me: wasn’t allowed to be upset as a child and realize that being upset is ok and not bad and won’t end everything

me at 13: gets distressed when actually upset and shuts down as a human being, closes off and doesn’t express anything unless entirely alone

me now after years of therapy: tries to express distress and being upset in hopes of learning that being upset is not bad

my father who coincidentally never let me be upset as a child: you are taking it too personally. simply, do not let things viscerally upset you. you will be fine. there is no judgement here if you want to let it ruin you but you shouldn’t let it ruin you because it will never change and that is that.

Nobody bays an eye at the fact that MK's mom is a very much male presenting person. They live in a world where shape-shifting is the norm, and there is literally a famous story about a kingdom with a river that can make anyone, no matter the gender, pregnant. Its not an impossible thing to imagine for them, especially since they suspect MK to be a demon at that point anyway, which means his mom is guaranteed to be one too. No, the biggest surprise in regards to Wukong's pregnancy comes more from who Wukong is rather than any sort of gender he presents as, but it's rather easily explained away. After all, there's no reason for Wukong to hide the fact that Stone Monkey pregnancies are often fatal and result in many complications, so as the stronger and more durable between himself and his mate as well as the one with mor most layers of immortality, it's simple logic that he'd be the one to bear their young.

At least, that's how Wukong describes it later. What he neglected to realize is that just because the specifics of Stone Monkey pregnancies have become somewhat common knowledge amongst the celestials, the mortals do not share in that knowledge and hus rather blase attitude in regards to potentially dying in childbirth does little to ease DBK, Pigsy, Tang, or Sandy's concern. PIF is a little more understanding of Wukong's position, having gone through similar complications with Redson's birth, and actually applauds his willingness and bravery in bringing more children into the world, even whilst almost losing his life to bring his eldest into the world.

prev post.

That and they don't want to assume anything in case MK's mom is a trans person. Wukong is fine with both Mama/Baba titles, and if he carried the kid it only makes sense to him to be "Mom" to them.

In a world of demons, trans people, shapeshifting, and rivers that make your pregnant, you just grow up knowing that sometimes a dude gets pregnant.

Regular Stone Monkey pregnancies aren't anymore fatal than say wild monkey statistics, but the Stone Egg method is super dangerous. Stone Monkeys basically donate so much of their life energy to the world around them that there's very little left over for themselves. The "Boulder" atop FFM is even described as spreading orchids and mushrooms into the earth around it.

PIF admires and envies Wukong a little for his success, despite the terror surrounding little Xiaotian's arrival. She wonders if DBK hadn't been imprisoned, if they could have had such luck.

Wukong very simply explains to the Noodle Gang that he's like the healthiest demon around, and his mate is slightly more fragile than him (literally born in the anaerobic enviroment of the moon = no immune system), so he takes over for baby-incubating. The gnag are super intrigued!

Tang: "So when did you decide to have MK?" Wukong, laughing: "Oh, that was a happy accident! A happy, kinda-scary, 14 year accident." Noodle Gang: (*all nod on understanding/awkwardness*) MK: "Yeah, thats why I grew up being told never to bury myself under a mountain." Noodle Gang: "...wut?" Tang:, JTTW brain activating: "Wait. Did you say 14 years!? As in during the Journey!?!"

Wukong pretty much pulls out corkboard of crayon drawings (like in "The Plan Man") to explain the process and how Macaque accidentally left Wukong "rock pregnant" under Five Finger Mountain - a collage crafted specifically back when MK had first asked about the "Birds and the Bees". The Noodle Shop Gang are horrified - and so is MK for having to re-live it.

Everyone comes away from that specifc lunchtime knowing a little too much about the reproductive habits of Stone Monkeys.

Hilariously I can imagine a situation like with the Eclipse Twins in the TMKATI au (both monkeys got el-pregante with either twin) happening here.

But with the current day. Remember how I pointed out that out of all the Nodelets, one shadow planet was missing? >:3

Once the LBD situation is dealt with at the end of S3;

Guanyin: (*gently grabs Macaque by the scruff of the neck*) Guanyin: "How long were you going to run around getting into danger without telling him [Wukong] you were expecting as well?!" Macaque, honestly confused: "Pardon???" Wukong: (*GASP!*) "Hypocrite!" Macaque: "In my defence, I didn't know that could happen."

MK barfs just *a little* at the announcement (MK: "I TOLD you they were being gross!").

Que the last Lunar Nodelet; Ziqi being made. This time via a very nervous Macaque.

Shadow monkey is on 24 hour lockdown pretty much to watch out for health complications, a reasonable punishment for his little disappearing act. Complications arise only because Mac was away from FFM for an appointment with Lao Tzu when a certain Scroll got found...

Sorry this is a dumb question but can you explain why tomshiv is not abusive? Shiv seems to hit a lot of textbook behaviours of emotional abusers

thank you for your follow up clarifying this was in good faith bc i checked my inbox yesterday right after getting high and was like man come on. don't do this to me. but yeah i can talk about it, it's obviously something i have a fair amount of thoughts on

on a fundamental level, i take issue with the assertion that there are 'textbook behaviors of emotional abusers' in the first place. distilling abuse down to a set of behaviors is, imo, effectively meaningless and totally unproductive. it's not the behavior of an individual that defines abuse, it's a specific and intentionally cultivated imbalance of power and control within a relationship. victims of abuse can and do resort to survival mechanisms that could be considered in isolation as 'abusive behavior', the point is that you can't consider them in isolation. there's a gulf of difference between the same actions when they're coming from a person in a position of significant financial or physical or social power over someone else, or when they're coming from the person at a disadvantage.

i think viewing abuse as a set of behaviors also encourages you to treat interpersonal abuse as if it's discontinuous with systemic abuse, which is inaccurate and unproductive. a key part of succession's premise is that, because the family is literally the business, the familial abuse within the roy family is inextricable from the broader systems of capitalism, patriarchy, and the sexual violence and abuse endemic to them. with regards to how the show satirizes and critiques these systems, i think it's very telling that all of the characters are to some degree complicit and/or participants in abuse, but logan is the only one i'd say is unambiguously and intentionally presented as 'an abuser' (whose abuse is not an isolated product of him as a person, but integrated into/inseparable from the capitalist system which persists after his death). still, logan isn't reduced to a one-dimensional angry, abusive dad, he's given depth and complexity. his continued insistence that he loves his children isn't treated as something that's untrue, but that doesn't make it inherently good, and it certainly isn't incompatible with him abusing them.

circling back to tom and shiv. their relationship is unhealthy, it's not good for either of them to be married, shiv does fucking awful things to tom and tom does awful things right back, i'm not questioning any of that. but at my most cynical and bitchy, what it comes down to is quite simply: shiv doesn't have enough power over tom to be abusive, systemically or personally.

