#and in the Court of the Internet there is no space for that and therefore no space for real learning or growth

[lith-myathar]

Being obsessed with moral purity (and the appearance thereof) is far more likely to turn you into an abuser than a kind and compassionate person who cares for their community and there are so many cautionary tales about this in media and yet *gestures at all of social media*

[selene-tempest]

It's the 28th of October, which means it's the hubby's birthday!

When faced with the inevitable question of "what do you want to do for your birthday?" he once again just shrugged, said he didn't want to do anything special and left. Freakin' typical. Now I was stuck trying to come up with something that he'll love as well as not expect and therefore be unable to ban me from organising it before it's too late to cancel. 

I had to come up with something, and fast.

But, I am nothing but a determined wifey, and so I dragged up his online calendar (OK, I admit I got EOS to do it, sue me) and stared at it for a few minutes waiting for inspiration to strike. Spoiler, it did not. There was no lightning bolt blessing from Zeus, there was no glorious angelic chorus as an idea bloomed into perfect form in my noggin. But, as I watched, a new entry popped up, a request for a guest lecture spot at the University of Manchester to talk to their new intakes on their Space Science and Astrophysics degree. This I could work with…

TO THE GOOGLE!

Since hubby is the hubby, and in being the hubby that means he likes to go places that are mentally stimulating as well as pleasing to the eyeballs, I once again had my work cut out for me. 

But a half hour of frantic internet searching later and I'd finally settled on the very historic (so happy hubby) and the very spooky (so happy me) city of York that was near enough to Manchester that we could have ourselves a little mini-break and I could finally adopt a cute little ghost! Yay!

I ran to the bestie (who cares that he was busy halfway up One's nose cone at the time?) and screamed up at him that I was formally requesting time off but not to tell John. 

After he recovered from the shock of being yelled at while so high up (he was on a line, don't stress) he mumbled an assurance that he'd "make it work" which is Scott speak for "OK, I'll sort it if you just go away and leave me in peace". Job done!

All I had to do was book train tickets, a beautiful but quiet hotel (preferably haunted but not a requirement) and look up some things to do. I got this shit.

Cut to a week and a half later, and one very successful (like there was ever any doubt) lecture done and dusted, we were on the train and speeding away for a midweek break of fun.

Since this weekend was a surprise, John had only packed enough for two days away, and knowing how conservatively he packs I knew that we'd never be able to make it stretch. I tried to pack more for him in my case but he got suspicious (damn him and his ability to observe everything so closely) and I gave up, packed my own stuff and vowed to buy him new clothes as part of his birthday present. I've learned to work with what I have.

Wrestling him onto the train was harder than I had expected. He didn't believe my "oh wouldn't it be so fun and romantic to just not go home yet and be spontaneous?" bullshit and I was forced to admit that it was indeed a birthday treat and that it was already booked, everything was taken care of, we would have somewhere to sleep that night and Scott was aware and to not even think about checking in on Five you shit!

He was grumpy, but that was to be expected. You don't blindside the man who organises everything and not get some backlash. But that's easily remedied with kisses and promises of all the fun, but educational, things we'll be doing, then you pull up an itemised schedule for him to peruse and he's fine.

The first thing we did was find our hotel and drop off our bags. I'd picked one that was nice and old, but also had modern amenities (we like that blend) but near enough to the city centre to be able to walk most places. John loves to walk, which is probably due to him spending so much time on Five and knowing the island like the back of his hand. If we get off island for anything he'll be dragging me off on a walk somewhere to explore. 

Our hotel, Dean Court, boasts its famous "Mad Maid" ghost who is often seen roaming the halls, cleaning supplies in tow, grimacing and grumping. Honestly, I don't blame her, imagine spending your life cleaning and then have to do it in your afterlife too? Kinda sucks, I'd definitely be asking for an upgrade, not just slamming doors, giving people a cold chill and occasionally sitting on them. This was gonna go one of two ways, John would wake up in the middle of the night to find me chatting to the ghost like a paranormal therapist (again) or the ghost would recognise my ability to kick her out and leave us the hell alone. Only time would tell but I hoped for his sake it was the latter, he needs the rest.

Conveniently the hotel was pretty much next door to York Minster, a beautiful and gothic cathedral with stained glass to die for and lots of history which was lovely to wander around. So after checking into our room we made the most of the remaining time before dinner to check it out as well as the museum in the basement, called the Undercroft, where we saw the remains of the Roman fortress the minster was built on, as well as illuminated manuscripts, and artefacts found around the area. We also checked out the library, because John is as drawn to books as I am to spooky things and this was his birthday trip, so I let him get lost in there for a while. But I did steal a little kiss at one point which a kind person managed to snap a picture of and send to me.

Dinner was lovely, nice and relaxed in a quiet little pub style restaurant which will always be our go-to over a fancy place where we have to get dressed up. We want wholesome, home cooked food (that isn't Grandma's), with big portions so we can try each other's food and to be able to easily relocate to a snug area for drinks around the fire. 

As it turned out, our first night in the hotel was a quiet one, no ghosts, no noisy neighbours (not like that one time in Cambridge where we were next door to a couple that seemed to think arguing was the only acceptable form of foreplay and liked to scream at the top of their lungs in two ways). The bed was squishy soft, there were enough pillows that I didn't have to raid reception and it was cosy enough that we didn't need to sleep in thick pyjamas (always a worry in England after an extended period on the Island). Hubby was asleep the second his head hit the pillow and I read quietly for half an hour before snuggling up, stealing his warmth, and drifting off myself.

The next morning provided an all you can eat breakfast buffet. So with full bellies and a happy me, we were fully fueled for our next adventure… ghost shopping!

I'd heard about the beautifully old street named the Shambles, rumoured to have been the inspiration for Harry Potter's Diagon Alley, and I knew they had a little shop there called the York Ghost Merchants where you could buy a handmade "lucky ghost". Did I buy just one? Of course not! We are coming home with ghosts for everyone! Mine was this adorable little purple thing with drippy black eyes like it's been crying and I fell in love straight away. John got a plain little ghost in white, very traditional. I named them Brad and Janet, which he rolled his eyes at but knew better than to try to convince me otherwise.

As we were wandering the shambles (and I was filling my bag with souvenirs as I am nothing but British) I remembered that hubby was in need of clothes since I'd basically kidnapped him. I dragged him into the Edinburgh wool mill, because he gets chilly and needs the good shit. That and I happen to think he looks delicious in librarian chic and so tweed was the way to go. He blames this on the fact that I'm currently rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the 8th time and that Giles has inspired me, but if I was inspired by Buffy he'd have bleached blond hair and a leather jacket by now. 

He agreed to the clothing because he's getting more and more requests for lectures and appearances in academic settings and since we got married people keep uploading pictures of him and even he worries that they will work out that he only has two jackets and start to comment on it. Sometimes I worry that I'm having too much of an influence on him, then I remember that I'm awesome and that any influence could only be a good thing.

We also found a wool and cashmere shop and a little vintage shop where I picked up a few things for my growing hippie collection and a gorgeous shawl that I can't stop stroking. A generic brand shop provided essential underwear and socks for the fussy hubby and we were off, dumping our spoils at the hotel before heading out again.

The afternoon was spent in a quiet little reading cafe where you could drink coffee and curl up with a book. One thing I love about John is that he knows the value of silence, even when he thinks I don't. I might be loud and proud a lot of the time, the social butterfly to his grumpy caterpillar, but even I find too much peopling draining and need to recharge. He is always happy to have me squished up against him but not paying him the slightest bit of attention (unless, like today, I happen to read a particularly interesting spicy scene and feel the need to shove it in his face and waggle my eyebrows at him until he gets the message). I love that he never questions how much I adore him and doesn't equate me giving him my full attention all day every day with my devotion level. He's fine with me ignoring him and I'm fine (mostly) with him doing the same. 

For some reason (probably a John specific one relating to his desire to be in control of almost every situation) he decided that he would not be the only one surprised on this trip and waved tickets for a ghostly bus tour under my nose at dinner. An old fashioned double decker bus, a chilly evening, a beautiful city and a knowledgeable guide made it one of the best parts of the trip. I like ghosts, he likes the history, we blend. 

Another peaceful night with no noisy neighbours or ghostly visitors meant that we were (for once) both fully charged and not in the slightest bit tired for our last full day.

We went out for breakfast even though the hotel provided a good one but we stuck close to the hotel in the morning and checked out the Treasures house, which was near the Minster. Beautiful house, beautiful gardens, and a Roman soldier ghost that waved at me from over a wall. What's not to love?

After a midmorning snack we hopped into a taxi and went to York Castle Museum. I love castles (tell me anyone who doesn't have the urge to pretend they are royal now and then and I'll call bullshit). I love the feel of the energy in the bricks and the items inside. We got to see the cell in which Dick Turpin had been kept and a recreation of a 1918 street complete with actors dressed up and things to buy (of which I bought many). Living history is something I really vibe with, it's so good to see it being played out in front of you rather than just seeing pictures or reading about it in books. 

There was supposed to be an Edwardian ghost in there but it was either his day off or he had had enough of crowds and wasn't in the mood to socialise. John said he understood that more than he should and that we'd obviously been married too long if he was now identifying with ghosts. Can't say he's wrong.

Dropped back at our hotel by another taxi, we found ourselves at a loose end and asked the receptionist to recommend something to do that night. She gave us many good recommendations, and John made notes on things we'd try if we came back (which I'm planning on) but eventually settled on a relaxing floodlit river cruise on the Ouse. 

York is a gorgeous city by day but it becomes truly magical at night. The lights of the buildings sparkled on the water and there is just something truly special about seeing such historic buildings, surrounded by trees and river banks, as the sun sets and twilight blankets the world before full darkness sets in. We took so many pictures that we know Virgil is gonna steal to paint. There was no guide on this cruise, just us and a few other passengers dotted here and there so we could sit quietly on our own and talk without bothering anyone while soaking in the atmosphere and the sights.

Another meal in a little old pub where a lone guy and his guitar helped create a cosy atmosphere, and it was back to the hotel. I made sure to yell into the hallway that I would not be accepting any ghostly visitors that night either and if Miss Grumpy Maid was around she listened and left us in peace. Feeling less tired and more relaxed than normal meant a nightcap from the minibar and said squishy bed were enjoyed for more than sleeping (eyebrow wiggles and book shoving for the win!)

We had a few hours to kill before our train the next day and I selflessly didn't dive straight into the chakra therapy centre by the train station. Instead, we opted to leave our bags in a locker at the station, grab some lunch to act as a picnic and check out the nearby Yorkshire museum and gardens.

Autumn was the vibe of the day and I have to say I couldn't have planned it better. Chilly sunshine, red, gold, and orange dressed trees, and Roman ruins make my little heathen heart sing. 

On the trip back to London I had a cheerfully chilled hubby who had had so much history in such a short space of time that he couldn't stop flicking through the photos and smiling, which was all I wanted. I'm doing the same as I snapped so many pictures of him when he wasn't looking that I've got phone backgrounds for the next year!

John often needs a break more than anyone as he's not confined to flight hours and mandatory breaks, if we let him he'd keep going until he drops. So I take my job as wife and nagger very seriously, he's learned to live with it and sometimes, just occasionally, it means we get to enjoy times like these which will provide us with many wonderful memories to keep us going during the busy times, the not seeing each other enough times and probably when we're too old and tired to do it again. 

