#and again :)

[nefastidies]

spoiler: he didn't

[schro-again]

when your friend learned a few tricks from the Time Loop, it makes traveling through dangerous places a liiiitttleee bit easier. maybe don’t ask how he learned them though

(not pictured: isabeau choking in the background like someone sucker-punched him)

[gomzdrawfr]

have a star, go back in time, but nothing changes, would you do it?

[cataclysmictide]

Pain's Like Cold Water Your Brain Just Gets Used To It

No Complaints - Noah Kahan/That Funny Feeling - Bo Burnham/Ask Polly: Help I'm The Loneliest Person In The World - Heather Havrilesky/Ladybird (2017)/Tennessee Williams/unknown/No Complaints - Noah Kahan/Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)/Ask Polly: Help I'm The Loneliest Person In The World - Heather Havrilesky/That Funny Feeling - Bo Burnham/No Complaints - Noah Kahan/That Funny Feeling - Bo Burnham/Unknown/Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)/'Ectesy' - Georges Bataille/Warsan Shire/Ladybird (2017)/How to Cure a Ghost - Fariha Róisín/That Funny Feeling - Bo Burnham/No Complaints - Noah Kahan

[elexuscal]

I watchrd the murder bot show. I heard some book fans think it’s nonbinary and some argue it likes it pronouns. Why? Isn’t it dehumanizing? And is the guy who forced it to Murderbot to make eye contact, via orders ableist? I can see why book readers think it is autistic coded. I feel weird calling a nonbinary-coded, autistic-coded lifeform it. Does it really prefer those pronouns? I read on tumblr thay apparently it does. I personally don’t prefer it/it’s pronouns, but not all enbies are the same.

Hiya!

I suppose it's not surprising that an ask like this would show up, if not in my inbox, than somebody's! Murderbot's pronouns are something I've consistently seen lots of questions about over the years, and with an influx of new folks being introduced due to the show, there's going to be more than ever.

First of all: thanks for asking these questions. I think when first being introduced to a new idea, such as a set of pronouns you're unfamiliar with, asking open and honest questions shows great intellectual curiosity and interest in understanding others.

There's a few different questions in this ask, so I'm going to try and break this down into sections, and to tackle them one by one. (And for the record, most of my answers here will be in reference to the books, not the TV show, because a) I haven't seen the show [yet] and b) there's only 2 episodes of it out right now anyway. I have no idea how closely the two texts are going to align, but I certainly hope it doesn't take away the book series' queer themes and representation.)

1. What's Murderbot's gender, and what pronouns does it use?

Murderbot is agender/non-gendered, and uses it/its pronouns.

For the record, I don't think this is just a reading or an interpretation. Rather, this is canonical, and on the same level as saying, "Bruce Wayne is a man who uses he/him pronouns."

Admittedly, there's never a place where the character says "My name is Murderbot, I'm non-binary, and I use it/its pronouns." In my opinion, one of the the strengths of the books is that it has much more subtle worldbuilding than that, both in general and in regards to casual queerness. However, throughout its first-person narration, Murderbot consistently uses "it" to refer to itself, and shows a general alienation and distaste for gender stuff in general. Its friends/allies, even after long acquaintance, continue using it/its.

Textual examples include:

Book 1: Yes, talk to Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful I dropped to 97 percent efficiency. Book 2: To initiate the meeting, I’d had to make an entry on the social feed, too. The system was extremely vulnerable to hacking, so I had backdated my entry to look like I had come in on an earlier passenger transport, listed my job as “security consultant,” and my gender as indeterminate. Book 5: "No, it says it's fine," I heard her relaying to others on the comm. "Well, yes, it's furious." Book 6: I posted a feed ID with the name SecUnit, gender = not applicable, and no other information. Book 7: I was as indifferent to human gender as it was possible to be without being unconscious.

And while I think it's unnecessary, given the textual evidence, we can bring in Word of God too, courtesy of the book's author Martha Wells:

So, okay, Murderbot uses it/its pronouns! Which leads into the next question...

Why does Murderbot use 'It/Its' pronouns? Isn't that dehumanizing?

Yes, and that's just the way Murderbot likes it!

