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kedreeva · 2 years

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When I was a kid, maybe 14 or so (which is, you know, 20+ years ago), I belonged to a Yahoo! mailing list for an anime called Gundam Wing. It was mostly populated by other teens, of varying ages, as it was started by a teen and her friends. Eventually it migrated, when Yahoo! groups started as forums, and even branched off into non-GW related stuff in a second forum.

One of the things I remember the most clearly is the oldest person in the group. Her name was Steelsong. She was a 40-something Dom with a sub whose name we knew even though we knew nothing else. She ran her own fanfic archive because the web was still handmade HTML and navigated in webrings and I’m pretty sure Google didn’t exist or was only barely, barely launched and not well known. She was kind and patient and we loved her. She treated everyone on the group with the respect given any adult, even though most of the rest of the world was still treating us like we were children. Not teenagers even, but children. She never once condescended to any of us, never made our youth a barrier to her respect, never treated us like we were incapable of being full people or like we were less than her because we were young.

I remember that she hosted our fanfiction, as absolutely terrible as it was (and I still have some of it, I am WELL aware of how cringingly terrible it is, just absolute nonsense garbage), right there alongside of other fic that was soul-achingly beautiful. Not a separate section for her friends or for kids, just right there like we were good enough to feature alongside other authors. I never once received crit from her that I didn’t ask for, only support. Only love. I am still writing today partly because Steel was so kind about our fic, fanfic and original.

I remember that when I started doing clay sculpture, she commissioned a tiny pair of dragons from me, to support me doing artwork. She sent a check my mom cashed for me, and my mom helped me mail it when it was finished. It broke in transit, and Steel assured me that she mended it and that it was still beautiful. It was a small gold dragon curled up with a small silver dragon.

I remember that her patience knew no bounds. I remember that she was there for us, regardless of reason. When we wanted to know silly things like what to do with a single AA battery, she answered. When we had serious questions about sex, she answered. When we had questions about writing, she taught us. When one of our group members, a young gay teen in Australia, ended up in the hospital and then stopped making posts, and we all knew what had happened, she let us talk to her about it because we couldn’t go to our own parents, even though we had just lost a friend.

She was not a replacement to my parents, but she was an extra parent, in some ways. A friend, certainly, but someone that had been through more life than we had and was willing to pass on knowledge if we asked for it. Someone older that we trusted with things that were too uncomfortable to go to our parents or teachers or whatever about, because we already knew she wasn’t going to judge us or something, and that we would get an honest answer.

I don’t know why I’m remembering this so hard tonight, and I’m not sure if there’s a point to sharing this, except that I know she’s gone now. She was ill the last time we spoke, and her site went down a long time ago, and I miss her. She was a huge influence on my life, then and now. She was hope, for me, that life as an adult didn’t have to be boring, it wouldn’t have to mean giving up the things I loved and Becoming Only Responsible With No Fun. Her presence meant I had hope I could still write and play with friends even when I wasn’t ‘a kid’ anymore. And she’s gone, and I miss her, and I wanted to share her from the perspective of youth, and the perspective over twenty years later has provided me.

And I think of her, when people go off about older folks being in fandom with younger folks. I’m an older folks now, or at least middle aged folks because there are certainly folks older than me still, but I wasn’t always. I’ve been here since i was a younger folks, and I know how much Steel’s presence and support meant to me, how much she helped not just me but everyone on that group. And I think of the people saying older folks don’t belong in fandom, and that they shouldn’t interact with younger folks at all, and I just think... I can’t agree. I needed that kind of solid presence in my life back then and even at the age I am now, I need the folks older than me to stay. I want them here.

So I guess, like, if you’re here and you’re 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 or whatever, I want you here in fandom with me, still. Your presence here is a comfort. It is hope. It is a reminder that life will continue to be fun, even as I get older, myself. And if you’re younger and you have this sort of elder in your groups, I hope that they are like Steel. I hope they are kind and patient and supportive, and that knowing them gives you hope for your own future. I hope in twenty years you look back and remember them fondly.

#steelsong #personal #stories about ked's life #dash stretcher #fandom #god she would have loved ao3 so much #i wish i could tell her about the good things that have become

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smytherines · 25 days

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I often wonder if I would feel differently about The Staircase Scene if I had seen SAF when it first came out in 2016. The first time I saw it was probably around October or November of 2023, and like... the context is different now.

Whatever we want to say about the personal story arcs of these characters (and I know I'm in a tiny minority because, for me, killing Owen does not constitute a satisfying close to Curt's arc, that's totally fine), there is the very real issue of the sociopolitical context that this scene takes place within- both in their time (1961) and in ours.

One very cool thing about SAF is that, in order to understand these characters better, a lot of younger queer folks end up learning about the Lavender Scare, about Executive Order 10450- which officially prohibited gay people from working for the US government- for the first time. That's an incredible, precious thing to me. Yay queer history! It's important!

The show itself never addresses the fact that both the US and UK governments had very public, very brutal campaigns equating homosexuality with communism with being a traitor to your country. But if you want to understand these characters, and especially write fanfiction, you're really incentivized to teach yourself some fundamentally important aspects of queer history.

In the 54 Below concert, before singing Not So Bad, Brian Rosenthal talks about how when they were developing the show they thought N@zis were more or less a thing of the past, that they're fully aware of how differently that song might be taken now after an escalation into a more open embrace of fascism in the US. And they're absolutely right about that.

But I think that's also perhaps an issue with the staircase scene, or at least it is for me. Obviously homophobia and transphobia were not "fixed" in 2016, they were still massive problems resulting in violence and discrimination and brutality. But institutionally, at least, you could look at the situation and point to some things that were gradually getting better.

In 2016 trans youth in my state were legally allowed to receive gender affirming care. In 2024, they are not. It's not that homophobia and transphobia went away and then came back, but there was a very real resurgence of the use of the media and of governmental power to inflict pain on queer & trans people and chase them out of public life- bathroom bans, gender affirming care bans, Don't Say Gay laws, trying to make drag illegal, equating queer and trans people with pedophilia. There has been a big cultural shift back towards the same kind of violent governmental moral panic that our beloved Curt & Owen would have lived under.

Whatever we want to say about these characters and this story (and there's tons of fascinating debate there), there is still the base of a gay man killing his ex-lover ostensibly to protect US foreign policy objectives. Killing the man he loves- or loved, at least- to protect the secret that he is gay. And that hits different for me now.

I watch that scene and it is heartbreaking on a personal level, but its also heartbreaking as a queer person who just wants to scream "your government will destroy you for being gay, you don't owe them shit!"

Owen tries to explain that the surveillance network is happening, that the future won't wait for Curt to catch up. Barb has been saying she's working on the same thing for the US government the entire show, but Curt just kept ignoring her. And I just want to say "Curt, honey, what do you think your government is going to do to you with that surveillance system? Do you think you're useful enough to keep around even though you have sex with men? Because I promise you they will not care."

It feels tragic to me because on some level it seems like Curt would actually be safer with another gay man having control of all the world's secrets than he will be if the government he has dedicated his life to gets their hands on that same technology.

