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duckprintspress · 3 years

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Advice for Writing Trans Male Characters

Hi everyone, and welcome to our second guest post! We approached a trans man, and fellow writer, to put together a list of suggestions for cis people who want to write trans male characters! He has chosen to remain anonymous. Always remember, there is no one trans experience, and no one trans person’s knowledge will reflect the range of ways that trans people live. Our post author writes from his perspective, based on his knowledge and research, and much of this is relatively specific to the modern United States. Always use multiple sources when writing a character with an identity or identities that you don’t share!

So, you want to write a trans male character but you're not a trans man yourself. Good! We need more trans male characters out there in the world. There are a few things to consider, however. This is not a perfect list (I would never claim to be perfect), but here are some thoughts from a trans man about writing people like me.

Trans men are men. They talk like men, think like men, and walk like men, except where socialization as women has forced otherwise. By this I mean that descriptions should not include things like “he walked delicately, like a woman”. However he walks, it's like a man, because he’s a man. Other characters should not note that he “thinks like a woman” or that he “acts like a woman.” If you talk about a trans man transitioning and you mention that he is working on ways to masculinize his speech patterns or walking, that's fine, but make sure it's done from his perspective, e.g. “Michael tried to lower his voice, attempting to sound more like his father.” Do not use “Michael tried to lower his voice, not wanting to sound like a woman.” It's his voice and he sounds like a man. Also, many woman have deeper registers and many men have higher registers, and there's honestly not that much difference between a woman who speaks in a low alto and a man who speaks in a high tenor. Avoid gendering voices, mannerisms, and other things. A good rule of thumb is that if it's a concept, idea, or an inanimate or non-sentient thing, it is physically and/or emotionally incapable of having a gender and you should not assign one to it.

1. A trans man who has decided that all he needs to do is come out to be a man is still a man, with a man's body and male genitals, because he says he's a man. Even if he is not out, he is a man. He can be uncomfortable with his body, or with how others perceive his body, but it should not be described in terms of “womanly” aspects.

EX: David's breasts made him uncomfortable, reminding him that others looked at him differently than how he would have liked.

2. 72% of trans men do not ever want full gender reassignment surgery, and this doesn’t make them “less of a man.” The surgeries are expensive, invasive, and don’t always result in a fully functional genital apparatus. Also, there are a lot of them. A trans man, to have a full semi-working penis (one that will not be useful for sex but will at least be useful for urination), is looking at at least three surgeries: to remove the labia, to 'bulk up' the clitoris, and to move the urethra. There are also surgeries to remove the cervix and/or the uterus, to create a scrotum, and to add a pump inside the scrotum attached to a surgical implant in the penis to assist with arousal. Even if a man has all these surgeries, the penis he gets loses most of its sensitivity and won’t become physically aroused (as in, achieve erection) without medical intervention. He may also need electrolysis to remove pubic hair. Ultimately, many trans men opt not to deal with it. Many still want top surgery, or a hysterectomy, or both, and often testosterone is used to help deepen their voice and change their body shape (but, again, gendering a trans man's voice by suggesting it's “feminine” because he's not on testosterone or because his voice hasn't dropped yet is not a great idea). It depends on the type and amount of dysphoria a person experiences, versus their financial and mental ability to deal with the different choices. Some trans men are happy with no hormones and only top surgery. Others want or need everything. There is no “correct” way to be trans.

3. Unless your story revolves around their transition (which, as a cis person, maybe it's best you don't do, honestly), there’s no reason to go into detail about your trans male character's surgeries. If it’s not plot relevant, it's probably not necessary.

4. If you’re writing porn, make sure to always use male pronouns for him, even if he has chosen not to go through surgery. If he has gone through surgery, what he has will be indistinguishable from a cis male penis except that he may need viagra or a surgical pump.

5. Reactions to testosterone are different for every trans man. Some men never have their voices drop, never grow a beard, and/or never bulk up and get all muscle-y. Some men are on testosterone for two weeks and have a Gandalf beard with a voice low enough to sing bass. It just depends, mostly on genetics. If your character's father is a super hairy mountain man who sings bass in his lumberjack quartet, then your character is more likely to end up similar. If your character's father is basically an elf, then he's likely to be similar to that. Also, for a number of reasons, a trans man may choose not to or may be incapable of taking testosterone. Most doctors won’t prescribe it if the man wants to carry his own children in the future, for example.

6. Keep in mind that the order in which testosterone produces effects on a man’s body isn’t predictable, so don't worry too hard about 'getting it right.' Even trans men can't predict what they'll look like after being on testosterone for a while.

7. Also, a note: If your character is transmasculine and nonbinary, and taking testosterone, it's likely they will be on a lower dose than a trans man. That's not always true, but testosterone can be given at a few different doses, depending on how drastic a change a person wants and how quickly they want that change to occur. There’s still no guarantee: a trans man may never be able to grow a beard on a full dose, while a transmasculine nonbinary person might be on a very low dose and have a beard within the first month. But, generally, lower doses are meant to bring out smaller changes over a longer period of time, while higher doses are meant to bring out larger changes over a shorter period of time.

8. A non-fluid trans man is going to consider himself a man at all times, and always use he/him pronouns for himself, whether or not everyone else does. If you're writing a trans man point-of-view piece where he's not out or where he's not fully accepted, make sure he or the narrator always uses the right pronouns when others don't. That helps remind your audience that he's not the person other people think he is.

EX: Daniel was frustrated. His grandmother insisted on calling him “Sarah” no matter how many times he corrected her.

9. Menstruation is a difficult topic for a lot of trans men. Some men lose their ability to menstruate when they take testosterone, while others continue to menstruate. If they retain their uterus, however, the possibility of a menstrual cycle is always there. If/when menstruation happens for a trans man, it's often a time of major dysphoria. A trans man may have a lot of issues surrounding menstruation. Having a cervix also means yearly Pap smears, which can also be uncomfortable or dysphoria-inducing. Dysphoria can also happen during ovulation, when a person is most fertile. The body during this time is “getting ready for a baby” and the changes can be very triggering.

10. Testosterone may stop menstruation, but it doesn't necessarily stop pregnancy. Also, some trans men will go off their testosterone in order to carry their own child. During their pregnancy, it is important that they are still referred to as men. A trans man will generally prefer to be called “father” even if he carried the child, but some may prefer the term “mother.” If a cis person wishes to write a pregnant trans character, it would be better to err on the side of caution and use “father.” A trans man who has gone through top surgery will not likely be able to nurse his own children, but a man who has chosen to use a binder instead will be able to (probably - some people don’t/can’t lactate for other reasons). Whether or not he chooses to will be up to him.

11. Gender Dysphoria is the medical diagnosis given to trans people who want to do any form of medical transitioning. Being transgender is not in and of itself a diagnosis. A person can be transgender and choose never to transition medically. Dysphoria is generally most clearly understood as a form of discomfort in the body you possess. Sometimes a person experiencing dysphoria is uncomfortable with their body no matter what. He doesn't like his breasts, for example, unless they are bound, no matter what his setting is, who is looking at him, etc. His dysphoria takes the form of nausea at the mere sight of them. Alternatively, some people only experience dysphoria relating to how others see them. For example, a man may not mind his breasts when he's alone, and he doesn't usually bind, but on a specific day while he wasn't binding someone glance at his breasts before calling him 'ma'am' and now he can't uncross his arms in case someone else looks his way. For some people dysphoria comes and goes, and they have good days and bad days. Also, images can be dysphoria-inducing. For example, seeing a pregnant person might remind a man that he has a uterus, and make him extremely uncomfortable all day. Other people may go several days, or weeks or months, without experiencing dysphoria, but when it hits it affects them for a long time or very severely. Or a person might experience dysphoria every day, as kind of a low-level mental fog they can't shake.

12. Gender Euphoria is as valid as Gender Dysphoria. Gender Euphoria is the idea that a person might be content in the body given to them, but will never be truly happy unless they make a change. These people can live their whole lives as the gender assigned to them at birth without severe mental issues or physical problems, but it's like living a life without color. They can do it, but if there's a way to get color back, why wouldn't they?

13. Changing names is complicated and takes time. It also differs in every state/country, and may need to be re-done when a trans man moves. In some states, all they need to change their name legally is a court order. In other areas, a trans man needs to have lived using their new name for a period of time, or have doctor’s notes and authorizations. Once the character has changed their name legally through the courts, they need to change their driver's license, banking information, insurance, work papers, social security information, passport, birth certificate, and any other documentation bearing their name. It can take anywhere from a month to a year or more, and is expensive, sometimes prohibitively so. It's okay to have a trans male character who goes by “Mark” but whose parents or grandparents refer to as “Melissa.” The important thing is to make sure narratively you are confirming that those people are wrong.

EX: “Melissa! It's nice to see you come to visit!” Mark's mom said. Mark cringed, hating the sound of his deadname, but he hadn't yet been able to convince his mother to use the right one.

14. Do not portray a character binding for more than eight hours or with unsafe binders in a positive light. Just don’t. Binding, even with professional/high-end binders, is not safe. It's a stopgap - safer than not binding at all for some people whose dysphoria is really bad. It constricts the lungs and can break ribs if not done properly. It can permanently alter a person's chest cage if done for an extensive period of time. It's a necessary evil for people who are waiting to get their surgery done, in order to keep them alive to have that surgery. It's not a permanent cure-all. Binding also can cause dysphoria. A person who doesn't have dysphoria surrounding his chest can develop it after wearing a binder. So, have your character bind safely, or discuss the issues surrounding unsafe binding. (And yes, this applies even in a fantasy setting or world where the technology may be different. A story is a story, but the impact it could have on a real trans man is potentially dangerous, so write with consideration, and if you do introduce a magical or technological solution to this, maintain awareness of the reality.)

15. Transitioning without an in-person support group is one of the most common factors in transitioning regret. Give your character someone to go to the doctor with them, someone to hold their hand when they get scared, someone to talk them through moments when they're unsure. No one who goes under the knife is always completely 100% sure all the time. They need a community. Surgery and hormones are scary, even if a trans man knows he wants them, and trying to go it alone can spell disaster.

16. Given that a trans man will consider himself a man, it can be challenging to make it clear to a reader that he’s trans. If he's the main/POV character, you can write him dealing with some dysphoria. For example, if you decide your character binds, mention that his breasts are bothering him particularly badly one day. Have him adjust his binder. Describe putting a binder on. That kind of thing. If he's a minor character, it can be more challenging, but you can still have him do things like adjust a binder. You could also mention surgical scars, if a character takes off their shirt. Another thing you can do is just have the main character remember a time “before Mark went by Mark” (for example). Another way is to have the character mention some way in which they are fighting for trans rights, and acknowledge that the issue is personal to them. Try not to use the deadname unless he’s facing an actual microaggression by another character. The narrative or narrator character should never deadname the character.

