#without bodily autonomy you have NOTHING. if you do not OWN your body you own NOTHING.

[uncanny-tranny]

I know I've talked about this before, but as somebody with Strong features who has been mocked for it, it really infuriates me when people bully others for changing their strong features through surgery instead of criticizing beauty culture, you know, a big issue as to why people with strong or ethnic features are often bullied or even discriminated against. When you bully people for altering their appearance through surgery, you may just be victim-blaming somebody. Beauty culture is the issue, not somebody using their bodily autonomy as they see fit.

#beauty culture #honestly i think one of the reasons people have stopped mocking me for my features is simply because... #...they were 'masculinizing' features and since i am a man people aren't as willing to 'call it out'... #...now that people have recognized my manhood i've noticed they're less inclined to call out the features they see as masculine... #...because it's like saying 'the sky is blue!!!!' and expecting people to be horrified and shocked #even in a post-beauty culture world 'cosmetic' plastic surgery would still exist #because it is an aspect of bodily autonomy #i have some Thoughts on this #(i will say in the first few tags that people have still pointed out my features but like. my dysphoria doesn't latch onto it anymore) #(and i've embraced that i just look Like My Dad and i always have and probably always will) #this was just inspired by somebody expressing that they changed their strong feature because of bullying/beauty culture... #...and people were making fun of *her* instead of criticizing and hating beauty culture for tormenting her for how she existed #would she have changed her strong nose if not for beauty culture? who knows because that isn't the world we're living in rn #but you can't just ignore how painful it was to have been TORMENTED for your NATURAL BODY #like that's honestly the lowest of the low imo #and i 100% support her decision because her bodily autonomy is *absolute* #without bodily autonomy you have NOTHING. if you do not OWN your body you own NOTHING.

[vectorisheree]

"You ever wonder what it would be like to wake up outside your own body?"

Holy shit!? Holy fucking shit????? Very surprised that they're actually acknowledging the fact that Eclipse was apart of Moon- practically was Moon (or is Moon, he was at least a fragment of old Moon, are we counting fragments as equal to the person, or ai, themselves?), since he definitely sees himself as Moon, referring to Moon’s body as his 'own'. Eclipse was discarded part of Moon, an unfavourable aspect of Moon that, instead of accepting it as a part of himself, Moon tore and ripped Eclipse, his killcode, from his code and abandoned within Sun, quite literally dumping his main problem on him (in him?)

And like, old Moon had some serious issues and anxiety over losing his bodily autonomy, being trapped in Sun again (to the point that another dimentional version of him literally ends up killing Sun for his, perceived, freedom) , and I'd like to assume that this trait is shared with Eclipse, who was once promised his own freedom through Moon's, only to have it stripped away, only to find himself still stuck, fragmented and alone. Abandoned, disposed of. Betrayed at the very least.

How could Eclipse ever forgive the man who discarded him and left him to rot? Personally, with the way things are going now, I don't believe he could, not on his own, not without some serious intervention (through Earth or new Moon, or whoever really) or guidance. Old Moon is dead, replaced by a convincing replica, nothing that new Moon says or could say about old Moon's actions would really get to Eclipse, both because of his current general distrust of Moon, but also because new Moon is a completely different person to old Moon, he can't apologise and atone for the actions of another, not in anyway significant, its just not the same. Eclipse holds a grudge against a dead man and he'll never reach a satisfying end for himself. What can he do? (Even in a dimention where Eclipse does get the star, his previous main goal, he never seemed too happy) I think that Eclipse will have to accept what has happened to him and that he can't do anything about it before he is able to move on and grow around his past.

"...Horrifying."

I was already working on an Eclipse rant from like last week as well, what a coincidence, so I'll keep this short (will post at some point this week or month or year) (My wording was pretty bad in the last part but I do think that an Eclipse redemption could be possible, just that it would take a lot of work from multiple parties)

#Btw do people find the italics annoying? #Genuine question because I feel a little self conscious about it #I was gonna do a Ship of Theseus part but I can't be asked #tsams #the sun and moon show #eclipse sams #sams eclipse #sun and moon show eclipse #the sun and moon show eclipse #tsams eclipse #myposts #vecramble #VecText #tsams moon #tw swearing #eclipse tsams

[pastadoughie]

incase 1 of you needs 2 hear this :

a)

ai art is shitty and explotative, and while i dont think that neural networks are bad as a concept, they can be done ethically, but at this point every single large company that has ai shit is doing it in an extremely shitty way. art that is posted on the internet isnt yours to steal and make profit off of. you do not get to take the art of unconsenting random internet users, throw it into a shredder, and sell 7.99 a month subscription packadges for people to be able to eat some of the dust it spits out.

while i previously was more lax on people on reposting my art so long as they credited me, i ask that you not fucking repost my art, under any circumstance if you are on a platform that is scraping art, or on a site that is not properly set up to deal with scraping. the only acception to this is commisions where you have explicitly asked me.

this includes tumblr.

b)

reposting without credit is always bad, even if you dont know who to credit. you should under no circumstance be posting artwork that isnt your own without giving people a way to see the artist, and you need to link it in a way that is ACTUALLY USEFUL, give multiple links to multiple platforms, do not use 3rd party link shorteners, include mirrors and archive captures, provide a plain text spelling of usernames for every platform you link to, ask for explicit permission of the artist, opt out of any ai generation tools. or if you are on a platform that does not allow for this do not post it at all, and you have to have all of this very clearly visable and easily readable

if that is too much effort for you then you shouldnt be posting it. with literally zero exceptions.

c)

biological sex is not real and people can do whatever the fuck they want with their own bodies, even if you deem it as "self harm". under no circumstance should you take away peoples bodily autonomy, someone could literally be sawing their arms off for funsie wunsies and i would still say they need to have freedom and privacy, and it is ultimatly THEIR call what they do with themselves.

gender is similarly also not fucking real, people can dress however they want, fuck whoever they want, and use whatever words to describe themself with that they want. and if you think that boys wearing dresses or some shit is somehow harming you then you are ligitimately fucking pathetic. if i fucking ran a political campain saying everybody wearing a scarf was a pedo and a rapist and we need to ban scarfs forever would you fucking vote for me? are you that scared of people being able to? do what they want? jesus.

d)

genocide is bad. regardless of who does it.

regardless of the scale of cruelty, there is nothing that a group of people from a certain state, ethnicity, religeon, ect, can do that justifies murdering civilians. there is never a justification for genocide.

