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chellyfishing · 4 months

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apparently i have read seven books already this year, mostly because i have been too tired to do basically anything else (plus january is typically a strong reading month for me, for whatever reason). anyway that sounds like a little more than it is, since two were finishing up my locked tomb reread and two were under 100 pages (poems and essays by mary oliver and, uh, bunnicula, which i read while lying in the tub at 4 am trying to manage pain). the first non-locked tomb book i read was a far wilder magic, which is actually a book i have a LOT of thoughts on that i might get into eventually (still loved it tho! love allison saft’s prose!!) but mostly i wanted to tell you about the two romcoms i read!

i’m really so pleased with both of these books because they are apparently the first romance books i’ve ever given 5/5 stars too (unless you count kings rising, but that’s literally the only other one). i did notice that both of these are ya, which means there’s no sex in either, not even a fade to black, it just doesn’t happen over the course of the story, and i genuinely don’t know if that played a role. i kinda don’t think it did, bc my next-favorite romance book, all the feels, does have graphic sex scenes, but the reason i rated it a little below 5 had more to do with some of the writing choices in other places. SO i dunno! just something to ponder. onto the books!

the first is highly suspicious and unfairly cute by talia hibbert. this is actually my first talia hibbert, who has written a bunch of really well-loved adult romances. i’m looking forward to reading more from here because i loved her writing! it’s so full of charm and personality and literal lols. it doesn’t get boring because the narrative voice(s) are so engaging. the characters are so good in this. the main male character, brad, is also important to me because he’s very casually bisexual and also has OCD (i don’t have OCD but i have fifty other anxiety disorders in a trenchcoat and am somewhat OCD-adjacent, so a lot of his worries and intrusive thoughts really hit!). and our female lead, celine, is a fat girl, but that never ever ever comes up as a pejorative. brad constantly remarks on how beautiful she is and celine herself has a frankly enviable amount of self-confidence. and of course, both of them are black, as seen on the cover. this book truly is unfairly cute. i was rooting for the couple but i was also rooting for all the little friendships they made along the way. just a really good time.

the second one was the borrow-a-boyfriend club by page powars. this book is very ouran-coded, in that our main boy sort of accidentally joins what it is not called but very clearly is a high school host club. the boys are even sorted by Type with a capital T. more importantly this book is the purest definition of trans and queer joy. our boy noah is doing his best to “prove” he’s a boy at his new school to avoid all the little “accidents” and “slip-ups” that drove him from his last school, and it is sad to see him struggle to feel confident in his identity, but the more he’s affirmed the more his joy comes through. he’s got a very dogged personality that is so endearing. genuinely just a very lovable main character to follow. i would have liked to get to know the other characters in the club a little more but this is a pretty short book (under 300 pages) and i feel like for the length of the book we actually do get a pretty good amount of them. and they were lovable too! every time they were nice to noah and he became more embedded in this little friend group/family the happier i felt. our love interest is an absolute disaster but it was in such a quintessentially teenage boy way, especially given his upbringing. such a fun, funny (so many more literal lols) little story about male friendship and queerness and transness and boys and happiness. honestly if “ouran but in ann arbor and haruhi is actually a trans boy” sounds like a good time, do not hesitate!!

#deep thoughts #i had the biggest grin reading both of these!!#i want all of these kids to be happy!!!

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padfootastic · 2 years

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Do you think fandom can be sexist towards female characters?

I see the Jegulus fandom wanting to write Lily completely out of the picture and wolfstar people generally hate Tonks.

oof. i have…a very rambly, very long answer to this bc i don’t think it’s a simple yes/no so i’ll put this under a cut for people to skip if they wanna, yeah?

so, straight off the bat, im not a fan of using pejorative labels for writers in general but particularly for fanfic authors. for one, we don’t know who’s writing behind the screen + what their motivations/inspirations/intentions are. two, everyone writes for a different reason. perhaps someone is venting, or projecting, or using it as a therapeutic release; often it’s lifted straight out of their own life. so i try not to judge the text in front of me based on stuff like that. (this leeway could also be because i used to read a lot of bashing fics where the majority of them are women, i think, and often with the flimsiest, most irrelevant reasons that are straight out of the Sexism Handbook of Traditional Patriarchy too so maybe i just started rationalising it for myself? idk)

second, i think it’s pretty well known that the majority of fandom is some combination of women/queer/neurodivergent/POC etc etc. so applying the lens of ‘critiquing mainstream media produced by cishet men’ doesn’t…really work here, i don’t think. the way we would analyse sexism in say, marvel or disney won’t (shouldn’t?) be the same as how we do it for fandom imo.

that being said, it’s still entirely possible for certain ‘problematic’ tropes/ideas to be prolific, right? this is where the sexism u mentioned comes in. i prefer to use symptomatic language here so saying ‘xyz has sexist/x-phobic elements’ instead of an absolute ‘the work/author is sexist/x-phobic’ because i don’t think the latter is either useful or accurate. when it comes to this, there’s one really important thing i look for here. is the author aware of what they’re writing? (which is a whole other issue tbh, complete w why i feel more comfortable around darkfic authors but let’s not go there rn lol) because a lot of the authors who write out lily or tonks in these ships do so knowingly bc it’s the only way for their plot to exist/evolve. sure, you can have an amicable resolution but will it provide the conflict u need? will it make for good entertainment? will it lead to 3D characters?

stories often need an antagonist and is it unfortunate that women often end up filling the role? sure. absolutely. i’d argue that one of the reasons we have so many mlm ships compared to wlw is because of mainstream media giving us better written men more often than not. and i think it’s totally fine to feel angry/frustrated/upset about that, especially when it carries over into fandom which is supposed to be a fun, inclusive, safe space. i get really frustrated at a lot of wolfstar discourse that entirely ignores the possibility of bisexuality. the vehement insistence that that a certain character can’t be with a woman bc they’re queer, for example, rubs me the wrong way and i think what you’re mentioning is something similar too. but, i always stop myself from assuming malicious intent on the author/fic’s part bc just because they write/believe something in fiction doesn’t make it true, ykno? and i can always step back and go look for something else that’s more to my liking.

and i think every creator would have something like this in their works tbh. i certainly do. i know for a fact that the way i’ve written lily in shovel talk and the patronus fic isn’t exactly favourable to her—even though i’ve tried to be neutral, she has definitely come out looking worse than the others and i admit that that’s on me. i wanted a certain dynamic & characterisation for james & sirius and this was the way to achieve it. people are allowed to dislike that. but they must also acknowledge that i’m allowed to write her that way.

i think, more often than not, we end up looking at this in simplistic binaries. ‘i like this -> good -> allowed to exist’ or ‘i don’t like this -> bad -> shouldn’t exist.’ i’m…not a fan of that. my opinion is we should advocate for more mindfulness within our writing but allowing writers to craft their stories the way they want (bc ultimately fic is supposed to simple and fun and not something you agonise over). and this is all interlinked, right? because the moment we say ‘ok. this might be portraying women in an icky manner, i don’t like it but the author can do that bc it’s a piece of fiction’ then u open the gates for more responsible reading & writing. authors would feel comfortable tagging their works with this, they can discuss it openly w/o being worried about reproach or ‘being cancelled’ and readers can make a more informed decision. but if you go in guns blazing with ‘ugh this fandom is so sexist, look at how it’s treating its women’ then you’ve pretty much killed all possibility for dialogue and improvement and that’s not helping anyone.

this kind of also ties in with my previous point about having differing standards for mainstream vs niche mediums of art. fanfiction authors are often, ironically enough, held to higher standards than published/paid creators which is interesting bc u can argue that their work doesn’t even have the kind of social impact that mainstream media does.

anyway. i’ve gone off on enough tangents here lol but i think i’ll end it with this: yes, women definitely come off worse in certain spaces, especially when they have to compete with mlm ships but i think that’s a conscious decision that authors take within the bounds of the material they have. as long as they are conscious of the fact/acknowledge it, i think likening it to sexism isn’t fair because u can’t have a story without plot devices, uncomfortable as they might be. if you see a pattern in someone’s stories of women being constantly shunted aside negatively, then i think u can take note of it and avoid it. maybe have a conversation with the author if they’re willing to talk about their creative choices. i feel like that’s the most u can do when it comes to online writing where u have no idea who’s on the other side of the screen.