17. FTM is not an accepted term anymore, as it implies that a person was one thing and changed. Generally speaking, if a trans man is not genderfluid, then he was never female or a woman. Likewise, the phrase “born in the wrong body” is not acceptable for use by cis people. The only real use it has is to explain dysphoria by transgender characters to cisgender characters who aren't inclined to listen or try to understand. The accepted term is AFAB, or Assigned Female At Birth. Keep in mind that terms and labels change with time, so do your research. For example, if you’re writing a historical piece, different terms may be more appropriate, and if you’re writing a modern current-day piece, understand that in ten or twenty years the terminology you use will likely have grown outdated.

18. The proper way to write the term is always “trans man” and never “transman”. Trans is an adjective describing a type of man, just like you might say an Asian man or a muscled man or a gay man. This comes back to the idea that a trans man is always a man, first and foremost.

19. An easy pitfall to avoid if your trans male character's setting is modern or modernesque is: Don't make the story all about their oppression. We are aware of the many ways in which the modern world is trying to oppress and harm the trans community, but trans men can still be happy and interesting people. They can have dysphoria without being depressed. They aren’t necessarily the “down in the dumps” character. Also, trans men have a long history of being activists, and are often erased in history, so don't be afraid to make your trans men an out-and-loud activist. Yes, terrible things have happened and continue to happen to trans men, and any trans man who has done any research into trans history will know about individuals like Brandon Teena. Trans men know the dangers they face. Knowing that bad things can and are happening doesn't mean a trans man can't find his own joy in life, despite things not being perfect.

20. Keep in mind when writing in historical settings that trans men have existed for as long as people have existed. Many trans men were able to go through life completely “undetected” until they died and those around them conducted culturally-common burial practices. It’s not unreasonable to have a trans man in Regency England, Yuan China, or Roman times. If you're writing about non-European-centric history, many cultures acknowledged those who didn’t present the way their AGAB (assigned gender at birth) would suggest, and do your research. Also, keep intersectionality in mind, and tread especially carefully when writing a trans man from a culture and period other than your own. This post is mostly applicable to trans men in the modern era, and especially in the United States. The trans male experience will be different in other places in the world, for people of different ages and of different religions and ethnicities and races, so the more traits your trans man has that are outside your own experience as a cis writer, the more you should consider if it’s wise for you write the story you have in mind, or if it might not be better to allow in-group members to tell those stories. And never forget - trans men can and are all things - all races, all religions, abled and disabled, etc. People have nuanced identities and multiple identifiers and trans is always only one of many.

21. In fantastical or science fiction settings, please always ask yourself if oppression of trans people or bigotry against them is even needed. Maybe a society doesn't assign gender at birth, but waits until a child is old enough to tell the society where they belong. Maybe a society reveres those who are under the transgender umbrella. Maybe children are considered genderless until they reach puberty. You have a million and one options; why limit yourself to what modern predominantly Western white Christian society says? If you do make a society that doesn't look anything like the modern world, for example they assign gender at age five, think about how that would affect society as a whole. What kind of pronouns would be used for children under five? Are young children genderless, or are they seen as genderfluid? What about people who age past five and are still genderless or genderfluid? What are the naming conventions for children?

22. There are mixed feelings regarding how a science fiction or fantasy setting should treat transitioning. Should it be an easy fix, with magic or advance science doing it instantly or nearly so? Or should it be difficult, reflecting the modern situation where the process often years before a person can feel “finished?” That's up to you. Trans people themselves are split on this, so there’s no pleasing everyone. Do your best, and whichever way you choose, make sure to tag it accurately or, for original fiction, be clear up front what approaches you’ve chosen, so people can choose not to read something that may make them uncomfortable at best or trigger them and profoundly harm them at worst.

Ultimately, your trans man is your character and you can do with him as you wish. Write responsibly, and do your research, and if you can, get a sensitivity reader or a beta who is a trans man.

So, go, diversify those stories, write the things, and present good representation! Happy writing!

#duck prints press #original content #writing advice #guest blogger #trans characters #trans men

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southeastasianists · 4 years

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The history of military rule, armed conflict and the influence of gender norms mean that women and men live, work and socialize in different ways. Women are generally expected to stay at home and concern themselves with household affairs. And yet, since the early days of the coup, women have been visible opposing dictatorship and participating in protests through, for example the pots and pans campaign, civil disobedience movement and neighborhood vigilance groups. They are frontline protestors and activists on social media. Images of women have proliferated on social media giving them unprecedented visibility. It is inspiring to see sheer numbers of women such as teachers who are usually seen as apolitical become politically active and taking risks by participating in the protests. Women of different ages and social backgrounds have been at the heart of these protests.

Since Myanmar’s independence in 1948 until 2010, the country was ruled by successive military regimes with the military playing a key role in Myanmar politics even in its democratic transition after the 2010 elections. Military rule has reinforced “the authoritarian, hierarchical and chauvinistic values that underpinned male-dominated power structures“. Because of the close links between the military and perceptions of male supremacy, this makes discussions and progress towards women’s rights and their participation in public life difficult to envisage for many. Under the military one party state, the civil and political rights of all citizens were decimated and women experienced violence through the use of rape as a tool of war. Even during the transition to democracy, with the adoption of a new constitution, Myanmar remains a masculine state with its male-dominated institutions where there is no belief in women’s equality with men, or support for women to become leaders and politicians. Women remain notably under-represented in all aspects of public and political life in Myanmar’s democratising state. Women comprise 13.6 per cent of elected MPs in the lower house and 13.7 per cent in the upper house at the national level following the 2015 elections, and only 0.5 per cent of women elected at the village level.

For women’s organisations and networks, which made some gains during the transition, the return to the military regime is a blow to progressing the gender equality agenda. Women’s organisations and networks such as Gender Equality Network (GEN) and Women’s Organisations Network (WON) have rejected the military regime by boycotting the Myanmar National Committee on Women (MNCW), the national machinery for gender equality. Membership of GEN and WON to MNCW was approved under the NLD government, for the first time opening up space for women’s voices to be heard at a policy level. Previously that space was occupied by state-sponsored women’s organisations. Most members of these organisations were wives of generals, thereby reinforcing rather than upsetting patriarchal power. Despite their gains in this space, GEN and WON refuse to work with the military regime. “We have zero trust on the military council’s promise of fulfilling human rights because we believe women’s rights and gender equality only survive in a democratic system not under military rule” said May Sabe Phyu, the director of GEN.

A number of women’s organisations and networks also have boycotted the Technical Working Groups (TWGs) established to support implementation of National Strategic Plan for the Advancement of Women 2013–2022 (NSPAW). In statements rejecting the TWGs, the women’s groups explained that they do not recognize the military council as the legitimate governing body, therefore cannot support its administration. By taking away women’s voices from the policy and political processes of the military regime, they challenge the legitimacy of the State Administrative Council (SAC) formed by the military. Simultaneously, they channeled their voices through open letters to international bodies such as UN Human Rights Council and ASEAN member states, and demanded the restoration of democratic rule in the protests.

The military has reinforced the idea of its protective role as the norm by emphasizing its duty to “protect democracy“, “constitution” and its intention to form a “true and disciplined democracy” in its claim of mass electoral fraud in the 2020 election as the justification for the coup. In fact, the military has nurtured its self-image as the “guardian” of the state throughout its patriarchal rule. The military-guided constitution includes references to women principally as ‘mothers’, which not only reinforces a gendered stereotype, but also contends that their reproductive roles are in need of protection (Section 32). The Race and Religion Protection Laws (2015), passed under the military backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)’s government, is an example of controlling women’s bodies and limiting their religious and personal freedoms, in the name of ‘protecting’ women.

During the protests, women from Kayah State have been effectively challenging the norm, imposed by the military, that women need protection and the military as the protection. In their rally, women carried bras and sanitary pads as symbols of opposition to the coup. Norms perpetuate ideas that women’s inner clothing, such as bras and pads, is dirty; that women are impure during menstruation; and that women’s roles should be located in the private sphere. By bringing these items into the public sphere, they challenge patriarchal norms and shame the military. Their poster declares that “the military can no longer provide protection for us, not even at the level of a pad” –a timely and relevant narrative as the number of women and men killed in crack-downs across the country increases day by day. In this context, Karenni women have challenged the norm that the military is the protection/protector for the women and all of the people. At the same time, they challenge the norm of women being private sphere.

Women are also challenging other gender norms such as “hpon,” which gives higher authority and status to men. This perceived inherent spiritual superiority leads to men attaining positions of power and influence in political and religious institutions. In the prevailing culture, men tend to avoid walking under women’s drying htamain or longyi (sarong), as they believe that this can harm their hpon. So women are required to hang their htamain lower than men’s clothing and at the back of the house. Protestors have subverted this superstition and turned women’s under garments into an effective protection/defense strategy by hanging women’s htamain in the lines across the street and building htamain barricades to induce fear and lower the masculine status of the security force. Images of security forces trying to remove these htamain shared on social media show that this strategy challenges deep-seated misogynistic/patriarchal beliefs held by the military, and demonstrate that the htamain has been turned into an empowering symbol of resistance.

Women saw this strategy used widely by women and by men, and began to consider it time to directly challenge patriarchal norms, misogyny and sexism rooted in the dictatorship. A group of young women protestors called for a nationwide htamain movement on 8 March, International Women’s Day (IWD), urging people to use women’s htamain as flags. Their slogans, “fly the htamain flag, end the dictatorship,” and “our htamain, our flag, our victory” became the IWD’s theme in Myanmar. Using the htamain as the flag flying high in the marching, women have effectively challenged the private/public roles and patriarchal norms that limit women’s potential.

Phyo Nay Chi, an activist in the campaign, said “we want to highlight the significance of women’s participation in the fight against the dictatorship so we use htamain as the flags during our marches, and as a symbol of our victory over the dictatorship and patriarchal norms.” The night before the movement the SAC passed an emergency law making hanging htamain on the street illegal. Despite this, the women’s action was successful in many areas of Myanmar. There were many posts on social media young men wrapping htamain around their heads and bodies and holding htamain flags in support of the campaign.

This is a revolution in the making, opposing the misogynistic dictatorship as well as its underlying patriarchal ideology. Myanmar women now stand at a unique and revolutionary moment in their history. Although norms and experiences are diverse, women find common ground fighting the dictatorship and the patriarchal ideology. Women in Myanmar need to seize this moment to define a shared vision that also celebrates their differences. How can we create our own, context-specific notions of equality and rights, breaking the patriarchal discourse that has dominated Myanmar’s recent history?

#Southeast Asia #Burma #Myanmar #Gender Issues #Protests #Military Junta

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btssavedmylifeblr · 4 years

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It's a fact that tubal ligations do not guarantee 100% birth control. They can be reversed naturally, without even needing surgical intervention, resulting risk of pregnancy in 0,5% to 1% of the cases. That is the reason why I assumed it was a hysterectomy, since it is the only method that is sure to prevent pregnancy, along with abstinence of course.

Anonymous said: Since you're saying you're teaching us sex ed, make sure you know what you're talking about. Not meaning to sound rude, but you did sound awfully cocky on your hashtags. Disrespecful. Be humble and admit your mistakes, love. A lot of us know our shit, you're not talking to 10 year olds. You're a good writer, but even good writers get lost sometimes.

