#rather than a generalized anti queer post

[anti-psych-pro-endo]

Hi, Miz of the Metafarers here. We’ve been debating reposting this post as a stand-alone post. Sophie has not replied, and may never reply, but we still think that the points we made are important for others to see, so for visibility's sake, we are posting again, as is. This post was originally written by J, but since they aren’t around, I’m reposting. Original reblog is here: https://www.tumblr.com/anti-psych-pro-endo/750151806289690624/hi-sophie-this-is-j-of-the-metafarers-yeah-i-saw?source=share

Hi Sophie. This is J of the Metafarers Yeah, I saw your post. We’re both on plural tumblr so it should be a fair guess that we’re gonna see it, and since you are literally talking about our blog, I’m gonna respond to it. Stars will respond when fae have the energy. You haven’t been good about responding to our criticism in the past, when we make arguments against your points you don’t have answers to, so I’m not exactly expecting a great response, if any, from you, but I figure if you said your piece, I’m gonna say mine.

Okay, but I do not need or want your validation.

Okay, first, are you really trying to make a case for linear ‘progress’ in the psych professions based on queer rights’ movement? Gay and trans people being considered mentally ill was and is awful, but it is NOT the main problem with the field, rather a symptom and reflection of societal ideas. The psych community did not independently research their way into discovering that gayness is ‘normal’, they were pressured into reclassification BECAUSE social norms changed. Psychiatry and psychology do not just have little flaws and discrepancies that need to be mended, the fields are fundamentally flawed to the core. A core that reaches back centuries, not decades.

Let's be real here, this isn’t just about the general public wanting validation, it's about you needing validation from psychology.

Sophie… 25% of the general population REPORT having a mental illness. That number is likely much higher as it does not account for people who have not been diagnosed or sought out mental health care. Of COURSE people in the mental health field are diagnosed with mental illness more, because they have more access and knowledge of mental illness to recognize it in themselves. This does not necessarily mean that the percentage of neurodivegence in psych professions is meaningfully higher than the general populace. And while depression and anxiety disorders are not insignificant, there is a major difference between meeting the criteria for major depression or generalized anxiety, the most commonly diagnosed disorders, than being plural, autistic, or being diagnosed with a personality disorder. It’s irresponsible to suggest the fields are more diverse than they actually are.

Okay, one, even if you did manage to ‘infiltrate’ an entire field with plurals, good fucking luck getting them all on the same page to even agree on what ‘positive change’ would be.

But also, LEFT LEANING DOES NOT MEAN SAFE. Left leaning does not mean they will not harm, abuse, and oppress. You’re effectively saying, oh if we could just get enough plural people in the psych field we could change it for the better. But the entire system is based in ‘fixing’ what is wrong with people! It always has been, and it continues to be! Yes, people also want to figure out more about how the brain works, and all that fun stuff, but that research is not done outside an agenda. It doesn’t matter how much good will and good intentions people have. It doesn’t matter that the field is more ‘left leaning’ now, that’s a reflection of society, especially academic society, more than anything. The majority of the plural community is left leaning, yet most discourse is just lateral violence between pro endos and anti endos. Left leaning disabled people, both physically and neurodisabled are frequently laterally violent to one another, with some claiming that neurodisabled people are privileged oppressers whose problems aren’t serious. Then, there is the lateral violence in trans and feminist spaces, where radfem ideology runs rampant, to the point that some trans people are claiming other trans people are privileged and aren’t oppressed like other trans people. I don’t need to get into the details of those things to show, that just because people and communities are left leaning does not mean they aren’t just as capable of perpetuating harm and harming each other. 

DO YOU REALLY THINK THESE ARE THE ONLY TWO OPTIONS SOPHIE??? THE PSYCH FIELDS AND TRUMP SUPPORTERS?????????

This is not about personal attacks on your local fucking therapist. We are condemning a field that has historical and currently been used to abuse, oppress, and harm anyone outside the norm. Plurals being acknowledged as real will not stop that from happening! I do not give a damn if the people in the field are left leaning. The political spectrum is not black and white, and everyone along it is capable of doing harm and perpetuating violence.

Yeah, its nice that they took down the video. If people want to thank them for that, that’s their prerogative. But the psych community is not my friend or companion, the Mcclean hospital is not my ally, or neighbor.  They are part of an institution of violence, that I believe is fundamentally flawed to the core. I think we need to work on independently finding ways to provide mental health support for each other so that we can safely dismantled those institutions and their power over the mentally ill and abnormal. That doesn’t mean we’ll stop learning about the mind.

But yeah, no, Sophie infiltrating the psych fields with benevolent systems so she can build a school to experiment on/study plural children in a perfectly controlled environment with al the safeguards in place to double triple check and make sure no one is being harmed and no abuse takes place because we did it all perfectly with good intentions….. Is no win to me. It’s literally how psychiatry already runs, people with power and good intentions and little systems they think work fine to protect people from harm when in actuality they continue to do terrible harm because they HAVE POWER OVER PEOPLE.

Calling views you don’t agree with extreme is the most liberal centrist shit ever and it shows. You do not get a pass calling my opinions extreme because you disagree with me.

Okay, but NONE OF THIS is about you. You’re taking the anti-psych position as a personal attack when NONE OF IT IS ABOUT YOU. And being anti psych is not anti knowledge. Is not anti learning or anti curiosity. You fundamentally do not understand the position. I am NOT surprised on your position. I have seen your blog for years, I know what your opinions are. You’re entitled to them, but do not presume to act like you understand mine, when you clearly do not. I have tried to response to you in the past with clarification. I’ve seen others do so as well, and you just, do not listen. You assume everyone is just speaking from trauma from a few bad apples in the field, and refuse to examine it deeper because ‘the field is full of people with good intentions’.

I do not need your validation to understand my own experiences as a system and my experiences in the mental health field. I do not need validation from psychology to know that I am real. If you, and others take comfort in the research, that’s fine. But I am not on board with you, or others like you, gaining power in a system that will continue to do harm. Its not just about systems, but plurals are definitely capable of harming one another, like everyone is. You are not actually listening to the victims of psych abuse and it shows.

[soldier-poet-king]

Aw baby's first time being called an abomination 🥰 I feel like I deserve a steam achievement or smthn for this

[nonpracticinghumanbeing]

Izzy IS about community. He’s ALWAYS BEEN about community in his own messed up way. The Canyon was right and the haters were wrong.

He wanted Blackbeard back because that was what kept the crew safe. He was terrible about it and hurt the man he obviously loves in the process, but it WAS for the greater good. It wasn’t a purely selfish act the antis love to frame it as. He wanted to feel safe again and he wanted the crew to be safe as well.

Hell, he was doing his best to help Edward through his post-breakup depression. He didn’t understand what was going on and was clearly distressed by it but he provided what Ed needed. He *knew* he lacked the emotional capacity to help his captain himself so he agreed to bring him Lucius. I really think he would have just gritted his teeth and suffered through it if Ed didn’t say the one thing that could collapse his whole world.

"Why do we even bother being pirates?" That was what freaked Izzy out so much that he pushed Edward to violence. Not because he selfishly wanted Ed to be close at all times but because Blackbeard the legend was the pillar of his community. That legend kept everyone safe and even if Izzy is a horrible asshole, he *does* care about his crew. He knows the world is a horrible hostile place and he focuses on risk mitigation, even if it means hurting the one person he really cares about.

He really tried to provide that to the crew when Edward and Stede took the Act of Grace. It was a terribly misguided attempt at keeping things under control and it was certainly influenced by his submissive tendencies which make him crave structure and feel safe within hierarchies. He *knows* he lacks Ed's charisma and ability to think outside the box and with such huge shoes to fill it's not really surprising he acted out in anger and in result failed miserably. But he was *NEVER* an asshole just for the sake of it.

