#cw sa

[houseofpurplestars]

KEEP EYES ON SUDAN

13,000 + people have been killed

26,000 +people have been injured

10M+ displaced, which makes Sudan the largest displacement crisis globally.

25M+ need humanitarian assistance and support, 14 million are children.

4M+ women and girls at risk of

sexual violence.

10K+ cholera cases, including 275 associated deaths.

children already are acute malnourished, of

3.5M+ whom 700,000 suffer from the most dangerous form of malnutrition

@ jellyfamhamz2

[needle-noggins]

(CW for SA, suicidal ideation) Here we go. My favorite and simultaneously least favorite panel of Vash and Knives.

I've seen a few interpretations of this scene and before we dive into the one that really struck me, let's start with the more... chill one. We're finally introduced to the third gun of Trigun, Vash's angel arm. And the way we're introduced to it involves Knives forcing him to pull the trigger. Of course, since no one knows anything about Knives, the people of Noman's Land blame Vash for Fifth Moon, and Vash likewise blames himself (this is kinda a spoiler but if you've been paying attention, it's just par for the course). However, he's not the one who pulled the trigger, Knives is. It brings up an interesting moral question of blame - do we blame the gun (and Vash, who is being used/objectified as a weapon here), or the person who wanted it to happen? Guns don't kill people, genocidal twins do!

Now for the awful interpretation, the one that makes me cry and wish Vash was real so I could hug him and pay for his therapy. And really highlights how awful Knives is and how far he'd go for his brother in his own, fucked-up way. I touched on this in a previous post about Legato and the Murder Cafe, and the whole time I was thinking about Fifth Moon but didn't want to say anything for the sake of spoilers.

So. Pay attention to the way Vash and Knives are standing. Knives, when he first grabbed Vash's head, was standing in front of him. He moves behind him to better control him and yeah, he's still controlling him via hand on head, and now he's got his other hand gripping Vash's chest, where feathers/wings are manifesting. Knives is assaulting him. If you wanna get crazy with it and say that the angel arm is kinda phallic, you could say... yeah. This is rape. I heard that specific interpretation once and while I accepted it I also don't know if that would be generally accepted or if I'd be called out for it, so I'm trying to tread lightly here.

It also doesn't escape me that of course the angel arm has feminine features like the plants - the plants that, again, humans are exploiting for their ability to create. There's a lot of feminist commentary to be made here but many people have said it better than me. Specifically I'm thinking of this one post I saw about gender fuckery and Tristamp Vash. Anyway.

Also, the atomic bomb/black hole/sun/whatever that is in the middle... It's just so powerful. It's terrifying. The eldritch body horror here is a punch to the gut. What the fuck, Trigun? I thought this was a funky space western!!!

Oh, and here's more commentary on the following few panels:

Vashussy shot, Knives is still right behind him. Yeah, I wasn't kidding about how bad this pose is for them. Knives, you sick fuck.

Vash shoots himself in the leg (a key difference from '98 trigun, lol), because of course he does, but it doesn't free him from the arm.

The arm's getting darker/the light inside is getting lighter! Stampede did an awesome job with their interpretation of the angel arm and I don't think I would have understood it without that. Also, on my first read I didn't notice that Vash is literally levitating, which is cool, but also terrifying because ?? he's not in control of that either??

Finally. A super painful, minimalist, double-page spread. Nightow loves 'em. Vash thinks he's dying (maybe?) and he wishes he had never existed. It's not suicidal ideation per se, but he wishes he didn't exist at all because he's already caused enough suffering. This is a low for him, because he believes so strongly in the concept of the Blank Ticket. (Come on, soupy brain bitch boy, get it together!) He's a monster, it's just how he was born, and he's not in control. Very specifically too, he says "we", and then changes it to "I"... he doesn't blame Knives at all, and that's very him. I want to shake him! Stop playing the martyr, Vash!

[ayeforscotland]

So a campaign has been announced to change the laws regarding consent to sex in the UK to an affirmative consent model which is great.

And I get there's an element of wanting to get as many people's attention as possible but more than a few people have winced at the campaign's title.

Now if that's the campaign's initial goal, get people sharing and discussing it, sure, mission accomplished.

But 'asking for it' carries a very specific connotations for survivors of sexual assault. I don't feel like it needs to be 'reclaimed' in any way.

