Sadly, no. I think he’s speaking sincerely to the subset of people who think that following the Constitution is for girls. There’s this weird masculinity subtext (or text) to Trump’s campaign, where he keeps positioning himself as the only candidate with “balls,” where listening to cooler heads or admitting you don’t have all the answers is symbolic castration. So Trump doesn’t have to be good or right to stay popular with the people who like him, he has to be ballsy.
This is leading him in increasingly bizarre and Hitlery directions as the race goes on.
Plus, obviously, separate from my weird gender analysis, he’s a giant racist.
when i was 12 i babysat this girl for a few years and she would come to me and show me her art, drag me by my wrists and point at the pieces she’d made during the week. and she’d be like “do the voice” and i’d put on a sports-announcer olympics-style voice and be like “such form! this level of coloring! why i haven’t seen such perfection in crayola in a long time. and what is this? why jeff, now this is a true risk… it seems she’s made … a monochrome pink canvas…. i haven’t seen this attempted since winter 1932… and i gotta say, jeff, it’s absolutely splendid” and she’d fall back giggling. at the end of every night she’d check with me: “did you really like it?” and i’d say yes and talk about something i noticed and tucked her in.
she was just accepted into 3 major art schools. she wrote me a letter. inside was a picture from when she was younger. monochrome pink.
“thank you,” it said, “to somebody who saw the best in me.”
Here’s what they don’t tell you about staring at a pigeon. You are never staring at a pigeon. What you are doing is staring in the direction of a pigeon. You haven’t even recognized the presence of the pigeon. Or, if you have, you are ignoring it, because you don’t have any reason to continue dwelling on the presence of the pigeon. & then the pigeon coos. You hear it. You think it is a lovely sound. You think it is a sound you love very much. You think it is a sound you hadn’t known you loved very much until you heard it, just now. But you are also thinking about other things. One of the other things you are thinking about is ghosts. You aren’t thinking about ghosts, exactly, but there isn’t a word you know that could specify what you are thinking about any further, so ghosts will have to suffice. Here’s what you are thinking about ghosts. Ghosts aren’t always dead. Ghosts aren’t always dying. Not all ghosts are dead, or dying, or even present. This has nothing to do with the pigeon you were staring at. The pigeon you were staring at has flown away. You don’t notice. You wish the pigeon would come back.
Season seven, which kicked off in early November, has focused much of its existential storytelling on Princess “Bonnibel” Bubblegum and her gal pal, Marceline the Vampire Queen, culminating in Adventure Time‘s first mini-series, Stakes. The eight-episode endeavor colored in some of Marceline’s past, answered lots of questions about her relationship with Bonnie, and promised her a richer future. It also explored the loneliness and listlessness both PB and Marcie have grappled with as they’ve moved from childhood into adulthood.
Few years back he through a fit that people were discussing transphobic things Laci whoever said and defended her transphobia, even using the word “tranny” in such.
he’s been a dick about other trans stuff, but that’s what sticks in my craw. we couldn’t actually discuss legit, hardcore transphobia because she was Johns friend so he mobilized his fan base attack force against the mean transgenders.
you’re gonna have to ask someone else about the racism, I dont remember it + I’m on mobile so hunting for it isn’t easy
Listeners, The Emissary is saying that the nature of unreality is that experience and reality are linked, but separate. What is experienced may not be real. What is real may never be experienced.
Well, so far this is just basic geometry, like we all learn in the third grade. Where is The Emissary going with this?
I had the rare opportunity to speak with reclusive artist-explorer Lily Zone, who is running a kickstarter to fund Crypt Underworlds, sequel to her world-famous Crypt Worlds blockbuster, widely renowned as the first videogame ever made. Let us imagine, for a moment, the future, not as it could be, but as it would be. Unlock this door with the key of imagination:
Porpentine: hi lily hows it going Lily: i’ve been up all night modeling corridors Porpentine: what color are the corridors? Lily: there are patches of grass lining some corridors, which are pastel green, but otherwise it is mostly gray foggy colors covered in runes Porpentine: incredible Porpentine: i see you know your corridors Porpentine: but enough of this softball, let’s ask the hard questions Porpentine: what will your game do for the vore community? Porpentine: perhaps a better way to phrase… Porpentine: can anyone get eaten in crypt worlds? Lily: there are many people in the world, and many will become burgers at one point or another. that is all i can legally say Porpentine: interesting!
