#as a fellow trans and disabled person PLEASE READ THIS | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

spaceyqueer · 1 year

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I don't generally talk about politics in the UK, but as a UK resident and trans person the hatred of trans people has escalated things to a new level here, particularly in England.

With the closure of Tavistock, which was the only NHS branch that treated trans children and young people, the 'intention' is to eventually shift the former Tavistock patients to other services, but due to the extreme wait times and the ever growing fears around trans children, they're now talking about changing the interim service. These potential changes include:

1. Adding more mental health and neurodivergency professionals to the service, which sounds like a positive except the document on the proposed changes has NOT outlined whether they will be trained in dealing with trans children and young people, and considering the current articles circulating on all sides of the political sphere about trans children potentially being just 'confused' or being trans 'because of autism' this is a questionable move.

2. Adding additional criteria that makes getting a referral to trans-specific healthcare services for a trans child that much harder, such as making it so only a doctor can make a referral (currently, counsellors, teachers, etc can also make referrals). The criteria these doctors follow to determine if a child is actually trans has not been laid out, and is very open to abuse of that power. They also haven't provided any information on how one might appeal that decision if your or your child's doctor decided they're not trans enough to get a referral.

3. The document also outlines pathologising social transition, making it so social transition be allowed only on recommendation from a doctor, meaning children who have asked their schools to change their name/pronouns because their parents aren't safe are at risk. This also means parents who allow their children to socially transition without consulting a doctor (or against recommendation) could be reported to the local authorities for child abuse. Yes, this is real.

There are many more I haven't mentioned here - a few are positive, but most aren't. There is also a failure in this document to outline how trans people of colour or disabled trans people are going to be affected, and the document has cited the Cass Report (led by a paedetrician who was assigned to assess whether or not the NHS services for trans children are suitable... warning if you read the report and/or their twitter page it is very often blatantly transphobic).

This has serious consequences not just for trans children and their families in the UK, but also for trans adults and is a foot in the door to passing more legislation that puts us at risk. So, as a UK trans person I am BEGGING my fellow UK trans folks to have a look at the NHS survey about these proposed changes (see here: the survey for the changes) and fill it out - unfortunately the survey closes on Sunday 04/12/22, so please do it ASAP! Gendered Intelligence has a whole guide on how to fill it out if you need any help. To those not in the UK, just sharing this everywhere you can would be enough. TERF Island might be a joke to you but it's our reality, and it's getting ever worse.

#trans #trans rights #transgender #transgender rights #non-binary #nonbinary #non binary #UK politics #UK #Britain #British politics #NHS #transphobia #welcome to TERF Island #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtq+#lgbtqia+#lgb with the t

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ourolite · 3 months

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୨⎯ byf. prerequisites to interact with this account are brief, but intrinsic. we value your patience and understanding on the following matters! ⎯୧

・ writing expectations. genres such as fluff, smut and angst are all very evident here, indicating both sfw and nsfw. these literary moods may be written in head-canons, one-shots or drabbles. in cases of smut, babies will not be written in any sexual or suggestive manner. when angst is written things are capable of getting intense and sensitive. reader-advisory will always be perspicuous at the head of our posts, especially those with particularly triggering themes. at times, these moods are also mixed. for example, a bittersweet work would be fluffy-angst, or a sexual scenario gone horribly wrong may be smut-angst. also, settings may be modern-based, the spider-verse, ghibli studios, jjk, possibly bleach, and various other fandoms. however, we can also get really fucking original (self-made mythical beings, self-made mythological realms, etc). our publications depend on who's writing, but really about what.

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bfpnola · 2 years

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Tap for better quality. Reintroducing the official Better Future Program Tumblr blog!

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*Trigger Warnings are written as #tw [insert here]

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The first image looks like an iPhone pastel gradient lockscreen with the time set at 3:33 and the date as Friday, March 11. One large notification is at the center of the iPhone, reading "Reintroducing" at the top left corner, "2m ago" at the top right corner, and "Good afternoon! Welcome to the official Better Future Program Tumblr blog. We're an entirely youth-run organization! Wanna learn more?" in the middle. The options to tap are "Sure!" and "Of course!"

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cats-moss-gays · 4 years

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@terflies

You’ve been all over my posts so I’m just going to consolidate into this one. I’m tired of scrolling past your long and quite frankly boring responses. This post will be divided into sections. If you’re going to respond please say something interesting. However I doubt either of us will ever change the other’s mind. These are kind of like closing statements and I doubt I’ll make anymore major responses because I’m trying to stay focused on offline things.

1. Unanswered Questions

There are some questions and statements in my reblogs that you conveniently ignored.

Definition of a woman? You responded with some generic bs that very clearly isn’t an answer. I’ll be more specific, what should the dictionary definition be? Any ideas?

If I don’t feel like a woman am I allowed to identify as one? You said you weren’t going to humour this question but it is applicable to me and many other gc women. I definitely don’t have any internal feeling of womanhood, or any gender. Does this mean I have to be agender? Is the female gender label restricted to a certain feeling? Or is there absolutely nothing that women have in common?

What is the feeling of womanhood? You kind of answered this but I have a follow up question. You say the feeling of womanhood is enjoying being perceived as a woman. If I feel indifferent to this does it mean I’m not a woman? Additionally, many women feel uncomfortable with being perceived as a woman because of the misogyny associated with the label, does this make them men?

2. Inaccurate Statements and Lies

I don’t believe any “TRAs” define women by gender roles

You may not but there are many who do. It’s also important to point out how deeply ingrained gender roles are in society; you can’t stop them by just saying your choices exist in a vacuum. I’m sure you think I’m just making this up for fun, so here are some examples ;) x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x

So this whole…thing is dishonest from the start. Gender does not replace sex.

In another post you said that laws should be based on gender instead of sex. So which is it, either gender isn’t replacing sex or it is. When feminists talk about sex based oppression they’re called terfs. When gay people say their attraction is based on sex they’re called transphobic. When people were saying that only females get cervical cancer, they were called violent transphobes. Gender is absolutely attempting to replace sex as the basis of legal protections, safe spaces, political movements, etc. Two of the top post on my blog are more extreme example of this. x - x

BONUS: You’re saying TERF rhetoric

3. The “Questions” Post

You seem very confused about how to define biological sex and to some extent I understand that but you have to stop playing dumb. There must be some way that doctors are able to identify the sex of a fetus before it’s even born in the vast majority of cases, right? And before you try to say I’m just ignoring the existence of intersex people or trying to deny science, I’ll point out that I have watched and read a lot of “sex is a spectrum” stuff. I understand that DSDs exist and that biology is complicated. Our disagreement is mostly not over the facts but over how to define them. I know that however I explain it you’ll pretend you don’t understand it, so instead I’ll just link you to some other sources that explain it more in depth. x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x

A third sex—and many creatures have more than two—does not necessarily mean a third gamete. Mostly this question is a childish distraction, but if you were to use a strict, gamete-based definition of sex the answer would be “none”.

So all infertile people are a third sex? To be female you have to be able to bear children? And you call me regressive, yikes. This can be debunked with the same sources from above but I wanted to feature it in my post because I want people to know that you think there’s a third sex.

I made a quick little chart to compare all the things gender has been compared to! The difference is that while many are socially defined, gender is socially constructed. If someone never interacted with other humans, they would still have a skin color, have or not have specific abilities, have a sexual orientation, and be male or female. They would not have an observable gender identity.

1 - You refuse to humor my questions about being a woman who doesn’t feel like one, however this is not in bad faith; I do want to know what you think. Many gc/radfems, including myself, and many women in general do not have a specific feeling of gender. This is especially true for gnc women, who often feel a disconnect from the feminine gender role and subsequently, the feminine gender. The solution is to realize that there are no standards to conform to to be a woman, no clothes or interests or feelings, just the biological reality one is born with.

2 - You say “the feeling of womanhood is enjoying being called a woman” but what does that mean? It’s circular reasoning, a fallacy called begging the question. How do you know you are a woman? If I gave up being a terf on tumblr, how would you advise that I identify if I don’t think I feel like a woman? My current plan was to just pick the mogai flag with the prettiest colors, but I’m thinking maybe there’s more to it than that...

3 - See my explanation above. Sex is comparable to race or disability or sexuality; gender is not.

4 - You say genders are social classes. If they are indeed social classes, they are unnecessary ones that reinforce oppression. They are undefinable when not based on biological sex or gender roles. The other example of classes I can think of is wealth. Wealth classes have obvious divisions, you can’t just identify into more money. Gender has nothing that is shared by every woman, man, or nonbinary, so you can just identify in and out of classes. Additionally, if there are like 100 genders, are there 100 classes?

4. The “Biological” Sex Post

Gender does not replace sex

Then why are TRAs trying to say sexuality, legal protections, bathrooms, spaces, political movements, etc should be based on gender instead of sex? You keep contradicting yourself; you should talk to your fellow trans activists because many would disagree. Also see my response in part two.

A number of points here aren’t factually wrong but simple (*simply) irrelevant

So you would agree that biological sex is important and that it is relevant to many conversations? Then why were people getting mad about this?

Or this?

On to the specific examples. This post is long enough already and I’m not going to spoon feed basic biology to you because you’ll probably just ignore it. I referenced a variety of sources earlier. I’ll just reference Invisible Women since it’s an amazing book.

1. This first point is, appropriately enough, true in isolation; it just doesn’t support Paradox Institute’s argument. Listing it leads the audience to believe that truth is on their side, but PI do nothing at all to justify that.