#fandom wank #just in case #i’ve actually thought about this a lot tbh #partly bc of my own reading habits (present + past)#partly bc it crops up as ‘discourse’ far too often for my peace of mind #and i tend to stay out of it bc i don’t like the way in which unfolds #it feels too cult-like for me most of the time #and everything is always taken in bad faith #but yeah. it doesn’t mean i don’t have Thoughts™️ on it #(when do i not lol)#i hope ive managed to explain things decently here?#if there’s anything that’s…off then hey dialogue is always welcome #as long as everyone treats it in good faith and doesn’t attack anyone personally #i edited this 3 times to cut down on useless stuff and i still feel like i’m just rambling aimlessly here smh #not having an absolute answer was a deliberate choice and not me waffling about #bc i don’t think u can just narrow it down to a yes or no #but that’s just me #i know some people have stronger opinions on either side #which is totally valid tbh #it’s everyone’s individual experience that forms their view #and mine caused me to arrive at this #i can also acknowledge i’m often in a headspace to be able to take this sort of neutral/good faith approach #bc i don’t rly have triggers or squicks #that’s not the case for everyone so some would feel more strongly about this #so having a variety of opinions comes in handy here #pen’s asks

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rahleeyah · 3 years

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A common criticism of SVU of late has been this idea of “Saint Olivia” and how she seemingly can do no wrong and has a moral superiority that puts her above the law at times. What are your thoughts? Because off the top of my head it does seem like something we see a lot more of in 2.0 and I don’t think it’s actually a completely off the mark take.

This is a really interesting question.

2.0 for like a season or two there really focuses on Liv wrestling with the idea of the law vs her own concept of justice. They put impossible, Solomon and the baby type choices in front of her and force her to choose and pick apart why she did what she does and how it makes her feel and how it hurts her. They spend a lot of time on the humanity behind the choices, showing us that sometimes her hands are tied even when she wishes like hell they weren't.

I get a little bit defensive when I hear "Saint Olivia" as a pejorative; Liv is not perfect and the show doesn't want us to think she is. She struggles with decisions. Sometimes she chooses to uphold the law, sometimes she doesn't. I went into this a little bit in You Said I Killed You; she spirits Avery Jordan away but she won't let Alex hide Jules Hunter. But she isn't being self-righteous with Alex, and she isn't ignoring the fact that she's done this before; the cases are different, bc if she lets Jules go a man will sit in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Yes, he's a bad man and he does bad things afterwards but do we really want to support a cop character who lets a man be imprisoned on murder charges when she knows he didn't kill anyone, just bc she knows he's a bad dude? Do we want vigilante justice, really? Maybe we do but maybe we shouldn't, and maybe that's moralizing but that's a serious philosophical question that maybe we should grapple with. Who do we want our heroes to be, really?

Liv isn't perfect, but she has so much experience. Liv is a Captain now. She's taken the tests, she's aced them, she's faced every kind of criminal in every kind of case, she's seen it all play out in every possible way it could play out, and so that means when she's dealing with the younger squad members yeah she's gonna overrule them and she's gonna be right more often than she's wrong and it's not bc she's a Mary Sue and it's not bc she's self righteous it's bc she knows exactly what the fuck she's talking about. She has earned the right to make these judgement calls and be trusted with them.

#anonymous

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parkeraul · 5 years

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Omg! Your “cancer Mars is screaming.” comment has me has me dying. Lol! You seem to really in Astro and obviously Shawn. I know a little about Astrology but not enough to be confident. How would you describe Shawn based off his chart. ( I’m the same non that asked about his Sagittarius rising and wished we knew his birth time, bye)

i study astrology during my free time since 2017 so i know a few things

like, from what i remember, shawn has the following positions:

leo sun

aquarius moon

mars in cancer

venus in cancer

jupiter in pisces

saturn in taurus

we have some trouble, ngl, because shawn has a sun sign that’s opposite to his moon sign BUT, since i don’t have his ascendant, i can’t say that his sun and moon are making an opposition (if they do, there might be a few issues but let’s talk about the things we have).

if u wanna know about shawn’s chart, click read more bc i’m gonna talk my capricorn ass off.

leo sun: we know how this shit works mostly, right? a leo sun is an amazing characteristic (because the sun rules over leo just like all the other planets rule a specific sign | which means that leo gives the sun the right requirements - sun is about your character overall, your identity and your ego). i don’t know the house (which applies a HUGE influency) so i can only assume that shawn acts like a regular leo: cares about the way he looks (not only apparently speaking), wants to stand out from the crowd by doing his thing as perfectly as he can, uniqueness and ego is a thing.

BUT that’s where his leo sun gets broken by his amount of water signs (cancer/pisces) and his aquarius moon, the sign that makes opposition with leo. see, the ego in leo isn’t about selfishness in a pejorative way (unless we’ve got another aspect that leads to it) — is about putting yourself first and in this case, it’s a big internal fight for shawn. the moon talks about your feelings, your emotions and aquarius is on it: very confident with his own ideas, believing in himself no matter what. keep that in mind, i’m gonna get back to this. and we’ve got in here someone who makes friends very easily and surely stands out from the rest, making a strong first impression — but there��s this battle me (leo) x what the world thinks (aquarius). oh, and quick note about moon in male charts: in all charts, moon talks about your relationship with your mom and, in male charts specifically, it talks about the woman he sees as an ideal pair. REMINDER: ASTROLOGY IS SYMBOLISTIC — nothing about it is a fact, these are tendencies. so yeah, probably something “perfect” for shawn is someone whose characteristics match with the aquarius sign characteristics. don’t get attached to this, the only way to see if charts match is doing a synastry chart between both maps.

cancer mars is a terrible position (in my opinion) to a leo sun extremely workaholic. see, mars rules aries & scorpio and gets exalted in capricorn — which means that if you’ve got mars in libra (aries’ opposite); taurus (scorpio’s opposite) or cancer (capricorn’s opposite), you’re not delivering mars the energy it asks for. mars is about the way you fight for your goals, your vital energy and in male charts it’s about sex also. so, that way, we see in here a mars that’s VERY emotionally sensible — this way, the planet can’t focus on going after his objectives rationally, the feelings kick in and makes shawn act following his heart, whatever he’s feeling at the moment. which can be an impulsive mars, sometimes, because it can rely more than recommended on the current mood. we can see by the way he writes and had been writing surprisingly honest. and, not to forget the sex, shawn’s probably the guy who gets even more excited about it if it’s with someone he loves — so like this he’s not only loving body parts, he’s immersed and completely involved with EVERYTHING the person has.

