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tavyliasin · 2 months

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Fandom Essay - Body Positivity and Validation

Good timezone darlings~ Lia is back at it again with some examination of BG3 Fandom and some more of the wonderful things we can find within it. This time we are talking about representation of different physical features. If you feel this might be a little much for you, either in regards to your relationship to your body or any potential dysphoria, please feel free to skip it. Second disclaimer that I will be mentioning trans and nonbinary people here from the perspective of a Cis person - this is absolutely not my right to speak for or over anyone so I thoroughly welcome the voices of those with lived experiences to join in the comments with their input, but I also did not want to leave the topic out of the discussion and you may just see why as we get into it~ So on with today's long title:

How FanWorks Can Be Important To Self Acceptance And Body Positivity - The Next "Callout Essay" from TavyliaSin (Who is calling herself out with these too) ((there are reasons it feels targeted I know where to aim)) (((but honestly it's fine it's all positive I promise)))

Today we will be discussing: body types, disability representation (only a little though, this one may need a full post of its own), body size, gender (and gender euphoria), scars and "imperfections", visible ageing. This will be through the lens of both the canon inclusion and everything we see in mods, edits, and fan creations of all kinds. As usual I will use sub headers and encourage anyone to skip what makes them uncomfortable, as well as to join the discussion~ so let's begin, shall we?

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What Does Body Positivity Mean?

Let's start off with the simple one. Body positivity doesn't mean promoting any one body type as the ideal or as better than any others, it is about being positive about the mortal flesh vessels we inhabit and all of their features. A lot of people can find this difficult, to love oneself or even just accept oneself, especially in a highly critical society. But that is where representation and even fan creations can step in - by being vocal and loud about appreciating features that people may feel negative about in themselves, we can help build up confidence and self worth, as well as reminding all of us that we do not have to look a certain way to be desirable and desired~

How Does This Relate To Baldur's Gate 3?

On the surface, we do have a lot of characters with more conventionally accepted body types in the main cast and romance characters, though it is worth noting that the base models were updated to be less "Hollywood muscles" on a couple of characters, which made more sense to the character stats and backstories (unless Gale was working out every day in his tower, he's not that much like a bodybuilder physique).

But aside from this, when you look closer, there's also an awful lot to appreciate in the standard character designs. A lot of these are things which fans pick up on and adore, despite how they may be features that people are actively bullied for or that are seen as undesirable by beauty standards. Those "beauty standards" can get in the trash too, but I'll use it here to point out the things we are shining a positive light on in the face of those societal values~ Karlach - Our tall queen, strong and muscular and not particularly feminine with her tattoos, piercings, and hairstyle. But she is adored for all of those things, even her broken horn is an important feature, alongside the glowing heart and fire that have some in the game view her as monstrous until they look closer and know her. Astarion - His laugh lines. Gods don't we love those? The wrinkles in his face are experience, and of course he has those signs of exhaustion in his eyes that make him so much more relatable to many of us. Lae'zel - This might feel like cheating as she's not human, and is less human-like than most of the other characters, but in a way that is also an important one. She's still desirable and treated as such in the romances, as well as very much adored by the fans. Gale - The little signs of ageing and stress mark Gale's face, and even the hints of greying in his hair are picked up on and chewed on by those who love him most. Wyll - More on him later but honestly is he not the poster boy for physical acceptance? Not only do we have his initial appearance with the stone eye but with one choice his entire body is completely changed and part of his story is arguably learning to live with this and how his new look is likely going to be seen as everything he ever feared. Halsin - Are we cheating with BIG TALL MUSCLE MOUNTAIN because many people find this attractive to start with? Maybe, but again he has clear signs of ageing, as well as very obvious facial scarring. His look might easily be described as fearsome, and yet his personality couldn't be further from it. Raphael - Hello there lovers of older men, who look at each one of those wrinkles and his brow lines and start sweating a bit more. I'm with you, he's gorgeous because of those signs of aging, not despite them. Abdirak - Our real poster boy for scars and visible wounds. Features which have long been given only to villainous characters in fiction (particularly that aimed at younger audiences) and yes he is one of the most violent characters, but he is also immediately deeply sympathetic to the player. So we are no longer equating scars/visual difference with pure evil. In general we have a lot of features that are not overly smoothed out or homogenised to fit certain standards. We have different nose shapes, visible pores, scars, acne marks, wrinkles, greying hair, moles, freckles, body hair, and a lot of variety across face shapes and features. It makes the characters feel more real, more relatable, and seeing features closer to our own can be comforting and validating in a lot of ways. Of course there are more examples, and far more we could say about each one of these and all the things that make them unique that we love about them, but we would be here all day and there are other topics to cover!

What About The Player Characters?

So we do have a range of fantasy races, many of which arguably don't represent real humans at all, and we do also lack variation in body types in the standard game. But we also have player characters with shorter statures with the dwarves, halflings and gnomes. Beyond just being part of the lore and story, there is some representation here for similar body types in real life. I can't say a lot on this as I neither have personal experience nor do I personally know anyone who could speak on how they feel about these races in comparison to lived experiences, but it would be equally unfair to leave the point out of the conversation - please do add something in the comments if you have the knowledge and emotional bandwidth to spare, I would love to hear about your experiences and opinions! Aside from this we have a wide range of skin tones (though my own is too close to plain paper to be able to tell you if this is anywhere near adequate so please feel free to weigh in with lived experience here) as well as scars and other features in the character creation. There's also vitiligo pigmentation, which is not only representing the condition but also normalising it to those who aren't familiar and making some rather beautiful options for our characters in my opinion. Even in the hair styles there are a couple of options featuring thinner hair or baldness patterns. There are less options for textured hairstyles and the facial features are equally limited, but there are some truly gorgeous mods out there which I'll mention later.

Player Characters And Gender

Another caveat to please weigh in with your lived experiences, but this one is one that I've seen friends enjoy and it was really wonderful to see that delight. Being able to select pronouns, genitals, body type, and voice all independently of each other is something which is so vastly meaningful to a lot of players. To some it might just be "oh cool I get to choose what my character looks like naked", but to a nonbinary friend of mine... Well, they were sending me happy, joyful, and what can only be described as "delightfully shouty" messages when they were in character creation. To paraphrase, and to tone it down just a little, it went something like this:

"Wait you mean I can have a character look and exist the way I want to be? I can actually have myself represented on screen, and nobody will misgender me, and nobody will decline a romance based on any of this?!"

Maybe it seems silly but I got tearful to see them just absolutely losing it over having these options. They've been stuck with binary options in most fantasy RPGs for so long... Of course there's still things that could be improved, there always will be, but that joy? Priceless. It meant something in that moment and I hope it will continue to mean something to a lot more people in many moments to come. Of course there are still flaws - the faces and bodies are still gender matched, and it isn't possible for people to refine the size and shape of player character chests. In some ways really what we have is the bare minimum, a start that needs to go further, but seeing as there have been precious few games in the genre to even reach this low bar it is good to recognise it, to say "this brought people joy and is worth the effort to make it happen", and to say "please go further because there is genuine interest."

What About Mods?

This is where we can see a lot more of that positivity flourishing. There are countless options, from having more hairstyles and hair types, to face shapes and features, all the way to body types and adding in top surgery scars. Giving the game the ability to be modded, and potentially even encouraging and supporting it, means we can see so much more of that body positivity and representation. Having a hero who shares your features, seeing romances play out where the characters are valued in every way just as they are. Being able to mod softer and wider body types to the Origin characters too, taking the form away from the bodybuilder/model physique and far closer to more average - and undeniably still devastatingly attractive - body types. Seeing the trans-Origin character headcanons portrayed too, that's just so utterly divine~ (There is a lot to be said about parallels to LGBTQIA+ experiences in the Origin storylines, too, so feel free to comment on those at the end if you would like to) To all of you out there making mods, and sharing the characters you've created using other peoples' mods - thank you! I adore seeing all of these, as well as people's happiness in sharing and using them too~

I don't even use mods, honestly darlings I'm not the best with tech at times and as I'm spending vastly more hours writing than playing it's likely not as worth it for me - especially when people share the modded content for us all to enjoy in videos and screenshots. But I love how many there are, that they exist, and all the ways they give people joy and euphoria to see their own body types and/or body types they find to be desirable~

But Wasn't This Post About Fandom and Fan Creations?

It was - and is! Because after all of the content you can get in the base game and in the modded version, what comes after is where the fans go with it from there.

That's truly where we get the most body positivity and joy. Headcanons leave the head and pour onto the page. We see characters reimagined a hundred times, each with their own twist, their own enthusiasm both from the creator and from fans just eating up every piece that comes out. There's so much variety there seems to be almost anything you could wish for with almost any character, and I can guarantee you that if there's something you'd like to see and aren't seeing out there, there will be an artist willing to work on the idea (most likely on commission basis, we do prefer to ensure our artists can eat after all, but there may be some willing to just adopt ideas to draw as their own too). This even extends to cosplay, with gender-swapped characters, as well as the one thing I will always be vocal about in cosplay - everyone should be allowed to wear the character costumes they love regardless of body types or how well their body/face matches the original character. Though this does come with the caveat that skin should never be darkened to match a character's look (if that character has a natural type skin tone, obviously green etc is not an issue) - just be your own version of the character if you adore them enough to put the costume together.

And your work?...

Thank you for asking Lia, let me answer that one for you. Of course, take it away, Lia! Ahem silliness aside, there is something you might or might not have noticed in my writing. I don't do a lot of body-type description. You can imagine whatever you like as you read - Gale with a soft tummy to snuggle? Yes please! Or you can imagine him with sculped abs, or a more slender frame - whatever brings you the most joy to read. This is especially true for anything I do with gender neutral character fics (usually "character x Reader"/2nd person pieces) - I try to stay away from any specific gendered features and focus on actions and sensations which can be common to any body.

How Does This All Add Up To Body Positivity?

Simple, love - by sharing and making all of these works we are saying "these features are beautiful, we love them, we want to see more of them as we fall head over heels time and time again". It might not seem like a lot, but the mind is both powerful and very easily open to suggestion. If a person keeps seeing negative things about a feature they have (eg, as a mild example body hair on women/feminine people) they will internalise that and wish to change themselves (eg, waxing/shaving/etc). In the case of a bit of body hair that might not seem drastic, but it still changes how someone feels about themselves. At the end of the day, the more we love ourselves the easier it is to look after ourselves and be happy in the mortal flesh vessels we pilot around this terribly strange universe~ For my part, I have seen my body shape which I had struggled with shown time and time again as "wow look at this character who looks this way, they are amazing! I love this feature, and that feature, and the way the artist made sure to include this particular thing-" Every time I see that, every time I see parts of myself I struggle with being applauded and appreciated, I feel a little brighter. A little more comfortable. A little more like I am allowed to dress it up nicely and spend time and care to feel good about it. I also feel less shame for old scars, for every part of myself that has made me look at the mirror with unkind eyes. Confidence is not a single brick, it's many that need to be built carefully with the right cement. If it is chipped away at too many times, even by little self-deprecating "jokes", it will erode. It will crack. It will wear away piece by piece instead of building up. And before anyone decides to try equating weight and health, darling this is not the place. If you truly care about someone's wellbeing, leave their health to the private discussions they have with their doctors, and remember that looking after oneself is far easier from a place of loving oneself. If you care about a thing, you want to look after it. If you see a thing as already broken, you're less likely to be cautious in how you handle it.

Where does this essay end?

Well, I believe that would be here. With the endless gratitude for every creator out there bringing us mods, images, fiction, art, cosplay, content of all of these wonderful characters in every incredible variation that we can think of. I encourage those of you who are feeling lower in confidence about yourselves to really look at the fan responses to these creations - the excitement and desire for every body type, every feature, everything that we might see of ourselves and dislike there are so many people out there seeing those exact same features we have and feeling nothing but attraction, desire, love, adoration, and praise~ We are often our own worst critics, but not one of those characters would ever reject us, neither are we rejecting any of our favourites when we see them on the screen. I certainly hope to see more games bringing us this variety, and going further too. There is power in fiction and fan-works, and it is helpful to recognise it too.

Apologies if this one felt too long, rambling, or like I lost my point - it was done over 3 days and I'm rather tired~ I have other essays coming in the next few weeks too, and I really would love to hear your opinions on any of them~

As a final note - please do add your own views and experiences on the topic! I can only offer my own as a disabled white cisgender asexual/bisexual/panromantic woman with too much time on her hands~ I neither wish to ignore experiences outside of my own nor speak over them. All I can offer is what I see, what I hear, and of course my endless love to all of you~ That, my very dear darlings, is never in doubt. I love you just the way you are, because of who you are, and will see the beauty in everything that makes up the sum of your wonderful selves~

#baldurs gate 3 #fandom essay #body positvity #body positive #bg3 #opinions welcome #please add in the comments

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shinidamachu · 2 years

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Hi! I love following your meta and detailed analyses and I swear you had one somewhere about the actual chapters/instances that had InuKik in the manga as compared to the anime but I can't find it :( Did I imagine it? (Why I'm asking is I'm writing one of my fics IWFA and I had someone ask me why I write InuKik the way I do and I was about to say cuz in the manga they give off the impression of being distant like that. Then I second guessed myself and wanted to reread the parts... anyway I blab.

