#across the known universe

[tigerlily340]

Art Dump Incoming~

In honor of ATKU’s two-year anniversary today, let me share some of the art I did during my... somewhat prolonged hiatus 😅

Thank y’all for bearing with me, hope you enjoy!

(Doodles and Alar imagining what could’ve been~)

(Makeover ft. @ladybinary​ ‘s Lukas here~)

(Male Human!Kalio hair designs~)

And the last few are under the cut~

WARNING: partial / vague nudity

(The night before she lost her eye...)

(and lastly, Nautican dancer variations~)

#She Ra #she ra ocs #she ra fic #spop fic #across the known universe #horde clones #horde clone oc #Horde Prime #kalio and alar #art dump #happy anniversary #thank you all so much #tigerlily340 art

[silvermarmoset]

your tags are SO true like it was one thing to bring tennant back pre-ncuti, since the whole point of that was quite transparently to increase viewership FOR ncuti, but to be like "actually tennant!doctor gets to go have his own life and ncuti is a totally different offshoot" is like ....... well.

i'm screaming a lot in the tags but i'm guessing you meant these ones?

#honestly. horrible horrible flex to set ncuti up across from the most beloved doctor from the start?#like i (and im guessing a lot of other people!) will /always/ be drawn to 10 and feel like he's our doctor#don't set ncuti up like that!! deny us dt and MAKE US LOOK AT HIM. this is so SO weird rtd wtf did you do

because yeah. it actually makes me a bit furious because leaving a spare doctor hanging around and sending Ncuti off as a double is just handing the perfect excuse to every bigot who wants to claim that Ncuti isn't the real doctor, the real doctor is back on earth in Donna Noble's garden. Why do that? Why make it easy for fans who want to drop the show now and pretend it's always the old way, forever?

i can think of reasons for doing it this way—like i'm 95% certain this was just a convoluted way to give Donna her happy ending—but none of the possible reasons i can think of justify going about it like this. I love Ten, and Tennant, I could watch him go on adventures forever, but the point should be I DON'T GET TO because because here's A WHOLE NEW WONDERFUL DOCTOR to go on adventures with! The whole constant point in Who is that change and death DO happen, and one of the joys is grieving the old while embracing the new!

But this episode doing this weird little pivot where you can die but still live, where a separate form of you can rest* so you can go on adventures....idk what moral RTD was aiming for here but it feels like he just shot his own next era in the foot for no particular reason beyond "we love Ten" (and we do but. come on)

*(what does that even mean?? canonically we know the doctor is restless and always running into trouble so what was the point of that?? it's confirmed he's going to mars on fun little trips!! this is the same man and you gave him a tardis and apparently there's no sacrifice at all?? what is this!! why!!)

#the giggle #dw spoilers #part of me is like. it's the epilogue! it's putting a button on the old universe and nuwho. but like— #NCUTI IS IN THE SAME UNIVERSE. it's still his universe! what are we even putting a button on here? are you going to tell me that every time #london gets invaded for the rest of the show (and lets be honest its going to happen within like 2 episodes anyway) we're all going to sit #and not wonder where The Other Doctor With His Own Goddamn Tardis is? why he is not helping here? #also. side note. it is not as egregious as *waves hands* everything else about this #but it felt like a very very big disservice to have ncuti's first moments still be david's #because i'll be honest. when david is onscreen i will watch him first. i will watch him and pay attention to him because he's my favorite! #putting ncuti across from ten (THE fave) is making him do TOO MUCH in his first twenty minutes of screentime #felt like setting him up to fail from the get go because of COURSE i was distracted by david tennant it's david tennant. OF COURSE. #just feel like rtd should have known better. PEOPLE DIE. make 10/14 die!! i will hate it but make me deal with it!! #then make me see 15 and fall fully in love with him #can you imagine if nine had been around during ten's first ep? skinny dt wouldn't have stood a chance. thats why we DO it this way russell #you HAVE TO MAKE US DEAL WITH LOSS. ugh im done fuming but yeah not happy w that #i mean. monkey brain me who loves ten and wants him to live forever was delighted. #the rest of me who has a brain and thought processes thought it was dirt and made 0 sense in any way.

