#lower my bills

[debthelperdotcom]

Debthelper Success Story

[inkskinned]

no, but really, we need to talk about the casual objectification that has become the fallback discourse of the internet: if you're pretty and dressed nicely, you're a slut. and if you're even vaguely outside of their body standard, you're fucking disgusting.

too-frequently, people position sex workers as being "the problem". they sneer you're addicted to pornography, you don't know what a real woman looks like. but real women are in pornography. the real bodies on display are not the issue here: the issue is that other people feel extremely confident when commenting on someone's physique.

2000's super-thin is slowly worming its way back into the public ideal. recently i saw someone get told to "go for a run", despite the fact she was on the thinner side of average. not that it would ever be appropriate to say that: but it's kind of like sticker shock when you see it. people think that is fat? holy shit. do they just have no idea about things?

but what are you going to do about it? that's the problem, right. because chances are - you're a normal person. we can say normalize carrying fat on your body, but we are not the billion-dollar diet industry. we are not the billion-dollar fashion industry. we are just, like. people. who are trying to make content on the internet, without being treated shittily.

as someone who has been on both sides of things: you are treated better when you are thin and pretty. this is statistically correct. i am not saying that you cannot be bullied for being thin; i'm saying there are objective institutional biases against certain bodytypes. there are videos of men and women who lost weight all saying: i now know for a fact exactly how much worse you're treated. in the comments, some asshole inevitably says something akin to you deserved to be dehumanized when you were fat.

which means that ... the easiest thing to do is be pretty and thin. it is the path of least resistance, because of course it is, because any time you post a picture of yourself without a thigh gap, someone immediately comments something like you need to try a diet.

the other half is also dehumanizing though, huh, just in a different way. when i put on makeup and nice clothes, i am told i slept my way to the top as a professional. do you know how many women in STEM have told me they purposefully dress to "unimpress" because they already struggle to be taken seriously and if they're ever considered pretty - it for some reason takes away from their authority.

so they make it seem like it's your fault. you, existing in a body - it's your fault! if you didn't want shitty comments, don't have a body. they position us against each other like chess pieces; vying for male attention we don't even need.

and i can be an authority on this unless you think i'm fat and unattractive. when i am pretty and thin, i'm an activist. when i am just a normal person who makes a good point: i am immediately dismissed. nobody fucking believes you if you're not seen as attractive. you literally lose value. you cease to exist.

but the whole time, it feels like - is anyone actually grounded the fuck in reality? the line of "pretty and thin" keeps shifting. nobody seems to understand what "a normal weight" even looks like, because it's not something that exists - you cannot tell a person's health by looking at their body. even if you think you could tell that, even if you're sure a person is dangerously overweight - people are not your dolls. they do not need to be dressed up or displayed properly to soothe your aesthetics. you aren't concerned for them, you're stealing their agency. you don't get to say if they're "allowed" to take pictures and post them on the internet - you don't get to tell them how to exist.

people hide behind "the obesity epidemic" without any actual qualifications. they crow things about "normalizing unhealthiness".

but it's bullshit. i have visible abs. there is a pair of parallel lines on my body, even when i'm relaxed; where my obliques meet my abdominal wall. i am proud of this because it means i'm strong, because i overcame an eating disorder only to be ripped as fuck. it is genetic and physical luck that i even get any definition, i'm pleased as punch.

but it does mean that my abdominal wall sticks out a little bit. the other day i posted a video of myself dancing, and, for a moment, my shirt slipped. you could see a little bit of my stomach. i was cartwheeling to the floor. moments before this, i'd had my foot over my head.

a guy slid into my DMs. a row of vomiting emojis prefaced: you should really lose some weight before you think about dancing.

i stared at it for a long time. there was a time when i would have been triggered by this, where it would have encouraged me to starve myself. i would have ignored the fact i'm flexible, agile, good at jumping: i would have lost the weight for a stranger's passing comment. i would have found myself and my body fucking disgusting.

and for what? to please what? because why? so that he can exist in this world without an unchallenged eyeball? what would my self-hatred even accomplish? usually i write paragraphs. obviously. on this particular occasion, in this body i've been at war with for ages: i just felt exhausted.

it shouldn't be even worth saying. it shouldn't be hard to explain. all of this emotional turmoil when he cannot even comprehend the most basic truth: i am not an object on display for him.

