#LONG POST GOD

[scorpionyx9621]

Ethan Winters Doesn't Get Enough Love and that's Heartbreaking

So I'm gonna preface this by saying yes: there will be spoilers to the ending of Resident Evil 7 and Village. If you don't want that scroll away now. Leave, shoo, outta here, go on git, *angrily shakes broom and smacks it against the door to make a loud, aggressive sound*

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Okay so I get Ethan was the "villain" of Resident Evil Village because he killed everyone's favorite vampire mommy but this is in fact a Resident Evil game. Alcina and her daughters and the rest of the four lords were always going to die. It's the nature of the game. It didn't help that Capcom flipped the script and leaned VERY heavily into the villains of Village when it came to the marketing. (Hell I'll bet Capcom is literally kicking itself for making Lady D the first chapter boss) but they really went heavy on making Ethan kind of take a backseat to Lady Dimetrescu and Heisenberg for this game. Which I think is really kind of shitty because we get to see Ethan at his best in this game both in terms of characterization and development.

I need to give a shout-out to Todd Solely, Ethan's mocap and voice actor. We don't get to see Ethan's face in the game so we have to go off of every little action Ethan does and every bit of dialogue we get from Ethan we pay a closer bit of attention to. It's like when you lose one of your senses every other sense tries to make up for its loss. Some truly stand out moments of this were.

1. When Ethan is rejecting Heisenberg's offer of using Rosemary as a weapon and Ethan just spits back at Heisenberg "Rose is not a weapon, fuck you." Ethan freaking lowers his head and leans into the fuck you. You can just tell Ethan is not having ANY of this at all and while I know a lot of people wanted an option where we could have sided with Heisenberg, I'm glad we didn't. Forcing us to pick between Mia and Zoe in RE7 was already a nightmare. Like would the option have been nice yes, but the canon of Resident Evil is being held together by duct tape and spit at this point. That would have torn down the whole house of cards that is the continuity of this franchise.

2. When Ethan is in the village and after he watches the floor cave under Elena and he watches her burn to death. Ethan starts audibly crying, "why does everyone around me keep on dying?" And when he leaves out the window he slams his fist against the pane and yells out why this is happening to him again. You partially wanna go 'come on Ethan, you're in a Resident Evil game, get with the times.' but you realize Ethan thought he was free, he thought if he and Mia cooperated with the BSAA and did what Chris told him to everything would be okay. Yet here he is, back again in Resident Evil hell and he's had three years of him trying to rebuild his life after an EXTREMELY traumatic event just thrown out the window.

3. When The Duke points out that the jar Ethan has is in fact Rose's head and we see him drop the jar like it was a bomb. We saw Ethan's brain literally break. That's his daughter, the one thing he loves more than anything in this world, in this tiny jar. His whole world has shattered. And then when The Duke tries to make light of the situation the abject fucking hatred and pure venom in Ethan's voice. Especially the line "You'll pay if I find out this is a lie." With the delivery of an almost animalistic, hatred-filled growl. It sent a shiver down my spine. It felt like Ethan was willing to freaking maul The Duke with his bare hand (and what's left of the other one)

4. It's not as serious as the last three, but it's actually rather heartwarming. The whole opening portion of the game where Ethan is walking around the house with Rosemary commenting on things throughout the house. There's so much tenderness in this opening. This is a bit of a contrast to the very terrified but almost cynical towards the end delivery we got for Ethan with RE7. We're now seeing a much more tender and loving side to Ethan. Especially when Ethan is pretending to be one of Rosemary's stuffed monkeys. It's silly and cartoonish but it really shows the depth of Ethan and just how much he loves his daughter.

5. Ethan's become such a little shit by the time Village rolls around. He may be yet another human* trapped in a Romanian hellscape with mutated nightmares, but by god is Ethan willing to verbally beat you down if you step in his way. "Looks like your outside matches your inside now, psycho witch." he shouts at Lady D. in her Dragon form." Or when he talks down to Moreau after killing him. "In death as he was in life. Disgusting." And the delivery of that disgusting too was just *chef's kiss*

6. When Ethan is killed by Miranda and is in the Purgatory state with Eveline. Even though the effects make it seem really hard to make out what Ethan is trying to say, I also think it genuinely is because Ethan is freezing, his body has gone cold, his body has given up on him at this point and Eveline reveals the truth. Ethan has always been dead. Ethan is shocked at this realization. His whole life for these past three years have been a lie. But to see Ethan drag himself up again solely for the sake of saving his daughter? UGH. SO GOOD.

