A Polite Melody

Hi there, I'm Enviri | early 30s | they/them | queer | disabled | freak | My blog name is in reference to my late dog Melody, who will always be part of me.

[a-polite-melody]

It’s legitimately triggering to me, getting people begging for money in my inbox. Especially the ways which some of them do it.

“$20-30 may not seem like much to you”

Oh??? You know my financial situation???

Fuck off.

If anyone’s curious why I basically never answer asks, it’s because my inbox is full of landmines for triggering stuff surrounding financial insecurity and I cannot handle it, and it only gets added to day by day with what are almost certainly 99% scams which are hoping to prey upon my empathy.

[tiktoksthataregood-ish]

[maimonideznuts]

The fact that geese manage to actually scare so many people is such an interesting example of the predator instinct to avoid a confident animal.

Because we are predators, and Geese are prey animals with hollow bones, no teeth, and no claws. What they do have are wings to make them look bigger and a fuck off attitude. That attitude works on most people apparently.

Just "I'm gonna getcha" and as a species we fall for it almost every time.

[gremlinwithakeyboard]

Yeah they don't have teeth but they do have serrated edges on their bills that can act like teeth. They also apparently have spines on their tongue.

Do Geese Have Teeth? (All You Need To Know)

Read about Do Geese Have Teeth? (All You Need To Know) on Birdfact.

An In-Depth Look At Goose Mouths - Berry Patch Farms

Geese are amazing waterfowl known for their unique mouths that have fascinated people for ages. If you're short on time, here's a quick answ

Probably still not much of a threat to adults, but they do have some tools to Get You with.

[kedreeva]

They do hit with their wings (which can really bruise), and they do absolutely have nails on those feet and they can cause damage with them.

But it's still funny that people are scared of them, because like... They're just not that big.

And "serrated" break is a bit of an exaggeration. It's ridged, there are bumps along the sides but they're made for grinding water plant stems, not chewing meat or anything. They have a pretty good pinch pressure, but of all the birds I've been bitten by, geese aren't high on the list of a threat.

But humans, as predators, want to avoid being hurt *at all.* Because an injury means not being able to hunt and not being able to hunt means potentially starving to death.

But geese are so so so easy to not get hurt by, and that's why it's funny.

[theeyesinthenight]

so what i'm HEARING is that i could disrupt the social order of a group of people I was in by charging the goose right back bc it objectively doens't hurt that bad?

[kedreeva]

I mean. You could if you're an asshole.

The best way to not get hurt by geese is to leave them alone and respect that they're living things that don't want to be messed with.

But they're also exceptionally easy to befriend, if you're not an asshole to them. The problem is most people don't know how to not be an asshole to geese. Therein lies the rub.

[kedreeva]

#many of the replies on this post were#very clearly written by a person who has never been chased by geese (via @itischeese)

You are 100% right, I have never been chased by a goose, not once in 41 years, because I wouldn't run from a fucking goose, and it cannot chase you if you don't run.

Geese are literally just animals. Here is me with one of my friend's geese many years ago.

They are not evil, they are not mean, they are not out to get you. They are animals. They are prey animals. They are defensive of their territory, their nests (because how would you like it if a giant invaded your nursery to look at your sleeping baby?? would you be super nice about it?? Would you gracefully and peacefully handle just Some Guy you don't know coming into your nursery against your will to look at and pick up your screaming kid?? like it's not even unreasonable behavior, people are just mad because it's an animal and they have weird beliefs about animals all having to allow human interaction), and their mates.

but they are literally just animals.

I would never be chased by a goose, because I don't run, but also because I leave them alone. And the few times I have had to interact, I was polite and they responded in kind.

A mated pair with 8 goslings in the narrow road I needed get down? PRIME candidates for being the "mean goose" everyone claims exists.

Yet, they moved politely out of the road when I got out and shooed them to the side, and they brought their muppet kids over to say hello when I greeted them properly. I gave them a few goose-safe treats and went on my way. No chasing, no attacking, no biting. One of the parents hissed a few times, but still bowed back when I bowed first.

I saw a lone goose in an Aldi parking lot earlier this year, and I brought over a cup of water and set it down, then backed away. It kept its distance while I was setting the cup down, but waddled right over to drink once I backed off. Didn't hiss once. Didn't chase me. Didn't try to get me.

Like, it's literally so easy to not be hurt by geese. I'm not talking out my ass; I've interacted with or been near so many geese and I've NEVER seen an actually aggressive one- only geese being harassed by humans into a provoked reaction.

I'm sorry to the people who got chased by one as a four year old or whatever and never recovered, but that's a you and/or your parents problem for bothering or allowing you to bother wild animals. Calling geese evil and nasty and mean because your parents allowed you to act inappropriately around animals as a toddler is an anthropomorphization that continues a cycle of wildlife harassment, because people feel justified in harassing "bad" animals.