Hi! Thank you so much! This means a lot because I do love writing meta. Unfortunatelly, I don't think I made the post you're looking for.

I'm still in the process of reading the manga and even though I use a panel here and there to make my points across, I refrain from going into deep, side by side comparisons because I feel like smarter people than me have already done it to exhaustion. And with a level of coherence I can only dream to achieve.

One of these people is definitely @inukag so maybe you'll have more luck asking her? If Cynthia didn't wrote it, she's still your best shot at figuring out who did.

And for whatever is worth, I think your interpretation of manga Inukik is actually pretty spot on. In fact, I'd go even further and say that anime Inukik was almost just as distant. The difference is that at least Sunrise tried to give them some substance, which in my opinion didn't work at all, since it butchered their characterization (Inuyasha's especially) by omitting very important scenes and adding meaningless fillers that in my opinion only made more obvious how superficial their relationship really was.

To me, love is something you build and trust is the foundation in which you're building on. To trust — and consequently to truly love — takes time. On top of that, a strong relationship requires efffort, honesty and fully acceptance from both parts, none of which I believe Takahashi or Sunrise showed us.

Boat dates under the sunset and passionate kisses are just bells and whistles. Yes, it looks great on screen, but it doesn't necessarily equal to real love. Infatuation, sure. But love? It's easy to make you characters go on boat dates under the sunset. It's easy to make them kiss passionately. It's even easier for the writers, for the audience and for characters themselves to confuse it for love.

What's hard is to actually take the time to create, develop, test and expand a romantic connection. To show how deep it runs instead of just telling. To make it unfold and progress and grow stronger before our eyes. To make it dynamic rather than stagnant. Inuyasha and Kikyo didn't have that at all, be it in the manga, be it in the anime.

Their relationship was based on mutual loneliness, on seeing each other through rose colered glasses and of the fundamentally wrong idealization of the life they thought they'd have together.

That being said, here's my unsolicited advice: if you're anything like me, I can totally understand why you'd feel the need to try and defend your point of view, especially if the person asked you to explain it in good faith.

However, even if your interpretation of the Inukik relationship was way off — which, again, I don't believe it is — remember that you don't owe anyone an explanation for your writing choices, but you do owe it to yourself to write what feels right. It's your story to tell and you can tell it any way you see fit.

I know our takes on this matter aren't particularly popular within the fandom, but they are just as valid. I lost count of how many Inukag fanfics I've read where Inukik was written to be a much bigger thing than I personally believe it originally was, but even though I disagree with that interpretation, I'm also not entitled to an explanation other than... that's the author's vision. And that's okay.

The important thing was that people had fun and were proud of what they wrote. As they should, because it takes courage to post your stories online. And if I'm bothered by an specific story to the point of not being able to enjoy it, that's my problem and I should probably search for something closer to my own interests to read.

Anyway... I can't wait to read If We Fall Anyway. It has been on my to read list for a while now and I'm sure I'll love it.

#Sidmailing #Thank you for your patience #I know it took me ages to reply #But I was so focused on Inukag Week #And I knew this was gonna end up being an elaborated response LMAO

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scattered-winter · 1 year

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i would be very interested in your aro buck and aro eddie aus and headcanons!!! i am aspec myself, and i have been enjoying aspec buck and eddie takes in fic, but i almost never see them being aro. if you feel comfy sharing, i am all eyes 😍🌈❤️

the aro eddie hcs are more based in what I've seen in canon (because he's sooooooooo coded <33) and the aro buck hcs are more born from spite than anything else BUT I WILL HAPPILY TELL YOU ABOUT THEM<3

so the thing abt eddie is that bro is NOT interested in a relationship. pepa's trying to get him to date, but he's just really not into it. now one could read this in many ways, all equally valid, but I'm choosing to interpret this as him being more comfortable with not wanting a relationship. he keeps comparing the dates to what he had with shannon, as a kid. and he can't find anything like that as an adult so he's saying he's Waiting For The Right Person (when in reality what he had with shannon was probably idealized + romanticized because they were KIDS. they were kids and they both had more responsibility than they should have had to handle at that age and so I feel like eddie is very much looking through rose-colored lens when it comes to what he had with shannon.) and I'm not denying that they had anything, because it's soo clear that they loved each other a lot!!!!! this might be a hot take but I think one of the reasons why they fell apart the way they did was because of how much love was there. but that's something for another post. but regardless, eddie is using a romance he had as a kid to compare to the potential romances he could have as an adult. which to ME is very aro coded because there's this framework of What Romance Should Look Like that a lot of aro people try and make themselves fit into, at least at first. and idk there's something to be said for how much eddie loves his team and his kid and all the people in his life who he doesn't have any kind of romantic obligation to. it's only when there are expectations for A Romance To Develop where he starts getting cagey

and the whooole thing with ana just really highlights this because the ENTIRE time, eddie was focused purely on what ana brought to the table in terms of chris. chris needed someone to take care of him during the blackout, chris liked having ana over, chris needed another caregiver in his life that he loved and trusted, so clearly eddie needed to keep dating ana because she gave chris all of those things. and when eddie finally does come to terms with the fact that he's keeping ana at a distance because he doesn't feel the things he should feel about her, he breaks up with her, and has been reluctant to jump back into any relationships ever since.

and for buck, I'm always fascinated by characters who are overly sexual/romantic because in the rich inner world they're compensating for a lack of those feelings. so buck in my rich inner world is both aromantic and asexual, and the way he behaves (or USED to behave) is his way of trying to Cope With Being Different. he grew up in the amatonormative world we live in, where kids on the playground are teased about friends of the opposite gender because everyone knows you can't be friends with someone without having Attraction (sarcasm), and with the upbringing we knew he had from his parents (or lack thereof), I really think a kid on both the aro and ace spectrums surrounded by all that would lean all the way into the other direction to Compensate. his parents only gave him attention when he got hurt doing something reckless, and I think this is kind of the same flavor where he thinks if he has enough sex or has a deep and meaningful enough romantic relationship, he'll be Fixed. and idk. for buck it's more about the Vibes than anything else but eddie is sooooooo aro coded it makes me insane

anyway my ideal buddie is a qpr where they sort of blur the lines between Traditional Friendship and Traditional Romance (like they already do) and they never really consciously make a shift into Romance Territory because they don't need to!!! they're happy where they are!!!! they love each other and they're raising a kid together and if people want to try and fit them into a box that's their problem, not buddies'.

#shoutout to arom-com for first opening my eyes to qpr buddie...how does it feel to be theeee biggest brained person in the fandom....#911 abc #aro buck #aro eddie #also just to be clear eddie is always ALWAYS asexual. To Me <3 but ive made posts abt that before so i wanted to focus on the aro side <3 #anyway TY FOR ASKING I LOVE RAMBLING ABT ARO HEADCANONS <333 #anon #qpr buddie

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gch1995 · 2 years

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watching people get tons of hate comments/quote retweets on twitter for daring to criticize obi wan and/or defending owen lars…these people really can’t stand any dissenting opinion outside their own echo chamber can they? lol

Yeah, I never really saw the draw in Obi-Wan Kenobi as a character. It’s not even that he was a self-righteous and narrow-minded asshole. I’ve sympathized deeply with fictional characters who were or became objectively awful people who I would feel terrified of, if not despise, in real life before. Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader is a pretty great example of that.

It’s just that Obi-Wan has no life or interests that are really strong enough to ultimately outweigh his faith in Yoda and the Jedi Council. I partly get why. He never knew life outside of the Jedi Order. However, he’s also just rather shallow and insular in his aspirations. He’s primarily devoted to Yoda at all costs because Yoda and the Council discouraged emotion/individually his entire life. He saw that Qui Gonn, Dooku, Ahsoka, and Anakin never got ahead in the Order trying to be their own people. At worst, some went dark, and Obi-Wan’s primary goal and life trap is security and playing it safe by fitting in with the Order.

Since most of us weren’t recruited by cult soldier leaders from before we could remember, you would expect more people in the audience to relate more strongly to Luke and Anakin because they represent the average person. They know what it is to be people of the real world outside of just Yoda’s cult. They’re not okay with being abused, isolated, exploited, manipulated, and oppressed by Obi-Wan, Yoda, the Jedi Council, and Sidious. While Anakin went about dealing with it in the wrong ways in Revenge of the Sith, he had every right to resent them, distrust them, and want to avoid them after how they treated him over the past 14 years.

As I said in another post, I do think there is a point when a complete lack of individuality and sense of self to blindly serve authority to fit in actually holds people back from actually achieving great things and being heroes, too. Yes, too much individualism and emotional abandonment leads to the dark side, but if you’re always playing it safe by sacrificing your entire sense of self to serve authority without much question or fight to gain their approval and fit in, then how can you really achieve true bravery, heroism, and selflessness either? When your sense of drive and morality is completely based upon external validation from authority figures and a corrupt and outdated doctrine to fit in and be safe, then you’re not really being good because it feels good doing the right thing and helping other people without a thought of reward or validation for yourself from others either. Being truly heroic means being brave enough to stand up for what you believe in and do the right thing, regardless of what others think, and I don’t really get that from Obi-Wan in the narrative most of the time. It just becomes a task. For it to actually be heroic, it has to come from a personal and spontaneous drive, desire, ideal, and moral code from within yourself, too, regardless of the external validation and reward from those with power of authority and clout over you.

I think Obi-Wan, while infuriatingly stubborn in his ass-kissing of Yoda, is s pretty good example of that hero who utterly fails because he never feels confident enough in his sense of self, but his fans always want to make him out to be someone who was more heroic than he ever actually was. Yeah, he wasn’t evil, but he was not a very good person like the Skywalkers at their best, or even his master Qui Gonn. When his stans and Disney try to make him out to be anything better or more tragic than that annoyingly one-note “true believer” Jedi in the main narrative, that’s when I start to get irritated and roll my eyes.

I do think a big part of it comes from the fact that he’s played by Ewan McGregor in the PT movies. Don’t get me wrong, the guy is a good actor, and yes, very easy on the eyes. However, the character he plays in Star Wars was never too much of an intrigue to the main audience before the prequels cast him in the role of Obi-Wan.

Owen Lars had every right to tell Obi-Wan to fuck off and stay away from his son when he caught him requesting to recruit Luke as a child to be a Jedi. I mean, how can anyone watch what happened to Anakin, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka, the Jedi younglings, and every other Jedi recruit in the prequel era, and think to themselves, “Yoda and the Council did a good job raising these kids to be healthy, functional, and independent adults,” even though every Jedi we meet in the prequels is a fucked up tragic mess of a human being as an adult in one way or another, regardless of whether they remained in the Jed or not? Let Luke Skywalker be a normal kid before getting involved with the Jedi.

#anti obi wan kenobi #anti kenobists #anti obi wan show #pt jedi critical #to be fair I don’t hate obi-wan and I do think he’s a tragedy #but I don’t find him all that interesting because he doesn’t really have a character arc #and I don’t think he’s a tragedy for the same reasons his stans #like I don’t think he was ever this great hero who did his best #I think he became a coward and a hypocrit who lacked

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marketingprofitmedia · 7 months

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4. Setting Up Your Pinterest Account

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Go to Pinterest and sign up for a new account.

Choose a clear profile picture and write a compelling bio.

Create boards that align with your niche and potential affiliate products.

Start following users and boards in your niche for inspiration.

5. Creating Eye-Catching Pins

Creating eye-catching pins is vital in affiliate marketing. Use high-quality images, clear fonts, and vibrant designs to capture your audience’s attention and entice them to explore your affiliate products. Follow these tips for creating pins that grab attention:

High-Quality Images: Use high-resolution images that are relevant to the product you’re promoting.

Engaging Descriptions: Write compelling and concise descriptions. Use strong, action-oriented language.

Branding: Include your branding elements in the pins for recognition.

6. Pinning Strategies

Successful affiliate marketing on Pinterest requires a well-thought-out plan for pinning images. You may increase the exposure of your affiliate products by being consistent, working together, and taking advantage of group boards:

Consistency: Pin regularly to keep your audience engaged.

Optimal Timing: Identify the best times to pin to reach your audience.

Group Boards: Join and actively participate in group boards related to your niche.