7. The entire ending cutscene where Chris is helping carry Ethan and Rosemary out of the Altar and back to the Helicopter. It's honestly so heartbreaking. Once we saw Ethan's good hand start to disintegrate, we knew. Ethan's time was up. Ethan's body had taken on too much damage and the Mold couldn't keep him alive much longer. His final words while alive in this phase still make me choke up every time. "Mia..? I'm so sorry... I love you... Keep Rose safe. Watch over her.. Teach her to be strong.. Goodbye Rosemary." In Ethan's last conscious moments the only thing that mattered to him were his wife and his daughter. I.. i need a moment..

Ethan Winters was different than any other Resident Evil protagonist. He wasn't some ex-air force pilot turned sharpshooter, super-cop who punches boulders. He wasn't an ex-army master of unlocking turned international savior and founder of a paramilitary group created to stop bioweapons. He wasn't a rookie cop turned direct operative for this universe's version of the Secret Service who saves the president's daughter. Ethan is just a regular systems engineer from California who loves his wife so much he was willing to drop everything for a chance to save her. Ethan's just a civilian forced to survive the world of Resident Evil. Hell, Ethan didn't survive, Ethan Winters was killed by Jack Baker after Jack stomped on Ethan's head. What we know as and see as Ethan is really a collection of mold that re-animated Ethan and took over his body and personality. It's downright horrific when you think about it.

Ethan being a dead man walking is something that I've thought about a lot since finishing Village for the first time. To know that Ethan isn't Ethan, but instead is just a collection of mold cells that used his body and has dog-eared his consciousness and personality is insane to me. Not only was Ethan able to resist Eveline, the source of the mold that created the thing that became Ethan, but he was able to resist The Black God (the Megamycete) completely. The mold collective that was Ethan Winters was able to fully retain Ethan's shape, form, appearance, consciousness and be completely unaffected by most external factors. Even in Resident Evil biological terms, what Ethan Winters was, was nothing short of a miracle. When Ethan "dies" in the game during a game over screen we don't see him mutate into your usual flavors of Resident Evil biological nonsense. We never saw Ethan disintegrate after dying (if he did it was done off screen but bleh) Ethan was a full-fledged human while absolutely not being one.

The complications and plot holes that this opens are very numerous. Why exactly was Ethan able to maintain so much of himself despite purely being a mold being? How was Ethan able to resist even Mother Miranda even while being directly connected to the Megamycete? The source of ALL of the mold infection? How was Ethan able to sexually reproduce and make a (mostly) normal human? How did Mia not get re-infected with the mold by having sex with Ethan? Why didn't Ethan mutate as opposed to say Jack despite having similar regenerative abilities? If the BSAA was able to physically remove mold spores from both Ethan AND Mia, how did they not realize that Ethan was even more infected than Mia?

Don't get me started on Mia, she's getting her own rant soon enough but Mia while being just as much a victim of this situation as Ethan, Mia Winters is easily one of the worst characters as a person in Resident Evil. She lied to Ethan about her occupation as a researcher for The Connections, she physically assaults Ethan on multiple occasions (she was infected by Mold and under Eveline's influence I'll give her a pass here.) But most importantly Mia is fully aware that Ethan is still infected with the mold. This is compounded by the fact that originally in RE7 we were told that Mia was just Eveline's handler. When in reality at the Exposition Bombing at the end of Village we see a photograph (see below) showing that Mia and Miranda weren't strangers. They knew each other enough to take a picture with each other. Mia wasn't just a handler, she was a full-blown researcher and scientist with The Connections and she was fully aware of the extent of Ethan's infection. Yet she willingly allowed herself to be impregnated by a molded Ethan. She sits on the secret for a long time, she almost even tells Ethan the truth in an argument a week prior to the events of Village. Yet she doesn't. I want to give a lore-related theory/explanation to this. I can't remember exactly which game it was but Wesker had entered into a file that he hypothesized that the human psyche plays an impact on mutations on highly mutagenic strains of viruses. I.e. think about how Alexia became this bulbous, insect queen in her second form because she saw herself as royalty, genetically superior and above all else. Mia had no idea what would have happened if she told Ethan the truth, she didn't know what would have happened to Ethan whether he would have just had a full-on mental breakdown or if he would have mutated because his psyche would have become so fractured. Let alone what would have happened to her family. Because while Mia may have been duplicitous and lied to Ethan both in RE7 and Village: Mia genuinely loved Ethan. I don't think there's any way we can debate that.

