#the sigma male community must surely have room for one more

[septicfrussy]

i dont want to see a "sigma male" post with patrick bateman, the joker, etc etc that doesn't include satō ever again

[spacexseven]

hello tuna its me Dazai Anon coming at u with my insanity Once More.

[possible manga spoilers] thinkin about yandere meursault girlies... dazai/fyodor/gogol/sigma all in one package. unfortunately no chuuya he seems a bit. you know. busy.

let's say darling is a security guard at meursault, specifically set in the surveillance room at overlooks dazai and fyodor's cells. its kinda boring (it's not like theyre going anywhere, right?), but they try to take it as seriously as possible- even when the "highly dangerous criminals" are speaking in wingdings or throwing eggs at each other. they try not to engage with these male manipulators but one thing compounds on another and they find themselves holding down the intercom button, catching both of their attention. oops. at first the fellas are just happy they have a new toy to play with, someone to fuck with and make squirm since they can't do much to one another. dazai spends most of his time trying to bug darling til they crack and say something while fyodor plays his mind games. until it becomes more. red flags pop up over time, dazai throwing mini tantrums when the intercom clicks off or a different guard is on duty, fyodor starting to probe about weirdly personal topics, there's this weird Look they have in their eye when darling talks, etc. it becomes tough to deal with, more so than usual. theyre actually kinda relieved when they both suddenly disappear, unaware that a certain clown has been put on their scent. (sigma becomes yan after bonding with darling about how much it sucks dealing with the other three lol)

- 🩹

hi!!! finally got the time to answer this @.@ this is such a great idea ahhhhh gotta love love love the meursault girlies can you imagine the chaos they'd bring??!?! remind me to do a proper headcanon post for this sometime :')

manga spoilers below the cut!

cw: yandere characters, implied stalking, violent threats

regardless of whether or not it was intentional on darling's part to communicate through the intercom, their fate is sealed the moment in happens. whether they mutter out a confused "what the fuck...?" (because who could watch that scene and not be left perplexed?) or even if they just remained shrouded in bewildered silence, the tell-tale buzzing would give them away, they've piqued fyodor and dazai's curiosity.

obviously, they had been expecting to be under heavy surveillence, considering who they were, but something about that moment of vulnerability, that little slip in what should have been hours of procedure drilled into darling's head, captured their attention. had a newbie been sent to watch over two of the most unpredictable prisoners here?

it doesn't help that they immediately switch off the intercom right after, further proving to the two that it was a mistake. a mistake that no guard here would make. in a place filled with stoic, intolerable idiots, darling seems to be the exception.

naturally, they become attached.

he guesses whenever it's your shift, and makes sure to loudly blabber about everything on his mind. the food sucks. he misses his old room. it's too hot. his outfit's ugly. anything to get back such a reaction from darling again. he even asks for fyodor's help, but the latter ignores him, choosing to stare straight at the camera he knows they must be looking through.

eventually, darling gives in. whether it's because they've had enough of dazai's taunting or fyodor's staring (and that creepy smile) or perhaps the two have taken to bothering the people working the other shifts and darling feels pressured to end the torment. it will happen eventually, and when it does, things only get worse.

apart from the tantrums and constant whining from dazai, fyodor's unnerving stare at everyone that isn't darling seated behind the cameras begins to concern the other guards, especially coupled with the way dazai starts murmuring ways he could kill someone. when darling's there, however, he's a lot more friendly, asking them where they'd like to go for a first date and if they'd like any presents. he's just curious, really! not like he's planning anything... and fyodor, with his weird questions about abilities and ability users and sinners—maybe darling would prefer to stick with dazai's line of questioning.

thanks to his correspondence from the outside, dazai has the help of a time stopping ability user. his first order of business? use his 10 minutes to find everything he can about darling. after that, he hunts down the other guards, and makes sure to use his time wisely by spending a good chunk of it with darling. the first time he sees them face to face, even though they're frozen in place, his heart soars. he's definitely taken advantage of this period to touch darling and hold them close. even fyodor can't have this.

but when the day comes that he finally plans to break out of the prison with darling in tow, he's horrified to find them missing. back in his cell, he sees fyodor with a mysterious smile and a proposition he can't say no to.

by the end of the day, the two are gone, and darling's in the debatably safe arms of nikolai gogol, wrapped securely in his overcoat.

with nikolai, at first, it's just genuine curiosity. who was darling to have the great dostoevsky wrapped around their little finger? he follows them around (as ordered), looks through their room and picks out some things to keep (not an order, and definitely not for dostoevsky), threatens to twist their leg off with a shockingly innocent smile if they didn't come with him (also not an order, but who's keeping count?) but if darling is clever enough to keep a bright smile on when nikolai comes to play and does as he says without much struggle, he's a pretty fun person to have around. oh, that and he wouldn't be handing them off to any of the others just yet—not until he's had his fun with his cute little friend.

even then, he'd be surprised that darling hasn't bored him yet. it'll take one defiant glare or an unexpected trick to really make him understand why everyone's losing their mind over darling. now that he thinks about it, it's totally not fair that he had to do the work of finding them only to give them over to others. time to see if fyodor is willing to share!

sigma is used to not being acknowledged before he was the manager. more than that, he's used to nikolai's crazy antics. or so he thought, until one day the clown drops in with a brush of his coat, darling in his arms.