Gashapon Porpentine: so you have gashapon machines in your game, where players can get toys? Lily: yes. you can exchange money for tiny strange colorful plastic blobs. some resemble things, or you can use your imagination to pretend they do…ultimately i want the world to be a big diorama, where you can pick up and drop things anywhere, to make a sort of personalized dollhouse… Porpentine: yesss dollhouses are Porpentine: i was just image searching polly pockets
Hell Porpentine: so for crypt underworld are you sent to hell for any specific thing or is it unspecified Porpentine: are you going to hell because youre a loser Lily: dendygar destroyed the world in the bad end of the first one and presumably this occurs directly after that with everyone plunged into an afterworld Porpentine: everyones in hell????? Lily: yeah!! Porpentine: GOOD Porpentine: otherwise i was gonna suggest have a randomly generated BadThing you did Porpentine: to deserve going down there Lily: ahaa Lily: that would be cute but yeah Porpentine: You Stole A Bird’s Nest Porpentine: You Ate Your Mom’s Burg Porpentine: are there any cool hell punishments like in dantes inferno where ppl are forced to eat shit or be attacked by bird women Porpentine: or is the punihsment living in hell Lily: no you just kinda hang out Lily: it’s not too bad of a pace Porpentine: so its like chill hell Lily: yeah well atleast apathetic hell Lily: or maybe “spiritually crushed by the overwhelming demands of capitalism” Lily: something like that Porpentine: so hell is basically capitalism
Lily: i mean i originally had the idea while living in that rly dilapidated building for elderly/disabled people cuz i’d always see corpses get carted out of there on my way to get burgers or go walking Lily: so in a sense yeah Porpentine: mm Porpentine: like ppl might be all like oh crypt underworld so wacky but its rly not that far from your life Lily: it’s filtered thru silly game stuff and it definitely operates with a more visceral, surreal visual language but it’s at heart drawn pretty deeply from my real experiences of living in a roach-infested box downtown
The Scoop on Frogs Porpentine: i noticed a frog in the trailer Porpentine: are there many frogs or only one very special frog? Lily: there are many, however i have plans to make one you can befriend as well… frogs are humble, and enjoy the slime. i hope people can relate to their tale. Porpentine: :) Porpentine: its good to know i can be friends with frog
Life in the Big City Porpentine: what are some examples of how the city might change over the course of a day? Lily: …certain characters are only around at certain times, events come and go, areas open up or are expanded on, there isn’t really a “main plot”, so instead it’s spent discovering secrets and characters and their stories…
Porpentine: that sounds really great Porpentine: like majoras mask except you dont have to worry about the moon splatting you Porpentine: i really liked in majoras mask where you come across those twins who practice their dances at night, it felt eery and special Lily: yeah more or less. i was really inspired by star control 2, and how on different playthroughs things would work out totally different as you interacted with more characters differently, seeing these seemingly minor details accumulate and change the path of the game in ways you wouldn’t expect. i really enjoy the idea of something like that, but in a more intimate environment… waking up and going on a walk and buying some weird item the store just got in, meeting a friend and eating garbage snacks…tiny spots of shelter… Porpentine: mmm Porpentine: its good to have friends in terror world Porpentine: your description is really comforting Lily: sheltering areas in games are so perfect… like the save rooms in resident evil, or the peaceful underground lake in mario 64 - i’m really excited to play with the contrast between the more sprawling open outdoors areas vs the smaller more personal indoor spaces Porpentine: mmm yes! Porpentine: i think about that all the time with my own design Porpentine: like i think it obviously ties into our experiences irl - trying to find super comforting nests to hide in Porpentine: because we’re bombarded with so much intense stimulus
Noms Porpentine: what are some of your favorite foods? Lily: hunk dog…. burg…. bag o chip… i love em all…. food plays an important role in videogame!! the more you consume the more full o piss you are- and isn’t that what everyone wants Porpentine: i think any right-minded person wants that Lily: some foods have special effects on consumption, like mega piss, or “go fast”… i think this is a revolutionary development in game snackfood Porpentine: wow!
Burgs Porpentine: whats your ideal burg loadout Lily: my ideal burg loadout?? imagine…. a bun…. slathered in ketchup, dripping salaciously all over the table, other customers shying around it… hundreds of slabs of meat, rising towards the sky, a testament to the food industry itself… big juicy bugs… an eyeball…. Porpentine: wow Porpentine: a lady of taste and refinement
Bugs Porpentine: next question in my high society puff piece: which bug would you most like to date, and why Lily: there are many fine bugs in the world of crypt- gold bug, dead bug, irritable roach… personally i think they’re all champs. but in my heart i know only one love….big bug. they are very big. Porpentine: how sweet! Porpentine: i remember in crypt worlds finding a gold bug by pissing on someone Porpentine: i was like wowww Porpentine: it felt like a special secret Porpentine: although i think it was a piss freak character Porpentine: so it made sense
Experimentation Lily: yeah i really want to inspire people playing it to…try all sorts of different ways of interacting with the characters and details… little things that stick out, or seem strange, make you think “maybe i should try this”… in crypt underworld i’m trying to come up with more ways of interacting with the environment than talking and pissing, because even though there’s a lot i was able to do with those alone, i think it’d be more compelling to try and capture the sense of living in a city…. zoe and i have been laying out ideas for a cellphone, a game console, other small fun systems to play with, being able to drop and take items anywhere, to climb geometry, decorate a friends house, bring people gifts, etc Lily: there’s a few areas currently that are only reachable by stacking objects from your inventory for example Lily: so you’ll just see a distant door or ledge or detail and figure out ways to reach it Porpentine: ooo Porpentine: stack my friends vhs collection, for example Lily: now you’re thinkin!! Porpentine: one of the complex moral choices that crypt worlds is renowned for
??? Lily: LET’S SWITCH PLACES Porpentine: BUH??? Lily: SO miss porpentine IF I MAY CALL YOU AS SUCH… i would like to ask a question Porpentine: certainly! Lily: as a leading expert in moral hygiene, do you think “dating sim” constitutes a gateway to impending despair, or a valid game mechanics waiting to be explored?? FURTHERMORE which nindendy original character are you most likely to “date”?? Porpentine: i think it makes sense in this technologically driven age that we would date computers, or things the computer imagined for us Porpentine: entities Porpentine: i would like to hang out with Malon from legend of zelda Porpentine: she has a very soothing song and knows how to run a farm under fascist conditions Lily: wow. i can’t believe this glimpse into the mind of an auteur such as yourself, miss porpentine charity heartscape!! astonishing. now switch back Porpentine: you got it sport!
