#but I’m still seeing atheist women post about it

[federal-bureau-of-nerds]

sometimes it seems like female solidarity on this website is a fucking scam

[starastrologyy]

Astrology Observations🤍

Hey everyone! I haven’t posted in a while as I do have a full time job. However, my chart readings are still open (the link is in my bio!) On the topic of chart readings, I get quite a few DMs asking if I do free chart readings. I unfortunately do not at this time, doing chart readings takes a lot of time and energy. I try my best to make my ‘observation’ posts as detailed as possible, and my patreon posts are all public! Meaning you don’t have to pay to view them. I have no problem answering a question about your chart for free but an in-depth chart reading will require you to purchase a reading🤍

Okay back to the post!

Having your Solar Return Sun in the 8th house isn’t as scary or foreboding as people make it seem. The 8th house IS the house of change, death, and transformation. However, I’ve seen this placement in a Solar Return chart as having something significant happen. Such as purchasing your own home, moving out of your parents home to go to college, a major change in your finances! Getting married and having to share your assets with your spouse etc.. This year will likely be one of the most pivotal years of your life. I’m not saying it will be an easy year (though it can be). However, you will likely enter your next solar return year in a completely different financial, physical or even emotional head space.

On the topic of solar returns, if your solar return Neptune makes a conjunction to your Ascendant, you may find that people are very drawn to you that year. I’ve seen this manifest as people all of a sudden paying close attention to you, or they may be idealizing/glamorizing you in some way. In terms of romance, you are likely to have many suitors this year! This is especially true if you have planets such as the Sun, Moon, Jupiter/Neptune (ruler of Ascendant) in your Solar return 5th house.

If someone’s ascendant falls into your 10th house, you probably like being seen with them. As in, you take pride in other people knowing that you are associated with them. Alternatively, it can mean that you feel as if they have the potential to impact your reputation or your professional success! (This can be in a positive or a negative way). One of the most straightforward manifestations of this overlay is that the ascendant person could literally be older than you, or they can be someone you look up to in some way.

Chiron in the 9th house can manifest as growing up believing in a specific religion/philosophy, only to drastically change your beliefs as a young adult or as an adult. For example, growing up in a strict Christian home, only to become atheist. I also can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this placement manifesting as someone not going to college or someone dropping out of college for whatever reason!

If you’re a woman and you have harsh Venus-Pluto aspects (square,opposition and sometimes the conjunction) you may find that other women can be very envious of you. With the conjunction, you may find yourself attracting a lot of “frenemies” where you can tell that they are not fond of you, but for whatever reason they still hang around you. Excessive and constant comments about your appearance especially in childhood are also a common manifestation of having hard Venus/Pluto aspects. The conjunction specifically!

If you have an earth sign (especially Capricorn) over your 5th or 7th house cusps. Your friends/people close to you may say that you have a “type” when it comes to dating/romantic partners! Its not necessarily about looks (though it can be) but you always seem to go for the same “type of guy”. However, if you have a sign such as Gemini or Aquarius over the 5th/7th house cusps your friends/family may even be shocked at how different your romantic partners have been to each other physically & personality wise!

You’re likely to share some 3H,4H and 9H synastry with some of your closest friends! You may also see Saturn sextile Ascendant or Venus trine Saturn synastry aspects in some of your long-term friendships!

In terms of familial synastry, you may very well have one of your big three signs (sun,moon, ascendant) being the same sign that is on the 5th house cusp of one of your parents charts! Alternatively, you may have a personal planet that is the same as the sign that is on the 5th house of your parents composite chart! Interestingly, I have often seen similarities between the angles in parent-child synastry! For example let’s say you have your rising sign in Aquarius , one or both of your parents may have their IC, descendent, or midheaven in Aquarius! I’ve actually seen this happening a few times!

TW:Mental Health/Illness

Talking about mental health/mental illness is always a very controversial topic in the Astro community. No, Astrology cannot take the place of an actual professional medical diagnosis. I am also not a medical professional, so please do not self-diagnose. However, I believe that Astrology should be used in a way that enables us to get a holistic understanding of ourselves. Having said this, Mercury square Neptune in a birth chart is an aspect that I have seen countless times in the charts of people who have opened up with their mental health struggles. BPD & substance dependency/abuse are arguably the most common ones I’ve seen with this placement. On the more positive side, people with this aspect often have some kind of creative/artistic talent such as being able to sing,draw, act etc… individuals with this placement are also likely to advocate for mental health awareness, or the end to the stigmatization of mental illness!

[oksurethisismyname]

Hiiiii as a queer person living in the Bible Belt of the USA, I’m envisioning a “Christian trauma AU / general theology AU” because you know my main focus is always Sanji. This assumed that we’re in the USA, modern era, and I guess maybe a college or post grad AU for how they meet each other? This is a lonnnnnnnng text post so scroll at your own risk. To keep it from being toooo long I’m also sticking to east blue crew.

Hear me out:

There are a million different sects of Christianity so we’ve got a ton of angles to use.

Garp is catholic (but think FRENCH laïcité instead of American Amy Coney Barret Supreme Court justice weird catholic cult), Dragon straight up rebels against the strict structure and goes about his atheist ways. Neither of them really raise Luffy anyway so 💁���

Luffy ends up being agnostic. It’s not that he doesn’t believe in a higher power but he knows he needs to take action and that he can’t rely on a higher power to fix the problems of the world. Very Albert Camus, revolting against the absurd and holding himself to a higher responsibility in life

Zoro comes from a Shinto or Buddhist background. He’s not judging anyone’s religious beliefs unless they’re harming others.

Nami has religious trauma from the Baptist church that set up in her town and made it impossible to be herself. Belle Mere is so clearly queer and she’s harassed and dies at the hands of some zealous bigots who were emboldened by the words of the local Baptist church pastor (Arlong)

Ussop comes from a chill Protestant background (maybe Presbyterian?) But he’s more of a CEO (Christmas Easter Only) in terms of actually attending any sort of church. Honestly, with his dad out of the picture and his mom dying, he just had bigger things on his mind like living every day.

Finally, Sanji. Oh boy, Sanji has major “Quiverfull movement Christian” trauma from Judge. For those who don’t know, quiverfull is a Christian extremist movement where the idea is to have as many kids as possible and adhere to very strict purity rules and gender roles. Contraception isn’t allowed. Women wear long skirts and non fitted shirts to hide their womanly form (ew), and most of the time these parents homeschool there kids to avoid the “temptation” or “impurity” of modern society.

Judge had these 5 kids who he’s raised in this faith but Sanji never liked how Judge treated his mom. Why was Sora supposed to be “seen and not heard?” Why was it ok for his brothers to use scripture to bully and hurt and spread hate? Why would a loving god create women just to subjugate them? Judge wouldn’t like this, and once Sora passes away (probably because Judge wouldn’t let her seek medical care post birth of the quadruplets, so her health deteriorated for years), Judge locks him up and makes him do all sorts of horrible “prayer” and “repentance” practices, which are really just abuse.

