#and i dont think its even available in the uk

[lqfiles]

hey idk if you know whats going on around the uk rn but theres lots of islamophobic riots happening rn, but rather theyre targeting anyone who isnt white, im not aware of any of ur religious beliefs but i do know that ur poc and i wanted to check if you and your family were okay and safe!! pls be careful when you go out, always carry ur keys between ur fingers if pepper spray isnt available to (i dont think we’re even allowed that here, i keep seeing people carry it so many we are?) everyone who’s reading this and is based in the uk pls stay safe and dont go out alone!!!

YES IVE SEEN IT……. 😭😭 it’s mad crazy, my dad literally told us all to stay inside yesterday just to be safe… but thank you for checking up on me 🥺 me and my family are safe alhamdullilah, our house is in a quiet neighborhood anyways (not the quietest ends… but my neighbourhood is) its honestly scary, and the fact that they’re targeting poc/muslims because THEY came to the conclusion that it was muslims who are dangerous is insane i hate this country so bad man 😭😭 the police ain’t doing shit either like omg we’re in the gutter

i’ll stay safe and you do too!!! idk if pepper spray is legal here but keep body spray or deodorant on you in case, i’m sure that will do the trick too 🤗 most importantly make sure to not wander alone too much in these time, they’re actually crazy man

[imustbenuts]

i think a large reason why in online discussions BL/yaoi has this idea that it's only about random m/m smut and nothing else is bc of the sheer amount of available translated works thats available that leans towards this bias. and that people who read it and spread it around are already in a way sex positive about mlm stories and want to see more dudes banging and getting banged

but actually knowing japanese and diving into the trenches of pixiv, theres genuinely a lot of original works that might touch on the more culturally relevant issues thats inherent to the creators. these are often not translated.

also bc its culturally more relevant there than in many anglo speaking places it might actually not land even if someone takes the time to do it.

ive seen omegaverse smut there that dives into stuff like abuse or sexual assault or have a society that dehumanizes a person so thoroughly into a... uh.... dumpster. in that sense. and linking this to the many bullying cases thats present over there its not hard to imagine it landing in a harder way in some form. or even the hierarchical structure of east asian society. this isnt really as loud in omegaverse fanfics or stories written by anglo speakers in my honest opinion (its mostly a soulmates situation and theres very little commentary on the societal power structures in the same way)

its also a really personal experience thing but when people accuse of yaoi/BL being fetishizing, i think to heartstopper and some few western queer media and. wow: those look to me like unrealistic, unrelatable stuff. because i dont have that same UK highschool experience! im from south east asia! which might be what these accusers are feeling but idk for sure

shrugs

[knightzp]

Hi Miki!!! Was wondering how did you learn english? I'm gonna start working on spanish soon and I'm trying to think what would be best for how to get a basic knowledge of words and stuff because I don't know much

HII TIA!!! ohh in my case i learned a good part of my english just going to classes. english is like the compulsory second language in almost all schools here so i remember starting learning my very first words when i was just like. three years old lol. apart from the lessons i had every year at school my parents also made me attend a lot of extracurricular english classes growing up and i even went a couple of months during summer to the uk where i spent the time living with a family there and so i had no other option than to read and talk in english all the time and it helped a lot too

but ig this isnt very useful to you so thinking of something that can help you in an easier way and that has helped me a lot too was reading a lot and watching shows in english! i was always very lazy to start reading books in english ngl but when i started with fics i had no other option so i slowly began doing it and tbh it took me a while to get really used to it, bc even if i already had a good english level there were still words and expressions typically used in writing that i had never come around just yet. i was slow at first, looking words on the dictionary from time to time, but i really felt like it helped me lots to get better and it still does. and not only fics. unironically reading posts here on tumblr also helps a lot bc it makes me read in english every day and so i can easily maintain my level and even improve it. for the tv shows, i found that watching cartoons especifically helped me a lot since i hear the voices clearer than in other shows and even if you dont know that well the language i feel like this helps. ive done this not only with english but also with french, which im by no means as fluent as im with english but even if i didnt understand every single word i think it helped me quite a lot!

however its true that for what i said abt the reading and the tv shows you need at least some basic level on the language and since you said you dont know much.... mmmm i remember that back in school we used to read some thin books during english classes that were basically adaptations of other actual books (like one i remember was frankestein for example) but with simplified language and they were available for each level you had so something like that might help ! idk if it would be possible to find them online for free but i dont think itd be very expensive to buy one or two if you want to

[nikethestatue]

Its really sad to see a fandom dying like this for a series/author thats not even done. It’s sometimes hard to remember that most of the fans aren’t online looking to engage with other readers too. So a dying fandom probably doesn’t effect sjm/bb too much. Even right at a new book release sjm posts in the fandom only get a few 1,000 likes tops. Do you think it will pick back up a bit for elriel month? Then probably drop off again after there is no news during May?

It has also helped me to realize that most people probably aren’t gwyriels. A majority of readers are not shippers and see the foreshadowing sjm put in silver flames in a more practical manner.

Definitely is the dying fandom. I think it's interesting because SJM is still very popular and her books are widely read, but the actual fandom, of those who care and discuss and live with these book, is definitely crumbling.

I can't imagine them not caring about the fandom as a whole. It's a weird tactic. People have to be interested in books to read them, and pay for them. And the longer it lasts the less interest there will be.

Like I saw today that BB UK 'announced' (which they didn't, someone just randomly found it on their website) that you can preorder CC3 in January 2024. That's another year. And that's not even a release date. That's just a preorder. So potentially the book might be available in the spring of 2024. That would be over 2 years from the last CC book and 3 years from ACOTAR. I dont even if the whole thing is true about this release, but if it is, then who is expected to wait for 3-5 years for a book?

Nah, most people aren't Gwynriels. It was a moment in time, and now it's basically over too.

[slashthreat]

Hello! Happy June! It's Pride and I have another question (4/30)

Today we are talking about queer representation in media. In 1894 "The Dickson Experimental Sound Film" is released, becoming the first "gay film". It was also known as "The Gay Brothers", it feature two men dancing together and it reportedly "shocked audiences with its subversion of conventional male behaviour". Unfortunately, in 1934 the USA introduced the Hays Code, which, while it didn't explicitly ban queerness, banned queerness in effect. This resulted in three decades of queer-coded villains, such as Joel Cairo in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) and Jack Favell in "Rebecca" (1940).

