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The U.S. produces far more resources, including homes, than it needs. Capitalists have to blame other groups for our woes. Otherwise, we'll realize only they exploit the artificial scarcity we're living through.
One of the many things that I love about Robin Hobb and the ROTE saga is when characters from one of the trilogies/series references the extremely complex emotional plots of another, which youâve already read and lived through, in the most eye-roll-y VERY briefly summarized way possible. Thymara describing the harrowing events of Foolâs Fate, one of the more emotionally devastating books Iâve ever read, like this:
makes me scream! OF COURSE this teenager in a faraway rain forest doesnât know or care about all that was sacrificed for all of that to happen! She has her own problems!
tiktok is such an awful app, it's almost designed to feed you misinformation and expose you to insane discourse. unlike beloved tumblr, the app that feeds me misinformation and exposes me to insane discourse
Me and my friend were persecuted as âthe lesbosâ when we were kids just because of how weird and immature we were, and it made me so paranoid about even looking in the direction of a girl (literally) in case someone made a disgusted face.
People stopped caring after I got a boyfriend in high school and Iâve been in a heterosexual relationship my whole life.
So yeah, it took me until my 30s to realize Iâm bi, and I can imagine how much harder it would be for guys, since the stigma is even worse.
Itâs galling to think that people I grew up with might think âoh we were right about her.â No you fucking werenât, you just made it harder for me to figure myself out.
I still donât look at people very much.
i know it's a silly harhar joke and i find it funny too but characters like alex and buck not realizing they're bisexual for a long time isn't because they're stupid. it's not because they necessarily dislike being attracted to men. it's because of bisexual erasure within both heterosexual and queer space being rampant for a long time and is only starting to get better now. bisexuals make up around 60% of the lgbt+ community, (in the us) but look how long the wikipedia page for bisexual erasure is.
not only do more women/afab people identify as bisexual, but keep in mind that bisexual people overall are much less likely to identify as bisexual to others or be out than gay and lesbian people because part of the bisexual experience is feeling like you're not allowed to even sit at the table, so to speak. most bisexual+ men may have queer feelings and experiences, but they may not examine those things as much as a bisexual women might because biphobia and the patriarchy tie together in a way that is unique to bisexual men.
characters like alex and buck are so impactful because they're new. most bisexual representation in tv and film has been women until recently, and even that is still rare. a character like callie torres on grey's in 2009 â when i was 14! â helped me see myself as a bisexual, but men have not had characters like that until nearly ten years later. and it's not until i even read rwrb in 2020 that i saw any bisexual character not receive some degree of biphobia from their love interest.
representation is important because when we see someone experience what we experience it helps us name something we may not have fully understood about ourselves before and put a name to it because they're on that same journey on screen. alex and buck were always bi, they just didn't know they were allowed to be so. they're not stupid, they were failed by society and had to unlearn their own internalized biphobia and bisexual erasure because so many of us, even subconsciously, think we're not allowed to exist and/or to take up space in a community that we are literally in the acronym of. no one really talks about us except us.
you're not stupid if you didn't know you were bi the whole time, you're not stupid for not knowing when you were a teenager or in your twenties either.
(*i am genderfluid/nb but am mostly using m/f here for the sake of this specific conversation. bisexual nb people exist too.)
If youâre afraid of âmenâ in womenâs spaces - no youâre not, youâre afraid of molesters and rapists. Laws donât stop molesters and rapists from doing whatever they want anyway, you think a law will keep criminals from entering? It makes zero sense to legislate against trans access to bathrooms. Trans folks are far more likely to be the victims of violence of all kinds, donât punish them just because youâre afraid.
the idea of public restrooms as "women's spaces" continues to confound me. you know who I hope is in a public bathroom when I go in?? no one. I would prefer no one else be in the bathroom. and if someone else is in the bathroom I am going to ignore them as much as possible. I did not go into the bathroom to connect with other women. I went into the bathroom to piss and/or shit. it's a toilet's space, not a women's space. shut the fuck up and let trans people piss and shit in peace. let's all continue to avoid eye contact with each other and any and all interaction in the toilet's space.
