#again another case of how sexuality is linked to gender in a unique way

[irenedubrovna]

A post regarding Euphoria for the benefit of myself and basically no one else

So, it really bothers me when people say Euphoria is groundbreaking, progressive media. Here’s a dissection of why I don’t think it is, because this is what I feel like doing at work:

The character of Rue is objectively great. She by far receives the least overt sexualization, and is treated neutrally in terms of active sexuality. She’s treated like a normal teenage girl with mental issues and an addiction to drugs. She falls in love with a girl who she pines for and places on a pedestal. The reason I think she is written this way is because she is a Sam Levinson proxy. She written with gender ambiguity and with little regard to the experiences she’d go through as a black gay female, probably because Sam Levinson has no insight to that aspect of life. Her performance is heightened of course by Zendaya, who breathes unique life to the Sam Levinson’s artistic extension, and without her performance this show would not get even half the acclaim it gets. Attribute that to Zendaya of course, because the director has done little to deserve this acclaim.

The rest of the females, sans Lexi, are pornified to a disgusting extent, not only due to the fact that they are supposed to be underage, but also because their existence as people is treated as being absolutely secondary to their sexual appeal. They are foremost presented in terms of their relation to sex. Cassie, Maddy, Jules, and Kat cannot be removed from their sexuality without disrupting the plot or their journeys in relation to the plot. Why are the females so intrinsically linked to uber fetishized versions of female sexuality, or uber fetishized versions of blossoming female sexual identity?

Maddy is presented not only scantily clad 90 percent of the time, but also dressed in a precariously unattainable sexual fashion. At any given time she is styled to look straight out of, simultaneously, a high fashion editorial, and a “barely legal” porno. She is airheaded and profane, and promiscuous, her mannerisms dictated by the adult films she’s “studied” in order to project an image of perfect hyper sexual femininity. She’s complacent in becoming a prototypical housewife because it will earn her a comfortable place as a trophy wife. She has no aspirations beyond that. So, let’s unpack all of that. Maddy’s role in the show is mostly passive. The most active thing she does in the plot is revenge fuck a man in the pool of a party. Nearly everything else she does in the show that is plot relevant is of someone else’s volition. Even less of what she in the show is related to anything other than a man. She is abused and then pressured into framing another man for said abuse. She has no agency as a character. The only notable difference to this rule is when she takes drugs at a carnival, knocks a pot of chili over, and calls her ex’s mom a cunt. Removed from her active sexual life and carefully cultivated aesthetic, she’s a trite stereotype of an unambitious girlfriend who gets treated poorly. I see people call Maddy iconic, but if she wasn’t gorgeous and well dressed, I doubt anyone would even think twice about her, let alone create fancams and Instagram pages dedicated to her. She exists as a plot device, and as pretty set dressing to build up the shows aesthetic. Her emotions are not well explored, her motivations are sexist, and she is often there to be demeaned, objectified, or to say a bad word. The most damning part of her involvement in this show is her episode where it is stated that she, as a fourteen year old girl, lost her virginity to an adult man, and it is stated she was in control of the situation. This is a dangerous thing to say about a character, to any audience, but especially a young one. To imply that a precocious young girl was in control during her first sexual encounter with a much much older man implies things that frankly border on rape apologist ideology. This show states this unflinchingly and with no further elaboration. If there’s one thing that tells you that Euphoria is a bad show, let it be that. Also, if there’s one thing that tells you about Sam Levinson as a person, and the way he views girls and women, let it fucking be that.

Jules is a young trans girl. She also likes to have sex with men as a means to “conquer femininity”. Scratch that, she likes to have degrading sex with older men in order to “conquer femininity”. This mindset is shown to be toxic, of course, but I think the problem with this idea in general is that there’s no deeper exploration for what this mindset means. It implies that she believes women are the sum of their intrigue and degradations. This mindset I can only assume would be a cultivation of dysphoria and internalized misogyny, which this series is absolutely not prepared to address in a tactful manner. Jules is a teenager with mental illness, trauma, and is undergoing an identity crisis. There’s something powerful in her character, something worth saying, however we only get trimmings of those meaningful things, and are ultimately left with a hurtful depiction of a trans girl because all of her musings on womanhood and identity are incomplete, and they fail to reach beyond the surface of their thesis statement. She wears colorful clothing, is overtly feminine and artistic in her presentation. Everything about her screams insecurity over her own womanhood. That is the crux of her character. Now, I think we should ask ourselves, is trans person who is insecure about their identity peak representation? Is this what trans people deserve? Is it “groundbreaking “? If this show was run by someone else, I might be inclined to say that there’s nothing insidious about this, but this is the guy that made Assassination Nation, so I think we know what he thinks of young women, the way they should be portrayed (that is, for the capitulation of a man) and realize his inclusion of a trans woman in his cast is no more meaningful than the inclusion of any other woman. Women to him are made to be categorized and should, at the end of the day, be easily palatable for the capitulation of a man. The device of having Jules being interested in older men and rough sex for identity reasons is transparent. Trans women are exploited and objectified with a similar fervor to cis women, the caveat being that they are “a forbidden fruit” of sorts to straight men. Jules is sissified, her presentation fetishistic. Her role in the plot is more involved. Her relationship with Rue is sweet, though toxic on both sides. She is ultimately betrayed, blackmailed, and snowballs into something of a manic episode, all well portrayed by Hunter Schafer, but I don’t think her inclusion in the show absolves it of any of its many sins.

Let’s talk about Cassie. Cassie is the Eurocentric beauty standard exemplified. She is the blonde haired blue eyed girl next store, and her boobs are of course always on display. She is notably promiscuous, something I say right off the bat because that’s how she’s introduced, as a so called slut through the words of the devil (Nate Jacobs). She is a girl with daddy issues, which we are all familiar with at this point. Her sexual boundaries begin and end at the whim of her partner. The terms of her consent are much like the terms of consent of many young girls brainwashed by society and the rising tide of degradation porn: everything is alright as long as you provide them comfort and affirmation afterward. You can touch them roughly without asking, you can use them as a tool to affirm your masculinity. This is the way men prefer their women now: just broken enough to say yes to anything they want. It’s become a joke at this point. Men like girls with issues, but only the ones that will feed their own desires. Cassie Howard is meek. Her inclusion in the plot I suppose ties to themes of drug addiction and how it divides and destroys the people you love. It doesn’t show what it does to her beyond shaping her sexual encounters, which is no surprise. Overall I’d say Cassie is in this roster of females as the most traditional categorically, in relation to how men view women and further how they sexualize them. She has a relationship with someone who doesn’t really love her. That mostly what she does here. Gets used. Doesn’t drive the plot or conflict much. More pretty set dressing. More aesthetics. How this show consists of so many women but is driven so much by men is unsurprising, and, again, very enlightening in the grand scheme of things.

Lastly we touch on Kat. I’d like to begin with the fact that self actualization through sexual exploration, in a show run by a man, is just a cloak for a woman to gratify the audience with her sexuality. Regardless of whether or not she is plus sized, this is overt objectification. She is on this show to be sexy. Beyond that, the fact that a minor using sex work as a form of liberation is disgusting. Whether or not she is portrayed as “owning” her sexuality is negligible, and speaks to the same mindset discussed with Maddy. Minors cannot fucking consent to sex, sexual acts, or anything within the confines of such. It’s crazy that this occurs with two different characters in such a similar way. It has echoes of “Well, she looked older..” and “Well, she wanted it..” or “She’s advanced for her age”. Never, not once in the events of the series is there meaningful introspection on what doing this kind of thing does to a minor. Moreover, these acts are explicit, and made clearly for sexual gratification. None of these things are absolved by the fact that she’s plus sized. If anything, her body type is fetishized in this context. It’s also another case of a “good girl to bad girl” transformation, which are archaic and, of course, sexist. With the rise of adult websites targeting minors for explicit content, this is even more reprehensible. Once again, in terms of representation, is this really what speaks to you as progressive? Groundbreaking? A girl gains control of her own narrative by having sex with lots of men. She gains control by being sexy. She gains control by dehumanizing and objectifying herself. No she doesn’t. Media controlled by men will tell this story to you thousands of times, don’t listen because she’s bigger than a size four.

ALL OF THESE CHARACTERS ARE UNDERAGE. ALL OF THEM HAVE EXPLICIT SEX SCENES, EVEN THE SEXUAL ASSAULT IS MADE CINEMATICALLY PORNIFIED. THESE SHOTS ARE MADE TO BE OBJECTIVELY SEXY. THIS IS NOT A CASE OF SOMEONE CREATING SOMETHING FOR THE SAKE OF REALISM. IT IS ABOUT MAKING SCENES THAT SPEAK TO A MALE AUDIENCE. THAT CATER TO THE MALE GAZE. ARGUE WITH THE WALL.

I won’t go further into the plot, other characters, or the structure or the episodes for sake of brevity, but I felt compelled to air my thoughts on this to the void. I can only hope I was critical enough that Sam Levinson will one day see this and cry because another bad feminist thinks something that he made sucks

[secretgamergirl]

A Little Horrifying Primer on Transphobes

Some time ago, I put together a Little Fact Checking Primer on Trans People, as a basic resource for disabusing people of some of the many completely ridiculous yet absurdly widespread beliefs about trans people that simply have no basis whatsoever in reality. And wouldn’t you know it, every single lie exposed in that primer is not only still widely believed, but is presently being used as a basis to sign some absolutely horrific human rights abuses into law. So it’s high time I follow that up, in this case focused more on who keeps actively spreading these lies and why. I’m going to try and keep things as light as I can here, but we’re going to be looking at the most monstrous side of human nature, so apologies in advance if this is a dark read.

First, let me just note that there are two things I don’t plan to do in this piece. I’m not going to waste time debunking the arguments of the people I’m highlighting (much of this is already covered in my earlier primer, others have done the work in cases where I haven’t, and frankly these people’s claims should be self-evidently utter nonsense to begin with). I am also going to be very selective in what I link to, or even share related images of, as I would frankly not like to fill a post on a blog I generally try to keep safe for all audiences with media directly dealing with, for instance, child sexual assault, and much of the relevant information also involves stochastic terrorism against innocent people, and I would prefer not to throw more fuel onto such fires.

Transphobes lie constantly, about everything.

To some degree this is obvious. We’re talking about people who scaremonger about the possibilities of trans women dominating competitive sports and assaulting people in restrooms, despite the status quo already reflecting the conditions they insist would make these inevitibilities for decades and centuries respectively, and their grim visions never once having come to pass, and also constantly insisting that the woman in the photo below is actually a man, going further to say this is evident to anyone giving her the merest glance.

It goes beyond that though. There’s at least a little plausible deniablity in claims like this, or that “science is on their side” if they were simply uninformed about the world they live in, never actually looking into what laws exist, what science actually says, and never actually meeting a trans person or even seeing a picture of one of us. I’m talking really bold lies here. Like wholecloth fabricating a story that a convicted murder was trans, including anecdotes about wigs dresses and a planned name change, in a major newspaper. Or to cite an old favorite of mine, the time a pack of bigots walked up to a crowd of people peacefully picketing a transphobic legal proposal, started roughing them up and taking closeup photos of members of the crowd to stalk online when they got home, got sufficiently riled up for one to straight up assault an innocent person half her size, filmed the whole thing, uploaded it to youtube, and used stills of that assault as acomanying photos when they went home to write articles about the assailant being a “grandmother” attacked by rowdy trans women. And yes, they did monkey’s paw my wish to see that specific image on newspapers. Interesting side note, when it came to real public light that J.K. Rowling endorsed this sort of hatred, it was because she accidentally pasted some profanity laden rambling about how the imagined moral character of the other party in that incident, years after the fact, into a post praising a child’s fan art of her work.

To be a little less niche, transphobes can’t get enough of spreading the lie that the young fellow in this photo is a girl. Specifically a trans girl, providing proof that all their scaremongering about the dastardly threat of trans girls in competitive sports has finally come to pass.

To be fully clear, that’s a man (or a boy if you want to split hairs about him being 17 in that photo). Mack Beggs. A rather insidious choice for this sort of story, considering the actual context for that photo. See, Beggs attended high school in Texas, during a (still ongoing as I write this) period wherein that particular state had caved to this exact sort of propaganda, and in order to head off a wholly imagined wave of trans girls competing on girls’ sports teams, and enacted a law mandating that in all such competitions must compete under whatever gender is stated on their birth certificates. And as it happens, the first, and to my knowledge ONLY time this has come up was with Beggs here, who again, is a man, as no one with a grip on reality could argue against, has “female” on his birth certificate. Which is another way of saying he is a trans man. The guys in the same boat as trans women who we talk about a whole hell of a lot less because their existence is extremely inconvenient to the majority of transphobic propaganda. Case in point. And this is all information it is really impossible to come across if you’re coming across this photo in any sort of respectable source. Take this story, which is as unambiguous about this as you can get. And yet, in the very comments section of that story, there they are. Carrying on like this story about a trans guy, forced by a transphobic law to compete as a girl, which he absolutely did not want, and received horrific threats over, using phrases like “female to male” and bringing up that he was assigned female at birth and is on testosterone-based HRT, is about a trans woman cheating the system. Or to quote word for word, “Now also transgender female want to be male also compete in female sport. biological born“ That’s not “being confused,” that’s standing next to you in a white desert and complaining about being adrift in a black ocean, bald-faced, not even trying to be convincing just make a power play, lying through one’s teeth.

I could spend this whole article on just this point. Lying about who they are, various people’s falsified credentials, whole websites full of “anonymous parents of children who think they’re trans” turning out to be one single woman documenting the abuse of her very much trans son, or of course the people behind the whole “bathroom bill” panic candidly admitting it was all based on utter fiction. I do have other points to cover though.

Transphobes are firmly entrenched in the media.

It is extremely difficult to find oneself in a position of having to explain to people that a particular group of people is effectively in control of press outlets, as that is rather classically a claim conspiracy theorists absolutely love to toss around at various marginalized groups (including trans people hilariously enough, but of course the most common and lingering version of this is the antisemitic variant). I really can’t get around it here though. Specifically in the U.K., you honestly can say that transphobes control the media. I already touched on this with the assault case I mentioned above and the fabricated story about the murderer, but this is a pretty well-documented situation. I mean, even The Guardian calls out The Guardian on this, and that’s the outlet that gets the most attention because it’s the one with the most otherwise respected name, but every paper in the country has been running transphobic propaganda pieces on a weekly if not daily basis for years now, and while they do get reprimanded by watchdog groups and have mass walk-outs over the worst of it, it’s not like there’s some governing body with the authority to step in about it. Meanwhile the BBC is constantly inviting diehard zealots like Graham Linehan to news programs where he compares being trans to being a nazi, and hosting debates where someone just sits down and repeatedly chants the word “penis” at a trans woman.

Things are better in the rest of the world, but we still have right-wing creeps like Jesse Singal both writing horrific propaganda pieces (we’ll get back to that one) and blackballing trans writers out of covering trans issues ourselves (and personally stalking the hell out of those of us who try). We’ve got our Joe Rogans and Tucker Carlsons out there (no way in hell I’m linking videos here, have a real information link and a still).

