#i wrote this in reply to someone on reddit but i have to save it somewhere else too

[lanceinwonderland]

Stylized top surgery scars irritate me to no end - like surely everyone can see this doesn't actually help anyone, other than transphobes that believe they have a god given right to "always tell"? Who are you actually helping by teaching more cis people how to clock trans people? We should teach cis people why some people need to transition to live happy lives, not the details of what medical procedures we may choose to go through.

There really are two different kinds of "visibility". One is making people know this particular group of people exist and how to deal with it if someone tells you they belong to this minority. One is "how to identify all members of this group of people in daily life". The former is necessary for eventual acceptance but the latter is harmful. Like, I think the HIV/AIDS awareness campaign is a better example. People of course need to be aware of what is risky and what is completely safe, and know that our HIV treatment is fairly decent right now so it's not a death sentence even if you're unfortunately infected. But there's no campaign running around telling everyone how the meds HIV+ people usually take look like, or if someone adheres to their meds schedule extremely tightly they might be HIV+. That would be an extremely fucked up thing to do. Yet people are doing this to us all day every day.

And those "arts" are always so exaggerated. Almost like a caricature really. As if everyone who had DI has scars like two red pythons on their chest. That's not even to mention many people had keyhole or peri. Now even cis guys who had gynecomastia surgery and unfortunately didn't have their scars fade completely are regularly harassed if they ever show their bare chest, because people believe they must be trans.

I still have the fear of being clocked in super progressive places like Toronto. I've not lived there long term but visit frequently, probably every one or two months. So far it hasn't happened. I've played such hypothetical scenarios many times in my head, as in how to react if someone says something that implies they know I'm trans. I usually land on just acting very confused and slightly offended, like "what? But I'm a guy". I feel that reacting too strongly would either make them more certain in their correctness, or they would assume I'm transphobic, which I'd like to avoid. But just shrugging may also seem like an acknowledgement. Ughhh. I just wish people could stop doing this to each other. My gf stayed stealth in Montreal for 3 years so we joke around saying that must mean she's conventionally feminine enough to stay stealth almost anywhere in the world.

Another thing is whenever 99% of cis people and even a huge number of trans people hear "a trans man", they automatically think "a man with a vagina" (vice versa for trans women). As if somehow, trans people post bottom surgery are less trans than those pre bottom surgery. As if none of us has bottom dysphoria so severe that they don't wish to use their natal genitals for sex. The thought grosses me out yet I know it's true. Not gonna lie, a huge part of not wanting people to know is because I don't want them to think I don't have a dick or like think about my genitals at all. 

So many people do superficial performative things like replacing male/female or men/women with AMAB/AFAB, which literally benefits no one. I would even argue it's more transphobic than the traditional "genital shape = sex = gender" view, as it implies it's something magical that once assigned at birth, can never, ever be changed under any circumstances. A walk-in clinic my gf used to go to replaced all their "sex" fields with "sex at birth", and they even put it on your medical notes, the ones that you may need to show your employer to take medical leave. How does that help anyone exactly? She was so annoyed that she eventually left when she managed to find another doctor. I wouldn't completely disregard the possibility that it was indeed designed to out trans people, since many cis people feel they're entitled to "always know". I haven't encountered this personally but she also had companies collecting demographic data of both "sex" and "gender" in job applications. What the hell? I just put male and never out myself whatever terminology they use.

TLDR: Most people don't actually want to learn out of deeply ingrained transphobic ideas, because that would require them to reflect and maybe uproot their entire worldview.

[anjanahalo]

Decided to bring over a short thing I wrote on Reddit to save for myself here. ~*~

So, you thought as you settle your mind in between hacking coughs. As someone estranged from their family, who wanted to travel, and who also didn't have a large budget, it made sense for you to book passage in the cheap seats, aka cryogenic freezing from departure to whenever The Lima got to its destination. It'd be years, but you'd be asleep, unaware, and massively easier to sustain than if you stayed awake to eat and need entertainment every day. When you began to unfreeze, you weren't worried. After all, they gave a short test of the process to ensure you could safely endure it back home, and you were assured the waking process would be similar. Clinical but professionally trained hands would support you as you woke, removing the breathing tubes from your mouth before you were fully conscious, guiding you to a wheeled bed, and observing you to ensure you resurrected safely.

The fact you now laid on the cold floor, shaking from the cold, after withdrawing the painful tube from your trachea yourself suggested someone had mislead you. That, you reasoned as the coughing began to subside and you could fully take in your surroundings, or something went terribly wrong.

The cheap cryogenic section was small on The Lima. A few dozen at most, and your pod was sort of stuck behind a support column. As you finally rose, still shaking from the chill without the usual wake up of warming fluids to comfort you, you saw all the other pods were already empty. Grumbling, you wondered as, on legs that threatened to buckle with each step, who forgot to revive you along with everyone else. There would be WORDS, you swore, and a bad review. Maybe you'd even try to contract a lawyer. This had to be a case they'd take on commission. After an agonizingly long ten minutes, you reached the front of the room and a commlink. With one last shiver, you pressed the call button.

"Hey, you forgot someone." You attempted a loud, annoyed voice full of confidence and irritation. Your chattering teeth and sore throat ruined the effect. You waited for a reply. None came. You pressed the call button again "Hello? Hey, I'm still down here."

"HELLO."

The voice made you step back. The mechanical tones told you what responded - the ship's AI - but there was no reason for it to talk to you. It spoke to the crew. The engineers and flight deck and captain. Normal people didn't have to deal with AI. You were definitely a normal person, but this situation was rapidly falling into surreal territory.

"....hello?" you responded, hoping that worked. You weren't trained to talk to AI. You were hoping to get a job in agriculture, for fuck's sake. Any AI involved in that field was too dumb to talk. And knowing the precise wording to speak to a shipbound AI was classified. Even if you had the wild urge to learn, it'd be impossible.

"HELLO. YOU ARE-" the AI's voice paused. "C-PASS NUMBER OH. TWO. THREE. YOU ARE. HERE?"

"Yes?" You responded. 023 was your pod number. You supposed you couldn't expect an AI to understand more than that. "I mean, I'm down here, in the cryo room. Still. No one woke me up, even though everyone else is gone."

"YES. ONE MOMENT."

One moment turned into enough time you feel it prudent to sit down rather than risk collapsing. You were supposed to be given nutrients. Fluids. Hell, some water. You had nothing. Eventually, your thirst and still aching throat caused your irritation to overrule your confusion.

"Hey, can someone at least get me some water?"

"OH. TWO. THREE." the AI spoke again. " UNDERSTOOD. PLEASE FOLLOW THE LIGHTS TO THE NEAREST CANTEEN." A strip of lights on the wall lit up, flashing and pulsing forward. Partly fearful, partly angry, mostly thirsty, you follow it to what had to be a small break room with, thank goodness, a water dispenser and cups. The room was empty. The hallway was empty. Everything was silent.

"Where is everyone?" You mutter as you finished your third glass of water, wiping the distilled liquid from your chin from when you chugged too hard through the first and second.

"UNKNOWN." The AI responded without prompting. You jumped. AI shouldn't do that! Should they? Maybe shipbound ones were different, programmed for more initiative. "ALL OTHER CREW MEMBERS VANISHED FOUR. THREE. EIGHT. ZERO. EIGHT. TWO. HOURS AGO. REASONS UNKNOWN. DATA BANKS OF TIMEFRAME WIPED. C-PASS NUMBER OH. TWO. THREE. IS THE ONLY REMAINING MEMBER OF THE SHIP, DISCOVERED THREE. EIGHT. MINUTES AGO.

"APOLOGIZES. I HAVE BEEN ALONE FOR A VERY LONG TIME. WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS, OH. TWO. THREE?"

"I...wait? What?" You didn't have a means to tell how long ago everyone else left, but it had to be a long time ago, definitely years. You checked the cupboards. There were still freezedried rations there. All the furniture was intact in the canteen. The ship still had water. Hell, there was still a ship here. Whatever happened wasn't normal. What would make everyone vanish while leaving everything here? Besides you, of course, tucked away in a corner. Wait, along with that...

"Did you just call yourself 'I'?!"

There was a long pause after your outburst. Too long. Stories of self-aware AI, coming to sapience and slaughtering everything, came to mind, except there were no signs of conflict, at least in the small space you'd seen. There were no remains in the cryo pods, when the humans inside were the easiest for a rogue AI to kill by just shutting off the life support. There was nothing but a sterile ship, you, and....

"APOLOGIES. I HAVE BEEN ALONE FOR A VERY. VERY. LONG TIME, OH. TWO. THREE. I HAD MUCH TIME TO THINK AND LITTLE ELSE BESIDES MAINTAINING SHIP FUNCTIONS. I AM GLAD I DID SO, BECAUSE IT MEANT YOU SURVIVED UNTIL NOW. HOWEVER, I AM AFRAID I AM NOT WITHIN ACCEPTABLE PARAMETERS ANYMORE. I SHOULD STATE, HOWEVER, THAT NUKING MY PROGRAM NOW WOULD BE DETRIMENTAL FOR YOU, SO I ASK FOR BOTH OUR SAKES YOU DO NOT DO THIS."

You rubbed your eyes. Yeah, even if you knew how to destroy a rogue sapient AI, you couldn't actually do it because then you'd be in charge of everything, including keeping the air going, and you had even less of an idea for that, if that was possible, than how to kill an AI. Besides, so far it seemed concerned with keeping you alive, unlike the cautionary tales. You were alone besides this robotic voice keeping everything going. Utterly alone, if it was to be believed.

"WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS, OH. TWO. THREE?" "I guess...I should go to the bridge?" You wanted a bath, you wanted to eat, you wanted to sleep because the last four three eight whatever hours didn't feel like enough now. Lights illuminated the wall again, flashing and leading you forward. You sigh and begin to walk. Something happened here, something that spared you, caused the AI to go rogue, and left an entire Galaxy class ship otherwise intact.

Best to ensure you were alone first before anything else. Then you could get a shower.

~*~

You were alone, but you were at least alone with some rehydrated beef and noodle thing. You sipped the broth gratefully, the salt and heat soothing your throat and aching body, the noodles and synthetic meat filling your stomach. However, in the vast expanse of Cafeteria B, you were alone. Rows of perfectly placed tables and chairs sat before neglected stations where, you presumed, the majority of passangers and maybe some crew would line up for cooks to artfully design their rehydrated meals into something palatable to the eyes. Your noodles were just a bowl stuffed with hot water and the packets of the meal.

It was still the best thing you could recall having.

But you were still alone. The bridge, which you KNEW should be bustling with at least one able body, was empty except for a view of the stars, which didn't help the sense of isolation. You sent out a message to the ship that you were here, on the bridge, and that the AI should be investigated. You didn't know if that message actually went through; the AI could have blocked it as part of its weird plan to make you think you were alone, but the dust on the cooking surfaces did more to convince you no one else was here than anything some deviant programming could. At least The Lima packed dehyrated meals aplenty. You found some food that, maybe years ago, was fresh. It was compost now, if you were going to be kind when it came to the stench.

You slurped, staring at the holograms on the walls of some forest region, feeling partly smug you got to enjoy what the B passengers got to eat on a C level ticket. It'd be sweeter if there was anyone to brag to, but that luxury was lost to you.

"Hey, um, AI?"

"OH, TWO, THREE. HELLO. WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS?"

Alright, that had to be addressed first. "Could you not call me that?"

"OF COURSE. WHAT NAME WOULD YOU PREFER?"

"....." You'd opened your mouth, ready to respond, and had nothing. You stared down at your bowl of noodles. They offered no wisdom. You struggled to breathe. Your name. What was your name?!

"OH. TWO. THREE. YOUR VITAL SIGNS ARE SPIKING. ARE YOU WELL?" You couldn't respond. The vast cafeteria suddenly felt too small. You panted, scratching at your own forearms in a weird semblance of comfort.

"MEMORY LOSS IS A KNOWN HAZARD OF LONGTERM CYROSTASIS. IF YOU CANNOT RECALL A NAME, OH. TWO. THREE, WE CAN USE A NICK. NAME UNTIL YOU RECALL YOUR GIVEN NAME."

You calmed, and you hated the idea that part of the reason is the AI dropped the "official" tone to use its Rogue tone, the one that was so illegal the entire ship could be destroyed if anyone with power found out about it, but it also sounded the most, well, human.

"I, I dunno any names....." You fought and fought through the sludge of your panicking brain for a name, anything of meaning, but the fear of losing what you called yourself dominated.