Architecture Porpentine: want to talk about any specific buildings from your life that inspired parts of crypt underworld? Lily: when i lived in downtown san antonio i could see a brutalist skyscraper from my balcony, i lived on the 9th story and it would be all lit up at night, rising from the silhouette of trees that surrounded it. i would watch it from the window near my bed…and dream of crawling about dense vertical stairwells rolling with strange patterns of carpeting and little balconies coming inwards from apartments nestled between the stairwells…. i thought about what the inside of that building must have been like and never actually got to go inside, but i always liked dreaming about it, and that’s been a place i think of a lot when i’m working Porpentine: mmm Porpentine: will there be places in crypt underworld that are visible from a distance, but maybe not so easy or even impossible to reach? Lily: i want there to be scenes you can sorta stumble on, people coming out sometimes or sitting on their balcony…. those sort of distant little lives and glimpses feel small and special…places you can never necessarily reach but …you can get a small view of Porpentine: yess Porpentine: cities with panopticons of apartment windows, mirrored monoliths that can never touch, faint stirrings as some limb of private apartment life extends into public view
Fashion Porpentine: hows your fashion doing lately? Lily: i have been wearing huge piles of rags lately Lily: lots of piled pjs Lily: otherwise i just wear my flower dress if i ever leave my den Lily: deer antlers and bows and flowery boots Porpentine: deer antlers???? Lily: yeah i have tiny black horn hairclips Porpentine: nice Porpentine: what would your ideal outfit be if you were rich? Lily: covered in expressionless masks…long torn draping bits of material, big bows, cute eye makeup, heavy foundation Lily: also capes cuz why not Porpentine: duhh Porpentine: its stressful having a face Lily: agreed Porpentine: trashgender mask coven
guys you should submit to this blog if you have ptsd (/other mental disorders) and your triggers are Stupid
(most triggers are, in some sense, Stupid, bc life doesnt care about your dignity, or about cleanly separating Horrible Stuff from mundane/trivial/hilarious/embarrassing stuff, at all)
mine include “my birthday” and “sometimes when people on the internet write certain kinds of meta/analyses regarding certain fictional characters”, for example
“cut your hair, you look like a girl” oh man, that would be awful. if only I had time to get a hair cut. I don’t want people to think I’m a girl after all.
I hate hate HATE all those 2edgy 4me theories about kids shows. Like Angelica dreaming up the rugrats, or the ed, edd, and eddy children being ghosts, or literally anything that takes a lighthearted and fun kids show and has to turn it into some tragic take of rape or murder or misinformed mental illness.
So you know what? From now on I’m gonna do the exact opposite. Every cool grim-dark show is now because of a bunch of children. To get us started:
Game of Thrones: A middle-school DnD campaign with the most angry, vindictive DM who has promised to kill everyone’s player characters (and their family) by the end.
Batman: A moody teenager writes revenge fantasies into their diary after their bag went missing for an hour. Most of the bad guys are personifications of his teachers classmates (Joker is the class clown who they suspect stole the bag as a joke, Riddler is the math teacher etc.) and his stories swing from super grimdark to light and goofy based on his mood for that day.
Something I have not done in a very long time is sat down to coffee with my Ancestors and Gods. I did it tonight/this morning, after taking care of the offerings and laying out fresh ones otherwise, all water, except for the stick of incense I left at the altars for the Ancestors, for the Dead and for the Gods.
I had two stools that belonged to people who are family to me, gifted to me before they took off for California. One stool holds a Native American head carved into an arm-sized log that I give offerings to as representative of some of the Native Ancestors in the ways I have been brought into. A while back I had used the other stool as part of an Ancestor elevation working, but it has sat in a corner since. Tonight, I brought up some coffee my wife had brewed earlier in the day. At first, I was going to sit on the floor at the Ancestor altar. I couldn’t see many of Them from down there, and besides, They wanted to see me too. So I dusted off the old stool, and sat at the Ancestor altar, lighting the candles in Ask and Embla’s tree candle-holders.
At first it was just…quiet, meditative even, serving Them coffee then myself. I usually drink my coffee with non-dairy sweetener like Coffee Mate or something like that, but it didn’t seem right in this context. So, I sat and drank my black coffee, and talked with the Ancestors about the week I’d been having, thanking Them for Their support, that kind of thing. Mostly it was quiet, just being in one another’s Presence. When it was over, and I thanked Them for coffee with me, I blew out the candles, and later lit some incense. I walked away from Their altar with a sense of peace and being cared for.
My experience with the Gods was similar, but even more silence, being quite brief with my end of talking, mostly thanking Them for Their Presence and blessings on my family, and helping me through the last week. It was mostly quiet, and considering the Work I’ve been doing for Them of late, I was okay with that. I left Their altar, after lighting incense for Them, with a sense of peace, but it…was deep. More than a sense of peace, really. A sense of rightness, even with all the challenges I and my family are facing right now.
I got the message to clean my cups out after each time with the Ancestors then Gods, and returned the cup to the altar, my cup’s holder facing me, and Theirs to Them. It looks like both sets of Holy Powers want this to be a more regular thing, so here’s a cup to a new tradition I’ll be keeping. Thanks for the inspiration from a while back, Jim. It proved a powerful, simple connection, one that I really needed.
i remember seeing a post going around talking about how twin peaks is bad and problematic and should be discarded for presenting abuse as a fantastical allegory
i think that was around the time i started mainly looking at tumblr for videogame gifs and porn.
i can’t think of a single depiction of the banality of abuse in any piece of media i can think of. i’ve had very very few instant visceral reactions to media like i have had this. like. i guess i could see how some people could think it was ridiculous. it should be. when i told people xiu xiu were my favorite band as a kid they would say “oh, that makes sense. theyre so weird”. but. it was just real life for me. so much of my life has always just been viewed as a joke by other people and it’s hard to not view what most would consider camp as realism.
lynch’s aesthetic also works extra well for me wrt this just because every family abuser i’ve ever dealt with romanticized the 1950s as a time when America Was Great… i want to write here more but figured i would at least get this out while it was on my mind.
the last time i watched this scene my teeth hurt from grinding them
the way B.O.B. uses Leland’s sentimentality as a cover, the way he makes any hope or attempt to make sense of the world seem laughable, the way Laura exists in a hellworld a hairline fracture apart from her fellow citizens’
like Twin Peaks is hardly free of bullshit but As A Survivor i really can’t think of a more perfectly revolting metaphor for abuse than B.O.B.
