so much antisemitism comes from pop culture insisting being jewish is JUST a religion and you can’t convince me otherwise.

Donors Wanted - Chris Motionless Teaser and Masterlist

@talialovesmiw

“Listen, I know I sound absolutely fucking insane but I really need you to do this, please. I wouldn’t ask you, or risk outing them and you going against them. Rick means a lot to me, his friend and leader means a lot to me and if we can’t get him a donor then he will die within the next two days. Even if you only help until we can find him another one I would owe you, please.” My roommate Sierra begs, staring right into my eyes with her own brown ones, looking like she is ready to cry.

“So you want me to donate… sorry, let a vampire, which I didn’t think even existed, to drink from me because he would die if I don’t? One, why me? Two, if he's that close to death, what is stopping them from just taking a random person for him to feed from, isn’t that exactly what vampires do? And three, a fucking website? I have to sign up to donate through a website like what the hell?” I let out a sigh, brushing my hair back into a messy bun to get it out of my face while glaring at her as I took a seat on the couch.

“It’s you because I know that I can trust you not to out them, and I know you love to help people so if I could convince anyone to do it then I know it would be you. And they don’t just drink from anyone who isn’t willing to donate, that is their whole thing, and why they do the website. They don’t want to hurt or kill anyone despite the fact that it is accepted and normal in their culture. Hell, some others are upset that they do things this way, that they have a weird private network for this. Listen, I know this sounds crazy but they are a great group of people, Chris is one of the best people I have ever met despite the fact that he is a vampire, I wouldn’t ask you this if it wasn’t an emergency, please?” This time I can tell she is serious, looking like she is ready to cry and it is enough to make me let out a sigh, relenting.

“Only until they can find someone else, that’s it,” I say softly, not meeting her eyes. “Where do I go for this,” I say with a sigh of defeat.

Suddenly there are arms around me, her giving me the biggest smile that I have ever seen her have. “Thank you, I’m serious, thank you for this. They’re all going to appreciate this so much, I’ll tell Rick you are filling out the form online and he can accept it right away, get Chris here tonight so we can help him.”

My phone is taken from my hand as she quickly pulls something up, handing me a survey to fill out asking my name, ethnicity, blood type, any blood disorders, etc. I fill it out with a sigh, wanting to just get this done and over with, not honestly sure what I just walked into, before turning to Sierra with a defeated look to tell her I am done.

Seconds later I got a match approval notification and she turns to look at me again with a smile on her face. “Thank you, thank you so much. Rick asked if they can come over after nightfall and we can help Chris, is that okay?”

“I-I guess, if that is what is needed then I will do it. You’re lucky I trust you when you said that he’s a great guy because I really don’t know how to feel about this,” I say with a groan. “I’m going to go take a shower because I doubt I’ll have energy later.”

“Thank you, I’ll text him and let him know that Chris can come over later. I swear when you see how sickly he is you’ll understand why I am so desperate for this. This means way more to me than you would understand,” she says softly, moving to give me another hug that I shrug off before making my way into the bathroom.

As I settle into my hot shower I wonder what the hell I just got myself into, why I agreed to this. Hopefully this doesn’t bite me in the ass.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Jesus you are a really bad person. You're 23 and acting like this. "You think I don't face discrimination because my skin is pale?" I don't, actually. Imagine being this out of touch that you would complain about the police not enacting action on your behalf angainst a person of color and then say you suffer from being white. Disgusting.

Why are you trying to silence my own struggles as a eaterns european in western europe? Do you live in a social bubble? When you people think of romanian you think of stealing wallets jokes, of beggars, of scammers. Westeners refuse to employ me and my people or take us seriously just because of our nationality. Or they employ us, and they pay uq just the bare minimum for overwork, this is what happened with my mother. Human trafficking happens, they take tomanians, don’t allow them a place to sleep, and have them sleeping on building sites and work non stop! And this is just the tip of the iceberg you dipshit. So again, who are you to silence my own experiences?

Just shut up. (« BaD pErSoN » my ass.)

Oh wait you’re talking about my neighbours

THE ONES THAT KEEP ME AWAKE AT MIDNIGHT, what if I also start playing music so loud people can’t sleep? Or talk so loudly i others hear me?

I tried 3 times to tell her « ma’am, this is an old building, the isolation isn’t that great so could you speak less loudly? »

Not to mention i was studying for my last bachelors exams and she made it more difficult

Why are you on anon? Come on, show yourself otherwise you’re just a clown that doesn’t deserve any attention, don’t just play the twitter idiot

3 years ago I had noisy neighbours with kids making noise at night from running inside the house, of course we fucking complained to the police for that and ofc they got moved, but you know what?! They were also romanians. If you’re noisy and have a nasty personality i’m going to complain abt you no matter your ethnicity or skin color. Get that inside your head for once

Why did i have to wait 2 months to call the police? Why did i have to have that patience if i wasn’t trying to be an understanding person? 2 whole months, noise every night and i accepted that but everything has its limit

Our neighbour that lives in front of us is a muslim man, we have another poc neighbour on the 1st floor. But they are nice people, they don’t scream and we always chat when we cross paths. All the apartments are occupied, everyone has their own life so why am I to suffer from someone who just doesn’t know how to modulate her voice past bedtime?

I wish you this kind of neighbours if you’re so understanding, I’m not, I’m a tired person after being at university 10h (and 2 for transit). If i’m home I want silence, not to hear my neighbour’s screams and music at 10-11pm and midnight. Get it inside youe head

You’re annoying stupid anon

Here’s an article in case you’re capable of reading (you’ve proven you aren’t but let’s be hopeful)

And ofc a wiki page that has even more sources

So uh, just to reiterate:

Anti-tulpa doesn’t inherently mean anti-endo. We aren’t upset at the existence of headmates that we’re carefully willed into existence, we are mad about using terms that were plucked from cultures that require dedication to a lifestyle.

I considered myself a Buddhist until I realized that I don’t feel fully thrown into it, and so I backed off from that label and instead I say that there are particular theological ideas in Buddhism that I agree with.

(Before you ask, the agreement that comes to mind is the topic of The Three Poisons. But that’s unrelated to the topic.)

While Buddhism as a whole isn’t necessarily a closed practice, Tibetan Buddhism is heavily linked to ethnic culture. Taking something out of a culture without proper respect to that culture is appropriative. If you took a medicine wheel from Natives and says “it’s just like this concept” while no paying respect to what you compared, it disrespects a culture.

My white ass can only say so much before I tread into the territory of taking away from the voices of SEAsains who understand the culture better than I ever could, so I’ll leave that point where it is and move onto my second and much more broad point.

Asking for a rebranding to something that makes others feel safer and at home within the plural community isn’t fascism. Sorry hun, it’s not. Please explain to me how it is fascist to ask someone to reword something for the sake of others’ comfort. If anything, it sounds fucking selfish to kick and scream at the idea that your favorite word to say is more important than the feelings of marginalized people.

Fascists don’t ask over and over to please use different words. Fascists co-opt cultures that don’t belong to them, because they don’t care about the feelings of others.

Furthermore, using the word “fascist” to try and shut down a conflict doesn’t solve the conflict, especially one like this. It slowly destroys the meaning of the word and stunts any possible cooperation and communication that could be had.

I am unabashedly pro-endo, as I’ve studied experiences in my undergrad that do not fall under the traumagenic section of systemhood. The vast number of these experiences are either loose interpretations of major religious experiences (possession by a Saint by sleeping in a Catholic building) or from the assortment of closed cultures across the world that have little info available to the public, such as Haitian Vodou’s concept of ritual mounting.

(If there are things I’m missing with these examples please feel free to educate me a bit more. Much of my understanding is limited by closed culture and so I try not to detail too much because I’d rather not step on toes.)