The line between diehard transphobes and straight-up nazis basically does not exist.

What even is there to say here? You can easily poke around havens for nazi activity for yourself and compare the particular unique vocabulary used there to the primary bastion of anti-trans hate speech on the internet (the “feminism” section of what was originally a site for parenting tips before violent fascists took the forums over) or just peruse the follows of the thousands of people I’ve blocked on social media and see if you can sort out a clear division in the networks of channers with frog avatars and the accounts with names like GoodieXXrealwoman, or you can read up on Gab and Spinster, the two twitter alternatives that are just different portals to the same server, set up by the same guy. Maybe do some research into “the LGB Alliance,” or WoLF but any way you slice it the only real difference to be found is the general purpose nazis take a little time off now and then to watch borderline pedophilic anime and the really dedicated transphobes think to use language that sounds vaguely well-educated and left-leaning. I mean, this came from the “feminist” side of the fence:

And not to belabor the point here, but the ones claiming to be a bunch of “feminist mums” sure do let the mask slip any time they’re confronted with the fact that “women” includes black women, and oh just have a whole thread about all the weird conspiratory theories these people have about how trans people’s whole existence is some sort of Jewish plot for world domination. I swear a few months ago they were all passing around a story about some bank having an above average number of trans employees and they were all just “and we all know who controls the banks, right?” about it.

Transphobes endorse an awful lot of people who are openly pro-pedophila.

This is the part where I am really loath to link the many many specific examples I have on hand. Or to talk about this at all for reasons of good taste. Or, for that matter, to talk about this in a tumblr post when there’s an ongoing problem of people with backgrounds strongly tied to this site making baseless accusations of pedophilia against every queer person they can find, so let me be very clear just what I’m talking about while avoiding anything too graphic.

That’s James Cantor. Transphobes love him for being one of the closest things they have to a scientist on their side. And I am featuring him in a screenshot here showing that he is followed by current queen of the transphobes J.K. Rowling, while speaking to both another big name in transphobic circles, Debra Soh, and based on their names, what I’m guessing is at least one straight-up nazi. And in case you think “the P” he’s talking about adding to LGBT (or “GLBT” as weird anti-queer bigots who also have issues with women often write it) might stand for “poly” or “pan” he’s all too happy to clarify that.

This is the entire thrust of Cantor’s work and life. He is the world’s biggest pedophile rights advocate. He wants it declassified as a mental disorder, all stigma on it removed, and tirelessly pushes forward the idea that the majority of.. people who feel compelled to sexually assault children are good people who present no potential harm to anyone and should in fact be lauded.

I am not generally one to claim that someone with a PhD is spewing out questionable garbage with regard to their field, but the reason I am aware of Cantor at all is that other transphobes keep trying to hold up a particular post on his blog as "a study” (which it is not) that offers “proof” (in the form of a blurry jpeg of basically some random numbers) of some ridiculous quackery about how trans kids will “grow out of it” if exposed to conversion therapy (another way of saying torture), which Cantor himself seems to be pushing, so I am somewhat skeptical of his academic chops. And I am, of course, REALLY suspicious that all these other bigots gravitate to him purely because they’re that desperate to find anyone with a PhD in anything that backs them up against literally every scientist in a relative field, to the point that they merely forgive his particular advocacy they are plainly all aware of, particularly when such a common fig leaf used by transphobes is “keeping children safe from sexual deviants.”

And of course, Cantor is most often invoked when coming to the defense of Kenneth Zucker. This Kenneth Zucker.

Those are separate papers. Zucker isn’t controversial though for organizing panels to discuss how attractive people agree small children are (at least not exclusively). Mostly, he’s known for running a conversion therapy center which subjected gay and trans children to various sorts of torture in an effort to “fix” them, which at least for those trans "patients” I have spoken with involved a fair amount of having them strip completely naked and talking a lot about their genitals.

Zucker is something of a controversial figure with the transphobic scene, as they are extremely on board with his sexual torture of queer children, but he does actual work (for some value of the term) involving trans people and thus is not able to commit as fully as they would prefer to making life horrible for trans people, due to a professional obligation to acknowledge reality now and then. As an aside, the similarly positioned Ray Blanchard, while not to my knowledge particularly interested in the attractiveness of children, lives in a similar purgatory of trying to reconcile his career, bigotry, and sexual hangups, yielding compromises like this:

Of course, that’s just looking at the straws transphobes grasp at when looking for scientific credibility. Real leaders of the movement include Germaine Greer, author of The Beautiful Boy, which is about what you are afraid it might be, and features a very young child in a cover feature he did not consent to posing for. Or Julie Bindel, who among other things is rather infamous for writing whole articles on subjects like whether a teenage girl she came across maybe has a huge penis you can totally see if you really squint at her skirt. Again, I will not share a link to go along with that one.

Transphobes terrorize and attempt to defund charities and other unambiguously good organizations.

Graham Linehan, previously best known for cowriting some sitcoms and possibly spending a year angling to get into my pants so awkwardly I didn’t pick up on it is now best known for trying to pull the plug on a children’s charity, in a story that somehow also involves Donkey Kong. Well, and the interview about nazis. And possibly the other interview about “defending me from nazis” until it got into his head that I might not be as young and hot as he imagined. Rather not link to a far right extremist youtube channel though.

There’s also a current effort to replace Stonewall (an organization named after the location where a pair of trans women kicked off a riot which is generally agreed to be the start of the LGBT+ rights movement) as the UK’s primary LGBT+ rights organization with the “LGB Alliance.” The hate group mentioned above, with the skull face and the rifle. Closest I can find to an article on that effort on short notice that isn’t propaganda.

Transphobes paper areas in truly disgusting propaganda.

I don’t want to directly link to grown adults skulking around children’s playgrounds and bathrooms plastering surfaces with mass printed stickers of crudely drawn penises, but would encourage you to read this very long post, being sure to load all the images, to really understand how deeply strange this behavior gets.

Finally, I cannot stress this enough, this really extreme behavior I’m citing, and the specific people involved in the examples I’m giving, these aren’t random cranks on the fringe of things. The people going on televised panel discussions, writing up news stories, and testifying before lawmakers in efforts to pass horrifically discriminatory if not literally life-endangering laws (there is a major ongoing effort to legally end all medical care for trans people, and I don’t just mean care directly relating to being trans) are literally the same people involved in the sexualization of children, nazi collaborations, and roving gangs assaulting people in the street. At a bare minimum I urge people, when booking guests and handing out writing contracts, to do background checks and see if they’re platforming actual terrorists. If we could actually bring legal consequences to bear against the worst of this, that would be great too. As things stand though, the whole world is just consistently citing a bunch of racist, woman-hating, serial liars with no real credentials, and questionable attitudes towards the sexual abuse of children, as “trusted experts” and refusing to seat actual trans people or people who have legitimately committed lifetimes to academic and practical work with trans people any seats at the table.

[ucflibrary]

Pride Month has arrived!

While every day is a time to be proud of your identity and orientation, June is that extra special time for boldly celebrating with and for the LGBTQIA+ community (yes, there are more than lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender folx in the queer community). June was chosen to honor the Stonewall Riots which happened in 1969. Like other celebratory months, LGBT Pride Month started as a weeklong series of events and expanded into a full month of festivities.

2021 is also the 5th anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando where 49 members of our community were murdered on June 12, 2016. On the main floor of the John C. Hitt Library there will be display cases with items from the University Archives relating to Pulse memorials as well as a display wall honoring the lives lost. Both of these library memorials were created in partnership with UCF LGBTQ Services. UCF will also be hosting several events in June to help the community remember, grieve and grow stronger. Full listing of events is available on the Pulse Remembrance event calendar.

Additional Pulse memorial events will be hosted by the onePULSE Foundation.  An memorial archival collection from the first anniversary of the shooting can be found as part of the Resilience: Remembering Pulse in the STARS Citizen Curator collection.

In honor of Pride Month, UCF Library faculty and staff suggested books from the UCF collection that represent a wide array of queer authors and characters. Click on the read more link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links. There is also an extensive physical display on the main floor of the John C. Hitt Library near the Research & Information Desk.

All Adults Here by Emma Straub Emma Straub's unique alchemy of wisdom, humor, and insight come together in a deeply satisfying story about adult siblings, aging parents, high school boyfriends, middle school mean girls, the lifelong effects of birth order, and all the other things that follow us into adulthood, whether we like them to or not. Suggested by Rachel Mulvihill, Downtown Library

 All the Young Men: a memoir of love, AIDS, and chosen family in the American South by Ruth Coker Burks & Kevin Carr O'Leary A gripping and triumphant tale of human compassion, is the true story of Ruth Coker Burks, a young single mother in Hot Springs, Arkansas, who finds herself driven to the forefront of the AIDS crisis, and becoming a pivotal activist in America’s fight against AIDS. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 And the Band Played On: politics, people and the AIDS epidemic by Randy Shilts An international bestseller, a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and made into a critically acclaimed movie, Shilts' expose revealed why AIDS was allowed to spread unchecked during the early 80's while the most trusted institutions ignored or denied the threat. One of the few true modern classics, it changed and framed how AIDS was discussed in the following years. Suggested by Becky Hammond, Special Collections & University Archives

 Big Gay Adventures in Education: supporting LGBT+ visibility and inclusion in schools edited by Daniel Tomlinson-Gray A collection of true stories by 'out' teachers, and students of 'out' teachers, all about their experiences in schools. The book aims to empower LGBT+ teachers to be the role models they needed when they were in school and help all teachers and school leaders to promote LGBT+ visibility and inclusion. Each story is accompanied by an editor’s note reflecting on the contributor’s experience and the practical implications for schools and teachers in supporting LGBT+ young people and ensuring they feel safe and included in their school communities. Suggested by Terrie Sypolt, Research & Information Services

 Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman The sudden and powerful attraction between a teenage boy and a summer guest at his parents' house on the Italian Riviera has a profound and lasting influence that will mark them both for a lifetime. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

 Fun Home: a family tragicomic by Alison Bechdel Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian house, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny, we are drawn into a daughter's complex yearning for her father. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned 'fun home, ' as Alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescence, the denouement is swift, graphic, and redemptive. Suggested by Michael Furlong, UCF Connect Libraries

 Gender Queer: a memoir by Maia Kobabe; colors by Phoebe Kobabe In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, this is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity--what it means and how to think about it--for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 Heaven's Coast: a memoir by Mark Doty The harmonious partnership of two gay men is shattered when they learn that one has tested positive for the HIV virus. Suggested by Claudia Davidson, Downtown Library

 Hurricane Child by Kheryn Callender Born on Water Island in the Virgin Islands during a hurricane, which is considered bad luck, twelve-year-old Caroline falls in love with another girl--and together they set out in a hurricane to find Caroline's missing mother. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

 Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father--despite his hard-won citizenship--Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day. Suggested by Claudia Davidson, Downtown Library

 Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O’Connell All Freddy Riley wants is for Laura Dean to stop breaking up with her. The day they got together was the best one of Freddy's life, but nothing's made sense since. Laura Dean is popular, funny, and SO CUTE ... but she can be really thoughtless, even mean. Their on-again, off-again relationship has Freddy's head spinning - and Freddy's friends can't understand why she keeps going back. When Freddy consults the services of a local mystic, the mysterious Seek-Her, she isn't thrilled with the advice she receives. But something's got to give: Freddy's heart is breaking in slow motion, and she may be about to lose her very best friend as well as her last shred of self-respect. Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell bring to life a sweet and spirited tale of young love that asks us to consider what happens when we ditch the toxic relationships we crave to embrace the heathy ones we need. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

 LGBT Health: meeting the needs of gender and sexual minorities edited by K. Bryant Smalley, Jacob C. Warren, K. Nikki Barefoot A first-of-its-kind, comprehensive view of mental, medical, and public health conditions within the LGBT community. This book examines the health outcomes and risk factors that gender and sexual minority groups face while simultaneously providing evidence-based clinical recommendations and resources for meeting their health needs. Drawing from leading scholars and practitioners of LGBT health, this holistic, centralized text synthesizes epidemiologic, medical, psychological, sociological, and public health research related to the origins of, current state of, and ways to improve LGBT health. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

 Lived Experience: reflections on LGBTQ life by Delphine Diallo  A beautiful series of full-color portraits of LGBTQ people over the age of fifty, accompanied by interviews. Suggested by Jacqui Johnson, Cataloging

 Love is for Losers by Wibke Bruggemann When Phoebe's mother ditches her to work as a doctor for an international human rights organization, she is stuck living with her mom's best friend, Kate, and helping out at Kate's thrift shop. There she meet Emma. Phoebe tries to shield her head and her heart from experiencing love-- after all, love is for losers, right? Suggested by Pam Jaggernauth, Curriculum Materials Center

 Man Into Woman: an authentic record of a change of sex edited by Niels Hoyer This riveting account of the transformation of the Danish painter Einar Wegener into Lili Elbe is a remarkable journey from man to woman. Einar Wegener was a leading artist in late 1920's Paris. One day his wife Grete asked him to dress as a woman to model for a portrait. It was a shattering event which began a struggle between his public male persona and emergent female self, Lili. Einar was forced into living a double life; enjoying a secret hedonist life as Lili, with Grete and a few trusted friends, whilst suffering in public as Einar, driven to despair and almost to suicide. Doctors, unable to understand his condition, dismissed him as hysterical. Lili eventually forced Einar to face the truth of his being - he was, in fact, a woman. This bizarre situation took an extraordinary turn when it was discovered that his body contained primitive female sex organs. There followed a series of dangerous experimental operations and a confrontation with the conventions of the age until Lili was eventually liberated from Einar - a freedom that carried the ultimate price. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

 On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong This is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born -- a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam -- and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Suggested by Rachel Mulvihill, Downtown Library

 Queer Objects edited by Chris Brickell & Judith Collard Queer lives give rise to a vast array of objects: the things we fill our houses with, the gifts we share with our friends, the commodities we consume at work and at play, the clothes and accessories we wear, various reminders of state power, as well as the analogue and digital technologies we use to communicate with one another. But what makes an object queer? 63 chapters consider this question in relation to lesbian, gay and transgender communities across time, cultures and space. In this unique international collaboration, well-known and newer writers traverse world history to write about items ranging from ancient Egyptian tomb paintings and Roman artefacts to political placards, snapshots, sex toys and the smartphone. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 Real Life by Brandon Taylor A novel of rare emotional power that excavates the social intricacies of a late-summer weekend -- and a lifetime of buried pain. Almost everything about Wallace, an introverted African-American transplant from Alabama, is at odds with the lakeside Midwestern university town where he is working toward a biochem degree. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends -- some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with a young straight man, conspire to fracture his defenses, while revealing hidden currents of resentment and desire that threaten the equilibrium of their community. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

 Riley Can’t Stop Crying by Stephanie Boulay While his sister tries everything to help, a young boy isn't sure why he can't stop crying in this transitional picture book. Suggested by Pam Jaggernauth, Curriculum Materials Center