So nothing here is true? They’re just lying? Here are their sources btw.

2. Generally irrelevant, but not entirely biologically accurate, either. It isn’t that ‘male’ and ‘female’ are categories intrinsic to nature that produce small, motile and large, immotile gametes respectively; ‘male’ and ‘female’ are labels we assign (generally, but not always) according to gamete size.

So it’s not relevant that one sex has the ability to carry children or menstruation or get an abortion? It’s not like there’s any issues women face specifically for that, right? So we assign the labels male and female to gametes. If you want to play semantics, sure, we created the words, but the gametes themselves already existed. Not really sure what you’re trying to say here other than disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing and moving some words around. Are you implying that the categorizations of gametes are subjective? Are you saying there’s a spectrum of gametes?? Are eggs just big sperm and sperm just small eggs??? Genuinely have no idea what the fuck you’re trying to prove here.

3. Whatever your opinion of evolutionary psychology, this does not preclude gender. (On the contrary, we ought to include gender in our understanding of cultural development with respect to sex.)

The only gender in history was gender roles, and both were tied to sex in most cases. Sex absolutely came before gender and is more integral to our existence. In any time before the last few decades, gender and sex were basically synonyms.

4. Entirely a straw argument. And, to the contrary, precision greater than two sex categories would be beneficial (i.e. specific sex characteristics, history, endocrinology etc.).

Obviously doctors don’t just diagnose based on sex, they factor in medical history and other traits. Precision is irrelevant because it still focuses on sex not gender. If it’s “entirely a straw argument” why did someone else reblog your response with this?

Speaking as a member of a medical family, the medical one fucking OFFENDS me.

Blood type HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GENDER. Or biological sex! Both are totally irrelevant! And medication dosage is determined by AGE and SIZE. A 25-year-old 160-pound person with a penis needs the exact same dose as a 25-year-old 160-pound person with a vagina. In fact, possibly LESS of a dose, if the person with a penis is 5’10” and the person with a vagina is 5’5”. (The taller person may be underweight.)

This is just. UGH. I could scream.

@prismatic-bell this is one of the funniest and dumbest replies I’ve ever gotten. First of all “member of a medical family” tf is that lmao. This reminds me of that post where the “medical worker” tra turned out to be a garbage collector guy. I have no idea why you brought up blood type when it is literally never mentioned in the original post. Strawman much? Fucking obviously blood type isn’t affected by sex, and you’re completely missing the point if you think gender has anything to do with this. Medication dosage is decided by age and size, yes, but also biological sex. This is like basic medical science, dumbass. Mandatory reading from Invisible Women as punishment for your stupidity crimes:

People called her a terf for this :)

5. How sports are best divided is a far broader question than this point implies. We could, for example, segregate sports by relevant physical attributes (as is already the case in some sports) rather than by sex or gender. This point also presupposes (but does not justify) that a woman having an advantage in women’s sports by dint of being trans is significantly greater than an advantage any woman might have by dint of her natural attributes (which, empirically, she does not) and hence would be unfair. That said, enforcement of “female” sports is already marred by racism and perisexism.

You agree sex and gender are different, yes? So then why should males be in female sports? You’re trying to distract me with that stuff about physical performance and whatever. Focus on the question at hand, should males be allowed into female sports? We cannot eradicate sex-segregated sports because female athletes will be even more systematically disadvantaged. If you were truly a feminist you’d understand that female sports are the result of the movement you claim to support. More Invisible Women facts plus some interesting info about the plough hypothesis:

6. Simply untrue. Excluding trans women from statistics about women on the basis that doing so would affect those statistics is arbitrary at best. Those statistics may change, but that does not mean they are unsuitable or inappropriate. The exclusion of any subset of women can be justified in exactly the same way.

Nope! Stop trying to use women of color and intersex women as justifications for why we should let men pretend to be women. You’ve seen the hundreds of receipts of trans women committing all sorts of male violence. Has anyone found anywhere near a comparable number of trans men doing similar things? They have not, even though if trans men were truly men they would be much more violent.

7. The majority of single-sex spaces are, functionally, just as much single-gender (owing to the traditional equivalence of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ and to the majority of the population being cis. Trans people have been using spaces appropriate to their gender for decades, whereas concerns about them doing so are based on speculation and hypotheticals rather than fact. (Aided, as with a lot of bigotry, by bad and manipulated statistics.)

I’ve spoken about my opinions on the bathroom debate before. If a passing trans person uses the bathroom of their choice I don’t really care, but there have already been many examples of men making women uncomfortable in their bathrooms, or worse. Making all bathrooms gender neutral is by far the worst idea, but unfortunately that seems to be where we’re headed. More Invisible Women, just for fun:

8. This is the worst red herring, exploiting violent misogyny for the sake of argument. It is another straw argument, too, since—even ignoring trans-positive feminism in practice and assuming trans people act only in self-interest—trans people are concerned with addressing such injustice.

Sure, many trans people are supportive of feminism. But we can’t effectively dismantle the patriarchy if we can’t accurately describe the (sex-based) oppression involved. Women are routinely silenced when talking about our biology, even when there is no “transphobic” language involved. “Trans-positive feminism” also often reinforces misogyny by supporting sex work and porn, and by shutting down analysis of things like femininity and makeup because “some women like it.” See also from trans activists: misogyny racism homophobia + lesbophobia

9. Similar to (7) there is no consistent distinction between sex and gender across law. Even so, this is another red herring as it is possible to recognise both sex and gender in laws and policies. Some laws already do (at least functionally, if not explicitly).

You can deny it but the TRA train is leaving without you and they’ve been clear about their goals. As you’ve seen in this post, gender is intended to replace sex. Those who bring up sex-based issues are silenced as “terfs” who deserve the hatred thrown at them.

Sorry for making such a long post but I was on a roll so I just kept writing. I don’t expect @terflies to respond to all of this but I wanted an excuse to make some sort of masterpost that links to a lot of my other posts and can be used in the future. Online school is going pretty well and I’m trying to start some doing some hobbies that are better than tumblr blogging.

#my posts #discourse #factfem #receipts #masterpost #there's so many things mentioned in this post i'm not going to bother tagging them all #debunking anti terfs #terf

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babyjaysplayplace · 3 years

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PLZ READ BEFORE INTERACTING

SOME THINGS ABOUT ME

Names you can call me by: Jay, JayJay, Baby Jay, Bun Boy, BunBun

Big age is currently 20; Lil age is 3-5, mostly 3.

This blog is strictly SFW. I will be using this blog strictly for my age regression. This is not a k!nk blog and NEVER will be! This will be my safe space as I use age regression as a way to cope with my PTSD, trauma, depression, anxiety, and my physical disabilities as well. I use a can to stand/walk, and am in constant pain. That’s all I want to get into about it for right now.

Yes, I have a caregiver/Daddy/Baba. Yes, they are my primary partner. Yes, they’re new with all this, please be respectful on the matter.

I am a trans man, Pre-T for right now. Pronouns: He/They

Am in a poly relationship, not really looking for partners or caregivers.

Am looking for fellow age re friends, especially if in my state of Tennesee. If you’re big age is 18+ and can be friends in person as well, please feel free to PM me! Online friends must be at least 17+ in big age! Age re friends only! Strictly sfw and NOT A K!NK!!! Don’t have to be age re tags, as long as you use it to cope and NOT for k!nk!!

LIKES

Snackies: Choccy milk (especially dairy free), uncrustables, cheesey poofs, ice cream, pizza, chicky tendys, white cheddar popcorn, Lil Debbies, pizza rolls, mozz sticks, hot pockets, cookies, sweets, juice, smoothies, and ramen

Toys: Blocks/LEGOs, MLP, blindbag stuff, stuffies, dolls, LPS, MH, Hot Wheels, Puzzles, bouncy balls, FNAF, and balloons

Naps

Warm cuddles, soft pillows and blankies, oversized shirts/hoodies, video games, arts, and online eye shopping/making lists

SHOWS

MLP

Care Bears

SU/SUF

Muppet Babies

Vampirina

OHHC anime

PPGs (old and new)

Chowder

Paw Patrol

Pound Puppies (The Hub)

Horseland

Will update more when can

MOVIES

Ponyo

My Neighbor Totoro

Finding Dory

Wall-E

Spirited Away

Shrek Movies

Princess & The Frog (Mine an Daddy’s movie)

Mary and the Witches Flower

Snow White

Sleeping Beauty

Frozen Movies

Coco

Tangled

The Little Mermaid

Frosty the Snowman

Zootopia

Toy Story Movies

Inside Out

Tim Burton Movies (JUST NOT CORALINE)

Trolls

Muppet Movies

What’s this blog for?

SFW little space things (what i call my age re space)

Looking for Online friends (Must be at least 17+ big age SFW ONLY)

Looking for friends to meet up with in Nashville, TN areas (Must be 18+ big age! AN SFW ONLY)

This is and always will be an inclusive SFW age regression blog to help me cope with life, trauma, PTSD, ect.

Please feel free to PM me any time! I’ll respond when can! <3

I WILL block if have to! So don’t be rude, mean, dirty, NSFW, ect.

WILL need help making friends, blog type topics, finding age re blogs, and learning tags to use/not use, ect <3

DNI IF:

K!nk, Minors in k!nk, and adults allowing minors in adult only spaces

NSFW

Anti LGBTQ+

Anti Age regression

If you use age regression for sexual reasons

If anti cglre

T3rfs sta away!