7. Tracking Your Affiliate Success

One of the most important steps in refining your affiliate marketing plan is keeping track of your results. Track your most successful pins using Pinterest’s analytics tools and other monitoring technologies to maintain growth revenue and track the following:

Clicks: Monitor the number of clicks on your pins.

Conversions: Keep an eye on the number of sales or leads generated through your affiliate links.

Engagement: Track the engagement on your pins, such as likes, comments, and shares.

8. Growing Your Pinterest Presence

The key to being successful in affiliate marketing is to expand your Pinterest following. To increase your sales, you should interact with your target audience, follow specialized influencers, and publish often, focus on growing your Pinterest presence:

Follower Engagement: Engage with your followers and respond to comments and messages.

Collaborations: Collaborate with influencers in your niche to expand your reach.

Promoted Pins: Consider investing in promoted pins to reach a broader audience.

09. Monetizing Your Efforts

The end goal of your partner marketing path is to make money from your work. Your hard work can turn into a steady stream of income if you have a strong profile on Pinterest and a loyal following. Here’s how you can monetize your Pinterest affiliate marketing efforts:

Affiliate Sales: As users click on your affiliate links and make purchases, you earn commissions.

Email List Building: Use Pinterest to build your email list, which can be monetized through email marketing.

Sell Your Products: Once you’ve built a loyal following, consider selling your products or services.

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10. Staying Consistent and Patient

Consistency is key in affiliate marketing. Continue creating fresh, engaging content, and don’t be discouraged if you don’t see immediate results. Success takes time.

11. Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Affiliate marketing on Pinterest comes with its challenges. Be aware of copyright issues, avoid spammy tactics, and follow Pinterest’s guidelines to stay in the game.

12. Legal and Ethical Considerations

Ensure you disclose your affiliate relationships transparently in compliance with FTC guidelines. Honesty builds trust with your audience and keeps you on the right side of the law.

Conclusion

In summary, affiliate marketing on Pinterest is not only accessible but also immensely rewarding. With dedication, a pinch of creativity, and a dash of patience, you can harness the power of this visual platform to generate a consistent income of $200 per day. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your success may take time, but the potential for financial growth and personal satisfaction is well worth the journey. So, go ahead, dive into the world of affiliate marketing on Pinterest, and let your financial dreams take flight.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: Is Pinterest affiliate marketing suitable for beginners?

Yes, Pinterest affiliate marketing is beginner-friendly. The platform’s visual nature and user-friendly interface make it an ideal starting point for those new to affiliate marketing.

Q2: How much time should I dedicate to Pinterest affiliate marketing daily?

The time commitment varies, but starting with a few hours a day to create and manage your pins and boards is a good beginning. As you gain experience, you can adjust your schedule accordingly.

Q3: Do I need a blog or website to start Pinterest affiliate marketing?

While having a blog or website can enhance your marketing efforts, it’s not mandatory. You can directly link your affiliate products on Pinterest, making it accessible to those without websites.

Q4: Are there any costs associated with Pinterest affiliate marketing?

Starting on Pinterest is free, but investing in tools like Canva for pin design or paid ads can be beneficial. These expenses are optional but can boost your success.

Q5: What are the best niches for Pinterest affiliate marketing?

Popular niches include home decor, fashion, health and wellness, food, and personal finance. However, success can be found in almost any niche with the right strategy and audience targeting.

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Affiliate Disclaimer :

This article Contain may be affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission at NO ADDITIONAL cost to you if you decide to purchase something. While we receive affiliate compensation for reviews / promotions on this article, we always offer honest opinions, users experiences and real views related to the product or service itself. Our goal is to help readers make the best purchasing decisions, however, the testimonies and opinions expressed are ours only. As always you should do your own thoughts to verify any claims, results and stats before making any kind of purchase. Clicking links or purchasing products recommended in this article may generate income for this product from affiliate commissions and you should assume we are compensated for any purchases you make. We review products and services you might find interesting. If you purchase them, we might get a share of the commission from the sale from our partners. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended.

Source : How to Generate $200/Day With Affiliate Marketing Using Pinterest for Beginners

Thanks for reading my article on “How to Generate $200/Day With Affiliate Marketing Using Pinterest for Beginners“, hope it will help!

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adsctusa · 9 months

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Step by step instructions to Utilize ADSCT To Grow Your Business.

A lot of small businesses find customers through free business classifieds. Classifieds are the way to go if you want to charm customers online with search engine or social media ads or if you want to attract local customers who read hebdomadal buyers. Individuals utilize free classified ads in Texas in Texas to Be that as it may, an elegantly composed promotion put on the wrong distribution or displayed online to the entire nation won't return in much business. Essentially, a painstakingly positioned or an unfortunate title is likewise a misuse of capital. This article will let you know a few ideas to remember while posting the promotion at the perfect locations to make the most out of your investment.1.Know your crowd

Most items and administrations can be proposed to different sorts of customers. Your promotion ought to feature your skill to satisfy those specifically necessities. For instance, if a job seeker asks for your assistance with their resume, post it on websites where it can be found. Your classified ads must directly address the customer's needs in order to yield results. Pick the right media outreach.

You'll squander a ton of capital on your promotion in the event that you post on web search tools and don't utilize geo-designated promotions. Individuals frequently visit the grouped site with an alternate outlook from each other. You can present advertisements at ADSCT on geo-focus on your crowd si that your administration wear not lose all sense of direction in the tsunami.3. Do your homework and examine the weekly ads. Find things that grab your attention. Do they hint at a benefit? Could it be said that they are unique in relation to any remaining ordered advertisements on that page? Are they easy to spot because they appear quickly near the top of online search ads? Center around the initial words.

An advertisement's opening words function similarly to a newspaper advertisement's headline. The benefits of your product or service should be stated in the first couple of words. They ought to keep the reader's attention from being diverted elsewhere on that page.5 The ad needs to be concise and precise. An extraordinary grouped promotion is like a message: compelling, precise, and crisp Utilize little words to determine what you exchange, who ought to buy it, why they ought to buy it from you now, and how to speak with you. However, be careful not to omit vital information from an advertisement. Learn what other people think of the ad.

Review your advertisement and get honest feedback from people in your area. After they've seen it, ask them what did they get from it, whether the promotion would move them to make the purchase.7. Make it valid and important.

The present clients are very taught and doubtful than the ones previously. At the point when your promotion seems as though you are proposing something unrealistic, nearly everybody will skirt your advertisement. To win purchasers and avoid inconvenience, sell the real factors, not the hype.8. Keep an eye out for your rivals.

Every one of your rivals are posting on ADSCT in this way, you can glance through their set of experiences of distributed promotions. Attempt to realize what catchphrases others are applying to extend their business on the web. Work with comparable catchphrases in your ad.9. Ask about your promotion on different web-based locales

Two Free ordered promotions in Texas probably won't give you similar outcomes. The most effective way to figure out which locales are an ideal best for you is to placed your promotion on a wide range of grouped sites. ADSCT offers you free enrollment so. You can begin your promotion crusade today.10. Try not to expect to put just a single promotion.

Run each promotion sufficiently long and allow it a fair opportunity. Your business promotion showing up oftentimes develops memorability and impacts opportunities for your business. To find out which advertisements are helpful and which are not, you can easily register on ADSCT right now.11. Ensure that you include a phone number or additional contact information in your advertisement by carefully proofreading it. Request that somebody edit your last adaptation and right every one of the errors and incorrect spellings in your Free classifieds for business.

#free classified website #free classified websites #free ads #free ad post

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rametarin · 1 year

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Just pondering genetic modification, and the pricks that obsess over it.

Blahblahblahblah

There are people that think holding the position, “this thing is normal because it’s how biology is supposed to work”, is tantamount to religious traditionalism.

So where do they get their ideas about what a thing is supposed to be, ideally?

Why, socially constructed idealism, of course.

So a person might say, “A human being, without disease or harmful mutation, possesses two functioning working eyes, teeth, ears, and all ten fingers and toes.” And the social constructionist would call them a bio-essentialist, saying their standards are arbitrary..

.. While aggressively denying that biology and reproductive selection or speciation are any kind of determining factors, to be discredited, solely because through technology, one can change that or make those characteristics irrelevant.

Like being able to surgically alter the form or genetically alter the characteristics of a being or individual means THEY get to decide what is normal or ideal for an organism, and that nature and the hereditary nature of a thing are just coincidental and circumstantial.

These kinds of people would unironically say a person that declared, “We could use genetic engineering to cure cleft lips and brain disorders,” as eugenicists trying to, “genocide and euthanize the Disabled.” As if the disabled were an ethnic group with a target on their back. Like curing someone’s blindness or deafness or inability to walk was somehow tantamount to forced schooling of Native American children in the US and Canada to naturalize them.

The idea that biology itself and heredity are orthodoxies arbitrarily held up as legitimate standards, and professing the only legitimate standards are the ones we arbitrarily construct out of philosophy, divorced from the limitations of biology and any kind of definition of what a human being is based on it.

It’s low key disgusting, and in its own way, just as homophobic and transphobic as any fundamentalist mainstream religious viewpoint, and I’ll tell you why:

Sexuality is predicated on an individual’s orientation. Orientation is, by nature, a way we discriminate biologically with what our bodies tell us is good to fuck, and what isn’t. A heterosexual person is oriented towards the opposite sex. A homosexual person, the same, and bisexual covers anyone in that spectrum even capable of wanting and desiring and following through with sex with both.

But what happens when people that do not believe in sexuality rooted in biological processes decides to weigh in and philosophically declare sexuality is based on gender, and that gender is arbitrary and has no REAL meaning?

Well.. you get someone going, “JUST SUCK IT, BABY. YOU’LL LEARN TO LIKE IT JUST SUUCK IIIIIIT.” Only they aren’t doing it to impose, “cisheteronormativity” or, “Judeo-Christian patriarchal standards.” They’re doing it because they have the position that sexuality is no more ingrained or static than your taste in carpet, sports teams or favorite brands of cereal. They do not acknowledge nor entertain the idea a sexuality is unchangable, because they’ve simply gone around you and taken it upon themselves to declare sexuality itself is fluid, no one is actually ever “really straight” or “really gay,” because people can change their genders and it means nothing.

And that same person will unironically tell you there’s something wrong when the religious fundamentalists dictate what sexuality is, means, and what is right, and not when they do it, because, “we came to our conclusion using secular reasoning and fact.”

Which isn’t true. Soft science and philosophy, arbitrary post-modernism that holds nothing as true and insists on no meaning exists but the one we decide and give to it, does not get to declare itself fact and truth just because it’s not rooting its arbitrary determinations in the absence of a deity. “It’s true because I deem it so and I have the authority to impose it”, is not a valid reason.

So therefore I submit to you, the post-modernist transhumanist view of what is legitimate and human is just as flippant, arbitrary and authoritarian as religious fundamentalism, their fundament just Courtney Loves it in colleges and pretends because they photo bomb with STEM scientists that they’re rooted in reason and intellectual logic and fact, while the religious fundamentalist is speaking hooey. Right before they start “correcting” the forensic scientist about how to gender skeletons or what pronouns to use to define how a given animal’s life cycle works.

If biological reality does not factor into how you determine the self-evidence of the nature of a thing, then you aren’t doing science. And this is something that is endlessly infuriating to argue with some people, because reality and material substance does not always lend itself to civil rights ideals. It is not religious or authoritarian orthodoxy to maintain that the standards of what counts as human depend on the precedent of humanity in its biological state before invasive technological use.

For example, a human being cannot fly. Yes, we can use a plane. Yes, we can construct gliders. Yes, we can ride rockets. But when you ask, “can a human fly?” The answer has to be no. We can’t. We can use tools and machines to fly. And as such, it would be incorrect or dishonest to say, “SOME humans can fly” just because some poor Island of Dr. Moreau project produced a transgenic designer baby nightmare with wings and muscle tissue strong enough to fly. That would not count in the category of unaltered human being; that would count as suprahuman. Transhuman. Posthuman. The existence of an engineered biological state allowing a human being to beat wings and fly would not suddenly prove, “humans can fly.” Because that does not cover humanity at large.

If someone said, “Humans can also have more or less than 5 fingers and toes,” that would also be a true statement. And why, if the ideal and average is five, would these mutations count? Because these mutations and populations that have excess or absent digits occur naturally in the wild. But they occur because of incomplete mutations. Find me the island where everybody has functional six fingers. You’re more likely to find an isolated population where just four functioning digits exist, because it’s easier to have a population where a detrimental mutation deletes a thing and the progenitor survives to reproduce, than otherwise. That still makes it a harmful mutation, not proof this is something that should occur.

To discount the imperative of the biological in determining what is supposed to be the norm, is to discount objective, imperative, impartial reality, from reality, and substitute purely what you want it to be. That is an absolutely horrible way to reason anything. And yet I’ve heard some people rumbling about how things have to shape this way, or else, “transgenic people will face stigma and ostracism and have their humanity lessened.”

