Hi there! My name is Em and my pronouns are she/her. Iâm an adult.
I mainly reblog hermitcraft, empires, and various life series stuff. A lot of it is also shipping content. I donât usually tag reblogs as shipping, so just be aware of that if you are going to be scrolling through.
As for things that have come from my own brain, I have written some fics, which you can find under #mermaid writes. Any answered asks or writing ideas are tagged with #mermaid chats. Everything else is under #mermaid rambles. I also have an AO3 account if you want to find me there.
I hope every single person who puts nice comments in tags under reblogged art knows that you you guys are the backbone of society. Being an artist online sucks these days, but here on tumblr I still get compliments under artworks that I made years ago. I hope you know every WOW and heart emoji and heartfelt compliment and funny comment you left in the tags is part of the reason I kept drawing all these years, in spite of everything that was going on.
I've been screenshotting the nice tags I get for years, and at this point it would be literal thousands of lines if I still had my old files. I love u tumblr users <333333333
I think that part of what irks me about AI being used even for "small" stuff like meme graphics (aside from all the larger problems obviously) is like.... the time spent on it was part of the humor. "this is a silly inconsequential joke but I had to stop everything and spend 5 minutes making it" was, at least for me, part of the joke. Someone really took time out of their day to make me look at something silly they took time out of their day to make. Now it's like someone took time out of my day to make me look at something no one even made. Stop wasting my time if you aren't wasting yours too.
disturbed by how little ppl acknowledge the secondary health risks of vampire bites. if your vampire lover is drinking your blood you MUST be up to date on your tetanus shot. puncture wounds are at especially high risk for tetanus infections. just because your partner was born in 1312 doesnât mean you have to die like it.
moreover they should be prepping the bite point with an alcohol wipe.
and while Iâm at it, Iâve noticed a blithe disregard for health & safety when it comes to blood pacts. canât believe I have to say this but you should absolutely NOT be cutting your palm open with the pocket knife from your belt holster (??????)
if youâre expecting to be in a blood pact/oath situation please just pick up some sterile finger lancets from the pharmacy. cannot stress this all enough.
Please yâall!! tetanus is NOT caused by rusty metal. Itâs a bacteria found damn near everywhere, and wounds infected with saliva are especially high risk for tetanus infections.
itâs also a common misconception that vampire saliva is antiseptic. Vampires spread that myth on purpose. They also CAN cross running water. Make them bathe and brush their teeth!!!!
all the vampires in the tags saying they wonât do this bc the alcohol will make the skin taste bad are just telling on themselves. talk about a red flag.
comparing your human loverâs body to an inanimate utensil & misreading this as a PSA for the vampireâs safety rather than the humanâs. smh vampires continue to be so toxic đ€ŠđŒââïž
What Hermitcraft can teach us about internalized ableism and how not to talk to people with disabilities.
[timestamp for the quote is 2:16:00 if the link doesn't work]
Skizz made this comment 3 months ago, and it was so appalling I haven't been able to stop thinking about it ever since.
CW: ableist attitudes and brief implications of hypothetical su*cide
Context: Skizz and Scar were having a chat about taking care of your health. Scar was giving advice like "You gotta have a good sleep schedule, a clean diet, some kind of physical activity, something to stimulate your mind, and companionship with loved ones."
Expanding on that, Scar added, "You gotta have something to stimulate your brain otherwise you end up just staring at a wall for hours at a time."
Skizz then remarked about how Scar is especially qualified to talk about this sort of thing, "Because... let's call it what it is, dude, if anyone has had a reason to, uh- stare at a wall and... I'm not trying to get dark but... 'swim down,' y'know? It's you. And that's why I've always associated you with strength because you are legitimately one of the strongest people I've ever met."
(I feel like you can visibly see how much this offends Scar.)
I'd like to take an educational approach to this post, so we can all hopefully learn from Skizz' disrespectful comment.
It's impossible for any of us to fully understand what it's like to live with Scar's numerous disabilities and complex health conditions. We will (hopefully) never know what we would do if we were in his position, but our inability to grasp that reality often leads to the conclusion that we wouldn't be able to "overcome" everything he's been through.
This is often the case when hearing the stories and experiences of people with disabilities, and it typically results in them being reduced to a source of "inspiration" for able-bodied people. In the sense of: "If they can get through all those hardships, I can get through whatever struggles I'm going through!"
This is called "inspiration p*rn" or "disability p*rn" and it's unfortunately very pervasive in our culture today, especially on social media.
[source: bezzymigrane.com]
Our struggles serve as lessons in resilience, reducing us to simplified âinspirationâ for those who will never live our reality. People gawk at our hardships with solicited sympathy, saying, âIâm glad that isnât me.â
âStella Young described inspiration p*rn as the way society turns disabled people into motivational stories just for existing,â explains Ehab Youssef, a licensed clinical psychologist at Mentalyc. âItâs when someone says, âIf they can do it, whatâs your excuse?â or shares a feel-good video of a disabled person doing something ânormalâ as if that alone is extraordinary."
Scar has responded to "compliments" about being "strong" or "inspirational" before by expressing that, "A lot of people don't know know what they're fully capable of until they're in that kind of situation," and "The human spirit is a powerful thing when pushed to its limits." (paraphrasing based on quotes I remember) Which is the most polite and tactful way to dismiss ableist remarks that I've ever seen.
