#but i do think that this attitude towards trans women is a huge part of the rise in transphobic abuse rn

[bioethicists]

trans ppl, particularly trans women, aren't allowed to be people. they get held up as trans first + foremost so everything about them must be a consequence of their transness.

there are thousands, millions even, of misogynistic cis women. of cis women with shitty, essentialist takes on gender. of vain cruel creepy rude vapid selfish ignorant cis women. these traits in cis women are either dismissed as individual flaws or even held up as somehow liberating or radical by neoliberal feminism.

in trans women, these traits are held up as Proof of their contamination by Maleness, rather than a consequence of living in a misogynistic society which is by no means unique to trans ppl.

#it goes w/o saying that a similar post could be made abt trans men #but i do think that this attitude towards trans women is a huge part of the rise in transphobic abuse rn #transmisogyny

[waywardvictorianconfessions]

I think this is NAC. And this is a bit late, but... I think there's a ton of t3rfs in the fandom because of FLAG. As a trans person who was a HUGE fan of EA's music and book that rattled me a little, but I excused it and even made fanart with a male "inmate" thanking her about her empowering all of us... Looking back I was way too naïve... Listen to the lyrics closely and you'll see what I mean. She shits a lot on men, she victimizes herself a lot (and let me tell you I come from a country where 10 to 11 women and girls are killed per day, and that's not counting trans women... putting a foot out of my house is TERRIFYING), and she talks a lot of revenge on men. There's a ton of misandry and transphobia in that song. Specially the part where she showed two young, pretty men all dressed up in female presenting clothes and made up with really exaggerated makeup, and then sang the "even if you're only a boy" part directed at them. A lot of trans women have been locked up in asylums throughout history, subjected to conversion therapies, and treated like men when they aren't. They have even been unalived at these places. Read on trans history, you'll see it there. Trans people, Gender-non-conforming people, Intersex people, and people with hormonal imbalances were also paraded as freaks in shows, an example of that is Anna John Budd. She also amps up the "lesbian" persona a ton in the official video. She kisses one of the maids in the mouth, and then starts to very suggestively help the crumpets get ready. We already know that since this is "Emily with a y" she and Veronica are together, so her attitude towards her isn't surprising, but the rest of the girls? I know it was a thing during the live performances, but what was the point even then? And then as the girls provocatively get dressed (irony right there) the maids start to make out... what's the point of EA showing this? There's no indication that anyone is LGBT+ anywhere in the multiple versions of her book , and if she wants to show sorority and a female community with strong bonds, 1) why do forced "lesbian" parading t3rfs have been forcing on everyone for years, and 2) why make fun of trans women in the video as well? Trans women are women, and they deserve a safe community, too. A lot of t3rfs are political lesbians too, and they contribute to the invisibilization of the Lesbian community, they have also appropriated the Labrys flag, which was designed solely for the Lesbian community. I've seen EA contribute to that, consciously or unconsciously, with her shock factor by presenting these things on her FLAG video (and on stage). So yeah, t3rfs have found a "safe" place in this fandom EA's attitude towards sexual identity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and gender presentation seems to align with theirs...

Whether she is or isn't a t3rf, that's up for debate and at this point I think only she can answer that (if she even would be honest about it). The problem I see is that she does these things, that are clearly problematic in a very covert sort of fashion, arguing she has the best intentions at heart and people don't notice it. It's like an offhanded compliment... she's extremely patriarchal and reinforces a lot of gender roles, too, but because she presents these things wrapped up in pretty "female community" paper everyone is none-the-wiser... and honestly that's exactly the t3rfs cup of tea. Pun intended.

#nac #tw terfs #fight like a girl #flag #I do remember the 'even if you're only a boy' lyric causing a big uproar at the time #lots of interesting points being made here

[fedonciadale]

An ask to shake things up a little from That Other Topic: You and I both loved the WoT tv show, but nothing's perfect, of course, so what would you change about it if you could? What do you think could have been done better? Is there anything you're hoping they'll improve on next season? I want to hear your thoughts!

Hi there!

I'll talk gladly about that!

I wouldn't change that much to be honest, mostly because there are quite a lot of things that we'll have to see how they develop in later seasons. And there are changes I'm definitely very happy about.

My main problem was pacing. I think the season should have had 10 episodes and longer as well. There were some things that were underdeveloped and difficult to understand for Non book readers. Take Padan Fain! He was shown several times following the EF5 but it was too short to stand out. So, I don't know if show watchers even got his importance.

I know the actor left but I would have introduced the next Mat actor for episode 7 and 8. It was noticeabke that they tried very hard to work around that and it didn't quite work. Padan Fain had to confront Mat, Perrin made no sense.

I would have had Nynaeve heal Egwene in episode 8, not the other way round - or if Egwene really used the 'flame of Tar Valon' weave show that it was something super special and not normal channeling.

I'm a bit torn about the fact that they haven't introduced yet in detail that the True Source has two halves - Saidin was mentioned only on the age of legends cold open. And as much as the gender essentialism of the True Source is problematic in itself it is a huge part of the world building. And Moiraine mentioned only once that women and men can't see each other channeling. It's not easy to find a way around the male-female binary but I think it could be done : it could be too dangerous for humans to touch the source as a whole and that is why they can only touch one half. (The counterpart of the One Power the Dark One's Power is only one and it's too addictive - so that makes sense). Then you could have men tending to Saidin and women to Saidar (maybe especially if they have the spark) but enbys or trans people (people who can choose to learn) could choose. That's my solution anyway and I wonder how they will tackle that problem. It's a rather important part of the story that Rand needs a teacher after all. And that he is not exempt from going mad. I certainly would keep that in the show women and men seem to be equally strong.

In general I'm happy about how they handle romance. Lan / Nynaeve was one of the few ships I liked and it is now even better! Not sure about Perrin / Egwene though. On a rewatch I saw it but I'm not sure where they are going with that. Otherwise they can only improve on the romances in comparison to the books and they already did!

For my part they could just have scratched Min. Sigh. She's part of the show though and there is hope they just skip her attitude towards Egwene (which I hated so much in the books). I guess I'll never like her but I may be able to tolerate her. Lol. If I could change the polycule without enraging the fans, I would make Elayne and Aviendha bisexual, let them both have a crush on Rand (and get their one night stands) but I'd let them end up with each other and Rand either on his own (everybody really thinks he is dead) or if it can't be helped with Min. Actually anything but that weird male fantasy Jordan wrote....

I think it's reasonable to expect that they merge book 2 and 3 for the next season. Book 2 is still very much centered on Rand and he's barely there in book 3. If they want to keep making this an ensemble it makes sense to try to combine book 2 and 3 - it would help to reduce repetitive duels as well. We could end season 2 with Rand holding Callandor... That would be nice. The girls could escape the Seanchan mid-season and still end up chasing dark friends in Tear (you don't reall need the Seanchan to vanish completely. Moiraine could regain her strength in a fight with one Forsaken! Perrin could meet Faile already.

There's still so many thoughts! I can barely wait for season 2!

#ask box #wheel of time #wot book spoilers #wot on prime #season 2 speculation #moiraine damodred #rand al'thor #perrin aybara #wonder girls #saidin #Saidar

[16-jarrah]

i haven’t seen any posts about episode 10 of wonder egg priority yet, so i’m sorry if i’m repeating what someone’s already said. but i wanted to give my two cents, my interpretation for momoe in this episode.

i think momoe is either a trans het, or trans non-monoromantic, with a preference for men.

(disclaimer: i’m not a trans woman, so if any trans women would like to add onto this post, please do! i don’t intend to speak over or dictate your experiences in any way.)

i’ll explain the trans part first. there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that momoe is trans, especially with this recent episode; momoe, when she was first introduced, is framed as someone who always get mistaken for a boy. in one of the earlier episodes with her, momoe gets chastised by a lady for riding “the womens’ carriage” in a train, to which she retaliates she has all the right to ride the train herself because she is a girl. in episode 10, she got all prettied up and feminine for a date, and her date made a huge deal out of her “looking like a boy”/thinking she’s a boy, and later when the egg person kaoru asks her what her name is, she was pretty upset and told him “call me momotaro or whatever”, suggesting momotaro is her given name. to my knowledge, momotaro is a masculine name in japan. and of course the biggest ringer to this interpretation is kaoru himself--kaoru is a trans man, and momoe meeting him reinforced her confidence as a woman. kaoru’s story is a parallel to momoe’s in a way, wherein people around him (or at least one person close to him) refuse to acknowledge his real identity and continue to misgender him. momoe, no matter how feminine she presents, is still often misgendered, too. but that doesn’t make her any less of a woman.

so yeah, momoe is trans. but that’s not the only important part of momoe’s character arc. this is where her orientation factors in. all throughout the series, it’s clear that momoe is interested in guys romantically, and this is genuine. i don’t think it’s forced, considering her attitude whenever she and the other girls talk about boys, and especially considering her attitude in episode 10 towards her date and kaoru.

and that’s kind of the root of her problem. her problem isn’t her orientation of course, but rather, forced cisheteronormativity. one thing she’s shown to deal with is having lots of girl admirers, and it kinda messes with her head. there’s still stigma around being non-cishet alloromantic, a bigoted mindset where there must always be two people in a relationship, and that should be the man and the woman. i feel like being mistaken for a guy a lot and having so many girl admirers messes with momoe’s head because she feels like it’s a part of that stigma. a part of it is her being afraid that she’s still seen as a boy by her girl admirers, and maybe that’s what’s messing with her head. i can’t say for sure if she’s also attracted to girls, but maybe if she is, she’s being hindered from accepting that part of herself because of the whole “a couple must be a man and a woman” ideology and/or the fact that she’s still attracted to guys.

and that’s also important. her attraction to guys. her struggle can also be interpreted as the struggle of a trans het woman, because trans hets still have to face stigma from both non-queer and queer people. stigmatized against because they’re trans by cis people, and stigmatized against by other queer people because they’re straight. i think this is an important reading, too. as for the reading of her being non-monoromantic, it can also work because queer wlm still get stigmatized against by other queer people (eg. being seen as “straight lite” or “gay lite” or being shamed for their attraction to men).

by the end of episode 10, momoe got the affirmation that she needed. she knows she is a woman, she is attracted to guys, and that those two facts can coexist, and she finally gets to accept herself for it and have some peace of mind. and that’s why the statue was already gone--going off the theory that the statues are just ploys and the true challenge for the girls was working through their problems, the statue being gone could symbolize the fact that momoe managed to pull through her struggles relating to her queerness.

sorry if this post is long, i said a lot of stuff but tl;dr: momoe is a trans het or trans non-monoromantic girl with a preference for men. her struggle was being misgendered and the stigma against queer wlm, but after meeting with kaoru in episode 10, she felt more at peace with her identity than she did before, and that’s why haruka’s statue is no longer there. or at least, that’s my reading of it! i hope i worded things correctly in this post.

feel free to add your own thoughts in the rbs, i’d love to hear them.

#wonder egg priority #wep #sawaki momoe #momoe sawaki #wonder egg priority episode 10 #wonder egg priority spoilers #analysis #my posts

[autumnblogs]

Day 32: Through the Looking Glass

https://homestuck.com/story/4116

So right out of the gate, we learn a few things about the Scratched version of the universe, aside from the obvious fact that the new heroes are the previous guardians. Everyone is a little more mature, and identities are a little more fully-formed.

Jane’s name is already set in stone. Notably, the definition between the audience and Jane is also a little clearer here than usual - the Narration implies a distinction between us and Jane. Could be because we’re not controlling her yet - but as we get into Act 6, we will find a lot of cases where audience participation happens as part of the mechanic of narration, and this distinction will be called to a lot more.

More after the break.

https://homestuck.com/story/4117

So let’s unpack Jane’s interests and relation to pre-established parts of the Homestuck Universe, and see if we can’t start making guesses about Jane.

First thing’s first is that while we could read Jane’s affinity for these mustachio’d funnymen as being purely an attraction, she roleplays like John does - as a bit of a prankstress herself, and one who dons a fake mustache for one of her disguises, Jane roleplays as these men immediately suggesting to us that she looks up to them, and wants to be like them, rather than that she’s attracted to them.

(Though she certainly could be.)

Second thing is that Jane’s position as the Heirress parallels her not to John, but to Feferi. Like Feferi, Jane is a sweet girl who is the heir to a position of abominable power, and because she is beholden to the shape of that power, as long as she remains wedded to that shape, she will not only struggle to do anything productive with it, but in the course of the story, be subverted into a villain, at least for a little while, and it’s clear from the way that Crockertier Jane’s situation is communicated to us that she is an accomplice to her own brainwashing, and that the actions she takes in that form are meaningfully hers.

