#trans people will always be the other and be the minority but normalizing our practices and opening them up to everyone

[hell0mega]

more cis characters named Moss and Fish and more trans and enby characters named Dave and Jennifer. and yes they're all chosen names

[ioletia]

Yesterday I came across a tankie transfem. Which, when you think about it, doesn't really make a lot of sense. Of the states that tankies usually idealize, none of them would allow a transgender person to exist in them. Do you think Maoist China would have been accepting of anyone even the slightest bit outside the perceived normal? No. Stalin criminalized homosexuality; do you think trans people would have been that much more accepted? No. You could argue that under Lenin, the USSR was a bit more accepting of the LGBTQIA+ peoples, but he died pretty quick and was replaced by Stalin- who, again, criminalized and gulaged that shit.

The issue is that authoritarians always go after the weakest groups- such as minorities. They demonize them, ostracize them, and/or end up murdering them. And, unless our gay bombs and dysphoria lasers are in production, the LGBTQIA+ peoples will remain a minority.

Marxist-Leninists or, as they are more easily branded, Tankies, forget that the authoritarian vanguard party are still authoritarian in nature. Before the "one party socialist utopia" pipe dream is realized, there will be blood- and, as history has shown, that blood is often ours (the LGBTQIA+ and minority populations). This is of course assuming that said pipe dream would even allow us to continue existing.

In other words, if you're LGBTQIA+, a minority, a disabled person, whatever, and consider yourself a Marxist-Leninist... Maybe look at the history of that shit. Because theory and practice are two different things.

[sapphic-sex-ed]

I know this is just a me problem & I need to just suck it up and deal with it but I feel... incredibly guilty about not wanting to have sex with my friends. For one, I've never had a friend actually want to engage in that with me so a part of it might be me feeling bad about "not being good enough", but another part of me feels like the queer community is advancing to new places that gives them more joy, freedom, and love and it feels like since the topic is so triggering to me (for no good reason mind you) that I just don't really belong? I haven't been able to talk to other queer people or go to pride events because I'm in such a small, homophobic town. But I feel like if I showed up to a queer event, I just wouldn't fit in and they just would not like me. Not only for looking overly masculine and kinda yucky (not in way thats celebrated in the queer community) after my transition, but because the accomodations I would need for my triggers would just be too unrealistic to expect them to accomodate to (I've been in therapy for nearly 10 yrs, unfortunately some triggers just dont go away). And also bc I'm a sapphic trans guy and ,, man idk if that would piss people off.

I just want to ask, is it okay if I still view sex as sacred for myself but don't think poorly of people who have casual sex or sex with friends? If anything, I'm envious of them for being able to have such a connection to their friends that I would never be comfortable having.

I’m glad to hear you’re seeing a therapist, it’s very clear from your ask that you’re struggling with very low self-worth and I’ve been there and it sucks.

As for your question itself — sex positivity and sex acceptance are about finding a sexuality that feels good for you and don’t shame those whose sexuality feels good to them but isn’t the same as yours. If sex is something sacred to you that is for you alone or only to share with a select few then that is always valid as long as it feels good to you. At the same time, having sex with friends and having multiple partners is just as valid as long as it’s what the people practicing it wants. Neither one has the right to shame or devalue the other.

I notice a pattern in your ask, where you make claims about how you feel people will respond to you. This is a normal thing our human brains do, but this anxiety seems to be preventing you from going out and trying. You think but you do not know that people wouldn’t accept you. Thou think but you do not know that you wouldn’t fit in. Internet queer discourse is poison basically and people in the irl communities are usually a lot more accepting. Online we kinda forget that we’re interacting with other people, but irl we can’t do that as easily (although dehumanization of minorities is a thing, so not impossible but it takes a lot more organized, structural effort). In Swedish we have this expression “provtänka” which roughly translates to “try-thinking” or “attempting-think” where we sort of say a thought we had to other people, usually friends, to try it out. It can be something beneficial like “wait isn’t it strange that inflation is up 4% but benefits have only increased by 2,6%?” and then we can all curse capitalism together. But it can also be (and this is a real example of a thing I said when I was 16) “there are so many bad parents like shouldn’t the government like make you take tests and and out a license for you to reproduce so no children get harmed” and your friends will rightfully go “no wtf??? That’s such an over-reach of government power what are you on???”. Like you try out a thought that you haven’t thought about that much or aren’t that invested in and you do a vibe check basically. Like that pregnancy thought was whack but I hadn’t really thought about it. Luckily my friends were reasonable people who asked what tf was wrong with me and explained why that was a horrible thing and I haven’t thought that way since. Online, you sorta either get jumped which has the effect of you doubling down on your not even fully formed opinion bc you get defensive, or you find other whack jobs who agree and that’s how radicalization happens.

So to the point bc I lost it bc that who I am as a person: people are a lot more forgiving offline and if someone has doubts initially, they’re less likely to voice them, and if they do they’re likely to get checked, and if they don’t just spending time with you will humanize you (which is why people from bigger cities are usually more open-minded, bc exposure to people different than them).

And a last point to wrap up: you write that you’re “envious of them for being able to have such a connection to their friends that I would never be comfortable having”. Relationships aren’t a hierarchy. Romantic relationships aren’t superior to friendships, and sex with friends isn’t superior to hook-ups or long-term partners, and partnered sex isn’t superior to solo sex. They’re different flavors and not everyone will like the same thing. I can’t stand olives but I love pineapple on pizza. I once dated a girl who despised potatoes. Neither is better than the other. I can’t really understand why she would hate potatoes and most people I believe find it strange, but like that’s just her preference. And I know many people find me strange for my choices in pizza toppings (pineapple, banana and curry).

That is to say: it sucks when you feel left out of some type of relationship you’ll never have — I’m an only child hand have always been envious of people with siblings — but that doesn’t mean that type is “better” or that that type of connection is “deeper” than what’s possible within the types of relationships that would fit you.

-mod liz

[theclassyelfman]

A very niche discussion that I feel needs to be had

I am a natural redhead. I also have blue eyes. That gives me the rarest hair and eye colour combo in the world. My hair colour puts me in a group that makes up around 1-2% of the world's population (which is the same as the number of trans people btw).

People with red hair are constantly either fetishised or discriminated against just for a simple hair colour that is beyond our control. We have faced prejudice for this minor quality throughout history. We have been accused of witchcraft, turning into vampires, having "bad character" and were killed en masse for it. Conversely we were sometimes thought to bring luck and so made popular slaves and fetched a higher price. There have been many perceptions and practices that segregate us from others. People always have a different view of us. We are seen as otherworldly. We are dehumanised. All we are trying to do is exist.

Even now there is still discrimination against us. We are still stereotyped and bullied and objectified. Sure we may not be burned or drowned anymore, but we still take a lot of shit because people can't just view us as fellow human beings and treat us normally. I've personally faced constant ridicule and harassment throughout my school years for it. People who have never even known me felt compelled or justified to call me names on the street. I've had people follow me home and pick up gravel from driveways just to throw at me. These experiences started to make me despise the word "ginger" because that's what I constantly heard. It still triggers a reaction in me to this day. People have laughed at me and tripped me up and done all sorts just because of a damn hair colour. I started to despise my hair to the point I wanted to shave it all off or dye it to hide it. It took me years to finally embrace myself and find pride and love in myself.

I've even heard negative opinions in casual conversation. A lot of the girls in my school constantly liked to dye their hair. If it started to change colour in a way they didn't anticipate or want, they'd hope it wouldn't turn ginger with disgust or worry in their tone because god forbid right? That's such a horrible thing to be subject to. We're so unsightly that the possibility of looking like one of us is the worst outcome. Who would want to associate with us? We are hated just because we are different.

We can't even catch a break on the more positive side of the spectrum because we're then seen as exotic or divine. People have a fetish for us and seek us out because that's the one characteristic they care about to get them off. We're just a sex object. We can never be seen as anything past our hair. I'm so tired of it.

And why do people feel so comfortable in this behaviour? Why has it become so normalised? Why does it seem that no one's talking about it? I guess because we're such a small group, or perhaps it's also to do with the fact we're white and so we can take it right? We're the oppressors and you can't be racist or whatever against white people as some seem to stupidly believe. Maybe it's because we're not being routinely hunted down anymore. Whatever it is I'm just frustrated that no one seems to care. It's just looked over. It feels like this cycle is just going to continue and make our day to day lives miserable.

[haunted-homes]

Intro Post !!

BLOCK IF ON YOUR DNI ! DNI GOES BOTH WAYS !

Hi, Sorry for the really long intro Post !

You can call us Haunt, we are a bodily 19 White Polyfragmented DID system, Physically Disabled, Trans, and Queer! Default Pronouns are He/They/Haunt!

This Tumblr is dedicated to the more problematic sides of our interests or coping mechanisms. We might proxy using emojis under some posts, to avoid using names. Im unsure if we will EVER let littles post here but Regressors or Sliders might. We intend to post Art, Writing, Rants and Vents, etc here. I will add a Disclaimer at the end of this post about my views and nuances about this kind of thing because it is genuinely not black and white to me. Sorry if that makes this intro too long but I wanna be thorough about what my beliefs are so no one gets the wrong idea about us as a person! But aside from that, here's more about us!

MCYT ! Mainly old DSMP, but also Hermitcraft, QSMP, etc etc

Interests Include -

Cookie Run !!!!!

Warrior Cats! Creepy Pasta! FNAF! Mythology! Writing, Art, Music, etc!

The Coffin of Andy and LeyLey

BOUNDARIES !

- You can reclaim slurs around us but only at us if we know each other. We extensively reclaim slurs, but we do not support the use of slurs you cannot reclaim.

- Always ask for consent to flirt, sexualize, etc before doing it because all Alters have different boundaries on this! (That being said, NEVER sexualize our Littles. ever.)

- DMs are open but please don't just send one word, it's hard to read tone or intentions through that and can make us anxious or block you!

- Try to use Tonetags, we are Autistic and really need them sometimes.

- Don't ask for Alters Sources if they don't wanna say. NEVER assume an Alter is like their source, or even enjoys their source. But on that same note, never assume an alter is fully source seperated or wants to Seperate from Source.

- Don't ever ask about our Trauma. We do not owe anyone that information. Whatever information we freely give at one time may be a touchy subject at another time, and we will never put your curiosity before our comfort.

- We prefer to say Source Memories over Psuedo Memories. Pseudo Memories feels demeaning and invalidating, but it is a fully recognized and studied symptom of DID. Source memories are a REAL symptom, it's just a different name than the clinical term. (We also do not like or use ANP/EP)

- We fully believe in System Accountability but all Alters are still seperate people. Some of us have different opinions, ideologies, Religions, etc. That's Normal. That does not mean we collectively support anything damaging to communities we are apart of or especially aren't. I can genuinely and proudly say ALL Alters are Anti-Racist and Anti-Conservative Fucktards.

DISCLAAAAIMER ♡

I like FANTASY tellings of Dead Dove Content. Basically, Proship, Zoo, Necro, shit like that. It should never be misconstrued that I would ever practice those outside of fantasy or fiction, the idea makes me sick.

Maybe one day I will outgrow this, or learn to cope better, but that is not today. I'm going to have my safe and consensual fun, and stick to my own moral code as I do infact have one, and just go from there.

I wanna also make it clear I don't really support MAPS/NOMAPS/AAMS at *all*. That's really weird and creepy as fuck and not the same as what we do/like in the SLIGHTEST, as again, this is all Fantasy/Fiction.

And I do acknowledge that Fiction can affect Reality, it can affect My reality, and I can control how I let it. If I'm gonna be plagued by Problematic shit, I'm gonna make it fun instead of agonizing, but I am not delusional enough to let it affect my judgement on following laws and doing no harm. I don't support or consent to any contact with minors on this account.

TW to things you may find on this Account.

Imagery of Raw Meat - I'm obsessed with aesthetics and Meat and stuff, so I'll probably use it a lot.

NSFW Animal Content (Petplay, Furry, etc)

NSFW Proship Content + SFW Proship Content

CNC / NC / DC Content

Necro Kink

Possibly SH or ED content (only in talk, Headcannons, or Fics, this specifically will ALWAYS be tagged and censored)

Again, just to reiterate. I only enjoy these concepts within the realms of Fiction and Fantasy.

DNI -

- Minors - Anyone under 18.

- Endo's / Endo Supporters

- Fakeclaimers

- Anti LGBTQIA+ (This includes Terfs, Anti Neopronouns, Anti Xenogenders, Anti Mspec / 'Contradictory' Identities, etc)

- Racism / Anti Semitism

- MAP/NOMAP/AAM

- Pro-Contact philia havers

- Transracial, Transabled, Transage. (I know there's nuance here but it's not the kind you weirdos think. Please research Mental Regression and BIIDS for the love of fucking christ.)

[absolutebl]

I may have asked this before but we're seeing more of a blurring between BL and queer genres. Do you think we'll eventually reach a point where BL just becomes queer?

My dearest you opened up a can of... worms. Erm, can of pink milk? Eh, anyway. I got ranty and sentimental. 

Will BL Get More Honestly Queer?

You mean will BL be made by queers for queers with a queer lens? Maybe one or two (stuff out of Taiwan most likely, maybe Thailand) but those will be the exceptions not the norm.

But in general, no.

That's not its market. It's still a product that has to be profitable, which means it needs a broad market share.

Now while I personally think the world is not only queerer than we expect but queerer than we CAN expect; the world, and its business practices, doesn't act that way.

I'm not sure this is entirely a bad thing though, and Imma try to explain. 

I want global normalization more than anything.

