#dishonest business practices | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

girlgenius1111 · 7 months

Text

pay for your crimes

part 4! Ona and R get Alexia and Mapi back for trying to play Cupid. Or they try to.

no warnings!

You and Ona spent the morning... busy. You spent the afternoon busy too, but in a different, less sexy way: figuring out how to trick two of the most observant people on the team was a challenge. The two of you decided that Ona would call Alexia and tell her that you didn't reciprocate her feelings. You would continue your radio silence to Mapi, as if nothing had happened. At practice tomorrow, you and Ona wouldn't speak to each other, and you figured Mapi would corner you and try to get you to talk, if she didn't call you immedietly after hearing from Alexia. You'd tell her nothing happened, and even though she'd presumably know the truth from Alexia, she wouldn't be able to admit it.

The biggest problem here was Ona; she was a horrible liar. Growing up, she didn't hide much from her parents, so she didn't get practice then like most teenagers do. You really didn't know how her call to Alexia was going to go.

Predictably, Alexia answered on the first ring, her voice ringing out into the room over the speaker, clearly expecting to be told how good she was at matchmaking.

"Hola Capi" Ona let her voice quiver slightly. You turned away from her, worried eye contact would cause both of you to break into giggles.

"Ona! How did it go?" Alexia's words were said with so much excitement, you almost felt bad. Almost.

"Not great."

"What?" The confusion in Alexia's tone had you biting your lip to keep from laughing.

"We talked. You were wrong, Ale. She doesn't have feelings for me. And I didn't tell her I had any for her. I think it's better we just keep some space until we can be friends again." Ona's voice was filled with emotion, and you knew it was the stress of lying, but it sounded like she was genuinely upset.

"No, Ona that can't be right. I'm... i'm sure she has feelings for you."

"What because of the way she looks at me? I don't think that is more convincing than her telling me to my face that she doesn't have feelings for me."

"No, Ona it's not just that. Its..." Alexia was clearly struggling to not admit that she had firsthand testimony that you had admitted to being in love with Ona. "It's more than that. You just have to trust me, go talk to her again," she practically begged.

"Ale, I already trusted you. It didn't work out that well. She doesn't feel the same way, it's time to move on."

"Ona if you just-" Alexia sounded almost frantic at this point.

"No, Capi. I just need some time okay? I'll see you tomorrow." And with that, Ona hung up, just in time for both of you to collapse into laughter. She'd impressed you, keeping it together well. It turns out that the shakiness in her voice from being dishonest seemed similar to how she sounds when she's emotional.

The two of you had just stopped laughing, and regained your breath, when your phone rang. Seeing Mapi's caller ID flash on your phone literally only minutes after hanging up with Alexia was enough to push you both into another fit of hysterical laughter. You had to let the phone ring out before you could pull yourself together, wiping a few stray tears from your eyes.

"Alright, keep it together, I'm gonna call Mapi back. And Ona, don't you dare look at me or I'll lose it again." Ona took a deep breath, wiping the smile off her face, and turned around so her back was facing you on the couch. You took a deep breath too, before pressing the call button. Mapi answered before the first ring had even finished.

"Hey Mapi. What's up?" You made sure to sound a little dejected, but as though you were trying to hide it.

"Y/n! Um..." Mapi trailed off; it seemed she hadn't really thought calling you through all the way, and she didn't know what to say. Digging your nails into your palms to stop yourself from laughing again, you waited for her to decide what to say.

After a minute she finally spoke. "Patri told me you left the bar with Ona last night. What happened?" She tried to sound casual, but you could hear the serious tone in her voice. Ona turned to look at you, mouthing the words, Sure, Patri told you, before you pushed her shoulder to turn her back around.

"Oh yeah. I was just kind of drunk and freaked out over those weird guys. She just took me home. Nothing happened." You, as opposed to Ona, were a great liar. You knew how to lie, and how to layer a lie; allowing someone to see through what you wanted them to, but not alerting them to what was really going on. You let your voice shake slightly, trying to sound as though you were putting on a brave face.

You were met with silence from the other end of the phone. You don't think you'd ever lied to Mapi before, and she clearly didn't know what to do with it. She would know from Alexia that you and Ona slept together, and had a conversation, but she had no way of telling you that. She was stuck.

"Are you sure, nena? If something happened, you can tell me." Her voice sounded so genuine, so reassuring, that you had to really fight to keep yourself from telling her the truth.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Nothing happened." You cleared your throat, hoping to make it seem like you were fighting back tears. "I'm hungover though, and I don't really feel that good, so I'll see you tomorrow."

You hung the phone up before she could respond, groaning as you sat back heavily on the couch. Ona turned around, pulling your body to lay your head in her lap. She smiled down at you, and you grinned back up at her, admiring the freckles that adorned her face. You were beginning to think they were one of your favorite of her features. She absentmindedly ran her hands through your hair, and you melted a little at the sweet gesture.

"Should I be worried at how good of a liar you are?" She made it sound like she was joking, but you could sense a hint of insecurity in her voice. Instead of responding right away, you pulled her head down, pressing a deep kiss to her lips. When you broke apart, she was gasping for air, her eyes looking slightly dazed.

"As long as I keep kissing you like that, you don't have anything to worry about. I'll never lie to you, Oni. Promise." She returned your smile, before it fell from her face. Concerned, you asked her what was wrong.

"I'm gonna have to lie to Alexia tomorrow. In person. All day." She looked genuinely terrified at the prospect.

You laughed, "You're just gonna have to try your best to seem like an emotional mess and not a lying one." She sighed, clearly thinking deeply about how she was going to approach the next day.

-----

Ona returned to her apartment that night, and you decided you would arrive early to practice, to see if anyone asked you any questions, and Ona would arrive late, to avoid being asked questions right away.

You walked down the hall towards the locker room, thinking you would be the first person there. You stopped when you heard voices, leaning against the wall to shamelessly eavesdrop.

"-don't understand, why would she lie to me? She's never lied to me before, this is not normal." You felt a pang of guilt at the sound of Mapi's voice. She sounded really concerned, and kind of hurt. You reminded yourself that her and Alexia needed to be taught a lesson about their matchmaking, as they were getting too confident in their skills.

"I don't understand why they won't just admit whats going on to each other. I mean y/n straight up told Ona she didn't have feelings for her. They are making this so complicated, and now we have to get even more involved," Alexia sounded frustrated.

"I hate to point this out," Ingrid broke in, although she didn't sound that regretful, "but if you guys hadn't meddled in their relationship, they might have been able to take their time and figure things out themselves."

You didn't have to see Mapi and Alexia's faces to know they were both glaring at Ingrid.

"Helpful, Ingrid. Thank you. Ale's right though, we have to fix it, maybe we can-"

You walked in then, airpods in, pretending you hadn't been eavesdropping. You made sure to keep your gaze down, and your face neutral as you headed to your locker and set your stuff down. You could feel the three girls staring at you, and you pulled your airpods out before looking over at them.

"Hi?" You acted confused, catching them staring at you.

"Hola, y/n. How are you?" It was Alexia who responded, her eyes looking over you searchingly.

"Fine. How are you?" you turned back to your stuff, still listening, but began to pull your training kit out of your bag.

"I'm... fine." Alexia responded slowly, and you hummed in response, pretending to be distracted. The rest of the team started to trickle into the locker room, and you let yourself fall into conversation with Pina and Patri, who, unlike some other people, would never have mentioned to anyone that she saw you and Ona making out against the wall.

You watched Ona walk in out of the corner of your eye, and she sent you a small smile, back turned to Ingrid, Mapi, and Alexia, who were still huddled together in front of Mapi's locker, looking as though they were trying to construct a solution to end world hunger. They weren't paying attention to you, so you sent Ona a small smile back, before turning back to your conversation.

You didn't notice Ingrid clock the looks you and Ona exchanged, or the way her eyes followed the two of you the rest of practice. You and Ona made a game of it, seeing who could make the fake tension between the two of you the most obvious.

You thought you had won when you pretended to hear someone calling your name on the other side of the field when Ona neared the water cooler you were standing by. However, Ona took the cake when she took you out with a particularly nasty tackle that left you sprawled out on the grass, not bothering to apologize, going so far as to step over you before you could get up. The whole team exchanged looks at that one, and even though your body ached from the impact, you really weren't mad; Ona was competitive, you knew this.

Mapi helped you up, shooting a glare at Ona, and you had to hide your smirk in your shirt, wiping off your face with it. You still hadn't noticed Ingrid watching the two of you carefully, whereas Mapi and Alexia were individually focused on each of you.

When practice ended, you headed into the locker room, leaving a couple players out on the pitch to work on penalties, including Mapi and Alexia. As you neared the door to the locker room, you felt a sharp pain on your ear and yelped, feeling yourself be dragged down the hall. You heard a similar yelp coming from the other side of you, but at the risk of losing your ear, you didn't turn around to look for the source. Instead, you let yourself be pulled into the medical supplies closet, turning to face Ingrid, who let go of your and Ona's ears once the door shut behind her.

She looked at the two of you, raising an eyebrow, before she reached out a hand and pulled the neck of Ona's training top down slightly, revealing the many, many hickeys littered across her upper chest. It's possible you had gotten carried away yesterday morning, and Ona had to be careful about which top she wore, as the marks were barely covered by her shirt. Ingrid must have spotted one peaking out. You both blushed, and Ingrid sighed.

"You know that you're driving both of them crazy right? They think they've ruined your relationship, and both of you are going to die alone unless they do something to fix it." You fought back a laugh, and could tell Ona was doing the same.

"This is what they get for trying to play cupid. It could have ended like this, and they need to be taught a lesson. Who knows who their next victim could be," you joked, looking for a laugh from Ingrid, but only finding a serious face. "Oh come on, Ingrid, I heard you telling them the same thing this morning in the locker room." Ingrid opened her mouth to respond, but Ona interrupted her.

"Wait, how did you know?" she questioned, and Ingrid rolled her eyes.

"It's painfully obvious to everyone except those two! The little looks, little smirks at each other when you think no on is watching. That absurd tackle. The only people who don't know are Alexia and Mapi, because they're too upset to notice." Ingrid was shamelessly scolding you both, and you started to feel guilty. She turned her attention to you before speaking again. "You know Mapi cried yesterday when she got off the phone with you? She knew you were lying to her and she couldn't understand what she did to make you not trust her."

It made sense why Ingrid was so upset. She was fiercely protective of Mapi, and even though you knew she agreed with you, making her girlfriend cry was clearly a step too far.

You sighed, "We weren't trying to upset them, it was just supposed to be a little joke." Ona murmured her agreement with your statement.

"Well you did upset them. They both really care about the two of you, and thought they had really messed up. So now you're gonna go march into that room and tell them the truth, before you make my girlfriend cry again. Got it?" Her hands were on her hips, and she was glaring at both of you as you hung your heads in shame, and agreed. Ingrid had a reputation for being a big softie, but she could really turn on the stern when she wanted to.

She led you out of the closet, bringing you to an empty conference room, leaving with a warning to stay put. You and Ona looked at each other, exchanging wide eyed glances, not finding the situation so funny anymore.

"Damn, I really didn't expect them to be that upset," you stated.

"You know, I always assumed Mapi was in charge in that relationship, but clearly I've underestimated Ingrid" Ona mused, shutting her mouth tightly as the door opened again.

Ingrid walked in, with an incredibly confused Alexia and Mapi trailing in after her. You met Mapi's eyes, and she looked so worried that the guilt you felt tripled. Ingrid gestured for everyone to take seats at the table, looking like the least professional business meeting anyone had ever had.

"Tell them what you two did," Ingrid said, when it became clear neither you nor Ona were going to start the conversation. Mapi and Alexia turned to the two of you, confused.

"Well. We did talk yesterday. And we realized that the two of you were both telling each other things, and trying to get us together, and we were kind of annoyed, so we decided to tell you guys that we weren't together. But, we are. We figured it out," you started.

Ona continued, "and we didn't mean to make you guys upset, we thought it would just be funny."

Alexia and Mapi looked back and forth between the two of you for a minute, before saying at the same time, "so you ARE together?"

You and Ona nodded, and the two girls opposite you let out huge sighs of relief. Mapi ran her hands over her face, and you hadn't realized how tense she had looked until you watched it leave her body. Alexia looked like she was fighting back tears, which was incredibly alarming; you'd seen Alexia cry maybe 3 times. You and Ona started spouting out more apologies, but Mapi held up a hand, and you both grew quiet.

"We were upset because we though we'd pushed too hard and ruined your relationship. Can you imagine how guilty we felt? Lying to us was really mean. That being said, we shouldn't have started conspiring together in the first place, and for that, I'm sorry." Mapi was so rarely serious, it was really a sight to behold.

"What happened to the little Ona I knew that used to cry every time she lied?" Alexia was glaring at Ona, and you laughed quietly.

"She used it to her advantage. She had to sound upset to be convincing," you responded, and Ona slapped your arm, shooting you a glare.

"Alright, we've all apologized, everyone knows the truth, are we free to go now," Ona asked, directing her question towards Ingrid.

Ingrid looked between the two of you for a moment, before sighing, and standing up, heading towards the door.

"Fine. But you should probably make sure to cover up those hickeys all over your chest before you change in front of everyone tomorrow Oni." She smirked back at you, heading back into the locker room, as Alexia and Mapi looked at the two of you in horror. Ona made to bolt out of the room, and Alexia chased after her, demanding to see what ungodly things Ona had allowed you to do to her.

Mapi still looked grossed out at the thought, but you crossed the room, wrapping yourself around her in a hug.

"I'm sorry I lied. I never meant to make you feel like I didn't trust you," you mumbled into her shirt. She wrapped her arms around you, squeezing tight.

"All forgiven, nena. I can't stay mad at you. As long as you're happy, I'm happy." You pulled back, smiling at her. You heard a shriek come from the locker room, followed by Alexia's voice.

"My god! One wasn't enough, y/n, you needed to leave 15?" You winced, and Mapi looked down at you, her face once again one of disgust. You shrugged at her, and she wrapped an arm around your shoulders, walking you back to the locker room, hopefully to help you save your girlfriend from Alexia, but more likely to join in on the teasing. You found that you didn't really mind it.

-----

this was.. way more fun to write than I was expecting. hope you enjoyed :)

#woso imagine #woso #woso x reader #barcelona femeni x reader #ona batlle x reader #mapi leon #alexia putellas #ingrid engen #ona batlle

423 notes · View notes

dresshistorynerd · 11 months

Text

How to see through the greenwashing propaganda of the fashion industry - 1

In the light of the Shein brand trip nonsense, I was thinking about how literally every clothing company now engages in greenwashing, even when it's such obvious lie like with Shein. And while most people are not fooled in such blatant cases like that, most cases are not as blatant. To see through the less obvious propaganda often needs a lot of knowledge of the clothing industry, which the average person doesn't have, yet the average person still needs clothing. So instead of trying to expose every company for their bad practices, I thought it might be more helpful to make a post on how to detect greenwashing. I'm going to use four examples, all in the different levels of honesty and responsibility, Shein, H&M, Burberry and Tentree. First I will go into frankly unnecessary amount of detail on Shein, because I fell into a horrifyingly fascinating research rabbit hole and I think it's excellent example on how companies can get away with blatant crimes (allegedly of course). In this first part we will just look into Shien, it's propaganda and reality behind it.

But before I go deeper into this, I want to stress one thing: this is not to say that you can never buy from any brand engaging in dishonest greenwashing, because then you couldn't buy almost any clothing, and you do need clothing. Though I will say, please don't buy from Shein if you in any way can afford not to. There is levels of how bad business practices can be, and they can't be much worse than Shein's, and even beside that, even when super cheep, it's not worth your money. There are other cheep options too. Though I won't hold it against anyone if they buy individual pieces from Shein from time to time, but I would implore at least to considerate, if they really need it and if it might be possible to get something similar from somewhere else. But my point in this is not necessarily to help you make better consumer decisions, because consumption will not save us, but to see through the corporate propaganda and not become complaisant after hearing comforting lies. The corporations are doing everything they can to make you believe they are already fixing the problems within the industry and there's no need for government intervention pinky promise, just keep consuming. But that's all bullshit and government intervention is exactly what is needed.

Before taking a look at our cases, I'll outline the key things I think are good to look for, when presented with sustainability PR.

TRANSPARENCY - Companies are not required to publish much of the information about their practices, but as it has become clear to everyone that the whole fashion industry is a massive problem, opacity has become rightly seen as suspicious. It has become also a sort of marketing method to disclose any evidence of good practices, so when a company is not doing that, and missing out on well working marketing, it raises the question, what are they hiding. Companies may try to give the appearance of transparency, without actually disclosing information. They might write in an easily accessible page about all their lofty goals, promises and achievements in a very vague language, they might talk about being transparent and publishing their data, but that data might be buried somewhere, where it's not easily accessible. Good sign on the other hand would be for example providing supply chain information for a product in the product description.

