[secondwhisper]

Finally making a pronoun guide for my pinned post!

I prefer e/em pronouns (the Spivak variant). Here's how they work:

Subject: e. Pronounced: like the ee in cheese. Example: Today, e is finishing a jigsaw puzzle.

Object: em. Pronounced: like the em in stem. Example: Please tell em about cool rocks you find.

Possessive 1: eir. Pronounced: like the air in chair. Example: That is one of eir favorite books.

Possessive 2: eirs. Pronounced: like the airs in stairs. Example: No, those shoes are not eirs.

Reflexive*: emself or eirself. Pronounced: like em+self or eir+self. Examples: Clove looks at emself in the mirror. Clove looks at eirself in the mirror.

To become more familiar with e/em pronouns, check out this Wikipedia page, this pronouns practice site, or this short story featuring a character who uses e/em pronouns. The short story link contains audio and text versions; content warnings include BDSM, mis-pronouning, and wrongful accusations of abuse.

I'm also comfortable being called by singular-they pronouns, although I do prefer e/em.

*Reflexive has two options for reasons I've put below the cut.

Different English speakers form the reflexive case in different ways.

Most English speakers form the reflexive case using the object form: himself, themselves. This is the "formal," "proper," or "standard" English you'd be taught in school. If you would say "he trusts himself" or "they all trust themselves," you would say "e trusts emself."

Some English speakers, notably those who use BAE/AAVE, form the reflexive case using the possessive form: hisself, theirselves. If you would say "he trusts hisself" or "they all trust theirselves," you would say "e trusts eirself."

[ot3]

not saying this is what that last person was implying at all, but there have been real times where people have acted like being bored to tears by domestic fluff means i dont understand the hypothetical appeal of that happening in real life. and sometimes i just get so blindsided by other peoples understanding of what fiction is even, like, for, categorically. because wish fulfillment/aspiration is so low down on the list of what makes a work hit for me. in many many instances my enjoyment of a piece of fiction goes up directly in proportion with how much i would never in a million years want to directly experience anything happening there.

[proletprincess]

love is something you do with your teeth

[reddragdiva]

in which BBC Business Editor Robert Peston explains revolutionary socialism to a six-year-old

[redlipstickresurrected]

CJ Walker aka Ceeejus (American, based Queens, NY, USA) - Miss Meep, Risograph

[thedorkdionysia]

the thing is that the way people treat trans women they don't like is that the behavior they're engaging in is like as old as (and even older than) the modern generation of transphobic backlash against the trans liberation moment

[thedorkdionysia]

Beth Elliott is a transfem folk singer who was involved with West Coast lesbian political movements in the 70s. her inclusion was debated for a while, partly because she was transgender, but also because a lesbian who she used to have a relationship with was involved with a separate lesbian group, who protested against her inclusion at a lesbian conference that she had helped to set up. the conference took a vote that resulted in the majority saying she should be allowed to stay, but the trans-exclusive lesbians refused to allow the vote to hold. she performed once on the first night, and then didn't return, and the next night one of the speakers delivered a speech that was changed from her original notes to be more of a transphobic screed against Elliot, alleging her of having "the mentality of a rapist". this incident certainly didn't *invent* the idea of trans women being rapists, but it does predate The Transsexual Empire by several years and was definitely a contributing factor to its creation.

and i say "is" at the top of this story because Beth Elliott is still alive!!!! this incident was not that long ago!!!!! it DID damage her career, however, and it practically made her a social pariah. but it's the same type of shit people do to trans women to this very day. these tactics are relatively recent overall but they are still time honored traditions with trans-exclusive feminists.

[thedorkdionysia]

this isn't even about michfest is the crazy part. this incident happened in 1973, and michfest as an event started 3 years later in 1976. the first michfest where trans women were explicitly removed from the event took place in 1991, after it had already been running for 25 years. the type of thinking that caused the organizers of michfest to push trans women out of participating in an event they had long been a part of was the same type of thinking that had caused lesbian activists to push Beth Elliott out of the event she had organized as well as her career, and it's the same type of thinking that led to writings like The Transsexual Empire coming into existence.

[askaniritual]

i just don’t think “is dude gender neutral” is that productive of a conversation because a word can be gendered and still used regardless of gender. i call my male friends girlypop and my female friends man but i don’t think anybody would agree that those are somehow not gendered terms.

the real question is just “would you be willing to apologize and stop using a word if somebody told you it made them uncomfortable?” the answer to which in a surprising number of cases is no mostly because it seems like overall ppl r more upset abt getting accused of transphobia than they are abt being transphobic

[the1920sinpictures]

1928-29 The Laredo Apartments located at 2749 Elmhurst Street, Detroit, Michigan. It was originally a twenty-unit building for middle class renters. From Awesome Attic, FB.

