#SoC Chapter 14

[stromuprisahat]

Ivans loss: "soldiers aren't human beings" & "all grisha are soldiers" is probably what the author thinks. I still remember when RoW came out and someone asked Leigh Bardugo a very heated question about Fjerdans and she gave a strange justification (link below). She replied, no to making the reference (let's just respect that answer and let's say Fjerdans arent' what the question said they are - and I don't even want to type it out because it's like kicking a beehive and no good will come from it) Let's focus the issue of grisha = soldier = fair game Leigh justifies Matthias and Fjerda's actions by saying: @ 1:23 "Grisha are soldiers. they are weapons. they are ppl who are fighting back" But....SoC had Matthias and Fjerdans going after non-soldiers. They were quite literally hunting civilians, farmers, etc. in all the lands. "Pursuing rogue Grisha in other lands...liberating Grisha captives with the sole purpose of clapping them back in chains and sending them back to fjerda for trial and execution..." next page captive speaking "We are not criminals...we are ordinary people - farmers, teachers. Not me Nina thought grimly. I'm a soldier. ...Did Leigh truly forget about the 15 innocent souls who were chained in the ship? 15 souls who were there just for being grisha? Does she not re-read her works at all????? x.com/hellcatdynes/status/1584699468536221697

That woman! (derogatory)

(Ivan post)

tw: I'm not gonna hold back in this reply as much as I usually manage. It might get vulgar and harsh.

I've seen this particular pile of shit while it was fresh and gods! I can't even begin to explain how sick it makes me. No wonder so many of her fans are a bunch of ignorant idiots.

Let's start with the icky bit- the whole quote:

... people have drawn parallels between Matthias and the drüskelle and the SS, and I don't think that's completely accurate. The Jews, who were put to their death in WWII were innocent. They were civilians! Their crime was being Jewish. Grisha are soldiers. They are weapons. They are people, who are fighting back, so though the drüskelle are hateful and carry a lot of prejudice with them, it is not the same as them going after innocent civilians. And I need to make that clear, because I would never write a Nazi/Jewish romance.

Honey, that's exactly what you did!

I won't shy away from that passage, because it pisses me off immensely.

... people have drawn parallels between Matthias and the drüskelle and the SS, and I don't think that's completely accurate.

So, here we go with this one- I'm entirely sure their uniforms and Brum's accomplishments have nothing in common with fucking Nazis. If you're colour-blind, or US-American, so you don't grow up with photos of that particular chunk of history in your fucking town, because those people in nice uniforms used to burn corpses of their victims just behind the walls. The crematorium is still standing btw. Daily visited by dozens of tourists.

Seriously- fuck respecting what she said! I possess reading comprehension! These atrocities happened around HERE! It's not just an ugly story for me! I grew up in town once used as Jewish ghetto, concentration camp and Gestapo prison, so yeah, I might be overly sensitive about how you choose to dress you genocidal murder club!

The Jews, who were put to their death in WWII were innocent. They were civilians! Their crime was being Jewish. Grisha are soldiers. They are weapons.

As you mentioned:

... The drüskelle had existed for hundreds of years, but under Brum’s leadership, their force had doubled in size and become infinitely more deadly. He had changed their training, developed new techniques for rooting out Grisha in Fjerda, infiltrated Ravka’s borders, and begun pursuing rogue Grisha in other lands, even hunting down slaving ships, “liberating” Grisha captives with the sole purpose of clapping them back in chains and sending them to Fjerda for trial and execution. ...

Six of Crows- Chapter 14

If I wanted to be extremely kind, I could assume this is just Ravkan propaganda- it's what Nina had been taught-, but later we see her experience:

“You’ll be tried for espionage and crimes against the people.” “We are not criminals,” said a Fabrikator in halting Fjerdan from his place on the floor. He’d been there the longest and was too weak to rise. “We are ordinary people—farmers, teachers.” Not me, Nina thought grimly. I’m a soldier. “You’ll have a trial,” said the drüskelle. “You’ll be treated more fairly than your kind deserve.”

Six of Crows- Chapter 14

The wording's rather obvious- it's not about herding up enemy soldiers, but hunting down another species, another race, another kind. That's exactly the type of reasoning Nazis used- Jews were something different, inferior. Dehumanization is a significant part of their ideology.

*takes several deep breaths, because that Cola I've just drank is about to make a re-appearance*

I'll point out another part- already in one of the links in this post, but:

Until a drüskelle had accomplished a mission on his own and been granted officer status, he was required to remain clean-shaven. ... “Good work is right,” one said in Fjerdan. “Fifteen Grisha to deliver to the Ice Court!” “If this doesn’t earn us our teeth—” “You know it will.” “Good, I’m sick of shaving every morning.” “I’m going to grow a beard down to my navel.”

Six of Crows- Chapter 14

Capturing people to have them slaughtered is a rite of passage for drüskelle. It's an accomplishment worth marking. Something to look forward to and boast about.

Grisha are soldiers. They are weapons.