And the thing is, having a tragic ending doesn't make the show bad. This show is great. This scene is spectacular. It makes you think, it makes you feel things, it does all the stuff that great art is supposed to do. Absolutely none of what I'm saying here is meant to denigrate the show as a musical or a story or even a queer story. I hope it doesn't come off as me saying "actually this show is bad," because I don't feel that way at all.

Clearly I live and breathe this show. That's why I spend all my time on here analyzing every scene, every frame, every facial expression. I love this show so much that I can't help but deconstruct it and look at all its component parts- including the sociopolitical context both now and in 1961. Because that context, despite never being explicitly mentioned, is important to our understanding of these characters.

I love these characters so much that it's actually pretty difficult for me to watch A2P7 anymore, because the staircase scene is so emotionally devastating to me that it's hard to try to swing back into that more comedic tone (even though Spy Dance is a certified bop).

I'm not even sure what my point is with all of this, other than to say that Spies Are Forever is a show that is great and fun and funny as written/performed, and becomes gradually more emotionally devastating when you rewatch it or when you understand the subtext of it. When you can engage with the themes of gender and sexuality, surveillance and technology, trauma and trust, and tease out even more satisfying theories around this show.

So yeah. It's a musical. It's about spies.

#spies are forever #tin can bros #curtwen #agent curt mega #owen carvour #saf #tcb #its about spies

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gabessquishytum · 4 months

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Ferdinand Kingsley in Reacher is doing very wrong things to my head. I swear to god I do not normally find arms smugglers appealing in any way & do not even like military/copaganda shows & am thoroughly ashamed. But I've been thinking like... what if Hob is a gun guy with a progressive club that trains/protects marginalized groups (like Trigger Warning Queer & Trans Club: https://www.facebook.com/triggerwarninggunclub/ or any of these here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/22/if-others-have-rifles-well-have-rifles-why-leftist-groups-are-taking-up-arms )

And ok, he's totally not a SMUGGLER (hates that word) but he will SOMETIMES help someone get a weapon who needs to protect themselves but can't because of bullshit convictions — like sex workers or people who've gotten caught up in spurious War on Drugs(/Poverty) crap or honestly just the racist system, whatever. And his background checks are like 1000x more careful than any of the usual gun show loophole-riddled checks anyway, & everyone who gets a weapon knows they'll have to answer to him if they go bad with it.

But mostly he's a friendly face teaching new folks their way around a weapon when they've literally never held one before or have only ever been to ranges full of 'phobes where they felt even less safe.

And maybe one day he comes across this skinny wild-haired Murphy shooting cans in the woods because things have gotten bad & he feels even LESS safe than he has his whole life here & he knows he's on his own to defend himself — it's not like reporting it would do any good, the Burgesses are too powerful in this little town & even his own family isn't that helpful. And Hob is like "Woah, woah, woah, where is your ear protection and also how about moving this safely to a range, my friend!" But he has to do some convincing because Murphy only ever knew about the 'phobe-filled ranges and has a hard time believing that someone would actually want to help/protect him & not have shitty views. And honestly Hob is SCARY attractive — emphasis on scary because Murphy has only ever known the worst kind of open-carry gun guys & actually come to think of it maybe shifting to a more populated location is wise...

And anyway, Hob is fucking great actually, and makes Murphy feel safe & introduces him to everybody at the local group & personally sees to his training, which is how they start really getting to know each other & boning all the damn time. And when Murphy moves into Hob's apartment, he feels safer than he ever has in his life.

And the Burgesses back the fuck off because they are cowardly fuckers at heart & honestly it turns out there are more people willing to stand up to them than they thought.

Queer Hob who hunts down homophobes in the woods for sport... hmm yes im vibing with this!! The thing I love about a.m in Reacher is the ✨️eroticism✨️ of the way he kills people. It's so gorgeous and there's a definite queer spiciness about him.

So yes Hob is a queer guy who is absolutely sick and kind of jaded by the way he's been treated him whole life, and he's determined to spread his self defence skills as far and wide around the gays as possible. When he finds out about the Burgesses and all that bullshit he's actually quite excited to teach lil baby gay Murphy to shoot and stab (when necessary). Hob doesn't have any intentions towards the young man, because he definitely is young and Hob doesn't really do relationships these days... but once he sees Murphy all kitted out and getting into Hob’s little group of gun toting gays, mud streaked on his cheeks and stomping around in his big boots!! Hob’s heart melts!!

Meanwhile Murphy is going weak at the knees over the older, slightly grizzled, VERY sexy man who's hands are covering his, teaching him how to point and shoot the gun, how to be safe. If Murphy falls asleep thinking about those hands in other, more intimate places... who's gonna blame him?

And if he ends up planting himself right in Hob’s lap when they sit down after target practice, that's his business. The way Hob wraps an arm around his waist to keep him safe gives him a good feeling about the future, anyways <3

#cowardly--throwaway #the sandman #dreamling #nsft #cw guns

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transmascpetewentz · 8 months

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Moving The Goalposts: Infighting, Exorsexism, and Transandrophobia

I want to start this off not by getting directly into the meat of my theory, but instead by showing all of you a post that I came across today that illustrates exactly what I am talking about when I say that transandrophobes, and specifically TEHMs in this case, move the goalposts in a way that causes infighting within the trans(masc) community. This is a post by a pretty well-known TEHM whose blog I've been watching for a while.

What Jackson is doing here seems pretty obvious on the surface. He's making fun of nonbinary people who were AFAB because he perceives them as fakers and/or trenders. However, when you take a look at some of the other things that he believes, you realize that it just isn't that simple.

This is a post by one of Jackson's mutuals on here. If you don't know what some of these phrases mean, "trans heterosexual" refers to gay trans people (in this case, it's likely focusing on transmascs, but this rhetoric harms transfem lesbians too), and "trans homosexual" refers to straight trans people. What lavenderlad is trying to do is infantilize non-straight trans people, acting like we are complaining about nothing (maybe hysterical, even) for pointing out the oppression that we face from cishets and cis queers alike.

But it goes even deeper.

This right here is a very interesting post, specifically because lavenderlad seems to have changed his tune completely. As opposed to infantilizing us like in the previous post, he has now switched to transandrophobic conspiracy theories about how we are apparently some sort of dominant societal force despite being less than 2% of the population. My antisemitism radar is going off right now, too, because this sounds suspiciously like your average antisemite talking about Jews. He went very quickly from treating us like we're little girls who can't do anything to treating us like evil, scary men who are trying to invade his space.

He moved the goalposts because it was convenient for him at this moment to contribute to the oppression of gay trans men.

To elaborate, there's a specific type of transandrophobia seen in these circles that Jackson and lavenderlad are using. They are applying both maleness and femaleness to us. They infantilize us like we are women, and use our perceived femininity to justify gatekeeping us out of their spaces, while also using very common anti-gay male and generally anti-marginalized male stereotypes such as us being inherently aggressive, invaders, our bodies disgusting, etc. It's exorsexism, plain and simple.

And I feel like these posts show us how transandrophobes and transphobes in general can cause infighting within the trans community. A feminine nonbinary person might look at Jackson's first post and go "see! trans men have so much better than me!" but in fact, trans men, both binary and nonbinary, aren't actually treated any better. The grass is not greener. Trans men who try to conceal our birth sex and/or transness are considered liars, trying to invade spaces we don't belong, and more; but trans men and transmascs who do not try to pass, who don't try to conceal our transness, are accused of being "not really dysphoric."

