hello, i am alive (part 2)! i have a new tumblr where i mostly reblog and occasionally post art, it’s @temtemdesaratem​ 

can you at least give us link to where your active? Also glad you are alright I was worried

im mostly active in my ig and i sometimes post in ao3. both of my names there are verymerrysioux =w=

can you at least give us link to where your active? Also glad you are alright I was worried

im mostly active in my ig and i sometimes post in ao3. both of my names there are verymerrysioux =w=

Ahhhh!!! I'm glad you're still active! Are you cool with sharing your IG? I ain't too active there but I'd love to follow you!

https://www.instagram.com/verymerrysioux/ go wild >3o ❤

also like the flagged posts i have now are surprisingly accurately nsfw-ish. i would have been fooled by hoping the algorithm is good if the first flagged ones i had weren’t doodles of a literal baby.

i’m still alive, just doing it on IG

i logged in after like, a year-ish since i went mia and i felt guilty at one person asking if i was okay. maybe they’ll see this, maybe they won’t. if they do, i’m sorry for worrying you.

so yeah, i’m okay uwu;;;

i’m still alive, just doing it on IG

i logged in after like, a year-ish since i went mia and i felt guilty at one person asking if i was okay. maybe they’ll see this, maybe they won’t. if they do, i’m sorry for worrying you.

so yeah, i’m okay uwu;;;

“Your morals in fiction reflect your morals in real life!”

Some people’s do, but mine and many others don’t. Fiction can explore dark, dangerous, and twisted ideas without the risk of direct harm to others, so it’s inherently morally neutral. Some people are more directly empathetic with fiction than others, but your ability to empathize with a fictional character is frankly just not a good moral thermometer.

“Well, ok, but it’ll desensitize you over time!”

Research says no. Personal experience says no, too; I have been consuming dark fiction for over a decade, and my empathy remains perfectly intact.

“Your taste in fiction reflects your world view!”

Sometimes, and to a limited and inconsistent degree. You’re probably comfortable with things (like young teens fighting in open combat) in fiction that would be horrible in real life, right? Everyone’s threshold for where their suspension of disbelief ends is different. For some people it doesn’t exist, and they never view fiction as any more real than the average person sees a Barbie doll as an actual person. This is a function of our relationship with fiction, not our relationship with reality.

controversial opinion but i actually think twilight and fifty shades probably were a net good when it came to preventing real-world abuse, because they triggered really widespread conversations on what abuse is, how/why it happens, how it works and what it looks like. 

Let people grow.

When I was younger I was very right-wing. I mean…very right-wing. I won’t go into detail, because I’m very deeply ashamed of it, but whatever you’re imagining, it’s probably at least that bad. I’ve taken out a lot of pain on others; I’ve acted in ignorance and waved hate like a flag; I’ve said and did things that hurt a lot of people.

There are artefacts of my past selves online – some of which I’ve locked down and keep around to remind me of my past sins, some of which I’ve scrubbed out, some of which are out of my grasp. If I were ever to become famous, people could find shit on me that would turn your stomach.

But that’s not me anymore. I’ve learned so much in the last ten years. I’ve become more open to seeing things through others’ eyes, and reforged my anger to turn on those who harm others rather than on those who simply want to exist. I’ve learned patience and compassion. I’ve learned how to recognise my privileges and listen to others’ perspectives. I’ve learned to stand up for others, how to hear, how to help, how to correct myself. And I learned some startling shit about myself along the way – with all due irony, some of the things I used to lash out at others for are intrinsic parts of myself.

You wouldn’t know what I am now from what I was then. You wouldn’t know what I was then from what I am now.

It distresses me deeply to think of someone dredging up my dark, awful past and treating me as though that furiously hateful person is still me. It distresses me to see others dredging up the past for anyone who has made efforts to become a better person, out of some sick obsession with proving they’re “problematic.”

