#NOTE: post has been edited to better reflect my intent. my apologies for messing up my wording

[queerbatting]

shoutout to nonbinary/agender/otherwise gender nonconforming people who choose to wear cultural clothing typically associated with a certain gender!

jews who wear kippot, muslims who wear hijabs and burqas and niqābs and jilbābs and kimars, sihks who wear turbans, just to name a few!

whether you're wearing these because you have a connection to the gender associated with the article of clothing, or if you wear them because you want to challenge gender roles, or if youre just used to wearing them and don't think your gender should stop you from continuing, or any other reason, i think you all rule!!! im actually a nonbinary jew who wears kippot :] rock on!

and to those who are forced to wear these things, i hope one day you all are in a place where you can have the freedom of choice

[izzyovercoffee]

have you ever thought of mando'a words for different disabilities? like what the word for "blind" or "deaf" etc would be?

I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about it actually, because they’re necessary words — but as often is the case the mando’a dictionary is lacking, for whatever reason. 

I do want to state beforehand that while I have thought of or worked on words with others before, many of them have been words for other disabilities and/or impairments dealing specifically with mental health and mental illness, and brain injury. Considering I have PTSD, among other things, that’s mostly where my focus has tended to go. I’m not a part of either community you mentioned (blindness, or deafness), but I have thought about and spoke with others in the past with the intent of creating words for either — mostly because, as you can probably tell from my other mando’a posts, I don’t generally trust the larger fan community to create words in a respectful manner, either unintentionally, or otherwise.

My biggest issue, and the major reason that I’m writing this at all, is that there’s always an “easy” way to create words in mando’a — especially in this situation, because the words “to see” and “to hear” already exist. But the easy way to create these words (drop a negative prefix in front of to see, or to hear) is radically … well, inaccurate, and wrong-headed — especially given how these words literally translate before adding the nu’ / ne’ / n’ to them.

So … this is my attempt, until such a time as better words and those better informed than myself can do so. I would also appreciate any and all input from any part of the blind and/or deaf community. If I’m overstepping or if I mess up, please tell me and I’ll apologize and correct myself.

This all goes under a cut due to length and the aforementioned. 

Okay, so. Beginning with blind.

First, we have the word haa’taylir, meaning to see. Haa’taylir comes from haat, truth, and taylir, hold, keep, preserve. There’s also the common mandalorian saying used to seal a pact: Haat, ijaa, haa'it — truth, honor, vision. So, we also have haa’it — vision. 

In mando’a, to see, or the act of seeing, translates to preserving the truth, or having vision (as opposed to vision in the act of seeing). Tacking on a negative prefix to this word … is, at risk of repeating myself, not a great idea.

For one, blindness? is more like a spectrum rather than a binary. People don’t exist in only two categories of can or can’t see. There’s a wide range of sightedness, and many who are legally blind aren’t wholly without sight, though there are many who are completely blind. Then add onto that that every individual person experiences sight differently — and also experiences blindness differently.

Ultimately, we want to avoid any negative connotations directly attached to a disability, for a number of ableism-related reasons — and not-so-gentle reminder that mandalorian culture would not carry ableist terminology nor support it in any way.

I would, really, rather come up with a new word to poetically encompass what it is, or may be, to be blind.

ur’nau’mur — without light’s kiss

For mandalorians, the word kiss carries the undercurrent of a joke of potential heavy-handedness. Mureyca, kiss, or Murcyur, to kiss, for mandalorians … also comes with the question response of “What kind?” Because as mandalorians kiss, they also have a very, very popular phrase (and act of affection) which is known as the Keldabe kiss — mirshmure’cya. Also known as a kov’nyn, headbutt, which is the physical act of expressing affection between two mandalorians in full armor: that is, knocking helmeted foreheads to each other.

It is, of course, the only way to kiss while still in armor — but it is implied, at least in Legends if not current canon, that mandalorians are perceived to express affection by headbutting … and the kov’nyn does have its place in the culture as a form of affectionate expression, platonic or otherwise. 

Ergo, without light’s kiss carries the meaning of being without light’s illumination, which can vary in dimension from heavy-handed to very soft, all depending entirely on context (which, in this case, would be an individual’s experience of blindness). 

If someone wanted or needed a sigil on one’s buy’ce, it may be NM, or UNM. Pronunciation is also fairly pleasant — oor (rhymes with moor), nau (rhymes with now), moor — and we avoid the negative connotations tied up in other alternatives. 

EDIT:: On further consideration, I also want to offer nu’nau’mur as an alternate word to ur’nau’mur, if only because of pronunciation and slightly different implication attaching the negative prefix of nu’ as opposed to ures, and also pronunciation is slightly more pleasant.