Sanji would maybe escape when they go into town to get something mundane like a printer or a new wifi router (which only judge is allowed to use the internet). He’d probably bolt first chance he gets and when he meets Zeff, Zeff can recognize the signals of abuse. He takes Sanji in and even though Sanji never believed women were less than men, he still has years of trauma and gender roles beaten into him that he has to unpack.

His choice to cook? That’s a huge rebellion. Wearing tight fitting suits that look sinful? That’s a middle finger to his dad. He always treats women like goddesses because he feels so much guilt for the sins of his father. When he finally joins the Strawhats, he’s so overwhelmed with how free and nonjudgmental they are (of important stuff, obviously they’ll still poke fun at small stuff) that he feels comfortable dropping little comments here and there, opening up.

Ussop will be comforting Nami about something and sanji will tell him is so refreshing to see a man be so nurturing. He goes to Ussop often, asking how he’s so confident sharing his emotions.

Nami will be ordering them around and he’ll do everything she says with a smile, just happy to see her free to do what she wants (which is be a bossy bitch)

Zoro will talk about Kuina one night and Sanji will sob, overwhelmed with joy that she got to have all that strength and a friend like zoro even when faced with hurtful gender expectations.

Luffy above all is the most jarring for him. He grew up hearing about sin and sinners and temptation and evil but when he sees Luffy doing his thing, taking down bad people, fighting for the underdog, he knows that if there is a God (he she it they? Who cares), Luffy is doing their work.

——————

Bonus Gay Cherry on top is that Sanji meets Iva and gets into drag, starts performing, does some events, and through that gender liberation is able to find some peace in who he is, tucking away all the hate he was born into. And he ends up with zoro the end bye

[sapphosremains]

about

hi! i’m grace. i’m anglocatholic, progressive, side a, and i love theology. chorister, flautist, organist. wannabe priest and/or academic! autistic. she/her

messages, prayer requests, and questions in my asks are very welcome!

research interests and areas: use of non-israelite women as plot devices and girardian scapegoats in numbers 25, biblical rape narratives, women and gender in the bible, christology, marian theology, trauma theology, female bodies in the bible

currently reading: The Absence of God in Biblical Rape Narratives, Leah Schulte

currently also discerning ordained ministry...

goodreads here but be aware i only started it today so um its empty i promise i read but yk

please DNI:

transphobes, homophobes, racists, etc, ESPECIALLY if you spread your hatred in the name of Christ’s love :/

if you aren’t willing to have a respectful conversation! happy to debate most things if said debate is done in a respectful and kind manner, but unkindness will result in an instant block, especially if related to the above point ^

if you are a christian and don’t believe that love is the great and first commandment (matthew 22:36-40) (this is a christians only rule for a reason dw if you're jewish or otherwise and don't recognise the NT i'm not gonna scream at you you're welcome here, see below)

please interact:

THEOLOGY NERDS

music people

people with interesting respectful opinions backed up by logic and evidence. if you're side b or side x or y or hold any other religious viewpoint that i don't agree with, you are still welcome. the only time i draw a line is in the DNIs above - essentially just don't come to my page to yell at me or others because this is a space of love and respect. most of the time i understand where your arguments are coming from, i've read the essays in support of your argument etc, and i get it, it's just not what i believe and stand up for. that's fine, you're still welcome.

baby Christians! or doubters! or atheists/agnostics etc! or other belief systems and religions! i have been in your shoes a thousand times, and you are safe here if you don't believe, or you doubt, or you don't know what to believe, or you're trying to believe. yes i am a religious blog, but i will not force religion onto you, even if my posts read a little preachy! i write for a religious audience in general but you are welcome here and i love you.

if you need support in any way! always here <3

reminder that my blog is way more aesthetic here

[odinsblog]

!!

As a Black person who was raised in the Pentecostal Church (mandatory service every Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat and 2x on Sundays), it’s just sO funny for me hearing how the Southern Baptist church is kicking out churches with women pastors..???

My paternal and maternal grandmothers were both preachers, and my mom and most of my aunts and and and

I was in my mid to late teens before I even attended a church with a male pastor, and it was so jarring

I was like, “is this even a real church? because I don’t see any women in the pulpit”

They had to convince me that it was for real

This isn’t a post to convince anyone to be pro religion or pro atheist - just me sharing some personal experiences

BUT..!! I will say one thing: nobody on earth can convince me that if churches with women preachers & pastors were more common, you wouldn’t have nearly as much sexual abuse going on

Not that women are incapable of sexual abuse on minors, but I’m sorry, in small Black churches where practically everyone knew each other’s parents and children? Nah

If a grown man was trying to have ANY kind of “relationship” with a young girl (aka, a child), the moms would have had a fish fry with his peen. At the very least, they woulda shamed tf outta him to the point where he wouldn’t have shown his face

(and now that I think about it, that might be precisely why a couple of the older dudes seemingly vanished. at least, I don’t think the women straight up murked them … I don’t think)

The problem that a lot of these Pentecostal churches had was actually the exact opposite: they kept their girls on such strict lockdown that the very first time they “fell in love” with their crush, many of them got pregnant—because they had zero experience with dating and learning how to just BE around boys, unchaperoned

And as far as the women Pentecostal pastors violating young boys? Again, not saying that it couldn’t happen or that it never ever happened, but again just going on my lived experiences, the 10 - 17yr old Black boy who could keep his mouth shut about it was about as common as a unicorn

Ofc we all (the teenage boys) crushed on some of the younger women who were in their 20s and early 30s, and if ANY of us so much as got a kiss, it would have been on the front page of every local newspaper and all over the 11 o’clock evening news. We held those kinds of secrets about as well as a sieve holds water

And finally, I’m not forgetting about LGBTQ people either, at least I don’t think so anyway

One of my siblings is gay, and ofc I had no clue

Not necessarily bc I “missed” anything (although I’m sure I did that too), but because being LGBTQ in a Black church?? (any church, really) was more trouble than it was worth. The threat of becoming an exile in your own community was, unfortunately, very real

SN: I’ll forever be proud of the fact that I was the very first person who they felt comfortable enough to come out to

Anyway, it’s still funny to me that churches are willing to potentially turn away 50% of members at a time when church membership is shrinking

[fuckyeahilike]

This is so interesting to me, so I'm making a post addressing it.

Readers of this blog are aware that I’ve been puzzling away at this irrational persecution of one of the most innocuous writers I have ever known, one that’s been going on for, what, 15 years, at least? So whenever a new piece of information seems to present itself I jump at the opportunity to make heads or tails of it.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but this appears to be saying that:

1 - Stephenie Meyer is a card-carrying, tithe-paying member of the Mormon religion.

2 - This religion is “brutal” (?) So paying them money is being a willing accomplice of their brutality against someone or other.

3 - The brutal ideology of this religion is present in her Twilight series of books. This also makes them artistically invalid.

One of these days someone should add to the long list of misogynist rules the rule that every woman author must always be accused of writing “harmful” ideology that literally murders people; her authorship must either be erased and re-assigned to someone else, or her cultural legacy in itself should be erased altogether; and she should either be denied payment for her work or the money should be taken away from her and redistributed to someone/something else who is always more deserving - but then who isn’t more deserving than a vagina-haver?