"assistant!" he cries out, to sigma's irritation, "meet my friend here!"

despite darling's obvious discomfort, they manage a strained smile at him. the gesture touches him immensely, and it tells him all he needs to know. when he introduces himself and darling says "hi, sigma," he feels euphoric. he feels seen.

he learns that darling was tormented by fyodor and dazai, after which nikolai was sent out for them, and while a large part of him feels sympathetic, knowing better than anyone else how horrible those three could be, a smaller, but darker part of him seethes in jealousy. why did fyodor have to see darling first? why did fyodor get to have them? why not him?

didn't he deserve, at least, this?

still, sigma soon earns something the others can't yet boast of having—their trust. darling's initially wary smiles turns into rambling and them opening up about their feelings. he doesn't flaunt it much except in the offhanded remarks that tells everyone just how much he knows about darling. they believe him to be the hardworking manager, who, much like them, was here because he had no other choice. little did they know...

once dazai and fyodor finally come back to the casino, however, the little peace darling finds here will be gone :(

[cult-of-artemis-and-athena]

What the fuck is "femininity", anyway? Pt. 2

I was watching a video a few months ago about Evangelical Christians complaining about what they perceived as androgyny - women wearing pants and not having long hair, men not going fishing or wearing beards - and then said something to the effect of "These people are straying from God's design!"

I suppose the Bible does have some parts that can be construed as saying that women should have long hair, men should have short hair, and they should both look different and do different things. However, wearing certain clothes or hairstyles, or doing the majority of tasks don't have a biological component. If men were naturally, biologically, by-God supposed to have short hair, it should grow to be an inch long and stop, right? I've seen some Christians rebut the "only men can wear pants" argument on the basis that the stereotypical Christian man wouldn't like, nor properly fit into a pair of women's pants. I would take that a step further, because I think it's hilarious, and say that if women wearing pants were a 100%, by-God biological impossibility, they would have one leg, or be like nagas or mermaids and it would be physically impossible to make pants for them.

Another example: musical instruments are assigned gender stereotypes for some fucking reason. A friend from middle school said she wanted to play the trumpet, but was given a clarinet because it was a "feminine" instrument. Conversely, I've seen boys who started school band on a flute or clarinet either switch instruments, or quit band altogether. Perhaps small hands make it easier to play the piccolo, and it's less annoying for a strong person to carry around a tuba, upright bass, or bari sax, but there's no reason for the player's genitals to enter the equation. During the 18th century, the acceptability of an instrument for women was based on whether the player had to spread their legs to play it. Pianos, violins/violas, and flutes were allowed, but a cello was indecent. I'm not sure, then, how harps became stereotyped as "feminine instruments" when they're both gigantic and require the player to straddle them...but here I am trying to make sense of nonsense again...

Finally - and this is the big one - there is the downright schizophrenic relationship some male communities have with female attractiveness and things women do, or have done to them, to change how they look in pictures and videos.

I feel I must preface the rest of this point with something: "men" and "women" are not hive minds, and it's important to not strawman half the population based on a conglomeration of the worst representatives you have experienced. If you go outside, in real life, and think about the couples you see, it becomes very obvious that the majority of men you will see are attracted to women who aren't skinny blondes with big boobs/asses and the majority of women you see are attracted to men who aren't 6-/7-figure earners. People who seem to express that they are totally alone and perpetually shit-on by a world of "Chads" and "Staceys" feels like the same type of mindset school kids have, where they obsess over not being included by the popular kids while they're befriended and included just fine by kids they actually have more in common with. It's not a healthy mindset to have, but excusable in school kids because kids are immature by nature and they mostly grow out of it; however, to be an adult and still think like this is a good sign to get help.

I'm talking primarily about the incel community and perhaps some of the groups that this mentality spills into.

A post was going around several years ago and I think the photos were taken from a clickbait which was taken from a makeup artist's portfolio. The MUA might actually have been Goar Avetisyan (https://www.goaronline.com/courses) but the before and after pictures resembled the ones on the link above -- one with absolutely no makeup or hair styling, and then the other with full glam, special occasion makeup and styled hair, a wig, extensions, etc. The way it was presented was "LOOK! HERE'S PROOF W*MEN AREN'T ACTUALLY HOT! WAKE UP SHEEPLE! THEY'RE LYING TO YOU! ILLUMINATI EXPOSED!!!!"

