[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

yes, India made legal gender change impossible but the doctor down the street who gives me my T shots in a clinic so small that it's just two rooms was excited for me when she said my voice had dropped yes, India made legal gender change impossible but the receptionist who could see that I was a man didn't bat an eyelash when I asked to see the gynecologist and called me sir when he asked how I wanted to pay yes, India made legal gender change impossible but the barber cuts my hair exactly how I want it and never gave me strange looks for being in a men's salon not even back when I didn't pass as one

yes, India made legal gender change impossible but my friends have always gendered me correctly and stick to it even when it confuses other people and my friend's little sibling calls me older brother in Kannada yes, India made legal gender change impossible but my dog learned my new name quicker than the humans and she runs to give me a kiss when she's told to without being confused about who's being referred to

yes, India made legal gender change impossible but I can feel the Adam's apple growing in my throat and my muscles getting stronger, and my smile more real and I'm growing a beard, and I talk more freely

yes, India made legal gender change impossible but I'm here, and I'm alive, and so are you and there are good people, people who care and don't let them make you forget that-- you are not alone.

[qwiddit]

[partlymadeofgold]

This map was designed by Kenyan artist Priya Shah.

You can read about it here: https://minds-africa.org/fabric-map-of-africa-the-art-of-storytelling/

and buy copies of the map here: https://www.miakora.com/fabric-map-of-africa

[awritersrejections]

saw your tags @did-sm1-say-catfish and yes, that link is broken! I looked into it, and it's because there are now multiple maps, including a map of India—

Here's a new link for purchasing purposes

[india-official]

WOW THIS IS SO COOL :O

[treeen]

[ID:

[ID 1: A map of Africa with fabric patterns following countries' borders loosely, showing the diversity of traditional clothing. Each fabric is labeled.

End ID 1]

[ID 2: A map of India with fabric patterns overlaid specific territories, in tge same manner as the previous map.

End ID 2]

End ID]

Here is the updated fabric map of Africa on their shop:

[ID 3: A map of Africa with fabric patterns overlaid the territories they are worn in, with additions and substitutions from the previous map.

End ID 3]

[quietwingsinthesky]

one more thing. if a character ascends to godhood/divinity/some form of power that makes them practically omnipotent and no longer human. and they had a partner before that who didn’t rise with them. you are legally required to make that situation as terrifying as it would rightly be. it’s bad enough to get the attention of a god. it is ruinous to be loved by one. that is not the person you knew anymore. that is something that never has to let you leave, or have secrets, or disobey it. it will fix every problem you so much as glance at, and it will shower you in grace and gifts until you drown, and it will make you a holy artifact in its own story. you have to understand, it doesn’t remember how horrible death is, so it strikes you to cinders like a snide comment and brings you back with an apology it needs you to accept. that is how it’s going to love you forever, because it might not be inclined to let you die.

[poxychoo]

not my usual stuff but the One Piece LA crew are so cute😭😭😭

[whetstonefires]

Actually the more you think about her the funnier Olivier Armstrong's character gets.

'Am I a huge social darwinist aristocrat who actively enjoys living in a fascist military dictatorship? Yes. Do I think racism is valid? No. Am I willing to tolerate betrayal of the public good for personal advantage? Absolutely not. Die.

'Do I think it's okay for a government to engage in genocide in the name of political stability? Unclear.'

She literally just never has an opinion on that except in passing, when she's being performatively evil to infiltrate Father's group of top-level patsies, so she's not to be taken at her word. Miles is right there! And Olivier just. Her statement on the issue of Ishbal consists of: Miles is there.

Which is not nothing! But it's pretty inconclusive on like, a theoretical level.

[rook-brightsilver]

It seems like she did fully endorse the genocide given that she disowned her brother when he refused to continue his part in committing it.

[whetstonefires]

no see she's a very weird person, she is capable of holding that 'genocide is a bad and illegitimate response to this situation' and also 'having a mental breakdown is a weak and unworthy response to genocide.'

those are not necessarily conflicting opinions when you are a person like olivier armstrong.

her issue with Alex was definitely framed as centering on his trauma response as a weakness, which is obviously fucked up but is also not primarily an opinion about the situation inflicting the trauma.

if alex had refused to follow orders he felt were wrong she very likely would have respected that, at least in comparison, although she'd have been respecting his executed corpse. but he didn't, he broke down and collapsed and let the army ship him home in disgrace rather than making a decision to rebel or to see the thing through.

for someone with her ideas about strength, this is a contemptible failure of volition. it doesn't matter what he failed about; that's not relevant; that's not how she works.

she does not think like a normal person and you can't infer conclusions about her opinions on things by assuming she does, that's why i'm so enthusiastic about her. i love when a woman is this resolutely bizarre.

