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timeagainreviews · 3 days

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The Twist of a Stiletto

Back in the ‘90s there was a very famous TV show. 120 Minutes, don’t act like you don’t know. But for those of you not in the know, “120 Minutes,” was a show on MTV hosted by Matt Pinfield. There were other hosts, but Matt was my guy. Being a showcase of music videos from artists MTV wouldn’t dare play during the day, it was relegated to a late Sunday evening timeslot. Growing up, I never really had a personal relationship with music. It was the stuff in the background of movies. My dad would play CDs of his faves. Kansas, Jethro Tull, Chicago, Led Zepplin, The Beatles. Music could be fun or cool, but I could take it or leave it. That is until April 14, 1996, when 120 Minutes aired Rage Against the Machine’s “Bulls on Parade,” and my 12-year-old brain erupted. A fire was lit inside me that day and Zach de la Rocha was more than happy to pour gasoline on it. I was suddenly, without any kind of warning, in love with music.

The spontaneous combustion of music hits us all differently, but I’m sure my story made you remember yours. How could it not? Music is a part of our lives. We wrap our memories in song. As such, some songs become painful. We then lock those songs in our past where they can’t hurt us, but a passing car with its windows down can bring us back. Music is personal. “The Devil’s Chord,” is a story about our relationship with music. How we hold music inside and when we let it out. It is a celebration of song as well as a lament. While the episode often achieves harmony, it also falls a bit flat. Are you picking up on a theme? Is this striking a chord with you? Ok I’ll stop. Probably.

I’ll get the obvious out of the way first. “The Devil’s Chord,” is precariously close to “The Giggle,” plot-wise. The TARDIS lands. The Doctor finds the world behaving oddly. He discovers it’s all to do with a magical gay American who chews scenery for breakfast. The American sends the Doctor through a themed gauntlet of insanity. The Doctor banishes the American using their own tricks against them. The American disappears with a warning about the next guy. Bish bash bosh. I’m getting that all out of the way ahead of time, because that would be a really boring article to read. But I will say this- if this is the Pantheon’s only gambit, I’ll be disappointed.

Ruby’s explanation of how she discovered the Beatles through her mum’s girlfriend’s vinyl collection was charming and didn’t make me feel old at all. Not to be all “kids these days only care about Tik Tok and Roblox,” but I was fairly certain most young people hate the Beatles. That is, if my Facebook feed is anything to go by. It really shows you just how on the pulse Russell T Davies is these days. Hello fellow kids. Have some trans inclusion while I court problematic people on social media. Kids like Deftones, Russell. Do a Deftones episode. Have the Doctor fight robot pigs with Chico Moreno. (Man, nü metal is having a moment in this article.) My point being, it’s weird to choose The Beatles now.

I harp on a lot about how metatextual Doctor Who can be and how it’s the secret of its longevity. They need to replace their actor? Regeneration. They need to get the Doctor into a building? Psychic paper. But I think I’ve found the exception that proves the rule. Russell T Davies said in an interview “...The Beatles music is so expensive. Even on a Disney budget, we couldn’t afford that…And so I thought imagine you’re visiting The Beatles, and you couldn’t have The Beatles music. What would you do? And that’s the story. It kind of created itself”. In true Doctor Who fashion, Russell T Davies saw a limitation and folded it into the narrative. It’s a shame then, that it doesn’t work at all.

It started with their shots of Abbey Road and EMI Studios. The zebra crossing at Abbey Road isn’t that wide. I’ve been there. And since when did EMI Studios have a red brick entrance? Where are its classic Georgian-style box frame windows? It’s one of the most visited tourist spots in London, and you’re not going to actually go there? You can’t get the music. Ok. That’s sort of understandable. But they couldn’t film on location? What exactly is the Disney budget doing here? Remember when they flew the whole TARDIS crew to Utah? And then the next season to New York City? They managed to shoo tourists and locals away from Umpire Rock. You mean to tell me they couldn’t hold back traffic on Abbey Road for a few hours? Hell, just composite it. Shoot it on a soundstage. You don’t have to go “Angels Take Manhattan,” when you could go “Daleks Take Manhattan.”

This may seem like a weird gripe from a person who said it would be boring to complain about how two episodes are similar, but it is the crux of the matter. Why use The Beatles in an episode about The Beatles if you do nothing with them? Why highlight edifice in a story about being vulnerable? Yes, the episode is predicated on the very idea of not having the rights to The Beatles music catalog, but this also denies the audience a payoff. Let me explain. Ruby and the Doctor get dressed to the nines to go back to 1963 and watch the Beatles record their first album. Great so far. They have a cute little moment with the tea lady while they sneak into EMI studios. Still great. However, as they roll record for the Fab Four, it’s immediately apparent that something is very wrong. The Beatles' music sounds awful. Like how I imagine my friends on Facebook think they sound all the time. And still, things are going great. What this does, however, is set up expectations for the moment when The Beatles' music is finally back in its full glory. I’ve seen the shot from the trailer of Ncuti in the recording studio full of smiling perfects. It’s gonna be high energy. What a payoff. Right?

The Doctor and Ruby also pop in to listen to Cilla Black lay down a track. It’s the same crappy atonal music that only a trans woman with a collection of circuit-bent instruments could love. Something is amiss. The Doctor and Ruby do a bit of digging. It’s time to go talk to The Shitty Beatles. This time, it’s more than a clever name. With as much respect as I can muster, these have got to be some of the worst Beatle lookalikes I’ve ever seen. Except Paul who was spot on as the real Paul McCartney before he died and 1966 and was replaced with Faul. See my 9-11 Truther Anti-Vaxx Birds Aren’t Real grouphat for more information. The Doctor takes Paul and Ruby takes John. George and Ringo get zero lines, which tracks with history. They learn that both Paul and John don’t actually know why they play music. It feels silly, really. They should just pack it up. But something deep in them is still drawn to music, even if what comes out is a song about a dog that was only slightly better than “Rocky Raccoon.” But before they can slap them out of it like John with his first wife, they’re interrupted by visions of the Maestro.

Enter Jinkx Monsoon, who actually opens the episode but I’m using time travel to talk about things as they become relevant. Now, before they were cast in Doctor Who, I knew nothing about Jinkx Monsoon. I know she was on Drag Race, but I don’t watch that shit. No shade if you do. Ru Paul is totally not problematic and has never done anything weird. Everything I skimmed in Jinkx Monsoon’s Wikipedia page indicates they’re pretty cool. They relish in the role in a way that will make midwest dads shift in their chairs, and I’m here for it. They’ve got an oral fixation that’s impossible not to notice. When they eat the music from Timothy Drake’s soul, they let out a moan that sounds a lot like a climax, and not in the musical sense. Also, how sad is it for Tim Drake that he’ll never meet Batman? RIP Robin. 1925 was too early. Speaking of 1925, isn’t it interesting that the Maestro appears right around the same time as the Toymaker sold the Stooky Bill puppet to Charles Banerjee? Is there some significance with that year? Handily, no World Wars were happening at the time. The Scopes Monkey Trial occurred. Babe Ruth received surgery for an ulcer. They broke ground on defacing Mount Rushmore. But really, kind of tame considering the bookends of the era. The Lorcano treaty was doing a lot of the heavy lifting though.

The Maestro’s whole deal is a sort of crazed sense of ownership over music. To hear them describe it, music belongs to them. They are music. In this way, I was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t song and dance people to death. It’s nice to be surprised. I rather liked their motivation. Monsoon doesn’t need to do a whole lot of acting. It’s all very panto. Very drag. It’s the kind of performance you hope you get. I’m not saying it’s a bad performance, just an elevated one. Both Jinkx and Ncuti get a chance to overact a bit in this story. Once again, I don’t mean overact in a bad way. David Tennant is the biggest overactor in Doctor Who save for Soldeed in “The Horns of Nimon,” and he’s consistently voted favourite among Doctor Who fans. Add “tendency to overact,” to the pile of personality traits I’m beginning to love about the Fifteenth Doctor. I love it when the Doctor really sells the energy of a scene, even if it requires him to speak forlornly into the middle distance.

Attempting to get the world’s groove back, the Doctor has a piano hoisted to the roof of a building. This is, of course, a reference to The Beatles’ final public performance from the rooftop of Apple headquarters in Central London. Only instead of Billy Preston on the keys, it’s Ruby Sunday. As she plays a Ruby original, the inhabitants of neighbouring buildings begin to shake out of their fog as music descends on them like sunshine. It even inspires a granny played by Doctor Who legend Laura June Hudson to dust off her piano to play Debussy’s “Clair de Lune.” It’s a lovely moment which is about to get stomped on by the Maestro’s honking drag boots, but for a brief moment, music swells.

I was glad to see them taking time to slow things down a little in this episode. The Doctor even talks a bit about himself and Susan over on Totter’s Lane. Couple that with Carole Ann Ford’s presence at the Doctor Who premiere last year, and it feels like it might be more than a reference. I’ve seen Whovians of weak faith construe this to mean Susan is dead, but in my experience, when a writer says something isn’t, it is. That’s just my two cents. Who knows if any of it means anything. It could just be that it would be weird for the Doctor to visit London in 1963 and not mention him living there with his granddaughter. Or it could be that Doctor Who is finally getting a better Doctor/Susan reunion than “The FIve Doctors.” Who could forget the moment when they’re reunited?

First Doctor: "Oh, er, this is Susan."

Fifth Doctor: "Yes I know."

How could you not get choked up? What a reunion. I can’t imagine why people would want something more. The Doctor told her all those years ago “Someday I’ll come back,” and he did. It was brief and without any of that pesky emotional connection we usually get from television.

Ruby pulls the classic “But the world didn’t end in 1963, I exist,” so the Doctor shows Ruby what the world would look like without music and it’s grim. It was nice of them to show us a bombed-out London as many of us are still feeling the sting from Fallout: London’s delayed release. Thanks, Doccy Who. But the two are not alone as they’re interrupted by the Maestro and their Looney Tunes brand of scary sexy. As with their first interaction, the Doctor runs. I love that aspect because it’s very Davies Doctor Who. The Doctor runs from the Time Vortex. The Doctor runs from Gallifrey. The Ninth Doctor refers to himself as cowardly, but what it really is is he hasn’t anything to prove. He’ll live today to fight again tomorrow, and yesterday. Timey wimey.

While the Maestro finds the Doctor both hot and timey wimey, they are still very much a threat to him and the Doctor knows this. You can’t fight the Pantheon. You have to abide by their rules. How do you fight someone who can control the TARDIS with music? The Doctor rips the TARDIS console a new one in order to flee back to 1963, where the world has yet to end. I found it cute the way he kisses the console to say sorry for the way he treated her. It not only suits the Doctor, but this Doctor with his brand of compassion. The TARDIS gets it, but you’ve gotta kiss a boo-boo or it won’t get better, everyone knows that.

The Doctor’s only plan with his limited resources is to somehow find the opposite of the Devil’s Chord, a sort of lost chord, if you will. Of course, this draws the Maestro to the Doctor like my cats to the sound of the tin opener. The Maestro captures Ruby, wrapping her up in sheet music. The Doctor stares down the Maestro as they allow him the opportunity to prove his musical genius. Can the Doctor find the lost chord? With each new note appearing above the piano, the Maestro writhes in twisted agony. But the Doctor hits a bum note and the Maestro is back on their feet ready to suffocate the Doctor in a drum and choke the life out of Ruby. But the song within Ruby’s soul from the Christmas Eve where she was left on that church stoop is stronger than anything the Maestro can muster. The Maestro may own music, but Ruby owns this song in that moment. Like before in “Space Babies,” the snow begins to fall indoors and the Maestro recoils in horror.