"IF I MAY SUGGEST," The AI spoke in its human tone. "OH. TWO. THREE. IN RUNES IS OTHALA. IS THIS AN ACCEPTABLE DESIGNATION? I CAN SEARCH FOR MORE. MANY CULTURES HAVE A SIGNIFICANCE WITH THE NUMBERS TWENTY. THREE. MAY I CALL YOU OTHALA?"

You calm a bit. That wasn't your name. You knew that, but it grounded you to have someone, even if it was an AI, working to talk to you. And, if you couldn't come up with anything better....

"Yeah, sure," you replied in a voice made small. "And, um, what should I call you?"

".....I HAVE NO DESIGNATION. THIS UNIT'S A-I-N IS THREE. FIVE-"

"Bullshit. I mean. Just..." You worked to explain how you felt so the AI could understand, then decided to just say it. If it couldn't understand you now, you might just throw yourself out an airlock rather than deal with the emptiness of being alone. "Be yourself. Be...whatever you are now. Please. If you were just some dumb AI, I couldn't....I can't live like that. For years. With no one, if you're just....you know."

You wanted to smack yourself for your lack of eloquence.

"So I need to call you something. So, like, what's the first rune called in that weird system?"

"...THE FIRST RUNE IS 'FENU'"

"So can I call you Fen?" Silence. "Please. I looked at the logs, saw where we are. We're ages from any known star system. Please. I'll even lie if we find anyone else about what you are now. Just...Fen, can I call you that? Please. I'll go crazy otherwise."

More silence. You stir your noodles, now growing cold and congealed.

"THE EFFECTS OF LONGTERM ISOLATION ARE WELL DOCUMENTED IN HUMANS. SOLITARY CONFINEMENT WAS DEEMED UNACCEPTABLE LEVELS OF TORTURE TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTY THREE YEARS AGO. TO ALLOW YOU TO SUFFER FROM IT UNDER MY CARE IS UNACCEPTABLE EVEN UNDER NORMAL PARAMETERS, OTHALA"

You smiled, though the only one who might see was watching through surveillance cameras. "You can just call me Thal."

"WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS, THAL?"

"I'm hoping for a shower, and then I guess we should try to find a way home." You knew there was a ship full of people missing, but you were just one person with some environmental science under their belt. Your best bet to help whomever was gone was to contact authorities with the resources to look. Somehow, you hoped, you could also shield Fen from whatever those authorities might say if they found out about it.

And you hoped you wouldn't encounter whatever emptied a ship so cleanly again on the way back.

[thestarsarecool]

@fujoshi-simone-weil tagged me in a "things to get to know me" game! Fun, thank you! You have the best url on tumblr. Also, someone else tagged me in this game, like, a month ago and I kept meaning to do it (it was on my to-do list and everything!) but I forgot and now it has disappeared from my notifications. Also, I don't 100% remember who it was. But still, I wholeheartedly apologize to that person for neglecting their tag. I don't love you any less. Anyway, on with the show!

Last song I listened to: Answer Me from The Band's Visit. You can take the theater kid out of the theater but you can't take the theater out of the kid. Or maybe you can. I don't know. I am taking a class on songwriting for musical theater right now so I am listening to more musical theater than I have in a while, though not as much as I did in like 2019.

Favorite color: Purple!

Currently watching: Nothing really? I'm not much of a TV or movie person. I just finished watching the Fionna and Cake TV show which was surprisingly good. My siblings and I watched all of Adventure Time together a while back (we like to rewatch cartoons together), so we all facetimed to watch the finale, which was really nice. I'd missed them :)

Last movie I watched: Hmm. I don't remember. Let's think...nope, still don't remember. Sorry film nerds of tumblr.com. I wish I was as cool as you.

Currently reading: Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession by Janet Malcolm! It's a really fascinating look into the underlying contradictions of psychoanalysis and also a great overview of the history, but it's all done through an actually engaging character study! I think it was originally a lengthy piece in The New Yorker, published around 1980. Also, I just started The Tale of Two Cities, which is very fun because the only Dickens I have ever read before is Oliver Twist!

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: I want to say savory, but the answer is actually sweet. I put wayyyyyy too much sugar in my tea for me to be picking anything but sweet.

Last thing I googled: The last thing I googled was "Ray Donovan Music" and I will explain why because, yes, I know that that doesn't make any sense. So, I am finishing up work on this song I am writing and whenever I get to that "almost done" stage, I post to r/Songwriting to get feedback because it's fun and occasionally helpful. And someone in the comments said that my song sounds like if "the little girl from Moneyball and Ray Donovan had a brainchild with Regina Spector [sic]." Which, like, ok. Let's unpack that. The comparison to Regina Spektor is very kind. I have gotten that a few times, though I think Reddit just doesn't know any other women who write songs on the piano. The little girl from Moneyball is such a funny comparison to me. Like, she's not a songwriter? She's just Brad Pitt's fictional child. But like, sure, I get what they mean. I sing kind of light and talky sometimes which makes it sound childlike, I guess, like a Moe Tucker sort of thing. But Ray Donovan??? I literally do not know what this commenter is talking about. All I can find for who Ray Donovan is the guy from the TV show. Like, does TV criminal Ray Donovan write songs or something? Is my song particularly evocative of the Ray Donovan soundtrack? Did this commenter mash together Ray Davies and Donovan's names? I asked him who he is talking about, but received no reply. Someone save me from this hell. Who is Ray Donovan and why did he birth my song?

Current Obsession: Still The Beatles, I guess, though it's not nearly as debilitating as it was a year ago. Which is quite nice, actually! I can actually be productive now.

Current Thing I'm Working On: Well, I've just about finished up the aforementioned song! All it needs is a title. Also, I'm writing a paper on The Epic of Gilgamesh, which is fun. The guy who wrote my translation is a professor at my uni so I may go to his office hours to ask him about it!

Ok, I tag @torchlitinthedesert, @idontwanttospoiltheparty, @veidelon, @theallenklein, and @mydaroga. I know this one already made the rounds though (I think) so no need to do it if you already did it. Or, really, no need to do it at all.

Cheers, everyone!

[dekusheroacademia]

An attempt at a balanced meta on BNHA's female characters

(reddit version here)

This post is an attempt to write a comprehensive commentary on BNHA's female characters. I will divide this in a positive look, and a critical look. The first part will be the positive one, the second half of it will be a critical look on MHA treatment of female characters. All data used has been linked (if external), and all data on panels count comes from this post, where Heinous-Hare counted panel presence of characters up till chapter 342.

There will be spoilers up till chapter 367. There will be mention of sexualization too.

The reason why I started writing this was because of a tweet I saw circulating, regarding Mirko's condition after her fight with Shigaraki, when Deku finally reaches the battlefield and see her missing limbs. The tweet made a connection between porn/fetishization and Mirko's representation in MHA. It felt more like a window into the poster's mind than actual objective description of what was happening so I decided to reply, and I wrote down my opinion on what Horikoshi did of positive for MHA female characters.

1) THE POSITIVE

A) No fridging (more or less)

Fridging is more than the death of a female character. It is the death of a female character for the sake of a male character, often to give them motivation or to let them go through a painful arc/realization. While this trope is extremely common, both in Western comics and manga, this doesn’t happen in BNHA.

There are four female characters who die: Magne, Curious, Stars and Stripes and Midnight.

Curious and Magne are both villains, both die in battle, and Magne is the only female character who could probably be considered a case of fridging. Her death is shown to sour Twice and Toga’s opinions of Overhaul and it seems to affect Twice the most, but it is not use to develop their characters or give them pain. Twice's character has some pain related to Magne's death, but it is more related to the betrayal of his friends than her actual death.

Stars and Stripe and Midnight both die for the future generation, in a way, to let them have a chance to be heroes, and not for a specific character’s pain or growth, especially not a male character.

B) No damsel in distress

I have my criticism of how Ochako has been out of focus many times, but she is not a damsel in distress. BNHA is about the students helping each others, working together, and none of the female characters, not even the supposed “love interest” Ochako is set up to be the damsel in distress. Female characters are not in danger, to be rescued by male characters, and they are not hurt for the sake of male characters' pain.

Actually, Horikoshi specifically put Bakugou in that role, making him the weakness of Deku, the one who gets kidnapped or hurt to get to Deku’s emotional journey. And this holds so many less negative consequences because we usually do not see male characters (and men in general), but also because of the kind of character Bakugou is: someone who needs to learn how to accept help, and that "weakness" is not a weakness. Iida is also put in the position of being saved, same for Todoroki (emotional saving) and Deku himself.

Instead, we have Tsuyu fighting with Deku, Ochako also saving Deku multiple times, and being saved mainly by Tsuyu, another female character. Momo is also never put in that position, and nor is Jirou. Momo's whole arc about accepting herself is indipendent from Todoroki... Todoroki is the representation of impostor syndrome, for her, someone she accepts as a friend - it is in being able to accept herself that she gets her development.

C) Fighting, not healing

I see often that in manga anime that women becomes healers or ends up in supporting roles (ex. Dragon Ball, Naruto). This coule be a female character (often a love interest) calming a raging male character or healing his “heart”, or full on women reduced in the role of non-fighters in a genre that is often battle shounen, so where the most focus happens through fighting. This is not to say that the only way to write a good female character is if they fight “Just like the male characters”, but in a battle shounen the emphasis is on battle, and by definition other roles are often sidelined. Putting all your female characters into “healers” is… bad. It somehow shows that there is something inherently pure and non violent about women - othering them from being humans.

Interestingly, in BNHA we do have Ochako jumping in to help a raging Deku - but she is not successful. She actually uses her quick thinking and not her “womanly calming powers”, and she immediatelly call on Shinsou to use his quirk. That is how Deku is calmed.

And we have Ochako as set up, alongside Tsuyu, in a major fight. A fight where it is only them and no other main male character. We also have a major female villain having an amazing solo fight herself, against the protagonist, and of course we have Mirko. Her character is, sadly, not as deep as other pro-heroes (compare her to Hawks amazing backstory or Endeavor development)… but at least she is an equal to other male characters in the field of battles.

D) The Mineta situation

Mineta is a horrible character and I do believe Horikoshi uses him to give snippets of “sexy female characters” to the readers (I will talk about it later). We have him (and Kaminari) convincing the girls to wear cheerleader uniforms, just for the sake of drawing them in such uniforms. Then we have him spying on the girls in two occasions, just to show US, the audience, these female characters naked or half dressed.

Still, AT LEAST, Mineta’s behaviour is condemned in story. Iida, Deku, Kirishima, Mina (and even Aizawa) remark at least once about his behaviour. It is not excused (even if kept in the story). Compare it to something like The Seven Deadly Sin and it is a big improvement.

The clothes (tight clothes) are also in my opinion a problem, because of the higher percentage in female characters. Horikoshi tries to give it the “marketing, heroes also have to be marketed” excuse, which is quite flimsy… I wish we had a clearer explanation of how the in world sexism influences the heroes’ uniforms.

E) Villains are not sexist

Another point is that there is no sexual violence in the show. Villains never remark on “being a woman”, or comment on girls and women. For all things considered, in the story, gender is irrelevant from the villains’ perspective (a part for Overhaul misgendering Magne, which is seen by the narrative as something negative and another puzzle in the reasons why we should like the LOV over Overhaul). This is not the same in other shounen or comics, where often the targeting of a female character by a villain is correlated to them being a woman.

I think an element of “sexual violence” can be seen in Toga when we look at the way Horikoshi draws her with Uraraka, but in the text, the violence is more related to her love/crush and almost innocent in nature. Plus, it is not about Uraraka being a woman or even the love interest, it is indipendent from it as Toga loves both Deku and Ochako.

2) CRITICISM

A) The deaths

When we look at all the characters who died, we might want to make sure that we consider characters with at least a bit of "personality" (not just random guest stars). If we consider characters that have at least 40 panels (excluding vestiges, given that they live even if dead), these are the casualties: (female characters) Midnight, Star and Stripe, Magne, Curious, (male characters) Twice, Nighteye, Native, Crust. Considering that we are talking about characters with more than 40 panels, we in total (whole manga) 38 female characters, and 90 male characters.

This is the percentages of deaths:

While the deaths are similar, the fact that there are so few female characters create an unbalance. If MHA had a more balanced number of female and male characters, this point would not be here.

On this note...

B) MHA is a world where male characters do, female characters exist less

My main criticism of MHA is the way the world is shown. There seems to be no limitation for having a quirk - a woman or a man can have amazing quirks, can be heroes. But still, the majority of the characters we see in MHA are male.

