Solanum Dulcamara

🍇 They/Them-21 🔞🔞🔞

[evilsoup]

if the only men you know are scumbags then you should look into changing the social spaces you inhabit.

The majority of men are basically, like, fine, but it's a well-documented observation that people will tend to stick around with people who hold similar values etc. This is called "homophily" in the social sciences.

So you get these calls for men to "call out" their friends who make misogynist jokes but well... most of the men who will actually hear that message are already not friends with the men who make those jokes, BECAUSE they find men who make those jokes odious.

Decent men and scumbags tend to self-sort into distinct social scenes. This isn't absolute, there are mixed groups, but it can lead to specific scenes or subcultures where all the men are shit heads. If you are finding yourself surrounded by such men consider taking up new hobbies and expanding your social circles. You may have to go out of your comfort zone.

There are factors that bring heterogenous groups together -- work, school, university, to the extent that it's actually succesful political activity -- so it's not like you can have a life totally seperate from the bad guys. This isn't some solution to all life's problems. But I am telling you that if you think some abhorrent behaviour is something the "all men" do then you are wrong, and should consider whether you can change up your social surrounding so you are no longer exclusively associating with shitbag men. This doesn't solve sexism but it probably gives you, personally, a better time.

[manicpixiedckgirl]

[theaudientvoid]

There are multiple chapters that are set in hospitals where the characters are attempting to recover from injuries that never fully heal. I must once again stress that my experience in WWI was perfectly normal.

[aro-ace-from-outer-space22]

There is a giant horrible mudplain full of unrecoverable and perfectly preserved dead bodies that the characters have to walk through in a land where the air is poisoned gas, and on a compLETELY UNRELATED NOTE: WWI WAS TOTALLY FINE AND NORMAL!!

[kingercainedaddyissues]

Uh??? Tolkien did not claim that???

"One has indeed personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918, all but one of my close friends were dead."

He talked about how WWI affected his writing all the time, he was not in denial for how it affected??? Am I missing something????

[alexseanchai]

https://www.tolkiensociety.org/blog/2017/09/tolkien-as-war-novelist-another-way-of-dealing-with-trauma-through-writing/

what Tolkien was adamant about, which has been confusing people for several decades now, is that he wasn't writing about World War Two

[beatrice-otter]

He was also very clear that he was not writing allegory. Now, some people are not very clear on what allegory means. "Allegory" and "symbols" are not the same thing. Allegory is a type of symbolism, but there are a lot of ways of doing symbolism that aren't allegory ... and a lot of people are kind of fuzzy on that. The way allegory is most commonly used in literary and religious analysis is that there is a direct, almost 1:1 correspondence between the literary figure and what it is standing in for.

So, for example, Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of Christian salvation. It's sort of a novel? There are characters who do stuff? but also they are very one-dimensional. The main character is a guy named Christian--yes, really!--who is journeying from his hometown ("the city of destruction") to the Celestial City (heaven). There is not much subtlety to it. It is pretty much what it is. There is no slippage, no playing around with the theme, no places where the symbolism is ambiguous. John Bunyan, the author, is hitting you over the head every step of the way with the Meaning That You Are Supposed To Be Getting From The Story.

Not all allegories are that crude or simplistic; the Narnia books are also allegory for Christianity. They have a lot more subtlety to them and a lot more nuance, and there's a lot of stuff in there that isn't allegorical, but on the crucial matters there is still a 1:1 correspondence. Aslan is Jesus. He's not like Jesus, he's not a character that has some similarities to Jesus or takes themes from the stories of Jesus, he is Jesus.

Tolkien is not doing allegory. Tolkien is taking the material of his life--his faith, his experiences in WWI, his linguistic and historical knowledge, his favorite books--and using them as the building blocks of his story. The themes and imagery and symbols draw heavily from all of that, the characters and settings draw heavily from all of that, but they are too complex to be allegorical. There's a lot of symbolism! It's not allegory.

So, for example, let's take the Dead Marshes referenced above. Does the experience of walking through this muddy wasteland with corpses all around that are rotting but still look like people draw from Tolkien's WWI battlefield experience of dead bodies in the trenches? Of course it does! but there are also a lot of differences. These dead are not from the current war, they are from a previous one--they are a reminder of old conflicts, of the ways the systems and powers of the current war have not come out of nowhere, there is history here. There is meaning that is not drawn from the Somme. And they are also drawing from literary references Tolkien was familiar with--primarily William Morris. Modern readers don't get the references because we have generally not read The House of the Wolflings, but that doesn't mean that the references aren't there.