Now he realizes those days are gone for good. He's already done everything he could to bring Ed back to his senses, including using *Stede fuckin' Bonnet’s* name. It didn’t work. The realization that his one true safeguard is really gone must be terrible, but it also pushes him to take action.

The moment he realizes the crew are in real danger, he takes things into his own hands. He not only goes against the hierarchy he believed to be sacred but also against the man he *LOVES*. He fucking shoots his beloved captain to save the crew. You don’t get much more *community* than that.

He is clearly struggling. He's just tried to fucking kill himself after being maimed AND told he was disposable by a man whom he's apparently served for dacades. He will have to reevaluate his whole life and he *knows* it. But he puts it all to the side and he does what needs to be done. He took all of Edward’s abuse without complaint it seems but the moment the crew are in real danger, he intervenes. You can’t tell me a community (*any* community) doesn’t need people like that.

It all feels very old-time queer to me. The willingness to make terrible sacrifices to protect one's space. The decision (conscious or not) to be effective rather than liked. The choice to stay alive despite terrible heartbreak and go on fighting.

He's absolutely NOT an irredimable villain. He’s an asshole who tries to keep his little world safe. He’s Larry Kramer getting kicked out of GMHC for being too confrontational and politically incorrect to be palatable to the general public.

[madlori]

Here's where I am with Buddie.

[CW: I am using the Buddie tag on this post, even though the gist of it is that I'm increasingly doubtful that it'll ever happen. This is NOT an anti-Buddie essay. If you'd rather not read about this topic, please keep scrolling. The bulk of the essay is behind the cut.]

-------

I've thought a lot about this over the weeks since 7x04 aired. It's not a secret that I'm wildly enthusiastic about the BuckTommy pairing (as are many fans) but what does that mean for my thoughts and opinions about Buddie, a pairing I still love and for which I am still writing fic (slowly but surely…)?

It's become increasingly difficult to reconcile hopes for Buddie with dread for a BuckTommy breakup, but if the show managed to pull off a breakup that did not destroy me, I would still be all in for a Buddie endgame.

But more and more, I don't think it's in the cards, and I'm increasingly okay with that.

First off, I know it's a common assumption that Buck and Tommy have an expiration date, and that it cannot last. That may very well be the case, but…the show is not acting like it, nor are they presenting this arc as if it's short-lived. Episodes 4-6, while also being about other things (especially the amazing Madney wedding plot in 6) were also a bit of a trilogy about Buck discovering his sexuality and taking tentative steps into a relationship with another man. It didn't go…particularly smoothly, but the events of 7x06 where they were concerned had a completely different tone. They had a much more settled vibe in the karaoke club scenes, from Tommy's very boyfriendly "check-in" look before he had to leave, to Buck's casual/distracted "Be safe" (as if he's said this before) and just how they spoke to each other and touched each other was much more comfortable than in the coffee meetup. Which makes me think it's been a few weeks and they've seen each other a few times in the interim.

And then that kiss. Putting aside that it was juxtaposed with a literal wedding kiss, there was nothing uncertain or hesitant about it. It felt like a very arc-capping kiss, coupled with the reveal to the rest of Buck's friends and family, and the clear message was "Okay, they're done 'getting together' now, they are together and will be together going forward, even if we don't see Tommy every episode (much as we don't see Karen every episode)." We know Tommy will be around through the end of S8, if not in every remaining episode. After that, we'll see.

A lot of fans have viewed one of the guys coming out as queer to be a first step towards a Buddie future, but I have to say I've never been super comfortable with that logic. I've always thought that if they were going to get together, or both be revealed to be queer, it would have to be at the same time, with each other, via them getting together. The minute they pulled the trigger on Bisexual Buck, I immediately thought that this made Buddie far less likely. Why?

Because it would mean that the writers/showrunners would be making BOTH their "hot younger firefighter" characters queer…separately. In separate storylines. Distinct from each other. And I just don't see that happening. I'm not saying it SHOULDN'T happen. I'd be over the moon. I'm saying I think that's unlikely.

As much as it pains me to say it, I think Eddie will be written as straight and will continue to be written as straight. I don't disagree with the many examples of queer coding we've all seen - the problem is all of them can be just as easily interpreted as arising from a different trauma. Almost everything we've seen from him that could very legitimately be read as breadcrumbs for a queer identity for him could also be rooted in his trauma over Shannon's death, his family trauma, his PTSD, or his general anxiety over being enough for people. He can be read as having sexuality crises. But he can also be read as having other crises with the same results.

I'm not seeing a sexuality crisis for Eddie in the future. I just don't feel like that's where they're taking him. They're taking him somewhere -- he's got storylines coming up -- but I think they're going to have to do with his family, possibly his friendship with Buck, maybe his relationship (I think we can all agree Marisol isn't going to last, she's like the anti-Tommy in that she's been around way longer but has infinitely less of a presence), and Christopher. That's a lot to deal with just right there. If I'm wrong, I will be delighted to be wrong.

But.

I think the show will continue to prioritize and showcase Buck and Eddie's very deep and emotional friendship, which is revolutionary in its own quiet way. Another thing that makes me think they're setting Tommy up to be a long term love interest is that one of the first things they did with him was affirm that he will not come between Buck and Eddie, give him his own relationship with Eddie and Chris, and have him show that he understands and respects the depth of their bond. Not to mention they've integrated him with the firefam. No other of Buck's love interests have gotten this treatment (Taylor had the most contact with the firefam, but I don't think anyone would say she was integrated, LOL). And it shows how committed they are to maintaining Buck and Eddie's friendship as a key emotional element of the show. Tim has also said this, repeatedly.

People often say that there's no explanation for how Buck and Eddie are with each other if it's not romantic - I read a fantastic essay that pointed out that this statement is the reason their platonic friendship IS so important. Men should be able to be vulnerable and loving with each other without it being romantic, as women can be. If we're unable to see a loving friendship without interpreting it as romantic or sexual, what does that say about the kind of male friendships we see everywhere, that makes this one so different?

I know this is an old anti-Buddie argument and I'm not anti-Buddie nor do I mean it's wrong to see it as romantic. I still do. I'm saying if it's not, if it never is, what it is, is already valuable and special, especially when one of them is now openly queer and dating a man.

Anyway. That's where I am with it, and my interpretation of where the show is with it.

[problematicbyler]

an incomplete history of byler sexuality discourse

and how widespread fandom purity culture and homophobia created a flourishing nsfw sub-fandom

some may call me chronically online, but i call myself a fandom historian. i've been a member of some fandom or another since i was about thirteen, and i've always been interested in the rise and fall of fandom discourse. though it's annoying in the moment it's happening, i think it's very interesting and telling to look back at the overall arcs and trends.

so, let's talk about the many times the fandom has cancelled people over byler sexuality, and how each level of "hornygate" has contributed to the growth of the proship/byler smut community.

