i have never felt "not queer" i never had a full awakening or a realization i wasn't straight or cis, even as a toddler i was called a tomboy and felt different from my girl classmates. i always wanted to dress more masculine, i always felt attraction to girls more, i don't think i ever had to come out to myself, only ever others
you are not less queer if you didn't feel this. you are not less queer if it's taken you 30, 40, 50, 60,70+ years to figure this out or "feel it"
if you are a parent, or may become one, or you are otherwise likely to arrive in the situation of caring for a child while they eat, promise me this: if a child doesn't like a certain food or food group, you will ask them WHY. and specifically, you will pay attention to either confirming or ruling out "it makes my mouth itch" or "it makes my stomach hurt," both of which are medically important info that children may not provide unprompted. which i know because this PSA has been brought to you by "i spent my entire childhood and much of my early teens eating peas and lentils while wondering why everyone else liked the Violently Itchy Mouth Sensation so much, like were they a bunch of legume masochists or something, before i finally realized that Violently Itchy Mouth Sensation was in fact a sinister demon appearing only to me, and her true demonic name was: Legume Allergy"
A new website aims to make finding ethical, sustainable plus-size clothes (that actually fit) a whole lot easier.
"Shopping for clothes is already intimidating. There are so many options and styles to consider, as well as factors like sustainability and ethics.
But for people in fat, disabled, or queer and gender-nonconforming bodies, it’s even more arduous.
Nico Herzetty, Emma K. Clark, and Paul Herzetty wondered: What if there was a way people could shop — not necessarily by color or size — but by measurements, materials, and ethics?
So they set off to create their website: Phoria.
Here, shoppers can set up a free profile, add their body measurements (and “typical fit challenges”) and peruse over 270 brands. Once these data points are entered, users can personalize their pages with “saved,” “recommended,” or “hidden” brands.
Pages can be totally private, or shared with the community to connect over styles and brands.
Aside from fit, brands in the Phoria database (which claims to be “the largest database of plus-friendly brands”) can also be filtered as “gender-neutral,” “woman-run,” “small business,” or “natural fibers.” Users can also filter for price, preferred styles, and more.
Pictured: A screenshot of the "Fit Challenges" feature on a Phoria user's profile.
Some brands include popular names like Athleta, Levi’s, and Patagonia. Others are small businesses, like Beefcake Swimwear, or Hey Peach.
“For so many people, it feels too damn hard to find and keep clothing that fits in all the ways that really matter. So we’re doing something about it,” the Phoria website reads.
“Unlike most online shopping experiences, we center the needs of plus-size women, nonbinary, and trans people, and prioritize supporting clothing brands focused on sustainability, ethics, and inclusion.” ...
That team — made up of Clark, and Nico and Paul Herzetty — calls themselves “fat, disabled, and very, very queer.”
“These are some of the main ways we identify, and they’re qualities that have directly impacted our ability to get dressed every day in a way that feels good,” the Phoria team introduces themselves on the website.
Pictured: A screenshot of Phoria's plus-size clothing brand database.
In addition to catering the user experience to women, non-binary, and trans people, Phoria is also a benefit corporation, or a B corp.
“We’ve legally required ourselves to consider the interests of all our stakeholders — customers, employees, the planet, and our shareholders,” the Phoria website explains.
“Our specific public benefit purpose is to reduce people’s dependence on buying mass-produced items made in unsustainable ways and to use human-centered business models to boldly challenge economic systems of inequity.”
Right now, in the early stages of the company’s business, it doesn’t make any money.
“We’re focused on building something that genuinely solves plus-size people’s challenges around clothes shopping and supports smaller and more sustainable brands,” Phoria’s website states.
So, spreading the word seems to be of utmost importance...
Additionally, TikTok creators @couplagoofs (a queer couple named Morgan and Phoebe), recently shared a video in which they discovered Phoria. They met the website’s creators at a fat liberation event in their city and were introduced to the tool.
Quickly, commenters responded with gratitude and excitement.
