or mentally, as long as it makes things easier for men.

But good news, Men: Even with the horrible side effects, women are still very willing to use birth control. Unfortunately it’s harder to get than it should be. Birth control options for women require a doctor’s appointment and a prescription. It’s not free, and often not cheap.

In fact there are many people trying to make it more expensive by fighting to make sure insurance companies refuse to cover it. Oral contraceptives for women can’t be acquired easily, or at the last minute. And they don’t work instantly.

If we’re talking about the pill, it requires consistent daily use and doesn’t leave much room for mistakes, forgetfulness, or unexpected disruptions to daily schedules. And again, the side effects can be brutal. I’M STILL GRATEFUL FOR IT PLEASE DON’T TAKE IT AWAY.

I’m just saying women’s birth control isn’t simple or easy. In contrast, let’s look at birth control for men, meaning condoms. Condoms are readily available at all hours, inexpensive, convenient, and don’t require a prescription. They’re effective, and work on demand, instantly.

Men can keep them stocked up just in case, so they’re always prepared. Amazing! They are so much easier than birth control options for women. As a bonus, in general, women love when men use condoms. They keep us from getting STDs, they don’t lessen our pleasure during sex…

… or prevent us from climaxing. And the best part? Clean up is so much easier — no waddling to the toilet as your jizz drips down our legs. So why in the world are there ever unwanted pregnancies? Why don’t men just use condoms every time they have sex? Seems so simple, right?

Oh. I remember. Men _don’t_ love condoms. In fact, men frequently pressure women to have sex without a condom. And it’s not unheard of for men to remove the condom during sex, without the women’s permission or knowledge. (Pro-tip: That’s assault.)

Why would men want to have sex without a condom? Good question. Apparently it’s because for the minutes they are penetrating their partner, having no condom on gives the experience more pleasure.

So… there are men willing to risk getting a woman pregnant — which means literally risking her life, her health, her social status, her relationships, and her career, so that they can experience a few minutes of _slightly_ more pleasure? Is that for real? Yes. Yes it is.

What are we talking about here pleasure-wise? If there’s a pleasure scale, with pain beginning at zero and going down into the negatives, a back-scratch falling at 5, and an orgasm without a condom being a 10, where would sex _with_ a condom fall? Like a 7 or 8?

So it’s not like sex with a condom is _not_ pleasurable, it’s just not _as_ pleasurable. An 8 instead of a 10. Let me emphasize that again: Men regularly choose to put women at massive risk by having non-condom sex, in order to experience a few minutes of slightly more pleasure.

Now keep in mind, for the truly condom-averse, men also have a non-condom, always-ready birth control built right in, called the pull out. It’s not perfect, and it’s a favorite joke, but it is also 96% effective.

So surely, we can expect men who aren’t wearing a condom to at least pull out every time they have sex, right?

Nope.

And why not?

Well, again, apparently it’s _slightly_ more pleasurable to climax inside a vagina than, say, on their partner’s stomach. So men are willing to risk the life, health and well-being of women, in order to experience a tiny bit more pleasure for like 5 seconds during orgasm.

It’s mind-boggling and disturbing when you realize that’s the choice men are making. And honestly, I’m not as mad as I should be about this, because we’ve trained men from birth that their pleasure is of utmost importance in the world. (And to dis-associate sex and pregnancy.)

While we’re here, let’s talk a bit more about pleasure and biology. Did you know that a man CAN’T get a woman pregnant without having an orgasm? Which means that we can conclude getting a woman pregnant is a pleasurable act for men.

But did you further know that men CAN get a woman pregnant without HER feeling any pleasure at all? In fact, it’s totally possible for a man to impregnate a woman even while causing her excruciating pain, trauma or horror.

In contrast, a woman can have non-stop orgasms with or without a partner and never once get herself pregnant. A woman’s orgasm has literally nothing to do with pregnancy or fertility — her clitoris exists not for creating new babies, but simply for pleasure.

No matter how many orgasms she has, they won’t make her pregnant. Pregnancies can only happen when men have an orgasm. Unwanted pregnancies can only happen when men orgasm irresponsibly.

What this means is a women can be the sluttliest slut in the entire world who loves having orgasms all day long and all night long and she will never find herself with an unwanted pregnancy unless a man shows up and ejaculates irresponsibly.

Women enjoying sex does not equal unwanted pregnancy and abortion. Men enjoying sex and having irresponsible ejaculations is what causes unwanted pregnancies and abortion.

Let’s talk more about responsibility. Men often don’t know, and don’t ask, and don’t think to ask, if they’ve caused a pregnancy. They may never think of it, or associate sex with making babies at all. Why? Because there are 0 consequences for men who cause unwanted pregnancies.

If the woman decides to have an abortion, the man may never know he caused an unwanted pregnancy with his irresponsible ejaculation.

If the woman decides to have the baby, or put the baby up for adoption, the man may never know he caused an unwanted pregnancy with his irresponsible ejaculation, or that there’s now a child walking around with 50% of his DNA.

If the woman does tell him that he caused an unwanted pregnancy and that she’s having the baby, the closest thing to a consequence for him, is that he may need to pay child support. But our current child support system is well-known to be a joke.

61% of men (or women) who are legally required to pay it, simply don’t. With little or no repercussions. Their credit isn’t even affected. So, many men keep going as is, causing unwanted pregnancies with irresponsible ejaculations and never giving it thought.

When the topic of abortion comes up, men might think: Abortion is horrible; women should not have abortions. And never once consider the man who CAUSED the unwanted pregnancy. If you’re not holding men responsible for unwanted pregnancies, then you are wasting your time.

Stop protesting at clinics. Stop shaming women. Stop trying to overturn abortion laws. If you actually care about reducing or eliminating the number of abortions in our country, simply HOLD MEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS.

What would that look like? What if there was a real and immediate consequence for men who cause an unwanted pregnancy? What kind of consequence would make sense? Should it be as harsh, painful, nauseating, scarring, expensive, risky, and life-altering…

… as forcing a woman to go through a 9-month unwanted pregnancy?

In my experience, men really like their testicles. If irresponsible ejaculations were putting their balls at risk, they would stop being irresponsible. Does castration seem like a cruel and unusual punishment? Definitely.

But is it worse than forcing 500,000 women a year to puke daily for months, gain 40 pounds, and then rip their bodies apart in childbirth? Is a handful of castrations worse than women dying during forced pregnancy & childbirth?

Put a castration law on the books, implement the law, let the media tell the story, and in 3 months or less, tada! abortions will have virtually disappeared. Can you picture it? No more abortions in less than 3 months, without ever trying to outlaw them. Amazing.

For those of you who consider abortion to be murder, wouldn’t you be on board with having a handful of men castrated, if it prevented 500,000 murders each year?

And if not, is that because you actually care more about policing women’s bodies, morality, and sexuality, than you do about reducing or eliminating abortions? (That’s a rhetorical question.)

Hey, you can even have the men who will be castrated bank their sperm before it happens — just in case they want to responsibly have kids some day.

Can’t wrap your head around a physical punishment for men? Even though you seem to be more than fine with physical punishments for women? Okay. Then how about this prevention idea: At the onset of puberty, all males in the U.S. could be required by law to get a vasectomy.

Vasectomies are very safe, totally reversible, and about as invasive as an doctor’s exam for a woman getting a birth control prescription. There is some soreness afterwards for about 24 hours, but that’s pretty much it for side effects.

(So much better than The Pill, which is taken by millions of women in our country, the side effects of which are well known and can be brutal.)

If/when the male becomes a responsible adult, and perhaps finds a mate, if they want to have a baby, the vasectomy can be reversed, and then redone once the childbearing stage is over. And each male can bank their sperm before the vasectomy, just in case.

It’s not that wild of an idea. 80% of males in the U.S. are circumcised, most as babies. And that’s not reversible.

Don’t like my ideas? That’s fine. I’m sure there are better ones. Go ahead and suggest your own ideas. My point is that it’s nonsense to focus on women if you’re trying to get rid of abortions. Abortion is the “cure” for an unwanted pregnancy.

If you want to stop abortions, you need to prevent the “disease” – meaning, unwanted pregnancies. And the only way to do that, is by focusing on men, because: MEN CAUSE 100% OF UNWANTED PREGNANCIES. Or. IRRESPONSIBLE EJACULATIONS BY MEN CAUSE 100% OF UNWANTED PREGNANCIES.

If you’re a man, what would the consequence need to be for you to never again ejaculate irresponsibly? Would it be money related? Maybe a loss of rights or freedoms? Physical pain?

Ask yourselves: What would it take for you to value the life of your sexual partner more than your own temporary pleasure or convenience?

Are you someone who learns better with analogies? Let’s try this one: Think of another great pleasure in life, let’s say food. Think of your favorite meal, dessert, or drink.

What if you found out that every time you indulge in that favorite food you risked causing great physical and mental pain for someone you know intimately. You might not cause any pain, but it’s a real risk.

Well, you’d probably be sad, but never indulge in that food again, right? Not worth the risk!

And then, what if you further found out, there was a simple thing you could do before you ate that favorite food, and it would eliminate the risk of causing pain to someone else. Which is great news!

BUT the simple thing you need to do makes the experience of eating the food slightly less pleasurable. To be clear, it would still be VERY pleasurable, but slightly less so. Like maybe you have to eat the food with a fork or spoon that you don’t particularly like.

Would you be willing to do that simple thing, and eliminate the risk of causing pain to someone you know intimately, every single time you ate your favorite food?

OF COURSE YOU WOULD.

Condoms (or even pulling out) is that simple thing. Don’t put women at risk. Don’t choose to maximize your own pleasure if it risks causing women pain.

Men mostly run our government. Men mostly make the laws. And men could eliminate abortions in 3 months or less without ever touching an abortion law or evening mentioning women.

In summary: STOP TRYING TO CONTROL WOMEN’S BODIES AND SEXUALITY. UNWANTED PREGNANCIES ARE CAUSED BY MEN.

The end.

——

Thread on Twitter

Thread on Design Mom 

#gabrielle blair #design mom #abortion #reproductive freedom #viral #intersectionalism

[theunderdogwrites]

Green Lives Matter

My favorite Halloween costume from my childhood (age 10) was The Hulk.

For three reasons:

1.       I made it myself

2.       I wore it two years in a row

3.       It made my outside look how I felt on the inside – tough but complicated

I cut up an old pair of jeans to look as though my tiny legs had busted through the seams and to make it appear like I’d grown taller. I took an old white dress shirt and shredded the sleeves to symbolize my biceps exploding in rage and slightly shredded away the length. I put black (safe) spray paint in my hair and painted my legs, arms and face in Hulk green to complete the look. There is a photo of this masterpiece somewhere in an old album, I just don’t have access to it right at this moment. I know I looked magnificent because I remember the feeling of hiding behind this larger than life character for a night while grunting for candy or else “HULK SMASH!” your front door down. I love this memory.

Now let’s address this – I did green face.

I refuse to apologize and if The Hulk wants to come find me and break me like a hard pretzel, well then he better bring backup because even though I am no longer painting my face green… I have turned myself into a Hulk. Ok, a mini Hulk. But I can conjure up a temper and throw a tantrum while also being completely unreasonable and void of real direction. So... yeah, he’s going to need someone other than Black Widow to come with him.

I should mention that I am white. And not just white – I am Scottish white (Scottish heritage, born in Canada). Fair skinned, blonde hair, green eyes and I once thought mashed potatoes were the best food of all time. Until I discovered garlic mashed potatoes. Mind blown.

“I love humanity, but I hate humans.” – Albert Einstein

Let’s not lie – being white has its privileges. Do I know what all those privileges are? No, probably because I’m privileged in some way. But I find myself going back to the same bit to explain so much that I encounter in life:

Until my high school guidance councillor explained to me what suicide was, I had no idea it was a thing. I had no idea it was a possibility and I certainly did not know that many people were actively participating.

My lack of knowledge wasn’t due to privilege but rather because suicide had never been apart of my life experience. Would we call that ignorance? Some definitely would because it literally means ‘being unaware’. I feel an ignorant person is not only being unaware, but also a first-rate wanker because they won’t educate themselves or evolve and wish to remain blind to reality.

Once I became aware of suicide, I didn’t pretend it didn’t exist. I started to pay attention. I didn’t brush it off as an experience that didn’t affect me but rather a symptom of fragile mental health and I gave it the consideration it deserved as something that many people were suffering through… most of the time alone. If I see something that is wrong, that I know needs my support – I am there.

That is not my privilege speaking, that is my humanity.  

 The senseless murder of George Floyd ignited a firestorm.

(A firestorm is a conflagration (an extensive fire which destroys a great deal of land or property) which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires and wildfires.)

When I saw the footage on the news – I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand the blank, almost twisted look on that officer’s face as he drove his knee down on George Floyd’s neck. I didn’t understand the blatant inaction of the other officers while witnessing this brutal extinguishing of a human being. I didn’t understand why this level of aggression was necessary on someone who was already subdued. And I didn’t understand why the words “I can’t breathe” didn’t invoke an ounce of compassion or relief.

Then came the protesting. Then the riots. Then the looting. And I still didn’t understand.

While some people want to group all three of these events, in my mind, these are three separate actions. Because by attaching the riots and the looting with the genuineness of the protesting…  it lessons the cause, blurs the intention and distracts from the truth… therefore painting the protestors with a brush of violence, greed and chaos. And that is beyond unfair.

The PROTESTS are NOT out of control.

The pain and frustration are what’s out of control and more importantly the injustice is out of control and people are responding to a situation where they feel angry and powerless. Yes, the fires, destruction of property and looting are awful collateral here but it’s important to not loose focus on what caused this current situation. We often look at with contempt and criticize reactions while forgetting the action that started everything.

And that is another injustice.

I wouldn’t even know how to begin writing about Black Lives Matter or Antifa. I say this because of the controversy surrounding both movements. And if you dive deep enough into the internet, like I did, you too will begin to suffer from what I like to call ‘I don’t know what to fucking think anymore-itis’.

So, I’m going to escape talking about these two groups with this:

“Instead of feeling threatened by and hating a movement, be glad you don’t need a movement.”