[cordezshenanigans]

I talked to my roommate about this post before and basically said the exact same thing. Her issue with him was that he broke down. Whether he led the charge against the Ishvalans and slaughtered them all or turned on his own men in the name of what he believed to be justice, I think even if he started his betrayal by sneaking across the lines instead of trying to blast his way out, as long as he had followed that up by returning to the front lines on the side of the Ishvalans, Olivier would have respected him imo.

She has absolutely no problem turning on her own country, as evidenced by the fact that it didn't take her long to turn on her own country once she had all the info. And she had an Ishvalan as one of her top officers.

I don't think we learn what she was up to during the war, do we? As far as I know, she probably stayed in her northern fortress through the whole war. From what I remember of the show, the most likely case is that what matters to her are personal conviction and strength, both of body and of character. Her opinion of Alex and her reasoning for that opinion is kinda problematic one way or another, but it's also entirely possible that she simply hated him for his personal weakness and was ALSO against the idea of exterminating the Ishvalans in the first place.

"You committed so many acts in violation of your own conscience and convictions that it broke you, and in the five years since, you didin't do anything I can see to make up for it or change" is a valid reason to have a low opinion of someone tbh. She can definitely dislike him and also not be cool with the genocide he bailed on

[whetstonefires]

yeah! tho i think it would take a lot to get brigadier general armstrong to turn on her country, because her other chief value is loyalty.

specifically loyalty as a mutual transaction. the principle of briggs is survival through the combination of strength and solidarity. (i don't recall if the dialogue establishing this made it into the show but it's a thing as;lkfsa,,) so long as everyone holds fast and is loyal according to the responsibilities of their station, maximum utility is achieved and everyone benefits and we don't all die, basically.

so she has no pity for weakness, but certain types of abuse of one's strength are anathema to her.

what she turns on is explicitly the party in power, whom she regards as illegitimate with the knowledge that they are knowingly betraying their country--that is, the nation as a unity rather than the state as apparatus. olivier signs on to the coup plan as a patriot. she is just again so fucking weird she doesn't say that.

honestly i think her opinions about ishbal depend on how she feels about issues like political separatism, which we aren't given the tools to determine for sure because she hates the concept of managing people by identity category rather than judging them individually by their choices. (Which makes her a spectacular base commander and is one of the reasons she'd be dreadful as fuhrer.)

i think her known principles logically suggest she considered ishbal an appalling act of command mismanagement at best, and very likely an abdication of duty toward any and all ishbalans who weren't a threat to the state. she's prepared to support all kinds of ruthlessness in the name of things like victory and survival, but ishbal getting to the point that the extermination order was handed down was even spun publicly as a series of things going FUBAR. if that was 'necessary' it represents truly spectacular incompetence.

but it wouldn't have occurred to her to get upset about it, or kick up a fuss. just regard it as a set of personal failures by parties in authority, to hold in contempt.

in fact, it occurs to me now that alex may have gotten the broadside of all her contempt for the situation, since he was the only involved party who wasn't Not Her Business. hm.

[whetstonefires]

#the fact that Miles wasn't turned in says something imo #she probably at LEAST threatened the guy who gave her the order to surrender Miles #Olivier Mira Armstrong doesn't surrender ANYTHING

#but like #that HAD to be considered insubordination at LEAST right? #she could be arrested if not executed for it #she stuck her neck out for someone because he's one of HER men #even though he was labeled an enemy of the state #so clearly shr disagreed

#though personally i think she has a very narrow world #if it doesn't affect her she doesn't care #the moment it DOES affect her she'll kill you #her world is Briggs #She's not getting distracted by something happening on the other side of the country #her issue is that Alex wasn't strong enough to stand by his ideals #i love Olivier and i want to study her brain (via @myheartismadeofstars)

I recently reread the passage in chapter 65 where Miles infodumps to Ed, so I can report that while it does say a lot about her, she did not have to defy any orders. (I think until she murdered Raven she avoided ever provably doing that, which is probably a good chunk of her motive for seeking the isolated Briggs command, where she does not often receive any.)

Miles has one Ishbalan grandparent, which puts him below the mandatory reporting blood quantum threshold to be legally Ishbalan; he just by happenstance expresses those genes really strongly.