On another note, I think it’s interesting that on this side of the scratch, the Condesce has reimagined her empire as a megacorporation.

https://homestuck.com/story/4120

What do we learn about Jake right out of the gate? He likes movies - adventure movies. Jake, like Tavros, the other page, loves to bluster about subjects that he actually has relatively little affinity for - and in both cases, their lack of affinity can largely be described as performing their culture’s ideal of public personhood - warrior virtue. While Jake has all of the outward signifiers of masculinity, and is actually a pretty brave and technically skillful fighter by the standards of the real world, up until the Hopesplosion, he is outclassed by a lot of his friends, and ultimately, the cases where he most embodies warrior-manhood, Jake is being forced into it by someone who wants to take advantage of him.

We benefit from most of this knowledge with hindsight. It’s not actually there in this opening section, but the main thrust of Jake’s interests is his love of adventure and his love of wrestling, and I’m principally interested in Jake’s physicality in addressing his interests - he’s a very physical kid.

https://homestuck.com/story/4121

We’re hot off the heels of Terezi’s fake choice, and a lot of conversation about free will and fake choices in Act 5 - and here we’re presented with one almost immediately. We can pick either option, but the outcome will be the same whatever we do.

https://homestuck.com/story/4124

I’ve always thought the Condescension’s relationship with Jane is deeply fascinating. There is something about the prospect of cultivating an heiress, someone to take over her legacy, that brings out something tender and maternal in her, I think, even if it only manifests in a twisted way. She’s a bit of an enigma to me.

https://homestuck.com/story/4126

Well, Jane is certainly interested in Foxworthy, so I rescind my earlier comment.

We’ve barely been introduced to her and she pretty much immediately starts showing off her paternalistic disdain for rural and vulgar people through the narrative’s language, and her nostalgia for Problem Sleuth characterizes her enjoyment of its sequel.

Jane has an aristocratic mentality, and conservative leanings in the media she appreciates, and the way that she appreciates it. If Andrew’s commentary that he continued to examine the themes he started with Feferi in Jane, I think what we should take away is that Feferi’s concern for the lowly comes with a heaping helping of...

Wait for it.

Wait for it...

Condescension.

B)

https://homestuck.com/story/4127

Jane’s disdain for the vulgar - low culture, low classes - also shows itself pretty quickly. In stark contrast to the other two leaders - John and Karkat - Jane isn’t much of a movie watcher at all (Jake gets that attribute in his session) and her attitude toward’s Jake’s movies is one of snobbery. Both of the other two movie watchers have a playfully self-deprecating attitude toward their own bad tastes in movies, but they still enjoy those movies sincerely.

Her relationship of passive-aggressive one-upsmanship also distinctly recalls Rose’s relationship with her mother, suggesting that Jane shares some of the underlying pessimism and mild hostility that Rose struggles with.

Also, as a symbol Swanson is a representative of the sort of anti-government animus that characterizes the politics of Trans-Mississippi America outside of the heavily populated West Coast, where the wedding of big business and state planning have created a lot of disaffection toward the distant and disinterested corporate landlords and bureaucratic apparatuses that govern huge tracts of federal land and private property in the west. Pawnee Indiana may not actually be on the other side of the Mississippi from Washington, but having grown up in Montana for at least a part of my childhood, Swanson’s politics are immediately recognizable.

Unfortunately, this anti-state animus has manifested not in the form of a renewed commitment to emancipation, but to the uniquely American, get-off-my-lawn form of Right-Wing populism practiced by the short-lived Tea Party, and smug “It’s just basic economics” Reagan-worshipping conservatives.

What I’m trying to say is, Jane would probably be a Ben Shapiro or Steven Crowder fan in the modern day.

https://homestuck.com/story/4136

Jane’s skepticism prevents her from listening to her friends when they tell her about the extraordinary things that they do, but it’s also not exactly a kind of scientific skepticism, and more of a dogmatic realism - she has a narrow vision of what the world is like, and is dismissive of ideas that are outside of her bubble.

Quick Note that while Jake makes only an off-handed remark about it here, he is sensitive to the hostile, toxic relationship between the AR and Dirk in a way that neither of the girls really is, and while that may seem uncharacteristically emotionally intelligent of Jake, I think he’s a lot more aware of his surroundings than he lets on.

https://homestuck.com/story/4142

Now as long as we’re talking about Right Wing Populism and comparing Jane to John there is an extremely potent assertion.

The USPS, and the idea of privatizing it, is as much a symbol of the war of corporatists and authoritarians against social democracy as anything is, and because of the way John is associated with Mail in general as a Hero of Breath, Jane is almost immediately setting herself up as a foil to John.

https://homestuck.com/story/4144

Calliope is so cheery that it’s easy to take everything she says in stride, and yet, with all the horrors Sburb has to offer, in terms of the way it destroys planets, and traumatizes its players, her optimism toward the game is at least disquieting.

Sure, the Null Session isn’t going to destroy the kids’ session, but her language is contrasted against both Kanaya’s and Karkat’s when they berated Aradia and Jade respectively. Both Karkat and Kanaya rue the effects of the narrative on their lives, but Calliope is a superfan.

https://homestuck.com/story/4156

I know I’m spending a lot of time ragging on her here, but like, as long as I am; Jane is sure openly hostile to her best friend, in a way that comes as kind of surprising even given the precedent that we have to work with.

https://homestuck.com/story/4160

Poirot is from Belgium.

I wonder if Andrew or Jane is the one committing that error?

https://homestuck.com/story/4168

Jake is full of little contradictions like this. Likes Adventure, terrified of monsters. Not even ambivalent about them, certainly not excited by them. It’s like the opposite of how little kids are usually super into Dinosaurs.

https://homestuck.com/story/4171

So what is the deal with Jake and his fascination with Blue Women? Aside from the metaphysical connection with Vriska and Aranea (and to a lesser extent, Jake), like... what’s the meaning of it?

I think a possible answer to the question lies in the process of the initial portraits becoming blue - leaving them out in the sun to fade - and the relationship between that, and the way in which he likes mummies and suits of armor, and so on and so forth - and even his stuffed trophies.

Maybe this suggests that Jake is, on principle, far more comfortable with the idea of a thing, than with the thing itself. Jake’s Blue Women are comfortably static. They have ceased to change a long time ago, and now exist, preserved in perpetuity, without the need to worry about adapting to suit them.

https://homestuck.com/story/4175

While a lot of Jake’s guesses are incorrect, he’s still clearly spending a lot of time pondering over the mysterious time shenanigans - he just hasn’t quite put it all together.

https://homestuck.com/story/4177

The same way that Dirk’s fastidious organization is equated to his complicated and demanding modus, and the way that John being a big impulsive himbo is equated with his inability to manage his fetch modus, constantly getting distracted from his goal by the card on the surface, Jake’s Modus has an enormous capacity, but most of it is preoccupied inefficiently.

https://homestuck.com/story/4184

The Autoresponder continues the conversation that Andrew has with the audience about the distribution of the self - Dirk does this more generally, but the particular thread the AR tugs on is the question of where a person’s self really stops - just as the question lingers in the air because of John’s disposition toward Davesprite, the question of whether the AR is really a separate person from Dirk, or a part of him, is posed continuously just by the fact that it exists.

https://homestuck.com/story/4192

To be fair to Dirk, who I will have a lot of kind-of-sympathetic-antipathy for, I had forgotten that it is, in fact, the Autoresponder who sets up this particular challenge for Dirk.

The parallels between Dirk and English are nevertheless being set up through this conversation nevertheless - by sending him the parts and getting him to assemble the robot, Dirk makes Jake complicit in his own humiliation, even as he attempts to build Jake up into an ideal partner.

https://homestuck.com/story/4196

Already we’re seeing indications that this segment of Homestuck will deal with different themes of growing up than the first half. Which is already kind of obvious, but we’ve moved decisively out of Part 1: Problems, and into Part 2: Feelings. The second half has moved out of the territory of other humans and their emotional situations as somewhat idealized problems (somewhat) and into this situation where everyone is a moving body, complicated and the characters are each others’ biggest obstacles, and their own biggest obstacles. That’s a bit of a reductive way of describing it, but I think it rings true.

https://homestuck.com/story/4256

While I am willing to concede that Dirk is not literally responsible for siccing the Brobot on Jake today, he more or less assents to AR’s sexual harassment and physical abuse of Jake.

In addition to his vicarious physical abuse, Dirk’s persona as the Prince of Heart calls him to suppress the uniqueness of the people who are around him, moulding them like clay into shapes that better resemble him. Jake and Jane need to be more like each other in his eyes - which is to say, they both need to be more like Dirk.

We also get some insight into Dirk’s sense of humor here - it’s not just about the irony. I think there is an extent to which at the base of the thing, Dirk’s sense of humor is about simultaneously denying and affirming a thing’s meaning - making fun of it while cherishing it. Having a thing be incredibly silly - while also being incredibly serious business. He cherishes the absurd.

I wonder if he’d like Kojima’s stuff.

https://homestuck.com/story/4257

The way that Dirk identifies with logic and reason recalls the sort of “enlightened by my own intelligence” New Atheist jerks who were known to prowl the internet in the early half of the decade, and to some extent, still do. Like Libertarians, these folks have often in the present day gotten caught up in Right Wing Populism. Maybe it’s something about the way that Right Wing movements increasingly identify as a part of counter-culture even though they advocate reactionary policies.

https://homestuck.com/story/4273

This is extremely silly, but Jake is in mortal peril all the time, and I expect even at the best of times he might be uncomfortable being touched.

https://homestuck.com/story/4284

Here we shall pause.

Sorry for the late post. Early work was quite busy, and once the rush was over, it was already quite late.

So the first Act of Act 6 has been very informative! Compared to the first Act of Homestuck, we’ve been introduced already to all our Dramatis Personae!

Tune back in tomorrow to here Cam Say,

Some variation on Alive and Not Alone.

#commentary #liveblogging

[butyouvealwaysbeenthecaretaker]

@fall-on-demand

I feel like keeping those 2 scenes separate would be challenging bc the "girls who like slashfic" scene is a huge generator of trans mascs. a ton of dudes + nbs i know cracked their eggs by being "fujoshis" in those spaces / speaking of which, a hugely popular slash fanartist in my current fandom just came out as a "he/they" person after ID-ing as a woman for a while, we cracked another one lads

@werewolftrial

I understand why you'd want this but agree with f-o-d. I definitely spent time feeling guilty because I felt I had an inappropriate relationship to content about gay/bi men. So it's tricky. Though I know you're not advocating to do away with slash fic, just wishing you didn't have to interact with a culture centered around the desire of another group

This is a very fair criticism, and certainly me promoting a sort of shaming(?) isn't helpful to anybody.

However, it's on my mind because I feel like being around this sort of thing was detrimental to me. In terms of like:

it took me longer to figure out I was experiencing something different

it's made it harder not to see oneself through that lens, and want to try and fit yourself into those moulds

it made it harder to take my desires seriously as more than an imaginative space

it was extremely troubling to discover people I was close to in hobby spaces were having such a different experience of it, like when you’re using this as a closet outlet for something where the stakes are so high for you, and you realise everyone around you (even people you have trusted with things that are vulnerable) has a far more trivial engagement, or even a fetishising one

on the one hand, as people are very keen to state, fandom is or can be a very queer-friendly space, so we all end up in the slash fandom because it's a rare safe place in a world without any other outlet or representation

but because of that, it is ultimately quite important that this representation is predominantly by/for women, overwhelmingly by/for straight people, and frequently by/for teenagers

as opposed to something rooted in lived experience which might actually be helpful or relateable or reflective

But this isn’t wholly a counter-argument, because there’s not a way to do this which doesn’t ultimately make the very closeted people who are most sensitive to conversations about maleness/transness to feel ashamed. And like, I don’t want to make cishet creators/consumers of slash feel ashamed or like they’re doing something wrong either. I am very pro people having fantasies.

(And besides, the whole core problem here is a total lack of good mainstream representation - one can hardly blame fandom for failing to fill that gap. It shouldn’t be the job of hobbyists who want to play in their fave sandbox and squee and write for fun and especially not the job of teenagers, to fix that. Part of the problem is that the overlap of social justice and fandom spaces is kind of, overpromising? Like, “we write for fun and self expression, not politics” is a far more pure and honest and nourishing attitude IMO)

I suppose it’s, back to the activist basics of wanting to promote media “by us”,  because it is more nourishing to the soul than seeing oneself through the “oppressors” frameworks. Without denigrating fandom as a space, because there are a lot of queer people and good writers, I would like to be able to say a little louder “don’t mistake this for actually reading your history, don’t mistake these tropes as anything other than pleasurable tropes, mix this up with books by actual gay and bi men who are adults” and so on.