RELIABLE INFORMATION - Usually it's safer for a company to be vague or silent than to lie, because that might lead to legal consequences, but by cherry-picking and subtly twisting data, it can be turned to be flattering for them. Small companies might provide raw evidence of their facilities and supply chain, like photos, locations, contractor names etc. to give proof for their word. For bigger companies this is not of course possible as their supply chains might be massive and they might have thousands of facilities. However, there are many different independent and governmental organizations that give different kinds of certifications. The certifications are meant to give some reassurance of quality and/or accurate information. However not all certifications are made equal. Most reliable certifications don't have ties to the industry (aka are actually independent, not just in name), have governmental oversight and are given access to the data, from which they do the research themselves.

SUPPLY CHAIN - Giving the origin country of the final product is nowadays standard information to give, as it's required by law for example in EU. It's a red flag, if it's produced in a country, that has lacking environmental or labour laws, poor oversight and/or little protections for people. However, this does not mean that all production in those countries is unethical or questionable, but the risk for that is higher and the need for evidence of the working conditions is also higher. This is however just one part of the production. Before clothing can be sewn, the raw material for fiber must be made/acquired, that material must be turned into fiber, which must be turned into yarn and then the yarn must be woven into fabric. All of these steps in the process need workers, who deserve good working conditions. And depending on what fabric is in question, there's potential for major environmental issues in the different processes. This is why it's important to know more than just the country where the clothing was sewn. There could be certification for ethical sourcing of the fabric for example. With supply chain it's also better if the materials are sourced as locally as possible, to avoid a lot of extra carbon emissions from transportation. Best case scenario would be if the company manages the supply chain themselves locally, so they can know for sure where their materials come from and also avoid middlemen.

BUSINESS MODEL - The reason why it's often so hard to get information on the supply chain is that many companies, especially the large ones, outsource as much as possible. This might seem unintuitive, as the middlemen make production less efficient and costly as everyone takes a cut. However, they do it to outsource risks and responsibility. They don't have to invest into factories or raw material production and they have plausible deniability, if and when there's issues in their supply chain. The complexity of the supply chain provides opacity that is impossible and unreasonable to monitor, which allows the company to buy materials that are unreasonably cheep, while feigning ignorance of worker exploitation. How much the clothing cost can also give some idea on their business model. If it's super cheep, the only way for it to be that cheep is if workers are not payed enough and everything is poorly made. Cheep is always a red flag, though, if it's fairly cheep and I mean basic clothing is not much more than 100 eur (little more in USDs) but not much less than 50 eur, it can be okay or even good quality and with proper pay for workers, if the company doesn't take massive margins and don't have a ton of middlemen in their supply chain. However, expensive is not insurance of quality or good pay for workers. Many expensive brands take massive margins while their production has little difference to fast fashion and their products are poor quality.

CASE STUDY 1: SHEIN

Let's start with the propaganda. In Shein's About Us page, they say:

"SHEIN is a global fashion and lifestyle e-retailer committed to making the beauty of fashion accessible to all."

You see, their goal is to make fashion accessible to everyone, not just privileged few. They back this up by informing how they work in 150 countries, have very wide variety of clothing, are one of the most popular shopping apps, connect with the customers on where they are - social media - and, of course, have ridiculously low prices. Their team of nearly 10,000 employees (of which 58% are women for your information) loves to serve their many many customers, who are most important for Shein. They use "cutting-edge technology" and digitized agile supply chain to track sales and demand and adjust their manufacturing in real time. When they notice a new trend, they immediately put something trendy on sale, make prototypes and order small batches from factories. This is how they keep their inventory waste low and get products quickly to their customers. In their own words:

"By developing proprietary logistics and ecommerce technology, we are disrupting the fashion space and improving outcomes for manufacturers, suppliers and consumers."

We will see, if the "outcomes" are really "improved".

Shein group's website has very extensive information about their sustainability goals and efforts, giving the impression of transparency. It's pretty clear this is in an effort to combat all the allegations towards them. To make their business sustainable in addition to their reduced inventory waste they are "accelerating their transition" to use recycled polyester, promoting their "peer-to-peer resale platform" for Shein products, "eshtablishing" a recycling program for end-of-life products, tracing the material supply chain through their own material tracking platform and conserving forests by replacing viscose with "next generation fibers".

Most of the information they provide is fully meaningless corporate speak and should be taken with the biggest bucket of salt, so let's ask some questions.

DO THEY PROVIDE SPECIFIC DATA ABOUT THEIR PRODUCTION? Surprisingly Shein is much more transparent than I expected. (Though of course the info is in different website than where the average consumer would go.) Shein hasn't taken the standard route, which is to provide as little information as possible, and keeping it vague too, se they could just keep feigning ignorance. As I said, I think it's pretty clear they are providing this much information because their reputation is so bad. Their lack of transparency has been taken as an admission of guilt, so it's not working anymore, and they have taken a new approach into maintaining their plausible deniability. In their website, they provide a sustainability report from years 2021 and 2022. I took a look at the latest one. In it there's a lot of fluff, but they show actual numbers of how many code of conduct violations have been found in audits to supplier facilities, the carbon emissions of their supply chain and the amounts of different fabrics they have used during 2022. That's not nothing, so we have a relatively good start here.

WHO DID THE RESEARCH? The research is not at all independent, but done in-house. They have all the financial incentives to cherry-pick and frame their research in a way that shows them in the best possible light, even if we assumed they would not tamper with their own evidence, which I don't think we can fully assume either. There's an attempt though to convince us to believe the data they are showing:

"We have reported with reference to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 2021 standard for certain sections of this report. Selected information in this report was assured, to the limited assurance standard, by an external independent assurer as per ISAE 3000."

Emphasis by me. So even if they did the research themselves, they did get it independently audited to get an assurance that they did follow the GRI standards in their reporting and that it doesn't contain lies. However, the "certain sections" and "selected information" with "limited assurance" does not give me much assurance, in fact, my assurance is very limited. To understand what does this actually mean, I did a bit of googling and delved into the annex of the report.

ISAE 3000 is a standard for auditing financial information issued by International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, which an independent body that has governmental oversight. Financial information can get either reasonable assurance or limited assurance. Reasonable assurance is the most assurance this standard allows. Limited assurance is given, if the information provided to the assurer, time or extent of the procedure is lacking, but from those limited resources the assurer doesn't find anything that suggests "the subject matter information is materially misstated" aka that the company is lying. GRI is the most used reporting standard for sustainability for businesses and other organizations. I'm a bit suspicious of how effective their standards are, if they are most widely used, since most companies are absolutely terrible about sustainability yet they all claim they are great with it. So I decided to check who is in the board. Unsurprisingly it's mostly representatives of massive corporations, including Coca Cola and DuPond, a professor of accounting, national research director of Australia's Mining and Energy Union and one (1) environmental scientist.

The annex revealed quite interesting details. The only information that was AssuredTM (in a limited manner) for accurate information was the data on Shein's emissions and that of code of conduct violations. Only the report on emissions was AssuredTM (in a limited manner) to follow GRI standards. Shein got to select and prepare the relevant data for the audition, which was according to it, lacking. Crucially the audition report states that they didn't verify the results of supply audits or any potential violations of labor law found in them, rather they just checked that the math on the grading of the audits matched with Shein's stated criteria and that they actually did the audits. So if you really think about it, the (limited) assurance is that they graded themselves like they promised they would, not that their reporting of the amounts of violated labor laws or even just their own code of conduct was accurate. Additionally assurance of the accuracy of the emissions was only of Shein's own facilities, which do not produce any of their products, but not of their supply chain. 99,7% of their emissions come from their supply chain. So keep all this in mind when we look at the data itself.

WHAT ARE THEIR CARBON EMISSIONS AND HOW ARE THEY CALCULATED? Shein's emissions were 9,17 million tonnes of CO2, or 9,22 million tonnes if we don't count them purchasing Renewable Energy Credits. To put it into perspective that would be around 7-0,3% of the estimation of the annual emissions of the whole textile industry. Now that would be pretty low. In fact, suspiciously low. The fact that they got their own emissions auditioned, but not the emissions of their supply chain, suggests to me that perhaps, their numbers don't hold up to scrutiny. They also don't disclose their methodology for the numbers of the supply chain, like they do with their own facilities. Of course their response would be to say it's so much easier for them to calculate their own emissions than their suppliers. But I say that's not a bug, that's a feature.

Though looking at the methodology of the emissions from their own operating sites, which includes warehouses and offices, they don't take into account at all any emissions from building anything. They grew massively between 2021 and 2022 and I find it hard to believe they didn't built any of the new offices or warehouses they gained. Certainly they would have bought a lot of new equipment even if they moved to existing buildings. But none of this is taken into account in their calculations. And I must assume, it's not taken into account in their supply chain calculations either.

Even if we took them at their word, by their own admission, their carbon emissions have grown from 2021 to 2022 52%, which is alarming. (Interestingly they use the 2021 numbers in their actual website, which I think is so misleading that it's basically a lie.) They write it off as just side effect of their massive growth in production volume, which had 57% increase during the same time frame.

"We are at the beginning of our mitigation journey and began implementing decarbonization programs at the end of fiscal year 2022."

So they first scale their business as fast as they can, having absolutely no care of the environmental effect, so that when they have massive market share, and they reduce their massive emissions slightly, they can be like "oh look we did something!" They can then moan and wail how hard and time consuming it is to reduce the emissions of an existing supply chain, when they were the ones who decided to not take that into account from the start. Their "science based goal" (which they repeatedly stress in their website) is to reduce their emissions 25% by 2023. It's nothing. Less than nothing. They scaled without care their production in a time, when our ecology is collapsing, and then they claim that it's just science we possibly can't do anything about it. Apparently it's a natural law that they just have to make more and more money, like gravity.

WHAT MATERIALS DO THEY USE? Last year 64% of Shein's clothing (measured in weight) was polyester. Production of polyester is estimated to count for 40% of all carbon emissions of the textile industry. It's also a plastic made out of oil, so we have to take into account the fracking and refinement of oil and the eventual release of the CO2 from the oil that would have been secured in the ground otherwise. This most certainly is not counted into the supply chain emissions. Shein loves to pay lip service to the idea of circular economy, but they don't actually think about it. Because if they did, they would have taken into account the microplastics polyester fabric sheds when it's washed. When microplastics get into the soil and freshwater, they get into the organs of animals, including us, and they don't easily come off. Already it has been shown that they have led to the decrease of small soil fauna, which are very important for the fertility of the soil. Over time microplastics also break down further into nanoplastics. There's already evidence of nanoplastics being small enough to pass through veins into the brain, and that causing behavioral changes in fish. We don't know the long term consequences off this micro and nano plastic pollution yet, and we're just seeing the effects they have on small animals, but as they built up over years and decades inside our organs, we well likely see much larger effects.

Important for the lifecycle thinking is not just focusing on how much burden the production puts on the environment, but also how long it lasts and how can it be reused and eventually the impact of the end of it's lifecycle. If you remember from the beginning, Shein claims to take all this into account by having a resale program, somewhere in the future establishing a recycling program for unusable old clothes and increasing their share of recycled polyester. This is nothing. Again it's less than nothing. Polyester is not only bad fabric because of the things I've already said, but it's also just as a material for clothing very weak. It's not warm or breathable, which makes it at the same time sweaty and cold. It has no anti-bacterial qualities at all (which basically all natural fabrics have at least to small extent), so when you get easily sweaty in it, it starts also smelling very easily, and so needs washing very often. On top of washing releasing microplastics, it also weakens the fabric, because polyester gets weaker when wet (unlike plant fibers, like cotton and linen, which get stronger when wet). Polyester is also very hard to dye effectively and has bad color retaining properties, so it needs chemical treatments and strong industrial dyes, all of which adds to it's carbon footprint. Bad color retaining properties though also mean it looses it's color quite easily when washed. All of this makes it's life span significantly shorter than natural fabrics. I mean with some natural fabrics like wool and silk we are talking about multiple decades, with polyester it's easily in the low one digit years. These are inherent issues with polyester, but Shein clothes have repeatedly got complaints of their poor quality in general. This makes the resale program frankly meaningless.

On the surface the recycling program for polyester sounds good, right? You don't have to use more oil and use as much energy in making of it (according to Shein themselves, which again not a trustworthy source, it saves up to 70% emissions). Shein has promised to increase their share of recycled polyester to 31% of their polyester usage by 2030. Currently less than 1% of their production is recycled polyester. This is however a terrible solution. It still sheds microplastics and it's even worse as a fabric than virgin polyester. It is weaker and stiffer, making it impossible to use on it's own in fabric but when mixed with other fibers in a fabric significantly shortens it's life span. When we take into account the lifecycle of a clothing, the length of it and it's lifetime emissions become much more important than the production emissions. If you have to produce from scratch new clothing three times, in the time you could be using another clothing, it doesn't really matter if the emissions during the production were somewhat lower. (There's little reliable and comparable data available on production emissions of different fabrics, so I don't know how exactly recycled polyester compares to different natural fabrics.) Especially when we take into account the consumer use emissions, which in the case of polyester are 30% of it's lifetime emissions. And wast majority of it comes from washing, which you have to do more with polyester (how much more depends on what fabric you compere it to). Any responsible disposal of polyester at the end of it's lifecycle, especially any attempts at recycling it, cause additional emissions, unlike with natural fibers, which naturally degrade.

WHERE ARE THE SUPPLIERS? Shein boasts having fully integrated digital supply chain and with it they can track the whole supply chain of individual product. However they don't reveal any of that information publicly. Or rather only thing we know is that their factories making the end products are in China. But the question is, where does their fabrics come from? There's no countries listed in their report in any capacity and none of their products have any information of their origins nor the origins of the fabrics. This is very suspicious in my opinion. We can get no indication on how fibers might have been produced and made into fabric from the labor and environmental laws and practices of different countries. However, there is an interesting bit in the report about cotton:

"For cotton products, to further enhance our compliance with US laws, we request that our manufacturing suppliers only source cotton from Australia, Brazil, India, the United States and other approved regions."

This sentence is there pretty obviously because they have been caught selling clothing with cotton grown in Xinjiang in US markets, which US has banned. This is because Xinjiang, the Autonomous Uighur region, where 90% of China's raw cotton is grown, has been accused of genocidal oppression of the Uighur population, including having massive forced labour camps for Uighurs. Because of the police state nature of Xinjiang, there's no reliable numbers on how much of the cotton is produced with forced labour, but presumably most of it. Moreover, China limits the imports of cotton, which is why only 20% of cotton used by the textile industry in China is imported. Shein claims they know exactly where their fabrics come from, but the wording of the sentence above makes it clear they don't even plan on enforcing any policy to use imported cotton by their suppliers. Cotton is just 10% of fabric they used last year, but given their massive production volume, it's still a lot. This gets us to our next question.

IS THERE PROOF OF GOOD WORKING CONDITIONS? Shein reports doing in total 2 812 audits into 1 941 of their 5 400 contract manufacturers. According to them it accounted for 84% of their Shein branded products (so not their other 10 brands). This information, if you remember, was given limited assurance, by the audition into their numbers. However, we are to trust Shein alone that their the reports of their auditions are accurate. I'm not really willing to trust them, but let's sustain our disbelief for a moment to look at their findings. From their report:

"A: 90 points and above: minor flaws. Continued improvement is advised. B: 75 to 90 points: some general risks. Continued improvement is advised. C: 60 to 75 points: 1-3 major risks. Corrective action is required. D: below 60 points: >3 major risks. Corrective action is required. ZTV: Zero Tolerance Violation detetected. Immediate corrective action is required."

Even without knowing what do these things mean in practice, I don't think this paints a pretty picture. Only 4% of their manufacturing facilities had minor flaws and 82% of their facilities have major risks or worse? Does that mean none of their manufacturers fully comply with their Code of Conduct? They try to make it sound like it looks this bad because they have tightened their criteria and still the numbers are better than last year, but even with all of that, this is imo unacceptable. But it gets worse.

The report shows the amount of each ZTV found in the audits. This was explicitly not assured in any way by an independent party, so considering this information is given despite the lack of oversight and the interests of Shein, it's grim. Most of the 11% of ZTVs were gross safety violations. For example 4,2% of the audits, which means 118 facilities, found lacking emergency exits. However, they also found child labour in 6 facilities and forced labour in 3 facilities. So according to their own reporting, their manufacturers have used child labour and forced labour. And just to remind you, this is covering just 36% of their contract manufacturers. What I found interesting (read disturbing), was that violence or sexual misconduct against workers were not among Zero Tolerance Violations. I know it's not a situation, where they don't consider it violation of Code of Conduct, but rather just calls the police and let them handle it, because the violations counted here are based on their CoC, in which there's an item 7 named "No harassment or abuse of employees", which explicitly forbids physical, sexual, mental and verbal abuse. They don't however reveal other definitions of violations, than ZTVs, nor do their reveal how are they graded, so there's really no way to know what the 71% of their manufacturers have done to warrant their low (C or D) grading.