The idea of permanent or temporary systemhood is visible within religious and secular culture across the globe. That being said, white people should not be taking things from other cultures without permission. We’ve already done enough imperialism.

If someone wishes to share their culture with the world, that should be their choice to make.

Your rant about fate is just so so true. As a show I enjoyed it as much as I could any basic Netflix show but as an adaptation it was a massive failure. I know you didn’t talk abt Musas white washing but to me even after all these years is still so icky to me. I know the excuse that the actress is apparently 1/8th singaporean is what is used to justify the casting? But still she is white passing and also lmao singaporean is a nationality not an ethnicity💀 the country is literally called multiracial because there is no fixed race. But honestly as a girl in Asia who is of Chinese ethnicity, the casting really was a big blow to me. Musa was the first ever character i saw on screen who looked like me and from the beginning she was my favourite. I feel like the fate writers didn’t realise how many problems and complaints they could have solved with racially accurate casting. They could have gotten away with the trashy magic system if the cast was somewhat accurate. The white writers obviously don’t get the cultural impact Musa had as a character and how important she was to so many little girls who grew up watching winx (every person I’ve asked who grew up watching winx have told me that as a young Asian child their fav was Musa) U can tell this disregard from the way her dolls (and tecnas) are always underproduced and how she mainly is a China exclusive doll anyway. Netflix has shown with their avatar last air bender casting that they have connections and outreach to gorgeous Asian women so nothing can tell me that they were incapable of casting a fully or even half Chinese/ Asian actress. I can’t tell if it’s because the actress they casted for Musa was that phenomenal in auditions or that the “Chinese appearance” didn’t fit their “aesthetic” for a magical British school. I sincerely hope iginio didn’t have a say in casting for fate if not I’ll be so disappointed and I hope that in the future live action reboot of winx/ Live action movies, racially accurate casting will be a priority for the whole cast. Representation was really what gave winx an edge for an early 2000s show and it’s a pity and ironic that it’s newer adaptation is more regressive than its older counterpart

I did mention very quickly that I hate the fact that she was white washed cause, it was VERY obvious that she was supposed to be Chinese. Her parents names in the original dub are Ho-Boe and Wa-Nin, we see her wearing qipaos and other Chinese inspired pieces of clothing and Melody is very much inspired by China.

It’s different but as a latina I was furious about Flora’s whitewashing. Getting to see a latina-coded character that wasn’t the ‘spicy latina’ or portrayed as stupid or impulsive or shallow or any other latinix stereotypes I constantly saw growing up was priceless and it was just… tossed out. And I don’t count season 2 Flora cause we all know they only included her as an attempt to save their asses and didn’t even give her a coherent plotline.

It just sucks to have that iconic representation just… not be there

That little ass comment box and it’s limits on the length I can type is driving me nuts. Let’s do this on a clean post 🙃.

@khalif-horton

I don’t know Yvette Carnell like that; I only know of her looking for a gold sticker for whatever she’s doing/done and being a leader of an organization. I’m not in search of a leader. I’m firm on lineage-based federal and state reparations for Black Americans (preferably federal before states), an Anti-Black Hate Crime bill and data disaggregation. Lineage-based because our ancestors built the United States through forced chattel labor that others immigrated to, and you can’t do anything to benefit one race (so they say 🙃) because it violates the 14th amendment.

Data disaggregation makes things clearer in wealth disparity amongst other things, but also for anyone having that strange identity crisis as to who they truly are simply because they were born in the United States. This is why lineage matters. I can’t be me while they’re being me and them simultaneously. Hence the student union example. Disaggregation should’ve been done, but wasn’t as another layered undermining tactic. Heavy state and federal penalties needs to be attached with falsifying to simply garner whatever benefits and resources. You also won’t have shit like the likes of Rachel Dolezal and Mindy Kaling’s brother sliding through.

Racially Black people are different ethnic groups with distinct histories, cultures and the ancestral lands where our ancestors were ultimately rooted. We’ll prob disagree on that. You’re a Pan-African and I am not. 

Reparations is not for racism. It’s a debt owed. But I also want genocide and theft in there which links to Jim Crow and it’s governmental sanctions, the bombing and torch of our businesses and towns that were kept desolate or turned into lakes, 15 million acres of land—including farmland and heirs property—stolen down to 1 million acres left, etc. People be out here passing around videos of Black Americans being exterminated by the slave patrol police like white people used to do with those postcards of lynching barbecues. It’s genocide. (It’s not lost on me it happens to other racially Black people who look like us.) 

Black Americans make up 50% of the homeless in our country, including our vets and those on Skid Row. Our median wealth is projected to be 0 by 2053. We have to advocate for us. Ain’t nobody coming to save us. People are just onlooking. Ain’t no UN coming despite us checking off every box per their definition of genocide:

Killing members of the group; 

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; 

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; 

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [black maternal mortality]

Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. [that child trafficking CPS that remove a child for any reason they choose and ASFA]

So, you don’t support a particular form of reparations, but you’ve been involved in reparations work for 2 years? What does that even mean?

CARICOM has their own reparations plan going to get what’s owed from that damn Queen and other countries that played a part in the enslavement and labor of their ancestors. The African Union has their own thing going for the Scramble for Africa. Black Americans will not survive without reparations and the country won’t survive without us. The government knows it. It’s spite. People know. So what do you support specifically as redress for Black Americans?

SN: What I mean by “racially” Black - We know race doesn’t exist, but is a caste here which people who immigrate or are born here via immigrants are funneled into by choice or not. Opposed to “Black” as an ethnicity, which some Black Americans still use like an ethnic group.  

And about that celebrate part you mentioned in your other comment. I’m doing it for the ancestors. Ancestors like Callie Guy House and Isaiah Dickerson been leading the way, like when they started The National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief Bounty and Pension Association in 1894. People like them were waking up other ancestors to be firm in knowing they were owed. A lot of Black Americans today have awakened while others are continuing to wake up. So I celebrate for the ancestors even if it’s small strides leading to bigger ones. 

Since I’m going to be a part time writer (lol) why don’t I make a story now instead of tomorrow? I’m restless currently. Let’s start with the basics, shall we?

꧂Ελευθερία, (Aeonian) Kingdom of expression and dance ꧁

Aeonian has many different kinds of terrain, ranging from breathtakingly beautiful grassy fields to dry, sweltering hot desserts. The monarchy that presided over Aeonian usually consists of only one leading royal, they are the ones who take care of the economy. As Aeonian has been plunged into countless wars, they have learned to adapt to violence, which is why outsiders know the kingdom as ‘Bloody rose’. Many people from many different cultures come to appreciate the beauty of Aeonian, and many more come to stay. But there are rules and regulations that must be followed, les you find yourself in a world of trouble.

Laws

Listen to the winds song, and the smell of autumn leaves and 𝑟𝑢𝑏𝑟𝑢𝑚 𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑢𝑚, a delicacy in Aeonian. Soldiers March to the gates of the Black pearl, preparing for a court session. The gods are watching over the land, and with their guidance justice will be executed. A felon is sitting in a high chair in front of the 𝑑𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛𝑎, awaiting trail. Suddenly, the wind is cold and harsh, racing past your ears as if it were trying to escape a horrible fate. A woman, dressed in gold and auburn attire, stands in the 𝑑𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛𝑎 staring directly at the defendant. You stare as well. Before you realize it, the trial is over and the man is being hauled off, into a dark, dark corner of the court room. Soon, the woman lets out a breath and stands, she makes her way to leave, but not before sending a glance in your way. You freeze. She’s beautiful, but-

Soon, nightfall is here. The City of lanterns soon glows a beautiful amber, the lights smile at the ground and a smile is given in return. You look around yourself, a variety of smells flow into your nostrils, fruits and vegetables and meat and sweet treats of all colors make your mouth water, the comforting sound of the townspeople chatting away sets a smile on your face as you walk down the street, humming quietly. 𝐴𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 and 𝑏𝑢𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑧 of all colors crawl and float across the city, croaking with delight at all the crumbs they seem to be finding. Here, the sky is clear and calm, no conflicts to see, and the background sounds are quiet and peaceful, no grudges to be held..Beautiful, isn’t it? Unity. Serenity. It almost puts you to sleep. You have to get to your home first for that. For now though, you can just stay here and enjoy the festivities.

