#also there are so many 'well x group is more oppressed' which are just there to create arguments

[silas-soule]

why are there so many white supremists in the american history tag. get the fuck out of here.

[kangaracha]

QUEENMAKER | CHAPTER 9

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pairing chan x reader

genre ninth member au, enemies to lovers, angst, fluff, coming of age, social media, cancel culture, anxiety, depression, forbidden love,

summary To JYPE, the solution is simple; take the sole trainee that will not debut with your brand new girl group, and use her to replace the missing vocalist in your male group that insisted on starting as nine.

Unfortunately, to the fans and the members themselves, it isn't that simple.

status ongoing

taglist OPEN

a/n i send in a job application, you get a new chapter. the world continues to go round. (i also got two skz albums for writing my application, and a bonus chan card for walking up to the counter with $150 worth of skz merch in my arms (she was like damn i wonder what group this girl likes the most what a mystery))

previous | masterlist | next

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At some point in the last two months, you'd become more used to the presence of eight boys than you'd realised.

The thought only makes the quiet air of the studio all the more oppressive as you sit on the floor, legs stretched out before you as you wait for the livestream to load. You'd spent plenty of time in here alone since joining their group, but not as much as you have in the past week, with the boys gone from the moment they woke up to the late hours of the night on schedules and promotions. It was strange to be here for twelve hours or more and not hear a single voice coming through the door, to wander up to the cafeteria for lunch and not see them, or Minseo, or even the other trainees you'd worked with for so many years, your personal rhythms no longer lining up with the regimen of classes and mealtimes and monthly evaluations, which you know are drawing close without even having to check.

Even your home is lonely, the empty rooms echoing with no voice to respond to you. You haven't had your own room since you left Australia all of six years ago. You've never had your own apartment. You're not sure you know what to do with it anymore.

The livestream erupts in a burst of noise and colourful pixels, clarifying slowly into a picture of a stage. You've missed most of the opening performances, not watching the time as you practised. You've seen them all three times this week already; you'll probably see them all again next week as well. And if you said that watching the rookie groups in the earlier stages of the show didn't make you a little bit jealous, you'd be lying, especially this of all weeks.

(If you said that watching the boys perform God's Menu didn't make you a little bit jealous, you'd be lying too, but you won't allow that thought to cross your mind.)

As if summoned by the thought of them, they flash up on the screen, one at a time, and then as a group as the stage begins; senior idols, playing top billing on a weekly show watched by millions, a position you have no business being in. And yet here you are, sitting in their studio and watching their shows and thinking that it should have been you and you've been cheated again.

A shiver that has nothing to do with the music or the sweat that clings to your skin runs down your spine. Were you just being conceited about this whole debut thing; signing this contract to join a senior group, watching other debut groups like you had the right to be out there with them, occupying this private dance studio as if it is your own space, as if you'd earned the right fair and square to leave the darker, shared spaces of the fourth floor rooms, where all the other trainees ground away at their skills with only hope in their future. 

Weren't three missed debuts just three signs that you'd ignored that maybe this wasn't the life promised to you?

Your phone vibrates, a text notification from Minseo covering Felix's face. Your thumb hovers over it, the desire to ask where she is and what she's doing tugging at your breastbone. You let it slide away though; she's been at different schedules all day too, if she is even home yet, and night is drawing on quickly. You're exhausted anyway; you'd probably fall asleep in the first five minutes of a movie, or even midway through a bowl of icecream.

You need to keep practising anyway. That was the key to this debut you'd stolen off of fate; every minute of every day spent in this studio, until you made it or they dropped you. You already know how it feels to look back and see an hour or a day that could have been spent getting better, and you'd hated it; this time, even if you never debuted, no one would say that you didn't try. No one would call you lazy.

(But the wrong look was what they had said, not lazy. Just not pretty enough, just the wrong face in the wrong lineup in front of the wrong man. It was one thing to fail out of merit; it was another to fail because of the way you were born.)

TAGLIST

@kokinu09 @rainfallingfromthesky @lixie-phoria @mysweethannie @chlodavids @hanniemylovelyquokka @tfshouldidohere @lauraliisa @puppysmileseungmin @kalopsian-thoughts @puppy-minnie @readerofallthingss @dvbkie099 @kthstrawberryshortcake-main @acker-night @d-chagi @lynlyndoll @borahae-reads @ihrtlix @yienmarkk @minhwa @i2innie @jinnie-ret @conwunder @amesification @starssongs98 @weirdhumanbeinglol @morinuu @the-weird-mold-in-the-sink @bokkiesplace @amyyscorner @jiisungllvr @skzstaykatsy @blackhairandbangs @jungkookies1002 @hyuuukais @imsiriuslyreal @thatonedemigodfromseoul @gini143 @mercurywritesstuff @splat00z @filmbypsh @palindrome969 @crabrangoongirl25 @enzos-shit

[ofbreathandflame]

At some point, we've got to hang up the idea that the 'Grisha are an oppressed group comparable to real life, and the Darkling is a misunderstood hero of the story." The allegory is always going to fall apart before it can hit the ground running. It's a very unserious argument. What are we even arguing at this point? The person with very spooky, unlimited power, who is immortal, and can very well live a normal life if they wanted to is comparable to being discriminated against for very real, very obvious things such as skin color, features, gender and sex. Like if someone wanted to kill me for being black or being gay, or anything of the matter-- the fear is not founded in anything tangible. It is just a justification for violence which I am powerless to stop.

Being afraid of an immortal, shadow dude with the ability to live beyond normal years, can kill me in an instant, can create shadow creatures are a valid fear??? Being afraid of someone with natural superhuman abilities is a...valid fear.

The allegory is going to always fall apart, same with properties like X-Men (to an extent: I do think Magneto is well-written allegory at points in his run) . It doesn't work so please stop trying to make it work. Darkling is a good character in an otherwise mediocre world, its totally fine to like him without having to play the mind games here.

But also--I think this is why a character who represents a true villainous revolutionary will always be Erik Killmonger, my beloved. There are so many layers to his ideologies, that even the muted nature of Disney does not smear it. A revolutionary for the people can still be an agent of oppression. I found myself agreeing with Killmonger all the way throughout the movie, on an ideological level. I empathized and understood his visceral rage, I felt that. But I also think that at a personal level, he (1) wasn't the person fit to lead that change (2) he had a power problem. On the surface level, it's very obvious that Erik feels the plight of his people, that is a very real emotion. On a deeper level, we can argue that he has an ego problem and he doesn't see his own people as well...people (see: his casual disposal of his loyal girlfriend, his killing of his personal guard, admitting that he's killed even his own people--the people he supposedly wants to free). I think many WOC can attest to the intricacies of oppression within our communities - especially where the cis men in our communities lie. (also see: the intricacies within Black Panther Party; Ron Karenga torturing black women; many more black men-led revolutionaries throwing black women and black lgbtq+ under the bus in these movements, etcs)

Anywho - I suggest you guys read Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison if you are interested in such complexities. It is one of my favorite books ever and I think it deals with oppression within oppression very well.

[aotopmha]

I just finished Shadowbringers (5.0) and I have a lot of thoughts.

Spoiler warning!

I stepped into Final Fantasy 14 as someone who already knows the story, so much of my emotional response to the story has turned into an intellectual response.

What did X foreshadow?

How does X plot thread connect to Y plot thread?

Because I've consumed the story so many times via the playthroughs of others, much of my early playthrough especially was looking into details and extra dialog.

But even after probably the dozens and dozens of playthroughs I've seen, actually playing the game has still left me in awe.

And this is because of one simple and I think pretty obvious fact:

The spectacle has meaning.

There is substance and that substance is portrayed in really cool, meaningful ways within the gameplay experience.

To me one strong example is how the entirety of the final zone of Shadowbringers gives depth to Emet-Selch as a character just by existing.

It shows you his mindset and what he is fighting for just by characterizing the people he and the rest of the Convocation lead from his perspective.

It plays double duty, too because all of the Ascians we've met so far gain that little bit of context to their actions, as well.

It's that narrative theming that became so prominent with the Stormblood dungeons combined with a side cast of characters with much more diverse motivations.

I think the reason why Stormblood and ARR (especially their base stories) are considered such roadblocks by many isn't just the generic reason of slow story pacing many (including myself) bring up, but the very specific why of the pacing being frustrating: the base motivations of most of the factions, and thus side cast, in base Stormblood and ARR are pretty generic.

On top of that, in ARR specifically, not only are the motivations of most of the side characters you meet generic along with the dialog often being long-winded, but you also keep having to go all over the place, and never really stick around to just explore one place at a time to really remember any of them, even if they might have nuggets of interesting wold building to them.

Heavensward and Stormblood fixed how scattered ARR's story pacing was, but Stormblood especially still struggled with incorporating unique perspectives into the narrative.

Although there were differences in the rebellions and freedom fighters, along with the specific enemies of Doma and Ala Mhigo, the base motivation was the same for most of the factions you meet: they were too strongly defeated by the oppression to have the will to rise up again, so the heroes had to rekindle their will to fight.

I think the reason why the Azim Steppe has ended up being so beloved by many is because, among other things, it finally had some variance in terms of perspectives and recruiting a faction to your cause.

Sadu, Magni and Cirina and their factions are so memorable because they are so different from one another in terms of principles that drive them and their people.

And I think well-defined, specific perspectives are also the reason why many people love the patch content of Stormblood so much. Fordola, Yotsuyu and the crazy twists and turns of 4.4 and 4.5 just keep the story fresh.

And I think this is also why Heavensward doesn't get as bad of a reputation as Stormblood and ARR do in terms of pacing: the main players have strong perspectives.

I think this is even true for ARR's final stretch, Gaius and his group are a considerable step-up in comparison to any of the other antagonistic forces in the ARR base game in terms of depth.

Pretty much every single faction within Shadowbringers has distinct principles and these principles are all tied to the main characters of each of the area you visit.

So you have an anchor of familiarity and well-defined perspectives.

(Which Alphinaud and Tataru were in HW and Lyse, Yugiri and Gosetsu were in StB, Lyse especially suffered because she kept being put face to face with the same perspective over and over again, so Hien had to eventually happen to get her character truly moving.)