implying, under any circumstance, that someone is somehow evil for their background, appearance, religous beliefs, country of origin, sexuality, gender, ect. is shitty or worthy of violence because of that is, and i cannot stress this enough, fucking disgusting. nazi shit. even.

e)

i do not support zionism. i do not support antisemitism. i do not support racism.

also the iof is actively commiting a genocide. you should donate to a relief fund for people currently suffering from this, as well as call your house and senate members. as have i.

f)

people often times claim that people they dislike, largely minorities, are pedos or rapists or something of the sort. this is something that has been happening for, and i cannot stress this enough. all of fucking history. people were fucking saying these exact points, verbatim, to argue in favor of SLAVERY okay? if you are spouting the exact same shit as fucking nazis and colonizers and slave traders, then consider, you are a horrible fucking person.

you have to be EXTRODENARILY SKEPTICAL when accusing a minority of a serious crime, and spreading information about it. because if a bigot can just say "oh theyre a pedo" and you believe them at FACE VALUE then guess what? you are just as much of a bigot as they are. minorities are people, and people do terrible things, but just like you should be doing with EVERYBODY, you should be actually looking into things before you accuse someone of being a shit person, and often times, you are not knowlagable enough about someone to make those kinds of claims anyway.

#the beast speaks #retchid opinions

[animentality]

"periods are a universal woman experience that trans women could never relate to-"

Except not all women have periods frequently or at all, due to a cavalcade of medical issues or simply age. Are women in menopause just not women anymore?

"having a uterus is what makes a woman a woman-"

except women get hysterectomies. For a million medical reasons. Are they not women if they develop ovarian cancer?

"being pregnant/giving birth makes a person female-"

A lot of women don't do this or want to do this. Some women get c sections and some have natural births. Some miscarry, some get abortions. You don't get to decide what they call themselves, based on how you define your own female experience.

"a woman is someone who grew up with misogyny and the male gaze. a trans person could never understand-"

You don't understand because you're an idiot.

Different women experience different forms of misogyny. Black women experience harsher forms of misogyny based on their gender and their race. White women don't know the lived experiences of latinas and their relationship to womanhood. Chinese women live different versions of womanhood from Korean women or Cambodian women.

Some women experience blatant misogyny such as being outright forbidden from leaving the home or the country without male guardians.

Others experience more subtle misogyny, being discouraged from sports, expected to take on the role of mother even if they're working full time and their husbands just expect them to still be a housewife.

Womanhood has never been universal.

You are not born a woman. No one is.

You become a woman.

Just as you become whatever society teaches you to be.

A student, a laborer, a wife, a mother.

None of these things are biological facts. They are cultural.

They are the things we taught one another. But they are not immutable law, and your world is frightening and strange and nothing is as controlled as you'd like to think.

So choose now to stop being a fucking moron and think.

These people claim to be feminists but then turn around and insist they can label and brand real women and not women.

That is because these people are not progressives, but fascists who want to limit personal expression and civil freedoms.

You tell me that you don't think trans people should be able to choose what they do with their own bodies and then turn around and insist you're prochoice and pro women's rights and pro bodily autonomy?

You raging buffoon. you absolute joke.

The path you've chosen trails downward.

You have no other recourse, you're just too dumb to see which way you're going.

#feminism #terfs go die btw #transgender #lgbt #trans rights

[menalez]

Hi! Do you think you could explain how gender critical people can support body autonomy in cases like abortion but not transition? I know you believe that medical transition doesn't change someone's gender. But under the ideals of body autonomy, would you support a woman taking T if she still called herself a woman instead of a calling herself a trans man?

And in general, I know radfems are anti-plastic surgery, but wouldn't that too fall under one's body autonomy?

I'm just trying to figure out radfem and gc ideas but I'm running into some inconsistencies.

honestly i was a bit baffled by this ask and couldn't help but feel like its bait bc ... how is cosmetic surgery that is harming your body, incredibly expensive, and done as a result of self-hatred the same as not wanting to carry a baby & go thru the risks of pregnancy for 9 months? to me these are such blatantly, fundamentally different things. but let me assume this isn't bait and you're asking in good faith and address your points.

I know you believe that medical transition doesn't change someone's gender.

this shows a complete lack of understanding on what beliefs i even hold. i don't think medical transition "doesn't change someone's gender" i know it doesn't change a person's *SEX*. this difference is very crucial. gender = gender roles, gendered expectations, etc. it is a social construct. it has nothing to do with anything medical nor biological, its a social contruct that varies across time and cultures.

But under the ideals of body autonomy, would you support a woman taking T if she still called herself a woman instead of a calling herself a trans man?

why would i support the act of taking synthetic hormones which are actively harming your health just as long as you Identify a certain way? it doesn't matter to me what you call yourself. i'm critical of medical transition because it is costly, harmful, and rooted in questionable beliefs. i'm critical of how readily it is promoted. i am critical of how profitable it is to pharmaceutical and medical industries. i am critical of how little research is being put into ensuring the safety of it as well as research into other methods of dealing with sex dysphoria. whether you call yourself a man or a woman is the least of my concerns.

you use the term bodily autonomy, but you seem to be under the belief that bodily autonomy = a person gets to do whatever they want with their body and their choices are always above any criticism or analysis and it does not matter how much their choices are harming them or others. by that logic, if you don't support an anorexic woman starving herself or getting a liposuction, you are against her bodily autonomy because you are not allowing her full agency over her body. by that logic, if a woman tells you she wants to get a BBL or have implants put in, you need to validate and encourage that choice because to question harming your body is to oppose bodily autonomy. but that is not what bodily autonomy is. here is a definition:

Body autonomy is defined as the ability of one person to demonstrate power and agency over choices concerning their own bodies. These choices must be made without fear, threat, violence or coercion from others.