(i use the term proship in its intended definition, which is to say, not "problematic shipping," but rather being pro-fiction, anti-censorship, and anti-harassment; it is a position of believing the fiction one creates or consumes doesn't reflect a person's real life beliefs or morals.)

i have been a stranger things lover since season 1, a byler shipper since season 2, and an active part of the byler community on tumblr since season 4. i'll mostly be focusing on post-season 4 discourse because that's what i've really been most present for and that was the period that really marked a turning point in the fandom.

seasons 1-3

i wasn't as plugged into fandom discourse back in the day, but the broad strokes of early discourse was mostly thinly veiled homophobia. claiming that it was sexualization to assume will or mike could be queer despite blatant queer coding, implying that analysts were no better than will's bullies to assume his sexuality, etc etc. people were criticized for shipping byler at all because they were so young (but these people naturally had no issue with mileven, so, again, homophobia).

season 4 (may-july 2022)

now, season 4. this is where byler was brought to the attention of a lot more fans, and stranger things' viewership reached wider than ever. the byler fandom on tumblr booms from 4k to 100k over the course of season 4's release.

this brought a lot of new people who have never been in fandoms before, people who never learned don't like don't read or your kink is not my kink and that's okay or ship and let ship.

or, a lot of times, people who had only been in fandoms for celebrities and bands, which tend to have different rules when it comes to shipping and sex, because they're real people. hence a lot of young antis' conflation of character with their actors, but that's a different rant.

so with a rapidly growing fandom, a show ripe for analysis, and the art of media literacy bleeding out on the ground in front of us, the hellscape of the fandom post-season 4 in 2022 followed as such:

august 2022

jo/kendra gate where two extremely popular analysts were called out for "sexualizing" byler while being adults (early to mid 20s). they were dogpiled and harassed because one of them said that will was giving mike "bedroom eyes" (he was) and one of them said mike was checking will out (he was):

pyshiie and moogate. the proship side of byler twitter rose up and started to divide itself. i'll credit my own joining-the-dark-side to pyshiie and moo, formerly barbjeanisms, who were two popular artists called out respectively for sexualizing byler and generally being proship. similarly, people were called out and criticized for even following or interacting with those accounts after this discourse.

september 2022

hosegate is the most famous across the byler fandom, and it's when some users proposed that the scene in the pizzeria uses phallic imagery to imply mike turns will on (or vice versa) and a lot of people thought that was too sexualized, it caused a divide, and more fanpolicing, etc.

october 2022

the artist noodlesandtea was harassed for having liked arguably nsfw bakudeku art (they were shirtless, it wasn't explicit) on the same account where they draw characters who are minors. they also drew byler kissing, which was a problem for some? anyone who defended them was also called a pedo, naturally. noodles also got called out for having drawn fanart of the popular e-rated fanfiction....

the unmarked mixtape. a massively popular sequel to a massively popular fic, the red envelope. for a long time, those were the most widely recommended byler fics, but it very soon became taboo to even admit to reading them because the sequel has explicit sex and the first has them making out.

sonnet116 gate is another fic that was beloved and then rapidly turned on by byler twitter because it had implied, fade to black sex scenes. it was about them hooking up but had no smut. and even the non explicit idea of that was offensive and pedophilic of anyone who dared read it. around this time, another fic was called out for having will moaning into a kiss, because writing a teenager moaning was also offensive and pedophilic.

i'm told i (jana / troublebyler gate?) may have influenced a lot of people joining twitter for byler smut after writing illicit affairs and some other smutty oneshots in rapid succession, seeing a lot of byler shippers moving to the proship side of the fandom just to discuss and write byler smut. i also hosted a little fandom gossip column on my curiouscat where a lot of folks confessed to reading or writing smut while pretending to be "normal" in the "main" fandom. it basically revealed/implied that a large amount of popular authors, artists, and accounts were secretly pro byler smut, and that many proshippers were "undercover" in the "main" fandom.

the blocklist era. around this time the "main" fandom also created a "st twt safety" account on twitter which was basically targeted harassment and mass reporting of proshippers. the account does warn of some genuine bad actors sending gore images via dms, being racist, etc. but by far, the majority of it was simply calling out proshippers for sexualizing byler, sharing screenshots they thought were "gross," which only resulted in spreading nsfw content to unintended audiences of minors that likely never would have seen the nsfw accounts otherwise.

november 2022

practice kissing gate is where a handful of popular fic writers were criticized for writing practice kissing fics (such as undertow), and in fact, any amount of byler making out, because adults "fantasizing" about teenagers kissing was "gross."

the proship corner of st twitter continued to grow a lot thanks to so many lovely fan creators, all of whom i couldn't possibly list but who have done a lot for the community! but we continued to get bombarded with endless callout posts and block lists and witch hunting. people were unabashedly policing people's following lists and likes on twitter to call people out for engaging with any questionable users or content. (if you search byler twitter now you can still see the wreckage of so many witch hunts.)

onward through 2023

over time things have mostly calmed down, or at least enough of the folks on "opposing sides" of the fandom have mutually blocked each other to survive. this is likely also influenced by the hiatus leaving the fandom to quiet down, the collapse of twitter-turned-x having many users migrate their fandom content elsewhere, and the mass exodus of many people from the fandom for political reasons. if i had to guess, the ramp-up to season 5 will see all new conflict as more "casual" fans return to the fandom. but who's to say.

which brings us to now:

spicybylerpolls gate, wherein the byler tag on tumblr collectively had to reckon with the fact that people want byler to have sex and it doesn't make them creeps to vote in silly polls about it. people criticized the blog for being overly sexualized and pure fantasy versus more "acceptable" analysis, with many making sweeping moralizing statements about anyone who dared interact with the blog.

this has kicked off tumblr's own sort of horny revolution in encouraging folks to be more open on here, whereas previously we were confined to our corner of twitter.

so in summary:

people over and over again put fan creators on a pedestal just to turn on them when they're "betrayed" when a person's views did not one-to-one line up to theirs.

teens in the fandom especially were "betrayed" by adults in the fandom they thought were "safe" (and i would argue that self proclaimed "safe" adults in fandom are far more dangerous to real life minors than the proship fans who sexualize fictional characters but dont interact with real teens)

most everything has been fueled by widespread ageism at any fan over the age of 18, widespread homophobia and puritanism in regards to exploring queer sexuality or discussing sex at all

so much hate has been over what are essentially "thought crimes", with people watering down serious accusations like pedophilia into a petty insult over disagreements on fiction

and the cycle repeats itself endlessly until things devolve back into witch hunting and policing peoples following and likes etc

the best part to me is that every single cancellation just resulted in more people flooding to the horny side of the fandom to post more freely and without shame. every time a person on twitter posted screenshots of my account to say how "gross" it was (while simultaneously exposing my 18+ nsfw content to their audience of minors) i had a surge in followers. the more the fandom squeezes, the more people slip from its hold.

but that doesn't make the harassment campaigns okay, and it doesn't mean the fandom didn't do massive amounts of harm to real people in an attempt to protect fictional characters.

my hope going forward is that the fandom can coexist as a community where people don't have to like or agree with certain content to treat the people who create it with respect and dignity. and i hope that, while this side of the fandom might grow more on tumblr, we don't have to relive the same old discourses and go through the same cycles we went through on twitter.

and remember kids, the block button is both free and fun.

[olderthannetfic]

https://olderthannetfic.tumblr.com/post/739381076510785536/so-it-seems-our-flag-means-death-has-not-been#notes

I liked OFMD and I'm sad it's not getting renewed, but I agree that the fandom was especially toxic, even by the standards of currently popular slash-heavy fandoms. I wanted to read fic after s1 ended the way it did, and I read a little bit, but along with it having all the tropes that I can't stand in a lot of what is currently big with the MSF crowd (and that I'd been happy to have a reprieve from in my current main M/M fandom), the toxicity of the online fandom discourse made me quickly realize it was one that I was going to discuss among my current-friends-from-other-fandoms who also watched it, and my sister who watches it, and pretty much ignore the rest of the Internet. It was such a perfect storm of everything awful, from people who are overly invested in it to an unhealthy degree (I think I realized I wasn't gonna be active in the larger fandom around a month or so before the s2 renewal announcement, when I saw earnest PSA tweets telling people to "stop threatening suicide in HBO's replies if they don't renew OFMD"), to bombarding and parasocial obsessions with the creators and actors, to all the classic "anti" and purity police crap that plagues anything that gets popular on here.