Transmeds stay away! You don’t need dysphoria!

Th!nspo and promoting eating disorder blogs stay away!

Anti tag users

Chubby/fatphobes

MAPs, P3DOS, NOMAPS STAY AWAY

If you think aro/ace/demi don’t belong in the LGBTQ+ community, then you can f0ck off

R@pe

You allow dd/lg & variants, ect interact with your blog "even though they're sfw". Please don't interact with mine, I don't want someone from a k!nj community to interact with my posts (example: you reblog my post, then a dd/lg or variant interacts with it, that's a problem for me)

IF YOU DON'T TAG YOUR POSTS, REBLOGS, ECT ESPECIALLY IF THEY'RE ABOUT ANYTHING NSFW, SEXUAL, R@PE, ABUSE IN ANY FORM, ECT I WILL BLOCK YOU!!! IDC IF YOUR AN AGERE BLOG, TAG YOUR NSFW PTSD INDUCING POSTS AN REBLOGS!!!

THANK YOU FOR READING! BYEBYE! <3

#age regressor #age re blog #sfw interaction only #sfw blog #agere #agere blog #BabyJayBlog #my post #cglre #age regression #please respect my dni

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caelpictor · 4 years

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✊🏽 🌈 😷

Hello hello hello! Happy Pride, and a very happy Juneteenth to you all! For those of you who don’t know, Juneteenth is a holiday that commemorates the day the final group of enslaved people was freed in Texas in 1865 (which was two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed… but that’s beside the point). So I recently took about a month-long unplanned break from social media, because, as I’ve said before, I’ve been REALLY low energy these past few weeks, what with everything that’s been going on in the world. I am at the intersection of multiple marginalized groups, and that knowledge can be very heavy sometimes. But I wanted to make a post today in my own words, because I realized my staying silent doesn’t help me or anyone I care about; it only helps maintain the status quo. So now I’m here to check in with all of you and to put my thoughts and feelings on the record.

First of all, I’ve been doing a lot of drawing and writing and bingewatching and bingeplaying video games since quarantine started, and I’m having a great time with that! But I’ve also been staying up-to-date on the news, as any good person should, and what I’m seeing isn’t so good. More and more Black people, including children and the often overlooked women and trans folk, are being murdered every day. Speaking of trans folk, their basic human rights are being taken away before our very eyes. Brown immigrants continue to be abused by our government. Indigenous people continue to have their bodies, lands, and cultures violated. People who riot and loot are being condemned in the name of “respectability politics,” despite the fact that they’ve been systemically disenfranchised all their lives, and their anger is justified. People who oppose fascism are being dubbed terrorists. The pandemic isn’t getting any better, but people are acting like it’s over. Political leaders and celebrities who claim to be on our side are taking performative action that does nothing to foster actual progress. And that’s just in the United States! There are more crises going on in countries around the world than I can even think to name.

So right now I’m doing what I can to stay safe and sane and help out in whatever small ways I‘m able to. That means continuing to practice social distancing while also signing petitions, spreading information, supporting my fellow Black and Brown and LGBT+ artists/businesses/individuals, elevating our voices, and donating wherever I can. But Juneteenth is about education, and I’ve also been doing some reading. I have two really great books to recommend to you, if you haven’t read them already:

The first one is called The End of Policing, and it’s by Alex Vitale; it basically breaks down that phrase that seems to scare and confuse a lot of people: “Defund the police.” Vitale talks about how policing as an institution is ineffective at its best and harmful at its worst, how attempts at reforming the institution are also ineffective, how policing permeates every area of our society, including schools and politics and several other places where it doesn’t belong, and about the criminalization of homelessness, sex work, drugs, gangs, immigration, and more. The End of Policing is available as an ebook for free right here, for your convenience!

The second book is by the great political activist Angela Davis, and it’s called Are Prisons Obsolete? Like Vitale, Davis questions and critiques an institution which is often said to be in need of reform when it actually, she argues, needs to be done away with entirely. She talks about how the current system incorrectly values punishment and vengeance over reform and rehabilitation, how people of color are vastly overrepresented in the penal system, how the system treats people of color, women, the disabled, the mentally ill, the poor, and LGBT+ folk differently from well-off cishet white men, and how prisons have become an industrial complex that serves capitalistic desires over human needs. This one is also available for free, as a pdf right here, for your convenience!

Both authors discuss controversial, interconnected topics through thorough research, write in clear, concise, and fact-driven language, dive deep into the history of policing and prisons in America and around the world (including their shared origins in slave-catching), and finally offer alternatives, which are detailed, doable, and proven effective by precedent, such as decriminalization of certain acts and substances, and reallocation of bloated funds to areas that more effectively address crime at its source (as crime doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and mostly occurs as a direct result of people’s needs not being met!). I highly recommend these if you’re interested in reading. If not, there are lots of videos and infographics and articles that discuss these topics in much shorter, simpler ways, and a quick Google search will lead you in the right direction. 😉

In conclusion, coronavirus is alive and well, and so is racism. I urge my friends and followers not to be quiet about the injustices we have been facing every day for centuries, all over the world, and not to let the attention and momentum shift away from our movement. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you are or where you are. Keep wearing masks and socially distancing. Keep educating yourselves and each other. Keep protesting and contacting officials and donating and signing petitions. Keep supporting Black and Brown and Queer artists and businesses and individuals. Keep elevating our voices. Use your voice to call for an end to white supremacy, the patriarchy, and transphobia. Be careful with spreading images of violence (as they can be disturbing and disrespectful), as well as protestors’ faces (as they can be used to identify and track people down).

On a more personal level, respect and value the lives of people who look different from you. We don’t exist for you. We exist for ourselves. We are complete human beings, and we will not be broken down into parts for your easy consumption. And sure, voting is important, but direct action has proven to be much more effective at causing immediate change. I understand if you need a mental health break. As I said at the beginning, I needed a mental health break. But please do so quietly, safely, and respectfully, and don’t make this about you. I see some of you are still out here fighting the good fight daily, and I thank you for it. But I can’t begin to express how troubling it is to watch other people go about their lives as if all these crazy things aren’t happening. Remember, no voice is too small to be used as a platform of positive change! I realized that includes me. Now you need to realize that includes you!

Lastly: Black Lives STILL Matter, Black WOMEN’S Lives Matter, Black TRANS Lives Matter, Black DISABLED Lives Matter, Black MENTAL HEALTH Matters. Defund The Police. Abolish ICE. No One Is Illegal On Stolen Land. Eat The Rich. Pride Is A Protest. Be An Ally. We’re In This Together.

And once again, happy Juneteenth.

P.S: My book recs are free, and Google is free, but as my friend Javon so perfectly put it, “my emotional labor and racial education will only be free when I wish them to be.” So if you want to debate me on any of these topics, OR if you want me to do more research for you, I would be happy to accept payment via Venmo (@KyleBryant), PayPal (kylemb13), CashApp ($KyleMarcusBryant), et cetera! (I’m also accepting drawing/painting commissions, reparation payments, and general donations! Yes, I’m dead serious!)

✊🏽🌈😷

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agender-thanos · 4 years

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Hey! So I know most of the time I just reblog political stuff, rather than make my own political posts, but I'm going to rant about my political views and why I feel that way. Please note that as of right now all but one of my views are liberal. Yes, I have a conservative viewpoint on one issue. Read to find out, I'll put it last.

Abortion

This is okay. At any point during the first trimester, as by the end of the first trimester, the baby's brain has developed enough to allow coordinated subconscious movements, such as hiccuping. After that, I'd be uncomfortable with the idea of an abortion, at least during the second trimester. After the third trimester begins, I'm against abortion. The fetus is too far developed mentally.

LGBTQ+ Rights

We [LGBTQ+ peeps] are people. I'm one of them, and anyone who isn't cishet is part of the LGBTQ+ group. Yes, you MUST BE cisgender AND heterosexual in order to not be allowed as a LGBTQ+ person, meaning that asexuals/aromantics, trans people, and others are valid! Hell, cishets are valid, technically, they're just not part of the community unless they're allies.

Defunding the Police

I shouldn't have to explain this; the fact that police get away with murder in general is wrong. It's worse when the victim is a POC, as then there's the possibility of racism. Get rid of the damn police; we only need them for violent criminals (i.e. alleged murderers, alleged armed robbers, alleged rapists, alleged sexual assaulters). Neither smoking weed nor fraud are violent crimes.

Healthcare for All

This... its sad that some people don't think universal healthcare shouldn't exist. Why should helping someone be bad? I mean, once you pay your taxes, that money is no longer yours, so why shouldn't that money be used to help people?

Education for all

I love how Boomers and baffoons think that we should pay for education. I mean, come on. College/University prices have gone WAAAAAY up in recent times, while wages remain the same and acceptance rates go down. Besides, Boomers have (for the most part) already payed for their college, they shouldn't get a say in whether or not we pay for ours. I mean, it's like they say; life's not fair. And this goes back to the "once you pay your taxes, that money is no longer yours."

Cleaner, Eco-friendly Energy

Don't tell me that this will ruin coal miners. They can be retrained to do a different job; the environment can't be rebuilt in our lifetimes.

Fuck the Rich

Why are the poor and working guys, gals, and pals paying the rich? Why should I pay taxes to bail out a greedy corporation that doesn't give a damn about anything but money?