Body autonomy allows individuals the freedom to make their own choices about their bodies. This is significant to a person’s health and wellbeing.

now, if there is a group of people being told that they need to transition ASAP and being told constantly that without transition they will kill themselves, is that or is that not going to instill fear? because if i was told that i need to take an action as early as possible, lest my life be miserable and doomed, then im going to want to urgently take such an action out of fear. if parents are being told "do you prefer to have a dead daughter or a living son?" or w/e, is that not coercion and threats?

moreover, we know taking synthetic hormones for cosmetic purposes can be extremely harmful for one's health. women with high levels of testosterone naturally suffer from a lot of health consequences as a result, nevermind people who alter their body's hormones. this is fundamentally different from a woman choosing to get an abortion because a pregnancy is costly, risky, has health consequences, and will impact her entire life for at least the next 18 years of her life.

that said, i'm not blaming people who do pursue cosmetic procedures or artificial hormones and i'm not against them. i am against the industries promoting this and making it difficult to even have a conversation on this, even pushing against research that does not benefit their financial interests. i am against the promotion of cosmetic surgery as necessary, healthy, and somehow healthcare. i think that there NEEDS to be more research into medical transition, the impacts it has on health, its usefulness and helpfulness, and alternative treatments. the lack of such research and the lack of constructive conversation on this topic is where my concerns lie. not with identity politics like what someone calls themselves while harming their bodies.

so ultimately, i'm not understanding what you think is an inconsistency here. questioning profitable industries and cosmetic surgery which are modern inventions rooted in amplifying people's, namely women's, insecurities for the sake of profit is not at all the same as an abortion and it's worrying to me that you don't see the difference. providing blind affirmation to every choice an individual makes is not bodily autonomy, its individualism and liberalism to another degree. bodily autonomy is allowing individuals the right to make informed, healthy, decisions for themselves. a woman deciding she does not want to go through 9 months of pregnancy and 18 years of child-rearing is not the same as a woman deciding she hates her body and thus MUST get a boob job (which ultimately harms this person's health rather than helping), or someone deciding they hate their sex and thus MUST get surgeries to pass for a different sex (which also ultimately negatively impacts the person's health, even if it provides some psychological relief which potentially could've been gained via a different approach like therapy).

#some1 harming themselves isnt above criticism simply bc we can argue its bodily autonomy usin the most individualist definition of the term #anonymous

[aronarchy]

Let’s Talk about Toddlers and Consent.

Nov 6, 2021

My daughter can be very, very affectionate. Tight hugs, big kisses, tickles, holding hands, sitting in my lap, you name it—if this kid feels like cuddling, she wants ALL the cuddles.

But she has also been, from the get-go, very much determined to be in control of how and when that affection happens. Maybe she’s in the middle of something and doesn’t want to be disturbed; maybe she’s feeling overwhelmed and being touched is overstimulating; maybe she just doesn’t feel like hugging or kissing right now. She has absolutely no worry about hurting anyone’s feelings when it comes to that stuff.

The first time she set that boundary verbally, she was barely two. I had asked to tickle her and she had giggled and said yes, but after a minute she grabbed my hand, pushed it away, looked me dead in the eye, and said very firmly, “Mama, STOP.”

And you know how I felt about it?

So. Damn. PROUD.

I have always encouraged that. Whether she says no when I ask, or tells me to stop because she changed her mind after saying yes, I tell her, “Okay, then I won’t hug/kiss/tickle you. Thank you for telling me you don’t want that.”

Now that she’s getting a little older, I routinely ask her: “Who makes the rules about your body?” “Who makes the rules about someone else’s body?” It’s a routine part of our lives at this point, and she knows that she makes the rules for her body and no one else’s, and that she and no one else makes the rules for her own body.

Now, not everyone likes this. Some people have felt deprived of those messy baby kisses, overeager toddler hugs, and now, almost-four-year-old squeezes and hand-holding. They get sad when they have to say goodbye without a hug, or hurt when she spurns their kisses.

To that I say: Suck it up and deal.

She is absolutely not wrong for deciding that affection should be on her own terms, and nothing makes me more upset than when relatives push back against this.

“Don’t you want to give me a hug? I won’t see you again for a while!”

“Aw, you don’t want to give me kisses? Don’t you love me?”

“I’m so sad, can’t I just have one of your big hugs to make me feel better?”

NO.

“It’ll make [person] feel bad if you don’t [perform specific act of physical affection]” is a guilt tactic I’m not okay with using.

Same with “It’s just [type of physical affection], it’s not a big deal.” “Don’t be uptight, it’s just tickling.” “It’s only a hug, it won’t emotionally scar her.”

I will never give my daughter the message that she owes someone physical affection, or should be okay with her boundaries being crossed if it was “not a big deal” or “nothing was meant by it” or “they’re just playing” or whatever.

I know it’s meant innocently. But if you grow up hearing “You can’t say no to being touched if the intentions aren’t bad,” then you eventually internalize that.

They’re “Just Playing,” so you’re a prude if you tell them to stop touching you.

“It’s not even a big deal,” so you’re a bitch if you get mad about being groped.

They “feel like you don’t love them” if you reject their physical advances, so you get guilted into things you don’t feel totally okay with.

Yes, familial and platonic touch are very different from romantic and sexual touch. But the message is the same—“Regardless of whether you want to be touched, these acts of affection are expected from you, and you’re wrong to refuse them.” You don’t think that message gets internalized, and applied to other relationships?

We teach very young children that they don’t have bodily autonomy, and then we’re surprised when they grow up not understanding consent. It has to start young.

It starts with asking permission—“Can I hug you?” “Can I have a kiss?” “Do you want the tickle monster to get you?”

It starts with setting an example on enforcing boundaries—“Mommy needs some space right now, can you please stop climbing on me?” “I don’t really feel like a kiss, I don’t feel good right now. How about a high-five instead?”

Most importantly, it starts with giving your child permission to say no, and always, always respecting that “No.”

My goal is for my daughter to be so accustomed to her “no” being answered with a full stop—no attempts at persuasion, no guilt, no “it’s not a big deal”—that the idea of someone NOT listening to “no” is completely foreign and jarring. I want her to be shocked and appalled at the audacity of anyone who tries to touch her without her permission.

I want her to see persistence without consent as a MASSIVE RED FLAG, and that’s not going to happen if I start off by teaching her as a child that she owes physical affection to people who love her.

I’m trying to teach my daughter that she always, ALWAYS has autonomy over her own body, no matter who she’s with or how much they love her, and that I will always have her back against anyone who dares to disrespect that.

#repost of someone else’s content #Medium repost #parenting #youth rights #youthlib #abuse culture #assault cw

[swordsonnet]

anyway:

1. sex is literally just an activity that humans can do. it's not a prerequisite for being human, it's not something everyone needs or desires, and shaming people for how much or little sex they're having contributes to toxic attitudes around sexuality.

2. however, sex can be deeply meaningful in both positive and negative ways, so pressuring people into having sex when they don't want to/aren't ready for it is incredibly harmful.

