so one of the things that's so horrifying about birth control is that you have to, like, navigate this incredibly personal choice about your body and yet also face the epitome of misogyny. like, someone in the comments will say it wasn't that bad for me, and you'll be utterly silenced. like, everyone treats birth control like something that's super dirty. like, you have no fucking information or control over this thing because certain powerful people find it icky.
first it was the oral contraceptives. you went on those young, mostly for reasons unrelated to birth control - even your dermatologist suggested them to control your acne. the list of side effects was longer than your arm, and you just stared at it, horrified.
it made you so mentally ill, but you just heard that this was adulthood. that, yes, there are of course side effects, what did you expect. one day you looked up yasmin makes me depressed because surely this was far too intense, and you discovered that over 12,000 lawsuits had been successfully filed against the brand. it remains commonly prescribed on the open market. you switched brands a few times before oral contraceptives stopped being in any way effective. your doctor just, like, shrugged and said you could try a different brand again.
and the thing is that you're a feminist. you know from your own experience that birth control can be lifesaving, and that even when used for birth control - it is necessary healthcare. you have seen it save so many people from such bad situations, yourself included. it is critical that any person has access to birth control, and you would never suggest that we just get rid of all of it.
you were a little skeeved out by the implant (heard too many bad stories about it) and figured - okay, iud. it was some of the worst pain you've ever fucking experienced, and you did it with a small number of tylenol in your system (3), like you were getting your bikini line waxed instead of something practically sewn into your body.
and what's wild is that because sometimes it isn't a painful insertion process, it is vanishingly rare to find a doctor that will actually numb the area. while your doctor was talking to you about which brand to choose, you were thinking about the other ways you've been injured in your life. you thought about how you had a suspicious mole frozen off - something so small and easy - and how they'd numbed a huge area. you thought about when you broke your wrist and didn't actually notice, because you'd thought it was a sprain.
your understanding of pain is that how the human body responds to injury doesn't always relate to the actual pain tolerance of the person - it's more about how lucky that person is physically. maybe they broke it in a perfect way. maybe they happened to get hurt in a place without a lot of nerve endings. some people can handle a broken femur but crumble under a sore tooth. there's no true way to predict how "much" something actually hurts.
in no other situation would it be appropriate for doctors to ignore pain. just because someone can break their wrist and not feel it doesn't mean no one should receive pain meds for a broken wrist. it just means that particular person was lucky about it. it should not define treatment.
in the comments of videos about IUDs, literally thousands of people report agony. blinding, nauseating, soul-crushing agony. they say things like i had 2 kids and this was the worst thing i ever experienced or i literally have a tattoo on my ribs and it felt like a tickle. this thing almost killed me or would rather run into traffic than ever feel that again.
so it's either true that every single person who reports severe pain is exaggerating. or it's true that it's far more likely you will experience pain, rather than "just a pinch." and yet - there's nothing fucking been done about it. it kind of feels like a shrug is layered on top of everything - since technically it's elective, isn't it kind of your fault for agreeing to select it? stop being fearmongering. stop being defensive.
you fucking needed yours. you are almost weirdly protective of it. yours was so important for your physical and mental health. it helped you off hormonal birth control and even started helping some of your symptoms. it still fucking hurt for no fucking reason.
once while recovering from surgery, they offered you like 15 days of vicodin. you only took 2 of them. you've been offered oxy for tonsillitis. you turned down opioids while recovering from your wisdom tooth extraction. everything else has the option. you fucking drove yourself home after it, shocked and quietly weeping, feeling like something very bad had just happened. the nurse that held your hand during the experience looked down at you, tears in her eyes, and said - i know. this is cruelty in action.
and it's fucked up because the conversation is never just "hey, so the way we are doing this is fucking barbaric and doctors should be required to offer serious pain meds" - it's usually something around the lines of "well, it didn't kill you, did it?"
you just found out that removing that little bitch will hurt just as bad. a little pinch like how oral contraceptives have "some" serious symptoms. like your life and pain are expendable or not really important. like maybe we are all hysterical about it?
hysteria comes from the latin word for uterus, which is great!
you stand here at a crossroads. like - this thing is so important. did they really have to make it so fucking dangerous. and why is it that if you make a complaint, you're told - i didn't even want you to have this in the first place. we're told be careful what you wish for. we're told that it's our fault for wanting something so illict; we could simply choose not to need medication. that maybe if we don't like the scraps, we should get ready to starve.
we have been saying for so long - "i'm not asking you to remove the option, i'm asking you to reconsider the risk." this entire time we hear: well, this is what you wanted, isn't it?
