#she is not restrained by gender norms

[pardonmyfrenchbutwhattheheck]

"Howl Pendragon gender envy this, Howl gender envy that"

that's all fine and dandy, but grandma Sophie Hatter? LOOK AT HER

gotta be one of my favorite genders of all time

[thesinglesock]

my old How to Train your Dragon obsession suddenly re-emerging now, after I've spent years learning about Historical Viking Clothing and Crafts is great actually cause I get to apply the Fun History Knowledge to my favorite blorbos, and now I have some very specific scenarios.

in Viking culture, gift giving was a big complicated very significant thing. And one gift that was Especially Significant was that of a New Shirt. Women would propose to the guy they wanted to marry by making him a brand new linen shirt. I could go on for several pages about what that tells us about viking culture, gender roles, and also the extremely fun ways viking age stories used "gifting a shirt" as a symbol in romantic stories, but I'll restrain myself. This post is about How to Train your Dragon.

Astrid Hofferson can't sew. There's no way. Girl spent her whole life training to be a warrior, she has not had the time or patience to sit down and learn to sew (even though it involves a whole lot of stabbing things with a sharp object). I mean even her own clothes are made with minimal amounts of sewing (a needlebound tank top and some furs wrapped around her arms instead of sleeves).

Hiccup Haddock Horrendus III, on the other hand, knows how to sew. Sure he mostly works with metal and leather, but leatherwork requires sewing. I'm pretty sure I can find actual footage of him using a needle. Also his clothes are nicely sewn, and since he grew up without a mum, and his dad is a very busy man, he must have made at least parts of his outfit himself.

So my question is: how did they ever get engaged. How did that proposal go? Did Astrid suffer through learning a new skill so she could spend months of her life painstakingly stitching together the Worst Shirt Ever Made? I imagine her rage quitting after she has to undo that one seam for a fourth time, and in true Astrid fashion, just chucking it at Hiccup with full force when he walks into the room.

or! would Hiccup defy Viking Gender Norms because he gets that Astrid has no interest in sewing? and then he gets it into his head that it has to be the most elaborate shirt on the whole island cause it's for his girlfriend and he can't even remember ever seeing her in a nice shirt before? and that's a shame cause she deserves to have nice things! And he overthinks every choice along the way because what if she hates it???? But ofc it turns out really nice and she adores it.

[kickingitwithkirk]

Winchester's Folly

Summary: When Dean gets into trouble John decides to hide the truth for his family

Word Count: 917

*Dark! Fic-don't continue if you are disturbed by the subject matter.

Warnings: A/B/O, dystopian au, non/con, dub/con, subjugation, pandemic, mentions of nudity, physical/mental abuse, mention of collaring/leashed, sexual/slavery, rut/heat, physical altercation, death, murder conviction, parental dominance, trafficking

*Additional warnings will be added

Square filled: @spnkinkbb -DeanJohnSam @anyfandomdarkbingo -Free Space

A/N: UPDATED 3/24

A/N II: Still working on reigning myself in, keeping each part reader-friendly length, and have no clue how many parts this will end up being.

A/N III: a few notes about designations in A/O sub-genders for this story.

Alphas-Dominant (head of the pack/family) Subordinate (obey Dominant) Breeders (rare & highly coveted by the government. Can challenge Dominant for pack/family leadership)

Omegas -Domestic (mostly wiped out by plague, few natural born left) Feral (government-supplied breeders sold commonly called O's) House O’s (3rd generation+ Feral/Dominant breed. Used as servants/sex workers) Pack (rare & highly coveted by the government)

*Divider by @firefly-graphics

*No Beta-all mistakes are mine

GIF by 1x20

PART III

Sam found himself in the warehouse's back area that had been altered, now a mixture of original storage on the left and prefabricated rooms to the right, with the loading dock straight ahead, where his wolf was leading him. The scent of home was strongly intermingling with blood where cursing and bodies impacting each other were echoing down the hallway, drawing Sam in.

A quick look-see around an open door revealed fluorescents bathing everything in washed-out colors: a very pretty, weeping, leashed O kneeling next to an expensively attired Alpha, passively observing two other Alphas engaged in a fight when one abruptly spun, spraying blood across the back walls not far from another lying in a pool of their blood on the floor. Enraged, the remaining Alpha redoubled their efforts to restrain a naked, blood-covered female who was, holy fuck, an O! 

Sam watches, astonished that, while tiring, the O wasn't giving up when another Alpha wielding a blackjack shoves him out of the way, bludgeoning and knocking her to the floor, repeatedly striking to ensure she stayed down grabbed her collar and dragged the dazed O towards a line of heavy-duty dog crates stuffing her in one. While blackjack hauled out the bodies, the banged-up Alpha grabbed a hose washing blood down the floor drain, then turned it on the caged O when Sam’s brother rushed in, grabbing him.

“Sammy! What the fucks the matter with you!” Dean, visibly distraught, dragged him down the hallway, flashbacks to when Sam disappeared for two weeks after turning sixteen on his watch and when their Alpha returned, his atrocious reaction. “You promised me you’d never disappear like that again!”  Right now, Dean wishes Sam was still unpresented and could discipline him when John, appearing relieved, quickly reverted to norms. “Sam, you ever do that again,” admonished his pup in a tight voice. He wasn’t expecting Sam’s I found the O response questions, “What are you talking about?” Sam pointed towards the room and exclaimed, “She killed two Alphas!” 

“Are you sure it was an O?” John sounded doubtful when the palatable taste of the blood and the scent that led Sam back here hit him, making his wolf jolt at his overloaded senses and his canines elongate. John wrestled back control to his hunter intellect when his eldest growled, bolted back down the hallway, followed by Sam on his heels, and yelled, “Dean! Sam! Get your asses back here!”  

Helms appears out of nowhere and sees Dean arguing with the suited Alpha. “Winchester, you have no right to be back here!” The suit stops arguing with Dean and turns on the Dealer. “You think you can sell me misrepresented goods, Helms?” Pointing to the cage rages, “I paid you an exorbitant price for twins. But you lied! Look at that thing!!” John peers back at the cage and sees the leashed O reaching into a wire cage, shaking the other one’s arm as Sam knelt next to her and, oh, holy shit, laid a hand on her shoulder. 

John rushed over before the suit realized the young Alpha was touching their newly acquired property. “Step away from them, Sam.” Sam reluctantly got up as John squatted down to inspect them. The caged one curled up in a fetal position is larger than her sibling, but one can still see her full, pink lips and cinnamon-freckled skin, and she smells nothing like the other. Helms thought he could pass off these O’s as twins? No wonder the suit is pissed. The O whimpers, opening her uninjured, fox-tilted eye to reveal the iris’s unusual mosaic, and upon seeing Sam, a faint ring of gold manifests, and his wolf reciprocates.

John knew only one thing could override rut suppressants snapped, “Dean, get Sam out of here this instant!”  Dean comes over, green eyes widening, and doubles-over groans out, “Sonuvabitch!”

 “Dean! I gave you an order!” 

Dean hobbled to his dazed brother, “Come on, Sammy!” They stagger for the door, using each other as a counterbalance. John returned his attention to the suit, still arguing with Helms about some contractual blah blah blah, felt a touch on his leg peers down at the O, whispering, “Alpha, please don’t let them kill her!” 

John watches the caged one reach a shaking hand through the bars, stroking the other’s arm comfortingly. She has strong protective instincts, like Dean when Sam has one of his nightmares. John’s thoughts are interrupted by the suit hollers. “Hey! What the fuck you are doing over there?” 

The suit stomps over, and John’s hackles go up, expecting an altercation. Instead, they take the O’s leash, leading her across the room to tether her to the doorknob before addressing him. “I understand you need an O to keep your son out of jail, so I’ll make you a deal. You can have that thing,” they point to the cage, “for a dollar. Save me the effort of getting rid of it.”

“You can’t make side deals in my establishment!” Helms screeched. The suit uses their status to dominate the Beta Dealer. “You lied about the product, and since I’ve signed all the contracts and a deal being a deal, as you keep pointing out, I can do whatever I want with my property.” The suit addresses John again, “Are you interested or not?” John gazes at the now unconscious caged O, then back to her twin, whose eyes plead for help.

“You have a deal.”

Part IV

SPN TAGS: @donnaintx  @lyarr24  @flamencodiva  @lassie-bird @nancymcl @spnbaby-67  @leigh70

Sam/Jared: @idreamofplaid

Dean/Jensen: @thoughts-and-funnies @stoneyggirl2 @beabutterfly987 @smoothdogsgirl

WF: @slamminmine  @ladysparkles78  @deans-spinster-witch @ilovetaquitosmmmm   @strawblueberrys

[see-arcane]

The Harkers: "Oh wow, we might finally have new friends in this endeavor to tear apart the bastard who killed Lucy! This is so-"

Van Helsing and Co: "Anyway Madam Mina, since you are a Woman™ we don't want to frighten you poor maiden heart with all of this monster talk so go, and sleep. You don't need to get involved anymore :)"

Mina (internalized misogyny on™) physicallly restraining Jonathan from getting all of their things in a second and leaving: "SURE THING PROFESSOR :))))))"

In fairness (unfortunate), Jonathan does technically agree with putting some space between Mina and the Dracula Attackula mission. The implied difference is that Jonathan ‘Sole Survivor of the Count’s Fuckery and Loves Mina More Than Life Itself’ Harker wants to keep her out of the fucker’s reach in the same way Mina retroactively wishes she could have kept Jonathan out of Dracula’s clutches. He wants to spare her what he personally suffered out of rightful worry, experience and love. So it would be regardless of his loved one’s gender.

On the other hand, Van Helsing and the (upper class Classic Victorian Gentlemen+) Suitor Squad are actively putting on their blinders regarding all evidence to the contrary of their benign-sexist assumptions when it comes to Mina as a person, her sex overriding the reality of her character. She’s the last precious maiden standing and needs protecting! And plenty of ignorance regarding further vampiric ickiness!

Because that worked out so well for Lucy.

There’s likely a not small amount of projection involved too, what with VH and company being still very raw after losing Lucy. Whatever more reasonable non-gender norm-enforcing reaction they might have had given more coping time is not in play—Mina is not only New Friend-Girl, but likely also a New Lucy/Damsel second chance.

[coochiequeens]

Leaders in Bulgaria are letting women be killed instead of updating laws against domestic violence

SOFIA -- On March 9, Kristina Blagoeva, a 32-year-old woman from Bulgaria's capital, contacted the Animus Association, an NGO that offers counseling and support to victims of domestic violence. She told the organization that the previous day the man she was having a relationship with had threatened to kill her.

Less than a month later, her body was found in the trunk of a car, with two bullets in her chest. On April 7, her partner, Kaloyan Kaymakchiyski, was charged with her murder. The prosecutor's office said the most likely motive was that Blagoeva had ended the relationship. The case has reignited a debate in Bulgaria about the country's domestic violence law, which rights activists and legal experts say needs modernizing to better protect women and has resulted in the deaths of dozens of women. But despite efforts to change the law, conservative factions in parliament have blocked any changes that would bring EU member Bulgaria in line with European norms, citing "gender ideology" and "traditional Christian values." The major flaw in Bulgaria's legislation, activists say, is that while restraining orders can protect women from being stalked or abused, they can't be obtained by women like Blagoeva, who are neither married nor living with their partners.