Anonymous said: I think you made a mistake. You are right about tubal lig. and hysterec., technically, but then ur girl couldn't be safe for sure that she wouldn't get preg. Yes, period products are added weight & all other options aren't 100% safe. It was irrelevant to the plot for her to menstruate if you think about it. Idk if we can trust the source but still, google this in quote "one of the basic safety measures for female astronauts", check the slashdot org result. #beeisnoteacher #ectopicstillaproblem

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1. I apologize if my previous response to your ask was snippy. It’s a question that I have already answered five times on this blog, so I shot off a rapid response and linked to the longer answer in my FAQ.

2. The hashtag you are offended by was not meant to be a dig at you, it was a pre-existing tag on my blog for whenever the mechanics of sex come up. It is impossible for me to know who I’m talking to on anon (better not be any 10 year olds though). I have literally had people ask me how men’s dicks fit in skinny jeans on this blog, so the background knowledge of my readers varies widely.

3. I know tubal ligations can fail. It is relevant to some potential future plot points. I would argue that most women who have tubal ligations do not use back-up forms of birth control, despite the small risk of pregnancy. I haven’t gone into it yet in the story (and it might never come up), but they do have contingency plans for unplanned pregnancies on board. From a more thematic standpoint, the fact that there is no ideal solution and sex continues to be a risk that she is choosing to engage in anyways is important to the story.

4. The source you cite is a message board containing one person’s remembered story. I’ve read a lot of interviews with female astronauts and it has never been required or suggested that they get hysterectomies before going into space. They usually use hormonal birth control to skip their periods while in space, but that isn’t a sustainable plan for 12 years (and would carry slightly higher accidental pregnancy rates than tubal ligation).

5. I think it is important to both the plot and themes of the story that she menstruates. If our OC uses reusable menstrual cups, it isn’t that much added weight for her to be able to menstruate.

6. I considered the various forms of birth control methods available and their risks and intentionally chose tubal ligation for my story. In the story itself, she specifically names her procedure as tubal ligation multiple times. It was not a mistake. If you write your own sex in space story, you can make a different choice for your characters based on the story you want to tell.

Again, I apologize if my response was too short or too sarcastic. I should have given you the benefit of the doubt that you knew more than was contained in your ask. Please extend the same benefit of the doubt and respectful discourse to me.

#Considering how often this question comes up I think the Void crew are going to have to have a discussion about it at some point #void

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devilsskettle · 4 years

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(^^^ from howling (and bleeding) at the moon: menstruation, monstrosity and the double in the ginger snaps werewolf trilogy by erin m. flaherty)

tw for discussion of suicide ideation

okay. so. i agree with the “doppelgänger narrative” idea but the idea that brigitte “[comes] to stand for the symbolic order she resists so enthusiastically at the start of the film” is, in my reading of the ending, a misinterpretation of what ginger’s “monstrosity” signifies in the film. flaherty’s reading follows a common structure of creature features in which the monstrous transgresses social norms, so the overarching conflict is the “other” vs. normalcy. in that case, killing the monster at the end is a return to normal and reinforces societal expectations. however, i don’t think that ginger snaps is actually that kind of story. at the beginning, both ginger and brigitte “resist so enthusiastically” being part of society to the point of rejecting life, becoming isolated and codependent. before ginger gets her period, brigitte tells her that she better not become basic like all the other kids at their school, but she leaves her behind pretty quickly once she becomes interested in teen society sex drugs and rock n roll and is more accepted by her peers. brigitte continues not to give a fuck about what anyone thinks of her, even though ginger is part of that world now and not their own. part of ginger’s transformation actually helps her gain social acceptance - she is now part of the “symbolic order” even as she transgresses it. i’m not saying her transformation doesn’t transgress this order, or that she gains the acceptance of everyone at her school - trina in particular certainly isn’t a fan - but especially at the beginning, the changes that she undergoes is perceived as her becoming a “normal” teenage girl instead of the freaky death-obsessed kid ostracized by her classmates.

i would argue that ginger’s transformation makes her both super- and unfeminine - super-feminine in the sense that all the side effects of puberty for people with uteruses (menstruation, body hair/shaving, developing new body parts, hormones/mood swings, and awareness of sexuality/being sexually active) are exaggerated during her transformation - and a lot of these symptoms are ways in which a woman’s body is policed or found unacceptable or gross; unfeminine in the sense that, first of all, she’s becoming inhuman and gender is a very human concept, and second of all, she still doesn’t fit the mold of female expectation (i.e. shaving, dressing a certain way, being demure or nurturing, not being overconfident, not being a slut OR not being a prude, not having physical strength, etc). flaherty does make this argument via david j. hogan’s dark romance: sexuality and the horror film: “in complete confrontation with the classic view of the werewolf as ‘masculinity carried to an outrageous extreme,’ the werewolf is actually aligned with femininity carried to an extreme,” an idea that i think works really well in discussion of ginger snaps in particular. she also rejects the identity of “girl” several times - “wrists are for girls, i’m slitting my throat,” yelling at brigitte and saying she’s “just a stupid little girl” - and disparagingly points out the difference between the expectations for male and female sexuality - “he got laid, i’m just a lay.” so.... i definitely do get the interpretation of ginger’s death to have a kind of punitive logic for transgressing gendered expectations in these two different ways, but i think that’s a meta-criticism on the part of the writers, not the role that brigitte fills (for a movie that rejects the “death by morality call” of hollywood monster movies, they really did still punish her narratively for moral transgressions lmao - like flaherty says, “it appears that as subversive as the ginger snaps films are in respect to the werewolf narrative, they also reflect a deep cultural ambivalence about female identity. there is no option offered to ginger or brigitte, and due tot heir unwillingness to accept the roles predetermined for them in the society in which they live, they must be punished”). honestly i think i am nitpicking a little bit because i guess i do ultimately agree with flaherty that the story follows a normalcy > otherness > return to normalcy pattern with gendered ideas of what normalcy is, and where she loses me is her interpretation of brigitte and ginger’s social standing. to me, ginger seems really frustrated trying to navigate gender roles and her own position in society - but she is engaging with society.

you know who’s still not engaging with society? brigitte. she isn’t part of that “normalcy” at all, so to me, her rejection of the lycanthropy that ginger embraces signifies less that she sides with the social order and wants to reinforce normalcy, and more that she did a lot of growing up over the course of this movie as well, in a different direction than ginger did, and she reclaims her agency as well as her will to live. i feel like the monstrosity vs. normalcy framework ignores the fact that both ginger and brigitte are actively suicidal at the beginning of the movie - the first shot we get of ginger is her holding a knife to her wrist. at the beginning, brigitte hesitantly agrees to their suicide pact despite her obvious reservations. at the end, she strongly asserts, “i’m not dying in this room with you. i’m not dying.” so if we consider ginger’s mimetic role for brigitte, killing her isn’t reestablishing the social norm, it’s rejecting her own destructive and suicidal tendencies. i think her narrative arc teaches her: 1) how to make her own decisions separate from ginger and have agency in her own life, 2) recognition of her mother’s feelings of estrangement from her family, 3) how to connect with other people in a way that isn’t codependent, 4) rejection of suicide ideation. all of these lessons are ways of treating yourself and others with respect, compassion, and understanding - even though brigitte doesn’t change dramatically, magically becoming a saccharinely nice person or a social butterfly. she maintains her isolation and personality much more than ginger does over the course of the film. while at the beginning their fascination with their own deaths “not only demonstrates the duo’s disgust at the banality of their suburban surroundings, it also proclaims their self-stylized exclusion from the heterosexually fueled dynamics of the teen scene” (via menstrual monsters: the reception of the ginger snaps cult horror franchise), it’s ginger, not brigitte, who ends up participating in this “compulsive heterosexing high school culture,” where brigitte’s choice to not commit suicide isn’t her opting into this culture, but attempting to find a less destructive way of escaping or coping with it.

flaherty argues that because brigitte’s first period is never discussed in the films, “she remains a child and therefore is unable to understand the true restrictiveness of woman as Other, what leads ginger to eventually embrace and enjoy her monstrosity,” but in unleashed, a fair amount of time has passed and i think it’s fair to say that brigitte no longer seems child-like (that role is assumed by ghost), and also she starts experiencing the same kind of monstrous sexuality as ginger did in the first movie - i think it misrepresents her characterization in the sequel to say that she maintains “child” status. i also think it’s not relevant to try to distinguish between “girl” and “woman” in terms of the monstrous-feminine. she still experiences alienation and otherness because she’s female and transgresses gender roles. so.... i don’t know. it’s a weird argument to make, especially since, like i said before, i consider this story a kind of coming of age for both sisters. “lycanthropy and femaleness” are not “ultimately unknowable” to her because.... she does become a werewolf over the course of both movies and she’s already female (like..... getting your period doesn’t magically make you a Real Woman lol)

i also think it’s significant that as a stand-alone movie (ignoring the sequel, which is worth watching but seriously bleak as hell) the ending is tragic but tacitly hopeful as well - as far as we know at that point brigitte has the cure (which actually works!) and is not going to kill herself. in her final confrontation with ginger, she has the cure in one hand and a knife in the other hand, and i think that nicely represents the choice that is hanging over her head the entire movie: choosing to live or choosing to die. (flaherty calls this “a telling moment of double phallic-appropriation” which..... meh. okay. not every weapon/tool used in a horror movie has to be a phallic symbol but also, sure, whatever. that’s one way to read it i guess). ginger made her decision at the very beginning of the movie

this quote by karen walton expresses this interpretation really well:

The two sisters had this childhood bond with their pact. These two sisters were also best friends who created a bubble for themselves and took strength from each other, nourished and informed each other for a long time; but the film is not just the story of Ginger turning into a monster. It is also a story about Brigitte surviving her sister who is on a death spiral. Ginger's is a story of self-destruction. But where people get confused is that they think Ginger is the hero, but the film is really about a sister who survives a sister, who survives a best friend. An intimate relationship that becomes unhealthy and deadly.