(The person on the far right of the image is Mia. The woman to the left of the little girl is Miranda. The little girl is Eveline. Mia and Miranda weren't strangers. Which begs the question: why did Miranda keep Mia alive in her lab?)

Ethan Winters is a character who has left a huge impact in only two games. While he's your generic everyman protagonist with a little bit of biting sarcasm in RE7. By the time Village rolls around Ethan is a fully-fleshed character. We get our actions survivor back but this time with basic military training, even more sarcasm, and now with the full range of emotions. We get to see Ethan as a tender and loving father towards his daughter, from criticizing Mia (Miranda) for reading a scary pop-up book with Rose to him swaddling his daughter as she starts stirring and crying. To holding onto Rose tightly but ever-so tenderly as Ethan is physically falling apart and carbonizing. We watch Ethan cry as the people he tries to help die around him, we see Ethan filled with abject and carnal rage towards his adversaries. Ethan truly is Resident Evil's titleholder for best dad. (Sorry Barry lol) and for a character with no face that we can see during the main game, Ethan is exceptionally expressive and emotional and shockingly so human for this franchise.

I'm beyond excited for what Shadow of Rose: the DLC for village will bring. My theory is that since Rosemary has gained access to a remaining sample of the Megamycete, we probably will see Ethan again in some way/shape/form since the Megamycete absorbs the consciousness of all who die within the reach of its roots. Whether or not Ethan is corrupted or he finally reunites with the daughter he loved so much is yet to be seen. But I would love to see a tender moment where Ethan pulls Rose into the tightest of hugs. He remarks how he's been inside of her watching her through her connection to the mold. Ethan would be profusely apologetic about not being there for her, but that he's so incredibly proud of the strong young woman she's become.

Ethan Winters deserves more love and recognition and it's a crime he doesn't get his pearls. I love this daddliest catch of a man who literally goes through HELL just to save his daughter. It broke my heart when Ethan died, just like it did when I saw Piers die from Resident Evil 6. But we got a fantastic character out of all of these two games. So go on Mr. Winters, smile. I hope whatever afterlife you are on you're loved and valued.

[tofixtheshadows]

I've been thinking a lot lately about how Kabru deprives himself.

Kabru as a character is intertwined with the idea that sometimes we have to sacrifice the needs of the few for the good of the many. He ultimately subverts this first by sabotaging the Canaries and then by letting Laios go, but in practice he's already been living a life of self-sacrifice.

Saving people, and learning the secrets of the dungeons to seal them, are what's important. Not his own comforts. Not his own desires. He forces them down until he doesn't know they're there, until one of them has to come spilling out during the confession in chapter 76.

Specifically, I think it's very significant, in a story about food and all that it entails, that Kabru is rarely shown eating. He's the deuteragonist of Dungeon Meshi, the cooking manga, but while meals are the anchoring points of Laios's journey, given loving focus, for Kabru, they're ... not.

I'm sure he eats during dungeon expeditions, in the routine way that adventurers must when they sit down to camp. But on the surface, you get the idea that Kabru spends most of his time doing his self-assigned dungeon-related tasks: meeting with people, studying them, putting together that evidence board, researching the dungeon, god knows what else. Feeding himself is secondary.

