#also the fact that it's exclusively women being targeted is not a good look y'all

[apostate-in-an-alcove]

People on BookTok will unironically diagnose every woman who reads smutty books with a porn addiction and call everyone who disagrees with their puritanical standards for books a gooner and then pat themselves on the back for being so moral and enlightened as if they're actually going to achieve anything of substance by doing this.

[genericpuff]

Hi! So first things first happy belated new year!(sorry it's my first time interacting with your blog and I thought I'd start off on a positive note) second things second I wanted you to know I am ~besotted~ with your lore rekindled content , I love the art and how it resembles rachel's old style but most importantly I love the way you depicted persephone , she seems much more feisty and spunky ,she also possesses the agency many fans of the original LO claimed the OG persephone did (but never cared to show why that was the case whenever I asked them) as it is clearly shown, a good example of this is her " "meet cute" with hades at the party where SHE'S the one who approaches HIM, in the OG webtoon it was the opposite and the way hades gawked at her physical attractiveness while she was depicted as alone and vulnerable felt extremely predatory and not at all romantic (the "actual" first time they met with 18 year old or possibly younger persephone being naked on top of a drunk hades wasn't any better sadly:( ) also I'd like to ask a question if it doesn't bother you, (I don't know if you've been asked this before or not)Is persephone still going to be 19 years old in your comic? Or is she closer in age to hades ?I'd be grateful if you answered ! Have a good one❤👋🏻

Awww this was such a nice message to wake up to! Happy belated New Year! But now I wonder what your version of starting off your interactions on my blog with a negative note would have been like? 😈 Bring me allll your salt! (if there is any, I'm also just being a dick LMAO)

Thanks so much for your kind words, I'm glad you're enjoying Rekindled! It's wild to me how people are already loving it this much when like... I've barely put anything out? I think I've mentioned this before but I'm used to putting out like, 40-60 panels worth of stuff on a weekly basis (as Rekindled isn't my main comic project) so the fact y'all have been so sweet to the handfuls of panels I've put out for Rekindled already is like... absolutely wild to me. It blows me away :' 0

As for your question, I'm definitely gonna be age'ing up Persephone, not just because of the questionable age gap but also because her being 19 in LO serves absolutely no narrative purpose. The issue with the 19 year old age gap thing isn't just the fact that the age gap exists, that alone would be fine on its own because there would still be an age gap even if she were 100 or 200 or 500 or whatever have you. The issue is that 1.) 19 is a very specific age to use that has a lot of real world equivalencies to "barely legal" and "robbing the cradle" culture, there are FAR too many real life examples of rich 40 year old men exclusively dating 19 year old girls (Leo DiCaprio, hello?) and taking advantage of them in worst case scenarios and it makes it hard not to draw those parallels with LO when Hades is literally coded as a 40 year old man and Persephone is such a 'mortal' age like 19; and 2.) Persephone is very often framed as being some innocent virgin "valley girl" archetype which is, again, very common when it comes to the May December romance. A lot of gross older man will often specifically target younger women because they can play out their fantasies of "deflowering" a young woman or whatnot.

It's hard not to take issue with the Persephone/Hades age gap when they're constantly being drawn like this:

"Art experts" will argue that it's Rachel trying to make Persephone look "small" to convey the mood but if that's the case, she's failing miserably at it, she doesn't just look 'small', she looks like a literal infant. It also always seems to be happening in real time and outside Persephone's head which makes it come across more as other people seeing her that way, not herself.

Compare it to (and I hate that I'm about to use this as a comparison because I also can't stand this webtoon for how infantalizing it is) Let's Play which does a MUCH better job showing characters' inner emotions through the literal personification of their emotions.

Point is, you can convey how a character might feel compared to those around them WITHOUT making them look ridiculous in the story's own setting and universe.

And that's not even getting to how Persephone is treated by both the people around her and the way the comic frames her, there's a LOT of exaggeration put on how "young and innocent" she is and the fact that the comic will take any opportunity it can to draw Persephone in some Vogue magazine like pose even when the scene doesn't call for it is... creepy and distracting, to say the least.

(this is not the look of a person who is 'lonely', at least not the way she's describing it LMAO)

Anyways. This got off topic. It's taken me like, 3 hours to formulate a response to this because I've had my brain split between like 4 different things today LMAO but yes, Rekindled will be ageing up Persephone, at least just to get her away from the real life touchiness of her being a literal 19 year old girl in a relationship with a 40-coded man. I don't mind or think there's much wrong with reasonable age gaps in relationships, but it's a whole other thing when you make your immortal god character an incredibly relatable age like 19 and then also proceed to overly sexualize them/objectify them/infantalize them every chance you get.

