Hi! You seem to know a lot about Worm and I haven't read it in too long. You posted a thing I liked about Siberian and it reminded me of a question I had that I may's well ask you.
If I remember correctly, in the interlude where Siberian tries to recruit Bitch, they can communicate, right? Like, isn't there something in there about Siberian having body language stuff going on so that is as easy as talking to a dog? Do you know why that is? It makes sense at the time and then we find out Siberian is a projection and suddenly I'm not sure why Manson should have any idea how to do that.
Honestly? No idea. Two theories off the top of my head, which I think would have some thematic resonance-
He really was following her for weeks, observing her interactions, mannerisms and body language, and as one of the world's foremost experts on parahumans and how powers can modify the host he came up with an educated guess about how to best conduct himself with her. Thematically resonant because it means that the first interaction Bitch has in the entire book that feels natural to her, is in fact the result of weeks of premediated observation and preparation for the encounter, coming from someone whose entire pitch is a life free of bullshitters.
Two, for reasons completely unrelated to Bitch, Manton actively cultivated the "natural predator" mannerisms as part of his overall commitment to the bit, and his alignment with Bitch's preferred mode of engagement is some combination of an accident and why he thought they'd get along in the first place. Also thematically relevant because a major element of Bitch's POV in this chapter is her confusion and uncertainty about... basically everything. Her own motivations, her level of loyalty to her teammates, how her own power works, who she should trust. The way she lives her life isn't as much of a considered lifestyle choice as what she ultimately winds up with in Gimel; it's just who she is, and what she's dealing with. But it's what Siberian actively wants to be and has to actively cultivate- even if he's authentically after it, it would rankle Bitch for sure to know how much he as to work at being "free" when, again, the pitch is a life where you don't have to pay attention to expectations or roles.
Just my best guesses, though. It's also possible his vial modified his psyche in the same way it did hers. Who knows
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the thing about some men is that they want you to remember, at all times, that you are underneath them. that with one word or look or "joke", you will stay beneath them. that even "exceptions" to the rule are not true exceptions - the commonly cited statistic that one in eight men believe they could win against serena williams.
women's gymnastics is often not seen as real gymnastics. whatever the fuck non-euclidian horrors rhythmic gymnasts are capable of, it's often tamped down as being not a sport. some of the most dominant athletes in the world are women. nobody watches women's soccer. despite years of dancing and being built like a fucking brick, men always assume they're faster and stronger than i am. you wouldn't like what happens when they are incorrect. once while drunk at a guy's house i won a held-plank challenge by a solid minute. the party was over after that - he became exceedingly violent.
what i mean is that you can be perfect, and they still think you're ... lacking, somehow. i hope you understand i'm trying to express a neutral statement when i say: taylor swift was the possibly the most patriarchy-palatable, straight-down-the-line woman we could churn out. she is white, conventionally attractive, usually pretty mild in personality. say what you will about her (and you should, she's a billionaire, she can handle it), but a few things seem to be true about her: 1. she can write a damn catchy song, and 2. the eras tour truly was a massive commercial success and was also genuinely an impressive feat of human athleticism and performance.
i don't know if she deserves the title of "woman of the year," i'm not debating that in this post. what i am saying is that she was named Woman of The Year, and then an untalented man got onstage at the golden globes and made fun of her for attending her boyfriend's football games. what i am saying is that this woman altered local economies - and her dating life is still being made into a "harmless" punchline. the camera panned, greedy, over to her downing a full glass of champagne. congratulations taylor! you are woman of the year! but you are a woman. even her.
fuck, man. write better material.
a guy gets onstage at a college graduation and despite the fact like half the crowd is made up of women, he spends a significant proportion of it warning these people - who spent possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars on their education - that they were lied to. that the "real" meaning of femininity is motherhood. that they shouldn't rest on the laurels of that education-they-paid-for but instead throw it away to kneel at a man's heel. imagine that. sweating in your godawful polyester gown (that you also had to pay for!), fresh out of 4 years of pushing yourself ever-harder: and some guy you've never met - who knows nothing about you - he reminds you this "win" is a pyrrhic one at best. you really shouldn't consider yourself that extraordinary. you're still a woman, even after years of study.
god forbid you are not a pretty woman, but if you are pretty, you must be dumb. god forbid you are not ablebodied or white or cis or straight or good at swallowing. you must be beneath a man, or else they are not a man. the equation for masculinity seems to just be: that which is not a woman or womanly (god forbid). anything "feminine" is thereby anathema. to engage in "feminine" things such as therapy, getting a hug from a friend, or crying - it is giving up ones manhood. therefore women need to be put in their place to ensure that masculinity is protected.