the thing is sometimes you see people say 'wow, if the genders were reversed people would say tom and shiv's relationship is unambiguously abusive!' which... hrm, but really the issue is that. the genders are the way they are, that's for a reason, and yes, that does make a significant difference in how we perceive their relationship and power dynamics. tom holds very real and present power over shiv as a man and as her husband, proposing to her when she was vulnerable in a way that placed huge pressure on her to accept and then trying to get her to have his baby so he can become patriarch. shiv's the heiress with the legitimacy of her family name and generational wealth but she is continuously, unavoidably subjected to gendered discrimination and violence. she's never allowed direct access to real power - she has to rely on the men around her, her husband or her brothers, and if they don't feel like humoring her she's shit out of luck.

this doesn't cancel out like a math equation, but it definitely makes things much more complicated than shiv being an Evil Bitch Wife to her Poor Pitiful Husband. when shiv finally does push tom too far, he immediately, successfully, goes over her head to her abusive father to fuck her over. maybe shiv wants to be her father in her relationships and exert the same kind of control he does. but she doesn't and she can't! she does not have that power! she cannot stop tom from kicking back and his hits are significant. as much as she might like to pretend otherwise, tom not only has always had the power to leave in a way shiv doesn't, he had and has the power to fuck her up badly, and he's used that power. that is simply not the power dynamic between abuser and victim to me.

i also have to say that abuse is not always going to be definitive black and white. in real life there are plenty of unambiguous situations but there are also plenty of complicated situations, and applying judgments to fiction is not always straightforward. i can't exactly call someone 'wrong' for personally being uncomfortable with tom and shiv's relationship or believing shiv is abusive, but i'm very skeptical of the viewpoint and the motivations or assumptions that are often contained within. if shiv is abusive, she definitely isn't uniquely so among the cast, so you had better be applying that label and any associated moral judgments equally across the board.

I love your Terror catboy AU, it’s a funky combination of adorable drawings and Victorianesque pseudoscientific hierarchies. However, it made me wonder about catgirls/doggirls; if you’re happy to answer, how do you see the intersection of gender and hybridity playing out in this universe?

I LOVE THIS QUESTION THANK YOU FOR THIS QUESTION i have a lot of thots on this bc the whole "angel in the house" image of the ideal (middle class) victorian woman is such a fun concept to play with more under cut

ok so what im about to say rn really only applies to middle class and upper class women in this au as those are the main characters in the terror if we get into the lower classes its a more complicated and nuanced story.

anyway in victorian times women were expected to be chaperoned everywhere by an older woman such as a female relative or female servant lest she be corrupted by the ills of the world and by men etc. this is where cat/doggirls come in. its expected that if you have a daughter then you goooootta adopt a companion or two for her both to show off your status and to ensure that your daughter has a friend / chaperone / mentor / moral compass for life. so in cat/dogpeople households the cat/dogboys usually go off to whatever institution their bloodline is associated with and cat/doggirls usually become companions for the wives and daughters of the men employed by those institutions. its very different from human family structures because the expectation here is that your child will not stay with your household, youre making children knowing that they will likely not belong to you regardless of whether they are male or female and that you might never see them again once theyre adopted and they need to be adopted or else its a failure on you and your bloodline. (grim i know) this system is also why each generation of cat/dogpeople tends to be fairly large, little and hodgson and irving all have an overabundance of siblings and cousins many of whom theyve never met in their life.

interestingly, cat/doggirls are actually more valued amongst these families than cat/dogboys because cat/dogboys can only be sent off to the institution the bloodline is associated with whereas cat/doggirls can be sent off to any upper/middle class household regardless of association and it would still be considered respectable AND it creates new relationships between human families that the human owners might find beneficial (kind of like how marriage was historically the exchange of women to strengthen political ties between families). this means that excess cat/dogboy sons are often disappointing to the parents - edward little is one of these. all 3 of his elder brothers had already left for the navy so he grew up playing w his sisters and getting dolled up in their dresses and being told that oh he'd make such a pretty girl and pretty bride oh if only he'd been born a girl etc. totally doesnt fuck him up.

speaking of fucked up theres hickey and his whole situation w sophia. having a catboy as a companion for an upper class girl is a big no-no and only happened because [insert hickey backstory here that is too long and really should have its own post]. no body approves of this but sophia loves him so very much and they were inseparable up until they were separated when sophia went to tasmania with the franklins and hickey was abandoned to the streets against both his and sophias will. sophia refused to adopt a new more appropriate companion in tasmania and after the franklins returned to england she tried to find him but couldnt and assumed he died. then when it seems like the ships are lost and jane starts campaigning for a rescue mission suddenly hickey shows up and for a few blissful years they are together again. he is older and quieter and has scars he wont explain, but hes still hickey and sophia still loves him. and then sir john comes back and fucks all of that up again.

sorry this was meant to be about gender dynamics in my deranged catboy au but i got distracted by hickey (as per usual)

sooo I have some questions about mason becuase he seems like a really interesting character. Also it was kind of funny how he’s fine with beating up or electrocuting a pet but the second someone lets them go online or gives them slightly lax rules, he’s like oh no this poor sweetheart, this is so sad😞 . Would he punish a pet for panicking a lot or getting freaked out easily? Or what if a pet was transgender? Would he tell them they were just being silly or would he actually listen to them? What if a pet saved his life? Would he be grateful?

Thank you for the interest!! Mason is what I like to call an evil therapist with a HEALTHY dose of condescension.

Would he punish a pet for panicking/freaking out easily?

Not necessarily, it depends on why the pet is scared. If there is something genuinely stressful going on (getting a new owner, tension in the home, medical, even something like a thunderstorm) he would not punish them. In his mind, that is not willful disobedience. They are scared, they are stressed, and pets are simple creatures that struggle to regulate themselves. That is part of the owners job. If the panic stems from like a panic disorder, Mason is incredibly sympathetic of that. He would train the pet with calming exercises they can use and suggest medication if needed.

If he gets the vibe the panic is an act of manipulation, that will be punished.

What if a pet saved his life? Would he be grateful?

Very! But it wouldn’t change anything. You know those news stories of dogs dragging children out of fires or cats alerting parents that the child was having a medical emergency? He’d see it like that. He’d absolutely thank the pet and do an interview on the news but in the end the pet is still just a pet.

And this one was a fascinating question Nonny!!! I did put it under the cut because of some transphobia, however I mostly just talk about gender in my worldbuilding. Perhaps gatekeeping or delusion is a better term but the end result is transphobia so I’m gonna warn as such.

What if a pet was transgender? Would he tell them they’re just being silly or actually listen to them?

It should be emphasized again that Mason does not believe pets are human. He does not think they are people. You cannot change his mind, he is stuck in this delusion.

… you know what. I don’t think Mason believes pets know what gender is. In a way he sees them as toys or dolls, and he is the one making decisions about what they wear. If he thinks Rudy would look cute in a dress he’d just buy Rudy a dress. Rudy does not get a choice in what he’s wearing, not in any meaningful way.

If a pet (for some reason lmao) came to him and said they’re trans, he might laugh and say “from what?” He’d also ask where they even heard that and likely dismiss it as “that’s something for humans. You don’t need to worry about it.”

I mean, also in this world I’ve created literally what WOULD gender mean to a pet? There are no specific gender roles or expectations- they’re all just pets. And sterile. There’s no social influence of how they’re supposed to be acted based on their assigned gender at birth. Oh for sure they have expectations but they’re all based on their “class” for a lack of a better term.

