#noncolonial

[rustchild]

not to do discourse or anything. but one of the things that is very funny to me about the whole "soft fantasy escapism world with no homophobia" trend is that they all wind up looking the same, while books that genuinely seriously engage with the ways in which queer people respond to repression are more likely to go in wildly divergent specific directions. The response to stories that uncritically replicated modern models of homophobia in settings where they made no sense was to uncritically replicate models of queer 'normalcy' in settings where they make no sense. whereas actually engaging with the nuances of living in those systems gives you access to the wide variety of specific experience that exists in real life. something here also about how writers in the imperial core attempt to imagine a world without the colonial spread of homophobia as a tool of empire but don't actually know anything about the diversity of sexual and gender structures that exists in pre-, post-, and noncolonial communities. and so have a thing that their settings Aren't, but not a thing that they Are

[transplanarrpg]

Hey, D&D / TTRPG nerd!

Do you like dark fantasy queer stories? How about stories by people of color interrogating themes of grief, vengeance, and revolution… set in a critically built noncolonial, anti-orientalist world?

If that’s the case, then check out THE CHAOS PROTOCOL!!!

CHAOS is an all-transgender, POC-led TTRPG show on Transplanar RPG (that’s us!!) where every Arc uses a different RPG system but follows the same core trio. It’s GMed by Connie Chang and JUST started, so there’s no huge backlog to catch up on!!

Eps 1 and 2 are up wherever you listen to podcasts, including Spotify and Apple. We stream Saturdays at 8pm ET on Twitch! Character art by @crowesn. ✨ Learn more about our show on our website!

[themangoverse]

The Mangoverse is back on Tumblr!

Hey hey, this is a project blog where I hash together my WIP project, the Mangoverse. It's been around 3 years of progress and it'll be a few more but please fuel me with questions and interest.

Please reblog and spread the word!

This is the place for you if you're interested in:

south asian fantasy (HEAVILY SOUTH INDIAN AND ANTICASTE TOO!! COME!)

mythic and folkloric fantasy

sun and moon themed gods

someone's obvious passion project

lots and lots and lots of queer characters

lovingly written story about witnessing life, the land and love as evidence of magic

noncolonial world

non-western fantasy tropes!!!

If you're new and interested, come send an ask saying hi! I have over 140 characters, 8 kingdoms, various genres of stories and quite a bit of art ready to be asked about and shared!

Some art of mine related to the project below the cut:

[artemx746]

Minecraft is proof that the children yearn for a noncolonial and anarchist world

[ecruvian]

Can anyone recommend any good blog posts or articles that talk about colonial vs. noncolonial ways of spreading culture and ideas? For example, there are some quality of life cultural things that I care deeply about and think should be universal - women's liberation, the rights of disabled people, etc - but countries like the US have a history of using coercive practices to spread political agendas, which is extremely awful even if I agree with the political agenda in question.

I have some thoughts on the topic already. One thing I think about a lot is that when you make a more open and welcoming community, liberation-focused ideas spread naturally because people who are actively bigoted need to either change their attitudes or be shunted out of the community (paradox of tolerance and all that). When we actively reach out to people from a diverse set of backgrounds with no further agenda than being friends, the world just sort of gets better as a consequence. But my ideas are very immature and not backed by serious research or discussion on the subject, so I'd like some reading material.

[celiaflowers3]

Yeah, finally a noncolonial Belgium post Laughs in fries

[neechees]

You could also say there are poc who also enjoy cc (which is true) but the fact remains that cc is white in its aesthetics, imagery, and romantisization of homesteading, and if it wasn't then the newer, much less prominent subcategory "poc cc" wouldn't be a thing of it's own, now would it?

[erelasirrelevantessays]

Exegesis | “Extra-Rational Aesthetic Action and Cultural Decolonization” by David Garneau

Week 3 | July 28, 2021

Decolonization is a tough subject to tackle. What exactly does it entail? How would one go about it? Can it even be done? In the case of Canada, it may be a "permanently unfinished project", as David Garneau puts it in his essay, "Extra-Rational Aesthetic Action and Cultural Decolonization". Of course, that doesn't mean we shouldn't take steps towards it. But how, and through what? With the amount of opposing discourses that exist, there is clearly not a single correct answer, only attempts to do what is right, which may not always work out in the end despite having good intentions. Garneau acknowledges this when he discusses different approaches to decolonization, along with their pros and cons. The gentle introduction of settlers to Indigenous ways is reasonable but not transformative enough. On the other hand, total immersion is transformative, but often too shocking. Fortunately, Garneau is able to bring up something that sits snuggly in between these two popular but flawed approaches: art. Specifically, it seems to be contemporary art's "extra-rational aesthetic action", as the essay's title suggests.