 My experience with black people is pretty limited. Not by choice, but rather due to geography, common interests and quite possibly socioeconomics. I can count on one hand the number of black people I knew throughout my school-aged years. My area was diverse in other ways, so no, I did not grow up in White Breadville. I mention all this to lay down a bit of background before I continue.

“I don’t see colour.” How many of us have said this at least once in the last six months? I have. And I probably said it to prove to myself or someone else that I wasn’t racist. But I no longer say that… because the truth is, I do see colour. I see ALL the fucking colours and they are beautiful. It’s people who are ugly.

If you were to ask me point blank if I was racist, I’d tell you point blank – I am not. And I’d say this with absolute belief in my character and sincerity. I care less about your skin colour and nationality and more about you returning your shopping cart to its proper location. That is the truth. Your religion doesn’t bother me at all (as long as you’re not cramming it down my throat) but your ability to treat others with genuine kindness and compassion sure matters to me. And I don’t give a flying fuck how you want to identify… be a Martian, I’m totally cool with that, but bully others in my presence and I will come at you with the full force of nuclear pasta (look it up).

The last handful of months (I’m assuming here) has caused most of us to pull up and examine those deep in the corner of our brain concepts. You know the ones – the ones that might get you questioned by The Thought Police if they existed outside of fiction. It’s ok, we all have those little bastard notions creeping around… no matter the skin colour. I started to take a closer look at some of the things I think and how they would affect others if I wore those thoughts on a t-shirt. Needless to say, I’m not super impressed with myself. Because while I know with all my heart that I am not a racist person, I do recognize that I buy into and perpetuate some stereotypes. And I have zero excuses. This admission makes me a bit uncomfortable, but I’m ok with that… I can learn through discomfort.

I hear many people talking about and referring to white guilt.

-          White Guilt: ‘the feelings of shame and remorse some white people experience when they recognize the legacy of racism and racial injustice and perceive the ways they have benefited from it’.

I do not feel shame and remorse as a white person. As a human being, I am ashamed of how many of my fellow humans treat those who do not look the way they do or do not come from the same background. Do I believe there is a legacy of racism and racial injustice? Yes, 100%. Have I benefitted from this because I am white? I may be too dumb to answer this correctly. Or maybe too white? Or maybe I’ve had blinders on because based upon my own level of perception, I’ve always struggled to navigate my own existence therefore only know what has directly prevented me from being who and what I want in this world?

I underlined ‘level of perception’ because as the quote goes: “I stopped explaining myself when I realized people only understand things from their level of perception”

Earlier I said there were so many things I didn’t understand about George Floyd’s death and the protests etc. but here is something I do comprehend - there’s a big difference between understanding someone’s plight and being understanding of someone’s plight. Sympathy doesn’t require a total understanding of what problems other people are experiencing.

I may not fully grasp the struggles of those in the black community because it is not my experience but I will not ignore, deny or challenge their struggles. I will however educate myself on the issues, observe my own reactions and offer support in the ways I can and offer compassion to anyone who is willing to accept a little love from a min Hulk.

Nothing I write here is meant to change your mind. It is not meant to offend or shame you for how you may feel or think and nothing I write here is meant to lessen the seriousness of the current situation facing an entire community of people. As a writer my only goal is often to just disrupt your thoughts. Period.

#thehulk #blm #perception #george floyd

[yobaba30]

Important/awesome thread by Gabrielle Blair

I’m a mother of six, and a Mormon. I have a good understanding of arguments surrounding abortion, religious and otherwise. I've been listening to men grandstand about women's reproductive rights, and I'm convinced men actually have zero interest in stopping abortion. Here's why… If you want to stop abortion, you need to prevent unwanted pregnancies. And men are 100% responsible for unwanted pregnancies. No for real, they are. Perhaps you are thinking: IT TAKES TWO! And yes, it does take two for _intentional_ pregnancies. But ALL unwanted pregnancies are caused by the irresponsible ejaculations of men. Period. Don’t believe me? Let me walk you through it. Let’s start with this: women can only get pregnant about 2 days each month. And that’s for a limited number of years. That makes 24 days a year a women might get pregnant. But men can _cause_ pregnancy 365 days a year. In fact, if you’re a man who ejaculates multiple times a day, you could cause multiple pregnancies daily. In theory a man could cause 1000+ unwanted pregnancies in just one year. And though their sperm gets crappier as they age, men can cause unwanted pregnancies from puberty till death. So just starting with basic biology + the calendar it’s easy to see men are the issue here. But what about birth control? If a woman doesn’t want to risk an unwanted pregnancy, why wouldn’t she just use birth control? If a women can manage to figure out how to get an abortion, surely she can get birth control, right? Great questions. Modern birth control is possibly the greatest invention of the last century, and I am very grateful for it. It’s also brutal. The side effects for many women are ridiculously harmful. So ridiculous, that when an oral contraception for men was created, it wasn’t approved… … because of the side effects. And the list of side effects was about 1/3 as long as the known side effects for women's oral contraception.                                                                                                                                                                Male Birth Control Study Killed After Men Report Side Effects                        Science has failed yet again to come up with hormonal birth control for men. The most recent study was stopped because the men reported problems with side effects like mood swings and acne.                        http://ow.ly/Hqdx30lOrKJ                                                             There’s a lot to be unpacked just in that story, but I’ll simply point out (in case you didn’t know) that as a society, we really don’t mind if women suffer, physically or mentally, as long as it makes things easier for men. But good news, Men: Even with the horrible side effects, women are still very willing to use birth control. Unfortunately it’s harder to get than it should be. Birth control options for women require a doctor’s appointment and a prescription. It’s not free, and often not cheap. In fact there are many people trying to make it more expensive by fighting to make sure insurance companies refuse to cover it. Oral contraceptives for women can’t be acquired easily, or at the last minute. And they don't work instantly. If we’re talking about the pill, it requires consistent daily use and doesn’t leave much room for mistakes, forgetfulness, or unexpected disruptions to daily schedules. And again, the side effects can be brutal. I’M STILL GRATEFUL FOR IT PLEASE DON’T TAKE IT AWAY. I’m just saying women's birth control isn’t simple or easy. In contrast, let’s look at birth control for men, meaning condoms. Condoms are readily available at all hours, inexpensive, convenient, and don’t require a prescription. They’re effective, and work on demand, instantly. Men can keep them stocked up just in case, so they’re always prepared. Amazing! They are so much easier than birth control options for women. As a bonus, in general, women love when men use condoms. They keep us from getting STDs, they don’t lessen our pleasure during sex… … or prevent us from climaxing. And the best part? Clean up is so much easier — no waddling to the toilet as your jizz drips down our legs. So why in the world are there ever unwanted pregnancies? Why don't men just use condoms every time they have sex? Seems so simple, right? Oh. I remember. Men _don’t_ love condoms. In fact, men frequently pressure women to have sex without a condom. And it’s not unheard of for men to remove the condom during sex, without the women’s permission or knowledge. (Pro-tip: That's assault.)                                                                                                                                                                'Stealthing' Is A Scary New Sex Trend Trying To Make Assault OK                        Everyone needs to know about this.                        http://ow.ly/UHgP30lOse3                                                             Why would men want to have sex without a condom? Good question. Apparently it’s because for the minutes they are penetrating their partner, having no condom on gives the experience more pleasure. So… there are men willing to risk getting a woman pregnant — which means literally risking her life, her health, her social status, her relationships, and her career, so that they can experience a few minutes of _slightly_ more pleasure? Is that for real? Yes. Yes it is. What are we talking about here pleasure-wise? If there’s a pleasure scale, with pain beginning at zero and going down into the negatives, a back-scratch falling at 5, and an orgasm without a condom being a 10, where would sex _with_ a condom fall? Like a 7 or 8? So it’s not like sex with a condom is _not_ pleasurable, it’s just not _as_ pleasurable. An 8 instead of a 10. Let me emphasize that again: Men regularly choose to put women at massive risk by having non-condom sex, in order to experience a few minutes of slightly more pleasure. Now keep in mind, for the truly condom-averse, men also have a non-condom, always-ready birth control built right in, called the pull out. It’s not perfect, and it's a favorite joke, but it is also 96% effective. ow.ly/1XQo30lOsm7 So surely, we can expect men who aren’t wearing a condom to at least pull out every time they have sex, right? Nope. And why not? Well, again, apparently it’s _slightly_ more pleasurable to climax inside a vagina than, say, on their partner’s stomach. So men are willing to risk the life, health and well-being of women, in order to experience a tiny bit more pleasure for like 5 seconds during orgasm. It’s mind-boggling and disturbing when you realize that’s the choice men are making. And honestly, I’m not as mad as I should be about this, because we’ve trained men from birth that their pleasure is of utmost importance in the world. (And to dis-associate sex and pregnancy.) While we’re here, let’s talk a bit more about pleasure and biology. Did you know that a man CAN'T get a woman pregnant without having an orgasm? Which means that we can conclude getting a woman pregnant is a pleasurable act for men. But did you further know that men CAN get a woman pregnant without HER feeling any pleasure at all? In fact, it’s totally possible for a man to impregnate a woman even while causing her excruciating pain, trauma or horror. In contrast, a woman can have non-stop orgasms with or without a partner and never once get herself pregnant. A woman’s orgasm has literally nothing to do with pregnancy or fertility — her clitoris exists not for creating new babies, but simply for pleasure. No matter how many orgasms she has, they won’t make her pregnant. Pregnancies can only happen when men have an orgasm. Unwanted pregnancies can only happen when men orgasm irresponsibly. What this means is a women can be the sluttliest slut in the entire world who loves having orgasms all day long and all night long and she will never find herself with an unwanted pregnancy unless a man shows up and ejaculates irresponsibly. Women enjoying sex does not equal unwanted pregnancy and abortion. Men enjoying sex and having irresponsible ejaculations is what causes unwanted pregnancies and abortion. Let’s talk more about responsibility. Men often don’t know, and don’t ask, and don’t think to ask, if they’ve caused a pregnancy. They may never think of it, or associate sex with making babies at all. Why? Because there are 0 consequences for men who cause unwanted pregnancies. If the woman decides to have an abortion, the man may never know he caused an unwanted pregnancy with his irresponsible ejaculation. If the woman decides to have the baby, or put the baby up for adoption, the man may never know he caused an unwanted pregnancy with his irresponsible ejaculation, or that there’s now a child walking around with 50% of his DNA. If the woman does tell him that he caused an unwanted pregnancy and that she’s having the baby, the closest thing to a consequence for him, is that he may need to pay child support. But our current child support system is well-known to be a joke. 61% of men (or women) who are legally required to pay it, simply don’t. With little or no repercussions. Their credit isn’t even affected. So, many men keep going as is, causing unwanted pregnancies with irresponsible ejaculations and never giving it thought. When the topic of abortion comes up, men might think: Abortion is horrible; women should not have abortions. And never once consider the man who CAUSED the unwanted pregnancy. If you’re not holding men responsible for unwanted pregnancies, then you are wasting your time. Stop protesting at clinics. Stop shaming women. Stop trying to overturn abortion laws. If you actually care about reducing or eliminating the number of abortions in our country, simply HOLD MEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS. What would that look like? What if there was a real and immediate consequence for men who cause an unwanted pregnancy? What kind of consequence would make sense? Should it be as harsh, painful, nauseating, scarring, expensive, risky, and life-altering… … as forcing a woman to go through a 9-month unwanted pregnancy? In my experience, men really like their testicles. If irresponsible ejaculations were putting their balls at risk, they would stop being irresponsible. Does castration seem like a cruel and unusual punishment? Definitely. But is it worse than forcing 500,000 women a year to puke daily for months, gain 40 pounds, and then rip their bodies apart in childbirth? Is a handful of castrations worse than women dying during forced pregnancy & childbirth? Put a castration law on the books, implement the law, let the media tell the story, and in 3 months or less, tada! abortions will have virtually disappeared. Can you picture it? No more abortions in less than 3 months, without ever trying to outlaw them. Amazing. For those of you who consider abortion to be murder, wouldn’t you be on board with having a handful of men castrated, if it prevented 500,000 murders each year? And if not, is that because you actually care more about policing women’s bodies, morality, and sexuality, than you do about reducing or eliminating abortions? (That’s a rhetorical question.) Hey, you can even have the men who will be castrated bank their sperm before it happens — just in case they want to responsibly have kids some day. Can’t wrap your head around a physical punishment for men? Even though you seem to be more than fine with physical punishments for women? Okay. Then how about this prevention idea: At the onset of puberty, all males in the U.S. could be required by law to get a vasectomy. Vasectomies are very safe, totally reversible, and about as invasive as an doctor's exam for a woman getting a birth control prescription. There is some soreness afterwards for about 24 hours, but that’s pretty much it for side effects. (So much better than The Pill, which is taken by millions of women in our country, the side effects of which are well known and can be brutal.) If/when the male becomes a responsible adult, and perhaps finds a mate, if they want to have a baby, the vasectomy can be reversed, and then redone once the childbearing stage is over. And each male can bank their sperm before the vasectomy, just in case. It's not that wild of an idea. 80% of males in the U.S. are circumcised, most as babies. And that's not reversible. Don’t like my ideas? That’s fine. I’m sure there are better ones. Go ahead and suggest your own ideas. My point is that it’s nonsense to focus on women if you’re trying to get rid of abortions. Abortion is the “cure” for an unwanted pregnancy. If you want to stop abortions, you need to prevent the “disease" - meaning, unwanted pregnancies. And the only way to do that, is by focusing on men, because: MEN CAUSE 100% OF UNWANTED PREGNANCIES. Or. IRRESPONSIBLE EJACULATIONS BY MEN CAUSE 100% OF UNWANTED PREGNANCIES. If you’re a man, what would the consequence need to be for you to never again ejaculate irresponsibly? Would it be money related? Maybe a loss of rights or freedoms? Physical pain? Ask yourselves: What would it take for you to value the life of your sexual partner more than your own temporary pleasure or convenience? Are you someone who learns better with analogies? Let’s try this one: Think of another great pleasure in life, let’s say food. Think of your favorite meal, dessert, or drink. What if you found out that every time you indulge in that favorite food you risked causing great physical and mental pain for someone you know intimately. You might not cause any pain, but it’s a real risk. Well, you’d probably be sad, but never indulge in that food again, right? Not worth the risk! And then, what if you further found out, there was a simple thing you could do before you ate that favorite food, and it would eliminate the risk of causing pain to someone else. Which is great news! BUT the simple thing you need to do makes the experience of eating the food slightly less pleasurable. To be clear, it would still be VERY pleasurable, but slightly less so. Like maybe you have to eat the food with a fork or spoon that you don’t particularly like. Would you be willing to do that simple thing, and eliminate the risk of causing pain to someone you know intimately, every single time you ate your favorite food? OF COURSE YOU WOULD. Condoms (or even pulling out) is that simple thing. Don’t put women at risk. Don’t choose to maximize your own pleasure if it risks causing women pain. Men mostly run our government. Men mostly make the laws. And men could eliminate abortions in 3 months or less without ever touching an abortion law or evening mentioning women. In summary: STOP TRYING TO CONTROL WOMEN'S BODIES AND SEXUALITY. UNWANTED PREGNANCIES ARE CAUSED BY MEN. The end.

