#interesting commentary

[asherlockstudy]

@mpay22

[stefyjonas1]

Cole’s AI ad

[afloweroutofstone]

From Bowling Alone to Posting Alone

Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone chronicled the growing loneliness and isolation of wealthy societies. Twenty years later, the problem is far w

Last year, the Survey Center on American Life published a study tracking friendship patterns in the United States. The report was anything but heartening. Registering a “friendship recession,” the report noted how Americans were increasingly lonely and isolated: 12 percent of them now say they do not have close friendships, compared to 3 percent in 1990, and almost 50 percent said they lost contact with friends during the COVID-19 pandemic. The psychosomatic fallout was dire: heart disease, sleep disruptions, increased risk of Alzheimer’s. The friendship recession has had potentially lethal effects... At the end of 1951’s The Origins of Totalitarianism, Arendt postulated that a new form of loneliness had overtaken Westerners in the twentieth century, leading them to join new secular cults to remedy their perdition. “What prepares men for totalitarian domination in the non-totalitarian world,” she claimed, “is the fact that loneliness, once a borderline experience usually suffered in certain marginal social conditions like old age, has become an everyday experience.” The conclusions were clear. As Americans become lonelier and more isolated in the new century, the same totalitarian temptation now lurks.

[theoceanismyinkwell]

hi, pls feel free to completely ignore this but I wanted to reach out to an ao3 author who is trans, bc I’ve seen a lot of discourse on whether mpreg fics are transphobic or not and I wanted to hear your perspective

again pls don’t feel pressured into answering if you’re not comfortable

Hi there anon! Interesting question. I'm pretty far removed from the issue in the sense that I haven't been around enough fanfic meta-discussing circles to hear the argument that mpreg fics are transphobic. As a trans guy and just somebody in general who tries to think through literary tropes and their origins (I'm a literature professor), I'll try to answer coherently.

I think I can see where the assumption about mpreg fics being transphobic could come from. With an mpreg plot, the trope typically looks at a cisgender mlm couple, in which anatomically one of the characters has childbearing organs but is cis rather than a trans man (FTM). I think the question that arises here is why make the childbearing character a cisgender man instead of a trans man?

(I'm assuming--hopefully correctly--that this is the crux of the controversy.)

As somebody who doesn't personally write A/B/O dynamics in fanfics but has read a well-written one here and there in various fandoms, I don't believe that transphobia is what inherently drives the mpreg trope. A/B/O, regardless of whether you're a fan of it or not (or are squicked by it), is an example of fanfiction being subversive. It's important to note that a lot, though not all, of A/B/O and mpreg fics are linked to werewolf or shapeshifter tropes and plotlines. What you have is a twofold subversion of heteronormative literary standards: first, in the sense that there is a mlm relationship front and center in the fic; and second, that the bodies of these characters are different and perhaps, by some standards, 'monstrous.'

Stay with me here!

The monster trope is a powerful one. Monsters in literature and media have been used to depict fears and enemies in society (for example, the wealthy bloodsucking vampire to represent the ruthless upper class), but in the same token are also used to represent those people who are marginalized and underrepresented (I could wax on about the plethora of queer metaphors behind the vampire figure, the reclamation of sexual independence behind the seductive siren, the anti-patriarchal revenge of Medusa, the rehumanization of the working class behind the werewolf and zombie figures, etc.). Thinking in the vein of monsters as figures reclaiming power for the underrepresented in literature and media, it can be argued that the birth of A/B/O and mpreg is a subconscious drive to: (1) explore dom/sub undertones without the usual entanglements of patriarchal implications in a mlw pairing in the fic; (2) represent a familial experience (having children, raising a family) for a gay couple; and (3) lean into a human fascination with inhuman figures and tropes.

This is not to say that there aren't mpreg authors out there who could be transphobic, consciously or otherwise. One could argue, okay, going through the jumps and hoops of having a cis man with childbearing anatomy makes less sense than having a trans man with that anatomy to begin with. I don't disagree. I think it boils down to a case-to-case basis. If I were a cis man or woman, would I feel comfortable or adequate to write a trans man's experience into my mpreg fic? I'm not sure. On the other hand, if I were a cis man or woman, would I feel more comfortable exploring these tropes to fulfill fantasies and gaps left by heteronormative literature and media? Maybe. And if I, a trans man, am interested in writing an mpreg fic with a cis male character bearing a child, does that automatically mean I have internalized transphobia? Definitely not.

In short, tl;dr: in my opinion, the mpreg trope in and of itself is not transphobic. Those who participate in it could be, though that's not usually left for us to know. I find it more productive to look at why tropes arise and how they challenge dominant canon, rather than simplistically knock them down as anti-LGBTQ or in this case transphobic, because a lot of times if it's a fanfic trope, there's a lot more below the surface than meets the eye.

[amillioninprizes]

One of the most well known contemporary political scientists attempted to provide a practical guide to rebuilding the Democratic Party on Vox over the weekend. As these Vox-style wank pieces go it&…

[k9kesi]

Interesting perspective of a greyhound person who was at Westminster:

The greyhounds just aren't what we are used to, very very different from the NGA dogs both in build and movement. The NGA movement is to my liking, our dogs can really cover ground w/ ease and have reach and drive. Yes, there's more bone in the AKC greyhounds but when they move, it really looks like large pointers. Also, the young pups were super spooky. The judge was wonderful, kind gentle hands, didn't push the pups at all, respected the dog's needs (he's Irish and had a hand shake with each winner as he chose them) but at this stage of the game, making it to Westminster one would think that a dog being shown would be very steady. 

[sineout]

Here's an interesting video about fanfiction and Korrasami, among other things

[bubblyhockeythoughts]

Sidney Crosby Post-Game 11/06/14

You know, crowd was loud and into it, and you know, being on the road and getting a character win like that, it's, uh, it's a big win.

Sid, what does this mean for you guys going forward? It's really been the first game like that this year.

Yeah, thought we handled it well. You know, didn't take stupid penalties. I think both teams stuck up for each other, wanted to make sure they were there for their teammates, but for the most part, I thought we stayed with it, and just kept playing. I think both teams had their opportunities to win the game at different points, but uh. You know, first period, they carried the play, second we did, third and overtime was probably anybody's game, so it was a pretty good hockey game, all in all.

Was there something that kind of set things off? 

I'm trying to think. I mean, there's... a few, uh... a few scrums there. Maybe, uh, Byfuglien on Downs there after the goal. I don't know what happened before that. Um. Trying to think of-- Bortz obviously got in that fight early on, but I think that they wanted to come out hard and play well in front of their crowd. They were fired up and we knew that, so I thought we just responded well. 

Was that a feistier Jets team than you've seen before?

Um... yeah, I mean... I don't think you can compare any team or any game for that, I mean, that's out of the ordinary. That's out of the ordinary for them as well. I don't think that's necessarily the way they play. I think they're a physical team. They try to play that way, but I don't think you really see three or four fights in any games these days, so. Um. It happens, and, yeah, I think both teams just wanted to do the right thing and be there for their teammates. 

Sidney Crosby Post-Game Interview 11/06/14 win over Winnipeg Jets