I mean, if WalMart were to pay its workers livable wages WITHOUT raising the prices, it's income per year would drop from $300 million/year to a miniscule... $294 million/year. Thats like, bankruptcy worthy, right?

The ONLY time that wages shouldn't be forced to go up is with small businesses. By that I mean any business that makes less than $200,000/year in profit (profit is after expenses, aka after taxes, bills, etc). I mean, thats being generous.

2nd Amendment Rights

Ok, so this is actually more of a "we need balance" view, rather than the "conservative" view that I called it earlier.

Essentially, anyone who is at high-risk for committing a violent crime (aka the mentally unstable, previous offenders, anyone who follows fascist or prejudicial pages) should NOT own a gun. Yes, as of right now, that includes me, due to my mental disabilities.

Of course, if you can prove you're mentally stable, even if you have mental disabilities, you should be allowed to own a gun. I mean, I'd live to own a gun. I'm fascinated by weapons of all makes, types, and origins. Do I trust myself with a gun? As of right now, absolutely fucking not. Will I be owning a gun anytime soon? Nope.

HOWEVER, the purpose of the 2nd Amendment isn't hunting, it isn't collecting, it isn't committing crimes... it's to defend against threats. Foreign AND domestic. From either side of the government.

This means that we may need to take up arms against our fellow citizens. I mean, the majority of the NRA is pro-Trump. If he gets re-elected and takes control, what's gonna stop him from telling his supporters to go and slaughter us liberals? They'd do it. I mean, they'd probably do it even Iif he DOESN'T get re-elected.

As much as I don't like this situation, I'm thinking us liberals - whether you're pro-gun or not - should arm ourselves. I mean, if Trump is a fascist, guess who has to follow him? The military. And the police. And the NRA. Although that last one would do it willingly.

If Trump is a fascist, which I do believe he is, he might get some resistance from the military, and any "good cops" some people claim exist. But other than that? Anyone who is a Democrat- including civilians - or doesn't basically bow down to him... will probably be slaughtered.

I'm not trying to instill fear, or to get you guys to change your stances. But I could swear that there's a second civil war coming, and it'll be largely liberal vs conservative. And I can tell you right now; I'm a liberal. Even if I'm the only liberal fighting against them, I'll still fight if this happens. And I'll be fighting not for liberals or conservatives, but for America. Which means against Trump.

I'm really sorry if I offended anyone with anything in this.

I do indeed believe that there is a civil war coming, and that, unlike the last one, it won't be North Vs South. It'll be Liberal Vs Conservative. And the fact that so many liberals probably wouldn't be willing to take up arms with me... it scares me. Believe me, I don't want my own gun; not at this point in my life. But I'll probably need one, unfortunately.

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shiraglassman · 5 years

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a few SFF recs with nonbinary representation that I personally enjoyed and think don't get enough press

First of all, since I'm cis, please visit Corey's list of reviews of trans and/or non-binary lit by trans and/or non-binary reviewers to further look into these and any other books with trans rep. https://coreysbookcorner.wordpress.com/reviews-of-trans-and-or-non-binary-lit-by-trans-and-or-non-binary-reviewers/

Nine of Swords, Reversed by Xan West (review-ish) - two genderfluid mages navigate being honest with each other about their disabilities so that their relationship doesn't have to suffer when their bodies do. Nonbinary Jewish rep from a nonbinary Jewish author. This is also a ghost story with a friendly dybbuk and completely one of those "warm blanket around your shoulders" queer reads so if you like my own stories for that reason, this one has that same feel. Note that the relationship is D/s but the story is not sexual at all; it's entirely represented by forms of address and acts of service.

No Man of Woman Born by Ana Mardoll (review) - collection of short stories based around the premise that gendered prophecy in fairy tales should respect gender identity, so for example if "no man or woman can defeat the sparkly beast!" then a nonbinary person is a perfect fit for the job. Some of the stories are about binary trans people as well.

Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault (review) - bigender protagonist is a mild-mannered male baker by day and a female vigilante by night, trying to save her fellow magic people from being used as the city utility company's secret new power source against their will.

Capricious #9: The Gender Diverse Pronouns Issue (review) - collection of short stories focusing on nonbinary representation in fantasy and science fiction in many, many different settings including ghost stories and space politics.

Three Partitions by Bogi Takács (review) - short story set in an Orthodox Jewish space colony **THIS ONE IS FREE ONLINE**

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (review) - an AI hiding in an illegal human "suit" learns how to become truly autonomous. The nonbinary rep is from a major supporting character who is a bigender alien, her closest friend. Note that in this list, this is the only book where the nonbinary character is not the central character.

Always Be You by RoAnna Sylver - fluffy short fiction in which a nonbinary faun and a lizard man (who are both on the ace spectrum) figure out what kind of boundaries their cuddling will include. **THIS ONE IS FREE ONLINE**

P.S. There are other books out there but I may not have read them; when @lgbtqreads gets asked about nonbinary SFF I feel like she has an almost entirely different list so you probably want to check her site, too! And again, the link at the top is an amazing resource.

#nonbinary #genderfluid #jumblr #bigender #nonbinary books #books

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thesydneyfeminists · 5 years

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Five Things This Bisexual Feminist Wants You to Know About Pride

As I’m sure a lot of you are aware, June is celebrated as Pride Month in many parts of the world. These celebrations often include parades, rainbow colored EVERYTHING and heaps of social media posts reveling in everything LGBTQIA+. For a lot of people, Pride is a party – and rightly so. In a world that blatantly aims to keep us down, rejoicing in our lives and livelihoods is a form of resistance in and of itself. It’s important for us to let loose and have fun sometimes, to recharge and remind ourselves why we fight the good fight. However, during Pride Month (and really, all year round) it is equally critical to remember the painful parts of our history. Pride exists because people fought and died for a future we have yet to fully realize. As a part of this remembrance, it is imperative to highlight the ways in which various oppressed identities overlap and interact with LGBTQIA+ identities. By this statement, I simply mean we must remember and celebrate the black, trans, bisexual women who started Pride and continue fighting every day to ensure a safer future for all LGBTQIA+ people.

My last point is also significant to our understandings of feminism. Feminism must include a space for people from different oppressed minorities. My personal feminism is so tightly entwined with my identity as a bisexual person, it is nearly impossible to extract them. And those are only two of my many identities (which range from highly privileged to marginalized). So, while this piece isn’t directed specifically towards gender equality, I believe in my heart it is still “feminist”. Feminist movements must inextricably bind themselves to LGBTQIA+ rights movements. In the same vein, they must also join with anti-racist activism, disability activism, etc. As the famous slogan goes, our feminism must be intersectional, or it is bullshit. Whether you consider yourself a member of the LGBTQIA+ community or are just trying to better ally yourself with us, this article will hopefully resonate with you. It is only a short list and would benefit from additions from our lovely readers. So, feel free to comment things you want the world to about the LGBTQIA+ community. But, without further ado, here are my top five things I want everyone to know about Pride!

Image Description: The bisexual flag, which has a fat red stripe at the top, fat blue stripe on the bottom and a thinner purple stripe in the middle.

1. All M-Spec identities are valid and deserve a place in Pride celebrations. For those of you who don’t know, M-Spec is a term used to describe the multi-gender spectrum of attraction. It’s another, more inclusive way of talking about identities which fall under the “bi umbrella.” It includes bisexual people, pansexual people, polysexual people and anyone else who is attracted to two or more genders and wants to be included! There’s a lot of discourse about this subject, even within the LGBTQIA+ community. But Pride was started by a bisexual woman and I firmly believe she would have been inclusive of her M-Spec family (https://www.advocate.com/bisexuality/2014/06/17/remembering-brenda-ode-%E2%80%98mother-pride%E2%80%99).

2. No cops at pride. This point is another tenuous topic of discussion and has ended more than one friendship. But I think it’s important to state and even more important to analyze. The original pride was a riot, a protest specifically AGAINST the police state. It was meant to bring light to the very real, very visceral harm cops have done (and continue to do) to LGBTQIA+ people, especially BIPOC (black, indigenous people of color). I have heard all the counter-arguments and, for the most part, understand where people are coming from. But LGBTQIA+ people have the right to be fearful and distrustful of cops. Large masses of cops at pride don’t actually help keep any of us safe. There are better ways of creating and maintaining safe spaces for the LGBTQIA+ community (http://www.aaronxrose.com/blog/alternatives-to-police).

Image Description: Photo of a crowd of people holding up protest signs and the LGBTQIA+ flag. They are standing behind red police tape. Two police officers are standing in the road on the left side of the photo.

3. Our Pride celebrations absolutely MUST be accessible. This means, at the very least, wheelchair accessible venues and toilets, sign language translators, accessible parking spots, among many other examples. I would also personally love to see accommodations made for autistic people at Pride events. The crossover between autistic people and LGTQIA+ people is huge, and we deserve to feel comfortable and safe at big events like Pride.

4. Please don’t assume “straight-looking” people are just allies and/or don’t belong at pride. I personally don’t mind cishetallo (cis, hetereosexual, allosexual, aka the opposite of asexual) people attending Pride events if they are aware of their place there. I enjoy bringing my straight boyfriend to Pride festivities and sharing that part of my life with him. However, just because you see a couple comprised of what you assume to be a “boy” and “girl”, it does not mean they aren’t part of the LGBTQIA+ community. Firstly, people you perceive to be one gender could be another/ non-gendered. I’m thinking especially of my nonbinary pals here. Second, one or both parts of a couple could fall under the M-Spec umbrella. Lastly, people could be questioning their sexual and gender identities. It’s not your (or our) place to judge people or interrogate their reasonings for being at Pride. As long as they are being respectful of the space, just live and let live!

