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silvergeek · 2 years

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I had no idea that Tolkien fans were so nasty and racist.

Any time I try to look up any information about Rings of Power, comment sections are overwhelmed by racist freaks. I swear to fucking god, these people don't have anything worse going on in their lives other than a film studio hiring a Puerto Rican to portray an elf or a black English woman to play a dwarf. (Even Isildur is too ethnic for some of these fans. Like jfc, so sorry he's not a WASP.)

What blows my mind is the sheer number of complaints, just about each one of them starting with, "I'm not racist but..." and ending with this rant insisting that Tolkien wanted all of his fictional little magic characters to be white. (Ok. Fair enough. He probably DID envision them all as white. He's a dead guy who was born in the fucking 1800's.)

Lol. "I'm not racist but I can't stop obsessing over the hobbits' skin color!" Jesus christ.

1. I'm currently re-reading the Silmarillion and nowhere does it explicitly state that everyone must be Caucasian.

2. There are numerous citations about some people actually having darker skin (e.g. harfoots).

3. The people who are screaming, "But this is OUR contemporary European mythology! Stop shoehorning black people into it!" Newsflash: there are black Europeans, assholes. Born and raised in your fucking countries. They know no other culture aside from --whichever country they gotta put up with your shit in. (Yes, my grammar sucks. Fuck off.) Why the hell do you act like these people do not exist?

I can't say the USA is any better with these attitudes, but I thank the fucking stars for having visibly outspoken, politically active African American women to keep our bullshit in line.

Imagine being a woman or a POC (or both) and anytime you apply for a job, audition for a role, or enter into any sort of competition and actually win based on your talents/skills, just around the corner there's a legion of assholes screaming that you were only picked because of tokenism. Imagine going through life being told over and over that your effort means nothing and that anytime you succeed at any given thing, you're just being pandered to. And imagine that the people saying this shit to you are pretending to be on YOUR side. And imagine, just for a moment, that these same people happily watch white guy after white guy walk into success and never ever question if whether or not their white guy peers are playing favorites -- because surely those people are impartial in all of their decision making. (Did they pick a white guy? It's an impartial choice! Did they pick a black lady? WOKE BULLSHIT PANDERING::blood erupts from esophagus::)

Imagine all of that, then go take a nice big shit in your garage.

Also, this uruk hai is totally gonna eat this little boy. Off topic, really. The pic is just there to get your attention.

Between the nasty backlash of Sandman and Rings of Power, complete with death threats and everything, I have to say this takes me back to the uprising of Gamergate.

They performed all of these same hate rituals, but aimed squarely at women in gaming. Zoey Quinn caught the brunt of it -- people even figured out her father's home phone number and made threatening calls to him.

I remember Anita Sarkeesian would have to cancel expos due to bomb threats.

These are typically the actions of some subhuman demographic, mostly male, aged 20's to 50's, typically white (not always) and either straight or profoundly closeted. Politically... they tend to think of themselves as freedom lovers, but at the root of their ideologies, you'll find stagnant traditionalism dancing in rhythm with contemporary neo-conservatism. Freedom for them, not for anyone else.

These are the people who don't want women to design video games, they don't want black/hispanic/Indian folks in their TV shows except as forgettable side characters, and they don't want the gays. Never ever with the gays. (And anything beyond "gay" doesn't exist in their minds. It's made up.)

I remember all this back in 2014. They review bombed games, in fact. They were a bunch of keyboard warriors for the most part. They eventually lost, because now we have a more diverse gaming industry. Most of them can only find their male gaze fixations with the big-tittied anime girls in obscure JRPG's pumped out by Japan, China, and Korea -- at best.

They're just scum. They really are. And they hate change. And they're cowards.

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gentlemanjuniper · 8 months

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Crowley, Love & the Status Quo

I personally think that "Crowley didn't realize he was in love before Nina commented on one of their domestics" is the least interesting interpretation of the State of the Relationship in S2 and it really doesn't seem to track with Crowley's general self-awareness in the confession. It also doesn't track with "you never say what you're really thinking" (implying he has been really thinking in explicitly romantic terms).

I just fundamentally cannot buy any interpretation that argues Crowley didn't have any idea how he felt. He's been actively advocating for running away together the whole show, he tempts Aziraphale with food and earthly pleasures in the Job episode to bring him closer to Earth and therefore closer to him (why else would he do this??), it's all very 'come be with me and be my love' type stuff, but with plausible deniability.