And acting like I (or others) only think geese are not mean because I've never been chased by one is an excellent example of having fallen for their defensive mechanisms, as well as an excellent example of the attitude people have about geese that leads to people harassing and consequently getting attacked by geese.

So again..... leave them alone. You'll find them a lot more pleasant, and they'll like you a lot more.

[xiaq]

I’m fifty papers in to this round of grading. Please enjoy a selection of out-of-context comments I’ve left on students’ papers so far:

Further updates as warranted.

[xiaq]

Important update as we hit paper 70. 

Memo to all college writers. If you’re going to write a paper on country music for a born-and-raised Texan professor, make sure you’ve got your facts straight. 

[xiaq]

And with this, I conclude my first round of freshman grading. Hallelujah. In general, I’m quite proud of the work they turned in. Importantly: not a single person failed.

[crittaslink]

I gotta hand it to sandler that this scene is exactly what listening to that song feels like.

[tboy-cock]

we all understand that gender is a social construct, which is true! but consider: sex is also a social construct

[twisted0lli3]

This is a really good example of how TERFs disguise their attacks against trans men, and why it’s so harmful to consider TERF attitudes towards trans mascs as infantilizing.

The post is made to appear sympathetic to the man they are mocking. “Look at this poor ‘girl’ and how he’s mutilated himself” sounds sympathetic, especially to trans people who are subjected to aggressive, direct attacks on their identities and humanity.

But this performative sympathy is just a front so that TERFs can enjoy being cruel without appearing as the aggressor. This allows the audience to still enjoy the pleasure of engaging in cruelty while dressing it up as pity.

This plays into the broader tactic TERFs deploy with trans mascs.

Rarely ever do they confront us directly the way they do with trans women.

In fact, because they see us as women, their primary objective is to make sure we are never ever heard at all, so that they can maintain the narrative that none of us would ever transition of our own free will.

Instead, they poison the well. They talk to our “handlers”. Our parents, our doctors and psychiatrists, our husbands, boyfriends, our pastors.

The veneer of sympathy is not to appeal to trans men. It is to appeal to those they see as having ownership over us. When trans men fight back against this, the malice comes out in full force.

Trans men do not get attacked less. The attacks are simply not recognized as such, because even in protesting oppression, we place it on a hierarchy.

[pocketdogs]

this does not look like a real animal. this is a peanut

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

View this post on Instagram

[instagram link. if click on, there captions in video. text of video transcript at end of post]

recently, CBS news did interview with bill villafranco, executive director of myFace, an organization for people w facial differences. interview also include Andy, person with facial difference, but never asked single question, which make them into token while also ignoring them. at same time, some of villafranco’s responses (someone without facial difference too) reduces experiences of people with facial differences.

the FaceOut project, led by members of facial difference community calling for apology & change from myFace and villafranco.

please sign this petition to support them! they also go into their responses n demands in more detail here: https://www.change.org/p/tell-myface-to-adopt-community-led-representation-policies

video reposted w permission.

transcript of video:

Recently, an interview was aired on CBS News featuring one Bill Villafranco.

[CBS anchor: For seventy-five years, one New York-based organization has been quietly changing lives and doing incredible work.

Joining us to mark this milestone is myFace Executive Director Bill Villafranco.]

Bill is the Executive Director of myFace,

an organization whose mission is to empower people with facial differences–people like me.

People like me.

People like me.

And people like myFace's social media director, who was also in the interview.

[CBS News: Bill, welcome. Andy, welcome.

Thank you.]

But there was a problem-

a HUGE problem!-

the only person with facial difference, was never asked a single question.

Not one.

Not one.

Not a single one!

We in the Facial Difference and Disability community

know that we deserve better.

We deserve better.

We deserve better than to be tokenized and used as a prop.

We deserve to be included in the conversation,

and have our lives be represented as they truly are.

[CBS anchor: So when you look back on that time, what makes you most proud, or what stands out to you the most?

Bill: The commitment that we have, to ensuring that every person with a craniofacial difference, who lives in loneliness, can find us.]

Excuse me?

Huh?

[Bill: Just a quick story, you know- we go to the supermarket, we feel so overwhelmed,we love it there, we love what we're doing; an individual with a facial difference, when they walk into that supermarket, there's stares and stares and stares and stares.]

Many in the community are afraid, they don’t wanna be out and be bullied, they don’t wanna be out and seen.]

Seriously?

Ugh. This may be news to Bill,

but people with facial difference do not necessarily "live in loneliness."

Nor are our lives defined by how we’re perceived.

