One of the most important aspects of the aromantic community as a movement is championing the belief that "friends can be just as important and fulfilling as romantic partners."

My problem with this is that a majority of the aromantic community takes that to mean friendships are fulfilling and important instead of the full meaning of the phrase.

However, what the meaning of the original phrase says is both "friendships are fulfilling and important", and, "friendships don't have to be important and fulfilling at all."

It says both "Friendships can be fulfilling enough to fill the emotional need that alloromantics fill via romantic partners", and "If romantic partners are not important, then friendships can be just as unimportant as romantic partners."

However due to the general phrasing of the question it skews the interpretation to only include the first meaning. I think it should be "Human emotional need and the way it becomes fulfilled is highly varied, and that's a fact of our species" but I think that comes with the drawback of being a Bit Too Radical (TM) for the average uninformed person, so in practice I think as friendships are recognized as equally or more fulfilling as a romantic relationship, we should shift to that "human emotional need is varied" as a next step.

Overall, I just have a general distaste for the way most people think only other people can fulfill one's emotional needs. Pets and hobbies and books and art and shows and games can all fulfill those emotional needs as well. But the average person would laugh at you if you said your emotional needs are fulfilled by wikipedia.

My emotional needs are extremely fulfilled by reading about cyanobacteria and microplankton, thank you

*likes aro posts*

Tumblr: so you want aroace posts? You're aro ace? You're ace? Your entire dashboard is exclusively ace now you're welcome

I'm so glad that y'all are so into Monkey Man and the badass hijra priestess army, but friendly reminder that hijra are NOT trans women. Hijra are their own distinct gender; trans women are women. India has both :)

“This ship propagates abuse so I'll harass you until you stop shipping it!”

1. No, I will not stop shipping it.

2. Even if I did, abuse would still exist. Just look at what antis do despite them consuming only the "right" media.

3. Fuck you and your hypocritical ass. Incredible how antis are blind to their own faults to the point they don't realize that they are the ones normalizing bullying over literal fiction.

4. Your discomfort isn't my problem. If it's tagged, you can block the content out. If it isn't, then block the user. You can't expect everyone to conform to your triggers, especially if you don't respect anyone else's to begin with. Also, you are a literal stranger coming into my house. I don't know you or owe you anything. Gtfo.

Caption: [A stitch with user @/sapphicyuji. The text on screen reads, " "you can't misgender cis people!", you have never had your gender questioned outside of your transness and it shows. sincerely, a trans poc".

I'm actually super glad we're having a conversation about this. The masculinization of black and brown women, because for years I felt like I endured this unique form of trauma until I realized other people went through the same thing too. And if there's one thing that I'd like to add to the conversation, there seems to be this misconception that this is something that starts at puberty. Like boys tell you you look like a man to hurt your feeling when that's so far from the case.

The first time I was purposefully misgendered was in kindergarten. I was constantly referred to by the masculine variant of my name, I was chased out of the women's restroom, and I had grown adults questioning what my biological sex was before I even knew what the difference was. And those behaviors persisted into adulthood because now if I present as anything less than 100% feminine, people will either compare me to men or animals.

And for myself and for many other brown and black women this is a life long act deliberately intended to humiliate, shame, and other us for the features we were naturally born with and I'm glad we're having a discussion on how harmful it actually is.]

In the end, if children bother you for sensory reasons and that's why you don't want them to be in the same public spaces as you, there are disabled adults who can and would cause the same sensory issues for you. Adults who are loud, who vocally stim, who have poor boundaries, poor hygiene, who cry in public, etc etc etc. And they're already socially ostracized for all of this.

So actually yeah, it's the bare minimum you can do for the group with the least human rights on the planet to figure out how to accept children as part of your public community without hating them for it, even if you are child-free yourself.

In the end, if children bother you for sensory reasons and that's why you don't want them to be in the same public spaces as you, there are disabled adults who can and would cause the same sensory issues for you. Adults who are loud, who vocally stim, who have poor boundaries, poor hygiene, who cry in public, etc etc etc. And they're already socially ostracized for all of this.

So actually yeah, it's the bare minimum you can do for the group with the least human rights on the planet to figure out how to accept children as part of your public community without hating them for it, even if you are child-free yourself.

Do you ever talk to someone and they bring up trans men and it because very clear very quickly the only trans men they have talk too are the rich white trans guys who can afford to fully transition at a young age and didn’t have to deal with most of the shit other trans guys had too.

Like no I don’t think the dude who got top surgery at 16 is an accurate representation of every single trans guy ever.

from GAY magazine, 1971.

from GAY magazine, 1971.

I’ve been doing more deliberate research on clinical cynanthropy & clinical lycanthropy (cause’ lycanthropy has more particular articles on it), and it has actually made me notice WAY more stuff about myself being a dog than I ever have before.

In a few of said articles and passages, I’ve noticed that most of these other zoanthropes’ roots for understanding themselves to transform has an influence in religious delusions, and when described in more western cultures, it is described in a negative manner.

