rocky should be naked: an anthropological treatise
something maybe controversial that has been driving me BONKERS since the project hail mary book first came out that i finally just had to dig into my anthropology MA to bitch about:
it's fucking batshit that andy weir wrote the eridians as wearing clothes. there is no reason that eridians would ever develop something akin to human clothing.
like. do you know how long humans (not just hairy early hominin relatives of our, but straight-up anatomically modern homo sapiens) were rocking nothing but our birthday suits? LIKE NINETY THOUSAND FUCKING YEARS. HUMANS HAVE BEEN NAKED ALMOST THE WHOLE TIME WE'VE BEEN HUMANS, and we're famously leaky hairless apes, not hard-carapaced crab spiders with piston joints who live in boiling ammonia.
listen to me. the first hairless hominin was homo erectus, about 1.6mya. naked. anatomically modern humans like us evolved 350-270,000 years ago. also naked. when do we first have solid evidence for consistent human use of clothing (bc it's when the clothing lice genome evolves to diverge from the head lice genome lol)? only 170,000-83,000 years ago. before that? BUCKASS NAKED. and even when we did start using clothing? well, as we know from excellent textile archeologists such as elizabeth wayland barber, a LOT of early human clothing was likely more decorative than functional – i.e. the string skirts that you see on some of the 'venus figures' from the upper paleolithic, which were solely decorative but would NOT do anything for warmth.
now consider eridians, whose bodies are functionally impenetrable unless they're actively eating (which is a private activity anyhow), who are carnivores (thus having no need to cultivate plants – aka the source of most textiles – like humans do), who live on a planet with no sun exposure (so probably nothing like earth plants anyways) and no fucking seasons (no need for rain/snow protection!), who evolved to exist ONLY in very specific & stable temperature ranges (like most life on erid, per andy weir), who have five fucking hands to hold things, are famously so good at multitasking that doing just one activity sucks for them, and CANNOT FUCKING SEE!!!
so where the FUCK is eridians' evolutionary or social impetus to develop ANYTHING akin to clothing supposedly coming from? N O W H E R E. you heard me.
decoration like the celebration jewelry, absolutely – though notice that was clearly designed for its auditory qualities and ability to show up on sonar, not anything approaching the level of coverage that human clothing has. rocky's engineering lederhosen (leather! bc again, carnivores!) as a (evolutionarily speaking) modern development to help hold tools, yeah, totally. carapace carvings, 100%.
BUT THERE IS NO FUCKING REASON FOR THAT ROCK TO WEAR A SHIRT. in fact, it's way the fuck weirder that he DOES wear a shirt in the book! the movie was completely right to have a buckass naked rocky, there is no goddamn reason eridians would ever develop clothing, and the idea of a five-legged spider rock trying to put on a sleeved shirt makes me want to have a stroke. thank you for coming to my ted talk.
partially based on @strifesolution's shiny duo save stars au but i put my own PET twist on it... I'm a big fan of everyone acknowledging how smart and capable pearl is except herself. that and the overarching theme of loneliness
i just thought of people pearl absolutely admire and would feel guilty failing over. i love PET postal but there's also this distance in this group that comes from pearl timezones preventing them from hanging out and doing stuff together, which solidifies their roles for me in this au... she would love to get to know them and save stars together but she couldn't, even though both etho and tango have high opinions of her. having friends in different timezones than you is kind of like a dead wife
ohmyyyygiooooddshfuigushs OH MY GISHDGSVUSADHIEUWRFH E
this is so so sososoos beautiful and it combines my two favourite brainworms atm.... pearl as ryland grace.... it fits so WELLL!!!!!!