Add to all of that an incredibly even spread of information the story gives out: each area has really important story reveals and twists tied to them, which spreads out the substance in just the right way where just as the story starts to slow down, something happens to shake up the status quo.

There are slow points during Shadowbringers, but everything always leads to some sort of payoff by the end.

I think it's one of the best fantasy narratives I've ever encountered behind hundreds of hours of pretty imperfect fantasy writing.

And that's why FF14 is so hard to recommend. You can't just skip those hundreds of hours of imperfect fantasy writing because it builds the foundation that makes all of the cool stuff have true weight.

But it is pretty much perfect slow burn writing to me and I think anyone who can put up with it is rewarded handsomely.

To wrap around to the sense of awe I felt during these last few hours of the game, it was awe of the spectacle, awe of the meaning, but also awe at how it brings together everything that came before.

A culmination, but not yet an ending, and not even the actual ending of Shadowbringers at that.

This story is awesome. Go give it a try: Final Fantasy 14 has a free trial of up to level 70 content with no restrictions on playtime, so you'll have a while to decide how you gel with it.

[beardedmrbean]

Okay I probably going to bitch next year, but this how I feel about the society of magical negroes https://youtu.be/GvM4_U9MvPk?si=IcP7aWm2nAFA5G89

Black content creators, we was doing so well, we help on the FUCKING APOLLO LUNAR MISSIONS, we created so many inventions during periods of oppression and discrimination, many civil rights activists survived to see a fucking black President into office.

But no, we (though Obama did start it) have to burn down the bridges our forebears made towards race relations because you need to justify your racist hateboner towards white peoples even in a setting where black people have magic

Also…writers do know that there regional black cultures? Like southern blacks would probably be into the voodoo stuff, hmmm black urban magic user might blend eastern magic given our urban history with Asians….

I’m thinking more than the writers who made more money by writing this movie script alone than I do in a year am I?

Black content creators, we was doing so well, we help on the FUCKING APOLLO LUNAR MISSIONS, we created so many inventions during periods of oppression and discrimination, many civil rights activists survived to see a fucking black President into office. But no, we (though Obama did start it) have to burn down the bridges our forebears made towards race relations because you need to justify your racist hateboner towards white peoples even in a setting where black people have magic

This here is one of the big reasons why I continually say that we're going backwards from the peak of the late 90's in terms of racial issues/relations and a lot of that has to do with the media being produced and consumed.

Social media is another massive issue because honestly how fast can we see a lie that people want to believe spread once twitter gets its hands on it, and then you get the people that regardless of what the facts are refuse to shift because of a matter of pride.

Honestly though the different media that was on back there. Had stuff like Fresh Prince, Martin, In Living Colour (Waynes family owned comedy in the early/mid 90's) all kinds of non white led shows on the tv that didn't play hard into stereotypes but still managed to showcase what some of the different issues faced by the various other racial and ethnic groups without it feeling forced.

Carlton being the "wrong" kind of black man for the fraternity, that's not something a white writer could really do terribly well, but it's one of the things that seems to come up a lot irl and it's nice to put it out there for folks that may not be up on that being a thing.

Spike Lee, he ruled the 90's too, Do the Right Thing, X, even White Men Can't Jump great films showcasing the reality of life in those communities without resorting to tired stereotypes, even White Men Can't Jump since that's just kinda how the whole thing ended up till then it was solid drama even after it was still solid.

And if you wanted quality satire the previously mentioned Waynes's came in with "Don't be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood" can't recall who did CB4, but that was good too.

Now we get

Which is incredibly weird to me considering I know who Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Big Mama Thornton are.

We really erasing Black Women's accomplishments in an effort to stick it to Whitey? How about Black Men, Chuck Berry ring a bell to anyone?

How about Current year. Please I'm begging you

Tell the Death Metal Cowboys of Botswana that they're playing white people music.

No race owns any kind of music for starters, tack in suppressing loads of talent because folks just gotta keep holding their community back for some reason.

I run into the same issue with Chris Rock's whole 'he's a dentist' bit about his neighborhood, ya it's a joke but telling your predominantly black audience that you need to be Denzel Washington to be able to reach the same heights as a run of the mill white dentist, gotta be discouraging.

Then we get the "Magical Negro's" movie, which ya it's supposed to be comedy, could do without being so ham-fisted.

Sent the trailer you shot me a few days back to a friend of mine, his response was less wordy than mine but we both landed on the same conclusion.

"So basically it's Undercover Brother but not funny"

How about we bring Sinbad out of retirement and fix that whole "Shazam" issue once and for all he can do the race stuff without being a massive ass about it, and I'd love to see him working some more, maybe we get a "Good Burger" sequel.

Not that David Allen Grier isn't funny, but damn that movie just looks awful.

[20dollarlolita]

We're going to have to have the talk again. It's been a couple of years, so let's bring back one of the big reminders:

There's a lot of different ways that people choose to spend money on lolita, and someone isn't inferior just because of how much they choose to spend. Some people don't have the means to afford an expensive wardrobe, and that doesn't impact if they deserve to wear lolita.

And to everyone reading this and going, "Yeah! Those AP clones wearing nothing but Brand aren't any better than me!!" you are correct. However, that's not the complete viewpoint here.

You, the budget lolita, are also not any better than the AP clones. They are not your enemy, and their existence is not inherently oppressing you.

I've spent many years trying to create a part of the budget lolita community that is based on accepting others limitations and helping them find resources to allow them to experience lolita despite those limitations. It's about sharing information that is making lolita more accessible to everyone by learning how to work necessary but unconventional elements into coordinates. We gather together because we've learned that we want a community where our outfits are loved despite being different, and where we know that questions aren't going to be answered with, "Well, you'll just never get this right, because you don't have enough money for x."

There is no part of that that is reliant on disliking people from being different from us. I did start this partly out of frustration that there weren't resources that I needed to do lolita in an inexpensive way, and out of frustration that when I looked for these resources, I was told that there was no demand for them. I got frustrated with individual people and specific groups of people who were not willing to understand my problem.

But something very important that I learned is that most people in the non-budget lolita community are not accepting of budget lolita out of ignorance, and not out of malice. They're not objecting to your viewpoint, just that they've never considered or had success with attempting to do the thing you're trying to do.

Sometimes, it feels like the lolita world is stacked against you. When done conventionally, it can be a very expensive hobby. When done unconventionally, you have to ignore a lot of advice that can't apply to you, and then you still have to meet the same standards as the people who have a completely different way of making an acceptable coordinate. Being frustrated with this is completely normal! I got so frustrated that I started this entire blog. And now we have a community of people, which is so great. It's a community where we encourage and educate other people who need help trying to reach that same standard without any of the normal tools. We look after each other and we encourage each other and I love that so much.

But you've to learn that other people coming at the same problem from a different angle are not your enemy, any more than you are to them. When you communicate with the mainstream lolita community, you're going to make friends who wear all AP every day and wash their faces with Enchantlic Enchantily wash cloths before they go to bed. You're going to make friends with people who have spent $600 on a dress. And this is good, because you're not any better than they are. You're actually going to find that a lot of AP clones and Brand Whōres are going to be impressed with your $19 JSK, not repulsed by it. To someone who only buys clothes, the fact that you can just make something similar using just your own skills is very impressive, and is not a competition.

So don't treat the world like it's Budget vs Burando. The lolita community is too small for you to reject someone just based on what they wear. You're going to find petty and bitter people across every lolita price point, so don't go judging by coordinate when you can judge by what kind of person they are. Don't accidentally exclude someone who might be great just because they've had the chance to decide to spend $40 on a pair of socks.

[harrison-abbott]

I used to visit Poland a lot when I was younger. It’s the country that I’ve spent the most time in in terms of foreign land (as somebody from Scotland), and I would go around the big cities. But I also visited the countryside a lot, too.

And what I felt about the Polish country especially was a sense of great beauty. Polska is a very beautiful land, with the fields and the forest. There is a dense, rich quality to this nation’s wilderness. And whilst I was watching Shoah (1985) I was reminded of all of that beauty – for a lot of it is shot in the same terrain that I mention.

This is what makes it a highly unusual documentary. Because there is no archival footage whatsoever used to portray the time period in question. What we see instead are scenes of 1980s, beautiful Poland.

Accompanying this visual array, are the interviews and words with real people who were involved with the events that happened forty years earlier. We witness a whole range of people speak about their experiences. And their stories clash and mix with the scenery.

I actually posted on this blog yesterday about H.G. Wells’ book, A Short History of the World. And I was struck by just how much violence was involved in the history between peoples, throughout the ages. It was as if violent behaviour was the key motivator behind what propelled most of the chapters. This group of people invaded another group of people in this other part of the continent, and won over this area of land, for x amount of time, until a new army invaded, and they ruled for y number of years.

And whilst I was reading this book, the violence was somehow diluted because it was so repetitive.

When I watched this documentary ^, the horrors involved were far more subjectively portrayed. Not that I’m saying that the horror in the Wells book was to be ignored. Only that, in this film, the accounts were actual people who were direct witnesses to what happened.

I’m sure we know lots of black comic jokes that are made about this particular topic. People make jokes about this genocide, in crass terms. Be it in cartoons, or in the playground, or just for a sick ‘sense of humour’. It is as if what happened during WWII has ended up as a soup of jargon, in a way, whereby words and phrases such as; holocaust, Auschwitz, concentration camp, gas chambers, Hitler, Nazi: all of these items seem to gloss over the sheer scale of the atrocity.

I remember being in college (FE college, not university) and overhearing a lad talking about his visit he made to Auschwitz with his friends. And he was telling them about “shower jokes” he had made whilst there. And the other folk who were listening were just laughing at them. And I remember reading a novel by a Hungarian writer who repeatedly made black digs about the Jews being sent off to be gassed.

What on earth is funny about what happened?

Often, I marvel at how short a time ago it was. It really wasn’t that long ago. Eighty years ago, as I write this on the 17th March 2024, it was still happening. My own grandfather was a British serviceman in the Royal Engineers, and he was rescued from Dunkirk. And then he went back to Europe and ended up in Berlin after the war ended, where he was a prison guard. Albert Speer was one of the detainees in the prison he guarded.