Yulia Andonova from Bulgaria's PULSE Foundation, which supports victims of domestic violence, says the current domestic violence law "isn't working" and is an "outdated" understanding of human relationships that does not correspond to current realities. The existing law considers domestic violence to be "any act of physical, sexual, mental, emotional, or economic violence…committed against persons who are related, who are or have been in a family relationship or in a de facto marital partnership." That definition is not expansive enough, say those calling on lawmakers to amend the law. "Think about how many people there are in such a situation. They have boyfriends but do not live together, whether because they are young and still live with their parents, or they are divorced and have children and an independent lifestyle, or they just live separately, work a lot, and spend only the weekend together," Andonova says. While there are no official, agreed-upon statistics in Bulgaria on the number of domestic violence victims, Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said this month that cases were escalating. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting lockdowns, there was an increase in the number of domestic violence incidents reported worldwide.

In a November 2022 survey by the National Statistics Institute, 20 percent of Bulgarian women between the ages of 18 and 74 said they had experienced sexual, physical, or psychological violence by their current or former partner. One third of women aged 18 to 29 said they had experienced violence from an intimate partner.

After Blagoeva's killing, questions were asked in public and in the media about why the Animus Association hadn't reported the case to the police. Both the Animus Association and the PULSE Foundation said that if they had flagged the case to the Interior Ministry, Blagoeva probably would not have received the protection she needed -- and almost certainly not in time.

"If Kristina [Blagoeva] had filed such an application [for a restraining order], it is unlikely that any court would have allowed it to be considered at all," Katya Krastanova from the Animus Association told RFE/RL. Given that Blagoeva wasn't living with her partner, her case wouldn't be considered domestic violence under Bulgarian law.

Without being able to obtain a restraining order, the only other way for someone like Blagoeva to seek protection is to go to the police and report death threats and stalking. But both Krastanova and Andonova say that generally this is not effective. Unlike a restraining order in a domestic violence case, which is usually issued on the spot in Bulgaria, prosecutors would need to collect evidence to build a case before filing charges -- and that process can typically take months, too long for those, like Blagoeva, who are in acute need.

"In [Blagoeva's] case, she was a victim of psychological harassment, surveillance, and stalking, and of indirect threats to her life. These facts are extremely difficult to prove, and it takes a long time for the police [to investigate]," Krastanova said.

Bulgaria's approach is at odds with the main document that regulates protection against domestic violence in Europe, the Council of Europe's Istanbul Convention. The convention, which Sofia has signed but not ratified due to cross-party concerns about recognizing a third gender and same-sex marriage, defines domestic violence as any act of violence "between former or current spouses or partners, regardless of whether the perpetrator lives or has lived together with the victim."

The 37 European countries that have signed and ratified the Istanbul Convention are required to implement a number of measures in order to prevent crimes, protect victims, and prosecute offenders.

Changes were proposed to Bulgaria's domestic violence law in 2022. Under the pro-Western government of Kiril Petkov, who served as prime minister from December 2021 to August 2022, the Justice Ministry launched a working group, including judges and NGO representatives. Among the proposed changes to the law was getting rid of the concept of "de facto marital cohabitation" and replacing it with an "intimate relationship," which would expand the scope of the law to include partners who did not live together.

The proposed change, however, was left out of the final version of the bill. The PULSE Foundation told RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service that the proposal had been rejected by the ruling coalition partners, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the populist There Is Such A People party, because people in homosexual relationships would be included in the concept of "intimate relationships" and also given the right to protection.

RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service asked both the Bulgarian Socialist Party and There Is Such A People about their positions on the proposed amendments but did not receive a response.

Since 2020, Bulgaria has been governed mainly by caretaker governments and has seen five parliamentary elections in the past two years.

Former Justice Minister Nadezhda Yordanova from the Democratic Bulgaria electoral alliance, a member of Petkov's coalition government, was among the submitters of the bill in the parliament. She declined to comment to RFE/RL on which of the then coalition partners were opposed to the law being amended. She did confirm, however, that opponents of the proposal said the possible inclusion of same-sex couples in the legislation was an issue but not the only one.

"The main problem was how to divide the genuinely long-term relationships from those that are short-term, random, and do not involve a lasting commitment," Yordanova told RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service.

In the end, parliament never passed the bill. In January, invoking "traditional Christian values" and "gender ideology," lawmakers from the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the center-right GERB party, the nationalist Bulgarian Rise party, and the far-right Revival party rejected the planned changes to the legislation.

Yordanova told RFE/RL that Democratic Bulgaria will attempt again in the future to have the law amended in parliament, with a new approach being worked on to satisfy "conservative" factions of society.

For women like Blagoeva, though, it all comes too late.

"It's absolute nonsense," says the PULSE Foundation's Andonova to reject a bill aimed at helping women because of vague fears of gender ideology. "We don't have a working law. Obviously, there is no political will for people to live with dignity in this country," Andonova said. "That's the ugly truth."

[arcxnumvitae]

The nation of Tengmen and those of Tengmen-descent have a reputation for being "restrained" as some would kindly put it. "Uptight" for those who are being less kind. There are larger distinctions between the nobility and scholar classes and the merchants and peasants. Even the nobility live under strict societal norms of the type of accepted behavior they are allowed to present. While already strict currently, these values were far stricter in the past as evidenced by older laws that outright forbade premarital sex and other "lewd" behavior. Ironically, they are less devoted to the religion aspect of their divine dragon line.

In contrast, Zhongyang is considered to be more of a "free spirit", a reputation that exists even now over a decade later into its forced assimilation into the Tengmen Empire. No such purity laws have ever been in existence in Zhongyang and the lines between social classes are a bit more blurred and allowing for mobility in between. There are also less gendered expectations, unlike Tengmen's patriarchal society. The people of Zhongyang treat their divine dragon lineage with a more religious reverence.

People from Tengmen tend to look down on Zhongyang because of their "looser" attitude, whereas the people of Zhongyang always derided the Tengmen for being so tightly wound.

It is common in Tengmen to always have one's hair bound up or styled in some way. Having your hair loose is practically a state of undress. Loose hair is nothing unusual in Zhongyang however, and hair is only bound upwards for funerals. Zhaohui finds it a bit of a nuisance even now still to have to style his hair every morning.

It is frowned upon in Tengmen for women to take up any tasks deemed "for men." Minglian was allowed to practice swordplay because A. She wanted to and Huaxiu will never tell her no, and B. For her own safety. It created a bit of a stir in court.

Meihui's appointment to the Council by Huaxiu as one of his advisers also caused a stir because of this. What can I say, the royal family of Tengmen has been having some folks clutching pearls for a minute now.

[true--north]

Hello, I have an ask about frozen. Do you think that if Disney went for men Elsa, anything would be different? Like, raising education, the "powers" training, or even the overall personality?

Hi, Anon. It's an interesting question and I have never thought about this before.

I think that the schooling and training with Agnarr would be the same, but I think that male!Elsa's personality would have been slightly different because of 19th century gender norms...Maybe "he" would have been slightly less tend to martyrize himself because of the accident but "his" hero's journey line and the wish to go away to the tribe would have stayed the same. Dark male!Elsa i.e. resistant!Elsa would have been slightly more possible too. Perhaps Anna would have been less worried about "him" if he had been a man in F2?..

To be honest, it's hard for me to imagine boys instead of the sisters and not succumb to stereotypes, what I don't want. The way Elsa learned to suppress her emotions and become the one everyone expect her to be–for me this speaks to the fact that women were often told that they were "emotional" and this is bad for no reason, just because of the opposition to being "rational" (men too were told this, but this is a little different) Women were told to restrain themselves. The way Anna coped with loneliness and the feeling that she was a spare is typical for a girl, I think, and she is relatable to many women just like Elsa.

Idk, their stories are women stories on a deep level, especially in F2 with all its maternity symbolics, and sisterhood is not the same as brotherhood in culture, etc. Frankly, I would never want their story to be the next bros adventure.

[xoxogendergossip]

Season 4: Episode 8 - Juliet Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Greetings, Upper East Siders,

Hold onto your pearls and straighten those ties; we are about to dive into the gender dynamics of the most royal affair the city as ever seen. In the episode, "Juliet Doesn't Live Here Anymore", Gossip Girl guides you through a love battle and complications in the Upper East Side hierarchy.

Blair's Royal Dilemma:

Blair Waldorf, our Queen Bee, gets caught in the gentle game of royal love. We see several problems in power, tradition, and constant references to societal norms. She dabbles with the expectations of royal love, but there are various issues between following tradition and living life independently. Her decisions and dilemmas come to represent the larger gendered expectations placed on women in privileged and powerful roles.

Manuela Tremmel and Ingrid Wahl fend for Blair in their article, "Gender stereotypes in leadership: Analyzing the content and evaluation of stereotypes about typical, male, and female leaders". It states, "dominant female leaders are seen to be abnormal, which hinders them from being perceived as leaders (Tremmel and Wahl). For Blair, she has always been Queen Bee of school, but when it comes to royalty, she struggles with keeping the power she has always desired. One thing Blair doesn't put up with is negative behavior. Tremmel and Wahl emphasize that "the misfit of stereotypical feminine characteristics to leadership characteristics results in negative behavior towards female leaders".

Blair's love story with Prince Louis is a one that follows centuries of traditions, but is she going to struggle with not being able to set her own rules?

Serena's Spotlight:

Under the constant observation of the public, Serena van der Woodsen gives a fascinating solo performance. Her character continues to transform and explore societal expectation on women, especially those in the public eye. Makes us question, can Serena authentically express herself while performing in something predetermined by social norms?

Serena finds herself stuck between love and perception. She faces challenges of how women she act in the public eye when it comes to relationships.

In Lauren Michele Reilly's article, "Famous faces, classic stereotypes: female representation in the celebrity gossip magazine", she mentions the stereotypes around women with fame. She quotes, "wild behavior and an extravagant single life are looked down upon, and so is a female star's inability to 'find and keep' a man" (Reilly). Serena faces this fear since she always has everyone's constant attention. It creates pressure for her to express herself authentically and not fall into societal norms.

The Mysterious Duo: Chuck and Blair

Chuck Bass, someone who embodies tradition masculinity through his wealth and confidence, is seen vulnerable when it comes to Queen Bee. Those two have been through it all, makeups and breakups, but still have moments of intense connections.

The National Library of Medicine states "traditional stereotypes about sex and gender present men as assertive, aggressive, sexually adventurous, and emotionally restrained, and women as docile, passive, sexually modest, and emotionally sensitive" (Siegel and Meunier). Throughout the show, these stereotypes defined Chuck and Blair, until this episode. We see Chuck become vulnerable and not so "emotionally restrained" when it comes to Blair. And for Blair, well, Queen Bee makes it known that women are not just accessories to powerful men.

Can Chuck and Blair rewrite the script for Upper East Side lovers?

