JVL
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
YOU ARE THE REASON
Discoholic 🪩
Stranger Things
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Product Placement
Cosimo Galluzzi
izzy's playlists!
sheepfilms
🩵 avery cochrane 🩵
untitled
Sade Olutola
DEAR READER
Keni
Andulka
Origami Around
ellievsbear
Fai_Ryy
One Nice Bug Per Day
seen from Panama
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from United States
seen from South Korea
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Sweden
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Canada
seen from Honduras
seen from Bangladesh
seen from Colombia
seen from Philippines
seen from United States
seen from Australia
seen from Indonesia
seen from Türkiye
seen from Poland
seen from Colombia
seen from Austria
@flutteringfeelingss
today’s mood is having a frank conversation with my mother about the virtues of prepping for mass civil unrest as a family
ok but genuinely i want all of you to be safe. i think at this point it’s unwise to deny that worse things are coming in the united states. i’m linking this compilation of very reasonable disaster prep guides. there’s advice here for every income level and a heavy emphasis on mutual aid. i love you and we can weather what’s coming together
you need to support trans people who don’t want top or bottom surgery and that has to include the potential for them not having top or bottom dysphoria, trans people still having sex, and trans people conceiving children regardless of how you personally feel about the subject.
and that’s not just on cis people, thats on fellow trans people to be supportive of that too.
i need to take a shower but genuinely this applies to fandom spaces too, trans ppl are allowed to create art of trans characters who look like them and feel the way they feel and that includes trans characters who not just can’t but don’t want surgery, who still like their bodies and still interact with them including in nsfw ways.
if that makes you uncomfortable by all means don’t interact, but that means don’t interact. don’t tell them they’re not really trans and certainly don’t accuse them of being transphobic (or homo/lesbophobic!) for producing content in ways that make them feel seen.
twitter has discovered the dog shaped DARPA robots and are defending them because they’re dog shaped
i don’t know how to explain to you that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the R&D arm of the US department of defense, is not making hecking doggo robots for benevolent reasons
ok since this is getting reblogged let me clarify something:
this is all in response to a video someone posted online of one of these wandering the streets at night. it’s pretty alarming to see military technology being rolled out during a time of widespread protests that are being met with an increasingly militarized police force.
please don’t argue in my notes about whether or not you think these will eventually be useful for civilians, a lot of military technology gets reused like that, but i promise you it’s more than likely not being developed with that in mind lol.
if you see one of these hit it with your car
We settled with Biden. but if you decide to vote third party or not vote instead of supporting Biden... fuck you. You have to see that this is bigger than choosing the “best” candidate. This is a fight for the soul of our nation. Settle for Biden. Settle because if you don’t hundreds of thousands of people will die. People. will. die.
To the people in the notes saying they refuse: what are you actually going to do to change the system?
Because voting third party as it stands right now is NEVER GOING TO WORK. I understand that you want a further left candidate. By GODS I understand. But right now? It's either you vote blue and the fascism boulder stops rolling quite so fast, and maybe we get a chance to stop it and even start trying to push it back up the hill; or you vote third party, support an actually good candidate that doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of winning, get your warm fuzzies from not voting for the centrist, and THE FASCISM BOULDER GETS BIGGER. And anyone who tries to stop it gets crushed. And anything we were building to slow it down has a worse chance of stopping it.
Nothing is going to fix this country immediately. And your cynicism is fully understandable. But jesus FUCKING christ people, just voting third party is going to do LITERALLY NOTHING to fix it. It's not a "cry to fix the system", or at least it's not gonna be heard as one. And not voting is just as bad.
So tell me. What is your actual plan? What are you going to do to dismantle the two-party system, what are you going to do to stop fascism in its tracks, and what are you going to do to put an actual leftist and not a right-leaning centrist into office?
Because if you can do that, hallelujah! Let's HEAR IT! Let's DO IT! I support you 100%, I'll get the megaphones, the guillotines, I'll help draw the coup plans, whatever we need.
And if you can't? At least don't stop the rest of us doing the best we can. We can at least make an ATTEMPT to push Biden left. We cannot do the same for Trump. They are not the same.
And we are not 'settling' for Biden. We're not going to sit down and stay there and be like "oh no this is fine right where it is." But we have to take the first step to go anywhere and this is the best shot we've got, a hell of a better shot than voting for a candidate that's probably not even on some of the ballots. Because when Trump wins, the right won't settle either. They are going to keep dragging it further and further and we are going to be completely drowned out.