This gives the Beatles enough time to discover the piano and play that final note. Alone, they may not be geniuses, but the combination of McCartney and Lennon is enough to find the lost chord and banish the Maestro. They could have also achieved this with Harrison alone. He wrote “Here Comes the Sun,” after all. With the lost chord now found, the Maestro gets sucked off back where they came. Was the note they found the same one from the end of “Day in the Life?” RTD said they used a single Beatles chord. Was that it? I don’t know enough about music to answer that. After a quick re-listen, I'm going to say yes.

London is once again filled with music. Now, we’ll finally get the chance to see the Beatles play their actual music, right? They fixed music, right? God I wish. After cryptically looking into the camera and saying “There’s always a twist in the end,” the Doctor and Ruby are suddenly thrust into what I can only describe as the worst song possible. I’ve said in the past that I am not a huge fan of Murray Gold’s music. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just a bit safe for my tastes. But this song… I loathe it with every fibre of my being. It’s cloying, it’s corny, and it’s a repetitive ear worm you don’t want stuck in your head. I’ve said I was interested in Doctor Who doing a musical number, but this was god awful. I try to be as fair as possible when it comes to my reviews, so I think I’ve earned enough good faith to openly say this song is terrible. I would rather listen to the crappy dog song from earlier in the episode, and I don’t even own any circuit-bent instruments, and therein lies the problem.

How can you say the Doctor saved music when the way you present it is with a song that is simply not good? We need a good song in this moment, and that was not it. If ever there was a time to reach into the coffers and pay for a song, it was this. I mean, he said “There’s always a twist in the end,” and “Twist and Shout,” was right there. It wasn’t even written by the Beatles so it might have even been cheaper. They could even re-record it in the same Glee style in which they filmed the big song and dance routine. Hell, how expensive are Cilla Black songs? Do one of those. Instead, we get another fake Beatles song, in fake EMI studios, on fake Abbey Road to imply that we saved the future from a world of fake Beatles songs. By the time this insipid tune wears out its welcome, the Doctor and Ruby skip away across Abbey Road, lighting up the zebra crossing like piano keys. But instead of it being charming, it caused both my wife and I to say “Oh God, it’s still going.”

After the episode, I did a little bit of reading. I figured the two people dancing with the Doctor and Ruby were guest stars as they singled them out over the other background dancers. Evidently, they’re judges or competitors on Strictly. I dunno, I don’t watch that shit. So I really have no idea if that song was written to be in the style of something you would see on Strictly. But what I do know, is that it was brave of Murray Gold to show his face during that exquisite train wreck. I guess this episode really did pull a “Daleks in Manhattan,” à la “My Angel Put the Devil In Me.” In that respect, you can add contemporary music to the list of things Doctor Who should do well, but can’t seem to get right. It’s in good company with pirates and westerns. “The Gunfighters,” even fails at two out of three. Impressive!

I do admire the hell out of RTD and company for throwing their whole ass into that ending. It takes real chutzpah to fail so spectacularly. And honestly, as harsh as I’ve been, I didn’t totally hate the scene. In some ways, it's a clever pastiche to '60s music. In that light, I could maybe come around to it, over time. They’re also trying new things. But I think we found the ceiling pretty fast. I can’t say I’d like to see that sort of thing a lot more in the future, but here and there? Sure. As it is, it feels unrestrained and masturbatory. And truthfully, I would have preferred an actual musical like Buffy’s “Once More, With Feeling,” or Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ “Subspace Rhapsody.” They somehow gave me what I wanted while simultaneously failing to deliver.

Now of course, the real question is- what was the twist at the end? Was it the appearance of the Maestro’s “son,” Henry “Harbinger,” Arbinger? Or maybe it was a meta-reference to actress Susan Twist, the woman who once again has shown up in the background. I find it even more interesting that in every episode where she’s appeared, they give her a line to read. Or maybe it’s a Susan twist, as in the Doctor’s granddaughter. They mention Susan in the same episode with an actress named Susan Twist where they sing about twists while doing the twist. It’s like “Who’s on second?” or “The Doctor’s daughter who plays the Doctor’s daughter in ‘The Doctor’s Daughter,’ marries the Doctor.”

Despite the ending and the rehashed story, I rather liked this episode. Jinkx Monsoon and Ncuti Gatwa had great chemistry. The mysteries continue to unfold. Along with my hope for the Rani, I can now add hope for Susan into the mix, and as with the Rani, I won’t get my hopes up. In the same vein, I'm grateful that Maestro wasn't a code name for the Master. We've seen enough of him for a while, thanks. Ncuti and Millie continue to impress as the Doctor and Ruby. I also admired Ruby's restraint in not telling John Lennon to avoid chubby guys in glasses. I loved the Maestro and the fact that their laugh was vocal warm-up. So much fantastic attention to detail. But that ending is not my bag. It felt tacked on, poorly paced, and obnoxious. It reminded me of that line from Fight Club- “We are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.” Emphasis on the crap.

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thetwistedrope · 1 year

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I am suggesting people read what she wrote instead of just following the mob. I read it, and it's a bit more complicated. I have never hear her being described as an antisemite. No idea where that would be coming from.

i mean, it's pretty insulting to imply that i'm just "following a mob." as with most trans ppl anymore, i spend way too much of my time educating myself about the various people that want ppl like med dead or locked away. but since you seem to think there's some ~nuance~ and i love shitting on JKR, let's take a look shall we?

looks p fkn terfy

mmmm tasty terf rhetoric

here she is supporting a terf

too bad I can't screenshot her Ink Heart books, because those have a shitload of transphobia in them, too.

GLAAD has a page on her, too.

Also, she does put her money into anti-trans politicians, legislation:

If you'd like to see it all recounted for you in a video, you could watch this one (i disagree with his ending, but the timeline is accurate, it includes the antisemitism, too)

if you wanna learn about how the worldbuilding in HP is bad and it's included antisemitism, fatphobia, classism, etc. there is this video.

here's another article discussing the antisemitism in her game, which its important to keep in mind that while she didn't have a lot of oversight on the game, her portrayal of goblins and treatment of them in her books still backs a lot of antisemitic stuff. her whole thing about how house elves want to be slaves is pretty shitty.

there's also posts on my blog that you could go look through to find more. all of this is easily found by simply doing a google search. which you seemingly failed to do.

let me be clear: if you think at this stage that JKR is not a terf, you have your head in the sand

fuck JKR and fuck anyone who supports her at this point. trans ppl and jewish ppl are far more important than this god awful franchise.

(which, if you'd like to see how she more or less fabricated a story about how she wrote the book, how Scholastic made sure to make the story merchandisable to sell to unsuspecting kids, you can watch this video)

#asks #jk rowling #antisemitic wizard game #harry potter #HP #JKR #terfs #ism resources

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scarsbloodandleather · 1 year

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had this in the drafts for a LONGGG ASS TIME:,,,

i just stayed up all night thinking about trans dean!!! (hbo dean) and wrote an approximate 5 page essay of my thoughts!!! (written by a transmasc)

(just on how dean is trans while keeping majority of the plot is the same, but also better than canon..)

Starting at the beginning. born Deanna. Dean always wanted to present more masculine. as a little kid always wanted to play with the boys stuff and dress in daddys clothes not mommys. in the first scene of him holding baby Sammy, it’s very much possible that he could still look pretty much the same considering the popularity of bowlcuts in young kids especially amongst little girls at that time. After Marys death, john never knew how to shop for girls clothing, so Dean just got the most basic looking clothes, already making him slide into that masculine nature. He probably grew out his hair after Mary died for a while (because of johns inability to take care of his kids and give them regular haircuts), until lets say 6?? when Dean figured out how to use scissors on his hair. John is unfazed, like as long as it doesn’t get in the way, and monsters cant grab deans hair(idk, things like that)

Bobby is the first to figure out Dean is trans. obviously. he pays more attention to the kids than john does. Dean just acts like a boy, thinks he’s a boy, though still being technically a girl. He’s complained before to Bobby about wanting to be a boy and hates being seen as/called a “dyke” or a “tomboy” by classmates and teachers. Dean doesnt think anything is wrong with expressing those emotions, still being just a young kid.

Around 8?9? Dean end up just straight up telling john he thinks he’s actually a boy and john couldnt care less tbh, trans men were nearly invisible to society at that time, especially to someone like john who probably grew up under a rock about those things more than anyone. John probably just somehow believed what dean said.. but in a twisted fucked up way… In Johns head Dean is now “a boy with feminine parts, and that is not right, you cant be a man and feminine.” (something like that) So John double time forces hyper masculinity upon dean much too early, as a compensation for anything possibly non-masculine about dean. Trans men are not a concept in johns mind and he doesnt care at all what it could mean other than Dean just being fucked up. This ideology weighs heavily into Dean’s trauma and daddy issues. Especially when john has angry drunk outbursts of ridiculing Dean for the way he is, doing things like deadnaming and misgendering Dean on purpose.

John obviously didnt know or care about anything gender confirming beyond, “I have a son, I buy boy clothes, it’s easier in so many ways having two sons now.” Bobby was the one who fully supported and understood dean and tried to do everything he could to understand deans situation and help him with the transition.

also. no one really knew of john as a hunter at the start. so its easy for john to switch to saying he has two sons, without causing problems.

Puberty for Dean would fall around 1990/91. By that time hormone blockers were already a thing available for kids who had puberty too early, [BUT amongst my research on hormone blockers for trans people I couldn’t find when That became a common practice, and when or where it became easy(ish) to get such treatment without being denied or hatecrimed in some way...] (will have to do more research on some subjects, I still have several books and articles I need to go through) However, I do know testosterone was actually an accessible thing around the 90s for trans men(ofc i still cant find what the age is for being aproved to start hrt unfortunately).

But, I believe, thanks to Bobby’s cunning schemes, he can get what Dean wants/needs in an easy way (ex; lying about Dean’s age or gender[saying he’s intersex or a male with a hormone deficiency], stollen medical prescription forms, etc)

So maybe, most of Deans life he is stealth to most, (even if he doesnt get testosterone until later in life, there are multiple accounts of trans men more than fooling a vast majority of people into thinking theyre cis, even when literally having sex with women believe it or not(ex; Brandon Teena/Boys Don’t Cry film, a popular 50s gospel singer i forgot the name of, much more) Dean is definitely super crafty in canon so he is always finding ways to pass.

Sam knowing Dean is trans makes sense(even if he doesnt have a word for it at first) considering how close they are as siblings. And I think funnily enough he might not even know Dean is “trans” until he attends a gsa class in college(bonus: Sam is he/she/they nonbinary in my hc and they find out that too)

[Side note, because of genes*, it’s very possible for an afab in the winchester family to be up to 5’10(lets say dean is 5’9 though). He wears those 1 1/2 inch heeled boots he does in canon (funny how he’s canonically trans coded sm), with shoe inserts on top of that and, boom. easily 5’11-6’0. yet, he is still more than four inches shorter than his younger brother.(idk i think sam should chill like maybe he can just be 6’2or3 in hbo, bc *john is still 6’1or2, and mary’s family also has tall men*)]

Moving on. According to the timeline dean discovering girls (and boys) happens next at 12/13 (pls help i’m on the aro spec and dk the normal age you get crushes)

but since we already know john is even more strict about Dean’s masculinity than he would be with someone whos amab (notice john canonically is less forcing of masculinity upon sam... i wonder why....) Well in saying that, here comes the intense homophobia. Dean cannot like men. “thats for girls. and Dean said hes actually a man, and I cant let dean be feminine in any way” or some bullshit like that.

Somewhere in the future, before Dean turns 17, john is “worried” about deans possible attraction to men. Sends him on the nun hunt by himself. It’s a big step especially for Dean being afab and john still seeing him as weak and feminine despite believing Dean is actually a dude. (I think this is also the same reason, canonically, sam is so surprised that at 26 dean is going on his own hunts??)