And ultimately, they're gods. Their ages really shouldn't matter as 'age' is a concept that shouldn't apply to immortal beings, Rachel's mistake was making it matter with Hecate/Hera calling out Hades for being into a 19 year old girl. If we're not supposed to raise an eyebrow at it, don't have your in-universe characters call it out either, y'know? That just establishes the rule in the story that age gaps are something even the gods would get upset over LMAO It's just not gonna be a focus in Rekindled because it serves no narrative purpose besides pushing Rachel's gross pro-shipping/DDLG fetish.

And, y'know... I kinda don't wanna encourage any more of this shit:

[shadow-warren-whump]

I'm back on my bullshit and using Tumblr as my sounding board!

I might be non-binary... because I...

Never understood gender roles as a child.

Never got why males and females couldn't be in the same room as each other.

Like wearing dresses and skirts because I like how they make me feel, not to show I'm supposed to be female.

Don't really like anyone seeing me as a female even though my hair is long and I do prefer to present closer to feminine.

Always want(ed) bras that compressed my chest instead of lifting it.

Always felt apathetic toward my assigned gender, but don't completely hate/reject it.

Felt really good when a few people at work referred to me as "they" when talking about how I was doing to other managers.

Feel uncomfortable (mostly around men) referring to myself as a female.

Don't feel completely female, but I have never felt like a male.

Don't feel genderless, but don't feel connected enough to be fully female.

Feel like I would pass as anything but female if i didn't have breasts or long hair, but I hate change and can't bring myself to get short hair or even think about top surgery as much as i want my breasts to be smaller.

Could do without my period. It's not actually doing anything. I'm not having children out of there.

Feel comfortable and happy when it feels like the people around me aren't seeing me as a female, but as a person who happens to be heavily female-coded.

Hate having guys look me up and down because I am female-coded and feeling like a target being cased. I don't feel like a girl, don't look at me like that.

Feel like a weakling or something similar when being called "Miss", "Ma'am", etc, but I don't want to be called "sir" or "Mister" either.

Tried out Demigirl and didn't like it. Non-binary sounds better and closer.

However, I...

Don't mind using female bathrooms and dressing rooms.

Feel more comfortable around other females (depending on context).

Have no discomfort about selecting the option "female" if need be. It's more like a biological fact for me than how I feel.

Shop mostly in Women's clothing because I feel uncomfortable in the Men's sections.

Definitely don't feel the need to cut and dye my hair.

Definitely dress traditionally feminine.

Don't feel the need to wear Men's clothing exclusively, nor start dressing androgynously. My preferred outfit is leggings and whatever shirt feels good that day.

(I also want to mention that most of these can also be coming from the fact that I have Autism possibly, but it's not uncommon for Auties to be Non-binary.)

Y'all can ignore this. I just need a sounding board. You can reply if you want, but not required. My pronouns in my bio will stay she/her for now, but feel free to use they/them. Or both. :)

[whimsically-ominously-auspice]

"Will i bus or keep you guessing?" Smalls rented 19 charter buses holding roughly 230 people each.

"Walk out" then get on a bus to be transported to a hidden meth lab underground. To make poisonous gases to poison me and other innocent victims.

But I was the Target the CIA tells me.

"Cause bitches like you are bad for my health"

"Dropping bombs on your moms"

"Doing foul crime"

So had the Amazon workers -- over 4000 of them decided not to be kidnapped to make poisonous gases they would been beaten and raped until killed. Both men and women.

No food nor water. Beaten and raped until death.

If I were evil I would say you deserved it for being stupid.

But i can't say that in good conscience. Because if they refuse then it is in essence to protect my life. Or just to defend their own.

In all my factories i have CIA and FBI undercover. Any police agency wishing to work undercover is allowed.

At least 2 CIA agents were going to go and called in back up. Which means trained assassins would have infiltrated the buses and went along for the ride.

All you have to do is drive to the location and park a car and mix in with the crowd.

In these cases in 15 minutes a CIA agent can get back dated work badge filled with false information on their record. 9 had gotten badges before this morning. On one team. There were 7 teams. An extra 700 unidentified non listed to walk out "workers"

So this could had been handled exclusively and the public would Never had known.

So they go in and about 1 day of looking around and seeing what is what. Preventing abuse and so on.

Or they would prevent boarding and done something different. We prefer the experience of stupidity. When you make the wrong choices you can see it in your face.

So start thinking for yourself.

