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divine hag of the ashes

[misscromwellsmonocle]

The Little Art Connoisseur (1863) August Friedrich Siegert

[darnitjack]

Last time this came around I showed my three year old and he said "He's little like me!" and stared for a whole minute (v. Long in toddler time).

[teaboot]

Late for an appointment this morning because my beautiful son child stole a wrapped and bagged bologna sandwich containing roughly 300% his maximum safe sodium intake out of the lunch box in my backpack while I was on the shitter and refused to spit it out

[teaboot]

⬆️ Documented evidence of my sweet and perfect and beautiful firstborn son furiously defending his hard-won right to shit his brains out

[teaboot]

Had to draw

[creekfiend]

I was in Mormon brain jail concurrently to when Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped and held, as it turned out, like 20 miles away from us. We would see billboards when we were driving past in our big white institution van, and we would see magazines in the checkout aisle, on the rare occasions we were allowed to enter shops accompanied, about Elizabeth Smart being held somewhere by some guy. This teenage girl who had been kidnapped and brainwashed and held basically in the next valley over. I don't remember how long she was with him, but this was when everyone was freshly looking for her and panicking about how she had been abducted and was being held against her will and brainwashed. Her picture was EVERYWHERE.

So. Imagine dozens of other teenage girls, being held against their will and brainwashed in Utah, seeing these billboards and going, "huh. I'm having a complicated emotional reaction to all of this. It's possible that I might unpack that in two to three decades."

Both of these situations arise from the same societal attitudes. This guy wanted a teenage girl to be trapped with him and unable to leave, regardless of her feelings on the matter, and for her to act a certain way and comply with his desires. He took her from her home and forced her to be somewhere she did not want to be and would not let her go, and he tried to turn her into a different thing. The difference in societal reactions to when one specific, unauthorized guy does this, compared to when someone's parents pay a fancy sounding institution to do it for them, tells you a lot about how we think about the autonomy of teenage girls.

In Utah, the reason these types of institutions are allowed is because their youth rights laws are abysmal even compared to the rest of the US. Children aren't people, they're the property of their parents. Elizabeth Smart's parents didn't want her to be kidnapped, so it was bad. Our parents did want us to be kidnapped, so it was fine.

Elizabeth Smart’s kidnapper’s crime was that he didn’t go through the established system for kidnapping and brainwashing teenage girls. This is not even a little bit hyperbolic.

[creekfiend]

Some ppl are confused about this, I recommend at the very least reading the Wikipedia article on the troubled teen industry. For more info, you can listen to Paris Hilton's podcast Trapped in Treatment or the Salt Lake Tribune's podcast Sent Away (or both). This is something you probably should know about if you have any interest in mental health treatment or youth rights in the USA. (Thanks Kuzu for the latter two recs!)

The types of institutions I'm referring to, which operate primarily in Utah, accept kids who have no criminal history or history of drug use, which is usually a requirement in other states, or that is my understanding of how it worked at the time I was imprisoned. And I am equally against them in both cases, to be clear. 👍

[queer-as-city-folk]

all of those are brown

[kt--extinction]

here is the picture from the Año Nuevo State Park instagram, the colour is suspected to be from rolling in red algae

[queer-as-city-folk]

That one is porple

[crpl-pnk]

you ever realize how able bodied people just are not expected to do things that cause them excruciating physical pain? like they’re just. not

if i shouldn’t use my cane because i can sometimes technically walk without it, it would just hurt like a motherfucker then abled people should no longer be allowed to use potholders to take things out of the oven because i mean

well they could technically pick up a hot pan with their bare hands. it would just hurt like a motherfucker

[crpl-pnk]

*sees an abled person using potholders*

i just think it’s really sad that you’re giving up on yourself like that

[crpl-pnk]

if you use potholders how will you ever build up the calluses necessary to pick up scalding hot metal without burning yourself so severely? it’s like you’re not even trying to get better

[darklingdawns]

I mean, my mother uses potholders, but she’s in her 70s. You’re just… too YOUNG to be resorting to potholders at your age.

[kipplekipple]

If you start using potholders, your inability to hold hot metal will only get worse.

[escuerzoresucitado]

[killer-buzz-queen]

Today is the only day you can reblog this

[thewitcheswait]

Hey, past me. In your thirties you will gather unto yourself a bevy of neurodiverse found family, who partake heartily of food and frivolity, crafts and communism, genderfuckery and gentle pats. You'll learn to be yourself unapologetically. It's all going to keep you alive, at one point or another, in one way or another, and you're going to be a far better person at 40 because of and for them. It doesn't get better, you make it better.

[queer-joy-detector]

Queer joy detected!

[roofgeese]

alright folks shit's about to get real (again)

Markup for the SCREEN ACT and KOSA is going to the Senate on WEDNESDAY AUGUST 5TH 2026. That's in TWO DAYS.

You need to contact your representatives and senators. We need to stop this nonsense unless we want to wind up like the UK.

Call them. Send emails. Write letters. Use these resources to figure out who to contact and what to say. Let them know we will VOTE THEM OUT if they vote in favor of any of these bills.

Oppose Age Verification Mandates for Internet Access ⭑ 5 Calls

Various federal and state bills have been introduced to require age verification for internet platforms. While the purported purpose of thes

Bad Internet Bills

All of the bad internet bills. One website.

The future of the internet depends on us.

[hypokeimena]

i need to show you guys the absurdly saucy pear my parents just casually had out in the fruit bowl like it was normal

[hypokeimena]

im not a talented photographer but these come close to capturing the overall effect (i.e., the raunch factor)

[kaijufluffs]

She's being so big and brave.

[kaijufluffs]

The long awaited sequel.

[phneltwrites]

i know this has been said before but the progressive language around gender that i've experienced in my lifetime has undergone such a radical shift. Because my grandmother is a lesbian I'm like older than my years in gay years but when I was little it was like 'gender is a system of social categorisation that says NOTHING about you on the inside.' It's pronouns and other people's expectations but it doesn't mean anything about feelings. It doesn't need to determine how you dress or talk or your interests or hobbies or where you want to work or what you can do or who you can relate to or be friends with or connect with and those things are personal and should be shaped by your values and how you're feeling right then.

and now i walk into theoretically progressive spaces and it's like well you can pick your gender but it means everything about you so select the right one and stick to all of its rules. now do you like she/her and girl math and not walking alone at night and expecting someone else to take care of you? you can pick nonbinary but then you gotta be flat chested and use power tools. and if you pick he/him get ready to get more strict about gender roles than a boomer grandpa, you have to take the garbage out. hey you picked the pronoun, you gotta live with all the strictures, those are the rules for some reason. some really wild spaces accept the concept of genderfluid, which now means going into each of those modes depending on task. 'im in man mode time to mow the lawn.'

[heatherwitch]

Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” that was written in 1950 is set on the day of August 4th, 2026 (tomorrow)!! Now’s your chance to read it around the time it’s based in!

Audio: A recording of Leonard Nimoy reading it on Internet Archive.

Text: A PDF version.

Graphic Novel: On Internet Archive.

[sergal]

big and cutes my me at you

[deinonychian]

#myme

[cosmonautroger]

Hebden Bridge, Calderdale, West Yorkshire (England)

[princefuckyouknickers]

[rain-droplet]

in fair verona, we lay our scene

[floof9000]

I adore her little flaps

[quasi-normalcy]

These people are sexual predators.

[lucinatural]

If you are in WASHINGTON this is not yet law, this initiative will be on the ballot Nov 3 THIS YEAR. VOTE NO. You have the ability to prevent this from becoming law.

[quasi-normalcy]

Remember to turn out for your elections, people!