Because ultimately, if you’re on more of the man-definitely-a-man side of the transmasc experience, getting yourself (psychologically) out of women-centric frameworks of thinking about yourself is a huge struggle; what Lavery calls “achieving lesbian escape velocity”. You know, getting to that point where you feel entitled to claim space as a queer man - its a challenge, but it’s also a choice you have to keep making. & so like, part of me does genuinely want to say - if you think you’re some kind of trans and male, consciously take a step back from this media and a step towards things written by men like you.

But disclaimer, this is more the place I am with my process than like, a Rule for others, I know that other people are having more positive experiences & that’s fine.

#the trans tag #the fandom tag

[hellomynameisbisexual]

Half of Britain’s young people do not think of themselves as ‘100 per cent heterosexual’, a YouGov survey revealed this week.

Yet there remains a common lack of understanding about bisexual people, with some Britons still unfairly viewing them as the ‘black sheep’ of the LGBT community.

One factor may be the wide and confusing variety of different terms people now adopt – including ‘pansexual’, ‘fluid’ and ‘homosexible’.

But for many young people, sexuality no longer needs to fit into one of two or three definitions. Speaking to The Independent, six openly bisexual young people discuss their sexuality – and address the myths surrounding it.

I’d say I’m actually more pansexual, which means I can be attracted to all genders – if I like someone, it doesn’t matter if they’re trans, male-female, fluid or anything else. It just means I don’t judge anyone by their sexuality or gender, but I think that’s even harder for people to understand.

I was confident my close circle of friends would be supportive when I came out, but I wasn’t sure about my parents. I thought they’d just think I was confused, so it took me a while to admit it to them – and when I did, they thought I was joking.

Some people still can’t believe that I have a girlfriend, and they assume that I am a lesbian. Others say, “Oh, you’re just a bit greedy” when I try and explain it to them, but I’m not at all, I’m just open-minded. I do still wonder to myself about my sexuality and whether or not I’ve ‘gone off’ boys but I am just as much in love with Brad Pitt as I am with Angelina Jolie.

My sexuality doesn’t define me but it is certainly a part of who I am and I strongly think it should be talked about more in schools. There are people much younger than me trying to figure out what they are and what they want and it needs to be said aloud that all variations of sexuality are OK.

I did receive a bit of hostility when I split up with my ex-girlfriend. Some of the people who had been friendly with us and accepted me being with a woman couldn’t understand it when I started going out with a man. All of a sudden they were quite cold and it was almost like I wasn’t in the club anymore because I wasn’t lesbian or gay.

Sexuality is a broad spectrum. I don’t think it’s as simple as gay, straight, bisexual, pansexual – we’re complicated.

I know people struggle and get prejudice but I’d tell young people coming out as bi just to smile and let it go. They’ll hear the “it’s just a phase” thing but I’d just say: “You know what, maybe it is, but I’ll figure it out”. Life’s too short and love is just love, it doesn’t matter what that means.

Simone Webb, 22

Recent graduate, from Loughton, Essex

I realised I was bisexual at around 14 or 15. I was ‘out’ online a little bit before that, but it was a gradual thing rather than a lightning flash. I was worried about coming out because it felt awkward to bring up out of the blue. It didn’t feel like a big deal so raising it almost felt like making an issue out of it, but everyone was really accepting.

When I came out to my friends there was no one who was actively bi-phobic, but some people asked how I could know if I hadn’t had sexual experiences with both men and women. They’d say stuff quite loudly across the room and I found out people had been talking about it behind my back, but I had a relatively easy time compared to a lot of LGBT people.

I can’t remember the last time I saw a character on TV that was bisexual; you get characters that reject labels but very few who have the label of bisexual. There are very high-profile people who have come out as bisexual but bi-women especially get overlooked. Anna Faris is an actress who is openly bisexual but it isn’t really talked about, Angelina Jolie as well. These are high-profile people but if bi-women are married to or in a relationship with a man their bisexuality is erased.

I don’t think my bisexuality has affected my relationship hugely. I’m surprised the number of young people who identify as not 100% heterosexual is so high but I’m not surprised that more people are moving away from the idea of being attracted solely to one gender.

Liam [surname witheld]

Student in Canterbury, Kent

About two years ago I came out as bisexual; I’d just moved to university and being in a different environment I felt I could branch out and find out a bit more about myself.

I still haven’t come out to my family, but my friends have been overwhelmingly supportive.

I’ve had people say that I’m straight and looking for attention – it’s mostly gay people who say that – and that I’m gay and scared of coming out, which is mostly from straight people in my experience. It makes it hard to feel I belong anywhere.

People also tell me I’m greedy – that’s probably the most common one. I think it’s a problem with society as a whole in that when people deviate away from the “norm” it’s seen as weird. People just assume things because they don’t understand. I generally think people are becoming more open-minded towards sexuality though. I’ve got friends who I know for a fact if I’d spoken to them five or six years ago they’d have thought I was lying but now they accept that bisexuality exists.

If you spend 20 years as a straight person and everyone around you knows you as that, it’s hard to change that perception. I know that it would have been more difficult for me if I’d stayed in my home town and hadn’t had that chance to start somewhere afresh.

I haven’t had a boyfriend but I’ve had plenty of girlfriends and sexual encounters with both sexes. The only real relationships I’ve had have been with other bisexuals, which I count as quite lucky. Some prospective partners have been against the idea of bisexuality just because they see it as greediness. They worry that I’ll cheat because I’ve got a larger pool of resources, as it were. It’s not the case though. It’s prejudice and comes from an irrational place.

Women in particular get a bit of judgement in the gay community – it’s more often seen as just a phase. I’m quite lucky I haven’t had too many negative comments, but then I’ve surrounded myself with the right people.

It makes sense that the vast majority of people would not say that they are hetero-normative because I think people are now more able to label themselves how they please. It’s not as simple as “gay” and “straight”; there’s pansexual or a-sexual, and so many other ways to describe yourself. The internet makes it easier for people to learn about it and understand their sexuality better at a younger age.

Georgie Robbins, 25

Music journalist, from Somerset

I know I’ve been exceptionally lucky in the experience of my bisexuality – I haven’t faced any real prejudice at all. My parents were amazingly accepting and told me the only thing that mattered to them was that I was happy.

The only resistance I’ve ever had is convincing others that just because I may happen to be with a girl at one time, that’s not to say I only like girls. I get the impression that some people feel that bisexual relationships are somehow less serious than heterosexual ones because the gender of the person I’m in a relationship with might change.

I have wanted to explore my sexuality more but sometimes I feel like others don’t accept a fluid sexuality. People assume things and put me in a box.

I’m not surprised about the number of young people who identify as not 100 per cent straight. I think it stems from people coming to terms with ideas around mono-sexuality. Everyone is assumed mono-sexual based on how they act but sexuality isn’t like that.

I think attitudes are changing because people are talking about it more freely. What interests me is that not a lot of people use “bisexuality” as a term, they use labels like “fluid” or “queer”.

I think bisexuality as a label carries a lot of distrust because of stereotypes that come with it; there is this idea of it not being real. I think people are saying they don’t want a label because they may not feel ‘bi-sexual enough’ and because of the negative stereotypes.

#bisexuality #bi tumblr #bisexuality is valid #bi pride #lgbtq community #bi #lgbtq #support bisexuality #lgbtq pride #pride #the struggle is real #bisexual stereotypes #bisexual struggle #bisexual education #bisexual nation #bisexual rights #bi youth #bisexual youth #bi+ #support bisexual people #respect bisexual people #bisexual community #bisexual myths #bisexual injustice #bisexual #bisexual positivity #bi positivity

[pip-n-flinx]

Among Us

So this is going to get long, this is going to get personal, this is going to be about prejudice and race and self-serving bad-faith arguments and flawed rhetoric. And for all of these reasons I’m going to leave the rest of this under the cut.

As a few of my friends will know, earlier this week I was delivered an ultimatum from my landlord/roommate. He disguised it well, telling me he was ‘concerned for my mental health’ that my ‘negativity was dragging the whole house down’ and that I was simply too filthy to live with. I won’t pretend I’m a neat freak, and I can honestly say that I have taken some pains to clean more since, to his surprise and delight, though its particularly hard to take coming from him.

“You’re always so down. It’s making you lazy and thin skinned” You know its funny you should say that, now specifically, because I’ve actually been on the up and up this last week and you didn’t mention this at all in January when I was actually at my worst, or February when I was afraid I was going to have to quit my job, or back during the holiday season when retail work was breaking my back... Only now do you think to check in on me?

“You left a pair of gloves, a letter, and a small wooden trinket on the table!” Indeed I have, as you have left your pair of gloves, well over 21 letters, and regularly set your packages on this same table, including today two packages to be returned to amazon. I didn’t realize I didn’t get to use the table the same way you do.

“You don’t do dishes! except that you did this week, which is cool I guess but still!” You do realize that I actually hand-wash every dish I use within 24 hours of using it, right? And that often the dishes you come to me bitching that I never cleaned are in fact your fiances, yes? Ok good, next question.

“You’re always complaining about work. I don’t mind that you vent, but its all you talk about anymore!” I have either lost or walked away from 4 jobs in this last year, and that has not been easy, or fun. I have worked essential retail jobs the entire pandemic thus far. Additionally, in the months leading up to you storming out of your 75k a year salaried sales job, I had told you to leave it because I could see that it was killing you. You got so fed up with the job that for 4-5 months before you left your grandma-paid-off-my-second-mortgage capitalism-knows-best-pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-ass spent more time playing valorant and league of legends on the clock than doing actual work. Need I remind you that every time I stepped into your office, or simply stepped upstairs to get ready for work, you would complain about how awful your managers were, or how shitty someone had been to you over the phone? DID I EVER BELITTLE YOU FOR ANY OF THESE THINGS????

The real kicker was that the spark, the moment that started this (at least for him) was me trying to explain why racism and ‘cultural supremecy’ was bad. I had brought to him something I thought we could both agree on, that we could both laugh at. I brought him a series of tweets about how problematic Van Gogh was for studying and imitating traditional japanese painting techniques. He took this, and immediately turned into a piece of the culture wars. Now, I agree, this is an egregious example of trying to ‘cancel’ someone. How cancelling a long dead artist who couldn’t sell his art while he was alive is important is beyond my comprehension, its not as though the market value of these comes up very often, and almost no-one will ever have a chance to buy or reject a Van Gogh. But to him this was emblematic of ‘liberals’ cancelling Seuss and Rowling.

He even went so far as to say that Van Gogh probably ‘did it better’ than the artists he was studying/imitating. Now, this is a huge red-flag to me because this is straight out of the Nazi playbook. This is William Shenker, proposing a theory of music to proof ‘German cultural superiority.’ This, if you will pardon my language, is the real culture war: trying to supplant other cultures art and history with western figures and events.

Now, for those of you who don’t know who I’m talking about, this man is sexist. He doesn’t believe women are equal, complains about women’s sports, and rejects a woman’s right to choose. This man is a transphobe, questioning the logic of ‘safe-spaces’ and allowing people to change their pronouns. This man is a Trump supporter, and voted for him twice. And all of these things I found out years after we became friends. I have in the past contemplated what it would take to cut him out of my life wholesale. Despite our wealth of shared experience and our shared interests, we’ve been drifting apart as he drifts further and further to the right. And he has been drifting. He’s parroted more bad-faith arguments from Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson in the last 6 months then he ever did when I first moved in with him.

I have been trying to push back, especially when he says the quiet parts out loud. I try to let him know that it is not acceptable to say he would rather an unarmed black man die that risk that a police officer might be injured. When he compares the people in control of Seuss’ intellectual property and works choose to stop printing less than 6% of his published works to the book burnings in Mao’s china. When he says that its more important to protect teacher from students trolling them by changing their pronouns than it is to protect trans or NB kids. When he espouses his belief that trans and NB kids are ‘just mentally ill.’ Whenever he says any of this shit, I have pushed back. I have tried to halt, or at least slow, his descent towards eugenics and white supremacy and fascism.

It has been to no avail.

And to be honest its exhausting. I wanted to believe that he would trust me, not just to be a moral and thoughtful person, but to be educated and informed on these issues. We went to school together, spent countless hours solving homework and trying to crack games together. If I don’t know the answer to his questions immediately, he often jokes ‘C’mon, you’re supposed to know everything!” and has frequently told me that I’m selling myself short.

But apparently all that trust and all that respect goes out the window when I challenge him. Suddenly I’m ‘overly negative’ or ‘too sensitive’ or he’ll ‘need to look into that, but...’