Another 75 vehicles were in position to follow these Charter buses for their safety while on board. In case of a motor vehicle accident. Crazy driving. Any random shit. And of course eye witness verified location.

My bust since I took over... The charter bus was able to give location of destination. And previous history of his use.

I prevented harm and lectured harshly. But my lecture is real life.

And now instead of using time to help the stupid.

They are now risking their lives to save people already in serious and grave danger. Innocent people.

9 times he's gotten away with it. Which means every time Smalls kidnapped the undercover CIA didn't request back up. They thought they could handle ot themselves. They are probably dead.

Teamwork. The CIA. Y'all call back up. Every fucking time. That is why i post shit. If i post and y'all read it makes more danger sometimes.

But there's already danger that is too much because the danger i alert knows to back down. If i don't alert they will attack who is helping.

So, it can provoke them but they know strict punishment will occur.

But if i announce any CIA not busy will lock on at least 61% lock on every single time i post an issue.

This continues their training. Compassion. Competition. Sympathy and understanding their way may not be the only simplified way of doing things.

And makes them aware If back up is needed.

Locally 85% will prepare to duty. Dressing. Eating. Having coffee. Staying awake. Fueling their cars. Doing chores they put off. Watering animals early.

It can be days before they return home.

34% auto walks out. And applies for duty. Which means they go And find out what the fuck to do to help. Find critical situations. Apply their skill.

Which means 50% is on back up. We never send them all out. If we have to we began servicing areas nearby. Taking only 1/3 leaving the remaining 2/3 to prepare for their communities.

And at that point the military is on its way or already there.

The military is on Staten Island and Long Island Sound.

14000 victims. Will return home today or to a safe community housing development where the military are also under Quarentine.

So today is a good day.

Because ONE undercover agent called in back up

Only one in the entire factory of 10,000 people. Because he felt fear. Fear exists to warn.

So he listened. And he has saved nearly 20,000 people.

It shouldn't be a miracle. But it is.

It shouldn't be a miracle not solely because it never happened But because MORE should called in back up.

What if the first time they called for backup?

No one from Staten Island Amazon would been kidnapped.

So it's the 9th time. And finally a MIRACLE OCCURS.

We HAVE to call it a MIRACLE and not Just Another Day On The Job. And that is so bad.

I'm not about yelling or disciplining those who failed. Your minds do it your selves.

Those that thought they were good enough and strong enough. "I been in Vietnam" "i been in Iraq"

Baby it don't matter. It don't matter to anyone. Not especially evil.

I can tell you why i hide. Because it's easier to fight. If people don't know who i am. They Don't fight as hard. When they find out who I am or i have something planned for eradication. I am attacked. By 20 and 30 people. In my mind. Esp. Metaphysical violence because of muscle memory allows them to punch me in the face and i can feel It.

I consider myself lucky because it is only metaphysical. But i am constantly attacked. Today I had 12 attacking me and contradicting what i say to fuck up my mind.

There are times i need to call for help.

And it's just in my head.

Being in a bunker situation alone. I know for a fact as a regular human i would die.

Even if i fought

This is why i posted directions on how to attack and kill in certain kidnapping situations.

Because it's impossible to do alone.

We need Team Work.

Its a world we're saving baby. A whole world.

No one can do it alone. Its been proven.

United We Stand. Divided we fall.

I never really honestly loved this statement.

Made me think of the British red coats. They always stood in one line formation. In lines and rows and rows of people. They all died.

Americans who did not fight that way won.

Divided in Unity we Prevail.

I wrote about the golf course in Mississippi. The whole town kidnapped. Alex and i had to physically without weapons fight. I never finished the story.

I used sexual indecency to lure then hid while Alex killed. We were divided. We were unified in the objective.

I knew what he had to do. He had to kill. He couldn't allow me to get hurt. He's always afraid of that. Its s weakness that divided us in a way that can cause failure.

Except i know how to protect him. Lure them to me..

Easiest trick in the book and that is what those Fallen CIA agents attempted to do. But they didn't have back up. No one knew they needed to be saved.

We had 7 other people that knew where we were. We had a plan to lock up in the cashier area where limited golf balls and golf clubs were and fight in a shelter if necessary until our back up arrived

Alex had no back up when he went bike riding. Trust me he's sick. The radioactive Radon is in his lungs and his body is rejecting it as best as it can.

He's lucky I felt the calling to relook at that picture I merely glanced at in a disapproving manner and took the time to care about the man I love although he's on my last nerve.

It was many hours later. Too many in fact. But at least it wasn't days.

You need back up. That is how we are created!