Armstrong could still have sent him to an internment camp to be liquidated, at her own discretion. She did not do this, or fire him as her assistant. He asked why.

She said 1) racism is stupid 2) anything (such as prejudice) that threatens the unity-of-purpose of a military unit should be got rid of 3) in particular, you need a variety of viewpoints in an organization to avoid dangerous blind spots 4) people should be judged by their own actions 5) if you are a terrorist i will be happy to kill you personally whenever you like.

Also 6) yeah, ishbal is way over there and this is briggs, and our problem is drachma. Stop worrying about things that don't matter.

She is so weird. 😂💕

[transgenderer]

Theres this thing where for example people will say "zombie media is an excuse to simulate killing people without feeling bad" and like it's not technically wrong but It seems an unstated assumption is "you should feel bad about killing fictional people". Which is imo a pretty hard sell to make directly! There is a related, less dubious claim, that maybe goes like "pretending to kill people is bad *for you*, and feeling bad about doing so is a useful preventative urge". but idk about all that

[transgenderer]

@wendelsae said:

imagine if instead of zombie apocalypse it were centaur apocalypse. much scarier, much more competent threat.

!

[grand-eclipse]

Sorry to hijack your post, but zombie media is so fascinating. I took a whole anthropology class on Zombies in media and culture, the origins and what they meant in the larger social context. I think it's kind of disappointing where zombie media goes in terms of 'macho males' and nihilism, but with their origins, I liken them a lot more to vampirism. Zombies cannot be separated from voodoo origins and the west African and transatlantic slave trade, which means they can say a lot more about the institution of slavery, dehumanization, desecration and disrespect even in death and becoming disconnected from one's culture and ancestors.

[grand-eclipse]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[eolewyn1010]

On rewatch I find I lowkey hate Violet Bridgerton and her "but only I know how love works, because it only ever works the way I personally imagine it" attitude

[eolewyn1010]

Reinforcing this. Lady, why are you so eager to get them all married?? You behave like Mrs Bennet, only Mrs Bennet actually has a reason to be desperate to get her daughters wed because they will be fucking broke once their dad dies, whereas your family is so rich it's honestly indecent, so how about you get off Anthony's and Eloise's case. Please for the love of someone get off Eloise's case; there is no satisfying way they can still make the cishet romance with marriage and children work for her

[evergreen-femme]

im so fucking scared i'm going to throw up. its not just the court decision. read this, if you dare.

Anti-trans hate groups petitioning FDA for registry of trans women, crackdown on transition, newly revealed document shows

In the short term, this is not as dangerous as an outright ban on estrogen. If implemented and then combined with other methods of suppressi

[yet-another-heathen]

Unlike the vast majority of anti-trans legislation, hate groups are attempting to pass these restrictions without the public at large knowing they exist. This secrecy is far more insidious, and needs to be immediately addressed.

If you want to help, the two things that will make the most impact are SPREADING AWARENESS, and participating in PUBLIC COMMENT while it is still open.

‼️LINK TO FDA COMMENT PAGE‼️

Document: FDA-2025-P-7321

As of the time this article was written, ALL public comments were from hate groups in support of this registry. Every single comment in opposition will help.

Disclaimer: This article is very guilty of intersex erasure, despite the fact that intersex people of all ages would be affected by these regulations the same way trans women are. However, as this is the most comprehensive and direct article currently available, it should still be widely distributed, for the sake of trans women, nonbinary people, and intersex people who will all be affected should it pass.

[ouppygirlcity]

I did my comment, and you should to! Be advised that when making a comment like this on a proposed regulation, the depth of your statement does matter. I strongly encourage you to take the time to read this article to get informed on what this proposal entails, and write a detailed response concerning one or two aspects that you believe you can write cohesively about and prepare a sensible counter-argument; try to draw from other sources if you can, even if you're just quoting other articles in support and in defense of HRT and transfeminism. I encourage everyone to review this official list of what they're expecting from a quality comment.

Remember, all public comments may have been from this hate campaign at the time of posting, but it was only 60. I know plenty of Discord servers bigger than that, let's show that we outnumber this hate and that we're gonna outlive this nightmare.

[wuyushun]

don't keep them waiting, anchor!

edit: robin's in!!! orz

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[yuumei-art]

In 2012 I painted the top image: Rise

In 2026 I am saddened to have to repaint this update: Fall

[bedbyninethirty]

I started following Yuumei back in 2011-2012 when I was in high school. Her painting "Rise" was such a huge inspiration for me. Now, to see "Fall", I cannot help but feel that this is an important, tragic, and monumental moment in our history as Americans - as a world.