So I think Crowley knows, but Not Naming It is convenient, a well-established pattern wherein plausible deniability has been the very thing that actually let them have one another thus far. It's what they've been doing for centuries to protect themselves ("I don't even like you" / "you do")--the unthinkable, friendship and love between an angel and a demon, can exist between them so long as it's not openly acknowledged or named for what it is. It's what they're used to, what they've tacitly agreed on--we both Know, but we won't Name it, because Naming it could destroy it. And Crowley knows, instinctively, that whenever he tries to break or acknowledge this status quo--the many offers to run away or go "anywhere you want to go"--he is almost always rebuffed (he "goes too fast") or negociated down ("maybe one day we could dine at the Ritz"/"you can't openly help me stop the apocalypse until I come up with the godfathers plot that technically allows you to argue you're thwarting me not helping me"). So the status quo seems like an agreed-upon condition of their relationship, a foundation that lets them functionally have each other so long as it remains open to interpretation and neither of them openly acknowledge that they're in this dance specifically because they want the partnership itself.

So, IMO, in that scene, he's rattled because Nina is calling out something they've been deliebratly not naming, not identifying, for 6000 years out of mutual self-preservation. It's not because they don't instinctively know (again, "don't even like you"/"you do"), but because Not Naming It has been their protective shield for their entire existences ("we've spent our existence pretending we aren't"--again, pretending implies at least a little self-awareness). Not Naming It allows them to float ambiguously around one another without having to define, and therefore test the relationship. So Nina is disrupting his image of a seemingly inevitable and inescapable status quo that we see at the very beginning of the season he's unsatisfied with; she doesn't somehow magically have more insight into his relationship than he does, she just highlights for him the reason why he's no longer satisfied with keeping it unnamed and unspoken.

Because he's in love. Because the reason he's been feeling dissatisfied, as we see in the park, is because, even if he's been trying not to think about it or acknowledge it openly to himself, he does actually want something else, something Named*. To me, this moment is the moment Crowley awkwardly realizes he wants to break the agreed-upon status quo, but knowing that doing so means he has to cop to all the vulnerability of wanting and asking and NAMING, the possibility that Aziraphale doesn't want it Named, the real risk of rejection and the loss or corruption of the coded, agreed-upon no-man's-land that their relationship has always, always needed just to EXIST in the first place.

TL;DR: Oblivious for 6000 years is way less compelling to me than than 'for 6000 years we have had to maintain an elaborate dance just to be together and I've finally realized what I want is to drag you off the dance floor entirely.' *To me this also tracks with the Lockdown special where Crowley tries to inch them forward by using the pandemic as an excuse to move in. It's a permissable cover for what he wants, which is to be to together.

#good omens #good omens season 2 #good omens spoilers #ineffable husbands #aziracrow #meta

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crescairis · 3 years

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I was wondering if you had another source that otherlinkers were explicitly excluded from the original definition of otherkind in 1990? The source on AnOtherWiki leads to a 2001 FAQ that doesn't mention anything like that. Also, otherlinkers aren't the same thing as KFF.

(just as a warning, this is going to be a LONG post, but i'd rather not put it under the cut for archival reasons, in the case that for some reason this blog disappears)

firstly, i'd like to apologize for phrasing things as if KFFs and otherlinkers were the same thing; a better phrased way to say things would be for me to say that i think many KFFs would be otherlinkers, were they to acknowledge that their experiences don't fit the definition of otherkin.

something else i'd also like to note that i've been thinking about (while it isn't exactly related to this question) is that perhaps people are misinterpreting the terms "voluntary" and "involuntary".

i feel that many people think "voluntary" simply means the initial decision to willingly take on an identity, which is, in part, true! however, voluntary identities are very likely to become involuntary, simply because it becomes too emotionally/mentally difficult to separate oneself from the identity that they've chosen.

being drawn to something, or someone, enough to take it on as an identity can often be a sign of something deeper! i would see this as a form of awakening in and of itself—like cracking open a geode, or perhaps like putting on training wheels before you experience the real thing.

but back to your first question: the way i initially phrased that post was also rushed, as we were trying very hard to write it during a single lunch break at work.

the term otherlinker is a very recent invention (coined in 2018 on the alt-h discord server, while copinglink was coined in 2015 by who-is-page), as being otherkin has always largely been considered a serious, personal experience. only recently have people NEEDED to specify that it's involuntary, so the only sources i can give you are ones that cite otherkinity as being intended as a serious identity, as well as those that state that otherkinity is not as shallow as a game or roleplay.