Do not be fooled into thinking that transandrophobes would like you better if your gender expression was different. They don't want trans men to be displaying our transness, they don't want us to go stealth, and they don't want anything in between. They want us to be cis. Do not argue with your trans brothers about who society hates more; because society will see you as whatever will prove a transandrophobe's point. Address the root problems of patriarchy and transandrophobia instead of letting infighting eat us alive.

#wentz.txt #transandrophobia #free blocklist #long post #anti transmasculinity

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astridellejo · 28 days

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I wanted to have a TDOV Easter egg cracking story ready for today, but my ADHD won. So here's something I hastily put together at the last minute (like I always do).

My personal trans lore below the cut:

I grew up as a child of the 1980s and had absolutely no idea that trans was a thing. All I knew is that the body I had was not the body I wanted. Those thoughts started around 1983 when I was nine years old. I thought it was just a normal part of growing up, and that everyone in the world felt like that. Even in my senior year of high school when I was eighteen years old, I was still having thoughts like, "I wish this wanting to be a different sex and gender than the one I'm stuck with part of puberty would hurry up and finish, because it's getting really old now."

[egg emoji (not actually an egg emoji)]

Again, I didn't know trans was a thing. It was about 1995 when I would finally see actual trans people for the first time on some daytime trash television talk show. At which point I was like, "Wait, what? Oh no. I'm gonna be really bad at that, then. Because I just don't have it in me to be that ostentatious." I just wanted to wear black and sit in a dark corner of a café and draw in my sketchbook.

Now because it was the 1990s, your average cishet didn't grasp the difference between sex, gender, and sexual orientation. (It's 2024 now and most still don't.) So everybody thought I was gay. And I was all, "Well, technically yes. But not in the way you think."

See, my crushes in the early 90s were Winona Ryder, and Laura Dern, and Gillian Anderson. And who I wanted to look like was Gina Gershon in Bound, or Ally Sheedy in High Art. But back in the day, the idea of a butch lesbian trans woman just blew everyone's minds. The idiot gender headshrink (the person I had to get a 'permission slip' from to begin my transition) just couldn't wrap that around his brain. Which is why I only saw him three times before demanding my letter.

Then finally in summer of 2002, I began my transition (after almost five years of roadbumps and occasional self-doubt). I began second puberty and went through the really awkward teenage girl phase of transition figuring out my new self expression while my body slowly morphed into a shape that I was much more comfortable having.

It has now been 22 years since I began my transition and I'm happy to report that now I look more or less how I wanted to look in 1998, but with hair that is almost three feet long. (Ooo! Long haired butch!) Plus that hair has streaks of silver in it now, making it so much hotter!

I'm going to be 50 in September, which just short-circuits my headmeats. Does that make me a trans elder yet? Or do I need another decade? Whatever. It'll be interesting to see how my midlife crisis plays out.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Happy Transgender Day of Visibility!

(The selfie is from three years ago because I'm too lazy to go take one now.)

#tdov #tdov 2024 #trans day of visibility #transgender day of visibility #trans #transgender #queer #nonbinary #aroace #astridellejo.jpg

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canyoufucksoniccharacters · 1 month

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It's time.

Alright, this is gonna be a long one. Not only am I covering the canon, mainline game Sonic, but his offshoots as well. Specifically, I will be covering Sonic in the mainline games, the Paramount movie version, Sonic Prime, and a tiiiiiiny tiny little itty bit of Archie. IDW is, from what has been implied as of the past about year and a half, canon; and it will be treated as such (with some caution, of course.), so it's not going to be handled separately.

Let's do this.

Alright, let's start as early as absolutely possible. There have been several, several statements regarding Sonic's age; the earliest of which was courtesy of our good old friends over at...

There would be a certain (mildly loud) funny video here, but Tumblr's weird barely present copyright protection probably kicked in. Anyways...

In the Sonic The Hedgehog cartoon, also known as SatAM, we get 2 tidbits of information. In the 2-part special called Blast From The Past, we see that Sonic and Sally are about the same age, both being kids of just about equal maturity. Later, in episode 24, Sally states that her age is 16. So, far as we could tell, Sonic was 16, or around that range. Now, we know that these cartoons aren't canon, but they definitely did have an influence over the canon of the series. Fun fact for you, Sonic's love of chili dogs was made up by the cartoons, and later adopted during the modern era by the games. Ain't that neat?

Chili dog related tangent aside, this was the only source we had for Sonic's age at that point. I've seen some say that he was stated to be 15 in the manual for Sonic 2, but upon trying to verify that claim I came empty-handed. The manual does mention Tails being 8, but no mention of Sonic's age as far as I could tell; and the same goes for every other Classic Series game. Except for...

Sonic Jam, the Sonic game absolutely no one cares about! In part because it's not much more than a game compilation and tech demo that served as the stepping stone for Sonic Adventure 1. Sonic Jam includes profiles for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Eggman. This is in both the Japanese and English version, and both contain ages for the characters! Tails is listed as 8, Knuckles as 15, and Eggman as "??" or Unknown, in the case of the English version.

This brings us to Sonic, who I will be using the Japanese profile for.

The part that says "年令" translates to "Age". So, here it says that Sonic ranges between 15 and 16... Whatever that means. In the English version, it just says 15. Either way, all these make sense for these games. Sonic's characterization back in the day was all in on the rebellious teenager angle, an effort to give him an air of edge and coolness that other platforming mascots didn't have, which did admittedly win people over during the heat of the console wars! Sonic was absolutely huge when the series was new, to a degree that other mascots just couldn't match up to. Of course, that dropped off over time, but that's a discussion for another day, and not on this blog. This blog is about gay sex, not the videogame industry.

So, Sonic is either 15 or 16, most likely 15. All is good here, everything lines up, other than maybe the fact that Amy was listed as 8 in the Sonic CD manual, but that's probably fine considering back then her crush on Sonic was treated as a one-sided admirer type thing, rather than an actual romantic interest (That was usually reserved for Sally in media that actually cared about that kinda thing, anyways.)

So, fast forward to the Dreamcast; Sonic gets a redesign! Longer limbs, green eyes, and overall less chibi-like and seemingly more mature appearance. So, you would assume he's older, right? After all, him an everyone else around him got the same treatment, except for Eggman who... Seemingly just became a smidge more realistic. A smidge, anyways. You can only be so realistic being shaped like Gru.

Well... Yeah! It would look like it, since no further statements about his age were made, and in the Archie comics, they actually aged him up a year to justify his change in design. Archie isn't canon, obviously, but it shows the direction that was taken; as the players aged, so did Sonic, no matter how much people got up in arms about the green eyes for some strange reason.

... And then Sonic Heroes came along.

Perfectly fine game, mind you! One of the more polarizing ones, sure, and some of the writing could have been a smidge better (specially on Amy's side of things), but overall not really anything egregious. But for our sake... This hellspawn was born.

Ah, the Sonic Heroes US manual. The root cause of incredibly stupid Sonic shipping discourse; as well as the really, really inaccurate Sonic Channel ages.

All vitriol aside, let's look at what it has to say about our blue blur.