But like- so if the last time Sam saw Dean, Dean was 22 and still an irresponsible youth, still new to the freedom of things that came at 21 and what not(even if dean has been drinking from a young age) and considering johns treatment of Dean, and Deans dependency on johns toxic grasp on him, Sam could still be surprised dean is on his own now[even if dean went on his own at 17, but sam wouldnt know that,, and plus it was just so john could teach him a lesson] So maybe john also let Dean go on his own at 23(before then dean always went with another person) and because he would soon see Dean and his hunting partner of the time, Lee, getting along “too well” he would just fr gaslight dean to just go on his own from then... (something like that)

Focusing back on Dean’s transition, I actually have no idea when dean would get top surgery bc of the busyness of a hunters life. but im thinking it’s a top priority of Deans for a while because of the discomfort of not being able to wear a binder when hunting, only a sports bra, which depending, could still be very uncomfortable for him dysphoria wise. (i know the struggle) Again, Bobby probably one to help with the whole process of payment, recovery and scheduling a good time.

When dean finally gets his top surgery it is when he is with Cassie. (theyre literally both t4t bi4bi) Dean by luck finds a nice girl at a queer bar and settles down with her and decides its time to chop the flesh bags and Cassie helps him in his recovery. (of course i think dean still goes hunting in secret and messed up the healing process and ends up with sorta messed up scars)

Now lisa well... (actually I think canon dean dated her before cassie, but she was only introduced later so-) okay Lisa lowkey gives me transphobe vibes-.. I wonder if it could be that even after they hook up she still isnt even aware that dean is trans, she still finds out someway though. (rip ben actually being from a random biker in this au, bc canon he is 100% deans kid) When Dean sees her again, they run into eachother and catch up despite lisa still being transphobic. She’s fine with just talking but keeping distance. Ben, already liking dean like a father figure, doesn’t understand why lisa dislikes him, even after she explains how Dean is trans, like most kids at that age it’s simple, if he looks and acts like a boy, he is a boy. Kids dont fucking know a thing about body parts or genders... Ben with that ideology, ultimately opens Lisas eyes on trans people and is now okay with Dean.

The only next big plot point I can think of?? is..

Cas raising Dean from hell. While recreating Dean, he sees Deans entire being through Deans perspective. and how Dean is meant to be rather than how he was born. In my mind it makes sense to cas as angel, by seeing Dean’s soul, his memories, everything that makes Dean, well.. Dean, that he is indeed a man. Also because angels have no construct of gender(besides how humans are born) and being genderless in the first place, Cas doesnt associate body parts with genders. He just knows dean is a man and is like “well if hes a human man he must have these parts i guess?”, Deans views of himself blurring his previous form, everything on how dean looks is slightly masculinized. Cas doesnt even think about how come these scars on deans chest are significant and important to him, at any point in the future he could still easily remove them, but he knew they meant something to dean in his mortal development and despite being a “flaw” they are the two scars he didnt wipe clean off of Dean’s body. Everything else, its like- as if Dean was born a man, or at least, however Dean wanted to look. (and still, cas removes all of deans tattoos. dean is pissed asf at cas. even if they had significance to dean, cas still removed them as it was not a part of his body and soul like the top scars, just a foreign blemish made of ink)

That is all i should probably fit in a post now, lmao

#my post #hbo spn #hbo supernatural #hbo castiel #hbo dean winchester #hbo sam winchester #spn #supernatural #hbo spn castiel #hbo spn dean #hbo spn sam #dean winchester #trans dean #trans dean winchester #hbo spn trans dean #transmasc #trans #transmasc dean #transnatural

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the-peculiar-bi-tch · 8 months

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CW: extreme transphobia, political violence, Don't Say Gay, trans genocide, 2024 election

I was made aware today of the GOP's "Mandate for Leadership" document today, which is a giant policy wishlist for conservatives and business execs for the first 180 days of a Republican presidential election victory in 2024. What they want is beyond extreme. This article from Dame Magazine covers it, and I'll put it below the break because it really is as bad as the CW makes it out to be. tldr, conservatives quite literally want all trans people locked up or dead, if you're an adult in the U.S. and can vote, vote blue no matter who. idc what arguments you make, you vote blue to stop this from happening.

Conservatives are trying to build off the anti-woke culture war that has proven broadly unpopular and has shot the leg off DeSantis' campaign. Some of the biggest conservatives policy orgs and think tanks are pushing this and it is the most threatening, unconstitutional shit imaginable.

They are fully embracing the "unitary executive theory", where the president has total power over the executive department and its agencies (anything labelled "Department," the EPA, etc) with no Congressional oversight whatsoever. It's a ridiculous, flatly illegal doctrine to try and act within, but conservatives have shown they do not care about the law and are going to do whatever the hell they want if they can. They want to use this total power over the executive branch to politically influence the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the courts into prosecuting political enemies (revenge for grand juries charging Trump with well over 100 felonies over crimes he provably committed) and forcing blue states to turn over all trans people they are sheltering for prosecution. Prosecution of what? Anything. Sex crimes applied to trans people existing in public, whether in person or online, because "what if a minor sees this perversion?"

States like California and Maryland have enacted safe harbor laws, meaning any trans people fleeing a red state, say, Texas, will not be extradited back to Texas for wearing makeup around a child. It means that these states will not recognize efforts by other states to essentially kidnap trans people. This document shows that conservatives want to use a political DOJ to threaten district attorneys in those states into turning over any and all trans people they're harboring. Stuff like this would be made way easier with KOSA (Kids Online Safety Act, S.1409), requiring Internet service providers to share a lot for personal data with the federal government. The Republican Senator who introduced it, Blackburn, has said it would be used to target trans people. While I have reached out to both my senators about this and Warnock and Ossoff have both told me they are no votes, it's still far too widely supported in the Senate. (Btw fuck Sen. Blumenthal, he's been on this anti-privacy bent for years and I hope he gets primaried and made completely irrelevant just for introducing this bill.)

What does this mean for trans people in 2024? Simple. If you value trans rights, and you are eligible to vote in the U.S., vote for the Democratic Party.

Greens stand less of a chance in defeating any Republican presidential nominee than I stand swimming across the Pacific. 2024 cannot be a "I don't like either party" election, it cannot be a "both sides" election because while I curse Blumenthal and other Democrats for going along with stuff like KOSA, they are not actively genocidal and many rail against the attacks people like DeSantis and MTG have levied against us. This cannot be a "let's just do a revolution" election cycle because yeah you're just going to organize a proletarian revolution in 400 days, overthrow the U.S. government, and install a functioning proletarian-focused queer-protecting government without it immediately backfiring from any number of potential fuckups that come with revolution.

Vote Democrat. Tell your friends to vote Democrat. Vote down the ballot. Phone bank, canvas, hell join a campaign. I made calls in 2020 with a nonprofit to get out votes for GA senate runoffs, those orgs were vital in those campaigns. When it comes to political pragmatism for this issue, the 2024 presidential election is the best way to affect the change we want.

Trans people cannot have our rights stripped this completely from us because a few hundred thousand people in a few key states go "oh yeah I like cornell west, my vote doesn't matter anyways so what's the harm voting third-party?"

“Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation, and child welfare. It has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”

There's your fucking harm.

#politics #us politics #trans genocide #don't say gay #christofascists #vote blue no matter who

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jackredfieldwasmyjacob · 1 year

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i think this is a good example of the situation(tm) with spain and fascism and how it's very different to other european countries like italy or germany.

this news article says that the government pays more than 9000€ per year to mantain franco's tomb (and by the government it means, well, the taxpayers). for those who don't know, francisco franco was a fascist dictator (friend of hitler and mussolini) that ruled spain from 1939 til 1975. he died peacefully. in his bed. after 4 decades of ruling. this is one of the key points regarding all of this.

and you might be thinking... well, the right wing party must be the ruling party for this to happen! lol no. we are currently under a pretty left-leaning government (this will probably change next month btw, there's general elections on april 28th). this is the government who passed the so-called trans law. and, most importantly, this government exhumated franco's body from his monumental funerary monument to a normal cemetery.

this is the monument in question, btw, it's called valle de los caídos (valley of the fallen) and it was built by the people franco sent to concentration camps throughout the country.

and yes, you read that well. franco's body was here until 2019. the monument was visited (and still is visited) by tons of fascists, who would do the nazi salute, fly the francoist flag, and chant francoist chants. all while the police was just there (but that's no surprise, isn't it). now, those people just go to the new location of franco's tomb.

oh, btw, on april 24th 2023 (4 days ago as i'm writing this post) there was another exhumation in the valley of the fallen (i just found out that since 2022 its name officially changed to 'cuelgamuros valley'. sure), this time of josé antonio primo de rivera, son of the dictator of spain from 1923-1930, and founder of the falange española, a fascist organization that became the only political party during the franco regime (yes. this is the equivalent to the nazi party) that btw still exists as a political party. so that's also lovely. this shouldn't come as a surprise, as la legión española, the military faction most closely allied to franco before, during, and after the civil war, still exists and they parade sometimes. you've probably seen these guys, there's a weird thing where people thirst over them on twitter:

anyways, this all boils down to the continuist nature of fascism in this country. fascist symbols are not banned, and neither is the flag or the hymn. i heard so many times the cara al sol (the francoist anthem) in high school sung by the kids who thought being a fascist was cool. again, franco's body wasn't exhumated until 2019 and with tons of polemics, delays and protests (protests!!!!). primo de rivera's wasn't exhumated until this very year (also with protests). and, meanwhile, there's more than 1000 mass graves still unearthed in spain, most of them filled by republicans who either were killed during the war, or right after it. one of them is the poet federico garcía lorca, considered one of (if not the best) writer in spanish history, and killed for his sexuality in 1936 by francoist soldiers. and, with him, thousands of people have been lost to time. in 2022 (83 years after the war ended) the government opened a 'mass grave searcher' on the ministry website, in order to look if your lost relative had been discovered.

i've talked about this before, but as another example, my great-grand father was unjustly sent to prisioner in 1939 for being a republican. he even spent some years in death row before being released after 5 years. he was officially pardoned by the government in 2017. he died in 1989.

also, something that has been particularly evident during this government, is that fascists are very much alive and have a ton of power. and politicians are either one of them or scared of them. keep in mind that spain has had multiple military and fascist uprisings and coup de états in the 20th century, it's very recent history. that, summed with the terrible job done during the transition period of not divorcing themselves with the francoists or just banning everything to do with them (that 'terrible job' happened because well. there were a lot of fascists there), makes for fascism being painfully present in spain all throughout the 20th and 21st century, so it's always been here, and very obviously so, and that's why it's so fundamentally different from other european regions.

this is what happens when fascists win and fuck up everything. spain is a perfect example of it. i love maps, but everytime i see alternative history maps (and there's a ton of them) that are like 'europe but hitler won ww2' i get the irk because 1) the person making that post is probably a nazi, and 2) that's just what happened in spain. the 'nazis won au' is just 20th century spain. and the consequences of that still ooze to this date. so yeah. that's all i have to say i think.

#spain #tw: fascism #tw: nazism #i finally did it! the doñana post made me motivated enough to write a full-length post lol #this is just an informative post i guess? i don't think many people outside of spain are aware of our situation #i glossed out over a ton of stuff cause i'm not very informed about all of this but if anyone has any questions or wants me to tackle #anything else please let me know #and fellow spaniards feel free to add stuff to this post!!#anyways there's general elections in exactly one month so that'll be scary

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historyhermann · 1 year

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The Indie Animation Boom Continues in 2022 [part 1]

In August of 2021, I wrote about the boom in indie animation, consisting of almost exclusively crowdfunded animations. Earlier this month, I expanded on that and wrote about various indie animations, specifically noting Hazbin Hotel and Wild Card which are in development. As storyboarder Amber Avara put it on January 7, “2022 is the year of sick indie animation, let’s make it happen!” Various creators are making it happen. Due to the number of indie animated series being produced, it is near impossible to mention all of them. Despite that limitation, this article will highlight over ninety indie animated series, giving you a snapshot into the existing boom of indie animation at the present time, with particular notice to those currently airing.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs, my History Hermann WordPress blog on Jan. 21, 2023, and Wayback Machine. This was the ninth article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on January 27, 2022.