also important to note is that many of these pages were made and existed before fictionkin were a largely documented (let alone accepted) presence, thus they are scarcely mentioned, (and typically with skepticism or even scorn,) save for on their own, smaller pages. for our own personal comfort, we will not be listing sources that discredit fictionkinity completely.

firstly, here's a full timeline of otherkin history by orion scribner, to show the scope we're looking at

Otherkin Lexicon by Orion Scribner: "Otherkin are real, non-fictional people who identify as other than human. Otherkin identify as creatures from myth and legend, usually elves, faeries, and dragons. This is a sincere identity, not role-play. Many otherkin identify as other than human for spiritual reasons; that is, they classify their identity as otherkin as a personal spiritual belief. Being otherkin is a very individualistic thing: each otherkin reaches his own explanation for how and why he is an otherkin. Some of their common spiritual explanations include that they are other than human in spirit, or they were other than human in past incarnations.187 Although spiritual belief is often involved, “otherkin” isn’t a religion. As such, each person who identifies as otherkin practices whatever religion he individually wants. It has always been the case that most of the otherkin community practices Neo-Pagan religions, and so that religious perspective shapes the common views and ideas in the otherkin community. Some otherkin don’t use spiritual explanations. Some otherkin believe that they are physically other than human, or that their ancestors were."

A Field Guide to Otherkin by Lupa: "The definition for Otherkin I will be using for this book is: a person who believes that, through either a nonphysical or (much more rarely) physical means, s/he is not entirely human. This means that anyone who relates internally to a nonhuman species either through soul, mind, body, or energetic resonance, or who believes s/he hosts such a being in hir body/mind, is in my own definition of Otherkin. Some people do have more stringent standards. However, for the purposes of this book, I am including a wider range of people.

"This is not a roleplaying game. When a person says s/he is a dragon, or a wolf, or an elf, s/he is not referring to a character that s/he only becomes during a gaming session. That which is Other is a constant part of the person; s/he is the Other at all times. Grey, a wolf therian,says it marvelously: “Perhaps I should say that if a being is a color, or a sound, I am two items merged to form a different color/sound. The two are within each other. Sometimes plain to see, sometimes deeply mixed.”"

A Simple Introduction to Otherkin and Therianthropes by Orion Scribner: "Some real people think of themselves as kinds of creatures from mythology. These people call themselves “otherkin.” An otherkin has the belief that he is a creature from mythology, such as an elf. He says that elf is his true self. It is his identity. This is real to him. It isn’t a pretend person that he plays in a game."

The Otherkin Resource Center: "1 : one who identifies with various mythological archetype as vehicles of spiritual evolution and self-expression, similar to Native totemism only with a stronger level of self-identification.

"2 : someone who believes in reincarnation, and that not all of their reincarnations were as a human."

What are Otherkin? by Tirl Windtree: "By far the most common explanation from those who fit the definition (even if they don't claim this specific label) is that whilst their physical forms may be human, their essence, soul or equivalent term is not.

"Of those, the majority make their claim based on reincarnation - what they have been in a previous incarnation so strongly affects their current incarnation that they still identify with it. Obviously this requires a belief in reincarnation, and in the transmigration of souls. Both are reasonably common in a number of religions and spiritual beliefs across the world."

"The most frequent accusation is that all otherkin are lost in fantasy, they've played one too many D&D games and gone over the edge. Personal study seems to indicate this is actually one of the least frequent explanations. Most roleplayers know they are roleplaying, even if they are also otherkin, and roleplaying can be a very useful tool in self exploration."

The Lostkin Project by Gazer: "Otherkin are the supernatural among us. They are the elves, dragons, nymphs, and trolls that used to live more openly amoung humankind. Some are from other dimensions and other places. You may occasionally see them refered to as Otherkind. Otherkin is the more generally accepted term."

Otherkin Coalition by Kreyas: "What is Otherkin?

In a nutshell, Otherkin are a coalition of people who share in common the belief that some internal part of them is somehow incongruent with the rest of the human race. Beyond that, beliefs vary too widely to classify them into any one group.

Some of the most common beliefs are that the soul is somehow different from human. This may go in hand with a belief in reincarnation and “imprinting” (in which a past life as another species leaves an imprint on the soul which is then carried over into the next life), or the individual may believe that this is his/her first life and they are simply different.

Above all, Otherkin is a spiritual belief.

"Are Otherkin really a bunch of delusional, socially maladaptive kids like I read on that website?

NO. As with any group, not everyone fits the stereotype. Any community is going to have its bad apples which stand out in people’s minds better than the typical members. In my experience, Otherkin are usually levelheaded and able to question their beliefs and function in human society.