cancer venus! venus is about romantic relationships so, even though the sun is in a more playful sign (like gemini, sagittarius and leo), it’s a venus that is definitely sensitive. he shows how much he loves you by the way he cares about you — so he might probably pay attention to ALL the details (how you’re feeling, noticing easily when you’re acting differently, listening to each and every word and watching each and every move) because the tendency is that he goes for a moody relationship and SURE a serious relationship is something that he wants more than fool around only. venting sentiments, making him sure about what you feel is something that feeds this venus CRAZILY — go with all your heart, rationalizing or being impersonal is something off the list.

quick note: people with lots of cancer in their charts tend to be the person who makes terrible jokes (like that old uncle of yours, joking about the same “funny” thing every xmas dinner? yup)

pisces jupiter: remember the being confident + believing himself part? here enters the most amazing thing. jupiter’s about your personal growth and in pisces, it means that the person pictures the goals more than actually doing it. in other words, shawn’s a person who daydreams a lot about the things he wants and it’s all in his head. so, his personal development comes from his dreams. ISN’T IT AMAZING? he’s got the power of a leo sun — that demands attitude, with the depth of a cancer mars & venus — talking about what crosses him the most: emotions, and coming to realize his dreams by a jupiter that matches with his dreamily desires.

taurus saturn: here comes stubborn shawn. saturn in taurus mostly throws a tendency to self-judgement and it’s anything but gentle. he’s probably someone who’s becoming more serious to his responsabilities (specially household things). and a quick curiosity: saturn in taurus is a very good professor/teacher (shoutout to taurus’ patience) and is someone very loyal (adding to the leo sun then... oof. loyalty-_-rihanna.mp3)

this is very confusing because i don’t have his birth time to get the rising but i hope this helped

#asked #mine #anon

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playunderground · 4 years

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Introducing OVERSOUL: An Interview with Derrick Saladino

Last month, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Derrick Saladino to talk about his brand, OVERSOUL. When he pitched OVERSOUL to me in his initial email, he described it as “a lifestyle brand created from identity crisis,” and that “counterculture/subcultures like anime, gamer, emo-punk, euro-techno, and underground hiphop/b-boy culture heavily influence the brand’s creative direction.” I stared hard at the first two influences, and then stared not-as-hard at the rest of the influences, wondering how these various subcultures could overlap.

My brain being comprised of worms and dirt, I assumed that the anime and gamer influences meant that the designs were going to look like Bart Drinking Lean or Sasuke Wearing Supreme. (In other words, a caricature of anime-inspired Instagram ad streetwear.) This assumption changed quickly after taking a look at OVERSOUL’s site. Their first collection, ISEKAI, is comprised of three pieces. The logo tee and hoodie both look great, but the third piece was what really caught my attention: it’s a button-down tee adorned with daggers. At a glance, it looks nothing like anime- or gaming-inspired clothing. This was the point at which I snapped out of my irony-poisoned haze; the world of memeified, ironic-but-not-quite-ironic hentai tees and Goku Smoking Weed edits had calcified my expectations of what forms of inspiration a brand could and couldn’t pull.

It makes sense in the context of the rest of his influences and the ethos that he operates under – to get ahead of myself for a second, Derrick had this to say of his interest in various countercultures:

"When people express their passions or life to a certain degree, it just pulls me in. It’s like, ‘Okay, I don’t know what the fuck it is, but show me. Let me indulge.’ That’s really how I get into things."

In talking to Derrick, on and off the record, I saw a talented designer who was unapologetic about what he was interested in and passionate about. He’s also a huge geek that runs a bi-weekly Smash tournament at a local nightclub.

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

"Okay, wait, first and foremost, my name is Derrick Saladino and I am a fucking gamer. Before being a designer or anything, I am a fucking gamer. "

Daniel: What is OVERSOUL?

Derrick: OVERSOUL is about identity crisis. It’s my experience dealing with that personally. Growing up, I never really fit in to particular popular groups. Every time I would attempt to make new friends, I would stumble upon the randomest shit: anime culture, gamer culture, I’d end up becoming friends with a lot of emo-punk kids, techno. Nothing that I fell into was mainstream, popular culture. It was a lot to do with being lonely and trying to make friends. With OVERSOUL, thinking about all that kind of shit, dealing with identity crisis – obviously there’s a lot of people who’ve been through that – I want to create a new identity or community of people who share similar values and, you know, take pride in it?

I mean, even the name, OVERSOUL, I ripped the word from this really old anime that I used to watch growing up, Shaman King.

Shaman King? What the hell, like 4Kids shit?

Yeah. That wasn’t the first anime that I ever watched, but it was something that I was really into. From being like 12 to even later in my high school, I just loved it. The concept was so cool – taking a soul and imbuing it in an object to make it powerful. It just looked fuckin’ sick. When people wear my clothes, I want them to feel empowered. That’s how I want people to see it. Soul being clothing, putting it on yourself, there you go.

Spirit Integration is, I don’t think the tagline to the brand, but it’s also part of it. Spirit Integration is mind, body, and spirit, and for anyone into the spiritual side of life, that’s what makes us. Our thoughts and mind and DNA – that makes us who we are.

When I read the description on your site, I noted that you referred to OVERSOUL as not just a startup streetwear thing or a brand, but a conceptual design experience. What does this encompass, and why did you pick this specific wording?

None of the stuff I make or have made in the past is very conventional. It’s been pretty avant-garde, I would say. I’ll have an idea, and regardless of whatever trend is going on right now, I just fucking do it. When I make clothes, I’m not making clothes for the public, really. My mentality is more like, “You know what would be sick in a game? If the costume looked like this.” That’s why I say it’s a conceptual design experience.

Has being involved in the industry and working behind the scenes affected how you understand your own brand after launching? What about how you understand customers and other brands, now that you know what the design process is like?

First-off, let me just back up and go over a history of what I did before OVERSOUL. In high school, I made clothing because I hated what everyone else was wearing. This was 2011-2013. During that time, that’s when I had a brand and brands like Obey, Diamond Supply, and The Hundreds – literally peak Tumblr hypebeast, Zumiez, starter pack shit – were around. I looked around at everyone else and was like, “I can’t click that, it’s not resonating with me.” I had two other brands after that, and then came OVERSOUL. So I have this history of kind of knowing the market, even being a consumer, and evolving as a businessman and designer. I don’t think anything has changed. I think I’ve always stayed true to doing my own shit, rather than trying to compete with everybody else. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll notice what other designers are doing and some things I’ll take note of or inspo from but I hardly think about other people, to be honest. I respect everyone’s hustle, I just can’t be doing the same shit.

Give me your top 3 video game fits.

Top 3, oh my god. Snake from Metal Gear Solid V – very techwear, utility as fuck. My previous brand before this was techwear, and I had to stop it because techwear is so hard to sell.

I’m really into draping fashion. Cloud, Final Fantasy VII, it was the movie Advent Children – you play Smash, right? There’s two costumes in there: the black, and like this, not really skirt, but it covers up somewhat? All-black, huge sash going on, it reminded me of Yohji Yamamoto.

Something that I’m going to make in the future is inspired by Naoto from Blazblue. His outfit, I looked at it and I was like, “Yo, this could be fucking, like Chrome Hearts, like what the fuck? I’m just gonna abuse this character design, it looks amazing.” I think that fashion right now, what really gets people’s attention on social media, is just some crazy shit, I don’t mean dumb shit, but like, just has to be very bold, and I think that’s what Naoto’s character design is. His pants have this huge cross on them. I think that’s one of the most crazy things I’ve seen in awhile.