Quickly Some Background Info  

1. Statistically speaking, numbers of people who identify as queer is rising (especially in countries that have legalized gay marriage). This is not because there are more queers, this is because there is a general shift in acceptance and because it is now safer to be out in these places. But there still just aren’t that many of us. 

Part of that has to do with pop culture. But most of it it safety. 

2. We queers will still always be drastically in the minority (especially if queers continue to bifurcate, dive into tribalism, otherize, and ostracize - i.e. the gays vs the lesbians vs the bisexuals vs ace vs trans. Or force outings and self-identifications in order to participate in the culture, shit like that.) If we aren’t a cohesive group there are even fewer of us. 

3. Because we are a minority, purely queer serving recognition by the entertainment industry will always be niche (small indie and specifically queer brands). Our spending capital is too small (and too varied in taste) for most major brands and production houses. A thriving entertainment industry is a capitalistic endeavor that requires large target demographics.

Normalization

Here's the pitch. I genuinely believe that Will & Grace did more to normalize gay acceptance in the US than most other shows before or since. It came at the right time, packaged sanitize gay (and gay stereotypes) in a prime time slot to a massive family market. (I may or may not have written about this academically a time or two.) It's not a good show, it's not at all queer friendly, but it was effective. It made gay okay. 

The path to cultural acceptance is insidious. It's through misrepresentation and tokenism. It starts with kill the gays (at least the straights are crying for our suffering) and punish the queers and moves into punching down humor and romcom snarky besties. Eventually, it becomes representation. This takes years, decades. I’m not defending it. It just is. 

Yaoi and then BL is an entirely unique form of this. It has so many issues precisely because it comes without a queer lens, but slowly and surely it's being called out on this by queer folk and internally starting to check itself.

Slowly but surely it's gonna get better and better about it, while still serving its largely non-queer consumer base (see Not Me and Bad Buddy). It will never become fully queer because the watchers want the sanitized (or eroticized or fetishized) version of gay.

And I'm okay with that and here's why... 

There are only 30 countries where same-sex marriage is legal and still 69 countries that have laws that criminalize homosexuality. 

This Bit Might Make You Cry 

Because of BL, just maybe, that housewife in Texas smiles when the gay boys in front of her hold hands, instead of finding it disgusting and spitting on the street. Because she secretly watches BL when her husband is asleep.

Because places where being gay was once literally, actually, cultural taboo are become (just) homophobic and that's gonna be a fight, but at least that's fightable, where taboo is not. 

Because people pin images and make gifs of gay boys kissing in BL, and those tiny insidious things transcend firewalls. And maybe the first few times when she sees it, she winces, but maybe the sixth time she pins in to her secret board and thinks, “hey that’s actually kinda sweet.” 

Because of BL, when her kid comes out to her, maybe she remembers those horrible parents in that one BL series and how badly they handled it, and how much it hurt the child. So maybe she’s a little less harsh about how his coming out effects her status and identity. 

Because in places where BL watchers vote, and they're mostly women so they don't vote everywhere, when marriage equality comes up and no one is looking over her shoulder, she might vote yes. Because she watched fucking TharnType get married and she thought it was cute.

And that's fine.

Because we REALLY need her. Them. All of them.  

Yes, we personally, as queers, need these narratives, badly. We need the happiness that they show us. 

But we really really need the normalization they provide to non-queers.

Supporting articles of interest: 

The Development and Influence of Parasocial Relationships With Television Characters: A Longitudinal Experimental Test of Prejudice Reduction Through Parasocial Contact by Bradley J. Bond (University of San Diego, CA, USA) January 30, 2020) 

Streaming Content Influences Koreans’ Perception of Sexual Minorities by Lee Si-jin for Asian News Network, July 12, 2022. 

In Conclusion

Don’t be a shit to straights who like BL. Think of it as an opportunity to be kind and to educate. BL can open their eyes and we can turn wonder into allies. And some of you might be far too young, or feel far too safe now to remember, but holly shit do we need all the allies we can get. Especially on a global scale. 

And guess what we get to do in response to all this? 

We get to give back love.

That's a privilege.

Because they are gonna make it a hell of a lot easer for us to exist and to love with dignity.

That's our right. But it's not one most of us actually have.

BL is genuinely fighting for us. And maybe it’s warped and crippled and not truthfully queer or exactly what we want. And it probably never will get there. 

BUT IT IS FIGHTING FOR US. 

One of the guest talents in Until We Meet Again. 

(source)

[justmenoworries]

Not Up For Interpretation - An Essay On Nonbinary - Erasure

(Trigger Warning: Misgendering, Transphobia, Nonbinary-phobia)

If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know this was a long time coming. I’ve made several posts about my frustrations concerning this topic and how much it hurt me just how socially accepted erasing an entire identity still is. While representation marches on and things have become better for nonbinary people as a whole, we still battle with a lot of prejudice - both intentional and unintentional.

In this essay, I want to discuss just how our identities are being erased almost daily, why that is harmful and hurtful and what we all can do to change that.

Chapters:

What does Non-binary mean?

Nonbinary- representation in media

So what’s the problem?

How do we fix it?

1. What Does Non-binary Mean?

Non-binary is actually an umbrella term. It includes pretty much every gender-identity that’s neither one or the other so to speak, for example, agender.

Agender means feeling detachment from the gender spectrum in general. If you’re agender, you most likely feel a distance to the concept of gender as a whole, that it doesn’t define you as a person.

There are many identities that classify under non-binary: There’s gender-fluid (you feel you have a gender, but it’s not one gender specifically and can change), demi-gender (identifying as a gender partially, but not completely) and many others.

Sometimes, multiple non-binary identities can mix and match.

Most non-binary people use they/them pronouns, but like with so many things, it varies.

Some nonbinary-people (like me) go by two pairs of pronouns. I go by both she/her and they/them, because it’s what feels most comfortable at the moment. But who knows, maybe in the future I’ll switch to they/them exclusively or expand to he/him.

There is no one defining non-binary experience. Nb-people are just as varied and different as binary people, who go by one specific gender.

There are non-binary people who choose to go solely by she/her or he/him and that’s okay too. It doesn’t make them any more or less non-binary and their identity is still valid.

If your head’s buzzing a bit by now: That’s okay. It’s a complicated topic and no one expects you to understand all of it in one chapter of one essay.

Just know this: If a person identifies as non-binary, you should respect their decision and use the pronouns they go with.

It’s extremely hurtful to refer to someone who already told you that they use they/them pronouns with she/her or he/him, or use they/them to refer to a person who uses she/her.

Think about it like using a trans-person’s deadname: It’s rude, it’s harmful and it shows complete disrespect for the person.

Non-binary people have existed for a very long time. The concept isn’t new. The idea that there are only two genders, with every other identity being an aberration to the norm, is largely a western idea, spread through colonialism.

The Native American people use “Two-Spirit” to describe someone who identifies neither as a man nor a woman. The term itself is relatively new, but the concept of a third gender is deeply rooted in many Native American cultures.

(Author’s Note: If you are not Native American, please do not use it. That’s cultural appropriation.)

In India, the existence of a third gender has always been acknowledged and there are many terms specifically for people who don’t identify with the gender that was assigned to them at birth.

If you’re interested in learning more about non-binary history and non-binary identities around the world, I’d recommend visiting these websites:

https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/History_of_nonbinary_gender

https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/Gender-variant_identities_worldwide

https://thetempest.co/2020/02/01/history/the-history-of-nonbinary-genders-is-longer-than-you-think/

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/gender-variance-around-the-world

Also, maybe consider giving this book a try:

Nonbinary Gender Identities: History, Culture, Resources by Charlie Mcnabb

2. Non-binary Representation In Media

The representation of non-binary people in mainstream media hasn’t been... great, to put it mildly.

Representation, as we all know, is important.

Not only does it give minorities a chance to see themselves in media and feel heard and acknowledged. It also normalizes them.

For example, seeing a black Disney-princess was a huge deal for many black little girls, because they could finally say there was someone there who looked like them. They could see that being white wasn’t a necessity to be a Disney princess.

Seeing a canonically LGBT+ character in a children’s show teaches kids that love is love, no matter what gender you’re attracted to. At the same time, older LGBT+ viewers will see themselves validated and heard in a movie that features on-screen LGBT+ heroes.

There’s been some huge steps in the right direction in the last few years representation-wise.

Not only do we have more LGBT+ protagonists and characters in general, we’ve also begun to question and call out harmful or bigoted portrayals of the community in media, such as “Bury Your Gays” or the “Depraved Homosexual”.

With that being said: Let’s take a look at how Non-binary representation holds up in comparison, shall we?

This is Double Trouble, from the children’s show “She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power”.

They identify as non-binary and use they/them pronouns. They’re also  a slimy, duplicitous lizard-person who can change their shape at will.

Um, yeah.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Did I mention they’re also the only non-binary character in the entire show? And that they’re working with a genocidal dictator in most of the episodes they’re in?

Yikes.

Let’s look at another example.

These three (in order of appearance) are Stevonnie, Smoky Quartz and Shep. Three characters appearing in the kid’s show “Steven Universe” and it’s epilogue series “Steven Universe: Future”.

All of them identify as non-binary and use they/them as pronouns.

Stevonnie and Smoky Quartz are the result of a boy and a girl being fused together through weird alien magic.

Shep is a regular human, but they only appeared in one episode. In an epilogue series that only hardcore fans actually watched.

Well, I mean...

One out of three isn’t that bad, right?

Maybe we should pick an example from a series for older viewers.

Say hello to Doppelganger, a non-binary superhuman who goes by they/them, from the Amazon-series “The Boys”.

They’re working for a corrupt superhero-agency and use their power of shape-shifting to trick people who pose a threat to said agency into having sex with them. And then blackmail those people with footage of said sex.

....

Do I even need to say it?

If you’ve paid attention during the listing of these examples, you might have noticed a theme.

Namely that characters canonically identifying as non-binary are either

supernatural in some way, shape or form,

barely have a presence in the piece of media they’re in,

both.

Blink-and-you-miss-it-manner of representation aside, the majority of these characters fall squarely under what we call “Othering”.

“Othering” describes the practice of portraying minorities as supernatural creatures or otherwise inhuman. Or to say it bluntly: As “The Other”.

“Othering” is a pretty heinous method. Not only does it portray minorities as inherently abnormal and “different in a bad way”. It also goes directly against what representation is actually for: Normalizing.

As a general rule of thumb: If your piece of media has humans in it, but the only representation of non-white, non-straight people are explicitly inhuman... yeah, that’s bad.

So is there absolutely no positive representation for us out there?

Not quite.

As rare as human non-binary characters in media are to find, they do exist.

Here we have Bloodhound! A non-binary human hunter who uses they/them pronouns, from the game “Apex Legends”.

It’s been confirmed by the devs and the voice actress that they’re non-binary.

Nice!

These are Frisk (bottom) and Chara (top) from the game “Undertale”. While their exact gender identity hasn’t been disclosed, they both canonically use they/them pronouns, so it’s somewhere on the non-binary spectrum.

Two human children who act as the protagonist (Frisk) and antagonist (Chara), depending on how you play the game. (Interpretations vary on the antagonist/protagonist-thing, to say the least.)

Cool!

......

And, yep, that’s it.

As my little demonstration here showed, non-binary representation in media is rare. Good non-binary representation is even rarer.

Which is why those small examples of genuinely good representation are so important to the Non-binary community!

It’s hard enough to have to prove you exist. It’s even harder to prove your existence is not abnormal or unnatural.

If you’d like to further educate yourself on representation, it’s impact on society and why it matters, perhaps take a second to read through these articles:

https://www.criticalhit.net/opinion/representation-media-matters/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/why-on-screen-representation-matters-according-to-these-teens

https://jperkel.github.io/sciwridiversity2020/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/05/22/why-is-equal-representation-in-media-important/?sh=25f2ccc92a84

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-representation-the-media-matters

3. So What’s The Problem?

The problem, as is the case with so many things in the world, is prejudice.

Actually, that’s not true.

There’s not a problem, there are multiple problems. And their names are prejudice, ignorance and bigotry.

Remember how I said human non-binary representation is rare?

Yeah, very often media-fans don’t help.

Let’s take for example, the aforementioned Frisk and Chara from “Undertale”.

Despite the game explicitly using they/them to refer to both characters multiple times, the majority of players somehow got it into their heads that Frisk’s and Chara’s gender was “up for interpretation”.

There is a huge amount of fan art straight-up misgendering both characters and portraying them as binary and using only he/him or she/her pronouns.

The most egregious examples are two massively popular fan-animated web shows: “Glitchtale”, by Camila Cuevas and “Underverse” by Jael Peñaloza.

Both series are very beloved by the Undertale-fanbase and even outside of it. Meaning for many people, those two shows might be their first introduction to “Undertale” and it’s two non-binary human characters.

Take a wild guess what both Camila and Jael did with Frisk and Chara.

Underverse, X-Tale IV:

(Transcript: “Frisk lied to me in the worst possible way... I... I will never forgive him.”)

Underverse, X-Tale V:

(Transcript: “I-It’s Chara... and it’s a BOY.”)

Glitchtale, My Promise:

(Transcript: (Referring to Frisk) “I’m not scared of an angry boy anymore.”)

Glitchtale, Game Over Part 1:

(Transcript: (Referring to Chara) “It’s ok little boy.”)

This... this isn’t okay.

Not only do both of these pieces of fan-art misgender two non-binary characters, the creators knew beforehand that Frisk and Chara use they/them-pronouns, but made the conscious choice to ignore that.

To be fair, in a video discussing “Underverse”, Jael said that only X-Tale Frisk and Chara, the characters you see in the Underverse-examples above, are male, while the characters Frisk and Chara from the main game remained non-binary and used they/them (time-stamp 10:34).