... 15? Really? When our previous estimate was also 15-16? Are you actually telling me Sonic 1 to Heroes all happened within less than a year? Amy got aged up from 8 to 12, which... Either age would be a bit concerning considering they're still pushing the whole romantic interest thing, one-sided as it may still be. That aside, it makes no logistical sense for Sonic to still be 15 after he's literally physically shown to be older.

On top of that, this same manual ages Espio down from 17 (In the Chaotix manual) to 16, and Vector up from 16 to 20. Vector I can believe, but uh. Aging down isn't exactly a thing that most people do.

What's worse, this age was then listed in the official Sonic Channel website... Even after they made a game where the first thing you see is Sonic celebrating his birthday. Meaning he had to have been 14 before that game to stay 15, which is contradictory to say the least. Additionally, there's a potential time gap of 5 months between SA2 and Heroes, only ever referenced in the Playstation 3 PSN release of Sonic Heroes.

This age was never once modified, even after Sonic Forces' 6 month timeskip, meaning Sonic had a birthday party, was locked up for 6 months, and somehow didn't age a year during all that. Nor after the several infrastructure-demolishing incidents such as an entire city being flooded and wrecked, the planet being shattered into pieces, among others.

And you wanna know something funny? In Sonic Generations, Classic Sonic is explicitly stated to be Sonic from the past, which checks out considering how he behaves less maturely and is proportionally much smaller. And then in 2015, the Classic Sonic style guide comes out.

15.

Somehow. Some. Fucking. How. Classic Sonic is listed as 15... While Modern Sonic is listed as 15 too. Oh, Amy is also listed as 12, by the way. Despite that being her (ALLEGED) age in Sonic Heroes.

Unless they're from different universes or something, there's no way-

OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE

Yeah, so, Sonic Forces released 2 years after that guide. And it tried, emphasis on tried, to retcon Classic Sonic into being an entirely separate character. This was, however, later undone by Sonic Origins both re-establishing the Classic games as taking place in the past, on top of a TailsTube episode saying as such; that Classic Sonic is, indeed, from the past. It's even stated that Modern Sonic is who Classic Sonic grew up to be!

IDW doesn't make our job any easier, either. This is information from when the Tangle & Whisper story was ongoing;

However... I'd take it with a grain of salt, as it's from before IDW was considered canon, and back when Sega was much more strict on the mandates and what they did and didn't allow in Sonic media. Plus, this was still the age listed on Sonic Channel, before they removed it.

Oh yeah, that. Why don't we talk about that?

On October of 2022, all the ages on Sonic Channel were removed.

This... Was a good move. SonAmy is still being pushed ever so very slightly, with Amy's crush still being present in a recent short even if she's much more mature about it now, which would make their age difference less than ideal. On top of that, the ages really just didn't line up chronologically speaking.

So, where does that leave us now?

In this interview, Takashi Iizuka is asked about Sonic's age; to which he responds that "He's a teenager."

youtube

"Teenager" is a bit of a loose definition, probably on purpose. Generally speaking, the range for teenager ranges from anywhere to 13-19, to 13-21 depending on who you ask. Some people make the cutoff at 18, though that's almost never done when it comes to scientific material.

So, let's recap. Sonic is still considered a teenager, but he's always been considered one, all the way back from the Classic series. So, we can safely assume Classic isn't 15; either that, or he was, and the modern series takes place during anywhere from 2-6 years, which I could believe. Either way, he's at minimum about 13-14, as he's a younger version of Sonic who hasn't hit a growth spurt yet.

Then, we have anywhere from 1 to 2 canon birthdays for Sonic, depending on whether you count Runners as canon or not (which I would admittedly not at all fault you for not considering it canon, considering it's a mobile game; and a discontinued one at that), as well as a 6-month timeskip during Forces, potential 5-month timeskip during Heroes (which isn't the most unbelievable proposition or anything, considering it would be a bit weird if Shadow was presumed dead only to show back up like a week later), and a bunch of events that have caused severe structural damage to key locations in the world, namely during Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Adventure 1 as the 2 biggest examples. Oh, and Sonic Forces throwing absolutely everything into disarray on a seemingly global scale, which would take quite a bit of time to be fixed, specially considering that's still an ongoing process in IDW.

On top of all this, it's outright shown that these things don't just happen every week or whatever, things happen off-screen, characters get time off to do their own stuff, and from the looks of it, Murder Of Sonic The Hedgehog is canon, as nothing there conflicts with canon and it's officially endorsed. Which means WE HAVE YET ANOTHER FUCKING BIRTHDAY PARTY, FOR AMY THIS TIME.

Further proving the point i just stated, let's look at the geographical Prison Island. This is what it looks like in Sonic Adventure 2.

A big, mechanical prison complex made out of nothing but cold hard metal. Filled with robots, not a single trace of nature in sight. Said nature however is not too far from these military bases, though! These forests are also on the island.

So, these are the two main parts of Prison Island. Abundant nature, and military facilities. There's very little difference once the story progresses further, though, as the island...

Fucking explodes. (Clip from Sonic Adventure 2 Real-Time Fandub. Credit to SnapCube.)

So, why is this relevant? Well, we revisit this location in Shadow The Hedgehog! The game, not the guy.

As we can see, there is no longer any difference between nature and construct. The base has been completely abandoned, and overtaken by the nearby forests, with greenery sprouting all over it. Now, it's not impossible that plant life in the Sonic series grows a bit faster than real plants, but methinks that an entire military base doesn't get overtaken by nature this hard within a month. There's entire new trees, grass and plants growing all over what was previously pavement, not even the walls are safe! Every single area is either covered in toxic waste, plant life, or both. Plant life that, again, needs time to grow. So there's likely a pretty big chunk of time between Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow The Hedgehog, even though they're only separated by 1 game, Sonic Heroes.

Add that to the many many reasons these things can't just happen on a week by week basis! On to my next point...

No, proportions don't really mean anything in terms of age. Sure, Vanilla is quite big, and so are the conductor and his wife, but Rouge is undoubtedly an adult and her proportions are more or less the same as everyone else. So all they help distinguish is between children (Tails, Cream) and non-children. In this exact screenshot we see that Vanilla is much taller than rouge, almost being at eye level with each other despite Rouge sitting on an elevated surface, while Vanilla is standing. This height difference is also present in the games, although we rarely get to see them next to each other.

So, all this taken into account, the fact Sonic has been a teenager since the Classic series, the fact there's been a few timeskips and at least 2 birthdays, several events that would need some time to recover from, specially with a still-ongoing recovery process after Forces, the fact Elise is allegedly 17 in 06 (which would make her whole romantic subplot with Sonic even more uncomfortable than it already is by default if he was any younger than say, idk about 16 years old at the least), among many other reasons that I may have forgotten to mention, the chances of Sonic being 15, hell, even 16 are very, very slim. At the very least, he's got to be about 17, and he could honestly be as old as 19 or 20 (depending on whether Iizuka meant he's of adolescent age or a teenager).

So, if you do still view Sonic as a minor, that's perfectly fine, and honestly believable; but with all these facts stacked up, as time goes on, it will be less and less likely that him being underage will be a real possibility. This isn't the Pokemon anime. There's actual structure, lore, and a proper sense of scale; and something like Sonic's age being frozen at 15-16 just wouldn't make any sense.