So people read Tolkien's insistence that he didn't write allegory, and take that to mean that he's saying there isn't symbolic and thematic references. And that isn't what he meant! And also, we focus so much on the thematic references to WWI and Christianity, and we miss most of the other references, which makes it seem like Tolkien's only drawing on WWI, when he's actually doing something more complex.

[floodedlungs-archived]

my kink is a happy n fulfilling relationship

[floodedlungs-archived]

[can-i-make-image-descriptions]

[Image ID: Anonymous Tumblr ask reading: Your kink is unrealistic and almost impossible to achieve stick to bondage like everyone else /End ID]

[lachonk]

I think it's a shame that "Oedipus complex" refers to fucking your mom instead of the actual point of his story, fulfilling your destiny through your attempts to avoid it. It just so happens his destiny was to fuck his mom

[charyou-tree]

Yeah, I don’t know what Freud was thinking, but Oedipus very much did Not want to fuck his mom. He spent the entire play trying to avoid that, and then gauged out his eyes when he learned that he had anyway.

[lachonk]

I think Freud was too caught up with the fantasy of fucking his mom to appreciate the themes of the story tbh

[chkq-deactivated20260531]

tomorrow i fix my life #fixmylife #tomorrow

[anxeious]

[can-i-make-image-descriptions]

[Image ID: Tweet from kendall (@/ internetFairie) reading: honestly once i get over my burnout, depression, creative block, doomScrolling addiction, tendency to over intellectualize & avoidant behaviors then you'll see /End ID]

[konoko]

[vodka-is-gay-and-so-am-i]

[mortalityplays]

there is no single argument against including trans women in sports that doesn't boil down to "women aren't supposed to be good at this" and it's fucking insane to me that every woman in the world isn't up in arms about the way this issue has laid institutional misogyny bare to the bone

[holyschnitzel]

A brilliant answer you gave to that other anon. In relation, when a lot of people who believe that it is morally wrong to even depict anything problematic even when not glorifying anything they also tend to argue for censorship. This censorship doesn't just stop at explicit or violent content, either. Itchio still has LGBTQ+ games de indexed that are PG. This topic is tricky.

thank you! ^^

yep, that's part of why I'm generally wary of censorship as a solution. because we know people rarely agree on what should or shouldn't be allowed.

one person wants explicit sexual content removed. another wants violent content removed. someone else thinks certain political, religious, or LGBTQ+ themes shouldn't be depicted. once the standard becomes "this makes me uncomfortable, therefore it shouldn't exist," the line tends to keep moving.

personally, I'd much rather have clear warnings, tagging systems, filters, and the ability to curate my own online experience than have a small group of people decide what everyone else is allowed to create or consume.

you can still criticize fiction or discuss its impact. those conversations are important. I just don't think criticism and censorship are the same thing. as for the Itch.io situation, that's a good example of why these discussions can get complicated very quickly :/

[mjfass]

New ask game:

Reblog if you want your followers to tell you what your trademark ™️ is. Like, what’s that thing that really identifies you.

[holyschnitzel]

I just need confirmation. Are you like, into rape/non-con and incest stuff? Because obviously those stuff are very bad and, in my true honest opinion, I don't like people who like that stuff at all.

Like do you enjoy and go search up content with that stuff? Or is it more of a showing representation for those victims?

confirmation? I'm not really sure that's what you're looking for. to me, it sounds more like you're trying to determine whether I'm "acceptable" according to your standards.

and I think my previous posts already answers this. my views on fiction don't depend on whether I personally enjoy a particular trope. if I only defended fictional topics that I happened to like myself, that wouldn't be much of a principle. you're free to dislike certain fictional content, you're also free to dislike me. but I'm not interested in sorting people into "good" and "bad" categories based solely on what fiction they read or write. as for your last question, fictional content can exist for many different reasons. sometimes it's written for catharsis, some for horror, some for drama, some for exploration, and some simply because they find the subject interesting. there isn't one universal reason. and I'm not particularly interested in ranking people's motivations. I'd rather judge people by how they treat real people than by why they engage with a particular piece of fiction ^^

[cardentist]

If im misunderstanding just ignore this, but isnt that TADC person complaining that a minor talking to them about vaguely sexy stuff when theyre an adult puts them in the position of a groomer (or opens them up to being accused of it) and they have to be careful to avoid that, not them claiming to be a minor at 23.

context: [Link]

I think you might've missed some of the details !