Making the most of time together is always important but, while this was definitely supposed to be a birthday trip for him, I got a lot out of it too. I got to see him relax, sleep deeply, eat well and laugh lots, even if he does suspect that I may have had an ulterior motive of turning this into a dark academia photoshoot… 

Happy birthday, baby! @i-t-guy-in-the-sky . Love you always!

(close ups of pictures available on request because I know he's freaking gorgeous!)

[scifrey]

Hold Tight (1/6)

Status: Complete. Unbeta'd, we die like Hob doesn't.

Fandom: The Sandman (TV 2022) Includes some comics canon, and some cameos from the wider Gaiman-verse, but it’s not necessary to know to enjoy the story.

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Discussions of grief and in-canon character death. Also includes some erotic content. Please curate your internet experience accordingly.

Relationships:  Morpheus | Dream of the Endless/Hob Gadling, Past Eleanor | Hob Gadling’s Wife/Hob Gadling (past), Hector Hall/Lyta Hall (past)

Characters: Dream of the Endless | Morpheus, Hob Gadling, Matthew the Raven, Desire of the Endless, Lyta Trevor-Hall, Daniel Hall, Rose Walker, Jed Walker 

Summary:

Hob is tasked with his first quest as Vassal of the Endless, Morpheus is bad at using his words, Destiny thinks he's so clever, Desire makes a confession, Rose Walker meets her Uncle's boyfriend, and Lyta Hall punches Dream of the Endless in the nose. Or, the one where Hob Gadling turns into everyone's therapist, and honestly, he ain't mad about it.

Set at the end of Cling Fast - after the premiere of “Elizabethan Manor”, but before the Epilogue.