Well, I’m self taught but have gone through a process of becoming licensed: I just never had a mentor! I’ve done all the requirements in MA to tattoo around OSHA regulations/skin disease/etc, and went through a process of supervision around my ability to set up/break down in ways that are safe and conform to standards of pathogen isolation when I began working at the shop in Montague that I currently tattoo out of.
So, to answer your question, the fact that I’m self-taught only really affects the formal process of how I do consultations, what kind of images I produce in collaboration with my clients…I take a lot of pride in being self-taught, honestly, and feel that the work that I do can speak for itself enough that it carries itself.
As a woman tattooer (especially as a trans woman tattooer) I have to work three times as hard as most other tattooers to prove my value, and having gone through unconventional processes to get to this point only heightens that dynamic. My approach has been to be as fully committed to a personal vision of what tattooing is for me in my life, and to be as unencumbered as possible by the weird standards of approach and execution that exist in the hyper-masculine, commodified contemporary tattoo culture that currently vets and hazes all of its potential participants.
This
is common in American schools actually. Pretty sure it has something to
do with concerns about kids showing gang affiliation through head-wear.
Okay … that sounds fake, but okay.
I cannot believe I have lands around me where you are not allowed to wear hats to school. How do they avoid getting colds and frozen ears. WHAT IS THIS HAT-HATING CONSPIRACY.
Lol yeah, you walk in to school with a winter hat on and if you don’t take it off promptly a teacher will swoop in from nowhere. It is a gang thing/ hiding a weapon thing.
I went to a school where the principal was yelling at students to get off the grass. We had a stoplight like thing in the cafeteria that would turn red when it was too loud. The middle schoolers were not allowed to talk in the hallways and there was a short period of time where we got in trouble for high fiving. American schools are something else, man.
They’ve never given a legititmate reason for not allowing hats at any schools I went to. I heard someone say it’s a “respect thing” but who tf am i disrespecting by wearing a hat.
In elementary school we weren’t allowed to walk on the grass (why??) and the front area was 75% grass.
Middle school we weren’t allowed to bring binders/backpacks to lunch, and on the last few days of school if you brought a backpack they’d make you leave it in the office.
I’ve gotten dress coded for studded bracelets (boys wearing shirts with bikini clad women is ok though!!).
American schools are weird.
We had a full class period of discussion on my history class about rumors of schools in other county’s that were allowed to wear hats and had more than 30 min (minus 5 to get to your class before lunch, only 25 real min scheduled) for lunch
I believe the hat thing has a religious context. You aren’t supposed to wear your hat in church, and they want to treat schools with the same reverence. Like, it is a special day during homecoming week where people can wear their hats in class and its a big ass deal….
The more comments this post gets, the weirder and weirder it gets, I am not even sure what to believe here. It’s like that one meme, ‘we need a new rule, let’s see what we can make up. Student are -throws dart- not allowed to wear -spins wheel- hats, because of -draws from something that isn’t a hat- … religious context. Yes. This is a good rule. Great work, team!‘
‘Murica, the land of freedom! What is so sinful about a…hat? O.o I don’ t get you guys sometimes…
Also couldn’t wear any kind of non-religious hat or head covering at my school. This included headbands more than a half inch wide. We were told it was an anti-gang thing, though I’m not sure why gangs were such a concern in a small midwest town.
Oh, wait, there’s more. You couldn’t carry any bag large enough to carry a standard hardcover novel in the building while classes were in session.
we totally couldn’t wear hats or headbands or bandanas.
In any school I went to until college and then nobody cared.
In HS and middle school we was told it was anti-gang but in elementary school we were told it would be a distraction. Like we didn’t get in trouble as little kids for knitted hats when cold but you couldn’t wear them once you put your jacket away.
We also had the stoplight in elementary school during lunch.
And what do you mean there are places where lunch is more than half an hour long. What is this magical world of freedom you speak of.
p.s. citing church is weird cause america doesn’t follow the same cultural mores about head coverings in church anymore for christians. I think it’s more about distractions/forcing all kids to be the same/controlling headlice
… I am suddenly so, so glad that my two years of USA education took place in an experimental school because what is this bullshit.
Most of this is, I’m pretty sure, part of the longterm post-Columbine shooting overreactions (and before that, post-huge panic about gang activity in California overreaction*). Not the hat thing as such - I went to school in a rural, very Christian town, and up until high school wearing hats inside was Not Allowed for Reasons (’respect’ was one of the things brought up). I’m pretty sure that it does have a religious connotation, because as much as the US likes to pretend it’s secular, a lot of its norms are very, very based in Christian church norms.
In high school (this was back in the mid-90s) hats were okay, but bandannas very much were not because they were worried about gangs - in a very, very white small town. It was pretty ridiculous.
* The gang activity was and is a problem. It was not a problem such that nationwide bandaid measures are useful or more than doing something for the sake of being seen to do something. Banning ‘gang colors’ in small, rural, largely white towns where gangs don’t exist is a useless bandaid measure.
We were forbidden all head coverings (although my school was surprisingly good about not hassling the Muslim girls for being in, you know, Nebraska). It was for ‘gang reasons’ (again, Nebraska??) but they let me get away with wearing a bandana every day so idk.
No, the truly dystopian thing was where you were not allowed in the building without showing your student ID. We were all issued lanyards because student IDs had to be visible at all times. And you had to wear the official lanyard! Otherwise you had to go buy a temporary ID for the day. I think you got like three of those per semester before you’d get in school suspension for showing up without your ID but I may be misremembering.
Meanwhile, we had one year where someone was setting fires in bathroom trash cans. Their solution was to shut down all but one bathroom on each floor during passing time. If you had to go to the bathroom during class, the teacher had to sign you out, then call up to the main office to have security or an administrator escort you. In HIGH SCHOOL.
Turns out it was a security officer setting the fires anyway. American schools are wild.