9K notes
·
View notes
so with confidence I present my rarepair...fluffyriceshipping!
they were originally a joke ship (which was my last chance to get out) but they grew on me more and more throughout last year, and months later they've become my favorite pair to draw! their name was the funniest thing to make of them because i got to joke around with their jpn names
the tl:dr of them is that there's a lot of good drama to make of thirty-somethings with the weight of responsibility of their respective cultures on their shoulders, as well as their personal thoughts of the trainers of their respective regions, all this culminating together to be really compelling for me to develop, so I'll ramble a Whole lot more under the cut about them :D!!
~
ok now that the people that wanted to see more about what i'm crazy about when i'm not online are here you guys better prepare for the worddump lmao
before they meet its postgame and they’re both in their thirties (early to mid), lance post gsc/hgss still upholds his champion position and managing the dragon's den alongside any g-man/undercover rocket work on the side (in workaholic mode), riley post dppt is occasionally battling at the battleground but also holing himself up with patrols on iron island and doing egg research and training his aura (Also in workaholic mode)
i'd say all the work makes byron and roark try to get him a break from all that, convincing him at some point to take a vacation! see the sights my guy you've been workin yourself to the bone
it's canonically shown in hgss that riley does appear as a partner for the battle tower, so at some point he is in johto! the region resonates with his cultural sensibilities so maybe he revisits it again to instead actually relax there.
lance would probably catch his hat flying away when he's visiting elm's lab (a fellow egg researcher) in new bark and riley would have absolutely fell first for him (and i'm a sucker for meet-cutes,,,)
and from there they hit it off! being both skilled trainers in their own right they battle and go out to eat after and talk about their family (clair and the elders, for riley's case his family friends byron and roark), their culture (dragon clans and aura guardians), and then when they talk about their respective trainer kiddos (silver and dawn) something clicks between them (it’s a Really rough snippet but hopefully it’s decent)-
"Do you have any kids? I know the news loves to make up some kind of story about secret love affairs with a random person." the guardian says, awkwardly.
Lance smiles, "Oh, yeah! I have one but he's technically not mine." Riley chokes on his iced tea.
"I'm sorry?" A million thoughts roll through his mind as he processes his words said so matter-of-factly.
"Haha, sorry, sorry, I'm only partly joking."
"E-Elaborate..."
The champion explains the general gist of things as he's met him, Silver, his kid-by-odd-circumstance, was homeless for a while, but was training alongside some other up and coming trainers. Uncovering some Rocket related files, he learns he's the son of the boss of the entire organization, and after some on and off meetings he eventually got him a place to stay at the Dragon's Den, and soon after began living with him at his place when he warmed up to the idea of adoption.
There are times he gets overwhelmed with all that he's been through, and some nights its all too much. But Lance was there with him, stayed with him every step of the way, unlike the one who gave him that abandonment anxiety in the first place.
"He's my kid, not by blood, and maybe not by his family, either. But instead, by his own decision he chose to stay with me. I'd want him to keep the freedom he has now." Lance states, firmly. "And now he's grown up as strong as I believed he could. I'm proud of him, as much as he tends to deny that." Riley senses his draconic aura swell with pride, mixed with a humbling sincerity in his words.
"What about you? Any kids of your own?" the sudden flip of the question surprises the guardian briefly.
"N-Nothing adoptive but…I suppose it's similar, in a way to meeting them as you have."
The guardian's turn, now. Dawn was someone he met when he was training on Iron Island, and also served as a guide to get her through the caverns. When he felt something off in the aura surrounding the area, he eventually learned of Galactic causing the pokemon on the island to feel restless and agitated. With her, they were able to clear the island of their antics and even gifted her a Riolu egg on her journey. From there, he was impressed with how strong she was, and did hear from Cynthia that she raised his present up to evolving her into a Lucario. He couldn't have been happier.
That was the case, until he caught the aftermath of the events of Mt. Coronet.
What Cyrus did, the lengths he'd go to, and dragging the both of them into a mess that could have torn the world apart.
After that, Dawn stayed home for a while. Cynthia put him as a contact for her mom, who was really worried for her. With his aura and her friends, Lucas and Barry, they were a big help for her recovery. And eventually, after a lot of time and work, she became the region's champion. She messages every now and then to him, as processing any trauma is never an easy road, but he realized how lucky she was to have the people she'd met to keep her steady, and knew she'll be alright.
"I...still wish I could've done more for her," Riley says, quieter. "Cynthia told me about what happened in that other world, and it...it was a lot for Dawn, a lot of emotions to help her figure out." he finishes, sheepish.