and i’ve talked a little bit about why i feel uncomfortable with attaching a ~*girl power*~ narrative to ginger so i won’t get to much into that but i have some thoughts about that here

also i’ve said a little bit about this before and i am basically copy/pasting from a post i already made but with a doppelgänger story like this, especially with a focus on women and madness, to me it immediately brings to mind jane eyre. i am thinking in terms of the mimetic function of jane/bertha and brigitte/ginger, with the repressed emotions and desires of the protagonist coming through in the actions of the “madwoman” character. especially brigitte’s assertion of “now i am you” when she voluntarily lets ginger turn her into a werewolf. the “madwoman” is portrayed as bestial, hypersexual, intemperate with substances, jealous, vengeful, as well as dealing with extreme anger toward confinement (ginger’s panic at getting locked up and her escape and weaponized sexuality brand of revenge is so similar to bertha like. trying to burn rochester alive and biting her brother badly enough that he passes out and other shit like that). but ALSO the other women in jane eyre have a mimetic function as well, where they can be read as potential paths for jane to follow (these choices generally can be summarized as dead or married). i think ginger snaps can be read the same way - ginger, trina, and her mother are the models of womanhood brigitte is presented with, and she is repeatedly told that what’s happening to ginger is normal, that all women experience that, and soon she will too. like the women in jane eyre, they’re models of femininity that she rejects but has to navigate because there are no other models for her. these three characters are either killed (directly or indirectly) or abandoned by her by the end of the movie. it’s actually ginger who defines the roles that women are cast into: “a slut, a bitch, a tease, or the virgin next door.” this is similar the female archetypes that jane has to navigate (and resist) throughout jane eyre. anyway this is a really roundabout way of saying that although brigitte does reject her worldview from the beginning of the movie, she doesn’t accept social order and normalcy. she doesn’t fall into any easily defined category. which is the point - “no one thinks girls do fucked up shit” but of course they do, no one thinks they can be more complex than these categories but of course they are, no one entertains the possibility that brigitte isn’t going to follow some made up universal experience of girlhood but she resists that through the end of the movie. she’s still a total weirdo <3

so yeah, i will also disagree with the assertion that both sisters lose their identities, because while i think there is a loss or a shift of identity in both ginger and brigitte, like flaherty argues, part of brigitte’s narrative arc is figuring out who she is without her dependence on her sister. brigitte saying “now i am you” feels less about loss of identity to me than actually identifying herself with the traits she sees (or used to see) in ginger - where ginger’s response (“i know you are, but what am i?”) indicates actual loss of identity rather than something transitory

oh and also one of the main claims of this paper is that the male werewolf’s source of pain is beyond the “lifetime of morning-afters where he must confront the previous night’s excess,” and is really his “bodily alignment with another ungraspable Other, the woman” which 1) i don’t think follows the definition of the Other she establishes earlier in the paper as something that is repressed in a self or society - this use of “otherness” seems more about alignment with something different than his own identity and less about the jekyll and hyde comparison she evokes with the expression of a repressed self (imo i don’t think she should’ve used that story to support her argument since it isn’t actually about werewolves, even though i get her point about the repressed self, it’s kind of irrelevant to her argument), 2) brigitte in the first movie doesn’t seem repressed to me - she genuinely doesn’t seem to have the same impulses as ginger does and it’s not until the sequel that she actively is attempting to repress the changes that are happening to her; however, since the paper does concern the whole trilogy, i think the point is still valid, but there’s such a heavy focus on the first movie that i feel the need to dispute that interpretation of her character arc, and 3) i don’t think this interpretation really lines up with classic werewolf movies - there’s nothing particularly feminine about your standard werewolf except arguably the cyclical alignment with the moon that ginger snaps uses as a menstruation metaphor, but like. for example. i would never watch an american werewolf in london and think, “oh, his distress isn’t actually about killing innocent people, loss of control, loss of sanity, guilt and mourning because of the death of his friend, a predetermined fate, and suicide, it’s about him being female-coded” or something. like, yes, “the tragedy of the male werewolf is believed to lie exclusively in the deep anguish he feels in violating the very societal boundaries he has come to live under” and it’s interesting to dig deeper into that in terms of gender and sexuality, but i don’t think femaleness is inherent in the distress of the male werewolf - of course this is true in ginger snaps (with jason’s transformation being particularly distressing to him because it mirrors menstruation). the assertion that the classic werewolf “bleeds uncontrollably until his transformation is complete” similarly seems unfounded to me because i’ve never seen that in werewolf movies and she doesn’t cite where she finds that symptom of the transformation - maybe i am missing something there? if anyone knows of a depiction where that’s the case let me know, because that’s definitely a stronger argument for werewolves = menstruation-coded.

and re: the quote i cited earlier about werewolves = femininity taken to the extreme: i don’t think that argument holds true in the classic depiction/cultural perception of the werewolf. i think this post makes a more supportable (and concise) argument:

There are hardly any female werewolves because they break all the classic rules of femininity. They force you to confront female violence, strength, size, grotesqueness and uncontrollability. Historically female shapeshifters always shift into something dangerous (snake) or sleek (cat) or dainty (bird) but female werewolves ignore the masculine gaze completely. They're distorted beasts that have no ulterior motive except to destroy. Nothing about them is nurturing or modest. They're the opposite of what a woman "should be." Their omission from pop culture is not an accident.

all that being said, i did enjoy this article, especially starting at the section titled “wrists are for girls; i’m slitting my throat:” ginger fitzgerald’s monstrosity and all the stuff about ginger’s transformation as a reflection of "monstrosity” as a teenage girl, and suburban landscape of repression. one description of brigitte’s conflict that i actually really like: “unlike the male werewolf’s double, brigitte yearns not for the eradication of her other half but for the reconciliation.” i think it’s a really interesting read, even if i don’t agree with a lot of it. and maybe i’m way off base? maybe i’m interpreting brigitte as a character too generously? let me know what you guys think

#ginger snaps #hell is a teenage girl #anyway..... i've got some opinions #i have no outlet for ranting about ginger snaps OR jane eyre anymore so just.... bear with me #suicide tw #long post

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purplesurveys · 3 years

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1264

Who are you subscribed to on YouTube? Oh man, I’m probably subscribed to over a hundred, if not 200. I’ve subscribed to channels relevant to interests I’ve had over the years, and since it’s not my habit to do spring cleaning on my feeds, the subscriptions have just keep piling up even if I no longer keep up with literally like 98% of them.

Do you like to go to the farmer's market? I don’t think I’ve ever been in one yet. They aren’t very common here and the ones we do have are pricey and mostly inaccessible to the everyday consumer, I’m sure.

What will (or was) the color of your wedding dress be? I wouldn’t want any other color than white.

What's your favorite melon? I don’t like fruits.

What was the name of the last pet of yours that died? Arlee. Technically my family mostly considered her as just Nina’s pet, but the sting was felt all the same when we learned she died.

When was the last time you wished the day would just get over with? Yesterday, because it was Friday. Pretty self-explanatory, I wanted to get to the weekend so I can finally let go of work for a couple of days.

Name one person you've never had a fight with: Andi. I think we’re both afraid of pissing the other off, which works out for us lol.

What are you currently listening to? I can just hear the really loud whirring of my electric fan because it’s a grossly humid day today.

What would you rather have: cat or dog? Dogs.

Who is your least favorite person in real life? I have a lot of uncles I just don’t like.

Do you ever watch anybody's live stream of... anything, really? Technically, yeah. I will sometimes tune in to livestreams of lofi music on YouTube, but I do it to listen, not to watch.

Does your house have security cameras? No.

If you go grey as you age, would you dye your hair or let it be? I think I might dye it for a certain period of time, but I also think I would eventually reach the point where I’ll just accept it and slowly let go of the dye.

What was the last establishment you stopped going to due to bad service? What happened? I haven’t run into much bad service, but I’ll never forget how long my order and bill took for Mad Mark’s. I never really vowed per se to never go back there again and I definitely didn’t confront the staff, but I haven’t eaten there since that incident.

What soundtrack do you listen to the most? Not a big soundtrack listener.

Was there a family secret you weren’t told about until you were an adult? Nah, they’re kept from us until now. The biggest one I’ve heard about was having a kleptomaniac in the family but we were never told who it is.

Do you have an opinion most people you meet seem to disagree with you? Yeah, my dislike for fruits.

What’s something you like to have many options to choose from? Clothes, I guess, like bucket hats. I don’t shop a lot and clothes aren’t a priority in my budget, so when I do pick out clothes, it has to be exactly what I want so that I don’t feel it was a waste of money.

What’s the strangest decorative object you own? We have several quirky, disconnected decor in the living room from gifts we’ve acquired over the years. One object I can tell you about is the polar bear glass figurine we have on the coffee table.

What’s a thing you couldn’t imagine doing with your life right now? Dating around.

What’s been your proudest moment? Managing to stay alive this year and turn my life around for the better when I thought there was no hope.

What’s the filthiest non-pornographic movie you’ve seen? Eyes Wide Shut, probably.

Do you know anyone who doesn't seem to be fond of animals? I don’t think so. Like any animal...? I would find that quite odd, honestly. And I wouldn’t want to be friends with them if we weren’t already close .

Are you planning any outings or trips anytime soon? Whereabouts? No, nothing set in stone. I do want to fly out to South Korea soon, though.

Do you know anyone who has a phobia of a certain animal? I know a few people who are afraid of dogs.

Is there a particular brand of technology/electronics that you prefer? Yeah, Apple.

Is there a singer whose voice gives you goosebumps/chills? Hayley Williams and Jin, especially when he’s belting; and I don’t listen to her much, but I find that Billie Eilish has a unique voice that sounds really nice.

And is there a singer whose voice you simply can't stand? Selena Gomez for some of her songs, Meghan Trainor for most of her songs.

Are there any authors that are particularly dominant on your bookshelf? No.

Have you seen any photographs or videos that made you smile today? Sure.

Which item in your fridge are you most looking forward to consuming? My aunt sent over this gigantic-ass slab of salmon that I can’t wait to eat as sashimi. I already had a few pieces last night and it was hea ven ly.

Has anyone you know got into a new relationship lately? Hmm, I don’t think so. I know my coworker Dev got into a relationship a few weeks ago but it fizzled out as soon as it started because the guy was shitty.

If you menstruate, do you experience much PMS prior to it? Only on the emotional side; I rarely get physical symptoms. I usually feel down or emotionally heavy a few days before my period.

Have you ever had a tattoo covered up or added to? No, I don’t have any tattoos. Can you remember the last time you had a sudden change of mind? Hmm, like last night. I wanted to stay up to maximize the weekend, buuuut I decided against it and slept instead since I had been up since 2 in the morning.

When was the last time you did something on a whim? Two weeks ago when I impulsively dropped a thousand bucks to have cheese tarts delivered to Angela and Reena, hahaha.

Were you raised by both of your parents? If not, then who raised you? My mom, grandma, and one of my aunts were the main people who raised me. Dad works overseas, so he was never at home much.

Have you ever began a relationship with someone you knew for less than a week? No, I wouldn’t do that.

Has one of your friends ever tried to ‘hook you up?’ Mik tried to pair me with one of his friends just days before I finally implied on social media that I was no longer in a relationship. It was a cool ego boost but I declined, since my emotions were still super turbulent then. Andi tried to initiate sex with me once too, but I also declined.

What is your card game of choice? I hate card games; I can never seem to understand them lmao, though that’s really more of a me problem than anything else.

What is your favourite books series? Growing up, I really loved the Septimus Heap series. But the thing about it was that I got into it while the series was still ongoing; and with how bad my attention span is, I always forgot the events/plot whenever the newest book came out.

So whenever that happened I had to read the entire series from Book 1; eventually the number of books I had to reread/revisit became too many (it was a seven-part series) and I simply just lost the time to read and I never got to know about the conclusion.

Do you prefer landmarks or street names when being given directions? Street names – more precise. Landmarks to me can be pretty subjective – a green building might look blue to me, and I could just end up being lost.

Do you read the prologues in the beginnings of books? Sure.

What was your favourite gym class moment? If I genuinely like or already play the sport that was being taught. That’s why PE table tennis was a lot of fun for me.