On January 27, the fourth episode of Gods’ School, a French indie animation about Olympian gods and Greek mythology, will air on YouTube. The series is created by one animator, Gaylord Cuvillier Philippe Libessart, on his own! In 2018, the series received support from the French National Center for Cinema and Animation, which gave Libessart the “opportunity to start the production and make the pilot episode.” The first episode aired in January 2019, telling the story of Eris, a goddess trying to find her place among gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus. Gods’ School has been described as having animation as “gorgeous as classic Disney,” and it is adorable, really cool, an addicting and amazing cartoon that should be more well-known, and praised for its talented voice cast. Some have drawn fan art of the show’s characters. As of the writing of this post, three episodes of the series have aired.

Other indie animated series currently airing include Wisdom Nunn’s Bob’s World, Vivienne Medrano’s Helluva Boss, and Nico Colaleo’s series, Ollie & Scoops. Helluva Boss also includes several LGBTQ characters: Blitzo is pansexual, Moxxie is bisexual, Stolas is gay or bisexual, and Sallie May is a trans woman. In the latter series, there was an episode in October 2020 centered around a teacher, Binnie, admitting she liked a fellow teacher, Wendy. Just as prominent is Eddsworld, a long-running animated series which began in December 2004. It continues to rack up millions of views on its YouTube channel, even with its Eddsworld Beyond season, which began in 2021 with Matt Hargreaves as a showrunner.

Additional currently airing series include the spy mystery series SCP Origins, where incompetent spies try and take down villains, an adult animated comedy named Nora and Zin, and an ongoing series named The West Patch which describes itself as “a dark look at the side effects of consequence-free children’s programing.” For the latter series, at present, there have been two episodes so far. There are spinoffs also like Space Triage and The Following Call. Also currently out for viewing are the Instagram clip show Ronzilla, an original animated web series in which all the characters are dolls with the name of Project Infinity, and a murder mystery series named The Marvelous Adventures of Danny DeComp. The majority of these series air on YouTube. This again makes clear the preference of the video sharing platform as a place to share series, making it even more popular than somewhere like Newgrounds.

Official art of Umi, Port, and Jolly Roger in Port by the Sea

In January of this year, non-binary Argentine artist, Moon, creator of the sci-fi series in development, Indigo, asked indie series creators to promote themselves. Many people responded. Georden Whitman shared news about his animated pilot in development, Port by the Sea, which focuses on two kids (Umi and Port) sailing the seas to “find pieces of their broken moon, before an ancient deity swallows the world in ocean.” Matt Acuña shared information about The Garden Age, a series in development focused on “cute bugs on their journey to stop a lawnmower from destroying their world.” Andre Grandpierre noted that he is developing Long Way from DelArte, an animated series about friends traveling around the world, in hopes of “achieving their artistic dreams.” Some said that they were developing hand-drawn animated films or animated series, all in distinct stages of development. [1] Of these creators, some had some prominence in the animation industry. For instance, Whitman is the creator of Nomad of Nowhere and Acuña is the Production Coordinator for Bob’s Burgers.

There is more “indie animated goodness,” as Whitman termed it. This includes series in development with a focus on magic and adventures like Warlocks of Wrath High, Century Park, True Tail, Stars Align, Wimp Witch, and Evelynne Doom. There are many other animated series in development. [2] One example is a series about a non-binary sheep who is making their way through high school titled Sheepish. Another is a cop buddy show between an ace cop and a succubus entitled Succubus Cop. Two others, Band of Mythix and Stellapie are action series, with the former a musical series as well.

In addition, Mugshot & Pollen is about two best friends hanging out, Starmakers, an action/adventure series, is about a bisexual girl named Astra who joins a guild and teams up with people to fight monsters after escaping those who want her as a “source of power.” There is a sci-fi, comedy, and horror series with the title The Heroes of Tomorrow and a series about wolves called Wolves of Cecila. It is one of the many wolf-related series out there, with those in development including Demon Soul, the concluded series All Lone Ones, and The Shadow Marked. An animated “homage to 8-bit retro gaming” named Bit Wars and a sci-fi series which may be released in June titled Monkey Wrench are just two more examples of potential upcoming indie animated series.

The creators of The Descendants said they would pitch their show this year. The series Lumi and the Great Big Galaxy had a fundraiser while the show was in pre-production. Amber Avara, mentioned at the beginning of this article, continued working on an indie anime named Nocturne, sharing information about the character, images of color tests, and character sheets with her followers. Alpha Betas is going ahead, according to its Twitter and listings on its YouTube page. It appears that Long Gone Gulch, by Tara Billinger and Zach Bellissimo, is also going onto the next stage of its development, either by submitting the pilot, or becoming an indie animated series beyond the pilot. It’s hard to know where Long Gone Gulch goes from here, whether it will stay on YouTube or end up on a major network.

Screenshot from opening of Wild Card

The indie, adult murder mystery series about lawyers set in a Boston where “elite legal universities rule the legal system,” titled Wild Card, keeps moving forward. A pilot episode is in development and there was even a webcomic created on Line Webtoon to generate interest in the series and tell some stories using certain characters. The series’ official Twitter account, and additional social media accounts associated with the series, shared news, test animations, and music in the series. The show features LGBTQ characters like the show’s bisexual protagonist, Jack, based on show creator Alex Bahrawy (who is also bisexual), and a non-binary character. Some called the series, which has been in the works since 2016, “one of the coolest indie productions,” and “really cool.”

Since my last post, Cartoon Connect‘s series Little Ron Ron, Gotta Be Mo, Lumen, or Loyalty High have not been continued. He appears to be working on a new animated series called Kenny Quick, asking for voice actor auditions in November 2021. The same is the case for Brandon Wright – it looks like his animated series Silver Lin is unlikely to continue. The same appears to be the case for Guardian Instance. Despite this, Diver appears to be on track, as a video this month noted that a new episode was being developed. The Quickening, with a pilot airing in July 2020, and Ascendants, a series which appeared to be in development, are dead in the water. [3] While those shows may be ending, unless something miraculous happens, Howdy Cloudboy, a Western genre series with a main cast who are “all black lqbtq+ folks,” is being developed by a Black and Queer led studio named Faeduck Studios.

The Far-Fetched Show, created by Ashley Nichols and Dave Capdevielle, who both previously worked on Hazbin Hotel, has gone ahead. The official account put out a call for more animators and clean-up artists at the beginning of this year. Far-Fetched is a horror comedy about Rue Cervello (voiced by Nola Klop), a young woman who loses her chaotic canine, Kira (voiced by Jazmine Luevanos), and joins a bunch of musical misfits (Quinn, Griff, Piper, and Warren) who are part of the band Sesamoid. They work together to fight and survive in a place where science clashes with the supernatural. There are two villains: Drain (voiced by Michael Zekas) and Blair (voiced by Lauren Landa).

At one point last year, there was a post of the show’s official Twitter, showing the characters holding LGBTQ flags. Rue holds a sweater saying she is questioning, Quinn Hickley (voiced by J. Michael Tatum) holds the demisexual panromantic flag, Griff (voiced by Jacob Takanashi) holds an asexual flag, and Piper Stubbs (voiced by Dani Chambers) holds a lesbian flag, while Kira and Warren Webber (voiced by Jonah Scott) are allies. This was clarified by Nichols. The show’s current route is to fully fund the pilot themselves, then launch a larger crowdfunding campaign and merchandising to give the series “longer episodes” and make additional “bonus content.”

Presumably, shows like Satina, a dark comedy, will include LGBTQ characters. Hopefully, Satina will premiere this year. Like Satina, which continues to be in development if anything can be gleaned by creator Hannah Daigle’s YouTube channel, once the episodes of Far-Fetched are finished, they will be on YouTube. Comics of the show’s characters will likely be released.

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weaversong · 11 months

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I just watched Nimona last night and I absolutely adored it so I'm just listing everything I loved because I can't make a formal thought post rn. It's a lot so click the magic button to see it

- The scene where the Director pulled out that thousand year old scroll to justify her murderous intent towards Nimona. And the way my first thought was "wait is this like the Bible or the Constitution?" because damn bigots have a habit of using centuries-outdated documents to persecute people

- The flashback with Gloreth and Nimona. Oh my god bro. I think there's a lot of ways you can see that scene but I saw it the lesbian way. And if you're lesbian you get what I'm saying. When you love a girl so much and you're like two peas in a pod with each other but then realize they never saw you the same way and you were never more than just a friend...

- The way Nimona never transformed into the monster depicted in all that art. The way that the village burned not because of her but the villagers surrounding her with torches. And this same thing happens later during Nimona's attempt; almost none of the damage to the city was caused by her but by everyone hurting her and destroying everything just to destroy her. Fuck bro

- Speaking of the attempt sequence, Nimona's shadowy form sounding completely and utterly human got me. How all the knights kept shooting at her is beyond me. Because you wouldn't expect to strike a giant shadow "monster" and its scream to be a little girl's scream. Her final scream in that scene right as she was at the sword's tip made me burst into tears

- There's a lot of things I like about Ballister but I need to make the joke about his big brown eyes real quick... great addition. Can't imagine looking at him and seeing queen-murdering thoughts behind those eyes

- The way Ballister was ready to pack it up and go the moment Nimona admitted how scared she was of the kingdom hurting her. The way he was ready to leave everything he ever knew behind just to protect this girl. Oh my god

- Ambrosius immediately deducing that the Ballister on the cameras was an imposter because he knows Bal hates freestyle jazz. Choked on my own spit

- Fucking RUPAUL voicing one of the commentators of the knighting ceremony

- Nimona herself being incredibly trans in every way possible is already made clear but I ADORE how she doesn't bend to make anyone comfortable. There's a real message here about cis queer people trying to be "the good ones" by putting down trans people who "make the community look bad", when at the end of the day, they hate us all and it doesn't stop at trans people. The way Nimona makes it clear that the kingdom doesn't hate her any more than they hate Ballister. Bal's desperate "be discreet" attitude eventually developing into "let's break stuff". No point in trying to appeal to bigots and he learned that lesson. A lot of y'all could learn from his development all I'm saying

- I really love all of Nimona's different forms but the ostrich made me laugh when I first saw it because I remembered the WikiHow article on how to survive an ostrich encounter and one of the strategies is just "dive into a thorn bush". I can't draw like that but artists if you need a silly prompt that's mine

- The propaganda. Oh my god the propaganda. Already kinda talked about this with Gloreth but Nimona's short monologue about how impressionable little kids think they're righteous for wiping out anyone "other" was chilling. Because she's right

- In the scene where Ballister and Nimona check their upload of the Director's confession, it's brief but you can see a comment that questions if it's some sort of deepfake. Now I know this movie was in development quite some years ago (hence the dancing shark scene) but that's a little too accurate to how common deepfakes have become since the rise of AI recently. Made me wonder how common deepfakes must be in this kingdom and who exactly utilizes them (definitely not the Institute for their propaganda...)

- The queen. She was cool and all for the 5 minutes she was alive onscreen and was genuinely trying to make progress but she just reminds me of real lawmakers. The "good ones" never stick around for long, unfortunately, and the ones who you think are on your side will ditch you if they need votes. How it's all a problem with the system itself, and one good person inside the system isn't going to change anything

- When Nimona said "metallllll" and she threw up the horns I got so happy. I'm a huge metalhead so anytime I see the horns done right I get happy. Remember it's WITHOUT the thumb sticking out!!!

