Hi! I'm Ash! [PT: Ash] I am a minor. Mod of @this-is-infantilization and @this-is-lookism. To see my possible biases and blind spots I'm white from Catalonia, disabled, gender non conforming, aroace and afamilial. This blog is dedicated to things I deem important politically and morally sometimes linked to my favourite media. With critical/literary analysis, and sometimes fanart/fics. [PT: With critical/literary analysis, and sometimes fanart/fics.]
If you want to see only my analysis of media they're in the tag #4shtronomy's analysis [link], if you want rants analyzing issues in the world/in general they're in the tag #4shtronomy rants [link].
Also for unrelated/personal rants #ash rambles.
But I want to leave some things clear in here:
My analysis aren't to be taken as perfect. I'm human, and so I make mistakes. Important to note that a lot of my writing is done in one sitting or two.
If you disagree with my takes if you're respectful and counterargument it with constructive criticism I'm more than fine with it. I encourage it even. [PT: I encourage it even.]
I also encourage you to add things to my takes.
My takes are not the absolute truth. You should still read them with the addition of other takes to try to make your own opinions. I want this to be a space to be able to practice media literacy.
I don't limit myself to character arcs or plot holes. I try to go with full contextualization with history, culture, subtext, stereotypes and more.
I do have a strict DLDR policy with fan stuff. I won't do any critical analysis on any fanfiction that doesn't explicitly ask it. Unsolicited advice with things that are done for enjoyment for free is a dick move
My fanart is just that, it'll reflect in some ways my ideology but it won't be part of any actual analysis I do. I just like drawing.
My fics are fine. They're not perfect by any means, my creative writing skills need work. But they will reflect my ideology a lot more than fanart, and any asks about some of those decisions are more than welcome.
My rebloggs are analysis of media, politics/ethics or fanart I especially liked!
This is not a safe space for racism, homophobia, classism, ableism, sexism, colorism, transphobia (exorsexism/transmisogyny/transandrophobia), intersexism, colonizer ideology, fascism, alterhumanisia, paramisia or any kind of discrimination.
[PT: This is not a safe space for racism, homophobia, classism, ableism, sexism, colorism, transphobia (exorsexism/transmisogyny/transandrophobia), intersexism, colonizer ideology, fascism, alterhumanisia, paramisia or any kind of discrimination.]
I really wanted to see MCR in Madrid, but it wasn't a possibility for me because of accessibility as I cannot be standing up for long periods of time and it was a festival (and a lot of other issues like overstimulation, heat regulation, etc).
So a friend of mine while there as they could go, remembered that I asked if they could buy any merch from there for me (I would pay it back, but I really wanted to have something to remind me of them coming here), and they did!
Like I know how crowded and emotional one can get when seeing something you love! So if they forgot I would've completely understood (or if it was sold out too). But they remembered!!! :'D
Overview of some topics when it comes to drawing characters who are burn survivors.
DISCLAIMER. Please keep in mind that this is an introductory overview for drawing some burn scars and has a lot of generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People. I'm calling this introductory because I hope to get people to actually do their own research before drawing disabled & visibly different characters, rather than just making stuff up. Think of it as a starting point and take it with a grain of salt (especially if you have a very different art style from mine).
Talking about research and learning... don't make your burn survivor characters evil. Burn survivors are normal people and don't deserve to be constantly portrayed in such a way.
Consider supporting me on ko-fi if you find this to be helpful.
Edit: How are people seeing this post where I specifically talk about burn survivors being normal, real people, and still tag this as "TW body horror"? Not a single one of these drawings or pictures is a fresh injury. All of them are healed. How the hell would you feel if someone tagged a photo of you as "trigger warning: gore"?
Disabled people are not your fucking body horror. Grow up.
Overview of some topics when it comes to drawing characters who are burn survivors.
DISCLAIMER. Please keep in mind that this is an introductory overview for drawing some burn scars and has a lot of generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People. I'm calling this introductory because I hope to get people to actually do their own research before drawing disabled & visibly different characters, rather than just making stuff up. Think of it as a starting point and take it with a grain of salt (especially if you have a very different art style from mine).
Talking about research and learning... don't make your burn survivor characters evil. Burn survivors are normal people and don't deserve to be constantly portrayed in such a way.
Consider supporting me on ko-fi if you find this to be helpful.
Edit: How are people seeing this post where I specifically talk about burn survivors being normal, real people, and still tag this as "TW body horror"? Not a single one of these drawings or pictures is a fresh injury. All of them are healed. How the hell would you feel if someone tagged a photo of you as "trigger warning: gore"?
Disabled people are not your fucking body horror. Grow up.