 Supporting Success for LGBTQ+ Students: tools for inclusive campus practice by Cindy Ann Kilgo This book aims to serve as a one-stop resource for faculty and staff in higher education settings who are seeking to enhance their campus climate and systems of support for LGBTQ+ student success. Included are theoretical frameworks and conceptual models that can be used in practice. Suggested by Terrie Sypolt, Research & Information Services

 The City and the Pillar: a novel by Gore Vidal Jim, a handsome, all-American athlete, has always been shy around girls. But when he and his best friend, Bob, partake in “awful kid stuff,” the experience forms Jim’s ideal of spiritual completion. Defying his parents’ expectations, Jim strikes out on his own, hoping to find Bob and rekindle their amorous friendship. Along the way he struggles with what he feels is his unique bond with Bob and with his persistent attraction to other men. Upon finally encountering Bob years later, the force of his hopes for a life together leads to a devastating climax. The first novel of its kind to appear on the American literary landscape, this remains a forthright and uncompromising portrayal of sexual relationships between men. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

 The Invisible Orientation: an introduction to asexuality by Julie Sondra Decker Julie Sondra Decker outlines what asexuality is, counters misconceptions, provides resources, and puts asexual people's experiences in context as they move through a sexualized world. It includes information for asexual people to help understand their orientation and what it means for their relationships, as well as tips and facts for those who want to understand their asexual friends and loved ones. Suggested by Dawn Tripp, Research & Information Services

 The New Testament by Jericho Brown The world of Jericho Brown's second book, disease runs through the body, violence runs through the neighborhood, memories run through the mind, trauma runs through generations. Almost eerily quiet in even the bluntest of poems, Brown gives us the ache of a throat that has yet to say the hardest thing-and the truth is coming on fast. Suggested by Claudia Davidson, Downtown Library

 The Prophets by Robert Jones With a lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Robert Jones, Jr., fiercely summons the voices of slaver and enslaved alike, from Isaiah and Samuel to the calculating slave master to the long line of women that surround them, women who have carried the soul of the plantation on their shoulders. As tensions build and the weight of centuries—of ancestors and future generations to come—culminates in a climactic reckoning, masterfully reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance, but is also shot through with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love. Suggested by Rachel Mulvihill, Downtown Library

 The Ship We Built by Lexie Bean A fifth-grader whose best friends walked away, whose mother is detached, and whose father does unspeakable things, copes with the help of friend Sofie and anonymous letters tied to balloons and released. Includes a list of resources related to abuse, gender, sexuality, and more. Suggested by Pam Jaggernauth, Curriculum Materials Center

 Tinderbox: the untold story of the Up Stairs Lounge fire and the rise of gay liberation by Robert W. Fieseler Buried for decades, the Up Stairs Lounge tragedy has only recently emerged as a catalyzing event of the gay liberation movement. In revelatory detail, Robert W. Fieseler chronicles the tragic event that claimed the lives of thirty-one men and one woman on June 24, 1973, at a New Orleans bar, the largest mass murder of gays until 2016. Relying on unprecedented access to survivors and archives, Fieseler creates an indelible portrait of a closeted, blue- collar gay world that flourished before an arsonist ignited an inferno that destroyed an entire community. The aftermath was no less traumatic--families ashamed to claim loved ones, the Catholic Church refusing proper burial rights, the city impervious to the survivors' needs--revealing a world of toxic prejudice that thrived well past Stonewall. Yet the impassioned activism that followed proved essential to the emergence of a fledgling gay movement. Fieseler restores honor to a forgotten generation of civil-rights martyrs. Suggested by Andy Todd, UCF Connect Libraries

 Transgender: a reference handbook by Aaron Devor and Ardel Haefele-Thomas This book provides a crucial resource for readers who are investigating trans issues. It takes a diverse and historic approach, focusing on more than one idea or one experience of trans identity or trans history. The book takes contemporary as well as historic aspects into consideration. It looks at ancient indigenous cultures that honored third, fourth, and fifth gender identities as well as more contemporary ideas of what "transgender" means. Notably, it focuses not only on Western medical ideas of gender affirmation but on cultural diversity surrounding the topic. This book will primarily serve as a reference guide and jumping off point for further research for those seeking information about what it means to be transgender. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

 Transnational LGBT Activism: working for sexual rights worldwide by Ryan R. Thoreson Thoreson argues that the idea of LGBT human rights is not predetermined but instead is defined by international activists who establish what and who qualifies for protection. He shows how International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) formed and evolved, who is engaged in this work, how they conceptualize LGBT human rights, and how they have institutionalized their views at the United Nations and elsewhere. After a full year of in-depth research in New York City and Cape Town, South Africa, Thoreson is able to reconstruct IGLHRC’s early campaigns and highlight decisive shifts in the organization’s work from its founding to the present day. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

 Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey Esther is a stowaway. She's hidden herself away in the Librarian's book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her--a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend. Her best friend who she was in love with. Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda. The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

 Walt Whitman's Songs of Male Intimacy and Love: "Live oak, with moss" and "Calamus" edited by Betsy Erkkila This volume includes Whitman's handwritten manuscript version of the twelve "Live oak, with moss" poems along side with a print transcription of these poems on the opposite page, followed by a facsimile of the original version of the "Calamus" poems published in the 1860-61 edition of Leaves of grass, and a reprint of the final version of the "Calamus" poems in the 1881 edition of Leaves of grass. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

[stifledlaughterao3]

How writing recursive fic (fanfic of fanfic) has made me a better author and member of fandom

After doing the math, approximately 45% of my AO3 works are recursive fanfiction. (I am actually excluding a large translation I did which was a translation of a recursive work itself!) The majority of that is from one single series, with the rest being significantly below that. 

There are a few fanfics for which I've written fic. 

1. "ReSWAN: The remix of Song Without A Name" by LadyYatexel

2. "Deep Dish Nine" by LadyYatexel (which turned into a community-wide AU where I took inspiration from other authors as well, such as tinsnip)

3. "Doing the Unstuck" by TempeTot

4.  "Designation: Miracle" by umisabaku (the large majority of my recursive fic is for this series, most within a collection work, as well as a few stand-alone works.)

I've noticed a few patterns in fic that I am writing fic for. They are always:

1. An AU where the characters, changed by their AU circumstances, have aspects of them that are unique to the AU application and reflected strongly in their personalities and actions

2. There is more depth / possibilities of emotional interplay in the AU presented than the canon 

3. Queer in both pairings and mood (relying heavily on found family, introspctions about sexuality, subversive responses to mainstream sexuality) . There sometimes are M/F pairings in the fic I base my fics on, but at least one pairing within the fic is always queer. 

Permission

Something that feels different from writing regular fic as opposed to recursive fic is permission from the author. When writing regular fic, I feel that I do not owe the creator any sort of heads up or permission to write. There are entire laws protecting me on this.

Therefore, theoretically, there should be nothing stopping me from just writing recursive fic, posting it, and saying ,"This other fic was inspired by this other fic". However, having been in fandom since 2004, I don't feel it would be good fandom etiquette to do that without at least inquiring first.

I've never been told I cannot write the fic - however, if the author preferred that I not post a fic of their fic, I'd adhere to that. Would I write it in private? If I felt moved enough, yes, but not post. There's nothing stopping me except that I, as a longtime member of fandom, want to do my part to make fandom a kind place that acknowledges reasonable requests. 

Perhaps it is hypocritical of me to write and post fanfic without the permission of the original media creator, whether it be a single author or a giant franchise, but when it's a fellow fanfic creator, that's where I draw the line? Maybe it's because I can usually easily message the fanfic creator and ask. Whereas, if the creator of the anime I am writing about personally messaged me to ask me to stop writing their characters kissing (or, more likely, having extended conversations over food), maybe I would pull my fics. Or, in the long-standing tradition of fandom/media relationships formed on defiance, I would wave my hand at the OTW Legal Team and say, "Go talk to them." It hasn’t happened so I honestly am not sure how I would respond. 

In every instance the fanfic author has happily given me the go-ahead. Some have linked my work in the "works inspired by" section at the bottom of their fic, and others haven't, and I'm fine either way. I'm discomfited by the idea of the recursive fic author requesting the author link their story in the original fic - it feels like asking for free advertising, which then gets into the capitalism aspects of fandom that in general make me uncomfortable (in this case not cash capital but social capital/views.) 

Posting etiquette 

Another piece of recursive fic etiquette that I've done is, after I figured this particular etiquette out, was that I kept all of the stories for my recursive fic in one AO3 work and added chapters. (My earlier recursive fics are their own works as I hadn't gotten the hang of how I wanted my recursive fics displayed.) Even if the stories are long and disparate, they are 95% of the time one-shots, so that would be A. many stories filling up the AO3 feed for that fandom and B. filling up my AO3 works list with many one-shots for this specific AU.

For the fanfics that are longer or are really deserving of their own works, I try to really limit it and then post all of the chapters at once so it does not appear multiple times over days. These however are rare. The majority are held within one work that I call a collection. For example, "A Handmade Scrapbook" (which hosts the majority of my "Designation: Miracle" recursive fics), at this time of writing, has 23 chapters, all of which are completely unrelated one-shots and AUs. I sometimes would save up a handful of shorter stories I had written and post those chapters all at once so as not to clog the Kuroko No Basuke tag (which is canon for the D:M AU.) Sense I cannot assume average KnB fanfic reader has context of D:M (even if they read the first story, the majority of my works are based on the most recent addition to the series), they cannot read that fic, and thus I feel a bit guilty if I were to clog the tag with my recursive fic. I also do not tag the canon tag on tumblr if it is a recursive fic, especially one that requires a ton of source fic knowledge in order to begin to understand. 

Again - is this necessary? In theory, it’s not. I could post a 100-word recursive fic every day forever on the AO3 tag and be completely in my rights to do so (I mean, I’m sure there’s some rule about spamming but that aside). However, something in me is feeling that it would not be considerate of other readers to do so. (I could probably look at my actions and think, “Hmm, is this influenced by my gender and how women are taught to not take up space, even if it’s okay to?” but we shan’t be getting into that now.)

I know that posting frequently, spreading out those frequent posts, and advertising gets more comments on fics. However, for my recursive fics, I genuinely don’t expect them to get views -and that’s okay! They often require pre-reading of another fic, which narrows down the readership considerably, and if it’s something huge, like my longer D:M fics, that’s a big investment. Therefore, writing recursive fic is genuinely a for-me practice that lets me be very self-indulgent and narrow with my interests. It's an interesting catch-22 - I truly enjoy comments and kudos, and love hearing feedback on my work. But the less I assume that someone will read a fic, the more off the rails I feel I can go with it, and thus why some of my favorite fics I've written are the recursive ones. 

That does mean, however, when people read my recursive works, I cherish those comments and interactions a little more than my other fics, as I know that it took a little more to read my works and comprehend and appreciate them. 

Characterization

Something specific to writing recursive fic is that it differs from regular fanfic in how precise the characterization is. Generally, when writing fic, you have to align (at least somewhat) to the characterization portrayed in canon. However, your interpretation of it can vary pretty wildly, and while you probably would be called out as writing someone as out of character if it skews significantly from canon, you can get away with your various interpretations. 

With recursive fic, you’re deliberately working with a fellow fanfic writer’s interpretation. The entire point of your writing a fic of one of their fics is that their interpretation or worldbuilding grabbed you enough to want to write from it. Of course, there are instances where a characterization of a character is popularized enough to where you can just write it and it’s not necessarily a ‘recursive fic’ as much as ‘using a fic’s interpretation as a template’. In a recursive fic, you’re specifically writing to that characterization. 

That’s why I think writing recursive fic has made me a better fanfic writer- writing regular fic, I did not feel particularly beholden to the canon characterization, and could shrug off writing a character a specific way if I felt like it. It is, after all, my right as a fic writer to do so. 

However, with recursive fic, the entire purpose of me writing a recursive fic is so that I could make an homage the author’s characterization. It’s the characters that drew me in, after all (although it is occasionally the worldbuilding as well, which is when I bring in my own OCs, but that happens infrequently.) In many instances in the fics I’ve written recursive fics for, the characters had become so distinct that they were basically OCs at that point (or, I was writing about actual OCs from the fic). Therefore, I had a fairly strict characterization to follow if I really wanted to be writing recursive fic and not just “loosely inspired by this fic”. 

Which leads back to another point about being a more conscientious member of fandom. The likelihood of anyone from the media I engage with reading my fic is slim to none. However, since I do ask each writer if I can post a recursive fic based on their fic, the likelihood of them reading it goes up significantly more (not necessarily 100%, but definitely higher than 0%!) Therefore, I feel slightly more beholden to ‘getting it right’. 

I’ve also asked if I can write NSFW content of the characters for some stories, particularly if they were OCs. Again - something I am not required to do, but it’s part of me being respectful of the author’s choices. It also wouldn’t fit some character’s arcs or personalities if I were to write smut of them, so I do not do that, but for other characters, there were fade-to-black scenes that I wanted to fill in the gaps of. However! Just because that existed in the fic didn’t mean it was alright for me to write it, so I checked. 

That said, per my earlier comment, I clearly write regular fic of characters having sex without checking in on the creator’s wishes. In fact, if a media creator came out and said, “X isn’t gay, stop writing them gay” I likely would not care. (See: Star Trek DS9’s butchering of Garak/Bashir. In my head, however, they are happily married and living together on Cardassia.) Therefore, it could be something else to examine within myself, as to why I give more consideration to fellow fans over the wishes of the media creators. 

Conclusion

I write recursive fic for the same reason I write regular fic- I am so incredibly compelled to write it that I legitimately cannot stop myself. The same daydreaming+plot bunny herding+fannish actions I do when I engage with a new media I like occur for fics that I read, particularly well fleshed-out AUs with a strong worldbuilding premise that I’d like to expand upon. 

However, unlike regular fic, the engagement with the author of the source fic means I am interacting with other writers on a more personal level than just leaving comments, something I really hadn’t done in fandom when I first started writing fanfiction when I was much younger. 

Writing recursive fic has made me friends and helped me understand my own writing more. Even though it narrows my reading audience considerably, it brings me back to why I write in the first place - my own joy. Comments, views, kudos, and feedback are wonderful, but in the end, writing something because it makes me happy, no matter how niche or narrow, is why I write. 

[hshouse]

are you done with your essay?

YES!! Harry essay is here and I love her.

It’s under the read more!! 

Harry Styles: the gay icon gay women deserve.

If you walk into an arena to watch a Harry Styles concert, you might think you came to a pride parade instead of a concert. His fans bring pride flags (all kinds of them: the gay, the lesbian, the bisexual, the transgender and the asexual have all been spotted) and wait excitedly for the moment when Harry snatches the flags for himself and runs around on stage with them. To understand the Harry Styles that his LGBT fanbase knows and love, it is crucial to know both his path to a successful solo artist and how he is perceived by the general public. Before his solo career, he was a member of the boyband One Direction. Boybands (and their members) have historically occupied in a curious position in popular culture. These groups, mostly composed of early twenties men, have been openly marketed towards a young female audience (who is presumed to be straight). The magazines write about the perfect date for each member and which actress the cute one is dating - all in a clear effort to sell them as romantic/sex icons for teenage girls. However, despite all of these efforts, these boybands are also adored by the LGBTQ community. While the appeal to gay men is more understandable, the bulk of the LGBTQ fans, at least in Harry Styles’ case, is composed of lesbian and bisexual women. Through analyzing four of his songs, I will shed a light on why this appeal exist and how he has become one of the iconic gay icons of the 21st century.