What about non-combatant members of Second Army? Healers, "untrained" Materialki, Grisha working for nobles? Those are weapons too?!

Like- we've already established nobody cares about the free-range Grisha (unless it's drüskelle in need of promotion), but even Second Army includes those, who aren't the first line of defence! Who won't be used to be attacked.

They are people, who are fighting back, so though the drüskelle are hateful and carry a lot of prejudice with them, it is not the same as them going after innocent civilians.

I'll make it even more obvious- would you say rape doesn't count as such, when its victim learnt self-defense before it happened?!

Nice opinion, Leigh! Great message for the poor young vulnerable girls! Very empowering!

And this is one of those days I'm sorry they don't organize full-experience trips to places like my ex-hometown, because I'd gladly invite that woman, so I can accompany her visit with loud reading of specific quotes from her work.

[bookishwords]

wylan and his mother 🥺

[rupturedhaven]

“You call that breakfast?” Nina raised an eyebrow.

“It’s the first thing I’ve eaten this morning, so yes.” Kaz said. “Would you like to bottle feed me and change my nappy since you’re treating me like a baby?”

“Now there’s an image I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.” Nina laughed. “Were you ever a baby or did you just pop out all tall and miserable?”

“Yes.” Kaz smirked.

“Inej, he’s pushing my buttons again.” Nina turned to Inej and pouted.

“I don’t know what you expect me to do.” Inej shrugged.

“Where are the others?” Kaz asked.

“Matthias is hiding in the bathroom and I can only assume Jesper and Wylan are sharing a piece of spaghetti like Lady and the Tramp.” Nina said.

When We Collide, Chapter 14: "What We Were Made For" (COMING SOON!)

I couldn't get the OwlCrate SoC duology so to feel less sad I wanted to share this because I love writing Nina so much

[angelshepards]

something i've thought about for a long time is ponyboy's dislike of how darry and steve treat him, and the sort of comical take of ponyboy being a typical teenager in his indignation. and i don't necessarily disagree (ponyboy definitely has a backbone when he feels wronged), but i do think that there's a much deeper piece to ponyboy's reaction, and that would be his insecurity about being excluded. i remember when i first read the outsiders i was really struck in the first chapter about how ponyboy described the gang, almost like he wasn't part of it. he says they only accept him because of his status as darry and soda's brother. he talks about johnny being "last", "the youngest", and "the pet". i think a lot of what is perceived as resentment towards darry and steve's treatment of him actually stems from his insecurity that they don't want him around, or that he's not wanted period. that he's excluded, that he's an outsider to the gang. he loves soda because soda actually includes him. pony doesn't ask, he waits for soda to invite him. even more telling of this insecurity is when cherry attempts to separate him from the gang at the drive-in by saying that he's different from dallas. ponyboy immediately rebukes her by reiterating his bond to dallas.

to counter the idea that ponyboy holds grudges, i actually offer that the novel is rife with examples of ponyboy being an extremely forgiving person. the most clear example of this would of course be his forgiveness of darry's violence towards him. we get ponyboy's internal thoughts about his attempt to understand darry, highlighting ponyboy's ability to empathize with others. this empathy and compassion is also shown in his interactions with cherry and randy. he shows his willingness to listen to their perspective in a non-judgemental way. with cherry, he tells her the horrific story of johnny's beating by her bf and she tells him "things are rough all over". with randy, he tells ponyboy that the reason behind bob's near-murderous actions was that he was never told no. they are both essentially strangers to ponyboy but have picked up on the same thing - ponyboy wouldn't react with anger to these claims but would instead be willing to listen.

basically my point is that i think yes ponyboy is a 14 year old kid but also there are some real character traits that we can see through his actions. and also that any sympathy felt by the reader for the Soc characters is a direct result of ponyboy's compassion.

[omnipitant-duck]

Chapter 4 of the fanfic Im writing

C/W: violence, drowning, attempted murder

Characters (mentioned) in this chapter: Kaz Brekker(SoC), Inej Ghafa(SoC), Jesper Fahey(SoC), Nina Zenik(SoC), Pekka Rollins(SoC), Pekka Rollins' gang members(SoC) (Unnamed), Katara(AtLA), Aang(AtLA), other members of the Gaang(AtLA) (not mentioned directly)

A/N: I LIVE ONCE MORE!!!! Here to give you your serving of shitty, sleep deprived fanfic then disappear for the rest of summer! I decided to start posting the new chapters separately after the third part so that I didn't have this mile long post on my blog lmao

(A/N pt. 2: I might have ya'll give me suggestions if you have any ideas for the name I should give the fic :3)

Most gang leaders in Ketterdam didn't care where their cronies came from. Whether from forced contact or willing servitude, as long as the work was done well they didn't have to care. They got paid either way after all.