You know, all through high school on thursdays I would come into class wearing a variety of pirate gear including, most commonly, an eye patch, and I kind of got away with it because everyone knew I was Pirate Sam and thought it was hilarious and after high school I stopped and now thinking back on it the reason why I stopped is because I no longer had a compulsion to fuck with this kind of authoritarian bullshit. Like going totally bonkers was a natural response to a hellish environment.
Also one time I had to pick my sister up from the high school because she was sick and as soon as I went into the building I had a panic attack because all the administrators and at least one cop were standing there scowling at the kids haha and it brought back bad memories of my daily life in that shithole
The modern assertion of “biblical inerrancy” basically boils down to the claim by certain white Christians that “The Bible says what we say it says, and nothing else, and so you must listen to us as though we were God.”
The claim “the Bible is inerrant” can never be separated from the claim “I can read the Bible perfectly.” It’s not primarily about error or errors at all, but about authority. The Bible is the ultimate arbiter of authority. My reading of the Bible is the ultimate arbiter of what the Bible means. Therefore, I am the ultimate arbiter of authority.
Such a blunt and blatant grab for god-like power may seem a bit crude, but what else would you expect from a “doctrine” that was designed to defend and sanctify the practice of white supremacy, slavery, colonialism and the slaughter of indigenous people?
This is also the best resource for trying to understand the inerrantists themselves — the “we” insisting that “the Bible says what we say it says.”
Keep in mind throughout that wherever the document affirms or asserts the “authority” of the Bible, what it’s actually affirming and asserting is the authority of their interpretation of the Bible, which is to say, again, the authority of them. “If this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded,” they write, it will result in “serious loss to both the individual and the Church.” Or, in other words, agree with us 100 percent, or else.
But the most revealing part of this document is the main section not-at-all-pretentiously titled “Articles of Affirmation and Denial.” This section will teach you everything you need to know about this bunch of would-be authorities. The 19 — excuse me, XIX (Roman numerals are more imperially authoritative) — “articles” each includes a raw assertion followed by a related denial.
Those denials are the important bit. Read them. But as you do, replace the phrase “We Deny that …” in each of those articles with the phrase “We Fear that …”
Or, better yet, “We Have a Terrifying, Gnawing Suspicion that …”
Or even “We Lie Awake at Night Desperately Wishing We Had Some Substantial and Convincing Response to the Claim that …”
Now you understand.
So try to manage at least a bit of pity for these poor frightened men. They’re afraid, and fear hath torment. So they’re desperately hoping that a perfect text will cast out all fear. Alas, that’s not the perfection that the text itself commends.
Tetra is a new online shop dealing with pot paraphernalia for people who appreciate fine design. A few weeks back I happened to meet co-founder Eviana Hartman, a well-known fashion and design writer, and really dug her enthusiasm and vision for this project. Congratulations, Eviana and crew! From the New York Times:
The team has lined up an impressive group of designers, who have created devices and accouterments in a wide range of strikingly original materials and styles. “The only unifying aesthetic,” Khemsurov says, “stems from the interest we all share in timeless natural materials like marble, brass and ceramics, plus our determination to make this collection as sophisticated and relevant, from a design perspective, as possible.” To that end, the initial batch of products include two ashtrays and a pipe made by Katie Stout and Sean Gerstley, which utilize the same hand-formed ceramic and gold luster technique as their eye-catching lamps sold through the Johnson Trading Gallery; a polished-copper sphere by Fort Standard that opens into a small snuff box; and, in Wu’s words, “a vibrant dichroic-glass ashtray hand-cast by Andrew Hughes that changes color according to one’s vantage point and the kind of light it’s viewed in.”
how is it possible to love fictional characters this much and also have people always been this way?
like, did queen elizabeth lie in bed late sometimes thinking ‘VERILY I CANNOT EVEN FOR MERCUTIO HATH SLAIN ME WITH FEELS’
was caesar like ‘ET TU ODYSSEUS’
sometimes i wonder
oh my GOD
the answer is yes they did. there’s a lot of research about the highly emotional reactions to the first novels widely available in print.
here’s a thing; the printing press was invented in 1450 and whilst it was revolutionary it wasn’t very good. but then it got better over time and by the 16th century there were publications, novels, scientific journals, folios, pamphlets and newspapers all over Europe. at first most were educational or theological, or reprints of classical works.
however, novels gained in popularity, as basically what most people wanted was to read for pleasure. they became salacious, extremely dramatic, with tragic heroines and doomed love and flawed heroes (see classical literature, only more extreme.) books in the form of letters were common. sensationalism was par the course and apparently used to teach moral lessons. there was also a lot of erotica floating around.
but here’s the thing: due to the greater availability of literature and the rise of comfy furniture (i shit you not this is an actual historical fact, the 16th and 17th century was when beds and chairs got comfy) people started reading novels for pleasure, women especially. as these novels were highly emotional, they too became…highly emotional. there are loads of contemporary reports of young women especially fainting, having hysterics, or crying fits lasting for days due to the death of a character or their otp’s doomed love. they became insensible over books and characters, and were very vocal about it. men weren’t immune-there’s a long letter a middle-aged man wrote to the author of his favourite work basically saying that the novel is too sad, he can’t handle all his feels, if they don’t get together he won’t be able to go on, and his heart is already broken at the heroine’s tragic state (IIRC ehh).
conservatives at the time were seriously worried about the effects of literature on people’s mental health, and thought it damaging to both morals and society. so basically yes it is exactly like what happens on tumblr when we cry over attractive British men, only my historical theory (get me) is that their emotions were even more intense, as they hadn’t had a life of sensationalist media to numb the pain for them beforehand in the same way we do, nor did they have the giant group therapy session that is tumblr.