The fandom it reminds me the most of, honestly, is Yuri on Ice fandom at its peak in early-mid 2017. Again, a show I love, but a fandom I absolutely do not miss. In some ways they are kind of similar shows: ones with canon M/M romances where they were not billed as that, and they were hinted from early on but people didn't trust it due to years of dealing with queerbaiting, where that sort of thing slowly crept up on people and then became the defining feature of how it was discussed everywhere. I wonder if there's a particular level of insanity that that type of thing breeds in its fans - or maybe, more broadly, "canon M/M with a large female fanbase." Like, you don't see this kind of thing in canon M/M stuff that's mostly watched by queer men rather than women, but there are shades of the insanity I also remember from Glee fandom (I was more active on the F/F side of things there, which had its own unhinged drama, but the Klaine vs. anti-Klaine stuff was so explosive that it was hard not to notice it if you were anywhere in that fandom, like a mushroom cloud in the distance). But YOI and OFMD do seem very... singular in the particular kind of obsession that they generate.

And I really wish people would shape the fuck up, because if they're going to act like this over and over again, that's just going to de-incentivize showrunners to make shows like this for that audience.

Driving Con O'Neill off Twitter was one of the worst parts of it, too. There was something so refreshingly earnest about how much he embraced the fandom, even the weirdest parts - saying with regard to NSFW fanart that "art is art" and retweeting stuff like his character in a crop-top that said "babygirl." It was so nice to see an actor who didn't usually have that kind of following embrace it wholeheartedly rather than steering clear. ....And then people had to be awful and creepy and obsessive and he left Twitter. I bet he's going to be a lot more skeptical of dealing with fans in the future!

--

It's not just the canon m/m aspect: it's the wholesomeness.

Yes, yes, they're all evil pirates, I agree, but watching S1 did give me the feeling of something that was supposed to be very progressive and light-hearted in particular ways. I don't think that's bad, but it does tend to attract some very over-sensitive fans with some very rigid expectations.

It's sadly par for the course that one of the random side character actors is the fun one and people are jackasses and desperately want the leads they ship to be the fandomy ones and/or just start creeping on any actor they can get a reaction from.

[joesalw]

All of Taylor's albums were tailored to the most popular aesthetic at the time. She didn't make shit popular, she just adapted. Especially when she made the transition into pop music.

True. She's currently jumping fences with rep as well. Making it out to be a goth punk moment and using trendy words like 'female rage'. The album has the most romantic songs she's ever written. C'mon now. The whole record is electropop with some R&B elements thrown into the mix.

She portrays 'Lover' as her social justice warrior era. 'If I was a man, then I'd be the man'. Yeah, we've seen it Taylor. Miss 'me becoming a billionaire is good for the world because I'm a woman'. She makes herself out to be this 'feminist girl's girl' when in reality it couldn't be further from the truth. She's not a feminist and she doesn't want to be the woman that's advocating for women's rights and leads the path for the future generation of women. She wants to be the man at the top. Her motto is literally 'gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss, greenhouse gases'.

Another thing is her queer allyship. She's mentioned it when and only when it was profitable to her. During her tour she hadn't said a thing when the number of states signed anti-trans bills and the state of Tennessee where she says she lives *according to her own documentary* banned drag. I don't think she said anything about the anti-abortion legislation either. Her activist era started and ended in 2019.

Don't get me started on her position regarding the BLM movement. She only posted something because her own fans started calling her out and then declared that she's 'ferociously anti-racist'. She positioned herself as an advocate *by herself* and then immediately dipped when it stopped being as profitable. If you don't want to be dragged for your silence about social and political crises, don't proclaim yourself as an activist. Simple as that.

I've also seen the video on Youtube about TS being a narcissist (someone posted it on your blog earlier I think). And the guy in the video brought up her guitar teacher. So I looked him up and found an article where he talks about his experience with the Swifts which he got sued for later. According to the man, Taylor's mother was interested in him teaching her daughter how to play country music and was just a stage mom in general. And TS says that she'd been begging her parents to allow her learn how to play guitar and that she's self-taught. She wants her success story to be a rags to riches so bad I can't even.

She's a woman with an extremely fragile ego where millions of people could be praising her and a single negative comment would set her off. She can't handle any form of criticism, break ups or inconveniences like a grown woman simply because she doesn't have enough emotional intelligence to do so. Her being surrounded by yes men also doesn't help the situation. If i were her, I'd rather invest in a good therapist rather than 2 PJs. She drowns herself in work and relationships so she doesn't have time to go inwards and sit with her thoughts.

I kinda feel bad for her, honestly. She's been in the industry since she was 15 and her success was almost immediate. She doesn't know what the world's like because she's been sheltered her whole life and then had other people do things for her. I don't think she has many real friends as well. By real I mean people who aren't afraid to tell you the truth and are able to call you out in your face. Instead she has a bunch of people who appease her afraid of pissing her off and ending up on her bad side and as a result her vanity grows and she completely loses any sort of perspective whether in her friendships, romantic relationships or maybe even her own family.

I also wonder what she thinks about her fandom pirating her concert film instead of paying to rent it. I sort of hope that her fans are starting to wake up to her conning schemes. I mean, you've already made a shit ton of money from the theatre release, why charging 20$ more to RENT IT?Not even buy it. Or is it another narrative about how 'no one can own my work but me'?

This woman sells well but her cultural impact is almost nonexistent. She hadn't done any good for the world causes or inspired several generations of performers like Michael Jackson has with his philanthropic endeavors and incredible performing skills. The artists like Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake (bleh) and The Weeknd were hugely influenced by MJ. These artist create their own unique legacy and impact on their communities. Especially the ladies. Gaga's been an avid LGBT+ advocate since the beginning of her career and created a foundation that focuses on issues like self-confidence, well-being, anti-bullying, mentoring and career development. She also participated in anti HIV and AIDS campaigns, spoke against immigration laws in the US, contributed to 2011's earthquake and tsunami relief campaign in Japan. Beyoncé's a huge advocate for the black community and black women especially which always finds its way in her work and visual art in particular. She's been platforming black culture and history for her whole career (2016 Superbowl and Coachella performance are the brightest examples of black american culture and releasing her Lion King album to showcase African artists' excellence). She also has a foundation where she provides black youth scholarships, clean water for communities abroad and housing to families in need in her home state.

What exactly makes Taylor Swift's cultural impact? Thousands of tons CO2 emissions? Music labels putting a clause in the contract so the artists can't re-record their material for 10 years now instead of 5? Making several versions of the same CD or vinyl so the sales are bigger? Mind you, that's all excessive plastic and paper. Some countries and US states are banning gas stoves. Her position regarding artists being paid during the early days of streaming (when the platforms were launching with a free period tial) was right but no one really benefited from it but her. She was shitting on Apple Music, then they offered her money, filmed an ad and released her 1989 Tour DVD exclusively on their platform. She shat on Spotify, then when LWYMMD came out, she was all over their biggest playlists all of a sudden and recorded Spotify Singles later on. Spotify's always promoted her every release like a motherfucker shoving her in every corner of the platform. Especially for the past 3 years. She doesn't have any memorable outfits or unique style to be called a fashion icon either. She's not a trailblazer she thinks she is. She is only popular because a lot of people *mostly ww* who peaked in high school see themselves in her. She's average in everything she does, her writing topes are also the same (only now she started using compound or uncommonly used words to mask it) but she's extremely commercially successful so that those people can see themselves in her. She doesn't have unique music style or chameleon-like discography like Gaga, Bey, MJ, Madonna, Shakira, Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus or Nelly Furtado. She doesn't have a unique singing voice like Bjork, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Janis Joplin, MJ or Bob Dylan. She's no instrument prodigy either. And swifties say that 'Michael couldn't play any instruments'. Well, he was an exceptional beatboxer. She can strum 4 guitar chords and play basic piano, that's it. She doesn't have an outstanding dancing and/or vocal skill.