[mianmimi]

[On a side note for omegaverse fans, he kinda looks like he’s got a little belly in these scenes. It’s the shirt of course but still…my mind’s been stuck on omega Karl] I was summoned from the darkest pits of omegaverse the second you said "Omega Karl". With that scene in mind, imagine Stephen and Mordo had a little tryst already and Stephen knocked Mordo up but neither of them knows Mordo's got a bun cooking in that sweet oven. TAO knows, ofc. Wong knows, too. He's ready for The Talk lol

WHEW! I’m so sorry it’s taken forever Nonny. I had this for a while but at long last, I finished it up. I hope you enjoy it! The link for it is here

https://archiveofourown.org/works/9600392/chapters/44376751

But I’ll also just put the entire thing beneath this cut, in case people prefer it that way ^^

“It would be advisable for you to choose another,” Wong sipped from the teacup, his sight never leaving Karl. “That one’s looking a bit small.”

The omega was currently tugging his shirt down, grumbling beneath his breath each time the fabric wouldn’t settle properly. He was easily irritated by the slightest things these days, even down to the fit and feel of his own clothes.

“It must have simply shrunk in the wash,” Karl muttered. He adjusted the shirt uncomfortably, “Such a waste too. This was one of my favorites.”

“Mmmhmm,” Wong restrained himself from rolling his eyes. “It seems you’ve been having difficulty fitting into your clothes lately, as well as your morning slippers. Curious isn’t it?”

“Not really,” Karl waved his friend’s concern off, all the while pulling the end of his tunic further down. “The water must have been the wrong temperature. It all shrunk. I’ll just get new ones, no need to fret. It’s an easy solution to a very common problem.”

For all his attempts to quell Wong’s concerns, Karl himself looked absolutely flustered. He tugged on the collar of his shirt and groaned at how hot the room suddenly felt. He could feel Wong’s eyes scrutinizing his every movement. The omega sighed and placed his restless hands on his lap.

“Besides, it’s probably time for a new wardrobe. You keep nagging me to throw out the clothes Kaecillius gifted to me anyways. Perhaps this is a sign-“

“Karl…”

The omega looked up as the alpha sighed and leaned forward.

“The laundry for the masters gets done via magic, including yours. It’s one of the few privileges we have,” Wong said gently. “Your clothes look the same. But you however-“

“I’m very sorry Wong but….are you…are you saving that for anyone?”

“What?” the alpha looked confused before Karl clarified by nodding at an apple on the table between them. Wong pushed the plate of fruit towards Karl who grinned and took the largest, messiest bite ever witnessed. The juices gushed from his mouth and poured down his hand, his wide brown eyes blossoming as the sweetness hit his senses.

“Good god,” Wong watched with his jaw hanging. “What did the apple ever do to hurt you?”

“My apologies but I’m famished,” Karl managed after he took another chomp of the fruit. The apple was gone before Wong could form a word in reply. There was nothing left but a skinny stretch of the core. Before Wong could protest, the omega reached out for the last pear and a handful of grapes.

“Did you want some yogurt with all that?” Wong said flatly.

“No thank you. I can’t stomach the taste of yogurt these days,” Karl said. “But this marmalade looks lovely.”

He ripped the lid right open, twist it so hard and fast his muscles flexed. He dunked the pear straight in, coating it thoroughly. He ate right out of the jar, using the fruit to scoop every bit of the marmalade up.

“Aren’t you going to save some for later?”

“No need. I’ll just finish it now. It’s nearly done,”

“Just to clarify, I have no intention of picking you off the floor if you choke,” Wong said. Despite his warning, his countenance changed from one of annoyance to one of genuine worry. “Karl, please for god’s sake breathe. The jar’s still half full. There’s more than one meal in a day.”

“I’m terribly hungry,” Karl said. His voice was sharper now, grumpy from the interruptions. “Allow me this indulgence Wong. I didn’t eat any breakfast.”

“And why was that?”

“I felt unwell,” Karl said curtly. He went after the grapes next, popping them quickly into this mouth.

“Did you see the medics in the infirmary yet?” Wong asked, not caring if Karl couldn’t answer him with a mouth full of grapes.

Karl shook his head briefly before chomping away at more fruit. His belly rumbled for more, the sound loud and angry. His hunger overpowered any embarrassment and he mustered the nerve to reach for Wong’s toast. The alpha gently smacked his hand away. It seemed to startle Karl, slowing down his ravenous ache long enough for him to look at his oldest friend with hurt in his eyes, as if a great betrayal had occurred.

“Go to the infirmary. Get a full medical workup. Heaven knows you need it.”

“All I need is a little more food,” Karl snapped. “Can’t a hungry man eat?”

“This is unlike you,” Wong said flatly, leaving no room for argument. “Everyday your habits change and it worries me. You’re eating things you usually hate and avoiding things you usually love. You’ve been sleeping far too early and waking up well into the late morning, nearly missing your classes. You’ve never missed a class before this. And then you spend hours in the washroom hacking your stomach empty.”

Karl’s jaw dropped and his face tensed. His eyes grew wider, a spark of anger and shame flaring within them.

“I heard you so don’t even try to tell me otherwise,” Wong cut him off before a protest could begin.“And you’re welcome for the soundproofing charm I cast. Everyone heard chimes instead.”

“I feel better now. That illness has run its course. I feel much better now. See?” Karl tried proving his point by taking a bite from a plum. Wong watched with a smirk as the omega visibly tried to fight back a gag. It was one of the foods he noticed Karl actively avoid these days, despite it being a known staple of his breakfast for years.

“Yes, until the next morning when you start it all over. Karl, this has been going on for several days. I’m concerned. Aren’t you?”

“What’s there to be concerned about?” Karl took another bite from the pear out of sheer stubbornness, “Everything is normal. Perfectly routine.”

Wong watched him with a stone cold expression. Karl glared back at him and took a large chunk from the pear. He held the last bite in his mouth for a long second before his body rejected it altogether, spitting it out onto a bowl. Karl coughed and suddenly seemed to curl up within himself. Tears pricked at the corner of his eyes, forming fully in an instant and rolling down in heavy drops down his cheek. He took a deep breath and hid his face, unsure of what to say to convince Wong to just forget everything he just witnessed.

Wong waited for the confession. He heard many of Karl’s confessions and lamentations throughout the years. This one was certainly a long time coming, and though Wong would never admit it, it was also one he had looked forward to hearing. He was eager to see Karl reclaim some happiness in his life. And although Strange was not the most stellar candidate, he was far preferable over Karl’s former mate.

“Did you want to say anything?” Wong coaxed him. “You look like a man with something on his mind.”

Karl glanced at him for a moment then proceeded to make the pears from the table vanish with a soundless spell.

“Bad plum,” Karl said with a shrug. “It was overripe and nauseating. Best get rid of the rest before they make anyone else ill.”

Wong raised his eyebrows in disbelief. Surely Karl wouldn’t be this oblivious to his condition, nor would he take Wong for a fool. Karl was usually forthcoming about his woes to him, whether Wong asked for it or not.

Then again the omega did have a miserable history of turning a blind eye to things he should have seen coming. The prime example being the poor choice of his first alpha. Karl Mordo was a man accustomed to pain. Wong often feared that he was so used to it that he was more comfortable with that than actual happiness. It was the familiar, the usual routine of his love life.

Strange disrupted it. And although he wasn’t the ideal, Stephen made Karl happy. Truly happy. Even if the happiness was as fleeting as a poorly attempted joke.

Wong decided not to press the matter. Soon enough the matter itself would press and press against Karl’s belly til no one could deny it. Besides, Karl didn’t need another scolding. Heaven knows it would have only stressed the omega further, and despite everything the baby in there was automatically Wong’s godchild. Whether Karl announced it or not. And he didn’t want the little one to feel the fret of the world before it was time. So instead he gave Karl want he truly needed, food, in whatever way he wanted.

Wong sighed and took his toast, dumped a small hill of marmalade on top, and slid it over to Karl. The omega’s eyes shone bright with want. He looked up briefly at his friend, then back at the slice. Wong grumbled and pushed the plate closer to Karl and dropped a cherry on the top.

“You must promise me though that you’ll see the healers,” Wong said. “I worry for you.”

“Don’t,” Karl said, stuffing his mouth with the gooey treat. “I’ll be alright after this bite.”

“Stop being stubborn for once,” Wong said. He picked up a fork and stabbed it into the toast to keep Karl from devouring the rest. “This isn’t just for your sake-“

“My what is going on here? It’s a bit too early to be arguing this much don’t you think? Wong, you mustn’t stress him.”

Wong and Karl immediately straightened up and gave a polite bow as The Ancient One strolled by. She seemed to float, her pale, smooth face oddly bright with delight.

“He stresses me,” Wong sighed. “Master Mordo here has been ill yet refuses to see a doctor.”

“He sees Stephen frequently,” The Sorceress Supreme said casually. “Surely if something was amiss Strange would see it and notify him right away. Unless of course, that odd little alpha is the cause of all this.”

Karl’s face dropped at the insinuation. Wong smirked at the mention of Stephen being called a little alpha. The man was a scraggly, thin, scrap of flesh and bone. And yet out of the all the alphas to come wooing at Karl the omega was enamored with the least impressive specimen.

“Ste….Strange,” Karl said, deciding on the more formal name. “Hasn’t trained with me for a long while. We barely see each other. He’s completely submerged in his books and studies. But I don’t mind it much, it’s only the natural progression of things. If he keeps on accelerating at this rate he can simply teach himself.”

“And are proud of that fact or disappointed?” The Supreme asked with a slight smile.

“Proud,” Karl said quickly. “Immensely proud. Perhaps it’s all for the best. I was tired of his constant questions anyway.”

It was a clearer lie than saying the sky was green. Karl ran the back of his hand on his brow and appeared unusually flustered.

“What’s wrong now?” Wong said, his eyes stern. “Feeling sleepy?”

“Come now my dear, sit down before you faint.” The Sorceress Supreme flicked her wrist and sent a chair flying right behind Karl. A velvet pillow floated to them, fluffing itself up and wiggling down to settle on the chair.

“There you go,” The Ancient One said, guiding Karl to sit down. She snapped her fingers and a cup of lavender tea appeared before Karl, “All better?”

“He hasn’t been feeling well,” Wong said. “Something about a stomachache.”

“Well, that’s certainly a way to put it,” The Ancient One smiled and knelt down beside Karl. “May I?”

Karl would never deny her anything, nodding before even knowing what she intended. She reached out her hand and pressed gently on Karl’s belly.

“That….that feels so much better,” Karl said. A soft glow hummed between his belly and the Supreme’s palm, “That feels pleasantly warm.”

“Perfect,” the Ancient One said, her eyes sparkled with joy as a soft, rapid pulse greeted her light. She withdrew her hand and the glow remained, warming Karl’s stomach and easing aches all over his tired body. She looked at the ill-fitting shirt and frowned slightly before tugging the bottom edges down swiftly. The fabric lengthened to her demand, giving the omega much need room to breathe comfortably.

“Simple spells solve every problem,” she said wistfully. “Do finish that tea, it’ll be good for your rest.”

“But it’s nowhere near time to sleep,” Karl pointed out.

“Anytime is a good time for a nap, isn’t it?” she smiled and glanced down at his belly. “I suggest you get the rest while you still can. We never know when the proper opportunity will come again. Oh and please help yourself to this bowl. You look famished.”

Before Karl could ask what bowl she was referring too when large silver one appeared in front of him, piled so high with fruits that a tangerine at the top nearly rolled off. The omega gasped as he picked through the pile. It was as if every fruit in existence was waiting for him. Apples, berries, pears, kiwi, peaches, grapes, and oranges of every kind and color were there. There were pineapple rings covered in chocolate, and strawberries, watermelon, and cantaloupe chunks. There was even rambutan, dragon fruit, and star apples riddled throughout. The scent and sight of it made Karl’s mouth water even more.

“This is wonderful,” Karl said in amazement. Even as a master he was still taken aback at times at what magic could do. “And you included everything I could possibly want. The only thing missing here are…”

“Plums,” The Ancient One said. “You haven’t been doing well with those.”

“Should I even ask how you know?” Karl laughed softly.

“Darling you know me, and I know you,” The Sorcerer Supreme. “And you know that I know everything.”

While Karl was distracted by the immense fruit before him, the Ancient One gave a playful wink to Wong and nodded at the omega’s belly. Her face was pouring with happiness. Wong had never seen her so excited before, which was both unnerving and heartwarming all at once. It was something only she could pull off at the same time, and one of the many reasons why he remembered to be terrified of her.

“So eat up and finish the tea,” The Ancient One nudged the teacup closer to Karl, “I’ll be cross if you don’t.”

“I would dread to see that,” Karl chuckled, his dimples deepening with each small laugh.

“You know I merely jest. There’s nothing that can happen that will turn my anger against you,” she stopped for a moment then squeezed his hand. “Short of you returning to your first alpha of course.”