Katara didn't seem like herself as she stalked through the alleyways of the barrel. She was dressed in an all black outfit, which of course was provided by Pekka Rollins. But all she had to do was make it to Kaz Brekker's gang's hideout, or, she supposed that it was more of a house than anything. It was kind of hard to call it a hideout when it was, y'know, right there. Anyway, she was getting off topic. She just had to get in, dispose of Kaz, and get out. Sounded easy enough, as much as she hated the thought, she'd taken him down once she could do it again. She just couldn't let Aang or anyone else get hurt. But unfortunately Kaz was a necessary casualty.

Kaz leaned heavily on his desk, his eyelids just about as heavy as cargo ships. He just had to finish the paperwork he was behind on, that's all he had to do, then he could maybe get some sleep. Maybe.

His eyes shot open he heard a creak from the floorboards across the room.

"Inej?" Was all Kaz could manage before he was yanked out of his chair with barely enough time to recover from the shock and grab his cain before his face was covered in... water? But not like someone just poured it on him, it was like his head was being held under a particularly deep puddle and someone was just holding him there. He couldn't move but he couldn't feel anyone's hands on him. His eyes darted around the room frantically, unsure of what he was looking for until he saw the figure in the corner of his room. The tidemaker. She was just barely there in the darkness of the room, her face nearly completely obscured by shadow, save for a small sliver of moonlight and dim light from the oil lamp that Kaz had burning that illuminated just enough of her face for Kaz to see one of her eyes and how truly monstrous she looked like this. She wasn't as bright anymore, her once saturated colors were dull and almost grey, but they seemed much more natural now. Like his world was changing her. Seemingly irreversibly.

He could see her mouthing something, maybe a prayer, maybe cursing his name for everything he'd ever done. His vision was spotted with little black dots, it didn't help that he already couldn't hold his breath for too long thanks to the plague, but it was as if death was just taunting him now. Forcing him to play this game until he couldn't take it anymore then forcing him to play some more.

"I'm sorry," Katara sobbed. "I'm sorry but I can't let them get hurt!"

Inej was already halfway up the stairs with Nina and Jesper after she heard yelling coming from Kaz's office. They couldn't believe the sight they were met with when they barged through the door; Kaz Brekker, the Bastard of the Barrel, being drowned on dry land by a girl who looked to be little more that 13 or 14 years old.

She was still yelling and sobbing about how she was sorry, how she couldn't let them get hurt, even after they had her hands behind her back and Kaz was standing up again. The group exchanged a few glances with each other before Nina and Jesper got to questioning the girl and trying hopelessly to console her.

"What happened?" Inej asked, suddenly right next to Kaz.

"I don't know," he muttered in a way that made it seem like he already knew.

"Pekka!" Kaz yelled as he swung the door of the Kaelish Prince open only to be met with a gun to his temple. "Well that's not a very polite greeting, now is it?" he growled as he looked over at one of Pekka's lackeys who had been standing by the door before Kaz had even gotten there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Guess why I'm writing and posting this chapter so late challenge!!!! Well,

I don't think ya'll are ready for the plans I have for all of them, not just the Gaang

Taglist: @thekhansquared @hopeless-umii

Lmk if you want to be added :3

[jazzythursday]

6. Are there any aspects of a character or plot that you wished had been delved into more in the duology?

31. What moments made you freak out (in a happy or sad way) the most?

55. What did you take away from reading the duology? Has reading it been impactful to you in any particular way?

🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛

6. I answered this one the other day , but if I had to pick another I'd say that Dunyasha's backstory is facinating to me and I'd love to know more about the crazy mercinary cult she came from and how they could connect with the rest of the Grishaverse.

31. Nina finding the room with the drain in the Ice Court. Kaz regurgitating lock picks (and Kaz being unhinged and borderline feral in general) in both books. JVE's speech at the end of soc. Kaz and Wylan falling through the ceiling in ck (and Kaz getting covered in gravy). The entirety of chapter 14 of ck with Wylan's back story and the trip to Saint Hilde's. Chapter 31 of ck where wylan gets taken/tortured for information. Jesper making the shot at the end of ck. So many more, the list really does go on.

55. This question is impossible actually because there are so many ways these books were impactful to me that I’m overwhelmed trying to narrow it down. Both the books and the show inspired me to write again and were the catalyst for making so many friends over on the wesper server, and tbh I’m not sure how I’d have gotten through last year without that. I’d say also the queer, disability, and neurodiversity representation was really refreshing and low key kind of revolutionary to see so openly portrayed after years of feeling like I was only able to live in the subtext of my favorite media.

Specifically for the books themselves though I think one big take away is that, whether you’ve found them yet or not, there are people out there who will accept you for who you are, and they will love you both in spite and because of your percieved flaws. Also that healing is not a linear or solitary process.

soc ask meme

[sassypainterangel]

soc in music ch 11-15

ch 11

this chapter was tough.

flash bomb by pip authlin junior

jesper & wylan’s first fight scene together. “blind by the flash bomb wylan had set off. … not bad for a mercher’s kid, the thought to himself, and opened fire.”

ch 12

let me go to heaven by toothtaker, qr!