-I’ve always known myself to be cursed, hence why I am a dog (as a way to be punished), but I have never really thought much thinking of it until quite recently. There was a case of a man (from an article I read) who dealt with clinical lycanthropy, and he figured apart of it to be from him having communication with a demonic figure. Thats uncannily similar to how I feel with my dog-ness. I feel deliberately that the devil cursed me.

There is also a mention in the article of the individuals family having history with Bipolar, which is also something my family has history and current situations with. Still figuring out my exact psychosis-related diagnosis, but it wouldn’t be bizarre if it was a form of Bipolar Disorder this whole time.

(The article I brought up is “Clinical Lycanthropy: Delusional Misidentification of the “Self”.)

I also read an article of clinical lycanthropy in a 12 year-old, it mentioned how lycanthropy in medieval and renaissance times has been afflicted with “satanic forces”. Which, literally what happened to me (besides the fact that I am a cynanthrope, not a lycanthrope)

There was also this passage from “When Doctors Cry Wolf”, listing the most common told symptoms from those experiencing clinical zoanthropy.

I started experiencing this symptom from my transformations more prominently lately, so seeing that text totally caught me off guard.

Reading more and more about who I am has done huge measures to making me feel more confident and happy with who I am. It gives me a sense of security. I’ve always known I am a Cynanthrope, but seeing it written out like this makes me feel so good.

On related note, a few years ago, the Entomological Society of America officially discontinued the use of "gypsy moth" and "gyspy ant" as common names for Lymantria dispar and Aphaenogaster araneoides. L. Dispar is now known as the "spongy moth," so named for the appearance of their eggs, but I don't think a new common name has caught on for the ant species yet.

These changes we brought about, in large part, by the advocacy of Romani people in academia. You might not think that bug names are a very serious issue, but I believe that language matters. These species became known as "gypsies" because their attributes were likened to certain stereotypes and negative perceptions of actual Roma, so the continued use of those names reaffirmed those negative associations in the public consciousness. Slurs and pejoratives can never be truly decontexualized.

In my mind, one of the biggest obstacles that Romani people face when we are trying to advocate for ourselves is a lack of recognition as a marginalized group that deserves the necessary consideration. Even for seemingly trivial matters, like bugs or comic book characters, the way that people talk about us-- and talk down to us, when we get involved-- is telling. So, I always think that changes like this are a win, because it means that people are willing to learn and grant us the dignity we deserve. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to effect change in your own field, even arts and science.

As a kid, when your parents are poor, you're poor. If they don't have money, that means none of you have money. But if someone's parents are rich, that doesn't necessarily mean the kid is. Sometimes rich peoples' kids aren't rich kids, they're just some rich freak's exotic pets that can talk but aren't allowed to.

Published Feb 29, 2024

Highlights

SARS-CoV-2 Nsp1 localizes to the nucleolus, interacting with precursor rRNA

Nsp1 restrains nascent translation by disrupting rRNA processing and mature ribosomes

Repression of rRNA processing by Nsp1 is separable from mature ribosome inhibition

Summary

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) hinders host gene expression, curbing defenses and licensing viral protein synthesis and virulence. During SARS-CoV-2 infection, the virulence factor non-structural protein 1 (Nsp1) targets the mRNA entry channel of mature cytoplasmic ribosomes, limiting translation. We show that Nsp1 also restrains translation by targeting nucleolar ribosome biogenesis. SARS-CoV-2 infection disrupts 18S and 28S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) processing. Expression of Nsp1 recapitulates the processing defects. Nsp1 abrogates rRNA production without altering the expression of critical processing factors or nucleolar organization. Instead, Nsp1 localizes to the nucleolus, interacting with precursor-rRNA and hindering its maturation separately from the viral protein’s role in restricting mature ribosomes. Thus, SARS-CoV-2 Nsp1 limits translation by targeting ribosome biogenesis and mature ribosomes. These findings revise our understanding of how SARS-CoV-2 Nsp1 controls human protein synthesis, suggesting that efforts to counter Nsp1’s effect on translation should consider the protein’s impact from ribosome manufacturing to mature ribosomes.

Video Angel

painted mixed media sculpture - 7½"x 6¼"x 2½" - 1978

Video Angel

painted mixed media sculpture - 7½"x 6¼"x 2½" - 1978

Some gay men have also described being praised by people who know that they are gay fathers, as they react with astonishment over their capacity to take well care of a child without a woman in the household. Likewise, the participants in the present study described how they were recurrently praised, simply for taking care of their children. Such praise was given in situations where they had been read as fathers, i.e., presumably passing as cisgender men. One participant described a huge difference in how he was treated by people who presumed him to be a cisgender man, compared to when he was known to be a transgender man. As soon as people knew that he was transgender, and that he was the gestational parent, he was expected to be the main caregiver, and no one would praise him for his daily duties. Thus, caretaking engagements, which is often taken for granted when performed by women, seem to be similarly expected to be performed by transgender men who are gestational parents. The gender assigned at birth and/or the role as the gestational parent seem to trump the present gender identity when it comes to others’ expectations of a person’s parenting role.

from the study Transgender Men Forming Two-Father Families with Their Cisgender Male Partners: Negotiating Gendered Expectations and Self-Perceptions by Anna Malmquist