Capitol

The capitol of Aeonian is a city called Serenity, a peaceful and relatively quiet place. When visiting, you will find it has a variety of flowers, trees, plants, soil, etc. It is a city of nature in all of it’s glory. It’s crimson déntro drákou petals dance in the wind like the dancers at the Ghost Hand Theater, who make a living off of gracefully swirling and spinning around the mahogany stage. At night, silver full moon lanterns are set off into the air in celebration of the new day, and new opportunities. Bring a few friends, and gaze into the navy blue sky of Serenity, city of flowers.

Customs

Customs in Aeonian honestly all depend on your ethnicity/race, so there aren’t a whole lot of dead-set rules, but there are some which should just be common sense to..anyone, really.

1. Never make copies of antiques/relics.

Making copies of antiques/relics is offensive to the original creator, and most everyone in Aeonian believes in the spirits of the deceased. There aren’t any legal repercussions for making copies, but if you start to notice strange things happening around you, do remember that you were warned…

2. Don’t tie your shoes in public

You know when you bend down to tie your shoes and your ass is in the air? Yea, well, in Aeonian that’s offensive. It basically means “kiss me through my asshole” which is..like, rude. So don’t do it. Of course, context also matters in situations like these.

3. Slurs/curse words/physical gestures of offense

…I don’t need to explain this one.

4. Slave trade

Slaves are not permitted in Aeonian under any circumstances. If you are caught with a slave or if you are caught trying to trade a slave for something/trying to trade something for a slave, it is immediate jail time. There won’t even be a trial, just straight to jail.

5. Murder

The act of taking another life is unforgivable. You will be taken straight to jail.

6. Exploitation of another person

Any kind of exploitation to another individual is, once again, unforgivable. You will not have a trial for this.

Language

The official language of Aeonian is ⎐⏃⏁⋏-☍⎍⋏⋏⎍⌇⏁⏃

A= ⏃

B= ⏚

C= ☊

D=⎅

E=⟒

F=⎎

G=☌

H=⊑

I=⟊

J=⟟

K=☍

L=⌰

M=⋔

N=⋏

O=⍜

P=⌿

Q=⍾

R=⍀

S=⌇

T=⏁

U=⎍

V=⎐

W=⍙

X=⌖

Y=⊬

Z=⋉

Masc= ꏝ

Fem= ꐟ

Basically, you just put sounds together to make words. Like ⌇⏃⍾ (saw-quh) means door and ⏁☍⌰ (tuh-kull) means hair. It’s hard to understand if you are not a native speaker.

Yeah, that’s it. Constructive criticism? Thoughts? I feel as if my writing skills need to be brushed up a bit. (●ε●)ゝᶜⁱᵃᵒ

(quick note. this is a very long post. it sounds very rambly and shouty and angry. i promise that this entire thing has some sort of coherent message, you just need to make it to the end and maybe reread a few parts a few times. also i am writing this at 2am and am tired and hungry.)

sometimes i wonder if people can ever actually understand the words i say, what with my “melk” (milk), “bu’n” (button), and “p’tat’r tot hot dish” (potato casserole or whatever the fuck y’all weirdos call it) accent and the whole neurodivergency thing speaking faster than my mouth can move. like i’ll just be talkin to someone and thinking i’m making perfect sense but then i’ll realize, oh, what they’re hearing is not what i’m saying. they’re hearing “oh’yeh, dah jes’ fockin’ soks maen. g’ta use a fockin pair a’ ‘unoc’lars t’ see pass’ that bullshi’.” and it’s at like 20 miles per second so everything tumbles out overlapping. like dude i was in key west and i’d point to one of the street roosters (bc it’s florida and they have weird shit like that) and i’d be like “hey! wrist’r!” and i could just feel everyone lookin at me funny. sometimes i’ll forget to codeswitch to understandable english and i’ll say something to a teacher or someone and they’ll just be like. oh. you are not speaking properly. that’s not how we talk in schools. and they actually fuckin said that in elementary and shit! they didn’t let us say ain’t!!! OUR DISTRICT HAS A COLLECTIVE POPULATION OF 5 THOUSAND PEOPLE AND CONSISTS OF LIKE TEN TOWNS. MOST OF OUR AREA IS TILLED SOIL AND Y’ALL RLLY LOOK AT US AND GO “nah. y’all ain’t fuckn countryfolk speak proper” like GIRL THIS IS THE RURAL MIDWEST AND Y’ALL REALLY WANT US SPEAKIN THE QUEEN’s ENGLISH HUH. and honestly? i fuckin hate my school for making me talk in a city accent. i love my accent. i love that it has roots in the dirt around me like a linguistic fucking plant. i hate that my voice was pressed into this plain ass mold of an accent that the “city midwestern” voice is (iykyk, that shits the most monotone thing istfg). i hate that i spent my formative years suppressing the way i speak because i was taught that that was how the “dumb, uneducated, piss-poor rednecks” talk, which was so fucking rooted in classism that i can’t even begin to start. “oh, if you talk like a redneck you’re never gonna get a real job” like honey ok?? what if. hear me out here. what if we stopped letting classist motherfuckers who discriminate based on accents be in a position that manages who is or isn’t hired?? what if we. and this might sound totally fucking insane. what if we boycotted the companies that discriminate based on HOW YOU FUCKING SPEAK??? why do we fucking let shit like this happen??? why are we forcing our children, our future, to change such a fundamental part of their local and ethnic culture to fit the mold of today’s society instead of, oh, i don’t know, getting rid of the mold????

🚨 NHIE SPOILERS BELOW 🚨

first of all. that was a crazy ass season. so much happened and i can barely keep up or remember. so while this probably won't be a coherent or well worded recap, yhat defintely won't go over everything that i just watched for the past six hours, it'll just be my thoughts for now.

personally, i really liked the kamala plot and her struggle in the workplace. it was probably one of my favorite parts of the season. i'm not sure if kamala will be ditching prashant for mr. kulkarni but if she does i wouldn't be shocked. considering how prashant played into the whole workplace problem. also rip steve lol who remembers him. homie got done dirty.

now speaking of devi. there were many things she did this season that were not at all good or rational. however, i do like the fact that they delved more into her grief, and overall she actually seemed to develop over the season which made me happy. there are aspects of her grieving process that kinda felt unanswered, but hey, it is what it is. for what it's worth, im happy with the amount of growth she had over ten episodes. i actually felt like giving devi a hug so many times towards the end. and maitreyi killed it as always.

regarding the new kids! malcolm, well, i honestly kinda have intense apathy towards him as a character. he was cool at the start, a dick at the end—so yeah, i feel like he served his purpose overall. i felt extremely bad for oliver the entire time. and aneesa! she was the coolest addition they could honestly have had to the team. she's fun, charming, and fits in very well. i felt extreme sympathy for her ed and im glad they put a hotline at the end of those episodes. she's a great girl.

i'm very glad they gave paxton more of a well fleshed out personality this season. he seemed much more personable overall. although i felt like his episode at times fell a bit flat or felt too preachy regarding the whole hot people can be smart too concept, it was overall a fantastic episode and gigi hadid was a great choice as narrator. also loved the little switch to ben's pov when andy steps in. that was funny. i also liked the fact that they went into his ethnicity!

