#there’s a lot more than you’d think and I have to stop the misinformation!

[humantpom]

I will compile my Private is a kid/teen/young clips and post them eventually 🙏 about to watch smth amazing first tho (Dr. Blowhole’s Revenge)

[sheenashifts1217]

Pick a Pile No.1

Welcome to my first Pick a Pile :)

This is a collective reading so it may resonate more for some than others. Take what helps you and leave what doesn’t. 💗

If you’d like a personal reading, I currently have a deal in my shop for a free five song channeled playlist with any purchase of an s/o reading. Check my pinned post for more details.😊

What Advice Will Aid Your Shifting Journey

Choose pile 1, 2, or 3

Take a breath and simply pick the one you feel most drawn to.

(Top left pile 1, top right pile 2, bottom pile 3)

Pile 1

Lyrics standing out:

“You b**** ain’t like me

Dance in the breeze

A man with the sleaze

Stop it, get another topic

I got the nerve

And I block it

You’re a brat

Cause I never repeat

Do what I say like Simon

I’m a VIP

Sorry I’m pretty and easy to hate”

Okay pile 1, I SEE YOU GUYS!!! 💅🏼 This pile is short and sweet because you all know what you need, self aware queens. You all know your power, and as you should. For those of you in this pile who really know your power, own it more, step into it, actually practice it.

It feels like you all know what you need to do and you know you can shift, you’re just being lazy. PUT THE WORK IN. But frl, it seems like you guys really just need to set some time aside to focus on shifting and your DR because you know what to do, you just feel too busy. It’s okay to take a breath. Some of you all in this pile may also be rushing yourself. Allow yourself to accept what your experiencing and just let it flow. It’s already yours, you already have all of your desires.

Overall, pile 1, you guys are baddies whether you know it or not. Step into that power, own it, and use it. Make time for yourself and slow down a little. You don’t have to experience everything at the same time, that’s why you have a life, spend it.

Confirmation: 222, 444, Aquarius, ford mustang, hot pink, purple number 4, Elmo?, Sesame Street, Disney, neon green nails

Pile 2

Lyrics standing out:

“Trying to cover up my face

Try and stay calm

Something missing

I think looks wrong

When pretty isn’t pretty enough

What do you do?

I could change up my body and change up my face

You can win the battle

Insecure

Try to ignore it

I don’t know why I even try (I see the starfish position)

Just feel like sh*** over and over again”

Hi pile 2! You guys are giving me 2020 shiftok vibes. A lot of you probably started to practice shifting around 2019/2020 and were fed a lot of misinformation and now you feel like that is stopping you, but it doesn’t have to, let that go. You are in charge of your own reality so take that misinformation and use it as a learning experience. Don’t be discouraged because it was false or didn’t work for you, that’s good because now you’re one step closer to knowing yourself and what does work for you!

You may be a person that is on social media a lot in general or just hyperaware of others lives and you’re comparing yourself to them. STOP IT. Everyone’s experience is their own. When you see someone else’s success or experience, you don’t know what went down before that. Focus on yourself and what is meant for you, will happen. Accept it and take charge of it. You may be one who relies on others success for your own motivation as well, this is your sign to rely on yourself. Connect with your higher self and trust your intuition.

Keep going pile 2! You guys have put in time and energy this far, what’s a little longer? Your efforts are not in vain. You’ve got this. Trust yourself!

Confirmation: tiktok, iPhone, 13, dodge, dodgers, football, Dallas cowboy cheerleaders, red white & blue, Olympics, gymnastics, toe nails, 12

Pile 3

Lyrics standing out:

“Light headed

For some reason I find myself lost in what you think of me

And too confused who I should be

In a big old world

We’re so alike

When I cross that line

It’s been a point of contention between myself and this body they stuck me in

Am I pretty enough to lie to you

Let me be the void you fill

I am quantum physics

My witness brings me to existence

So I can be your girlfriend boyfriend”

Hello my lovely pile 3! You all feel trapped either in your bodies or just to this reality in general. You have put shifting to your DR on a pedestal or even a part of you doesn’t want to accept that it’s real because you may not feel worthy. Remind yourself that you are constant, flowing energy.

Some of you have been so focused on “finding yourself”, that instead you have used the 3D to define who you are in the 4D. Make the two align.

Try to focus more on the “what” of shifting, instead of the “how”. Feel those connections and emotions you have in your DR. Maybe focus on one in particular that is important to you. Focus on one DR at a time. You have overwhelmed yourself with the thoughts of wanting to shift and being everywhere at once. Take your time and enjoy your CR as well. Shifting is an act and a journey, it’s real life, so make sure you’re still taking care of yourself.

In summary, you are more than your body. You are your thoughts and emotions and your actions, your love and energy you spread. Own that energy and use it for your benefit. Focus on who you are and what it is you want. Try to have a clear idea of that, then connect to it. Once you feel that connection, that’s it. Congratulations it’s now yours. Forget the 3D and just know it’s already yours.

Confirmation: red, Taylor Swift, (Taylor’s version), reputation, Niall Horan, train, Liam Payn, 2222, lock and key, hearts, stars, moon, “go piss girl”, dress to impress

[stele3]

https://www.tumblr.com/stele3/736276958029168640/longtime-readers-will-know-that-i-was-once-a

As a leftist, I just wanna say that whenever I see someone who says “I was in the army, I’m now a leftist”, I have to pause. I’m anti-war and I just keep thinking:

“You’d get kicked out of my org for saying the things you’d say, and that’s why we need you in the fucking org. You know the system, you can call out rampant misinfo, and we need that.”

Because (to roughly misquote Angela Davis): “Why are we still debating whether or not Israel has the right to exist when we see what the Israeli government is doing on social media?” That feels like more of a genuine distraction than anything else.

And like, you probably know things that would drive me nuts. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is, I trust you, on the grounds of authority

Thank you; I do want to instantly contradict that a little bit and say: don't trust me blindly.

People can and do lie about their personal identities on the internet all the time. We saw this in 2016 when Tumblr and other social media platforms were infested with psyops agents pretending (especially) to be Black Americans. I see this now on Tumblr with the proliferation of Hamas and Houthi sympathizers; certainly some of them are real people who have been taken in by the lies, but I'm betting a lot of the big accounts (h*ritageposts in particular) involved are very skilled psyops agents. My point being: unless you know someone in real life, do not blindly trust that they are who they say they are online. Including me.

I'm human. I make mistakes. I can't guarantee that h*ritageposts is a psyops agent (but I'm sure watching them with a hairy eyeball -- either they're psyops or they're really committed to reblogging misinformation). If you take away anything from the post you linked, please don't let the thing be 'trust me I know what I'm talking about' and let it be 'think critically about the things you read and reblog, and try to get your information from reputable news sources rather than social media.'

I'm not looking to convince people to trust me. I'm looking to educate and teach people to recognize mis/disinformation, and stop as much of the flow of it as we can.

[cordycepsfem]

I genuinely can’t wrap my head around why the TQ are against therapy instead of blockers? Like surely as empathetic human beings you’d want to make sure that a child isn’t making an irreversible mistake? I guess you can blame the propaganda that they’re safe (funny how prone to misinformation the TQ is).

But I just don’t get it. Surely if a child/teenager is suicidal about something that is not real (gender) then a therapists office is the best place they can be? Not to mention help with any other problems at home they might be dealing with.

Why is irreversible medication the go to? Why is hating your body so desperately just accepted? We don’t tell people with anorexia they should stay thinner, we don’t tell depressed people ‘yeah you should just kill your self’.

What makes gender so special? What makes it more desperate than other mental health issues that it needs to bypass therapy altogether? But I guess in a way that makes it kind of tragic.

Anon, I wish I had answers for you.

Like many of us, I’m sure, I have a past with mental illness, self harm, and suicide. Never once did a professional tell me to continue to harm myself, to stop taking medications that were helping me feel better, or to go through with suicide. Their goal was to help me live through those dark times, find ways to help me, and teach me coping skills that would help me in the future. Not once was I told to leverage my suicidal ideation into basically blackmailing others into doing what I wanted… because that’s abusive.

I feel like part of it, as you said, has to do with a lot of misinformation surrounding things like “puberty blockers.” There’s also a huge social issue to consider - if parents are less than supportive, or if they don’t immediately jump to acquiescing to everything their child wants, there’s backlash. “Would you rather have a dead daughter than a living son??”

But by the time children get to that point, where they’re demanding X and Y or else - that’s a sign of serious mental health issues, not gender dysphoria, and those issues should be treated with therapy. I also think there’s a lot of “social transitioning” going on, where teens are finding these “identities” that are not indicative of gender dysphoria but are ways to control how others think about them and the words they use to describe them, like “non-binary” or “demiboy.” Those don’t require drugs, necessarily, but they demand an attitude change and special attention.