What is she gonna be remembered for? Her numerous relationships with famous men? While that might be misogynistic or sexist to some degree, she's the one who makes her relationships the centre of her music and public persona and brings them up even 10 years after they ended. Her public feuds with men and women that she can't get over years after? This woman is certainly can hold a grudge and is extremely vindictive. The leader of a parasocial cult that blindly defends her bigotry? I believe so. I don't think I've ever seen a fandom as toxic and as hive-minded as swifties. And again, it's Taylor's own creation. She's the one that constantly says 'look closely for the easter eggs' in her content making her fans theorize on every aspect of her life, or 'if you're very loyal I might invite you to MY HOUSE and you can listen to the new album early, we'll take pics and I'll bake you some cookies'. Of course they'll follow your any order. I'm glad I escaped.

Oof, I'll stop here. That's a very long one already

sorry hehe

.

[azuremist]

I feel like who mock crab day are doing so in a way that (purposefully or accidentally, I can’t tell) misses the point.

As your local anti-capitalist, who will be participating in crab day:

Nobody thinks that tumblr is going to reverse all of the bad changes to its site if we do this. Nobody thinks that this site is without its awful shit (see: flagging queer content as mature). Nobody is seeing a corporation as our friend.

But here are the simple facts:

Tumblr is in debt

Websites can’t function without income

If we can’t buy products from tumblr, we will become the product, in that tumblr will sell more of our data

Tumblr is a product, and if you enjoy a product, you should give its creator(s) money so that the product you enjoy can continue to be provided (that’s generally how capitalism works)

The thing motivating most of the bad changes to tumblr is profit, and gaining new users

I don’t think anyone thinks that we’ll get tumblr completely out of debt, or anything like that. But it IS an attempt to show that tumblr doesn’t have to become like every other social media to be profitable.

It’s a call for tumblr staff to work with its existing userbase, rather than try and find a new userbase with all of these shitty changes. Like, they SEE that the existing userbase is against giving them money. Do you think that’ll make them listen to what we want? No! So they’re trying to get new users; ones who make actually be profitable! Because, even if you don’t like it, we DO live in a world where you have to be profitable if you want to keep a product you like alive.

Staff is at least somewhat aware of the userbase’s current discussions. They know (for example) how goddamn bad we want NSFW content back. They know about Goncharov, they know about the site being called a “hellsite”, they knew about the great Reddit migration. This effort has the possibility to be noticed by the higher-ups, and it obviously isn’t going to fix the site, but it might do something, and that’s more that we can say for just posting to our blogs about how much the new changes suck.

Not to mention that, generally speaking, staying afloat comes first for corporations. There is a very low chance that tumblr staff will address any of the actual issues (like porn bots and queer content being auto-flagged) while it’s still in the red. If it becomes financially stable, then it is possible (not certain, but possible) that staff may be able to put more resources into fixing the stuff we actually care about.

So, like… With crabs being chosen because they’re the cheapest item available (making participating in crab day as non-consequential as getting a candy bar), why not give it a try?

[urfavoritesecretadmirer]

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Blog intro

╰─..★.──────────╯

System intro |

`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`--------------------------------------------`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`

ᴄᴀʟʟ ᴍᴇ ᴀᴍᴀʏᴀ

: ̗̀➛ I am a minor. I don’t want to give specifics for safety reasons, but my range is 14-16.

: ̗̀➛ Ask to Dm

`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`--------------------------------------------`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`

ɢᴇɴᴅᴇʀ & ꜱᴇxᴜᴀʟɪᴛʏ

: ̗̀➛ I am panromantic, because of this this blog has no sexual content.

: ̗̀➛ I use Any/All pronouns. And when I say Any/Alll, I mean ANY/ALL. Literally go crazy and use any neopronouns you want because they are so cool.

`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`--------------------------------------------`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`

ʏᴇꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ɴᴏ’ꜱ

: ̗̀➛ Interact if/this is a safe space for: Yandere blogs, obsessive blogs, systems, witchcraft practitioners, all races religions sexualities, genders, etc. SFW blogs, agere, petre, all mental health, obsessive blogs.

: ̗̀➛ DNI if: General DNI, zoophiles, proshippers (sorry I don't want people who write r*pe about 6 year olds on my blog), NSFW blogs, rude bitches, support what Israel is doing, radqueer, transID (like transplural like bitch be so fr), anti-recovery, anti-self DX (from what I've seen y'all are actually so fucking rude).

: ̗̀➛ Be aware of: This blog will post triggering topics, and all triggering topics will be listed. You know what blog you are on, be cautious. We are endo neutral because we genuinely don't give a crap about that stuff. We used to be anti-endo sooo ignore that.

`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`--------------------------------------------`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`

ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴍᴇ

: ̗̀➛ System of 120+, witchcraft practitioner, mixed BIPOC, queer, grunge/gothic style, questioning Yandere

: ̗̀➛ Likes: Writing reading paranormal stuff witchcraft horror nature baking cooking card games anything ocean related theatre food in general rain fashion candy lovecore grunge Y2k him obviously letters poetry

: ̗̀➛ boundaries: No flirting asks please, I already love someone! Reblogs and notes are okay! Adults, please be mindful I am a minor! This blog is fully SFW and adults and minors are allowed as long as it is!

Yandere MBti: RAHL

MBti: INFJ-T

`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`--------------------------------------------`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`

ɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ʏᴀɴᴅᴇʀᴇ ꜱᴛᴜꜰꜰ

: ̗̀➛ I’ll post my love letters, journal entries, etc if yall want inspiration!

: ̗̀➛ I DO NOT CONDONE ANY ACTIONS POSTED ON THIS BLOG. I would never act on these actions, this blog is a coping mechanism.

: ̗̀➛ I will refer to my darling as Him, love, darling, etc. I will not be posting names.

`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`--------------------------------------------`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`

ᴡʜᴀᴛ’ꜱ ᴛʜɪꜱ ʙʟᴏɢ ꜰᴏʀ?

: ̗̀➛ It’s a coping mechanism for me to talk about my obsessive feelings and thoughts.

: ̗̀➛ To help others. Y’all want me to read over your love letters before sending them out? Bet! Gift ideas? Bet! Journal entry ideas? Gotcha! Wanna talk to me about your crush/partner? Go ahead, just please do it in asks/notes rather than DMs! I’m here to help y'all as well as myself!

: ̗̀➛ To talk about my crush because I’m scared everyone else is annoyed with me when I talk about him.

: ̗̀➛ To post about system stuff, positivity, love, poetry, etc.

`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`--------------------------------------------`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`

ꜱᴘᴇᴄɪᴀʟ ꜰᴀɪʀɪᴇꜱ

: ̗̀➛ Anons: None yet!

: ̗̀➛ Tags:

･ ｡ﾟ ᴀᴍᴀʏᴀ ꜱᴘᴇᴀᴋꜱ☽☆: For all my posts here on now

･ ｡ﾟᴀᴍᴀʏᴀ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇꜱ ✒️💌: For all things writing related (quotes, letters, etc).

･ ｡ﾟᴀᴍᴀʏᴀ ʟᴏᴠᴇꜱ 💕❣️: When talking about my crush, will also be used a lot

･ ｡ﾟᴀᴍᴀʏᴀ ʀᴇʙʟᴏɢꜱ 📼📔: Reblogs

･ ｡ﾟᴀᴍᴀʏᴀ ᴠᴇɴᴛꜱ 🔒🧷: Ventings

･ ｡ﾟᴀᴍᴀʏᴀ ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡꜱ 📝🕶️: Where I review others’ works with their consent, you can use this tag if you want me to review any love letters or anything and I’ll use this tag when I make my response!