Still, that doesn’t erase the fact that Jael made up alternate versions of two non-binary characters specifically to turn them male. Or that, while addressing the issue, Jael was incredibly dismissive and even mocked the people who felt hurt by her turning two non-binary characters male. Jael also went on to make a fairly non-binary-phobic joke in the video, in which she equated gender identities beyond male and female to identifying as an object.

Jael (translated): “I don’t care if people say the original Frisk and Chara are male, female, helicopters, chairs, dogs or cats, buildings, clouds...”

That’s actually a very common joke among transphobes, if not to say the transphobe-joke:

“Oh, you identify as X? Well then I identify as an attack helicopter!”

If you’re trans, chances are you’ve heard this one, or a variation of it, a million times before.

I certainly have.

I didn’t laugh then and I’m not laughing now.

(Author’s note: I might be angry at both of them for what they did, but I do not, under any circumstances, support the harassment of creators. If you’re thinking about sending either Jael or Camila hate-mail - don’t. It won’t help.)

Jael’s reaction is sadly common in the Undertale fandom. Anyone speaking up against Chara’s and Frisk’s identity being erased is immediately bludgeoned with the “up for interpretation”-argument, despite that not once being the case in the game.

And even with people who do it right and portray Frisk and Chara as they/them, you’ll have dozens of commenters swarming the work with sentences among the lines of “Oh but I think Frisk is a boy/girl! And Chara is a girl/boy!”

By the way, this kind of thing only happens to Frisk and Chara.

Every other character in “Undertale” is referred to and portrayed with their proper pronouns of she/her or he/him.

But not the characters who go by they/them.

Their gender is “up for interpretation”.

Because obviously, their identity couldn’t possibly be canonically non-binary.

Sadly, Frisk and Chara are not alone in this.

Remember Bloodhound?

And how I said they’d been confirmed as non-binary and using they/them pronouns by both the creators and the voice actress?

It seems for many players, that too translated to “up for interpretation”.

(Transcript: “does it matter what they call him? He, her, it, they toaster oven, it doesn’t matter”)

(Transcript: “I’m like 90 % sure Bloodhound is a dude because he could just sound like a girl and by their age that I’m assuming looks around 10-12 because I’ve known many males who have sounded like a female when they were younger”)

(Transcript: “I don’t care it will always be a He. F*ck that non-binary bullsh*t.”)

(Transcript: “Bloodhound is clearly female.”)

(Transcript: “I’m not calling a video game character they/them”)

(Transcript: “exactly. The face was never fully shown neither was the gender so I’d say it means that the player is Bloodhound. So it’s your gender and you refer to “him” as yourself. It’s like a self insertion in my eyes.”)

So, let me get this straight:

If a character, even a player character, uses she/her or he/him, you can accept it, no questions asked.

But when a character uses they/them, suddenly their identity and gender are “up for interpretation”?

This attitude is also widely prevalent in real life.

Many languages only include pronouns for men and women, with no third option available. Non-binary people are often forced to make up their own terms, because their language doesn’t provide one.

Non-binary people often don’t fit within other people’s ideas of gender, so they get excluded altogether. Worse, non-binary people are often the victims of misgendering, denial of their identity or even straight-up violence when coming out.

People will often tell us that we look like a certain gender, so we should only use one set of gendered pronouns. Never mind that that’s not what we want. Never mind that that’s not who we are.

Non-binary people are also largely omitted from legal documentation and studies. We cannot identify as non-binary at our workplace, because using they/them pronouns is considered “unprofessional”. We don’t have our own bathrooms like men and women do. Our gender is seen as less valid than male and female, so even that basic thing is denied to us. I’ve had to use the women’s restroom my entire life, because if I go into a male restroom, I’ll be yelled at or made fun off or simply get told I took the wrong door. It’s extremely uncomfortable for me and I wish I didn’t have to do it.

And since non-binary people aren’t seen as “real transgender-people”, we often don’t receive the medical care we need. This often renders us unable to feel good within our bodies, because the treatment and help we get is wildly inadequate.

It’s especially horrible for intersex people (people who are born with sex characteristics that don’t fit solely into the male/female category) who are often forced to change their bodies to fit within the male/female gender binary.

And you better believe each of those problems is increased ten-fold for non-binary people of color.

We are ignored and dismissed as “confused”, because of who we are.

Representation is a way for Non-binary people to show the world they exist, that they’re here and that they too have stories to tell.

But how can we, when every character that represents us is either othered, barely there or gets taken away from us?

We are not “up for interpretation”.

Neither are the characters in media who share our identity.

And it’s time to stop pretending we ever were.

For more information about Non-Binary Erasure and how harmful it is, you can check out these articles:

https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/08/common-non-binary-erasure/

https://www.dailydot.com/irl/nonbinary-people-racism/

https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/Nonbinary_erasure

https://traj.openlibhums.org/articles/10.16995/traj.422/

https://medium.com/an-injustice/everyday-acts-of-non-binary-erasure-49ee970654fb

https://medium.com/national-center-for-institutional-diversity/the-invisible-labor-of-liberating-non-binary-identities-in-higher-education-3f75315870ec

https://musingsofanacademicasexual.wordpress.com/2015/05/11/dear-sirmadam-a-commentary-on-non-binary-erasure/

4. How Do We Fix It?

Well, first things first: Stop acting like we don’t exist.

And kindly stop other people from doing it too.

We are a part of the LGBT+ community and we deserve to be acknowledged, no matter what our pronouns are.

Address non-binary people with the right pronouns. Don’t argue with them about their identity, don’t comment on how much you think they look like a boy or a girl. Just accept them and be respectful.

If a non-binary person tells you they have two sets of pronouns, for example he/him and they/them, don’t just use one set of pronouns. That can come off as disingenuous. Alternate between the pronouns, don’t leave one or the other out. It’ll probably be hard at first, but if you keep it up, you’ll get used to it pretty quickly.

If you’re witnessing someone harass a non-binary person over their identity, step in and help them.

And please, don’t partake in non-binary erasure in media fandoms.

Don’t misgender non-binary characters, don’t “speculate” on what you think their gender might be. You already know their gender and it’s non-binary. It costs exactly 0 $ to be a decent human being and accept that.

Support Non-Binary people by educating yourself about them and helping to normalize and integrate their identity.

In fact, here’s a list of petitions, organizations and articles who will help you do just that:

https://www.change.org/p/collegeboard-let-students-use-their-preferred-name-on-collegeboard-9abad81a-0fdf-435c-8fca-fe24a5df6cc7?source_location=topic_page

6 Ways to Support Your Non-Binary Child

7 Non-Negotiables for Supporting Trans & Non-Binary Students in Your Classroom

If Your Partner Just Came Out As Non-Binary, Here’s How To Support Them

How to Support Your Non-Binary Employees, Colleagues and Friends

Ko-fi page for the Nonbinary Wiki

The Sylvia Rivera Project, an organization who aims to give low-income and non-white transgender, intersex and non-binary people a voice

The Anti Violence Project “empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV-affected communities and allies to end all forms of violence through organizing and education, and supports survivors through counseling and advocacy."

The Trans Lifeline, a hotline for transgender people by transgender people

Tl:DR: Non-Binary representation is important. Non-Binary people still suffer from society at large not acknowledging our existence and forcing us to conform. Don’t be part of that problem by taking away what little representation we have. Educate yourself and do better instead. We deserve to be seen and heard.

[13tinysocks]

I wanna see some anti fanfic rec plspls

You asked for it. May I present, a creepypasta x reader anti-reading list.

Quick Disclaimer: No author names will be dropped nor fic links or sites they’re on. I dislike these works but I don’t want anybody to be harassed. Don’t go after people, holy shit. These works are only here because of some heavily disturbing content. One of them just makes me super mad because of a few circumstances. These are purely my opinions. I am not writing Jesus nor do I write the cleanest stories out there. Dark topics should be explored in fiction. However, some things just shouldn’t fucking be romanticized. Fanfic is practice, I’m not taking points off for wonky writing.

You’re allowed to like whatever the fuck you want. I’m not shaming you or the authors. I’m talking about media I dislike, which I am completely allowed to do. If your friend or favorite author’s work is in here, maybe don’t send this to them. I get it’s tempting but still, it could be upsetting. Again, don’t fucking harass anybody. 

This list is in order of - Pisses me off to FBI open up to whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck.

Content warning for: Rape, miscarriages, abortion, necrophilia, sexism, child grooming, multiple types of abuse, ablism, and meanie head criticism of popular fics. Seriously, this gets exceptionally bad at the final one. 

First up in our lineup a pretty popular. It’s the least upsetting and problematic. It’s a various creepypasta x reader mansion fic. This is more of an honorable mention because it’s frustrating to read over being super bad.

Recruited.

Summary: (Y/n) killed an attempted rapist and covered it up years ago. She is recruited into the cpp’s to be considered as a proxy along with two others. Follow her through a journey of no character development into becoming a proxy.

What’s wrong with it?

-Brian literally is a misogynist. He literally hates women.

-(Y/n) is an asshole. Not in an entertaining bad bitch way. No, in an unaware bland way. Points off for being a business major, girl you have no soul and it shows.

-She is treated like the voice of reason who is always morally correct. Thing is, if anyone is neurodivergent or mentally ill and ya’know shows symptoms of it, they’re cRaZy, evil, and an annoyance. 

-Yes, people creeping on or getting clingy can be shitty/annoying but sometimes the way (Y/n) acts is completely unjust. It left a bad taste in my mouth because the character felt okay to be shitty to people who weren’t like her.

-The endings are disheartening and make no fucking sense. Cody, who is clingy at worst, gets rejected Jack, who TRIES TO BREAK (Y/N)’S FUCKING LEG, gets with her. Can I get a HELLO?????? 

-(Y/n) also doesn’t get with Jeff who suddenly turned into her brother character after hundreds of pages of romantic tension. Again, Recruited is not inherently bad but it may be really disappointing to people who are here for 1-2 specific characters.

-Queer bait-y author’s notes and inconstant love interests. Author’s notes would read like “Teehee, maybe I’ll make (Y/n) have Jane and/or Natalie endings……” But that never happens after it’s teased multiple times. I get not wanting to add more to your plate but don’t suggest it if you don’t want to do it or only want to please heterosexual readers.

-They put Tim outside like a dog for being a bad boy. 

-Author’s notes and percentages fill in details for the reader that aren’t in the fic. I’m not going to read all of that. Put important information in the fic. 

-Lot’s of excessive jealousy. Painfully heteronormative. 

What about the good?

Readable. Dramatic like Big Brother. Can be an entertaining read if it’s your thing.

Conclusion

Left a bad taste in my mouth. I feel like the author literally hated half the cast and was annoyed while writing them. When you don’t enjoy writing something it shows. Also, her other work (pandemic! Reader X X-Virus) is super tone-deaf and I don’t recommend that either. Don’t recommend joining this fic’s Discord server either. Won’t get into details but in my and my friend's experience: it’s not a good environment with a lot of playing favorites. 

-

Next up on our list is a grossly popular Eyeless Jack X Reader fic.

My Imaginary Monster

Summary: Immoral monster, Eyeless Jack, sneaking into a 5-year-old girl's room. He gets attached, sticks around through her childhood. Thing is, he gets real creepy. Starts to catch feelings for a 16-year-old he’s watched grow up. He kisses a minor who reciprocates his feelings which is textbook child grooming. Nasty fucker runs away, there’s some drama from that. (Y/n) grows up, comes back to town, and Jack’s a’creepin’.

What’s wrong with it?

-Jack is a literal child groomer. 

-Do I need to say more??? Immortal adult kisses a 16 y/o. Gross.

-People in the comments are going gaga for grooming. Are you kidding me, he’s a pedophile.

-The OC’s take up more than half of the ~200 page run time. I couldn’t get attached to any of them even after the supposed significance. Which is fine but they took up so much of the fic that it got boring and annoying incredibly quickly.

What’s good about it?

I enjoyed Ben. He did the right thing and I can respect that. Trans and poluyamourus reprrensentation.

Conclusion:

No child grooming in my fucking lobby. I think the author was trying to paint it in a bad light. But the thing is, you can write a creepy stalker fic without making them a groomer. A lot of people are trying to escape their troubles through fanfic, including those who’ve dealt with sexual abuse. Don’t bring that into x reader spaces. Don’t put readers through that again. 

-

Last and absolutely least we got a Tim X Reader. 

BIG TW. FUCKING HUGE TW. MOST OF THE TW’S FROM EARLIER ARE FROM THIS ONE FIC. 

Pure Forgiveness.

Summary: (Y/n) is abused by her mom. Her dad killed himself and she’s all (Y/n)’s got in this world. Until Tim comes along and “saves” her. He takes her to the mansion and keeps her as a pet to torture. 

I’m going to get into all the nitty-gritty to satisfy your morbid curiosities so you don’t read it. 

What’s wrong with it?

-Chapter 1 opens with (Y/n)’s miserable life. Her mom hates her so much she has a fucking torture table for (Y/n).

-There’s an attempted rape in chapter 2.

- She’s taken to the mansion by Tim in chapter 3 because he’s “off his medication” and “acting nicer than normal”. Hi, mentally ill person here, that’s not how it fucking works you ding dong. 

-Mental illness is made out to we wholly evil.

-Also tic’s are made out to be scary. As a person with tics, don’t write tics as scary or super weird. Thanks.

-(Y/n) not being able to escape, fight back rapists, and other horrible shit is labeled as weak.

-At one point (Y/n) is dragged through the mansion, beer bottles and used condoms are thrown at her. Girl has to shower off cum.

-(Y/n) is tortured in various ways. Mostly beaten, berated, burned, cut, starved, etc. 