This also leads me to a different variation of the word, and the other end of the spectrum:

or’nau’mur — light’s great kiss

Think of it like … a blindness that comes from a flash bang / grenade. Too much light struck too fast or all at once, dazzling and shorting out vision. It’s also only slightly different than ur’nau’mur in pronunciation (or, rhymes with the word or), to keep a theme, or pair-words theme, going.

So we have without light’s kov’nyn, and we have too strong a kov’nyn, and both are a kind of poetic way of framing blindness.

Also note that light, in mandalorian culture, does not carry implication of “goodness” whatsoever. I would actually argue that good lies in space, in black, in justice, and not light, and never white. 

Actually, now that I said that …

nu’nau’jehaat / ur’nau’jehaat — without light’s deceit

In the event anyone wanted to throw one’s status as blind down as an insult, one could argue back that they are without light’s deceit — as, often, if you only discern things with just your eyes, entirely reliant only on what you see, you’re probably missing … well, everything.

It could be a tongue-in-cheek strong reprimand towards the offender, should they feel the need to correct the other person without giving them a swift kick in the shebs like they rightfully deserve. Or maybe give them both. 

It’s always good to have options.

Moving on to deafness …. Again, it is a spectrum of hearing. People do not exist in a binary of can or cannot hear, and so the word shouldn’t reflect an inaccurate binary.

So, to begin, we have the word to hear — susulur. The prefix could be from su, still, yet, or from sushir, to listen, and then ulur, care, take notice of, detect. 

This word carries … less of a particularly sensitive connotation to it, so attaching a negative prefix to it we then get: nu’susulur cannot hear. 

But deafness and cannot hear are two different things, and I was wondering if, maybe, it could be … something else. Or, rather, should be something else. And, tbh, I believe 100% it should be something else.

My thought was a play on a phrase we have, to rework an existing idea.

suum kaab’uur — beyond sound and silence

Deafness comes in many forms, and instead of treating it as a yes/no that nu’susulur ultimately is, describing a state of being offers more flexibility towards a spectrum and leaves room for dimension — ie. whether someone was born with it, or it developed over time, and all the many, many ways it can manifest or be experienced.

But it’s also important to understand that deafness is not wholly without sound, or without hearing, or not hearing, and it’s not silence. I mean, it could be, but it could also not be, and that’s generally the point I’m trying to make that most people don’t really understand or know or think about. 

Pronunciation can take a few forms, but we have suum, rhymes with soon, and kaab’uur, kah-AH-boor. The extra ‘ah’ is necessary to differentiate from cabur, but … now that I’ve said that, I kind of like the idea of beyond guardian, the slightest pun as a way to, again, shut down anyone who wanted to throw down one’s deafness as an insult. 

Beyond as indicated by suum is more related to … grand, poetic imagery. Cabur, guardian, protector. Together, one is a speaker of the stars, a champion of the space beyond sound and silence, where the voices of the ka’ra reach. (And, generally, cabur as it’s spelled should really be pronounced sah-boor, if the spelling conventions across mando’a were more consistently followed, but that’s for a whole different post to deal with.)

Ultimately though, take this entire post with a grain of salt because, again, I am neither deaf nor blind to the point of claiming any understanding of actual lived experiences. I am just trying to provide mando’a vocabulary in a way that is sensitive to the nature of blindness, and the nature of deafness, and the spectrum that both encompass — and adamant that we treat these topics with the sensitivity they deserve. 

Hell, the sensitivity they require. 

Hopefully … I’ve offered some acceptable potential words, at least for these two things. And, again — if I overstep or mess up, or fuck up, please reach out to me so I can correct it. 

Thanks for reading.

[awkwardlyamusing-blog]

Brooke Houts: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

New Post has been published on http://doggietrainingclasses.com/brooke-houts-5-fast-facts-you-need-to-know/

Brooke Houts: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

On left: Brooke Houts’ IMDB headshot. On right: a screenshot of Houts with her Doberman, Sphinx.

Brooke Houts is a YouTuber and actress who has come under fire for raw footage of a video she was making with her Doberman, Sphinx, in which she appears to hit him and then spit on him.

Houts has since given a statement on the backlash and accidental video upload, in which she said in part, “I want to clarify that I am NOT a dog abuser or animal abuser in any way, shape, or form.”

An LAPD media representative confirmed to The Verge that the Animal Cruelty unit has launched an investigation. The rep said, “Our Animal Cruelty Task Force has received numerous complaints about the video you’re speaking of and we are currently looking into the matter.”

The controversy began when Houts accidentally uploaded a video of raw footage on August 6, which shows her smacking her dog, pinning him to the ground and shouting “NO!”

