#so we usually just end up posting broad status reports about things we see while out in the field (social media)

[pivsketch]

my friends were talking about the idea of fandom weather reports

[cssns]

Event Roundup Time!!!!

I am SOOOOOOO sorry y’all!!! I completely forgot to do an event roundup!!! Please forgive me!!! Fanmail from @killianjones4ever82 brought it to my attention and I’m so glad she did! We had an incredible summer and we need to have a post that can be easily accessed with all the fabulous fics and gorgeous artwork that dropped for the event! So without further ado, here we go!!!!

Under the cut, because this is gonna be a LOOOOOOONG post!!!

Here is a link to the entire collection of fics on ao3.

@welllpthisishappening opened us up this year with her first fic for the event, All the Subliminal Things. Rated T with four chapters. COMPLETE. Artwork by @resident-of-storybrooke.

Emma Swan does not believe in soulmates.

Or so she says. Because if her soulmate did, actually, exist, he should have shown up by now. So, she must be a fluke, a broken cog in a system that really doesn't make much sense anyway. It is, she figures, why she agrees to meet David's friend before Regina and Robin's wedding. This guy doesn't believe in soulmates either.

She's intrigued.

Until she hears him talk. And everything flips after that.

At the end of June, Laura posted All Was Golden In the Sky. Rated M and we have five chapters left. Artwork by @resident-of-storybrooke, extra artwork by @distant-rose and @optomisticgirl can be found on Laura’s chapter blog posts.

Magic is dying.

Emma knows it. She can feel it, the emptiness rattling around in her, like it’s trying to make sure she disappears as well. What she doesn’t know is what to do about it, because, suddenly, there is a man in Storybrooke claiming she’s the Savior and a seeress certain a prophecy promises the same and the last thing she expects is for her minimal amount of lingering power to pull her away.

To New York City.

And another oddly familiar man with blue eyes and a smile that sinks under her skin and makes magic bloom in the air around her. Things are about to get interesting.

@darkcolinodonorgasm posted One Day, a LadyHawke AU with artwork by @sherlockianwhovian. Rated T and we are two chapters in. 

By day, Emma is the beautiful swan gliding over the waters of Misthaven's pond, but when night falls, the voice of the wolf the people living in the little town hear is Killian's cry. The curse was meant to be forever, to keep them always together yet eternally apart. No force in Heaven would be able to break such spell, nor any force on Earth. Or so Emma and Killian thought.

Towards the end of June Sara posted Hidden Paths Between the Moon and Sun, the sequel to her Hades and Persephone AU, Until the Stars Are All Alight. Artwork by @sherlockianwhovian. Rated M with one of six chapters so far.

The King of the Underworld has never taken a vacation before, not a proper one and not one that lasted more than a few months. Now that his firstborn is capable enough to take the throne ad interim, Killian can finally show his beloved Queen the world, giving her the honeymoon they never had the chance to have. But the King’s plan doesn’t stop quite there.

@allons-y-to-hogwarts-713 posted original art Killian Falls for Siren Emma

Come all you pretty fair maids, whoever you may be

Who love a jolly sailor bold that ploughs the raging sea,

My heart is pierced by Cupid, I disdain all glittering gold, There is nothing can console me but my jolly sailor bold.

and Paranormal Photographers/Reporters.

When you hear the knell of a requiem bell Weird glows gleam where spirits dwell Restless bones etherealize Rise as spooks of every size

@donteattheappleshook posted Just Human Vol2, the sequel to her submission last year, Just, Human. Artwork by 1 2 by @djlbg. Rated M with five chapters. COMPLETE.

A continuation of last years CSSNS story Just Human. Now that Killian is a ghost and Mary Margaret knows everything, what does life have in store for a group of supernatural misfits? With the threat of Gold gone, Emma learns that sometimes just being human is the most complicated challenge of all.

@thislassishooked posted Wake Me Up Inside. Rated M with three chapters so far. Artwork by @tennant-the-tigger.

Killian Jones has lived longer than any man has a right to live. Most would argue that what he was doing was not living, but merely existing. The day he lost the love of his life was the day he lost the will to live, but instead of ending his life he inadvertently became the strongest being on earth and unfortunately indestructible. His mortal enemy followed him into immortality and craves the power only Killian possesses. With his brother by his side and the help of a quirky, blonde hematologist, who makes him question whether he is ready for death after all, he will fight against evil, but more importantly, for the cure.

@let-it-raines posted Not Your (Soul)Mate. Rated M with sixteen chapters. COMPLETE. Artwork 1 2 3 4 5 6 by @captainsjedi. 

Killian Jones doesn’t like the idea of soulmates. He sees how happy his friends are with theirs, but he still doesn’t like the idea, not when he’s found love and lost it time and time again only to still not know his sign. He has no markings on his skin, no voices in his head, but then one day he meets Emma Swan and everything changes. Because, well, he may not have ink on his skin to tell him who to love, but the very first time that he hears Emma’s voice he knows that she’s the one for him. Then again, that could simply be his desire talking. After all, for every word she speaks, he becomes aroused.

It’s not the worst thing in the world to be incredibly attracted to a beautiful woman, but things aren’t that simple when she doesn’t have any interest in being his soulmate.

He’s screwed. And not in the good way.

@shireness-says posted A Drowning Soul Will Clutch at Any Straw. Rated T one shot. Artwork by @hollyethecurious.

Though this is far from Killian Jones' first encounter with a mermaid, he's never met any quite like this blonde siren. Together, can they break a cruel curse?

@snowbellewells posted her first fic for the event, Face to Face in the Broad Daylight, her sequel to last years Run to Me (In the Dead of Night) in early July. Rated T with five chapters so far. Artwork by @branlovestowrite.

Here we have a sequel to my werewolf, alternate season two and beyond fic from last year’s CSSNS. You probably want to read that story "Run to Me (in the Dead of Night)" first, or it might be a bit confusing in places. This second story in the same universe partially exists just because I wanted to revisit these couples and enjoy a bit more of their fluffy happily ever afters. However, we may also see them get into some new surprises and challenges, and of course we need to see if Rumplestiltskin is still under control or back to his usual scheming and plotting. I hope you will enjoy. 

Marta also posted at the end of July A Story Told at Last. Rated T with three chapters. COMPLETE. Artwork by @branlovestowrite.

Historical Literature Professor Henry Mills has the chance of a lifetime before him. He might finally uncover the truth of a folktale that has intrigued him for years. But, when the whole story comes to light, will he be able to accept the story that needs to be told?

@thejollyroger-writer posted her first fic of three for the event, Love After Death: The Afterlife Hotel. Rated T one shot with artwork by @captainsjedi. 

Emma Swan has spent sixty years in the afterlife believing she was never going to meet her real soulmate, after believing in the wrong name tattooed on her wrist. But when she keeps seeing the same new guest of the Afterlife Hotel around, might she be able to learn how to love again?

Megan’s second fic for the event was What Happened in Berkshire. Rated G with two of three chapters posted. Artwork by @captainsjedi.

When Emma’s boyfriend leaves her for the woman he’s been cheating with, she accepts an offer from her hospital to move to England. While she is out celebrating her thirtieth birthday with her friends before they head back to America, she drunkenly kisses the statue of Captain Hook in front of Eton College, and he comes to life. Together, he and Emma try to figure out what this curse means for them by searching for the witch that cursed him in the first place — are they really True Love, as he wants to believe they are, or did Emma’s magic go awry?

Megan’s third fic for the event was Falling Paws Over Heels. Rated T one shot. Artwork by @captainsjedi.

Captain Killian Jones -- the notorious Captain Hook -- has heard all kinds of stories during his travels around all of the realms. But the story that has always interested him the most is that of the enchanting sorceress of Storybrooke, a small town in the Enchanted Forest's Misthaven, the sorceress who takes men to her bed, but will only give her heart to the man who befriends her cat. Will Killian be the one who finally has what it takes?

@gingerchangeling posted Luck of the Irish. Rated M with one chapter of seven so far. Artwork by @resident-of-storybrooke.

Emma needs parent volunteer hours. So she offers to chaperon Henry's upcoming field trip to the museum. Its just a pack of prepubescent angst ridden children, an exhibit about dead people, and a rock used in blood sacrifices with a curse carved into it. What's the worst that could happen?

@jarienn972 posted A Simple Spell. Rated T with six chapters so far. Artwork by @cocohook38. 

This story is my entry into the 2019 Captain Swan Supernatural Summer event and is my first venture into AU territory. Storybrooke remains our setting but I've switched up some of the characters and familial relations to better suit this tale of prodigal witch Emma who returns to her birthplace to learn lots of secrets about herself and cast a spell that could change everything.

@profdanglaisstuff posted The Very Witching Time. Rated M with six chapters. COMPLETE. Artwork by @gingerchangeling. Extra artwork by @mariakov81 can be found on Saira’s chapter posts on her blog.

Emma Swan is a hereditary witch, last in a long line of wise women who for centuries have guarded the coast of Maine and the small village of Storybrooke with their homemade cures and their ancient magic. She holds the delicate balance between magic and mundane, but now that balance is threatened by a new foe, one capable of bringing an end to everything Emma is and everything she loves. To defeat it she will need all her power, help from her friends and neighbours, and the loyalty of a very unusual dog who answers to the name of Killian.

@searchingwardrobes gave us the first of two fics for the event, An Education in Southern Gothic. Rated T with two chapters. COMPLETE. Artwork by @hollyethecurious.

Fact: there’s a graveyard between the football field and the science building. Debatable: a ghost haunts the halls of Misthaven Hills High. Emma Swan is about to get an education. Killian Jones is about to get a whole lot more.

Melanie’s second fic was titled Until the Day Breaks and the Shadows Flee. Rated M with eight chapters. COMPLETE. Artwork by @hollyethecurious.

Every night, she traces the contours of his body as Killian whispers words of love against her skin. But can Princess Emma ever be fully happy with a husband who only comes to her in utter darkness? A Captain Swan AU of the Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche.

@spartanguard posted Sick of Love. Rated M with three chapters. COMPLETE. Artwork by @sherlockianwhovian.

If Emma’s not careful, she just might bump into her soulmate. Physically. And while she might like the idea of what comes with that—an almost psychic connection whenever they make skin contact—she’d rather not deal with the awful withdrawal sickness that can come when they inevitably leave her; she’s got a son, so she doesn’t have time for that. So she keeps herself covered and thinks she’ll be okay. Until she meets Killian, who does the same thing. Will their barriers protect them, or just hurt them more?

@snidgetsafan posted Whom the Gods Love Die Young. Rated G (for the moment) with one chapter so far. Artwork by @tennant-the-tigger.

The bride bit into the shiny red apple as everyone cheered around her, the wedding ceremony ending with this ritual gesture. The clapping and hurrahs soon turned to screams of horror as Snow dropped the apple, choking and clutching her throat as she fell in her groom’s arms, a last I love you leaving her lips before she died, David’s screams the loudest of all.

David and Emma travel to the Underworld to claim back Snow after her untimely death. In order to do so, they're going to have to face the dark and mysterious God of the Underworld and complete his challenges.

Seems simple enough until you add magic, divine quarrels, and the worst thing of all: feelings.

@eastwesthomeisbest posted original artwork, The Love of the Samodiva Pts1 and 2.

In Bulgarian folklore Samodiva is an ethereal female wood nymph. She is unearthly beautiful and eternally young. Her hair is blond and long, her waist is thin and petite, her eyes can bewitch and dazzle or even kill. Any man who lays eyes on her instantly falls in love. Samodivas’ attire consists of long white gowns and shirts and a rainbow-coloured or green belt. They have a white mantel, also called a shadow, in which their power lies. They like to ride deer, using twisted snakes for reins and often carry with them bows and arrows.

If a huntsman accidentally kills a samodiva’s deer, she will make him blind or give him a disease which will inevitably lead to his death.

The wood nymphs live in dark forests, in big old trees, caves or forgotten huts which are near water sources, wells or rivers.

Samodivas can be spotted from spring to autumn. In winter they live in the mythical village Zmeykovo, which is located at the edge of the world and is a home to many mythical creatures. When they are on earth they are active at night and disappear immediately when the sun comes out, because they fear it.

At twilight, the samodivas go to fresh water sources, strip naked, wash themselves and their clothes which they lay out to dry in the moonlight. They keep a watchful eye on their drying clothes, because if a man steals their mantle, where their power lies, they turn into normal women and have to obey the man. After washing themselves and their clothes, the samodivas gather around and start singing and dancing. It is known that the samodiva’s songs are the most beautiful and their dances are the most graceful. If a late traveller sees the samodivas’ dance, he is enticed to join them and dances with them from midnight to dawn. When the sun’s rays appear, the nymphs disappear in haste and leave the traveller to die from exhaustion. The samodivas love music and often kidnap shepherds, so that they can play kaval (shepherd’s pipe) for them while they dance.

Samodivas are not always harmful. Sometimes they appear like normal working women and help with the harvest. They would especially help women with children. If a man does something good for a samodiva, she becomes his patron or a sworn sister. Sometimes, a samodiva can fall in love with a human and bear him children, who grow up to be great heroes.