Well yes if you modify your own genome permanently so you and all your offspring would, say, glow in the dark or be able to breathe underwater with designer organs, glands and tissues, that would kind of fuck up your entire hereditary line, bro. Yes, it would therefore be prudent to cordon off your contribution to the gene pool or at least designate yourself out as altered in some way. Not declare you’re human, therefore humanity now glows neon green in the dark and can make not just vitamin D from sunlight, but photosynthesize food, as well. Some acknowledgement that you’re human-plus isn’t a frickin’ scarlet letter, it’s just acknowledging what a human is, is an animal. A recursive pattern reproducing itself in this natural world. Even if we acknowledge humans can radically alter their individual makeup, those added characteristics should not be consider the equals of evolutionary traits.

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rysingsun · 1 year

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I posted 4,964 times in 2022

That's 1,303 more posts than 2021!

121 posts created (2%)

4,843 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@killjoygem

@sharkface-daydreams

@chromaticroses

@kyidyl

I tagged 4,105 of my posts in 2022

Only 17% of my posts had no tags

#serotonin - 1,095 posts

#funny - 917 posts

#moon knight - 327 posts

#neat - 288 posts

#truth - 267 posts

#video - 260 posts

#queer stuff - 257 posts

#important - 252 posts

#tumblr - 158 posts

#relatable - 113 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#just ‘cause your genital preference ‘aligns’ with cisheteronormative ideas doesn’t mean that’s the only valid experience of your orientation

My Top Posts in 2022:

So apparently people think neopronouns are brand new and like to make fun of them. I saw a bunch of people saying “just use they or it”, calling people who use neopronouns disgraces to society, etc. Just general vehemence likely spawned from viewing neopronouns as a useless recent fad. Quick queer history lesson! Feel free to add on if you have more detail, this is just pulling from what I remember.

"They" only became mainstream as singular recently. Until then, neopronouns (literally "new pronouns") were singular alternatives to he and she. The reason there are so many "options" is because a consensus was never made for a definitive gender-neutral pronoun in the mainstream, so people kept coming up with new ones over the decades (centuries? been a bit since I read up on this).

People who use neopronouns today typically do because they dislike that “they” has both plural and singular connotations, making it a messy replacement for he or she. Most nonbinary people (self included) have adopted "they" because it's currently the most accepted by society (a very small few use “it”, but most view that as dehumanizing. Don’t refer to someone as “it” unless it specifically tells you it uses those pronouns).

I hear "why don't they just make up a new word" about singular they and "why don't they just use they" about neopronouns. I think everyone just needs to chill and use whatever the person wants. Idk how to use neopronouns bc no one in my life uses them, but I'd fuckin learn.

Give it a decade or two, nonbinary people being relatively socially accepted is still new. Neopronouns will either all die out in favor of singular they, or one or two will become common use and the others will fall out of use. As for genuinely new neopronouns (not aware of any, personally. 99% sure ey/em, xe/xem, ze/zir, etc outlive me), it’s only a growing list if people you refer to use such varying pronouns. I am nonbinary. I have a handful of non-binary friends. None of us use neopronouns. How many people are there in your life that each use different neopronouns for you to be audibly frightened? If someone says they go by any neopronouns, you don’t have to learn them all. Just one.

I know learning new things and changing your vocabulary is scary, but very few people use neopronouns. They are not something to be forcibly stamped out, but treated with respect. Yes, some baby queers have adopted them, but I’m sure there are also people who have used them for decades in the circles that they were out in.

If someone in your life uses neopronouns, learn them. Think of it not as a foolish impossible task, but as a brain exercise, because if English is your first language you haven’t had to actively think about learning NEW pronouns in English since you were an itty-bitty tot. Don’t assume defeat, view it as a challenge. And if no one in your life uses neopronouns... why tf are you complaining about something that doesn’t affect you?

13 notes - Posted March 1, 2022

my ideal episode 6

-we FINALLY officially meet jake. bonus points if jake is based right out the gate and if marc says any stupid shit jake sets him straight

-the scales are explicitly stated to not be ableist (idk running out of words juice but you know what i mean— integration is not the end goal for every system and should not be implied to be and should definitely never be forced). basically just explain them better. they’re anubis’ scales and he needs to be freed from his lil statue still. maybe he’ll do that chad move where everyone else thinks they understand how it works and he’s just like, “no, the problem was actually the lack of communication. yeah, that also solved it but that was kind of a fucked up loophole and honestly shouldn’tve happened.” or “yeah no shit it wasn’t balanced. you’re supposed to weigh one heart at a time. she confused the scales! it’s a soul per person not per body. you each needed to be weighed separately. steven’s probably would’ve been balanced too at that point, the idiot just had them both on at once.”

-steven is brought back to life (maybe the gods do it as an apology “yea sorry for not listening to you, here’s your buddy back”)

-the mk system goes to ACTUAL therapy with a qualified professional

14 notes - Posted April 27, 2022

would a power fantasy be called a

kingk?

20 notes - Posted February 15, 2022

two options for the scales:

1) only one heart was supposed to be weighed at a time so that’s why it couldn’t perfectly balance until steven was gone (but if tawaret weighed them each individually it would’ve given proper results)

2) the “soul” is one per body so even though there are three people, all three hearts needed to be weighed at once but jake’s wasn’t there (but doesn’t explain why it balanced after steven was gone— jake’s heart still wasn’t there)

if it turns out to be anything else i’m calling bullshit and writing my first fix-it fic

24 notes - Posted April 27, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

me @ fictional characters:

i love you

not in a romantic way

in a i want to cry and hug you way

33 notes - Posted March 15, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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evolutionco1 · 2 years

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saturnrevolution · 3 years

Text

Understanding your mars sign ♂

Aries Mars ♂

What motivates you: You are motivated by doing things your way, being independent and using your loads of energy on things that make you happy. Expressing your identity also motivates you a lot and sometimes you can get motivated by the most childish things ever.

How you deal with conflict: You process negative emotions best by expressing them outwardly through conflict or physical activity. This is why, sometimes you might have short outbursts of anger which in reality are part of your personality and have nothing to do with the other person. When you are in defensiveness, you are stubborn and go straight for what it is that you want and might get really upset when losing.

Attraction: You are attracted to straightforward energy, you need someone that shows you how they feel with action, sometimes even in the most obvious way. And you are attracted to strong looking people. At the same time, others are attracted by your way of knowing how to respond when faced with conflict, being quick to react and being perseverant with your goals. Your ability to not take everything too seriously can be either your attractive point or an annoying trait of yours.

Weakness: impatience

Taurus Mars ♂

What motivates you: You are motivated by anything that gives you comfort. You know who you are and you are not afraid of doing the same things as long as it makes you feel comfortable, you always take the way that offers you most stability and that matches your values. You are motivated by certainty in all areas of your life and that's why you work hard on making sure you have everything you need in all of them. Other things that motivate you are money and things that assure you a good living situation.

How you deal with conflict: You know how to react in conflict, even if you might be seemingly quiet, you actually have a well thought strategy and motive behind every argument and you only bring them out when you need to. You are calculated, sometimes even too lazy to put up a fight, but if you feel personally attacked - then you won't change your mind even if you know you are wrong. You hate it when people try to push you and impose rules to you.

Attraction: You are attracted to a combination of luxury and simplicity. You like people that have a natural charm, but not so mysterious that they are hard to read - you want to know that these people will be there for you and offer loyalty if that's what you're looking for. Others are attracted by your way of doing your own thing and not caring, your consistency in terms of your self worth. You cannot be bothered sometimes and this can also intimidate others.

Weakness: resisting change

Gemini Mars ♂

What motivates you: You are motivated by information, conversation and ideas. You like your mind to be used at the best capacity and you love engaging in things that offer you a different outlook on life. You also love understanding others and yourself by observing behaviors and coming up with theories. You probably love movies or there is at least one subject that you cannot stop talking about. You might sometimes get motivated or caught up in the wrong things, such as gossip or oversharing.

How you deal with conflict: For you, words hold great power. While not everyone understands why, words are the things you get most irritated by if someone says something hurtful. You can sometimes be changeable, so if people get you at your best, you will talk things out. If not, you might do the silent treatment. Talking to someone about rough times is your way of processing bad events or just simply finding something else to occupy your mind with as distraction.

Attraction: You are attracted to people that have a way with words. You like it when you have things in common with someone and you are quite a flirt and need someone that can keep up with that. Others are attracted by your friendliness, you have the ability to get all eyes on you, usually with the stories you tell. You do get bored quite easily, though, and this sometimes might make others feel like you are indifferent about them.

Weak points: lack of consistency

Cancer Mars ♂

what motivates you: You are motivated by making sure that the ones you love are safe and by getting your own needs met, nurturing yourself. Also by finding emotional fulfillment - if this is covered, then you are able to focus on other things. You do not like feeling alone. Emotional connection and empathy motivates you.

How you deal with conflict: Your first reaction in conflict is to get defensive and feel like people are against you and then what helps you a lot is letting yourself feel your emotions in order to get it out there. You are not afraid to get vulnerable if needed, but this can sometimes make you seem rather moody, as you might not say what's bothering you.

Attraction: You need someone that accepts you for who you are, you are attracted to people that make you feel like home, people that somehow need your affection, but you also feel dawned to the darker side of people. Others are attracted to your warmth and your way of making them feel like they belong, understood and the way you can actually set boundaries when you make up your mind and know when to draw the line. Your eyes are also very attractive and draw people in.

Weak points: lack of practicality

Leo Mars

What motivates you: You are motivated by finding meaning in life, self expression and creativity. You might not show it, but being in the center of attention motivates you. Also, there is a deep connection you have with your childhood, so anything that gets you back to those times - be it an old activity or simply being around children gives you a lot of strength.

How you deal with conflict: You are the type of person that goes big or goes home, so whenever there is a conflict you make sure the other person knows you have been hurt. You can sometimes be overly dramatic when reacting to a situation, especially if you feel like you have been wrongly judged or humiliated. You do understand where others are coming from, but you first need to put on a show.

Attraction: You are attracted to people that inspire you, you are in love with this idea of people that are seemingly out of your reach, people that are fiery, determined and perseverant. What others see attractive in you is knowing what you want and whenever you show your passion, that's when you are most attractive. There's also something really confident about your appearance, even if you feel like that deep down or not.

Weakness: not listening

Virgo Mars

What motivates you: You are motivated by reaching perfection and minimizing flaw as much as possible, achieving things that are seem to be out of your reach. Also, you are motivated by order and having structure in your life and by having a clear routine and purpose everyday.

How you deal with conflict: You can be a bit uptight in conflict, in the sense that you want to seem like you have it all together and this can make it difficult for you to be vulnerable and show your emotions. You are aware of your flaws and you are scared that they will be exposed. You can easily criticize others when in conflict, however you are very calculated with your words and because of your awareness you know how to solve the problem right away, practically.

Attraction: You are attracted to people that help you build those things that you are going towards, that are very practical and that allow you to help them strive for the better, people that have a strong presence when they enter the room, a type of cleanliness to their energy. Others are attracted to your eye for details, your attentiveness at the way you carry yourself and self awareness, advice giving and your elegance and purity.

Weakness: anxiousness

Libra Mars ♂️

What motivates you: You are motivated by beauty, in all shapes or forms. You see the potential in things and anything that is visually aesthetic to you has a lot of potential. You want to use your voice to raise awareness on the things you care about and you are motivated by showing and receiving love. In your constant battle for peace, you can sometimes get caught up onto other people's opinions unintentionally and base your decisions too much on those and neglect your own.

How you deal with conflict: Conflict makes you feel uncomfortable, as you are doing your best to please everyone and you take not being liked a bit too personally. You process anger best by talking it out, even complaining about your experiences and letting the feelings out. You like it when people give you validation for your anger, they support you and tell you that you are right to be feeling that way.

Attraction: You are attracted to kind hearted people, those people that somehow embody the ideal energy that you also want to embody and you do love someone that has a great style, you also need someone that brings harmony in your life and treats you nicely. You love receiving compliments and good looking people make you flattered. At the same time, this is what is attractive about you. You have a great sense of style and a subtle sweetness that is remembered. Your way with words doesn’t go unnoticed.

Weakness: not standing up for themselves

Scorpio Mars ♂️

What motivates you: You are motivated by things that are a bit taboo, that not everyone is approaching, things that are even unseen and hidden. Also by things that intrigue you and it doesn't need to make sense. You need to be careful to not dive to deep into it, as you can get motivated by things like secrecy or get a bit too obsessed.