And the thing is, he is capable of great acts of kindness. He offered to rent me a room in his completely paid-off house, no mortgage at all, simply because he could see living at home was killing my mental health. He offered me 50-75% off of market rate. He buys gifts all the time, has landed tenants job interviews, set people back on their feet, and refused to press charges for several major financial loses he’s taken on the determination that it would do more harm to the defendant than he could ever recoup from it.

But he does not extend this kindness, this generous soul, to everyone. And lately, his circle grows smaller, and his kindess has waned, and it’s been so devastating to see him slip further and further towards his own worst impulses.

I know there will be people who think I should have cut him out of my life years ago, who can’t believe we never talked enough to know that he voted for Trump in 2016. I think back then he was genuinely ashamed, or at least guilty, about that vote. Now? It’s almost a matter of pride for him. I can’t tell you the number of times in the last 4 months that he’s told me that Biden “couldn’t possibly” be as “great” a President as Trump.

And he hides behind this “praise them when they do good, cuff them when they do bad” line and I used to take comfort in it but now... Now it’s clear that it was just a front or excuse for liking these abhorrent people.

I’ve had a couple of hard conversations with some of our mutual friends about what this means for me, and how I interract with the whole group of friends as a whole, in the last 3 days. None of our mutual friends seem to take any of these things as seriously as I do, with my oldest friend even telling me that he ‘can’t imagine’ breaking a friendship off over politics.... I know I know, the caucasity of it all, yes ha ha. And it does make me genuinely worried that I’ll wind up losing the 5-6 close friends that I actually rely on these days over this horrible sonuvabitch. But all this personal venting aside, there’s something bigger here I want to address:

I sat down this evening to watch Last Week Tonight and I was struck by this piece about Tucker Carlson, because while I knew some of what was said on his show, he is remarkably confident for a man who spouts the quiet parts of racism/sexism/homophobia on TV. I have a hard time imaging a more blatantly racist thing to do then declare that a woman who suggested ‘dismantling systems of oppression wherever they are found’ wants to dismantle the American system...

And I have to say, we should go back to punching Nazis. I want these fuckers afraid. I want them to crawl back to the furthest reaches of the internet, relegated to be laughed at for their bigotry by pundits of every political ideology. I want their vile vitriol hidden away where it doesn’t embolden others. I want them to know that they are out of line, out of touch, out of time. I want them to feel ashamed, like the relics of a bygone and worse era that they are, and for them to quietly fade to an ignominious death. I’m tired of seeing them on National News. I’m tired of Pewdiepie’s channel and influence refusing to die despite all the horrible things he’s said and done. I’m tired of Ben Shapiro spouting off about a woman’s place and rights, as if he has any fucking authority on the matter. I just want these people to lose their platforms and their followers. And for me the fact that they haven’t yet is so incredibly discouraging.

I know I didn’t offer any answers here I’m just tired of being alone with this defeated attitude and I guess I needed to get this off my chest as I try to disentangle myself from the losing battle of trying to save a friend from alt-right radicalization.

#tw/ white supremecy #tw/ sexism #tw/ racism #tw/ transphobia #wooow this got longer than I expected #meta: alt right radicalization #and how they're reaching people my age #plus a lot of personal venting

[oceancoralx]

 Hey everyone, I’ve just been lingering about. Been avoiding Tumblr RP because it’s not really where I’ve felt the most comfortable (even though I’ve made some amazing friends, you guys know who you are and you guys are awesome). I tried to return through discord because that’s where I felt more comfortable but I haven’t checked there in a while either. Life has been pretty terrible honestly and my muse has been drained as the distractions and problems piled on top. I just wanted to drop in and give an update. Also... wow, there’s a lot of drama I’ve seen. Another reason I’m very hesitant to come back but I’m glad certain things are being addressed such as toxic masculinity and racism, especially within the sect of “gay rp” (idk, but you guys know what I mean). Anyone else, this ain’t about you, and I appreciate you guys because your talent is off the charts.

I try and lean less towards that gay rp end of the spectrum tbh because fetishization tends to happen, I’ve noticed, and there’s also been stuff to do with consent that, while I have to say is my problem considering it’s not my business, I’m very concerned about and uncomfortable with as they’re portraying non-con for fulfilment rather than being addressed as what it is. Or at least being treated as a trigger with a warning or anything at times. I prefer story based rps than smut (which I prefer to do with rpers I’m comfortable with) and that’s just my own personal preferences that doesn’t impact anyone but it’s a huge part of rp, technically and I think it’s worth putting my two cents (is that what Americans use? Is that the phrase?) in. 

In terms of a toxic masculinity argument, I don’t think that particular issue was addressed as well as it probably should have been in the post I saw going round but it’s definitely a part of it. I think the types of muses we glorify are very evident but I do believe that that’s almost entirely okay. Be attracted to what you’re attracted to or gravitate towards and do you! But I do see a lot of muses (sure, twinks can be a part of this conversation, okay, but you know a lot of other groups as well) are neglected. I think white, traditionally masculine muses with perfect, muscular bodies are favoured (fine) and also “gay” (stereotypical) behaviour, attributes, traits, features are rejected (eek ok)/deemed unattractive and I do think that there has been a problem where it’s teetered towards a kind of toxic masculinity/internally homophobic direction (not always but there’s been some of that.) I don’t think it’s intentional because we can all like what we like but what we put out with that sentiment has crossed the line a few times and that’s where we need to be careful. I also understand that a lot of these things aren’t going to be addressed when your characters are smutting it up because those rps aren’t that deep and you’re just trying to enjoy writing. I’d just say that be careful within those spaces that we don’t put out any harmful messages or idk make a conscious effort to try and be positive in any way we can? You’d think this is a very simple thing but if people are still agreeing that this is still happening then it’s something that needs to be realised and put into words. 

Idk. Could be as simple as putting a trigger warning or... rephrasing? Sometimes the character is just like that and that’s fine but acknowledgement OOC or something? I don’t know, maybe even that seems a little much but it at least makes the distinction between the character and mun. I don’t believe your characters represent you, wholly. Just be aware and conscious of these things and outside of your character interactions, especially if your character is intentionally problematic or toxic ect, try and be decent to everyone. Muses are fictional but the many muns behind them are real people and however great or small, you have an impact on the environment you contribute to. The argument I saw being conveyed was not well put but I think that just because the person arguing them has problems of their own (valid ones which I am about to address) lets not disregard everything they said from the conversation because I think we should still talk about toxic masculinity and homophobia in areas that were not addressed. Also the attitude of non-binary and trans muses as being less than is also something I acknowledge has happened a few times. We’ve come a long way since now these characters are actually being included and brought to the surface of attention and I don’t think that any of us are trying to be harmlful (or I should hope not) but I do think in queer spaces we should be the ones to make room/welcome these types of people and issues safely and comfortably into them. I’m not saying you necessarily have tor rp with muses you don’t want to, I’m not policing you to be more diverse and inclusive but be open minded and aware that you are making an impact in your threads, muses, bios, rules pages and ooc messages and be mindful what sorts of messages your words are communication. I want it in writing that trans men are no less of a man (same for trans women but I see even FEWER of these muses) and we should be learning to adapt to this understanding of gender rather than conveying attitudes of the past that harm people within the community. Also no matter what the body of the non-binary muse is like, respect that they’re non-binary if that is the decision from the mun. Don’t erase that by disregarding chosen pronouns for your own fulfilment in the story. A character being non-binary shouldn’t change what they contribute to the story, especially if the story is two characters flirt in an undescribed location with a convenient bed and the only thing they have in common is that they’re horny and hot. 

In terms of racism, now this hits a little harder. There’s definitely a problem there (as pointed out by a lot of the people who responded to the toxic masculinity post). I empathise with the sentiments expressed about the blatantly harmful attitudes geared towards Asian and specifically Korean muses, as well as a general attitude towards all POC muses. This needs to change and if you think that this whole preferences thing doesn’t mimic the problems of the real world towards POC than I think you need to rethink. Many different muses of many different ethnicities have been either rejected due to physical preferences and the argument that due to this being done in a space where we create fiction that means this is okay I think is very questionable. Whole races of people being generalized and boxed into one is not where we should be at. You being comfortable with only FCs who are actors is fine, or FCs that supply no significant age gap is completely fair but implying a whole race of people is unattractive? I’m not putting words into anyone's mouth but please do not do this. Especially right now, we shouldn’t be doing this and we should already understand why this is bad. On the other side of the spectrum, the fetishization and stereotypes, especially in the way it is advertised is very grim. Fetishization of a whole race of people is dehumanizing, especially if that race is an oppressed minority. I’m not accusing anyone but PLEASE just try and consider your approach to interacting with POC muses in this way. It requires so little effort to just question whether something is okay. I don’t think it is hard to listen to what is going on in the real world and not project those harmful things in order to fulfil your fantasies. I think there’s a problem there if certain fantasies are fulfilled on the back of people getting hurt. Just do your research and try to offend anyone is what I’m saying. It’s very simple. Just grow as a human. Pretty much if you’re not talking from experience, just be respectful, whether you’re putting out a muse or trying to interact with a muse. Make a mistake and then try and then learn and grow. Don’t try and box POC muses into ways they can fulfil your fantasies based on very tired ideals of who they are and what they can offer. I’m saying it again, just be respectful. Question what you put out, think about it and try not to hurt people through what you communicate. Have empathy. I’m reiterating the same things because these are simple thoughts that should just come so quickly and casually. There are so many people with a multitude of different experiences interacting with this and probably people who have more knowledge on it but lets not just address these issues when someone needs to be called out. Lets put a stop to it in general. This shouldn’t have just been made aware of when it was right there in front of us. 

Listen, I’m not here to police or tell people how to go about RP. Get weird, go crazy and be out there. Characters and threads are not real life, I understand that but just be aware of the impact around that little bubble within the thread. Try and make a conscious ever to put out positivity outside of your threads when you’re contributing to your blogs. Or at the very least, don’t put out negativity. Make sure that no one feels unwelcome or disregarded or hurt when they come to your blog. RP is a social activity (wow I sound like an annoying, patronizing teacher while I write this) and that means that no matter how introverted you are, you gotta navigate it that way. Just don’t be a dick. This isn’t a call out post, just a “think about it this way the next time you try and put something out there.” This was my opinion on a few things that have been circling and a few things that haven’t been touched upon much. I’m also open to criticism myself if there’s anything I should have said, got wrong or missed out. Like everyone else here, I make mistakes and I am trying my best. I don’t think many of us are harmful or negative people, but sometimes when we are otherwise distracted we can slip up so it’s good to direct our attentions back to those areas. Ok I’m done.

This is probably a mess of a post.

#OOC #Long fucking post

[wedontcareaboutyourbinary]

terf (and other radfem) dogwhistles & warning signs

I wanted to make an easy guide to helping people identify terfs and other radfems. 

Followers, if you have anything to add on, feel free to reblog and add it, or shoot an ask and we’ll add it!

dog whistles: things that are said by the person in question that may indicate radical feminism and transmisogyny; that may not sound radfem or transmisogynistic at first glance.

note: these are dog whistles. that means plenty of people may say these things without knowing what they mean in terf circles. just because someone says some of these things (with perhaps the exclusion of ‘gender critical’ and a few others), it doesn’t inherently indicate they’re a terf. look further, read more that the person has said, etc. before making a judgement. basically use dog whistles as red flags, not as confirmation. however, ones that are huge terf red flags are marked with asteriks (*), so judge accordingly.

lesbian = female homosexual* - sounds correct enough at first glance, however, this phrasing (or similar variants) is frequently used by terfs to say “a lesbian is a vagina-having female attracted exclusively to other vagina-having females,” as to terfs, homosexual does not mean someone exclusively attracted to the same gender, but someone exclusively attracted to people of the ‘same sex,’ which for terfs means perisex cis people.

gender critical/gender abolitionist - on the surface, these labels may sound good! trans people talk all the time about how difficult gender is to navigate, about not understanding gender, and so forth. however, when terfs call themselves these things, they don’t mean that they’re critical of the gender binary, or want to do away with gender assignment. rather, what they mean here is that “yes, gender is a social construct, however, it is a meaningless one. what really matters is sex, which is binary male and female, and only (cis) females can be lesbians (female homosexuals).” ‘gender criticals’ often view gender as synonymous with gender roles, and view trans women as awful men who further the ‘oppressive institution’ of gender. in spite of being informed about the terf connotations of these terms, some people insist on calling themselves gender critical because they’re using the “actual definitions of the words,” not going off the terf meaning. 