“I would sooner burn this place down than take him back,” Karl placed his hand on top of hers. “I swear my loyalty is to Kamar Taj and to you.”

“Your loyalty first and foremost should be to yourself,” The Ancient One said. “Wherever you feel peace and happiness is where you should be. For me, it is here, it has been for generations and it’ll remain that way til my days are spent. That may not be your fate to follow.”

“I will not leave here,” Karl said. “This is my home. My family, the ones I chose to love, they’re all here.”

“I’m very glad to hear that,” she held his hand tightly. “Very glad. But just understand that your Stephen is still under probation of sorts.”

“My Stephen?” Karl laughed nervously. “What do you mean?”

“Well no one else is going to claim him,” Wong said, shrugging. “So the burden befittingly falls on you I suppose.”

“You’re very fond of him Mordo,” The Ancient One said softly. “Incredibly so.”

“Evidently,” Wong mumbled before drowning his words with tea.

“I’m not sure if I can go back to having a mate,” Karl confessed. “Or if Stephen would even commit to me. I still wonder if I failed in keeping Kaecillius away from darkness…”

“That wasn’t your fault. It was his mistake. You were strong enough to not follow him there,” The Ancient One said. “Any alpha who rejects you for being strong was too weak to have you at all.”

Something in her words struck him deeply and he felt his eyes suddenly flush with heat. His tears didn’t fall. At least not while she looked. He hated crying before her, before anyone really. But it seemed that he would be destined to do so, and always in the most inconvenient times.

“You’re going to be brilliant,” The Ancient One said. “In whatever you do now or later, you’ll be brilliant, as always.”

“I thought flattery had no place here,” Karl said. His heart felt heavy from the weight of her faith in him. His mother, father, and grandfather crossed his mind at that moment. All their love and pride in him gathered together wouldn’t even come close to what he found here.

“I wasn’t flattering you,” The Ancient One said, patting his face gently. “I was only speaking the truth. You need an alpha strong enough to be proud of all you are, even if you outshine them.”

She gave a mischievous smirk.

“Even if you allow Stephen to get away with a thing or two, I certainly won’t,” she laughed as if the threat wasn’t thick in her words. “He’ll learn quickly or not at all.”

Karl laughed and shook his head. It was moments like these that he treasured, that reminded him how wonderful it felt to be valued and protected.

“But enough of that man,” The Ancient One said. “How about I teach you that spell?”

Karl nodded and allowed her to guide his hand over his belly.

“It’s just a slight deviation of the mandala shield,” The Ancient One said. “It’s a softer variant. Just allow the warmth to focus on your palm, it’ll flow and ease your tension. A very gentle spell but invaluable.”

Karl smiled when he felt the tiny shield on his palm glow, spreading the soothing light over him.

“It’ll be helpful in the future I’m sure,” The Sorceress Supreme said. “You can never know too many,”

Karl nodded in agreement. He opened his mouth to thank her when he suddenly stopped. His smile dropped as shock filled his face.

Wong hurried over when he heard Karl’s gasp, the glow of his palm pulsing rapidly. In his mind, Wong was already stitching together the vigorous talk about responsibility he would have with Stephen later.

“It’s a good sign,” The Ancient One said softly, her face delighted when Karl didn’t retract his hand from the pulses humming against his palm. “Though I’m sure you already know that.”

Karl’s hand remained there for a while, his heart thumping loudly while another raced along with him. He quickly found himself drowning in an embrace. First from the woman who mothered him more than his own, and then from the man who had been his most loyal friend. They spoke to him, encouraging him gently. Though he swore that Wong threatened Stephen a time or two. He couldn’t be certain. He was lost in that moment, his tears pooling heavily until at last they released, his fears fading away till only joy remained.

#ask and answer #prompt fill #strordo #stephen strange/karl mordo #bff wong #mama!Tao #mpreg #omegaverse #abo dynamics #omega!mordo #omega!karl mordo #alpha!stephen #fluff

[scrotus-potus]

I’m a mother of six, and a Mormon. I have a good understanding of arguments surrounding abortion, religious and otherwise. I’ve been listening to men grandstand about women’s reproductive rights, and I’m convinced men actually have zero interest in stopping abortion. Here’s why…

If you want to stop abortion, you need to prevent unwanted pregnancies. And men are 100% responsible for unwanted pregnancies. No for real, they are. Perhaps you are thinking: IT TAKES TWO! And yes, it does take two for _intentional_ pregnancies.

But ALL unwanted pregnancies are caused by the irresponsible ejaculations of men. Period. Don’t believe me? Let me walk you through it. Let’s start with this: women can only get pregnant about 2 days each month. And that’s for a limited number of years.

That makes 24 days a year a women might get pregnant. But men can _cause_ pregnancy 365 days a year. In fact, if you’re a man who ejaculates multiple times a day, you could cause multiple pregnancies daily. In theory a man could cause 1000+ unwanted pregnancies in just one year.

And though their sperm gets crappier as they age, men can cause unwanted pregnancies from puberty till death. So just starting with basic biology + the calendar it’s easy to see men are the issue here.

But what about birth control? If a woman doesn’t want to risk an unwanted pregnancy, why wouldn’t she just use birth control? If a women can manage to figure out how to get an abortion, surely she can get birth control, right? Great questions.

Modern birth control is possibly the greatest invention of the last century, and I am very grateful for it. It’s also brutal. The side effects for many women are ridiculously harmful. So ridiculous, that when an oral contraception for men was created, it wasn’t approved…

… because of the side effects. And the list of side effects was about 1/3 as long as the known side effects for women’s oral contraception.

There’s a lot to be unpacked just in that story, but I’ll simply point out (in case you didn’t know) that as a society, we really don’t mind if women suffer, physically or mentally, as long as it makes things easier for men.

But good news, Men: Even with the horrible side effects, women are still very willing to use birth control. Unfortunately it’s harder to get than it should be. Birth control options for women require a doctor’s appointment and a prescription. It’s not free, and often not cheap.

In fact there are many people trying to make it more expensive by fighting to make sure insurance companies refuse to cover it. Oral contraceptives for women can’t be acquired easily, or at the last minute. And they don’t work instantly.

If we’re talking about the pill, it requires consistent daily use and doesn’t leave much room for mistakes, forgetfulness, or unexpected disruptions to daily schedules. And again, the side effects can be brutal. I’M STILL GRATEFUL FOR IT PLEASE DON’T TAKE IT AWAY.

I’m just saying women’s birth control isn’t simple or easy. In contrast, let’s look at birth control for men, meaning condoms. Condoms are readily available at all hours, inexpensive, convenient, and don’t require a prescription. They’re effective, and work on demand, instantly.

Men can keep them stocked up just in case, so they’re always prepared. Amazing! They are so much easier than birth control options for women. As a bonus, in general, women love when men use condoms. They keep us from getting STDs, they don’t lessen our pleasure during sex…

… or prevent us from climaxing. And the best part? Clean up is so much easier — no waddling to the toilet as your jizz drips down our legs. So why in the world are there ever unwanted pregnancies? Why don’t men just use condoms every time they have sex? Seems so simple, right?

Oh. I remember. Men _don’t_ love condoms. In fact, men frequently pressure women to have sex without a condom. And it’s not unheard of for men to remove the condom during sex, without the women’s permission or knowledge. (Pro-tip: That’s assault.)

Why would men want to have sex without a condom? Good question. Apparently it’s because for the minutes they are penetrating their partner, having no condom on gives the experience more pleasure.

So… there are men willing to risk getting a woman pregnant — which means literally risking her life, her health, her social status, her relationships, and her career, so that they can experience a few minutes of _slightly_ more pleasure? Is that for real? Yes. Yes it is.

What are we talking about here pleasure-wise? If there’s a pleasure scale, with pain beginning at zero and going down into the negatives, a back-scratch falling at 5, and an orgasm without a condom being a 10, where would sex _with_ a condom fall? Like a 7 or 8?

So it’s not like sex with a condom is _not_ pleasurable, it’s just not _as_ pleasurable. An 8 instead of a 10. Let me emphasize that again: Men regularly choose to put women at massive risk by having non-condom sex, in order to experience a few minutes of slightly more pleasure.

Now keep in mind, for the truly condom-averse, men also have a non-condom, always-ready birth control built right in, called the pull out. It’s not perfect, and it’s a favorite joke, but it is also 96% effective.

So surely, we can expect men who aren’t wearing a condom to at least pull out every time they have sex, right?

Nope.

And why not?

Well, again, apparently it’s _slightly_ more pleasurable to climax inside a vagina than, say, on their partner’s stomach. So men are willing to risk the life, health and well-being of women, in order to experience a tiny bit more pleasure for like 5 seconds during orgasm.

It’s mind-boggling and disturbing when you realize that’s the choice men are making. And honestly, I’m not as mad as I should be about this, because we’ve trained men from birth that their pleasure is of utmost importance in the world. (And to dis-associate sex and pregnancy.)

While we’re here, let’s talk a bit more about pleasure and biology. Did you know that a man CAN’T get a woman pregnant without having an orgasm? Which means that we can conclude getting a woman pregnant is a pleasurable act for men.

But did you further know that men CAN get a woman pregnant without HER feeling any pleasure at all? In fact, it’s totally possible for a man to impregnate a woman even while causing her excruciating pain, trauma or horror.

In contrast, a woman can have non-stop orgasms with or without a partner and never once get herself pregnant. A woman’s orgasm has literally nothing to do with pregnancy or fertility — her clitoris exists not for creating new babies, but simply for pleasure.

No matter how many orgasms she has, they won’t make her pregnant. Pregnancies can only happen when men have an orgasm. Unwanted pregnancies can only happen when men orgasm irresponsibly.

What this means is a women can be the sluttliest slut in the entire world who loves having orgasms all day long and all night long and she will never find herself with an unwanted pregnancy unless a man shows up and ejaculates irresponsibly.

Women enjoying sex does not equal unwanted pregnancy and abortion. Men enjoying sex and having irresponsible ejaculations is what causes unwanted pregnancies and abortion.

Let’s talk more about responsibility. Men often don’t know, and don’t ask, and don’t think to ask, if they’ve caused a pregnancy. They may never think of it, or associate sex with making babies at all. Why? Because there are 0 consequences for men who cause unwanted pregnancies.

If the woman decides to have an abortion, the man may never know he caused an unwanted pregnancy with his irresponsible ejaculation.

If the woman decides to have the baby, or put the baby up for adoption, the man may never know he caused an unwanted pregnancy with his irresponsible ejaculation, or that there’s now a child walking around with 50% of his DNA.

If the woman does tell him that he caused an unwanted pregnancy and that she’s having the baby, the closest thing to a consequence for him, is that he may need to pay child support. But our current child support system is well-known to be a joke.

61% of men (or women) who are legally required to pay it, simply don’t. With little or no repercussions. Their credit isn’t even affected. So, many men keep going as is, causing unwanted pregnancies with irresponsible ejaculations and never giving it thought.

When the topic of abortion comes up, men might think: Abortion is horrible; women should not have abortions. And never once consider the man who CAUSED the unwanted pregnancy. If you’re not holding men responsible for unwanted pregnancies, then you are wasting your time.

Stop protesting at clinics. Stop shaming women. Stop trying to overturn abortion laws. If you actually care about reducing or eliminating the number of abortions in our country, simply HOLD MEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS.

What would that look like? What if there was a real and immediate consequence for men who cause an unwanted pregnancy? What kind of consequence would make sense? Should it be as harsh, painful, nauseating, scarring, expensive, risky, and life-altering…

… as forcing a woman to go through a 9-month unwanted pregnancy?

In my experience, men really like their testicles. If irresponsible ejaculations were putting their balls at risk, they would stop being irresponsible. Does castration seem like a cruel and unusual punishment? Definitely.

But is it worse than forcing 500,000 women a year to puke daily for months, gain 40 pounds, and then rip their bodies apart in childbirth? Is a handful of castrations worse than women dying during forced pregnancy & childbirth?

Put a castration law on the books, implement the law, let the media tell the story, and in 3 months or less, tada! abortions will have virtually disappeared. Can you picture it? No more abortions in less than 3 months, without ever trying to outlaw them. Amazing.

For those of you who consider abortion to be murder, wouldn’t you be on board with having a handful of men castrated, if it prevented 500,000 murders each year?

And if not, is that because you actually care more about policing women’s bodies, morality, and sexuality, than you do about reducing or eliminating abortions? (That’s a rhetorical question.)

Hey, you can even have the men who will be castrated bank their sperm before it happens — just in case they want to responsibly have kids some day.

Can’t wrap your head around a physical punishment for men? Even though you seem to be more than fine with physical punishments for women? Okay. Then how about this prevention idea: At the onset of puberty, all males in the U.S. could be required by law to get a vasectomy.

Vasectomies are very safe, totally reversible, and about as invasive as an doctor’s exam for a woman getting a birth control prescription. There is some soreness afterwards for about 24 hours, but that’s pretty much it for side effects.

(So much better than The Pill, which is taken by millions of women in our country, the side effects of which are well known and can be brutal.)

If/when the male becomes a responsible adult, and perhaps finds a mate, if they want to have a baby, the vasectomy can be reversed, and then redone once the childbearing stage is over. And each male can bank their sperm before the vasectomy, just in case.

It’s not that wild of an idea. 80% of males in the U.S. are circumcised, most as babies. And that’s not reversible.

Don’t like my ideas? That’s fine. I’m sure there are better ones. Go ahead and suggest your own ideas. My point is that it’s nonsense to focus on women if you’re trying to get rid of abortions. Abortion is the “cure” for an unwanted pregnancy.

If you want to stop abortions, you need to prevent the “disease” – meaning, unwanted pregnancies. And the only way to do that, is by focusing on men, because: MEN CAUSE 100% OF UNWANTED PREGNANCIES. Or. IRRESPONSIBLE EJACULATIONS BY MEN CAUSE 100% OF UNWANTED PREGNANCIES.

If you’re a man, what would the consequence need to be for you to never again ejaculate irresponsibly? Would it be money related? Maybe a loss of rights or freedoms? Physical pain?