The Hays Code was lifted in 1968, and the queer cult classic "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was released in 1975, and gave a much-needed positive and FUN representation of queer people and queerness. Unfortunately, this was short-lived, as the rising AIDs crisis worsened the stigma around the gay community. This didn't stop everyone though, and in 1985 "Desert Hearts" was released; regarded as the first mainstream lesbian film with a happy ending.

Further on, the first gay kiss on TV in the UK was on "EastEnders" in 1989, "Ellen" became the first American tv show with an openly gay lead in 1997, and other show such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" started to add recurring LGBTQ+ characters. An important show in the UK was "Queer as Folk" (1999) which was one of the first shows to depict the queer community as vibrant and alive.

Even further forward, and "Moonlight" (2017) became the first LGBTQ+ film (and the first all-black cast) to win Best Picture at the Oscars. GLAAD publishes an annual report showing how representation is changing. 2005-2006 1.4% of regular characters vs 2020-2021 the figure is at 9.1%. So, there is still a long way to go obviously, especially because media is often the main or only place that young people have an insight into the community at all.

Because of this, I want to ask you for a recommendation: What is a piece of queer media that you think more people should see? (it can be literally anything, big/small, funny/sad, smart/stupid <- just anything you think deserves to be watched!:))

(I'll go first: "Eu Não Quero Voltar Sozinho" (or "I Don't Want to Go Back Alone) is a really really cute Brazillian short film available on Youtube! (if you enjoy it, there is also a full-length film version called "Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho" (or "The Way He Looks"))

Happy Pride 🌈 🎉

hello anon hi sorry for not answering you ive been very busy and also logged into a different account

does the dan and phil sims series count?

(okay in all seriousness i honestly dont know if i have an answer to this? a lot of the things im thinking of are things that dont get a lot of attention from mainstream media but have pretty dedicated cult followings so idk.)

[patchesjam]

Hello! Happy June! It's Pride and I have another question (4/30)

Today we are talking about queer representation in media. In 1894 "The Dickson Experimental Sound Film" is released, becoming the first "gay film". It was also known as "The Gay Brothers", it feature two men dancing together and it reportedly "shocked audiences with its subversion of conventional male behaviour". Unfortunately, in 1934 the USA introduced the Hays Code, which, while it didn't explicitly ban queerness, banned queerness in effect. This resulted in three decades of queer-coded villains, such as Joel Cairo in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) and Jack Favell in "Rebecca" (1940).

The Hays Code was lifted in 1968, and the queer cult classic "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was released in 1975, and gave a much-needed positive and FUN representation of queer people and queerness. Unfortunately, this was short-lived, as the rising AIDs crisis worsened the stigma around the gay community. This didn't stop everyone though, and in 1985 "Desert Hearts" was released; regarded as the first mainstream lesbian film with a happy ending.

Further on, the first gay kiss on TV in the UK was on "EastEnders" in 1989, "Ellen" became the first American tv show with an openly gay lead in 1997, and other show such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" started to add recurring LGBTQ+ characters. An important show in the UK was "Queer as Folk" (1999) which was one of the first shows to depict the queer community as vibrant and alive.

Even further forward, and "Moonlight" (2017) became the first LGBTQ+ film (and the first all-black cast) to win Best Picture at the Oscars. GLAAD publishes an annual report showing how representation is changing. 2005-2006 1.4% of regular characters vs 2020-2021 the figure is at 9.1%. So, there is still a long way to go obviously, especially because media is often the main or only place that young people have an insight into the community at all.

Because of this, I want to ask you for a recommendation: What is a piece of queer media that you think more people should see? (it can be literally anything, big/small, funny/sad, smart/stupid <- just anything you think deserves to be watched!:))

(I'll go first: "Eu Não Quero Voltar Sozinho" (or "I Don't Want to Go Back Alone) is a really really cute Brazillian short film available on Youtube! (if you enjoy it, there is also a full-length film version called "Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho" (or "The Way He Looks"))

Happy Pride 🌈 🎉

its not technically queer media at all i dont think but the film 'amelie was the first one i was ever really drawn to as a 'film' film and i think the creativity, inspiration and themes of almost identity and experience was one that i loved so much and idk something about it feels like queer media to me

[qbdream]

Hello! Happy June! It's Pride and I have another question (4/30)

Today we are talking about queer representation in media. In 1894 "The Dickson Experimental Sound Film" is released, becoming the first "gay film". It was also known as "The Gay Brothers", it feature two men dancing together and it reportedly "shocked audiences with its subversion of conventional male behaviour". Unfortunately, in 1934 the USA introduced the Hays Code, which, while it didn't explicitly ban queerness, banned queerness in effect. This resulted in three decades of queer-coded villains, such as Joel Cairo in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) and Jack Favell in "Rebecca" (1940).

The Hays Code was lifted in 1968, and the queer cult classic "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was released in 1975, and gave a much-needed positive and FUN representation of queer people and queerness. Unfortunately, this was short-lived, as the rising AIDs crisis worsened the stigma around the gay community. This didn't stop everyone though, and in 1985 "Desert Hearts" was released; regarded as the first mainstream lesbian film with a happy ending.

Further on, the first gay kiss on TV in the UK was on "EastEnders" in 1989, "Ellen" became the first American tv show with an openly gay lead in 1997, and other show such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" started to add recurring LGBTQ+ characters. An important show in the UK was "Queer as Folk" (1999) which was one of the first shows to depict the queer community as vibrant and alive.

Even further forward, and "Moonlight" (2017) became the first LGBTQ+ film (and the first all-black cast) to win Best Picture at the Oscars. GLAAD publishes an annual report showing how representation is changing. 2005-2006 1.4% of regular characters vs 2020-2021 the figure is at 9.1%. So, there is still a long way to go obviously, especially because media is often the main or only place that young people have an insight into the community at all.

