#thread: this sport isn't even real

[rotisseries]

I'm so unbelievably susceptible to the famous secret relationship trope it's unreal actually

[chrissy-kaos]

If we're too masculine then we're disgusting freaks. They collect the most masculine of us - innocent women minding their own business trying to live a life that was denied to them - and mock us, openly discussing how nobody could ever love us, how nobody could be fooled that we're women.

If we're too feminine then we're stupid men. They find the most tone deaf quotes from trans girls, usually those who have been out for only months if they're out at all. They find these quotes of girls still learning how to be women, post them everywhere as proof that we are just pantomime caricatures of women.

If we are too strong then we are violent and dangerous. We are an unfair factor in sport, evil men just trying to steal victories from real women. We could lose our temper at any moment. We are a risk that cannot be tolerated. If we're too weak then we are to be mocked. They call us failed men who ran to womanhood because we couldn't take it. We're victims of our own masculinity. Poor feminine men to be saved... In the same way that Republicans want to save those 'poor unborn babies.'

If we lose our temper we're back to dangerous men. But if we cry, if our shoulders buckle under the weight of endless, endless, ENDLESS, ENDLESS, ABUSE. Then they mock us again. They share pictures of trans women crying and laugh over it. Of course they make sure to find the pictures where our stubble is showing, our makeup has already run. It's not the way that women are mocked for weakness; it's the way men are. They find videos where are lips are trembling. Where our voice has gone deep because we don't have the energy to keep it at its heightened octave.

If we find ourselves ugly they mock us. But if we're happy with ourselves then we're disgusting degenerates. "Autogynephilic." Medicalized. They find the tweets of newly out girls who said something improper in their tiny moment of not guarding themselves. An awkward, amateurish attempt at roleplay or dirty talk becomes a meme. A woman who likely spent years growing the courage to begin sexual exploration, probably for the first time in her life, sees herself come up every so often in their replies, their threads, their gifs. What happens to these people? Is it even possible for them to ever resume that exploration?

We're trying to trick everyone into dating us. We should be required to show visible identification on us at all times; to be trans without the people around you knowing is deceit. But also, nobody would ever date us, everyone can tell, immediately, always. Everyone knows, the terfs say GLEEFULLY. Reveling in the idea that our subconscious is constantly telling us this. Basking in the thought of our depression and anxiety eating our minds until there's nothing left.

Even the terfs never stay the same for long. One moment it's a wall of 'concerned mothers' with all the passive-aggressive venom of a white woman calling the police because she doesn't want to put a leash on her dog; make ABSOLUTELY NO MISTAKE that these are the same people. The next it's anime-avatar alt righters. The next it's puritanical Christians claiming we are the natural result of the "rainbow agenda." It's lesbians saying that we're destroying lesbianism, following right on the heels of a pastor saying that anything that isn't a man and a woman is unnatural.

Half the URLs are Mumsnet and half are Kiwifarms. How many are bots? Sock puppets? How many really are just transphobic housewives accessing Kiwifarms from their phones? How many took the full plunge? The answer to all of the above is, we don't know, but it's a whole lot more than zero.

Every time we go into a bathroom, there's a chance we'll be the next screen shot pasted over reddit. It doesn't matter whether it's the men's or women's. They are equally unsafe.

If we need a women's shelter, we flip a coin on whether the person running it has already decided she hates us, because of these people.

We cannot upload a picture to facebook without this risk.

We cannot post about our lives without this risk.

We cannot appear at our work without this risk.

We cannot exist without this risk.

Every possible action we could take will be judged. There is no outcome that isn't negative. There is nothing we can do that isn't negative. Masculinine, feminine, pretty, ugly, angry, sad, sexual, frigid, proud, ashamed, strong, weak. Pre-op, post-op, non-op. Vagina, ovaries, chromosomes, fertility: womanhood is defined as whatever we aren't in that particular context.

I don't want to think about how many people this has killed. To call it a moving goal-post is inept, it is a void, an endless mass of hatred that follows us no matter what we do. Nothing is good enough. Everything, every single thing, is just waiting to be weaponized against us.

It has killed so, so many.

It won't kill any more.

If you're trans and you're reading this you already know everything I said. We've lived through it. You already know that I've spent time as all of the above because you have too. That when I get SIX HUNDRED COMMENTS calling me a man I want to swing my fists and I want to cry and I want to curl into a ball and I want to scream and I want to end my own miserable existence. The ugly beautiful girl in the mirror is so angry and sad and prideful and ashamed and violent and passive and this constant stream of abuse has torn me apart and created so many ugly things in this mind but if there is ONE. FUCKING. THING. THAT. THEY. WILL. NOT. MAKE. ME.

It is dead.

I will live. I will survive. And I don't even care about justice anymore. These people will get away with all this. Somewhere in that mix of the trans population and the infamous 40% number is a figure of how many people they've killed, but they'd never care. I'll live because all of their jeering and mocking and gaslighting and those goddamn fucking insufferable legions of laugh reacts, they don't do a fucking thing.

That's all it comes down to in the end. It's hard and it's painful and it hurts, it just ENDLESSLY hurts to weather their blows. But my name is Alexia. I am a woman.

You can hurt me all you like, but that won't change, and you can die mad about it.

- Lindwyrm Weisseritter

[iwaoiness]

It happens on the fourth day of the second week of the VNL. Akane Yamamoto finally gets the chance to interview Iwaizumi in person, who is happy to speak with her again and compliments her about her new role as a sports journalist at the renowned television network.

The interview flows in an engaging and even fun manner. All the questions focus on JNT, the most problematic players he has encountered, his routines, and his professional future with the team. Iwaizumi laughs at a few responses, and Akane really enjoys the conversation.

Then, Hajime's smartwatch starts to vibrate remembering the meeting with the technical team and the coach.

Akane apologizes and asks for just five more minutes, which Iwaizumi happily grants, postponing the alarm. She quickly reviews her notebook, sighing in relief when there is only one last question left to ask. She then looks up at the athletic trainer again, her smile widening.

"Iwaizumi-sensei, there is one last thing all the viewers want to know before we say goodbye and wish you the best of luck for the match against Poland. Since today is your birthday, what would be the perfect gift for you?" she asks, directing the microphone towards Iwaizumi.

Akane hopes he will respond with something as cool as winning today's match or securing first place in the tournament. Or perhaps he will simply wish for health and a bright future for the JNT. Or maybe he'll ask for a raise for being the professional babysitter of the monster generation. Or he might just laugh, unsure of what to wish for.

What Akane doesn't expect is for Iwaizumi to smile warmly and soft, his gaze fixed beyond her, and then to gesture in that direction with his chin.

"That."

In a flash, both Akane and the camera held by her cameraman swiftly turn around.

Near the billboards, just a few meters away, Oikawa Tooru is kneeling in front of a little girl no older than ten, scribbling on a towel resting on his thigh. He looks radiant, his hair tousled from his recent victory over Germany, his blue shirt clinging to his broad torso like a second skin, his new compression sleeves wrapping around his chiseled muscles of his arms, and his knee pads now resting at his ankles.

He smiles genuinely at whatever the little girl is enthusiastically telling him, oblivious to the camera and Hajime's gaze. When he finishes signing the towel, he hands it to her, and she squeals with delight, proudly showing it to her mother before giving Oikawa a high five and saying goodbye.

As Tooru stands up, a shy young boy approaches him, holding a volleyball under his arm and a black marker in his hand. And Oikawa greets him with the same genuine happiness as before.

Both the cameraman and Akane return to Hajime. The journalist, cheeks flushed, closes her mouth, which she had unconsciously left open, and blinks at Iwaizumi like an owl. He looks at her, amused, with his hands in his pockets.

"Isn't my gift so pretty?"

That segment of the interview goes viral within days (just a few weeks before the All Star Match, for Kuroo's delight). Countless theories are published, the most popular being the true meaning of the ring Oikawa always ties to his shoelaces during every match—not a good luck charm, but a real engagement ring (Tooru didn't help by responding to the entire thread with a simple o(≧▽≦)o). A certain Hanamaki begins accepting interviews (with payment upfront, of course) only to answer ambiguously and send greetings to his mother from various networks. A certain Matsukawa gives away I <3 IwaOi shirts with the purchase of a coffin. And Oikawa finally re-uploads all the photos with Iwaizumi to his public account, from the selfie where Tooru playfully bites Hajime's cheek while he laughs, to the photo of his hand on Iwaizumi's solid, muscular, and broad back, his long fingers caressing the scratches at the height of his shoulder blades and the trail of hickeys on his neck.

...

every june day it's iwa's day

u can find me on my ao3 🍉

[roachemoji]

Stranger Things Season 4 Thread!!!!!!!! 04 01

theres NO realistic way in hell some kid was chucking that shit every damn day and making it !!!!!!!!! bro would have smacked someone in the fucking FACE by now!!!!!

starting off with a freak ass routine gotcha gotcha gotcha !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

aGAGGLE OF BALD CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

its been. 4 minutes and im already so uncomfortable with how they hold the kids hands to lead them around lmao

Brenner cant draw for SHIT girl if that was me id tell him i dont know bc its fucking UGLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH. HES RIGHT.

GOD hes. i hate hate hate hate hate hate his fucking face it makes me so uncomfortable.