`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`--------------------------------------------`𓏲 ࣪₊♡`

ᴛʜᴀᴛ’ꜱ ɪᴛ, ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴀɴ ᴀᴍᴀᴢɪɴɢ ᴅᴀʏ ʏᴏᴜ ʙᴇᴀᴜᴛɪꜰᴜʟ ᴛᴜʟɪᴘꜱ! /ᴘ

@lovinglyobsessed = vent account

[shorthaltsjester]

begging twitter to stop showing me tweets of people with no reading comprehension misrepresenting things I said but since i was going to make this more in-depth post Anyway .

when i say imogen is better read as a metaphor for generational trauma than she is a metaphor for queerness or chronic pain, i’m not talking about legitimate traits she has as a character. obviously she is queer. obviously she experiences some form of chronic pain (though i would argue her magic better suits chronic illness not pain because she states that it’s Not always painful, but it does always influence how she lives her life).

when i talk about how well she’s understood as a metaphor, i’m talking about when i’m looking at her as a part of a story, as an arc that i am witnessing rather than in the more typical fandom way of this is a fictional person who interacts with exandria as real people do. and that is a fun way to interact with characters, i enjoy it a lot! but when i say imogen (to me, as i for some reason have to clarify on my own blog which implies that these are my own opinions and not absolute fact that needs to be accepted by people on the internet with different experience and opinions than me) is best read as a metaphor for generational trauma, it isn’t a dismissal of her queerness or her illness, it’s just me thinking looking at her from that angle is more compelling.

imogen has been one of my favourite characters and least favourite characters in campaign 3 because i tend to analyse her through a lens of generational trauma and she ends up looking extremely familiar to me as someone with a family that carries their’s heavily which is as comforting as it is frustrating.

for me the main thing that looking at imogen through a queer lens of literary analysis fails to account for is harm. on the one hand - the harm that imogen experiences, not because of how people treat her for who she is, but that exists simply as a factor of her being ruidusborn. on the other hand a the harm that imogen causes. not to say that she is some malicious villain waiting for her chance to harm others, but that there are things about being ruidusborn that very much do incline her towards violence in a way that she might not otherwise be - i think about the conversation after she went nuclear and chet brought up people being scared of her connecting that to her father keeping distance. the only harm that queerness provides comes from society, and that isn’t the case in exandria. even metaphorically, the thing that society fears in ruidusborn people (while it has certainly been exacerbated by centuries of superstition and practices like we saw in zephrah) is a tangible threat. imogen’s magic when not controlled can wipe out a city block, but queerness poses no threat.

that’s why i’m not compelled by imogen’s backstory as a queer metaphor. not because i’m some imodna anti (i very emphatically am not but this fandom kinda makes me wish i was sometimes) or because i think exandria’s lack of homophobia/transphobia means that characters can’t be viewed through a queer lens or that critical role doesn’t contain some of the most compelling queer metaphor i’ve encountered. imogen just isn’t one of those characters, not because she isn’t queer, or because i think her story shouldn’t resonate with queer people, just because i find the generational trauma angle more consistent.

it’s similar with the chronic illness angle, which i will refer to as illness but you’re welcome to emphasise pain, we all have different vocabularies for the experiences we face. but just to give context i’m running off laura’s comparison of imogen’s powers to her own sensory issues and anxiety which while often Lead to pain, fall more into chronic illness in imogen’s context to me. and i do think there’s substantial comparison for imogen’s story as a metaphor for chronic illness, but i think that was much more true earlier in the campaign than it is looking at her from the current context. her beginning motivation being her search for knowledge about her powers really resonated with me as similar to someone experiencing symptoms of chronic illness but who could neither figure out how to treat them or what they were caused by.

but then imogen got more information, specifically about her mother, and her priority became not understanding her powers but understanding her current state as a person - how had she become the person she is, inclusive of her powers but very much emphasising her lack of a mother who became more and more present in the unweaving web of ruidusborn lore. that’s when i was less compelled by the chronic illness reading and more compelled by viewing her as a metaphor for generational trauma. had that not been enough on its own, imogen’s visit to relvin and her recent thoughts on her mother would be enough to convince me.

the part that makes me hesitant about this post is that generational trauma is so intensely linked to the contexts under which it is created and perpetuated. so i can’t really point to specific scenes as evidence of specific things that prove generational trauma is the most compelling and i don’t really want to unload that much of my own experience to clarify my thoughts on a character. but vaguely, i will say that imogen’s relationship with her parents is obviously the clearest source for my reading her as a metaphor for generational trauma. the fact that relvin, the only person in her family without the thing that draws society’s ire, is also the person that she has the most willing anger at is also indicative of this to me. in general, imogen’s rage that so easily transitions into sadness and vice versa comes out a lot in conversations about parents. most recently, i think about ashton’s lovely speech about found family and his distrust about parents and how as they were speaking, laura seemed to be playing imogen as sadly in thought versus months ago when fearnes parents showed up with striking similarities to liliana and imogen’s words of wisdom were let’s hurt them all.

and like. to me that angersadnessvengeancegrief is particularly evocative of the feelings that arise when you are in a family with generational trauma, especially when you are aware of it. because imogen can and has followed the logical steps that have led her and her family to where they are. early on when recounting her relationship with her dad she seemed wistful but understanding of the distance between them. in nearly every encountered with a parental figure imogen seems to be some level of distrusting for the most part, but she’s still holding out hope that her mother will see the good side. and further, there’s the complication of how dire her losing her powers seems to be, and how inextricable her powers are from every aspect of her life. she’s also southern and from a blue collar family. this means nothing except it also means a whole lot.

this is messy and not well organised but if you want a good essay you’re gonna have to pay me money for it but tldr: i say things i believe on my This Is My Opinion Blog and i don’t think i need to explain my thoughts to strangers on the internet but this was already half written in my drafts and if people are gonna shit on my opinions please at least do it in good faith and shit on my actual opinions not the ones you’ve decided i have.

[shouldiusemyname]

Another Trip to The Shrink Boston

*Note - this is my lens and I highly reccomend reading @wen-kexing-apologist here on cruising which has contributed a lot to the way my generation views homosexuality and gay culture.

Oh man, where do I even begin...?

First of all, just wanna say that this show has my brain stuck in so many loops that I can't see straight (put semi-intended). And Boston, my boy. I love him, but he is a victim of my time (re: the aftermath of cruising culture and HIV).

As I mentioned before, Boston has took upon himself this role in the group and this is the value he sees in himself. He is the slut of the group. I completely agree with @syrena-del-mar 's read of Boston as a Machiavellian prince and one that is a product of my generation. I think it would be even more accurate to say that Boston is the outcome of promoting and embracing the Machivellian Prince traits, as I see him more aspiring to be a Machiavellian prince rather than actually being one (successfully).

I mentioned it briefly here and I would like to go into it further when it comes to Boston. I believe that Boston represents the idea of queerness being the sex you have. I remember growing up in an environment where being gay means having all the sex you can have with all the partners you can get, often more than one at a time. I would hear things like why would they even want to get married? Everyone knows that gay relationships are open relationships. It was so deeply imbeded in the conversation that I vivdly remember the first time I realized that queer people have "normal" relationships just like everyone else.

I want to insert a side note here because @wen-kexing-apologist 's post really made me realize that what I take as a known fact is something that happens very differently today and needs to be explained. So basically (and I'm generalizing here) all of that stems from the discussion around HIV that exposed or brought to light (in a more agressive way) the gay cruising culture. This served as fuel to the fire of gay=sex, Gay men cruising=no gay men have sexually exclusive relationships, etc...

Did I lose you? No? Good!

Because what I wanted to say was that I see all of the above as the idea or blueprint for Boston's character. From his cruising habbits, through his views of sex and virginity to the way he speaks about relationships. It's like hearing the voices I grew up around, which really lead to internalised homophobia disguised as anti-heteronormativity. (For the record, I don't think that anti-het.norm. equals homophobia, but I do think that this specific case has homophobic roots)

It's very much like the ideas that guide toxic male behavior. Boston lies and manipulates. He says what he thinks his pray wants or needs to hear in order to stay submissive. Take Nick for example - I fully believe that Nick would have been just fine accepting his status as fuck buddy without the manipulation. He would have stayed for the sex and crumbs of attention, fully acknowledging that this is what he can get.