Because of this, I want to ask you for a recommendation: What is a piece of queer media that you think more people should see? (it can be literally anything, big/small, funny/sad, smart/stupid <- just anything you think deserves to be watched!:))

(I'll go first: "Eu Não Quero Voltar Sozinho" (or "I Don't Want to Go Back Alone) is a really really cute Brazillian short film available on Youtube! (if you enjoy it, there is also a full-length film version called "Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho" (or "The Way He Looks"))

Happy Pride 🌈 🎉

omg this is epic !!! i cannot say that ive seen a lot of queer media tbh outside of like. gaming youtube i am not big on watching things uhhh i did see rocky horror like two years ago and that was incredible and life changing !!!!

gosh i rlly dont have anything to add though sorry!! watch mcr's life on the murder scene i guess

[whitehartlane]

yeah! it must be interesting to go from games with the people you regularly play with to a completely different assortment of people & in (comparatively) limited time too. would love to get into the heads of people who strategize teams lineups lol!

oh i hadn’t heard about that! i dont think ive actually watched much of you quiz before 🤔 ill have to figure out where its available. also for ila! i think hwang heechan has done an episode for them previously? i dont remember who was hosting at the time though.. i mainly pay attention to eps where they’re cooking in the thumbnail lol >.< it’ll be exciting to see what guesung’s ep is like though! im still suprised with how quickly content is planned to come out though, like wow.. sounds so busy to go almost straight from a world cup to all this!

hm.. if diet (?) isnt a constraint, personally i think a drinking show would be fun to see just because i like that sort of balance of chatty but not super personal. i think its particularly fitting since they’re not like. formal celebrities? idk, i guess for some people the draw really is the fame but i cant help but think it must be at least a little awkward for the people that just wanted to play a game professionally lol ;w;

also the idea of we got married is killing me, whenever i hear the name i just think of how people used to call it we got bearded 🤣 in the alternate reality where it was still airing, that would be an absolutely hilarious episode 😭😭

yes!! i saw heechan’s photoshoot for marie claire too and it was cool! like definitely a different direction than i expected tbh, i liked the one photo with the pearl necklaces particularly ; well, no idea how offers are handed out but my only hope is that whatever shoot he ends up doing isnt for something like burberry or gucci.. like maybe i just do not have the taste for that.. kind of fashion but i do nott like the clothes they have to wear for those specific brand endorsements 😭😭

oh and sorry i just noticed the tags on your post with them in the swimming and djskfjjs he is very otter emoji.. 🦦

hope your week has been going well btw!!!

hiii anon!! omg i would love to be a fly on the wall when they decide the starters or the team lineups, stuff like that is so interesting to me! ofc i have my own opinions on who should be starting but it’s interesting to see what professional coaches or managers think and the way they strategise ☺️

you quiz is available on dramacool!! at least that’s where i catch my eps haha. and yes heechan was the first football player to be on ila, i think it was around 3 months ago? anyway forgot to mention it but his ep was literally so cute 🥺 loved seeing his interactions with his teammates and fans!! and it cracked me up bc all the hosts were wearing wolves (heechan’s team in the prem) or sk nt jerseys (even fabien who was hosting at the time) apart from key 😭 it KILLED me 😭 but yeah i’m rly rly excited for guesung’s ep too!! i hope he gets to be on the actual show and interact with the hosts, unfortunately heechan couldn’t bc he was already back in the UK at the time 🥲 guesung must be so busy like with all these variety show things + rumours that he might be trying to transfer during the winter transfer market + if he doesn’t, then k league starting in feb … the life of a footballer is not easy I suppose 😭

oh yeah i agree w you, i do like the vibe of chattiness that a lot of the drinking shows have! it truly must be kinda awkward to have to go through pr lessons and figure out what you want your TV Persona to be as a football player like damn you’re rly just here to play football 😭 AND HELP WE GOT BEARDED … haven’t heard that in a while 😭 man imagine them pairing up the players … the superior timeline 🙏🏾

yes heechan’s photoshoot was rly lovely! i like the one that seungho did for dazed korea too!! i’m not picky about what brand honestly but i have to agree that i don’t like a lot of gucci photoshoots 😭 the clothes are just not my personal taste 😭 though i do have my exceptions! and YESSS guesung is so 🦦🦦🦦 in those pictures … i saw someone say he looks like a baby floating for the first time in those mommy&me swimming lessons and it’s funny but also SO TRUE 😭

my week has been kind of exhausting but i’m doing okay!! hope your week has been going well too 🥰🫂

[itsaboutspies]

im actually really disappointed with the big city big dreams dolls (like, more than usual) youre telling me that the only rafa doll comes in a set with daisy and teresa??? AND the fact that theres even dolls for daisy and teresa, who are probably in the film for all of 30 seconds and are not at all relevant to the plot, and not a single doll for emmie, a major character in the film???? i cannot respect these choices

[toytulini]

not me thinking about trying to shell out to convert my fiat to a Plug in hybrid? hmmmmm

[the-patrex]

dw is kind of immune to the ‘atrocious marketing’ criticism because 1. millions of people watch it Anyway because it’s the BBC, and 2. it’s a BBC show, which is public access television, so they don’t have ad budgets like american networks and they have to follow…a really ridiculous number of actual government rules abt ads lol

Dont really agree with you at all man lol

Saying "Doctor Who doesn't need as much intense Marketing as other shows because of the inbuild fanbase and name recognition"? I absolutely agree!

But 1. We might think dw is immune to cancelation or hiatus(more likely out of the two) but it happened once and poor enough viewership might lead to it again.

2. This not enough budget argument is not super decent bc what I suggested (cutting a short sneak peak from their already shot episode or shooting a new promo just with 13 talking to the camera with some moody lights and dramatic vibes just with hyping the episode up in mind) is not inexpensive but also would not take much more money than the entirety of that small series of minigames that the cast shot for YouTube for example.

Not to mention marketing doctor who Right MAKES the BBC money. The show is not in its prime as we speak but for exemple the extensive amount of merch, The Doctor Who Experience and etc used to generate them money, and it all existed while whatever government ad rule is in place. And those things are only viable to be made if the Brand is strong enough so that people are buying the product/tickets.