regarding his romantic feelings for devi though. i feel like i can't understand? like does he like her? does he not? is he embarassed of her? is he not? i failed to understand where he was most of the time. the mixed signals, like. paxton. i like you, but huh? well, to be fair, the romance in devi's life this season was pretty much a rollercoaster ride anyways so. i do love paxton's obijan though. great guy. we didn't get enough of rebecca though!

out of the two besties, i honestly liked fab's story a lot more. it felt relatable, that whole feeling of not being able to fit in as a new sapphic. and i adore fab and eve. i'm glad they didnt make their relationship too cookie cutter.

eleanor's subplot was alright. again, it was really hard to kinda, if i put this blatantly, give a fuck about malcolm and whatever their relationship was. (loved tyler alveraz's performance though) but i liked her talking with her stepmom sharon. i wish they spent more time on that rather than malcolm but again, they don't have much time to waste.

i loved nalini's subplots. all of them. she was honestly one of my fav characters this season, as well as devi's grandma. we got to delve into the indian culture more too, so that was very cool. her relationship with dr. jackson was also nice for the short time they had with each other. i didn't expect them to breakup, i kinda just expected devi to learn to be okay with her mother moving on, but then again, i also agree that it felt a little fast. i loved the flashbacks with mohan too.

i feel like i wanna save ben and benvi for last because i have too much to say. it was an absolute rollercoaster ride to be a team ben while watching this season. i'm a bit dissapointed that we didn't get any individual plot regarding him, stuff that didn't have to do with girls, but i get why. he got that in s1, and it was paxton's turn to shine.

regarding the whole ben and aneesa thing; honestly, i think they're cute. i love aneesa and i love ben. i just want him to be happy. but it's clear he still has feelings for devi and he doesn't really know what he wants, which sucks for everyone involved. i think that he just assumed that devi liked paxton more than him, that he was her second choice (which honestly, considering the things that transpired, it's not very hard to see why he though that, and he was clearly hurt with her clear choice of paxton over him on multiple occassions) but oh well.

i feel like ben was a catalyst for a lot of the things devi needed to do. like apologize to aneesa, for example. and in that way, they still work well. i loved their banter, whenever we got it. i have hope for them in season 3 (if it happens), considering the way they ended it, but eh. aneesa is also a great girl, so it sucks that this is the direction we're going. but yeah. i am a bit bitter with the dreadf lack of benvi i kinda got this season, but their conversations and the way he helped push her development did make me feel a little better.

as for what team i'm on or whatever, i don't feel like i'm avidly on any team tbh. i'm still lowkey rooting for ben and devi. the reason why i'm not completely getting behind daxton is because i didn't really like what paxton did in episode 10, with the whole not wanting them to be public thing. the entire season felt like he was sending mixed signals. not that i'm saying hes a shitty guy or anything, but yeah. and the reason i'm not completely team ben is because he seems to be teetering between aneesa and devi, so yes, again with the mixed signals. kind of. but the reason i'm still rooting for ben is because i really liked the way they pushed each other, or majorly, he pushed her development, with asking her to apologize, etc. and although him getting together with anessa was not a win for me, a benvi, to relish, i think it helped devi learn to act a little more mature and less territorial.

if i'm being completely honest, i think that devi needed to be single at the end of this season, at least for now. i read the synopsis of episode 10 and was kinda hoping that she'd make that choice, that she'd choose herself, because what she needs isn't a boyfriend. what she needs is just to recover. and i honestly still don't feel like she completely got over her dad's death.

OVERALL THOUGH. this was a much better season than the first one. i feel like they finally got into their groove in terms of acting and comedy. (also trent is the funniest >>>) although i felt like this season was kinda like the first one but on steroids, which at most times was very anxiety inducing to watch, i did like the episodes and i was heavily entertained. go watch it!

i also really need a season 3 so—

time for a history lesson kids

Iso anyway after 9 years of waiting (oh god) my dreams came true and hetalia finally has my country featured. And my first instinct is to draw a precolonial Philippines and then headcanon the shit out of it based on all my readings

i knew an Anthropology degree was gonna be useful someday

so anyway head canon history lesson time. gather round kids. I took this college program for a reason:

I feel like the recent Philippines would be born post 1565 after Miguel Lopez de Lagzpi. That boy must be a considered Mestizo ( mixed-race individuals, who were born from intermarriages of the Spaniards and merchants with the indigenous Filipino (Austronesian/Malay/Malayo-Polynesian) natives)

But let’s assume he is an Indio (who somehow lost all his tattoos?? oh well) then there’s an angsty and slightly badass headcanon that he actually killed absorbed all the other representatives from other tribes. they don’t die easily (unless harmed by economic struggles/or i guess hurt by fellow representatives) so it kinda explains the whole Bayani concept of undefeatable heroes. (we love our epics about heroes don’t we?)

That said! (our precolonial ancestors’ history is pretty badass tbh and very brutal. i wouldn’t put it past him to actually have killed all the other reps. We literally have a headhunting sport haha) let’s get on to the cultural aspects shall we?

I based most of this from the Boxer Codex’s illustrations which probably is centered around Visayas and Manila settlements for obvious reasons that they were found first. (they deteriorated first too :’) but since I’m from Visayas, the info i can give you are better off being in Visayas (also he has a tarsier lmao. mostly found in bohol. i hc him to be in Visayas. I’m sorry)

the obvious parts here are the tattoos which if you think looks kinda like the one in Moana, you’re right. it is (somewhat) we may also have descended from the same Austronesian ethnicity from Taiwan or China (most SEA countries did actually. there are many conflicting theories for this and most of you guys learned the Otley-Beyer’s wave migration theory WHICH IS WRONG PLEASE FORGET ABOUT THAT SHIT. IT’S VERY RACIST. something about calling negritos inferior because of the technology sits very wrong. throw that multi linear cultural evolution thoughts away and say fuck you to Morgan and Lewis and also say fuck you to DepEd for not changing it. anyway

the point is virgin Otley Beyer, chad Peter Bellwood. Listen to Austronesian Wave Migration theory (you’d find this evident in the way southeast asians to melanasia and pacific islanders share linguistic similarities. i can’t find that teletubbies salamat meme

but let’s talk about pre-col culture because I’m rambling now. everyone probably knows that tattoos are a symbol of social roles from your HEKASI lessons. they are the Pintados. It’s a sacred tradition where you earn them at every achievement. you start at your legs and trail up to your face. the ones on the chest that look like breastplates are awarded after you win a head from the head hunting (which yeah they think of the head as a holy place too so they eat it, thinking they’ll consume its holiness) the face tattoos are for the greatest warriors (and seeing he’s an immortal country, he would have face tattoos) different tribes have different patterns, but you usually either see snake patterns or sea patterns (thus the zigzag)

fun fact: cebuanos were very ruthless pirates haha. we are voyagers my dude. we devised long ranged boats way before sailing was a major thing. much like in moana. you can see traces of it in the traditional fishing boats with those braces on the side to keep balance. it’s cool. point is, water is a very large way of life. (i think you also earn a tattoo from sailing but I’m not sure)

the deep red dye is an honor given only to the bravest warriors. the longer your putong or headdress is,the braver you are. we also used gold like it was nothing. (magellan had to stop his crew from trading their stuff into gold haha) we used it everyday and even placed them in our teeth. (YES WE HAD DENTISTRY BACK THEN) our art and aesthetics believe in the pride of our bodies thus we decorate it, believing we are past primitive thoughts by modifying the human body. so we didn’t care about property, we cared about our appearance. we are also culturally expected to strut our new tattos and piercings with pride. speaking of piercings men and women were expected to pierce their ears and wear large ass earrings.

the precolonial cebuano is a showman (and we still are). you show off these accessories with finesse. you need to live the art. walk and make those golden bracelets jingle. so if you feel like being dramatic, that’s the spirit of your ancestors encouraging you to be dramatic hahaha