"Is it a Roleplaying thing?

NO. While some Otherkin may participate in roleplaying, strictly speaking the beliefs are separate from the roleplay - even if they are roleplaying as their identified “kintype”."

Otherkin FAQ v 4.0.1 by Arhuaine, Miaren Crowsdaughrer, Thistile Kachunk, Golden Syrpent, Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, Jarin Dreamsinger and The Crisses: "The Otherkin are those people who believe themselves to be spiritually and/or physically other than human. While mythological species (elves, satyrs, fairies, dragons, and so on) are widely accepted as being included under the term "Otherkin", many people in the community prefer to include aliens, vampires, furries, extraterrestrial humans, and other nonhuman races. A mythological or literary equivalent is not necessary to be included under "Otherkin"; there are types of otherkin that have not shown up in known legends or fiction (star-dragons, Elenari, etc.)."

What are Otherkin, Anyway? by Adnarel: "Otherkin is a term that is generally used to describe people who, In some way or another, physical bodies aside, do not feel that they are “human” in the conventional sense of the word. We (they) feel as though their spirits are not human, nor have they ever been, despite our physical bodies and outward appearance. Some otherkin have testified that they feel that this is their first time on this plane of existence, a.k.a. Earth. Others feel that they have been here numerous times to teach and to heal people. Maybe once they were here in their “true forms”. Otherkin use the term “true form” to describe what they feel to be the shape and nature of their true selves."

What Are Otherkin? by Arhuaine:

"Put simply, someone who is Otherkin feels that they have a soul (or souls) other than human. Usually this encompasses what are commonly regarded as mythical beings such as elves, dragons, fae, satyrs and so on. A broader view of otherkin might also include therianthropes (were-creatures) and those with animal souls (such people are sometimes known affectionately as "furries"), and also perhaps people who consider their souls are alien (often called star-born). The lines between Otherkin and Furries or Star-born are often blurred.

"Most Otherkin feel for most of their lives as though they don't belong. Human society seems alien and unfamiliar in many ways. They may feel isolated and unhappy, yet unable to explain these feelings at first. Then, perhaps they may begin to remember a life other than their own. Sometimes it is not easy to understand such memories, and sometimes the awakening to Otherkin-ness is a difficult and frightening process, especially if they are going through it alone. It is something not easy to share with others, for fear that they may consider you crazy.

"Being Otherkin is not something to crave, nor is it glamorous. It is a difficult and lonely path to tread, and sometimes it seems to bring only sorrow. Memories of loved ones long lost, a home that can no longer be reached, cause great pain. And yet, the life of the Otherkin is not all sadness. It is a life filled with wonder and magic, and a way of looking at the world that humans can never understand. Because magic is so much a part of an Otherkin's outlook, they may be drawn to Paganism or other New-age philosophies."

Are You 'Kin? by Gazer: "To really find out if you are otherkin takes searching. No, not on the internet, inside. You have to reach inside yourself and really look at yourself. This ,for the most part, is an inner journey. You have the answers, not me or anyone else. If you are otherkin then it is a PART of you, but you may be the only person able to find it.

The best others can do to help you is to provide pointers. Show you ways to search inside yourself, tell you how they found something inside themselves. We can hold a mirror up to you, but you won't see anything unless YOU do the looking, and what we see from our side of the mirror may not be the truth."

Otherkin Phenomena: "Otherkin are people who believe themselves to be something other than a human being on a spiritual, psychological, energetic and some even on a biological level, and choose to identify with that non-human fragment of themselves to the point where they count it as a permanent and ingrained part of their personal mythology and/or identity."

and there's plenty more! i'm just tired

i hope this helped answer your question, and perhaps gives others some insight as well!

#otherkin #alterhuman #asks #long post

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bushybeardedbear · 3 years

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So I've been considering writing and posting this little issue I've had with something. Sorry to anyone following me who doesn't care about MLB. And sorry to anyone who doesn't want discourse on their dash. I will tag accordingly...

So, all that said...

The Native American Miracle Box

Is it just me or is it a little problematic?

So, on the surface it's great to see it. It's using Native American symbolism and mythology. It's establishing that other cultures communed with and harnessed the Kwami. (Though, one could argue the Miraculous in general actually enslave these god-like beings but that's a whole other can of worms I don't want to open...) Jess being a Native American hero, wielding the Miraculous of Freedom. Its all superficially really encouraging, inclusive and nice.

But, this is a big but.

There's a huge period of Native American history where one would assume access to Super Heroes might have been a little useful.

