The More I Learn, The Less I Know

Alexandra, 36, she/her, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Formerly the-ashen-phoenix, and alexandrasdreambook before then. I am white (British heritage), middle-class and mostly cis, but also autistic and a survivor of childhood emotional abuse. I'm almost definitely bi. I like Doctor Who (NOT the Moffat era), sci-fi and fantasy in general, video games (though mostly on PC), punk, some alternative/indie (especially '90s), darker electronic and some pop music, fashion (with an alternative bent, also historical and '60s-'70s fashion) and cooking. I am trying to become a youth worker, and have recently completed a Diploma of Youth Work. No porn or "looking-for-a-good-time"-type blogs (if your blog is full of those links advertising sex or "chat with horny girls" or similar, THIS MEANS YOU), please. I don't trust you not to reblog anyone's picture (including mine) who doesn't want it. You will be blocked. No, I don't want to be your sugar baby either. You'll be blocked too. So will empty blogs. I don't trust you.

[the-almost-fashion-historian]

day dress, c.1910-12 by unknown designer

this dress is made of silk velvet, silk taffeta and silk tulle

this dress can be found in: the Uffizi Gallery

[boymounter]

so many people don't understand how abelist it is to kill your brother with a rock

[homunculus-argument]

The human body's response to HRT is actually admirable in the sheer indifference. Just pure I Don't Give A Shit, I Just Fucking Work Here compliance to the new instructions. You can get testosterone injected straight into your body and it doesn't even question where that shit came from, coming back from a coffee break and just going

"Okay, everything seems to be in ord- oh fuck now what? Oh huh. Alright fine. New orders came in, cancel the menstrual cycle. Dig up the genetic balding patterns from somewhere, I don't fucking know they're buried somewhere in the dna. I'm greenlighting the growing-hair-on-your-toes thing. Yeah just cancel the ongoing maintenance processes, new orders came in so this is apparently what we're doing now."

[tanadrin]

genuinely i think a big problem with science education is we spend too much time in high school telling students DNA is like, the Magical Essence of an Organism.

dna is mostly just instructions for building proteins, and not very persuasive ones at that. it sits in the nucleus of the cell, and what happens after RNA transcription isn't any of its business. this is a good thing! it means we can override it sometimes when we need to (and when we know how). but a lot of rhetoric around DNA (and therefore gender and sex and morphological freedom in general) treats it like this Platonic sorcery that must be obeyed, lest we incur the wrath of the gods. and it's nothing so special!

[jackironsides]

[glowcowboy]

[cyberglittter]

williejane

[enchantedbook]

'Girl in a magic Forest' by Sergei Lodygin, 1920s.

[il-castagno-press]

A page of forget-me-nots from my current sketchbook.

[coquettexcherie]

Alice in Naugaland! David Klein art work for a Naugahyde campaign featuring the Nauga monster, 1960s

[history-of-fashion]

1777 Jean-François Gilles Colson - Portrait of Balthazar Sage

(Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon)

[gremlininho]

looking. at you

[mammalianmammals]

Waigeou Spotted Cuscus (Spilocuscus papuensis), family Phalengeridae, order Diprotodontia, endemic to Waigeou Island, Raja Ampat, New Guinea

photograph by Drem Wat

[packpack-killkill]

This young coyote was playing around in the dirt, digging and jumping around until he finally found the prize- a tissue or something 😂. It was almost dark, so a little challenging getting the shots. Los Angeles County, June 2026.

Coyote | Shannon Sommer

[photogdenography]

Itsy Scrabbler

Townsend's Chipmunk - Mount Si, WA

[herpsandbirds]

summer is lizard season !!!!!!

[iridescent-wildlife]

Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) male. Family Cardinalidae, order Passeriformes.

Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA. June 2026.

[hideki-koga]

タマムシ（Jewel beetle）

[herpsandbirds]

Little Tinamou (Crypturellus soui), family Tinamidae, order Tinamiformes, Valle del Cauca, Colombia

The tinamous are an ancient group of birds, related to ratites (ostriches, rheas, emus, and cassowaries).

Though they are not strong flyers, they are capable of flight.

They are shy and secretive birds.

photograph by Bo Larkeed