READ ON AO3 or below:

~~~

It’s not like Hob’s been walking around with a ring in his pocket.

After six-hundred and sixty-seven years of… well, he wouldn’t call it pining, obviously he hasn’t been steadily and consistently lusting or moping after Morpheus for the better part of seven centuries. And he’d been married and very much in love with his late wife, thank you very much. 

Maybe better to call it ‘carrying a torch’, or ‘wistfully wondering’ or, or any other euphemism to explain the tender affection and exasperation he felt toward the King of Dreams and Nightmares before he actually got to know the anthropomorphic personification. 

The point is, Hob hasn’t spent the greater part of his life wishing he could formalize the tying together of his life and heart with that of said affectionate and exasperating anthropomorphic personification.

At his most bold, Hob had imagined himself as a liegeman, or a romantical knight-errant experiencing the adventures and quests of human life on behalf of his otherworldly Lordling Stranger. He’d worn his Lord’s colours in gallantry without knowing his name, and ached for their once-a-century meetings, and never dared to daydream for more than that. Except for in 1789. But if you had seen Morpheus in those breeches, you’d hardly have been able to keep your lewd little fantasies from springing into existence, either.

But then had come the TV show, and the resultant scouring of Hob’s soul, and the missed messages of flowers, and hideous bouquets, and vaguely kinky monsterfucking sex on the shores of a sea full of dreams and nightmares. And after that had come a year of experiencing the joys of the Dreaming together, exploring the Waking together, and reaffirming their passions in the liminal space between the two that was Hob’s bed, and then a promise of retirement and domesticity, and honestly, you can’t blame Hob!

Being both Unaging and Immortal, and therefore obligated to move on from his established life every forty-or-so-years, Hob Gadling gets to keep so little: only his name, his memories, and his word. So now that he has Morpheus to call his own, he wants to keep him as close as possible, for as long as possible.

Hob Gadling is, and always will be, a clingy bastard.

But it’s not like he’s carrying a ring around in his pocket.

“Uh-huh,” doctor Harriet Butler says from the other side of the table in the university’s canteen.  Everything about Harri’s expression–the twinkling gaze, the mirthful curl of her lips, the little shake of her head–makes it very clear that she’s taking the piss.

She’s popped by the school to pick his brain and leave him a copy of her new manuscript for him to review. It’s a narrative nonfiction about court life in the heyday of Elizabethan England, and while Hob didn’t personally know the courtier the tale follows, he knows that his red pen will likely be of some use to Harri. And he’s delighted to do it, besides. He can’t wait to see what their time together on set has wrought in her prose.

“Should I be getting a ring?” Hob asks, derailing himself when he realises that he’s been banging on about this for the whole of their little lunch date. “I mean, he was married before, but that was to a Grecian goddess.”

“The ancient Greeks wore wedding rings,” Harri points out. 

Hob lets the noise of the crowded canteen wash over him as he contemplates that… that Morpheus would know what it meant if Hob ever presented him with a ring. 

It’s too soon!

Is it too soon?

Hob’s already pretty much demanded that Morpheus move in with him. And to be fair, while he hasn’t been pining for the last seven centuries, now that they are together, he is as sure about Morpheus as he is about not wanting to die.

But does that mean that Morpheus is sure?

The rambunctious shouts of excited students, the clatter of lunch trays and flatware, the muszak playing gently over the tannoy, it’s all just so noisy. He sometimes forgets how quiet the world used to be. Taverns were loud. Festivals were loud. Full churches were loud. But the ever-present music and white noise permeating every moment of existence hadn’t been woven into all the terribly small and mortal parts of his life.

It reminds him, all of a sudden, of how… well, how not grand Dr. Bob Gadlen’s academic little world is. What time isn’t taken up by marking and preparing lectures is devoted to guiding malleable young minds, or to influencing city and historic councils (which takes a lot of research and a lot of passionate speeches at after hours meetings), or to researching and practicing guest lectures, or to spending a weekend with cobwebs in his hair and a hammer in his hand and sweat on his brow as he personally repairs the disintegrating parts of The White Horse, or putting on a stupid suit to go into the City to sort out his real estate investments and charitable donations, or taking a spare shift at the Inn to cover for a sick employee, or… or any manner of small, boring, uninteresting mundanities that make up the life of Doc Bob.

And maybe that’s not something that Dream of the Endless, Morpheus the God of Sleep, the Lord Shaper, the Prince of Stories, the King of Fantasy and Nightmares, the Oneiromancer wants.

“Maybe he doesn’t even want a ring, maybe that’s not something that…” Hob says, slouching back in his chair and feeling very suddenly like a small, silly, over-excited child. “That anthropomorphic personifications of the human unconscious do.”

Harri points at him with her salad fork. “You also said that you didn’t think that he would want down-and-dirty sweaty animal sex and–”

Hob groans and covers his face with his hands. “I can’t believe you got me drunk enough to tell you about that.”

He could drown himself in his soup. That could be a thing. It would get him out of this conversation. Unfortunately, it would not deter the only mortal friend who knew what he was. She’d just wait around for him to wake up, probably with her camera out to catch the pieces of noodle sliding from his cheeks.

“Be honest, Hob, is this angst about Morph maybe not wanting a ring? Or is it about your fear that Morph may not want to be tied down before he’s even really lived as a human? Or are you worrying that once he is human and free of his function, with all the world at his feet, he may not want marriage with you?” Harri asks, painfully astute, as ever.

Painfully.

“Godswounds, I didn’t even think of that,” Hob groans and swirls his soup dejectedly. “I mean, I told him that I’d take care of him, when it was all done and he was… you know…”

“Dead?”

“We’re not using that word,” he says sternly.

Harri shrugs and doesn’t let his grumpiness get to her.

Hob tugs on his ear. “But it never occurred to me that… that he might deserve the chance to live apart from me, you know, get his own flat, cook his own meals, travel, maybe meet someone else, someone–”

“Okay, okay, this is spiraling,” Harri says, and slips around the table to wrap Hob in a crushing hug.

Hob lets his verbal torrent dry up, and presses his forehead into her shoulder. She gives him another good hard squeeze, and then sits back to meet Hob’s eyes.

“Listen, you asked him to move in, and he said yes, so don’t second-guess yourself. He’s made it abundantly clear how much he enjoys being yours,” she adds with an eye roll. “I’ve never ‘accidentally’ caught sight of so many bruises and hickies in so many interesting places as I have in the last six months.”

“He could make them go away, you know,” Hob mimics Morpheus’ dramatic sand-flinging finger wiggle. “Before he wears a low-cut shirt or reaches up for something on a high shelf.”

“And he doesn’t, so what does that tell you?” Harri squeezes his shoulder once and shakes him a little. “Come on, Doc Bob, you’re supposed to be the wise old one here.”

The thing is, Hob is human. And therefore he has that very human urge to find love and cleave to it. And Morpheus is very slowly, very gradually becoming human himself. Night after night, a little more of Morpheus’ power trickles from him into the infant Morpheus has only ever called “the child” or “my heir” as the little boy sleeps.

It’s literally a trickle, and Hob knows this because the day the baby was born, a massive hourglass appeared in the middle stained glass window behind his lover’s throne. 

In the left-hand pane, a stylized depiction of Morpheus-as-Dream gazes magnanimously down upon any who enter the hall. The rightmost pane depicts an infant dressed all in white, hair and skin as colourless as his clothes, eyes the colour of shamrocks. And every night, when Hob meets Dream at the seat of his power, the lad in the right-hand pane appears older, brighter, his gaze more otherwordly. And every night, the Morpheus in the left-hand pane appears more human, his eyes less fathomless, his skin less eldritch-white and more pink with health.

 And every night, there is more sand in the bottom of the hourglass than there was previously.

Hob still hasn’t met the child, nor Morpheus’ mortal niece and nephew. He hasn’t insisted either, figuring that Morpheus will share his family, and his successor, with his lover when he’s ready. But he’s becoming less and less the master of the Dreaming with each passing hour, and Hob can’t help but wonder if maybe Morpheus doesn’t want him to meet them. That maybe he’s deliberately keeping his Endless life separate from his soon-to-be-human one.

So that when it’s all… all over, then there will be nothing tying him back to his Endlessness.

Maybe that’s what Morpheus wants.

Or… or maybe Morpheus just doesn’t trust Hob with his own Endless family. Maybe he’s keeping them from Hob, the way that Hob hoarded Eleanor, and Robyn, and Wee John (though he hadn’t, not really; if Morpheus had appeared in the welcome hall at Gadlen House at any point of his marriage and demanded to be introduced to Hob’s wife and children, he would have fallen all over himself with pride to do so.)

No, Hob’s being ridiculous. Morph’s just busy. Turning over the entirety of your kingdom and selfhood to an entirely different person, while also training that other person how to be you, while they are already, in essence, completely you, is… well, it sounds like a lot. Morpheus has just been distracted, that’s all.

“It’s too soon for rings, anyway,” Hob hedges, voice rough and brain spinning. Although, Too Soon has a different meaning nowadays. He’d met and married Eleanor within the span of three months, and they’d only waited that long because the banns had to be read on three consecutive Sundays before they could be trothed.

But in the twenty-first century, it seemed like dating for anything less than a year before popping the question was considered inordinately fast. And as much as Hob likes to tease his lover and call their centenary meetings’ ‘dates’, they weren’t. Not really. Not in the way that it means now.

“And there’s so much happening, I don’t want to be a distraction, or a… a burden, or–”

Harriet pinches him.

“Okay, okay,” Hob capitulates. “I’m overthinking it.”

“You are,” Harri agrees, and goes back to both her seat and her salad. “You want to be with him. And he wants to be with you. You will be. You are. So there’s no rush. You both have literally all the time in the world.”

If Hob had to bet which of the Endless would ask a boon of him first, his money would have been on Desire. He knows Desire and Dream have a rivalry, which Hob figured the former would have capitalised on the second they had free reign.

And to be honest, Hob spends a lot of time in their realm since he’s worked out how to translate Morpheus’ overdramatically, swoony Victorian flower messages. Hob is obviously pretty well known to the each of the Endless, and thought Desire in particular would have a favour or just a prank or a snipe they’d want to pull.

Yet, it’s been months, and none of Morpheus’ siblings have formally introduced themselves to him. That he knows of, of course. He wouldn't even begin to guess at what they looked like in human form—though he figures they’d all be as Otherworldly beautiful and easy to pick out of a crowd as Death and Morpheus had been. 

No one has approached him for strange little favours, or pulled him aside for awkward conversations, or appeared mysteriously over his shoulder while he’s marking in his office. The only folks who’ve buttonholed him lately are some of his students wanting him to sign autographs or chair their Alphabet Army Club, now that it’s been splashed all over the media just how terribly queer Hob is.

(Hob had been right, and that photo of him smoldering at Morpheus on the red carpet had put Oscar Issacs and Jessica Chastaine’s similar shot to shame. He’d had it professionally printed and framed to hang in his bedroom.)

But like the tinny, annoying buzz of the fridge on days when a headache or stress has made the white-noise impossible to ignore, every once and a while, Hob remembers that he’s pledged to service to six entities he doesn't know, doesn’t trust, and doesn’t have any way to contact. Having been made vassal to each of the Endless, Hob was at their beck and call, sworn to serve them where he could, in exchange for permission and approval to be courted by Morpheus. And yet…

Hob hadn’t actually been party to those negotiations, which at that time had felt insultingly high-handed of Morpheus. His lover had not only made promises of subjugation on his behalf, but did so without Hob even knowing the talks were happening. Acts of Service, especially in the guise of feeding people and wheedling his lover to try new foods, might be Hob’s love language, but being sworn to serve something and someone without his consent had been… he’d been well and truly miffed.

Especially since he hadn’t been present to negotiate limits. Hob was willing to do pretty much anything and everything Morpheus asked of him (or any other iteration of Dream of the Endless who came calling, honestly), Hob was not about to fuck someone for Desire, or kill someone for Death, or slip roofies into someone’s drink for Delierum, or… or whatever else an anthropomorphic personification may ask of a human.

He was absolutely unwilling to harm anyone else.

But Morpheus had reassured him that whatever boon may be requested, it would not be in service of hurt or pain, either to other sentient beings, or to himself. Mollified by that at least, Hob had begun to envision what sorts of heroic quests or deeds he may get to embark on in the name of his de facto in-laws. Perhaps saving some damsels, or participating in a spy sting, or going on an epic adventure to retrieve a lost artefact.

So far though... nothing.

So when his first Endless comes knocking, so to speak, it takes Hob a few minutes to figure out what it is that he’s looking at. He had assumed messages from the other Endless would come on scrolls, or sealed letters written on parchment, or through some sort of animal herald like Matthew.

But no. And it is not via a herald.

It is not Desire.

Destiny contacts Hob through, of all things, text message.

Hob is enjoying the mild evening out back of the Inn, in the section of the property that is Hob's private garden.

Out front and around the side of the building, the gravel parking lot is peppered with more picnic tables, bike racks, and flower-choked planters than spaces for cars, which is Hob's subtle way of encouraging his patrons to not drink and drive. The forsythia that Morpheus' regard had caused to spontaneously grow all along the borders is just starting to show little yellow buds, and it's quite pleasant out there this year.

Pleasant. But busy.

At the back of the building, Hob's garden is ringed in with an old-fashioned bramble hedgerow, planted with blackberries, raspberries, and roses. Matthew had eaten his roly-poly fill the previous autumn, competing with the New Kid, who'd foraged fresh ingredients for cocktails and tarts. The carpet of clover that makes up the yard is thick, resilient and just beginning to spring back to life from its time crushed under the winter snow. In the centre of the little green field sits a circle of flagstones and fine red graven, just large enough for three curved loveseats and a small fire cairn.

It's an excellent place to watch a brisk spring sunset, and right now Hob is torn between wanting to start a fire, and being terribly comfortable cozied up on one of the loveseats under a blanket. Morpheus won't be back from his heir’s afternoon nap for at least another hour, and it's starting to grow too dark to proofread any more of Harri's manuscript.