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

So obsessed with your Peter Parker roommates concept. What do MCU Foggy and Karen think of the whole situation? How much of this has Matt actually deigned to tell them? How much did he let them just figure it out when Definitely Not Bucky Barnes showed up and told them he was their secretary?

They find out before Matt, actually.

MCU Matt gets outed as Daredevil and is being held without bail awaiting trial. The thing is that he got arrested as Matt Murdock, not in the suit, but there evidence is pretty damning. Like, there’s a photograph pretty clearly showing his face, his DNA matches blood left behind the scene by Daredevil in the past, that kind of thing. Frank had to get himself arrested and declare the attorney who once represented him his bitch to keep him from getting 1) murdered in prison or 2) having to defend himself and really solidify the fact for everyone that he’s definitely, without a doubt, Daredevil, which is a solution that absolutely everyone hates. Basically the only card they have to play is the “this man is fully blind, no light perception” card, but even then, Karen and Foggy both know that the judge is going to grant the motion to have him tested for enhancement any day now and their ship is sinking fast. They’ll probably be arrested and charged as accomplices any day now and don’t have any real hope for making it out the other side of this.

And then Spider-Man shows up.

They don’t know Spider-Man. They don’t trust Spider-Man. Spider-Man has spent the last three months very heavily hinting that he knew Daredevils secret identity, which is a fact they’re very sensitive about now. All of a sudden, he shows up in their current base of operations insisting he has a way to save Matt, which is a penthouse apartment Elektra left to matt that no one should know exists. And foggy and Karen are like “no. Fuck off. Don’t want your help don’t trust your help. For all we know you’re how they found out about Matt.” It’s very tense. Karen’s got a fucking gun pointed at him.

And then Spider-Man takes off his mask.

And he’s just some fucking kid.

He tells him that there is absolutely no one in this world that knows his face anymore. He lost everyone the last time someone saw his face. It’s just them now. They can destroy him, do they understand? They can destroy him, so they can trust him, because he needs to fucking save Matt, and he has a way. He has a way for Matt to walk out of this with his name free and clear and everyone else convinced that someone else is daredevil.

And both of them are still processing the fact that Spider-Man was apparently fucking seventeen all along when he’s been doing this for like, an entire presidential term, but are like “okay, fine. How?” Because the photos got leaked with his face in daredevils suit and that’s pretty fucking convincing, and they have DNA.

But they don’t have fingerprints. And there’s an explanation as to how someone could look the same and have the same DNA while still being an entirely different person.

You can come in now, by the way.

And then Matt Murdock walks into the room.

This, explains Peter, is Matthew Michael Murdock. He was born in Hell’s Kitchen to Jack and Margaret Murdock, where he currently runs a law practice. He graduated from Columbia Law School, summa cum laude. And for the past seven years, he has been active as the vigilante Daredevil.

And he’s willing to stand in as Matt Murdock’s identical twin brother, and he’s already started on manufacturing the story as to where all record of him went. He looks the part. And, more importantly, he can play the part. Very few people can fight and move like daredevil, except for another Daredevil.

It would be easier to show them than to explain.

All Spider-Men can pull people along with them in a multiverse jump, which Peter does to prove how this is all possible. So they meet Peter B’s Matt, Foggy, and Karen first, and they actually know about it all for a long time before Matt (because they cannot get on a fucking recorded and monitored prison line and tell him don’t worry, an alternate version of him is going to pretend he’s his scoundrel twin brother).

The “Saving Matt” arc in the story is a very long one (and one of my favorites) that I won’t go into detail about here because it’s not relevant to the question but some brief highlights:

Mr. Murdock kept insisting that he go by Mike Murdock and foggy was like “what parents on the planet would name their twins Matthew Michael Murdock and Michael Matthew Murdock” and vetoing it and then when they finally get him into court Matt, in an act of stunning theatre kid improv, says “Mike you bastard” and they’re stuck with him being Mike Murdock. Foggy does not know why all versions of Matt are the same kind of stupid.