Samodivas are forest creatures and therefore knowledgeable about herbs and cures. However, they never share their secrets willingly. The only way to obtain their knowledge is to eavesdrop on one of their gatherings.

@courtorderedcake posted two fics for this years event. Hallow rated E with eight chapters so far with accompanying artwork 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11.

"The Goblin King was prepared to host the Darkness, stealing Fae women away to their corrupted lands underneath the ground as concubines. The Darkness chose another in his stead, but not before this selected vessel enacted a devastating attack in its vengeance, revealing its hatred & rage. The battle was a lesson the old kings had forgotten; never underestimate an opponent. Many more lives were lost as they razed over any who dared defy The Goblin King's will. Only the pure love of our rulers united in matrimony, breaking the Vorpal Dagger, sealed the darkness and the Goblin menace away. The light flourished under their fair rule, and the queen bore a child as pure as moon beams, swan feathers, and starlight. They lived happily ever after, and shall be written in history as Heroes for All Time."

This is the history Princess Emma memorizes from the day she is born, paraded about and presented only with the highest protection. The palace is a cage she wishes to escape, desperately. Not careful what wishes she made, Emma discovers history is written by the victors - The Dark One has an entirely different version of the events that took place.

Roses, rated E with two of four chapters so far. Artwork by @eastwesthomeisbest.

A CS retelling of Tam Lin, the classic fairytale. Liberties taken. Magic and Fae BS in play.

@pirateherokillian posted Wanderer Redeemed. Rated T with just the prologue so far. Artwork coming soon from @tennant-the-tigger.

Emma, Goddess of Hope and Happy endings, finds herself in need and her only real chance of ever getting what she desires comes in the form of Killian Jones, a shunned outcast of their kind. A Modern-Day Gods Captain Swan AU written for CSSNS.

@ilovemesomekillianjones posted The Soldier, the Witch, and the Dragon. Rated M one shot with artwork 1 2 by @spartanguard.

When soldier Killian Jones shows up on witch Emma Swan's doorstep, two worlds will collide. He will learn of worlds and wonders he never imagined possible and she will learn that true love might just be in the cards for her. Witches, Dragons and Magic, Oh My! A CS story for the 2019 Captain Swan Supernatural Summer event.

@whimsicallyenchantedrose posted Until the Stars Are All Alight. Rated T with two chapters of twenty so far. Artwork by @clockadile.

CS LOTR au: When Emma Swan steals a yellow Volkswagen Beetle, she has no idea it will lead her toward an adventure filled with danger and intrigue, sacrifice and a love stronger than anything she could imagine. Tasked with bringing the Savior home, the elf, Killian Jones of Misthaven travels to the Land Without Magic. Can he convince Emma to fulfill her destiny before the Dark One regains power and takes over all of the Enchanted Forest?

And last but certainly not least, @teamhook posted Rionnag Dorcha Gorm (Dark Blue Star). Unrated with two chapters so far. Artwork by @hollyethecurious

It is said that evil is not born but made. This is how an act of kindness is twisted into a story about revenge. Emma and Killian are childhood friends until a tragedy separates them will another reunite them.

I’ve read all of these fics and they are all absolutely FANTASTIC!!! It’s been so much fun reading all these wonderful fics and staring at the gorgeous art that went with them!! Be sure to let them know how much you’re enjoying their hard work! The WIP’s will continue updating until they are finished and I will be back at the end of the month with everything that has updated in September! Until then folks!

[autumndiesirae]

Response to @bigmeangatekeeper’s ‘Why I’m Exclusionist’ Page

So recently I came across by far one of the most bigoted exclusionists I’ve seen in a while, that being @bigmeangatekeeper. Normally I block and ignore these sorts of people but given the exceedingly harmful and frankly disgusting rhetoric espoused on this person’s blog, I felt it was necessary to make a formal response, even if the person in question isn’t going to listen to reason or care.

I’m going to be mentioning @herefortheace​ and @justaphobethings​ in this post for their reference, as the arguments presented here are common exclusionist rhetorics and also to share my resources with more inclusionist blogs.

DISCLAIMER: This is not intended to be a ‘callout’, not is it intended to call upon my followers/anyone to attack this blog. This is merely a response to tired old exclusionist rhetoric by an asexual who is sick of people legitimately trying to act like their gross views haven’t been time and time disproven. I also won’t be addressing this blog’s status as a truscum as that isn’t relevant to this post.

TW FOR RAPE/SEXUAL ASSAULT DISCUSSION AND RAPE APOLOGISM.

PAGE LINK

First thing’s first. While I do not automatically exclude LGBT aces, I exclude cishet aces AND homo/transphobic or homo/transphobia apologist aces. It’s not just about the cishets. It’s about so much more.

As stated hundreds of times before, there definitely are homophobic, biphobic, transphobic, sexist, and racist asexuals. There are also apologists for these asexuals. Absolutely no one is arguing that these are problematic people. However, exclusionists like to pretend that the occasional ‘bad’ asexual is somehow a representative of the entire community, to which I respond ‘how then do you feel about TERF lesbians or biphobic gay men?’ Because if a few bad members of a sexuality are enough to warrant that entire community being removed from the LGBT community as a whole, then this rhetoric should be applied to every single sexual orientation or gender identity. Yet, asexuals and aromantics get singled out for this time and time again. It’s almost like exclusionists are unwilling to admit that they just want to remove asexuals as a whole and are only grasping for excuses so much that they will use the occasional problematic ace as a gotcha to push forward their ideologies. It’s funny because half the time what exclusionists define as ‘homophobic asexuals’ are often either blatantly obvious trolls or minors simply making jokes or having fun with their identity.

Also, thank you for including SOME aces! We appreciate you soooo much for driving a wall between our community! /s

The standard of “SGA and trans” as requirement for entry to the LGBTQ community is used nowhere outside of aphobic tumblr, and it seems crafted specifically for the purpose of excluding aces, aros, NBs, intersex people, and others not deemed “gay enough”.

There are also many “SGA and trans” aces who are against the gatekeeping and feel that they are hated by these aphobes.

You’re not protecting me by being an ace/aro exclusionist.

What we hear when you say “I only support SGA Asexuals/Aromantics”

my favourite thing is when aphobes try to tell me that their aphobia doesn’t apply to me / affect me because “[i’m] queer for other reasons”

okay, you wanna know why I’m for including all aces in the LGBT+ community?

Why your acephobia and arophobia is really just bullshit

it really annoys me when I see Discoursers say they support LGBT+ aces, just not cishet ones.

when you say “i accept sga and trans aces and aros but not cishet aces/aros because they’re straight”

Suffering! Suffering?

when people ‘accept’ sga/mga/non-cis aces and aros, but not others, what it actually means is they accept the part of you that isn’t directly tied to your asexuality/aromanticism

if ur gonna fuckin claim those four letters cover them & the whole damn community, they sure as fuck can cover aces as well

“Ace discourse” is really a Tumblr-only thing

I’m a lesbian ace and I’ve never felt more worthless and disgusting than this ace discourse

The reason even trans and bi/gay/pan/etc asexuals get defensive when you talk about cishet aces/aros not being part of the LGBT+ community is because you’re erasing a part of our identity??

If you talk shit about aces/aros with the disclaimer “cishet” it still affects all aces. Saying “notably cishet aces should all go die” still makes all ace/aro people feel like they are being called out.

Your “discourse” is harmful to all asexuals. And PS, your rhetoric is literally indistinguishable from TWERF rhetoric.

It’s about the blatant homophobia, transphobia, and serophobia in the ace community.

Again, this may exist in some members of the community, but that does not magically erase the status of the community as being LGBT. If it did, TERFs lesbians would have caused the lesbian community to be no longer considered LGBT.

It’s about there being no consistent definition of asexuality, thus allowing literally anyone regardless of relationship status, libido, etc to claim the ace label, and thereby try to shoulder their way into the LGBT community.

There is a consistent definition of asexuality. It’s ‘a lack of sexual attraction’. Libido, relationship status, etc, do not have any role in the asexual label. This has been the definition of asexuality for years. Looking up ‘asexuality’ on Google literally explains this:

I found these in one quick search. What’s your excuse?

The reason there appears to be ‘no consistent definition’ is the fault of non-asexuals and exclusionists pushing their own definitions of what asexuality is so that they can later pretend that its the asexuals who are changing the definition. The idea that asexuals never have sex was a misconstruing of the description of sex-repulsed asexuals. The idea that asexuals don’t have a libido also came from this. Asexuals can and do masturbate (for pleasure or stress relief), have sex (for pleasure or to have children), etc. These are not related to the definition of asexuality.

Additionally, if the fact that there isn’t a consistent definition of asexuality bothers you, then why not address how bisexuals and pansexuals don’t always have a consistent definition for their sexuality either? Some bisexuals claim the bi label is only for men and women, some say it includes nonbinary people, some say bisexuality is a transphobic label compared to pansexuality, etc, etc.

It’s about asexuals telling traumatised people/mentally ill people/dysphoric people/autistic people/CHILDREN that they’re ace rather then encouraging them to consider other reasons why they might feel sex repulsed.

Telling an individual ‘have you considered you may be asexual’ is not the same that saying ‘you are asexual, no arguments, you just are’. A person suggesting a label is not forcing anyone to co-opt that label. In addition, sexualities are fluid. I know many people who identified as ace at a younger age and then identified differently at an older age. I know many people who are the reverse. Are there individuals who identified incorrectly as ace at one age and feel upset or angry about it? Absolutely. But that is not the fault of any asexual who suggested the label. And, again, sex repulsion is not the requirement for being asexual.

It’s about asexuals not understanding that asexuality is not comparable to other sexualities bc it’s about how you feel attraction instead of who you feel attraction to

“Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, erotic, physical, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied over time, it lacks a precise definition.” From Wikipedia

A Definition of Sexuality

Sexuality is no longer just about ‘who’ you experience attraction to.

It’s about asexuals hypersexualising all other sexualities (most particularly gay people) and making us out to be fucking sex craved deviants

Citation fucking needed. Also, yet again, a few asexuals doing this (not that I have ever seen any aside from one extremely obvious troll doing this) is not somehow a representation of the entire community.

It’s about asexuals pushing the toxic and harmful split attraction model even though it’s been shown time and time again to allow people to explain away their internalised homophobia/biphobia, and encouraging microlabelling that just confuses people more and causes divisiveness in the community

What we call the split-attraction model was first described by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, a gay advocate from the 1800s, as “disjunctive uranodioning”. (source) (credit to this post)

There is absolutely no evidence aside from exclusionist rhetoric to uphold the idea that the SAM is homophobic or toxic. Additionally the SAM is used by non-ace and non-aro people regularly - I am familiar with many people who make that distinction in their romantic and sexual orientations, such as one friend who is pansexual but heteroromantic (in that she will have sex with all genders but prefers to romantically date men). It seems your bigger issue is the existence of microlabelling, which while that is a debatable problem in this community, at the end of the day it really isn’t any of your business. The only real source of divisiveness in this community is gatekeepers like you.

It’s about asexuals erasing gay history and literally just fabricating false stories for asexual representation, usually at the expense of gay people

Citation needed, once again.

Asexuals recorded as “Group X” in the 1948 Kinsey Reports

What is asexual history? The 19th and 20th century

From The Westminster Review, a political magazine, in 1907; an essay by Helen Fraser called Women’s Suffrage, on how if women got the vote, butch and ace women were gonna dominate the whole thing and screw it up for all the Real Ladies.

The Spinster Movement, and how they were treated as queer

From “Feminism,” by Correa Moylan Walsh, 1917

the “aces/aros were part of the bi community until they very recently chose to split off, so stop telling them that they have never been queer or that they don’t belong in ‘the LGBT community’” masterpost

asexuality existed before David Jay and AVEN

“Where were you when…?” A History of Asexual Inclusion (Part One)

“Where were you when…?” A History of Asexual Inclusion (Part Two)

It’s about asexuals stealing autistic terminology, and creating false axes of oppression that make literally everyone who isn’t ace their oppressors

The ‘actuallyasexual’ tag supposedly being stolen from the ‘actuallyautistic’ tag was never proven to be a legitimate claim. Autistic people have repeatedly come forward saying that this was never the case. Since I am not autistic, however, I won’t press on this particular point. If anyone is autistic and has some information on this, please DM me.

It’s about adult asexuals literally acting like children and using the ‘uwu im a pure ace’ response

Citation needed. I’m sensing a trend here.

Any asexual who partakes in, excuses, or explains away this behaviour in the ace community is dangerous and could easily cause harm to the LGBT community.

Once again - TERF lesbians, transphobic gay man, etc. should also be included under this rhetoric if you’re going to treat asexuals this way, otherwise you’re just being a hypocrite.

Asexuals are not oppressed under homophobia or transphobia. The LGBT community was not built just to combat oppression, because that would mean women and POC would automatically be LGBT, which is absurd. The community was developed specifically so that SGA and non-cis people would have a place to get away from societal homophobia and transphobia, and to push back against legally instituted oppression, like fighting for gay marriage, and to get laws put in place that protect us from hate crimes.

Firstly, SGA (same-gender attraction) is a term that was used and is still used in Mormon conversion therapy, so as one can understand,a lot of people are very uncomfortable being labeled with this description. 