Hob's just decided that maybe he'll pop inside and pester Patrick for a laugh when his phone pings. He doesn't recognize the name or the number, and when he swipes the message open, he has to read it three times over before he clues in who it might be from.

Vassal - I task you with this quest: heal the rift that lies between Rose and Jed Walker’s friend Lyta Trevor-Hall, and Dream of the Endless. It would behoove us all to strengthen the ties that bind.

The contact appears in Hob’s phone as D#1, which makes Hob snort. Sure enough, when he opens his Contacts, he’s got Ds 1 through 7 listed, though D#4 has no associated phone number. He immediately changes D#3 to Best Beloved. Morpheus has no cell phone, of course, that Hob knows of, so he wonders how the Endless are actually managing texting.

He considers showing the text first to Morpheus, and then to Matthew, and after deliberating both possibilities, decides to undertake this doing for Destiny on the sly. After all, if he’d wanted his brother to know, the Destiny would have looped either one or both of the fussy black birds Hob calls his own into the communication.

This is a task for Hob, and Hob alone.

The call of adventure thrumming in his blood, Hob collects up the manuscript, blanket, red pens, phone, and empty pint glass, and patters inside. He knows Rose Walker and her brother Jed live in New Jersey, are the grandchildren of Desire and the late sugar heiress Unity Kincaid, and they became the sole benefactors of her fortune when she died. Beyond that, he has no idea where they might be, or what they might look like, or even how he would go about getting in contact with them. 

And through them, this Lyta Trevor-Hall.

But he is a researcher in profession, and a horrible nosy busy-body in life, and wealthy enough to hire all the private detectives he might need. So he drops his stuff on the sofa, slides his laptop out of his hunter-green leather satchel, and gets to work.

Turns out, though, that Hob needs none of those advanced research skills or wealth. A single Google search turns up Rose's social media profiles, a dozen news articles about Unity and the Sleepy Sickness, a further seven articles in industry magazines about the Kincaid Sugar Trust, an announcement in Publisher’s Weekly about Rose’s forthcoming YA novel, and a single newspaper article about the brutal serial-killer death of a couple named Barnaby and Clarice.

He spends the next hour reading and making notes. He stops only the once to punch a sofa cushion while wishing it was Barnaby's face, then pour himself a careful measure of whiskey. Not too much, though. He wants to do this next bit sober. 

Hob writes and deletes about five different versions of an introductory email before deciding to YOLO FOMO YEET whatever-it-is-the-youth-say-today is, and slides into Rose Walker's DMs.

Hi! You don't know me, but my name is Bob Gadlen and I'm a professor at the University of York in London. I'm reaching out because my boyfriend is a buttoned-up, emotionally constipated twat, and though he'd never say it, I think he misses you.

It’s enough information for Rose to Google him, and get a good idea that he’s who he says he is, and is a public enough a figure that he may be trustworthy. Hob then attaches a selfie he took downstairs in the pub of The New Inn. In the photo, Hob is laughing with crinkled cheeks and an open-mouthed smile, leaning back against the banquette. Morpheus is tucked in behind his shoulder, scowling at the camera with glacier-blue eyes, face resting against Hob's neck. Matthew is visible in the corner of the photo, perched on the sill of an open window, beak stuck in Morpheus' glass of wine.

It's just coming on the end of the work day in New Jersey, so Hob assumes that he's not going to get an answer right away. Especially if Rose has her privacy settings jacked all the way up. So he sets down his phone and starts researching flight costs and hotels. 

A few seconds later, though, his phone pings.

Yeah, Rose Walker has replied. That sounds like Uncle Dream.

NEXT PART

[dukeofankh]

So in my wandering in the wilderness of Reddit for several years, I spent most of my time in r/Menslib, a feminist subreddit concerned with the challenges of deconstructing patriarchy as a man. It largely sucked. In short, I think that the norms of men's social spaces are foundationally incompatible with the sort of work that you need to do to heal men. It's not failing to materialize because men aren't trying, it's that people are trying to make topiary with flamethrowers.

"You Just Don't Understand" is a pop-psych book by Deborah Tannen about comparing the conversational norms of gendered spaces. It's hardly definitive or universally applicable but I found it mirrored my own experiences pretty well as a queer/neurodivergent guy who's never really fit in in men's spaces. She says that in the case of men, the most basic building blocks of conversation are built around jockeying for independent, individual reputation and heirarchical status. Men focus on topics external to them, rather than sharing personal feelings, because the fundamental structure of conversation is conflict based and being vulnerable would expose you and your most intimate self to that kind of combat.

It's also why men tend to be so competitive about their niche hobbies --they found a pond small enough that they can be the big fish. The problem is when that pond is Feminism.

Putting aside the staggering number of men whose idea of being part of the movement is just publicly dunking on men who they percieve as less feminist than they are (implicitly demonstrating that they are winning feminism by comparison), there's also this rebranding of the basic toxicity of rugged independent stoicism into a new, progressive-tee-em version:

"Struggling under the Patriarchy? Just do your own thing. Systemic issues? What systemic issues? Sounds like someone just doesn't want to do the work. Looking for community and support and role models because you're facing judgment and disdain from others? Are you really though? Maybe you're just making it up as an excuse to not be a Sigma male--I mean, good feminist. I mean, I do what I want, and I'm killing it, so you must just not be as mature as I am yet."

People respond to desires for help, community, and movement with surprisingly bitter disdain. People who open up about how hard it is to face judgment for acting contrary to hegemonic masculine norms tend to get met with calls to just get the fuck over it. A lot of that seems to be that a fair few men have a sort of pride for doing what they consider to be "the best job at being a nontoxic man" without any help, and they look down on men who want to have any sort of larger movement or support system in place to make that easier. It being easy would make them seem less cool for succeeding.

Men don't tend to welcome discussions of the personal, like I said above, but what shocked me going there after tumblr was the degree to which lived experience was considered...I mean, not even lacking in inherent value, it was more thought of as an active detriment. Your personal experience? That's based on your feelings. You've almost definitely warped that with your own perspective, and you shouldn't trust it.

As an extension of that, there's a sort of structural difference in how culturally, men and women's discourse seems to function. With women, it is a collection of narratives, the most common and shared blending together to form a consensus. With men, it is much more a system of gatekeepers and experts holding court above a throng. The ideal relationship is more prophet/disciple. Presuming your idea is good enough to share therefore must mean that you are assuming that level of heirarchical authority. But if your idea was good, then you would have a degree and a book out. If you don't, if you're some random guy from the internet, and you sharing your perspective HAS to be challenged or else people are implicitly granting you that authority. And what follows is the most hellish pedantic bullshit you've ever seen in your whole life. Someone knowing more than you is someone who could look down on you. So there is a major incentive to find even tiny, inconsequential mistakes, to prove that they're a pretender to the throne you see their opinion as claiming.

The result in terms of the actual moderation is a massive focus on external links and articles to spur conversation, with most actual text posts written by users being deleted immediately. I've seen posts about people's history of growing up in the Patriarchy being removed because they're just "personal anecdotes and they don't have any citations", ive seen people being told "hey it's fine if you want to squabble in the comments on an article from a legitimate source but I don't think your personal ideas are really suitable for a full blown POST on the FRONT PAGE of our SUBREDDIT. I could make a whole post about the fact that the existence of Mods with an editorial viewpoint fundamentally changes the power structure of a community, but ultimately it was pretty depressing to see the extent to which instead of camaraderie and community you instead had to deal with a bunch of Redditors cosplaying at being part of an academic journal.

It's not some sort of unique moral failure on the part of men--the other half of Tannen's book makes some excellent points that having a conversational culture built off of the norm of building community doesn't actually prevent there being conflict and hierarchy among women. It's more that that conflict is expressed using the language of community. If you have a visceral response to a post starting with "friendly reminder..." you already know what I mean.

But the structure I encountered on Reddit is so starkly atomized, and I honestly don't see how it is even capable on a basic, structural level of doing the work it wants to do.

[majorbaby]

i have always flinched at the use of the terms ‘supremacist’ in a facetious way to announce ones fannish preferences because i’ve basically only ever seen that word used when describing the ideological basis for systemic racism: white supremacy and its subscribers, white supremacists. 

you’d be right to say that systemic misogyny (although i actually don’t see it called ‘systemic misogyny’ a whole lot even if that’s what it is) is a result of ‘male supremacy’ where that means a belief that men are superior to women but we don’t usually call it that, we commonly use ‘patriarchy’ or ‘toxic masculinity’ instead. in mentioning this, i mean to point out a pattern of re-appropriation of terms used to describe the oppression experienced specifically by racialized people for "harmless" purposes.

i’d been telling myself that i was being over sensitive and that no one meant anything by it and i still mostly believe the latter half. it’s true that ignoring and/or minimizing one’s own reactions to marginalization is both an inevitable consequence of being a underrepresented racialized person (or a woman, a queer person, a disabled person, a poor person or any intersections of these groups but this post is about being racialized) and also a frankly useful survival tactic... but it’s also true that i’m just more inclined to turn over rocks and look for the race angle. all of this had me thinking about writing this post and continuously coming to the conclusion that it wasn’t necessary or that i couldn’t really support it with facts.

but it turns out, I can:

supremacist, noun - plural, supremacists

1 an advocate or adherent of the supremacy of one group : a person who believes that one group of people as identified by their shared race, ethnicity, sex, gender, or religion is inherently superior to other groups and should have control over those other groups

2 WHITE SUPREMACIST

Synonyms: racialist, racist

perhaps using ‘supremacist’ colloquially, doesn’t share exactly the same weight as calling your s//b read/it of 7 million users, arr/pcmxstxrrxcx and thinking that is completely fine. The concept of the ‘master race’ was actually developed by the Nazis, but it’s been easily reappropriated as this harmless, cheeky name. I say “harmless” but i’m censoring the example because i have some concerns around that particular internet subculture. even in cases where it should be obvious why this is inappropriate, it’s still not seen as a problem.  -- edit because I used the example of the term “master race”, I should’ve mentioned here that while all racialized people have their suffering minimized, jewish people are particularly hurt by this for lots of reasons that i can’t succinctly address here but i want to at least say that people being largely (7 million subs) unbothered by this is a result of a willfully ignorance and denial of the seriousness of antisemitism - this is a result of white supremacy but all non-jewish people, particularly in leftist spaces need to take responsibility for this and include jews in social justice movements.  --

Maybe we think ‘supremacist’ is okay because it’s related to the words ‘supreme’ and ‘superior’, which have lots of benign uses:

(Lake Superior is so-named because it is the largest of the great lakes. A ‘Supreme Court’ is, in most cases, so-named because it has a higher level of authority than any of its counterparts that may exist in a particular region’s judiciary system. A Crunchwrap supreme is so-named because it’s marketed as being the answer to the question ‘hard or soft shell’ and therefore ‘the best of both worlds’ and also because it attempted to address the portability issues with tacos... burrito erasure if you ask me.)

i can’t account for every instance of the use of the word “supremacist” but i do think it’s worth mentioning that when i search the term ‘supremacist’ (not white supremacist, just supremacist) google images returns images of confederate flags, nazi imagery or anti-white supremacy protests. if i search the news i get the latest in white supremacist moves. and not that you absolutely must take my word for it, but i can’t really think of another way its commonly used. 

i’m sure people have thrown this word around in other hobbyist spaces, i’m just talking about fandom because fandom is one of my hobbies. i’m also not calling anyone racist and i’m definitely not calling anyone a white supremacist for declaring themselves to be a pancake supremacist or an air sign supremacist in their bio - i realize you’re having fun and identifying a preference or a love of something - i would assume it’s the same energy as calling yourself a cat person or a coffee enthusiast. but still i flinch, and after looking into it further, i think ‘micro aggression’ might apply here.

[m3mbuildergurgaon]

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M3M commercial projects in Gurgaon are the perfect choice for you. Every shop is ideal for business. Our properties offer a lush green and pollution-free environment. Also, It makes it a comfortable and healthy place to work. M3M shops in Gurgaon boast luxurious interiors of retail shops and offices. Our project provides everything you need. Also, this project is close to many companies and other facilities. Generally, It's high-quality materials and modern features offer this property. Our project offers a luxurious and comfortable life for you and your family. Also, this project is a dream place for your business.

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Famous roads and highways are close to M3M shops in gurgaon

Furthermore, the school, hospital, and institute are near M3M commercial projects in Gurgaon

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Elevator is also available in M3M commercial projects in Gurgaon

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The fitness center is also available in M3M shops in Gurgaon

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[lachidayy]

Digital Citizenship and the #LoveWins Movement: Creating a Safe, Educated, and Politically Engaged Community