And I am 31 years old now, and my grandfather was only two generations above me. This is how recent World War Two is in historical terms.

As for a film, it is very good. It is nine and half hours long, so it takes a while. And many of the stories included are so grim that I had to pause for a while and do other things, just because the content got so oppressive. But in the way that is shot, and the manner in which the information is delivered, is somehow magnetic. Or, rather, you feel that you are watching something that is important to watch. Which, I believe, is what films are supposed to do.

Not everything was pretty, in a visual sense, throughout this film.

This was not the point I was trying to make earlier. What I meant was that, there are many areas of Poland where the old camps were demolished and now they are surrounded by green, fertile land. Particularly with Treblinka: it just seems like a lost place in the sticks, and you wouldn’t think anything awful had gone down there if it weren’t for the cemeteries.

But with Auschwitz, it has remained intact. That famous shot of the train track, with the entrance on the horizon. The ominous tower above the entrance … it just looks like something out of Hell.

I think it is profoundly important that they kept Auschwitz preserved. In the same way that it was essential for Claude Lanzmann to have made this epic film.

There are many scenes whereby he interviews, via his translator, the Polish people who remember the Jewish folks before they were taken off to the camps. And the lady translator speaks back to him in French what they said. Lanzmann also speaks in English and German to various other people who were involved. And there is Hebrew at points as well, and Greek. And with this collage of languages, one gets a sense of the magnitude of the whole ordeal. It makes you incredulous how mammoth this massacre was. And stuns you to think that it ever possibly happened.

I won’t go into details about a particular part in the doc: but there was a note of disbelief amongst the victims as well. Or, rather, disbelief before they became victims. They couldn’t believe that they would be murdered in such a way, on a mass scale. And it happened across a whole continent.

This is not an easy documentary to watch. But, it makes you think, and it’s worth experiencing. I certainly rate it highly amongst the many documentaries I’ve seen. And it is a huge achievement from Lanzmann and the rest of his team.

[night-wyld-system]

This is in response to this post by osddtraumagenic

We have decided to make a separate post as to not potentially trigger them by having this show up in their notifs.

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Hey, if you have an entire community dedicated to people who have a tendency towards specific behaviors and issues and then also allow in the demographic or group who is possible to be targeted by those tendencies and issues that's a big problem. When we were being deradicalized slowly and in many online spaces- we were not around people who our fucked up ingrained ideology could harm because it is not their fucking responsibility to do that- let alone when the demographic in question would be minors.

I understand that radicalization (in our case socio-political) is not the same as a disorder- but with our violent tendencies- we don't have a community shared with the people who often trigger those ideations and behaviors because it is of danger to our mental health and their physical health. We do not go around identifying ourselves as a homicidal maniac- even though we have excessive homicidal ideation. We do not make flags for our urges and ideations (to be clear the urge for us is separate from ideation entirely).

I do want to also be clear that fetishes are not the same as paraphilias entirely. Paraphilias are often only diagnosed when they are harmful to the person or the subject of their paraphilic attraction. Paraphilia negates the ability to be attracted to the subject of attraction in a normal way- paraphilias OBJECTIFY the subject of the attraction by nature. This is something you talk about in therapeutic support groups and actual therapy.

As a system who has a long array of kinks that are healthy and do not require the victimization of anyone- it is so irritating the amount of times people just proclaim that our kinks are just like their harmful ideation. There is a reason sex therapists are a thing. There is a reason you can talk to therapists about sexual dysfunction and issues that stem from trauma because yes there is evidence that paraphilia often develops in response to trauma. We also DO have sexual dysfunctions ourself though they are self-victimizing. We had a pattern of going from predator to predator as a minor because of this dysfunction.

This kind of issue is the reason we do not say we are pro-para, this bullshit stigmatizes paraphilia more because it makes people think all paraphiles identify with their disorder and are always seeking out community with their victims or those they objectify. It leads to further hatred and further stigmatization of non-offenders and the erasure of opportunistic abusers who are not paraphiles which we have had trauma and experiences with. Thought crime isn't real yes, that is fully accurate and true. Making a community and actively trying to goad minors into joining those spaces and talking about wanting to lower the age of consent and make it legal to abuse animals is a fucking choice and it is appalling your community acts as if these things are the same.

Again paraphilia is not fetish as well, just as much as it is not kink. You are conflating terminology and aiding to huge systemic issues that have yet to have any hopes of being corrected. Sometimes fetish is unhealthy but not all fetish is paraphilic and not all paraphilias are harmful to yourself OR others.

Trans-x and trans-id is harmful in the sense that the majority of these people are oppressors who are masquerading as the cultures and identities of those they have systemically harmed, massacred, and abused. We as a white person do not get to fucking claim the cultures our ancestors shattered- we may not be at fault for their deeds but it is not possible for us in the current era to engage in those ideas in good faith. We were raised by racist white people- and most other white people we knew were too.

Additionally able bodied and able minded people identifying as the disorders we were abused and systemically oppressed for is offensive to us as well. It is also harmful because it spreads false ideas of how horrific these disorders can be and how disabling they are in some cases. This gets into why we don't like endogenic systems claiming they are "trans-did" because they are fundamentally appropriating the experiences of an oppressed group. (Side note we still believe endogenics (not mixed origins we're sorta leaving that section out because its too complex) do receive the stigma and abuse societally that DID systems do, however they do not face the medical malpractice and medical systemic issues and years of misdiagnosis and the stigma that DID systems and amnesiacs get in our society).

MUDs a new thing showing up in radqueer circles, are fake disorders that are made to clump together symptomology of different conditions or claim the symptom itself is a disorder- and is also harmful. Even within clinical diagnosis of real conditions there is possibly harm if you are not willing to continue to keep the door open to potentially realizing you have something else because of how complex these issues are. The MUD (Medically Unrecognized Disorder) idea leads to people refusing to look into what disorders match their symptomology or even looking into getting help. MaDD (Maladaptive Day Dreaming) which many people point to as why they do MUDs was not made by a random tumblr user it was made by professionals and just merely isn't in the DSM 5 (which by the way the DSM 5 is not going to be the last fucking DSM).

[silver-horse]

Wee,people are already making comparisons between Anders & Gale...which will probably lead to a butt load of Anders want from haters. Love that for us.🙄

Never been more glad for the block button as it's gonna be gettin' a workout as people are already saying "please don't let him be another Anders". Petty as it sounds, if he ends up worse then I might feel a little vindictive satisfaction if it's well executed.

I find the comparisons so funny because Gale and Anders are actually not at all similar characters. Other than magic + cats + bisexual. That's it. They are very surface level traits that could apply to many people from a fantasy setting. They are completely different in every other aspect, their background, their situation, their goals and so on.

Because of this, from what I've noticed, Anders fans don't overlap with Gale fans. (at least if we mean fan as "this is no.1 or no.2 fave from this game) So lots of Gale fans are certainly making the comparison in a derogatory way. "please don't be like Anders" because they hate Anders.

Anyway... Gale IS worse. He has been from the start. (I say this as someone who enjoys his story and character and I think he is only becoming more interesting.) But recently some Gale fans had surprising reactions... so many Gale romancers say larian is "changing the character". Mates, what game have you been playing? Gale has been a mysterious and dark character from the start. He makes a deal with the devil during early access etc. Insert this meme. lol

Anders is fighting for human rights. It's fine to dislike him, you don't like his methods or the ending or his romance path or his personality. Regardless, he is an extremely selfless character, a healer and also part of an oppressed group. He got really screwed up by life. He had little choice in everything that happened to him before. He was born into a bad situation. That is a fact, even if you think he is a cunt or made terrible decisions when he finally had a choice.

Gale is a wizard prodigy who mingled with the highest elite in a world where his magic is only a positive. His goals have been self-serving (regardless of which backstory we believe). His own choices led to his own bad situation. However he is now, in the present, a nice guy who wants to atone and wants to help people. I suspect that because of this, Gale will always be viewed in a better light and this is why his fans are surprised by the bad things he might have done. You know the rule "show! don't tell!" people's impressions are always more affected by what's happening on screen. Rather than whatever they tell you and what the story alludes to in banter or camp convos.

Also I suspect that in BG3 we will get multiple endings for each companion. And not just "side with him or against him". I think whatever the nicer ending is, that will determine how Gale is viewed. Because it could turn out shit for any of the characters. It's the same in Dragon Age, nobody judges characters based on events that only happen when their approval is low or we actively pushed them towards that ending.

Plus BG3 is a much less political story compared to Dragon Age. I think (hopefully) the drama and arguments shouldn't get that bad. Or at least the drama will be around the usual stupid 10 year olds arguing "how dare you ship them with x when I ship them with y?" That is already happening...

So lol... the extreme hate against Anders is not going anywhere. They probably won't have some sort of realisation that they also like a complicated wizard.

[alexissara]

I Am Hexed Volume 1 - Quick Review

I wish I liked I am Hexed but I don't. This comic's is sadly deeply flawed and even outside of the flaws I am not sure if the story would have been for me. I Am Hexed doesn't feel complete in a first read which makes sense it isn't it has a ending for book one but this is clearly meant to be a longer term project so in part I feel like I am judging it early but also I don't think I'd buy book 2.

I'll start positive and say there is really amazing talent across the board on this project, everyone on the book is great. I think there is a lot of potential in the concept of this story and there is clearly passion and love in this story. Making comics is hard and I am glad they made a comic even if it wasn't for me.

Okay so I said the nice things and now I can say my criticisms. The game is deeply entrenched in politics but has no real execution on these politics. We don't get a gran shifting political plot it's a girl on the run plot with the under pining of Washington D.C. as the back drop. Witches are kinda every single marginalized group but also the X-men and also they have some level of authority but also people basically can just do a hate speech on TV. There is a lot of name dropping witches into every moment in every time or whatever but it makes witches feel far less clearly fleshed out when they are kinda a metaphor for just oppression but also their magic and also the enemy is also a witch and also the witch advocacy group is a little bit evil but also they maybe aren't? The politics seem fairly left of center, ala Democrat with slogans at protests like "We Are Not Radical, We Are Magical" and I simply can't imagine a group of real life activists proclaiming their lack of radicalness post the shooting of a member of their group. They do these cut aways to fox news being bigoted and protests but these don't appear to be things the characters in the plot give a shit about at all. It is kinda like reading a book about queer people being hunted by queer people but because they were trying to stop oppression of queer people but randomly we cut into either homophobic debates or pro queer protests but it never figures into the actual plot. I think this is just a situation in which a lot was happening in the world when this was being written and as a writer myself I know there is a desire to comment on all of that so there was commenting on this stuff while also it just kinda doesn't interact with the plot at all.