Fuck me my ocs should have way more weirdness with their gender identity after being freed. That would be so bonkers to go from a world where it doesn’t exist to where it dictates everything.

(Also in the end this still ends up having a lot of my own feeling and opinions about gender in it. Your characters are the biggest fucking snitches every time. Honestly I have tussled with gender specific stuff for a while but it’s mostly based in religious trauma. I’m trying to sort it out but it’s a complicated ever changing messy thing. Idk. Slowly chipping away at it. I’m saying this to be transparent and as a plea to not be abrasive. I don’t expect it but I am fucking delicate sometimes and need to explicitly explain why I do or think the things I do. Is this too raw for a post on tumblr.com about my silly little ocs? Yes absolutely. Should i delete this part? yes. Will I?)

with xena being from the 90s is there anything specificically dubious or of the time that people should know of ahead of time before going in? ie the similar vein to warning people of tng test of honor and other drek in 90s trek?

hope you dont mind the ask, youre just one of the few people I see around still chatting about xena

some of it is YMMV. the entire show plays fast and loose with all kinds of mythology and magic from not just Greece/Rome but as far away as brittania, norway, china and egypt. (all the gods of each culture seem to exist simultaneously and occasionally interact/chat with each other.) But generally plotlines are one of the following:

Xena's evil past has consequences

Warlord/God acting up and needs to be defeated

A god is being mischievous and needs to be outwitted (aphrodite, cupid, some others are common here)

something silly/over the top/campy

Gabrielle is trying to figure out her life's direction

Xena's Personal Beef with Rome and Caesar in Particular

sometimes multiple or all of the above (see Fish Femmes and Gems)

Up to season 5 on my current rewatch, I'd say The Way is still probably the most culturally insensitive (they actually had to record a PSA on hinduism over it). The two leading up to that didn't seem to get any backlash that I could tell when reading about it. (its a three part story that's super important to the plotline and character development of the show and hammers home the soulmate angle, especially the second one). But I'm no gonna speak for that culture or anything, just what I read on the wiki. But the third part I know enough to feel uncomfortable with it). Ripped from the wiki:

The episode was pulled from syndication after protests from Hindu groups. It was finally allowed to be reshown with the addition of a public service announcement at the very end by Lucy, Renée, as well as a spokesman for the Hindu community explaining that the producers took liberties with the Hindu religion.

In general, jokes and silliness overall tend to land well, especially if you enjoy camp.

While it can be clumsy in some respects overall it handles gender and race pretty well, there's a variety of women of various roles. They had someone in drag at a fashion show episode who (who late IRL came out as trans) that was handled really well. The Amazons are very much sexy but also deep and spiritual.

Casting generally appears to be race blind with regard to heroic roles, evil roles and the more complicated grey area 'seeking redemption' roles and mostly seems to try to cast appropriately on a cultural basis. Like warlord casting seemed to be like 'are you a big guy? you're hired!'

Nothing ever seemed to approach test of honor's level of bad IMO, except maybe The Way.

(I'd argue there's even some meta commentary with regard to centaurs and centaur culture and how its treated)

Its got some of your standard 'guy likes girl, does stupid shit for girl' type stuff but he gets character growth and ultimately he's family. He's the little brother, 'only we can bully him but god help you if you bully him' type of dynamic. Someone hurts our proto-himbo joxer and xena and gabrielle go for the throat. Then ten minutes later are roasting him.

The only episode I really skip is the gross one involving lice and a skin rash(but at least they let the lady heroes be gross, quite frequently in fact). Maybe also skipping the married ...with children parody episode too. The Way could maybe get by with a summary but I wanted to watch it again specifically to see where it fell on the character part. Pretty important to jumpstarting Gabrielle's peace arc.

[ Source: https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/The-Gender-Affirmative-Model-Chapter-1-Sample.pdf ]

--

Also:

A Chief psychologist at a California children's hospital has claimed children can identify as 'gender minotaurs'.

Dr. Diane Ehrensaft is the director of mental health and chief psychologist at the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital gender development center. 

Her research focuses on the effects of puberty blockers and hormones on children. 

First reported by Fox News, Ehrensaft has made claims that children can identify as gender hybrids, which include  'gender minotaur'.

The Minotaur, in Greek mythology, was a creature which had the body of a man but the head of a bull. 

In a list of terms published by Ehrensaft, in a paper titled The Gender Affirmative Model, she refers to different ways in which children have described themselves. 

One of these included 'gender minotaur', which is described as being a descriptor for a child who sees themselves as one gender on top, and another on their bottom half.  

Other claims made by the psychologist include what she describes as a 'gender prius'.

This label is said to have been explained to her by a child who looked like a boy at the front, but had a long braid tied in their hair with a pink bow. 

According to the paper, the child said: 'You see - I'm a Prius, a boy in the front, a girl in the back. A hybrid.' 

Other terms include a 'gender smoothie' which is described as a variation of being gender fluid. 

One teenager described it to Ehrensaft as: 'You take everything about gender, throw it in the blender, press the button, and you’ve got me—a gender smoothie.'

Another term shared by Ehrensaft is 'gender tesla' which she describes as a transgender state some children reach after being gender hybrid. 

Ehrensaft had previously told a 2018 talk held at the San Francisco Public Library: 'I totally agree we are in the midst of a gender revolution and the children are leading it. 

'It's a wonderful thing to see. And it's also humbling to know [children] know more than we do about this topic of being gender expansive.'

Ehrensaft believes that transgenderism is derived from a 'gender web' which is influenced by culture, upbringing and nature.   

During the talk in 2018, Ehrensaft discussed a conversation she had with a 7-year-old that there can be 'gender minotaurs'.

She also said: 'I started meeting a whole bunch of other gender hybrids. And so we have the gender prius, we have a gender minotaur.

'And most of the kids who are gender minotaurs love mermaids. So make sure you have a lot of mermaid books. If you really you think about it, it works.'

==

Today the American Psychological Association taught me that "gender" is when you take a Buzzfeed quiz about whether you're a Monica, a Rachel or a Phoebe, and when it turns out you're more of a Rachel, you "identify" as rachelgender and change your pronouns to rach/rachself.

The same people who insist that sex is "too complicated" want to make sure you know the simplicity of "gender prius(es)," "gender tootsie roll pops" and "gender minotaurs," and that if you don't respect these identities, you can only be a transphobic bigot.

When believers themselves describe their gods as incoherent, we're justified in concluding they don't exist. When activists themselves describe "gender" as a dumpster fire of utter nonsense, we're justified in concluding that it doesn't exist, either.

Children don't always have the language to explain their feelings or their personalities, and when they hear the word "gender," they attribute everything about themselves to it, and are encouraged to do so by cult members roleplaying as health professionals. If you switch the word "gender" to "feelings" in the above, it makes much more sense. A trained mental health professional - or at least one who is not herself insane - should be able to figure this out, rather than funnel children's clumsy language into her revolutionary ideology.

These people are unserious lunatics who should be kept far away from children, and we should treat them as such.