The #LoveWins movement, sparked by the 2015 US Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, showcased the transformative power of digital activism (Shorty Awards 2023). It became a powerful symbol of social progress, celebrated across the world. This movement harnessed the potential of digital platforms, fostering a safe online space for education, solidarity, and community building. By leveraging the power of social media, the #LoveWins movement demonstrated the potential for the digital public sphere– a concept that went far beyond its beginning.

Using Digital Platforms for Social Change

This movement was not just about celebrating a legal victory, but also leveraging digital tools to raise marginalized voices and advocate for further social progress. The term ‘platform’ can mean computational: something to build upon and innovate from; political: a place to speak and be heard (Gillespie 2010). Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram became crucial tools for disseminating information, fostering dialogue, and mobilizing communities.

However, these digital platforms also pose some challenges. While the #LoveWins movement created a largely positive and supportive online community, online harassment and misinformation did emerge (Tengco 2015). For example, Listiorini, Asteria, and Sarwono (2019) revealed that while many people are aware of the term "LGBT," their understanding often remains superficial, leading to fear and prejudice. This lack of deeper understanding translated into fear and prejudice, with 40% of respondents perceiving the LGBT community as a "serious threat." Furthermore, the survey exposed a significant degree of social exclusion, with 79.1% of respondents expressing discomfort with having an LGBT neighbor and 89% objecting to LGBT individuals becoming public officials such as Regent/Mayor, Governor, and President. Therefore, these promote the importance of digital literacy, critical thinking, and online safety practices within social activism.

Empowering Political Engagement

Platformed interactions offer an effective channel for voter activation, discussions with constituents, sharing of information, and political views. Social media platforms can provide fund-raising opportunities and thereby increase campaigning’s efficiency, an effect that can be directly reflected in election results (Nelimarkka et al, 2020). Political leaders like President Obama and Hillary Clinton publicly supported the #LoveWins movement on social media, highlighting the political power of digital platforms (Tengco 2015). Their engagement had key impacts, including voter activation by encouraging participation in the democratic process. Besides, social media provided a direct channel for political leaders to discuss issues with constituents, fostering dialogue and understanding. Leaders shared information and political views, helping to inform and educate the public about LGBTQ+ rights and marriage equality. Moreover, these digital platforms also facilitated fundraising, increasing campaign efficiency and potentially influencing election outcomes. The massive online engagement, with the hashtag #LoveWins, used over 1.4 million times on Instagram and 7 million tweets, reflects the significant political impact and the role of social media in the election process in 2015 (Shorty Awards 2023).

Recommendation

In Vietnam, with its growing internet penetration and social media usage (Statista 2023), the young are utilizing social media for communication, entertainment, and even activism. However, progress on LGBTQ+ rights is still not updated. Traditional social norms and limited public discourse create an environment where many LGBTQ+ individuals face discrimination and exclusion. The #LoveWins movement, with its global reach and message of inclusivity, holds the potential to spark vital conversations and empower Vietnamese citizens to advocate for positive change. This movement becomes a driving force for a future where everyone feels safe and empowered to contribute to Vietnam's development.

References:

Gillespie, T 2010, ‘The politics of “platforms”’, New Media & Society, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 347–364.

Listiorini, D, Asteria, D & Sarwono, B 2019, ‘Moral panics on lgbt issues: evidence from indonesian tv programme’, Jurnal Studi Komunikasi (Indonesian Journal of Communications Studies), vol. 3, no. 3, p. 355.

Nelimarkka, M, Laaksonen, S-M, Tuokko, M & Valkonen, T 2020, ‘Platformed Interactions: How Social Media Platforms Relate to Candidate–Constituent Interaction During Finnish 2015 Election Campaigning’, Social Media + Society, vol. 6, no. 2, p. 205630512090385.

Pampapura Madali, N, Alsaid, M & Hawamdeh, S 2022, ‘The impact of social noise on social media and the original intended message: BLM as a case study’, Journal of Information Science, vol. 50, no. 1, p. 016555152210773.

Shorty Awards 2023, HRC’s #LoveWins Hashtag Goes Viral; Celebrates Marriage Equality Victory - The Shorty Awards, shortyawards.com, viewed 3 June 2024, <https://shortyawards.com/8th/hrcs-lovewins-hashtag-goes-viral-celebrates-marriage-equality-victory>.

Statista 2023, Topic: Social media in Vietnam, Statista, viewed 4 June 2024, <https://www.statista.com/topics/8182/social-media-in-vietnam/>.

Tengco, J 2015, #LoveWins: A Historic Moment for LGBT Rights, whitehouse.gov.

[adasitecompliance]

Web Accessibility

Essential Website Compliance Checklists: Resources for Keeping Your Site Compliant and Secure

It might be surprising, but the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) does not specifically address websites. This has led to uncertainty about whether websites must comply with ADA regulations. Despite this ambiguity, it remains crucial to ensure that your website is ADA-compliant to ensure accessibility for all users.

Every organization should have a solid understanding of ADA website compliance guidelines. By familiarizing yourself with ADA requirements, you can reduce the risk of costly lawsuits resulting from ADA violations.

Navigating the ever-changing landscape of web accessibility laws can be challenging for businesses and organizations. ADA Site Compliance is here to help you achieve compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) on your website.

Our knowledgeable compliance professionals stay updated on the latest trends and legislation to ensure your website meets the necessary standards. By prioritizing website accessibility, you can enhance your business’s overall performance and boost your bottom line.

Delving into the Fundamentals of ADA Certification for Websites

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was formally enacted in 1991. Initially focusing on physical barriers, the ADA ensures equal access to public spaces. However, with the rise of digital environments, the issue of accessibility has expanded to include online platforms.

In recent years, there has been a notable shift in the interpretation of ADA regulations by federal agencies and courts, particularly the Department of Justice (DOJ). Despite the absence of specific government policies addressing web accessibility, courts increasingly recognize the importance of ensuring equal access to digital platforms for individuals with disabilities.

Consequently, websites must prioritize ADA compliance to ensure accessibility for all users, adhere to legal standards, and promote inclusivity online.

Understanding the Link Between web content accessibility guidelines and ADA Compliance

Establishing a clear understanding of how the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) align with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is crucial for ensuring digital accessibility. Following the Rehabilitation Act 2017 update to Section 508, government agencies and their contractors must adhere to WCAG 2.0 A/AA standards explicitly.

Despite the absence of precise standards for commercial businesses under the ADA, they are still expected to ensure accessibility within their establishments.

While WCAG serves as the de facto standard for web accessibility, adherence to these guidelines is recommended, as past Department of Justice (DOJ) cases have underscored WCAG’s significance in legal rulings. Although WCAG 2.0 AA is considered the minimum standard, striving for compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA or WCAG 2.2 is advisable to future-proof your existing website too.

WCAG 2.1 and its successor, WCAG 2.2, aim to improve upon previous versions and address emerging trends, such as the increasing use of mobile devices for internet access. WCAG 2.2 encompasses all WCAG 2.1 guidelines while accommodating multiple disabilities across various devices.

Despite not being officially adopted into law by the Department of Justice, WCAG guidelines remain the globally recognized standard for ADA compliance. Therefore, adherence to WCAG criteria is essential for creating a fair and inclusive online environment for all individuals, regardless of their abilities. Non-compliance may result in legal ramifications.

Which Websites Must Comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?

All websites, except for personal, hobby, and professional blogs, must comply with the standards set forth by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Whether a website is used for informational or commercial purposes, adherence to ADA web requirements is essential. Additionally, websites facilitating online transactions, such as e-commerce platforms, must ensure ADA compliance.

A few steps that can be taken to achieve compliance with WCAG 2.1 Level A are:

To prevent seizures, ensure your website has no content that could potentially trigger seizures.

Fast-strobing lights, for instance, have been known to induce seizures in some individuals.

Mere warnings about flashing content are insufficient; instead, design your content to mitigate the risk of seizures.

Any element that flashes more than three times in a single second should be avoided on websites.

Gaining In-Depth Insights into Website Security Compliance

Ensuring robust website security measures is vital for safeguarding your digital assets effectively. These compliance standards are designed to bolster your organization and instill confidence among stakeholders by fostering a secure online environment.

They encompass a broad spectrum of security elements, spanning data protection, privacy safeguards, auditing procedures, incident reporting protocols, and more. Acknowledging that compliance is ongoing, requiring regular updates, continuous monitoring, and proactive engagement is crucial for sustained adherence.

Embracing these standards enhances your credibility and underscores your unwavering commitment to safeguarding customer interests.

Is your Website at Legal Risk Due to Non-Compliance with ADA Standards?

The surge in federal lawsuits against businesses and government entities for inaccessible websites is concerning. High-profile cases demonstrate that no organization is immune to the legal consequences of ADA violations.

For instance, Parkwood Entertainment, owned by Beyoncé, faced legal action for lacking image alt text on its website. Similarly, Harvard University and MIT were sued for not providing captions for those with hearing impairments.

While these cases garner attention, many small businesses face similar legal challenges under the radar. When hit with a lawsuit, businesses incur expenses covering the plaintiff’s legal fees and their legal costs and must implement website improvements.

The financial toll of inaction can be staggering. Investing in web accessibility is a prudent financial decision to mitigate the risk of lawsuits. Proactive risk management remains the most effective form of protection until the Department of Justice establishes clear standards.

ADA Website Compliance Checklist

This comprehensive ADA compliance checklist is designed to ensure compliance with the latest accessibility standards outlined in WCAG 2.1. It covers three levels of compliance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. While achieving Level AA compliance is recommended for all websites, some tools can streamline the process.

1. Enhancing Button Accessibility

Implementing accessible naming conventions and ARIA labels across all website buttons is crucial for facilitating navigation for users with visual or auditory impairments.

2. Alt Text for Enhanced Accessibility

Ensure your website caters to all visitors by providing descriptive alt text for graphical elements like images and buttons.

3. Skip Navigation for Seamless Access

Incorporate skip navigation links to empower users relying on keyboard navigation or screen readers for easy access to your website’s main content.

4. Organize Content Hierarchy

Use bold headers and subheadings to organize page content effectively and communicate its importance to readers.

5. Descriptive Anchor Text for Clarity

Make outbound links more accessible by using descriptive anchor text that is easily understandable and clickable for users and search engines alike.

6. Keyboard Navigation Accessibility

Enable seamless navigation and accessible websites for individuals with disabilities by ensuring all website elements can be accessed using a keyboard.

7. Streamlined Error Reporting

Implement a user-friendly system for reporting all accessibility violations and barriers, allowing for prompt resolution and rectification.

8. Prominently Display Contact Information

Enhance user accessibility by prominently displaying your organization’s contact details, facilitating communication for those seeking assistance with access controls or information related to accessibility.

Ensuring Consistent Compliance Through Thorough Security Audits

Maintaining the security and reliability of your online platform requires strict adherence to industry regulations and standards. Conducting regular security audits is essential to uphold compliance. During these audits, your security infrastructure, including the web application firewall (WAF), undergoes meticulous evaluation to assess its alignment with relevant regulatory standards.

An audit identifies potential security vulnerabilities and provides valuable insights for enhancing your overall security posture. These audits demonstrate your commitment to robust security best practices and provide tangible evidence of your organization’s adherence to regulatory requirements.

Selecting Expert Website Audit Services for Enhanced Security

Securing your online presence demands partnering with a reputable website auditing firm like ADA Site Compliance, renowned for its expertise. Our seasoned professionals in this field possess the knowledge and capabilities to evaluate website security protocols thoroughly.

We dive deep into data protection measures and can thus offer tailored recommendations to mitigate risks effectively. Moreover, their adeptness with compliance standards ensures your website meets regulatory requirements, fostering customer trust and safeguarding your brand integrity in the digital landscape.

Conclusion

Updating your website to meet ADA compliance standards requires significant time and effort. The Americans with Disabilities Act mandates strict adherence, underscoring the importance of taking proactive steps promptly.

Navigating the complex web accessibility regulations can be daunting for businesses. At ADA Site Compliance, we specialize in achieving CCPA website compliance and can provide expert guidance. Our team thoroughly analyses your current website and offers assistance in redesigning it to ensure equal access to all users. Contact us today, or get your free site scan here.

Additionally, we offer training and ongoing support to help you maintain compliance with evolving regulations. Our compliance professionals stay abreast of the latest laws and standards, ensuring your website meets all requirements. Prioritizing website accessibility enhances your overall performance and increases profitability!

[arlopez]

Blog 9 – Evidentiary Realism and Investigative Aesthetics

“Evidentiary Realism” by Paolo Cirio

In this piece, artist Paolo Cirio outlines the return of realism, specifically of “Evidentiary Realism.” Realism has returned to art recently through the clash and cooperation of investigative practices, forensic documentaries, and artistic aesthetics. Realist art has always been a powerful tool to denounce the dirt conceived under societies, and now it has a new aesthetic, updated to our modern times.