Would you at this point be surprised, if I told you it gets worse? Yeah, their so called Zero Tolerance Violations are not very zero tolerance after all. You might think zero tolerance means, that if manufacturers are caught doing it, their contract is immediately terminated and they are reported to authorities? Well, let's look what is the "immediate corrective action" outlined in their Responsible Sourcing Policy. Among the ZTVs they define even more zero tolerance violations, let's say negative tolerance violations. These are 1. forging documents, bribery or refusing to get assessed 2. child labour and 3. forced labour. Surely these lead to immediate contract termination and reporting to authorities?

So if Shein encounters slavery or probable coverup of it in their facilities, they stop placing new orders until the enslaved people and children are taken somewhere else or otherwise their contracts are fixed (at least for now), so there's no more slavery in sight, when someone comes back to assess them again and decides it's all good to continue business as usual. They have 30 days to make everything look like there's no issues, which sounds pretty easy task, and after that they can grab the kids and the slaves back there like nothing happened. Also notice how they didn't say they demand stopping the work entirely in the facility, just that they'll stop placing orders? Yeah, they don't stop production even if they find literal children or enslaved people producing them. Gotta get those dresses to the customer.

If they find any other ZTV, they come back in 30 days, and if the violation continues, they give a warning, come back again in 30 days, and if still the issue is there, then they stop placing orders. After that it continues like with child or forced labour violations. If after another 30 days it's not fixed, the contract is terminated. If a supplier gets two ZTVs within two years, they go straight to the even less than zero tolerance model straight away. If they get three ZTVs in two years, then their contract is immediately terminated. Nothing different happens though, if you get caught doing child or forced labour two times in two years, so you can just get caught once a year as long as you always pretend to stop doing it. But even if you do get caught third time in two years, or fail to pretend you fixed it, it's fine, you'll just have to do other stuff for the next year, and then you can apply again to work with Shien. Also the policy does not at any point require reporting these alleged crimes to authorities. If they at some point stop placing orders for a supplier (for example because of child or forced labour), they have to just sent all the files and documents of the goods that are produced by that supplier during the time they aren't giving them new orders to the relevant tax and customs authorities.

To answer the question I started this section with, sounds like Shein provides more evidence of bad working conditions in their suppliers' facilities, than they provide evidence of good working conditions. They even give evidence that their monitoring of those conditions is just a joke, and they have no mechanisms to actually get rid of suppliers who have inhumane working conditions. Elsewhere they try to give very weak evidence of good working conditions. The influencer brand trip to their facility in China was a PR stunt like that. However, it's easily dismissable, as the facility was not at one of the factories, where their clothing is made, all of which are third parties, but Shien's own facility they call Innovation Center. There they innovate new technologies, train their suppliers to use their new technologies and consult their suppliers on how to make new factories, which I assume means they have factory templates to give to their suppliers.

However, independent sources give much more reliable evidence of terrible working conditions in their factories. Like when undercover operation into one of their factories found employees working 18 hours a day earning 2 cents per item. When asked for comment, they answered: "Any non-compliance with this code is dealt with swiftly, and we will terminate partnerships that do not meet our standards." This is not severe ZTV, so what they mean by "dealt with swiftly" is "told to stop breaking labour laws, given some time, given warning, given more time, stopped giving new orders, given even more time and if after three months they have not stop then they gotta go". Because yes, they do terminate those who don't meet their standards. Their standards are just in the gutter.

HOW IS THE COMPANY STRUCTURED? While falling down this rabbit hole I came to the realization that Shein is the Uber of fashion. It's just the gig economy all over again. Let me explain. Unlike traditional fashion companies, Shein has outsourced even the sewing of the clothing. Shein itself is an app company, like Uber, though they technically do design their own clothes. I say technically because they have been repeatedly accused of copyright infringement to the point where they are now sued for racketeering. Allegation from the lawsuit:

"Shein has grown rich by committing individual infringements over and over again, as part of a long and continuous pattern of racketeering, which shows no sign of abating."

It relates to the other reason why I say their only technically design too, because a huge amount of their designs are also outsourced. In their sustainability report, they boast about how their SHEIN X program is meant to "empower" young designers to get their business off the ground, by taking their designs and using them for their clothing productions. This sounds a lot like SHEIN X designers are gig workers. They are basically just designers for Shein, but oh no they are not workers, labour laws won't apply! Shein specifically targets young designers, even students, so it's clear that they really just want impressionable people desperate for money and work experience. Obviously they won't get much money for their designs, since there's such a massive flood of products and designers, Shein says they have 3 000 designers in SHEIN X, and the products are so, so cheep. It's the exact same thing as with Uber and the like, they put their "workers" into competition with each other. To tie it back to the lawsuit, they use these third party designers as fodder against accusations of copyright infringement. They did not steal the design from the independent artist, they are just the platform provider.

This is also exactly how they operate with their factories. When their massive production is spread across all the 5 400 small separate suppliers, they are forced to compete for scraps. They can't organize together to demand better pay or better working conditions, and Shein can act like they have no part in them. Moreover, due to their extremely low prices, Shein has to offer only really low rates for the production of their clothing. On top of that because of the contractor structure, the actual fanctory owners taken an extra cut from those low rates, leaving extremely little for the actual workers. The prices are so low, they demand inhumane working conditions. It's impossible to sell clothing in the prices Shein does and pay well for the workers, especially with their business structure. All the talk about technological innovation is also bullshit, because this gig economy competition model ensures that most of the gig workers (in this case factories) will stay poor, so they can hardly invest in the new technologies.

This model is also what Shein holds as their most significant sustainability claim, because it allows them to cut most inventory waste. Traditional fashion companies always have a significant overhead, because their supply must always be higher than demand, otherwise, they would loose customers to their competitors. Because Shein orders small batches from large amount of factories, they can change their production in real time, adjusting to the demand much quicker than any competitor. Yes, it means they have minimal inventory loss, but it's not actually efficient. Or rather not efficient in any other way than for maximizing profits. There is a massive amount of overlap of facilities, machinery, organization structures and bureaucracy, if we look at Shein's whole production, because the small factories are all producing same things, but because Shein drives them to compete with each other, they don't have to pay for that overlap. More than that, it's extremely inefficient way to maximize people getting clothed while minimizing materials. And I don't mean producing as much clothes as possible while minimizing materials, because that is what they are doing, but the goal shouldn't be as much clothes as possible, but maximizing everyone having enough clothing, which is much less that what we produce today. And if clothing was made to last instead of making as many of them as possible, even less could be made and still everyone would have enough clothes.

Shein's extremely quick rise to the top of fashion markets was due to how effectively they managed to use the pandemic for their advantage. During the lock-downs around the world, people spend increasingly more time on their phones and social media, which Shein managed turn into their profit. They utilize social media and influencers effectively for marketing. Their platform also uses many of the same psychological tricks social media uses to keep customers scrolling and consuming. This is on itself is not at all new, but because of their business model, they turned attention into sales and sales into more attention. All that combined with their ability to response in real time to new trends and scale production extremely quickly, turned any new trend in social media into hype and micro-fashion cycles, which they would burn through increasingly fast. Their competitors wouldn't even have the time to get into that trend before it would be replaced with a new trend. Then all they needed to do was to contract new small factories, they didn't even have to spend time and money to built them, and they could take over the fast fashion market.

Shein's effect won't stop there though. Their competitors will and are already starting to adapt their methods. It means quality of clothing will keep getting worse, the whole industry will keep increasing their carbon emissions and the working conditions from cotton farmers to designers will get worse as gig economy spreads in the industry. I'll talk more about this in the conclusions of the second part, but to fix this, there needs to be government intervention. It's good that there's a lawsuit over their wider practices, not just a singular act, but it won't be enough. If they don't face significant consequences, every other company will take note that they can profit off of (allegedly) systematic crimes.

IN CONCLUSION Shein as a company is a glorified optimization algorithm which only real function is to drive up consumption and in exchange take all the profits from everyone else's labour. They use the modern classic Uber model to take the neoliberal principle of outsourcing risks and responsibilities to it's logical conclusion. Their extremely exploitative business model only works if their designers and factories and other gig workers break laws. They do the absolute bare minimum to comply with law and (allegedly) not even that when they believe they can get away with it by blaming others, which is fucking bad indictment of those laws, since my god they are terrible. Their greenwashing propaganda is honestly laughable, it's a joke and they must know it. It feels more like gaslighting than propaganda.

#this is not exactly what i usually write about but one of the reasons i care about historical fashion is because i care about sustainability #fashion #sustainable fashion #environment #climate crisis #shein #fashion industry #shein clothes #fast fashion #slavery mentioned #genocide mentioned

288 notes · View notes

the-gone-ton · 6 months

Text

Went back to Phillipsburg Mall, got these two shots before the mall cop told me to fuck off.

The Phillipsburg Mall opened to fanfare in 1989, the last mall developed in the Lehigh Valley which offered a fresh experience compared to all the other, 70s-era malls in the region. It badly hurt business at the much smaller nearby Palmer Park Mall. But fortunes turned for a few reasons, some of which were faults inherent in the design of the Pburg Mall.

But the main reason, no doubt, was the gradual offshoring of the Ingersoll-Rand Corporation, which had been Phillipsburg's largest employer & taxpayer for almost a century. Ingersoll-Rand employed 5,000 of Phillipsburg's almost 19,000 citizens in the 50s - declining to 500 employees by the time the plug was finally pulled in 2000. Ingersoll-Rand left its hometown of 97 years with no jobs, no taxes, and 380 acres of polluted, contaminated, vacant land. It's now based in Ireland, a tax haven. And Phillipsburg's population declined alongside the Ingersoll-Rand jobs.

The already-struggling mall was bought by slumlord Namdar Realty in 2013, who in 6 years bled the mall out before notifying the remaining tenants that they were being evicted on Christmas Eve no less, 2019. Despite overseeing the death of the mall in just 5 years' time, dishonest business practices allowed Namdar to profit millions of dollars from the Phillipsburg Mall.

#phillipsburg mall #photography #dead mall #dead malls #retail #deadmall #mall #malls #shopping mall #shopping malls #retail apocalypse #new jersey #abandoned places #abandoned #exploration #explore

55 notes · View notes

astrojulia · 1 year

Text

Pluto transits in the Natal Chart

~ Pluto in the Houses

1ST HOUSE

You have the power to take control of your life and not let anyone else dictate it anymore. During this transit, things you've kept hidden may come to the surface, and you might find yourself throwing some tantrums without really knowing why. But don't worry, you'll also be able to see people for who they really are and understand what drives them. This is a great time for personal transformation, where you can change your image and yourself at a deeper level. However, you might experience some intense situations or people that could be a bit overwhelming. So, it's best to avoid anyone or anything that seems subtle and embrace the positive changes in your life..

When Pluto crosses your Ascendant, it's time to break free from traditional thought patterns and be a role model for others. To make the most of this, try to connect with the forces that shaped you and made you who you are, based on the sign that was on your first house at birth, and your Pluto sign at birth. This will help you to have more control over your unconscious motives that might have caused compulsions or irrational obsessions in the past..

You might feel a strong urge to control everything and everyone, which could create difficulties in your relationships. But remember, the key is to learn to control yourself and see yourself in a positive light. This is an opportunity to discover new resources and values within yourself. You might feel like you have too much power, which could push people away from you. But don't worry, this transit will bring about a huge change in your image and the way you express yourself..

2ND HOUSE

The key to success during this time is to be completely honest with yourself about what you want. If you know what you want, you'll be more likely to accomplish your goals. However, explanations will be necessary under certain circumstances, so don't be afraid to speak your mind. Your opinions and behavior regarding what you value and what matters to you will be influenced by outside forces. It's important to understand that nothing really belongs to you and everything you give or receive will come back to you in some way..

But let's be real, living in a materialistic society can make it hard to let go of the anxiety about social status and the benefits that come with wealth. During this period, you might be focused on increasing your income and raising your social and professional status. However, it's important to remember the philosophical lesson of this transit: understanding the place that money and position have in your life..

This transit marks the beginning of a metamorphosis that started when Pluto was in your first house. You might be going through a stage of collapse because what you once valued and appreciated about yourself and life no longer serves you. It's a time to learn to move forward with fewer resources and not hold on to any possessions or forms of income that you were once accustomed to..

It's important to efficiently manage all your possessions, including your ideas, principles, inherited values, and the money you earn. It's a challenge to review how you use these possessions or energies to achieve a spiritual ideal. If transiting Pluto makes oppositions or squares to personal planets, there might be economic and material losses. So, avoid any dishonest business practices. But don't worry, soon you will find a priceless inner wealth..

3RD HOUSE

When transiting Pluto is in your third house, you'll have a strong intuition that will make it hard for others to keep secrets from you. You might even go to extreme lengths to get the information you need, like snooping around or invading someone's privacy. Be careful though, because even if you succeed in getting the info you want, it could really damage your relationships with those people. During this time, it's important to take care of the small stuff, because neglecting even minor details could have serious consequences. Your ideas and way of communicating will become more serious and confident, and you'll start paying more attention to your immediate surroundings and the people you interact with on a daily basis. This is a time for personal growth and self-reflection, and you may find yourself questioning things that used to seem trivial or unimportant. Don't be afraid to speak your mind, even if it means offending people you see every day. It's also important to use your intelligence and really think through any important decisions or contracts before signing anything. If Pluto makes difficult aspects to other planets while it's transiting your third house, be extra careful during short trips or when you're on the road, as there could be a higher risk of accidents..

4TH HOUSE

Over the next few years, you're going to go through some major changes in your relationship with your parents. It might be time for you to break away from them if you've been relying on them too much. Don't be scared, because in the long run, you'll have the opportunity to express your individuality in new and exciting ways that you may not have even considered before. But let's be real, it's going to be tough. It might feel like the ground is shifting beneath your feet and everything you thought was stable is starting to crumble. This can be pretty daunting, especially if you're not someone who loves change. But on the flip side, this is an opportunity for growth and transformation..

During this period, you'll likely be experiencing a lot of intensity and excitement when it comes to your family and home life. Your family members might be going through some major changes, or you might even move house. It's important to take a deep dive into your personal life and be open to change on a deep level. You might not feel like the same person by the end of this period, but that's okay!.

It will bring up a lot of personal issues from your childhood, so get ready to do some self-reflection. This is the time to make sure you're staying true to yourself and being self-sufficient. You'll be faced with power struggles with your parents, and might feel like they're treating you like a kid when you're trying to be independent. But ultimately, this period will bring significant change that will help you grow and transform..

5TH HOUSE

This time can really mess with your gambling impulses, so don't go crazy with it or you'll risk losing big. Same goes for stocks – keep most of your retirement funds safe, especially if Pluto's making any stressful aspects while it's in this house. You might get obsessed with sports, games, or hobbies too, so have fun, but don't go overboard.If you're into art or something creative, you can make some amazing stuff during this transit. And when it comes to your relationships, they can be super therapeutic for you. Your connection with your kids will be intense, and everything you do with them will have a big impact on their future.Just be careful not to pressure your kids too much, or let them pressure you into doing things you're not comfortable with. And make sure to take care of their health..

When it comes to love, you might find yourself totally infatuated with someone who's totally wrong for you. It's like your subconscious is pushing you to do something you don't really want to do. Even if you're already in a relationship, things will get super intense and you'll go through a major transformation. If you and your partner can get through all the drama during this transit, your love will last forever!.

One thing to watch out for is letting your emotions run wild, especially in love, social life, or career. And if Pluto's making tough aspects to other planets, you might experience some occasional losses due to speculation..

6TH HOUSE

During this time, you might feel like improving your physical health and trying out some new ways of taking care of your body. Maybe you'll be interested in some alternative health methods, but don't go overboard and end up doing more harm than good. Your daily routine might go through some changes, whether it's something you initiate or others around you. If you've been thinking about getting a checkup, now might be a good time. You could also start a new diet or exercise routine if you want..

When Pluto transits your sixth house, it's time to focus on serving a noble cause and developing your endurance in the face of pain, disappointment, and personal failures. Be careful not to lose yourself in excessive self-sacrifice, though. Instead, aim for total dedication to a cause that helps you grow beyond just seeking ego gratification. Make sure to take care of yourself and your personal relationships along the way..