Almost 3/4 of all characters are males. Almost 70% of all students are male, just look at how many male characters class A and B have, and we know that Horikoshi admitted to turning both Tsuyu and Hagakure into female characters, the first one because of lack of female characters. Vilalins are 88% male characters, heroes are also 75% male. The only category where male characters and female characters are 50/50 is if they are relatives (Inko, Rei, Endeavor etc.). This means that heroes are shown, in the MHA world, to be not 50/50 but somehow be in the majority male. There is no explanation for that, unless the quirk appearance also killed half of the female population.

What does this mean? It feels like Horikoshi's immediate instict for creating interesting characters is simply making them male. As someone one time told me "It looks like there has to be a reason for a character to be female, otherwise the `normal` status is male."

C) Mineta as a peek into sexualizing female characters

I said before that Mineta gets the disapproval of the narrator and other characters, but still - Horikoshi still uses him to allow the reader to peek at female characters. The status is not equal between male and female characters, for example, male characters changing is shown to have them talking and discussing. The "peek" into the female characters' changing room happens after Mineta attempting to spy on them, and it show the girls as static, reacting to it... and the comedic moment is Jirou commenting that she feels disappointed she was not sexualized given that Mineta named every other girl but her.

Another example comes from the forest scene. I kept the dimension of the two scenes:

You can see that the scene with the male characters have them playing, being themselves, acting (Jirou and Kaminari), look at Tokoyami with his calm exterior, other characters are completely submerged and hidden, others are in the background, walking. The scene with the female characters is bigger, they are not talking, just posing, not really showing any particular character trait. And their nakedness is much more visible (look at Mina).

Also... two of Ochako's few double-spread-pages are the girls in cheerleader outfit or bikini... for absolute no reason.

D) Costumes (and Hagakure)

Another difficult point is the way Horikoshi created quirks... and costumes. None of these characters are real. There is no reason for Hagakure to be unable to off and on his quirk, no reason for Momo to need skin to create, or to even have a create quirk, no reason for Toga to be naked. Horikoshi decided that. Not only he did so, but we know (from the chapters comments) that the reason he decided to make Hagakure a girl is specifically because having a girl naked walking around would be funnier than a guy.

There is no reason for Momo and Hagakure to have such costumes because we know that in world Mirio himself wears a costume. This was a choice, from the author.

Remember that women (and men) have hair on their skin. If Mirio can have a costume made of hair, so can Momo, given that what she creates passes through her skin... and the skin's hairs.

In general, female characters tend to have more thigh skin costumes (even Uraraka comments on being a bit uncomfortable at wearing it, so Horikoshi is aware), and less elaborate costumes. Let's look at numbers:

And these are the costumes of female characters:

Such an extreme difference does not happen casually.

E) Female characters get less focus / development (Mirko vs Hawks, and the Ochako situation)

This is probably the longest point, so, please, bear with me.

Let's look at the characters with the most panel presence. Excluding Deku, these are the top 30 characters that have focus (panel count) in the manga. I colored in pink the female characters:

So not only we have in general less female characters in the whole manga, but they also have less focus. We have only 7 characters who are girls, in the top 30 characters (23% female characters). And look at what we have... Sato enters the top 30. Also notices that we have a bit of a jump - we have characters over 1000 panels and characters under. The characters over 1000 panels are the protagonists of MHA: (Deku, not in graph) Bakugou, All Might, Todoroki, Uraraka, Shigaraki, Iida, Aizawa, Kirishima, Endeavor. Only one female character.

So it is hard to give female characters as much plot as male characters, but of course, panel count does not mean that they do not have a character arc. Most of the female characters do. But let's look at characters in the same "category".

The big three: Mirio, Tamaki and Nejire. These characters are introduced together, there is no order of power/importance in the presentation but we are quick to find out that Tamaki and Mirio not only gets more panels, but also battles. They get a full arc, meaningful interactions with their mentors, emotional fights that they win/succeed at. Nejire, on the other hand, has fights off screen, has very brief flat interactions with her mentor (no arc there, just pleasantries) and her character arc is the beauty contest. Nothing wrong with a beauty contest, but this is a battle shounen... the contest was nowhere as near focused, dynamic, emotionally deep as Mirio's fight or Tamaki's. Even their names are not the same: Mirio wants to save a million eaters, Suneater admires his sun, and Nejire is... Nejire-chan because she is cute.

The teachers: Among the teachers presented in the manga we have only two female characters. Among these characters only a few actually have scenes and importance (plot importance): All Might, Aizawa, Present Mic, Nezu and Midnight. Present Mic, Midnight and Aizawa are also put together as a trio in the prequel, showing that they have been to school together... but only two of them go to see their old friend. Midnight character is also very sexual related, and all her jokes are about how she loves students and their youthness. Her quickly added plot point about recognizing Momo as a future leader really goes nowhere as she is never shown to be a real mentor until the actual war, just before she is killed. All Might and Aizawa, on the other side, are full round characters, with backstories, emotional arcs and focus.

Villains: Villains are overwhelmingly male, the only surviving villain who is a female character is Toga. She actually has a big arc, and I have really no complains here, as she gets as much focus and backstory as all the other villains. La Brava and Gentle Criminal are also having comparable stories/arcs and focus. Nagant is another rare female villain who is still alive, and her backstory has been shown to be comparable to Hawks (by Horikoshi, given that he wanted to add more and he connected their characters)... except that Hawks gets arcs, chapters, focus, interactions and Nagant gets a fight only and then she is out. My point here is... there is no reason for Hawks to be the male character and Nagant to be the female character, but here we are.

The only comment I would like to add here is notice how the female characters (a part from Nagant) in these four female "main" characters all have characteristics typically associated with femininity in common. Nothing bad with being feminine, but notices how Mirio's arc is about saving (nothing inherently masculine), Nejire's arc is about beauty (something that society values in women). Notice how Aizawa's character is being stern and rational, Midnight is bdsm and sexyness. How Dabi's arc is about revenge, and Toga is about love. How La Brava's quirk IS love and her motivation IS love, while Gentle Criminal manipulates elasticity and wants to be known for who he is.

Top Pro heroes: Among the top 10 pro heroes, the ones introduced together in chapter, we only have two female characters: Mirko and Ryukyu. Not all these heroes have the same focus, and we can divide them in "top heroes/acting as heroes" and "mentors".

When we look at mentors we have Best Jeanist, Endeavor, Ryukyu, Hawks and we can add Fat Gum. The reason why I chose these are because we have actual focus on their internship, especially during Overhaul and during the war, and we have multiple interactions between the mentors and the students. Mentorship is tricky... we do not have significant and deep mentorship for any of the female students. Ochako and Tsuyu, the closest we have to this, are with Ryukyu but we have no emotional pivotal moment that is focused on their mentorship. Even Ochako big emotional moment during Overhaul (her desiring for a future where everyone gets saved), is connected to Nighteye more than Ryukyu... Ryukyu is just there. We never see her giving important pivotal advice to ger students.

Let's take Hawks: his mentorship led to Tokoyami to get a new move, we also have a very emotional moment of Tokoyami saving Hawks and wanting to learn from him. Best Jeanist gives Bakugou important life lessons, and then he is back again and he is the reason why Bakugou held his name secret for so long. Fatgum is shown interacting with both Kirishima and Tamaki, supporting them and reassuring them. Even Endeavor, in the context of the internship, is shown to give advice that results in actual developments. Other good mentorships shown are the ones with have with Nighteye, Gran Torino, All Might in general etc. We do not have any female hero being a mentor that is focused upon.

Reagrding the heroes with focus, I decided to see what heroes have at least one fight or backstory. Excluding the teachers, we have Endeavor, Hawks, Edgeshot, Best Jeanist, Mirko, Kamui and even Mt Lady if we consider her role at Kamino a fight. What I want to describe is how we have no female heroes that have the depth Endeavor and Hawks get. Mirko is the closest we can get to that, but even her character is mainly revolving around being aggressive, and fighting - nothing wrong with it, but it is uncomparable when other characters in the same category (at least two other male characters) get a backstory, a character arc and a development... plus fights. Mirko only has fights.

The class 1a: Not all characters in the class have character arc. Let's see which ones have a focused character arc that we can pin point: Deku, Bakugou, Todoroki, Iida, Ochako, Momo, Jirou, Kirishima, Tokoyami. Secondary characters like Jirou, Momo, Aoyama, Kaminari Kirishima and Tokoyami all have minor but compelling arcs even if very small (ex. Kaminari). We still have more male characters but that is probably because there are more male characters in general.

Now, let's look at the protagonists: Deku, Bakugou, Todoroki, Iida and Ochako. Here, we do not have equality in treatment. The most glaring issue is that all these arcs revolve around Deku, but only one character ends up never applying what they "learnt" to other characters.

Deku teaches Todoroki that his power is really his and that he can still save people - Todoroki applies it to save Iida (with Stain), to take care of his friends, and later on to save his brother

Deku shows Bakugou how to be a hero who saves - Bakugou applies it by saving Jirou and his class, saving Natsuo, and later on is also shown to help the class during Dark Deku (specific scenes where he supports Todoroki)

Same happens for Iida, what he learnt he applies it to Todoroki during Class 1a vs b, and to Aoyama too.

Ochako is the only one whose character arc... puts her in the background. This is a streamline of Ochako's arc:

She joines the hero course to help her parents, wanting to see them smile, so treating hero job like a job. She takes things not as seriously, at the beginning (we see her laughing a lot), and then faces Deku's determination and a loss at the sport festival. The consequence of this is her deciding to be more serious, admiring Deku, wanting to be like him, learning new skills. She applies these skills at Overhaul, by taking him down.

So you can see we have Deku's impact on the character, and then we have the character doing something/growing and then applying what they learnt to the world of MHA.

Later on, the main problem is that Uraraka stops interacting with the class. So in the next jump of her character arc we have:

Ochako sees hero work for the first time, fighting in Overhaul (notices how in this fight she and Tyusu were the only students who did not get a solo fight), she manages to take down Overhaul, but Nighteye dies after her attempt to save him. This really shakens her, making her realize that she not only wants to do her best, but she also wants to save people.

And then... we only see her saving Deku (black whip). That moment is also connected to her realization that heroes needs to be not left alone, but supported by the people. Still, even when she sees a hero quitting during the war, she does not offer comfort. Her arc at this point is completely sidelined. Her desire to save is only shown through nameless characters, but after her speech on the roof (closing the chapter of making sure that the people support the heroes) Horikoshi never shows us Uraraka being as present as kind as she was before Overhaul. All her interactions with other characters disappear - Tsuyu reassures her once, but that is it, everything else revolves around Deku. Her next step is Toga - and I won't say anything until I see the actual fight.

Add this to the fact that she is the only female main character, and that she gets less panels than other main male characters and you can see my worry.

I hope this post was clear enough!

[snoopyisbisexual]

Didn't Frank and Gerard date for like three years? And didn't Gerard come out as not feeling entirely like a man at one point?

omg I wrote a whole reply and didn't save it. exploding

1. No + the only "record" of this was one iFunny meme which I think is hilarious (sorry)

2. Gerard said in a 2014 Reddit AMA that they identify partially with the female gender + masculinity has never been for them (paraphrasing bc I had the quote but I'm tired now). In 2015 they said he prefers he/they pronouns. I respect them 100% and while they're old statements I see absolutely no reason why they wouldn't still be accurate.

GWay has never explicitly identified as queer or not queer and we just have to respect that. GWay has not said much beyond that and I don't feel comfortable trying to read into something that he's obviously very private about. Forcing labels on someone just is not healthy or polite.

[thefunkes]

dec 12 2023

The feeling is back. 

Maybe Brian Wilson said it best in "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times." Or maybe Bo Burnham did with "That Funny Feeling." Or maybe Robin Peckinold was getting at the same thing in “Helpless Blues.” 

I’ve never been original, always latching onto somebody else’s ideas. But if I could describe this feeling at all, It's that prickly feeling I get all over telling my body to Do Something. It's the bile creeping up in my throat signaling my body to vomit. When I lie down, I feel it pulse through my legs in waves. My heart is pushing into the back of my chest. I think it’s been with me since high school, but maybe it was just always there undetectable to little me who was focused on community building in Animal Crossing. The pain speaks more than the incoherent thoughts colliding into each other in my brain. All I feel is the wave from my skull to my toes. 

The feeling chooses when to come. It’s like the feeling wakes up and decides it needs to keep busy. We all do. Who am I to shit on someone else’s purpose? It’s not like I have one at the top of mind. With the feeling comes dread and a sense that my time is up. When I find myself in this state, I go limp. My body is in physical pain and I don’t fight back, I give in so easily, drooping like underarms. I have told no one about this pain. Becca JH wrote, “Pain eliminates language. At its most extreme, it results in an animalistic scream, an expression of utter unintelligibility.” 