There is nothing I can do about that. To eradicate soulmates means you will become out of control evil and hate others and make them your slaves.

Planets Zulululu and Xion did just that. That is why there is a problem with them!

I fixed their planets. I decided to punish them because as I did here i lectured them. Immensely. And they hurt our precious people. So indefinitely i am opposed to their existence here on Eaerth. Of any alien life. I don't care if it's s drawn cartoon. I don't want it.

Joe Cool is gonna die in those educational cartons just so you know.

Charlie Brown. Linus. Lucy. They're all gonna die. We will keep our old treasured cartoons but we will create cartoons where their death occurs. It is revealed that Lucy is a mind controlling bitch who needs her face punched in. Linus is an abused kid that finally cracks and kills his parents.

And even in this Linus and Charlie Brown team up to kill Lucy.

Call for backup.

Alert your DNA4U Friends List.

Don't do life alone!

[lesbian-ed-discourse]

this just in: biological sex is not the only aspect of gender, oh my gosh how surprising. y'all act like what someone has in their pants automatically indicates exactly how they'll act and think, which is not feminist at all. y'all literally said you dont think transmen/women aren't actually men/women. good job on being "welcoming" and "positive" - while simultaneously treating trans ppl like shit. so yeah, thanks for that. (pt. 1)

And secondly, denying biological sex doesn’t deny someone’s gender. Insisting that they must actually be men/women depending on their sex does - which is what y’all are doing. Trans ppl may have some particular type of junk in their pants, may have been raised a certain way but that doesn’t make them men/women - it makes them fucking trans. (pt. 2)

Trans people experience the world much differently than cis ppl do, and our brains function and are chemically different to someone who’s fine with their assigned gender. The science behind this is there, and there are several studies which suggest that the brain structure of trans ppl is entirely unique to them, just like it is for men and women. (pt. 3)

Actively denying trans ppl’s gender - by saying stuff like, “well, they’re actually just a man/woman” does actually hurt them. It does actually get us killed. Bc you know who else says that? The guy that murdered a trans woman who fucked him and now thinks he’s gay. The parents of trans teens who deny their child’s gender, resulting in depression and oftentimes suicide. (pt. 4)

I’m not saying you shouldn’t talk about biological sex - of course that is important. I’m just saying there are ways to do that without calling transmen “females”, and transwomen “males”. Surprise surprise you can talk about biological sex and how it affects people without automatically assuming that everyone with that junk is a woman/man - and triggering dysphoria and possibly trauma. (pt. 5

Examples of treating people like more than just their junk include - talking about specific body parts without calling their owners any pronouns, ex. “People with vulvas” “people with prostates” etc. actually talking to trans women, and men to see how they feel about this. As a trans person, it makes me feel like shit to hear you say I’m not a man - but it’s not surprising either. (pt. 6)

A majority of the population thinks I’m not actually a man, so you’re not particularly special. Most people don’t give 2 shits about people like me, or they just dislike us/want us killed and gone. You know how many times I’ve been called a “fucking tranny”, and a dyke? The answer is a hell of a lot. And you don’t get to just come in here and tell me that that’s ok because I’m actually just a woman. (pt. 7)

Reducing people to their biological sex is transphobic. You can acknowledge that someone has certain bits, but you don’t know how trans people think or feel or how being seen as just a dick/vulva feels. We aren’t just sex, we’re actual people with feelings - who wanted to be treated like actual people. (pt. 8)

I just want to say that if you being gender critical plays into a societal norm of treating trans people like they don’t exist, what makes you any different than the homophobic and misogynist politicians who want to see us dead? Maybe if being gender critical makes people lapse into depression and dysphoria, you should think about why you think it’s a good idea. (pt. 9)

Because the fact of the matter is is that this kills people. It kills young people, maybe not actively, but it still kills people. Trans teens have such a high rate of suicide because of people like you who think it doesn’t hurt to be reduced to your sex, who think it’s ok to not listen to trans people and treat them in ways that hurt - even when they've told you very specifically what is transphobic. You don't get to decide what is and isn't transphobia. (pt. 10)

So, first off: we’re using totally different definitions of the terms “male/female” the way we use it, doesn’t mean “man/woman” (as in the gender and gender roles assigned to someone) but refer to a biological reality, what sex someone is, and what sexual characteristics they have. To us, using “female” is the same as you using “afab” or “people with vaginas” It’s merely a biological descriptor, it doesn’t come with any “you should be like Y, and act like Y, and follow these gender roles” It’s just stating what “junk” (and reproductive system and secondary sexual characteristics) someone has. No more, no less.