According to the author, reality is now out of sight. It is so complex nowadays that it is not easily tangible. Even if we can see the consequences of our reality sometimes because of its complexity and multidisciplinary structural nature we fail to see its agents and originating systems. Nowadays the real is so interconnected with the power structures that stem from language, infrastructure, data, technology, and surveillance that it constitutes a post-visual condition. We are now in front of systems that have capacities so sophisticated and automated (the opposite of humans) that the human eyes cannot depict them, they are made invisible.

Earshot by Lawrence Abu Hamdan

That is why Evidentiary Realism is now an aesthetic and social tool to analyze the underlying economic, political, legal, and cultural factors that shape society and its shortcomings. To piece together complex puzzle pieces of our reality and create a realistic artistic denouncement to see what is out of sight. The author also refers to its “post-spectacular” characteristics. In fact, Evidentiary Realism with the aestheticization of evidence also aims to synthesize complexity and make it accessible to everyone, evoking emotional responses and instilling knowledge simultaneously.

Technological development allows artists to investigate reality as never before. Evidence is now in so many different forms. And for these forms, even counter forms exist, with for example black boxes being interrogated by counter black boxes and systems to study artificial intelligence. Not only the means of investigations have evolved, but also the forums of presentation and discussions expanded (spaces that lead to the public legitimization of evidence). Nowadays with the immense scope of the internet and social media, the audience has grown immensely and therefore also the needed recognition standard for the evidence.

Enhanced realism in documentary arty refers to “forensic information” which broadly conceptualizes deep media analysis with a different range of techniques and “forensic linguistic” to analyze the media content into investigative discussions. The outcomes of these processes (investigative art and aesthetics) cannot be used in courts as evidence, it is not legally binding. However, it does as classical realism teaches us to raise awareness and act as an agent for change. Moreover, it is defiant in its own existence, questioning the politics of representation with questions on artmaking and its role.

The aesthetic complements the investigative with juxtapositions, ready-mades, reconstructions, compositions, and mapping that reveal the networks between social issues and the systems. There is no subjectivity in the aesthetics, however. No political slogan or conclusion attached to the author’s opinion has to be deduced by it. The piece should speak and denounce for itself.

Cirio believes it is back now because of enhanced social crises which have arisen in the last decades provoking a widespread interest in the exposure of truth and social challenging of systems. Realism in art has fluctuated and now it is time again for society to take over aesthetics. Uncovering the real is being opposed in an authoritarian fashion in many outlets and with the advent of fake news normalization, there is an urgency for a widespread return to realism.

William Gropper, “Little Steel,” ca. 1937, oil on canvas. A piece from the American Social Realism post-war movement

Introduction by Fuller and Weizman

The Introduction of "Investigative Aesthetics" by Fuller and Weizman presents an exploration of the intersection of art, aesthetics, and investigative tactics.

The authors argue that investigative aesthetics provides a valuable framework for understanding and engaging with complex systems of power, as well as a means of generating knowledge and action. Investigative Aesthetics basically consists of the practice of critically collecting and then visually reporting pieces of reports of happenings from media clutter to shape a big picture of a happening. Collaboration between professionals from many professions, as well as people's direct experience of an incident, is vital in the inquiry. The use of aesthetics in investigations can help to create new modes of perception and understanding and can reveal the hidden dimensions of conflicts and human rights abuses. Investigative aesthetics can also help to engage the public in investigations and create a broader understanding of the issues at hand.

Fuller and Weizman begin by discussing the origins of investigative aesthetics, tracing its roots to the practices of art and activism in the 1960s and 1970s. During this period, artists began to experiment with new forms of representation and visual language, often working in collaboration with activists and social movements to address issues such as war, poverty, and social injustice. These artists sought to use art as a means of provoking critical reflection and political action, and their work laid the foundation for the emergence of investigative aesthetics.

The introduction also describes some of Forensic Architecture's investigations, including their investigation into the use of tear gas by Israeli forces in the West Bank and their investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire in London. These investigations demonstrate the agency's approach to using architecture and aesthetics as tools for investigation and how their work reveals the political and social contexts of conflicts and human rights abuses.

Forensic Architecture's investigations are about collecting data and evidence and understanding the power dynamics and political motivations that drive conflicts. By using aesthetics as investigation tools, the agency can reveal the hidden political and social dimensions of conflicts and human rights abuses. It is also acknowledged how Forensic Architecture uses AI to automate the act of seeing. The AI machines have been trained by being “fed” certain datasets and collections of labeled images. Because the “feeders” are human and part of society, the “food” is influenced by their biases, conscious or unconscious.

A still from Forensic Architecture’s video on the explosion in Beirut.

The authors then turn to a broader discussion of the role of aesthetics in investigative work. They argue that aesthetics should be understood as a set of practices and techniques that are used to produce and communicate meaning. In this context, investigative aesthetics refers to the use of these practices and techniques to explore and expose hidden power relations and structures. This can involve a range of different approaches, from visualizing data and creating immersive environments to conducting interviews and engaging in direct action.

The authors also emphasize the importance of collaboration and interdisciplinary approaches in the practice of investigative aesthetics. They note that this field requires a diverse range of skills and perspectives, and that effective investigative work often involves artists, activists, scientists, and other experts working together to achieve common goals. They highlight the key role that technology can play in these collaborations, allowing for the creation of new tools and strategies for investigating complex systems.

The introduction also discusses the broader implications of Forensic Architecture's work. The agency's investigations not only reveal the hidden dimensions of conflicts and human rights abuses but also challenge the dominant narratives and power structures that perpetuate these abuses. By using architecture and aesthetics as tools for investigation, the agency is able to create new modes of perception and understanding that can lead to social and political change.

An 8-minute video providing a helpful overview of what Forensic Architecture does, narrated by Wiltzman himself.

Two images I have created through a free AI speech-to-image generator. The two prompts were: "Palestinian rally" and "Army of drones flying over a city"

[mynattinsurance-blog]

Need To Buy Commercial Insurance in Tampa and Westchase, FL

Living the American dream necessitates being in charge of life. Unfortunately, being employed by the government and private companies entails doing as the superior wants. Most Americans are, therefore, interested in starting their businesses. A small business may work admirably for individuals equipped with certain skills and adept at man management. Protecting one’s finances by preventing unexpected expenses can be effective in organizing the business too. The best possible way to achieve such an objective is to consider buying contractor insurance in Tampa and Temple Terrace, FL, especially when the concerned individual works for multiple entities in an independent capacity. ​ Small contractors working independently as 1099 workers benefit significantly by purchasing the coverage. The insurance protects the contractors from the associated risks helping them to save money. There is not a single coverage that covers all sorts of risks, however. Instead, the contractor may have to simultaneously consider several small business plans to remain free from anxiety. Some of the essential insurance coverage that a contractor needs to buy include:- General Liability- This helps the contractor to stay protected when accused of causing injury or damage to property belonging to a third party. The insurance company will also compensate the concerned party for libel, slander, and loss of reputation. Apart from paying the due compensation to the party making the complaint, the carrier also bears the legal costs associated with defense in a court of law. Professional Liability- The contractor usually needs to be covered for professional liability as the individual provides services for a fee. Also known as errors and omissions insurance, it protects the contractor from damage caused due to an error while providing the service. This particular coverage is indispensable to stay protected from claims by the user. It includes the following instances and more: · Inadvertent mistakes made while performing the professional service · Breach of contracts and agreements · Negligence resulting in damage to the client · Not meeting the timeline as specified The contractor may have to consider several other options apart from the ones mentioned above that, include: · Commercial property insurance –This type of insurance is essential for contractors who use specialized equipment and/or materials to perform the services. It is also important for contractors who work out of the rented property or retail space · Commercial auto insurance – This coverage is necessary for independent contractors who use their vehicles for delivery or performing the services · Business interruption insurance – Closure of the business due to unavoidable circumstances is covered by insurance too. This includes sudden interruption due to a natural disaster or other reasons beyond the control of the contractor · Cyber liability insurance- Professionals who work independently may consider being protected from internet-based complaints. Contractors who deal with sensitive data on behalf of their clients will have the insurance carrier paying for damages arising due to cyber attacks by hackers and loss of software A business owner can ensure peace of mind by opting for commercial insurance in Tampa and Westchase, FL, that covers the risks associated with the particular business operations

[dolphintonki]

Mp3 audio recorder

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Moreover, iTop Screen Recorder supports all the windows operating systems after 7, and you don’t have to worry about incompatibility problems. With a simple user interface, people don't need much computer experience to handle iTop Screen Recorder on their computers. There are many versatile MP3 recorders available for Microsoft Windows as well, and iTop Screen Recorder is one of them. You don’t have to worry about privacy problems and you are the only person who can access your recordings. Therefore, the security is 100% guaranteed. Moreover, Voice Coach does not upload and store any data to their servers. It supports all browsers and allows users to capture important audio by sparing no effort. The website provides an online voice tool called voice recorder, which could be used to record audio in MP3 format. Voice Coach is a website originally designed for speech training and voice recording.

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The recorded audio could be assessed through a link, which you could share directly on social media, or download on a local device as an MP3 file. Though there is a five-minute audio recording limit, it is still sufficient for most class tasks.

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SpeakPipe voice recorder is another free online voice recorder that supports recording MP3 from the browser by using your computer microphone. In addition, Rev Voice Recorder provides the human transcription service to transcribe your online speech recording to text, with a high accuracy standard of up to 99%. It is completely free and could be used right in your browser. Rev Voice Recorder is the most popular online audio recording and transcription tool that enables people to record MP3 in just one simple step. In this part, we will introduce three MP3 recorders online and elaborate on the features of each tool. Online voice recorders are convenient, and it allows people to make an audio recording quickly without additional downloads and installations.

This index will be generated automatically when displayed on the front end.

This article focuses on some powerful MP3 recorders that help you record any audio into MP3 format. To record audio into MP3, an MP3 recorder is needed. If you want to integrate music clips, create a podcast, or record phone conversations, business meetings, or court hearings, you would probably prefer to digitize these audios in MP3 format as well. Even though, it could still retain a high audio quality that is comparable to a CD. To reduce the size, an MP3 file is usually compressed by stripping out many sounds that our ears can’t hear. Other than that, automatic transcription will save you plenty of labor time and a voice recorder mobile app will give you the freedom to record on-the-go.Created by the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG), MP3 is a digital music format that contains the encoded data of MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III. While MP3 audio is better when it comes to storage space, WAV files are crisper and better for fine-tune editing. Don’t forget to check out recording files’ formats. The ability to download separate participant tracks is also helpful in giving you more editing control. You’ll want tools for automatic noise suppression, echo cancellation, and easy audio clip creation.

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The better your recording quality, the less editing but for quick fixes look for software that already comes with some easy editing tools. Find online software with local recording that can record your voice in high resolution without worrying about internet issues getting in the way. With the right audio recorder, you don’t need to compromise resolution because you’re recording online. The most important thing to consider when looking for an online voice recorder is quality.

[potteresque-ire]

hello, ily metas! thank you for taking the time for them. i hope you dont mind an ask with two follow up questions to your metas i'm curious about: 1) has mxtx rly been sentenced? i have seen others also share this news but other fans have quickly dismissed and gotten pissed at these reports for being fake news that are bad for mxtx, and as fearmongering. 2) for those who want to support yizhan but not the ccp, do you have advice how to navigate fan support and interaction with their media?

Hello! I apologise for the late reply!  You’ve brought up some interesting points, so please forgive me for responding with an essay.

First, about MXTX — This is a follow-up to this post.

Unfortunately, this is all we got—all everyone has got about MXTX’s current situation: on 2020/11/10, she was sentenced in Hangzhou Shang Cheng District’s People’s Court (杭州市上城區人民法院). No details were given on her verdict, due to “人民法院認為不宜在互聯網公布的其它情形”  (“The People’s Court decided it inappropriate to announce further details on the internet”). Here’s a link with the screenshot that showed all the information released about the case that day.

