badmancritic

[badmancritic]

When I was younger and more abled, I was so fucking on board with the fantasy genre’s subversion of traditional femininity. We weren’t just fainting maidens locked up in towers; we could do anything men could do, be as strong or as physical or as violent. I got into western martial arts and learned to fight with a rapier, fell in love with the longsword.

But since I’ve gotten too disabled to fight anymore, I… find myself coming back to that maiden in a tower. It’s that funny thing, where subverting femininity is powerful for the people who have always been forced into it… but for the people who have always been excluded, the powerful thing can be embracing it.

As I’m disabled, as I say to groups of friends, “I can’t walk that far,” as I’m in too much pain to keep partying, I find myself worrying: I’m boring, too quiet, too stationary, irrelevant. The message sent to the disabled is: You’re out of the narrative, you’re secondary, you’re a burden.

The remarkable thing about the maiden in her tower is not her immobility; it’s common for disabled people to be abandoned, set adrift, waiting at bus stops or watching out the windows, forgotten in institutions or stranded in our houses. The remarkable thing is that she’s like a beacon, turning her tower into a lighthouse; people want to come to her, she’s important, she inspires through her appearance and words and craftwork.  In medieval romances she gives gifts, write letters, sends messengers, and summons lovers; she plays chess, commissions ballads, composes music, commands knights. She is her household’s moral centre in a castle under siege. She is a castle unto herself, and the integrity of her body matters.

That can be so revolutionary to those of us stuck in our towers who fall prey to thinking: Nobody would want to visit; nobody would want to listen; nobody would want to stay.

[badmancritic]

[badmancritic]

[badmancritic]

“Why should rich people pay more” because fuck ‘em

“So you are okay for paying more when you have money” I am not excluded from ‘fuck ‘em’ when relevant

[badmancritic]

Prince Rupert's drops are toughened glass beads created by dripping molten glass into cold water, which causes it to solidify into a tadpole-shaped droplet with a long, thin tail. These droplets are characterized internally by very high residual stresses, which give rise to counter-intuitive properties, such as the ability to withstand a blow from a hammer or a bullet on the bulbous end without breaking, while exhibiting explosive disintegration if the tail end is even slightly damaged.

In nature, similar structures are produced under certain conditions in volcanic lava

Prince Rupert's drop - Wikipedia

[badmancritic]

people will read books they Do Not Like™ and then wonder why they hate reading

[badmancritic]

“He never forgot. He just put the memories away, like old silverware that you didn’t want to tarnish. And every year they came back, sharp and sparkling, and stabbed him in the heart.” ― Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

[badmancritic]

I just heard my mom tell my brother, “when you die, you will go outside and garden until your father says you’re done” and it took me a second to realize that my brother was playing a videogame and this was not a theological discussion.

[badmancritic]

the hadron collider is like an angel to me

[badmancritic]

Knowledge is empowering

[badmancritic]

Throwback to when I took painkillers and woke up with Photoshop open on my computer to this image I had made

[badmancritic]

You have been blessed by the New Year's Sexy Swamp Man. He was born tonight! Welcome himb and yourselves to 2024!

#sexy swamp man #original art #oc #birthday #new year #happy new year

[badmancritic]

Tonight's unhinged beverage: unsweetened cranberry juice, a touch of grenadine and a drop of liquid smoke shaken together and poured into a whiskey glass, then topped up with dealcoholized organic IPA. It looks like strawberry cola and it tastes fucked up in a good way.

This monstrosity was born out of the desire to drink something smokey, like Scotch, without consuming alcohol or having to resort to digging into my husband's birthday gift.

Let me know if you decide to try it out! It... mostly hit the spot? Very entertaining combo, anyway.

#mixology #non alcoholic #culinary #fucked up #liquid smoke

[badmancritic]

Petition to replace "You go girl!" with "You go granny!"

#shower thoughts

[badmancritic]

I’m going to the grocery store does anyone want to sublet my apartment for 45 minutes

[badmancritic]

Source

[badmancritic]

The Birth of Giiirlgruel - A Tribute to Strange Æons

At twenty-three years old

her third eye opened -

that was just the beginning.

Soon enough her mother said:

“It is time

for you

to grow

Long.”

A sturdy spine had been prepared,

thick fur was duly obtained,

four mannikin hands were painted black;

she knew there was no turning back

Carefully she was gutted - 

all organs extracted whole -

the only parts to be preserved:

her face, and a bit of her soul

They gave to her a flowing mane

and strangely beefy arms

with dextrous hands so she could practise

dark somatic arts

The final piece to craft for her:

a tiny pretzel heart

which would be hidden lovingly

in some clandestine part

When she was reassembled

her body stretched on and on,

her length was splendid with colour,

her eyes, with wisdom, shone

And then there came the christening -

they left their home at dawn

and journeyed to the House of State

to picnic on the lawn

They trespassed on the promenade

and surveyed their domain,

the guards were too confused to act -

her gaze made them insane

At last, her birth, it was announced

to millions of faithful fans

it truly was a holy day

in this accursed land

#poetry #strange aeons #long furby #strange æons #fan poem #goth #unholy #strange-aeons #strange-æons