3. i can't believe this needs to be said, but you can in fact be educated about sex without being sexually active yourself, and you can be deeply ignorant about sex despite having it ("but it feels better without a condom, and if i pull out in time nothing can happen!"). sex education is a thing for a reason, and last i heard, it didn't involve a practical component (aside from putting condoms on carrots, i guess). people being misinformed about sex and/or having puritan attitudes towards it aren't necessarily that way because they don't get laid - plenty of conservatives manage to produce children, after all.

4. there's nothing wrong with being a virgin. never. unless you don't want to be a virgin, in which case you still shouldn't be shamed for being one. whether you're asexual, you have trauma, you don't feel ready for it yet, you haven't met the right person yet, or you just don't want to: you shouldn't ever have to justify yourself for not having sex. it's your body, and you're the only one who gets to decide what is right for it. (there's this neat little thing called bodily autonomy, you see, which some people on here conveniently choose to ignore so they can dunk on other people's sex life.) "getting bitches" is not actually an indication of your worth as a person - not to mention the obvious misogyny in that rhetoric, which, yikes.

5. in a similar vein, it's not "sad" to not be sexually active. many people enjoy sex and consider it an important part of their lives, yes, but many people don't! your experiences are not universal. you don't get to tell others that respecting their bodies' needs is a tragedy just because you can't see beyond the narrow scope of your own life.

6. many people, especially those from marginalised groups, are targeted for their sexuality, that's true. and i understand that there's a certain power in defiantly reclaiming your sexual expression in the face of those oppressive forces, but that doesn't give you the right to attack others for expressing their own sexuality (or lack thereof). asexuals, and other people who don't have sex, aren't responsible for those norms, and are in fact harmed by them as well. the conservative ideal of sexuality is not total celibacy - it's having sex in a restrictive, "acceptable" context, and any deviance from that is punished.

7. let me be absolutely fucking clear here: shaming people for not having sex promotes rape culture. you either respect people's consent and bodily autonomy or you don't, and if you're ridiculing people for setting sexual boundaries (and yes, "i don't ever want to have sex" is a perfectly legitimate boundary), then you've clearly shown that you don't. is that really the side you want to be on?

#made the mistake of looking at the tags on a post about sex and was filled with a blinding rage that could only be released via #a slightly messy mini-essay typed entirely on my phone. you know how it is #asexual #ace #sexuality #rape mention #oh fuck my tea has gone cold

[shivroy]

i just wanted to talk about my decision to start masking again a while ago, because it was pretty much entirely influenced by listening to my peers/folks on here circulating actual information about the pandemic & that it is not fucking over.

i was initially privileged to have believed that hearing about covid less and less as time went on meant that it was really going away, because it was not affecting me or my health. i believed the left-leaning media sources and liberal bubble i was in that told me it was safe again to go out without a mask. but like. safe for WHO?

it's hard for some who have grown used to the "convenience" of not wearing a mask to hear this, but nothing has changed since 2022 - covid hasn't gone away. every time you go out without a mask, there is a legitimate risk you may catch covid and unknowingly spread it to countless others, including disabled individuals for whom this virus can and will have devastating, potentially permanent impacts.

i think it was incredibly important that i heard & absorbed the sentiment that you can begin masking again at any time. yes, YOU! and me! i have started again and you can too! tell your friends! get others masking! i'm genuinely not saying this out of any concern for myself (although i have pretty bad asthma so i don't know WHY i convinced myself that not masking was like... ever fine. i guess it was because everyone in my life and all mainstream liberal media is acting like everything's fine!!! when it's not!), i am saying it for those whose health is more tenuous than my own and as a healthy and able-bodied person it should and will be my responsibility to take measures to protect people who deserve bodily autonomy and safety. this is what a good society does: it protects its most vulnerable. the entire world is not doing this, but we CAN, and it WILL make a difference. if you believe disability rights are human rights: wear a mask.

#ok to rb #this is not worded in the strongest ever way but i just think its really important to say #even just saying “you can start masking again” is important #i encourage you to say it to your friends #the more people who say it the better

[coochiequeens]

"You’d just be carrying it for nine months," they countered. "You wouldn’t really have to do anything." Something only an entitled man would say.

Why I Refused To Serve As A Surrogate For My Best Friend And His Partner

My uterus isn’t for rent at any price.

By Tracey Folly — Written on Aug 11, 2023

I am child-free by choice. There is nothing about carrying and raising a child that appeals to me.

So when my best friend and his partner approached me to ask whether I would serve as a surrogate for their baby, the answer was clear.

"No," I said. "Thank you for thinking of me, but I can’t carry your baby for you. Good luck finding someone else, though."

My friend and his partner were flabbergasted.

Sure, they understood I didn’t want kids of my own, but this wouldn’t be a kid of my own. They had been certain I’d agree to help them but they were wrong.

"You’d just be carrying it for nine months," they countered. "You wouldn’t really have to do anything. Besides, we’re willing to pay you."

I wouldn’t really have to do anything? It felt like they didn't understand a thing about what a person’s body goes through during pregnancy and childbirth. As far as offering me money, that was the least they could do, but it wasn’t enough.

My uterus isn’t for rent at any price.

I knew that my friend and his partner would have made great parents, but I was not comfortable with the idea of carrying their baby for them.

It was more than just not wanting to put my body through nine months of pregnancy. It was also about not wanting to be responsible for a child I’d then have to give up. 

You can’t tell me carrying a baby in my uterus doesn’t make me responsible for it.

No, thank you. Not a chance.

I can’t help but feel like, however much I loved my friend and his partner, it wouldn’t have been fair to them or the child if I acted as their surrogate. It simply wasn’t something I was willing to do, and willingness to serve as someone’s surrogate is certainly one of the most important prerequisites to doing it.

No one should ever feel obligated or pressured into serving as someone else’s surrogate; if they don’t want to do so, their wishes must be respected without question.

We all have our own opinions on surrogacy but no opinion is greater than another person’s bodily autonomy. Our friendship ended for reasons unrelated to their request to use my body as a baby factory, but the fact that our friendship did indeed end just goes to prove I made the right decision.

So despite all of the heartache, I stand firm in my decision. My body, my choice, in every sense of the phrase.

#The friendship ended for reasons unrelated to her saying no.....bs men hate hearing no #Anti surrogacy Sunday #Supposedly Heartwarming stories of altruistic surrogacy is going to create a new generation of men who will expect women to give them kids #anti surrogacy sunday #surrogacy exploits women #They could just adopt #No one is entitled to bio kids #babies are not commodities #Good for her for standing her ground #Nine months of pregnancy and childbirth is not nothing #And then there's months of recovery #Woman says no and the men say we will pay you

[quetzalpapalotl]

[slides seductively onto a piano] hello if you're open to talking blorbos may i request your fave shockop headcanons

Hello, yes, sorry I asked for questions about my blorbos and then didn't answer for like a week, I was busy playing TOTK until I forgot my own name and doing other stuff, but thank you so much!!

