Laudna to Delilah: Will you hold me?

me and the baddest bitch on earth who I managed to pull by being a beautiful bisexual with brown eyes

It's the last entry, dated February 23rd.

Sheryl Lee & Kyle MacLachlan | Twin Peaks

It’s December so everyone put in the tags what your favourite book(s) you read this year is (are)

C1E60 || C3E88

I am not particularly interested in a “redemption” narrative for incels. That is a question for those individuals to ponder. We do not implore the victims of other forms of terrorism to absolve and educate their tormentors. Nor do we require that other extremists be acknowledged as some kind of wounded, misunderstood victims. It is ironic that so much pressure is brought to bear on women to allow for the humanity and individuality of fallible men when it is precisely this courtesy that incels unfailingly refuse to pay to women.

But I am interested in the men in between. The boys who fall through the cracks. The “good” men who feel scared. The ones who went looking for help, because they felt frightened or sad or lonely, and haven’t been able to disentangle themselves. The ones who just haven’t heard about any of this yet. The ones who look the other way on the bus. Because we can’t change anything without those men. So how do we reach them?

Laura Bates, Men Who Hate Women (2020).

Importantly, she's just spent a lot of time talking about men-led feminist groups that do good work, both in terms of reducing domestic violence and other "traditional" feminist concerns and in terms of providing other narratives, support structures, and information about things that men, like all people, care about: how to keep yourself safe physically and emotionally; how to cope with feeling frightened or uncertain; how to communicate with other people in a world that feels zero sum and frightening.

It's a good, thoughtful discussion of what it means to respond to radicalization in an effective way: you reduce the pain points that funnel people towards radicalized groups, you provide them with positive things to do to help themselves, and you provide empathy to anyone who is willing to provide empathy back to you. But you don't immolate yourself on the altar of healing people who already hate you: you focus on the ones who are easy to help first, the ones who need only a little help, and then you expand.

It's a heavy book, but well worth reading—and not only if you're interested in online misogyny and radicalization. I would recommend the book to anyone with an interest in gender, building a better world, deradicalization, and effectively handling terrorism.

-Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 91, "True Heroism"

Do you push deeper? Yeah.

like. something that really struck me during saw x is the stark difference in the way amanda treats male subjects vs female ones, and it's something that's also very apparent in ii and iii. she's kinder to the women and wants them to win - and even when she's playing the role of the docile taunting apprentice, she has fun with it. like it's flirting for her. it's definitely something that lends credibility to lesbian readings of amanda (something i am always shocked isn't like, canon) but it's also very...heavy, given the way men have treated amanda all her life. john and hoffman and cecil and her father in the original saw iii script. what amanda knows from men is manipulation and violence and i think it's a very powerful feeling for her, to get to be the one making men scared of her. i don't think she enjoys watching people suffer, but i think she enjoys not being the victim for once in her life.

it's also important that the two women involved in games she helps orchestrate that she DOESN'T feel sympathy for or find any connection with are kerry and cecilia. kerry, who was close to eric matthews and wanted him to be alive and well even AFTER finding out that he was violent and corrupt and planted evidence. and cecilia, who preyed on desperate and innocent people and either conned them or manipulated them into doing her bidding. women who either allowed her to be harmed or harmed people like her.

and god. it kills me that amanda is able to see herself in gabriela and recognise that cecilia manipulated her and used her as a pawn. but she isn't able to see that john, like so many men in amanda's life before him, is doing the exact same thing.

historians were WRONG 🖤💜 also I used this illustration by Ed Vebell as a reference

look at how fucking messy this bitch is!!! drink your people juice normally you bastard asshole, you eat like a toddler!!!!!

Urban fantasy pets on New Year's Eve:

Griffin - Stubbornly pretending that it does not care and just...doesn't feel like going for a walk or a flight right now. For no reason at all. Just because it happens to feel like staying inside right now

Salamanders - Keep trying to climb up through the chimney of their fireplace because the airs smells so unusually delicious tonight. Must be bribed with hard coal to keep them inside

Kirkegrim - Circling its home in protection, thereby roaming through the dark like a ghostly canine shape in the smoke and dust filling the air, its red eyes lit up under every flicker of light from above. Probably absolutely terrifying the neighbours

Hippocamp - Still just chilling in the water. Really not that bothered, as long as it can dive down deep enough when there's too many flashing lights

Dragon - Thinks roman candles are a delicious snack. Chews on sparklers. Will end up spitting out spinning balls of coloured fire. Must be locked inside the house and is so so sulky about it

Jackalope - Having a very bad no good horrible time due to all the sudden noises. Prefers to burrow away or hide against its human. At risk of bolting at accidentally driving its antlers through random objects

Phoenix - Escaped its aviary. Soaring among the fireworks. Having the time of its (current) life

Literally got whiplash from how fast that mood changed

sketchy stuff mostly inspired by the upcoming live action movie aka me me trying my hardest to be creative and come up with cute outfits