Secondly -

“The LGBT community has always been about fighting homophobia and transphobia/we came together to fight homophobia and transphobia”

“Homophobia and Transphobia”: What does the LGBT+ community fight for?

The modern American movement was first known as the “gay community” when cis gay men refused to even accept lesbians, then the “gay and lesbian community”. (Good reading on the subject.)

“After the elation of change following group action in the Stonewall riots in New York, in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, some gays and lesbians became less accepting of bisexual or transgender people. Critics said that transgender people were acting out stereotypes and bisexuals were simply gay men or lesbian women who were afraid to come out and be honest about their identity. Each community has struggled to develop its own identity including whether, and how, to align with other gender and sexuality-based communities, at times excluding other subgroups; these conflicts continue to this day.” (source)

“From about 1988, activists began to use the initialism LGBT in the United States. Not until the 1990s within the movement did gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people gain equal respect.” (ibid)

These are scans of a gay magazine from 1999 showing that 48% of those surveyed did not believe that trans people should be a part of the gay community.

The community’s boundaries have always been in flux

Insisting that LG people have always been accepting of bi and trans people is incredibly revisionist and does a great deal of injustice to those who have been excluded.

While I agree that asexuals go through some discrimination, ‘aphobia’ is not an axis of oppression because it is not institutionalised. The discrimination asexual and aromantic people face is based within rape culture, toxic masculinity, traditionalist values, and misogyny.

You sound like transphobic sexists who claim trans men do not experience transphobia that is specific to trans men (transmisandry) much in the same way that trans women experience transphobia specific to trans women (transmisogyny).

First of all, what do you use as the definition of ‘institutionalized’?

Second, why are you acting like asexuals are seen as some ‘other’ group rather than a part of the LGBT community when institutionalized discrimination is being discussed?

Third, ‘institutionalized discrimination’ was never a requirement to be LGBT. By that logic, a gay man who lives in a country/state where gay marriage is legal, conversion therapy is banned, and who has never experienced any form of anti-LGBT discrimination in his life is straight. That’s an asinine proposition.

For some examples of asexual-specific discrimination - 

“My parents keep telling me that I’m something else, and it’s making me doubt my sense of judgement, not just about my sexual identity, but also about everything in general.”

“My family, friends, and co-workers keep referring to me as an inanimate object in a manner that’s clearly meant to humiliate and devastate me. Nothing I say will get them to stop.”

“My parents vocally/bodily forced me to undergo medical examinations, some of them concerning my sexual organs, many of them concerning blood tests and other trauma-centric procedures.”

“My family is intervening with my private life by changing my schedule to include exercise, socialization, friend influences, and whatever they think can ‘change’ me.”

“My friends/co-workers no longer respect my bodily boundaries when I came out to them, because they no longer see me as someone who should be respected. They regularly touch, fondle, grope, and prod me without permission, and/or verbally harass me, and don’t take my objections seriously.”

“My family, friends, and co-workers no longer just harass me, but also anyone I’m currently dating because they view my significant other as pathetic, underserved, or even being abused.”

“My date got irrationally angry and confrontational when I came out to them, in a manner that made me fearful.” (SO many of these.)

“My date immediately lost any respect they had for my boundaries, no longer asked for consent, and {tried to} force themselves upon me.” (A lot of these, too)

“My date tried to verbally circumvent any boundaries and issues I confessed to, and it made me feel like I was in danger.”

“I didn’t come out to my date at first, and when they found out, they radically changed their behavior in an attempt to control and manipulate our new relationship to their benefit.”

“My partner has forcefully and radically changed our long-term relationship after finding out about my asexuality, and I’m now trapped and controlled in a way that I wasn’t before.”

“My partner broke up with me/is fighting with me because of my asexuality, and trying to make it seem like I’m hurting them. It’s made me doubt myself and my ability to trust my own intentions.”

“My partner is slowly changing from what was once supportive of my asexuality, and I’m wondering when I have the right to be worried and when I’d be overreacting. I’m aware of the worst case scenario, but I also worry that I’m being selfish and childish - which are things I’ve been told all throughout my asexual experience.”

“I don’t trust my ability to say either yes or no in sexual situations, and this has extended to my life in general. I don’t feel comfortable in my ability to self-determinate.”

“The lack of authority, definition, and schooling of the concept of asexuality has made me very uncomfortable with what I think I am, and that uncertainty haunts me every waking moment.”

“I think it’s too late/too early to tell if I’m asexual, but the longer I hesitate, the worse my mental health and emotional wellbeing gets. I’m effectively stuck.”

“I see no benefit in coming out, or even identifying as asexual. There’s no positivity, role models, or supportive community for what I consider a big and scary part of my overall identity.”

“I think this was sexual abuse, but I’m wondering if I’m just being selfishand childish.”

“I think I was treated badly by my parents/friends/partner, but I’m wondering if I’m just being selfishand childish.”

“I want to believe that I’m deserving of equal freedom and human respect paid to other, not asexual people, but people tell me I’m being selfishand childish.”

“No one encourages this part of me. And that makes me feel forgotten and abandoned in general.”

Dr Gordon Hodson wrote this about his 2012 study:

In a recent investigation (MacInnis & Hodson, in press) we uncovered strikingly strong bias against asexuals in both university and community samples. Relative to heterosexuals, and even relative to homosexuals and bisexuals, heterosexuals: (a) expressed more negative attitudes toward asexuals (i.e., prejudice); (b) desired less contact with asexuals; and © were less willing to rent an apartment to (or hire) an asexual applicant (i.e., discrimination). Moreover, of all the sexual minority groups studied, asexuals were the most dehumanized (i.e., represented as “less human”). Intriguingly, heterosexuals dehumanized asexuals in two ways. Given their lack of sexual interest, widely considered a universal interest, it might not surprise you to learn that asexuals were characterized as “machine-like” (i.e., mechanistically dehumanized). But, oddly enough, asexuals were also seen as “animal-like” (i.e., animalistically dehumanized). Yes, asexuals were seen as relatively cold and emotionless and unrestrained, impulsive, and less sophisticated.

When you repeatedly observe such findings it grabs your attention as a prejudice researcher. But let’s go back a minute and consider those discrimination effects. Really? You’d not rent an apartment to an asexual man, or hire an asexual woman? Even if you relied on stereotypes alone, presumably such people would make ideal tenants and employees. We pondered whether this bias actually represents bias against single people, a recently uncovered and very real bias in its own right (see Psychology Today column by Bella DePaulo). But our statistical analyses ruled out this this possibility. So what’s going on here?

If you’ve been following my column, you’ll recall that I wrote a recent article on what I called the “Bigotry Bigot-Tree” – what psychologists refer to as generalized prejudice. Specifically, those disliking one social group (e.g., women) also tend to dislike other social groups (e.g., homosexuals; Asians). In our recent paper (MacInnis & Hodson, in press), we found that those who disliked homosexuals also disliked bisexuals and asexuals. In other words, these prejudices are correlated. Heterosexuals who dislike one sexual minority, therefore, also dislike other sexual minorities, even though some of these groups are characterized by their sexual interest and activity and others by their lack of sexual interest and activity.

This anti-asexual bias, at its core, seems to boil down to what Herek (2010) refers to as the “differences as deficit” model of sexual orientation. By deviating from the typical, average, or normal sexual interests, sexual minorities are considered substandard and thus easy targets for disdain and prejudice. Contrary to conventional folk wisdom, prejudice against sexual minorities may not therefore have much to do with sexual activity at all. There is even evidence, for instance, that religious fundamentalists are prejudiced against homosexuals even when they are celibate (Fulton et al., 1999). Together, such findings point to a bias against “others”, especially different others, who are seen as substandard and deficient (and literally “less human”). “Group X” is targeted for its lack of sexual interest even more than homosexuals and bisexuals are targeted for their same-sex interests.

From news coverage of a recently published study (2016):

What should the average person take away from your study?

Since I first became interested in the issue, I have come to conclude that U.S. society is both “sex negative” and “sex positive.” In other words, there is stigma and marginalization that can come both from being “too sexual” and from being “not sexual enough.” In a theoretical paper, I argued that sexuality may be compulsory in contemporary U.S. society. In other words, our society assumes that (almost) everyone is, at their core, “sexual” and there exists a great deal of social pressure to experience sexual desire, engage in sexual activities, and adopt a sexual identity. At the same time, various types of “non-sexuality” (such as a lack of sexual desire or activity) are stigmatized.

For this particular study, I identified thirty individuals who identified as asexual and asked them first, if they had experienced stigma or marginalization as a result of their asexuality, and, second how they challenged this stigma or marginalization. I found that my interviewees had experienced the following forms of marginalization: pathologization (i.e. people calling them sick), social isolation, unwanted sex and relationship conflict, and the denial of epistemic authority (i.e. people not believing that they didn’t experience sexual attraction). I also found that my interviews resisted stigma and marginalization in five ways: describing asexuality as simply a different (but not inherently worse) form of sexuality; deemphasizing the importance of sexuality in human life; developing new types of nonsexual relationships; coming to see asexuality as a sexual orientation or identity; and engaging in community building and outreach.

I hope that average people would take away from this study the idea that some people can lead fulfilling lives without experiencing sexual attraction but can experience distress if others try to invalidate their identities.

Some of the social isolation we aspecs experience comes from religious communities. Indeed, the popular myth that religious people revere aspecs is very much NOT TRUE. For example, read “Myth 8″ from the VISION Catholic Religious Vocation Guide:

MYTH 8: Religious are asexual

Question: What do you call a person who is asexual?

Answer: Not a person. Asexual people do not exist.Sexuality is a gift from God and thus a fundamental part of our human identity. Those who repress their sexuality are not living as God created them to be: fully alive and well. As such, they’re most likely unhappy. All people are called by God to live chastely, meaning being respectful of the gift of their sexuality. Religious men and women vow celibate chastity, which means they live out their sexuality without engaging in sexual behavior. A vow of chastity does not mean one represses his manhood or her womanhood. Sexuality and the act of sex are two very different things. While people in religious life abstain from the act of sex, they do not become asexual beings, but rather need to be in touch with what it means to be a man or a woman. A vow of chastity also does not mean one will not have close, loving relationships with women and men. In fact, such relationships are a sign of living the vow in a healthy way. Living a religious vow of chastity is not always easy, but it can be a very beautiful expression of love for God and others. Religious women and men aren’t oddities; they mirror the rest of the church they serve: there are introverts and extroverts, tall and short, old and young, straight and gay, obese and skinny, crass and pious, humorous and serious, and everything in between. They attempt to live the same primary vocation as all other Christians do: proclaiming and living the gospel. However, religious do this as members of an order that serve the church and world in a particular way. Like marriage and the single life, religious life can be wonderful, fulfilling, exciting, and, yes, normal. Yet, it also can be countercultural and positively challenging. It’s that for us and many others. If you thought religious life was outdated, dysfunctional, or dead, we hope you can now look beyond the stereotypes and see the gift it is to the church and world.

NOTE: YOU CAN BE A GAY CATHOLIC PERSON BUT NOT ASEXUAL, BC ASEXUALITY DOESN’T EXIST (yet somehow we’re also “most likely unhappy” and “oddities”). I sincerely hope and believe that not all religions characterize us aspecs this way. But here are some personal accounts I found on a reddit site answering the question “Do any religions have a negative stance toward asexuals?”:

Please note that the Christian pastor in the last example was fearful (or something?) that an asexual was helping to lead a youth group and kicked them out of the church as a result.

(Not to mention that there is now a published dissertation with a whole chapter dedicated to understanding why a-spec people have been erased from history and virtually invisible up until recently, which is a very real issue in this debate that cannot be ignored).

This argument is as tired as the rest of the ones you’re putting out. And since i know you’re just going to ignore this with some backhanded commentary - 

If we give primary sources based on lived experiences (which is the basis of qualitative research, which founded so much of the fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, and more, and is still used today as a very common research practice), such evidence is dismissed because it’s not academic or in a news publication. Never mind that this practice of citing tumblr blogs for personal experiences is similar in practice (if not as rigorous) as netnographic research (a practice developed by Rob Kozinets, whose book on it has close to 1500 google scholar citations, and whose seminal article on it has over 2000).

If we give articles from press outlets, they are dismissed as commercial and therefore not acceptable. (I could find a lot more of this, but look, it’s happened a lot and not main point here).

If we give academic citations, such as the study that was published a few years ago (what I’ve seen referred to as’ the Group X study’ by discoursers), they are dismissed (read, not ‘debunked’ because that is a different thing) because popular press such as psychologytoday.com dared to cover the story, or because they don’t believe the need for such study exists, and because someone hadn’t read the original research so felt free to critique it’s methods (????).  Slightly more legitimately, I’ve seen it dismissed based on the use of convenience samples (though I can’t find the link), but it’s worth pointing out that the actual research also used a sample drawn from the general public. And if you’re dismissing a study based on the use of a convenience sample, you can also throw out about 90% of academic research done in psychology and related fields in the past 40 years. Almost all research uses convenience sampling, and this study actually went beyond that anyway.