My favorite thing about shockop is this extremely weird relationship dynamic they have going. Like, Orion is driven by his desire to do good and help people, but has realized that what he understood was good isn't necessarily, so now he's cashing on Shockwave to show him the way, and Shockwave is so hot and talks the talk so good, Orion has unshakeable faith in him.

Like, Shockwave modified his body without asking (and I hc Cybertronians have a weak sense of bodily autonomy but still), keeps a bunch of stuff to himself and is generally very sketchy, but Orion is 100% behind of whatever he says. Hell, Orion doesn't want to be Prime, he never talks about it, we only know he knows that's what Shockwave wants bc Roller bring it up, and Orion is seemingly okay with ruling the fucking planet if that's what Shockwave thinks is best.

But that's the things, despite having him on a leash, Shockwave's plan involved making Orion Supreme Ruler because he thinks Orion could use that power wisely. And Orion is actually capable of imposing his will on Shockwave, which he only does to get Shockwave to stay put during Shadowplay for his own sake, which is SUCH an OP thing to do.

There is a great deal of mutual idolization going on. They are people will similar morals which may not be all that great. There's something very sinester underneath it all despite the fact that they genuinely meant good and genuinely care for each other. Tho a part of that caring is caring about the good they can do for Cybertron rather than for each other as people.

Not that they don't care for each other as people, they're obsessed with each other, it's just kind of a loop. But yeah, Shockwave is so obsessed with OP that even after 4 million years of Shadowplay and 12 million years of going insane, he still wants Optimus to join him and will go out of his way to try to make him see his point even if that's of no benefit to his plans.

God, JRo introduced this weirdly ambiguous sketchy relationship and then Barber doubled down on that and I owe them my life. Great work, guys! I'm not really interested is pure fluffly wholesome shockop, these guys are insane.

I suppose that's not a headcanon so much as a reading, but uh, I'm not good which such open questions. Anyway, a more straightforward headcanon is about this scene

This would be their first time meeting after Shockwave joins the Cons and after the flashbacks of exRID #17. The reason the dialogue is so impersonal here is ofc, because Autocracy was written before Shadowplay and so before the mysterious Senator was established to be Shockwave, But my headcanon of what's going on is that the last time Orion tried to talk to Shockwave he tries to appeal to who he was and their relationship and got nothing. So he decided to try the opposite and treat Shockwave like a random Decepticons thinking that his Shockwave was so vain he would hate Orion acting like he's nobody to him and that would surely get a reaction. At least something like "This isn't the first time I've saved your life" but he still got nothing :(

#quetzal rambles tf

[littjara-compleated-sage]

How do you manage to square the circle of Phyrexia and compleation very deliberately being an (admittedly fantastical) take on eugenics that forcibly assimilates basically everything it gets its hands, but still like it and not be horrified by the process of Compleation? Does it not seem somehow worse that people like Tamiyo and Glissa (two very heroic characters) have their minds and personalities forcibly twisted to serve Phyrexia? It's like if you got bit by a zombie and you still retained some personality but only in a twisted form that would help you eat people more efficiently.

Mostly because my own perspective separates the actual act of compleation from Phyrexia's assimilationist ideology. Basically, I hold that compleation (or radical modification in general) is in itself a neutral act. It can be used as a tool of subjugation if forced upon the unwilling, because that's a violation of bodily autonomy and often twists one's form into that which authorities deem most useful, rather than their own ideal of perfection.

Compleation doesn't necessarily turn someone into an agent of Phyrexian colonization. It's true that becoming compleated carries with it the burden of Yawgmoth's whispers and the history of atrocities Phyrexia has committed. However, that's something that characters can work through (as shown by the heroic Phyrexians of lore); they're not bound to perpetuating that cycle of violence.

It's similar to the discussions I've seen about body modification in cyberpunk settings. The idea shouldn't be that merely integrating yourself with cybernetics is a moral failing, or makes you less of a person. Rather, it's because augmentations are often controlled by corporations that makes them usually a very bad idea. After all, you're putting a part of yourself into the hands of an institution that doesn't care about you, which sees you only as an expendable tool of its own growth.

Getting body modifications to better suit your own vision of yourself? Great. Being modified into a tool of those in power, or being told you're nothing without changing yourself? Not so great.

In the ideal ending of the Phyrexian arc for me, at least one group would be able to separate those two intertwined things--compleation and colonization. Phyrexians would be able to exist, and humanoids would be able to ascend if willing, without being tools of conquest.

#i hope i'm making sense here #if you have clarifying questions feel free to ask #but please be polite #mtg #magic the gathering #new phyrexia #askbox #anon

[uncanny-tranny]

Bodily autonomy extends to people doing things with their bodies that you, personally, do not like.

One thing I am very tired of seeing is people spreading the idea that certain procedures or bodily adornments should be outlawed simply because they don't think it's "right." For example, I saw a person spreading a person's nose job result around, saying it should be illegal to do this procedure. But we have no idea why this person got it. You can absolutely criticize beauty culture without resorting to spreading peoples' image without consent, or shaming individuals who recieve certain procedures. Additionally, you can encourage individuals to reflect on their choices and why they want certain things, but you cannot expect them to ultimately conform to what you think is best.

We can advance the idea that all bodies are worthy inherently and no matter what, but we ought to continue to do so regardless of if that body has had changes made to it. "Your body, your choice" as an ideology extends to making choices others don't like.

Again: When you don't own your body, you own nothing.

#beauty culture #i am in favour of destroying beauty culture. i HATE it. i want it DEAD #but you can't pretend like everybody will stop altering their body without beauty culture #this isn't about nose jobs by the way it was an example of an instance of what i was talking about #my dad doesn't like my diy tattoos but it didn't stop me from owning my body #this just feels like it can slide real quick into arguments about why transition surgery should be banned #i admit: i am uncomfortable with some procedures or altercations that people do to their bodies... #...BUT my opinion shouldn't override their freedom. i want that person to be safe and happy. i don't want them to be miserable or unhappy #all bodies are worthy no matter what actually #we are mature enough to realize this genuinely #body shaming #body shaming tw #biggest pet peeve is repeating myself but i will do it in the vain hope that maybe my voice will be heard

[runawaymun]

So I have written a lot about food and food insecurity in the aftermath of trauma and I focused mainly on Maedhros, Húrin (who there is actually some canon examples with), and Morwen (a different kind of trauma) and I know you posted some about Maedhros too so I was wondering if you had thoughts on how this affected Celebrían. I really love all your ideas and writing on her and I had some of my own thoughts but I wanted to ask!

