#cultural suppression

[alwaysbewoke]

[just-late-roman-republic-things]

I'm not fond of Hadrian, at all, but even I was struck by this - that his contemporaries didn't criticize him for a relationship with his slave boy, but for grieving too much when the boy died.

It's hard for me to wrap my head around how fucking (or raping) a slave could be socially acceptable, but actually caring about him wasn't.

(Craig Williams, Roman Homosexuality, chapter 1)

[pinewoodpipit]

Some of my thoughts about writing smut which I thought I'd share.

For those who don't know, I'm on the ace spectrum, and I also have disabling health issues which affect my intimate life. I am not going to go into any more detail than that, as it's private. That said, though, it proves to be a challenge when writing smut, as I'm approaching it from the perspective of an outside observer.

I think sex scenes can be used just like any other scene; like a fight scene, I enjoy writing them from the viewpoint of exploring characters, and ideally progressing their growth and/or the plot in each encounter. Not every sex scene will do this - I've written smut one-shots which don't really explore characters, and those are because it's actually a fun kind of scene for me to write from a technical standpoint, outside of storytelling.

I see very often that people reduce erotica to just being mindless porn, or indicating that writing with smut in it has inherently less substance and worth than writing without it, regardless of how carefully written the smut is. I pretty vehemently disagree with this viewpoint.

Sex scenes, in my opinion, are a writing tool, just like any other. Writing good sex is a skill of its own and it's one I'm still developing, but it's absolutely something that has worth, and I think it's a huge shame that so much of the writing community treats it with some kind of contempt, as if it's somehow inherently lesser than, when sex is an incredibly important and human topic, and suggesting it shouldn't be talked about can be an incredibly slippery slope to the kind of tight-lipped purity culture attitude which leads to shaming people for having sex within queer communities, and other such dangerous things.

I have a fic about ace-spectrum Fade upcoming where I plan to talk about this topic a fair bit, but I wanted to talk about it here, too. I'm very passionate about it. Purity cultures regarding sex, particularly between queer people, is a dangerous thing to back into that can very easily lead to conversations which frame sex (particularly LGBTQ+ sex) as some kind of perversion rather than something completely natural, and I will always defend erotica as an art form as valuable as any other.

[cluster-b-culture-is]

Cluster B culture is “Wow Quora hates me”

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[isfjmel-phleg]

It has taken me this long to realize that yes, the fact that Tamett is from a country that has been conquered and subjugated and had its culture and language suppressed and been expected to assimilate and to be glad and grateful to be part of--but never truly one with or accepted by--the conquering nation until many of its people conclude that the safest thing they can do is keep silent and keep their heads down and try to appease....that's a parallel for his situation as Josiah's companion.

If I ever write anything thoughtful, it is entirely by accident.

[frankensteincest]

reading about historical rape laws is so maddening bc most of them require the raped woman to make her appeal immediately after the event (blood and torn garments and all), prove that she is no longer a virgin with a physical exam, and never deviate from any details of her initial testimony no matter how many times she has to give it over the course of the case. and it would still be her word against the man’s, as judged by men. this was of course only for virgins of sufficient rank, with women of other statuses having even less hope of a coherent case. and it’s so maddening bc very little has changed with this process to this day. it goes beyond burden of proof, it’s just extended torture.

[tics-tacs]

there's nothing like suppressing your tics for awhile and then when you finally let yourself tic you can't stop

painfully accurate :/

[the-land-of-women]

really i do not understand your perception of being anti-racist while also subscribing to the gender binary in the way that you do. so many non white cultures (including mine) celebrated gender fluidity and transgenderism in a pre-colonial world. white settler’s disdain of such was used as a way to justify and intensify their violence toward destroying us and our culture. you’re still complicit in harboring the same rhetoric as those who’ve harmed us and you’re applying that in a world that directly relies on people like you to push such narratives that harm us, whether you’re conscious of it or not. Educate yourself.

Do you really think non white cultures had no concept of biological sex? It is not accurate to label their forcing of feminine homosexual men into a separate gender role as transgenderism. It was a result of rigid gender roles. White colonisers were violent and suppressive against these cultures for a number of reasons, and no they would not have accepted the third role they had for gay men because the respective cultures had manifested their homophobia in vastly different ways(ie one in being accepting of gay men’s existence but while pretending they were not ‘really’ men, and the other punishing homosexuality whenever and wherever it appeared), but that does not mean it was some kind of ancient transphobic violence. And being anti racism does not mean mindlessly accepting everything a culture of colour does, because that culture can also be just as homophobic and misogynistic.

[halcarols]

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[ljf613]

Been rereading the Pendragon series. (Oh look, it's my childhood!)

Third Earth freaks me out. Bobby describes it like some kind of perfect utopia, but all I see is a disturbing dystopia.

[neverendingford]

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[secondwhisper]

Some thoughts on Cultural Christianity; things I don't often see discussed.