How you deal with conflict: You can find different ways of getting your way out of conflict by omitting things, but you never forget the details. You can get really mad and be possessive, so that's when you become explosive if you feel like people have betrayed you. You make sure that the other person knows that you are mad at them and sometimes you can use their past to your advantage. Not to say it's all bad, you actually know how to manage conflict when you feel the hurt and understand the reason behind that person's action and then you are a great mediator.

Attraction: You are attracted to anything that's sexual, that's mysterious and that doesn't reveal themselves. You do not look for straightforward energy, but to things that allow a bit of imagination from your part. Others are attracted to your darker aura and also by your ability to open up.

Weakness: not letting things just be

Sagittarius Mars ♂️

What motivates you: You are motivated by having stories to tell, by adventure and the thrill, you are motivated by travelling and freedom. You are at the same time chill and you are not motivated by rules, but just taking things as they come. Humor is another motivating factor for you.

How you deal with conflict: You are a really positive person and do not like any bad energy around, but sometimes life does get sad and it does get bad so you eventually will have to deal with all those problems that arise and that maybe you have the tendency to overlook sometimes. In conflict, you might simply run away, but if you do get yourself together, there's lots of wisdom that lives inside of you.

Attraction: Attracted to bigger personalities that make you laugh, people that open your eyes and that you never get bored of. Others find attractive your free spirit and the way you are very down to do anything and also the fact that you are not afraid to be anything you want to be. Even if that means waking up one day and feeling like you want to approach life differently, you do not compare your journey to other people's and you do your own thing.

Weakness: no organization

Capricorn Mars ♂️

What motivates you: You are motivated by your career, you are motivated by maximizing your time so that it gets used efficiently and productively, because in reality you really like doing the work and putting in the effort. You push yourself a lot, sometimes too much.

How you deal with conflict: You don't really know how to react. Instead of letting your emotions take over and just flowing with how you actually feel, you start questioning your own responses and this can make you detach from the actual conflict and be in your own bubble and can make you seem rather cold. You inhibit yourself and try to keep yourself together, but when you do get vulnerable, that's when others see the real you and that's when you know you really care for that person. But you usually keep your cool.

Attraction: You are attracted to people that appreciate your goals, people that offer you stability and long term, also those that have this type of maturity that you can rely on. You are very consistent and there is a lot of inner strength and work in you that others really feel intimidated by, but also somehow find very hot. People aspire to be you and try hard to impress you.

Weakness: not letting loose

Aquarius Mars ♂️

What motivates you: You are motivated by social dilemmas, saving this world, societal injustice. You have an innate talent that has to do with spotting the problem and actually naming it. When everyone is trying to avoid a problem, you are actually just honestly talking about that and that's when you feel most seen, because when you are different, that's when you are most appreciated. You are not as motivated by being liked as you are by wanting to get a message across and make a difference of a subject that really speaks to your heart.

How you deal with conflict: With the people you care about, you are able to rationalize things and talk about them with a very mature approach, but in general you might just need to take some time off and recharge whenever you are in conflict, you like dealing with it on your own. Sometimes, you simply ignore the situation all together and play it cool.

Attraction: You are attracted to anything that's out of the ordinary and that helps you see a different side of things. At the same time, you have the ability to reason with logic in ways that surprises others. You are unique and others see that and people are unexpectedly attracted to you.

Weakness: saying things they don't mean

Pisces Mars ♂️

What motivates you: You are motivated by achieving your dreams, you need people around you to be there and see it and you somehow are achieving dreams also to show the ones you love you care. You are also motivated by the good in this world, you know that it exists and you are setting the example of proving that the world can be a better place.

How you deal with conflict: Your ability to get angry is really underrated, cause when you are mad you really show it. Depending on your confidence, you just react on it on the spot or when you are by yourself, but your reaction is very all over the place and you have no idea what is going on at first, your instinct is to just put the emotions out there. After a while, you can mend things over and rationalize it after calming down and you have the ability to forgive easily.

Attraction: You are not attracted by superficial things, but by meaning, to anyone that is poetic and surprises you. Random acts of kindness. You are attracted to those that get closer to the idealized version you have in your head. People love your selflessness. You are quite chill and a very good friend and there is this sort of artistic and attractive energy you carry.

Weakness: lack of clarity

#astrology #mars #aries #taurus #gemini #cancer #leo #virgo #libra #scorpio #sagittarius #capricorn #aquarius #pisces #zodiac #posted #like #follow #reblog

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attemptsonherlifepdf · 3 years

Text

fantastic mr fox: humanising animals, animalising men, and an exploration of masculine identity

‘this story is too predictable.’ / ‘predictable? really? what happens in the end?’ / ‘in the end, we all die. unless you change.’

mr fox, the titular character of wes anderson’s 2009 stop-motion adaptation of roald dahl’s children’s book, is a portrait of two conflicting manifestations of masculinity. he is built to demonstrate the crossover between tradition and modernity, between wild and civilised. characterised as a charming gentleman, almost renowned for his recklessness, mr fox combines his undomesticated instincts with a carefully crafted domestic life. he appears to spend more time manufacturing a perfect home and family than he does actually participating in it. the events of the movie serve to strip away his facade and present both the audience and protagonist with a harsh reality to deal with: the juxtaposing aspects of his identity that he must contend with in order to survive his situation. these aspects are demonstrated through the use of anthropomorphic animals. in essence, the text attempts to convey the message that while you can associate your actions with animal or human traits in order to characterise and frame them, you cannot change their value and their consequences. it serves as a critique of how the nature of male identity is exploited to shunt responsibility, and the movie specifically promotes a more collectivist mentality.

there are four key scenes that mark mr fox’s journey in terms of his identity. initially, we first see his identity openly questioned once he has moved into a new home (a large and expensive tree), just prior to him revealing his ‘master plan’ to kylie, who becomes his assistant of sorts. he asks, ‘why a fox? why not a horse, or a beetle, or a bald eagle? i’m saying this more as, like, existentialism, you know? who am i? and how can a fox ever be happy without, you’ll forgive the expression, a chicken in its teeth?’ he attributes his identity with the ability to fulfil his base desires, like he could in his youth. aspects of his later life such as employment, family, and safety restrict his ability and leaves him feeling untethered from himself. the movie opens with his youthful vibrance and recklessness, and is quickly contrasted with his dissatisfaction with his job, home, and life in general.

MR FOX

i dont want to live in a hole anymore. it makes me feel poor.

MRS FOX

we are poor, but we’re happy.

MR FOX

comme ci, come ca...

does anyone actually read my column?

having been moved out of the hole and into an expensive tree, mrs fox asks her husband:

MRS FOX

do you still feel poor?

MR FOX

less so.

constructing the ideal domestic space for himself and his family does not satisfy mr fox and he yearns for more, which is where is existentialism and ‘master plan’ come into play. domesticity was never going to satisfy mr fox, as he yearns for something youthful and risky and dazzling, adjectives not usually applied to a quiet and content home life. the consequences of this dissatisfaction are drastic and almost immediate.

soon, having been forced out of his new home and underground by an attack from the farmers, mr fox is faced with a situation he cannot charm his way out of. he attempts to apologise to his son and recite a speech to raise the morale of his family, and both of these attempts are shut down by those around him. the facade of his elaborate home, his monologues, even his suits, are abruptly stripped away leaving him with only his actions which he cannot charm his way out of. the reality is that he and his family, his neighbourhood, is stuck underground with no means of food as a result of his selfish actions. this prompts yet another key scene; his argument with felicity, which begins with her viciously hissing and scratching his face.

MRS FOX

why did you lie to me?

MR FOX

because im a wild animal.

MRS FOX

you are also a husband, and a father.

MR FOX

im trying to tell you the truth about myself.

MRS FOX

i dont care about the truth about yourself. this story is too predictable.

MR FOX

predictable? really? what happens in the end?

MRS FOX

in the end, we all die. unless you change.

mrs fox’s physical attack on her husbands face serves as a display of genuine animal ferocity, making mr fox’s claim to being a ‘wild animal’ appear as a flimsy excuse for his behaviour. his chicken theft, which he was insistent upon regardless of the consequences, was motivated not by animal instincts but a selfish desire to feel a particular version of his own masculinity. disregarding the safety of his family actually seems like a natural byproduct of his master plans because he is trying to reclaim his masculinity from a time before his family existed, and in his eyes, restricted him. the very recent loss of his tail, combined with this conversation with his wife, is a harsh reality check for mr fox in terms of the dangers of his masculinity.

the audience sees the outcome of this conversation later on, in the waterfall scene. here mr fox admits to his insecurities and suggests sacrificing himself to the farmers to save the local community.

MR FOX

darling, maybe they’ll let everyone else live!

…

MR FOX

foxes traditionally like to court danger, hunt prey and outsmart predators, and that’s what im actually good at…i guess at the end of the day im just-

MRS FOX

i know. we’re wild animals.

the difference between this admission to animalism and the one from his argument with felicity is that here, both parties gain some acceptance of their animalism without using it as an excuse for their behaviour. the inclusion of others in animalism – ‘we’re’ wild animals, rather than ‘i am’ a wild animal – contributes to illustrate how wildness is not specific to masculinity. it is not femininity vs masculinity but animals vs man.

the movie also questions the nature of an animal in the final key scene known as ‘canis lupus.’ wes Anderson referred to this scene as ‘the reason im making this movie.’ throughout the movie, mr fox alludes to his ‘phobia of wolves’ and shuts down any conversation surrounding them:

MR FOX

scared? no, i have a phobia of them!...a wolf? what’s with all the wolf talk? can we give it a rest for once?

arguably, these reactions are representative of mr fox’s aversion to competitive masculinity. he shuts down any opportunity for those around him to discuss something he sees as more masculine than himself in order to feel secure in his own masculinity. critic shana mlawski argues that ‘the wolf is described as the wildest, most frightening, and yet most beautiful creature in the world. mr fox fears the wolf and yet wants to be exactly like him. we can thus say that mr fox fears pure, wild masculinity yet also yearns to own it himself.’ the scene holds an eerie familiarity to it; mr fox is recognising something that he thought would be a reflection of himself, but the wild animal is no longer familiar to him anymore. he now accepts his role as a husband and a father and no longer fights to overtly express his animalism in the same way as the wolf. the most he can offer the wolf is raising his fist in solidarity. he calls out to the wolf, ‘i have a phobia of wolves!’, which is an interesting moment to admit this in. it’s his acceptance that allows him to admit this. the scene is entirely compromised of male characters: mr fox, kristofferson, ash, kylie and the wolf. mr fox’s admission to his fear allows him to be vulnerable in front of these people he cares about, and to use this as a teaching moment for the young boys.

MR FOX

what a beautiful creature. wish him luck out there, boys.

here mr fox openly admits his admiration for someone else’s masculinity in front of others without showing signs of his own insecurity. he can admire the wolf for what he is without seeing him as competition. the scene allows the audience to see and directly compare two forms of masculinity and animalism, and to understand that there is no one true expression of either of those traits. the wolf has connotations of violence and ferocity, whereas mr fox and his suit and display of multilingualism are entirely modern, but both are masculine animals who are valid in their own right. either way, both animals rely on violence for survival at times.

kupfer frames violence in three ways: symbolically, structurally and as a narrative essential. there are various forms of violence within this narrative, namely mr fox killing chickens and squabs, and the three farmers’ attack on the animal community. symbolically, mr fox’s chicken theft is attributed to his masculinity. while it is often presented as thought-out ‘master plans’, his desire to enact this violence in the first place supposedly stems from his ‘wild animal’ instincts. he associates a time where he felt secure in his masculinity with his actions at the time (violence). structurally, we see the potential for this violence in the opening scene, where mr fox takes his wife chicken-stealing and they become trapped. he is stuck in a fox trap with his wife when he receives the news of his impending fatherhood, a relatively obvious symbol for his view of fatherhood in general. the news of his wife’s pregnancy disrupts his ability to continue stealing chickens, not just on this specific occasion but through the coming years as well. mr fox appears to view family life as an unfulfilling, less raw expression of his masculinity, and is shown to be wholly dissatisfied with his life.

the violence on the farmers’ behalf is almost always in reaction to mr fox’s violence, already giving it a structural framing. boggis, bunch and bean are referred to early on in the film as the ‘meanest, nastiest and ugliest farmers on the side of the river.’ their violence against mr fox and subsequently the local animal community is an attempt to gain back power and status. mr fox’s actions are “humiliating’ and the local news coverage of this exchange between the farmers and animals raises the stakes as now the reputation of these farmers is on the line as well as their power. violence here serves as a narrative essential because it drives mr fox into a situation that forces him to confront his issues with masculinity and splitting between his animal and human traits, giving the text/movie a fulfilling arc. violence is

introduced as inherently masculine, but is decoupled from masculinity by the ending. mrs fox also plays a small but significant role in this; at various moments in the movie she exhibits her own displays of aggression equal in intensity to the men around her, suggesting to the audience that forms of violence should be categorised as human vs animal rather than male vs female. examples of this behaviour include her clawing at her husband’s face, and a parallel between her and a male human character wherein they both connect two wires and shout ‘contact!’, causing an explosion. while this moment is brief, it highlights a distinct difference between animals being violent and men. humans’ aggression is driven by the need for power, whereas that of animals is driven by the need for survival. the man paralleled with felicity only sparked the explosion to destroy mr fox’s home and assert the dominance of the three farmers, while mrs fox used the same form of violence to enact a plan to save her nephew’s life. petey’s song even alludes to this sentiment: ‘well he stole, and he cheated, and he lied just to survive.’

mr fox’s tail becomes a symbol of power; bean wears it as a necktie, and mr fox feels emasculated by his loss.