Ask yourselves: What would it take for you to value the life of your sexual partner more than your own temporary pleasure or convenience?

Are you someone who learns better with analogies? Let’s try this one: Think of another great pleasure in life, let’s say food. Think of your favorite meal, dessert, or drink.

What if you found out that every time you indulge in that favorite food you risked causing great physical and mental pain for someone you know intimately. You might not cause any pain, but it’s a real risk.

Well, you’d probably be sad, but never indulge in that food again, right? Not worth the risk!

And then, what if you further found out, there was a simple thing you could do before you ate that favorite food, and it would eliminate the risk of causing pain to someone else. Which is great news!

BUT the simple thing you need to do makes the experience of eating the food slightly less pleasurable. To be clear, it would still be VERY pleasurable, but slightly less so. Like maybe you have to eat the food with a fork or spoon that you don’t particularly like.

Would you be willing to do that simple thing, and eliminate the risk of causing pain to someone you know intimately, every single time you ate your favorite food?

OF COURSE YOU WOULD.

Condoms (or even pulling out) is that simple thing. Don’t put women at risk. Don’t choose to maximize your own pleasure if it risks causing women pain.

Men mostly run our government. Men mostly make the laws. And men could eliminate abortions in 3 months or less without ever touching an abortion law or evening mentioning women.

In summary: STOP TRYING TO CONTROL WOMEN’S BODIES AND SEXUALITY. UNWANTED PREGNANCIES ARE CAUSED BY MEN.

The end.

https://www.designmom.com/twitter-thread-abortion/

#abortion #reproductive rights

[vaguelyaperson]

Hello everyone~

In light of recent events and discourse, I - a real life actual pacifist - am going to teach you all about nonviolence. What actually is nonviolence, and not what some of ya’ll think is nonviolence but is really a dangerous misconception. My credentials? I studied nonviolence (my minor was peace studies), and you could say that I was raised in the ideology of nonviolence since I’m Anabaptist. 

(Interesting, unnecessary tidbit, but the Anabaptists were opposed to things like slavery, forced military conscription, unification of church and state, ect., while they practiced things like democracy and freedom of religion waaaay before Jefferson ever wrote that ‘all men are created equal.’ So, you know, *dons hipster glasses*, eeeyyy.)

So, a lot of people think that nonviolence means letting someone beat you up, in the name of... I dunno. Peace? Moderation? Making sure you don’t upset the oppressor? But like I said. This is a dangerous misconception. Sure, there can be a lot said about the dignity of refusing to fight back, but there are a lot of nuances to this, so I’ll start by saying... telling black people that MLK wanted them to lay down and take the beating is incredibly ill-informed, racist, and unhelpful! While on the other hand, going out and joining protests against white supremacy is a perfect example of nonviolence. 

I’ll start with the definition of nonviolence. Crazy enough, but nonviolence is not the same thing as passivity. Please, for all that is good, imprint that in your brain: nonviolence ≠ passivity. A quick Google search will tell you that nonviolence is “the use of peaceful means, not force, to bring about political or social change.” With that said, nonviolence is action. 

Nonviolent action is heavily tied with civil disobedience/resistance. Nonviolent action and civil disobedience is recognizing that there is an unjust institution, and then peacefully refusing to follow said institution. If you want more details, then read Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. It honestly spells out this whole situation way better than I can. 

Now, this might seem a little confusing. What do nonviolent protesters hope to achieve by peacefully demanding change? Can’t the oppressor just ignore them? Well, here’s the thing. The foundation of nonviolence is in the effort to shame the oppressor. That’s right. Shame. Nonviolent action is meant to disrupt complacency. In its purest sense, it’s supposed to cause outrage, tension, complications; it’s supposed to teach a lesson. Boycott an entire market to the point of near ruin so that shop owners have to plead the government for change? Nonviolence. Sit illegally at a lunch counter just to irritate the establishment into removing stupid segregation rules? Nonviolence. Smuggle an entire fucking group of people out of your country so that the Nazis can’t get to them? Nonviolence. (Goddammit, just read up on how the Danish nonviolently got Nazi Germany out of their country because it was a fucking masterpiece that I will never get over.)

Let’s look at this from a Biblical perspective. Matthew 5:38-41. 

“But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.” 

Yeah. That one. (Ah, yes, I can already hear the groaning.)

But! This verse has, like many Bible verses, been really wrung out and twisted into something it’s not because people forget the cultural context. First off. The face slapping. Notice how Jesus said if someone hits you on your right cheek. Well, there are two options for hitting someone’s right cheek: you either use your left hand, or you backhand them. In Middle Eastern cultures, left hands are dirty. Left hands are for dirty dirty things like wiping your ass. You do not hit someone with your left hand. Furthermore, backhanding someone is a grave insult. Backhanding declares someone as an inferior. So, if someone hit one of Jesus’ followers on the right cheek, they were backhanding them, and thus calling them inferior. However! You know who hit each other on the left cheek? Equals. Conclusion. Turning your cheek does not mean invite more beating. 

Turning your cheek means shaming your oppressor into acknowledging you as an equal. 

Second. Really think about the items of clothing that Jesus mentions in the second example. Shirt and coat. What did people back then not wear? Pants. What things does that leave them? Shirt and coat. What happens if they took off both? Nakey time. That’s right. Jesus was legit encouraging people to, in the middle of court, strip naked in front of their accuser. Why? Because it would embarrass the plaintiff. This action was meant to point out the injustice, the few things the victim owns, and, that’s right, shame the oppressor.

Third. It was law that a Roman soldier could force an Israelite to carry his things for one mile. That’s it! One mile! It was unlawful for a Roman soldier to force anymore and... you see what I’m getting at here? Jesus outright encouraging folks to break the law cause the law is stupid? Yeah. Got some classic Biblical civil disobedience here. 

But wait! Some readers may cry out, just itching to talk about Gandhi encouraging his followers to get beat over the head, or something out of context like that, doesn’t nonviolence include such passive measures? To this is I say:

Sure. When it was done so in the effort to shame the oppressor. The Salt March (where Gandhi led a bunch of people to illegally gather their own salt, and be beat by British officers in the process) was a huge fuck you to Britain. People around the world were outraged to watch it unfold. Who the hell kicks down a defenseless soul??? It put a lot of pressure on Britain. Same thing with the American civil rights movement, with the fire hoses and police dogs.

And by the way, allowing yourself to be kicked around took training and discipline. Civil rights protesters held workshops (tw; link includes photos of physical violence) where people learned how not to react to physical and verbal abuse. People are trained in this type of nonviolence. I’ll say it again for the people in the back. If you need one of those ‘this is done by a professional, please don’t try this at home, kids’ disclaimer, then this is your disclaimer. PEOPLE ARE TRAINED IN THIS TYPE OF NONVIOLENCE. 

Again, please, please, PLEASE DO NOT tell lay citizens that they should take the beating. 

Now, there is much more to be said and learned about nonviolence. It’s a fascinating topic and I highly encourage further reading! However, in conclusion, nonviolence is not passivity. It takes a lot of thought, coordination, and discipline to pull off. When done well, when you make sure to read the instructions on the label, nonviolence can be a pretty effective tool. Does nonviolence always work? No. Did I write this as some evil white moderate pacifist in order to encourage everyone to stop fighting back? No. 

As a pacifist, I will continue to believe in the effectiveness of nonviolence, and crazily enough, I will be against punching Nazis. But if you as an individual prefer to rely on force to change things, then that’s your belief, and I respect that. I can acknowledge that force has brought about change before. I’m just personally uncomfortable with violence for both spiritual and emotional reasons. Truly, this mini essay was written in the hopes of educating a few people about the option that is nonviolence. (Real nonviolence. Not what makes the oppressor comfortable.)

So go out and protest! Keep demanding your rights! Don’t be afraid to disrupt things! Just remember to educate yourself and stay safe. 

#nonviolence #pacifism #charlottesville #anti racism #political #current events #martin luther king jr #jesus #mohandas gandhi #anabaptists

[feynites]

Vivienne is such a complicated character.

Like, here you have this woman who has heard for her entire life that she is dangerous. That’s one consistent thing which almost all mages, whether they’re born to a noble family in Tevinter or peasants in the Anderfels or traders in Rivain, are told. Even Dalish and Avvar mages get this message to some extent. You’re a mage - you’re dangerous.

And especially for Circle mages, being dangerous is expected to eclipse everything else about you. The Circle requires a phenomenal balancing act from people. If you’re not good enough at magic, there’s a chance you won’t even be deemed capable of taking your Harrowing, and you’ll just be made Tranquil. This was what prompted Jowan to start using blood magic, in fact - if you go through Irving’s notes in the Circle Tower, you will discover that, in order to meet certain quotas for how many Tranquil the tower has and to maintain the status quo (wherein mages never forget who is holding their leash), the head enchanters single out mages who aren’t talented enough to profit the Circle and chantry as Harrowed mages, and they are basically set up. Instructors warn that they’re not meeting their skill requirements, temptation is offered in the form of books or tomes that provide illegal knowledge, and if the mage takes the bait, all they have to do is slip up. Then the templars move in, no one can really argue the point because blood magic is considered both illegal and immoral, and no one has to worry that Owain is getting too old to carry down the higher boxes in the store rooms anymore.

This is the kind of atmosphere in a good Circle, too. If you can’t prove that your magic would be a profitable commodity for the chantry, then you start to look like dead weight - or the potential materials for a docile labourer, who will just work and work until told to stop, and never offer up protest or a potential lack of compliance.

But, if you’re too powerful or talented, you become worrying for other reasons. A skilled mage can make a lot of coin, healing and entertaining nobles who can afford to pay for the expense, or serving in a military capacity. Powerful mages are also more likely to gain the kind of worldliness and mobility that would enable them to act upon any revolutionary impulses they might have, though, and can threaten the templar’s authority by challenging their ability to pose a physical threat. Again, if we go back to DA:O, Jowan was perfectly set up to be branded a blood mage and made Tranquil for his transgressions. But he was singled out, most likely, for being the least adept among his peers - that didn’t necessarily mean he was actually that bad at magic. And he proved to be adept enough at blood magic itself that the plan blew up in Irving and Greagoir’s faces when he successfully disrupted the templars enough to make a run for it.

The downside for the chantry in making sure templars are indoctrinated to fear mages’ power is that, on the instances when they’re actually called to fight, they do seem to hesitate an awful lot. Kinloch Hold saw the supposed anti-mage elite barricading themselves into the front entryway while the main force opposing Uldred was actually made up of mages; DA2 saw Hawke cleaning up the majority of magical incidents, while Meredith’s goons mostly just bullied the already-legal-and-complacent mages within the Gallows, or else occasionally ventured off to things like torture Dalish kids on Sundermount.

So, the tightrope which mages have to walk. If you’re too weak, you’ll be targeted for Tranquility. If you’re too strong and not compliant enough, you might actually scare the Templars, and face the same treatment. And if you’re just middle-of-the-road, you can probably get by with only the standard danger in your life - but you’ll also probably never venture far from the Circle’s walls, unless some disaster or another calls for all mages on deck, like the Blight.

That’s a pretty grim prospect, overall. Tranquility hanging like a blade on both sides of the accepted skill range, and lifelong imprisonment nestled securely in the middle.

But now we have Vivienne, and unlike... pretty much all of the Circle mages we’ve met before her, Viv has figured out how to navigate the very narrow space left open to her, and actually succeed. She’s skilled enough at magic that no one doubts her prowess, and anyone who tries to tempt her - demon or scheming enchanter or templar alike - is going to be faced with nothing but a firm denial. I think that was probably so essential to her initial survival among Orlais’ cutthroat Circle politics that it more than explains how unnerved she is by the likes of Cole. Tolerance of things that are even remotely questionable by chantry standards is evidence of ‘corruption’, and that could be used to condemn her, or halt her progress. For Vivienne to succeed in the environment she was brought up in, she had to be skilled, and there had to be no question that her skills came from purely acceptable schools of magic. Anything else could be ammunition for rivals, or an excuse for the templars.

Of course, such things could still be manufactured, if anyone had a sufficient reason to frame her. So Vivienne not only had to be squeaky clean, she also had to make herself a vastly preferable mage for the positions she aspired to than any other candidate. How does she do this? By cultivating the reputation required in order to alleviate any and all suspicion that she would be reckless, that she would challenge templar or chantry authority, or that she might use any freedoms granted to her to that end. The kinds of mages who leave Val Royeaux’s Circle to go and entertain the nobility, are almost certainly the kinds of mages who say things like ‘templars are a necessary precaution’. 

They’re also the kinds of mages who can be charming, and entertaining, and make nobles feel good about themselves. They’re likely full of assurances. ‘Of course Circle life isn’t perfect, but it’s hardly a prison. There are opportunities for those who have the right temperament, the right mindset, to go further in life than they otherwise would have. Why, just look at me - my family wasn’t rich. If not for the Circle and my magic, I would hardly be standing in the greatest city in all of Thedas, speaking to some of the most powerful people in the world’. Vivienne went from Circle politics to Orlesian politics, and those are both environments where the truth is something that people will use to destroy you, trust is a fool’s gambit, and you are constantly surrounded by people who want you dead.

But, what really gets me about Vivienne, is that she’s compassionate. And it’s funny because I don’t think she wants to restore the status quo to the Circles because she doesn’t believe she could hang onto her power and influence without it - although I do think she considers the prospect very daunting. I think she’s a compassionate pessimist. She sees the worst possible outcomes in any situation as the most likely. No guaranteed, but certainly most likely. She doesn’t want a war, in that case, because if you look at the Circle’s revolution from a pessimistic angle, the most probable outcomes are either ‘a bunch of people die, and then everything goes back to Square One anyway’ or ‘a bunch of people die, and then Southern Thedas becomes like Tevinter’. The rebellion early on already causes a lot of death, and destruction, and leads to things like the mass kill of Tranquil mages for nefarious purposes. Vivienne genuinely hates this.