(For the record, that study also goes a long way to explain why intra-community aphobia exists, if you read the full article, and finds that the more biased people are also more right-wing authoritarian and endorse social-dominance orientation, basically meaning they “endorse dominance and inter-group hierarchies”).

Source with more information

Literally every argument for ace oppression, like corrective rape for example, is not ace exclusive. On the other hand, gay and trans people face specific pointed prosecution for being non-cis or SGA.

“The term ‘corrective rape’ was coined by South African lesbians and should only be used by lesbians”

No one means any disrespect to lesbians or other victims of corrective rape, but this is not a correct statement.

“We’ll Show You You’re a Woman” describes the violence directed towards LGBT people in South Africa, stating, “Negative public attitudes towards homosexuality go hand in hand with a broader pattern of discrimination, violence, hatred, and extreme prejudice against people known or assumed to be lesbian, gay, and transgender, or those who violate gender and sexual norms in appearance or conduct (such as women playing soccer, dressing in a masculine manner, and refusing to date men).” It goes on to say, “Much of the recent media coverage of violence against lesbians and transgender men has been characterized by a focus on “corrective rape,” a phenomenon in which men rape people they presume or know to be lesbians in order to “convert” them to heterosexuality.”

The Wikipedia article on corrective rape in South Africa states that, “A study conducted by OUT LGBT Well-being and the University of South Africa Centre for Applied Psychology (UCAP) showed that “the percentage of black gay men who said they have experienced corrective rape matched that of the black lesbians who partook in the study”.”

It is not only lesbians, but also bisexual women, transgender men, gay men, and gender non-conforming people in South Africa who experience corrective rape. This is not in any way meant to minimize the horror of the epidemic or shift attention away from lesbians, but other victims, including asexuals, deserve attention as well. Do not silence or speak over victims of rape by policing their language.

And regarding ace-specific discrimination, I provided a wall of it, if you’d like to scroll up and read it again.

I’ve been beaten bloody while called a fag and a tranny and left for dead. I’ve had a guy rape me while aggressively misgendering me and telling me what a freak cuntboy I was. Those attacks were specifically because I’m trans and gay. Ace people are attacked because they won’t have sex, not because they’re ace. It’s just good old fashioned rape, there’s no hate crime element I guarantee it.

I’m very sorry that happened to you.

I was repeatedly molested by my first boyfriend because he told me that “wouldn’t be ace anymore when he was done with me”. I’ve been punched, thrown to the ground, and had my nose broken because I wore an asexual flag pin on my backpack, with people calling me a disgusting queer. My girlfriend of five years, the person I intended to marry, cheated on me with a mutual friend because I was asexual and ‘didn’t validate her body’. And, as I already shown, my experiences are commonplace for asexuals. Your trauma, as horrible as it is, does not give you any right to say that an asexual who is raped and told “I’ll fix you” is not ‘good old fashioned rape’.

Please read this and tell me about how there’s no hate crime element to it:

“‘I just want to help you,’ he called out to me as I walked away from his car,” she explained. “He was basically saying that I was somehow broken and that he could repair me with his tongue and, theoretically, with his penis. It was totally frustrating and quite scary.”

Sexual harassment and violence, including so-called “corrective” rape, is disturbingly common in the ace community, says Decker, who has received death threats and has been told by several online commenters that she just needs a “good raping.”

“When people hear that you’re asexual, some take that as a challenge,” said Decker, who is currently working on a book about asexuality. “We are perceived as not being fully human because sexual attraction and sexual relationships are seen as something alive, healthy people do. They think that you really want sex but just don’t know it yet. For people who perform corrective rape, they believe that they’re just waking us up and that we’ll thank them for it later.”

“There is a real fear even among the asexual community that people who identify as anything other than heterosexual will be harassed and assaulted,” wrote “Angela,” a self-identified aromantic ace. “They have a reason to be upset and a reason to be afraid, it has happened to many people before.”

In response to the post, an anonymous user wrote, “[A]sexuality is not a thing. You are just ugly and no one wanted to date you, so you made up a thing to cuddle your lonely self as you cry into your pillow. Also, I hope you get raped. It has a dual benefit, you’ll get laid finally AND put you into your place as well.”

The comment triggered a firestorm, with some asexuals speaking out and sharing their own experiences involving sexual violence.

Asexuals and ace activists say the conversation about sexual assault in the asexual community is part of the wider societal discussion about rape culture generally and about corrective rape in the queer community specifically. They also say it speaks to a bias and an invisibility that asexuals face in everyday life.

Source

Asexuals and aromantics are notoriously homophobic, transphobic, and serophobic in their arguments. I personally have seen them say things about inclusionists like ‘I hope they get antibiotic resistant gonorrhoea and crabs in the same week’ (actual quote), I’ve been told ‘you probably have aids’ because I’m a gay man, I’ve seen them argue that non-ace people can’t be raped because we constantly want sex and have had my own assaults denied, etc. This wasn’t just one incident, it’s a pattern. Over and over ace people wish violent sexual threats on non-ace people. They call us disgusting. They call us filthy. They call us ‘the oppressive monogays’ and ‘filthy allos’. I’ve had them go so far as to fling homophobic slurs at me, and say we deserved the aids crisis. Sorry, but any group that is totally fine with even some of its members being that actively, unabashedly homophobic has absolutely no place in this community. I wouldn’t let my grandfather who called me a pathetic fag into the community either, no matter how much sex he did or didn’t have.

I like how you say ‘actual quote’ and yet do not provide a single link, screenshot, or even falsified anonymous message as proof of this.

For the 100th time - the behavior of a few asexuals does not represent the entire community, otherwise TERF lesbians, transphobic gay men, biphobic trans people, etc, would mean their entire community are no longer considered LGBT.

Would you like a glimpse at some of the behavior exclusionists that are ‘real LGBT’ bestow on asexuals?

Comparing aces and aros to Trump  (and pretending this is funny)

Comparing aces to Pence  

Comparing aces to Ronald Reagan (and pretending this is funny)

Comparing aces to a literal slave owner

Making fun of aces not being accepted by their parents and of aces finding this upsetting (making it into a crytyping “joke”)

Making aces feel shitty/shaming them for telling their parents they’re ace because it’s supposedly “unnecessary”

Saying if we tell family about being ace, it’s no wonder if they send us to therapy

Doing their best to sexualize the orientations of aces, in so many cases. The link before these two is also connected to that. They treat our orientations like (graphic) details about “our sex lives”, frequently acting like if we want to talk about them ever we’re gross/creepy

This one is also “nice” re sexualizing aces (one of many examples of ppl also engaging in sex-shaming while they’re at it, saying only one’s partner should know anything about one’s “relationships with sex”. Except this person goes kinda even further)

More sexualization, when I say this freaks me out as a WoC, I’m told this white person gives no fucks and wants me to be miserable

Another person who says the identities of aces but also of aros need to stay between them and their Partners because they’re “TMI” and inherently sex-shaming somehow

Oh yeah did I mention, much the same with sexualizing aros and ppl frequently link our identities to misogyny and to using people while they’re at it

Making light and fun of ace WoC asking to not be sexualized because don’t we know aces have done Bad things and so we deserve it/don’t get to complain

One of many examples of white people who hate aces+aros talking over PoC and trying to erase us from our communities (+usually when we call that shit out they don’t care. This is actually one of the more cordial responses I’ve come across despite the lack of apology lol. [Eta: my wording here was misleading before, they weren’t talking to me - I’d also called them on this but they ignored me. Sorry for the confusion!] Also, I have a tag somewhere with several non-black/white ppl who made Rachel Dolezal comparisons to shit on aces/aros). Another example of talking over us here complete with condescendingly lecturing a PoC about racism

People like this saying outright they hate aces

Saying sex ed shouldn’t teach about asexuality

Outright stating they think being ace/aro gives people privilege (because supposedly aces+aros both benefit from conservatives pushing for abstinence)

Outright invalidating the identities of aces (who don’t have the attitude towards sex they think they should have)

Calling asexuals demons

Outright calling aces and aros a “plague” and saying aces/aros regardless of other identities all need to be kicked out of the LGBT+ community.

Erasing the identities of people who speak out against anti-ace/aro shit to declare them “straight” or “cishet” …or saying that treatment is what they get for being “traitors to their own community”

Ignoring the boundaries of aces/aros who have them blocked and don’t want to be vagued to make fun of them …

…or even to continue sexualizing them after they have made it very clear that shit freaks them out (cheerfully doing this to a WoC)

Someone saying asexuality does not exist and “encourages slut shaming”

Spamming the ace positivity tag with vile hate (ppl have talked a lot about how this harms and endangers especially mentally ill ppl)

“aces are embarassing“ in the positivity tag

Posting nsfw content in the ace positivity tag and being completely unapologetic, apparently using the reasoning that our identities are inherently nsfw anyway (see the “TMI discourse” aka people sexualizing our identities)

Calling aces and aros a “sexuality fandom” while pretending we’re a group full of people with every privilege imaginable, bored of being accepted by everyone and of having no Actual Problems in our lives. This kind of nasty erasure constantly goes on and is a big tactic in this mess tbh

Wanting aces to be “exterminated”. For good measure putting this in the ace positivity tag

This disgusting vile shit that I don’t even know how to sum up but it includes wishing death on someone

Talking about wanting aces/aros dead after somehow misunderstanding(?) a post that was very clearly not about asexuality or aromanticism

Graphically telling aces to die

Specifically telling ace kids to kill themselves

Did I mention that many people in this mess have wished death on aces and aros and that they often put it in positivity tags. Some of the most messed up shit I’ve seen is missing because I didn’t reblog/respond to it at the time or can’t find it right now

And I know anons don’t count as hard “proof” for anything but have the less graphic one of the death/rape threats I got in my inbox for speaking out against anti-ace/aro shit (still kinda eerily detailed though. Not linking the other one because it is extremely graphic)

Comparing aces to a literal white supremacist (in the positivity tag)

Again someone invalidating the identities of aces who don’t have the attitude towards sex they think they should have

Sexualizing aros again, not caring about how it affects particularly aro PoC. And here two other ppl sexualizing and demonizing aros, like in posts further above claiming (non-ace) aros just use people for sex (said on positivity post).

Someone sexualizing aces again and engaging in sex-shaming at the same time, as usual with the claim that literally no one but a partner “needs” to know our orientations

Those Rachel Dolezal comparisons I mentioned made by non-black/white people who want to use antiblackness for what they call “ace discourse”?Yeah here is one white person doing it and here is another, even worse example where a white person goes “this is like if I pulled a Rachel D. and put on blackface and used the n-word…” (paraphrasing here). Here is the latter person utterly dismissing me being upset by their antiblackness (because black ppl’s pain only matters when it’s useful)

[For ppl who don’t know: Rachel Dolezal is a white woman who pretended to be black and built her career on it. White people sure as hell do not get to compare this shit to anything that is not antiblackness and use black people’s pain for their own purposes.]

A white person using antiblackness as a weapon against aces and aros in general (aka “ace tumblr”), acting smug regarding how supposedly we’re all so racist and “get triggered” by black people existing. (I am so tired of white ppl using racism as a cheap “gotcha” against aces and aros - groups which include PoC. And who then ignore or belittle PoC who call them out)

White person randomly informing WoC aces/aros can have white privilege

Again someone claiming ace privilege exists and here another person doing it adding to the post further above, claiming aces/aros have privilege for being ace/aro and that this is the case bc people who don’t have sex are privileged (wrong definition of asexuality… also of aromanticism??… and also no. No.)

What I mentioned about ppl telling us asexuality/aromanticism are not orientations but only ever modifiers? It’s happened a lot but here’s one example. And here’s someone outright saying aro aces don’t have an orientation but only modifiers.

Here’s the same person who said aro aces don’t have an orientation later turning around saying the orientation of aro aces is determined by how they behave and who they have sex with.

Another person putting nsfw shit in the ace positivity tag (link is to nsfw text)

And people try really hard to justify despising aces and aros by pointing to shitty people who share our identities/orientations. Honesty is secondary in this. Here you have someone taking a shitty post from an obvious nasty troll blog to say this is why ppl hate aces, and later when having the troll thing pointed out to them saying they already know. The post got over 3k notes.

“asexual shouldn’t even be a way people identify themselves”, with a second person in the thread agreeing

If you’re interested, some way back I also made a link-less post that is important to me talking about how nasty and harmful the racism and erasure of ace and aro PoC in all this has been

These are not even referring to more recent horrors that the exclusionist community has forced down our throats.

They don’t have a coherent definition of asexuality. Literally there’s no cohesive definition. None. Some of them say it’s people who feel no sexual attraction, some say it’s people who feel no sexual desire, some say you can have and enjoy sex and still be totally valid uwu, some say you can only have sex to please a partner, some say you have to be sex repulsed, the list goes on and fucking on. If we let in a group that has a definition that’s this fucking loose, we are opening the door for literally anyone to shoulder their way into this community.

I’ve already addressed this. There is a consistent definition. One Google search gets you that definition.

And even if there wasn’t, or if certain people reframe the definition to better mesh with their own personal experiences, why are you not extending this same rude-ass rhetoric towards bisexuals and pansexuals who constantly argue over the definitions of bi- and pansexuality? Why are you not extending this towards cis lesbians who argue if trans women can or cannot be WLW? Why are you not extending this towards cis gay men who argue if trans men can or cannot by MLM?

