youdonothavetochoose

[youdonothavetochoose]

Not trying to spark controversy or anything, but why do people want to JAIL LIBRARIANS??? What is even the “logic” behind that??

I linked to several articles in that post about librarians yesterday -- beyond that, I don't think I can really put myself in the head of people who are clearly off the rails. I *imagine* if you ask the nitwits who are calling the cops on librarians, they would probably say that they feel that the librarians are "giving pornography to their children" and are "pedos/groomers." So then people who don't know much about books (which is A LOT OF PEOPLE) hear that and they think, yikes, well, obviously, I want to protect children from groomers! Who would want to be on Team Groomer? I'm on Team Protect Children!"

Which means that suddenly, the LIBRARIANS are by default on Team Groomer, when what they did was... just be a regular librarian with regular books.

Here's another article about the multiple current bills that could affect librarians in Louisiana -- one could result in fines or jail time for libraries/librarians affiliated with the ALA (which the lawmaker claims is "a Marxist organization" -- uh ????) -- another would make librarians liable if a book is deemed "obscene" (presumably by a bunch of people who think EVERYTHING is obscene).

Again, we are not dealing with "logic" here.

As I said yesterday -- Conspiracy Theorist Me says: It's easy to dismiss these people as fringe conservative kooks. And they are. BUT, somebody bigger is pulling their strings. The Kooks are just the foot soldiers of the rich people / politicians, and what THEY want, ultimately, is to get rid of public libraries and public schools altogether. (Presumably for $$$ and Control.)

So they gather their kooks into these incredibly well-organized groups and get their weird members onto school-boards and whatnot across the country, and target their barrages of frivolous complaints in such a way (and in such ludicrous volume -- the majority of the THOUSANDS of complaints in 2021-2022 were made by the same 11 people) -- that it is easier for the school board or library board or whomever to just cave than to keep fighting it. And once you start removing this book or that book, it's a slippery slope.

#books #christian stuff #library stuff #this part of it is so familiar to me bc of being raised baptist that i sometimes forget other people truly do not understand the vehemence #like are book banners overeaching bigoted hyprocrits? of course #but in the minds of the true believers this is a spiritual battlefield with the eternal damnation of their children at stake #if you cannot convince them otherwise all you can do is ensure law and policy do not cave to them at the expense of everyone else's rights

[youdonothavetochoose]

semiaquatic secret agent

#perry! #he's irresistible #phineas and ferb #other people's art

[youdonothavetochoose]

#for like an actual decade i knew when all the new eighth graders were reading The Outsiders #because they would arrive on deviantart and start liking and commenting on my fancomics en masse #a blessed time #i don't think the kids use deviantart anymore and honestly that's probably for the best #that being said i'm pretty sure all the other classics where i participated in fandom were things i chose to read #because i was a little freak who thought reading Phantom at 12 was a good idea and didn't realize it would rewire my brain

[youdonothavetochoose]

this goes for art, too. i stopped worrying so much about my style when i took my first college art courses. these were basic bitch drawing classes, we all just sat around drawing cones and boxes for weeks before we even got to still life, and quite a few people in those classes were artists and we could draw whatever it was with decent accuracy. but our pieces still looked different, because everyone has a different inclination/instinct about how to apply tool to page, how to translate reality to representation, on top of any conscious choices you make about composition or value or whatever. it's pretty cool.

I think one of my favorite creative joys is seeing how many different things people can do with the same concept. give ten writers the same starting point, or basic plot, or set of tropes to use and you're still going to get wildly different end results

the details you focus on, the ones you omit, turns of phrase, tone, and framing, the cadence and tempo of the sentences themselves, all the little fingerprints you've left littered across the prose — how you tell the story matters, and your personal voice is what makes it unique

[youdonothavetochoose]

Painted Schinia Moths (Schinia volupia) feeding on Indian Blanket, family Noctuidae, East TX, USA

photographs by Craig Furr

#moths #oh my god look at them #i'm really hoping i see some cool moths with year

[youdonothavetochoose]

new ebooks?!? new audiobooks????!!

more fiction! more non-fiction! more YA! more juv! more poetry! more comics & graphic novels! so many NEW BOOOOKKKSSSSSS 📚

browse our new additions here~

#very excited to read some bannon #queer fiction #library stuff

[youdonothavetochoose]

have i ever shown u people my hand sofa

#for a theatre design class i once had to design sets for NO EXIT #and one of my concepts was like everything is people #the lamps are people the tables are people i found these terrible chairs that were creepy faces #anyway this would've been great for that

[youdonothavetochoose]

I’m actually serious about this, if at all possible, right now is a very good time to request queer books from your local library. Whether they get them or not is not in your control, but it is so important to show that there is a desire for queer books. I will also say getting more queer books in libraries and supporting queer authors are pretty fantastic byproducts of any action.

This isn’t something everyone can do, but please do see if you are one of the people who has the privilege to engage in this form of activism, and if you are, leverage that privilege for all you’re worth.

