#people don't generally wear jewellery about their names to my knowledge

[ehlnofay]

a portrait of history's unsung wizardly pioneer

mouse(@everybodyknows-everybodydies)'s writing on shalidor's much-overlooked ex-wife (and the mind behind half of his famed projects and discoveries) has captivated me utterly. nothing cooler than an old-timey woman whose contributions to her field were subsumed by her ex-husband and whose memory now exists only in buried glimpses and guesses, a series of scraps to be pieced fruitlessly together. my beloved

[omarera]

How do you understand the part where he talks about clothes, jewelry and make-up and being bothered by people assuming those men who wear them are gay?

I read it as stating that all these things: make-up, hairstyles, clothes, jewellery have no gender or sexuality. But I saw some comments about him having internalized homophobia. And since I don't understand Swedish, I can't decide what is more likely here

Short answer: I agree with your interpretation.

Long answer:

Omar came out in Sweden 2019 and it is general knowledge that he is not straight. He answered questions on that people often asks if he is a boy or a girl and if he was bothered by it. He then said that he is not but he gets tired of getting questions on his gender identity and sexual orientation. This was 2019. And the questions are still coming. And he also asks why people should know his orientation just for the sake of knowing and that he doesn’t want to put a label on himself. He is out and proud. Some have the need to be specific and define themselves to the public and others don’t. This topic is not news in Sweden regarding him. He doesn’t have to address it. The interviewer have focus on him as a person and what he does. It’s not focus on his sexual orientation or gender identity. Or Israel- Palestine for that matter for the people that criticize him for not talking about that.

This part in the interview a few people react on is mentioned when they discuss his development and that he had a period where he was lost in life and tried to find his way. I actually asked some other people when it was published if people will now try to misinterpret this part. People said that “no it’s clear” but we also concluded that people who wants to pick on him will take the chance to twist it and pick on him as always. And now a few obviously do. I looked up some comments (still just a few comments are negative) and it’s quite clear that it is people with an agenda that have a history of negative comments.

Twitter is tiring since it’s one liners and short texts. People take one sentence out of its context. Twist words and make the narrative they want to make. It’s not nuanced. And some just want to drag him.

He says two things:

make-up is for everyone and not only an option or only considered for people who defines themselves in specific ways. As you said, it doesn’t have gender or sexual orientation. And men should be able to wear it without people automatically assuming their sexuality or gender.

He also express in the interview that he is now more secure of who he is and dare to express himself as he wants to and is not ashamed of who he is and how he expresses himself. He also address his hair style in the interview. See below.

My friends and I started trying different types of clothes. We played music and fixed ourselves up. Some tried to put on makeup and nail polish. I really experimented. Those who are not in the know immediately think that a guy who wears make-up is gay or transgender - that bothers me. Make-up should not have to have an orientation, it should be for everyone. Now I wear black eyeliner when I feel like it without being ashamed.

Playing with expressions became a way to find his way home to his inner self and the fact that Omar was named Best Dressed Man of the Year by the magazine Café this spring is something of a receipt for that.

I have realized that I have to feel comfortable, stable and free with who I am if I am to be able to move forward in life.

He runs his hand through his slightly wavy hair and walks over to the mirror to get ready for the photo shoot.

- I would never have dared to have it this way a few years ago. Thankfully, I am much more confident in myself now.

You're not as lost anymore?

- No, I have grown a lot in recent years and now I feel stable enough to take myself forward in life. But I'm probably not quite there yet, the journey continues …

He states he is now confident and comfortable with who he is and how he express himself and that he, as all of us keeps in developing. It’s beautiful that he shares his journey, his insecurities and views and his development with us. Just tiring that people want to twist his words and use it against him. I wonder if those people have always been super secure and confident in expressing themselves as they want and break norms without blinking. Omar gets a lot of shit for the way he breaks norms. And he has been doing it and experimenting in the public eye. And he has always been honest about who he is. Be grateful he is open and shares his journey. They made a thing of the eyeliner in the article. The heading is even “Now I wear black eyeliner whenever I feel like it”.

[badreturns-m]

hi! i was wondering if you could help? I was thinking of making a muse that has suffered some sort of brain injury which cause some affects? but didn't want to go down the cliche of them losing all their memories etc, and since you study psychology i thought perhaps you could have some suggestions. if you don't I understand. thank you in advance either way!!

hey! okay I think I can give you a few ideas... hopefully. I love the brain so much, I am a bit of a weirdo like that, so I think I should be able to give you some suggestions.

now in terms of amnesia, the whole bumped my head/was in an accident and lost of all my memories is super cliche, i agree, even digger lost all his memories at one point! but that isn’t the only type of amnesia, there are many so perhaps another kind, one that isn’t used very often in media could tickle your fancy?