MR FOX

one of those slovenly farmers is probably wearing my tail as a necktie right now.

…

BADGER

i cant even imagine how painful, even just emotionally, that must be for you… oh but foxy how humiliating, having your tail blown clean off by-

MR FOX

can we drop it?

the use of the tail as a necktie is a symbol of the power that mr fox and the farmers end up jostling to achieve: at first it belongs to mr fox, then to the farmers, and is eventually reclaimed once more by the fox.

MR FOX

you shot off my tail.

[through gritted teeth] i’m not leaving here without that necktie.

when he reclaims his tail towards the end of the movie, it has been torn to shreds and needs ‘dry cleaning twice a week’ to maintain itself. this can be interpreted as a symbol for his evolved definitions of masculinity and power: his masculinity is no longer defined by impressing people or stealing or killing chickens, but in the quiet satisfaction of having a family. the final scene reveals that mrs fox is pregnant again, and instead of her glowing and her husband giving an awkward grin like in the opening scene, both of the spouses ‘glow.’ the structural framing of these pregnancy reveals bookending the events of the movie allows anderson to demonstrate mr fox’s growth and change in his priorities. the domestic life appears to be enough for him, and he no longer seems to find it emasculating,

what stands out as particularly modern about mr fox is how he unconsciously separates himself from both his wildness and his suburban self in his effort to combine them. he uses his ‘wildness’ as an excuse for his violence and selfishness, but is ultimately not willing to participate in truly wild forms of violence and selfishness, such has hunting. his chicken thefts always include infiltrating a human site, like boggis, bunce and bean’s farms, and the fun of it is in outsmarting them, rather than finding those animals himself out in the wild. the local animal community essentially functions as we would expect a rural village occupied by humans to function: everyone knows everyone, there is one local school and various small and quaint homes. while the setting reflects anderson’s signature style, it is also reflective of dahl’s framing of the community in the original text.

mr fox comes across as an individual who believes himself to be above the somewhat backward mentality of his village, that he is the most civilised and dazzling and original, and he exaggerates these traits in himself out of insecurity: ‘if they arent dazzled and blown away and kind of intimidated by me, then i dont feel good about myself.’this is also reflected in his consistent ‘trademark’, his whistle-and-click combination that he uses to set himself apart from other foxes. his home is also a reflection of this:

MRS FOX

you know, foxes live in holes for a reason.

MR FOX

[grunts and tilts head in disagreement]

yes and no.

this insecurity and desire for outsider approval and individuality is inherently human, a quality of his that cannot really be associated with his animalised parts. this precarious sense of identity and self doubt separates him from his ‘wildness’ as it stands, which is only intensified by the fact that he compensates by exaggerating his human traits in order to be liked and feel worthy, as those are the traits he believes have the most value. towards the end of mr fox’s character arc, he is forced to admit that his need for external validation is flawed and unsustainable. when the façade of carefully constructed grandeur is literally washed away by bean, he is left with nothing but his actions and their implications for those around him. foxy reconciles with the relative insignificance of an identity based on other’s perceptions of you when rat dies soon after, reacting to the suggestion that he redeemed himself last minute by revealing ash’s location:

MR FOX

redemption? sure. but in the end, he’s just another dead rat in a garbage pail behind a chinese restaurant.

this moment is also used to inadvertently allow the audience to evaluate the significance of motivation and intention to the value of an action. although rat did reveal useful information to aid the group in saving Kristofferson, mr fox recognises that he only did so because he realised he could not win this fight.

MR FOX

would you have told me if i didn’t kill you first?

RAT

never.

mr fox’s own motivations throughout the movie have devalued his actions as they have mostly been self-serving. as his motivations evolve to centre around his family, he gains the perspective to understand why one’s intentions are so important. while intention does not entirely dictate how good one’s actions are, they certainly characterise the person who’s action it is. your actions have value and consequences as they are, and that cannot be changed by dressing them up or animalising them to distance yourself.

in essence, fantastic mr fox is a lesson in the value of including those around you in your mentality and worldview. it paints masculinity as something that is inherent and complex in nature, but promotes the idea that it is not stuck with its traditional connotations of violence and egoism. mr fox’s emotional development throughout the text mostly centres around his own insecurities surrounding his masculinity and how that causes him to overcompensate in ways that harm those around him. by the end he recognises that more tame and domestic forms of masculinity are just as valid, and that basing his self-worth on how ‘dazzled’ his peers are by him is immature and not constructive. his family now liberates him and allows him to be vulnerable rather than restricting how he feels he can express himself, and as a unit the animals beat the farmers in their game of power-seeking. mr fox recognises and appreciates both his human and animal traits, without using them as a means to excuse his behaviour or to feel bad about his worth.

MR FOX

i guess my point is, we’ll eat tonight, and we’ll eat together. and even in this not particularly flattering light, you are without a doubt the five and a half most wonderful wild animals ive ever met in my life. so let’s raise our boxes – to our survival.

i.k.b

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a-lil-perspective · 3 years

Text

70 Encouragements/Tips For The Writer:

A/N: Rules don’t exist. These are real and personal and stem from a deteriorating, exhausted Writer who is here to tell you (and herself) that you are amazing and keep going. I hope you find some encouragement within.

Your mental health comes first and foremost.

Indulge and embrace your creative writing pieces when they come (and when they don’t). Especially when they don’t.

Suffering from Writer’s Block or fluctuating hyperfixation? Me too. So is your favorite author. Welcome to the Writer’s Block Party (all my uwus if you see the pun).

Did you spend five hours on this one segment, forget the last time you ate, develop chapped lips, dry eyes, and a stiff back (time to get up and move), bang your head on the wall, laugh, cry, fidget, take your ADHD meds, deviate to watch YouTube, have an epiphany, curse in frustration and wonder why the hell you do this to yourself? Congratulations, you’re a Writer.

Embrace all the not-so-glamorous sides of writing, and accept the fact they’re going to happen time over again.

When you say “just one more line” and it’s 2:00 AM, I’ll be here to remind you to “go to sleep” (because I’m also depriving myself lol).

Actually, sleeping helps your mind feel refreshed, and it’s good for your health. If you’re struggling with a particular segment, one of the best things you can do is just put a cap on it for the time being, put in a placeholder, and get some shut eye. I know you don’t want to. But you will feel so much better and have more clarity and energy to continue when you wake. Trust me.

More often than not, those words you “just didn’t write down fast enough and now forgot” end up revealing themselves to you later in a much more profound way. Give the words time to get ready. They’re just spiffing up before coming to visit. :)

Be proud of yourself and your prose. Writing is an amazing part of who you are.

That trope has been written 1000 times before? Make it 1001.

You’ve already written this scenario? Write it again.

You’ve just written a single sentence. Now sit back for moment and think: you just wrote something brand new, never before seen. Nobody out there will ever write that sentence or formulate those thoughts the exact same way. You are a unique, mind-blowing, awe-inspiring human being.

Bask in the excitement that comes with a completed piece. Reflect on what you learned throughout and celebrate the little victories.

Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback, but also understand that you might not always get it, and that is OK.

Please re-read your work. Be gentle with yourself. You had to write that very first piece to get to where you are now. Love the process.

Your personal writing success is not based off of kudos or likes or reblogs.

There is no right or wrong way to write.

There is no such thing as “good” writing.

Improvement is becoming of everyone so get comfy, strap in. The journey of a Writer is a lifelong one. Here’s to many more works ahead.

Don’t mourn the words you did or didn’t write. Celebrate the ones you will.

One day, you’ll read a piece that will blow you away—and it will be yours.

There is nothing “shameful” about reblogging your own writing works.

I promise you’ll find your “wow” piece—either in something you’ve already written, or something yet to come.

Baby. Please don’t write out of spite. You’re better than that.

You are just as valid/deserving as the next Writer. And you do belong.

If you feel sad/unworthy when sharing your works or interacting with others’, get to the root of why. Writing should be fun, rewarding, and relaxing. Not shameful, embarrassing, or a chore.

Writing (fanfiction, specifically) is labeled as “transformative works”. Self-explanatory, right? However, if you notice the transformative part begin to have a personal effect on you—a negative one—it’s time to take a step back.

Right now, I can name a single quality you possess: diligence. How do I know? Because you’re a Writer, and the two go hand-in-hand.

Got that single scene in your head but you haven’t completed or even began all the chapters preceding? Bruh. Jot that down right now. You don’t need 20k words beforehand.

Embrace your writing mood swings. The stray, sweet and condensed blurbie. The ideal, bridging drabble. The solid, substantial oneshot. The hefty, elaborate 10k word chapter. Appreciate everything in-between, and that you are capable of all of it.

Nobody remembers that extra word or typo or stray speech mark back all the way back in chapter 3. Tell the little monster in your head to go to hell.

You’re not a weirdo for making facial expressions and mulling through your dialogue aloud. You. Are. A. Writer.

It’s OK if the Readers can’t always see exactly what you envisioned in your head, or the full extent of the picture you painted. We all see colors differently.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your writing.

In fact, challenge yourself to dabble into a new plot/trope/concept every day, even if only for a few minutes. You may discover you love writing it.

There’s no rush to finish/begin any written work. If you take your time, you will make your mark. You’re not falling behind or running late. Slow down and wait for it. :)

Three cheers for hiatus.

Listen to your body and mind, know your limits and when it’s time to take a break.

Actually take a break. :)

If you feel like you’re falling stagnant in creativity, looking to/revisiting other forms of creative media can help encourage the flow.

Ask for encouragement, and be at peace with asking.

Take shelter in fellow writers. Uplift each other always.

You are/will be someone’s favorite author. :)

You don’t have anything to prove. You have something to share.

Someone is thinking about your work right now.

Someone started a series because they drew inspiration from you.

Personal writing style can reflect a lot on the state of one’s mental health. Try to always be attentive to that of your own.

Self-validation must be cultivated early on or nothing will ever work.

Freestyle every once in a while. Write a snippet, timed, and go—without editing. Write the first thing that comes to mind and go from there. Do it all the way through the set time. When it stops, you’ll find yourself unable to. 3,800 words here we come. :)

Not everything needs an outline. :)

It is completely normal to write your story out of order.

Create guidelines for yourself. If they aren’t working, toss ‘em.

Word vomiting can help you feel better (it’s just how it sounds). By clearing all those jumbled thoughts and scattered concepts, you achieve a clearer objective. Try it sometime.

A rough draft is supposed to be rough.

Sometimes the words come to you quicker than others. Be patient. That is merely the construct of a Writer’s mind. You’re a beautiful enigma.

A sentence written is a story progressing.

Writing is an endurance sport. You must pace yourself and exercise it daily.

You are still a Writer even when the words aren’t on the actual page.

You’re not obligated to a writing/posting schedule.

As you progress in your journey and gain more awareness, don’t sacrifice your style. Those beginning works are what define you. Hold onto them and don’t ever let them go.

You’re the only one cringing—

Remember that sometimes words are elusive and you don’t always have control over them, and that is OK. Sometimes they write themselves. Sometimes your characters come to life and break out into dance across your page. Dance with them. You can wrangle them back when the music stops. :)

There is nothing condemning or embarrassing about asking for a beta. Allow someone to help carry the load.

Allow people to cheer you on—even if they don’t read your work.

It’s OK if your writing style isn’t someone else’s preference.

Be your biggest cheerleader. Sometimes you are all you have.

You don’t need anyone’s approval except your own.

You love that trope/concept/story you just wrote? That’s all that matters. The end.

You will never write good. You will write you. And that is good.