Purity culture tells you that once someone says or does something, they can never go back on it. That’s a goddamn lie. While it’s true that some remain unrepentant and never change their ways and continue to harm others, it’s important to allow everyone the chance to learn from their mistakes. Saying something ignorant isn’t murder. Please stop treating it that way. Let people grow.

i love cutthroat kitchen but bingewatching makes it really stand out how often alton brown refers to himself as ‘daddy’ and makes contestants wear spreader bars

The people cheering on the tear-gassing of innocent asylum seekers are also putting up their manger scenes on their front lawns this week

Why do women cry when they are angry?

Because they realize it’s illegal to murder you…and that shit is frustrating

Female, presenting nipples.

“It’s time to duel”? More like “it’s time for a public therapy session where I hold long and emotional monologues about my problems and occassionally play a card”.

I might be able to send an epub of play to you. It all hinges on if i can get it off my old phone

oh, wow, sure! no pressure though if you can’t, i still remember most of the things i was planning to do. dm me when you find a way and we can talk about how you’ll send it to me. =w=

Well I’m curious what folks who enjoy adult fanworks but condemn the OTW think about them now

Are we too harsh on progressive content? A book tries to explore and condemn bigotry but is blasted and boycotted for being ‘racist’ because it depicts racism. Are we crossing the line because criticism and calls for censorship?

Certainly all works should be criticized, but criticism is about reading and discussing the problems and debating them. I’ve written essays on why The Twilight Saga is racist, but I wouldn’t imply that anyone who reads or watches the series is themselves racist or shouldn’t even look at the series to see for themselves. I wouldn’t say anyone who disagrees with my criticism is morally wrong.

Art is subject to interpretation. Art isn’t like propaganda which pushes a message and should be morally judged for that message. Art isn’t like real life words or actions, which can be judged. Art is art. Novels tell a story. They are either well written or poorly written. They can be harmful and problematic, but since art is open to interpretation that is something to be discussed and debated, because in having these conversations the problems are bought to light.

Again, I support criticism. I think we should engage with all media with a critical eye. I think we should recognize that we live in a culture that is racist and sexist and full of other oppressive power structures and we should question when we see these power structures reproduced in fiction. We should see ‘what’s wrong with this picture’. But if instead of criticism we demand what amounts to ‘censorship’ by saying ‘if you read this book, you are a bad person’ or attacking publishers to stop books from being published in the first place  the end result is less conversations about what’s wrong with the picture, because no moral person should even look at the picture.

If we focus these efforts to censor on works that try to be progressive (a book that attempts to explore and condemn racism is called racist because racist characters say racist things, rather than criticized for condemning racism poorly) authors and publishers will be less likely to give us books with social justice themes or diverse casts. 

“One New York Times best-selling author told me, “I’m afraid. I’m afraid for my career. I’m afraid for offending people that I have no intention of offending. I just feel unsafe, to say much on Twitter. So I don’t.” She also scrapped a work in progress that featured a POC character, citing a sense shared by many publishing insiders that to write outside one’s own identity as a white author simply isn’t worth the inevitable backlash. “I was told, do not write that,” she said. “I was told, ‘Spare yourself.’

There’s no question that we need more POC authors. We shouldn’t hold up white authors for condemning fantasy racism when it’s harder for POC authors to find publication to tell stories rooted in their own experiences. There is no question that there are valid criticism to be made against “The Black Witch”, which I have not read but understand is a book with a bigoted protagonist who goes to a diverse university and learns to slowly question and unlearn her bigotry or ‘a book about racism for white people to tell them racism is bad, which shouldn’t need to be explained’. These are discussions worth having. 

However, if instead of saying ‘this is a badly written book, it tries to be anti-bigotry, but fails becaus X,Y,Z  and other reasons’ we say ‘this is an immoral book, and anyone who reads it is immoral’ (in harsher tones, you’re a bad person, and you should be shamed) then the message authors and publishers are getting isn’t ‘publish better books that include diversity and or social justice issues’ it’s ‘don’t touch diversity or social justice topics with a ten foot pole’. 

@shippingisnotactivism @shipwhateveryouwant

please read Nancy Friday and Brett Kahr’s works documenting tens and thousands of people’s sexual fantasies - especially women - and tell me again how fandom is some bastion of human depravity and not just like. a fairly normal distribution of kink and sexual interests in sexually mature humans