Tutorial on drawing characters/OCs who have some sort of facial paralysis. It doesn't cover all possible variants because I was using mirror as my main reference lawl
Keep in mind that this is an introductory drawing tutorial and has some generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People 👍
Consider supporting me on ko-fi if you find this to be helpful.
Seeing a blog that claims to be supportive of paras and then seeing ‘proshipper dni’ in their bio like
Come on
It’s just feels weird?? Like, you want paras to get better and not harm anyone, but then you shame people for liking ficton that may or may not even pertain to their paras. Fiction that could be their only outlet to curb urges safely
I dunno but theres something weird about that
This is paramisia.
Honestly, I think the whole "proshipper/antishipper" argument is such a waste of time. I think both sides make good and bad arguments, and that they both lack nuance in many cases, and end up steering into "fiction is completely harmless" and "it is immoral for fiction to ever portray harmful topics", both of which are such black-and-white thinking.
I think that instead of having these ridiculous arguments, we should focus on advocating for better safety precautions for children using the internet that doesn't cut off adults from exploring fiction.
For example, creating websites that are actually SFW and don't have comment sections or messaging (so even if adults use the site, they can't actually speak to the children using it.) Or, if you really want commenting/messaging to be a thing, have a list of pre-approved symbols or phrases that can be selected between, sort of like an AAC machine.
These websites could have games that can be enjoyed by kids, videos that can be enjoyed by kids, and so on, all with actual moderating teams.
In this hypothetical, the only people who can upload these games or videos are pre-screened and approved by the moderating teams, no videos or games go out unwatched/unplayed by adults, etc, etc.
And then once a kid reaches teen years, and wishes to integrate to the wider internet, there should be required videos (with captions and full descriptions to be disability friendly) that you have to watch, discussing grooming and red flag behavior, internet safety, etc, before you can make an account.
Of course, I also think legal guardians should be responsible and teach children these things themselves, but realistically that won't always happen, so I think the best solution to make sure teens actually get informed is to put these measures in place.
I do disagree with "it really doesn't hurt anyone if you think about it", for two reasons.
Reason 1 - some people engaging in this fictional content start experiencing worsened mental health. Fiction can be an outlet to some, and a curse to others. It depends on a person-to-person basis. (Warning signs for that here [link.])
Reason 2 - Fiction is one of the widespread ways that propaganda is created and spread, hence why positive representation matters so much, and why there's so many old cartoons, comics, etc that feature problematic caricatures and stereotypes. Even modern propaganda and stereotypes exist within currently produced fiction.
However, that being said, there is a difference between fiction that spreads problematic viewpoints, and darkfics where the person creating the art acknowledges the content is morally questionable or immoral when applied to reality.
I also don't think darkfic content should be wiped off the web. I think it deserves a space, a category on websites, one that can be easily opted into/out of by users (ie; a flip you can switch in the settings on a website that says "turn on dark content mode" or something along those lines.) I say this because it's super annoying trying to find fictional content and being jumpscared with dark content when thats not what youre in the headspace to see.
Blocking tags doesnt always help either, because a lot of people dont properly tag their content. So it would be nice if sites had a "mode" people can switch on to post their dark content, that way if they forget to tag properly, its at least got SOME level of precaution, because they already are on the "dark mode."
To add to all of this - censorship is an act of authoritarianism. Full stop. Saying one particular topic should be censored opens the door for people to find ways to accuse you of creating said content, and getting you censored as well.
Cater your internet experience to yourself. Your mental health matters. But don't act like content you personally dislike or find distressing should be censored or wiped off the internet. Block tags, block keywords, do your responsibility of making a safe space for your own mind. Don't go out and attack people who make content that doesn't suit your safe space.
People should tag their content properly. People should have spaces to post potentially distressing content. That's something I fully believe. But censorship is not and never will be a successful form of protection.
Education and curated spaces are how you protect people.
I'm honestly just really tired of black and white thinking on the internet. People always try to turn everything into "sides" and it just tires me out. Most subjects of what is morally or psychologically "correct" cannot be easily put into two opposing sides.
Yeah, fiction can be a legitimate form of therapy. It just depends on the paraphile. For some it worsens their mental health, for others it improves it, and I wish people would just stop with their pro-censorship bullshit.
Over 100 million children are homeless and/or on the streets.
[PT: Over 100 million children are homeless and/or on the streets /End PT]
That's the numbers estimated back in 2015, and regardless of whether they've grown or shrunk since then, the issue still remains that there are MILLIONS of minors on the streets.
Homelessness and street survival is an intersecting issue for people of all marginalized groups, and that includes the youth.
Homeless youth are very likely to be sex trafficked and targeted by dangerous people to be groomed into criminal activities or otherwise unsafe practices.
