#tw pseudo racism

[moriarty1234]

T*LC Refutation (but decidedly NOT johnlock refutation)

[Note: I love and ship johnlock because I saw it for myself in the show when I watched it and was part of the general audience in the past. I even want it to become canon in some Holmes adaption in the future. But T*lc needs to get sucked into obscurity and forgotten. Other fandoms like Good Omens, etc., are following the same rhetoric in their "meta" posts, and that needs to go. This is crucial for our basic critical thinking skills and objectivity.]

Read Part - 3 : Everything wrong with "subtexts" and "symbolisms" here.

Part-4: The Harmful Aspect of T*LC:

Let's move on to some more serious issues, or why we (Kim and I) don't believe for even a second that hardcore t*lcers (the ones who're rabid about this theory) ever cared for any type of representation, or even johnlock in itself for that matter.

I say hardcore t*lcers because the normal ones simply believe in t*lc and keep that shit to themselves. I'm even mutuals with them on Tumblr (although I know that when the show was on air, hardcore, insufferable, and deeply problematic t*lcers were in the majority).

1.) The very definition of t*lc : The general idea of t*lc is that johnlock has been planned since 2010 (right from the first episode of S1), this whole show is essentially a love story between Sherlock and John, the cases are not so important, and that johnlock is going to be the endgame canon ship. When the writers deny anything related to johnlock in their own show, they're lying to keep their elaborate plan under the wraps. When Sherlock and John kiss on screen, it'll be a rug pull moment for all the non-believers, their love story will be groundbreaking queer representation in mainstream media, and BBC Sherlock will become a culturally iconic Holmes adaptation. Because sometimes, the queer characters can be the heroes of the story.

All this sounded so nice and fancy to me when I was new to shipping johnlock. Because BBC Sherlock was my first fandom that I ever participated in. Johnlock was (and is) my first ship. I used to be a non-shipper before this, because I'm not exactly a Romance-genre fan in published fiction.

Now I don't like the general idea of this at all. Not because I don't want johnlock to become canon in some version (I really do), but there are so many flaws in the very idea of t*lc.

a.) They didn't even plan what they were going to do with Rosie Watson in S4. They just introduced the pregnancy subplot to raise the stakes in HLV. Only for shock value purposes. This was Mark Gatiss' statement (now I can't find the link but I've seen an article about this before). To think they'd planned an entire romance storyline, but it was just under the wraps the whole time, is unrealistic.

b.) While it's true that showrunners or directors do lie to their fans before a work is published to maintain an element of surprise, Moffat and Gatiss had denied anything related to johnlock too many times, and almost vehemently for most viewers to believe that they're just lying. One can only lie too many times, after all. And something needs to be there in the actual show for (maximum) fans to catch on that they're indeed just lying. There wasn't enough evidence for that. Too many of those scenes just came off as gay jokes instead of anything of real substance. That wasn't a good look.

c.) The third part is really what gets me the most here, and one of the main reasons why Kim and I began to actively despise t*lc, even though we're both still pro-johnlock. These people really thought the ultimate rug pull moment for the entire audience should be... that John and Sherlock are in love? Really? That's it? That's highest standard you have for supposedly groundbreaking queer representation? That doesn't sound right. Queer representation really shouldn't be used for shock value. As if we're not marginalised and isolated from most people already. Especially in my country. That just sounds as though you want to place these two characters in a museum as though they're some exotic beings or something. That's the opposite of a healthy queer rep.

d.) Even if johnlock were canon, it would've hardly been groundbreaking for the purposes of queer representation. Even in the 2010s. Because shows like Breaking Bad (a show from 2008, i.e., before BBC Sherlock, in which a very significant character is canonically gay and black), Elementary (where Mrs Hudson is canonically trans, Joan Watson is a well written character even as a poc female lead, Jamie Moriarty is also properly characterised when mainstream media doesn't have a lot of well-written female villains to begin with), London Spy (which is also a BBC show from 2015), Money Heist (which also features a significant canonically gay character), etc., still existed. I'll even list The Irregulars as an example, even though the first season of that show was aired in 2021, because that was still before the Sherlock Holmes franchise entered the public domain. Watson is canonically gay and black in that one.

e.) This is a detective show you're talking about. Cases aren't important? You kidding me?

2.) Rabid t*lcers were hypocritical as hell. They used to demand canon johnlock for "representation", but they were all sorts of bigoted people themselves.

a.) They made racist comments about Lucy Liu.

(From Sarah Z's video) :

They've called slurs to fans of colour in the fandom (I can think of one fan specifically right now) for not shipping johnlock.

b.) Characterising Sherlock as a twink, gay baby, or "smol" is fetishistic. It's just homophobia indirectly.

c.) They went rabid about the bisexual Sherlock headcanon, Instead of simply disagreeing with it for whatever reason. You're not doing the queer community any favours by h/cing John as bisexual just for your johnlock shipping, only because he has canonically shown attraction to women.

See this:

Stop playing the victim card right after perpetuating biphobia lol. You need to rewatch the show if you think mere fascination was all he felt for Irene. Also, even if he genuinely didn't show any attraction to any woman in canon, fanon can still be its own thing. Not everything has to be strictly canon compliant.

One more:

Stop straw manning and assuming real people's sexuality. Stop ship bashing. Enough with the biphobia.

This person is a johnlocker and "The One" obviously means johnlock here. No, not everyone is uncomfortable because of johnlock for bigoted reasons. People are allowed to have preferences.

Another one (probably my favourite) :

Talk about hypocrisy. The title of this post sounds so positive to bisexuality, but then OP goes right ahead to frantically claim Sherlock is 100% gay and not anything else!!! 1!!

Sherlock is heavily queercoded in the show, I agree. I don't even care whether that was the authorial intent or not at this point. That's what a non-insignificant amount of people took away from this show.

But his canon sexuality was never specified. People are allowed to interpret his sexuality however they want. You are nobody to state your own headcanons as facts.

More hypocrisy.

d.) The acephobia was rampant in this fandom mostly because of these people. It's a well-documented fact.

e.) The misogyny in this fandom was ugly. The kind of outlandish metas they write trying to disprove adl*ck from the show... jeez. If adl*ck definitely doesn't exist in this show, why would you need to disprove it so many times through your meta posts?

Can't erase something that really isn't there, just saying.

"Irene is just a personification of Sherlock's libido for John." Seriously? Do you even listen to yourself?

Don't get me wrong. I blame Mofftiss equally as much for not writing women properly in general, Irene Adler in particular. They butchered canon Irene Adler (a queen) way too much in their show. But the fans' response to her was almost worst.

It's understandable if the show's version of Mary doesn't sit right with you for whatever reason. People are allowed to have preferences. Personally, I'm quite neutral about Mary Morstan in this show.

But these people used to take their hate for her too far. These people have never been as mad at Moriarty, or even at Culverton Smith, as they all were at Mary for shooting Sherlock. Again, this is a crime drama show. Not all characters are going to be sunshine and roses.

3.) Rabid t*lcers hardly ever tried to explore johnlock in other versions. If you're a fan of Sherlock Holmes, you'll be at least curious about different adaptations that exist out there. Why did they hardly ever posted about The Irregulars when it was aired? An adaptation in which Watson is canonically in love with Holmes? I've been around in the johnlock fandom enough to know that the rabid t*lcers (NOT ALL T*LCers) never really cared about the possibility of johnlock in some other version after it ultimately didn't become canon in BBC Sherlock. They only care for johnlock as long as Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are associated with it.

... Yup.

(ACD canon Watson was in his early thirties in the first novel. That's not middle aged. Joanlock didn't even become canon - something that was specified since Day 1 - in Elementary lmfao. Also, Lucy Liu was in her forties when Elementary aired. Get your facts straight.)

All these three points are enough to conclude that what t*lcers usually posted about was obviously not "demand for representation", but rather a demand for some extremely specific fantasies acted out on screen with an even more specific choice of actors.

I even joked to Kim about this: The stuff they demand for is so extremely specific that it sounds like a Starbucks order lol.

Part: 5 - Conclusion:

I want johnlock to become canon in some version of Sherlock Holmes adaptation. But I want t*lc as a theory to be completely forgotten and obscured. T*lc is definitely not the way to go about it. Other fandoms (namely Good Omens) have started to write "metas" with the exact same rhetoric in them, and now it's completely unacceptable. It's 2024 now. Let it go.

Some interesting links Kim and I found that are very insightful and relevant to this post:

About cults and the followers

Cult psychology

Conspiracy theory psychology

Science vs pseudo-science

Science vs psudo-science - 2

Conspiracy theory psychology - 2

Signs someone is a pseudo-intellectual

One explanation why even otherwise sensible people seem to believe in t*lc

PS: Not every dark haired character/ blond character is a Sherlock/John mirror respectively. That's not how character-mirroring works. Experts would know this.

T*LC refutation (but NOT johnlock) refutation master post.

[buddhistmusings]

TW - discussion of War and violence, genocide, etc.

I have been noticing a lot of far-right ideology being cloaked in progressive language lately. I've noticed this even and especially among some people who have a large audience, which is especially disappointing.

Some red flags :

🚩 - using the Holocaust as a rhetorical strategy against Jewish people.

🚩 - using an ethnicity or race as the basis of a political position (ex. Only people of x ethnicity should live in y country).

🚩 - minimizing the scope and impact of the Holocaust, Nazi Aggression, the Holodomor, the Bosnian, Armenian, Uigher or other genocides, being unwilling to acknowledge the Farhud, or any pogrom of Jews or Romani people.

🚩 - being skeptical of the importance of Ukrainian success in the Russo-Ukrainian War, or denying the reality of Ukrainian sovereignty, or the reality of the ethnic cleansing they've historically (and currently) experience(d) at the hands of authoritarianism in Russia.

🚩 - using misogyny against women they disagree with (even conservative ones). Same for racism or any other prejudice.

🚩 - advocating for violence against people or groups they disagree with.

🚩 - promoting color revolution theory

🚩- chronic "US bad" takes. Yes, the US has done awful things, and that should be talked about, but we're not wrong in every situation. Iran's Islamic Regime is awful and disgusting. The North Korean, Chinese, and Russian governments are also awful.

🚩 - equating the actions and beliefs of governments with that of the population itself.

These are just some examples. Feel free to come up with your own. Remember, just because a source looks progressive, doesn't mean it is. Think critically. Don't be a pseudo-progressive.

[thaoeatworld]

A Safe Place

TW/CW: Transphobia, Racism

As a child, my favourite book series was Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events." Across 13 books and a small collection of extra material, including a pseudo autobiography, Lemony Snicket (or Daniel Handler) detailed the struggles and triumphs of three, hyper-intelligent, orphans, trying to navigate a wicked world. As they end up in rather compromising situations, the children hold onto the hope that they will find, as Handler writes, "the last safe place".

This so called "safe place" was collectively imagined by the children as a santuary nestled away in nature, away from all the injustice and morally corrupt people they've been encountering. There, they would be at peace and protected. However, as they reach this location, they realise by ignoring the treacheries of the world, they would be also trapped. They would be forced to passify their interest in bettering th world and to accept falsehoods as fact. In the end, they acknowledge that nothing can be simply packed into neat boxes -- things are more complex than they appear is the take away.

For a series I started reading in elementary school, and occasional revisit as an adult, I now recognise that these were some intense themes I was dealing with. I bring them up now, because I find myself accidentally in a similar idealistic thought bubble when it comes to "safety". To some extent, like Violet, Klaus, and Sunny -- I flattened the realities of the world we're living in into binaries of "safe" and "not safe". And in doing so, I left myself in quite a vulnerable position and I suppose this essay is how I am processing it.

It's been almost 8 years since I've come out as non-binary. It happened in a quite cliche way as I often joke -- with a mental breakdown and shaving all my hair off during my year abroad. With a buzzcut, I struggled a lot with my image and understanding of self. I realised I hid a lot of my frustrations and confusions about performing womanhood, woman-ness, and everything in between behind my long hair.

Growing up, both my parents were very militant in this way about femininity. My mother's insights felt more like a typical assertion of either my sister or I being in her image. I also think, as I grow older, it had a lot to do with her experience under the Khmer Rouge regime where they cut all her hair cut as an attempt of standardisation under communism plus a detterent for lice. Either way, long hair, specifically on me, meant a lot to my mother.

On the otherhand, it meant a lot to my father as well -- though in a more annoyingly patriarchal sense. Some gems he said to me a sa child, which now I realise were a part of my gender unraveling of sorts, include: "You're a girl, you need to have pretty long hair." "You're a princess, you can't be anything else." "You can't skate because you'll mess up your legs and men won't like that." What a guy.

One of my cousins was equally as culpable in my gender-unraveling. She used to bully me, my sister, and my other cousin using nicknames meant to harm us. She used to call me "boy" because she felt that I wasn't "girl" enough. Simplistic, enough. Straight to the point. I was definitively not-girl.

Regardless, and expectedly, I resented all of that. It took me 12 years of being out of the closet (knew I was a little fruity at 10 years old, but who wouldn't be after doing so much theatre and being around so many virbrant human beings?) and a handful of gender studies courses to realise I was, well, a bit different. I had my "moment". I shaved off all my hair, focused on performing adrogyny, and updated all my social media account bits where you could add pronouns. I had a very underwhelming conversation with my family members, who still occasionally misgender me to this day. I embraced my perpetual struggle with gender quite openly.