You know you love me,

XOXO Gender Gossip

[personalcjcjcj]

2023 books -- the right to sex

a balanced take on sex and its many implications/permutations. at some points i felt frustrated by the lengths she went to describe the different sides of certain controversies (like the phenomenon of asian female + white male couples, or what to do about porn) without taking an obvious stance herself. but this all adds to her main point in the final essay, which is that labeling something without first taking the time to critically consider the whole of it can sometimes be reductive, and as a result, counterproductive. the exception to is her impassioned argument against romantic professor-student relationships.

the conspiracy against men

if the aim is not merely to punish male sexual domination but to end it, feminism must address questions that many feminists would rather avoid: whether a carceral approach that systemically harms poor people and people of color can serve sexual justice; whether the notion of due process -- and perhaps too the presumption of innocence -- should apply to social media and public accusations; whether punishment produces social change. what does it really take to alter the mind of patriarchy?

talking to my students about porn

why is it that when white men rape they are violating a norm, but when brown men rape they are conforming to one? (the norm of polite well behaved white man who made a terrible mistake like brock turner, vs stereotype of mexican rapists and everyone is a rapist)

cites only words by catharine mackinnon -- porn teaches men to hear "yes" when women say "no"; to disbelieve women who say they were harassed or raped; to see resistance as coyness, and coyness as invitation. the exercise of pornographers' right to free speech undermines women's own right to free speech --> porn is an act of subordination, and the very fact that judges, lawyers, and philosophers insist on treating porn as a question of free speech -- a question of what it says rather than what it does -- betrays their implicitly male perspective. ordering an attack on someone is punishable even though it's technically speech, but why are things different for men who, by creating porn, order attacks on women?

be cautious on imposing legal restrictions on porn, because in the past this has led to "fringe" porn being banned --> banning anything on whipping/spanking can also lead to the ban of the whole of this fetish website berating men by restraining/pegging them, while leaving conventional porn to become the one-size-fits-all (which is already a porn that is implicitly problematic)

"whatever the law says, porn is going to be made, bought, and sold. what should matter most to feminists is not what the law says about porn, but what the law does for and to the women who work in it" -- but isn't this also kind of reductive and failing to be imaginative, which is what the essay concludes by supporting?

the right to sex

it is striking, though unsurprising, that while men tend to respond to sexual marginalization with a sense of entitlement to women's bodies, those women who protest against their sexual marginalization typically do so with talk not of entitlement but empowerment...the question posed by radical self-love movements is not whether there is a right to sex (there isn't), but whether there is a duty to transfigure, as best we can, our desires.

not only is gender politicized, but also desire. it's not innate and biological but rather a manifestation of what society has told us is attractive. and this goes as deep as heterosexuality vs homosexuality

coda was good

adrienne rich: to acknolwedge that for women heterosexuality may not be a 'preference' at all but something that has had to be imposed, managed, organized, propagandized, and maintained by force is an immense step to take if you consider yourself freely and 'innately' heterosexual

political lesbianism vs. 'real' lesbianism -- but is there any lesbianism that isn't political?

on not sleeping with your students

the professor's failure in cases of consensual teacher-student sex isn't just a failure to redirect the student's erotic energies toward its proper object. it is a failure to resist taking advantage of the fact that women are socialized in a particular way that conduces to patriarchy (to find subordination sexy, and that if you find a woman to be amazing it must be envy and not desire, but vice versa is the case if it's a male). it reproduces the very dynamics on which it feeds, by making sure that the benefits of education will not accrue equally to men and women.

therapists get a lot of training on how to deal with transference, but not professors

sex, carceralism, capitalism

carceral solutions (like banning prostitution, arresting domestically violent husbands) tend to make things worse for the women who are already worst off. this is because carceral feminism invites the wielding of the state's coercive power against the women who suffer the most from gendered violence; it also fails to address those social realities -- poverty, racism, caste -- that lie at the root of most crime.

carceral approaches to gender justice tend to presuppose a subject who is a "pure" case of women's "common oppression," uncomplicated by factors such as calss and race. the belief that a sex worker will be helped by the criminalization of her trade rests on the assumption that she has other choices available to her

a feminism that focuses on what all women have in common harms the worst off women

[mcmurrphy]

Week 1 - Alice Guy + Dell'asta

In Monica Dell'asta's, "What it Means to be Woman," the author writes about how the "normative binary opposition of 'male' and 'female' works to repress and restrain the individual's performance and expectations to a limited range of possibilities..." The male and female binary is exactly the sentiment being fought against in the films of Alice Guy-Blache, who aimed to challenge gender norms during her years in filmmaking. I specifically liked how "Madame's Cravings" spit in the face of idealized female politeness and restraint. By depicting a pregnant mother performing societally-unacceptable acts such as drinking and smoking, Guy-Blache actively challenged societal pressures to restrain female pleasure and expression. The film also challenges the depictions of men, as the cross dressing husband in the film is small and meek compared to his tall and assertive wife. He is the one chasing his wife around and not the other way around. He lacks agency while she possesses it. Like a lot of Guy's films, the reversal of roles reveals the absurdities that traditional roles actually entail. It's odd, humorous, and strange to see men be emasculated in such ways because we've become so accustomed to seeing them be depicted as strong, capable, and assertive, when there should be room to depict all types of men, women, and gender non-conforming individuals (and it should be normal/acceptable). Like Dell'asta, Guy-Blache sees the pitfalls of a strict male/female binary.

In our class discussion we also delved into how Dell'asta's thoughts on seriality pointed to individuals being a "series" of different identity aspects (religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, etc). Guy-Blache's films often address several of these topics at once. "Midwife to the Upper Classes," for example, depicts a couple consisting of a female-presenting individual and a crossdresser. The story hints at the couple not only being queer, but being racist as well as they want to adopt only the purist, non-black baby. Queer individuals, and women, can come in many forms. Guy doesn't aim to depict them in a morally-upstanding or idealized form, but to simply depict them.

[cinnamonest]

welcome back!! i missed seeing your posts ;v; in the last ask i sent about your male majority AU you talked more in depth about the laws in place and a few of the boys + their darlings. i was wondering if you planned to elaborate on the others too? (zhongli, scaramouche, albedo, venti, etc.) and i wanted to ask how you think Ayato would be in this verse? (if you're ok w that!) or just anything you have to add since the last time i popped up in your inbox. i'd love to hear anything at all :>

YES I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS

So I recently did Ayato in this post, but yes I have many thoughts of various scattered concepts and topics I'm just gonna compile into one big post here... I still have plenty more and I'll certainly add some with time, but for this post we have: Gorou entry for the AU, plus alternates/some small snippets of ideas for Venti/Zhongli/Scara/Kazuha/Albedo including crossovers with some of my past ideas with goddess!darling for Zhongli, Rhinedottir!darling, and finally shogun/tsaritsa archon reader >:3

//horrendously sexist filth. I continue to feel the need to warn before posts for this AU. My eyes are impure after proofreading this. General dark content, lots of gendered association with body parts/physical traits, menstruation/hormonal cycles

And finally, because I'm always paranoid of random people stumbling upon these, I'll add again this is entirely fictional and I do not approve of any of the behaviors or sentiments described here.

Also see the

(Original Post)

(Second Original Post) (this one is actually longer/more detailed)

(tag for this AU)

For starters, there's a lot of both laws, and standards that aren't laws per se, just... Culturally enforced norms. Both legally and culturally, there are some cultures that are more strict and regulated than others. Liyue is, predictably, regarded as very focused on legality and contracts, forms and papers and strict adherence to a wide variety of laws. Places like Mondstadt, Fontaine, and Sumeru are more regarded as freer places, both for the girls and owners alike, and Snezhnaya and Inazuma are close behind Liyue in terms of legality, but even harsher in cultural norms.

Similar to some purebred horses/dogs and luxury goods, you can get certificates of authenticity when purchasing from a valid, state-sponsored market. If you apply for any kind of government position for an institution like the Qixing or Inazuman commissions, you do need to be able to provide documentation of authentic and legal ownership, but otherwise it varies per place, much like other laws.

Once again predictably, the worst place for this is Liyue. It's actually quite the pain for anyone moving there, because you have to sign and fill out an endless stream of forms proving beyond a doubt that you purchased the girl 100% legally, have certificates of ownership (which is a problem, as some nations don't provide any legal certifications, so you have to go through an even more extensive process to obtain one), and meet standards of care, which is measured by a doctor's evaluation of the girl's health. They make sure there are no signs of ever having had an injury that went untreated, no signs of abuse (punishment marks on the skin are okay, just nothing overboard like fractured bones or anything), ensure she's not underfed or otherwise malnourished, and these days they even implemented psychiatric evaluation. Inazuma has similar laws, but far less extensive on the necessary paperwork (some argue this is due to the resident archon being female herself, so she's a bit more lax despite her usual strict standards...), while Mondstadt and Fontaine and Sumeru don't require a lot, just a basic evaluation, while Snezhnaya and Natlan require virtually nothing -- as long as you keep it restrained, you don't have to have any certificate or anything, they just trust people at their word that it's rightfully theirs, and if not and someone comes looking for their property, it can be dealt with when that situation arises.

Which is something that can happen, of course. Custody disputes are not at all uncommon, both claims to ownership or theft as well as rightful ownership when inheritance is brought into question. The former is more clean-cut, it's usually a case of someone claiming that he is the rightful owner and that person is not, and depending on the nation, processes have to be drawn out to resolve the matter (see, this is why someone from Liyue would argue they have the best system, since these things aren't much of an issue there...). The latter is actually messier, usually having to do with the death of one man leaving behind a widow and the resulting nightmare of a legal battle for custody that ensues. By default, she goes to the firstborn son, but sometimes the father will leave her in his will to a different one, which sometimes does not get revealed until post-death when the will is read, and that never goes over well. Yes, there are lawyers who literally specialize in dealing with this exact situation. Yes, it's a very high-paying job. Otherwise no one would put themselves into something so stressful.

There are some other little noteworthy differences that aren't necessarily laws, but procedural. For example, Inazuma has a lot of what might be considered akin to "mail order brides" -- purchases brought from the mainland directly to the buyer. Being disconnected from the mainland means that Inazuma have a more significant shortage, since all girls are sort of rounded up to be distributed to sellers or public institutions and the like, yet most auctions and markets take place where more crowds are, which is the mainland, and very few actually take place in Inazuma itself. So if you want one, you either have to find the scarce existing Inazuman markets (almost obsolete these days), go to the mainland yourself, or get one shipped to you, the last of which is easiest, as there are agencies that exist to do specifically that.

However, staying true to the nature of the market, said agencies tend to overcharge and make tons of arbitrary fees because they know they can afford to. You can, of course, give some specifications -- any appearance preferences such as hair color or body type or personality and demeanor. Each trait you have "customized" carries additional fees (although, in the spirit of competition, some agencies offer a sort of "first specified trait free", and you only pay if you want other traits specified). Then, they look around for one matching the buyer's preferences, and make a shipment. There's shipping fees too, not to mention import and licensure fees, and you have to pay a massive fee at the International Trade Association, whose inspection the "cargo" legally has to pass through and be approved. All of this ensures that it truly is only the absolute wealthiest of individuals who can afford to go through with this process. The upper ends of middle-class individuals with enough patience can wait for Inazuman auctions, which only occur twice a year or so.

Similarly, the various cultures have different norms and disagreements on how things are done, leading to differing perceptions of each other... Like, men from Inazuma, Liyue, and Snezchnaya tend to think men from other nations, particularly Mondstadt, are kinda... pathetic, to be honest. See, in Mondstadt in particular, a lot of guys are more likely to practice communication rather than corporeal punishment, using words and punishments involving revoking privileges or taking away things they enjoy, to make them understand what they did wrong. The average Inazuman or Snezchnayan man would probably argue a belt to the ass accomplishes that much easier. Not corporeally punishing misbehavior is just... illogical. Why waste time talking, it's not like she's going to get the point that way anyway.

Childe still remembers, on his first ever work trip to Mondstadt, he witnessed some girl making a scene, throwing a tantrum in public. Which was incredibly bizarre -- back home, you wouldn't ever see some girl dare pull a stunt like that, why would this be any different? Don't they understand consequences...? Oddly enough, the guy was just... Talking to her, trying to get her to calm down. Like, not even making any move to drag her away or bend her over his knee or anything! How strange. No wonder she was throwing a tantrum in the first place, these guys don't bother to properly discipline them, so of course they act out. It seems like something so easily fixable, and yet they choose to let her embarrass him like that. So confusing. Well, now that he thinks about it, he remembers seeing some girl misbehave back home... ironically she was a foreigner if he recalls correctly... people here must just be really bad at discipline.

It's something you'd see guys from Liyue/Inazuma/Snezhnaya definitely make guys from Mondstadt/Fontaine the brunt of jokes about -- they stereotype them as pathetic, weak, cowardly men who don't even have proper control over their women. It's both hilarious and astounding, you could catch many an occasion of Fatui soldiers stationed in Mondstadt watching some girl making a scene and snickering to themselves about how one of them should go take her away, since this spineless bastard doesn't deserve her if he can't set her straight... really, hey, maybe one of them should...? They could probably get away with it...