And you're giving them ground.
[stares out window]
sure wish more Christians had the decency to embrace environmental stewardship as a central theological tenet
as an agnostic/atheist/whatever I do find the concept of human “dominion” over nature and the idea that we are fundamentally separate from it deeply frustrating; I’ve said before that anthropocentric ecology becomes deep ecology once you look further into the future of humanity than, oh, 50 years
but I am also frustrated by the idea that a god would create such an incomprehensibly intricate world of numinous beauty and dazzling complexity, a tapestry of infinite connections and relationships, and then... approve of humans completely trashing it without regard or appreciation or even a sense of reverence
like, if I accept the premises that 1.) the universe was created by an intelligent and purposeful god who is worthy of love and worship 2.) this god gave Earth as a gift to humanity, then... why would I not cherish it? why would I not feel a sacred duty to care for such a gift, to discover its wonders, and to protect it from degradation? if this “god” fellow is so special and ever-present, isn’t preventable ecological destruction a desecration of its body and its handiwork?
I realize that a lot of this Christian environmental indifference is rooted in death cult doom prophecy and apocalypse fetishism: that the world will end in a terrible bath of fire and brimstone and suffering, and the sooner that the Earth can be made uninhabitable and humanity driven to the point of extinction, the better, because it just means the Second Coming will happen.
But... why the hell would your Jesus bloke be proud of that...? Why embrace grotesque wastefulness and force suffering upon others when it can be avoided? Certainly the world is full of suffering. But you do not break a tool that has been gifted to you, simply because you are tired of using it and want your boss to replace it with something better! How is that not a sinful motivation?! What holiness could there possibly be in that?!
in case you missed it, as of today, enough republican senators have said they wouldn't block trump's SCOTUS pick so that trump could easily appoint someone before the election, regardless of what the voters actually want, ignoring the fact that they blocked a new SCOTUS pick from obama because the election was nine months away. guys, we're looking at a 6-3 conservative majority for the next 20 to 30 years. we're looking at decades of our rights being stripped away.
call your senators. email them. especially if they're republican. especially if they've publically stated they wouldn't block the SCOTUS pick. call, email, and make your voices heard since apparently the GOP senate hasn't been willing to listen so far.
This is what every single study on the subject says. There are graduate level classes on this. It’s absolutely a thing that works.
the new park by my house has some interesting features
real ones know why looking at this image immediately fills you with dread
Pay attention
Please help support farmworkers as they continue to work the fields, breathing in smoke and ash as wildfires rage nearby. They sacrifice so much to be able to provide for their loved ones, often working overtime while receiving no hazard pay, no fair wages, and recently no basic PPE. This is not a new issue. Wildfire season has simply heightened the existing injustices. Please help.
the website with places to donate as well as petitions
donation links
the hands that feed you project
aid for indigenous farmworkers
direct aid for evacuated families
watsonville, ca aid
direct aid for undocumented workers
farmworker relief fund
la via campesina
food chain workers
farmworker justice
migrant justice
feeding the frontline
help feed our farmworkers
agricultural justice
united farm workers
undocufund
school supplies for south oxnard students
So “queer” isn’t just an identity that’s broadly inclusive because, I don’t know, we like big parties. There’s actually an underlying ethic, a queer theory, that has political implications.
Its name reclaims a slur because the point is to say, “I am different, but that’s not a bad thing.” The queer movement is about upholding the right of all people to deviate from an oppressive cisgender, heterosexual, patriarchal norm. Broadening the spectrum of acceptable diversity; questioning and dismantling the social pressures that police and punish deviance. Changing not just our own lives, but how our entire society thinks about sex and gender.
That’s why “queer” embraces so many different groups. It’s not trying to erase their differences, but to try to coherently understand the complex overlapping pressures that affect each of them, and to extend our reach beyond the LGBT+ community. It’s about the right of lesbians to live without men and the right of trans and nonbinary people to be who they are, the right of asexuals to define for themselves what’s significant in their lives, the right of straight men to be vulnerable and emotional and nonviolent. When the great queering project is done, you will see the changes everywhere, not just in small LGBT+ enclaves.
It’s recognizing that something that harms or oppresses one of us is pretty likely to harm all of us, so we all benefit from taking it down together.
