#treating us like children

[nonovyabuisness]

So my English class proposes medals if you had a high score on something…

Like we are pre-schoolers or something.

Normally I would feel a bit proud but this class is level B1 while I’m level C2 (there was no higher leveled class I could take).

So I don’t feel like I deserve this.

Plus I can download it but it looks like the first thing you get on google image when you type ‘well done’ in the search bar.

It’s a bit underwhelming if I’m honest. Also I’m currently in a depressed mood so I just want to cry while I work.

Plus that writing prompt is just rubbing salt in the wound…

Sorry for going on a rant…

Have a good day/evening/night everyone.

[trans-cuchulainn]

also re last post i think a crucial part of treating your ace friends like you actually respect them is not acting like non-sexual content and child-friendly content are the same thing. which also means not assuming all stories and media aimed at adults need to contain sex (@ creators, take note). because it's shitty to be an adult and find that there is nothing out there written for someone like you and everyone's suggestions are always for children's media. there's nothing wrong with kidlit etc but sometimes, you know, you're an adult, you want stories that reflect the fact that you're an adult, and you want acknowledgement that adulthood and interest in sex are not synonyms. and likewise when you are writing non sexual content for an adult audience it sucks to have people assume it's meant to be for kids and to expect it to fulfil a purpose it wasn't made for

[chirpsythismorning]

There isn't much discourse about how Mike went from saying that El was a weapon in s1, even encouraging the others to use El's powers when she was still recuperating after finding Will in the void, to then in s3 accusing the others of being reckless with her powers, saying she's risking her life for no reason.

Now, I want to make clear that I'm not bashing Mike here, this has less to do with what he's doing being right or wrong. What this is about is how Mike went from doing something himself, to calling out other people for doing it, without acknowledging that fact and why the writers chose to frame it all this way.

You might think it's insignificant, but these two following scenes are clearly being paralleled to each other. And so the fact that Mike himself is acknowledging this as something to be critical of, makes me wonder what exactly is going on in his mind...

I want to preface this scene from s1 by saying that Mike is giving very off vibes here. I know that I certainly viewed this scene as romantic the first time I saw it, but since rewatching it recently, I was getting completely different vibes.

They literally make a point to focus on Mike being distracted, on the verge of impatience. Then, the way El reacts upon Mike getting up abruptly, gives this feeling of uncertainty about Mike's consideration for her in this moment, as she's clearly not what's on the top of his mind right now. And it just makes you wonder, are we truly supposed to be feeling peak romance rn?

I never realized how out of place this scene was until now (or is it...). It's just such an odd choice to have El resting her head on Mike's shoulder for comfort, only for Mike to cut it short with him being distracted, and with Dustin and El looking awkwardly at Mike like "Okay?...", then followed by a scene where he's trying to convince the others to use El's powers to help.

Here we have s1 Mike displaying behavior that s3 Mike was calling out the others for displaying:

Here we have Lucas, who was very, very critical of El being dangerous ALL of s1, and yet now in complete contrast to that, he is showing more consideration and common sense for El's well being than Mike, the supposed love (at first sight) interest ...

'That's the most important thing, remember?'

A question, followed by Mike just standing there in silence, like he's only just now really thinking about El being safe as their main priority... This is something that combined with everything else unfolding over the course of this season and the seasons after, that makes Mike's behavior a whole lot easier to understand.

I'll have to make several other posts about this, because there are a lot of aspects to it, but for now I'm just going to focus on these two parallels.

Here we have what happens in s3, with Mike being critical of the others doing something he himself literally did in s1:

In fact, how careless all of you are.

THIS. When Mike makes it a big deal to call out everyone for doing something he himself has already done, he's outright admitting that it's something that he believes is wrong, and by not even slightly acknowledging his role in doing something similar in the past, it's very likely that he feels guilty about it.

This was probably his way of trying to make it right, by standing up for El in a way that he didn't before because he was treating her like some superhero and not a real person back then.

It's just that the word love slipped out, in the heat of the moment. And El, upon overhearing this, is seeing this development of Mike herself, with s1 Mike going from, yes being more kind and considerate than the other 2 boys in the beginning, but still sort of expecting stuff from her without her being able to verbally agree to it, to now having developed and changed to saying that one of his big priorities is her safety.

El is taking this as being evidence he went from not loving her, to loving her. Another reason why it's pretty obvious El didn't believe Mike's monologue, bc she herself witnessed Mike develop his apparent romantic feelings for her over time, and so him saying it was love at first sight, was probably the catalyst that made it abundantly clear to her that he wasn't being truthful, bc she knows it's not the truth. She's not stupid.