TRIGGER WARNING: mental illness (depression, psychosis), abuse mention, drug addiction, pregnancy mention

❀ *◦ kaya scodelario. cis woman. she/her. bisexual. ⇝ hey, isn’t that alice pallas? i think that the thirty year old from chicago, illinois works as a journalist at the anchorage daily diem, but outside of that, people describe them as soft rain on your window pane early in the morning & the smell of fresh coffee. i hear they are stubborn & impatient, but they are also known to be nurturing & genuine. consider giving them a visit at their home in delilah’s den gated community and get to know why they’re called the empath.

BASIC INFORMATION

NAME: Alice Marie Pallas NICKNAMES: Al, Ali BIRTH NAME: Aliki Elena Pallas AGE: 30  BIRTH DATE: October 30, 1993 ZODIAC SIGN: Scorpio  ETHNICITY: Brazilian, Greek GENDER: Cisgender female (she/her) ORIENTATION: Bisexual BIRTHPLACE: Meteora, Greece  OCCUPATION: Journalist for the Anchorage Daily Diem 

RELATIONSHIPS

SIBLINGS: Atticus Villanelle (twin brother), Cyrek Fawn (brother), Samantha Alcott (half-sibling), Haerin-Mae-Nava'i (step-sibling), Alizka Palls-Dexicos (half-sibling), Annaki Pallas-Dexicos (half-sibling); Evren Fawn (sister-in-law), Anka Mae-Nava'i (sister-in-law), Micah Villanelle (sister-in-law) RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single CHILDREN: Rhea Pallas

PHYSICAL TRAITS

FACE CLAIM: Kaya Scodelario EYE COLOUR: Blue HAIR COLOUR: Brown HEIGHT: 5′6″ WEIGHT: 120 lbs. BODY BUILD: Slim 

HEALTH

ALLERGIES: N/A SMOKES?: No  DRINKS?: No DRUGS?: No CHRONIC ILLNESS: N/A

DISORDERS

ADDICTIONS: Heroin (in recovery), alcohol (in recovery) MENTAL DISORDERS: Depression WHEN WAS THIS DIAGNOSED?: Alice was diagnosed with depression when she was 17 after an overdose. At the time, she was specifically dealing with a bout of psychotic depression

BIOGRAPHY

EARLY BEGINNINGS

Alice was born on October 30, 1993 in Meteora, Greece via C-section. While she greeted the world, she left her fraternal twin brother, Atticus, behind. Alice and Atticus do not share the same father and therefore are twins due to heteropaternal superfecundation

Alice's father met her mother while on a business trip in Greece. They had a brief yet torrid love affair and afterwards, her father went back to Chicago, planning to never look back. However, when he found out that he had a daughter on the other side of the world, he couldn't leave her behind. Shortly after Alice was born, her father flew back to Greece and collected his daughter. Growing up, Alice had no idea about her origins

Alice's father, David, didn't know quite what to say when he brought a little girl home to his wife. Needless to say, she was furious and swiftly filed for divorce, leaving David to be a single father to young Alice. While Alice was growing up, David tried to be there for his daughter, despite his busy work schedule

Growing up, Alice was very close to her father, even though he had to go away for work a lot. Being a hotshot lawyer, David had plenty of money to supply Alice with nannies and practically anything she could ask for, though she didn't really care about any of that. Her favorite thing was getting to spend time with her father. However, she always felt the aching absence of a mother figure and David never really had a good answer when Alice inquired about her mother. Her father just felt like it was too complicated a situation to explain to a young child

As a young girl, Alice got involved with figure skating and at the very beginning, she'd wanted to be a professional figure skater. While her love of writing overtook that dream, she never stopped skating, as she always loved the feeling it gave her

While Alice was relatively well-behaved throughout her childhood, she developed a rebellious streak in high school and began to act out. She would sneak out, go to parties, and get drunk. David was at a loss of what to do for his daughter. He tried disciplining her but that only pushed her away. Alice felt like she deserved a little freedom and it was all just good fun--at least, that was until she met Tristan

Tristan was a few years older than Alice and was your classic misunderstood bad boy--though when they met, Alice didn't realize how bad he truly was. What started out as a whirlwind romance quickly spiraled into a cycle of abuse. Even worse, Tristan introduced Alice to heroin and she was instantly hooked. Alice, who desperately wanted to feel loved and cared for, quickly fell into this cycle and once she was in, she had no idea how she was going to get out

Alice, a 17 year old who had once been a straight-A student, was now regularly skipping school to meet up with Tristan and get high. Her grades quickly plummeted and it wasn't long before her father figured out what was really going on. After a huge fight with her father, Alice sought solace in a needle Tristan. In a desperate attempt to numb everything out, Alice accidentally overdosed on heroin and when Tristan realized what was happening, he bailed, leaving her for dead. It was only thanks to her father finding her in the nick of time that she was able to be saved  

THE BREAKING POINT

What no one realized at the time was that Alice had been suffering from hallucinations for over a year at that point. The first time she experienced the hallucinations, she thought she'd been drugged. But she quickly discovered that she was having at first auditory, and then visual hallucinations, even when she was stone-cold sober. Being a teenager, she felt like if she told anyone, they'd think she was crazy so she kept it to herself. Sickeningly, it seemed that heroin was the only thing that gave her relief from her hallucinations, which only further fueled her addiction

When Alice came to in the hospital after her overdose, she was met with a look of frightened relief from her father. David was at his wits end and didn't know how else to help his daughter. He informed Alice that she would be going to a treatment center to get the help that she needed. Though Alice went kicking and screaming, quite literally, it didn't change her reality--she was stuck in that hospital for what felt like forever

Alice certainly wasn't cooperative at first. In fact, she spent about a year-and-a-half treating her treatment plan like a joke. She would sneak around, find the liquor that the staff had stashed for themselves, and get wasted. Unable to get her hands on any drugs, she settled for alcohol instead. While alcohol hadn't been a huge problem for her before, it now became her crutch. While in treatment, she was diagnosed with severe depression and she found out that the hallucinations had stemmed from a bout of psychotic depression which occurred due to lack of treatment. Even with this information, Alice was perfectly fine with rotting away in the facility for the rest of her life, too lost in her self-loathing to better herself. It wasn't until Alec showed up that everything changed

For better or worse, the prospect of love is what motivated Alice to really work on her recovery. Alec, who had once been one of Tristan's old friends, showed up one day out of the blue--and as a patient nonetheless. Even though he'd hung out with Tristan back then, Alec wasn't anything like Alice's abusive ex-boyfriend. Alec was kind and sweet, if not a little lost, and their romance quickly blossomed. After another year spent actually working towards her recovery, Alice was finally released from the hospital and things moved quickly with Alec

A FALSE START

After getting out of the hospital at 20, Alice was ready for a fresh start. Sober and feeling happier than ever, she enrolled in college where she studied journalism, as she'd always wanted to be a writer. She and Alec moved into together almost immediately and everything was bliss