To note upfront: I have lived my whole life surrounded by (English-speaking white) Midwestern US Protestantism. Some of these points will be addressing religious/cultural hegemony broadly, most should address manifestations of cultural & hegemonic christianity in particular, and some may be specific to the flavor of christianity local to me.

Funerary practices // Is it normal procedure to have a memorial event with viewing, songs, and speeches after someone has died? Is it normal procedure to have the interment of an embalmed body, in a coffin, in a graveyard? Is it normal to have little or no private/personal mourning practices (eg no changes in dress, socializing, meals, housekeeping), even for close family? Is it normal to have little or no standard practices for anniversaries of a death, even for close family? // Is it illegal in your area to bury an unenbalmed corpse in the earth? Is it illegal in your area to have sky or sea burials? Is it illegal in your area to create a funeral pyre? Is it illegal in your area to cremate a corpse in a crematorium? If no, have these practices always been legal? Are they normal? // What funerary practices followed the death of your grandparents? What funerary practices will follow your death? Would each of these be considered acceptable to your friends, family, and broader community? Are each of these considered normal?

What religion is // Is it normal for "religious" to mean "believing in (the existence of) a deity"? Is it normal for a religious person to venerate one god, which is probably an anthropomorphic personal male creator god? Is it normal for prayer to just be a way to say "please" and "thank you" to that god? Is it normal for a religious person to want to increase the number of people in their religion? Is it normal for a religious person to think that there is only one "correct" or "true" religion (or subtype thereof)? Is it normal for a religious person to be awaiting a messiah/savior? Is it normal for a religion to have a specific canonical "core set" of written teachings/scriptures? Is it normal for religious teachings/scriptures to present themselves as god-given literally-true recountings of history -- and be considered such by members of that religion? What is the legal definition of "religion" or "religious" in your area? // Did your grandparents identify with any religion? Would you, your family, friends, and broader community describe your grandparents as religious? Do you identify with any religion? Do you consider yourself to be religious? (Are these the same question to you?) Do your family, friends, and/or broader community consider you religious, even if you don't see yourself that way?

Literature & language // Are you familiar with phrases such as "o ye of little faith," "(am I) my brother's keeper?," "fire and brimstone," "doubting Thomas," "an eye for an eye," "man does not live on bread alone," "prodigal son," and "the writing is on the wall"? Did you encounter these phrases from friends and family, before or outside of encountering them in popular media or school? Did your schooling emphasize Greek and Roman/Latin foundations of language and/or literature, maybe even to the extent that it obscured/marginalized/erased other sources and influences? In literature classes, were you expected to understand references to heaven and hell, crucifixion and resurrection, virgin birth, a trickster devil, an innocent walled garden and fruit that transmits knowledge/evil, witch trials, walking on water, crusades, anointing, baptizing, and the general concept of a savior/messiah? Do you use these references and themes when/if you write? Are "goliath," "nimrod," "Jesus (Christ)!" as a profanity, "bedlam," and "pharisee/pharisaical" in your vocabulary? Would you expect that your grandparents' answers to these questions would be the same as yours?

These questions are intended to help you identify whether, and to what extent, your culture & the culture around you are consistent with (US protestant) christian culture. This isn't an exhaustive list, these are just three big topics I think people usually leave out of cultural christianity discussions.

Do note: I am not saying that if you aren't christian, you need to change your end-of-life plans, abandon your literary tradition, limit your vocabulary, and get a degree in religious studies/world religions. I am also not saying that every norm above is unique or exclusive to christianity, nor are all of these norms present in all varieties of christianity. I am not saying that it's bad to be religiously christian or culturally christian! I am saying that many people are unaware of the legal, social, and academic advantages they gain for every degree of similarity with their local religious/cultural hegemony. And I am saying that you should consider the ways in which you may be privileged on this axis, whether or not you are religiously christian.

[resentful-reads]

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

[stairset]

Maybe it's just because of where I live, but the whole "Satine didn't like that her people were a bunch of warmongering imperialist assholes and told them to knock it off and implemented gun control and made the Jedi Torture Boxes illegal so that her people could rebuild and move on from their violent history of civil wars that reduced their planet into a nearly uninhabitable wasteland in favor of focusing on more productive things like art and education and this is literally cultural genocide and she's erasing history and she should've been a villain blah blah blah" take has always been so weird to me. Like I have absolutely seen people say things like that in real life all the time and about 90% of them have confederate flags on the back of their pickup trucks so. Yeah.

[cruelsister-moved2]

i kind of hate when people respond to various stereotypical depictions of travellers from britain/ireland e.g my big fat g*psy wedding type by suggesting that like they're 'fake' travellers or something. you've probably seen the posts where it's like 'real traveller culture isn't this it's this' like... irish travellers are also a 'real' ethnic minority with their own traditions and history and culture like. they may often be stereotyped and also may have ways of living that seem unpalatable to you but they're both deeply marginalised and also umm....undisputably 'real' it's just such a weird response to stereotyping and bigotry

[dsgustng]

Hate being American and raised Christian, hate having no real sense of culture, tradition or belonging. No community. But we have capitalism tho so there's that