Throughout my graduate studies, I met many wonderful queer people who nourished and celebrated the essence of me that I was still figuring it out. I am grateful for that. However, this journey was not without issues. Upon moving to Italy I faced an impossible struggle with a gendered language and way of life. I found solice in queer-coded spaces like roller derby and rollerskating. Somewhere along that assimilation into my "Italian" layer of myself, I stopped being andrognyous. I stopped thinking that I had to care, because people were already getting EVERYTHING wrong about me because I wasn't fluent in Italian. My appearance of being brown and a migrant (who sucked at Italian) superceded my priority to be acknowledged and identified by my queerness. It was just another confusing layer for most people who weren't that close to me anyway.

It's not to say I have no friends in Italy, because that is factually untrue. It is simply to say that I acknowledge that in the midst of my actual combatative moments of racism, ableism, and arguable emotional trauma from certain authority figures, that I was not experiencing myself, and therefore my gender, in full. I was a shell of a person. I often reflect on this in relation to my romantic break-up with my ex. I think "Well do I blame him? I was a shell of a person during my PhD so why would I want to stay together while he turns into a shell?" Perhaps that just something I tell myself to sleep at night, but to be clear: I am very happy and I wish him all the best in his personal journey.

Anyways, when I received my first academic position, I decided I was going to re-assert my claim towards my gender. I openly explained I was non-binary, to everyone. I was not going to be supressed by the social structures around me, and quite frankly I think the Netherlands was quite supportive of that (or so I thought). In my eyes, I was reclaiming control of myself, after years of well, not being myself.

So far so good I thought. Nothing egregious happened. Somehow I was expecting people to be very actively transphobic, I mean transphobes are EVERYWHERE. What transpired next, is a bit more slow burn, and harmful in its own minute ways.

In class and to my peers I always emphasise that I don't "keep score" for misgendering. I don't. However what I curiously noticed is that by being open about being non-binary, there was a shift in "carefulness" and emotional labour. More times than not, I ended up consoling people for misgendering me, despite me being very open that it was a joint learning process. I had more people looking at me for validation that I personally judged them to not be a shitty person. I had to tiptoe around conversations about LGBTQ+ and "gender stuff" because everyone's eyes were bulging in my direction whenever it came up. In some way, it felt like they were trying to gauge "how far" I am on the radical-queer-human-political-spectrum. Um yeah, okay, we're all a monolith I guess.

As a lecturer it's very public-facing and intimate. My whole job is being on display for students to stare at, contest, and pick at. I am the first point of contact when they're pissed at course work, methods, or anything relating to their learning. I'm not afraid of this -- of course. As a performer in cabaret, drag, and an avid science communicator. I'm used to being in the spotlight. Also, as someone who has fought very ruthlessly to escape my marginalising contexts, I'm used to it. However, this does not mean I'm fully equipped to handle every situation nor be capable of enduring long spans of pain and suffering.

And yet here we are. I have recently come to face with situations which have caused me to critically reflect on, and genuinely feel pain about the dual responsibility that comes with being out, and open, as "the queer lecturer". Much of the criticism from the "far right" (whatever that could mean) is that we're in an age where "everyone is queer". This always makes me laugh, naturally. We have always existed. LBGTQ+ people have always existed! We were just actively ignored, oppressed, and murdered throughout history. Do you know how terrible that is? Imagine having the capacity to just acknowledge that you have the opportunity to exist without thread of being senselessly harmed, outright murdered, or a focal point of distress and shame for loved ones. Imagine being able to just be, without having your guard up. Imagine. Imagine the toll this has on LGBTQ+ people every second. I'm not here to fetishise my own sadness nor other LGBTQ+ people. I'm just here to ruminate a bit on the weight which many of us, carry internally.

I feel that one of my responsibilities is to be an example to my students, but also a resource for those who relate to me and my identities. I am a safe place for people like me. That's so much work isn't it? Not only am I bound to be a good educator, I'm also entangled in the micro-politics of being a "good" person to so many kinds of people. I'm a "box-checker" for crying out loud. I'm first generation American and university student. I'm brown. I'm queer. I'm disabled. I'm an immigrant. I'm from a working class background. My parents are refugees. I'm probably some sick "progressives" wet dream. These are the pains I carry, histories which shape the very foundation with how I see, engage with, and experience the world. It's so much.

It's impossible to please everyone. I know that. I'm sure everyone knows that to some degree. But all I wish, genuinely, as I lay here very sick with the weight of the stress I am feeling on my entire being that I could stop apologising to everyone for being human. Even when I am physically sick from stress and pressure, it is impossible for me to tear myself away from "work". This just links back to my reflections on burning out doesn't it. Have I begun to burn out again? Is this the initiation of another unraveling? The GENDER edition?

I'm not sure. I hope not. Because I learned nothing before, so what can I learn this go around? Pedro in his attempts to console me these last few days remarked "I'm sure you'll learn something at the end of this." Will I? Will I learn to be "stronger" perhaps? Why must I be hard when I am so effortlessly soft? I enjoy my tenderness within the world, it allows me make such meaningful connections with ideas, people, and things.

In this moment of concern I wanted to shave my hair again. My mom always told me that in Khmer culture, we shave our heads when there has been a great pain. People often do it as a part of funeral rites, for close family members. I watched my aunts, uncles, and cousins shave their heads when my grandpa passed away. When my mom went through a fissure in her relationship with a sibling, she shaved her head. It is how I guess, "my people" and I mourn and grieve. If I shave my head, will people stop misgendering me? If I shave my head will my students see me as a "stronger" resource or "safe place"? These are some of the thoughts that rattled my brain. I haven't cut my hair yet, but I'm still thinking about it.

[savnofilter]

answering all hawks asks

i choose to answer this separately simply because i think it's important to me and not promote the stigma of “sounding black” or any other stereotypes like that. while there are most common ways such as AAVE (formerly known as ebonics), not everyone from one race will sound and act the same. while i will not ignore that yes, race does sometimes play in how you act or talk, but no one does it the same as another person. to lump us altogether and give us a “look” is degrading and disgusting. black people are not just one person, and if you think a foreign group or culture is lower than yours because it’s not the same, you need to reevaluate yourself. the asks on the topic i will be answering are the ones in regard to this screenshot.

if you guys didnt read in the post, some people made some distasteful ignorant comments about important black community topics. as someone from the black community, many things in and outside of our community has bothered me. whether it be racism, colorism, police brutality etc. i am the biggest believer and supporter of uniting the black community no matter what hair texture, what their kids will look like or how dark their skin is -- and it doesnt just stop there.  

-> on the topic of the black community, here are some BLM petitions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

+ protest safely 1, 2!

-> Zeno Robinson is such an amazing man, and not to mention he also went to the premiere dressed as hawks. his adoration for the characters he plays always shines through, no matter what role you put him in. you may have seen him in young justice as victor stone (cyborg), kimetsu’s no yaiba genya shinazugawa and many more! the way he embodies the characters he plays should never EVER be shadowed because of his skin color. this is for every black voice actor too. if anyone wants to make poor “jokes” about him not “sounding black” then you go fuck a fork. zeno did not show up to sound black, he showed up to play a character (which he does sUPERBLY at, and this is coming from someone who doesnt like hawks). if you think any type or form of stereotyping is okay, then i ask you kindly to escort yourself from my blog and never look back. i dont want your support. 

-> i have heard about the Miruko (with her v.a Anairis Quinones) situation, so i will be touching on that too since both of “doesnt sound black” and “sounds white” has been tossed around. theres a BIG difference between not liking someone’s voice, and relating it back to their skin color. i can see the point of we were expecting more of a more punchier tone (saying this because of the relation and excitement like we’ve seen in her interactions with bakugo) but if youre saying she sounds white, you can go eat a spoon. again, Zeno and Anairis didnt show up to “act” their race. they showed up for the job, and were hired for it. i love both of their voices so much and i love them, they dont deserve this.

i love my people, and i will stand for them because it's the right thing to do. i want my followers to see and understand why it's important to be aware of the different communities around them. without further adieu, i will get started. everything is under the cut (answered from oldest to the newest)!

TW: pseudo racism (microaggression), fandom discourse.

*Hawks’ English V.A (Zeno Robinson) & Hawks for reference. 

*Miruko’s English V.A (Anairis Quinones) & Miruko for reference.

~ Asks I’ve answered that I think are insightful on the Hawks situation (1, 2) ~

Anonymous said:

I would like to add onto the Hawks situation if that's ok? For those who don't know, Zeno Robinson is a black man and voices Hawks. When his English voice was revealed in trailers A LOT of fans commented how PERFECT his voice was. So Zeno literally embodies what makes Hawks' Hawks for some people. Also fans have also compared and drew Hawks as Egyptianesque gods. So to sit down and say/accept someone saying things like 'he doesn't sound black' and 'George [FLOYD] is a regular dude' is not only

A microagression and a blantant show of lack of compassion/support for a character that is a part of your safe space if you come home and thirst about hawks, but don't want to make your safe space 'political' by posting about police brutality. I'm not trying to make this explanation too 'political' but fans have to think what it's like for Hawk's VA to see someone like him getting murdered almost everyday in media for no acceptable reason and then have fans that choose to turn the other way.

- this is exactly the right point. people will not open their eyes to see what is wrong here. whether it be mocking a black actor’s voice acting, an ignorant comment about George Floyd, or ignoring black petitions to help the community. its subtle shit like that gives us and let’s us know that there is still ignorance and that these people dont hide it. it's disrespectful and disgusting. 

the writer’s who said the George Floyd comment has since now apologized, but god that makes me so angry. people actively make a safe space that is supposed to be for EVERYONE not welcome by promoting stuff like that. its gross, it's disgusting, and people need to see that theyre actions are wrong. furthermore, if anyone thinks inappropriate race “jokes” are somehow funny, i will not be associating. i will not waste me energy on people who refuses to get the point.

Anonymous said:

Bro Zeno is an angel and hawks voice is fucking phenomenal, it's the only dubbed voice I've ever liked tbh. They don't deserve him. and WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT I'M SORRY HUH

- I FUCKING KNOW! letting that shit slide is beyond fucking disrespectful. i dont fucking like hawks but i will absolutely fight for zeno. that disrespectful isnt “not important” -- these people are actively ruining safe spaces for fucking everyone! let me be fucking damned if thats not “important enough” for you. 🙄

Anonymous said: 

If you like Hawks at all, The LEAST you can do is not say or stand for things like 'George [FLOYD!!] is just a regular dude' and 'his voice doesn't sound black'. Don't be a part of the reason that makes Zeno's daily life and experiences harder than what they should be. 3/3 This goes for the amazing Mirko as well but I'll stop for now.

THIS!

seeing stuff that is hurtful, and it is damaging. people need to wake up and realize that anything can trigger anyone for any reason. people need to wake up and realize that “it’s not important” BECAUSE IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO MANY PEOPLE! considering everything that is happening, this type of stuff will be deep rooted into someone who comes across it. i know what it's like to be blind about color until one situation flips your thinking on a switch.

for the Miruko situation, i remember seeing stuff about it. people need to understand that people are their own out of their skin color. we are people are people out of our skin color. let that sink in. if you dont like their voices outside of expecting them to sound “black” then that is completely fine. if its racially charged there is no excuse.

[scripttorture]

Are there usually pretty clear lines of separation between instances of torture, negligence, and unethical experimentation? Or do the three tend to cross over pretty often because of general lack of respect for prisoners in those types of situations? (Sorry if this sent twice, Tumblr is being dumb)

There isn’t always a clear separation in reality. The lines can be pretty blurred. (And no worries about multiple copies this place is a hellsite I understand.)

 I make a strict distinction because I feel like that can be helpful to writers who might be… approaching a common sci fi scenario with no knowledge of how medical experimentation works.

 The reason I make that distinction is because I think that otherwise it’s really really easy to fall into the trap of portraying torture as ‘smart’ or ‘scientific’. Which… it isn’t. It can’t be.

 Here’s the thing: if any kind of torture or neglect is going on then it is a variable. And anything truly scientific needs to account for variables. The big question here from my perspective isn’t so much ‘could this cross section of abuse happen’ it’s ‘could the scientists get results from it’.

 If you want to write smart scientists who are actually making some kind of progress with their discoveries then torture isn’t usually a good fit.

 The exception would be when the experiment itself is torture, something like ‘how long does it take the average person to die if we take out their intestines?’ or ‘what happens to the body when a person is starved?’

 I’m going to throw out a couple of examples to show you what I mean writing wise and then talk about how these things happen in reality.

 Say you have your bad guys doing something suitably sci fi like trying to graft wings to some humans.

 In a truly scientific (but unethical) scenario there will be lots of groups of test subjects/prisoners all of whom will be submitted to a slightly different regime to see which gives the highest success rate. They might all be given different drugs after the grafting procedure, or the grafting procedure itself might be subtly different.

 But their cell conditions, food, and general environment would need to be kept constant. That’s done so that procedure itself is reproducible. So that the evil scientists can confidently say ‘this version of the procedure is the most successful one and therefore we should use it.’

 These test subjects could still be suffering a lot because the point here isn’t to reduce their suffering (hence unethical). The point is to make sure that they’re not suffering in a way which impacts the results.

 Now if there are torturers in the facility this careful controlling of factors goes out the window because torturers do not show self-restraint, patience or any real ability to follow instructions.

