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writingwithfolklore · 3 months

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How to Nail your School Essays

Not to brag, but I’m kind of a big deal when it comes to essays at my school. Since I started highschool I haven’t received a grade less than 90% on an essay—so I’m here to share my secret. This works for the classic essay, but you can also use the same advice and fit it to formal reports or other academic writing.

1. Your essay is about 2 things, demonstrated 3 or more times

This is how I’ve always thought about essays. They’re about two ideas, demonstrated as many times as you need to fill the wordcount. Shakespeare + Feminism, Media + Truth versus Misconception, etc. etc. If you’re lucky, your teacher or prof will give you one of your elements. You’ll get assignments like, “write an essay about Hamlet” or “write an essay about the American dream” lucky you, that’s your first thing—now you need to connect it with another.

This connecting idea is my favourite part because you just get to choose a concept or idea you’re interested in. Here’s a tip, if your first/given topic is something concrete, choose an abstract connecting idea. If your given topic is something abstract, choose a concrete.

So, Hamlet (concrete) could be paired with any abstract concept: Loyalty, Truth, Feminism, etc.

However, if your prof gives you something like, “truth” or “race theory”, you’ll find it much easier to connect that with a more concrete thing, like a book, movie, or other piece of media, or even a specific person.

If you are luckiest, your prof will give you both things, “write about the American Dream in The Great Gatsby” in this case, you’re onto the next stage.

2. Stick to the formula

Tried, tested, true. Nothing wrong with a formula, especially not when it gives you A+ grades. Typical essay structure is:

Intro with thesis

2. 1st Body

2a. Evidence that proves it 1

2i. Justify its relevance

2b. Evidence that proves it 2

2ii. Justify its relevance

Etc.

3. 2nd Body

3a. Evidence that proves it

3i.Justification

Etc.

4. 3rd Body

4a. Rise and repeat, you know where this is going.

5. Some may argue…

6. Conclusion

Let’s break it down.

Thesis:

Thesis completely outlines all your points, or the three+ places you’re demonstrating your connection, and why it matters.

Here is an intro + thesis I wrote a couple years ago:

“This literature review will explore the impacts influencer marketing has on the children that regularly consume social media content. Specifically, this review will focus on how influencers can impact children’s brand preferences, dietary choices, and lastly, the influx of children taking advantage of this system and becoming influencers themselves.”

“Burned discusses the human aspect of sex work and reverses reader’s expectations on sex workers, while Not in My Neighbourhood discusses prostitutes as victims of a system created against them. Both challenge readers’ perceptions of sex workers, effectively drawing attention to the ethics of displacing sex workers from their cities.”

So you have your connection (children and social media)/(Burned and Not in My Neighbourhood and sex work), and the different ways you plan on exploring or proving that idea (children’s brand preferences, dietary choices, children becoming influencers.) etc.

You may also have a more specific stance in your thesis. Such as, “In Macbeth, ambition is shown to be Macbeth’s ultimate downfall in these three ways.”

The Body Paragraphs

You start out every body paragraph with the point of the paragraph, or what it’s aiming to prove. Such as, “Influencers often include advertisements within their content, which can encourage children to feel more amiably to certain brands their favourite content creators endorse frequently more than others.”

After this claim, you spend the rest of the paragraph further proving it through examples. This will look like citing a specific source (a book, academic journal, quote, etc.) such as, “The authors claim likeable influencers can associate their likeability with the products they use, influencing children’s perception of brands, referred to as ‘meaning transfer’ (De Veirman et al. 2019)” (super important to always cite these sources!)

The last part is after each example/proof--you need to justify why this proves your point/is important. So, “This proves children are more influenced towards certain products depending on how close of a relationship they perceive to have with the influencer.”

Typically, your evidence will all lead into each other so you can transition to the next piece of proof, then the justification, rinse and repeat until you’re finished your paragraph. You can have as many pieces of evidence as you want per paragraph, and the longer your word requirement, the more you’ll want to fit into each point (or the more bodies you want to have.)

Piece of evidence + why it matters, rinse and repeat.

Some May Argue:

This is a small paragraph just before your conclusion where you anticipate an argument your readers may have, and disprove it. So, for example, you’d start with, “Some may argue that with parent supervision, the impacts of influencers on children could be lessened or moot. However…” and then explain why they’re wrong. This strengthens your argument, and proves that you’ve really thought out your stance.

Conclusion:

Lastly, you want to sum up all the conclusions you came to in a few sentences. Your last line is one of the most important (in my opinion). I call it the mic drop moment. Leaving a lasting impact on your reader can bring your essay from an A to an A+, so you really want to nail this final sentence.

My final sentence was, “Ultimately, it is hard to know in advance how technology and social media will impact the development of children who have always grown up with some form of screen, but until they grow up, parents and caregivers need to take care in the content their children consume, and their very possible exploitation online.”

This sentence is backed by the entirety of the essay that came before it, and usually leaves a little something to chew on for the readers.

Any other tips I missed?

#writing #creative writing #writers #screenwriting #writing community #writing inspiration #filmmaking #film #books #writing advice #how to nail your school essays #essay writing #academic writing

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serialunaliver · 4 months

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people joke about blaming reagan for everything but you'd be surprised how many oddly specific things are tied to reagan. the guy technically is responsible for the show "my little pony"...this is particularly an insane rabbithole, essentially reagan and a lot of other wealthy capitalists said "it's crazy we care about children’s health and education when it's so unprofitable".

you want to know a statistic that saw a drastic increase in the 80s?

essentially mr. ronald reagan had issues with any regulation intended in helping children have a normal and healthy diet for their age. this included everything from what food was given to students in public school to what advertising permitted.

people often mention things like "the US could ban xyz ingredient that is already banned in xyz countries" but it goes quite beyond that...this is about the psychology of advertising. capitalists had to create a demand where there wasn't one.

also, wrt childhood obesity,it's worth mentioning children with this sort of...reagan diet? end up with similar health issues even when at a 'normal' BMI--I forgot the documentary on this I watched, but they had two kids from the same family with the same diets but drastically different weights examined. outside this documentary exploring how deregulation impacted health in children I can't say i've seen your average doctor look at two kids like that and conclude both are unhealthy...but this is a reagan hate post and not a rant about how children's health is normally approached. however I am willing to be mad about all the above 🙏

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whumpinggrounds · 1 year

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Overused Disability Tropes

Woohoo here we go. I expect this one to be a bit more controversial because I am using specific media as examples. I would really prefer if, when critiquing this post, you avoid defending specific media, and focus instead on what’s actually being said/represented about disabled communities. If you feel I’ve done a really grave injustice, you can come into my askbox/DMs/replies to talk to me about it, but I might not answer.

One more time: I am not interested in getting into a debate about whether something is a good show/movie/book/whatever. I’m not telling you it’s bad, or that you shouldn’t enjoy it! People can like whatever they want; I am only here to critique messaging. Do not yell at me about this.

Newest caveat aside, let’s get into it!

Inspiration Porn

Without a doubt, our biggest category! Term coined in 2012 by badass activist Stella Young, but the trope has been around for literal centuries. There are a few different kinds that I will talk about.

Disabled character/person is automatically noble/good because of their disability. A very early example would be A Christmas Carol’s Tiny Tim, or, arguably, Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Real life examples include the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon, or children’s hospital ads that exploit sad-eyed kids with visible illness or disability.

Having a disability does not automatically make you a kind/angelic/noble person. This many not seem harmful, and may even seem positive, but in reality, it is condescending, inaccurate, and sets bizarre standards for how disabled people should behave.

This portrayal is often intended to elicit pity from abled audiences, which is also problematic.

In these portrayals, disability is not something to be proud of or identify with, only something to be suffered through.

Disabled character person does something relatively mundane and we all need to celebrate that. This is less common in writing, but happens in the real world when people do things like post pictures of disabled people at the gym captioned “What’s your excuse?”

This is condescending, and implies that anything disabled people are capable of, abled people are automatically capable of.

Makes it seem like it’s an incredible feat for a disabled person to accomplish tasks.

Uses people’s actual lives and actual disabilities as a reminder of “how good abled life is.”

The “Supercrip” stereotype is a specific kind of inspiration porn in which disabled people are shown to be capable of amazing things, “in spite of” their disability.

The Paralympics have been criticized for this, with people saying that advertisements and understandings of the Paralympics frame the athletes as inspiring not because they are talented or accomplished, but because their talents and accomplishments are seen as “so unlikely.”

Other examples include the way we discuss famous figures like Stephen Hawking, Alan Turing, or even Beethoven. Movies like The Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game frame the subjects’ diagnoses, whether actual or posited, as limitations that they had to miraculously break through in order to accomplish what they did. Discussions of Beethoven’s deafness focus on how incredible it was that he was able to overcome it and be a musician despite what is framed as a tragic acquisition of deafness.