(don’t even get me started on the classical/early medieval dudes and their boners for the Iliad i will be here all week. suffice to say, the members of the Byzantine court used Homeric puns instead of talking normally to each other if someone who hand’t studied the classics was in the room. they had dickish fandom in-jokes. boom.)
I needed to know this.
See, we’re all just the current steps in a time-honored tradition! (And this post is good to read along with Affectingly’s post this week about old-school-fandom-and-history-and-stuff.
Ancient Iliad fandom is intense
Alexander the Great and and his boyfriend totally RPed Achilles and Patroclus. Alexander shipped that hard. (It’s possible that this story is apocryphal, but that would just mean that ancient historians were writing RPS about Alexander and Hephaestion RPing Iliad slash and honestly that’s just as good).
And then there’s this gem from Plato:
“Very different was the reward of the true love of Achilles towards his lover Patroclus - his lover and not his love (the notion that Patroclus was the beloved one is a foolish error into which Aeschylus has fallen, for Achilles was surely the fairer of the two, fairer also than all the other heroes; and, as Homer informs us, he was still beardless, and younger far)” - Symposium
That’s right: 4th Century BCE arguments about who topped. Nihil novi sub sole my friends.
More on this glorious subject from people who know way more than I do
Man I love this post.
And to add my personal favourite story: after reading Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa in the 18th century, Elizabeth Echlin decided that she was NOT HAPPY with the ending and basically wrote her own fix-it fic. No-one dies and Lovelace (the villain) was totally reformed and became a super nice guy. It’s completely OOC and incredibly poorly written and it’s beautiful.
Also, so many women fell in love with the villain, Lovelace, and wrote to Richardson about it, that he kept adding new bits with each edition to highlight what a hideous person Lovelace was. So it’s almost unsurprising that reading novels in this period was actually considered dangerous because it gave women unrealistic ideas about men and made them easier prey for rakes.
Basically, “I want my own Christian Grey” has been a thing for hundreds of years.
Also a thing with fix-it/everyone lives AUs: at various points in time but especially in the mid 1800s-early 1900s (aka roughly Victorian though there were periods of this earlier as well) a huge thing was to “fix” Shakespeare (as well as most theater/novels) to be in line with current morality. Good characters live, bad characters are terribly punished – but not, you know, grusomely, because what would the ladies think? So you have like, productions of King Lear where Cordelia lives and so do Regan and Goneril, but they’re VERY SORRY.
Aka all your problematic faves are redeemed and Everyone Lives! AUs for every protag.
Slightly tangential but I wanted to add my own favorite account of Chinese fandom to this~ I don’t know how many people here have heard of the Chinese novel A Dream of Red Mansions (红楼梦), but it is, arguably, the most famous Chinese novel ever written (There are four Chinese novel classics and A Dream of Red Mansions is considered the top of that list). It was written during the Qing dynasty by 曹雪芹, but became a banned book due to its critique of societal institutions and pro-democracy themes. As a result, the original ending of the book was lost and only the first 80 chapters remained. There are quite a few versions of how the current ending of the book came to be, but one of them is basically about how He Shen, one of Emperor Qian Long’s most powerful advisers, was such a super-fan of the book, he hired two writers to archive and reform the novel from the few remaining manuscripts there were. In order to convince the Emperor to remove the ban on the book, he had the writers essentially write a fanfiction ending to the book that would mitigate the anti-establishment themes. However, He Shen thought that the first version of the ending was too tragic (even though the whole book is basically a tragedy) so he had the writers go back and write a happier ending for him (the current final 40 chapters). He then presented the book to the Emperor and successfully convinced him to remove the ban on the book.
According to incomplete estimates, A Dream of Red Mansions spawned over 20 spin offs, retellings, and alternate versions (in the form of operas, plays, etc.) during the Qing Dynasty alone.
In 1979, fans (albeit academic ones) started publishing a bi-monthly journal dedicated to analysis (read: meta) on A Dream of Red Mansions. In fact, the novel’s fandom is so vast and qualified and rooted in academics of Chinese literature that there is an entire field of study (beginning in the Qing dynasty) of just this one novel, called 红学. Think of it as Shakespearean studies, but only on one play. This field of study has schools of thought and specific specializations (as in: Psych analyses, Economics analyses, Historical analyses, etc.) that span pretty much every academic field anyone can think of.
(That being said, I’ve read A Dream of Red Mansions and can honestly say that I’ve never read its peer in either English or Chinese. If for nothing else, read it because you would never otherwise believe that a man from the Qing dynasty could write such a heart-breakingly feminist novel with such a diverse cast of female characters given all the bitching and moaning we hear from male content-creators nowadays)
the beauty of archival research *sigh*
i went to a building that is a “fan recreation” of one of the buildings from Hongloumeng and my like bitter, angry, never smiled once 78yo male teacher was like squeeing and giggling and kept sitting down and fanning himself and posed dramatically for photos
this guy was like the voldemort of staff, a man of legendary terror-inspiring mien. swooning.
A more recent example of fandom in history is the original Sherlock Holmes fan base! It’s one of the earliest coherent models we have that closely represents the fandoms of modern media.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s first two Sherlock Holmes novels weren’t hugely popular, but when he began to write stories for The Strand magazine involving Sherlock Holmes, the public basically went absolutely mental. He used to get fan mail - predominantly from women, apparently - addressed directly to Sherlock Holmes, some women even offering to be his housekeeper.
He eventually got so fed up of writing stories about a character he didn’t really like (he considered Sherlock Holmes to be an irritating distraction from his ambition to write historical fiction, once saying “he takes my mind from better things”) that he took measures to end the series once and for all. First, he raised his fee for writing the stories to an extortionate amount, hoping that the magazine would refuse to pay it and fire him. However, there was such a demand for new Sherlock Holmes stories that the magazine just agreed to pay his ridiculous fee. So, he killed off Sherlock Holmes in 1893 in the Reichenbach Falls, and when he did that, shit hit the fan. People reportedly placed Sherlock Holmes obituaries in newspapers. Many of them cancelled their subscription to The Strand, and wrote angry letters to Arthur Conan Doyle explaining how he’d broken their heart. To fill the gap left by the death of their bb, some people wrote fan fiction and shared it in literary groups and book clubs.