Let’s talk about Anime-den! It’s this thing that we started roughly 5 months ago. One of my best friends here, he actually works at Fortune [Sound Club, a nightclub in Chinatown], and he’s a music producer. We really bonded over clothes, anime and gaming, and we had this idea – I think we were just high as fuck one day – and I’m like, “Yo, you know what would be fucking dope? If we brought weeb shit into the club.” I think he was just joking around, but he was like, “That would be really fun to set up, we can do it.”

[Weeb being short for weaboo, a pejorative term referring to those obsessed with Japanese culture to the point of fetishization and idolization. It’s been ‘reclaimed’ by some fans of anime, used ironically as a form of self-deprecation.]

So, the next day happens, we’re talking, and he asks me, “Do you actually wanna do it?”, taking it seriously. I’m astonished. I was fucking joking, you know? We were just some high guys. He pitches the idea to Fortune and they approve it. At this point, we’re like, “Okay, we gotta actually invest all our effort into this,” because we’re actually gonna do something that I personally haven’t seen anybody do before – bringing a game into a club, anime into the club.

It’s really cool. Just yesterday, the commentator from Vancouver Street Battle came to Anime-den. Pride? He commentated for Battle of BC 3 and Pinnacle. He has ties with Animebae, too. [Animebae is a local anime-inspired startup streetwear brand.] Who would’ve thought that this guy would come through? And he brought his friends. He was telling us that what we’re doing is sick, and hearing this from a guy of that calibre in the gaming or Smash community, it really shook us. We’re actually bringing in people who play the game seriously here.

How has setting it in a club made it different from other tournaments that you’ve been to? How does the dynamic change?

It’s a little different because when it comes to actual competitive events, people have a different mentality when they enter. They’re there to win and they practice hard for it. As for Anime-den, it’s the total opposite. It’s very casual, we’re all just drinking, blazing, whatever. It’s just the environment where, you know, dim light in a club, there’s music going on in the back –I guess to some gamers it can seem distracting? But I think people, they don’t care. They just play. They’re just there to have fun. Totally different dynamic from an actual event.

I think that the purpose of Anime-den is to bring people together. That’s literally what Anime-den is for.

Yeah, I just noted here that I think it’s consistent with your brand, in that you’re translating the intangibility of these digital spaces like anime and gaming that people bond over, and you’re putting it into a physical space and letting people actually further develop what these subcultures would look like in person. Like, when you think of anime or gaming in real life you think of Anime Expo or cosplaying or some shit – and that’s fine, people have fun with that [Editor’s note – I think it’s fun!] – but it’s not the only mode of expression. With events like this, I think it’s cool that you’re saying, “If you’re a gamer, there’s another avenue for you. You don’t have to dress up or anything…”

I mean, walking in today and meeting you, you wouldn’t have gotten the idea that I was super into anime or gaming. I just look like a regular dude, right? And my clothing gets inspired by it, but I don’t really look like I’m cut from the legit anime cloth. Choosing these lifestyles and putting it into this real aspect, I think it can appeal to everybody. People tend to judge a lot of things, but once you step into the Anime-den room, whatever perspective you have about anime to begin with, I’m pretty sure that changes. Man, the crowd, they look all the same as you do too. We’re all normal people, we just like cool shit.

I think we should talk about ISEKAI.

OVERSOUL’s first small collection was ISEKAI. Translated to English, it would be ‘a better world,’ and I named it that based off of the anime genre, isekai. When you watch these sort of things, it’s usually someone going to another world. For my first collection, I wanted to welcome people to my world. That’s why I chose ISEKAI. One of the big graphics for the brand was the blade shirt. [On the site, it’s name is the Beginners Dagger Shirt.] My reference for that was playing MMORPGs. Typically, the first weapon you get [in MMORPGs] is a short sword or dagger. I wanted to be like, “This is the start of my brand.” This is your starter item. It’s funny, when I tell people this – they’re always like, “I never thought…”

[laughs] It’s really cool!

That’s why I went with ISEKAI. This is what my world is. One of OVERSOUL’s long-term goals is actually establishing ‘my world,’ if that makes sense? There’s only a handful of designers who have, like, captured a signature silhouette. For example, Rick Owens. When you see [a Rick Owens piece], you know it’s Rick Owens. If Zara did the same shit as Rick Owens, you would look at it and be like, “That’s Rick Owens.” You wouldn't call it Zara. That’s what I’m trying to establish for myself, to create that silhouette for myself eventually in the future.

What’s up next for OVERSOUL?

Hmm, how should I put this... should I leak something? I’m going to drop an accessories part sometime soon. That’s in the design process right now, but I’m looking forward to doing my next big collection.

There’s this one song that I found in the past during my peak weeb days: Plastic Love by Mariya Takeuchi. A couple of months ago, they released the first official music video for it, after like 35 years, which is fucking insane – they should have done that a long time ago. I totally forgot about the song until I saw the music video. It’s something that I could relate to before and can relate to now, and I definitely want to build my next collection based on Plastic Love.

I think Plastic Love works really well because I’m surrounded by that scene in Vancouver – I work in Yaletown, and that’s the Yaletown lifestyle. It’s very lustful, but you don’t care. It’s all fake shit, really. That’s what Yaletown culture sorta is. I wouldn’t say that I’m like that, but I think that I could definitely expand on the topic through my brand. It’s not necessarily identity crisis, but the genre and artist kind of make it a subculture.

There’s also a few collabs on the way. One with a music group, another with a tattoo artist. What I really wanna do with the tattoo artist – he does anime tattoos – is ero art. Like, erotica. I think it’s a slept-on art style. It’s not generally for the public, per se, so I think that it would be something worth making. Super ecchi, maybe line art. I want it very exaggerated, even bondage-type shit.

There’s a lot of things where people are like, “Oh, that’s too much!” But you know what, it could be sick! This is why I do things solely for myself. As long as I get a reaction from somebody, I’m happy with that. Wanting a response, not even approval, just being acknowledged, that this shit exists, it motivates me to keep doing what I do.

I thought about doing graphic design shit; anime erotica art goes really well with techno. That kind of scene, the way that European style posters are, if you take the art and fuse them together, it works really well. I’m like, “How come no one has done this yet?”

So you’re treating it more like art and not just a part of anime culture?

I view anime as its own respective art, and with art, there’s no rules, so I can just take this and this, and bang. At the end of the day, everybody wants to see new and cool things. People are always going to have their own subjective opinions, but as long as you have their attention, you’ve already won the battle. That’s the mentality that I carry, that everyone has their own opinions.

Last question: what are your top 5 video games?

You know, I was trying to prepare for this interview – I didn’t even think this would come up.

[laughs] Come on, man.

I’m gonna put Super Smash Bros. Melee on there – I’ve been playing it for so long, it’s literally been bonded with my DNA.

I don’t wanna say Ocarina of Time, because I think that it’s everyone’s favourite, but I mean, it’s still up there. It’s an all-time masterpiece, but I enjoyed Majora’s Mask a lot more. The concept of the world being blown up by the moon, in-game time, the moon crashes in like 3 days, and you keep going back in time, skipping whatever, I think it was so much fun, so yeah.

I really like Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It’s very recent, but I have so many hours on it already, and I can’t stop. I haven’t felt this way about a game in a long time. It’s so replayable. Once you finish Ocarina of Time, you probably don’t touch it for a while. When you play FE, you’re like, okay, let’s do the next one. There’s three houses! Even after doing all three, it’s like, “Oh, I’m gonna try again, but I’m gonna make this character like this.”

I grew up playing a lot of Roller Coaster Tycoon, unfortunately, but it’s fun. It’s not a typical gamer thing, but I love it.

