#instead of gatekeeping things

[thestarseersystem]

contrary to popular belief and to online fakeclaimers, DID is a lot more inclusive than you think it is. It may not make much sense because its internally and externally complex, but most symptoms that people discuss and have and aren't sure are real or not, are common issues and symptoms within the community. People just like to gatekeep the hell out of DID, because its "rare" and "special" and all that bullshit. Most people with severe dissociative symptoms are going to have a severe dissociative disorder, probably multiple of them.

[a-dragons-journal]

How exactly is being otherkin any different than being transracial by idea? I’m not pro-transracial, but I can’t really formulate an argument on where the difference is and why one is okay while the other isn’t

The difference, in my opinion at least, basically comes down to the fact that race and ethnicity are things other real people deal with and which have big cultural impact for a lot of people; species is not. You can't hurt theriform wolves by identifying as a wolf because wolves are not people and are not aware of any of this. Dragons may be people depending on the dragon, but they don't exist physically in this world to have an opinion. You can, however, hurt people of color by identifying as transethnicity and approaching it in a disrespectful way.

And I say it that way because if I'm honest, transethnicity is one of those transIDs where I'm... a little torn on it. I can understand the feelings and experiences they're describing, but I struggle to find a way to engage with the idea of being transethnicity that isn't going to wind up being racist in one way or another. And while I haven't exactly spent a ton of time in radqueer/transID spaces, when I've gone into their tags and such to do a little research on them, I have overwhelmingly seen transethnicity people being kind of if not extremely racist about it. The experiences are not inherently harmful, but it's really easy to slide into engaging with those experiences in a way that's harmful.

And yet... in this community we have, for example, fictionkin whose fictotypes are a different race than them all the time, and sometimes that's very important to who their fictotype is and how they view the world. And that works out fine. I think the primary difference is that fictionkin are generally expected to acknowledge that they're not a part of that group in the present and can't speak on the group's issues or experiences as if they were, whereas the minute you put a trans- label onto the word, the expectation is that you should be treating a trans[x] person as if they're [x]. (And if it's not, then... why are you calling it trans- anything to begin with when that's what trans- means in an identity context?)

So, I do genuinely believe that they're having these experiences, but... idk, there has to be a better way to frame and engage with those experiences. I don't know what that is, but it's got to be out there somewhere, though it may not be a one-size-fits-all answer. (And maybe there's a transID community out there that's found it, I don't know.)

Anyway, open invitation for POC to give their thoughts on this, since they've probably got better-constructed ones than me; if I'm honest, I haven't spent all that much time thinking about this issue. I think about it on and off here and there when it comes up and then it gives me a headache so I move on.

[dollsdigitaldiary]

౨ৎ there's nothing I love more than a good lash day <3

[z-eusie]

seriously just witnessed a post in which someone critiques the way ancient myths were written (as if that's at all an accurate way to describe this) and tries to offer alternatives for how an ancient people and culture with diverse interpretations of these stories and uses for these stories, should have written it instead

because incest makes them uncomfortable.

[somethinglikehell]

[7roaches]

gaspipe gaykeep girlmusk

[droughtofapathy]

Beloved mutual @voltives hasn't been around to Passion post, so thought I'd pick up the mantle and reblog some Donna and Marin. Unfortunately the tags are overrun by the wrong production (you know damn well what I mean) and it really feels like we monkey-pawed ourselves into this by lamenting the lack of Passion appreciation around here.

[wolverinecore]

Begging cod stans (specifically tiktok stans) to actually go and read Ghosts wiki if ur not gonna bother watching the campaigns and learn his character and personality instead of characterizing him as a rapey abuser preditor bc ur a horny weirdo when hes literally just a normal guy who’s PROBABLY autistic AND A VICTIM OF ABUSE HIMSELF. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[mercurialmalcontent]

Got a fair amount of the Weeping Peninsula explored today, and defeated the Leonine Misbegotten on my second try (my first ended embarrassingly and abruptly as I fumbled around trying to decide what to do first for some reason and got myself stunlocked into a corner. Oops!). I'm not exactly sure how, considering that my budding combat skills devolved into flailing and running around to drink a flask while my Lone Wolves distracted the boss, but hey, it was clearly effectual flailing so I've definitely learned something!

It's gotten me to thinking about how way too many Souls fans make Fromsoft's games out to be the kind of difficult that's unapproachable, the kind where you already need to be good at games like this and have perfect reflexes and pattern recogniton and if you have an impossibly hard time, that's just how it is, git gud!