He's introduced during a meal, eating at a restaurant, just to set up the contrast between his party and Laios's. And it's the last normal meal we see him eating until the communal ending feast (if you consider Falin's dragon parts normal).

First, we get this:

Kabru's response here is such a non-answer, it strongly implies to me that he wasn't thinking about it until Rin brought it up. That he might not even be feeling the hunger signals that he logically knew he should.

They sit down to eat, but Kabru is never drawn reaching for food or eating it like the rest of his party. He only drinks.

It's possible this means nothing, that we can just assume he's putting food in his mouth off-panel, but again, this entire manga is about food. Cooking it, eating it, appreciating it, taking pleasure in it, grounding yourself in the necessary routine of it and affirming your right to live by consuming it. It's given such a huge focus.

We don't see him eat again until the harpy egg.

What a significant question for the protagonist to ask his foil in this story about eating! Aren't you hungry? Aren't you, Kabru?

He was revived only minutes ago after a violent encounter. And then he chokes down food that causes him further harm by triggering him, all because he's so determined to stay in Laios's good graces.

In his flashback, we see Milsiril trying to spoon-feed young Kabru cake that we know he doesn't like. He doesn't want to eat: he wants to be training.

Then with Mithrun, we see him eating the least-monstery monster food he can get his hands on, for the sake of survival- walking mushroom, barometz, an egg. The barometz is his first chance to make something like an a real meal, and he actually seems excited about it because he wants to replicate a lamb dish his mother used to make him!

...but he doesn't get to enjoy it like he wanted to.

Then, when all the Canaries are eating field rations ... Kabru still isn't shown eating. He's only shown giving food to Mithrun.

And of course the next time he eats is the bavarois, which for his sake is at least plant based ... but he still has to use a coping mechanism to get through it.

I don't think Kabru does this all on purpose. I think Kui does this all on purpose. Kabru's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder should be understood as informing his character just as much as Laios's autism informs his. It's another way that Kabru and Laios act as foils: where Laios takes pleasure in meals and approaches food with the excitement of discovery, Kabru's experiences with eating are tainted by his trauma. Laios indulges; Kabru denies himself. Laios is shown enjoying food, Kabru is shown struggling with it.

And I can very easily imagine a reason why Kabru might have a subconscious aversion towards eating.

Meals are the privilege of the living.

[mangozic]

my dead goth son and his friendly neighborhood personified concept of insanity

[cookinguptales]

So I’ve been enjoying the Disney vs. DeSantis memes as much as anyone, but like. I do feel like a lot of people who had normal childhoods are missing some context to all this.

I was raised in the Bible Belt in a fairly fundie environment. My parents were reasonably cool about some things, compared to the rest of my family, but they certainly had their issues. But they did let me watch Disney movies, which turned out to be a point of major contention between them and my other relatives.

See, I think some people think this weird fight between Disney and fundies is new. It is very not new. I know that Disney’s attempts at inclusion in their media have been the source of a lot of mockery, but what a lot of people don’t understand is that as far as actual company policy goes, Disney has actually been an industry leader for queer rights. They’ve had policies assuring equal healthcare and partner benefits for queer employees since the early 90s.

I’m not sure how many people reading this right now remember the early 90s, but that was very much not industry standard. It was a big deal when Disney announced that non-married queer partners would be getting the same benefits as the married heterosexual ones.

Like — it went further than just saying that any unmarried partners would be eligible for spousal benefits. It straight-up said that non-same-sex partners would still need to be married to receive spousal benefits, but because same-sex partners couldn’t do that, proof that they lived together as an established couple would be enough.

In other words, it put long-term same-sex partners on a higher level than opposite-sex partners who just weren’t married yet. It put them on the exact same level as heterosexual married partners.

They weren’t the first company ever to do this, but they were super early. And they were certainly the first mainstream “family-friendly” company to do it.

Conservatives lost their damn minds.

Protests, boycotts, sermons, the whole nine yards. I can’t tell you how many books about the evils of Disney my grandmother tried to get my parents to read when I was a kid.