However, Boston was taught to believe that sex requires manipulation, that everyone you sleep with more than once will catch feelings, and that you must string them along with false promisses of more than sex if you want them to keep being there waiting (so, pretty much how toxic men view women when it comes to casual sex - leading to views of gay men as being women rather than men who like men).

Ok, back to Boston and Nick! Just look at Nick's face journey here - he's not buying any of it.

See, Nick is getting a ton of mixed messages from Boston and he is COnFuSed! He isn't asking because he wants to hear 'be my boyfriend', he's asking because he honestly can't figure out what the hell is happening!

Boston forgets that if he wants to keep Nick around he needs to switch up his lines as they only work for one night stands. Now, he has Nick hearing all his 'I never go back for seconds' and 'you're my favorite' bs and he starts asking himself should I be reading something into this? Because he knows who Boston is and I really believe that he wouldn't have asked about their status otherwise. But, when Nick asks (cos he is just so so so confused bless him), Boston panics. He never (I'm assuming) had to deal with this before so instead of getting out, he just digs a deeper hole and moves in permanently. In his mind, he will never get to have just the sex with Nick if there is no promise of something more. So he promises, and keeps promising, with words, and actions.

Again, Nick is no buying this. He is sus af.

And no one was asking for this Boston. You came up with it ALL ON YOUR OWN!

I will carefully say that from what I've seen before and my personal experiences with the Bostons of this world, if he doesn't get out of the hole he will find himself catching feelings that he has no tools to deal with. Boston is enjoying the intimacy more than he's wiling to admit, but it will catch up to him. Once it does he's going to panic-react all wrong. He's going to kick Nick as far away from him as he can, making Nick believe it's his own fault. When in fact, none of this would've happened if Boston had not been such a victim of his own persona.

So basically, whatever happens next is ALL on Boston.

As usual, thank you for sticking it out and hope this makes sense 💜

[koheletgirl]

You talked a little in your post about how you became anti-zionist about the israeli left's aversion to religion, and I've noticed it aswell but could never fully manage to connect these dots. Do you mind sharing a bit more about it?

let me preface this by saying everything i say here is based on my own experience and observations. what i'm going to say here will be oversimplified and i apologize for that, however i am in no headspace to get into the full nuance of this right now and i do want to talk about this.

so the influence orthodox judaism has on israeli politics is a major, major topic that i am going to address a few aspects of here. the first one (which is the least interesting one to me) is the idf. military service in israel is mandatory for every citizen over 18, but haredim are exempt from it. quoting wikipedia here (sorry), "haredi jews maintain that the practice of studying the torah (or reciting) [...] is crucial in defending the israeli people from threats, similar to an additional 'praying division' of the military". to non-religious zionist jews, this is seen as a betrayal. this, combined with laws that allow yeshiva students to live on government allowances rather than working, makes a lot of israelis feel like they're being taken advantage of by the haredim. it's not uncommon to hear people say haredim are "living off of" them.

another aspect of this, which genuinely causes me (and a lot of other people, obviously) pain, is the way jewish law is incorporated into israeli law. you may have heard last year about how abortion is allowed in judaism under certain conditions; this is true, but if i wanted to get an abortion i would have to go in front of a committee to determine whether i meet these conditions. orthodox judaism doesn't allow driving on shabbat, so there is no public transportation on shabbat in israel (shabbat being friday afternoon - saturday evening). if i want to get on a train or a bus on a weekend, i can't. a christian or a muslim living in israel can't either. there is no legal way to get married as a jew in israel without involving the rabbinate, which means that gay marriage is illegal, interfaith marriage is illegal, and so forth (if your last name is cohen, you're not legally allowed to marry a divorced woman, for instance). and worse, if you are jewish and considered married in israel (even if you didn't get married in israel), you can only get divorced through the rabbinate. which means the woman has pretty much no say in this, and there is a phenomenon in israel of women who are married against their will (i recommend watching gett: the trial of viviane amsalem, because it's informative but mostly because it's an incredible film).

these are just a few examples of this. to summarize, the influences jewish law has on israeli law are prevalent as it is, and a lot of the current israeli leadership is seeking to make them even more so. and this reality is very scary to a lot of israeli citizens, jewish or not, myself included.

now, here is where it gets unpleasant. the israeli left is mostly hiloni, non-religious, and heavily opposes all of this. for good reason! but what i have noticed, is that it creates a general aversion within the left to judaism in particular and religion as a whole. it creates a hostility. my relationship with judaism is incredibly complicated, and most of it stems from the fact that i live here. i have friends who feel a genuine disdain for judaism, because of the way it's manifested in israel. and there's a very real fear that one day soon we will become the minority, and find ourselves in an ultra-jewish theocracy. it scares me, genuinely, as a woman and as a part of the queer community. it scares a lot of people.

and this is where it ties to the left's fear of a one secular state solution and the right of return. this very real fear of living in a jewish theocracy, manifests itself in the much less realistic fear of living in a muslim theocracy. i always get to this point when talking to my parents. they ask me if i actually believe that this won't happen if jews are no longer the majority here. and an argument that is always present in conversations about the fear of secular jews becoming the minority is that "they (haredim and other religious jewish groups) reproduce a lot faster than us". sounds awful, doesn't it? but statistically speaking, the more religious you are, the more children you have. and they use this same argument when talking about palestinians.

israelis talk about palestinians as if they're all hyper-religious muslims. we've seen this recently, in israel's attempts at pinkwahing. and they teach us about islam in school, with every islamophobic stereotype you can think of. they showed us "not without my daughter" in arabic class. so islamophobia is rampant in israel, obviously. and what i have noticed with the israeli left, is that even the most progressives of them are still terrified of the prospect of becoming a religious minority, because it's a fear they deal with daily in the face of the current israeli government. that is not to say they're not also islamophobic, many (most) of them are. but personally i think it's fascinating to see how this ties into how oppressed they feel by a religion that they're a part of. how scared they are of religion as a concept. how very concrete fears of where this country is currently headed tie into fears of where a hypothetical multi-ethnic secular state would go.

again, this in no way encapsulates the full situation or even just this issue. it's just something i've been thinking about a lot lately.

[ms-all-sunday]

gender post

zoro - overcompensates because of his inherent view of himself being outside of the masculine ideal (i hc him as trans for this but it works with queer zoro more generally) preforms gender to the maximum he possibly can despite being disconnected from the cishet ideal of masculinity. he has a lot of pride and knows what he wants but oftentimes doesn't know how to articulate that within the context of his preforming gender.

nami - preforms as a woman to the maximum she possibly can. doesnt fit within the view of cishet submissive femininity and is a lot more confident in her gender performance than zoro is which isnt to say she has no insecurities about it she just doesn't let them dictate her life. also has a ton of pride but does know how to work within her gender performance to get what she wants. (please assume i hc everybody as trans forever)

sanji - preforms both as a man and a woman and identifies with aspects of both in the words of my friend "sanji is both mom and dad". he is the in-between. he tries to get himself to preform 100% as a man and it does not work. if he tried to preform 100% as a woman, it wouldn't work. he relates to femininity despite wanting to seem incredibly masc and admiring and finding himself within aspects of masculinity. he also overcompensates similar to zoro but it comes from a more disingenuous place, he's jealous of both zoro and namis gender and relates to them both. his gender is actually just "caring person" whether that be masculine or feminine.

usopp - gender is a performance and he is giving A for fucking effort. wants to be a man so bad. is a man. but wants to be a man so bad. kind of like zoro but more outside of traditional masculinity going in rather than already being A Man and still viewing himself as disconnected from that. his gender is man max sincerity.

franky - the exact type of guy usopp wants to be, zoro doesnt think he deserves to be, and sanji half-is. gender is a performance and he is performing it like it's the last concert he'll ever do. max sincerity to everything he does, he is the manliest of men but with no insecurity around that with an inherent queerness to him. he defies everything zoro thinks about masculinity and will happily do so. preforms and takes confidence and comfort in his presentation more than nami does, exceeds everybody by a mile in terms of performance. he also doesnt think hes inherently better than anybody and doesn't fit within the cishet norm, yes, but also fundamentally is anti-patriarchal in his performance of gender. punk as hell

[utilitycaster]

I agree that the introduction of homophobia in Exandria in fanon is a nonsensical way to add drama. However I understand the compulsion to do it for Candela in particular since it's so close to the real world victorian era period and it does feels slightly odd to have explicitly out queer people in a world that is essentially the 19th century with monsters.