The first two songs that have become an important gay anthem for his LGBT fans were written by Harry Styles during his time in One Direction. The song “Happily” is featured in the third album of the band and “If I Could Fly ” is part of the fifth album. To understand the importance of these songs, some context is needed. A significant part of the One Direction fandom (the word used to describe the collective of fans) believes that Harry Styles was/is on a long term relationship with another bandmember, Louis Tomlinson. This belief is held mostly by the LGBT fans and it has shaped the fandom from the very beginning (this video - which has been watched over five million times - provides a good introduction on the topic). Many LGBT fans were introduced to the band by hearing about this belief. In different, and often controversial and unconvincing ways, both Harry and Louis have denied this relationship. However, the fans, including myself, even after four years of the band break, still believe in the existence of their relationship (the dynamics of this group are extremely interesting but are unfortunately outside of the scope of this essay).

In both “Happily” and “If I Could Fly” Harry writes/sings directly to his lover without (or with few) pronouns. Both songs invoke a common theme of certitude about their relationship while facing outside struggles to maintain this relationship. In “Happily”, Harry directly addresses how their relationship is viewed: “I don’t care what people say when we’re together/You know I wanna be the one to hold you when you sleep/I just want it to be you and I forever”. For straight listeners, this verse may not seem like more than a common love declaration in a pop song. However, for LGBT fans this verse is understood as a clear and loud representation of the queer struggle with acceptance for their relationships. Moreover, Harry is sending a strong optimistic message about queer love: “I don’t care what people say when we’re together”. In a pop culture that still often portrays queer love stories as tragedies or unattainable desires, hearing a song showcases a fairly happy queer love story is important for young LGBT people. Later in the song, Harry also plays (as he does in many songs as we will see) with the common listener’s assumptions about his sexuality: “It’s four a.m. and I know that you’re with him/I wonder if he knows that I touched your skin/And if he feels my traces in your hair”. A straight listened will likely assume he is jealous of another man who is with his female lover. However, the lover Harry is talking to is not specified as a woman so these sexually charged lyrics are understood by his fans to be within the context of a gay relationship.

In a distinctively sadder tone, “If I Could Fly” showcases another side of queer love: the understanding that that relationship is often the only social space where LGBT people get to truly be themselves. While many are lucky to have LGBT spaces and friends, it is still not the case for everyone - especially those in the closet. When performed live, this song seems to be personal and even perhaps painful to him. He sings: “For your eyes only, I’ll show you my heart/For when you’re lonely and forget who you are/I’m missing half of me when we’re apart/Now you know me, for your eyes only/For your eyes only.” These verses seem to say that he is himself only when he is with his lover or that only his lover truly knows him. Again, for his LGBT fans this song is undeniably about feelings and experiences that are unique to queer love within the context of our society. During his first tour as a solo artist, Harry performed this One Direction song in a separate B stage alongside one of his own love songs (the small stage was quickly nicknamed “the Boyfriend stage” by fans). During one of his London shows (linked above) the fans used their phones to form a pride flag across the arena. As he sang “I can feel your heart inside of mine”, his fans held a pride flag and sang back to him “I feel it/I feel it.” An incredibly powerful moment to us and to him (as you can see in the video).

In 2017, Harry started his solo career post One Direction. His first album cycle (including album release and tour) lasted until 2018 and it included over a million albums sold and 69 sold out concerts across the world. His career has been marked by his refusal to share anything substantial about his personal life outside of what is said in his songs. Harry talks through his actions and lyrics more than through any interview. Further, his solo career has also been marked by his fashion choices. He is the face of several Gucci fashion campaigns and the first gender neutral perfume. On tour, he was usually on a two piece suit with an extravagant pattern or in a creative variation of it like this prince outfit. But by far the most unique part of any Harry Styles concert is pride flags that flood the audience everywhere he goes. During every concert of his tour he grabbed some of the flags and ran around the stage. This movement to bring pride flags is a culmination of four years of efforts from his LGBT fans. During the One Direction tours a few brave fans brought pride flags, in a movement named Rainbow Direction, and were often met with hostility from other fans. It wasn’t until Harry started grabbing the flags and, in his fashion “saying without saying” that he supported and liked this trend, that the pride flags became accepted by the larger fandom.

Two of his solo songs deserve special attention for their importance for the queer fans. The first one is “Two Ghosts”. This song, like the ones mentioned before, is believed to be about Louis Tomlinson. The song was released as part of his 2017 album but was written in 2013. During that time, the Louis/Harry belief was first partially addressed when Harry and Louis, who were self declared best friends who lived together, completely stopped interacting with each other. This arrangement was in place until the last day of the band almost 3 years later. In a five person group, it was painfully obvious. “Two Ghosts” is believed to address this new public arrangement: “Sounds like something that I used to feel/But I can’t touch what I see/We’re not who we used to be/We’re not who we used to be/We’re just two ghosts standing in the place of you and me.” Styles then goes on to repeat “We’re not who we used to be” multiple times. Regardless of one’s belief on that relationship, when the song was released, Harry’s queer fans were stunned with how raw the song was. While being a celebrity in that situation is a mostly unrelatable problem, the feeling of not being able to express queer love freely is shared by many. In particular the lyric “I can’t touch what I see” shows a sadness and struggle that is known to many, if not all, queer people.

The second song is “Medicine”. This is Harry’s most openly queer song and also his most sexually charged. The second verse of the song boldly states that he is gonna treat his lover like a gentleman - a line that is hard to be interpreted in any other way but that his lover is a man. The song goes on to describe, by using the metaphor of taking medicine, the singer’s sexual desires with this person: “Here to take my medicine, take my medicine/Rest it on your fingertips/Up to your mouth, feeling it out/Feeling it out.” These lyrics are more explicitly sexual than any of his other songs. In a fan loved moment, Harry sings “I had a few, got drunk on you and now I’m wasted/And when I sleep I’m gonna dream of how you -” and the fans complete the (supposed) lyrics by screaming “tasted”. The song then comes to its most talked about verses: “The boys and the girls are in/I mess around with him/And I’m OK with it”. These verses exemplify what queer women love on Harry: in an unprecedented hint on his sexuality Harry is said in the same breath that he says is okay with it. Again, the reassurance that it is okay to feel this way. It is crucial to highlight an unsurprising detail about this song: it was never released as a track, he only performs it live. These lyrics, therefore, are not in the canon of what non fans know about him. Harry constantly seems to want to share his experiences in some contexts but not others - a feeling entirely too familiar to his queer fans.

During his concerts, Harry talks to the fans close to him from the stage and he seems to have talent (perhaps a radar) for choosing gay fans. This video contain most of the moments mentioned here. He helped multiple fans come out during the concert, he helped a girl find a girlfriend and even said that “everyone is a little bit gay”. His connection with his lesbian and bisexual fans is evident to anyone who follows him. In a very tangible way, this connection was not supposed to exist. Harry was, and still partially is, marketed as a sex symbol who girls are supposed to want to sleep with. His fanbase is supposed to be straight women that daydream about having a chance to date him. Of course, this is an incredibly sexist and condescending way to treat women and Harry has never been okay with this framework. Considering his silence on most topics, he has been loud and clear about his respect towards women and his love for his mostly young female fanbase: “Who’s to say that young girls who like pop music – short for popular, right? – have worse musical taste than a 30-year-old hipster guy? That’s not up to you to say. Music is something that’s always changing. There’s no goal posts. Young girls like the Beatles. You gonna tell me they’re not serious? How can you say young girls don’t get it? They’re our future. Our future doctors, lawyers, mothers, presidents, they kind of keep the world going. Teenage-girl fans – they don’t lie. If they like you, they’re there. They don’t act ‘too cool.’ They like you, and they tell you. Which is sick.“ And this sentiment, if his on stage interactions are anything to go by, seem to be even more clear about his gay fans. It is not to say that every straight fan wants to sleep with him or that he loves them any less. But there is a clear understanding by him that there is something special about the LGBT fans that, despite a marketing that was not meant to appeal to gay women, stood by him for now almost a decade. Show after show he has made it abundantly clear that this relationship is just as important and sacred to him as it is to us.

[aintyourlove]

All the kdramas that I’ve watched (2020 - part 1)

Disclaimer: I already made another two list that you can find here.This a part one, I decide to split so the post wouldn’t be so long. hope u guys like!

Revenge note 1:

It’s a high school one

It’s about this girl that will have to deal with a first breakup-, bullying, insecurities, first true love, friendship and also some revenge, why not right? lol

SOFT kdrama although the name suggest more dramatic things

a lot of farts jokes (like for real)

To the beautiful you:

If you like that movie “she’s the man” then you going to like it

Goo-Jae-hee decides to live in a dormitory as a boy and live with the one who gave her strength in the past and now she is determined to support him like he (unconsciously) did in the past

TOO MANY clichés that if it wasn’t so over do it probably wouldn't work so well, kinda of the charm of this dramas is bc it's too innocent and old

some things bothered me while watching, like: the main character just liked her bc he knew that she was a girl?it was that? I had this impression and I didn’t see much of his personality besides the obvious guy who don't care about nothing but will care forf her (of course)...

The best friend was funny and actually way more supportive than the other one; him didn't know that “he” was a girl and had to deal with this for a long time and for me this is huge and important even tho they joke about the whole time

Tempted:

Joy from RedVelvet is the main reason for me go to watch this one

Basically it’s a fanfic lol (but I mean all the kdramas are in some point :p)

It's about these three best friends; Choi Soo jin, Kwon Shi-hyun and Lee Soo-jo that comes from different but all them chaotic family's and as a form to build a wall from the pain and everything they become used to play with people who were in their way, for them it’s fun doing little revenges ... Nothing matter to them, except them. It’s in one of these “games’ that Eun Tae-hee(Joy) becomes the target. She is a victim to be seduced, to be tempted by Shin-yun. But thing about games and people are that they don’t stay the same, and everything could happen, everything can change, even the feelings, even the people, even the solid bonds.

Lee Soo Jo it’s a sweet one, I feel bad for him sometimes

Tae-hee is a mood, she is mature and have this force idk she wouldn’t let her head down and I love strong characters that just don’t buy some bullshits and literally go talk to make everything clear.

8/10

Itaewon Class:

It’s based on one webtoon what is pretty cool

The stories it’s about Saeyori, a guy that is convicted in his principles, his dad taught him to live his life as he wanted and to be a good person besides everything. When Sayeori dad’s pass away he swears to God a that it won't be for nothing and those who wrong him would it pay when the times come. So he carries for  more than ten years a life plan to get back at the ones that wanted him to get on his knees.

Jo si yeo well: I was sometimes disappointed with her (and you will see why) but besides that she a character that I personally like, she is not just a girl, she has personality, and she stands for that; they said to us that she has a tendency to sociopath and a lot of her comer from that, I really really like her, she is what she is and not a boring girl that will always do the right thing that is BORINGGGG please more roles like that like people that can be good but have personal traces that are unique.

Has so many good choices of topics to be discussed and are relevant to not only young people but society in general; talks about  trans gender, racism, bullying, like how you can change your life if you really put effort on it and that everybody has a choice to make it your own destiny

Cheese in the trap:

It’s about this girl, Hoong-Seol, she is the only one that suspect about the “generous, sympathy and handsome” guy of the university, he is the senior that everybody likes and despite all the weird things that surround him nobody seems to know him really well. But Hong Seol feels that something is strange and bc of that their ways started to inter-wise more and more and the doubts become a sign of...love?

Honestly even though it explained why he is that way I was kinda of “shocked” sometimes, and when she was accepting things (like really scary things (that in my personal opinion are NOT health but ok) bc of love I was like girrrl?? Get out of there now)

THE SECOND GUY CURSE I don’t even have to say that for most of the times the seconds guys are the best ones (the ones at least that shows more charisma or personality ...) but you know that they won't be together, in this case I thought that was insane...

Baek In-ha honestly? I love her uahuahuaauh best scenes best phrases she is indeed an icon.

8/10 :)

I Started Following Romance:

Super sweet and well-made it as a short drama

Only 10 episodes and it’s only 7/8 minutes each one

Modern and lovely way to represent how the youth deal with break-ups and social medias by these days with all the technologies and stuff

It’s about a girl that broke up but still see how her ex-boyfriend is doing by following him in social medias, that makes her really anxious and sad so move on it’s more than necessary. Social Medias could it be a way to not only meet people but reconnected them with themselves too

You should watch it like right now

10/10

Is it you, my girlfriend?:

it’s about a girl who accidentally declares herself girlfriend of one of the most famous guys on her school, he is totally the opposite of her, and even tho he is known by the entire school she doesn’t acknowledge him until he approaches her asking if is she the one...the one who is his girlfriend

it's a high school so has all that we love, its sweet and funny and there’s a season 2 which is good as well

8/10

link to watch on youtube

A-TEEN - Rumors Spread About ME:

it passes in high school so the story goes around between this two girls who are friends with each other and has the same name, but are opposites in personality. Even though that wasn’t a problem for them the rumors that start to spread in the school makes the friendship collapse and a name maybe is not the only thing that they share

it was pretty nice, I really like some actors in there, the story’s cool, they talk about bullying, friendship, first love and they have season 2 that is pretty cool too!

9/10

link to watch on youtube

LIKE:

the story starts with main girl selecting people for her new project, a project that she is doing to prove to herself that be at the art school was the right choice, but more than discovering herself she may be aware that not only her senior, who was her crush since the beginning is watching her but another two guys, that are closer than she would it expected 

talks about friendship, about felling demotivated sometimes, first love, sexual harassment with minor in schools...

The girl from heart signal 2 is there :) (which I thought it was really cool bc I'm too into heart signal these days)

8.9/10

link to watch on youtube

Romance talking:

This one was one of my favs bc I kinda like more when they’re in college;

 it's a story about a girl who was super into a guy whom host an internet talk show where he mostly talks about romantic topics. Besides that unilateral interest she lives a normal life, almost boring by her point of view. She works at a bar and in one of common day her ex-boyfriend appears there, and she listens to him badmouthing her, even though she doesn’t care about him anymore it hurts, so she gets back on him, which could be a bad idea later when she was alone if wasn’t for someone... someone that she doesn’t believe its out of her computer screen...

the girl is so real, like sometimes we really feel angry, bored, deeply in love or jealous/envy I think that the actress did a great job here

10/10

link to watch on youtube

Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo:

 I saw that Jisoo was here and later I discover that the main actress is the iconic one who did Baek-In-ha in Cheese in the trap (Jisoo doesn’t have a big role tho..)  but my other fav Kang Ki-young otherwise has a role as Bok-joon’s uncle heheh

Kim Bok Joo is an weightlifting girl, who is proud of her sport and department in college but sometimes she feels insecure when comes to sensitive topics as love or how guys sees her. As a way to hide those insecurities Bok-Joon doesn’t let anyone says nothing to her and deal with provokes, becoming known in campus bc of her temper. But when a certain guy shows kindness towards her all she wants is become girlie and delicate. What she doesn’t know is that this guys is the old brother of an old childhood friend that she meet again on campus and likes to “mess” with her making her going crazy...

its funny, sweet, the main actress is awesome, the main couple is lovely and you should watch it now

Sorry if wrote anything wrong. All the dramas here are awesome, hope you guys find some new ones to watch it! 