Now, mages and Tranquil were already suffering under the existing system - that’s kind of the whole point of the rebellion. But it’s understandable that Vivienne herself has moved far enough away from Circle life, and is accustomed enough to those kinds of horrors, that I don’t think she’s considering the factor of ‘people were already suffering and dying, they were just doing it more quietly and where fewer people could see’. And that makes sense, to me, because people are often expected to just overlook certain kinds of suffering as inevitable. Since she was taken to the Circle, Vivienne has learned that magic is a threat, and I think that’s also why she uses so many ‘villainess’ trappings, despite not being in any way villainous. She has had to balance the perception of her - and all mages - as inherently dangerous, inherently threatening, with the need to seem skillfully dangerous (because if magic is dangerous and being talented in it is still the only way to get ahead, what else can she be?), and also totally reasonable, and not at all inclined to step out of line.

Like. Holy shit. No wonder she and Solas are the best companions at understanding how stressful being Inquisitor probably is.

But back to the matter of her compassion, I think explains a lot about how Vivienne wants to go about things. Because she does want to shift the balance of power between mages and templars, but she wants to do it in a way that’s virtually unnoticeable to the general public. She wants to keep the templars, and the Circle, and the same titles and systems for the most part. But she wants to utterly nerf the templars’ behind-the-scenes authority, and hand it over to the enchanters instead. She’s aware that the majority of people in the south have no clue what goes on in the Circles, and she wants to turn that to her advantage, to assuage hysteria and panic by providing them the  balm of ‘no look see everything you know is entirely back to normal, here are the mages in their towers, here are the templars in their shiny armour, you just go back to planting turnips or whatever you were doing in your village’, and then just totally upend things in a way that even most nobles probably wouldn’t have to pay attention to.

Of course, to do that, she also needs to keep appearances just right. There can’t be other factions of mages sprouting up, because that will destroy the impression of chantry authority over them. And ultimately, I don’t think her plan would really work, because the system is too entrenched in favouring the templars and has too many inherent flaws - I don’t think you can keep the presentation of it, and change the back room dealings, and actually solve Thedas’ issue with mages. But you could make the every day lives of mages already in the Circle much better, and as with Orsino, I think Vivienne has prioritized that. She doesn’t want to see Bill-the-Mage-Who-Lights-Chantry-Candles or Bess-the-Tranquil-Shop-Assistant die in a bloody conflict, and her approach is actually better than a full-out revolution for preventing that.

So that’s really interesting to me, because I think one of the prevailing ideas about her is that her ambition is throwing other mages under the bus - that she wants to preserve the status quo because this is the system she’s mastered. But, while that might be part of it, I don’t think it’s the whole picture for her. She wants people to be safe. She wants to turn the templars into a pretence. She can’t escape the lesson she’s spent her whole life both learning and proving, which is that magic is a thing worth fearing. She’s very aware of just how precarious her own position is, all this while, not only in terms of this one event but also with regards to the future. A failed rebellion could spell her doom, signing on with the Inquisition is a gamble, she’s spent her whole life having to be charming, beautiful, approachable, formidable, to restrain her anger, but to rebuke anyone who tries to treat her as a doormat in ways that deter repeat offences without also inviting retribution onto herself. She’s masterful at dancing on the head of a pin, but it’s also brutally unfair that she has to. And one can only wonder what kinds of things she’d be doing in Thedas if she didn’t have to devote 50% of her energy to not being killed at any given moment, or rather, if she hadn’t had to spend her whole life doing that.

#vivienne #meta #random thoughts because i was thinking about her today

[meowingjasper]

Lost Souls Ch 3 Keith - Too Many Questions

I’m gonna be honest, I’ve never got the ones who panic about being demigods. Most people treat it as such a sin, like some sort of punishment. Yeah, sure, there’s those scary monsters that haunt nightmares, but that’s why Chiron forces us to train, right? Besides, we’re safe at camp anyways. And anyway there may also be the demigod dreams to deal with. Those aren’t fun, that’s for sure. But those usually end when you wake up so it isn’t totally awful. 

Yet still everyone I meet treats the concept of being a demigod as frightful. Even my fam prays that they don’t have to leave on a quest because they’re scared of dying. Well, yeah death is scary, but I don’t want to stay at camp! I’ve already been here for 10 years and things are always the same. 

Anyway where was I going with this? Oh right! I’ve always wanted excitement and I felt that chance came with the arrival of our two newest campers, Nadia and Anastasia. 

Especially when I heard screaming. Screaming is never something safe and is usually leading to something exciting. I ran outside in the early morning only to spot Anastasia sprinting away from the Big House and towards the Hades Cabin. 

She was screaming, “Silena! Silena! Please come out! Please!” I ran to the girl as Silena stepped out of her cabin.

Silena yawned, “Alright, what’s your excuse for that volume this early? Just because the sunshine kids get up with the sun doesn’t mean everyone has to.”

I joked, “Yeah, you don’t want to get between the Aphrodite girls and their beauty sleep. It’s one part of them that isn’t pretty.”

Anastasia snapped, “I don’t care! We have bigger problems on our hands!” She turned to me and I was hit with the severity of the situation. There were tears in her eyes, which were wide with panic. Her whole body was shivering so greatly I could hear it. Or maybe that was the item she was cupping in her hands for dear life. She whimpered, “I-It’s Nadia! I-I went to go check up on her b-because I noticed she likes to go for morning jogs. B-But she wasn’t there and instead there was this.” She opened her hands to reveal a silver pocket watch with a Greek symbol on the cover.                                                 

Silena, clearly pissed off by this disruption, rolled her eyes, “She could’ve just left for her jog and didn’t bring it.” 

Anastasia turned to the girl and countered, “She never goes anywhere without it! I’ve known her my entire life and it never left her side.”

I spoke up, “What’s so cool about an out-of-date watch? Doesn’t she have one that goes on her wrist like people who aren’t from the 1900s?” The glares the other two sent me made me regret speaking up and stole away my voice so I couldn’t speak again.

Anastasia rubbed her finger lightly over the watch and explained, her voice soft and distant, “This watch isn’t anything fancy. She often showed me how it would freeze at times or even turn backwards. But she still insisted on keeping it close to her heart no matter where she went. She told me how it was her only gift from her dad before he vanished on them. She was always so avid on believing that it would end up leading her to who he was. To why he left. Now, knowing what he actually was, that whole idea seemed silly. But she still always keeps it in her pocket, as a sign of home. As a sign of her past. If she doesn’t have it… I-I can’t even…” I tried to step forward, but Silena beat me to it. She stepped down from her door to pull Anastasia into a hug. I looked from the side as the girl buried the crying Anastasia into her chest with a soft look in Silena's eyes.

Silena assured, her tone soothing, “Sh, take a deep breath. Getting upset and panicking helps no one. Not us and certainly not Nadia, if she is in danger. Let’s just go talk to Chiron and Mr. D and see if they might have any ideas.” Sniffling, Anastasia pulled away and gave a small nod. Silena and I watched as she ran back towards the Big House, clutching the watch.

I turned to Silena and saw the light of familiarity in her eyes. Approaching her side, I rested my hand on her shoulder, “You did good, Silena. You did better than I could.”

Silena shrugged off my hand and teased, “Hades yeah I did. You probably would’ve ended things with her kicking you in your sweet spot.” I hate to admit she wasn’t wrong. Silena gave me a wave and started to walk towards the trees, “Well, tell me how it goes.”

Realization struck me and I called her, “Wait, you’re not coming?”

Silena stopped and asked, “You want to try to explain me to Chiron?” Of course not. I could tell from her voice she knew that would be what I said. Neither of us could handle that situation, not with everything going on. Silena smiled back at me, sadness in her eyes, “Thought so. I’ll be there if you need me.” I tried to stop her, but she just walked off and vanished to the shadows. 

I turned to start heading towards the Big House, but my eyes caught on the campfire in the center of the cabins. The flames were flickering with the early breeze and stood out against the dark grass. Watching them dance resurfaced visions from deep within me. 

Ones of flames, overpowering and haunting, trapping its victims inside itself. Ones of screaming, out of desperation for help that never came, out of anger for revenge on the source of their pain, out of pain for loss that came and was coming. Ones of tears, of panic, of relief, of aching loss. 

The more I watched the fire, the further I felt my mind fall into the depths of the past. 

To voices, young and old, screaming until they were hoarse. Sounds of running in every direction. Buildings collapsing and throwing up clouds of smoke and ash. People on their knees, coughing, around me.

Falling further, to falling in mud and slamming doors. Falling further, to eyes burning with hatred and stinging skin. Further and further I fell. Further and further. 

“Hey Keith! You coming? I don’t think I can face them without breaking down.” Anastasia’s voice, like an escape rope or a flashlight, guided me back to the surface. Back to reality. Back to camp. Back to safety. 

I looked up to see Anastasia staring back at me, standing a short distance from the Big House. Forcing a smile, I shot back, “And you call me a coward? Guess you just need brave old Keith to save you.” Anastasia rolled her eyes and walked into the Big House. Watching her, I reached into my pocket. I pulled out a bronze hammer with an engraving of a pinecone on its handle along with the Greek term for “Save”. The roaring flames in my ears dimmed as I chased after the sunshine girl. 

I entered the Big House to hear Anastasia’s voice say, “Chiron, sir? There’s a problem.” I spotted the girl approaching our head counselors. Without hesitation, I walked over next to her and rested a hand of comfort on her shoulder, making her send me a look of gratitude. 

Chiron looked down to Anastasia, “Ms. Roma? What’s the matter? What could’ve happened this early?” 

Mr. D grumbled, “Why can’t you brats take care of your own problems?” 

Rachel came from a nearby doorway and held up her hand in front of the god, “Ignore him, he had a bad night. What’s bothering you two?”

Anastasia explained, “W-Well, see the thing i-is…” I could tell the tears and shakes were coming back with a vengeance by her words.

I spoke up, “Nadia’s missing. She vanished overnight and we have no idea where she went. All she left behind was this pocket watch which Anastasia said was a gift from her pops. Do you have an idea of what we could do to try and find her?” Chiron opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by the sound of metal crunching behind him. That was certainly a surprise. Especially when we saw the source of it. Mr. D was holding a crushed Diet Coke, the soda spilling over his fingers and splashing onto his leg. 

Mr. D snapped, “Nancy is nothing but trouble! Reminds me of the last time we’ve had a “special child”. You know what else came with that kid?” 

Anastasia spoke up, “Who was it?” Something struck a chord with the three adults. Mr. D’s hatred and annoyance grew, Chiron looked like he just came back from a funeral, and Rachel looked as if she watched a family member get slaughtered in front of her.

The trio exchanged a look before Rachel approached Anastasia, suggesting sweetly, “Hey why don’t the two of us chat? Like girls! I’m still a teen at heart.” Much to the teen’s protest, she led Anastasia out of the building. I looked back to the other two, only for them to seem to forget I was there and instead turn to each other. This must be what Silena constantly lives through.

Chiron asked Mr. D, “Do you really think this could be the start of another age of heroes? So soon after the two wars?”

Mr. D scoffed, unsatisfied with the skepticism of his coworker, “You weren’t there, Chiron. One second she was struggling to escape, by Thalia’s tree, and the next she’s nowhere in sight. She’s one of his.”

Chiron muttered, looking away, “I would think I would never live to meet another one of his. Not after he went missing for so long.”

Mr. D rolled his eyes, summoning another Diet Coke, “Please. Both of us know that one of those little monsters would come soon enough. Few gods can keep calm around a chick. He’s no exception. Just never thought I’d be stuck here to deal with them.”

Chiron asked, “But what do we do? We should, at the very least, send out a search party, no?”

Once more a scoff escaped from the god, “Search for what? You mean like a quest? Please, without a prophecy or lead, they’ll die before they get a trail. With that girl’s power? She’s long gone towards the Romans, or worse Canada, by now.” 

Chiron sighed, burying his face in his hands, “I hate to admit that you do bring up several good points. Plus she hasn’t been here long enough for proper training so she’ll likely fall victim to the monsters. Especially since she’s alone. I suppose the best thing would be to explain things and break the news to Anastasia.” I refused to believe what I was hearing. They were hiding something, I was sure of it. To give up on a camper so quickly without even attempting to save them? That is not what this camp stands for! 

My fury boiled over so great I could feel a raging fire scorch my veins. The rage grew so great I could feel my skin erupt in goosebumps and my hair stand on end. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed my hammer began to glow in my hand. Shock took control and the hammer clattered to the ground. I hissed, “Styx!” 

Mr. D looked to me and snapped, “Were you eavesdropping, Kyle?”

Sheepishly, I corrected, pocketing my weapon, “Actually, I never left so I’ve technically been part of the conversation the entire time.”

Chiron assured, “Don’t worry, Mr. Volace, you’re not in trouble. In fact it might be better if I explained things to both of you.” On cue, Rachel and Anastasia rejoined the group, smiling and chatting. But even I could tell that their smiles were forced, hiding the panic and grief in their eyes. Rachel looked to Chiron and frowned, understanding. She excused herself and took Mr. D, the latter reluctant, out of the room.                    

Anastasia looked at me before looking up to Chiron, asking, “What’s… going on? Oh! Do you have an idea for how we could find Nadia? Are we sending out a search party? Oh I could lead it!”

Chiron interrupted, “No, Anastasia. There are some things you should know. Specifically Nadia’s father.”

I asked, “Do you know who it is? But she wasn’t claimed!”

Chiron explained, “She was. Last night, but it wasn’t by any normal god. Her father is Chronus. Not the titan Kronus, mind you, but Chronus, the god of time.”

Anastasia spoke up, “With all due respect, why doesn’t he have a cabin? Did he break some sort of oath by having Nadia? Was that why she went missing?”

Chiron held up his hand, “Ms. Roma, please allow me to finish what I have to say before you ask your questions. Chronus doesn’t have a known oath like Artemis or the Big Three. The reason he neither has a cabin or is brought up is due to no one seeing him for the past century. His last child was one of the creators of the nuclear weapon and even that child vanished after the war. Chronus was so focused on keeping the order, we all believed he left to focus solely on it. But apparently he’s returned. But why now of all times? Did he foresee something big coming?”

