thisisanelephantproblem

[thisisanelephantproblem]

a friendly psa to mostly white folk but also everyone

If you aren't Indian, I don't want to hear you say shit about the caste system. Westerners use it as a way to demonize India and shoot down basically any conversation about civil rights (in India or in western nations).

I saw a conversation on Tumblr where someone suggested Hinduism is a feminist religion. So obviously someone else replied with a paragraph on why casteism is bad. I saw someone try to address Indians being racist to others but obviously she had to bring up casteism to justify her point.

I'm not saying sexism and racism aren't problems that Indians need to fix, trust me I know. But when we talk about these things in relation to America or England, they're a 'systemic problem' or and 'ideology' that can be removed or unlearned. By relating every social problem has to casteism, its implying that its a cultural issue, bone-deep, indistinguishable from Indian identity. It implies that we can't change in any way than adopting the enlightened methods of western civilisation.

But here's the truth, if you are dirt fucking poor, civil rights take a backseat. India has been dirt fucking poor for the last 4 centuries. It's going to take us a minute. You bringing it up doesn't help anyone, it doesn't change anyone's mind.

Also like most of you guys don't have your facts straight. You keep making up random shit as is the system isn't bad enough already.

We know it's bad. We know it's always been bad. We have 5000 year old texts that say that it is bad. We're working on it.

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I do not know enough about Anarky for this to be an informed impulse but I’ve always wondered how Red Hood and Anarky would get along. Like I know they were in a comic together for the Bat-Cat wedding thing but they really didn’t talk and it also didn’t seem like Anarky had a chance to be himself. How much do their respective anti-hero perspectives overlap? Would they like each other? They’re similar in age, no? If anyone has a guess I’m genuinely curious to know.

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It is so fucking unfair that dazey and the scouts only made one album.

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hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

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"doesn't this charater under insane stress going through extremely traumatic events realize how inconvenient their irrational emotional reactions are to the people around them?" well, see, you're not gonna believe this, but the thing is,

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I feel like being left handed is a ginger activity.

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DC Therapists: Psychiatrists, Psychologists and Counsellors

Say you want to write about a DC superhero seeking psychological treatment or seeing a counsellor. I know, it often feels overwhelming trying to pick someone to use; it can feel like every psychologist or psychiatrist is either seen treating villains in Arkham Asylum and getting promptly killed on page, or is an outright villain. But not all of them fit into those two categories! There are more than a few characters across DC who have provided psychological treatment for various superheroes and can be trusted to keep secret identities; both those who know about various identities and those who would keep them as privileged information if approached by someone who wanted treatment. 

This is the please stop using Dinah Lance as a psychologist in stories about comics canon, she is a florist, martial artist and secret agent folks post.

Heroes who also have psychological qualifications:

Lilith Clay [Omen] and Kara Zor-L [Power Girl] (Action Comics #1051, Power Girl 2023): psychiatrist and telepathic therapist

Kent V. Nelson [Doctor Fate] (Countdown to Mystery 2007): psychiatrist

Khalid Nassour [Doctor Fate] (Superman 2018 #23-25): EMT and counsellor

People who have specifically treated superheroes or know superhero identities:

Dr Claire Foster (Superman 2002, Titans 2008): either psychiatrist or psychologist

Dr Owen Slade (Flash 1987 #9-11): psychiatrist

Dr Bridget Clancy (Nightwing 1999): doctor, occasional psychiatrist

Dr Parker (The New Titans #57 1988): therapist

Dr Marion Winston (Amethyst Princess of Gemworld 1983 and 1985): child psychologist

Dr Leslie Thompkins (Batman, generally): general practitioner/primary care physician, occasional social worker

Dr Alan Huss (Batwoman 2011): therapist

Dr Simon LaGrieve (Suicide Squad 1987): psychiatrist

Dr Marnie Herrs (Suicide Squad 1987): psychotherapist

Dr Mac McCoy (Suicide Squad 1987): psychiatrist or psychologist - refers to himself as a head-shrinker

Dr Edmond Cathcart (Brave and the Bold 1955): psychiatrist

People slightly outside the scope of the project who are still worth mentioning:

Dr Ryk’rr (Legionnaires 1993 & Legion of Super-Heroes 1989): a psychologist for the Legion of Super-Heroes. Slightly beyond the scope of this project, given she’s based in the 31st century, but if you’re writing stories set in the 31st century and want a therapist, she’s available!

Dr Harleen Quinzel (Harley Quinn, Batman generally): psychiatrist. I don’t think Harley reasonably fits into the categories I want, as she’s definitely disbarred as a psychiatrist and all over the shop depending on period, but Harley also does love to give unsolicited counselling advice.

If you want to add more names in I am delighted to add them.

Currently in the ��this is going to take more research” pile are the following:-

Brian Bryan (Azrael 1995): It seems that Brian twonames here is another failed therapist who ended up on the street, then gets himself back together over the course of the Azbats run, counselling JPV. Not yet added as I suspect I need to read a bunch of the run to get enough relevant context.