“It is so disappointing to sort through pages of plus size clothes that aren’t even plus size,” a TikTok user commented. “This is gonna be such a good tool!”
Some even shared emotional responses, speaking to the need at the heart of Phoria’s mission.
“I’m… gonna cry,” another commenter wrote. “I’ve needed this my whole life.”"
i think T rage is fake. i think that testosterone is a catalyst for a lot of trans men/nonbinary people to gain a sense of self respect/confidence and with that comes a lot of rage at the ways you've been mistreated your whole life
i think ”T rage” is fake because i’ve always had this anger, and i’ve always expressed it.
but pre-T i was a PMSing little bitch who are proof of why women are unfit for leadership due to female irrationality.
on T i’m a dangerous and aggressive gender traitor who uses testosterone to get the courage to be a meanie.
my identity and my being will always be used against me to force me to not express my emotions out of shame. i won’t allow it and you shouldn’t either. FEEL YOUR BLOOD BOIL WHEN YOUVE BEEN MISTREATED. BE ANGRY.
Hey, unpopular opinion, apparently. But people don’t just “have pain for no reason” doctors say this all the time (especially to women and chronically ill people) and the truth is, Thats literally not possible. Even if your pains are psychosomatic (a word I hesitate to even use because of the way its used so often) there is a reason you are having those pains whether its mental illness, abuse, etc. If your doctor consistently tells you that “well some people just have pain for no reason” get a new doctor. That’s a doctor who is not going to give a shit what your actual symptoms or experiences are.
I just wanna add to clarify the psychosomatic thing.
That word DOES NOT MEAN you’re making it up. It doesn’t mean you’re imagining the symptom. What it means is that the symptom ISN’T DIRECTLY CAUSED BY ANY OF THE THINGS THAT WOULD NORMALLY CAUSE IT.
I fought to get a PCOS diagnosis for 2 and a half years. For the ENTIRE time I was fighting, I was dealing with 3 cysts that were not going away by themselves and eventually required surgery to remove. At one point close to the end of the battle, I suddenly went blind. I was visiting my parents and was standing on the veranda looking out over the tree we had planted in memory of my dog and suddenly I got one of the shooting pains that I was quite frankly used to at that point and my vision started to go dark. It was like the sun was setting while being completely hidden behind storm clouds but it was 2pm in the middle of Summer on a clear day. Within about 30 seconds I couldn’t see ANYTHING. I was 27 years old and I was screaming for my mother.
My mum raced me to her doctor (he was a 15 minute drive away as opposed to 45 minutes to the nearest hospital) and he quickly worked out that there was nothing wrong with my eyes and what had happened was totally unrelated to them. Then he said it was psychosomatic and I freaked out, yelling that I was NOT making this up and I definitely wasn’t imagining it. Very quickly he calmed me down and said he believed me and I had misunderstood. He explained that whatever was going on with my abdominal pains (he suggested PCOS which I hadn’t even heard of at that point) had been ignored for so long that my body was starting to do things other than the normal pain response to try to draw my attention to the problem. My sight going was my body basically jumping around in front of me going “HEY ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME HELLLOOOOOOO??????”
He gave me some prescription strength painkillers and my sight started to come back as soon as they started to kick in. About 45 minutes after it started I could see well enough to walk around without help and within a day and a half I was back to normal. On top of that I finally had a scan booked to figure out what the hell was causing all the pain.
Psychosomatic symptoms are NOT imagined or fabricated or happening for “no reason”. Experiencing them DOES NOT make you a liar. It makes you someone who has been battling with something serious for so long that your own body has started to get impatient with you.
Psychosomatic symptoms are literally your body flipping random alarm switches just to get any alarm blaring because you’ve been ignoring the regular ones
The cops very clearly planted evidence on him because they had to make an arrest because all eyes were on them and whoever actually did the deed was making them look stupid.