(funny enough the ye olden people thought the spanish were poor and backward for not ornamenting their bodies.only a monkey would have white teeth like that and undecorated skin! yeah love how we chismis like that way back then too)

one last side note. we wore cock rings/piercings too as status symbols okay bye

anyway I have more to talk about pre-col phippines. we haven’t touched gender roles (pre-col philippines would also be very chill about gayness and transwomen are even venerated into priestess positions. it’s all cool so pre-col philippines is definitely not cis haha and probably chill about not being straight yay indophil)

anyway yeah

Hey, I totally agree about Jesy, she goes way to far with her tanning, but what else would be considered her blackfishing? I remember the Salute tour visuals and the plt clothes (which was all of them), but has she done anything else?

i mean blackfishing goes beyond just tanning in general. but let’s take a look at jesy's :

for reference she is a fully white woman, and this is what she naturally look like vs what she looks like now

we’re definitely not talking about just a bit of tanning. note the very dark fake tan, bigger lips, and dark wet wig with edges that are not her culture

also notice how she has no problem being next to her black bandmate looking darker than her

now the thing is blackfishing is not just about tanning it can also be about making yourself look racially ambiguous (see ariana grande) and jesy has been so successful at it that most people think she’s mixed. here’s a few examples

you can totally see why people who don’t know her would think she isn’t white. still the dark tan, overlined lips, the wigs, the makeup, even her clothing....... now look at next picture

this is the most telling to me, not knowing her you’d never think she’s a white woman. you can still see what her real lips look like and they’re clearly four times bigger here. everything about the way she presents herself is made to look a different ethnicity it’s undeniable. also if you love black culture so much you might wanna start speaking up about racism and not let your traumatized black bandmate who’s still fighting to find her place do all the work but

now if anyone doubts that’s she’s just not aware of what she’s doing which, please she’s a grown ass white woman with all the access to education, you might remember this pic and the blacklash it caused.

here we have jessica wearing what she thinks are dreads. now if you weren’t here it was the only time i saw little mix fans calling out one of their multiple cultural appropriation. her comments were flooded with people asking her to delete the pic and apologize, even medias talked about it im sure you can still find articles. so seeing all of this what she did is......nothing. she never even acknowledged it and this pic is still on her instagram.

one thing i find very obvious too is the way unlike black people she can remove those features when she wants to, like the rare time she did here.

her skin is much lighter, her lips much thinner, her hair looks closer to her natural one. the interesting part is that this was on the day she promoted her documentary and needed to appeal to a different more family oriented audience.

do with that what you will, little mix have done cultural appropriation as a whole and perrie has done lots of it couple years ago but time’s not an excuse. i just kept it on jesy cause this is what the ask is about and she’s the one doing blackfishing to this day.

[disclaimer: while being mixed myself i am not black so if you are feel free to add more/correct me]

Macgyver 5x11 Thoughts

WARNINGS: LOTS of swearing. And a TED talk somewhere in there too... 

So. Here’s the thing. I’m over in the UK so I have to wait until Sat mornings to watch. This week I also had some work to get through first and total media blackout is obviously essential to avoid spoilers. After a three week wait and all the anticipation around this episode IT WAS FUCKING TORTURE. 

Then I watched it. Then I needed to digest it because… I mean, WHAT DID I JUST WATCH?!!

If it wasn’t clear before it fucking is now: THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF A WHOLE NEW ERA FOR MACGYVER.

The old guard is gone. And the new guard is officially hitting out of the fucking park.

Listen, when I was a kid, we were taught that being ‘inclusive’ meant not acknowledging race. Just the very fact that we’ve moved on from ‘I’m colour blind’ (with a shrug thrown in for good measure) to ‘I see you’ is such a powerful and important thing. The fact that we’re acknowledging people’s cultural, ethnic, nationalistic, sexual and gender DIFFERENCES is so fucking important because they are THERE. They are part of who we are, our essential makeup, our identity, and they inform how we interact with each other on an empathetic and human level. Acknowledging this kind of social discourse is a responsibility that should weigh heavily on the shoulders of everyone who creates creative content. Because the media we consume both REFLECTS AND INFORMS OUR CULTURE. 

Phew. Now. as for everything else...

To me, this episode is what happens when emotion and action combine to create a magical symbiosis that drives the plot. My heart was in my mouth for this entire episode. SO MUCH HAPPENED. When emotion is involved THE STAKES ARE ALWAYS RAISED. And absolutely every character had an emotion arc this episode:

Riley & Mac’s journey to resolve their issues and save lives (incl. each others)

Russ revealing a piece of himself to fight for his new family

Bozer juggling the pressure of dealing with 2 ops AND a snooty potential client

Desi getting distance AND getting into all kinds of shit and LOVING EVERY MOMENT

Even Matty (with limited opportunity for screen time) is struggling being away from her team.

This is why I’ve never really understood the ‘This is an action show, not a relationship show’ discourse. The relationships drive the story forward. If we don’t care about the character’s connection to each other, why should we give a shit about what happens to them?

This ep. had both heart and high-stakes action. EVERY character was involved and had something significant to do (even if it didn’t directly impact the main plot, it was significant to their overall development). 

Overall WTF moments, questions and lingering feelings:

WHAT was Desi collecting for Russ?! It GLOWED!!

Matty wasn’t just on a screen for this one. She shot an actual scene with another human and it was great 

Acting Director Bozer KILLED IT.  Still MVP.

PARKER. “Morning Bozer, great Jacket.” was all it took for me to LOVE her.

Russ. Complex backstory. YES.

Riley. Oh Riley. We all know feelings like that don’t just go away because you want them to. But she managed to hold her head high, call Mac out on some of his choices and remain in a good place with him moving forward. This bond is unbreakable, guys. AND DID YOU SEE HER FACE WHENEVER MAC MENTIONED FATHERS?!

Mac. Walls or doors? Doesn’t matter, dude. You still have some shit to figure out. He also had a lovely how did I not know you always listen to me moment. And a I can’t look her in the eye when she’s this close to me moment. Still a long way to go here but this is absolutely the right direction. The slower the burn, the bigger the payoff!! You mean the world to me. Just lovely. 

DESI IS A BADASS. She was out there kicking ass, getting into and out of all kinds of trouble and it reminded her what she loves her fucking job. And *NEWSFLASH* it’s not just because of Mac. 

The Maldives drinking water? Just. EXCELLENT TOUCH. Mic drop moment. 

I can’t wait to see what happens moving forward. And after all the upheaval, things ARE moving forward. 

Thank you for your time! <3

I think I figured out the problems in Roshani Chokshi and Sandhya Menon's books (as much as I love them, their Indian rep doesn't resonate with me as much as I'd hoped).

DISCLAIMER: not hating. There are valid issues that PoC face in foreign countries and I'm not trying to invalidate them. This is just an opinion

A little background first. Contrary to what you're shown in Hollywood movies, south asian countries are not a wasteland of forests and slums, but the situation isn't great, either.

Majority of the population is somewhere in the middle class rungs that often comes with a plethora of issues starting from academic pressure to feelings of guilt and anxiety over spending money on yourself. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. (Colonial trauma is a bitchy, vicious cycle).

It is a privilege to leave the country, to have enough money to live an entire ocean away. Not all of us will ever be able to do that so we'll have to deal with whatever shit is thrown in our faces by the society and government (the CAA/NRC act, privatization of govt institutions, the farmer bills that aren't actually pro-farmer, covering up atrocities in the most outlandish ways, controlling media houses so actual news never reaches common people, catering to billionaires, mismanaging the pandemic and opening your eyes only when you see the ashes).

Not to mention a lot of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) are wealthy, upper caste people, absolutely cloistered from the atrocities that occur everyday against marginalized communities.