And there’s still a contingent of parents who are attempting to “trans the gay away” despite their child being very young - too young to know their sexuality. Swishy, feminine boys don’t always turn out to be gay, and even if they did, that’s okay. Tomboys and girls who dare to like “boys’ things” don’t always turn out to be lesbians, but again, if they did, that would be okay. Homophobia is driving a lot of people - either parents or individuals themselves - to look into transition. See Jazz Jennings for a real-time look into that phenomenon.

I cannot understand why parents accept the risk for their children and give them off-label dangerous drugs, followed by cross-sex hormones. They are giving up their child’s chance at full emotional, mental, and physical growth; any chance of sexual pleasure, orgasm, and fertility; and they’re doing it all on a pathway that is irreversible for the most part.

When I have conversations with some trans people or trans allies, I’ve had people tell me that I’m wrong and cruel for not transitioning and instead using therapy to handle my gender dysphoria and body dysmorphic disorder. Despite all of the evidence out there, for some reason magic pills and surgeries are going to cure a mental health issue better than therapy.

I don’t really pray anymore, but if I did, I’d pray for the children who were wrongly trans’ed to be able to sue their parents and doctors in the future. They lost their chance at a normal childhood and a full adulthood, and someone deserves to pay for it.

[queenlucythevaliant]

Six things I wish you knew about chronic migraine

(By a person who’s lived with the condition for the last eight + years)

While it’s true that migraine is more common than you think (something like one in five women, one in twenty men), it’s also true that there are lots of different kinds of migraine. Optical migraine (“aura”), vestibular migraine (vertigo), and abdominal migraine (lots of nausea and vomiting) can and do frequently coexist, but only a fraction of the people who get “migraine” experience all three all the time. Complex migraine has symptoms similar to both a seizure and a stroke, frequently in addition to some/all of the aforementioned. A person with chronic complex migraine (like me) and a more normal person who gets an acute migraine every month or so (like my mom) might as well have two entirely different conditions.

Corollary to the above: migraine advocacy needs to cover both breadth and depth of sufferers. Naturally, resources and up-to-date research ought to be available to anyone who experiences migraine symptoms, but there also needs to be acknowledgment that even some people for whom the condition is technically “chronic” (eight days a month) might have it relatively easy in the scheme of things. I often tell people that I have a seizure condition (closely related to migraine) in order to be taken seriously in lieu of a thirty minute lecture. 

Migraine is under-researched and poorly understood. I have one of the most expert migraine neurologists in the US and yet frequently, when I ask him questions that seem like they should have simple answers, his response is “good question.” Lots of meds/treatments are new and experimental and thus not covered by insurance. There is a LOT of migraine-related misinformation in the milieu. I cannot overstate this. Immense truckloads of misinformation. It’s incredible. Take anything a non-neurologist tells you about migraine critically.

You would be astonished by how many needles and hospital visits severe chronic migraine entails. There are periods where I’ve had to get painful injections 3x daily and had hospital visits every other week. IV steroid infusions are also a pretty common occurrence and they suuuuuuck.

Most people who get migraine take either OTC drugs or Imitrex/Sumatriptan pills, and if a person gets any kind of nausea/vomiting with migraine, this is pretty much insane. The body can process migraine like a physical trauma and as a result the stomach stops working (gastric stasis). As a result, if you take a pill after an episode has already begun, it won’t actually get digested until the migraine is basically over already. Injectables are much better if you can get them and it’s absolutely crazy to me that most doctors don’t prescribe them across the board. Doctors have known about the gastric stasis thing for decades now and it really ought to be common knowledge.

 Not specific to migraine, but the longer you suffer with chronic pain the more sensitive your body becomes (barring improvements in treatment). This is kind of counterintuitive- you’d expect to get used to the pain over long exposure, but actually your nerves get hyper-attuned to it. This goes double if you have any kind of allodynia. If you have long-term chronic pain—you’re not going crazy if you think something/everything hurts more now than it used to.

[1eos]

Re: your post about the kardashians/bts being pop culture slaughter:

Respectfully, this take makes no sense. Are you basing your idea of BTS on the three english singles they’ve released in their 10 year career? If so, then I can understand how you might come to the “soulless pop” conclusion, but you are leaving out 99.9% of their actual work in saying that, making your point invalid. Also, I severely disagree with you using BTS specifically to make the point about music nowadays being “all about numbers”. A much better example of this would be the rise in tiktok songs which are solely designed to be promoted on tiktok and get 30 second clips played on the platform for views. BTS fans only work so hard for streams because in the beginning, BTS weren’t recognized. They were cut out of performance shows, their performances were blacked out by fans of other groups to make it seem like they were performing to empty audiences, they purposefully trended other artists to make any attempt BTS made at promoting their music unsuccessful, and routinely called into KOREAN award shows to dispute results or argue against them winning anything. This isn’t even taking into account the fact that while BTS have a significant western following and have since the start, they’ve only really gotten tangible recognition from the western music industry recently. Even when they were first becoming popular their main recognition here was by numbers (albums sold leading to their positions on the billboard charts) or solely for online influence because of their fans (top social artist awards) and not to do with their music. Even now a lot of the awards they win in America are based on the fact they’re Korean and not due to their actual music. (i.e. only being nominated in “best k-pop artist” category rather than for anything related to the actual music they put out). 

Also, to your point about cultural appropriation- I want to ask, can you point to specific examples? I’m more than willing to have a dialogue about this issue because it’s obviously nuanced and I’m never going to think I am 100% correct about it but I’d like to hear where you’re coming from. Is it the clothes? Is it because they rap? I’d like to ask what you’d have them do instead. They have routinely paid homage to the black culture they take their musical style from and never shy away from hip hop and raps roots. In fact during their early years they had a whole series about going to LA and learning about hip hop culture from real hip hop legends like Coolio to become further educated on where the style originates. They have an entire song dedicated to them loving hip hop and naming black hip hop artists where they got inspiration and who they admire (it’s called hip hop phile). Would you have them stop rapping or stop making hip hop? Would you have them stop delving into soul? If that’s the case would you have every non-black artist stop making soul or RnB or hip hop music? These are genuine questions. I just don’t understand where you are drawing the line. Where is your line between appropriation and appreciation? Is any non-black artist who delves into these genres only bad if they become famous because of it?

Also take issue with your comment about how no one can sing because they’re fitting into corsets or whatever. Have you listened to actual clips of BTS singing live without backing tracks? Of course everyone has their own opinion but they are FAR from objectively bad singers. (Jungkook actually appeared on the korean version of masked singer and almost won. I understand that’s one member of 7 and he’s the main vocalist but to say they all can’t sing is incorrect, and even though the other vocal members don’t have those accolades they are still quite talented.)

To me your take seems severely misinformed, it seems like you are assuming A LOT about BTS based on your own opinions about “new” k-pop (again, BTS aren’t really “new” and are only a year younger than the group you seem to be a fan of. If a decade old is new then we have very different time barometers. LOL.). It seems like a lot of your take is rooted in the notion that BTS came from a “k-pop factory” (which in itself that idea is a bit. well. it’s not a KIND take to put on the korean pop music industry and singling out BTS while not mentioning any new american pop is crazy to me sorry) when they in fact came from an indie label and the only reason anyone knows who their company is now is BECAUSE of BTS. BTS saved their small company from bankruptcy by singing about themes their target demographic in korea (teenagers at the time, because THEY were teenagers) actually cared about (being pressured by the adults in your life to have a “dream” even though no one knows what they want at that age, the rigid school system present in their country- in general their theme as a debut idol group was essentially “stick it to the man” which isn’t a very mainstream premise and definitely wasn’t back then. no mainstream pop or idol group was singing songs like that.) and created a following and then continued to change and grow their message to speak to their audience as both they and their audience aged. To say they are bad just because they became incredibly popular discredits their artistry and frankly discredits many artists who have found fame. 

now you know damn well i'm not reading this shit 😭😭😭😭😭 DEPLOY THE LOSING GAME

[self-loving-vampire]

Nobody said all narcissists are the cause of abuse. You’re dense please stop spreading misinformation. Cluster b come from abuse, and have a higher tendency to perpentrate abuse. Nobody said all abusers are narcissists, you’re the only one here with black and white thinking my dude. Npd does have abusive symptoms and often it’s own unique sadism apart of the disorder among all the other symptoms. Npd do have a higher chance of repeating the cycle of abuse. Cluster b in general. Comduct disorder too which is linked with cluster b disorders in general- tend to have a lot of abusive and toxic behaviors blatantly listed. If you go to school for psychology you’d learn anywhere in the world these disorders can pose a threat to society

You should be wary of making statements like "nobody said X" because I can guarantee you someone out there did in fact say it (especially the ridiculous people at quora dot com). This is much more often implied than said outright as well, with many people armchair-diagnosing seemingly every toxic person they have ever known with NPD simply due to them being bad.