There are enough copies of similar screenshots to this one online, with the differences dependent on where the publisher pulled the information from the same website: 中國裁判文書網, an online archive of verdicts run by China Supreme People’s Court. There’re few reasons, therefore, to believe the information on the screenshot was fake. The link I used was Sina’s Financial News, which I believe is trustworthy enough for China’s standard.

It is also important to note, of course, that two scenarios may still render this screenshot irrelevant. 1) The verdict, which was not mentioned in the screenshot, was “not guilty” and 2) the name listed in the case, 袁依楣, was not MXTX at all.

Few have seemed to suspect 2) to be a possibility. Her real name might have been prior knowledge among some fans, or the combination of her surname and city of residence. 1) has been the where the concern / debate is.

I included China’s rate of conviction in the original post for this reason: acquittal is exceedingly rare (<0.1%) for the arrested in China. This short article discussed some reasons.

So, is it possible that MXTX is now a free woman? Yes. Is it likely? Not at all.

Still, since the probability that MXTX is imprisoned isn’t 100%, is spreading this news smearing her name? Fear-mongering?

I can only answer for myself, Anon, but my answer is no for both questions, which is why I’ve felt comfortable posting about her case. MXTX’s alleged “crimes” are things we already knew she did, or common practices among Chinese IP writers. We know she penned MDZS and other BL works; we know MDZS, in particular, has an 18+ element. She was said to have sold merch based on her works, but that wasn’t unusual at all for writers in Jinjiang, where she published her writing. Even those who don’t like her have seemed to agree that it was her writing that got her into trouble, not some other crimes she could’ve committed.

IMO, a guilty verdict doesn’t tell us as much about her as it does about the judicial system, the business practices of her country. It’s worth re-mentioning that media giants such as Tencent are closely tied to the government; Tencent’s WeChat, for example, is part of China’s Great Firewall and is used for surveillance, for censorship and removal of political dissidents. What MXTX’s case hints at is this: the government has (very likely) convicted her, while its close allies are continuing to use her works—works that got her into legal trouble in the first place—to make money. Some fans of MXTX have questioned if the courts have censored the details of the case to save the embarrassment of the rich and powerful, calling what has happened to MXTX 人血饅頭 (“human blood steamed buns”), an idiom used to describe the act of profiting out of someone elses’ life.

As for fear-mongering, here are my thoughts ~ it would’ve been fear-mongering if the public has access to the facts, and not years after they happen. Specifically, it would’ve been fear-mongering to leak the rumours of MXTX’s sentencing, when the judicial system is transparent and the case details will soon be published for all to see. Why? Because “fear” comes from the unknown, and “-monger” is the unnecessary promotion, stirring-up of this fear.

To promote, stir up anything, one needs a reference level. The reference level in this scenario is this: what is the level of fear if the facts about MXTX’s (and other BL writers’) situation are known? Of course, this knowledge doesn’t make MXTX’s experience any easier or more just; it doesn’t cause her less fear. However, she isn’t the target audience of this likely-to-be-true rumour. The target audience is the public and in particular, those who consume and/or generate BL material online.

What is the level of fear among this population if the facts about MXTX’s (and other BL writers’) situation are known? It’s the (relative) comfort in knowing the government’s stance on what they do: how the administration feels about BL, 18+ BL, and their distribution methods. The comfort comes from having the right information to decide how to act accordingly. For example, if I’m a BL writer based in China and I know the court has found MXTX guilty of bypassing publishing houses but not of writing M/M romance, then I’ll know to not produce paper versions of my writing, but I can keep writing.

This reference level of fear is unavailable here, however, since the government has decided to withhold all details about the case. Without this reference level, fear-mongering becomes a ... difficult to define concept.

Are these likely-to-be-true rumours agents of fear, or are they hints on how to survive in a country that lacks transparency?

Continuing with the example of I being a Chinese BL writer, since I cannot expect to hear more facts about MXTX, this rumour is all I’ve got in choosing what to do with my hobby, in deciding whether it is safe to continue. As I’m aware that a rumour isn’t a fact, I first research on the rumour’s likelihood of truth (similar to what I’ve done for MXTX’s case), and cross my fingers that I don’t get it wrong.

By doing so, I’m turning these rumours into my survival guide.

Is it risky? Yes. Is it exhausting? Absolutely. But this is the way of life for people who live under secretive, authoritarian governments—the authoritarian element making it impossible to demand more facts. It may take people outside such regimes some time to get used to—to the lifestyle, and to the idea that, in a place where news is often synonymous with propaganda, rumours are breadcrumbs of truth that should be sieved through with equal care as one would sieve through the news. Heeding, considering the probable truth of what the authority has deemed to be fear-mongering rumours can be a matter of literal life and death. 

Take...COVID. (I apologize for bringing up this unpleasant topic!)

I shall link to an article about the early spread of COVID in Wuhan here and ask: were Dr. Li Wenliang and the seven other doctors fear-mongering? Wuhanese chose to believe in the government, but at what cost to them? What would the world be like today if they took the early COVID rumours as true and masked up like Hong Kongers—Hong Kongers who weren’t any smarter or better, but had simply learned their painful lessons from the 2003 SARS epidemic? 

(Why hadn’t the Wuhanese learned? Because the government has long changed the narrative of SARS, taught their people that the illness originated in Hong Kong.) 

(How can one learn from past mistakes if one pretends those mistakes never existed?)

You must be wondering, Anon, why I’m talking about COVID when your next question is about YiZhan. The death of Dr Li Wenliang on February 7th, 2020, sparked a demand for freedom of speech rarely seen in internet-age China. Its fury, its ferocity forced the government to change its stance on Dr Li, again an unusual move. Since January 2020, Weibo had been censoring COVID news and opinion pieces that shedded a negative light to the central government; after the death of Dr Li, the censorship apparatus stepped up, making way for the propaganda machine to kick in later and change the narrative of the pandemic.

Here are some questions without definite answers, but may be food for thought for YiZhan fans:

1) While the Chinese government’s censorship apparatus (including Weibo) might have silenced the voices of dissent, of mourning on the surface, was it more likely to pacify, or fuel the anger of netizens, many of whom had lost loved ones, many of whom were still under quarantine?

2) Less than three weeks after the death of Dr Li, a group of fans demanded even *more* censorship from the government—the closing of an internet website that had been seen as a relatively free space to express oneself. How would these netizens react, even though they knew little about these fans or their idol?  

(It was, in the context of the massive silencing of COVID discussions in China, that I learned about the ban of AO3. There had been rumours that the government would censor more websites on 2020/03/01. When I read about AO3′s ban on 2/27, my thoughts were 1) Hmm. This came two days early. 2) AO3? Really?)

(I wouldn’t watch The Untamed or know who Gg was until several months later.)

Now, Anon, this is a good time to get to your CCP (Chinese Communist Party) question.

The very short answer is no. There’s no way to support YiZhan without, to a certain level, supporting the CCP. As mentioned above, the media companies are all part of China’s surveillance system. Weibo is where freedom of speech is curbed. Our two boys have been part of the propaganda machine; the BBC article linked above had a tiny picture of Gg on it, as he was a performer in the Hero in Harm’s Way (最美逆行者), a “real-life based” drama on COVID. DD just did a show glorying the Chinese police force (and here’s a video of the same force welding doors to lock in COVID-stricken residents).

Nonetheless, here’s my first advice: please do not beat yourself up for supporting YiZhan!

Gg and Dd are people who live within the system, inside the Great Firewall. They understand the world the way their government has taught them to—not only in school, but also in the news and media. Like most youths in every country, they’re patriotic—and to expect them to be otherwise, especially because of information they don’t have, is both unrealistic and unfair. Even if they do know about certain things impermissible within the Firewall, in China (as in many Communists countries), openly expressing / performing one’s proper political leanings (ie. loyalty towards CCP) is among the most important pre-requisites for any job. This has been especially true for c-ent in recent years .

They, like most of their countrymen, are doing what they have to do.

In this case, it comes to us, our decisions on how to interact with their works. How should we deal with them, their propaganda elements?

The answer, of course, varies from person to person. Personally, I’ve chosen the approaches of “immunisation” and “restriction”. By “immunisation”, I mean learning about as much historical and sociopolitical facts from non-CCP sponsored sources; this is understandably difficult for someone who doesn’t already have some familiarity with the culture and politics of the region, and/or cannot read the language. 

Restriction means limiting my consumption of media produced by China. I avoid shows (dramas, documentaries, variety etc) featuring topics that are likely to contain heavy propaganda, such as the military, the police, Hong Kong/Macao/Taiwan, and of course, anything pertaining to the CCP, from its rise to its governance of the country.

In general, I’m wary of all information presented about the post-monarchy years (post 1911), even though CCP wouldn’t begin its reign until after WWII (1949). Why so early? 1) Because CCP was formed in 1921 and so its glorification requires a change of narrative since then; 2) because the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, KMT), which governed China between 1912 and 1949 (the so-called Republican Era 民國), would end up exiling to and setting up a new government in Taiwan.

How much propaganda should one expect in shows depicting the country post-1911? The current TV and webdrama directives (previously discussed in this post) offer some hints. Here are my translations of the relevant items:

D7) Dramas about the Republican era: Glorification of the Republican Era, the Beiyang Government, and Warlord Era requires strict control.

D10) Crime drama: crime drama is the focus of content auditing. The Ministry of Public Security (Pie note: in charge of law enforcement, ie, police) will be involved in the audit. The process of crime solving cannot be exposed; criminal psychology and motivations can however be depicted in detail. Undercover police cannot use drugs or kill, or damage the image of the police force. Criminals must be punished by law.

D12) Dramas featuring realistic topics: realistic topics must adhere to the correct world view, philosophy of life and moral values. They cannot place too strong an emphasis on social conflicts, must showcase the beautiful lives of the commoners. Regular folks should display larger-than-life sentiments and aspirations; they can pursue wealth, but must use proper means to do so; they cannot damage the public image of specific employment types, groups and social organisations. Do not preach negative or decadent world view, philosophy of life and moral values. Do not exaggerate, amplify social issues; do not over showcase, display the darker sides of society; do not preach affluence, avoid things that have no basis in real life.

D16) Dramas featuring the Revolution (Pie note: CCP’s coming to power): 2019 is the publicity period of the 70th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Although the “Three Importances” (important revolution, important people, important events) are still encouraged, the  National Radio and Television Administration requires all departments, at all levels, to strengthen the control of content and the overall management of the industry, and focus on the auditing of content pertaining to the Sino-Japanese war and espionage dramas.

These directives (as those translated in the other post) are as vague as they are restrictive, and to err on the side of caution, production companies tend to “overachieve” to avoid going against headwinds at the censorship board. This means their products have a tendency to malign the Republican Era (D7). It means they will likely twist history in trying to depict the CCP as faultless heroes (D16). It means they'll probably present a utopian-like society and call it reality-based (D12), a society in which the good guys share the same values as the CCP and always win (D10).

Yes, my “restriction” means I skipped Hero in Harm’s Way. It means I’ve never listened to Gg’s version of 我和我的祖國 despite my absolute adoration of his voice. It means I just missed Dd’s performance in the law enforcement celebration event. It means I don’t plan on watching Being A Hero and Ace Troops.

So here’s where I’ve drawn the line, Anon, but it doesn’t mean that’s what anyone should do. Only you alone can decide where your own comfort zone is. I write these metas in the hopes that it can offer a … gateway for those who’d like to understand, with a more telescopic lens, Gg and Dd’s country—a country that holds a particularly strong hold over its citizens’ fate including, yes, their romantic fate. It’s not my wish to impose my opinions on anyone.

If I have other hopes… It’s this. Please, as long as it’s safe for you to talk, do not self-censor—especially about facts, especially on sites like Tumblr or Twitter that have long been banned by the Chinese government. I don’t mean one should go about and confront those who insist on a different version of reality. To undo opinions rooted in years of education, IMO, the process has to be voluntary, and the information is already at the fingertips of those who’re surfing these sites and wish to learn more. More importantly, open discussions of these topics may be risky for those who still have close ties to China, and keeping them safe should always be the top priority. 

What I mean is simply this ~ please do not feel obliged to agree with every perspective presented in YiZhan’s work just because you support the leads. Please do not feel you must remain silent about the CCP—its good, bad and ugly—just because your favourite stars happen to come from the country it’s ruling. And please remember: “Chinese”, as a term, has always included people who live outside CCP’s control, many of whom still fully embrace the culture, traditions and values of Historical China, a 5000-years long string of dynasties with shifting borders, ethnic makeup and customs. The Untamed is a mainland Chinese production, yes, but its genre, its manner of presenting certain traditions, wouldn’t have been developed, or flourished, without the diaspora. The CCP has only been the ruling party of one country, the People’s Republic of China, for 71 years, and as a party with foreign (soviet) roots and a record of destroying the pillar of the country’s tradition, Confucianism, it doesn’t own a monopolistic say on how every Chinese should think and act—no matter how much it insists it does—or how everyone should think and speak about China and its people.