[dynafire]

the wild thing about all the trouble urbanspook is in (deserved) is that no one is saying DONT talk about sa in internet horror just to do it well.

lacey's games was such a real depiction of csa and still respectful towards victims. like it can be done. the fact is that urbanspook doesn't care to do it.

im just happy to see this guy getting his ass whopped tbh. what a creep.

[blitzwhore]

I'm certain this has been pointed out before, but...

“Lust shouldn't be about force.”

“Oh! No! Never. NEVER that.”

When Stolas said he would never do that to Blitz, he really meant it. After all, he knows intimately well what it's like to be forced.

[hazshit-hotel-hater]

When I see an Hazbin rant, I'm happy that how they bring up that Pentious sex room scene because we need more people to address that how much of this show tries to take SA seriously but ends up making it as a joke

You will see me get pissed off abt the sex room joke so often here I HATE IT. I had a very nice conversation with someone in the replies of one of my posts and they said it wouldve been infinitely funnier if 1. the SA shit was not there at all, and 2. If instead of people cheering at “I am going to have sex with everyone here!” It just went dead silent instead and there was cricket sound effects and I will stand by this for the rest of my life. The original “joke” is so shit it wouldve been so much funnier to just have people go immediately quiet and then it just cuts to pentious standing there and then the conversation topic changes.

Edit: VIDEO EXAMPLE HAS BEEN MADE HERE

[catboymoments]

cw for talk about sa/csa

Reading some of @nerves-nebula’s posts about writing sexual trauma made me wanna attempt at being more blatant regarding stuff my ocs went thru so here’s !! A thing with Kay el being a self proclaimed master of repression. No visuals of it, just talk

[swordsswordsswords]

some memes from the first book in the Captive Prince series

[pluralcultureis]

Plural culture is having minor sexual alters due to trauma and being scared to tell people about them and being in a minor body with sexual alters :(

Bonus points when one of said minor sexual alters wants to experience said sexual trauma again but worse for some reason 😭

(we're trying not to be detailed about it because its a triggering topic for many!)

Wanting to expirence trauma again but "worse" is a way the brain tries to process and cope with things sometimes

I often put myself in situations that I know will traumatize or hurt me, because I'm so used to being in unsafe environments that when I'm in a safe and stable one, it feels wrong and I need to "fix" it

For me I found watching horror movies or scrolling through triggering tags helps me avoid actually retraumatizing me and my system

While the second option isn't the greatest, it's a placeholder until I can go back to therapy and find a better way to cope

Maybe you can try finding things like that to help

I'm sorry you're experiencing this, and that you expirenced what caused this to happen

There's no reason to feel shame for how you process trauma, just focus on healing one step at a time and don't be upset when you stumble

You have the time to heal, and you did nothing wrong and don't deserve to feel like you did

[aria-ashryver]

SAAM2024 - SA Awareness Month

TW: SA, discussions around rape and sexual violence

Listen, I’m going to talk about something it isn’t easy or fun to talk about. I’m going to try and get a point across, and hopefully have it amount to something legible, because I am already feeling my body physically reacting with symptoms of stress.

I want to talk about sexual assault.

Did you know that April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month? And has been, for the last 23 years? Because I sure didn’t! Which is wild, considering I am a survivor of six separate incidents of sexual assault, two of which were penetrative rape.

I looked up the SAAM2024 hashtag and found crickets. Because who the hell wants to talk about sexual violence and rape on a random Thursday, right?

The thing is, we need to be having these conversations.

Of course, the onus isn’t on survivors to start the conversation — who would ask someone who is horrifically traumatised to open those scars again and talk about their trauma? I couldn’t even say the word “rape” for years.

[note: I have chosen not to censor the word rape here as a part of my own recovery process. Its just a word. I refuse to let it incite terror. Its just a word. ]

So who, then? If we could all talk about sex and sexual assault —if these were topics of conversation that weren’t so taboo to discuss— we could begin to take steps to make things safer for ourselves and for others.

So here I am, talking.

I feel it is important to destigmatise sex as this hush hush topic; it’s important to be able to discuss safe sex, consent, to differentiate what is just “bad sex” from what is assault. People are often quick to brush off encounters that give them the ick as just “bad sex”.

I was no different.