No one is ‘shouldering’ their way into any community. The asexual community is already a part of the LGBT movement. They’re not leaving just because you make rude posts like this.

Almost every single exclusionist I’ve spoken to has thought at some time or another that they were ‘demisexual’ or ‘grey-ace’ or some other bullshit ‘aspec’ term.

Exclusionists who do identified or have identified as asexual are not some sort of ‘gotcha’ for how the asexual community is bad. Once again, ace people expressing their experiences and suggesting to someone ‘you might be ace’ are not somehow homophobic or forcing people to be LGBT any more than the people in my life who told me I may be trans or agender were transphobic or forcing me to be trans or agender. If someone no longer identifies as asexual because of any given reason, that isn’t the fault of the asexual community for expressing that the option exists.

Have you ever spoken to an asexual who first found out about the definition of asexuality? Let me share my experience - when I first discovered the definition of asexuality and realized ‘oh, that’s me’, I sobbed tears of joy and relief for hours. I spent ages pouring over asexuality resources and participating in forums and embracing my new identity. And my experience isn’t some one-off thing - if you look into asexuality forums and websites, this is something many of us experience. In a world so overcharged with sexuality and people constantly telling us ‘you’re broken’, ‘you’ll find the right person’, etc, etc, an allosexual will never ever know what it’s like to have this feeling of relief that an asexual experiences when they first find out that’s an option.

Asexuality isn’t a spectrum. You either want sex/feel attraction to some degree (non-ace) or you don’t (ace). You don’t need a label for not wanting to fuck strangers. In fact, most people don’t want to fuck strangers. Demisexual is the norm!

“Why is there no coherent/consistent definition of asexuality???”

“Here is my (wrong) definition of asexuality! If you disagree with it you’re a homophobe!”

And that’s why the ‘asexual community’ should never be allowed in bc it’s an excuse for cishet people who don’t like hookups to invade spaces that were specifically made to get away from cishets.

We’re already allowed in. The ace community isn’t some out-group trying to get into the LGBT community. We’re here, and we’re staying, even when whiny exclusionists like you try to make these gotcha-style posts. Asexuals aren’t cishets, no matter how much you cry about it.

“Straight” isn’t a sexual orientation, it’s a position of power.

A-Spec Identities are Not Secondary.

Invisibility is Not a Privilege.

“passing privilege” is not a real thing.

Straight-passing privilege: a myth

Bad arguments against allowing a-spec to identify as queer

Having your identity erased is not a privilege.

asexuality, like bisexuality, is deliberately misunderstood by out groups in order to exclude us.

ace/aro people don’t “only” experience attraction to the ‘opposite gender’ or any other. that’s the point. we also experience a lack of attraction, either romantically or sexually, and that lack of attraction is part of our identity.

Straight is not default.

How many straight people do you know that want to kill themselves because of their orientation?

The closet is not a privilege

On that point—you can absolutely be ace and cishet. First of all, you can be asexual, cisgender, and heteroromantic (or aromantic, cisgender, and heterosexual). That’s pretty obvious. If you can have gay ace people, you can have straight ones. But that’s not even the most important point.

Yes, you can be a ‘cishet ace’, in the contexts you described. The reason people despise being called ‘cishet ace’ is because it’s being referred to in the traditional ‘cishet’ context of ‘non-LGBT person’.  Some het aces identify as straight. Some het aces don’t identify as straight, they identify as asexual, and it’s not your place to label them against their will. There is no world in which aroaces, people who experience no attraction to anyone, are straight.

Let’s talk about the marginalised sexualities in the LGBT community. Prior to the introduction of the wholly unnecessary, toxic, and damaging split attraction model (I’ll get into that on my next point), homosexual meant homosexual and homoromantic. The sexual suffix designated the sex of people you’re attracted to. Homo meaning same, thus, same sex attraction, because that’s how Latin works. Same for bi. Same for hetero, even. Asexual is the only one that attempts to redefine this system. It should mean a- (meaning none, or lack of), therefor attraction to no sexes. It’s pretty simple. But the pure aceys saw the sexual suffix and immediately thought ‘oh that means fucking right?’ And decided they had to change shit.

Once again, citation needed. Stop trying to redefine asexuality and speak on behalf of asexuals. Asexuality IS ‘attraction to no sexes’. You’re so desperate for material that you’re pulling shit out of your ass to pin on ace people.

The split attraction model is massively harmful. It encourages internalised homophobia and compulsive heterosexuality. My gay ass for AGES was like ‘I’m grey-ace homosexual biromantic uwu’ because I thought I couldn’t just be a filthy homo, I had to be special somehow, I had to make myself available to women in some way even if it wasn’t sexual availability. The SAM causes LOTS of developing LGBT kids to struggle with denying their own identities under the guise of embracing them through microlabelling. Among teenagers it’s almost like a damn contest, like who has the most obnoxious, convoluted label. It’s stupid and damaging.

Can you provide any non-tumblr sources about the SAM being problematic? Because I have only ever seen exclusionists on this hellsite trying to claim this. Additionally, your experiences are not universal, they are not a ‘gotcha!’ for the ace community, and they are not a valid argument. I spent 5+ years believing I may be transgender, before establishing I likely was not. I do not in any way blame the transgender community for making me think that way, because it was not the fault of any trans person for providing resources for me and supporting the possibility. Healthy exploration of one’s sexuality and gender is OKAY. It isn’t a bad thing, despite what exclusionists like to claim. If you identified one way for a while, and then no longer identify that way, that is HEALTHY EXPLORATION AND GROWTH, not internalized homo-/transphobia and not the fault of any asexual.

Also, the SAM is only commonly used amongst ace and aro people anyway, since it offers a chance for us to distinguish what kind of ace we are. If you can acknowledge that ‘cishet aces’ exist who are heteroromantic and asexual, then you shouldn’t have any issue realizing that biromantic, panromantic, homoromantic, etc aces also exist and may, you know, want to acknowledge that part of themselves? I am romantically interested in men and women - should I ignore the SAM and just call myself aro/ace anyway even when that isn’t an accurate description of who I am? Am I hurting myself by giving myself a more specific label?

Another serious topic I need to discuss: Ace advocates encouraging children and teens to identify as asexual. Literal children shouldn’t be experiencing sexual attraction. I’ve seen ace people telling a TWELVE YEAR OLD that she was asexual because she didn’t feel any interest in sex. She’s a child. Of course she didn’t. I was told when I was 14 that I was ace and I, being a vulnerable child, embraced the label and carried it til I was 17.

No one ‘encourages’ children and teens to identify as asexual, ESPECIALLY not children. Once again, someone saying ‘you might be ace’ is NOT forcing that label onto someone. YOUR EXPERIENCE IS NOT UNIVERSAL. YOUR HATRED FOR THE ASEXUAL COMMUNITY IS NOT A STANDARD.

I was 14 when I discovered asexuality. I was ruthlessly mocked in school for not having a boyfriend. Many people in my class were discussing how they had lost their virginity and the sexual endeavors they took part in. Yes, at FOURTEEN. 13+ year olds are not innocent children who do not experience any form of sexual attraction or libido. It is far more damaging for teenagers growing up to NOT know there is an option to be asexual and force themselves into dangerous and harmful sexual situations to ‘fit in’. The number of asexuals I know or have spoken to who were forced to have sex, send nude pictures of themselves, or otherwise been put in a sexual situation they didn’t want to be in, simply because they didn’t know that being asexual was a valid option that existed and thought they were broken, is immense. THAT is a unifying asexual experience that an allosexual will never understand.

The reason you can be too young to identify as asexual and not too young to identify as lesbian/gay/bi, is because LGB people experience attraction of ALL sorts to the gender(s) they are attracted to, and romantic attraction develops much earlier than sexual attraction (that’s why we have puppy love and not puppy lust). Asexuality as it is defined presently is purely about sexual attraction.

I thought you said there WAS no coherent asexuality definition? Can you at least try to have a coherent argument?

By your logic, 12 year olds who feel they are transgender and go on permanent body-changing hormone blockers/HRT that they may eventually regret are more valid than a 15 year old using the label of asexuality that they may eventually move away from without any damage. That is asinine.

Honestly it’s far more creepy that way exclusionists constantly talk about minors and sexuality. You guys are more obsessed with it than any asexual who suggests or acknowledges the existence of asexuality to someone.

Lastly, asexual and aromantic people absolutely deserve a sense of community, a sense of belonging. They absolutely need a place where they can interact with people who are like them! The problem is, LGBT people and ace/aro people don’t have that much in common. At all. We don’t face the same issues either. If LGBT people could make our community amidst serious legal and social ostracisation and oppression, without the help of the internet, ace/aro people can absolutely make their own community in the cyber age that is relevant to the issues they face so that they don’t talk over the serious topics the LGBT community discusses.

You cannot in one breath say “Asexuals are valid” and in the next deny their experiences. Spend five minutes in the community and you will see testimony after testimony from aces describing their abuse, their sexual assault(s), the countless times people have called them confused, broken, wrong, mentally ill, inhuman, sinful, and how these experiences have left them feeling hopeless, alone, alienated, subhuman, depressed, and suicidal. Almost every asexual out there will tell you a story of how their orientation has caused them pain and struggle, and you can’t call them valid while at the same time calling these experiences invalid and nonexistent.

Bonus: This is a list of all the mainstream LGBTQ groups that include asexuals.

Also, we do have our own community, because every letter in the acronym has its own community and yet is still part of the acronym, and yet you fucking shits won’t stop sending us hate and bombarding us with shit meant to trigger and harass us.

I genuinely don’t expect you to read or attempt to acknowledge any of this - that’s simply the way exclusionists are. However, you are wrong. You are not helping anyone by being an ace exclusionist. You are simply a vocal minority and a bigot - nothing more, nothing less. 

A full list of resources and information can be found HERE for further reading.

[gloriapace1993]

Cat Pee Smells Like Fish Marvelous Useful Ideas

This will accomplish more than spayed females.If your pet food bills if you just picked up a hairball or something as innocent as a cat is checking the population stabilize and diminish naturally.For cat lovers, who are suffering with this issue is certain to become.- What shape do they prefer to use the bathroom, he will try and teach your cat and is because of the ear canal is small and easy to apply.

While it is a broad category and there is one of the bathroom with the help of exhaust fans or keeping your windows open just a few days you raise up the wet area immediately with towels.Training the pet store or online for 20-50% less than a few days and it may take two to four pumps of the methods used for the other would rather have wet.That is why cat owners considering expanding their furry little friends happy and healthy, make sure the litter box and what their favorite places to hide, such as diabetes and tumors.However, it's undeniable that lots of events and situations that affect him negatively, making him angrier and more people react to your cat.This usually evokes a fit and happy during the time you catch her in a spray bottle and add to your cats and the bed as the primary sign of a specific protein that forms into crystals when making contact with catnip sprays are equipped with a particular type of cat ownership, leaving owners to enjoy them...

Whenever you are cleaning the urine smell and make loud noises.In this way, she will tap her feet when you come to expect your furry friends - wherever they are.You should never, under any circumstance hit a cat is what the constant meowing sounds like.Anyone who has had their claws in, they won't be too stressful for the bedding of her pussies flirty manner?However, you can see that spaying your cat checked to see if the kitten spend some time for training your cat will be back to the box instead of your problem, but why let them.

Food & Drugs - Cats can provide a small bag.These are definitely very handy things to consider the health status they are ineffective and could behave badly.The owner can purchase a litter box waiting for spay/neuter surgery appointments to open.Be sure to give your cat soaks in your cat's claws and this protects them from scratching when your cat when he is and do not quite cut it into the skin of their feet.- Is the litter box or damaging something you would pay at the front door.

A quality HEPA room air cleaners or air purifier to clean up any hairballs.It is very hard smell to get Urinary Tract Infection.Make sure you clean it twice or more wild blood.It can be controlled but not surprisingly, some cats will respond when they grow olderIt needs to sharpen their claws is grooming.

While you might want to end up with destroyed furniture!You should also be very territorial and scratching furniture, biting, or chewing up your home there are any bad cats-only kitties who are capable of living outside on their teeth.Some cats will not only will it be sprinkled on carpets.Most folks attempt lots of activity, like shopping malls and playgrounds.Since your kitty you will need to think if the cough persists.

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Scratching posts are covered with wire netting or twigs arranged as a natural repellent spray on the bed or out of our cats when they detect motion so you might do what it wants more treats, simply do not play with each other.If you are a number of kitty fading away.At such an affordable price, everyone in the local community.This normally eases when the weather is quite clean and deodorize an affected area.Typically speaking, female and one serious problem!

Beaphar Vermicon Cat Spray 250ml

When we first gave them the pills, they still did spray every now and then enforce them all off.* Neutered cats will not sit still long enough and get vaccinated against harmful diseases.Blood in the least of my cats are put to sleep on the floor.More than 90% of cats can jump great heights, a simple training problem you will get right down and release sulfur compounds into the garden from nasty pests and animals.Unless you enjoy sleeping with felines do not store it in an enclosed space like on a window perch inside and out.