I have even seen Christian conspiracy theorists who unironically believe that narcissists secretly rule the world and are trying to subvert the church and family while also being some variety of supernatural monster (which I guess is correct in my case so I can't complain too much).

These people literally see narcissists as agents for the prince of darkness engaged in a hidden spiritual war against all that is good. That is how extreme it gets.

I have seen people with NPD described as vampires, dragons, sex demons, empty vessels for evil spirits, energy thieves from an alternate dimension, descendants of fallen angels, and more (often by the exact same people, who somehow don't seem to notice that their NPD lore is contradictory).

If you want to talk symptoms then let's actually look at them, because in case you haven't noticed "being an abuser" is not actually listed, and neither is any kind of sadism. There is no one-dimensional "bad person disorder".

Not only can you be a narcissist without having every symptom (most narcissists don't have them all) but also none of these are inherently harmful to others, especially considering their range of presentation.

For instance, here's how it is for me.

Furthermore, even beyond the harms to people with personality disorders specifically, I think any model that focuses on mental abnormalities when examining the "cycle of abuse" (which doesn't mean what you think it means, I think what you're thinking of is intergenerational cycles of violence) is going to miss the root causes of abuse.

For example, the idea that child abuse can be morally edifying and necessary to transform children (who are assumed to be inherently bad) into decent, respectful, and law-abiding adults. Over 90% of the world's children live in countries where it is completely legal to hit them as "discipline" because of these extremely common and accepted beliefs.

Many Christians in particular believe that children need to have their wills broken as if they were animals and that they are born evil due to original sin.

Ironically, such people often argue that they need to hurt and control their children like that in order to prevent them from becoming narcissists.

There's also the whole idea of children as property of their parents, which has existed for thousands of years and is still alive today.

These ideas are mainstream and widely supported without much examination.

[lesucremygic]

The Moon, PMS-ing and Us

There are times when you’re almost on your period or during it, you’d always feel like trash, a sad excuse of a human being, unworthy of anything good or the world just really tiring. 

You want to cry from the sheer frustration for not being able to stop feeling like that even though you knew, positive things still do exist in your world. 

Even though you understand and realize being grateful is important in times like that.

Actually, letting the emotion happen, is way more important than hating yourself for not being able to stop all of that from happening.

But, you have no idea how to brush off the weight of helplessness everytime those feelings grace your presence, because it’s almost impossible to not feel them sometimes. 

Ever since I got my period, more than a decade ago, I have never been prepared for these huge changes in my emotional state, or even physiological beings. I’m way too underprepared and it made me all over the place. 

I think a lot of us women and girls still feel extremely frustrated whenever we’re at a loss when something is happening to our body and there’s very limited information about what to do when those things happen. 

Most of the time, we almost always find countless baseless misinformation which are actually harmless for us instead. 

That is, foul, to be honest. 

It always makes me wonder, how exactly does the world view us women?  

I didn’t know that my emotional state is going to be so… wildly untamed when I’m PMS-ing. No women in my family told me that I’m going to experience that every month, that I’m going to be irritated with everything, even my own self. 

But overtime, later in life, once I somehow slowly let go of misogynistic views about myself, women and girls in general, re-learning and re-educating myself on my own biological condition and needs, I understand that these things better to be felt. 

Those irritations are, I think, a byproduct of bottling everything up everyday. Thinking that you’ll handle those emotions later because you don’t want to be seen as overly sensitive by people, or that you’re weak for not being able to handle them and not being able to smile every time inconvenience occurs. 

The burden of smiling. 

The burden of always appearing pretty and collected. 

The ridiculousness makes me want to rip my hair out. Everytime. 

Despite all that however, I’m slowly making peace with them even though it’s still difficult for me not to take my anger out on people who irritate me so much when I’m in that period of time. Because even when I tell them I'm sensitive and trying to regulate my emotions, they will mostly take that as a challenge to be so annoying. 

Blaming me in the end for being overly sensitive when I blew up.

I always warn them before they challenge themselves and be stubborn. But alas, they brought it upon themselves. 

Periods are difficult for me. Even with the constant diet change, being more active in windows where I’m supposed to be active and resting when I’m supposed to be resting, period will always make me feel like a total shit. 

Dealing with emotional ups and downs is one thing, dealing with the pain, cramps, and headache that will always follow after is another. 

That’s how sometimes I envy girls who barely feel pain in their body whenever they’re having periods, or that it’s easier for them to navigate through life. 

Good for them, truly, because if I could, I want all girls to have it easier dealing with periods. 

It’s just sometimes, I’m envious that I can never feel light for a long time when periods are coming.

Being girls with a built-in pain inside their body is not easy, it’s too hard to make men understand the great burden we have to endure every single month. It’s too hard to make them understand that we will never get used to it. We will never get used to the pain. So most of our irritations are totally valid to begin with. 

There are those who were raised by their parents right and could empathize with us, I’ll always appreciate those men, even though that’s a total bare minimum… but the ratio of those who understand and can empathize with those who will always think it’s natural for us to be like that and to just suck it all, is way too phenomenal.

Not to mention when they already have a sticky false upbringing about women and menses in Islam, a religion that I believe in,  women and menstruating somehow became a really taboo topic for a discourse in most Islamic communities, which is another horrendous foul thing to ever occur.

So it sucks.

Period is sucks, not having periods also sucks… 

It’s just how we’re built, I understand that. 

What frustrates me the most is when the society gaslighted and guilt-trips me to not feel any of these irritations even though we have to endure a long excruciating 7 days with pain and being stuck in discombobulation. 

I just want them to be more understanding, if they can’t empathize that is…and more discourse about it so a wide range of people, women and men alike, can understand more about healthier approaches and education about menstruation. 

In the hope that in the end, it would make them kinder…

In short, I just want a break. 

L.

---

Dedicated to all women and those who menses, because sometimes, we just want a freaking break.

[nimrochan]

you know that idea you have of israel as a land surrounded on all sides by hostile forces, at risk of being wiped out at any time? people in gaza have a much better claim to that narrative, and any of the lines you use to defend israel's slaugher WILL be used against you. That's a promise.

“Will be used against you” holy shit I laughed out loud. Thank you. I needed that. I didn’t realize I’m in court.

For what it’s worth, Jews are indigenous to the Middle East. And Palestinians are descended from other Arabic nations. To say that one is a settler and the other native is plain incorrect.

I am very sympathetic to the Palestinian plight. I don’t think any one is suffering more than them right now. Go ahead and glean through my blog - you won’t find anything contrary to that.

I respect the Palestinians a whole lot more than people spewing misinformation left and right to make out the situation a lot simpler than it is. You people (have you ever even set foot in the Middle East??) do a major disservice to Palestine going around acting like you know the exact source of their suffering. And as I’ve posted before, I never ever see people standing up for other suffering Arabs unless Israel is involved. To me, the Pro-Palestinian movement is a veil for antisemitism.

If you REALLY cared about Palestinians you’d do your proper research and stop spreading this whole “settler” nonsense. You’re making great strides talking to an actual Israeli like me, even if it’s coming from a very hostile place.

[that-spider-witch]

On “Dead” Cultures and Closed Spiritual Practices: Why Colonialism Is Still A Problem.

Let me start this by saying that, as far as my knowledge of Paganism and Polytheism as a whole goes, I’m what the internet witch community calls a “Baby Witch”. I’m stating this out of the gate because I know there will be lots of people, including witches who have more experience on the craft than me, who might decide to ignore what I have to say based on that fact alone, stating that I’m not knowledgeable enough to give my opinion about this.

Here’s the kicker: I’m a ‘baby witch’, yes, but I’m also a twenty-six year old Venezuelan woman. I’m an adult. I’m Latina. I’m a Christian-raised Pagan,but I’m also a Latinoamerican woman over all other things including that. I grew up on this culture, these are my roots. It is because of this background than I’m writing this post today.

Looking through the “Paganism” and “Witchcraft” tags of this website, I’ve seen a few posts throwing indigenous deities and spirits’ names around on lists alongside deties of open cultures. Yes, you can know better by doing your own research and not going by what just a random Tumblr user wrote on one post (as I hope its the case with everyone on this website), but the fact that pagan beginners are still getting fed misinformation is still worrisome to me.

There’s nothing like reading a so-called expert putting Ixchen (Maya), Xolotl (Nahuatl) and Papa Legba (Vodou) on the same damn list as Norse, Hellenic and Kemetic deities and tagging it on the tags aimed at beginners who might not know better to truly ruin your morning. I’m not mentioning user names here: If you know then you know.

To quote @the-illuminated-witch on her very good post about Cultural Appropriation: 

“Cultural appropriation is a huge issue in modern witchcraft. When you have witches using white sage to “smudge” their altars, doing meditations to balance their chakras, and calling on Santa Muerte in spells, all without making any effort to understand the cultural roots of those practices, you have a serious problem.