“a blade this sharp was known as kind steel… saints receive me” pg 152. the vibes. i need to kill them but its fading and i need to repent

ch 13

help by isabel larosa

lyric “scared im losing home,” “he was alive because of inej” page 155

one eyed bastard by green day

“drove his gloved fingers into oomen’s eye socket. he twitched and shrieked as kaz yanked out his eyeball” pg 157/8

ch 14

dont die by hinshi

“please be okay” pg 163, “‘she cant die,’ he said. ‘not this way.’” pg 164

the slave ship & rainy mood by martin czerny

sexy witch by count spookula

“‘witch,’ he spat… ‘you kissed me’… ‘what did you to to me in your dreams?’ the ship listed gently. the lanterns swayed. his eyes were blue fire. ‘everything.’” pg 173-175

ch 15

seasick by the rare occasions

“matthias had to head straight for the railing.” pg 176

ghost child by dick

“my ghost wont associate with your ghost” pg 181

playlist updated as posts come out

[aaronstveit]

20 questions for 20 writers!

tagged by the bestie @afaramir abby thank you so much for giving me an excuse to avoid writing tonight <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 45!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 492,078 and literally a solid quarter of that is from c&b oh i'm laughing.

3. What fandoms do you write for? right now only for les mis but most of my works are trc and in 2019/2020 i wrote a bit for soc and aftg.....

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? oh i'm laughing these aren't even GOOD.... 1. [redacted soc fic] 2. makes me feel a little bit closer to you - pynch clothes sharing fic 3. c&b (my most beloved this is the only valid entry on this list) 4. i ain't gotta tell him (i think he knows) - pynch ithk songfic 5. all the time, all the time (i think of you all the time) - pynch fic where ronan is tutoring adam in art

5. Do you respond to comments? mostly yes! for like a solid 2 years i didn't but now i do again <3

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? ummm i think the only actually angsty ending i have is all too well adansey fic? i'm such a happy ending girlie that's the only one i can think of that doesn't end happily. for obvious reasons.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? i like to think pretty much everything i write ends happily but c&b proposal fic is what comes to mind since i finally finished it THREE ENTIRE YEARS LATER very recently

8. Do you get hate on fics? no i have been very lucky so far actually!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? no because i am afraid

10. Do you write crossovers? i do not!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? not that i know of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? nope not yet!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? only the theoretical AUs that coco and i like to talk about but never commit to writing <3 although really you could consider coco my cowriter on most of my fics (especially c&b) like so much of them comes from her fr. love you coco <3333

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? oh i can't pick. that's like asking a mother to pick her favorite child. right now those dead gay french revolutionaries have my heart but tomorrow, who knows?

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? ugh i hate admitting defeat but. but. i am aware that beloved beloved pynch band fic will probably never be finished. which is a SHAME because i have soooooooo much of it planned out i mean like. i've got full albums designed. most of the beats are mapped out. i've got fake tweets written up, i've got chapter titles and scene drafts. like the entire concept is there and i'm so obsessed with it. but i just. after all these years it is extremely unlikely that i am going to actually, you know. write it.

16. What are your writing strengths? beginnings. i am so good at beginnings. that's why i have so many wips. also i like to think i'm good at dialogue. i try to write conversationally even when it's not actually a conversation and i think that translates well to actual dialogue it's fun.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? endings. i can't end anything to save my LIFE. also just plots in general escape me. and i always end up writing 10k more words than i meant to.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? um other people who can do it definitely should! i however cannot do that. i did however use my extremely limited knowledge of the french language for the section headings in my most recent fic and i like the effect it produced i think.

19. First fandom you wrote for? all evidence of their existence has been wiped from the face of the earth but my very first fics were one star wars fic and one agents of shield fic circa like. 2015.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? legally i'm obligated to say c&b but right now actually i'm still very very happy with how exr rooftop fic turned out. literally the entire time i was writing it i was just having a blast. i love writing angst and stuff it's like chewing on a polly pocket toy. now that i'm evil i never wanna write fluff again. i'm torturing those fictional guys fr.

tagging besties @television-bodies @gingerpeachtea and anyone else who wants to do it! ♡

[sky-neverending]

ok so im going through all my google docs rn and making a list of the premises. (see list below). based on the premise of the fic, pick a number and put it in my ask box, and i’ll share what i’ve written for it so far, no matter how long or short it is!

1. Stranger Things Modern AU

2. Stranger Things Chatfic

3. Steddie 7 minutes in heaven

4. The Party (kids) as the 5 stages of grief

5. Post Vecna, Dustin’s mom falls ill and Steve takes him in

6. part 3 of my flowers of 86 series, Steddie and some of the kids go on a road trip in an RV (direct follow up to Roadside Roses)

7. Steddie valentine’s day date, friends to lovers

8. Steve adopts Dustin

9. Literally just Steve admiring things about Eddie and crushing on him hard

10. Steddie They Both Die At The End AU

11. heartstopper x hunger games au

12. Steddie Summer Camp AU

13. Steddie, platonic stobin, and familial dustin & steve soulmate au (steve has three soulmarks)

14. Wylan finds a note from his dad- angst

15. Will Byers angst, Byler

16. Steddie unhappy ending, hospital room romance

17. Steddie childhood friends AU

18. Young Royals Prince Simon AU

19. The Party goes to the beach

20. Malec secret relationship

21. Wesper coffee shop AU

22. Crows roommates AU

23. Wylan and Kaz friendship, hurt/comfort

24. Kanej letters

25. azicrow watches call me by your name

26. chapter 2 of my stranger things x soc crossover

27. crowley angst

None of these are complete! most of them are only a handful of words, but I thought if i shared them maybe it would make me want to work on some of them! so don’t be afraid to put a number in my ask box!!