All this to say, Sonic is, most likely, no longer a minor. There's some wiggle room where he could be one, but 18-19 is the most likely option, specially considering how Frontiers was comfortable with pitching his voice down. Yes, it was for the sake of the game's tone, but Tails's voice for example didn't have that much of a difference to it, because he's a child and it would be weird for a character to sound so much older than they actually are- and this goes for Sonic too.

So, in conclusion, after extensive analysis and every source I could find for Sonic's age taken into account;

You can, most likely, fuck Sonic The Hedgehog.

...

BUT IT'S NOT OVER YET.

We need to take both his other iterations into consideration, as well as address characters whose fuckability status depends on him. First, the alternative versions.

Movie Sonic

This one's a kid. On top of acting much more immature and inexperienced, outright described as irresponsible- hell, Tom even says "Whether you wanna hear this or not, you're still just a kid. You've got some more growing up to do before you're ready to be the big hero". He acts like a kid, is referred to as a kid, and hell, it makes sense, the movies so far have adapted Sonic 1-3&K, the games where Sonic was still just starting out his adventures.

Prime Sonic

This one's... More uncertain. He's definitely quite immature and inexperienced; though he feels more... Reckless than anything else. More of an attitude problem than an age problem, really, considering how Amy and Shadow act, two characters who should be about the same age as him, but that act much more maturely for the most part.

This one's pretty up in the air, I'd say, considering how Prime seems to be comfortable having their own versions of the cast (going by how different Shadow seems to be and how he has seemingly no attachment to Rouge, who is one of the people he trusts the most in canon).

Oh yeah, I haven't watched season 3 yet, but I doubt it changes much of anything about this judgement.

THE SONIC-DEPENDENT ONES

THE ROBOT SONICS

While they're all likely able to consent (... Okay, Mecha MK. 1 is a bit more dubious on whether it's sapient), it would probably be unethical to fuck something that's made to look like someone who's a minor. While they were made when Sonic was definitely a minor, he isn't one anymore, and the resemblance is still there to pretty much the exact same degree, so there's really no ambiguity here.

You can fuck them. Go ham, robot-fuckers.

SCOURGE

Look, we're not covering the mess that Archie can be. But from what I gather, Sonic is, at most, 17 pre-SGW. And this is just an alternate version of that Sonic, who likely didn't go through all the uber weird shit that makes Archie Sonic's age a nightmare to deal with. So, no, unfortunately for a lot of you, you probably can't fuck Scourge. Fortunately, though...

SURGE

Surge's age is, according to this post by IDW artist and writer Evan Stanley, around Sonic's age. So, what goes for the hedgehog goes for the Tenrec, you can most likely fuck her. Go ham.

... Elise?

She was 17 during 06, and some time has passed since then, and it would be weird if she had any bigger of an age gap with Sonic, plus plenty of time has passed since 06, so... I guess you can? I don't see why you would, but power to you, I suppose. Can't judge.

MIGHTY AND RAY

These two have been here since SegaSonic The Hedgehog in the arcades, which happens even before Sonic 2 does! Ray is never once really implied to be young, no matter how much he may seem like Mighty's Tails equivalent (Which... He's not meant to be. He was made before Tails.), and he's most likely about even with Mighty, who is most likely the same age as Sonic, seeing how they're meant to be parallels (down to Sonic's sprites being rehashed for his sprites in Chaotix), and the Japanese manual for Knuckles' Chaotix listing him as 16.

They're here mostly because Mighty is a partial Sonic counterpart, and Ray tends to be anywhere that Mighty goes these days, so they might as well be treated as a package deal.

So, yes, you can most likely fuck them... Even if we have absolutely no idea what their modern versions look like. Seriously, where the hell have they been? At least we know they're fine, considering it's been stated that they're off on their own adventures these days.

Aaaand... That's it! That's all the Sonic-dependent characters I could think of, at least ones that I think don't really merit their own posts. TL;DR

Metal Sonic, Mecha Sonic, etc: Fuckable Scourge: Unfuckable Surge: Fuckable Elise: Fuckable Mighty: Fuckable Ray: Fuckable

The "Fuckable" marks should go with an asterisk, as Sonic's status is "Most Likely Fuckable", but still.

Phew. Finally done. I've spent pretty much all goddamn day writing this. Hopefully this is useful for someone. Hopefully. God knows it'll make my job easier.

I'll just go write the alt text and go eat something, this took... Way longer than I'd like to admit. See you when the post goes up.

Go ham, you beautiful horny bastards.

Edit: Future OP here! I had to remake this post because the DIC bit earlier somehow triggered some weird copyright stuff on Tumblr, basically hiding the post from anyone who isn't directly looking at the blog. In the meantime, I added that bit about Prison Island to further add to his potential fuckability. So his margin for being a minor is even smaller now! How fun! Anyways, now I'll be seeing myself out for the time being. Thanks, and have fun.

#sonic the hedgehog #sth #sonic prime #paramount sonic #status: fuckable #metal sonic #mecha sonic #scourge the hedgehog #surge the tenrec #mighty the armadillo #ray the flying squirrel

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jeremywhitley · 1 year

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Julie Power, Queer Relationships and OTPs

Hey, two provisos before I jump into what I’m about to say:

1) My last name is not Marvel and I don’t own these characters. Before and after I write them, other people will write and/or have written them. Most of them. That’s what success in corporate comics looks like in this day and age - not that you get to write a character/group of characters forever but that other creators remember they exist and include them in new stories and they get to have a long happy life. That said, characters change and the valid interpretation is the one that leads to more stories. You, as a fan, are also interpreted to love whatever version of the character you like as long as you don’t hassle creators about it.

2) As always, I am not the perfect person to write this mini-essay, I’m just the one writing the comic and therefore the one that can explain the thoughts and feelings that went into making the decisions I did.

We good? Okay. Let’s continue!

Being gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual or wherever else a person falls in a spectrum does not make a person more or less than human. It does not make every relationship perfect. In fact, having a sexuality for which there isn’t quite as many years of literature and self-help books often leads to complications that you don’t know how to navigate. It is a rarely acknowledged but pretty obvious fact that this would go double or more for people who were also dealing with the complications of being a superhero in the modern era. A lot of those people have experiences with multiple apocalypse scenarios, a knowledge that there are parallel universes in which pareallel versions of them exist (like a version of me who types parallel the same way twice in a row, one can dream), mind control, reality manipulation, and time travel. Their life is complicated and relationships are difficult in a world where few of those things are commonplace.

In talking about Schitt’s Creek, Glen Weldon expressed a frustration and distaste for the central gay relationship in that show, not because it wasn’t cute and precocious but because it wasn’t realistic. You have a person who has been dating around and having several unresolved and unsatisfying queer relationships paired up with a freshly out, just admitted he’s gay, never dated another man love interest. It’s sweet. It also gives an unrealistic portrait of what life is like for a queer person. It’s hard to argue with people loving that relationship, but it’s impossible to argue with Glenn’s point. Dating is complicated and difficult. Adding queerness to that only makes it more complicated, not less. We often don’t know what we want or need and it’s more difficult to understand what you want and need with less context. Straight people have been struggling with telling their partners what they want and need even as their relationship has been a necessity of human species survival.