-She is drugged and repeatedly raped by Brian and Toby. These rapes are recorded and shown to (Y/n).

-Brian has black hair. Why?

-Toby and Brian give (Y/n) a forced abortion.  

-(Y/n) gets raped almost every fucking chapter.

-At one point Jack orally rapes (Y/n) to abort a baby. 

-Toby and Brian are necrophiles. They skull fuck a corpse at some point. It is graphically described how they like to have sex with dead bodies.

-Slenderman forcefully impregnates (Y/n) to “keep the (Tim’s) baby safe” whatever the fuck that means.

Why does this happen?

Because Tim wants a kid because his dad raped his mom and his mom was a prostitute. He’s soooo sad guys :(((

Feeling hungry? Here’s some things that are eaten by various characters.

-Hair 

-Cum (forced)

-Toby 

-Piss 

-A miscarried baby 

What’s good about it?

Nothing. Fucking nothing. Don’t read it.

Conclusion

If you like this fic you need therapy, I’m not joking. It’s like a car crash and Rob Zombie movie horribly mish-mashed together. It sucks. The comments praise literal abuse and berate (Y/n) for being afraid. Fuck this fic and everything it stands for. It’s shock horror and torture for the sake of it. It makes no fucking sense and it’s harmful. People think this is okay. It’s not. 

-

Thank you to my pals in the server for helping out and finishing some of these where I could not. Especially you Connie, everyone say thank you Connie she got through Pure Forgiveness. Absolute trooper legend. Again, don’t go out of your way to harass these people. I made this list so you can avoid these works because they have the potential to be upsetting. I’m not the police, I can’t force anyone to stop nor do I want to. Author’s are allowed to explore dark topics but some should be done respectfully or not at-fucking-all. I hope these people grow as writers and understand treating some things a certain way isn’t cool. You can enjoy dark fics, I do too, fuck I write them too, but Jesus God, some things are a no from me chief.

[itsclydebitches]

Was planning on making this my own post, but I thought you would be more suited to discussing this sort of topic. Something I've noticed when it comes to the more prominent/important/strong female characters (Nora, Pyrrha, Penny, Robyn, Emerald, Sienna) is that RT often has the tendency of giving them masculine allusions (Thor, Achilles, Pinocchio, Robin Hood, Aladdin, Shere Khan) as if they are unable to stand on their own as characters unless they have that connection to a male character. 1/3

It is worth discussing! Yeah, I hesitate to call it a pattern just because, as you say, Team RWBY themselves are an exception to the rule  — and as the title characters of the story, they’re a pretty big exception. We also have good women allusions turned into good women characters (Glynda with The Good Witch, May with Maid Marian) and bad women allusions turned into good women characters (Winter with The Snow Queen — I don’t think she was ever meant to enter full antagonist territory, but that’s another post). So it’s not just a matter of saying, “RWBY models their strong women after male inspirations and turns all female inspirations into male characters.” It’s not that simple. But the fact that it’s not simple doesn’t mean there’s nothing there to unpack because I definitely understand the feeling you’re pointing to, anon. Team RWBY feels like it has the most thought put into it in terms of changing up these allusions, specifically when it comes to subversion: the little girl in a red hood who previously needed a hunter’s protection has become the hunter herself, Belle overcomes both her Gaston and the now evil Beast, Snow White extracts herself from her own abusive situation (with a little help from the Dwarves still), and Goldilocks is no longer lost and in need of basic necessities, but can rather punch her way out of any establishment  — like, say, a club. The execution of these themes aside (how Adam was handled, turning Jacques’ arrest into a joke, etc.), there’s a commonality here that works. Or at least, it works for me. Yet when we expand the allusions past our title team, things get... very messy. That’s when we start to hit on these concerns. 

I’d say the problem stems primarily from that lack of thought, not the act itself of turning women characters into men or vice versa. Meaning, as I’ve said in the past, RWBY’s use of allusions is terribly unreliable nowadays, and that’s not just in terms of plot expectations like, “Why did Penny have to become a flesh girl because Pinocchio, but Ironwood didn’t stay good because Tin Man?” It also includes these questions of why these changes were made and what sort of messages they send. As you lay out, why are so many of our heavy hitters  — the most talented huntress, the lightning-immune smasher, the Maiden android, etc.  — based on men? Why are many of the effeminate and “weaker” men  — Jaune the untrained, Ren the emotional councilor, Oscar the kid who wants to talk it all out  — based on women? Again, I don’t intend to sling any hard accusations, but rather to point out what’s likely a subtle, unconscious bias. To provide another example, I’ve seen talk recently about how RT (again, unconsciously) depicts the faunus, where all the good characters have culturally established “good” animal features and all the bad character have culturally established “bad” features. It’s cat ears, rabbit ears, sheep ears, monkey tails, dog tails, and beautifully changing skin color vs. scorpion tails, spiderwebs, bull horns, tiger ears, bat wings, and crocodile scales. Is it a perfect 1:1 divide? No, Ghira has panther claws and Fennec has fox ears, but there’s enough there for us to go, “RT tends to give the good guys cute features and/or features we associate with safe animals, whereas the bad guys tend to get ugly features and/or features we associate with dangerous animals.” I feel the same way here, that there’s a bit of a trend at play, with the caveat that there are more complications simply by virtue of these allusions being, well, complicated. But there’s enough there to make us stop and think, “What were RT’s intentions with this? If they just chose something based on the rule of cool, what might those inclinations tell us about gender norms in America?” Meaning, when someone goes, “Idk, we just thought it would be cool to change this up” there’s a lifetime of media consumption driving that choice. It’s not actually random, but based on whatever has been normalized  — unless you actively counteract that by thinking through what you want the change to do. 

Unconscious biases are always at work. When we analyze something like this it’s often not a matter of saying, “The author is [insert accusatory term here]” but rather just, “The author is falling into expectations, patterns, and normalized decisions based on the culture they’ve grown up in.” Which includes things like thinking, “Well, if this character is based on a male god, she must be crazy strong. If this character is based on a woman fighter, he’s probably more emotional.” Such biases may be driving a lot of decisions because, as said in the past, I really don’t think RT is putting much thought into these allusions, if any at this point. For me, Penny was proof of that  — the inability to see how following her allusion utterly destroyed her character growth  — but even if we don’t agree about Penny, what about Salem? Far from just using her name, this volume gave us a blatant reference to the events of Salem Trails in the 1690s. Namely, the burning of the witch. 

Except references like this can’t just look cool. This isn’t a video game Easter egg with no real connection to the story, it’s a cinematography/plot choice that carries meaning. So what is that meaning? Well, the thing about the women on trail at Salem is that they were innocent. This is what that reference says: “Hey, remember that real life event where women who weren’t witches were horrifically killed because others thought they were evil? None were actually burned, but culturally we tend to think they were. So that’s the image in our collective mind: innocent women on fire.” Except... Salem is actually a witch. Salem is evil. Salem is guilty. Or at least, the questions surrounding the extent of her guilt  — How much responsibility does she hold in comparison to the Gods? How much agency does she still have after the grimm pool?  — has not been acknowledged by the text. Yang just yelled at Salem for killing her mom and Oscar is about to blow her up. This is not a “Question Salem’s humanity” scene, it’s a “Kill the witch” scene... yet it uses an allusion that is contrary to what the moment is trying to achieve. So what are we supposed to take away from this? Do we adhere to the subtext and believe that Salem is innocent somehow, ignoring what the actual text says, or do we uphold the text and in doing so undermine the reliability of every other allusion in the show? If we can’t trust Salem’s, why would we trust, say, Penny’s? 

RWBY’s allusions are all over the place and yes, I think that lack of consideration extends to who they randomly decided to genderbend. There’s no acknowledgment of  — let alone engagement with  — how many of these characters and historical figures were trying to pass themselves off as another gender, nor does RWBY acknowledge how the need to do so feeds into our current and historic assumptions about gender as a whole. Why does the man dress as a woman? To keep himself safe and seen as a non-threat. Why does the woman dress as a man? To gain access to places previously barred from her and to gain the respect she otherwise wouldn’t be afforded. And, of course, in 2021 there’s the expectation that media will include trans characters, GNC characters, non-binary characters, cis characters uninterested in practicing traditional femininity/masculinity, etc. None of which RWBY tackles outside of May, a woman who references a systematic transphobia we otherwise never see in the show. May, as a minor character, is great and I am in all honesty thrilled that she exists in the RWBY canon. However, the rest of the show is built on an anime conception of gender  — combat skirts and bare midriffs in the snow  — while nevertheless engaging with the very complicated question of how you re-imagine canonically/historically gendered people. As a “girl power” show, RWBY has opened itself up to questions like, “Okay, it’s great that you made these four fairy tale girls kickass, but can we talk about making Joan of Arc into a bumbling guy whose presence as a blonde, blue-eyed, sword-wielding man taking up lots of important screen time has generated accusations about this being a male-centered show?” It’s not a “RWBY is horrible for doing this!” issue, but a “RWBY is deliberately playing with gender and marketing itself as a progressive show, so... let’s figure out what these individual choices are actually implying and whether or not we consider that progressive.” 

[burntpastel]

late (ch2)

(On AO3)

Summary: Midoriya is acting unusual. Aizawa sends Mic to investigate.

Notes: A second chapter to Late, commissioned by Ivyblush and theDavynator on AO3! thank you again!!

CW rape, underage, age difference, teen pregnancy, lactation, trans deku

raping people is evil. adults who date and/or fuck minors are evil. dont do it, and and don’t base any real life relationships or choices off the content of fanfics.

18+, grapefruit, explicit, etc.

"Midoriya skipped training again today," Aizawa casually announces without turning away from the paper he's grading.

It didn't surprise Hizashi when Midoriya took a couple days off school and holed up in his dorm room for a while–or when he finally came out but barely ate, got terrible grades, and was often found puking in the restrooms. That's normal behavior after he fucks a student.

It's not, however, normal for these things to persist five whole months down the line. Maybe they'd remain a little dour, sure, but usually they bounced back by a month or so (if they didn't just drop out.) Yet, the bags beneath Midoriya's eyes just seem to be getting deeper and deeper, his grades never really improve (even with Hizashi padding them where he can) and he still hears Midoriya retching from the bathrooms whenever he watches the dorms.

"Oh yeah?" Hizashi replies in the same manner, hands busy with pouring himself a cup of coffee without getting burned by their shitty leaky carafe.

He isn't sure if Midoriya's just more sensitive than his previous students, or if it has to do with living on campus with him, or if it's… something else. Still, Hizashi doesn’t really love facing the icky aftermath of his actions (beyond seeing the newfound fear in his students’ eyes), so he’s never bothered to confront Midoriya about it.

He and Aizawa are alone in the teacher's lounge, everyone else having scattered to eat their lunch elsewhere. Aizawa stays quiet while Hizashi brings his lunch over to the coffee table and begins settling in across from him.

"What happened that night Midoriya went missing for an hour on your watch?" he asks before bringing his own coffee to his lips, watching Hizashi carefully over the rim.

Hizashi peels back the plastic surrounding his sandwich.

"He broke curfew, so I gave him a stern talking to." He takes a bite. "You'd be proud."

Aizawa's eyes narrow. He looks away as he sets his cup back down, fixing his gaze on the table.

"...Do you always have to go after my students," he asks, quiet. "You teach other classes."

"What can I say? I like 'em with a little muscle. Makes it better when they don't even use it."

Aizawa just sighs.

"Can you blame me? I was under the impression you had the same tastes, Shouta."

"Don't call me that," Aizawa snaps, then continues, "You're going to get caught."

"Hey, I think if he hasn't told anyone after five months then I'm in the clear."

"He won't have to talk about it if he keeps missing school. Someone's going to start asking questions eventually."

Hizashi frowns, because that's true. Usually he wouldn't be too worried about that with the addition of the dorms–no prying parents to worry about–but Midoriya and All Might seem to have a weirdly close bond, and All Might's really the only one out of the loop at this point.

"What do you want me to do about it?" Hizashi asks, bemused. "They usually get better on their own."

"I don't know. Did you…" Aizawa pauses, rethinking his question. "Is there a chance that he's pregnant?"

"Probably," Hizashi mumbles, avoiding eye contact by staring down the food in his hands. He doubts the kid was on any birth control; he doesn't seem very popular with the guys (or anyone else, for that matter) and Hizashi failed to remind him that emergency contraceptives were an option.

Aizawa closes his eyes and sighs, leaning back against his seat while Hizashi eats.

Eventually, Hizashi speaks up. "Look, I'll talk to him about it later, okay?"

"I doubt he'll want to talk to you," Aizawa retorts.

"Well, are you gonna ask him?"

Aizawa falls silent.

"I'll talk to him," Hizashi affirms.

Midoriya has a fairly solid routine of stopping by the restrooms after school ends, so Hizashi decides to wait outside for him. Leaning against the wall just beyond the door, he can distantly hear him heaving. It's pretty convenient, actually, because by the time he finally finishes up the hallways have emptied out. (Hizashi would have thought he'd take more care not to end up alone, considering, but he supposes illness waits for no one.)

Midoriya doesn't notice him at first when he emerges, shrugging his backpack back on as he stumbles forward in a daze, his face pale and hair stuck to his forehead with sweat.

"Hey–"

Midoriya startles hard. His eyes are often dull as of late but they quickly fill up with fear as he processes who he's staring at. He takes a step back but Hizashi is quick to grab his arm.

"Ah-ah! We need to talk."

Gasping, Midoriya struggles as Hizashi tugs him towards one of the now empty classrooms. Either he's too out of it to think to use his quirk, or he knows better. Hizashi slides the door open and shoves him inside. He's quick to straighten up and start backing away, putting a few desks between them while Hizashi shuts the door behind them.