Sound familiar? To a feminist everything about the idea of how women should be silenced and invisible and their ideas and glory stolen by a man, and not get paid for their work or their money be given to a man, everything about this is only too depressingly familiar.

So, addressing the accusations:

1 - It’s not a crime to be a member of the Mormon church, and everything I’ve read about them makes them an American equivalent of the Catholic church, a religion I am infinitely more familiar with as it’s the traditional religion in the European country where I live. 

Meaning that no one is forced to be a member or to follow their rules, and that those who choose to disobey or to leave it are not met with horrible punishments like with Jehovah’s Witnesses, who practice the horrific shunning.

Having said that, where’s the proof that Smeyer is a Mormon? She’s lived her life so far as a libfem, not as a trad wife, and Mormon is as Mormon does. I know Catholics and none of them is a tradcath. None of them supports the sexual abuse of children perpetrated by so many men in frock. They’re still Catholic alright, but in their own way, and they’re not responsible for the evil that others do.

2 - When I looked up in what way Mormonism is problematic what turned up was that Mormons have tried to pressure law makers into not adopting gay-friendly laws, like gay marriage.

And? There appears to be no such thing as a global religion that isn’t homophobic. Why aren’t other famous authors also being held responsible for the homophobia of the religion they were brought up in by their parents? Is it because they have a penis instead of a vagina?

Show me proof that Smeyer has ever personally subscribed to homophobic beliefs, instead of saying that she is responsible for the homophobia of others. If you can’t show me proof that SHE is homophobic, don’t bother replying. We’re all busy people here.

And finally,

3 - In what way are her books Mormon and harmful in content, assuming that by “Mormon” people typically mean a very Conservative, Christian ideology? Is it in the fact that the protagonist is an atheist feminist woman who does what she wants? Is it in the fact that there are only two Christian characters in the book, both of whom are pro-abortion? Is it in the fact that Twilight presents as fact that the Quileute spirituality is real and Christian spirituality is purely subjective? We see Quileute transform into the wolf that is the Spirit Animal of their nation all the time. At what point in the story does Jesus or the Holy Mary make an appearance to prove that they are real? 

Remember, I have read the novels. Show me the screen caps of the parts of the books where Jesus shows up proving that he is real, or don’t bother wasting my time. 

Finally, it must be said that an undisputed genius like William Shakespeare (a gay man, btw) was astonishingly antisemitic, misogynistic and just generally against the empowerment of oppressed demographics. And no one is ever going to cancel the Bard because a) he had a penis; and b) he was a genius. 

I’m not saying that Smeyer is also a genius, even though you have to have a genius IQ in order to win a scholarship like she did as a young girl. I’m merely saying that it’s not true that morally objectionable content is also automatically poor in artistic quality. If that were the case then Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew would be rubbish. But this is American puritanism and its mania for persecuting others. 

And it’s this puritanical thirst for persecution that Stephenie Meyer has been dealing with for the past 15 years.

[db-1986]

BEFORE ANYTHING, THIS ISNT AN ATTACK NOR A HATE ASK SJEKKWJWJ!!

Not to be that person, and I PROMISE I mean no offence nor to sound like a crybaby but.. not all ‘religious’ people are brainwashed psychopaths with no conscience or morals, and I’m worried that’s starting to become the way everyone sees us now. It’s just that there’s been stereotypes people idolise and follow, and it ruins the image of all of us (us muslims, we’re still nicknamed terrorists in European countries lmfao). They make up some stupid questionable rules and then convince people that god said so (like yawning is suddenly Haram?? Hello??? 😭😭)

Maybe it’s because here in Baghdad they aren’t crazily attached to the religion (same with countries like Lebanon and Turkey). Like for example, we don’t all wear hijabs if we’re females, a lot of us wear jeans and shirts (as women) and clothes are getting more showy over time, and there’s actually lots of lgbts here that people probably aren’t aware of (I’m a bisexual myself with a ftm boyfriend all the way from Britain and we still coexist peacefully even though he’s an atheist and I’m a Muslim). Oh and idfk what that ‘drawing is Haram’ rule, I’m an artist and everyone around me where I live encourages me to keep going 😭.

Our actions aren’t driven by ‘god’s rules’ either and I find it incredibly pathetic how anyone would only force themselves to do good because ‘god said so’, and it really tells you a lot about the person.

I mean, I’ve seen some really brow-raising delusional shit being said and excused as ‘Allah’s rules’, even though as I said how people aren’t strict here, these kinds of people still exist everywhere smh. The other day I was explaining to a girl the story of Oppenheimer and the minute I said he’s a Jew, she scrunched her nose up and looked at me all funny. I asked her what’s wrong, and she said ‘why are you telling me a story of a J e w ??’. And I tell you, my jaw had never dropped so hard. 💀

Not to mention, I got sexually assaulted by a fluent Islamic Education teacher when I was seven. So yeah, there’s many hypocrites who hide under the cover of ‘religion’, and it ruins the image of us all as a majority.

But yeah! I apologise for the ramble. I’ve seen your comments on a few posts and I’m extremely sorry for your experience with these sorts of people. I promise we aren’t all like this and I hope you never have to deal with those again. Hope you have a wonderful day, and I hope this message was at least some little ray of hope in this nasty world. x 🌼

Thank you for your time to write all of this out. You are very much correct that there are decent religious people, and for the most part, I have not problems with people willing to practice behind closed doors and not try to convert others.

Unfortunately there are many that don't and make their beliefs other people's problem. They are the types of people my comments are directed towards.

People like yourself who are more then willing to have a conversation and use reason, I hold in high regard. I would like to tip my hat to you and thank you for contacting me. After reading my comments, I cannot see it having been an easy decision. I am very sorry to have heard of your own terrible experience. No one should have to go through that. I hope you have a wonderful day.

[automatismoateo]

I feel bad for coming out as an Atheist via /r/atheism

I feel bad for coming out as an Atheist Just for context, I’m 19 years old. A couple of weeks ago, I came out to my parents that I was an atheist, and I that I didn’t want to come to church anymore. They weren’t mad or anything, they were more concerned for my salvation. I tried to explain that there was no good evidence for me to believe, but they still wouldn’t let me leave. What was worse is that my parents have experiences that lead them to believe. On my Dad’s side, his father was a raging alcoholic and drug addict. But when he came to the church, he was able to change. Which lead my dad to become a pastor. On my mom’s side, her family was very poor, she had menstrual problems (and her family had a history of barren women), she got stage four cancer, and her father was an also a raging alcoholic. But her family came to the church, her father stopped drinking (which allowed her family to make more money), she recovered from cancer after being told she had 7 days to live, just one day after making one prayer, and she was able to give birth to me and my brother after being told she will not have any children by the doctors. My mom even cried when she told me this. I tried to explain to them that I believe there testimonies are true, but that doesn’t prove that God is real, and there testimonies have natural explanations, but they don’t believe me. And they believe that I’m close minded and won’t believe any evidence for God. The church I go to also does good things for people. Like charity work and changing people for the better. My mom even told me about a women who became blind as an adult, and was able to see again by prayer. And now I feel bad for not believing and trying not to be involved with the church. And now I’ve written this post asking what should I do about my situation. Should I believe what they have said about God is true or not? And what do I say to them? I have thought about lying to them and say I not actually an atheist. But I was just testing them to see how they react. That way I can be on good terms with them and not make them sad. I will also update this post if I get more details on my mom’s stories if necessary I should also mention that my parents said I shouldn’t give up my faith and give God a chance. As such, they’re still making go to church. And they say I can’t be a Christian without going to church. Submitted October 15, 2023 at 11:08PM by _Sum_1_ (From Reddit https://ift.tt/zqApyIv)