For anyone who can’t think of a queer book to request, here is a little list of some queer books that I think are underrated and might not be in circulation even at larger libraries:

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J. Brown

Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco     

Harvard’s Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals by William Wright    

The Perks of Loving a Wallflower by Erica Ridley   

God Themselves by Jae Nichelle

IRL by Tommy Pico        

The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World’s Queer Frontiers by Mark Gevisser

Passing Strange by Ellen Klages             

The New Queer Conscience by Adam Eli

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom          

Queering the Tarot by Cassandra Snow              

Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser

Queer Magic: Lgbt+ Spirituality and Culture from Around the World by Tomás Prower            

Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Kit Heyam   

Beyond the Pale by Elana Dykewomon 

Hi Honey, I’m Homo! by Matt Baume      

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

Homie: Poems by Danez Smith

The Secret Life of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw  

The Companion by E.E. Ottoman 

Kapaemahu by Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson, Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu

Sacrament of Bodies by Romeo Oriogun     

Witching Moon by Poppy Woods 

Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt    

Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman    

Disintegrate/Dissociate by Arielle Twist           

Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi             

Peaches and Honey by Imogen Markwell-Tweed      

Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color by Christopher Soto

#library stuff #books #queer fiction #the only one on this list i've read is kapaemahu (it is at my library) #and it's a really lovely picture book that i recommend everyone look at if they can

[youdonothavetochoose]

In response to your poetry post I would like to offer one of my faves - to the fair clarinda who made love to me imagined more than woman by aphra behn

I would love to share this poem!

To the Fair Clorinda

By Aphra Behn

WHO MADE LOVE TO ME, IMAGIN’D MORE THAN WOMAN Fair lovely Maid, or if that Title be Too weak, too Feminine for Nobler thee, Permit a Name that more Approaches Truth: And let me call thee, Lovely Charming Youth. This last will justifie my soft complainte, While that may serve to lessen my constraint; And without Blushes I the Youth persue, When so much beauteous Woman is in view Against thy Charms we struggle but in vain With thy deluding Form thou giv’st us pain, While the bright Nymph betrays us to the Swain. In pity to our Sex sure thou wer’t sent, That we might Love, and yet be Innocent: For sure no Crime with thee we can commit; Or if we shou’d – thy Form excuses it. For who, that gathers fairest Flowers believes A Snake lies hid beneath the Fragrant Leaves.     Thou beauteous Wonder of a different kind, Soft Cloris with the dear Alexis join’d; When e’er the Manly part of thee, wou’d plead Thou tempts us with the Image of the Maid, While we the noblest Passions do extend The Love to Hermes, Aphrodite the Friend.

#did not know aphra behn was queer! love that #poetry #queer history

[youdonothavetochoose]

Did I ever post the finished Lascaux (& etc) horses here?!

This first batch of them will be available in my next shop update, but there are more getting bisque-fired tomorrow that should be going into the shop in mid-April alongside a couple more cave painting mugs :)

#oh my god #oooooh my god #other people's art #the horse child inside of me wants it so so much

[youdonothavetochoose]

Queer history fact: Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, on the 29th of August, 1867, became the first recorded queer person to speak publicly in defence of queerness. He did so by pleading with the Congress of German Jurists, urging them to repeal anti-homosexual laws. And while he was shouted down, this act was not fruitless. It was a speech that was shouted down but never forgotten because it was, for most people there, the first time they heard queerness discussed in a positive way. His continued advocacy work went on to inform people for generations after him, including Magnus Hirschfeld. In remembering Karl Ulrichs, he said:

"As one of the first and noblest of those who have striven with courage and strength in this field to help truth and charity gain their rightful place."

#queer history

[youdonothavetochoose]

THE MURDERBOT ZINE! This zine has a few pieces by me including the cover! Please check it out! PDF: LINK @murderbotzine

#reblogging the zine #murderbot #other people's art

[youdonothavetochoose]

who’s left- Mariame/Prison Abolition

by Flynn Nicholls

#comics #prison abolition

[youdonothavetochoose]

This website is too mobile focused these days. Reblog and tell me what your desktop/laptop background is.

#this post made me realize i'd had the same laptop background for too long #(it was a photo of a fancy doorway with decorative pomegranates) #so i've changed it to that one shot from spider-verse with miles and the upside-down skyline #and it is sick as fuck

[youdonothavetochoose]

#this 90yo has great taste everyone go read the magic fish #comics #trung le nguyen #video #library stuff

[youdonothavetochoose]

Please please please donate to the PCRF

Or donate to the Cartoonist Cooperative's e-sim drive that provides a handy guide to how it works and why it's important

#palestine #fundraiser

[youdonothavetochoose]

I truly believe that Queer-Platonic Relationships should go without a set definition. QPR's exist on a spectrum and they look different for everyone. Some people want somethings but not others. Some QPR's closely resemble stereotypical "romantic" relationships while others don't and that should be okay. Pushing guidelines like "doesn't include sex", "more than friends", or "require a deep bond" etc. takes away from the purpose of QPR's in the first place, to exist outside the guidelines.

Obviously, QPR's can be sexless, QPP's may define their QPR as existing somewhere between romantic and platonic, and some people do prefer a deep bond before getting involved in a QPR, but to make that the standard defeats the point of having a term that means to have a relationship outside of the standard.

I think that might have made sense? I am not too sure I just saw posts talking about people pushing hard fast definitions as to what a QPR is and decided to spit out my opinions on it.