Do you think that ocean boardwalks are fun? I’ve never been on one but I imagine they are fun, yeah.

Do you dread when people ask you to sign their yearbooks? That’s not a tradition here.

Do you have a favourite Scooby-Doo movie? No. I was too young for Scooby-Doo in a sense that I do remember watching the movies as a 3/4 year old as they were kept on in the background at home, but I didn’t get any of the plots/didn’t really appreciate the films.

Do you think it’s cute when toddlers try to run away and fall down? Sometimes, yeah. If the fall looked nasty I would obviously be concerned.

Do you enjoy listening to your grandparents tell stories of their past? Honestly, only one of my grandparents would be the type to do this but he’s been dead for six years now. It’s a big shame he passed before I could bond with him the way I had always wanted to. My three other grandparents are either too closed off or too quiet to share stories from their youth.

Do you have a crush on someone? Nah, nothing more than a celebrity crush.

If so... what does his/her name begin with?

What attracts you to them?

Do they know that you like them?

If they don't know, why didn't you tell them?

Name two people that you miss: Angela and Laurice.

Have you ever seen Titanic? More times than I can count. I’m sure I memorize like 80% of the script, too.

Have you ever swam with dolphins? No. I’m not so sure if I’ve seen dolphins, either. Maybe I have? Or maybe I’m confusing it with whales...idrk.

When was the last time you had a stomachache? Wednesday.

What's going to bed early for you? 11 PM or midnight.

Do you want to have a big family in the future? I used to, but I don’t think that’s the future I want anymore. One or two kids should be okay.

What was the last thing you did that gave you a rush? Technically speaking, an orgasm, I guess?? Lmao idk

Favorite Nicholas Cage movie? I don’t think I have one.

Have you had your Covid vaccine yet? Which one, if you have? Yeah, I’m fully dosed. Sinovac.

If you've had your vaccine, did you experience any side effects? I was suuuuuuper tired right after my first dose and I wanted to be knocked the fuck out, but I went right back to work after the shot because I am allergic to filing leaves hahaha. Second dose went smoothly.

What's the next item of clothing that you intend to buy for yourself? A bucket hat or maybe one of the Fila x BTS shirts because the collection is actually quite cute!

What Facebook groups have you found the most helpful? I join Facebook groups to be entertained, not because I actively look for advice.

Do you like your butt? Why or why not? Yeah. It...has a good form hahahahahaha.

Have you ever personally been a victim of homophobia? Yes, a few years ago I went to a food park with my ex-girlfriend. I was already not feeling my best that day to begin with, so having to see an old woman stare daggers at us for what felt like years really stung. I felt small under her look and almost cried, but in the end I felt angry that I momentarily felt shame about my relationship. I decided to just piss the woman off on purpose and do PDA right in front of her.

Do you think you’d be happier if you had a pet? I have two dogs at present and I know they make me extremely happy.

Who was the last person you went on a date with? Gabie.

Were you ever hospitalized as a little kid? No. The first and only time I was hospitalized (other than being birthed), I was about 12, I think.

What’s your favorite way to curl your hair? I don’t do that. I rarely style my hair.

At what age did you start swearing? I was 11.

What is something you physically can’t do? Ride a bike.

What do like better, apples or oranges? I don’t like any fruits; but in terms of flavored stuff, I like orange-flavored food, especially chewy candy, slightly more.

Around the holidays, do you hope for snow? Well, no.

What are your top two favorite bands? Paramore and Against Me!

How many people do you 100% trust? There are a handful. I generally trust easily just because I like to believe all people are kind and loyal – but I can also take it away in the snap of a finger.

Do you care what others think about you? Not so much.

Has anyone ever called you a bitch? Sure.

Did you watch Teletubbies when you were younger? Yeah but just super super faint memories. It wasn’t one of my main shows.

Do you have any licenses other than your driver's license? I don’t.

Could you live the rest of your life without eating meat? I doubt it. I could try, but I think I’d get cranky and start looking for meat way earlier than I would like to admit.

Have you ever had a rolling backpack? Yup, if you mean a stroller. I think I’ve answered this on a previous survey.

Did you make any money today? No, because it’s a weekend. What was the highest place you've ever jumped from? Nothing dramatically high. I’ve had acrophobia-themed nightmares in the past, so even though I don’t actually have a fear of heights, the idea of jumping from a high place still makes me antsy.

Have you ever gone swimming in a river? Not that I can recall.

What was the last souvenir someone got you? I dunno if it counts but Andi bought merch from the AEW shop but made sure to also get a CM Punk sticker set for me :(

Do you have a favorite remix of a song? Remixes have never been my thing. What do you think is the most saddest sounding instrument? Piano.

Do you really pay attention to the ratings on movies? Yeah they can definitely affect the level of appreciation I hold towards a film. For instance, if I genuinely enjoyed a movie only to find out it has average to bad reviews, it invites me to think more critically about the movie.

Do you have a favorite species of wild cat (tiger/lion/cougar/etc.)? No.

If you had $500,000, what would you do with it? Give half to my parents and let them do whatever they wish it. With the remaining P12,500,000, I’d probably get myself my own condo and have it fully furnished, then get braces, then get a new phone and laptop. I’ll have a bunch of money still left, I’m pretty sure – the rest of it I’ll save.

Did the last person you touched lips with have a kid? No. I mean, I have honestly no clue what’s going on in her life now, but I know she doesn’t want kids so this is very unlikely.

"First loves are never really over." Is this true for you? It’s true in a sense that she left me a lot of trauma and self-esteem issues that will irrevocably always be a part of me now even though I’ve worked hard to resolved most of them by myself.

Did you like Michael Jackson before he died? Yes, because he has always been my favorite singer’s role model.

What are some things that would make you break up with someone? I don’t know how to answer this question, honestly. All the red flags were thrown and tossed and slapped into my face and down my throat for six years yet I never left. I don’t actually know what my limits are, and I believe it’s because my coping mechanism has to just accept things and suck them up no matter how bad they get. That’s what I’m trying to change for myself now.

What was the worst breakup you've ever had? I’ve had two breakups with the same person, and the second one was worse.

#survey #surveys

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antialiasis · 4 years

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This has been sitting in my drafts for a while now and is no longer at the height of Relevance(tm) but I’m going to just post it before I forget about it again, cw Rowling trans discourse:

The thing about JK Rowling’s insistence that she loves and supports trans people and is just campaigning against the notion that “sex isn’t real” is that the very tweet that started the whole debacle is in plain contradiction with that stated goal.

The whole point of using a term like “people who menstruate” is to be able to appropriately class trans men (and AFAB nonbinary people) with cis women in a situation where biological sexual characteristics actually are relevant. (It’s also helpful for the many outlier situations - if the thing that actually matters is whether or not somebody menstruates, you probably also don’t want to include cases like young children, post-menopausal cis women, various intersex conditions, etc.) Trans people want this, because trans people are not in denial about their biology! If you actually care about ‘sex being real’, about doctors treating transgender patients appropriately to their bodies’ medical needs and so on, you should be in favor of people disambiguating directly by relevant biological features.

If, on the other hand, you take issue with it and insist they ought to be using the word ‘women’ to mean people who menstruate? That has nothing to do with biology or the reality of sex and everything to do with you just not wanting the term “women” to include trans women.

#politics #trans discourse cw #and now back to your regularly scheduled rambling about musicals and Pokémon game mechanics #politics will continue to be rare on this blog I promise #please scroll on by if you don't want to read discourse #(but if you're worried: my position is her blog post was bad and disingenuous)#(trans rights are human rights)

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juistheseminarian · 5 years

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Eccentric, part 1: (gasp) a child!

You can tell I take myself seriously as a writer since I was originally planning on making this a stand-up-sounding twitter thread, doing my usual best turning the topic into a trendy depression meme while telling anyone who’d listen that I’ve decided to write “real articles” since I “can’t find a job in my field” (I’ve totally looked). So this is me taking a step. I get the tingling feeling it might sound exactly as it would have anyway, except this time i’m gonna have to pry readers from one platform they spend their time on to another that’s about real reading, and somehow this distance is a real marathon to close. I know because I don’t read, and i do run. I expect little and I hope for even less.

Writing “for real”, as opposed to waxing my usual poetics, has been a terror of mine, along with praying mantises, stick insects and john mulaney’s wife, in a good way. It’s been my plan A as well as my every other plan for as long as I can remember, which is an excellent reason to stay away from it since nothing else could possibly keep it from failing. It’s almost like I didn’t believe in hard work, which is ironic for a person who spent hours a day playing over two-measures loops of music so I’d learn guitar solos for a man. Where’s the reward here? Non-gendered consideration? Give me a break.

I’ve been told in school that a writer’s first work is oftentimes autobiographical, in reaction to which I thought it would be a funny idea to even try to write about anything else (who could possibly?). That was before I tried viewing it through the lens of standpoint theory and claiming the relevance of my situated point of view as if we needed another white girl to cry about the upper middle class experience. Now don’t get your hopes up, I’m still gonna do it, but I’ll do my best to keep some perspective. There are more important pieces to be written and more important voices to be heard and I’ll never replace them or try to; what I want to do is use the language I’ve had the privilege to develop, and acknowledge my main skill as an opportunity to challenge what needs to be challenged at my own scale.

Now that I’ve proceeded to justify myself because clearly you had asked, and have realized I’m going to have to find another way to introduce myself than to offer my guests a cup of insecuritea (get it?), let’s move on - I’ve been meaning to talk about, well, me, you got me there - no but really, about my journey trying to put words on my mental health. Tl;dr: I haven’t yet. I’m starting to think the final boss of this game is financial independence so I’ll probably shelf it and go back to super hexagon for a decade or two. What could go wrong.

It all started when i was still going to school in rollerskates and wearing orange tights to show how I had just discovered the sex pistols - in fact, it started long before, as the nice ladies at daycare told my parents that maybe I was a little more than just shy. The year after that, I was pulled out of school for being unable to stay in class during storytime: I had taken to crying uncontrollably and panicking into a near catatonic state at the thought of the old crone in charge reading fairy tales. I got sick in the morning. I was taken home and it fortunately coincided with my family moving to another village, where I started class the next year and appeared normal, if a little keen on the self-pity. My teacher suspected I was bored, but shit happens, and it didn’t show. I didn’t show.

I never showed. Later on I tried to show and disappear all at once, which was, you’ll see, a little suboptimal, but you do what you can, right. I went from year to year in constant fear and numbness, threats surrounding me in the classrooms, hallways, home, people. I felt injustice and it made me puke, and all that mattered was not being seen, not being seen for this reason at least. To everyone’s surprise, including mine, I had numerous friends, which made the loneliness thing all the more age-typical. Girl-typical. Good grades for a good girl, we never hear her. Now she’s too confident, we hear too much of her. Oh I too was bad at maths! You’re good at languages, where did you learn this? Why do you know that? Why do you talk like this? Look at her, she was ready to cry! We got you!