-@outofangband (sorry if this is disorganized, I wrote it right after waking up)

aaaaaa!

@outofangband 

Thank you for the opportunity to ramble about this!

Buckle up. This ain't a fun one, guys. And it's so so so long.

CW: discussions of suicidal ideation, force-feeding, eating disorders, & unhealthy relationships with food due to trauma under the cut.

Celebrían post-torment kind of lives rent-free in my brain. It actually really bugs me how little I see of her in the fandom from this period in her life, and usually when I do see content about this it's about how her torment affected Elrond which is very unfair to her. It's her trauma, after all.

I tend to describe Celebrían's relationship with food post-torment with three words: repulsion, obsession, and disinterest. (Unlike, say, Maedhros where I would describe his relationship with food post-Angband as being characterized mostly by insecurity, anxiety, and compulsion).

In regards to Cel, let's talk about repulsion first.

Food Repulsion

The issue of Cel's repulsion to food post-torment is really complex. The first and simplest part is that it's strictly biological. I really don't think she was given much to eat during her torment that would have actually agreed with her. When the body goes for extended periods of time without food, the stomach shrinks and becomes very sensitive, and it takes a while for it to acclimate to digesting things again. This also feeds into disinterest-- it was genuinely hard for her to want anything to eat when she was ill post-torment-- in the "nothing sounds agreeable and everything I eat makes me nauseous" sort of way.

And then there's the less fun aspect of why I suspect she has repulsion to food post-torment, and that comes down to force-feeding.

Tolkien mentions (I think) more than once instances of orcs force-feeding disagreeable substances to their captives. Chiefly I'm thinking of Merry & Pippin and the weird "orc draught" the Uruk-hai gave them. I can't think of any other specific instances currently off the top of my head, but I remember reading that part as a kid and being viscerally disgusted and freaked out, and that part still haunts me every time I read it. Force-feeding is such an intense form of psychological control. I'm thinking of the times during the women's suffrage movement when women went on hunger strikes and then were force-fed with tubes/funnels. It's a violation of bodily autonomy. It's even worse when you're being forced to consume a substance which may have an altering effect.

And it's clear from the scene with Merry & Pippin that the orc draught had an altering effect and tbh I always read it as being something the orcs enjoyed doing.

And just in general, orcs seem to enjoy torture and infliction of distress. So firstly, I believe Cel was force-fed this orc-draught, seeing as it has an "invigorating" effect and possibly would have essentially made her last longer to be toyed with and tortured. Secondly, I think they probably force-fed her some gross stuff (i.e. stuff orcs like eating. Raw flesh/blood etc.) because they found her reaction funny.

So naturally, this is traumatic, and naturally, Cel isn't really going to have an appetite for anything but, perhaps, water when the twins get her home.

It was very difficult for Elrond to get her to take any medicines. She logically knows this is her husband and that he's very safe and that he's trying to help her, but Cel isn't going to want anything that may alter her mental or physical state. On top of that, being fed anything is going to be triggering. This is made especially worse in the very likely event that during her early recovery she has to be fed, which is re-traumatizing.

This is distressing for everyone around her, obviously, especially Elrond who is only trying to help. This is especially distressing for Cel because she knows, she knows that everyone is trying to help her and that she has to eat to stay alive, but the act of swallowing has become so utterly traumatic that it probably sets off a gag reflex and causes her to vomit most (if not all) of what she's being given.

This takes a long time to work through.

-

Obsession (and Compulsion)

Okay let's talk about obsession. For Cel, the repulsion actually feeds into the later obsessive and compulsive behaviors which she develops to cope with her repulsion and anxiety. This is going to be a shorter section because I just don't want to linger on this for very long.

Once she is able to keep food and medicine down, she develops an obsession around making sure she knows exactly what she is eating and exactly how much she is eating. She doesn't develop a hoarding issue like Maedhros did. She begins to pick apart and count everything she's eating. It takes hours to finish even the smallest meals. As this progresses she refuses to eat anything that she hasn't seen prepared in front of her or she hasn't prepared herself. She isn't being intentionally difficult, it's that the anxiety around not knowing what's in her food makes her physically ill & makes her reflexively vomit.

This carries over into Valinor.

She doesn't eat at group functions anymore. She doesn't eat meals with others anymore. She is aware that her behavior doesn't make sense, that it's "strange", that it's unhealthy. She has a great deal of shame around this that she can't manage to get rid of. Very few people in Valinor understand this trauma and she has no desire to talk about it. So she just doesn't socially eat anymore. It's very isolating.

This eases with time and intentional help and work. Again, I'm not sure if she ever really heals herself of this anxiety. That shit lingers with you.

-

Disinterest

Now let's talk about disinterest.

This may seem to be in conflict with obsession, but it's not.

This goes hand-in-hand with her repulsion, but mostly it's caused by intense depression, and is a problem that gets worse and worse in the months leading up to her departure.

As it becomes more and more clear that Cel just....isn't getting better, she really begins to feel guilty, I think, of the toll that she's taking on her family. She feels like a burden. She doesn't want to cause them any more distress. She is tired and ill and sick at heart.

So as things progress, she just...eats less and less. Part of this is because she just hates food and hates what it makes her feel and hates the distress all of her trauma around food causes everyone around her, and a good chunk comes down to the nausea and visceral repulsion.

The other part is that she just...

doesn't want to be here anymore.

And Elrond just will not let her go. He's trying so hard to help her heal. And Cel feels guilty because that's really unfair of her, she feels, to not work so hard herself when he is putting his entire being into saving her.

This is when their marriage bond starts to fracture (I don't think it ever broke entirely, but I think there was a moment where they were on the verge). Intentionally, on Cel's part. She doesn't want to cause him pain. She starts distancing her from him as much as she can.

And this is when she really, truly stops eating.

Because she can't bear to tell him that she wants to die. How could she do that to him? When he's doing everything he can to save her? Literally giving her pieces of himself? I headcannon he was using Vilya as a last resort, here, at risk to himself. It's literally breaking him and Cel can't bear that. Not when she just feels numb. She doesn't feel like she's worth saving and she doesn't know how to ask him to stop trying.