Image Description: Photo of someone holding up a large, white sheet attached to two wooden poles. The middle of the sheet is painted messily in the colors of the rainbow. White, black letters are stenciled in the paint. They read “Love is love.”

5. If you are a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, whatever that means to you, you deserve love, happiness and to feel safe. I wanted this last one to just be a shout out to my fellow LGBTQIA+ folks. I see you, I hear you, I want to validate the fuck out of you. Pride isn’t always a feel good, amazing time for all LGBTQIA+ people. If it’s not for you, please don’t feel bad. Whatever you need to do to protect yourself and your emotional state, do that. If celebrating who you are means watching your favorite show on Netflix all weekend in bed, that’s perfectly alright. No two of us are the same, and we are every single one of us amazing and wonderful. Yes, you too. Sending my love your way and hoping you find it in your heart to love yourself a bit more this month.

By: Brittany L.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sydney Feminists. Our Blogger and Tumblr serve as platforms for a diverse array of women to put forth their ideas and explore topics. To learn more about the philosophy behind TSF’s Blogger/ Tumblr, please read our statement here: https://www.sydneyfeminists.org/a

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sophygurl · 5 years

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A week from today, I will be at WisCon! You know what that means - time for an all new updated rehash of the usual info I post pre-con.

First off, my schedule.

Friday at 4pm I’m on the Killing Eve panel in conference room 1

Friday at 10:30pm I’ll be on the Use of Religion in SFF TV panel in University B

Saturday at 1pm I’ll be paneling at the panel about How to Write a WisCon Panel in conference room 4

Saturday at 2:30 I’m on the panel about Found Family in Assembly

Sunday at 10pm I’ll be talking about Speculative Fiction on TV with my fellow panelists in Capitol A

At some point, I will be co-hosting a spontaneous panel about The Umbrella Academy, but I’m not sure when, yet.

In between all of that, I have plenty of panels, parties, and readings I desperately want to go to (many of them at the same time, woe is me), and might be found hanging at either the trans/genderqueer or the disability safer spaces, or relaxing in the hot tub. But so far all of my meal times are wide open. So friends, please contact me to set up times to break bread and socialize!

Secondly, how about some about me tips:

I’m both a little bit face-blind (I have trouble recognizing faces if I don’t see them often and cannot describe how another person looks physically to save my life) and have memory issues when it comes to remembering stuff like people’s names and pronouns. Thank goodness for name tags and pronoun stickers! But please feel free to re-introduce yourselves to me, especially if we’ve only met in person once or twice before or have mostly only interacted online. I also might need prompting on if your online identity is different from the name you go by at-con and other essential facts. I promise it’s not personal. I’m doing my best!

As far as my name and info - you can call me either Rosemary or soph/sophy/sophygurl. I answer to either. She/her pronouns, but I don’t mind the singular they (it’s what I tend to default to for folks if I’m not sure of theirs). I’m local to Madison, but stay in the hotel for convenience and access related reasons.

I’m a mostly homebound chronically ill disabled chick. WisCon is the biggest thing I do all year and it takes a LOT out of me, but is also my favorite thing all year so I cram as much into those 5 days as I possibly can.

I’m also a massive extrovert who loves interacting with as many people as possible, so please do come up and chat with me about whatever, whenever! Television is my main interest, so that’s always a good ice breaker topic.

Also I still have a flip phone, which I rarely use, so I’m only online when I’m home - which at-con means when I’m up in my room. Best ways to reach me at-con are either through whatever online means work best for you (FB, tumblr, twitter, email) and waiting for me to see it between panels - or calling my cell #.

#wiscon #wiscon 43 #wiscon43 #i don't have a tag for this

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love-takes-work · 6 years

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Flint and Chert

In the Steven Universe official podcast, during the series “Steven Selects” episode 8, the conversation covered the episode “Off Colors.” When guests Matt Burnett and Ben Levin (writers on the show) offered some tidbits of information from behind the scenes, they revealed that they’d initially planned to have two more Off Color Gems in the group. Their names were Flint and Chert.

You can read my full writeup of that episode of the podcast if you want more context.

In the podcast, Matt and Ben said these two Quartzes were initially planned to be conscientious objectors: Gems who were morally opposed to fighting and war. Part of the reason they decided to keep the Off Colors group to just Fluorite, Rhodonite, Padparadscha, and the Rutile Twins was that they were already throwing so many characters in and the group was already pretty big, but they also scrapped Flint and Chert because they wanted the Off Colors to be Gems who were rejected for who and what they were, not Gems who had made an ideological choice to avoid conflict.

I Really Love this, and I'm going to tell you why.

You'll notice that the included Gems are perceived as being rejected by their society for their IDENTITY--not for their behavior or ideology. The Rutile Twins coming out with a physical variation makes sense as being unacceptable to Homeworld. Padparadscha coming out with a mental variation that makes her unable to perform her expected service makes sense as being unacceptable to Homeworld. But then you have two Fusions: Rhodonite and Fluorite. And you'll notice their status as rejected Gems is NOT presented as a choice.

Obviously, since Fusions are relationships and Fusion Gems being rejected by their society has many parallels with same-sex relationships in a homophobic society, this is a clear indication that being a Permafusion is not regarded as "a choice" the same way that being a pacifist is. You can choose to object to war, but being who you are and loving who you do is not "a choice."

Obviously there are choices INVOLVED with fusion. Garnet has called fusion "a choice" in other contexts ("Keeping It Together," specifically), indicating that the fusing Gems must choose to fuse with each other for a valid, consensual relationship to result. But the being who results from that choice does not have a choice about who they are--and who someone feels attracted to can be an integral part of identity.

I love that the show acknowledges the importance of identity vs. choice when it comes to these relationships. It can be dangerous to portray a romantic orientation as a choice--both because it creates a perception that people are choosing to feel rather than choosing based on their feelings, and because it goes hand in hand with pressuring people not to choose the resulting relationships. They push the narrative that if you can just DECIDE not to feel that way, you have no excuse for any decisions you make about your relationships or any resulting hardships you suffer as a result. Deciding to be in a relationship is indeed a choice, but feeling the attractions that will lead to those relationships is not. Those feelings are linked to identity in a way that intellectually objecting to fighting is not.

There is NO suggestion on the show that Rhodonite and Fluorite have less right to belong in the Off Colors group than Padparadscha and the Rutile Twins do. It is true that they presumably had choices that Padparadscha and the Rutile Twins didn't--that yes, they could have chosen not to live in Fusion relationships and just keep serving the empire keeping their feelings or relationships a secret. And yet, they are never treated like "voluntary" Off Colors--as if the only true Off Colors are those who were forcibly ejected from Gem society for reasons they physically cannot undo. I find it really satisfying that Fusions are recognized as "who they are" and cast out by an intolerant society but face no judgment from other Off Colors whose reasons for being rejected are built into their bodies in a way they have no choice about.

I have unfortunately seen occasional Oppression Olympics among homophobic and transphobic people in activist communities. Most reasonable activists accept that LGBTQ+ (including anyone who is not cisgender) are oppressed classes, but some whose primary activist focus is on stamping out sexism or racism will make the terrible argument that being gay/not-straight or being trans/not-cisgender is "a choice" while being born a girl or being born an oppressed race is not. (I'd say this would extend to disability rights as well, but I honestly have never seen a disability activist claiming LGBTQ+ people aren't oppressed. Not saying it's never happened, but I haven't seen any of this from the ones I know.) People's sexual orientation or gender identity is not "a choice," and saying otherwise is a bigoted perspective, full stop.

So I'm just pleased and relieved that the writers of this show get that.

Not that I wouldn't want to meet Flint and Chert someday, and learn more about Quartzes who have rejected Homeworld's ideology. Those kinds of people who recognize that their society is corrupt, deadly to other beings, and oppressive to most members of their own kind are very necessary as well; they're not less important than the Off Colors we know. In many ways, they can also be allies to oppressed classes who don't have the connections or power to change their society.

It would be really interesting if we could see some pacifist Quartzes being double agents and making small changes to help their fellow Gems, but it would also be really cool to see some of them inspired to fight by other Gems who were designated Off Color regardless of their will. These kinds of Gems can help Off Colors without being discarded for being one, especially if they are not personally sacrificing anything and aren't suffering as an effect of performing their duties. People in positions of relative power who can choose to fight these battles are very valuable to the cause of those who have been rejected by society, but recognizing the difference between being rejected and rejecting through one's choice is important.

I realize I've read a lot into this choice that may not have been explicitly intended, but it's pretty consistent with other messages they've included in the show, so it wouldn't surprise me if they'd had some of these conversations behind the scenes as well.

#steven universe #su analysis #off colors #flint and chert #long post #oppression #my su analysis #myblog

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weerd1 · 5 years

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Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1909.24: Missions Reviewed, “Prodigal Daughter,” “The Emperor’s New Cloak,” and “Field of Fire.”

In “Prodigal Daughter,” Chief O’Brien has gone off to find the widow of the man Bilby he befriended in the Orion Syndicate the year before (I personally wonder if it is to return their cat) and gone missing. He happens to have disappeared on a world where Ezri’s family, the Tigans, own a mining business. Ezri has not been home in some time, but goes to see what she can do for Miles.

