Still in my cringe-tumblr era

•💚🖤

[boyswillbeboxes]

Thinking today about a post I saw some time ago about how wearing glasses shouldn't be considered a disability because it's "socially acceptable" and also about how I haven't been able to update my prescription for 2 years because I just cannot afford an optometrist visit or new frames.

I understand the impulse to say bad vision doesn't count because glasses are such a normal part of our society we don't even think of them as a disability tool anymore, bur the fact is if something happens to my glasses, I am Fucked. I can't drive. I can barely do everyday tasks. Working is going to be impossible. Even if I scrounge the money to get new frames, I have to wait WEEKS for them to arrive. And what happens to me in that time frame? Nothing good, I can tell you that. I literally need this tool to function on a daily basis, because my vision is bad enough to seriously disrupt my life without them.

If anything, glasses are a great example of what society could be if we took MORE disability seriously. If we had actual tools so readily available and normalized you saw them everywhere. But that doesn't make me not disabled, because the minute I lose access to that tool, I can't function.

[txttletale]

‘children should not be exposed to literature about bigotry, violence, etc because they’re Not Prepared For It’ is like one of the most privileged opinions you can possibly have. i hate to tell you this but a lot of children face bigotry and violence in their daily lives! for children of colour and children who are victims of abuse and children in poverty, these things are Actually Happening to them In Real Life! what you are advocating for when you say children should be shielded from these things in media is for the white children with stable loving nuclear families to be shielded from acknowledging the lived realities of their peers!

[rednines]

[thedreadvampy]

male gaze is not 'when person look sexy' or 'when misogynist make film'

death of the author is not 'miku wrote this'

I don't think you have to read either essay to grasp the basic concepts

death of the author means that once a work is complete, what the author believes it to mean is irrelevant to critical analysis of what's in the text. it means when analysing the meaning of a text you prioritise reader interpretation above author intention, and that an interpretation can hold valid meaning even if it's utterly unintentional on the part of the person who created the thing. it doesn't mean 'i can ignore that the person who made this is a bigot' - it may in fact often mean 'this piece of art holds a lot of bigoted meanings that the author probably wasn't intentionally trying to convey but did anyway, and it's worth addressing that on its own terms regardless of whether the author recognises it's there.' it's important to understand because most artists are not consciously and vocally aware of all the possible meanings of their art, and because art is communal and interpretive. and because what somebody thinks they mean, what you think somebody means, and what a text is saying to you are three entirely different things and it's important to be able to tell the difference.

male gaze is a cinematographic theory on how films construct subjectivity (ie who you identify with and who you look at). it argues that film language assumes that the watcher is a (cis straight white hegemonically normative) man, and treats men as relatable subjects and women as unknowable objects - men as people with interior lives and women as things to be looked at or interacted with but not related to. this includes sexual objectification and voyeurism, but it doesn't mean 'finding a lady sexy' or 'looking with a sexual lens', it means the ways in which visual languages strip women of interiority and encourage us to understand only men as relatable people. it's important to understand this because not all related gaze theories are sexual in nature and if you can't get a grip on male gaze beyond 'sexual imagery', you're really going to struggle with concepts of white or abled or cis subjectivities.

[qillermeme]

[digital-magus]

FINALLLY! I've been looking for a way to say this for ages, THANK YOU!

[tparadox]

A while ago I was about to say that the only thing he invented was stealing credit for other people's inventions, but then I realized that Thomas Edison beat him to that.

like there’s this whole thing in this book about how your brain grows stronger and healthier by practicing responding to stress in healthy ways,

because if a stressor is predictable and you feel a sense of control over it, you habituate and stop reacting to it,

but if it’s random and unpredictable you have the opposite response and become sensitized, so your reaction actually gets more and more extreme.

(if you hear a loud noise at predictable intervals you’ll soon stop noticing or reacting, but if you hear it at random intervals you’ll become sensitive to it and anxious.)

so one way to help people who have adverse reactions to reminders of trauma is to give them control over how they’re reminded of the trauma,

because it helps the brain practice responding to stress in a safe way so you can habituate to the stress response.

which is why if someone tags something for a trigger and you still choose to look,

it’s actually an act of healthy resistance against your reaction to that trigger (because it teaches your brain to habituate),

but encountering something triggering in a random and unpredictable way actually increases your stress response and makes you more sensitive to the trigger.

so people who are against trigger warnings because “you have to learn to cope” are actually taking away your tools for learning to cope,

because encountering stressors in a way that further strips you of control over your trauma is never, ever helpful.

it’s a lot of stuff i kind of knew but integrated and explained with more context and science

[readableposts]

[spaces added and brief caps removed for accessibility]

[lylylylylylylylyly]

i only talk to three people everyday and one of them is me

[redsatinsheets]

feminism never taught me to hate men but it did help me realize that i shouldn’t prioritize them over women & it turns out that alot of men consider that to be hatred lmao.

[alwaysgettingwhatyouwant]

i hate when people ask me what sign i am like bitch i’m a sign from god. start running.

[stimman4000]

“but there’s no reason for this character to be gay” do u think irl gay people are gay to advance a plot dude

[asexual-in-distress]

So...um... there is like 1,000 of you guys now. So thanks! I didn’t think this would happen.

[almightyalicia]

[adhd-hippie]

[ID: Tweet from Jannele @jannele_Jimenez that reads “If you can’t handle me at my worst then you sure as hell deserve a break from me.  My emotions are not your responsibility, and I understand that you need to care for your own mental health, and if I threaten it’s stability, there’s no need to feel guilty.  I know you did your best.”  End ID]

[wholeheartedsuggestions]

eventually you realize you don’t want to die. you just don’t want to live the life you’re living. and slowly you try to create a life you want to live. just gotta start there.

[wholeheartedsuggestions]

no one needs to add “sounds fake but ok”, “no”, “well, not me”, “impossible”, etc. to this post. and i’d rather you not.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

"you're using your illness as an excuse" I'm using it as an explanation

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

"you're using it as an excuse for bad/lazy behavior" I'm using a scientifically-recognized medical condition to explain my real symptoms that you (a person who is not my healthcare provider) have decided to dismiss with a moral judgement

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

"you're using it as an excuse not to try" I'm using it to understand why trying so hard for so many years has not allowed me to keep up with my peers, while damaging my health, my self-esteem, and leaving me traumatized.

I'm using it to explain why "trying harder" was never an adequate replacement for the medical treatment & support I should have received sooner.

LISTEN TO ME. I am using my illness to understand why I struggle to exist in a world that was built against people like me. And I am trying to pass that understanding onto you, if only you would believe me.

[bareniabirkin]

The only person who can give me everything is myself

[enigmaticpink]

So do you like villains because they're cool, or because it's cathartic to see characters completely lash out against the world for their trauma and abuse and just be angry for all their pain in a manner that doesn't actually affect anyone since it's all fictional.

[enigmaticpink]

Third option is that they're just hot

[suffer-my-beloved-mutuals]

All of the above

[thexfiles]

i love women. in the feminist way and in the gay way. happy international women’s day