Maybe the other two villies are Stratt, because they're doing their Secret Society missions, to save the world and that comes before friends.... idk....
those r pretty fun ideas... ^^ the original au was shinyduo so that was the rough guideline i'd follow! i also quite enjoyed Cleo as Stratt and I've elaborated about it here. I think Cleo has similar commanding aura and their dynamic in vsmp really plays off well like grace and stratt.
for Carl i'm kinda considering Impulse bc he and Pearl are stream buddies and play off each other well ^_^ I love seeing them pop by each other's streams right before she leaves/he logs on. might draw that sometimes....
you're not allowed to bring wireless devices into classified areas and a security guy noticed a square phone-ish shape in my pocket so he asked me to show him what it was and i had to show him my can of pocket herring :/
"Stop scrolling and please help me spread the word, because if I've landed on your page you're most likely either a black woman or someone who cares about black women and the simple phrase I'm about to share could help save a black woman's life.
Doctors are to black women what police officers are to black men. That may seem controversial but I believe it to be true and I speak from personal experience.
If you've seen this TikTok you know that a 2016 study showed that 50% of medical students and residents thought that black people couldn't feel pain the same as white people.
And we learned from this video that because of a 1999 study, to this day, there's a black correction factor for the creatinin levels in black people's kidneys, meaning we're less likely to recieve a kidney transplant if needed.
So if you go to a doctor, feel you aren't getting proper treatment or they refuse the treatment you've requested, say to them the following:
I will need you to document on record that you are refusing the treatment (or medicine) I've requested, and the reason you are doing so."
This works. I have used it in other situations. If medical staff have to document and take responsibility and be on the hook legally for doing shady shit they behave much differently.
If you weren’t already going to spread this advice because black women are at risk, then spread it because it’s applicable to everyone else as well, including you reading this.
But particularly women, and especially black women.
Butchfemme Bloodymary Yuri beach art yaaaayyyyy also It’s not obvious but Grace is Transfem here I forgot to add a trans colored bracelet like I planned bleghhhh
Water is actually the worst thing to draw ever and that boardwalk was even worse I wanted to DIE
Also if u can’t read it Simone’s thought bubble says “She’s wearing the bikini I bought her”
Mate, that is a reason to LOVE the fandom! If your worst experience in fandom is people writing fanfiction that you don't understand and doesn't appeal to you that is truly a blessing.
Join the club, that was also the age around which I stumbled into bdsm role-play on wattpad because I had no idea what wattpad actually was and neither did my parents, so they couldn't keep me safe. (Suffice to say, I noped right out of there again as soon as I realised where I was.)
Look, there need to be spaces online that are intended for children and are moderated to be SAFE for children, as much as that is possible. Because kids will be on the internet and should have the option to do so safely.
Parents also need to be much better educated about online safety, and need to know that they will actively need to keep an eye on their children's online activity. Kids ALSO need to be much better educated about how to stay safe online. And about recognizing warning signs, both about places they are in and about people they are interacting with.
But the internet is for everyone and you cannot police what people put up Clearly Labeled for their Own Community just because you found out it existed and didn't like it and you are a minor.
There are parental advice labels on videogames warning of sex and violence and even profanity in the game. Those games are still on shelves in stores where kids are running around looking for games for themselves.
Ao3 has both an age rating and a much more thorough warning label system with its tags. And it gives you the option to both include and exclude certain age ratings and warning labels from the very start. So you don't even have to see it.
I'm sorry you had to find out people write stuff that disturbed you, I know that isn't fun. I recently had to drop a fic I really loved reading because the tags changed, and the author pointed that out, and it looks like there's gonna be some stuff in it that's a trigger for me.
But that's the reality of fanfiction and existing in a fandom community, and it is the best and most accomodating system you could built.
Because, you know what? That trigger wasn't even about kink or smut or anything you would consider dark or disturbing. I just have phobia of something that's anywhere between completely innocuous to actively enjoyed by millions of people.
So all I can do is thank the author for being upfront about it and privately mourn the loss of that story for myself. Maybe vent to some friends about it.
Mate, that is a reason to LOVE the fandom! If your worst experience in fandom is people writing fanfiction that you don't understand and doesn't appeal to you that is truly a blessing.
Also, Ao3 has the option to exclude tags for a reason. Tumblr has the option to mute tags and you should make use of it liberally. Tumblr also has the option to block accounts and you should make use of it liberally. It is up to you to curate your own fandom experience.
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