AMNESIA

when talking about amnesia it can fall into either retrograde or antrograde amnesia.

RETROGRADE amnesia is the more well known type where someone get’s a bumped or injury to the head and lose information/memories that took place BEFORE the accident. so for instance if someone get’s hit in the head or faints and they wake up and are unsure of how the ended up on the ground? that’s retrograde amnesia, people can lose all different amounts of memories, not just ALL their memories.

memories lost in regards to retrograde amnesia are usually EPISODIC memories, these are personal memories or events or things personal to you, such as your dogs name, what happened on your 10th b-day, things that aren’t common knowledge, that most people know. so people who suffer from this kind of memory loss usually still have their SEMANTIC memories, which come in two types DECLARATIVE memory and EXPLICIT memories, which include common knowledge of facts and events -- what country is the eiffel tower in, what a dog is etc. however these do depend on personal experience and culture. recent memories are less likely to be recovered as it takes time to consolidate memories into more permanent memory stores. 

ANTROGRADE amnesia is an inability to create NEW memories. so if you have seen 50 first dates you would have an idea of this, however it isn’t usually so simple as you waking up every morning with no memory of the day before. short term memories usually only last around 2-3 minutes, before they are moved to more permanent stores. there is a man who has only a 2-3 minute memory due to antrograde amnesia. clive wearing is an example for reference.

OTHER TYPES OF AMNESIAthere are various other types of amnesia which you could look up, which fall into either of these categories however they are mostly defined in regards to what has caused them, for example Korsakoff's syndrome is a type of amnesia cause by alcoholism or malnutritian and there is other things such as repressed memories etc. etc. so if amnesia interests you, you can look into those too. 

however suppose you want to steer away from amnesia all together, well I can help you with that!

APHASIA

aphasia is a issue relating to speech and understanding language due to some sort of injury or brain loss in a particular region of the brain. once again there are various types of aphasia, however I will talk about two types and you can research further into them or the other’s if interested.

WERNICKE’S aphasia is caused mainly due to damage to the temporal lobe, particularly the wernicke’s area, usually located in the left hemisphere of the temporal lobe. the wernicke’s area is used in the comprehension of language and speech, and people who have damage to this area, more commonly due to stroke, can speak fluently, however what they say is nonsensical. because of this communication is very difficult. man with wernicke’s aphasia trying to converse.

BROCA’S aphasia is caused by damage to the broca’s area located in the left hemisphere of the frontal lobe. the broca’s area is responsible for speech production and the movement of muscles related to speech production. people suffering from broca’s aphasia have an impaired word retrieval, so when they speak, their sentences are usually very broken up, with words missing. speechis fluent and grammatically correct however it  contains many word retrieval failures. These failures lead to unusual pauses, talking around the intended word, or substituting a different word for the intended word. for example where someone might say “I am going to go to the shop” someone with broca’s aphasia might say “I go to shop”, with various pauses and stuttering in between. here is an example of a teenager who suffered this aphasia after a stroke.

people with broca’s aphaisa know in their mind what they want to say, however they find they are unable to get the words out, their mouths just don’t make the words. people can generally fill in the gaps and understand what it is they are attempting to say. with wernicke’s aphasia it is nonsensical and rather gibberish speech, which people can not understand, however in the mind of the sufferer they are speaking normally, when they’re really not.

PROSOPAGNOSIA

PROSOPAGNOSIA or face blindness is a very odd disorder, caused once again due to damage of the temporal lobe...oops okay, temporal lobe is my fave lobe. can’t help it. the temporal lobe not only has a lot to do with hearing and memory, but it also has to do with facial recognition, and damage to certain area’s of the lobe can affect someone’s facial recognition abilities. a person suffering from this has trouble recognising people’s faces, be it family member’s, friends, celebrities or other well known faces and even their own face! they can be shown pictures of people they know, and even their own photograph, be asked to state who is in the photo and yet they will be unable to do so. while a person has trouble recognising faces they can use other clues to aid in determining who they are looking at / talking to, such as a person’s clothes, voice, jewellery or perfume. they can recognise and link these things to people they know, they just can not remember a person based on their face. here is a man sufferering from face blindness.