When trying to understand cultural appropriation in witchcraft, it’s important to understand the difference between open and closed magic systems. An open system is one that is open to exchange with outsiders — both sharing ideas/practices and taking in new ones. In terms of religion, spirituality, and witchcraft, a completely open system has no restrictions on who can practice its teachings. A closed system is one that is isolated from outside influences — usually, there is some kind of restriction on who can practice within these systems.”

A counter-argument I’ve seen towards this when someone wants to appropiate indigenous deities and spirits is to use the “dead culture” argument: Extinct cultures are more eligible for use by modern people of all stirpes. It is a dead culture and dead religion. It would be one thing if some part of the culture or religion was still alive, being used by modern descendants, but the culture died out in its entirety and was replaced, right? They were all killed by colonization, they are ancient history now, right?

Example: “If white people are worshipping Egyptian deities now, then why can’t I worship [Insert Aborigen Deity Here]?”

To which I have two things to say:

Ancient Egypt’s culture was open and imperialistic, meaning they wanted their religion to be spread. This is why Kemetism is not Cultural Appropriation, despite what some misinformed people might tell you. Similar arguments can also be made for the Hellenic and the Norse branches of Paganism, both practiced by people who aren’t Greek/Norse.

Who are you to say which cultures are “dead” and which are not?

Religious practices such as Vodou and Santería certainly aren’t dead, not that it keeps some Tumblr users from adding Erzuli as a “goddess” on their Baby Witch post, something that actual Vodou practitioners have warned against.

Indigenous cultures such as the Maya and the Mapuche aren’t dead, despite what the goverment of their countries might tell you. The Mapuche in particular have a rich culture and not one, but two witchcraft branches (The Machi and the Kalku/Calcu). Both are closed pagan practices that the local Catholic Church has continuously failed to assimilate and erase, though sadly not for lack of trying:

“The missionaries who followed the Spanish conquistadors to America incorrectly interpreted the Mapuche beliefs regarding both wekufes and gualichos. They used the word wekufe as a synonym for ideas of the devil, demons, and other evil or diabolical forces. This has caused misunderstanding of the original symbolism and has changed the idea of wekufe right up to the present day, even amongst the Mapuche people.”

For context, the Wefuke are the Calcu’s equivalent of the Familiar, as well as reportedly having more in common with the Fae than with demons anyway.

This and other indigenous religions are Closed because it is wrong for foreigners to just come and take elements from marginalized groups whom are still fighting to survive and that they weren’t born into. To just approppiate those things would be like spitting in their faces, treating them and their culture like a commodity, a shiny thing, a unique thing to be used like paint to spruce up your life or be special.

I know some of you are allergic to the word “Privilege”, but on this situation there really ain’t a better word to explain it. You weren’t born here, you don’t know what it is like, you are only able to see the struggle from an outsider’s point of view.

If a belief or practice is part of a closed system, outsiders should not take part in it. And with how many practices there are out there which are open for people of all races, there is really no excuse for you to do it.

Why Colonization Is Not “Ancient History”

If you have kept reading all this so far, you are probably wondering “Ok, but what does Colonization has to do with any of this?”

The answer? Everything.

With the general context of culture appropriation out of the way, let me tell you about why the whole “dead culture” argument rubs me the wrong way: Here in Venezuela, we have a goddess called Santa Maria de la Onza, or Maria Lionza for short, whom’s idol statue I have been using to illustrate this little rant. If you happen to know any Spanish, you might recognize the name as a derivative of Santa Maria, aka the Virgin Mary, and you are mostly correct: Her true indigenous name is theorized to have been Yara.

And I say “theorized” because it is a subject of hot debate whether she was really ever called that or not: Her original name, the name by which she was adored and worshipped by our ancestors, might have been forever lost to history.

That’s the legacy of colonization for you: Our cultures were stolen from us, and what they couldn’t erase they instead tried to assimilate. Our ancestors were enslaved, their lands and homes stolen, their artwork and literary works destroyed: The Maya and the Aztec Empire were rich in written works of all kinds, ranging from poetry to history records to medicine, and the Spaniards burned 99% of it, on what is probably one of the most tragic examples of book burning in history and one that people rarely ever talk about. 

People couldn’t even worship their own gods or pass their knowledge of them to their children. That’s why Maria Lionza has such a Spanish Catholic-sounding name, and that’s why we can’t even be sure if Yara was her name or not: The Conquistadors couldn’t steal our goddess from us, so they stole her name instead. Catholics really have a thing with trying to assimilate indigenous goddesses with the Virgin Mary, as they tried to do the same with the Pachamama.

On witchy terms, I’d define Maria Lionza as both a deity and a land spirit: Most internet pages explaining her mention the Sorte mountain as her holy place, but it is more along the lines that she is the mountain. 

You’d think that, with Venezuela and other Latinoamerican countries no longer being colonies, we’d be able to worship our own deities including her, right?

As far as a lot of Catholics seem to think and act, apparently we are not.

The Catholics here like to go out of their way to shame us, to call us “cultists”, to ostracize us, with a general call to “refrain from those pagan beliefs” because they go against the Catholic principles. Yes, the goddess with the Catholic-sounding name, a name she happens to share with a Catholic deity, apparently goes “against Catholic principles”. You really can’t make this shit up. (Linked article is in Spanish)

This is just an act of colonization out of many, of not wanting to stop until the culture they want to destroy is gone. Don’t believe for a second that this is really their God’s will or anything like that, they are just trying to finish what years of enslavement and murder couldn’t. They might not be actively killing us anymore, but they still want us dead.

So no, colonization is not some thing that has long passed and now only exist on history textbooks: It is still happening to this day. It is by treating it as old history that they can keep doing it, and it is by pushing the narrative that our indigenous cultures are “dead cultures” that they try to erase our heritage.

Because we are not dead. We are still here, we are alive, we have survived and we’ll keep on surviving, and our gods and goddesses are not yours to take.

¡Chao! 🐈

[weirdmageddon]

btw please i need yall to stop taking shitty mbti tests and learn about cognitive functions. fuck sake its so hard for me to bring up the mbti because i dont wanna be dismissed about it being “stupid as fuck/its wrong” because 99.9% chance you say anything about there being a problem with it YES I ALREADY KNOW. we’re basically not even talking about the same thing. i know all the stereotypes. i know the limitations of the system in the way you probably understand it. i’m well past that. they piss me off too!

that’s why i went into the trenches, learned through trial error and experience, and came out so that i can teach others what it’s supposed to be in the right way, and i don’t want to be dismissed for that when my understanding isnt even fundamentally the same as yours. trust me i hate 16personalities and readers digest articles on the types as much as anyone else. i hate type stereotypes. i hate how watered down the system has gotten in pop culture. i completely understand why you’d be hesistant, i would be too. but trust me it’s not the same as the 4-letter E/I N/S T/F J/P dichotomy bullshit. hell i hate how watered down and stereotypical the cognitive functions themselves have become, defined based on emergent properties and not the processes themselves.

i have loads of resources that are actually good because i know what im talking about and ive been around the block saw what works what doesnt and ive curated resources, including my own knowledge, for both newcomers and existing people with an interest in typology alike. please feel free to share it! mi casa es su casa

1) a master document that has a lot of info ive been working on sporadically. covers misinformation and ways to curb it. still largely a wip and is mainly a dump of my thoughts, it’s more meta about the type system itself. but still useful for anyone to have a look at. explains what goes wrong in why public perception and understanding of it is so wanky. more broad in scope than the second document below

2) this document i made, basically a cleaner and more straight-to-the-point version of the first document that’s helpful in understanding the building blocks of jungian typology; i picked out the best sources i’ve come across that best explain the function axes and concepts at their most fundamental. i introduce them in an order that builds on itself so that it’s not as nebulous to grasp. it’s essential to understand what these things are broken down, and most people don’t which is unfortunate, and also the reason so many people treat it as a joke because yeah the way they understand it IS a joke. more narrow / in-depth with cognitive functions and actually typing.

3) my new sideblog @functionaxes where i’ll slowly be making some more posts. its a work i progress still but im in college

4) my pdb account has cool shit that gets into more specific topics you wanna check that out

i prommy it’s not goo goo fake astrology shit if you actually dive deeper below the surface. and this is coming from someone skeptical as fuck and knows why people are skeptical as fuck. what it does is gives descriptions to fundamental axes of cognition that we all experience and is supposed to be used for self-understanding and growth, makes you aware of your weaknesses and strengths and why those are your weaknesses and strengths (and the “why” is something i need). it’s not a tool to box you in, but a tool to explain what already exists. it’s a lot more flexible than you think.

it’s not the end-all-be-all of personality, the range is HUGE, for example i have the same type (INFJ) as both adolf hitler and jesus christ of nazareth. the system is not defining who you are or what your motivations are, it’s giving semantic definition to the processes of perceiving and judging the world completely separate from your motivations and attitude. you also have to consider enneagram type to serve as a complement (i also have resources for this on my pdb profile) and more to even get closer to completing a detailed profile of yourself.

anyway sorry for getting heated i’m just sick of being dismissed when i really wanna talk about it but i need people to really understand it and be on the same page with me first. i cant keep containing this special interest to myself anymore on this platform lol. ok to reblog in fact i greatly encourage it (this post may update so be sure to check the original post for any changes)

[verdantmoontruther]

we need to talk about the repulsive amount of propaganda spread about ukraine’s non-existent fascism

we all know about putin’s reinvasion of ukraine, but i’ve seen such a disgusting, vile amount of western leftists actually siding with him because of this apparent belief that ukraine is an ultranationalist nazi state.

this is not fucking true, completely ahistorical, and absolutely vile misinformation to spread, not just because it’s all done in order to turn people against ukraine, but also because ukraine has such a rich and beautiful jewish history. let’s start with that.