Did you just say emotional straight men are qu*er? Did you deadass just say that cishet men are part of the lgbt community? And y’all wonder why so many people hate it?
(sigh) I’ll repeat myself:
For everyone who’s like “Whoa, I was with you until you threw straight men in there”:
Homophobia is a huge part of how all men are policed. If a man isn’t strong, tough, aggressive, and dominant? He gets called gay. So this isn’t “Soft straight men are totally LGBT+ and belong in your gay support group!” but it is “Part of the work of disassembling homophobia is changing how it affects straight men.”
It’s the same way that men aren’t the primary intended beneficiaries of feminism, but part of the work of feminism is addressing and changing toxic masculinity. If you’re effective enough at changing the system, you change it for everyone.
(more discussion here)
To reiterate: One way that toxic masculinity is kept as the default pattern of behavior for straight men is that they are punished, quickly and efficiently, for any show of vulnerability. Dismantling the structures that enforce traditional gender roles is one way to ensure that LGBT people are welcomed in society.
The world would be much more accepting if Joe Cishet didn’t feel the need to correct every single deviation from the toxic behaviors he believes are required.
The curb cut effect is good y’all. Not bad.
I’m stuck on “the great queering project”
Queer theory uses “to queer” to mean “to interpret in a way that causes something to depart from cisheteronormative societal standards” or “to interpret as queer”. It originated in literary and cultural criticism, but it can be used to describe the tangible social inroads LGBTQ+ people have made in dismantling cisheteronormativity itself.
Once again:
Queer is a coalition, not a demographic.
The purpose of the queer coalition is to end the practice of, “you must have [X list of traits] to participate in these parts of society.”
Can cishet men be queer?
Why does it matter?
Being queer isn’t about what specific identity or traits you have. It’s about saying, “HEY! Average isn’t the pinnacle of human existence! We didn’t build this world so everyone could strive to be just like their neighbors! People can be different and we can celebrate that difference, not shun it!”
Can a cishet man “be queer?” I dunno. I don’t think that’s important.
Can a cishet man “live a queer life?” Hell yes he can.
Can a cishet woman “be queer?” Wrong question.
Can a cishet woman “live a queer life?” Hell yes.
These aren’t “straight people appropriating queer culture.” They’re not taking it away from us, not picking and choosing bits of it to share with their cis het friends. These are people joining queer culture.
They’re not part of the LGBT community. They ARE part of the queer community.
Queer stuff helps cishet guys in the same way that feminism helps cishet guys. By dismantling all the ugly parts of the male-dominated rules in the world.
Notice that people like the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence— a real life queer group— opens itself to this intentionally because they understand that their project is tearing down fences, not building them
hey mutuals. lose yourself in a dream and i’ll tell you why you’ll be okay
My dear lgbt+ kids,
I want to talk about emotional neglect in this letter.
When we hear the word “childhood neglect”, we often think about physical neglect - parents who fail to fulfill the physical needs of their kids, like food, medical care, clothing or a safe place to sleep.
Emotional neglect means parents fail to fulfill the emotional needs of their kids. That’s less “measureable” than physical neglect and often more difficult to imagine for people who never experienced it: After all, everyone knows kids need a certain amount of food to survive - but is there such a thing as emotional starvation?
There is. Emotionally neglected kids do not receive the love, attention, emotional security and warmth a kid needs. The kid, in turn, does not learn to express their emotions in a healthy way.
This can affect them during childhood (emotionally neglected kids might be aggressive, anxious or depressed, may struggle to find friends, have a low self-esteem and may even reach developmental milestones later than other kids) but the effects may also show in adulthood.
Adults who were emotionally neglected as kids have a higher risk for eating disorders and depression, severe neglect can even lead to PTSD. As they didn’t learn to express their emotions as a kid, they may still struggle to do so in adulthood, may find it difficult to trust or connect to others.
Why do parents neglect kids emotionally? It may happen in combination with physical neglect or they may provide food, clothing etc. and only neglect their kids emotionally. Common reasons are: the parents struggle with addiction, depression or other (untreated) mental health issues, they have been neglected as kids as well or they feel resentment towards the kid (in the latter case, the emotional neglect may go hand-in-hand with physical abuse). Sometimes, there’s no clear reason why they’re unable or unwilling to take care of the kid’s emotional needs.