The pity/heroism trap is a concise way of defining inspiration porn. If the media you’re creating or consuming inspires these emotions, and only these emotions, around disability, that is a representation that is centered on the feelings and perceptions of abled people. It’s reductive, it’s ableist, and it’s massively overdone.

Disabled Villains

To be clear, disabled people can and should be villains in fiction. The problem comes when disabled people are either objects of pity/saintly heroes, or villains, and there is no complexity to those representations. When there is so little disabled rep out there (less than 3.5% of characters in current media), having a disabled villain contributes to the othering of disability, as well as the idea that disability can make someone evil. There are also a few circumstances in which particular disabilities are used to represent evil, and I’ll talk about how that’s problematic.

Mentally ill villains are colossally overdone, particularly given that mentally ill people are more likely to be the victims of violence than perpetrators of it. This is true of all mental illness, including “””scary””” things like personality disorders or disorders on the schizoaffective spectrum. Mental illness is stigmatized enough without media framing mentally ill people as inherently bad or more suspectible to evil. This prejudice is known as sanism.

Explicit fictional examples of this include the Joker, or Kevin Wendell Crumb in Split.

People can also be coded as mentally ill without it being explicitly stated, and that’s also problematic and sanist. In the Marvel movie Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, Wanda’s appearance and behavior are coded as mentally ill. This is used to make her “creepy.” Horror movies do this a lot - mental illness does not render someone creepy, and should not be used as a tool in this way.

Visible disability or difference to indicate evil is another common, incredibly offensive, and way overdone trope. This is mostly commonly done through facial difference, and the examples are endless. These portrayals equate disability or disfigurement with ugliness, and that ugliness with evil. It renders the disabled villain in question an outcast, undesirable, and uses their disability or difference to dehumanize these characters and separate them from others. This is incredibly prevalent and incredibly painful for people with visible disability or facial difference.

An example of visible disability indicating evil is Darth Vader’s prosthetics and vastly changed physical appearance that happen exactly in time with his switch to the dark side. In contrast, when Luke needs a prosthetic, it is lifelike and does not visually separate him from the rest of humanity/the light.

Dr. Who’s John Lumic is another example of the “Evil Cripple” trope.

Examples of facial difference indicating evil range from just about every James Bond movie, to Scar in the Lion King, Dr. Isabel Maru in Wonder Woman, Taskmaster in Black Widow, Captain Hook in Peter Pan, and even Doofenschmirtz-2 in Phineas and Ferb the Movie. Just because some of the portrayals are silly (looking at you, Phineas and Ferb) doesn’t make the coding of facially scarred villains any less hurtful.

A slightly different, but related phenomenon I’ll include here is the idea of the disability con. This is when a character fakes a disability for personal gain. This represents disabled people as potential fakers, and advances the idea that disabled people get special privileges that abled people can and should co-opt for their own reasons.

In The Usual Suspects, criminal mastermind Verbal Clint fakes disability to avoid suspicion and take advantage of others. In Arrested Development, a lawyer fakes blindness in order to gain the sympathy and pity of the jury.

In much more complex examples such as Sharp Objects, a mother with Munchausen by proxy fakes her daughter’s illness in order to receive attention and pity. Portrayals like this make Munchausen or MBP seem more common than it is, and introduce the idea that parents may be lying or coaching their children to lie about necessary medical treatment.

Disability as Morality

Sometimes, the disabled character themselves is a moral lesson, like Auggie in Wonder. Sheerly through existing, Auggie “teaches” his classmates about kindness, the evils of bullying, and not judging a book by its cover. This also fits well under inspiration porn. This is problematic, because the disabled character is defined in terms of how they advance the other characters’ morality and depth.

In the “Disabled for a Day” trope, an otherwise abled character experiences a temporary disability, learns a moral lesson, and is restored to full ability by the end of the episode/book/movie. Once again, disability is used as a plot device, rather than a complex experience, along with more permanent disability being rejected as impossible for heroes or main characters.

Examples include an episode of M*A*S*H where Hawkeye is temporarily blinded, an episode of Law and Order: SVU where Elliott Stabler is temporarily blinded, and an episode of Criminal Minds where Agent Hotchner experiences temporary hearing loss.

Real life examples include sensitivity trainings where participants are asked to wear a blindfold, headphones, or use a wheelchair for a given amount of time. This does not impart the lived experience of disability. It should not be used as a teaching tool.

Disabled people as inherently pure. This is related to inspiration porn and disabled people as noble, but is different in that it is usually appears in combination with developmental, cognitive, or intellectual disabilities. These characters are framed as sweet, “simple,” and a reminder to other characters to be cheerful, happy, or grateful.

Examples include Forrest Gump, Rain Man, I Am Sam, and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.

No matter what the stereotypes of a given diagnosis are (yes, I’m thinking of the automatic cheerfulness associated with Down Syndrome), disabled people have personalities. They are capable of being sad, angry, sarcastic, irritable, annoying - any number of things beyond good/sweet/pure. It is reductive to act otherwise.

Disability as Surreal

Less common than some of the others, but still worth thinking about!

Disabled characters are framed as mystical, magical, or other than human, a condition that is either created by or indicated through their disability status. This is especially common with little people.

“Disability superpower” is when a character compensates for, or is uniquely able to have a superpower because of, their disability. Common tropes include the Blind Seer, Blind Weapon Master, Genius Cripple and Super Wheel Chair.

Examples include Pam from Supernatural, Charles Xavier from X-Men, or the grandpa in Spy Kids.

Disability as Undesirable

Last and least favorite category here. Let’s go.

Disabled people as asexual or not sexually desirable. Disabled people can be asexual, obviously. When every portrayal is asexual, that’s a big problem. It frames disabled people as sexually undesirable or implies that it is impossible for people with disabilities to have rewarding, mutually satisfying sexual relationships.

Examples include The Fault in Our Stars or Artie in Glee.

Abandoned due to disability. Hate this trope. Often equates disability with weakness. Don’t want to talk about it. It’s all right there in the title. Don’t do it.

Examples: Quasimodo in Hunchback of Notre Dame, several kittens in the Warrior Cat series, several episodes of Law and Order: SVU, Bojack Horseman, and Vikings.

Discussed in 300 and Wolf of Wall Street.

Ancient cultures and animal nature are often cited as reasoning for this trope/practice. This is not founded in fact. Many ancient civilizations, including Sparta, cared for disabled people. Many animals care for disabled young. These examples should not be used to justify modern human society.

Disabled characters are ostracized for disability. Whether they act “““normal”““ or odd, characters with visible or merely detectable disabilities are treated differently.

Examples include pretty much every piece of media I’ve said so far. This is particularly prevalent for people with visible physical disabilities or neurodivergence. Also particularly prevalent for characters with albinism.

This is not necessarily an inaccurate portrayal - disabled people face a lot of discrimination and ableism. It is, however, very, very common.

Bury your disabled. What it says on the label.

Examples: Animorphs, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, American Horror Story, Criminal Minds, Dr. Who, Star Trek, The Wire.

Mercy killing is a subtrope of the above but disgusting enough that it deserves its own aside. I may make a separate post about this at some point because this post is kind of exhausting and depressing me.

Examples: Me Before You, Killing Eve, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Of Mice and Men, and Million Dollar Baby.

Disability-negating superpowers imply that disability is undesirable by solving it supernaturally instead of actually portraying it, and giving their character powers instead.

Examples include (arguably) Toph from Avatar: the Last Airbender, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Legend of Korra, Dr. Strange, and Daredevil.

Overcoming disability portrays disability as a hindrance and something that can be defeated through technology and/or willpower.

Fictional examples include WALL-E, Kill Bill, The Goonies, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Heidi, The Secret Garden, The Inheritance Cycle, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, The Big Bang Theory, Dr. Strangelove, Sherlock, The Witcher.

Real life examples include videos of wheelchair users standing from their chair to walk down the aisle at a wedding, or d/Deaf children “hearing” for the first time through cochlear implants.

What Does This Mean for Your Writing?

First of all, congratulations for making it this far!

Now, as I have said again and again, I’m not going to tell you what to write. I’ll ask some questions to hopefully help guide your process.

What tropes might you be playing into when writing disabled characters? Why do you find these tropes compelling, or worth writing about? How prevalent are these tropes? How harmful are they? What messages do they send to actual disabled people?

Just because they are common tropes does not mean they are universally awful. Cool fantasy or futuristic workarounds are not necessarily bad rep. Showing the ugly realities of ableism is not necessarily bad rep. It’s just a very, very common representation of disability, and it’s worth thinking about why it’s so common, and why you’re writing it.

As always, conduct your own research, know your own characters and story, and make your own decisions. If you have questions, concerns, or comments, please hit me up! Add your own information! This is not monolithic whatsoever.

Happy writing!