I might put Final Fantasy VII on there, too – when Aerith died, I real-life teared up, like, “Dude, no way, you’re really gonna kill her off like that? You gotta save her!”… and then she dies. I’m pretty sure after that happened, I didn’t touch the game for a week. I was actually emotionally harmed. I’m really into RPGs – being able to emotionally attach yourself to characters, I think it’s a beautiful thing.

Any last things you wanna say?

I want my brand comparable to Chrome Hearts, MISBHV or Rude [Vogue]; when they have their own aesthetic and that’s what they do, that’s what I want to build as well. The idea that I take a lot of inspiration from gaming, it really shows.

Maybe I’m hungover, so I can’t really find the words right now, but for anyone trying to do fashion, music, whatever, as saturated as the community seems at the moment, you just have to get your foot in the door and start. Yeah, there’s competition, but to be honest, with all the people here who have brands, I’m friends with all of the people who make them, and I have no judgement about if their clothes are wack or not. Some things I don’t agree with, but everyone’s on the same hustle.

OVERSOUL’s ISEKAI collection is available now online at oversoul.online.

#oversoul #anime #gaming

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misterbitches · 3 years

Text

@flootweed

ATOTS

That's super fucking romantic? Like tragic but in a nice way. i love that shit. i'm a monogamous slut for romance pghiosuag even tho we have to learn to live alone too but it's just like the NOTION is nice?!??! awwww i told my mom that SOPHIE's gf was like "she died taking a picture of the moon" and how it was like idk. the gf was just processing it and she thought it was romantic and my mom was like "wow.....depressing" bc think she thought it was stupid millenial shit i was like no mother doent u see she died in the BEAUTY LMAO but then i told her jessica walter's husband died the year before and then she died and she was like "aw...kind of romantic" LMAOOOO i guess two people have to die. why did i tell this story? i am so sorry. the show ended today right (ep 10?) i didn't realize it was that short. so i hope it was a happy ending? (tell me) i understand why you love the atmos! it's like, not really been done. there's this BL that i hear isn't too great but it does take place in a rural part of thailand and there's way less budget. a lot of ppl seem to like it. ep 6 LW / LW in gen gotta be honest, rushed through it. i knew spoilers from jump cause BL spoilers are just absolutely nothing and sometimes ur just like i need to know. i do not understand the ~silently lookin 4 u~ trope it always backfires and is also DUMB. so happy about tiffy. a girl who likes girls but ends up with a man bc of mommy and also the man is ok....it's me. she's gorgeous and actually [h*lf] gay so it's great. god ok i feel so old again. lmaooo but i was like obsessed with lady gaga for that reason (dont ask...also how i got kinda popular on tumblr way back in the day) and shes just absolutely fucking beautiful and bad ass. (which kind of doesnt helpcos they r all skinnty but that's FINEEEE) right? i mean like i guess cos we knew abt it? i can see why he was so pissed off, too? i mean i'm so fucking like...sensitive to being told what to do so i was angry for him from jump. i guess i was also looking at it different wholetime cos i knew the spoilers? i'm assuming u did too lmao. so we knew hed be pissed and leave. and frankly that's what sib gets. just for you my friend i will watch it and update. i think MANY times in shows in gen but it is something you notice a lot in BL bc they are just absolute novices most times. in this case, gene's actor mostly well (and i like him as a person just cos he was on that thai 3 girls in a car show and used to date on eof them lmao) can act so i will look over that scene to see how sib's actor plays off him. but the pausing in between sentences or for so long even decent actors or actors doing better. kao is not bad, not great so they will talk slowly because dramatic acting but the problem is most times it's too long. even if the person is an adept actor it won't always work and YES THEN THAT MEANS THE EDITOR COMES IN AND SNIP SNIP SNIP! it's too long. and sometimes it just does not work even if you can act. but it is GLARING when they cant or are average (someoe said this about tharntype and my god lmao tharn..is...so...slow...in...talking...the actor idk his name it's one of em, the other one with the nose (type) is....different not better but he certainly does not talk as slow. they arent bad but they are not good so.) also sometimes they are forgetting their lines. some ppl find this charming. clearly we do not lmao. what is their relation? what is going on there? i don't have a problem with stepbrothers as long as they didn't grow up with that sibling bond. many times blended families really have to watch out for that kind of fraternizing but it's always when theyre older and teenagers bc they didnt grow up w/ each other....i mean they have chemistry so i'm whatever. but. hennYYWAYYYS.actually it's bc im an idiot i didn't read it as Mhok (singular) and aey's father. Yes and his sister who i think i may hate? im like bitch okkkkkk but. his name is lhong. and he is a psycho. i mean so is type. so. oooh it could be that he stole! but also i'm pretty sure cos hes gay lol or did they

not make that explicit? the thing is i had to skip through most of that scene too because the drama was WAY too much for me. too much. lmao. the sister thing i got and it made sense and iliked that. oh yea he is gay and they know. that's a big one.

WBL

haven’t watched color rush! did you like it? i have seen wyel, parts of mr heart, and ofc to my star :)

ohhhhhh ok. i get you. yea he definitely wasn’t being ooc cos i think that....what u said. and also like....ugh i cant even think rn. i like sam lin a lot so i like gao shi de but i gotta say. lmao. hm. first of all. yes it is creepy what he did. it’s fucking weird. and sad that his whole life revolves around him. it’s not as fucking weird as LW but still like when he did the door thing. i was like UMMMMMMMMM cos i really didnt want it to be constructed. and when it was i was like imma suspend my disbelief. but if anyone dared...

and so what he did in s2 i think he just couldnt realize that he was loved back which is why it’s good he WAS ALONE for 5 yrs imo. but he gave shu yi 0 choice and for that i am pretty sure i would be even angrier. i do think though that the father’s role is pretty important but i can see how the show is like....letting that go? bc as fucking weird as GSD is, he was still like...20? i guess and shu yi’s dad is like. crazy? i am also like he really had to fucking start a company to get noticed like are u joking? is it also that easy? and also why? lmao i just. ugh. i think that probs bothered me the most...priorities.

i like the show! well idk if i love it but sure. i think it’s decent lmao. i understand what you’re saying. for here it bothers me less but i certainly don’t think it was OOC. immature and stupid but like...that’s.....what they are. i also don’t have a problm with the timing from a technical point.

however, when i started the show? i had NO clue what concept of time it was. and that was very annoying. tehy redeemed it bc of the comedy aspects (the first time shu yi sees shi de is so fucking good, i really loved the shot and editing; it’s hilarious and silly) and i started to go with the flow of the show through that. but the fucking concept of time in the show in general esp with repetitive outfits (i understand that they are more likely to wear multiple outfits as well, it’s just that you have to split it up or it i sconfusing visually and looks like the same scene twice or just a full day of shooting which it could be but then something should change in the clothes. this is just an ex~~*~*) and partof that is they have this already controlled narrative i guess.

i have to admit as well...i skipped episode 1. and most of 2. i was like i rly dont want to see someone slap a pereson even if they were like. not together. it’s just not cute also not in front of ppl. and then when they were yelling and bla bla i was like listen ladies lets calm down. too much angst in a boring way. what they have now is good. also they should probably like estrange the father but i doubt they will.

i cannot make up my mind totally now bc i see what ur saying i guess i just don’t feel that way as much but i guess i have to think about it more, too. i do think he was contorlling in getting him or like when he didnt want shu yi to find out whwatshisface liked him. i guess for me it would be if he is still that way in the rship. but even tho he’s at fault for what happened, i’m also like but his dad? but also like...did he try? why did he just stop contacting? but then i guess he emailed everyday? DO U C MY QUANDARY.

alsoi have to say i do not care abt their backdoor being opened lmao like wow business? no thanks

LMAO. did they cry a lot in UWMA? i only know the teamwin parts. which one is fluke the really pale one who died? idk what it is about that kid but i just cant watch him. it’s not his fault it’s mine.