Why would the real killer hero have kept the weapon on his person and traveled two states over while carrying it and a manifesto in his bag, conveniently turning the crime into a federal matter? The same guy whose bag they found in a park, filled with monopoly money? Why did the police turn off their bodycams, take Luigi's stuff, drive a block away, turn their bodycams back on, go back into the restaurant, and then arrest him?
From the moment of his arrest, even left-of-center media has been presuming his guilt without examining anything (e.g. calling him "the killer" instead of "alleged" or "accused") and then when I say he didn't do it, the nearest person chimes in with some quip that tells me they think he did do it but should go free anyway. Don't get me wrong, I would have the same attitude if he had done it. But he didn't. It makes me feel like the only sane person in the world, even among my staunchly leftist friends.
"Canceling" was also an AAVE term that originally meant "We ain't fucking with this person anymore because they're weird with weird and questionable beliefs" and white people took it and tainted it to mean "You're trying to ruin someone's life, how dare you make someone take accountability for their actions !" like they really thought that saying "Hey this person is racist, maybe you want to think twice before giving them money and support" is a bad thing and that says a lot more about them than it does about us
if you’re a fat person not looking to lose weight, i love you. the weight loss industry is going bonkers right now and i’m proud of you for continuing to take up space. kisses u on the forehead
it's actually crazy like kind of unbelievable how much racism ppl just expect you to put up with to be polite. like i have so many little experiences where a friend-of-a-friend said something awful and racist to me and i am very clearly hurt and upset and then the friend just expects me to be polite and not say anything not react not even be angry. like when ur not white ur never allowed to be angry. if ur angry ur being too aggressive. you never get to expect an apology, either. expecting an apology for the racist way people hurt you is always asking too much. you never get an apology. you never get to be angry. you never get to say it hurt you. you're just supposed to pretend you didn't hear it, didn't read it, didn't notice. you let things go because it's the only way to have friends.
I think a majority of what can be said about the Micheal Kovach/Ashley situation HAS been said, but I find it extremely disappointing hearing the opinions of nonblack individuals get more attention than the opinions of the affected group on other websites. I am a black person, and felt like speaking up about this since I have a lot of TADC followers and primarily post about TADC, and I think the current state of fandom culture as a whole is too forgiving of racism.
Micheal and Ashley are - and, 7 years ago, were - adults. I hate when old stuff is dug up as much as the next person but if something like this is simply swept under the rug it does more damage if its overlooked than if its ignored. The argument that this isn't "that deep" because it was years ago means nothing here; Both VAs should know better than to make shitty, tasteless edgy jokes on a livestream no less when they're both ADULTS. Microaggressive humour like this is not only unoriginal and unfunny, but allows for larger hateful acts to occur. I do not think Micheal and Ashley are racist but they have extremely large fanbases now and they risk fostering a subcommunity of actual racists if they are careless with what they say. Ultimately, they should've both kept their mouths shut.
Their individual apologies were good too. They were simple and addressed their behaviour, and they agreed to keep the VOD up so they can't hide from accountability. I genuinely appreciate their transparency. Despite this, black fans of these creators are entitled to feel however they wish about the jokes they made. I do not care what a nonblack fan of these two think regarding that matter. If you are black and you are upset at these two creators for their actions, that is completely fine. Personally, I am neither forgiving nor resentful of their actions; this sort of thing is unfortunately so common I have grown numb to even hearing it, and I cannot feel anything but disappointment when situations like this occur. However, I am obviously very disappointed and felt uncomfortable watching the clips; Me being slightly numb to this doesn't make it any less of an issue. There is nothing funny about the n-word. White people have no reason to be joking about it. I may be a minority myself but I wouldn't dare use words meant to harm other minority groups I am not a part of for my own enjoyment. It's pointless, and honestly most edgelords aren't even good at what they do and are extremely unfunny.