[and-then-there-were-n0ne]

The medical transitioning of children has become one of the most controversial and polarising issues of our time. For some, it is a medical scandal. For others, life-saving treatment.

So, when hundreds of messages were leaked from an internal forum of doctors and mental health workers from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, it was bound to spark interest. WPATH describes itself as an “interdisciplinary professional and educational organisation devoted to transgender health”. Most significantly, it produces standards of care (SOC) which, it claims, articulate “professional consensus” about how best to help people with gender dysphoria.

Despite its grand title, WPATH is neither solely a professional body – a significant proportion of its membership are activists – nor does it represent the “world” view on how to care for this group of people. There is no global agreement on best practice. The leaked messages (and the odd recording) – dubbed the WPATH files – are disturbing. In one video, doctors acknowledge that patients are sometimes too young to fully understand the consequences of puberty blockers and hormones for their fertility. “It’s always a good theory that you talk about fertility preservation with a 14-year-old, but I know I’m talking to a blank wall,” one Canadian endocrinologist says.

WPATH’s president, Dr Marci Bowers, comments on the impact of early blocking of puberty on sexual function in adulthood. “To date,” she writes, “I’m unaware of an individual claiming ability to orgasm when they were blocked at Tanner 2.” Tanner stage 2 is the beginning of puberty. It can be as young as nine in girls.

Elsewhere, there are extraordinary discussions on how to manage “trans clients” with dissociative identity disorder (what used to be called multiple personality disorder) when “not all the alters have the same gender identity”. Surgeons talk about procedures that result in bodies that don’t exist in nature: those with both sets of genitals – the “phallus-preserving vaginoplasty”; double mastectomies that don’t have nipples; “nullification” surgery, where there are no genitals at all, just smooth skin. And doctors discuss the possibility that 16-year-old patients have liver cancer as the result of taking hormones. The problem is not necessarily the discussions themselves, but that the organisation is not so open when speaking publicly.

The views of WPATH matter to the UK. For years, the organisation and its SOC have been cited as a source of “best practice” for trans healthcare by numerous medical bodies, including the British Medical Association and the General Medical Council – and still is. The Royal College of Psychiatrists refers to WPATH in its own recommendations for care.

Most relevant is that WPATH is cited as “good practice” in the current service specifications underpinning youth and adult gender clinics in England and Scotland, albeit in both cases it is WPATH’s previous SOC that is mentioned. The most recent version does away with all age limits from the beginning of puberty for hormones and surgical interventions, other than female to male genital surgery, and contains a chapter on eunuchs.

Several staff at England’s NHS adult gender clinics are not just members of WPATH (one is the former president), but authors of that current SOC. So too was Susie Green, the former boss of the young people’s charity Mermaids; a lack of medical expertise does not exclude either membership of WPATH or the power to influence policy.

England’s only NHS children’s gender clinic – the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) at London’s Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust – will close its doors at the end of March, having been earmarked for closure since July 2022. But the 2016 service specification still underpinning Gids states that “the service will be delivered in line with” WPATH 7. While Gids was generally more cautious than other WPATH practitioners, clinicians I spoke to for my book, Time to Think, also relayed how young people claiming to have multiple personalities, or who identified with another race, could be referred for puberty blockers.

Gids staff have also presented at WPATH conferences for the past decade, including the most recent, held in 2022. This doesn’t imply agreement with WPATH’s principles, but association with the group becomes harder to justify as its views become more extreme.

It is difficult to see how the Department of Health’s assertion that NHS England “moved away from WPATH guidelines more than five years ago” holds.

What is true is that there is no mention of WPATH in updated guidance that will underpin the new youth gender services opening on 1 April. What’s more, NHS England has made it clear that WPATH’s views are irrelevant to its core recommendation that puberty blockers will no longer be available as part of routine clinical practice.

There is a battle raging over how best to care for children and young people struggling with their gender identity, with ever increasing numbers of European countries choosing to take a more cautious, less medical, approach after finding the evidence base underpinning those treatments to be wanting. NHS England insists that new services will operate in accordance with recommendations of the independent Cass review, and that it is well placed to develop policies “in line with clinical evidence and expertise”. But it won’t be easy. There is already discussion among professionals working in gender services planning a pushback against Cass’s as yet unpublished final recommendations.