The video was quickly taken down and replaced with the more polished cut, but many had already seen it by the time she took it down. You can still see the footage in the video under fact #1. She has also now taken down the edited version of the plastic wrap prank video.

Here’s what you need to know about Houts:

1. READ: Houts’ Full  Statement on the Controversial Footage

In a tweet on August 6, Houts addressed the controversy head on, via a series of screenshots of a statement she appeared to write on the Notes app. She also wrote the same statement in a comment on the YouTube video (as seen below) where the uncut footage originate from. The statement reads,

Anything I say isn’t going to make those who believe I’m a bad person stop believing that, and I’m aware of this. I apologize to anyone who has been effected negatively by the footage. First off, I want to address the uncut footage. On the day in particular that the video was filmed, and actually this past week, things in my outside life have been less than exceptional. I am not going to play the “victim card” or anything of that sort, but I do want to point out that I am rarely as upset as what was shown in the footage. The bubbly, happy-go-lucky Brooke that you often see in my videos is typically an accurate representation of me, but it’s obvious that I’m playing up my mood in this video when I’m clearly actually frustrated.

That being said, this does NOT justify me yelling at my dog in the way that I did, and I’m fully aware of that. Should I have gotten as angry as I did in the video? No. Should I have raised my voice and yelled at him? No. However, when my 75 lb. Doberman is jumping up in my face with his mouth open, I do, as a dog parent, have to show him that this behavior is unacceptable. But I want to make it known, REGARDLESS of what my dog does, I should not have acted that way towards him.

I want to clarify that I am NOT a dog abuser or animal abuser in any way, shape, or form. Anyone who has witnessed or heard true animal abuse will be able to clearly see that. My dog, in no way, shape, or form was hurt by any action that I displayed in this video. I know people are going to say “you don’t know how he really feels” and this is true. But if he was audibly and physically in pain, it would be a different story. I also did NOT spit on my dog, but I understand how it could look like I did. Did I get in his face and take unnecessary actions towards him? Yes I did, and that was not the way I should’ve handled the situation. Did I spit on my dog? No.

My family and I are in the process of getting him training. The training that I have been looking at for him is VERY expensive, because it’d have to be 1-on-1 with a trainer. Ever since he was attacked at the dog park, he isn’t okay with being around other dogs. He sticks to me like velcro if he is in the presence of another dog, even a little chihuahua. I just can’t see him getting what he needs from a group training environment. That being said, I know I personally can learn more effective techniques to get his energy out and keep him disciplined as well.

Anyone who knows me personally knows I have an immense love for animals, including my own. I would never do anything to purposefully physically or mentally harm any animal. Again, I should NOT have yelled at him or have been as physically aggressive as I was, and I’m fully aware of that. He was not hurt, nor has he ever been purposefully hurt by me. I know I’ll be in many future situations where he’s being physical, but I will not respond this way again.

Family or friends that have spent any amount of time with Sphinx and me know that we have a trusting, loving relationship. All he wants to do is be by my side, cuddle with me, and be around me, which I love. My love for him is exponential and infinite, and I do everything I can in my day-to-day life to ensure that he is living as happily as he can. I’m sorry that my actions in that particular moment did not reflect that.

About my twitter- I deactivated my account earlier in the day. When I went to open it, I was met with an excess of notifications of people telling me I’m messed up, a bad person, that I’m going to hell, that I belong in jail, etc. For my own mental health, and no other reason besides that, I didn’t think it was necessary for me to be reading those comments at that time. Lastly, I don’t want to make this statement seem like it’s me defending myself, because that is not my goal. I do want to point out what ACTUALLY happened though. My intent by explaining the situation is to give those of you who are rightfully angry with me the explanation that you deserve. I am getting my dog into training, and I’m looking at ways to improve how I personally train him at home. I am sorry that you guys had to watch that footage and were upset by it, and I’m sorry to my dog for raising my voice and acting aggressively.

In my heart and from the words of the people that spend the most time with me, I know that I am a great dog mom (but not perfect), that I spoil him in the best ways, that he gets all the treats he could ever want, and that the Amazon Prime mailman is probably tired of delivering packages of dog toys to my house. Again, this does not make my actions in the footage okay, but I’m just explaining what my day-to-day life is really like, whether you believe me or not.