And let me tell ya, the quality of the product (the show in this case) only goes so far, marketing absolutely has a role in this.

And 3. It's also about the respect for the fans, and brand loyalty, and hype.

If your the show doesn't even have a trailer for a huge milestone episode (Centenary AND a regeneration episode) maybe less than a month (we don't have super concrete date?! Like what?), thats super weird man, it speaks to the total lack of importance given to it and its fans.

I watched the 50th anniversary and 13ths first episode on cinema IN BRAZIL.

I had to keep f5 the page to see when the tickets were available for the 50th bc I knew the demand of higher than the amount of tickets, and eventually they had to open (BUY) more cinema screens for the high demand. And remember this is not out of generosity, having people buy cinema tickets for it was a net gain for them (specially here bc there's no way of watching the show legally when it first airs in the uk).

All of this to say, they don't have a date yet, they don't have proper promotional material outside of stills yet. In the past they had Marketing for and enough time to plan theatrical release of special episodes In Cinema. In Brazil.

[fansie]

I dont know if anyone has talked about this, I haven't been on tumblr for a while but for everyone wanting to buy Newsies tickets for the West End, theyre not on sale yet. And yeah ik thats obvious, you go to the website and it says they're not onsale yet BUT if you're like me and you signed up for early tickets or whatever and to be updated on all things Newsies UK, then you probably were notified a couple months ago that the tix would go onsale on May 22nd and then it didn't happen. (As im writing this, its May 28th)

I had the date in my calander for months so when May 22nd rolled around and I didnt get any email and the website wasn't updated or anything, I was really confused. I tried dming the theatre, Newsies UK, and the regular Newsies accounts but I had no luck getting a reply. I finally emailed the box office at the theatre explaining what happened and all they said is that the ticket sale date is not confirmed yet. Which, for the longest time the website said May, and they didn't address what happened with the tix for May 22nd. They just told me to sign up on the website to be told when tickets would go onsale. Which I did. Months ago. And it was through that that it said the 22nd of May. So. Im a little confused and kind of frustrated.

So anyway, I just thought it would come on here to let people know who were also hoping to buy tickets on May 22nd only for them never to go onsale. Bottom line, the theatre doesn't even know when they're going onsale yet. Idk why they would say May 22nd (again, im 99% sure it was for early access) and then not address it when nothing happened on that day. That's not fair to fans who have been waiting to buy tickets and then to leave them in the dark about it. A simple post or email saying they thought it could happen May 22nd and its not and they don't know when they'll be available was literally all they had to do. Its not hard to give a little update like that but they didn't and then the email I got from the theatre wasn't really helpful either. So, anyway. Just wanted to spread the word I guess.

If you want tickets for Newsies on the West End, sign up on the website to be notified about ticket sales and eventually something will be sent out i guess.

Update: I emailed them again just to try and explain things a little further and try and get a better reply. But basically they were like "sorry you had the wrong information we don't know where that information came from bc nobody over here has dates for ticket release". And I know for a fact that im not the only one who thought tickets were going on sale on May 22nd. I saw people commenting on Newsies UK's latest post (I think it was) from earlier this month about how they thought tickets were going onsale on the 22nd as well. So I dont know if theyre maybe lying to cover up a mistake of the wrong date being sent out or if the people responding to the emails genuinely know nothing about the announcement of the ticket sales for the 22nd, which obviously is a possibility. Either way, trying to talk to them isn't going to get any answer other than "we don't know when tickets will be onsale, check the website for updates." But I tried 🤷🏽‍♀️

[uncloseted]

there's a part of me that still thinksa bortion is murder. i act like i support it to fit in but deep down i dont. please just listen. i think forcing someone to go through a pregnagncy they don't want is inhuman but it also feels inhuman to kill a baby and i dont like thsi idea that if youre 4 weeks pregnant and you want it its a baby but if youre 4 week pregnant and dont want it then its just a clump of cells thats just not how scence works. so theres this woman who was forced to get an .

Anonymous asked:

abortion and she was 6 months pregnant and apparently th baby waws born alive but it died shortly after from ashpyxia and i just dont know what to think. i know forcing smeone to get an abortion is just as bad as forcing them to give birth and that theres no such thing as a six month abortion and at least wher e i live abortions are only available until week 14 but like wwhat if someone is 15 or 16 weeks or 7 months, do they not have a choice anymore? please dont think im a bigot im not im so

Anonymous asked:

sorry i just dont want to be brainwashed by ANYONE, pro life or pro choice and im just so easily influenceable i just want to support whats right you know

No worries at all! I don't think you're a bigot and I'm glad that you want to engage with this issue critically. I'm happy to give you the facts as they stand and offer you my perspective on the issue. Apologies in advance that this is a bit long, but please try to stick with me until the end! All of this is important in understanding the different sides of this discussion.

There are a few main categories I want to talk about in this answer: legal, science, politics, and culture. For now, I'm going to avoid delving into any religious or metaphysical questions about what is and isn't considered "a person", since while those conversations are interesting, I don't think they're particularly useful in the context of discussions about abortion. As Harry Blackmun wrote in the court opinion for Roe v. Wade, "we need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate."

Legality

Starting with legal issues, there are a few points I think it's important to make in order to get a sense of how we relate to abortion. Abortions are legal in 98% of countries. 34% of countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand most European countries, and China, allow abortions on the basis of a the pregnant person's request, without needing to prove that there is risk to life, risk to health, risk to the fetus, economic or social reasons that abortion is a necessity, or extenuating circumstances (such as the pregnancy being a product of rape or incest). The vast majority (93%) of countries with highly restrictive abortion laws, such as outlawing abortion except in cases where the pregnant person is endangered, are in developing regions. There are five countries that completely outlaw abortion. These are: Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Malta, Nicaragua, and the Vatican City, all countries where the Catholic church has significant influence.

Of the countries that do allow abortion, there is always a limit on how far into a pregnancy a person can be when they choose to terminate. Beyond that limit, the person doesn't have a choice anymore, and must carry the pregnancy to term (except in extenuating circumstances). The most common limit is 12 weeks (3 months), although some countries allow abortion up to the point of "viability", where the fetus can live outside the mother's womb with artificial aid. Typically, the point of viability is around 24 weeks (6 months). In the US, 87% of abortions are performed before 12 weeks, and 92.2% were performed at 13 weeks or fewer. For reference, pregnancies are typically around 40 weeks long.