But we tend to push the idea of an OTP or “one true pairing” onto queer couples for a variety of reasons, but mainly two:

1) There are so few queer relationships in media that when one happens, queer audiences tend to hold onto it tightly in the worry that there will never be another one like it.

2) The idea that all or most queer relationships are the result of an undeniable love between two halves of the same whole reunited at last and it would be horrible to part them, makes queer relationships more palatable to straight audiences who are still growing in their understanding of the difference between same sex sexual attraction, same sex romance, and same sex fucking.

The end result is a pretty warped understanding of queer people and same sex relationships.

All of this is sort of preamble to say that in this week’s issue of Love Unlimited, I broke up a romantic pairing off panel that I created in Future Foundation a few years ago. In the last issue of Future Foundation, I had Rikki Barnes and Julie Power kiss. They had just been through an extremely dangerous prison break during which they had both almost died and saved one another’s lives. The moment was absolutely ripe for two Sapphic people to get swept up in the moment and intensely make out. It was a relationship I would like to have explored more, especially as they are two characters I care very deeply about. I think it would have been fun. I also do not think it would have worked out long term. Most relationships don’t and they are very different people.

I saw a post somebody made earlier today on tumblr about how Julie Power throws herself at every queer and available white girl in the Marvel Universe. There’s only one part of that I would prefer to not be true and that’s the white part. It is true about the comics as they have come out, but I don’t see Julie as the kind of person who wouldn’t fall in love with a person of color. In fact, to the point of that post, I see Julie as a person who is open to connection and cares a great deal about physical affection. She’s a hugger. She’s constantly taking people under her wing. She falls for people hard and loves hard. Not to get too intimate with it, but she’s probably a person who enjoys sex and physical contact and affection. Those things aren’t important to everyone or meaningful in the same way to everyone, but they are to some people.

But also, that doesn’t mean that every relationship those people enter into has to be THE ONE. We all enjoy our own OTPs and a lot of us have that same investment in people we know in real life. God knows, I have had that investment in queer friends that found love and there are people that have had that same investment in my wife and I because we’re a mixed race couple. Those facts about a relationship don’t make it work out without the same sort of effort, love, affection, and sheer luck as any other successful relationship. I think ascribing that same sort of mythological status to every same sex relationship is ultimately short sighted and harmful.

Julie’s way of finding love, like a lot of us, is to throw herself headfirst into relationships, love hard, experiences extraordinary moments, and get hurt when things don’t work out. She, literally, has a heroic impulse toward relationships. Is that healthy, maybe not. But hey, I kind of admire it.

So yeah, I broke up a relationship off panel that barely had a chance to exist on panel because that’s the way I see it going. On the bright side, she’s in another relationship now and we’ll see how that goes.

If there’s a thing I guess I want people to take away from this, it’s that it’s okay for your relationship not to work out and that you shouldn’t treat your queer friends like they’re characters in a Shakespeare play that have to love each other unconditionally and die together in a crypt if things don’t work out.

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peanutbutterex · 6 months

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i don't know anything really about wwdits but i'm assuming something big happened because my dash is FULL of posts about it from you

from my understanding, there is a problematic gay couple or something, and someone isn't letting them be gay and problematic. that is all i know. i hope i have understood correctly.

Ok, so there are these two characters, Nandor and Guillermo. Nandor is a vampire, and Guillermo is his familiar. However, Guillermo also is a descendant of Van Helsing and used his vampire hunting skills to protect his vampire family (Nadja, Lazlo, Nandor, and Colin Robinson). Throughout the show Guillermo has gotten crumbs of more respect from all of them, but especially from Nandor.

Now, the show has basically set up Guillermo and Nandor to be a couple. From season 3 having a devastatingly similar ending to season one of ofmd, to Guillermo basically admitting to a stranger he has feelings for Nandor, to Nandor admitting he was going to go to space to impress Guillermo, i could go on. Also both are established to be queer and into men. But recently, in an interview with the showrunner, the showrunner seemed to imply that this couple they have been baiting us for 5 seasons may not happen. He said their love is more profound than hooking up/sex (weird given how Nadja and Laszlo have a very profound romantic relationship and are shown fucking all the time), also saying “who wants to see that?” (The answer is the queer people you have been baiting for 5 seasons), and pointing out that they have a potentially problematic power dynamic, with the very memed about line “that’s his boss”. I do not have the article on hand, but if you go around the tag i am sure you will find it.

If i were to give the showrunner the benefit of the doubt, some of this sounds hopeful. The phrase he uses, “hooking up”, to me implies purely sexual and not romantically involved. Given how they have been set up, I would be disappointed if Nandor and Guillermo had a purely sexual relationship, and not a romantic relationship where they fucked a lot. Also, once again giving the benefit of the doubt, it sounds like he might want to put Nandor and Guillermo on more equal footing which would give them less of a power imbalance (which why is that so important when Nadja hypnotized Laszlo before she had sex with him and then turned him into a vampire??? Ngl that seems a bit more problematic but whatever).

But all of this could easily be a straight guy coming up with nice-sounding excuses for why a queer couple that has been set up from the beginning will not happen, which has pissed everyone off, understandably.

#wwdits #wwdits critical #nandermo #that’s his boss #fml just let them be annoyingly cute together #wwdits fx

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unhinged-comics-scree · 1 month

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*crawling out of my migraine floor nest to open my drafts and post this before the next EP drops*

Because the joy in weekly shows is theorizing like mad and (壊せよセオリー I guess) Bravern hopes and dreams as we approach the end!

It's really long so uh tl;dr 8th potential death drive theory, seagulls and then some other odds and ends included

I'm living for Bravern as Gluttony somehow theories. Went down a random path and gluttony isn't necessarily just about eating too much but basically doing anything fun with food. From an article:

The glutton uses food for something other than its proper intention.

Apparently one of the worst versions is straight up enjoying too much. Which like, every death drive treats their pilots/organic lifeforms as just food while Bravern is obsessed with how his "food" fuels him... And everything else about his "food". Ignoring whether he's actually using Isami the way a death drive uses Lulus and will eventually drain him, he's putting a lot more emotional investment into Isami than any of the Deathdrives into Lulus.

But also! As you dig into this there are also writings about how Gluttony isn't actually a sin so maybe Bravern is Gluttony but also he gets a pass.

Ugh no this could be a cool sidebar into what Bravern as Gluttony's "ideal death" would be. Like, truly overindulging in his "food" aka his pilot aka Isami aka gay sex. AND THEN. This gets rid of the Deathdrive/mecha form. Leaving Smith. And then gay sex with Smith.

With all of the Deathdrives being driven to have the ideal death, and Bravern being born of the desire to live*. I wonder if he can convince Superbia to live. That would be sick. Live a prideful life or something.

*it can be argued that Lewis Smiths resurrection is because he didn't have his ideal death so it's less of a counter force to the Deathdrive and more of his own version of being just like them but that feels less like the main energy of the story.

Moving on from that, I love the seagulls being a big part of the episode 10 preview and then the episode 11 preview having bravern surfing on the newly added fusion part just like them.

I think I read somewhere about seagulls going back to where they met to mate so. Yeah. Back to Hawai'i! With Brave being the one signalling I hope this is like, Isami really expressing his trust in Bravern and making it a matched relationship. My ideal scene is Isami seeing how Lulu's determination to pilot Superbia means he needs to commit to trusting Bravern. Which should totally include knowing who he is.