Furious Anastasia cut in, “Sir! Stay focused!” 

Chiron snapped back to reality, apologizing, “Ah right, sorry, I was just thinking is all. My point is that Nadia is a major target for monsters and her powers can be... powerful if not controlled. That is likely the reason for her watch, it took the brunt of her attacks, per say. Now without it nor proper training, I doubt she’ll be able to make it long enough for us to find her.” That relit the flames of fury inside me. 

I yelled before Anastasia had a chance, “You’re not gonna try? If it were any other kid you wouldn’t hesitate to send out someone to save them! You didn’t even have a satyr bring them to camp in the first place! Why? What is so bad about Nadia that you refuse to even try to save her?”

Chiron glanced between us, hesitant with his reply, “It’s… not as simple. Children born with such power often brings dangers. Even if we did try to send someone, too few would take the risk to have a shot of success. After…” He trailed off, his eyes going glassy as he looked away. He perked up, “No matter, a quest like that with no starting point will have too great of a risk. I forbid you two to leave camp until something new turns up. This is for your sake more than mine, I promise you.” I looked to Anastasia to see tears streaming down her cheeks, fury and hatred fueling the fire in her eyes. Without another word, she turned and sprinted out of the room. I sent Chiron one last glare before following behind.

I spotted Anastasia running back to her cabin, but my body refused to chase after her. Instead, I looked to the woods and my mind wandered to the daughter of Hades. To be forgotten and left behind so easily… Silena, how have you lived like this for so long?

[littlemisscaligirl]

Today, I tried something new. I wrote a Twitter thread for the first time. It’s about abortion, and how I think we need to approach the topic differently. I thought I’d share it here, because I know many of you don’t use Twitter.

So here’s the thread, broken up into small Tweet-size pieces. : )

I’m a mother of six, and a Mormon. I have a good understanding of arguments surrounding abortion, religious and otherwise. I’ve been listening to men grandstand about women’s reproductive rights, and I’m convinced men actually have zero interest in stopping abortion. Here’s why…

If you want to stop abortion, you need to prevent unwanted pregnancies. And men are 100% responsible for unwanted pregnancies. No for real, they are. Perhaps you are thinking: IT TAKES TWO! And yes, it does take two for _intentional_ pregnancies.

But ALL unwanted pregnancies are caused by the irresponsible ejaculations of men. Period. Don’t believe me? Let me walk you through it. Let’s start with this: women can only get pregnant about 2 days each month. And that’s for a limited number of years.

That makes 24 days a year a women might get pregnant. But men can _cause_ pregnancy 365 days a year. In fact, if you’re a man who ejaculates multiple times a day, you could cause multiple pregnancies daily. In theory a man could cause 1000+ unwanted pregnancies in just one year.

And though their sperm gets crappier as they age, men can cause unwanted pregnancies from puberty till death. So just starting with basic biology + the calendar it’s easy to see men are the issue here.

But what about birth control? If a woman doesn’t want to risk an unwanted pregnancy, why wouldn’t she just use birth control? If a women can manage to figure out how to get an abortion, surely she can get birth control, right? Great questions.

Modern birth control is possibly the greatest invention of the last century, and I am very grateful for it. It’s also brutal. The side effects for many women are ridiculously harmful. So ridiculous, that when an oral contraception for men was created, it wasn’t approved…

… because of the side effects. And the list of side effects was about 1/3 as long as the known side effects for women’s oral contraception.

There’s a lot to be unpacked just in that story, but I’ll simply point out (in case you didn’t know) that as a society, we really don’t mind if women suffer, physically or mentally, as long as it makes things easier for men.

But good news, Men: Even with the horrible side effects, women are still very willing to use birth control. Unfortunately it’s harder to get than it should be. Birth control options for women require a doctor’s appointment and a prescription. It’s not free, and often not cheap.

In fact there are many people trying to make it more expensive by fighting to make sure insurance companies refuse to cover it. Oral contraceptives for women can’t be acquired easily, or at the last minute. And they don’t work instantly.

If we’re talking about the pill, it requires consistent daily use and doesn’t leave much room for mistakes, forgetfulness, or unexpected disruptions to daily schedules. And again, the side effects can be brutal. I’M STILL GRATEFUL FOR IT PLEASE DON’T TAKE IT AWAY.

I’m just saying women’s birth control isn’t simple or easy. In contrast, let’s look at birth control for men, meaning condoms. Condoms are readily available at all hours, inexpensive, convenient, and don’t require a prescription. They’re effective, and work on demand, instantly.

Men can keep them stocked up just in case, so they’re always prepared. Amazing! They are so much easier than birth control options for women. As a bonus, in general, women love when men use condoms. They keep us from getting STDs, they don’t lessen our pleasure during sex…

… or prevent us from climaxing. And the best part? Clean up is so much easier — no waddling to the toilet as your jizz drips down our legs. So why in the world are there ever unwanted pregnancies? Why don’t men just use condoms every time they have sex? Seems so simple, right?

Oh. I remember. Men _don’t_ love condoms. In fact, men frequently pressure women to have sex without a condom. And it’s not unheard of for men to remove the condom during sex, without the women’s permission or knowledge. (Pro-tip: That’s assault.)

Why would men want to have sex without a condom? Good question. Apparently it’s because for the minutes they are penetrating their partner, having no condom on gives the experience more pleasure.

So… there are men willing to risk getting a woman pregnant — which means literally risking her life, her health, her social status, her relationships, and her career, so that they can experience a few minutes of _slightly_ more pleasure? Is that for real? Yes. Yes it is.

What are we talking about here pleasure-wise? If there’s a pleasure scale, with pain beginning at zero and going down into the negatives, a back-scratch falling at 5, and an orgasm without a condom being a 10, where would sex _with_ a condom fall? Like a 7 or 8?

So it’s not like sex with a condom is _not_ pleasurable, it’s just not _as_ pleasurable. An 8 instead of a 10. Let me emphasize that again: Men regularly choose to put women at massive risk by having non-condom sex, in order to experience a few minutes of slightly more pleasure.

Now keep in mind, for the truly condom-averse, men also have a non-condom, always-ready birth control built right in, called the pull out. It’s not perfect, and it’s a favorite joke, but it is also 96% effective.

So surely, we can expect men who aren’t wearing a condom to at least pull out every time they have sex, right?

Nope.

And why not?

Well, again, apparently it’s _slightly_ more pleasurable to climax inside a vagina than, say, on their partner’s stomach. So men are willing to risk the life, health and well-being of women, in order to experience a tiny bit more pleasure for like 5 seconds during orgasm.

It’s mind-boggling and disturbing when you realize that’s the choice men are making. And honestly, I’m not as mad as I should be about this, because we’ve trained men from birth that their pleasure is of utmost importance in the world. (And to dis-associate sex and pregnancy.)

While we’re here, let’s talk a bit more about pleasure and biology. Did you know that a man CAN’T get a woman pregnant without having an orgasm? Which means that we can conclude getting a woman pregnant is a pleasurable act for men.

But did you further know that men CAN get a woman pregnant without HER feeling any pleasure at all? In fact, it’s totally possible for a man to impregnate a woman even while causing her excruciating pain, trauma or horror.

In contrast, a woman can have non-stop orgasms with or without a partner and never once get herself pregnant. A woman’s orgasm has literally nothing to do with pregnancy or fertility — her clitoris exists not for creating new babies, but simply for pleasure.

No matter how many orgasms she has, they won’t make her pregnant. Pregnancies can only happen when men have an orgasm. Unwanted pregnancies can only happen when men orgasm irresponsibly.

What this means is a women can be the sluttliest slut in the entire world who loves having orgasms all day long and all night long and she will never find herself with an unwanted pregnancy unless a man shows up and ejaculates irresponsibly.

Women enjoying sex does not equal unwanted pregnancy and abortion. Men enjoying sex and having irresponsible ejaculations is what causes unwanted pregnancies and abortion.

Let’s talk more about responsibility. Men often don’t know, and don’t ask, and don’t think to ask, if they’ve caused a pregnancy. They may never think of it, or associate sex with making babies at all. Why? Because there are 0 consequences for men who cause unwanted pregnancies.

If the woman decides to have an abortion, the man may never know he caused an unwanted pregnancy with his irresponsible ejaculation.

If the woman decides to have the baby, or put the baby up for adoption, the man may never know he caused an unwanted pregnancy with his irresponsible ejaculation, or that there’s now a child walking around with 50% of his DNA.

If the woman does tell him that he caused an unwanted pregnancy and that she’s having the baby, the closest thing to a consequence for him, is that he may need to pay child support. But our current child support system is well-known to be a joke.

61% of men (or women) who are legally required to pay it, simply don’t. With little or no repercussions. Their credit isn’t even affected. So, many men keep going as is, causing unwanted pregnancies with irresponsible ejaculations and never giving it thought.

When the topic of abortion comes up, men might think: Abortion is horrible; women should not have abortions. And never once consider the man who CAUSED the unwanted pregnancy. If you’re not holding men responsible for unwanted pregnancies, then you are wasting your time.

Stop protesting at clinics. Stop shaming women. Stop trying to overturn abortion laws. If you actually care about reducing or eliminating the number of abortions in our country, simply HOLD MEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS.

What would that look like? What if there was a real and immediate consequence for men who cause an unwanted pregnancy? What kind of consequence would make sense? Should it be as harsh, painful, nauseating, scarring, expensive, risky, and life-altering…

… as forcing a woman to go through a 9-month unwanted pregnancy?

In my experience, men really like their testicles. If irresponsible ejaculations were putting their balls at risk, they would stop being irresponsible. Does castration seem like a cruel and unusual punishment? Definitely.

But is it worse than forcing 500,000 women a year to puke daily for months, gain 40 pounds, and then rip their bodies apart in childbirth? Is a handful of castrations worse than women dying during forced pregnancy & childbirth?

Put a castration law on the books, implement the law, let the media tell the story, and in 3 months or less, tada! abortions will have virtually disappeared. Can you picture it? No more abortions in less than 3 months, without ever trying to outlaw them. Amazing.

For those of you who consider abortion to be murder, wouldn’t you be on board with having a handful of men castrated, if it prevented 500,000 murders each year?

And if not, is that because you actually care more about policing women’s bodies, morality, and sexuality, than you do about reducing or eliminating abortions? (That’s a rhetorical question.)

Hey, you can even have the men who will be castrated bank their sperm before it happens — just in case they want to responsibly have kids some day.

[shittyfirstthoughts-blog]

The Case for Making a Case: Choosing Dialogue Over Disruption

(Image: Twitter screenshot of SJP member who attended the event)

In a nation currently experiencing an expansion of political polarization, it comes as no surprise that the effects have been trickling into my own City College campus, as constructive discussions between groups of people––who hold dissenting viewpoints––have become increasingly more difficult to engage in.

Just last Thursday, about 100 students gathered inside one of the NAC auditoriums at the City College of New York (CCNY) to hear the Consul General of Israel in New York, Dani Dayan, speak. Dayan devoted the first half of his lecture to Israel’s growing economic and technological advancements and briefly touched upon Israel’s newly formed diplomatic relations with countries like India and China.

But once the floor opened up for questions, Dayan was met with a barrage of confrontational slams, including a charge of “terrorist” by members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)––a campus organization that touts itself as a movement bent on promoting justice for Palestinians, while simultaneously denying Jewish claims to the land of Israel. With their raucous tone, disruptors often prevented Dayan from even answering the questions that they themselves had asked, making it all the more difficult for other attendees to fully benefit from the lecture.

Now, forget where you stand on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Perhaps you have not even aligned yourself with one side over the other. But to those even remotely familiar with the subject, they know it to be complex, emotional, and sticky. And the grievances tend to run deep for both parties involved. Unfortunately, what SJPs bombardment of the student-run event revealed, was a group of disruptors who felt that only their claims and objections mattered––that this was a clear-cut, one-sided issue. Showing no sign of sincere engagement, SJP members intended to rattle and silence the speaker and students. And I wonder––will a free speech protection gone rogue even raise eyebrows?

In reaction to what had occurred, our interim president, Vincent Boudreau, sent out a mass email to the entire CCNY community the next day. Boudreau wrote that “hate speech attempts to win the argument...by disqualifying others from being heard.” And when reflecting on the tactics that SJP members engaged in, it was clear that they had trodden a very thin line between freedom of expression and downright harassment.

According to a Facebook statement by Students Supporting Israel (SSI) at CCNY, the student organization that actually hosted the event, “comparisons to Hitler and the Nazis were hurled by [SJP] students, one of whom included our very own Student Government President.”

So why weren’t SJP members stopped? Have we lowered expectations to the point where slurs have become an acceptable form of conversation? Have students lost the capacity to listen to varying viewpoints without responding with “you murder children!”? Surely, we must hold ourselves to a higher standard.

But a ‘higher standard’ does not suggest that students’ right to free speech must be heavily regulated if deemed offensive by others. But, if the expression of one group attempts to silence and intimidate another group inside of a closed, student space, then perhaps we ought to consider readjusting the boundaries of free speech on campus.

Now, the SJP crowd was free to set up a booth outside of the event in order to protest the Israeli representative. There, they could have recited their rehearsed lines with as many picket signs, flags, and props as they wanted. Because that form of expression does not infringe on the rights of others. But instead, SJP members chose to infiltrate the event, shout down the speaker, and destroy an opportunity to engage in a real and meaningful way.

Furthermore, has it ever been the case that Jewish students on campus, pro-Israel or otherwise, attended a pro-Palestinian campus event, silenced and disrupted their speaker and sought to intimidate their audience? To anyone reading this: I implore you to come forward and recount a time when such an incident took place.

But just imagine for a moment, if a group of students barged into a classroom, shouted down a professor and hurled offensive smears against her and her students. Would we frame it as a valid form of free speech, or would we attempt to extinguish the disruption? How would a college campus properly function if gross disruption became the norm? And why do we treat student-run events with less protection than a professor-led college classroom? Surely, we can expect similar levels of decorum and basic human decency in a student-run setting. Unless, of course, we’re quite content with attending a place of higher education that allows students to verbally disrupt events that don’t align with their personal or political views.