"Sit down. I just wanna talk." Hizashi pulls out a seat himself, figuring that if he's seated then Midoriya may be more inclined to follow. He does, reluctantly–eyes locked on Hizashi as he eases down into a chair a somewhat awkward distance away, keeping his hands braced on the back and the desk, like he's ready to leap up at any second.

Hizashi leans back, crossing his arms and scowling at the kid, like all this is his fault.

"People are starting to get worried about how sick you've been."

Instantly Midoriya's eyes drop to the floor, practically wincing. He makes no effort to fill him in.

Hizashi tilts his head. "Have you taken a pregnancy test?"

Midoriya doesn't answer, but the way he bursts into tears speaks loud and clear.

Damn unlucky kid.

Hizashi rolls his eyes and groans, his stomach sinking as he slides down in his chair. He technically knew his 'birth control plan' of never fucking the same kid twice was failable, but it had worked up until now (to his knowledge, anyway–not like he'd know if any of the previous kids went out and got an abortion on their own.)

"What are you doing, kid? It's been five months! Go to Recovery Girl–she does abortions all quiet for the hero course."

Midoriya's arms protectively cross over his stomach as he sobs, shaking his head almost imperceptibly from its place hung over his lap.

"What, you want to keep it?!" Hizashi gapes. "Are you serious? What are you going to tell people when you pop out a kid?"

Midoriya actually has the nerve to pick his head up and scowl at him through the tears streaming down his face. Hizashi snarls, before jumping to his feet and storming over to Midoriya. He catches his arm before he can fully bolt out of his chair, pulling him back and gripping him by the shoulders. That fury in Midoriya's eyes is quickly replaced with horror.

"I know you're not going to tell them I did it," Hizashi growls, "because if the police come poking around, you'll have to tell them everything. You know that? You have to give them every little detail or you're withholding information–which is a crime.

“You'll have to tell them how you broke curfew and made me come looking for you, how you failed to notice me in the showers, how you stuck your little ass out for me to see, that you let me fuck your mouth–"

"Stop it!"

"–and that you squeezed me so tight I came inside you."

Midoriya’s eyes squeeze shut, his head dropping.

Hizashi leans closer. "Are you gonna tell them all that? Because I will. I'll tell them everything–and if our stories don't match up completely, you'll be in a lot of trouble."

He's by no means unused to lying, manipulation or blackmail–yet, he sort of feels sick as the words tumble out of his mouth. Midoriya slumps back down into his chair when Hizashi releases his shoulders, burying his face into his hands as he sobs.

It's not nearly as pretty a sight when his lips aren't stretched around his cock.

"That's what I thought," Hizashi says anyway, putting on an air of confidence even as he looks away.

Discomfort twists in his gut as he listens to Midoriya's barely restrained wails echo through the room–which then warps into frustration, each heaving gasp Hizashi hears wracking anger into his very bones.

There were plenty of solutions to this, and the kid has the nerve to cry and blame him?

"You've got maybe a month to think about aborting it, after that you'll have to carry it to term either way," Hizashi says coldly when Midoriya pauses to catch his breath between sobs. "Does anyone else know?"

Wiping away steadily replenishing tears, Midoriya shakes his head.

"They'll know soon enough,” he huffs. “Are you showing yet?"

He can't see much through his blazer, but he thinks there's a pretty good chance he is; Hizashi knows he's been avoiding his hero costume in favor of U.A.'s looser-fitting gym clothes lately.

Midoriya makes no effort to answer him, so Hizashi reaches forward to grab a fistful of his uniform and tugs upwards, revealing his stomach. Midoriya weakly pries at his wrist in response.

Through his clothes it could probably pass for a little extra weight, or even just a big breakfast–but there's definitely a swell there compared to the lean stomach he'd seen in the showers a few months ago, poking out over the hem of his pants.

And Hizashi put that there.

He glances upwards to see the miserable embarrassment covering Midoriya’s face and, despite everything, he feels heat rush between his legs. It takes him by surprise at first, but it's sure as hell a better feeling than the guilt and fear gnawing at him.

It occurs to him that his once-per-student policy is meaningless now, and if Midoriya's gonna be crying his eyes out and risking getting him caught anyway…

Well, he might as well enjoy it.

Midoriya’s struggle becomes more earnest when Hizashi pops the buttons on his clothes open. He bolts upright out of his chair, sending it clattering backwards, trying to twist out of Hizashi’s grasp–but he has a tight grip on his blazer.

“No!” Midoriya cries so damn loud that fear shocks its way through Hizashi’s body. He claps a hand over the kid’s mouth and shoves him against the desk he’d been sitting at. Midoriya stares up at him with glossy, terrified eyes as he thrashes and tries to pull away.

“Listen,” Hizashi snarls, "it's not unusual for kids your age to get knocked up and it won't hurt your hero image much–but if people find out it had to do with me? Then you’ll always be remembered as the slut who got Present Mic arrested.”

The nails scraping at his wrist slowly stop as Midoriya's weeping returns, Hizashi's words sinking in. He stills, arms dropping to his sides as his eyes fall shut.

Taking this as bitter acceptance, Hizashi relaxes his grip on him–though doesn’t uncover his mouth–and pushes his blazer and button-up off his shoulders with one hand. He urges Midoriya backwards until he's laying on the desk, wearing a face of open misery as his eyes glaze over again–but that's not where Hizashi's attention is focused.

"Your tits are already gettin' bigger..."

They're spilling out over the top of his too-small bra, nipples peeking out from behind the bunched up fabric gathering beneath them. Hizashi bets he has to readjust the thing all day long. He's got red marks along his shoulders where the straps have been rubbing and straining to support him.

Hizashi's definitely doing him a favor when he rips it apart at the lacy seam between the cups. Midoriya winces as his only support falls away, his tits pooling on his chest.

"Heh. Are you sore?" he asks, groping him with his free hand, pleased it actually fills his palm this time around. The way Midoriya's eyes pinch shut suggests yes. His hands clutch at Hizashi's sleeves in some kind of feeble attempt to resist, knees tense around Hizashi’s hips. Perhaps he’s trying to prevent him from pressing any closer.

Hizashi squeezes and tugs his nipple and Midoriya gasps when something wet and white dribbles out. His hands snap to Hizashi's wrist to pry him off but Hizashi just chuckles and repeats the motion. Kicking his thigh, Midoriya squeals something under his palm as his tit squirts a solid stream this time. The moisture makes Hizashi's fingers slip away, but he cackles as Midoriya's face screws up, flushing bright red down to his chest, where his arms promptly cross.

Now that's a good look. He much prefers tears of humiliation over shame. His cock is already straining against his pants, but first he needs a little more insurance that the kid won't run while he's getting undressed

"You're only halfway through your pregnancy but you're ready to pop that sucker out already, huh?"

He pulls his hand away from Midoriya’s mouth and his head falls to the side, burying against his own shoulder without ever peeking his eyes open. Hizashi's hands trail down to undo his uniform's belt and pants. His knees tighten around him, but he doesn't otherwise react until Hizashi nearly pulls him off the desk as he's tugging them down his legs. He has to grasp the desk's edge to keep himself from falling when Hizashi forces them off along with his shoes.

He didn't notice when he was just looking at his stomach, more focused on his baby bump, but now he can tell Midoriya has put on a little weight. Even with all his muscle he was kind of a beanpole a few months ago, but here–his ass and thighs actually have some substance to them, pooling over the surface of the desk as they're pressed against it. Maybe it says something about Hizashi's perceptiveness that he didn't notice all this sooner… but, no; the kid never really filled out his uniform to begin with, so it easily looked natural when he began to, and even then it still hangs a little loose around him in places.

Hizashi can't help but drag his palms over his thighs appreciatively. His hips press forward until the bulge in his pants nudges against Midoriya's cunt, making his legs twitch and tense. He can see the strain in his shoulders and the uneven rise and fall of his chest.

"Gonna be good this time?" Hizashi asks as he draws back to undo his own belt. "It won't hurt as much if you just sit still and let me do my thing."

He plans on making that as hard as possible for him, of course. Predictably, Midoriya doesn’t try to answer him–just squeezes his eyes shut tighter. Hizashi kicks off his shoes and drops his pants, relieved as his aching cock springs free, while Midoriya flinches far too hard at the sound of his belt hitting the floor. His legs twist shut on what Hizashi has to assume is reflex, because he has no trouble prying his knees apart to put himself between them again.

Hizashi clicks his tongue. "What are you so afraid of, huh? You're already pregnant. The way I see it, you should just enjoy yourself."

Hizashi wasn't planning on doing much with his cock–not yet–but the way Midoriya recoils makes it hard to resist. With one hand on Midoriya's knee and the other wrapped around his length, he gives himself a few precursory strokes before pressing forward, burying the head of his cock between the lips. He watches the kid's body jerk as he barely suppresses the urge to escape, clearly expecting Hizashi to fuck him dry again. Instead, Hizashi lets his dick slip upwards and uses his fingers to hold it down against his clit as it slides forward. Midoriya's knees twitch twice as it's touched, and again every so often as Hizashi's piercings slide over it. He moves slowly, letting each one catch and rub over his clitoris, before drawing back just as slow and letting it do the same in reverse.

Hizashi isn't sure if it's frustration or confusion contorting Midoriya's face, but his brows are deeply furrowed. Once it reaches his tip again Hizashi presses back down between his lips, harder this time–threatening to actually push inside. Midoriya's jaw tenses in preparation, his breath hitching. And then Hizashi does it again, lets it slip up and rub over his clit all painfully slow, back and forth.

It's definitely frustration, at least this time. Hizashi has to laugh at the way he writhes and huffs on the desk in front of him.

"What, do you want me to fuck you?"

"No."

The way Midoriya's voice breaks over the syllable makes it sound hilariously unconvincing. His expression mixes with embarrassment while Hizashi laughs at him.

"Oh, we'll get there," he promises darkly.

He does his best to make it feel threatening each time he rubs up against his entrance, varying the intensity and the angle at which he does it. It reminds Midoriya to stay nice and tense whenever he starts to get too into the feeling of having his clit rubbed, legs falling open almost like he wants it. Midoriya's gasp fills the room wherever Hizashi does accidentally slip inside only to pull right back out, which becomes increasingly easy to do as his cunt loosens up with arousal.

Finally Hizashi draws back, because it's also getting increasingly hard to want to pull back out–but not before giving his clit a final slap with his cock just to see him jolt. He reaches a hand up to prod his fingers at Midoriya's lips.

Instead of opening up and sucking them down, he peels his lips back and shows him all teeth. Little shit.

"Hey," Hizashi warns, "if you don't want me to rip up your cunt again then you'll get my fingers nice and wet. No biting."

Midoriya winces. He hesitantly opens his jaw, and Hizashi offers some light praise as he shoves two fingers in. There's a pause while he holds them there and Midoriya pieces together that he has to lick them himself (which wasn't Hizashi's original plan, but that's what he gets for resisting.) His tongue is slow and reluctant to coat them, but it’s good enough once Hizashi presses in and nearly crams his fingers down his throat, eliciting a concerningly wet gag just before withdrawing.

Hizashi pushes his other palm back over Midoriya's mouth as he reaches down and shoves a digit into his cunt, making him writhe a bit despite how easily he takes it. Hizashi is quick to add a second once he realizes just how wet he is–much more than expected. He sets a firm but not quite punishing pace right away, curling up against that sweet spot with every thrust.

Midoriya squirms mostly in rhythm with his strokes and presses a hand over Hizashi's as he whimpers under his palm. He keeps his legs splayed open, eyes squeezed shut as his back arches off the desk, pushing his swollen stomach into the air.

"See? You could have felt like this last time, too, if you would have just played along."

Tears stream down his face and he squeezes Hizashi's wrist like it's torture but the way he cries out suggests otherwise, and when Hizashi brushes his thumb over his clit he's quite happy to rub up against it.

Though the muscles in his arm complain, Hizashi is happy to give it to him when Midoriya starts rocking his hips down on his fingers, silently begging for more. Hizashi's torn between staring at Midoriya's face and being mesmerized by the way his skin ripples with each inward thrust of his fingers. It's so cliche and filthy–the high pitched moans echoing around the empty classroom along with wet squelching and the slapping of skin on skin–and Hizashi loves it. It feels absolutely addictive with the way he's all wired with nerves that were frayed just minutes ago.

Midoriya's moans slowly become that much more lewd and needy, his pussy clenching rhythmically around Hizashi fingers, informing him it's time to switch things up. He withdraws, watching Midoriya roll his hips against nothing as his hole visibly gapes and tightens–practically begging to be filled up. Midoriya peeks at Hizashi through glassy half-lidded eyes, his hand edging down the desk beside his hip like he wants to touch himself.

He turns rigid when Hizashi grabs his dick and positions himself at his entrance, eyes widening at the sight.

"Don't worry, I'll let you come," Hizashi assures, intentionally misreading him. "You squeezing my dick last time was one of the best things I've ever felt. Like hell I'd skip out on that!"

He pushes inside before he even finishes talking. Midoriya's eyes snap shut as he sucks in a breath. Hizashi intentionally left him a little underprepared–not enough to hurt, but enough that he'd react to the stretch. He didn't want to take all the fun out of it after all.

He lets his head fall back with a groan as he sinks himself in. Brutalizing him last time was great, sure, but physically speaking this is much better, his cunt all slick and throbbing around him. Midoriya's thighs tremble around his waist as he hilts fully inside him, breath blowing hot and uneven over his hand. Hizashi savors the feeling with a few slow thrusts, watching his cock be happily swallowed up by the kid's cunt, just inches below the swell of his pregnant belly.