What does "extra-rational aesthetic action" mean? One thing's for sure - it does not refer to the beautiful. Art may be a powerful tool, but it too is not without its own weaknesses, which in this case is beauty. Garneau argues that while beauty in art triggers powerful emotions within us, it simply is what it is: sensual allure. Furthermore, the beautiful is a utopic space, a space that represses all negatives and anything that does not fit in with what is seen by the dominant culture to be aesthetically pleasing. If the beautiful within art is not the key, then what is? Could the key be to recover and revive what is repressed: in our context here, Indigenous cultural traditions? Maybe to a certain degree, yes, but Garneau warns against focusing too intently on this particular point, which may lead to colonial Romanticism. He puts it this way: "Reviving customary practices is noncolonial practice. Decolonial practice is a more direct challenge to colonial habits." Additionally, this inadvertently brings to the forefront another “the West versus the Other” dichotomy. Customary practices of the Other are seen as remarkable in their sensuality, which is what the rational West supposedly lacks and therefore should learn about. However, what should be learned is not this, says Garneau, but Indigenous cultures' emphasis on holism - specifically the need for both the rational and the sensual, and not the disposal of one in place of the other. Likewise, there is a need for both the Indigenous and the Western, as they exist in relation and not separation to each other.

With this, Garneau ends his text with three performance works that exist in this in-between space of art: Rebecca Belmore's yell, Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s threats, and Terrance Houle’s flaunting of his hanging belly. They are neither purely beautiful, nor are they purely ugly. Instead, they are "extra-rational aesthetic actions" that elicit innate responses meant to confuse and encourage the viewer to try and learn whatever it is that needs to be learned. I agree with Garneau and find his stance enlightening, but I fear that the challenging and troubling nature of these performance works may in fact push away the same people who need to experience them the most. The reach of art may also be a limiting factor. When performed within spaces meant for art, other potential audiences are excluded. On the other hand, when they are performed in outside spaces, such works may not be perceived as art at all. Will a lesson be learned at all? Garneau's arguments are enticing, but again, there is no perfect way to approach the topic of cultural decolonization. However, for now, this holistic and non-polarizing mindset seems to be a safe stride in the right direction. In the meantime, we should proceed cautiously and be open to other methods and ways of thinking that may be revealed in the future.

[ethn104d1-blog]

Decolonizing Curriculum

Nathan Fagan believes in the importance of decolonizing the curriculum. Decolonization is a process and it focuses on giving power back to marginalized groups by working on removing the system of meritocracy that has affected them. The current education system is based on internal colonialism which ensures the power of the white elite.  As we have seen throughout history colonial domination and capitalism have served the interest of the white, wealthy, Christian, and English-speaking population. In the education system, we have seen various laws and policies that affect marginalized individuals. 

The effects of colonization have been seen in Califonia Proposition 227 prohibited the use of home language in teaching and learning. Policies such as Proposition 227 is an example of racial discrimination, inequality, and class domination that continues to exist in the United States education system. Nathan Fagan believes that there needs to be anticolonial and decolonizing pedagogical praxis needs to be established in education systems. This will make the space in schools anti-homophobic, anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-capitalist.  Students should be engaged in decolonized social spaces to allow them to have the opportunity to be successful as well as learn from curricula that teach them about a noncolonial and anti-patriotic history.

[riotready]

From a comrade Kanaka Maoli, anti-colonial Hawaiian flag. Resurrected from an ‘original’ Hawaiian green, red and yellow striped flag, destroyed by British navy Capt. Lord George Paulet when he seized Hawaii for five months in 1843” and maintained that it was Kamehameha’s personal flag long before the modern Hawaiian flag. At the flag’s center is a green shield bearing a coat of arms, which include a kahili, the original Hawaiian royal standard, and two paddles, meant to represent the voyaging tradition of the Native Hawaiians. The flag’s color scheme is red, yellow and green, meant to represent different groups within Hawaiian society. The yellow is symbolic of the alii, the powerful royal class. Red represents the konohiki, the landed caste that served the alii. Green signifies the makaainana, or commoners. Many of Native Hawaiian descent consider this noncolonial flag to be “the people’s flag,” a more accurate depiction of the true spirit and culture of the people of Hawaii than the official flag. #decolonize #decolonization https://www.instagram.com/p/CBYVhGIjUE6/?igshid=1q55bv2gehejh