Even if student groups like SJP feel strongly about their cause––that their claims represent ultimate truths––should that justify the silencing of others? Let SJP instead, come forward and present their case within the confines of a structured, civil debate. And SSI should be encouraged to do the same. Because if any real progress might be achieved, it’ll begin with taking a seat, settling down, and making a case.

#ccny #oped #opinion #political opinion #israel #palestine #free speech #college #campus free speech #citycollege

[willmeiertext]

Molly Bounds: Human Kind

via One Good Eye

When I came in to Molly Bounds’ studio at RedLine, she was working on a comic for a new local publication dealing with ideas of alternative art education, a topic with deep origins for her. Her parents studied art and wound up as so many art students do, completely resentful of the path they took, and were less than excited about their daughter doing the same. It wasn’t surprising to learn that Molly had a combative relationship with her college professors, rejecting their narrow academic mindset. When she was told not to do something in black-and-white, for example, her response would be, no, fuck you, watch.

Molly spends a lot of time trying to create work that doesn’t have her name attached to it. So sometime in the past couple years, when people started becoming really interested in the pop color schemes she had been developing, she instantly switched to a subtle, quiet palette. A main tangent of her work has become an investigation into what sort of power she could give those colors, but that agenda could change at any time. This defiant flexibility is why she doesn’t have or want gallery representation.

Despite her efforts, though, when I see a Molly Bounds piece, I instantly recognize it. There’s usually this powerfully feminine content, there are characteristic color combinations, sure, but the real signature is this stylized, abstracted flatness with the crystal-clear efficiency of a Lichtenstein.

This flatness comes from her background as a printmaker. After working in a high-profile commercial print shop for awhile out of college, where editions would get scrapped for a single speck of imperfection, one day she looked at her work and couldn’t help but wonder if it had become ‘commercial’. Gross.

The aesthetics of imperfection were always something she had tried to hone, and she suddenly found herself needing to find a way back to the human hand, which was all but lacking in her native medium. On the side of her printmaking practice, Molly had long been doing murals, and it was the larger scale of these and the looser gesture of the brush that drew her to her current painting practice.

She recalls seeing a David Hockney at SFMOMA, walking up to this monumental painting and noticing these pencil lines, made with the same blue drafting lead as she uses. In that line: the essence of how the thing was started, honesty about that process, an immediate moment of self-realization – you came from the same thread as a master. Coincidentally, my ‘pencil-line’ moment was at a Lichtenstein retro in Chicago. But with the Hockney or the Lichtenstein, those paintings aren’t about those pencil lines, yet they still somehow make the painting their special level of special.

What is it that’s so implacably special about imperfections in art? Is it different to land on imperfections by accident than to seek out their subtle aesthetic? What allows that to work (when it does)? Something contextual about the greater meaning of painting, or art? Or something… You can go deep here, because these are tricky questions, because in a lot of ways their outcome is a fork in the road that leads to either the best or the worst, the most courageous or the laziest, moments in paintings.

In work that is supposed to be so tight and slick and tricky that it belies its creation and it’s about its own craftsmanship, but where the artist let a tape line bleed and maybe they didn’t think someone would notice – that’s the worst shit ever. But what we’re talking about here isn’t that – it’s when maybe like some outlines are cruder than others, whatever – and those elements are embraced as natural parts of a process, incorporated into a stylistic aesthetic. Maybe it’s just an alignment of subjective preferences between Molly and I that make these moments so special, but one of my favorite contemporary painters has long been Neo Rauch, and that’s pretty much the essence of his work, those collisions where something started to stop working and he just left it and moved on to the next moment. It’s this honesty, like, okay, I didn’t really mean to do that but now it’s there. It’s admitting imperfection without the shame of trying to cover it. It’s the majority of what I’m referencing if I was to use the term ‘painterly’.

The human element, in this case, embracing vulnerabilities, is characteristic of Molly’s work on many levels. Almost all of her work depicts human figures, and almost all of those figures appear to be grappling with something vaguely familiar to us. There’s an interesting sort of honesty here, where true stories of real people are highly abstracted to their most basic representation. This is where the reductive flatness allows their messages to ring so clearly.

Molly’s reference point here comes from comics. In her personal favorite, Optic Nerve, the story at its core is about an insecure teen girl who passes out at a party and endures an embarrassment no one will let her forget about. It’s interesting to consider how frame cells would be chosen in something like this when there are so few moments of action to pace. As a painter dealing with similar themes and styles, Molly frequently escapes the constraint of having the single frame of a canvas by incorporating her mural work into painting series, hopping outside the picture plane so that the entire room is being read. It’s painting as installation, or vice versa, supposed to be read like a comic you inhabit yourself.

But it isn’t just a coy reference to comics, it’s core to her philosophy about art. It’s the painting version of a zine, of a performance piece: you have to be there to get it. Which isn’t about exclusivity, it’s about a real-life presence. Making sure the art is really there with you in space and time and can’t fully be detached from that context. She wouldn’t recreate the mural in a collector’s house, same as the collector couldn’t keep Yoko Ono in a cage cutting hair.

Molly thinks a lot about performance art. She’s really interested in choreography of the body, particularly using the body in space to enact disruption, like in a protest. Her work is admittedly not very disruptive, but she’s looking to try to enact the same sort of agency within people, a way of finding a voice, finding common ground with others you might’ve assumed you have nothing in common with.

But on the other hand, her works are sort of disruptive to the flow of everyday life, in the same way that meditation is. They’re still and contemplative, and you can reside in their humbly non-intellectual states. The goal is unlocking this quiet thing within ourselves that isn’t even directly translatable to words. And that’s where the earlier conversation about abstracting emotive content is really significant, because emotions are about as abstract as abstract gets. For a by-all-accounts representational painter, dealing successfully and unambiguously with that content is pretty cool.

#Denver #denver art #contemporary art #painting #installation #comics #roy lichtenstein #david hockney #neo rauch #printmaking #illustration

[samiam03x]

How to Leverage Your Creativity to Convert Leads

Creativity (cre·a·tiv·i·ty) krēāˈtivədē noun

the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.

Creativity may not immediately seem incredibly relevant to CRO. After all, CRO is often thought of as a study in best practices and procedural experimentation.

Today, I’d like to challenge you to look a little deeper.

Following best practices does matter of course. You should absolutely continue to optimize your pages with A/B testing, focusing on message-match and ensure your CTA’s are clear and concise.

But there are a number of interesting and entirely useful ways that you can “shake the trees” so to speak.

Let’s take a closer look at how you can flex your creative muscle to increase conversions.

Remind Me Why We Have to Do This?

One word. Oversaturation.

Users are increasingly “blind” to traditional forms of advertising. Just take a look at banner ads.

Users are essentially numb to them, and have been for a long time. In fact, studies show that users generally don’t even give site siderails a single consideration. I know I don’t, and I bet you don’t either.

This study showed that across all mediums and placements, CTR on banners lands somewhere around .05%. Yikes.

Same goes for spam emails, banners, popups… the list goes on.

I’m not saying these tactics don’t work, remarkably some of them still do. Banners are still valuable to expose new audiences to your brand identity even if they don’t garner clicks. Popups can still gather leads when implemented appropriately.

My point is, they’re no longer “fresh” enough to grab someone’s attention and create a memorable experience.

This is why leveraging creativity matters now more than ever. Without further ado, here are three wacky ways to do just that.

1. Be Original. Be Memorable.

“Just be yourself.”

I know, I know. This sounds like the advice Mom gave you before you went to summer camp. How’d it work out for you then? Stolen lunch money? Teasing?

While there are some potential downsides to being unique, particularly when surrounded by kids or teenagers, the perks can be pretty fantastic as well.

I’d go so far as to say that in the business world, being memorable is worth its weight in gold.

Many customers make buying decisions based off emotional responses to brands. Whether it be to an ad, an email, or maybe a customer review they saw on YouTube.

The brands that tell compelling and memorable stories are the ones that land the most sales.

By being memorable and evoking a positive response from leads, you too can capitalize on this. A few ways to accomplish this…

Curate a quirky imagery style that you feature on ads, social platforms and your website. Moz does a fantastic job of this, check out their ad portfolio on MOAT.

Come up with a memorable and unusual catch phrase, then shout it to the world. When I think about slogans, my mind always races to Redbull. “Redbull gives you wings” is to this day, one of the most impactful, concise, and informative slogans I can think of.

Be disruptive with your advertising (screw the norms). Facebook canvas ads are a fantastic way to get creative with your approach. Check out this example by tieks.

Sticking out like a sore thumb is a good thing when it comes to converting leads. Making a lasting impression and being personable will endear your brand to leads.

Remember, you always want to view your digital funnel from the eyes of the visitor.

Discerning visitors have an inherent sense of authenticity. If you’re genuine with your approach to your product or service, that will come across loud and clear, and in turn builds trust.

The icing on the cake? The more a lead trusts you, the more likely they are to convert.

TLDR: Developing your brand’s unique voice and “personality” encourages consumer trust, which in turns produces sales.

2. Email Nurturing with Authenticity

We all know that email is massively effective when it comes to converting leads. It’s safe to assume each and everyone of you reading this tracks email signups as “goals” in your analytics platform of choice.

Hell, at RankPay we even have a tradition of lining up for high-fives when our MailChimp subscription level increases.

Here’s the problem with emailing nowadays: Email users, aka the vast majority of people, are increasingly savvy as to what constitutes something of value in their inbox. You can’t just send an email with any old subject header and expect a double-digit open rate.

It’s time again to bust out our creativity and buck the trend.

In short, we want to be the unforgettable brand that’s unique but not bizarre enough to be off-putting.

For instance, I recently landed an opportunity by breaking all of the rules. Even the ones deliberately laid out in the denial letter I first received.

With this in mind, start by taking a closer look at your own lead nurturing email campaigns. Are the subject lines innovative, quirky or unique? Do they have any personality?

Have some fun and try A/B testing novel subject lines where you let your personality shine through. Note that it’s OK if you hear your brain protesting…

“Play it safe! What are you doing? Best practices are established. You can’t go rogue like this!”

But do it. Click send. That quirky but endearing email subject line might be just what the doctor ordered.

When you have fun, your audience will recognize this intuitively. Smiles are infectious. Positive brand associations mean more conversions.

3. Write Marketing Copy to Appeal to Emotions

Every chance you have to put words in front of your leads, is a chance to sell them on your solution. But without appealing to a lead’s emotions, we’re wasting these opportunities.

It’s understandable that us marketers occasionally struggle with this part. We become intimately familiar with our products and services, and it can become difficult to see the forest for the trees. That is to say that we lose sight of what a customer journey looks like from the prospect’s point of view.

Image Source

One negative outcome of this lack of perspective can be uninspired copywriting. No need to be hard on yourself, it happens to all of us! Present company included.

Just the other day I caught myself writing a headline for a lead-nurturing email as follows: “The Best SEO Service for Small Businesses”. That’s all well and good. It’s a fairly standard headline in that it clearly highlights our company’s service and our target audience. But it’s not memorable and I’m not sure it will truly “connect” with readers.

Luckily I realized it, and took a step back to brainstorm. In the end, I decided to go with “The easy, affordable way to earn higher rankings.” This version has a lot going for it.

It’s punchy

It’s catchy

It connects with the problems this reader faces (budget and difficulty)

It conveys authority

It explains what we do

And again, I’d point out that being memorable matters. Generic = forgettable. Unique = memorable.

Let’s take a look at a few places you can put this to work for your business.

Company motto or slogan

Day in and day out I see brands without a good catch phrase.

Look at it this way: every single person is inundated with brand exposures from the moment they wake up. Some studies show individuals being exposed to literally thousands of ads each day.

Yankelovich, a market research firm, estimates that a person living in a city 30 years ago saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day, compared with up to 5,000 today. – New York Times

The thing is, there’s only so much room in our brains to remember all of these brand impressions. It’s thus critical that we aim to be one of the few brands that leaves a truly lasting impression.

When I’m helping clients develop these “quick pitches”, my process looks like this:

Brainstorm as many ideas as I can (25-100)

Pick the best 10-15

Iterate and improve

Get third-party feedback

Finalize 3-5 versions

A/B test for resonance

It’s so simple it hurts. But at the end of the day, it works.

Headlines

When it comes to being creative with your headlines, start by asking yourself a few key questions.

Does this convey our solution’s value to the customer?

Is it punchy and concise?

Does it appeal to emotions?

Is it consistent with our overall “story”?

These questions should get your gears turning and the creative juices flowing.

Remember, we want to craft a memorable message that our leads will not forget. We also want to make sure that we evoke an emotional response and appeal to the potential customer’s needs or desires.

Check out this killer example…

It’s got everything going for it. It’s punchy and unique. The wording matches the imagery. The use of the word savor as a verb is particularly great because it elicits a clearly emotional response from the audience. Who wouldn’t want to eat whatever they’re serving at this place?

Calls to action

You’ve probably already spent a lot of time optimizing the button size, color and placement. If not, be sure to check this guide on how to improve the efficacy of your CTAs in general.

Regarding the wording however, it’s important to take the chance to put something personal in the actual text. Instead of using a button that says “Submit” try something like “Start My Trial” or “Boost My Rankings”.

Copyblogger clearly showed data that corroborates using “first-person” CTA text will increase conversions. Cool right?

Last but not least, remember to be unique. Don’t be afraid to let personality shine through. Here’s an example of both a CTA and a form that I immediately loved.

Remember, Being Weird Isn’t So Bad

If you’ve watched Freaks and Geeks, you probably already believe this statement. If you’re more of the Biff type, there’s nothing wrong with you either. We love everyone here.

But I hope you’ll take the time to consider the advice above, as it can really work wonders on your conversion rate.

The key takeaways are to embrace personality, be genuine, and appeal to your customers emotions. The more a customer trusts your brand and remembers your message, the more likely they are to buy.

Write interesting copy, be weird with your subject lines, and be memorable! Let your freak flag fly!

About the Author: Sam is the marketing manager at RankPay, a top-rated SEO service. When Sam’s not writing or growing businesses, he enjoys talking about himself in the third person.

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