Among other norms like that, in similarly orderly/strict societies, partiularly the aforementioned Inazuma, Liyue, or Snezhnaya, it's sort of unseemly for a girl to be walking around without a leash. Like, if you care about her, of course you'd put her on a leash. Only someone who doesn't have any concern for his belonging's wellbeing would just let her walk around in public without one. She could get distracted and run off and do something stupid, run away from you, or even get snatched up by someone else! And if you need to move in a certain direction and she refuses to comply, pulling her by the neck with a leash is a lot easier than grabbing the arms. If you were to be walking outside without one, it would undoubtedly earn a lot of judgemental glares... and some sleazy figures eyeing you over like maybe they can lure you off... so you see why it's necessary.

This does not spell a great situation for girls getting brought from one place to another, who have a bit too much pride for their own good and are unadjusted to this custom. It's a matter of whether you want to go outside or not... if you want to not be confined to four walls all day, you'll wear the leash, and if you won't wear it, then you're not going anywhere. Too bad, gotta suck it up and deal with it.

Oh, and one more important worldbuilding concept: doctors. Women's health is a specialty medical profession, and it pays very well, so it's a strategic career choice. Of course, all doctors are gonna be male, and their understanding of things is a bit... challenged in regards to accuracy. They tend to address things from a very biased perspective, and wishful thinking, leading to many misconceptions, so the industry as a whole is quite rampant with problems.

"Hysteria" is still a thing people believe in (caused by lack of sex, cured by more sex), and all sorts of behavioral and emotional, even sometimes physical, issues are misattributed to pseudoscientific "hormonal imbalances". The only real known cure or treatment to which is... you can probably guess. If they're too irritable, it's because they have accumulated frustration, which needs to be exerted through rhythmic cathartic motion. If they're depressed, they need activities that involve a lot of heart rate increase and exercise and release of endorphins. Of course, fees for consultations to be told this information are quite pricey, but of course, one's wife's health is of the utmost importance and all.

Likewise, relationship counseling exists, if yours is particularly disagreeable and spiteful... but it's pretty much just a service you pay for to get some guy with a bunch of degrees on the wall to gaslight the poor girl by telling her how much everything is her fault, how sad it is that she's so ungrateful to have someone who loves her so much, and otherwise drill into her head that she is the problem and needs to correct these behaviors. You can also pay to basically have these counselors to convince them of specific things, if said things are proving to be issues: reluctant to breed? They can tell her how it's been studied and proven that having babies leads to exponentially increased happiness in every single case. Psychological issues with sex (which a lot of former public properties tend to have)? Tell her how repetitive sex with one person will make her feel safe and secure. They use big and technical terms and words like "peer-reviewed" and "endorphins" and "catharsis" and a bunch of other terms that no girl has ever been taught to know -- and to her, this man with all these official-looking papers and books is saying all these things with technical language... which means he knows what he's talking about, and is probably correct, right...?

---

Of course, with there being male archons, it makes sense that they have basically their pick of humans. Is it a blessing or a curse -- be be granted immortality, under the condition of serving them for the rest of your existence...? Who can say for sure. Either way, it happened a long time ago, at some point during the archon wars, and the two girls are to this day celebrated as sort of cultural iconic figures, whose existence is debateable, but are heralded as sort of ideal role models and what all girls should strive to be... obedient, loyal, agreeable, submissive... regardless of whether or not that was actually the case... even so, it's something that girls can be socialized into and have shoved down their throats to enforce certain behaviors, and of course that's a good thing.

In Mondstadt, that iconic figure is more of a gentle, free spirit, befitting of the nation's values. The emphasis is more on loyalty, since they do allow for a lot more freedoms and choices. Legend says a long, long time ago, things were a little different, society was more brutal and all (particularly in the case that the sex ratio was not always so imbalanced, but became that way over time through genetic mutations or something) and so they used to have gladiators that were girls (difficult to believe, isn't it? Or so people always say when telling that tale...). One of them helped abolish the system of aristocracy at that time... although unlike perhaps another universe, here no one really remembers her name -- it's not important anyhow. What's important is that, despite being entirely powerless, unable to hold her own in a fight, and failing to accomplish anything at all on her own, the so-called Lionfang Knight gladly accepted help from Barbatos after being imprisoned and forced to fight an unreasonable battle. Because she accepted her incapability and acknowledged a need for help and to stand down and let him take care of it, depending on and trusting him completely, which is a good role model for girls, y'know?

That's what happened... or at least, that's the version of the telling of events that survived. The wife of the anemo archon is said to be fiercely loyal and trusting, never trying to take things into her own hands, but instead fully relying on Barbatos to take care of her situation and, of course, in the end he gets the reward of keeping her. She voluntarily leaped at the chance to repay his deeds for her, so it's said. An ideal story to project onto the impressionable youth populace --

You remember the events a little differently. You told the strange boy to leave you alone, that you could handle it on your own... It went in one ear and out the other, and soon he was beaming ear to ear, clearly incredibly pleased with himself for having presumably indebted you to him and believably impressed you. You regret begrudgingly agreeing to repay him for the rest of your life, not knowing that that would turn out to be essentially eternity, once granted immortality yourself.

The people would probably find it amusing to find out that you still live among them, all that much more that you live in what amounts to a prison cell of an apartment, tiny and cluttered and cheap, barely enough room to move around. The whole reason Mondstadt has no requirement for certification of ownership may or may not have something to do with the fact that Barbatos himself has none -- not his fault though, he got you like, forever ago, long before certification was a thing, and only holds down a place to live out of need to have somewhere to keep you out of sight. It's not easy, you know, he has to sacrifice what would otherwise be wine money for you, but you're worth it... also because if he didn't, you'd likely be snatched up within minutes. He's not exactly the biggest, broadest guy in the world, nor does he have armed guards like many rich guys, and thus walking around with you in public would be kinda like painting a bullseye target on his forehead.

He feels bad, of course, but in this universe it's a lot more normalized, so he doesn't feel half the guilt he might otherwise feel, only a bit of sympathy because you don't get to move around much. Sometimes, at the very least, he takes you outside at night, the two of you roam the countryside of Mondstadt together... it's at least one little ray of light in an otherwise very dreary and mundane life. He's content with it... and judging by the way you're so quiet these days, you must be content too. That's what you're known for, after all... loyalty and love. It would be a shame if you didn't actively display those things for him, wouldn't it?

---

The figure in Liyue is slightly different. Rather than be known for embodying loyalty and trust, she's more known for embodying obedience and acceptance, you know, ideal traits.

It does make you feel sick to your stomach, to occasionally see representations of old tales depicting someone vaguely in your likeness, always portrayed very... well, you know. Your origins are far less special than your next-door neighbor nation's equivalent... just some very unfortunate goddess from a long time ago, name and rulership forgotten to time, seeing as it really no longer matters. The accounts of your life are told as more of a... cautionary tale. To not try and step out of one's proper place and role in life and all that, the idea being that if you do, you'll just end up paying a steep price for it, and just end up forced into place anyway.

Because it wasn't as if you weren't a rarity among deities either, they tend to follow similar populace ratios, although no one is exactly sure where they come from to begin with. You never let that hold you back in any way, especially seeing as you had an advantage of elemental and mystic power that could easily make up for what you may lack in size and raw physical strength, which is, when you think about it, really the primary factor that makes intra-human relations... the way they are. Since you had a way to circumvent that disadvantage, you had more of a sense of capability... and pride. Perhaps a bit too much, particularly when combined with spite and bitterness in the face of the deities that would look down on you.

In hindsight, being cocky and arrogant, talking big and challenging every powerful figure that came your way was probably not the best idea, and bound to end up this way eventually. You pissed off a lot of gods in your time in power, and maybe you should be a bit grateful that the one that took you down was so generous to take you in and correct you of your ways, and continues to be so good to you... that's what Morax tells you, at least. You remember the first time you spoke to him -- you don't remember exactly what you said, just that it was something abrasive and condescending, and vaguely threatening, as you usually did, the point being to invoke a reaction... you remember the unease when he didn't react, merely looked you up and down with a sort of cold disdain. That probably should have been a warning sign, but you insisted on pushing it... and now, all you have to show for your arrogance is the fact that the time Morax defeated and claimed the goddess of such-and-such is a well-circulated tale. It has plenty of different variations depending on who is recalling said legend, getting some details right or wrong, embellishing and exaggerating here or there, but the general account remains the same.

Not that you're not still sorta revered, just in more of a tragic way. For all your power and glory, now the former goddess is supposedly just living a better, albeit in perpetual humiliation, life elsewhere. These days, at a glance, you would be indistinguishable from any other Liyue woman... tucked away in the realm where Morax dwells, separated from other people, but still living a life similar to any other, where you merely live to serve. It took literal decades to fully break your spirit, so to speak, but now, you're like the perfect image of the ideal, by Liyue cultural standards... quiet, only speaking when you know you're allowed to, demure and submissive and always very pleasant. It's even gotten easier and easier as time goes by! Isn't that nice? Each day, the past memories feel further and further away... it's for the better, really.

Sometimes, even now, that old attitude of yours flairs up a bit, you get that fire in your eyes again, forget how to behave... but it's nothing that can't be dealt with. Which it will be, for sure -- Morax stakes a great deal of pride on ensuring you embody the perfect wife by the existing cultural standard, and any deviation from that, any sign of disobedience or arrogance, is swiftly met with consequence.

---

Oh, and on note of the archons -- there's a lot of cognitive dissonance going on there for Snezhnaya and Inazuma. You'd think people would take issue with a female being the literal symbolic and effective head of the entire nation, but perhaps it's just because it's so normalized that no one thinks anything of it. They have a lot of reverence, even, unlike the previous case of Liyue. Perhaps the idea of rarity aligns well with the concept of a deity, so that something exalted and "separated" in the way a deity is, sort of matches the average guy's ideas of femininity, so it actually makes sense to them.

But you'll notice these two archons have something in common... isolation. They stay locked away, secluded and protected in their private dwellings, unlike the archons of Liyue and Mondstadt that roam around amongst their people.

If you didn't know any better, as uptight and prideful as both seem to be, it might almost seem as if their policy of seclusion is maybe, just maybe slightly due to a bit of fear. As if they know how fragile their autonomy is... only a few walls and trusted guardian figures stand between them and hordes of human men, and even with their prowess, who knows, if there was a rebellion or something, if they would actually be able to hold their own... but no, surely they're not afraid of a bunch of humans. Even though some say that the reason the shogun created a replica of herself was partially to act as a stand-in in case of rebellion, so she could get away before they realized they didn't have the "real" one, or that the reason the tsaritsa ensures that all the male harbingers have their own property either prior to or as soon as they join is so that they're satisfied and don't get any ideas about trying something... those are baseless rumors made up to discredit their authority.

Because there have been men who took issue with the matter... you as the current Inazuman archon have, in the past, dueled a few of them who tried their hand at combat with you, a few men either very brave, very stupid, or both, who wanted to claim both your power and yourself as a trophy... such is always the terms of the match they propose, every time without fail. Most ended rather quickly, but one time, just once, there was a human who came very, very close... you were panting and wide-eyed when finally managing to run him through, standing still in shock and even trembling just a bit when you finally looked up and saw all the onlookers sort of staring in disbelief, only to straighten up. What are you staring at? It wasn't a big deal or anything. But for a second there... when it looked like you might actually lose... the jolt of fear that ran through your body was nearly paralyzing.

That dread lingers in your mind for weeks, months even, until one day you have a new challenger... supposedly an acquaintance of the last one, which makes you a tad more confident (and that much more easily able to pretend you're completely confident). After all, this one is smaller, and he'll be in a blind rage over his friend, so easier to defeat... his soft demeanor is unnerving, though.