#disability writing guide #writing disabled characters #disability #disability representation #disability justice #writing advice #disability tropes #writing tropes #ableism #sanism

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ohsalome · 2 months

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your post reminded me how people on here tried to gotcha on the idea that ukrainians are inherently racist because of the issue with black ukrainian people fleeing and they tried to pin it on ukraine itself when it was literally just poland who didn't want to take them

Mhm, from what I remember, the problem came from the fact that during the first days the evacuation trains were prioritising women, children, elderly and disabled over men. + Not all foreign students are fluent in ukrainian, and not all ukrainian railroad workers are fluent in english. This created a miscommunication issue, where the railroad management failed to explain the students what to do and where to go.

If you've been here, you know what kind of chaos happened during those time period. The tension was fucking high. Everyone was in the survival mode. The infrastructure wasn't prepared to a full-scale war. A lot of mistakes happened on all levels of management.

The people who were in panic and jumping to the worse conclusions (based on their lifelong experience of racism) were given the platform by russian propaganda machine; and those who understood the language a bit better and were explained the priority of saving women and children first, didn't. If you have time and inspiration to bother with translation, here is an artice from March 2022 that includes quotes from both sides of the story.

We need to admit that this event was bad. A lot of people were hurt. But it wasn't a specific campaign targeted at black people. Yet russian propagandists and their lap dogs turned it into an anti-ukrainian smear campaign.

additional rant below

It's sad how easily westerners are ready to eat up anti-ukrainian propaganda, even when it comes from people who sent their mercenaries to commit war crimes in Africa. Y'all really think russia is a reliable source to learn about racism? Really? Ukraine has a black politician, we were represented by black artists in Eurovision twice - by popular vote! - and in russia, people bully brands who use black models in their advertisement into withdrowing the ad and apologising for hurting the feelings of consumers. I know this comparison sounds pathetic, especially if you're from a country with large black population, but keep in mind that we didn't partake in the transantlantic slave trade route, and yet we still do better than russia which has thrice the population we do.

People who don't speak russian don't have a clue about how racist their society is. If you know those fringe internet guys who scream about culture war and throw tantrums about black disney mermaids - this is literally the status quo of russian culture. And THESE are the people westerners have decided to trust on their word in questions of racism?? Really?

No matter how many times we disprove those "ukrainians are racist because we didn't allow black people to evacuate burr burr" claims with facts, they still come up. The rebuttals were there immediately. Yet 2 years later, I still get lectured by usamerican tweens about how all ukrainians are racist by birthright because "i googled ukraine racism and a russia today article told me it was so"

#response #my friend couldn't evacuate her parents even though by law they had a right to leave because her dad is of draftable age #the dumb bureocracy hurts people indiscriminately

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agro-carnist · 1 year

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Now that I'm slightly less in the spotlight, I'd like to talk about what has been going on and give my side. I'm sure you've all seen what has been said about me, but in case you haven't, this will include a discussion about zoophilia, zoosadism, pedophilia, and taboo kink/fetish.

I've taken several days to write this because I needed to clear my head so I could write something concise. I did not want to immediately write something too quickly that I couldn't think through.

I don't expect anyone to completely understand me or totally agree with my opinions, but I am writing this with full sincerity. I'd just like a little bit of faith when you read this. My positions are based on the science that I read, and I try to be someone that sticks to the side of evidence, not one of pure feelings or assumptions or what we think is common sense, even when it is difficult to understand or seems counterintuitive. I've always preached this principle on here, so I hope you all feel the same way. I ask that you read this with that in mind. Even if you don't reach the same conclusion as me, consider what I say and what I give with good faith.

All linked sources with restricted access can be read by copy/pasting the url or title into sci-hub

First, that twitter account is mine. The art contained on the twitter account is mine. Yes it is graphic. No I am not a zoophile, zoosadist, or pedophile. I understand this kind of art is disgusting and/or disturbing to many people. That is why I kept it on an account specifically for this kind of extreme art. It is why I don't advertise it. I am not secretive about my kinks/fetishes - I enjoy things like gore, noncon, and animal characters - but I know when and where these kinds of things are appropriate. Some of my art is not meant for a general audience. I won't advertise it to anyone and everyone to see because it can be upsetting to most people. That's also why I give plenty of content warnings and include the twitter censor that blurs the image and you have to click 'show' on to see. And that's why I believe posting screenshots of this material with my username, showing everyone exactly where to go to find this content, is irresponsible. I know the people that posted it think they're doing a service, but this is how children find content they shouldn't see. Callouts are how people find things they otherwise would never see. I, personally, don't think calling people out this way helps kids. I think it does more harm than good. My twitter was public but is now private because I don't want curious minors to look me up and look at what is on the account.

I understand that it can be hard to know why someone would enjoy erotic art of violence between animal characters without being a zoophile/zoosadist. But there are many reasons people enjoy taboo erotica without desiring it in the real world. About half of people experience paraphilic sexual fantasies, and the fantasies alone are not indicative of pathology. Deviant sexual fantasies are, in fact, "within the normal realm of human experience." There is little evidence that fantasy alone means someone wants to or will commit a sexual offense. Forced sex fantasies are extremely common. Violent sexual fantasies are not abnormal. Sex therapists and educators acknowledge that fantasies are not necessarily repressed desires. Sexual fantasy is not sexual desire. It's ok for our sexual interests to not reflect our moral code. Often taboo sexual fantasies are a way to explore how we feel about things, like repulsion. Humans are curious animals. We have morbid curiosities. Fantasies can be a way to experience something that would be immoral to act upon.

Why I am into taboo kink is hard to explain, and a lot of it I don't understand myself - human minds are very complex - but I can try to explain some of it. I enjoy exploring the darker parts of humanity. We're still animals and that means we still hold onto aspects that don't align with our morals. We have morbid curiosities. When we pass by a car crash, we want to see it, or when someone tells us something disturbing is spreading on the internet, we take interest in what it could be. Art is a way to fulfill that curiosity without any victims. Another thing is that it can be fun or therapeutic to imagine yourself in situations of bodily harm. That's probably confusing, but I like to explore what my body looks like on the inside, or what it would feel like to experience certain physical traumas, without the threat of dying. Fear and arousal are closely intertwined. The animal characters I draw are also very far removed from real world animals. They are sapient and behave very human. To me the only difference between them and an anthro furry character is the number of legs they walk on and the lack of clothes.

Because I draw this kind of content, many people are claiming that I am faking having ZOCD and my intrusive thoughts, or that my intrusive thoughts have turned into wanted thoughts. They say that if I really was distressed by these thoughts, I wouldn't engage with them through art. But my intrusive thoughts are about real people and animals. I do not have intrusive thoughts about characters. I watch movies and read books with murder, kidnapping, torture, disease, and freak accidents and enjoy these pieces of media. This does not negate the fact that I have intrusive thoughts about these things or the distress I feel regarding them. Someone getting hurt in a movie does not distress me. My intrusive thoughts include ideas of me or a loved one getting hurt, or me suddenly hurting someone. Intrusive thoughts target your fears and your morals. They make you question who you are as a person. That's why thoughts of real world violence are so distressing and depictions of violence in media are (usually) not. I fear losing someone I love, I fear losing a part of my mind or body, I fear losing control of my humanity and hurting someone, I fear loss of inhibition that makes me do things I wouldn't otherwise do. I don't fear hurting a character or a character doing a bad thing to another character. When I'm obsessing and becoming paranoid it's not over things that happen in fictional worlds. My therapist doesn't have to reassure me that I'll be ok if something bad happens in that fictional world. She does have to reassure me that the world isn't out to get me and that I don't have to act on a thought. Others with OCD might find media that resembles the content of their intrusive thoughts triggering, and that's normal, but not everyone will react the same. Not everyone copes with their mental illnesses the same way or has the same triggers. Most violent depictions just don't garner that same reaction from me because I don't have any moral qualms with fake people or animals getting hurt since they aren't real victims. It doesn't attack my moral beliefs that way. It may be upsetting to see, but doesn't make me fear for my or others' safety.

I love horror movies and haunted houses. I love the adrenaline and fear I experience during them. But I still metaphorically shit my pants at the thought of an actual serial killer stalking me and jumping out of a hiding spot. The difference is that the former exists in a safe space that I can leave and where I know it's a script. How I feel about a scenario in fiction does not dictate how I feel about it happening in the real world. To tell me that I don't actually have the disorder that I've been diagnosed with is extremely upsetting. So is to tell me I'm hiding secret bloodthirsty desires behind a mental illness or that I'm making OCD look bad by not having a moral conundrum about fake people or animals being hurt. I especially don't appreciate people that don't have OCD preaching about what "real" intrusive thoughts are or what I should or should not be doing while having OCD. The things that have been said to or about me have been undeniably ableist. And the distress that has caused me has just been brushed aside because I don't adhere to what people think I as a person with OCD "should" act like. I feel like I'm not being granted agency over my own experiences.