 The torturers might be going round beating up the prisoners or depriving them of food or interrupting their sleep (I’m just picking common tortures here). And any of those things would be expected to effect someone’s immune response and/or chances of dying. And the torturers (if they’re behaving like torturers) won’t keep records of this or do it in an even, consistent way.

 Which means all the results the scientists are gathering become… meaningless. Because now rather then the results showing the most successful version of the procedure they show… well probably something completely random.

 May be all the test subjects on site 3 died regardless of the procedure used (because there were torturers on that site but not the others). May be the only tests that were successful were the subjects at the last four cells of the corridor (because it was further for the torturers to walk before beating someone up).

 Note that the scientists in this do not know the reasons why these things happened and they might not have enough information to guess.

 The information gathered is flawed. And if using this procedure on a large scale is a later plot point… well it could still be possible with the second scenario but you’d expect a much higher failure rate.

 I’m a scientist. My day job is testing medicines. The history of medicine, and science generally, is full of abuse.

 But that abuse does not look like the cackling evil ‘scientist’ who has a grand total of one test subject and somehow gets consistent, reliable results.

 And when torture and/or neglect overlap with genuine attempts at experimentation in real life it gives results that can’t be taken at face value. They need to be analysed and tested further, sometimes for decades, in order to determine whether they’re genuine or not.

 Let’s take some examples that are more like real life.

 Imagine a scenario where scientists are testing a new vaccine* on prisoners. They are doing this in an unethical manner, by vaccinating the prisoners, waiting for a while and then deliberately infecting them with the disease. Unknown to the scientists the prisoners are routinely sleep deprived.

 Sleep deprivation depresses the immune response. Some of the prisoners develop the disease when vaccinated and die. Some of them don’t but they do get the disease when they’re deliberately infected, suggesting the vaccine doesn’t work. And some of them don’t develop the disease when deliberately infected.

 Now we know today that sleep deprivation reduces the immune response and there is evidence that it can make vaccines in particular less effective.

 So does this particular vaccine work or not? The true answer is that we can’t tell and more data is needed.

 But without the knowledge that at least some of these prisoners are sleep deprived the scientists can’t arrive that conclusion. They can’t really make any definite conclusion.

 As another example let’s look at the case of Elsie Lacks**.

 Elsie was a black child committed to a mental institute in 1950. She was deaf, epileptic and had developmental disabilities of some kind. She was experimented on without her consent during the period she was hospitalised and died at the age of 15.

 We have records of some of the things Elsie was forced to endure because samples sizes were such that some of the experiments must have involved every single epileptic child in the hospital.

 One of the recorded experiments was on brain imaging. It involved draining the fluid around the brain (a painful and dangerous procedure) in order to take pictures of it and identify the cause of epilepsy.

 Stress and trauma can effect the structure of the developing brain. There was no attempt to account for the fact that the overcrowded, dangerous conditions in the hospital could have effected the end results.

 There was also no attempt to account for the fact that these children were being used in other experiments. And that means that if this experiment did identify key brain differences there’d be no firm evidence that those differences were due to epilepsy rather then trauma or other experimental procedures.

 What I’m trying to highlight here is that abuse in an experimental scenario isn’t just unethical it gets in the way of drawing accurate conclusions.

 Torture does sometimes take place with a lot of pseudo-scientific trappings.

 Abuse in concentration camps around the world comes to mind because (with a few exceptions) this mostly seemed to involve individual doctors picking out people to abuse with no real regard to results. Things like attempts to change eye colour by putting chemicals in people’s eyes and sewing twins together appear to have been conducted with pseudo-scientific trappings, rather then as careful experiments.

 I say that these things weren’t experiments because there does not appear to have been any consistency, attempt to create a control group or sufficient sample sizes to draw conclusions.

 And yes, I realise just how fucked up all that sounds when we’re talking about people who were tortured to death. That’s part of my point.

 There’s a difference between a villain who is primarily focused on abusing others and a villain who doesn’t really care whether their victims suffer or not so long as they get data.

 Torture can take place with pseudo-scientific trappings and unethical experimentation can take place alongside torture and neglect.

 I make that strong distinction to encourage authors to think about what the most important part of their scenario is and tailor what they’re writing to reflect that. I want you to think about what’s going on in your story and what the consequences should be for the characters and the plot in general. Mostly I want writers to understand what ‘experiment’ means before throwing the word around and making torturers look smarter then they are.

 An experiment should be:

Reproducible

Conducted with control groups

Conducted with a big enough sample size

Well recorded

Involve only one small change to procedure at a time

Account for variables

Analysed

 So what’s the important part of your story? Is it that the victims suffer, or that the bad guys get some kind of knowledge? And if it’s the latter does the victims’ suffering have the potential to get in the way?

 I don’t really believe in hard writing rules. So long as a scenario isn’t actively supporting torture I try to take a ‘never say never’ attitude.

 The message here isn’t to never ever mix these things together: it’s to take the time to understand the separate components before you do that.

 And think about what any mixture you write might be implying.

 I hope that helps. :)

Available on Wordpress.

Disclaimer

*I chose this as an example because this sort of thing happened and because there were some massive risks involved with a lot of early vaccines. This does not mean they were worse then the diseases they protected people against when they worked. See hemorrhagic smallpox. Or don’t if you want to sleep tonight.

 **I come back to this one a lot because it absolutely infuriates me.

[audreydoeskaren]

(Rant) Chinese historical clothing and corsetry myths

Source here

*TERFs do not interact

tw misogyny, racism

Intro

Hi y’all, I wanted to make a short rant but it ended up becoming a full blown essay about clothing and the patriarchy. If you’re into this sort of stuff, buckle up and ride along. I was reading some articles both casual and scholarly on Qing Dynasty Han women’s fashion recently and it struck me as really odd that a lot of them mix in some age old myths about European corsetry for absolutely no reason. In their pathetic attempts at entry level feminist analysis, in order to prove that historical Chinese clothing was patriarchal and oppressive to women they always bring up European corsets and stays to make the argument that women in the past were oppressed no matter where they were. After I received a stupid and disturbing response to the foot binding ask regarding foot binding and corsetry, the making of this post appears much more significant.

As a feminist and European historical fashion enthusiast myself, the wildly inaccurate, sensational and sometimes pseudo-Darwinist corset myths they perpetuate make me cringe to my core. Popular fashion history bloggers like Karolina Zebrowska and Bernadette Banner have been debunking corsetry myths for some years now so anyone active in the Western historical costuming community would have been able to avoid them, but that information has largely failed to reach their Chinese counterpart. While I understand that Chinese fashion historians don’t need to know about corsets and stays, why would they bring up corsetry all the time if they don’t know fuck all about it to begin with?? It’s really unprofessional and frankly stupid.

Before we begin, I have to get this out of the way: corsetry in the West is not comparable to foot binding in China. They were completely different practices with completely different consequences for a person’s body (person because men wore corsets too). I am sick and tired of talking about foot binding so I won’t even elaborate, have a thought about it yourself.

Debunking

Ok, so moving on to the debunking. I’m gonna show passages from two pretty representative articles that pull corset myths out of their arses and show you why they’re wrong. If you’re into Western fashion history or corsetry in general, I apologize preemptively for the cringe.

The first one is called “ 18世纪中法女装造型对比研究与创新应用 ” (comparison between 18th century Chinese and French womenswear: research and innovative application) by 高夏 published in 2018. The passage on corsetry goes like this (the translation is my own)

Corsets or stays achieve structure by inserting whalebone, wood, ivory or metal, so that it can have better shaping. Usually of a v-shape, corsets or stayrs cover the chest and waist, diverging into tabs at the bottom, hugging the figure, but doesn’t interfere with the movements of the lower body; usually in the shape of a tank top, the straps are sometimes on the shoulder, sometimes of a cap sleeve design. Lifting the breasts, taking in the waist are both the most aesthetically striking features of the corset, but under this beautiful appearance, what is more terrifying is, corsets or stays cause long term compression to the torso deforming women’s ribcages, shifting their organs, pressing against the nerves and blood vessels, causing difficulty to breathe and other illnesses.

Source here

18th century stays

Jesus Christ what is going on. Also the sentence structure in this one gave me a stroke just reading it. First off, I don’t know a single 18th century person who used ivory to bone their stays I’m pretty sure nobody did that. It was acceptable to use as busks (the straight front piece inserted into the chest area), so was wood, but it sounds impossible to use them as boning. Metal boning didn’t become a widespread thing until the 19th century. Whalebone is the only correct option. Congratulations author, you made four guesses and one of them is correct. 

Second off, women’s ribcages and organs were fine, this has been debunked a thousand times. Like Karolina Zebrowska mentioned in one of her videos, if corsetry really had this much power, wouldn’t all Western women who lived through the 17th to 20th centuries have deformed ribs?? And that is obviously not true. If you don’t tight lace I don’t see how anything can be compressed, I tight lace a lot and even my organs are fine. The human waist area is naturally pretty squishy so you can lace down a lot no problem. Plus, the effects of corsetry are not permanent, whatever shifted during the day when you are wearing corsets/stays would return to their previous positions once you take them off in the evening. Even if the ribs would shift over time, I don’t see how that would cause a problem? The effects stacked over time so the changes wouldn’t noticeable to the wearer. Difficulty to breathe? It depends on the design of the specific corset/stay, some styles don’t even cover the chest, I’d be impressed if those things gave you difficulty breathing. Even for 18th century stays, which covered most of the chest, breathing shouldn’t be a problem; modern opera singers wear corsets and stays as part of their costumes as well, and they can sing in them. From personal experience, I breathe in a slightly different way when wearing corsets tightly, and the effect is barely noticeable when not tight laced.

Third off, medicine was very much not developed in the 18th century and I wouldn’t advise anyone to trust doctors at the time writing about what caused women to become sick. On top of their lack of expertise, there was also the prevalent problem of misogyny in the male dominated medical profession; male doctors liked to blame illnesses on things related to femininity such as the uterus (hysteria) and obviously, stays.

The moment the author mentioned ivory boning, all credibility was lost... It’s kind of unfortunate because the whole point of this dissertation is to compare 18th century Chinese and French women's’ fashion and the author couldn’t even get one of the most basic premises of French historical fashion correct.

One of the only legitimate health concerns for wearing corsets is that you shouldn’t be wearing them all the time, like 24 hours a day, because your muscles will get used to the support and weaken as a result. But this could be countered by taking off your corset a couple of hours everyday and doing exercise, and also not sleeping with your corset on. Also, it’s good to wear a breathable layer under corsets, like a cotton shift that can be frequently washed, so that sweat wouldn’t accumulate and cause skin problems. With that said, I’m not a scientist and I also haven’t read every single piece of literature on corsetry, if there are any other legitimate health concerns for long term wearing of corsets, please let me know!!

Onto the second one. This one is about the practice of breast binding in China since the 15th century; it starts out pretty normal and informative but as soon as the author begins to compare breast binding to corsetry it sashays off into pseudoscience.

Corsetry began in the court, rumors say that Queen Josephine of France got pregnant out of wedlock, and in order to conceal her pregnancy she used fabric to bind her torso, accidentally discovering its effects to lift up the breasts, combined with the low cut clothing popular at the time, the breasts became very visible, becoming a trend, this shows that the beauty of breasts were prized during that time period. 

I’m sorry I can’t stop laughing at this. You mean Empress Josephine? At the time she was born (1763) corsets/stays have been around for more than a century... When she was empress in the 1810s, the empire/regency style of dress was popular and it did not show the waist whatsoever, I don’t think anyone would notice if she was pregnant lmao. I wouldn’t be surprised if she did cheat on Napoleon, because cheating was super common back then, but heaven be damned if it had anything to do with corsetry. The part about short regency stays lifting and separating the breasts is legit but not for the reasons the author thinks; low necklines exposing breasts have been around in the 17th and 18th centuries as well, it’s just that during that time the boobies were pushed together, and after the waistline rose during the ancient Rome/Greece inspired directoire era, the boobies became increasingly pushed up and separated. It was just the fashion tbh, people wanted to do something different to what was done before.

Source here

Portrait of Empress Josephine (I think? It’s weirdly difficult to find a good quality legitimate portrait of her somehow) in a high waisted gown with separated boobies.

Source here

1790s short stays. They don’t cover the stomach at all?

Source here

1780s Marie Antoinette with exposed boobies pushed together. She was, obviously, wearing stays.

This is the wildest corset origin myth I’ve seen yet and it would be funny if it weren’t kind of deranged. It’s very representative of the kind of popular history (野史) floating around the Chinese internet, which takes an average historical event and embellishes it with sexual degeneracy. I can’t help but be reminded of the iconic Lu Xun quote “ 一见短袖子，立刻想到白臂膊，立刻想到全裸体，立刻想到生殖器，立刻想到性交，立刻想到杂交，立刻想到私生子。中国人的想像惟在这一层能够如此跃进。(One sees a short sleeve and immediately starts thinking of bare arms, the naked body, the genitals, sexual intercourse, cheating, bastards etc.. The imagination of Chinese people can only make such great leaps on this matter)” Why is this still true 100 years later. I mean, Chinese people are definitely not alone in this, it’s just weirdly pervasive on the Chinese internet and sometimes even academia, mostly perpetuated by gross middle aged cis straight men going through midlife crises who love to boost their fragile egos by making up shit on the internet (such as my dad)...