I have no idea what Jaya's deal is, who she is as a person, what she wants, she is just Charlie's hot ex girlfriend who she seems to kinda get back with. Which I mean, I am all for cool magical hot ex girlfriends who the protagonist gets back with but I thought there would be more to her. She says early on that Charlie could work for her side of the circle, that isn't really explained because Jaya is not at all involved with "The Circle" the organization that Charlie's mom is the head of she doesn't know about Circle training or anything. I thought maybe Jaya was a more radical witch like an anarchist, a communist or something further to the left than Charlie's interacting with the system on it's level and believing in the Senator she worked for's ability to change the system from inside of it. Maybe they broke up because ideological differences or something but it's just confusing especially when something in the book is literally called The Circle. Also Jaya seems be pretty well off but how does she have money, we don't know, maybe she is a criminal master mind, I have no idea because the plot doesn't really get into it. I kinda get her ex boyfriends deal he's a lawyer, it's pretty clear on the tin what he is like, that he is a messy dude but ultimately a good one who cares about Charlie. Jaya I don't even have an idea for occupation other than she was or is in a coven which we don't really get to interact with much either.

I think this story boils down to an issue of too many ideas and not enough pages for those ideas and the way it was created gave it some wide gaps in time between issues to have a lot of things to say between issues for a small single issue of story to tell and still end up with an ending that like clears. Outside of that I found the shift in art a bit jarring, I like art style changes from time to time but typically I like a tonal reason for it to happen or a for it to happen between volumes or something but in the same flow of the story without a breath feels very jarring in the collected issues. I am aware this happens in comics regularly but it's been so long since I read like a story that was sold in single issues I still did find it a bit strange. I also think tone wise it feels a bit weird because this is written like it's for teens but also it's clearly made for adults. Like no teen is gonna care about the politics in Washigton D.C. especially a what now Gen Alpha kid. It really feels at home with a Millennial audience but it also kinda feels like it wants to be YA or New Adult or something when I think maybe it would have been better served aiming at just a firm adult audience.

Ultimately, it didn't work for me, I wish it did, I think the story does have a cast of characters who I would like to like, it has ideas I would like to engage with, it has concepts that are interesting but it sadly just misses the mark.

If you enjoy these reviews you can read more, I write lots of them and if you really enjoy them I can always use support over on Patreon and Ko-fi.

[caffeineandsociety]

I feel it's long past time to put "if you're not X, you benefit from people hating X" on the shelf and not bring it back down for ANYTHING except discussions of racism specifically as it was meant for, because...it's just straight up not true about most anything else.

Sure, in zero-sum games like hiring pools or classrooms full of raised hands, where one person being knocked out of the running increases your odds, then not being part of the immediately dismissed outgroup is an unearned benefit, but-

1: Other axes of marginalization are not as visible nor as permanent as race and its related factors. Racism was convenient to invent because it's about hereditary markers that are usually VERY visible. You are the same race from birth to death, no matter what you do (though Jewishness as an ethnicity carries some exceptions to that point, but that's a can of worms WAY too big for this post). Your kids will not be a different race from their parents, so their roles will not change along family lines (hence why interracial relationships were - and to many assholes still are - a big deal hot button issue). Racism is as clean-cut as an axis of oppression gets (which is STILL extremely messy) about who's in the in-group and who's in the out-group.

Other axes are not so simple.

Race is the main thing people are oppressed on that is pretty strictly hereditary - it's in your genes, no way in, no way out, and the odds of surprise discovery that you're not the race you thought you were are very low (though importantly, not nonexistent). On the other hand, anyone's kid can turn out to be queer or disabled, and in fact, anyone can become disabled at any given moment. Both of these factors are often invisible. Women can be born to anyone by the basic nature of how human reproduction works; roughly half the population at any given moment will be women whether by birth designation or transition - which ties back to the previous "anyone in the in-group can become the out-group" factor again. As such, these things are enforced differently. A racist will ignore and/or abuse people who are visibly, or invisibly but known to be, not white. A misogynist will also ignore and/or abuse people who appear to be women...but they will also abuse people who appear to be men who present too feminine, because they're failing to live up to their assigned gender role and, especially now in the midst of a moral panic, they may be on the verge of Joining The Enemy. In fact, they may already BE The Enemy - no willful misogynist thinks of trans men as men! They see a man who's a bit short, maybe a bit wide-hipped, a little baby-faced, and they'll start bullying him relentlessly and trying to ~revoke his man card~. If they find out he IS trans, he's at risk for corrective rape and other violence to ~teach him his place~. The systemic restriction and ignorance and underdevelopment of gynecological healthcare is a construct of misogyny, but bigots consider it a BENEFIT when it can be used against trans and intersex men as well for Being Men Wrong, because anyone with a vagina or a uterus or ovaries or fallopian tubes or whatever is Lesser to them, and they HATE that they can't always tell who that is; someone who has them "in secret" is typically considered by a bigot to be even MORE deserving of abuse than a cis woman. A queerphobe isn't JUST going to attack people with pride gear, people who are openly affectionate toward their same-gender partner(s), non-passing trans people, or whoever else is well and truly openly, visibly queer - no, they're going to go after ANYONE whose behavior overlaps even a LITTLE with common things in queer subcultures, flip absolute shit over platonic displays of affection, and invent new hand-based phrenology to try and figure out Who The Enemy Is. Disability? Society hates disabled people so much that it built itself around systemic denial of human limitations - it demands too much of even abled people; it's just WORSE to disabled people, because it wants to filter out the ~unworthy~, whether they have a diagnosable disability or not.

No one benefits from these systems, not even the enforcers who are holding themselves and each other to an unreasonable standard of conformity because they think they're playing a huge high-stakes game of Among Us. No shortage of people who, nominally, are not part of the intended out-group are STILL attacked as such because you just can't tell. Any random person is at risk of sexist and queerphobic violence. Anyone is at risk of ableist bullshit. Even the most benign nonconformity with no links whatsoever to any kind of formally recognized marginalized status can be attacked, because it's about stupid, pointless, reactionary fear of the unfamiliar, AND about trying to suss out visible markers of who The Enemy really is. Absolutely no one, save for the grifters stoking the fear of People Being Different so they can sell scared people a solution, sees what I would consider a true net benefit from this!

2: "If you are white, you benefit from racism" is only about 10% at most about ANY of that; it's more about how much of American and white European cultures are BUILT on the exploitation of POC. In America specifically, it was mostly enslaved Black people who built the south and a good chunk of the north. This isn't something we can keep sweeping under the rug. If it weren't for chattel slavery, one of the absolute worst atrocities humanity has ever invented, this entire country would look EXTREMELY different. Thanks to a history of Jim Crow laws, an "it's only illegal if you get caught" attitude toward modern nondiscrimination laws (which is not exclusive to racism), and the nepotistic nature of racism, the benefits are STILL mostly concentrated in the hands and control of white people. America is built on stolen land; very little would change for the average American if we remedied this today and what WOULD change would be a gentle transition for most, but the infrastructure we have now wouldn't look the same had it been built cooperatively as the myth states, and in fact it might not be as "impressive" according to our current cultural values - not because indigenous people are stupid savages, but because the construction was so obscenely exploitative; white colonizers valued unsustainable, artificially accelerated growth and "modernization" as a marker of Civilization(TM). Many of the necessary, life-sustaining functions of society that are hidden from the average white American, from manufacturing of medication to the food supply chain, that labor is STILL largely performed by exploited, underpaid POC immigrants and enslaved prisoners (i.e., largely Black men).

While other oppressed groups are frequently exploited for labor (see: Goodwill paying subminimum wages to disabled people and claiming it to be charity because they're so graciously LETTING them work), NONE of these things can be said of any other axis of oppression.

This is ESPECIALLY pertinent - and the abuse of the language especially insulting - when it's used for infighting amongst queer subgroups. No, Becky, ace girls DO NOT benefit from lesbophobia; they are exploited by it, they're constantly scrutinized to make sure they're Feminine Enough but not in like a gay femme way and pressured into relationships with men they don't even like to "prove" they're not lesbians. Cis lesbians are not exempt, let alone benefitting, from transmisogyny; have you not heard of how many cis butches have been assaulted in bathrooms because someone thought they were trans? In fact, sexuality be damned, do you think sexually violating children for playing sports too well not only doesn't hurt them but BENEFITS them if the genital inspector says "congratulations, your pussy passes the vibe check, welcome back to the team!"? Trans medical gatekeeping laws may have transandrophobic justifications, but I don't exactly see them NOT getting used against trans women, and they make life for intersex people even more complicated when a medical team isn't sure what framework to use to violate our bodily autonomy and force us to conform. Hell, even straight men do not benefit from homophobia against gay men; they're just forced deeper and deeper into an ever-shrinking box that demands they break and numb themselves out of feeling anything but anger, greed, and WOOOO SPORTSBALL AND EXPLOSIONS!! and neglect their basic living needs, because if they clean their asses and learn to feed themselves and do their own laundry that's ~GAAAAaaAAaaAaAY~.

The only people who benefit from any form of queerphobia are far-right grifters and their benefactors. End of.

"But, hold on, they still do benefit from not being part of the intended target group! They may not be exempt, but they are at LOWER risk of being hurt by these things! That counts for something!"

Be that as it may, consider the linguistic implications here. People may be less DISadvantaged by their non-marginalized identities, but they do NOT inherently BENEFIT from the bigotries - saying "you benefit from [BIGOTRY]" to mean "you are at lower risk of direct violence based on [BIGOTRY]" implies that being at high risk for violence is what we should accept as a baseline, and low but extant risk is a luxury.

Which.

Uh.

No.

This language does not work for anything but racism. Applying it to anything else is not only naively racist but also actively detrimental to whatever cause you're applying it to.