So, if you read all this and think “Yes, that was my childhood”, what does that mean? First and foremost: It was not your fault. You may feel guilt or shame but you’re not to blame.
You are not unlovable or too difficult - neglect is not a failure on the kid’s part, it’s your parents who failed you. It’s not all in your head and you’re not crying over nothing, either. Emotional neglect is a real problem with real consequences. These consequences can be addressed - talking to a therapist can help a lot (you don’t need to show symptoms of PTSD for that. Even if you “just” struggle with finding friends, a therapist can help you!). They’re not personal flaws, they’re consequences from childhood trauma. It’s important to remind yourself of that.
As a lgbt+ person, it’s also important to know that coming-out and opening up about your feelings/your identity may be a challenge for you. That’s okay and understandable. Be patient with yourself. Again, nothing to feel ashamed of and not a personal flaw!
With all my love,
Your Tumblr Dad
I want to see someone who does lgbt discourse On Line to talk to like. An irl old gay person. I think that would be funny
17 year old internet discourser: actually non-binary lesbians dont make sense because lesbian is a woman attracted to women so if your non-binary and call yourself a lesbian you’re actually misgendering yourself and-
70 something year old gay person:
YOU GET IT!
people on here are so obsessed with trying to “moralize” every aspect of fiction i s2g….. did y’all read euripides’ medea and go “i don’t know how you can justify medea’s actions :/ she was a horribly abusive and manipulative mother :/ she literally killed her own children :/ how can you people act like it’s ever ok to read euripides :/ i guess you just like killing children i hope you never have kids you monster :/ please explain how you think this is okay :/” like y’all really never progressed beyond those storybooks you read in elementary school designed to teach children Moral Lessons huh
Unfortunately, this is what they think the sole and entire purpose of fiction has to be. Fiction cannot be for pleasure, because pleasure is sinful. Instead, fiction must be something read as a painful duty, to learn appropriate moral lessons and become a more compliant member of society.
It helps an awful lot to know this whole trend is strongly rooted in Calvinist Protestant Christian theology, and largely comes out of the sort of fundamentalist Christianity which disapproves of sex because it might lead to dancing. Pleasure is a lure of Satan, put on the earth to lead people into Sin and Depravity (and things like actually thinking for themselves, which is the greatest evil of them all). Only the truly righteous may allow themselves the taste of pleasure (and you can tell the truly righteous because they’re rich), because as part of the unconditional elect, they cannot be tainted by it. But the rest of us are impure and doomed to hell, and our only salvation is through being good enough that God will, through His Mercy, choose to save us.
Combine enough of this sort of daft rhetoric with an authoritarian follower personality, and you have a bunch of people who are terrified of reading the Wrong Fiction, and who will willingly accept all kinds of guidance from people who set themselves up as authoritarian leader types (and who come with a very strict set of rules about what is Righteous and Correct, and what isn’t - even if those rules change five times a day) in order to ensure they’re taking the Correct Path to Salvation.
I might be wrong, but as someone who has taught in the British, American,Canadian, and IB systems, I wonder if this attitude has grown out of the American/Canadian school system’s attitude towards the study of literature in middle and high school - namely, that the message, the theme, the moral, is the important thing, and that good literature is “improving” - it improves the moral attitudes of the person who reads it. When I was choosing set texts for my English classes in American and Canadian classrooms, a key question was the impact the text would have on the students’ character development. This was never an issue when choosing texts in the UK. (They had their own, different issues).
T’other way around - the Protestant Calvinism influenced the school system, and created the insistence on Right Themes, Right Messages and so on. Then the school system perpetuates the Protestant Calvinist messages, and around and around we go.
You can also see this same sort of emphasis on Moral Lessons in US television - you watch just about any show from the USA (but it’s particularly obvious in situation comedies[1] and programming for children[2]) and you will realise: each show has a moral lesson, and that moral lesson has to be hammered home (often by orbital anvil drop) in order to “justify” the show.
(It was one of the things I liked about British TV growing up - I wasn’t constantly being bombarded with Moral Lessons. I could just watch something like Danger Mouse or Banana Man, and enjoy the animation).
[1] Situation comedies are particularly prone to this because laughter is sinful, and therefore if a medium is making people laugh it must redeem itself through the application of Correct Moral Lessons.
[2] Because children can’t possibly be allowed to simply enjoy themselves in this vale of tears - everything Must be Educational.