So when I read books by Indian-American authors, my feelings are mixed. If they're set in historical times my anger is through the roof. Let's take an example.

Laila from The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi gave me immense joy at first for being beautiful, bold brown girl. But as I read further, my feelings started to grow more negative.

It's because of the way Chokshi did zero research on South Asian colonization of the British while waxing poetic about the tragic fates of her male characters. Laila is from Pondicherry, and the French colonized that place (we only get mentions of forests and magicians because apparently that's all there was in the 1800s, huh :))). We have no idea how she ended up in Paris, or how as an 18 year old brown girl she took up a job as a courtesan/sex worker (I don't have a problem with sex work, but I would like to know how she got that job and I would like to see her childhood and trauma explored. Okay, Severin gets pages of backstories about his fathers but his love interest doesn't?). She didn't have a surname first while everyone else did. And now, in the second book we move with the fact that we have zero ideas for her real name too. For a book that's about colonization, desi history gets ignored by the author, and instead Laila is sexualized af. I'd like to ask what's her role in the story beyond causing Severin angst, baking, reading objects for him, and being a generally sweet person? Chokshi keeps *telling* me that she isn't there for Severin and is her own person, but where's the proof? She has no backstory, no name, and no role beyond romance and smexy courtesan.

Like Wikipedia has a whole ass page. Wouldn't have taken much to just Google it all. And for an author of south asian ethnicity to ignore this, the way white historians do? Reeks of privilege.

Her MG series, The Pandava Quartet, is also set in America. A story.... about Hindu mythological legends... in America.... it was jarring to read, honestly. For once in my life I'd like to see something *not* being set in America. America is not the center of the world for crying out loud.

Same with Sandhya Menon's books. We'll leave out her twisted idea of feminism: gurls ruleeesss!! Boys droolzz. It was very obvious in When Dimple Met Rishi, with the way Dimple kept hitting and punching Rishi, and it was deemed as badass. All her boys have the same archetype: Love Interest Cameras.

Y'know, romance works with *two* characters, right? Two of them, each bringing something to the table for a healthy, balanced relationship that progresses slowly through various stages (because real life often isn't a Bollywood movie). Boys need to have good role models and a role beyond "hot, sexy love interest." Y'all have become the very thing you swore to destroy.

Wait, I derailed. Sorry.

Ahem. Back to the topic.

I shouldn't have been shocked, but I truly was while reading Menon's books. It just made me realize the privilege a lot of NRIs have and they don't even realize it.

Case in point: most of Menon's characters are all wealthy and loaded af, and that makes them extremely hard to relate to. They are disconnected from their culture, they don't speak any of the native languages, not even a little bit. The little mentions we got were so inaccurate, they made me grit my teeth and make a whole post about it. It feels as though she just slapped a south asian name on a white—I'm not even gonna call them characters—they're basically puppets for her romances (who tf kisses right into 3-4 chapters of a book, c'mon!).

I'd have expected such disconnect from a white author *side-eyes Cassandra Clare*, but not from someone of my own ethnicity. It was heartbreaking. I'm sorry if you don't agree but I had to get this off my chest

Again, BIPOC in foreign countries have issues that need to be examined, but we keep forgetting that most of them aren't in America. We're living in our countries, and there are a host of marginalized communities whose stories need to be heard, now more than ever.

I would like to say my piece here about schmico, grey’s anatomy, and the fandom and it’s really for my own self-indulgence and benefit. I’m not asking for you to agree with me or even begin to understand what I’m going on about. I don’t even think half the things that I think about for this fandom exists on an important level. I fully believe in just ~vibin’~ to your own tune when it comes to participating in fandom spaces.

so this post is gonna be my way of getting stuff off my chest so i can continue to ~vibe~

First thing I’d like to address is: I know. I know the Nico Kim that I love and adore is not the Nico Kim in canon. He is who I hope he is in canon. But there’s not much to combat or support that he is or isn’t. He really could be who we’ve made up in fanon for him and at the same time, he really couldn’t. Grey’s created this character that is as blank as a dried piece of toast. So forgive me if I spread a bit of spicy jam here and there so I can swallow this bland shit down a little easier. 

So when people come to me to say, “Y’all are delulu and out of your mind to love this guy this much.” PLEASE, I know. This isn’t news, honey. I am well aware.

But I will continue to justify, romanticize, and put this boy on a pedestal for as long as his existence in canon continues to remain arbitrary and vague. And it makes me very biased to a fault but I have put too much time and energy into this character NOT to be. 

And then you might ask, why have I put so much of my time and life (THREE YEARS!!!! I’VE BEEN IN THIS FANDOM FOR THREE YEARS!!!!!!!!!!) into this character that has all but said maybe like a PAGE of dialogue at most? 

Because I was conned into it. Because they marketed the shit out of him when Alex Landi got the part. And I, as a casual viewer of Grey’s since I was in high school (I’m in my late 20s now, dawg) and of Asian descent was promised representation. Not just Asian rep, but queer rep. 

So naturally, I got extremely attached. It's not everyday a major Western mainstream prime time medical drama chooses to create a character as unique as Nico's. 

I spent so much time here. I was here when fandom decided Nico would call Levi “babe”. I was here when we all clowned that Nico didn’t know Levi’s first name. I was here when Josh died and the fandom went up in arms with pitchforks and stakes against Nico. I was here for all of it. I've seen it all. 

And unfortunately, seeing it all, makes me tired. Grey’s is time and time again proving to me that they don’t give a shit about the development and well-being of their existing characters at all. The show only cares about collecting diversity points and performing their wokeness to the general masses. (I talk a lot about how grey's is plot-driven vs. character-driven.) 

I will still get frustrated and annoyed at Nico’s lack of character development. But I mostly just laugh at the fandom nowadays. I know you guys want to fight the fight, tell everyone Nico is not toxic!!!!!! But bros, friends, lovers, it’s a tried and tired fight. 

Grey’s wants us to think Nico is a Bad Boyfriend. It’s as clear as the stench one comes across when they step on dog shit. That’s why I think it’s useless to fight people about Nico. Grey’s gets amnesia all the time. Grey’s forgot the whole season and half they invested in creating a loving boyfriend for Levi and up and changed Nico’s personality to fit a new narrative (that they, quite frankly, failed to even follow through because of covid and other filming hoopla hula hoops they’ve had to jump through that I’ve been informed of and which I simply don’t care for). 

So all this ~schmico is endgame!!! we deserve it!!!~ Binches, I have better things to fight for than schmico endgame. What’s the alternative? Levi lives in Jo’s closet forever? They’re going to be together in the end no matter what. Nobody on that show cares enough about Nico OR Levi to set up new relationships and stories for them. So don’t fret, my friends. They’ll be together in the end. It just comes down to the question of what stupid story they’re going to come up with for them to be together. (And might I argue that they already are together???) 

Speaking of the bogus story they’re going to write for schmico: you bet my rice eating, Chinese-speaking ass, that it’s not going to be a story written from a queer and poc perspective. It’s going to be some gag-worthy straight het story but made gay. (How many times do I have to hear, "I hope Nico comes out to his parents!!" NO, HE DOESN'T! Do you know how VIOLENT coming out is sometimes?? It's not a solution to Nico's problems with Levi. It's an introduction and invitation to problems over being queer -- but why would I expect anyone, let alone Grey's, to understand that prepetuating these types of stories is inherently damaging to queer people? They wouldn't know. The cishet fandom wouldn't know. Because no one is writing grey's in a queer, poc centric way.)

Which drives me to the next point: you know why Nico doesn’t get character development even though he showed up at the same time as Link? Because of ✨racism ✨. Because Link is a more conventional character (read: white) that is easier to write because nobody on this show knows how to write an Asian character anymore, let alone a gay Asian character. So of course, nobody wants to touch that shit even with a pogo stick. (Argue with me that Cristina exists and I will tell you, yes she did, but they RARELY touched upon her cultural and ethnic background. Also it was the early 2000s. Cristina was as ground breaking as it got for us Asians back then.)