I’m sorry that this causes trans people dysphoria and distress, I get why being reminded of their bodies, and their “supossed role in society as a man/woman” like that would (but I don’t see why “people with vaginas” is considered more acceptable? Since it also reminds you of your anatomy?) And I would recommend that if any discourse that uses these words is too triggering for you, that you disengage from it for your own well-being.

Now, cis women also suffer from not aligning with what their supposed role in society is. That’s what gender roles are, and they’re a tool of women’s oppression, which we as feminists want to combat. To be able to do that, we need to look at the roots of it, why is patriarchy the way it is? And the answer, harsh as it may be, is that it’s related to bodies and the sex of them. 

Being born a certain sex means you’re treated a certain way from birth. Little girls are raised to play with dolls (to learn to be “motherly”) and wear dresses, told that they’re less intelligent and inferior to boys, and that their only worth is how attractive they’re to men. Little boys are taught to be assertive, to be strong and to be leaders. This creates a divide, a hierarchy, and what each person is taught is completely dependant on the sex of their body.

This carries on to adulthood too, and yeah, there may be nuances, a non-passing trans man will be a lot more catcalled on the street than a trans man who passes as male. The same way, a non-passing or closeted trans woman (that’d be read as a cis man) may not experience misogyny BUT a passing trans woman will. And this is all because of the way misogynistic men assume what sex you are based on how you look. This is all because they see you as “female/afab” and that makes you a target for misogyny.

Now, I’m not gonna say that if the hypothetical passing trans woman I talked about revealed she was trans (so of the “male/amab/people with penises” sex) that was going to make people treat her like a man. Because society is transphobic and misogynistic and they’d see her as a “man deviating from their assigned gender role” which they hate.

And it’s this, this misogyny tied to what gender roles you’re supposed to follow because of your body, what causes violence against trans people, violence that is very often dished out by cis men. Cis men who in no way listen to anything radical feminists have to say because if they did, they’d be against gender roles.

Now yes, this also leads to trans women internalizing some “men” behaviours, because of being socialized as boys, including sexual entitlement (as we’ve seen with the cotton ceiling discourse, that lesbians are evil if they don’t open their legs for any trans woman) and we have to analyze that, but this doesn’t diminish the violence trans people face at all, and I want to reiterate that we don’t support that.

I’m sorry that this makes young trans kid want to kill themselves, but people shouldn’t stop speaking about important things just because it hurts you (and I’m saying this as someone who has struggled with depression and with wanting to commit suicide). We don’t want any trans kids to feel suicidal at all, but we can’t just not speak about sex when it’s relevant to us and our experiences, so again, I say that if this hurts someone that much, it’s better that they disengage from the conversation.

I support trans & dysphoric people treating their dysphoria however they see fit, I support them having legal protections and rights so that they don’t get discriminated against in any aspect of life, I support them in living free from male violence, and that they enjoy the same freedoms and obligations everyone else should. Calling them “male” or “female” when talking about feminist discourse (or about sexual orientation) where someone’s birth sex and the sex they’re read as is relevant to the conversation, doesn’t suddenly contradict the above. 

We merely said we’d welcome any trans men that feel they could relate to our experiences in our positivity blog, because there is and has been historically a lot of overlap between the trans men and lesbian community (many trans men used to identify as lesbians and viceversa, many lesbians have dated trans men, etc) so yeah we share common experiences because of our shared sex, and if they’re female-attracted, even more so. So we just said they’d be welcome on our blog, if any of them wanted to. It doesn’t mean we want to force anyone to take on any label they don’t want to (re: straight trans men and the label “lesbian”) it just means that if any of them felt they could relate to what we post, that that would be perfectly fine by us. But we’re not going to make anything aimed specifically at trans men.

As for trans women, I personally don’t mind if any of them follow us if they’re able to relate to what we post. I don’t like obsessively policing who follows me or who other people follow (mod m speaking here) But, again, since our blog was made to be a space for female/afab lesbians, it’s the perspective we’ll be speaking from. So we’re not going to make anything specifically aimed at trans women either, because we feel there was a lack of spaces that focused on female lesbian sexuality and talked honestly about exclusive same-sex attraction, and what that entails (because with discourse like the “lesbian are bigots if they don’t like dick” we’re becoming less and less able to talk about our sexual orientation and desires and what that entails, because other people thinks us talking about our lives is inherently evil, when it’s not meant to hurt anyone, it’s just us speaking our truth)

This doesn’t mean we hate trans people at all or wish them any ill. All we want is a positive space for us and people like us to talk about our experiences. 

Mod M :D