Which, adjacently, I think the reveal phrase should've been Bravern saying some phrase with "cool" in English. Like "the finishing move was ⟨super cool⟩> right?". It just feels more Smith imo. I really love how little they gave us with this though. Who were they fighting? How did they achieve this? Why did they get beat up instead of blasted/disintegrated? who knows. We can infer that they did save the day at the end but at what cost.

I think at this point it would be funny if they somehow slipped in another time loop. Hell give us a montage of time loops. Also I am a tiny bit smug about mentioning that Bravern not having time travel abilities yet like 1500 words ago. Will this be touched on more? Probably as some dramatic last episode if anything.

Considering the really fast pace of the show making everything feel important I hope we get references to some other things like Isami's built in airbags (maybe he gets ejected out of Bravern?). Isami's Senshi-bility in "we need to eat to save people". Whatever the heck Lulu's Heat Beam kick is. What was that. What's going on with the blood drop, does it mean something.

My only other hope and dreams is probably just some good old fashioned mech fights. It's been a lot of endure barrage of attacks -> get motivated -> super attack. I need substance!

#bravern #okay gotta hit post on this before it eats at my brain too much

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cowboyjen68 · 1 year

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Hey Jen, I’m a 30+ year old lesbian who has never dated or had sex before and I’m considering starting dating but I’m really worried about my lack of experience. I’m worried about either being taken advantage of or not finding anyone willing to get involved with someone with no experience or not being taken seriously or being considered childish. And I’m worried about not understanding basic relationship unspoken rules because of this. Do you have any advice? I have absolutely zero idea about literally anything, and I feel like the older I get the more insurmountable getting started gets.

We all have to start somewhere and no one jumps into dating knowing all the ins and outs. You certianly are not the only lesbian out there dipping your toe in the dating pool past the "standard" dating period of our early 20's and late teens.

Lesbians and gay men STILL in this day and age are often behind in dating in the "normal" sense of the word. Meaning, at least in Western Culture, we are expected to go on many dates in Jr. High and High school and continue to "play the field" into our mid 20's at which point we are supposed to get more serious about settling down.

A fair amount of us don't feel comfortable dating in high school because the opposite sex is not an attractive option and dating the same sex can be scary, even dangerous and our options are more limited, especially in smaller school. So rather then date what we don't want we either don't date or force ourselves to fake it with boys to cover our sexuality and both leave us with poor or unpracticed dating skills. We don't get to experience the same learning curve with our peers.

We spent a greater amount of energy focused on trying to figure out if our attraction to the same sex is "just a kid crush" (which absolutely can happen) or if we really are gay or lesbian. The rest of our time is spend blending in to not be outed. OF course this is a generalization and in many more cases than when I was growing up dating the same sex is much more accepted pre college or young adult age.

I can assure you than there are plenty of women out there who feel inadequately prepared to date. The best thing you can do is get started.

Some advice.

Follow your gut (women's intuition). If something feels off or wrong don't keep explaining it away as you over reacting or reading it wrong.

First and foremost be honest with yourself. Don't tell yourself "maybe I will be more attracted to her next time" or "at least she is nice" or "if I don't stay with her i might not met someone else" You deserve mutual passion and emotional and sexual fulfilment. DON'T short yourself for fear of being alone.

You do not need disclose too much about why you do not want a second date or a longer date or a kiss goodnight. "No thank you" is enough. You don't owe anyone any more of your time than you want to give.

Ask about progess. "I would like to kiss you. Is that Okay?" (or hug goodnight or whatever) Establishing that you respect her boundaries and taking "no" with grace is a huge and important skill.

You do not have to be the most creative plan maker. Coffee, walks in a park, ice cream, museums or other places where you can talk are great dates because you can actually engage each other, not spend a lot of money and they are public. Very few women expect (or want) to go sky diving or mountain biking on the first date. Action packed dates are great once you get to know each other and figure out what you both want. But in the beginning you need have less pressure and more time to talk is better.

It is okay to give someone a second try if the first impression or date when ary and it is okay not to try again as well.

Compliment things she can change and control in the beginning. Her hair style, her clothing choice, her necklace. Later you can tell her thing you like about her unchangeable characteristics like eyes or smile. Showing you have noticed her effort when starting off means you are paying attention and she is appreciated.

It is always okay to ask for more time or another date if you like her but equally important to understand you might not always get a "yes" and you must accept that gracefully and with respect. "I had a nice time. Thank you for going out with me. Goodnight" is one acceptable response to a decline for more. Don't take being told "no" personally. Not everyone is for everyone and it is better to not continue if the chemisty or interest is not there.

If you meet a woman you like and want to ask her out. Ask her out and make sure you clarify it is a date so as to avoid the age old lesbian over thinking process of "is this a date? Does she like me or like me like me?". Example. "I think you seem interesting. Would you go out on a date with me this weekend? Maybe some coffee or some lunch?"

I hope some of this helps. I am certainly no expert on dating but these are some things I have learned along the way. Good luck out there and be safe but also have fun.

#dating #lesbian

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 7 months

Text

Miriam Grossman: There is no consensus among professionals and experts. There is a debate, but Washington is not acknowledging the voices that are on the other side.

Kids are in the driver's seat. Whatever identity that they have chosen, their parents, their teachers, their doctors, their therapist, is required to accept that.

These professionals have the arrogance to tell parents that they don't know their child, they know better? And the parents better get with the program? Because they're the ones that are going to harm their child? Now, that's pretty traumatic for parents to hear.

In no other field of medicine would we put the child in a position of making medical decisions.

The transgender path is a difficult path. Once you are on puberty blockers, there's a close to 100% chance you will go on to cross-sex hormones. We want to try and put children on a path in which they will have less doctors appointments.

I know too much to not do anything about this.

I know that 13 year old girls are having their breasts removed, minor boys are being castrated. We can't accept it and we can't be complicit in the lie by staying silent.

Edward Drass: Today, I loudly speak out against all forms of chemical and surgical cross-sex therapy. It appears that we're dealing with an unprecedented epidemic of mental illness in adolescent females. This demographic comprises the bulk of the 4400% rise in new cases of gender dysphoria seen in the past few years.

So, I ask you physicians: for what other disease do we allow an adolescent patient to make his own diagnosis and then demand a preferred treatment?

What standards of care have been established for this treatment? What is a satisfactory outcome?

I think other countries and judicial systems are well ahead of the United States in making this determination. The NHS has reversed course in its transition treatment advice. A summary review of transgender medical research concludes there's no support for medical intervention for gender confused minors, medical transition procedures do not reduce youth suicide, child gender dysphoria usually dissipates by adulthood, and the dramatic increase in gender dysphoria in the recent past is likely driven by social factors.

My recommendation to the Rules Committee is that cross-sex medical and surgical treatment should not be supported by organized medicine, the board of medicine, the legislature, or insurance companies.

Here's the thing: almost nobody is being diagnosed with gender dysphoria, which is a specific clinical diagnosis, requiring much more than just a walk into Planned Parenthood for a testosterone prescription.