And then because Nico isn’t developed enough, we have the weird phenomenon of people shipping everyone and their dog with Levi and it’s like, y’all know you got played by the racism game, right? You are hostages to this system that has taught you that white men are more desirable and deserving of story and humanity than a poc character who is instead, reduced to nothing but sex appeal and if he’s not doing well on that front, then he’s useless.

How many times does Levi say: Nico is so hot! Sex with Nico is so good! He’s a roman statue!

All!! the!! time!! Nico's worth to Levi’s character is to be the sex object that Sets Him Free. 

Which plays into the sexualization of Asian people which all comes from, you guessed it! Racism! (Levi really compared Nico to a fucking lifeless slab of stone.)

(Side note: I do think talking about how racism plays into Nico’s character and the fandom space is important and probably a separate post. I’m happy to write my opinion piece on it if it’s something people want.) 

But anyway, those are just some of my qualms with schmico, grey’s anatomy, and the fandom. I do not expect anyone to fully agree with me and I’m not asking the fandom to change or apologize or whatever. I’m just already grateful if you took the time to even read this post. 

I’ll leave with some parting advice: fandom is what you make of it. We won’t all agree with everyone’s hot takes, but that’s the beauty of it, yeah? So I chose to create this version of Nico Kim that brings me IMMENSE joy. Like, A LOT!!! I love this fandom for these reasons. I’m grateful everyday for the friends I’ve made and the works and creations I’ve created and I’m honoured to be able to consume other works made by fellow fans. 

I might hate a lot of things about grey’s and schmico, but I really owe a lot of myself to this fandom. 

Kyidyl Explains Bones - Part 3

Well, I had this halfway done and then TUMBLR ATE IT, so let me start again.  UGH.  

(These posts are collected under the KyidylBones tag. Do with that information what you will, lol.) 

So what are we getting into today? Sex determination! 

Ethical Note: I’m adding this bc not everyone who sees this post saw my post yesterday and this is important info, especially on Tumblr.  Anthropologists of all stripes are well aware that sex and gender are extremely complicated.  Trust me, we know.  But we still do sex determination for a few reasons.  First, because missing persons databases are arranged on a male/female binary, and if we’re comparing a set of remains to that database to identify the remains then we need that info.  Second, demographic info for populations that have disappeared is important, even if those populations are historical.  This might shock you (<--sarcasm), but written records are usually either lacking or inaccurate.  Third, if we know the sex of the skeleton we can compare that to the grave goods and learn some interesting cultural things, including possibly being trans, because none of the signs of being trans survive physically in the skeleton.  So I am going to be using male/female binary language, but it isn’t to exclude the wide variety of sexes and genders that don’t exist on that binary, it’s because it’s what I’ve got to work with.  And if you have questions about this, feel free to ask, but please be respectful.  

Alright, so there are some vocab words for today’s post and I had them all nicely written out in an easy to read paragraph, but it got eaten, so I’m just gonna present them in list fashion this time: 

Characteristic - All physical markers of human variation exist on a spectrum because humans are varied and we invented the categories to begin with.  If something is characteristic of, say, a male? It means that it is very, very distinctly male.  It matches the stereotypical expectation of what you’d see in a male.  It’s a standard for an obvious example of a given thing.  

Landmark - A landmark on your bones is a feature of the bones that is always in the same place.  We use this to help us identify a bone and to help us know what side it is on.  IE, your lesser trochanter is a bump on your femur (thigh bone) that is on the inside towards the back.  It’s always in that spot, so we know which direction it should face and ergo which side it would be on.  Landmarks are unique to the bone in question.  

Foramen - A hole on a bone.  The big one in your skull that your spinal cord goes through is the foramen magnum and it literally means big hole.  But there are a lot of little ones all over your skeleton so your nerves and blood vessels can do to your skeleton what the weirwood did to Bryden Rivers.  I said what I said. ;) 

Bilateral - Both sides.  Humans have bilateral symmetry and so one side is symmetrical (externally and WRT your skeleton, but not always your organs.) to the other.  You can split us down the middle and the two sides are basically the same.  

Ok, so there’s another set of terms that you need to know, but I’m going to be copying and pasting this into every post going forward so I’m making it separate.  Anyone who works with any kind of anatomy uses these terms to be very specific about the location of something on the body.  They are: 

Anterior/Posterior - Front and back respectively.  I remember them because my mom used to say posterior when she didn’t want to say butt, and because A comes before P the way front comes before back.  Sometimes people say dorsal and ventral, and I remember that because a dorsal fin is on a whale’s back.  

Proximal/Distal - Near and far vertically in relationship to the center of your body.  I remember it because one end of the bone is in close proximity to me and the other one is distant.  

Medial/Lateral - Near and far horizontally in relationship to the center of your body.  I remember it because medial is closer to the middle of my body, and lateral isn’t medial.  Also, if you are reading left to right L comes before M and you’d get to a lateral body part before a medial one.  

So, where to begin? How do we know what sex people were assigned at birth from just their skeleton? Let’s start with what everyone is most familiar with: 

The Pelvis

The pelvis of an adult human is a really common thing for an archaeologist to find.  And by the time we find it, it’s usually in three pieces (excluding your tailbone aka last vertebra).  Your left and right hip bones, called the innominates, and your sacrum.  Mind you, the pelvis is made up of a number of bones, but they all fuse in adulthood except these three (fun fact: I’m so used to using the individual names for them that I had to *google* the word innominate.), so this is what we usually find.  If it’s a kid, they still survive well because they’re thick, heavy bones, but they aren’t fused.  Another fun fact, the bumps of bone that you feel under your ass are called your ischium and I’m only telling you that because I think it’s a fun word to say.  Your hop bones, like the actual entirety of the flat bladed part at the top, that’s called the Illium.  I like that word too.  Aaanyway, here’s a human pelvis: 

(Source)

These are actual bone specimens in the top down view, both are women, but they are of different ethnic origin.  

(Source)

This is a cast (IE, plastic), front view of a male pelvis.  

You can see those 3 pieces I’m talking about.  The only joint there that remains unfused is the sacroiliac joint, IE, where the two halves of the pelvis join the sacrum.  However! You sacrum is technically a series of fused vertebrae and your spinal cord runs almost all the way to the very tip.  There are some conditions which cause these not to fuse, or to not fuse properly, or to not properly encase the spinal cord and it causes all KINDS of issues.  But anyway, yeah, your sacrum is a really tough hunk of bone because it carries a lot of weight.  The bit in the front is called the pubic symphysis and, despite what certain tumblr posts would have you believe, having children does NOT leave a notch on the inner side of it from the muscle tearing away tiny chunks of the bone.  In fact, it is hotly debated whether or not pregnancy leaves behind any skeletal evidence at all.  

Alright, so basically speaking, females make da babies and males don’t, so the different equipment is differently shaped......

.....wait, no, that’s not right.  Let’s back up.  Male and female humans are differently proportioned and their center of gravity is, on average, different.  This is the whole thing about men having upper body strength and women having thighs that can crush watermelons.  This is on *average* (I will be saying a lot about averages in these posts.) true.  And so the physics of the forces exerted on your bones is different.  Males are top-heavy, and so their pelvis is shaped in response to their gate and muscle structure because the pelvis supports and distributes the weight of your entire body.  And bipedalism means that the shape of the pelvis is very, very different depending on the weight distribution.  These changes to the pelvis are really obvious, which is why we can tell from just a few bones whether or not a hominin was bipedal.  It changes the *entire* body.  