DUDE i still dont understand the husband and wife thing and ive looked into it multiple times. ive kinda just classified it as one of those things that make me uncomfortable but arent problematic lol. it you have any insight about it id love to hear it tho !!

it’s stupid. that’s what it is (husband and wife.) it’s just something they say like many gay couples may use pejoratives in conjunction with them, the f word etc. or even imply something about being a top and a bottom. whatever. but these arent gay spaces or gay storylines. sure gay men may direct them but since BL operates and relies on patriarchy without a doubt and also stereotypes poorly kathoeys or won’t cast trans women in anything substantial and use them as jokes (and see this is one of those things where it’s like...ud never see this in the US tho like our concept of third gender or kathoeys but life stillBOOOOO.) so it’s just useless when they put it into the scripts because it’s for people to consume and lots of girls are. obviously. so the idea that if you are being penetrated and u r the wife and this is used like literally anywhere but not from gay or whatever men is gross. are cis women’s vaginas sieves to them? are trans women not women? do we have to categorize people by PHALLIC OBJECTS IN OUR BODIES SPECIFICALLY A WOMAN? it dont make no sense. plus really most ppl just experiment, there’s more ways than one to have sex, we have lives so most times it’s not just full penetration for hours anyway. it’s just so gross. like oh that’s really funny lol ur the wife cos his dick goes in ur butt XD i get it, same. i say “i’m wife’ whenever there’s a penis in me. fucking kill me. it’s not a big deal but it’s just dumb and gross. if they use it they could try and subvert it too like i like how my engineer has a whole absurdly stupid episode about it. but in TT the dad says “if ur the wife i wont accept it” and i was like u know what gals? im good. goodbye.

pgojaihousgajigko THAT’S SOOOOOOO OOWIEOFUGHOIJ WEIRD. FANDOM IS REALLY WEIRD. i have read rpf and written it once upon a time but dont do it anymore uch. i mean it’s weird. no doubt about that. invasive, weird, strange. but very unreal anyway. it is. plus i dont like celebs or fame and think of it as a gross capitalist scheme so i had to stop (also so weird?) but i know very many people like lean in. lean in. LEAN IN. this youtuber i watch did a video on like insanely popular ships (like that 1d one) and their insane fandoms and i just couldnt. it’s so embarrassing? and then they’re so bold????? about it?

yea it would be cool (more queer men or visibly we should say or like out whatever.) but it doesnt necessarily mean that will be good or beneficial i guess? i mean like. i dont know. so much about the genre is about wish fulfilment for young girls. its literally selling some fantasies because the other thing is for BL (i read a paper on this...) esp for girls in more conservative societies they cna maybe replace themselves in the character? but they may not feel a threat as a woman or like their life will fall apart if they engage in sexual things with anyone really. and that’s where i’m like....for a lot of these are they just writing a story and just replacing two men? bc they also seem to think it owrks like that. and in a way that’s what it is bc of the writing and how they use certain terms. you can tell the piece is about pushing a product and less about the real affects of a story. i think ITSAY is a great example of a really intelligent great piece of work that contains multitudes. and the girl was amazing. it just depends on the goal. and for most of the ppl the goal isnt...to do anything. so i dont know. idk how to talk abt representation anymore. it both is and isnt.

i really liked tingting from my engineer a lot (idk if u have seen) she’s so fun and unapologetic. i love how much she drinks and if someone tells her to be ladylike she says no. and i appreciate that in the show when girls were rude to her she said nothing about the girls but said “NO IM NOT LUCKY TO HAVE ALL MALE FRIENDS?” i really want to see her more in the next season. obviously tiffy is goat. super excited to see how their rship develops.

#we best love #lovely writer #we best love fighting mr 2nd

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talysalankil · 7 years

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what happened with laci gr/een?

okay so i have an incomplete timeline at best because i don’t exactly follow her assiduously so i only became aware of it recently when she posted a video about it but

from what i’ve been able to reconstruct, and not necessarily in chronological order

the dating thing

she started dating an a/nti-s/jw & al/t-ri/ght guy, this guy. which…I guess is fine in and of itself? like I agree she gets to pick who she dates. it only becomes relevant when it gets pretty clear she didn’t date him in spite of that in hindsight. but it gets really obnoxious when people telling her “hey, you’re…dating a member of one of the worst political movements ever, did you consider what message that was sending re: your feminist activism” and she went “how dare you shame me for who i’m dating you’re clearly all fake feminists and hypocrites!” [note: i’m obviously paraphrasing]

the stream thing

she did a stream with another notable an/ti-s/jw (she literally labels herself “an/tifem/inist” in the description of that stream’s vod). now, I don’t really have 2.5 hours to spend watching that, but considering everyone who has said that la/ci gre/en herself said a bunch of things that are used by people to justify things like tra/nsmis/ogyny. This argument in particular is important because it seems credible considering her own history and what comes next.

the first video

in may, she posted a video with an intentionally provocative title, and…well, the title is an exaggeration. at least from her pov. she mostly means she’s anouncing that she will engage with an/tis more regularly because she feels it’s a healthy way to advance the debate. sounds legit, right?

Yeah…that’s only if you pay attention to the message and not the phrasing. I’m going to use my own comment on that video as reference bc i don’t feel like rewatching it so…

"What's the goal? Is it that only a specific perspective can be heard?"

See, she paints it as a “two equally valid sides of the issue” debate, which…is basically playing into one side’s hands. You know, the side whose “valid opinion” is that women don’t deserve equal rights, that other genders are fake, and trans people are either mentally ill or lying.

This message bleeds throughout her entire statement, and lo and behold, who felt empowered to run amuk in her comments but actual na/zis? Literally the top comment thread at the time I watched was people “joking” about how they couldn’t like that comment anymore because it had 1/48/8 likes and that’s a literal ne/o-na/zi symbol.

the backlash

naturally, people (read: femi/nists) didn’t like that. some voiced that more publicly than others.

la/ci’s reactions amounted to “it’s MY choice to engage”, which…it is. But no one told her not to do that. Basically she was missing the point of the criticism aimed at her…which is a common an/ti-s/jw tactic, but then again, it’s also one she herself has used a lot in the past, so i’m not really sure who’s to blame here.

very shortly afterwards she tweeted she wouldn’t listen to any criticism anymore (i assume from the s/jw side, and yes, she literally used that acronym as a pejorative).

the second video

because ofc it didn’t stop there. her followup is arguably worse, since now she’s acting like “s/jw” (again, using that term/phrase) are an unreasonable extreme who don’t understand “real femi/nism” and make all femi/nists look bad.

oh, instead of say, apologizing for her tran/sphobia (something she has kind of done in the past, but looking at this video, didn’t mean a word of), she came up with her own version of the “down with cis” bus story about some tra/ns activists harassing/assaulting her at a convention. which i won’t claim is false, because 1) no victim of assault deserves to live in a world where any assault is ever doubted as the default reaction and I actually hold to my femi/nist principles and 2) it’s not really an argument to say she doesn’t need to apologize for transp/hobia?

speaking of which, in this video she also acts like she was “forced” to “bend science” in her sex ed videos by acting like male and female are valid scientific terms and not…you know, an outdated binary model that doesn’t work on top of being inherently tran/sphobic. literally she acts like she was doing “s/jw” a favor by not equating male with penis and female with vagina.