[expfcultragreen]

Good vid

Regarding "males select younger females because of greater fecundity"

Look at the percentage (bracketed) differences between the under and over 35s

These results vary based on demographic (culturally influenced) factors in the sampled populations, not on innate biology...im also interested in skew factors like, maybe the over 35s have higher infertility rates because the overall survival rate of infertile individuals is higher; dont they say having kids takes years off your life or something? I dunno,theres some bias at play circling around mores about entropic decay, but, it could go both ways

Also the idea of it mattering that eggs are in an individual in lesser quantity than sperm and thats meaningful to our innate drives is insane; each sperm doesnt go to a separate place when those million are in play, theyre like a portuguese manowar vs a noncolony jelly the size of the moon......the idea of "some individuals have millions of sperm vs some have x number of eggs" and that meaning something philosophical or whatever is uh, pretty out of touch with reproductive biology? Neither type of genetic material conveyance method could be utilized enough in any individuals lifetime to exhaust their capacity, like you cant carry as many eggs as you have and you cant inseminate as many eggs as you have sperms, or even loads of sperms. People look at things sooooo weeeeird

[wateringgoodseeds]

On the positive side of this historical moment: we have far more educated people, both in absolute and percentage terms terms, than any other totalitarian government has faced. Just the education of women assures that fact, but in addition, college graduation rates were historically high in this country for the past sixty years Furthermore, the folks who imagine themselves to be "real Americans" are a bare majority in this country, while most noncolonial totalitarian states have moved against relatively small and weak minority groups. We probably have the ability to get our country back.

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[transplanarrpg]

The stars vanish. The Eight gods are severed from the world like loose threads. Strange monsters crawl out of the lightless void. Fate weaves our broken heroes toward a destiny they never asked for. Shattered gods grow hungry. The Stranger approaches

We are Transplanar RPG, an all-transgender, majority POC actual play set in an original noncolonial, antiorientalist world based on Asian mythologies.

Our main campaign, THE SECOND STRANGER, features 8 PCs across 2 parties trying to restore balance in the wake of the apocalypse.

Check out our Twitter for the latest updates and our website for information.

We stream every Saturday at 7pm CST on Twitch. Toss us a follow! Podcast episodes drop on Tuesdays on all platforms.

Just jumping in? No problem! We have a written recap document or you can check out past VODs on YouTube. Don't forget to sub!

[transplanarrpg]

[Image ID: Øka Hyye from Transplanar RPG is justified left, with "Transplanar, Arc Four, Episode 1" justified right. End ID.]

Our party arrives in Qiulong, where one of their own is a wanted criminal... with a 100,000 gold bounty on their head.

Transplanar RPG is an all-trans, POC-led D&D show set in an original noncolonial, antiorientalist world. Our campaign is about broken people rebuilding a broken world.

PODCAST // RECAP // PAST EPISODES // TWITTER // INSTAGRAM

Art by @pisharpart. Commissions open!

Arc Four debuts THIS SATURDAY! Tune in on September 4th at 3pm CST on Twitch!

[transplanarrpg]

[Image ID: Dewey Quurk from Transplanar RPG is justified right, with the words “Transplanar Arc Two Ep. 1″ justified left. End ID.]

The gods aren’t gone—they’re broken. Now what?

Transplanar RPG is an ALL-TRANSGENDER, POC-led Dungeons and Dragons livestreamed actual play campaign set in a 100% homebrew, noncolonial, antiorientalist world. And we want YOU to watch us.

RECAP // TWITTER // YOUTUBE // INSTAGRAM

Art by @hannahmaycreate.

Arc Two of Transplanar RPG premieres THIS Saturday, January 9th at 3pm CST on Twitch!

[transplanarrpg]

[Image ID: Dr. Oluso justified right with “Transplanar, Arc Three, Ep. 6” justified left. End ID.]

Cain, a very hot and VERY EVIL tiefling, is the favorite to win the Championship. Can our PCs thwart them… or will they join them?!

Transplanar RPG is an all transgender, POC-led D&D stream set in an original noncolonial, antiorientalist world.

Art by @pisharpart, a nonbinary artist. Commissions are OPEN.

RECAP // YOUTUBE // TWITTER // INSTAGRAM

Join us this Saturday, June 12 at 4pm CDT on Twitch! (Yes, this week’s stream is pushed back an hour.)