GIRL HELLO !!!!!!!!! DAMN LMAO

EXPLODES THEM EXPLODESTHEM EXPLODES THEM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the TONE shift from the last season is really getting to me girlie like that last one didnt feel REAL and this one feels VERY present. even with the rainbow visuals in the room?

OUGHH GOD HES SO UNCOMFORTABLE.

HIS EXPRESSIONS ARE SO ???? HIS GASP SEEING A DEAD KID??? IDK HOW TO PLACE IT.

damn girlie what did you do !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EL'S !!!! FUCKING AUTISM ACCENT? LOVE HER. LOVE HER.

ARGYLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GODIM SO EXCITED TO MEET HIM !!!!!

I CANT PUT INTO WORDSS HOW MUCH I LOVE THE TONE SHIFT AND THEM BEING OLDER AND EL'S LETTER TO MIKE BEING !!!! SO.

THEYRE ALL SO BIG NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KAREN LOOKS SO CUTE AND TED? KILLS HIM.

SUZZIIEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND DUSTIN <3333333 THEYRE SO CUTE

STEVE AND ROBIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PEOOPLE WHO LIKE BOOBIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCK ING STE VE. BI MEN AND THEIR LESBIAN BESTIES ???

MAX IS NOT BEATING THE TRANS MASC ALLEGATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT NOW NOT EVER NOT IN MY HEART

UCAS LOOK SO FU CKING GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!! HIS HAIIRRRRRR

WHO TH FUCK IS THIS ARCHIE LOOKING WHITE MAN ?????

THEIR PANTS ARE TEAR AWAY ? I GUESS THOSE HAVE A FUCKING USE .... WHEN IT COMES TO SPORTS ? BUT STILL KAJDSHKJHADS IM FU CKING KAJHDKJAHSD. THEY DIDNT DIE SO WE WOULD LOOSE AT BASKETBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHUT UP

Lucas is making a good ass point butalso im so sorry he doesnt wanna be a loser nerd freak anymore :pensive:

the fu cCKING RUSSIANS LAKJSHDAKSJHDKJ HDAMN GIRLIE HOLY SHIT BE CAREFUL ? EW. EW? WHOSE THE LITTLE WHITE WOMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH ELL BABY YOU GOT THIS. YOU GOT THIS!!!! GO AUTISM GIRLIE!!!!!!!!

IM GONNA KILL. EVERYONE IN THAT ROOM. !! PLEASE LET HER JUST. OUGHHGH GODD. WILL TEARING UP TOO. FUCKING EXPLODE HER!!!!!! EXPLODE THAT FUCKING. BITCH HOLY SHIT ?

WILL IS.

MAX ?? QUEER WHATS WITH THE... GREEN SCRUNCHIE?? THAT THE OTHER GIRLIES HAVE

LUCAS approaching Max who... is the only one who is like ? LOUDLY suffering with shit after watching Billy die and be traumatized vs the core group not NOT being traumatized but handling it VERY DIFFERENTLY ? like they always "bounced back" and Max isn't

o h JESUS WHAT THE FUCK HELLO ?????? bro aksjdhkasjhakhkKJHDFKJSDHFKJH DAMN I WOULD NOT HAVE LEFT THAT BATHROOM HELLO WHAT THE FUCK

Eddie doesnt SOUND like i thought he would ???? AKDHAKDJH i forgot about the hanky code my mans wearing

dustiinnNNSFNKJKSJH DUSTIN. AKJSDH!!!!!! MIKE'S FACE.

Eddie's vibe is. AKHASKDJASHD like my ex boyfriend from highschool

MURRYYYY !!! MISSED HIM. LOVE HIM. RIP ALEXEI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

she has nIPPLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ARGYLE AKSJHDKASJH!!!!!!!!!! MOPEY DICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NANCY LOOKS SO CUTE!!!

ARGYLE CALLING HIM A FUCKING GOOD BOY KJHSDKAHADSKJHADSKJH YELLING

im sorry literally N OON wants to play DnD you just have to find the gay people !!!!!!!!!!!!!! (40 years from now)

Out h ere being Mentally ill in da Woods as you do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what gay ass drugs are we selling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh hes DRAMATIC fucking theater kid. that man's NOT STRAIGHT !!!! and also defenitely has ADHD. chewing on his fucking HAIR !!! stimming i see u !!

EL BABY GIRL IM SO SORRY I WAN T TO EXPLODE THE WORLD FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WANT TO KILL FOR HER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOY SHIT . MAKE THEM PISS THEIR PANTS GIRL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OO OoOOO H BABAKJSHD I FORGOT HER POW ERS ARENT ,,, WO RK ING,,, ABY IM,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, THIS IS FUCKING PAINFUL.

tHE focus not having been on Will the entire time except for a snippet here and there is REALLY NICE ACTUALLY likE!!! IDK BUT IT IS. TTHAT MANS FIGURING OUT HES QUEER TOO

MURRY JADKASLASKLJSADKJ !!!! MY MAN ABSOLUTEL LOSING HIS MIND

sTEVE IM AKSDJHS SORRY GIRLIE LMAOOOOOO fuc kinggGGGG TAMMMYYYYY AKSDJAKDHAKJSDHKAJSHD ROBINNN GIRLIEE IM SO FUCKING SORRRYY. JDKLKJDLKJFDSJLKDF I WA NNA FUCKING.

ERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BABY GIRL IS BACKKKK YEAHHHH FUCKING LOVE HER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND HER HAIIIRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CANT WAIT FOR HER TO DESTROY EDDIE

DESTROY HIM DESTROY HIM DESTROY HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the fucking mountain dew cansssss his DM set up is so good

I JUST LOVE HOW DND IS USED AS FORESHADOWING BABEY !!!

Dusstin and Erica working together like THIS IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UGH. love u lady applejack <33333

FUCKING GET IT ERICA!!!! LUCAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASSSEEEEEEEEE

YYYEAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i thOUGHT he was tlking to like a lizard and not a guitar AKSJD

IS Chrissy just experiencing like a psychotic break ?? delusions??? I cant tell if its like. ACTUALLY happening to her or something to do with the UD ? Dissociative seizures????? DISSOCIATIVE SEIZURES AND THE UD ?????

FEEL LIKE ALL THE SPIDER VISUALS AND SHIT ARE IMPORTANT AND I JUST DONT KNOW HOW YET !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH IS THIS VECNA ? SIR !! YOURE. WET :/

BRO HELLO WHAT

KING WHAT DOES THAT M EAN

ASDASKJHD KASHDKASJH SORRY TO EDDIE WHO THOUGH YEAHHH A FRIEND :3c

GIRL WAHT THE FUCK EXORCIST SHIT HOLY HSHKJASJK LSHAJKHAD HE RE YEB ALLS!!!!!!!!! BROOOO AKSJDHKASHDKASHD

yeah so season 3 was. liike. different and now ? we're back at it!!!! we're back at it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ALSRRIGH alright

ending with a half song again no lyrics inchresting

[rpmemesbyarat]

RP Memes from Reddit’s Thread “What’s a casual unpopular opinion you will always stand on?”

“I really don't feel the need to update my wardrobe to "modernize" it. “

“People who tell you that they're "brutally honest" are usually just mean.” “Leagues don’t exist in dating. You never know who someone would be into.” “I prefer my water plain. Never liked any flavored, carbonated, sparkling water, or whatever else that isn't just plain water.” “Over half the dog owners are terrible pet owners, let their dogs do whatever it desires and don't deserve to own any pets.” “Here’s my hot take: I actually love rainy days!” “I think its great to be lazy and not be permanently on " The Grind" or giving your 100% in your day to day experience on a regular.” “Plain lettuce is delicious.” “People who don’t like cats are people who get offended by being told no or things don’t go their way.” “I don't like lemon in my water. If a restaurant serves me water with lemon in it, I'll fish it out with silverware.” “Winter is my favorite season.” “Grey vinyl plank floors are the ugliest, cheapest looking, tackiest thing you can install in a home and I wish they would be outlawed for assaulting my eyes for the past 10 years. “ “Barbecue sauce is disgusting on anything and always makes a dish worse.” “When eating a string cheese, I don’t pull it into “strings” I just bite it.” “Death is a part of life and shouldn't be feared in the way it is.” “Alcohol sucks in every way.” “You can typically fix being cold but it’s harder to fix being hot.” “New car smell is gross. It literally makes me want to vomit.” “There are much worse things in life than being alone.” “I think chocolate is boring and overrated.” “Tea is better than coffee.” “I refuse to sleep naked.” “Residential recycling doesn't work. More than half of that stuff ends up in the trash anyway.” “I could eat mustard straight. It’s the best.” “I love sleeping with socks on. It's like a blanket just for my feet.” “My unpopular opinion is I like QR code menus. And even more if I can order directly from it.” “Toast must be burnt. Unburned toast is just warm bread.” “Pineapple goes on pizza and it’s delicious.” “Pot is not as cool as everybody thinks it is. It is overrated and stinks way worse than people think.” “Fried eggs are the best food ever. If there were no side effects, I'd eat three meals of them everyday for the rest of my life.” “You can’t just change your sports team because they are losing. Pick a team and stay with them.” “Its pop not soda! The bubbles go pop. This is one of my strongest opinions and I will never back down to a soda-er.” “We can change at any age.” “It's never too early to decorate for a holiday you like.” “Iced coffee is INSANELY overrated.” “Don’t listen to those that have been successful. These people are an example of survivorship bias.” “Vegetables are actually very tasty in raw and all other forms. A carrot or a celery stick is as fun to me as chips or biscuits.” “I think it's a weird flex to brag you have no friends or that you hate people” “Salt and vinegar chips are amazing. I don't care how much it hurts my tongue.” “The tooth fairy is real.” “Milk should always be poured before cereal. Soggy cereal is disgusting.” “Mayonnaise doesn't taste good, and neither does ketchup.” “Flat soda is delicious. They should just make cola and rootbeer flavored water.” “Not every sandwich needs cheese on it.”