During her second year of college, Alice was reunited with her long-lost brothers, Atticus and Cyrek. After spending her entire life as a lonely only child, she suddenly had a twin brother and an older brother to bond with. At first, she was unable to forgive her father for lying to her for so long. She'd asked so many times about her mother and where she was and all he'd done was lie. She didn't speak to her father for about 6 months but eventually, they reconciled. After all, she couldn't deny that David was the one person that had been there for her as a child. Sure, he hadn't always had the right answers or known what to do but he had stayed and that's what mattered to her the most

While Alice's life was seemingly cheerful on the outside, inside, she was struggling with her recovery and she relapsed a couple times. Still, even with a few bumps in the road, she never gave up. Through each relapse, her loved ones were always there for her, especially Alec--which is why it was so devastating to discover that Alec had been dealing drugs behind her back to make ends meet. One evening, Alice had found a massive load of pills stashed inside the toilet tank and she almost lost it. Oddly enough, a huge blowout argument resulted in Alec asking Alice to marry him. In hindsight, it was clearly doomed from the start but Alice was so happy at the prospect of having someone to love her for the rest of her life, she was willing to look past this mistake

After a long engagement, as well as some trials and tribulations, Alice graduated college with her Bachelor Degree in Journalism and got married to Alec. It was a beautiful wedding day that was filled with all of her loved ones. It was the start of something so promising--Alice couldn't wait to build a family with Alec and grow old together. But unfortunately, it was never meant to be

Alec had been struggling mentally, though he'd kept it a secret for Alice--that is, until he could no longer keep it hidden. One night after Alice got home from work, she found Alec in the middle of a mental break. She'd tried to calm him down but nothing worked and he eventually ran off into the night. He disappeared for 2 straight weeks--Alice had had him declared a missing person and everything. However, when he finally did re-emerge, he apologetically told Alice that he needed help and space. Though she insisted on sticking by his side, in sickness and in health, he insisted that he didn't want her by his side. This broke Alice

Alone and abandoned, Alice spiraled into a depression and relapsed with heroin. Thankfully, her brothers quickly helped her get into rehab where she was reminded why she had worked so hard to get clean in the first place. Since then, Alice has proudly remained sober

A NEW LEAF

Life after marriage was difficult for Alice and she went through a period of feeling very ashamed of her failed marriage and the fact that she was a 25 year old divorcee. Even though all of her loved ones knew it wasn't her fault, she couldn't help but feel embarrassed and for a time, she foolishly swore of love entirely

Though she was still heartbroken over Alec, what was even more devastating was the fact that she'd planned to have a family with her ex-husband and now, that had all been seemingly ripped away from her. However, after a while of being stubborn, Alice finally realized that she didn't need a partner to have a child. She made the decision to go forward with invitro and in December of 2019, she found out that she was expecting

On August 12, 2020, Alice gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and named her Rhea. The little girl, now almost 4, is Alice's pride and joy. Even though one day, she would still love to find someone to share her life with, her daughter, her amazing extended family, and her wonderful friends have truly made Alice the happiest she's ever been

Alice is currently a journalist at the Anchorage Daily Diem. While she tries her best to only stick to the stories that her boss wants her to cover, due Alice's natural curious mind, she often finds herself getting into sticky situations and putting her nose where it shouldn't necessarily be

Alice still figure skates as a hobby and you can usually find her down at the rink early in the morning--her favorite way to greet her day is with a hot cup of coffee and a loop around the rink

Hi I saw your tags on that hajihiko art and that bit about your fic sounds really interesting if you don’t mind I kinda wanna hear more if not then I’ll happily wait for the fic!

youve activated my trap card aka asking me to explain my thoughts !!!! this might get long

my fic is basically a long form. uh. character study? relationship study? thats pretty much just hajime and fuyuhiko having Very Intimate And Personal Conversations (Five Times!) over the first. year? post wake up. and in one of them they have a lengthy discussion about the whole concept of any of them having kids

because hiko is like. hiko is the kind of person who is Very Practical And Realistic (though some may say Pessimistic). and he is of the opinion that things can only be calm and good for so long before shit hits the fan again right? so, in that case, having children with them is only going to make things worse. first, putting kids into an actively dangerous situation is pretty high up in his List Of Terrible Fucking Things Someone Can Do (which is fair, because it is, but also because. Yknow. Personal Experience). second, children being with them is, from a purely practical standpoint, going to be a Huge amount of baggage if they ever need to Leave Right Now Very Quickly. kids are also an ENORMOUS weakness if the enemy ever discovers their existence. so in his mind, theyre a huge disadvantage and just generally a Terrible Fucking Idea.

weirdly enough, though, in the conversation, this is not his argument. because in the circumstances, theyre both kind of in a very vulnerable and open place for this conversation, and so he comes at it from an emotional standpoint. and fuyuhikos emotions around them having kids are complicated.

theres the guilt, right? theyre all classified as war criminals, basically, and are guilty of some of the most heinous acts known to man. they may be being left alone, and they may be repentant and in recovery NOW, but the effects of their actions are gonna be felt for a long time, probably decades. do they even deserve the joy of childcare? of having their own children and raising them and seeing them grow? additionally, they have no idea how long theyre gonna be stuck on those islands. maybe even forever. keeping their kids trapped there when they did nothing wrong aside from. well. Being The Kids Of The Remnants. is almost cruel, right? but if they dont want that, they basically have to give their kids up at some point, maybe even to the future foundation to be integrated into the new world. but when do you do that? when theyre babies, so they never know who their real parents are and never have to reckon with the impact they had on the world? or when theyre young adults, with the full knowledge of what their parents did and who they are, and that the world, which will definitely be utterly fucked for a long time even after the tragedy is officially classified as ‘over’ (whatever that means), will despise them just by virtue of who gave birth to them?

either way, theyre gonna lose their kids at some point. and thats going to hurt. not just the kids themselves, being thrust into a world like that, but the remnants too. those are their children.

fuyuhiko also just… has a lot of guilt and fear around having kids because of his upbringing. you cant tell me he isnt so afraid of turning into his parents, of endangering his own kids, of being too angry and too volatile and too broken to care for them properly. so in his mind, the only real fix to the situation is to just never have them in the first place.

but hajime… hajimes situation is a lot different. first off, in my funny little brain space hajime is very very much a trans man, and though his relationship with identity and gender specifically is very messy due to The Horrors, he clings to his identity as a man in the same way he clings to the name hajime hinata, as an anchor to stability and purpose. if he is hajime hinata, then he is also a man, because hajime hinata was one. this is of course a huge simplification and i could make a whole other post about hajimes fucked up gender shit but its NOT THIS ONE so were moving on. anyway, his relationship with having his own kids therefore is very complicated, as many trans men will tell you, and this is… complicated by another thing i wont go into because its very sad and not really the point and also kind of a spoiler. anyway.

but aside from just himself, hajime is also extremely practical. the difference between his practicality and fuyuhikos is that while fuyuhiko’s practicality is rooted in a childhood of danger and violence and ruthlessness, hajimes is rooted in analytics, because thats just the way his brain works now. numbers and percentages and chance. on top of that, though, what balances out that practicality is that in hajimes brain, one of the most important things about Being Human is Having Human Connections. its how he fights the boredom, fights off the constantly encroaching emptiness in the back of his head. people are complicated and messy and a lot more unpredictable than his izuru conditioning would have had him believe, and he revels in that, in understanding that people have habits and recognizable traits while also doing the weirdest shit possible when you least expect it. having human connections helps him feel human, helps him feel his emotions the most strongly, and he clings to that.