At sixteen, I didn’t have the terminology to describe what happened to me as rape. In a culture that glamorises illicit affairs and drunken hook-ups at parties, I didn’t have the comprehension to realise that what happened to me was not some sexy, drunken, desirable thing.

[trigger warning for more context around the first of my rapes]

I had been at a party, celebrating the wrap of my high school’s theatre production. I had been drinking underage and was extremely drunk*.

(*which in no way excuses what happened to me — it is important to take steps to dismantle rape culture and victim-blaming.)

There was a classmate I had been on a few dates with, and though we had been handsy during makeout sessions a few times, we had never discussed having sex. He offered to pick me up from the party, to give me a place to stay for the night. He had not been in attendance at the party, and was completely sober. By the time he drove us both home, I was already intermittently blacking out.

I have only a few memories of that night. One, crystal clear even to this day — a concerned classmate, grabbing my arm as I was heading out of the venue. The look of alarm on his face as he asked if I had a safe means of transport home. I lied to him. I have no idea why. I told him my mother was waiting in the vehicle that had just pulled up, and he let me go.

The next memory that I have is of his bedroom ceiling. A vague, blurred outline of his unclothed body over mine, as he was raping me.

Yes, we had been at that tentative, early stage of a potential relationship. Yes, I had taken him up on the offer to go to sleep at his house.

But, in the state I was in, there is no possible way I could have consented to sex.

I knew something was wrong, afterwards. I knew I spent the next night curled in a ball, sobbing in the shower for a reason. I knew there was a reason I froze up when a friend side-eyed me at school the following Monday, and said “you had sex with him, didn’t you?”. What I didn’t understand was that the reason was because I had been raped.

Because I didn’t have the vocabulary to describe my experience as such.

Because people don’t like to talk about sexual assault.

But we need to talk about sexual assault.

Conversations about sex can and should be removed from the concept of arousal. You can and should talk about sex without it being labelled as horny, or flirty, or suggestive — because it is just another topic to learn about.

Sex is an intricately nuanced thing that can mean so many different things to so many different people. There are elements of shame and embarrassment around sexual encounters sometimes; young and naive as I was, I was ready to take my crawling feelings of shame, self-blame, disgust, and put them down to “it was just bad sex”.

It wasn’t until long after the horror of my second, more violent rape, that I was able to pinpoint some of the trauma responses as being the same as that first time. There were patterns there, feelings that, had I been in a position of knowing more about safe sex and consent, I would have recognised sooner for what they were.

Its all well and good to go “hey! Don’t rape people!” and pat yourself on the back for your activism.

But the thing is, that kind of does sweet fuck all to actually help people who are at risk of experiencing sexual violence. What we really need is to take actionable steps toward improving people’s sexual safety and practises around consent and safe sex.

So what does that look like?

We talk about sex and consent without stigma.

We believe survivors and do not victim-blame

We practice respecting other people’s bodily autonomy in everyday scenarios, before it ever reaches a sexual context — if someone doesn’t want to hug you, respect their autonomy! If someone tells you to stop tickling them, even though they are laughing, hey, guess what? Respect their autonomy!

We remember what consent looks like, and take steps to inform others — consent is always clear, continuous, coercion-free, and conscious.

We make it second nature to take basic steps toward safety — never leave a drink unattended at a party! Stick to a buddy system to ensure people get home safe! Not because you suspect something will happen, it's just a default behaviour!

Be that classmate that tries to stop a drunk person walking out into the night alone.

The more we do these kinds of things, the less mystical and nebulous this whole “safe sex and healthy consent” thing becomes, and the safer we all are for it.

I’m gonna cut myself off here for my own wellbeing, as this has been extremely taxing, but let me provide a few links that I think are relevant. I hope this might be in some way helpful, and encourages others to continue the conversation offline. (or online, even -- reblogs are totally fine, and please feel free to add other stories or links if you have resources to share)

Be safe, and to any SA survivors who happen to be reading this, please know that you will always be yours, and what happened to you was not your fault. 💖

What is Consent (VeryWellMind)

History of Sexual Assault Awareness Month (NSVRC)

Sexual Violence Prevention: Beginning the Dialogue (NSVRC)

How to Support a Survivor (CRCC)

Finding Help If You’ve Been Sexually Abused (Crisis Text Line)

[mintaikcorpse]

TW: Depictions of SA!! Don't click the read more if you can't handle that stuff!