[nanatsuyu]

https://x.com/nanatsuyu/status/1660987055004852224 ELABORATION PLS ?!? 👁️👁️

oh man I haven't thought about this post in a while!!

When I'm feeling particularly masochistic I like to rotate the idea in my head that Kevin is aware of his part in the narrative and it /genuinely/ dawns on him some time before he graduates that Kayleigh's passing wasn't an accident

so I haven't read all of the ec, tsc or everything Nora has ever said so I don't know if it's been touched on canonically but I imagine it probably occurs to kevin rather abruptly one day that Kayleigh wasn't just in some accident when he was younger

again I'm running on assumptions here and what I know at present time, and I touched on some of this later in the thread, but it's too convenient of a death to just be 'accidental'. there's no real elaboration behind what happened and one of the easiest ways to get rid of someone and cover it up easy is a car crash. also everything comes in threes and having two other car related incidents with mothers seems a bit on the nose.

I don't think it's ever mentioned (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong I'm not an authority by any means) if Kevin was with her or not, and it's never mentioned whether it's suspected that she was worried for her life or anything in her letter. (I feel that would have been brought up if so. I think it just touched on who Kevin's father was and maybe something sentimental etc. feels weird for the letter to be kept around if it had incriminating evidence yknow)

i think maybe at some point in the back of his head Kevin realises that's a little too perfect for his mother to have just died, knowing there was an empire that was getting money out of it. she loved the sport for the sport so knowing her cocreator was interested in less than savoury directions with it would put some strain on that. (whatever relationship they had would beyond that is a bit up in the air but tetsuji seemed more devoted to his family business than any one person.) so the easiest thing would be to get rid of her, which I don't think is a hot take or anything? I'm pretty sure I've seen this thrown around a bit.

regardless I think it was something Kevin may have always thought about, but didn't Really consider until he saw just how little he meant to the moriyamas and riko. like yeah he kind of understood that to a degree growing up, but I imagine riko growing more aggressive with him maybe pushed that closer to his forethoughts that they weren't keeping him around out of just talent. there's gold star lineage and money in owning the literal son of exy, and while that's obvious to the reader, sometimes it takes a minute for things to register in such simple terms to people under all that stress, trauma, etc. maybe Kevin already understood that in canon in so many words, but then later it clicks that /that/ was a very intentional decision and direct action.

like he IS the face of exy. he is the tragic hero of a revolutionary sport. people eat that kind of drama up. and his life story may have been entirely crafted by someone elses hand. celebrities are a commodity after all. what makes more money than a poor orphaned boy destined for greatness, lovingly taken into the arms of a team and 'family' that could help guide that still? hell if they managed to cover up the raven problems by blaming them entirely on riko, that may even add more to Kevin's sobstory for fans and bring in even more money.

that's not to say Kevin isn't deserving of the respect and admiration for his talent and skill. that is all Kevin and no one can take that from him. but this niggling idea that someone laid this out for him, for everything to play out (mostly) to plan has to hit him at some point. there's something completely devastating about realising your autonomy is and potentially has never been your own, that destiny isn't really divine but instead made—but not by your own hardwork. even if all of the fallout after he death was a domino effect, wouldn't that be nauseating to know it was all according to plan?

[dandelion-wings]

Trying to shake a little rust off after a writing hiatus, which means some random scenes as warmups! This is, in theory, from the latter half of the "Jean marries the prince of Khaenri'ah" AU, if I go with a particular thread I'm still debating--whether or not to go with multiple false identities and have Diluc be, at first, in disguise himself. I like identity porn, okay. >> I'm just not sure if it has a plot function. But since I haven't written the main story yet, I can play about freely!

---

When Maram steps out of her private chambers, her son is in her receiving-room, pacing back and forth across the floor. His head jerks up at her entry; there's a brief flash of light in his eyes, the cold pale-blue gleam of Cryo, clear in the left, fractured and flickering in the right. Her heart seizes, as it always does, at that sight.

But he masters himself, reins in the shadow of the Abyss creeping up through him, drawing himself straight in a gesture so reminiscent of his father that Maram almost smiles. Almost, because the stiffness that has become natural in her husband is a warning-sign in her son. His shoulders are held with a rigidity that comes from more than the armor, a tension that's all defensiveness, little as he'd like to know she sees it there.

"What troubles you?" she asks him, beckoning him to join her as she steps up onto the low dais at the center of the room. The benches at the sides are more intimate, but when he's this tense, she doubts that she could make him sit down.

"Diluc," he says, following her up. He takes a formal pose, standing at attention before her like any other knight, but she can still see the tension humming through him in his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides, the samll shifts of his weight. "Jean's bodyguard, her Dark Knight- he was there when I went to visit the horses this morning. He didn't tell me, but I remember how he was with horses. Mother, I would swear that it's him."

Maram's hands tighten on the arms of her chair, and she leans forward, nearly as tense as he is. "Is that so?"

"I'm almost certain. It would explain quite a bit. But if he is Diluc…." Below the hollow crackling that the armor gives his voice, Maram can hear the raw edge of distress. "How could I have missed it for so long?"

She can hear the other questions beneath that. Has Diluc changed so much, or has he? Is his memory failing him, or worse yet, his love for the boy he knew? The last shivers through his tone in unspoken terror.

"I have long suspected that mask he wears of holding some enchantment," Maram says firmly, to banish those fears. Her son's mind may go, someday, but never his heart. She trusts in that. "It must be one of concealment. He said he took it from the Fatui, and their spying would benefit from that sort of tool."

He breathes out a sigh that isn't quite relief, but his voice shakes less when he answers, and his chuckle is almost real. "That would explain why he insists on wearing something so hideous. Even Diluc wouldn't sport such an unfashionable trophy without a good reason."

Maram relaxes a bit herself. But not entirely. "Now that you know, love, would you like me to kill him for you? If I do it myself, you don't have to lie to your wife. Formidable as he seems to be, my Wind Glede and I are his equal, and I know how to take a man by surprise."

"No!" He rocks back on his heels in shock and horror, armor grating on itself. "Why would you do that? That's the last thing- that's hardly necessary."

Because she wants to kill him, Maram doesn't say, and had hoped he might allow it, though she'd already known that would be his answer. Her son's heart is his greatest strength, but also his greatest weakness.

"Your father would have ordered it. He's hurt you once, and we'll take no more chances with you if we can avoid it."

"No," he says again, more firmly, regaining his composure. "He's here to guard Jean. Our court is enough of a threat to her without taking away one of her protectors. He has no idea who I am, and I intend to keep it that way."

"And how will you do that when your curse comes to an end?"

"I'll handle that when it happens." He chuckles, and Maram feels her heart ache anew at the false blitheness of it.

As his Queen, she could overrule him; as his mother, she dares not to. Her heart has always been her greatest weakness, as well. If she does lose him to his people's curse, as he's so certain that she will, she doesn't want him to go still angry at her for her actions.

If she does lose him to that curse, to the darkness that first gathered in that wounded eye, she can always wait until he's gone to kill Diluc Ragnvindr for his betrayal.

[dynmghts]

Jeanist passes a Jift Box (Jean Gift Box) to Bakugo. And suddenly he's gone. Like a fine morning mist. Inside? It's a pair of jeans that fit him... almost too perfectly, and a small, travel hair-care set. Along with a card that reads: "It is only a fool to believe himself above any man, and for that reason, I have been a fool, as I have seen, through watching you, that I have many things left to learn, about the human spirit, about hardwork, about tenacity, and of course, about what it means to truly be a hero. Like the fibers of this well-crafted denim, you have interwoven yourself and your unbreakable spirit amongst the threads of my life. It has been a pleasure to watch you grow, and while I cannot take credit for your growth, or your journey, I find a selfish sort of pride in knowing the great hero, Dynamight, once looked to me as a mentor. I am looking forward to the day I work alongside you, once again. Hopefully in a more peaceful time. Happy birthday. Your friend, Best Jeanist."