[shititbe]

Anyway, Peter Parker is Bi, and I Won’t Be Convinced Otherwise.

Firstly, we have to get our bases covered. What exactly is Bi-sexuality? What is sexuality? 

Sexuality is defined as a persons identity in relation to gender(s) they are attracted to. Why is this important? Peter’s sexuality has never been specifically stated in the comics, nor in any other form of media. It’s assumed that he is straight because of his popular relationship with Mary Jane Watson in the comics, and the movies. 

Now that we have a bases for what exactly sexuality is and how it’s defined, let’s go over Peter’s partners. 

Obviously Peter and Mary Jane are a piece of comic book history. They eventually get married, though sadly, during the events of Civil War II (I think, don’t quote me) Peter and Mary Jane sell their marriage to Mephisto in order to save Aunt May

They later had their memories of their marriage restored, they have yet to get back together and it’s been a few issues if I remember correctly. Next we have Peter’s first, and most unfortunate love, Gwen Stacy. 

They dated in high school where she later died. Of course, Peter has dated other people (namely, Black Cat, Betty Brant, Carol Danvers, Anna Maria, Cindy Moon, Lian Tang, and so on). Since we have his known history of heterosexuality out there, we need to move onto another important part of Peter’s Bi-sexuality. An important implication in any media, especially queer media though, and that is the homoerotic subtext. 

Homoerotic subtext is important part of queer culture, a lot of the time it’s used to portray a characters queerness without saying it out (see: Dorian Gray by Oscar Wild or Great Gatsby By Fitz). In current decade, homoerotic subtext is often used for queer baiting or creating more realistic male friendships. 

So what’s the difference between someone creating a health male friendship (or a character comfortable in their heterosexuality) and implying a character is queer? 

Here are some examples of a healthy male character, both with himself and his friendships.  

Clearly he’s just taking the shit, and messing around with Reed. He’s comfortable enough (or as I like to see it, so traumatized because good god this guy has been Spider-Man since he was 15 good god that’s awful. He probably doesn’t care anymore). Here are some examples of Peter a little more than just a straight man shooting the shit. 

This has three meanings. Two of which I will take, one of which is just deeply embarrassing. Despite Peter’s history with humiliating events, I don’t think he would get his own spunk in his eyes. Leaving the other two options, he has experience getting spunk of - some kind - in his eyes, and/or he’s taking the shit again. Which is very likely. 

Kissing a cop? For....no reason? A little not so hetero of you Peter. 

You can practically hear his disappointment in his voice. Also could be read as taking the shit, but why would you. 

Making out with The Thing? Gay. 

This one is the most important. Peter is clearly tired, annoyed by his teammates (see wolverine being wolverine in the corner). Shits on fire, its mid battle, and Peter has the audacity to mutter “I hate men” to himself. The only people I have every heard say this in that was are lgbt and straight women, and lgbt men. This kind of expression only comes from people who date, or deal with men in a completely different world than straight men. Straight men use this phrase as an endearment, “Oh have you seen Bill today, I hate that guy.” “Man Jerry can do so many push-ups, I hate that guy.” Very different language, and implications (I also, obviously don’t know how straight men speak). 

 Now that we’ve gone over our bases, and homoerotic subtext. How else could we gather that Peter Parker is Bi? There are many tropes in media - queer media - that allure to a characters queerness. Like homoerotic subtext, there are ways to tell an audience something without specifically saying it. 

This is a gay wedding Peter went to in the recent comics. I don’t know if any of you have been to a gay wedding recently, but Peters face (the first panel above the wedding) is the same exact face I made at my first gay wedding. It’s the face of excitement for not only the couple, but for yourself. The hope that maybe, you too can actually be in a same-sex relationship. 

I’m also going to allure to queer tropes as stated previously. Such as the real, and fictional trope of lgbt people sticking together. Thousands of years of belittlement and oppression will make groups of people not want to wonder out, and subconsciously look for others like them. 

Johnny Storm (and Wade Wilson since he comes in later but I couldn’t find a picture of the confirmation) is cannon Bi-sexual (Pan-sexual). 

Their friendship is deeply homoerotic as most queer friendships in media and real life are. Johnny flirts with Peter on many occasions (saying his ideal women is a female version of Peter, inviting him over to watch is sex tape, and so on) and of course oh my god they were roommates. 

Some other popular queer tropes are: Found Family, Soulmates, and Enemies to lovers. Because it’s superhero related, this includes the Identity Porn tag as well.  

Peter Parker and Wade Wilson have a famous Love/Hate relationship. I mean, how could you expect anything less when your first meeting with this known mercenary is him throwing your civilian persona out the window of a car. Now, Wade still doesn’t know Peter is Spider-Man in the current run of comics, but that doesn’t make anything about them any less gay. 

For the Found Family Trope: 

Because it’s Peter and Wade, their whole development can be read as Enemies to Friends to Lovers, so I wont bother backing that up because, uh, it speaks for itself. One panel really does to add that cause though 

I’m not going to explain what a free-pass list is.

The Soulmates part I know I have to back up. 

For SoulMates:  

Now this panel requires a little explanation. Wade kills Peter, not knowing he’s Spider-Man. Weasel takes over for Peter (they don’t know its him) so no one suspects he’s dead. Deadpool begins to feel guilty he killed his best buds best bud, so he tries to bring Peter back to life. Losing his stunning good looks (switching back to how he looked before Weapon X making his wife Shiklah estranged (then she married Dracula but thats beside the point)). Spider-Man is Peter’s “true self” or patronus for Harry Potter fans. Wade is stupid and hasn’t connected the dots yet, effectively making him the biggest simp in history. Seriously, who destroys their marriage for the c h a n c e for getting some with their idol? A Simp, that’s who.

Peter forgives Wade for killing him (and for saving him from killing their genetic daughter itsy-bitsy). If someone killed me they better be hot as fuck before I even thing about forgiving them. Ignoring Peter’s super sexy forgiving nature, uh, he’s kinda simping. 

Died in each others arms. Nothing else is needed. 

They’re heartmates. From what I read, the feeling has to be mutual in order for it to work. The witches (long story, comics are hard to explain) that captured deadpool were expecting his wife so they could get the headmistress back. Instead, they got Peter. Basically Heartmates = soulmates but chosen for you instead of chosen by you. 

To conclude my point: 

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. 

[fatliberation]

Here Are Some Fat Positive Activists, Educators, Therapists, and Artists to Know!

First and foremost, the pioneer of organized fat activism:

• Bill Fabrey (he/him)

Bill Fabrey, a self-proclaimed fat admirer, founded NAAFA (the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) in 1969 after gaining an understanding of the day-to-day oppression and discrimination faced by his wife, Joyce. Fabrey founded the organization in hopes to raise awareness of weight stigma, criticize biased studies, and increase overall acceptance and accessibility to fat Americans. He is considered one of the pioneers of the fat liberation movement, and is heavily involved to this day.

• Judy Freespirit, Sara Fishman, Lynn McAfee, Ariana Manow, & Gudrun Fonfa (she/her for each)

(Members of The Fat Underground, 1979)

Fat, radical, feminist members of NAAFA! Their agenda was much more aggressive than NAAFA’s, and eventually they broke off and formed their own group called The Fat Underground, which acted as a catalyst in the creation and mobilization of the fat liberation movement. Based in LA in the 1970s, the Fat Underground did not fight to change discriminatory laws but rather discriminatory thoughts and practices in different aspects of society, which included those of doctors and other health professionals who perpetuated the unhealthy habits encouraged by diet culture. In 1973, Judy Freespirit and Alderbaran published the “Fat Liberation Manifesto” which establishes that fat people are entitled to what they were denied on a daily basis: “human respect and recognition.” The other objectives then outline the commercial exploitation of fat bodies by both corporations and scientific institutions. (x) I will go into more detail about the Fat Underground in my next post, “The History of Fat Activism!”

• Dr. Lindo Bacon (they/them), PhD

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Creator of the concept of HAES (Health At Every Size).

Dr. Bacon is best known for their paradigm-shifting research and advocacy upending the weight discourse. They have mined their deep academic proficiency, wide-ranging clinical expertise and own personal experience to write two best-selling books, Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight, and the co-authored Body Respect: What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave Out, or Just Plain Fail to Understand about Weight. Both are credited with transforming the weight discourse and inspiring a hopeful new course for the fat liberation movement. Dr. Bacon holds their PhD in physiology, as well as graduate degrees in psychology and exercise metabolism. Dr. Bacon formerly taught at City College of San Francisco, in the Health Education, Psychology, Women’s Studies, and Biology Departments. A professor and researcher, for almost two decades Dr. Bacon has taught courses in social justice, health, weight and nutrition; they have also conducted federally funded studies on health and weight and published in top scientific journals. Their research has been supported by grants from the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health. A truly great pioneer in medical health research! 

https://lindobacon.com/ | HAES | IG

• Aubrey Gordon, a.k.a. Your Fat Friend (she/her)

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Aubrey Gordon writes about the social realities of life as a very fat person, previously publishing anonymously as Your Fat Friend. She is the author of What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Lit Hub, Vox, Gay Mag, and has been covered in outlets around the world. She also hosts the podcast Maintenance Phase, in which she and cohost Michael Hobbes debunk and decode wellness and weight loss trends. Her articles are incredibly heartfelt and enlightening. You can read all of them at www.yourfatfriend.com !!

@ yrfatfriend on IG & Twitter

• Sabrina Strings (she/her), PhD

Sabrina Strings is an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine and the author of Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, which exposes fatphobia’s roots in anti-blackness. Strings contributed an opinion story to The New York Times titled “It’s Not Obesity. It’s Slavery.” With Lindo Bacon (creator of HAES), she coauthored “The Racist Roots of Fighting Obesity,” published in Scientific American. Strings has a BA in psychology and an MA and PHd in sociology. This book is #1 on my to-read list!!

https://www.sabrinastrings.com

• Hannah Fuhlendorf (she/her), MA LPCC NCC

Hannah is a highly educated and experienced counselor whose work focuses on self acceptance, eliminating the effects of internalized oppression, and practicing through a HAES lens. She is a fat liberationist who puts out educational videos daily. Hannah is also married to a healthcare professional, and the two of them are working toward making the medical field more accessible to fat people in their local community, and offering education on how to be fat allies. I really admire Hannah and the work that she does!