Forced abortion is illegal in almost every country, including the US and the UK, and it is considered an act of violence against women. It is just as bad as forcing someone to give birth, which is why all countries do their best to prevent it from happening. While forced abortions can and do happen, particularly to victims of sex trafficking, I think the solution to this issue is to put policies into place that protect vulnerable women, instead of trying to ban abortion entirely.

Science

So, most countries allow abortions up to 12 weeks. What does that actually look like in terms of the fetus? Here's a timeline of fetal stages of growth:

Weeks 1-4: at this stage, the "baby" is actually an embryo. It starts out as just a fertilized egg. The amniotic sac forms around it, and the placenta develops. The eyes, mouth, lower jaw, and throat are in very early development. Blood cells are taking shape. By the end of week 4, the embryo is smaller than a grain of rice. It is very literally "just a clump of cells" at this point.

Weeks 5-9: the "baby" is still an embryo. Its facial features begin to develop, folds of skin that will eventually become ears grow, tiny buds that will eventually grow into arms and legs form, the neural tube, digestive tract, and sensory organs all begin to develop. Bone starts to replace cartilage. At about 6 weeks, a heart beat can be detected. After week 8, the baby is considered a fetus instead of an embryo, at which point the fetus is about one inch long.

Weeks 9-12: the fetus' arms, hands, fingers, feet, and toes are fully formed. It may be able to open and close its fists and mouth. Ears are formed, and its reproductive organs begin to develop. By the end of week 12, the fetus has all of their organs and limbs, and their circulatory and urinary systems are working, but everything needs to continue to develop in order to become functional. At the end of week 12, the fetus is about 4 inches long.

It is important to know that the miscarriage rate is highest in the first trimester (before week 12). Among women who know they're pregnant (typically further along than 6 or 7 weeks), 10-20% will miscarry. 30%-50% of all fertilized eggs miscarry.

Other important developmental markers include:

During month 4 (weeks 16-20), you can see the sex of the fetus.

During month 5 (weeks 20-24), the fetus starts moving around.

Between week 22 and week 24, brain waves appear in the cerebral cortex.

At week 24, the fetus may be able to survive if it is born prematurely, provided it has intensive care.

Somewhere between week 26 and week 30, the fetus may be able to feel pain, although we don't know that for sure.

A fetus is not capable of thinking, communicating, reasoning, self-motivation, feeling emotions, or consciousness. They don't have a concept of the self, and they don't know that they exist. They are essentially sedated for the entirety of the pregnancy. Since we use "brain death" as the primary criteria for death, it makes sense to me that we might consider "brain life" (the point where a fetus exhibits brain activity) as the point at which a fetus becomes a person.

While some people will refer to an embryo as a "baby" from the time they discover they're pregnant, scientifically, it is a clump of cells, whether that clump is allowed to continue to grow or not. It's not something we would recognize as a baby, or be able to interact with as if it were a baby. An embryo is a precursor to a baby, kind of like how a seed is a precursor to a plant.

Some other arguments

I want to quickly touch on some other arguments for abortion rights that people make. I'm not going to delve deeply into them, but it didn't feel right to leave them out entirely. These are arguments that don't depend on whether or not a fetus can be considered a person.

Bodily Rights

There are many situations in which we prioritize individual bodily rights over the right of someone else to live. For example, we don't force people to donate organs to people who are dying, even though a donated organ would save their life. Advocates for abortion rights argue that those same bodily rights should be extended to a pregnant person.

Deprivation

This argument usually looks something like, "but what if that fetus was going to cure cancer when it grew up!" Basically, it's saying that abortion is morally wrong because it deprives the fetus (and the world) of a valuable future. To me, this completely ignores the deprivation that already exists by forcing a person to carry and birth a baby they don't want, and potentially the deprivation that comes with raising that child. People who make this argument never seem to ask, "what if the pregnant person was going to cure cancer?"

Slippery Slope

Some people argue that normalizing and legalizing abortion may lead to people also accepting euthanasia. I am unconvinced by this for two reasons. 1. Slippery slope is a logical fallacy and 2. I absolutely do think we should legalize euthanasia for certain situations.

Religion

I don't want to dig too far into this one, but what I will say is that the US is a country that (at least nominally) has a separation of church and state, and the religious beliefs that other people hold should not infringe on a person's rights to make choices about their own life.

History and Politics

The practice of abortion itself is incredibly old. The Sanskrit epic Ramayana, which dates to the 7th century BCE, describes abortion being practiced by surgeons and barbers. In the Assyrian Code of Assura, circa 1075 BCE, a woman is allowed to procure an abortion except when it's against her husband's wishes. The first recorded evidence of induced abortion is from the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus in 1550 BCE. Japanese documents show records of induced abortion from as early as the 12th century, and it became more prevalent during the Edo period. It is considered to be unlikely that abortion was punished in Ancient Greece or ancient Rome. All major Jewish religious movements allow abortion in order to save the life or health of a pregnant woman, and often support abortion for other reasons as well. Christianity has a more complicated relationship to abortion, for reasons that I'll go into in a bit, but for now let's just note that there very much were ancient Christians who believed abortion was morally permissible at least some of the time. Before the 19th century CE, first-trimester abortion was widely practiced and was legal under common law throughout the English speaking world, including the US and UK.

The reason I bring all of this up is because the political debate over abortion isn't really that old, and the debate tends not to actually be about the morality of abortion as an act so much as it is a proxy for other issues. The first backlash against abortion in the English Speaking world was in the 19th century, and was a direct reaction to the women's rights movement, which was starting during that time. In the US, anti-abortion laws began to appear as early as the 1820s, but picked up in earnest by the late 1860s. These laws were introduced for many reasons, including the fact that abortions were being provided by untrained people who were not members of medical societies and concerns about the safety of abortifacients. By 1900, abortion was a felony in every US state, but they continued to become increasingly available. By the 1930s, licensed physicians performed an estimated 800,000 abortions a year.