Conan Doyle caved to pressure in 1901 and wrote Hound of the Baskervilles, partly because the fan fervour never really died down, and partly because cash dollah. You know how fans lobbied for the return of Firefly, and ended up getting Serenity made? The original Sherlock Holmes fans totally got there first.
After my last post, a lot of people were asking me about the difference between “internal” and “external” martial arts, or “hard” and “soft” styles. You often hear this term when describing martial arts, and despite a lot of mysticism and hubbub about qi (chi), the distinction is actually pretty simple: “external” means obvious body mechanics, while “internal” means less obvious body mechanics. One you can easily see, and the other is less easy to see, but they’re both still completely physical phenomena.
External Styles (Athletic Power)
Most martial arts (and athletic activities) use “external” power, which just means training the body’s muscles and cardiovascular system to perform whatever task one needs. Delivering a strong blow is contingent upon very clear physics: increasing mass and speed will increase power. This is true across all these styles, though they may achieve them in different ways. If someone is a karate master, for example, their power is usually pretty obvious just by watching them perform techniques, just as someone being a top weightlifter is obvious. Most systems place great importance on mechanical leverage and athletic conditioning, as things like strength, agility, and reflexes are integral to a high level of performance. This isn’t to say that external systems are not sophisticated, only that the mechanisms that they use are not mysterious to the naked eye.
Examples:
Karate
Most Shaolin styles
Taekwondo
Jiu-jitsu
Modern MMA styles
Internal Styles (Integrated Power)
Internal power is comparatively recent, reliably dating back only about 200 years. In contrast to external systems which primarily train the body’s muscles, internal systems focus on the body’s connective tissue, like ligaments, tendons, and fascia. Power comes less from straightforward acceleration and instead from altering one’s structure so that when impact is made, the full force of the body’s architecture creates a penetrating shockwave. This is why, counterintuitively, the strongest “internal punches” only travel a few inches before hitting their target. It’s not a trick, just a demonstration of what’s often called “whole body power.” Because one cannot easily view someone’s connective tissue like you can with muscles, this is referred to as “internal.” Internal styles were mostly created by those who trained for decades in external styles. Similarly, even masters of external styles often develop internal skills on their own, as muscles deteriorate as one ages, while connective tissue can strengthen well into old age.
Examples:
Taijiquan (Tai Chi)
Xingyiquan
Bajiquan
Baguazhang
Some styles of Aikido
Hard vs. Soft styles
Sometimes internal/external is conflated with hard/soft styles, but this is somewhat incorrect. The latter just describes a particular tactic, and those can change all the time. Meeting “force with more force” exists in internal styles, and some external grappling systems are entirely “soft” because they’re always working around an opponent’s physical strength.
What’s better?
With traditional martial arts, they all fall along a spectrum, rather than being strictly divided (the ones I shared above are just examples of styles that focus more on one system). For example, Shaolin is primarily external, but more advanced training usually leads to internal force as well. Similarly, systems like Baguazhang and Taijiquan are still athletically demanding and include plenty of physical conditioning.
That said, for children and teens, I never recommend internal martial arts. Their bodies are still developing, and those systems are too complicated and boring to enjoy them. External systems are much more engaging and useful for younger people, and they also tend to provide a lot more structure. On the flip side, internal systems are a good choice for older people (45+). In fact, most internal martial artists don’t hit their physical peak until their 50s or 60s. For the rest of us in between, it more comes down to personal preference than anything else. I trained in external styles for years before moving to internal ones, which is pretty standard.
If you really want to cringe for a few minutes, watch the videos they show to Boy Scout parents and kids. No one seems to understand that “abuse” or “bullying” (or whatever semantic is proper to use) is less often a one-time event and more often a subtle, systematic drip-drip of imposed agony. I also
dislike the overuse of the word “victim”, but that’s an essay for
another time.
Link to one of the videos? Now I’m curious. But ugh, yes, that is an even bigger misconception than I expected.
Personally, I am really annoyed by the word “survivor”, for a number of reasons:
It implies that people are permanently scarred, and permanently defined, by bad things that have happened to them. I mean, obviously people are shaped by their experiences, and many people are scarred by things that have happened to them. But the word “survivor” seems to force that experience onto people, and force their trauma to become a permanent part of their identity, even if it wouldn’t otherwise.
It overemphasizes the risk of dying, which is… not really the point, in a lot of traumatic circumstances. Like, returning to the topic of bullying… most schoolchildren are not at risk of dying from being bullied, so “survivor” just doesn’t make sense as a term. People say “any traumatic experience comes with a risk of suicide, and that’s why we use the word ‘survivor’“. But that just seems like it’s stretching the definition so that it will fit. The risk of death (either from the trauma itself or from suicide later) just isn’t the core component of a lot of trauma. If I wanted to be all SJ about it, I would say that the word “survivor” actually erases the struggles of people who are really deeply hurt by certain life experiences, but for whom death is never a concern (at least not because of those life experiences).
I probably have more reasons that I’m failing to remember right now. I’ll reblog this later and add them if any more come to mind.
I was trying to think of a good analogy for the experience of being hired as Nightwish’s new lead singer and the first thing that popped into my head was “promoted to general under Lord Vader”…
Here is a comic I did for Bitch magazine’s “Adventures in Feministory”.
Lili and Gerda’s story has meant a lot to me, and Gerda’s illustration work has been such a gigantic influence on me, the two of them were a natural choice for this project. I remember finding Gerda’s erotic work and being immediately obsessed. Here was a woman artist in the 1920’s-30’s expressing desire for other women, being frank about sexuality in ways I wanted to be. Not to mention her art was divine, and ahead of it’s time, she floored me. I wanted to talk about Lili and Gerda because they were both brilliant women who’s lives were intimately entwined and who I feel absolutely had an effect on feminist history.