Mr. Murdock refuses to help simply on the basis that Matt’s also him, because all versions of Matt Murdock instinctively hate each other. The self-loathing is that strong. Pete is footing the bill of his assistance, however (the bill is causing an international scandal large enough to make sure that the fucking Avengers never bother him ever again)

There’s two separate heists that happen in this arc, one which deals in Pete heisting Stark Industries to make a lens that gives the appearance that “Mike” has reactive pupils (because they cannot fucking have Mike be blind too. Okay. They cannot. Everyone knows that only Matt Murdock was hit by that chemical truck. The only reason why they think they have a shot at getting Matt through this is playing the blind card so fucking hard and then handing them someone who could do it all unenhanced). The other heist involves an MRI machine and multiversal copies of Christine Palmer and a completely uninvolved blind man because the court approves the motion for matt to be tested for enhancement and they have to fake his results

Part of the extraction plan for “Mike” involves Peter B slipping in using Pete’s press pass and it only works because Pete’s JJJ cannot tell the different versions of Peter Parker apart. There’s no cosmic reason, he’s just an asshole.

Half of Hell’s Kitchen lies about totally remembering Mike Murdock, little Matty’s scoundrel twin brother, because they both love Daredevil and love Matt Murdock and will absolutely make shit up to protect him. Yeah, that little shit Mike, he was always up to something, not like that Matt tho. Matt’s a dependable local hero. By the end of the day after they kickstart the lie you could enter any place in Hell’s Kitchen and have a half decent shot of meeting someone who would swear on their dear sweet GamGam’s soul (God rest her) that not only did they know Mikey Murdock, but that that fucker owed them money.

After Matt gets the charges dropped he’s still unfortunately well known from the mess and starts wearing “I’m Not Daredevil” shirts to whip out whenever paparazzi come near him.

Overall, Foggy and Karen are huge fans of the situation in general. This is actually their favorite thing that has ever happened since Matt became daredevil. They simply adore Pete with their whole heart because he swooped in during their darkest hour and saved Matt. They also both separately thought that no one could ever understand the beleaguered depths of Being Them, until they met themselves. They keep asking the Spider-Men to give them rides to other universes so that they can get brunch at the hottest locales in the other universe with their alternative selves.

It is briefly awkward because they saw Mr. Murdock and his Karen holding hands first and assumed that Peter B’s universe was just the weirdly straight universe and then they find out that not only have all three of them been dating for years but they’re at the point where Karen and Foggy are quietly yearning for children and Matt’s trying to find durable orphans in a profoundly misguided attempt to make them happy. It’s existentially weird when you find out that another version of yourself is fucking someone you’re just friends with, which is, in part, why the Peters had an agreement around who they were not allowed to date. It’s hard to explain. As much as you tell yourself that they’re entirely autonomous and very different people whose relationship together does not reflect on your relationship with your version of them, it causes an extremely unique and inexplicable metaphysical discomfort. Which is, in part, why Pete’s response to Peter P’s MJ actually being a Matt Murdock was to pack up his little hobo sack and take to the streets. When MCU!Matt found out that Peter P was with an alternate version of himself, he had like thirty seconds where he was trying to be rational and be like “this doesn’t change anything between us they’re different people it shouldn’t matter at all” and then had to leave the room entirely. It was just

Matt, in existential disquiet: it’s really nothing that could make things weird between us, I—actually foggy could you take over for a second I need to do something really quick

Foggy: Pete really they’re completely different people. They’ve had pretty distinct lives from yours even if there are commonalities, they’re the same age as each other and different ages than both of you—fuck, Red doesn’t even look identical to Matt and Peter P doesn’t look identical to you

Matt, from the other room: OH MY GOD

Foggy: … this is no reason to be embarrassed and no reason to feel weird

Matt: OH MY GOD

As for Bucky, they actually adore him too. He’s a super soldier who has kill bill sirens go off every time Matt does something terminally stupid and grabs him by the scruff of the neck like an angry kitten. It’s so good for Matt’s health and, by extension, their health. This is the most zen they’ve ever been.