[slipperymeteor]

Bi Men by Women; Women in Relationships with Bisexual Men — Maria Palotta-Chiarolli

I started reading this a couple months ago after ordering this book-after seeing this book in the references of either Vaneet Mehta’s Bisexual Men Exists or Julia Shaw’s Bi and I-just-gotta-have-this-book.

But now it’s been several months and I’m only halfway. The problem is: this book is very academic. With my partner we recently read Boyslut by Zachary Zane and it reads very easily. This.. is not that.

This book is still a treasure though, and I thought one thing that would be interesting (to me at least) is to copy the summary of each chapter and note how the themes in this book resonate/not with my experiences and relationship, being a bisexual man in a marriage to a straight woman.

Here’s how Palotta-Chiarolli organized this 541-page book:

Introduction

Theories and debates

Women talk about their partners’ bisexualities (“you know, the old Kinsey scale”)

The women’s sexualities (“I have a sexuality too”)

Negotiating the beginning of the relationship

From closet to confrontation; changing course midstream

Staying the course or splitting up?

Rules in relationships

Masculinity, misogyny, privilege, and power: (“the problem is that he’s a man, not that he’s bisexual”)

“What do we tell the kids?”

Spreading disease

Navigating the heteroworld

Homonormativity

“The priest told him to marry me and he’d go straight.”

Family honor and shame

Erasures in health services

Final words

We’ll just start with chapter 1 below the fold, and I’ll make a separate post for each chapter as I go (I’m only on chapter 7 so far).

MPC interviewed 78 Australian women. Age range:19-65. Mostly the research relies on women who came forward and responded to recruitment flyers and emails to various support groups plus snowball sampling.

Of the women/couples: 30 are in Sydney/NSW, 28 in Melbourne/Victoria, 8 in Adelaide, the rest are scattered. Most of the women and their partners are of European descents (Anglo-Australian), with a minority of Pakeha NZ (4 men and 2 women), mixed Chinese (2 women), one of each: Egyptian, Ghanaian, indigenous, and Chinese.

Roughly half are atheist/agnostic/unspecified religion which includes Wicca and pagan, the other half are mainly various flavors of Christianity (catholic Protestant anglicans), and two Muslim converts (both Anglo-Australians).

24 couples are married. About the same number divorced/separated from their partner. The rest are de-facto together but not married. The married couples have been married for a long time: 2/3 of them 15 years of longer. The separated/divorced ones separate after being together/married for fifteen years! A lot of them have children, only a minority did not: 15 couples. Not all of the men identify as bisexual, 14 of them are tabulated as Gay. (And of the 14, 10 of them are now separated or divorced).

Why this book? MPC: women and their bi male partners are subjected to underrepresentation/erasure, misrepresentation/biphobia/bi-negativity, outdated representation, homogenized representation.

Quotes:

Steinman (2011) found that bisexual men were less likely than bisexual women to publicly and analytically articulate their experiences.

[grahamstoney]

How To Look Spiritual, Even When You're Not

New Post has been published on https://grahamstoney.com/spirituality/look-spiritual-even-when-youre-not

How To Look Spiritual, Even When You're Not

Looking spiritual can be a bit of a problem if you’re an atheist. This can make it particularly hard to crack onto the cute girl with the aum tattoo on her shoulder. Simply pointing out that all that chakra stuff is bullshit generally doesn’t go down too well.

I hang around with a lot of new age spiritual types these days because they tend to be more empathic and less judgemental than your average person. Less discerning perhaps too, but I’m OK with that. I may not share their wacky belief systems but I still want to fit in.

So here’s how to look spiritual even when you’re not:

Go To Yoga

Put aside all the spiritual business for a moment: yoga is a great workout, the stretching is excellent for your body, and the guy/girl ratio is the most favourable you’re ever likely to come across. I keep a yoga mat permanently installed in my car for emergencies, and women comment on it all the time. The only time I actually go to yoga is when a woman invites me, but that happens more times than you’d think. You may still be an asshole deep down, but because you’re in a yoga class the women will think you’re a decent guy.

Talk About Energy

Forget what you learned in high school Physics and Chemistry about the different forms of energy; that science thing is far too limiting. Energy is everywhere! Energy is everything. If you have any doubts, just quote Einstein’s famous formula E = mc2. That justifies describing pretty much anything as “energy”.

When you see a cute girl, don’t compliment her on her looks. Women hate that. Instead, tell her “Wow, you have a great energy!”. Try to keep a straight face while doing it and before long you’ll be mixing your kundalini with hers.

Study Tarot, Tantra, Chakras and Astrology

If you want to be able to pass for a new-age spiritualist, you need to get some basic ancient disciplines under your belt. Anything discovered in the last hundred years will leave you looking like a post-modernist, which definitely isn’t good for your spiritual image. So get down with the local wiccans, study some tarot, find yourself a tantric goddess to learn from, get your chakras aligned and find out when venus is transiting mars.

Change Your Vocabulary

A few subtle changes to your vocabulary can go a long way towards boosting your spiritual karma. It’s not as if you actually have to learn to speak Sanskrit or anything. Just try replacing these simple phrases with more enlightened equivalents:

Unenlightened

Enlightened

Thank You Namaste (add praying hand gesture for additional effect) Listening Holding space Breathing Energising The Body Relaxing Meditating Lucky Good Karma Guilty Bad Karma Die Cross Over, Transition Lust Kundilini I’m Tired My Chakras Need Aligning God Higher Power

Basically, the more esoteric euphemisms you can use, the more spiritual you’ll sound. The more spiritual you sound, the more you can get away with.

Declare Your Home An Ashram

In order to position yourself as a spiritual leader, you need to have an ashram of your own. I was really impressed to hear that Ratu Bagus of Bio Energy Shaking Meditation fame had an ashram in Bali, until a friend of mine who ended up there by a sheer freakish coincidence described it as “just a house, really”. So you only live in a unit now? It’s OK to start small with your first ashram. For extra bonus points, declare your ashram clothing optional and see how many faithful converts you can find.

Learn To Sit In Lotus Position

Never mind that you’ve been sitting in chairs since 3rd Grade, cross-legged is the new cool when it comes to looking spiritual. Even when you are sitting on a chair, you should adopt a cross-legged sitting posture at all times so you look like you now live in a permanent state of meditation.