TRA - stands for “trans rights activist.” that’s a good thing! we care about trans people, we want them to have rights! however, i have only ever seen this acronym used by terfs, talking negatively about trans people and their allies (and, as i’ve seen it pointed out, it’s very possible that the acronym is meant to be similar to MRA)

terf is a slur / cis is a slur* - the former is said by terfs to try and guilt people out of identifying them as such (terf stands for “trans (woman) exclusionary/(exterminatory) radical feminist”), the latter is meant to take language from trans people, and try to make trans people look more “othered” (i.e. terfs want there to be “normal women” and then “trans women/male invaders,” not “trans women” and “cis women” and “nonbinary women,” etc.)

Womyn* - may seem obvious, but almost the only people who spell “woman” or “women” as “womyn” (or variants such as “wombyn”) are radical feminists.

females and males - if the person is a terf and they don’t call women ‘womyn,’ it’s likely that they refer to people as ‘females’ and ‘males’ instead of as women and men.

lesbian not queer - plenty of non-terf lesbians say this one, simply because they aren’t comfortable being called queer! however, when combined with other dog whistles, it should send up red flags.

natal woman / woman born woman* - “woman born woman” sounds like it would be another way of saying “cis woman- a woman assigned female at birth, who identifies as a woman! but that’s not the case. woman born woman means “a woman who was born as a woman (for the people who say this, that means someone who was born with ‘female parts’), not a nasty male invader who thinks he’s a woman”

TIM and TIF* - means “transgender identified male” (referring to trans women) and “transgender identified female” (referring to trans men). they don’t look harmful at first- they’re reminiscent of the MtF and FtM acronyms perhaps, at a first look, but they’re almost exclusively used by terfs, and once you know what they mean, you realize they’re inherently misgendering people.

Woman-only spaces - again, this is a grayer one. there are spaces that are women only! However, when  combined with other dogwhistles, it means it’s likely the person only has afab people in mind when talking about women here.

Dysphoric female* - a phrasing almost only ever used by terfs.

Genderists* - what many terfs call people who support trans people/trans people as a whole. Also look for genderism.

Gender cult / Trans cult* - in spite of the fact that many people, both outside of radfem circles and ex-radfems, have pointed out how these spaces are often very cult-like (asking too many questions is looked down upon, dissenting with the group is punishable through social ostracization and shaming, and so forth), terfs continually try to portray any trans space as being a cult (often implying that trans women are the most powerful in these spaces and are like cult leaders)

Libfems - this definitely isn’t the biggest one. plenty of people use it to refer to that Generally Wishy Washy Doesn’t Do Anything brand of mainstream feminism, I’ve seen non-terfs use it in that sense, and liberal feminism is also an actual brand of feminism. However, radfems basicallly use it to refer to any feminism that’s not radical feminism, and use the term frequently. So if it’s combined with other dogwhistles and warning signs, consider it a red flag. Especially concerning if it’s being used in an insulting/derogatory manner. 

Kink critical - a general radfem dogwhistle for very similar reasons to “gender critical,” rarely refers to interacting with kink critically but rather that thinking all kink is bad and needs to be abolished, that people who are kinky are either abusive or stuck in the patriarchy’s grasp, etc. however, like with gender critical, some people choose to use it anyways to refer to actually interacting with kink in a critical mindset, ignoring the radfem connotations.

Male invaders - used to refer to trans women in general; terfs claim that trans women are cis men trying to play dress up and “invade” spaces for “women born women.”

warning signs: other red flags that aren’t short little phrases, but likely are still present on blogs, social media, in conversation with, etc. in regards to terfs. similar to dog whistles.

gender essentialism - basically, the belief/ideology that men and women are inherently different down to their very essence. some things to watch for: (in pagan/witch circles) claims that only women are capable of being witches/that magic is inherently female, claims or attitudes that men are inherently by nature more violent, claims or attitudes that women are inherently by nature superior/wiser/smarter/etc. than men

condescending, self-serving concern towards afab nonbinary people (and sometimes cis lesbians who support trans people) - while some terfs vehemently view afab nb people as, in short, nasty traitors, some terfs view us as women who are lost and misguided, who have been sucked into the trans cult and need to be saved from it. however, many terfs switch from that view to viewing us as annoying lost causes when they find they’re unable to “save” us. some terfs hold a similar view towards cis and afab nb lesbians who support trans people (especially trans women), and claim that we only do it because we’ve been manipulated and shamed into it, and that we need rescuing by radfems to fully embrace our lesbianism. watch for: referring to afab nb people, nb women, and nb lesbians as lost/misguided, talks of being ‘traitors’ to one’s gender/sex or ‘betraying’ one’s gender/sex, posts that it’s okay to be gnc and not be nb (not bad in and of itself! but sometimes a terf red flag)

reduction of nonbinary identity - disclaimer: (afab) nb lesbians can be terfs just like cis lesbians can! plenty of terfs claim that gender is fake/isn’t real and that they don’t have a gender (some even use terms like agender), however, they think that sex is what matters, and thus still view themselves as lesbians, align with terf ideology, and so forth. basically, reducing the importance of nonbinary identity to emphasize the “importance of sex” while also being nonbinary. watch for: “gender is fake, i’m a female” and other such phrases, generally identifying as genderless/not having a gender while also supporting radfem rhetoric

fake/self-serving concerns about trans kids - not in the sense of being concerned about trans children living in a transphobic society, but rather, concerns that gnc kids, tomboyish girls, etc. are being misidentified as trans and being forced into a trans identity, especially in regards to afab children. watch for: any talk about children. watch for: anything about parents ‘forcing’ transgender identity on their children

radfem brand biphobia - biphobia in a way that’s often specifically execued by radfems. watch for: claims that bi women prioritize men over women (especially if there is a claim that bi women are incapable of prioritizing women over men), claims that bi women force lesbians to care about “het relationships” or prioritize and care about men, etc.

[girlsbtrs]

“It’s Such an Intense Boy’s Club”: Cole Becker (SWMRS) on the State of the Music Industry

DISCLAIMER: This article was written August 5, 2017. As we reflect on events concerning SWMRS and Joey Armstrong, we want to make it clear that we stand by Lydia, believe her allegations and want SWMRS to be held accountable for their actions. We apologize that we helped perpetuate a narrative in which people felt SWMRS was a safe space for women in the industry, and from here on out we will be taking further steps to ensure the safety of young women/non-men on our Roadie For A Day program, including requiring a GBTRS rep on each tour we partner with. To any and all victims, we apologize for the hurt this has caused and hope that in the future we can ensure safety in our programming.

The SWMRS front man gets real about the need for activism and looks to a better future.

Punk is more than a style of dress or a type of music. It’s an attitude, and as I sit across from Cole Becker, I get the sense that he is someone who truly embodies what it means to be punk.

My immediate impression of Cole was the strong juxtaposition in his “hard, fast, loud” stage presence with his calm, warm demeanor during our chat. Cole is the front man of the Oakland, California-based band SWMRS, who are known for being outspoken about creating safe, inclusive spaces at their shows. They use their platform to speak out against rampant misogyny and sexism in the male-dominant music industry, and that, my friends, is incredibly punk rock.

Check out all of the wonderful, progressive takes that Cole has about the state of the music industry, while also looking at steps towards a better future in our exclusive interview:

So as you know, I help run a female-centric organization that aims to level the playing field for women in the industry, so I wanted to start off by asking what it means to you to have diverse women represented in the music industry?

It means everything. I think it’s one of those things where a lot of people are ready to talk and say they’re ready for it, but I think it’s a big challenge to really integrate those jobs and start leveling the playing field because I think there’s a lot of subliminal factors that go into hiring.

I think that the fact that we’re having this conversation is really important, but it’s going to be a while. I want it to go faster, but there’s a bunch of different factors at play that are really challenging obstacles, just because of the way that our patriarchal society works.

So what do you feel like your role as a band (and also as an individual) is in keeping up this dialogue?

I think like as a band, especially as we get into a more professional realm as employers -- and as people who run, on one hand an artistic outlet, but on the other hand a business -- making sure that we’re giving the opportunity to young women who have the qualifications to offset the societal setbacks to getting there.

Are there any current women that you have been listening to or following in the music industry?

Angel Olsen is my favorite record out… and then my friend Ebonie is an engineer at Atlantic Studios… [and she] runs a media source and a camp for girls to learn how to be audio engineers because she says… as a singer and a producer, that’s opened up so much more freedom for her.

I definitely want to check that out, because sound engineering -- there’s definitely a huge gender gap.

One of my girlfriend’s friend’s moms is the editor for like some big TV show, and it’s a very similar world…. There’s this weird thing where like -- I mean I’ve never experienced it so I can’t talk about it as well as a like woman who has experienced it has -- where they tell you, “Oh well you need to speak up more and ask for what you want,” but then when you do, it’s like, “Oh, you’re asking too much.”

Yeah I know exactly what you’re talking about. That’s interesting. I don’t know that much about the TV world.

Yeah but it’s the same thing in music too… it’s just like all the people I know that do music are white dudes… I think a lot of bands have all white all male crews because that’s just what they’re comfortable around. And so that’s a huge thing to overcome: how you make sure that they have shared experience with women too -- and it’s such an intense boys club… I think it comes from being insecure about our masculinity.

I also wanted to talk about the term “fangirl” a little bit, just because it’s kind of used in a discriminatory way. So what are your thoughts about that?

I mean, I think that I just don’t know another word to describe the phenomenon … I do think we need to reevaluate the negative connotation we put on it, because to have young people, like boys or girls or non-binary kids, that are that excited about something -- that’s fucking beautiful. That’s something so amazing and pure, and like, at least they care about something, you know? They haven’t been marred by this fucking terrible, apathetic world we live in, and they have something real that they can hold on to and be and love, and I think that’s so admirable, and I wish I loved something that much … and I do, I’m a fangirl about music, you know?

Absolutely, and I think it’s interesting because I think it’s kind of come up in discussion again. I don’t know if you read the Harry Styles Rolling Stone…

Exactly… that dude’s a legend … somebody who has such an intimate and unique relationship with the teenage girls of the world -- for him to come out and say that just validates so many people and that’s a very special thing that he did. When you refer to it negatively, you’re assuming moral high ground.

You guys are known for really championing creating safe spaces at your shows, which I think is a really cool thing. So what kind of a reaction have you gotten from fans both on and offstage about that?

I mean it’s all positive. It’s cool. The strangest thing is, I’m an upper-middle class white kid, heterosexual, cis-gendered male from a suburb of Oakland, California. To be able to create a space where I see people that I have little to no ostensible common experience with, connect with the music and be able to feel as free as I do in the space where we’re making music and sharing it with them -- that’s really special.

Also -- “safe space” has become something that is losing its specificity, so I’ve been trying really hard to make sure that I’m engaging them in not just claiming it to be a safe space, but getting them involved in making it a safe space when we play. So instead of just outright saying “this is a safe space,” I always try to say like “hey, we can’t keep it safe unless you all are helping us… have your eyes out because we can’t see everything from stage.”

Have you noticed a difference in the dynamic at your shows before and after the election, or has it kind of been the same pretty much?

It’s become just more and more honest, in a way. I think now more than ever, people don’t have a place they can go to and just be totally in the moment and feel something good and deep and powerful, and I think live music can transport people to that.

But I think there’s so much feelings of anger and sadness and fear among kids who sincerely don’t know whether their parents are going to get deported or whether they’re going to have health care or this and that… To have just one half-hour moment where they don’t have to think about anything other than being there and feeling something good -- I’ve noticed that their connection to the music has gotten stronger…. It’s a bit of a selfish reaping of the terrible, terrible circumstances we’re in.

But I feel like it’s a collectively beneficial moment too.

Yeah I think it’s reminded me that music is something that is very powerful and pure and beautiful, and it put more faith in my belief in what I do… it makes me prouder and prouder every day because I have a space -- and to be able to make that place for somebody.

So just to kind of bring up some stats, only 5% of top executives in the industry are women, and of course women of color, trans women, all other marginalized groups face an even greater struggle. So what are your thoughts on the importance of representation, and what does that look like to you?

I mean representation -- that’s huge... For me, as somebody who just doesn’t identify with that much heteronormative culture, I don’t look at executives and see like, “Oh, that’s what I want to do,” you know?

Because it’s a very masculine, golf-centric type of feel, and so to have diversity, not just visually, but of style -- I think that’s huge. But beyond that, I think education is the biggest step, you know? Like putting more resources towards getting girls involved -- like young women and young trans women and young women of color -- involved in music on just a basic level where they feel encouraged and validated to be part of the industry.

To wrap things up, are there any other local bands that you want to shout out?