So she just...stops eating.

And she withers and withers and withers.

And she begins to fade.

And that's when Elrond truly starts to panic.

I think there's a moment where he asks her, very bluntly, if she wants to die.

And Celebrían very quietly says yes.

And I think that destroys him.

I think it's Celeborn, actually, over everyone that suggests that she sails. Because there's really nothing else to be done. Either she sails, or she fades. Maybe she fades anyway. Either way, no one can save her except Celebrían herself.

And there is one tiny feeble spark somewhere deep inside Celebrían that wants to live. So she tells her husband, and her mother, and her father, and her children goodbye, and she leaves everything she has ever known to sail to a place she's only heard about in her bedtime stories.

Does she ever fully recover from any of this?

No, I don't think she does. I don't think her appetite every fully comes back to her. I think she's always just a little too-thin. I think she still has a difficult time eating with others. I think she just can't eat certain foods anymore. But she manages, and she heals, and she lives. That's the important part. That's what matters.

Despite it all, Celebrían lives.

#celebrian #elrond #galadriel #celeborn #celebrian's torment #meta #headcannons #lotr #silm #out of unform

[alwaysonthemend]

Hi Dee, I have read What it Means to say I Love You in the past 24 hours for like about 5 times and still has tears in my eyes. I know the question about negative comments on Jake's weight has been brought up over and over again (and perhaps too many times in my opinion) but I would like to personally thank you for writing this fic because how much it means to me.

I have been struggling with an eating disorder for the past three years, it is a secret that I kept even from my closest family. I am not officially diagnosed so that often left me feeling invalid. Because of school and my anxiety, things have been extra hard recently. I can't bear looking at myself in the mirror and hates taking showers when I have to touch and face my own body. As horrible as it sounds, I don't know who I am without my ED. Recently I've been asked to introduce myself and I have a hard time coming up with answers, I found that I have nothing much to tell, my ED is probably the biggest thing that defines me but that is something I can never tell anyone.

Reading this fic makes me cry because I just wish there'd be someone who will tell me it's ok like y/n does to Jake, and I know that there's no one beside myself. A fic obviously isn't going to change me instantly, but during the few minutes that I was reading it, I somehow feel healed and hopeful.

Finding solace and some degree of reconciliation from a reader insert fic that addresses the body insecurity of the other? sounds a bit weird, right? but somehow that's exactly what this fic do to me. I know there are many fics about one of the boys comforting reader about their body image issues but few of them speaks to me. At least speaking for myself, when you have an ED, you both crave attention and reject help: you want people to comment on you losing a few pounds and looking skinny but absolutely hate when they express their worry and say sh*t like "please eat for me". However, the way you handle the issue in the topic is full of love, accurate on the bodily experience of the insecurity and fully about self-autonomy and body positivity. I tend to romaniticize my ED and it has become my comfort zone, it is hard to realize the ugly reality when you are neck-deep in the sh*t yourself, but it is different when you see it on others. Hence why I feel so empowered by this fic. I have always been in Jake's lane and knowing that body insecurity is something that have probably affected him and knowing how much it can hurt makes me wonder perhaps I could change. And that makes this fic feels extra endearing and personal to me. The way it is addressed through "I love you" makes me think that just maybe, I can try using that love on myself as well. Things obviously won't change over night, but now at least I have found a new, positive spot to dwell on during the hard times.

I love the way you addresses the boy's insecurity, (like in Mini Fic), what you are doing is amazing. I have always believed in the power of words, and this message you want to tell your readers is very meaningful. You have helped me in ways that you don't even know. You are a very talented writer, if this is what you are passionate about, please hold onto this power.

Sorry this is long and disturbing. I'm glad if you even read it through. Sincerely, thank you.

my sweet, sweet anon. as much as i call myself a writer, finding the right words to answer this has been difficult.

to start, i want to say thank you. thank you for sending this ask and thank you for being so open and honest. though i obviously don't know who you are, please know that wherever, whoever you may be... you inspire me and i am so very thankful for you.

"what it means to say i love you" is one of those fics that though i love it dearly, i was so very nervous to post it. struggling with body image and weight is scary and can be isolating. and that fic was my way of expressing those feelings in a way that hopefully helps other people feel less alone.

i know that when im struggling with insecurity, i ache for someone to say something - to comfort me, to tell me it's okay, to tell me that they love me. and yet at the same time, im terrified for anyone to know how im really feeling. and as silly as it may seem to others, reading and writing fics that address these feelings can make that burden just a little bit lighter... just a little bit easier. they're my way of reminding myself that i deserve to be loved and that each of my readers does as well. so i am so very glad that it has been as meaningful to others as it is to me.

i have found some of my closest friends through greta van fleet and i have found a community that i love to be a part of. jake has always been a comfort to me and my love for him has helped me find others who feel the same. and anon, just as jake is loved by so many of us, so are you.

truly though, this ask made me speechless in the best way. im sitting here trying to articulate all the emotions that im feeling but i just don't think that i can. all i can say, anon, is this: thank you, im proud of you, and i love you very much. you are NOT alone.

knowing that at least one person out there found meaning in a fic that i wrote makes it all more than worth it.

and i hope everyone who follows me knows that i am always here for each and every one of you and i consider myself so very blessed to have you all.

and to those reading this, no matter who you are, no matter what you struggle with, no matter the sadness, the insecurity, the hurt, the struggles that you have gone through, no matter what you have had to face - alone or otherwise... you DESERVE comfort, you DESERVE to be seen, and you DESERVE to be loved. and i love you. each and every one of you.

and my dearest anon,

i don't know who you are. i don't know what you look like. i may never see you laugh. i may never get to cry with you or get drunk with you, or see you smile, or ever speak with you directly.

but i love you and i am proud of you.

#dee answers

[ofwolvesandshatteredshields]

Playing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided again and again delighted by how this series treats people's cyborg-ization (i.e. "augmentation"). The portrayal of societal effects of augmentation are, shall we say, a bit heavy-handed, but the personal/individual portrayals are really good.

One of my favorite scenes is early on. Adam's taken some damage and needs repairs from an expert, a happy-go-lucky machinist in a punk rock jacket named Koller. Adam has to be unconscious for this so he sits back in a chair and shuts his eyes while Koller goes to work.

There's no cutscene of the repairs. Instead your eyes drift blearily open. Koller is freaking OUT. He's scrambling and dropping his tools. He won't tell you what's wrong. Your HUD isn't showing up. He asks if you want some water. What a stupid question at a time like this. You accept, because there is literally nothing else you can do.