This is a good time for regenerative therapies, both physical and psychological. If you start taking care of your body now, you can regenerate it even if you haven't been paying attention to it in recent years. Just make sure to keep up with your diet too. And watch out - if Pluto makes difficult aspects, you might encounter some health problems..

7TH HOUSE

During this period you gotta be totally honest about what you want from others and what you expect from them. It's all or nothing! When Pluto is cruising through your seventh house, you might try to control or manipulate those around you, or someone more powerful might try to do that to you. The good news is that you can also build strong alliances that benefit everyone involved. There might even be some karmic connections happening, where you work together with others and let them work with you equally. But, you'll need to revise all your social connections, and some of them might crumble while new ones emerge. This isn't always easy and can be accompanied by some painful relationship revelations..

Pluto in your seventh house is a big deal when it comes to relationships. You'll need to release any hidden tensions and transform the way you approach relationships, whether they're intimate or professional. This period is all about finding balance in love and any connection between two people. You might even meet someone who will change your life forever, or lead to marriage. Keep in mind that whoever you meet during this time will have a strong impact on you, but it's because they're reflecting your innermost desires. So, don't blame others for what's going on inside you..

If Pluto is making some tough aspects, you might face conflicts over finances, alimony, or even sexual problems. But, with a positive attitude and an open mind, you can handle anything that comes your way..

8TH HOUSE

During this period, you'll be dealing with some pretty heavy transformation-related stuff. It could mean a major change in your life, like someone close to you passing away, or you facing a deeper aspect of your true self. When Pluto comes into play, it stirs up some intense emotions, and past issues might resurface. But hey, being honest and intense is where it's at! Just be aware that you might have to make some sacrifices to reach your goals, especially if Pluto is in your eighth house. It's like a death and rebirth kinda deal. You might find yourself getting into psychology, magic, or occult sciences during this time. Oh, and some secrets might be revealed too. If you're into that kind of stuff, you could even get an initiation in occult circles. The eighth house is all about new beginnings, and getting rid of the old. So, some outdated aspects of your life might disappear to make way for new things. But be careful with joint possessions and resources, you don't want to get into debt or let someone else control you. And watch out, if Pluto is making difficult aspects to other planets, it could put your life or someone close to you in danger. Natural disasters or big forces like politics, economics, or the military could also shake things up. But on the upside, this time could also stimulate some latent clairvoyant powers or sexual impulses, if that's your thing..

9TH HOUSE

When Pluto moves into your ninth house, things are going to get pretty interesting. You're going to feel the urge to expand your horizons and gain more knowledge, which will empower you like never before. You'll start taking a deeper interest in other cultures and if you travel abroad, you'll be totally transformed by the experience. You'll become much more interested in higher education, culture, and spiritual growth. If you weren't interested before, you'll definitely start feeling the urge to learn more and get some self-education. And if you're a communicator, your ideas will be taken much more seriously and you'll learn how to present them in a more compelling way..

But watch out, because there's a downside. You could become obsessed with gathering information and using it as a weapon to manipulate or control people. And if Pluto is in a difficult aspect with other planets, you might become fanatical about your beliefs and even get involved in foreign wars. So be careful and remember that everyone has their own beliefs that deserve respect..

If you're lucky, you might also get some financial aid or government scholarships for higher education, or get opportunities to travel for business or scientific purposes. And you might even have some mind-blowing experiences that cause you to rethink your entire worldview. So get ready for an exciting ride!.

10TH HOUSE

If you wanna make it big and succeed in life, you gotta have purpose and determination. Ain't nobody gonna control your future, so don't let 'em. Trust me, you'll regret it if you do. When transiting Pluto is in your 10th house, it's time to get serious about your life path. You can't just float along and expect things to fall into place. Nope, life will throw you some curveballs that will force you to make important decisions. Don't be scared though, this is your chance to transform yourself and your perspective on the future. Pluto in your 10th house makes you super ambitious and determined to succeed. But be careful, 'cause you might end up wanting to control and dominate everything and everyone. That's why you gotta be aware of authority figures trying to hold you back. Pluto challenges you to reach your life goals, so figure out what they are and go for it! Just make sure you stay true to yourself and don't get caught up in power struggles or political schemes. Remember, the key to success is honesty and integrity..

11TH HOUSE

This is a time when you gotta be real with yourself. No BS allowed. You need to figure out what makes you truly happy and go after it. As time goes on, you'll start taking your work and relationships more seriously. And let me tell you, when Pluto is in your 11th house, it's all about serving others and making connections with your homies and organizations. You might even form a strong bond with a kiddo who's not even related to you! Happiness during this phase is gonna come from the people around you and how you contribute to their lives. You might even start hanging out with a whole new group of peeps with similar interests. And who knows? You could even cross paths with someone pretty influential or powerful! (Maybe even a secret agent or a member of a secret society. Ooh la la!) Now, I gotta warn you, this is a time for transformation and change. You might end up saying bye-bye to old friends and groups that just don't vibe with you anymore. But don't worry, the new connections you make are gonna have a HUGE impact on your life. And hey, if you're lucky, you might even score a sweet scholarship or government grant for your scientific, artistic, or spiritual pursuits. Your beliefs and values are gonna shift too, and that's totally cool. But be careful not to get swept up in any impulses that don't align with your true desires. On the bright side, you could come across someone who'll be your mentor and show you the way to grow and flourish. So buckle up and get ready for a wild ride!.

12TH HOUSE

During this period, you'll be working on clearing out old and subconscious habits that might have been holding you back. It might feel like a psychological journey, as you'll be facing aspects of your psyche that you might have buried deep down. Be careful though, because sometimes your actions might be unconsciously motivated and could cause you problems, even if you had good intentions. If this happens, it's important to understand what's really going on inside and what parts of you might be in denial or disapproval. You might want to consider counseling to help you understand yourself better and overcome any obstacles that come up..

During this period, you'll have the opportunity to regenerate your subconscious and gain a deeper understanding of yourself. If Pluto is in sync with other aspects, this is a great time for intuitive exploration, meditation, and even discovering your clairvoyant abilities. The most important aspect of this Pluto transit is the psychological part, as it will bring up buried parts of your psyche that you'll need to confront..

It's important to note that you won't be able to hide any hidden characteristics during this time, as they'll come to the surface in destructive ways. You might also notice patterns of childish behavior that need to be corrected for you to become a mature adult. The key is to deal with these aspects of your life and past honestly and without guilt. You might even be surprised to find that when you're honest, your adversaries can change their opinion about you.

-> Back to the Pluto Transits

#astrojulia #astrology #astroblr #all about astrology #astro community #astro observations #astrology notes #witch community #witchblr #pluto #pluto transit #pluto transiting the houses

163 notes · View notes

privateanxieties · 1 year

Text

hold them gently (these confessions)

Summary: Matt has ways of experiencing the world around him beyond an ordinary person’s capacity. What he comes to find, as he struggles with them, is that Nelson & Murdock’s new paralegal also has a way of seeing more than what's in front of her.

Pairing: Matt Murdock x Reader (she/her); fluff, pining, mystery, suspense.

Warnings: canon-typical mentions of violence/crime

Words: 6,429

Part 2 here!

------------------

The gloves were a mystery.

Out of winter and into a brief spring New York went, yet the mellow rustle of fabric against everything she touched did not fade. In all fairness, Matt had known even during the cold months that wearing a pair of satin gloves indoors was unusual. He and Foggy were no longer struggling to pay the bills at their law practice, and they hadn't been for nearly two years. The office was toasty warm and temperature-controlled, courtesy of the sophisticated heating system his partner insisted on purchasing last September. It was not an issue of climate.

His friend wanted to ask about them — had tried to ask, in fact, when Matt stopped him with a gentle but firm hand on the blonde's shoulder. It wasn't any of their business, and perhaps Matt was more sensitive to others' quirks and peculiarities, but Foggy showed his kind side too when he later apologized to their new associate.

She made an interesting addition to their firm.

Matt was no stranger to people's unconscious tells that they were dishonest; with each beat of their heart that skipped, and every uneven tempo their fingers drummed on his desk as they talked, he was unequivocally clued in to which of their potential clients were untrustworthy. The truth in itself, however, remained a matter of discovery.

Not to her. She always seemed to know things Matt could not divine with all the strength of his combined senses, because he was not a mind reader. He wondered if she was. In a world of strangeness and larger-than-life abilities, something like that would not be entirely out of place. He doubted it, given her calm pulse when Foggy, taking a more subtle route than usual, suggested it as a joke over drinks at Josie's. She denied it with a small laugh, yet said no more on the subject. How she'd known where to find the key evidence to their latest case was still a fascinating puzzle, though not one that would be solved by guessing games. But, he knew in his heart, the gloves were a part of it.

She never took them off. As April made itself known, the signature friction of paper and satin continued playing on in the background of the office, its soothing presence always inviting a degree of relaxation for him. He used to tell himself it was the sound alone, and not the person creating it, that lay at the center of the calm. As much as he depended on it, his hearing could sometimes lead him astray. Matt's focus was not a monolith; more often than not, it resembled a carefully put together Jenga tower. He could still function without all the starting pieces; what he couldn't do was pretend they weren't there. He missed Foggy's quiet sighs and coffee sips when he worked from home, he missed Karen's strong heartbeat when a challenging case presented itself and made her brain spin with possibilities — he even missed his own baseline noises whenever he got trapped inside his mind so tightly that he went deathly still for minutes on end. Whenever that happened, a soft rustling of satin always brought him out of it without fail.

She hadn't missed a day of work thus far. Despite Foggy's pleas and Karen's quiet insistence, she remained the first to arrive and was usually the last to leave. And although Matt agreed with their intentions and preferred it if she took a break as well, he was also… familiar with this brand of stubbornness. He didn't know precisely what it was, but he was certain that work ethic did not suffice as an explanation.

Still, he would be lying if he pretended not to enjoy her constant presence at the office. Growing used to it over the fourteen months she'd been with them, Matt would also say there was something different about how she fit into the world around him. Some people had a way of standing out by making themselves as loud and bright as possible. He didn't have to have use of his vision to tell that Karen and Foggy brightened up any room they walked into, attracting the curious gaze of both friend and foe. Others, however, blended in so much that they inadvertently stood out. Quietly making themselves as small as possible, they excelled at doing something the other type of people could never imagine: being invisible. The jury was still out on which category she best fit into, but Matt was not an impartial man. Especially when it came to her.

If he felt a sort of kinship with the shy paralegal, that was his cross to bear. No amount of prodding from Foggy or side-eye he could feel in his bones from Karen would loosen his lips with regard to the late nights they spent in each other's company. There was nothing to say — nothing scandalous anyway — but it still felt too private to mention to either of his friends. Matt wasn't in the habit of revealing information, even innocuous bits and pieces that were told to him in confidence. He wasn't as good a lawyer as he'd like to be, but he was a steadfast friend. At least now that Foggy and Karen had taught him several lessons in teamwork.

He couldn't help feeling like he and she made their own private team: always in agreement, one way or another. Parsing over case files, they both pointed out things the others missed. Listening to Foggy read his opening statements, they both interjected with similar suggestions. Interviewing clients, in particular, made for exceptional synchronicity between them. She followed his line of questioning without issue, and though Matt prided himself on being observant beyond normal bounds, there were things she picked up on that he struggled to understand the origin of. They took their coffee the same way, and they both ate at Nonna's for their weekend specials. Mind reading theory dismissed, other options didn't hesitate to make themselves at home during downtime.

Maybe she's your long lost twin, Foggy had joked one exasperating afternoon. Matt had been complaining to his friend about their latest client — how everything about the woman made his skin crawl with the itch to tell her to find another firm who'd represent her. She was a confessed murderer, and worst of all an unrepentant one. Butchering her husband sparked no guilt in her chest, and her heart remained at ease when telling the attorneys about her crime. Matt left the interview straight for Josie's that evening, and several drinks later his skin had barely stopped bristling at her crude descriptions of what she'd done.

At least, that's what he thought was the cause of his distress, and not their colleague's insistence that Nelson & Murdock not abandon her case. The way she pleaded with Matt outside the police station, a gloved hand on his arm and panicked voice almost begging, nearly made the lawyer see her differently. Why would she plead for a cold-blooded killer? Unknown. Not at the time, anyway. It wasn't until the trial began and a hired gun tried to murder their client that everything came to light. Her husband had been a sex trafficker for the better part of a decade, working his way through the ranks without her knowledge. The night she found out was the same night that one of his victims killed him.

He'd kept her in a soundproofed room beneath their garage — his personal playground. That was enough for fifty-five year old Maura Sanders to make a resolute decision. Hiding the circumstances of her husband's murder had been an effort to ensure that the young woman who put an end to his crimes wouldn't be punished. It was also a way of trying to protect her from the trafficking ring's vengeance. She had to disappear.

Maura, it turned out, was a devout Catholic. Sleeping in the same bed with a monster and caring for his home while he did what he did inflicted a guilt so deep that prison would be nothing compared to the knowledge she now lived with. Her heart was not weighed down by the lie she sought to protect, and taking on the sentence for a crime she didn't commit hardly scared her. She had learned the hard way that there were worse fates out there.

Now you know what it feels like to have someone beg you to go against every instinct you've ever had, Foggy drunkenly joked the night after Court was adjourned. Assassination attempts tended to slow cases down right before they expedited them. There was cause for celebration.

Matt grumbled something about talking to him later before exiting the crowded bar, ears trained on the rapid heartbeat of their elusive associate who'd left moments prior. He'd known something was wrong by the way her fingers trembled over her phone's screen. He could recognize a panic attack by more than sound, and at the time all the signs were pointing to her needing help, yet when he rounded the corner into an alleyway to find her desperately trying to pacify a young girl, Matt's world was once again warped by false impressions.

He'd known who the young girl was on instinct. The only missing piece in Maura's story.

Witness protection was not hard to obtain for Emily Durant, but what had been more than difficult was explaining how Nelson & Murdock's paralegal encountered the nineteen year old who killed the man that made her life a living torture. Telling a judge that their associate offered up her home to the girl was out of the question, even if the murder had been in self-defense. Luckily for them, Emily was willing to lie. She was willing to do a lot more for the person who, in her words, got her her life back.

They never really spoke about it. Not in detail. She refused to tell him anything, and even offered her resignation if the lawyer felt like he could not accept her unwillingness to reveal how she knew what she knew.

Although it frustrated Matt to no end, understanding where she came from was effortless. They both knew things others didn't, and neither of them could explain it, for reasons he suspected weren't entirely different from one another's. He figured he was the only one of the pair to stalk around on rooftops, but it made them no less alike. No less bonded over things they hid in shadows.

Her determination to help people at significant personal cost was impossible to argue with, should he want to avoid the label of hypocrite. It made him equal parts curious and soft — nearly the right blend to entice him into honesty about his own secrets.

He almost came clean once. That Christmas, in fact — their first one together as they shared a meal before the firm broke for the holidays. It was a night that still lingered close to the surface of his memory, her voice vulnerable while she tried her best to explain without really revealing anything. Maybe she was afraid of what they'd all think. He didn't want her to feel like she had to hide, especially when his other friends were already in the know about him and thus more than open to the possibility of another addition to their weird little family. But he didn't want to overstep. He didn't want to use his own secret as a bargaining chip, either. It felt cowardly to try and coax her into revealing information she wasn't ready to share. Or maybe, somewhere not as deep inside as it should have been, a sense of intimacy formed in Matt's mind from being the sole keeper of this peculiarity she had. The only one she trusted even partially with her… gift.

They'd been talking for the better part of an hour. No mention of work-related issues had even once been made, and the more at home she made herself in his apartment, the more he sank into the couch with wistful sighs he tried concealing. It was easy. Soothing. She was a balm to his frayed nerves from an overworked December at the same time that she lit up all his interest for the most obscure things. He could've listened to her explain the intricacies of mummification for the rest of the night, just as long as she kept talking to him the way she did. He was content. At ease. Almost peaceful, with the smell of Christmas dinner wafting around the place and facilitating ludicrous fantasies. Like how he'd like it if she were to come around more often.

"Don't eat that," she warned him suddenly, right as he was about to bring the fork to his lips and take a first bite of the crispy duck breast. He froze mid-motion, curiously angling his head in her direction as she got up from his couch.

"What is it?" he asked with a hint of amusement, though her demeanor had shifted from its previous carefree state.

"Just, uh…" she trailed off as she gently pried the takeout box from Matt's hands, shuffling to his kitchenette and promptly dumping both their meals into the trash.

"What's wrong?" he tried again, waiting patiently for her to come up with her usual almost-answers. He knew what this was. She sensed something that none of his abilities could pick up on. He heard her shift from one leg to the other as a frustrated sigh built up in her chest.