so he understands, on a very base level, why some of them would want children. he understands that a lot of them probably will when they wake up. he understands that they will all adore those kids when theyre born, that the fifteen of them will be a village, will do everything in their power to make sure those kids are happy and safe and understand the dangers of the world while not being subjected to the worst of it until theyre ready.

but hajime also understands philosophy and psychology on a very high level. because you know. the horrors. so he also can reckon with the fact that its not an easy question to answer. should they have kids? would it be ethical to have kids? they dont have an answer thats going to satisfy everyone. some of them are going to stubbornly insist none of them should. some of them are going to be desperate for them. some of them arent going to care. hes skilled in medical knowledge (again, the horrors), and if there are accidents they can be dealt with, but some people arent going to want that. he and/or mikan could probably handle childbirth, as long as theyre not actively in danger, but again, theres the question of whether they even should.

thats. the basis of their conversation. they dont end up with an answer, and i dont think i honestly have one either. could they potentially have children at some point in their lives? probably, yeah. but the logistics of that, of when they would, when the kids would leave, how they would be raised, is a lot more complicated than just ‘cute domestic childcare.’

BUT THATS. yeah. its really funny that this ended up so long because that conversation is maybe a whole 18% of the total length of that chapter and thats. being lax on what constitutes as ‘part of that conversation’ fjshfjsjfjjsjs. the thing about me is that i can not shut the fuck up to save my life, so they discuss like. SIX different topics in that conversation. it makes me very afraid that people wont be able to follow it or will get tired of all the dialogue but. Thats Just Something I Will Have To Deal With.

someday ill post this fucking fanfiction. im trying to get at least. four? of the chapters done before i start posting because i have a long history of starting to post chapters/segments of a fic only for my fixation to crumble and then i never finish it. im hoping building up engagement w this blog will help so people will talk to me and keep my writing lmao. im glad youre interested though!!!!!! ive put a lot of love into all the writing ive done for dr so far

A collection of dialog that might or might not end up being used for the NaNo story I'm regretfully going to subject you all for:

--

"Respectfully, Your Imperial Majesty, I have never had the pleasure of visiting Nilfheim, but here in Lucis, bandersnatches are a thing."

--

"Fuck you, they shaved my beard. You have a wife scheduled til 4."

--

From what Nyx had gathered, the Leonis Twins had approximately 0.78 of a gender between the two of them, and it seemed to be mostly comprised of three halves of solid fuck you.

--

"Yes, of course, except all of that is solidly someone else's problem."

"Someone else means your children. Or their children."

"Clarus, if they fuck up badly enough that a country this fanatic ousts them from the essentially symbolic throne I'm leaving them? They deserve exactly everything they get for it."

--

"For reasons far too complicated to explain without going through far too many bottles of expensive whiskey, I'll have to ask you to tolerate my horrific slander of your mother's character, as I go on implying she would lack enough sense to bed my father."

--

The problem with Regis, and yes, Clarus would insist, he had only the one - well, two - was the fact he'd seen fit to adopt his wife's family. Adapt, even. Completely assimilated.

how come I can't write my common app essay but I can go off on a slightly related tangent and write... 543 words on kids learning about the world

I am now posting that because I didn't type it all up to sit in my google docs forever

(The "Looking back" to begin was referencing the college essay - something about watching a bunch of space science shows when I was little. my parents were always like "how do you understand any of that" and it made me think of this)

Looking back, it’s made me realize that kids are capable of understanding a lot more than we give them credit for. They don’t have a basis of comparison to think “oh, that’s complicated,” they simply comprehend it. Try explaining general relativity to an adult, or even to teenagers like my physics class last year, and you’ll be met with confusion. After all, the idea that time, distance, and even direction aren’t constant is hard to accept when the observations and experiences of your whole entire life tell you that they are. “How does that work?!” You’ll wonder. But a kid… sure. “Why not?” They might say. Kids are learning new things about how the world works all the time. When I was 3, I thought the moon belonged in Michigan and that I wouldn’t see it anymore when we moved to Texas but was delighted to spot my old friend in our new state. Not confused, not incredulous, simply ecstatic. The point is, kids are used to unlearning assumptions in favor of reality because they have to do it on the daily. There’s no reason that shouldn’t extend to more complex topics like astrophysics. Big masses bend space-time? *shrug* Okay, why not? This makes light bend? Okay, why not? The Solar System has a lot more than the eight or nine planets and the asteroid belt? Okay, why not? There might be a hidden planet out in the Kuiper belt? Okay, why not? Stars collapse into black holes that nothing ever escapes from? Okay, why not? Blue is actually the hottest color even though we think of it as cold? Okay, why not?

Why? Not? 

A kid hasn’t yet built the instinct to automatically fight that “why not” with answers. “Well, I always knew-” They’re not gonna do that. Yesterday they learned that subtracting is adding with negative numbers and that leap years don’t happen once every 200 years. They have no reason to fight you on something that, in their perspective, has no reason to be more important than that. 

This is making me think of those posts about how all that “protect the children” rhetoric is actually ridiculous. Just straight-up saying you don’t want your kids to know about queer people is one thing, but disguising under the pretense that it’s going to be “too confusing” or an “adult” topic doesn’t hold up. No one’s saying teach a five-year-old how sex works, but acknowledging that two men or two women can fall in love just like mommy and daddy won’t do any harm. Acknowledging that some people don’t like the gender they were born with won’t do any harm. A kid knowing queer people can exist isn’t gonna scar them for life. It’s probably only the twentieth most confusing thing they’ve learned in the past day, let alone week. When you grow up learning that everything has to be exactly one way - that everyone is cisgender and straight and not queer in any way - that’s when you have trouble opening your mind to other possibilities. That’s when you say, “I’ve known this my whole life so it must be true.” But if you’re introduced to these ideas as a kid (to be ab-so-lute-ly clear, in an age-appropriate manner) - Okay, why not?

You're generally incredibly lgbtq+ friendly, so I have to ask, why is it that you consistently misgender the vessels?

I promise I'm asking in good faith. You trust me, don't you? I'm random anonymous person on tumblr, your most trusted confidant!