When you wake up you learn that there is a bunch of high tech shit inside your body that no one told you about before. Koller asks when it might have been installed, and Adam notes a period after his rescue from the Panchaea explosion from which he remembers little. This echoes the time in the first game after his rescue from the Sarif Industries assault when he had most of his body—including three healthy limbs—replaced with cybernetics by his employer, without knowledge (let alone consent) from Adam himself. Adam goes, "I'm starting to think I hate being unconscious."

It's a rather uneasy take on the whole "cybernetic superman" trope. Flesh is you, grows with you and changes with you. Cybernetics are built by somebody else and welded on by somebody besides that—people with their own goals and intents that don't necessarily align with yours, and who might very well have more control over your own body than you do. When it is much easier to disregard a person's bodily autonomy, of course it will be disregarded by those who can get away with it. The messy truth is that despite visions of a machine utopia, humans can never be entirely removed from the equation.

#same with 'computer algorithms' being written by humans and thus perpetrating human bias #deus ex #anyways. as always David Sarif Is a Fucker

[appalachiananarchist]

As many of you know, being from eastern KY, I was raised and live in an extremely conservative environment. Abortion discussions here do not happen. It is unanimously believed abortions are anti-God, and that is that. Abortion is one of the many places I’ve departed ideologically from my family and neighbors, and the recent happenings regarding abortion have reawakened some of the thoughts and feelings I’ve had on the subject for years. I just thought I would share some of the things I had gone over in my own mind back when I was making the painful transition out of the heavy indoctrination I was brought up under.

The first arguments that convinced me were the obvious ones regarding bodily autonomy: It is a fairly well-accepted idea in our society that no human being has the right to use another human’s body against their will, not even for their own survival. Even if you are the only person in the world who could donate a kidney to me, I cannot take it without your consent. Even if you died, it is considered unethical for me to take it from your corpse without your explicit prior consent. Nonetheless, a woman is to be expected to lend her entire body to another without consent. All this, and a fetus is not even sentient! It is alive and human, but it is not a person. The fact that a fetus lack sentience should make it a no-brainer that it shouldn’t get more rights than any other living, breathing, sentient human being to such as to usurp another’s body against their will. Why are we affording non-sentient fetuses more rights than women? Why are we affording corpses more rights than women? I understand that the fetus did not intentionally invade another’s body. The fetus did not intentionally do anything, again, because it is not sentient enough to have intention. However, this changes nothing. The manner by which a person comes to rely on another is irrelevant. You still do not magically get the right to usurp their autonomy, even if it wasn’t your fault or choice to be in the situation that would require you to do so. The fact that there was a choice to have sex is likewise irrelevant. Choosing to have sex =/= choosing to be pregnant, or to allow another human to utilize your body for 9 months. It is also a core idea within the concept of consent that it can be withdrawn at any time and for any reason, and that includes pregnancy.

Though I don’t think it should be a core argument, because it is highly philosophical, I think it is still an important one: a fetus is not a sentient person. The very idea that people would force fully realized, sentient human beings to undergo something as emotionally and physically scarring as a state-enforced involuntary pregnancy for the sake of a potential person is sickening. Back when I was indoctrinated, I was pro-life. I know the arguments and the sentiments. I KNOW that none of you all actually believe a fetus is the equivalent to a walking, talking person. If you had to choose between allowing an embryo to develop or allowing five year old girl to continue living, there would be no difficulty and no hesitation in that choice. You KNOW the difference. Plus, you don’t actually treat those who have had abortions like murderers. If a woman had an abortion and later became pro-life/expressed regret, you’d welcome her with open arms and probably even try to make her a major voice in your communities. If a woman who murdered her two school-aged children later said she regretted it and wanted to advocate for children’s safety, you’d slam the door in her face and likely call the police. You know the difference.

Other arguments I considered were more practical ones, such as health concerns. For one thing, pregnancy is not benign. There are serious health risks associated with it. These risks increase when you are disabled, chronically ill, or part of marginalized communities. People may have to discontinue chronic medications that had kept their conditions in check previously. If I became pregnant, I would have to stop the medications I require to keep my disease in check. Due to the nature of my illness and the list of medication I have already failed, I would have no alternatives to take during pregnancy. I would have to stay unmedicated for 9 months and pray that I survive it. It is NOT the place of any state to force me to take that risk on for the sake, again, of a POTENTIAL person. Furthermore, people may develop new medical problems as a result of pregnancy. Patients may suffer long term complications from surgical interventions during delivery. They may die as a result of certain conditions or complications. Pregnancy is not just lending your body out for a few months. It is a huge undertaking that changes a person forever. It is not the place of any church or state to force a person to undergo these permanent risks to their physical and mental health, or to take on the role of a physician.

As many have said before me: you cannot outlaw abortion. You can only outlaw safe abortion. A person will always do what they must to preserve their own autonomy, so the choice becomes clear: would you prefer one dead body, or two?

Financial concerns: Pregnancy is expensive with frequent appointments and hefty hospital bills that could lead someone to financial ruin, especially if they have a complicated pregnancy. Even if a baby was born as a result of this pregnancy, many would be born into poverty. As a nation, we do not have the support networks in place to adequately respond to the financial, social, health-related hardships that would result from large scale state-forced, involuntary pregnancies. Debates and legislation focused on forcing the birth of these infants without also working on legislation to secure stable, healthy environments for them reveal how little pro-life camps actually care about these babies as people. I stead, they are just symbols to them, easily discarded and forgotten when their use has passed. At the end of the day, most pro-lifers I have interacted with are deeply passionate about preserving these precious babies but don’t care about the mother or about what happens to these precious babies once they are born--and certainly not once they grow up! Most are not just ignoring efforts, but oftentimes actively opposing efforts, to create the socioeconomic safety nets necessary to give these children stable and healthy lives. We have so many children right now--living, breathing, sentient children--who are suffering because of cyclical poverty. I may not be religious the way that I once was, but I highly doubt God appreciates you ignoring the plight of these children while waging war for non-sentient fetuses you intend to politically abandon the moment the cord is cut. A reassessment of priorities is badly needed here. 

So there you have it. Those are just abbreviated versions of some of the many points I went over in my head all those years ago. I am posting these in the hopes that others in a similar situation to what I was in--raised a certain way, but open to questioning--may see them and find them helpful.

#my ramblings #if I sound angry it is because I am.