I am even being compared to some of the worst people like Kero the wolf or HypnotistSappho. I hope you believe me when I say that is truly disgusting and offensive. These were the kinds of people that belonged to groups for sharing material of real animals being tortured for sexual pleasure, or tried to start an organization to promote bestiality, or openly promoted zoophilia and pedophilia as normal sexual orientations, or actively abused children and animals. I have not done anything like that. My artistic expression is nothing like their real world, extensive and widespread levels of abuse. I am so offended that I'd spend years spreading animal welfare advocacy, including explicitly anti-bestiality rhetoric, only to be lumped in with monsters, like my art erases all the work I've done. How someone could believe I actually desire to torture animals baffles me. How someone could think all this work was just master manipulation to con everyone so I could secretly abuse leaves my head spinning.

I also haven't ever claimed that my nsfw art is a coping mechanism for my OCD/intrusive thoughts. This is an assumption people have made. Occasionally elements of my intrusive thoughts will make their way into my art as a way to confront them head on on my own terms, but almost always are not a factor in my nsfw art. Art based on my intrusive thoughts as catharsis I don't share publicly.

Yes, I enjoy hurting fictional characters. They exist in a world with no consequences. Nobody actually gets hurt. Anything can happen to them and nothing about the world changes. I have no desire to hurt an animal, because that impacts the real world. I have never looked at an animal and felt excitement at the idea of hurting it. I have never felt attraction to an animal. I have never felt the urge to make sexual contact with an animal. I have never experienced attraction to a child, either.

I am also being accused of being a pedophile. This is because I made a tweet saying I enjoy explicitly abusive relationships between adult and minor characters, but don't enjoy minor/adult ships depicted as cute or wholesome. People interpret this as me having a malicious desire to abuse a child. But here's the thing: you don't know why someone enjoys a certain dynamic. Many people that like to see abusive relationships depicted in stories or erotica are survivors of abuse themselves. Many people use kink as a coping mechanism, and the stigma of their kink play often hinders them from trauma recovery. Like I said before, kink and fantasy are not morality guidebooks. This also assumes every character drawn in ship art or erotica is an object of attraction to those that create or consume it. But even porn can serve a purpose other than arousal. Personally I just like these dynamics because they offer a compelling story and/or character interactions that can explore trauma and its effects and can feel therapeutic to work through.

Art does not exist in a vacuum. I don't argue it does. Art is influenced by its creator. But you can't look at the content of someone's kink or fantasy to judge the quality of someone's character. This is the position of professionals that study and counsel people. Whether or not someone commits a sexual offense is more influenced by that person's personality traits, moral positions, pre-existing positive beliefs about offending, environment, and negative emotional states. And, look, fiction does indeed effect reality, but there is little evidence that porn encourages someone to offend or results in more violent offenses. Availability of porn may even be associated with lower levels of sexual aggression. This professional report goes into great detail on sexual offending and concludes that there is no reason "scientific or otherwise" for criminalization of any type of virtual porn because it does not lead to offending, and may even provide a substitute for people that may otherwise offend. Even if you find that content reprehensible. Offensive art has its place and deserves to exist. That is the position I have come to based on the scientific evidence.

And I want to make another thing clear: I am not a proshipper. Disliking the position of one group does not make me a member of a different group. I have no desire to put myself in a category, I just have my own opinions. I also have plenty of issues with the proship community. I just now look at fiction and kink with more nuance than I used to. I don't participate in fearmongering based on knee-jerk reactions to media anymore.

Going forward I'm going to do my best to be more responsible with my nsfw accounts. Any interactions I've made with minors are honest mistakes. I genuinely don't want to expose minors to my nsfw or interact with them. I don't go out seeking minors to talk to. But I know interacting with minors through an nsfw account is serious, so I'm going to do better to police myself and always check that no one I'm interacting with is underage.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. Sadly I expect many people won't read this, they'll just continue to repeat "zoophile" and "pedophile." But I really appreciate you if you took the time to read. I know many people really do want to be good and believe they are protecting people by engaging in callouts against people for their fictional interests. I think most people have their hearts in the right place but are misguided by the current culture. And I don't mind if you disagree with me, but I always want people to take their positions with the most information. I want there to be honest discussions about these topics, not naming and shaming people.

I might make updates to this post if I think of things I forgot to address. Like I said, it's been many days of my head buzzing and this post is also very long. I welcome any good faith questions or concerns. People that come just to attack in bad faith will just be blocked. I won't humor that. Please meet me with the same honesty I came with. I want to continue to do good.

-Agro

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marzipanandminutiae · 1 year

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U seem to know a bit abt corsets, and I’ve been wondering, what is the actual difference between like… day-to-day ones vs ones that are more Just For Fashion ? Are they built different or was it more of an advertising thing? Like when you see some ad like “oh this bra is DESIGNED for HIKING” and you try it and it’s basically a regular bra

I will not be able to cover all of them, because there were various Patents Georgs going around in the 19th century coming up with 10,000 new types of corsets per day, who were outliers adn should not be counted. You can find patents out there for designs that were almost certainly never actually sold, some with extreme and bizarre specificity. But more popular adaptations included:

corsets with less boning/differently placed boning/shorter boning/boning of allegedly more flexible materials. what you might call your standard corset of the 19th century was boned with flexible steel or baleen at many points throughout the garment, vertically, from the top edge (usually nipple-level) to the bottom (top of one's hips, in most decades; sometimes as low as mid-hip). some of these were aimed at women who did physical labor- bet Symington never realized their Pretty Housemaid model would take the corseted world of 2023 by storm, but here we are -and some were intended for various athletic pursuits

corsets with adaptations for hot weather. these were usually made of mesh between the boning channels, and quite popular for summer wear, or women living in hot climate

children's corsets. don't let the name scare you! these were almost invariably just vests with some cording or quilting to stiffen them, fastened in a way that made figure reduction or reshaping quite impossible. they were used for extra warmth and to encourage good posture

maternity corsets. while one could simply let out the lower part of one's normal corset to accomodate a pregnancy- and many women did -there also existed purpose-made corsets for the expectant mother. these generally featured laced or buttoned panels on the lower sides, that could be opened wider and wider as needed. (to answer the question of why women wouldn't just ditch their corsets during pregnancy, I refer you to Breasts and the Support Thereof For Comfort. also Multiple Skirt/Petticoat Waistbands and the Potential Digging Thereof Into One's Abdomen.)

men's corsets. often called "health belts" in the period, which is more helpful in actual primary source research on this topic than simply typing in "men's corsets." these were marketed along the order of weight belts today, aimed at men doing heavy physical labor, and looked very similar to those modern garments. however, it's well-known that some men quietly used them as shapewear instead.

I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of, but those are the main unusual corset sub-types that come to mind

#ask #anon #dress history #victorian #corsets #pregnancy mention

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is-the-owl-video-cute · 1 year

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here's the whole post if you want it. it's very predictable. Really love the "I'm not a proshipper!!" part. Agro, you're not getting any favors by lying lol. you are literally a proshipper and even say that directly on your pedo tweet about previously being an anti lmao.

--------------------

Agro-Carnist:

I've taken several days to write this because I needed to clear my head so I could write something concise. I did not want to immediately write something too quickly that I couldn't think through.

All linked sources with restricted access can be read by copy/pasting the url or title into sci-hub

-----------

Oh, and for that last study they linked? Here's the abstract:

Abstract

Whether pornography contributes to sexual aggression in real life has been the subject of dozens of studies over multiple decades. Nevertheless, scholars have not come to a consensus about whether effects are real. The current meta-analysis examined experimental, correlational, and population studies of the pornography/sexual aggression link dating back from the 1970s to the current time. Methodological weaknesses were very common in this field of research. Nonetheless, evidence did not suggest that nonviolent pornography was associated with sexual aggression. Evidence was particularly weak for longitudinal studies, suggesting an absence of long-term effects. Violent pornography was weakly correlated with sexual aggression, although the current evidence was unable to distinguish between a selection effect as compared to a socialization effect. Studies that employed more best practices tended to provide less evidence for relationships whereas studies with citation bias, an indication of researcher expectancy effects, tended to have higher effect sizes. Population studies suggested that increased availability of pornography is associated with reduced sexual aggression at the population level. More studies with improved practices and preregistration would be welcome.

------------

So even the abstract of the study itself admits almost everything was flawed.

It should also be noted the rest of this study is locked behind a paywall, so there's no way to tell exactly what kind of 'sexual agression' the Study was..... well, studying. But I sincerely doubt it was about the effects of pedo or zoo porn, let alone fucking snuff porn.

Oh, and for that "half of people have fantasies considered paraphillia" that study's Abstract mentions things like exhibitionism, voyerism, masochism, etc-- literally zero things about pedo and zoo shit.