By the way this is the photo included in the original article, showing some suspiciously retouched lingerie photoshoots from the 1880s/90s. I shudder to think that the author would believe 1880s corsets and regency short stays are the same thing...

Source here

I love the 1880s. I love Photoshop. If you think these look freaky, don’t, it’s a real ass woman doing her thing and she doesn’t care about your opinion. Plus it’s photoshopped anyway.

Analysis

This is only the beginning of the journey. The passage goes on to cite Abba Goold Woolson, a dress reformer during the 1870s, saying that if a woman wears a corset, she suffers but is therefore able to please men and ascend the social ladder that way. I’m pretty sure the quote was taken out of context but Woolson herself also isn't the sole authority on the subject. The author buys into this bullshit wholeheartedly and comes to the conclusion that corsets were invented by the patriarchy to reduce women into sex objects. They write:

Breast binding is a sign of misogyny, stemming from the psychology of being disgusted by women’s breasts, it is a custom born out of a desire to restrain women’s natural beauty and attractiveness, the resentment for female attractiveness to men. Corsetry is a product of the patriarchal culture in the West, a product of women accentuating their figures to seduce powerful men.

This is nothing short of pseudo-Darwinist and kind of disturbing. There is so much to unpack here I might as well just move. First off, I don’t know who needs to hear this but corsets are supposed to be comfortable and not to kill you. They served a practical purpose before an aesthetic one, such as supporting the wearer’s bodies and the weight of the gowns, which in the 19th century, were some heavy gowns. Especially for bustier women, corsets provide superior bust and back support compared to modern underwire bras. If they were made with whalebone boning, spiral steel boning or cording, they were very light and flexible and wouldn’t interfere with everyday activities at all. This is the thing, the people calling for the complete abolition of corsets seemed to forget that busty women existed; if you’re flat chested you can go braless no problem, but if you have very big breasts it’s very difficult to move about without support, which corsets were supposed to provide. A lot of innovative designs with elastic panels and less boning were available in the second half of the 19th century so any woman who wanted to get one should be able to. In addition, if a woman didn’t want to wear corsets, what other options would she have at the time? Brassieres were not commonly available and the ones that did exist were worn in conjunction with corsets, elastic was only invented in the mid 19th century, being braless might be inconvenient for bustier women etc.. Corsets and stays were just normal underwear throughout their time of popularity and men wore them as well.

By the way, if you want to know how credible Abba Goold Woolson and other dress reformers were on the subject of fashion and feminism I suggest checking out the speeches they gave in the 1870s. Just to pick out a couple questionable things, she mentions that mothers with compressed torsos give birth to “inferior children” and is bad for their race, praises Thai women’s fashion but only because “barbarous tribes allow still greater freedom in their attire” and criticizes how “civilized people of the West” clad their women in impractical garments. The way she fetishizes and infantilizes the fashions of Asian countries is frankly uncomfortable to read, like she thinks white people are so special that only white women modify their bodies for fashion, and indigenous women are dumb, but at least not dumb enough to wear corsets. A lot of people involved with dress reform and the Arts and Crafts in general fetishized non-white cultures and European peasantry because of their supposed “primitiveness” and “purity” in opposition to the “degeneracy” of urban white folks. It’s a whole load of problematic Orientalist bullshit that I don’t even want to unpack. In regards to corsetry and comfort, 1870s dress reformers suggested making garments whose weight solely rested on the shoulders, which to me is quite unreasonable because anyone who has worn a heavy coat or something without a belt would know how freaking uncomfortable that is. 

Second off, I take massive issue with this notion that corsets were invented for the male gaze, like, you give men way too much credit for fashion. This is a weirdly pervasive view, people will often instantly label any fashion trend men find attractive “oppressive” and “invented for the male gaze”, neglecting the fact that 1) correlation doesn’t equal causation 2) men could find attractive/fetishize a trend after it has been popularized. Just because men find something attractive doesn’t mean it was made for them and definitely doesn’t mean that feminist women have to stop wearing it. If men decide to collectively fetishize shampoo tomorrow do you suppose women stop washing our hair as well? That’s obviously absurd, so why should it be different for corsetry. Corsets are actually a prime example of a garment fetishized well after the height of its popularity; corsets and girdles used to be functional undergarments but started to fade out of popularity in the 1960s (though never really going away) and began reappearing as counterculture/fetish wear later. Similar fates befell stockings and garterbelts. Before the 20th century, fashion was a very female dominated field, it was one of the only industries where women had a voice. During the time when stays and corsets were invented and popularized, it was women behind the trend and men did nothing but ridicule women for it. The few men who were on board the trend were often deemed effete and called homophobic insults. Literally every Western fashion trend in the 18th and 19th centuries have been satirized by men at every possible turn, it really confuses me as to why people think it was men who put women in corsets if men hated them so much? 

Source here

1770s satirical drawing of women’s fashion, exaggerating the small waist and big coiffure. Notice how the male servant is drawn “normally”. I actually think this sort of satire is insanely misogynistic, maybe that’s a hot take. It stems from men’s belief that fashion, a then mostly feminine pastime, is “frivolous” and nothing of importance, and women who chase after fashion trends are stupid and vain and don’t know better. Excuse your mouth, fashion is a noble pursuit, without fashion human existence would be so boring. It’s not women’s problem that menswear stopped being interesting in the 1840s. I’m going to play the Miranda Priestly monologue on loop now I need to recover.

Also, the author completely neglects the fact that some women liked wearing corsets and even tight lacing because they enjoyed having the fashionable silhouette. The notion that corsets and stays were worn to create a specific, nuanced silhouette rather than to simply make the waist smaller or the boobs bigger is almost unknown to Chinese fashion historians (and a lot of people in the West as well). For example, 18th century stays create a very conical shape, 1890s corsets make the body a rounded hourglass and 1920s girdles flatten the chest. They just, uh, cannot entertain the possibility that corsets and stays were fashion trends and not some tool of patriarchal oppression with deeper, philosophical meaning. It has the same energy as Jordan Peterson claiming that women wear red lipstick to imitate sexual arousal, completely forgetting that some people wear blue or black lipstick; what are they imitating then, poisoned corpses? Sheesh why is it so hard to admit that fashion is for fun and art not just sex.

Source here

The “pigeon breast” shape created by early Edwardian corsets and padding, I think these look cool as hell. 1901 issue of De Gracieuse.

This ties into the bigger problem in the research of Chinese fashion history, which is that scholars love to read deeper meanings into places where there likely is non, while being severely lacking in factual description of fashion trends. Like, I just want to know what common embroidery patterns were used in the 18th century and instead I got lectured on how traditional Chinese patterns were a service to the gods and among the most sacred and important accomplishments of my people and race (yes a lot of Chinese fashion history articles are very völkisch I hate it here).

I really appreciate the Western spirit of experimenting with and pushing the boundaries of the shape of the human body, the idea that you can modify your body temporarily with structured garments to achieve a certain look. It’s so cool and should be accepted/encouraged as long as it doesn’t have permanent health risks (like foot binding did). To some extent you can argue that this was the same spirit that drove Chinese women to bind their breasts, because form fitting tailoring techniques were not available in China (or at least not popular) so women changed their natural bodies to fit their clothes. And to me, personally, it makes sense, because I’ve tried wearing Ming Dynasty robes with a full, modern bra and it really doesn’t look neat with the protrusions. 

Source here

1520s portrait. By flattening the chest, the clothes fit better.

Conclusion & personal two cents

In my opinion, it was not corsets, stays, breast binders or any trend/garment that was patriarchal but the fact that women were forced to adopt them in order to be considered respectable; it’s the lack of choice and bodily autonomy. Men in power used these garments/trends as tools to police women’s self expression but it was never about the garment to begin with. For example, if you were a Victorian lady who loved to tight lace and wear form fitting, extravagant gowns, you were likely to get slut shamed and called frivolous or immoral, but if you were a fan of the Arts and Crafts and wanted to wear a loose, Pre-Raphaelite inspired reform dress without a corset, guess what, you were still gonna get slut shamed and called immoral. You just cannot win. The only way for a Victorian woman to narrowly avoid slut shaming is to wear a corset just about the right tightness, but also she had to wear outer clothes that are beautiful yet at the same time not flashy or drawing attention to her. That is such a difficult game to play and the rules are not fair, so why don’t we ditch this game altogether and dress however the fuck we want? It, has, nothing, to, do, with, corsets, but everything to do with the acceptable level of femininity and women having agency. People bash women who tight lace or waist train for being stupid and stuck in the past, then turn around and demonize women who choose to present more gender neutral/masculine. Any voluntary deviation from the norm needs to be punished from the patriarchy’s perspective, whether it is in the more feminine or masculine direction, because it is a sign of agency and rebellion against patriarchal assumptions about gender. In my opinion, we need to be careful not to pit women against each other, the braless/not corset wearing “not like other girls” girl against the tight lacing girly girl. We women (and other non cishet men people) need to stick together. Some feminists wear corsets, some feminists tight lace, some feminists wear bras, some feminists don’t wear bras; the agenda is not to police clothing, but to come for the patriarchy’s arse.

Circling back to Chinese fashion history as well, from my personal experience I’ve noticed the strangest phenomenon: the people who call feminine women’s fashion frivolous or unnecessary also tend to be the ones who dunk on 1960s/70s mainland China for not having fashion?? Like, they want people of all genders to only wear practical clothing and ban modification of their bodies with corsetry, makeup, plastic surgery or other such “frivolous” practices, so theoretically mainland China during the Cultural Revolution should be a utopia in their minds, yet they’re somehow suddenly not ok with it and call it authoritarian?? I feel like deep down they still know that fashion is fun and necessary for human entertainment but they could only accept it on their terms, i.e. when women are doing fashion in a way that doesn’t step out of line and show their bodily autonomy. During the Cold War and even still nowadays, mainland Chinese women in the 1960s and 70s get shit for being “too plain” or “not attractive enough”, often with some racism and irrational anti-communist sentiments mixed in, in contrast to women in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and other areas who dressed feminine and were praised for their “oriental” beauty and submissiveness. Both takes are problematic as fuck, and it’s almost as if it had nothing to do with what the women were wearing to begin with, but rather some people’s need to pit women against each other and police the way women dress for their own benefit.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. :))) Here is a final photo dump showing the wonders of fashion made possible by corsetry, enjoy.

Source here

Source here

Source here

Source here

Source here

Source here

Source here

[foeofcolor]

hi this is totally random but you're a bit of a hawkeye fan right? i havent been in your blog a lot so correct me if im wrong lol

i wanna read his comics, where do you think i should start? i usually read it at readcomicsonline.com!

Sorry I took so long to answer but here's a few ones I think are good! SOLO/ SOLOISH

HAWKEYE (2012) The most well known Clint run! It's 24 issues and very good! But it can get heavy at times and there is actually a lot of buildup/backstory to why Clint is the way he is in that run, this isn't the standard for him, this is him in depression. @bobbimorses 's post here explains it well.

HAWKEYE : FREEFALL It's very short, 6 issues only and has the kind of pseudo leftism you'd except from comics at this point sometimes but other than that? It's great! We also haven't heard from Clint post freefall and next time we see him will be in the August THINDERBOLTS 0.0

HAWKEYE ( 2003 ) OK. So this run is also just 8 issues (See a pattern here??) and fair warning : It has the 2000s brand of casual racism and misogyn . But this is a really good example of pre matt fraction Clint! Also you don't really need to read the last 2 issues but they're a ok add on. Also there's a character called Gaylord and I STILL think that's funny.

HAWKEYE : BLINDSPOT Essential!! Just 4 issues iirc and it's! very good and explains the lead up to the 2012 series!

HAWKEYE (1983) VERY IMPORTANT!!!

TEAM BOOKS/ TEAM UPS

NEW AVENGERS : REUNION This happens during/after the whole civil war fisaco but you don't really need to know much about that to read this. All you need to know is Clint died, then when Clint was dead Cap died, Clint came back to life and was offered the shield, he said No, then bucky got the shield, then Bobbi came back to life and turns out she had been replaced by a skrull before her supposed death.

HAWKEYE Vs. DEADPOOL it's just fun!

HAWKEYE MOCKINGBIRD Clintbobbi, need I say more.

WEST COAST AVENGERS   The og run!! It also has the clintbobbi divorce and I thinkkkk this is the one with the tw for rape? You can also read the new run but it’ ok? Not really essential.

THUNDERBOLTS ( OG ) Clint leads this team for a while!

You can pretty much pick any old avengers comics after #16 and there’s soild chance that Clint’d be in it tbh.

Also, for his first appearances check out this list (by @/bobbimorses) and this list (by @/soloavengers)

MISC. ISSUES I LIKE 

Captain America #179

Avengers Annual #9

[publishedtoday]

How You Grow Wings - Rimma Onoseta

Sisters Cheta and Zam couldn’t be more different. Cheta, sharp-tongued and stubborn, never shies away from conflict—either at school or at home, where her mother fires abuse at her. Timid Zam escapes most of her mother’s anger, skating under the radar and avoiding her sister whenever possible. In a turn of good fortune, Zam is invited to live with her aunt’s family in the lap of luxury. Jealous, Cheta also leaves home, but finds a harder existence that will drive her to terrible decisions. When the sisters are reunited, Zam alone will recognize just how far Cheta has fallen—and Cheta’s fate will rest in Zam’s hands.

tw: classism, colorism, emotional abuse, gun violence, internalized racism, mention of pseudo-incest, physical abuse, skin bleaching

[sxvenz]

rules / requesting ♔

this will discuss rules to follow when interacting with this blog, as well as how/what/when to request !