He doesn't smirk or talk condescendingly, he's not cocky and arrogant... he's got a gentleness to him, almost. It's confusing, it doesn't align with his words, his infuriating words as he lays out his terms, words so infuriating that his audacity is the only reason you accept. That if he wins, he says in that same nauseatingly gentle voice and soft smile, you'll become his, as expected of a terms of agreement... but that first, you'll strip naked and prostrate yourself at his feet in front of the onlooking crowd... alright? He says it in such a sweet voice, calmly and plainly, as if asking for confirmation of something inconsequential and mundane. It fills you with an unbridled fury, even the cockiest of humans in the past were never so brazenly disgustingly perverted and sick in their terms... and it's for that reason you go headfirst into conflict, without calculating any strategy beforehand....

--

The Snezhnayan tsaritsa has her own problems, of course, just much more... internal.

Having your inner ring of elites be comprised of mostly males has always made you nervous, but what other option is there? You make sure each of them has a toy to keep them satiated. It's a sort of free gift upon being appointed, if they don't already have one at the time of said appointment.

It's a sort of act of recognition, and an incentive to all to work hard, but there's certainly a more practical... self-preservative reason. If they're going to be around you frequently, interacting with you directly, you want to be as assured of your personal safety as possible. For some of them, that underlying reason clearly goes right over their heads, they're just grateful for the gift and don't question it, and for others, you get the sense that they're well-aware. They simply never voice it, there's no reason to say it out loud and risk getting in trouble or something, and it's not like it affect them in any way but positively. You insist on the matter for each.

Except the sixth, the Balladeer... He shrugged off the offer, sort of rolled his eyes, said he had no need and that it was a waste. You pressed a second time, but after that refusal, you decided to just allow it... he seems non-threatening, after all, not someone you'd have to worry about, unlike virtually all of the others... he's less... eccentric? Perhaps you're desensitized to odd and unusual individuals, but you can't help but find him a lot more palatable. They're pretty much all weird in their own way, but his aura is more brooding and calculated -- unnerving for sure, but in a quiet, secretive sort of way, which is quite a welcome break from the more... let's call it "colorful" personalities you have by your side. Either way, you're pretty sure he's too busy thinking on a more grandiose scale of matters to be concerned with what would probably be inconsequential to him.

And you'd be right. He does think in terms of the bigger picture, more long-term goals. That's exactly why he said no to your offer in the first place -- although your wording was actually rather amusing at the time, because you said something along the lines of getting to "pick one of your choice"... but, of course, logically, you clearly didn't intend yourself to be included in that, it's just amusing that you didn't think to say so, he could almost entertain the thought of your reaction if he'd agreed to your terms and demanded you. But of course, he wasn't dumb enough to actually do that, no, but that doesn't make you safe. Seeing you for the first time sparks some sort of.. intrigue. Perhaps a bit of a fixation. Look at you, with all that power, and on what basis? It's a fragile hold, only managed by the establishment of it as "normal" for a long time and the elemental prowess you have, but beneath that, your reign is more or less a house build on sand. He likes power, he likes things that symbolize and represent power... and he likes the thought of either stripping those things of the power they hold, taking them for himself, or both. You're not going to be an exception to that... besides, your very existence in your role is laughable, and someone needs to fix the egregious offense that is you ever being allowed to hold such power in the first place rather than where you belong with the rest of your... kind. Thankfully, all of these things could be easily dealt with with the same few actions.

You can't place it on anything very specific, but something about his presence makes you feel increasingly uneasy, more and more so as the days pass. That's part of why you sent him off to Inazuma in the first place, it was getting to where it made your skin crawl. Even then, when you gave that command, he made a face that made you feel... unnerved. As if irritated, that sort of expression where the eyes narrow and the nose scrunches up slightly... but that's kind of just how he is, you tell yourself. It still remains in your mind for days to come.

And when he never reports back, you label it a case of "missing"... publicly, at least, although you and those others directly beneath you are well-aware it's not only intentional, but likely planned. Yet, somehow, it almost feels relieving that he's gone, even if he took off with something important... right?

So you tell yourself. Yet, as each day passes, you find yourself growing more and more uneasy, like there's something in the back of your mind, some nagging sense of dread. You find yourself jumping and jolting at the slightest of movement out of the corner of your eye, drawing your weapon forth at the slightest of noises, particularly when you're alone. You isolate yourself more than ever, keeping yourself locked away in one tiny, empty little room, refusing to meet with others even. People begin to wonder if something is wrong.

You wouldn't say anything is, either, you're not sure why you're acting this way, why you're so uneasy... so you tell yourself. Yes, you don't know why, you tell yourself. You repeat in your head that you have nothing to worry about, that there is no reason to feel this way. As long as you're isolated, you're safe from the hordes, safe from threats, safe from ending up like the others... safe. You tell yourself you're being neurotic, delusional, paranoid. You wake up with a jolt in the middle of the night, you increase the number of guards that stand outside of your private quarters.

Yes, you're being paranoid... there's no reason to connect these events to any perceived threat to yourself. No logical reason at all... but that just makes it all the more nauseating when you can't shake the feeling of what you've heard humans call a sense of impending doom. No matter how much you isolate yourself, it just seems to get worse and worse, an increasing feeling like you can't breathe, as if some misfortune draws closer and closer with each time your heartrate spikes when you catch a shadow in the corner of your vision.

--

On another note... similar to the Fatui (in the last post), other armed forces around Teyvat usually will purchase girls in bulk to sort of be used as communal property, with a certain ratio to ensure that all their soldiers or fighters have their needs dealt with, and use this as a recruitment strategy. It certainly helped the resistance gain the bulk of their forces. Something about how if they can overpower some of the high-ranking Inazuman authorities in their private estates and all that, there's a chance someone could claim a few girls here or there... that was enough to convince people to join, at least. Not that it was why you joined, no, you just thought that they would be none the wiser, and being dispatched was a good way to get away from the place you snuck away from. Yes, also akin to the Fatui, there have been a few isolated cases of some girls trying to blend in effectively, to varying degrees of success... it seems to go over well for you at the start. You lag behind, sure, but you like to think it's not too noticeable.

Until you met the general. You felt a creeping sense of dread when you first see him at a distance... you question whether or not he would be an issue. You remember hearing once that dogs can tell males and females apart, even humans, by scent alone... But it's not like you can just run off, no, you're lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, a bit of an orientation of sorts in which you're being addressed by various authority figures and given some instructions, so you can't run away.

You actually have to end up telling yourself that on repeat, when the general stops mid-sentence shortly after an introduction. You see his ears perk up a bit, he makes a bewildered face, pausing and audibly sniffing... it's literally as if the situation were being written for suspense or comedy, it's the sort of scenario you conjure up in your imagination out of panic and tell yourself to calm down because it's unrealistic... except it's actually happening. Your heart is nearly beating out of your chest, you feel like you're about to faint when he turns his head in your general direction... but after a moment, and someone asking if something is wrong, he snaps out of it, says nothing, he just thought he smelled something unusual for a moment, and resumes... from that day onward, you make an intentional, and very dedicated, effort to avoid him at all costs.

It's actually something that makes you paranoid, sometimes sick with anxiety. How far can his sense of scent reach? Do you smell more strongly of whatever it is he can smell on certain days of the month based on hormones or something? You don't want to take your chances, so you give him a wide berth. Of course, inevitably there will still be moments you run into him. In fact, a lot for you specifically. See, he's a very encouraging person, so he likes to help motivate and assist soldiers who are struggling to keep up... which, well, you do quite a lot of. To be honest, you weren't expecting it to be this bad, where you're falling embarrassingly far behind when running laps or completing training courses, visibly struggling to carry the heavy packs your unit was instructed to transport while everyone else has no trouble, and no matter how much you train, it doesn't get better... it's getting to be a bit too much, to the point you worry you might just be outright kicked out, if nothing else.

That's why he's here to help! Since you're, ah, slightly underperforming... just a bit! It's not bad, really, he can tell you're trying your best and that's what matters, but uh... he says he'll help you train. It's actually genuinely very kind of him, to come get you each morning and night to practice when everyone else is resting. He tries to run alongside you out on the open field... he keeps having to stop to let you catch up when he realizes he's gotten too far ahead of you. He tries to get you to carry some heavy loads and packs, even directly lifting weights, but no matter how long it goes on, you... never seem to get any better... he himself remarks how strange it is, normally on this training regimen you should be able to make this specific time and lift this specific amount by now, should be able to move onto the next level of training... it's as if your body is just stunted. How bizarre.

You feel that it's just a matter of time before something happens. One time, as you're sitting quietly by each other post-training, he suddenly leans over, face up against your neck, sniffing in your scent... after a moment, he snaps out of it, jerks his body back upright, ears flat and apologizing, says he doesn't know what got into him for a second there... you just smelled really strange, in a good way... he took your wide horrified eyes as being weirded out rather than terrified, and kept apologizing over and over. One time you encountered him at the wrong time of month and nearly had a heart attack when he said he smelled blood, asking you if something was wrong... you had to make up a story about having killed an animal or something. Another time, when you both managed to end up on laundry duty together, his eyebrows sort of furrowed in confusion when you (very cautiously, and only after ensuring any undergarments were on the bottom of the basket) handed him yours and he, right in front of you, leaned down and once against sniffed it. And once more, he seemed to only catch himself and realize how weird it was a second later, apologizing again... not that that stops him from waiting until you're out of sight, and digging through... why does this smell so nice...? He's not even looking out of suspicion or anything, just the smell gives him some crazed urge to just... he's not sure.

It's kind of amusing, really, how he begins to behave after that incident. It's as if his subconscious brain knows what his conscious brain doesn't, what with the way he begins clinging to you, following you around everywhere, growing so protective of you. Shielding you from criticism, even, from other superiors, who have decided that they'll let your underperformance slide from now on based on the rather intimidating glares they get when they call you out for it. He follows you day and night, always going where you go, even neglecting other responsibilities to be near you.

And he always smells you. At least once a day, he'll put his face close to your neck, inhale deeply, and then sort of act like it didn't happen, it's actually rather weird... and then he starts doing it twice a day. Then several times a day. His gaze tilts downward as he does, you try to convince yourself he's not directly looking at the spot between your thighs,and more importantly, that you can't see the very clearly defined bulge in between his own. Unfortunately, though, you grow a bit used to it... you start to forget to have the same amount of caution you did before.

It's not until you're stationed together overnight for some regular vigilance exercise that he finally acknowledges it. Do you wear some sort of cologne or something? Something makes you smell very strongly, all the time... not that it's bad, he likes it a lot... some smell he's never smelled anywhere else... he could just bury his face in it and stay like that for hours... It makes him feel strange, like his heart is beating really fast and hard, and he has no idea why... hey, why are you backing away like that...? He just wants to smell you, that's all... his pupils get really big, he sort of walks towards you with a strange look to his eyes, and you feel your stomach twist when your back hits the corner of the wall. He's so close, his face is right up against yours. You just smell so nice. It's nicer on some days than others, makes him feel more hot, more excited, more of that tight, pressured feeling inside. Hey, just to help him figure out what it is, maybe if you take your clothes off, he can find out what the smell is...

At least he's too "out of it" to really show any verbal reaction... he doesn't say much at all the whole time, neither words of confusion or surprise, nor responding to your little pleas... just acting upon what comes naturally, both in the heat of the moment, and the instinct to keep you safe and secured for good... far away from the hands of anyone else. Lots of bite marks all over your neck and your shoulders, dragging you off back to a personal and private dwelling in the quiet of the night once you've passed out. For someone who has never been taught or anything, he seems to have no issue figuring out where to stuff his cock.