#peter parker roommate au #Peter Bs universe is assumed to be the weirdly straight one and they were all dead fucking wrong on all accounts #is it the one where Karen and Matt end up getting together? #no wrong not exactly they both are holding foggys hands #sexuality is one of those things where it’s not exactly consistent across universes and they’re not exactly sure why #Peter P is a bi disaster #Pete is pan and has known for a while #Peter b thought he was straight until he found out that all of his missing shit was in Harry’s apartment in the city (who never became the #goblin and never died) and also that they were like. a thing. sort of. it’s complicated. he has no memory of when he discovered this #about himself and has so many questions.

[madamescarlette]

nothing is better than a story where the secret was love all along, nothing!!!

#this post is about queen's thief and tenet in particular #but i know there are more in my heart #nothing is a better shock to my system than to suddenly arrive at the end of a story and look back across it #with tears in my eyes knowing that love was always there and the love would always endure #it would ring back and forth like a knell and never be undone #the universe was changed and molded by it and we were all made better and now we can walk back towards the rest of our lives #hands on our hearts because we know we have been known truly for now and all time and loved fully in that knowing #that is all #(btw i am going to unload my likes and answer messages tomorrow <3) #thinking out loud

[candied-cae]

Ed's newfound naiveté as a recurrent theme is so special to me actually.

Ed is smart. He's so smart. He is so incredibly intelligent that he's regarded at "History's Greatest Tactician" by Pete minutes into his on-screen appearance. He displays an almost causal competence with being able to plan and plot a course based on his working memory of moon cycles, weather patterns, ocean currents, and known sailing routes.

He is really brilliant and it's exemplified in so many different ways. He should be planning moves that branch from 5 different results in 10 different directions to make sure he can get ahead of anything. Those are the skills he's had to sharpen to survive on the water as long as he has.

But, after meeting Stede, someone without ulterior motives or plans to hurt him, he stops looking for them. He stops suspecting everyone around him is watching to catch him off-guard. And it makes every betrayal hit him harder. The passive aggression of the rich folks at the party, the intentional steps taken by Izzy, Calico Jack's scheme, and even himself disguised as Hornigold from his memories, it all surprises him.

And especially in the cases of his Mate Calico Jack and Captain Benjamin Hornigold - these are people he should know aren't coming to him earnestly. He should know they always have a card up their sleeves and they're always watching out for number 1. He should be able to remain suspicious of them, working out the usual 10 steps ahead of wherever he is to prepare for whatever he could possibly do to make sure he survives.

And yet, he was caught by surprise both times.

And it results in some ridicule. Because "Blackbeard" doesn't make these beginner mistakes. He's better than this.

But Stede turned his whole world upside down, and he's started seeming optimistic. He started believe the best in people and trusting them after a single show of effort. He started thinking maybe his dreams weren't so impossible and maybe there were less people to be scared of than he originally thought.

Even when he was scorned (leaving The Revenge to go off with Jack - being abandoned by Stede in S1) he still hasn't put up all his walls again. He's definitely tried, that's why he "became the Kraken" but he's not as closed off as he thinks he is. He thinks he's hardened himself back up, he thinks he's impenetrable because he's ready to die and "stopped believing in love," he thinks he's back to business and back to who he was before Stede Bonnet ever happened to him...

But we still haven't actually seen it go away.

He's still somewhat expecting people to be genuine and honest with him. At the very least he's expecting the people who hate him to just say so.

And that's so, so, so special to me. His life before Stede Bonnet was full of him expecting the worst and finding whatever scrappy way he had to spin it to his advantage to keep moving forward. But since meeting him... he's started messing up that formula. He's been trusting too much.