These are the stereotypes and narratives that can take hold

when members of our community are not part of the conversation.

Part of the conversation.

Part of the conversation.

Not just part of the conversation-we are the conversation.

This is why we're standing up to Bill Villafranco and the myFace organization,

and urging them to not only apologize to the community,

but also take a cue from the Disability Rights Movement, which says loud and clear:

Nothing about us without us.

Nothing about us without us.

Nothing about us, without us.

Sign our petition today and tell myFace:

Nothing about us, without us.

[Screen text: Sign our petition!

created by: The FaceOut Project

editor/composer: Kei Otake

special thanks: Adam Pearson]

end transcript.

[wiionme]

[universeleads]

I explained the concept of "blorbo from my shows" to my 71 year old immigrant grandfather because I referenced it in passing and I thought nothing of it, until today when he said "I think I'll watch peaky blinders tonight and see my blorbo from my shows" referring, of course, to Cillian Murphy playing Tommy Shelby

[universeleads]

English isn't his first language so he's not super in touch with modern slang, so I've been accidentally teaching him to talk like a tumblr user. His favorite thing to say lately is "me when I'm a little hater" when he's like talking shit about the neighbor's son

[overwhelmedfernfrond]

I explained the “x before gta6” meme to my immigrant father and he, in turn, explained to me how back in his day in Romania, they had the same type of joke, except instead of it being gta6, it was about the imminent death of a singer named Gică Petrescu, who everyone was continuously shocked by because he refused to die. Every time a momentous event happened people would say, in essence: “This happened and Gică Petrescu hasn’t even died yet?!?”

So. He understood the gta6 meme immediately because they apparently had the same thing in Romania when he was young, except way, way more morbid

[venort]

OP are you telling me we got the death of Gică Petrescu before we got gta6

[dragon-in-a-fez]

during my dissertation proposal hearing one of my advisors said "I think you might have been too harsh in your criticism of this theory" and I genuinely, innocently asked "what makes you say that?" and he said "well on page 27 you used the phrase 'should be consigned wholesale to the dustbin of history'" and I was like oh. yeah I guess I did that. fair

[donthitanybody]

Tomska going hard on Twitter again.

[i-might-be-vanny]

[transand]

The reason people will say “I hate men” instead of “I hate misogynists” when misogynistic behavior and attitudes is supposedly the justification for hating men, is because they cannot grapple with the fact that women enforce misogyny almost as much as men — sometimes even equally or moreso than men depending on the specific situation. Mothers who police their children into performing their assigned gender “correctly” are one of the more obvious examples and it’s something I rarely see feminists trying to genuinely reckon with.

Misogyny enforced by women is too often handwaved away as “internalized misogyny,” and misogynistic women are shown more sympathy and more easily forgiven because they’re victims of the same system they’re enforcing. In contrast, men who are lifelong victims of misogyny (e.g. trans men, intersex men, queer men in general) are rarely given this same grace and in fact are often subject to even harsher scrutiny than their pericishet male peers. This also applies to trans women who, despite being women, are heavily scrutinized and accused of being more misogynistic than cis women due to the myth of “AMAB socialization.”

So when you say that you hate all men because men are taught to be misogynistic, you are very conveniently glossing over the fact that EVERYONE is taught and incentivized to be misogynistic, including those who are targets of misogyny, because that’s how systemic bigotry operates. Desperately clinging to oversimplified models of systems of oppression is rarely more than a flimsy excuse to avoid looking inward and examining whether or not you yourself may be participating in the very thing you claim to fight against, as we have seen time and time again with radical feminists proving themselves to be raging misogynists unwilling to examine their own behavior. I agree that it would make things a lot easier if we could easily sort people into groups of who is safe and who is dangerous based on simple identity markers, but unfortunately we live in the real world and as feminists we have to have room for nuance and self-examination if we want to tackle complex issues like systemic misogyny.

[spicerzz]

of course detransitioning and being a cis woman is going to seem like a privilege to the group of people that really really really wish they were born as cis women. Can we stop taking that line of thinking seriously now.

[genderkoolaid]

The transandrophobia brainrot has hit tiktok hard. There's a sound going around right now that uses the T slur in a reclamatory way, but whenever a transmasc person uses the sound people lose their minds saying it's transmisogynistic for them to use that word. But when cis male drag queens use the audio it's a slay.