Rules

What I don’t write

What I do write

Requesting

Basic Rules :

when interacting with this blog, do not be rude / demanding and do not ask any admins personal questions.

rudeness isn’t excused; I will not answer your ask nor fulfill your request. respect on the internet is very important. please respect mine and one another’s privacy.

minors do not interact with any n*sfw posts on my blog or you will be blocked. sfw posts are fine.

while I can’t stop every minor from viewing mature writing and I understand it’s pretty normal, it would be morally wrong of me to encourage it. It makes me uncomfortable knowing teens or children may be reading my content, so please respect me and my blog. have your age in your bio if you choose to interact with my n*sfw works.

I do not answer every single ask/request that I receive; if I intend to fulfill your request, then it will be on my to do list.

I don’t always have time to answer every declined ask in my inbox and explain why, so if your request isn’t written in my To Do List within a few days, then please try another blog :)

Do not request for characters who are not listed in their fandom’s masterlist !

the only fandoms and characters I write for are all listed in my masterlists !

View my content responsibly !!

please respect yourself and your limits. My blog may have sensitive and possibly triggering content. Warnings will ALWAYS be provided.

What I do NOT write (off limits) :

I primarily do not write for minors

the only time I write for minors is when it’s very innocent, platonic, familial, or parental. It will NEVER be n*sfw.

I do not write shipping, crossovers, or character x character

it’s just not my thing !

I do not write male x male smut

while I wholeheartedly support any kind of gay relationship, I myself am a woman and I do not want to fetishize anyone in the community. I will write sfw male x male.

I do not write incest, pedophilia, racism, or any kind of bigotry

I might write pseudo-incest but that’s it. All of these mentioned topics are uncomfortable for me and in no way acceptable in the real world.

(TW!!) I will not take requests that include self-harm nor depressed reader

this rule is something I’m quite strict on; I believe this content can be extremely triggering and that many people do not view responsibly.

I will not go into detail about race nor body type unless it’s specific to the fic / request

I generally try to include everyone, especially in headcanons. I provide instances of different skin tones and hair types. If you have questions about this rule, please ask ! this rule is NOT strict.

What I do write / accept :

I allow anonymous requests

anon stays on to respect everyone’s privacy, but please don’t take advantage of this. if you’re a minor, respect me enough to not request any n*sfw content.

I do write platonic/familial relationships

these are so fun and cute, I accept child/teen! reader

I often write yandere/obsessive content, but I write regular content as well

It’s mostly soft! yandere, but warnings will always be provided

I do write dub-con, abuse, and other types of n*sfw content

trigger warnings will always be provided, please avoid this content if it could affect you negatively. minors dni with mature writing.

I do write poly relationships

character x reader x character (or more)

I do write any race / gender / sexuality

I do feel knowledgeable about these topics, but if I feel as though my writing won’t give you what you want, then I will recommend a different blog ! I generally try to include everyone, especially in general headcanons.

Requesting :

Whether or not requests are open will always be on my pinned navigation post !

If you send in a request while they are closed, then it’s very likely that I will just delete it. If I notice it’s similar to another request I’m currently working on, then I will just let you know when it’s posted.

QUESTIONS, ASKS, and THIRSTS are always open

I’m open to communicating with you guys always ! especially if you’re curious or confused about something.

Always check my wip. and to do list. before requesting

these are located on my pinned navi. page. checking these will help avoid repeat requests. If your request is similar to one listed, then I’ll just delete it.

Fandoms / Characters I write for

Fandoms I write for are all listed on my masterlist, which is on my pinned navi. post. In each fandom, every character I write for is listed. I won’t accept requests for characters that aren’t listed.

What you are welcome and allowed to request / send in:

scenarios, headcanons, drabbles, mtl’s

au’s (any kind is welcome in theory)

thirsts / ideas

general questions

venus

[givemearmstopraywith]

im so sad to find out that flo may be racist like i don’t want to believe it but the no light no light video (that i haven’t watched) is preposterous and i would like to believe that it comes from unawareness but that video is really hard to defend

tw: blackface, racism

i want to open this dialogue by saying i’m not going to defend that video. anyone who follows me knows how much flo’s work means to me- as it does to many other people- but that doesn’t mean i’m unable to engage in criticism of that work. i also don’t think that, as a white woman, it’s my place to pass judgement or give a real answer to this issue. i can only present the information that i have in as unbiased a way i can and allow others to come to their own conclusion, but i like i opened this paragraph: i am not going to attempt to defend that video because it’s not defensible. 

when that video came out i was honestly surprised and disappointed by it, and i still am. i remember in 2012 writing a paper on it for an art class and being unable to grapple with the racism in it, and as a result i stopped listening to fatm and participating in the fandom until hbhbhb came out, which i’ve heard a lot of people ended up doing as well. a lot of (other) fans will try and defend the video by saying the blackface in question is not actually blackface because the actor is actually painted green and wearing a blond wig: (continuing under the cut because quite frankly nobody needs to see this randomly on their dash) (EDIT: i tried to put this under the cut but when i tried to make an edit to this post it completely fucked up my formatting because this website is garbage)

however, i think the green paint defence (which is disturbing prevalent among fans who ardently and aggressively try to defend this video) really blatantly ignores the obvious misuse of voodoo and the more troubling motif of pitting it as an “evil” against the extremely white, catholic “good”- to say nothing of the fact that voodoo is closely tied with catholicism anyway, and the reputation of it being some sort of “evil” is basically descending from slave owner’s propaganda. 

one thing that could potentially clear this up is that the concept of the video was pitched to her by the directors, icelandic duo arni and kinski (x). the trademark of these directors is juxtaposing extremes in pseudo-campy glitterati and a kind of dark grittiness (check out the videos for of monster and men’s crystals or aurora’s i went to far for examples of this). however, that doesn’t change the fact that we can assume at any point she could have said no to the blackface or changed the voodoo motif. in delilah- a creation over which we know she exerted a lot of creative control- she seems to hone in on what i assume she was trying to achieve with no light no light by utilizing a literal devil and juxtaposing this image with the illuminated cross:

but again, i don’t want that to be an excuse for what takes place in no light no light. as much as i admire flo’s artistry and writing i am also keenly aware that she is a woman of privilege- a lot of privilege, with a father who was involved in the music industry, a mother who is a professor at the university of london, and having attended several private schools*. 

*(private school attendance is generally a harbinger of extreme class difference in british society, since successful brits overwhelming hail from some kind of private school. and on the subject of british culture, i would also venture to say that systemic racism in britain is still a deniable evil in british society, particularly towards visible minorities. as recently as 2018 the british government attempted to deport caribbean-born britons decades after they legally immigrated from commonwealth countries. anti-black sentiment is very much part of british culture, to say nothing of racisim towards other visible minorities.)

i’m going to be frank here and say that in 2011, racism as a systemic issue did not exist at the forefront of social consciousness the way it does today- people still said shit like “i don’t see colour!” and thought that made them civil rights activists. like any privileged person- or, really, if you want to get more specific, like any white person- i honestly do not think that it occurred to flo or anyone involved in the making of that video that it was racist, or else it was dismissed in the defence of “art”- which is not a defence, but it is a form of deep-rooted privilege. i know that when it was released someone- either flo or management on her behalf- gave some kind of statement saying they had no control over the script, but i currently can’t find a source for that.

(i debated including this because it reads like “i’m not racist, i have black friends!” but i will include it for posterity anyway with the caveat that it really doesn’t matter: the band itself is not 100% white- as of the high as hope era aku orraca-tetteh and dionne douglas are permanent members. make of that what you will. i’m not saying this because it makes up for anything else, it’s just part of the body of research i’ve come up with in the decade since no light no light came out and i started trying to make sense of it.)

people have also pointed out racism in the song royals by lorde, which i include simply as an example that racism is literally just an undeniable part of western culture. i’m a jew: i see my features parroted back me to me repeatedly as symbols of greed, deception, and evil, people have made threats against my life because i was a jew. (EDIT: i’m not comparing these experiences to something like blackface, which is obviously extremely pervasive, i’m just giving another example of how systemic racism exists and how it affects people.) racism is systemic. it is undeniable. 

do i think flo is racist? honestly, no, not consciously, and if nothing else i deeply do not think it was done maliciously. do i think she was, and potentially still is, complicit of systemic racism and unable to be critical of her own compliance in it? absolutely. her later work has ended up being so different from ceremonials and from no light no light in particular, i would like to believe it was just ignorance, like you say. 

i hope that i’ve handled this topic gracefully and without bias, and i also hope that the information here helps other people form their own, educated opinions. i don’t think we should ever participate blindly in something. we should always be critical of the media we consume and the people who make it, because that is how we became better people. 

[paigesturning]

Race in 5e: Who Is at Your Table?

I had to write an argumentative essay for one of my classes this semester. I was really into the idea I had, and gave it a shot! I think this might be one of the best pieces I’ve ever written.

Word count: 2995 TW: Discussions of race science, orientalism, and references to white supremacist rhetoric

Writing is difficult, and it’s even more difficult to write collaboratively. This applies to TTRPG as much as it applies to novels. Sure, the DM could simply railroad the players into sessions of combat, lock them into a certain path, or make their other options so terrible that they simply must go the way the story is leading, but it’s bad practice. After all, though it’s not a traditional story, written down in book form for distribution, TTRPG relies on the interplay between the DM’s idea for what should happen in the story, and the players’ ideas. Unlike writing a book, however, TTRPGs rely on another influence, rather than just the set of people who have agreed to tell a story. There’s always at least one other person in the situation, who might be completely unknown to the DM and players. I refer, of course, to the game designer. TTRPGs have far more freedom than video games, but the decisions made by the game designer have the same amount of weight in both mediums. In Skyrim, for example, this looks like a prioritization of combat mechanics over puzzle solving mechanics or relationship mechanics. Though both are implemented in the game, there’s not nearly as many options in playstyle for relationships, or variation in puzzle types, for it to be considered a romance game, or a puzzle game. In TTRPG, the influence of the designer is often far less apparent. In 5e, your character can do basically whatever they want so long as the other people at the table agree that it’s something they want to interact with. However, with some exception, you will not be able to run a game set, for example, in real-world Chicago or on a transport vessel in space. Players tend to be locked into a fantasy setting. Like Skyrim, 5e is a system that prioritizes combat in a magical, pseudo-European medieval setting. It’s a mix of mechanics, and built-in worldbuilding that can allow us to come to this conclusion - each spell, if it doesn’t explicitly add or remove hit points from a target, changes the rules for when and how combat can happen, and each class is described in their flavor text in high fantasy terms, often opening with the examples of ways each one can be useful in combat. True as all this may be, it is, at its core a neutral thing, and I find myself blessed to occasionally be at the tables of others as a game designer and homebrewer. All games must make assumptions about the kind of game players want, and must do their best to fulfil those expectations, the same way a speaker might attempt to predict the thoughts, previous knowledge, and counter-arguments of their audience. However, in 5e, there lies a certain set of assumptions that I personally find troubling, and in fact in need of some serious reworking. The way that race functions in 5e represents an old-fashioned way of viewing the world. In the most direct terms, yeah, it’s kinda racist. Therefore, the assumptions 5e makes in their race system, represented in mechanics that both promote archaic ways of thinking and force the narrative in directions the players and DM may be uncomfortable with, means that it is time to either dramatically change the way race works, or pass over the system entirely.

When a DM is preparing to start a new game of 5e, one very good place to start is the Dungeon Master’s Guide, or DMG. In it, theoretically, are the tools for DMs and players alike to better understand exactly what the game they are playing looks like. In many ways, it’s a behind the scenes look at what goes into planning a session. For example, each “encounter”, or a portion of the game in which the players fight enemies or find ways around them, there’s a bit of calculation which can tell you what enemies will be appropriate for your party size and level. However, in a new game, before even doing that, you should go to the beginning of chapter 1, on page 9. It lists the assumptions the rules make about your setting, which is a helpful tool for anyone attempting to rectify the base rules with a far-out, high-concept world. They are as follows: “Gods Oversee the World”, “Much of the World is Untamed”, “The World is Ancient”, “Conflict Shapes the World’s History”, and “The World is Magical”. On paper, that’s all you need to know (though it might be worth noting that on page 43 the book contradicts this and gets more specific about what sort of multiverse is required to support the rules). These are five basic rules anyone can follow, rules that most people working to create a fantasy setting would have followed anyway, especially in such a combat-focused system. However, in the Player’s Handbook, (abbreviated as PHB) there are additional assumptions about the setting you’ll be playing in, most notably in the section on the different races that appear in 5e. For starters, each race has a small box that explains how the other races in the game are likely to view them. Taken from page 37, when the book is discussing how Gnomes (a small race of humanoids with large heads and thin limbs) think about their place among other races, “It's rare for a gnome to be hostile or malicious unless he or she has suffered a grievous injury. Gnomes know that most races don't share their sense of humor, but they enjoy anyone's company just as they enjoy everything else they set out to do.” They give no explanation for why gnomes tend to be “Good”, in terms of 5e’s morality system. Perhaps this isn’t an oversight, and instead they are allowing you to fill in the blanks yourself? Do the gnomes perhaps have free healthcare, while some others do not? 