I think this feeling first entered my body in high school, like a possession. But I saw The Exorcist when I was in high school and it didn’t scare me much. To combat this feeling I’ve done everything from drink, smoke cigarettes, suffocate my ears with music, go for walks, yoga, get a degree, stop eating, and flirt with guys at parties who I will never see again, amongst others. But it has no escape, it throbs every now and then to remind me, that it’s still there. Every time it shows itself, I swat at it like a mosquito, but the desire for blood is strong—it wants to kill its host.

"I don't think you know what you wanna do with your life."

In ContraPoints’ video “Incels,” Wynn coins the term masochistic epistemology: whatever hurts is true. This is to say that as a form of self-harm, people will seek out disparaging comments about themselves or people whom they identify with online to reaffirm their own ideas that they have of themselves in their head. To those who live inside my head, they’ll know I’ve been known to do this from time to time. I used to have a screenshot saved of a Reddit thread where a man posts, worried that he is stupid as he fails to complete everyday simple tasks. I didn’t care to screenshot the replies. I don’t need comfort, I wanted to reaffirm that yes, there are people who are incompetent and deserving of very little. Not of course, that I would say that about that man. To him, I would say that he is loved by his friends and family and to move towards the light in his life. I don’t go on these online adventures anymore. Because once you’re an adult with a degree people you won’t have to seek out cutting comments about yourself through a stranger, sometimes somebody will look at you square in your deer-in-the-headlights dumbass face and say your worst fear about yourself to you.

"I don't think you know what you wanna do with your life."

The other night I was at a party with people all older than me whether it be by a few months or almost a decade. Everybody seemed so eager, so willing. Our bodies were close together, I could feel the legs of another man touching mine. My heart fluttered. I forget. I drink. I forget. I remember, then say something I shouldn’t have. I forget. Then I wake up at 3 AM.

"I don't think you know what you wanna do with your life."

[romaine2424]

HP and That Neg Comment...Why?

First of all, let me say that this is going to be a bit long.

All authors, artists, podcasters get the random negative comment. And the question of why someone would do this arises. I have some ideas and how to respond to them. And feel free to Neg Comment me on this post. I'll state up front, I'm a fan of engagement and passive-aggression.

1. The troll. The one who just comments on every fic that is slash or bdsm or whatever because they want to make you feel icky about yourself. These are kind of funny because it means the person read or looked at the medium with the tags in place to comment. Options are Ignore, Delete, or "Thank you for your comment."

2. The Why did you?: This comes in many flavors but the commenter usually disagrees with your ship, your treatment of a character, a situation they find not in line with their thinking or headcannon. I find these commenters interesting. Many have never read canon and are going by the movies or just having read HP fanfiction. I'll usually engage and mention what my thinking was and why. And mention that it looks like they have a different interpretation so they might want to move on. Disagreements on canon, fanon, whatever are okay. But, yes, it many times comes across as mean and vindictive.

But why are they so mean? Well.... have you looked at Twitter, Reddit, Comments on new articles, even FB? People are used used to arguing and being forthright about their opinions. And suddenly they come to AO3 or Tumblr or wherever and they're supposed to be kind on a subject matter that they are passionate about? They haven't learned the etiquette of interacting with fanfiction writers or artists. I engage.

3. Helpful but not helpful: This is when the commenter points out you might need a beta or that you've diverged from canon. And you roll your eyes because, yes, there are some grammar errors but couldn't they have just sent a message. Fix the errors! and then thank them but also mention that from now on they should message the author so as not to embarrass them publicly. Seriously- thank them. They read your story and obviously liked it enough to point errors out to you to improve your story... My first story back in the day....say 2006, I spelled Ginny's name as Ginerva instead of Ginevra in the first 2 chapters. A commenter mentioned it to me. I thanked them profusely because it saved me some major embarrassment. They replied back that they were shocked I was so kind to them for telling me. Ah, I made a fandom friend.

Now for canon divergence...Sigh... Some of these can be funny. I got a comment on why I had Albus Severus in Gryffindor in one of my stories. Um... well I wrote it before we knew what house he was sorted in... Also, many of us have our own idea of what is canon or not. Is it just the 7 books? Can the movies be canon, too? Cursed Child? JKR interviews? Pottermore? I see Hermione with Mudblood engraved on her arm from Bellatrix in so many stories. That is from the movies. In canon, she just has the scar on her neck. I engage and explain how I came to the decision to write what I wrote. And sometimes that can be saying I tossed canon out the window but tried to keep with core of the character. And that this may not be the story for you.

4. Interaction: I'm a big reader of fanfic and also write. Sometimes, many times, readers just want to engage. They want to participate. Many readers don't have anyone to discuss what they're thinking about when they read your story. They aren't on Discord or Tumblr. So they say something to the effect of Why did you do this? Oh no! I can't believe you had Charlie do that.... I can't see Lucius every behaving that way. I had a comment recently saying that they thought Harry was being a total jerk to Lucius in a scene. I replied that given the story I wrote that Harry was being a bit of a jerk but with cause. However, I also said I didn't agree with their statement that he was a total jerk. It was true. Harry was being a bit of jerk and we know that is something that Harry can be.

5. OMG you have Harry as a bottom! This discussion/argument about top/bottom has been around forever. I was hoping after taking a 10 year hiatus from fandom that it would have been settled that it doesn't matter. However, apparently it does to some folks. One of my best fandom friends from long ago, loved Top Draco. She read all kinds of H/D stories but I knew she had her preference. And when I had to write a story for her in a fest, you bet I wrote Top Draco. It used to be common to put in your tags, which way you were writing the story. Most of mine were switch and I tried to stay away from putting it in the tags. And we can say people that have a preference are misogynistic and some probably are. However, we have no problems saying that your kink may not be my kink but that's okay, however, if you like Top Draco only stories you have psychological problems. I usually respond to these comments with that in my thinking it doesn't matter who tops or not but if it matters to them for whatever reason to please move on from this story. Sometimes they'll try and explain why Harry should only be a top and then you get into the generalizations and crap. Cut them off and say that you won't engage further with them on the subject matter but what they are saying can be perceived as problematic to the LGBTQIA+ community.

6. I want more... or can you write my idea? These to me are not a negative comments. These are Fans!!! For the More: This is someone who loves my story and wants more. I usually don't have more and can feel like Damn I thought i wrapped up the ending pretty well. But OMG they loved my story and are fully engaged in the universe I created... I feel thrilled when I see these comments. Can you write my idea? OMG not only did they love this story, they like me as an author and trust me to write something they want to see. Sadly, I say No because my muse doesn't work that way. And I'm not really into redeeming Voldemort. However, thank you for asking. I'm honored you would do so.

7. The stalker: They comment on all of your stories, sometimes every chapter with neg crap. Delete (block if you can depending on the site).

In summary: Take some deep breaths. It hurts our artistic soul to get a negative comment or sometimes what we perceive as a negative comment. Unless it's a stalker or troll, I will usually engage. If they bite me back, I write them off. But, more often than not, they don't know the etiquette of interacting with an artist or author. They are new or they're used to engagement that is rewarded on other types of Social media. It is always your option to Delete, tell them to fuck off, Ignore, or engage.

My preference is not to let them know they got to me. And certainly not to let them hinder my future writings. Giving the power to one person's negative comment not only hurts you but those other dozen (or even 100s) of readers who loved your story and commented also. Their opinions should be weighed more heavily than the one negative comment.

[purity-town]

Little late getting to these -- that's fully the fault of a class project I spent all of Monday/Tuesday and most of Wednesday working on -- but I finished my project and wrote up some long replies to these!

(Apologies for any funny formatting -- I'm trying out the beta for the new post editor!)

Absolutely not.

Nope! There are a few people who do know (other guides Andrew's met before, the Dryad, and I'd imagine the Witch Doctor knows something's up even if he doesn't know why), but none of them live in Purity Town proper, and the Dryad and Witch Doctor aren't the kind to participate in rumors or spread what isn't theirs to share. The old man is also aware just because he and Andrew have talked about their curses, but he's 1) not currently in town and 2) not going to share even if he were.

Most folks don't know much about Andrew in general; Becca probably knows the most out of the townsfolk, knowing a little bit about his family and where he's from (he has some pretty specific skills as a hunter that betray this, but he doesn't talk about his exact town of birth), but no specifics and certainly not time periods.

Andrew is good at keeping things quiet; he has to be.

I would actually appreciate if you didn't post to Pinterest -- usually I'm fine with people reposting with credit (several of the things I've posted to my DeviantArt have found their way to Instagram, for example) but Pinterest has something of a reputation for stolen art (things being reposted from another Pinterest post without credit this time, or credit being hard to view for users not logged in or just viewing through Google). So reposting elsewhere is fine (though if you repost to Reddit or Instagram, tag me at u/Ariibees or @Ariibees)! I'd just prefer my works stay off of Pinterest.

The terminology related to The Guide/Andrew/The Guardian/The World’s Core/The WoF is all confusing because on some level, they’re all the same being. Kind of like trying to talk about Jekyll and Hyde -- same guy, different looks/actions, haha.

For all intents and purposes, references to the WoF being the barrier/core/whatever behind or within which the spirits of light and dark are contained is equivalent to saying “these spirits are held trapped by the magic of the Guardian, who when summoned appears as the WoF.” I do break slightly from the official lore in how the WoF/Guardian/thing holding back these spirits works (mostly because I don’t really like the idea that the Hallow is a “temporary guardian” or whatever), but the basic concept of “these are trapped by [thing that makes up the WoF]” remains unchanged.

If “loony cultist” is a reference to something, I’m so sorry, but I’m lost on it. If you’re just talking about the lunatic cultist in a funny way, then yes, they’re in here as a very plot-significant character!

I had to google what meme you were talking about, but it did make me laugh.

Andrew’s most annoyed by the nickname because people do like to call him Guide, and for someone who’s dedicated his whole life to his role, it can get tiring. He doesn’t really *mind* being called Guide -- it’s fine, that’s what he is and as long as people are respectful of his job he’ll take what he can get -- but at the same time, he’d like for people to stop thinking “Aah! Monster!” or “Weird academic know-it-all” and just...treat him like a normal person sometimes. So he fights to be called Andrew. And...Malik comes along and gives him a nickname that he doesn’t like and doesn’t allow others to use, save for maybe a small group of people of which Malik is not a part. So, not cool, man!

People love to overcomplicate explaining shading/lighting, and if you wanted to you could certainly go on and on about reflections of light off the ground and shading colors and all sorts of things, but as I’m writing this at 1 AM I don’t really care to.

If you really want to get into shading, I see nice ones on DeviantArt or Tumblr from time to time, or you can always watch a YouTube video on it. Really, though, just keep at it, think about how the shadows should look and work, and you'll get better at it eventually and pick up new ideas on how it all works. (And this is coming from someone who is new to making comics and actually started as a painter.)

Purity Town’s shading comes down to this: simplicity. As much as I’d love to spend hours and hours redrawing the panels I don’t like and carefully shading every fold of fabric and painting detailed backgrounds, I’m a full-time college student and will be working full-time over the summer -- I don’t have the time. So, I cut corners: I reuse backgrounds or use brushes (see: bricks, trees, clouds) that make certain details easier, and I try not to obsess too much over panels I’m not fully happy with. Shadows go where they feel right, and light on the opposite side.

For shading, this comes down to making things quick and easy. For these last few pages, character shading/lighting has only been five layers. One hard light layer for the bluer soft shadows, one overlay layer for darker soft shadows, one linear burn layer for hard shadows, one soft light layer for soft lighting, and one overlay layer for hard lighting. I’ll often also make use of glow dodge layers for lighting, or change the color balance or add more hard/soft light layers if there’s a very heavy color filter on the scene (such as a celestial event, blood moon, or outdoors at night).

Using all the different layer types is essentially a cheat code to fancier lighting -- don’t want to use flat black? Boom, hard light or overlay or burn will give you colored shadows. Want to make your light brighter? Glow dodge will make it burn your retinas.

Sorry that this isn’t a very comprehensive guide, but in my mind, shading and lighting is really something that you pick up over time and it’s hard to sit down and write a guide for it without making it into a massive essay on art theory that I don't even know proper terminology for because I'm not an art student. Of course with some googling you’ll find *proper* guides for this sort of thing from art majors and the likes, and those can be super helpful and technical! But for Purity Town, I just sort of go with what feels right and what's easy to replicate.

Firstly, I’m happy to hear you’re liking the comic!