this is something i have struggled to explain to terfs - they are not doing the work of feminism, but rather the patriarchy. by asserting that women and men must be (on some secret level) oppositional and in conflict, they also assume that being a woman is akin to being another species. but bigotry does not stem from observational truths or clarity - that is what makes it bigotry. there was nothing in my childhood that made me fundamentally different from my brother. we are treated differently nonetheless. to assert there is some biological drive that enforces my gender role is to assert that women have a gendered role. men do not see women as equal to them not because of biological reality - but instead because the core tenant of the patriarchy is that women aren't full, realized people.
we are told from a very young age to excuse misbehavior as a single man's choice - not all men. it is not all men, just that one guy. all women are gold-digging bitches who belong in the kitchen - but if a man is mean, bigoted, or violent to you, it's just that particular guy, and that means nothing about men-as-a-whole. it is only one guy who got mad when you gently rejected him. it is only one guy who warns her this trophy is heavy, are you sure you can hold it? it is only one guy who smashes her face into the cake. it is only one guy talking into a mic about hating our bodily autonomy.
i have just found that they often wait until the moment we actually seem to be upstaging them. you sit in a meeting where you're presenting your own findings and he says get me a coffee? or you run to the end of the marathon and are about to finish first and he pushes your kids out in front of you. you win the chess game and they make some comment akin to well, you're ugly away. we can be the billionaire and get the dream life and finally fucking do it and yet! still! they have this strange, visceral urge to say well actually, if you think you're so great -
it's not one just one guy. it's one in eight.
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The realest part of the Barbie Movie was when Barbie was like "okay but what if this hurts his feelings? what if this makes him sad? :(" after Ken stole her house, stole her car, and stole her agency, because as a woman you still have to second guess everything you do on the assessment of whether it might hurt a man's feelings.
And then that apprehension was proven right one million times over by the entire Conservative Internet Manosphere pissing and shitting and screaming themselves hoarse over Barbie daring to hurt a man's feelings.
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The fact that Judaism is trending because of both the wave of bomb threats on synagogues and Bradley Cooper's Antisemitism Adventure (his huge fake prosthetic nose, and him basically stealing the story from a Jewish man) is so infuriating and so exhaustingly typical.
The fact that I see Judaism trending on Tumblr and immediately think "oh no. Something Bad is happening to us." We're never trending cause it's fucking good. I never get to be excited, it's just cold dread.
The fact that Antisemitism is getting worse everyday and the only ones who ever talk about it are other Jews. The fact that no one else fucking cares. The only ones who support us are other Jews. Even when gentiles talk about Nazis or white supremacists they don't want to help us. We're just their prop, the canary in the coal mine and the perfect victim.
The fact that everyone's uncomfortable with Jews still being here. Reminding them of things they'd rather forget.
The fact that it'd be easier for them if we were all dead. Then they could tell stories about our people, dressed in offensive caricatures, without us making a fuss.
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I have not been following western media at all for the past couple of days but I want to know how they have reported about the freed Israel hostage who said that she was treated well with her needs met and literally even turned back to shake hands and say Shalom to those who were releasing her. Was this shown and hyped up on TV channels and news websites? Was her release video played everywhere?
I only saw a clip of Sky News (Australia I think) where they started showing her speaking to the media and immediately cut it off when she started speaking positively...
Oh and what about another Israeli who was talking about how it was their own military who had actually attacked its own people?
I always ask and look for news and updates directly from Israel like we get it from Gaza. If you search for the Tel Aviv geotag on Instagram, it's mostly people chilling in Israel or some pro-Palestine accounts. Is there a possibility that Israel stops their own people from speaking up?
I know western media loves to cherry pick things to show to curate the image that Israel and the US wants them to curate but surely they cannot omit these things.
Here's a random post I just found, adding it here for now
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it's actually so weird how people react with such vitriol to the slightest mention of minecraft youtubers like i used to be sympathetic about it because of the whole association with dream and so on but it's gotten to the point where if you've been made aware it's a rich and varied community and you still have that knee jerk reaction of "well they're lame, they're cringe, they're all ugly racist white boys" you are actually just a fucking idiot. i'm sorry. like if you cannot do that most basic level of separation like that there is something fundamentally unformed in your brain you should probably work on
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