"lockendrick" posted a screenshot claiming that gooseworx sent nsfw to a minor (natekitty) to imply that goose is a predator

when we look into the details we see that 1: natekitty publicly posted that they were 23 a year before the screenshot was posted (they're nearly 30 now)

2: this interaction happened multiple years before tadc, meaning the power imbalance is Extremely different than what was implied without specific dates on the interaction

3: the "nsfw" in question is a clown girl wearing clothes. definitely risque and I wouldn't send something like that to a minor's dms, but censoring the whole body was unnecessarily was clearly meant to imply she was booty butt naked

4: lockendrick is an open transphobe (among other things), which readily explains why they'd falsely frame a trans creator as a predator for fun

I bring all of this up because it's EASY for bigots to make false allegations and whip up thousands of people to turn on a trans creator, which is exactly what's been happening with gooseworx

we KNOW that queer creators and creators of queer art are Constantly subject to demonization, framed as predatory and dangerous. but it feels like as long as bigots are able to frame their hatred in the Right way, use the Right language to frame these creators as degenerate, people will eat it right up and join in on the crusade

I don't think we should let queer creators off the hook of Ever being scrutinized, but I think we need to learn to read Through progressive language when someone is trying to provoke you into being reactionary. if something is trying to invoke an emotional response from you, to make you tear a queer person down and push them Out, Interrogate It. check the sources, check if there even ARE sources.

people Want you to feel angry and disgusted, which means they're looking for what You care about most in the hopes you won't bother to check. that whatever it is is bad enough that you won't dare to question them

[janmisali]

oh I know how to make a poll's results look like the letter E watch this

what is the rightmost digit of the number of responses this poll has right now? (it should be visible before you vote.)

0, 1, or 2

3

4 or 5

6

7, 8, or 9

Voting ended onJun 13

[this-is-a-love-story-isnt-it]

This insane update from Neocities

[samreich]

just throwing this out there

[bumpen-underbeds]

The whole marriage was a scam anyway, so why should this one little huge occurrence change anything for the two of you?

Between your parents breathing down your neck about getting married and having kids, and your partners own parents lining up an arranged marriage for them as they believed they were unable to find a marriage partner on their own. It was only natural that the two of you pulled a fast one on them and made the decision to get married to each other, stopping both families from pushing on with their demands for the two of you to start a family.

So when you leave for your honeymoon the weight of expectations lifted, at least for a little while.

The twin you visit is one both of you wanted to go and see, never having the time till now and making the most of it. The two of you spent your days doing whatever either of you wanted, having meals together before heading off to enjoy your alone time, just because the two of you were now fake married didn't mean you had to actually act like a couple around strangers that thought you were just friends on a roadtrip. However, the two of you did enjoy an evening at the beach together, sharing pictures and stories of what you did during the day, laughing and blissfully unaware of the wide-eyed hybrid now eagerly racing towards the two of you.

This particular town is a home and haven to a certain group of crab hybrids, and their mate practices are unique to say the least. These facts are part of the reason the two of you had wanted to visit, curious about the practical aspects of it and the how of these hybrids picking out their 'wives' from the general population of the town, or the visitors to the town.

It is a bright flash of orange and a chitter of excitement that spooked the two of you, strong arms wrapping around your waist as both of you are lifted and hefted into a pair of arms, too shocked to do much but stare as one of the crab hybrids exclaims loudly about finding two wonderful wives this day!

By the time both you and your friend shake out of the shock it's too late, there are crab hybrids and their own human 'wives' all around you, and a very exhausted looking bureaucrat that somehow manages to get the crowd of excited orange plated hybrids to calm down before addressing the two of you and letting you speak as you explained that the two of you were already married and can't become this hybrids wives. Only to have the bureaucrat sigh and explain that sadly the marriage of two humans is not viewed as invalidating to these crab hybrids mate choice marriages.

The rest of the words that follow are drowned out as you try to process what is going on, a fake marriage to your friend to crab mate marriage pipeline, wasn't on your cards at all for either of you. Yet, when you look over at your friend/partner they are looking up at the crab hybrid still holding the two of you against his chest, and they look almost enamored with the strange orange crab hybrid...

This feels like it will be harder to explain to your parents than the separate bedrooms were.

That's right it's a return of my husband crabs And their kidnapping wives behaviour!

[teaboot]

Can I be honest with yall I don't want to hear SHIT against cishets at pride this year

[teaboot]

"But it's not FOR them!!!" The biggest military power in the world belongs to a christofascist nation overseen by a felon found guilty of 34 federal crimes and has greenlit a gestapo with more direct funding than the entire military of Canada for the purpose of ethnic cleansing. Let Hetero Jessica throw some biodegradable glitter at a municipal parade

[teaboot]

At this point if anyone is trying to exclude anyone benignly pro-queer from a pro-queer space I'm just going to assume you're a fed or something idk like something something destabilize the movement from within or whatever