❛ oi, what the hell's- ❜ before katsuki can even apprehend his mentor about the stupid and weird jift box ... [ it has a name ? ] ... placed in his hands, he was gone. crimson stares blankly in the general direction of his last sighting with a sense of bewilderment across his features. he glances to the box. back in the direction of jeanist. ❛ ... seriously, what the fuck ? ❜

maybe it was his way of avoiding whatever repercussions would come from gifting a kid with an explosive temper. not that there'd be any real ones, since one of them was a pro and the other was just an intense and foul-mouthed hero-to-be.

nonetheless, calloused hands work to pull apart the jift box ... [ seriously, that's what it's called ? is it made of denim ? ] ... and ultimately reveal the present inside. his gaze turns quizzical at the pair of jeans he lifts out. as he'll find out, they fit him too well and it's maybe a little concerning how well they work with his frame - as it stands, though, he slings it over an arm to check out the hair care products next. huh. travel sized ... maybe he could use that.

his attention finally settles on the card, and he pulls it out to read properly.

it feels like forever ago since the blond won the sports festival, prideful and arrogant in his capabilities, the first year to topple everyone else with unabashed confidence. since he applied to intern at best jeanist's agency with the express desire to witness a top five pro-hero in action, feeling like he'd chosen the wrong agency, enduring the week he felt was fresh from hell - as his hair was styled in an unnatural manner and he had to wear jeans with his costume.

he was also the one to guide him, to show him how to start interacting with the public. because patrols weren't just for deterrence ; they were to show the people who you really are. and because a hero name isn't just a callsign for other heroes to call you by ; they are a wish, a reflection of how you want to be, how you should be. best jeanist made it clear he did not like bakugou katsuki straight away, but he was also the one who put him on the right path - and how could katsuki be ungrateful or ignorant of everything his first mentor offered him ?

and now here he was at the beginning of his third year. here he was, having learned from many mentors now, having gathered knowledge from each since they all had value. but best jeanist was the first.

katsuki may have made his journey on his own accord, but just as he's woven himself into jeanist's life - as he describes, in his stupid thread-related speech - the pro-hero had done the same for him. after all, was it not best jeanist who assured the other heroes that his stubborn and indomitable spirit would mean he'd never cave to the villains ? was it not best jeanist he wanted to intern with again, even if he couldn't since the former had disappeared ? and was it not best jeanist who was the first to hear his hero name, shouted across the battlefield with the same unyielding confidence as if he wasn't bleeding out ?

❛ damned jeans. couldn't come 'n say it to my fuckin' face ... ❜ but katsuki is not any less appreciative for the gifts, or the well wishes. he puts everything back in the box for safekeeping. if he can catch the hero again before he goes dashing off to who-knows-where, the blond will find ... some way of expressing his gratitude. even if it ends up being less than pleasant.

and best jeanist should keep an eye out : bakugou katsuki has every intention of interning at his agency during his last year of ua.

[ so long as he can go without his hair being styled - he'll even put up with the jeans, whatever, if it means he doesn't end up with the embarrassingly uniform and slicked-over hairstyle from his first year. ]

@eclipsemuses / katsuki's bday wishes! <3

[whipplefilter]

NASCAR: Full Speed

It's Daytona weekend! Which naturally means it's time to rain for 48 hours in Daytona, because heaven forbid we forget the wrath of rain delays. But at least the storm cell stretched clear to Mexico City, so there were really no doubts. We've now watched the entire NASCAR Netflix documentary series (five 1-hour episodes).

I'd heard that it was "good" and "didn't shy away from things"--and this from people who know a lot about the "things," as long-time NASCAR journalists. I'd also heard that it was a huge step up from NASCAR's various made-for-TV documentaries.

Was it good?

It was entertaining! It was good at selecting a set of narratives to follow out of the sprawl of all that could be, and not trying to overburden the five episodes with too much. It picks up right before the 2023 playoffs, and primarily follows Denny as driver+co-owner of 23XI, 23XI, and a selection of the other playoff drivers (namely those who could be considered "up-and-coming" and those who make it to the Round of 8). Some might say "too much Denny" but they found a narrative thread and followed it, and I think it was a smart use of the space they had to tell a story.

Was it a huge step up from NASCAR's various made-for-TV documentaries?

I mean, from our literal "we made this so we'd have rain delay footage to roll" pieces? ...Yes???? But I'd say it's about at the level of Dirt: The Last Great American Sport. Sure, Dirt isn't specifically NASCAR-affiliated, but it's of the genre. It's peer programming. And I say this having enjoyed Dirt! But I don't necessarily think that either of these programs would be desirable watch material for people who weren't already in this foxhole, which I think NASCAR was hoping it would be (i.e. to follow in the footsteps of F1's Drive to Survive.)

Did it shy way from things?

This is where I think Full Speed loses out to Drive to Survive. I say this as an outsider to F1--I've only ever watched one race, and I only know things through racing osmosis/following racing news in general. But I think Drive to Survive was more willing to show its raw edges as part of its story: the extreme budget disparities across teams, the Red Bull/Renault sniping, contract and sponsorship bullshit, teammates absolutely hating each other, racing and its adjacency to some absolutely wild pyramid scheme/money laundering/business nonsense.

Full Speed largely kept all of that behind closed doors. The drivers sometimes levied light critique at each other, or yelled on the radio, but it wasn't anything they wouldn't also say on broadcast TV. I think part of this is the nature of the narrative they chose: By the time the playoffs roll around, the teams involved are racing with relative budget parity; their sponsorship ducks are more or less in a row; no one had open contracts; Hendrick, for once in its life, did not have its engine curse on display. And the guys who happened to make it to the end of the playoffs all tend to be more low-key guys, outside the heat of actively racing. Like, I think you'd have to do some real, hardcore documentary work to peel back and find something really raw in... Christopher Bell, William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Ryan Blaney. Even bringing Ross Chastain in was fairly softball. The series definitely does the best with Denny. Denny is nuts and organically has a lot to offer a character profile! Series highlight: Absolutely Denny Hamlin, and his opening self-introduction in Episode 1. (Even though even Denny as more to offer than was given in the docu. Are we not going to talk about the fact that he has a race car parked in his living room?)

Overall though, in terms of driver personalities and team dynamics/business, it was a bit softball. I think part of this is just my own familiarity with the material, and knowing that there's actually more out there than made it into the documentary, which made it feel less like an investigative, character/industry-probing deep dive.

But honestly? I think a huge part of it is financial. The series felt like NASCAR was afraid to get too in the weeds because they didn't want anything in the documentary that would upset current sponsors, or seed doubt in the minds of any new ones. Like it needed to present a level of cohesion and viability in order to reassure the money. And from a storytelling perspective I think that's really unfortunate.

Verdict

I think Full Speed works best as *a* version of a NASCAR story, but not *the* NASCAR story. I'd love to see the series branch out, less so chronologically (e.g. covering the 2024 playoffs), but into different facets of the storylines that make up the sport.

My ideal branch? A "tale of two cities" approach where we follow, say, Penske, cut against a backmarker team, and the parallel narratives dive into how different running a NASCAR team can look at opposite ends of the money spectrum; how the goalposts change, the culture shifts, how different the off-track lives of those involved are.

I say "Penske" mostly because they're the current defending champions, but let it be known that in my heart I'd rather we just followed Denny again, LOL.

[rikeijo]

Today's translation #222

Animestyle 2017.05, Otsuka Manabu's interview

Part 9.

I: I see. Was it decided that love and eros etc. are going to be important motifs [in the story] after work on the storyboards started? Or before that at the series composition stage?

O: Well, when we were discussing with the Director her vision for the show, and what ideas she had for all the songs, I've heard those words and I understood them, but I hadn't known how the story would go specifically. So yeah, I understood that [how those motifs would be used in the story] when I read the storyboards.

I: Oh, I see.

O: My reaction was something like: "so this is what you meant?!" and "they really are so passionate about this show, huh".

I: For me, the line "even I, a man, could get pregnant" was one of the most impactful in the entire series.

O: Yes, it's a very feminine line, right. If it wasn't a women [who was writing the script], for sure the idea to write a line like that wouldn't have appeared. I personally was surprised when I heard it, but as a line that a character speak, it's very strong. It leaves an impact on the viewers. It's not only the script, the visuals in some scenes too have the same effect.

I: Something like that is only possible in the shows which were created by people who are very passionate about them. A line like that wouldn't appear if Yuri!!! was created in the normal way for an anime - write a project proposal for a show about figure skating, order a screenplay, discuss what should be in the screenplay with a screenwriter, let the screenwriter write the screenplay (laugh).

O: No, it wouldn't (laugh). It absolutely wouldn't. I have only seen the final effect, but I think it was a strong point of this show [that they didn't follow the "normal procedure" and lines like that one could appear in the script.

[Notes: Another interesting topic to discuss~~ #fandom politics ✨

Maybe you wonder why the interviewer is so fixated on that particular line. Of course, it's not possible to know for sure what somebody meant without asking them for clarification, but...

If we were to analyze it, I think the "problem" was, as Otsuka said here, that you could feel that it was a line written by a woman.

Normally, even if a manga/anime is created by a woman, many people don't even know that - with Mitsurou as an example: I'm sure most Yuri!!! fans know that her real name is "Mitsuko", and you can right away tell that it's a female name, but she uses a "male variant" of her name "Mitsurou" as her manga pen name - and voila, just by looking at the name on the cover you wouldn't know that it was written by a women. It's, of course, to not make men not read/watch something that sounds interesting to them just because it was written by a woman (and yeah, it's not only a Jp thing).

Sports manga/anime are often categorized as "shonen", and that means that even if it is written by a woman, men are still the main target audience, so the author is expected to match their taste - write characters men can easily identify with etc., and they are used to it. But a line like that - "even I, a man, could get pregnant" - is not something most men would ever say or even think, especially if they are from a conservative country... So the "problem" with that line is that it doesn't follow the rules - it's a sports anime, but it isn't written as an anime for men should be written and instead the female creators do what they want to do.