It was difficult for Gids to stand up to external pressures, allowing the care it offered to suffer. At the same time, NHS England failed in its duty to provide proper oversight. Both they and those in charge of the new services must do better if they are to avoid the mistakes of the past. Without proper, evidence-based guidance on what good practice looks like, organisations like WPATH will continue to have influence.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Hannah Barnes

Published: Mar 10, 2024

The medical transitioning of children has become one of the most controversial and polarising issues of our time. For some, it is a medical scandal. For others, life-saving treatment.

So, when hundreds of messages were leaked from an internal forum of doctors and mental health workers from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, it was bound to spark interest. WPATH describes itself as an “interdisciplinary professional and educational organisation devoted to transgender health”. Most significantly, it produces standards of care (SOC) which, it claims, articulate “professional consensus” about how best to help people with gender dysphoria.

Despite its grand title, WPATH is neither solely a professional body – a significant proportion of its membership are activists – nor does it represent the “world” view on how to care for this group of people. There is no global agreement on best practice. The leaked messages (and the odd recording) – dubbed the WPATH files – are disturbing. In one video, doctors acknowledge that patients are sometimes too young to fully understand the consequences of puberty blockers and hormones for their fertility. “It’s always a good theory that you talk about fertility preservation with a 14-year-old, but I know I’m talking to a blank wall,” one Canadian endocrinologist says.

WPATH’s president, Dr Marci Bowers, comments on the impact of early blocking of puberty on sexual function in adulthood. “To date,” she writes, “I’m unaware of an individual claiming ability to orgasm when they were blocked at Tanner 2.” Tanner stage 2 is the beginning of puberty. It can be as young as nine in girls.

Elsewhere, there are extraordinary discussions on how to manage “trans clients” with dissociative identity disorder (what used to be called multiple personality disorder) when “not all the alters have the same gender identity”. Surgeons talk about procedures that result in bodies that don’t exist in nature: those with both sets of genitals – the “phallus-preserving vaginoplasty”; double mastectomies that don’t have nipples; “nullification” surgery, where there are no genitals at all, just smooth skin. And doctors discuss the possibility that 16-year-old patients have liver cancer as the result of taking hormones. The problem is not necessarily the discussions themselves, but that the organisation is not so open when speaking publicly.

The views of WPATH matter to the UK. For years, the organisation and its SOC have been cited as a source of “best practice” for trans healthcare by numerous medical bodies, including the British Medical Association and the General Medical Council – and still is. The Royal College of Psychiatrists refers to WPATH in its own recommendations for care.

Most relevant is that WPATH is cited as “good practice” in the current service specifications underpinning youth and adult gender clinics in England and Scotland, albeit in both cases it is WPATH’s previous SOC that is mentioned. The most recent version does away with all age limits from the beginning of puberty for hormones and surgical interventions, other than female to male genital surgery, and contains a chapter on eunuchs.

Several staff at England’s NHS adult gender clinics are not just members of WPATH (one is the former president), but authors of that current SOC. So too was Susie Green, the former boss of the young people’s charity Mermaids; a lack of medical expertise does not exclude either membership of WPATH or the power to influence policy.

England’s only NHS children’s gender clinic – the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) at London’s Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust – will close its doors at the end of March, having been earmarked for closure since July 2022. But the 2016 service specification still underpinning Gids states that “the service will be delivered in line with” WPATH 7. While Gids was generally more cautious than other WPATH practitioners, clinicians I spoke to for my book, Time to Think, also relayed how young people claiming to have multiple personalities, or who identified with another race, could be referred for puberty blockers.

Gids staff have also presented at WPATH conferences for the past decade, including the most recent, held in 2022. This doesn’t imply agreement with WPATH’s principles, but association with the group becomes harder to justify as its views become more extreme.

It is difficult to see how the Department of Health’s assertion that NHS England “moved away from WPATH guidelines more than five years ago” holds.

What is true is that there is no mention of WPATH in updated guidance that will underpin the new youth gender services opening on 1 April. What’s more, NHS England has made it clear that WPATH’s views are irrelevant to its core recommendation that puberty blockers will no longer be available as part of routine clinical practice.

There is a battle raging over how best to care for children and young people struggling with their gender identity, with ever increasing numbers of European countries choosing to take a more cautious, less medical, approach after finding the evidence base underpinning those treatments to be wanting. NHS England insists that new services will operate in accordance with recommendations of the independent Cass review, and that it is well placed to develop policies “in line with clinical evidence and expertise”. But it won’t be easy. There is already discussion among professionals working in gender services planning a pushback against Cass’s as yet unpublished final recommendations.

It was difficult for Gids to stand up to external pressures, allowing the care it offered to suffer. At the same time, NHS England failed in its duty to provide proper oversight. Both they and those in charge of the new services must do better if they are to avoid the mistakes of the past. Without proper, evidence-based guidance on what good practice looks like, organisations like WPATH will continue to have influence.

Hannah Barnes is associate editor at the New Statesman and author of Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children

==

The same institutions that were defending themselves by saying, "we're following WPATH best practice," will soon be saying, "WPATH was only a guide or starting point."