Yeah! Shoutout to Destroy Boys. They are my -- our little sisters, who write really badass punk songs… Mt. Eddy -- very proud of those little dudes. Ricky Lake is my friend. He’s like an art rapper. Same Girls, which is Taifa’s band. And, gotta shoutout to Plush too. The last two are mellow shoegaze bands but I like them. They’re great people.

- article by Jess George

#artist interview #jess george

[amneris-hermione-violet]

I’ve been doing some thinking about Nia Nal and some of the implications of what the show has said about her. Disclaimers: This is my attempt at some science-y thoughts combined with storytelling thoughts, but I am not an expert or even particularly well-informed about genetics, so if anyone else has more or better info, please share! I am also not an expert on trans friendly language or attitudes, so while I am very supportive of trans people, I may make mistakes. Please correct me so I can learn! Thank you. I also hope this is in no way offensive to the idea of adoption, which I think is a beautiful thing. Long-winded rambling after the cut.

The show says that Nia’s mother’s family, from the planet Naltor, has a power that shows up once a generation in a woman, and is passed along the matrilineal line. They’re surprised when Nia, a trans woman, inherits the ability rather than her sister Maeve, a cis woman. They also say that sometimes the power skips a generation, for unknown reasons. My theory is that the family has assumed it is passed to women only, and men cannot inherit it, but that this is actually an incorrect assumption on their part. In humans, as well as in almost (but not all) other mammals on Earth, males and females receive half their DNA, including an X gene, from their mothers. Females receive half their DNA, including a second X gene, from their fathers, while males receive half their DNA, including a Y gene, from their fathers. I’m guessing the aliens from the planet Naltor follow the pattern of humans, since Nia and Maeve, whose father is human, already show that Naltorians and humans can reproduce together successfully. So similarities are more likely than differences in this process. Anything that can be passed down to a girl by her mother can be passed down to a boy by his mother: they both receive the same type of genetic material from their mothers. I think the family must have assumed that two X genes were required for the power to present (but not for the genes donated by the father to have the trait, since it is passed along the matrilineal line regardless, just for the second X gene to be present). But Nia shows that this is not the case: just one gene with the trait present is enough, and the X or Y from the father doesn’t matter. This would explain why sometimes the power skips a generation: these are the other times it was (unknown to the family) inherited by a boy. So why does Nia present with the power when no cis males in her family ever have? I have two theories. One, I think the family has failed to consider that perhaps hormone levels have an effect on the appearance of the power. Nia has received female hormone therapy, which is what has allowed the trait to be expressed, whereas other males in the family did not. Their male hormones, or their lack of female hormones, caused the trait to be suppressed. Second, it could be the other biological difference between Nia and Maeve and others in their family, that being half-human somehow affects this trait, and the Y gene from Nia’s father somehow acts like a second X gene from a father from Naltor. I’m leaning more towards the hormone theory, just because I think it’s more interesting. What none of this helps to explain, however, is why males in the family did not act as genetic carriers and pass this trait on to future generations as well, as can happen with many traits. I suspect the reason for this is related to the fact that the power is said to present in only one person per generation, rather than being passed on to all descendants each generation: something magic-y or science fiction-y would have to be involved to explain that. Perhaps some kind of dominance exhibited by one person that somehow suppresses the trait from presenting in others in their vicinity? Pheromones perhaps? This would be outside the realm of real world science.

The show says that in the 31st century, Brainy knows a descendant of Nia’s named Nura Nal. No other information about her is known, other than that she is part of the Legion. There is a lot of other information available about Nura in the comics, but since Nia doesn’t exist in the comics, it isn’t very helpful in reflecting on the relationship between Nia and Nura. Nura is known as Dream Girl and also has dream-based powers, but it is unknown how similar those powers are to Nia’s. Based on the assumptions of the family, Nura would have to be a matrilineal descendant of Nia, but as a trans woman Nia is not part of the matrilineal line. If we use one of my previous theories that anyone can inherit the power, but that expression of the trait relies on other factors, then it makes sense that Nura could have the power despite not being descended from Nia’s mother’s matrilineal line. I’m reluctant to assign a lot of importance to Nura’s last name being Nal. As modern members of western society, we are used to last names being patronymic: passed down through the patrilineal line, with children taking their father’s last name, with exceptions being made for unwed mothers or cases where the father’s name is unknown. That would make Nura a direct male-line descendant of Nia, with the exception of Nia passing on her last name to her child instead of the child’s father’s last name. This is possible, but it’s a pretty limiting theory. I think it’s more likely that aliens from the planet Naltor do not follow patronymic conventions. In the comics, the last name Nal is said to mean “from the planet Naltor” and actually does not function as a family name at all. On the show, we just do not know if Nia got her last name from her Naltorian mother or her human father. Western naming conventions suggest the latter, while the name itself suggests the former. So as I said I’m not putting a lot of importance on Nura’s last name to determine her relationship to Nia. We just know that Nura is Nia’s descendant. This has led me to wonder (in a nosy way that would be none of my business if Nia were a real person and not a fictional character) how Nia is going to go about having children. As a trans woman, she has several options. The first, adoption, is not likely because of Nura presenting with the power, unless Nia adopts from someone else in her family. The second option would be for Nia to find someone to be an egg donor and for her to donate the sperm. The sperm would have had to be collected and preserved before her gender confirmation surgery. This option is very possible. so long as Nia is able to pass on the half of her genes that come from her mother and contain the trait, rather than the half from her father that do not. The third option is for Nia’s sister Maeve to be the egg donor, and someone else other than Nia to be the sperm donor (to prevent the obvious complications of genetic siblings reproducing together). This would work better with the observed pattern of the trait only being passed on the matrilineal line, but it would mean that Nura is actually descended from Nia’s sister. That is totally possible, but personally I find it less satisfying (in a storytelling sense) than having Nia be the actual genetic ancestor. Nia herself has already defied convention by displaying the power, and I would like that pattern to continue and for her to defy convention by passing on the gene for the trait despite not being part of the matrilineal line. A fourth option, and my personal favorite (from a storytelling sense), isn’t possible yet with modern technology, as far as I know, but here goes. Nia is dating Brainy right now (I am a huge fan of this ship), so it is reasonable to guess (although I admit it is only a guess) that Nia will someday have children with Brainy as her partner. Brainy is from the 31st century and is a Coluan, an alien race that is part biological and part cybernetic (cyborg). He might have access to or know of technology more advanced than in reality. He could be the sperm donor for my third theory above, where the egg comes from Nia’s sister Maeve. Or in this fourth theory, he could be the sperm donor, the second half of genetic material could come from Nia by the DNA being extracted from her normal cells, separated in half, and then implanted in the egg along with Brainy’s contribution, and literally anyone could be the egg donor. Again, Nia would have to be passing on the half of her genes that come from her mother and contain the trait, rather than the half from her father that do not (in order for Nura to later inherit them, but also to prevent the possibility of a non-viable YY embryo). They would only use the outer structure of the egg itself and not the genetic material from the egg donor. This is sort of based on modern cloning technology, which I believe was first performed with sheep in the 1990s, in which the egg has its genetic material removed and is replaced by the complete genetic material of the mother, who is the sole parent. Using that idea of an egg for just its outer structure, and the genetic material inside replaced, both Nia and Brainy could be the parents of the child. This is what I think is the most interesting and emotionally satisfying theory from a storytelling perspective. Parents are parents of their children no matter what, of course, adopted or otherwise, but with Brainy’s knowledge of future science I think this would be a fun and romantic way for them to have children in the story.

Please, please let me know if I got something wrong or said anything offensive. I want to learn, and I am very open to being corrected.

#supergirl #nia nal #brainia #brainiac 5 #brainy x nia #trans #naltor #naltorians #nura nal #dreamer #dream girl #supergirl theories #supergirl speculation #genetics #science fiction #querl dox

[xxmisty]

Funny how someone who made fart fetish porn thinks he has a right to badmouth men

Oh boy, anon, you’ve really overpacked this suitcase, haven’t you??

Look, let’s just start by pointing out that there’s a contradiction between you having respect for my pronouns and yet an apparent prejudice against sex workers. I just don’t get that. Thank you for being more respectful than most and actually using male pronouns here, I think the rest of your message is seriously betraying the kind of person you are. Build on the good. You’re already head and shoulders above most people I know in that respect.

I was trying to work out what could have come across as badmouthing men and I found that two posts about Captain Marvel had come out of my queue. So that’s it. Anon, i’m not badmouthing men. But I will call out toxic masculinity where I see it, and there was a whole lot of it around the launch of that movie. Toxic masculinity hurts everyone, no matter who you are. It’s the kind of attitude that makes men feel they have to behave a certain way or they can’t be true men. As a trans guy that went a long way toward being terrified of coming out, and still goes a long way to not being accepted. It is also a master force behind the kind of behaviour that has left women vulnerable, scared and abused throughout history. I’ve been on both sides of that. I’ve had men roll down their car windows and cat-call me from the age of 14 upward. When I was 13 I took a term of piano lessons and quit because the piano tutor kept holding my hands and asking me if I ‘painted my nails red when I went out at weekends’. I’ve had parts of my body groped and touched in public because someone was drunk, being egged on by their mates or just thought it was their right to do it. I’ve had a z-list celebrity slide his hand into my crotch blaming ‘the train’ with a huge grin on his face. I spent twenty years blaming myself for being sexually assaulted by my cousin’s husband because I was wearing a dress the night I met him. No, not all men are like this, but if you’re offended by someone discussing it then perhaps there’s a reason why. Maybe you see a little of that in yourself.

I’ll reblog posts about captain marvel until my fingers are sore because Brie Larson took so much abuse in the run up to its launch, most of it from a subsection of the population. And i’m not blindly backing it as a marvel fan, nor as a perceived ‘man hater’ - I didn’t think it looked that good from the trailers, but boy was I wrong. I still think the trailers were pretty bad and did the movie a huge disservice. The point is, I waited until I watched the movie to make up my own mind. Brie Larson spoke up on the press tour about how she was sick of looking out and seeing nothing but white men, and a whole lot of those white men took that very deliberately in the wrong way. She spoke of wanting diversity. She didn’t want to look out there and see no white, male faces, she just wanted to see a mix of them with POC and female faces too. You’d have to be extremely over sensitive to take that in any sense other than the one she’d intended it.

People flooded Rotten Tomatoes with negative reviews, days before the movie even came out. They hadn’t seen it, they just wanted to try to make sure that they stopped as many potential viewers from seeing it as they could. And that's why it’s so important to people who aren’t of that small subsection of the population to share the movie’s success. I’m so damn proud of Brie, and of everyone involved in the movie, and of everyone who has stood up for Captain Marvel when in doing so they’ve also opened themselves up to abuse.

The truth is, the world has been run by straight, white, cis men for countless years and that’s starting to change. The world is becoming a richer place for that. We need to hear all kinds of voices, especially as the world grows smaller. Anon, the world has changed more in the last twenty years than it had in centuries before it. But that means the truth is going to hurt sometimes.

I’m white, and i’m learning more about what that means from people of colour who share their experiences, their stories and their views. I understand a little better every day that it isn’t enough just to not be an actively racist asshole and that I need to use my privilege to speak up when I see it happening to others. I need to open my ears and listen to people from different countries, of different colours, of different religions, and hear about the struggles they face every day that i’ll never truly understand as someone born into a white family, in an area where there were very few people of colour as I grew up. I want to learn. I want to listen. I hope that the more POC speak out, the more that we can learn as people who haven’t faced the same prejudice. I’ll still never know what it’s like to walk in those shoes but i’ll be a little more mindful every day of what needs to change and how I can help.

It’s a similar thing existing in a predominantly cishet world. Something I realised recently is that, as much as I know it can take years, decades, sometimes a lifetime to really discover who you are, the cold hard fact is that when I was five years old I knew I wanted to marry a woman and call myself John but it’s taken decades to reverse the programming that a predominantly cishet world tried to write into me. We’re getting there, little by little. The world is changing, but a big part of that is from having the courage to find our voices and share our experiences as people of a gender and/or sexuality not defined as cis and heterosexual. I think trans folk have a unique point of view when it comes to gender wars since we’ve seen both sides of the coin to some degree. I’m just as scared of toxic femininity as I am of toxic masculinity. Both are dangerous and destructive, and they hurt everybody. It’s time they began to die and allowed people to be themselves without a gender-approved bar they have to reach to be a ‘real man/woman’.