"…I don't blame you for feeling that way, I wouldn't know what to do in a scenario like that, either." the champion says, unsure too.
"It's amazing, in a way. All these kids going through so much on their own. I'd be proud were it not so scary, realizing how young they are to go through what they have been through."
"There's only so much you really can do, as an adult. I've realized that fact a long time ago." Lance's aura felt oddly melancholic, as bright and pretty as it may appear. "It's either immediate or slow when things change for them, and sometimes you'll have to make a choice on the spot when the time comes for them to decide what they want to do." It sounds like he’s speaking from experience, but the melancholy makes it appear that he's had some regrets.
“I trust in them to find their own path, eventually. When they’re together, those kids are gonna be alright on their own.”
His reassurance helped, even if only by a small amount.
-
I should make some kind of master post about them at some point but WAH god I’m so happy I can actually put them together in pokemon masters, they’ve really grown on me and I’ve developed a lot for the both of them in my free time, but yeah this is the rarepair that’s been on my brain for ages now, a gaze into my goo brain 🤪
106 notes
·
View notes
Come back home when you have some sense
You can throw your life away just not at my expense
You’re not the son I raised
56 notes
·
View notes
Treating Wilbur as I do dream currently: Expect to see stuff for his character still reblogged, but I won’t tag for him anymore, and I’m disengaging with him as a content creator at this time. Don’t ask me anything else about this, I don’t want to talk about it.
Still probably gonna be offline for a while bc I’m still processing and need to not be barraged by opinions rn. Mostly posting this so I can run my queue. Staying on the content grindset 💪
At the advice of Shelby and her mods, I’m not going to speak his name like this again because he is not the point. Shelby is. But if I didn’t say anything I figured people would think I was ignoring it, which I’m not. I’m gonna continue my break and I hope you all are taking care.
As a final note:
This has brought a lot of attention to Shelby that she didn’t have before and for good reason. But please do not make her abuse into her fame. If this has compelled you to subscribe to her, follow her, and support her, then stay for her and not for her hurt. Watch her streams, engage with her. Be normal. Don’t ask her more, even if it’s from a place of good intention. She’s more than a victim: she is an artist and businesswoman just as much as every other streamer you love. She isn’t “the streamer who was abused by xyz,” she’s shubble. Let her return be welcome and supportive, but please let her get back into the routine she wants. Normalcy is probably the thing she wants most right now, and the best we can do is help her achieve that.
42 notes
·
View notes
a touch of honey
Relationships: Zhuzhi-lang / Gongyi Xiao
Tags: Modern AU, Coffeeshop AU, Fluff, Background Tianxi
Word Count: 5.3k
Summary: Zhuzhi-lang is trying to make it as a writer, but his life is interrupted by a certain (annoyingly handsome) barista at his favorite coffee spot. It doesn't help when his friends and family seem intent on setting the two of them up.
Zhuzhi-lang frowns. “What?” This wasn’t part of the routine and he feels thrown off. The barista says something again, smiling and pointing at his face. Zhuzhi-lang sighs and takes his headphones off, nearly getting a migraine at the sudden influx of noise.
“What?” He asks again. His eyes flit over the form of the barista, taking him in. He has dark hair tied up in a ponytail without a lock out of place, sleeves perfectly cuffed, and a clean-cut air that verges on unrealistic. He reminds Zhuzhi-lang of the protagonists in Tianlang-jun’s dramas whose appearances were signaled by slow-mo pans, showing off their perfect teeth and sparkling eyes.
Zhuzhi-lang tries his best not to sneer. How annoying.
You can read it here!
55 notes
·
View notes
Liko, who gives and gives until there is nothing left VS Sango, who takes and takes until there is nothing left.
26 notes
·
View notes
D-Lo: Before you head out, I really need to talk to you.
Bailey: Uh oh. Should I be scared?
D-Lo: Ummm maybe?? It’s about Mizuki.
Bailey: I don’t want to go there today. Or any day for that matter.
D-Lo: I know. I hate to kill the vibe but the doc said it’s not good to keep holding shit inside.
Bailey: Doctor?! Damn. Ok umm… give me a minute.
D-Lo: I don’t know how to say this…
Bailey: Deangelo, please don’t tell me you got her pregnant.
D-Lo: No! Naaah! NO!
Bailey: Ok it can’t be worse than that, so just say it.
D-Lo: Mizuki is trying to get out early and she asked for my help.
Bailey: Oh.
D-Lo: Yeah…
D-Lo: I said no at first because I didn’t want you to think I was choosing her over you. You and I are finally at a good place and I’m not trying to lose that. But Skye really wants this and you know I would do anything for her.
