[neuroclastic]

[aspergersissues]

[no-longer-another-bondi-blonde]

Everyone should know the international sign for Help Me. Let’s make this famous!!

[amanda-bakes]

Interesting; I didn’t know this was a thing.

[hopefulmisanthrope]

It’s apparently a thing, but it’s a very new thing, so it may need some help being known.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_for_Help

[the-barefoot-hatter]

The Signal for Help (or the Violence at Home Signal for Help) is a single-handed gesture that can be used by an individual to alert others that they feel threatened and need help over a video call, or in-person. It was originally created as a tool to combat the rise in domestic violence cases around the world as a result of the self-isolation measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic…

The Signal for Help was first introduced in Canada by the Canadian Women’s Foundation on April 14, 2020, and on April 28, 2020 in the United States by the Women’s Funding Network (WFN). It received widespread praise from local, national, and international news organizations for helping provide a modern solution to the issue of a rise in domestic violence cases.

The signal has been recognized by over 40 organizations across Canada and the United States as a useful tool to help combat domestic violence.

Addressing concerns that abusers may become aware of such a widespread online initiative, the Canadian Women’s Foundation and other organizations clarified that this signal is not “something that’s going to save the day,” but rather a tool someone could use to get help.

[pluvi-partum]

To the people who think fanfiction isn’t “real writing” - I dare you to read some of the shit on ao3 and not feel the Holy fucking Spirit lift your soul from your body until you transcend time and space and this entire fucking plane of existence through the stunningly poignant, delicately nuanced, unparalleled sheer fucking skill that these writers have.

If you don’t feel it, then I’m so sorry for you. It must be tough, living your entire life with your head shoved so far up your own ass.

[veeaziel]

every day i am percieved™️

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

There is a reason for this though!

The original tweet summarizes it pretty well. Fanfic tends to be popular among certain types of neurodivergent people (aka people most likely to read excessively as a child, and have burnout as an adult) for the same reasons that we tend to hyperfixate–neurochemical signaling (I hope I’m using that phrase correctly). What I mean is, for people who are really dependent on changes in dopamine/serotonin/neurotransmitter levels, who have low levels or wonky neural reward systems (perhaps the most common types of neurodivergence)…people like us rely on dependable external sources of those neurochemicals. In order to function, we spend a lot of our free time trying to level out our brain chemistry using things that can reliably bring us a steady stream of joyful moments (rewards) without costing too much of the mental effort that is already in short supply. 

significantly: the investment of reading has to be balanced with a steady “return on investment”–and this return has to start fairly quickly. because again, we don’t have a lot of attention/energy to invest on tiring things. we have perpetual “low batteries” in that regard.

that doesn’t mean these stories are “simple,” or that they lack complexity or value–only that the reward has to come in short regular intervals, and it has to have a low “upfront cost.” which is why fanfic stories are so perfectly formulated for neurodivergent readers–they are often beautifully written, but skip a lot of the upfront costs (of introducing new characters, of world-building, of getting the audience emotionally connected to the story elements).

the nature of fanfiction is that the reader has a pre-existing relationship with this world and these characters. that–combined with the shorter average length of fics–means that fan fics very quickly start “rewarding” the reader in a way that traditional fiction struggles to. that’s not a bad thing! and maybe it’s something more traditionally published writers should be paying attention to.

Fanfic, as a genre, has been uniquely helpful and accessible to many neurodivergent readers who would otherwise struggle to immerse themselves in stories. I’m glad so many of you have found a way to love and enjoy reading again! The important thing is that you are spending time inside stories you love–the way those stories are published or presented to the world is just one detail.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

*holds your hand* no, we’re ALL bitches

[godlessondheimite]

[fluffmugger]

#so did they miss the part where gatsby ends up floating dead in a pool and all the miserable deaths in wuthering heights#or did they miss that because there weren’t any chapters titled In Which The Sinners Are Punished For Their Errors#like. even if you require explicit moral instruction from literature it’s pretty hard to miss the comeuppance in those.