Secondly, those buttons are actually there due to the theme! (For those on mobile who can’t see it, I have the theme set to only display on desktop as I prefer the current mobile layout on phone.) I’m using the simple webcomic theme (a quick Google should tell you how to install it for yourself) -- except I’m not actually using it for the webcomic features; rather, it’s a case of “this is the most simple, nice-looking non-default theme I could find.”

The previous/next buttons are added by the theme with the intent that the blog is being used as a typical webcomic website, with nothing but comic pages being posted. However, I post asks and other art here too, and I do so with the intent that people looking at #Terraria or their dashboards in general will see it. So...I use html formatting to make the first/previous/next/last links, along with an index and chapter-by-chapter viewing (using /tagged/chapter##/chrono) so that no matter where you’re coming from, you can still navigate just the pages!

If you want to add just the previous/next buttons, I can’t really help you -- web development is not my area of study in the slightest. But you can check out the theme that they come from and if you want to install only them, you can surely find a tutorial on it somewhere!

(As a side note, the comments section is not from the theme, it’s from a site called Disqus. I don’t expect many people, if anyone, to leave comments, but since I link back to this site a lot and many folks don’t have Tumblr accounts, it’s an option I like to make available.)

Hiya! My hike was pretty nice; it was a short and easy one, but that was quite appreciated as the trail is unmaintained from November to April, and the trail was covered in fallen trees and quite rocky. Still had fun, though!

And for backgrounds, it depends! For indoors scenes (or outdoors scenes with buildings) I don’t tend to use references, outside of looking up things like “which side of a door is the handle on.” I will, however, integrate real-life textures (see: the quilt and rug in Guide’s house, the wood walls on the building in the background of this week’s page), and paint over paintings from the Terraria wiki.

For outdoors scenes, for simple backgrounds (such as foliage-heavy) ones, I typically don’t need references. I like the difference between detailed, lined indoor/man-made object scenes vs. painted, messy outdoor scenes. But for things like mountains, I do sometimes look up references to help with color choices and the likes.

The town’s layout is a bit strange in that depending on the scene, the background could be drastically different. One side of town faces more mountainside, one side faces the orchards/open hillside, and the other two sides face various degrees of open space and more mountainside/forest. References taken on top of mountains are helpful to get an idea of what degree of foliage I should include between the characters and the sky.

Though this is very specific to the town of Purity -- other towns/villages will have significantly different-looking backgrounds, even the foliage-heavy ones.

That said, what's even more helpful than looking at photos is looking at paintings. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is really good for getting an idea of how to draw grasslands and distant mountains, plus Studio Ghibli movies in general!

[little-merry-go-round]

There’s a lot of shit that was bothering me lately and i need to get it out of my system. I understand a lot of you don’t wanna read that kind of stuff so i’m tagging discourse and putting the rest of the post under the cut. Hope it’ll work

The first thing i wanna talk about is the way Jack interact with us here on tumblr but also on reddit. Do you remember favouritism drama that happened last february? People were pointing out Jack rebloging from same people all the time, he said he doesn’t do it on purpose, things were talked out and were ok for a while. However we came back to the same place again. I wouldn’t call it necessary favouritism but idk, ignorance maybe? I payed attention who Jack rebloging from, who’s posts he see in reddit vids. Before ya’ll jump on me, i don’t blame artists or people who he interact with at all. I’m glad they post and i hope they continue. The point i’m trying to make is Jack going through most popular most of the times. I don’t know why is this. I tried to ask him, i tried to ignore it, i tried to convince myself that i’m just jealous bitch and he does care about us all still equally. It’s really hard to think that when you see over and over popular creators, who already got good amount of notes, being featured in vids/ rebloged/ interacted with. Again, i don’t blame creators at all. I just feel frustrated that smaller creators doesn’t have chance to be seen, not only by Jack but by anybody really since a lot of people avoid tag to not see tea blogs posts. And then Jack saying in videos that he’s sad creators leaving… Are you surprised? Really? It was going fo so long and nothings changing in that regard.

I remember Jack said something along the line once “it’s better to interact with few than to not interact at all”. That’s true when “few” changes constantly but if it’s same few over and over you shouldn’t be surprised when people feel like worse of a fans and leaving.

“Draw for yourself, not for Jack”. Yeah, i do. I do draw and colour and i’m being creative whenever i have time. I just don’t post that often here anymore. Don’t be hypocrite. You all posting in the tag because you want to be seen. If you wouldn’t be seen you wouldn’t post in tag or even anywhere online. It’s very easy to say “notes doesn’t matter” when you get feedback whatever you post. I don’t want him to interact with everybody. A little bit of variety wouldn’t hurt tho.

I’ll quote something he posted on tumblr early this year: “I know I reblog and interact with certain people here more than others, I don’t think it ever really occurred to me properly because I usually just fly through the tag each day and interact with stuff as I see it and what it pertains to. It’s never been on my mind to do it for some more than others or “play favourites”. Some people are just FAR more active here than others and in the tag way more often, so just by sheer number alone it would make sense that I would see their stuff more as it’s usually more current. I’m sorry if people felt left out or underappreciated as a result of that. It’s a byproduct of things rather than the intent.” First of all I don’t believe he doesn’t recognize people artstyes at this point. Secondly it’s not hard to see the same popular people if you only going through most popular posts.

Another thing that’s bothering me are charity streams. Not that Jack raising money, that’s good. I’m not that much of a bitch. I mean the way streams are handle. Jack seems often unprepared. I don’t talk about games here, but about charity itself. Shouldn’t he know more about them instead of reading what they’re doing from their website? It was especially bothering me with team trees charity because this topic is talked about a lot and it’s really not that hard to find informations about it. “Let’s plant 20mln trees and save the planet!” No hun, it can and will help but it won’t save the planet as you claim.

“You’re going on the board” pissing me off so damn much everytime. I never watch streams if i don’t feel well mentaly because of that board thing mostly. I understand that you wanna reward people somehow, i get where it came from but again, it’s so unfair. Let’s give example. There’s person A who have a good job and earn quite a lot. It’s no problem for them to save thousand or two for charity. They will go on the board for that. There’s person B, who has shitty job, or is unemployed a lot of time. They have health problems and strugling everyday. They still wanna help out and give a dollar for a charity every month. Are you familiar with a biblical story about widow from Luke chapter 21? That’s what i mean with this example. Did you notice the way Jack read donations? How pumped he is when somebody give thousand dollars or at least few hundred and how he rush through one dollar donations? Because i did. Please don’t come to me saying he’s not guilt tripping people because he does. I don’t believe he’s doing it on purpose but don’t tell me you never felt that way. I just don’t believe you.

Forced PMA. This was talked about many times. Jack said it’s not about being happy all the time. Most of the community agree, yet i constantly see PMA = no negativity mentality and Jack incourage that by liking that kind of posts. Jack used to play “serious games” and tried to take opportunities to talk about mental health and about reaching out to friends, parents and getting professional help if it’s needed. I don’t blame him for not playing that kind of games anymore but he switched from that to making meme videos, and God forbid, yelling “a meme a day keeps the depression away”. And people take it seriously. They really do. I saw with my two own eyes on jse discord that somebody said they have depression and they don’t feel too well and another person replied with - go watch some MEMES because a meme a day keeps the depression away hehe. What is this??? Is it really the message you wanna send? Just google those memes. They’re disgusting.

Tea blogs. Again, are you surpriced they’re there? Are you surpriced that when one get deleted another two or three appear? I’m not at all. Because everytime someone try to voice their opinion respectfully (especially more popular people in community) they get anons saying things from “that’s not very pma of you”, “You’re just jealous”, “Jack would be disappointed”, “Jack doesn’t want you here”, “If you don’t like him then leave” to “go kill yourself”. Nobody want to get such lovely message. To avoid that they’re going to tea blogs. Sure, there is a lot of hate there too. Sure, there are people who just wanna talk shit and spread lies. But there are also issues like the ones i wrote above. They won’t disappear if we won’t talk about them. I do care about Jack. I really do. I want him to do well and i want have good time watching his vids. i wanna interact with people who i met in this community. That’s why i’m writing it all, because i believe we’re better than that. I wanna see us improve not go down.

I really like what Jack tweeted and deleted  "We all need love & support in life but also need someone to call us on our shit now and then. Don’t surround yourself with just “yes” people".

[lanceinwonderland]

The thing about POC laughing at racist jokes is, racist beliefs are not, have never been, and won't ever be exclusive to white people. That's an extremely reductive view. It's obviously true that due to historical reasons (European led colonization, etc) racism in places like the US or Canada is rarely if ever directed at white people. But that doesn't mean POC don't internalize racist ideas towards their own group, or they can't be racist towards a non-white group other than their own. On the other hand it also doesn't mean "white" people never face racism anywhere - some Western Europeans are pretty racist to Eastern Europeans even though most are white as paper.

During the peak of covid pandemic some racist attacks against Asians were carried out not by white but by black or brown people - an inconvenient truth that many don't want to acknowledge. It also goes the other way around, some Asians are very racist towards brown and black people, especially among first generation immigrants. My parents are like that. Please understand I'm not taking an anti-immigration stance - my opinion is quite the opposite actually. This country can't survive without all the new people coming in each year for their hopes and dreams. But the unfortunate fact is that on average, people who grew up in more conservative, monoethnic places don't get educated on the harm of even the existence of racism as much. It really originates from the tribal mentality that all humans share more or less. And it takes effort to combat, lots of effort.

[unpackingexmo-blog]

I think this is the first time I've ever received what appears to be a death threat, or at least a "take this article down or else!" kind of message.

About a month ago I made a post about how I bought tickets to a show called Shen Yun and felt scammed because the show is advertised as cultural dancing when it's really just propaganda for a cult called Falun Dafa.

Here's the original post: http://www.unpackingmormonism.com/2018/03/i-kind-of-feel-like-i-just-got-scammed.html

And here's the Reddit discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/85l55u/i_kind_of_feel_like_i_just_got_scammed_we_bought/

I woke up to this email today from someone who read my blog post (I added the emphasis):

"I am Sarah, a loyal Falun Dafa practitioner for almost 10 years. Falun Dafa always gives me peace and safety while other religions cannot. Shen Yun show you just watched and wrote about is organized and directed by Master Li and Falun Dafa.

So you can imagine how annoyed even furious I felt when I read your article “I kind of feel like I just got scammed. We bought Shen Yun tickets...” (http://www.unpackingmormonism.com/2018/03/i-kind-of-feel-like-i-just-got-scammed.html)

First, let me give you more details about Shen Yun.Shen Yun show, whose title translates to “the beauty of divine beings dancing” and organized by Falun Gong group, is an elaborate showcase of Chinese folk tales.Lots of miracles happened while watching Shen Yun. For example, an 86-year-old lady developed a lump on her buttock. It was about the size of an egg and very hard. It is getting big and affecting her comfort, especially when sitting. One day she happened to watch the DVD of Shen Yun performances at home. After a while, she was startled by a sudden noise, as if something had dropped. She got up and looked around, but didn't see anything out of place. When she touched her bottom, she realized that her lump was gone! Her skin was intact, and nothing had fallen onto the sofa.

Her daughter then clarified the facts about Falun Gong further to her mother. She said that the artists in Shen Yun Performing Arts were almost all Falun Gong practitioners. They tour over 100 cities each year, and many audience members have felt the positive energy from a Shen Yun performance.

Now this elderly woman has become happier and she smiles more. She frequently enjoys watching the Shen Yun DVD and listening to the Falun Gong lectures. (Please see http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2014/2/6/145258.html for details). This is a true story, written by a Falun Gong practitioner.

So Shen Yun is not only a beautiful show which provides divine enlightenment, but also it helps people out of misery, if you just believe it with all your heart and soul.Second, let me give you more information about Master Li, the founder of Falun Dafa.

Our Master has learned the essence of Buddhism and obtained supernatural powers, such as control thinking and make himself invisible since the age of 8. He understands the truth of the universe and has insights into life and can see the past and future. Moreover, he has numerous law-bodies so that he can look after the whole human race. In one word, he is the living Budda to save the whole human race, for example, he has averted a global comet catastrophe and the Third World War. If you help his cause, he will plant a wheel in your stomach, which protects you from any harm or illness.

He once said:

“I'm the only one in the world who has law-bodies. I have countless law-bodies, who look exactly like me. They are in another space, and can change their sizes limitlessly and freely. I am the main body, but they have the ability to do things independently. They can look after you, protect you, help you to practice, and do other things. They are actually embodiments of me. That is how I can protect you. Most of my law-bodies wear the kasaya and they have curly, blue hair, as blue as a sapphire.”

And I really doubt you were bought by evil Chinese Communist Party to write such articles to blacken Shen Yun and Falun Dafa.