Above all else: remember to write for you.🤍

#writers #fanfiction writers #writing encouragement #writer appreciation #writer support #writer struggles #writing motivation #writers tips #for writers #omg am I struggling.#hope these help you beautiful people #my writing #it’s a lil thing

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mbti-notes · 3 years

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INFJ. Processing past Fe failures. Want to get better at socializing / having deeper relationships/friendships. Muddling through Ti development - desiring to get better at self-awareness + communication. A lot in my brain and it'd be a lot to share the entirety of recent exchanges that have ended up in failed relationships, so I'll try asking this and hope it's enough to get critical thinking help from you, thank you much in advance. (1/2)

[con't: I notice a pattern of me trying to communicate and express myself to be understand by, or be emotionally met by Fi users, and them responding by saying things like "I don't know what you want from me", "I don't know how to help you," "I'm sorry you feel that way" or them even saying variations of "Maybe you're not used to my communication style" (ENTJ) if I express that I feel dismissed, uncomfortable, or disrespected.

This isn't ALL Fi users thank God & I'm in therapy now to address my downplaying of my emotional needs, being willing to work through anything even though the romantic relationships I'm attracting are woefully incompatible or unhealthy. But I want to get better at doing my part to increase the chance of relationships building. What am I doing/expecting/judging in my communication with Fi users so they respond that way or has me feeling being unseen/misunderstood? Is it the basic INFJ recs?]

You point to Fi specifically. Fi doesn't require outside validation, so perhaps what you're encountering is their lack of concept of outside validation, in the manner that you're seeking it with Fe.

All of those example statements sound like they could be taken sincerely. "I don't know what you want from me" could be an opportunity for you to better explain what you need/want. "I don't know how to help you" could be an opportunity for you to provide better instructions. "I'm sorry you feel that way" could be a helpless admission that the two of you don't see things the same way. "Maybe you're not used to my communication style" could be an indication that there is a need to investigate the big gap between what was perceived and what was actually intended.

Not everyone is going to see eye-to-eye with you, not everyone is going to agree with your version of events, not everyone is going to care about your needs and feelings enough to address them kindly and patiently. This should all be okay with you unless you were walking around expecting everyone out there to have the capacity to meet you emotionally or validate your emotions (unhealthy Fe)? That's simply not gonna happen, so it's an unreasonable expectation. That's why it's so important that YOU be the first to take care of yourself and own your emotions, set proper personal boundaries, and navigate interpersonal boundaries more gracefully.

If you feel someone has violated your boundary (i.e. you feel hurt by them), the answer isn't to violate theirs in return. You're trying to fix a problem in the relationship, so further damaging the relationship isn't going to help. Whether you are right to feel hurt is not the main issue. Feelings themselves are always true and tell you something true about you. However, what you DO about the feelings isn't always right. There are two main ways people deal with negative feelings: 1) bottle them up, which amounts to self-harm, or 2) express them, which opens up the possibility of doing harm to others, if they don't have the means to process your feelings. Neither way is ideal.

If your main approach is to expect people to change (when they can't or don't want to), expect them to give you more than they are capable of giving (due to not having the means or resources), expect them to understand something that they are not really capable of understanding (when they just don't think in the same way as you), etc, your expectations are easily perceived as "demands". You're essentially pressuring people to be what you want them to be, which amounts to dishonoring them and violating their boundary. This approach is usually met with submission or resistance. If they submit to you (because they care for you), they will be unhappy for having allowed you to violate their boundary, and the problem will recur because it was only swept under the rug. If they resist you, conflict ensues, and the relationship bond will be tested and possibly threatened, especially if the conflict recurs without resolution.

There is a way to honor your feelings while also honoring others' feelings. It requires you to have good emotional intelligence and be a good communicator. Good emotional intelligence means respecting your feelings and taking full responsibility for them. Instead of seeing yourself as the victim (i.e. "you made me feel this way"), you see yourself as an agent with the power to decide what is best (i.e. "I feel this way and this is what I should do about it"). Positioning yourself as a passive or helpless victim means that you cast blame and eventually demand reparations. Positioning yourself as an active and influential agent means that you survey the situation objectively and then try to act in the best interests of everyone involved. This is what healthy and confident Fe should look like.

For example, when you feel dismissed, maybe you bottle it up for awhile, until you can't take it anymore (because the problem remains unaddressed). Then you confront people and say, "I feel dismissed". This implies that the other person has done something bad to you. You are the victim, which puts them on the spot, feeling like the bad guy, and then they can't hear you, due to becoming too preoccupied with not wanting to be the bad guy. Communication is likely to stall there, unless they have the wherewithal (emotional intelligence) to keep their focus on you and your concerns.

Instead, you could say to yourself, "I feel dismissed". You take full responsibility for your feelings and validate them for yourself. When you are good at validating your own feelings and emotions (something you admit you really struggle with), you'll eventually find that you won't need to rely on others to do it for you.

What does it mean to feel dismissed? It means that you believe you're not being taken seriously, or something to that effect. Not very difficult to understand. What to do about it? The feeling of disharmony is a message to you that you have to do more to advocate for yourself and make space for yourself within the relationship/group (it is good Fe advice). There are many ways to advocate for yourself without stepping on others. If you choose the right way, in terms of honoring everyone involved, the feeling of being dismissed will dissipate naturally. If you choose the wrong way, in terms of honoring yourself but dishonoring others, you'll encounter the problem again, because you haven't addressed the underlying problem of you positioning yourself as the victim in every relationship conflict. Chronic victim mentality is often an indication that you depend too much on outside validation of your self-worth.

Unless you are stuck in a very toxic social environment, the majority of people are not malicious for no reason. Before accusing or blaming, are you absolutely certain that they INTENDED to dismiss you? If not, wouldn't it be wise to gather more info? For instance, you could ask something like, "Have you had the time to give my idea serious consideration?" No blaming, no battling, no victim-victimizer dynamic. Do you understand how communicating without blame, through genuine inquiry, avoids trapping the both of you in a vicious cycle of seeking emotional reparations? You give people the benefit of the doubt. You give people the chance to clarify or explain. You give yourself the chance to grasp the FULL picture so that you can make a more informed decision about what to do (based on their response to your question). But this presence of mind isn't possible when you can't accept your feelings/emotions and they run wild as a result.

One common misapplication of Ti is the tendency to jump to illogical conclusions or make up illogical stories about what is motivating people's negative behavior, all the while believing that you're being completely logical. It's a destructive way to deal with negative or disharmonious feelings. Once the false narrative infects your mind, you can't help but perceive the person as attacking you, even when they're not. This misuse of Ti is a major impediment to relationship building.

The problem with victim mentality is that you are hyperfocused on your perspective only, so you only have half the picture, which means making ill-informed decisions. If you are prone to Ti loop, you need to get to the bottom of why you're so quick to position yourself in the passive position of victim. A healthy relationship should be an equal partnership based on trust, which means that you should always try to 1) give people the benefit of the doubt, and 2) gather the facts of the situation before drawing a conclusion about what they intended or what kind of character they are.

If the fact of the matter is that the person really doesn't care about your feelings, then you know not to seek validation from them, and perhaps distance from them for your own good. Don't play around in toxic or abusive relationships. If the fact of the matter is that your perception of the situation doesn't match up with what they intended to say/do, then it's up to you to straighten out the situation in your mind before proceeding.

Trust your feelings, validate your feelings, but don't act blindly on them (i.e. without fully grasping what's happening with the other person). Figure out why exactly you're feeling what you're feeling, then take it up with the person in a way that addresses the root of the problem and in a way that doesn't immediately put them on the defensive. Conflict is sometimes unavoidable, but being more skilled at communicating your concerns will certainly reduce the amount of pain required to reach a resolution.

#infj #infj relationships #emotional intelligence #auxiliary fe #ti loop #communication #self worth #victim mentality #boundaries #relationships #conflict #ask

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lazyliars · 3 years

Text

/rp

Before I get into it, I want to state that is EXPLICITLY an analysis of the Characters, and is not intended to touch on how the cc’s played them in a meta sense unless specifically stated otherwise.

Also, this is technically a part two to my other post, which took a more in depth look at Techno and Phil’s reactions to Tommy’s death. It’s not necessary when reading this post, but I don’t address their reactions here.

So. The question must be asked.

Are we [the Syndicate] the baddies?

Yes.

The End.

Why are the Syndicate the baddies?

They got damn logo is a wither skull.

The End.

That's not how this works.

Yeah, yeah. You’re right.

The Syndicate's goals as an organization are not inherently bad. They seem to have good intentions behind them, and the focus on the freedom of it's individual group members is important to remember when talking about it; It is not a government. There is no hierarchical power system. No one is forced to do anything against their will, or surrender any of their rights or power to remain a member. It is not a government.

I also want to address Techno and Phil backing Ranboo into a corner – I see them getting a lot of flack for this, but I personally do not think it is relevant to the greater discussion, or necessarily representative of any contradictions within the organization. It was clearly played for laughs, and after they back off they clarify to Ranboo that they won't force him. Then later when Phil and Ranboo are alone, Ranboo feels safe enough to express that he felt like he was pressured into it, and Phil assures him he is allowed to leave whenever he wants; He is not being forced to do anything, and he is not being coerced or blackmailed.

None of the Syndicate members have done any wrongs against each other in the context of the Syndicate, OR gone against any of the Syndicate's core principles.

That, said, holy shit are they the baddies.

Listen, there's trying to telegraph a meaning or message to the audience and then there's having your logo be wither skulls on blackstone. That is straight out of the skit I keep referencing, seriously.

Okay, but, they laughed at it! It was played as a joke, just like the Ranboo thing!

The Ranboo thing was improv, the Syndicate's headquarters were planned – the artistic choices that they made reflect on what role they want the build and the organization inhabiting it to play in the future storylines.

Wither Skulls kind of have some CONNOTATIONS. Techno is an English major, I don't think he chose the most threatening imagery possible on accident, and then joked about the way people would interpret it just to stir the pot. This reads as hugely intentional.

And beyond that, the jokes they make during this part aren't “haha yeah, we look bad but we're actually good!” they're “you can tell by looking at these that we're the good guys wink wink, this is good guy stuff right here :)” It is a joke about how they are definitely not the good guys. This isn't even a case of unreliable narrators, this is one step down from flat out saying the meta intent.

But okay, I hear you, I'm talking about things that haven't happened yet. The Syndicate hasn't used any Withers, they could be an aesthetic choice. Lets look at what they do in practice.

So, they barge into private property, assess Snowchester's right to continue existing based entirely on their own ideals of what Freedom is, and then only once Tubbo assures them that they have no standing leader do they grant the place their approval to, and I gotta stress this part, continue existing.

In my Quackity meta, I already talked about how Government in the context of a M1necraft RP cannot be compared to IRL Governments on a one-to-one scale. They don't serve the same purposes or have the same type of power. What I didn't talk about was Agency in the context of m1necraft governments.

In an irl government, if you are born into one, you can't really leave without committing a massive overhaul on your life, which can be expensive and difficult, if not impossible for many people. Even in a “benevolent” government, the simple physicality of where you were born can prevent you from leaving it easily.

The same hurdles do not exist in the Dream SMP. People who join M1necraft governments choose to. They want to, either at the beginning when they form one, or later on when they join up. So far, no Government has just Sprung Up and forced the current residents of an area to become dependent on them, except maybe the Eggpire, who's status as a government is... shakey.

And even when people want to leave or separate from the government, they have been historically able to do so without any trouble or any effort from said governments to stop them. Jack Manifold emancipated from Manberg. Fundy and Quackity both left to start new nations. In all cases they were allowed to do so without any attempts on the part of the governments to stop them, either through force, or institutions preventing them from doing so.

The most anyone has lost when leaving a government is their house, which is still usually their property anyway, and is something that is easily rebuilt elsewhere and is inconvenient to move anyway.

The only exceptions to this might be Schlatt exiling Wilbur and Tommy - but even then, they weren’t trying to leave, they were trying to get back in, and of course the original L’manberg revolution, where Dream attempted to force L’manberg back into the Dream SMP, which wasn’t even a government at that point in time.

I don’t consider Phil’s house arrest an example of a government forcing someone to stay a citizen - that was treated less as a matter of a citizen wanting to leave the country and more as a threat to national security. Still pretty fucked up, but it’s a different issue.

What I'm saying is, If Tubbo wants to create a government out in the middle of nowhere, threatening no one, forcing no one to join either through force or desperation, and allowing people to join willingly because they want to, then he should be allowed to do that.

The Irony of the Syndicate, a group of people consisting of some of the richest, strongest people on the server, going around and enforcing 'Freedom' that entails no one person having more power than any other, is absurd.

It shows an extreme lack of self-awareness and/or self-righteousness, as they seem to think that they deserve to be the ones who decide what constitutes a government.

Snowchester is a small independent nation - they shouldn’t have to live in fear of being obliterated if they don’t walk on eggshells to meet an arbitrary standard decided by people who’s only authority on the matter COMES FROM THEIR PERSONAL POWER. No one elected them! No one chose them! They were not “approved” by the server at large to enact this kind of law.

The Syndicate are not a government, but they are an unsupervised power structure exerting their ideals on a land that did not ask for them. Like, These people have invented an actual Authoritarian-Anarchist faction. How the hell did they manage this?????