At the risk of being a bit too glib, if you can imagine a turn of the century world with monsters but have trouble imagining it having legalized gay marriage and gender transition? Skill issue.

More seriously, and the post I linked in my post yesterday covers it (and was in conversation with this post which I'd reblogged at the time which also covers the same topic, and in general I would recommend trying to get a sense of that line of conversation before sending anon asks defending behavior for, to be blunt, literally no reason) the problem isn't that people assume the world is homophobic. It's that they assume it's homophobic so that Marion and Sean (in this case) are afraid to confess their love for each other, but do not consider any other ramifications thereof. The homophobia exists to serve as a barrier, but no one seems to be perpetuating it; it just is some miasma. It's like reverse sex pollen. And once it's served its use, the characters do get together and everyone is happy because the homophobia vanished now that it's not needed to explain any character behaviors.

Even more seriously, no one seems to re-insert racism into the narrative, and they rarely insert misogyny, even though Rowan Hall talking about her queer PC in another game explicitly talks about educational access on the basis of gender. No one blinks at Charlotte being a successful businesswoman with ties to a criminal underworld that is distinctly not segregated and who seems to receive no special attention from the authorities. Howard and Jean are both highly educated and well-off and entirely respected despite being visibly nonwhite; I advise you look up statistics for Native American professors or female surgeons (let alone nonwhite female surgeons) in 1907 in the real world. No one ever seems to suggest that the barrier for Sean and Marion could be interracial, despite the US in this era having quite a number of anti-miscegenation laws. And in the context of another, longstanding point regarding fandoms centering a very white queer experience, often to the point of dismissing nonwhite characters' canon experiences and rewriting them as queer rather than (or at least in addition to) racialized (of which Jester, Dorian, and Fjord are all examples within Exandria) or even class-based (explicitly a theme in Candela), that is extremely telling.

This is, at least in Candela right now, something of a moot point in that after episode 2 this line was mostly dropped, both as character relationships developed and because a married same-gender couple was shown onscreen; but it pops up in Exandria pretty regularly as new fans come in, and if chapter 3 of Candela Obscura gets new viewers and there's a popular queer ship I expect to see it again. I in fact expect to see that fan-led insertion of queerphobia and no similar fan-made insertion of (period-typical) racism or misogyny.

[goddessofwisdom18]

your favorite character being largely disliked by both the stans and the antis is actually so devastating. where am i supposed to go

there are three main opinions about mor in this fandom:

1. she’s fine bc she’s feyre’s bestie but you don’t really care about her personally (probably bc she’s queer because the stan girlies used to LOVE mor when moriel was semi-canon. i remember. i was there)

2. she’s fine but annoying bc she ~lead azriel on~ (main opinion on the acotar subreddit). never mind that if this was true, it would be as a result of a retcon, because again, pre acowar, moriel was going to be canon. sarah made mor sapphic because we were asking for more lgbt characters. (again. i was there.) and besides, i frankly don't think it is true, because azriel is the fucking spymaster with a million chances of knowledge at his fingertips and mor spent 80% of her time at a gay bar so idk how he couldn't have fucking known?

3. or she’s the fucking worst because she was. idk. mean to nesta. you know who else was mean??? and people love that about her because it's a result of trauma, it makes her flawed and relatable? literally nesta T_T this is not anti nesta i just don’t get it.

4. she's the fucking worst because she… supposedly lied about eris? ?? i'm not even going to begin to unpack this. why y'all IMMEDIATELY take the man's side and think what he's saying is bible… i don't fucking know. learn to decenter men in your life my friend. sometimes women ARE telling the truth even if they're basic or pick mes or whatever.

mor’s traumatized as hell and definitely has as much to back up her occasional cattiness as nesta had to back up her literal life long bullying. but few people will give her a feminist reading. few people will analyze how sarah wrote her story or what that means. few people will even give her credit as a real villain. she’s just an annoying pick-me bitch and that’s the end of it.

think about the lack of grace rhysand gives nesta. think about what that might mean for mor, to whom rhys (and his friends) was a sort of savior, because her life in the hewn city was that bad that somehow dealing with rhysand is better. that was who she grew up with; that was what she was taught to see as good because at least it wasn’t keir.

not to mention that her life is shaped around her survival via her desirability to males. ESPECIALLY as a sapphic woman can you imagine what that would do to her psyche?

but no. no fan posts about her. no headcanons. nothing nada. just me and the mor week posts and the occasional obligatory stan reference bc she's part of the main cast.

i understand being annoyed bc of the double standard in canon between her and nesta's heavy drinking, but even then i see posts all the time about "i would love rhys if it weren't for the narrative's worship of him!" and none for mor because she's just a ghost. she's nothing to anybody. despite being A MAIN CHARACTER!

not to mention but like. generally positioning yourself perpetually in opposition to the paradigm rather than just having values whether they're popular or not is not a great way to go about things. i completely understand liking eris regardless of what he's done - i am a tamlin stan despite the fact that he was very well abusive in acomaf - but the fact that there are antis out there who are so convinced mor is lying, or who want sarah to write that storyline, is so digusting to me. women in groups you don't like, political sides you don't like, women you think are annoying - they still deserved to be believed. don't give into respectability politics. come on now.

[disaster-cryptids]

Host's main account (link)

Lizzie's blog that he doesn't even use/lighthearted(link)

Pronouns.cc (link)

I made this account so everyone can do shit. I don't know when it's gonna be used or if it'll be used at all, but yeah. This blog may end up being mostly system oriented.

Introduction

Introduction

we are the Disaster Cryptids, a P-DID system. Our origin doesn't concern you, and we have strayed away from origin labels in an attempt to salvage the host's sanity. With that being said, we support all systems regardless of their origin(s) and how they function.

We will use a tagging system if all of us keep up with doing so, but will always sign off a post by name. If multiple people pitch in, we will try to make it clear who said what. Said tagging system will use emojis. Here's what each tag will look like (minus the names in parentheses). We're still figuring out a good way to go about using this tagging system, so apologies for any inconsistency as we navigate through this shit lol.

Tagging System

Tagging System

🕷️(Allister)

🌺(Angel)

🦌(Alastor)

🎸😇(Adam)

🐌(Eden)

🕯️(Fierce Deity)

😇(Gabriel)

🐕‍🦺(Host, many names)

⚔️(Huxley)

♾️(Infinite)

📺(Intruder)

🌻(Juniper/Link)

🧨(Knuckles)

🐺(Link)

🐍🍎(Lucifer)

🪲(Lizzie/Cade/Cadence)

🎸(Michael)

🦇🩷(Rouge)

☠️(Red)

🔧(Robotnik)

💥(Surge)

💎(Sonic)

🎺(Sans)

🎭(Sal)

⚫️(Shadow)

⚡️🔩(Tails)

🐇(William)

Extra:

❔(blurry: no idea who said this)

🗑️🔥(Legion: more than one person takes credit/is speaking)

We don't have a DNI, rather we will be enforcing a "you will be blocked on sight" list as that is more effective: System exclusionists, queer exclusionists (yes, pissing yourself about lesboys and mspec lesbians is exclusionary), TERFs and SWERFs, anti self diagnosis fucks, and general dumbasses/bigots. Save yourself the time of screaming at us for whatever reason you may have, please and thank you.