Lastly, anon, I would really like you to rethink the way you view sex workers because most that i’ve met along the way have been the kindest, most genuine, most open individuals who work harder than you’ll ever know. Making fetish videos put food on the table, a roof over our heads and bought our boat when we were faced with being homeless. My health wouldn’t allow me to work a job outside the home any more and I wanted to make a living as best as I could. I feel like you would be just as critical if I lived by benefits alone. Plus making videos was a very important step in my own life. It helped me to love a part of myself that i’d always resented and felt ashamed of, and gave me confidence to appear in front of the camera which I could never have imagined some years ago. Plus I made a few wonderful friends that way.

Anon, you have a good heart, enough to not misgender me. I can’t and won’t apologise for reblogging posts that talk about subjects that affect me personally. This is, after all, my blog, and it’s important for people to see how many others have been affected by the same issues. It helps when you don’t feel so alone. If there’s something that triggers you about those posts then perhaps there’s something you recognise in it. This is a really good time to identify what that is and to work out why it upsets you so much. We can all learn to be better people, and listening to our discomfort is a good first step.

[dangerliesbeforeyou]

U wanna know why i’m really mad about the whole Dumbledore thing in the new films?

It’s not the representation thing (well, actually it is, but i think y’all already know about & are annoyed about that), my main issue is that effectively ignoring the fact Dumbledore is gay, or just the idea that gayness exists in the Wizarding Universe is such a missed opportunity in exploring the Wizarding Worlds attitude towards it!

Like, is homophobia still a thing? Were gay people executed in the past for being gay? Do wizards still ‘come out’ or what?? What’s the Wizarding worlds view on trans people? Did lgbt+ people have to fight for their rights??

The Wizarding World is parallel to our own, yes, but they have a completely different history & set of beliefs!

Does christianity or other religions exist in their world? If not then perhaps gay people were never prosecuted??

(Another point could be said on racism, and whether the slave trade, for example, was a huge part of Wizarding history? Or maybe it exists in a different way in their world? Also, womens rights! Did women have to fight for the vote in their world too?? Not gonna go into that right now but my point stands...)

In completely disregarding his sexuality, it’s not just a blow for gay representation in one of the biggest franchises ever, but also misses a huge opportunity to look deeper into Wizarding society...

Same could be said for things like Star Wars, Star Trek, etcetc... The universes for these things, although not completely separate from our own, are different! And should be treated differently...

It just feels like such a copout that writers of these things disregard adding in these elements just because they feel it’s ‘irrelevant’ to the ‘plot’...

and ur telling me ur boring ass heterosexual couple r adding to the plot ... bitch please...

#harry potter #fantastic beasts and where to find them #fantastic beasts #rant #dumbledore #homosexuality #lgbt #etc #just had to get my thoughts out lol this rly annoys me #i just hope they listen to fans & actually add in something cos frankly this is bs if they dont

[roidespd-blog]

Chapter Twenty-Seven : QUEER & RACE

If you recall yesterday’s article on the Equality Act (June 26th), the Gay Liberation Movement and it subsequent attempts at protecting Queer people under the Law took a page at the Civil Rights Movement that culminated (but did not end) with the signature of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The fight of minorities have always mirrored one another through the last century of our History but today, we’re exploring how race is being handled inside the Queer community. And since I’m a white cis man, I’m perfectly qualified for the job.

A WHITE MAN EXPLAINS RACISM

Fuck no. 1. You’re perfectly aware of what racism is 2. I ain’t whitesplaining this situation 3. Next.

RAINBOW IS NOT THE ONLY COLOR

In the United States, Queer Black People had the hard challenge to face two major fights in the 1960s (three for Queer women of color) : Right to exist as a black person and right to proclaim their Queer identity without serious consequences. The New York Times published an article on June 22, 2019 called ‘Queer People of Color Led the L.G.B.T.Q Charge, but were denied the reward”. Very instructive if you have a second. In this article, it is stated that the same thing happened to Transgender people, Drag Queens, Blacks and Hispanics during this period of time “(They) played outsized roles during many of the earliest milestones of the Gay Rights Movement (but) have been denied many of the benefits of the revolution they sparked”.

As a matter of fact, many of the first major push backs at the Police and the Law were led Queer people of Color. Logical when you think of how badly black people were treating in America since… always. If on top of that, you throw homophobic attacks for being a transvestite or a homo, well someone might snap for good. As the article states “the LGBTQ community owes a huge debt of gratitude to the ones who really didn’t have that much of a choice, who were out there taking the beatings and taking the verbal abuse”. Basically Trans women of color. Didn’t you hear, Marsha P. Johnson threw the first brick at Stonewall ? Well, more on that later (PLOT TWIST : She probably didn’t).

You can’t deny all the good and sacrifices Marsha achieved during her short lifetime though. An outspoken advocate for gay rights and founding member of the Gay Liberation Front, she was known as “the mayor of Christopher Street” (location of the Stonewall Inn). Marsha was a black individual. Many of them were. Without the hardship and strength that they accumulated in a country where they were never considered equal and couldn’t hide their identity — because think about it, you may have the possibility to pass as straight, but you can’t pretend to be white, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

And what do we have today ? A total ignorance of the pain and struggles are our brothers and sisters of color.

DOUBLE STANDARDS

Queer individuals of color may find themselves in a double minority, in which they are neither fully accepted nor understood by (mainly) white Queer communities nor their own ethnic group.

If you are an Arab person (especially if you are Muslim), religious backgrounds and crowd mentality are clear obstacles to your own acceptance of Queer Identity. Meanwhile, you’ll have a hard time finding people to relate to as you will inevitably be consider a sex object by the community (more on that later).

Some Asian family traditions will hold you back to marry the person you love. One study found that 90% of Asian and Pacific Islanders (APIs) who self-identified as Queer thought homophobia and transphobia to be an issue in the later API community. Amy Sueyoshi, an Historian specializing in sexuality, gender and race, said : “Voices from the queer left, though opposed to homophobia in cultural nationalism, have picked up the protest against the feminization of Asian American men in the gay community. While coming from drastically different perspectives, both groups find common ground in supporting a phallocentric standard of Asian American Male sexuality”. And on the Queer side, people of Asian descent are mostly ignored (more on that later).

Gay Latino Men report experiencing Ostracism from their friends and families as they are not considered truly “men”. Latina lesbians are considered traitors who have forsaken their roots (they are perceived as “Malinche” figures corrupted by foreign influences who contribute to the genocide of their people). More than in any other community, rigid gender roles, patriarchy and religion give a sexuality judged ‘abnormal’ and hard to accept. Queer communities, meanwhile, created a toxic environment for Gay Latinos and Latinas (more. on. that. later)

In Black communities, homophobic attitudes are mainly the reason why there’s a disproportionately high incidence of HIV/AIDS amongst African Americans (that and poverty). Those overtly homophobic standards in that community gave way to a subculture called being on the “Down-Low”, in which black men who usually identity as heterosexual have sex with men without anyone else knowing shit about it. In many cases, those sexual acts are unprotected and create a space of danger for the individual and their future sexual partners (male and female). Finally, in the Queer community… Well, you get my drift (more on that right now).

Do you need to talk about Trans people of color ? Really ? Don’t you know that by now ? Have you ever considered what they were going through ?

This creates multiples minority stress inside one individual, with consequences of internalized homophobia and poor mental and physical self-care (drugs, alcohol, sexual risks, suicide).

SEXUAL RACISM

Sexual Racial Preference is the individual’s sexual preference of specific races. Is is an inclination towards potential sexual or romantic partners on the basis of perceived racial identity. In a way, it all depends on your point of view. There’s the blind point of view where we present this situation as a matter of preference and there’s the “put your fucking glasses on” point of view of we need to characterize this as racism. It’s been going on for hundreds of years, especially with the world’s dark past with slavery. In the last ten years, online dating has overtaken previously methods of meeting potential partners. The number of dating sites (gay, straight, bi, etc) has spiked to a uncountable level. Some are even created especially for an ethnic background OR for people in search of a different ethnic background. Along with this, there has been a rise of online sexual racism. Racial discrimination is everywhere. ESPECIALLY in Queer dating apps.

Take the case of Asian men. In other gay men’s minds, they are being represented as feminine and desexualized. The term “undersexed” has been used. Without even mentioning the stereotyping of size for an Asian male, gay pornography often depicts Asian men as submissive to the pleasures of white men. The way Asian men have been treated in the Queer community is close to “symbolic castration” according to Gilbert Caluya. Gay Asian Men experience constant racism on dating apps, where it is common for profiles to state “NO ASIANS” or “NO FATS, NO FEMMES, NO ASIANS” (the holy trinity of what Asian Men are represented as). They are being “relegated to the bottom of the attractiveness spectrum”, reflecting the position of the Asian individual in the world (and as always, with WHITE MALE on top). And if somehow, a Gay White man will get an interest in an Gay Asian man, it’s often part of a fetish or sexual racial preference based only on appearance and race. The objectification of someone’s race is in no way better than pushing that someone away because of this race. Those “rice queen” need to stop taken Asian people for objects to play with and then throw away. Same thing for Asian women in the Queer community. They are not deemed “Gay enough” due to their traditional Asian descent and at the same time, “passive but exotic”, mirroring the way Straight white males view Asian women.

Do you think it’s better with other ethnicities ? Sure, keep dreaming. Where Asian men are desexualized, Black men and women, cis and trans, are overtly sexualized, on top of the deepest form of racism born out of centuries of slavery and fear. As I said, the rise of the two movements made life twice as difficult for Queer Black folks. John Wilder said “Now that it is becoming unfashionable to discriminate against N*****, discrimination against homosexuals will be on the increase”. Furthermore, Keith Boykin said “the dirty little secret about the homosexual population is that white gay people are just as racist as white straight people”. It’s a truth that you can see everyday in our community. It has been predominantly led by white people for white people. Just as what ? The rest of the world. So if Black people are rejected as individuals by their Black communities and by the Queer community, what’s left for them ? Yes, I digress from the sexual stereotyping I was supposed to talk about. Here it goes. Those discriminations are reflected into their sexuality in constant judgement from all parts of both communities. For example, Black men who have a sexual preference for White men are accused to suffer from “insidious legacy of white racism”. They are also rejected by other Black Gay men opposed to interracial relationships with White folks, as it is a sign of lack of roots into their enslaved history and a oblivious blind eye to racism. Otherwise, Black Gay Men are supposed to be “tops” with enormous dongs (something that is explicitly demanded by dating apps users of all races) who are “urban”, “ruff” and gonna treat them like “lil’ bitches”. Some White men unofficially think that being sexually attracted to Black people automatically proves the lack of racism in them. But if you are only fucking and dating Black people, you have a sexual racial preference and… you racist.

And did you know that Trans Black Women are four times as likely to be sexually attacked, raped or murdered than the rest of the Queer population ? Uh ?

Have you noticed that in America, there’s a lot of Gay Latino bars and nightclubs, not so much Asian or Black gay clubs ? Do you think it’s because Latinos are better club dancers ? You racist fuck. No, it’s because Queer hispanics and Latinos have one of the greatest level of discriminations, both within and outside the Queer community, prompting the creation of the first Latino gay bar in San Francisco in 1979. Many more will follow.

I had a harder times finding specific prejudices against Latinos and Latinas inside the Queer community than for others, I’ll admit. Then I remembered that I just needed to search inside of my own prejudices, those that came with growing up inside the system. The first thing that comes to mind is big butts. Latino Men are targeted for the specific proportions of their bodies, especially if they are bottoms. Who doesn’t like a big ass ? They’re trendy. What else ? What else ? What else ? Well, just like any other races, your shade is uber important. I mean, are you darker skinned ? light skinned so you can almost pass as white ? Are the physical traits on your face obviously Mexican ? Spanish ? Brazilian ?

Arab men faces another type of stereotypes : the THUG.

Here’s the situation : you’re a young white bottom with a really big urge of being mistreated by someone with a bad attitude. White boys don’t scare you, it doesn’t turn you on. Latinos ? why not but it’s gonna be enough ? A Black man ? Well it could hurt (because big dicks, right ?). So you turn your attention to Arabs. They wear street clothes, sneakers that you can worship. They will insult you, spit on you, fuck you like the whore that you are. Maybe even in a basement ! And with some of his thug friends ! You’ll end up cover in spits and jizz, the rose bud blooming like never before. Who said Arab men were all thugs ? What makes you think every time you objectify a Arab sex partner, it’s gonna end up like this ? Wouldn’t it be… SATAN ? (that was a SNL reference) Nop, it’s Society.

Gay Arab women are non existent, Asian-Indians of all sexes as well, Native Americans don’t even mention it !

And don’t think that ethnic minorities are totally off the hook on this one. The fascination of some for white partners are just as racist as the rest of those examples.