For extra points, learn to sit in the true lotus position where your feet are shoved right up near your armpits. This will help work out your hamstrings, and give the doctors a good laugh down in Accident and Emergency when you turn up stuck in that position. But hey, plenty of people will be laughing at you now that you’ve adopted an esoteric spiritual lifestyle so get used to it.

Wear A Flowing Robe

Finally, if you want to be taken really seriously as a spiritual guru, you just ain’t going to cut it in a suit or jeans and a T-shirt. You need to get with the program and don a flowing white robe. This gives the illusion that you’re hovering slightly about the ground as you walk, which is good for your spiritual street cred. After all, the street is generally filthy and frankly your hallowed feet are above that kind of thing now.

[ms-hells-bells]

Hello:) so I just started learning about radical feminism like 2 days ago and have been introduced to a lot of concepts that I never really considered before and it’s been great and I agree with most of the sentiment expressed by the community but something I haven’t really been able to understand/support is the whole ‘gender critical’ thing? Or the intentional misgendering of trans people? I don’t know if maybe I’m looking at the wrong posts or interpreting them entirely wrong but would you mind explaining why this is being done? Like why is everyone calling trans women “he” and vice versa? Isn’t it insensitive to not respect what people identify as? Or do you have any recommended sources I could learn from or even just what I’m supposed to put into google to learn more about it, literally anything would help lol. Or of course you can ignore this if you don’t feel like answering, thank you anyway:)

we don't see pronouns as a matter of respect or disrespect, but simply descriptors of one's sex. wearing different clothes or getting surgery done doesn't change your sex. oppression and roles in the world are based in sex, so it's important to be able to identify sex and talk about it. gender is not real, it's not an identity, it's a hierarchy men created-masculinity and femininity- in order to oppress women. there is no 'inner gender', you can't identify as something you are not and have never been, because apart from actual biological sex, there is nothing that links women or men together. there's no way women are or think. with that in mind, what's the difference between a trans woman and a man in a dress that chose to take estrogen and get surgical breasts, but still sees himself as a man? how would the world tell the difference? if you say 'identity', how do you base laws and politics in a feeling in someone's head that has no solid basis? no one is able to describe what a woman is, if they don't consider it being an adult human female, they're either unable to answer, give circular reasoning ("a woman is a woman"), or are straight up sexist stereotypes.

so, essentially, think of genderists and transgender people as christians, while radfems are atheists. we simply do not believe in the notion of gender identity, which is described by them as a de facto soul. us not believing it doesn't mean we hate them or want them dead, us using sexed pronouns isn't meant to be disrespect.

here's a massive source for radical feminist points, i hope it helps.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-i6zYkIbnHqljJ6kw0aIlJu3qX_fsRSl6GOgnB1knbQ/edit

i also recommend looking at @radicallyaligned's sources, she is often the entry point for a lot of people interested, like you :)

[lorei-writes]

Basic Guide on How Not To: Slavic Characters

Well, as most of you have probably realised by now, I’m Polish. Truthfully, I am quite upset now. I generally tend to avoid most content involving Slavic people, because well, stereotypes are plentiful and I have only one stomach - there is only so much anger I can fit inside of it. However, this time I was merrily watching an episode of a series, for goodnight sleep, and got smacked in the face with just that... So, I suppose, let’s use my anger towards something - hopefully - productive. This is a very hard post for me to write. It may be closer to my personal experience, although I did try to be more general.

Contents:

Where Do I Even Begin or Sad Slav Filter

Common Stereotypes - Professions & Jobs

Common Stereotypes - Characteristics

Few basic issues with languages & names

Where Do I Even Begin or Sad Slav Filter

Grey buildings, empty plazas, ominous blocks of flats with walls up to the very sky. Snow. Gloom faces. Dark nights. Red. Gold.

To start with, be aware that this sort of image is oftentimes not only written into stories or presented in picture-based media, but that I had the displeasure of seeing it being used for cover art for several books.

What I jokingly call sad Slav filter is presenting the reality of Eastern Europe* through, well, pessimistic glasses. The architecture speaks of terror, of being post-communist state, of never having recovered. The streets portrayed in such fashion are gloom, unwelcoming, threatening in a way. Winter is oftentimes the season of choice, to add an extra layer of depressive atmosphere and cold. Nobody smiles. One may say that usage of gold and red brightens the image - however, those connect directly to the communist flag, thus locking the entire space in a rather obvious context.

The reality?

Yes, old blocks of flats built in 60s or so still exist. Some are even grey and in dire need of being re-painted! However... Many are not in such a state. In Poland, the common colours for elevation of such buildings are white, pastel orange, pastel yellow and pastel green, oftentimes put together in combination of stripes or other geometric shapes. What also should be noted is that such estates were designed with plenty trees and other plants around them in mind, as to accommodate for a development of a community - especially for older blocks of flats, those are most likely situated nearby a primary school and a kindergarten, not to mention stores and other services. It is not uncommon for playgrounds to be present as well. You could also expect small flower gardens.

Parks exist here. Architecture does not begin and end at the blocks of flats, especially not in the major cities - most, if not all, have old towns or historical representative streets. Buildings dating back to medieval still do exist in plenty of places. Churches & Tserkovs - those are oftentimes tourists sites for a reason! 

It may happen that the side of a building will be decorated with a mural. It is not very common, but does happen. Here are some examples (from Poland). The designs sometimes relate to other works of art, or to some forms of traditional art.

mural by NeSpoon, a street artist who incorporates motives of koronka ludowa [a type of lace] into her artwork

Overall, I come from a poorer region of Poland, from a small town to add to that. The one thing I would list about it? Flower gardens. All of my neighbours had flower gardens in front of their houses. In the recent years, I’ve seen plenty of new houses being built, plenty of renovations being made. Especially in spring and summer, it is all far from grey. Some major cities started investing in fields of wild flowers, as to aid pollinators. And winters? Well, the way it should be (as climate change shows and I have not seen a proper winter in a while), they should be snowy. Yes, it may involve a rather depressing image, at least in places where snow cannot just rest over the ground and glitter... But I do think it may be the case in plenty parts of Europe, as winter days are overall shorter as well, which hardly helps :”) Eastern Europe as a region is not locked in an eternal winter.

People may not be smiling, but they are not frowning either - it is the... Neutral resting face.

*- that being said, Eastern Europe is not inhabited only by Slavic people, even if it is often presented like so

Common Stereotypes - Professions & Jobs

List of common stereotypical jobs/professions usually performed by characters of Slavic descent:

a member of a mafia (Russian mafia)

a drug dealer

a spy

a prostitute

a maid / a cleaner

As you can see, nearly all of those involve crime, the only exception being a maid / a cleaner (which, I’d argue, speaks of a lower socio-economic status). If you do not plan to have more than one Slavic character in your work, I advise you to avoid those - especially if you wanted to make your character Russian. I do not think I have to explain why representing a group of people nearly exclusively as criminals is hurtful. 