Bailey: I know...
D-Lo: And don’t think Skye doesn’t care about you either. You’re her Queen. She loves you, but that’s her mom.
Bailey: D, I get it. Believe me. I hate that the kids are separated from their mother. When things started to settle down, that part was really hard for me to deal with. Especially after Rebi was born. I felt like the bad guy, worst fellow Mom ever.
Bailey: I still think she deserved to be punished but I just question if I should’ve pushed so hard.
D-Lo: I think she deserved what she got. She needed to learn a lesson.
Bailey: Has she learned it?
D-Lo: She says she has but I honestly don’t know. That’s another reason this has been hard. Is being out of jail really the best thing for her or my kids?
Bailey: I don’t know that answer either, but don’t let my feelings and issues with Mizuki play a part in your decision. I would never hold it against you or Skye if you decide you want her home.
D-Lo: Would you ever consider meeting with her and squashing everything?
Bailey: Absolutely not. I’m cool with you and the kids but that’s it. I have no interest in talking to her, dealing with her, forgiving her, none of that. Maybe that’s still something I need to work on but not today!
D-Lo: Ok I feel you. I’m not even trying to change your mind. As long as you don’t hate me because of her.
Bailey: I don’t. Not anymore.
D-Lo: Ha! Ok.
Bailey: Do what’s best for you and the babies. We're good. I promise.
D-Lo: Great.
Bailey: Speaking of babies, I need to find mine before I go.
D-Lo: Speaking of babies, I'm kinda hurt you thought I got her pregnant again.
Bailey: I meannnn... It’s not that impossible.
D-Lo: I’m a changed sim!
Bailey: Mm-hmm.
D-Lo: No faith! Sad.
Bailey: How worried do I have to be about this doctor situation?
D-Lo: (Baby mama stressing me, Wifey not wanting my kids around, Not over you, Fame dropping, Dizziot pushing my buttons, Using juice to solve all these problems) I'll be good. I think this therapy thing might actually work.
Bailey: Well OK for getting your life together! I support you talking to someone about whatever is going on. And I’m here for you too.
D-Lo: I appreciate that. For real.
70 notes
·
View notes
YoungJusticeFashionWeek2024 EXTENDED day 4 - Ballet and other dances
This time with a panicky Slobo and a guest appearance from Cassandra Cain :D
Dance performance costumes are so beautiful!
39 notes
·
View notes
a mask of my own face
451 notes
·
View notes
What is the antisemitism in TUC season 1? Does it have to do with Wally the golem?/gen
[ID: an ask from an anonymous tumblr user that reads "would love to hear more about the antisemitism in unsleeping city! was a while ago that i watched it and can't remember what you might be referencing but definitely want to be aware of it.]
no, it's not about willy the golem -- i actually think willy is a great addition to the season (even if i wish we got to see more of him), and an indication to me that brennan/the showrunners were definitely trying to be sincere and inclusive. i want to make it clear that i don't think anything antisemitic in tuc is there intentionally; i think it's there out of simple ignorance, which is also why i think fans don't frequently see/comment on it either. but i don't think that's an excuse, either.
my grief with tuc1 is largely centered around its portrayal of robert moses as the villain. especially by making him a greedy, power-hungry lich working en league with bloodsucking vampires. (also his mini is literally a green skinned skull man in a suit. yikes.) here's the thing; i know robert moses was a real life horrible person, who actually was racist and powerhungry etc etc. and i know that robert moses, the real actual person, was jewish. my grief with tuc1 is not that they chose to use robert moses over literally any other person (real or fictional) to be their season villain (though i'd be really curious to know what tuc1 would have looked like with a different villain), but that they chose to take a real jewish person, turn them into an antisemitic caricature, and then only barely add other portrayals of judaism to balance that out.
like, tuc isn't completely devoid of other jewish representation. as you mention, there's willy the golem -- and again, i really like willy, and i love that it's a portrayal of a golem that's faithful to jewish folklore (ie as a benevolent, guardian construct rather than a mindless destructive monster. i am not a fan of how 'golem' is so frequently misused as a generic enemy creature in other fantasy and ttrpg spaces, including other seasons of d20). but as i said earlier, i wish we see more of him in the season, because he's not around very much, and feels a little more like worldbuilding than a full character to me. also, he's not human. jews are people.