And it's not only this interviewer - when you read old "live discussion" threads in places like 5ch, where a lot of male otaku gather, you can see that a lot of them dropped the show after ep 3., because it was quite clear at that point, that it's not going to be anime written "to please men", so to speak. (Of course, their conclusion was that Yuri!!! is going to be a "fujo pandering anime" instead, but I personally really don't agree - I think Yuri!!! was simply written the way Sayo&co wanted it be, and that many fujos have been in a state of war with YoI officials since 2017, to me, is a proof of that...)

So yeah, how YoI was received in Jp and abroad is really such an interesting and complicated issue... Especially now, that we know that despite their initial plans, they weren't able to make a continuation...

[peculiarnation4u]

Why (i think) Huntlow confuses some people and myself (Very long post)

I don’t hate Huntlow, don’t even think it's bad. Felt the need to say that right off the bat for those of you who just saw the title and assumed the worst. So put your “Leave Huntlow alone!”, and “God I thought I was the only one who hated this ship” comments away, that’s not what this post is for. I made this to try to explain my complicated feelings towards this ship and how they came to be specifically why I feel the way I do. I also hope to shed some light as to why people may not be as fond of this ship as the other main two we have in the series. Now i only mean to give my thoughts, I can not speak for the bulk of the fandom and people who don’t like the ship, but maybe I can enlighten those who don't understand why the hate is here, and help the haters contain and focus the reasons they don’t like it outside of bias and petty ones. I'm also making this with the sole hope that'll i'll be proven wrong in For The Future and that my arguments will be invalidated (I don't believe you should ever hate a ship, just writing)

Huntlow, or Winter as some people call it which i refuse to do because like, winter is an already established word. Why would you name a ship after something that already exists and is used in daily conversation outside of the fandom? Isn't there a tumblr thread about why it’s a bad idea to name ships after already existing concepts.

Back to where I was, Huntlow is the ship between willow and hunter, established as canon in Labyrinth Runners. Despite that, the ship existed in the fandom prior to being confirmed and really started during the episode Any Sport In A Storm and fans of it only having to wait about a month till said confirmation. Unfortunately, it being confirmed somewhat divided a portion of the fandom with both sides being convinced they’re the minority. One of the main arguments against Huntlow was that it was rushed, which I don't actually agree with and will explain why later. Even so, it was still massively popular as Hunter’s only real understandable ship partner. With the four he had prior not really being well received by a majority of the fandom, Willow seemed like the best option handed to us on a silver platter and it wasn’t just a fanon ship either like most of them. That paired with the fandom eager to see Hunter get some sort of happiness and it not having any of the toxic tropes that usually come with teen mlw relationships in media it seemed like another hit from The Owl House relationship department and an obvious outcome. But was it?

Now like most of the fandom, I was right there watching all these episodes come out every week and the fan’s reactions to them as well as my own. I was personally really fond of Any Sport In A Storm as Willow, as well as Gus, was one of my favorite characters when the series started and I was happy that she finally got an episode or a moment to shine that didn’t feel overshadowed by Amity or Lumity. A little salty that it took being significant to Hunter for the fandom to finally give Gus and Willow the time of day but beggars can’t be choosers.

While watching the episode, one thing I and many others knew just from this episode alone was that the fandom was gonna start shipping Hunter and Willow, it was inevitable. However I wrote this off as the fandom just shipping as it does and didn’t pay it any mind, especially since I didn't see any of their interactions in the episode as romantic. So when Labyrinth Runners came out and confirmed that Hunter had a crush on Willow, my reaction was

“......what?”

No really, it was “what?”, I was confused. I mean I thought it was cute and was happy that Hunter had developed positive feelings for once, but seriously I didn’t see this coming at all, I was surprised, and that’s not a good thing. I wasn’t happy it was confirmed, I wasn’t even dreading it as either would imply I knew this was going to happen, but i didn’t, and i can explain why.

Now I will admit that I'm definitely biased. As you may have guessed, I'm not the fondest of Huntlow. But furthermore, I'm not the best at understanding what may lead two people to develop feelings for one in media and irl *cough*A-spec*cough*. So if Hunter or Willow had some sort of connection that I didn’t pick up on, that's on me. Though even with that drawback, I still think i’m not completely crazy when I squint at the writing

I mentioned before that Hunter's crush on Willow confused me, from a writing standpoint at least, so in order to understand it we have to look at what came before it, their meeting in Any Sport In A Storm. Call me crazy but this episode wasn’t enough to convince me Hunter would gain feelings, again from a writing perspective, not an emotional one. In terms of emotions I could completely get why he’d find her appealing, it was just poor at setting up that it was going to happen.

I think the main reason why is because there was no emphasis on their relationship specifically. Willow spoke to Hunter as she would any other member and as she did any other member. Gus got in a moment of speaking too. Hunter as well since he is shown interacting with and liking every member.

This downplays Willow and Hunter's presumed relationship and it raises the question of “why her?”, since Hunter showed that he liked everyone on the team equally, granted he put more focus on Willow but that was because she was the captain.

Hell, everything Hunter did with or to Willow, he did with or to Gus in the same episode, (meeting, complimenting their skills, a sad moment, a deep moment where they showcase their inner thoughts) he even goes on to have more moments and even an episode with gus.

Actually he had an episode with everyone except Willow , again I don’t count Any Sport In A Storm as it felt more like a group relationship episode than Willow and Hunter specifically, you wouldn’t consider Wing It Like Witches a Luz and Amity episode would you? (actually knowing this fandom, y'all probably would).

All this does is make Hunter and Willow’s chemistry look weaker by comparison, and only raises my questions. Hunter has more in common with everyone else on the team than Willow. The only thing they really had, that was stated and not assumed by the fandom, was that half a witch comment, which I want to talk about for a moment.

I remember hearing that line when I first watched the episode, back before the ship was really a thing, and even then I thought that they pulled this out of their ass the moment I heard it. Like it makes sense on a surface level but then you start thinking about it and it feels a little off.  Like Willow was called half a witch because she wasn’t good at magic, but Hunter can’t do magic at all, so would the term still apply. Where did he even hear it from, I find it hard to believe that a high up establishment like  the emperor’s coven would use playground insults, and Hunter couldn’t have just called himself it as we know this guy doesn’t know anything about slang. But all that is nitpicking, it just feels like it doesn’t hold as much weight for Hunter as it does Willow. We know Willow has been called it multiple times throughout the series and things adjacent to it, we see how she’s struggled with it and why she was called it. But Hunter doesn’t get any of that and I guess it lessens the impact, which is concerning since this is supposed to be their big connecting moment.

I feel like this could’ve been fixed if Hunter being called half a witch was brought up in an earlier episode, maybe when he was talking to Luz, that way the audience already knew this fact and didn’t learn at the same time Willow did.  Because at the moment, Hunter and Willow’s chemistry feels a little dry. There's a reason Gus is Hunter’s best friend and Hunter hasn’t spoken to Willow since the episode they met.

“But Hunter has a crush on her and he’s nervous so he’s not going to talk as much” . And that I understand, even noticing that it was a parallel to how Amity acted around Luz, and it was cute, but that’s the thing, cute, not efficient. It was sweet at first but then I started fearing that he actually wouldn’t talk to her ever again. It’s reminiscent of, and I don't want to compare the two because Huntlow is a thousand times better, Adrienette from MLB. In that show our mc Marinette has a crush on perfect model Adrien however is basically incapable of speaking to him without tripping over her words or backing out. At first it was cute how nervous she got but then it became detrimental to their relationship because she was unable to make a move and even the audience started to notice. How were we supposed to support this relationship or believe it’ll be ok if the mc had to get dragged to it by her friends or couldn’t do anything on her own, and Huntlow is giving me the same feelings. Nowhere near as bad as it just started and didn’t drag out but with only three (at the time) episodes left, i was paranoid.

Another way to explain my disposition is to simply look at the other two canon ships in the show, Lumity and Raeda and how they handled their ships. Earlier I stated that I didn't think Huntlow was rushed and I still stand by that. You can tell because it follows the same pattern as Raeda and Lumity, that the two characters become friends and almost immediately after, one of them catches feelings. Actually Eda got a crush on Raine faster than Hunter did Willow, both in story and irl. So it’s not rushed, however it does have an issue that led people to believe it was rushed, the aforementioned lack of chemistry and talking to one another before the crush came. Luz and Amity, and Raine and Eda were repeatedly shown talking to each other specifically and enjoying the other’s presence as well as getting to know them, Huntlow didn’t have that.

“But the show got shortened, they didn't have enough time to give Hunter and Willow their own episodes and moments”. And to that i say you’re right, but why even put in a ship if you know you won’t have the time to flesh it out. Also I can only agree with that statement so much when we’re constantly shown Hunter interacting with and having moments with Gus after their introduction.

Honestly I had a theory that Huntlow was always planned to happen back when they had more episodes, but then the show got shortened, however they still wanted to keep that so they left it in, which i'd be completely fine with.

It just feels off y'know, Raeda and Lumity were so good at avoiding tropes and doing something different. Amity could’ve just remained a stuck up bully or befriended Luz and become the angsty Lancer, but she didn’t. Their relationship could’ve been dragged out or Luz could’ve never shown signs of being interested until the show ended and they got together, but it didn’t. Luz and Amity could’ve gotten into stupid drama or jealousy after getting together, but they didn’t.