Certain stereotypes exist in media. They do influence the reality. I have seen covers of books about spy programs (non-fiction, referencing an issue from 2000s) which involved clear references to communism (+ used the most hideous Sad Slav Filter I have ever seen). The title suggested all Russians are spies. This is not okay.

If you want to have a character who is performing any of the above, and want to make them Slavic, but then never have their heritage influence anything about them - ask yourself why.

EDIT: Do allow me to also add that being a sex-worker may not be a choice for all Slavic women. Sex-trafficking of Eastern Europeans is a real issue. You should be mindful of that when writing a story - even more so as it affects some countries more than others. Research is due.

Common Stereotypes - Characteristics

Common hurtful characteristics in depicting slavic characters:

uneducated or otherwise stupid

rude, loud, uncultured, violent

an alcoholic / addicted to drugs

extremely conservative / religious

Do I have to explain it? Yes, alcoholism is a social issue, same as addiction to drugs. Yes, some people are conservative and / or religious. However! We are not a monolith! Social issues are not the general rule! 

Scale of conservativeness and religiousness also differs greatly by age group and region. In Poland we have an entire category of practising atheists - non-believers, usually from smaller communities, who appear in church once or twice a year, despite not believing. Due to social pressure. What religion? This differs greatly too! Roman catholic, Greek orthodox, Muslim? Slavic people are not a monolith.

(about women specifically):

beautiful (must put plenty effort in her physical appearance)

looks for a rich (western) husband

submissive

obedient 

Well. This ties into the greater issue of objectification and sexualisation of Slavic and Eastern European women. Admittedly, such portrayal [including all of those] is more so present in online spaces, if you turn a few wrong corners down the roads of the internet :) It is dehumanising.

If your Slavic character happens to be a woman and must be extremely sexy femme fatal spy - this reeks of stereotypes.

Few basic issues with languages & names

As I’ve hinted already, it appears that oftentimes Slavic = Russian. This, however, is not true, both language-wise and culture-wise. Despite sharing some common elements, Slavic cultures do differ. Polish characters, unless they are 50+ years old, won’t generally speak Russian. Czech and Ukrainian are different. Ukrainian is not just another version of Russian.

I decided to single out this paragraph for one reason: authors oftentimes do not bother to check for appropriate names and just use whatever seems right. If you want to write a Slavic character, do make some research. 

The common mess-ups I’ve seen:

inappropriate form of the surname (about Russian surnames in particular; giving a woman a male version of the surname, giving a man the female version of the surname - Slavic languages are heavily gendered!)

claiming a character is of nationality B, while giving them a surname which is most definitely speaking of nationality A (e.g: Polish character with a clearly Hungarian name & surname)

wrong spelling

using very rare forms of names for all the characters written into the story (it sounds very unnatural - in one particular case it seemed to have been done on purpose, as I’ve had to google whether some names were even names. They were used as code names for few organisations during WWII. That sort of uncommon).

nicknames derived from the actual names that would not work at all (Żegota -> Zeg; It just would not work like this. It would be literally more likely for a character named Żegota to be nicknamed/renamed Staszek than for somebody to call him Zeg. It does not only not include the ż sound, but it also ends with g - which a Polish person would simplify to k when speaking. In other words Zeg -> zek. This, meanwhile, is not only not exactly pleasant to say, but it also sounds like a grammatical form of another word, albeit pronounced with a heavy lisp - “river”; It is possible to find appropriate nicknames online).

Also, unless you want for some character to be a dick, do not make them purposefully mispronounce the name of a Slavic character or have them name them after an object/thing. (Calling “Maciej” by “Magic” because they can’t be bothered to learn to pronounce the name or at least try to get it close is not nice).

[inmyarmswrappedin]

Yesterday I was fucking around on Spotify, looking for podcasts about Skams. There are still so few tbh, if I knew the first thing about podcasts I’d throw my hat in the ring lmao. But one thing I did find was a podcast in Spanish that managed to land an interview with Begoña, the eskam showrunner.

The interview was posted on December last year, and so it covered the whole show. They talked about a lot of things, some of it stuff she’s never really talked about at length, so I’ll maybe do another post summarizing the rest because it was all really interesting. But one thing that I think we haven’t had a lot of info about is how the writers/directors approached Amira’s season.

Out of the things Begoña said, what stood out to me is how she focused on the aspect of restriction as a part of being a Muslim/being religious in general. She explained how Hajar had been an invaluable part of the process because she explained to Begoña why being a Muslim/hijabi/religious was worth it despite all the restrictions. 

This is complicated to talk about for me as an atheist, because I simply don’t know what it’s like to be religious. So... I think religion certainly contains a restriction aspect, at least as far as Abrahamic religions. There’s lent for instance. You’re not supposed to have premarital sex. 

On the other hand, I feel like lots of people opt not to do certain things, regardless of their beliefs. It’s not like people only ever ~restrict themselves~ because of religion. 

I am in no way saying these things are comparable to being a Muslim (or religious in any way), but some people choose not to eat meat. In countries where it is legal, some people choose not to use guns for ideological reasons. Some people boycott some products because they disagree with a company’s actions. Some women refuse to use makeup or shave their body hair or their unibrow, which all have social costs. If/when we tell stories about people like these, should the entire story be about the things they don’t get to do? (And btw, if I’m speaking out of turn here, please let me know! I know I’m comparing very different situations and run the risk of saying something shitty.) Or should the story include the experiences that now become available to them because of their choices?

Because the thing that occurred to me when Begoña was talking about restrictions and limitations, is that Amira’s season is all about the things Amira is ~losing out on~ because of her decision to be a hijabi and to live according to her faith. The key to Damira is that Amira will never truly have Dani. That Dani is off limits to her because of the limitations she’s ~chosen~ to impose upon herself. It’s not that a guy like Dani can’t/won’t ever convert to Islam. The point is that (in the show, in the story we were shown) in choosing to be a Muslim, Amira is firmly closing the door on a relationship with Dani. When Begoña looks at Dani/Amira, what she sees is a relationship that can never work out because of Amira’s restrictions.

And the same goes for like... Everything that happens in Amira’s season lmao. She can’t give the speech at graduation because of restrictions. She can’t have the Happy Ramadan sign because of restrictions. She can’t go to bars because of restrictions. She can’t play basketball during daytime because of restrictions (and this is the reason the season takes place during Ramadan). She can’t attend the graduation ceremony because she’s been so beaten down. She can’t ever be comfortable at parties with her non Muslim friends because of restrictions. Hell, she can’t even be friends with Muslim girls because her restrictions (like not lying) inevitably come up between them. To be a Muslim, to be a religious teen at all, means you can’t have a functional life in Spanish society. At least, in the Spanish society of Skam España.

