Via (she/her) • there are no side blogs we spam like men • I don't really tag consistently but will on request • header by darkandstormyart • cohost: @crossedwithblue
do you ever want to gently float up to someone and whisper “this isn’t a debate; i am actually educated on the subject and i’m telling you you’re wrong”
Yes and I would also like to gently float in general.
i love when boomers complain about shit like this because as a fast food worker i would literally rather walk out into the lobby and shoot myself in the head than suggest more than one menu item to a customer
Man no one even remembers laptop in bed. It was laptop in bed for years. Now it's just phone in bed. Maybe tablet. But usually phone. So much has changed
Transphobia is about to be signed into law in the UK. We can fight this.
I am begging the UK trans community and its allies to attend the Mass Lobby at Parliament on June 25th, 11am-4pm, organised by Trans Solidarity Alliance.
Last year we broke the record for an LGBT+ mass lobby of Parliament. Will you help us break it again? Join us on 25th June 2026 to demand be
The new EHRC Code of Practice pushes trans people out of toilets, hospital wards, and community spaces. It normalises gender policing based on appearance and stereotypes. It becomes statutory guidance in the UK by the end of June.
Trans people are now legally their assigned gender at birth and must join gendered spaces accordingly, but if they are perceived as their lived gender, they can also be ejected from those spaces. The guidance says: either break the law, or don’t pass too well.
A mass lobby is where you invite your MP to discuss your concerns with you in-person. Ask your MP to:
Demand full parliamentary scrutiny, debate, and use their free vote on the EHRC Code of Practice.
Support any motions rejecting the EHRC guidance. As of June 4th, Labour MP Nadia Whittome has submitted a prayer motion - Early Day Motion 240.
Write to Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities about our concerns
Your MP does not have to be an ally, they do not have to respond to your email for you to show up and greencard them (details below the cut.) What matters is that as many people as possible show up.
I cannot stress this enough: Showing up in person matters. It is much more effective than petitions, emails, and letters.
It is a horrible, stressful time, and I am so sorry if you're trans and live in the UK. But I was at last year's mass lobby and the line for greencarding alone stretched around the back gates. It was a record breaking mass lobby and made us impossible to ignore. Let's do even better this time. Details under the cut:
Worried about what to say?
Bring your personal worries about transphobia being signed into law, and trans friends being excluded from public spaces. You are a living person who deserves dignity. Remind your MP of that. You will also get guidance and brochures from Trans Solidarity Alliance that outlines our demands. This is mine from last year.
Money issues?
Trans Solidarity Alliance provides a travel bursary that you can sign up for via the link.
Got a refusal or no response from your MP?
Come anyway! You can request a same-day appointment with your MP through a process called greencarding. They will come and see you if they’re already in Parliament. Even if they don’t, they’re made acutely aware of your cause because you showed up in person. This is my greencard from last year.
Here is the EHRC Code of Practice in full. It's a tough read, but some highlights are:
Organisations can’t provide trans-inclusive, single-sex services, or they risk being sued for discrimination.
e.g. domestic violence support for women including trans women, men’s rugby group including trans men (12.68).
Trans people will have nowhere safe to pee.
If you’re a trans man, businesses can't allow you to pee in the men's, and you can also be ejected from women’s bathrooms if you’re perceived as a man. Vice versa for trans women. EHRC suggests a ‘third space’ bathroom, which is discriminatory and unworkable for most businesses. (13.130-133)
Sports organisations must exclude trans people from single-sex competitions (13.73).
A women’s only sports competition must exclude trans women because of their biological advantage or face potential lawsuits (13.74), but a trans man who has undergone testosterone treatment can also be excluded based on fairness rules (13.81).
Trans women are stripped of the legal definition of ‘lesbian’, and therefore no longer have legal protections if they’re discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation. (2.50, 2.92).
Here is the Good Law Project's better explanation of the EHRC Code.
I have also made a PDF printout of QR codes for the government petition, email your MP tool, and mass lobby link to pass around your communities. DM me and I'll send it to you.
I've talked about this at length already but I really don't like that adaptations repeatedly make the monkey mute when that's not the point! It's not the point at all! He talks! We're told and shown multiple times that he talks!
We just don't get to hear him!
Sometimes it's described with monkey sound words sometimes like chitter, but we see that with Pan and other daemons too. But he is talking to her.
Northern Lights, after saving Lyra from intercision.
In the cave at the beginning of the Amber Spyglass
Directing her as she flies the Intention Craft to the Clouded Mountain.
There is only one moment in the entire trilogy when we are allowed inside, to hear what he says.
When they are alone at the Adamant Tower,at one of their lowest moments, when they are confused why Asriel would show them the craft. A singular moment when their guard against the reader is lowered, just for a moment.
But adaptations keep taking it and turning it into a failure to communicate BETWEEN them. A sign of internal strife and conflict, but it fundamentally mischaracterises their relationship.
They communicate just fine. But they have only had each other to rely on for so long, they allow nobody in. They are entirely closed ranks, because Marisa has seen what happens when she lets people in. She does not trust anyone, because she knows how easily trust turns to betrayal. She knows that her role as a beautiful woman in a society that restricts, dismisses and reviles women is constantly at risk. She has lost everything once before, and it has taught her to hide everything about herself that is not useful. She uses her beauty like a blade, she is as deeply decietful as her daughter, and her willingness to be cruel makes her useful to the Magisterium as long as it is wrapped neatly in a bow of experimentation or interrogation. She plays the role of femininity precisely as far as is desirable: being attractive, fashionable and desirable, yes, but never soft. Never domestic.
Everything about Marisa is held tight, upright. Contained. Everything is calculated, her plans, her appearence, her behaviours. The monkey is the only thing that gives her away. He is her hot anger, where she must only be cool and detached. He screams, attacks and pins and almost pulls Pan's ear off while she calmly arranges flowers and tells Lyra to kiss her cheek. He slowly pulls apart a bat, limb from limb, so very like she watched behind laboratory glass as childrens souls were cut from them.
They are each other's confidant, so agressively private that even we, the readers, are only allowed in once. They are perfectly in step, aligned, the only source of trust that each of them has. The wall around them is a fortress.
While I see the value of it as a narrative exploration, as characterisation, I truly believe that every time the Monkey's silence is used to show a wedge between them is a fundamental misunderstanding of their character. His silence is not a sign of division: it is how tightly they are entwined that not even the reader or the viewer is allowed inside.
If he was just silent then there would be nothing to know. Instead, the narrative repeatedly shows that they are talking. Dangerous, secret things that you, dear reader, are never allowed to know.
origamiaround
kianamaiart
stormborns
areudirty