When we later moved to Florida, I realized just how many queer people work at Disney — because historically speaking, it’s been a company that has guaranteed them safety, non-discrimination, and equal rights. That’s when I became aware of their unofficial “Gay Days” and how Christians would show up from all over the country to protest them every year. Apparently my grandmother had been upset about these days for years, but my parents had just kind of ignored her.

Out of curiosity, I ended up reading one of the books my grandmother kept leaving at our house. And friends — it’s amazing how similar that (terrible, poorly written) rhetoric was to what people are saying these days. Disney hires gay pedophiles who want to abuse your children. Disney is trying to normalize Satanism in our beautiful, Christian America. 

Just tons of conspiracy theories in there that ranged from “a few bad things happened that weren’t actually Disney’s fault, but they did happen” to “Pocahontas is an evil movie, not because it distorts history and misrepresents indigenous life, but because it might teach children respect for nature. Which, as we all know, would cause them all to become Wiccans who believe in climate change.”

Like — please, take it from someone who knows. This weird fight between fundies and Disney is not new. This is not Disney’s first (gay) rodeo. These people have always believed that Disney is full of evil gays who are trying to groom and sexually abuse children.

The main difference now is that these beliefs are becoming mainstream. It’s not just conservative pastors who are talking about this. It’s not just church groups showing up to boycott Gay Day. Disney is starting to (reluctantly) say the quiet part out loud, and so are the Republicans. Disney is publicly supporting queer rights and announcing company-supported queer events and the Republican Party is publicly calling them pedophiles and enacting politically driven revenge.

This is important, because while this fight has always been important in the history of queer rights, it is now being magnified. The precedent that a fight like this could set is staggering. For better or for worse, we live in a corporation-driven country. I don’t like it any more than you do, and I’m not about to defend most of Disney’s business practices. But we do live in a nation where rights are largely tied to corporate approval, and the fact that we might be entering an age where even the most powerful corporations in the country are being banned from speaking out in favor of rights for marginalized people… that’s genuinely scary.

Like… I’ll just ask you this. Where do you think we’d be now, in 2023, if Disney had been prevented from promising its employees equal benefits in 1994? That was almost thirty years ago, and look how far things have come. When I looked up news articles for this post from that era, even then journalists, activists, and fundie church leaders were all talking about how a company of Disney’s prominence throwing their weight behind this movement could lead to the normalization of equal protections in this country.

The idea of it scared and thrilled people in equal parts even then. It still scares and thrills them now.

I keep seeing people say “I need them both to lose!” and I get it, I do. Disney has for sure done a lot of shit over the years. But I am begging you as a queer exvangelical to understand that no. You need Disney to win. You need Disney to wipe the fucking floor with these people.

Right now, this isn’t just a fight between a giant corporation and Ron DeSantis. This is a fight about the right of corporations to support marginalized groups. It’s a fight that ensures that companies like Disney still can offer benefits that a discriminatory government does not provide. It ensures that businesses much smaller than Disney can support activism.

Hell, it ensures that you can support activism.

The fight between weird Christian conspiracy theorists and Disney is not new, because the fight to prevent any tiny victory for marginalized groups is not new. The fight against the normalization of othered groups is not new.

That’s what they’re most afraid of. That each incremental victory will start to make marginalized groups feel safer, that each incremental victory will start to turn the tide of public opinion, that each incremental victory will eventually lead to sweeping law reform.

They’re afraid that they won’t be able to legally discriminate against us anymore.

So guys! Please. This fight, while hilarious, is also so fucking important. I am begging you to understand how old this fight is. These people always play the long game. They did it with Roe and they’re doing it with Disney.

We have! To keep! Pushing back!

[tooquirkytolose]

~The Most Beautiful Woman in The World~

Download on itch.io for extra content!

[mydairpercabeth]

Im already seeing really bad takes that the show didnt make Gabe “abusive enough”. First and foremost, there are so many different forms of abuse, not just physical abuse. When we first see him, he is instantly belittling Percy. You can see how much of the space he takes up in the apartment. He has a single recliner, a jersey on the wall, and a side table all for him while he gambles with Sallys money. He is immediately financially abusive and verbally abusive.