On a serious note, I love you guys, and I want to THANK YOU for pointing out things that you think are wrong and discussing them, because the world needs more of that. I hope you give me the chance to prove that these statements about myself do align with my actions. All my love, Brooke Houts

2. Houts’ YouTube Channel Has 339,000 Subscribers & She Often Features Her Doberman in Videos

Houts has a popular YouTube channel; she boasts over 339,000 subscribers, and routinely uploads videos. The video she was filming that led to the alleged dog abuse, “Plastic wrap prank on my doberman!,” was taken down on August 7. The video had over 138,000 views. The caption for the video read, “Hey guys! Me & me favorite dog ever are here to bring you a plastic wrap prank lol, this is probably the shortest video to ever go up on my channel but I hope you like it!!! Let us know if you wanna see more pranks 🐶🖤”

Many users have since commented on that video, condemning her behavior with her dog. One user wrote, “I have seen a few of your videos with Sphinx and from the beginning I’ve felt that you don’t understand what the breed needs. But I’ve tried to not be judgmental beforehand since you sometimes have mentioned that you do train him. But then I saw the video where you show how you train him.”

Another user wrote, “Imagine beating your dog for trying to show love and affection 😒”

This makes my blood BOIL. How dare you blame this on “training” your dog. @brookehouts. You are disgusting. You deserve both your channel taken down, and your beautiful puppy be given to a deserving home you monster. pic.twitter.com/DaoRdkbsj1

— Mister Preda (@MisterPreda) August 7, 2019

Other well-known YouTubers have even weighed in. Andrea Russett, an actress and YouTube personality, tweeted, “dogs give, give & give an unconfidtional love asking nothing but the same in return. the way u reacted to ur dog simply being a dog was unacceptable & hard to watch. i hope you learn and grow from this, because no animal should ever be in a home where it’s being treated that way.”

Mister Preda, another influencer and YouTube personality, tweeted, “This makes my blood BOIL. How dare you blame this on “training” your dog. @brookehouts You are disgusting. You deserve both your channel taken down, and your beautiful puppy be given to a deserving home you monster.”

Similarly, Ethan Nestor (a video game commentator, vlogger, and former video editor)  tweeted, “this is such a bullshit apology. ‘I will not respond this way again.’ yes you will! I guarantee this is the way you’ve always scolded your dog, so why would that change. Stop acting like this was a one time thing. This dog needs a better home and you need help for anger issues.”

Logan Paul posted a Twitter thread on the controversy, writing in part, “…this video of that girl hitting & spitting on her dog is remarkably grotesque, and irks me for many reasons… im terrified by the on-camera personality shift she puts on when she’s ‘performing’ … one thing ive always tried to do is be authentic, sometimes too authentic, and i’d bet an unhealthy amount of creators wear a mask just as ugly”

3. One of Houts’ Most Viewed Videos Involves Her Kissing Her Apparent Ex-Boyfriend

Houts’ videos tend to run the gamut, in terms of content. But one of her most popular video (which has garnered over 3.3 million views) is “KISSING MY EX-BOYFRIEND (Extreme Ex-Boyfriend Tag).” You can watch the video above.

Many of Houts’ videos revolve around Sphinx, too. Another of her most popular videos follows a “day in the life” of Sphinx:

In the video, Houts brushes Sphinx’s teeth, walks him (and defends the collar she uses for Sphinx), washes him, and more.

Houts has had a YouTube account since 2014. Her “About Me” section reads, “HEY my name is Brooke Houts and if you’re reading this congratulations you can read. Since you’re already here, I heard that it’s strongly advised by all medical personnel that you hit the subscribe button (also the notification bell doesn’t hurt either) or else SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN I DON’T KNOW I’M BAD AT LYING JUST SUBSCRIBE OKAY IT’S FREE AND FUN”

4. Houts Is LA-Based, & Affiliates Herself With MOSAIC

Though Houts has since turned her Instagram account private, her bio does offer some information about the YouTuber. She’s based in LA, for example, and affiliates herself with MOSAIC, a church in Los Angeles with six locations across the city.

Houts’ Twitter bio reads, “Subscibe to my stupid channel already.” She has over 6,000 followers on Twitter and over 26,000 followers on Instagram. Her most recent tweet as of August 7 reads, “Thank you to everyone who’s being kind and understanding. I really appreciate it”

‌IMDB

Houts also appears to be an aspiring actress, as she uploaded a video called “What it’s really like being an actress in LA” in May. In the video, Houts drives around Los Angeles with a friend, makes a green juice, and talks about why she loves the makeup brand Glossier.

Houts does have an IMDB account. Her one IMDB acting credit is for a television series called Interracial. 

5. Houts’ Dog, Sphinx, Has His Own Instagram Account

Though Houts’ has made her own Instagram account private to all non-followers, her dog, Sphinx, still has a public Instagram account. Users have since flooded his comments with attacks on Houts.

“Nice dog but sh*t owner,” one user commented.

Many others have tagged the ASPCA. One user did that and wrote, “@aspca please help this poor dog, and when you do spit and push the owner on the ground. Then say you are just in a bad mood that day.”

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