And we all know they used that wording in their post to imply 50% of people think animals or kids are hot, because that's the first thing that comes to mind when people are discussing paraphillias, especially on a post defending creating fucking snuff porn of cats being tortured and raped to death.

It just really boils my blood to see people like this still having a following, the only thing he admitted to doing wrong was "i should never have interacted with minors on my nsfw account, and I will do a better job of policing myself in the future"

Which, even the wording on that statement was a way to gain symphathy lmao. "policing myself"???? Seriously?

Anyway, for anyone still unaware, this is Agro-Carnist aka Angrysnakes aka another Warrior Cat's themed blog I don't recall the name of.

the other warrior cat blog is minkpool.

But yeah this says more or less what I expected. Guy who claims to not be a proship uses every proship talking point and whines about antis anyway.

I’m going to be fully transparent and say that I am not inclined to read that entire thing because it is an incredibly long statement and the parts I did read weren’t anything I wasn’t expecting really.

He’s more or less just breaking it down to “just because I love sexualizing and masturbating to cartoon children and cats being raped to death doesn’t mean I’m sexualizing those in real life 🥺” which is just a bit hard to believe because, as I have said before, drawn pornography exists to satisfy fantasies that can’t or won’t be shown involving live actors but ultimately is made as a stand in.

Attracted to a fictional character? Well, the most accurate way to satisfy that is to find drawn or written fanmade porn because the cartoon character doesn’t exist and couldn’t film a porn shoot if they wanted to. Into something like vore or inflation? Well you can’t do those in real life, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t fantasizing about that happening in real life, it just isn’t possible, that’s what the drawings are there to emulate.

So when you’re drawing little kids in a sexual situation? What is the appeal going to be for most people?

It really isn’t much deeper than that.

#Agro-carnist #mainly posting for people who wanted to see his response #AND SO PEOPLE REALIZE YOU CAN PUT HYPERLINKS IN ASKS #and will hopefully not ask I do surgery on a link anymore amen

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beardedmrbean · 8 months

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You may not know it, but thousands of often shadowy companies routinely traffic in personal data you probably never agreed to share — everything from your real-time location information to private financial details. Even if you could identify these data brokers, there isn’t much you can do about their activities, including in California, which has some of the strongest digital privacy laws in the U.S.

That’s on the verge of changing. Both houses of the California state Legislature have passed the Delete Act, which would establish a “one stop shop” where individuals could order hundreds of data brokers registered in the state to delete their personal data — and to cease acquiring and selling it in the future — with a single request.

The Delete Act isn’t law yet. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom still has to decide whether to sign the measure, whose impact could potentially extend well beyond state lines given California’s history of setting similar trends.

Here’s what you need to know.

WHAT THE BILL DOES

While California law already gives individuals the right to request data deletion, doing so currently requires making separate requests to hundreds of data brokers registered in the state, many with their own unique requirements for drafting and handling such requests. Even then, nothing stops these companies from simply reacquiring the data after they delete it.

The Delete Act would require the state’s new privacy office, the California Privacy Protection Agency, to set up a website where consumers can verify their identity and then make a single request to delete their personal data held by data brokers and to opt out of future tracking. Proponents call it a “do not track” signal similar to the “do not call” list for telemarketers maintained by the Federal Trade Commission.

California already regulates data brokers, but the Delete Act would strengthen those provisions by requiring the companies to disclose more information about the data they collect on consumers and beefing up the state’s enforcement mechanisms.

MEET THE DATA BROKERS

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit focused on bolstering the right to privacy, defines data brokers as companies that collect and categorize personal information, usually to build profiles on millions of Americans that the companies can then rent, sell or use to provide services.

The data they collect, per EPIC, can include: “names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, gender, age, marital status, children, education, profession, income, political preferences, and cars and real estate owned.”

That is in addition to “information on an individual’s purchases, where they shop, and how they pay for their purchases,” plus “health information, the sites we visit online, and the advertisements we click on. And thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and wearables, data brokers collect and sell real-time location data.”

Privacy advocates have warned for years that location and seemingly non-specific personal data — often collected by advertisers and amassed and sold by brokers — can be used to identify individuals. They also charge that the data often isn’t well secured and that the brokers aren’t covered by laws that require the clear consent of the person being tracked. They have argued for both legal and technical protections so consumers can push back.

ARE DATA BROKERS THAT BAD?

Data brokers say they get a bad rap for serving a vital need.

Dan Smith, president of the Consumer Data Industry Association, which describes itself as “the voice of the consumer reporting industry,” called the Delete Act “severely flawed” and warned in a Wednesday release that the change could lead to unintended consequences by undermining consumer fraud protections, hurting the competitiveness of small businesses and entrenching big platforms such as Facebook and Google that collect vast amounts of consumer data but don’t sell it.

Smith also argued that the heart of the bill — the one-stop data deletion program — could potentially allow malicious outsiders to impersonate consumers and delete their data without permission. The organization also argues that the cost of the legislation will be much greater than California regulators currently suggest.

WHAT ABUSE OF DATA BROKER INFORMATION LOOKS LIKE

In other respects, though, the information collected by these companies can be startlingly easy to abuse. The general lack of U.S. restrictions on what brokers can do with the vast amount of data they collect means there’s aren’t many legal protections to prevent outsiders from spying on politicians, celebrities and just about anyone who is a target of idle curiosity, or malice.

In mid-2021, for instance, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced the resignation of its top administrative official, Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, ahead of a report by the Catholic news outlet The Pillar probing his private romantic life. The Pillar said it obtained “commercially available” location data from an unnamed vendor that was “correlated” to Burrill’s phone to determine he had visited gay bars and private residences while using Grindr, a dating app popular with gay people.

The Pillar alleged “serial sexual misconduct” by Burrill, as homosexual activity is considered sinful under Catholic doctrine and priests are expected to remain celibate. Following an extended leave, Burrill resumed his ministry in the small town of West Salem, Wisconsin, according to the Catholic News Service.

#nunyas news #broken clocks it looks like

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abybweisse · 2 years

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How do you headcanon undertaker and cloudia's relationship? you have pretty much convinced me about undertaker=cedric theory😂and if it turns out to be true it has to be the epitome of gothic romance

Cloudy x Undie

Idk that I have too many headcanons about their relationship, but I definitely have several ideas, many of which I have posted before. Maybe try the shipping tags at the bottom of this post to find some of those old posts?

However.

Over the years, I've come up with different approaches to their relationship, and I've changed some views regarding their personalities. I used to always see Undertaker as the goofball and Cloudia/Claudia as the no-nonsense sort. But Yana-san's old tweet about inheritance started to make me rethink things.

Now I see Cloudia/Claudia as the one full of laughter and even prankish jokes, which Vincent picks up from her... and Undertaker as once being very stoic and proper, which would have been picked up by Francis/Frances. After she dies, Undertaker adopts part of her personality, maybe as a coping mechanism. I'll get to that a bit more later.

Here are some canon-based ideas:

She's very willful, and she knows what he is and what dangers there would be to having his kids, but she's willing to take the chances. Even Vincent says, in the bonus chapter "With Father", that the Phantomhive women are strong-willed; so much so that even though he'd sometimes wished he'd had a daughter, he's kind of glad he didn't. I assume he's talking about both his sister and his mother.

She might even choose to have his kids as a big F U to the crown. Our earl says children aren't the tools of their parents, but this series shows us that's exactly how many parents in the series have been using their children. And Yana-san says everyone has a dark/evil streak, and the Phantomhives seem to have an even wider streak than most. So... Cloudia/Claudia might have wanted to have his kids, specifically his, because of their potential to... what? Take down the queen? Idk, but the various opportunities for using her own children are numerous.

But she'd also want to protect her children as much as possible, particularly while they are young, and that might include things like not advertising they are his, as well as keeping him at a slight distance from his own children. Making him seem like a visitor and friend of the family instead of their father. A bit like scenes we've had of him and the twin brothers; he acts like he's not related and doesn't want to step over familial boundaries (like in that photo scene), but he will do as Mr. Pitt says, for the sake of a good photograph. There, he's filling a role typically held by a family member or by a nanny. (I have an old post about child photography practices during the Victorian era.)

Then again, his children probably knew he was their father. Maybe not right away, but they found out, which is why Undertaker now teases "Lady Francis Phantomhive" about him recalling her birth like it was yesterday, and she's sweating. No one else in the room would know... unless Tanaka was also present. I expect Tanaka would know very well. Vincent and Francis/Frances grew up with Tanaka as their main caretaker, according to Yana-san's old tweet about dark/evil streaks. She even suggests that Tanaka must have quite the wide dark/evil streak, but then she zips-up... not wanting to spoil something about Tanaka....