I was rewatching the Poison scene from Hazbin Hotel after someone pointed out that Angel is trying to keep the audience from watching the screens, and that sent me down a Rabbit hole where I ended up analyzing the scene like tons of other people haven't done this already, but who cares, I wanna ramble!

In Poison, right before the dance scene, Angel was being SAd, and the song lyrics say "I disassociate, dissappear." And then, it switches from horrifying, where Angel looks terrified, to him dancing where he appears a lot more confident. But the screens still show the horrifying videos of him being gagged and beaten.

The reason? The dancing isn't real. It's all in Angel's head. He's dissasociating by doing something he likes, dancing, to cope with what's happening. But, the screens show what is happening to him in real life.

Furthermore, Angel actively tries to drive us, the audience, away from the screens. He dances in the middle where there are no screens, and when he goes to where the screens are, he quickly moves away before the audience can grasp what they're seeing. When that doesn't work anymore, he goes close to the camera and blocks the screens so we can only look at how he wants us to loom at him.

There was more stuff like this before this specific part, but I'm not showing a gif of that because it's actually more horriyifying than this. But in the scene, it shows us in real time, no screens, of what's happening to Angel if very quick snippets, before it shows back to him dancing. In one clip, he bangs his fists on the ground out of anger, and that happens in his head too, like he can't dissociate anymore. But, he moves past it and does the dance he's doing on the above gif, because he's not fully broken yet.

But then, Valentino comes in, and everything is ruined. @veetowervaporwave pointed out that he grabs him and keeps him still, forcing the audience to look back at the screens

Angel was able to keep pushing himself, able to keep moving no matter how much it hurt or how hard it was to distract himself. But when Valentino comes, that all breaks, and Angel's daydream falls apart because Valentino is the reminder that he can't escape, even in his own mind. You can even see Angel try to escape, like he's trying to escape the grasp of his reality, but Val grabs his arm and forces Angel to face him, bringing him back to the real world, where his room has been made into a mess, he has bruises all over his body, and Val's poisons spit is dripping from his mouth.

(Also someone pointed out that Angel screaming "I'll be yours" was him screaming in pain in real life, and istg I NEED VAL'S HEAD ON A FUCKING STICK)

If yall got any other takes, please tell me! I'd love to hear them!

[girl-revolution-utena]

Thinking about how parents usually say "don't get into a stranger's car" and how the implocation is that they are going to kidnap you, kill you or assault you (or everything). And Akio uses his car for abuse, either doing it there or driving the victim to the place where the abuse is going to happen. In some cases, even though he is a stranger, the victims know he exists and is an authority in the school. In others, he grooms them and gets them to trust him, so he makes sure that the warning no longer applies to him.

His power as an adult and how, with his car, he has more freedom than the kids. He can go wherever he wants. He uses the car as a private space where he doesn't need to respond for his actions. And if the kids want to go somewhere that is not inside Ohtori, they need him to take them. They have to get into his car to be able to grasp a little freedom.

This just makes me want to read more about youth liberation and how young people are a class in contradiction with adults.

[orkbutch]

honestly i still think about those pussy eating polls sometimes and the thing that annoys me most about them is how highly people poll Gale and Astarion. Gale is more concievable bc hes a nerd that studies how to fuck which is at least Something, but is still an active mark against how good someone is at eating pussy in my mind, and most sex tbh. Sex is about reading people, body awareness and adaptability, and Gale is a nerd that doesn't hang with people and would DEFINITELY not be body aware. People argue that he was good enough to please Mystra. 1. Mystra fucked tons of ppl because shes a Goddess, Hello, Gale just didn't like to think abt that, 2. I'm sure he got good at pleasing Mystra. Mystra is one individual. That does not make an expert.

But Astarion... THAT pisses me off. People seem to think because Astarion was a sexually abused lure that he's some sex genius, and I just think thats offensive and ridiculous. Astarion is good at drawing people in. He is good at intriguing them, reassuring them and being attractive. He is not at all interested or invested in making people feel good, and he hated doing it. He actively resents the people he had to fuck. I guarantee you he was fine AT BEST. These are not the conditions that make you good at having sex and giving pleasure. These are the conditions that make you actually kind of shit at it!