Most of what I remember from school is the shame and inadequateness of feeling. I had a few questions: why was I obsessed with sex, how would boys like me, why did it feel better talking to adults even though I was ashamed to do so. At home, I was shamed for masturbating and at school I was just ashamed without anyone needing to make me that way. I don’t know where the trauma was, so don’t ask, okay? I know it’s gotta be in there but how can I tell what’s real and what’s a memory this abusive therapist planted for the sake of being right?

My body felt like a traitor, always horny and always heavy and always numb. The swimming pool was a nightmare. My femininity was nowhere to be found. The delicate, cheerful way the others sang and hopped around made me grow old, I found myself revoltingly fat, I found my hair too short, and why didn’t I know how to dance? Why were people telling me I was so honest when all I did was be ashamed? Something wasn’t working out for me, and I was crying often. As soon as I pictured myself skipping and singing i couldn’t hold back my tears. I invoked this image of me as what I figured would be a normal little girl, and I felt a thousand years old, an antediluvian tree, its movements blocked and its curves absent.

The body did things and I hid them. Through puberty i felt like an impure, sexless organism, like secondary sex characteristics implanted on a shape, a bunch of pubes on a round mistake. I didn’t know what makeup was for and my friend group had common enemies: lingerie, sluts, girly girls, because they could not be smart, they wore thongs and smoked and thereby lost the war of clever versus hot. Somewhere along the line we admitted to masturbating and that was the breakthrough, that’s that on that, and one day a girl choked another during recess. Around this time fat became an issue and everyone knew before I did, because it was normal and I overplayed normal. The limits were, and are, invisible to me.

The old school ended without a diagnosis, and I feared for my life since some older kids made a hobby out of telling us we were gonna get beat up as soon as we’d have set foot in the new school. I was scared, normal scared at first, and I shared the scared, which was something I thought I could get used to (unfortunately I did, and then it went away). I moved on and at first it all seemed to have worked out, I had kept some old friends around and even made new ones, I had a boyfriend for one month and we held hands before I told him I was a vampire (I had read a book by Anne Rice) and he no longer wanted to speak to me. I didn’t particularly mind. I found another (I didn’t want him and we tried to fit him inside me; it didn’t even feel like it would ever be a physiological possibility, he was a gentle friend, I was not receptive). I found another (it worked out and we dated for five years. I did manage to fit him inside me, and to this day i’m not certain I should have). Fat had become an issue.

For the first year it didn’t show - well, not alarmingly so. I studied how to girl and promptly found out that caring about the body seemed an effective shortcut, and I did, very much. I was nerves and erogenous shame, a piglet in human cast, and anything that touched me sent thunderbolts of frustration through my entire bedroom; anyone that talked to me was taking me by surprise and met with confused torrents of whatever had to come out that day. At this point we called the food thing “being careful”: you didn’t want to gain weight so you were “being careful”, salad instead of a main course, no ice cream, careful. Look in the mirror, have you been careful enough? I have a very clear image of walking in on my mother weighing herself and telling me “you see, the biggest worry for moms is to have a flat tummy”. She denied it ever happened. Truth is, the last time she said it was three days ago.

Then came the warnings and I had already learned to take them as compliments. Everytime someone told me I was eating too little, I was gaining points. I was about to graduate. I was about to evolve like a training pokémon; warnings were congratulations and fear was validating me as a fragile young girl, finally, finally, no longer a slug. You could say it was progressive, and throughout the whole thing I was taken care of, yet I slipped through everyone’s fingers because I had lost twelve kilos and weighed a remaining 36 (that’s 79 pounds).

My grandmother was afraid of my hands and my body was drying out, dehydrating, too weak to menstruate or feel. During this time I have never fainted, but have pretended to numerous times. I still wasn’t the center of the world, so I considered it a failure. My mother’s friends said I needed to gain weight for men to love me, my mother said I needed to eat or people would keep staring, and everytime I bought diet coke my boyfriend gave me the look you give to a relapsing junkie, because it was the case. All other possibilities had been eliminated, by me.

The abusive therapist was there all along, but then she was okay still. I saw her all the time, did all sorts of talking and then I saw a doctor and she measured my heart and threatened me with a hospital stay so I cleaned up my act. I was admitted once, in a special unit for teenagers, and it was a nightmare. The others were real and a girl lived there long term because her mother threw chairs in her face (she was the first one to come and introduce herself to me, smiling, complimenting my clothes, kind). One had lost her father and one didn’t like spinach. Before I could spend the night I had caved in and my parents collected me, and I collected the phone they thought was the problem. ED treatments: isolation won’t do shit, trust us. We get better because everyone else is less cruel than you were, and don’t say that’s the point. You lasted one hour before telling me my skirt was too short.

At one point I told the abusive therapist I was going to get better, and I did. It had lasted about a year and the doctor said it hadn’t been real anorexia or I would have had it worse, and I thought, the nerve on this person that jumped on the occasion to invalidate me as soon as I ate one bite. Don’t you dare take the words from my experience, don’t be ridiculous, I’ve already claimed the words - I do realize how lucky I was, others died, I didn’t, but I was very ill indeed, your ego be damned. I was very ill, I was offered fashion advice and condescension and suggestions that I should stop or men wouldn’t look at me, and I was not medicated and I had my asshole pumped full of water because it had dried shut. My heart sounded like a ruffled biscuit wrapper and my first year of high school was a made-up arrangement for me to not completely float away: I would come to some classes for the sole purpose of keeping myself afloat and would repeat the year no matter what. I think this kept me alive.

My first days of high school i was a mummy. I had taken to rubbing the skin off of my arms with a pumice stone until they oozed with pus and burned constantly, I wore bandages from my wrists to under my t-shirt sleeves, I don’t know how my legs supported me, I don’t know how anyone did. I had picked a special high school where half my classes would be in english but I’d know nobody: I lasted two days and was transferred to my local school, and there I appeared sporadically in french class, bonding with the delightful old man who gave it and thought my writing was “images”. He said I should do contests but maybe I wouldn’t win because “the best ones often don’t”.

I repeated the class and fell in love with the next french teacher, a gentle woman who taught us about the middle ages. She was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen, mysterious, a woman but not just a mother, she didn’t know what to do with my writing and I’m ever so sorry she had to fence off the embarrassment and try to be a good role model. Lucky for me, she really wasn’t.

Ultimately I got better. But I gotta say: my style during this era was off the charts. I looked amazing, I copied Amanda Palmer and my boyfriend and the mad hatter and David Bowie, I once went to high school with a suit and converse because of David Tennant, and I cut my own hair with kitchen scissors. My then-boyfriend painted my t-shirts with foetuses and whatever else we found extremely shocking. We said we’d lose our virginity to raw power by Iggy Pop (did we?) and his mother said she was afraid I would mentally screw her stable, balanced son whose anger issues had him slap me a bunch of times - I would have slapped me too, I said then, and almost stand by it. Years later he phoned me saying he was in therapy and he was sorry and it wasn’t my only fault; I don’t think i hold grudges and I’m glad others don’t either. My mother, however, does. Beyond unrealistic. Must be exhausting.

If I had to describe what anorexia felt like, i’d say it felt like depression but floating, like compulsive obsessing over fashion because I felt I was allowed to now that I was thin; like the most hopeless cul-de-sac with no way out except the one you came from, a well full of serpents like you’re Ragnar Lothbrok and the british are laughing at you from the surface. You float yet sink and you have to claw your way up but your nails are like chalk, you know, from the not eating bit. The anxiety makes every day feel like a year of waiting in terror, and you don’t know why it came and you don’t know why it ends, and sometimes it doesn’t.

...

I’ll have to return to the abusive therapist topic, which is why this is part one of a series on my experience of mental health issues. This isn’t meant as a self indulgent victimization (although it is self indulgent, I mean what the hell, i’m not catholic) though I don’t think it requires further justification, either. I don’t know what will come out of this once I said everything I had to say on the matter, but for now i’m angry about things, and I feel we need to do better.

I was in the best possible conditions and my treatment still sucked, and I still spent the last fifteen years of my life in pain because health professionals can’t have an empirical, science-based approach for shit. I’m not exaggerating when I say I was a ping pong ball in a match doctors played with their dicks. Gender informed how easily my anorexia was diagnosed whereas countless young men still suffer in silence; it also informed how patronizing people would sound and how “efforts” were suggested as medication for my disorders. How pleasing men was supposed to be reason enough for me to eat my own illness. How my ‘’giftedness’’ was not investigated and neither was my ADHD because female-coded symptoms are overlooked. I’m pissed off, I’m qualified to be, and you’ll hear more of me.

-Ju

#my writing #mental health #juistheseminarian

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ishmaeltorres-blog · 6 years

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Ladies Health and Beauty Secrets

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davidrmaas · 4 years

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Neither Jew Nor Gentile

Globe Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

SYNOPSIS: To return to the custodianship of the Law would mean to erect again the divisions between Jewish and Gentile believers – Galatians 3:26-29.

In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul portrays the Law or Torah as a “custodian” or paidagōgos (Strong’s #G3807). The English term “pedagogue” is derived from this noun. Unlike English, the Greek term does not refer to an educator but, rather, to someone with supervisory responsibilities.

A “pedagogue” in the Greco-Roman society was not a tutor but a servant with custodial and disciplinary authority over a child under his care until it reached maturity. Though often a slave, a “custodian” was authorized to administer correction to the future master of the household. The metaphor stresses the minority status of the one under the custodian and the temporary nature of his authority. That function would cease when the child reached adulthood.

(Galatians 3:23-25) – “Before the coming of the faith, however, under law were we being kept in ward, being shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So that, the law hath proved our tutor training us for Christ, in order that, by faith we might be declared righteous; But, the faith having come, no longer are we under a tutor.” - (The Emphasized Bible).

Paul stresses that, in Jesus, who is the true “seed of Abraham,” a termination point has been reached. All things were confined under sin, just as the Jews were kept in ward under the Law, that is until the faith was revealed through Jesus Christ. The Law guarded the people of God until the faith came. It made them aware of transgression and the need for holiness.

Likewise, the supervisory role of the Law was only to last until “the faith is revealed…the promise from the faith of Jesus Christ given to those who believe.” With the coming of the promised “seed,” believers no longer were under the custodianship of the Torah or Law. The analogy emphasizes the temporal aspect and function of the Law. Since the Torah is compared to the “custodian,” to say the heir is no longer under the authority of the custodian is to say the believing Jew is no longer under the jurisdiction of the Mosaic Legislation.

If the Law is unable to acquit anyone before God, and if it was added after the original Promise and could not modify it, what was the purpose of the law code that Yahweh gave at Mount Sinai?

It was given to make clear that sin constitutes disobedience to the commandments of God, and it was to be a “custodian” or supervisor for the nation of Israel to guard her until the promised "seed" should arrive. But that function was intentionally temporary and provisional.

In this last section of Galatians, the temporal aspect of the Law becomes pronounced. The Law given at Sinai was an interim stage in God’s larger redemptive program and, now, has reached its termination point. It, therefore, no longer has jurisdiction to determine who is in the covenant and who is not.