Second, he answered Sally’s phone and spoke to the principal at Yancy. He is trying to control how Sally raises her son and is giddy at getting another person to bully again. Also, he controls the car. Sally has to negotiate with him and manage his reaction to her taking her son to Montauk. In this scene we see her sass him back and tell him to ask her nicely which I think is a great way to show that Sally still has some agency in the situation. She is able to say she doesnt want to be spoken to disrespectfully.

Lastly, in The Lightning Theif, Percy states “For the first time, I realized something. Gabe had hit my mother. I didn’t know when, or how much. But I was sure he’d done it. Maybe it had been going on for years, when I wasn’t around.” This was in the second to last chapter of the book. People are mad they didnt see him hit her in the first EPISODE??? Be so for real. Give the show time to flesh everything out.

ANYWAYS STAN SALLY JACKSON AND WATCH THE SHOW

[thankstothe]

this show rewires you fundamentally in 60 seconds and then just goes on to have more seasons. audacity

[retellingthehobbit]

Retelling The Hobbit Chapter 16: The Song of the Lonely Mountain First chapter / Previous / Next

To view full comic: Webtoon/A03 / Tumblr post with links to all chapters

Other blogs: TikTok/Instagram/Tumblr Sideblog

*crumbles into dust after finishing this* Thank you for reading! This The Hobbit webcomic adaptation thing takes a lot of effort to put together and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate every comment. I also really appreciate the people who’ve spread the word of this comic to their friends! <3

And finally, we’re at the Song of the Lonely Mountain! Within Tolkien’s canon, The Hobbit is an in-universe book that was “written” by Bilbo Baggins, who occasionally lies/embellishes/exaggerates things. The tonal differences between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are explained by Bilbo and Frodo/Sam being different kinds of storytellers, with different relationships to “the truth.” This idea is the core of how I’m adapting the novel!  Bilbo is an unreliable narrator who is literally ‘drawing’ from his own limited experiences;  the different art styles reflect the different perspectives of other characters.   The “dwarf art style” in this chapter is inspired by stonework/metalwork in general— but especially by a mix of art deco, Celtic art, and European folk art. 

The central tension of the comic is between Bilbo and Thorin, who each have wildly different ideas about what kind of  story they’re in. Thorin is in a grand fantasy epic, while Bilbo is in a lighthearted children’s book adventure.  The tragedy is, obviously, that only one side of the story ever gets to be fully told.

On a sillier note, a few years ago I had my first gay crush on a lesbian who sang while playing the piano. This chapter is dedicated to the piano lesbian. I hope they’re doing well, wherever they are. XD

I think I might need a bit of a break but I’m hoping for the next chapter, titled “Dawn,” to arrive on January 13th. And your comments/support really do help motivate me to get more done! ^_^

[azuremist]

TME and TMA as intersexist terms: as written by an intersex transfem

I’ve had a few different people in my inbox asking me why I view these terms the way I do. In particular, why I claim it’s intersexist. So, I thought I’d lay out a few examples, so everyone can understand where I’m coming from.

Imagine an intersex woman. She was assigned female at birth by her doctors, and was able to go about her childhood as a woman with no inclination that anything was amiss. Sure, she didn’t experience certain parts of puberty, but puberty was different for everyone, right?

But, later in life, she learns she has Turner syndrome. This is an intersex condition where a woman has only one X chromosome, rather than the usual two.

Soon after she learns this, she finds that laws are being made to attempt to keep trans women out of women’s spaces (often specifically sports) which use chromosomes as a defining factor of womanhood.

Would this intersex person be considered “transmisogyny affected”? She has been raised as a cisgender woman with no problems regarding being ‘clocked’, but she is also a direct target of transmisogynistic laws. She lies in a gray area.

Now, let’s go to another intersex person. Imagine an intersex man with PAIS. AIS is an intersex condition where babies are born with testes and XY chromosomes, but their body is immune to or can’t respond to androgens (which includes testosterone). Intersex people with partial AIS (PAIS) often develop a vulva and clitoris during puberty.

This intersex person identifies as a man, and he was assigned male at birth. However, his body does not produce testosterone, and he went through a feminizing puberty. To the average eye, he appears to be a woman now because of this.