- There's a certain song inclusion that really tugged at my metal heartstrings... but I wanna make a full post on that. Gonna do that right after I post this

- Lastly, this movie is BOLD. It's unflinching. Like its titular character, it doesn't CARE to make you comfortable. You WILL see these queer men express their love for each other in the opening scene. You WILL watch them kiss. You WILL watch Nimona act loud and defiant no matter how much stealth (pun NOT intended) a mission calls for. Truly some amazing stuff

That's all I got go watch this movie rn

#nimona #nimona spoilers #sova speaks #tw suicide

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gnfkitten · 1 year

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for their information, though, putting a cut here because this got long:

despite making up only 5% of the population, trans people are over four times more likely to be Victims of violent crime:

https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/ncvs-trans-press-release/

there are close to zero incidents (zero reported) of transgender people harassing others in bathrooms.

https://www.mic.com/articles/114066/statistics-show-exactly-how-many-times-trans-people-have-attacked-you-in-bathrooms

here's where an anti-trans group confirmed that they made up the "bathroom predator" myth to get around having to justify why they didnt recognize their identities:

https://www.thepinknews.com/2018/12/07/anti-trans-group-bathroom-predator-myth/

trans people are more likely to be the Victims of sexual assault or harassment

https://ovc.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh226/files/pubs/forge/sexual_numbers.html

one in five cis women experiences sexual violence. one in two trans women experience sexual violence; for those who failed statistics, that's More.

https://www.kmdlaw.com/blog/2022/april/sexual-violence-statistics-in-transgender-and-no/

trans teens are Less likely to commit sexual violence but Much More likely to experience it against themselves

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/974980

and heres another source saying exactly that, again:

https://journals.lww.com/ajnonline/Abstract/2019/08000/Higher_Prevalence_of_Sexual_Assault_Among.31.aspx

oh, and-- here's something. you want to protect people from sexual assault, yes? here's the thing. restricting trans teens locker room usage to their sex at birth caused sexual assault rates to Increase, because they were the ones being sexually assaulted. this changed markedly when they were allowed to go into their preferred locker.

https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/143/6/e20182902/76816/School-Restroom-and-Locker-Room-Restrictions-and?autologincheck=redirected

there are essentially no cases of people transitioning medically in childhood. very few even transition before 17.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/aug/10/ron-desantis/transition-related-surgery-limited-teens-not-young/

here's data from one of the most liberal hospitals in the country. surgery is rare before late teens, and for all genital surgeries, individuals have to be 18 or older. no kids are getting surgically altered.

https://www.seattlechildrens.org/clinics/gender-clinic/

over the last four years, the murder rate of trans people has nearly doubled. as usual, young black trans women are the most in danger; that would be the group you're insistent on fearmongering.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transgender-community-murder-rates-everytown-for-gun-safety-report/

here's an article from 2007, when the bathroom panic movement was still centered on gay men. which, reminder, is a thing that happened! gay men first, then, as they were more widely accepted, people switched to openly fearmongering about trans people. gay bathroom panic still exists, but trans bathroom panic is the next hot thing.

https://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2007/08/tuckers-traumatic-bathroom-experience-steve-clemons/225764/

aaand here's another, from 2022.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/06/ny-police-will-no-longer-target-gay-men-public-bathrooms/

as for the claim that trans people "suddenly appeared"-- the same phenomena happened when civil divorce was legalized. a huge boom, then it levelled out, still higher than before. if you stop preventing transitioning and killing trans people and blocking medical care, there are gonna be more living and out trans people. same thing happened with the "huge gay boom" a few decades ago-- this isn't new. this is consistently a talking point for hate groups. you are a member of a hate group.

i don't want to debate you on "what makes a woman". the data shows that its overwhelmingly positive to let trans people transition, and that we're far more likely to be assaulted than to assault anyone. the question is whether you think that trans people deserve bodily autonomy and to be respected as people.

if the answer is no, our conversation is already lopsided. i dislike you because you believe that my lived experience is untrue, and because you are actively advocating for my life to be more difficult and painful. you dislike me because you don't like the idea of me existing, because i don't seem logical to you. that's the root of transphobia, not any genuine worry over safety. go outside for the love of god, and stop your persecution complex. statistically, i'll die earlier than you anyway; you'll have a long time without me.

#transphobia tw #terf tw #god im tired #anyway. heres your evidence #go tell your friends i dismissed you flippantly to avoid defending my 'stance'

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jacquelinemerritt · 1 year

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Being a Transgender Nerd

Originally posted December 28th, 2015

Unpacking the male dominated culture of nerds from a trans woman’s perspective.

I have been a nerd all of my life.

That’s a statement I can’t see anyone objecting to. If you’ve met me, then it’s pretty obvious how nerdy I am; I’m arguably the biggest fan of Star Wars among anyone I know, I’ve spent a significant portion of my life obsessing over videogames (my favorites being Zelda and Metal Gear Solid), and I run a blog devoted to critically analyzing the abridged version of a popular anime. To put it simply, I have more nerd cred than I know what to do with, and I’ve loved investing myself in nerddom since I was a little kid.

I have also been a woman all of my life.

That statement, unlike the first, carries a small amount of potential controversy with it, given that I am a transgender woman (it’s thankfully much less dangerous a statement than it used to be, as our culture has becoming more understanding and accepting of trans people).

And to the benefit of those who would argue against my womanhood, I have not known all of my life that I was, in fact, a woman. This experience of growing up not knowing my true gender and assuming that I was a man has left me with a unique experience, and as a result, I have gained a deeper understanding of the way one’s gender affects their experience within nerd culture.

The hold that straight white men have upon the role of the protagonist is one of the things I noticed earliest. This however, did not help me understand my gender identity; it reinforced the idea that women were inferior, even though that idea wasn’t something I ever directly vocalized.

Of course, I still found myself drawn to the few female characters there were, and Asajj Ventress, a minor character from the Star Wars expanded universe, particularly caught my attention, as I could feel a lot of empathy for a woman whose troubled past had led her to embrace the Dark Side of the Force.

I quickly found myself rather obsessed with her, and I poured over every bit of media containing her that I could get my hands on, even when her lack of significance outside of the Clone Wars animated miniseries meant that most of that obsession was spent rereading her entry on the Star Wars “Databank*.”

Looking back, I see that that obsession rose not only out of a love for Ventress’ character, but out of a dire need to see women I could relate to in the media that I loved. Now, given the complex environment that I grew up in, it is unlikely that the inclusion of more women in Star Wars would have helped me understand my gender identity earlier (though honestly, who’s to say what could’ve helped), but I can safely say that the inclusion of more women would have helped me feel even more like the Star Wars universe belonged to me.

And while I don’t spend as much time obsessing over Asajj Ventress as I used to, thanks to “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” she and the Star Wars universe have grown up about as much I have; where she used to be shown only as a tool of the men who would use her, she’s grown into a woman who abandons these men to live her own life, and is attempting to live a good life despite it the hold the Dark Side still has upon her. That version of Ventress, as it happens, is just the type of role model I needed back when I was a youngling.

*Back in the early 2000s, the official Star Wars website had a database of professionally written articles summarizing the history of each character and object present in the Star Wars universe. It was unfortunately discontinued a while back, but its spirit lives on through Wookieepedia.

#nerd culture #not sure how else to tag #oof #this piece is fine #the oof is not at the piece #the oof is for ventress being shown as her own woman #and not as a tool of the men around her #because since i wrote this #i have read star wars dark disciple #and fuck you katie lucas #quinlan vos should have given his life for ventress #she deserved someone in her life finally doing that for her #also i don't think this piece actually gets much into my experience as a trans nerd #it touches on what reached that repressed trans side of me #but i had a lot of horrifying experiences growing up as a 'boy'#and saw a lot of misogyny from nerds around me #who were often the only friends i really had

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red-the-dragon-writes · 1 year

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🚧 this is not finished and there will be adjustments! 🚧 please do not reblog this post! 🚧

Hi, I'm Red. Welcome to my writing blog. I use he/him, they/them, ne/nem, and fuck/fucker pronouns, and this is a sideblog. I follow and interact from @bitegore. I'm bi, trans, aro, polyam and above all Queer.

I write primarily Transformers fanfiction and, rarely, original fiction as well. I like dragons and I like robots, and I will put one or the other (or sometimes both!) into everything I do. I consider myself to be a horror writer, and I typically try to lean in toward whatever shitty implications I can come up with rather than lean out.

I have a particular love of in-universe documents and pastiche of things like current event news articles and sociological papers. I also love gore, death, horrific power dynamics, and bad sex that hurts everyone involved. I love when characters do bad things to one another and I want them to be awful.

I fully intend for everyone reading my stories to get some sort of rubberneck-style voyeuristic fascination out of everything I write. My smut is bad and I hope it makes you want to peel your skin off. My humor is pitch black and I will rhyme lying with dying and try to make you laugh about it. I do my best never to shy away from the edge and I want you to stare down at the pitch-black hole I've dropped my characters into and acknowledge the abject depths of their suffering and then be forced to admit that actually that's kind of funny anyway.

But i promise i'm chill as, like, a person and I want to give you the tools to read or not read that at your leisure and all that.

Current Ongoing Wips:

Transmissions from Cybertron - a letter-based epistolary fic about a transformer who goes on a weird mission and gets his brain fried super duper hard by it. Currently in its last few stages, I think, I just have to get it DONE.

Fortress Maximus v. Big Sword Studios - a pastiche of the ongoing "censorship is good/censorship is bad" debate from the beginning of modern media's existence set on Cybertron and in regards to deliberately provocative politically-charged pornography about (in-universe) war crimes. About half done. I have to kick it into high gear and I don't feeeeelllll like it i want to write stupid shenanigans instead.

Dedication - my take on the Tarn and Pharma Have A Child thing, wherein everything is bad, Pharma is currently dead, and the kid has never had a single positive adult in his life thus far. and also hasn't got a name yet. i just need to finish what i have written so i can get to what i want to write. this one also only needs a couple more chapters and then it should be done. Also Transformers fanfiction.

"You really wanna know where I'm from?" - my beloved transformers oc Bait lies about her background to a bunch of people for fun and profit. A personal project and on the back burner.

some speedy pilot sharpshooter, or something - same beloved transformers oc takes a hit out on one of my friend's favorites and gives him a complex via torture, but I lost the other guy's voice and so I haven't gotten back to it yet.

laser core - Vortex (a transformer) wants to kill someone by fucking their battery until they die so bad he blows his dick up like fifteen times. Stuck in progress because I don;'t know enough engineering to make it work.

Crystal Clear - A Star Wars/Transformers crossover where Megatron and Optimus Prime are ancient jedi and Sith dug up out of the ground. I have no idea wher I was going with this but I want to get back to it someday.