What the pair were really like together is harder to say. Given my newer ideas about their personalities, she gave him something to smile and laugh about, while he tried his best to be a voice of reason and warning. That's backed up by the scenes where he's fiddling with the lockets and talking to himself about all the warnings he gave (presumably to the more recent generations of Phantomhives, at least). We've also seen him warning our earl (appropriately in ch13) about being "collared" by the queen (and that ring).

Likely, there were many times where the two of them had arguments, much like the brother and sister later, like the one shown in ch132. Vincent makes a serious statement but in a somewhat blasé fashion, prompting his sister to get angry and accuse him of always being this way.

I can imagine Undertaker giving Cloudia/Claudia a withering stare whenever she doesn't take something (like the queen/crown) seriously enough... if he's not whipping out his scythe much like Francis/Frances does her sword. Not like Undertaker would actually hurt her (just like Francis/Frances wouldn't actually hurt her brother), but it could be for show. Reminds me of ch142, when Undertaker does exactly that to show Othello he's done laughing and being deadly serious now.

After she dies, Undertaker "adopts" some of her personality, and it largely serves as a coping mechanism. Either her love of jokes completely brushed off on him... or his cinematic records have been altered! There are two ways I could see this latter case happening: 1. He was attacked by her cinematic records and they got to him, a bit like Thomas' cinematic records getting to William in the reaper OVA, or 2. It's on purpose; he managed to manipulate his own cinematic records with snippets of hers.

It could also be that he's simply craving jokes from others because she's not there anymore to provide them. Instead of "adopting" part of her personality, he might just feel like he's left with a hole to fill, and laughter fills it... but only briefly.

As far as how romantic they were with each other? I'll leave that to the cosplay and fanfic scenarios. It's fun to think about, and I've written some of those scenarios, but at this point I have no major ideas about it. Maybe he surprised her with futuristic gizmos... or whisked her away to foreign lands to soak up some sun and culture. Who knows?

But I suspect their relationship got strained, probably having to do with her role as queen's watchdog. Maybe her plans for their children in all of this. He might have decided to distance himself after a while, but then when she dies, he returns (beside himself with grief and regret) and offers to help Vincent. This would kind of parallel Cedric of Rotherwood disowning his son, Wilfred of Ivanhoe (whose mother is dead), for being loyal to King Richard... but they eventually reconcile.

I definitely think Undertaker would love to break the ties between the Phantomhive family and the crown. There's that scene in ch13, and he doesn't seem too pleased about real Ciel later saying (ch151) he will eventually have to present himself to the queen and fulfill his role as watchdog.

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electricalshamer · 7 months

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cheese-water · 1 year

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Alright, here we go.

Under the cut is the message I sent to YouTube about how the company handles flagging deemed “age restricted content” and the lack of transparency and communication given to content creators. Specifically, how they’ve treated RTGame. I am in no ways a expert and would not liked to be posed as such. I am simply someone exercising their thoughts and opinions on the matter and very aware of the slim likelihood of YouTube reading my feedback, let alone causing change. All I’m doing is sharing my emotions after three and a half hours of writing. And 1600 words later, it was sent.

TW: slight mentions of themes described in YouTube’s Age Restricted Filter (ie Gore, Predatory Behavior, Minors in sexual situations, etc.); hopelessness; slight derealization

Please enjoy my reaction.

Based on what has happened with RTGame, Daniel, and many other YouTubers, the rules and guidelines listed here do not fully encompass what YouTube considers "age-restricted content." I know for a fact that, through my own and others' experiences watching Daniel’s videos, he and the content he produces all fit within the guidelines listed out: nothing harmful or meant for adults that minors could easily imitate; not presenting 18+ content in a way that appeals and could be confused as children’s content; no harmful, realistic pranks that might be construed as real; no invitations to perform inappropriate, sexual dancing, fondling, or groping; nothing that contains provocative clothing or poses to arouse viewers; no images or videos of detailed, violent gore, such as injuries sustained from a car accident, as the central theme in videos; no overuse of profanities and vulgar language found in video titles, thumbnails, and the content itself, and not a single video where the content is simply swears and other profanity out of context.

I am fully aware that this does not fully encompass the policies you have set, but after thoroughly reading the guidelines found in the link, I’ve concluded that my point still stands by exemplifying his complicity with the themes displayed on the main page. This is unacceptable on your part. Why do I have to list out what a ludicrous decision it is to limit and age-restrict at least 12 of Daniel’s videos in the past 48 hours? Why, after repeated requests for contact and appeal, is Dan sent the exact same manual review response stating that a 3-hour video was in fact "not advertiser friendly" after receiving the request 10 minutes earlier? Why is this continuing to be a problem on YouTube? At this point, it’s just disappointing to see a site supposedly "built for creators" have their entire livelihoods ruined because of reasons they weren’t told about or weren't able to fix. In the last paragraph, "Check if your content is age-restricted," you state, "Our systems are constantly being updated, and if we find any discrepancies with your rating, there’s a chance it could change." Now why are YouTubers, who have managers in contact with them or even work at YouTube, only finding out about these changes after they have been stricken? Wouldn’t it make more sense for you, the company in charge, to communicate with creators about this fluctuating filter in order for them to avoid creating said "age-restricted content?" Most creators on the platform, including Daniel, do not want to advertise cannabis dispensaries or expose their viewers to gory imagery. I am able to say that with such conviction because of the amount of distress those YouTubers feel when they face an age restriction on a supposedly safe video. No one benefits, not the creators, the viewers, or even YouTube itself, when a video is flagged as 18+ without any warning, context, or possible reconsideration with your current way of operating.

Now, at this point, I could speculate that YouTube does indeed benefit from this due to the vague phrasing and information about the "constantly updated filter" in your systems, allowing you to excuse undeserved content being flagged under the guise of "newly added guidelines" and allowing you to keep all revenue generated from said video and not split it with the creator. However, that’s just baseless speculation from someone who has never experienced demonetization or age-restriction personally, and something I don’t believe. I am one for facts, not groundless conjecture, so instead, I’ll tell you two reasons why YouTube will not benefit from this lack of transparency with creators and how it’s on the road to failure.

As mentioned previously, I frequently watch and enjoy the content produced by Daniel, also known as RTGame, a full-time content creator. While for some reason he has been seemingly targeted with your way of age-restricting inappropriate content, including multiple past and oddly privatized videos on his channel, that is not why I bring up Dan once again. No, I would like to inform you of something he said merely a few months ago about YouTube. While this is purely verbatim, I have faith in YouTube’s team to find this quote in one of his videos on his channels if you don’t trust me, Daniel states his frustration and disappointment with Amazon, specifically Twitch’s handling of the payment split between Amazon and streamers and the change including the members of the Twitch Partner Program. I specifically recall Dan going as far as to say that if this was the direction Twitch would continue to head in, including streamers being forced to run advertisements in the middle of their streams, he was likely to leave the platform and join YouTube Gaming. He said that even after facing unwarranted 18+ flags on his content the year prior. To be more specific, exactly the year prior regarding the age restriction of "Best of 2021." How about that? I can’t speak for Daniel or anyone else who is facing this situation, but I can tell you objectively that when a direct competitor’s successful employee starts to grow tired and irritated at the competitor’s management and publicly states the likelihood of them moving to you, you better work your hardest to stay on their good side. Have you already fractured your chance with not only Daniel but many streamers on different platforms due to your public negligence and utter disregard for this man’s creations and, most importantly, livelihood? I don’t know. It all seems to depend on what you do next. You did this to yourself.

Now, why did I do this? Why have I gone and spent my time and effort illustrating my thoughts about restricted content while defending a man and a community to which I’m simply a stranger? Why have YouTube's actions, your actions, fueled me to type all this out, begging that there’s someone human on the other side of the computer breathing, reading out my thoughts instead of being sent to a spam filter, screaming out my lungs into this void, half of me knowing that this was a waste of time but the other half grasping on this false hope that by sending this, something, anything, will change? Why put myself through this? Because of the second reason:

Myself.

…or at least what I represent in the grand scheme of YouTube.

I, for all my life, wanted to be a YouTuber when I grew up. Nothing else—as much as I knew it was a slim possibility—was where I felt most comfortable (literally, I’m wearing YouTuber merch right now). I dreamed of the content I could create, the people I would meet, and, most importantly, my impact on others. That’s what drives me as a person—not money, fame, or even meeting my idols—the ability to change someone’s life for the better just through my passion. All of my life, I knew what I wanted to do; all I needed were the materials to create it. And after so long, I have them. Not just the material items, but the time, motivation, and mental health—everything I needed to hopefully be the force of creativity and positivity in others' lives that the content creators I watch are in mine. I was hoping to actually post in the next two weeks, with the beginning of 2023 and everything.

Then this happened.