Use the mask and don't forget to clean yourself properly, we are still in a pandemic but this will pass!

All love<3

[nerdygaymormon]

Do you think that the church will one day allow gay marriage? I truly hope it will - I don’t think it would be as big a doctrinal change as many conservative members seem to believe

I’m no church leader. I’m not entitled to receive revelation or determine policies for the church and I’m certainly not privy to the thinking of the leaders about future changes. But to me, it seems inevitable that gay marriage will one day be allowed, and here are some reasons why I believe so: 

The many reasons the church has used to explain homosexuality have all been disproved. Not so long ago, our leaders finally acknowledged that homosexuality isn’t a choice, that’s a significant shift in their understanding. It was upon this earlier belief that the existing rules and doctrine were created. This change has already led to some softening of rhetoric and I hope it also leads to more substantial changes. 

As the church tries to explain the reasons it opposes gay marriage, usually by reducing marriage down to fertility and ability to have children, it ends up negating many straight marriages. This again is a sign that there’s a problem in how it understands & defines marriage.  

A majority of LDS members in the U.S. age 18-29 already are in favor of marriage equality. The percentage of the overall US church membership that supports gay marriage already is in the 40-something percentage range. It won’t be long before it crosses the 50% threshold.  

Currently LGBTQ people are absent from the Plan of Salvation. There’s no path to complete the covenant path that leads to exaltation for gay people unless they enter a mixed-orientation marriage. More and more people are wanting answers, which is reasonable to request from a church with a prophet and apostles and on-going revelation. 

There’s theological teachings, which are backed up by academic studies, that the greatest happiness in life is to be found in being connected with another person. Current policies forbid gay people from this deep level of satisfaction and all the positive benefits it has in a person’s quality of life. Why would loving and fair Heavenly Parents create someone only to deny them a shot at real happiness? 

————————————————————    

There have been significant doctrinal shifts that the Church has made in several areas and is the better for having done so. It can do so again. 

For one thing, the Church doesn’t use the Bible to explain or justify its teachings about homosexuality. I can’t remember the last time I heard any General Authority use Biblical verses in such a way. I assume it’s because they know the Bible isn’t so clear on the subject, it doesn’t say what a lot of Christians think it does.

Plus, there are things in the Bible that are clear which we don’t follow, such as Christ’s prohibition on divorce & remarriage except in cases where one partner cheated on the other. Getting past that seems like it would be difficult, but not so. Why would allowing same-gendered couples be any more difficult when Christ didn’t speak against them? 

————————————————————    

Taylor Petrey, in his presentation “Toward a Post-Heterosexual Mormon Theology,” imagines the possible future of LDS doctrine regarding homosexuality. (It can be downloaded here). Essentially he says by bringing back some of our theology and ritualistic practices of the past the Church can accommodate same-sex couples. 

He points out that we teach that God organized intelligences into spirits. That doesn’t sound like sex, does it? Currently the Church talks about needing a man & a woman to sexually create a spirit child and that’s why it’s a no-go on same-gender couples. 

Also, there doesn’t appear to be any women involved in any of the creation processes until Eve is made. It’s all men working with other men. Together they even created Adam. 

A former ritual he refers to is how people chose to be sealed to other people they weren’t related to, nor lived with. They talked about the “law of adoption” and sealed themselves to each other, men to men as father/son, as a way to link families. Wilford Woodruff ended that practice. 

Today we let LDS families be sealed to non-biologic children whom they’ve adopted or who came to them via surrogacy. 

Both these types of sealings can allow a gay couple to have have the same sealing blessings as non-gay couples.  

Petrey is critical of the Church’s teachings about gender. He points out how confusing it is. 1) It’s the one physical trait that our spirit has pre-mortal, mortal and post-mortal worlds. Why is gender the one thing that is fixed? 2) Gender in nature and in humans is not strictly binary, so how does this work with the idea that gender is eternal? 3) The Church is very concerned about gender confusion, meaning that gender roles have to be taught and same-sex couples confuse things. Including such things as who presides, who is the nurturer, the provider? 

How can gender be a fixed thing, but also be something that must be learned?

Plus Heavenly Father seems to inhabit the nurturing role that the Family Proclamation says belongs to females. And we don’t hear much about Heavenly Mother doing much “mothering.” So clearly heavenly gender roles don’t match earthly gender roles. 

Dr. Petrey uses the Church’s manual A Parent’s Guide to show that we don’t have to stick to the current binary thinking regarding gender and gender roles. 

“There is nearly as much variation within each gender as there is between the genders. Each human being is unique. There is no one model except the Redeemer of all mankind. Development of a person’s gifts or interests is one of life’s most enjoyable experiences. No one should be denied such growth.”

LDS ritual and rhetoric could embrace this variation, which could include homosexual relationships.  

————————————————————     

I appreciated Shawn Tucker’s My 22 Point Opinion on Temple Sealings

1. People don’t choose to be gay, to be only sexually attracted to people of their same sex.2. No one, I believe, would make that choice, since it is so socially frowned upon and since it does not lend itself to the advantages (of which there are many!) of heterosexual marriage.3. Since they don’t choose it, and since it is really born in them, I believe the gay people I know when they say that they do not feel that their attraction is wrong or a sin.4. Mormons typically think that such attraction is inherently wrong and against God’s plan, while gay people, especially gay Mormons, do not believe that their attraction is wrong or sinful.5. Mormons see heterosexual attraction as normal, natural, and even God-given.6. I believe gay Mormons when they say that they believe that their homosexual attraction is normal, natural, and God-given for them.7. Homosexual marriage seems to interrupt God’s plan, since such couples cannot have children in the traditional manner.8. That is the common argument against gay marriage.9. This, I believe, is partly why the church is placing so much emphasis on the family—to put up the traditional, heterosexual couple as the norm and their families as the only way to fulfill God’s work and plan.10. But I think that this emphasis has some bad consequences.11. This emphasis tells single people that they are not actually fulfilling God’s plan.12. It tells couples that cannot have kids that they are not fulfilling God’s plan.13 It tells couples that feel like they should not have kids that they are not fulfilling God’s plan.14. I believe that God can have a plan for His children that does not include having children—this happens for singles, for the infertile, for those who believe they should not have children.15. This can happen for gay couples.16. People who do not have children can be of great, great benefit to their ward, stake, church, and world.17. Their work can be just as important as having children. (This is a very important point—you might want to repeat it in your mind.)18. I can imagine God being happy with that work, in fact just as happy with that work as any other.19. I can imagine God very happy with same-sex attracted people finding each other, loving each other, fully committing themselves to each, and expressing that love and commitment physically.20. I can imagine God fully sanctioning gay marriage as right for that couple.21. I believe that the love that they share and develop here in mortality will accompany them in the next life, and that the “same sociality which exists among [them] here will exist among [them] there.” (D&C 130:2).22. I can imagine God sanctioning temple sealings of gay couples.

[tikkisaram]

Elizabeth Bishop — An Actual Bishop?

Elizabeth Bishop is not a poet we read for her versificatory virtuosity or marvelous musicality; one need only take a look at The Fish to see that her poems — admittedly not without exception, but overwhelmingly — exhibit less poeticality than many writers' prose. No, her appeal lies not in the traditional qualities we would associate with poetry, but rather in her treatment of the subjects of her poems. She is a poet of incredible empathy, attentiveness and ability to wonder, a poet who exhibits admirable goodness and compassion — acting consistently as per the teachings of the Bible.

Perhaps the best example of Bishop's compassion and empathy is The Prodigal — her retelling of Jesus's parable of the Prodigal Son.1 She conveys sympathy through her detailed description of the son's suffering — an incredibly vivid "brown enormous odor" surrounds him; the sty in which he lives is "plastered halfway up with glass-smooth dung"; his mental state is no better than his surroundings as he is plagued by "his shuddering insights, beyond his control,/ touching him." Bishop focuses on the bestialisation of the son to show him being shunned and ignored by society, dismissed and offered no help. Ken Stone points out the "recurring tendency to disparage humans recognized as different or other (whether on the basis of gender, race, nation, class, or any other marker of difference) by animalizing them, turning them into beasts who then can be treated in ways that we routinely allow ourselves to treat animals."2 This tendency is seen elsewhere in the Bible — for example, Jacques Derrida reads the story of the Garden of Eden as linking animal difference with sexual difference and the boundary between humanity and God3 — and in this case it is made stronger by the fact that the Jews believed pigs to be unclean animals. The animal is associated with the other — Ellen Armour, in a theological essay on Derrida’s Le Toucher, refers to the "fourfold" of "man and his others: his racial and sexual others, his divine other (God), and the animal."4 Armour suggests that modernity is characterized by "a certain configuration of these four elements" in which ‘man occupies the center while the animals, God, as well as man’s raced and sexed others, constitute a network of mirrors that reflect man back to himself by supposedly securing his boundaries."5 This begs the question: why is the son set apart from the rest of society? Perhaps it is simply that his choices led him to poverty and that made him looked down upon. It would not be unreasonable, however, to argue that his situation is the product of prejudice — likely due to homosexuality or other queerness. Nonetheless, this is not the place for a queer reading of The Prodigal (another blessay, perhaps?) — what is important is that Bishop, for one, refuses to shun the son and treats him with an admirable degree of empathy, exemplifying Jesus's commandment "Love your neighbour as you love yourself."6

The Fish is another poem that can be read in light of the Bible. The most obvious link is the ending: "And I let the fish go," which shows empathy and reflects Jesus's teachings: "Happy are those who are merciful to others; God will be merciful to them!"7 What is perhaps more interesting is that Bishop describes the fish at length as being extremely ungainly and repulsive — "Here and there/ his brown skin hung in strips/ like ancient wallpaper"; "He was speckled with barnacles,/ fine rosettes of lime,/ and infested/ with tiny white sea-lice" — yet seems to value it highly despite its seeming worthlessness. This parallels the Bible once again:

The stone which the builders rejected as worthless    turned out to be the most important of all. This was done by the Lord;    what a wonderful sight it is!8

We see more of Bishop's ability to see the smallest of things as wonderful in Filling Station. It is similar to The Fish for its oddly sympathetic descriptions of ugliness — "oil-soaked, oil-permeated/ to a disturbing, over-all/ black translucency"; "a set of crushed and grease-/ impregnated wickerwork" — but focuses more on the work done in the background by "somebody" who "loves us all". Her focus on efforts which would generally go unnoticed is once again consistent with what Jesus sought to teach us: "Whoever wants to be first must place himself last of all and be the servant of all."9 Bishop elevates the 'servant' to an almost God-like entity that encompasses us all with love.

An extension of Bishop's empathy is her ability to put herself in the mindset of someone else, especially a child. Many of her poems are written from the perspective of herself10 as a young girl, and she masterfully captures the unique way of seeing the world that children are gifted with. First Death in Nova Scotia shows a childhood mentality employed to confront death; a vivid imagination conjures wild explanations to try and come to terms with what is happening. The ending in particular combines fantasy and fairytale with logic in a way that is typical of young children — Arthur was invited to the royal court, but how can he go if he cannot open his eyes? Sestina is a more unusual example because the narrator is an omniscient entity, not a child, but despite employing an adult vocabulary it focuses on a child's mindset — the surreal image of little moons falling off the pages of the book; the characterisation of the almanac as "clever"; the "marvelous" Marvel stove. These examples bring to mind the words of Jesus: "I assure you that unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven."11 Bishop's ability to take on an innocently immature persona is yet another example of her sympathetic, empathetic nature.

Bishop may not have actually been a bishop12, but she was probably a better person than a good deal of them. One needs only to look at the news to know how often the latter seem to completely ignore the teachings of the Bible and do utterly terrible things.13

Luke 15:11-32 ↩︎

Ken Stone, 'Judges 3 and the Queer Hermeneutics of Carnophallogocentrism' in The Bible and Feminism: Remapping the Field, edited by Yvonne Sherwood and Anna Fisk (Oxford University Press, 2017), 264. ↩︎

Jacques Derrida, The Animal That Therefore I Am, edited by Marie-Louise Mallet and translated by David Wills (Fordham University Press, 2008), 101. Cited in Stone, 'Queer Hermeneutics of Carnophallogocentrism', 265. ↩︎

Ellen T. Armour, ‘Touching Transcendence: Sexual Difference and Sacrality in Derrida’s Le Toucher’, in Derrida and Religion: Other Testaments, edited by Yvonne Sherwood and Kevin Hart (Routledge, 2005), 353. Cited in Stone, 'Queer Hermeneutics of Carnophallogocentrism', 263. ↩︎

Ibid. 358. ↩︎

Matthew 22:39. All Bible quotes in this blessay are from the Good News New Testament, Today's English Version. ↩︎

Matthew 5:7 ↩︎

Matthew 21:42 citing Psalm 118:22 ↩︎

Mark 9:35 ↩︎

'Someone else' and 'herself' are not contradictory here; the fact that her mindset as an adult is radically different than that of her as a child justifies the separation. ↩︎

Matthew 18:3 ↩︎

Not that this has been conclusively disproven. ↩︎

Not to go off on a tangent yet again, but here are some examples. ↩︎

[lupessa]

Otherkin isn’t queer

I was on reddit, when someone posted about whether otherkin was queer or not. I stated that it was not, and somebody replied something that suggested I was being exclusionary and that it was “bigoted” of me to accept x group and not y group, and went on about how certain groups were excluded in the same way in the past. They weren’t actually Otherkin, they were just trying to call my out on my logic I think and figure out how I would justify it. Here’s my response, I didn’t want to waste it, so here y’all go:

“No, I’m simply educated on what the phenomenon of otherkinism is and isn’t. You’ll find 99% of the community agreeing with me. Just go into any Otherkin space and ask “is Otherkin queer?” Or “is Otherkin lgbt?”

I guarantee everybody will be correcting you, and quickly. Wait, better yet, go into an LGBT space and insist otherkin is lgbt. I’d like to watch... with a bowl of popcorn.

I don’t think otherkin should be invalidated because of lgbt or vice versa. I’m not trying to “exclude” them from anything. I think both should be accepted, and they don’t need to merge under one concept in order to do that. By saying “otherkin is not queer” I’m just saying what i explicitly stated: Otherkin is not queer.

Otherkin themselves do not wish to associate themselves with the lgbt community, not because there’s anything wrong with being lgbt but because they are not the same thing. Intersectionality between personal identities exist, so sometimes someone on an individual level will feel that their otherkin and lgbt identities are somehow linked, and that’s valid, but as a whole they are not similiar.