[pennie-dreadful]

“What I assume my teachers were trying to teach me”

[doctorbluesmanreturns]

Huck Finn is about a white Southern boy who was raised to believe that freeing slaves is a sin that would send you directly to hell who forges a familial bond with a runaway slave and chooses to free him and thereby in his mind lose his salvation because he refuses to believe that his best friend and surrogate father is less of a man just because he’s black. Yes it features what we now consider racial slurs but this is a book written only 20 years after people were literally fighting to be allowed to keep other human beings as property, we cannot expect people from the 1880s to exactly conform with the social mores of 2020, and more to the point if we ourselves had been raised during that time period there’s very little doubt that we would also hold most if not all of the prevalent views of the time because actual history isn’t like period novels written now where the heroes are perfect 21st century social justice crusaders and the villains are all as racist and sexist as humanly possible. Change happens slowly and ignoring the radical statement that we’re all human beings that Twain wrote at a time when segregation and racial tensions were still hugely prevalent just because he wrote using the language of his time period is short-sighted and foolhardy to the highest degree.

[mikkeneko]

I’m really kind of alarmed at the rise in the past few years of the “and we do condemn! wholeheartedly!” discourse around historical figures. it seems like people have somehow boomeranged between “morals were different in the past, therefore nobody in the past can ever be held accountable for ANY wrongs” to “morals are universal and timeless, and anything done wrong by today’s standards in the past is ABSOLUTELY unforgiveable” so completely, because social media 2.0 is profoundly allergic to nuance

please try this on for size:

there have always been, in past times as today, a range of people in every society, some of whom were even then fighting for a more just and compassionate accord with their fellow man and some of whom let their greeds and hatreds rule them to the worst allowable excesses. the goal of classics and history education is to teach you enough context to discern between the two, not only in the past but in the present

[three--rings]

My mind just boggles at the “There’s Racism In That Book” argument.  Yes, there is racism in that book, because that book is ABOUT RACISM.  The message is that it is BAD. 

My high school English teacher, who was a viciously brilliant woman, used to say that when people banned Huck Finn they said it was about the language, but it was really the message they were trying to ban, the subversive deconstruction of (religious) authority and white supremacy.

[yessoupy]

GOD I just want to be CREATIVE but all my energy is being used to survive

[cries-havoc]

this is one of those "you put it into words" kind of posts. right on.

[susemoji]

that woman you just called fat? it’s the moon. that boy you just called ugly? it’s a bike. that woman you called anorexic? that’s a lamppost. the man you called gay for kissing his boyfriend? its a woman. you need glasses.

[atheist-xmas]

I hate driving because you have to do everything perfectly as fast as possible or everyone around you will announce their displeasure with airhorns

[atheist-xmas]

oh and if you mess up you die and kill a bunch of people at the same time

[atheist-xmas]

LITERALLY like disarming a bomb except there’s a peanut gallery watching you and they’ve each got an airhorn and also another bomb

[atheist-xmas]

#this sounds like something John mulaney would say 

This is one of the nicest compliments I’ve gotten about my writing, and I’ve been reading this post in his syntax ever since I read your tag

[ao3commentoftheday]

No matter how much you plan and plot and research and prepare, you’ll never actually feel ready, so you might as well just jump right in and do the thing.

[ao3commentoftheday]

upon rereading this, I feel like I should specify that I was talking about writing and not murder

[writing-and-nutmeg]

Me: I’m going to write today, I promise!!!

Also me:

[jumpedoverthemoon]

I can smell these pictures

[depsidase]

[guerrillatech]

[ejirobakugo]

[START ID // a tweet by Amelia - lesbianics major sodmetr... (@autogynamelia) reading: “haha straight girls be like ‘MY PARTNER’ and the whole time it’s their boyfri-” YES! THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT! IF EVERYONE SAYS “PARTNER” THEN THAT NORMALIZES IT! OTHERWISE SAYING “PARTNER” IS JUST A BRIGHT NEON SIGN THAT READS “I’M QUEER”! HOW IS THIS DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND?! // END ID]

[iamnoonewhoareyou]

Also, can I just say:

Sometimes calling someone your “boyfriend” feels a bit juvenile if you’ve been together for a long time but aren’t engaged/married (which is still totally valid).

Partner is a great label.

[pluvi-partum]

Life Goal: be the woman who sings the “AAAHHHAHAAAHHH OOOHHHHOOOHOH” on the Two Steps from Hell tracks.

[colossalfauna-moved-deactivated]

y'all will circlejerk yourself to the mysticisms of faeries and elves in european countries for centuries and take it as fact but the second native americans ask you to respect our spirituality and culture suddenly you're all aetheists

[colossalfauna-moved-deactivated]

non natives can, should, and will reblog this.

[chamomile-bruxawitch]

same goes for african rooted religions.

[ladykalila]

goes without saying, but also Asian and Pacific Islands' indigenous spiritualities and religions.

[dorothygale]

*planet explodes* *removes one earbud* what