To quote Aaron Kimberly from Gender Dysphoria Alliance: "Being insecure isn't gender dysphoria. Being lonely isn't gender dysphoria. Liking Queer Theory isn't gender dysphoria. Wanting a new life isn't gender dysphoria. Social anxiety isn't gender dysphoria. Gender Dysphoria is a specific clinical condition, not an identity."

The HRC, Stonewall and pretty much every former-gay rights organization has redefined "trans" to remove gender dysphoria entirely.

HRC:

Transgender | An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth.

Stonewall:

Trans An umbrella term to describe people whose gender is not the same as, or does not sit comfortably with, the sex they were assigned at birth.

GLAAD:

Transgender An adjective to describe people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

As Aaron Terrell noted: "I kind of got wind of the social justice element, and like, transitioning to be trans process around 2017. And when I encountered that in 2017, the people I encountered it from were already acting like I was a weirdo for not realizing that, of course you transition to be trans, and of course it's wrong to be cis, and so in 2017 it was already - I was already weird for not knowing that." The point of transitioning is to not be "cis," to let you be part of the "trans" club. "Trans" are the oppressed glitter-saints, "cis" are the evil "cisheteropatriarchy" oppressors.

One of "Katy" Montgomerie's little friends: "People should be allowed to be trans just because they want to be, regardless of whether they 'biologically' are." To which "Katy" responds: "I am very opposed to a biological test for transness."

Egale Canada's "Trans 101": "A trans person's identity isn't defined by the way they do, or do not transition. So, if someone doesn't feel transitioning is for them, that's totally cool too. [..] Like transitioning, having dysphoria doesn't make someone more, or less, trans. And is not something all trans people experience." Which might explain things if you've ever been screeched at by a purple-haired "they/them" who is unambiguously a man or woman.

Even the American Psychological Association regards that "it’s not a psych's job to assess who’s trans, but to believe them when they say what their gender is, and to assist them in 'achieving their embodiment goals.'"

Which makes "gender affirming care" just cosmetic (sex-attribute modification) procedures, not "healthcare." For what purpose? "Gender identity." Being less girly than Barbie, or less manly than G.I. Joe.

Don't get me wrong: kids are anxious, distressed, depressed, have body issues, self-hatred, disorders such as OCD and autism, and so on. Many of them are very important issues to address. But with very few exceptions, it's not "gender dysphoria." If only because almost nobody's diagnosing for it, because doing so would be failing to "affirm." And as soon as gender is raised, everything else gets put away.

As Ritchie Herron found, "I was essentially told that everything is all related to trans. There’s no possible way that it’s related to anything else. I brought up the concept of my obsessive thoughts - I’ve been diagnosed with OCD since before I entered the clinic - the possibility of autism, and I was told at the very beginning that, no, you can be trans and have OCD."

"Gender dysphoria" is something you self-diagnose from Tumblr without any mental health training, and "trans" is something you "self ID".

And this is the reason we're drugging and cutting up kids.

#Miriam Grossman #Edward Drass #gender ideology #queer theory #gender dysphoria #genderwang #religion is a mental illness

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greatunironic · 1 year

Note

Do you have any idea what the Party’s reaction to “Boy with a Bat” would be, specifically El and the Byers clan?

after steve hears the album for the first time, eddie’s next port of call is of course the assorted hopper-byers clan. it’s pretty fortuitous, that he finished the album when he did, just before they were all coming together for terry’s birthday at the old dairy farm in memphis, indiana. (or maybe not; eddie’s a planner, okay?)

but so he’s got the whole gang under one roof; and while he would’ve gone on the great american road trip with the master, that would’ve been a real bitch of a time suck, and the studio was breathing down his neck. plus, he wanted to drop it on steve’s birthday anyway, because eddie’s a big gestures guy, sue him or whatever.

he holds court in the dairy barn, because it feels right. still smells like hop’s smokes, if he closes his eyes and breathes deep. the boys and max all love it, when they listen, though they maintain that they didn’t ever need to know that much about his and steve’s sex lives, thanks. mostly, they argue amongst themselves about whose voice is whose, and loudly inform eddie he’s a fucking creep for recording them without their knowledge, and demand royalties. will, with his face like an angel and truly hilarious bitchy streak that eddie is convinced he learned from steve, mean girl extraordinaire, looks eddie dead in the eye when steve’s laugh fades into the next track and says very seriously, “that is so gay, man.”

(he gives him a hug when it’s finished too, says, “you’re gonna make history with this one, eddie. i know it. thank you.”)

jonathan holds him for a really long time, after, and doesn’t say much, but the two of them never needed a lot of words between them: freaks to the end, baby.

nancy and robin roll their eyes and echo the kids’s sentiments when they get their listens. (even though eddie knows for a fact robin was well read into steve’s sex life, because they’re the biggest pair of codependent weirdos he’s ever met, and eddie fucking knows from codependent weirdos these days; and he’s not a prude, far from it, but knowing one of your best gals learned to go down on a chick through the verbal teachings of the man you love? well the less said there the better, and he doesn’t care if it makes him a hypocrite, buckley, get off my dick) (gross, she said, anyway isn’t that steve’s job?) but they’re both misty eyed when they emerge, and tell him he did good.

madchen high fives him; argyle does too, and tells him he’s gonna play it on a loop on his show for days when it drops.

but they’re not the first people to hear it after steve. see, “boy with a bat”? it’s an album for steve, sure — even more so than all of eddie’s other albums — and it’s filled with love songs for him, about him, because of him — because they were always, already for him, he’s just finally explicit with it. (pun intended, hit the high hat, boys!)

but it’s also an album for a family, the family that horror and tragedy and love, so much love, built. because eddie wasn’t there for the beginning of it all, but he knows how the story started, and how the story ended: one woman’s love for the son she nearly lost, and one man’s love for the daughter he found, and this, all around them — it was all the house jim built, in the end.

so, after steve, he starts with el and joyce.

el’s listened to a lot of eddie’s jams first over the years, to be totally truthful. hell, his first album was named for her; as much as steve’s his muse, so is this little fucking superhero and she’s had shotgun (once again, pun very much intended) on first listens for years.

he takes her by the hand first into the old dairy parlor, sits her down, and hits play before he leaves. she comes out at the halfway point, face tear stained but determined, always so determined, and drags him back inside with her in silence. she pushes him to sit on the ground and then lies down with her head in his lap, and they finish out eddie’s magnum opus or whatever like that.

the record spins into static, and she says, “i liked that very much.”

“i’m glad,” he said. “i, uh, i have some unused tape, with some other stuff from your old man. mainly him yelling at the boys. you want me to send you it?”

“yes,” she says. “i do not know if i’m ready for more, yet. but i will be someday.”

“you sure will, super girl,” he tells her.

as for mrs h — because that’s how he’s always known her, you know? — well, joyce punches him right in the mouth when she emerges. she’s crying and laughing when she does it, so it hurts exactly zero percent, and steve totally laughs his fucking ass off next to him while she does it.

“hey! i’m being assaulted!”

“you deserve it, baby,” he says, basically in hysterics.

but joyce is wrapping him up in a Mom Hug (TM), all firm and boney, her head under his chin, her wet face on his clavicle. she says, “you’re a menace, ed munson-levy. but thank you for giving him back to me, even if it was just for forty-eight minutes.”

#asks or whatever #stranger things #most remarkable thing #boy with a bat hours

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