[ckret2]

Your fic has given me "sees Bill as an actual rounded character now" disease so all of the funny fanarts that reduce him to just the pathetic ex guy or to looser idiot triangle i found funny before annoy me slightly now and I'm blaming you

that's honestly hilarious because I'm having the opposite experience

I wasn't deep in Gravity Falls fandom during the peak Tumblr Sexyman Bill Cipher years—I watched the show one time and forgot about it for ~4 years—but I was close enough to see it happening on my dash. And the suave, sophisticated, infinitely in-control Bill characterization was ubiquitous throughout tumblr—the "tailor-made to dom in an x reader fic" characterization where 90% of the emotions he demonstrates are "smirking" and "brooding but in a cool way." (those are emotions now.) Some works would go as far as to say that Bill's mind was simply too alien to be relatable to a human. Most of the works featuring him with Ford depicted Ford as completely enthralled with Bill, naively worshiping the ground he floats over, while Bill was usually depicted as cool, distant, disinterested, at best faintly amused by his human toy. In fanworks like that, the idea that Bill could possibly have been distraught by losing hold of Ford was unthinkable.

And that was common enough—the cool, aloof villain—that it's jarring to go from absorbing that via osmosis for years to rewatching the show and remembering oh right, he's a bit of a dweeb that hollers at people through sock puppets and freaks out when the cops bust in on his red solo cup party.

By the time I started my fic in 2023 the sexyman Bill had died down enough that I found other folks exploring his goofy side, but it still seemed like any time I ducked in on ao3 looking for Bill-centric works, I still saw echoes of that old fanon characterization more often than not.

So for me? It's been great seeing fanworks depicting Bill as an emotionally devastated, blubbering mess over losing his favorite pawn. It's been great seeing fanworks that allow him to be a loser, a failure, a dork, sometimes bumbling or in over his head or sticking his foot in his mouth. Hell yeah! This is what I've been missing for years!

Maybe it'll get annoying eventually but right now it just feels like it's finally balancing him out.

[avocado62524]

[ithinkitsdashingshop]

Good news! After doing the maths, I realised I could lower the prices even further-

So, yes. Moving from etsy to Ko-fi... messy. And I was (am) really nervous about losing all my good ratings and reviews (though they are still visible if you look at my etsy page, I think?), making no sells at all, etc... and yes that is still a worry.

However. After taking a closer look at the numbers once I made a sale and seeing that the cut paypal takes is slightly smaller than I anticipated, I have now lowered the prices :)

(I also want to point out that the shipping fee is per order, NOT per item.)

[suntails]

⚔️🐍

[lovesodeepandwideandwell]

I have about 55 prepared meals in my freezer do you guys think that's enough

[klausie]

hi everyone!! i recently lost my job because the store shut down. i'd really like to continue donating to palestinian fundraisers, but i have no income to do so, so i'd like to remind everyone that i have comms available if you'd like to help me! i donate 90% of all money to palestinian gfms

heres some of my art ↑ and i also do poetry comms as well!

[bookinit02]

LMAO i just saw this girl on tiktok write out her dream lifestyle and how much she would need to make for it. and she got 215k a year. so just for fun i was like ok let me throw out some crazy numbers. the most extravagant life that i can imagine living. and it came out to 50k a year😭

[tealfruitarts]

his retro swag

[debthelperdotcom]

Tah's Debthelper Success Story

[cmdonovann]

ayyyy whats up tumblr im having a kofi sale!

my heating bill is absolutely absurd this month for some goddamn reason, so i put a bunch of stuff on my kofi shop on sale. most items have gone down by $5-10, and almost everything has free shipping to the USA.

here are some of the weird and wonderful items you may be able to purchase from me:

VAMPIRE ROSARIES

yes, they have teeth. yes, they have blood. yes, i have three of them and none have sold yet for some reason? get on this deal before i decide to keep them myself!