Very good question! And unfortunately with a good question the answer is a little complicated. But I'll do my best to try and explain Now I'm amusing that you're talking about how the Vessels are non-binary, if it's not, then I'm not sure what you mean. And if that's the case it's because I did not know I was misgendering them and legitimately do not know what you mean lmao But assuming the former is true. The answer is, because, at some point, I couldn't tell you when, but HKR became a different story then Hollow Knight. And quite a bit of that story is about the Dude Currently Haunting The Narrative, The Pale King In HK proper, The Pale King was *correct* about what he was doing. Moral implications aside, he did create void vessels that could trap or even destroy the radiance, he was trying to save his kingdom, no strings or frills or secret plots. That's what he was doing. The vessels are nb, because they are Void. They Were Built For A Job kind of like a machine. The Pale King just chose the wrong one. When The Hollow Knight started feeling, even if it was a little bit of love for his father, the machine broke. Despite it all, he was a good enough father that one of his kids loved him, and thus into downfall, and horrible tragedy. The Main Character Vessel, especially after turning the kings soul into the voidheart and being able to capture the Voids essence, was proof that the plan did, actually, work, it just took some more time. In HKR the pale king, spoilers, is kind of a Lying Bastard who is mostly interested in continuing his hegemony at any cost. He created children who he beveled were empty vessels that he could put anything into, that would continue to grow his empire. Charlie is not that. He chose a name and a gender for himself (and did for his compatriots too, even if they didn't entirely like it.) He was a person even if the world saw him, and constantly told him that he was a tool for his father's plans. (Big reason I'm lgbtqia+ positive is because I'm queer as shit myself, and so I got daddy issues that go STRAIGHT into the fanfic lmaooooo). when he got out of that he met several men that were kind, and caring, and honorable and he wanted to emulate them. Hornet did the very same thing except there were women around her, and that's who she felt most conformable identifying as. They're both extremely similar in that regard, but, like the siblings they are, took very different roads to the same destination. That's why I voice both of them! As for everyone else essentially immediately assuming Charlie and the rest of the vessels are male, That one is easy. Hallownest is a patriarchal society that used to be a matriarchal one, is bordered by matriarchal societies, many that it has subsumed into itself, and is, even after it's death, trying to assert cultural dominance. You know how it is. This sort of didn't really come up as a thing in the game, because the game wasn't terribly interested in that aspect of it's world and didn't really need to be. I'm just a freak about that sorta thing. So, I guess the main answer is, due to the theming of these two stories and how I sorta divested from cannon somewhere along the way The Knight is Non-bianry Charlie is not Now, does that mean that the other vessels might've been non-binary if they were given the same opportunities as charlie?, and charlie might be jumping the gun a little by just gendering them all as male? Yeah. But he's not the brightest bulb in the box. Or even thinking about any of this consciously. The only one who is, is Hornet. And she's only thinking about it in, like, an early 2000s girl power sort of way.

Hi, sorry if this is too out of the blue. I'm dying to ask this to someone I know, but I don't want to make them uncomfortable, and I'm also scared to say the wrong thing. Because I like them, romantically, this could be even more uncomfortable for them since they see me only as a friend (which hurts, but I understand, and I'm okay with just having their friendship).

So, I would rather ask someone else, maybe you, if you feel comfortable to answer.

This person is, as I understand it, asexual and aromantic. They do not feel sexual attraction (we discussed what we would do if a famous celebrity we follow let us do "whatever" or said they like us, and this person confessed they would never even kiss the celebrity), but also can't feel romantic attraction. This last bit was why they can't reciprocate my feelings, even if I checked all the boxes.

But here's my question. They say they are a lesbian. Can someone be a homosexual if they don't feel any sexual nor romantic attraction? And if the answer is yes, then what does make someone a hetero/bi/homo/anything-sexual?

This is a selfish question, and I'm also interested in an academic level, I think. But mostly selfish.

Sorry if it's too much, and thanks for reading.

it’s not bad that you have this question, don’t worry. i understand your confusion.

i can’t speak for the person you’re talking about or for everyone else who is aroace but i can tell you my perspective?

in my own case i identify as asexual and arospec because i’m sure im asexual but i’m not so sure how to describe my romantic attraction. i do know that when i do feel romantic attraction, in some rare cases, it’s for guys. i just never want to act on it so that’s what makes me feel a little confused but that’s besides the point.

the point is that romantic and sexual attraction are messy because they can be more than just wanting to date someone. like. someone could not want to date anyone and feel almost no attraction to real people but maybe when they picture a hypothetical ideal partner they always picture a woman, for some reason, but they will never actually find a woman that they would actually want to be with, it’s only an idea.

or an aroace person who would like to have a queerplatonic partner* maybe only would like to have a woman as a queerplatonic partner.

*a partner in life that feels closer or more intimate than a friend but maybe doesn’t check some boxes of what a romantic partner does, like marrying, having children, physical displays of affection like kissing, etc.

or maybe they feel like they’re more drawn to women when making close friends in general and they use the word lesbian to refer to the orientation of their platonic attraction because that aspect of their identity matters a lot to them.

the same could be said about aesthetic attraction instead of platonic. in this case finding women generally more pleasant to look at or maybe finding that beautiful women are attractive in the sense that you want to be close to them and you would like to appreciate them like a painting or something, in a way that good-looking men don’t make you feel.

anyway the idea is that there’s no set definition for what romantic and sexual attraction is or isn’t, so people interpret it in different ways, and people find some aspects of their identity more important to themselves than others, so maybe the little or hypothetical or platonic or aesthetic attraction they happen to feel for a certain gender is enough for them to choose a label like lesbian or straight or gay or anything in addition to identifying as aroace.

to me you sound very polite and genuine so maybe if you approach this person the same way that you did me they’ll understand your confusion and be open to explain how they feel, or at least tell you if it’s too complicated or too uncomfortable to explain, which is fine too.

it’s nice that you’re still respectful of their orientation and the boundaries they might have, even if you don’t fully understand how they define themselves. that’s the most important thing.

Candyman: A Book for Every Kid Who Won't Let Themselves Be Deceived (2013) by Nina Ljungberg and Anna Andersson

I'm not sure how to translate the title, since it's a (badly) play on word in Swedish. 'Snuskgubbe' means 'Dirty old man', but the author explained in her info text that she chose to change the label to a similar spelled word - 'Snask', which is an outdated word that means 'Candy', since these predators often use candy to lure away the children.

The story tells about a young child (the author said they're genderfluid but this child share eyelashes like the mothers, something the fathers are drawn without?) who one day gets candy from a strange man at the park, to sit on his lap. The next day the man shows up again and offer the kid more candy if they help look for his lost "puppy" in a nearby forest. In the forest however, he whip out his penis and try to make them touch it.

The terrified MC starts screaming and kicking, and able to get themselves away from the situation. The child runs home and tell the parents who both get furious (with the man) and calls the police, but MC is too traumatized to describe this predator.

Some days go by before MC feel brave enough to return to the park. And when they do, the man is there! The kid whispers to their friends who comes up with an idea - to gather hands and surround the man while singing a taunting song about how dirty this old man is. Rhyming and calling him the title of the book "Snaskgubbe". The adults calls the police and the man gets arrested.

The book ends with encouraging words to the readers, to learn this taunting song and never follow old men into forests alone.

Even though this is a really really really necessary kind of book, the execution absolutely need some major work. It only shows you that your first reaction SHOULD BE to make as much noise as possible. But the most general panic state is actually - freeze up! Not mentioning this could make the victims feel bad that their reflex reaction was not to kick and scream, what then?? You have to provide more options.