Many homeless youth are runaways, usually trying to escape abusive households.
Note for clarity: "Children" and "kids" throughout this post will be referring to teenagers as well, since minors of all ages are grouped together in these statistics.
---
What is homelessness and street children?
[PT: What is homelessness and street children? /end PT]
Homelessness is defined by a lack of stable housing. This includes living without shelter, in a tent, in a car, in a homeless shelter, couch surfing, or using public locations/transport for shelter.
"Street children" are children who spend a majority of their time on the street due to housing complications. Some of them are not considered "truly homeless", because they technically have a house, but this house is usually inaccessible or unsafe for them, and thus they do not reside in it much, if at all. Usually, they only spend the night there, but the rest of their time is spent outdoors.
When discussing the statistics of both these concepts, I cannot neatly discern between them, because so many of the studies use the statistics interchangeably. Street children have very few distinctions anyways, and thus trying to separate the two is usually not beneficial anyways.
---
What are the statistics of homeless youth and street children around the globe?
[PT: What are the statistics of homeless youth and street children around the globe? /end PT]
Around 30 million children in Africa are homeless/on the street.
There is no overall consensus on how many children in Asia (including The Middle East) as an entirety are homeless/on the street, however it is estimated to be quite high, with individual locations being given statistics (Bangledash having 445,000 homeless/street children, India having 11 million, Pakistan having 1.5 million, Indonesia having over 170,000, Iran having anywhere between 60,000-200,000, the Phillipines having 1.5 million, Turkey having 88,000, etc.)
There is also no overall consensus on how many children in the Oceania are homeless/on the street, however Australia estimates around 76,000, and New Zealand estimates around 33,000.
Around 400,000 children in the EU (European Union) are homeless/on the street. There is no overall consensus on how many children in Europe as a whole (not just the EU) are homeless/on the street, however individual countries also have statistics.
Over 1.2 million children in the USA are homeless/on the street. Over 40,000 children in Canada are homeless/on the street.
Around 40 million children in Latin America are homeless/on the street.
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What ways do homeless youth and street children suffer?
[PT: What ways do homeless youth suffer? /end PT]
A higher risk of sex trafficking, rape, assault, and kidnapping.
A higher risk of child labor/slavery.
A higher risk of being poisoned or suffering from oral, throat, or gastrointestinal system damage (as malicious people often put poison, razors/glass/sharp objects, and other dangerous things into the food provided to the homeless.)
A higher risk of sexual, reproductive, urogenital, and gastrointestinal disorders/infections.
A higher risk of respiratory disorders.
A higher risk of nutritional disorders, growth disorders, and starvation.
Higher rates of substance use and addictive disorders.
A higher risk of mental health disorders.
Low or no accessibility to hygiene products or showers/bathing (which significantly increases risks of infections and diseases.)
And, of course, a higher likelihood of death and grave injury, due to weather conditions, untreated disease/injuries, hate crimes, overdose, and/or suicide.
---
What about intersectionality? How does that affect homelessness and street survival?
[PT: What about intersectionality? How does that affect homelessness?. /End PT]
Note: Whenever the discussion of employment comes up, we think it is important to remember that:
1- Unemployed adults can have children, and thus, the children in the equation will be effected.
2- Teenagers can also get employed in a majority of locations, and in many countries even minors younger than that, meaning their incomes could be contributing to housing as well.
The most obvious - being low income often risks loss of housing. Hell, being "average income" doesn't even afford housing anymore for most people, in the current financial crisis. Classism and homelessness go hand in hand, and the refusal to provide for the lower class their basic needs is the direct cause of homelessness.
Being a foster kid. Discussion:
Being a foster kid greatly increases the likelihood of homelessness, due to the foster system being notoriously abusive, and not providing minors with the proper funds, stability, and education necessary to survive in life. In the USA alone, 23,000 people age out of foster care a year. 25%-50% of those who age out end up homeless. Now imagine the statistics of that worldwide, of how many people are ending up homeless the moment they turn 18 (or younger, in countries where legal adulthood begins sooner)?
Additionally, minors will often run away from foster homes, because it is unsafe for them there. They wish to escape the abuse. A depressing fact is that a majority of sex trafficked youth are from foster care, usually runaways who were living on the street to avoid abuse.
(You can read our post about the statistics of foster kids here [link.])
Being disabled. (Note: Some of these statistics leave out emotional, behavioral, personality, or other mental disabilities, and also often leave out "small" physical disabilities, so the statistics may actually be higher if all disabilities were included.) Discussion:
We could not find any overall statistics on the intersection of homelessness and disability in Africa and Asia, unfortunately.