@ hannahtalksbodies on IG and TikTok

• Tracy Cox (she/her)

Tracy is an award-winning performer and artist, who co-created the web series ��Angry Fat People” with Matthew Anchel, which takes a pop culture approach on serious issues faced by fat performers. She has been interviewed by the New York Times on fat politics and accessibility, and currently has a huge following on IG where she unpacks fat performance, fashion, and politics. You may know her as the creator of the ‘fat vanity’ trend on TikTok!

@ sparklejams on IG & TikTok

• Da’Shaun L. Harrison (they/them) 

Da’Shaun is a non-binary abolitionist, community organizer, and writer. They are currently a managing editor and columnist at Wear Your Voice Magazine. They travel throughout the United States and abroad to speak at conferences, colleges, and lead workshops focused on Blackness, queerness, gender, class, religion, (dis)abilities, fatness, and the intersection at which they all meet. Da’Shaun is the author of the book Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness, which is expected to be published in July 2021. They have an incredibly enlightening social media presence as well!!

@ dashaunlh on IG and Twitter

• Lauren Buchness (she/her)

Lauren Buchness is one of my favorite artists. She’s a contemporary artist and fat activist based in Tucson, Arizona. By combining painting & performance, she aims to question Western standards of beauty and create conversations that alter preconceived notions about the fat body. Go check out her gorgeous work!!

@ ladybuchness on IG and TikTok

If you’re interested in learning about diet culture and intuitive eating, check out

Shana Minei Spence (she/her), MS RDN CDN

Shana is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who opposes food restriction and encourages intuitive eating! She spreads food positive daily messages on her platform. She used to work in fashion, but she left after being dissatisfied with the industry and went back to school to become involved in food policy and public health. She offers counseling on a HAES approach. I have much respect for Shana!

@ thenutritiontea on IG

And right here on tumblr (who was my personal introduction to fat lib) -

@ bigfatscience !!!

An anonymous fat liberationist. They share so many great resources, diving head-first into the scientific research of weight and health, they’ve found that the relation between the two is extremely complex. They tackle the biases of  research in a system that profits off of fatphobia, and they offer a fat positive perspective based on scientific studies. Their blog serves as an easily accessible resource for fat folx and fat activists who want to learn about fat positive science to support their own personal interests/activism. Thank you for your work, bigfatscience!! (if you have questions for them, you will have a greater chance of getting a response with anon off!) 

• Sonalee Rashatwar (she/they), LCSW MEd

Sonalee is an award-winning clinical social worker, sex therapist, and grassroots organizer. They’re a superfat queer bisexual non-binary therapist and co-owner of Radical Therapy Center. Sonalee is specialized in treating sexual trauma, internalized fatphobia, immigrant kid guilt, and South Asian family systems, while offering fat positive sexual healthcare. Go, Sonalee!!

@ thefatsextherapist on IG

• Fat Rose (org)

Fat Rose organizes fat people, building a more radical fat liberation movement in strong relationship with other social movements, such as anti-fascism, anti-ableism, and anti-racism. Check them out on Facebook!

fatrose.org

Honorable IG mentions: (Some anti diet culture specific blogs in here, as well)

@fatangryblackgirl  @msgigggles @thefatphobiaslayer @bodyimagewithbri @saucyewest @fatpositivetherapy @fatlippodcast @chairbreaker 

BOOKS

And here’s an amazing list of fat-positive book recommendations from HannahTalksBodies!

Science & Health:

Health at Every Size by Lindo Bacon PhD

Body Respect by Lindo Bacon PhD and Lucy Aphramor PhD, RD

Secrets from the Eating Lab by Traci Mann PhD

Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison MPH, RD

Fat Liberation:

Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings PhD

Fat Activism by Dr. Charlotte Cooper

Fat Politics by J. Eric Oliver

The Fat Studies Reader by Esther Rothblum (Editor) and Sondra Solovay (Editor)

Fat Shame by Amy Erdman Farrell

Self Acceptance:

The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor

Things No One will Tell Fat Girls by Jes Baker

Eating in the Light of the Moon by Anita Johnson PhD

Happy Fat by Sofie Hagan

You have the Right to Remain Fat by Virgie Tovar

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to share this list of resources!

Image descriptions below.

1. [ID: A black and white photo of Bill Fabrey, a straight-sized, balding white man with thick black glasses wearing a suit and tie, standing at a poduim in front of a sign that reads, “NAAFA”. Beside the image is another photo of Fabrey, from his left side.]

2. [ID: A black and white photo of seven fat, female and gender non-conforming members of The Fat Underground, performing a recital.]

3. [ID: The cover of Sabrina Strings’ book, Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. On the cover is an illustration of four upper-class white people in fancy colonial period clothing showing shock and disgust at a Black woman’s exposed body. Beside the book cover is a photo of Sabrina Strings, a straight-sized Black woman with dark brown curly hair wearing a blouse.]

4. [ID: Hannah Fulhendorf, a fat, white woman with straight hair dyed blue, wearing a black tank top and holding her shoulder while smiling brightly and looking into the camera.]

5. [ID: An artistic picture of Tracy Cox, a fat, white woman with long, straight brown hair, laying topless on a bed of flowers. There are flower petals placed strategically in her hair on her skin, and along her lower eyelid. Beside that image, is an image of the album cover for Angry Fat People, picturing two angry faces made out of white paper against a grey background. In the top left corner, black, bolded text that reads “AFP” and “FAT LIBERATION”.]

6. [ID: Da’Shaun L. Harrison, a fat, non-binary Black person with a beard, glasses, and long dreadlocks, wearing a shirt that reads, “TO BE VISIBLY QUEER IS TO CHOOSE YOUR HAPPINESS OVER YOUR SAFETY. -DA’SHAUN HARRISON” against a natural backdrop of autumn leaves.]

7. [ID: A watercolor painting by Lauren Buchness of a white and tattooed fat body, hands caressing abstract rolls of fat with wild blueberries and grapefruit between folds. Beside it is another Buchness watercolor painting of Black hands with long sharp nails, caressing the midsection of a fat Black body, with purple crystals growing out of the skin.]

8. [ID: Shana Minei Spence, a straight-sized, Black woman smiling with bright pink lipstick and her long wavy hair pulled back, wearing a floral pattern shirt and jean shorts. She is holding small marquee that reads, “BE CAREFUL OF WELLNESS COMPANIES THAT SAY THEY’RE PROMOTING HEALTH YET ARE STILL ONLY TRYING TO GET YOUR BODY SMALLER” and a heart symbol.]

9. [ID: Sonalee Rashatwar, a superfat, South Asian non-binary person with short black hair, wearing a long floral dress, standing in front of large glowing text that reads, “BIG GIRL ENERGY” against a coarse-textured wall.]

10. [ID: A circular logo with a red fist in the center, with text surrounding it that reads, “FATTIES AGAINST FASCISM” with roses separating the word “RESIST”. Beside it is another image, of eleven fat and superfat activists, standing and sitting on mobility scooters, holding fists and middle fingers in the air, wearing T-shirts and holding banners that both read, “FATTIES AGAINST FASCISM”. In front of the group is a large cardboard sign that spells the acronym “F.A.B.” which stands for “Fat Antifascist Brigade”.]

[ailuronymy]

Thoughts on the new discourse? Warrior cats naming conventions and rank names being straight up stolen from native American people? So many people seem to be... Straight up leaving the Fandom or changing all of their fan content and it feels very performative and, people not actually thinking critically and just being scared of getting "cancelled"? I feel like your opinions on these matters are very informed and well written so I wanted to ask given that this blog main theme is, well, warrior cat naming system and that seems to be the main issue of the new discourse.

This is probably going to get long, since there's sort of a lot to say about it in order to talk about this whole thing fairly and constructively, because from what I’ve seen there’s a lot of hyperbole happening, and panicking, and disavowing this series and fandom, and so on, like you say, and also some people genuinely trying to have complex meaningful conversations about racism in xenofiction, and also probably some bad faith actors in the mix--as well as some just... stupid actors. Kind of inevitably what happens when two equally bad platforms for having nuanced discussions--i.e., twitter and tumblr--run headlong into each other, in a fandom space with a majority demographic of basically kids and highly anxious, pretty online teens. I don’t mean that as a criticism of fans or their desire to be liked by peers and “correct” about opinions, it’s just the social landscape of Warriors and I think it’s worth pointing out from the start.  

If I’m totally honest with you, if not for this ask, I wouldn’t actually be commenting on it at all, because none of this is going to impact this blog or change how I run it in any way. But since you’ve asked and frankly I do feel some responsibility to try to disentangle things a little for everyone stressed and confused at the moment, because I know a lot of people look to this blog for guidance of all sorts, I’m going to talk about what I think has happened here, and how to navigate the situation in a reasonable way. 

Quick recap for anyone blissfully unaware: from what I understand, this post (migrated over from a presumably bigger twitter thread) has got a lot of people very worried about Warriors being a racist and appropriative series, and now are trying to figure out what ethically to do about this revelation. The thing I found most interesting about this screenshotted conversation is that it makes a lot of bold claims, but misses some pretty surprising details (in my opinion). If you do look critically at what is being said, here’s a few things to notice--crucially, there are two people talking. 

Person 1 says that a lot of animal fantasy fiction + xenofiction (fiction about non-human/”other” beings, such as animals) is frequently built upon stereotypes of First Nations and Indigenous people, and/or appropriates elements of Indigenous culture and tradition as basically set dressing for “strange” and “alien” races/species etc., and this is a racist, deeply othering, and inappropriate practice. This person is right. 

I’ve spent years researching in this field specifically, so I feel pretty confident in vouching (for whatever that’s worth) that this person is absolutely right in making this point. Not only is it frequently in animal fiction/xenofiction, but it’s insidious, which means often it’s hard to notice when it’s happening--unless you know what you’re looking for, or you are personally familiar with the details or tropes that are being appropriated. Because of the nature of racism, white and other non-First Nations people don’t always recognise this trend within texts--even texts they’re creating--but it’s important for us all, and especially white people, to be more aware, because it’s not actually First Nations’ people’s responsibility to be the sole critics of this tradition of theft and misuse. Appropriation by non-Indigenous people is in fact the problem, which means non-Indigenous people learning and changing is the solution. 