Fandom spaces are predominately queer, yes, but the same cannot be said for how accepting of different cultures they are. Admittedly the reaction to both Micheal and Ashley's apologies were more infuriating than their actions to me. People are so willing to sweep everything under the rug for their own safety. The idea of their favourite voice actors being "problematic" is terrifying to them - its such a parasocial mindset. I don't give a fuck about their contributions right now, there's a larger issue at hand. I don't know Micheal and Ashley, and I don't care to - I enjoy their voices in TADC and other proj3cts but they simply make content for me to enjoy. I am not their friends, and YOU aren't either. It's extremely privileged to only care about the integrity of their roles as Jax and Zooble right now and it's pretty easy to have basic empathy for black TADC fans by just admitting that the VAs' apologies are not YOUR apologies to accept or deny, and listening to the group affected. Your witty two cents isn't always wanted.
If you genuinely think this situation isn't a big deal, and are silently hoping it'll dissipate and people will forget so you can feel good about yourself interacting with Digital Circus content -- Fuck you. You're a part of what makes fandoms so unsafe and unwelcoming for people of colour. The sad part about this is there are definitely people who don't care if black people have it harder in the fanbase but I am choosing to ignore them because it's hard to change the minds of racists. Please feel free to unfollow and/or block me if you actually care more about these two fully grown adults' reputations than how black people feel. Noone wants you here.
Please do not think you don't belong in a community if you are a person of colour. These online spaces are extremely white at the moment but they are YOUR spaces as much as they are anyone else's. Noone should be able to tell minorities how to feel about an issue relating to them.
it makes me so sad seeing people in my life who tell me they think they might be trans but they’re too scared to confront that reality because the transgender experience just seems to be filled with terror and misery. trans people please never stop talking about the joys of being transgender. please never stop talking about your excitement and joy and happiness. maybe you think that the trans experience is all doom and gloom, too. I promise it’s not. focus on the joy and you will feel better I promise.
sometimes I think about how far we still have to go with consent
my worst relatives try to sneak meat or meat products into my food despite the fact that I'm a vegetarian
my ex's brother gave his mother an edible without her knowledge and when she got freaked out and paranoid they laughed, and people I've told that go "yeah that's shitty but it's just weed"
when I go to the doctor and ask them to describe what they are going to do before touching me they get frustrated
when I ask a friends of a friend who is a small influencer to keep me out of frame in videos they film for social media in public they look at me like I've pissed in their cereal
Got a new cushion for my chair that is contoured to help with my hip and knee position and oh my god I didn’t realize how much something like this would help me until I tried it. Didn’t even notice that my posture has been so much better until I had to use my other wheelchair yesterday for an appointment in a place that can’t accommodate how long my main one is and I was back in the weird posture and uncomfortable.
Not a lot of people talk about chronic discomfort, probably because at least in my opinion chronic pain is worse and usually overshadows other sensory issues, I didn’t even notice how uncomfortable I was until my pain management was effective and I could feel the other sensations in my body. But chronic discomfort is still an issue, and I think it adds a lot to my issues with being easily agitated. Being uncomfortable and unregulated is of course going to cause someone to act like they are.
people hate it when i say "black people getting cancer is racist" but im literally fucking right because systemic racism has led to chemical dumping being acceptable in black/brown neighborhoods and black people have higher rates of cancer as a result
@theejuggler : #same shit going on with data centers right now
One of the reasons (arguably the primary reason) that Flint Michigan has had decades of poor-quality water is because of automobile manufacturing utilizing lead in their production and gasoline and then dumping it into the river.
Data centers also need a lot of water to function and we know time and time again from history that companies will sooner poison everyone in a zip code than safely process industrial waste.
Not just the water! Data centers also use a lot of electricity, sometimes more than the area they're being built can supply. Some, including Elon Musk's xAI*, are running dozens of (unlicensed!) gas turbines in majority-Black parts of the Memphis, TN metro area.
Source:
Tim De Chant, TechCrunch: Elon Musk’s xAI is running nearly 50 natural gas turbines at its Mississippi data center, power plants that the st
^ this guy has been following this story since
* X (formerly Twitter) is owned by xAI which is itself now owned by SpaceX. that asshole really likes the letter x.
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