Back on topic.

Tubbo shows them the crater left by his nukes. The reaction is oddly positive – the nukes are fine by the morals of the Syndicate, apparently. I'd argue that they come across as more impressed than anything else; they seem to respect Tubbo for having gotten ahold of “real” power.

(There's a few good memes out there about “We can excuse nuclear weaponry, but we draw the line at Government!”)

So. By the Syndicate's standards: A single person or group of acceptably equal persons with weapons of mass-destruction are only worth “keeping an eye on” because they might provoke other people.

Like, I consider Project Dreamcatcher to be one of, if not the most morally ambiguous thing Tubbo has ever done, largely because it was all on his own initiative. He holds some culpability for The Butcher Army and Phil's house arrest, but they weren't his ideas and he was mostly following Quackity at that point.

And Phil tells Tubbo, IMMEDIATELY AFTER SEEING THE NUCLEAR CRATER:

“Looks like you've reformed a little bit Tubbo, I'm proud.”

And it's fine. Crimes against nature? Fine. A sign of healing in fact!! Tubbo is having a sweeeelll time and he definitely didn't make these nukes specifically in fear of being attacked by these exact people! Tubbo is doing great. Tubbo is doing fine. Tubbo. is. FINE.

Anyway.

I don't think this presentation of the Syndicate was an accident. Looking at the greater lore of SMP right now, after the Egg is done, their list of enemies is slim, and considering that they seem solely invested in taking down governments, that leaves maybe Snowchester, Kinoko Kingdom, and Eret and the greater Dream SMP.

Snowchester has not been shown to be corrupt, evil, or have any intent to go down that route. The most ambiguous thing they've done is, again, is the nukes. Other than that, it's pretty much your average cottagecore snow village.

Kinoko is presented in an even more morally 'good' light, Karl having founded it specifically for his Time-travel library purposes, which are currently being treated by the narrative as a selfless act, if not downright heroic.

Eret is also a fairly 'good' aligned character atm. He's been on that redemption grind since the og betrayal, and doesn't seem keen on backtracking. He's actively tried to leverage his position as king to make things better, and hasn't been quiet about that. He was also 'validated' by Tommy*, a character who has been described both by his allies and enemies as “the hero,” so take that as you will.

What I'm getting at is, all of the current potential enemies for the Syndicate aside from the Egg, are currently being cast as 'good,' and if they were to be attacked, they would undoubtedly have the moral high-ground, unless something drastically changed.

The only potential shakeups I can think of is are a Dream escape and/or a Wilbur revival, both of which could draw the Syndicate's attention and ire, depending on how things go. That said, it's just as likely that either or both of them would join the Syndicate – Dream still has that favor, and Phil and Techno both seemed to think Wilbur would've agreed with their blowing up L'manberg.

Both of those characters are currently **villains – the fact that they're both prime candidates for the Syndicate is a huge indication of the direction it's going to go as the plot moves forward.

((*I know some people are gonna come at me for painting Tommy as the “deciding factor” of what is morally good, so lemme just stop you there. I'm not talking about Tommy somehow having the 'right' to decide who is and isn't good, and definitely not the right to decide who should and shouldn't be king. I'm saying that Tommy, a character who the narrative treats as, if not a good person, then a person who is trying to be good, was in support of Eret, a character who has also been trying to be good.

Eret doesn't gain the moral highground because Tommy said so, he gets it because a character who the narrative treats as trying to do better, acknowledged Eret's earnest attempts at doing the same.

**I'm referring to Wilbur here as a villain because Tommy seemed convinced he would be if he were to be brought back. There is always the possibility that he's wrong.))

So, to summarize this: I read the Syndicate as being intentionally positioned as future antagonists, if not outright villains of a future arc. They are NOT a Government but their goals are contradictory with their means, and it is important to keep in mind that they plan to enforce their own brand of freedom on people who did not grant them either the authority or permission to do so.

So, uh. Can you tell I loved these streams? They were seriously so good. I kept switching between Ranboo and Techno's POV's trying to keep up with everything. I still have to watch Niki's!

All in all, I'm super, super excited for whats coming next, egg stuff, Syndicate stuff, Tommy stuff, all of it.

#dream smp #tubbo #the syndicate #c!techno critical #c!phil critical #dream smp analysis #lazytext

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mimzy-writing-online · 3 years

Note

Hello. I had a question regarding your post about blind characters. I have a character in my WIP that must cover their eyes.. but it’s blind. He may need to tell people he is blind to explain why he covers his eyes though. I was wondering how I might write this character without offending. Thank you :)

I think I want to start by explaining the “covering blind eyes” trope and why it has become a harmful trope. I think understanding why it’s hurtful helps everyone learn how to handle it better.

I would guess that the “blind people wear sunglasses” trope comes from Hollywood for the specific reason of 1. wanting to signal to the audience that the character is obviously blind and 2. avoid breaking the suspension of disbelief by preventing the audience from catching the sighted actor look at visual stimuli (because disabled characters are almost always played by able actors).

But this changed the way the public expects to experience blindness. If watching a sighted actor wear sunglasses and say he’s blind is all the exposure to the blind community a person has had, that’s the only model of blindness they’ll recognize. If they meet a blind person in real life who doesn’t wear sunglasses, it’s going to break this built perception and cause an uncomfortable cognitive dissonance.

And then there is the common “cloudy-white blank gaze” that pops up in media. It stems from the fact that cataracts is the most common cause of blindness and the appearance of severe cataracts is a cloudy film in the eyes obscuring the iris and pupil. It can also alter what color a person’s eyes appears to be, making them appear paler and grey in the beginning and then as the cataract advances it becomes more yellow/brown and alters a person’s vision to appear more yellow tinted.

There are lots of other eye conditions that makes the eyes look visibly different. Albinism for instance affects the color and structure of the iris. Eyes might be congenitally misshapen. The muscles might be weak or not work and one or both eyes point significantly outward. Someone who was born blind and experienced no visual stimuli might also have weak muscles around their eyes because they never had a reason to focus their eyes on anything.

And unfortunately humans have the habit of feeling uncomfortable when they meet someone who looks very obviously different from the norm, whether that’s a personal style choice (hair color and style, tattoos, clothing choices) or something they can’t help (a visible disability, skin color, scars).

To the paragraph above, @gothhabiba replied with: “it's very weird & ahistorical to claim that racism or ableism are some kind of natural "human" trait.. like frankly it's apologia”

You’re right, I wasn’t thinking beyond that generalization or assumption.

Perhaps a better way to put it is: I was raised in a society where I was taught from childhood to think that there was only one kind of human being to be. White, cis, straight, abled, conservative. That’s a very western thing and that’s a thing I’m going to constantly be unlearning.

Racism and ableism and homophobia aren’t innate, that’s a western thing that was forced onto the rest of the world by colonialism. And because western media created this idea that the world is white, abled, cis, straight, and Christian-value leaning, it taught people to think that was the norm so that seeing someone different from that archetype would cause a cognitive dissonance, which causes discomfort.

And instead of working past that cognitive dissonance to learn more and realize there’s so much more to life than media taught you, society encourages you to ignore that cognitive dissonance by sticking your head in the sand-- or TV screen.

So combine these two tropes or common beliefs together and you get something a little dangerous: the idea that blind people cover their eyes because they look obviously different and they’re ashamed (or should be ashamed) of that.

And if you’re someone who’s just gone blind or who was born blind and you have little to no contact with the blind community, then this societal belief that you should be ashamed of how your eyes look becomes detrimental to your self-esteem and further builds internalized ableism.

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve read or watched a blind character cover their eyes with sunglasses because they were ashamed of how their eyes looked. And I distinctly remember a few times where a sighted friend of the character was trying to convince them to stop wearing sunglasses because there’s nothing wrong with looking different--which is true, but it plays into this fantasy of being the perfect abled ally who saves the blind character from being miserable.

In an ideal world, the character has no reason to believe looking different is a bad thing or diminishes their worth or makes people dislike them. And if they develop this belief, it’s more likely that someone more involved in the disabled community, most likely someone disabled themselves, will set them straight. Or that the character will learn to accept themselves on their own, looks included.

But there are some perfectly valid reasons for any blind person to wear sunglasses. They might have an interest in fashion and sunglasses complete the look they’re going for. They could want to protect their eyes from UV rays while they’re outside. They may experience light sensitivity and sunglasses reduces any discomfort or pain. Those are incredibly common reasons to wear sunglasses whether you’re sighted or blind.

But there are some more complicated situations.

In your words, your character must cover his eyes. You never specified why, so my primary guess is that he has some kind of power that is unpleasant or has devastating affects and the only way to prevent it is to keep his eyes covered. My primary guess stems from this post where an anon and I discussed a retelling of Medusa, a hypothetical blinding of oneself to avoid ever killing anyone ever again, and what I think I would do if I was in that scenario.

So how do you write a blind character who must cover their eyes and avoid some of the complications?

1. Your character must always have the ability to say “fuck off, it’s my business, I don’t have to tell you why I’m blind or why I cover my eyes.”

Most blind people really, really don’t want to get into the nitty-gritty of why they’re blind and how they feel about it and what it’s like being blind with a stranger they’ll never see again or a new acquaintance they don’t know well yet. You have exceptions to that rule where sure, educating the public about blindness is a thing you want to do and you’re committed to helping your community, but I still have days where I don’t want to talk about being blind or disclose my medical crap.

And if someone doesn’t respect their right to their privacy or pushes too much, the blind character is allowed to be angry, is allowed to tell them off and complain without anyone else in the situation vilifying them or saying they’re “overreacting” and “should have just disclosed private information because big deal or whatever.” If they are angry, that’s their right, and it’s not unreasonable, it doesn’t make them a bad person.

2. Your character should not be ashamed of being blind or of covering their eyes. It is a part of their life, they’re used to it by now, even if they weren’t in the beginning.

The shame and internalized ableism is something that should be written about, but that’s for an own-voices story with a blind author. I don’t think an abled person will ever be able to understand how much society expects you to hate yourself and your disability because “being disabled is a tragic thing that ruins your life” and how that does affect your mental health, self esteem, your relationships with others, your medical care, and what kind of accommodations you can get.

3. It wouldn’t hurt to have a few sarcastic lines in response to uncomfortable conversations.

Stranger: so what’s with the...

Blind Character: what’s with what?

S: the... you know

BC: you’re gonna have to be a bit more specific

S: Your eyes?

BC: They’re... eyes

S: but you’re...

BC: Blind?

S: uh...

BC: yeah, I’m blind. *walks away*

Or this conversation:

S: *to some other character* so why are his eyes covered?

(author’s note: which, honestly, that’s fucking rude. At least have the guts to ask me yourself)

BC: If I look anyone in the eye they instantly perish.

*awkward silence*

BC: instantly.

Friend: It’s truly tragic

BC: *melancholic* that’s how I lost my sister. *chokes up* She was so young

Or this conversation:

S: Why are you wearing that?

BC: It’s called fashion Karen!

Or this conversation:

S: are you like... blind?

BC: yes?? why wouldn’t I be?? Wait, are you sighted? Are you one of those sighted people? You poor thing! What caused you to gain your sight? Do you have a car? A bike? Were you born sighted? What’s it like to see color? Do you miss not having to see

God, I want a chance to try that last one. I haven’t interacted with a stranger in almost a year. One day...

4. Honestly, it’d also be cool if someone’s reaction to your character covering their eyes was like, “cool sunglasses,” or “cool *insert random character, even one you made up* cosplay,” (which is ten times funnier if this character is a notable figure in modern society like an actor who people might cosplay).

5. You know, if he’s covering his eyes with some kind of blindfold, he should totally have custom blindfolds for his moods. Like, I have a mask that says “suck it up buttercup” and another that says “not today” because sometimes that’s the mood. And sometimes the mood is one of my floral masks, and sometimes the mood is my cat mask.

So, just some thoughts. I hope that helps.

Edit: a commenter said: “op, unless i'm mistaken this kind of reads like anon meant the character ISN'T blind but lies about being blind to explain covering their eyes? it seems like they made a typo on the word "isn't"”

So my original response to the question was based on the assumption that the character is blind. However,

If the character is not blind, then do not under any circumstances have them lie and say they’re blind to escape a mild inconvenience.

It’s better to have the character actually explain the situation or straight up leave the conversation or invent a more ridiculous lie than to perpetuate the very real stereotype and misconception that there are people who fake being blind and therefore it’s okay to discriminate or harass them if you even suspect they’re faking.

Do not under any circumstances perpetuate that stereotype. Do not harass someone because you don’t think they’re blind enough.

#blind character #writeblr #writing community #disabled character #writing tropes #trope talk #blindness tropes #Anonymous

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