[happyheidi]

𝚁. 𝙻. 𝚆𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚜 𝙿𝚘𝚜𝚝𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝟷𝟿𝟶𝟶𝚜

[tpwrtrmnky]

I do think "literally zero evidence indicates that gatekeeping medical transition does anything to prevent regret, but the harm done by gatekeeping is extensively documented" is a much stronger argument than "regret isn't real" cause there's always going to be some anecdote that puts you in a weak-looking rhetorical position for the latter, but the former is pretty unassailable.

[headspace-hotel]

tags from @queerical

[joy-haver]

We don’t think of social media as infrastructure, but it is

[joy-haver]

I know we are all doomers about tech right now and I really do get it. But my frustration with these social media sites isn’t “they exist and it’s bad for society”. My frustration is that I see all the good that comes from them and then I watch that be stripped away day by day by the profit motive. I’ve seen so many people go from homeless to stably housed using social media. We’ve organized clothing swaps and native plant restoration projects and land sharing programs. People meet friends and loved ones, people to be family with. And people to protest with, and struggle with, and build the world they want to see with. I watch all of this get harder as scams become more common, as ai bullshit overtakes every communication, and as algorithms channel us more towards staying angry, scared, and on the phone rather than helping us connect.

Social media isn’t the issue. Honestly, I see it as an important infrastructural pillar of the world we want to build. The ability for mass-to-mass communication has so much liberatory potential. the issue is profit. The issue is money. The issue is capitalism.

[justgivemeabookplease]

Shrek 2, while a cinematic masterpiece, is also an interesting look at queerness and comp het.

Fiona is married so it's time to reunite with her parents. But instead of marrying a prince, she's married to an ogre. Not just that, but she's also an ogre. (Yes everyone knew she would sometimes be an ogre but that was when she was a child, she didn't know she would be an ogre for the rest of her life, and besides once she met the right prince she would stop being an ogre. She was supposed to stop being an ogre.)

But okay they're both ogres. We can still ask about when they'll have children because even if they're ogres they can still have kids, right? That's what married princes and princesses do so naturally that's what everyone does. Even if ogres might not be great parents (I've heard that ogres eat their young, is that something you people do?) it's still something that should be discussed.

And okay you can stay in Fiona's childhood bedroom filled with all the reminders that hey, everyone thought she was just a princess and princesses marry princes. Her toys left out from the last time she played with them. The prince slays the ogre. The princess offers a token of gratitude for slaying the ogre. Fiona wrote Mrs. Fiona Charming a million times in her diary because what else was she supposed to grow up to be?

And Harold you have to fix this, your country can't be ruled by ogres. You were unfit to rule when you were a frog but I changed you, I made you better, I made you a prince. You know how this works. Think of your daughter's safety.

Shrek goes to the Fairy Godmother and oh honey, ogres don't live happily ever after. It's just not done. It hasn't happened in all of fairy tale history. You have to change the both of you to be happy. You have to present as a prince and a princess. It will be better. You'll fit in better that way. You'll be accepted that way.

[fitzchivalry]

[nyancrimew]

y'all remember this game? just pure goonbait it's crazy i was allowed to play it at all bro 😭

[msmaev]

Once you know all the logic tricks to play minesweeper, you end up in a state of exercised mastery. The goal is not to solve individuals puzzles but to tease out more and more from her while denying her every chance to explode, every chance to deny you your total dominance over her.

In short, mastery over minesweeper is mastery over edging the program.

[pangur-and-grim]

I think some of the loneliness of autism is that you feel like you hurt people just by Interacting Wrong, but you don’t know how to Interact Right, and the more effort you put into it, the more exhausted you are and the more artificial it comes across (with the end result of people still being upset with you). and it’s not anyone’s fault for not liking Being Interacted With Wrong, and it’s not your fault for doing it so wrong, but it is very, very lonely.

[solar-sunnyside-up]

So I've talked about little libraries and pantries to death but this Lil guy popped up in my area recently and it's blown my mind

So I went to the website on the door and it's basically the same thing as free little library where you can pay for a box from them to get it installed OR Build one yourself

[idlelizard]

shapely sugar bowl

[rozzed]

why not have the reader re-read a sentence now and then? it won't hurt him....