However, disabled people in Africa often suffer forced evictions and are more likely to be impoverished, and we did find statistics on specific locations of Asia (ie; 42% of homeless people [including adults] in Nagoya Japan are neuropsychologically disabled, 15% of homeless people [including adults] in Hong Kong are physically disabled, in South Asia 85% of disabled people [including adults] are unemployed which greatly risks homelessness, etc.)
We could not find any overall statistics on the intersection of homelessness and disability in the Oceania as a whole, however we did find statistics in Hawai'i, Australia, and New Zealand. in Hawai'i an estimated 62% of homeless people [including adults] are disabled. In Australia, an estimated 9.5% homeless people [including adults] are disabled, and 8.9% have an unknown disability status. In New Zealand, 4.1% of homeless people (including adults) are disabled.
We could not find any overall statistics on the intersection of homelessness and disability in overall Europe, however in the UK alone, 35-39% of homeless people [including adults] are disabled (and for comparison, only 20-22% of the overall UK population are disabled.)
In Canada, there is no minor-specific statistics for disability, however 50-60% of the overall homeless population (including adults) are disabled.
In the USA, 19% of homeless K-12 [pre-college] students are disabled (and for comparison, only 14% of the overall USA student population is disabled.)
We could not find any overall statistics on the intersection of homelessness and disability in South America as a whole, however in Latin America, disabled kids are 15% more likely to not attend school (and those who do attend are more likely to drop out), which inherently leads to employment issues down the line (and thus, housing issues) Additionally, 1 of every 5 households in extreme poverty houses a disabled person. And in some locations, people with disabilities are more likely to be unemployed (ie; in Argentina 91% of disabled people are unemployed), earn less money in work (ie; in Mexico and Costa Rica, disabled people earn 20% less than their abled peers), and/or have no insurance (in Ecuador, 84% of disabled people have no insurance), which can cause or exacerbate housing issues.
Being queer. Discussion:
In Africa, we could not find any statistics of the overall intersection of being LGBTQIA+ and homelessness, however homelessness is highly reported by LGBTQIA+ people (especially youth.)
We could not find any statistics of the overall intersection of being LGBTQIA+ and homeless in Asia, however we did find a few for individual Asian locations (ie; in Singapore 20% of LGBTQIA+ people [including adults] experience homelessness, in the Philippines 12% of people who are 15-25 are homeless, In Japan 4 in 10 LGBTQIA+ people struggle with housing, in India there is a hidden housing crisis within LGBTQIA+ people, etc.)
We could not find any statistics of the overall intersection of being LGBTQIA+ and homeless in the Oceania, however we did find some statistics for Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, queer-oriented people [including adults] are twice as likely to be homeless than nonqueer-oriented people, and 1 in 5 trans & gender diverse people aged 18-25 suffered homelessness (unfortunately we cannot find a statistics for people younger.) In New Zealand, 2.6% LGBQTIA+ people who are 15 and above are homeless, and unfortunately there is not a clearcut estimate on minors under the age of 15.
In Europe, 17.39% of LGBTQIA+ people [including adults] have been homeless, with 1/3rd of intersex people and 1/4th of trans people being homeless.
In the USA, LGBTQ+ minors are 120% more likely to end up homeless. They make up roughly 30-40% of homeless youth (and for comparison, only 9.5% of the overall population are LGBTQ+)
LGBTQ+ minors of color have an 83% higher risk of homelessness than their white peers. 44% of Indigenous LGBTQ+ youth, 16% of LGBTQ+ Asian & Pacific Islander youth, 27% of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth, 26% of Black LGBTQ+ youth, and 36% of multiracial LGBTQ+ youth have experienced homelessness.
38% of trans girl youth, 39% of of trans boy youth, and 35% of non-binary youth have experienced homelessness (compared to 23% of non-trans & non-gender diverse homeless queer-oriented youth.)
39% of intersex youth have experienced homelessness.
In Canada, 25% of homeless youth are LGBTQIA2S+ (and for comparison, only 5-10% of the overall Canadian population are LGBTQIA2S+.)
We could not find any statistics on the overarching intersection of LGBTQIA+ and homeless in South America, however we did find a few in specific locations (ie; 30-40% of homeless youth in Brazil, 30-35% of homeless youth in Argentina, 30-35% of homeless youth in Colombia, 25-30% of homeless youth in Mexico, 15-25% of homeless youth in Chile, etc)
Being a person of color. Discussion:
We could not find any statistics on the overarching intersection of race and homelessness in the Oceania, however we did find some individual statistics for Hawai'i, Australia, and New Zealand.
In Hawai'i, 28-50% of homeless people [including adults] are Native Hawaiian.