Amusingly, the only way he ever really... addresses the obvious, later on after you awaken and from thereon out, is with concern. The revelation actually doesn't seem to faze him much at all -- perhaps the subconscious and instinctive part of his brain already processed it so long ago, the conscious realization is much easier to accept without a lot of shock, so he adjusts very quickly. He never accuses you of doing anything wrong or makes fun of you or anything, he's just very worried to make sure you're alright!! You're not hurting are you? Do you need anything?

You should have been more careful... someone could have done something really bad to you! He just thinks maybe you didn't know how things are, yeah, that makes sense to him, somehow. Thankfully, he got to you before someone else could... if anyone else found you out, they could have harmed you somehow. Whereas he'll just keep you safe and tucked away... and bred.

--

And finally, please consider: a crossing over between this AU and Rhinedottir!Darling... Consider a creator that somehow managed to flee whatever situation you fell into by default, and isolated yourself from the world. Fled from the inevitable fate of being a toy for some guy to use. You wanted nothing more than to use the intellect and passion for academics that they forcibly suppressed all your life, instead forcing you into mere servitude. If that was the only life society would allow... Then you'd leave society, to pursue your actual passion.

When that finally culminated in the creation of a human being, you were... hesitant. There was one rather big decision to make, a glaring issue. If you made a girl, you would inherently be putting her at risk... you couldn't bring yourself to do that, endanger another person. But if you made a boy, well... no, actually, it would be okay, right? Because you were rather isolated from society, you would be the primary influence on his life, so he'd turn out fine, wouldn't he?

You considered it proof of nurture over nature, really, because he did turn out very sweet to you. It's a testament, you think to yourself, that they're not naturally like that, that it's a learned behavior, the result of scarcity and the culture created by that scarcity that the society you left was the way that it is. He's even respectful to you, obeys you... it's quite the satisfying feeling, makes you feel a little spark of pride every time you can give a command and it gets obeyed, as if you're getting one up on all the men you were forced to obey in your lifetime, as petty and childish as you know that that satisfaction is, you indulge in the feeling nonetheless.

For a while, you're very careful to ensure he never interacts with others, aside from the occasional merchant you meet on the road (in which case, you always quickly make up something about needing to grab this or that, ask him to handle the conversation for you). Of course, you eventually utilize him for obtaining resources. Rather than having to scrape by for materials, it would be so much easier to send him into the city and get him to pick up supplies and materials. You figure it won't hurt... he's not very social, so he'll just get in and out of the city as quickly as possible, you assume.

And he does. The trips never take long, and he never questions why you always send him to do it.

He does question something else, though. You suppose it was inevitable. He's undoubtedly familiar with the concept itself -- you never really went into detail on humans, but he's seen sex dichotomy in animals, and read enough books on human anatomy to know. It makes you stiffen in place and stop your work when he one day asks out of the blue. Why you're the only one like you he's ever met. Why he can find female animals of all kinds everywhere, but you're the only human one he's ever seen. Where all the others are. You decide the best approach is blunt honesty -- you say there's just not a lot. Some animals are like that too, you add. It's not a big deal, you say.

And then, he asks another question -- is that why we stay out here, away from everyone else? And you... merely answer in the affirmative, a muttered reply, making your voice sound annoyed and frustrated, as if it is a trivial matter, something you won't waste time discussing. He seems to accept that much, and doesn't inquire further.

Until he comes back one day with a new experience to tell you about. He just says it quietly, a very matter-of-fact tone, as if saying something inconsequential, unimportant. That he saw someone that was like you... but she was being dragged around on a collar and leash. You're not sure if the way you wince at that part was noticeable or not.

Not that it matters, because even if it wasn't, you can't help but outwardly react to what he says next.

If you want, I could get you one of those, and then we could go into the town if you want.

He motions to his neck as he speaks, smiling gently as if it's something normal, reasonable. His smile only falls when he sees your expression, somewhere between shock and disgust. He starts to apologize, but you storm off before he can, snarling about how you're not an animal. He does feel bad, really, he just thought that since it seems to be what's normal, it wouldn't upset you... but in hindsight, he realizes that disliking the way society is run is probably part of why you left it to begin with. He just thought... the idea of it was nice. Seeing that guy walk around in the middle of the town with that girl on the leash was somewhat... it made him feel something strange... maybe envy. Made him picture himself in the same position in his head, but with you, and that thought was very pleasant. Unfortunately you don't seem to agree.

Of course, as time goes on, he becomes more and more and more aware of the complexities of society... and comes to fully understand exactly what your situation is, can put two and two together and deduce that you certainly ran away from someone else. Someone else -- that thought is... irritating, to think you were once considered the belonging of someone... someone not him, that is, not so much the concept itself. Really, although he doesn't voice it to you, he thinks it really does make sense, to be honest -- isn't that the law of nature, that weaker, smaller things will be ruled over by bigger, stronger things? And that things that are rare will inevitably be coveted and protected? He can understand why you wouldn't like that, of course, but it does undeniably make for a more beneficial society, from an objective point of view... although he likes to tell himself that, hey, he's out here alone with you, so technically, it's kind of like being an owner, right...? Just, you know, minus the sex and obedience and all the other benefits...

You begin to feel less and less at ease, the more you notice him becoming less patient. Seemingly less quick to do whatever you ask. Challenges your decisions more. Sometimes you can feel his eyes on you as you work, an unprecedented intensity. You're starting to think maybe going into civilization is having a negative effect on him... No, no. You tell yourself it's just something he has to process in his head, one of those development stages where he's just having to confront some new discovery about the world, which all people go through quite a bit... you're sure it'll be fine in the long run... although if it gets worse, you may just send him away somewhere else and try to disappear. Yeah... that's a good plan.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Do you think Jiang Fengmian loved his kids and was bad at it, or just didn't care very much about anything but minimizing effort and exposure to uncomfortable situations?

Jiang Fengmian is a nice man. He loved his wife, he loved his kids, but above all else he likes it when things are nice - when people aren’t fighting, when no one is unhappy, when everyone can just relax and go with the flow. But unfortunately for him, he’s in a position of privilege and responsibility by both law and cultural norms, and that’s just...not how the world works.

Listen, I’m just saying: that entire familial relationship would have been 100x better if Jiang Fengmian was the wife and Yu Ziyuan the husband, and to be clear I am talking about cultural roles, not gender.  

As the husband, Yu Ziyuan wouldn’t have had to worry about her son being replaced by a bastard brought in from the outside, and she would have been able to sublimate her aggression and fierceness into politics and defending the sect - which given the Tone of Surprise that gets used when her very good cultivation is mentioned, is clearly not an option for her as the wife. 

Meanwhile, as the wife, Jiang Fengmian would be able to focus on nurturing and training the sect disciples the way he prefers - without any criticism of his wife’s techniques seeming like a taunt (and that means Jiang Yanli doesn’t have to pick up the nurturing slack!). Also, his adoption of Wei Wuxian would have been seen by the outside world as a kind gesture, because obviously Yu Ziyuan isn’t going to make him the heir, it’s just a nice thing to do. Maybe there’d be some rumors about his relationship, but as the husband, Yu Ziyuan could go beat up some people about it, while as the wife Jiang Fengmian’s policy of “just don’t talk about it as if it’s not happening” would be seen as dignified and restrained instead of pathetic. 

None of this solves the problem that Jiang Fengmian just plain old likes Wei Wuxian better than Jiang Cheng, and doesn’t feel the need to hide it, but - having Yu Ziyuan’s unconditional support, without her pressure to outdo Wei Wuxian, will help mitigate that. Also, as the wife, Jiang Fengmian would stay at home more; maybe if he was around more, and if his relationship with his wife wasn’t as tense, he’d have a chance to get his head out of his ass about that - especially if he had the chance to see Jiang Cheng at times when he’s not super stressed about Showing Off For Dad.

[barbecuebabybackribs]

Being in a Poly relationship with Emmett and Rosalie would include:

(Gender Neutral Pronouns

I hope you guys enjoy this! It just popped into my head so I decided to write it out for all of y’all. Also this is super long!! Just a heads up, Enjoy and stay safe guys:) )

To say you surprised them would be a big understatement

They’d both be really conflicted- neither of them wanted to admit they wanted to pursue you

Edward would take pity on them

“Emmett, Rosalie, you both want to be with Y/N- the other won’t be upset if you admit it.”

“...”

Emmett is absolutely pumped- having one mate? Amazing, fabulous. But having two? ABSOLUTE HEAVEN

Rosalie is a bit more conflicted- you’re a human, so fragile and vulnerable. Being around her would mean you’re constantly at risk, not to mention the fact that you becoming a vampire at one point or another shakes her to her very core.

Emmett agree’s to not ask you out until Rosalie is comfortable with it, IF, she agrees to befriend you in the meantime

The next time your in the cafeteria- sitting alone picking at the cheap school lunch, when two people sit at the table with you

When you look up you realize Emmett is on your left and Rosalie is on your right- your surrounded by the schools power couple- the schools very attractive power couple

“Um, Hello?” you say nervously due to the fact they never interact with others outside of there family- let alone you.

“Hello, I’m Rosalie, your Y/N, Right?”

“Yeah, and I know you, You’re Rosalie Hale, and That’s Emmett Cullen, your basically the talk of the school.”

“Oh really? So what have they been saying about us?” Emmett would laugh- knowing some of the rumors going around town were a bit wild.

You’d talk for the rest of the lunch period, telling them about yourself and all the rumors about them- some as simple as Rosalie being a bleached blonde, some being that Emmett ran a satanic sex cult and Rosalie flirts with people to lure them in- that one had Emmett and Rosalie nearly rolling on the floor with laughter

For the next week they’d always sit with you at lunch and you started to consider them friends

The next week they showed up after your last class and walked you to your car

The next week at lunch they started telling you about how they were heading up to Seattle during the weekend

“Hey you know what? You should go with us!”

“Oh? I would hate to impose and be a third wheel.”

“Come on, we’d love to have you there.” Emmett would smile and wrap and arm around you.

You’d look to Rosalie to see if she was okay with it, She had a smile on her face so you assumed she was down

“Yeah, it does sound like fun.”

They’d pick you up from your house the next day in their Jeep

Emmett was blaring music which caused you neighbors to give you a dirty look

Emmett insists you see the “Gum Wall” Which was both interesting a gross

Rosalie takes you to the top of the Space Needle

Rosalie almost has a heart attack- if that were possible- when you stand up to fast and get light headed

Emmett forces you to sit back down and tries to keep Rosalie from calling Carlisle

“I’m sorry guys, I just got light-headed since I haven’t eaten yet today.”

They both forgot you had human needs and Rosalie sits with you scolding you for not telling them you were hungry earlier while Emmett finds food for you

Comes back essentially holding enough food to feed 20 people

“UM! That’d a lot!”

“Well I didn’t know what you wanted so I got one of everything.”

You awkwardly eat as much as you can- offering a lot of it to them and being a tad confused when they decline

You end up giving the leftovers to homeless people

You end up having an amazing day, they take you and bid you farewell- saying you had to do it more often

Watching them drive away you realize you’d fallen for them

You low key feel guilty and the next time the sit with you, you can’t get the thought of you being a horrible person and homewrecker out of your head- I mean they’re in love with each other, who are you to think you even stand a chance?

They both realize something’s off with you and ask Edward later that day if he noticed anything in your thoughts- even though Rosalie told him to stay out of your head.

He tells them what you had been conflicted about

They’re conflicted

Emmett’s pumped you officially like them- and both of them, part of him was worried about you only falling for one of them

Rosalie was happy you shared there feelings but the fact you thought negatively of yourself because of them ate her up.