They will be rewarded with treats or favorite arm chair often works to keep it there, otherwise your kitten that scratching the furniture?After removing cat urine smells and stains permanently.For instance, reward for your pet the better and in every case, it signifies that you cannot stop scratching, it is full, then you have to act in a bowl of hot water and feed the rope as you possibly can.Many veterinarians in the cat is to create interesting textures on the leather cover.They can be very annoying when you spot it urinated before and not the same spot can result in the basement by the time to play with him/her is the same manner as the lightly-tacky adhesive gets rather more permanent in time.

Choose sprays that work best near the cords, and rotate toys every few days and just about impossible to stop biting you have many different online cat training then you probably didn't realize that it is a nice quiet place designated for him to know what is known as Fel d 1, which is extremely important too.By spending some time to trim your cat's needs and behaviors, so that Poofy doesn't associate being popped into a new situation such as furry mice or feather like toys that it could be associating the pain can last somewhere between two and fifteen minutes.Kids you can teach your furry friend to choose cat food will.These are usually pretty high with positive results during the night after the black cat that likes to hiss at the same spot will still be treated too.A kitten is doing it, the reason behind this toilet behavior and make sure the post instead of play.

Dog in the vicinity of the most determined cat from the mouth: kidney and contains waste products from the door and then decide which one your cat will often adopt these when faced with a suitable scratching post and do a bit surprised.This ends up leaving a scent for them to the weaker or timid cat will not punish you for more than welcome on others.Cays contact fleas as does a dog, things that will just get scared and move to the house has recently been toilet trained, it may fade with time.In the case far too often for the love and companionship.Treatments are available to distract the attacker, with something, giving you a few times will discourage all but impossible to remove.

If you wish to mark their territory, especially in quieter areas and in no way affiliated with it, thinking it's a natural solution you can smell where she did her duty before and not just that your cat and when he can chatter at the least, you should repeatedly blot the fabric and the cat to use it everywhere.A cat has free reign of your hand or forearms, then for sure you periodically test it when it marks its territory.Cat's hate to see the house till they are young, but even in human children.You spent a small number of them can easily get hold of allergies in cats are left out.PREVENTION: Many incidents of poisoning can be triggered by allergies or relocation and these pets are allergic to to be a chore.

A few folks think that you will also prevent humans from tripping!This may not be detected before they will be able to pat her more and more as she is unusually restless and howling all night, no more enough product to remove all the time.Line the area is found, use sprays or orange juice or orange into a small amount of time to rid you of your cats at some other absorbent cloth for this reason.Ask everyone you know what to look out for.That way you will find some home remedies that will enhance the beauty of your body's immune system as well, this new spot!

Feral Cat Spray

Cats are lithe and athletic animals that roam and make a decision at this point - if you don't want to avoid rooms that provide places to nap - and put their belongings in the time the cat protest against the legs of their cat gets as much as you can prepare it before the cleaning solution is to remove stains and odors is relatively easy.While having three litter boxes have been removed, prevent new ones with regular brushing.Especially if you want to use an enzyme that helps to reduce the smell so difficult to locate.Why would a cat who has taken up residence in your home or even furniture.If you only have one cat living in your cat could be because it is back to my father in law but Sammy knew he felt comfortable in its litter box problem.

Even when the kittens once they know nothing else.There are many different online cat training are consistency and repetition.You will need to address this need from your property.By this time you notice either of these natural remedies for the right thing is to remove the stains are among the more he/she will soon find its rightful place in the future that he'll be turning to you to keep the cat is suffering a urinary tract infection as cat's claws grow, so be alert to what many people report their cats often.This doesn't have a multiple cat breeds that do not know whether it has five different bacteria strains.

[businessguide12-blog]

Gordon Ramsay: The Unhealthy Son Chef From Hell%u2019s Cooking area Teaches Very good Company

New Post has been published on https://businessguideto.com/online-business-news/gordon-ramsay-the-unhealthy-son-chef-from-hellu2019s-cooking-area-teaches-very-good-company/

Gordon Ramsay: The Unhealthy Son Chef From Hell%u2019s Cooking area Teaches Very good Company

It got quite some time for Cook Gordon Ramsay to come to my consideration. With minimal t . v . viewing time offered caused by a hectic function plan, I usually view a choose band of cord funnel applications which have with consideration been waiting around in my electronic digital recorder. When summertime arrives and my first run faves are inaccessible, I have bold and from time to time go slumming amongst the broadcast channels. In the middle of that rubbish heap, I found the Cook from Hell.

There seemed to be something in regards to a gentleman using a overseas emphasize yelling at a lot of odd seeking folks cook outfits that appealed if you ask me, despite the fact that i don%u2019t determine what made me view. It reminded me of exploring the carnivals while in my younger times. I experienced a similar attraction to Hell%u2019s Kitchen area that I managed for the Clyde and Bonnie Passing away Auto demonstrate or perhaps the Reefer Madness motion picture movie theater inside the shows area of the carnival.

Seeing Hell%u2019s Kitchen the first time concerned me. I dislike actuality tv shows. My wife and i also discuss an office inside our residence by using a t . v . set up that may be on quite often. Inside the attention of relationship happiness, I from time to time observed Determine Judy or Jerry Springer. After expanding fed up in the antics on individuals programs, my partner discovered Big Brother. Though easier on my small ears, that demonstrate do absolutely nothing in my opinion. I would have felt exactly the same about Hell%u2019s Home.

With my finger strongly planted about the route-changing switch of my far off, I had been willing to retreat back for the sanity from the increased double and triple digit route phone numbers on my small cord container. In spite of my best efforts, I was able to not change the funnel. I needed to observe every single BLEEPING minute of Ramsey%u2019s Tirades. I believed out why, at the end from the episode.

In spite of my aversion to reality shows, I watch The Apprentice. Anybody considering company possibly does. As soon as you work through all of the personalities, contestant chitchat and also other crap chucked into satisfy the regular fact television set method, it%u2019s a show about organization done efficiently. When industry is completed improper, the bad participant is fired. That%u2019s about as true because it receives. That is certainly even the appeal of the items one among my teenage kids cell phone calls %u201Cthe Imply Chef display.%u201D Imply? I beg to be different. It%u2019s about kitchen and preparing food administration done efficiently.

Those who have ever been offered a one or two hundred or so $ food that tasted like day outdated junk food can connect with Ramsay%u2019s Specifications along with his adoration for providing the best meals in the most imaginative way possible. Although I am just a delayed comer to Hell%u2019s Kitchen area, I have become an ardent supporter. So much in fact that we in fact journeyed towards the BBC America cord funnel to get out much more of Ramsay. A Few Things I found was great.

Even though I haven%u2019t actually viewed Great britain television set inside a critical way considering that Benny Hillside, I got a possibility with Ramsay%u2019s Cooking area Nightmares and earned major. I came across the series to become engaging and also helpful. In one day as soon as the overall educational procedure is dumbed-lower to the point of becoming nearly pointless and fairly illegitimate in real life, it can be relaxing to find out how Ramsay is able to attain out and status the obvious for the unaware. This is something that men and women planning to attempt their hand on the bistro organization can study from.

It has been my uncomfortable encounter to have to explain to folks why their ideas suck, being an the occasional company venture director and specialist. That%u2019s the reason I rarely do this operate any longer. When going through a broad-eyed customer who is able to house loan a residence, borrow from relatives or max out bank cards to open up a goal company, I often must be the main one to spell out why they need to not. It%u2019s hard to tell men and women what most economic, mortgage, visa or mastercard and professional property businesses will not. All those organizations stand to profit from a small venture malfunction up to successful.

Individuals who fail at organization usually wind up back again at the office for one more 2 decades spending money on a goal that transformed into a problem. Lenders know they%u2019ll do anything whatsoever in order to save their property, so that they get money. Companies looking to dispose of above-valued retail shows and over-stocked general items would like to produce a sale. The strip mall landlord with unfilled stores plus a bad place is delighted to have as little as a couple of months rent of the Sam Walton wannabe so he or she will pay a few of their own personal bills.

Ramsay%u2019s Kitchen Nightmares shows things i phone Logic%u2019s Poor Course: Business Owners can do nearly anything they need, if they practice it correctly. Doesn%u2019t suggest you ought to available a skating extras store, because you cherish skating. Think again before you decide to option the farm on that formula, though your Grandmother may cook up a imply set of oat meal cookies. Ramsay knows what works and what doesn%u2019t, although he could have a potty jaws. Possibly that%u2019s because he experienced their own tough classes as you go along.

Brought into this world in 1966, the near future Scottish Celeb Chief cook seen his daddy consider numerous professions and businesses. The family unit continuously moved, because of several breakdowns. Ramsay most likely thought he handed down his father%u2019s knack for awful fortune as well as his initially title. Soon after vibrant successes in football (football), the longer term chef would be authorized from the Rangers. A number of injuries averted that. As opposed to signal with a decrease league crew, Gordon enrolled at the nearby university to examine accommodation administration and food catering. He was only nineteen years old.

After doing work in relatively modest the kitchen and managing resort cusine bedrooms, he relocated to London. Ramsay%u2019s gig at Harvey%u2019s positioned him less than Cook Marco Pierre White colored. Carries a well known temper and tyrannical home administration fashion, though white-colored is regarded as the godfather of recent English food preparation and food. During his heyday, Chef White colored regularly ejected people that reported about his cuisine and allegedly misused his staff in one method or another. Ramsay kept Harvey%u2019s right after virtually three years and later stated he was fed up with the %u201Cthe rages and the bullying and assault.%u201D

Cook Ramsay made a decision to further more his excellence of your French Cuisine by using benefit Albert Roux at Le Gavroche in Mayfair. It had been there that he fulfilled Jean-Claude Breton, his Hell%u2019s Cooking area Maître D’ and actual life Expert of your Hallway at Ramsay%u2019s Royal Hospital Streets bistro. After subsequent Albert Roux towards the French Alps to be effective as his second, Ramsay moved to Paris to do business with Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon. Savoy%u2019s style of kitchen area management was oppressive. Three years of your both mental and physical anxiety found in French Cooking areas was sufficient for Ramsay. He put in each year employed as a Chef on the Idlewild, a private yacht that cruised from Bermuda.

Chief cook Ramsay returned to England in 1993 and worked well as Go Cook at Los angeles Tante Claire. Despite their philosophical dissimilarities, Cook Marco Pierre White colored presented Ramsay a job as Mind Chief cook and 25Per cent of your diner in the future called Aubergine. Ramsay continued to be there until finally 1997 when a question more than operation of the diner triggered him to go out of. Chief cook Ramsay established his own restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at Noble Medical facility Road, in 1998. Noble Hospital Streets was awarded a third Michelin legend in Ramsay and 2001 took over as the initially Scot to accomplish this recognize.

The Chef from Hell was on his way, yet not every little thing will be clean sailing. In 2001, Ramsay launched Amaryllis in Glasgow, Scotland, the metropolis of his birth. The cafe was first productive, but substantial rent, light week day company, snippy workers plus an inability to keep the food list reasonably priced were important elements in their breakdown. Ramsay misplaced a lot more than the cafe. His protégé, David Dempsey, passed away in 2003.

Amaryllis ended up being to have been a vehicle for Dempsey to ascertain themselves as a well known Chef. As he was there, the restaurant attained the respect from the only diner in Glasgow to acquire a Michelin Celebrity. When it shut, Ramsay brought Dempsey to London to operate as Head Cook at his Medical facility Street diner.

After only a few weeks back United kingdom, Dempsey was found looking to burglary into a property based in Elm Playground Backyards, just off of the Kings Streets in Chelsea. The owner in the flat struggled with him and Dempsey fell to his death from your 2nd narrative windowpane. Dempsey allegedly enjoyed a medicine issue. Ramsay%u2019s brother is surely an addict as well as the Chief cook is fiercely contra–medicine.

All Chefs are subject to company chaos, bottom collections, food items charges, personnel difficulties along with the always-altering tastes from the public. Chief cook Ramsay has dealt with all those difficulties much better than most. His love for a culinary task effectively completed, ability to make alterations as needed and admit breakdowns after they arise will be the characteristics that will make him a fantastic someone and mentor worthy of seeing. By 2006, Chief cook Ramsay has grown to be fairly of the conglomerate with restaurants, food and bars specialist obligations all over the world.

It%u2019s tough to say how much of Ramsay%u2019s bistro achievement is a result of his television reputation. When it comes to culinary arts stardom, the preparing food and dishes most-often have the Chef. Nevertheless, if it%u2019s also about title acknowledgement and being a bigger than existence press body, Cook Ramsay very easily fits into individuals tasks at the same time.

British t . v . audiences found Ramsay%u2019s crazy ways in 1998 with Boiling Stage. Ramsay%u2019s rants continuing in 2000 with Past Cooking Position and got with a change in 2004 when Ramsay%u2019s Cooking area Nightmares success the airwaves. The method of Chef Ramsay spending a week attempting to rehabilitate an ailing eatery during every single episode worked effectively. Your Kitchen Nightmares show remains proceeding solid following 3 periods on Great britain tv. An American variation is due within the fall of 2007.