1) the russian empire imposed something called the pale of settlement. what it essentially meant was that, within the empire, there were only certain places where jewish people could live. historically, the pale included all of modern-day belarus, lithuania, and moldova, a large chunk of ukraine and poland, and some parts of latvia. it looked like this:

this wasn’t just immediately cancelled upon the transition of the russian empire into the ussr; my great grandfather, born mid-1920s, was born in minsk (belarus), and my great-grandmother, born late 1920s, was born in kyiv (ukraine).

what this meant was that the largest, most deeply-rooted hubs of russian ashkenazi (jews that settled in eastern europe) culture were in belarus and ukraine. and this is true to this day; our connection to cities like odesa specifically are without compare. look at our gorgeous synagogues - 

refurbished choral synagogue, drohobich, building began 1844

the absolutely marvellous husiatyn synagogue, still standing, from 1654

the stunning kharkiv choral synagogue, largest in the country, 1909

the phenomenal rozenberg synagogue, 1895

brodsky synagogue in kyiv, 1898

there are still a significant amount of jews in ukraine, more proportionally than in russia (compare 0.16% to 0.11%). for a lot of us it is home. and lets talk about one of them.

2) i cannot BELIEVE that this is a point i need to bring up, but ukraine is one of the FIVE countries in the WORLD (with venezuela, panama, latvia, and, of course, israel) that has a jewish head of state. here’s volodymyr zelenskyy at the western wall in jerusalem, our holiest site:

and a link to him discussing his family’s holocaust story.

i don’t think i need to explain how it is inherently antisemitic to call any jew living on the ground our grandparents are ashes in, are buried without graves in, a nazi. i can genuinely feel bile coming up my throat dfkm how gross.

3) that doesn’t mean there aren’t extremists. in order to pseudo-engineer mass hysteria, russian bootlickers tend to bring up the azov battalion to showcase the extent of neonazism in ukraine.

this is true. they are neonazis. they are part of the national guard that was formed in response to russian occupation in 2014.

and they number around 300 people.

... 300.

those 300 people, who are volunteers, who do not have any role in government, are apparently the fascist government leading ukraine.

okay verdantmoontruther, i hear you say. that doesn’t mean there aren’t far-right extremists in power!

you’d be right! there’s svoboda, an ultranationalist party with extreme right-wing ideology.

and out of the 450 in the verkhovna rada (ukrainian parliament), they have 1 seat.

one.

because ukrainians have fought so hard for their government to be representative of their people, they fought so hard for zelenskyy and sluha narodu. they fought so hard against russia before. don’t leave them to the sharks now.

TL;DR stop spreading lies and misinformation regarding ukraine, antisemitism, and fascism, shut up and listen to us (and by us i mean ukrainians, russians, and jews).

[derangedhyena-delphinidae]

numerous issues with “The Aftermath of Seaworld”

When I get time to do so (aka when I’m done with the documentary), I’m likely going to make a video version of this going into the details. 

But for right now, I’ve made this. Both as a guideline for me and so everyone can begin to get an idea of the severity of issues involved.

Researching things is time-consuming and can be very difficult - believe me, I know. But I’m of the mind that if you’re making content with the intent of educating people, you have a responsibility to perform a certain level of due diligence. It IS okay to express uncertainty or doubt if you have it. It is NOT okay to confidently assert things that you do not know with certainty.

The video has an anticap slant, and I’m obviously not disagreeing on that front. But again: if you’re gonna go through the trouble of teaching people something. Bare minimum... please make sure it’s actually correct. *** 1) x ‘founded in 1964 and based out of Florida’ -  ???? Seaworld definitively began on the west coast, in San Diego, CA. And given that the first park opened in early 1964… things came together before that. Uh? 2) x ‘four people founded Seaworld [...]’ For one… it wasn’t originally conceived as a restaurant, it was originally conceived as an underwater bar/lounge. Two… calling the four guys involved in founding the place “frat brothers” is fucking ridiculous and completely overlooks a) how each was actually involved and b) the overall significance of their contributions to the field as individuals. Hint: like it or not, they were important and did a lot! 

3) x If one is going to bring up SWBGCF/rescues while talking about the literal founding of SW, it gives the impression that it’s been around for that duration. It hasn’t.  It’s actually a bit unclear when SW started an organized rescue program, but the Fund itself and all that it did came about much later. The rescue information and how it’s presented is actually INCREDIBLY complex, nuanced, and has a fascinating history (from a “bad company behaving badly” perspective). Oversimplifying this, to this degree and in this misinformative way, does the facts of the situation an INCREDIBLE disservice.  

4) x [assertive statement about what the name Shamu means]  ….Uh actually there’s several explanations for the name Shamu, and the most likely one IMO seems to be the “she-namu” one, not the “friend of Namu” one(? What is this even based on.) 4b) It’s not quite clear if she’s saying “Namu was the first ever orca to be displayed and perform shows” or or Namu was the first to be displayed and, like Shamu, performed shows. Either way, Moby Doll was the first to truly be displayed to the public, not Namu.

5) x ‘Namu died after one year in captivity and you’d think that this might deter Seaworld from doing the same thing again…’ Seaworld truly had nothing to do with Namu. And they leased/took possession of Shamu before Namu died. ‘Again’? What?

6) x “Now, PETA paints a pretty disturbing picture…” [while showing Okura’s artwork] This video segment is, and this is putting it nicely, a pile of poorly-researched BULLSHIT.  -Yes, PETA talks about Shamu’s capture, re: the harpooning of her mother. This Youtuber cannot apparently be arsed to look more than 1 Google search into this, as she proceeds to dismiss the information as potentially fabricated. There are two detailed accounts of Shamu’s capture that I’m aware of - in books - and though they have some slight conflicts, it’s absolutely NOT in doubt that the female who was very likely Shamu’s mother was 1) harpooned, 2) died from her injuries and 3) this had been done to make her easier to catch/locate because there was a fucking buoy attached to the harpoon. Which she dragged around for at least 24 hours prior dying.  So maybe don’t dismiss that as PETA hysteria, maybe TRY to determine the truth of the matter, which would inform one that it is both true and completely horrifying.  -In addition, Okura is an awesome individual who has worked very hard to create a variety of informative artwork for our cause. Okura is NOT associated with PETA and it’s borderline libel in my eyes to use their artwork in this dismissive manner when the primary sources of it can be easily identified online, with full explanations and everything. Do I take special offense to this because of the misuse of artwork? Absolutely. Artists get disrespected enough online. I’m tired of it. This kind of laziness IS NOT acceptable.

7) x ‘timeline is fuzzy about when Shamu died’ …………… it’s…. It’s really not … newspapers are pretty clear about it…..

8) x [complete and utter oversimplification of the lifespan issue, which is not acceptable for anything published in 2020. It just isn’t. If you’re going to bring it up like this, either do the legwork and get into the weeds or stay out.] 8b) [same for reproductive ages. sigh]

9) x if we’re going to talk about when Cornell was involved with Seaworld it’s very important to specify when Cornell was involved with Seaworld and not make it seem like it’s present tense.

10) x “both were rescued by Seaworld” - uh? no. Zero orcas have been rescued by Seaworld. Literally none. The infected-jaw orca was Sandy, whose story is complex and certainly does not involve Seaworld until much later. And many of the orcas in that time period had bullet wounds, often only identified post-mortem because they didn’t seem to hurt the animals much. Also, unflinchingly blending 70s captivity ethics with modern ones is also complete nonsense? 

11) x [tilikum coming from sealand] inhales I am going to make an entire video centered on this fucking subject because it’s one of the single most profound arguments for Seaworld being garbage as assessed by US government agencies in the 90s yet everyone utterly fails to mention this. Why?!

12) x what on earth is this nonsense re: quoting a quote from Zimmerman’s article - which has already been removed from its original context, so the original context is not available - and then penalizing the quote for existing as if Zimmerman’s article were the context? That is offensively disingenuous. I honestly don’t know what the original context is, either - but it’s wildly inappropriate to act as if the Zimmerman article is.