Person 1 offers Warriors as a popular example of a work that has this problem. Notably, this person hasn’t given an example of how Warriors is culpable (at least in this screenshot and I haven’t found the thread itself, because the screenshot is what’s causing this conversation), only that it’s an example of a work that has these problems. And once again, this person is correct. We’ll look at that more in a moment.

Person 2 (three tweets below the first) offers, by comparison, several more specious insights. Firstly, it’s really, really not the only time anyone’s ever talked about this, academically + creatively or in the Warriors fandom specifically, and so that reveals somewhat this person’s previous engagement in the space they’re talking into re: this topic. In other words, this person doesn’t know what has already been said or what is being talked about. Secondly, this person explicitly states that they “[don’t know] much about warrior cats specifically but from what I see it just screams appropriation,” which as a statement I think says something crucial re: the critical lens this person has applied + the amount of forethought and depth of analysis of their criticism of this particular series. 

I’m not saying that using twitter to talk about your personal feelings requires you to research everything you talk about before you shoot your mouth off. However, I personally don’t go into a conversation about a topic I don’t know anything about except a cursory glance to offer bold and scathing criticisms based on what it “just screams” to me. By their own admission, this person isn’t really offering good faith, thoughtful criticism of the series, in line with Person 1′s tweet. Instead, Person 2 is talking pretty condescendingly and emphatically about--as the kids say--the vibes they get from the series, and I’m afraid that just doesn’t hold up well in this court. 

So now that there’s Person 1 (i.e., very reasonable, important, interesting criticism) and Person 2 (i.e., impassioned but completely vibes-based opinion from someone who hasn’t read the books) separated, we can see there’s actually several things happening in this brief snapshot, and some of them aren’t super congruent with each other. 

Person 1 didn’t say “don’t read bad books,” or that you’re a bad person for being a fan of stories that are guilty of this. They suggested people should recognise the ways xenofiction uses Indigenous people and their culture inappropriately and often for profit. My understanding of this tweet is someone offering an insight that might not have occurred to many people, but that is valuable and important to consider going forward in how they view, engage with, and create xenofiction media.

Person 2 uses high modality, evocative language that appeals to the emotions. That’s not a criticism of this person: they’re allowed to talk in whatever tone they want, and to express their personal feelings and opinions. However, rhetorically, this person is using this specific language--consciously or subconsciously--to incense their audience--i.e., you. Are you feeling called to action? What action do you feel called to when you rea their words, despite the fact their claims are not based in their own actual analysis of or engagement with the text? It’s, by their own admission, not analysis at all. Everything they evoke is purely in the name of “not good” vibes. 

Earlier I mentioned that Person 1 is correct that Warriors is absolutely guilty of appropriation of First Nations and Indigenous people and culture. I also mentioned that they didn’t specify how. That’s because I think the most egregious example is in fact the tribe, which in many ways plays into the exact kind of stereotyping and appropriation of First Nations Americans that Person 1 mentions, and not the clans, contrary to Person 2′s suggestion. For instance, in addition to the very loaded name of “tribe”, there’s a lot of racist tropes present in how that group of cats is introduced and how the clan cats interact with them, as well as the more North American-inspired scenery of their home. It’s very blatant as far as racism in this series. 

When it comes to the clans themselves, though, I think it’s muddier and harder to draw clear distinctions of what is directly appropriative, what is coincidentally and superficially reminiscent, and what is not related at all. Part of this difficulty in drawing hard lines comes from the fact that, on a personal level, it actually doesn’t matter: if a First Nations person reads a story and feel it is appropriative or inappropriate, it’s not actually anyone’s place to “correct” them on their reading of the text. Our experiences are unique and informed by our perspectives and values, and no group of people are a monolith, which means within community, there will always be disagreement and differenting points of view. There is no one single truth or opinion, which means that First Nations people even in the same family might have very different feelings about the same text and very different perspectives on how respectful, or not, it might be. 

I’m saying this because something that gets said very often when conversations of racism and similar oppressive systems present/perpetuated in texts comes up, people frequently say: “listen to x voices.” It is excellent advice. However, the less pithy but equally valuable follow-up advice is: “listen to the voices of many people of x group, gather information and perspective, and then ultimately use your own judgement to make an informed opinion for yourself.” It means that you are responsible for you. The insight you can gain by listening to people who know topics and experiences far better than you do is truly invaluable, but if your approach to the world is simply to parrot the first voice, or loudest voice, or angriest voice you come across, you will not really learn anything or be able to develop your own understanding and you certainly won’t be making well-informed judgements. 

In other words, one incomplete tweet thread from two people who are each bringing quite different topics and modes of conversation (or perhaps gripes, in Person 2′s case) to the table is not really enough to go off re: making a decision to leave a fandom, in my opinion. In fact, I think in responding to anything difficult, complex, or problematic (which doesn’t mean what popular adage bandies it about to mean) by trying to distance yourself, or cleanse of it, will ultimately harm you and will not do you any good as a person. It is better, in my opinion, to enter into complex relationships with the world and media and other people in an informed, aware way and with a willingness to learn and sometimes to make mistakes and be wrong, rather than shy away from potential conflict or fear that interacting with a text will somehow taint you or define your morality in absolutes. 

So. Does Warriors have racist and appropriative elements, tropes, and issues in the series? Yes, of course it does, it’s a book-packaged series produced by corporation HarperCollins and written by a handful of white British women and their myriad ghostwriters. Racism is just one part of the picture. The books are frequently also ableist, sexist, and homophobic (or heteronormative, depending how you want to slice it, I guess), just to name some of the most evident problems. 

But does the presence of these issues mean it’s contaminated and shouldn’t be touched? Personally, I don’t think so. Given the nature of existing the world, it’s not possible to find perfect media that is free of any kind of bias, prejudice, or even just ideas or topics or concepts that are challenging or uncomfortable. I think it’s more meaningful to choose to engage with these elements, discuss them, criticise them, learn from them, and acknowledge also that imperfection is the ultimate destiny of all of us, especially creators.

I’m not saying that as a pass, like, “oh enjoy your media willy-nilly, nothing matters, do what you want, think about no-one else ever because we’re all flawed beings,” but rather that it’s important not to look away from the problems in the things we enjoy, rather than cut off all contact and enjoyment when we realise the problems. That doesn’t mean you have to only criticise and always be talking about how bad a thing you like is either, publicly admonishing yourself or the text, because that’s also not a constructive way to engage with media. 

As I said, there’s a lot to say here, and believe it or not, this is honestly the shortest version I could manage. There’s always more to say and plenty I haven’t talked about, but pretty much tl;dr: 

I don’t find Person 2′s commentary particularly compelling, personally, because I think it’s a little broad and a little specious in its conclusions and evidence, and I also suspect that this person is speaking more from their feelings than from a genuine desire to educate or meaningfully criticise, unlike Person 1. That’s not to say Warriors isn’t frequently racist and guilty of the issues Person 1 is discussing, because it is, but I don’t think this tweet thread is a great source of insight into the ongoing history of this problem in xenofiction, or Warriors specifically, on its own. I would recommend exploring further afield to learn more from a variety of sources and form your own opinions. I hope this helps. 

[a-dragons-journal]

i dont "kin for fun" but through tiktok i found out about the whole kin for fun vs actual otherkin... situation ig? im having a really hard time taking it seriously... maybe im just burnt out and bitter from dealing with the worlds current events, and maybe its because on tiktok the only people i saw mad about it were white people, but you're the most reasonable person ive seen talking about it (a lot of other posts have this odd tone that 12 year olds on tiktok saying kin is the worlds greatest opression and it weirds me out) so ig my question is just... why exactly does this matter? why does it matter enough to post about and care about and not just ignore? /gen

Hey! I don’t blame you for being a bit weirded out by it, we’re a weird subculture and we’re well aware of it! xD I appreciate you taking the time to actually look into it past your first knee-jerk reaction, especially considering burnout and the state of things.

I’m not totally sure if you’re asking why otherkinity matters or why the “kin for fun” being wrong matters, so I’ll answer both - they’re pretty well tied together anyway.

The short version:

Otherkinity is an identity. It’s who we are, we can’t choose to pick it up or put it down, and it comes with struggles - though no, ‘kin are not systematically oppressed (though we are pretty badly bullied and, at this point, pushed out of our own words and spaces).

What people calling roleplay/relating to/projecting onto characters “kinning for fun” does is steal our words, make them meaningless, and in doing so, make it difficult or impossible for us to find each other. If someone says “I kin [x],” I no longer know whether they mean “I am [x] on an intrinsic level” or “haha I relate to this character a lot”. I no longer know whether they actually share my experiences or if they’re going to turn on me and call me “crazy” as soon as they realize I’m not exaggerating or joking or roleplaying. It’s done massive harm to the community as a whole because it’s become difficult to tell whether someone is actually ‘kin or if they’ve misunderstood the whole thing - and because antikin rhetoric, which I’m seeing more and more in KFF spaces, hurts far more when it’s coming from inside what you thought was a community space than when it’s coming from self-labeled “antikin.”

There are other words for roleplaying and relating to and projecting onto characters. Hell, there are words for strongly identifying with-but-not-as characters/things, though usually KFF people don’t even seem serious enough for those to fit in my experience. I’m really not sure why these people are so determined to steal and misuse our words, words that were specifically created to mean something else, when they already have their own and are just refusing to use them. (Or, hell, if you don’t feel like those fit, make your own. We did. It’s your turn to put in the work. (General you, not you-the-anon, of course.))

An analogy, if that still doesn’t quite land for you:

Consider, for a moment, the transgender community. I am aware this is a dangerous thing to say, but bear with me. Obvious CW for hypothetical transphobia up ahead is obvious.

Consider if you were part of the trans community (I don’t know if you are or not), having finally found a word to explain why you feel the way you do about yourself, why your experiences don’t seem to match up with those of everyone else around you. Having found a community, a home, full of other people like you, people you never would have met if not for words like “transgender” and “gender dysphoria/euphoria” that were created specifically to describe your experiences.