I am of course being facetious. I am certain the creators didn’t think quite so far ahead, and instead just wanted to paint a picture of the world they envisioned. It’s not some great sin of design, of course, to do this, and I will admit I am guilty of it in my own design. However, this is just one of the smaller examples of 5e making decisions for the DM and the players. Unlike some other portions of the rules, that brief note can be ignored with little to no need for creating a replacement. You could just as easily scribble the note out of the book, and leave a black sharpie stain where it once sat. Unfortunately, there are other decisions made about race that are much harder to ignore without a level of homebrewed (or player-created) mechanics. For example, a little later, on page 43, the book tells you about the specific mechanical benefits that half-orcs get. Two in particular stand out to me as disturbing. The first, Menacing, means that “You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill”. The other is Savage Attacks, which reads “When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon's damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit”. There is no way in which these cannot be seen as narrative decisions on the part of the creators. Exactly what is it about an orc’s presence that would mean it is more intimidating than any other person? One could surmise that, perhaps they are much larger than most people, or that their rarity means that people are not used to their size and tusks. Perhaps I only speak for myself, but I do not often find myself intimidated by people who look different from what I am used to. The explanation the rules provide is that full-blooded-orcs are barbaric raiders, who wantonly destroy and kill, and are considered evil. Why is it, however, that there’s an entire group of people, people with thoughts, feelings, social structures, who can produce viable offspring with members of other groups of people, that the book deems evil? I submit that, in the minds of the creators, there is some sort of orientalist mystique behind the savage barbarian, one that is physically superior, and yet is still no more than fodder to be torn through by the heroes of the story. This isn’t even the worst example of racism built into the game, but to explain this next portion, I will need to explain a concept. 

At its base level, phrenology is, as per the Encyclopedia Britannica, “the study of the conformation of the skull as indicative of mental faculties and traits of character, especially according to the hypotheses of Franz Joseph Gall”. Gall, born in 1758, measured the heads of his colleagues, convicts, and people in asylums, in order to determine traits such as intellect and potentiality for criminal behavior. As with many things invented in late 18th century Europe, this practice was used to fuel European imperialism. The article Of ‘Native Skulls’ and ‘Noble Caucasions’: Phrenology in Colonial South Africa, by Andrew Bank, explains very quickly that “The leading proponents of the new discipline almost uniformly adapted their science of the brain to issues of racial differentiation”. I assume that from here it isn’t difficult to see the direction I am heading with this. Elves, Tieflings, Humans, and Gnomes are given bonuses to Intelligence. Dwarves, Humans, and Elves are given bonuses to Wisdom. Elves, Half-Elves, Humans, Tieflings, Dragonborn, and Halflings are given bonuses to Charisma. Of the races present in the PHB, Half-Orcs are the only ones that don’t get any bonuses to the so-called “Mental Stats”. Physical stats, on the other hand, include Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, and Half-Orcs get bonuses to Strength and Constitution. In mechanical terms, this leads to a fairly good balance. The other classes serve as either well-rounded jacks-of-all-trades, or are specialized for certain casters, or help fit an archetype of dexterous fighter/caster combinations, while the Half-Orcs are specialized for non-caster tanks, such as the Barbarian or the Fighter. This makes narrative sense as well; if Half-Orcs are raised by the orcish side of their family, they are far more likely to be brutal in martial combat, trained to fight and kill anyone who might have supplies or treasure for them. 

However much this might “make sense”, I have to ask why this was an addition to the game. I see three possible answers, and by my approximation, they are likely to all be true. The first is that the creators wanted more narrative control than they let on. The second is that they needed those stats to be stand-in numbers to represent various types of spellcaster and are simply ignorant to their implications. The third is that the creators simply find race science unobjectionable. Earlier, I suggested that the game designer joins the players and the DM at the table, through their work. At my table, ignorance and suggestions that some races are simply more intellectually powerful than others is not tolerated, and I should only hope you feel the same way. 

At this point, you’re thinking so loud that I can practically hear it, even in the past. “Ignorance isn’t tolerated? What if the ignorant person in question is willing to change, and well-meaning?”, but if this is what you were thinking, I say with the deepest respect that you’re being just a touch too literal. Of course, if I’ve sat down and agreed to play with someone I know, I am willing to go over why what they said made me uncomfortable. TTRPG is a dialogue, one where the players and the DM must negotiate, not battle, for the story they want to tell, and where everyone must speak up when something happens that makes them upset. The difference between a literal player’s presence and the game designer’s figurative presence is that there is no arguing with a book. In some ways, it’s easier to change a book’s mind. Simply write your own rules, and move on, there’s no need to debate an actual person. You may also be thinking that 5e simply utilizes the mechanics of previous editions. While that is technically true, what is the point of creating a new edition if you can’t change things moving forward? And what’s more, each of my criticisms can be moved onto 1e. The biggest criticism I expect against my argument however, isn’t any of this. Obviously, only one of the races in 5e is human. Nothing in 5e indicates that one race of human is significantly better or worse than any other race of human, and so surely it can’t be racism. Again, you may be thinking a little too literally. In the world supposed by 5e, each race is seen as a person, and (depending on the setting and narrative your group constructs) has the same rights to freedom and life, and yet some are just more mentally skilled than others as soon as they are born. How often in reality do the dregs of society say something along the lines of “it isn’t that I think [members of a certain race] aren’t people or should be enslaved, it’s just that I think that white people are inherently smarter” to make an effort of sounding more reasonable? It isn’t that I think the races in 5e are 1:1 parallels to real-world racist stereotypes. Instead, it’s a matter of philosophy, race-based pseudoscience, and ideology that makes 5e (and previous editions) racist, without major rules upheavals. 

However, in some cases, it would require such an overhaul of a system that it isn’t worth it. Most people would look at the rules for 5e’s races and pale at the thought of changing it completely. Do you get rid of stats completely? Do you select whatever stats you want by yourself? Perhaps you instead get certain bonuses when you select your class, rather than your race? These are all possibilities, and I have played games that utilized some of these options. Aside from the strength of reducing the amount of racism in 5e, it also increases the amount of choice a player has when creating their character. It isn’t unheard of to have a dwarf that uses Dexterity and Charisma as it’s primary abilities, but it is poorly optimized in comparison to the options of Half-Elf or Tiefling, and though it takes a bit more work than just handing a player the PHB, I believe it is worth it in the end. There’s no shame in admitting defeat, though. It’s not every day that I feel like fixing another person’s game, and I design games. And I do it for fun. It is the talent I am blessed with, and my lifelong burden. I understand not wanting to put in the effort. However, my suggestion isn’t that you walk away from TTRPG forever, scorned by the problems in 5e, never to roll a die again. Instead, it might be worth your time looking into other systems of play. Whenever I recommend a system to someone who has only played 5e and is looking for a similar aesthetic, I always turn them toward my personal favorite, Dungeon World (abbreviated as DW). DW is, in many ways, the game that I thought I was playing when I first started playing 5e. Looking through the PHB, it seems very comprehensive to incoming players. But to go back to the example of Skyrim, there’s a suggestion when you start it for the first time that you are about to enter a world of endless possibility, only to be shoehorned into a game that directly prioritizes combat. Dungeon World, while it has far less comprehensive rules for combat, one of its biggest strengths is that it has far fewer rules in general. That isn’t to say that it’s harder to follow. Instead of having intense, complicated rules for combat, every moment in the game is subject to “moves” in which, when you say that your character is doing something, the GM - Game Master, in contrast to the Dungeon Master of 5e - can tell you that the outcome is uncertain, and that it might be difficult. When this happens, you roll two six-sided dice, and the game provides very comprehensive rules to help you resolve it. When you choose a race, you get one extra move and nothing else - an option easily alterable, if one finds it uncomfortable. Blades in the Dark, a similar fantasy system, resolves roles in a similar manner, once again, with a much lesser emphasis on violence, and a much stronger emphasis on magic heists. It’s races have no mechanical benefit, and can be completely ignored if so desired. 

Creating a system is difficult, I know. Playtesting aside, it’s a combination of finding something special that you want to create, deciding what the players will be looking for, and editing draft after draft. It’s also difficult, both logistically and emotionally, to kick someone out of a campaign. It’s my belief though that a line should be drawn when someone in the game insists on adding not only social, but biological inferiority to characters of certain races. It’s a privilege to have your work at someone else’s table, and it’s a privilege that can be revoked. Once again, playing 5e isn’t some ethical failing, or mortal offence. However, it is worth evaluating what changes can be made to 5e’s race system, and if it’s worth it to you to not switch to another system. If you have found any of this compelling, consider your other options. In addition to what I’ve already mentioned, there are designers out there who can bring you into space, cities filled with dark magic and/or under control by cosmic monsters, or honey conventions where there are a few bears trying to steal stuff. Next time you get the urge to roleplay, just consider what I’ve said here, and think about who you’re inviting to your table.

Bibliography

LaTorra, Sage, and Adam Koebel. Dungeon World. 1st ed., The Burning Wheel, 2012.

Harper, John. Blades in the Dark. Evil Hat Productions LLC., 2017.

Works Cited

Mearls, Mike, and Jeremy Crawford. Player's Handbook. 5th ed., Wizards of the Coast LLC, 2014.

Mearls, Mike, and Jeremy Crawford. Dungeon Master's Guide. 5th ed., Wizards of the Coast LLC, 2014.

“Phrenology.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/phrenology.

Bank, Andrew. “Of 'Native Skulls' and 'Noble Caucasians': Phrenology in Colonial South Africa.” Journal of Southern African Studies, vol. 22, no. 3, 1996, pp. 387–403. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2637310. Accessed 26 Mar. 2020.

[savnofilter]

Official Callout Post

-> LONG POST

TW: mentions of suicide, ephebophilia, grooming, pseudo racism (microaggression). toxic friendships, harassment towards minors, mental health, fandom discourse.

*DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT BECAUSE OF MY AGE OR SOCIAL MEDIA. THIS IS BECAUSE TOXICITY/TREATMENT. This post is not just minors. This is for the people from different ages 16-22+ who feel like they did not have a voice by fellow BNHA writers.*

To anyone saying that I’m lying because I don’t have every single piece of evidence, please know that it is virtually impossible for me to have every evidence. Mixed with people being terrified and people simply not collecting screenshots it is not possible for me to have everything. Unless any of us had planned to talk about this from the get go when each, there is no way that we can have everything. I have everything that I could use to prove myself.

Important posts: answering asks to the callout, our official last statement.

Important docs: age & mental health timeline & hate messages.

Key:

Lady-Bakuhoe/Kingkatsuki = LBH/Jo

Katsukisprincess/Tamakisprincess/Ttamaki = KP/Sky

Burnedbyshoto = BBS/Lyssa

Tomurasprincess = TMP

Lemonlordleah/(-Shinzawa-Kitten) = LL

Jojosmilktea/Dimplesum = Jojo

Redbeanteax

League-of-thots

Bratwritings/Phasmwrites/Arcanumbras/Yeagerbombs

Important Topics:

Clearing statements

Addressing my callouts 

Alienated mental health

Fic stealing

BNHarem server regulation

Clearing Up and Corrections From Last Statements:

Updates

Grooming Section (Updated) - part 1. (8/1/20)

Grammar fix-up - all parts. (1/9/21)

Racist Undertones Section (Updated) - part 1. (1/15/20)

Mental Health (Updated) - part 3 (3/10/21)

People Who Aren’t Involved - part 1. (3/10/21)

My Age & Ladybakuhoe - part 1. (3/10/21)

Moved to google docs -> all parts. (6/20/21)

Added A&MH & HM - part 1 & addressing things. (4/17/22)

I have decided to update this because I have been receiving vile hate that I 100% believe who is behind it. Additionally, I have fixed up grammatical issues and context for places that need it. This update was only made in hopes that said writers would stop harassing my friends and I as they should've a year ago.

DO NOT SEND ANY WRITER INCLUDED IN THESE POSTS. DO NOT HARASS OR MAKE THEM VICTIMS. UNFOLLOW, BLOCK AND AVOID. I do not condone this being used in bullying ONLY in the hopes of informing.

My Age & Lady-Bakuhoe

My oldest documentation of me saying my age was on my blog in January 1st, 2019 // Official document concerning my age and mental health.

When I first came across LBH’s blog, it was through a reblog and nowhere on the post did it say 18+ or her blog. She also claimed to be 19 for a few months.

*Screenshots of the reblog.

*Screenshot of her blog at the most times of our interaction.

- sorry that the pictures are blurry.

That phone call I had with the person is factually incorrect. MCI is older than me by 5 months, and you all aren’t very bright for even believing that.

*Screenshot of me admitting I’m the youngest in the server.

You were also in my server when we revealed that both MCI and I are 15 year-olds (her birthday is in March, she is 16 now, making her never 14 when you guys interacted LMAO [Small note from MCI: My dumbass wasn’t even into BNHA enough to write fanfiction at 14, I was still trying to adjust to freshman year and I was way more active in writing on Wattpad at the time (the roots for anyone who didn’t start on fanfiction.net like you older people with kids]). The conversation happened in November, you left December.

*Screenshoshots of MCI and I talking openly about our ages again.