13) x this is relatively minor but ‘Paul Sprong’? You literally have his name on the screen. And then mis-reading his age too? While asserting it from a static article published years ago? Effort? Where is it?

14) x ‘another trainer, Peter’ ….. Ken Peters…. 

15) [weirdly glossing over the widely-available list of orca-trainer injuries/aggressions, despite it being central to the point.] 16) x This pilot whale outrage certainly happened but it was pretty clearly Blackfish that started the cascade of woes for Seaworld. Who has ever asserted this?

17) if you’re gonna just rehash blackfish, tell people to go watch blackfish.

18) x I’ve already gone over the context issue with Seaworld calling out Howard’s statement in Blackfish here (point 23). Which is to say, IN CONTEXT in Blackfish it’s clear what Mr. Garrett is talking about but, divorced from that, it sounds incorrect. But this Youtuber AMPLIFIES the issue by doubling down on the assertion with “no record of a killer whale doing any harm to anyone in the wild.” The surfer event should always be mentioned. Yes, there’s absolutely room for doubt. But there’s also a clear demarcation between an accidental attack (eg mistaken identity, as was likely for the surfer) and intentional one (eg the incidents at marine parks.) Why do people kneecap themselves on this point 18b) please stop acting like Luna represents orcas in general.

19) x “Howard, for all of his research…” … while referring to David Duffus’ b-roll and statements. Uh. 20) x Apparently this Youtuber has single-handedly resolved the dorsal fin issue. You know, the thing that hasn’t been properly researched ever, that has been subject to a ton of debate, that isn’t 100% settled for a variety of reasons, and almost everyone talks about in terms of theories and likely possibilities.  21) x Alexis Martinez wasn’t “torn to shreds.” In a space where even moderate exaggerations are often penalized harshly by the opposition, this kind of blatant nonsense is not welcome. Plus, the reality’s bad enough… you don’t have to make anything up!

22) x *sighs. points at own webpage*

23) Talking about the shows stopping without acknowledging how that’s a bit of a farce is something else. In addition to apparently just flipping to buying what Seaworld’s selling re: its ‘improved image.’ 

*** Tl;dr video is so unrelentingly full of errors ranging from small to egregious it makes me seriously concerned for the veracity of the rest of this person’s content. The maker of the video provided a list of their sources in their video description, which I will have time to look through in detail later. The above is solely a response to the information they present IN THE VIDEO - which, is very important because let’s be real: a lot of people are not going to look at the list of sources. People don’t even do it when citing papers (no really, you’d be surprised, fml.) For anyone who wants to whinge that I haven’t linked or asserted any sources of my own for my claims… well, remember what I said about time-consuming and ‘I’m busy’? Yhea. Getting all of that together will be part of making a video. So if you want to shrug loudly at my list here… you can, that’s your prerogative, I’m happy to say I DGAF if that’s your takeaway. 

What I hope, is that if there’s anything I’ve made clear over the While of running this blog, it’s that I don’t fuck around when it comes to sources and information and do my best to provide what information exists, all of it, not just cherrypicked bits and bobs. Anyways. Here’s step 0 at least. Please don’t share that video. Pretty please.

[kritantathegreat]

Please read!

Hey, American/western BSD fandom: it’s very weird to me how some of yall consume japanese media all the having no respect for japanese culture and people. I have no idea what’s up with some of you but you are not entitled to japanese media. Please stop talking over japanese people.

A certain someone on twitter, I have no idea if they have a tumblr account or if they are going to see this or not, spread awfully disgusting misinformation regarding Ougai Mori-sensei and his works. The statements were disrespectful and inaccurate- one of them accusing Mori-sensei of writing child s*xual ab*se material. When people decided to correct & educate them, several of those people being japanese themselves, that person started acting in an extremely aggressive manner. They accused people of being pedophiles and blocked anyone who tried to explain to them why and how the misinformation they were spreading is not only disrespectful, as Ougai Mori is one of the most important and influential figures when it comes to Japanese literature, but also dangerous. Mind you, they were as polite and well-intended as one could be in such frustrating situation. Of course, instead of taking accountability and apologising of even acknowledging that they were wrong, OP decided to simply block them and move on with their day, acting as if nothing has happened.

This is prime example of how westerners feel entitled to asian media. Anime isn’t your culture. Japanese literature isn’t your culture. You don’t understand the source material better than japanese people do. Now, I’m not familiar with the details but from what I know this isn’t the first time that person has harassed someone, namely Japanese people, for trying to educate and correct them on the Japanese media said person is consuming. The victim was a friend of mine. The whole ordeal ended up with my friend being degraded & bullied to the point where they had to deactivate their account and I had to worry about their safety as at that point they were dealing with a lot and the last thing they needed was to be cyber bullied.

I won’t be dropping any names as this is more in order to spread awareness and a plead to the rest of the bsd fandom - please don’t do shit like this and don’t make excuses if any of your fandom buddies is being a bigot. It’s disgusting and it saddens me that the fandom of a show I hold so dear allows things like this to happen. It’s disheartening. As I already mentioned, the person I’m talking about refused to take any accountability. They simply cussed people out, blocked people and moved on with their day. I don’t know if you are reading this but in case you are: all you were asked to do by the people you disrespected, was to apologise for spreading harmful info about their country’s literature. That’s literally it. The fact that you have the gal to not only speak and argue with people about their own culture but to insult them, block them and pretend that you did nothing wrong ever..says a lot about the type of person you are. Personally, I think that you are an irredeemable, xenophobic pos but I hope you’d prove me wrong and be better. It’s very easy not to be a bigot.

[sokkas-honour]

Hi there! Could you write for your #30 for your music playlist? Zuko x reader 😁😁 thank youuu!!!!

nothing has changed - zuko x reader

pairing: zuko x fem!reader

wc: 2.3k with lyrics

notes: reader is katara & sokka’s older sister! this time the lyrics are in bold + italic so that you don’t confuse them with the flashback + dream scenes, not that i think you would but just in case.

warnings: mention of sibling problems, if there’s anything else feel free to lmk!!

-

nothing's quite the same, as it has been on those familiar days,

as the night sky reigned above the fire nation, zuko looked out the window of his palace bedroom, memories flooding back from his time travelling around the world, away from his nation. wether it had been looking for the avatar or actually working with him, you had always somehow been there. first as his enemy, then as his friend, then as his lover.

he remembers the days where you’d find yourself fighting each other; he would attack you with his fire bending while you’d land hits with your battle club, knife or your whales tooth scimitar. when he’d feel nice, back in his avatar hunting days, he’d solely use his duel swords to make the playing field more even but he’d constantly forget that you were able to handle yourself even against benders. he had always found you to be beautiful and the tension between the two of you when you fought was undeniable.

he remembers when he tried to make amends with team avatar and even try to join, he remembers your initial reaction to it. you sided with your sister, not liking the idea of the boy who tried to hunt your friend, your siblings and yourself down, and the idea of accepting someone of the firenation, a nation that had taken your mother from you, into your friend group.

you came around before your sister, having joined your brother and zuko to try and free your father. he had proven himself in terms of having changed and as being a valuable member for the gaang. he still remembers exactly what you said when you came back from the trip.

“zuko!” you called before he could go too far, wanting to give some sort of privacy to the reuniting family. the ex prince stopped in his tracks as he waited for you to catch up to him.

“yeah?” he asked, unsure of what you would say. your brother had already made his amends with him but had warned that although you wouldn’t be as hard as katara, you still might take a little while to come around. either he was about to hear you accept him as part of the group, or you were about to, well he didn’t know.

“i wanted to say thank you. thanks for helping me get my father back. you really have changed.” zuko was a tad bit taken aback, not thinking he’d get your approval right after the trip but it didn’t bother him. a small weight seemed to be lifted off his shoulders. you gave him a proud smile and he felt his heart race.

“it was nothing. you both deserve to find your father again.” he blushed, bringing his hand to scratch the back of his neck awkwardly. he returned your smile with a small one.

all of a sudden, you grabbed your scimitar and pressed the sharp tooth end lightly on his neck. his heartrate sped up but it wasn’t fully from you being close but also out of fear, sokka hadn’t warned him about this. his eyes widened.

“but if you even dare double cross us. if you even dare lay a finger on either of my siblings, i won’t hesitate to hurt you.” your previously bright face turned dark as you threatened him, not moving your weapon from his neck until he nodded nervously. when he finally did, you lowered it and your face returned to what it was before.