The backpedal has already begun.

[stromuprisahat]

Six of Crows- Chapter 14 (Leigh Bardugo)

The Darkling's hated for "forcing" Grisha to become soldiers when he had no say in their inclusion into society, yet the only position "The Heroes" offer once at helm is canon fodder in Ravkan wars they're losing.

The Darkling's judged for offering safety in return of service, when he wasn't in position to change the later, Nikolai's lauded for similar thing he does as a rich normie with absolute power. Wait, no. The trio of his suddenly accepted witch puppeteers does, not him.

The Darkling had Grisha come to him, offering them relative safety and community of alike from a position of a serf. KING Nikolai sends people to look for them (Possibly drawing attention to their whereabouts.) to offer them servitude and a promise there won't be even inquiry into crimes against them. It's enough they're outlawed, isn't it?

Don't worry, it's only understandable- he needs support of his First Army fans and even his special mixed units were founded with very specific ideals in mind. (We hate the Darkling, remember? ~That's~ what matters.)

[high-school-lit-tournament]

High School Lit Tournament Round 2B

The Outsiders: The Outsiders is about two weeks in the life of a 14-year-old boy. The novel tells the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider. According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for "social") has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he's always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers--until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy's skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser.

The Crucible: "I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history," Arthur Miller wrote of his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly illuminates the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence.

[littlelcvestory]

thank you @wesperbrekkered for tagging me even though im so inactive on like all my fandom accounts 😭😭😭

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

i have 13 :)

2. What is your AO3 word count?

29,858 words 😭 thats kinda crazy for me ngl

3. What fandoms do you write for? 

my main is six of crows! my ao3 still has my fics from when i wrote solangelo tho lmao

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

sparks fly (whenever you smile) with 268 (wesper)

we were in screaming color with 244 (solangelo)

Doctor Death (god this fic is so old i hate it 😭) with 236 (solangelo)

i wanna teach you how forever feels with 221 (wesper)

time can't stop me quite like you did with 205 (i wrote this for a school assignment, it's from the book they both die at the end)

i strongly dislike this list mainly because of solangelo being on there and how long ago i wrote those fics because theyre really bad now 😭 perhaps leave more kudos on my wesper fics :)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? 

YES it makes me so happy that people enjoyed what i wrote. i'd like to say it's author fuel but i have not touched any of my fics since august but they ARE author serotonin

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

it's either time can't stop me quite like you did (because he literally d!es) but none of my SoC fics have angsty endings, because none of them have endings. haha

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

uhh i'd say it would be i wanna teach you how forever feels purely because it's a cute domestic post-ck wesper

8. Do you get hate on fics?

i dont think im widespread enough to have haters on my fics tbh 😭

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? 

nope, i am literally 16 !! although i have written a few very intimate passages but theres also taught you the way you call me baby which is the closest i'll ever get for now

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

my wesper romeo and juliet au like fire and powder that i havent touched since august! this was like my most big brain idea ever but i'm torn between discarding it and starting from scratch or continuing as it is right now

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? 

i dont think so, and i hope not !

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 

no :)

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

also no

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship? 

wesper. next!

15. What’s a WIP you’d like to finish but doubt you ever will?

THE ROMEO AND JULIET AU I AM CRYING i need to continue it as soon as possible oh lord

16. What are your writing strengths?

not sure tbh! i do find writing dialogue easy but it also leads to my downfall sometimes which i'll explain in the next question

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

inner monologues, because they jump around too much and i eventually stray from the original thought. or anything thats not closely tied to a character ... i'm really strong with character driver things but if you hand me a plot, i'm gonna struggle (which may be why the r&j au is failing LMAO) and how i said with dialogue, it ends up being dry and makes the scene move a little too fast. i'm really bad at slowing down scenes 😭

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? 

never done it before hehe

19. First fandom you wrote for?

percy jackson, i think

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

my romeo and juliet au because its the most ambitious thing i ever tried to accomplish. i really want to get back to it because i'm still so intrigued by the idea of it and i was shocked i wrote 10k for the first chapter but it felt like it was being squeezed out of me... i'll do my best to get back to writing i've had insane weiters block (no thanks to school 🙄)

thanks for tagging me rae :) i'm tagging @artsypretzel @jazzythursday and anyone else who sees this and wants to do it :)

[sixofsol]

@johaerys-writes tagged my main (@heypax) for this, but since ive talked about my fics more on this blog i decided to do it here instead !

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

26!