The reason Anon and I were on the phone was due to us discussing the callout post that DBN had made on me, and we talked about how DBN had lied saying that there was a “hate group chat” against me, when there was not. Then I brought up that she brought up in the post that I am a minor, and how I was worried about people sharing my personal information since Dee was the one who told DBN I am a minor.

I specifically remember the conversation going like this:

Me- “Yeah, I once said I was 18 because I was afraid of M**** not talking to me. I lied about my age once, but it felt wrong after that so I stopped after that one time.”

Anon- “Wait – I thought you were 17?”

Me- “No, I’ve never said I was 17. I turned 15 back in August, and have dropped hints here and there I am a teenager but I have not said I was close to that age (18) except that one instance in the server.”

I remember this conversation very clearly because she was the only person who I admitted that too (meaning everyone knew I was underage and never seen me lie), and after we finished our phone call, something told me sharing that information was going to bite me in the ass later.

This phone call happened on November 30th, 2019.

After months of us not talking, why are you talking about me, my personal business, and me in general? How did I pop up into your conversation? I would like to see the whole conversation, since it is clear that there was more to the conversation than my age.

*Screenshot that you first started reading/writing lemons (smut) that you were around (13-14) my age.

So how does this make me different from you?

I even talked about my school days, sharing my school time from the hours of 7:35~2:20 when LBH was still in my server (and active), and even in DMs when I mentioned my school hours once again.

*Screenshot of me mentioning my school hours in DMs.

*Screenshot of me talking about school hours in my discord.

*Screenshot of her a few chats down. oh and the person encouraging her is a minor btw.

You initiated most of our inappropriate conversations and you never once asked my age. You never asked if it was okay to talk to me like that, and you had no qualms about making inappropriate jokes towards me.

The person who relayed my personal information to LBH is also a minor, and Anon even told me in the phone call that LBH knows that she is a minor but that it was okay because, “Y'know, I’m 16. Jo knows that too. We don’t ever get too explicit, but she let’s some stuff slide since I’m turning 17 soon.”

LBH has knowingly and interacted with four minors I know for a fact that she knew were underage since 2/4 used to be in my server (meaning two of them still are), and have always been open about their age. All four of them interacted with LBH when they were 16, and are now all 17-18.

You also read my (very messy) posts back in November which contained the information that I am a minor.

*Screenshot of her saying she read the posts I made.

Gentle reminder, she was not 18+ until November 2019.

I would also like the receipts where I lied to YOU about my age and where I said I was 18. Stop abusing the fact that I’m underage to cover up what you have done.

BNHarem & Individual Writers Stealing

This section was moved from this part of the callout. Lyssa has only been the one that has been caught about stealing so far / have enough evidence.

We originally were going to leave this section out because the two writers in this situation (Kazooli and Kovori who had their works stolen) felt the other issues within the BNHarem was more important. Not really sure how to get started with this either, but since it’s been brought up that BBS has a history of stealing fics already, people thought it needed to be brought up again.

*Screenshot of Lyssa admitting to stealing Jo’s fic and then Jo proceeds to complain about how someone stole her fics LOL.

The whole conversation is a mess but I digress. The real issue is that you’re enabling stealing as long as you’re a writer/friend when it shouldn’t be allowed at all. You’re grown enough to know it’s not okay. How can people in college and/or in their twenties take this lightly? You get lawsuits for stealing people’s work.

There honestly is no excuse, and the fact people think writers recycle fics is probably one of the most insulting things I have read on this site. Writers aren’t supposed to fucking “recycle” or steal fics. You do it with creative drive, not because you want notes. You have been blamed for it four times and we only have clear evidence of two because the other instances the writers choose not to speak up about it publicly.

The fact that in BNHarem server someone goes “someone stole my fics” and everyone responds appropriately, but once BBS is caught stealing fic “it’s okay we all make mistakes” Your fingers don’t slip and copy fics or accidentally steal bits and pieces. There’s no excuse for it especially since this has happened already.

I understand the pressure of getting a piece or a work out, but where do you think plagiarism is a good idea? You’re in college but the concept of stealing someone’s work didn’t rattle your bones?

You people literally go on with hunts over people who steal your fics, but it’s okay once another writer in the community does it? Set an example for other people.

Repeating the same behavior is not a mistake and it’s not okay. What angers writers is that now that you guys are accepting this idea with open arms that, “oh no, as long you’re friends it’s okay!!” It’s not. The hive mind of just accepting everything that your favorite idols are doing without a second thought is toxic.

Ttamaki Apology + Addressing Server + Aging Up

Here is the apology that has been issued from the necrophilia post back on her old account. Having a written down tagging system on a blog is key, but using the universal tags is very important as well. I think it was a good idea that you have stopped writing heavy topics since it shows that you understand and are willing to change.

Shiggi-Lee had asked for staff audit logs to show there were not any mass deletions. Publicly you offered 90 days of logs, then in DMs you declined. We asked for audit logs because of the claims of bulk deletions of NSFW conversations in the SFW channels.

I am saying this in the beginning post so it sticks with you to the end: there is not a problem with aging up, and no we never called Lady-Bakuhoe a pedophile for writing minors. Please listen to our words as advice when you do your next work.

Ikinabi Apology for BNHarem Comment

It’s been brought up that Red has said some insensitive things while being in BNHarem (the comment is a little further down). Red has came to my DMs about it and has apologized.

Before we move on, I have also been sent a screenshot where remorse has been shown for making past statements and I do believe she can grow.

I’m saying universally, I do not condone that shit and anyone who believes like that, George Floyd’s situation should be a universal hurt for everyone. If you say insensitive shit on purpose and less on ignorance, you can go fuck yourself. If you actually show remorse and are willing to change, that at least is a better to a better mindset.

I believe Red is growing from this experience, and I really hope she does. What she said was not okay to just shrug it off and no it’s not something you have to forgive either. Although I am putting faith to see her change, Red needs to make sure that there is change happening. I’m not saying this is definite, but I will hold this accountable. In order to help someone grow, you need to promote change.

I’ll leave this quote for you guys to get a better understanding of what I mean: “Sure, I believe you’re not racist, but that does not mean what actions you did was not racist. People are so focused on the idea of being racist that the act of doing something racist is blown out the waters. To the point where calling out for doing something racist they go straight into defending themselves of not being a racist. Don’t defend, don’t excuse, just acknowledge. Apologize, understand and help other people learn.”

Being Blocked by Lady-Bakuhoe + "Jealousy"

The only reason I thought I was blocked from LBH was from the falling out we had in January was because of the fake drama she started between us after I fixed up everything between us. Which is why I thought it was confusing that she randomly blocked me months later. She did not let me know why she blocked me, and if I had known it was my age, I would’ve completely understood. I had even asked KP in dms if she knew why, and was informed that she hadn't known either.

It has also been brought up that I'm simply jealous of Jo. No, I'm not. 

Where the fuck does this connotation come from that I'm starving for followers and notes? If I was so follower hungry, why would I take so many mental breaks? I've even stated that I'm trying to get better in other areas other than just writing NSFW. I've stated that I picked up fanfiction so I could practice on my actual writing. I literally say shit like "no-no square" or "jerk his chicken" in my works. I’m only taking black/poc and lgbtq+ requests at the moment, and write for unpopular characters. 

Had she pointed her fingers at someone who has more followers than her and was eighteen you guys would’ve thought she was being stupid. It's such a big slap in the face when I see her and other people who I use to support, talk as if that's who I truly am when I'm not. When we're friends, I'm your #1 fan. Even if I just found you, I support the fuck out of your work. I have spent nights where I reblog people's works because I know how interactive my followers can be at certain periods of time. Honestly what hurts the most was that I was the one who warned her about people using writers. Really sad that instead of taking responsibility and acknowledging what you have done was wrong, you took the opportunity to just make me look bad instead. 

Stealing from BLM Donation pool.

A few people have shared their concerns of KP originally deleting her blog because she and other's stole the money. Once again, we have been informed of the real situation as to why she diet-deactivated. The receipt may also be found on KP’s tumblr.

*Screenshots are of the message posted in the server and receipt.

Racist Undertones 

People can have their own political opinion, but it is very inappropriate that while you’re raising money for a cause meant to uplift the black community and have a voice, you guys let ALM (All Lives Matter) conversations happen.

People have asked you guys to pin other black fundraisers/campaigns that you guys ignored. I don't even need proof for this, just go through your pins and see how it's not there. If you try and pin it now, you can also see the audit log in which it was pinned.

You let someone say that Hawks’ voice doesn't sound, "black"? If you can't correct that or teach your members to not say disrespectful things about police brutality victims, or even respect the black people that are in their lives, then you can't preach about Black Lives Matter. 

Being toxic apparently isn’t enough for them. There’s either a tap-dancing coon in my inbox or racist mayo monkeys still trying to grovel for my attention. Either way these asks don’t even make me mad, it just shows that they suck as people. This will be updated every time I get racist anons. They decided to send these after the attack at the U.S Capitol on January 6th, 2021.

*Hawks comment.

*Racist asks that they have sent even yesterday (Jan. 6th).

People Who Are Not Involved

I do not appreciate the fact that people who have nothing to do with the stuff going on, have not had their names blocked. There are names that you should have NOT included, and you PURPOSELY edited my members in. There's a whole chunk where I'm not even present and it's just my server members. Why?

We understand that the jokes being made look tasteless to other people who don't know the context, and no we have never sent or considered sending hate. What you saw in those screenshots were just a bunch of dumb teens sticking up for a friend who was talking about being hurt by her friends.

In regards to UWU, everyone knows how she can easily misread a room. I know for a fact that she has never and will never act upon sending hate to someone. What UWU has said wasn't me even if she did have my face as her pfp. I have never had myself as my pfp for blog related things. 

The other thing I would also like to address is the meme that Ginger had used in the conversation.

*This is the meme in reference to when Ginger made the joke:

*Ginger using the meme in other places.

Simply because an ex-friend saw LBH call Ginger out, they decided to expose the private business that Ginger entrusted said ex-friend with.

Ginger understands that it was a poor joke, and even stated in the beginning of the conversation that they didn’t even know you. Your poor choice to cover up Ginger’s name gave their ex-friend a bright idea to go on an exposing rampage, and tell people her old drama from Ginger's past. This caused the old disputes to be rehashed despite several efforts from them to grow from said discourse. I have seen genuine improvement in their behavior, and have shown to me in private DMs remorse on making such jokes without knowing the full situation. This has prompted Ginger to delete all their socials in fear of being doxxed.

Ever notice how she did not include the beginning part of the conversation? The basis of the conversation started when I opened up about DBN and Dee making a callout post about me, then it derailed to me talking about how I felt mistreated overall. You pulled the chats that only mentioned you so that everyone would look bad. 

If you’re going to take out-of-context screenshots, at least include the parts where I am doing more than saying, "LMAO" and reacting with emotes, not exposing my members who literally did not know what was going on. 

It's clear that all of the posts made about me was to only hurt my image and not create a change in my "behavior". 

And for the dumb-cow who wants to openly defend her friends weird ass behavior, here is the proper proof that the rude comments in the poorly edited conversation she included was NOT ME.

If you're going to make a callout post about Savnofilter, leave it at Savnofilter.

Grooming Claims

When the situation was brought to our attention, minors and adults spoke up about how they felt like they were manipulated and violated.

From what we can show and confirm is that there is probably one instance where it was, but no real child pornography was distributed.

The grooming that I, Sav, has personally experienced and with what my co-writers and I saw was her and her friends coaxing people to trust her then use them for tasks/breaking down someone’s health to make them dependent on her.

“Grooming is the predatory act of maneuvering another individual into a position that makes them more isolated, dependent, likely to trust, and more vulnerable to abusive behavior.” (1, 2)

The claims were mostly sexual assault (making sexual comments and etc.) and unprompted NSFW conversations (see age doc for more.)

“Joining Her Server”

I have never joined their server, never thought of it, and never will obviously.

Lady-Bakuhoe, Burnedbyshouto, and Ttamaki’s server is 16+, ⅔ of their blogs are 18+. Lady-Bakuhoe has said it herself that her server isn't 18+.

*Earliest screenshot of her saying her server is not 18+.

*Updated version of their admission to their server.

I also don't understand the idea where my friends and I joined their server? Like there is absolutely no proof that any of us did that lmao. 

For the people who are preaching that minors shouldn't be in your, "adult space", why is it 16+? Please sit down and read the room, thanks. 

Age Incident 

Incident because it only happened once.

To explain the instance that had happened on my server, a writer (not LBH) had asked how old everyone was. In response to the question, I had said 18 in fear that they did not want to be my friend anymore. I had later than deleted my comment, but I never brought it to said person's attention because I had realized that I already fucked up. I have mentioned my actual once in a private group chat, and I had thought that was the original reason why she had departed from my server.

Last year is when I had finally accepted myself as being bisexual and admittedly being the impulsive person I am, I accepted any type of female interaction just from that excitement alone. I was not aware that I would be conversing with people in their 20's, with the mindset that I had never met an adult who writes fanfiction. That one time I lied I used it as a defense mechanism which I still feel stupid about to this day. I just wanted to have friends who wrote as well and wanted to feel accepted without my age hindering that or hating me because of it. I didn't think that there would be anything illegal, and I never intended to be sneaky or anything like that.

Past that, 18+ is a content rating, had I known there were actual adults behind the stories I wouldn't have interacted like I did before. It was not until I realized until me being a few months in on Tumblr and interacting with other blogs that underage people in general were hated, and naturally it scared me. The realization that I unknowingly put myself in that situation made me defensive, hence lying ONCE about my age.