Again and again and again and again and again and ag-

I could say that I’m not starting my channel out of protest, that it’s simply because you don’t deserve my creations until you respect others, and that it's purely to not lose potential monetary gains I would make based on what happened to others. I wish it were as simple as saying that this was the final straw, and I will never create videos for YouTube.

But while all are partially true, I am someone who values the facts. And truth be told, I’m scared.

Not only for what YouTube as a platform will become if mass, unjustified censorship of video becomes the norm, but also because I know what it feels like to have poured effort and passion into something and eventually getting the courage to allow the world to it, only for the rug to be pulled out from underneath you for reasons that are not unfamiliar yet go unexplained. I am scared that the minute I think I’m comfortable with being a YouTuber, I’ll get age-restricted, either wrongly or accidentally, and all I can do is sit and watch as my creations, born out of my want to inspire others like myself, are deemed unwatchable for little to no apparent reason, forever held hostage by the faceless god who gave me the tools I used to form them. So I’m not going to put myself in a position where I could get intensely hurt like others have. Not until that possibility is gone. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people like me who want to build and hone their craft through YouTube, and the only obstacle in our way is the company itself. Why would we want to join a site that treats its most popular creators unfairly from an outside perspective?

Change, improve, or at least try to quell the disappointment festering in your user base.

Please?

If not for some stranger, at least for RTGame.

Please, YouTube?

Anyone?

I spent so long trying to reach you; YouTube really has made me who I am today. I don’t want to stand idly by while they sabotage their own creators through a lack of meaningful communication when I could have done something, anything.

Please.

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coochiequeens · 2 years

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Well doesn’t this look a lot like grooming

A TikTok of a child being taught how to pole dance at a pride festival in Pennsylvania is going viral, with netizens expressing outrage at the latest in what has been a long year for child safeguarding violations.

The video, which has now been deleted by its original uploader on TikTok, was brought to attention by @libsoftiktok on Twitter on August 4. It features a young boy in a rainbow tulle skirt and bandana being taught by a shirtless adult man how to use a free-standing stripper pole that was set up near the Harrisburg Capitol building.

The video appears to have originally been posted to TikTok by the child’s parent, as the caption reads: “Central PA Pride has a pole set up with an amazing instructor to assist. My kiddo is a natural!”

The video, which has over 400,000 views on @libsoftiktok’s account as of this article’s writing, has sparked widespread concern as many called attention to the obvious inappropriate nature of pole dancing for children.

In a statement given to Reduxx, Jaimee Mitchell expressed outrage at the viral scene, calling modern Pride activities “oversexualized” and inappropriate for kids.

Mitchell is the founder of Gays Against Groomers, a grassroots coalition which describes itself as fighting against the sexualization and indoctrination of children.

“Is it really any wonder why acceptance of gays has declined drastically over the past few years?” Mitchell asks, referencing a 2019 study that showed LGBTQ acceptance amongst young people was taking a sharp downturn. “If gay rights ever do get rolled back, it will be because of people like this. It must stop. For the kids’ sake and ours.”

Mitchell acknowledges that Pride events have become less kid friendly in recent years, and encourages parents to be cautious about touting young ones to the events.

“We believe the way pride is now, overly sexualized and full of kink, is not an appropriate place for children and parents should not bring them there.”

On Twitter, the original @libsoftiktok upload prompted over 3,500 primarily furious replies from people expressing disbelief at the lack of safeguarding.

“Not sure who is more grotesque: the adults actively enabling and participating, or the parents who happily encourage their kids to not only attend these vulgar Pride carnivals, but debase themselves during the attendance,” user Brad R. Torgersen wrote in response to @libsoftiktok’s upload.

“This will be the next thing on the school curriculum, disused as ‘exercise’ and any concerned parents objecting to their kids being sexualized will be denounced as hateful bigots,” the Family Education Trust tweeted.

While the Trust’s comment was likely intended to be tongue-in-cheek, just last year a business in Indiana came under widespread scrutiny after it began advertising actual pole dancing classes for children.

On October 1, 2021, a graphic began to circulate across Twitter from an Indiana-based business promoting pole dancing classes for children.

Tiff’s Pole Fitness, located in Jasper, Indiana, is a fitness company offering “pole fitness” classes. According to a class schedule, some of the offerings have distinctly sexualized themes, including one titled “flirty flow.” But the small business’ troubles arose when netizens noticed some classes were being targeted specifically at minors.

Tiff’s had posted a graphic to it’s company Facebook which advertised pole fitness classes for children aged 7-12. The graphic featured artwork of a Disney Princess from the popular kid’s movie Tangled hanging off of a vertical pole.

After the advertisement began to circulate and many expressed outrage, the business, owned by Tiffany Huebner, quickly deleted the Facebook advertisement, and instead tried to offer some justification for the classes, insisting pole dancing was not inappropriate for minors.

“I know it’s going to take time for everyone to drop the stigma of ‘it’s a stripper pole’… ” she wrote, directing users to a video from Eastern Europe of an 11-year-old girl performing in a “sports pole” competition.

The attempt at damage control was not well received, and Tiffany deleted the entirety of her business’ Facebook page for a period of time.

But on October 8, details emerged adding a decidedly different element to the already bizarre story, with a criminal record check revealing Tiffany’s husband had a 2009 conviction for child sex offenses.

According to TruthFinder, Maxwell Garrett Huebner was charged on March 11, 2009 of sexual misconduct with a minor. According to the report, Huebner was convicted of an offense under Indiana Code 35-42-4-9 – a sexual offense against a minor less than 16 years of age. Huebner would have been approximately 21 years old when the offense was committed.

Maxwell and Tiffany were married in September 2019, according to a Dubois County Marriage License registry, just months after Maxwell’s 10-year term on the Indiana Sex And Violent Offender Registry would have ended. It is unknown if she was aware of his criminal history, or if he had any close involvement with the children’s classes.

In the last few years, pole dancing as a form of “fitness” aimed at children has become increasingly popular, with multiple businesses offering classes aimed specifically at minors.

While Tiff’s appears to have scrapped their kids classes since the fallout, a recent article by Dance Biblesrecommended pole dancing for children as a type of exercise to improve “strength, flexibility, and technique.”

The article writes: “Providing your child with the opportunity to learn pole dancing can be a fun way to help them build their self-esteem,” with photos supplied showing extremely young girls engaged in various pole dancing poses.

#Stop sexualizing kids

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localplaguenurse · 10 months

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What was the most out of pocket thing you had to google for a fic?

Mine was “do eye balls bounce”

The answer is yes btw but not a lot eyeballs bounce a little

So I have an oc named Victor, he’s from this original story I’ve had floating in my head for like the past six years? It’s this whole super hero conspiracy story, it’s bounced around a lot over the years but the main thing is he knows a lot about poison and his love interest’s face exploded at some point.

Over the years the things I have looked up include what plants are poisonous to people, how poisonous are they, and what they taste like. I legitimately did research on Jerusalem cherries and what they taste like because I had him making a tomato sauce with cherry tomatoes and wanted to know if Jerusalem cherries taste like cherry tomatoes (they do) and if they’re deadly (only to animals). There also deadly nightshade which 1-2 berries can kill kids and then 10-20 can take out an adult, he was making poisoned jam.

Also did research on rat poison, what the goo inside eyes are, what blister goo is, and a lot of the worldbuilding revolves around medicine and more specifically, thalidomide. Thalidomide was advertised as a pregnancy medication originally in Germany to reduce morning sickness and other symptoms but was extremely detrimental to the fetuses. Many of the children were born missing limbs or otherwise deformed. It almost made its way into the states but a doctor by the name Francis Kelsey was concerned with the lack of evidence that it was safe for developing fetuses so she repeatedly denied approving the drug, and then it came out that no the FUCK it is not good. She got an award for it from John F. Kennedy.

As for actual fics, eh... not yet? Nothing totally out of pocket I don’t think. I think the only stuff would be making sure ginkgo trees was at least somewhat historically/culturally accurate, but that’s less out of pocket and more just trying to be respectful and perfect y’know.