Jumping forward a little bit, let's talk about the history of abortion in the US just before Roe v. Wade. It's estimated that in the 50s and 60s, between 200,000 to 1.2 million abortions were being performed per year, even though they were illegal. Throughout that same time, the second wave feminist movement was growing, and was increasingly advocating for birth control and liberalized abortion laws. As a reaction to second wave feminism, a number of anti-abortion organizations, primarily led by Catholic institutions, cropped up to mobilize against the legalization of abortion. It should be noted that, at the time, abortion was not an issue for evangelical Christian groups. In the 1960s, 17 states legalized abortion for a variety of different circumstances. Then in 1973, Roe v. Wade happens, ruling that a pregnant woman has the right to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction. The ruling was 7-2 in favor of legalizing abortion. Even after Roe v. Wade, Christian Evangelicals were neutral to positive on the ruling. It's only after 1980 that Evangelical Christians started to organize around abortion as a political issue and joined the Catholics to form what we now think of as the Christian Right. There's a lot to say about that and why that switch happened, but for the sake of brevity, just know that the evangelical backlash against legalized abortion in the US started not as a moral crusade, but as a way of convincing people to vote for Ronald Regan instead of Jimmy Carter (who wanted to de-segregate schools). No political debate happens in a vacuum, and it's important to understand what other factors might have been at play when looking at where these debates come from and how the sides formed.

Culture

Lastly, let's talk a little bit about the cultural impacts of banning or legalizing abortion. The right to have or not have a child is necessary in order for women to achieve equality with men. Countries with high gender equality, such as Iceland, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, and Sweden, also have easily accessible abortion options. Criminalization of abortion disproportionately impacts poor women and women of color, and does nothing to address the systemic issues that may cause them to require abortions in the first place.

Researchers from the WHO and University of Massachusetts found that banning abortion is an inefficient way to reduce abortion rates; in countries where abortions were restricted, the number of unintended pregnancies actually increased, and the proportion of unintended pregnancies ending in abortion also increased. When abortion is banned, women aren't not having abortions; they're having illegal abortions that are done unsafely.

There is also some evidence to suggest that legalized abortion actually decreases crime rates. 20 years after the legalization of abortion in the US, there was an unprecedented nationwide decline of the crime rate (including murders, incidentally). The drop in crime is thought by some to be a result of the fact that individuals who had a higher statistical probability of committing crimes (people who grew up as unwanted children in poverty) were not being born.

Which brings me to my next point- the majority of people who are "pro-life" (at least in the US) aren't really pro-life. They're pro-birth. If they were truly pro-life, they would be interested in making sure that all of those babies had their needs met after they're born. They would be interested in making sure those babies can lead long, healthy, safe, and productive lives. They would be for universal healthcare, expanded social safety nets, parental leave from jobs, universal basic income, raising the minimum wage, mandated vacation time, increasing funding for public schools, decriminalizing drugs, abolishing prisons or at least reforming the police. They would be against the death penalty (ironically, some of them are actually for the death penalty for women who have had abortions), and for increased access to birth control, comprehensive sex-ed in schools, increased gun legislation, against war and nuclear weapons, for enforced mask wearing to prevent people from needlessly dying from a global pandemic... but those issues don't factor into their "pro-life" stance. They're for "the baby gets born and then has to pull itself up by its bootstraps like the rest of us."

Closing Thoughts

Look. I'm not super jazzed about abortions. I understand how they can feel like an ethical issue. I think we should do what we can to reduce the number of abortions that are performed- teaching comprehensive sex-ed in schools, making birth control and emergency contraceptive options widely accessible, letting men know that reversible vasectomies are an option. I think we should make abortion easier to access, so those who do need it can make the decision early in the pregnancy. But I also think that it's a very personal decision, one that's irreversibly life altering, and the person who's going to experience the life altering event should be the one who decides what happens. 65 year old conservative, Christian white men who will never be pregnant (and frequently don't really know how the female body works) shouldn't get to make that decision for them. As someone for whom pregnancy would be life threatening, I want to know that I have options should that situation present itself someday.

[wouldyouliketobee]

MY SAFE FOODS

(~ * .° ♡ rated ♡ °. * ~)

• yogurt (20/10) i hqve a yogurt problem , found some where like a cup is 18 calories so im living my best life eating that shit

• rice cakes (8/10) i always loved them and surprisingly i love that taste of... i dont even know how to describe it, pairs rl gud with coffee and they are SO filling bsjsjkwnebhejw

• coffee (6/10) i LOVE the taste of coffee and it stops cravings like a mf buttttttttttt i die, like i get this insane anxiety high even with decaf and can't sleep at night for shit, so i avoid it

• gum (6/10) not verry filling but kinda helps with sugary cravings... tho i spend like 10bucks a week to aford my gum addiction :,)

• ciggies (3/10) like coffee they stop cravings but i hate the stench and, bc my parents dont know i smoke, theyre not always an option, also mega expensive and anxiety inducting

• watermelon (5/10) rl low cal and mega sweeet the big oof is that they are only available in the summer (i dont buy fruits n veggies out of season) and i always eat too much .... and end up feeling like shit

• tea (1000000/10) amazing perfect stops cravings hidration makes me pee a lot full tummy but i still feel skinny just ~♡

• boiled eggs (7/10) delicious, can eat with anything make me feel full, too full, fat but most times theyre fine

• instant noddles (9/10) most of them are low cal (around 200~) and make an easy tasty meal when i dont have time to cook, my only thing is that they arent verry nutritious... like no vegies or protein etc...