Again this isn't about Mike doing this back then or even the others doing it now as being bad vs. good, this is about the writers going about it this way, sending a message that Mike feels guilt, enough to try to make things right, but is apparently not ready to unpack the actual guilt that is beneath the surface which lead him to this point.

And then there's this scene, which... it's actually terrifying how obvious it is they instructed Sadie and Caleb to lean out of that shot with Will and Mike reacting to El entering the room... Like... It's SOO obvious when you watch it now what they're trying to hint at without saying it.

Not only are they hinting at Will's feelings, because that is part of it, they're also hinting at Mike's internal struggle. Will is always on the back of his mind whether he's willing to address it or not. And all while that is happening, he is feeling unaddressed guilt about how he treated El when they first met and spent that one week together helping her run away from the bad guys while also looking for Will, something Mike viewed as being worthy of El using her powers...

I'll have to make the other posts regarding this soon, because it all starts to click what's going on with Mike when you look at all of these things together.

While Mike is just a kid like pretty much everyone else in this story, and while he didn't mean any harm by asking El to help them find Will (none of them did), I think that's kind of the whole point?

I think that he got lucky superman landed on his doorstep, who just so happened to be in danger herself, giving him his own purpose to help her too, with her needing him as well, and so it became a situation where they both needed each other.

But because El could literally not speak, it's not like she could really voice her feelings about things they were doing, beyond yes and no. She had Lucas sort of being critical of her, with Mike encouraging El to do things that would make the others see her as being worthy of sticking around so they can find Will. It goes without saying she felt obligated to do these things, even if they didn't outright tell her she had to or else. We literally see almost all of these scenes with her doing stuff for the others being instantly juxtaposed with scenes of Brenner doing the same. It's not the same scale of severity, but it is an acknowledgment that although she is outside of the lab, she still feels like her powers are what define her and it's all people want from her.

I think what it comes down to, is that in that moment when she is sacrificing herself to the demogorgan at the end of s1, we are seeing in real time Mike realizing what he and the other's have been asking of her this whole time, without outright asking her.

And you can literally see the retaliation and devastation hit him all at once. The instant regret, where he's backtracking and El stops him from even trying.

'Goodbye Mike' singles him out, because while he was the one out of the three that showed her the most kindness from the start, he was also the one who at the end of it all, was still expecting her to risk her life for them...

And that just makes it hit so much harder when you think about how that made Mike feel in that moment.

And then in s2 how that impacts Mike and his journey going forward.

His breakdown at the end of s2 upon her return.

His behavior in s3-4, in relation to him juggling his relationship with Will and El, now that they are both in his life at the same time.

It all starts to make sense.

I won't go too much into it because those other posts are bound to be long with a bunch of pictures too!

But on that note, there's at least one thing Mike isn't acknowledging, and it's literally what led up to the unintentional love confession that then led us to 10 more episodes of miscommunication because of it...

It's going to be important for him to address this guilt for him to fulfill his arc and to also close off his expectations that he has to have a romantic relationship with El in order to keep her in his life at all.

The audience themselves seeing this and being forced to face it is also going to make it a lot easier for them understand why Mike did what he did, not only because he's a queer kid in the 80's who has every reason to doubt and repress, but also because he understandably feels sort of indebted to El after everything.

It's more complex than him just falling out of love with her and falling in love with Will because of XYZ.

I think there is a lot of guilt and shame and trauma connected to their meeting and the events that followed. And addressing that is going to give a lot of closure to the ending of the story and also the beginning.

[shmaroace]

stop infantilizing aspec people. we don't deserve to be treated as inferiors to everyone else because we don't feel certain types of attraction. aspecs are capable of handling themselves and setting their own boundaries, others shouldn't do it for them.

[t4tnalu]

I find the "Harry potter is a kids series" thing kinda stupid because even if it were for adults people should stop engaging with it anyway because it directly supports an incredibly dangerous bigot. Like. I think maybe that's the important part here.

[uncanny-tranny]

A really sinister aspect into how people view children and parents is the idea of children being a replaceable commodity.

I've seen this in the way people talk about parents who have lost children but have surviving children... "Oh, at least you have other children," as though a child is just an interchangeable tool, a machine that dispenses what you want from it without it being sentient, whole, and feeling. The fact that people say that in order to comfort somebody shows, to me, how deep this mindset is engraved in people's brains: children are interchangeable items, and they do not fundamentally matter.

[figofswords]

what they don’t tell you about college is that you’re going to be aging at a rate of about three years for every one earth year

[worldsofdreamers]

.

[thottybrucewayne]

White people's obsession with decorum will kill us all.