HERETIC PRIDE KANDI

i mostly made these because i wanted them, but i had enough beads for more so i made multiple sets. there are also chokers.

VARIOUS OTHER ROSARIES

i just really like making rosaries tbh. the driftwood & teeth one has been on my shop for over a year so it's been discounted multiple times. the other ones are newer, but they're cool as hell imo, so they're worth the extra couple bucks.

EVEN MORE WEIRD TEETH JEWELRY

is this what the kids these days call "goblincore"? they've got teeth. they've got skulls. they've got mushrooms. one of them even has a bell from an old cat collar. these necklaces will trans your gender, guaranteed*!

*not actually guaranteed. i just think they are very gendery.

BOOKS!

oh god oh fuck i have so many books. hold on. wait a second.

PRIDE FLAG BOOKS !

i started these in pride month last year and it took me like five months to finish them. oops! you can buy them now though, and these ones are quite affordable compared to my usual journals and notebooks.

OTHER BOOKS

i'm not even going to include a link for this one because there's seven of them. just scroll through the shop, you'll find them. i have a couple with lined paper, and i think there's one with grid paper left too, if you're the kinda person who likes grid notebooks. they're all discounted at least $5, and shipping is free on all of them! this is a big deal, tbh, because these are pretty damn expensive and time-consuming to make, so take advantage of the sale if you are in need of a new notebook! these ones are very cool!

aaaaaand last but not least...

NO CHILDREN "FRIENDSHIP" HEART JEWELRY!

you know 'em. you love 'em. you probably followed me because i blazed a post about 'em the day after blaze was rolled out. i WILL NOT BE MAKING MORE OF THESE, and there are only a few left, so GET 'EM BEFORE THEY'RE GONE FOREVER! guaranteed* to make the perfect valentine's day gift for your most beloathed ex!

*again, i am not actually guaranteeing anything, but can you imagine how funny it would be to give this to your ex? do it, i dare you.

(つ≧▽≦)つ---✧。* 。* 。* ❤

and that's all for now! feel free to reblog this post, share it, email it to your mom, whatever! please help me pay my dang heating bill! thanks i love you!

[ithinkitsdashingshop]

Good news! After doing the maths, I realised I could lower the prices even further-

So, yes. Moving from etsy to Ko-fi... messy. And I was (am) really nervous about losing all my good ratings and reviews (though they are still visible if you look at my etsy page, I think?), making no sells at all, etc... and yes that is still a worry.

However. After taking a closer look at the numbers once I made a sale and seeing that the cut paypal takes is slightly smaller than I anticipated, I have now lowered the prices :)

(I also want to point out that the shipping fee is per order, NOT per item.)

[somethingcounterfeit]

I have an interview in an hour for a second job bc the world sucks and somehow one full time well paid position is barely enough to live off of 🙃

[boygirlcreature]

I am somebody who struggles to brush my teeth because of sensory issues and usually to help me cope with it I keep the water running because the sound distracts me, but I’ve been using the Finch app a lot lately and it has soundscape options like heavy rain and such

I found that if I turn on heavy rain and turn my phone volume all the way up it simulates what I’ve been doing with leaving the faucet running, but it’s even louder and it honestly dulls all of my senses that I almost can’t feel that I’m brushing my teeth, which is a lifesaver- it’s basically sensory depravation

So if anybody else struggles like I do to brush their teeth and is looking for a suggestion, I would try this if you are able to have your phone volume up pretty loud. you don’t have to use the Finch app obviously; you can look up a YouTube video or I know at least Spotify has ambient noises, so I would check whatever music streaming app you might use. I am almost certain they make apps specifically for soundscapes as well

[trollbreak]

Insert bill nye joke here