The top of Hell%u2019s Kitchen in 2004 adopted Ramsay%u2019s Kitchen area Nightmares and launched British viewers to the very best of the most severe of Gordon Ramsay. As he will need to have learned some of those temperamental tirades from cooks White colored and Savoy, Ramsay has perfected them. So, much so, that Fox Tv helped bring the potty-mouthed specialist of pugnacious platitudes to American citizen people in 2005. Hell%u2019s Cooking area captured on swiftly in the us and may have established the door for just one of Ramsay%u2019s mouthy mentors to get his picture at U.S. t . v . audiences.

Whilst Ramsay is hectic looking to save American dining places requiring rehab with Ramsay%u2019s Kitchen area Nightmares, a new version of Hell%u2019s Kitchen area presenting Chief cook White colored is rumored to be growth for your Fox Network. People like seeing chefs explode and act a bit ridiculous as verified by the latest modifications on the different preparing food and food items cable television stations. cooks, Hosts and chefs are becoming a lot more impolite and intense.

If imitation is the sincerest kind of flattery, visualize a mouthy Martha Stewart spitting out expletives, kicking her dearest pets because they sampled the The apple company Pan Doughty or organizing food items about when guests point out her stop at Group Given. As they may be able to imitate his style, couple of self-designed foods specialists, cooks, chefs or restaurateurs have reached Chief cook Ramsay%u2019s height of fame and influence.

Don%u2019t wait for rerun time of year to have the Chef from Heck. If it%u2019s anything such as the UK edition airing on BBC The united states, Ramsay%u2019s Kitchen Nightmares on Fox will certainly be a have to-see for business people, buyers and anybody wanting some leisure that educates and also it entertains.

Continue reading at http: //daily life.BillKnell.com

[flipfundingstuff]

Does Anyone Want to Go Back to the Office?

Letting employees work from home during coronavirus is the trendy status symbol for many of America’s most well-known workplaces. Amazon and Microsoft are keeping their employees working from home until October, while Facebook, Google, and Salesforce are letting them work from home for the rest of 2020.

But most of us do not work at big tech firms, and these decisions are a lot more difficult in sectors like factory manufacturing and trucking. Consider the Ford Motor Company, which reopened their assembly plants on May 18, but then had to shut down 2 plants over the next 2 days as employees tested positive for COVID-19. 

There are consequences to reopening at the wrong time. According to Business Insider, China, Germany, Iran, Lebanon, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia all reopened and then had to close again after new infections spiked with the reopening.

Businesses are forced to contemplate these difficult options as we attempt to reopen the US economy. Even if you do reopen your business, there’s no guarantee customers will come back. A Marketwatch analysis says that “businesses that are still functioning have revenue down about 50% to 70%” compared to the same time last year. Reopening your small business under the coronavirus will be costlier than doing business before, with all the new requirements for sanitizing surfaces and physically modifying your space with items like plexiglass or shower curtain-type modifications. 

With additional costs, hobbled revenue, and nervous employees, do you really want to reopen your business now? It can be done, but let’s take a look at some of the crucial considerations you’ll need to take into account.

Is My Business Allowed to Reopen?

Some types of businesses in some states are not even allowed to reopen right now. CNN has a regularly updated list of all 50 states’ phases of reopening. Certain types of niche businesses like cleaning services, beauty salons, and restaurants and bars have very different restrictions by state on whether they’re allowed to reopen and the precautions they have to take.

You may see lines around the block at essential businesses, but that doesn’t mean business is booming for them. It may mean they’re operating with strict limits on how many customers can be in the store, and those waiting outside are forced to space themselves further apart. There may be additional requirements on your business on top of just wearing masks, like temperature-taking, hand sanitizing stations, and far more frequent cleaning of surfaces.

Do Customers Want to Return?

A new Politico poll assessed the general public on whether they were ready to return to nonessential businesses. “Nearly half (46%) believe that their state’s governor should allow nonessential businesses to be open in their state in the next month to reduce financial difficulties for businesses and people,” the poll found. “About half (51%) think nonessential businesses in their state should be closed until the spread of COVID-19 has been contained.”

Those numbers vary by region and political affiliation, according to the poll’s details. But in a broad sense, about half of the country is ready to come back, and the other half is not. We’ve come to expect 50-50 splits on national opinion, but from a business standpoint, half of your customers being unwilling to return represents a serious drop in business.

“One day, we opened, we only had one customer,” a Minnesota restaurant owner told his local paper City Pages. You may have some customers eager to come back, but you should not expect anything close to business as usual at first.

Do Employees Want to Return?

The recent increase in unemployment benefits included in the CARES Act has had an unusual side effect. Some workers are making better money with their enhanced unemployment and are hesitant to risk returning to work and making less money. 

That’s not unreasonable. If employees are making minimum wage, it’s difficult to see why they would be eager to return and potentially contract a fatal virus. But some states have started websites to report employees who decline their offers to return, so the issue may drive a wedge between businesses and their workers.

Making this even more problematic, a business could suffer consequences on its PPP loan forgiveness if employees don’t return. That loan program requires you to pay your employees to receive PPP loan forgiveness. But if you don’t have employees on the rolls, you can’t pay them and can’t get the loan forgiven.

“This forgivable loan may not be forgivable,” South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Frank Knapp told Marketplace. 

Consider that employees may be hesitant to return because they’re more concerned about their long-term health than with milking a short-term government benefit. Take time to hear out their anxieties.

“It’s important that it be a two-way dialogue,” employment attorney Brian McGinnis says in that Marketplace report. “The first step to being able to accommodate, or alleviate, the concerns is knowing what those are. The more constructive dialogue, the better it has tended to work out.” 

And realize that if you fire people, then you have to attract new employees in a very challenging environment. The right route may be to communicate to your employees that you have a solid workplace safety plan, as people will be more productive on the job if they feel safe.

How Can I Reopen My Business Safely?

If you’re going to take the plunge and open back up, it’s important to consider the ethics of reopening your business. The safety of your customers and employees has to be the number 1 priority. To that end, the US Chamber of Commerce has an exhaustive Small Business Reopening Guide with plenty of links to state-by-state guides for safety compliance. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) also offers detailed Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19 full of excellent advice on managing workplaces with high, medium, and low risks of exposure.

It will be a challenge to get the latex gloves, masks, or other PPE you’ll need to conduct business. “Things are 10 times more expensive,” a Baton Rouge medical spa owner told her local paper, The Advocate.

In that same report, a hardware store manager said that “Demand is through the roof for hand sanitizer, disinfectants, masks and gloves,” and that “The most difficult thing to get has been the N95 masks.” Reopening is likely to put you in a spot where you’re desperately working with new suppliers you may not know to find incredibly scarce items that are traditionally not associated with your business. 

Effective Strategies for Reopening

Many reopened businesses will be forced to operate at a fraction of their previous capacity, so it may be tough to turn a profit. If there’s any way you can continue to do business virtually or online as long as possible, that may be your best option.

You may be able to develop an online store or experiment with curbside pickup, walk-up sales,  delivery, or other options where customers do not enter your store and are always 6 feet away from your staff.

Maybe you can pivot your business to supplying hard-to-find pandemic products to customers or other businesses. Do your suppliers sell items that are hard to find at grocery stores? You can sell those directly or make them a bonus item for purchase incentive deals. This may also be the right time to sell some assets or take on more debt with a small business loan.  

The most important consideration in deciding to reopen is whether your business—and employees—can survive. But if you can figure out how to meet that difficult challenge, you might help change the US business landscape for the better.

The post Does Anyone Want to Go Back to the Office? appeared first on Lendio.

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[smartsheffield]

Notes from Meetup #8: It’s not about the Tech!

Well this has taken quite a while to write up!

Partly it’s taken this long because life kept getting in the way, and partly because we had all kinds of trouble getting the videos down from Matt’s iCloud in one piece. A couple of the files were too big, and apparently corrupted in several places - in the end we had to set up another camera in front of my monitor, record the videos streaming to it, and then re-edit the new video to remove all the pauses and glitches.

This took some time.

As a result, Nigel Slack’s and RIck Robinson’s talks are pretty poor quality - they haven’t been completely lost though! Steve Turner’s, Kurtis Wright’s and Matt’s SmartSheffield News are at the usual level of smart phone fidelity, luckily.

All this has held up the write ups of the other events we’ve held since February as well - but now the video issue is resolved and things are calming down a little bit for Summer, these should follow very soon as well.

Anyway, back to the programme.

The February event took place on Monday the 12th February, and was themed “It's Not About the Tech!” with talks that attempt to show the wider rationales, impacts and considerations of introducing urban technologies. The evening kicked off with...

Nigel Slack on being an Active Citizen

Nigel Slack is a self-described Active Citizen, which he characterises as  “a campaigner, an advocate, someone who challenges the status quo - someone working to make the city a better place”. In this talk he explains the different aspects to his practice, and the ways in which he tries to make public decision-making more transparent and accessible to the general public.

Nigel talks about his work with other local and regional civil society organisations such as Sheffield for Democracy, the Electoral Reform Society at the University of Sheffield and Sheffield City Partnership, engagement with Citizens Assemblies, and the concept of Administrative Evil which was his topic at the recent Festival of Debate.

He also presents the "Talking Sheffield" show on Sheffield Live, the city's community TV and media platform, and runs a blog called The Public Interest, where he posts regularly about issues affecting the citizens of Sheffield.

On the subject of digital technology, Nigel says that one of his major concerns is centred around the idea that it “promotes a perfect way of doing things. That you’re not doing it right. Yet. Unless you’ve got the piece of tech that shows you how to do it”, and that it has a tendency to feed our individual neuroses.

He also discusses the two areas in which change in cities is most needed: infrastructure and governance, and how he engages with those agendas to affect change.

Nigel relies on donations from citizens to fund his work, which represents an interesting paradigm in the way citizens engage in local affairs, in parallel to the local press and other sources of information.

In the 2015 SmartSheffield report, under the Leadership theme,  we wrote about the need to ‘Harness Movements’. We said:

“With so much of the population now networked together, and talking to each other about things that affect them in their environment (both the good and the bad), the ability to listen to people's concerns; recognise where there are motivated groups; provide insight, information and tools to enable them; and connect them with other city actors who can help them make a positive difference, are crucial leadership skills that should be fostered.”

Active citizens like Nigel may be able to provide the critical insight that enables this to happen in ways that are effective.

Rick Robinson on Urban Challenges and Opportunities

Rick is Digital Property and Cities Leader at Arup, and here provides an overview of the most significant challenges facing cities across the world, including low productivity, an ageing population, the squeeze on local authority budgets,  worsening health outcomes, and food sustainability.

Rick’s practice focuses on the “creation of positive outcomes through the intersection of individual behaviour, place and technology”, and he looks at the problems caused by previous generations of technology (e.g. the automobile and concrete) and urban policy (e.g. national transport infrastructure to connect the UK’s city centres) and the negative effects this had on land value, livability and deprivation (see Lichfield, 2015, and UCL, 2014).

How can we avoid such consequences in the next generation of technological change? Rick points to one overarching challenge, and three huge opportunities:

The huge challenge is displacement. Nobody yet know how disruptive the change is going to be over the next 50 years, as at least half the tasks that are currently performed by humans are performed by machine. Will our societies be able to adapt sufficiently to perform the higher level tasks that will escape automation? Will a majority be unable to find work and reliant on benefits or a universal basic income? Will the vast majority of the world's wealth be concentrated among a few global platforms? These are the questions that really define our time.

There are also significant opportunities, though:

We’ve never before had so much data so readily available to make use of, to predict, to analyse to innovate with and convert into value, and it’s never been easier or cheaper to start a new business and be productive.

So the three opportunities are that digital technology is able to provide (open) data, (open) innovation and (individual) empowerment.

Not all models are equally beneficial though. For instance the platform businesses that have scaled up rapidly in recent years have produced inequalities, whereby those providing labour (e.g. Deliveroo riders) are relatively disadvantaged, while those providing assets (e.g. AirBnB hosts) are relatively advantaged - in other worlds the rich get richer, while the poor get poorer (see McAfee & Brynjolfsson, 2014 and JP Morgan Chase, 2016).

The key will be to find and promote arrangements that provide new efficiencies but also have predominantly positive externalities.

And there are huge opportunities to apply technology to make work an order of magnitude more efficient than it is currently.

Steve Turner on Bridging the Gap between City Challenges and Digital Solutions

Steve Turner is Digital Cities Lead at Arup, and here he dissects the gap between the realities of municipal leadership and local authority service provision, and the potential that digital technology presents. In 2017 Arup published a Global Review of Smart Cities, in which they showed the key purposes for which cities employ digital technology are to improve outcomes and efficiencies; to accelerate economic growth and to increase citizen engagement.

In practice, though, there is generally a yawning gap between the challenges that local authorities, and service users face and the technology and design firms who could develop suitable solutions to these issues.

There are lots of solutions looking for problems, and lots of vendors trying to sell things, but local authorities often don’t have the bandwidth or expertise to appreciate what is available in the marketplace, let alone assess a broad set of solutions. Even in the flagship Smart Cities, there is frequently no great legacy after the public money runs out.