This post discusses not only me, but people who have felt wronged. Had Lady-Bakuhoe and friends had been open to listening when these instances happened, it would have not taken this turn. The behaviors discussed in this post were acts that were done over, and over again, not just a one time occurrence.

I’m not sure how to start this off, as many of you have seen I am piss poor shit at articulating for myself, but I will try to keep this as cohesive as possible. Before I start, don’t send me no stupid shit talking about “drop it already” when every writer and their mamas have been talking about it for MONTHS and even bring it up in every situation they can for sympathy points. I’m doing this to finally let go because when I did it the first time it wasn’t good enough for people. Many people have tried to tell me how I have felt or that they “know” me or have “seen this all before'”. No. The reason why I chose to speak in the first place was because I personally felt like I had been gaslighted/slighted by writer Lady-Bakuhoe on here. Not because of jealousy, not because I wanted attention, and not because I was mentally ill. What I felt from the months of even such as early September to late January was sincere and genuine even if I was going through stuff in my life.

The issue at hand has never been about:

Being called a predator for aging up in fics.

Me being upset over a block "about my age" or being jealous over notes/friendship.

I'm still developing as a person and that's why I can confidently say I'm sorry to anyone who has been turned off by my past behaviors. I formally apologize to the person I had lied to in regards to the age incident, and I apologize to any of my adults friends/acquaintances who genuinely thought I was 18. Who I was mentally from the end of August-January was a person I would never be today.

Furthermore, my co-writers ( @mci-writing​ & @shiggi-trash​ ) can swear on our behalf that the people who chose not to share their experiences are not lies. At first when the discussion had first started on MCI's blog, it was messy but we have trimmed and made this post to make it as coherent as we could. Please do not determine whether you support me or these writers simply because they make your favorite content. Choose based on what you read. 

Continuation here: ▸main post◂, one, two, three, four, five. 

[crystalcityrpg]

❝ Rest in fucking peace to all my issues, I’d be lying if I had to say I miss you❞

ALL ABOUT KAINOA

NAME: Kainoa Kupa’a GENDER/PRONOUNS:  Cis Female, she/her DATE OF BIRTH:  Jan 3rd 1999 BIRTH PLACE: Lanai, Hawaii CURRENT RESIDENCE: Willow Creek OCCUPATION: student, gopher at Extra Mile, barista, odd jobs wherever she can find them. FACE CLAIM:  Auli’i Cravhalo

BIOGRAPHY

TW: Abuse, Drug Use, Homophobia, Mental Illness, Racism, Death, Miscarriage

Kainoa grew up on the Island of Lanai in Hawaii, it’s a smaller island, with little tourism being mostly an agricultural island. The early years of her life were idyllic, in the small tight knit community she was allowed a lot of freedom. She was free to roam the island with her friends, coming home as the sun sets and living a more traditional and tranquil island life. Her father was often away with work, on large shipping boats or working other docks. But he always came home with a shower of gifts for his wife and daughter. Kainoa thought life was perfect, blind to her parents marital problems and her mothers tears when her father was away. However everything went downhill when her mother got pregnant when Kainoa was six years old. The pregnancy was hard from the start, and though Kainoa didn’t fully understand what was happening she tried to help wherever she could. Tragedy struck when her mother, Sarah, went into preterm labor. Kainoa remembers her family going into the hospital, expecting to get the little brother her father was so excited for. And instead only her father returned, a broken man.

Lakona changed the day his wife and unborn son died. Where before he had always showered Kainoa with gifts and love, now he was full of grief and rage. He drank the days away, neglecting all fatherly duties, and when the numbness of the grief wore off he began to blame Kainoa for not being the son he had always wanted. Kainoa kept a brave face, and kept a smile glued to her face, hoping that if she was brave and strong enough she could get her father back. But his drinking only got worse, and soon he was waking up and heading to work with a bottle in his hand. Lanai, being the small community that it was, quickly became a fishbowl and Lakona appreciated none of the help or support that was offered. Things came to a head when Kainoa showed up to school with a handprint shaped bruise wrapped around her small arm. Three weeks later they left the islands and moved to L.A. where Lakona found work as a longshoreman, or at least that’s what Kainoa remembers. But when he didn’t pick her up from daycare she knew her father was gone.

Kainoa had little luck in the foster care system. Families would bring her into their home, proud to show off the beautiful little brown child they were so generously caring for. However, after months of silence as Kainoa refused to warm up to her white saviors, she would promptly be returned to the system. She ended up in an overcrowded christian group home for troubled girls, where she dealt with rampant racism and homophobia. Every day she fought to keep a smile on her face and not let anyone see that she was crumbling inside. The only saving grace was her participation in theatre. While she was quiet and withdrawn at home and in her studies she flourished in the arts. She had what one overzealous theatre teacher called “true artists anguish” which she really didn’t know how to take. But she wasn’t above exploiting his white guilt to get leading roles, and become the star pupil of the theatre program. However when she was cast in Pippin the leaders of the Christian home reacted in outrage at the “fornication and filth” the musical was composed of. And when they forbade her from being in the show it was Kainoa’s last straw. She packed up her meager belongings and left.

Her highschool had an extremely well funded auto shop, and she was able to buy an old Ford Country Squire from the program. It wasn’t anywhere near fashionable, and she spent nearly as much time as she did in the theatre as she did in the auto shop, but she loved the vintage wood paneling and cherry red interior. The car became her baby, she named him Gerald and joked that he took care of her more than she took care of him. It became a little joke, Gerald was an older grandpa who had taken her in. He was a bit codgy, was slow on the uptake but would take her wherever she needed. When she was questioned about who was taking care of her, where she was staying, she would answer Gerald and leave it at that. Only her auto shop teacher caught on, but it became an unspoken agreement. He had the habit of finding exactly what part Gerald needed whenever he broke down, and began having barbecues outdoors and holiday parties. All so that when Kainoa was invited over to his house for a holiday meal it did not single her out, or seem to be something he did out of pity.  Mr. Dee became a pseudo grandfather for Kainoa then, secretly looking out for her and doing his best to protect her while still respecting her privacy and autonomy.

Her senior year Kainoa started winning awards, and her high school theatre department was highlighted in a documentary about inner city arts programs and how they changed students’ lives. Using this traction Kainoa was able to get into any theatre program she wanted, and when one in New York offered her a full ride she took it. She packed up Gerald, thanked Mr. Dee for everything, and her theatre teacher for his help with auditions, even though she knew he had only highlighted her because it boosted his diversity platform and made him look inclusive, and she left.

She decided to take the scenic route, spending a week driving across the country and seeing the sights. She hit as many national parks as she could on the way there. As she was coasting into Crystal City Gerald’s engine started smoking, and within a few blocks she came to a shuddering halt. Luckily she was just a block away from a mechanics shop, entre Gerald’s savior: Bren Clery. Bren agreed to let Kainoa park Gerald in the lot, and help Kainoa fix him up again, as long as Kainoa worked to pay off the expenses. Kainoa had her first job, and was settling in nicely.

Kainoa was able to find a cheap apartment for her first year or so of school, but as she got more involved in theatre productions there became less time for her to work, which meant less money. And soon enough she had to start making hard choices, bills were piling up and the money just wasn’t coming in. So Kainoa went back to where she was comfortable, to living out of Gerald. She spent more time sneaking in and out of the college though. Centralized heating and all that, plus the couches were a bit more comfortable then Gerald’s the cold vinyl and frosty windows.

Now Kainoa is a senior, hoping to land a role on Broadway, or even get into the chorus. Anything on the big stage really. She’s still couch surfing around campus, and in Gerald on warmer nights. She’s been an extra in a few things but the sad fact is that it doesn’t matter how many awards she won in high school, once you get to the real world everything is a lot different. Kainoa also struggles with addiction, specifically alcoholism. Whiskey may be an easy way to warm up, but bad memories of her father are always just around the corner. She prefers to smoke to calm down, and tries to drink in moderation.

[xhaotixaesthetica]

The Reckoning Star System

You have now entered: The Reckoning Star System.

This star system is a highly unstable one, very unsuitable for life. Most planets and galaxies regularly go through natural and man-made disasters that leave their residents in an impending apocalypse of some kind. Most people in this star system are the descendants of travelers who were stranging in the Reckoning long ago and could never find an escape.

*Genetic mutations are content that isn’t canon-compliant to CS21 lore, such as an imagine/headcanon where Chan is a siren even though in established CS21 lore, he’s a werewolf.

Return to the Starlink Intergalactic Navigator. 

Stray Kids

Stray Kids: A Literary Experience

An ongoing series inspired by Peter Pan and Hellevator by Stray Kids

TW: polyamory, coming of age, growing up, racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexual abuse, child abuse, pseudo-post apocalyptic au, pseudo dystopia, Stray Kids and 3 OCs

After The Event, twelve lost kids end up banding together for survival, all united by their unanimous trust in Christopher Bang and the irreparable harm of childhood and growing up. In each other, they learn to trust and heal and survive the new world they’ve been thrust into.

The Event

Woojin: the Afterthought

Chris: the Cursed, Lost, & Lonely Leader

Angelique: the Girl Who Should’ve Never Been Born

Minho: the Extinguished Dancing Flame

Changbin: the Silent Screamer

Jasmine: the Clueless, Helpless Confidante

Jisung: The Serial Hair Colorist

Hyunjin: the Beautiful, Faceless Man

Nailah: the Girl That Can Never Be

Felix: the Little Big Man

Seungmin: the Guiltless Candor

Jeongin: the Guilty Dependee

01/01/2019; 10:49 p.m.

01/02/2019; 1:13 a.m.

Genetic Mutation

None yet!

Requests are currently open, but view guidelines and pending requests first.

[peechi]

I know no one cares but I'm going to address my two main issues with the book so far

1. The writing style, idk sometimes it works but other times it's annoying, it's different and it makes me feel like I'm the reader is always at a distance. But I suppose part of the point of the book is that it's people reflecting on memories that happened decades prior so I think this makes sense that it does feel so distant.

2. I'm not used to reading like Adult Fiction, like I've mostly stuck to ya bc that's what I'm used to and where I'm comfortable, and along with this to some extent comes tropes I'm not used to

3. So far the book like is one of those pseudo old europe political drama book types. So of course its adopted like the classik secksism, racism (I'm like three chapters in and as far as I am currently aware everyone has been white) and to and extent homophobia (although there seems to be alot of reference to same sex relationships, not once has anything seemed entirely positive about it but does come across as tho it's a common occurrence in this world) meanwhile this author. Who is one of my dads favs. Idk my dad tries to interest me with his tweets bc apparently this author is like super liberal and just complains about trump on tw all day. So based on this knowledge and what I've read so far I'm concluding that. The author is trying to be INCLUSIVE like wowww look at this rich noble woman who doesnt want to be like a wife or a religious figure but wants to do other stuff. And let me talk about gay people existing ig. But it's like you the author arent doing much if ur still incorporating this old world structure, like oh this is my fantasy world where everyone is white and sexism is rampant, like I know that's not the best way to word it and it's a bit more complex then that bc hes like idk trying to critique it with his characters and how they work in the world. But Idk where it is but where is that post that's like ' why do people (idk if it says cis het white men, or just when a person not apart of x group in question) not incorporate minorities and women into their fantasy series and when they do it's all about oppression. Like unless u are a minority or a woman that is using it to battle ur own experiences with oppression it isnt ur place to.' Bc at the end of the day it's a fantasy world where anything can happen and the author gets to chose, so why are u choosing it to be like this ?

[bigskydreaming]

Like, the thing about TW fandom that always sticks out for me isn’t the fandom racism, which frankly, every major fandom has. No, the phenomenon unique to the TW fandom, at least in my experience, is how fucking insidious it was at infecting a singular, very specific interpretation of the show into every discussion of it....to the extent that people who’ve never watched the show have a COMPLETELY different perception of who and what its about.

The fact that you had people coming in three, four seasons into the show with the belief (based on everything they’d ever been told about it) that this was a show about an adorable nerdy white sidekick character and his pseudo-relationship with a gruff, older brood-dude....that was what was different about this show/fandom. There was always going to be fandom racism revolving around Scott’s character, but the sheer quantity of it and CERTAINTY that all negativity towards him is earned and warranted....that IMO is a direct result of how thoroughly people spread the message that this was the S/tiles and D/erek show. 

Because it literally primed people to pick it up expecting that, and then view Scott as the interloper, the one in the wrong for taking up space in a role that wasn’t supposed to be his, the obvious scapegoat for every new viewer’s resentment that Teen Wolf apparently was not the show they were promised about the two basically-gay-boys from all the cute gifsets.

Like, I lost count of the number of people I talked to who would get UPSET when people tried to correct them that Scott was actually the main character of the show and it wasn’t MTV being super progressive by making a werewolf show about these two white dudes who were practically a couple except network censorship ugh.....and then when pressed on it, these people would admit that they’ve actually never even watched the show and their passionate shutdown of people trying to talk about how actually its one of the first genre shows with a Latino hero instead....was based totally on hearsay.

So yeah....the fandom racism? Nothing new there. But the way an initially small set of fans hijacked an entire fandom experience and redefined the way everyone outside of fandom viewed the show and its characters? THAT is the particular strain of Ugh this fandom has a lock on.