In Australia, 1 in every 3 Indigenous Australian is homeless.
In New Zealand, 31% of homeless people [including adults] are Māori, and 6.6% of Pacific Peoples [including adults] (and for comparison, 17% of the overall New Zealand population are Māori, and 8% are Pacific peoples.)
We could not find any statistics of the overall intersection of homelessness and being a BIPOC, however we did find statistics in the England, Ireland, and the EU specifically. In England, Black people [including adults] are 4x more likely to be homeless than white people. In Ireland, 15% of homeless people [including adults] are Romanian, and 6% are Black.
In the USA, Hispanic high schoolers are 2x more likely to experience homelessness than white highschoolers. Black highschoolers are 2.25x more likely to experience homelessness than white highschoolers.
Black and Hispanic people [including adults] make up 64% of the homeless population. Pacific Islanders [including adults] have the highest rate of homelessness in the USA. Native Americans [including adults] have the second highest rate of homelessness in the USA.
In Canada, 10-30% of homeless youth are Indigenous and 15.4% are Black (and for comparison, 5% of the overall Canadian population are Indigenous, and 4.3% are Black.)
We could not find any statistics of the intersection of race and homelessness in Africa or South America, unfortunately.
Other. Discussion:
In the USA, 17% of English learners (which are usually immigrants) in K-12 [pre-college] school are homeless (and for comparison, 10% of the overall student population are English learners.)
Being in areas of the world subject to war, genocide, political violence, and environmental disaster. Discussion:
16% of the population in Sudan had to flee their homes due to conflict.
90% of Gaza [including adults] are homeless right now.
46% of homeless people [including adults] in Ukraine became homeless due to the invasion costing them their homes.
Venezuelan immigration has led to a disproportionate amount of homeless Venezuelans in South America.
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Sources
[PT: Sources /End PT]
General:
Trends and dynamics of homelessness in Hong Kong: evidence from population survey in 2015 and 2021
Housing & Homelessness [link]
Global Homelessness Statistics [link]
Street Children - By Country [link]
Street Children and Homelessness [link]
28 Million Children Homeless [link]
Nearly 50 Million Children Uprooted Worldwide [link]
The Truth of Life in Accra (about Africa) [link]
The Health Profile of Street Children in Africa [link]
Street Children in Asia and the Pacific [link]
Street Children of South Asia [link]
5 Facts About Child Homelessness In India [link]
Understanding the Heart of Homelessness In Hawai'i [link]
Strengthening the European Child Guarantee to address Child Homelessness [link]
Statutory Homelessness in England [link]
Shocking Extent of Family and Child Homelessness in Australia [link]
Our Hidden Child Homelessness Problem (New Zealand) [link]
2023 Census Severe Housing Deprivation (Homelessness) Estimates (about New Zealand) [link]
Nationwide, More Children Live in the State of Homelessness than in Most American States [link]
The "Street Children" of Latin America [link]
Student Homelessness: Quick Facts and Resources for Governors (for the USA) [link]
Disabled homelessness sources:
Challenges and Struggles Faced by Persons with Disabilities Across Africa [link]
Forced Evictions and Disability Rights in Africa [link]
Prevalence of Mental Illness, Cognitive Disability, and Their Overlap Among the Homeless in Nagoya, Japan [link]
Trends and Dynamics of Homelessness in Hong Kong: Evidence From Population Survey in 2015 and 2021 [link]
Disability In South Asia [link]
People With Disability in Australia 2024 [link]
Disabled People Are Disproportionately Affected by Homelessness – And Getting support Feels Nearly Impossible (UK) [link]
Invisible Intersections: Disabilities and Homelessness (Europe) [link]
People With Disabilities in Latin America [link]
Disability In Latin America [link]
LGBTQIA+ homelessness sources:
Global Crisis of LGBTQ+ Homeless Youth: A Call for Inclusive Policies and Accurate Data [link]
Safe Homes for African LGBTQ+ Youth [link]
Experiences Of Conflict, Non-Acceptance and Discrimination are Associated with Poor Mental Well-Being Amongst LGBTQ-identified Individuals in Singapore [link]
2024, Philippines National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People [link]
4 in 10 LGBTQ+ People in Japan Still Face Report Housing Barriers [link]
The Hidden Housing Crisis Within India's LGBTQ+ Community [link]
Housing & Homelessness Transhub (Australia) [Link]
Homelessness Australia LGBTIQ+ People [link]
LGBTIQ+ Experiences of Poverty (Australia) [link]
LGBTIQ+ Population of Aotearoa New Zealand: 2023 [link]
Intersections Report: Homelessness (EU) [link]
LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness (for the USA) [link]
LGBTIQ+ Population of Aotearoa New Zealand: 2023 [link]
LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness (for the USA) [link]
LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness & Housing Instability (for the USA) [link]
Intersex Youth Mental Health Report (for the USA) [link]
2SLGBTQ+ and Homelessness (in Canada) [link]
Homeless POC sources:
Paradise for Tourists, a Struggle for Natives: Native Hawaiian Homelessness in the Hawaiian Islands [link]
Out of Sight is Not a Solution (about New Zealand) [link]
Australia National Homelessness Facts [link]
Racism and Racial Inequality Within the Homelessness System Needs Recognition and Action From Government (England) [link]
Homelessness, Race and Ethnicity Research Programme Finds Shocking Evidence of Inequalities (UK) [link]
Census of Population 2022 Profile 6 - Homelessness (Ireland) [link]
Rooted in Trauma: Homelessness in Native Communities (USA) [link]
State of Homelessness 2025 (USA) [link]
Racial Inequalities in Homelessness by the Numbers (USA) [link]
Racism and Homelessness (USA) [link]
Young People of Color Facing Homelessness (USA & Canada) [link]
Aboriginal Homelessness In Canada [link]
Black Communities and Homelessness (in Canada) [link]
Other sources:
Sudan's humanitarian crisis: The facts and figures [link]
Crisis in Gaza: What to Know and How to Help [link]
46% of Those Experiencing Homelessness in Ukraine Lost Their Homes due to Conflict, Report Finds [link]
Four Years of War in Ukraine: Childhood has ‘Moved Underground’, Displacement Continues – UN humanitarians [link]
Ukraine - Street Child [link]
A Latino Learning About Homelessness in Latin America [link]
Venezuela Situation [link]
Venezuelans Sleep in Cars and Under Trees as They Question Where They’ll Live After the Earthquakes [link]
Namaygoosisagagun First Nation/Collins has burned to the ground. The entire community is nothing but ashes after being quickly consumed by wildfires. They did not have any support from emergency services, and no one offered aid. The community saved themselves by escaping into boats because no one came.
Mishkeegogamang and Cat Lake have lost power. Families are ending up in shelters with nothing. Armstrong, Lac La Croix, Whitesand, Gull Bay, Lac des Mille Lacs are currently in the fires path and all members are being evacuated.
All this loss, all this devastation, and it was entirely preventable.
After steadily underfunding wildland firefighting and purposefully excluding Indigenous wildland firefighters and Indigenous wildfire organizations from wildfire operations, firefighter training, decisionmaking, and resource exchanges, in 2025, Doug Ford slashed the forest firefighting budget.
It's hard to ignore his decision to cut funding and leave us out of adequate fire training (even though we've lived with forest fires for thousands of years—far longer than settlers have been in Canada—and made sure fires like the ones we're all seeing today were prevented through kinisitotēn) when, despite making up less than 5% of the population, we account for 42% percent of all wildfire evacuations in Canada.
And when we are successfully evacuated, we face discrimination and racism—like Kashechewan—because it's always been easier to blame us than it is to blame the true culprit: denialism, corportate greed, and colonization.
The people of Collins and every other impacted community deserve better.
Right now, the AFN is currently accepting donations to help Collins First Nation. If you're able to, please consider donating.
ONWA (Ontario Native Women's Association) is another great place to donate to. They have outreach vans going to motels and inns and offering food, water, resources, and cultural support to those impacted by the wildfires.
Other places to consider donating to are Mikinakoos Emergency Fund, Red Cross, True North Aid, Indigenous Climate Action. You can also send donations directly to Whitesand First Nation via e-transfer ([email protected]) and they request that you add your full name in the e-transfer comment section to receive a tax receipt.
*Before sending money, verify that the appeal appears on an official First Nation, Tribal Council or registered charity channel.
If you can't offer financial support, please consider donating items of need. Moontime Connections is currently accepting drop-off donations. If you live in the Thunder Bay area, Namaygoosisagagun Health Office is also taking in donations! They can also bemailed to Superior Inn Hotel & Conference Centre at 555 West Arthur Street, Thunder Bay, ON, P7E 5P8.
One thing I hear a lot about is that trans women and transfems who support the ideas of transunity do not have a space to discuss transmisogyny, since the main transmisogyny tag is overtaken by users who engage in lateral transphobia and are often hostile to these trans women and transfems.
Does anyone have any ideas what to do about that? Perhaps a more specialized tag? I would like to hear suggestions, primarily from those who feel personally affected.
Personally, I think using the term anti-transfemininity could be useful for the same reason as anti-transmasculinity. It emphasizes what is being targeted (perceived transmasculinity or transfemininity) while leaving room for transunity's basic idea that all forms of transphobia involve misogyny, misandrogyny, and misandry.