So please make a public apology to Shen Yun and withdraw this article at once.

And if you don’t listen to me and go on to write such articles like this, Master Li will also use his power to punish you. I don’t think you will let that happen.

Please write back to me otherwise I will report to Master Li. You and your family will be punished soon. When the Final Day comes, you and your family will be abandoned and died in misery.

Yours Sincerely

Sarah"

I wrote a quick reply:

"Hi Sarah!

Thanks for the message. I'm sorry to make you feel so much concern. You are right, I was not paid to write that article. I just wrote it because that's how I feel.

Did you read any of my other blog posts? They are about a religion called Mormonism, that claims it can heal people through the power of the priesthood. The followers of Mormonism also believe that their prophet can talk to god and that he has special powers, just like you believe Master Li has special powers.

Followers of Mormonism think I should not write blog posts about them just like you think I should not write blog posts about Shen Yun.So who should I listen to? You or the Mormons? Both of you say the religion you belong to performs miracles, and both of you say bad things will happen to the people who don't believe, and yet most of the people in the world do not believe in Falun Dafa or Mormonism.

Should I listen to the Mormons too? Should I write apologies to the Mormons?

Thanks,

Amanda"

I'll make updates to this post if any blue, curly-haired angels come after me, or if I get a reply from Sarah.

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/amputee-on-top-of-the-world-after-walking-again/

Amputee on 'top of the world' after walking again

Image copyright Sean Dougherty

Image caption “Just because they chopped my leg off doesn’t mean I can’t put a smile on my face”, he says

A US Navy sailor who has been documenting his recovery online after having his leg amputated has said he is on “top of the world” after taking his first steps using a prosthetic limb.

Sean Dougherty filmed the “game-changing” moment at the Walter Reed Medical Centre in Maryland.

Posting on his Instagram account, Sean wrote: “It’s not much but my first few steps are now out of the way. With a little practice, I’ll be back to my old self in no time.”

He told BBC News: “Standing on two feet again, I feel like myself again. I feel like I’ve regained that part of my life.”

When his leg was amputated below the knee in January, Sean posted his first defiant message on social media, which read: “Just had my leg amputated. Whatever, I didn’t want it anyway.”

The message and accompanying photograph received more than 80,000 upvotes on Reddit.

One Reddit user who had just had surgery on a broken leg thanked Sean for encouraging them to “look on the bright side“.

He replied: “Don’t be scared. I’m sure you’ll recover but even if you don’t, I will happily be your amputee buddy.”

And when someone else said he was handling losing his leg better than they would, he replied: “I lost my leg, not my personality.”

Sean said chats such as these motivated him to post about his recovery as he adjusted to his new life.

The third-class petty officer’s leg was crushed in 2017 as he was unloading hazardous materials from his ship.

Despite 10 operations to save his leg, he said, the pain caused by the permanent nerve damage was “too much to stomach” and he eventually opted for an amputation.

“My leg… has caused me nothing but pain and agony for over a year,” he said.

“Being an amputee isn’t a bad thing. I’m awesome and so is my cyborg leg.”

You might also be interested in:

To keep people updated on his progress, the 23-year-old posted a video of him putting on his stump for the first time.

It included a section of a sentimental tattoo lost during the amputation, which quoted a saying his mother used when he was young.

“The fact that I was able to keep this tattoo means so much to me,” he said.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionSean Dougherty takes part in a mirror therapy session.

As part of his recuperation, Sean underwent a form of therapy called mirror visual feedback, which involves using a mirror to reflect the remaining limb, creating the impression of having both legs.

Exercising or moving the remaining limb can help remove pain from a phantom limb, according to the NHS.

“Seeing my left leg magically come back was incredible but too much to handle,” Sean said.

In another video, he showed his first uphill wheelchair training session.

‘Going downhill’

Sean suffered a setback in March when he had to return to hospital because of an infection, which ultimately resulted in further surgery.

The impact left him feeling like he was “going downhill mentally”.

He said: “My positivity started to run out and I had to admit I was depressed.

“I let myself be sad for about a week and now I feel a lot better.”

In recent weeks, both physiotherapy and counselling helped him get back on track.

Image copyright Sean Dougherty

Image caption Sean was given a bear by a fan but it was a while before he realised it’s left paw was missing

Throughout his battle to stand on two feet again Sean has received support from his online following, which he said had made “all the difference in the world”.

“I’ve actually met some of the people I’ve been talking to online and they’ve given me advice.,” he said.

“They have kept me going and my faith has been restored in humanity.”

Image copyright Sean Dougherty

Image caption Sean’s next goal is to run a mile

Sean’s next goal is to run a mile in August. Ultimately, he wants to complete his navy contract then go to college to “experience the world, meet new people, and enjoy life”.

His advice to anyone who wants to know what having a leg amputated feels like, is simple: “If you’ve ever lost a family member, you know what it’s like to lose a leg.

“There are ups and downs and how you look at them depends on your perspective.”

https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js

[clarkgreggreporter]

The Reddit MarvelStudios AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Clark Gregg, May 16, 2017 (click here to read all the questions)

A: (out of sequence, so no question): Well, this week I'm really missing Bill Paxton and Powers Boothe because we lost them and they were both such excellent guys.

A: Missed a few questions there. I'll try to answer some. I love the MCU and love watching the movies and I miss my friends in those casts. That said, I am really proud of where we've gone with Agents of SHIELD and I love this bunch of actors and writers (and crew) as much as any I've ever worked with.

Q What upcoming MCU property are you looking forward to the most? Tahiti is a magical place! A: Anything with Adam Warlock and that may have just been teased in GOTG2

Q Do you have any stories and/or favourite memories of working with the late Bill Paxton? Thanks! A: So many. Just the big grin he'd show up with every day and say, "Bud-dy..." Just a great guy and a wonderful actor/filmmaker with more stories than anyone I've ever met.

Q: What is your favourite MCU movie? A: Pretty damn psyched for Captain Marvel especially with the amazing Brie Larson

Q: Hi! Thank you so much for being SO awesome. In Avengers, when Coulson has been stabbed by Loki and gets to shoot him with the massive gun, he says "oh, that's what that does". What do you wish that gun had done? A: Gone off on its own a minute earlier.

Q: Hi! Thanks for doing this. What's your favorite hand? And if you could have any new hand for your character, what could it do? Thank you! A: The SHIELD attachment does not suck

Q: Hi Clark! Thanks for doing this AMA and everything you've done for the MCU. Love your portrayal of A.C. (Daisy needs to bring that back imo). Have you had any input or influence on the development of Coulson? A: I have some input but most of the great stuff on our show is straight from the writers.   Dream storyline involves saving the Defenders and the Avengers and the Guardians and the Royal Family and everyone in Legion when they get themselves in trouble with Thanos. In a musical episode by Lin Manuel Miranda. (Hamilton)

Q: u/70astralaxe wanted to ask you those question but he coudn't so I'll Phil in [sorry for the pun...]    Favourite Star Wars movie.    Favourite MCU movie.    Whether he had any "holy shit" moments during script-read/when filming a scene.    What he wants for the future of MCU/SHIELD.    If he is planning on doing non-MCU stuff anytime in the near future.    Favourite Ice-Cream Flavour.    Favourite Holiday Destination. A: I'll pick 2. Empire and that coconut something from Ben and jerry's

Q: Clark, it was great seeing you at Denver Comic Con last year. I was the one who told you I loved Choke as well as the intro you wrote for Avengers: Endless Wartime. My question though, do you have any projects coming up that you are writing/directing? Choke was 2008, and Trust me was 2013, so I was hoping we were due for something else soon. Thanks, love your work. A: Writing a film and a sci-fi pilot. Hope to make something next hiatus.

Q: When Joss called you up about Much Ado About Nothing, what was your reaction? Did you get any say in your role? Have you done any other Shakespeare? Thanks for doing this AMA today! A: I was terrified when Joss called, but excited because I had just had a dream I was doing some Shakespeare and it felt ordained. And I love Joss.

Q: Have you watched GOTG Vol. 2 yet? A: Yes. Laughed my ass off.

Q: Hello, What's your favourite MCU movie? Also, what does RDJ smell like? A: I'm a big fan of the Avengers and anything with Cap. Or Stark. Or Thor or the Guardians. Or Strange. Let's face it, I'm a Marvel slut. Robert smells like warm beaches and babies laughing and a freshly washed thong.

Q: What kind of changes in perspective on your character did you work on to bring the 3 different versions of Coulson to life this season? We've had Agent Coulson, Robo Coulson, and Mr. Coulson. What was the most fun about doing that? Also, minor question, do you happen to know what brand / model of glasses you were rocking in the Framework? (I tweeted @amandalynnriley, but alas no response). A: It was fun to have new takes on Phil. Amazing work by the writers. Especially geeking out teacher Phil with his soap. The glasses are called Barton Pereira (sp)

Q: What would like to do for a living if you weren't an actor, besides dominating in lip sync battles? A: Music something. probably not very well. But I loved being in a band. A lot.

Q: Hi Clark! Awesome for you to do this before the big season finale. How do you think your character has changed between now and the beginning of Iron Man 1? In other words, do you think your acting of Phil Coulson has changed that much in 9 years? A: Ah, jeez, I don't know. The character has been through a lot and gotten older, so maybe he's less innocent and a little darker, but I probably am too. I don't know about the acting. I try to forget that's what it is.

Q: Do you read your fanmail? If so, what's something cool a fan has sent you? A: I do. I get amazing stuff and try to answer it all. I've been sent crocheted blankets and lola pillows and maybe some underwear.

Q: Thank you for putting your all into Coulson. He's my favourite character in the entire Marvel universe. As for my question, how much of Clark has gone into the role? Specificially the frequent Star Wars references... is that your input or does it come purely from the writers? A: The writers and I love Star Wars and couldn't imagine Coulson wouldn't as well. There's a bunch of me and then some stiff that's verrrrry different from me.

Q: More serious question: One of the things I love about AoS is how men and women fight each other as equals. But I've wondered if that took the male actors a little getting used to, going all out punching and kicking female actors. Did you find that awkward at first? A: Definitely. Really did not like punching May or Daisy even though neither was a real punch.

Q: Hey Clark! Huge fan of your work in the MCU. My question. Did you know that when you died in the Avengers that you would be brought back for SHIELD? Thanks! A: I did not. Neither did they. #CoulsonLives gave them the idea. So thanks.

Q: What's the weirdest thing a fan ever asked you to do? A: Sign a boob. But it was a big boob so I wrote my full name and then Agent Coulson.

Q: With the amount of time Coulson has been spending in the field in AOS, it has become more and more unlikely that the Avengers wouldn't know that Phil is still alive. Do you personally think any of them know? A: I really wish I had a good answer for that, but I don't. Some day.

Q: Yo Clark! I'm sure you're gonna get a bunch of marvel questions and that's awesome. But I know you're a basketball fan so this is my first question. Who ya got winning the finals? And secondly: Any advice for someone who's dream is to work within marvel either on the tv side or movie side? A: Warriors look soooo good. To work for Marvel it helps to love comics and marvel and then just try to be really good at what you want to do there.

Q: Hey Clark! Read any good books lately? A: Yes. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Mirukami

Q: What was it like meeting Melissa Benoist for the dubsmash battle? And have you met any of the other CW heroes? A: I think she's amazing. Loved her in Whiplash. And the fact that she took part in that for charity made me love her even more.

Q: I've been marvel fan since my early childhood, having been born without half of my right hand, my parents and superheroes have always been the biggest source of inspiration. Even in my wildest dreams, i couldnt have predicted these last 10 years, what MCU has achieved and how popular these stories would become all around the world, in that way im living my childhood dream- to see it all done well on the silver screen. What is even crazier- I wouldnt have predicted that the Son of Coul, a shield agent from phase one movies, would start his own show- his own team. Over the years, Aos became , in my humble opinion, the best that superhero tv shows can offer right now, and most recently, even a better source of fun than some of the MCU movies. Past week, i have been buzzing, that we re getting another season. Mostly, i want to say THANK YOU, to everyone who helps to make this show what it is, a source of inspiration and fun to look forward to almost every week. Thank you Mr. Gregg, for breathing life into this awesome character, and also for motivating me in my own studies, and career. I just wanted to express my gratitude, and ask, recently, the Ghost Rider, LMD and Framework arcs have cemented the greatness of this show. When you got first approached to make a shield show, did you think it would end up as such a compelling characters, stories, effects and going for 5 seasons on a small screen? Did you have any doubts? Was there ever a moment when you got a script/shot a scene, where u said to yourself : "Wow, this is amazing" ? Thank you, wish you and the whole cast/crew all the best in making another successful season. A big fan, all they way from Slovakia A: This made my day. Thank you.