the only other human jewish character in tuc1 is...stephen sondheim. which, again, yeah, that's a real person who really was jewish. but i really wouldn't blame you if you had no idea of that when watching tuc1. maybe from the name you could guess he might be jewish, but i don't think people ought to make a habit of trying to 'clock' someone being jewish by having a 'jewish-sounding' surname. as he's portrayed in tuc1, you'd never know he's jewish, unless you happen to already be pretty knowledgeable about the man in real life. it's far more likely you'll know him as a theater legend than anything else (may his memory be a blessing).
now i'm not saying that brennan or the showrunners should have played up the jewishness of Real Person Stephen Sondheim to counterbalance the depiction of robert moses; that just feels weird to me, especially considering that sondheim was literally alive when tuc1 was filmed and released. it's a tricky thing to portray real people in fiction alongside made up characters, especially when they are contemporaries, and i don't think 'outright caricature' is the way to go about that. nor do i think that moses' jewishness should have been played up at all, because again i don't think that would have been particularly true to the person/character, and also Fucking Yikes. but, c'mon, if you hear the names 'moses' and 'sondheim' next to each other, which one do you associate more with judaism?
and as it stands, these are the only representations of judaism in tuc1. one admittedly nice but very minor nonhuman character; one human character you'd never be able to tell was jewish; and a third human character who, while never explicitly referenced as jewish, plays into some really hurtful antisemitic stereotyping. and it was a choice to not include anything else. maybe not a deliberate one, probably more likely one made out of simple ignorance than anything else, but a choice nonetheless. in a city with one of the largest and most visibly jewish populations in the country, and a culture that is inextricably influenced by that jewish population. a jewish population which has been and continues the target of rising hate crimes for years. i know that nyc means different things to different people, and everyone's nyc is their own -- but my nyc is jewish, and it sucks that that its jewishness is referenced directly in only one very minor way, which is greatly overshadowed by its, in my view, really insidious indirect references.
i don't know exactly how to go about addressing this. obviously, the show can't be changed by now. even if it could, i think the final product would be very significantly different from what it is now if the villain was something/someone else. i think including more references to jews in new york, more (human) jewish characters, hell, even mentioning hanukkah celebrations and menorahs in windows (it takes place in late december, after all; depending on the year it's not at all out of place for hanukkah to coincide with xmas!) would help. having literally any more positive jewish representation in tuc1 would, i think, help balance the bad stuff that's there. because, yeah, robert moses was real and he was terrible and he was jewish. but he's one jewish guy in a city with over a million jews, the vast majority of whom are just normal people. i don't want him to be the only vision of us that people get, in tuc1 alone or in any media. i'm not saying that jews can't or shouldn't be villains in fiction; but especially if you are a goyische creator, you should be really careful in how you're portraying us, and if there are other contrasting depictions in your work, too, in order to not (even accidentally) demonize jewish people as a whole.
246 notes
·
View notes
What was it like for you starting out as a beginner artist? How did you improve?
I mostly just incessantly practiced, experimented, and observed a lot for as long as I can remember. I grew up on a lot of videos going over tips and techniques for beginner artists and mostly just observed their processes and would try to bring them into my art. Othertimes I would just constantly experiment with my artstyle (what if I made the shoulders more defined, what if I changed the size of how I draw eyes, what if tried drawing different body types, what if I tried a pose with a lot more foreshortening etc etc). I tried to push myself a bit further everytime like maybe spending more time on the overall piece, adding backgrounds, drawing multiple people interacting. Drawing challenges also helped a lot I think since they pushed me out of my comfort zone or forced me to approach my art in different way than what I was used to. Things like “draw something using only one line and not lifting your pen from the paper”, or “create a bunch of random shapes using a colored marker and then turn them into characters/objects”, or even just dtiys challenges were great for this. A lot of the drawings I made from these didn’t really end up being things I was super proud of after finishing them, but thats fine since I still learned a lot and they still helped with improving. A lot of it was honestly just not being afraid to draw something I might not be happy with later in the name of getting that practice in and trying new things all the time.
I hope this is helpful, but I’m not too sure so I’m sorry if it isn’t, this is the best way I could think of summarizing it!
33 notes
·
View notes
omg hi hello happy sunday :3 i hope u are all well and that the sun has come out to kiss u on the cheeks ! ! ☀️ it’s been a bit so i haven’t checked in recently. . . despite that i hope everyone has been taking care of themselves! ᡣ𐭩
22 notes
·
View notes
does anyone else ever think about the fact that kory deserved the world and instead all she got was a team of whiny losers (affectionate)
21 notes
·
View notes
took a mock ielts test today
30 notes
·
View notes
Anyways, I declare this era as Steven Universe Fixation 2: More Fun, Less Bullshit
21 notes
·
View notes