"It's… complicated. I just think, for our safety, it's best if we order something else. And maybe for other people's safety, we put in a call to the food health inspector," she finally said.

He was momentarily stunned into silence. His nose had told him nothing about the food they were going to consume. In fact, it smelled pretty good to him. The restaurant was new on the block, but nothing had alerted him to contamination when he went to pick up their pre-ordered food.

He was taking too long to answer, thinking of all the possibilities, and apparently she took that as a sign that perhaps she should not have said anything. When Matt heard her walking to the door, he called out in a panic that was more acute than expected.

"Please don't go. Whatever this is that… you feel you have to keep to yourself - Know that I'm not judging you. I could never do that. However you know what you know, it's safe with me."

You are safe with me, he'd wanted to say. He clipped his words at the last second, and the breath that got trapped in his lungs left as soon as she took a step back towards the couch. It was only the howling wind and swirling snow hitting the outside of his apartment complex that colored the world for a few moments while her heart slowed down. She hesitated before taking back her seat, though Matt couldn't be sure if she was, maybe, an inch of two closer than she'd been before. Her breathing slowed along with her pulse. She sighed inaudibly —and then a soft, muted pull of fabric crackled like thunder in his ear. His heart jumped in its cage.

"I'm… sure you've noticed. You usually pick up on so many things. Foggy's asked once or twice about them. My, uh — my gloves."

Matt listened intently, his small nod of encouragement drawing another sigh from her.

"If I didn't have these, I couldn't get out of bed. At all."

Her admission, spoken the way one confessed to a haunting dream, left the air between them heavier than it had been since the last time they saw Maura and Emily. Uncertainty lingered, but it didn't come from him. It was all of her anxiety that dug at the little space that separated them. He wanted it gone.

"You don't have to say more, if you don't want to. But if you do, please don't be scared. If anyone knows what it's like to need more than others do just to function, it's me. I promise."

The telltale sound of teeth biting into soft flesh betrayed her unease.

"It's not more. It's less," she said quietly, a strange damper twisting her usual tone.

"What do you mean?" Matt questioned, shifting briefly to open himself up more. He was always aware of how his body language translated to others, but most of all to her. She picked up on so many things, like she'd only just praised him for doing.

His efforts paid off as she started to relax into the conversation.

"I need less. I wish I could have… less. It's all so much, all the time. Input, I mean. When I touch things… It's overwhelming. These gloves take some of that away."

It sounded like something he could have said any day of the week since the accident. She didn't need to clarify something as effortless for him to understand as chaos, even if he didn't know all the details. Still, there was one thing he felt he wanted to say. To let her know she was not misunderstood, and most certainly not alone. Her statement echoed: the gloves took some of that away.

"But not everything."

A small, regretful noise bubbled out of her throat, and the next time she spoke, Matt could almost smell the fear biting at her neck and making the hands she always kept hidden clasp together with unease.

"No… Not everything."

In the four months since, they found themselves growing even closer than before. Or, at least, Matt did — though he was pretty sure it was reciprocal. He might've been a little rough around the edges, but he wasn't obtuse. They'd grown to a different level of trust since Christmas, and it showed in the way Foggy sulked around the office.

"I never see you anymore, Matt! It's Nelson and Murdock, and I am not open to sharing."

"Sharing?" Matt scoffed, incredulous.

"Yes! Sharing! As in, she gets ninety-five percent of your attention and I get scraps."

He laughed copiously as he poured his second coffee of the day, before the faint aroma of D'Elio's reached him and made his hands pause.

"Well, you'll be interested to know she's bringing us coffee, and that she got you your favorite egg sandwich from Hippolyta. So, maybe feel a little bad for talking about her behind her back," he jabbed with a smile.

"And what'd she get you? Birthday cake?" Foggy mocked, stalking back to his office.

"Nothing," Matt answered honestly.

Foggy's eyes cast a brilliant glower that singed him through his suit.

"It's because you're going to lunch together, isn't it?"

Matt's grin told the blonde everything he needed to know.

"When the divorce papers are slid under your door, then you'll be sorry, Murdock."

His raucous laugh almost startled the paralegal into dropping all the coffees as soon as she stepped through the door.

It felt good. It was nice. Strange, even - how people were clamoring for his company and attention. Matt wasn't used to being missed, and he definitely wasn't used to being fought over. Well, maybe fighting wasn't quite what was happening; Foggy was being territorial, as Karen graciously explained, and Matt wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the concept. It was just that Foggy normally did that whenever he felt like his best friend was becoming romantically involved with one individual or another. And that wasn't the case here.

It wasn't.

So what, if he'd been letting himself slip up more and more often in her presence, showing he was capable of things even sighted people couldn't do? So what, if he pulled her out of the way of falling construction equipment as they were leaving the office two weeks ago? That was non-negotiable and unavoidable. He wasn't going to let her get hurt to keep his secret.

What was not so unavoidable, perhaps, was pulling her under an awning right before the skies opened up violently and unexpectedly one night, his coat secured around her shoulders.

He also didn't have to call her from the office to tell her to get out of the cab she'd just taken to the Courthouse using an excuse that he'd forgotten some documents. He could smell the liquor on the driver's breath from inside the building. It was faint and likely from the night before, but still. He didn't want to risk it. He wasn't willing to risk anything when it came to her.

And if there were vague hints she might've been catching on, he wasn't going to complain. He wasn't going to grumble about how she sensed his mood changes when he came into the office after a shitty night as the Devil, because she always knew when he needed to be left alone and when he needed a distraction. He wasn't going to be mad at the way she took care to filter through potential clients each morning and send the ones who'd be an assault on his senses into Foggy's office first.

He certainly didn't utter a word of complaint when she berated the cashier at Pio's for trying to give him back a twenty dollar bill when he was supposed to get a fifty as change. Matt had known about it as soon as he was handed the cash. The man's heart pounded inside his chest and there was a faint trace of perspiration on the bill. What Matt hadn't known was how quickly — and thoroughly — she'd come to his defense.

"Matt," she complained as he pulled her outside the shop, more than content to have an excuse for holding her hand.

"Come on, it isn't worth it," he told her, putting his wallet away and struggling to hide his smile.

"It is to me. You should've let me talk to him."

"You did. I don't think he'll ever try something like that again," he reassured her gently, failing to conceal his amusement.

"How do you know he won't?"

Because I heard his heart stop when you said his mother would be ashamed of him, he thought.

"I just have a feeling. I'm pretty good at reading people," was what he instead said.

Her sigh filled the air with the scent of mango gum drops, a favorite of hers that Matt recently learned was only available at this particular bodega.

"Yeah, I know you are. But still — "

"Why does it bother you so much?" he interrupted, unable to hold back. He wanted to know. He needed he know if it was just —

"It's not pity, if that's what you think. It's not about the money, either. I mean, the firm's doing pretty good," she tried to joke, though it felt more like stalling to Matt. A small snort tickled his throat.

"Is this your subtle way of asking for a raise?" he teased.

"What? No!" she balked, stammering. Then, noticing his shit-eating grin, she lightly pinched the hand she'd just been holding before letting go. Matt barely managed to hide a pout, listening to her shuffle from one foot to the other while she gathered her words. He liked how mindful she always was with what she said, even if he hoped she'd be a little more relaxed around him.

"His name's Damian. It's his store. He did pretty well with it the first couple of years, but lately gangs have been hitting it up more and more. They steal, they break stuff. The insurance company won't pay out unless he upgrades his contract, even though theft and vandalism were supposed to be included. He doesn't have the money to sue them, and…"

A deep sigh, one that sagged the shoulders, broke her line of thought. She picked at her coat's lining in a nervous habit.

"Things have been getting tough. I know people get desperate. I know it's a bad situation and he can't cover the bills anymore. I just hate it when people give in to their worst impulses because they don't see a way out."

So that's what it was. It had nothing to do with himself, and yet he felt as though she was speaking about someone he used to be not too long ago. Her knowing so much about the man, though — that intrigued Matt. He had a feeling it came back to her unusual level of insight.

"Are you friends with him?"

Her heart, strong and steady a moment ago, gave a stutter he felt guilty for noticing. He wasn't trying to listen. He'd become so accustomed to the sound that it was almost second nature to pick out inconsistencies in it.

"No. Um, no. I'm not. I was just — I was at the store once when two guys came in with guns. They asked for my bag after they robbed the register, but Damian pushed me behind him. That's... how I knew. He wasn't going to let someone else get robbed. Which is why - "

"Why you were disappointed he'd try to steal," Matt concluded.

Her quiet hum confirmed his assumption, and the subsequent friction of satin told him she was wringing her hands in distress.

"I don't want to judge him. I don't know what it's like to be in his situation. I just wish this city wouldn't turn people into the worst versions of themselves all the time."

Yeah. Matt knew. He knew more about that than most, he imagined.

Maybe you should tell her, Foggy innocently suggested during one overdue happy hour last week. It left Matt stunned and a little prickly, because his friend knew the rules: don't ever talk about nightly activities in public. He was about to reprimand Foggy when the blonde slapped a hand on his back. Or are you scared she doesn't like you back?

Relieved that it wasn't what he thought — at the same time that it made him bristle even worse — Matt quickly turned the inquiry back on him, redirecting the conversation to Marci and her pregnancy. At the mention of his fiancée, the attorney went pallid as a moment of silence washed over them both. Then, mimicking a tornado, Foggy grabbed his briefcase and phone off the table, muttering under his breath about ice cream and caramel popcorn and murder. He promised Matt he'd pay him back for the drinks if he was still alive tomorrow, then dashed out of the bar without his coat.

And there Matt stood, jaw clenched and fingers twitching around his scotch glass, until howling laughter from the corner of the room straightened his spine and stiffened all muscles. He left a hundred dollar note on the bartop for Josie and wordlessly made his way back out into the night, the lightly chilled air of early April casting a film over his entire face. It served to bring down the heat in cheeks that were much too tingly for the amount of alcohol ingested. It also called forward a memory of his mind's only occupant at the time and her characteristically cool touch, courtesy of the satin that always enveloped her fingers.

Are you scared she doesn't like you back?

His best friend's words lingered unpleasantly as he walked back to his apartment, the extra coat on his arm providing more warmth than he was comfortable with in his state. And what state was that? Scared shitless that Foggy was right?

He liked her.

When it all happened was an even bigger mystery than those gloves. Of course he couldn't pinpoint a particular moment — that would've required presence of mind and a willingness to admit that his heart was pulling in an obvious direction. But he could, at the very least, think back on all the times he'd found himself wishing he knew what her skin felt like and relent to the truth: he was falling into something else. Entertaining a thought far beyond the realm of friendship or professionalism, and doing it as often as he did, had to yield some concession. He had to stop lying to himself.

He really, truly liked her.

As a person, and as a friend, he had no doubts and no remarks to make. She was wonderful. Easy to be around. Considerate. Strong. As… more, he didn't know where to begin.

His better angels told him that any attempt at more was inappropriate and wrong. The little devil on his shoulder wanted to tell her everything and ask that she stay.

He was her boss. It hadn't stopped him before — all those years ago with Karen — and he was lucky to have fixed that relationship, but the notion still gave him pause as he weighed it in his cluttered mind. He couldn't be the one to say something, given the position of authority he occupied. Although they were already much closer than their professional relation dictated they remain, he wouldn't infringe upon the ultimate taboo again. Don't date your employee.

It was nice, for a while, to imagine himself a moral man. When necessary, he could pretend with relative ease that his senses took in only that which was essential for painting a broad image of his surroundings and the people in them. But that wasn't why he knew the reason she liked to sip on hot cocoa during defense-building sessions for tricky cases. He could smell the stress on her from the next room over. He knew how emotionally involved she got with each narrative, because she understood that beyond the courtroom system of winning and losing, someone's life was at stake. Sugar was her preferred balm in upsetting circumstances.

-And she is yours, the devil by his ear whispered. No more dancing around each other. No more almost-confessions.

-You just think any woman you get along with wants more, said another, much quieter, voice.

-That last barrier between you, gone. Honesty. Trust, the devil continued in a vibrating baritone.

-She doesn't deserve your bullshit, the angel revolted.

-There you go again, deciding what others do or don't deserve. It's her choice. Let her make it.

-Let her get killed by being close to you?, the devil's adversary countered.

-She's already close to you. If someone wanted to hurt you through her, they already could. Why not be more than you are now?

The angel fumbled in its response as Matt's apartment building came into view, but the silence did not last. A wicked tongue poked out from between sharp teeth.

-You know I'm right. And you know you won't push her away even for her safety. She means too much to you now.

He took the steps one at a time, a strange unease settling at the base of his throat the longer he listened. No flaws in the line of reasoning could be found, or perhaps he didn't want to find any. Morality was a footnote on the poster of his yearning, the already small font stretching off the page, unreadable.

-I wonder if mango gum drops might taste differently from an alternate source.

Matt slammed the door shut, banishing the vibrating echo. In the quietude of his apartment, the same bruising chasm waited to envelop him once he acknowledged how empty the space between the walls felt. There wasn't much to do. Sleep, work and work again, only with his fists this time. If his hands weren't handling case files or broken limbs, they were often twitching at his side with exceptional subtlety. He knew what he wanted — what he needed — too well to still deceive himself, especially once past the age of thirty.

It could've been the blissful peace of his most destructive enemies residing in maximum security prisons, or maybe the signs of good changes to come for Hell's Kitchen, but he'd been taking it easier lately. There was still work to do, but it didn't weigh him down like it used to when Fisk was countering his every move and wreaking terror on the city. The truth was… he no longer passed out from exhaustion once he was home. In those minutes that preceded being overtaken by sleep, his mind had time to wander.

And it was always thinking about one thing.

Did he not owe it to himself to find out if it was something they could both have?

It was early morning on a gloomy Friday before Easter as Matt climbed the steps to their second floor office, nostrils flaring at the smell of fresh paint that must've been only hours old. He could tell it was going to trigger a headache in the late afternoon, but the thought of it didn't bother him too much. There were other things pulling at his attention.

It was, like they said, now or never. Neither Foggy nor Karen were going to be coming around the office today, their schedules having been hijacked by their significant others. Interesting — maybe even poignant. Apropos. A divine nudge in the right direction. Matt thought they were subtly telling him to get his shit together and finally ask their colleague on a date. He didn’t plan on doing anything of the sort. But. They were going to be by themselves today, and he was going to finally give it up. No more secrets, at least on his part. If he truly wanted a shot at more, it was going to have to come from her, and she was owed all the pieces before that came around. All of him, laid out for her to decide.

His legs were suddenly heavier. There was trepidation in his chest and breath, and if his hands started sweating he was going to scream. A defense attorney with a vigilante habit, and he was about as composed as a high school freshman with a crush. He could feel the tendrils of pain starting to wrap around his forehead.

They barely took hold. A shout echoed off the walls, reverberating around the hallway straight from the second floor. Her voice. Only a moment passed, and then a forceful exhale left his mouth as he took the steps two at a time, arriving within seconds. He pushed the door open with such force it nearly swung back.

There was a man here, and there was blood. He could hardly smell anything else now that he'd stepped inside, and he likely would've caught it sooner, if not for the paint in the hallway and his wayward thoughts.

He was drenched in crimson. He stood over her. He was touching her. Her pleas for him to let go were all Matt knew when he sprang into action, forgetting about everything and letting his fists speak for him. The goal wasn't getting him away from her. That was achieved by the force of his body slamming into the man's weak side, where Matt could hear broken bone fragments digging into flesh. The goal was subduing him. Punishing him. Making him one with the floor for coming in here and threatening the peace. Entering her space. Touching her —

"Matt, stop!" a terrified voice shrieked. "S-stop! He didn't — He's — He…"

His fist came down onto the man's face, shattering his right cheekbone, but the cries that left the stranger's mouth were not ones of pain. They rang in Matt's ears like war cries and funeral laments strung together. He was begging for something, but in Matt's enraged stupor, he couldn't find it in himself to stop.

A weight clattered to the parquet floor somewhere outside his field of reach. His body ran cold all throughout as the final blow he delivered to the man made the room quiet, when it shouldn't have. He could hear the man's breathing. He could hear his own. There was no third pair of lungs drawing breath.

He scrambled to his feet in a gasping panic, catching his side on the sharp desk corner Foggy always complained about. Arms spread out, he was back on the floor with a thundering heart, pulling the unresponsive frame of his associate close. His friend. His maybe-more.

"B-breathe… Breathe! Please, please breathe…"

There was no moment, as his bloodied hands touched her face, when he registered that he was finally getting the answer to a question he'd had for the better part of a year. What her skin felt like didn't matter, because he couldn't hear any air fill her chest. A second passed where his paralysis delayed him from laying her down and starting first aid — a second where he called out to God and the Devil alike, and anyone who would help him. Help her. As he ran his trembling fingers over her face, lips mumbling curses and prayers in the same breath, it felt like his heart was going to stop in his chest from fear.