Getting there, she finds her younger brother emotionally troubled, her older brother trying to please mom running the business, and her mother fawning over and protecting the younger brother while sharply critical of the older. Through the uncomfortable family dynamics, Ezri’s mother does find O’Brien is in local custody, picked up having been in a fight with two Naausicans of the Orion Syndicate. He found Bilby’s wife, and she is dead.

She also worked for the Tigan family. Ezri and O’Brien start digging and find out her older brother made a deal with the syndicate when the mine his some hard times a while earlier. In exchange they wanted the company to “hire” Mrs. Bilby and pay her regardless of the work she did. Ezri confronts him on this, but it is her younger brother who comes forward to say that Bilby was going to extort them for more, so he handled it and killed her. After he’s arrested, Ezri’s mother ask Ezri to tell her that it’s not her fault. Ezri cannot and walks out.

Not that this is necessarily a bad episode, but the return to episodic tv is a little jarring with so many episodes in a row that tied to either the ongoing war story or story of the Bajoran Prophets and Pah-Wraiths. I need to remind myself that those contiguous arcs were NOT the norm then, and having them at all made DS9 ahead of its time. It was still an episodic landscape though, and each episode I watched last night being stand alone well, stands out. It also seems in a rewatch that the staff was trying very hard to get “caught up” on Ezri’s character development. They don’t pull a “Voyager” where every episode after Seven of Nine is introduced is about her, but all three tonight feature her prominently. Though, there are still ties here to earlier storylines, again engaging on O’Brien’s time undercover in the Orion Syndicate. Seems pretty coincidental though that in a big galaxy, Bilby’s widow happens to go to the family of the new counselor on DS9.

In “The Emperor’s New Cloak,” Quark continues to pursue Ezri when Rom tells him the Nagus is missing. They decide to look for him, when Ezri comes to Quark’s quarters but he realizes this isn’t “his” Ezri, but rather the one from the mirror universe. She has Zek, and will return him in exchange for a cloaking device since they don’t have them in the MU. Quark and Rom steal one, and Ezri takes them over where the Human Alliance lead by Smiley O’Brien immediately steals it (after killing Ezri’s co-conspirator a non-hologram Vic Fontaine).

Turns out Ezri is in league with The Intendant (Mirror Kira) who is trying to get the cloak for The Regent (Mirror Worf). Brunt appears and breaks Quark, Rom, and Ezri out of prison and they again steal the cloak and make a break for it. Getting to the Regent’s ship, they find that the Intendant never planned to trade Zek back. Ezri and Brunt help them all escape, though Brunt is killed in the process by the Intendant. When the Defiant under Smiley shows up, they help disable the Klingon flagship. The Terrans capture Worf and the cloaking device and send the Ferengi on their way.

I have long hated this episode, finding it pretty ridiculous. We saw the MU has cloaking tech already, but making it cloak allows for a gag scene of Quark and Rom walking around carrying an invisible box. Ezri being literally in bed with the Intendant feels very exploitative (the polar opposite of how well done the same-sex relationship was with Dax in “Rejoined). Reading up on this one though, it seems producer Ira Steven Behr wanted to point out the inherent ridiculous nature of a “mirror universe.” He does manage that well, particularly with Rom’s running commentary on how “alternate” this alternate universe is, making it something akin to Bizarro World in Superman comics. I will just say that I am glad “Discovery” doesn’t take this track when they get into the MU.

“Field of Fire” opens with the crew celebrating with the extremely talented new Defiant helmsman, whom Ezri walks back to his quarters after too much partying.

The next morning though, he is found dead, shot with a projectile weapon at close range, but no power burns, and no sign of anyone entering his quarters after Ezri left. At the scene she is struck by how happy he had been, even finding a picture of him smiling and laughing with fellow officers. Soon after, another crewmember is found killed the same way and O’Brien figures out the method of murder. A sniper rifle with a mini transporter and trans-dimensional scope that allows the person to stand anywhere on the station and fire a round into anyone without being in the same room. Ezri, seeing a happy wedding picture of the new victim decides to act. She calls forward the memories of her host Joran, the murderer, to solicit his advice on finding the killer. He seems pretty bent on driving her over the edge too, but his insight is helpful. A third victim appears and Ezri notices this one too has a smiling photograph. If the killer can see into anyone’s quarters, they must be triggered by the emotions in the pictures. She begins sorting through the records of Vulcans. Narrowing to 28 suspects, she is on her way to her quarters when a Vulcan gets on the turbolift, and the Joran echo is convinced it’s the killer. He has Ezri use their model of the rifle to spy on this Chu’lak in his quarters where he is looking at Ezri’s personnel file.

As she watches, he takes out a transporter sniper rifle and starts looking for her. Joran is telling her to shoot him, to kill him, and when Chu’lak sights in on her, she does fire, hitting him in the shoulder and causing him to miss her. She and “Joran” go to the Vulcan’s quarters where Joran urges her to use his rifle and finish the Vulcan off. Ezri does not, finding that the Vulcan just lost the crew of the ship he served on and has decided no one can ever be happy again. With Chu’lak stopped, she goes to reintegrate Joran, knowing that he will always be part of her, perhaps more so than Curzon and Jadzia; now he will not be buried.

Again, our third Ezri episode, but an effective locked door mystery. The method of murder is interesting, and Ezri dealing with Joran now calls to mind watching “Mindhunter” on Netflix. The idea they find the killer when he happens to get on the elevator with them seems like a bit of a shortcut in the story, and I think more investigation and less coincidence should have led to the end. Also, the motivation on the Vulcan seems a little suspect, but the writers wanted the surprise of it being a VULCAN SERIAL KILLER, which perhaps again ties to the deconstruction of the Vulcans so prevalent in “Enterprise” and first seen in “Take Me Out to the Holosuite.” Maybe I am comparing it too closely to “Mindhunter” which exists explicitly to explore murderer motivations, and here, it’s more of a character piece for Ezri. In the novels, Erzi will go on to become a starship captain in the fleet, more focused in sure of herself. I wonder if we can say that’s due to her “wolf” being more assertive, a callback to the original series “The Enemy Within” where Kirk without his predator instinct becomes an ineffective leader?

NEXT VOYAGE: Odo finds another one of the 100 Changelings sent out into the universe in “Chimera.”

#Star Trek #Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #DS9 Rewatch

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loveisofthebody-blog · 7 years

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Review: Dreadnought by April Daniels

I’m so pleased that I got a hold of an arc of April Daniels’s new debut, Dreadnought, out tomorrow. It’s the second (after If I was Your Girl by Meredith Russo) YA novel I’ve read written by a trans woman, which makes it pretty important, and also it’s science fiction, which means it has a bit more going on than the expected transition narrative.

Find Dreadnought here.

What’s it about?

Danny is a closeted teenage trans girl from an emotionally abusive family, and while she’s hanging out (read: hiding out) behind the mall one day, she witnesses the death of the most powerful superhero in her city, Dreadnought. Before he dies, he passes his mantle onto Danny, the only person nearby. In the process of receiving his powers (flight, mostly-impenetrable skin, super-strength, etc), she also receives the body she’s always wanted. The rest of the book explores the fallout of Danny’s science-fictional transition with her family and friends, her search for the original Dreadnought’s killer, and her attempts to prove herself worthy of his mantle.

How is it?

For the most part, I really enjoyed reading this. There’s a good balance of personal drama and action, the plot moves along quickly, side characters are nicely drawn, and Danny’s voice is a pleasure to read. There were some pretty major editorial errors in my arc; for example, a pretty significant scene seems to have been completely omitted (it is referred to later, and should absolutely have been present; I went back and forth a few times to figure out what was going on and there was no explanation). I’m hopeful that these were fixed before it went to its final printing.

Danny’s gray-cape (gray as in morally-gray) friend Calamity is important to the story and I found her voice almost unreadable. When “in character” she talks like an actor from a spaghetti western, but she seems to be in character almost all of the time, including when she’s alone with Danny, who knows her real identity. I found this irritating, but it’s a minor quibble with a solid book.

The ending felt a little bit rushed and emotionally flat for me, but didn’t ruin anything, and I’d happily read any subsequent stories Daniels might publish in this universe.

How’s the queer representation?

My friend, that is a good question. So, as mentioned, this is an #ownvoices novel by and about a trans lesbian. That being said, I am reasonably certain April Daniels did not have an instantaneous supernatural transition, so we can assume that her representation of transness here is not quite how we experience it in the real world. Pre-transformation, Danny’s trans identity is recognizable and fairly heartbreaking. I’m appreciative of the fact that Danny doesn’t have the “born in the wrong body” feelings that I read about in trans fiction all the time: she has dysphoria about certain parts of her body and not others, and that’s totally okay and normal for trans people, the end.

It’s when she wakes up a super-strong super-gorgeous woman that things become sort of complicated for me. On the one hand, wow do trans girls ever deserve a fantasy world in which transition is this easy, and I wish I could give this an uncomplicated thumbs up. But it becomes clear in the section in which Danny receives her superpowered-medical-exam that she has in fact transitioned into an intersex woman (with the visible appearance of an AFAB person but chromosomes and gonads that imply she’s intersex). I don’t think that the word intersex is ever used, by the way. Anyway, I would reeeeeeally like to read an intersex person’s take on this. I suspect it would not be positive. I sort of don’t want to say much more than that, not being intersex myself, but it feels uncomfortable, and maybe even fetishizing of intersex bodies. I don’t know, talk to me about this, friends.