Obviously transphobic misogyny still plays a major role in anti-transfemininity, but the same goes for anti-transmasculinity and exorsexism. It seems like this could be a good move to step away from the cissexist idea that only women are targeted by misogyny, or that only men are targeted by patriarchal stereotypes of men & masculinity. As someone whose transmasc and transfem, I experience both transphobic misogyny and transphobic misandry in distinctly anti-transmasculine and anti-transfeminine ways.
this! I've also been growing increasingly fond of the idea of just using the tags regardless of the harassment that might ensue. as more positive, non-transphobic conversations use that tag, it drowns out the hatred eventually.
I tend to just use the transmisogyny tag for that very reason. We don't want the term transmisogyny to be considered a term used only by hateful trans people who engage in lateral transphobia. I tend to use it regardless and I haven't really faced much harassment from TRFs.
intellectual disability be singular diagnosis give to people who struggle with intellectual functioning & adaptive functioning (e.g living skills), rated from mild to profound. it affect everything every single aspect about person.
(UK: learning disability, not to be confused w specific learning disability or UK term learning difficulty. so far only find UK use this term difference.)
intellectual disability often comorbid with autism - different source n study say different things but many place say 30% or more autistic ppl have intellectual disability.
autism (& adhd, specific learning disability like dyslexia, down syndrome, cerebral palsy, etc) be part of wider umbrella called developmental disability (DD).
(technically, intellectual disability also a developmental disability. but because so many other developmental disability comorbid with ID, & ID affect everything single aspect of person, ppl often give it extra emphasis, abbreviating both of them as intellectual / developmental disability (I/DD))
intellectual disability experience & intellectual disability activism need center actual intellectually disabled people / people with intellectual disability. whenever autistic people without ID mistake autism as “an intellectual disability,” it speak over people with ID. it decenter people with ID from their own word / experience / space.
people insulting & mistreating you as autistic person without ID by confuse you with or compare you to people with intellectual disability cry, are saying you “just as bad”, n not mean you affected in same way as people with intellectual disability.
things targeting people with intellectual disability target people with intellectual disability first. they be most affected.
you can (& should) advocate for group of people you not without claim to be one of them. but most of time when people do this, they not even advocating.
autistic people without ID (and people without ID in general) need stop derailing things about people with intellectual disability.
while looking for that other book i also found this google doc titled race and ethnicity in classics pedagogy: a starter pack. it showed up in my firefox suggestions so i must have visited or saved it a while ago but i only vaguely remember it. but it has links to a bunch of resources on the topic (some of which i've posted/reblogged here before). obviously aimed at educators but it's mostly articles that would be useful to anyone.
in my post abt tumblr's porn ads I said something like "I don't care much about the fact that I'm seeing porn rather than that we as users can't post it but advertisers can". and a few people have reblogged with tags like "I DO care about seeing porn/I don't want to see it and I shouldn't have to/I also don't care but would love not to flashbang people" all of which are true and fair. but friends, colleagues. I put that line in there to keep swerfs away from the post. it is all too easy for anything which is ostensibly complaining about porn to be dragged into that sphere and lauded as proof that the world is porn addicted and degenerate.
I am a porn creator who considers porn & sex a significant part of my artistic expression. when I say I'm not bothered by seeing porn on dash, I mean ideally I would be seeing much more of it from real people. but even if this wasn't the case, I consider the naked body a neutral object to look at - it doesn't disturb me and I am concerned at the amount of people who seem disturbed at seeing any amount of nudity on their screen.
so let me be more explicit. the problem with the porn ads is not the porn, it's the ads. it's the fact that advertisers can post things that users can't. it's the inability to filter out the content because it is an ad and is not beholden to the same TOS or labelling rules as users are. it's the fact that many of the ads are for AI services, showing AI generated skinny white women (further pushing the needle on the extreme fascistic, white supremacist body image issues people are developing) in lieu of paying real life sex workers.
it's cool and fine that you would prefer not to see explicit porn in your day-to-day life. but you need to know that repeatedly, compulsively reinforcing this desire when I'm trying to talk about a problem of capitalism and censorship of expression does in fact position you nearer to the censors than it does to me and other sex workers.
i can't see my mutual's boobs on tumblr. i also can't see a sex worker's boobs on tumblr. but if Age Of Elf War Gambling Scam wants to show me digital elf titty, i will see those titties seventy times in a row, and if i complain i will be told to buy a paid subscription to tumblr.
porn isn't the problem, consent is. advertisers telling us we can't show our tits OR avoid seeing theirs is an incredibly stupid situation to be in.