Just like with his fingers, Hizashi quickly sets into a hasty pace without any build up. Midoriya goes taut again, back arching off the desk so far Hizashi hears it pop a few times. Midoriya whines under his palm, starting out a complaint, then ending somewhere more sexual. Hizashi watches his body jostle with each thrust, his tits actually big enough to bounce this time.

He frowns when Midoriya bundles them up in one arm and lays the other over the top of them. He honestly can't tell if Midoriya's just embarrassed and trying to cover up–or if they're so tender that the movement hurts and he's trying to hold them still. A smile tugs at Hizashi's lips, and he's honestly hoping it's the latter as he finally removes his palm from Midoriya's mouth to grab his wrists, prying them away from his chest and pinning them to the desk at his sides.

His thrusts become sharper, snapping his hips into him to displace Midoriya's breasts as much as possible. His mouth falls wide open in a silent scream, the only sound coming out what gets forced from his lungs with each jolt of his body–his expression a delightful mix of embarrassed and pained underneath overbearing pleasure.

The desk scrapes across the floor little by little, and Hizashi just follows it along until it bumps up against the neighboring one and finally stops. He's panting, eyes fixed on Midoriya's form. Every part of him is so good to look at, from his bright red tear streaked face, his bouncing swollen tits that move his nipples in little circles, to his protruding stomach. Usually when he fucks beanpoles like Midoriya he can see his dick bulging in their stomach, but his is already so swollen that it just disappears inside him completely. A groan escapes Hizashi's lips, cock throbbing hard when he thinks about how close it must get to his womb with each thrust.

He pushes Midoriya's wrists up above his head and curls his fingers over the edge of the desk, keeping them firmly pinned there while he leans down to suck on the tender, swollen skin of his chest. Midoriya's breath hitches and he tries to recoil away, arching uselessly against the desk. Hizashi pays him no mind, nuzzling his lips and tongue against his breasts, trailing wet kisses across them as he draws pained whimpers from him.

"Stop–!"

He's rewarded with a ring of teeth around his nipple. Midoriya flinches hard underneath him, tightening wonderfully around his cock.

Hizashi hadn't expected to have such an effect with just his teeth, but he definitely feels liquid hit his tongue. He… finds it hotter than he thought he would. Maybe it just feels akin to the times he's gotten a student to squirt while raping them, especially when he glances up to see Midoriya's bright red face so twisted with embarrassment that he's practically cringing.

Still, he's not quite around to the idea of swallowing it. He lifts his head and lolls his tongue out, letting it mingle with his saliva as it drips down hotly onto Midoriya's breast.

"You're just overflowing with this stuff, huh?" Hizashi licks his lips in between huffs. "No wonder you're so sore."

Midoriya just buries his face harder against his shoulder, chest spasming with sobs and strangled moans. Hizashi flicks his tongue up his opposite breast and over his nipple, keeping Midoriya plenty tense around him, before finally drawing back, feeling an orgasm beginning to coil between his legs. He releases his wrists, revealing the bright red marks underneath, grabbing Midoriya's jaw to move him into a better position to clamp his hand back down over his mouth. With the other, he gives his nipple one final tug that Midoriya's too slow to slap away before slicking up his fingers again in his own mouth.

He angles his hips so that he can keep fucking him while he reaches down and rubs his fingers over Midoriya's clit. Midoriya's eyes squeeze tighter as his back arches off the desk, hands clasping around Hizashi's wrist above his face.

He comes in seconds. His cunt squeezes him as he cries out under his palm, hips rocking down on his cock. Hizashi grabs his hip and humps into that tight, pulsing heat with no regard for Midoriya's pregnant form, hips snapping harshly into him in pursuit of his own orgasm.

When it hits, it hits hard. He shoves his cock into him full hilt, pushing Midoriya up the desk an inch, and then another on the second spurt. Their bodies writhe against each other as Hizashi empties himself into Midoriya for the second time, filling up against his occupied womb.

As their pulses come back down and they begin to catch their breath, the foggy haze of arousal clears away, hormones dispersing from their brains. The situation dawns on both of them again; Midoriya's tears catch back up with him, having halted for his orgasm, and Hizashi's stomach sinks again now that fucking a teen he already got pregnant doesn't seem so hot anymore. He lets go of him and pulls out, and the kid doesn't even move beyond burying his face in the crook of his elbow as Hizashi's come drips out of his cunt onto the desk below.

His gut twists harder because Midoriya just looks so broken laying there like that. With his back flat on the desk Hizashi can see how much his stomach has already stretched, and how hard it's going to be on him during the later stages of his pregnancy.

The snivels start up and Hizashi decides–fuck this. He's not dealing with this. He pulls his eyes away to turn around and put his pants back on. It's not his fault the kid doesn't want to get an abortion and didn't take a Plan B anyways. It’s not his fault that Midoriya broke a rule and made himself vulnerable all those months ago. This shit is why those rules exist in the first place!

If Midoriya went and gave himself a lasting consequence to what was only supposed to last a single night, fine. Hizashi will squeeze whatever enjoyment he can get out of it while it lasts.

He doesn't even bother to stay to help him clean up; just starts moving towards the door, and he doesn't look back when he pauses on his way out to say,

"Come to my office on Monday. I wanna, ah, keep an eye on the situation."

[nctinfo]

[TRANS] ViVi Magazine: NCT 127′s thoughts after the tour!

Q. Congratulations on completing the Japanese tour, you’ve worked hard! When you look back at the last 2 months tell us how do you honestly feel. Taeyong: There are so many different thoughts…. Too many for them all to come out straight away, so please start with a different member haha Doyoung: Starting from me then. Our 2-month long tour has finished yesterday, but right now I and the members would like to express words of gratitude towards our staff who worked so hard with us together. Also, I’m sincerely thankful to the fans who made the tour with us. I started this tour with feeling grateful and so I’m also ending it with feeling grateful. Mark: Because this tour is our very first I’m extra emotional about it. First of all with it being the first I’ve learned so much and it’s ingrained in my memory. I’m really thankful for being able to experience something this good. Taeil: I think it’s a shame that Haechan couldn’t participate from the first show because of his injury, but thankfully we managed to complete the tour smoothly till the end. I’ve learned so much through this tour and as it finished safely I have no regrets, so it’s become a really good experience. Haechan: Just like Taeil-hyung said, it really is a shame that I couldn’t be there from the very beginning of NCT 127’s Japanese tour, so I kept thinking about how next time I will have to be able to attend all shows. But still, it’s very good that I could participate in the last concert in Saitama! At that show, I felt like we’ve gotten so much help from the people around us and that felt really nice too. Johnny: With wrapping up such a long tour my first thought is, of course, the faces of our fans. We were able to see our fans from the stage. When we saw their smiles, the smiles on our faces naturally grew too. It was like looking at our own reflection in the mirror. Yuta: Me too, I really felt our fans sincere support all over again. Now after being able to share so much good time with the fans through this tour I only have good thoughts. Jungwoo: Honestly before the start of the tour I didn’t know how to do a good stage so I was only thinking about having to try my very best. But as it finished I felt like the way to becoming a real singer must be cool. I also really felt how precious standing on the stage in front of the fans is, I thought that I want to be with them forever. Jaehyun: I think that successfully finishing the tour really is thanks to the fans. When yesterday’s last concert ended I thought, we really created moments that feel like my heart is going to burst. And I thought that to be able to make these moments, the members, the staff and all of the fans had to all run together. It was like our bodies were charged with electricity, making it even more thrilling.

Yuta: It’s just that, there is a lot of fans in areas we couldn't go to so next time I want to go and meet them in these areas too. Johnny: Right. I was really happy when I was standing on the stage, I saw a lot of our fans who were just as happy, and when then last show ended I thought to myself. Even though I really enjoyed this tour, next time I’m gonna have to work my best so more people can empathise with it. I’ve made a promise with myself! Doyoung: On this tour, we also had risky performances with the use of the jungle gym, so from the moment we started practicing I thought I wanted us to do it with no injuries. Thanks to various people helping us we managed to finish it all smoothly and safely, so I’m also thankful for that. We’re having a world tour next, so I think we’ll be able to showcase cool performances there too because of that! (members clapping enthusiastically) Taeyong: And now it’s my turn. Until now we’ve gone to Japan so many times already, but because we’ve been going all around the country with this tour, Japan feels so big now. I kept feeling like I was in Japan for the first time all the throughout the whole tour. Like that it was a shining time for me. Also, I was very happy to find out there were so many people who wanted to see us, there were so many moments when my heart felt so overjoyed when I was standing on the stage. In the future we want to come to Japan more often, both as NCT 127 and individually!

Q. How did you spend the night prior to your last concert? Johnny: I drank some water, took a bath, had one cup of beer, had more water and went to sleep haha I thought it would help me to unwind. Taeil: I tried to go to bed as quickly as possible. But it ended up being the usual time………. Doyoung: I didn’t do anything special and spent it like I normally would. But there's one thing I need to say, I slept in a humidifying mask. Doing so protected my voice. Jaehyun: I watched a really short video of us on stage and went to sleep. Mark: The Saitama Super Arena was not only our last show but also lasted 3 days. To be honest when we completed the first 2 days I was feeling a bit bummed. So the night before the last one I went to sleep with the mindset of ‘I want the 3rd one to be without any regrets’. Haechan: Since I hurt my ankle I went for a foot bath before the concert. I was thinking ‘How should I do tomorrow’... And then went to sleep straight after. Normally I go to sleep late but weirdly enough I slept very early for the past 3 days. So I had enough sleep on the last night! Jungwoo: Nice……. I was super nervous before the last day. Since it was the last show I kept thinking about how I wanted it to be of high quality. So I kept telling myself ‘Let’s keep not making any mistakes and have maximum strength!’. I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, but I did take a warm shower and the next day I had an energy drink 2 hours before the show hehe Yuta: I took a bath, and while soaking in the water I was thinking a lot. This tour has started in Korea. A long time felt so short. I thought that during that time I was able to experience so many different things and so I have also grown as a person. The next day was our last we’d spend with fans in Japan, so I was also thinking about the ways we could express our feelings more.... So I was bathing while thinking about these things. Taeyong: The night prior to the last day me and Doyoung who I was rooming with talked a lot. As people who live together and will also grow together as members, we really talked about a lot of things. And then I took a bath with Yuta! Doyoung: Yes! We did talk a lot, didn’t we. It was a good time.

Q. Do you feel like you’ve grown on this tour, or maybe do you regret anything? Yuta: Until now we were able to show a lot of our performances on TV. So without even knowing I thought I should make something nice for our confidence. But at the bottom of my heart, I was like, I want to do something for our fans! When I saw the faces of our staff working hard behind the scenes for us to shine, I thought I have to try even harder so I can repay them! And in all honesty, I did work hard, but no matter how hard I work I think there will always be some regrets. But don’t we grow more when we regret something and think’ ‘Next time I’ll have to do it like this’? So for me, I don’t think having regrets is a bad thing. Doyoung: I thought, rather than how we did it at our first concert in Seoul, isn’t it better to take it easy in a good way? So with the mindset like ‘I look less nervous in front of the camera, I want to show a happy image or other various images!’ I relaxed a little. I’ve said that in interviews we’ve done while touring, but I wanted to improve the technical aspect so I could perform without thinking about anything. I wanted to be so lost in it so that I could not think about anything after it’s over, but it’s a little shame that I couldn’t do it till the very end. Jaehyun: The stage aspect when you perform over and over……. For example, what kind of performance different than ones we do on TV would be good, what kind of expression and gestures will be portrayed easily, I feel like I was really able to grow in terms of that. The regretful thing is that I started learning Japanese as we started touring, so I feel like I should’ve studied more. If I learned more I could have deeper conversations with our fans, so next time we meet I want to do better! Taeil: If I compare the first and the last shows on the tour I think I’ve gotten more relaxed. Rather than performing in a fixed way at the beginning of the tour, I wish I had fun like the fans and I were breathing together from start to finish. There was a lot of things I was unfamiliar with since it was the first tour, but sharing stories, talking, and performing with our fans elevated the ‘Let’s do it together!’ atmosphere, so I think I’ve grown in the communication with each other aspect. Sometimes I feel like ‘I’ve done well there’, sometimes it’s like ‘I should’ve done better”. I think it would be better if I could be satisfied with everything because I still lack a sense of security. Johnny: I think I’ve grown in a lot of aspects, but there are two things I want to talk about. First off, concentration. And once again I’ve broadened my view. When performing I wanted to look all around the venue to feel the concert atmosphere. I think I was able to do it through this tour. There’s a lot of minor things I regret. But I think there is no perfect stage. I might not see one for the rest of my life……. So in the future, I want to try my best to find our perfection. Doyoung: Johnny-hyung looked disappointed that he couldn’t flip his long hair like he did in <Wakey-Wakey> MV though? Johnny: Ah~! hahahahaha But there’s an actual reason for this! I didn’t want to surprise the fans on the first day of Saitama Arena shows, so I didn’t do it. So I thought of having long hair on the second day, but then I thought that I would also have to do it on the third day. But on the third day, we had a DVD shooting! So, in the end, I couldn’t do it at all hahaha Doyoung: Wouldn’t it be good if you did it from day one hahaha Mark: When I compare the first show in Seoul and the last show in Saitama, I think I’ve gained stamina to perform for 3 hours. But like Johnny and Yuta-hyung, if I started nitpicking single details from performances and think like ‘it would’ve been better like this’ it would be like this till the very end. Even though that’s the standard I look at details with, deep inside there was a lot of aspects when I was like ‘that’s a shame’. The point is that there’s no stage without even the slightest regret. Jungwoo: I’ve only joined NCT 127 late autumn last year. So I had less experience and had a lot different member choreography to memorise. For that reason, at first, I was anxious with thoughts like ‘I’m scared’, ‘Can I do it’, but when I got on stage I saw fans being happy and cheering for me. Thanks to this the weight was dropped off my shoulders and I was able to show you who I am. I feel like I’ve showcased really good stages in that regard and I think I’ll be able to do cool stages in the future too. Haechan: Anything you regret? Jungwoo: Ah~ There’s really a lot. I’m still unripe and like Mark said, if you start nitpicking on little things there’s no end to it. So out of all of these things, I think the most regretful is that I couldn’t look into the camera, it didn’t come out well. Haechan: I think I’ve grown in the aspect of ‘making a performance’. I was talking to the tour directors I was sharing my opinions like ‘Wouldn’t it be better if it’s done like this?’ and changed things bit by bit. Like this, I’ve learned ways to make things through communication with no doubts. And of course not being able to spend much time together with fans due to my injury is something I regret. Taeyong: I think this tour has taught me again that this is my job. Something I want to do and something I have to do in the future… And one more thing, I’ve learned how important it is to be thankful to people that surround you. Or maybe rather than being thankful, we should get to know people who support us. And I like the scenery in Japan so whenever I come here I always try to take some time off to go sightseeing. But because this time it was mad busy I couldn’t find any free time. Besides, I couldn’t eat as much as I wanted even if my body found it delicious hahaha So I want to go back to Korea with my restraints left behind with the tour ending today!