I think there’s also some talking to do (probably by someone who isn’t me) about disability here. There are some villainous disabled bodies in here -- I’m trying to not give spoilers, bear with me -- and Danny’s approach to them is pretty disgusted and dehumanizing in ways that feel ableist (to me, a person with no physical disabilities).

Danny gets a happy ending, but her experience being publicly trans is rough. She’s rejected by her family and her best friend, runs headfirst into more misogyny than she’d anticipated, and faces a nasty TERF among her fellow superheroes, along with some mealy-mouthed liberals who waver in their support of her. This is the sort of experience I hate reading about in trans lit, but which I’m much more willing to read from the perspective of a trans author.

Danny doesn’t get a romance in this book, which in the context of the story is perfectly fine. She’s confident in her sexuality, and I’d love to read about her romantic life in future books.

Warnings for large-scale death and destruction (including minor character deaths), misgendering, TERFs, possible ableism?, misogyny, emotional and verbal abuse from parents, and parental rejection.

#dreadnought #april daniels #my reviews

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scarletwelly-boots · 6 years

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Books Read 2017

I read 35 books this year. I'm about halfway done with #36, so I might make a smaller post later if I finish it before the New Year. I will also make a follow-up with the top ten so you don't need to read this whole thing. This post will briefly review each book (and damn I slacked this year; last year I got through 39 books).

As last year, each entry will include the title, author, and the entry of this year's reading challenge that it fell under.

1. All the King’s Men, by Nora Sakavic (A book that’s been on your TBR list for way too long). This is book three of the All for the Game trilogy, and holy shit you have to read this. It’s the best book in the trilogy. It is a series about a college sports team who play a made up sport called Exy, which is basically a more violent version of lacrosse. I’m not a huge sports fan, but the way she writes Exy matches had me on the edge of my seat. The team is made up of all “at-risk” students, the main character being a kid on the run from his mob boss dad. Trigger warning for the series for violence, sexual assault/rape, abuse, drug use, I may be missing some things. It was so good though.

2. Chopsticks, by Jessica Anthony (A book of letters). This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I kind of cheated on including this for this part of the challenge. It’s not entirely epistolary. It’s more mixed media. The story is told through pictures, letters, newspaper articles, notes, etc. It was good. It’s about a girl who’s basically this piano prodigy who meets a boy and falls in love.

3. East, by Edith Patton (an audio book). This year was going to be the year I reread books I haven’t read since junior high, but I kind of fell through on that, so I think this might be the only one I actually read. It’s a retelling of the Scandinavian fairy tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon, which in turn is basically a version of Beauty and the Beast. I was obsessed with Beauty and the Beast retellings (and fairy tale retellings in general) when I was fourteen. The book certainly holds up over time. I definitely recommend it.

4. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, by Benjamin Alire Saenz (a book by a person of color). Guys, everything you have heard about this book is true. It is so cute, and beautifully written. Two very different boys meet at a swimming pool when they are fifteen, and almost immediately become inseparable best friends. Also, if you can, the audiobook is surprisingly cheap on Amazon and read by el amor de mi vida, Lin-Manuel Miranda, so the book has that going for it too. 11/10 would recommend.

5. The Summer Palace, by CS Pacat (a book with one of the four seasons in the title). This is a short story in the Captive Prince series, and while it is absolutely adorable and so sunny, you need to read the trilogy to understand and appreciate it. It’s so sweet, with Laurent and Damen finally allowed to get to know each other and explore their personalities without the immediate threat of death hanging over them. Definitely recommended, but only after you read the trilogy, which I also obviously recommend.

6. The Course of Irish History, by TW Moody &co (a book with multiple authors). This is like 800-page textbook-grade Irish history, from the Ancient Celts to the Celtic Tiger economy in the 2000s. It is the leading book for Irish History courses, as I understand it. Guys. I loved this book. It took me forever to read, but I love Irish history books. It’s almost the only nonfiction I can sit through. Will you like it? Probably not. Do I recommend it anyway? Absolutely.

7. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire (a book with a cat on the cover). Might’ve cheated on this entry too. Okay, listen. I have zero interest in reading the other books in the series and I’m sorry, but the musical was ten times better. However, there are several things about this book that I love. (And I read this in January so how accurate my memories are is questionable.) Elphaba is absolutely bi/pan in this and you cannot convince me otherwise. There are two munchkins who aren’t in the musical but who are absolutely gay as the Fourth of July. I’m pretty sure I remember someone who could be read as trans. This book was very queer. I just have no attachment to the characters that I know will be in the other books. If you want to read it, I’d recommend it. If you have the opportunity to see the musical instead, go with that option even if it’s the more expensive choice.

8. Fence, vol. 1, by CS Pacat (a book by an author who uses a pseudonym): CS Pacat is back, this time with a modern sports comic about fencing. This is a literal comic book guys, so it was really short, but vol. 2 is out soon so it’s okay. I liked it. I like fencing and CS Pacat, so I enjoyed it. Too short, but I know that’s how comics work. Yeah, go read it and support comics.

9. The Raven King, by Nora Sakavic (a bestseller from a genre you don’t normally read). “This was a bestseller?” Yeah, okay, so I cheated a lot this year. It should have been a best seller. This is book two in the All for the Game series. I already explained this series above, but guys read it, it’s so good!

10. Turtles All the Way Down, by John Green (a book by or about someone who has a disability). Yay, John Green wrote another book! Yep, it’s a Green book all right. But it was really, really good. Yes, this is coming from someone whose favorite book is still The Fault in Our Stars, but listen. The main character has anxiety like crazy, and Green, having anxiety himself, writes it so well. Almost too well; the character’s anxiety was starting to give me anxiety. I loved it. Read this book.

11. A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson (A book involving travel), this is a classic. Bryson goes to hike the Appalachian Trail, which is very very long. He takes along his somewhat stupid friend from home. Another nonfiction book, but it was good and had no Ireland at all in it. It was really funny, too. I recommend the audiobook, because it’s really fast to get through, but good.

12. The Immortal Irishman, by Timothy Egan (a book with a subtitle). I know, but it’s got a subtitle actually but I just can’t remember what it is. Guys, I know it’s Irish history again. This book is whole leagues above The Course of Irish History. It’s not a textbook, and doesn’t read like one. It’s a biography on Thomas Francis Meagher, a revolutionary in Famine-decimated Ireland trying to free his dying and oppressed country from the English. It doesn’t go well. He’s imprisoned and sentenced to death. But instead of dying, he is transported to the Penal Colony in Australia, where he lives and works to free Australia from Britain’s clutches as well, before he escapes to the United States just in time to be a general in the Civil War. It’s really good.

13. Weird Ireland, assorted authors (a book that’s published in 2017). A very small, independently published book about paranormal, supernatural, and extra-terrestrial sightings in Ireland. It was okay. I finished it in two hours. I knew everything that was in it, and some of it they even got wrong. Even if you’re crazy-obsessed with Ireland like me, you can skip this one.

14. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the movie script, by JK Rowling (a book involving a mythical creature). Did you see the movie? Then you’re good, you don’t need to read the script. Bye.

15. Howl’s Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones (a book you’ve read before than never fails to make you smile). Did I say TFiOS is my favorite book? Sorry, I meant this one. Did you see the movie? Don’t care, book’s better, go read it. This may be my most frequently read book on my shelf. It’s sooo good!

16. Teacher Man, by Frank McCourt (a book with career advice): I hate to say this about a fellow Irishman and a celebrated author, but Frank McCourt? not a great guy. The book was good, because I’m also a teacher, so some of what he was saying was relatable to me. But the guy teaches high school English, and even though the book follows him from his thirties to like his sixties, he’s kind of salivating over the high school girls and it was making me very uncomfortable. He never actually does anything about his attraction (at least not in the book), but I was still like this is wildly unprofessional please stop.

17. Loki: Agent of Asgard vol. 1, by Jason Ewing (a book from a nonhuman perspective): This was the second-ever graphic novel I’ve ever read guys. Yes, I had a weeabo phase in junior high like everyone else, so I did read manga, but comics were never really that interesting to me. So I was Thor: Ragnarok six times this year. Why did I see it six times? I love Loki and their genderfluidity, even if the MCU won’t acknowledge that my love so obviously gf. So I decided to read all the comics where it’s canon that Loki is genderfluid. This book was so good, please read.

18. Graceling, by Kristen Cashore (a steampunk novel). Cheating again, sorry. This was more fantasy than steampunk. It was also a junior high favorite I’m reading again. In this world, there are people born with two eye colors that signify they have special abilities. Some are benign, like being an amazing baker or the ability to tell someone is lying to you, but some are more sinister. The main character, Katsa’s grace is for killing. It’s a good book.

19. The Irish Civil War, by Tim Pat Coogan (a book with a red spine). A very short book highlighting the Irish Civil War 1922-1923. I liked it, because the civil war is basically the only section of Irish history I was still a little foggy on, so it was helpful. Will you like it? Only if you’re into Irish history like me. This is not Immortal Irishman.

20. Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan (A book you loved as a child). We read this with my fifth graders last year. I loved this book when I was ten, but I got so much more out of it this second time around. It’s a really good book, even if you’re not a child. Esperanza starts out the daughter of a wealthy rancher, but when her father dies under shifty circumstances, she and her mother are forced to flee to America, where they live with their servants’ relatives in a migrant worker camp in California, facing hardship, discrimination, and immigration laws. It’s very good.