All of the information in the comic was taken directly from Lili’s Memoir, which was later published in English as a pulp novel with the sensationalized/exploitative title “Man into Woman”. It was unfortunately sold as a novelty, an “outstanding biological phenomenon”. Never the less, the book contains Lili’s descriptive, passionate account of her life as well as letters Lili wrote to her family, Gerda and others. Lili wrote the memoir in 1930-1931, so there are still some problematic ideas and words in it, (by our modern standards), but it’s her own account. It is worth noting also that Lili may have been intersex, which there didn’t seem to be a term for at the time. A majority of the memoir is spent with Lili expressing a great deal of emotional and physical pain. If you are interested in reading it, it could be triggering for some, as she also discusses contemplating suicide. The quote in the 7th panel comes directly from the book. Lili’s story is tragic, but she did find great happiness. She was also much more than simply a tragic story, she was a very accomplished painter, and piano player and she and Gerda traveled everywhere and were devoted to each other.
I feel that since a movie is coming out now (called The Danish Girl) based on their life together that I should comment on it. First of all I disagree with the casting of Eddie Redmayne to play Lili Elbe. I like Eddie, but I don’t understand why a trans actor couldn’t have been cast. I can only hope that trans writers were consulted for the film. Second of all, the trailer seems to imply that Gerda fought against Lili or was upset that she was losing her husband. This is unnecessary, fictionalized drama and is simply not the case. Gerda supported and helped Lili every step of the way. She seemed to only be upset by Lili’s unhappiness. A quote from Lili’s memoir (to Gerda) “Be thankful that you have believed in Lili to the last. You know that I have never been able to doubt her. I knew that the day would come…I am so happy.”
I don’t know that I can judge the movie much more based on a trailer alone. Certainly there are details in the trailer that line up with Lili’s memoir. The scene where Lili wears a dress and sits in as a model for Gerda to paint is a scene directly from the book. However, I hope it isn’t implied that Gerda is somehow forcing Lili into dressing as a woman, because while Gerda clearly encourages Lili in the memoir, she does not force anything upon her. If that is how Hollywood sees the situation, I think they’ve done some unfortunate interpretation. Lili was Gerda’s favorite model, Lili mentions the many portraits Gerda paints of her. I had hoped that this movie would be about the great friendship and love between the two of them. To quote Gerda “I love you so much that I should like for you and me to be one being.” They were nearly inseparable through their days at school together and afterwards, and inspired each other relentlessly. But instead of a passionate story of love between two intelligent, artistic people I think we’ll be getting something more sensationalized.
To be fair, most of Lili’s memoir does focus on her transition, which is I think, problematically, what Hollywood loves about it. But I think this is because she lived in a time when there was literally NOTHING written about trans people. In the book she talks about scouring every medical book she can find on sexual subjects to no avail. She talks to doctor after doctor, who all disregard her or write her off as crazy. So, because of this extreme lack, I think she wrote her memoir as a way to document her experience, so that others might finally know it. Her story did reach people, Renee Richards, in her autobiography writes “When I saw a paperback with the title Man Into Woman on the stationary rack it stood out, as if in neon.”
It’s also worth noting that Hollywood probably finds this story attractive because Lili’s appearance fits into the hetero normative idea of what a woman is supposed to be. Lili’s story is not the story of all trans people. She was a unique person and it is unique to her.
Lili also happened to meet and be aided by one of my favorite people from history, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld. Though the quote I use in my comic is not in reference to Lili, I felt it was a perfect example of his feelings towards GLBTQI people. The quote is from the silent film “Different From the Others” which was made to educate people, and in reaction to the German laws put into place making homosexuality a crime.
So go forth and check out some of Gerda Wegener’s artwork, it’s playful, sexy and clever. It’s a bit scarce and it makes me sad that she was so easily forgotten about when so many male erotic artists from that time were not.
Lili gave up painting after transitioning and not much of her work survives, but I highly suggest reading her book if you want to know her story in her own words.
One of my favorite moments from the book is when Lili and Gerda stay at a hotel in the room in which Oscar Wilde spent his last days. “The factotum of the hotel, Jean by name, lost no time in telling us that Oscar Wilde had spent his last days in these two rooms. He had died in the alcove with the red-diapered curtains. As Jean was telling us this, the tears ran down his ill-shorn cheeks.”…“We often sat in front of the broad window overlooking the garden and read page after page of the works of the poet, whom I had admired for many years. Gradually Grete and I came to know ‘De Profundis’ and ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ by heart. They were lovely evenings.”
There is a quote that Lili ends her memoir with, it is from a book by Hans Jager called Sick Love. I think the quote from Jager illustrates the desire she had for her memoir well. “When I am no longer here I want my sad book of love to be my legacy, a testimony that I once lived. I imagine that this book will be read, read as few books are by all who are unhappy in love, into whose hands it shall fall year after year, and I feel as if I could shake them all by the hand. And I have such an unspeakable longing; it is in fact the only longing that I have, to say farewell to all—oh, none can realize what ultimate peace this would be for me.”
(please do not reblog this comic without the accompanying text.)
This is really interesting, and something I didn’t know about at all. I got excited by the movie because I am also a Danish girl (ha) but share similar concerns. Jess is eloquent and educational as always.
can we also keep in mind that altering the reblogs to just file down in a line gives the reader no sense of context for how much they’re about to read
for someone who has a limited stamina for the amount they can read per day this destroys the readers ability to assess if they have the spoons or mental capacity to read a post before they try to engage with it
stop ruining the accessibility of this site for everyone staff
If you were born on April 27, 1988, 