[im-not-here-im-dead]

OLDER RELATIVES STOP TOUCHING ME AND CALLING ME PET NAMES CHALLENGE. IT’S NOT CUTE AND IT’S NOT FUCKING FUNNY. WOULD YOU DO THAT IF YOU KNEW I WAS A LEGAL ADULT? IF I WAS VISIBLY AGING? IF MY AUTISM DIDN’T MAKE ME ‘CHILDISH’? WHY DO YOU THINK IT’S OKAY TO JUST GO UP TO YOUR KID RELATIVES AND TOUCH THEM WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION? YOU DON’T DO THAT TO FELLOW ADULTS, SO WHY AM I AN EXCEPTION? STOP IT. AND WHILE YOU’RE AT IT, STOP ASSUMING THAT WE’RE AUTOMATICALLY BUDDIES JUST BECAUSE WE’RE RELATIVES. WE’VE MET TWICE WHEN I WAS LITTLE. I DON’T FUCKING KNOW YOU. AND EVEN IF I DID, THAT WOULD’NT GIVE YOU A PASS TO CALL ME ‘SWEETIE’ AND FUCKING STROKE MY HAIR WHEN I HAVE NOT TOLD YOU THAT IT WAS OKAY TO DO SO. I AM NOT YOUR FUCKING PET. STARS I HATE ADULTS SO DAMN MUCH SOMETIMES. I HATE HOW PRESUMPTUOUS THEY ARE. I HATE HOW COMFORTABLE THEY ARE WITH ENCROACHING ON MY PERSONAL SPACE. I HATE THAT THEY STILL DON’T CONSIDER ME THEIR EQUAL.

why am i still not. worthy of respect? why is respect the exception? and not the rule? why do i need to ask you to stop? can’t you just ask for my permission? how will you act if i say no?

[identityquest]

Hey y'all, if you could share this I would appreciate it. My friend Vannah's cat, Butch, is in rough shape. He has asthma and one of his lungs is partially collapsed, and he needs a lot of medication and more diagnostic procedures. Vannah's posted x-rays, invoices, and Butch's treatment plan on the gofundme itself if you need verification. Butch is a sweet boy and Vannah loves him dearly, it'd mean the world if y'all could share this and help out.

[icewindandboringhorror]

reminders of the passage of time moodeboard

[thatiranianphantom]

There’s a lot of teachers on here so I feel like you’ll get this: professional development is supposed to treat us like PROFESSIONALS. As in, it’s not supposed to be useless and it certainly isn’t supposed to treat us like five year olds.

And yet.

[mushroom-for-art]

Oopsie Baby Upon Ye @ Darkness (sorry the precorrupt doesn't have swatches, I can find them when I get home!)

Come get your boy he's being a whore all up with my twos (I love it I think it's great)

Thank u again for doing the lineart for these king<3

[uncanny-tranny]

It's honestly so tiring how "healthy healing" is used to mean that "anything I think is healthy is the only way to heal from things like trauma, and anything else is unhealthy!"

You can recognize when somebody is healing in ways you would not, but that doesn't inherently mean that it is "bad" healing. Making sweeping generalizations as to what "healthy" means in terms of healing is reductionist.

You don't have to heal in ways that are not conducive to your well-being. However, you are also not the only person who is healing. There will be people who are healing and coping in ways you might not like - you might hate it! But that doesn't automatically mean it's wrong, nor should somebody's autonomy to heal how they want to be revoked.

[tachvintlogic]

I've been thinking about an idea from last year where the dumb "Mina is the reincarnation of Drac's wife" plotline that some adaptations used is reimagined so that Mina is the reincarnation of Dracula's greatest enemy.

You can make the argument that based on their descriptions, one of Dracula's roommates is actually supposed to be his wife, and the other two are his adult daughters.

Say there was a third daughter.

Her father turned himself into a monster, and then turned her mother and her sisters. Horrified and not wishing to become a monster herself, she either escapes or commits suicide to avoid being turned.

Perhaps one of her sisters chose suicide without realizing that death would only complete the transformation. So, if she chooses suicide, she ensures that she dies in a way that destroys her body and prevents it from persisting as a vampire.

But her soul cannot rest until her father is destroyed and her mother and sisters are freed. She reincarnates over and over, each time taking another shot at him and her family.

He despises this cat and mouse game she forces him to play. She'll lead a peasant revolt against him and burn down his strongholds. She'll track him down when he moves, carrying a sword and holy objects to ward him away. Even when he kills her, she's got a trick up her sleeve preventing a complete transformation.

Sometimes he'll try to hunt her down himself to try to catch her before she's prepared enough to face him, but she always slips just out of his grasp.

So now, in England, he sees her once again planning to destroy him with some friends.

Oh, but what's this? She's being left out of the plotting and scheming by the men in her party? And she's letting them do this?

He's never seen a more perfect opportunity to finally complete his collection.

You're evaded me long enough, my daughter, thinks Dracula, it's time you joined the rest of your family.