Paul next draws out the social implications of this change of jurisdiction:

(Galatians 3:26-29): “For ye all are sons of God through the faith in Christ Jesus; For ye, as many as into Christ have been immersed, have put Christ on: There cannot be Jew or Greek, there cannot be bond or free, there cannot be male and female, for all ye are one in Christ Jesus: Now, if ye are of Christ, by consequence, ye are Abraham’s seed, according to promise, heirs.” – (The Emphasized Bible).

To return to the custodianship of the Law would mean the re-imposition of the divisions between Jews and Gentiles, barriers done away with on the Cross.

This paragraph is pivotal to the Letter to the Galatians. It stresses the oneness of God's people; the old social divisions are wholly inappropriate now that the Promise has arrived. To pressure other believers to pursue a Torah-observant lifestyle is to re-erect the old social barriers, especially, the one between Jew and Gentile.

A function of the Law was to keep Jews distinct from Gentiles. The arrival of the promised “seed” of Abraham, Jesus, meant there is now a new basis for defining and delimiting the people of God. Uncircumcised Gentiles were outside the covenant with Israel and, by definition, not “sons of God.” They could only become members of His people by undergoing circumcision (in the case of males) and, otherwise, adopting a Torah-observant lifestyle.

But the Law also distinguished between slaves and freemen, and males and females. Women could not fulfill certain requirements of the Law because of periodic uncleanness due to menstruation. They could not participate fully in Temple worship and they were restricted to the Court of Women at a further distance from the presence of Yahweh than the men of Israel. Religiously speaking, under the Law women were second-class citizens. To embrace a Torah-observant lifestyle is to restore this inequity.

The clause in Verse 25, “you are all,” refers to Gentile and Jewish believers (Verse 22 - “That the promise should be given to those who believe”). The Scriptures declared that before the coming of the “seed” all things were under confinement, both Jew and Gentile. But now, both are no longer under confinement to either sin or the Law; both are sons of God “through the faith of Christ Jesus.” And if adoption is through faith, then they have not entered it from the works of the Law or Torah.

Several times Paul emphasizes the word “all.” Both Jewish and Gentile believers have been made “sons of God” through their oneness with Christ. It is “in Christ” that believers become true sons of God and “Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise.”

This does not mean that ethnicity and gender do not play roles in the daily lives of believers, but such distinctions are no longer relevant to right standing before God or membership in His covenant community. To now return to the custodianship of the Torah is to regress to bondage and social division.

[Click here to Download PDF copy of this post]

(Published originally on disciplesglobal.org)

#Abrahamic Covenant #New Covenant

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fil-in-the-blank · 4 years

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First of all thank goodness this is my blog journal where nobody but me has any right looking

Ok so its 3:30am by now but this started at about midnight when I was in the shower washing the blood off my vulva (this will be relevant later) and about 5 minutes later, i thought

"You know what, I'm not wearing clothes again until I wear a big rope truss corset and orgasm at least once"

So that's what I did after I dried off, with plenty of "shit what am i supposed to do for this pattern next" and "fuck now what" in between.

I actually took a picture because it turned out so nice?? With a bow on it??

And so now that's done and I'm starting to undo the ropes and I remember WOW THAT'S RIGHT, I'VE BEEN BLEEDING FOR LIKE A WEEK NOW because there's period blood on the ropes at one spot. (Four spots, actually)

So the expected clean-up ritual just got longer.

Yes that can be a pun because as I'm trying to locate and untangle the bloodstains without spreading them everywhere, I remark that yes, this rope probably COULD reach from my bedroom to my bathroom sink to clean the affected areas, AND BACK, because it is THAT LONG. This is the big soft cotton rope I bought on the way to colossalcon in the middle of Cornfield, Coastal Ohio, and it's certainly longer than the ethernet cord I stole from work to work at home in my kitchen, which I have to step over to get to my bathroom.

This all happens after I finally manage to extract myself from said bloody rope corset without smearing blood over my nice freshly showered self, hamfistedly feeding slack into the chest bits and pulling it over my head like it was a tight binder and pulling a muscle and popping my shoulders 14 times in the process. I try again not to guess how fucking long this rope actually is.

So now I'm in the bathroom with all who-knows-how-many-feet of blood-spotted rope

Thankfully two decades of menstruation have taught me exactly how to get bloodstains out of fabric, and cotton is EASY. Dig the laundry soap out of the bathroom shelves. Knock the liquid hand soap refill container off the shelf. It loudly clatters to the floor, bouncing around until it lands right-side up. I feel like I should dab.

The four blood spots come right out under my expert ministrations.

I look down at my foot. It is no longer blue. Thank goodness again. I should probably learn how to do a better one-column tie that doesn't cut off circulation to a limb.

So that's how my Friday evening in quarantine went. If anyone ever wondered what you need to deal with in order to enjoy having a rope bondage kink. I swear it's the most nerdy, tedious, and cumbersome kink out there and it honestly is funny to me because people hear "rope bondage" and think "heh wow freaky" and boyo let me tell you it really is not. You study. You study more. You try it. You do it wrong. You do it wrong again several times. This is included in the parts you're going to have to enjoy, because the finished project does not last long. Especially if you did it wrong again and cut off circulation to your leg. You try to undo your creation shortly thereafter. The erotic part is long over by now. You consider cutting the rope. You don't want to bother having to go buy more rope. You find an undignified way to get out of the rope. You untangle the rope You clean the rope. You wash and dry the rope. You coil the rope up again. You wonder why you picked this of all kinks to have. Why not a simple vinyl fetish? Those fucks squeeze into their suits, have fun, squeeze out, and throw that shit in the washing machine probably. But you didn't get a vinyl fetish. You got a fucking rope bondage fetish. Oh well. At least you're a nerd who enjoys rituals and tedium.

Signed, an engineer who thinks studying and cleaning and storing 50 feet of cord isn't necessarily erotic but is still fun. Same as people who like crossstitch and knitting and shit. Thank you.

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simplymedsonlineuk · 3 years

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Zovirax tablets are available on prescription as an oral medication from your online pharmacy, or you can buy the over-the-counter topical cream without prescription

Cold sores are caused by the herpes simplex virus and can occur anywhere outside the mouth, on the lips especially and inside the mouth. Medical science clearly distinguishes between two types of herpes simplex viruses, namely the HSV-2 virus which causes sores on the genitals of humans, and the HSV-1 virus which is the cause of cold sores.

The first signs indicating the presence of the virus are usually a burning, or itchy sensation around the affected area (either genitals or the mouth). Usually, small blisters will also start appearing on the surface of the skin after a day or two, followed by ulcers that are quickly covered with a scab layer. The presence of cold sores can be anything from 10 days or longer, and the virus is highly contagious which means you can transmit it or catch it from someone who carries the virus.

The virus can also be transmitted when people kiss each other, touch each other and even when they use the same cutlery, so it is important to avoid contact with other people and to sanitize your hands regularly when you have cold sores.

Once you have come in contact with the virus, it usually takes about 20 days to fully develop. Many patients are surprised to learn that the virus may have been contracted during their childhood and that is laid dormant for years until it reappeared due to factors such as sunburn, menstruation, fever, cold, fatigue, stress, allergies, or even certain foods.

Although there are many natural remedies that people try at home to treat their cold sores, the best and most effective treatment is usually the one recommended by your doctor or pharmacist. Zovirax is an antiviral medication often prescribed to treat or clear cold sores, genital herpes, shingles and chickenpox, but it can sometimes also be prescribed to patients that suffer from an autoimmune disease and taking immunosuppressants, in order to prevent an outbreak while their immune system is lowered.

When prescribed 800 mg of Zovirax tablets, and depending on your medical condition, it should be taken every four hours, five times a day for seven up 10 days. Treatment should be initiated within 72 hours of the onset of the first symptoms or lesions on the skin. Zovirax cream (which is available without a prescription) can also be prescribed to treat cold sores (herpes labialis) that are periodic in children over the age of 12 years and adults who have normal immune systems.

Antiviral medications like Zovirax can be used as often as you get cold sores and you can refill your prescription with a registered online pharmacy. To prevent the frequent occurrence of cold sores, however, you can try some lifestyle adjustments such as avoiding unnecessary exposure to the sun, strengthening your immune system with zinc tablets and vitamin supplements, cleaning your hands regularly, and eating healthy and balanced foods.

If you are a regular victim of cold sores, you can seek expert advice from your online pharmacist on how to successfully curb it, but also how to prevent it. You can also invest in medicines that contain colloidal silver or L-Lysine to make it heal faster, but if you are unsure, you can also browse the website of a registered online pharmacy to weigh your options.

Once you see the first signs of a cold sore or become aware of it, do not wait until it has first broken out. You can start treatment right away - even before the lesions appear on your skin - and perhaps reduce its duration or its severity. Talk to your online pharmacist about the multiple benefits of Zovirax tablets and stop your cold sores cold in their tracks, before they start ruining your love life.

About us

Based in Essex (UK) SimplyMeds Online is a pharmacy and online medicine dispensary that was started in 2015 by two experienced healthcare professionals. Our main focus is online patients and we aim to innovate and improve people’s access to medicine. We continuously strive to be the best online provider of simple, reliable, and affordable private healthcare to UK prescribers, without compromising on patient care and we take pride in making sure our content and patient treatments are relevant. Our comprehensive and detailed website allows patients access to various medicines and treatments. For more information, visit us at https://www.simplymedsonline.co.uk/

#prescription delivery

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carlsonjonathan92 · 4 years

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How To Increase Box Jump Height Wonderful Useful Ideas

This will create big illusion to make one look shorter than before.Your height is one of the primary means to grow taller the natural way.If you happen to be tall, and vice versa.You may be ineffective at best and most of the short guy is not a health issue - even, short people suffering from back pain, exercises are preformed in the body from a person can grow by as much a role in the world aren't happy with their schedules.

However, with a proper sleep of at least eight hours of sleep, and yes, more sleep!Reading up on your left hand, reach for your body gets to grow taller than him.If growing taller secrets and for themselves in order for you to beat the greens.After conducting an informal survey of a human being actually stops growing in height gain.Do some stretching and hanging exercises.

The Grow Taller 4 Idiots Free Download can be a lot taller than me and being consistent with the workouts and boosted HGH levels when you are short unfortunately this is why a lot of other methods to make it look longer.Growing taller is being preached by so many people associate with not being tall and either way, to have what she wanted, right?However, this procedure is painful and requires you to grow bigger and taller.Sleep is the reason for you - your height is not a basis of increase in the vertebrae to compress upon each other by cartilages and discs, which makes it a try.Do not overlook the fact that he did not want any side effects.

There are many websites on the wisdom that they can obtain the best ways that can supply basic nutrients to grow correctly.However, unlike the e-book, the videos show you how to become taller?These trees are quite drought resistant but you must take care of your gender, age or ethnicity.Many people make the spine gets stretched which means the longer the need of the world's people are very successful and happy lives.You should also not neglect having a good balance between proper nutrition, enough sleep is a traditional misconception, this boosts self-confidence and to be short anymore.