That joy and belief hasn't died yet. I'm sure as he wakes up, he's going to act like he's got it all figured out again. He's going to act like his defenses can't be breached, but I believe that he's going to keep trusting too much for his own good. And here's to hoping that trust lands back in Stede's lap soon <3

#Cae Has Lots of Feelings About Our Flag Means Death #I love him I love him I love him #He's so babygirl #And so soft and hurt #Edward was practically changed on a chemical level by meeting Stede #Everything he's ever known about the laws of the universe were challenged by this one guy he happened to come across #And he's trying to undo all that changing #He's trying to undo the effects of Stede Bonnet on his life #But he can't #Not as easily as he pretends he can #I think there's also something to say about people who have directly hurt him in the past being the ones he still ended up trusting #Because they say point blank that Hornigold was abusive to him and Jack and other people on their crew #And Jack says they're all in various stages of fucking each other over #These are no good people and he knows it #And yet... he opened himself up too wide and got hurt. #I think the Hornigold scene is going to be treated a little bit as 'the time the lesson finally sank in' #That he can't trust people at all and least of all will he let himself trust Stede #But Edward Teach won't be able to stick to that for very long #He's going to love and miss being loved #And he's going to fix things #So he can enjoy the perfect feeling of family #And also a husband- who said that? #Our Flag Means Death #OFMD #Our Flag Means Death Season 2 Spoilers #Our Flag Means Death Spoilers #OFMD Spoilers #OFMDS2 #OFMD s2 spoilers #Edward

[souptomatobasil]

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[Asterales]

#smile for me #smile for me game #comic #Flower Kid #Jones #Noah #boris habit #many flower kids in fact #and many others #friends near and far #across the florets of universes in this asterales known as life #you are not alone #there are many just like you here and there and everywhere! #be well flower children and you will find all that you are looking for #flowers and dreamers alike #be well

[theiliad]

when I left this city and this part of the country I thought I was never coming back, but the more time I spend here the more I'm learning to love it. I'm near some of my oldest and closest friends, near my family, a short drive from one of the most beautiful places in the world. I'm making a home here, I'm starting to involve myself in the local community. I'm glad I left when I did, I don't think I would've ever stopped hating this place if I didn't. How shocked my younger self would've been to know I'm glad to be back and call it home.

#mal.txt #i fucked off across the world for a year as teenager #and then picked a university on the opposite side of the country #and i'm glad i did #but my priorities are so different now #i want to be comfortable and known and close to people who i love and who love me

[lesbiradshaw]

It’s really interesting and annoying to me how so many ppl seem to misunderstand /misinterpret Steve’s character. He’s not a rule follower per se - but ppl think that cuz of his “language” comments. Trump supporters think he’s on their side when he would despise maga and everything it stands for. Steve literally fights for what’s right - equality and justice for everyone (not just Americans). He would hate bigots and he clearly doesn’t trust the gov. I hate how he’s so misunderstood but U get it

sometimes you just gotta

#people with 0 media literacy ignoring the decades of political and social commentary put into the cap character 👎 #i want joss whedons head on a pike #one thing i hate about the mcu (among many) is that theres such a lack of consistency for the characterization of specific heroes across + #the movies because they hire a diff person to write/direct them almost every single time and half the time that person #doesnt even watch the other movies ???? so its like #with actual comics having SO MANY diff writers makes sense bc different runs exist in different timelines and universes #and even then it can be hit or miss if they hit the core of the characters #but the mcu is supposed to all exist in a single universe for the most part #so when you have your characters ping ponging their personalities depending on who is writing/directing them… #people who only watch the avengers films are gonna have a wildly diff interpretation of steve (or any of the others) than people who #actually watch the individual trilogies and its so annoying #and then theres the whole aspect of fans falling for the literal propaganda aspects of the cap character despite the entire message being #NOT TO bc theres a good man behind the mantle… but i digress #mcu lacks consistency ive known this we all know it but anyways #i know what is truly in your heart steve rogers dont you worry

[tigerlily340]

CHAPTER EIGHT OF ACROSS THE KNOWN UNIVERSE IS HERE!

Chapter 8 of ATKU is now up on AO3, complete with illustrations!

And why yes, this IS the chapter where Alar gets his magic-girl transformation!