Thank you for painting "Fall", Yuumei. I think it's really important and powerful, even if it breaks my heart to see such an important painting I've loved for over a decade update in such a way.

[grand-eclipse]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: My Romance Scammer (2026) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Tim/Pai Characters: Pai (My Romance Scammer), Tim (My Romance Scammer) Additional Tags: Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Mentions of sex and intimacy under pretence Summary:

In the aftermath Pai breaks. Tim comes to a decision.

[ierotits]

[experimental-heresy]

Maori content? On my Dash? I never thought the day would come. Also this is unbelievably accurate

[fishwife-hiwaaranit]

I genuinely feel like I’m going insane sometimes

[fishwife-hiwaaranit]

Some more of my thoughts and a sketch page of myself because I love me

[unusual]

Japanese is an incredibly fun and rewarding language (if you’ve ever wanted to learn it for ANY reason, most importantly including the “silly” reasons) but the fearmongering and capitalist intervention involved in the language learning process have given it a reputation as an “impossible task” for English speakers, leading to confusion and dkn learners and weird pessimist attitudes about the whole thing. In this thread I will explain how to effectively learn and retain Japanese. This is a tried, tested and true method; probably 99% of all people who try to learn Japanese give up, but everyone I’ve met who has tried and stuck with this has been at or above N3-N4 after 6 months or less including me

[unusual]

You can teach yourself Japanese for free if you have a little free time every day and a computer

1. Drill yourself on hiragana and katakana. These are the phonetic building blocks of Japanese, think of them as equivalent to english letters. This site is a good resource in general. Once you have a solid grasp on this, DO NOT LINGER HERE; move to step 2. You will master kana later.

2. Download Anki. This is a flashcard service. They have a paid app if you’re willing to invest for it, but if not, they have a mobile website (create an account and sync it with your computer).

This is the deck you’re going to download. Import it to Anki and do this every day. I have learned the hard way (twice) that skipping this is bad. If you become overwhelmed, you can change the number of new cards and reviews by clicking the cog next to the name of the deck!

3. Cure Dolly (Youtube, grammar) + transcript. She has kind of a posh accent, you might want to turn subtitles on. Watch a few videos when you feel like it but most importantly set up 4 and 5 as soon as possible

4. Yomitan (must have) is a browser extension that functions as a pop-up dictionary. you need to install dictionaries for it to work. here are some dictionaries you can use with yomitan and explanations of what they do

5. READ. DO NOT LET YOURSELF GET STUCK BEFORE THIS STEP. JUST READ!!!! Most people who fail to learn Japanese do so because they are afraid of not being ready to move on, which is counterproductive. Just read. When you were a child did you spend years on vocab and grammar before reading? No I bet you did not. Pick something to read and learn what you don’t already know by reading in Japanese.

Jiten.moe has a list of novels and visual novels that you can read on your computer sorted by difficulty. So does jpdb. There’s also this document. There’s also this document. Hey look this website is cool too

For visual novels: download LunaHook. It “hooks” to your VN and allows you to use Yomitan on words you don’t know. Turn off the translation feature, it does nothing to help you learn

For literary texts: ttsu e-reader supports epub and htmlz files.

You can also learn Japanese by watching anime, but it’s a little more convoluted and requires a lot more patience.

For manga, utilize Mangatan, but I don’t recommend this right out the gate because when you’re first learning sentence structure you’ll want something with complete sentences.

Set your computer up for mining vocab before you start reading. Once you finish your kaishi deck, you can drill your mining cards (I didn’t do mine until after finishing kaishi because it was too much).

Most importantly: reading is going to be hard at first. It is going to piss you off. You need to muscle through with this because this is where the bulk of your learning will happen. After a while you will just feel like reading because you love reading! Try not to pick something too hard for your first read, but if you’re interested in the story you might be able to muscle through something a little tougher.

Remember to consult yomitan and cure dolly where needed, that’s what it’s there for. As you can see I am quite normal about the Japanese language, so if you have any other questions or need help with anything else feel free to shoot me an ask and I will get back to you promptly. Japanese is not your enemy and it is not impossible. It is your friend

[tiktoksthataregood-ish]

[petrichormeraki]

not to be dramatic but i would kill for truffles

[imsotired]

Truffles is a she. While I don't know her personally, my boss does, and Truffles' mom regularly sends us Truffles merch to help kids in our practice be okay with wearing glasses.

(Truffles has pins and lens cloths and tshirts and many other things)

[imsotired]

Merch