The thing is, when a person decides to go vegan (for instance), a lot of activities and restaurants are now off limits to them. But a whole world of ingredients and restaurants and cooking methods and cuisines are opened to them in turn. But, when Amira closes a door on something, Skam España doesn’t EVER open another world to her in turn. The only thing eskam ever shows us in Amira’s season, are doors closing to her. Compare with Sana’s season, where Sana might close the door on white non Muslims, but a door opens to her in the shape of Yousef, who is at least culturally Muslim and can and does support her in ways eskam never allowed Dani to do. (Like with Sana’s parents or never pushing Sana into physical affection, to name two.) Or the door with the fancy 25-seater Russ bus might be closed to Sana, but a 5-person Russ van with people who genuinely want to spend time with her opens instead. The super popular Russ bus leader who wins Russ awards door closes for Sana, but in turn the door where her friends come to her family’s Eid and celebrate with her on her terms is opened to her. (Eskam didn’t even give Amira that.) 

And so, in that sense, Amira’s season is a step back from Sana’s season. It is a season exclusively for non Muslims who don’t understand why anyone would ever choose to be a Muslim. It is a season for people who don’t have the imagination or the interest in seeing how people live, what company they seek, what their romantic relationships are like, what hobbies they’re into or how they spend their free time, when they’re not like everybody else. In their mind, a life like that is only ever full of closed doors, full of restrictions and limitations, with nothing valuable to make up for it.

[100talberts]

Although they weren’t married on Love Day, it’s the PERFECT day to announce the Godly marriage between Aaron and his gorgeous bride, Mrs. Violet Talbert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nowadays, the vile atheist youth have tried to corrupt the sacred and holy union in God that is marriage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They have tried to pervert and corrupt it by allowing men to marry men - a SIN in the EYES OF GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - and by building an entire city JUST for whores and gays to get married and get divorced several times EACH DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This disgusting place is, of course, Las Simgas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaron, bless his pure soul, has decided to try to save those filthy heathens from eternal hellfire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That’s right - Aaron and Violet are honeymooning in Las Simgas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The city is full of men and whores defiling themselves by engaging in Satanic sex practices like “bdsm” and “foreplay”, so I’m sure that seeing a REAL marriage between a man and a woman who are bonded for life will save their souls before it’s too late!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sadly, there are not enough of God-honoring couples like Aaron and Violet in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As bad as deviant marriages are, it’s also a slur to God when two people do NOT get married when they should!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaron and Violet, unlike CERTAIN HERETICS, did not have children before marriage, as He designed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is His plan that children are only born to married couples, but that’s not always the case!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sometimes, innocent Christian ( ;)!!!!!!!!! ) men are seduced by mystery seductresses looking to promote Satan’s agenda with their uteruses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let’s not forget 1 Corinthians 7:14: For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. Unlike the unGodly bible verses it’s surrounded by, THIS verse promotes TRUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If darling young Yeezy Jeezy wants a chance to be holy, his parents must marry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t care if the child was left on the doorstep before his mother vanished without a trace - a Godly and pure man would hunt his wife-to-be down and marry her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But that certain victim of Satan’s succubus isn’t the only one disappointing God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s true that men, unlike women, are not required to marry as soon as the “law” decides they are “old enough” to, but God still wants them married!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t care if a man is “still upset over that backstabbing witch” (FRANK-LY, it was a long time ago, and a real man would have gotten over it by now!!!!!!!!!!!!), “focused on his big break” (I don’t LOVE-LL to be the one to say this, but you can’t delay the important things life while waiting for something that will never happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), “in the military, Mom, there aren’t any women” (I don’t care, OLIVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although I haven’t made a post about it, Ulysses IS courting (he’ll get a post when there’s a ring on that finger, just like Aaron!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and Elijah is still in college, so I’m not worried about them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Four of my other boys, however...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Naturally, I’m very relieved to see Aaron embracing the destiny God has for him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations, Aaron!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Violet is a beautiful bride, and you two have a LOT of years left to give me a LOT of beautiful grandchildren!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God bless you both!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[biblethumpersims]

Sue, voiceover: Here’s a neighborhood I never thought I’d see again! This is where I spent my earliest years, before my whore mother stole me away from my virtuous father, may he rest in peace. The house I grew up in now belongs to my half-brother, Deighleighveighhraunsse (a/n: Deliverance). But that’s not why we’re here!

Sue: Jasper chose to take Paradise on a romantic date to a demon-infested Hell lot!

Sue: As always, I’m coming along to preserve purity! And Miracle’s here as an extra camera.

Sue: My father told me that, before I was born, a fire killed the people living in this house. But I stopped by this neighborhood a lot as a teenager, and it wasn’t trashed like this back then! This is what happens when there aren’t Godly residents of a home - it becomes a filthy mess! But, apparently, nobody wanted to buy the house because of demons. Imagine, good Christian residents of Bunch Creek being afraid of demons! If you were truly Godly, you wouldn’t be scared of the enemy - you would defeat him! Can I get an amen?!

Sue: ...oh, they’re inside.

Jasper: Stay behind me, girls. Your weaker bodies would never survive if a demon lunged at us.

GIP: So, how are you planning to perform the exorcism? I thought you needed to be a priest?

Jasper: No, anyone can cast away demons. First, you grab the Bible and...

Sue, running in: I’m here! Miracle, have they been pure?

GodsMiracle: You were only gone for a minute.

Sue: A minute is all you need to commit pre-marital hand holding - or worse, kissing! In a house of Satan like this, the sexual temptation is thick and heavy. We need to be on our guard!

GodsMiracle: Sorry. No, nothing has happened.

Jasper: ...and post!

Sue: Post what?

Jasper: My #exorcism selfie.

Sue: I thought I would be the first to share this with social media?

Jasper: Sure, sure. Think of it like a teaser. I’m getting people hyped for your show, Mrs. S. You wouldn’t have half your views without me.

Sue, tensely: Maybe. Maybe not.

GodsMiracle, quickly: Let’s go explore the building!

Jasper: Still no demons? What kind of lame haunted house did you bring us to?

Sue: Excuse you, my father swore that this house was reputable for its demonic-

Miriam: Pardon me, but you’re in my home. Is it that my father invited you here?

Jasper: Your home? So that means-

Sue: -this little girl must belong to the squatter atheists that trashed this place! Hey, kid, where are your parents?! I need a strong word with them about how to keep a tidy home, even as homeless filth!

GodsMiracle: Hey, mom, the camera’s acting up. It’s just a bunch of fuzz.

Sue: Then fix it. Paradise, be a doll and use Miracle’s weird old camera to take some pictures. We need something for the video! Now, girl, where are your dirty hobo parents?!

Miriam: My mother told me to only speak with Godly folk. Women of sin like you rot the spirit.

Sue: Women of sin?! I’ll have you know that I’m a highly pious woman, and-

Jasper: Looks like I’m exorcising the little girl.

GIP: You don’t have to. We can’t film it, anyways.

Jasper: No, I’m going to. You guys hold her down and I’ll banish the demon from her.

Sue: Hey! Stop running! Guys, go after her!

Sue: Looks like she ran off the lot. Good riddance! I hope her disgusting, slobby parents learn from this. Let’s go home, kids.

Jasper: But I never got to exorcise anything.

Sue: With reception like this, you won’t get to! If you want to play priest, do it where I can film it!

Jasper: ...fine, whatever.