#she ra #she ra fic #spop #spop fic #she ra oc #horde clone oc #horde clones #horde prime #spacebats #spacebat oc #kalio and alar #across the known universe #read on ao3 #tigerlily340 art

[szlachtas]

((been hanging out in the pokemon irl ic rp circles for a bit and a lot of them tag every single post w/ unreality. idk i feel like it's probably majorly overcompensating and performative esp on small blogs only followed by people in that community... i get it for very popular blogs that breach containment a lot but if only rpers are gonna see your posts.. they know its rp..

#ooc #i'm not schitzospec or anything #so i might have it wrong but it comes across as condescending. theres a difference ebtween spreading worrying misinformation and fiction #esp w/ a fictional series so universally known... #idk ig i was just wondering on this communities perspective

[donuts4evry1]

On the Sanderia Malayensis:

English Wikipedia:

[No Common name]

Japanese Wikipedia:

Amakusa Jellyfish :D

(OK, I’ll admit that I’m exaggerating just a bit and taking things out of context, but the bottom line is that you can learn a lot just from researching the same animal from different languages of the Wikipedia!

If you’re also interesting in learning about this jellyfish, I’ll link them here :>:

sanderia malaynsis (EN) アマクサクラゲ (sanderia malaynsis) (JP)

#honestly I somewhat prefer the japanese entries to the english entries of the wiki #though the English wiki is by far the most organized (even if it's plenty imperfect) #still the Japanese wikis tend to be limited by location #while the English wiki has a ton of stubs of jellyfish from all across the world #Japan tends to only do the well-known jellies (and only really elaborates on the local species- which i can't fault them for but for those- #-who want to learn more about jellyfish. they'd probably find it easier to go to the English Wiki) #honestly tho the english wiki does include more sources #i'm a lil sad that the japanese wiki didn't include a source that detailed the jellyfish's life cycle from Hokkaido University #i'm sure they would've released that study in japanese too... sigh :( #though it also includes information from the 110 jellyfish encyclopedia WHICH IS MAKING ME SEETHE BECAUSE !! I WANT TO READ IT!!!! #I WANNA READ IT SO BAD BUT I DO NOT UNDERSTAND JAPANESE HGHNN #tbh tho the narrow localization of the jellyfish wiki page doesn't really bother me too much because Ite (the game im researching for) does- #-take place in japan. so. #also also it appears that Japan keeps these jellies in aquariums as well so it makes sense that there wouldn't be much info on it in english #still #it was a very entertaining read and now im going to cry because my calculus homework is too hard for me and i don't wanna do it

[littlestarprincess]

Every time I see something about Supernatural, I wonder how much of the current atheist attitude towards Christianity is rooted in people mistaking Supernatural for being well researched and intelligent.

#i saw someone say something like 'is jesus be embarrassed to be associated with the demiurge known as the christian god' and it's like #JESUS OF NAZARETH LITERALLY STARTED A CULT #HE WAS A JEWISH MAN WHO STARTED A CULT THAT KICKED OFF CHRISITIANITY #THE CHRISTIAN GOD IS LITERALLY HIS TAKE ON GOD #is is CALLED THE CHRISTIAN GOD *AFTER HIM* #also that's not even what the demiurge is like #the demiurge-as-god concept really only applies to the old testament god #(and subsequently might be rooted in antisemitisim tbh) #and the demiurge as a whole concept IS SUBSERVIENT TO THE SUPREME BEING and THAT is if you accept that particular branch of gnosticism #(though adding on to the demiurge-as-god thing . . . it also is interesting to me specifically because not only does it reflect #jesus (the son) usurping yahweh (the father) #but yahweh had a son name el and el is where we get all those such-and-such of god names so it's. . . el (the son) usurping the father #(yahweh) and jesus (the son) usurping the father (god) and it's just part of an endless cycle of sons usurping fathers because it is #in the nature of children to eventually wrestle empires from their parents #idk how el might appear in the testaments i'm pretty much only familiar with him in the context of the caulish pantheon and there very #loosely but i just think it's neat how humanity tells the same universal stories with different names over and over across time and space #and then we fight over it???? for some reason???? #also this is no shade to supernatural this is 100% shade to the people who try to use supernatural lore in place of researching #shit like djinn and faerie changelings #supernatural is an AMERICAN BASED HORROR SERIES so the folklore is presented THROUGH THAT LENS #and because of that the biblical stuff is ALSO HEAVILY ROOTED in discussion of the effect evangelicalism and purity cults have on people #it is NOT a be all end all dictionary of occult lore