Raeda follows suit too. Raine could’ve just been the shitty ex who we forget about an episode later or they could’ve just been used for sexual tension instead of showing how they and Eda care for each other. Even more so, the reason why they broke up wasn’t left vague and it was actually worked on, instead of most exes tropes where the audience is never told why they broke up, or the two characters get back together without the initial reason they broke up being fixed. On top of that, all of their moments and episodes actually served the plot, world building or character development and it never felt like the plot stopped or like these moments could be taken out.

Raeda and Lumity did so many things differently, so it feels weird watching Huntlow come in and repeat so many tropes from media with teens as its main characters.The only thing I think Huntlow did differently was have a plus sized girl in the relationship, which I really like since plus sized girls usually aren't seen as desirable in media. Not that tropes are bad or that the ones Huntlow did were bad, it just makes me squint. Huntlow following so many tropes in comparison to Lumity and Raeda, plus flapjack (hunter’s closest friend for half a season) dying, plus Hunter being the character the writers like to torture, plus the weirdness of how it was written, makes me nervous because I really hope Huntlow isn’t going to be used just to hurt Hunter, mostly cause of fan backlash. Even I'd be a little upset if I got dragged along on this ride for nothing.

Now despite all of the things I've complained about, I still think Huntlow is fine, however I do think it could be better and fix the issues I mentioned earlier. Now the best fix would be to simply give them an episode, but we obviously don’t have time for that so the next would be to give them more moments together. Moments where Hunter is actually speaking and Willow isn’t doing all the work. Or give them more things in common, canonical things not stuff assumed by the fandom. Huntlow can definitely work, I even believe that that was the reason we were all able to overlook the negatives simply due to the ship having a lot of potential. (I really think that For the Future will give us this)

I have hope that my opinion will be swayed in these last two episodes and that my confusion will be put to rest. I feel like I'm missing something, like there was some sort of connection I didn't see, and if I didn't, then that's on me.

[zwoelffarben]

Hi,

I saw your reblog on the fat-phobia thread and saw you claim to be chronically underweight, which is something i don't hear people talk about because I'm one of those people who has ribs that can be played as a xylophone.

But i feel sad about it.

And seeing you say that being chronically underweight was the worst experience of your life somehow led me to thinking that life must be better if I'm fatter.

I don't even know why I'm writing all this to you i have pending assignments but i just somehow felt comfortable telling you this-

thanks X

I'm always happy when my thoughts on my experience help people, so if I may expound upon them further, I'm pretty sure I've got some flavor of metabolic abnormality where food goes through my body without being fully processed. There's a lot of direct and indirect evidence pointing to that explaination but I've never consulted with a doctor about it, so it's just an observation of how my body appears to work and not a diagnosis.

But in my early life, despite eating twice as much food as everyone else around me, I was just apparently not getting enough real caloric intake for my body to store anything as muscle or fat. As a result:

I was terrible at sports because my body didn't have the energy to build strength or endurence; not matter how much I practiced I did not improve.

I was regularly lethargic, feeling the need for 10~14 hours of sleep or rest a day, which of course I wasn't getting being in a society that expects you to sleep maybe 7-8 hours a day.

I was almost constantly hungry even after eating my meals; and if I ever managed to sate myself, I'd be hungry enough to want to eat again within maybe two hours. I was well-acquanted wit the sensation of slowly starving on a full stomach.

I had no fat anywhere on my body; sure you could see my rib bones and play them like a xylophone, but more importantly, my ass was skin over bone. I could accutely feel the geometry of every seat I sat in; if my ass slid along a metal bleacher my coccyx nestled into the groove like the evergiven in the seuz, and if my ass slid across the metal bleacher, my coccyx hopscotched into every groove while I kept count. It was to say the least, deeply uncomfortable.

I was much more miserable about life back then than I am now, and some of that is owed to the fact that I was a teenager being teenaged. We're pretty much all little balls of angst around that age, but I think my state of being skinner than Death contributed an non-insignificant amount toward making me a particularly pungent ball of angst, yeah?

I'm still a skinny guy, but now I've got some thigh fat, ass fat, belly fat, manboob, and facial fat, and various muscles, and I'm much happier about that being the case than I think I would be if you could still play my ribs like a xylophone.

Anyway, enough about me; let's talk about you.

If I may make a recommendation to you as a stranger on the internet with a degree in creative writing and maths, I'd suggest that if your current weight is making you unhappy or uncomfortable because of how being that weight affects your experience of the world, that you look into having a dicussion with a reputable nutritionist about finding a long-term dietary plan to put and keep on weight, and if you and the nutritionist struggle to find an effective plan to meet your goals, you then look into having a chat with a doctor or specialist about potential underlying causes for your body's demonstrated inability to put on weight.

It's possible that my suggestion isn't something you can do or would want to, since it sounds like a non-zero amount of effort and I don't know if your circumstances even present it as an accessable course of action: I'm just a stranger on the internet with a degree in creative writing and maths.

But, if you're unhappy about how something is affecting you, taking whatever steps you consider practical to addressing the root cause of the unhappiness is generally speaking good praxis. And if I had a do-over with infinite resources I definitely would want to chat with an expert or two about why I could eat two large pizzas and still feel a bit peckish while maintaining my sticc ass despite negative effort.

Food for thought

[beevean]

One thing that always amazes me is how consistent the game is in portraying Samus as incompetent. It really feels like it was written by someone who had a grudge against her, like Ellis with Hector, but no supposedly Sakamoto thought this gave her more depth, and the funny thing is I believe him when he says that was his genuine intention, it just goes to show how hard you can fail when you have your head jammed so far up your ass thinking you're writing some sort of Citizen Kane level stuff when in actuality you have no idea how writing works for anything that isn't games with minimal stories

I pointed it out in my review way back then:

For a story so microscopically focused on Samus, she really doesn’t look good here. She needs the help of an entire platoon to take down a simple monster made of spiders - why can’t she use her Ice Beam, Adam, when y’all are freezing it? She needs Adam to activate the powerups she already has, even though he has no formal authority over her (with one notable exception, thankfully - although the infamous “Any objections, Adam?” is a bit undermined by the fact that she thought he couldn’t hear her). When she’s pinned down by Teen Ridley, the only thing she can do is to keep his tail at bay, and she needs Anthony to save her. When she’s manhandled by Ridley due to her sudden breakdown, she needs Anthony to save her, and after the fight Ridley manages to escape (you’d think Samus would have become an expert of pumping a giant dragon’s stomach full of missiles). She never discovers who the traitor was, he gets killed by MB and his identity was revealed in external material because the story drops that plot thread like a hot potato. She doesn’t fight the Metroids, Adam SHOOTS HER IN THE BACK (what in the genuine fuck, “paternal compassion” my fat ass) to stop her and then sacrifices himself (and Samus gives the thumbs down while crying, stop it game you cannot treat this 👎 seriously). She doesn’t kill Ridley despite that being her obejctive for half the game and the reason Adam shot Samus sacrificed himself, the Queen Metroid does. She doesn’t kill MB, the final fight literally ends by you pointing at her, and other people doing your job for you. Oh, and Anthony is the real hero that saves everyone by somehow stopping the Bottle Ship from entering the atmosphere. What is this? Sonic was useless in ‘06 because he was relegated to a subplot while Shadow and Silver went to fight the real bad guys… but this is straight up the story blocking Samus at every move. Why?

You know how much I despise N!Hector's writing, but at least, at the very least, he's at the end of the day a secondary antagonist at best. What is the point of treating the sole protagonist like this??? Who am I supposed to root for, if Samus is an incapable character who doesn't even grow by the end, because she still protests Adam's orders and is still treated like a child?

And what truly boggles my mind is that, as you said, Sakamoto did not intentionally piss on everything Samus stood for out of pettiness: this was his idea of an improvement!

You know what? We can circle back to the previous discourse of humanization, and how sometimes you can go too far in giving characters "flaws" and "relatability". I understand, in theory, the idea of showing that Samus is not just a Badass, but a person with her own weak points and scarred by previous events, but who resists through everything. Sure. But this is not the way at all, because now you've swung all the way far back, and this Samus is completely unbelievable as the legendary bounty hunter who makes planets explode for sport.

Samus sparing The Baby after killing every single Metroid. Samus going apeshit at its death. Samus gazing at the destruction of the Chozo Artifacts site. Samus closing the eyes of a dead trooper. These small, voiceless moments do more to make Samus feel like a real person than 2 hours of woodenly-dubbed cutscenes ever managed to.

[caffeineandsociety]

Speaking of that Twitter thread about people treating insights as hard and fast rules-

That's really the core of a LOT of bad politics. Like, the overwhelming majority of authoritarians, regardless of any other leanings, start there.

"I, and many other people I know with similar circumstances, need structure or else we just fall apart and don't know what to do with ourselves" - a true and valid insight - turns into "EVERYONE needs structure, particularly xyz structure that works for me" turns into "society MUST be structured for xyz and if anyone can't fit into it THEY'RE the problem that must be fixed."

Hell, you want an extreme example? Just look at incels.

Incels have a lot of meaningful insight on the privilege of conventional attractiveness. Incels have a lot of insight into how conventionally attractive people often get away with shit that others can't...whether it's something the conventionally attractive person shouldn't be doing, OR it's something the conventionally unattractive person SHOULD be allowed to do. Incels are often more aware of fatphobia than skinny leftists are. All of this ties pretty deeply into ableism and racism - some incels even acknowledge the way these things intersect.