"Please, sweetie… Pl-"

Her lips opened in a horrific scream. She shot forward and out of his arms before he could react, though she didn't get far. He heard her every limb shake even harder than his hands as she stumbled back into his chest, face crumbling against his dress shirt and lips puffing large gulps of air that shot right through his nerves. Matt's arms immediately came up to hold her — shield her — but a whispered plea gave him pause.

"N-no. Don't — Don't touch. I can't. I can't take it. Please, I — I can't do this. Please…" she begged nonsensically.

His ears flooded with her galloping heart.

"Knock me out."

Matt's eyes opened to their widest, darting around aimlessly as his mind struggled to process what she was saying. What she was asking. He couldn't do it.

"What? What are you saying, sweetheart?" he mumbled into her hair, arms hanging uselessly by his sides as he fought with himself not to touch her. Not to calm her in the only way he knew.

"I keep seeing them. I feel them — it's so much. Please, it's too much. Matt—" His name left her mouth in a contorted whine, hands coming up to twist into the fabric of his blazer with barely any strength. "Help me, please…"

The taste of copper burned his tongue with each breath he took through his mouth, senses counting one, two, three, four, five.

The blood of five different people coated her arms and hands where the man had grabbed her. A thought broke through the chaos of the moment as Matt realized her hands were absent their usual coverings, laid bare against his clothes as they twitched and trembled uncontrollably.

"Your gloves — Where are your gloves, sweetie?" he asked, instinct alone guiding him in the right direction.

No answer came. With his senses trained on every inch of her body as they were, it shouldn't have shocked him when her blood pressure suddenly plunged, taking whatever bit of strength she had left right with it. She was going limp in his hold with every passing second, heart dangerously slowing down as she gasped in terror. He had only moments to act, her words viciously on repeat inside his head. His window to help her was closing.

When her heart skipped too long a beat, the next thing he knew were his arms obeying her plea. He knocked her out.

-to be continued-

A/N: The second and final part is finished and ready to post tomorrow, I just want to space the two chapters out since this is over 10K words.

As always, your thoughts and comments are much appreciated and I rely on them in order to decide whether to post more writing. Let me know what you thought of the story and please note there isn't a tag list for this. It's going to be up tomorrow and you'll find it on my Masterlist if need be.

I still block serial likers who never comment/reblog, so if that bothers you, move on/block me/don't interact with my stuff. Thanks.

#matt murdock x reader #matt murdock x you #daredevil x reader #daredevil x you #netflix daredevil

243 notes · View notes

mcromwell · 5 months

Note

Ayo! New follower here. I love your art and your mind set of just messing around to make cool stuff. but I’ve also seen you love been to at least one convention (I didn’t scroll far enough to see more about conventions) and I wanted to ask. How you did it? I really enjoy making art and I would love to make it a career so this boils down to :

how did you do it? And how can I do it too?

not just like first steps but what happens after that? I’m young enough that if this doesn’t work out I have plenty of time to look into other careers before worrying about paying for rent or necessities with money from my future occupation. I know that everyone’s experience is different but I still hoping you can give me a somewhat clear answer.

thank you for inspiring me

(sorry this ask was so long)

Hello there! Thank you for your message.

These questions are large and hard to answer. Being more specific in your questions helps. "How I did it" is very... large in scope. That question could be answered just by saying, "I did it by never wanting anything else and never losing sight of my goal." But that doesn't help you much. So I'll just try to touch on some key points and contexts.

I'm 32. Only in the last couple years has my practice been enough to make a living doing it. I've always wanted this and literally everything I've done in my life has been to get here. I've worked two jobs my entire working life (age 19-now): retail/customer service and art stuff on the side. Because of the pandemic, I got double unemployment and stimulus checks, which became my initial investment into merch and savings safety net to get started. I started therapy to address my fears of asking for help, my negative self-talk, and catastrophic thinking. (Therapy has helped me with my art so much.) Then I was laid off for real in 2020 and hit the ground running with art. I split rent with roommates, I live very very cheaply, and art is my passion. If art for a living is what you want to do and you're happy to make lots of concessions to get it, this career works. It takes a while to get momentum and regular sales/attention-- just don't quit. The more stuff you do the more people will recognize you and like your work.

It would be dishonest to not address my privilege here, too. My parents have always emotionally supported my practice, my friends too, and I got to go to art school with no debt. I did outside of school art mentorships. My art education experiences taught me a lot of art techniques and self-employed skills and that only happened due to the support of my folks. I had resources a lot of people don't. (Which is why I want to help new artists learn this stuff as much as I can; not everyone is as lucky as I am.)

My advice for you if you want to do what I do, which is being self-employed making and selling art and art merchandise for a living:

Get used to making concessions right at first. Your art career will probably not start out gangbusters, so get used to low sales and saving money and working hard. Make things within your means and grow from there.

Fuck around and find out. Try making merch, try making videos, try things you see other artists doing, try everything and see if it works for how you like to make stuff. I learn so much from YouTube, to be totally honest. Artists are good sharers.

Follow a shit ton of artists and see what works for them. Join artist groups and ask thoughtful, specific questions to learn from those already doing it.

Learn how to write about your art. Write about why you make it. It helps make it more compelling to others. "How to Sell Your Art Online" by Cory Huff is a good book to read for tips on this.

Develop a healthy relationship with art-making. If you sit down at a blank page and it terrifies you: address that first. Don't try to start a business if you're still struggling with making art regularly.

In fact, don't start a business until you're really ready. Art comes first. You can easily do art and build skills and do commissions and run an online shop along with working a job that pays bills reliably while you grow into the artist you're meant to be.

Don't pigeon-hole yourself into only one channel: don't JUST apply to cons, try street fairs too. Don't JUST sell online, get your work into cafes as well. You'll see which routes are more profitable/worth the time as you try them out. Eggs in many baskets, you know.

There's probably a whole essay I could write on this. And you're right--mileage varies between person to person vastly. The part of the world you live in, your access to transportation, education, your mental health, what type of work you like to make, etc. Art careers almost never look the same 1:1 even in fandom spaces like furry/anime. If you're self-made, it will reflect that.

I recommend the YouTube channels Rafi Was Here, Robin Sealark, Cat Graffam, and the website The Abundant Artist (again by Cory Huff) for more resources.

Don't be afraid to take leaps of faith. Try everything. Be true to what works for you and what doesn't feel sustainable. Be authentic with your art and stay true to your interests. And good luck.

#art career #freelance artist #independent artist #art job #self employed #art

37 notes · View notes

bellaxgiornata · 1 year

Text

Falling For the Devil [Part forty-two: "The Argument in the Hotel Room"]

Pairing: Matt Murdock x Fem!Reader

Summary: Matt and you make it back to your hotel room after dinner, both of you angry from the conversation you'd had.

You find it very hard to control your body and not become aroused by Matt's anger.

[Series of one-shots about Reader meeting, falling for, and dating Matt Murdock.]

Warnings: 18+ for this series; contains humor, fluff, romance, angst, smut (like...a lot of it later in the series), language, some violence

Word Count: 3.9k

a/n: This is a smupdate where y'all begin to see a bit of what I call Feral Matt (you see him fully in part 52 but Feral Matt comes hand in hand with consequences in our Big Angst arc). Hopefully you enjoy a little angry Matt smut in this one! You can find the entire list of installments for this series on tumblr here. And if you're enjoying the series, please let me know!

With a huff you swiped the keycard through the reader on the door, gritting your teeth when you’d realized you’d swiped too fast and it beeped back at you. Your grip tightened around the handle of your luggage as you tried again, very aware of Matt behind you. You could practically feel the frustration radiating off of him.

This was certainly not how you’d pictured your evening with Matt going after the over six hour first half of your trip you’d just completed. And as you pushed the now unlocked door handle down harder than necessary, you’d regretted indulging Matt’s line of questioning about your ongoing investigation into Wayland Corporation and Heinrich Backman over dinner. You’d finally told him that one of your co-worker’s sources had a lead on a particularly interesting and powerful investor in Wayland and that you, during work hours two days before you and Matt left the city for your trip, had gone off to meet with a representative of said powerful investor for an interview under the guise of a false article you weren’t really working on. And Matt, ever the stubborn and overprotective superhero vigilante boyfriend that he was, had gotten absolutely pissed at you for not only not telling him about the meeting, but also the fact that you’d gone without Daredevil nearby to protect you.

You were still gritting your teeth together as you tugged your luggage in, holding the door for Matt to follow in behind you with his own suitcase. The muscles in his cheeks were jumping as he ground his own teeth.

“You need me to help lay out the room for you?” you asked him, trying hard to push the edge out of your voice.

Matt effortlessly made his way further into the room, setting his luggage to the side of a nightstand beside the bed. For a moment he didn’t respond, just continued to run a hand repeatedly through his hair which was quickly becoming a mess with his irritated actions.

Fighting the urge to roll your eyes, you shook your head and made your way past the bed to the other side. You deposited your own suitcase next to the nightstand and out of the way. Even if you were currently angry with Matt, it’s not like you wanted him to trip over your luggage.

“What I need,” Matt snapped, breaking the tense silence, “is for you to be honest with me.”

Squaring your shoulders, you spun on your heel to face him. Both of you were standing on opposite sides of the bed, the queen-sized mattress acting as a buffer.

“Honest?” you shot back. “Matt, I wasn’t lying about anything to you! I’ve been keeping you updated about the entire investigation except for that one little detail because I’d been busy getting everything ready for our trip! And you were busy at the office with Foggy that day! How is it being dishonest when I told you everything at dinner when you asked about it?"

“It shouldn’t have taken you so long to tell me at all!” he growled back, his voice rising. “We just spent hours in a car together doing nothing but talk and you never said a word until I asked you about it!”

“Well excuse me for not wanting to bring up a topic that I know causes tension when we have an almost thirteen hour road trip for Christmas together!” you snapped.

The corner of his left eye was twitching, his nostrils flaring as he glared back at you in frustration. He’d shrugged out of his coat, leaving him in those form fitting gray tee-shirts he always wore. You couldn’t help but notice the way the fabric hugged his muscles as his chest and shoulders heaved. It wasn’t fair that he was so distractingly sexy–even when he was pissed at you.

“You shouldn’t have gone when you did,” he continued, voice lowered to something oddly dangerous. “You should have called me first, at the very least.”

“And what?” you asked bitterly, taking a few irritated steps around the bed towards him. “Told their assistant that I had to reschedule our appointment to a time that was convenient for Daredevil to chaperone me?”

Matt’s eyes narrowed, his intimidating form stalking around the bed towards you, stopping just feet away. He towered above you, nostrils still flaring sharply as he gazed back down at you. The hair on the back of your neck rose, but oddly not from fear.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he ground out. “Obviously you wouldn’t tell them that and I’d be nearby, not out in the open. You know I don’t want anyone finding out your connection to me,” he replied.

“Won’t be hard to recognize,” you said sharply, “if Daredevil is always hanging around my interviews.”

His lips twitched downwards, head canting to the side as his hands flew to his hips. He was shifting back and forth on his feet before you, tongue frustratedly swiping over his lips a few times. Your eyes were drawn to the movement, your breath briefly catching in your throat. Matt froze almost instantly, all of his frustrated movements coming to a stop. You watched as his eyes narrowed towards the bed, his head tilting further to the side.

Soon, his attention was shifting swiftly back towards you with furrowed brows. “Are you actually getting turned on right now?” he asked, his tone a mix of irritation and confusion.

“No," you quickly denied.

His face scrunched up for a moment as he studied you. As if it would help, you crossed your arms over your chest. But you couldn’t stop your gaze from raking over the way his shirt clung to his tensed muscles.

“Yes you are,” he countered. “I can practically taste your arousal in the air, sweetheart.” He shook his head, laughing humorlessly. “Here we are discussing something important–me worrying about you making some poor decisions that could end up getting you hurt–and you’re just thinking about sex?”

Face turning red, you threw your hands in the air. “I can’t fucking help how my body reacts to you, Matt!”

Spinning on your heel in a huff, you took a step away from Matt and wished this hotel room had an adjoining room for you to go and cry in privately. Except it wouldn’t be private because Matt would hear you–and probably taste the salt of your tears in the air. Unfortunately you didn’t get far before Matt’s hand roughly caught your wrist, drawing you to an abrupt stop.

“Let me go,” you shot over your shoulder.

He took a step closer to you, only inches away from the back of you. His hand was still holding your wrist in a grip that was just shy of being hard enough to actually hurt. With the way he was looking at you, you couldn’t control the goosebumps that rose along your skin.

“Is that what you want me to do?” he asked, his tone low. “Or do you want me to yell at you some more? Tell me sweetheart,” he said, almost spitting out the pet name in his anger, “do you enjoy watching how worked up I get over your safety?”

Your breath was quickly coming in short. “What?” you asked in a small voice.

Before you had time to register what was going on, Matt had you pinned to the wall. He was holding both of your wrists above your head, the front of him so close to yours that you could feel the heat radiating off of his body. Your cunt ached noticeably at the sight of Matt’s angered and hungry face before you.

“You should have told me about that interview,” he snapped. “Should have given me a chance to be there if something went wrong.”

Your eyes narrowed at him in curiosity and confusion. He was sending you mixed signals, continuing to argue with you while you thought he’d been switching gears and trying to fuck you. What the hell was this?

“I was fine,” you reiterated. “Nothing happened to me.”

“You don’t think they’re not going to look into that article and find out it's not real?” Matt shot back. “Don’t think they won’t then begin looking into you? Find out who you are? Realize you were the journalist who outed Figureoa?”

“Alright, I get it,” you ground out, tugging against his hold on you. “Now knock it off, Matt.”

His hands immediately released yours, but he continued to block your path. There was a coy smirk sliding onto his lips as he gazed down at you, one that was doing things to your body that you weren’t currently thrilled about. Of course he’d be able to turn you the fuck on during an argument–was there anything this beautiful man couldn’t do?

“Move,” you ordered him.

He shifted sideways, allowing you to storm past him. You were rubbing at your wrists as you headed to the opposite side of the room towards the empty desk and the window. This was definitely not how you foresaw your trip going.

“You want me,” he called after you. “Can’t deny it sweetheart. I can taste how wet you’re getting.”

“You know, that’s not helping,” you snapped back.

“Clearly it is,” Matt mused, his voice getting closer, “because you’re getting wetter the angrier you get.”

You spun back around, mouth open as you were about to deny his claim, but he was suddenly right there. He was still smirking down at you, too.

“You’re being very–”

His mouth slammed hard into yours so forcefully you stumbled back a step, your ass bumping into the desk behind you as he cut your sentence clean off. There was absolutely nothing sweet and loving about how he was kissing you either–he was biting and growling and lapping mercilessly into your mouth. You could barely catch your breath, your own hands frantically tugging at his hair, yanking him closer to you in a wave of frustrated desire that you’d never experienced before.

He roughly picked you up and dropped you onto the desk behind you, forcing your legs apart as he slotted himself between them. Breaking away briefly from your mouth, he grinned down at you.

“I’m being very what, sweetheart?” he goaded, breath coming in hard.

Breathing hard yourself, desire and irritation still both coursing through you, you shook your head. “Stop arguing,” you ground out.

Without hesitation, your hand that was still fisting his hair roughly tugged his mouth back down to yours. You could feel the brief smile on his lips before he kissed you back with that same raging intensity he had only moments ago. His hands were focused on undoing your pants, moving swift and clumsily as he focused on kissing you. A moment later he broke away from your mouth, panting hard as he sharply yanked your jeans and underwear down your legs simultaneously. Your own hands reached down, gripping the hem of his shirt and ripping it up and over his head. Brain too focused solely on your need for Matt, your mouth dove forward, biting at his abominable muscles as your hands landed back on his hips, nails digging in. Matt hissed out a sound of pleasure above you, the sound encouraging your tongue to slip out and slide along his muscled, bare skin. Both of his hands were in your hair, gripping the strands tight as he let out a low moan when your tongue swiped just above the waistline of his pants. You could feel the twitch of his muscles beneath your tongue, the feeling drawing more wet heat between your thighs.

As you began frantically unbuttoning his jeans, his hands slid down to grip the hem of your own shirt. He tugged it over your head just after you’d gotten his pants unzipped. After he tossed your shirt aside, you were unclasping your bra while he was peeling his pants and boxers off of himself. As usual, your eyes were instantly drawn to his hard cock, every intention of taking him into your mouth and watching him fall apart, but the moment your hands were on him, his own hands halted yours.