• pickles (10000000000/10) SO low cal and tasty, i eat BOWLS OF THEM like jesus and that crunchhhhhhhhhhh i love vinagre chips so this is the perfect alternative

• caned fish in general (6/10) i rl like fish and i love that they usually have many flavours n spices but im a lil sus of caned food in general bc of how u preserve most of it but some can be rl low cal and a legit meal. That being said i constantly carry with me a can of sardines for no reason i just need it to feel safe, its a specific can.. ig im saving it for a special occasion????? Idk maybe ill just eat ut someday when i dont have money

• sushi (2/10) i feel like sushi calories dont count wich is a problem bc they do... obviously. I feel like me and cold food have thing uk??? And bc sushi is cold its ok it has fried onion

• Bubble tea (-3/10) another biggy mega caloric full of sugar but it makws me feel alive and again cold

• Heat up spring rolls n dumplings (7/10) again quick meal and usually pretty low cal depending on how you cook it but again i dont rl trust food i didnt made from scratch bc of the shit they put in ut like so it has a long shelf life etc

• Lettuce onions n tomatos (10/10) filling delicious can be paired with anything and mega nutricious, qlso salad is a socialy acceptable low cal meal that i will eat everyday if i need to

• Chickpeas (7/10) the BEANS food group is verry rich in nutrients expecially protein and bc i dont usualy eat meat (even tho im not vegetarian) it ls a gud source of much needed nutrition, its a lil high call tho but pairs rl gud with fish (i heard black beens are guud too)

• Tofu (6/10) great source of protein and verry versatile cookingwise my only downgreade is that the soy industry is pretty shitty and u always gotta work so hard to get a gud flavor out of ittttttt

(Im thinking about rating my fear foods too :D uk... to no one bc no one sees my posts)

[mottlemoth]

Hey there, Moth!! I just finished Dr Holmes' 2nd part and started with A Matter of Evidence. I love it soooo much that I dont have words to describe that. It is one of the most wholesome fics I have read😍😍. I dont know how the courts or police function in UK. But I had a question: Will Helen,or rather the courts, be able to access the phone records, the messages of Greg and Mycroft's mobiles? Because if they can, wont their relationship come out? (1/2) - Anon

Hiyya Moth!! I am so sorry to ask that question. I hope I have not offended you by asking that. I absolutely love the plotline of your story, it was just that the question kept going through my head and I wanted to ask. In my country, they can use phone records as evidence, hence the doubt. Once again, I am really sorry if I have offended you by asking questions about your plot. Lots of love. (2/2) -Anon

Hi, secret person! ❤️ Don’t be sorry at all - thank you for asking. Curious questions are always welcome. I’ve done a lot of research while figuring out the plot for Dr Holmes and it’s nice to be able to share some of it.

Here’s the short answer: here in the UK, those kind of powers are only available to the police, and only when they're involved in the detection or prevention of an actual criminal offence. (Or if they have grounds to believe there’s a risk to national security.) Greg and Mycroft’s relationship is unethical, but it’s not illegal. 

So in a nutshell, don’t worry. She can’t do that.

[Beneath the cut: extended answer and discussion of the swirling vortex of legal and ethical nightmares that is Dr Holmes.]

Okay, so: even if there was a crime suspected, the UK police couldn’t just snap their fingers and be handed all the data they need. Let’s say either Greg or Mycroft was under the age of consent. That would mean an offence has possibly been committed, and the police might want to access phone and data records looking for evidence. They’d first need to prove there are reasonable grounds for suspicion. Then, some apps and service providers will only hand over certain elements of the data. I know for instance that when it comes to WhatsApp, the messages are encrypted end to end, so the police can’t actually read the content of the messages. WhatsApp would only confirm times of messages, how many were sent, etc. (There are more details about this here, for anyone interested.)

These laws are evolving at lightning speed to keep up with technology. Privacy debates are a massive thing, and this post might be out of date before I’ve even finished typing it.

But in short, there’s no way that Helen could legally get hold of Greg’s private messages to Mycroft. It makes sense, considering the implications of a world where she could. Anyone could access anyone else’s private messages at any time, just by saying, “I think this might possibly prevent a crime.” (or, “I think my partner might possibly be having an affair.”) There’d be no such thing as privacy.

Side ramble: researching this story has been crazy. I’ve learned all about injunctions and non-molestation orders. I’ve learned all about legal grounds for divorce. I’ve learned all about complaints procedures against therapists. (It differs between organisations, but it’s likely that Mycroft would belong to COSRT. Their complaints policy is an absolute beast of a document. I had to learn what would happen at every single stage of that process before I could decide what I was going to write about it.) So much research. It’s been wild. The situation in Dr Holmes is such an ethical and legal mess that figuring out a plot has been a massive undertaking.

For instance - and this is just for fun, okay, don’t expect this to happen in the story - let’s say at an early stage in the planning, I came up with a plot like ‘Helen steals Greg’s phone and the contents get Mycroft fired’. She takes the phone from Greg’s car one night, cracks the passcode and presents its contents as evidence to Mycroft’s professional body. Mycroft loses his job, the end. 

Seems solid, right?

Nope.

Looking into it, Mycroft’s professional body would probably report her to the police at once. If they laid so much as a finger on that phone, Greg would sue them inside out. He’s not given them permission to look through his phone. “We’re searching for evidence of misconduct by one of our members” isn’t going to hold up in court because the professional body are not the police. They don’t have the legal powers to search that phone. And even if they were the police, and even if they did have the legal powers, they’d have to be looking for evidence of a criminal offence, not an ethical one - and the only criminal offence that’s demonstrably taken place is the one where Helen stole a mobile phone.

On top of this, there are also narrative considerations. 

Following the same example, stealing a mobile phone is a fairly minor offence, especially if it’s Helen’s first. It definitely wouldn’t warrant a prison sentence. So if I ran with this phone-stealing plot, it would take chapters and chapters to write but Mycroft wouldn’t actually lose his job, Helen wouldn’t actually go to prison, and nothing would actually change. We’d be right back where we started. That’s not a satisfying story. 

It’s been a real challenge putting together a plot that’s fun to read, legally sound, and ends somewhere happy for the characters. I hope everybody will enjoy it. 