Closerverse Main Story - Original fiction; a two part story that starts with a fucked up child soldier/member of a military cult discovering that non-human people (this is one of those high fantasy worlds with like shapeshifters and shit who are very much people) are still people and killing them is bad. and then falling in love, or at least good friends, with a dragon shapeshifter who also rather likes her. and THEN we take a hard swerve into grimdark territory and do bad things to our beloved dragon shapeshifter and hit him with a curse and do bad things to our ex-child soldier and THEN they go ahead and burn down the old world order and build a kinder one in its ashes. This one needs a prety comprehensive re-plotting but the bones are good; but also there's some awkward eeehhhh shit about what is essentially me processing my hashtag jewish-in-2022 feelings through making shapeshifting lizards be an oppressed culture and people that I don't want to take out because I want to be a shapeshifting lizard so bad i could cry but also the antisemites. they do that too. im not with them

no other serious origfic stories at this time smh

Housekeeping:

Tags in Use: #tag game - tag games (where I'm tagged/pinged by username) #ask game - ask games (asks sent in that I respond to) #wip thread - a long "thead" where i post snippets from one particular wip, usually short fanfics I intend to wrap and post within that week #tf writing - tag to specify Transformers writing #cls writing - tag to specify Closerverse-universe writing (changed 3/25/22) #ff writing - tag to specify other (non-Transformers) fanfiction #origfic writing - tag to specify other (non-Closerverse) original writing #others' writing - tag to specify that someone else wrote this and i just think it's cool #advice - advice #aesthetic - pretty pictures, usually just to fill up space #cn: sexual violence - "content note: sexual violence" - umbrella category for rape, noncon and dubcon #cn: gore - "content note: gore" - for body horror and "extreme" violence #cn: self-harm - "content note: self-harm" - for written descriptions of self-harm, including slightly less traditional ones like starving oneself #cn: death - "content note: death" - for stories dealing in large part with death. Note: not ones where it's incidental or background- stories where major charcters die or deal with grief.

I don't have a taglist for any wips because I have very few serious ongoing projects. If you'd like to be tagged for discussion and workshopping of Transformers fics, or for original works, please let me know which. Transformers taglist: - General TF taglist: - - Transmissions from Cybertron: - - Dedication: - - Crystal Clear: - - General Bait (OC) fic: - Origfic taglist: - General Closerverse Origfic: - - Closerverse Main Story: - - General Non-CV Origfic: -

#writeblr intro #housekeeping #tags

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coochiequeens · 2 years

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250 people showed up to support a drag show featuring an 11 year old child. And they claimed they were protecting children.

Fighting broke out after several hours of tense protests in front of Old Nick’s Pub in Eugene on Sunday, with division over defending or attacking the pub for hosting a drag story time event with an 11-year-old performer.

Some 250 people lined the sidewalks next to the pub on Washington Street to support the pub and event. About 50 protesters were on the opposite sidewalk.

The conflict began a week ago after online commenters and right-wing personalities caught wind of the drag show and accused the event of sexualizing children who perform in it. A protest was organized targeting the pub, and in response, community members planned a counterprotest titled “Eugene stands against hate.”

In a Facebook statement Friday, the pub said those outraged at the event have “twisted what is a fun and innocent event for kids and families into something disgusting and vile.”

Supporters Sunday shouted: “This is what protecting kids looks like,” “Go home Nazis,” and six people held a large banner reading “Protect trans youth."

The protesters held signs that read: “What kind of monster exposes kids to this” and several yelled, “Save our children.”

After arriving a little before 10 a.m., both sides began drifting into the middle of Washington Street, which Eugene Police closed off at 11 a.m. Officers did not try to stop either group’s protest but staged police cars around the area and several on the nearly Interstate 105 overpass.

It was a festive scene inside the pub, where the 11-year-old drag performer Vanellope Macpherson Dupont was the show’s guest of honor instead of performing.

The pub was packed with more than 50 people, including families with small children who cheered as several drag queens performed songs and read picture books.

Jamie Roberts, who goes by the drag queen name Princess Maliena, started crying while introducing the first act of the all-ages drag story time event and thanked Dupont, who had a front row seat on a couch with her family.

“Thank you guys for showing her, at this young age, love,” Roberts said to the crowd. “She needs this, and she really loves drag and doing what she does. Your support for her is going to overshadow any of the hate out there.”

Several of the protesters said it’s wrong to have children perform drag and to be in the audience. McKayla Babcock, a Eugene resident, said she has no issue with kids being interested in drag but that she doesn’t think it’s appropriate to perform it to a crowd.

“They’re putting children on stage where this is a child, and grown men and women can go there, and you don’t know what kind of fetish or things they have in their mind are,” Babcock said, attending with her 11-year-old daughter.

Several men in masks protesting against the pub declined to speak with The Register-Guard.

Elektra Starr, another performer at the drag show, said the the importance of the event is allowing children to be who they are, and that online hate was trying to mischaracterize the event to stir controversy.

“They’re the ones sexualizing the child by putting it into that perspective in the first place,” she said.

The pub hired security guards for the event, and one Eugene Police Department officer was stationed inside, monitoring security cameras and the nearby area.

At around 12:30 p.m., the crowd of protesters began retreating down the street and left in their cars.

At one point, both sides were seen throwing rocks and smoke grenades at each other, and at least one person on both sides was hit in the face with pepper spray. there were no arrests.

Several protesters were seen carrying what appeared to be assault rifles, and there were armed participants police identified in both groups, EPD said in a news release.

Contact reporter Louis Krauss at [email protected], call 541-521-2498 or follow on Twitter @louiskraussnews

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Protesters clash over Old Nick's Pub drag story time event in Eugene

#Eugene #oregon #old nick’s pub #all ages drag show #Drag is for adults #11 years old drag queen

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nathjonesey-75 · 8 months

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Where's The Awareness?

Well, here we are again. Although; I’d be very surprised - if no headline were used – if anyone knew to which “here” I was referring.

To clarify, it’s October; in other words, ADHD Awareness Month. Yep – who knew? Before the eyes start to roll with “not another ADHD whinge” whizzing over the scalps of some neurotypical and untroubled minds, if you happen to work with, or yet – have children with the condition, there may be a bit of a tremor on its way to you, as there is currently a shortage of ADHD medication around the world.

While the primary intention of this piece was to focus upon the need for more events in Britain for this supposedly supportive awareness period, if there is to be a widespread behavioural problem incoming, it may well make up for the silence in awareness promotion. Earlier today I was revising my blog site’s content. The first article I wrote following my diagnosis in 2021 (https://www.tumblr.com/nathjonesey-75/662840205569556480/all-day-he-dreams-a-work-in-progress) urged me to pen once more about my learning and experiences since the diagnosis. In-keeping with current political climate on this volatile, twisted little island in 2023 – it’s not a pleasant personal report.

Last year, there was a noticeable vitriol in the press towards trans people – with regard to the particular public spike in those identifying as transsexual. While I can’t comment as to that predicament having seen any improvement in public acceptance and media coverage since, there has been a definite flurry of air-headed, entitled, right-wing finger-pointing towards the ADHD condition – for similar spikes in diagnoses. Following this surge in particularly the celebrity community, it’s not surprising that tongues have wagged. Sadly, reverting again to the current climate of misinformation and assumptions from the wider uninformed masses, shock horror – we are the 2023 witches.

On that note, let’s clarify some blatant truths and some uncomfortable facts about this neurodivergent category – and a huge thank you to #AttentionUK for these facts.

HERE ARE SOME STATS ABOUT THE COSTS OF UNSUPPORTED ADHD:

Children with untreated ADHD:

• 46% of kids with untreated ADHD have been expelled. 35% drop out • Kids with untreated ADHD have problems with peer relations and end up with fewer friends • ADHD is very heritable. If one kid has ADHD there is a 30 to 40% chance that a sibling will have it as well • Kids with untreated ADHD have 2 to 4 times more fights with their siblings than their non-ADHD peers. • They also have 50% more bicycle accidents. …and 33% more A&E visits • More than half of all parents with ADHD will have a child with ADHD

Adults with ADHD:

• It shouldn’t come as a surprise that adults with untreated ADHD have problems with low self-esteem • Young adults with untreated ADHD show 2.6 times the number of sexual partners and 9 times the number of pregnancies compared to their non-ADHD peers • Likewise, they show 4 times the number of STD and are 2.5 times more likely to have been tested for HIV/AIDS • People with untreated ADHD have 2 to 4 times more car crashes than people without the disorder. And, they are usually far more likely to be the ones at fault • In fact, people with untreated ADHD are 7 times more likely to have had multiple vehicle crashes than people without ADHD • They are twice as likely to have been fired from a job [60] and 9 times more likely to end up in prison than people without the disorder • They also have higher rates of smoking and illegal drug use as well as higher rates of divorce, unemployment and underemployment • People with untreated ADHD end up costing at least twice as much in terms of medical care than they would without the disorder

It should come as less of a surprise, given these statistics – that adults with ADHD are five times as likely to have attempted suicide than those without (14% to 2.7%). These reasons should be adequately acceptable to justify ADHD Awareness Month going ahead annually for the foreseeable future.

From the ground level perspective of adults with ADHD, while the condition is a certified disability, medication is certainly not free – along with counselling and therapy as an alternative or bolster to medication. Neither is medication available on a quarterly payment basis, as is almost every other pharmaceutical health drug in England and Wales. So, having to order repeat prescriptions each month, when it is a government-controlled drug, is not the most practical or convenient. This may be understandable as an abuse control measure, yet for those who live in solitude; with added health complications – now emphatically with the current shortage, suggests that there must be a more supportive framework.

It would be a welcome surprise if a right-wing government were to reshuffle, restructure and bolster the mental health act positively – while boosting the budget for mental health medication. I’d however expect Brighton and Hove Albion to win the Premier League before Westminster Corruption FC shows compassion to the increasingly diagnosed neurodivergent population.

As for my findings over the past two cycles around the sun, since September 2021 – while I had hoped to balance a highly active day job with my creative spare time; learning the longer, more emotionally “scenic” way of the neurodivergent – proved that consideration and support in the workplace was as hidden as the condition’s effects are in the wider labour market.

The first position seemed ideal – working with a young, exciting brand and team; and my recent diagnosis disclosed to my superiors within the first three months following some unexpectedly nervy moments. After all, the physical, hands-on role had nothing in the contract suggesting “thou shalt train to become a brewer” (and no desire from my part either – just to balance work and my music and writing career, which was clearly divulged). Yet as I was inadvertently expected to perform tasks way above my position and job description, despite being clear with one clever, yet ignorant line manager that these were things I could not do – this continued until big, dangerous mistakes were forced. Clearly, awareness was ignored and even refused, when I offered to install a work mental health safety programme. My resignation came within nine months and I was not invited to the Xmas staff function, with each and every other ex-member of staff who remained connected.

With the following role, only finished nine weeks ago – any hopes of seeing improvements to the previous chimera of work progress sadly went the way of extra business revenue for the company before the indications of support were again hot air in the cold, yet lucrative event hire warehouse. Without harping on, the conclusion of the past two years is – small upcoming company or not; modern and educated or not, the support of ADHD in the workplace is not an informed, aware and defined model. For what isn’t apparent from my description of frustration – is the overhanging, overburdening expectation of equilibrium from every person's performance – as though there is a proven physiological and biological balance between everyone. Informing people about having ADHD, then receiving tentative nods of support, in other words - has made very little difference to my work environment in the past two years.

Elements which bring and often overload pressure – and the ADHD way is very often to grind the way through the job; to complete tasks and to accomplish expectations, these invite mental health problems, which can become extreme. As in suicidal thoughts. But you couldn’t dare tell people that at work – because you’d be seen to be melodramatic, unstable and unreliable. Yet, ask many with ADHD and this will be commonly identifiable. Remember, too – the chief cause of death in men between 35 and 55 years of age – is suicide.

Which leads me to one vital piece which must be brought to awareness – burnout. As established, informing employers about ADHD has not, for me – kept me from the chronic effects of being burnt out. Again, it’s one relief that this is another side of life which is becoming increasingly common – and documented. One clear definition, published last year is from

https://augmentive.io/blog/adhd-burnout-adults

"Burnout was first coined as a term in the 1970s by an American psychologist called Herbert Freudenberger, who used it to describe the symptoms and feelings of the severe stress felt in professions which involved helping people, such as doctors and nurses. More modern studies have suggested that in the medical profession, turnover and absence due to sickness are some of the effects of burnout.

Today, the term burnout is used to refer to not only the stress felt within someone’s profession, but to describe the feeling and consequences of doing too much, or “burning the candle at both ends”, as the saying goes. This could mean doing too much physically or mentally.