But -- for Elden Ring at least -- it's NOT that kind of difficult. It's learnable and adjustable. It rewards observation and strategic thinking, and if things are still too tough? You can grind levels and get items and summons that will help smooth out fights. You can get weapons that are melee and ranged, fast and slow, and find out what playstyle you like best. You don't have to fight every single thing, you can sneak, and you can run the fuck away from open field enemies. And if you die, at worst you lose some runes if you die again before you can retrieve what you dropped, but you keep all your levels and your stuff. Keep your runes spent down and it's a minor setback at worst.

That still isn't everyone's cup of tea, and that's fine -- sometimes you want a game that you can learn as you go along and not have to make a lot of do-overs. But it's not the monolith of unapproachable difficulty so many fans have made it out to be, and it really frustrates and annoys me that by portraying Fromsoft's games like that, those fans put me off of trying them until @bleaksqueak's enthusiastic nudging and encouragement got me excited enough to try Elden Ring anyway. Now I'm having a great time that's only marred by how tired I am of looking at the vagabond armor's dirty old cloak.

[munchboxart]

This is more of a personal topic, but I wanna talk about the pressures of art and the "need"/chase for social media "interactions" (likes, comments, etc.). I'm not sure how how common of an issue this is, but I've seen oomf worry about this and I just wanna talk about my experience with it.

So undoubtedly there was a shift in the way I upload (I mean look at me now, I'm yapping instead of drawing). As in how I used to be more active and invested more time in them, but nowadays I rarely share art. For the past 7+ years I've been online, I've mainly drawn to get an online presence over my own personal interest or growth (in skill, but when those do align, it's usually more of just a bonus). And recently, I've given up on that (recently as in, this year compared to the amount of years I poured energy into building a presence), and I've never been happier!

I keep mentioning how happy it makes me and I really can't stress that enough. I've been able to play more games that I want and spend more time in consuming media rather than worrying about the next art piece of the week. And the difference between consistently drawing vs sometimes drawing in terms of improvement has not changed much I think. Hell, I think I've been able to improve much faster in a shorter time frame since I've been looking at more media now compared to drawing thing of the week.

I'm grateful that I was a little luckier and have been able to build up a small audience, and for said audience that's stuck with me so far, and I am still a little "social media"-brained, but I don't think the crushing weight of your own expectations to upload on a consistent schedule is worth over actually enjoying your life. Or if you want to think about it this way, do you want or think you can live like that for the next 5 years, or next 10 years, or more?

And I wanna note, for the past 7+ years of uploading art, I've always been critical of my own art. Trying to one-up yourself and have yourself be your own competition is good! But not to the point where you hate every piece that you make or that you think you did something wrong because a piece or multiple pieces are flopping.

Oh my god I didn't even think about how I sometimes shift art styles to see which one is more popular, it made me so depressed good god. It's a tale as old as time and I never realized how important it was until I stopped caring about it all, but literally just draw what makes you happy, even if that means you don't want to draw for a while if nothing comes up in your brain.

[radioactive-earthshine]

I am still so perplexed by the fanon argument and belief that it is 'no different from canon's inconsistencies' when the driving thing about fanon is that it is based on things that never happened at all. It's not even an inconstancy in most cases - it's a direct lie. It's not even headcanons or an interpretation of the source material at this point.

Much of fanon is not even making a mosaic of different elements across media (picking and choosing things to accept or reject, which most fans to do personal enjoyment), it's taking one element and inflating it and declaring that it happened everywhere else with such confidence it convinces new fans that even in the comics Bart Allen says "crash" when it was exclusive to the animation.

IDK maybe I am putting more faith in the broad ability to engage in media with compartmentalization.

My friends who do engage in only fanon are a little confused too but they're honest that they just like the fanon part of fandom better and it makes them feel better, which I cannot argue against - you do fandom the way you want, but they do agree that the Bad Dad Clark thing and UwU Bart is offensive as hell, and generally bat-propping over other characters is also just.... they don't understand why other people need to to do it.

You cannot make a transformative work fairly out of something unless you know what you are transforming.

[jonathanbyersphd]

Watching the gifset of Jonathan driving in s1 make the rounds on the dash and trying not to lose it because he was supposed to be the male lead

[deus-ex-mona]

series i’m gatekeeping from my family vs series i’m ✨ok✨ with my family knowing i’m into:

[makeanartsave]

POV: You are at a political event in Agranor, and between the keen-eyed new baroness and her eerily cheerful consort, you're getting the distinct sense that the new administration in Kernenvale is gonna be way harder to fuck with than the previous one.

(Here's to a hopefully near future in our D&D game, where my character has girlbossed her way into another local government)

[demigodofhoolemere]

Seeing Siegfried be sweetly supportive of Rosie and talking about how so many people tried to crush his dreams as a young man that he could never bring himself to try to discourage anyone else's is once again really really making me want to see him with his own children that this show won’t let me lay eyes on

[cutiepatootiekatie]

i love productive days 🙈