“good, i’m happy to have you as part of the team zuko.” you put your hand on his shoulder as a sign of acceptance, accompanying it with a small grin before turning around to go reunite with both of your siblings and your father.

he laughed a bit at the memory, remembering the fear that he felt during those few seconds but also the weird attraction he still had while you threatened his life.

he also remembers when you both finally admitted your feelings for each other. unbeknownst to him, you had also felt some sort of weird attraction to him when he was still hunting the avatar but it went from a weird and almost uncomfortable attraction, to one of genuine caring and love.

you had both grown rather close after your rescue at the boiling rock, spending many moments together along the beach and in town. it was after seeing the horrible play about their mission thus far, your character seeming to constantly fight with katara over zuko while also being an annoying and overprotective sister, constantly belittling your sibling’s feelings.

zuko remembers you storming out right after the show closed, sokka’s and katara’s characters having almost insulted you multiple times and you just needed some air. the words of the characterised katara still ringing through your head. ‘you’re a terrible sister y/n.’

“hey y/n.” he approached you calmly as you leaned against the balcony, staring at the bright moon that had been your friend during many sleepless nights after your mother died and your father left.

“you ran out of there pretty fast so i just wanted to make sure that you were okay.” zuko informed, leaning his back against the balcony after you gave him no response. he turned his head towards you and searched for a reaction.

“yeah, the show was just.” you took a deep breath, thinking of a word to describe the monstrosity you had just seen. “horrible, let’s put it that way.”

zuko laughed at your bluntness. you turned your gaze away from the moon to zuko, a small smile creeping up on your face at his carefree and content expression. his laugh was also something you didn’t realise that you liked about him but the last couple of days had made you create a long list on things about him that made you swoon.

“that’s certainly one way to put it.” his laughter died down and he met your staring gaze, both of you not breaking it.

“listen, if there was anything happening between katara and you, or if there is anything, i’m totally cool with it.” you blurted out, needing to get it off your chest to have an answer on the relationship portrayed in the show. you knew that katara would’ve told you something if it were to happen but you had to be sure.

“why would? why would something be happening between katara and i?” zuko asked, confused at your question that seemed to have come out of nowhere. the firebender knew that he wasn’t great at expressing his feelings but he had hoped that he’d been somewhat obvious about the way he felt toward you.

“the show, in the show you two have a lot of romantic scenes. that’s literally one of the main fighting points for katara and i’s character, other than me being told i’m a useless and horrible sister.” you mumbled the last part. pushing yourself off from leaning over the balcony to stand up straight, body still not facing zuko.

“you do realise that the show is incredibly inaccurate?” he rose an eyebrow and stared you, confused as to why you would base your information on some horrible adaption.

“yeah but parts of it were true.” your head fell, letting the words of katara’s character get to you.

“hey, you’re not a horrible sister. in fact, i know that sokka and katara would say the opposite, in fact, they already have! multiple times!” zuko wasn’t about to let you beat yourself up over a badly interpreted story that was based off of misinformation. he put his hand on your cheek that had since turned away from him. when you felt his warm hand, your brought yours up to put it on top of it, letting your head settle against his hand and turned to fully face him.

“i know it’s just. katara and sokka have always been closer and, i sometimes neglected katara and was overprotective of her. i had always been closer to my dad so i had no idea how to deal with her and was just jealous of the attention she got as the youngest.” you admitted, not wanting to look into zuko’s eyes as you confessed something that not even your siblings knew.

“that doesn’t mean your a bad sister. katara and sokka both love you and know how much you love and care for them.” he caressed your cheek with his thumb in a caring manor as you finally met his caring gaze once more.

“thanks zuko.” you smiled in recognition, thanking him for his comforting words.

“and not only do katara and sokka love you for who you are, i love you for who you are. the y/n in the show was nothing like the y/n i know.” he ranted, not noticing his confession that slipped but you caught it and a huge smirk grew on your face.

“what?” he stopped talking when he noticed your mischievous grin.

“you love me? zuko we only became friends like two weeks ago.” you laughed, butterflies still dancing in your stomach at the idea of him feeling so strongly towards you in such little time.

“i mean i dont if it’s love but it’s definitely something similar. i like you y/n. you keep me on my toes, you make me laugh, you challenge me to be a better person.” he clarified his previous statement which just made things even better for you.

“uh huh.” you nodded, indicating him to keep going. zuko usually wasn’t the one to have a lot to say but tonight seemed to be a special night.

“and after seeing all the horrible things i’ve done, not only in person, but theyve all gotten thrown back into our faces tonight. it’s totally understandable if you’re not there yet to completely forgive me, i mean i would but.” zuko’s out of character rambling continued, making you laugh but you couldn’t keep letting the poor boy dig himself an even deeper hole so you took a deep breath and grabbed his hand to remove it from your cheek so you could lean in and press your lips against his in order to shut him up.

zuko’s eyes widened in surprise, taken aback by your bold action but you were always the one to take bold moves. after the initial shock, zuko eagerly kissed back, moving his hands to your waist in order to bring you closer to deeper the kiss. some part of him had been waiting for this moment ever since he had laid eyes on you.

“spirits zuko, you never talk that much.” you teased once you broke apart from the kiss which just earned a blush from the raven haired boy.

“well um, i.” zuko stumbled, failing to find a reason for his previous ranting but he never got the chance to answer as you pecked his lips , and you both got interrupted by a certain watertribe boy.

“y/n!” you heard your brother call out, probably concerned at your running away and the fact that you still hadn’t come back.

“looks like sokka’s calling me, if you don’t mind.” zuko unwrapped his arms from your waist and you started walking back inside to the voice who called you. you made sure to send a wink in his direction before you left, leaving the banished prince blushing and with a stupid smile on his face.

zuko grinned as he thought about your first kiss. he sighed happily and went under the covers to doze off and let sleep take over temporarily.

i dream about an old familiar face, then wake up and you're gone without a trace,

“zuko!” the firelord lifted his head up and saw you running towards him down the long hallway of the palace. enormous smile on your face at the sigh of your boyfriend at the end of the hallway.

“y/n!” he greeted you with a mirroring expression and a hug when you finally reached him. arms wrapping around your waist as you cuddled into his chest.

“ i missed you.” you mumbled into his chest, feeling his chest rumble as he chuckled at your statement.

“i missed you too.” he replied, eyes meeting yours as you lifted your head to look at him. he used one of his hands to move the hair out of your face before placing his lips softly onto yours.

“i have news.” you announced as you broke the kiss, a huge grin on your face as you looked up at zuko with an infinite amount of love.

“which is?” he asked, not knowing if he should be concerned or excited.

“well, as you know i went to see katara while i went home and you’ll never guess what she told me! i’m pregnant!” you told zuko the news and you swear you saw him panic for a split second before he fully processed the information and his face was replaced with pure bliss.

“really?” he didn’t believe it, you two were finlay going to have a child together. who would’ve thought back then when you two fought against each other that you would’ve been carrying his future child. you simply nodded before he leaned back into kiss you.

he woke up in the morning, thinking that his dream was a memory and that you were laying right next to him but as he turned around, he was met with an empty bed. he sighed slightly, you were still away in the south pole with your family as you had been for months. nonetheless, he was happy to have dreamed about your beautiful face.

and though you're away, nothing has changed, we always made it out, even when im old and blue, i’ll think about my time with you.

when he stepped out of his chamber, he was met with a servant giving him a scroll, no doubt a message from you. the firelord thanked them before returning to his room to read in peace.

whenever one of you were gone on a mission somewhere in one of the four nations, you both communicated through letters so that you could keep in touch. it would also serve as a way to your future selves to look back in the early moments in your relationship fondly. you’d always have memories that would never go away written in those scrolls.

atla taglist: @draqondance @biqherosix @missmorosis @firelady-jay

zuko taglist: @duh-dobrik

[rantingcrocodile]

It feels wrong to interact with vocal bisexuals on radfem tumblr. I myself am bisexual but I’m also autistic and struggle to understand intellectual conversations and take things personal. I have trouble finding a voice for myself and fear hurting others with my selfish need to feel validated. When I openly made an alt to reblog content I followed the first people I saw, who eventually turned out to be racist or homophobic straight women with the evidence provided in long formats by other popular bloggers. I unfollowed them and followed the new blogs who called them out. I’ve always been uncomfortable hearing the term bihet because it felt similar to being called mixed in a derogatory way. Yet despite this I still ignored it and saw it similar to how you’d make fun of white straight people in libfem circles and saw my personal discomfort as a sign of bigotry. I ended up finding your blog and felt validated by a lot of it but someone I followed said you posted misinformation and lied, so I deleted my reblogs and went on my way. Someone I casually followed more so for humor called out a women for calling bisexuals demons and dick oppressed and I thought “of course this is wrong, look how violently she’s talking about a sexuality she personally dislikes, even if she’s valid in disliking them”. I assumed all the larger blogs I followed would agree with it and say it was hostile towards bisexuals but, they all said she was in the right to openly talk about her abuse and she, in private, is a wonderful women who doesn’t hate bisexuals. I’m still struggling with how I feel about all that and I’ll never agree with or say lesbians hurt bisexuals, but there’s a chance they could spread misinformation about them by accident. I’m trying to feel more comfortable interacting with other bisexuals but it’s still going to loom over me that I’m being bigoted and homophobic by agreeing with some of your points and interacting with you. I don’t want to harm people and I don’t want to be harmed, but I think it’s all my personal fault for not understanding a lot and being so quick to get hurt over name calling

This is long, so for my own benefit (and hopefully yours too!) I'm going to break it down and answer it a bit at a time so I don't accidentally gloss over anything. You've taken the time to write this all out to me, so you deserve my time in answering it fully.