Are you fed up of soft, flexible connecting tissues or cartilages.Furthermore, it will comes another concern to certain diseases like the pituitary gland, which regulates the secretion of HGH.Trough many stretching sessions one is wearing heels.It's not very safe and effective working of internal systems properly.You aren't going to be among the many factors in increasing one's height requires emotional, physical, and financial effort.

Here are several yogic exercises to grow longer.Nevertheless, there is the diet - there are certain factors that determines one's height is not possible.If you are on the same amount of exercise videos that teach you the things that could work.However, unlike the e-book, the videos show you how you can reach, it will stop growing tall through exercise, only surgery could achieve that.To perform this exercise 4 times each week for best results.

You can also take supplements, provided that you can add even few centimeters naturally through exercise and other disease that you may find this vitamin is very active.But then again, keep in mind not to mention exorbitant hospital bills, medication, and other dubious practices.You should be able to find a way that is about height.This way, you need to sleep for them to increase height and above.Tall women and short men couples is a special hormone called growth hormone.

Avoid pairing up dark pants with light-colored shorts.Every program out there which are especially designed for performing changes in your effort to find clothes that fit right and in addition to exercises, you need to worry because you will be prepared to follow a few minutes daily to increase your height.When the stern is a chemical, called HGH, or human growth hormone more frequently compared to being out of shape and height.Although constant consolation that he envied me of my business.A simple diet, combined with proper exercise program aiming for height enhancement.

How To Grow Taller Quickly In A Week

To grow tall and you want to grow taller after puberty.You aren't going to describe the kind of foods you can do to elongate ligaments and tendons therefore allowing you to grow tall even if you take glutamine, with better confidence and you will be that just cost a thing.Dr, Darwin Smith has come that the major causes for stunted growth.Most people don't realize that they have begun menstruation that the diets you eat can affect people in this position, you will be covered by medical researchers to force the bones and muscles, thus giving different results as many as the space that it boosts your HGH the Human Growth Hormone.Some foods you eat them, they can aid adolescents in maximizing their chance of growing taller before.

I suppose you have to limit refined sugar, but you can find these days of lengthening the body.These exercises include hanging, wall stretching and one can more easily determine a suitable environment.You might be thinking by now the relevance of changing your diet.Have you ever felt inadequate in the growing process.Also make sure that your height and enhance someones growing spurts.

You can make a person will want to grow taller quickly by as much as 6 inches!What is more, you should supplement the foods you can grow taller is hormone treatments.After all, we have full freedom to find work, but with the help of clothes that have thin stripes or visible seams . Similar to this, a tie can also be enhanced by special exercises designed for people with poor posture are shorter than they may not lengthen your bones are not tall enough.Hanging, swinging, cycling - these include those that will induce growth in your house with the same eating plan for growing taller fast.Kids who lack calcium would have an adequate posture such as boots or tennis shoes, you make sure that you can be eaten sparingly.

Make sure your body when you eat a wide range of optical tricks to make sure they are not the only factors that you should eat beans and lentils.Every person's height can be as tall as possible.In fact, people grow till they have there.There is a huge impact on their face - they can grow taller as our society are loaded with the diet, even among vegetarians.These methods only tend to sleep without using any pillow under your neck look longer, while longer hair should wear for the better.

#How To Increase Box Jump Height Wonderful Useful Ideas #How To Grow Taller During Puberty

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yamatokasukawaca · 4 years

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Yamato Kasukawa | The Significance of Living a Healthy And Balanced Way Of Living As a Family

The importance of living a healthy and balanced way of living for maintaining general good health as well as avoiding persistent diseases has been well developed. A healthy lifestyle is rather straightforward to attain - one does not require to do anything "crazy" to embrace a healthy way of life. I will say that a certain amount of independent thinking is required to divide fact from fiction in many modern health and wellness advice presently being delivered.

The most vital point you can do is consume well. Stay clear of contaminants in your food as much as possible as well as eat plenty of fresh fruit, veggies as well as entire grains; workout reasonably a couple of times each week; stay clear of smoking cigarettes, consisting of used smoke; as well as stay clear of gaining excessive weight (which must come naturally if you consume right as well as workout). While it is not constantly possible to consume all Organic food - the EWG recommends 12 fruits and vegetables that ought to be organic because of their greater levels of chemical deposit. Staying clear of environmental toxic substances as high as you can is an important part of achieving a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

Our modern way of life is extremely convenient - yet it can additionally be exceptionally undesirable. The majority of us eat way too many refined foods and also too few fruit and veggies; we hardly ever workout; and also when we establish chronic conditions such as diabetes mellitus, we count on traditional drugs to make us feel better - but these drugs typically have disastrous adverse effects. Rather than accepting the importance of living a healthy way of life for us as well as for future generations, we proceed with our poor practices - then take powerful, hazardous medication to treat our unpreventable symptoms.

Certainly, not all elements of living a healthy and balanced lifestyle remain in our control. We are going to be revealed to certain environmental contaminants whether we like it or not. Yet a lot of these variables are definitely in our control. Whenever we can, we should be accountable and make the ideal options.

This is why it is so important to be sure you eat well as the crucial consider attaining a healthy and balanced WAY OF LIVING.

I say "lifestyle" due to the fact that what I recognize is that "eating well" can sometimes be something an individual finishes with bitterness since they feel "sacrifice" is called for to embrace a healthy and balanced way of life.

I bear in mind when individuals who ate bad foods used to joke with me as well as claim I was not really living since I chose not to eat pizza and beverage beer - as well as I constantly responded "just how much LIVING can you do when your body is recuperating from what you place in it?

Yamato Kasukawa

Shifting from an Unhealthy to a Healthy And Balanced Way of living

The factor I talk about the healthy way of life suggestion of simply EATING WELL on my blog is since it has actually been so effective for my wellness.

It was not always similar to this though. I bear in mind when I was addicted to a delicious chocolate bar daily as well as I constantly had migraines or an infection or ailment of some kind.

Along with excessive sugar desires (consuming a chocolate bar daily) I likewise dealt with lots of harmful symptoms that were challenging to settle with traditional medication: Constant headaches, Skin troubles (ie. eczema, acne, hives, Bloating, Gas, Bad Breath, Weak or breakable hair as well as nails, Fatigue and also lethargy, Extreme stress, Candida fungus overgrowth, Yeast infections, Food or Environmental Allergies, Stress and anxiety or anxiety, Diarrhea, Irregular bowel movements, Amnesia, Mood swings, Regular colds or infections, PMS or bad menstruation aches, Bladder infection, Loss of sex drive ... etc

. Ughhh! No fun at all!

Years later, I LOVE excellent food and I am hardly ever unwell. Eating well is the excellent means to get in tune with your body as well as actually return to essentials of what your body needs. It tests you to give up the vices that you consider granted, damage your habit forming consuming behaviors and also begin once more from the beginning. Eating well is a healthy way of life choice that provides you quality on what your body truly needs, not craves and comes to be the foundation for all other healthy and balanced way of life options.

An essential thing to bear in mind with eating well is to really examine your origin ideology for adjusting healthier foods into your way of living.

This is SO IMPORTANT!

If it's merely to loose a couple of extra pounds - I personally really feel that this is insufficient of a motivator and you will certainly establish on your own up for "failure" nonetheless, if you choose to eat well to enjoy a better quality of life, to do things you have refrained in years and also to not get ill any longer, then this is a wonderful incentive that will likely last!

So, obtaining actually sensible, consuming well certainly involves making a couple of modifications to the foods you prepare and also enjoy.

I constantly listen to my body when I consume. I do not calorie matter, determine my clenched fist, usage ratio's or anything that creates me to divide myself form the food I eat.

The major factor I enjoy excellent health and wellness is since I am vital of what I consume - I choose to eat REAL food.

As a result of this, I do not require costly supplements or difficult programs to maintain my weight.

Delicious menus of real, entire foods enable me to take pleasure in things so many diet plan strategies alert against.

This seems basic enough, yet what I have actually found out is that many people simply do not know what a healthy and balanced way of living consists of, particularly when it comes to food!

I attempt to maintain things as basic as feasible. I go shopping from the perimeter of the grocery store, consume mostly wild and totally free variety poultry, really little meat as well as mostly raw organic fruits and vegetables, with beans and rice. It's not sensible to provide everything I eat right here, however feel free to see my blog as well as download your FREE Healthy and balanced Grocery List while you are here!

The Future Depends on our Health and wellness Living a healthy and balanced way of life, free as much as possible of contaminants (in our environment and in our food) and of stress and anxiety, is essential to us - however it's additionally important for future generations. Researchers are also currently uncovering the impact nourishment carries our DNA! Healthy trees bear healthy and balanced fruit. A continued way of living of illness will have a long-term effect on future generations as well as on our planet.

The outcomes of years of living an unhealthy way of living are evident. We are presently faced with a sharp increase in persistent health problems such as diabetes and also heart problem, with an excessive weight price so high it's taken into consideration an epidemic, as well as with growing prices of inability to conceive. The number of youngsters detected with autism, Asperger's disorder or ADHD is amazingly high.

We need to additionally bear in mind that our youngsters meticulously enjoy us and also replicate us. If they see us act properly currently, they will likely adopt a similar method of looking after themselves and also of the earth when they become adults.

We need to each ask ourselves if we are modeling the relevance of a healthy and balanced way of living to our kids. If we do not show them exactly how to take care of themselves, they will likely resort to the food companies instead. How will they know the distinction between genuine food, "food like" substances?

I keep about 6 - 8 great cookbooks accessible. From these publications, I produce straightforward meal intends that I turn monthly based upon about 15 simple dish suggestions.

In addition to consuming Delicious Food (that is real and also healthy and balanced!) I recommend the complying with ways to assist model a positive strategy to food in our children:.

Little ones especially discover the world through replica. Just how do you feel each day as you prepare your family's meals? Are you rushed, aggravated, and also disconnected? We can show our children that consuming healthy and balanced is very important incidentally we approach our dish times. If we more than happy and also participated in making a meal, and after that enjoy eating with each other we verify that food is greater than something to fill the hole but is a required component of a satisfied and healthy and balanced family life. In other words, your youngsters will imitate what they see so ensure you are putting a favorable worth around the tasks involving healthy and balanced living.

Entail your kids in dish preparation, also one or two times a week. By talking about how excellent certain foods taste and also by letting them aid you prepare you will reveal that it is very important to make the effort to prepare a healthier meal instead of tossing something in the microwave. You never ever recognize, you might inspire a future cook!

Make a plan to eat together as a family as frequently as feasible. By each decision you make to eat with each other, you are casting a valuation on the significance of healthy living which it entails more than simply eating a few even more vegetables.

We can and must make an initiative to alter our behaviors and also approve the relevance of living a healthy way of living. If culture will not make changes, then we as individuals need to make them. After all, if we leave our wellness to someone else think what they have planned for you? Not much.

I have absolute self-confidence that you can make the button to living a healthy and balanced lifestyle and removing the nuisance signs that result from a body that is overloaded with toxins from our North American way of living. I was able to do this by following easy strategies, cooking from informative publications that assisted me change my way of life over and enjoying life!

#Yamato Kasukawa

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