The problem is, that when any of these insights stop being treated as insights and start getting treated as hard and fast rules, and combine with a heavy dose of misogyny that ALREADY treats gender roles as hard and fast rules, what do you get? You get a fucking death cult, is what you get.

This is why some people try to reclaim that one fucking comic, isn't it? It's easy to see the true and meaningful insight - fatphobia exists, double standards exist, some people's threshold for what constitutes sexual harassment is "a fat person flirted with me or even just said hi to me while being the 'opposite sex'" (though in my experience it's far more likely for that to be an attitude of men than women, I'm just saying...) - but...the punchline is still "women will make false reports of sexual harassment just because a man exists near them while being 'ugly' because they're just that shallow", like a poison pill hidden in that insight.

Similarly, this is how we get a lot of radfem talking points, whether terfs or "trans-inclusive" - they're born of real, valid, feminist insights. Men are broadly treated by society as naturally stronger and more competent than women of otherwise the same demographics (...usually; transness tends to complicate this because society gets confused about who to treat as dangerous aberrant men vs. gross failed women with us so it more or less evens out even when it looks different). Men are culturally encouraged to see women as property and sex as an act of conquest. Humans have relatively slight but, at least on average, noticeable sexual dimorphism, and a lot of things we value (particularly in sports) are things that play to strengths that cis men are more likely to have (and women are even discouraged from having, for that matter). A lot of misogyny is aimed at the "female" reproductive system; physical ease of access isn't the only reason that external reproductive anatomy is pretty well understood while gynecology has barely advanced beyond the myth of wandering wombs causing all ills. Society at large insists on the gender binary being a force of nature with almost if not outright a religious fervor.

All of these things are true!

But what happens when you let them turn from insights into hard and fast rules?

You kill intersectionality, no matter how much you pay lip service to it. You get the idea that that there are no men in the world who are oppressed, and that there certainly is no such thing as a way the misogynistic idea of male hypercompetence is weaponized against "aberrant" men; there is no unique gendered way that racism, ableism, fatphobia, queerphobia, or hell, sure enough, even "ugly-shaming", may manifest when aimed at men or people presumed to be men. That there's a subset of trans people - whether man, woman, nonbinary, AFAB, AMAB, intersex, whatever - who are functionally equivalent to white cis men in both life experience and the eyes of society. Either trans women are predators trying a sneaky strategy to conquer and rape women and trans men are either being driven to tragically denying themselves for a futile chance to be allowed to live as human beings, or traitors trying to be at the top of the privilege hierarchy, OR trans women are heroes for "choosing the right side" in the face of unspeakable danger and trans men are DEFINITELY evil misogynistic traitors if they don't constantly apologize for the very real male privilege every single one of them definitely has in all aspects of life. Intersex and nonbinary people, if valid, are still little more than a rounding error.

Hmm. Something's not right here, now is it? But that started from an ostensibly pro-equality stance! So what happened? Turning those insights into rules turned into gender essentialism, is what!

So, what makes anyone else's leftist insight any different? Any fairer to turn into a hardline black and white rule?

Nothing. Nothing is what. Your insights are not rules, and trying to make them so...well, that itself is an insight, so let's just say it's a VERY dangerous game and leave it at that.

[danishkhan786]

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[fitnessbeautyarts]

Male and female eyebrows often exhibit subtle differences in terms of shape, thickness, and overall appearance. Generally, male eyebrows tend to have a more straightforward and less arched shape, with a flatter brow bone. They often appear thicker and have a more natural and rugged look. Female eyebrows, on the other hand, can be more arched and have a more defined shape. They tend to be thinner, although the thickness can vary widely based on personal preferences and trends. Grooming practices, such as plucking, waxing, or threading, can also influence the appearance of eyebrows in both genders. Ultimately, the ideal eyebrow shape and grooming approach depend on individual facial features and preferences, rather than being strictly determined by gender norms. Raise your eyebrows, folks! Ever stopped to think about how the fuzzy friends above our eyes differ between men and women? Well, hold onto your tweezers, because we're diving headfirst into the world of the "Male Vs Female Eyebrows." Whether you're a brow enthusiast or someone who's simply curious about those arches and curves, we've got you covered. Read on, and let's spill the beans! History of the Eye Brow: A Quick Glimpse Eyebrows have been more than just hair for centuries. They've been a symbol of status, beauty, and power. From the ancient Egyptians drawing them on with kohl to today's Instagram influencers with their #BrowGoals, there's a rich history behind these facial features. Male Eyebrows: Through the Ages Ancient Times: Men often kept them thick and unkempt. It was, believe it or not, a sign of masculinity and strength. Renaissance Era: The wild look faded out. Groomed brows took the front seat. 20th Century Onwards: A mix of styles! Some like 'em thick, others prefer a bit of manscaping. Female Eyebrows: A Historical Roller-coaster Ancient Times: Ladies sported brows so thick; they almost merged into a single one. Unibrow, anyone? 1920s: The trend went polar opposite. Thin, highly arched brows were the cat's meow. Today: A variety of styles, but there's a notable lean towards natural, fuller brows. The Nitty-Gritty of Male Vs Female Eyebrows Both genders have unique eyebrow characteristics. It's not just about the bushiness or the arch but a blend of several factors. Thickness: Men generally have thicker brows. No surprises there! Position: Women's eyebrows are typically higher up than men's. It's believed to give a more open, expressive look. Shape: Men's eyebrows are straighter, while women's tend to have a more pronounced arch. Talk about raising the stakes! The Brow Culture: Grooming and Trends For the Gents Keeping it bushy: Some lads like to let nature do its thing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? A bit of trim here and there: A little manscaping never hurt anyone. Cleaning up stray hairs can give a neat look. The whole shebang: Yep, some men go for threading, waxing, and even tinting! For the Ladies Au naturel: Embracing the natural shape and thickness. Keeping it real! Precision shaping: Crafting the perfect arch. It's almost an art! Full glam: Tinting, microblading, and extensions. Oh my! FAQs about Male Vs Female Eyebrows Why do men have thicker eyebrows? Genetics, mostly! Testosterone leads to more prominent facial features, including thicker eyebrows. Do eyebrows make a difference in perceived attractiveness? You bet they do! A well-groomed eyebrow can enhance one's overall appearance. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? What's the deal with eyebrow threading? An ancient method using a string to pluck out unwanted hairs. Sounds simple, but it's darn effective! How often should you groom your eyebrows? To each their own! Some opt for weekly touch-ups, while others go months. Listen to your brows and follow your heart! Conclusion Brows have been through thick and thin (pun intended) over the centuries. The "Male Vs Female Eyebrows"

debate isn't just about looks; it's deeply intertwined with history, culture, and personal expression. Whether you're a dude rocking a bushy brow or a lady flaunting a sleek arch, remember: eyebrows are the silent powerhouse of our facial features. So, next time you look in the mirror, give a nod to those unsung heroes framing your face!   Key Takeaways: Male and female eyebrows have distinct differences in shape, thickness, and grooming techniques Factors such as genetics, facial structure, hormones, and age impact eyebrow appearance differently between genders Grooming techniques for male eyebrows typically involve trimming and shaping for a natural look, while female eyebrow grooming trends focus on shaping, filling, and defining for a polished appearance Regular maintenance practices such as trimming, shaping, and using suitable products are essential for both genders Avoid common eyebrow grooming mistakes such as over-plucking and over-trimming, which can result in an unnatural appearance Understanding Male Eyebrows When it comes to eyebrow shape and thickness, there are distinct differences between males and females. Male eyebrows are typically fuller and straighter than female eyebrows, which tend to be more arched and thinner. Understanding the typical characteristics of male eyebrows is essential for effective grooming. One of the key features of male eyebrows is their shape. Male eyebrows are typically straighter across than female eyebrows, with less of an arch. While there can be some variation in shape, most male eyebrows are relatively uniform in thickness from end to end. The thickness of male eyebrows is another distinguishing characteristic. Males tend to have fuller eyebrows than females, with more hair growth above and below the brows. Thicker eyebrows offer a more masculine look, but it's important not to let them become too unruly. Understanding Male Eyebrows: Examples and Tips If you're a guy looking to enhance your eyebrows, there are a few grooming techniques to keep in mind: Technique Description Trimming Regular trimming keeps your eyebrows looking neat and tidy. Use scissors or clippers to trim any long hairs that extend beyond the natural shape of your eyebrows. Shaping While male eyebrows don't typically require much shaping, it can be helpful to remove any stray hairs that disrupt the natural line of your brows. Use tweezers to pluck excessive growth. Embracing a natural look Male eyebrows generally look best when they appear full and natural. Avoid over-plucking or over-shaping, as this can create an unnatural appearance that detracts from your masculinity. By taking care of your eyebrows, you can achieve a polished and well-groomed look that enhances your facial features. Whether you're shaping your eyebrows to create a more masculine appearance or simply maintaining their natural shape, consistent grooming is key. Understanding Female Eyebrows While male eyebrows tend to be fuller and straighter, female eyebrows have a distinct arch shape and are often thinner and more defined. The thickness of female eyebrows can vary throughout the brow, with the thinnest point typically towards the tail. The arch shape of female eyebrows can be influenced by factors such as genetics and facial structure, resulting in a unique and individualistic appearance. To enhance this natural arch, many women choose to shape their eyebrows with grooming techniques such as tweezing or waxing. In addition to shaping, filling in sparse areas and defining the brow with product can also create a more polished look for female eyebrows. Popular techniques include using eyebrow pencils, powders, gels, or pomades to achieve a desired shape and color. Factors Influencing Female Eyebrows Hormonal differences between males and females can also play a role in the thickness and growth of eyebrows. Estrogen, a hormone more commonly found in females, can lead to finer and more delicate hair growth, including the eyebr