Translation: Alex @ FY! NCT (NCTINFO) | Source: ViVi [ Kor ] — Do not repost or take out without our permission!

[aydans-witchy-witch-blr]

The Circle of the Peculiar

Are you a witch who would like to practice with other witches? Do you want to learn and grow in a place where your beliefs are normal and accepted? Do you have a Discord? Well, the Circle of the Peculiar might just be for you.

Within the Circle of the Peculiar, we have provide spaces to converse on all types of craft, a coven calendar, friendly and fun bots, self assignable roles and much more.

We have 5 moderators, who are all ready and willing to help you and answer any questions you may have.

Blu- a queer eclectic energy focused witch who has been practicing for about 4 years. while she is a bit shy sometimes, she is always willing and open to helping anyone along their journey. She practices all types of divination, energy magick, sigils, crystal magick, clairaudience and more.

Hazel- an eclectic death focused witch who is ready and willing to help anyone with any questions they have regarding anything she knows something about. She works a lot with the spirit world, the elements, sigils, cartomancy and other things here and there. She is a queer witch who has been practicing on and off for about 4 years.

Aydan - a baby eclectic witch who has been practicing for only 6 weeks. He is a queer, trans guy witch. He is willing to help with any questions or concerns you might have.

Allya- a eclectic baby urban witch who has been practicing for a few months. She worships Loki and Skadi,  loves to work with sigils and learn everything that she can.  She’s always happy to talk with new people and help whenever as she can.

Kenan- an inexperienced system witch with interest in sigils, crystals, herbal practice and general white magic. They have minor memory problems due to being a system, but doesn’t forget the people they meet along life’s journey.

We here at CP are looking for kind, creative, interesting people to join our discord server. We fully welcome anyone of any race, religion, sexuality, gender, or experience level.

Send a message to myself (or @moonflower-writing), @gothic-witch, @blu-thewitch, @allyawitch, or @kenanscloud and you might be selected to join our helpful, exciting, wonderful group! We will ask a few questions when you message us, to make sure you're a good fit for our group, so DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED by this! It is so everyone involved feels safe, wanted, and respected within the group.

If you're on the fence, go for it! spots are limited to just 25 people, so secure your place in the Circle of the Peculiar today!

[starshinebakery]

Starshine Bakery has collected a good chunk of info on AGERE, DDLG, etc. Over the many years of it’s running! We decided to make this a reblog incase people wanted to share the info, point out where we went wrong, what we should add, etc. Please be advised that these definitions can be changed with new info in time. Please feel free to request more defs.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE MAY HAVE SOME TRIGGERING WORDS SINCE WE DISCUSS DDLG AND AGERE!! 

『❀』AGERE     

❥Age regression is a coping mechanism where someone regress or goes into a younger state of mind to cope with trauma, stress, or simply for fun! It's non sexual and not kink. Not under the BDSM umbrella!

『❀』DDLG      

❥Under the BDSM umbrella. Sometimes uses Ageplay to roleplay relationships between a parental unit and a child. Many different names are under it such as MDLG, DDLB, MDLB, and CGL. DDLG cannot be nonsexual due to it being under a kink community and has been kink for 10+ years. 

『❀』CGL      

❥Under the BDSM umbrella. Considered the gender neutral of all the BDSM communities under the DDLG and Age Play banner. It is considered kinkster and many of its tags prior to tumblr bans were filled with NSFW and BDSM community cross tagging. 

『❀』CGLRE      

❥Cglre is the age regression counter part of CGL. CGLRE is the gender neutral and also where CG dependent regressors express themselves. Many communities refuse to interact with Cglre due to the cross tagging that BDSM communities do with Cgl. However, CGLRE is a completely valid portion of AGERE. However, the OG pages have seen changed tags to avoid cross tagging.

『❀』Dreamer/Age Dreaming/Pet Dreaming/Agedre      

❥A practice/headspace/experience that is highly diverse. Much like dreaming when we are asleep. Headspace used when they feel as though it does not allign with traditional AGRE. Nonkink and nonsexual. 

『❀』Little/Age Regression     

 ❥Typically words used for a regressor. i.e. the person that is going into the younger state of mind. Not to be confused with sub or submissive which is from kink and BDSM

『❀』Switches      

❥Typically used in kink however over time AGERE have used it to identif someone who is both a caregiver and a regressor.

『❀』Caregivers/Mommy/Daddy     

 ❥Caregivers are the person who typically take care of regressors or enjoy being in a caring or taking care of mindset. Not to be confused with the kinkster portion involving dom. Which stands for dominate and takes from kink and BDSM.

『❀』Age Play      

❥Age play is where someone roleplays relationships between parental unit such as daddy/uncle/mommy with a child. Roleplay being of a sexual nature. It role plays the abuse, Incest, rape, and exploitation of young children. Which once you look at abstract is bad but when conducted between two consenting adults is 100% fine.

『❀』Regression      

❥Where someone regresses into a younger state of mind. It's a coping mechcanism and is completely nonsexual.

『❀』ABDL      

❥Adult Baby and Diaper Lover. Typically under the kinkster community and under BDSM. However diapers can be completely nonsexual. Not always in the case of this community who use diapers in a lewd sense.

『❀』Pet Regression      

❥Pet regression is like normal regression only someone regresses into a pet mind set. Like kitten, dog, ratties, etc. Our pet friends are completely nonsexual. Also used as a coping mechanisms!

『❀』Pet Play     

 ❥Pet play is where people roleplay being a pet but for a sexual purpose.

『❀』Non-Com AGERE      

❥These littles do not align themselves with any communities under AGERE, like our server. 

『❀』Com AGERE      

❥There a social media AGERE communities. While some harmless there are AGERE communities that dont allow CGLRE, Trans, other communities, or may have some tricky drama. (We are unsure at the time of this posting if they have disbanded, changed policies, etc.) It's important to research and look at the guidelines of each community before jumping in!

『❀』MAPs/Glovergender/Trans-age/etc.      

❥MAPs or Minor Attracted Person have many variants such as NOMAPs (non offending minor attraction person), SOMAPs (semi offending minor attracted person), etc. Clovergender/trans-age are people who identify as a younger age than they are and thus can be attracted to children/below the age of consent. Regardless of labels people use the are all the same thing in the end: pedophiles. Sometimes they try to interact with AGERE please be aware.

『❀』Dual      

❥Dual is someone who is both in AGERE and Kink. It's basically where someone within their private life or bedroom (being sexual) engage in DDLG. However, their coping mechanism or outside of it is nonsexual and AGERE. 100% valid!(edited)

『❀』Daddy/Mommy/Caregiver/Baba/Mama/etc.      

❥Not inherently kink terms. DDLG uses them yes but it's not suddenly kinky to call your CG Mom. Please don't harass people for using these terms. 

『❀』Hypersexual/Hyper Sexuality     

 ❥Otherwise known or assosiated with sexual addiction by the general public, "it is defined as a dysfunctional preoccupation with sexual fantasies. Often combo-ed with obsessive pursuit of casual or non-intimate sex, porn, compulsive masturbation; romantic intensity and objectification partner sex." (Source: Psychocentral) Usually hypersexuality is brought on by trauma or sexual assault. Some regs can undergo sexual thoughts or sexualize their own regression due to this illness. Regs like these are valid, they usually do not mean to sexualize their own regression, and do this in reaction to their pasts. We will direct them to other channels but please be patient with them!(edited)

『❀』P.E.A.R      

❥ P.E.A.R,aka  “pro-expression, anti-repression"  was a term coined by well known pedophile 4-lung. It's a new term used by MAPs and Pedophiles. They also use the  emoji or pear name to identify each other! 

 『❀』Impure Regression      

❥Involves someone who regresses and goes into a triggering space for the reg. This is not happy regression but can be important to those experiencing it. Through impure regression people have the ability to observe and deal with it in a safe environment so people can deal with it outside of regression. It can be triggered by depression, anxiety, trauma, flashbacks, mental illness, etc. It's entirely involuntary and something that just happens. This usually results from past trauma and can involve sexualization, panic attacks, fits, crying, flashbacks, etc. w/ regression. It is 100% valid! Please keep it in Big channels though!

Please do not redistribute these within server or copy and pasting this info without asking. It took a very long time, experience, and research to find all this information! We have had issues in the past regarding this. If you steal this content without asking we will insta blocklist your server!

[andihowl]

Polyamory is queer.

Or rather, Polyamorous folk are queer if they self-identify as such.

Below, I’ll be explaining why any attempt you make to deny that is by definition gatekeeping, and why you need to stop. This will be added to / updated as I talk to more polyamorous folk and hear more of their stories. This is not a debate, I will liberally use my block button, I’m just sick of repeating myself over and over in group after group because polyphobic assholes think they can throw polyam folk under the bus and we won’t say anything. Read. Think. Do better.

Given the shared premises that “queer” is being used in it’s non-pejorative, reclamative usage as an umbrella term representing sexual and gender minorities who have been marginalized and oppressed as a direct result of their identities, and that gatekeeping members of it is an inherently shitty thing to do (goodbye swerfs, terfs, aphobes, etc.), the main reasons I see for people denying polyamorous folk into queer spaces, or into queer discussions generally read like this:

why are we even having this discussion, omg, wtf, gtfo

it’s only used by skeezy heterobros who are looking to get a second girlfriend

it’s only used by skeezy “bi” couples who are unicorn hunting

there are oppressive countries around the world who are practicing polygamy and that’s certainly not good

it’s a kink

it’s a choice

it’s a practice, not an identity

it’s a relationship dynamic, not a sexual orientation or gender identity

everyone wants to be polyam anyway, it’s not an oppressed class.

I'm personally polyamorous, and I don't see it as an identity

I'm uncomfortable with cis-het-allo folk claiming the term queer

These arguments can be categorized more or less into the following main sections:

The Disregard

why are we even having this discussion, omg, wtf, gtfo

By disengaging conversation about this, you are preventing the growth and learning of the community, and you need to knock your shit off. Only through critically assessing our own behavior and the behavior of the community with which we engage can we ever hope to make ourselves, and our world, any better.

The Bad Actors

it’s only used by skeezy heterobros who are looking to get a second girlfriend

or

it’s only used by skeezy “bi” couples who are unicorn hunting

This is one of the weakest arguments against this, and one of the quickest debunked. Simply put, all identities have bad actors. I've certainly interacted with gay men who haven't taken no for an answer. I've certainly met bisexual people who have used their sexuality as an excuse to cheat on their partners. Just because bad actors exist within a community, does not invalidate the entire identity. You cannot hope to have such a diverse group of people from such diverse backgrounds and upbringings and mental health statuses and economic statuses and expect them all to behave and think the the same homogenous way. Not all gays are alike. Not all trans folk are alike. Not all polyam folk are alike. Deal with it, move on.

Conflation

there are oppressive countries around the world who are practicing polygamy and that’s certainly not good

or

it’s a kink

Polyamory =/= polygamy. Stop conflating the two. Polyamory (when referring to the practice) is the egalitarian ethical practice of non-monogamy between consenting adults. Polygamy is an authoritarian tool used by patriarchal societies to oppress and silence women, most often without consent. Stop conflating, and move on.

Also, Polyamory is not a kink. To call something a kink, you are tacitly and wilfully admitting that the behavior in question is and should be seen as deviant in society, and derives sexual pleasure out of that deviancy. Polyamory is not, at least not in any healthy relationships I've seen, practiced in such a shameful manner. If you're equating the two, maybe you should address your own underlying phobias regarding polyamory rather than gatekeeping others.

The Choice

it’s a choice

or

it’s a practice, not an identity

or

it’s a relationship dynamic, not a sexual orientation or gender identity

These are a bit trickier of a discussion. No, the United States, nor any other country offcially recognizes polyamory as a valid sexual orientation to be protected under federal law. And yes, some people feel they opt-in to a "polyamorous lifestyle". There have been studies conducted on this, and while many respondents to do not classify their polyamory as an orientation, many others did respond saying that they felt they were wired that way, that they felt they were that way since childhood, that monogamous relationships always felt wrong for them.

The polyamory community houses both types of folk, those who feel it's a lifestyle, as well as those who feel it is deeply engrained. As polyadvice writes (specifically toward other polyam folk):

Is polyamory an orientation? Why do we care? Why are we so caught up in whether the way we love other people is a way of being or a way of doing? Why do I get this question so often, and why are we all so invested in the answer?