Rosalie tells Emmett it’s time to consider asking you out,

It still takes them a few weeks to officially ask but suddenly your receiving presents from them and being invited to all kinds of outings

You make them string friendship bracelets and they think it’s the cutest thing in the world- they both wear them 24/7

Movie “Outings”

Hiking “Outings”

Port Angela’s “Outings”

Going to lunch wear only you eat 

Getting ice cream where only you eat.

Basically any human thing they can do, you’re right there next to them

Emmett takes you to play football and only laughs at how bad you are

You’re jaw drops to the floor when you see Emmett throw the ball out of the field

“How the hell?!?”

“Oops, to much power in that one.”

Rosalie takes you on a self pamper day

Hair- Check . Nails- Check. skin Care- Check. Gossip- Check.

You go home that day having dirt on everyone in the town

One day your surprised to see they aren’t waiting for you after class, you stick around for a few minutes to see if they’re late- but they never show

Eventually you head to your car and see them waiting for you there and they finally officially ask you out

Rosalie starts to say it but hesitates and Emmett says it for her

“Y/N, We wanna go out with you.”

“... Like... to the movies?”

“No, we mean, we want to date you.” Rosalie says, tightening her grip on Emmett’s hand

Your silent for a few seconds and they’re worried you’’re going to say no

Pleasantly surprised when you break out in a big smile and say “Yes!”

“Awesome.” Emmett says pulling you into long bear hug- which he squeezes a little to tight but you just savor the moment 

Rosalie is standing next to the both of you, absolutely shocked and excited, gets a big smile on her face when she see’s you and Emmett’s smile and hears how fast your heart is beating

You all enjoy your evening together- your smiles never leaving your faces

They drive you home and Rosalie gives you a hug goodbye- which turns into a group hug when Emmett joins

They never tell you but they heard you call your friend practically squealing in excitement as you told them you’d just got back on a date with “Rosalie AND EMMETT”

They both went home down right giddy- they got cornered by Alice, with Jasper and Edward both in the corner snickering

After you officially start dating Emmett and Rosalie don’t hold back

Emmett has picked you up and carried you around school multiple times

Rosalie had to be physically restrained when someone had the audacity to grope your ass

She still gave them a piece of her mind tho- and it’s rumored they never laid a hand on another person again

They help you study and do your homework- they do have lot’s of experience after all

When your parents aren’t home you all stay up late in the living room watching movies- Rosalie finds your mom baby photo album of you and gushes over tiny you

You end up falling asleep on Emmett’s shoulder- Rosalie takes a photo of you two

Dates with each other but also dates where its just you and Rosalie, you and Emmett, or just the two of them

Emmett kisses you first- takes you surprise and kisses you after he dropped you off at home, then drove away with the biggest cheeky grin in the world

Rosalie is low-key jealous they kissed you first

Next time you see Rosalie? She dips you over and gives you a big ole kiss

Smugly smiles when she see’s you have the biggest blush on your face known to man

After the initial kiss it’s just part of the daily norm

A kiss when you first see each-other, when you say goodbye, a random smooch or two threw out the day

You get all kinds of envious glares from others

Also people who just think you’re sickingly cute

Rosalie decides it’s time for you to know about vampires when you start asking why they never eat on your guy’s dates and there eye’s always change colors

Take you on a long hike so there’s no one around to hear, also encase you feel the need to scream in confusion/fear

You think they’re joking at first

That is until Emmett picks up a boulder and throws it like it’s a baseball across the field

You sit down on a log to process for a second

“Y/N... Are you okay?”

“I made out with a vampire... I made out with two vampires... I’m  DATING TWO VAMPIRES!”

You have a million questions and they answer them all

You ask Emmett to pick you up with one hand- he does and laughs at how surprised you are

“You’re like the hulk!”

You dramatically lean against a tree and tell Rosalie she’ll need to carry you back since your just soo tired- you mean it mainly as a joke

To your surprise she carries you bridal style all the way home- laughing at how giddy you are over such a simple thing

They don’t have fully have sex with you while your human but they are willing to do a lot of other things

They forgot how much humans blush at simple things and it makes no-beating hearts ache

Introduction to the family is a bit awkward but pleasant

Esme absolutely adores you and loves cooking you complex dishes

Carlisle is so happy to see you making his “Kids” happy and also is happy that you’re such a lovely person in general

Edward and Alice basically already know everything about you

Alice gets a little to excited and talks about how good of friends you’ll be and how she’s already planning your new wardrobe

Rosalie pry’s her away from you

Edward doesn’t say much to you but is nice, a little moody but nice

Bella makes sure you feel welcome and tells her if your’re ever struggling to come to her because she’s been in the same situation and knows what it’s like 

After meeting them it basically becomes your second home

They get a bed put in there room so you can spend the night

They love cuddling with you while you sleep, adoring how you’ll softly mumble random words

Cute little picnic dates

You watch Rosalie work on cars and attempt to help her

She ends up teaching you the basics

Sometimes you read to her while she works on cars, or you simply keep her company

Emmett and you wrestle a lot- although he obviously always wins besides the few times he lets you win

You’ve randomly leaped onto his back to many time to count- he loves it

You all go on vacation together during the summer

You go to some private beach and gush over how there skin sparkles so beautifully

Rosalie and Emmett nearly die on the spot when they see you get hit by a car

Rosalie holds you while Emmett calls 911

They realize the cops won’t get there in time- but they don’t want to “doom” you to the life of a vampire

“It’s okay guys, you don’t have to do it.” You would smile weakly at them

“Don’t say that, you’ll be fine.”

It was a lie and you all knew it

When your heart beats starts to slow down and you’re eyes flicker closed they silently agree they have to do it

Emmett is the one who bites you- a lump forming in his throat as you groan in pain as the venom starts to take affect

Rosalie cradles you softly as you start your transition- they end up moving you when they hear the ambulance coming close

They calls the rest of the cullens and let them know- Alice had already seen it but she was to late to call and warn them

They all come to you but all silently agree to only let Rosalie and Emmett in the room your in until you’re ready- most newborns want to be alone

When you wake up and your blood red eyes flicker around the room, you jump up so fast you break the bed frame

All previously dull colors are now vibrant and almost headache inducing, you can hear everything in a room that was previously silent, and the smells- the smells were the worst part, everything was so overwhelming

Not to mention the almost unbearable burning in the back of your throat

“Y/N, are you alright?”

You look over to see a very stressed looking Emmett and Rosalie

“Uhm” You rasp out before clearing your throat, “I.. think so?”

Rosalie offers you a cup of blood Edward had caught for you

You hesitantly take it and ask “What... What does it take like.”

“Take a sip and find out!” Emmett slaps your back and then rubs it supportingly

You take a small sip, surprised at how much it lessens the burning in your throat “It’s.. okay.” You say not wanting to admit it was really good to you- although you do finish the glass

Alice proceeds to carry a whole mirror into the room so you can see yourself- you stare awkwardly at your reflection that now seems foreign

Vampire lessons by everyone

Jasper and Emmett teach you to fight

Carlisle teaches you restraints

Edward and Bella teach you the whole cover story

Rosalie and Alice teach you “How to act human 101″

Emmett and Rosalie both find you one day obviously upset when you realize you’ll have to leave behind your friends and family

They help you learn to cope and let you know it’s completely normal to feel what you feel

Emmett cheers you up by throwing you fifty feet in the air- which was a unique method that worked wonders

Emmett sneak attacks you and you flinch so hard you put a hole in the wall

You get him back by tackling him to the ground- which only works for a second before he’s rolled on top of you and hungrily looking at you lips

You end up making out in the middle of the woods

When the rest of the cullens go back home you decide to stay at the beach for another week

During that week you all agree to take the next step- multiple times

It’s a good thing jasper is out of there because you are full of lust for literal days

You all go home and Edward immediately cringes at Emmett’s thoughts

You home to reveal all your previous rooms stuff had been moved to Rosalie and Emmett’s room- Well now Rosalie, Emmett’s, and Your room

You all are cuddle bugs

Resting your head on Rosalie’s chest is your favorite thing

Well, Clinging to Emmett’s back while he makes his way threw daily life is also up there

You all go hunting together and are one powerful gang

In Rosalie’s eyes your all damned but at least you’re damned together

You all spend the rest of your very long lives protecting and loving each other- even threw the roughest of times nothing could break you apart

You all love each other and that’s enough

[dwellordream]

“…If young Eleanor experienced the worldly civilization of the south exemplified by troubadour poetry at the Poitevin court, she also had exposure to the Christian teachings that dominated court life in northern France. Like other children growing up in twelfth-century Europe, she saw all around her ever-present reminders of the power of the Church. The lives of Eleanor and the ducal family were punctuated by the liturgical calendar with its feasts and fasts; and the great festivals of the Christian year—Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost—called to mind the Church’s central doctrines. 

…Instruction in the tenets of the Christian faith would have formed an important aspect of Eleanor’s early education, conforming to the pattern for daughters in other medieval aristocratic families. A thirteenth-century guide to children’s upbringing sets down that the first thing to be taught to children is belief in God, and that they should learn by heart the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, and the first two of the Ten Commandments. Little Eleanor would have learned to make the sign of the cross and to cross herself each night before going to bed. 

Mothers were charged with helping their young daughters to memorize these fundamental texts of Christianity, but nothing can be known of the role of Eleanor’s mother Aénor, whom she lost so early in childhood. Perhaps the motherless child’s godparents saw to her religious instruction. Once she learned her ABC, her basic knowledge of Latin would have enabled her to read devotional handbooks. She likely received a psalter for personal devotions in quiet moments alone, and her constant repetition of the psalms that she knew through public devotions in the palace chapel would also have aided in improving her skill at reading Latin.

Eleanor would have learned stories of the saints’ lives as part of her childhood religious education. Among them was Saint Radegonde, whose life foreshadowed one aspect of Eleanor’s own—a loveless marriage ending in separation. A Thuringian princess taken captive by the Frankish king, Clothair I, Radegonde was forcibly married to him in 531. It was hardly a happy marriage, and the queen found consolation in religious devotions. After her husband’s murder of her brother, she separated from him, dedicated her life to Christian devotion and founded the abbey of Saint-Croix; and on her death in 587, she was buried nearby in the church bearing her name. 

An important aspect of young Eleanor’s religious life was attendance at daily masses in the palace chapel, or in some nearby church, possibly Notre Dame-la-Grande. She would have occasionally confessed her sins privately to a chaplain in her father’s household, a pious practise gaining ground in the twelfth century, but that would not win the formal status of a sacrament until 1215. Surveillance of individuals’ morality was also fostered by a society composed of people living crowded together with no privacy either in isolated rural communities or in large noble households; both peasants and their lords prized group solidarity and frowned on any unconventional conduct. 

At aristocratic courts, those who violated customary norms of behavior inspired ugly gossip and risked social isolation or even banishment. They were expected to feel both guilt at being condemned as sinners and shame at their exposure to censure by their lord or lady and their noble companions. At the court at Poitiers, however, where Duke William IX had set the tone, behavioral norms hardly met the serious moral standard prevailing at the royal court at Paris, Eleanor’s future home. 

Early on, Eleanor encountered the medieval Christian mentality, largely defined by monks, that was suspicious of human bodily needs, especially sexual activity. Reforming moralists and theologians intent on enforcing priestly celibacy sharpened their attacks on the supposedly sinful nature of women, reinforcing the early Church Fathers’ pervasive mistrust of the gender and burdening them with guilt on that account. Christian teaching, however, held up the sinless Virgin Mary as the model for women, at the same time idealizing and anathematizing women, trapping them in double jeopardy. 

In discussions of Christian married life, moralists and theologians reinforced patriarchal traditions that stressed the wife’s duty to accept subordination to her husband and condemned women daring to challenge the masculine monopoly on power. Yet during Eleanor’s childhood, the Church had not yet succeeded in codifying the early Fathers’ misogyny into its later restrictive definitions of women’s roles. By the mid-twelfth century, canon lawyers would redefine women’s proper sphere to restrict their public roles more and more; they would dismiss Old Testament depictions of women acting as judges as the old law, no longer binding in the Christian era.