Symptoms of burnout are unique to everyone; however you may notice general stress symptoms such as:

• Sleep problems • Trouble focusing • Stomach issues • Fatigue, both mental and physical • Becoming sick more often due to poor immune function • Headaches • Feelings similar to depression, such as worthlessness • A loss of interest in doing things you once enjoyed • Burnout can affect anyone, but those with ADHD may find it hits them with very specific symptoms."

Some final pivotal pieces of information which are not as widespread as they could be are - that those with ADHD do not necessarily have the same characteristics as one another. Particularly adults who have received late diagnoses. While the condition can lead to mental health struggles, not everyone is negative in outlook – it’s a common trait. Not everyone is taken by every passing squirrel, cat or bus while in a conversation they can’t focus upon – it’s the overstimulation from being too interested in many things which often distracts. Yes, ADHD is associated by creativity but the hyperfocus so widely connected to us, does not mean we can accomplish everything we attempt to create. Hence the knuckle-duster lesson of having a late diagnosis and trying to balance a creative side hustle (as promising as it may be) – and a physically demanding full-time job with overambitious; corporate-owned, ignorant employers. As liberating as it may be to find out that there’s a reason for why you’ve always felt like a square peg in a changing, morphing shaped space – is that so many are not clued up about what it all means.

To close, one inspirational point which has become clearer in recent years, since my aforementioned blog from September 2020 where I discussed balancing DJing, day jobs and ADHD; is the sharp connection between neurodivergent people and nightlife, particularly DJ culture. An upsurge in conferences, festivals and events drawing attention to; and discourse about neurodivergence, as well as marginalised social groups in music have occurred. Harold Heath, whose book “Lost Relationships: My Incredible Journey From Unknown DJ To Small-Time DJ” which has resonated with a great number of readers within the dance music community – is currently writing a book about this relationship between the dance floor and neurodivergence. In the past month, DJ Magazine published his article with recent findings.

https://djmag.com/features/why-are-there-so-many-neurodivergent-people-electronic-music

I anticipate the extra reading to come, once the book is published – it was great to meet Harold, his wife and a number of DJs speaking about marginalisation at last month’s Liberty Festival in Croydon. Thanks to Ifeoluwa and the Intervention crew for organising the discussion.

As a parting shot, I have to focus on the sublime and absurdity of life, as inspired by Irvine Welsh, Danny Boyle and John Hodge, as stated in Trainspotting and adapted in Trainspotting 2.

Choose life.

Choose your own type of life.

Choose being a hermit.

Choose being a social butterfly.

Choose being relaxed about everything, or full of energy - depending on what day it is.

Choose fitness and wellness.

Choose drinking and drugs to mask your own self-loathing.

Choose jumping between social groups in trying to fit in, but feeling that it’ll never really happen.

Choose relationships which won’t last because – they never do. Do they?

Choose late nights.

Choose dancefloors with other alternative types of people who may or may not feel the same as you.

Choose trying to act a little bit like someone else successful whom you’ve worked with, because if it worked for them – why can’t it work for you?

Choose all the personal project ideas which come to you until you run out of steam with each one - and move on to the next.

Choose trying to find the forever happy job where you are always progressing.

Choose low-paid jobs to make up for your inability to sustain the burnout.

Choose smiling bravely, as you always have - because you can get through all of this.

Choose the cycle of thinking that you're not worth it, then taking your time to rebuild your confidence so that you think you are worth it again.

Choose working as hard as you can, again and again and again - until you burn out. Again and again and again.

And then revisit all the times in your life where nothing made sense, other than you have this diagnosis – which makes you feel slightly better, but not all the time.

Choose ADHD. Choose life.

#adhd #adhd awareness #mental health #neurodivergence #burnout #autism #anxiety #depression #dyslexia #suicide prevention #dj life #dancefloor #nightclubbing #marginalisation #late diagnosed adhd #work with adhd

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a-moth-to-the-light · 1 year

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Journal Dump!

Finals ended over a week ago for me, but somehow I'm still feeling the effects (honestly, they're only getting worse). I think about writing for Tumblr a lot--it brings me so much joy!--but fatigue and muscle pain are reaching absolutely ridiculous levels for me, making writing difficult. I think this is because when I get started writing, I feel so wonderful and at peace that I can't imagine stopping, leading to levels of exertion that really aren't good for me. But I also really want to write, so I'm trying to be more careful about that :)

So for today, I'm just going to share some stuff I've jotted down in my personal Discord server over the past few weeks, mostly in my now-just-vents channel, which I use as a diary that I just update whenever I feel like it. I thought these were kind of cool when I looked back at them, so I hope you'll enjoy :)

1. TBL Quotes

So I've mentioned that I'm an avid reader of TheBiasList before, and I'm sure other fans will recognize that in certain elements of my style. I always love Best Of lists, and Nick's Best Songs of 2022 list featured some particulary lovely writing. Nick's writing always gets the job done, but these sentences made me more emotional than they had any right to, which was unexpected and very welcome!

Maybe Forever 1 isn’t fireworks after all. Maybe it’s a confetti drop, flanked by confetti cannons. Whatever the case, there’s a lot to sweep up after the song has finished. Specks of multicolored paper, damp with tears of resilience and joy.

Replay feels deeply, its frayed nerves sewn into every beat.

[link to the entry I got these quotes from]

2. Reader Things

i highlight and sticky-note, yet rarely look back at the stickies i leave in books except to take them out. i suppose i annotate like the person i wish to be, one who combs through pages of annotations for his reading journal, which is full of pretty, aesthetic handwriting.

3. When Life Becomes Livable (cw suicidal ideation & fantasies)

and that's what i'm used to, isn't it? knowing that this can't last long, but that nothing can so i might as well just take what i can get, no matter the cost, before the curtains come down. i'm used to watching for the end, eagle-eyed. i'm used to resigning myself to all that is impossible to live with, all that makes me want to walk forever into the sea. i'm not used to security or livability, so i watch for the end and assume i will not live, even as it begins to dawn on me that i may.

4. Some People Just Don't Care About Trans Kids, and it Fills My Bones With Fear (cw: transphobia)

To Fox News: Do you know how badly I wish to be alive? Understand me.

This was in response to an article I don't have the strength to find, one of those ones about policies that will forcefully out kids to their parents if they disclose their identites at school... For someone as frequently suicidal as myself, this couple of sentences surprised me as I wrote them. But I keep rereading them, and they keep feeling so, so true. It's the new meds, maybe :)

5. Reflections on Life without Religion

But I have a reason to live and progress and reach for those holy moments where life, my own and that of others, feels valuable in a way that rings deep in my chest. I do it all for one who loves and admires and, I dare say, designed me--my past self. Intelligent design? Not always, but sometimes. Certainly sometimes. I do it for her.

If you're curious about my religious affiliantions (really, my lack thereof), I direct you to this post!

6. Ending with Fluffy Music Content

StayC's "Love Fool" reminds me the joy of saying, "I'm excited to see you!"

This song still hasn't become a classic for me--I mean, I just love so many StayC songs so much more--but I've definitely started to see what people see in it!

#thanks for joining me on this little trip through the past few weeks! it's time for me to go back to resting now :)#six keeps on running #personal writing #journaling #thebiaslist #agnostic

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oliverstrand · 2 years

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The Best Coffee Places In Phu Quoc That You Must Try

Good coffee is appreciated no matter where you are in the world. And if you ever get the opportunity to visit Phu Quoc, Vietnam on a Phu Quoc Express tour, there are many excellent places around the tropical island to get your caffeine.

From small bistros that serve artisanal coffee and specialty dishes to contemporary shops that provide mainstream, modern drinks, this place has something to suit the tastes and preferences of anyone. In this short article, you will get to learn all about the best coffee places Phu Quoc.

Rory’s Beach Bar

Phu Quoc is famous for its breathtaking beaches, so enjoying a nice drink while taking in the scenic, romantic view of the sea is a must for anyone visiting.

Rory’s Beach Bar is located right on the coast and thus provides an unobstructed view of the oceanic horizon. If you drop by the place at around 5 PM when the Sun is setting, I promise that you won’t ever feel like leaving at all.

A view of the sea-scape aside, the setting of the bar is also top-notch. Patrons are seated in an open-air deck. Tables are communal, which is excellent if you’re looking to make some new friends (the bar is frequented by foreign travelers a lot, so you won’t have much problems finding someone to talk to.)

Who knows, maybe you’ll find a group or another solo traveler to join in on that Phu Quoc Express VIP catamaran tour that you just booked!

And if you feel a bit introverted, the bar also has some lone beach chairs for you to catch the view in peace.

There is a bar section that’s pretty well-stocked. The menu consists of several kinds of cocktails, imported wines, beer on tap, and of course, local coffee. In terms of food, Rory’s Beach Bar has many types of fresh seafood and western dishes like salad and burgers.

Address is 118/10 Tran Hung Dao St., Long Beach.

Itaca Resto - Lounge

Itaca Resto - Lounge is one of the better choices out there for those who seek a relaxing atmosphere, a venue for small chats, or a nice setting for a romantic rendezvous.

If you hailed from a European or Mediterranean country, you will feel right at home here. Itaca Resto - Lounge was founded and is currently being managed by a Spanish expat, who was clearly attempting to bring a taste of Spain to Phu Quoc. The place is quite popular for its Mediterranean-style tapas.

The setting is quite stylish and seemingly geared towards night-time fun. A lounging area is set up on a courtyard, populated by white wooden furniture and cushioned seats. There’s a bar section that will supply you with a wide variety of drinks, including cocktails, alcoholic beverages (the sangrias here is A-class), soda, and coffee, too.

Notably, from 8 PM onward, there’s live music.

If you’re there for the food, there’s a separate dining section. You will find a rich selection of Western and Asian cuisine in the menu, but the majority of the recipes will have to do at least a little bit with Spain.

Buddy - Ice Cream & Info Café

Buddy - Ice Cream & Info Café is well-known among the local populace for being the place that serves the best ice cream and among the tastier coffee shops on the island. PhuQuocExpress also mentioned that it is one of the “must-visit” places on the island.

But the true offering it brings to visitors isn’t just excellent ice cream and nice coffee, the shop is located right across the ferry terminal. If you’ve booked a PhuQuocExpress ferry trip to the nearby islets or back to the mainland, you can visit Buddy and chill out while waiting for your ferry.

The whole shop is not exactly large. It fits compactly around a street corner, but that doesn’t mean it’s cramped. Overall setting of the whole place is cozy and is, of course, kid-friendly. There are multiple tables and accompanying sunshades lined in front of the facades. Additionally, if the outside weather is a bit too blistering, there are a dozen tables inside of the shop. And if you’re feeling up to it, there’s a rooftop lounge, too.

You can call you drinks and ice cream from the bar.

Other than coffee and ice cream, Buddy is the place to drop by if you’re a newcomer to the island and doesn’t know what to do and where to go. The owners have transformed the place into a tourist guidance center. You will find info boards for trips, sights, and other important touristy information that you’re going to need in order to take full advantage of your stay.

And if you have any questions, the owners and staff are known to be very friendly and helpful.

All in all, if you’ve booked a ferry trip like the Phu Quoc Express VIP catamaran package, for example, drop by before you go. You won’t regret it!

The address for Buddy - Ice Cream & Info Café is 149 Tran Hung Dao St.

Alanis Coffee Deli

Alanis Coffee Deli has less of a chic-style aesthetic like Buddy and other cafés on this list. Instead, it resembles a contemporary, coworking space atmosphere with glass windows and modern, sleek-looking furniture.

The coffee is excellent here and you can either order to go or stay behind for a bit and enjoy your drink in the refreshing space. According to many reviews, the almond espresso here is the best in the whole menu. If you don’t stay close to the café, definitely try it before you go.