ows. Age can also impact the appearance of female eyebrows, with thinning and sparse areas becoming more common as women age. Proper grooming and maintenance can help combat this natural thinning process. Factors Influencing Eyebrow Shape The shape of eyebrows is influenced by various factors, including genetics and facial structure. However, the impact of these factors can differ between males and females, resulting in distinct eyebrow shapes. Genetics: Genetics is one of the primary factors influencing eyebrow shape. The genes we inherit from our parents determine the thickness, length, and curvature of our brows. While males tend to have straight, thicker eyebrows, females typically have more arched, thinner eyebrows. However, there can be variations within each gender. Facial structure: Another factor that can influence eyebrow shape is facial structure. The shape of the face can affect how the brows are positioned and arched. For example, someone with a round face may benefit from arched eyebrows to elongate the face, while someone with a long face may need flatter eyebrows to balance their features. Factors Influencing Eyebrow Thickness While eyebrow thickness varies between individuals and genders, there are several factors that can influence the thickness of eyebrows. These include: Hormones: Hormonal changes can impact eyebrow growth and thickness, particularly during puberty and menopause. Age: As we age, eyebrow hair may become thinner and sparser due to a decrease in collagen production. Interestingly, the hormonal and age-related differences in eyebrow thickness between males and females are not as pronounced as those in eyebrow shape. However, males generally have thicker eyebrows due to higher levels of testosterone in their bodies. If you are looking to enhance the thickness of your eyebrows, consider incorporating eyebrow growth serums or oils into your daily routine. Be sure to also maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle, as this can impact overall hair growth and thickness. Grooming Techniques for Male Eyebrows When it comes to grooming male eyebrows, the goal is to maintain a natural, well-groomed appearance. Here are some tips: Trimming Trimming is essential for maintaining the shape and length of male eyebrows. To avoid over-trimming, use a small pair of scissors and trim a little at a time. Comb the hairs upward and trim any that extend beyond the natural eyebrow line. Shaping Men's eyebrows typically have a straighter shape compared to women's eyebrows. Use a pair of tweezers to pluck any stray hairs below the brow line, but avoid over-plucking. Keep the shape natural and avoid creating a high arch or any other feminine shapes. Products Use a clear eyebrow gel to keep hairs in place and define the shape. Avoid using heavy products or dark eyebrow pencils, as these can create an unnatural look. By following these simple grooming techniques for male eyebrows, you can enhance your natural features without looking overly groomed or feminine. Grooming Techniques for Female Eyebrows When it comes to grooming female eyebrows, there are a variety of techniques to consider. Different methods may work best for different individuals, depending on the natural shape and thickness of their brows. Here are some popular grooming techniques to consider: Shaping To achieve the perfect shape for your eyebrows, start by identifying your natural arch. From there, use small scissors or tweezers to remove stray hairs that fall outside of the brow line. Avoid over-plucking, which can lead to an unnatural and uneven appearance. Filling If your eyebrows are naturally thin or sparse, filling them in with a pencil or powder can help create a fuller, more defined look. Choose a shade that matches your natural hair color, and apply in light strokes to mimic the appearance of individual hairs. Defining To further enhance the shape and definition of your eyebrows, use a brow gel or pomade to keep hairs in place and add tex

ture. A clear gel can help tame unruly hairs, while a tinted product can help fill in any gaps or inconsistencies. Remember, the key to achieving a polished look is to maintain a natural appearance that complements your facial features. Experiment with different techniques and products to find the right combination for your unique eyebrow shape. Grooming Techniques for Both Genders Regardless of gender, maintaining well-groomed eyebrows requires regular maintenance. Here are some general grooming techniques that apply to both males and females: Technique Description Trimming Use a small pair of scissors to carefully trim any long or unruly hairs, keeping the length and shape consistent with the natural eyebrow shape. Shaping Determine the ideal eyebrow shape based on facial structure and natural eyebrow shape. Use tweezers to gently remove any stray hairs outside of the desired shape, being careful not to over-tweeze. Products Use eyebrow gel or wax to keep hairs in place and add definition. For those with sparse eyebrows, consider using an eyebrow pencil or powder to fill in any gaps or add thickness. When grooming your eyebrows, it's important to avoid over-trimming or over-plucking, which can result in an uneven or unnatural appearance. Stick to your natural eyebrow shape and use techniques that enhance, rather than alter, your features. Nose - Men usually have broader noses, while women have narrower and more concave noses. Nose feminization surgery can provide a more feminine nose. Eyebrows - A man's eyebrows tend to be heavier and straighter, while a woman's eyebrows are thinner and arch upward. Waxing or brow bone reduction can help achieve a more feminine brow. Brow Bone - Males often have a brow ridge, while females have little or no bossing. Brow bone reduction can smoothen the brow ridge and create a more vertical appearance of the forehead in lateral view. Lips - Men have thinner and longer lips, while women have lush and plumper lips. Lipofilling and lip lift can feminize the lips and reduce the distance between the nose and the lip. Chin and Jaw - The male chin is more prominent and larger, while the female chin is smaller and less defined. Chin contouring and jaw angle reduction can help reduce the size and create a more feminine appearance. Common Mistakes to Avoid When it comes to grooming eyebrows, there are a few common mistakes that people tend to make. These mistakes can result in an unnatural or unflattering appearance. Here are some of the most common eyebrow grooming mistakes to avoid: Over-plucking: It can be tempting to go overboard with plucking, especially if you're trying to achieve a specific shape. However, over-plucking can result in thin or patchy eyebrows that take a long time to grow back. Over-trimming: While trimming your eyebrows can help keep them looking neat, it's important not to go too short. Over-trimming can make your eyebrows look uneven or sparse. Using the wrong products: Not all eyebrow products are created equal. Using the wrong product for your eyebrow type or color can result in an unnatural or mismatched appearance. Ignoring your natural shape: Trying to force a specific eyebrow shape that doesn't work with your natural features can result in an unflattering look. It's important to work with your natural eyebrow shape to create a look that complements your face. Remember, the goal of eyebrow grooming is to enhance your natural features, not create an entirely new look. By avoiding these common mistakes, you can achieve a well-groomed and natural-looking brow. Grooming Techniques for Both Male and Female Eyebrows Now that we’ve explored the differences between male and female eyebrows, let’s dive into some grooming techniques that apply to both genders. Whether you’re looking to trim and shape your brows or define and fill them in, these tips can help you achieve the perfect look. Regular Maintenance is

Key Regardless of your gender, it’s important to maintain your eyebrows regularly. This means regularly trimming and shaping them to keep them looking neat and tidy. Use small scissors or an eyebrow trimmer to remove any strays that fall outside your natural shape. Consider Your Facial Structure When it comes to shaping your eyebrows, it’s important to consider your facial structure. Your brows should enhance your features and complement your face shape, rather than detract from them. If you’re not sure where to start, consider consulting a professional for advice. Don’t Overdo It One of the most common mistakes people make when grooming their eyebrows is over-plucking or over-trimming them. This can result in an unnatural or overdone appearance. Try to keep your natural shape intact and focus on removing only the stray hairs that fall outside this shape. Use the Right Products Using the right products can help you achieve the perfect eyebrow look. For filling in sparse areas or defining your brows, consider using a brow pencil or powder. Opt for a shade that matches your natural brow color for a more natural look. Embrace Your Natural Brows While grooming your eyebrows can help enhance your natural features, it’s also important to embrace your natural brows. Rather than trying to achieve a certain shape or thickness, aim for a natural and well-groomed appearance that complements your face. By following these tips and techniques, you can achieve perfectly groomed eyebrows regardless of your gender. Whether you prefer a natural look or a more defined brow, remember to regularly maintain your brows and embrace your natural features. FAQ Q: What are the main differences between male and female eyebrows? A: Male eyebrows tend to be fuller and straighter, while female eyebrows are often thinner and have a more defined arch shape. Q: What factors influence eyebrow shape? A: The shape of eyebrows is influenced by genetics and facial structure. Q: How do hormones and age affect eyebrow thickness? A: Hormonal differences and age play a role in determining the thickness of eyebrows. Q: What are some grooming techniques for male eyebrows? A: Male eyebrow grooming techniques include trimming and shaping to maintain a natural look. Q: How can female eyebrows be groomed? A: Female eyebrows can be shaped, filled, and defined to achieve a polished look. Q: What are some general eyebrow maintenance practices for both genders? A: Regular trimming, shaping, and the use of suitable eyebrow products are important for maintaining well-groomed eyebrows. Q: What are common mistakes to avoid when grooming eyebrows? A: Over-plucking, over-trimming, and creating an unnatural appearance are common mistakes to avoid when grooming eyebrows.