While LGBT individuals have been around for centuries, the community as we know it today has had a long ongoing history of oppression and fighting for rights, sometimes with their lives. First it was about sexuality, but eventually transgender and genderqueer individuals were considered part of the group as well. The community is for *sexual and gender minorities.* Otherkin is not either.

Now perhaps I’m misunderstanding, but depending on who you ask, “queer” is either a slur, or a catch-all term for all lgbt identities. If you have a different definition, please tell me. That’s why i mentioned the LGBT+ community so much.

*ahem* Queer: Queer is an umbrella term for sexual and gender minorities who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning "strange" or "peculiar", queer came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century.

But now let’s look at otherkinity, and perhaps the therian community as well, and see how it stacks up to common “queer” identities.

Definitions:

Therian: An individual who identifies, in part or in whole, (non-physically) as an earthly (or alternatively, instinctual and wild, meaning a dragon with a “feral” mentality could be considered therian rather than otherkin) non-human beast on a personal and integral level.

Otherkin: An umbrella term for an individual who identifies, as a mythical beast or other nonhuman creature on a non-physical level. Usually associated with more sentient beings, such as elves and fae, or a dragon that hoards gold (as opposed to therians who generally have a more animalistic experience.)

Transgender: Someone who identifies as a different gender than assigned at birth.

Now, for similarities, you will notice a few, ngl, and these overlaps are probably the reason why people confuse Otherkin for a “crazy type of transgender” rather than the unique experience it is. You’ll see in all definitions, the word “identity.” Both have an identity that dies not match their physical body. Except, for the case of transgender people, this “identity” is backed by science, while for otherkin, (and while this may change in the future) it is not. Otherkin actually falls under ontology, which concerns the philosophy of the nature of the self.

As well as all being considered an identity, both may experience a type of dysphoria. An otherkin or therian individual may feel dysphoria about their human body or situation, or, “species dysphoria,” but this is not always the case and not necessary to identify as otherkin. So yet again, that’s another reason why people might try to compare this to a queer identity. But you’ll find beyond the outside appearance, it can be very different.

History:

The modern otherkin movement can be traced back to the 1970’s by a group known as The Silver Elves, a pagan group that believed they were elves and fae on a spiritual level, or sometimes genetically, as in they believed there was elf or fae somewhere in their family bloodline. It was a very spiritual concept, generally a belief that they had the spirits of elves rather than humans.

This soon expanded to include other creatures, such as gryphons, dragons, unicorns (of which both actually has their own seperate communities for a time, draconics and unicorns respectively, before being “absorbed” by the growing otherkind community) merfolk, nature spirits, angels, etcetera. The experience of all these people that made them alike was that they saw themselves as a non-human entity in a human body. For the most part, it was considered a very spiritual experience, and things like magic and reincarnation were also commonly discussed.

Therians: Therians, or weres, as they were called started on a usenet group called alt.horror.werewolves. The group was originally intended to discuss fictional werewolves, but soon had a growing number of people share their own experiences of feeling like an animal, and not just wolves. The topic grew in popularity, until fictional werewolves were rarely discussed, in favour of personal therianthropic experiences, birthing the first online gathering of therians. It was generally seen as an either spiritual or psychological experience, depending on who you asked. Everybody had different opinions.

I suppose what I’m trying to get across here is that otherkinity and therianthropy are either spiritual identities or a simple brain quirk depending on the individuals beliefs. They are personal and subjective and cannot be proven to anyone but the individual. (While being trans* is scientifically proven.) They are not an oppressed group and do not need legal rights or anything like that because being otherkin does not affect everyday life the way being queer might. The experiences are just so different that I find it hard to consider otherkinity and therianthropy anything but their own experiences. Those who identify as both transgender otherkin have outright said that the experiences are very different and that Otherkin identities don’t count as genders.

Tl;dr: I’m not being exclusionary or bigoted by stating that Otherkin are not queer. I wouldn’t try to invalidate my own community. Rather, I’m simply stating a fact. Queer encompasses sexual and gender minorities. Otherkin encompasses people who feel that spiritually or psychologically they are nonhuman. They are both identities but beyond that they are very different experiences. Anything that doesn’t involve gender or sexuality is not queer. Would you call furries queer?”

[rapeculturerealities]

The #MeToo movement has been a cultural reckoning across industries, from Hollywood to restaurants — but one of the oldest that's been affected is classical music. In March, James Levine, a longtime conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, was fired for allegations of sexual misconduct. And now, centuries-old works from Carmen to Don Giovanni are being challenged for misogynistic plots and themes.

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro spoke with three women — opera singers Leah Hawkins and Aleks Romano, as well as Kim Witman, vice president of opera and classical programming at Wolf Trap Opera in Virginia — about their experiences and reaction to the #MeToo movement in the opera world. Hear the full conversation at the audio link and read an edited transcript below.

Lulu Garcia-Navarro: I want to start with your personal reactions to the movement. Where is it at in the opera world? What has surprised you and impressed you? Are these conversations that you're having amongst yourselves?

Aleks Romano: I think for a lot of us it's underscored individual thoughts that we've had internally or privately in a rehearsal room. It's really made us more aware of some of the shortcomings of our art form and how we can adjust our perspective as role models.

Leah Hawkins: I would agree that people are more aware and people are asking questions and checking comfort levels. And I feel that it's been that way for me my entire career, even though I'm in the beginning of it.

Kim Witman: Also, it's been accompanied by an increased focus on gender parity and diversity. I think it's all leading to a much healthier environment in our industry and everywhere else.

Garcia-Navarro: I have friends who are opera singers and I saw really interesting Facebook threads when the whole #MeToo movement blew up — about their own personal experiences and how difficult it had been when they were starting out. They're a bit older and a lot of these discussions were long overdue in this world, because even though, obviously, female artists are very important to the genre, it is often men who still preside over these spaces. Is that something you have felt?

Romano: I think that it's really come down to a power discussion in opera. That was the discussion I found most interesting on social media: It came down to who was in the position of power and who was sort of subservient.

Witman: I think one of the things that makes us unique is that we are embedded with a centuries-old Western European tradition that was led by men, and it formed our industry — the classical music industry and opera in particular — maybe a bit more aggressively than others. So I think this conversation is very much needed.

Garcia-Navarro: It's interesting that you bring that up: Earlier this year, an Italian production of Carmen changed the ending so that the title character kills her admirer and abuser, Don José, rather than being killed herself. How do you produce and handle the themes of these works that are mostly written and composed by, as you say, white men?

Witman: It's my favorite question to answer! Thank you very much for that [laughs]. I think there are a number of different ways you can go with these things. One is that you can produce them what we call traditionally, and then develop a series of conversations around the fact that these are cautionary tales from our history. And of course, the other extreme is to take the actual vehicle itself and change it in some way. This was a very aggressive way of doing that by changing the ending, but there are other less aggressive ways of pointing out allegories and things like that. So it's fascinating to see things happening along that whole spectrum.

Garcia-Navarro: Aleks, you have performed Carmen at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Romano: It's a role that I hope to continue to encounter over and over again.

Garcia-Navarro: It's one of the great roles.

Romano: Especially for mezzos! We don't get a lot of leading ladies, so we've really got to make it count. But the greatest thing about Carmen is that it does open this conversation for how we treat gender, and what feminism looks like onstage in the world, and who really has the power in that piece. You know, I think we typically come to Carmen as a sort of feminist manifesto of opera, and I'm not always convinced that that's the case. She has to fight tooth and nail for every minute that she has "power." And she still gets stabbed at the end by the man that she basically just said "I don't want to date you anymore" to. So it always is a conversation with the director, with the conductor, with my castmates. And I'm very glad that opera is such a collaborative art form with so many open minded people in it.

Garcia-Navarro: When you have these conversations with men, what is that like? Are they thinking about these things in the same way as you are?

Hawkins: Certainly men in my generation are, but when you have conversations with older men, they don't always understand. They sort of make fun of the movement and say, "Oh, I'm sorry, am I allowed to say that to you?" So you're fighting with those kinds of attitudes. But I would say my colleagues are absolutely open to it, and I'm actually very inspired by their understanding and wanting to make us comfortable.

Garcia-Navarro: Part of the thing that any performance-based career has is the message that, "Hey, there are a million people who would love to be where you are, so count yourself lucky. You should just accept whatever comes your way, because there are a lot of other people who'll do whatever it takes to get where you are."

Romano: I'll tell you, this whole experience being part of a production of Carmenand being able to have these conversations is equal parts empowering and absolutely terrifying. Will I ever sing in another production of Carmen again if people know that I take issue with the fact that she is abused and murdered? It's a huge risk to speak your mind as an artist in some ways. But I also think that it's being bolstered and people really care to know my thoughts about the character, speaking from my own personal experience.

Garcia-Navarro: I'm going to ask you because you are, Kim, a woman in power, a woman in authority: Where do you see your role in this?

Witman: My role in this — and thank you very much, power and authority are not two things that I think of — but my role ... is to keep the conversations going and keep them public. And I think I'm also responsible for helping to identify women to put, as we say, in the pipeline: to make sure that if I see someone whose work deserves to have a light shone on it, that I can participate in doing that.

Garcia-Navarro: I'm going to give the last word to you, Leah.

Hawkins: I take comfort in knowing that, yes, I'm very lucky to be in the position I'm in, but also I work really hard. So I feel like my voice should be heard, and my opinion should be valued. And I feel very lucky in this position that I'm in at the time that I'm entering the business. I'm allowed, in many ways, to do that because of women who came before me and because of the conversations that were had and are being had.

[ibroughtthisonmyselfpixels]

Let’s (5) Statistic

Here’s something else I haven’t done in a while! When I recently accidentally corrupted my old USB pen, my ‘distribution spreadsheet’ got lost in the shuffle. However, I had an earlier copy on the old laptop itself which I took to the new and I managed to update it to where I’m at now, which made me realize that I should really outline where I’m at, now that I have more Sims to show for myself than I did last time I had the chance.

I have thirty-six Sims who have been officially placed and ranked in BCs old and ongoing (the most recent of which are Rowan and Garbhan), eight who are currently making the rounds, thirty whose BCs or involvements are no longer active or otherwise dubious, and seventeen in reserve for future competitions or story-based projects. This makes ninety-one Sims in total. We’re up eighteen from our previous total of seventy-three, starting from Mollie and ending at Emery Elizabeth.

I say starting from Mollie, but Daw was made literal years ago, between Hopkin and Cordelia and thus before her. Since one is technically only ‘new’ in the sense one is only now being acknowledged in the spreadsheets, though, this makes Mollie the oldest Completely New. 

Further, Tania is still not included in the reserves as she too is currently much too dubious. I do still have her .sim file, fortune of fortunes, but she may need a makeover when all is said and done. 

Special Snowflake Status (newcomers go here to see why I call them that) has become a little more difficult to determine in recent weeks, what with all the ‘sorta’s, ‘?’s and ‘unknowns’ in various categories. However, counting only Yesses and Nos in the categories of transness, queerness, and disability, we have thirty-six special snowflakes, twenty-nine that nearly count, fourteen that barely count, and twelve that do not count. As before, though, only the four listed last time are completely devoid of snowflakeness.

Of the ninety-one, forty-four are designated as male in-game, while forty-five are designated as female, and Alex and Eun are still their own thing. That’s nine new DMACs and nine new DFACs. You see why I left it now?

To say that none of the new arrivals are cis, as last time... would honestly be a lie. Though I haven’t released him yet, Max Uccello is the first Sim I’ve made deliberately cis for a very long time. Angel gets away with it by virtue of being cis in life and non-cis in death, much like Madison; Angel’s brother, not so much. 

And honestly, a case could be argued for Rowan as well (though I’ve still pegged him as non-cis until he confirms otherwise) - though he is stated to be exploring, it’s never stated what to, and he still uses he/him/his pronouns with no statement of alternative or demiguy justification, so he could fall on either side of the fence. I’ve also opted to solidify Peter as cis rather than demi after all as I pondered in the last statistics, since he was made before the boycott, and trans vloggers are rare to non-existent. (There are still two older unreleaseds who I’m uncertain about, though, Butch and another one; they can keep the side up.) 

Twenty-nine cis Sims, therefore, out of ninety-one accounts for 31.9% of my contestants... or, put another way, 68.1% of my Sims are un-cis. A very good standard.

Using the same ratio of types of pronoun sets as last time, and excluding Butch and Angel, twenty-one of my non-cis Sims use entirely standard sets (she and he), nineteen combine standard with non-standard sets (including omnipronoun Sims); and twenty use entirely non-standard sets (including none at all - can’t remember if I counted Jake as combined or non-standard last time). Moving ‘they’ to be part of the standard sets, those numbers become twenty-eight, eighteen and fourteen respectively. My non-cis Sims encompass twenty-five unique pronoun sets, including those standards.

Sixty-seven Sims are confirmed to be on the LGBTQ+ spectrum through either sexuality or gender identity (Max is bisexual); fourteen more are assumed to be through any category; Butch and Xyq are unknown. The fourteen includes Rowan again, who is perpetually uncertain in both categories except for liking Nathaniel. That’s a range of sixty-seven to eighty-three of my ninety-one contestants - 73.6% to 91.2%. 

Myron remains the only Sim I have ever had to have been killed specifically for being on the spectrum. 

Sixty-one of the eighty-nine, or 67%, are disabled. Thirty of those forty-five have at least one mental disability; sixteen have a physical one; four have both; eleven are hidden.

The only News not to have a disability at this time are Mollie (lacking the schizophrenia of her sisters), Avdotya, and one other. However, the latter two are in similar circumstances to Skylar in that they are only placed there on a temporary basis, until more of their character can come through to me. 

Racheal, The Cheat, Moira, Anissa Alea, Gideon and Max join the Mental category; Rowan and Garbhan the Physical category on account of their HIV status. Emery Elizabeth is also in Physical due to her disease-induced lower paralysis, as is Angel, on account of it was a different disease that killed her. Admittedly, I’m not sure which diseases affected which of the latter two... can one still get polio in this day and age? 

The Distortionist (who I still count as a contestant despite earlier and later plans for mih) joins the Both category for reasons that will become clear - as does Peter of all people, who revealed something to me that, if you haven’t worked it out already from history repeating itself, I can’t tell you just yet.

Yori, Doireann, Osamu and Daw join the Hidden category. Being A Rhesus-Negative isn’t technically a disability for Yori per se, though it does make things damned inconvenient, and their dependency on Megumi is quite hard to define as anything in particular at this stage. Doireann has memory issues and difficulty with language, but this is in part tied to occult status, or at least to being feral. Osamu, meanwhile, is plagued by constant intrusive thoughts about his own death, but no real diagnosis can be made at this point as to what is the cause; Daw’s circumstances for one’s dissociation are similarly vague, though at least this can be narrowed down to either Depersonalization Disorder or Other Specified Dissociative Disorder.