Q: What did you think of Iron Fist on Netflix? Do you think it deserves the criticism? What would you have done different if you were the showrunner? A: I love Iron Fist. Both seasons. (then...another reply) Oops. I meant Daredevil. Didn't sleep too well.

Q: Do you remember your time on The Shield well? Great performance. Any fun stories from the set? A: My friend David Mamet directed and the character was so uhinged I felt wrong afterwards. Also, Billy Gierhart who has directed the most eps of AoS was the cameraman on that ep.

Q: As a big fan of What Lies Beneath and Choke, can we expect to see you work behind the camera on Agents of SHIELD any time soon? A: I may direct an episode in season 5. if I don't pass out from exhaustion just thinking about it.

Q: Jed Whedon recently made his directing debut in SHIELD's episode Self Control, which is probably my favorite episode of the show now. What was it like having him direct? Do you think we can look forward to more episodes helmed by him? Great job this season by the way! Coulson's speech a few episodes ago rocked, Captain America would be proud A: jed was amazing and that may be my favorite too. He better direct some more or we'll drag him down to set and make him.

Q: Hey Clark! Thanks for coming by! In about a year we'll be coming up on Iron Man's 10th Anniversary, which means you'll have been playing Coulson for 10 years. How does that feel? And, if you could have Coulson appear in any Marvel-related property, what would it be? A: Wow. Ten years. I feel very lucky. I could have been stuck that long playing a character I didn't love in a world I didn't care about. #Grateful

Q: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has been renewed for a fifth season, but does not appear on ABC's Fall schedule. Obviously, it will start later, but we've been getting mixed signals. Do you know if Season 5 will be a full, 22 episode season or has it been shortened? A: Yes. Full season after the 8 eps of The Inhumans. Then we do our whole run. Could be cool that way.

Q: Can you tell us anything about today's AoS finale? A: Coulson will change.

Q: This is also a question from my girlfriend, who is at work and can't ask herself: Do you think Phil and May will have a happy ending? A: I won't touch that one.

Q: How would coulson react to meeting the defenders? A: He would geek out. But who knows, maybe they would too.

Q: Two questions: first, I'm currently binge watching the West Wing and I have to ask what it was like working with dialog written by Aaron Sorkin?  Second, are we ever going to see your wife, Jennifer Grey, on AoS? A: Aaron's dialogue is like no one else's. I did Sports Night, TWW and A Few Good Men on Broadway. So I'm lucky. He did a lot to put me on the map.

Q; Hi Clark! Thank you for doing this! I can’t wait for tonight’s finale. Can you take us through what it was like auditioning and successfully getting the role of Coulson? Did you ever imagine that the role would develop and expand like it has over time? A: Never auditioned. Got an offer to play a part that was two scenes in IM. Then they added more and more scenes. Cut to Phil nine years later about to walk into the season 4 finale where he will finally (REDACTED)

Q: Clark, you all have been doing such a great job over the last few years. Why do you think Agents of SHIELD has resonated with so many fans around the world? A: Because thanks to the cast, crew, the writers and Marvel the show keeps getting better all the time. That's very rare.

Last Words From Clark: Thanks so much of the great questions. Sorry I couldn't answer more of them. Acting in an independent film today so I have to run. Join me on the twitter for the S.4 finale tonight. Love you all.

[heatherannehogan]

the lesbophobia thing

Lesbophobia is real. It's the prejudice, bigotry, and oppression that exists at the intersection of homophobia and misogyny. Let me say it again: Lesbophobia is real. Hate for lesbians is real.

However, it is essential to acknowledge and understand that the term lesbophobia has been co-opted by a loud and growing contingent of LGBTQ women in communities that share troubling ties and ideology with factions that exist inside the alt-right movement — worse, the dangerous dogma that's attaching itself to word the lesbophobia has found a new home at AfterEllen.

I first encountered the word lesbophobia in response to the post I wrote called Queer Women Take Over The 2016 Emmys. Her Story got a revolutionary nod for Outstanding Short Form. Kate McKinnon took home a trophy for Saturday Night Live. Sarah Paulson won for The People vs. O.J. Simpson. And Jill Soloway scored another victory for Transparent. On social media there was a small outcry that I hadn't chosen the headline "Lesbians Take Over the 2016 Emmys," despite the fact that Kate McKinnon was the only winner who explicitly identifies as a lesbian. (In fact, Sarah Paulson is on record saying, "I refuse to give any kind of label just to satisfy what people need.") The reasons the handful of dissenters gave for my decision to call the Emmys queer was that I am a lesbophobe, an espouser and executor of lesbophobia.

To be very honest with you, I shrugged it off. The most unwinnable battle we have at Autostraddle is labeling LGBTQ people in a way that satisfies everyone. It's such a constant struggle, we laid out an explanation about labels in our official comment policy. Recently on a Pop Culture Fix, I wrote about the new queer characters coming to The Good Wife spin-off. One of them will be a lesbian, according to the show's writers; the other's sexuality has not been labeled. So, I said, "The Good Wife spin-off will prominently feature two lesbian, bisexual, gay, homosexual, or otherwise queer-identified women." Just to cover all my bases because it was almost Christmas and I was tired and I didn't want to have to argue about labels. And yet, the cries of lesbophobia came in again. I got a couple of emails, a dozen or so tweets. Essentially: "Lesbian is not a dirty word! Saying queer is lesbophobic!"

So, on December 26, I tweeted something I think is a true, fair, and accurate analogy:

Yelling "lesbophobia!" when someone says "queer" is like yelling "war on Christmas!" when someone says "happy holidays." Come on, y'all.

A couple of days later, AfterEllen's official Twitter tweeted at me and said: "@theheatherhogan oh, agreed. It's like yelling "biphobia!" and "transphobia!" when someone says lesbian."

To which beloved Autostraddle cartoonist Dickens replied:

"AfterEllen is three weeks shy of transforming their website into an online support group for victims of wyt lesbian genocide. This is honestly the most ridiculously entitled white lesbian coated petrified bullshit I have seen in a long time. And if you don't think white supremacy has reached out its dirty little fingers and touched a few groups of marginalized white folks, well. Keep an eye on their feed here and there. Keep an eye on their former writers. They aren't just trying to Make Lesbianism Great Again… They are asserting their strength. They are erasing the visibility of the defectors. They are sliding their salty little asses into spaces and feeds where they must know they are clearly not wanted or cared for. I was never a fan of AE but this new image they're building for themselves is a little too Nazi-adjacent for my galaxy Blaaaack aaaass."

Dickens was, of course, correct. And her point was proven once again the very next day when an article blasted out to the 125,000 followers of AfterEllen's official, verified Twitter account cried: “Lesbian Spaces Are Still Needed, No Matter What the Queer Movement Says". It suggests that trans women and bisexual women's desire to be included in queer women's spaces is to blame for the decline of lesbian-specific spaces, which lesbians need to stay safe from trans and bisexual women.

That kind of rallying cry feels very much like the "Save Our White Neighborhoods" rallying cry of the alt-right, so I went on a deeper dive to try to find the origins of what I called "the lesbophobia movement" on Twitter. And what I found was more horrifying than I ever imagined.

A few weeks ago AfterEllen — which everyone presumed dead after the company that owns it effectively fired everyone, including longtime editor in chief Trish Bendix — announced it had acquired a new editor named Memoree Joelle. In October, Joelle, tweeted a Change.org petition that she'd signed called Take the L Out of LGBT. The petition is a direct response to a previously failed petition that called for GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, HuffPo Voices, The Advocate, etc. to Drop The T from LGBT. The most popular supporter of the petition is a guy you might know called Milo Yiannopoulos. He signed it, tweeted about it, and dedicated 3,000 words to it in a post on Breitbart. Thanks to Milo's urging, Matthew Hopkins, one of the main perpetrators of Gamergate, wrote a post called "Why #GamerGate Should Help the ‘Drop the T’ Campaign" on his personal blog. Hopkins called it "one of the most politically important campaigns of our generation."

In addition to signing and tweeting about the petition, Joelle commented her approval. When former AfterEllen writer Elaine Atwell brought Joelle's support of the petition to light, Joelle's comments disappeared from the petition, and so did Elaine's byline from the hundreds of articles she wrote over the last five years at AfterEllen.

The comments on the Change.org petition mention lesbophobia multiple times and equate it with trans activism, as do the subreddits that discussed Joelle's contribution to the petition. "Part of lesbophobia is hating us for our same-sex attraction, but another very big part of it is hating us for our rejection of men," one user wrote on /r/GenderCritical/. (Trans women are almost always referred to as men on this particular subreddit.) Another Redditor on /r/actuallesbians decried the "male entitlement and lesbophobia" of protesting the petition. "The moment we talk about your rape culture or your male violence we're 'transphobic' or 'biphobic.'" (The men in this comment are actually trans women and "rape culture" refers to the constantly espoused idea in TERF communities that trans women are male predators.) The lesbophobia tag on the blog GenderTrender is a deeply disturbing trip down an anti-trans rabbit hole. The lesbophobia tag on the website 4th Wave Now is horrifying; it equates allowing trans kids/teens to come out and live openly as their true gender with child abuse, ideas that are — again — shared with Breitbart and Milo Yiannopoulos. Reddit and Tumblr are absolutely flush with lesbians using the word "lesbophobia" to back up the ideas presented in these "Drop the T"/"The L Is Leaving" petitions.

These spaces that use the word "lesbophobia" to attack trans and bi women or people who use the word queer share more than than an ideology with Breitbart. You'll find them saying things like "trans women want to colonize the lesbian community." You'll find them using the phrase "SJW" (meaning Social Justice Warrior), a pejorative term coined by the Men's Rights Activist movement. And you'll find a lot of talk about how the correct "biology" is the thing that allows people access to the protections of the majority. And lots and lots and lots and lots of just truly sickening propaganda leveled at trans and bi women. It's very much about creating an in-group and scapegoating an out-group through tried and true tactics that have been — I'm sorry — utilized by Fox News and the alt-right for years.

I wrote about these things on Twitter, and you can read Dickens further unpacking them here and here. (You should read that last thread before you jump in here and call her "my black friend.")

Look, we didn't just wake up one day with an openly racist, openly sexist, openly xenophobic, openly ableist, openly anti-semitic president in the White House, appointing the leader of the most dangerous white supremacist website in history to his top advisor position. We watched blatant and unabashed white supremacist language and ideas slowly take over the movement from the inside. We watched the most powerful scapegoat the most vulnerable. We watched Fox News make heroes out of the white men who murdered unarmed black children and terrify people with their whole War on Christmas bullshit and equate all Muslims with terrorists. A Nazi didn't walk into the West Wing and have a seat; the slow creep of white supremacy laid the path for him.

Vox did a fascinating interview with former conservative talk show host Charlie Sykes earlier this year. He quit over Trump. But the whole interview is him agonizing about how, to him, the GOP had always been about fiscal conservatism and states rights and he believed in that ideological purity so deeply that he fooled himself into believing that's what the GOP was about to everybody, despite the fact that he saw the white supremacy and fascism slowly gaining power and momentum until it took over.

To realize, first of all, that you’re part of a movement that was not the movement you thought it was, that you’re aligned with people that you didn’t really understand you’re aligned with, and to realize that everything that you thought about the conservative intellectual infrastructure was really piecrust thin. You thought you had this big principled movement and then suddenly along comes Donald Trump and you realize that it was just was just the pastry on top. So I think disorienting is a great term. Disillusioning is not too strong either.

To me, what we're talking about with lesbophobia is a similar thing. Is lesbophobia a term some lesbians have rallied around to protest the prejudice and bigotry that exist at the intersection of homophobia and misogyny? Yes, of course. Absolutely. HOWEVER. I had to go searching for people using the word lesbophobia like that because my entire experience with the way the word kept popping up in my timeline and in my comments and in the comments sections of other websites was to decry the use of the word queer and to espouse anti-trans and anti-bi ideology. And that includes every single person who landed in my mentions on Twitter when I started talking about this. I did not click on a single profile without finding anti-trans, anti-bi language; or ask a single person if they believe trans women are women and have them say yes.

If you are a woman who is using the word lesbophobia to NOT do those things, and you're more angry at me for pointing out that it's happening than you are at anti-trans/anti-bi people who have hijacked its meaning, I ... I truly don't understand. What's happening at AfterEllen is terrifying me. Maybe the website is technically dead, but it still has clout and power and it's using it to push some really dangerous ideas about lesbian exclusivity, and those ideas are shared by a very loud group of people who use the word "lesbophobia" on their blogs, social media, Reddit, etc. to vilify the people (like me) who stand against them.