the last few days

this is all pretty recent and i wanted to just go from memory but then i figured “hey let’s just go through her twitter feed at this point” (which you shouldn’t do if you like not being angry)

she compared this whole story with leaving morm/onism, which…wow, way to claim you’re still a femi/nist if you’re comparing femi/nism with that fucking church AND comparing this experience with LEAVING that church

she also literally compared femi/nists to the villains from 1984

she reached out to te/rfs (she said ra/dfems but as lind/say el/lis pointed out not all ra/dfems are te/rfs, yet that’s the definition la/ci seems to use) and is now using distinctly ter/f-ish language. also she said a “really interesting” question from that thread was “what does it mean to be a woman without using gender roles” which is literally te/rf rhetoric 101. (to be fair, she did say in other tweets on that thread that non-ra/dfems were allowed to chime in, but since it was in a reply to someone it’s not even likely to reach most people so…good job on asking for a non-biased sample, ms “i love science”)

still on that topic, about a cana/dian bill (c/16 if you want to look it up) that would grant tra/ns people rights, she went “lol tumblr genders” and supported the american use of psycholo/gists as “experts”, which totally never resulted in the abuse of tra/ns people (this one is kinda unrelated to the whole story but since every time i bring up her tran/sphobia people tell me “bitch where” i figured i’d stash this one receipt here, and this is just from the past couple of weeks)

she also reached out to an/tifemi/nists for “summer reading”

she claims s/jw are making out “everyone they disagree with” to be na/zis or al/t-ri/ght (even when there’s evidence) which is exactly the strategy of those groups

and then in general, she made about a million comments about how this was a long time coming, and she’s long been hesitant to “call out” all the wrongs of femi/nism but was “afraid” to speak out. i guess all it took was finding out the goldmine that was the an/ti-s/jw crowd to comfort her?

finally, someone do/xed her, and she immediately claimed (without proof beyond being “pretty sure”) it was someone from the “s/jw” side. i don’t condone that, but at the same time, way to be mature about that reaction.

(and speaking of mature reactions, the an/ti-s/jw who usually revel in femi/nists being do/xed cf ani/ta sark/eesian were here all commiserative and “curse those s/jw” like they don’t use the exact same tactics, but clearly we’re the hypocrites)

tl;dr

I don’t support harassing her but outside of the doxing, most of the “abuse” i’ve seen were people 1) telling her she was not behaving like a femi/nists (which she’s not) and/or that she was empowering the worst of the worst (which she is) and 2) on the subject of her boyfriend, that she was dating a pretty bad person. which she decided to phrase as “reduce [her] opinion to ‘money’ and ‘dick’” even though i haven’t seen anyone say that.

personally…honestly i don’t even think her bf “converted” her. and i doubt money had anything to do with it. i think, looking at the evidence (not just all this but her long, long history of nonsense) that she just finally realized for herself that the femi/nist community wasn’t for her because, aside from a belief in sexual and reproductive agency for (cis) women, she doesn’t have all that much in common with us. but instead of just leaving gracefully, she has to smear all of femi/nist activism past what she agrees with (i.e. most of third wave) just so she appears to be on the right side, mostly because she’s siding with the wrong side.

Okay hopefully I did the tumblr voodoo slashes thing regularly enough that tumblr’s cursed algorithms will not send people my way to harass me again, but if not…come at me, I’ll just block you all like the previous couple of times.

#Anonymous #ask

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raven-prince · 7 years

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Hey, I saw the post you reblogged on the word queer, and I was wondering if you could explain the situation? I understand if you're uncomfortable or something, I'm just feeling confused and you seem like a dependable person to turn to. Anyway I really enjoy your blog, and hope you're feeling great!!

Hello! Thank you very much for your nice message! I putted the rest under the cut cause there’s quite a bit of text (sorry about that)

So basically, “queer” is complicated in history and in meaning. At first it was a word that was reinvented as a slur against LGBT people, and then started to be reclaimed by the LGBT community/people in the late 80′s, here’s an example from this post

“In May 1990, the organization Queer Nation was formed and they passed out flyers at New York’s Gay Pride Parade that read:“Ah, do we really have to use that word? It’s trouble. Every gay person has his or her own take on it. For some it means strange and eccentric and kind of mysterious […] And for others “queer” conjures up those awful memories of adolescent suffering […] Well, yes, “gay” is great. It has its place. But when a lot of lesbians and gay men wake up in the morning we feel angry and disgusted, not gay. So we’ve chosen to call ourselves queer. Using “queer” is a way of reminding us how we are perceived by the rest of the world.”their explanation for reclaiming the q slur was their anger with being persecuted for being gay, labeled as disgusting and sinful for being gay people during the AIDS epidemic. they were reclaiming “queer” to remind themselves of every time they heard “queer” while being bullied and beaten by their family+peers for being LGBT and therefore, remind them of the harmful bigotry cishets portray. they were outraged by all the violent hate crimes happening to LGBT people every day. “

Long story short, its reclamation made "queer" become a positive self-identifier for of lot LGBT people.

But not every LGBT person is comfortable with the word “queer” applied to themself, often because of it being used in a pejorative way against them and/or having it linked to trauma, sadly some people have a very hard time respecting that and go on their way to try to invalidate these people’s feelings, and it gets pretty ugly. (like, I literally read a post that was comparing LGBT ppl asking for “queer” to be tagged with nazis in all seriousness)

Here’s more about that: (the post is from ragdolls, I wanted to simply put a link to their post but for some reason I can’t access to their blog apart from the tumblr sidebar thing?? still putted the link, i hope it works)

“Queer is an extremely useful word for the lgbt+ community.

Its an all encompassing sort of word which can be used to describe the very complicated relationship that people have with gender and sexual/romantic orientation, and for a lot of people it’s so much easier to be able to say “I’m queer” rather than examine what specific orientation/gender they are, especially given that gender and orientation are not necessarily easily defined.

You can reasonably refer to yourself as queer for your own ease.

Now, that being said, we as lgbt+ folks did not choose to be called queer. We never chose this word, this word was forced upon us by a society who defines cis and hetero as normal. Because of that, they othered all of us into one all-inclusive word to define that difference: queer.

Knowing that lgbts never chose to be called queer in the first place, please try to be understanding when some of us never ever wish to be referred to under that umbrella. Please respect lgbt folks who feel othered by the word queer”

This^^ is really hard to get for lots of folks on this website. It goes from saying queer isn’t a slur anymore (or that it was never a slur) bc it’s been used way less nowadays in a pejorative way, to straight up call gay ppl homophobic for not wanting to be called an homophobic slur

about this post i reblogged, in addition to what they state to be untrue or at least pretty questionable, here’s a post talking about it about it

have a nice day and sorry for the long ass answer!!

#Anonymous #ask #mysterious anonymous

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nchyinotes · 6 years

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Alt-Age: Designing Belief

May 19 2018

https://designmuseum.org/whats-on/talks-courses-and-workshops/alt-age-designing-belief

Thoughts: I found the first session on conspiracy theories fascinating (because I knew nothing about it beforehand, and the Trump analysis was very cool too), I liked Daniel Keller’s crypto starter kit profiles (and he was super nice, I had a great conversation with him after his talk!), and I thought Timandra put an interesting perspective to data profiling.

Trumped Up: The President and Conspiracy Theories

DR CLARE BIRCHALL

which conspiratorial theories are successful and which fail at explaining contemporary ?

conspiracy theory: speculative story that fashions historical/contemporary events as outcome of a conspiratorial design. often sits at odds with official story. it asks who benefits, and points the finger.