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on the historical events, because I'm not. I'm not going to pretend I speak on behalf of or in replacement of anyone anyone else, because I don't. If anything, my ancestors may well have been complicit in the acts I'm referring to. So if I'm wrong, call me out on it. If I'm misrepresenting anything, do the same. I'd much prefer other more relevant voices than my own be talking about this and to be listened to. I'm only saying this because to my knowledge, nobody else seems to be talking about this.

This isn't an easy topic, but America is founded upon genocidal colonialism. There's no two ways about it. Indigenous populations were murdered on a vast scale. The effects and marginalisation that resulted are still a part of people's everyday struggle. I'm fully aware that something like a cartoon talking about genocide and the lasting effects it has might be a little outside its remit, but there seems to be something inadequate about the way Miraculous Ladybug simply removes the Native American Miraculous from the equation and in a completely dismissive way.

So, based on what little information is out there, we are to believe that at some point in human history, some Native American people became aware of, communed with and created tools to harness the Kwami. In the centuries that followed, nothing was done with them. And then in around about the 16th century, these ancient powerful artifacts were just for no given reason or cause scattered around the world somehow. Then, it wasn't until the American war of independence that one of these artifacts were first used. By a white man.

Tell me its not just me that sees this as somewhat problematic?

Imagine if this was for example a hypothetical Jewish Miracle Box. Arranged in a box shaped like the Star of David and with Miraculous forged by Moses to free his enslaved people. And somehow, let's say around the 1920s, the box and its contents just conveniently go missing just before a major historical event involving Jewish people.

Wouldn't that be rightly seen as a bit messed up?

Even writing that hypothetical makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

So, isn't the Native American Miracle Box a very close parallel to the scenario I just laid out? Disappearing just before the colonisation of America happened? Or am I being somehow unfair and over-analytical? Please, if I'm talking nonsense, tell me so.

So, to my mind it feels a little like these new Miraculous have the trappings and essentially superficial decoration of Native American Culture. The most recent hero to weild them, also Native American. On the one hand that should obviously be applauded. But in the context of the Canon ignoring or marginalising the struggles of Native Americans and essentially using the peoples and cultures as decoration, isn't that a kind of clueless cultural appropriation? A kind of Colonialist attitude to the various Native American cultures as a kind of way to score points for appearing superficially inclusive?

Did Thomas Astruc or any of the Miraculous staff ask any indigenous peoples or groups for input before including this, for instance. I don't think for a moment it was actively malicious. Just, honestly a little thoughtless.

Though I suppose it's easy enough to argue that the integration of these super heroic power items into world history is in general not a great idea. Is this actually part of a larger trend of lazy world building written from the point of view of someone far removed from the historical horrors he's pushing his magic toys into?

It's one thing to argue maybe Sun Wukong, Robin Hood, the Pied Piper or other apocryphal and legendary figures held the Miraculous. Legends don't have a real world impact beyond the imaginations they spark, their place in the cultural zeitgeist. But when real world history is an issue, maybe you should have made an active choice to make your entire setting into its own historical reality based in mythology?

A similar issue to the historical problems of the Native American Miracle Box popped up in earlier episodes. Whilst not explicitly stated, it was strongly implied that during WW2, Master Fu guarded the Chinese Miracle Box from The Axis Forces. Preventing them from falling, he says, into the wrong hands.

So, why would Fu at no point consider that choosing heroes at this critical point in world history might not have been wise? Was it somehow morally wrong to intervene in defeating an ideology that threatened millions of people? Could any of the Miraculous in the hands of the Allied Nations have been considered the wrong hands given the enemy they were facing?

The issues are only compounded when you consider the Miraculous have existed in one form or another through all of human history. Yet its only now that they factor. We have to consider that either the Miraculous are always conveniently not available when certain conflicts happen or that they were indeed used but changed nothing meaningful.

If you're going to say these ancient relics have existed and been used for centuries, why not go the extra mile and examine how they've changed history? If you don't want to ever deal with the real world history, then perhaps only have the items show up in the modern day? It's the Half and Half response of "they only matter when it's easy to say they matter" that invites discussion of odd choices in the writing.

Maybe my willing suspension of disbelief for MLB is just shattered after season 3 was so... Unsatisfying?

Whatever the case, I'm just wanting to vent, put my thoughts out there and say that maybe attempting to insert new mythology into the existing world history and YET not having any impact on world history seems like its poorly thought out and best and deeply insensitive at worst.

#Discourse #miraculous ladybug #Miraculous Ladybug Discourse

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