We’ll have to see ❤️

[astrology-with-charu]

Saturn Square Uranus & Cryptocurrencies

We have spoken in detail on Saturn Uranus square and I have drawn parallels to Napster of 1999/2000 to crypto’s of current times. Napster which was born and litigated during the last Saturn Square Uranus transit which happens every 22 years, was also litigated in the same transit. I wanted to get very clear on this as there are so many people from our own community misrepresenting for financial reason this information and atleast to my readers I would like to be clear. Full disclosure - this is not financial advice, this is astrological aspects and their interpretation. I personally do not own any crypto currency though I dont have anything against those who do. And no I am not taking the opportunity of kicking the one already down by taking this as opportunity to go “I told you so”. Rather to explain my thinking. I love investing and I am fascinated by the workings of crypto and remain an eternal student of the financial markets as they fascinate me. And I do astrologically strongly believe that digital currency would be one of the big shifts which will come from Uranus in Taurus transit to 2025. Pls make your own financial investment decision, this is not financial advice and these are my personal views - not linked to any affiliated institutions. So having disclosures out of the way, we can get into planetary aspects and why I have been stating this repeatedly.

First thing to understand is that Saturn is the stronger planet and the dispositor of Saturn square Uranus transit which is meant to bring innovation and restrictions. Saturn - the regulations is the stronger. While Uranus in Taurus which is essentially everything and everyone who wants to create financial independence - the whole concept of FIRE, digital currency, independent sources of income, innovation in wealth, innovation in food, shifts in earth - so this planet yes is key and it clearly represents rise of digital currencies. Saturn in Aquarius is structured innovation - they both do have a common ground of innovation but Saturn wants to do it through official channels like digital dollar. While Uranus in Taurus believes thats where the trouble started - centralised structures do not work and they do have a point in an Aquarius world. So I do believe decentralised currency structures would come to life and they would become mainstream along with digital sovereign currencies like dollar, renminbi is already digital now and so forth.

But but but...

So thats where Astrology and past transits I think help give clarity and I am very focused on how this panned out in last Saturn Square Uranus when Napster came into existence and this whole peer to peer file transfer and music being made available online at no cost models started. Napster was killed through litigations but these models did evolve into Apple Music and all such forms of official channel of cheaper access to music online. Uranus was in its own sign Aquarius so the disruption made art (Saturn in Taurus) available to all. So the model did change the world but the thing that inspired the model didn’t make it cause that was not the form it was supposed to exist in and to some extend it was downright unfair to the creatives who made those arts / songs and it was illegal. It was against the Saturn principles. A lot of crypto traders will jump on my case and they do whenever I have a discussion on this cause crypto is traceable even though the miners of cryptocurrencies continues to be found in Iran, in meth raids in UK and ofcourse in China where loss of electricity for few hours resulted in massive drop of bitcoin. China has officially banned crypto - “officially”.

Uranus is in its fall in Taurus. Innovation happens but they are simple versus complex and tough to understand. Uranus in Taurus also has capacity to create a financial crisis due to disruptive financial innovations like a stock market rout due to a crypto issue and we might see if that is indeed the case or not when we experience the second square on 14 June and last square end of the year.

Uranus in Taurus still has inertia, tries to flog the same old technology to make it work for future and many of the cryptos have existed for many years with zero evolution in their technology and they have become like art of a dead artist (Taurus). Cause there are no more to be made, scarcity of it and uniqueness of it (Uranus) is driving its value (Taurus) but Saturn(government, regulations) in Aquarius will never accept anything as norm which is not available to all and cannot be practically used by everyone by the collective (Aquarius). It will accept the ones that can be used by the collective though as I said they both have a common ground - Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus both want innovation but one wants practical one and the one that it can regulate versus being mined through a marijuana raid in a meth farm in West Midlands in UK. Uranus in Taurus is at its fall, innovation comes through too many downfalls and there are some forced innovations and they look like a beautiful Taurus curves being fit into a geeky Aquarius space suit. In fall Uranus becomes a pyramid scheme. One person on twitter exciting another one to buy a “rare” asset - call them NFT or call them crypto we loose the sense of value of things but Taurus always tries to bring in itself the balance back to the real value of an asset through an equally disruptive opposite force. This is forced innovation not a real one. Innovation would be if there was technological advancement linked to it. There are many cryptos which do that but most of the people right now buying these currencies in retail have no knowledge of the tech behind any of these currencies. Though North Node in Gemini has accelerated their learning but in Gemini learning is with the attention of a goldfish, a meme is being used for financial decision making more than picking up a detailed description or an annual report of a company. On top of that a fraudulent Bitcoin astrology chart is doing rounds for many astrologers to claim its “unknown” source of gain all to their predictions. Gemini spreads gossip and its shadow side is internet fibs and thats what is the Webster dictionary’s meaning of a tweet most of the time.

I am not claiming to know it all, just expressing what I see. I have held back for long to go into details of it cause I think everyone has right to choose what they believe in and what they spend their money on and they still do. But I thought I will say my piece before its too late for a few. I hope to be grossly wrong so many innocent don’t loose their savings and we don’t see a stock market route causing many to loose their investments. And I have hoped since I first talked of this Napster parallel in my May 2020 video on the aspect and the fact that all innovations would be judged against ecological soundness e.g. why would a currency claimed to be powered by green energy fall down by 14% due to coal mine flooding shutting down power plants in Xinjiang China.

Why are most of the crypto’s not purchased through dollar directly but through a made up currency with no audits called Tether which has been under multiple investigations and whose market cap went up from $8bn to $60bn without any real assets backing. For the uninitiated Tether is like those coins they issue in video game alleys for our real money which we can then use to buy crypto so we can play those video games. Except here its being called investment so you expect them to hold the money you give them but they don’t and we dont know where that money is going as they aren’t regulated or audited. Majority of cryptos are being bought as such. Again this is not financial advice and you should do you own research.

I apologise for adding financial details in an astrological discourse but when my hairdresser starting talking of hash rates of cryptos I thought it was ok to bring this element in.

I love going to Vegas but the one in United States not the one in Iran or Xinjiang or in a meth farm in UK. Neptune is rampant, choose wisely. I have done my part.

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~ Kassandra (thinking of changing my channel name to this let me know what you think)

Why ?

Kassandra was a Trojan priestess of Apollo in Greek mythology cursed to utter true prophecies, but never to be believed.

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#bitcoin #cryptocurrency #astrology #horoscope #Saturn #Uranus #Aries #Taurus #Gemini #Cancer #Leo #Virgo #Libra #Scorpio #Sagittarius #Capricorn #Aquarius #Pisces