Now consider if people suddenly stumbled across your community for the first time who were not trans themselves. They see community jokes and lighthearted posts out of context, because Tumblr and Twitter aren’t exactly conducive to making sure people find the Transgender 101 information posts first. They don’t bother to do further research, assuming they understand: ah, these people like to crossdress! They like to pretend they’re a different gender! This seems like a fun hobby, I want in!

They begin to post things like this. They post photos of them crossdressing and caption them “hi, I’m [name], and I trans men!” and things of the like. Suddenly the concept of “transing for fun” seems to be everywhere - and it’s not at all what being trans actually is, but these people either don’t know or don’t care. When actual trans people try to politely correct them, they’re accused of “gatekeeping” - and to be clear, this is not “nonbinary people aren’t real,” it’s “transgender means you identify as a gender other than the one you were assigned at birth, and you’re self-identifying as the gender you were assigned at birth 100% and telling us this is just a fun hobby for you, therefore you’re not trans, you’re crossdressing or doing drag or being GNC. That’s fine, but it’s not being trans - you have other words to describe that, use those.”

(Yes, I am aware these things have a history with the trans community - please just ignore that for the sake of the analogy and bear with me on the slightly simplified version of this. “Kinning for fun” does not have that same history with the otherkin community.)

...And then the response to those attempted corrections, in some corners, turns into “wait, you ACTUALLY think you’re another gender? idk that sounds pretty unhealthy, maybe you should see a psychologist or something :\” and “you’re taking this too seriously.”

I imagine, in this hypothetical scenario, you’d also be pretty fuckin peeved.

(Obviously, in this hypothetical scenario, systematic transphobia would be an issue as well, which isn’t the case for otherkin - again, you’re gonna have to bear with me on the simplification for sake of analogy there.)

(EDIT: this is not an anti-MOGAI/exclusionist argument, this is “you’re literally telling me you don’t fit the definition,” explanation on that here)

The long version, which is probably still worth reading if you have the time and energy:

Otherkinity is... pretty core to who I am, who we as a group of individuals are. We live with being otherkin on a daily basis. Many of us spent a long time feeling different and disconnected and not understanding why until we found the otherkin community. Even people like me, who don’t share that experience and still had social connection - I’ve still had to live with weird differences that I had to learn to mask when necessary; instincts that don’t line up with human society well, feeling body parts that weren’t there and that no one else ever seemed to have, things that other kids grew out of because it was just make-believe for them and I... didn’t, because it was never make-believe for me to begin with. Oh, sure, I played make-believe too - I played warrior cats and house and all those things with the other kids, but there were things that weren’t play-pretend for me too. I didn’t have an explanation for it for a long time - it was just how I was, I was weird, and fortunately for me personally I was okay with that (many of those with species dysphoria or more trouble connecting with humans have more problems from that than I did).

And then I found the word “otherkin.” And suddenly everything fell into place, and I had an explanation for the things I’d been experiencing, and there were other people like me. Something I’d assumed didn’t exist. I found others who shared my unique experiences, who were talking about how to cope with the instinct to growl or snap jaws at people instead of expressing annoyance in a human way instead of just saying “that’s weird, don’t do that”, who were talking about dealing with phantom wings and tails, who understood me. I wasn’t weird, I wasn’t broken, I was exactly what one would expect from a dragon living in human skin. I found an explanation for myself. I found a home.

That is why otherkinity matters - it is who we are, it’s not something we can walk away from (certainly not most of us, anyway), and it’s something many of us need the support of the community to help deal with on a daily basis. Being a nonhuman in human society isn’t always easy, but it’s not something we can just magically stop being - it’s core to who we are, we (generally) didn’t choose to be this way, and we (generally) can’t choose to stop. Which is fine - the vast majority of us can cope with it just fine, with a little advice and help and space to be our authentic selves in. We found each other, we built this community from the ground up to make a space and words to make finding each other easier - or possible at all.

Thus we come to the second half of our story.

It was only a couple of years ago that the “kin for fun” trend started getting big. It had existed before that, of course, but it only started going mainstream two, maybe three years ago, from what I can tell. Suddenly people were treating “kin” like it meant relating to, projecting onto, roleplaying as, or just really really liking a character or thing - not being that thing, which is what it actually means. Not long after that, it became hard to tell whether someone saying “I kin this” meant they were that thing, that they were actually part of our community - or that they really really liked that thing and either didn’t know or couldn’t be bothered to learn that that wasn’t the case for us.

Not long after that, it became relatively commonplace to hear phrases like “otherkin are ruining kinning!!” and “you’re taking this too seriously” and “idk, if it’s that serious for you that sounds unhealthy. maybe you should get some help :\” (all directly quoted, or as exactly quoted as I can remember, from things KFF people have said to me or people I know).

It is a special kind of hell, I think, to be told “you’re taking this too seriously, that’s unhealthy” by people who are taking words created to describe your experiences, not theirs, and misusing them to mean something that you do for fun on a weekend instead of something that’s intrinsic to your being.

Perhaps more importantly, like I’ve said, it’s making it almost impossible to know whether someone who says “I kin [x]” is actually ‘kin or if they’re misusing our words to mean something else entirely. The entire point of words is to communicate ideas, and once you start misusing words to mean something totally different than what they actually mean, that communication falls apart and suddenly we might as well not have those words at all. Especially when the community is small enough and obscure enough that we’re starting to be outnumbered by the misinformation. We’re being run out of our own words, words we created to describe our experiences specifically - because we’re a small community that the wider internet can easily drown out by sheer numbers of people who either don’t know any better or don’t care to learn.

That’s the harm it does - the harm it is doing, right now. That’s why it’s important enough to post about. That’s why it matters - because we’re fighting desperately to hang onto our own words so that others like us can actually find us. Because we’re seeing young nonhumans go “this isn’t a kin, I actually am this” and screaming “No, I’m so sorry that this is what the misinformation has done to you, that’s exactly what otherkin means, you have a place here, please don’t let these non-’kin misusing our words drive you away from the very community you’re looking for and that you belong in.” Because we can’t even communicate effectively about our own experiences anymore except in semi-closed spaces like Discord servers and forums (and the number of Discord servers overrun with KFF people is absurd).

......This got very long. Hopefully it at least explained why it matters so much to me and others a bit better ^^; Thanks for hearing me out, and thank you again for looking into this beyond your initial knee-jerk reaction - I really do appreciate it.

(For further reading, if that text wall didn’t blow you out of the water completely, I recommend my “kin for fun” tag, which has more posts like this in both short and long form.)

[ringwaldtworldbuilding]

Catfolk of Darodem and Beyond

Ringwaldts Catfolk design came as much from the want to buck fantasy conventions as it was to design a cat people I found interesting.

I knew I did not want to fall into the genre convention of, X group is just here because they are.

And that led to the spark that would be ‘Catgirl Vikings’ which also works as a good tag line better then ‘Catfolk Vikings’ I feel.

So I now knew where I was going with catfolk as before that they were planned to have gone mostly extinct.

This new spark revitalized my thoughts so my designs started to formulate.

One of the first things to come from this was to answer the question what do the Catfolk of my setting look like?

Thinking about that gave me an idea what to call each of my catfolk subtypes.

Lions or Tigers(sometimes Ligers);  These are the most bestial and outright animalistic, at least in appearance, catfolk. 

( Art by Awkwardos )

Leopards;  Refer to any catfolk who are mostly passable for human but still have the fur claws and other traits of a cat.

( Art by MizaelTengu)

And another just for reference

( Artist I...actually can’t read their signature *sweat drop* )

Lynx or Kitten(if you are feeling to be rude);  These cover Catgirls characters with claws, ears, eyes, and/or tail and no other major additional traits.

The Nekomata of Eriona are this category.

( Artist :  Embersign!)

So I had 3 Distinctions of Catfolk in three differing sub-types.

And from that I started to expand outwards on what makes Catfolk, well Catfolk.  Starting by noting the differences between the subtypes.

Ligers obviously were the biggest but such size and competitive attitudes led me to the idea they were the traditional leaders in older times.  The more technology has advanced with weapons and armour the less they have been able to assert such physical power on the other Catfolk.  They also traditionally controlled most of Darodem pushing out the other Catfolk into surrounding regions in waves of  migration.

Leopards as one of the groups oppressed by the Ligers initially moved to outlying regions.  They would return with new weapons, allies etc, to retake territory from the Ligers in a dance back and forth for territory.

Lynx spread out faster then the Leopards.  They were aided by a mostly human appearance making it easy to attach themselves to human traders, ships and more.  Along with joining Leopards migration away from Liger controlled territory has greatly spread the Lynx beyond their home region of Darodem.  Well the Leopards and Ligers fought the Lynx simply avoided it and carved out their own small region outlying far from the territory of the other two.

This is all historical and isn’t set in stone as I am very much still working on the Catfolk as a people.  I wanted my catfolk to be spread out.

My biggest problem has been connecting this past with the present.

By that I mean it goes;  Historical Catfolk, The Star Fall, 300 years pass and then....

‘The Eruption of Gwydenlvier‘

This super volcano at the center of the territory, Nore-Ewden at the center of Darodem.  The destruction was huge and radically reshaped the region.  That was with the aid of many powerful Catfolk mages diverting, redirecting, and sealing away parts of the eruptions destruction.

The eruptions effects were intense and the widespread destruction from famine set the stage for a brutal series of conflicts.

And that is where my historical lore for Catfolk of Darodem stops in the middle of a civil war post a super volcano which devastates the region leading to at least 50 years of war.

I do not know how I want the region to have begun to recover.  Maybe unification under a singular King or Queen?  Maybe it hasn’t recovered or it has under competing fiefs.

Maybe it is currently under occupation by Rivermoot and/or Dragons Reach?

I have earnestly been playing with the idea of running a campaign; during this turbulent period for the sole reason of creating the future narrative.  And it is important to figure out how it stabilizes or does it not and how do its neighbors impact it in the following years.

The Catfolk or the Nekomata of Eriona have more lore to them but that will be for a future post.

So in the future expect an expansion upon the catfolk lore and history.

Fun Fact;  Darodem isn’t even the set name as I debate between it and Daevnish for the regions name.  At one point Nore-Ewdin was the regions name.

I now leave you all with this.