2. What is your AO3 word count?

151,778

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I mean, I haven’t written anything for anything but six of crows since like year back… But! I do miss writing patrochilles, and tsoa is the fandom i’ve written the absolute most for! If we’re looking back, I’ve written hadestown, steven universe, haikyuu!! and a bunch more years ago.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

we were shotgun lovers // I’m a shotgun running away - six of crows, wesper, 772 kudos

like moss climbs a tree - song of achilles, patrochilles, 446

i want someone to try, and let me down easy — six of crows, wesper, 405 kudos

from the outside looking in - the song of achilles, patrochilles, 371 kudos

twisted roots and sunny days, the song of achilles, patrochilles, 363 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

YES if i dont miss when i get them (i dont have the email motifs on) i always do ! it means so much someone commented and i always love having a lil conversation about this thing that i wrote.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

as much of an lover i am of hurt no comfort i very rarely write it lmao but a lot of my tsoa fics had sad endings. autumn’s coming around is the first one that popped into mind, but that’s at least slightly open ? i’ll hold your hand while you drown, less so.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I feel like a lot of my fics have equally happy endings haha, the one that came to mind was our hair tangled in the breeze, simply because its a happy ending canon complaint tsoa fic which is a feat lmao

8. Do you get hate on fics?

nope the closets ive ever come was when i was 12 and people were like nice story but god your grammar and spelling is terrible! which was fair!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

nah I’m a fade to black kinda girlie

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I never anymore but well,, Once upon a time i was 14 and obsessed with glee and sherlock and well….

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not as far as ik

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope !

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

nope, but I would enjoy trying!

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

…this is hard because wesper has been running around in my head for a year but simply cause ive been obsessed with patrochilles longer im still gonna say them

15. What's a WIP you'd like to finish but doubt you ever will?

I’d love to continue for everyone im about to prove wrong, and I think I even have a mostly finished chapter lying around somewhere, but I’ve just not had the inspiration rip.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I’m good at writing characters in general, especially when it’s from their pov. first person pov my beloved.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I’m not really a person who uses a lot of metaphors of writes flowery language, but i wish i was!! i love very beautiful language and poetic writing but i just don’t do that that much im pretty straight forward, which isn’t a bad thing but I wish i could expand a bit more.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

takes me out the story way too much, it’s fine if it’s like one word every now and then but nah. ive read a couple of young royals fics, and as a swedish speaker its a bit jarring to suddenly have swedish words there lmao

19. First fandom you wrote for?

If non published count, harry potter. if only published, glee!

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

i’m gonna be fair to myself and choose one for soc and one for tsoa.

autumn’s coming around for tsoa and a fire died last winter for soc, which ironically are my least popular fics in the respective fandoms!

thank you !! and im tagging @leglesslouie @jackwolfes @wesperbrekkered @deathless--aphrodite

[intosnarkness]

45 (because I love the world building you do and would love to hear about the process!)

45.  How much world building do you do?

This depends entirely on the story! If it's within canon, I don't have to do much, which is the joy of fanfic.

Very generally, it's a matter of what is important to the narrative. So a story like A Man in Chaos in which Jim Kirk gets marooned on an alien planet and goes native - I did a shitton of worldbuilding work. I actually had a whole body language system for the aliens that required me to think about why we wave or shake hands (are we showing we're unarmed? how else can that be accomplished? what does this alien race consider an acknowledgement? how do they couple that greeting with a goodbye? we use the same gesture, do they?) or nod our heads and I'll be honest - it's been 13 years and I have forgotten all of it. i also had a literal map of the world at one point that explained the complexions and colorism of that particular alien race.

For a story like "adding on weight" it was a matter of thinking about why things are the way they are in canon - why is Jesper a Dreg? Because Kaz recruited him? Because the Dregs were already powerful by the time he needed protection? How can I twist him around to another gang if Kaz isn't there? - and adjusting timelines - Inej needed time to have her father die and then get to Ketterdam on her revenge quest, so I adjusted the slaver's raid timing to give me what I needed (and frantically texted @wheremermaidsdwell about MOTIVATION while she was recovering from a fucking stroke because she is my angel.) I also know far, far more than ever makes it into the story. You can read some of my DVD commentary for that story here and you'll find that a lot of little character moments are straight up cribbed from people I know.

A lot of it also comes from just... falling in love with my background characters in a way that will never matter once the story is done. There's a character in chapter 14 of Adding On Weight, one of the guards at the harbor, who I know a shitton about because I love her. I will never need to tell anyone anything about Dael and her little brother, but I know it, and that makes the character easier to write for me and deeper for the audience.

If you're thinking about things like my re-imagined traffic-light safeword system in Sharp Knife, Loaded Gun, well. The first SOC smut I ever read used the traffic light system and it pissed me right off. (Other SOC pet peeve? Plastic polymers. These people do not have mass produced plastics because they do not refine crude oil like we do.) So I spent time thinking about what was important to the the characters, and what they'd use to communicate "good" "okay" and "bad" in an easy way. Gold/Silver/Tin for Kaz was obvious. What I would do for anther character is in the air. Jesper (dending on where in his arc we are) might get something like Raise/Call/Fold and Wylan would probably choose muscal tempi for his words. But it could have been hot/warm/cold and it would have done the same.

I have no idea if this satisfies your desire to hear me pratter on about my process. The short answer is "I read a lot of fic and when something annoys me I want to fix it and then I get hyperfixated on things that do not matter."

(writers asks)