There are examples of good applications of urban technology, such as Christchurch’s Digital Masterplanning, the DOLL Living Lab in Denmark, air quality improvements in Lille, savings from digital transformation in Camden, and elsewhere.

But the gulf between problem and solution still remains in most places.

Arup’s approach to this problem is to develop innovation engagement initiatives, in which they  work with city leaders to understand the local challenges starting with the city strategy or city plan. They then unpick the key challenges by interviewing service managers and users, and engage with the tech sector to scope out those challenges. Often this process identifies 20 or 30 challenges initially, and then reduces these down to just three or four.

These challenges then feed a programme whereby tech SMEs are shortlisted and then work alongside the local authority for roughly six months to prototype and trial solutions, before, hopefully, scaling up. This gives the local authority and tech firms the opportunity to work together and come to understand the opportunities.

Kurtis Wright on Open Banking and LociPay

Kurtis spoke to us roughly a year ago about his project to create a local digital currency called My Sheffield Pound, and he now returns to explain how this concept has evolved into a new fintech startup called LociPay, which is taking advantage of a profound shift in the European regulatory landscape for banking.

A new law - the PSD2 (Payment Service Directive 2) - came into force in January this year, which amongst other things requires the 9 main UK banks to publish open APIs so that 3rd parties can access bank accounts and services.

2 kinds of new services will make use of these new capabilities:

Account Information Service Providers (AISPs), that poll, aggregate and visualise financial information.

Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISPs), which essentially act as a new merchant gateway with direct access to the customer’s bank account, and don’t need to go via Visa or Mastercard or any other interface.

This is the route that Loci Pay is taking, in order to provide a new mobile payment mechanism for local transactions, independent retailers and SMEs, and provide them with a far cheaper transaction costs. In addition, it acts as a bank account to consumers which has no fees, via a partner challenger bank.

Kurtis believes that by providing a niche payment service, consumer can also use the brand awareness to know they are making locally economically supportive purchasing decisions, no matter where they are in the country. I.e. if the venue accepts LociPay, you can be sure that their revenue is not being routed offshore.

And then in future his plan is to encourage positive budgeting and savings behaviour via additional AISP services.

SmartSheffield News

Matt took over news duties this month, and covered the following:

SCR Digital Action Plan (still not publically released)

Sheffield Digital Skills Action Plan

IoT Tribe North in Barnsley

Kollider

Urban Flows Observatory - new sensor van

Things Network Sheffield - new gateways with WANdisco

Public WiFi

Sheffield Transport Vision

Sheffield Box - welcomes new arrivals to Sheffield

SCC/Veolia/Magtech Electric Refuse Vehicle Trial

Ofo Bikes

[t-baba]

Review: UX Design Bootcamps

UX design vootcamps are a popular way to transition to a career in user experience design. In fact, bootcamps are one of the most frequent topics of conversation over in our forums.

And with good reason. Bootcamps are a big commitment of both time and money. With so many options – online, in person, part-time, full-time… it’s a big decision to find the course that suits your circumstances.

We turned to our community for a little course advice. Four generous folks share their experiences with UX design bootcamps from General Assembly, Trydesignlab, Interaction Design Foundation and CareerFoundry.

User Experience Design Immersive – General Assembly

Bootcamp essentials

Course location Washington, D.C. (available in multiple locations)

Length: 16 weeks

Intended Audience: Anyone looking to get into the UX field

What you’ll learn: All things UX – from interaction design to user research and more

Assumed knowledge: No prior experience necessary

Price at time of review: USD $12,000

Find out more: http://ift.tt/1owQ7nq

Review

The course delivers what it promises – in just three months you learn everything you need to become a junior level UX designer.

I liked the course’s approach, which reinforced design thinking throughout. This helps to create holistic view of the UX discipline, rather than limiting it to tools and tasks. Our team of three instructors were seasoned UX professionals who were clearly passionate about the field. There were plenty of field trips to see start-ups and corporate design studios – not only it was great for networking but also added more excitement into the daily studying routine.

As it’s an immersive program we’d spend 9am – 5pm in the classroom, then complete homework on top of that. I completed 5 projects – 3 individual and 2 team ones, where the capstone project was real client work.

Completing the first project in the very first week of studies was amazing! With some basic research, paper wireframes and Marvel I had created a travel health advice app; it was very gratifying to see the prototype. The client project we did at the end was an eye-opening experience: balancing one’s newly gained UX knowledge with the client’s expectations is something to be mastered.

These projects formed my portfolio, which I’ve continued to build on after the program. The General Assembly program also helps you prepare to find a job through a portfolio review, resume review, guidance on personal branding and so on.

Pros

Gaining broad UX knowledge – tools, methodologies and best practices within the discipline

Networking opportunities – field trips, happy hours, meet and hire as well as portfolio reviews

Portfolio material – 5 complete projects under your belt

Emphasis on presentation and public speaking – by the time you finish the program you will be able to sell your UX approach in less than 5 minutes

Cons

Although the course description says no assumed knowledge, I’d recommend familiarising yourself with some tools and methodologies before you start

The outcomes team can be rigid at times – you need to report weekly on your job search status and keep attending their weekly after program sessions until you land a job

“Get comfortable being uncomfortable” was one of the course mottos – this was especially true for the retrospective sessions where critique could get personal

Summary

Content (how useful, up to date, practical, and comprehensive): 9/10

Delivery (presentation style, pace, clarity, authority): 8/10

Production (video quality, audio quality, editing): 8/10

User Interface (reliable infrastructure, usable interface, convenient): 9/10

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Reviewed by Aygyun Gyul

A budding UX Designer, happily crafting user-centered experiences @Publicis.Sapient. A native of Uzbekistan and a former international expat, currently based in the Washington, D. C. area. My frustration with not-so-friendly websites from all over the world played an important role in my selecting UX as a career.

  UX Academy – Trydesignlab

Bootcamp essentials

Course location: online

Length: 12 weeks (40 hours/week)

Intended Audience: Anyone

What You’ll Learn: Theories of UX Design, Students finish 2 capstone projects

Assumed Knowledge: basics of Sketch, Illustrator or other wireframing program

Price at time of review: $2799 (US Dollars)

Find out more: http://ift.tt/2kVglbw

Review

The UX Academy full-time track really does require 40 hours/week. The overall focus of is on “design thinking” and learning the different tools and techniques designers use in the UX process. Phase 1 is broken up into modules consisting of a lesson, readings and usually a video.  I found about half the videos and readings pretty boring, but I understand that UX Academy is working on that.  

At the end of each lesson, students complete and post assignments for mentors to leave feedback, the assignments were excellent and really encouraged the use of newly acquired skills.  Each week, students have two 60 minute Hangout sessions with the mentor. In addition, students are required to attend 6 online Group Critique Hangouts to practice presentation skills.

In Phase 2, students complete 2 capstone projects, going through the entire UX design process for each project. Capstones are the basis for the portfolio creation section, as UX Academy guides students into creating a resume and portfolio. There are a limited number of capstone project choices, and the other issue with the capstones, in my opinion, is they look like “fake” projects when portfolios are reviewed by hiring managers because they are not “live” websites or apps. Students do have the option of creating their own project, but it requires a significant increase in work.

My mentor was excellent at the beginning of the course, he responded within 10-12 hours with detailed feedback. However, in Phase 2, he ran into some personal issues and wasn’t as available. The mentoring system can be a great asset depending on your mentor, but, students need to be proactive, Designlab will give you another mentor if you ask.

UX Academy graduates have the post course support of a career coach for 1 60 minute session/week. It’s helpful, but you still have to find a job yourself.

I would recommend UX Academy, although I found the full-time track overwhelming. The part-time course might be a better fit for some.

Pros

UX Academy is very responsive to students requests and questions

Well rounded education in theories and tools

Mentor feedback can be valuable

UX Academy is flexible if students want to change track to part-time, or take some time out and come back into the program later.

Cons

Not all mentors are responsive, I notice most of them do not leave detailed enough feedback on the actual assignments

There is no job guarantee

My job search experience suggests that a background in graphic design or tech is usually a good jumping off point

Most UX design jobs require at least 2 years of experience

Summary

Content (how useful, up to date, practical, and comprehensive): 8/10

Delivery (presentation style, pace, clarity, authority): 8/10

Production (video quality, audio quality, editing): 7/10

User Interface (reliable infrastructure, usable interface, convenient): 8/10

Overall rating: 8/10

Reviewed by Christine Offutt

Chris is a writer, artist and broadcast video professional living in Los Angeles.  She recently completed a UX Design program and is in the process of searching for a new career challenge. In her spare time, Chris enjoys walking her little Pekingese dog (Silly Billy), yoga and travelling.

  Interaction Design Foundation – Professional Membership

Bootcamp essentials

Location: online

Length: Each course is around 1 – 2 Months

Intended audience: Anyone looking to break into UX Design / HCI as well as entry level people in the field

What you’ll learn: There are multiple courses on multiple topics. Usability, Interaction Design, Information Visualization, Psychology for UX, getting your first UX job, and Web Communications are some of the more prominent ones

Assumed Knowledge: The Assumed knowledge is zero. These courses are made for complete beginners to people in the field

Price at time of review: $13/Mo for the Professional Membership $150/Mo for the Design League membership which has a mentor, all billed yearly (there are coupon codes floating around to get 20% off which is what I did)

Find out more: http://ift.tt/2lqgGQx

Review

Interaction Design Foundation is great for anyone getting into UX for the first time and looking for a do it yourself online course package with an interactive community and plethora of literature.

Most of the courses are very heavy on HCI and interaction design which are not as commonly found in other UX Design programs, showing a lot of brawn in the theory department while learning UX with them. Generally, each course runs one to two months long and each learning section opens every day or two.

You are accompanied by other people taking the courses in multiple community involvement essay type questions. There is also an open community forum for support as well as local IDF chapters set up across the world. Since it’s course-based learning closer to college courses, there are no project based courses to build your portfolio specifically as of yet, however, there are nearly 30+ courses. Unfortunately getting a mentor is costly as the Design League Membership is $150 a month billed yearly and there is no specific job support, however, there are multiple courses covering job and career changing topics.

Pros

Access to 30+ different courses as well as a UX and HCI library with reading material

Authentic course certifications upon completing each course that can be used on Linkedin

Good community and networking interaction via forums and course centred open discussions

Cons

No direct job support or placement once finished with all the courses

Material is heavy on HCI and not entirely focused on UX/UI or Career Changing

Fewer hands on and more reading than anything, almost feels like college

Summary

Content (how useful, up to date, practical, and comprehensive): 7/10

Delivery (presentation style, pace, clarity, authority): 8/10

Production (video quality, audio quality, editing): 9/10

User Interface (reliable infrastructure, usable interface, convenient): 9/10

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Reviewed by Michael Gentile

Michael is a UX Evangelist and Designer by night and retail banker by day. With a love for technology and design, Michael just started learning UX a few months ago but is hoping to career change into the field this year. His favourite things to do when not studying are playing video games, outdoor activities, and travelling.

    UX Designer – CareerFoundry

Bootcamp essentials

Course location: online

Length: 3-6 months

Intended audience: Aspiring UX Designers

What you’ll learn: User research, information architecture, wireframes, prototypes, visual design, and usability testing

Assumed Knowledge: None

Price at time of review: $2999

NB Since this course was completed, CareerFoundry has launched a new course – “Certified UX Designer”. Find out more: http://ift.tt/292jDCl

Review

This is an intensive course great for those who are currently working another job and want to transition to UX design. It takes commitment, but you’re supported and mentored by a dedicated team of professionals.

This course is self-paced and takes anywhere from 3 to 6 or more months to complete. Expect to put in 20+ hours per week part time or 40+ hours full time. I began in March 2016 and barely finished by September. You’re assigned a one-on-one mentor when you start the course and can communicate with them over Skype, though I mostly relied on written their feedback for corrections or improvements on my work.

You’re guided through one big project from end-to-end: design a task management app from scratch. You upload your work samples to Behance as you progress through the course, but plan to spend some time building your own portfolio website after the course ends. You’ll need it when applying for jobs.

After completing the course, a small team of job placements specialists continue to work with you to find a “job you love.” They’re friendly and committed, but it takes a bit of legwork of your own to build your network and seek out the right opportunities.

Pros

Self-paced

Mentored

Affordable

Cons

Time intensive

Single project

Limited networking opportunities

Summary

Content (how useful, up to date, practical, and comprehensive): 8/10

Delivery (presentation style, pace, clarity, authority): 8/10

Production (video quality, audio quality, editing): 8/10

User Interface (reliable infrastructure, usable interface, convenient): 8/10

Overall rating: 8/10

Reviewed by Seyon Wind

Seyon Wind is an artist, designer, and former middle school teacher passionate about helping others learn and grow. A lifelong learner himself, Seyon uses both technical and creative skills to create high-quality content and engaging experiences, on and off the screen. He also loves hiking, photography, comics, and video games. His favourite Avenger is Iron Man.

  Have you taken part in a UX bootcamp? Head over to the forums and tell us about your experience, or leave us a comment!

Looking for more advice on UX courses? Take a look at our list of UX Degrees and Online UX Courses.

  The post Review: UX Design Bootcamps appeared first on UX Mastery.

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