I have twenty CAS-intended Supernaturals out of eighty-nine. No additional witches, but we have gained a Moonpup, a vampire, a pure mermaid, a fairy, and my very first pre-project/Folkvangr ghost. Guess which is which. Mollie and Auribus are the only two to have recently become Death-induced Ghosts. Gideon may become a legitimate occult further down the road, though? 

Thirty-seven Vanilla Sims, eight van/ban cusps (due to either ambiguously vibrant hair color or it simply being dyed), seven Banilla, two ban/berry cusps (again, guess who and how), and thirty-seven Berry. At least this one, I’m exactly split down the middle! 

Believe it or not, some of my news are still only going for two pieces of CC instead of three, at a six-eleven split in favor of three. It works in the favor of the Eklund girls for once that they have two bits each, and of Daw that he has only one, or else three would have completely dominated this sector. As it is, twenty-nine Sims total have two bits, twenty-two one-bit, and twenty-four three-bit. Castor’s still the only one with 1.5 bits, and Vanilla still the only one with four. 

Admittedly, though, if we’re going to be technical, Osamu has 3.5? Sort of? His hair is an in-game hair in a package form that makes it acceptable for use on DMAC rigs, so sort of CC but not really. He’s still counted in three for categorization purposes. 

Same with Emery Elizabeth; ze uses a wheelchair, but all the wheelchairs I’ve seen are downloadable objects that can be integrated separately as a prop as opposed to attached to the .sim file. 

Lyra is also considered to have three, as opposed to the like five or six she has in SoS; but that’s solely because in all regards but name and gender, she is being categorized as the pre-transition state that Placed Competitors keeps her as. With that said, though: do you think I should take “Rigel”’s download link down? With her going in for surgery now, the last unwanted aspects of “him” ought to be wiped away completely; I’ve only been keeping it around to ensure every Sim that’s public has a download link, but is that actually helping anybody? Lissa has suggested that I just update the DL link with her new design like I did with Sera, but is that a viable solution, do you think, or will it just make things worse, given she’s a bachelorette?

Unbelievably, I’m evens on As, Cs and Ss with regards to first names right now - eleven each! I’ve finally added not one, but two Gs to my roster, Garbhan and Gideon.

Note: at time of configuration, The Distortionist, the exception, and Emery Elizabeth do not have traits. I will probably wait until I know for sure I need them before assigning any to these three, so I don’t end up pigeon-holing myself. So going forward, know that I’m technically three Sims short from a complete picture.

With that said, as things currently stand, I’ve used: six traits once; seven twice; seventeen three times; twenty-three four times; twenty five times; eleven six times; five seven times; seven eight times; and two traits NINE times.

My most frequently used traits are Hot-Headed - Castor, Cashlin, Sprite, Racheal, The Cheat, Dalibor, Betty, Al, and Butch, with Racheal and The Cheat being the ones to take it to nine - and Hopeless Romantic - Madison, Daisy, Doireann, Moira, Pumpkin, SLIP, Elliot, Joe, and Osamu, with Doireann, Moira and Osamu being the boosters here. 

Traits used eight times are Coward, Family-Oriented, Flirty, Friendly, Loner, Proper, and Snob. Of these seven, only Snob hasn’t been used among the newcomers; the rest have been boosted at least once, with Family-Oriented being boosted by three (Yori, Daw, and Angel). 

Maybe that’s a trait I can give The Distortionist or Emery Elizabeth: Snob. Gotta do it for completionist’s sake, you know?

Cat Person and Grumpy have also been taken up by three each - Racheal, Max, and Angel for the former; Yori, Gideon, and Angel for the latter.

Percy, Casey-Mae, Octavio, SLIP, Lyra and Butch are the only ones to still have unique traits. Elanor has lost Commitment Issues to Max; Cree, Hydrophobic to Daw; and Riba and Elliot have both lost Equestrian and Heavy Sleeper to Avdotya.

The Sim with the ‘most unique’ / ‘rarest’ trait distribution is still Cree; their traits have been used a total of sixteen times across themselves and all the others, and the majority of xer traits still haven’t been used more than three times. (Hell, with Al being so obscure, Party Animal might as well be a unique trait... maybe I can give someone that too.) Conversely, the Sim with the traits who have had the most use among my set is Yori. Even their least used traits, Bookworm and Brooding, have both seen six uses total including them. 

All in all, including every single repeat, my contestants share a grand total of 438 traits between them. Once the other three get traits, this will jump up to 453.

The fifth place squad has gained three members since my initially coining the term: Sera, Octavio, and Rowan. All three join the ‘Nearly’ Special Snowflake sector - Sera due to being cis, Rowan due to maybe being cis, and Octavio due to only sorta being disabled. 

There’s an equal number of DMACs and DFACs in the group, though still only two are “properly” cis, Lila and Sera. Occults are a four-to-six split, with two more murder ghosts; coloration is a little more even with four berries, three vanillas, two banillas, and a van-ban cusp in Rowan. 

Cashlin is once again the only one of the ten to not be disabled in any sense. 

Four of the ten have one piece of CC; four two, one three, and one 1.5. All three of the newcomers bring custom hair to the table. It should also be noted that besides Madison, Cree now shares thon hair-skin-eyes configuration with The Distortionist.

Daredevil has seen the most uses among the squad, for Twink, Cree, and Rowan. Those with two uses are Computer Whiz (Midnight and Sera), Diva (Castor and Myron), Hot-Headed (Castor and Cashlin), Loves the Heat (Stellan and Rowan), Natural Cook (Lilavati and Myron), Nurturing (Stellan and Sera), and Perfectionsist (Myron and Octavio). Castor and Myron have the most traits repeated among the group [3]; Cashlin, Cree, Lilavati, Midnight, and Octavio, the least [1].

I haven’t had any breakfast yet. I’d better go do that, then get some Interviews Done Finally.

[lceylee0826]

Shaping smell

Project Description:

This project made a playful visualisation of transient smells into sculptural forms, examining the world through texture and gesture.

Eventually, this project used the outdoor experience space to attracted audience(Who live busy, urban lives, and lack time to observe surroundings), hoping to change public perception of their own city environment by introducing a new perspective of experiencing familiar surroundings through sensory techniques and cross-modal communication.

Process Video Link - https://youtu.be/ul9L09mTmdM (Click it!!!!!)

Inspiration 

In once daily design practice, me and my partner searched for an district in Xu hui, Shanghai and made a ‘smell mapping’. 

The range and category of different scents can be clearly seen through the map, however, when I interviewed the people who lived or worked there, they told me that it‘s hard to feel the smell around them. Besides, when I asked them to rank the senses in order of importance, many people ranked the sense of smell last. 

Vision in the main sense that how they feel the city and the world.

This inspired me to think wether if I could heighten the sense of smell, so that could encourage people to feel surroundings in a unique perspective?

But firstly, I do some research about the potential of our smell sense.

Research 

A ‘YiXi’ speech’ What should we give up when we give up the smell?’ By Zhou Wen

https://www.yixi.tv/speech#/speech/detail?id=556

Through Zhou Wen’s ’YiXi’ speech’ What should we give up when we give up the smell?’ I found some people often overlooked the sense of smell, but smell does have lots of potential and possibilities. (Find spouse, detect diseases and dangers, etc.)

‘Verbeek the historical significance of smell’ By Caor Verbeek

<https://www.ted.com/talks/caro_verbeek_the_historical_significance_of_smell > 

“What if we would combine the latest technology with all this more meaningful historical and art historical uses that we can really start to use  smell in a much more meaningful way and even without the technology , we can just start now” “They say an image can say more than a thousand words well , I say a smell can say more than a thousand images.” By Caor Verbeek

Scent can help us feel the things around us in a new way, and can enhance our memories, emotions, and experiences.

‘Bee’s’ By Susana Soares

https://www.dezeen.com/2013/11/20/honey-bees-can-be-trained-to-detect-cancer-in-ten-minutes-says-designer-susana-soares/

This project uses bees to sense the smell molecules of cancer. 

‘Smell+’ By Auger Ioizaeu

http://www.auger-loizeau.com/projects/smell

This project explores the human experiential potential of the sense of smell, applying contemporary scientific research in a range of domestic and social contexts.

Then I found some artist research about exploring between humans sense and space, I drew inspiration from thesis case studies.

<while nothing happens>  By Ernesto Neto

The designer was trying to use a new way to enhance people's experience. He spread difffferent scents into largescale installations. Each corner of the room emitted difffferent flflavors. The sense of smell could help us perceive a space again.

<Small Room Prototype 4> By Walter Pichler

The designer aimed to solve the problem of personalized life between design, architecture and art. He created a small enclosed space in which vision and hearing are magnifified to the extreme. Could we focus on the sense of smell and let people feel the world through smell?

Based on this, I would like to test if the sense of smell is enhanced, can it allow people to reshape the world in another way?

Experiment1

Conducted two experiments，outdoors and indoors.

Collected some representative flavors which belonged to this street and tested them in a closed space. Hoping to explore whether people could better perceive different odors in a closed space and whether they can reconstruct a space with different odors.

Summary: 

In a quiet room, people can draw conclusions through analysis. For example, when you continuously smell flowers, coffee, perfume. Most people think this is a shopping mall or office building, and most people use cool colors to describe these flavors. 

When smelling different foods, people tend to think of it as a market or a commercial street. Mostly use warm colors to describe.

Experiment 2

Invited the audience to use the sense of smell to explore a street which was unfamiliar to him. Later he would reconstruct the impression of the street based on his smelling experience. 

I found people could use color, shape, even 3D model to reshape surroundings through smell.They also told me that visualize smell can strengthen the feeling of things.

It drived me to consider use the method of cross-modal communication to reshape the familiar things and encourage people to feel them again. 

‘The Color of Smell’ By Hannah Weise

https://muep.mau.se/bitstream/handle/2043/21031/TP1_HannahWeiser_June2016.pdf?sequence=2

This artist is also doing research on smell, he invited everyone to come and create a unique scent brush with him, which I was attracted very much. 

Because the sense of smell is quiet special, abstract. I hope in this project I could include more samples to determine the shape and color of the installation. In ‘The Color of Smell’ By Hannah Weise, he engaged people to draw sketch in order to visualize the smell. Thus I decided to use the methodology of participatory design in this project.

At the same time, I read a lot of literature about the importance of smell sense.

<Sex Differences in Human Olfaction: A Meta-Analysis>  By Piotr Sorokowski ,Maciej Karwowski, Michał Misiak, Michalina Konstancja Marczak, Martyna Dziekan, Thomas Hummel and Agnieszka Sorokowska <Relationships between personality traits and attitudes toward the sense of smell> By Han-Seok Seo , Suji Lee a, Sungeun Cho <Research progress on olfactory function in schizophrenia patients> By  ZHANG Huijuan，JIN Jin，LI Chunbo

Summary：

The sense of smell affects human behavior: 

Environmental Safety：1 Detection of microbial risks (feces/rot/corruption) 2 Non-microbial risks (gas leakage, etc.) 3 Perceived danger 

Personal identity：1 stimulate emotions 2 detect age 3 sexual interest spouse selection 4 retain memory 

Personal Safety：1 Detecting diseases (Alzheimer's disease/Parkinsonism/Autism/Severe Depression/Mental disorders, etc.) smell may become a standard for early identification of high-risk groups.

<https://yixi.tv/#/speech/detail?id=556> By Zhou Wen

The human sense of smell is not degraded, and the human sense of smell is very powerful. But our sense of smell reaches its peak when we are in our 20s and 30s, and then gradually declines. MHC (HLA) will affect our judgment on the gender of others, so as to make spouse selection. Research has shown that most couples have a large difference in HLA. So when scientists use androstadienone (male hormone) and estrogen (female hormone) to make people judge gender based on their bias. This also proves that when the visual gender cues become blurred, smell can indeed help us to judge the gender of others. Women's olfactory ability>male. Young people's olfactory ability>old people. Women are easy to judge by smell.

<Olfactory disorders and olfactory function test> By Ni Daofeng

In the 1970s, the National Neural and Communication Disorders and Stroke Advisory Committee estimated that 2 million Americans had taste or smell disorders. According to recent statistics, the National Earth Society and the Monell Chemical Sensation Center reported that 1.2% of the 1.5 million participants had permanent anosmia and 62.4% had temporary anosmia. There are no epidemiological data on olfactory disorders in our country, and there are few related studies. Dysosmia has not received enough attention. Patients often do not mention changes in the sense of smell. Doctors often ignore changes in the sense of smell during medical consultations and even medical record writing.

Through these article research，I have come up with the idea B———Use virtual reality to visualization smell, identify the safety of objects. Then I do some other research，mainly focused on smell visualization.

‘DESIGN OF OLFACTORY INFORMATION VISUALIZATION ——OLFACTORY AR WATCH "OWATCH" ’By Yechen Zhu

‘Bioelectronic nose and its application to smell visualization’ By Hwi Jin Ko,Tai Hyun Park

It is very difficult to visualize smell. There are extremely high requirements for professional knowledge, graphic control, and data collection and research. 

‘One and Three Chairs’ By Joseph Kosuth 

Joseph used three different forms to define a chair. It led me to think to different forms to expressing the same thing to expand people’s experience.

Combine with Sarah Sze‘s Ted talk ’How we experience time and memeory through art ’https://www.sarahsze.com , I learned that memories, and experience brought by real objects cannot be replaced. which made me want to use a physical way to simulate smell.

Finally, I decided to use those two forms: photography and 'smell visualization' installation.

‘Reverse of volume ACG’ By Yasuaki Onishi 2010

The Japanese artist is good at using multi-media to visualize the invisible in the form of a three-dimensional installation.It’s the same direction as I wanted to try. 

‘Water Line’ By Maya Lin. 

‘Heo’ By Seung Mo Park https://www.seungmopark.com

They’ve inspired me to use materials (Aluminum wire / Hot melt glue gun) to make installations.

’Pixel Forest’ By Pipilotti Rist

https://necsus-ejms.org/confronting-the-screen-pipilotti-rist-pixel-forest-at-the-new-museum/

In order to enhance people's viewing experience and discuss the relationship between people and the screen, designer created a device to isolate the outside world.I am attracted by this form of creating a small isolated space.

When my installation is hidden in a sheltered environment, it may help people to focus on it and let people experience better. Based on it, I'm going to build dark boxes which can contain my smell installations.

Design concept

I decided to build an outdoor experience space that contains 4 smell visualization installations and 4 photographs through all the research. Let the audience actively visit these ‘Smell Models’ naturally and playfully while they could feel the surroundings differently. Besides, they could pay more attention to our smells sense.

Design process

Based on previous interviews, I focused my audience on those who lives busy and lack time to observe the surroundings. I hope to create special experiences to attract them naturally. I communicated with them on the subject of work, stress, and the city environment.

Many office workers (32) told me that it is difficult for them to have time to observe the city in daily life. Thus I decided to set up my installations near a office building and to pick some object that we are usually familiar with. Combined with daily observations, I finally planned the scope of objects into 4 categories：flowers and plants, living organisms (animals), and artificial composites.