I think the reason this is often a stumbling block for folks is that a main focus of the early series-- especially book 1, or as the case may be, first episodes of the new adaptation-- is establishing that Murderbot Is A Person. From there, it's an easy leap to go: Therefore, Murderbot Is Human. After all, it has a human face.

But the second part of the central theme is: Murderbot is a person, but not a human person.

It is half-bot, half-human, all SecUnit. It has things in common with both of those halves, and emergent properties unique to itself. More than that, Murderbot is deeply alienated from the human experience. It spent the majority of its life being treated like an object, and appliance, and a weapon.

Murderbot chooses to embrace those aspects of its identity by continuing to use it/its pronouns. And yeah, it's clear that this often makes other folks feel uncomfortable. But that's a big part of it too. Murderbot's arc is about learning how to exist, as itself, unapologetically. It doesn't need to sand off those uncomfortable parts of its existence that make the humans around it uncomfortable. They just have to deal.

Okay, but that's Murderbot, a fictional character. What about actual real people?

That's a great point! And indeed, I don't care so much about Murderbot's pronouns for its own sake. It's a fictional character, it can't and doesn't care what real world people call it. But I think respecting its pronouns is an extension of respecting real living folks who DO use it/its pronouns, so let's talk about it!

(And for the record, I am not nonbinary. I'm also not not nonbinary? But I'm a sapphic butch with an often masc gender presentation, so it's like, an Overlap. My point being I'll do my best to speak to this perspective, but really, you're best seeking out the perspectives of actual it/its users and nonbinary folks.)

Various non-binary, agender, and other gender queer folks use it/its pronouns. The reasons vary hugely. Explanations I've seen are:

Generally feeling alienated from the human experience

Feeling a greater connection to non-human identities, like animals or robots

Connection to the many beautiful things exist in the world which (in English) have it/its pronouns applied to them-- think the ocean, or food, or celestial bodies.

A gender neutral pronoun that doesn't introduce the plural ambiguity of 'they/them' and isn't a neopronoun set folks need to learn.

Reclamation of insults they've received

and idk, they just sort of like it? Sometimes things aren't that deep.

And probably a whole bunch more reasons!

And really, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what I think of it. While we can get deep into the theory of pronouns, at the end of the day, using the pronouns people prefer is just common courtesy. You can personally find it weird and uncomfortable, and you can work through it in your own time... But if someone asks, just use the pronouns they want!

Was the guy who forced it to Murderbot to make eye contact via orders ableist?

Okay, again, I haven't seen the show yet, so I don't have full context. But was the guy Gurathin? I bet it was Gurathin. While he didn't do that specifically in the book, he did pull some similar stunts.

In short, yeah, probably. It's a dick move regardless.

In long, I don't think he was being deliberately ableist. The guy is viewing the situation through a very different framework, namely, 'this SecUnit is a threat and a danger, and I am trying to control the situation'. Very likely, if he met a human colleague or acquaintance who asked not to make eye-contact, or just very clearly didn't like it, he probably would be chill and accommodating.

But the thing is, plenty of folks are ableist in day-to-day life without meaning to be ableist! You'll see folks be like "this person is so annoying because they do 'X thing', and it's not like they have an autism diagnosis or anything", as if the formal diagnosis is a magic wand to make certain behaviours okay. In general, things would be better if we just got better at accommodating benign behaviours that exist outside the norm without explanation.

[And frankly, my bigger concern here is less "ableism", and more "using his social power to force somebody who is a slave to follow his orders", but that's neither here nor there.]

Is it ableist to call a non-binary coded, autistic coded lifeform it/its?

Well, I mean, context matters?

A lot of shitty people will use it/its in a cruel way to various neurodivergent and queer people. They are deliberately intending to demean and dehumanize. That's shitty. Whether that's ableist or queerphobic would depend on the context, but it would be deliberately shitty.

And indeed, if you were to take another similar character... say Data from Star Trek, or Peridot from Steven Universe, and call either of them 'it', then again, depending on the context, I might call that shitty too! Their canonical pronouns are he/him and she/her respectively, and refusing to use those pronouns because "they're not really people" or "it's not a man/woman" would be a deliberately provoking move.

But if someone-- be it a fictional character, and even more so, a real person-- asks to be called "it"? That's their choice. The context has changed. It's not ableist, it's not queerphobic. That's just respecting them.