#ask #ivy!#I like really morbid things okay #and this was all I could remember off the top of my head #I know I probably googled more unhinged things but this is all I can think of as I’m not digging through my browser history tbh

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itzyty · 1 year

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Arceno_COM01_PT6

youtube

Video no. 1: "Fita Sports Car: Balikan Ang Sarap" by Fita

I chose this advertisement because it is nostalgic to me. The advertisement is all about a snack in the Philippines called Fita. It is a type of cracker that has nine pieces that has a circular shape to it. Fita crackers were created by the company Monde M.Y. San on the year 1935. The Fita crackers were their flagship brand, along with SkyFlakes crackers (Chew, 2018). The excellent afternoon snack, Fita, is well-known and adored by Filipinos for its wonderfully balanced sweet and salty flavor. The intended audience of this ad is comprised of people, specifically people of all ages. Additionally, Fita is very popular amongst children since it is a delicious snack. Because it is a food product, the advertisement is suitable for the audience since it is about replenishing nourishment. However, it can have some adverse effects, specifically on children. Early in their development, children are in the "pre-cognition" phase of their cognitive defense, which makes it unlikely that they will question the morality and purpose of advertising efforts (Smith et al., 2019). This can lead to a child having mental and physical development problems (Cordeiro, 2021). The ad shown here does not have any forms of Media Manipulation. The ad captured the audience's attention because of how catchy and nostalgic the ad is. This advertisement uses nostalgia to capture the viewers' attention because it affects their emotions and memories. Nostalgia marketing creates a positive, emotional sense by using well-known notions to associate a company with something for which customers have pleasant memories. To evoke memories of the past in their interactions with clients, several brands employ a strategy known as nostalgia marketing (Clark, 2023). This was present in the Fita ad because the featured ad had a similar structure in 2003, according to the youtube comments in the youtube video of the ad. There are several ways to employ nostalgia marketing, including through music and film.

youtube

Video no. 2: "Hungry Days" (1 - 4) by Nissin

Since I watched One Piece, this advertisement sparked my interest. The advertisement is about a famous food brand in Japan called Nissin. The ad comprised a cup noodle branded Nissin. The top brand of cup-shaped instant noodles in Japan is Cup Noodle, which was introduced in 1971. It is currently popular in 100 different nations and areas. Cup Noodles are one of the best foods you can eat at lunch and dinner. This ad's intended audience is people, specifically people of all ages, because it is about consuming food to regain sustenance. The advertisement showed the product Nissin Cup Noodles, a food product that is good for the targeted audience since the ad does not show harmful and explicit content. However, cup noodles are only sometimes healthy. Although low in calories, cup noodles also lack protein and fiber. They are also infamous for having high sodium, fat, and carbohydrate content (Swan, 2021). Since this ad features the anime "One Piece," the form of Media Manipulation it uses is celebrity endorsement. Many businesses have recognized the commercial prospects that anime characters represent for them as more and more people continue to watch and appreciate anime. As a result of this discovery, anime characters are appearing in an increasing number of Japanese advertisements nowadays (Kono, 2022). Like for this instance, the ad featured the anime One Piece.

References:

MondeMySan. (2020). Fita Sports Car: Balikan Ang Sarap!. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GWV-hsNXQs

Game Player Link. (2020). One piece x Nissin Hungry days All Commercial 1 - 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO5H_5HgDhk

Chew, M. (2018). Monde M.Y. San: Taste of Success -. Balikbayan Magazine. https://balikbayanmagazine.com/travel/wine-dine/taste-buds/monde-m-y-san-taste-of-success/

Smith, R., Kelly, B., Yeatman, H., & Boyland, E. (2019). Food Marketing Influences Children's Attitudes, Preferences and Consumption: A Systematic Critical Review. Nutrients, 11(4), 875. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11040875

Cordeiro, V. C. (2021). Understanding the Impact of Food Advertising on Childhood Obesity. Humanium. https://www.humanium.org/en/understanding-the-impact-of-food-advertising-on-childhood-obesity/

Clark, S. (2023). Nostalgic Ads Can Reel 'Em In. CMSWire. https://www.cmswire.com/digital-marketing/what-you-should-know-about-nostalgia-marketing/

Nissin Group. (n.d.) Brands. https://www.nissin.com/en_jp/brands/

Swan, J. (2021). How Bad are Instant Noodles for Your Health? Parkway East Hospital. https://www.parkwayeast.com.sg/health-plus/article/instant-noodles-health-impact#:~:text=A%20vast%20majority%20of%20instant,%2C%20vitamin%20B12%2C%20and%20more.

Kono, K. (2022, June 29). Anime In Japanese Advertising - 4 Impactful Examples. Tokyoesque. Retrieved April 20, 2023, from https://tokyoesque.com/anime-in-japanese-advertising-4-impactful-examples/

#Youtube

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surrogacyagencykenya · 1 year

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Surrogacy in China: Seeking out the other available options is always a good idea!

Surrogacy in China is trickier that it looks from outside. While many agencies and entities are carrying out surrogacy program in the country, the practice is banned as per the recent surrogacy laws in china.

So, regardless of whether you are looking for single parent surrogacy in china or gay surrogacy in china, you may have to look for alternate destinations in the same regards.

What does surrogacy laws in China says?

The Ministry of Health put through the Procedures on the Administration of Human Assisted Reproductive Technology in August 2001 in light of the requirement for medical assistance during the surrogacy procedure. This is where Article 22 clearly outlines the penalties, which include a warning and a 30,000 RMB fine from the provincial health authorities for any health institution involved in surrogacy ( be it single parent surrogacy in china or gay surrogacy in china) .

Moreover, the sale of gametes, zygotes, and embryos is specifically prohibited by Article 3 of this regulation, and neither medical professionals nor institutions are permitted to use surrogate technology in any way.

The Ministry of Health also released four additional regulations in 2001 to further support the government’s staunch opposition to anti-abortion laws. These laws, despite being updated in 2003, support the view that surrogacy in china and other related practices are outright forbidden in the country, including inducing ovulation to produce multiple births and providing eggs for sale. However, local laws cannot be applied to those who pay for surrogacy services outside of China (i.e., outside of the country).

Surrogacy in china : Where to go next?

While surrogacy is completely banned in china, you can certainly look forward to other nations. While surrogacy may come at a cost in most of these countries, there are certain options like surrogacy in Kenya that offers affordable surrogacy programs to all.

Surrogacy in USA

Surrogacy in the United States is regarded as the best in the world for a number of important reasons. Access to the best fertility specialists is a big plus, even though the quality of medical care is unmatched. A surrogacy program is also open to anyone, regardless of gender, race, or religion.

Surrogacy in the USA has only one disadvantage: it is more expensive, with costs ranging from $150000 to $250000. Still, given the quality of service and satisfaction you are getting in return, the same shouldn’t pose a significant problem, though.

Surrogacy in Australia

Australia is another popular option for couples and single people looking for surrogacy. That said, you should be aware that only altruistic surrogacy is permitted in Australia, and even this is subject to regional laws and regulations. On the other hand, it is prohibited for Australian couples looking for surrogate mothers to use any form of advertising or marketing.

Additionally, using any sort of surrogate matching, sperm and egg donation, or similar services is prohibited. Therefore, if you want to pursue surrogacy in Australia, it is absolutely essential that you work with a reputable surrogacy clinic. Having said that, a surrogacy program in Australia would cost you $50,000 to $60,000.

Surrogacy in Canada

If you want to have children via surrogacy and money isn’t a major concern, surrogacy in Canada is strongly advised. In addition to having excellent medical facilities, the nation is home to some of the best IVF specialists. A surrogacy would also cost between $90,000 and $1,000,000 in Canada.

Consequently, we can draw the conclusion that choosing a surrogacy program in Canada is far more advantageous and hassle-free than utilizing a risky surrogacy plan with a low surrogacy cost in China. Again, intended parents should be aware that the Canadian surrogate mother waiting list is a little bit longer than usual.

Therefore, it is highly advised to connect with a reputable Canadian surrogacy agency that is familiar with the business from top to bottom.

Surrogacy in Kenya

If you want to realize your child-seeking dreams on a budget, surrogacy in Kenya is without a doubt your best option. Furthermore, you can rely on the country’s reputable, excellent, and affordable surrogacy programs as well as its state-of-the-art medical facilities.

The main benefit of this program is that anyone can take part, regardless of their gender, caste, or religion. In addition, depending on the specifics of the procedure and other significant factors, the cost of a surrogacy in Kenya can range from $40,000 to $50,000.

Surrogacy in Ukraine

Even though the country is in a war like situation with the neighbor Russia, Ukraine is still the most popular surrogacy destinations. Additionally, intended parents must be aware that in this region of the world, only heterosexual couples are allowed to use surrogates. Furthermore, since Ukraine is home to some of the best medical professionals and facilities in the world, you won’t need to worry about the caliber of IVF care you’ll get during your particular surrogacy process.

On the other hand, it is also estimated that a surrogacy program in Ukraine would cost between $45,000 and $50,000. You must, however, continue with your surrogacy plans despite the fact that the nation is presently engaged in a warlike situation with its neighbor, Russia.

Final words

Despite the fact that surrogacy is illegal in China, you are still able to visit the other nations mentioned above to fulfill your parenthood dreams. Additionally, it is always advised to get in touch with the top surrogacy agency to make it all easier and convenient. By doing so, you can be sure that your surrogacy journey will be well-supported and assisted all along.

Source: https://kenyasurrogacy.wordpress.com/2023/04/18/surrogacy-in-china-seeking-out-the-other-available-options-is-always-a-good-idea/

#Surrogacy in China #Surrogacy for singles in China #surrogate mother in China

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