Finally, I found 4 representative objects outdoors nearby some offices.(flower, grass, stray cat, half bottle of water)

’What a smell looks like’ By University of Colorado Boulder studies the fIuid mechanics of fragrancesa lab 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/what-a-smell-looks-like

This team’s study showed that the smell looks like 3D figure and will continue to diffuse. From seen this, I will use those shapes to make the installation.

Participatory design

Because the sense of smell is quiet special, abstract. I hope in this project I could include more samples to determine the shape and color of the installation. In ‘The Color of Smell’ By Hannah Weise, he engaged people to draw sketch in order to visualize the smell. Thus I decided to use participatory design.

According to previous interviews, I found 4 representative objects  from a platform of an office building. (Grass, flowers, stray cat and a half of water bottle). I invited people who work around there to observe and try to draw the smell’s shape and color.

I found that there are some similarities from the sketches. The output will based on these and the artist reference.

Material test & Prototype & Feedback

According to research, I first tested different materials and made a prototype.Then I found that the aluminum can be affected by light and perspective in the dark, thus producing a fIowing effect.

Then I tested the effect of dark box. Besides, I use lights of different colors to change the color of the aluminum wire.

Feedback

1: The dark box should be more prominent, black can easily invisible at night.

2: The dark box needs to be more ergonomic. It can be made deeper, which is convenient for viewing; a special pipe can be added, and the viewing angle can be easily changed without exposing the device; make pillars to support the dark box, because the viewing posture is not very comfortable.

Then I tested which material is better to remain attractive in the dark. In the end I decided to use silver tin foil.It can be recognized in the dark. And silver is more neutral and mysterious.

Also，I adjust the dark boxes.

Final effect of installation

According to research early, I found these 4 representative things outdoor. Then took the photos of them and  finally made these special ‘smell installations’.

Half a bottle of water 56cm*28cm

A small grass 54cm*28cm

A stray cat 56cm*30cm

Small flower 36cm*40cm

Sketch

Details

Experience space

My experience space is build on the platform of an office building, where many office workers will be attracted naturally. And I prepared a manual to introduce the concept of this project. But I did not deliberately show it to others, I put it next to the boxes.

Feedback and reflection：

1: The length and material of the pipe need to be tested again. I will measure more samples for data analysis later. 

2: The lighting could be more dim, I think dynamic projecter can be added in the future. Installation can also be made more dynamic,(Fans, smoke, etc.) Better materials can be found in future.

3: How these installations can constantly stay? I will consider to use interactive website and digital 3D model (interactive website/3D model) to have a better connect with audience.

4: From the environmental point of view combined with the broken window theory, although this is a temporary outdoor exhibition, is there a better location and props to choose? And how to collect user feedback more naturally rather than through interviews.

Bibliography：

1: ‘Research progress on olfactory function in schizophrenia patients‘ By Zhang Huijuan, JIN Jin, LI Chunbo.

2: ‘Bioelectronic nose and its application to smell visualization‘ By Hwi Jin Ko, Tai Hyun Park.

3: ‘Smelling Shapes: Crossmodal Correspondences Between Odors and Shapes‘ By Grant Hanson-Vaux,  Anne-Sylvie Crisinel, Charles Spence.

4: ‘The Color of Smell A cross-modal interactive installation for individual expression‘ By Hannah Weiser.

5: ‘https://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization‘ By David McCandless.

6: ‘https://www.ediblegeography.com/smell-designing-sheffield/’ By Victoria Henshaw.

7: ‘Design with smel:Practices, Techniques and ChallengesEdited‘ By Victoria Henshaw, Kate McLean,  Dominic Medway, Chris Perkins and  Gary Warnaby.

Thank you for watching

[megapotatosaurus]

hey guys, rebelbaze responded!!  once again in the comments of my last post rather than a reblog so if you want to see their full comments just go to that link.

“Your argument is largely based on not understanding wht the LGBT community is for, what its activism looks like, and what LGBT specific resources could do. Please edcuate yourself further.” -rebelbaze

Sure, I’m always looking to educate myself further on LGBT+ matters.  But I know perfectly well what the LGBT+ community is for.  It’s for people like me, and @ghiraheeheeheem and everyone else with a sexuality or gender identity that has been oppressed and erased for centuries.

“Nah, my request for “better sources” was sources not from tumblr, not with studies that are a. old enough to be obsolete and b. have been debunked, and c. did not directly contradict the point they were trying to make that aces face “similar” discrimination to LGBT folk. Which, again, none of his sources proved AND neither do any of your sources. The discrimination you are talking about most closely resembles MISOGYNY not homophobia or transphobia“ -rebelbaze               

So, I went to the trouble of providing you with actual published research from scientific journals specifically concerned with human sexuality and that’s not the kind of evidence you want or consider valid.  Aaaaaalrighty then.  Also, neither of the papers I cited were directly trying to prove that aces face similar discrimination to other LGBT+, they were analysing the experience of ace people using interview techniques and questionnaires and in the case of Brotto et al., some evaluation scales.  They neither contradicted nor supported the point, I merely drew the connection in support myself as there was discussion of asexuals facing the kind of discrimination LGBT+ people do face.

However, I did go and find another article which I think you will like and find helpful to your understanding of the topic :]  It’s called “Making Sense in and of the Asexual Community: Navigating Relationships and Identities in a Context of Resistance“ by CJ Chasin, 2015.  The original article is here and once again I would be happy to provide you with the full text for free by email or some other means if you cannot access it, just message or /ask me.  It actually makes a point of discussing and positively comparing the experience of the asexual and homosexual struggle - that is say, an actual qualified researcher and social psychologist who has reviewed all of the literature on the topic (because that’s what this paper is, a review and discussion of the available literature on the topic) agrees that the experience of homophobia and aphobia is “parallel” (Chasin, 2015) in society.

So.  Want any more sources?

Moving on:

“And, like, cishet aces ARE invading the community using the EXACT same rhetoric kinky cishets, polyamorous cishets, and even pedophile cishets have used in the past (and present!) to attempt to say that they are oppressed and part of the LGBT community. Our oppressors trying to get into our spaces and say we owe them support can be codified as nothing other than invaders.” -rebelbaze

Oh boy, I love it when asexuals get compared to pedophiles and other sexual deviants!  (Not to suggest that kinks and polyamory are deviant, though that’s certainly what @rebelbaze is suggesting by thoughtlessly lumping them all in with pedophiles.)  Kind of reminds me exactly of how homosexuals get compared to pedophiles!  Not to mention the way trans people get compared to pedophiles!  Hmmm!  Aphobia and homophobia and transphobia are so not equivalent!  Nobody’s pulling the exact same shit on absolutely everybody who has some kind of ‘abnormal’ sexuality or gender identity!!  Especially not people within the very LGBT+ community which is supposed to be promoting and supporting the rights of these people to exist!!!!

Come on.  Can you really not hear yourself?  I mean, in all honesty, you seem very concerned about the oppression of our people and that could be an admirable trait if used properly.  But if you use the same weapons against others in our group that our oppressors do, can’t you see you’re no better than them?  There’s no shame in coming to realise that you’ve been misinformed about an issue.  In fact, it’s more admirable to admit that you were wrong than to continue arguing yourself into a corner based upon a lie, and a vicious and destructive lie at that.

I’ll address one more point on that topic:

“Because, again, the LGBT community isn’t about anyone who is marginalized (otherwise FURRIES can make a better case than cishet aces, as furries have had their conventions literally GASSED), it is about those SPECIFICALLY oppressed by homophobia and transphobia. Like, can you name a single major LGBT Issue that wasn’t based around homophobia and transphobia?” -rebelbaze

How about biphobia?  Because that’s a very real and distinct thing from homophobia, more similar to aphobia in many ways.  Bi people are routinely erased, told they’re “going through a phase”, that they’re not welcome in the community because they can potentially fit in with the heteronormative ideal (oh look it’s what we’re discussing right here right now but for ace people) or that they’re actually just straight but horny or actually secretly gay, just the same way asexuals are told that they’re repressed or just victims of abuse, just the way that gay men are often theorised to have been victims of abuse.  I could keep looping around and linking up all of the different x-phobic arguments: they have more that binds than separates them.  And asexuals, as noted in each of my papers, also have the unique challenge of not being understood by ANYONE who experiences sexual attraction.  They’re doubly cursed and doubly vulnerable to people such as yourself telling them they don’t belong.  Which is why I am of the opinion that we should be extra welcoming to all kinds of asexual people, cishet or lesbian or gay or genderqueer or trans or whatever else, because there are even less people who understand them than the sexualities with a much larger and well-established movement and publicity.

And one more LGBT+ issue not based around homophobia/transphobia  - how about the experience of LGBT+ POC?  As you’re arguing that misogyny/rape culture issues have no place in this debate, you could also argue that race issues should be kept out of the LGBT+ space, but once again, in my opinion those who face extra marginalisation in society should be invited in and allowed to celebrate and express themselves using the context of their own experience.  Like I said in my last post, just because they might not fit your image of who belongs in your group doesn’t mean they don’t belong.  It’s a very broad spectrum and so we need a broad gaze.

Our struggles are all different, but equivalent, and each legitimate.  In the face of so much institutionalised hatred, we must support one another, not weaken the movement with in-fighting and cruelty using the very weapons used to oppress us.

[sapropel]

New thread because the old one was so long! @ungracefulace​

I am back from my spiritual journey and my mental health is in a downward spiral! It is a race against time to see if I can finish this response before my brain shuts down! Who’s! Ready!!!!???

I first want to talk a tiny bit about the DSM thing you brought up. Here’s a link that addresses it from my “ref” tag.

https://goblincourse.tumblr.com/post/162148435657/a-concept

I want to address in your link what this link does not.

Your link talks about how asexuality is NOT in the DSM and is given special mention in a little-used version. At the very worst, this issue is procedurally incompetent, NOT oppressive. Misdiagnosis is not oppressive, it is not malicious. Your concern is unaware or perhaps malicious psychiatrists trying to treat ignorant ace kids for their asexuality, I imagine. I’m not going to say that’s impossible, that some people don’t have an agenda, but I find it extremely difficult to believe that it happens at any significant rate.

“Also having your sexuality seen as an illness is literally systematic oppression. Like, it’s a literal system set up to oppress a minority group.”  You’re also working under the assumption that putting “asexuality” in the DSM (which… it isn’t?) was done SPECIFICALLY to oppress asexuals which is, in fact, a wild assumption. There is no evidence that there is a secret aphobic agenda in the medical community and if you show me any evidence to the contrary I will eat some fucking crow right now.

Another issue is that the issue is made America-specific, but like… I am an American. I understand Americentrism is an issue on Tumblr but for the sake of argument I think it’s best we argue about systems here.

Your second link: If you read closely, I’d make an argument that this person is actually arguing that you shouldn’t repress your sexuality just because you’re religious, NOT that asexuality itself is bad.

Even if this person WERE specifically denigrating asexuality, as I said before, it is one person. Many religious sects hate various groups of people that aren’t actually oppressed. Again, I’m not saying discrimination isn’t possible. As a matter of fact, I can actually imagine that growing up aromantic in the Mormon church could be extremely troubling for some people. I am NOT saying that this is systematic, but there are situations in which you can be disadvantaged. This can be true for most groups of people.

“Religious persecution is systematic oppression.” Not necessarily! For that to be the case, it would need to be widespread, deeply cultural, and part of a group that holds power over the general population. Various religions persecute scientists in the field of climate change and evolutionary biology but these scientists aren’t oppressed or even, in most cases, censored, because these religions no longer have the power to do much about it. Can they be discriminated against? Again, yes.

“By calling asexuals non human, by using our confusion about our sexuality to medicate and [pathologize] us, it is a systematic attack on asexuals. Making asexuals an oppressed group.” This is an iffy one. Again, ask yourself: what scale is this happening on? Is it widespread? Deeply cultural? Part of a power imbalance? I also find the implication that people are PURPOSEFULLY doing this to attack asexuals very interesting, because most of the time I see inclusionists argue that it is in fact the invisibility of ace people that contribute most to their “oppression.” This implies that the medical community knows enough about and hates asexuals enough to devise a destructive conspiracy against them, has enough power to implement it; AND that the general population is so ignorant of asexuality that we oppress them on the front of invisibility and erasure.

“ What qualifies as enough for you? “ This is another tricky one. I’m not the arbiter of oppression or anything. I don’t decide the exact amount. You have to take a qualitative perspective with this kind of thing. So again, a couple questions:

1) Is it widespread? Do you see this happen on a large scale in all pockets of the United States? How many data points do you have? Does this affect ALL aro/ace people REGARDLESS of class, race, gender, religion, etc?

2) Is it deeply cultural? Is it engrained in the media? Entertainment? The professional world? Where would this oppression come from? What are the roots? Are they unique to asexuality/aromanticism or are they byproducts of misogyny, homophobia, and ableism? Is it, in a word, inescapable?

3) Is there a power imbalance? Is there a power dynamic that prevents or hinders socioeconomic growth and mobility for aro/ace people? Are aro/ace people systematically silenced and censored? Are there laws in place against aro/ace people, or are there institutions or policies placed to keep them down?

Okay, next part! This is another tricky part because it requires nuance, critical thinking about, and a balance of 1) distancing oneself from privilege and 2) living authentically without having to censor oneself.

I sincerely doubt that aro/ace people have been discriminated against in the workplace, but I don’t have any sources to say otherwise.

I also SINCERELY doubt anyone has been disowned SIMPLY for not feeling romantic/sexual attraction. I’ve only ever heard of one person claiming that to be the case, and it turns out they were “kicked out” for being a brat to their parents, not because of their identity. I’m looking at you, Max “Rat Hands.”

I’m sure that some people have been raped for being ace. It would not surprise me. Besides the very obvious intersection here with misogyny and toxic masculinity, I mostly just want to point out that this is discrimination and this itself does not constitute oppression.

“Having organizations that try to support you badgered because you don’t count to those people is not a few people being mean.” This is misleading and a bit upsetting to be that it was phrased this way. When groups SPECIFICALLY geared towards helping LGBT people, like the Trevor Project, begin to help non-LGBT people, it’s extremely reductive to say that the outrage is mere “badgering.” What happens in these situations is that resources for LGBT people are diverted to help non-LGBT people, in institutions SPECIFICALLY to help us. When a suicide hotline takes a call from a non-LGBT person, that is one less person who can help an LGBT kid in a crisis. And it’s not just this. Scholarships, events, campaigns ALL have similar resource drains where non-LGBT people will take resources from actual LGBT people, and when we’re a group that’s already struggling and already so deeply marginalized, it’s frustrating.

I want to add that I absolutely think aro/ace people should have institutions and resources geared specifically for them, but I do not think they need to piggyback off of already-existing LGBT entities.

“If someone is attacked for being ace, that is not toxic masculinity or misogyny that is literally aphobia. “ You’re right, that would be anti-ace discrimination. But again, I feel like context is important. Lots of times when someone talks about aggression they received for being aro/ace, the reasons are more likely due to misogyny or toxic masculinity and less often have anything to do with being aro/ace. I’m not saying that it’s impossible, I’m saying it’s important to look at the Gestalt.