[nerolikestowander]

Thinking bout him again

[wr0wn]

I made a fire, and watching it burn

Thought of your future

With one foot in the past, now just how long will it last?

Now, now, now, have you no ambitions?

[just-b-wilde]

Hands 6x06

[pinklemonslices]

i hope everyone knows that the little boxing scene in episode one IS probably my favorite scene in the whole show. there is so much to love about it. this scene hooked me on the show single-handedly (and it made me think they were already in love/canon, until my brother told me they weren’t).

the banter is so much fun!!! i love all their interactions throughout the series, but this one is just So good. charles is such a silly goose!!!! i love him jumping around and messing with edwin physically. i love edwin being so comfortable, smiling with his teeth and looking exasperated but it’s completely overshadowed by his amusement and obvious care for charles.

i love how edwin says he shouldn’t have to learn to hit things because charles will always be there, i love how it sets up their dynamic. i love how edwin gives in anyway and absolutely SUCKS at it. i love how niceys charles is about it. i love how close they are the whole scene. i love these boys

[fairylwt]

so we all agree that this season will destroy us then build us back together as entirely different people?

[antomight]

go watch @hoodedjelly's Sleep walk animatic on repeat, it's a good addiction

[no-onemournsthelesbians]

I decided to round up some little Gelphie easter eggs from the For Good trailer, some obvious and some not so obvious. Here we go, let’s try not to cry

The way the glass in the window breaks like it did when Elphaba and Glinda first spoke together in their suite

The way Glinda clearly keeps her balcony doors unlocked for Elphaba and begs her to come inside before she’s caught (Glinda also clearly waits on the balcony for Elphaba often)

Not necessarily Gelphie but the clock chimes exactly three times

Elphaba caressing the original note Glinda wrote for her at the start of it all, also the fact that it’s clearly well worn in a way that suggests she touches/holds it often

The stark juxtaposition between Glinda putting her crown on her head at her vanity alone versus the scene where she and Elphaba are at her vanity at Shiz and Glinda gives her the rose (lighting, camera angle, facial expressions, the lack of Elphaba etc.)

Glinda’s “some people come into our lives for a reason” and “I have many friends, but none of them are you”

The very obvious poppy field scene we knew existed

The hint at another dance scene that also juxtaposes the Ozdust (they’re alone at first, there’s less people, the stakes are higher, their relationship is different, etc.)

Once again, Glinda’s absolutely stricken facial expressions whenever Elphaba is mentioned/is near that will definitely be a constant fixture

Glinda parroting Elphaba’s “think of what we could do, together.” That’s very blatant

The scene between them where the surroundings are entirely pink and look like they’re made of stardust (you don’t just sit that close to your so called friend once again)

Glinda still calls her Elphie

Elphaba still clearly has affection for Glinda and Glinda is obviously a safe space for her

There are most definitely more but I’m still reeling from the intensity and this is what I saw after two watches

[leoholzer]

(x)

[awesomesauceeee]

V.2 !!

[alenseress]

seriously? pronoun swapping a LESBIAN song to be about men? I'm mlm but people like you who try to make sapphic art about men are fucking insufferable and make us all look like attention-seeking assholes

Aren't you tired? I don't know what place of ignorant comfort you're from, but in my country my community stands hand in hand against government in the streets at the moment because the noose on our necks is all the same and is getting tighter every day. When your doctors get incarcerated and half a country of trans women and men get forced into diy solutions at expense of their own safety, there's no me and her and them in separation, don't come into my space and try to tell me that I'm taking something from my own community.

You don't know me, have no right to talk to me that way. If this is your attitude to art, it's not for you either. And if you're not a lesbian in the first place, don't talk on woman's behalf when nobody asked you to. Gigi writes beautiful songs that push a lot of people make inspired, raw art. Without the song, the art wouldn't have been created. But it's still my art on my own blog, I'm telling a personal story. If you can't connect with it, well you're the one who sought it out, it's not my responsibility.

God forbid there's a butch out in the world that uses he/him pronouns and might find this artwork easier to connect than you did. God forbid the person I made this about struggles with their own gender. God forbid people enjoy and homage queer music in different colours