the zendaya thing isnt even a new phenomenon by any means!! the article mentions margot robbie wearing the taj mahal diamond as well, and in addition to that i also want to remind people that diljit dosanjh's request to wear the patiala necklace for the 2025 met gala was denied by cartier because they said it was in a museum and could not be loaned. however they had no issues at all loaning it to emma chamberlain, a white woman, for the 2022 met gala, while they turned down the request of a punjabi man who wanted it to honor his heritage.
this behavior is nothing new. the global south and everything in it - the people, the culture, our heritage - is seen as nothing more than a decoration or commodity to colonizers. i don't even need to bring up the koh i noor or the entire british museum; these examples are recent and egregious enough on their own.
of course this is not to imply that any of the people involved here - zendaya, margot robbie, or emma chamberlain - had any sort of malicious intentions. but the ignorance is just as bad in my opinion. the ignorance is just as harmful, if not more. because it means we are not even an afterthought. it means that the real people and histories and heritages of the global south do not even register when these people are putting together looks for their movie premiers and met gala appearances. everything is just reduced down to a shiny piece of jewelry whose history they need not bother with. it's just a continued reminder of the way colonization affects us all even long after independence, of how barely-healed wounds keep being reopened even decades later. even now, we are being denied connections to our histories and heritages while they are freely being given out to those that have nothing to do with it and don't care for it. and i'm sick of it.
ICE is attacking immigrants for now, but their goal is to subjugate all of us. Fighting for our neighbors today is a way of fighting for ourselves tomorrow.
Map the infrastructure that ICE depends on. Publicize their vulnerabilities. Popularize simple, reproducible ways to impose consequences every time that ICE inflicts harm on a community. Don't just react to their attacks—choose the time and place of confrontations. Take the initiative.
"If we know, and do nothing, we are worse than the murderers hired in our name.
"If we know, then we must fight for your life as though it were our own—which it is—and render impassable with our bodies the corridor to the gas chamber. For, if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night."
-James Baldwin, writing to Angela Davis while she was in captivity, November 19, 1970
I'm bothered by this idea that someone cishet could NEVER date someone who's nonbinary. There ARE heterosexuals who are okay with dating someone queer in general. And someone monosexual can be attracted to someone nonbinary.
Because frankly sexuality doesn't give a fuck about human labels and cannot be confined by how YOU think it should be because it's a SOCIAL CONSTRUCT. It doesn't matter if it's contradictory.
Whats the difference between true youthlib and rebranded child predation?
true youth liberation acknowledges that the treatment of children in our current society is oppressive and discriminatory, and believes that you can and should treat children with the same amount of respect and dignity that you give adults, and that as children people should have access to their rights and have autonomy in a way that isn't just the huge raffle of "Will I have Good parents or Bad parents?"
true youth liberation understands that you don't have to be "mature" or "fully developed" (you are always developing) to require respect and autonomy. true liberation acknowledges that children are still children who are still learning about the world, hold ignorance, and cannot make informed consent decisions (this is especially true of younger, prepubescent children). they can't choose to be a part of a family channel, they can't choose whether they need education (this is referring to skills that would lead to them having informed consent in the future, such as reading, basic maths, and the development of critical thinking skills. this doesn't refer to the education system), and most importantly, they can't choose to have sex with an adult. true youth liberationists are very against the idea of biological children "consenting" to sex with adults, because they cannot. anything close to that is sexual assault, and any child "consenting" to sex with an adult was likely groomed and coerced to say that. The same goes for large age gaps between children because of their physical and mental development over time, such as between a nine year old and a 15 year old. true youth liberation believes in sex education for children as young as they can begin to comprehend it, consisting of knowing genitalia, how to keep it clean, who should be touching it and why (no one without your consent, and the only people who should be touching are doctors and your guardians for medical purposes only, with you able to revoke it), etc. There's nothing wrong with children knowing about the basics of sex as an action/activity at that age in my opinion, they just don't need to developmentally until they are pubescent
child predation under the guise of youth liberation uses the fact that children are people to say that children are as mature as adults and can consent to sex. they believe that saying a child can't is adultist and underrating their mental capacity, when we have studies to show that children are not mentally developed for large age gap relationships at that age. child predation takes advantage of the fact that children are naturally curious about their bodies, including in a sexual nature, and uses that to justify adults using their bodies for sexual purposes. it is the same form of manipulation you see non-youthlib predators using for children, the "you're so mature" "you can handle it" "this is just what people do when they love each other" and the fact that as a grooming tactic, they will make the child feel autonomous and respected in ways that our adultist society will not allow for.
basically: children may be people and sex may be natural for people, but that doesn't mean that all people are ready to have sex the moment they can say "yes." a lot more goes into that.