The "dirty old man" could also be a young person or a woman. I think putting emphasis on the predator being a stranger (not focusing on specifically a gender or age) would definitely expand the knowledge of who to look out for. Then the rhyming taunt to remember is just ridiculous, too complicated for a child and completely unrealistic with today's modern lingos. 2/5 stars

- - - - -

The Long Road to America (1983/2016) by Joan Sandin

Very interesting book about migration! We follow from the perspective of a Swedish farming family who's land is all dried up, leaving them to face a starving winter. They receive a letter though, an invention to move in with the father's sister in America where there's lot of food!

We then get to see every step of the way, from selling their belongings and house, to packing what they can carry. To the harbor where they wait hours to come aboard the right boat, and surviving the days long journey under deck (a couple people died because of the unhygienic conditions) to then reach a new home in America. This is a reprint, where the detailed beautiful illustrations have been lost pixelated :'( overall informative underrated story! 4/5 stars

I have to rant because I'm irritated and upset. I just saw a post, reblogged by what I thought was a blog interested in sciencey stuff and not much else, that was basically a criticism of Ketanji Brown Jackson's response to "can you define a woman".

It started off the way I would expect by talking about genetics and biology and how complicated those subjects can get. Typically women have XX chromosomes and men have XY, but there are a host of other combinations that present as one or the other as well as intersex people who can live as one or the other with medication or whatever.

Which is all (as far as I'm aware) true. Most women who are born female have XX chromosomes and most men who are born male have XY chromosomes.

The point where this post lost me is where it decided that the reason for all the other possibilities was Adam's fall from grace. As in the Christian understanding of the start of mankind. It explained that we used to live for 1,000 years but due to Adam's disobediance we now barely break 100. And that the other chromosome pairing are caused by God's wrath.

The last line really pissed me off though, because it says: "even if she mutilated her body to appear to be a man, all her work will be undone and she will face God as she is: a female."

What a slap in the face to every woman in history who has ever dressed up as a man, used a man's name as a psuedonym, or lived life as a man because the world they lived in would ONLY respect men. What a slap in the face to any woman in history who is blamed and shamed for jot being ABLE to "fulfill her duty as a woman" by being a mother and wife, for whatever reason. Not only that, but what a slap in the face to ANYONE who has ever struggled with their own identity (even outside of gender, just figuring out the kind of person you are) and how it fits into what other people see!

I'm a woman. I was born a female. I'm expected to marry a guy and pop out a couple of kids and be a caretaker. That shit makes my skin crawl. I don't like children and I'm honestly not too fond of the idea of marriage right now. And I have wrestled with what that means for who I am as a person in my family, in my community, in my workplace, and in my life in general.

It's not up to anyone else to tell you who you are or how you're failing at being that person. You are the ONLY person who knows yourself. If you are religious, you are the only one who can navigate how your religion informs your identity. I'm tired of seeing Christians arguing against being a decent person to others because they "aren't living the way God intended". Maybe not to you, and maybe not for your god. But the world is full of mythologies and religions that have vastly different beliefs, so maybe those people are living according to their own beliefs.

I don't know if this long ass rant is coherent, or if it even touches on all the ways that post pissed me off. The bottom line is: respect people's identities. I don't care about your religion or what your God will do. If you think he's going to punish me, don't worry about it. I'll deal with the consequences when I get there. Be nice to people. Respect their names and pronouns. Lend a helping hand if you're able.

Trans people, nonbinary people, queer people and all the other people you think are wrong don't need, want, or deserve your hateful rhetoric just because you believe some guy made everything a long time ago.

OBESITY, CAUSES, AND EFFECTS, PREVENTING OBESITY IN CHILDREN, TEENS, AND ADULTS

Dr. Rakesh K Srivastava

What Is Obesity?

The word obesity has become synonymous with being fat and unhealthy. However, this is not the whole picture. Obesity can be a measure of excess body fat that puts you at risk for developing weight-related diseases like diabetes and hypertension. But being overweight or even obese is not always bad for your health; it all depends on how you get there. 

A person may be considered as obese when their body fat percentage exceeds the normal range for their gender and height. Dr. Rakesh Srivastava wrote a complete book that explains what obesity is, what causes it, and its various types, along with its risks and solutions to tackle this problem.  

What Causes Obesity?

Obesity is defined as an absurd portion of fat in the body. It is caused by eating too many calories and not getting enough physical activity to burn those calories off. It can be difficult to lose weight if you are eating more calories than you are burning. Many people are overweight or obese. Obesity increases the risk of health problems like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, liver disease, and certain cancers.

The main causes of obesity are:

- Increased calorie intake: Eating high-calorie foods such as refined carbohydrates (sugars), sweets, junk foods, and saturated fats (found in dairy products and meat), along with a sedentary lifestyle, is the major cause of obesity.

- Insufficient amount of physical activity: People are spending more time working at desks and using computers. The lack of physical activity combined with an unhealthy diet contributes to obesity.

- Inherited traits: Some people inherit genes that make them more likely to be obese.

Different Types of Obesity

There are two types of obesity that you should know about. 

Central Obesity: This is mostly associated with abdominal obesity and is usually a result of excessive fat around your midsection. This fat can lead to serious health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and even certain types of cancers. 

General Obesity: This is the result of excessive fat all over your body. It is seen in people who have large thighs, arms, or calves. General obesity does not have as many health risks as abdominal obesity.

Effects of Obesity

Obesity is the leading cause of many chronic diseases including heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer, which can be fatal.  

Poor self-image: A poor self-image is a common effect of obesity. Some people are too embarrassed to go to a beach or a swimming pool. They are worried they will be judged by others because of their weight. 

Difficulties in daily activities: Excessive weight can lead to joint problems, making simple activities like climbing stairs or walking difficult. It can also affect your ability to perform certain jobs. 

Increased risk of heart disease: Excess weight increases the risk of coronary heart disease and diabetes. 

Increased risk of certain types of cancer: Excess weight is linked to an increased risk of certain types of cancers, including breast, colon, and endometrial cancers. 

Obesity prevention

Dr. Rakesh Srivastava is a weight-loss specialist, nutritionist, and endovascular surgeon with excellent credentials. Dr. Rakesh Srivastava says that one should be extremely careful about the diet when it comes to fighting obesity in childhood. You need to make sure that you have enough fiber and protein in your child’s diet, especially since they are growing rapidly at this age.”

Dr. Srivastava Rakesh has been featured in many international media, where he talks about his work on obesity prevention by using lifestyle modification techniques such as dieting or bariatric surgery along with conventional medical treatment like medicines or injections etc., which is ideally suited for children as well as adults suffering from severe obesity problems who need immediate intervention before their health deteriorates further due to complications associated with overweight conditions such as diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2), hypertension/high blood pressure (HTN/HBH), metabolic syndrome (MS), etc.

Obesity is the result of consuming too many calories and not getting enough physical activity to burn those calories off. Although it is an issue that affects people of all ages, it's especially dangerous for teens because they are still growing and need the right nutrients to help their bodies develop properly.

 If you are concerned about your weight, consult with your physician. They can help you come up with a plan to reach and maintain a healthy weight. And whatever you do, don't diet. Instead, work towards a long-term health goal like maintaining a healthy weight or exercising more.

Website: rksrivastava.com