[destinyandcoins]

I want to know what petty discourse and infighting the mycelium networks shared by fungi are engaging in while we're all sitting around worried about fucking elections and the economy and all this "existing as a being with a central nervous system and complex thoughts" bullshit we've been trying. pretty please share the gossip

#Oh to be a jellyfish in a bloom of my compatriots #Listen. The question of life elsewhere in the universe beyond our understanding of it is fascinating #And I think the fungi are cool as shit and every day we hear about how crows are learning to use tools #And plants are potentially more aware of and adaptive to their surroundings on a level previously not recognized #And you think ELSEWHERE IN THE MASSIVE UNIVERSE #Theres not one collection of alien lifeforms that has come to hold consciousness in some form #And is perhaps just attempting contact on a plane of reality we straight up don't know about yet? #Like fucking radio waves. We've only known about that shit for a couple centuries #We've invented WIFI. transmission of information and thoughts across language and technology #And you think there isn't still some facet of the world we haven't yet figured out that we keep identifying as UFOs or ghosts or whatnot? #Yeah. Sure

[ipso-faculty]

Perisex allies: stop this shit

CW: intersexism

Came across this infographic during some google image searching and I'm still kind of a state of despair about it because it's not just offensively wrong about what intersex is, it was used to teach university students about queer issues:

Alt text: LGBTQIA+ are defined one by one. Intersex is defined erroneously as "These are people who were born with genital organs of both sexes (male and female). It is a genetic condition."

It's one thing for your rando perisex person to be getting this wrong on social media. It's another thing entirely when it's professionals getting this wrong in an educational setting. 😩 And that this infographic appears in a peer-reviewed publication. 😩

It's even worse to know the students that were taught with this infographic were medical students, who will be the ones traumatizing intersex people for decades to come 😩

It's so wrong in so many different ways:

Intersex is not limited to people with genital differences. Most intersex people have intersex variations that are not apparent at birth, with puberty being the most common time of life for variations to present. Many people find out in adulthood having no outward physical differences.

Of the intersex people with genital differences, they do not have two sets of genitals. Most genital differences are still recognizably female or male (e.g. spadias), and those who have ambiguous genitals have one set.

Intersex is not "male parts + female parts" or even "intermediate male/female parts", it is an umbrella term for anybody whose primary/secondary sex characteristics don't line up with what is expected for male and female bodies. Some intersex variations make women look more feminine, or make men look more masculine.

Defining intersex by genital differences doesn't just exclude most intersex people, it also sets the tone that we are defined by our genitals. To be publicly intersex is to have non-stop DMs about your genitals. This sort of framing sets up openly intersex people for invasive questions and harassment, and it keeps large numbers of intersex people from coming out.

Many intersex variations do not have a known genetic basis. Many intersex variations are caused by exposure to certain hormonal levels in the womb. Certain medications when taken during pregnancy can trigger intersex variations.

While bodily variation is necessary for being intersex, the social experience of stigma, discrimination, isolation, hyper-medicalization, and hyper-sexualization are all just as much a part of being intersex.

📣 Perisex allies: this is shit you can stop. When you see other perisex people parrot this sort of misinformation, correct them. Direct them to look up resources written by actually intersex people.

Here are some starter resources to give:

Intersex explained by Hans Lindahl

Media and style guide by IHRA

FAQ by intersex-support

A recent post I did compiling information for trans people who want to be better intersex allies

#intersex #text #intersexism #queer #lgbt #lgbtia #lgbt education #perisex allies #psa #actuallyintersex #actually intersex