My answer to those people is Get Kate Bornstein'd:

Tranny. Many people don’t know the history of the word, they assume it was an assigned hate term or slur along the lines of the “n” word. That’s not how it happened. Tranny was invented by us in Sydney, Australia in the 1970s where drag was a big deal, and still the best drag shows ever are in Sydney, Australia – they’re amazing. So a lot of trans-identified women who were assigned male at birth did drag, that’s how you made your living. And so they were transsexuals, transvestites, drag queens, and they were all doing drag to make money. They all bickered amongst each other who is better than who, “Well the drag queens are better,” “No, the transsexuals are better.” “You are all freaks, we’re better.” And on and on and on. But they worked together and they were family together, so they came up with a word that would say family and that was tranny. In Australia they do the diminutive, that’s how they come up with words. So tranny. I learned the word in the mid-1980s, late 1980s from my drag mom in San Francisco, Doris Fish, who was the city’s preeminent drag queen and she’d come from Sydney. And she schooled me in this word tranny, she said, “This way it means we’re family, darling.” “Thank you mama.” [...] So we used it and we were trannies together. And F to M was just beginning to start, the trans men were just beginning to become visible, Lou Sullivan was a neighbor of mine around the corner, and he was the first big out trans man, wrote his book. So trans men and cross dressers . . . cross dressers were also family. Transsexuals, we were all trannies and that felt good. That got into the sex industry and became a genre – there was tranny porn, there were tranny sex workers – chicks with dicks, she-males. [...] And, my only guess is that people who . . . because the only way they would have found out about the word is if they were watching tranny porn or having been with a tranny sex worker and then hated themselves so much that they turned it into a curse word. So it’s not really technically correct to say we’re reclaiming a word – it was always ours. So, many people mistake the word for the hatred behind the word and, in my generation, and I’m sure in future generations of trans people, tranny is going to be a radicalized, sexualized identity of trans in the same way that faggot is a prideful identity in the gay male community – not all gay men are faggots, but those who are are proudly fags and those who are dykes are proudly dykes within the lesbian community, trannies are proudly tranny within the transgender community. Does that mean we can’t call ourselves that because some trans woman does not want to be called a tranny? No. I’m going to keep calling myself a tranny. To the trans woman who gets called tranny, I’m sorry – as soon as . . . you’ve got to look at why you’re getting called tranny and if you don’t pass, you’re going to be read as a transgender person and then you fall back on the cultural view of trans folk which is freak, disgusting, not worth living, we can hurt you. It has nothing to do with the word, it has everything to do with the cultural attitude. So the word has stirred up a shit storm, but it’s not the word.

^ From this interview

Four weeks ago, Bear posted a call for submissions on his blog. In the interests of keeping the call as open as possible, we agreed to include as many trans-identities as we knew, so we used the word "tranny." And that's where the activist shit hit the postmodern fan base. People have been pissed. Here's their argument: FTMs are co-opting a word that belongs to MTFs. The word "tranny" belongs to MTFs, reason those who were hurt by our use of the word, because it was a denigrating term reclaimed by MTFs—ergo, only MTFs could be known as trannies. I spoke with Bear, and we agree that’s wrong on several counts:

Tranny began as a uniting term amongst ourselves. Of course it’s going to be picked up and used as a denigrating term by mean people in the world. But even if we manage to get them to stop saying tranny like a thrown rock, mean people will come up with another word to wound us with. So, let’s get back to using tranny as a uniting term amongst ourselves. That would make Doris Fish very happy.

It's our first own language word for ourselves that has no medical-legacy. 

Even if (like gay) hate-filled people try to make tranny into a bad word, our most positive response is to own the word (a word invented by the queerest of the queer of their day). We have the opportunity to re-create tranny as a positive in the world.

Saying that FTMs can’t call themselves trannies eerily echoes the 1980s lesbians who said I couldn’t use the word woman to identify myself, and the 1990s lesbians who said I couldn’t use the word dyke. 

At one phase in the evolution of transpeople-as-tribe, it was the male-to-females who were visible and representative of trans to the rest of the world. They were the trannies. Today? Ironically true to the binary we’re in the process of shattering, the pendulum has swung so that it's now female-to-males who are the archetypal trannies of the day. The generation coming up beyond the next generation, i.e. my tribal grandchildren are the young boys who transition to young girls at the age of five or six. They’re the next trannies. None of us can own the word. We can only be grateful that our tribe is so much larger than we had thought it would be. How to come together—now that’s the job of the next generation of gender outlaws.

^ From Who You Calling A Tranny?

We've been having this debate forever and its been stupid forever.

And its an increasingly outdated debate. More people know about trans men&mascs than ever and there are plenty of trans men&mascs who have been called tranny by transphobes who don't give a shit about this distinction. And not just people who have been mistaken for transfems, either, but men like Andrew Jonathan Blake-Newton and Saye Skye who were attacked by people who knew them. Do they have more or less of a right to say tranny than a trans girl whose never been called it by a transphobe? (Neither. Because no one owns this word.)

[theslimeologist]

this is such a great image. yknow? like this is really how it feels