Something about looking at Astarion's circumstances and personality (selfish bastard, not great qualities in a lover) and saying that his Experience means he MUST be good just... skeeves me out. You mean the sex slavery? The sex slavery made him good at sex?? I don't think you know much about sexual trauma

[alpaca-clouds]

Rape, Abuse, Trauma and the Need for Power

This topic has been sneaking around in my brain for days now. Because I find it quite interesting to see this depicted in now multiple franchises. And I really want to talk about it. Partly, because I see some people struggling to understand it. So, let me, an abuse victim, explain.

You see these three characters? Yeah, they actually have a lot in common. Let me explain.

Spoilers vor Castlevania, Stray Gods and Baldur's Gate, obviously.

All three of them were victims of abuse and (probably) also rape. It should be noted that with both Carmilla and Persephone it is never outright said that they were raped, but it is heavily implied. With Astarion, obviously, it is outright stated.

More than that, we do know about all three of them that they were also abused. Both Carmilla and Astarion by their respective sires. Persephone by Hades.

And they also have one other thing in common: Their character arc features them trying to get some sort of power. Let me go through with them.

Carmilla was abused by her sire. We do know very little about the details, only that he was very cruel. There is some heavy implication that the abuse involved rape. At some point she killed her sire. Her entire character story is about her trying to get power for herself. First by trying to get control over Dracula's Castle. Then she tries to build her own empire. With her mental health getting worse, she ends up fantasizing about world domination.

Persephone in Stray Gods was kidnapped, raped and abused by Hades. She had everything taken from her during this, until she finally could not take it any longer and killed Hades. But the other gods denied her to take control over the underworld. Her basic conflict stems from her wanting to regain control over the underworld again.

Astarion is of course the odd one out, given we learn a lot more about his abuse. But like the two women, he was abused, raped and tortured. Due to the DnD vampire rules, he had no way of actually fighting back against his sire, with him escaping just through what amounts to sheer luck. When he learns that his sire wanted to sacrifice him (and many others) to gain a lot of power, Astarion wants to finish the ritual for himself, gaining the power.

The outcome of course is different for all three.

Carmilla gets killed, once she goes down the "world domination" thing. While with Persephone and Astarion it depends on player choice. I would argue though, that the happy end for them both is them giving up the power. That is Persephone giving up the throne and Astarion not finishing the ritual.

What is the interesting thing about this... Or, well, interesting might be the wrong world. But it is well written. Because this is very, very realistic for their backstories.

See, both abuse and especially rape are a lot about power. The abuser/rapist takes full control over the victim's body and life. (Which is also why rape rarely has to do with sexual enjoyment, and more with the rapist wanting to assert power.) Or, from the perspective of the survivor: It is all about having the power taken away from them.

This is bad enough if it is something that is a one time occurance. But if the survivor is in the situation for a long time, they experience a prolonged period of powerlessness and fear. The survivor is constantly afraid, constantly in survival mode, constantly trying to just get through it.

In my life I have seen too many bad takes along the lines of: "Rape survivors should stop whining. How bad can one rape be?" And those people do once again not understand: Rape is not about the sex. It is about having control and power over your own body taken away from you. It is about you being turned into a thing to be used by someone else. Which does not even mention the feeling of fear most people experience during a rape, as they do not know what kind of other violence might follow.

And this is something that leads the survivors to even after escaping the abuse, the trauma often leaves them feeling powerless. They might objectively not have less power than they had before the abuse happened, but to the traumatized nervous system it feels like that. And the traumatized brain does not work logically or objectively. All it knows is: The survivor has not enough power to prevent this situation from occuring again. But here is the thing: No amount of power will make them feel like they have enough power, like they can meaningfully protect themselves from further abuse.

This is why Carmilla is escalating so much in season 4 of Castlevania. Because no matter how much control and power she gets, she does not feel like it is enough to protect herself.

This is also why I do feel like the happy end for both Persephone and Astarion is them giving up their symbol of power. Because the thing is, that them gaining the power will just push them along into a spiral of needing more power to keep themselves in a feeling of being safe. Which is why the good ending for them needs to involve them being convinced to basically trust people again. Because that is a path that given enough time can lead to healing. Them gaining the power won't. In terms of their trauma the power they might gain is just a bandaid on an infected wound.