Richard hofstadter’s paranoid style:

all of history is a conspiracy

perpetuates the idea that conspiracy theories are totally other and unhinged

clinical paranoia vs paranoid style

conspiracy theorists are naive people who can’t really engage in the public sphere because they’re so irrational and ??

fredric jameson: conspiracism is often a symptom of something else

marxist

narrative is a v flawed attempt to map out the ever elusive social totality

system of overwhelmingly subjugating and repressive landscape

conclusion is wrong - it’s the faceless system of capitalism that is to blame

doesn’t take the form the left wants politics to take

lived experience of social injustice gets turned into a conspiratorial narrative

historical precedent informs the turn to conspiracy as explanation

justified fear that black people have about the way black bodies have been used and abused (ie. tuscany syphilis study) - institutional supported

ie. impotence, AIDS

—> tools of resistance used to galvanise a community - this is their social function or cultural work that they do (tanya??)

example of popular knowledge that puts on display undecidable nature of all knowledge. exaggerated version of modes of knowing. so share a lot with legitimised forms. risks showing us how all knowledge is ever theory, and legitimacy is conferred by mystical constructions. so this binary is drawn to secure our own position.

Trump

what kind of conspiracist is trump? He seeks to target and delegitimize three targets:

particular political opponents

institutions (liberal media, federal reserve)

any knowledge that threatens his interest (climate change)

trump’s style:

not as the sustained narrative that hofstader way, but uses conspiracist fragments to highlights gaps/doubts and dispenses with necessity of evidence.

never quite takes responsibility over theories, just repeats others.

“some people say”, “many people say”

meme friendly format

uses it as one tactic to disorientate and disarm

helpful ideas:

conspiracism can be employed for ideological reasons

conspiracism is often a symptom of something else

proliferation of conspiracy theories is due in part to fact that so many actual conspiracies have been uncovered during the 20th century

problematic ideas in age of trump

conspiracy theory is a pejorative term

identity of president, at white house, legitimises

conspiracy theories are tools of resistance for historically marginalised people

trump isn’t a minority lol

arise because it is not possible to limit interpretation or safeguard knowledge

idkkkk post truth era stuff

concept of fully agential, sovereign, cartesian individual who believes with their whole body and soul

fragments enter upon a thoroughly networked sphere, so they circulate virally

belief becomes distributed and exists within the network through method of circulation

belief without believers?

for many trump supporters, believing the theory may be of little importance. what builds is the impression of a figure that isn’t beholden to elitists, who says the unsayable. mode might be most important.

to understand role of trump here:

this isn’t the first time conspiracy theories have been expressed from positions of power but the info environment is different

languages of disenfranchisement can be mimicked and appropriated

must think about trump’s conspiracy fragments within whole range of post truth tactics

we might need to rethink the nature of belief in a digital, networked era

The Nouveaux Cryptoriche: A Consumer Profile

DANIEL KELLER

GINI coefficient - measurement of de/centralisation, all bitcoin and ethereum stuff is actually very centralised and unequal (wealth disparity of owner of wallets, etc)

within crypto: huge gender divide, white/male/millennials

all fairly libertarian and right wing in orientation - neo liberal logic that behaviour must be incentivised economically for anything altruistic to happen (ethereum, bitcoin, ripple)

motivation through economics = neoliberal + reactionary worldview

who are the cryptorich?

richest: white men, some asian men

starter kits: caleb, priscilla, andsprei, elijah, roger

PANEL DISCUSSION

With Daniel Keller and Michael Dieter. Chaired by Natalie Kane

spiritual/magical terminology in describing technology

manipulation as neglect (malice)?

no, intention in business model to maximise profits and attention, so no not neglect because its intentional

CA = great “accident” of this business model

mindless logic that goes into all the platforms we use today, addictive nature (brains have been completely rewired in the last 15 years)

digital dependency

neglect - politics of care ?

history of the whole science and technology studies being ignored

digital mindfulness - theres a genealogy to it

cyber culture + counterculture new ageisms

subversive tactics ?

florian kramer - subversive media

angela nagel - think of alt right in terms of subcultures and critiques of subculture theory

thinking more about continuities

platform capitalism fosters these communities - reaction of no platforming them? can further radicalise + alienate them

legitimate claim at being the alt bc of the monopoly on liberal terminology

understanding truth is based on an understanding of what non truth is or are ?

forms of behavioural economics were embedded into platform design - promoting mode of behavioural design. tracking, nudges, in the context of business propositions.

tokenising all possible economic activity, market of IOT

politics of attention - extreme edgelord ism results on 4chan

critique of behavioural dimension on platforms as being very causal

by saying these mechanisms actually work and lead to addiction, there may be a chance to launch stronger critique against platform monopoly and get them to bear more responsibility for certain dynamics we associate with them

is this a mistake, bc do we really know to what extent these mechanisms actually work?

micro targeting

distracts us from thinking through what type of longer term social issues/conflicts/antagonisms are being manifest through these types of dynamics (algorithm is revealing something that’s natural, given too much credit for this stuff)

these things work we need to regulate them vs ^

deemphasising determining role software may have in this (is ignoring the possible slippery slope tho, negligence)

targeting: sub culture of people who feel like you’re be targeted + tracked constantly by government, mental health, communities that reinforce mental illness

philosophical regulation (speculative design theory) being seen as against innovation

level of ignorance they’re trying to preserve

reinvestment of desktop as focused productivity, minimise work dimensions of mobile devices (redesign of mobiles)?

people who aren’t on social media right now aren’t shaping the cultural discourse ? - national and international influence

foam space app - decentralised proof of location, micropayment constantly for that

steem it

conspiracy vs speculative design

hyperstition

epistemology of reductionism

Was It Big Data That Won It?

TIMANDRA HARKNESS

resources diverted by govt in targeting voters - 2 types of people, bc otherwise its a waste of time (ie. already have a strong affiliation + go out to vote)

daniel scarvaloni - obamas campaign

how politics ad targeting works now - tailor messages etc

profiling, data brokers, inferred data

easily misprofiled / inferring is not loads better than chance

we’re calling everyone else the “gullible fools”, we’re not the gullible fools

problem is this model of humanity - people that can be measured, predicted, nudged in ways (more complex lab rats) vs people with whom we have to engage

Beyond Belief: Being Converted in a Post-Truth Era

DR MICHAEL DIETER

digital well being strategies part of new behavioural design paradigm to deal with distraction, scandals

wellbeing.google

managing unconscious user and guiding them into habitual behaviours/habits even when it may actually be contradictory to their intentions

“conversion”: language

obfuscation is part of the business model

sleepwalking into new forms of exploitation

targeted if you share traits with other fragments of users (segregating into segments) - dominant ??? of captivation

james bridle + youtube as the great radicaliser - targeting children on youtube

UX conversion

alt right conversion

like attracts like

center for humane technology (humane tech.com)

new design politics to be articulated? realignment of tech with humanity’s best interests. who decides on what these interests will be? these structures or dependant on this type of behaviouralism.

paternalistic rather than exploitative nudging

Detecting Fake News and Misinformation: Spotting the Common Themes

BARNEY JACKSON (FACTMATA)

fake news spreads faster than true news

creating a quality score for content, to serve to advertising platforms

creating community driven AI, automated algorithms for detecting 5 things

author credibility, publisher credibility, headline analysis, ad/media analysis, content analysis

^ how did you come up with the criteria?

“toxic content”

hyperpartisanship

#digital society #tech #2018 #conspiracy #event

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