Would this intersex person be considered “transmisogyny affected?” He was assigned male at birth, and now appears to be a woman, much like many transfems. However, if many saw how he looks now, stating that he is a male, they would probably clock him as transmasc. He was raised as a boy until puberty, and then faced astrozcization from his peers when he began a puberty that feminized him. What he was facing was a form of intersexism where transmisogyny was playing a huge part. Does his childhood matter? Can one become TME over time, when they were TMA as a child? Again, he lies in a gray area, where the answer is not quite so simple.

What about the “opposite”, per se — an intersex woman who had a masculinizing puberty? She has aromatase deficiency, which means that many ‘male’ hormones (which would usually be converted to ‘female’ hormones) would remain unconverted. She identifies as a woman, and was identified as a female at birth and was raised, until puberty, as a female. But now, she would be clocked as a trans woman upon looking at her. What does that make her? Is it different from the previous example? How and why? This intersex person also lies in a gray area. How she should be described with these terms is not clear.

And keep in mind, these are all relatively simple examples. All of the examples I listed self-identify as cisgender. But there are intersex people who are trans in any direction you can imagine.

If that last example identified as a trans woman, because she is now clocked as one, would you be able to say she’s wrong for that? What about if she identified as transmasculine, because of her experience with puberty? What if she’s multigender, bigender or genderfluid, and says she’s both transmasc and transfem because of her complicated experiences? Would that make her a TMA transmasculine person? But I thought that transmascs were all TME? That’s how it’s so often framed, anyway.

The reason why these questions are so difficult to answer is because these terms were not made with intersex people in mind. Very real intersex transfems were pushed to the wayside in favor of centering the perisex view of transgenderism. Intersex people are nothing but an inconvenient little afterthought, annoying perisex people with their demand for “inclusion” and “consideration”. (As per usual.)

You cannot simply make a new gender binary and say, “No, really, this time everyone fits into these two categories! Forcing people to confine themselves to these two rigid labels which are shown as opposites, and as never interacting, will definitely include everyone this time!!” No matter what the contents of the new binary is, it’s not going to work, because sex and gender alike are too complicated for that. There will always be people in the gray area.

This isn’t even getting into the fact that these terms, for all intents and purposes, seem to have been popularized by and associated with the Baeddelism movement around 2017, which was essentially “Radical Feminism 2: We’re Trans Women, So It’s Fine!” This movement is known for chronic villainization of trans men and non-binary people who aren’t transfem. (They act like this with cis people too, but noticeably less so than they do with non-transfem trans people. How curious.) Think along the lines of how regular radfems treat all men (and who they deem to be men) as inherently morally disgusting scum who deserve to be attacked.

Methinks that maybe these terms aren’t the neutral, fact-based descriptors of oppression that many people nowadays tout them to be, considering that.

So, yeah. “Transmisogyny exempt” and “transmisogyny affected” as terms: not even once. Listen to intersex people, stop trying to make sex and gender into binaries, and for the love of God, stop drinking the queer seperationist koolaid!

[umblrspectrum]

i love learning cursive just to write text for exactly one character

[kiksniko]

i have hualian disease and it's fatal i'm afraid

[diorstarr]

[pokeberry5]

Hi for doodle request, can I see Tim showing Damian pictures he took before being Robin?

i got carried away thinking about them

the reality lol:

i think it'd be funny if what finally brought them together is damian gaining a grudging respect for tim when he learns about the obsessive lengths tim went to in the lead up to his assumption of the robin title and tim realizing he's found a fellow devoted dick grayson admirer (just-nightwing admirers and dick-grayson-friends don't count)

bonus:

they're both fanatics

the panel is from new titans #60

[lazuliquetzalart]

Don't watch the coin, idiot!

the boss fight of ALL time

[bigfatbreak]

1) in the viceroy au, gabriel's wish transferred all damage from the Peacock Miraculous onto Sabine and killed her. but now that she is gone, what happens when you use the Peacock? does the damage just transfer to another random person?

2) How much of a beatdown is Emilie going to get?

[bloominglegumes]

i love normal guys doomed by the narrative