I have seen a lot of people argue that you should let Astarion finish the ritual, because it "is what he wants". But the thing is... it isn't. All he wants is to feel safe. And he thinks if he gains that power, he can feel safe. But he can't. To feel safe he needs to heal.

[certified-bi]

Thinking about how when Zuko walks through the earth kingdom pretending to be as a refugee and some people notice his eyes but honestly they're not the first thing you notice given the scar and the fact he doesn't let many people near him. No while some of the towns have people who sneer most look on with pity. People like Song and her mother, Lee and his family see the scar and see how the fire nation attacks and maims children. And the worst part is Zuko has little to combat that with because it's true but he's not ready to hear that.

Other assumptions are of course that he's a bastard of some solider with bad luck. That his mother was forced into having him and may the poor woman rest in peace... and later him realizing how true that was of Ursa. What really sets her apart from any of the earth kingdom common women forced into mockery of relationships or forced to sleep with soldiers to stay alive? Maybe the threats were more veiled but it boils down to the same ultimatum.

[yall-hate-kids-tourney]

Round 2: Nanami Kiryuu (Revolutionary Girl Utena) vs. Ken Amada (Persona 3)

Propaganda below the cut

Nanami Kiryuu:

In a show where major characters regularly engage in domestic violence and sexual abuse, the one character fans hated for decades was the 13-year-old grooming victim who tried to bully her peers to gain some semblance of control in her life. She wasn't even good at it

(Mod note: Please be advised that RGU contains dark themes beyond what has already been tagged if you plan to look into it. A comprehensive list of content warnings can be found here)

Ken Amada:

y'all are all for "murder and revenge plots" until is a 10 y/o boy who watched his mother die and started to become conflicted after realizing his moms killer is a secretly kind traumatized teenager to the point where the 10 y/o boy attempts to kill himself by giving himself up to assassins.

bro he's 10.

----

ken amada is such an interesting character with the unfortunate circumstances of having little screentime and atlus deciding to ruin his reputation forever by giving him a romance choice in the fem protag route. ken is a child who lost his mother at NINE. nobody ever believed him when he said that she was murdered, and that he saw who killed her. hes miserable, and all everyone around him does is give him sympathy while hes suffering and was forced to grow up before even going into middle school. hes angry and determined to get revenge on the person who killed his mother, and he doesnt even see the own value in living anymore beyond getting that revenge. hes more mature than most of his peers, and is desperate to be seen as an adult.but at the same time, he is still a child who likes superhero shows.

----

OH GOD WHERE DO I START

First there's the normal "The fandom hates kids" complaints of "He's so whiny" "he's so annoying" "oh my god kid just SHUT UP" y'know, the typical fandom stuff that makes you wonder if these people have ever talked to a child in their life

Second, there's (spoilers)...

October 4th, and the ENTIRE FANDOM is calling this kid a murderer.

For context, the moment in question doesn't necessarily paint him in the best light but its still understandable. Your team is going on a mission while Ken and another character named Shinjiro are away. In an alleyway, they have a talk where it is revealed that on that night a year priar to the game, Kens mom was killed in that allleyway by Shinjiro's Persona (Which, by the Rules of the Game Lore, basically means By Shinjiro). Ken tried to tell the authorities, the authorities didn't believe him because Magic Reasons and the death was ruled an accident.

Of course Ken is Fucking Pissed and wants revenge

However, because of Talk, he ACTIVELY CALMS DOWN, and realises "Hey, I probably shouldn't kill someone. Despite them, y'know, killing my mom"

HOWEVER REVOLVER JESUS COMES IN AND RUINS EVERYTHING BY SHOOTING SHINJIRO. AND LIKE, IF YOU PLAY P3P YOU CAN /AVOID THE DEATH THING/

AND EVERYONE BLAMES /KEN/. AND ONLY KEN.

And third (yes, there's a THIRD) IS THE FUCKING FEMC ROMANCE THING. WHICH JUST...SHOULDN'T HAVE EXISTED IN THE FIRST PLACE. BUT NOW HE'S "SHOTA BAIT" BECAUSE WE HAVE TO BLAME THE CHILD FOR THE AUTHORITY FIGURE COMING ONTO THEM 😒