[youneedasoultraveller]

Is the popular headcanon that Nicky was illiterate, stupid and barbaric fitting in the stereotypes about Southern Europeans / Mediterraneans ? I’m guessing it’s from the American part of the fandom that’s choosing to not respectfully write Nicky since he is white while being virulent towards anybody that doesn’t perfected and accurately write Joe because he is MENA.

Hello!

Mind you, I am neither a psychologist, a sociologist nor a historian, so of course be aware these are my own views on the whole drama.

But to answer your question, yes, I personally think so. It definitely comes from the American side, but I have seen Northern Europeans do that too, often just parroting the same type of discourse that Anglos whip out every other day.

There is an abysmal ignorance of Medieval history – even more so when it concerns countries that are not England: there is this common misconception that Europe in the Middle Ages was this cultural backwater full of semi-barbaric people that stems unfortunately not only from trying to (correctly) reframe colonialist approaches to the historiographies of non-European populations (that is, showing the Golden Age of Islamic culture, for instance, as opposed to what were indeed less culturally advanced neighbours), but also from distortions operated by European themselves from the Renaissance onwards, culminating in the 18th century Enlightenment philosophes categorising the Middle Ages as the Dark Ages.

Now this approach has been time and time again proven to be a made-up myth. I will not go into detail to disprove each and every single one misconception about the Medieval era because entire books have been written, but just to give you an example: there was no such a thing as a ius primae noctis/droit du seigneur; people were aware that the Earth was not flat (emperors, kings, saints, etc, they were depicted holding a globe in their hands); people were taking care of their hygiene, either through the Roman baths, or natural springs, or private tubs that the wealthier strata of the population (and especially the aristocracy) owned. The Church was not super happy about them not because it wanted people to remain dirty, but because often these baths were for both men and women, and it was not that in favour of them showing off their bodies to one another. Which, you know, we also don’t do now unless you go to nudist spas. It was only during the Black Death in the 14th century that baths were slowly abandoned because they became a place of contagion, and they went into disuse (or better, they changed purpose and became something like bordellos). And, lastly, there was certainly a big chunk of the population that was illiterate, but certainly it was not the clergy, which was THE erudite class of the time. It was in monasteries and abbeys that knowledge was passed and preserved (as well as lost unfortunately often, such as the case for the largest part of classical literature).

So what does this mean? According to canon, Nicolò was an ex priest who fought in the First Crusade. This arguably means that at the very least he was a cadet son of a minor noble family (or a wealthy merchant one) who was part of the clergy. As such, historically he could have been neither illiterate nor a dirty garbage cat in his daily life.

Let’s then talk geography. Southern Europe (and France) was far, far more advanced than the North at the time and Italy remained the cultural powerhouse of the continent until the mid-17th century. Al Andalus in the Iberian Peninsula, the Italian States,  the Byzantine Empire (which called itself simply Roman Empire, whose population defined itself as Roman and cultural heirs of the Latin and Greek civilisations): these places have nothing to do with popular depictions of Medieval Europe that you mainly see from the Anglos. Like @lucyclairedelune rightfully pointed out: not everyone was England during the plague.

Also the Middle Ages lasted one thousand years. As a historical age, it’s way longer than anything we had after that. So of course habits varied, there was a clear collapse right after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, but then things develop, you know?

Anyway, back to the point in question. Everything I whipped up is not arcane knowledge: it’s simply having studied history at school and spending a few hours reading scientific articles on the internet which are not “random post written by random Anglo on Tumblr who can hardly find Genoa on a map”.

Nicolò stems from that culture. The most advanced area in Europe, possibly a high social class, certainly educated, from Genoa, THE maritime superpower of the age (with…Venice). It makes absolutely no sense that he would not be able to speak anything past Ligurian: certainly Latin (the ecclesiastical one), maybe the koine Greek spoken in Constantinople, or Sabir, or even the several Arabic languages from the Med basin stretching from al Andalus to the Levant. Because Genoa was a port, and people travel, bring languages with them, use languages to barter.

And now I am back to your question. Does this obstinacy in writing him as an illiterate beast (basically) feed into stereotypes of Mediterranean people (either from the northern or the southern shore)? It does.

It is a typically Anglo-Germanic perspective that of describing Southern (Catholic) Europeans are hot-headed, illiterate bumpinks mindlessly driven by blind anger, lusts and passions, as opposed to the rational, law-abiding smart Northern Protestants. You see it on media. I see it in my own personal life, as a Southern Italian living in Northern Europe for 10 years.

Does it sound familiar? Yes, it’s the same harmful stereotype of Yusuf as the Angry Brown Man. But done to Nicolò as the Angry Italian Man (not to mention the fact that, depending on the time of day and the daily agenda of the Anglo SJW Tumblrite, Italians can be considered either white or non-white).

Now, the times where Nicolò is shown as feral are basically when he is fighting (either in a bloody war or against Merrick’s men) or when Yusuf is in danger. Because, guess what, the man he loves is being hurt. What a fucking surprise.

Nicolò is simply being reduced to a one dimensional stereotype of the dirty dumb angry Italian, and people are simply doing this because they do not seem to accept the fact that both he and Yusuf are two wonderfully complex, flawed, fully-fledged multidimensional characters.

So I am mainly concentrating on Nicolò here because as an Italian I feel more entitled to speak about the way I see the Anglo fandom treating him and using stereotypes on him that have been consistently applied to us by the Protestant Northerners. I keep adding the religious aspect because, although I am an atheist who got debaptised from the Catholic Church, a big part of the historical treatment towards Southern has to do with religion and the contempt towards Catholic rituals and traditions (considered, once again, a sign of cultural backwardness by the enlightened North).

I do not want to impose my view of Yusuf because there are wonderful Tumblr users from MENA countries who have already written wonderful metas of the way Yusuf is being depicted by non-MENA people (in particular Americans), especially (again) @lucyclairedelune and @nizarnizarblr.

However, I just want to underline that, by only ever writing Yusuf as essentially a monodimensional character without a single flaw, this takes away Yusuf’s canon multidimensionality, the right he has to feel both positive but also negative feelings (he was hurt and angry at Booker’s betrayal, allegedly his best friend, AND HE HAD EVERY RIGHT TO BE – and I say this as a Booker fan as well).

I have not been the first to say these things, it is nothing revolutionary, and it exactly complements what the MENA tumblr users in the TOG fandom have also been trying to say. Both of us as own voices people who finally have the chance to have two characters that are fully formed and honest representations of our own cultures, without stereotypes or Anglogermanic distortions.

And the frustration mounting among all of us comes from the fact that the Anglos are, once again, not listening to us, even telling us we are wrong about our own cultures (see what has happened to Lucy and Nazir).

What is even more frustrating is that everything in this cursed fandom – unless it was in the film or comics – is just a bloody headcanon. But these people are imposing their HCs as if it were the Word of God, and attacking others – including own voices MENA and Italians – for daring to think otherwise.

I honestly don’t expect this post will make any difference because this is just a small reflection of what Americans do in real life on grander scale, which is thinking they are the centre of the world and ignoring that the rest of the world even exists regardless of their own opinions on it.

But still, sorry for the length, hope I answered your question.