21. Cupid, by Julius Lester (a book with a title that’s a character’s name). This was okay. I thought I’d read it in junior high, but I had no memory of any of it. It’s a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, which is very similar to East of the Sun and West of the Moon. The author tried to be tongue-in-cheek in a few places, which I didn’t appreciate, but overall it’s a pretty good YA novel.

22. Loki: Agent of Asgard vol. 2, by Jason Ewing (a book with an unreliable narrator). Loki? Unreliable? Since when? Still good, still queer, Freyja pissing me off as always.

23. Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel (a book with pictures): Okay, I guess I lied, since this book was a graphic novel and I read it before Loki. It was really interesting. It’s autobiographical of Bechdel’s life and relationship with her dad.

24. The Pirate Queen, by Barbara Sjoholm (a book about an interesting woman). Not only was this about my favorite person ever, Grace O’Malley, stone in Britain’s imperial sandal, but also talked about the relationship between Atlantic-dwelling women and the sea. It covers goddesses, fisherwomen, pirates, adventurers, and sea-witches from Ireland, Scotland, the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland. It was really interesting and I recommend it.

25. Timekeeper, by Tara Sim (a book set in two different time periods). Cheated here, too, don’t know what I was thinking. Anyway, this is a steampunk novel in which clock towers actually control time, which means that if there’s a flaw, it affects time itself in more literal ways. It’s about a clock mechanic and a clock spirit who lives in one of the towers and watches over the clock. They are adorably gay, but that’s more of a subplot because someone has been sabotaging the towers and throwing time into chaos. The sequel comes out in January. Good for a debut novel.

26. Across Five Aprils, by Irene Hunt (a book with a month or day of the week in the title). This is about a ten-year-old boy growing up in rural Illinois during the Civil War, so it talks about how it affects him and his family, as well as covers the course of the war in a more general perspective. It was interesting, and well written, but I think I prefer Hunt’s Up a Road Slowly.

27. The Adventures of Charls, by CS Pacat (a book written by someone you admire): Another Captive Prince short story that should be read after The Summer Palace. Where Green But for a Season (the first CP short story) was sad, and Summer Palace was passionate and cute, The Adventures of Charls is hilarious. Charls, the cloth merchant, was such a great side character in the CP trilogy, and telling the story from his perspective was great. It doesn’t have to be read after the Summer Palace, but at least the trilogy should be read first.

28. Wonder, by RJ Palacio (a book that’s becoming a movie in 2017). Did you watch the movie? Whitewashed, go read the fucking book. I read this with my fifth graders last year too, who loved it. It’s a very sweet story, and the movie was good, but it goes too fast and leaves out some scenes that I liked. Highly, highly recommend.

29. The Foxhole Court, by Nora Sakavic (the first book in a series you haven’t read before). First book (obviously) in the All for the Game series. What are you still doing here? Go start this trilogy!

30. Symptoms of Being Human, by Jeff Garvin (a bestseller from 2016). I think I cheated again, but this book should have been a bestseller. Quality of the story gets a solid 7/10, but this is the only novel I know of that has a canon human genderfluid character, and representation is so important and for a cis dude, this guy wrote genderfluid shockingly well. Characterization and representation gets a 10/10 because I just ignored the “I’m a whiny teenager, no one likes me, my parents don’t get me, woe is me” chorus. Some of it was justified, because they were being bullied, and they weren’t out to their parents, but still, the book was written very young adult-y.

31. The Story We Carry in Our Bones, by Juliene Osbourne-McKnight (a book about an immigrant or refugee). The subtitle describes the book best: Irish history for Irish-Americans. Down side: very watered down Irish history because it’s a small book and just an introduction to Irish history. Up side: More information and context of the history of the Irish in America, because my personal studies have pretty much entirely skipped over that aspect of my heritage. If you’re Irish-American and looking to learn a little more about your ethnic past, but don’t want to dive headfirst into the deep end of Irish everything like me, you should read this book. If you’re willing to study more in-depth Irish history, skip this book and I have some better recommendations for you.

32. Loki: Agent of Asgard vol. 3, by Jason Ewing (a book from a genre you’ve never heard of): Cheated; I know what a comic book is. This is the last volume in this series. My only qualm is a spoiler, so I’ll give it 8/10.

33. Original Sin: Thor and Loki in the Tenth Realm, by Jason Ewing (a book with an eccentric character): Who is more eccentric than Loki “Always-Extra” Laufeyson? This is the first comic I’ve ever read, and I have to say it was very good. Featuring genderfluid!Loki all the way, actual Father-of-the-Year this time Odin, Freyja’s shockingly shitty parenting skills (maybe this is a theme in the comics, but coming from actual-angel!Frigga in the MCU, this was upsetting for me), and Thor abandoning the Avengers in a fight to start another battle in another realm because Thor is a fucking over-dramatic bastard.

34. Huntess, by Malinda Lo (a book that’s been mentioned in another book). I read Lo’s Ash a few years ago and loved it. Huntress, while okay, didn’t quite live up to the hype I’d applied to it after reading Ash. It was good, and had a very mythical Ireland feel to it that I liked, and it was very gay, but I don’t know, it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

35. Ever, by Gail Carson Levine (a book based on mythology). I read this book when I was fourteen, too (guess I did read a lot of books from junior high). I love this book. It’s about a young god who meets a monotheistic mortal girl and they fall in love despite the differences in their religion. I didn’t love it as much as I did in junior high, but it’s still good. Levine also wrote Ella Enchanted, which is very good and more well-known than Ever.

#books #book recommendations #book recs

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trendingnewsb · 6 years

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6 Famous People Whose Origin Stories Are Dark Secrets

Nobody expects celebrities to actually be exactly the way they portray themselves publicly. Bruce Willis doesn’t go around killing terrorists every day (that probably happens, like, every other weekend). When you’re famous, it’s understood that you’ll have to bullshit a little and cultivate an image that appeals to your audience. But some do less cultivating and more top-to-bottom renovations. It’s always shocking when famous people turn out to be the complete opposite of what they’re famous for. And that’s the case with …

Kid Rock Was Born Rich And Grew Up In A Huge-Ass Mansion

No “celebrity goes into politics” story will ever be weird again, but the announcement that Kid Rock might run for Senate still managed to turn a few heads. After all, his biggest claim to fame was supposedly spending a summer “trying different things … smoking funny things,” and based on his ability to rhyme “things” with “things,” he surely has no better than an eighth-grade education, right?

Rock wants us to think he’s some rough-and-tumble country boy, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. His childhood home in Macomb County, Michigan recently sold for nearly $1.3 million, which we’re reasonably sure would be enough to buy whole towns around there. It turns out that his dad owned two luxury car dealerships and made some not-insignificant amounts of money.

Romeo High School “Your little rec center shall make a great showroom for our Bentleys. Papa will be most pleased.”

Mr. and Mrs. Rock’s “four-bedroom, four-bath, neo-Georgian colonial house” is over 5,000 square feet, has an indoor Jacuzzi, amenities out the wazoo, and the property itself contains an apple orchard. Rock has tried to flaunt his down-home country style and use it to smear politicians as “out of touch.” That doesn’t have the same gravity now that we know his past.

Adam Serwer/Twitter That’s a sad burger for so many reasons.

Rapper Rick Ross Was A Prison Guard

Florida rapper Rick Ross is best known for his songs about nonstop hustling and pushing it to the limit (“it” being all of the drugs). Hell, he got his name from a drug kingpin. That’s why it was kind of a shocker when it came out that Ross was a corrections officer (read: prison guard) prior to getting into the rap game.

After the story broke about his previous life of literally the opposite of crime, Ross originally denied it, but somehow the media managed to get ahold of pay stubs that proved it. For about two years in the mid-’90s, he worked as a CO in Florida. Granted, that makes him more of a badass than being a CO in, say, Terre Haute, Indiana, but it didn’t help his street cred any.

Florida Department of Corrections, Maybach Music Group His earliest songs were about how much he hated that Urkel kid who kept visiting his house.

Even 50 Cent took a jab at Ross in a rap to point out how dumb it was for Rozay to keep acting like he was something he wasn’t. After all, if you’re only learning about smuggling drugs and weapons from someone else’s case file instead of doing it yourself, can you sincerely say your raps come from the heart?

Probably thanks to some magical PR whiz, Ross finally owned up to his past. Rather than dismiss his old job as some kind of phase, he managed to call it a “hustle” in its own right. (We’re beginning to think that absolutely anything can be a hustle as long as one declares it so.)

Ron Jeremy Was A Special Education Teacher

Lots of people watch porn — about 67 percent of you are only reading this while you wait for some to load. Even the “casual” viewer can probably name a fair number of lady porn stars, but for some reason, about the only male porn actor most people can identify is Ron Jeremy. He’s been the mustachioed face of videotaped boning for decades, but believe it or not, that wasn’t really his Plan A.

On an episode of Judge Pirro, Jeremy admitted that his background was in theater, and that he’d gone on to get a master’s degree in special education. As in working with disabled kids.

Jeremy is happy to talk about his educator past, and always considered his teaching degree his fallback option, or “ace in the hole” (that’s probably not the only thing he’s called that). He majored in theater in college, and much like theater majors of today, he went and tacked on an education degree “just in case.”