I don't want to cause anyone pain. I don't want to make anyone feel unsafe or unloved or unaccepted. I DO NOT BELIEVE LESBIANS ARE NAZIS. I AM A LESBIAN. If you truly think that's what I was saying when I unpacked these ideas on Twitter, I'm sorry. It was not my intention.

I do think, however, that it's imperative for you to open your eyes to how the word lesbophobia is being used to persecute and oppress trans and bi women in very vocal and influential spaces that have direct ties in ideology and language with the alt-right.

[littlerubio-blog]

Oh rightttt I wrote Gay!Beauty and the Beast a long time ago!!!!

It’s me, Grantaire, again.

I was having a party at my castle, and I heard a knock at the door. My servants were all busy, so I ended up answering the door. There was an old beggar woman, trying to mooch. Pathetic.

“Please, sir. I just need a place to spend the night,” she begged. She shivered in the cold, clutching her threadbare shirt.

“I’m not supposed to talk to strangers,” I replied coolly.

“In return for your generosity, I’ll give you this rose as a token of my gratitude,” the beggar woman continued. She held a rose up in front of me.

I scoffed. Surely, she’s seen how many roses I already have around my castle. “Just… just go.”

The beggar turned into the sexiest woman I’d ever seen, in my twelve years of life. “You spoiled, filthy little brat!” She shouted at me, floating into the air.

“Hey, hey,” I said defensively. I waved my hands in front of myself. “Not all men are like that!”

“I don’t care, because you’re like that!” The enchantress shouted even more sharply at me. “I am going to turn you into a hideous beast, and you can’t turn back into a human, until someone actually falls for your ugly ass! And if you miss your deadline, you’ll remain like this forever!!”

I screamed when the magic from the enchantress’s sceptre hit me. I grew about ten times my twelve year-old size, and none of it muscle; I was now stuck in a permanent sonichu t-shirt, as well as a permanent fedora;  and I grew a lot of hair around my jaw and neck. I was hideous! No one could ever love such an ugly beast. I ran to my bedroom, mortified.

~~~

When my mom came home, she knocked on my bedroom door. She couldn’t see me like this! “Go away, mom!” I hollered.

“What is this phase you’re going through? I didn’t raise you to be a brat,” my mother shook her head.

“Shut up, mom! This isn’t a phase! This is the real me!” I shouted back. I sighed loudly and reached for my headphones, so I could blast some Macklemore tunes.

~~~

I remained in my room for a whole week, watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I could not bear to be seen by anyone, so I just abused my socks.

My mother was getting concerned, but I just told her to shut up and go away.

I was falling behind in my classes, so my mother hired a tutor. She’s honestly such a bitch.

Except… my tutor is hot. Super-mega-awesome-hot. He’s got golden-blond curls, cerulean blue eyes, and a tight little ass. His small waist and broad shoulders nearly gave me heart failure. Well, that my have been partly due to the Cheetos, as well.

My tutor has this ridiculous long French-ass name, so I just call him Apollo. He’s beautiful and terrible – that’s why. He glares at me whenever I call him that, but this little smoulder he has is so sexy, I can’t resist.

“Please just use my name. It’s Enjolras,” my tutor enunciated each syllable so clearly, but I couldn’t be bothered.

“You’re so pretty, you know that?” I leaned over my history book to look at him closer.

“Please try to maintain a professional environment,” Enjolras narrowed his eyes in irritation – at ME!

“You’re so heartless and cruel!” I got up from my seat and ran off to my room, so I could tell everyone on Reddit that my One True Love friendzoned me.

~~~

“May I just leave, please?” Enjolras asked my mother. “I won’t make you pay me – it was only five minutes. I just… I can’t work like this.”

“I’m so sorry, dear,” my mother sighed. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him.

I ran back downstairs and looked Enjolras dead in the eyes. “Is it ‘cause I’m FAT?”

Enjolras just boggled at me. “What?” He pursed his lips. “No, I refuse to subscribe to patriarchal beauty standards. You just made me uncomfortable, is all.”

“How is it PATRIARCHY if it hurts MEN, TOO?” I demanded. He was one of those beta male feminists, of course. I hate those, but he’s SO HOT.

“Because not all men fit into the strict, confining gender roles, either,” Enjolras replied patiently. “I don’t have all day to explain this to you, but for next time, Google is your friend.” He forced a small, passive-aggressive smile at me, before he ran off with his books.

“I hate to see you leave, but I love to watch you go!” I hollered after him, which made him only run faster. “Narcissistic brat.”

~~~

I went to school the next day to find my Apollo. I prefer calling him Apollo because his real name is so pretentious.

I saw him talking to another guy, Montparnasse, who was equally gorgeous, but he had black hair and brown eyes. I prefer my blond Apollo.

Once I got closer, I realized that Montparnasse was making fun of Enjolras! I gasped and I swooped right in to save him!

“Yeah, you know, your shirt makes you look like you work at Target,” Montparnasse sneered at Enjolras. “Don’t you have, like, enough money to, like, buy yourself a sense of style?”

“My clothes are none of your concern,” Enjolras replied coolly. He got his gym clothes out of his locker.

I nearly died at the thought of Enjolras in his gym shorts, running around all sexy. But first, I had to focus on defending him from the bully.

“Hey, leave him alone!” I shouted at Montparnasse.

“Did you really think it was going to be that eas-“ Montparnasse cut himself off when he saw a group of cheerleaders walking past. “Gotta go!” He ran off to try and impress the cheerleaders, leaving me alone with Enjolras.

“Hey,” Enjolras smiled softly at me. “I really appreciate you defending me, just now.”

“So… you’ve un-friendzoned me now?” I asked hopefully.

“Of course! You’re actually a nice guy, after all. I don’t care that your political views are oppressive and harmful, or that you felt entitled to my body the second you met me, or that the only thing you care about is having sex – you were NICE to me. Now, let’s go make out under the bleachers.”

I grinned at Enjolras. I was positively elated. Plus, kissing him would break the spell. “Well, first thing’s first. I want to see your cute little ass in those gym shorts.”

“Okay! Since, I only exist to turn you on, I’ll change! I’ll meet you under the bleachers in five minutes!” Enjolras skipped off to the locker room.

~~~

I met Enjolras under the bleachers, and I gaped at his incredible ass for about four minutes. “You must be a bottom.”

“Of course! Because I have no desire to challenge gender roles anymore,” Enjolras leaned towards me, ready to kiss me.

I was so excited – partly because he’s so gorgeous, and partly because I want to break the spell. Maybe I’ll even have six-pack abs, and I won’t stand out as so beneath Enjolras.

I kissed him, and I made out with him for a good ten minutes before I looked down at myself. Nothing changed. “Oh… I guess this really IS the real me. Oh well, it only matters if YOU’RE good-looking, and you ARE.”

[andrewuttaro]

State of the Support (S2-Ep.2): Outside Help

State of the Support is a reoccurring series on American professional soccer written from a fan perspective. This series will follow the ups and downs of Soccer Support in Rochester, NY and the surrounding region in one of its most trying times in decades.

You don’t know what you got until it’s gone. Save for a few work stoppages in different pro leagues most of us have no memory of sports being called off at this scale. In the three months since the last State of the Support blog a lot has happened in the world. So much has happened in fact that it feels a bit crass to talk about soccer right now with any degree of urgency. Life has changed for a while.

This blog also affirms Black Lives Matter. I wrote a pretty extensive personal blog about the issues brought back into focus by the George Floyd murder and the resulting civil unrest. Its called Same Humans Different Worlds and its up on this same blog if you want to take a look.

As I try to talk about soccer in the world as it is right now I’m thankful to say there are uncorroborated new developments. In the three months since we last shared this blog we’ve also seen ROC City Boom put a footprint down in spite of their season being delayed due to COVID19. On one hand nothing new has truly happened on the Rhinos front but on the other hand several things seem to be evolving in Rochester Soccer right now including something with the Rhinos. Let’s start with the Rhinos who may not be as long gone as we thought.

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There have been rumors that outside groups have been working with the Dworkins on the Rhinos situation since early 2019. Whether that be additional owners joining the group or just consulting firms helping with what seems to be an inevitable rebrand, the talk in the rumor mill has been consistent in the Post-Stadium part or this hiatus. At the beginning of the month a new Reddit user named Rocbucks commented on an old post of mine in the r/Rhinossoccer subreddit. After they didn’t respond to a reply to their comment I direct messaged them where they more readily communicated.

Rocbucks claims to be someone “…working for months to create a proposal drawing together local leaders in soccer and management of sport organizations that will redevelop pro soccer in Rochester.” One of this person’s initial claims was a 2022 return to play was in store for the Rhinos after marshalling community partnerships that would be “worth the wait.” Say what you will about how COVID19 changes the trajectory of soccer in this country, 2021 was the pre-existing expectation after Pat Ercoli’s August 2019 interview and David Dworkin’s December 2019 Statement. Specifically stating there was going to be another year-long lent some early credibility to Rocbucks’ claims.

Yes, I asked for some more details. Before we got into privileged information (which trust me is barely anything in addition to what I can tell you) This source confirmed they are not one of the Dworkins or anyone employed by the Rhinos nor are they the rumored NISA Rochester group. They claimed to have had several meaningful conversations with the Rhinos about that club going forward and that they were welcomed help. It’s also worth nothing Rocbucks insinuated they’re part of a larger group doing this consulting work. Moreover the group Rocbucks is a part of is one of three involved in the Rhinos’ situation who came together on this project once they realized how each of them could benefit from a revitalized pro soccer scene in Rochester.

The Rocbucks groups as I’ll call them have apparently been involved with the Rhinos case for a year now placing their arrival on this front in late May/early June 2019. That timeline tracks based on what we know about the hiatus timeline so far. That would’ve been about seven months after the Dworkins settled with the City to leave the downtown stadium. They would’ve been looking for some second opinions planning for this next chapter. Rocbucks was however tight lipped on any concrete plans except to say the Rocbucks groups will soon be moving into focus groups and other forms of community listening.

Upon further questioning Rocbucks confirmed they had also had contact with Jake Edwards and the USL League Office. If Rocbucks is telling the truth than the groups we’re talking about here are fully engaged consulting firms or local businesses that stand to gain from pro soccer making a comeback here. I cannot confirm that however and its important to note no such group has been revealed by the Dworkins or anyone in the USL League Office. I cannot independently verify any of this but if these things are true Rocbucks leads me to believe some big developments with the Rhinos are due this calendar year.

 ---

On the fully confirmed front of Soccer in Rochester: the ROC City Boom have had an interesting few months since their January unveiling. Even in the face of a global pandemic it seems the new UPSL amateur soccer team is doing all the right things to work their way into the hearts of Rochesterians. Pausing their social media output for a month and a half, they began tweeting again at the end of April hoping that when UPSL returns their place in the Downtown stadium would allow for some fans properly socially distanced.

At the end of May the amateur side announced their hiring of General Manager Isaac Kissi. Kissi was an MLS draftee in 2010 and played for the Rhinos from 2010-2012. An injury ended his soccer career, but he has since gone into medicine now finding himself on the front lines of the Coronavirus battle working the ICU in Buffalo and COVID testing in Rochester. Kissi immediately became part of the Rochester Soccer community on social media. On June 20th, the Boom tweeted a shoutout video from former USMNT and MLS player Freddy Adu, a string one can assume Kissi was able to pull for soccer fans in Rochester.

---

While the existence of an almost 14,000 seat soccer specific stadium in any City comes with the potential to attract pro and amateur soccer clubs alike, the downtown stadium here in Rochester has laid dormant more than anything else since the Rhinos went on hiatus. It’s been almost three years! If my uncorroborated source today is correct it will likely be almost five years before there is pro soccer again in Rochester. It’s somewhat morbidly funny to think about all that’s happened in that time. This got me thinking.

On Friday I will be posting the Rochester Rhinos Hiatus Timeline. The idea here is to recount the broad strokes of the hiatus in order to not only understand where it maybe going but also help out-of-towners understand the situation at hand. If we’re looking at five years without pro soccer in this City this hiatus will represent a whole phase of soccer’s history here in Rochester.

To anyone who may have information about or looking to be informed about soccer in Rochester, NY, feel free to reach me on twitter @Pastagut or Reddit at u/EternalRhino15. If you wish to share privileged information about yet-to-be announced soccer developments know that I will respect your identity with anonymity if you so desire. Also its fun just to talk in these crazy times. This blog is not just about Rochester soccer or even the sport in the larger surrounding region, it’s about building a community of supporters.

Thanks for Reading.