It is true though that the pelvis of a female is different than a male, because a female pelvis has to be able to support the weight of a developing child while still allowing the individual to walk.  So the interaction of average size, a uterus, and the bipedal gate means that male and female pelvises are a different shape.  

Here is a comparison: 

(Source)

So firstly, that angle is called the sub-public angle, and because a females pelvis is wider and flatter than a male’s (when viewed from the front) it’s wider in the front.  This also gives any babies more room.  Secondly, you can see the difference in the tilt of the sacrum - in the female you can’t see the tailbone.  This, again, is due to the confluence of weight distribution and the necessity of passing a baby’s head through that space.  It would be a lot harder to push it out if you had a tailbone in the way.  Lastly, you can see that the shape of the circle when you look top down and bottom up are different - wider on the woman because of the same reasons I’ve already mentioned.  There is one more major difference between the male and female pelvis, and that’s the sciatic notch: 

(Source)

Characteristic of male on the left, intermediate in the middle, and female on the right (and dang, she was young, too.).  Thinner is male, wider is female.  Usually you can fit your thumb in a female’s notch but barely or not at all in a male.  I personally find the subpubic arch and the sciatic notch the easiest to use because, fun fact #2, those 3 sections are a bitch to hold together with your hands and that makes it hard to see the other shapes.  The amount of sacrums and pelvic bones I’ve accidentally dropped while trying to determine sex....it’s a lot, ok? It’s a lot.  I only have two hands and pelvises are big.  

There are also several less obvious ways of determining sex from a skeleton, so you guys should definitely visit the source for the above image because they go into it deeper and there are several excellent images of public bones.  

So how else do we determine sex? The next easiest way is from the skull, because the features are distinct and skulls survive well.  

The Skull

In my opinion the easiest landmark to use on a skull for sex determination is the jaw.  There are several features of the jaw that can be used here - and, mind you, when determining sex we measure every small and large sex-linked feature according to a scale and then average it all out.  We never look at any single thing (although sometimes the individual has something so characteristic that you can’t help it.  The individual in my position has a brow like a neanderthal, so it was pretty obvious.).  Anyway, there are several features here but the easiest is to look at the shape of the lateral distal posterior portion of the jaw.  It’s called the masseteric tuberosity.  Basically, it’s a little bit of bone that sticks out of the back of your jaw.  It’s one of the attachment points of the masseter aka chewing muscles attach.  Because males have stronger muscles pulling on that part of the jaw and exerting more force, it flares out further for them when you look at it from the front, like this: 

(Source)

It’s that sticky-outy thing thing that I circled in red.  Here is an example of the same thing on females: 

(Source)

Female jaws are rounder, and so that bit is less defined, flares out less, and is not as sharp as it is on males.  And this is a reminder that these measures aren’t absolutes - humans have a lot of variance in them.  The female asian and the male on the right both have somewhat atypical structures, while the female european and the two other males have a very characteristic structure.  

The two other easiest to identify are the shape of the brown line and the shape of the chin (the mental protuberance).  Here is an image of the comparison: 

(Source: Pinterest, but this images are from the Human Bone Manual text that I use and I used this image so I wouldn’t have to make my own. :P) 

You can see in the profile that the female skull has a higher, more vertical forehead with less pronounced brow ridges.  If you look, you can also see that her chin protrudes less in profile, and is softer and less pronounced in the frontal view.  The angle under her teeth is less severe.  

So these three things, the chin, the brow, and the jaw, are the easiest to identify the most likely to be characteristic of the sex of the individual.  But, if you compare the images I’ve used here you’ll also notice that there are other differences in the skull.  Females have more of a slope to the bottom of their jaw, the bump on the back of their heads (the occipital protuberance) tends to be far less pronounced; and this is the case for all muscle attachments generally speaking.  On average, males are more easily able to build muscle mass and are larger, and so their muscles pull harder on their skeletons and create larger muscle attachments.  The round, blunt thing to the right of the back of the jaw that sticks out from the skull (the mastoid process), is also at a different angle and is larger in males.  This is another case of the muscles being bigger and stronger - the mastoid process is where several of your jaw and neck muscles attach.  

There you have it, then.  The easiest ways to tell the sex of a skeleton.  :) 

This post has been approved by Gage the science doggo: 

When it comes to working with deities/spirits/entities and practices from a culture or ethnicity outside your own I follow a certain thought process.  On one hand we are looking at entities that from their point of origin do not belong to us. The likes of Papa Legba (Haitian Voudun), Lilith (Judeism), Hopi tribal spirits, and Mexican brujería do not belong to us. They are not from witchcraft and white people have no rights to them. They exist within the context of their own paths and their own peoples and you cannot pretend to sit here and have an understanding of them in the same manner as the people who were raised with this knowledge and under this belief system. At the same time, religion and spirituality is transformative. We do this all the time with the gods from Greek and Norse mythology, breaking down the original meaning of their myths and reworking it to fit in more with our modern day understanding of the world. Right or wrong, this is part of how a religion or belief system survives over time. It changes, it evolves, it alters in accordance with the people who adopt it. We’ve always done this right through to Christianity.  HOWEVER, this does not excuse white people coming in and stealing culture from others. We don’t have a right to claim practices and deities with such haphazard abandon simply because we get interested in them. It’s disrespectful to their culture of origin and the people who were persecuted for their practices during colonization and the subsequent eradication of these spiritual practices. The disrespect is real and I can’t imagine any entity from a marginalized ethnic group is going to receive that with enthusiasm.  Looping back around...nobody can stop you. If you can take all the hate and canceling from the internet, nobody can stop you from attempting these practices on your own. If you put a Lwa statue on your alter or start doing chants to Tawa nobody can keep you from doing it. But it would behoove you to keep in mind: Nobody is coming to save your ass either. You do this? You fuck around with shit you don’t know and you don’t have a grasp on because you think it’ll be fun or grant you power? Nobody is gonna pop up to save you from yourself. Nobody is gonna knock on your door and offer to cleanse your house for you. Every serious practitioner is gonna look you up and down and say “You got yourself into this. Get yourself out.” Not out of spite (necessarily) but because nobody can help you solve the problem you created. At BEST if they are feeling generous they may be willing to open communication and offer you a line of reparations you’re gonna have to undertake to get shit back on the level. But thats not a promise. So you go fucking around sticking your nose into shit you know nothing about don’t act surprise when it gets sliced off.  If you really wanna learn about spiritual practices and entities from a culture outside your own? Thats not a bad thing. It’s good to learn more. It’s good to increase your knowledge. It’s good to develop your understanding of other cultures and their spirituality so you can better respect it. You may discover some of the practices you’ve already been doing were stolen or copied and that gives you a chance to clean them out of your witchcraft and find better alternatives. If you really wanna start practicing under the heading of a non-Eurocentric, non Christian spiritual faith, show the respect necessary and find people who come by it honestly. You have to be willing to do the hard work. You have to be willing to do more than read The Idiots Guide To “_________” and pretending like you are ready. Ya’ll do this shit with witchcraft anyways and thats bad enough. But pulling that cheap trick on already misunderstood and oppressed spiritual paths is rotten on a whole other level. This shit is hard work. This shit is demanding. The gods/spirits/entities are not an unforgiving lot but they don’t have any patience for fools. If you’re lucky, they’ll laugh and ignore you outright. If not, they can fuck up your life in a thousand little ways. It may take you a long time to really connect and find your footing. You have to be willing to accept that you may not be accepted on this path for whatever reason. It’s not your lane. And that’s okay too. The good news is there are a lot of diverging paths in the forest and there is likely one for you.  On a final note: there is no such thing as the ‘right path’. There is no universal correctness when it comes to spirituality. Older does not = better. Newer does not = woke. What matters most is offering that equitable exchange of ideas and being willing to enter into the conversation with an open mindset.