dumb outdated meme thing i made over a year ago but never posted, new revised edition
characters included based on the criteria of âi could think of something mildly amusing to say about themâ
(lest i overexplain the joke: number 189 of the â700 Hobo Namesâ in âThe Areas of My Expertiseâ by John Hodgman is âSkywise the Sexual Elf.â god i love the 700 Hobo Names)
had a dream that I met a wizard and we fell in love and became unhealthily attached to each other so we decided to meld into one single creature together but the process was horrifically slow and painful and most of the dream was us lying in bed holding hands while lesions opened up in our skin and seeped out blue and green fluid and the wizard said "this is going to take a very very long time" and I said "that's ok"
Letâs start with the first romantic coupling we see in ElfQuest: Nightfall and Redlance. Also in frame are two more members of the â¤ď¸ âď¸, Cutter and Skywise, but they have a lot of story ahead before their relationship collectively becomes deep enough to coalesce into a group bond. For now, this is the OG love on the page.
Itâs wild to see letters in the back of the original ElfQuest issues wondering if the female elves were also warriors and hunters. Oh honey, you donât even know what youâre reading yet! But it makes sense - the Wolfriders are in crisis when we first meet them, so we donât see them in their normal roles right away.
Nightfallâs only concern right now is that her lifemate Redlance could still die from the effects of being tortured by humans.
The Wolfriders are forced to flee the only home theyâve ever known as the humans burn the forest down. Tricked into a desert trek, Redlance has no time to recover, and Nightfall wonât leave his side - even if the others must go on in the hopes of finding water.
The second printing has extra scenes, including this beautiful page (above) of backstory, showing Nightfallâs precious memories of their love.
The fifth member of âĽď¸ âď¸ - Leetah the healer - enters the picture (more on this in the next post).
One of the key aspects of being a Wolfrider is having a soul name. We later learn that other groups of elves never developed this psychic protection, hand in hand with their advanced telepathy, in order to survive continual conflict with humans (and more).
Soul names are normally kept secret, even between lifemates, unless the mystical phenomenon known is as Recognition suddenly strikes and reveals each otherâs soul completely. To voluntarily give a soul name to another is an act that goes beyond mere love.
As readers in 70s and 80s, it was refreshing to see what could be viewed as an inversion of our gender stereotypes - Nightfall the skilled huntress and fierce warrior, Redlance the gentle shaper of green growing things. Yet this never meant that Nightfall wasnât nurturing and warm, or that Redlance wouldnât fight with every ounce of his being to preserve life by any means.
Below, he relives the nightmare of losing their forest home to fire - but this time he can do something about it.
Whatever support is needed, thatâs what the other person offers.
Even if itâs just being nearby when your beloved is trying something hard.
Get yourself a Nightfall. And/or a Redlance. Who knows how you might grow with loving support?
Time to expand on my ElfQuest heart circle post â¤ď¸âď¸
A lot of fans only read the Original Quest (books 1-4) and may not know how deep the relationships between these 5 (count em, five) lovemates truly runs.
Cutter, as the MC, is the glue that binds the whole - or so you might think at first glance (more on that soon). But who is âfirstâ when it comes to Cutterâs heart?
Book 1 revolves around the meeting of two tribes, resulting in the Recognition between Leetah and Cutter - so this pairing might be paramount in your mind.
But the first love shown in the entire saga is actually Redlance and Cutter. This is the moment that showed readers very early on that this story was going to be very different than the usual fantasy fare of the 70s. This warrior is well rounded, and one of his greatest strengths is loving and caring for others.
Redlanceâs lifemate is Nightfall (my favorite character, if Iâm only allowed one!) I think it was in one of the short stories or novelizations - when Nightfall and Cutter were very young, they were so close that many of the Wolfriders thought they would become lifemates. If Cutter had a first crush, Nightfall would likely count. The trio remains very close right from the start of ElfQuest.
But did I save the best for last? Cutter and Skywise are, for me, the heart of the entire tale. In terms of personality and emotional connection, they are avatars for the creators - Wendy and Richard Pini. No surprise, then, that their love story has (arguably) the most depth and pathos over the 40+ years that it took to write and illustrate ElfQuest.
In one story, Skywise knew Cutterâs soul name from birth - which is normally only revealed psychically to the parents. So, Skywise is also chronologically the first in Cutterâs heart. But theyâre too young or simply disinclined to call it what it is at first, so itâs âbrothers in all but bloodâ if they have to put it into words.
Yes this will be a series of posts - next, I focus on one couple or throuple at a time, as they each have their own special relationships.