It feels wrong to interact with vocal bisexuals on radfem tumblr.

Honestly, it probably feels wrong because of how hated bisexuals are on radblr, unless those bisexuals agree with hating other bisexuals, or say nothing when there's biphobia.

I myself am bisexual but I’m also autistic and struggle to understand intellectual conversations and take things personal.

It’s pretty normal to take things personally, don’t worry about that. It takes a ton of practice and life experience to stop taking things personally and plenty of others who are much older than you’ll be take things personally, too.

If there’s anything that I say that I don’t word well enough, please let me know! That would be my fault for not being clear enough, not your fault for not understanding. <3

I have trouble finding a voice for myself and fear hurting others with my selfish need to feel validated. 

You would only hurt others if your need to be validated ended up invalidating them.

For example: “trans women” that say they’re lesbians want to be validated, but that invalidates actual lesbians. That’s something that’s selfish and hurts others. You wanting to be validated based on your bisexuality or anything else that’s personal to you won’t hurt others. 

It’s incredibly hard to find and use your voice, particularly online, when far too many people often rush to attack others. That’s also not a “you” problem, that’s a common problem, too. Especially being women, when we’re taught from a young age that our voices don’t matter.

When I openly made an alt to reblog content I followed the first people I saw, who eventually turned out to be racist or homophobic straight women with the evidence provided in long formats by other popular bloggers. I unfollowed them and followed the new blogs who called them out.

I’m really sorry that that was your first experience! The thing is, unless people are being constantly racist or homophobic, it’s very easy to miss posts from them that are racist or homophobic, or bigoted in any other way. Real life happens, too, and you can’t be expected to know everything that everyone you follow thinks or has written. 

It’s a great thing that you saw how harmful they were and unfollowed them, and that’s the only thing that counts here. 

I’ve always been uncomfortable hearing the term bihet because it felt similar to being called mixed in a derogatory way. Yet despite this I still ignored it and saw it similar to how you’d make fun of white straight people in libfem circles and saw my personal discomfort as a sign of bigotry.

“Bihet” makes absolutely no sense and is deliberately used in a derogatory way. Biphobes try to gaslight bisexuals with internalised biphobia by pretending that it’s somehow about “bisexuals in opposite-sex relationships” even though we all know how much radblr (rightfully!) hates the term “bi lesbian” and would (rightfully!) never accept a bisexual being called a “bihomo.” 

But what you’re describing there is more gaslighting. How can it be a sign of bigotry to feel hurt or uncomfortable by a word being used like a slur? That isn’t being bigoted to anyone else. That’s saying that you don’t want people to use that term. Others not using that term doesn’t harm them and isn’t bigoted to them. It’s all biphobes twisting themselves in knots to try and silence bisexuals and pretend that biphobia isn’t a big deal.

They have nothing in common with the mockery of straight, white people as a group. They have more in common with the people that pretend attacking “white women” isn’t misogyny.

I ended up finding your blog and felt validated by a lot of it but someone I followed said you posted misinformation and lied, so I deleted my reblogs and went on my way.

I can guess who said that. At no point have I ever posted misinformation and I have never lied. 

Ironically, the people lying about that only prove that biphobia exists, because they’re deliberately smearing me and lying about me for no other reason other than I call out biphobia. They don’t want to admit that biphobia is real and a problem because if they do admit that, they would have to admit being biphobic and would have to apologise for that and improve as people. They’re so arrogant and enjoy being biphobic that they can’t do that. It only shows how awful they are as individuals.

Someone I casually followed more so for humor called out a women for calling bisexuals demons and dick oppressed and I thought “of course this is wrong, look how violently she’s talking about a sexuality she personally dislikes, even if she’s valid in disliking them”. 

Exactly.

I would say this though: when is anyone valid in disliking an entire oppressed group? That’s bigotry, automatically.

Lesbians and gay men don’t oppress each other based on being lesbians and gay men, but gay men can be hateful and bigoted towards lesbians, and lesbians can be hateful and bigoted towards gay men. If a lesbian said she “hates all gay men” because of a few who behaved badly, that would be homophobic and wrong. It would be wrong the other way around, too. There’s no “oppressed” and “oppressor” when it comes to their sexualities. It would be fair for lesbians to say they didn’t trust gay men because they’re men, but nothing else.

I assumed all the larger blogs I followed would agree with it and say it was hostile towards bisexuals but, they all said she was in the right to openly talk about her abuse and she, in private, is a wonderful women who doesn’t hate bisexuals.

That’s because radblr is deeply biphobic and will always take the biphobe’s side over any bisexual. The few big bisexual bloggers don’t talk about biphobia, as far as I’ve seen, and there’s constant sucking up to biphobes. It’s infuriating to me personally, considering this is supposed to be a space that encourages critical thinking, but really, like every other online space, it’s about a cult of personality and users trying to say whatever they can to gain as many followers as possible, and I find that to be both cowardly and pathetic.

I’m still struggling with how I feel about all that and I’ll never agree with or say lesbians hurt bisexuals, but there’s a chance they could spread misinformation about them by accident.

Lesbians as a group do not harm bisexuals as a group. Bisexuals as a group do not harm lesbians as a group. We’re both individual groups who are oppressed by straight people, that’s all.

There are individual lesbians who are biphobic, and then a whole bunch more biphobes that suck up to those lesbians because a lot of radblr has this childish belief that “lesbian = better feminist” and “lesbian = more important than everyone else” when it just isn’t true. 

What I want more than anything is for there to be an end to biphobia being accepted and actual solidarity between lesbians and bisexuals.

I follow some amazing lesbians and have spoken to great lesbians, and we support each other. It’s definitely not an “us vs them” situation, it’s a “horrible people vs nice people” situation.

I’m trying to feel more comfortable interacting with other bisexuals but it’s still going to loom over me that I’m being bigoted and homophobic by agreeing with some of your points and interacting with you.

The most important thing for you, always, is to feel as safe as possible personally. If you want to interact with me in secret and learn things, then I completely support that. If you want to DM me to talk, then that stays private now and forever. 

The fact is, though, that there is nothing at all that’s bigoted or homophobic about me saying, “Hey, bisexuals are oppressed for being bisexual” and “We should treat biphobia as seriously as homophobia.” There is nothing homophobic in that and there is nothing bigoted in that. Those are pathetic lies by biphobes that are desperate to silence me.

The problem with that specific group, quite frankly, is that they underestimated my intelligence. They tried to silence me by calling me homophobic and racist, and as soon as I slapped those arguments down, they all suddenly stopped interacting with me, because they have no actual arguments. They focus their attacks on bisexuals that are less certain. It’s what bigots in general always end up trying to do, and it shows their cowardice and desperation to keep being “allowed” to be bigoted.

I don’t want to harm people and I don’t want to be harmed, but I think it’s all my personal fault for not understanding a lot and being so quick to get hurt over name calling

None of that is your fault.

First of all, the most intelligent people can make the most complicated subject easy to understand to any random person on the street. If you’re not sure about what someone else is saying, then that’s their problem, and they need to explain it in a different way so it actually makes more sense. If they can’t explain it in a different way, then that proves that they don’t actually understand what they’re talking about in the first place.

Secondly, of course name-calling is hurtful. It’s always hurtful. You’re a human being and you’re allowed to feel hurt or upset over name-calling.

If you want my honest opinion - and I think you do, because otherwise, you would never have sent me a message in the first place - I think you should unfollow all the biphobes and block them. I think that you deserve to have a space online where you’re not being gaslighted into feeling “bad” about something that’s perfectly understandable.

If you’re interested in radical feminism, why should you have to deal with so-called “feminists” that obsess over hating a specific group of women? That’s not only a sign of their biphobia, but also that they’re misogynistic. They have to be, obsessing over hating bisexual women like we’re the “acceptable” group of women to hate. 

Why should you have to put up with people that make you feel guilty for being hurt?

I personally don’t think you should. I think you should have a safe space with people who respect you, where you can practice using your voice without fear, where you’re allowed to feel hurt, where your sexuality is respected.

If you can’t do that, I completely understand. Like I said, you have to put yourself and your personal safety first. In the meantime, think about what I’ve said. If I haven’t been clear enough, let me know and I’ll reword it. If you ever want to talk, please just send me a message and we can talk. I’ll be right there as soon as I’m online, and I’ll always be here for you to talk, and it’ll always be entirely private. No one will ever know that we’ve talked unless you say that we’ve talked.

But if you don’t take anything else away from this long response: please stop blaming yourself. It’s not your fault at all, I promise.