  If you experience your polyamory as an innate part of your self, as something you are rather than something you do, great. It’s part of your orientation. We can split semantic hairs and say it’s a “relationship orientation” as opposed to a “sexual orientation.” Some people don’t experience it that way, and that’s fine too.

  What’s not fine is if we start fighting about it and make it some big political or identity-political issue within the [polyam] community. Because you know what? The rest of the world doesn’t care nearly as much about the nuances of our definitions. They’re prepared to deny us health insurance, child custody, media representation, hospital visitation, and plenty else regardless of whether we sort this out amongst ourselves. If we start turning on each other, there’s no one to have our backs.

Simply put, it's none of your damn business if it's an orientation or a choice. Even if it is a choice, as Michael Carey with Slate wrote:

We are all human first. Everything else—nationality, sex, race, orientation—is secondary, and irrelevant to our fundamental rights. As Brian D. Earp recently argued in “Future Tense,” even if homosexuality becomes a choice, mutable under pharmacological “treatment,” it should still be regarded as part of the normal range of human behavior. We should agree on the principle that anyone pursuing consensual, loving, respectful relationships, forming happy families, and participating productively in society should be welcomed, not ostracized in the name of irrational, ossified stigma.

Not Oppressed

everyone wants to be polyam anyway, it’s not an oppressed class.

Hooooooooold up there partner. Y'all gotta be kidding me. Let's put aside the fact that one of the most common thing's polyam folk hear when they come out to people is "well, that's nice, but I could never do it myself". Let''s put aside the comments/sneers of "so you just sleep with whoever you want?", or the automatic assumption that polyam folk are sluts/skeezes/sex-addicts/cheaters.

The fact of the matter is, for someone who is polyamorous, there are no legal protections for them, whether they be for housing, employment, or medical care (in any of the 50 United States or any other country that I'm aware of). That means if someone is outed at work, they can be fired on the spot for that reason. They can be kicked out of their apartment, lose their home, or be denied medical coverage because of it. Polyamorous relationships are not recognized as valid spouses in hospital situations, they cannot receive tax benefits for their relationship, and they are routinely denied next of kin rights and inheritance. Loss of child custody is common, as family courts do not recognize polyamory as a valid responsible child-rearing environment (which experience and common sense can tell us otherwise)

It's bad enough that Ann Sweeny argued in 2010 in favor of legally expanding the definition of sexual orientation to include polyamory to help protect polyam folk against these kind of grievances (you can download the original pdf argument at that link, it's a long but interesting read). An excerpt:

... polyamorists risk custody loss, workplace discrimination, loss of friends, alienation from their families, and ostracism from spiritual and other communities as a result of revealing their polyamory. In addition, their children often face discrimination at school. Indeed, in one study, nearly half of [polyam] respondents reported having experienced prejudice as a result of their polyamory. Additionally, Emens has noted that the “social hostility [against relationships involving more than two people] sustains various legal burdens on polyamorists, including two-person marriage and partnership laws, adultery and bigamy laws, [and] residential zoning laws.” Furthermore, Rambukkana documented negative reactions to the formation of an on-campus polyamory group that included the university newspaper’s public ridicule of the group on the basis that the group was comprised of “a bunch of ‘culty’ sex maniacs” and the suggestion that the group was a “recruitment machine” that sucked people in “‘with promises of sex and more sex.’”

She goes on to argue:

These forms of discrimination are considerable, and they have the potential to impose severe, indeed devastating, burdens on individuals who espouse polyamory... The many ways that monogamy (as represented by marriage) is privileged under the law, while non-monogamy is burdened, demonstrate that non-monogamous persons, including polyamorists, are oppressed under an “organising principle of inequality” and therefore that they meet Cooper’s test for extension of legal protections.

Honestly, go read that article. It lays out a lot more than I could ever hope to properly summarize here, and outlines pretty succinctly why polyamory is an oppressed class.

What goes for me goes for everyone

I'm personally polyamorous, and I don't see it as an identity

First off, wonderful! Thank you for being polyam and for demonstrating your courage and representation in a world that wants to erase you. Full stop.

Second off. It's fine if you don't feel like your polycraft is inherently part of your identity. That's allowed. Many Nonbinary folk don't feel trans describes their experience; many gay men don't like to use the term queer. That's fine, that's your biz. That doesn't mean that holds the same for everyone else, though, and you shouldn't be limiting the voice and power of others because you have enough privelege to disregard opression you may experience. They do deserve a voice, they do deserve rights, and you consistently chiming in saying "Well I don't" isn't helping the conversation, it's distracting and beside the point.

One person's experience with a community is not necessarily representative of an entire identity's experience with it, and you don't get to claim the right to silence the voices and experences of others in your community.

The Personal Appeal

I'm uncomfortable with cis-het-allo folk claiming the term queer

Well, I'm sorry you are uncomfortable. Honestly. It sucks. However dealing with an expanding and inclusive community is and should be uncomfortable. It should force us to ask questions we didn't want to ask. It should make us rethink things we once thought were firm and held dear.

But just as -allo was added to cis-het bring light to the added axis of identity and oppression that is the asexuality spectrum, it's about time we added -mono to that, to bring to light the fact that being polyam, and being polyam + other identities, brings with it unique problems and unique pride that is deserving of attention, and deserving a seat at the table.

Included Links and Additional Resources

CW: some of these links use the nickname "poly" for "polyamorous" rather than "polynesian". Inclusion here is not an endorsement of that kind of usage, as I have tried to refrain from that usage here and in my everyday conversation. Additionally, I have replaced its usage in the above quotations with [polyam] to prevent further crawlers linking to it.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-polyamorists-next-door/201610/is-polyamory-form-sexual-orientation

(http://polyadvice.tumblr.com/post/114048167048/this-might-be-a-question-you-get-often-but-is

https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/10/is-polyamory-a-choice.html

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1632653

https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/10/polyamorous-excluded-queer/

https://polyinthemedia.blogspot.com/2013/12/dan-savage-is-poly-queer.html

https://www.autostraddle.com/six-queers-on-polyamory-and-identity-419254/

[tumblunni]

Misc headcanons for Directator's assistant director yokai sidekicks!

* I think the Nosirs are actually brothers but for these guys i think theyre just a bunch of unrelated employees who share a uniform. Maybe draw them with variations in height and weight and stuff to tell them apart? And they probably have different hair under the hats.

* this yokai species is a water element fishman thing possibly based on The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Cos ive been doing a lot of thinking on why the heck they have those weird face markings and with the bulgy eyes they kinda do match the description of the early stage Deep Ones in that story. Either that or theyre kappas who hide their weak spot under caps. (Cappas?)

* their only power as yokai is super strength. They probably surprise people a lot by being so powerful, cos they never really bother to fight unless their boss is in trouble. Its mostly just an 'ultimate assistant' power that helps them carry lots of stuff for maximum efficiency.

* theres probably variants of this yokai for every type of minor job ever. I feel like its just the thing you turn into when youre a very normal dude who just wants to continue your normal job in the underworld. This trio are 100% content working for Directator and their idea of a peaceful afterlife is just the same as their regular life! No aspirations for bigger superpowers or anything, just gimme that magic ability to be even better at the job i love~

* not sure about names for the trio yet except one of them should be jerome cos thats a nice name. Their origin story is just that theyre unrelated employees who worked under Directator when he was human, and sorta bonded together into The Directator Protection Club. They were his most loyal assistants who stayed with him even as the studio made flop after flop, and even followed him into hell in the end. (Died trying to save him from a studio fire) They were all kind of aimless young adults for one reason or another, who didnt have much good in their life aside from this job and didnt have any positive familial figures except this strange little family they found together. So theyre not blood related but they treat each other like siblings and see Directator as a cool uncle figure that they all look up to. And theyre all roommates together now in the yokai world so basically yeah they got adopted in all senses except the Actually Saying It Out Loud sense

* Aside from their general shared personality of Being Cute And Enthusiastic And Supporting Their Boss i feel like maybe there are some small differences you notice after a while? From the titanic episode it seemed like one of them was kinda dopey innocently hero worshipping the boss and one of them was a sassy trickster who loved a chance to mess with the heroes, just based on the different way they animated them obeying the order to toss the heroes off the bungee jump. And one of them was shown dressing as a lady waitress in one of the scenes in the first episode, so im gonna grab that opportunity and say she's a trans girl. They all dress very similar while on the job just cos its practical clothing for work, but you can tell her apart by a small ponytail at the back of their identical hairstyles. (Probably the cute flame ponytail style like ghoulfather!) Off duty she likes to dress a bit more femme, but her bros still support her as a woman no matter how she dresses. The only way to get these perpetually smiling doofuses to start a fight is to mix them up and misgender her! (Well, that or be mean to the boss also. Theyre just very ride or die for each other!)

* There actually are more of these yokai aside from the main three, Directator has picked up a few more employees over the years since he died. He can probably summon infinate hordes of them like ghoulfather can do with his mafia goons! Its just that these three have the main emotional bond with him so he trusts them to do all the most important jobs.

* they have an ultimate transformation that is just them on each other's shoulders in a trenchcoat. Their acting skill is so good that everyone universally believes this is a new form and they even gain boosted stats!

* in battle maybe their ability would be some sort of adaptability thing to reflect how theyre such multitalented helpers? Like 'all attacks are treated as non elemental' or 'changes elements to match the last hit taken'?

* also probably in battle theyd have combo abilities with directator, like he's able to revive them automatically whenever he gets a critical hit or something. I feel like them having low hp and frequently knocking themselves out in the process of protecting him is very in character

* directator remembers all their birthdays and throws a super theatrical big ol party~! They also celebrate the day each of them got hired and the day they made their first successful film in the yokai world, and then every time they have a new success too. Basically they love excuses to show how much they care for each other! Best buddies cinema club 4ever!!!

* Even though Directator can now poof up illusions of any set and costumes using his powers, he still prefers to let the assistants make all the most important critical stuff for each movie. He just feels sad that his newfound powers would be taking away a fun bonding experience that they used to have. But also obviously working your ass off to make everything on a short deadline ruins the fun of making arts and crafts together, so he's grateful he can take some of the work off their shoulders.

* the shape of directator's powers as a yokai came from not from his egotism but from his dying wish being to ease the burden on his employees who were always so loyal to him. He also likes to use his illusions to help them out with stuff even when theyre not working, though he still has to say lights camera action and etc so its a lil funny. Like 'oh no assistant number 3 is going out on a date and her dress is ruined!' then he runs in with one of those clapboard things and is like CUT! TAKE TWO! *poofs up an illusion dress with a star wipe transition* Keeps pausing the scene and telling her boyfriend to show more emotion, lol. Like overprotective dad cliche but its more 'are you hammy enough to be worthy of my niece?? Show me your best death scene!' Also has an entire orchestra follow them around and do a soundtrack to their date. 'Darling it'll be a sensation! Directator's secret masterpiece: the film only you get to see! Cmon boys this is our most important production yet!' Very well intentioned but predictably he ends up ruining the date by trying so hard to make it perfect for her, and she's like 'aww dont worry boss, if that guy cant handle my family then he's not the right dude for me anyway' *hugs and end of episode* *but also yknow..he still learns his lesson and interferes less in his friends's lives next time*

* maybe two of the trio have the same names? Like "here's my supreme team: Ashley A, Ashley B and Jerome!"

* give them a special attack where they just three hit combo Directator with a big ol wholesome hug of admiration and all his stats go up. 'Boss you really brightened up our lives!' 'And our afterlife!'

[katsitting]

Hey, just to know; that post you reblogged about ace people not being oppressed because of their sexuality, do you really believe that? Sorry if that sounds accusing or something, I just disagree, and I would be interested in hearing your opinion on the subject, if that's ok with you? 😊

It’s not accusatory at all.

“Systematic” and “historical” modifies the word oppression. It does not state that those in the ace spectrum do not suffer any oppression nor does it erase the fact that we in the ace spectrum are unrecognized by many communities.

What I interpreted those words together to mean is that no government has performed an act to demonize, ban, or make asexuality illegal. The fact that marital rape was unrecognized by law in the United States until recently does not change the fact that denying sex has never made one a criminal under the eyes of the law.

During the Victorian Era, women were criticized for being frigid. Perhaps, they were forced by their husbands to seek medical attention for their lack of sexual drive. But these pressures were not forced upon by the government—at no point did the government demand them to copulate. The pressures were social in nature. Based on both sexism and ignorance.

As awful as it was for these women to seek medical attention for their lack of sexual drive, overt and clandestine homosexuality was banned. It was a crime, and punished under the full brunt of the law.

The oppression faced is just different for both groups. Same sex relationships and trans people have always been targeted directly by state law. E.g., the bathroom policies, refusal of state governments to recognize gay marriage, and the laws criminalizing “sodomy.” Asexuality has simply never been recognized.

On the DSMV 5, asexuality is still considered a disorder. And that is definitely an issue. To live your life questioning whether you are normal is frightening. To wonder to yourself if you’re ill simply because you don’t feel the same sexual desire others do.

These distinctions don’t make either struggle invalid. They are just different. This is no way an attempt to argue that one struggle is more serious than the other. Both are serious and real.

I suppose the main thrust of your ask is simply this, or point of confusion is this: perhaps our definition of oppression is different.

Oppression, in the context of social justice, means “behaviors and words that marginalise and cause harm to a minority,” but historical and systematic oppression is when the government has become involved in your persecution and there is a long history of this conduct. These attacks, of course, deemed acceptable through decades, if not more, of these practices so as to normalize that behavior.

You have every right to disagree with me. This is just my explanation of my thought process on this matter.