It was not only religious teaching that prejudiced males against females in medieval society, stripping from aristocratic women power in the public sphere that they had held in previous centuries, if only precariously. The classical scientific tradition taught in the schools also encouraged masculine superiority, teaching that males were more rational, more capable than females of overcoming their passions. Ideas about female anatomy at the Salerno medical school reinforced the clergy’s notion that women were “raging volcanos of sexual desire,” and scientific theories followed Aristotle’s finding that women were incomplete or imperfect males.

Another factor contributing to the reshaping of medieval notions about women’s proper place was a militarization of society as the aristocracy adopted the chivalric values of their fighting men. At princely courts, a bellicose environment often existed where rivalries between courtiers resulted in violent confrontations; and rude knights feared women who resembled clerics in their skill with non-violent verbal weaponry, using words and sexual wiles to engage in plots and intrigues.

Yet Eleanor, reared in a household under her sensualist grandfather’s influence, would succeed in escaping the feelings of guilt and shame that society expected to restrain women from pursuing their personal fulfillment. As a girl, Eleanor learned that previous dukes of Aquitaine were founders of some of Poitou’s most important religious houses, among them Montierneuf at Poitiers outside the old Roman walls, founded by Duke Guy-Geoffrey as recompense for setting aside his first wife to take a second one. 

Young Eleanor would have visited other monasteries with her father and his household as they circulated about the county, certainly Saint-Maixent, a house not far from Poitiers closely associated with the ducal family. On festival days, Eleanor would have viewed the precious relics of the saints housed in monastic chapels, and she would have heard accounts of miracles performed by the saints for the faithful who venerated their relics. This taught her and other Christians that God was active in the material world, not only in the past but in the present, continuing to intervene in people’s lives with miracles when they called on him or his saints. 

Little Eleanor was taught that eternal salvation was not easily attained, and that a Christian owed definite duties to God. She would have equated these obligations with the loyalty and service owed to one’s lord, a conviction held by most early medieval aristocrats. Any failure to carry out the duties owed to one’s lord, either an earthly one or the heavenly Lord, would mean taking steps to regain his goodwill. Just as the powerless in judgments before a medieval lord’s court needed an influential friend to intercede on their behalf, even more did the dead standing before the heavenly tribunal need a saintly intercessor. 

For the eleventh- and early twelfth-century nobility, “Salvation was a matter of negotiations with God represented by his ministers on earth.” Like other aristocrats, Eleanor knew the importance of purchasing the saints’ goodwill with gifts to monastic houses, and throughout her life she recognized the importance of monasteries for offering perpetual prayers for intercession with God and the saints. As a queen, Eleanor would be punctilious in providing funds for religious houses for prayers for the salvation of her living kin and for the souls of deceased ancestors. 

Eleanor would have grown up with an awareness of earlier duchesses’ special place in the sacred sphere. Some aristocratic ladies found in the devotional life of the Church a means of transcending limitations that society imposed on women, winning control over a corner of their lives. In an age of family solidarity, the wives and mothers of princes played an essential part in securing their families’ eternal salvation with their devotional practises, their friendships with holy men and women, and their patronage of monastic houses.”

- Ralph V. Turner, “Growing Up in the Ducal Court of Aquitaine, 1124–1137.” in Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France, Queen of England

[queermediastudies]

I Can't Think Straight is based on an autobiographical novel written by director and screenwriter, Shamim Salver.

Synopsis: in the traditional Middle East society, Reema and Omar are preparing for their daughter Tala's wedding. But when she returned to Tala in London because of her work, she met Leyla, her best friend - the British Indian girl Ali was dating. Tala noticed the simple, clumsy and sensitive Leyla who secretly tried to become a writer. Meanwhile, Tala's frankness challenges Leyla's faith, and Leyla begins a journey of self-knowledge. They fell in love, but Tala was restrained by her responsibility and cultural morality, so she left Leyla and flew back to Jordan to prepare for her magnificent wedding. As family members visit and the wedding day approaches, Tala's pressure continues to rise until she finally escapes and saves herself. Back in London, Leyla was extremely sad, but she began to learn to free herself from self-doubt and her mother's expectations, leave Ali and sincerely tell her parents her sexual orientation. Tala found that the love she expected was to overcome the last obstacle and win Leyla's return. With the help of Ali and Leyla's energetic sister, Tala and Leyla came together again.

For me, queer movies are actually movies with literary and artistic colors. Many directors like to let gay films break up or die, which will make people feel that gay films have a sad beauty or death, an emotional sublimation, and reflect the obstruction brought by social reality. But the film chose a comedy ending, even considering the intersection of religion and reality.

Director Shamim Sarif is a queer writer, screenwriter and director born in London, UK. From her family background, her parents were Indian parents who left South Africa in the early 1960s to get rid of apartheid. Her work style combines all aspects of identity, including gender, race and sex. Shamim also often extracts experience from her sexual orientation and personal cross-cultural experience, so as to enrich her works.

If I mention the Middle East, I think the words that come to mind are probably war, religion and so on. It can even be said that homosexuality is a crime in many Middle East countries, and homosexuality can be sentenced to death in Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, Kuwait and Iran (Ungar, 2002). Throughout the Middle East, religion is even increasingly used as a reason for the arrest, detention and murder of homosexuals. "Gay" can be roughly translated into "Rhodes" in Arabic, which is the basis of many anti-gay Koran interpretations. However, many scholars assert that the Koran does not explicitly prohibit or condemn homosexuality. On the contrary, they believe that interpreting the Koran as anti-homosexuality has become a cultural norm. The use of Islam as the basis of cultural norms has led to the arrest of many people on charges such as "contempt for religion" by people considered different (Pratt, 2007).

In this case, how can we effectively let the people watching the film see the queer group that the director wants to show without offending their faith?

Leyla in the film found a completely different herself through her communication with Tala, from her religion to her outlook on life, and even her sexual orientation changed completely in the end. Originally, she was not unknown, but a talented writer in her eyes; Originally, she did not want to think about the rationality of religion without reservation, but could consider whether the environment or nature created her; Originally, she was not a clever herself arranged by her parents, but she also had courage, I found that what I really need is just you. Just as plants need sunshine, breathing needs air, the growth of life needs water droplets, and I need you.

I think the director has done this very well. The actors in her two main roles are cross-cultural, which can be closer to the roles in the film. At the same time, the cross-cultural role in the film can more easily show the changes related to religion and thought. The film implies the institutional space of the film in the text, and at the same time, it should think beyond its own cultural community at the political level (Schoonover & GALT, 2016). With such a combination of politics and culture, queer film can be successfully released and show everyone about this group.

But in fact, all the perfect endings give the audience only the final imagination. The film builds a perfect world for people to imagine - where fathers will understand their children, where homosexuality will not be embarrassed by work, and where there is faith and free thought. The heroine's father has become a new mirror of God, restoring the original intention of all religions, which is tolerance, not restriction. Maria San Filippo believes that "the gender space of film" is a potential, which consists of "text place (space-time position) and audience line of sight (viewing mode)". Queer communication is a new type of sexual relationship that breaks through the tradition. It has multiple perspectives and diversity, and can also bring people more thinking. I think this means that the public can accept the strange and increasingly complex social relations in films and other carriers in the movie.

Indeed, from the perspective of the audience, the people watching the film behind all the secular, the original intention of mankind is to be considerate, and the happy ending guided by all the films is also a good hope, which is more powerful than any tough pale. The director firmly grasped the audience's mind. Even heterosexuals, my friends deeply like such a hazy beauty. But on reflection, there is also a doubt about role setting. Both girls are economically independent free men, and there is not much description of their relationship in the film, which is plagued by racial problems. It is difficult for the audience to reach such a social class, so it depends very much on the imagination of the audience.

Indeed, from the perspective of the audience, the people watching the film behind all the secular, the original intention of mankind is to be considerate, and the happy ending guided by all the films is also a good hope, which is more powerful than any tough pale. The director firmly grasped the audience's mind. Even heterosexuals, my friends deeply like such a hazy beauty. But on reflection, there is also a doubt about role setting. Both girls are economically independent free men, and there is not much description of their relationship in the film, which is plagued by racial problems. It is difficult for the audience to reach such a social class, so it depends very much on the imagination of the audience. Just as Murphy's interest in shaping eccentric and people in color actors can be understood as only meeting the needs of inclusiveness, but actually not challenging greater structural and systemic labor issues.

Overall, the film was very successful. The film ranks high on China's online film review platform. At the same time, the film has won many awards from Queer Film Festivals in different regions, bringing queer to the world. If under the influence of this film, under the influence of gay culture, people begin to change, from fixed, stable, binary, to a more decentralized and stratified social identity. The film was an important part of making Queer visible to the world.

Reference:

Ungar, Mark. 2002. "State Violence and Lgbt Rights," in Kenton Worcester, Sally Avery

Bermanzohn and Mark Ungar, (eds.), Violence and Politics: Globalization's Paradox, , 48-66.

New York: Routledge.

Pratt, Nicola. 2007. "The Queen Boat Case in Egypt: Sexuality, National Security and State

Sovereignty." Review of International Studies 33: 128-44.

Schoonover & Galt (2016) Introduction Queer Cinema in the World

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/poser-ryan-murphy-trans-queer-color-labor-politics-representation/

Understanding non-binary people: a guide for the media. (2020, March 20). Retrieved September 16, 2021 from https://www.media-diversity.org/resources/understanding-non-binary-people-a-guide-for-the-media/

[chekhov-and-chill]

Hey here's something ironic:

So Russia and Ukraine both have versions of a reality show called “Pacanki” (”Tomboys”) where basically they gather a bunch of young women (some of whom are “tomboys” in the sense that they break traditional gender norms, some of whom have serious problems with addictions and risky behaviors, etc.) All of them somehow don’t fit the mold for “proper young women.” The show is supposed to turn them into “proper ladies” (typical competition show format, one contestant leaves each week, one winner gets a prize). As you might expect, both shows are filled to the brim with gender norms, heteronormativity, sexism, etc. 

Another detail: many of the contestants (probably about half) are openly queer. The Ukrainian version actually mentions this in the show (the Ukrainian version is somewhat less heteronormative in general). In the Russian version, any mentions of LGBTQ identity are edited out (there's a law against “gay propaganda” in Russia), but the contestants speak about their sexuality on their individual platforms anyway, so it’s not really a secret. Anyway, after the show, most contestants gain a significant social media following, where they speak openly about being LGBTQ, about their experiences with queer romance, about homophobia, etc. And most of them continue to break gender norms after the show. 

The irony is that a show entirely centered around gender norms and heteronormativity ended up being one of the biggest sources of representation for queer and gender non-conforming women in the Russian-speaking world. And honestly, no one really takes the “proper lady” stuff seriously- not even the more conservative viewers. From what I can observe from the social media following of the show, it has had the reverse effect; it exposed a more conservative audience to queer celebs and challenged their biases, and it provided many queer Russian-speaking women with celebs that represent them (okay, maybe “celebs” is an exaggeration, but considering how few openly queer Russian celebs there are, it is still significant). 

Anyway, I just find it ironic and kinda cool that a show intended to restrain and disparage queer and gender non-conforming women and push for traditional gender norms ended up having the exact opposite effect!

Edit: P.S I should mention that I mainly got interested in the show bc I have a massive crush on one of the contestants. Her name is Ksenia Milas and this is her:

It’s been a few years since her season. She now hosts her own show on the same channel (as far as I’m aware, she’s the only openly lesbian tv show host in Russian tv history).