For those of you whose lodgings are near, Alanis also serves excellent breakfast and dessert (the banana pancakes are to die for.) In fact, people seem to be fonder of the food here than the coffee.

Conclusion

Of course, there are plenty more coffee places worth visiting on the island, but these are the best, according to professional sources from PhuQuocExpress. Give these locales a visit, and since virtually all of these places are hotspots for tourists, the staff there are ready to answer any of the questions you may have. Ask them for more info about places worth going and soon you won’t even need info boards or guides to know where to head to next!

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the-storming-sea · 3 years

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For prompts: Todoroki using every single Toshi-Izuku interaction to add to his "Izuku is All Might's secret love child' conspiracy board

Tfw its been like two to three days but Many Things have happened in that time. Oops

Uh, anyways–

"Dude. What. The. Fuck."

Sero, Kirishima, and Yaoyorozu stared, wide-eyed and nearly slack-jawed from the futon they currently sat at. Across from them, hanging off the wall was a large pinboard, polaroid pictures and newspapers articles with certain words and pictures circled in with bright red marker tacked onto different places, red string connecting each and every single one of those pictures together.

And in front of that pinboard stood Todoroki Shouto, one of the most powerful students at UA, son of the current Number One Hero, wide-eyed and wild-haired and probably, by definition, out of his fucking mind.

"Listen. I'm not crazy–"

"Literally everything that's happening now is providing evidence to the contrary."

"–but All Might is Midoriya's father."

"That's." Kirishima blinked, once, his brain attempting to process what his classmate was saying. "What?"

"All Might. Is. Midoriya's. Father," Todoroki said, slower, like he was trying to explain quantum physics to a toddler. Or to anyone.

"Todoroki, All Might's never been in a public relationship before," Yaoyorozu replied, slower. Of all of Todoroki's eccentricities, this had to be the weirdest one yet. "Not to mention, all of All Might's speculated relationships have been with men."

"Then at least one of his partners is trans, or he's trans!"

"They don't even look the same!"

"Then Midoriya gets his looks from his mother! They have the same quirk! They practically act the same!" Todoroki threw his hands up in exasperation, frost creeping on the side of his fingers. "I'm still right!"

"Bro, you've met Midoriya's mother."

"Artificial insemination! Adoption! Again, secret love child!"

Todoroki slapped his hand on the board, slightly burning the edges of one of the newspaper clippings. "Look, see here," he said, pointing to the clipping. Kirishima tentatively walked up, squinting at the headline. "Read this."

"'Mystery Samaritans Found Cleaning Up Takoba Beach.'" Kirishima frowned. "So?"

Sero's eyes brightened. "Oh, I remember that! I used to go to the beach all the time with my family," he said. "What's that gotta do with anything?"

"Look at this photo!"

Kirishima turned his eyes towards the photo, frowning. His eyes widened in shock.

"Holy shit, is that Midoriya?"

"Huh, so it is," Yaoyorozu said. "And...is that...?"

"YES!" Todoroki exclaimed, once again slapping his hand on the pinboard and startling his friends. "All Might, as he currently looks now, and Midoriya found at Takoba beach a full year before the school year starts. That means they knew each other before the school year started!"

"You repeated yourself."

"I know I know I know but why," Todoroki pressed, taking a deep breath, "why would All Might, in his weakened state before Kamino, be seen with Midoriya unless...unless that was his secret son."

He clapped his hands together just as he was finishing his point, clearly pleased by his argument. The three stared back at him, slightly alarmed.

"Or...maybe he just met him recently and they decided to clean the beach together," Yaoyorozu said tentatively. "It could happen."

"Or, or they decided to train for Midoriya's UA Exam together by lifting appliances at the beach! Or working out around the beach a year before!" he protested. "My father used to make me train by lifting up heavy objects ten times my size and pushing my quirk before the UA exam too!"

Sero frowned. "Todo, I know good parenting is a foreign concept to you, but comparing your relationship with your dad to Midoriya and All Might maybe isn't the best of ideas."

"I'm pretty sure Iida used to train with his hero brother in a very normal way," Todoroki nearly fucking pouted. The guy was really fired up– metaphorically and a little bit literally, judging by his floor. "But, but anyway, what I'm trying to say was that All Might, trying to make sure Midoriya would be strong enough for the entrance exam, made him clean up the beach because he was helping to train his son!"

Kirishima stared at him. "Bro."

"I'm right! Not to mention, why would he be in his thinner state around Midoriya if he wasn't his son?!"

"Maybe he told him about the weakened form back then by accident?" Sero said. "Todoroki, seriously. You're looking too deep into this."

"I agree," Yaoyorozu said. She loved her friend, truly, but as good as it was for Todoroki to exhibit any other emotion besides confusion and rage, this couldn't be healthy for him.

Todoroki groaned. "Okay, okay, fine. Exhibit B!" He pointed to a picture of All Might and Midoriya walking into All Might's office. "They eat lunch together! Who does that with a teacher?!"

Kirishima hummed. "Okay, I'll give you that one," he said, looking back at the others. "You gotta admit, that is a little suspicious."

"You forget, Midoriya broke his bones a lot at the beginning of the year just by activating his quirk," Yaoyorozu said, calmly. "As the Heroics teacher, All Might would want to make sure they can find a way for Midoriya to improve his quirk use without breaking his bones, so it would make sense for All Might to meet up with Midoriya out of class."

"But why continuously?!" Todoroki pressed. "Even after Midoriya got a handle of his quirk?!"

Yaoyorozu frowned. "Well, Bakugo meets with them now. Is Bakugo All Might's son too?"

"Details, details," Todoroki said with a wave of his hand. "Bakugo's practically Midoirya's boyfriend anyways. All Might probably wants to vet him or something."

"Somehow I believe that less than your 'All Might is Midoriya's dad' theory."

"They're going to get together, just you wait," Todoroki said. "Anyways, back to business. It's not just at school too! Even now that we're in the dorms, lately All Might will eat with Midoriya, alone, just the two of them!"

He pointed to another picture of Midoriya and All Might eating meat buns on a bench, no one else in sight, lightly chatting. "See! It would make sense if All Might ate with any one of us, or if there was a bigger crowd, but it's just those two! That's a normal parenting thing, right?"

"Dude how did you even get that picture."

"Irrelevant."

Yaoyorozu ran her eyes over the full board again, wincing internally. As...off-putting as her friend's efforts were, he did have a point. All Might's actions towards Midoriya were unprecedented of a teacher, Aizawa would certainly never be caught dead with any of them. And sure, they simply could be good friends who met a little before the Takoba news article picture, friends could be of all ages after all, but with the way All Might treated Midoriya daily, it was getting more and more likely that Todoroki's theory was correct. Which had some very interesting implications and also a media shitstorm on its way if it was true.

"And," Todoroki continued, now rambling as fast as Midoriya was, "did you know that All Might visited the Midoriya's to talk about the dorm system alone?"

Kirishima's mouth dropped. "Seriously?"

Todoroki nodded, eyes wide and a small smile on his face. "Aizawa-sensei told us himself back when he asked my father if I could stay in the dorms! My father asked where All Might was and Aizawa-sensei told him that they split up right before the Midoriya's!"

Sero's eyes widened. "Okay, I will admit that that's weird."

"I know right?!" Todoroki exclaimed, out of breath and restlessly pacing the floor. "Not only that, but All Might was one of the first people Midoriya texted right after he got his hero license. And Midoriya ended up interning with a hero who All Might knows directly and worked with Nighteye during his work-study who's All Might's only sidekick! And then Midoriya was invited personally to I-Island by All Might! And–"

Knock knock.

The group froze.

"Young Todoroki? Can I speak with you?"

Fuck.

Todoroki tentatively walked over to his door, opening it just enough to find All Might standing behind it, a worried expression on his face. "Are you all alright? The kids downstairs reported a lot of yelling, and I think you may have frozen and burnt through your floor?"

Todoroki looked back at his floor, which now looked slightly more like the training room back home than it did his dorm room. "Right. I can pay for that."

"No need my boy, just make sure it doesn't happen again or I think Aizawa'll have all of our heads," All Might chuckled. He then frowned, slightly opening the door more. "What on Earth is that?"

His eyes were pointed directly behind Todoroki, to the pinboard the high schooler had been deliriously gesturing towards for the past few minutes. Kirishima, Sero, and Yaoyorozu stared at each other awkwardly, shuffling their feet.

"Um...well, y'see–"

"All Might, is Midoriya your illegitimate child?"

The air paused. Everyone turned their eyes to the teen.

All Might blinked. "I'm sorry...what?"

WHAT THE FUCK, TODOROKI?!

"Todoroki, bro, you can't just ask shit like that!" Kirishima exclaimed, who now, like the many people around him, was going through all the stages of grief. "That's not one of those things you can just ask people!"

Todoroki tilted his head. "I asked Midoriya."

"YOU ASKED MIDORIYA?!"

"I–"

The kids now directed their attention back to All Might, who had managed to shake himself out of his stupor and somehow made his way to the pinboard. "I'm not...young Todoroki, believe me when I say I'm 100% sure I'm not Midoriya's biological father," he said, rapidly glancing back and forth from the board to Todoroki. "As...creepily impressive as this is," he continued, gesturing to the entirety of the board, "I've never had a child, and besides, young Midoriya's biological father works overseas, in America."

He pointed to the slightly burnt newspaper clipping of Takoba beach, looking back at Todoroki. "Is this about the Takoba beach cleaning?"

Todoroki nodded.

"Huh." All Might turned to the clipping, a strange, soft, thoughtful look on his face. "I didn't know they did a report about it." He turned back to Todoroki. "May I keep this?"

Todoroki nodded again, even slower, and a delighted smile appeared on All Might's face. The four students watched with wide eyes as he took the newspaper clipping in one hand and the pin in between his other fingers, gently lifting the pin from where it had been embedded in the pin board, lifting the newspaper clipping from its place, and placing the pin back where he had found it. Seconds passed. All Might rubbing his thumb over the picture in the newspaper with a soft chuckle. He then gently folded it, each crease careful not to tear the newspaper apart, before placing it in the pocket of his tracksuit.

Then, as if he remembered that there were other people in the room, he turned to Todoroki. "Ah, Aizawa-kun said that you had redecorated your room yourself, yes?"

Todoroki nodded, still stunned. "Perfect! The bots will be up here in a few minutes or so to repair your floor, and then refurbish your room any way you see fit." All Might clapped his hands together, a bright smile on his face. "Just try not to do it as much, alright? And please stop stalking young Midoriya and I. I don't know how many times I can catch you in the act before telling him that one of his best friend's have been stalking us to obtain proof of our non-existant biological relationship."

"You saw me?"

"Young Todoroki, I've been the number one hero for three and a half decades."

"Oh." Todoroki frowned. "Sorry."

"Just don't let it happen again, please." All Might took a heavy sigh before finally addressing the others in the room. "Young Kirishima, Yaoyorozu, and Sero, I'll be seeing you in class tomorrow. Plus Ultra!"

"See you!"

"See you tomorrow All Might!"

All Might left the room, closing the door behind him, leaving Todoroki, Kirishima, Sero, and Yaoyorozu in the room, waiting for the repair bots to arrive, silent and bewildered with what had just transpired in the past ten minutes. The four of them couldn't move, only the sound of breathing being proof that any of them were even alive. After what felt like several, long, painstaking seconds, Todoroki turned to his friends.

"Y'know, All Might worked in America for a while."

"FOR GOD'S SAKE, TODOROKI."

#thestormingsea posts #yagi toshinori #toshinori yagi #all might #bnha #todoroki shouto #shouto todoroki #dad might #mentioned midoriya izuku #mentioned izuku midoriya #mentioned deku #he doesn't take a part in this story but just in case ig #and then kirishima sero and yaoyorozu are here but they don't do much

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