I can see why they're mad, because the dishonesty surrounding makeup, but especially photoshop, plastic surgery, posing, and airbrushing can get toxic. I'm old enough to remember the old-fashioned mindset where women were supposed to hide their "beauty secrets". Don't apply makeup in public, keep your roots touched up so nobody knows they're dyed, and if you have any treatments or surgery always deny having them. Wear your makeup to bed, then wake up early and fix it before your guy sees you.

I couldn't imagine how awful I would feel if I had Instagram or TikTok when I was growing up. I had enough moments of feeling frustrated because I didn't naturally look how other people looked, and I didn't realize that people in TV and movies were wearing makeup, that magazine ads were photoshopped, etc. Just being an extremely average-looking human being with no concept of basic grooming, comparing myself to other kids at school was hard enough without the rapist-run media adding another layer of bullshit.

When I realized the layers of lies, it was like...how long have I been wasting my time and money on this totally made-up problem? How much did I actually improve my life and happiness chasing it? Or, did it actually make me more miserable? How much could I have accomplished if I put the same amount of angst into a different pursuit -- instead of fixing my face, I could have been fixing my art...When it comes to pursuing an unattainable ideal, there is no end to the horror.

So, I suppose, when a group of men (...boys, whatever) realize that "hot women" are a spook, and the the ethereal creature they've been told by society to put on a pedestal is actually not far removed from them, and it shits and farts, it seems very reasonable to feel angry and like you've been taken for a ride by "the system". It can be easy to blame women for this, and hate them. And it's probably easy to get stuck here.

Instead of being perpetually angry, they have to mourn the death of this ethereal spook-woman, and move on with an acceptance of reality as it is. Women, too, have to kill and mourn the spook-woman as part of self-acceptance.

One positive evolution of the makeup fandom is that while the makeup has gotten more intense and elaborate, makeup tutorials have demystified makeup. When tutorials started to become popular, there was a lot of "Excuse my eye-circles, excuse my pimple, excuse my skin, excuse my hair, excuse my lighting, excuse my room, excuse my, excuse my, excuse, excuse, excexcexcexCEXEXEXEXEXEX- *boom*" and thankfully someone eventually came along ($10 says it was a drag queen) and said, "SHUT THE FUCK UP, NOBODY CARES," and eventually the makeup fandom became okay with letting a bare face be a bare face. You wear the makeup, you don't wear the makeup. It doesn't matter. It's just a hobby.

To refer back to my original point, the confusion of makeup (something culturally feminine) with biological femininity has really fucked up both men and women. Everyone is better off extracting the two from one another, and it seems like many people are in the process of doing that. It helps women hate themselves less, and it helps men humanize women and have better relationships.

However, the image of the spook-woman, "10/10 model" is so ingrained in some parts of the culture, as the apex of the vertex of femininity, that despite complaints about how makeup is a lie, discarding that in favor of just a healthy, bare-faced woman feels like embracing post-modernity and a slippery slope to embracing ugliness as beauty. I think the lack of exaggerated femininity that spook-woman makeup provides feels threatening because the woman's face looks more masculine in a purely relative sense. The exaggerated femininity of the spook-woman, as it is for the Evangelical Christians who follow strict gender roles, provides additional separation between the sexes which serves to reassure men who are A) preoccupied with their level of masculinity and B) hyper-aware of their standing toward the bottom of this hierarchy of masculinity. I think the entire hierarchy benefits from them being placated by more separation from women, because if the bottom whatever percent of men are too dissatisfied with their standing, they may start punching upwards or wanting to attack the hierarchy itself. The men at the top don't want that because of the benefits they receive for being at the top.

MGTOW and the incel movement really kicked off after Gamergate, and intensified with subsequent "waves" of feminism. The discontent men direct their frustration at women, but they also direct their frustration at the men not troubled by what women do. There's suddenly a lot of interest in whether you're an alpha, a beta, a gamma, omega, a sigma, a ligma male, etc. and which one is the better type of male to be. There's a lot of hatred for "Chads" and I see a lot of jealousy directed toward men who are married and have families, usually in the form of "She's just gonna divorce you, take half your shit, and then manipulate your kids to hate you. You'll see...you'll realize you should have spent your whole life banging whores."

This all seems like the result of the ol' spending money we don't have to buy things we don't need to impress people we don't like. This is undoubtedly the idealist in me, men and women would be better off to cut each other some slack. We could see one another as fellow tragic, flawed individuals instead of fleshlights and ATMs, escape the Matrix and spit in the faces of our rapist, media elite overlords.