“No,” he said, shaking his head and placing your hands on his hips. “That's not how this is going to go, sweetheart.”

He nudged your legs open wider and slipped between them. His left hand snaked its way up your thigh, one of his thick fingers lightly dipping inside of you. Your body shuddered on the desk, knees shaking against Matt’s body.

“Mmm,” he hummed, satisfied. “You definitely enjoyed that argument more than you should have.” His finger slipped back out, hand grabbing his cock and rubbing it along the slick of your entrance while you fought the tremble of your lips. “You like seeing me that protective over you? Is that it?” He slid just the tip of himself inside of you and you gasped out, hips begging for more. "Is that why you were getting so worked up?"

“Maybe,” you whispered.

His eyes narrowed, the very tip of him still just sitting inside of you. You shifted your hips again, bucking them towards him. You needed more of him. Instead, his hands came down hard and held your thighs firmly to the desk, keeping you still.

“I meant what I said,” he told you sternly. “You’re going to tell me when you’re involved with that organization, sweetheart. Whenever you're interviewing someone. Chasing down a lead. You're going to tell me so I can make sure you stay safe.”

“Matt, I don’t– fuck ,” you cried out, eyelids sharply closing as he entered into you fully in one swift thrust.

“You will or I won’t fuck you,” he shot back. “You want me, sweetie?”

“Yes,” you answered instantly.

“Then promise me,” he almost growled, face lowering towards yours. “Promise me you’ll tell me everything about your investigation into Wayland whenever something comes up. Promise me that you will let me help you, that you’ll let me keep you safe."

You were squirming against him, desperate for him to do more than just fill you. Your nails were clawing at his skin as you tried to buck into him yet again, but Matt remained still and immobile as he stared down at you expectantly.

“Yes, Matt, yes, I promise,” you ground out in a frustrated whine. Your hands tugged impatiently at his hips. “Fuck, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I didn’t think you’d be this upset.”

One of his hands released your thigh, fingers gently grabbing your chin and tilting your face up further towards his. “I take every threat to you seriously, sweetheart," he told you, tone dark and dangerous. "Of course I was going to be upset."

“Alright, I’ll–I’ll tell you first thing when I get another lead,” you replied quickly. "Any-any time I get something new to check out," you promised.

"Good," he growled.

His mouth was back on yours, kissing you fiercely before either of you could say more. When his hands landed on your waist, his fingers dug deep into your bare skin before his hips finally began to move. Without preamble or any build up, he frantically pumped into you. Your hands helplessly tried to find purchase along the muscles of his naked back as you moaned out, eyes closing at the feel of him finally moving inside of you.

You'd been next to him all day in the car, unable to really touch each other for hours, and even you could tell Matt was just as riled up over that as he had been over your arousal. With the way he was grunting and thrusting into you so resolutely, you could tell he'd been desperate to touch you, too. That he had needed this just as much as you did right now.

Matt's head shifted, coming to bite your shoulder, pulling your skin between his teeth. You moaned out, turning your head to give him room as his lips began kissing the skin afterwards. He was still rapidly pumping into you, the desk repeatedly slamming into the wall loudly behind you with each thrust. You were too far gone to even think if there were people in a nearby room listening to the way Matt was roughly fucking you. You didn’t even care.

“I made you a promise,” Matt said firmly, his pace unwavering. “I told you I’d always do whatever I had to–” he broke off on a moan, head falling back over his shoulders for a few seconds as your nails raked down his bare back. “I–I promised,” he continued, his head rolling back forward, teeth gritted, “that I’d do whatever I needed to to keep you safe.”

“I know, baby,” you whispered, eyes closed.

With a grunt, he picked you up from off the desk, eliciting a surprised yelp from you as you clung to him. His cock remained inside of you, your cunt continually squeezing him in a desperate plea for him to continue fucking you. Matt was muttering curses at the feel of it as he walked you to the bed, eventually coming to rest your back along the edge of it. He repositioned your legs along his shoulders as he stood at the edge of the bed, one hand holding each of your ankles as he gazed down at you. You bit your lip at that hungry look on his face.

“I don’t care how pissed at me you get,” he ground out, “I’m keeping that promise. No matter what .”

Immediately he began thrusting into you again with a fierce pace, your hands roughly fisting the hotel sheets beside you as your head flew back along the mattress. With this new angle, his cock was striking that spot deep inside that was causing flashes of white to dance across your closed lids. A series of breathy, needy whines fell out of you as you held tight to the sheets.

“Fuck, Matt,” you whimpered.

“Not so fucking angry now, are you?” he countered roughly, though his own voice sounded strained.

Forcing your eyes open, you gazed up at him from the bed. He was gritting his teeth, hands clamped tight around your ankles as he slammed his hips into your body over and over. His dark brows were furrowed together like they often were when he was focused on fucking you.

“You’re one to talk,” you shot back.

Instantly you saw his eyes narrow before he sharply buried his cock so deep inside of you that you screamed out, eyes momentarily closing in shock. When they reopened, he was grinning down at you, but you were too stunned to speak.

“That’s what I thought, sweetheart,” he replied cockily.

You didn’t really even care to argue back with him right now. Not really sure what it was about Matt’s cocky, overprotective attitude tonight, you found yourself quickly about to fall over the edge of your climax. Hips rising from off the bed, your head flew back along the mattress again as your eyes snapped shut.

“You fucking like this, don’t you?” he asked.

“I thought I said,” you began, voice light and breathy as you almost hit that peak, “to stop arguing.”

One of his hands released your ankles only to moments later land on your clit. Touching you just right, you entirely lost it on the bed below him. Your hips quaked against Matt as he moaned out in response, your cunt clenching his cock. Eyes rolling back behind your closed lids, you cried out a curse into the hotel room. His hand left your clit a few moments later, instead landing hard on your ass with a sharp smack that sounded throughout the room. His fingers dug into the flesh there as his hips began clumsily ramming into you, his cock twitching inside of you. As a lightheadedness began to wash over you, you felt Matt’s warm release fill you, his pleased rumbling groan filling the air around you.

He proceeded to slowly thrust into you a few more times before his hips finally came to a stop. Your eyes opened slowly, trying to come back down from your climax. You could see the light glisten of sweat along his skin as he slowly slipped out of you, releasing your legs carefully to the floor. Running a hand over your forehead, you tried to recover from whatever had just happened. A minute ago you’d been yelling at each other, and now your body was feeling pleasantly light post-orgasm.

“What was that?” you asked him curiously, slowly sitting up on the bed.

Matt was running his own hands through his hair, his shoulders heaving. “You tell me,” he panted out, shooting you a little smile. “You’re the one who got aroused from an argument.”

You felt heat rise to your cheeks, your gaze dropping to the floor. “I told you I can’t help my reaction to you,” you mumbled, embarrassed. “Even when you’re apparently pissed at me.”

Matt walked over, coming to sit on the bed beside you. “Hey,” he whispered, wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling you into him, “I’m not–not pissed at you,” he began, still trying to catch his breath. “I just…I don’t want to see you get hurt. Okay? I love you and I can’t even imagine if something were to ever happen to you. I wouldn’t–”

You saw his eyes snap shut, brows pinching together. His lips twitched and you saw his throat bob as he swallowed roughly. Pulling him into yourself, you held him as he burrowed into your neck.

“I can’t let anything happen to you,” he whispered into your skin. “Not you.”

“I’m sorry,” you apologized. “I’ll tell you next time.”

For a moment you just sat there together, holding each other naked and silent. Your head eventually lowered onto the top of his, eyes closing.

“So that was our first argument,” you muttered.

“Yeah, it was,” Matt murmured. “I’m sorry I yelled, sweetheart. Even if you did seem to enjoy it.”

You laughed lightly above him, eyes still closed. “I have to admit, that was the most satisfying argument I’ve ever had,” you told him.

“I won’t argue with that,” Matt agreed.

“You sure?” you countered cheekily. “Because if you did, maybe that could be the most satisfying argument you’ve ever had.”

The pair of you burst into a fit of hysterics on the bed together, Matt laughing loudly beside you. The sound eased any worry you might’ve had after that argument.

When the laughter subsided, your gaze dropped to the carpeted hotel floor. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner," you whispered. "I didn't think you'd be this upset. I was planning to tell you after the entire Christmas trip because I didn't want to potentially cause problems. I'm not trying to hide things from you, Matt."

"Sweetheart," he began slowly, "when it comes to dangerous people like Backman, you need to be careful. Everyone you talk to about them, or anyone involved in the company you speak with, it's all being kept track of. I'm honestly a bit worried about the fake article. They're not stupid, sweetheart."

"No, but articles fall through all the time," you countered. "Ellison already corroborated a story with me about how a different piece took precedence and we're tabling the other article for now. After Christmas I'll be emailing them with a sort of consolatory message about it. They won't even think twice."

Matt sighed heavily, shifting so his head was resting along your shoulder. You leaned your head back atop his, your gaze once again on the hotel floor.

"I hope you're right," Matt whispered.

#matt murdock x reader #matt murdock x you #matt murdock x fem reader #matt murdock smut #matt murdock series #matt murdock fic #matt murdock fanfic #daredevil x reader #daredevil x female reader #matt murdock #fftd

144 notes · View notes

naturalrights-retard · 4 months

Text

By Marie Hawthorne

Truckers keep things interesting, don’t they? And they’re at it again with a NYC trucker’s strike organized to protest a verdict against former President Trump.

Last week, New York Judge Arthur Engoron ordered former President Trump to pay $354 million in damages in a civil business fraud trial.

While the court accused Trump of dishonest business practices, no financial institutions have ever made complaints about him. No fine this massive, no prohibitions on conducting business in New York, and no bans on receiving loans from New York banks have ever been handed down in a case like this. This is pure political persecution. Don’t take my word for it: that was how legal scholar and constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley described it too.

16 notes · View notes

popolitiko · 3 months

Text

NBC News on Friday announced that it had hired Ronna McDaniel, the former Republican National Committee chair who has repeatedly attacked the network and its journalists, assailed the news media as “fake news” and promoted false claims around the 2020 vote, as an on-air commentator ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

“It couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team,” Carrie Budoff Brown, senior vice president of politics at NBC News, said in a memo to staff.

McDaniel exited the RNC earlier this month after leading the organization since 2016.

During her time as chair, McDaniel repeatedly attacked the press, which has become increasingly popular in Republican circles over the last several years as Donald Trump demonizes journalists and news institutions.

McDaniel echoed many such attacks, labeling the press as “fake news” and calling the media “corrupt.” At times, she even targeted NBC News and MSNBC with dishonest attacks.

In 2019, for instance, McDaniel accused Richard Engel, NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent, of “actively cheering for an economic downturn.”

“How can NBC let him keep his job when he’s made his bias so clear?” McDaniel asked.

McDaniel has a lengthier history attacking the progressive cable news channel MSNBC, which she will appear on in her new role. In recent years, she has repeatedly attacked the channel for “spreading lies” and blasted those she described as the network’s “primetime propagandists.”

An NBC spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment about her attacks on the news media and NBC.

In her role as RNC chief, McDaniel also fanned the flames of election denialism after the 2020 presidential contest.

McDaniel was involved in a phone call in 2020 to pressure Michigan county officials not to certify the vote from the Detroit area, where Joe Biden had a commanding lead. McDaniel told the officials, regarding the certification: “Do not sign it. … We will get you attorneys.”

The Michigan Department of State’s office condemned her claims of supposed voter fraud in the wake of the election, stating they had “no merit.” The state’s “elections were conducted fairly, effectively and transparently and are an accurate reflection of the will of Michigan voters,” it said in a detailed fact check posted online.

NBC’s hiring of McDaniel, however, plays into a recent trend at the network’s outlets, which has seemingly softened its stance on Trump as he inches toward the Republican nomination for president.

Earlier this month, CNBC hosted Trump for a lengthy phone interview in which the network’s anchors allowed him to peddle lies and conspiracy theories on air without scrutiny.

MSNBC has even started carrying Trump’s remarks live on television, a practice that the network boasted for years it would not do. Star host Rachel Maddow, who has said carrying Trump’s lies on the air is dangerous, even objected to the network broadcasting a recent speech from the presumptive Republican nominee, calling it “irresponsible.”

MSNBC has no plans to have former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on the cable network, its president told employees following the news of her hiring at NBC News.

Rashida Jones, the cable network’s president, has been seeking to address internal backlash in the wake of an internal Friday announcement by NBC News regarding McDaniel’s hiring as an on-air contributor.

In that internal memo, the political chief, Carrie Budoff Brown, said McDaniel would contribute “across all NBC News platforms,” causing turmoil among several of the network’s on-air hosts and staffers, people familiar with the matter said. MSNBC is part of the NBC News division.

Rashida Jones daughter of Quincy Jones & Peggy Lipton

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/msnbc-has-no-plans-to-have-ex-rnc-chief-on-network-0d88e70c

In February, Ms. McDaniel urged Republicans to unite behind Mr. Trump after his victory in the New Hampshire primary, irking Nikki Haley, his rival who had not yet dropped out of the race. Mr. Trump has since installed his daughter-in-law and a close adviser to lead the R.N.C., tightening his hold over the party.

Other prominent Republican commentators at NBC News include Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, and Brendan Buck, a former top aide to Paul Ryan and John Boehner. NBC’s Democratic commentators include former Senator Claire McCaskill and David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s former campaign manager.

Ms. McDaniel’s NBC debut will be on this Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press.”

#NBC News #MSNBC #Ronna McDaniel

8 notes · View notes

archivalofsins · 8 months

Text

The last thing I reblogged is literally how some interpret Kazui's sin. They consider him lying a sin. Him not being honest about himself. Regardless of if he was being dishonest to himself or others, the dishonesty is still the sin. Because that's simple it's clean. It can make others feel good and like they have control of whether what occurred with Kazui happens to them or not.

It's one of those cautionary tales to keep people humble and remind them to live honestly. A fable in a way. I get why some people may need to learn that lesson and would like to project it onto his characters. I don't need to learn that lesson, though. Because the honest truth is literally no one owes anybody their fucking truths regardless of their relationship to each other.

So, when a person comes banging at someone else's door asking for truths, that person isn't ready to give yet. When they ask them to lay their soul bare and just trust them to be able to handle it from there. I hope these people realize at that moment how silly it is to label lying as a sin, even remotely comparable to murder.

Every time they want to keep their business their business, I hope they think back to Kazui and go,

"I should be honest, wouldn't want to be a murderer after all."

I hope when some people are told to give others unrestricted access to their personhood, their feelings, and time- That they remember what they said here and give that regardless of how wholly unsafe that makes them feel. Regardless of if they know it will end poorly. Because it's the right thing to do regardless of the circumstances.

I hope everyone puts what they've been preaching into practice. So, you all can find out just how much more the truth can hurt than a lie. Since people want to ignore what Kazui plainly stated in his voice drama. His lies didn't kill anyone the truth did.

One day you're all going to see the negative repercussions the honest truth can bring and at whatever point that is I hope you look back on Kazui and you think,

"Damn, this is what he meant by that."

Because the truth hurts, doesn't it?

#milgram #kazui mukuhara

17 notes · View notes

cissyenthusiast010155 · 8 months

Note

So I just saw the post about masturbating and not always feeling the pleasure of it and I have to say I relate to it so much.

One thing I would also mention is the problem with me is I find it hard to connect with people. It's not that I don't care. I just feel like I am unable to love. I met an amazinggg boy and we date and we're now a couple now. But I feel like it's all an illusion. Like I am lying to him and myself. Like I am dishonest and a horrible person. He is amazinggg. I love talking with him and going out with him. He is soo kind and understanding and I trust him.

And maybe it's trauma again making me feel that way.

It feels weird if I even think of holding hands with him, hugging him, kissing him ect. I'm scared, am I unable to love? And when it comes to intimacy? Boy, I'm scared of that too. What if I'm just going to let him down.

What if I'm made to be alone and by myself? Because I feel like I'm the happiest and safest when I'm by myself.

-🚽

Hey hey Heyy, 🚽 anon…!!

{Let’s Talk Trauma in Relationships}

This is another more lengthy discussion. But it is so worth reading…! As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts, drop them in my ask box or dm me 🥰 Don’t hesitate to reach out, my lovelies <33

You’re talking about my Let’s Talk Healthy Solo Sex conversation, and I love it! I feel that you relate to it so much. 🫖 anon and you are most definitely not alone ♥️. Before I continue, I want to thank you for being open, adding on to the conversation, and sharing your experience with me, 🫖 anon, and the blog. As well as to say how proud I am of you for being vulnerable and feeling safe enough to share this 💞💞💞

Ok so your first point is on the difficulty of connecting with people— How can we connect? Why is it so hard for some to connect…??