Some people reading this may think, "But Scar is inspirational for having such positive attitude about his disabilities! He's so optimistic despite going through so many awful things, and that's admirable!" But that's another harmful idea rooted in internalized ableism.
[source: bezzymigrane.com]
âInspiration p*rn sometimes promotes the idea that disabled people can, and should, always have a positive attitude and outlook about their situation or communicate things in an uplifting way," adds psychotherapist and clinical consultant Steph Fowler.
...This mindset pressures disabled people to always be exceptional. âPeople in the disabled personâs life may not recognize inspiration p*rn as harmful, and may perpetuate these ideas by suggesting the person needs to try harder, practice gratitude, or have a better attitude about their experience,â Fowler says.
We can be inspiring and sick or disabled, but dehumanizing us by suggesting that we are somehow more worthy if we have a positive attitude that inspires nondisabled people holds us all back.
I believe Skizz' statement about Scar's "strength" is rooted in this ideology.
Which brings me back to his quote- where he implies that if anyone has had a reason to sink into depression and end their own life, it's Scar.
I cannot express how inappropriate and outright disrespectful this assertion is. Scar has mentioned once or twice before that when he initially got sick, he struggled with depression for a long time, but that's all he's said on the subject. Skizz is assuming a lot about what Scar went through (and what Scar is comfortable sharing about himself publicly) by making such a bold, careless remark like this.
Implying that anyone would "have a reason to" end their own life is beyond disrespectful in any context, but it's far worse when said to a person with disabilities... and on a live stream at that.
[source: goodmenproject.com]
People with disabilities are just like everybody else. Theyâre complex and sometimes flawed. They hide insecurities and struggles and inner demons that they might not want the outside world to see.
We are not perfect, angelic human beings by virtue of having a disability. Life just doesnât work that way, and you canât pigeonhole us as brave or permanently optimistic or whatever innocuous stereotype helps you process our disabilities better.
Scar is not strong for wanting to live despite the challenges his health and disabilities bring. Scar is not inspirational because of how much he's gone through and how he's remained optimistic throughout it all.
Scar is inspirational because he's an incredible artist, a delightful entertainer, and a wonderful human being.
He's always teaching others about his building and design methods and encouraging people to step out of their comfort zone and try new things.
Multiple hermits have said that Scar is wonderful to work with, and the only hermit they've never once had any conflict with personally or professionally.
You don't need to look to Scar's disabilities to find "inspiration," Scar is an awe-inspiring person just by nature of who he is at heart.
-
I'd like to conclude with some advice on how to recognize and prevent the spread of disability p*rn, so hopefully we can come away from this post having learned something valuable.
[source: bezzymigrane.com]
âThe biggest shift has to be seeing disabled people as people, not symbols of perseverance, not life lessons, just people living their lives,â says Youssef. âInstead of focusing on how someone âovercomesâ their disability, we should be asking: Are we making the world accessible enough so they donât have to overcome so much?â
...When someone calls a disabled person âinspiring,â I ask them why. I encourage them to think about whether thatâs because the person is actually inspiring or if they just happen to have a disability.
Take a moment to question the content youâre being served and the things youâre sharing to limit the spread. Instead, focus on stories that celebrate the person as a whole, not just as a representation of disability.
Thinking about a vampire dude bro who won't drink girl blood- because he's afraid it will estroginise him soy products style- getting trapped in a mental cage when he learns vampire dude who only bites other dudes reads as gay
my artwork for Lithdraug's "All those nights I spent alone"!
"When Bilbo finds himself being kept awake by the lingering restlessness of his mind, a certain dwarf king lends him an ear. In the quiet of the night, long preserved walls begin to crumble and bonding ensues."
You can read it here on AO3, as this fic was part of the WIP Round-Up event by @acorn-and-oakleaves! This one is still in progress, so go leave your support on there! đ
Being able to draw older people as attractive without reducing or erasing the visual signs of aging, and in fact showing that they're attractive because of those signs, is an artistic skill that should be valued so much more. Honestly, it should earn you an immediate fortune because holy fuck is it a rare commodity. There are so many artists who seem to think attractiveness and aging exist in opposition to each other, so they smooth every wrinkle, erase every crease, and de-age the character until they're basically thirty with silver hair. But when an artist can look at crow's feet, smile lines, weathered skin, deep-set wrinkles, and all the little traces of a life well lived and say, "No, that's what makes them beautiful," that's a level of artistic observation and care I wish we celebrated more often.
honestly I hate âcan you pet the dog?!?â not for any of the common reasons but because it was initially interesting as a proposition of âcan you interact with the world in a way that is not within the primary mechanical loopâ and that very quickly fell away to being âwell now any indie developer making a game has to have a pet the dog button or theyâre going to get lettersâ
One of my dream projects has an NPC with a dog, and if you try to pet it, the owner tells you not to do that. If you try again, it bites you and you take damage. I want to do this entirely because I genuinely believe that this would make me feel way more grounded in the world than any âclick button to see cute animationâ would ever do, and also it would be really funny to have a game where people lose their runs because they tried to pet a dog they were told not to pet