In BBC Three’s documentary Series Queer Britain, specifically episode 4 called “Preference or Prejudice”, the host skypes the author of the book “True confessions of a Patato Queen” (apparently, it’s Asian male who are only attracted to White men). When asked why is he only attracted to those, he responded : “I believe the white race is a superior one and I love being with a white guy primarily because of that and also because he’s got a powerful big cock that I love. Once you go whish (white), nothing else seems rigsh (right) ! (laugh)” Staggering. But who made him think that ? Could it beeeee…. ?

VICTIMS OF OUR SOCIETY’S PREJUDICES

At last year’s Paris Pride, a collective called Qitoko called for an assembly of Queer and Trans people of color (I don’t know why Trans is not part of the Queer but whatever) to go up front of the march, part of the “Cortège de Tête de la Pride — Stop au Pinkwashing!”. It is a reflection on the way Queer people in general are not properly considering Queer people of color inside the community, very much the way Society has never viewed people of color at an equal level as white are.

The article I found on Irrecuperables goes on to talk about the country’s politics, lack of support, the act of parking different races together, pushing minorities to the outer limits of the Capitol. They also speak about feeling and being “indesirable” as part of the march.

What this recent example shows, as it is something I’ve said a few times already in previous articles, is that Queer people are making the same mistakes as the rest of the world always had. For an outside perspective, it seems like the Queer community is super inclusive and ultra liberal. I tend to disagree with that. As we were all raised in the same heteronormative white society, we have, in our DNA, the same principles of white superiority and race hierarchy that History and the way that we live today openly shows us just that. The fact that you are Queer doesn’t change that fact or erase those mistakes from your beings. Off course, I’m not saying we are ALL racist. Off course not. But it’s time, as a society, to recognize our prejudices and take ownership of our errors. The same goes for the Queer community. Why does a Black Lesbian have to feel so abandoned in a Lesbian bar ? Why does she think that she have to straighten her hair and act less masculine in case girls get scared of her attitude ? Can’t you just look and appreciate the person for who he/she/they is, regardless of the stereotypes life force-fed you ? It doesn’t take much to step back, reflect and correct. You mostly need to silence your ego. Silence that bitch now.

It is extremely problematic to use racialized desire as personal preference as “it constructs ‘preference’ and identity categories as equitable, which ignores the fact that Queer men and women do not choose their Racial identity”. This also reduces Queer men and women into a category of an object or ‘kink’ that can be adopted or cast aside at will. In France, we’ve let people in our country in waves, as someone reminded me not so long ago. Then, we parked them, used them and now are just plainly ignoring their sufferings. We, as Queer people, have to do better than that. We can’t go from victims to executioners and not even blink on it. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the Race problem inside our community. And honestly, it took me long ass time to come up with something to say, as I didn’t feel like I could legitimately talk about it. Well, I did because it’s just as important as the rest of this month’s projects.

Stop hiding behind “preferences” and “white blindness”. Document yourself, talk to people. Make a change. Be inclusive all the way.

Check yourself before you wreck ourselves.

[scripttorture]

1) can you tell me about/direct me to resources about 18th century torture methods? 2) a few pirates of that time period (like Roche Braziliano and Francois L'Ollonais) were fond of cutting peoples' tongues off. I know nowadays people get tongue cancer, have it removed, and they can still function. But in the 18th century do you know how risky this might have been and what complications it had? 3) you're cool and helpful, thanks for this blog

Well- yes I can but the world is a big placeand those methods vary depending on where in the world you mean.

 You’ve talked aboutpirates but all that does is narrow it down to 3-4 continents instead of thefull 6. So this is probably going to be a pretty shallow overview of a lot of countries and cultures. If youwant more information about particular methods or places then feel free to sendme another ask. :)

 Generally speaking Ithink you’ve hit on a reallyinteresting time period.

 While anti-black racismhad really started to rise in Europe this was still a time when the Empires ofsub-Saharan Africa were militarily strong, wealthy and (while this variedacross countries obviously) powerful centres of learning. There was a lot ofEuropean exploitation of the New World but at the beginning of the century thenations there had not yet been decimated by Europeans. Further afield from thearea you’re focusing on the Ottoman Empire was hugely powerful and countriesthat would make up modern day India and Pakistan were phenomenally wealthy.

 There were a lot of trade routes crossing the globeand the ease of trade and the opening up of new trade routes was bringing moreand more people into closer contact with each other.

 As a multicultural personI tend to think mostly in terms of the positives this kind of increased globalconnectivity brings. But this time period really highlights how exchange ofideas can lead to some pretty ghastly things too.

 This really was theheight of the trans-atlantic slave trade and since piracy was closely linked tothat trade I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about it and the torturesused on both sides of the ocean.  

 The trans-atlanticslave trade really marks a turning point in global torture because it providedan economic incentive for people to develop ‘clean’ non-scarring tortures. Notcoincidentally this is also the time the European public started to findwhipping of Europeans distasteful. Sothroughout the century the traditional punishments in navies and army unitswere gradually replaced with anotherbranch of clean tortures.

 Lets start with theslave trade: that will give a general overview of torture at the time inWestern Africa, the Caribbean and parts of North and South America.

 The initial period ofcapture seems (so far as I can tell) to have been relatively free of torture.Victims who resisted or were seriously injured were generally murdered by theirattackers. On the West African side most torture happened while slaves werebeing transported.

 Forced marches,starvation, dehydration, exposure and neglect were common. Restraints as a formof torture were also in regular use; heavy metal manacles with sharp edges werethe most common form. These cut into limbs (generally the wrists, ankles andneck) and when around the neck may have been heavy enough to restrictbreathing. Wounds from the restraints could easily become infected, especiallysince slaves were kept in frankly squalid conditions. Infections and otherdiseases were not treated.

 Women and girls wereroutinely raped. To the point where there were structures specifically builtfor carrying out rapes. I don’t have any data on rape or sexual assault of menbut I presume that it also occurred.

 Holding areas, largepens or barns essentially, along the coast of Western Africa were overcrowdedand filthy. People were packed in to the extent that they could not moveeasily. There was no ventilation. They stood and sat in their own filth and thefilth of the people who’d passed through before.

 Then there were theships.

 The best comparison tothe space allocated to a person on a slave ship is probably a coffin. Theycould not stand or sit up; often there wasn’t space to lie down comfortablyeither. The victims could move enough that I can’t describe this as a stressposition but it isn’t far off. Theywould have been kept in permanent physical discomfort by these conditions andthere would have been muscular damage (similar too but to a lesser extent thanin stress positions) as a result.

 Sores were common,which led to more infections because once again they were kept in unhygienicconditions, surrounded by vomit and human waste. Additionally they were kept onstarvation diets with little water.

 Once the ships reachedthe New World these people were once again confined in squalid conditionsbefore being sold. Generally at this point the survivors (somewhere between30-50% died in the crossing on ship, I do not have any figures for transportwithin the African continent currently) were given better rations in an attemptto make them look healthier.

 Tortures at this pointtended to be clean. Stress positions in particular ‘bucking’ or ‘the parrot’sperch’ (USA and Brazil) started to become more common. The victim’s ankles aretied together, knees bent and their arms are wrapped around their knees. Theirhands are tied together and a stick is inserted into the gap below the knee andabove the elbow. The victim is then hoisted into the air and left danglingupside down with the stick digging painfully into their knees. Victims duringthe slave trade in the New World were sometimes transported like this as well.

 Stress positions usingrestraints seem to have been a trend in this area at that time.

 After the victims weresold scarring tortures became more common. Whipping and beating were ubiquitousacross the New World. Thumbscrews were favoured in Brazil. Branding and burningwas wide spread. The Code Noir of Haiti specifies mutilations and amputationsfor specific ‘crimes’, examples include branding the shoulders or face andcutting off the ears.

 Death by coveringpeople in boiling sugar or by leaving them buried with the head exposed alsooccurred throughout the Caribbean. As did hangings and at least one case ofusing the Wheel. Dogs were bred specifically to hunt humans.

 Obviously practicesvaried across countries as varied as Jamaica and Brazil. I’m trying tohighlight practices that were widespread, ‘typical’ or show how influences fromparticular places. The New World was the site of protracted and incrediblyinventive cruelties because these societies were built on slavery.

 For further informationyou may want to consult the Code Noir, BlackJacobins by C L R James which is available free online, or well practicallyany book on Caribbean or Brazilian history worth the name.

 I’m going to step backa moment now to talk about torture in some of the West African countries thevictims came from.

 So far as I can tell atthis time (and my reading is far from complete) torture in the Dahomean, Beninand (broadly speaking) Yoruba Kingdoms (which made up a good chunk of the coastfrom modern central Nigeria into Togo) was mostly punishments that weredesigned to kill. It was mostly analogous to the English practice of hangingdrawing and quartering or the more broadly European practice of breaking on thewheel. The practice I’ve heard of most commonly in coastal Western Africa wasthrowing people from tall buildings.

 There are Europeansources at the time which describe mass killings and often sensationallydescribe them as ‘sacrifices’. (I’m thinking of Dahomey in particular here-).So far as I can tell there’s little evidence that these practices were strictlyreligious. More sober analysis has suggested the victims were criminals and/orprisoners of war and that sentences built up over an entire year were allcarried out during a particular week.

 The bias in theavailable sources makes it difficult to speak about torture in the region withany clarity.

 One thing we do know is that at the time a lot ofthese coastal Kingdoms had been somewhat destabilised by their northernneighbours. Expansionism further inland had led to waves of refugees fleeingsouth, sometimes with armies pursuing them. This created a lot of conflict inthe region as a whole. Which means that ideas about torture were probably also changing within the region, spreadby raiding soldiers and fleeing victims.

 Which brings us to the other armies that were changing theirtorture-practices at the time: the armies of Europe.

 During the 1700swhipping soldiers and sailors fell out of favour. It was seen as unsavoury anduncivilised. In response to public disapproval European military groups changedtheir tactics, moving away from scarring and towards clean tortures.

 Generally speaking theysettled on forced exercise, stress positions and exposure as ‘acceptable’punishments (an attitude Europe and indeed America has found hard to shake).

 I’m unsure whichcountries started the trend, but Britain based their stress positions on practices seen in the Prussian army andthe Anglo-Saxon tradition of stress positions seems to me distinct from theFrench.

 The core of the Britishtechniques were ‘crucifixion’, ‘the picket’ and the saw-horse. Briefly thesewere: a standing stress position tied to a fixed object with arms outstretchedas a T shape or X shape, a suspension torture where the victim was suspended bythe wrist with their weight resting on a spike below their foot, and a seatedstress position with the victim tied straddling a sharp wooden device, legstied straight and weighted.

 The French seem to havefavoured ‘the silo’ which is a squatting stress position. The victim is tiedhand and foot in a sort of half-crouch. This was done in a specially dug pit sothe victim was also exposed to the elements in a pool of their own waste.

And of course there were also Inquisitions running in Europe and in European colonies, torturing and murdering Jews, Muslims and practitioners of traditional religions in Europe and the New World. 

 That’s three pages andI haven’t touched Asia or indeed any part of Africa that’s south or east ofNigeria.

 In terms of piracy in the New World in the 1700sthese are the torture traditions they’d be exposed to and these are the onesthey’d likely draw on: slavery and the military techniques of the time. This doesn’t mean that your torturers couldn’t invent their own, just thatthese are the methods they’re likely to be aware of.

 (Also please give memore specific areas in the future readers- the only reason I could reel offthis much is because West African and Caribbean history are long standinginterests of mine.)

 Which I think brings usto tongues.

 I’ve double checkedthis with ScriptMedic and a lot ofcomplications are springing to mind.

 Firstly blood loss: thetongue is a lump of muscle with a fair few veins and arteries going through it.

 Secondly infection,which is a risk in and of itself but could also cause-

 Swelling of the throat,restricting breathing or the ability to eat.

 The tongue is also usedto swallow, by definition removing it is going to cause some problems eatingand drinking.

 My instinct is that if this healed the victim would probablyhave long standing issues getting enough to eat and drink. It might also beeasier for them to choke on their food and drink.

 Any of these thingswould be pretty serious complications when there’s not really any medical careavailable.

 And I’m going to stop answering this question now beforemy answer sprouts another 2,000 words.

 I hope this helps. :)

Disclaimer

#tw torture #tw rape #tw slavery #history #historical torture #trans atlantic slave trade #Europe #Brazil #Caribbean #Haiti #USA #Mexico #Dahomey #Oyo #clean torture #scarring torture #bucking #stress positions #burning #shipping #starvation #neglect #unhygienic conditions #restraint tortures #forced marching #dehydration #forced labour #silo #picket #Britain