Rene Carpenter (Vigilante 2005): I need to track down a version of this miniseries, and see whether she’s a beneficial character or not. Given this is Vigilante, that’s not a given.

Dr Derwood Denton (Ambush Bug): He treated Ambush Bug and then became a TV doctor and from summaries seems to occupy a similar niche to Dr Phil at best, so I suspect he falls outside the scope of what I want.

 Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud (Kid Eternity 1993): this is some Vertigo level nonsense involving dead spirits of real psychiatrists and I am going to need to read around it for more context.

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I got on a tram and grabbed a pole to hold on and now some dickhead is leaning his whole body against the pole, crushing my hand. What the fuck is wrong with this person?

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I see so much of "is post-crisis Robin Jason an innocent little sweetie-pie or a mean aggro delinquent" and after reading through all of his batman and detective comic issues post-crisis I think i can safely say he's... an introverted and distrustful, but altogether friendly teen boy who has convinced himself to the deepest level that he is an Adult Man, and also does not hold a particularly good view of adults.

The sweet little babypie characterization falls a little short (assuming we aren't being too silly with it, there's plenty of that in the comedy issues of tec) because it disregards the part where he's a jaded teenager who is constantly going off and trying to take care of his own problems like "his own man" and reacts negatively to any breach of trust or move to take care of him. But negative doesn't mean "violent and rageful." The delinquent angle is incorrect because not only is his disposition peppy, silly, and agreeable most of the time, but assuming the problem upsetting him isn't a predator or the guy who killed his dad (and three out of four canon instances it is a predator to be clear) he reacts to emotional turmoil with Bruce by bedrotting, sulking, communicating through notes, and overall being avoidant. The only times he lashes out are when Bruce is calling him out or after Bruce told him to his face that he chose to look for the Joker over looking for him, and that case of "lashing out" is just getting a little snarky.

More than anything his main personality trait (besides being silly, a robin staple) is kinda coming into this parentified as fuck. Not that it's Catherine's fault, but it really shaped his character, like one of the first things he says to Bruce (after he promised not to turn Jason in to the foster system) is that he kept her fed and warm as long as he could like he wasn't her ten year old child when he started. It's why he views himself on the same level as adults and why he gets all closed off at any insinuation that he needs to be taken care of, both of which heavily inform his dynamic with Bruce. He's constantly checking in on Bruce's wellbeing, like half of Batman: the Cult is just him taking care of Bruce while he recuperates from being brainwashed. (Side note, he's also constantly asking Bruce stuff like "what's your relationship like with this woman or this rogue or the concept of religion, how did that play out, how do you feel about it?" he is Very chatty like that.) The first thing he does when Sheila tells him her (revised to exclude medical malpractice) life story is hold HER and try to affirm her struggle. After a while he starts to act more childish with Bruce (although he doesn't really stop trying to brush off attempts to care for him) but as soon as Bruce admits he prioritized crimefighting over Jason and didn't show up to look after Jason like Jason assumed he came there for, Jason snaps back to acting very independent and rejecting any attempts to be looked after on any terms other than some kind of "equals" thing, which he isn't, as he's a 15 year old boy. Like. He's very sweet to his former neighbor, but also he refers to being a homeless child and the sole provider in his condemned building living situation as "getting by" to her.

He's definitely not. some bloodthirsty delinquent, at least to anyone who's not an uber-misogynistic predator, and he like demonstrably is a pretty sweet kid. It's just that when people say he's a sweet kid they kinda just jump to "untraumatized eight-year-old who grew up in a loving family and just got a new puppy from Santa" instead of "good hearted and curious teenager who has trust issues and is deeply uncomfortable with being taken care of, so kinda just compromises by pretending his dad is a Friend Doing him a Solid and acts like his kid only when he has plausible deniability so he can't get the rug pulled out from under him." Of course. He does kinda get the rug pulled out from under him despite all that. So there's that.

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it bothers me that you often don't really hear about people having a "favorite album" the way they might have a favorite movie or favorite video game

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You can enjoy Inej and enjoy Aryan’s performance as Grover Underwood in the Percy Jackson Tv show but neither is adequate rep for south Asian people. I would go so far as to say that having a desi coded woman be a circus performer, prostitute and an assassin is actually orientalist. Similarly desi actors playing the funny likeable side character is nothing new, especially since Grover is definitely less masculine than Percy and South Asian men have been emasculated in colonialist propaganda for centuries. Both of these characters are stereotypical, they aren’t rep, sorry.

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Also a reminder that Alpha’s trauma was repeatedly failing to save the people he cares about. So Wash’s trauma from Epsilon is seeing all his team mates dead (which he did as Recovery One) or personally getting his team killed (which he probably thinks he did with the freckles shake moment on chorus.)

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The top post ever of all time.