It isn’t qualified.

[miminiac]

Korrasami had build up, just maybe not one you identified with and that’s okay...

I am tired of the LGBTQ+ community hating on Legend of Korra (LoK) for not being gay enough. The critique that there wasn’t enough build up is (1) not productive at all and (2) honestly, not true. There was build up. It may not be the build up every LGBTQ+ person will like, and it may not relate to the experience of every person’s coming out, but it was there. Korrasami was something the creators had tossed around as soon as Book 1 (not that they necessarily had permission to do anything about it). Take this quote from Bryan Konietzko’s tumblr post after the finale aired:

As we wrote Book 1, before the audience had ever laid eyes on Korra and Asami, it was an idea I would kick around the writers’ room. At first we didn’t give it much weight, not because we think same-sex relationships are a joke, but because we never assumed it was something we would ever get away with depicting on an animated show for a kids network in this day and age, or at least in 2010. (link)

The post also discusses how Makorra was never meant to be endgame after Book 1. Again, the time LoK was airing was at a point where states were passing laws to actively prevent gay marriage (LoK ended in 2014, legalization of same-sex marriage by supreme court ruling wasn’t until 2015––context is important). Did they actively write a romance in Books 1 and 2, no they did not. However, as many creators and writers, they let the characters lead them and they discovered that Korra and Asami were more than just friends. Again, taken from the same post:

The more Korra and Asami’s relationship progressed, the more the idea of a romance between them organically blossomed for us

So what we have with Korra and Asami is not a planned romantic relationship from the very beginning, however, the characters have been leading them there since the beginning, whether they realized it or not. Now, I am a big fan of Barthes’ “Death of the Author”, so I 100% percent think that viewers/readers have the ability to inject their own narratives and that multiple narratives can coexist. However, the point of this post is to explain why a critique of “wish they did more” is not productive when it comes to discussion of LoK of a piece of LGBTQ+ media representation. Therefore, I turn to the creators to show that there was intent and there was subtext and build up within Book 3 and 4 (as Bryan discusses in his post, please read in full when you have time).

A lot of Korrasami was hidden in subtext, and that happened because of homophobia within the industry, which still exists today. Content creators of LGBTQ+ media continue to have to walk a fine line. Take Noelle Stevenson talking about Catradora:

My big fear was that I would show my hand too early and get told very definitively that I was not allowed to do this

And like with Catradora (though a little easier since Noelle told viewers that every character is a part of the LGBTQ+ community by default unless explicitly stated otherwise), people saw Korrasami from as early as Book 2 (if not Book 1 on a rewatch).

At the time LoK started airing, I still thought I was straight; I still thought I was straight when I was watching the third season and telling my then boyfriend how Korra and Asami were going to be a couple by the end (literally, when they interacted in the first episode of season 3 while Asami taught Korra how to drive, I turned to him and said it; he said they would never do that and it was a pipe dream). I continued to see Korrasami’s friendship build into something romantic (even if the characters themselves were unaware of it).  

Come Season 3 Episode 9, where Asami carries away a helpless Korra, mimicking Katara having carried away a helpless Aang. For those who had watched the original series and were big Korrasami shippers, this scene basically made it canon. It could be argued as the point that maybe the friendship switched to something more romantic. The rest of season 3 and all of season 4 only added moments between these two (side note: I came out as bisexual soon after season 4 started airing, though I had been questioning my sexuality probably since the end of season 3).

Now is the Korrasami relationship perfect, absolutely not. Bryke admits as much, but it was a significant step forward. Again, this happened in 2014, so a lot of narrative within media of states passing laws to discriminate against same-sex couples and deny marriage. The hand-holding scene everyone screams about not being enough. Well, they received plenty of homophobic backlash from that.

The critique that they didn’t do enough is not productive. It is a critique that could be said about most main-stream LGBTQ+ media. I get that we are tired of scraps; I get that we are tired of having to read between the lines because creators are still afraid to come out and say it (pun intended). However, to critique LoK as “not being gay enough” ignores the context in which it was created and what that representation meant to many of the viewers (like myself) who were discovering themselves and their sexuality at the time.

Avatar: the Last Airbender (ATLA) was made for 8-13 year olds (from season 1), and I would argue that LoK was made for that same group of people, who would have then been 14-19 years old when LoK first aired. Thus, LoK was being watched by those entering high school and college––a time of self-discovery.

Additionally, a critique that LoK doesn’t do enough leads to an idea that there is “a right way” to create a LGBTQ+ relationship, which I would argue is harmful to the community at large. If you did not identify with Korra’s coming out, that’s completely valid. If you did not identify with the way the Korrasami relationship progressed, that is also valid. But you cannot invalidate the relationship of Korrasami, as a relationship built off a friendship and mutual respect that blossomed by into something more. The relationship was not sexualized with wistful glances and blatant sexual tension, instead, it was built on a friendship and respect for boundaries.

Again, multiple narratives can be drawn given each viewer has a unique set of experiences. One such reading could show that Asami was more in tune with her feelings for Korra than Korra was about her feelings for Asami. And, instead of flirting non-stop with Korra, Asami respects Korra’s space (though we all saw her check out Korra’s back muscles) and recognizes that Korra has a lot on her plate being the avatar, a relationship is not something on the forefront of her mind. It is only after defeating Kuvira (and the healing/growth from a few episodes prior in "Beyond the Wilds”) that Korra is able to truly understand her feelings to Asami, suggesting they take a trip together––just the two of them.

Now, you may not identify with that type of coming out, but other people do. And to argue that “LoK didn’t make Korrasami explicit enough” undermines the experiences of those in the LGBTQ+ who heavily identified with Korra’s experiences and her coming out.

Holding LGBTQ+ media to this higher standard is inherently toxic. I would like to believe that these creators are coming from a good place with good intentions. There is nothing toxic or abusive in the way Korrasami is portrayed. There is nothing unrealistic about the way their relationship progressed throughout the series. It was not a fan service––it was the natural progression of the characters.

And let’s not forget that Korrasami is not only confirming a relationship between two women, but it is also two women of color. Now, it may not seem like a huge deal within the contexts of the Avatar World, but it is important to remember the context of where this show was airing.

There are things we can critique LoK on. It isn’t perfect. We can discuss the hiring of white voice actors (as a way to hold new media that is being created or will be created accountable, not as a way to just hate on LoK); we can discuss the voices within the writers room and the lack of diversity there. These are critiques that can be made of ATLA and LoK and countless of other media produced. This is a valid critique when used constructively. It is not meant to tear down an entire piece of media and everything that it has done for various communities, but rather to point to a flaw within the way media is being produced and the racist, sexist, and homophobic systems in place that determine what and how media is produced.

If we are to critique, we could look to reimagining how we create and consume media, not tearing down media that has already been produced and stands in a pivotal spot of the community. As Audre Lorde says:

For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.

If we are continually operating within the systems of oppression, we will never truly be able to dismantle them. Thus, to operate within the institutions of Nickelodeon, Netflix, Disney, etc. is to be beholden to the rules and constraints of a moderate, heteronormative, sexist, racist society. If creators stray too far from that line too quickly, there will be backlash. The perfect LGBTQ+ representation cannot exist while made within these institutions.

I would like to mention this statement is not to say that we cannot critique or boycott movies or shows that are performative in their diversity. There is no excuse for Hollywood after the successes of Black Panther (2018) and Crazy Rich Asians (2018) (and others) to not fill the crew and writers with the same representation being shown on the screen. We can, and should, hold production companies accountable––and given the internet, it is something we can do even early on in the production process.

I have gotten a little off track, but my point is, think about your critiques. Really ask yourself if it is a productive critique, or if it is critique that actually harms or is toxic to the community. Critiques are hard, I understand that. When we first start to think critically, it is easy to just jump on these “low hanging fruit” type critiques. It takes practice and comfortability learning and expanding your world view to construct a critique that looks at context from various point of views and experiences.

[m3mbuildergurgaon]

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[ladyonfire28]

Noémie Merlant for DeMorgen.

In this interview, Noémie talks about her modeling career, the César, Céline and mentions for the very first time that she suffered from eating disorder when she was working as a model...

(the interview was no in my native tongue, I used google translate so the translation might be approximative sometimes) 

Rising star Noémie Merlant: 'Being a model is terrible. It shouldn't exist’

(...) 

WEIGHED LIKE AN ANIMAL

How it feels to fall on an object may have remained somewhat abstract for Merlant; she understands what it is like to be viewed as an object herself. For eight years she was a much sought after photo and catwalk model. But she certainly does not have fond memories of that period. “When I was 17, I moved from a suburb near Nantes to Paris to study at the Cours Florent theater academy. Then I suddenly had to earn money to pay the rent. Since I am quite tall, I regularly did assignments as a model since I was 16. I expanded that activity in Paris. ”

Until she was 24, Merlant will string together shows and photo shoots, "but only because I couldn't live off my work as an actress before," she says. “Being a model is a terrible job. I think it shouldn't even exist. All the while I felt like just a piece of meat. You are weighed, measured and touched like an animal. And then comes the comment, "No, she's too fat. Here's a little too much grease running over the edge of her underpants. " They really talk about you like you're not just there. And worst of all, there is no protection whatsoever. At some point, rules were introduced to fight anorexia in the industry: those who weighed too little were no longer allowed to work. But in practice, it just came down to putting weights in our bra when the occupational physician came by. Totally irresponsible. ”

We ask carefully whether her time as a model has ever left her with an eating disorder. "It did," she replies quietly. “For a long time. While I never had a problem with food before. Being a model made me sick. ” She pauses. “it’s crazy, it’s actually the first time that I have said this in public. But it seems important to me to talk about it, because it remains taboo, and it’s also a disease that is very difficult to get rid of. I was lucky: cinema saved me. Because acting allowed me to express myself. While in the fashion world I was always expected to keep silent. As a model you are objectified in such a way that you lose your voice. In the long run, I also failed in my personal relationships to say what I felt. I dared not say no anymore”. 

THE POLANSKI SHOCK

Today is different, she recently proved at the ceremony of the Césars - the French Oscars. When the contested Roman Polanski, who is still wanted by the American court for the rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977, was awarded the best director prize for his historical drama J'accuse, actress Adèle Haenel stormed out of the room from. Merlant, who shared the screen with Haenel in Portrait de la jeune fille en feu, quickly joined her and strode out.

What went through her then? “Polanski had already won the Best Adapted Screenplay award earlier that night, so it wasn't just about getting his film an award. We were shocked that he was also lauded as the best director, and things were shouted in the audience like 'bravo, Roman!'. That felt very ambiguous at the time. ”

Their action has sparked a media storm, Merlant realizes. “There is a lot of division now, and there are hard words. But we also get a lot of support. We set something in motion by standing there and leaving. At least there is now real discussion about this theme. Not only on the internet, but also within families and groups of friends. And even though those discussions can sometimes run high, movement still seems to me better than standing still. ”

What does she think of the often heard argument that man should be separated from the artist? "I find that a very difficult issue," she admits honestly. “But when I look at myself, I don't feel like I become a different person when I act or write. Moreover, I do not think that cinema, or art in general, is above the law. I think what you do in real life is more important than cinema. ”

NAKED AGAINST YOUR WILL

In fact, good behavior in real life can also improve the quality of art, Merlant thinks. She learned that from director Céline Sciamma on the set of Portrait de la jeune fille en feu . “Céline is very good at listening to others. She does not impose her opinion and wishes. She just gives the others space and time to express herself. That egalitarian atmosphere constantly produced pleasant surprises, just because everyone dared to imagine things. If everyone feels comfortable and feels free to speak, it is very enriching. Mutual agreement is therefore a very positive thing. It does not mean that you are not allowed to say anything more, on the contrary: it means that everyone has the opportunity to speak out and be heard.”

The contrast with her experiences as a model could not be greater, Merlant concludes: “As a model I was not given the space to say no. If you are a minor, and they ask you to take your clothes off, it is very difficult to refuse. Because you have always been told that you have to like it - that that is your only reason for existence, even. So you start undressing, even if you don't feel like it. ”

And then our conversation is over, and it's time for ... the photo shoot. Does she not find it difficult to get back into the role of model? "I don't really care," she laughs. “I don't think it's the most exciting part of my job, but I'll take it in. The atmosphere with this kind of shoots is also much better than when I worked as a model. Because the power relation has now changed: I am no longer 'the model', but 'the actress'. Then a photographer suddenly speaks to you in a completely different way. I am no longer treated as a thing, but as a human being. ”