I hear you. Your experience is so valid. You mentioned feeling like you are unable to love, that it’s an illusion, dishonest, etc. After, you added it might be the trauma affecting you, and I couldn’t agree more. Trauma can really mess with a person’s sense and practice of love, sex, and life. Anyone experiencing feelings and thoughts like you mentioned, I would recommend they find, talk through, process, and heal from any trauma (especially childhood trauma), and I highly recommend you do this with a professional.

From whatever experience caused you to have these thoughts/feelings, of course anxiety is going to form. Your feelings are valid. It’s okay to have questions like you do in your fourth paragraph. To me, that’s a sign that there is unfinished business, trauma, or feelings that need to be resolved. But it’s all super valid nonetheless.

Your last point/question— I feel most happy and safe when I’m alone, so am I meant to be alone…?

I truly feel you on feeling the safest and happiest when you’re on your own. But it’s not meant to be that way. Human beings are social creatures. Yes, we can have time alone and in solitude, but that is meant to be balanced by social time. We’ve been conditioned that the only way to do it is on our own, and that that’s what we are destined for, but that’s false! We are meant to love, we are meant to be cared for, we are meant to feel, to connect. ♥️

Thank you once more for sharing all of this. You are so brave, and I am extremely proud of you, 🚽 anon! Don’t ever hesitate to reach out. I hope you have a lovely day!! 💞💞

Talk with Me ❤️‍🔥

18 notes · View notes

mariacallous · 8 days

Text

Crisco is a vegan cooking fat and an icon of the Ashkenazi-Jewish American Dream.

For over a century, the strange, oily gloop has graced kosher restaurants, holiday cookbooks and hand-scribbled recipe cards in Jewish homes across the nation, becoming a (contested) symbol of Jewish American identity and culinary tradition .

But how did Judaism get to Crisco as America is to apple pie? The answer lies at the intersection of early 20th-century consumerism and Jewish American culture.

First, we need to take a look at the origins of Crisco itself. Debuted in 1911 as a product of Cincinnati’s Procter & Gamble Co., it started as a strange solution to a strange problem. Textile production skyrocketed during the Industrial Revolution, leaving America with a surplus of leftover cotton seeds. No one could figure out what to do with them — until chemists learned to extract the oil and combine it with hydrogen, which created a cheap alternative to animal-based fats like lard and tallow. Initially, Procter & Gamble intended to use the new substance to make candles. But they ended up selling it as a food product, instead.

The public wasn’t totally sold on the idea. Aside from sneaky CEOs cutting costs by substituting it for pricier olive oil, cottonseed oil wasn’t typically used in the food business. It was primarily intended for soap, artificial dyes and explosives. There was even some debate over whether cottonseed oil is really a food (spoiler: it isn’t; Procter & Gamble would later switch to other vegetarian oils).

Eventually it caught on with the help of some clever, if somewhat dishonest, marketing. But sales still weren’t remarkable among established Americans. Given the product’s versatile non-dairy, non-meat nature, Procter & Gamble’s PR team decided to give a hard sell to the nation’s newly minted community of Eastern European Jewish immigrants. One 1913 newspaper advertisement, printed in English and Yiddish and distributed throughout the United States, made the lofty claim that “The Hebrew Race has been waiting 4,000 years for Crisco.”

4,000 years! 4,000 years spent wandering through deserts and across the globe, all for… non-dairy shortening? Shockingly, the ploy worked; American Jews went wild for Crisco — and haven’t looked back since.

There are evident perks: It’s kosher, and pareve, too. That means that, when she has Crisco on hand, the good Jewish housewife doesn’t need to buy both schmaltz — for meat — and butter — for dairy — thus saving money and resources. And, a hundred or so years ago, Crisco was considered (or, at least, marketed as) a healthy alternative to traditional animal-based cooking fats.

But more important was Crisco’s cultural significance. For new immigrants, the feeling of belonging was vital. There was a constant struggle between old and new, religion and nation, and tradition and assimilation. Here was a practical solution that didn’t require compromise. Kosher enough for the rabbi, stylish enough for the all-American woman and economical to boot, Crisco was a tasty, practical reminder that you could be both Jewish and American — and be so with class and tact.

Procter & Gamble’s 1933 cookbook, “Crisco Recipes for the Jewish Housewife,” cemented the product’s popularity within the Jewish community. Each recipe was printed in both English and Yiddish. Offerings ranged from traditional favorites, like kugel, to American icons such as southern fried chicken and macaroni salad — all, of course, with a generous helping of Crisco. Despite the economic hardship of the Great Depression, sales continued to soar. Over the course of a century, Crisco grew from its resourceful beginnings to the heart of American Jewish cooking.

In recent years, though, Crisco has amassed slews of controversy. For one thing, it’s been condemned for ruining the magic of traditional (i.e., schmaltzy) Jewish cooking with its sub-par flavor. Perhaps more shocking is the revelation that Crisco, marketed as an “all-vegetable shortening” doesn’t actually include any vegetables — at all. Even though it’s no longer made from cottonseed oil, Crisco’s modern key ingredients, soybean and palm oil, aren’t derived from vegetables, or even fruits, but from grains. They’re not particularly healthy or environmentally friendly, either. So, while definitely a little more edible, modern Crisco is not exactly a huge improvement on its cottonseed predecessor.

Why do we continue to use Crisco? I think that, like with many Ashkenazi Jewish cultural rites, the answer can be most accurately summed up by Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof”: TRADITION! So next time you bite into a Crisco-coated latke, or hamantaschen, or maybe even fried chicken, you too can follow in the footsteps of our foremothers and savor the unctuous, oily flavor of Jewish American history.

6 notes · View notes

indiesellersguild · 6 months

Text

December 2023 Newsletter – Year in Review

Here is our December Newsletter!

Main event:

As we end 2023, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on our victories for the year. Truly, it has been an incredible ride, with far more success than we could have hoped for.

The rest of the text is under the cut; relevant links are embedded in the text on our website.

Lobbying with the US Senate: We worked with Senator Baldwin’s office to help the COOL Online Act (a bill to crack down on dishonest resellers) pass committee. Read our analysis of the bill here.

Fighting Etsy’s Reserve Payment Policy: Our work, combined with the heroic efforts of UK sellers and the media, pressured Etsy to reduce or lift their devastating payment reserve policy for many sellers. Samantha Vass, a prominent UK seller who spoke out, had her Etsy shop suspended, learn more and support her business here.

Feedback to the FTC: An US Federal Trade Commission lawyer reached out to us for feedback on a new FTC rule against unfair and deceptive business practices around online platform fees. Learn more here.

Presentation to UK Small Business Commissioner: We were able to discuss the issue of online platforms messing with indie sellers’ money in a series of meetings with UK Small Business Commissioner Liz Barclay. Watch a video of the presentation here.

Marketplace Research Project: We had over 1,000 participants in our research survey on what creative indie sellers and their customers want from an online marketplace. Read more about how we will use that data to hold marketplaces accountable here.

In the works:

The first annual ISG virtual convention will be April 13-14, 2024!

We will launch our Marketplace Accreditation Program, unveil our new membership site, and discuss how we can continue to fight the exploitation of creative indie sellers by big tech platforms.

Panels will include:

What to do if you get screwed by a tech platform. – with Katharine from the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Etsy Alternatives: Data and tools to help you find the best marketplaces for your business

How to use your Etsy shop to direct traffic to your own site (without breaking Etsy’s rules) – with Kristi Cassidy, ISG President

Results from our Marketplace Research Project: What do sellers and customers really want from an online marketplace – with Samantha Close, Ph.D.

Interview with Racheal from Mayfli marketplace in the UK

Interview with Jon from goimagine marketplace in the US

Get your ticket now to reserve your spot! Tickets only cost $1 to help cover the costs of the convention.

Share your story!

The FTC is seeking public comment on their proposed “Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees”. After our meeting with the FTC, we are excited about the rule because it will also protect creative indie sellers from unfair and deceptive fees from marketplaces. If the rule goes through, we hope to use it to combat Etsy’s forced off-site ads and other unfair practices.

Please take a moment to share your thoughts in a public comment, we want to make sure the perspective of creative indie sellers is represented!

We heard you:

We know that the seller member directory, and members-only parts of the website in general are a bit difficult to navigate. One of our first goals in 2024 is to update our membership with new software and far more features. Stay tuned for information on how to set up your profile on the new site!

What ISG needs right now:

While we’ve managed some amazing things with a very small budget, thanks to our amazing volunteers and open source software, we need more funding for 2024 to continue to grow and advocate on your behalf.

Please consider making a small donation to the Indie Sellers Guild. If half of our members donate just $5, we will raise enough funding for the next 6 months. Or you can buy one of our awesome merch items so you can represent the Guild and show off the work of your fellow artists. The Guild receives $5 from every merch purchase.

Thanks so much for your support!

#etsy alternatives #Etsy sellers #unions #Workers rights #workers cooperative #indie sellers guild #small business

6 notes · View notes

religion-is-a-mental-illness · 1 year

Text

By: Erec Smith

Published: Jun 17, 2023

The apparent goal of contemporary anti-racism activism — which is not the activism of the civil-rights era — is not to end racism but to perpetuate it.

At a former university where I taught and served as a diversity officer (yes, that happened), I had a meeting with the school’s black-student union. Toward the end of the meeting, I asked something to the effect of “Is your goal to be obsolete in the near future?”

Most of the students insisted that they didn’t understand the question. One student, who seemed to be the de facto leader of the group, expressed that he did understand and answered that the group would live on even if, ideally, racism went away. I didn’t have time for a good follow-up question, such as “Would your mission change and how?” But I did wonder.

Today, this question occupies my mind even more. Seemingly permanent organizations and protocols are being created that strongly suggest racism is here to stay. This seems inconsistent with the traditional discourse about civil rights, which has focused on ending racial discrimination once and for all. The apparent telos (or ultimate goal) of contemporary anti-racism activism — which is not the activism of the civil-rights era — is not to end racism, but to perpetuate it.

Why would I say this? If an activist group has no intention of ever being obsolete — i.e., if it doesn’t have a sacrificial telos according to which it conceives of its own end — it is not an activist group. It is, at best, a special-interest group, and a dishonest one at that.

I think it is only fair that I use my own endeavors as an example. As a member of Free Black Thought, an organization that celebrates viewpoint diversity within the black collective, I believe that race essentialism — the tendency from within and without a particular group to think each member experiences and interprets the world in identical ways — is a problem I’d like to see solved.

Currently, mass media present and represent viewpoints from black people, but only those who fit the popular narrative imperative to the politics of pity. Free Black Thought is here to showcase the fact that groups are made of individuals with separate goals, pursuits, interests, values, etc.

However, if we ever succeed in bringing about a world where people are judged individually and not by their membership in a particular racial group, our mission would be outdated. If race essentialism, or the very concept of race, period, were overcome, Free Black Thought would no longer be needed. Free Black Thought wouldn’t fold, necessarily; but our mission would have to change. Because our original mission would have been fulfilled, staying with it would be performative and dishonest. If race essentialism were overcome, we would not be needed. We would either fold or adopt a new mission.

Clearly, other organizations dealing with race relations do not understand their missions similarly. Ibram X. Kendi provides two examples.

First, he is the director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, which states that its mission is “to convene researchers and practitioners from various disciplines to figure out novel and practical ways to understand, explain, and solve seemingly intractable problems of racial inequity and injustice.” He adds, “We are working toward building an antiracist society that ensures equity and justice for all.”

This is a noble endeavor, but what would happen if inequality and injustice were eradicated? There is a fine line between “intractable” and “immutable.” The website says the center is still developing, but part of that development is an affiliates program connecting faculty and students into a network that may be difficult to undo.

It may be hasty to assume that ending institutional racism is not the true goal of the Center for Antiracist Research. But another brainchild of Kendi’s lends weight to the notion that perpetual racism serves the interests of Kendi and other DEI professionals. Kendi has written that he wants the United States government to pass a constitutional amendment to “establish and permanently fund the Department of Anti-racism (DOA) comprised of formally trained experts on racism and no political appointees.” He elaborates:

The DOA would be responsible for preclearing all local, state and federal public policies to ensure they won’t yield racial inequity, monitor those policies, investigate private racist policies when racial inequity surfaces, and monitor public officials for expressions of racist ideas. The DOA would be empowered with disciplinary tools to wield over and against policymakers and public officials who do not voluntarily change their racist policy and ideas.

If you look carefully enough, you may see that the statement’s precarious nature could easily have the department functioning in perpetuity. A governmental department created as a result of a new constitutional amendment is not something anyone would plan to dismantle in the near future. In order to justify the perpetuation of such an entity, one would need to perpetuate racism.

A nongovernment organization like the Center for Antiracist Research is one thing; an addition to the current federal system is something else entirely.

Of course, Kendi is not the only culprit; other phenomena point to the false telos of racial harmony. Many major universities have created graduate programs in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). That is, advanced if not terminal degrees are being given to people who plan to make a career out of DEI initiatives. The University of Maryland-Baltimore, the University of Pennsylvania, and Tufts University are just a few. But if one’s livelihood consists of fighting racism, wouldn’t the end of racism spell trouble? Wouldn’t the perpetuation of racism be the very thing putting food on the table? This also goes for the explosion of administrative positions in DEI in colleges, corporations, and other institutions.

Jane Kellogg Murray of Indeed.com — a job site that assists people in finding employment — writes about the rise of DEI (She calls it DI&B: diversity, inclusion, and belonging) in the American job force:

Between September 2019 and September 2020, Indeed job postings in diversity, inclusion and belonging have risen 56.3% — from 140 jobs per million to 219. More significantly, after the U.S. economy declined in Spring 2020, the DI&B industry recovered quickly, with job postings rising by an astonishing 123% between May and September.

That sounds like a large number of people with jobs that literally depend on racism, the very thing the jobs are meant to eliminate. So a dip in racism could have a correlation with a rise in unemployment.

Of course, missions can change. Perhaps at racism’s end, these positions would be transformed into something more relevant, or the people occupying those jobs would move into other fields of employment. We cannot know for sure. However, the fact that these employees have skills directly connected to ending a particular thing like racism suggests that fighting racism is their area of expertise. What happens to diversity, equity, and inclusion officers when society actually becomes diverse, equitable, and inclusive?

Maintaining vigilance could be a new mission. That is, when racism is finally defeated, DEI officers can work to make sure it never comes back. However, this is also problematic. Maintaining an anti-racist society would get pretty boring without racism. Might such a mission make frequent use of the concept of microaggressions or the idea that, when it comes to racism, impact always outweighs intention? If bias is considered implicit, then a fine line separates DEI officers from “thought police.” To show they are not expendable, it is in their best interest to “find” racism, but what happens when there is no racism to be found?

I stopped wanting to be a diversity officer when I realized how ineffective it was — I came to this insight before contemporary “wokeness” took hold. But DEI work was a secondary job for me; I still intended to remain a professor and scholar of rhetoric. What would have happened to me if DEI were my full-time job? Would I go the way of Kendi, or would my fate be more like that of Tabia Lee, who was fired for not abiding by the current narrative that deems racism a permanent problem?

I don’t know, but I do know that all people in such positions should aim toward a sacrificial telos, which would eventually deem those positions unnecessary. If you are a DEI officer and your main goal is not to render your job obsolete as soon as possible, you are enacting the very definition of a grift.

[ Via: https://archive.is/dfeGZ ]

When the demand exceeds the supply. The fact that an entire industry of DEI bureaucracies (complete with bogus credentials) have, and still are, being built up as racism itself has never been lower - and yes, even in the current hypersensitive era we occupy - gives the game away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p1BmryFRF8

[As] we know from the war on drugs and the war on terror, for those in the business of providing protection, high threat levels are bread and butter. Likewise, for those in the business of healing race relations, racial division is your sworn enemy but your secret friend—so much so that wounding and healing become part of the same operation.

Now you know why "microaggressions" were invented: because the industry had grown too big for the remaining problem, but there's money to be made if only the right product could be marketed.

It's the same thing as the church. Being "right with Jesus" is a subscription plan. You can't just perform the soul-cleaning ritual and you're done. If that was the case, they'd do themselves out of a job and out of power. So instead, you have to come back next week and tithe again.

Same thing again with organizations like Stonewall, HRC and GLAAD. After the last big battle of marriage equality had been won, they didn't know what to do with the large organizations they'd built up. It was either scale down, or pivot to a new mission. Which is when they took on the anti-gay mission.

#Erec Smith #diversity equity and inclusion #DEI bureaucracy #DIE bureaucracy #grifters #race grifters #neoracism #antiracism #antiracism as religion #cult of woke #wokeness #woke #wokeism #wokeness as religion #religion is a mental illness

11 notes · View notes